Military forces in the Philippines have carried out their first air strikes for three years on separatist rebels in the south of the country. Two military aircraft launched the attacks in Zamboanga province. The raids follow a recent wave of…
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The March 11th tsunami in Japan created a debris field which is traveling the ocean’s current. The tsunami debris field is on course to hit the US, just as scientists predicted. The debris have turned up in the ocean right where scientist said they would be right now and are on track to hit the Hawaiian Islands first and then onto the West Coast of the US, according to MSNBC. The tsunami carried millions of tons of debris with it back out into the ocean. Scientists at the International Pacific Research Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have tracked this debris field along with making scientific predictions of the path it will travel. This field of debris threatens small ships…
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Some people see Twitter as yet more proof of the downfall of civilization. When we confine our profoundest thoughts to 140 characters, aren’t we walling in thought itself? I’d argue that a great one-liner need not replace longer-form thinking. Nor does short always mean bad, and long good; read any Bulwer-Lytton novels lately? The ancient Greeks, those paragons of civilization, fell over each other in attempts to create the perfect one-liner. In pursuit of that short-form cause, the Greeks invented figures of speech (they called these wonderful tools schema, or schemes–a better term). Figures used to be a standard part of an elite curriculum up through the American Revolution. You learned them after grammar school. While grammar imposes the rules of proper prose, figures offer the tools of wit. Some modern leaders managed to pick them up: Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Martin Luther King all had rhetorical backgrounds. Their most memorable words can be confined to the Twitter limits: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” “…a date which will live in infamy.” Can you recite the rest of those speeches? I didn’t think so. In my latest book, WORD HERO: A Fiendishly Clever Guide to Crafting the Lines that Get Laughs, Go Viral, and Live Forever (Three Rivers Press, $14), I take some 43 figures–some new, some old, some seriously retrofitted–and show how to use them in modern life. Here are the 11 most tweet-ready. Use them brilliantly, and you’ll prove the eternal value of a great one-liner:
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It wasn’t exactly a sparkling day for workers at Superior Discount Liquor, after a 78-foot shelf gave way, sending nearly 7,000 wine bottles crashing to the floor to form a reservoir of booze. Staff scampered to safety with a river of red wine hot on their heels as the entire store flooded. According to one
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The Obama administration pulled its ambassador out of Syria over security concerns, blaming President Bashar Assad’s regime for the threats that made it no longer safe for Robert Ford to remain. (Oct. 24)
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The Obama administration pulled its ambassador out of Syria over security concerns, blaming President Bashar Assad’s regime for the threats that made it no longer safe for Robert Ford to remain. (Oct. 24)
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Forecasters say Rina has quickly strengthened into a hurricane off the coast of Honduras. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Monday that Rina was a Category 1 hurricane with top winds of 75 mph. (Oct. 24)
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Forecasters say Rina has quickly strengthened into a hurricane off the coast of Honduras. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Monday that Rina was a Category 1 hurricane with top winds of 75 mph. (Oct. 24)
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This week baseball’s World Series continues, after splitting the first four games evenly it all comes down to a best of three between the Rangers and Cardinals. Of course, that’s not all coming to our TVs this week, as several new series premiere, along with some Halloween-themed programming. The biggest surprise however is the 90s-throwback feel of this week’s roundup, find out why in the highlights below, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames. Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy When the first flick debuted in 1993, it brought Michael Crichton’s book to life with an unprecedented new level of special effects. Of course, that meant the Jurassic Park trilogy’s strength was never its story, which regressed further in subsequent films. Still, you can celebrate some of the best in ’90s cinema this week with the new triple pack that includes the movies and all new behind the scenes information. You can also get your dinosaur fix every week with T erra Nova , but we wouldn’t recommend it. (October 26th, $48.99 on Amazon ) Beavis & Butt-head Mike Judge’s animated duo make their return to the small screen after a 14 year layoff Thursday night, and for better or worse, it doesn’t appear that much has changed. Of course, the internet has opened up a whole new source of bad music videos for the pair to display and dissect, but since they’re on the internet, its much more likely that you’ve already seen them. We’d rather have Daria or Aeon Flux back instead, but we’ll check this out for nostalgia’s sake. (October 27th, MTV, 10PM) Grimm The other new fairytale based TV show makes its debut on NBC this week, with a very Supernatural / Fringe type of take on the old stories. This time around the Grimm brothers are homicide detectives that chase down all those supposedly mythical creatures in the very real world of Portland, Oregon. We’ll see if it’s worth watching as it takes on Fringe in the same time slot Friday night — check after the break for a preview. (October 28th, NBC, 9PM) Continue reading Must See HDTV (October 24th – 30th) Must See HDTV (October 24th – 30th) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 18:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Steve Forbes predictably loves Rick Perry’s flat tax plan , so the businessman and two-time presidential candidate is officially backing Perry for president, The Hill reports. “With firm leadership which Rick Perry will provide—which is why I’m endorsing him for president—I think this will be a winning issue,” says…
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