Posts by LoveUniHateExams

13

The real Dracula?

by LoveUniHateExams in

i'm a bit of a horror fan - i love horror movies and the novel dracula by bram stoker is a pretty good read - especially the first four chapters, with jonathan harker being in dracula's castle.. i've heard before that stoker based count dracula on a 15th century voivod (prince) of wallachia who went down in history as vlad the impaler - apparently, he was extremely barbaric and cruel, as his name suggests.. vlad's father was also called vlad.

daddy vlad was apparently part of an order of crusader knights, the order of the dragon.

this order was formed to protect christian europe against muslim ottomans/turks.

LoveUniHateExams

I do think that Bram Stokers Dracula is one of the best in terms of visuals and story line plus actors that played in it - for me, it's an entertaining film and I'd recommend it. But I also think it's a mixed bag - it has its good points and bad points.

The visuals, set designs and costumes are excellent. Gary Oldman's a good actor, and props to him for not only hiring a dialect coach to get the accent acceptable (although there are some inconsistencies there) but he also learnt a few lines of Romanian, which he delivered very well.

I personally don't like making Dracula a loser in love. I'd much rather Dracula just be a villain through and through.

Yeah, like I said, Oldman's Romanian accent varies a bit - sometimes he sounds a little Russian, other times he sounds a little Italian. And, inexplicably, when he appears in the wolf bodysuit and the bat body suit, his accent is posh English! <---- what the hell was going on there?

As far as knowledge of the real Vlad, a lot of it is made up - it's almost impossible to verify what happened and what didn't.

The vampire stuff is obviously nonsense but makes for a good horror story.

The impaling may very well have happened. Young Vlad grew up in one of the Ottoman Sultan Murad's palaces. Vlad's father, Vlad Dracul, took his young sons (Vlad & Radu) there because Wallachia was a vassel state of the Ottoman Empire. Young Vlad would probably have seen criminals impaled there. The Ottomans used to punish Muslim criminals with beheading but all others - Christians, Druze, Jews - were punished with impaling.

13

The real Dracula?

by LoveUniHateExams in

i'm a bit of a horror fan - i love horror movies and the novel dracula by bram stoker is a pretty good read - especially the first four chapters, with jonathan harker being in dracula's castle.. i've heard before that stoker based count dracula on a 15th century voivod (prince) of wallachia who went down in history as vlad the impaler - apparently, he was extremely barbaric and cruel, as his name suggests.. vlad's father was also called vlad.

daddy vlad was apparently part of an order of crusader knights, the order of the dragon.

this order was formed to protect christian europe against muslim ottomans/turks.

LoveUniHateExams

I don't think of people back then as living in houses like that. It looks like a modern house - yeah well spotted. Apparently, the top two floors were added later, in the 18th or 19th century.

The bottom floor dates back from Vlad Draculea's birth (c. 1430) and was probably fairly new at that time.

13

The real Dracula?

by LoveUniHateExams in

i'm a bit of a horror fan - i love horror movies and the novel dracula by bram stoker is a pretty good read - especially the first four chapters, with jonathan harker being in dracula's castle.. i've heard before that stoker based count dracula on a 15th century voivod (prince) of wallachia who went down in history as vlad the impaler - apparently, he was extremely barbaric and cruel, as his name suggests.. vlad's father was also called vlad.

daddy vlad was apparently part of an order of crusader knights, the order of the dragon.

this order was formed to protect christian europe against muslim ottomans/turks.

LoveUniHateExams

I'm a bit of a horror fan - I love horror movies and the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker is a pretty good read - especially the first four chapters, with Jonathan Harker being in Dracula's castle.

I've heard before that Stoker based Count Dracula on a 15th century voivod (prince) of Wallachia who went down in history as Vlad the Impaler - apparently, he was extremely barbaric and cruel, as his name suggests.

Vlad's father was also called Vlad. Daddy Vlad was apparently part of an order of Crusader knights, the Order of the Dragon. This Order was formed to protect Christian Europe against Muslim Ottomans/Turks.

Daddy Vlad was given the surname Dracul (meaning 'the dragon', because of the religious Order mentioned above.

His son was given the surname Draculea (meaning 'of the dragon'). He signed his name 'Vladisaus Dragulya'. He later became known as Vlad Tepes, tepes meaning 'impaler' in Romanian, I think.

Here is the house he was born in nearly 600 years ago. Today it is a café ...

I'm reading a historical book ATM that details Vlad Tepes's life.

What do you know about him?

12

How far is this lunacy going to go?

by The Fall Guy in

people in the uk who apply for a blue badge (parking permit for disabled people) on the government web site, are asked to select one of three options regarding their gender:.

1. male .

2. female.

LoveUniHateExams

I'm not to sure about the lunacy of pronouns and genders - let me help you ...

A woman alleges she has been raped.

The alleged rapist (a biological male) claims to be a woman and takes a woman's name.

Where these pronoun laws are going ---> in court, the raped woman, the victim, must use 'she' and 'her' ...

"And then she raped me with her penis ..."

^^^ Rape victims shouldn't have to do this. In Canada, where using preferred pronouns was to be made law, rape victims would have to do this. (I'm not sure where Canada is re Bill 16. Are they going ahead with it or not?)

180

Languages, Dialects, Accents

by LoveUniHateExams in

jw
friends

just though i'd start a thread devoted to languages, dialects/sociolects and accents, with the idea being that posters can comment on any language, or dialect or accent of any language, on this thread.. any phrases, expressions or idioms that you find interesting are also welcome.

first, the subject of english accents came up on another thread.. the british isles have many different types of accent (although many of the dialects may be dying out), and if i start to take a closer look, i can't help but see 'patterns' .... in received pronunciation of standard english, the letter r is pronounced initially, between vowels, and after consonants, e.g.

red, arrow, break.

LoveUniHateExams

The following series of videos is pretty good at teaching people the basics on how to write Arabic. It's how I learnt how to write Arabic script.

Arabic has 28 letters (plus three tiny symbols - fatHa, Damma, kasra - that represent the three short vowels).

Arabic is obligatory cursive (letters must be joined up, except for crosswords). Each letter has a beginning, middle and end form, although six letters - alef, waw, ra, zay, dal, dhal - have only two forms, the end and middle forms are the same because these 6 don't connect to the following letter in a word.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RcgfyuBlz8&list=PLR0I0Z-Ey9jFLir6bs8kJChIbSAXLzrly&index=1

The first words I wrote in Arabic were bint and bayt, too.

180

Languages, Dialects, Accents

by LoveUniHateExams in

jw
friends

just though i'd start a thread devoted to languages, dialects/sociolects and accents, with the idea being that posters can comment on any language, or dialect or accent of any language, on this thread.. any phrases, expressions or idioms that you find interesting are also welcome.

first, the subject of english accents came up on another thread.. the british isles have many different types of accent (although many of the dialects may be dying out), and if i start to take a closer look, i can't help but see 'patterns' .... in received pronunciation of standard english, the letter r is pronounced initially, between vowels, and after consonants, e.g.

red, arrow, break.

LoveUniHateExams

Riq'a or ruq'ah style is very common for handwriting Arabic.

Its structure allows very rapid writing. I personally don't like this style. My handwritten Arabic incorporates some features found in this style, however. With letters that have two or three dots, these dots are written as a dash or as a circumflex (like a house's roof). I write two and three dots as dashes and roofy points, for speed.

The letter kaf has a little s-shaped character floating inside it ...

Image result for arabic letter kaaf in naskh

... but the riq'a style actually lets the writer connect this to the main body, again for speed. I write my Kaf's like the Ruq'ah style, too. But, apart from this, my handwriting looks more like the Naskh style, just not as elaborate.

180

Languages, Dialects, Accents

by LoveUniHateExams in

jw
friends

just though i'd start a thread devoted to languages, dialects/sociolects and accents, with the idea being that posters can comment on any language, or dialect or accent of any language, on this thread.. any phrases, expressions or idioms that you find interesting are also welcome.

first, the subject of english accents came up on another thread.. the british isles have many different types of accent (although many of the dialects may be dying out), and if i start to take a closer look, i can't help but see 'patterns' .... in received pronunciation of standard english, the letter r is pronounced initially, between vowels, and after consonants, e.g.

red, arrow, break.

LoveUniHateExams

Arabic calligraphy is quite fascinating because there are many styles of written Arabic. The script that's fairly similar to the script usually used in books is called Naskh.

^^^ Three variants of the Naskh style. Each line says bismillah, ar-rahman, ar-raheem.('in the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful').

Kufi script stands out as very square, with points and straight lines.

^^^ Kufi style, saying the same as the Naskh lines.

Thuluth is similar to Naskh, but more elaborate.

^^^ Thuluth style.

Tughra has its own kinda character, and can be written into various shapes.

^^^ Tughra style.

47

What Makes. Person A Pedophile?

by minimus in

jw
friends

it seems the news always has another report of a pedo stalking children or hurting them.

i know this has gone on forever but i read another report of an illegal alien with a history of abuse taking advantage of another poor child.. i just don’t understand why some people do this.

is there an actual brain abnormality?

LoveUniHateExams

So logic dictates that the solution is for adults to make themselves available and children would be the less attractive choice - but adults are under no obligation to make themselves available to paedophiles or to anyone else.

E.g.

I'm a heterosexual man - I'm attracted to women.

But no woman has to make herself available to me. I could really like a woman and ask her out on a date ... and she could tell me to f.o.

I could like another woman and she could also tell me where to go.

The solution lies partly with scientists (how do scientists come up with something that takes the child-attraction away?) and partly with the paedophiles themselves - they are under obligation to control themselves and to obey the law. And the law says child sex is a very serious crime.

8

Islamophobia & anti-Semitism

by The Fall Guy in

the muslim council of britain and uk jewish organisations want the uk government to enshrine into law their perceptions of what kind of speech constitutes islamophobia or anti-semitism/hate crime.

should british christians follow suit?

in the movies & on tv we constantly hear actors shout out, "jesus christ.

LoveUniHateExams

There is an important point to emphasise here: anti-Semitism and Islamophobia aren't equivalent.

One's to do with race (an immutable characteristic) and one is to do with religion (an ideology and a changeable characteristic).

Any religion is fair game for questioning, criticising and poking fun at.

12

How far is this lunacy going to go?

by The Fall Guy in

people in the uk who apply for a blue badge (parking permit for disabled people) on the government web site, are asked to select one of three options regarding their gender:.

1. male .

2. female.

LoveUniHateExams

I've said it before and I'll say it again: this lunacy is a free speech issue.

I have no problem with adults identifying with whatever gender they wish (e.g. Bruce Jenner can ID as a woman and call himself Caitlyn).

Just don't force others to use the preferred pronouns (e.g. I don't have to see Jenner as a woman; nor do I have to use she, her, etc.).

^^^ And this is the issue: activists are trying to force everyone else to go along with their beliefs, on pain of arrest. Surely this is some kind of, what, fascism? 'Trans-Aristocracy'?