February 2007

02.28.2007 Comment...
Speaking Pattern Analysis
George Bush's uses of nonstandard grammatical constructions have some common characteristics:

• Adding agentive endings to words not usually accustomed to such treatment, such as "suiciders".


• Constructing neologisms such as "tacular" (a portmanteau of "tactical" and "nucular") and "misunderestimated" ("misunderstood" and "underestimated").


• Occasional use of spoonerisms such as "mexed missages" (mixed messages) and "terriers and bariffs" (barriers and tariffs).


• Use of words that sound similar to intended words but are wrong in the context (i.e., malapropism). "Nuclear power pants" instead of "Nuclear power plants."


• Folksy pluralization of, or addition of articles to, familiar terms ("Internets", "the Google").


• Redundant or odd sentence construction, such as "We had a chance to visit with Teresa Nelson who's a parent, and a mom or a dad."


• Change of subject mid-sentence, such as, "I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport."

Some columnists, including Molly Ivins (the co-author of a book of Bushisms) have suggested that Bush may have difficulty speaking "Washington English", and that he may be trying to cover his accent by over-emphasizing words. Some have theorized that Bush is not familiar with some of the words that he feels he must use to keep up with his political colleagues.

02.26.2007 Comment...
Sealand: A Deal Falls Through
Over a year ago, I wrote a detailed history of the Principality of Sealand, a small island-nation in the North Sea. Over the weekend I added a new chapter to the fabulous story. Unfortunately, today it comes to a somewhat disappointing conclusion:

PIRATE BAY DITCHES BID FOR OWN NATION
Paul O'Mahony, thelocal.se
22 February 2007

Having failed in its attempt to buy the micronation of Sealand, the group behind file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has decided to stay put in Sweden. The Local spoke to Tobias Andersson, one of the Pirate Bay's six Stockholm-based operators, to catch up with the latest developments from the web organisation that is the scourge of Hollywood and the music recording industry.

The Pirate Bay began life in early 2004. Bit torrent file-sharing technology was still in its infancy but growing fast. Two years later, in the summer of 2006, the organisation suffered a temporary setback when Swedish police raided the site's servers. "We moved to Holland right after the raid," said Andersson. After a short period in Dutch exile, however, the site was relaunched in Sweden. With its servers now more spread out, The Pirate Bay has become less vulnerable to police operations.

The Pirate Bay generated huge international publicity in January when it announced its intentions to bid for Sealand, a British naval platform in the North Sea settled in 1967 by an English major, Paddy Roy Bates. Bates proclaimed Sealand a state, issuing passports and gold and silver Sealand dollars and declaring himself Prince Roy.

"We have given that up now. We e-mailed them initially to see if they were interested and they didn't know who we were. Then journalists began calling them and the Sealand people finally came out and said that they were opposed to internet piracy. The funny thing is, they ran a pirate radio station in the eighties. We tried to tell them that what we were doing was just a modern version of pirate radio," said Andersson.

But Sealand stopped answering their e-mails and Andersson thinks he knows why. "One of the Sealand people has written a book that is going to be turned into a Hollywood movie. A deal with us could have jeopardised that arrangement," he said. Indeed, the current regent of Sealand, Prince Michael, told Canada's CBC that The Pirate Bay was involved in "the theft of proprietary rights."

"It doesn't suit us at all," he said of the Swedes' offer. Prior to their recent attempts at nation-building, The Pirate Bay people spent much of their time responding to letters from large multinationals demanding that they cease and desist. "In the beginning we got a lot of threats, which we replied to officially on the website. We embarrassed and ridiculed these large companies and now they have stopped sending us letters," said Andersson.

But The Pirate Bay itself is no minnow. The Alexa traffic ranking website puts The Pirate Bay just outside the top 300 in the world. "It is the biggest site in the Nordic countries. We are quite a bit bigger than Aftonbladet newspaper, for example," said Andersson.

Since the site carries advertising, one would think that the six Swedes could turn over a tidy profit. Newspaper Svenska Dagbladet alleged last year that the organisation's advertising revenue far exceeds its operating costs. Not so, says The Pirate Bay. "We're pretty bad at making money. All these services are run by a company that takes about half of the revenue. I still work full time as an electrician," said Andersson. Aged between 21 and 29, Andersson says that those who run the site do so "mainly because it's fun".

"And then there is the copyright debate, of course. It is important that these questions are raised," he said. Microsoft, Electronic Arts and Warner Bros, to name but a few, have made no secret of the fact that they would prefer the questions to be raised elsewhere.

02.25.2007 Comment...
Sealand: An Important Update
Over a year ago, I wrote a detailed history of the Principality of Sealand, a small island-nation in the North Sea. Sealand recently popped up again in international news; thanks to my friend Tim for tipping me off to the following article:

THE PIRATE BAY PLANS TO BUY ISLAND
James Savage, thelocal.se
12 January 2007

Swedish file-sharing website The Pirate Bay is planning to buy its own nation in an attempt to circumvent international copyright laws.

The group has set up a campaign to raise money to buy Sealand, a former British naval platform in the North Sea that has been designated a micronation, and claims to be outside the jurisdiction of the UK or any other country. The Pirate Bay says it is the world's largest bit torrent tracker, and is a popular way of sharing music, films, software and other copyrighted material online. It has been under the scrutiny of authorities in Sweden and around the world for some time.

The site was briefly closed down after raids by the Swedish police last May. After initially moving to the Netherlands, the site returned to Sweden in June. Swedish authorities have been put under pressure to do more to stop the site. The Motion Picture Association of America, the Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau and the US government have all lobbied for The Pirate Bay's closure.

According to a website set up to secure the purchase of Sealand, The Pirate Bay plans to give citizenship of the micronation to anyone willing to put money towards the purchase. "It should be a great place for everybody, with high-speed Internet access, no copyright laws and VIP accounts to The Pirate Bay," the organisation claims on its website www.buysealand.com.

The "island" of Sealand, seven miles off the coast of southern England, was settled in 1967 by an English major, Paddy Roy Bates. Bates proclaimed Sealand a state, issuing passports and gold and silver Sealand dollars and declaring himself Prince Roy. When the British Royal Navy tried to evict Prince Roy in 1968, a judge ruled that the platform was outside British territorial waters and therefore beyond government control.

The British government subsequently extended its territorial waters from three to twelve nautical miles from the coast, which would include Sealand, but Prince Roy simultaneously extended Sealand's waters, claimed that this guaranteed Sealand's sovereignty. The island is now being put up for sale by Prince Roy's son, Prince Michael, who styles himself head of state. A firm of Spanish estate agents has valued the island at £504 million (about 7 billion kronor), although Prince Michael told The Times of London that it is hard to gauge how much it will fetch in reality.

The Pirate Bay says it is looking at alternatives to buying the former naval platform. "If we do not get enough money required to buy the micronation of Sealand, we will try to buy another small island somwhere and claim it as our own country," the organization says on its website.