Random Thoughts X: Impromptu Interpretations

[Valka D'Ur]

You should've told them you only speak Klingon.

There's an old Betty comic strip I got a kick out of. Betty is going through some old stuff and finds something she wore a long time ago.

So she walks into the living room and tells her husband, Bub, "I found my old Halloween cannibal costume!" Bub's eyes light up in appreciation, as he sees her barefoot, dressed in a grass skirt, coconut shell bra, with shells around her neck and ankle, a bone in her hair, and she's carrying a spear.

Next panel: There's a knock at the door, and Betty wonders, "Who could that be?"

Last panel: It's an older, very stuffily well-dressed JW couple, holding their bible and pamphlets, staring in shock at Betty in her cannibal outfit, still carrying the spear. Betty is equally shocked, but I suspect she and Bub will have a good laugh about it as soon as the couple leaves.


What I did one time was (truthfully) tell them, "I've been studying the Navajo religion and I find it fascinating". I didn't bother mentioning it was for one of my cultural anthropology term papers. This must have made quite an impression, since they didn't bother me for the next three years.

 

[Commodore]

If our bacteria and microbes killed the Martians in War of the World's, shouldn't their bacteria and microbes have done the same to us?

In other words, by War of the World's logic, the war between Earth and Mars should have been the end of both the Martians and humanity.

 

[Synobun]

If our bacteria and microbes killed the Martians in War of the World's, shouldn't their bacteria and microbes have done the same to us?

In other words, by War of the World's logic, the war between Earth and Mars should have been the end of both the Martians and humanity.

No reason to think that it inherently would. Their immune systems couldn't handle our stank, but maybe ours could handle theirs.

 

[amadeus]

Things that are not level are askew.

Does this mean that things that are level are skew? No! Skew also means crooked.

The English language is skew.

 

[Synobun]

Things that are not level are askew.

Does this mean that things that are level are skew? No! Skew also means crooked.

The English language is skew.

The English language is a SKU? Where can I buy it?

 

[amadeus]

If SKU is to be made into an acronym and not an initialism, it should be skoo. There’s no “ew” sound in -ku.

Whoever came up with saying it that was was wrong.

 

[The_J]

If our bacteria and microbes killed the Martians in War of the World's, shouldn't their bacteria and microbes have done the same to us?

In other words, by War of the World's logic, the war between Earth and Mars should have been the end of both the Martians and humanity.

Given that we have no idea about anything related to the Martian biology... who said they even would hypotheticaly have had any microbes?

 

[Ajidica]

We had a presentation at work today for a new piece of software we might get, and the presentation felt like this:

 

[Takhisis]

If our bacteria and microbes killed the Martians in War of the World's, shouldn't their bacteria and microbes have done the same to us?

In other words, by War of the World's logic, the war between Earth and Mars should have been the end of both the Martians and humanity.

European diseases wiped out precolumbine populations and American diseases did not wipe out European populations in the 1400s and 1500s.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

So Steam really wants me to "protect" my account by permanently linking it to a device that can be easily lost or stolen.

 

[MaryKB]

European diseases wiped out precolumbine populations and American diseases did not wipe out European populations in the 1400s and 1500s.

*cough* syphilis *cough*

 

[choxorn]

That certainly killed plenty, but the effects of disease exchange weren't exactly symmetric- Plenty of Eurasians may have died of Syphilis in the few centuries after 1492, but Smallpox and Measles killed over 90% of the indigenous population of the Western Hemisphere.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Plus I doubt that the indigenous people in the Americas were sending Europeans blankets infected with syphilis.

 

[W|M]

That certainly killed plenty, but the effects of disease exchange weren't exactly symmetric- Plenty of Eurasians may have died of Syphilis in the few centuries after 1492, but Smallpox and Measles killed over 90% of the indigenous population of the Western Hemisphere.

that wasn't just disease, most of that came from deliberate genocide

disease did kill a significant proportion of the population though

 

[choxorn]

that wasn't just disease, most of that came from deliberate genocide

disease did kill a significant proportion of the population though

Well, deliberate genocide, which in many instances came about by spreading said diseases, either spreading them intentionally or just creating conditions that inevitably lead to diseases being spread.

 

[Takhisis]

So Steam really wants me to "protect" my account by permanently linking it to a device that can be easily lost or stolen.

PayPal made that mistake, which is why I don't use it. The difference between them and Steam is that Steam merely prevents me from playing ranked games in a game which I only play informally with friends.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

PayPal made that mistake, which is why I don't use it. The difference between them and Steam is that Steam merely prevents me from playing ranked games in a game which I only play informally with friends.

In my case, the whole 38 cents I made selling my spare trading cards (I'm fabulously rich) is on hold for 15 days.

 

[Takhisis]

You should learn to do arbitrage the Argentine way and have a 100% gap between exchange rates.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I think that Steam won't let you buy gifts for friends if they live in a country with different game prices. Which is a stupid policy.

 

[amadeus]

Gotta pay up that $149 if ‘Strayans want their Wii copy of Petz Dogz 2.