a disorder in which a person holds a delusion that a friend, spouse, parent, or other close family member has been replaced by an identical-looking impostor. it is classified as a delusional misidentification syndrome, a class of delusional beliefs that involves the misidentification of people, places, or objects. it can occur in acute, transient, or chronic forms. cases in which patients hold the belief that time has been “warped” or “substituted” have also been reported.
the delusion is most common in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, although it can occur in connection with a number of conditions, including brain injury and dementia. it has also been reported as occuring in association with diabetes, hypothyroidism and migraine attacks. it occurs more frequently in females, with a female:male ratio of 3:2.
is the absence of the iris. it usually involves both eyes and can be congenital or caused by a penetrant injury. vision may be severely compromised and the disorder is frequently associated with a number of ocular complications: nystagmus, amblyopia, buphthalmos, and cataract. aniridia in some individuals is associated with kidney nephroblastoma (wilms tumor) or with mental retardation and cerebellar ataxia (gillespie syndrome).
(often represented by ?! or !?)
is a nonstandard punctuation mark used in various written languages and intended to combine the functions of the question mark and the exclamation mark, indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. the glyph is a superimposition of these two marks.
+: read more
moerae or moirai (in greek μοῖραι – the “apportioners”, often called the fates), in greek mythology, were the white-robed incarnations of destiny (roman equivalent: parcae, euphemistically the “sparing ones”, or fata; also equivalent to the germanic norns). their number became fixed at 3.
the greek word moira (μοῖρα) literally means a part or portion of the whole, and by extension one’s portion in life or destiny, which consisted of bad and good moments distributed by the fates, who predestinated the events. they controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal from birth to death, and it was impossible for anyone to act over his destiny (υπέρ μοίραν).
+: read more (english / spanish)
from the ancient greek words λέξις (lexis, “diction”, “word”) and θυμός (thumos, “soul, as the seat of emotion, feeling, and thought”) modified by an alpha-privative—literally “without words for emotions”—is a term coined by psychotherapist peter sifneos in 1973 to describe a state of deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing emotions.
song: room 13 (black flag cover - feat. corey taylor)
album: rise above - 24 black flag songs to benefit the west memphis three
band: rollins band
usa - 2002
the album features guest vocals by henry rollins, iggy pop, corey taylor, tom araya, mike patton, ice-t, lemmy, tim armstrong, keith morris, among others.
the west memphis three are three men who were tried and convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the 1993 murders of 3 boys in west memphis, arkansas. damien echols was sentenced to death, jessie misskelley, jr. was sentenced to life imprisonment plus two 20-year sentences, and jason baldwin was sentenced to life imprisonment. during the trial, the prosecution asserted that the children were killed as part of a satanic ritual. a number of documentaries have been based on the case, and celebrities and musicians have held fund raisers in the belief that they are innocent.
+: the album / the case (wikipedia)
a japanese word meaning “to ignore” or “to treat with silent contempt”. composed of 2 kanji: 黙 (moku, literally “silence”) and 殺 (satsu, literally “killing”). some argue that the word was misinterpreted by the usa when the government of japan used it as a response to allied demands in the potsdam declaration for unconditional surrender in world war ii, which may have influenced president harry s. truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb against hiroshima and nagasaki.
mokusatsu was employed in the morning edition of the asahi shinbun during world war ii on july 28, 1945 to designate the attitude assumed by the government to the potsdam declaration. this newspaper and others had been quick to announce that the declaration had been rejected by japan, probably since the ultimatum (in addition to being transmitted to the japanese government diplomatically via swiss intermediaries) was transmitted via radio and airdropped leaflets to the japanese public. it is questionable whether the japanese press were acting on reliable government sources when they first announced the declaration’s rejection. later that day in a press conference, the word was again used by the premier kantarō suzuki to dismiss the potsdam declarations as a mere rehash of earlier rejected allied proposals, and therefore, being of no value, would be killed off by silent contempt (mokusatsu). suzuki’s choice of the term was dictated perhaps more by the need to appease the military, which was hostile to the idea of “unconditional surrender”, than to signal anything to the allies.
the expression can also mean to just let a topic or subject die by refusing to follow up on it. the reasons for the “mokusatsu” response could as easily be contempt as embarrassment, discomfort, or even simply not knowing what else to do in response.
the nsa technical journal has an article on the word in which readers are warned of the consequences of not making clear ambiguity when translating between languages. it concludes:
some years ago i recall hearing a statement known as “murphy’s law” which says that “if it can be misunderstood, it will be.” mokusatsu supplies adequate proof of that statement. after all, if kantarō suzuki had said something specific like “i will have a statement after the cabinet meeting,” or “we have not reached any decision yet,” he could have avoided the problem of how to translate the ambiguous word mokusatsu and the 2 horrible consequences of its inauspicious translation: the atomic bombs and this essay.
song: evil
album: antics
band: interpol
usa - 2004
the song references british serial killer housewife rosemary west, although the “rosemary” in the lyrics may be a reference to a road in clacton-on-sea, birthplace of paul banks.
rosemary pauline “rose” west (born 29 november 1953 in barnstaple, devon) is a british serial killer, now an inmate at hmp low newton, brasside, durham, after being convicted of 10 murders in 1995. her husband fred, who committed suicide in prison while awaiting trial, is believed to have collaborated with her in the torture and murder of at least 10 young women, many at the couple’s home in gloucester, gloucestershire, england. fred west is known to have carried out 12 murders. rosemary west had no involvement in the first 2; she had not met fred at the time.
rosemary west and her husband were convicted of sexual assault in january 1973. they were fined for indecent assault of caroline roberts, who escaped the couple’s home after being attacked and reported them to the police. the wests’ typical pattern was to pick up girls from bus stops in and around gloucester and imprison them in their home for several days before killing them.
she also periodically worked as a prostitute, often while her husband watched. one of the most frequent visitors was her father, by whom she had been abused from a young age. she was often pregnant and was the mother of 8 children: heather anne (17 october 1970), mae (1 june 1972), stephen andrew (august 1973), tara (december 1977), louise (november 1978), barry (june 1980), rosemarie (april 1982) and lucyanna (july 1983). 5 of these were fathered by fred west, while tara, rosemarie and lucyanna were fathered by west indian clients who had used rosemary as a prostitute.
it is reported that, even after the birth of her 4th child, rosemary’s father would still visit her for sex, and would then have sex with fred’s daughter anne-marie.
+: read more (wikipedia)
“but hey who’s on trial?”
a sexual fetish or paraphilia that involves deriving erotic pleasure from soiling or disheveling the object of one’s desire, usually an attractive person. it may involve tearing or damaging their clothing, covering them in mud or filth, or messing their hair or makeup. the fetish does not involve harming or injuring the subject, only their appearance.
it is related to wet and messy fetishism, bukkake, omorashi, mysophilia, urolagnia and coprophilia, but extends to other areas such a forcing the partner to wear torn or poorly fitting clothing and other actions which would render them normally unattractive.
the fetish sometimes manifests itself in the defacing of statues or pictures of attractive people, especially celebrities. the fetishist finds this sexually exciting, rather than mere vandalism. they sometimes form collections of defaced art for future enjoyment. a video of the fetishist ejaculating on a picture of someone is known colloquially as a “tribute”.
the term comes from the french for soiling, salir. in cases where the fetish is obsessive it is called saliromania. it is frequently confused with salophilia, an attraction to salt or salty things (especially body sweat) that derives from the latin for salt, sal.
the norwegian word “hell” in its everyday usage means luck, in any way pronounced. the old norse word “hel” is the same as today’s english hell, and as a proper noun, “hel” was the ruler of “hel”. in modern norwegian the word for hell is “helvete”.
+: read more about it (wikipedia)
+: illustration by learnsomethingeveryday
a map indicating which countries drive on the right side of the road (red), and which drive on the left side (blue).
+: right- and left-hand traffic (wikipedia)
