Wednesday January 24, 2007
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Wednesday January 24, 2007 | NHL Rail-Cam: Just Say No | Television |
Let me be the first third hundredth to say that I don't like the Rail-Cam that they used for the NHL All-Star game. It's a camera that moves back and forth along the top of the boards. Unfortunately, they put it on the same side of the ice as the normal camera so all it really does it get in the way of the action. It's very distracting to watch the game and see the camera moving back and forth.
The pictures if gets aren't even that good, mainly because it's disorienting to watch the view from a moving camera. They either need to get rid of it or just move it to the other side of the rink. That's probably not possible since the players sit there, but they can't leave where it is.
Say it with me: The rail-cam sucks.
Tags: hockey nhl railcam
January 24, 2007 08:21 PM PST Permalink | Comments [0] |
| The Evolving English Language | Humor |
It's interesting to watch the news media change the pronunciation of words, or find alternative words, when a particular word is embarrassing to say.
- Back in 1991, when Anita Hill was accusing Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, the pronunciation of harassment was changed from her-ASS-ment to HARRIS-ment because they just couldn't stand the irony.
- In 1986 when the Voyager 2 spacecraft visited Uranus, reporters adopted URINE-is over your-ANUS because the cameramen wouldn't stop giggling and caused the camera to shake. There was also this extra pause before they mentally prepared to say the word. "Today Voyager passed the planet ... URINE-is ... and sent back these photos." You could practically hear him sigh in relief after he said it. All of this could have been prevented by using OOH-ran-us, which is closer to the origin of the name, Ouranos.
- In 2006 Shi'ite Muslims made lots of news. Thus, I can only image the joy and high-fives when the press corps learned that they could use the word Shia instead of Shi'ite. I don't think I ever heard a reporter or politician use the word Shi'ite the entire year. My spell checker doesn't even recognize the word Shia. "Did you mean Shiva Islam?" No, Clippy, I didn't.
- While Shiitake Mushrooms haven't been big in the news, I did notice that the politically correct pronunciation is now SHEE-EE-tock-ay. We've added an extra syllable! But now the Austin Powers routine is ruined!
So, what works can we expect to see changed in the future? Let's see...
- Asteroid
- Corkscrew
- Kumquat
- Manhole
- Pianist
- Sperm whales
- Woodpecker
- Dick Butkus
To the future!
Tags: media | language | words
Tags: language media words
January 24, 2007 03:00 PM PST Permalink | Comments [1] |
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Kevin Chu, Some Rights Reserved.
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