Korean was originally written using Chinese characters, much like Japanese was, because both Korea and Japan looked at China as the big refined center of culture and civilization in the world. But Chinese is a terrible script for Korean, arguably worse than it is for Japanese, because Korean loves to form words with tons of prefixes … Continue reading Hangul Part 4: The King
Okay. “Gangnam” was easy: two syllables. Why is “Style” written as three syllables? There’s two linguistic reasons for this: clusters, and diphthongs. Bear with me. Clusters I told you that Korean doesn’t like consonant clusters in syllables. One at the beginning and one at the end at most. So the “ST” at the beginning of … Continue reading Hangul Part 3: Style
All right. In the previous post we talked about how syllable blocks fit together in Hangul. Now we’re ready to break down the song’s title into its individual jamo. Remember that a jamo is a Korean “letter”, and that in Hangul you pack the jamo into blocks of two or three symbols to make syllables. “gang” Let’s … Continue reading Hangul Part 2: Jamo
My friends know I love languages and linguistics. Today I wanted to share with you one of the most amazingly elegant and beautiful writing systems in the world: Hangul (also spelled hangeul in English, but properly spelled 한글 in the system itself), the system used for writing Korean. In order to approach this — and I hope … Continue reading The amazing Hangul system, part 1: Syllables
Now we look at some of the reasons why the Warren Commission’s conclusion — that Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK, acting alone, not part of any conspiracy (a.k.a. the “Lone Gunman” theory) — is so hotly disputed. I cannot begin to cover every conspiracy theory possibility out there. As I said in a previous post, … Continue reading JFK Part 3: The Questions
Okay. Having reviewed the timeline of events during those infamous Four Days, we will next summarize the evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin of President Kennedy. We’ll dig deeper into some of the questions and doubts in the next post. The connection between the two murders If Oswald murdered Officer J. D. Tippit, while it … Continue reading JFK Part 2: The Evidence
With the release scheduled for 26 October 2017 of additional FBI and CIA documents pertaining to the case, and with November bringing the 54th anniversary of the incident, I decided I would talk about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Before I talk about it, I’d like to remind you that my “mysteries” series … Continue reading JFK Part 1: Timeline
This is one of the better known mysteries out there, but surely someone hasn’t run into it yet, or would like to know more about how it works. Shortwave radio is not very popular in the United States*, having been supplanted by AM and FM. But there’s still plenty of places in the world that … Continue reading Numbers Stations
John Bingham, seventh Earl of Lucan. Dashing playboy. Rich, handsome, gambling bon vivant. Reportedly considered for the role of Bond. Probably murderer. In 1963 he met and married Veronica Duncan. By the early 1970s, his hard-play lifestyle and her post-partum depression were taking a toll on the marriage. By 1974, wanting custody of his children … Continue reading The disappearance of Lord Lucan
Lots of people know about Jonestown, the settlement in Guyana led by “Rev.” Jim Jones, and its tragic mass murder/suicide* on 18 November 1978. Many of those people know about the so-called “death tape” (transcription here), which is a cassette tape recording of Jim Jones and a few other people talking as the murder/suicides begin: Jones explains … Continue reading The Jonestown “Day After” Tape