Silly geographical comments (or whatever you'd call this)

glennmagusharvey

I forget if this has been posted here before.

Stormtroper

I'm pretty sure It has. Either that or I saw it elsewhere recently.

lrdgck

We have a saying, in loose translation, "to be happy/joyful/glad as if stupid". The state of mirth and general satisfaction with life is implicitly considered a distinguishing trait of stupid people.

glennmagusharvey

to be fair, it's a little odd to see someone with a teethy grin while walking down the street, anywhere

lrdgck

to be fair, it's a little odd to see someone with a teethy grin while walking down the street, anywhere

Did you know the USA has a bit of a reputation for that? Like, a place where everyone is all smiles and cheerful all the time, all the way to the point of it being forced and fake. I'm not quite sure how the idea evolved, but my hunch is visitors to the 'States felt like people do more of that social smile thing than they were used to back home. That, or some odd impression derived from American television.

glennmagusharvey

lol, I don't know about tourists, but I can tell you that people who live here don't do that

Stormtroper

I've heard that from the perspective of people in the UK, nordic countries or otherwise "cold" nations, so I've always guessed it's the assumption that it's a dinstinguishing US thing rather than something that's true to a similar or greater extent in much of the world.

glennmagusharvey

https://ohai.social/@TarkabarkaHolgy/109788418170538405

thread with 6 toots

glennmagusharvey

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/04/us/hatfield-massachusetts-stolen-shrek-statue-trnd/index.html

lrdgck

Never would I ever expect CNN to quote "Shrek is love, Shrek is life", for sure.

Also, this time I have a sort of "meanwhile in Poland" story, but it's just government corruption. Still, you might find it amusing:

A not-even-thirty dude sets up a company of ~$1200 net worth and two days later he gets a ~$12 million grant from a state-run R&D fund. Two days before the application period ran out, the total sum of money for grant was raised. On the last day, the application deadline was extended from 4PM to midnight. The dude applied past 4PM.

For the record, I don't know whose relative he is.

glennmagusharvey

This is making the rounds on the internet lately.



Given that I can't find anything when doing a search for this, I don't think it's real, though.

lrdgck

TIL there was a Polish-American fella who had the last name "Murzyn". (I googled for cenzopapas, but I found an obituary instead.)

The joke is that the word means "Negro". Yeah, I'm using the five-letter-n-word, that's what's usually considered the direct translation. Technically speaking it's a neutral term. (edit: I mean the Polish word, if you wanted to ask.) Still, as of recent, the authorities on Polish language advise not to use it, because people act like it was a racial slur even when it isn't.

(Perhaps the man's ancestors were known around the village for catching tan easily. Or he descends from a Turkish Moor prisoner of war forcibly settled in Poland a bunch of centuries ago. Who knows. It's not a common name, but not all that rare either, in any case.)

In other words, some white fella literally wore the last name "Negro" his entire life and everyone else had to deal with it. That's some chad move.

It could've been better/worse (you pick): according to a list of names I just checked, there are some 500 people in Poland whose name is directly translatable as the six-letter-n-word. Must be curious if any of them ever meets a black person.

glennmagusharvey

glennmagusharvey

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pablo-escobar-cocaine-hippos-colombia-wants-to-transfer-dozens-populaion-control/

fourteenwings

I can't believe I missed a McArthy thing. I love that guy (because he's a jerk only concerned with maintaining power).

I'm using the five-letter-n-word

I know basically all forms are offensive but the fact that the five-letter version is basically just the [other languages] word for black makes it much less potent than the -er version.

glennmagusharvey

lrdgck

In case you wanted to rate that translation, you may want to know it's more of a "pretty-dress-up overhanging-canopy" and "shieldlikelies". Detailed linguistic analysis will be provided upon request.

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Sensitivity training. The phrases on the left are a nice slur list for those who might've felt their vocabulary is lacking. This time, I guess, I definitely should keep translations to PMs or something.

glennmagusharvey

lrdgck wrote: »

In case you wanted to rate that translation, you may want to know it's more of a "pretty-dress-up overhanging-canopy" and "shieldlikelies". Detailed linguistic analysis will be provided upon request.

detailed linguistic analysis duly requested

lrdgck

Keep in mind this is specifically how these words sound to a native speaker, so if there's some punny etymology or something I'm oblivious of it.

• "strojnica" - "stroić" (to dress up, to tune or calibrate) + "-ica" (a feminine noun ending). The simplest association to make is along the lines of "she likes to dress prettily", but a piece of industrial equipment used for calibration of some instrument or something would not be completely out of question. The first one is definitely closer to home though.
• "baldaszkówka" - sounds like "baldachim" (a bed canopy) or "daszek" (diminutive of "dach", roof) + "-ówka" (a feminine noun ending). It's relatively far from either word, but that's how it sounded to me. But note: there's such a thing as "baldach", which I did just learn this very moment. So I guess the best translation would rather be "the umbel-dweller".
• "tarczówkowate" - "tarcza" (shield) + "-ówka" + "-owate" (a plural noun ending carrying the implication of "it's not the real deal, but just looking like"). So, shieldlikes or shieldlikelies. Again, there is a part of bug anatomy called a scutellum, which means "little shield". In Polish it's "tarczka" and it seems possible this family of bugs was named for it. (edit: also know it contains the bug "tarczówka", which makes it "tarczówka-likes", and the English name for the family is "shield bugs", so it checks out.)

It Just Bugs Me: now with actual bugs!

So yeah, it's pretty curious how they got that translation. I'm guessing the AI went from "strojnica" to "dress" and from there somehow to ballet. As for the throat punch, there's a kind of a schizophrenic sort of a leap of logic to it: the Polish for thyroid is "tarczyca", so if the AI fixated on the first five letters ("tarcz-") then there might lie the key to it.

glennmagusharvey

i guess i unwittingly started rogue AI hour on IJBM lol

glennmagusharvey

@lrdgck another Pole chimed in about this and explained that baldaszkówka is an old name for the plant family Apiaceae

https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selerowate

lrdgck

Poland summons American ambassador over report critical of Pope John Paul II on US-owned station

It's a busy week.

lrdgck

Polish state TV announces daily reruns of John Paul II's sermons

No, that's not a joke.