Random Stuff IX: Rogue Admins

[PantsForSquares he/him]

55 minutes ago, Sunbird said:

This is the kind of stuff I think about when I'm supposed to be studying for a big test:

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Historically, there was a blue pigment that could be heated up to obtain cyanide, and the Greek word kyanos (dark blue) was used for cyanide as a result.

[Sunbird she/her]

37 minutes ago, PantsForSquares said:

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Historically, there was a blue pigment that could be heated up to obtain cyanide, and the Greek word kyanos (dark blue) was used for cyanide as a result.

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity. Tidbits like this are interesting to me.

On a related subject: that test I'm studying for is all about diversity in the animal kingdom, so I've been attempting to memorize the Latin names for different taxonomic groups of animals and coming up with some silly memory tricks to help.

Asteroidea - the class that includes starfish has the word "asteroid" in it, like space, where you find stars.

Related to starfish are the brittle stars in class Ophiuroidea, which sounds like the name Ophelia. In Hamlet, Ophelia was shown as "brittle" and "breakable."

In all animals' embryonic development, the morula develops into the blastula, which develops into the gastrula. In order the initials are MBG, which in my head stands for Massive BiG.

Phylum Platyhelminthes includes the flatworms, and Plat is not that different from Flat.

Oligochaeta - the class that includes earthworms looks a lot like Oligarchy. We watched a video in class of Australian earthworms that can grow to almost 10 feet long, so now I think of them as the King Earthworms...like the Oligarchy.

Cephalopod literally means "head foot," which is easy to remember since this is the group that includes octopuses, and their "legs" literally grow straight out of their heads.

Centipedes and millipedes are grouped together into the class Myriapoda, which literally means "many feet."

Hagfish are in the group Agnatha, which looks like a cross between the names Agnes and Agatha, both of which sound like the kind of name a grumpy old witch (or a hag) would have.

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

8 hours ago, Zathoth said:

What the sea wants the sea takes... I should try some nautical horror...

That would be a sad thing to lose XD

Have you played Soma? And there's a game called Narcosis coming out later this year. They are both horror games set underwater. Soma's actually scary.

2 hours ago, Sunbird said:

 Agnes and Agatha, both of which sound like the kind of name a grumpy old witch (or a hag) would have.

 Did you just call me a hag?

[Zathoth]

7 hours ago, Orlion Determined said:

 

Further nitpick: Not necessarily. According to August Derelith's system, he would line up with elemental water, opposed to elemental air in the form of Hastur.

Derelith doesn't count

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

Hastur the unspeakable thou doth not count!

[soyperson]

10 hours ago, Kaymyth said:

Well, you have to understand that the baseball cap style is HUGELY popular in the States.  Like 90% of people wearing hats out here are wearing that style.

But this one was a bit of promotional swag from Star Trek Beyond that I got hold of 'cause we got a bunch of leftover stuff brought to the last ConQuesT staff meeting.

That's so cool. 

The baseball cap style is very popular here in the States. I literally never wear hats, and I have a TARDIS Snapback.

[Quiver he/him]

9 hours ago, Kaymyth said:

Chocolate frogs are somewhat larger and more solid than expected.

Also, butterbeer and pumpkin juice are delicious.

I remember buying chocolate frogs when I was younger! Those were great.

Also remember boxes of Bertiee Bots ever flavor beans, which were...less so.

[Edgedancer he/him]

1 hour ago, Quiver said:

I remember buying chocolate frogs when I was younger! Those were great.

Also remember boxes of Bertiee Bots ever flavor beans, which were...less so.

There's actually a kind of party game where you get what's essentially Bertiee Bots every flavor beans where one good and one gross flavour look exactly alike. If you have to eat one the chances of getting something disgusting is there until you take a bite.

[The Honor Spren she/her]

58 minutes ago, Edgedancer said:

There's actually a kind of party game where you get what's essentially Bertiee Bots every flavor beans where one good and one gross flavour look exactly alike. If you have to eat one the chances of getting something disgusting is there until you take a bite.

Ah yes . . . the beanboozled challenge. Black is either licorice or skunk spray, so you know it'll be bad no matter which one you get.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

4 hours ago, Zathoth said:

Derelith doesn't count

Ah, but there is no Lovecraft without Derelith!  Not only did he aggressively preserve the writings of Lovecraft, he acted as an agent, editor and encouraged Lovecraft to publish a lot of his writing to begin with! I dare say, he probably was instrumental in mainstreaming weird fiction! Of course Derelith counts! 

[Zathoth]

19 minutes ago, Orlion Determined said:

Ah, but there is no Lovecraft without Derelith!  Not only did he aggressively preserve the writings of Lovecraft, he acted as an agent, editor and encouraged Lovecraft to publish a lot of his writing to begin with! I dare say, he probably was instrumental in mainstreaming weird fiction! Of course Derelith counts! 

Sure, but dividing eldritch things into elements is ridiculous

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

@Quiver what was this Majora's Mask side quest involving aliens? Been years since I've played

[Quiver he/him]

Just now, AnanasSpren said:

@Quiver what was this Majora's Mask side quest involving aliens? Been years since I've played

Ah. Yeah, there is a side quest involving the cows at the Romani Ranch being abducted by aliens.

...well, looking at the wiki, they are referred to as 'They' in the game, and look like ghosts. But between the abductions, I think they are based upon aliens.

Also if you don't stop them, Romani is left disoriented and near-comatose. I assumed she got abducted too, though maybe I made that part up? Been a while since I played it myself.

[Edgedancer he/him]

1 minute ago, Quiver said:

Ah. Yeah, there is a side quest involving the cows at the Romani Ranch being abducted by aliens.

...well, looking at the wiki, they are referred to as 'They' in the game, and look like ghosts. But between the abductions, I think they are based upon aliens.

Also if you don't stop them, Romani is left disoriented and near-comatose. I assumed she got abducted too, though maybe I made that part up? Been a while since I played it myself.

They first abduct her, then experiment on her and finally drop her back on earth? That's how aliens stories usually go.

[Zathoth]

1 minute ago, Edgedancer said:

They first abduct her, then experiment on her and finally drop her back on earth? That's how aliens stories usually go.

That is at least the subtext of it. Majoras Mask is dark... probably why I love it so much...

Nintendo should make a horror game. A really weird, surreal horror game. We all remember that one cutscene from Twilight Princess, right? Right. Nintendo should make a horror game.

[Quiver he/him]

4 minutes ago, Zathoth said:

That is at least the subtext of it. Majoras Mask is dark... probably why I love it so much...

Nintendo should make a horror game. A really weird, surreal horror game. We all remember that one cutscene from Twilight Princess, right? Right. Nintendo should make a horror game.

I never actually finished Twilight Princess.

Or even played it that much. Despite the awesomely evocative title, it just never stood out to me the way Ocarina, Majora and Wind Water did.

[The Honor Spren she/her]

5 minutes ago, Zathoth said:

That is at least the subtext of it. Majoras Mask is dark... probably why I love it so much...

Nintendo should make a horror game. A really weird, surreal horror game. We all remember that one cutscene from Twilight Princess, right? Right. Nintendo should make a horror game.

The one after you free the last light spirit?

[Zathoth]

3 minutes ago, Quiver said:

I never actually finished Twilight Princess.

Or even played it that much. Despite the awesomely evocative title, it just never stood out to me the way Ocarina, Majora and Wind Water did.

I agree with you, I like it, but the world is a bit dull. It is a good game, it is just disappointing for a Zelda.

4 minutes ago, The Honor Spren said:

The one after you free the last light spirit?

That one, exactly. I want a game full of that.

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

Ah yeah, I remember the minigame where you shoot them with the bow, bloody pain to complete

[Quiver he/him]

Just now, Zathoth said:

I agree with you, I like it, but the world is a bit dull. It is a good game, it is just disappointing for a Zelda.

To be fair, a bad Zelda still tends to be better than a good 80% of games out there.

Heck, I'd say that Zelda is one of the most consistent franchises in tends of quality. Aside from the CD-I games, has there really been any Zelda games that have bombed?

[Zathoth]

1 hour ago, Quiver said:

To be fair, a bad Zelda still tends to be better than a good 80% of games out there.

Heck, I'd say that Zelda is one of the most consistent franchises in tends of quality. Aside from the CD-I games, has there really been any Zelda games that have bombed?

No, I have played, if not finished all of them and none of them are bad games, even while Wind Waker may be rushed, Twilight Princess a bit dull, the DS games a little lackluster and Skyward Sword... well I dont know why people complain about Skyward Sword, I really liked it.

[soyperson]

What qualifies starting a new Random Stuff Thread?

[Edgedancer he/him]

21 minutes ago, bleeder said:

What qualifies starting a new Random Stuff Thread?

The Admins closing the old one, which they haven't done since the site update.

[ThirdGen]

7 minutes ago, Edgedancer said:

The Admins closing the old one, which they haven't done since the site update.

Rogue indeed.

[PantsForSquares he/him]

10 hours ago, Sunbird said:

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity. Tidbits like this are interesting to me.

A lot of the time, chemical compounds tend to be named for how they were originally discovered. Benzene, for example, was derived from benzoin gum, a term that arose from the French version of the Arabic term for "incense of Java." Hydrocyanic acid was originally known as Prussic acid because it was derived from a very specific blue pigment - Prussian blue. Acetic acid, commonly found in vinegar, is named for the Latin word for vinegar (acetum), and there's a whole host of examples.

They're less common now, with the IUPAC naming standards and increasingly complex molecules, but if you look at etymologies, they usually have historic roots.