Shower Thoughts

[Faust]

At the end of ‘Wreck It Ralph’, Princess Vanellopy, in a stereotypically American populist move, effectively abdicates her throne and declares her realm a constitutional democracy. Then she declares herself president.

THAT’S NOT HOW DEMOCRACY WORKS, PRINCESS!

ALSO YOU’RE PRINCESS, NOT QUEEN! YOU DON’T KNOW HOW MONARCHY WORKS EITHER!

 

[Faust]

'Do to others what you'd have them do to you' is all very well as moral advice, but what if I wanted somebody to punch me?

 

[Wuff-Wuff]

'Do to others what you'd have them do to you' is all very well as moral advice, but what if I wanted somebody to punch me?

:O This is indeed a good question Faust! (also very fitting name for the question too :3 nods in german )

I think it should still apply as long as your first punch doesn't knock their lights out.

 

[Faust]

Extremely rich people often get away with criminal behaviour because they can pay off any fine, so how about this as a new law:

Any sentence involving a fine in excess of twice the average yearly salary for the country in which it occurs must be accompanied by mandatory jail time, but only if the amount of the fine is less than 20% of the accused’s net worth.

 

[Wuff-Wuff]

Oh I do like that one Faust! I wonder if there's an exploitative downside to it. I guess it depends how long the jail time would be compared to the fine in of itself.

 

[Yastreb]

Extremely rich people often get away with criminal behaviour because they can pay off any fine, so how about this as a new law:

Any sentence involving a fine in excess of twice the average yearly salary for the country in which it occurs must be accompanied by mandatory jail time, but only if the amount of the fine is less than 20% of the accused’s net worth.

This is exactly why over here fines don't have fixed amount but are scaled according to your income. I was honestly surprised to hear it's not like that everywhere.

 

[Mambi]

This is exactly why over here fines don't have fixed amount but are scaled according to your income. I was honestly surprised to hear it's not like that everywhere.

It should be. I mean, for anyone making over a million dollars annually for example, a $400 traffic ticket might as well be a nickle owed to a library! Money is not a deterrent to those that have money, but it sure keeps everyone ELSE down. 100% by design as the rich makes the rules...and they decided that punishments should be the one thing they DON'T have to worry about.

It's like a vegetarian insisting that they should not be allowed to attend RIBFEST as punishment for something. Of course they'd say that, the "punishment" wouldn't affect them one way or the other!

 

[Mambi]

Isn't it amazing when something becomes so powerful that we start describing it as an action?

Think about it. Let's assume you have an object like a computer program that sorts stuff, called "google". At this stage of the game "google" is a NOUN...the name of the location in cyberspace and the name of the company and object/program. It then becomes a popular site for those that like to look for stuff. So popular that people literally stop saying they're "going to Google to search for it"...and instead shortcut it to "I'm just going to Google it..."...transforming the site NOUN to now the active ACTION. The object how now become a VERB. It's shifted states simply by global convenience and consensus.

On the opposite side of things, one used to use a PHONE (noun) to PHONE (verb) someone when all you could do with a PHONE was PHONE someone...but now the PHONES (noun) have become so multifunctional that nobody usually says they're gonna PHONE (verb) someone anymore...they say they're gonna "CALL" them, because they use their PHONE (noun) for literally everything else as well...when before the PHONE could only PHONE so one could safely interchange the two words PHONE (verb) and CALL (verb). Not anymore. Now your phone is a camera. "phoning" them could simply mean taking a selfie with them linguistically.

That means that an object can become so powerful that they transcend the nature of grammar itself, Or I need more sleep this afternoon. Either way, cool!
(which come to think of it "cool" also used to be an adjective but is now a noun describing a state of being. Sweet! Oh crap, same deal...it's everywhere!)

 

[Wuff-Wuff]

Language is so wonderful, I sometimes ponder the connection between words that are in a similar "", for instance "culture" and "cultivate".

How having a culture could mean you've been cultivated, but possibly also that by cultivating the world around you, you become cultured: caring and looking out for all the wonders that grow and live with you, listening to the land and it's unique needs, all dependent on where you live. Knowing the land and sharing that knowledge with others who live in your proximity~

Pethaps it's a stretch and the internet has changed a lot when it comes to that, but it still feels like a romantic connection between those words.

*writes a cheesy fanfic about "cultivate" and "culture" *

 

[Yastreb]

Language is so wonderful, I sometimes ponder the connection between words that are in a similar "", for instance "culture" and "cultivate".

How having a culture could mean you've been cultivated, but possibly also that by cultivating the world around you, you become cultured: caring and looking out for all the wonders that grow and live with you, listening to the land and it's unique needs, all dependent on where you live. Knowing the land and sharing that knowledge with others who live in your proximity~

Pethaps it's a stretch and the internet has changed a lot when it comes to that, but it still feels like a romantic connection between those words.

*writes a cheesy fanfic about "cultivate" and "culture" *

Not a coincidence either, culture and cultivate come from the same Latin word. Your thoughts are spot on.

 

[Wuff-Wuff]

Not a coincidence either, culture and cultivate come from the same Latin word. Your thoughts are spot on.

Kiitos for that Yastreb! I do feel like having some latin and greek knowledge goes a long way for most european languages (sadly not so much finnish it seems, I think you have an evolution of your own!). Also knowing how words have changed over the years :3 like cynicism which came from an ancient greek philosophy and meant "dog-like". Here's a quick Wiki-snippet:

"According to Cynicism, people are reasoning animals, and the purpose of life and the way to gain happiness is to achieve virtue, in agreement with nature, following one's natural sense of reason by living simply and shamelessly free from social constraints. The Cynics (Ancient Greek: Κυνικοί, Latin: Cynici) rejected all conventional desires for wealth, power, glory, social recognition, conformity, and worldly possessions and even flouted such conventions openly and derisively in public."

I wonder when the meaning changed to be more pessmistic.

 

[Yastreb]

Kiitos for that Yastreb! I do feel like having some latin and greek knowledge goes a long way for most european languages (sadly not so much finnish it seems, I think you have an evolution of your own!). Also knowing how words have changed over the years :3 like cynicism which came from an ancient greek philosophy and meant "dog-like". Here's a quick Wiki-snippet:

"According to Cynicism, people are reasoning animals, and the purpose of life and the way to gain happiness is to achieve virtue, in agreement with nature, following one's natural sense of reason by living simply and shamelessly free from social constraints. The Cynics (Ancient Greek: Κυνικοί, Latin: Cynici) rejected all conventional desires for wealth, power, glory, social recognition, conformity, and worldly possessions and even flouted such conventions openly and derisively in public."

I wonder when the meaning changed to be more pessmistic.

It's really interesting how the meaning of words changes, sometimes in a single lifetime. "Over the top" used to mean very brave, it was a reference to climbing out of the trenches in WW1. Then people overused it so much it took the meaning of "excessive". Kind of like how "literally"is getting used so much that now it means basically the same as "figuratively".

If you look further back you find tons of interesting developments. For example in medieval England the common people spoke English while the upper class were Normans who spoke French dialects. The commoners would keep pigs, cows and sheep and call them by those names, while the nobility who ate the meat knew the same animals by the French names, which were roughly pork, beef and mutton. And now we still use the English-derived words to refer to the living animals and the French-derived ones when talking about them as food.

 

[Wuff-Wuff]

It's really interesting how the meaning of words changes, sometimes in a single lifetime. "Over the top" used to mean very brave, it was a reference to climbing out of the trenches in WW1. Then people overused it so much it took the meaning of "excessive". Kind of like how "literally"is getting used so much that now it means basically the same as "figuratively".

Uuuh I had no idea about the "over the top" one! Thanks for that one :D! In German there's a few interesting sayings from the war too:

- "0815" (nullachtfünfzehn) is commonly used to describe something as mundane, standard and/or common. It came from the machine gun model 08/15 which was wide spread and used in mundane training routines, became increasingly poorly built over time and towards the end of the war could be produced in bycicle and type writer factories.

- "I only understand train station" (Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof) is commonly used when someone tells you something but you don't understand what was actually said. This one is debated, but one possible origin was that soldiers dreamed of home leave and thus didn't really listen to commands given to them, only understanding train station!

If you look further back you find tons of interesting developments. For example in medieval England the common people spoke English while the upper class were Normans who spoke French dialects. The commoners would keep pigs, cows and sheep and call them by those names, while the nobility who ate the meat knew the same animals by the French names, which were roughly pork, beef and mutton. And now we still use the English-derived words to refer to the living animals and the French-derived ones when talking about them as food.

I'm really not sure about this one, but I could imagine that past dynamic is also the origin of the saying "Pardon my French" (used when cursing). Probably to show the middle finger to the upper class and deem their way of talking as vulgar.

 

[Yastreb]

Since this is turning into a "cool ethymologies" thread, let's have some more. Finnish loves compound words. There's countless examples where English uses a single root while Finnish creates a descriptive compound. (I think German is like that too?) For example most animal names:

Canine: Dog-animal
Feline: Cat-animal
Marsupial: Pouch-animal
Primate: Has hands
Mammal: Has nipples
Reptile: Slithering one
Skunk: Stinky marten
Rhino: Horned muzzle
Platypus: Water beak animal
Hippo: River horse

You get the idea. Also in other fields:

Computer: Knowledge machine
Telephone: Chattering tool
Republic: Equal power
Auction: Shouting shop
Volcano: Fire mountain

 

[Bunny Lvr]

FIRE MOUNTAIN!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to start calling volcanos FIRE MOUNTAINS!

 

[Wuff-Wuff]

Since this is turning into a "cool ethymologies" thread, let's have some more. Finnish loves compound words. There's countless examples where English uses a single root while Finnish creates a descriptive compound. (I think German is like that too?) For example most animal names:

Canine: Dog-animal
Feline: Cat-animal
Marsupial: Pouch-animal
Primate: Has hands
Mammal: Has nipples
Reptile: Slithering one
Skunk: Stinky marten
Rhino: Horned muzzle
Platypus: Water beak animal
Hippo: River horse

You get the idea. Also in other fields:

Computer: Knowledge machine
Telephone: Chattering tool
Republic: Equal power
Auction: Shouting shop
Volcano: Fire mountain

Woaah :O
That's really cool! Also yes the germans love compounding words :3 my favourite example is:
- Fridge = Kühlschrank = cold cupboard/closet

There was once this game show where you could call AND WIN EASY MONEY (you couldn't) and the sneaky buggers asked for words with "Tennis". So within a few moments two calls came through and said "Tennisball" and "Tennisschläger" (these were most likely staged calls) giving people the false sense that the words were easy. From this moment onwards it took ages for anyone to get through, as they most likely kept them on hold to get more money, and one of the words that ended up on the board was:

"Tennisspielfeldsensorsystem" (literally tennis court sensor system)

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Actually there's another shower thought:
Why has every finnish furson I've met known so much about language? Is it because suomalainen in itself is so difficult that every other language seems like a joke xD?

 

[OtheratheOtter]

Sex...... I think about sex in the shower giggles

Don't we all.

 

[Faust]

Why do US Presidential Campaigns worry about deepfakes? All their opponents have to do is record a video of a bunch of black-robed weirdoes extolling the virtues of baby-eating, then copy-paste the bit from the end of their own campaign videos where it says "I am <Candidate X> and I approve of this message."

 

[Wuff-Wuff]

Hmmhh you do make an interesting point dear Batto.

I often wonder why "I have a dream" seems to hold a certain value, while things like:
"Yes we can"
"Make America great again"
and "Finish the job"

Sound rather shallow and marketing-y. Maybe it's because one of them was spoken in context to the speech and the others are just tag lines, added whenever it seemed suitable.

 

[Faust]

Should the Laws of Thermodynamics apply to the sexy kinds of hotness too?

Let's see.

Hotness is Work and Work is Hotness
The more you work, the more attractive you become. Going to the gym is hard work, but it turns into hotness. Similarly, if somebody does a lot of sweaty, back-breaking labour in front of you, that can make them look sexy too. Finally, thanks to OnlyFans, you can make a career out of nothing but looking hot, so hotness is therefore work too.

Hotness cannot of itself pass from one body to a hotter body
You can't make yourself look hotter by standing next to someone who is sexier than you. In fact, it's likely to have the opposite effect. Instead, try standing next to an absolute breeze block to benefit from the comparison.

A System's Entropy Approaches a Constant Value as Hotness Approaches Absolute Zero
If there aren't any sexy people to look at or fantasise about, we don't feel like doing anything sexy.

Yep. I think that's a pass. I'm'a submit this to Scientific American as a white paper.