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.

----



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.

fourteenwings

Is this like how ABC Family/Freeform has to play Pat Robertson's The 700 Club because of some technicality but like, on purpose?

lrdgck

I'll leave aside the matter of Pats Robertsons and their seven hundreds since I feel I don't get the joke enough and I want to avoid accidental misunderstandings. So, like two or three weeks ago there was an article in a newspaper, or a TV investigative report, or something like that, that they found proof of three paedo priests that the Pope moved to a different parish back when he wasn't yet the pope. So, the righties went all "hurr durr they r insulting teh popez". My two previous posts in this thread are about their reactions.

Also, today there were supposed to be "marches in defense of the Pope" (it's the anniversary of his death IIRC), but it was raining, and I didn't follow the news mill, so I don't know if there was any fun stuff going on.

There also were plenty enough sensible reactions to the report, but a) sensible is not what this thread is for, and b) none of them were by what I mean by righties here (ie. the Party; non-Party-affiliated conservatives don't count).

edit: you may want to know, the state TV is at this point a ridiculous propaganda tube. Like, ridiculous. It's like they could translate it to Korean and it could be over there with hardly a single change to it. The apparatchiks went into a frenzy.

edit 2: the state rail company handed out the Pope's favourite cream cakes today. In case you wondered.

glennmagusharvey

It seems like there's some sort of semi-perpetual state of conflict between the dueling fads of gratuitously deifying the pope (by which I assume you mean John Paul II) and gratuitously disrespecting the pope. And both justify each others' continued existence, ironically.

a) sensible is not what this thread is for

Florida Man Contributes To Perpetuating Sensationalism

lrdgck

by which I assume you mean John Paul II

The Polish shahada: there's no pope but Pope. The rest of 'em are just the head of the Church.

Oh, and I just read that the state forestry management company announces a campaign of John Paul II Memorial Forest planting.

Incidentally, yesterday - the anniversary of the Pope's death - 100 PLN was worth exactly 21,37 EUR. You can't make this shit up.

It seems like there's some sort of semi-perpetual state of conflict between the dueling fads of gratuitously deifying the pope (by which I assume you mean John Paul II) and gratuitously disrespecting the pope. And both justify each others' continued existence, ironically.

You know, you do have a way of looking at it that eluded me so far. Do the cenzopapists bring forth the cult they wanted to ridicule? Damn, I don't know. Personally I would very much prefer to just fondly remember Jaypeetoo and pretend not to see the skeletons leering out of the closet while also laughing at the occasional yellowface. (By yellowface I mean the cenzopapas.) And I dare say there's plenty of people who would likewise, but alas.

lrdgck

Wild beaver discovery solves mauled tree mystery

A couple whose garden was being vandalised at night have uncovered the surprising culprit - a wild beaver.

[...]

The origins of the beaver are unexplained, but the landowners believe it may have come from an unsanctioned release by over-zealous rewilding enthusiasts.

Nicknamed Anthony by the family - after military historian Antony Beevor - the herbivore has become as "fat as a pig"

glennmagusharvey

I guess they solved the miss-tree mystery.

glennmagusharvey

https://www.wtsp.com/article/entertainment/music/hillsborough-superintendent-taylor-swift-letter-tampa/67-3e108740-d615-4406-884d-8b8ebca4d481

also