Pure geeky goodness

[nancylebov]

It seems to me that xkcd had been marking time for a while, but now we have




I suppose it makes sense in a way that the one about bra size is bimodal, but I have no idea what the cause might be.

Comments

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what "there are x lights" is supposed to refer to. Nor "I got 99 problems". Idiom fail?

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

It's a Star Trek Next Generation reference-- I wouldn't have gotten it except that I read the comments to the xkcd lj comment thread.

In other words, a lot of people got it, and a lot of people didn't.

Is there any sort of unitary culture any more?

[avram]

I don't really know that the US ever really had any sort of unitary culture.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Not completely, but it had something more like one when there were only three tv networks.

It's all be growing fragmentation since then, not that that's a bad thing.

Still, I would have thought that Next Gen was pervasively geeky enough that I'd be the only one who didn't get the reference.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Well, I think we're much better off than with the three networks. There are a lot of fragments, no, a lot of new starts, most of them authentic, homegrown. As they grow they or the best parts of them converge. No, not converge, but the bits of cream rise to the top and get shared by all.

We don't need to know where 'don't need no stinking /noun/' came from, it's got a life of its own now, from the many contexts it gets quoted in. Same with 'All are /adjective/ but some are more /adjective/ than others.' 'How many lights' may get that way too.

Heh, I'd like to see 'I'll draw the crossfire' get that status, among people who never even heard of Walton's HALF A CROWN, or even of Godwin.

G,D,R. Too much caffeine. I should log off.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I think we're better off on the whole. There are some advantages to a shared culture, though.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Shared as in 'A, agree about, take for granted as true' -- or shared as in 'B, know about, know what the person is talking about'?

Imo we have or are on the way to having a high degree of B with not so much A required. P2P -- people on all sides communicating directly with each other, rather than through gatekeepers. We can have informed disagreements and distinctions -- hopefully growing into worthwhile new (and continually updated) agreements.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I meant B.

I think B is declining. While there's more access to past video and music than there ever was, there's also just plain tremendously more stuff.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

More stuff -- and more channels for P2P communication, without no stinkin gatekeepers. ;-)

[lizw.livejournal.com]

"There are x lights" is probably a reference to the ST:TNG episode "Chain of Command", in which Picard is shown four lights, but then tortured to try to get him to say there are five. That itself presumably draws on Orwell's 1984, where Winston Smith undergoes something similar with fingers rather than lights.

"I got 99 problems" is a line from a single by Jay-Z, which also draws on one by Ice-T.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

"I got 99 problems and the bitch ain't one" from Jay-Z