New Lordi Members, part two

About a month ago I took it upon me to, for the well-being of the Finnish music industry, replace all members in Finnish superstar rock band and surprise Eurovision 2006 winners Lordi. Clearly winning the Eurovision is bound to go to their heads, so we might as well line up replacements now, so we're prepared for the inevitable split.

Clearly Finland's only chance of ever winning the Eurovision again is to let Lordi represent us once more. I'm just doing my part to make sure Lordi is still around for next year's debacle in Helsinki.

So, without further ado, the second replacement is...Ann Coulter.

(Coulter's the one in the bottom right corner.)

To be continued...

"Some Mother******s Are Always Trying to Ice-Skate Uphill"

Apparently Blade: The TV Series premieres tonight in the US. I quite like the Blade trilogy of movies, particularly Blade II. If you're not familiar with the Blade movies, Blade is a half-man, half-vampire, who runs around killing vampires, equipped with various forms of high-tech gadgetry. What can I say, it's a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. I know some people are not particularly fond of Wesley Snipes^[1], who stars as Blade in all three movies, but he does quite well for himself in that role^[2].

I'm not sure about this TV series though. For one thing, it stars one Kirk 'Sticky Fingaz' Jones, a former(?) rapper, as Blade. Now, I'm not familiar with Jones' work as a rapper or as an actor, but picking 'Sticky Fingaz' as your artist name certainly raises some quality concerns. Besides that, what else is there to do storywise? In Blade: Trinity, Blade fought against Dracula (ably portrayed by Dominic Purcell and various forms of CGI). Where are you going to go after that? Fighting off Predators?

I'll definitely watch the series whenever it airs in Finland^[3], but I'm not expecting much.

^[1] Whose career has since been lost to the ravages of straight-to-video
^[2] Okay, the Blade character is not much of a stretch actingwise, but you have to admire a guy who gets paid to act like a prick. Isn't that everyone's dream job?
^[3] It should premiere on Finnish television in a couple of years, if ever...

Good News Everyone!

I can't quite believe it, but it appears to be true. Futurama is being revived, and at least 13 new episodes will be produced. At least if we are to believe Reuters:

Comedy Central has resurrected the former Fox animated series from "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. At least 13 new episodes will be produced -- the first since the series' original run from 1999-2003.

As the article then goes on to quote executives at Comedy Central, I would think Reuters aren't making stuff up. Although there's been talks about TV movies and new episodes since the series first was cancelled in 2002^[1], this time, for once, it seems to be legit. I can hardly wait! Futurama is one of my favourite series. While The Simpsons (Futurama creator Matt Groening's other animated TV series) have gone a bit stale over the years, I felt Futurama really could have gone on for a quite a while longer.

It should be noted that the new episodes won't premiere for quite a while, as we'll have to wait until 2008, some five years after the last batch of first-run episodes were aired. Still, something to look forward to!

And a special message to whatever executive at Fox that decided to cancel Futurama in the first place: Bite my shiny metal ass!

^[1] While cancelled in 2002, the last remaining episodes were aired in 2003

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Discworld

Via Slashdot^[1] I found this interesting article by Client DeBoer on the competing Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats, both touted by their respective backers as the replacement for the DVD format. DeBoer posits that neither of the two will catch on with the general public, and lists the top ten reasons for them failing to do so. The point that rings most true to me is this one:

3. HD DVD and Blu-ray are NOT Quantum Leaps in Technology
Consumers came over in droves when CDs were released back in 1982. The new format offered not only a new digital media, but also a way to instantly access tracks across an entire album. Convenience, not technology, drove this format to almost instant consumer adoption. Fast forward a bit to 1997 when the first DVD player was released. Again, convenience, not technology, drove people to the market en masse. Unlike VHS tapes, the new DVD format was smaller, easily navigated and would not wear down over time like existing tape-based formats.

Exactly right. The introduction of the DVD was nothing short of a revolution. Blu-Ray? HD-DVD? Okay, so it's better than DVD, but is it better enough?
DeBoer also mentions the spectacular failure of SACD and DVD-Audio, two competing format intended to replace the CD. The first thing I thought the first time I heard of either a couple of years ago was "eh." Audio CDs are good enough. Perhaps not for those of you with golden ears, but for us mere mortals they most certainly are.

Besides, I wouldn't spend money on a player of one format or the other until I'm absolutely sure the one I'm picking is the format that will ultimately prevail. Let's just say I'm in possession of waaay too many Betamax tapes for me to get into the early-adoption game again. Another important issue is backwards compability; I'm not going to replace my DVD collection^[2], so any player I buy had better support DVDs as well.

Though, unlike the VHS and Betamax, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have the exact same dimensions, and I can't imagine it being to difficult to create a player that could handle both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs. The end result might be much like the format war between the DVD-R and DVD+R burnable DVD formats: ultimately all burners just supported both, the format war essentially ending in a tie.
For the time being I'm sticking with my DVD collection, though. Until HVD comes along, that is.

^[1] Oh, don't start.
^[2] Which numbers well over 200 at this point. My salary is way too high.

Intraffication

A staple of the science fiction genre is the concept of virtual reality - an entirely artificial, computer simulated world, available at the flick of a switch. Many a science fiction story, most famously The Matrix, present an often dystopian world where one can lead an entire life being jacked in to a computer, not having to ever move a muscle while losing the very things that make us human in the process.
I submit that being a brain in a vat may not be such a bad idea after all - for one thing, one wouldn't have to endure traffic to get to work.

You see, traffic really brings out the worst in man.
For example, when you get a green light and thus are entitled to cross the road, and some jackass in a car comes within inches of hitting you, and then he has the audacity to be annoyed at you because you're standing in the way of his oh-so-precious car and hindering him from going about whatever incredibly important business he supposedly have.
Another example, you're crossing the road, only to be almost hit by three mopedists who apparently think red lights don't really apply to them. I don't know the fatality rates for collisions with mopeds, but I imagine being run over by a moped can result in rather serious injuries. If your goal in life is to die with some sense of dignity, clearly being run over by a freakin' moped is to be avoided. Standing up for freedom and democracy by standing in the way of a military tank with the very real danger of being killed is one thing, but being run over by some 15 year old punk who missed a few lectures in traffic class?

I want to believe in the inherent goodness of man, I really do. But it is very hard to do so when getting from point A to point B within a predetermined timeframe becomes more important than the people you run over in the process.

The Weekly Box Office Commentary

Here's another new pseudoweekly feature, wherein I'll comment on the latest box office figures. I've already commented on box office numbers in at least one previous entry, though that was specifically for An Inconvenient Truth. I don't intend on writing longer dissertations on the inner workings of the box office, I suggest going to Box Office Prophets or Box Office Mojo for that. Rather, I plan on commenting on a select few movies currently in theaters that I find interesting.

The number one movie of the weekend is Click, Adam Sandler's 510^th hit movie in a row. To be honest, I never did understand the appeal of Sandler. I mean, his movies are fairly amusing, but box office gold? Nevertheless, it should come as no surprise that Click is a hit, as it also stars David 'The Hoff' Hasselhoff.

Speaking of overrated comedians^[1], Jack Black apparently also has a hit movie out called Nacho Libre. In two weeks, it's taken in about 52 million dollars.

Over all, this didn't appear to be a good movie-going weekend in the US.
The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift? Man, those Japanese horror movie really are scary!
Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties? Starring Academy Award nominated actor Bill Murray...my head almost exploded typing that.
The Lake House? Yeah, because we've all been clamouring for a romantic movie starring Keanu Reeves. "Woah! We'll. Always. Have. Paris! Duuuude!"

Outside of the top ten, An Inconvenient Truth is chugging along. It's now the seventh most successful documentary of all time, with more to come.

^[1] Sandler, not The Hoff!

LotW: Catalan

Previous installments: Occitan, Luxembourgish

In tribute to the Catalonians voting for greater autonomy from Spain this past Sunday, this week's language is Catalan.

Catalan is spoken by about 10 million people primarily in the Spanish regions of Catalonia, Valencia and Balearic Islands, but also in Andorra, southern France and northwestern Italy. Like Spanish, Catalan is a romance language. It is occasionally, and controversially, considered to be merely a dialect of Occitan, which is spoken in neighbouring regions. A perhaps even more contentious matter is whether the Catalan dialect spoken in Valencia (called Valencian) should be considered a distinct separate language.

In English, the word cul-de-sac, a dead-end street, is considered to be of either French or Catalan origin. Barrack is derived from the Catalan word barraca.

Famed Spanish author Carlos Ru�z Zaf�n was born in Barcelona, Catalonia. He has written in Catalan, though Ru�z Zaf�n's most famous novel, La Sombra del Viento (The Shadow of the Wind) was written in Spanish.

For more information on Catalan, check out the English Wikipedia entry, or alternatively the Catalan one.

I Do Solemnly Swear that I Will Unfaithfully Execute the Office of President...

Over at Washington Monthly, Steve Brennan writes this interesting article: High Infidelity - What if three admitted adulterers run for president and no one cares?. The three adulterers referred to in the title are Newt Gingrich, John McCain and Rudy Guiliani (the later two being considered the frontrunners for the Republican nomination). The article is well worth a read, particularly if you recall all the hoopla surrounding Bill Clinton's penis. I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.
Personally I'm of the opinion that a person's sexual escapades are quite irrelevant with regards to a person's ability to serve in higher office (assuming said sexual escapades are within the boundaries of the law, of course). Don't get me wrong; if you cheat on your wife, you're a douche bag. Yeah, that means you too, Bill.
But while it may cost you your marriage, it shouldn't cost you your job.

Metablogging: Le Grand Blogroll

Quick question for French people: is "blogroll" a masculine or feminine word in French? Repondez-moi rapidement, s'il vous plait. Merci beaucoup.

I just noticed I've been added to the blogroll of this fine Spanco-British fellow. I felt compelled to be reciprocal and add him to my blogroll. That's when I discovered, horror of horrors, I didn't have a blogroll! So I decided to get one. If you look over to your right, you should see it. Unless you're viewing the archive, or using RSS, or Blogger breaks down and totally messes up my layout, or the post has gone so far down the list you have to scroll up to see it, or whatever. Anyway, there's a blogroll. I've added a few of my favourite political blogs there as well.
Now, all I need to do is turning on the comments feature to reach complete blogtasticness. I'll save that for some other time.

Tragically Underrated Movie of the Week: Spartan

Time to unveil another new (ir)regular^[1] feature on this here blog. As you might possibly glean from reading the title, in this feature I will present movies that I enjoyed very much...but no one else did, be it because no one saw it or because everyone else hated it.
I'm not planning on writing full-fledged reviews^[2]; I'd rather consider them reviewlets™.

This weeks movie: Spartan.
Directed and written by David Mamet
Starring Val Kilmer, Derek Luke, William H. Macy, Ed O'Neill

Spartan was fairly well received when it was released in theaters in the spring of 2004, but it didn't do much business. Which is a pity, because it is a great movie.

The story is a fairly ordinary spy thriller: The president's daughter is kidnapped, and Val Kilmer's US agent (of an unspecified agency) is tasked with getting her back. It is not so much the story that makes this an excellent movie, but rather the way the story is told.

Many persons find the rhythm of Mamet's dialogue to be a bit grating, but I found it to be rather intriguing. It worked well with the overall tone of the movie. The score, camera angles, pacing, acting...it all comes together to create what could otherwise have been a bland and unoriginal thriller.

Overall an excellent movie. Towards the end it becomes a bit too preachy in critiquing cynicism in politics, but it doesn't take too much away from the movie as a whole.


^[1] "... of the Week" does in no way suggest this will be a weekly feature. Rather, it means "whenever I feel like it."
^[2] And may it never be said I'm a good reviewer. Here's my review of X-Men: The Last Stand: "Okay."

Downloading this blog entry is a criminal offense punishable by death

In the past few years or so, just about every DVD I purchase features this unbypassable antipiracy advertisement that starts the minute you pop the DVD into the DVD player. The ad goes something like this:

"Waah! Waah! Stealing is bad! Waah! Waah! Instead of making 11.5 gazillion dollars last year, we only made 10.5! Waah! Waah!"

Granted, they do have a point. If everyone just downloaded all the movies they wanted to see, the movie companies would go bankrupt. Of course, one could then argue that if your business model doesn't work, perhaps it would be prudent to change business model. But that's for another blog entry (or not).
But here's where they're completely off the mark: Since I've purchased the DVD in the first place, I don't fucking need to be lectured about the virtues of buying goods! I'm with you on the whole capitalism-as-an-economic-system paradigm! And I particularly don't need to be lectured about it on every single DVD that I buy, and every single time I sit down to watch a freakin' DVD.

And while I'm in a complaining mood, what's up with those warning labels on cigarette packets?
"Smoking can cause cancer."
"Smoking is bad."
"No, seriously, smoking is really bad."
"If you smoke this, you will die a horrible and painful death."
What purpose do they serve? Are there any habitual smokers out there, who upon noticing the warning labels think to themselves "Waah! I had no idea smoking was hazardous for your health! I better stop smoking immediately!" I think not.

LotW: Luxembourgish

Part one and introduction to the Language of the Week can be found here.

Keen-eyed readers will note there was no language of the week last week. I've managed to write only one entry, and I'm already behind schedule. Damn! Well, for future reference, the aim is to post a LotW on a weekly basis, though the frequency of these entries may vary wildly.

The last entry on this subject was a bit rushed. In the future I hope to make these LoTW entries a bit more in-depth, though I'm not planning on writing longer dissertations on the subject.

With all that out of the way, let's take a look at this week's LotW: Luxembourgish.

Luxembourgish is a Germanic language, not surprisingly spoken mainly in Luxembourg and the surrounding border regions of Belgium, Germany and France. Today about 300,000 people speak Luxembourgish (it should be noted that in Luxembourg itself, Luxembourgish is one of three official languages, the other two being French and German. While Luxembourgish is spoken by most Luxembourgers, French remains the administrive language). With its close geographical proximity to two major languages, French and German, it should perhaps come as no surprise that Luxembourgish have similarities to both, with a bit of Dutch thrown in for good measure.

Many Luxembourgish words are borrowed directly either from French or Germany; as an example, the Luxembourgish word for thank you is merci (as it is in French). Other words again are derived from French or German; for example, the Luxembourgish word ech (meaning I) is clearly derived from the German ich.

One characteristic and heavily used feature in Luxembourish is the letter �, representing the schwa. Yes, the schwa. What is the schwa, you ask? Schwa is a vowel sound, whose definition is a bit fluent, but it sounds somewhat like a French e. The Luxembourgish word for Luxembourgish, l�tzebuergesch, features, as you can see, the schwa.

Europeans may be more familiar with Luxembourg than they think; one of the largest European TV production companies is RTL, which is an acronym for Radio T�l� Luxemburg/L�tzebuerg, which operates TV channels in several languages throughout Europe (apparently the company's primary owner these day is Bertselmann, originally a German company).

For further reading, check out the English Wikipedia entry on the subject. Or why not the entry in Luxembourgish?

On Gender Equality in Finnish Politics and The Swedish People's Party

The Swedish People's Party of Finland elects a male chairman over two more qualified female candidates, not weeks after the Finnish Left Alliance replaced their female chairman with a male one. Clearly, the best qualification for politicians in the first country in Europe to allow women to vote is having a penis.
(Though, Finland has more gender equality than many other countries. We have female president, and briefly also had a female prime minister.)

The really sad part of it all is that the Swedish People's Party was the first Finnish party to field a major female contender for president in '94: Elisabeth Rehn, incidentally also one of the world's first female defense ministers.
Compare that to the presidential election of 2006, when SPP fielded a conservative boring old man with disastrous results (Rehn proceeded to the second round of voting, where she received about 46% of the vote. Lax managed an unimpressive 1.6%; coming in seventh in the first round).

In Heat and Other Random Thoughts

• It's bloody hot today. Maybe Al Gore is on to something, after all.
  How do you poor bastards closer to the equator ever put up with the heat?
• Sweden got its ass handed to it. As a Finn, I'm not gloating. Not at all. Except for now: Ha! Ha! Haaaa!
• Newt Gingrich is definitely maybe running for president. Hasselhoff help us all.

The Reign of Madness, Ended

Just to post a quick follow-up to previously reported events, I'm happy to report the issue at hand came to a happy and not particularly dramatic conclusion. I mailed the CD store in question, they apologized and sent me the right CD, I sent the wrongly delievered CD back to them. They even paid the postage fee. I'm still not quite sure how such a mix-up is even possible, but I'm beyond caring at this point. I can now rock out to Savatage's sophomore album without having to worry about such matters. Well, until next time I receive a CD I did not order, at least. This was not the first time. In the future I should just buy CDs readily available in the local, offline CD stores. The problem with that is that I'm not really looking to complete my thus far non-existent Britney Spears collection.

And for those wondering whether this whole ordeal was the reason for me taking a brief hiatus from blogging...no.

Alcoholism: Fun for the whole family!

Yours truly returns to the blogging world having been MIA for a while. Life^[1] got inbetween, what can I say.

If you've read this far, you're probably thinking you're about to read some very heartfelt story, possibly with a bitter taste of satire, about my horrible, horrible struggles with alcoholism. This is not the case. No, this post is about coffee^[2].

I'm not an alcoholic. I am, however, addicted to coffee.
How do I even get off comparing coffee addiction to alcoholism, and what does all this have to do with the headline in the first place, you ask? Well, turns out it's perfectly possible to combine the two, according to this article on AOL:

Coffee May Protect Liver From Alcohol, Study Says
By CARLA K. JOHNSON, AP

CHICAGO (June 12) - Coffee may counteract alcohol's poisonous effects on the liver and help prevent cirrhosis, researchers say.

In a study of more than 125,000 people, one cup of coffee per day cut the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis by 20 percent. Four cups per day reduced the risk by 80 percent. The coffee effect held true for women and men of various ethnic backgrounds.
...
Of course, there is a better way to avoid alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver, Klatsky said.

"The way to avoid getting ill is not to drink a lot of coffee, but to cut down on the drinking" of alcohol, he said.

I'm quoting that last part from the article merely in the event some underage person is reading this blog.
Tempestas Nordica disclaimer: this blog and its author are to be in no way held responsible for any liver damage sustained in the course of reading the entries on this blog.

I've long been a proponent of coffee. For a brief period of time (a couple of weeks) I attempted being a non-coffee drinker. Or a coffee non-drinker. Whatever. Ultimately I started drinking again, was my point^[3].
I think it should be mandatory to drink coffee; coffee has so many wonderful effects.
Did you know coffee can cure baldness? Well, if the English-language edition of Pravda is to be believed, anyway:

Coffee to cure baldness

German medics arrived at the conclusion that consumption of large caffeine doses prevents baldness.

Male's hormone testosterone is responsible for baldness in men, meaning that the more testosterone a man as [sic], the more prone he is to losing his hair.
...
According to an expert-cosmetologist Adolf Klenka, ?one would need to consume 60-80 cups of coffee per day for the caffeine to reach hair follicles.?
...
"...We did prove however that caffeine should be used as an external substance that should be applied directly onto the scalp.?

Although, to be honest, my receding hairline has yet to be affected by my coffee intake. It should be noted, however, that I'm not quite up to 60 cups a day^[4].


^[1] Yeah, who woulda thunk it?
^[2] I have a feeling coffee may become a recurring theme on this blog. My first idea was to name the blog Confessions of a Coffee Addict, but obviously that had been used about a million times already. No original ideas left in this world, I tell ya.
^[3] I am a person of little will power. Thank Hasselhoff I never took up smoking.
^[4] ...yet.

Madness Reigns

One of my favourite bands is the American heavy metal band Savatage. I have all of their albums, save for one, The Dungeons Are Calling. I ordered a bunch of CDs, including Dungeons, from an online CD store. However, the package I received did not contain Dungeons. Instead they'd sent a CD featuring music by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.

Let's review:

• Did receive not ordered CD featuring music by Norwegian 19th century composer Edvard Grieg
• Did not receive ordered CD featuring music by American 80s heavy metal band Savatage

How on earth is it even remotely possible to confuse the two? I figured the two CDs' article numbers must be similar, but no! I've checked the store's website, the article numbers are not even close!

Here's an interesting coincidence, though: One of Grieg's most famous compositions is In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt. One of Savatage's most famous albums is Hall of the Mountain King, whose title track is based on Grieg's composition.
However, I did not order Hall of the Mountain King. Had that been the album I ordered, I could possibly understand the mix-up. The album I ordered was called The Dungeons Are Calling. No Grieg reference there whatever.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like Grieg's music, the compositions for Peer Gynt in particular. But that wasn't what I've ordered. The Grieg CD was much cheaper than the Savatage album. Not a good trade-off for me, seeing as I'm being charged for the Savatage album. Time to raise hell with the customer service, in other words. I except to receive the right CD within the next six months. Stay tuned. On second thought, don't.

Note: the title refers to a line from the lyrics to Savatage's Hall of the Mountain King: "Madness reigns...in the hall of the mountain king!" Indeed.

Internet Apocalypse Now?

Via Slashdot^[1] I found this disturbing article:

World Cup streaming to cause network meltdown

The BBC's decision to stream all its football matches live on the internet has been greeted with joy by UK fans, but could cause massive headaches for the country's network managers.

...

"This will generate a huge surge in network traffic, eating into the bandwidth available to run business-critical applications effectively."

This is becoming a bit silly. It's bad enough most of the entire world^[2] screeches to a grinding halt every four years to watch a spherical object being kicked around. Now I won't even be able to check my mail everytime Romarionaldona gets a yellow card?
I'm probably sounding more negative to football than I actually am. It's enjoyable to watch, I suppose. But not at the expense of the world turning! I'm drawing a line in the sand here, people!

Proud Finn as I am^[3], I have to point out how ahead of the curve we were on the issue of Internet destruction. Professor Hannu Kari of Helsinki University pinpointed 2006 as the year the Internet would end already in 2001, according to this Ars Technica article. Although, Dr. Kari seems to credit the predicted demise to assorted malware and spam rather than football.

Of course, this could all be propaganda from the anti-network neutrality lobby. In the interest of being fair and balanced, the pro-network neutrality lobby, aka the good guys, are over here. I'm sure you can't tell whose side I'm on.

^[1] Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'll read /. if I want to.
^[2] Save for the US, but you guys got the Superbowl.
^[3] Well, after Tony Halme/Ludwig Borga won a seat in the Finnish parliament, I typically pretend I'm Swedish.

ER: DNR

I watched ER the other night, for the first time in a few years. I haven't missed much, it seems. It was a mind-numbingly boring episode. Why haven't they cancelled the show already?
It was pretty obvious what was missing from the get-go. Paul McCrane.

For more than seven seasons, Paul McCrane played Dr. Robert Romano on the show. Really, it was his pricky badassiness* that made the show. Not an original cast member, the then quite crappy show would never be the same after McCrane joined the cast in 1997. Okay, it was still quite crappy, but at least Paul McCrane was in it.
Fast forward to 2003. Apparently McCrane asked for too much money, as his character was killed off.
Bad decision. It was bad enough they had to chop off his arm** in an earlier season, they had to crash a helicopter on him?

Oh well. Apparently McCrane guest stars as a villain in the latest season of 24. Can't wait for it to hit Finnish TV screens. Is it wrong to root for the villains?

* Yes, it's a word. At least it is now.
** Yeah, they did it for real, I'm pretty sure. It's called method acting.

Happy birthday!

Yesterday, on June 3rd 2006, the Montenegrin parliament declared Montenegro independent, following a referendum held on May 21 in which 55.5% voted for ending the union with Serbia. Big fan of self-determination as I am, I can only say congratulations to the people of Montenegro.
In many respects, Montenegro already enjoyed a large degree of independence, but it's nevertheless welcome news.

People a lot smarter than I have speculated as to how this may impact the future of Kosovo. Personally I'm of the opinion that full-on independence is the only way to go.
Kosovo's status is set to be determined before the end of this year. We'll see what happens.

Truth Doesn't Hurt

Okay, this blog is not turning into the Al Gore fanblog, but seeing the Friday box office estimates, I can't resist commenting on it.

In my last entry on Al Gore's global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth, I noted the three day estimates for last weekend was very impressive. In fact, they turned out to be even better. For the four day weekend (Monday was Memorial Day in the US), the Truth took in $367,311 in 4 theaters.
This weekend, the Truth expanded into 77 theaters, and according to Showbizdata, the documentary took in an estimated $412,000 this Friday, good for ninth place. The Friday numbers indicates an overall weekend well over a million dollars. A very impressive number given the still very limited theater count.

In other box office news, X-Men 3 took a nasty 77% drop from last Friday. I predicted the movie would end up with about $350,000,000 in my previous post. Obviously that's not going to happen now.

Monday evening update: For the entire weekend, the Truth took in $1,356,387 according to Box Office Mojo. Very impressive.

Language of the Week: Occitan

This is the first installment in a series I hope to be able to post on a weekly basis. I've posted these before in another forum, but sadly they've been lost to the ravages of time. Or a faulty database. Or whatever.

In my studies I came in contact with the language that is subject of tonight's edition of LotW, Occitan. Having never heard of this language before, I began thinking about the sheer number of human languages that currently exist. Africa alone is the host of thousands of languages! That gave me the idea to further study what other relatively obscure and just plain obscure languages there are out there. Hence this entry you're reading now.
The question is, what language should be defined as "obscure"? My rule of thumb is that if the language in question is spoken as a first language by a majority of people in at least one country, then for the intent and purposes of these blog entries it is not an obscure language. Thus, I won't be writing about Finnish anytime soon, even if it's not a widely spoken language. On the other hand, the Sami languages spoken in northern Scandinavia may be the subject of a future installment.

In this, the premier edition of LotW, we're taking a look at Occitan.

Occitan is, like its close relatives French and Spanish, a Romance language, primarily spoken in southern France, northern Spain and northwestern Italy. Some 2 million people speak Occitan as their first language.

There are several dialects of Occitan, which are sometimes considered separate, distinct languages.

Occitan is mutually intelligible with Catalan, a language spoken in northeastern Spain and the subject of a future installment of LotW. The two are occasionally considered variants of the same language.

For further reading, I suggest checking out the English and French Wikipedia entries (Caveat Emptor: Wikipedia's reliability is mixed at best, but it should nevertheless be a good starting point).
And if you feel so inclined, why not check out the Occitan Wikipedia entry on Occitan? It is actually quite readable if you know a bit of Spanish or French.
Other recommended sources are OccitaNet and Omniglot.