Questionable Content 12: Artificial Unintelligence

[Vinyadan]

As far as meaning goes, ventana looks more closely related to window than to finestra, though. It isn't a cognate of any of them, however.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

As far as meaning goes, ventana looks more closely related to window than to finestra, though.

In a weird way, it is: ventana is related to (one of) the Latin word for wind (ventus). Window is from Old Norse vindauga, from vindr "wind". So they both refer to the same idea ("wind opening"), but I doubt there is a direct connection between them beyond possibly PIE.

Fenster & co., on the other hand, comes from the actual Latin word for window (fenestra). I have not found a good explanation as to why Spanish didn't go for that one.

(This post brought to you by https://www.etymonline.com )

Grey Wolf

[Wraith]

One could possibly assume that on the mainland, the word for 'window' and 'glass' became intertwined when the latter became more common around the 10th century - the Roman Empire was long since fallen, and while Latin was still in common use it was already becoming archaic and used only among the literate minority. Inventing new words to specify a particular new invention or concept - in this case, specifying between traditional shuttered and glass window panes - would be a matter of influence and fashion rather than accurate etymology.

On the British Isles, occupied by Nordic invaders until the mid 11th century, we possibly kept "window" because we spoke a Gaelic/Norse mix and refused to break tradition when Norman invaders arrived and kept French as their own exclusive Boys' Club for a couple of hundred years.

[Kato]

This one always confused me - not because the answer lacks logic, but because it's a very German sort of logic, which Germany itself does not employ.

German words aren't abstract names like the rest of Europe uses, more that they are literal descriptions. Like krankenhaus - the sick house. Or like flammenwerfer - it's something that werfs my flammen. Or fuBgangerzone - the foot-person-area. Likewise, a pineapple is a piece of fruit (like an apple) which is spiky (like a pine tree). It is an "apple of the pine".
It just strikes me as being a very German way of naming something, y'know?

Hm.. While I don't agree with the logic that a pineapple has much in common with a pine tree (though somewhat more with a pine cone) I do see the reasoning and, yeah, I guess it is weird we didn't use our usual concept here. But in all likelihood because there already was a word for it and there's not much sense in inventing words for things that have names. (OK, that's terribly phrased but you know what I mean.. I hope). Also, I know, they are all made up.

[Vinyadan]

Pineapple, as "ananas", actually isn't an English invention. It's the translation of an Italian invention by Christopher Columbus himself, who called the pineapple piña de Indes (which is Spanish), meaning "pine cone of the Indians". Piña still can mean pineapple in Spanish.

The thing is, back then, pineapple used to mean "pine cone", since that's the fruit of the pine tree. And that's something that has a lot of parallels in Europe: pomme de pin is French, and still in use; Dutch pijnappel, also still in use; German pinapfel, not in use any more.

And then, somehow, pineapple stopped meaning "pine cone" and turned into "ananas". I guess that "pine cone" had actually already been around for a while, as an alternative. And I also guess that, unlike other languages, English had stopped calling any "fruit" an "apple" (see: pomme de terre and Erdapfel in French and German (potato); fr. pomme de mer = sea urchin; pomme d'or = tomato; germ. Granatapfel, pomegranate). So there weren't many reasons to keep calling an inedible object an apple, especially if that term could be used for a literal translation of a new fruit's name.

[Max_Killjoy]

I remember laserdiscs - they came and went so quickly that between the time they were released on the market and the time they were formally discontinued, I never even saw a player for them in real life, let alone bought and/or used one

Although, what you are suggesting is almost certainly happening. My first car was built in 2002 and I learned to drive in 2011; the cassette player that was built into the dashboard was a quaint and unrelatable mystery to my then-20 year old friend....

We had a player for the big laser disks, and rented them on a regular basis, in the early 80s. Beta-max, the rise and fall of VHS, then the DVD, then the Blu-Ray...

I remember 8-tracks, cassettes, the digital audio tape controversy, the rise of the CD... mix tapes and then mix CDs, man... the rise of digital audio... the wild west days of Napster...

Rotary dial phones and party lines in rural areas.

I remember when cell phones were phones; hell I remember when there were no cell phones at all, and then the rise and fall of the "car phone".

Cars with no computerization in them... I'm still dreading my next car purchase, it will have to be a restored car or I won't be able to avoid the nonsense of screens built into the dashboard and Bluetooth and in-car wi-fi and all that other garbage. Probably have to figure out how to disconnect all the antennas trying to connect the car to everything around it.

But the big one is the internet... I remember the world where most people had never heard of, seen, or used the internet. The big explosion in internet usage came right after I graduated from high school. I remember what it's like to not have instant access to all that information (of dubiously various quality).

[Keltest]

Question: When did Dale shave?

[mythmonster2]

Question: When did Dale shave?

Marigold looks like she has less acne than I remember her having, too. Maybe their relationship is cleaning them up a bit?

[georgie_leech]

And Jeph continues to poke fun at how long the storylines take in web comic time. Heh.

[Kato]

And Jeph continues to poke fun at how long the storylines take in web comic time. Heh.

Or just poking fun at Emily being an oddball. Or both. Probably both.
Also: a, jealousy, good old source of pain among even best of friends. Let's hope it's limited to this one strip

[eee]

And Jeph continues to poke fun at how long the storylines take in web comic time. Heh.

This is Emily. She might have been experiencing relativistic time dilation due to some of her experiments, or in a computer environment where time passed more swiftly, or time traveling. She might be one of the the Doctor's companions in her off hours. That would explain the Cyberdisks; they exist, she just doesn't remember she got them from the Cybermen.

(I can see the Cybermen being interested in Witch Planet Soccer...)

Or just poking fun at Emily being an oddball. Or both. Probably both.
Also: a, jealousy, good old source of pain among even best of friends. Let's hope it's limited to this one strip

Yes, that would be bad. But I'm not sure it's so much jealousy as "Oh noes, Emily might be interested in Dale! She's smart, beautiful, vivacious, and tall! How can I compete???"

That Emily threw a hug into Mar-bear on sight and is bringing presents may help defuse the situation and her fears.

[Kato]

Marigold is a good girlfriend. But quite frankly, isn't sharing even among friends a common practice? Especially considering it's probably more a novelty food than something you would want to eat all of alone. Heck, maybe Dave doesn't even like it.

Also.. The Gendo glasses are back.

[Traab]

Marigold is a good girlfriend. But quite frankly, isn't sharing even among friends a common practice? Especially considering it's probably more a novelty food than something you would want to eat all of alone. Heck, maybe Dave doesn't even like it.

Also.. The Gendo glasses are back.

She is also a recovering ultra nerd shut in whose only real social contacts were world of warcraft guildmates through ventrillo.

[Temotei]

I think Marigold's rose-tinted glasses are tainted (rose-tainted glasses?).

[Lethologica]

I would take another week of Faye and Bubbles beating around the bush over this.

[Shadow of the Sun]

And Jeph continues to make completely predictable storylines.

I'm still reading because of momentum and because it takes less than a minute a day, but... please.

[Max_Killjoy]

And Jeph continues to make completely predictable storylines.

I'm still reading because of momentum and because it takes less than a minute a day, but... please.

Hopefully this is over... soon.

[masterjoda99]

And Jeph continues to make completely predictable storylines.

I'm still reading because of momentum and because it takes less than a minute a day, but... please.

That's still more effort than I put into it anymore. I only read this thread anymore.

[Kato]

Not that I'm too happy with this plot line but you guys seem to take the salt a bit further..

The middle panels are an interesting shift in art, though. I think the inspiration by oglaf.com is quite apparent. I wonder how hard it was for Jeph to draw.
Also: innuendos?

[Wraith]

An innuendo is a phrase or statement with the implication of a sexual subtext.

There's no subtext happening here. InYOURendo!

[eee]

Ah. Now THAT'S jealousy.

Also an interesting fantasy...

[Hackman]

The middle panels are an interesting shift in art, though. I think the inspiration by oglaf.com is quite apparent. I wonder how hard it was for Jeph to draw.

I find the contrast between real Emily and vision Emily pretty funny.

[Traab]

And Jeph continues to make completely predictable storylines.

I'm still reading because of momentum and because it takes less than a minute a day, but... please.

And what exactly would be "unpredictable"? Seriously, I get it that you are feeling done with the comic, but this is basically what its always been about. Relationship drama that sometimes is justified, but is often blown out of proportion. I say treat this comic like you would the redwall abbey series. Read it till seeing the same general thing happen gets boring then move on.

[Shadow of the Sun]

And what exactly would be "unpredictable"? Seriously, I get it that you are feeling done with the comic, but this is basically what its always been about. Relationship drama that sometimes is justified, but is often blown out of proportion. I say treat this comic like you would the redwall abbey series. Read it till seeing the same general thing happen gets boring then move on.

Well, there's predictable and there's predictable.

Jeph doesn't have the finesse of execution to make a predictable plot anything other than boring. Especially with something as cliched as the jealous lover schtick.

[Vinyadan]

There seems to be some experimenting going on. The lines are thicker and more fluid, the eyes look even bigger to me, and the image is generally less detailed. However, there's some nice shading going on.

The things Marigold is imagining remind me a lot of Marten and Dora, tbh.

[Cikomyr]

I think the alternative art style is an enjoyment in of itself for this strip..

[Beelzebub1111]

I feel like the joke "Marigold is Insecure about her Relationship for no reason" is going to drag on for, at best, for five more days. Worst case scenario we get an arc devoted to it. Which would at TWO different jokes in this comic for a while.

[Keltest]

Marigold being insecure could at least lead to some character development, somewhere, as opposed to this "Faye and bubbles are in the exact same place they started out in at the beginning of their last appearance, and the appearance before that, and the appearance before that..."

[Wraith]

Is she really worried for "no reason"?

Emily is confidant, intelligent, outgoing, sociable, friendly, tall, atheletic and attractive, and she spends 8 hours a day alone with Dale, who has had one girlfriend ever... I think he would be flattered if another girl showed him any kind of attention, romantic or otherwise. Does that automatically mean that this plot line will end in adultery with Marigold being left alone and hurt? Of course not; I think we'd all hope that Dale and Emily are better than that.

But let's also be honest; one of the few relationship-related incidents that we HAVEN'T worked through in QC is an outright and deliberate episode of one character cheating on another.
While we kinda-sorta had it between Sven and Faye, who insisted that they were never a real couple, it would be one of the few things left for the group to experience that could provoke some interesting discourse.

[Vinyadan]

It could end up with Marigold looking out for someone to betray Dale with, to make sure he is jealous and he keeps caring about her.