Mar
24
2009
Edison MacGyver
Update: The decision has been made. The unit will be called Tranquility and the exercise treadmill within shall be called the C.O.L.B.E.R.T.
NASA held an online naming contest for the last piece of the International Space Station that will be delivered by shuttle in the near future. They obviously wanted “Serenity,” which segues nicely from “Unity” and “Harmony,” the other USA-built nodes that are already in place. But, to the eggheads in Houstons’ mild regret I’m sure, they allowed write-ins on the voting page. Xenu, the top secret galactic overlord of Scientology, was winning the voting contest until Stephen Colbert anounced on his show that his surname would make a better node moniker (and, for that matter, a better galactic overlord). Since then, NASA has closed the voting and “Colbert” was the overwelming favorite. I’ll go on record as hoping NASA sticks with the will of the people on this one, but I’ll list the factors for consideration.
- It is admittedly risky to name a space station node after a living celebrity. While Colbert’s upstanding faith-centered family-man status is well known, he’s not afraid of dropping the occasional 4-letter word on prime-time television and you never really know who is going to be the next rifle-wielding water tower climber.
- NASA still has image stereotypes to battle, and naming a station node after a comedian would be a very positive step towards encouraging a hip new aura around publicly funded space exploration.
- The ISS won’t be there forever. And if Colbert really embarasses himself before its shelf life expires, they can always either re-christen the node or in a brave and aggressive public statement against the unspecified future moral infraction that the comedian commits NASA can push the eject button and let the node tumble into the atmosphere. Or they can deliver Colbert to his namesake node for good.
- There is no such thing as bad publicity.
- Flaunting the voters’ choice will take a lot of meaning out of any future polls. NASA will lose that marketing avenue if they go with Serenity at this point.
no comments | tags: colbert, humor, nasa, news, sapce | posted in Chuckles
Mar
12
2009
Edison MacGyver
I’ve been fascinated by the Chinese language since a business trip to the Central Kingdom many years ago. The grammar is similar to English (verb before object), but unlike all western languages the written form and the verbal form are completely disassociated with each other. In fact, Chinese speakers of different dialects (like Mandarin and Cantonese) can read the same books even if they can’t even begin to talk to each other. You have to learn to read by memorization, not phonics. Also, Chinese words are defined by one of
4 tones which means a word that sounds exactly the same to the western ear has four radically different meanings (The simple word MA, for example, can mean mother, horse, hemp or scold, depending on how, exactly, you pronounce it).
For a westerner learning Chinese, the strategy is to practice phrases, not individual words, so the listener can interpret what you are saying by context rather than by tone. A useful phrase I once learned was “ching gae-woa ee-ping pijio,” which means “please may I have a glass of beer,” and I was generally well understood, in the helpful context of a hotel bar.
But what I never took the time to figure out was how Chinese play word games. With a written language that gives each word its own character and takes children 12 years or so to achieve proficiency, there can’t be things like jumbles and crossword puzzles. Even hangman would be prohibitive. And there are no such things as homonyms. But there is poetry, and the art of calligraphy has a long and proud history.
Finally, I think the article (below) about political subversion, besides being a cheerful insight into the shaky underpinnings of internet totalitarianism, gives some insight into how the Chinese play games with their language.
no comments | tags: chinese, humor, language, The Majority, words | posted in The Majority
Feb
25
2009
Edison MacGyver
Did anyone else think Bobby Jindal looked and sounded like Kenneth the Page last night?
Jindal & Kenneth
3 comments | tags: 30rock, humor, jindal, kenneth, photoshop | posted in The Majority
Feb
18
2009
Edison MacGyver
As a self proclaimed geek I’m a little late to the xkcd fan-boy party. Don’t make the same mistake.
Some background for the uninitiated:
- This strip plays on an on-going Wikipedia controversy – how to make it more neutral and therefore a better reference source… allow anyone to edit any article, or give more power to a set of super-users that can edit content and lock down articles.
- “xkcd” is an unpronounceable four-letter web address chosen for the fact that it is unpronounceable and that it is a four-letter web address. There is no more to it than that.
- While most of the comics are stick drawings, the creator Randall Munroe shows off his true artistic skill in several of his comics.
- If you visit the xkcd site, hover your mouse over the comic to get a second punch line or commentary.
- Always type “xkcd” in lower-case letters please, or you’ll look like a tourist.
Now celebrate the start of your journey down the path to honorary geekdom by going to xkcd and clicking the random button a few times.
no comments | tags: comics, geek, humor, xkcd | posted in Geekdom