cry havoc

(and a break from the incessant politico-commentary online right now, perhaps)

...and for members of a certain generation, there's really only one roadtrip moment that'll do.


(if you can name the clip within the first two words of dialogue, you're good; if you can name it from the first image before the dialogue even starts, you're very good -- or you're my age and have the memory of this joy burned into your brain from the original theatrical viewing.)

...would be the voice.

George Mason University's Speech Accent Archive

When it says "all over the world," it really does mean it. So for next time when you want to know whether someone really could tell the difference between someone from Atlanta versus someone from Pensacola...

I know there's at least one or two Irish citizens on my flist... any chance any of you could take a gander at the name Giolla and give me some idea how it'd be pronounced? Yes, I know there are differences between modern and traditional/archaic for Scotland and Ireland and between the two countries, as well; it's modern Irish I'm curious about.

I keep thinking the 'g' is a soft-jay (like the French), and something tells me there's a funky dipthong in the -io- combination... but maybe that's just some distant memory of how it's said in the Scottish dialect. (I was raised knowing how to properly say the various family mottos, but those are all in a Scottish dialect. I can't tell you how Scottish/Irish pronounciation differs, only that I've been informed that they do. Which isn't much help when I'm trying to deduce the Irish pronounciation.)

Any help is much appreciated. Ah, the mysteries of languages! ...which reminds me, I have a chapter and a half of Mandarin to finish translating... Just what my brain needs, to decipher Mandarin while I've got Irish names bouncing in my head.

I'm sure almost all of you have heard the phrase, "better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and prove it" (with the usual web-inflected variations). But the version I came across this afternoon in a translated novel goes like this:

Far better to ask a question and be thought a fool for a moment, than to be silent and remain a fool forever.

The context of the author's use implies that it's some kind of familiar adage, but it's an inversed version that I can't recall ever seeing before. Does anyone else recognize this version? Have any idea where it comes from, or might be able to think of a possible source? Searching the net just got me a bazillion hits on the first phrase (keep-your-mouth-shut) and none that I could see on the second.

I'd just like to be able to attribute it properly whenever I quote it, although I suppose failing any actual attribution I guess I'd just use the novelist's name instead..?

Per my post on secrets to author gender, now revealed! I realized that I didn't give any mention to the biggest impact on our perception of height/weight ratios: film.

( It's said the camera adds fifteen pounds... )

ETA 3/27: visual explanation



Our depth perception allows us to see an object in 3-D, but -- and this is just my theory, and may be utterly hogwash -- but what I think is going on is that a film camera has enough depth-of-field and is far enough away that it gives 'sharpness' to the edges (the shaded parts in the top two blocks) while our eyes would see those edges as being 'farther away'. The camera flattens the image, in a similar manner to a telephoto lens, if not quite that exaggerated, and thus you see 'more' of the object. It's not quite a barrel distortion so much as the camera overriding our usual perception of, and dismissal of, the 'side view' parts as not being part of the 'front view'.

When you look at the left picture, you know it's 3-D thanks to the shading, but you also know the 'shadow' indicates the object's depth and not its actual width. I think the film-camera removes this blurriness and thus makes the depth look like it's part of the width (the picture on the right). That's my theory, at least.

From the Daily Dish:

I was lucky enough to be invited to an off-the-record dinner with the king and queen of Jordan last week. Under the rules, I can't say anything they said, but I did have a rare laugh. I was seated next to Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post who was impressed, as anyone would be, with the beauty of one of his hosts.

"I've never seen a queen with muscle tone like that," he whispered over the starter.

He's clearly never been to my gym.

CP's curious as to what one (english-translation) Jorge Luis Borges work anyone might recommend. I know some of you folks are all over the map in terms of reading, so someone on this list's gotta have an idea or two.

Honestly, though: a spin-off of Yukikaze? With... big-eyed CLAMP-style girls fighting the JAM? What's next, Sailor Kaze?

Excuse me, I need to find the bleach. Like five minutes ago.

And then I shall BEAT CP SENSELESS for destroying my last precious illusion that anything could be sacred. Like... really awesome CGI-series about fighter jets. *cries*