TV Tropes

Art, books, Comics, Film, Humour, television, writing

This is absolutely my favourite site of the moment.  For real.  I have spent hours, with which I could have done a lot better things, reading it and laughing quite often at the descriptions within.

To quote from the main page:

Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members’ minds and expectations. On the whole, tropes are not clichés. The word clichéd means “stereotyped and trite”. In other words, dull and uninteresting. We are not looking for dull and uninteresting entries. We are here to recognize tropes and play with them, not to make fun of them.

The wiki is called “TV Tropes” because that is where we started. Over the course of a few years, our scope has crept out to include other media. Tropes transcend television. They exist in life, as we will be quick to tell you. Since a lot of art, especially the popular arts, does its best to reflect life, tropes are likely to show up everywhere. We want ’em all.

As someone who enjoys writing myself, a site like this is incredibly useful.  But even for the casual reader or watcher of television, its a really great site and I cannot recommend it enough.  If you want to visit, please follow the link.

Craig Murray’s new book detailing UK war crimes in Africa

censorship, current affairs, download, politics, terrorism, war

Craig Murray is a British political activist, former ambassador to Uzbekistan and current Rector of the University of Dundee.

While at the embassy in Tashkent, he accused the Karimov administration of human rights abuses, a step which, he argued, was against the wishes of the British government and the reason for his removal. Murray complained to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in November 2002, January or early February 2003, and in June 2004 that intelligence linking the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan to al-Qaeda, suspected of being gained through torture, was unreliable, immoral, and illegal. He described this as “selling our souls for dross”.

Murray was subsequently removed from his ambassadorial post on October 14, 2004.  Since then he has written a number of books, including Murder in Samarkand, detailing Karimov’s human rights abuses, and his most current work, Catholic Orangemen of Togo, which details warcrimes in Africa.  Catholic Orangemen was released today, despite attempts by former Colonel Tim Spicer and a very influental legal team attempting to stop the book being published, no doubt due to Spicer’s name cropping up in so many African war crimes.

Murray has set up his ow publishing company and has the book for sale, both via Amazon and his own site.  However, to forestall efforts at censorship, either by Spicer or by elements within the British political system, electronic copies of the book have been placed on sites in several dozen jurisdictions all over the world.

To that end, the book has been put on The Pirate Bay, and I suggest anyone who thinks Murray’s topic and work is worthwhile should go to the following link, download the book and then seed it for as long as possible.

Thankyou.

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4642082/Murray-Catholic_Orangemen_of_Togo(UK_war_crimes_in_Africa)(2009)

I’m sure there are international laws against this kind of thing

Articles by others, bizarre, media culture

The New York Times, in their neverending crusade against common sense and fact based reporting, has decided, in their infinite wisdom, to give a column to Bono.  Yes, that Bono.  And already, his first article is turning out to be a failure of near epic proportions.  Its like Thomas Friedman, on acid.  Bad acid.

Fortunately, you can read the condensed version of all future articles at the following link (hat tip to Jean-Lustine d’Hadamard).

More on the Watchmen state of affairs

Alan Moore, Art, FAIL, Film, strife

Reading this open letter from the producers, its looking like the Fox case against Warner, whatever the legal validity, is little more than the result of sour apples.  That Warner have taken the risks, put in the work and invested the money, only for the result to be that Fox, who refused to do any of that when given the chance, is nothing short of unbelievable.

Thanks to P3nt on the forums for the link.

101 ways to make everybody’s day weirder

forums, Operation:Mindfuck

1. Midway through the day, change into a different set of clothes. If anybody notices, insist you’ve been wearing the same clothes all day.

2. Answer the phone with an arbitrary question.

3. Switch all the clothes in someone’s dresser with clothes from someone else’s dresser (possibly yours). If they live together and will bump into each other wearing each other’s clothes, all the better.

4. Put things which couldn’t possibly be mailed in people’s mailboxes, like a glass of water, or a bowl of popcorn. Write the address on it and attach proper postage.

5. When you’re about to enter a room full of people, call one of them on your cell phone. In a desperate, very serious voice, explain: “There’s no time to explain, but I’ve been kidnapped and replaced with a robot which looks just like me. Oh shit, I gotta go!” and hang up quickly.

6. Hide notes that people will find when they’re cleaning. Suggestions include: “This note was hidden on <date> and it took you this long to find it?”

7. Hide a note which says “Congratulations! You found me! Re-hide me for ++GOOD LUCK”

8. Put non food items in the fridge. It’s often very startling to open the fridge and see a telephone or car keys or something which totally doesn’t belong there. If asked for an explanation, say, “After a hard day, there’s nothing like a refreshing, ice cold magazine.” or pencil sharpener. or toilet paper. or tooth brush. or whatever.

9. Alternatively, hide other people’s things in the fridge. When your housemate asks, “Where’s the remote control?” you can nonchalantly say “Oh, it’s in the fridge.” Protip: have a change-of-topic or excuse to leave the room on the tip of your tongue so as to avoid any followup questions.

10. Record something short, and put a few minutes of silence on both ends of it. Hide your mp3 player + speakers somewhere with that track playing on repeat.

11. If you can surreptitously record someone and put THEIR voice on the tape, even better. Hide the recording somewhere where they’ll probably hear it. Imagine how weird it would be to hear your own voice coming from somewhere unseen, and not be able to figure out what’s happening.

12. Put up a sign anywhere you want with an arbitrary question.

13.  Skip to work.  Especially effective if your company makes you wear “business professional” attire.

14.  Break out into spontaneous Irish Jigs in the hallway.  You get more viewers when you do this between 12 noon and 1 PM and do it near the break room.

15.  Neck poking is fun. Nobody expects it, and it gets quit a reaction.

16. Inappropriate multitasking:  Brush your teeth while cooking.  Floss while standing at a urinal.  Mix n’ match gone wrong.

17. Sit down in a hallway, aisle, etc.  Someone is sure to ask if you’re OK.  That’s your set up.

18. Use the most inefficient utensil possible to eat.  (Eating Combos or pretzels out of a bag with chopsticks was pioneered by Leln and myself)

19. Stop a conversation with “Wait a second…”, and then see how long it takes someone to butt in.  Act incredulous when they ask why you said it.  Insist you never did.

20. Insert “Spies are everywhere.” or “The walls have ears.” into otherwise harmless conversations.

Continue reading 101 ways to make everybody’s day weirder →