Moneyjane is right. C&H had a style that went simply beyond cartooning. Some strips look like traditional Japanese paintings. Watterson's ink work is voluptous sometimes. None of this can be seen in the Frazz comics.
There are only two amazing things about the Eurovision. One is how it has failed to generate any real, international, long-standing hit (apart Abba's Waterloo). It's a tired, flat joke that keeps being repeated over and over: dumb songs with titles like "la la la" or "diggy loo" or "ding ding" or "boom bang".
The other (and more positive) thing is how it embraces the idea of a larger Europe that includes Israel, Turkey and all of Eastern Europe. Somehow it's the retarded child of the European dream, the one that people have to love anyway.
Rolypolyman: France Gall's "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" (1965) was written by Serge Gainsbourg and is certainly a good song (and still a popular one in France), though France Gall's little girl voice may be annoying by modern standards. I guess it was supposed to be sexy at that time, in a Lolita sort of way.
There will be a movie made out of this, I'm sure, with Clint Eastwood as the ageing Crassus, Keanu Reeves as his son Platypus, Jet Li as as the Hun leader Jzh-Jzh, Chow Yun Fat as Emperor Yuandi. Peplum meets kung fu, I can hear movie execs drooling.
For what it's worth, I found this page while looking for information on horse welfare on behalf of [long story here] the European Union. I'm afraid that sheath cleaning tips won't be in the final documents as I was primarily interested in more mundane topics such as housing, stable ventilation etc.
On one of the computer graphics groups I know there are an "advanced users" forum and a "new users" forum. It doesn't prevent newbies from being flamed once in a while, but on the whole it seems to work.
On another CG group there is a "sandbox" forum that is the only place where new members can post until their status is upgraded after a few posts). Some (very advanced) members of this group also funded a separate, per invitation only, website forum for the professional members. However the messages on this forum remain visible to anyone.
Color me skeptical. When I see it in a refereed journal, I'll take it seriously.
Googling Harald Stäuble (with the umlaut that is missing in most press releases, which explains why his name doesn't show up in the non-umlaut searches) retrieves some actual scientific papers and congresses. See also Landesamt für Archäologie.
In my field of work (agriculture) there are many words and concepts that don't really exist in English. I had to write a small dictionary for my colleagues, as they were forever wondering how to translate lisier (liquid manure containing urine) or élevage (the concept of raising/breeding animals, or the place where they are raised, or the flock/herd itself). The worse are the newly created concepts, such as itinéraire technique, that describes the sequence of operations necessary to grow a crop or raising/breeding animals. It's interesting, btw, to see how language drives other things (for instance marketing, technology or research).
eldigilo - the link doesn't work. :(Here it is again. Different server from the same university (did they get monkeyfied after I posted the first link?).
Playing devil's advocate here: manual poultry harvesting is probably one of the worst possible jobs in agriculture. It's tough, stressful and must be done at night. Also, the animals must be caught by hand, and, in the case of chickens, are carried upside down by the legs, resulting in broken limbs and other injuries. Mechanised poultry loaders are supposed to reduce both the workload for the crews and the damages to the animals.
Here's some video footage of what the poor guy may have been through (it's chimp on chimp violence, still scary). For more info about chimps going ape and severing testicles, google for Richard Wrangham, author of the Demonic Male Hypothesis.
It's interesting that it seems to have in the UK a cult status that it never had in its native France (apart the "Tournicoti, tournicoton" war cry of Zebulon/Zebedee), where it's just remembered as a cute show for children among many others. What made it so endearing to British viewers?
>Why? beats me
Two words: friendly fire.
Turning the bad guys into loving gays is one thing, but someone in the Pentagon pictured a full tank of the magic weapon being accidentally dropped onto, say, a Marines camp in Iraq. Bad, bad PR move.
>This is a classic example of a major cultural
>difference between the USA and Europe that nobody
>rarely talks about.
Yeah, right. Just like we never heard before that chauvinistic drivel pitting the (mythical) classless, land-of-the-common-man America against that arrogant aristocratic Old Europe.
>but specifies that the interviewees must answer
>in their native languages! Anybody tuning in to
>this part of the program by mistake would think
>they were watching a comedy sketch.
People speaking their own language! They must be speaking tongues! How dare they?
There's one cultural difference he could have gotten right though, if he hadn't been so keen to bash those pesky euros. On my first trip to a US scientific conference, I was pleasantly suprised to discover that many american scientists really knew how to entertain their audience: they would make people laugh, tell personal stories etc. It was nothing like the matter-of-fact, neutral way of presenting papers that I had seen so far (and been taught) in Europe. The natural showmanship of those US scientists was quite obvious. I never knew how to explain that: the much longer and broader influence of commercial TV in the US, some specificities of the US children education (show-and-tell, Christmas pageants...), entertainment being a rather strong concept in the US (there's no word for it in Romance languages) etc.
Even today, I have a hard time convincing my colleagues that making a scientific presentation a *** little bit *** entertaining isn't a pact with the devil...
Moneyjane is right. C&H had a style that went simply beyond cartooning. Some strips look like traditional Japanese paintings. Watterson's ink work is voluptous sometimes. None of this can be seen in the Frazz comics.
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
In "Turducken; The Other White, Then Dark, Then White Meat."
Snopes has the camel recipe.
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
In "Eurovision winning songs:"
There are only two amazing things about the Eurovision. One is how it has failed to generate any real, international, long-standing hit (apart Abba's Waterloo). It's a tired, flat joke that keeps being repeated over and over: dumb songs with titles like "la la la" or "diggy loo" or "ding ding" or "boom bang". The other (and more positive) thing is how it embraces the idea of a larger Europe that includes Israel, Turkey and all of Eastern Europe. Somehow it's the retarded child of the European dream, the one that people have to love anyway. Rolypolyman: France Gall's "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" (1965) was written by Serge Gainsbourg and is certainly a good song (and still a popular one in France), though France Gall's little girl voice may be annoying by modern standards. I guess it was supposed to be sexy at that time, in a Lolita sort of way.
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
In "Roman"
There will be a movie made out of this, I'm sure, with Clint Eastwood as the ageing Crassus, Keanu Reeves as his son Platypus, Jet Li as as the Hun leader Jzh-Jzh, Chow Yun Fat as Emperor Yuandi. Peplum meets kung fu, I can hear movie execs drooling.
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
In "Sheath Cleaning: Have you done your gelding/stallions lately?"
For what it's worth, I found this page while looking for information on horse welfare on behalf of [long story here] the European Union. I'm afraid that sheath cleaning tips won't be in the final documents as I was primarily interested in more mundane topics such as housing, stable ventilation etc.
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
In "Curious George: Message board elitism."
On one of the computer graphics groups I know there are an "advanced users" forum and a "new users" forum. It doesn't prevent newbies from being flamed once in a while, but on the whole it seems to work. On another CG group there is a "sandbox" forum that is the only place where new members can post until their status is upgraded after a few posts). Some (very advanced) members of this group also funded a separate, per invitation only, website forum for the professional members. However the messages on this forum remain visible to anyone.
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
In "Europe's oldest civilisation"
Color me skeptical. When I see it in a refereed journal, I'll take it seriously. Googling Harald Stäuble (with the umlaut that is missing in most press releases, which explains why his name doesn't show up in the non-umlaut searches) retrieves some actual scientific papers and congresses. See also Landesamt für Archäologie.
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
In "Curious words:"
In my field of work (agriculture) there are many words and concepts that don't really exist in English. I had to write a small dictionary for my colleagues, as they were forever wondering how to translate lisier (liquid manure containing urine) or élevage (the concept of raising/breeding animals, or the place where they are raised, or the flock/herd itself). The worse are the newly created concepts, such as itinéraire technique, that describes the sequence of operations necessary to grow a crop or raising/breeding animals. It's interesting, btw, to see how language drives other things (for instance marketing, technology or research).
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
In "Today's squid-related news:"
eldigilo - the link doesn't work. :( Here it is again. Different server from the same university (did they get monkeyfied after I posted the first link?).
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
More on this story here (with a picture of the squid). And I just had fried calamari rings for lunch. For some reason I can just think "hmmmmm squid" when looking at this pic.
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
In "Life Just Got Easier™"
Playing devil's advocate here: manual poultry harvesting is probably one of the worst possible jobs in agriculture. It's tough, stressful and must be done at night. Also, the animals must be caught by hand, and, in the case of chickens, are carried upside down by the legs, resulting in broken limbs and other injuries. Mechanised poultry loaders are supposed to reduce both the workload for the crews and the damages to the animals.
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
In "Chimp Birthday Party turns bad."
Alright Mr Wrangham, then how do you explain those sexy nsfw bonobos? According to Wrangham, bonobos are characterised by female-bonded political structures solidified by female/female sexual contact. Looks fine to me, perhaps we should try that.
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
Here's some video footage of what the poor guy may have been through (it's chimp on chimp violence, still scary). For more info about chimps going ape and severing testicles, google for Richard Wrangham, author of the Demonic Male Hypothesis.
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
In "oh pollux! (flash warning)..."
It's interesting that it seems to have in the UK a cult status that it never had in its native France (apart the "Tournicoti, tournicoton" war cry of Zebulon/Zebedee), where it's just remembered as a cute show for children among many others. What made it so endearing to British viewers?
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
In "Buffyology."
Bored now.... (just kidding, the site is great)
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
In "I'm sure that two Iraqi "terrorists" would much rather quit the insurgency, than be forced to find each other irresistible."
>Why? beats me Two words: friendly fire. Turning the bad guys into loving gays is one thing, but someone in the Pentagon pictured a full tank of the magic weapon being accidentally dropped onto, say, a Marines camp in Iraq. Bad, bad PR move.
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
In "ESA flubs Titan landing show"
>This is a classic example of a major cultural >difference between the USA and Europe that nobody >rarely talks about. Yeah, right. Just like we never heard before that chauvinistic drivel pitting the (mythical) classless, land-of-the-common-man America against that arrogant aristocratic Old Europe. >but specifies that the interviewees must answer >in their native languages! Anybody tuning in to >this part of the program by mistake would think >they were watching a comedy sketch. People speaking their own language! They must be speaking tongues! How dare they? There's one cultural difference he could have gotten right though, if he hadn't been so keen to bash those pesky euros. On my first trip to a US scientific conference, I was pleasantly suprised to discover that many american scientists really knew how to entertain their audience: they would make people laugh, tell personal stories etc. It was nothing like the matter-of-fact, neutral way of presenting papers that I had seen so far (and been taught) in Europe. The natural showmanship of those US scientists was quite obvious. I never knew how to explain that: the much longer and broader influence of commercial TV in the US, some specificities of the US children education (show-and-tell, Christmas pageants...), entertainment being a rather strong concept in the US (there's no word for it in Romance languages) etc. Even today, I have a hard time convincing my colleagues that making a scientific presentation a *** little bit *** entertaining isn't a pact with the devil...
posted by eldigilo 19 years ago
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