Quotulatiousness

May 28, 2011

Jack Layton: “I’m proud to call myself a socialist … But I don’t go around shouting it out.”

Filed under: Cancon, Politics — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 12:29

Chris Selley takes a longer look at Jack Layton, the man who would be king prime minister:

Ask a socialist with revolutionary tendencies if Mr. Layton is a socialist, however, and the answer will probably be a resounding “no.” Mr. Layton, writer Stan Hister complained on Rabble.ca in 2004, “is a political doughnut. All sugar icing on the outside (or make that maple glaze) and a big hole in the middle.” The doughnut hole ought to be filled with “an alternative to capitalism,” he argued. “But it’s been a very long time since the NDP even pretended this was on its agenda.”

He’s right about that. And good heavens, just look at where it’s gotten them. Nobody inside or outside the New Democrats saw 103 seats coming on May 2, of course — 44 of them purloined from the Bloc Québécois, 17 from the Liberals and seven from the Conservatives. But if you ask those who have followed Mr. Layton’s political career since his days as a left-wing standard-bearer in Toronto municipal politics, be they friend or foe, you’ll find they don’t put much past Mr. Layton’s political abilities.

“There’s no question that Jack became leader of the NDP not because he wanted to forever lead a band in the wilderness. He took on the leadership of the NDP because he optimistically believed the NDP could be a major, if not the major force in government,” says Myer Siemiatycki, a professor of politics at Ryerson University and long-time friend of Mr. Layton.

Circumstances had to conspire in Mr. Layton’s favour, of course. Even he won’t admit to doing anything much differently on the campaign trail this time around. (Was his smile bigger, perhaps? “My mouth is the same size,” he laughs.) Reasonably centrist people had to be fed up enough to vote for a party that had once been to the left as Reform was to the right, and that had never governed federally. And it was nice of the Liberals to release a platform calculated to woo NDP-leaning voters, inadvertently making Mr. Layton’s party seem even more anodyne.

Etymology of the word “buxom”

Filed under: History, Law, Randomness — Tags: — Nicholas @ 12:22

In a report on a lawyer’s attempt to become an internet laughing stock, there’s a brief digression into the word “buxom”:

To get back to “buxom” — I was surprised to learn that, according to the OED, this word originally had nothing specifically to do with women. It meant something like “obedient,” “pliant,” or “submissive,” but in reference to God, the Pope, or legal authority — e.g., c.1175 “Beo buhsome toward gode”; c.1523 “I shall be buxome and obeydient to iustice”; c. 1581 “The Consuls should sweare faythfully to become … buxome to the Pope.” (That last one especially I think is good evidence that the word didn’t mean what it means now.) The word also had the sense of “gracious,” “courteous,” or “kindly,” again without regard to gender.

By the 16th century, though, it was evolving into something like “lively” or “full of health,” still not exclusively as to women, but by the 19th century it looks like the dominant meaning had become “plump and comely … chiefly [to describe] women.” Given the word’s history of meaning “submissive” or “compliant,” though, this transition seems to make the word a lot more creepy and sexist than I had thought. I sweare faythfully not to use it anymore.

Feeling optimistic about peoples’ common sense?

Filed under: Humour, Media, Technology — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 00:15

A few visits to this site will quickly disabuse you of that feeling.


It’s how some folks on Facebook react to stories from The Onion as if it was real news.

This week in Guild Wars 2 news

Filed under: Gaming — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 00:05

I’ve been accumulating news snippets about the as-yet-to-be-formally-scheduled release of Guild Wars 2 for an email newsletter I send out to my friends and acquaintances in the Guild Wars community.

Part 1: Discussion of previous news

Part 2: Guild Wars news

  • Reminder: If you’d like to keep track of the upcoming Winds of Change and other Guild Wars Beyond material, keep this page bookmarked.
  • Game update for 23 May. The Developer Notes indicate that this is a small update to nerf a few Dervish skills which “allow players to output more pressure than is reasonable for the skill required”.

Part 3: Guild Wars 2 news

  • Flameseeker Chronicles: Analyzing the Engineer. “After watching the skill videos… well, an embarrassing number of times, I’ve come up with three or four distinct styles of weaponry. First there are the steampunk-style items: the Glue Shot pistols, the rifle carried by the human female Engineer, the turrets, and the flamethrower. Second, one item has a real-world modern feel — the now-infamous landmine. Third, there are very primitive items that I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see in Guild Wars 1, like the bomb pack, the health pack, and the exploding barrel. In fact, we do have exploding barrels in Eye of the North. Finally, there are brief glimpses here and there of rifles with a colonial feel to them, which seems to fit some of the early concept art. It all has a very inconsistent and slightly confusing feeling, and it leaves me both wondering what exactly this class is supposed to be and dying to know more. I need lore and history and design background — I need context, because I feel like there’s a method to the madness.”
  • Exclusive Massively interview with Eric Flannum. “Unless you’ve been spelunking near the center of the earth for the past few days, you’re likely aware that ArenaNet recently unveiled Guild Wars 2‘s seventh class. Chances are high that you’re also aware of said class’s affinity for turrets, guns, and various contraptions meant to rain death down upon any unfortunate enemies that cross its path. Today, Massively presents a new interview with Guild Wars 2 lead designer Eric Flannum. Naturally, the guest of honor at this Tyrian banquet of exclusivity is the Engineer, and Flannum (along with several other ANet dignitaries) provides us with a few tasty mechanical appetizers before getting down to the lore-centric main course.”
  • GuildMag Issue 7 is now available in HTML so you don’t need to download the PDF file. Interview with Eric Flannum is here.
  • Winners of the Guild Wars 2 Ambassador contest.
  • PC Gamer reviews the Engineer profession. “Like the Elementalist, the Engineer can completely swap out the set of weapon skills on their bar on the fly by activiting different kits, instead of by switching weapon sets mid-combat. It’s unconfirmed, but it certainly sounds like the Engineer’s Backpacks will function similarly to the Elementalists’ different “attunements” — which allow Elementalists to swap out their entire weapon skill set mid-combat — since the blog describes Backpacks as completely replacing the Engineer’s current weapon skills with skills from the Backpack kit.”
  • Frequently Asked Questions about the Engineer. “Last week we rolled out the engineer, the multi-purpose, mechanically minded Guild Wars 2 profession. The engineer’s use of hardware like mines and turrets represents a departure from classic fantasy tropes and a whole new style of gameplay, so many of you had questions. Fortunately, we have answers! Read on for answers to common engineer questions!”
  • Arenanet’s Tradeshow Summer. “What are you doing this summer? ArenaNet is making big plans for this year’s tradeshow season and we want you to join us. Read on for a breakdown of what we’re up to this year! Just like last year, we won’t be attending E3 this year. Instead, we’ll continue to focus on shows that allow us to share Guild Wars 2 directly with gamers.”

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