All the aliens are going to call our planet “Humus” or something worse

Greetings.

Jewish date:  12 Kislew 5770 (Parashath Wayyishlaḥ).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Electronic Greetings Day, International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (invented to perpetuate the lie that there is a “Palestinian” people and keep Syrians, Egyptians, and Jordanians and their descendants in misery to use them as pawns in a political game), Square Dance Day.

Today’s weird thing is “SF Xenolinguistics”, which deals with common problems and absurdities in alien languages in fiction.  This includes the great passage:

The names of a species, empire, language, homeworld, homestar and so on will all be self-evidently related; Ogrons come from Ogros, Arisians come from Arisia, Arcturans come from Arcturus, and Humans no doubt come from Humus.

Image of Luna visible just above the edge of Terra via Wikipedia; Zemata thought this was appropriate somehow

This is related to a problems I have been complaining about for years:  our planet needs a decent name.  The following are a list of real and fictional names for our planet:

1. Earth (primary:  Sun; satellite:  Moon)
2. Terra  (primary:  Sol; satellite:  Luna)
3. Jasoom (Barsoom series)
4. Midgard (Stargate Universe)
5. Old Earth (Dune series)
6. Old Terra (Dune series)
7. Ravolox (Doctor Who, “The Mysterious Planet”)
8. Teegeeack (Scientology)
9. Thulcandra (Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis)
10. Urantia (The Urantia Book)
11. Λ̊ (Stargate Universe)

#1, “Earth”, is a name that is going to get us laughed at by all the other civilizations in the Universe.  #2, “Terra”, is just the Latin version; we will be safe so long as the aliens do not learn Latin.  My Latin dictionary module (WORDS) for Dictionary.app claims it means “1. earth, land, ground / 2. country, region”, which is rather less embarrassing than “dirt”.  Most of the rest are too ugly for us to stick ourselves with.  #5 and #6 are no better than #1 and #2.  #10 is embarrassing.  And #11 is unpronounceable.  Maybe we really ought to officially name our planet, as per my original suggestion, Huma or Blueworld…  Because we do not want to try living down the consequences of giggling aliens calling us “the dirt people”.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

To boldly go where they should have gone before...

Greetings.

Jewish date:  10 Kislew 5770 (Parashath Wayyeṣe’).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Black Friday, Thanksgiving (American-Israeli).

Worthy cause of the day:  “End Water Pollution from Mountaintop Removal Mining - The Petition Site”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Is the H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine Safe?”:  Yes.  The worst thing that is likely to happen to you if get a swine flu shot (unsurprisingly) is your arm feels sore for a while.

Today’s weird thing, submitted by Barry, is “Star Trek: Mark Two”, which discusses what is wrong with the way the Star Trek Universe is constructed and how they should be fixed in any revised version—and there are plenty of things wrong.  E.g., back in the mid-1990s jokes were made about it being time for Khan to take over.  (It’s a little late now, with the recent quasi-reboot.)  There is also a “Babylon Five: Mark Two” as well.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

“What would rings around Earth look like?”

Greetings.

Jewish date:  9 Kislew 5770 (Parashath Wayyeṣe’).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Thanksgiving (USA).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Take Action: Tell President Obama to Save Rainforests and Stop Climate Change”.

Today’s weird (and educational) thing is “What would rings around Earth look like?”, which discusses this cool video:



Enjoy and share the weirdness—but not with anyone looking for a new and original megastructure to build.

Aaron

Beware of Pet Rocks

Greetings.

Jewish date:  8 Kislew 5770 (Parashath Wayyeṣe’).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Shopping Reminder Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “No more toxic BPA in our food” and “Include Behavior Analysts in Health Care Legislation | Petition2Congress |”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Season's Greetings”
• “Can Climate Change Cause Conflict? Recent History Suggests So”
• “Medical Marijuana: are we ready?”
• “Solar System Scale Model”

Image of original Pet Rock box via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is the USB Pet Rock.  This differs from the classic Pet Rock, an ordinary rock packaged and meant to be treated as a pet, in that it has an attached USB cable, which can be plugged into a computer.  This makes it an ideal peripheral, since it draws no current, does not require a driver, and is compatible with every computer with a USB port.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron, who keeps a rock from the shores of the Kinnereth as a “pet”

Create your own Star Trek (the Original Series) plot!

Greetings.

Jewish date:  7 Kislew 5770 (Parashath Wayyeṣe’).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Use Even If Seal Is Broken Day, Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Support Microfinance in Haiti - The Petition Site” and “action.firedoglake.com | Reconciliation = Majority Rule. Sign our Petition to Harry Reid to pass the public option.”

Today’s news and commentary:

• “How much is that drug ad costing taxpayers?”
• “Cigarettes Are Bacteria Sticks, Too”:  Major rule:  there are rarely, if ever, any good results from smoking.  This is why I think we should ban tobacco.

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is the ST:TOS Plot Generator (JBR Flowchart).  It provides a formulaic method for producing a faithful Star Trek (the Original Series) plot and claims “All resulting scripts are guaranteed to contain at least 20% authentic-style Roddenberry flavouring and are practically indistinguishable from real episodes of the Original Series, not to mention the Animated Series (ever).”  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and live long and prosper.

Beware of LOLspeak

Greetings.

Jewish date:  6 Kislew 5770 (Parashath Wayyeṣe’).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Cashews Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “To all US Jewish Organizations: Stand with the Land of Israel! Petition”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Midwest megameteor makes media madness”

Today’s weird thing is The Definitive Lolcats Glossary, which should prove useful in understanding cute pictures of cats who cannot spell.  Or perhaps just distracting and a waste of time.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of the pink and blue unicorns

Greetings.

Jewish date:  5 Kislew 5770 (Parasheth Wayyeṣe’).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Start Your Own Country Day.

Image of the Terran Empire via Wikipedia

NOTE:  In celebration of today’s quasi-holiday, I hereby proclaim myself Emperor of the Terran Empire and demand ten million dollars in tribute from George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, and Karl Rove as a start towards their repentance for wrecking the economy.

(And, no, I do not expect anyone to take that seriously.  I do not have anywhere near enough loyal readers to stage a planetary coup.)

Worthy cause of the day:  “Take Action: Ask for renewable energy that keeps wildlands and wildlife safe”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Bomb-Proof Wallpaper Could Save You in a Natural Disaster”:  I cannot make something like this up.  Still cool!
• “The Jellyfish Menace”:  I could not resist the title.
• “War Is Peace: Can Science Fight Media Disinformation?”
• “Plants Share Light If Neighbor Is Related”:  Who knew?
• “Observations: Women should undergo fewer Pap tests for cervical cancer, medical group says”

Today’s weird thing is the Charlie the Unicorn "Hot Topic" Video.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Emperor Aaron I