Sunday, May 24, 2009

depredation \dep-ruh-DAY-shun\, noun:

1. An act of plundering or despoiling; a raid.
2. [Plural] Destructive operations; ravages

Depredation comes from Late Latin depraedari, "to plunder," from Latin de- + praedari, from praeda, "plunder, prey."

Manufactured Outrage

• A falsified righteous outrage at things that are basically unimportant and meaningless, frequently employed by politicians, political activists, or the media. Politicians and talking heads use it to garner support for their causes, to claim the moral high ground and to tar their opponents; the media often just uses it in a cynical bid to increase ratings.
• Manufactured outrages of note include Nipplegate, the Monica Lewinski scandal, the 2009 tea partys, backmasked satanic lyrics, lapel pin controversies...

Just about any time you hear any politician, activist, or radio show host getting outraged about anything, really. The louder and angrier they get, the harder they're working at manufacturing it.

Trivia
Who played Don Johnson’s original partner in the 1984 pilot for Miami Vice—and ended up a murder victim in the first 15 minutes of the program?

• Jimmy Smits.

Today in History:

• "What hath God wrought?": inventor Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the first telegraph message; it went from Washington, DC, to Baltimore and it quoted Numbers 23:23 (1844)
• Brooklyn Bridge: engineering marvel linking Brooklyn and Manhattan opened to traffic (1883)
• Concorde: supersonic passenger aircraft began flying to Washington, DC (1976)
• James Jeffords: Republican senator became an Independent, giving control of the US Senate to the Democrats (2001)

Today's Birthdays:

• Daniel Fahrenheit (1686-1736): physicist and instrument-maker who developed the temperature scale and the mercury thermometer
• Queen Victoria (1819-1901): Britain's longest-reigning queen
• Jan Christiaan Smuts (1870-1950): founder of Het Volk who became prime minister of South Africa
• Mikhail Sholokhov (1905-1984): Nobel Prize-winning novelist, The Silent Don
• Bob Dylan (68): singer/songwriter; other musicians born on this date include Patti LaBelle (65), Rosanne Cash (54) and Heavy D (42)
• Jim Broadbent (60): actor, Iris, Moulin Rouge, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; also, actors Tommy Chong (71), Priscilla Presley (64), Alfred Molina (56), Kristin Scott Thomas (49), John C. Reilly (44) and Eric Close (41)