http://www.shakingoff.com Silence tells me secretly, everything Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:57:15 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This one is long and disjointed but it’s important. “Woman Is the Nigger of the World” – John Lennon wrote that song in the early ’70s and I only just recalled it when I was part way through this post. Sadly, although there have been many advances, the phrase still rings ... http://www.shakingoff.com/2010/09/08/woman-is-the-nigger-of-the-world/ StarCraft II is, in a word, awesome.  The graphics are awesome, the levels are awesome and the cinematics are awesome.  The new units: awesome.  The old units: still awesome.  Raynor: awesomer than ever.  So, yeah... awesome. But, lest I be branded a fanboy, or what hip hop fans describe using the ... http://www.shakingoff.com/2010/08/04/musings-on-starcraft-ii/ When King James VI of Scotland ascended to the throne of England he dropped his regnal number for his new title becoming simply “James of England.”  This is because England, unlike Scotland had had no previous rulers named James and it made explicit that, despite being in a personal union, ... http://www.shakingoff.com/2010/07/03/what-happened-to-queen-elizabeth-i-of-canada/ In welcoming Elizabeth II, Queen of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (incidentally also the name of my favourite doo wop group), prime minister Stephen Harper made the interesting claim that the queen had visited Canada more times than any other Commonwealth country.  Now the key words here are “visited,” “more ... http://www.shakingoff.com/2010/06/29/a-foreign-monarch-has-landed-on-our-shores/ On the 24th of June, 1948, the Soviet Union, then the occupying power of what would become known as East Germany began a full blockade of the three sectors of Berlin soon to become known as West Berlin. The Soviets were sure the Western Powers would soon give up and ... http://www.shakingoff.com/2010/06/03/the-poor-palestinian-people/ The following is an unproven hypothesis that I nevertheless consider to be very likely.  Either that or it was serendipity. Georgia’s entry to Eurovision 2009 was the most genius diplomatic manœuvre I have ever seen.  Faced with a militarily humiliating (but diplomatically empowering) defeat at Russian hands, Georgia was not too ... http://www.shakingoff.com/2010/05/31/the-fun-side-of-diplomacy/ Date: May 8, 1945 (Victory in Europe Day) Scene: VE Day celebrations, Ireland “Yay! The Nazis surrendered!” “And no thanks to us!” Scene: VE Day celebrations, Sweden and Switzerland “Yay! The Nazis surrendered!” “In spite of us!” “And I hope no one noticed how we aided them while maintaining the façade of neutrality!” The Canadian military has a ... http://www.shakingoff.com/2010/05/08/ve-day-the-military-gratefulness-intervention-neutrality/ Today is the 67th anniversary of the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It’s also Holocaust Remembrance Day in Poland. It’s not the international Holocaust memorial day (which is on January 27) nor is it the Israeli one (27th of Nisan) but for reasons I won’t get into, I prefer ... http://www.shakingoff.com/2010/04/19/learning-the-holocaust/ So it’s down to Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych. The gas princess and the thug. Technically speaking you could call Mrs. Tymoshenko the liberal candidate and Mr. Yanukovych the conservative one but such labels are misleading. So are their respective designations as “pro-Western” and “pro-Russian.” Both ... http://www.shakingoff.com/2010/02/07/election-in-ukraine/ I meant to post this two weeks ago. But better late than never: Although it’s unlikely it’ll ever gain the prestige of the Nobel Peace Prize the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize has become a more credible award. There’s a couple reasons for this. One has to do with ... http://www.shakingoff.com/2009/12/28/%d1%81%d0%b0%d1%85%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%be%d0%b2-prize-for-freedom-of-thought/