My room mate and I were having this exact conversation yesterday. If you put it in quotes it isn't a tsunami and shouldn't be called one.
If it's 90 miles inland, and has nothing to do with the sea it shouldn't be called one either, but that doesn't stop people.
Man, the US is totally uncreative with placenames.
That's hardly even on the best runner up list. Woolloomooloo is propably at the bottom of the best of, and even then only because it sounds like the noise you get when you shove a new boiled potato up a donkey's arse.
Man, the US is totally uncreative with placenames.
Not true. United States and Australia both use a lot of words from the native peoples that the colonists displaced. It's not our fault that the Aboriginal Australians have a language with a lot of interesting ooloo sounds, and thus win out on the "fun words" to say scale. I think my roommate lived in a place called Coogee, which meant rotten seaweed?
I think my roommate lived in a place called Coogee, which meant rotten seaweed?
Yep, that's what it means.
United States and Australia both use a lot of words from the native peoples that the colonists displaced.
Don't worry, our colonists were a bit mental, as you would have to be, so we end up with places like Amphitheatre, Bong Bong, Come by chance, Diapur, Foul Bay, Humpybong, Innaloo, Mount Buggery, Nowhere Else, Rooty hill, Vite Vite, Xantippe, Zeehan, Kangarooby, Dogswamp, Upperswan, Iron Knob, Yorkie's Knob, etc, etc.
The WSJ used a pretty misleading title of an article to try to say that more people having guns would have had some positive affect on what happened in Tuscon. Also, this mo(R)on said the same thing more blatantly. But I think his fail is more spectacular because of what this article points out. Specifically that the guy being touted as a gun-toting hero explained on Fox and Friends that he almost blew away an innocent person who had grabbed and was holding Loughner's gun.
In a separate sad fail: The founder of the Civility Project, geared towards cooling the rhetoric we see flying around, quit.
Some people on the Internets are saying that they added a 13th sign to the zodiac, and most of them seem pissed off about it. That alone is a fail. But here is the fail of my fail of my day: It isn't even true! The Star-Tribune basically made the whole thing up. So, if anyone you know complains about this, punch them in the face for caring, and then punch them again for being wrong.
This is perhaps one of the most heinous rip-offs I've ever seen: Basically some publisher is holding a contest for stories up to 65,000 words. The prizes are said to be $5,000 and a publishing contract. Sounds all nice and clean, except that first-off there is a $150 entrance fee, by entering you transfer ownership of the submission to the publisher, you sign away all your rights to the work you created, you get absolutely no legal recourse, and there isn't even a guarantee that any prizes will be awarded at all in case there are "insufficient entries". How many entries are sufficient is of course never stated.
Sourced here and here. The 2nd link is especially interesting because the person behind this contest scam actually had the audacity to write the blogger, a literary agent herself, that she should have waited until the contest actually started before advising people not to enter it because "That's the fair thing to do".
Sourcedhereandhere. The 2nd link is especially interesting because the person behind thiscontestscam actually had the audacity to write the blogger, a literary agent herself, that she should have waited until the contest actually started before advising people not to enter it because "That's the fair thing to do".
"Hello, 4chan? I've got a new target for the Low Orbit Ion Cannon. What is it? Oh, you're gonna LOOOVE this..."
So I plug my old, ailing hard drive into my computer and put it in read-only mode then I want to go into my old user folder to copy my stuff out and windows is like "Can't let you do that Starfred." and I'm like "Why the hell not, it's not encrypted, just send me in as admin." so then it's like "Can't do that without write permissions." and then I go: In reverse order.
I am overcome with chagrin upon discovering one of my favorite scifi heroines, Ripley, was originally written as a man. Perhaps Hollywood should stick to doing this as it seems to yeild better results. (As an aside, during Tron I amused myself by imagining Sam replaced by a woman, but with the same lines.)
The gender of my wife and the person who duct-tapes a flamer and a plasma rifle together to kill xenomorphs are of incredibly different levels of importance.
It's like "Wow! When we treat female characters in movies the same way we treat male characters, the result is an interesting, strong, and fulfilling character! Who would have thought!"
If you don't believe that solid female characters are lacking in SciFi and action, rate things with the Bechdel Test. Most SciFi films fail.
The Bechdel Test, sometimes called the Mo Movie Measure or Bechdel Rule is a simple test which names the following three criteria: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man.
It's like "Wow! When we treat female characters in movies the same way we treat male characters, the result is an interesting, strong, and fulfilling character! Who would have thought!"
If you don't believe that solid female characters are lacking in SciFi and action, rate things with the Bechdel Test. Most SciFi films fail.
The Bechdel Test, sometimes called the Mo Movie Measure or Bechdel Rule is a simple test which names the following three criteria: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man.
Alien and Aliens pass the test, though Alien 3 doesn't, due to the fact Ripley is the only female on an all male prison planet.
Also, as the main alien antagonist in Aliens is the queen, you could say there it passes the test even more. Except for the slightly different way of stating point (3) as "talk about something other than a man, pregnancy and children". In that case, Ripley and the Queen have a strongly worded "talk" about their children (the eggs and Newt).
My point: just turning a male character into a female is a start, but once the character is established, motherhood and other female motivations make an already strong character even stronger. Which is why I think Leo's character in Inception was written as a female, as he had very female motivations.
Comments
I think my roommate lived in a place called Coogee, which meant rotten seaweed?
VideoofHomerSimpson.vid
If you moved there, you could say, "I'm from Brisbane by way of Brisbane."
In a separate sad fail: The founder of the Civility Project, geared towards cooling the rhetoric we see flying around, quit.
Sourced here and here. The 2nd link is especially interesting because the person behind this contest scam actually had the audacity to write the blogger, a literary agent herself, that she should have waited until the contest actually started before advising people not to enter it because "That's the fair thing to do".
In reverse order.
If you don't believe that solid female characters are lacking in SciFi and action, rate things with the Bechdel Test. Most SciFi films fail.
Also, as the main alien antagonist in Aliens is the queen, you could say there it passes the test even more. Except for the slightly different way of stating point (3) as "talk about something other than a man, pregnancy and children". In that case, Ripley and the Queen have a strongly worded "talk" about their children (the eggs and Newt).
My point: just turning a male character into a female is a start, but once the character is established, motherhood and other female motivations make an already strong character even stronger. Which is why I think Leo's character in Inception was written as a female, as he had very female motivations.
Also, you do realise that fire adds about +7 to attractiveness for most women.