My Big Fat Greek Wedding

[kucharek]

Well, not neccessarily bad astronomy, but because astronomers are pretty well used to using greek letters:

If you look at the movie poster, they use the greek letter sigma Σ as an E.

http://us.imdb.com/Posters?0259446

Would be interesting to hear from the BA what he read when he saw the poster the first time.
"Grssk? What the hell is a Grssk wedding???"

[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Harald

PS: The real fun would have started if spelling the Σ correctly in a word where it is replacing an E would have turned the word into something, er, foul or vulgar...

[DaveOlden]

On 2003-02-24 06:00, kucharek wrote:
Well, not neccessarily bad astronomy, but because astronomers are pretty well used to using greek letters:

... not that you slipped this in on a technicality or anything...

while we're (barely) on the subject.. since I'm a lay person, not a scientist, it is truly "all Greek to me!"

[irony]

Oh, dear. And another threat slips into the opun pits of despair...

Not that this one really had anywhere else to go. ^_^

[tracer]

Reminds me of a personalized license plate I saw on a Christian's car:

IXOYE

Yes, yes, I know an English X looks like a Greek chi, and O, Y, and E look kinda-sorta like theta, upsilon, and sigma -- but if you're gonna put it in the Roman alphabet, you should transliterate it! That license plate shoulda read "ICHTHUS".

[g99]

On 2003-02-24 21:58, tracer wrote:
Reminds me of a personalized license plate I saw on a Christian's car:

IXOYE

Yes, yes, I know an English X looks like a Greek chi, and O, Y, and E look kinda-sorta like theta, upsilon, and sigma -- but if you're gonna put it in the Roman alphabet, you should transliterate it! That license plate shoulda read "ICHTHUS".

I don't get it. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img] [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: g99 on 2003-02-24 22:11 ]</font>

[nebularain]

On 2003-02-24 22:11, g99 wrote:

On 2003-02-24 21:58, tracer wrote:
Reminds me of a personalized license plate I saw on a Christian's car:

IXOYE

Yes, yes, I know an English X looks like a Greek chi, and O, Y, and E look kinda-sorta like theta, upsilon, and sigma -- but if you're gonna put it in the Roman alphabet, you should transliterate it! That license plate shoulda read "ICHTHUS".

I don't get it. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img] [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: g99 on 2003-02-24 22:11 ]</font>

Ask and ye shall receive! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[g99]

Ahhhh!! I get it! Interesting...

[irony]

I know somebody who has one of those on their car... only the fish has legs and the word in the middle is DARWIN. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[gethen]

I've even seen a sticker with the "Darwin fish" being consumed by a much larger "Jesus fish". Not sure what that means.

[irony]

On 2003-02-25 08:42, gethen wrote:
I've even seen a sticker with the "Darwin fish" being consumed by a much larger "Jesus fish". Not sure what that means.

My guess at a translation would be either "I Support Censorship in the Name of God" or maybe "We Can Talk Louder than You Can, so Nyah!" [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[nebularain]

No, it is taken from the account in Exodus where Moses throws down his staff and it turns into a serpent and the Egyptian magicians do the same with their staffs, but Moses' snake/staff eats the three other snakes/staffs. Moses then picks up the tail of the snake and it turns back into a staff.

I know, I can hear you all laughing, but that's where the idea comes from.

[daver]

On 2003-02-24 21:58, tracer wrote:
Reminds me of a personalized license plate I saw on a Christian's car:

IXOYE

Yes, yes, I know an English X looks like a Greek chi, and O, Y, and E look kinda-sorta like theta, upsilon, and sigma -- but if you're gonna put it in the Roman alphabet, you should transliterate it! That license plate shoulda read "ICHTHUS".

I saw an ichthys fish with the fish mounted upside down (the upsilon was inverted (a downsilon?)). I got quite a laugh off of it, but then, i'm easily amused.

[irony]

On 2003-02-25 10:25, nebularain wrote:
No, it is taken from the account in Exodus where Moses throws down his staff and it turns into a serpent and the Egyptian magicians do the same with their staffs, but Moses' snake/staff eats the three other snakes/staffs. Moses then picks up the tail of the snake and it turns back into a staff.

Ah, okay, so I was right. It's a statement of 'he who talks louder wins.' [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[tracer]

Sometimes, instead of seeing the Darwin Fish getting eaten by a bigger fish with "JESUS" written in it, I'll see a bumper-sticker or metal ourline of the Darwin Fish getting eaten by a bigger fish with "TRUTH" written in it.

I guess some people think that Natural Selection and Common Descent aren't truthful.

[Wiley]

For those who are wondering where to get these lovely fish emblems, try evolvefish.com. In particular the emblems section. For those who feel this thread no longer has any relevance to astronomy, they have lovely little alien and UFO fish. (Yeah, I'm reachin' ...)

[tracer]

As if a "G-R-Sigma-Sigma-K wedding" had any relevance to astronomy to begin with. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: tracer on 2003-02-25 19:10 ]</font>

[Wiley]

On 2003-02-25 19:09, tracer wrote:
As if a "G-R-Sigma-Sigma-K wedding" had any relevance to astronomy to begin with. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: tracer on 2003-02-25 19:10 ]</font>

Heh heh. Good point. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[gethen]

Reaching even further for legitimacy--the stars in constellations are generally identified by greek letters according to their apparent magnitude--so there you have it!

[kilopi]

O, and star names (Betelguese, Spica, etc) use the same characters that are used in most movie titles. So, it makes sense.

[Ba Witda]

Ba particularly enjoys the Darwin Fish bumper stickers and t-shirts. Ba supports the theory of evolution, and they can have his opposable thumb when they pry it from his cold dead hand. After all, if they outlaw the theory of evolution, only outlaws will evolve.

[tracer]

Great! Let's outlaw the theory of gravity, then. It'll make it a lot cheaper to get to other planets.

[tracer]

On 2003-02-26 10:03, kilopi wrote:
O, and star names (Betelguese, Spica, etc) use the same characters that are used in most movie titles. So, it makes sense.

Waaaaait a minute ... Betelgeuse and Spica are Arabic names. That means they should properly be spelled with Arabic characters. I haven't seen very many Movie titles with Arabic characters in them.

[irony]

On 2003-02-26 14:59, tracer wrote:
Great! Let's outlaw the theory of gravity, then. It'll make it a lot cheaper to get to other planets.

Yeah, but then the atmosphere would disperse into space and we'd all suffocate. You gotta be careful when repealing laws of nature. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[Ba Witda]

Yeah. Ba remembers the time he repealed the second law of thermodynamics. Then he tried to boil an egg. It wasn't pretty.

[kilopi]

On 2003-02-26 15:01, tracer wrote:
Waaaaait a minute ... Betelgeuse and Spica are Arabic names. That means they should properly be spelled with Arabic characters.

So, like, they're like Bad Astronomy, right? Kewl.

[kucharek]

Could the BA add a feature to the BB that the originator of a thread can lock it himself if he thinks it got out of control? [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

I started with Bad Greek and you guys turned it into something fishy... [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]

Harald