Brick walls are there for a reason...

I've just spent the better part of the afternoon downloading and watching a file of Dr. Randy Pausch giving a lecture in Carnegie Mellon University's "Journeys" lecture series. The series used to be known, apparently, as the "The Last Lecture," the idea being that this would be the lecture a professor might deliver if said academic had one last opportunity to speak to an audience in a lecture hall before he or she died. All very hypothetical, dontchaknow.

In Dr. Pausch's case, the question is not hypothetical. While he is currently in marvelous physical shape, the tumors in his pancreas and liver will all but certainly kill him within two or three months. As Pausch puts it, he really "nailed the venue" for this lecture.

Paraphrashing Samuel Johnson, when a man knows he will die of cancer in a couple of months, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. That such a man already has a concentrated mind, then, almost makes his lecture seem almost routine in its content and delivery.

And yet, as he finished his lecture, I found myself crying and applauding - involuntarily, in both cases - and while the applause might be explainable in terms of res ipsa loquitur, I am not quite sure of why my eyes were wet.

Is it a way of saying, "Well done!," directed at Pausch? Or are they what I would describe as tears of gratitude, for showing the way?

I don't know, but I feel I have changed.

Cheers...

Trying my hand at Arabic...

In case anyone should ever wonder why I've been using Internet resources in these past few minutes to verify some Arabic-to-English translation, it is because I was curious about the messages on the signs in the follwing photograph, published by the Associated Press (and reproduced here under the doctrine of fair use):


Having Down with Israel go by a reviewing stand so heavy with Iranian brass (not to mention Ahmadinejad his very self) seems awfully innocuous, almost like seeing a banner with "Abortion is a No-No" at a convention of the Christian Coalition.

If we take a close look at the Arabic on the sign in the foreground, it would appear to resemble the following:

الموت لاسرائيل

which is what is produced when Google Translate is asked to render Death to Israel in Arabic.

Down with Israel (according to Google Translate) would look more like this:

تسقط اسرائيل

Of course, neither the AP nor their stringer thought there was any news value in pointing out this, um, curious mistranslation.

Then again, it should surprise nobody that these folks have one slick propaganda machine in place. And hey, Ahmadinejad is fixing to score a PR hat trick during his upcoming trip to the US, between visits - perhaps tentative, perhaps not... nothing's over 'til it's over - to the UN, Columbia, the 60 MInutes studio at CBS, and possibly even Ground Zero. (Talk about a bully pulpit!)

Cheers...