Tujague's New Writeups

The Basques (thing)

2001-05-10T19:51:40Z

The Basques are an enigmatic ethnic group who mostly live on the border between France and Spain, around the Pyrenees Mountains. There are between two and three million of them worldwide. Their literally unique language is covered in depth HERE.

Most evidence points to the Basque people as having lived in the same area for a truly vast amount of time. There are archaeological sites dating back to Cro-Magnon times on Basque turf, and while there isn't any direct evidence of continuity on that scale, there isn't much against it, either.

The general region the Basques live in has been owned at one time or another by the Romans, the Visigoths, Charlemange, the Moors, the Castillians, France, and Spain, both under Francisco Franco and the newer, non-bloodthirsty-dictator regime. The Basques fought, traded, or both with all of these people and were never fully conquered or assimilated. Nutty, huh?

The big news in Basqueland…

Vietnam War (thing)

2001-01-16T21:50:51Z

The Vietnam War was one of the most complicated political situations in recent history. I am sure that most of you are familiar with the basic situation, so I will include here a few interesting facts that I found in my amateur studies of it.

Of all the countries that had been European colonies but were subsequently conquered by the Japanese in the WWII period, Vietnam, or French Indochina, was the only one not granted independence by the United States of America. As a contrast, The Phillippines, or the Dutch East Indies, was made sovereign. Vietnam was returned to French rule.

The Geneva Convention divided up Vietnam into North and South Vietnam and gave provisions for French withdrawl. France almost immediatley got involved in another colonial independence war in North Africa.

Erroneously or not, Communism was viewed in this time as a vast worldwide conspiracy that radiated from Moscow. Chairman Mao in China, the Pathet Lao in Laos, the…

H.P. Lovecraft (person)

2000-08-23T17:54:30Z

Lovecraft was quite an interesting historical character. He was raised in an atmosphere of almost total seclusion in a big old house in Providence, Rhode Island. His father died in early middle age in a mental institution, leaving his mother to pamper and coddle the young Howard to an almost-criminal degree. Lovecraft spent his young years playing alone, reading, writing and staying up all night. He was either a really sickly child or a complete hypochondriac.

Lovecraft, for the record, hated astrology. He was an amateur astronomer. He also showed an early interest in chemistry and history. While he was young, he adopted the eighteenth century as his personal historical ideal, even going so far as to adopt archaic modes of writing ( "Aftronomy," "Inveftigat'd," "God Save the King!") He would have done well in school, but he kept having problems with his nerves. Many biographers have posthumously diagnosed him with schizoid tendencies and/or hypoglycemia.

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How not to beat Jet Li's kung-fu style in "Fist of Legend" (idea)

2000-05-02T17:59:30Z

Sound strange? The most I can offer is some quick advice. You want to take on his righteous wrath, go for it. But there are some things you should know first. Bear with me now, and fast forward to the point in the film after he returns to Shanghai and discovers that his teacher and adoptive father, the Fist of Legend, is dead. Ok, now he's walking out of the kung fu school with That Look on his face.

Great. Ok, so he walks into the Japanese dojo. Now all the students there are getting angry at him. Our lessons can begin.

NEVER be the first guy to run up to Jet Li and slug him. He was waiting for that one since he walked in the door. You'll just end up getting your arm twisted around and then he'll probably throw you into a big crowd of your classmates.

Oh, man, did you see that guy? There's another important lesson. Flying jump kicks don't really work all that well on this hombre. You try to pull something like that, don't plan on having…

Human beings will believe anything (idea)

2000-05-01T20:04:12Z

I do not challenge the existence of belief, I challenge its value. Before I start ranting, please peruse this list of things humans have believed. It will help me to establish my point:

I am worthless.
You are worthless.
Lions are Aryan animals, while rabbits are not.
God, the creator of the entire universe, hates it when I masturbate.
People will respect me if I act crazy.
After Chairman Mao takes over, life will improve.
We should drink poison so we can ride on a comet.
The Sun is evil.
The Sun is good.
Earth is a ball of rock floating in space.
Benny Hinn will cure my skin cancer.
I am a good driver, despite the fact that I am 92.

A human baby is a tabula rasa. You can raise it, on purpose or by accident, to believe anything you want. If you do it properly, your child will interpret everything - even contradictory…

Anarchist's Cookbook (idea)

2000-04-24T17:41:35Z

Just for the sake of consistency, I'd like to point out that the "Anarchist Cookbook" was actually first written sometime during the nascent hippie era. The original version was shown to me by my ex-Weatherman uncle Roscoe, and I remember reading something in the foreword about how this book wasn't actually intended for revolutionaries or sepratists, as the information in the volume was already an adopted part of their life. Instead, it was intended for the US population at large, as a guide for fighting for their freedoms, etc, should the need arise. Remember, there was a lot of talk about open revolution against the government floating around back then.

This version was apparently written by someone named "Jolly Roger." A few excerpts here are lifted from the 60's version, but the stuff about ATM machines and hacking into computer systems, "phreakers," McDonalds, credit card fraud and telephone conferences is, as you probably will guess, new. This casts some confusion into…