Friday, October 23, 2009

Βελισάριος


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militant people who will get zingered in next week's mailbag responses:
1. dropped the ball on not big upping Thracian people. Spartacus, both emperors in your youtube, son of Ares, the Iliad, Herodotus ranking 'em #2 behind India in population, from Skudra to conquering Persia with Alex the Great, shoulda kinda mentioned some of that

2. um . . . Persians owned the Byzantines. What are you talking 'bout?


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I actually don't think they were chanting "Εν Τουτω Νικα" during the riots, but still. Can't nobody be mad at me for setting the Nika riots to this guy's soundtrack. Off by a dozen emperors and a coupla hundred years, but I doubt anyone else is gonna find a more appropriate heavy metal song and set it to rioting Simpsons

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last week's proverbial peanut gallery that wouldn't let me off the hook for avoiding these pressing issues in last week's video:
1) why didn't you mention something 'bout his father being from the शूद्र caste?
shut up
2) why didn't you mention something 'bout his father being from the ক্ষত্রিয় caste?
shut up
3) wait, why did you spell क्षत्रिय in Bengali?
shut up
4) weren't they Punjabi?
shut up
5) or descendants of sun-worship Persians?
shut up
6) enough with the ethnicity, I wanna know where you got your languages of the world rankings. Or did you just kinda make 'em up?
there are no accurate numbers on this, so any ranking is subjective. Since I am smarter than most of the people who make the rankings, I have no problem coming up with my own. Chinese is still #1, and while English is increasing (mostly amongst those who do not speak it as their primary language), most of the hundreds of millions who speak English as a second language are less fluent than are the hundreds of millions who speak Chinese as a first. The Spanish numbers are some of the most predictable, whereas the Hindi/Urdu ones are anybody's guess. Way more people in India/Pakistan that anyone wants to admit though, so they get the nod there. Russian below French and Portuguese since it is declining in population. France below Portuguese for the same reason. Folks in Africa, but no one else needs or cares 'bout it as a Lingua Franca. Still more relevant than German though, so Deutsch got bumped from the list
7) I appreciate your overview of Bengali highlights, but why didn't you mention something 'bout all the smoking hot women?
sounds like you need to get yourself on the mailing list
GOL Bengali people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8) wait, how is he responsible for mongroves and tigers?
the word is spelled mangroves

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

ধর্মপাল




the proverbial peanut gallery demands answers. I avoided these issues in the video, but some folks just love themselves some controversy:
1) why didn't you say something 'bout his father being from the शूद्र caste?
2) why didn't you say something 'bout his father being from the ক্ষত্রিয় caste?
3) wait, why did you spell क्षत्रिय in Bengali?
4) weren't they Punjabi?
5) or descendants of sun-worship Persians?
6) enough with the ethnicity, I wanna know where you got your languages of the world rankings. Or did you just kinda make 'em up?
7) I appreciate your overview of Bengali highlights, but why didn't you mention something 'bout all the smoking hot women?
8) wait, how is he responsible for mangroves and tigers?
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the wikipedia mentioned that after conquering the Pratiharas he boasted he was "Uttarapathasvamin or Lord of Northern India." I wanted to color in the map and write that bad-assed title on the new oval of purple Pala Empire that he conquered



getting that name in Bengali was a lil' difficult though. Had to Noah Webster it up a bit and learn me some Sanskrit and Hindi, but I got it. None of that easy clicking on hyperlinks or asking the google or the wiktionary. Old school internet and searching on sites of questionable legitimacy to get some answers. Plenty of bad/useless information out there, but after some thugged out brainstorming I got it. Then a few days later I got some of my people in India to confirm it. That's how I roll

Here go my winning sources:
1
2
3
4

much thanks to the Majumdar family as well

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Answers to last week's quiz
Shandong is the undisputed #1 source of Awesome Dudes of the Week, with twice the number of ADWs born there than anywhere else in the world. There is however, another state than can lay claim to birthing even more if future ADWs are taken into account. From whence comest a triumvirate of dudes?
Uzbekistan, which in addition to having the most Awesome Dudes, also has a ridiculously high ADW per capita (1 per 9 million current denizens)

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

墨子



quiz
Shandong is the undisputed #1 source of Awesome Dudes of the Week, with twice the number of ADWs born there than anywhere else in the world. There is however, another state than can lay claim to birthing even more if future ADWs are taken into account. From whence comest a triumvirate of dudes?


gotta admit that I was proud of myself for instantly relating Mohism's stance against fatalism to one of the main tenets of Terminatorism[1]. Most folks prolly wouldn't associate the works of James Cameron with any of the Hundred Schools of Thought from the Warring States Period, but fortunately for y'all I am way smarter than pretty much everyone on the planet. That I got John Connor telling Ahnold "There is no fate but what we make for ourselves" with Chinese subtitles is beyond even my own lofty expectations though. That is just insane. All hail the king of fusing ancient Chinese philosophy with early 90's pop culture. In your face Family Guy manatee jokes



notes

this guy made a Terminator monster ballad. Pure genius. The lyrics are all there if you click on the (more info) thing

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Answers to last week's quiz

1. with a picture shout-out this week, who ties بیرونی as the most referenced person in ADW history?
Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαίος. Reckon once you get your second recognition in another dude's video that qualifies you for future ADW status. The threshold for inclusion will likely increase in the future, but since two mentions at this points means you've appeared in over 15% the youtube bios, that is pretty darn impressive. Course, بیرونی caught his 2nd after only 5 vids, giving him an insane 40% appearance rate. Still though, congrats to Egypt for having a son rank amongst the most mentioned