The internet is a sham.

Why don't they just speak 'merican?!

More than three years have passed since we invaded an Arabic-speaking country, but our own newly established embassy in Iraq only has thirty-three Arabic speakers - only six of whom are fluent! Way to go, 'merica. Well, at least our elected representatives have informed themselves (see kishkushim). Oh. Wait.

Labels: arabic, iraq, military, sham, war

posted by Afshin @ 10:38 PM   0 Comments

I read Scribbly! (Not well, though.)

Last week, Amazon had a short-lived offer where you could buy both of the Arrested Development box sets for $32 (saving $10 more than the current price). I bought them and I've been working my way through them. Last night, I started watching the second season, and in the first episode, "The One Where Michael Leaves," I stopped the DVD to get a closer look at the "half English, half Scribbly" contract between George Bluth Sr. and Saddam Hussein:


and I noticed that the "Scribbly" is not in Arabic, as one would expect, but in Persian (Farsi). There's a word I don't know in there, but the sentence fragment that is understandable says, "the Bluth company has the right to hire a            president who . . . "

Even though it's the wrong language, the attention to detail is pretty impressive. Although, I do wonder if Saddam would have really signed his name using Latin characters.

This guy's a pixel pimp:
This guy's page is built on the premise that people will pay to have a permanent (in internet time, that means five years or longer) small number of pixels advertising what they want on his homepage at MillionDollarHomepage.com. Apparently, he's right. Brilliant.

Labels: arabic, arrested development, business, persian

posted by Afshin @ 6:42 AM   0 Comments