Sarah Jamison

“We, like those in all emergent totalitarian states, have been mentally damaged by a carefully orchestrated historical amnesia, a state-induced stupidity. We increasingly do not remember what it means to be free. And because we do not remember, we do not react with appropriate ferocity when it is revealed that our freedom has been taken from us. The structures of the corporate state must be torn down. Its security apparatus must be destroyed. And those who defend corporate totalitarianism, including the leaders of the two major political parties, fatuous academics, pundits and a bankrupt press, must be driven from the temples of power. Mass street protests and prolonged civil disobedience are our only hope. A failure to rise up—which is what the corporate state is counting upon—will see us enslaved.”

- Chris Hedges (via azspot)

Spider Tea Party

unclefather:

dumb ass idiot 

I don’t know why I’m laughing

Filed this one under “Covers that look like something else that doesn’t look that good but really looks great as a book cover”.

sunrisegypsy:

such beauty

Emperor Gum Moth (Opodiphthera eucalypti)

androidpale:

Damn Worf’s hair is nicer than mine

We have not abandoned this blog! We are just busy and this shit takes a long time. We will return to you soon. In the meantime, here is Worf’s hair.

On January 3, approximately 200 linguists at the American Dialect Society conference gathered to vote on what their 2013 Word of the Year should be. While creative coinages sharknado, doge, bitcoin, selfie, Obamacare, and twerk all received nominations, it was an old word used in new ways that most excited linguistics this year: because.

In the official ADS press release, Ben Zimmer describes the “new grammatical possibilities” of because: “No longer does because have to be followed by of or a full clause. Now one often sees tersely worded rationales like ‘because science’ or ‘because reasons.’” Jessica Love captures the tone of because saying, “It’s a fun, pithy, hand-wavy way of summing up a situation.” Mark Liberman notes that the new because “seems usually to be associated with an implication that the referenced line of reasoning is weak.”

English speakers have been having a lot of fun with this new construction. My favorite recent sighting comes from a November 2013 film review of About Time on the NPR blog Monkey See. In this movie Bill Nighy’s character reveals to his son that all the men in their family can travel back in time to a moment they’ve already lived. Chris Klimek writes:

Nighy claims he’s used his life-extending powers to get more reading done. I inferred that he’s also spent off-the-books eons whoring around Bangkok or wherever, because: Bill Nighy.

Where did the new because come from?
The origin of this use is uncertain, though there are theories. Neal Whitman presents one idea: because x is an extension of the older construction because, hey with the hey lopped off as in this line from a 1987 Saturday Night Live sketch:

If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe you’ll look like a dummy and people will try to catch you because, hey, free dummy.

Gretchen McCulloch, however, is skeptical of this origin story. She instead looks to the meme “because of reasons,” as popularized by the Three Word Phrase comic #139 published in 2011. She finds it more likely that this phrase was shortened to “because reasons” than that a hey was dropped. Stan Carey points out the meme “because race car” made the Internet rounds around the same time, but quickly adds that because x was used before 2011, and offers a slew of examples. Perhaps because x developed from a combination of uses coexisting on the linguistic landscape. Or maybe it’s something else entirely.

Note that this sort of linguistic development is happening beyond just because. Carey also observed similar constructions with but, also, so, in conclusion, and thus. Think: I haven’t had coffee yet, thus grumpy. Whether or not this alters etymological theories is still up in the air.

What should we call it?
Linguists use various titles for this construction; some refer to it as because NOUN, others as because x, and still others refer to it as prepositional because. As its usage evolves, some names appear to be better suited than others. Because NOUN has already been proven to be too narrow for the versatility of this new use. While this covers some common examples, it doesn’t capture because followed by other parts of speech including verbs (I’m buying this jacket because want), adjectives (Must sleep now because tired), adverbs (I’m not going out in sub-zero degree weather, because honestly), or interjections (because yay!).

Many experts have been calling the new because a preposition, though this is up for debate. Neal Whitman calls it a preposition. Joe at Mr. Verb also prefers the prepositional distinction thanks to because’s accepted origin–from the two-word prepositional phrase by cause. McCulloch, on the other hand, breaks down why she thinks the name prepositional because falls apart, discussing how some noun phrases are okay with this new because while others are not. This, she says, is not typical of prepositions. Geoffrey Pullum over at Language Log address these concerns with a counterargument, saying that prepositions are far more flexible than “standard dictionary definitions” make them out to be. There is currently not any sort of consensus among linguists over the part of speech of this new because, though this might change as the discussion continues.

I personally feel that because x is the safest moniker for the time being. As far as the part of speech goes, the grammar classification might further shift as English speakers play with and develop the new uses of because x.

Have you heard or seen examples of this construction? Do you use it yourself?

#feels

bunnyfood:

GPOY

If it’s a sad song:

If it’s an upbeat song:

tessarion:

S05E01 | Repilot

Nailed it, Britta.

For a day of running errands, Molly Sims is all about comfort yet shows her style through her accessories: A bright blue scarf, oversized shades and embellished ballet flats are all it takes to keep a basic black sweatshirt and skinny ankle jeans from becoming boring.

Get the celebrity look for less:

3. H&M Ankle Jeans $29.95
5. Prima Donna Moroccan Bazaar Flats $18.90 (down from $29)

Because I am a monkey! A stupid, stupid monkey!

For those of you who don’t game (which I assume is most of you), Steam is a gaming application that allows you to buy, store and play games. I’ve posted about it before. I didn’t like the idea when I was first forced to join (it was the only way to purchase HalfLife2), but then I had a catastrophic computer failure and…Steam quietly downloaded all my old games onto the new computer.

Okay, I still don’t like the idea of cloud computing, but that there was pretty neat. I admit it.

Then Steam introduced the concept of achievements. I don’t know if they invented the idea, but it means if you do certain non-obvious things in a game — kill a certain number of foes by using your gravity gun to fling toilets at them, for example — you ‘unlock’ an ‘achievement.’ Which is a little icon. Which other people can see if you look at your profile.

Bear with me. It hasn’t gotten as losery as it gets yet.

Then they introduced the idea of virtual trading cards. You get these things mostly by playing games. They just appear in your inventory after a certain amount of gameplay, I think. Which made everybody (well, me’n the other losers) go back and play ancient games just to get the card drops. Because, monkey.

But wait, there’s more. You can’t get the entire set by playing. You get about half. You get the rest by trading in the trading forum, or buying them in the Steam marketplace. Sell any duplicates or unwanted cards, buy the ones you don’t have. They go for about 10p apiece, on average. All of which goes in and out of your Steam wallet, which you can use to buy games. From Steam.

Oh, it gets losery still. Once you get a complete set of any one card, you can ‘craft’ a badge. Which creates a little icon. You can stick on your profile. In case anyone in the whole wide world is losery enough to check your profile and gives a flying fuck at a rolling donut if there’s a badge on your account.

Nope. Still haven’t plumbed the depths. Another way you earn cards is by buying stuff during the semi-annual Steam sales — a card for every $10 worth of games. Also, by voting on what should go on sale next — a card per every three votes. You can vote every eight hours, and the sale was about 10 days long. It’s just finished.

And here’s where we plumb the very depths of my loseriness. When I went to check my account this evening, there was a little announcement that the Steam Sale 2013 Badge could only be crafted for a limited time. I don’t even remember how many hours, I just panicked and ran to the marketplace for those last two cards.

And there it is: my Steam Sale 2013 Stupid Monkeybadge. I hope you’re impressed.

Every Human Being right now.

Though it may look fake and unreal and impossible and not allowed on Earth, the camera stabilizer in the video is completely real. You can’t make it shake. It’s like magic decided to defy physics and ignore gravity. All I want to do is park myself in front of a mirror and do as many twists and turns and spins as possible to see if I can get the camera off track. Like this guy.

(via imgur)

(via tastefullyoffensive:Joanna Borns)