News Briefs 28-11-2008
Posted by Perceval at 09:47, 28 Nov 2008I never could get the hang of Thursdays...
- Has the rate of human evolution increased a hundred-fold since the Stone Age?
- 'Heavy water' could help us live longer.
- Star-forming region of Milky Way is dusted with sugar.
- The intuitive art of alien spotting.
- Ufology is a science, says Pope.
- Scientific paper concludes that Indian 'red rain' was a possible case of "extraterrestrial life form" (PDF).
- Sufferers of Truman Show Syndrome lose their grip on reality TV.
- Canadian fireball caught on police video. Shades of Jericho...
- Discovery of sunken Titanic was part of a secret military expedition.
- Backyard skywatchers find tool bag lost in space.
- You wait all year for a story about same-sex relationships of polar creatures in an oriental zoo, and then two come along at once!
- Queen's electric teapot 'bugged'.
- Robot who plays robot on Japanese stage complains about its role - "Here I am, brain the size of a planet...". That's typecasting.
Thanks Greg.
Quote of the Day:
"You'd better be prepared for the jump into hyperspace. It's unpleasantly like being drunk."
"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
"You ask a glass of water."
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Comments
10 August 2004
1 day 20 hours
... about the gay penguins, but felt sad for them that they couldn't become fathers!
Regards, Kathrinn
2 May 2004
20 hours 38 min
I have a thing about correct grammar and Ufology doesn't seem right to me. Ufology is Unidentified Flying-ology. It should be UFO-ology. A lot of ohs, but it balances out the woo-woo.
30 April 2004
3 hours 35 sec
I have a thing about correct grammar and Ufology doesn't seem right to me. Ufology is Unidentified Flying-ology. It should be UFO-ology. A lot of ohs, but it balances out the woo-woo.
Well of course Ufology isn't right. It's ufology. ;)
Don't get carried away with the leading 'o' of -ology. Root word is logos (knowledge), so -logy is fine, and is generally used in conjunction with preceding root words ending in 'o' (zoo-logy, bio-logy). The only odd thing is to turn an acronym into a root word (ufo = 'you-foe').
In short - if we skip the acronym concerns, you're not correct on this one Rick. It should be UFO-logy, *not* UFO-ology.
Kind regards,
Greg
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You monkeys only think you're running things
25 November 2004
3 weeks 4 days
OK, I've un-italic'd the 'o' for you pedants ;-)
I reckon there has got to be room for a science of anomalous events - lets call it anomalology. Then again, maybe not!
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I don't believe in belief!
Perceval
2 May 2004
20 hours 38 min
It's why I just use "UFO research/er" instead. ;-)
30 April 2004
1 week 3 days
Just like UFO has become synonymous with aliens anomaly in all its forms is taken...
...and milked for all its worth!
Cheers
2 May 2004
20 hours 38 min
Ah, I see what you mean about -logy. You're absolutely right.
But it should be written UFOlogy, not Ufology. This is the point I was making (which I oddly didn't actually make in my post). Acronyms are capitalised.
SciFi.com gets it right, but Wikipedia gets a fail (and a week's detention for using UFO and Ufology in the same sentence!). Surprisingly, About.com gets it wrong as well.
The rule with acronyms is that it can only be lower-case if it can be pronounced as a word, and ooh-foe or you-foe does not cut it (unless you have a southern twang). Radar is an example, but that was entered as a word in the dictionary before it was entered as an acronym believe it or not. With UFO we're pronouncing each letter, You Eff Oh, UFO is and always should be an acronym for Unidentified Flying Object. I'll ask an old editing teacher/professional editor who has a mind as sharp as a razor like the Roman guard in Monty Python's Life Of Brian, but I'm absolutely certain that UFOlogy is how it should be written. Otherwise what's next; Ceo, Fbi, Cia? Grrr! ;-)
I blame them meddling kids and their SMS l33t speak. *shakes fist*
Personally, I feel sorry for ESL students.
25 November 2004
3 weeks 4 days
Hey Rick,
Feel free to edit the item yourself, once you've settled the issue in your own mind :P
Dare I mention UAP's?
/ducks
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I don't believe in belief!
Perceval
12 April 2007
5 hours 31 min
So glad we don't have to deal with all those rules in Spanish.
In Spanish, we pronounced OVNI as if it were a normal word. We apply that to all acronyms with vowels between the capital letters. In fact, if an acronym's first words are all capital letters, then you can also borrow some vowels too.
Hey Rick, do you think Clarke & Kubrick are spinning on their graves, now that you have criticized their choice for using HAL (NOT pronounced H. A. L.) in Space Oddisey? ;-)
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
2 May 2004
20 hours 38 min
Hey Rick, do you think Clarke & Kubrick are spinning on their graves, now that you have criticized their choice for using HAL (NOT pronounced H. A. L.) in Space Oddisey? ;-)
They're sleeping soundly, because this acronym forms a word which can be used as a noun, in this case a name, so saying 'Hell' is fine. ;-)
12 April 2007
5 hours 31 min
So HAL, NASA & AIDS work as nouns, but you still have to spell the letters of UFO separately?
Someone help me out here!!
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
30 April 2004
1 week 3 days
An abbreviation is a shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase used to represent the whole.
Therefore...
An acronym is an abbreviation that is read as a word.
An acronym used as a word that describes a person, animal, place, thing is a noun.
HAL, NASA and AIDS are easily pronounceable as words however while UFO can be pronounced as "OoFOH" its more common to say U-F-O and as UFO is used as word and it describes a thing it is used as a noun.
IBM however is not pronounced so it is spelled out I-B-M but it is a noun as it describes a company.
ASAP is an idiom and a acronym, is used as a word and is both spelled out and pronounced but it is not a noun so is it a verb? ("ASAP" pronounced as a word also means "Smoke" in Indonesian.)
TLA is interesting - TLA = Three-Letter Acronym and it is too.
:)
Cheers
25 November 2004
3 weeks 4 days
Extended Three Letter Acronym
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I don't believe in belief!
Perceval
22 November 2004
1 week 6 days
NSA - No Such Agency
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It is not how fast you go
it is when you get there.