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WikiLeaks says it has obtained 2.4 million emails from Syria

washingtonpost.com

21–30 of 48 posts

Re: WikiLeaks says it has obtained 2.4 million emails from Syria

#21
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll save everyone the trip to their favourite search engine. It's part of a larger quote: "宰予晝寢。子曰:「朽木不可雕也, 糞土之牆不可朽也。於予與何誅 」子曰:「 始吾於人也, 聽其言而信其行; 今吾於人也, 聽其言而觀其行。 於予與改是。」" "Tsai Yu slept during the daytime. The master said, "Rotten wood cannot be carved; dirty earth cannot be used for cement: why bother scolding him? At first I used to listen to what people said and expect them to act accordingly. Now I listen to what…

「 and 」 are quotation marks.

Thanks! I really like those visually. While non-standard, I just might have to start using those in my English typesetting/formatting of documents.

As a complete tangent, I think that over the next 50 years, various Chinese phrases, language quirks and usage will start bleeding into English, much as Spanish has if not moreso.

Re: WikiLeaks says it has obtained 2.4 million emails from Syria

#22
post #21
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

「 and 」 are quotation marks.

Thanks! I really like those visually. While non-standard, I just might have to start using those in my English typesetting/formatting of documents. As a complete tangent, I think that over the next 50 years, various Chinese phrases, language quirks and usage will start bleeding into English, much as Spanish has if not moreso.

Dong ma?

Re: WikiLeaks says it has obtained 2.4 million emails from Syria

#23
post #21
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

「 and 」 are quotation marks.

Thanks! I really like those visually. While non-standard, I just might have to start using those in my English typesetting/formatting of documents. As a complete tangent, I think that over the next 50 years, various Chinese phrases, language quirks and usage will start bleeding into English, much as Spanish has if not moreso.

> I think that over the next 50 years, various Chinese phrases, language quirks and usage will start bleeding into English

Right on. That was one of my favorite elements of the Firefly TV series.

Re: WikiLeaks says it has obtained 2.4 million emails from Syria

#24
post #21
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

「 and 」 are quotation marks.

Thanks! I really like those visually. While non-standard, I just might have to start using those in my English typesetting/formatting of documents. As a complete tangent, I think that over the next 50 years, various Chinese phrases, language quirks and usage will start bleeding into English, much as Spanish has if not moreso.

Maybe they could start picking up a phonetic alphabet in the meantime, so it doesn't take me that long to become competent with their written language.

Re: WikiLeaks says it has obtained 2.4 million emails from Syria

#25
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! I really like those visually. While non-standard, I just might have to start using those in my English typesetting/formatting of documents. As a complete tangent, I think that over the next 50 years, various Chinese phrases, language quirks and usage will start bleeding into English, much as Spanish has if not moreso.

Maybe they could start picking up a phonetic alphabet in the meantime, so it doesn't take me that long to become competent with their written language.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin

Re: WikiLeaks says it has obtained 2.4 million emails from Syria

#26
post #5
post #3

Since these kinds of leaks are very difficult to authenticate, there is an opportunity for intelligence agencies to game WikiLeaks by (slightly) altering stolen documents. I'd take everything in these documents with a huge grain of salt.

Most of the mainstream media is unquestioning at best. The government doesn't need to manipulate WikiLeaks. The sort of people who are more inclined to listen to WikiLeaks over CNN or Fox News were already skeptical, so there's nothing to gain by feeding them false information.

Intelligence agencies are primarily interested in providing disinformation to other foreign intelligence agencies.

Re: WikiLeaks says it has obtained 2.4 million emails from Syria

#27
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they could start picking up a phonetic alphabet in the meantime, so it doesn't take me that long to become competent with their written language.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin

That doesn't appear to be used for internal communication, but rather for communicating with foreigners. I'm sure many millions of young Chinese schoolchildren would love it if Pinyin was adopted as a native written language, so they wouldn't have to spend quite so much mental effort memorizing the tens of thousands of characters needed to qualify for a diploma.

Same goes for Japanese schoolchildren, since they're plagued with a non-phonetic alphabet as well. The widely-used phonetic [hiragana] alphabet is ready to replace their daunting kanji alphabet imported from China.

Re: WikiLeaks says it has obtained 2.4 million emails from Syria

#28
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin

That doesn't appear to be used for internal communication, but rather for communicating with foreigners. I'm sure many millions of young Chinese schoolchildren would love it if Pinyin was adopted as a native written language, so they wouldn't have to spend quite so much mental effort memorizing the tens of thousands of characters needed to qualify for a diploma. Same goes for Japanese schoolchildren, since they're pl…

[deleted]

Re: WikiLeaks says it has obtained 2.4 million emails from Syria

#29
post #2

While some would make it sound as though Wikileaks was 'against' the US or any specific country, it seems clear to me that they are really just out to shine light on everyone that has secrets. I, for one, don't see this as a terribly bad thing. Governments and large corporations are under the impression that they can do as they please and no one will ever know the wiser. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

The cynic in me is waiting for the day they start releasing Russian internal communications and state secrets. I don't predict Russia's current government would react to that with words and legal action... or, at least, not just that.

Re: WikiLeaks says it has obtained 2.4 million emails from Syria

#30
post #20
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

「 and 」 are quotation marks.

The directionality of those is pretty cool. Of course with latin style quotation marks you can always do the 'smart quote' style quotation marks, but those really depend on handwriting a lot more. I suppose adopting those style quotation marks in English is probably a lost cause though.

In German we use ,,this style'' of quotes. Which is discernible even with bad handwriting.
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