Life imitates bad S/F

[A. Melon]

Tim May <tcmay at got.net> wrote:

>A report on this "strange coincidence" is at 
>http://www.marsearthconnection.com/attack3a.html#foundation
>
>Color me skeptical, though, as there is nothing particularly odd about 
>"the foundation" being the name of a group. The U.S. media translation 
>into "The Base" is just a variant of "The Foundation." One might as well 
>say that the translation of "The Ford Foundation" into Arabic suggests 
>Bin Laden is somehow connected with Ford..maybe this is why the 
>Brimstone tires explode?
>
>(Other etymological swirls: Foundation, founder, fund, base, basement,  
>grundlagen/ground, fundament (ass, too, as in "bottom")/fundamental, 
>basis, basic, a base observation, etc.--all are related to the concept 
>of "lowest level" or "basis" or "bottom"; the Indo-European words 
>obviously come from a "basis" or "foundation" or "fundamental" (fund, 
>fountain, etc.) in a mix of Proto-Indo-European roots. Arabic is a 
>Semitic language, like Hebrew, and so "Qaeda" has no particular obvious 
>connection to foundation/fundament/base.)
>
>"Foundations of Something"  = "Grundlagen der...."  =  "Groundwork 
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                               ^^^^^^^^^^
>for ... =  "The Basics of ...."
>
>

Eureka!!!  

In the Dune Trilogy, the leader of the Desert Warrior People 
was a foreign prince in exile fighting to free his adopted land from 
the clutches of an Evil Empire.  He took the name Usul (the base of 
the pillar) as his secret name within the tribe.

After driving out the invaders, he took his army out on Jihad to 
conquer the rest of the universe.

The book's supposed to be based on the exploits of Lawrence of 
Arabia, with many Arabic nouns and verbs, but The Great Game fits 
the mold just as well.

http://www.jitterbug.com/origins/dune.html


Closer to home:

     CMDR. BEN SISKO of DS9: 
    "Starfleet Command seems to be a little jumpy since the Dominion 
     attack on HQ.  I guess they're accustomed to sitting behind their 
     desks, not hiding under them.  I hope they don't make any rash 
     decisions..."

Any inferences are strictly in the eye of the beholder...


On a lighter note:

Andrea Roth, telepath Talia Winters of Babylon 5 fame, is to become 
an anchor for CNN. (or has already, I don't keep track of these things)

The PsiCorps getting into bed with CNN?  Where's the outrage?

http://www.sadgeezer.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/000007.html



When they catch Bin Laden do you think they will show off his book 
collection next to his gun collection, like they do with 'lone gunmen' 
and 'dangerous militia terrorists'?  I wonder how many copies of 
Catcher in the Rye he owns?