Stuff you learned from The Big Bang Theory

[Sicks_Ate]

@Wendell_Wagner

I suspect that members of Mensa are not typical of the people who could qualify as members of Mensa (i.e., people who are in the top 2% of the population in I.Q.). There are about 134,000 members of Mensa around the world. There are at least 140,000,000 people in the world who qualify to be members of Mensa, since that’s about 2% of the population of the world. Suppose we restrict ourselves to 5% of that, since there are lots of people in the top 2% of the world in I.Q. who are too young or too poor or in some other way unable to belong to Mensa. That’s 7,000,000. So less than 2% of the people who could easily join Mensa do so. To join Mensa, you not only have to be smart, you have to care about showing people that you are smart. That tells us a lot about the personality of people who join Mensa.

Saw a personalized license plate ‘MENSA’ last week.

I wanted to pull up alongside the guy and roll my eyes aggressively, but it wasn’t safe to do so.

[Riemann]

@Sicks_Ate

Saw a personalized license plate ‘MENSA’ last week.

I wanted to pull up alongside the guy and roll my eyes aggressively, but it wasn’t safe to do so.

To avoid eye-rollers, he should have made a clever anagram like “NEMSA” so that only the top 2% of the population could understand it.

[jtur88]

@panache45

i’d think it would end in “-ц” as well. But more to the point: How do you translate “fruit loops” to russian?

Фрот лопс

Hamburgers, in Cyrillic alphabet languages, begin with “G”. гамбургер

[Robot_Arm]

@Riemann

To avoid eye-rollers, he should have made a clever anagram like “NEMSA” so that only the top 2% of the population could understand it.

I tried that, but it was already taken by someone who ran a lion sanctuary.

[Robot_Arm]

Bazinga.

[eschereal]

@jtur88

Hamburgers, in Cyrillic alphabet languages, begin with “G”. гамбургер

Which is another relevant point. There is no “h” sound equivalent in Russian, but «х» is not the letter the Russians typically use to substitute, «г» is. Howard’s name tag on his suit should have been «Г. Воловиц».

[RivkahChaya]

@eschereal

Which is another relevant point. There is no “h” sound equivalent in Russian, but «х» is not the letter the Russians typically use to substitute, «г» is. Howard’s name tag on his suit should have been «Г. Воловиц».

My maiden name was Goldhammer, and when we lived in the USSR, we spelled our name with a <<x>> for the “h.” My father was an expert in Russian, and my mother had a Ph.D in Slavic linguistics, so I’m sure there was a good reason for doing so.

[eschereal]

@RivkahChaya

My maiden name was Goldhammer, and when we lived in the USSR, we spelled our name with a <<x>> for the “h.” My father was an expert in Russian, and my mother had a Ph.D in Slavic linguistics, so I’m sure there was a good reason for doing so.

Yes, but your name did not start with an “H”. In the middle of words, ,"h"s are handled differently, but the normal transliteration for words that begin with “h” is to use «г». At least, from what I have seen.

[RivkahChaya]

@Wendell_Wagner

I suspect that members of Mensa are not typical of the people who could qualify as members of Mensa (i.e., people who are in the top 2% of the population in I.Q.). There are about 134,000 members of Mensa around the world. There are at least 140,000,000 people in the world who qualify to be members of Mensa, since that’s about 2% of the population of the world. Suppose we restrict ourselves to 5% of that, since there are lots of people in the top 2% of the world in I.Q. who are too young or too poor or in some other way unable to belong to Mensa. That’s 7,000,000. So less than 2% of the people who could easily join Mensa do so. To join Mensa, you not only have to be smart, you have to care about showing people that you are smart. That tells us a lot about the personality of people who join Mensa.

If I’m allowed to use the IQ test that was administered in intermediate school, I qualify for Mensa, but I have heard (not the least from a friend who let his membership lapse) that a lot of Mensans are into some serious woo, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories. He said a lot of it is hubris. Mensans can’t imagine how anyone could be smarter than they are, so whatever they think is true, must be so, nevermind that someone with ten points fewer on an IQ test has devoted a lifetime to studying, say, immunology, while a Mensan has read some internet articles by an anti-vaccine hysteric, and decided not to vaccinate his children against the advice of the guy who is an expert in immunology, but missed out on Mensa by 2 points on a test.

Mensa is not for me.

[panache45]

@eschereal

Which is another relevant point. There is no “h” sound equivalent in Russian, but «х» is not the letter the Russians typically use to substitute, «г» is. Howard’s name tag on his suit should have been «Г. Воловиц».

Tell that to Exapno Mapcase.

[Johnny_Q]

@BobLibDem

Jesus didn’t have to. He did crossfit.

Actually Pilates. Pontius Pilates.

[kaylasdad99]

@j...tur88

Not a member, never applied. I can only think of one person I ever knew who was. He said the members were a lot more pretentious than smart.

…which suggests that Amos and Andy might be a step up…

[kaylasdad99]

@Wendell_Wagner

I suspect that members of Mensa are not typical of the people who could qualify as members of Mensa (i.e., people who are in the top 2% of the population in I.Q.). There are about 134,000 members of Mensa around the world. There are at least 140,000,000 people in the world who qualify to be members of Mensa, since that’s about 2% of the population of the world. Suppose we restrict ourselves to 5% of that, since there are lots of people in the top 2% of the world in I.Q. who are too young or too poor or in some other way unable to belong to Mensa. That’s 7,000,000. So less than 2% of the people who could easily join Mensa do so. To join Mensa, you not only have to be smart, you have to care about showing people that you are smart. That tells us a lot about the personality of people who join Mensa.

@Sicks_Ate

Saw a personalized license plate ‘MENSA’ last week.

I wanted to pull up alongside the guy and roll my eyes aggressively, but it wasn’t safe to do so.

At freeway speeds, I would think not.

[DesertDog]

@pulykamell

Actually, I’ve only ever seen it shallow/pan-fried.

Gee, you’re lucky. Virtually all of the CFS* I’ve had was a frozen slab of pre-fab out of the deep-fryer. One place I’d frequent used to have actual cube-steak, breaded and pan-fried with good gravy on it. Alas, it closed about two years ago.

*Chicken/Country Fried Steak, take your pick.

[terentii]

@eschereal

I learned that Howard’s name gets transliterated to «Х. Воловитз», which seems odd. I would have expected it to end in «-ц» rather than the absurd-looking «тз», but maybe the Russkies did it that way to emphasize that he was a foreigner.

Having lived in Russia full-time between 1992 and 2008, I doubt this would be true. Russians just don’t do this sort of thing except in Tom Clancy novels. Some drone in Wardrobe simply made the name tag without consulting anyone who actually knew Russian. They would have told him/her to use “-ц.”

On the other hand, “H” and “W” can be handled in more than one way. Conventions vary over time. “Howard” could be written with either a “Х” or a “Г”; nowadays, I suspect it would be with the former. The loan word “weekend” (a fairly recent borrowing) is written “уик-энд,” not “вик-энд.”

When it comes to brand names, Russians usually just write them the way they sound. “Pampers” is written “памперсы,” which is funny because the word in English is already plural. (The Russian word is now a synonym for generic disposable diapers.) “Fruit Loops” would be “фрут-лупс,” probably without capitalization since its just a kind of cereal. (“Pass the фрут-лупс, please.”)

The term normally used for “breakfast cereal” is “сухой завтрак” (“dry breakfast”), though there are lots of variations. F’rinstance, “хлопья” are corn or wheat flakes; “колечки” (“little rings”) are what we would call Cheerios.

[terentii]

@terentii

“Fruit Loops” would be “фрут-лупс,” probably without capitalization since its just a kind of cereal. (“Pass the фрут-лупс, please.”)

In Howard’s case, of course, it would be capitalized, since it’s his nickname: “Фрут-лупс.” (A quick look at my on-line dictionary says this type of cereal is actually called “фруктовые колечки.”)

[terentii]

@terentii

In Howard’s case, of course, it would be capitalized, since it’s his nickname: “Фрут-лупс.” (A quick look at my on-line dictionary says this type of cereal is actually called “фруктовые колечки.”)

… And my ex, who is Russian, advises me that the “l” after the hyphen would be capitalized as well.

[nearwildheaven]

Someone makes shower curtains with the periodic table on them.

[ftg]

@terentii

“Fruit Loops” would be “фрут-лупс,” probably without capitalization since its just a kind of cereal. (“Pass the фрут-лупс, please.”)

So the actual name “Froot Loops” would presumably be the same spelling.

(Transliterating “J” into Cyrillic is more problematical than “H”. If the nickname was “Apple Jacks” then “J” might be like a “d-zh” form: “Дж”.)

[eschereal]

@ftg

(Transliterating “J” into Cyrillic is more problematical than “H”. If the nickname was “Apple Jacks” then “J” might be like a “d-zh” form: “Дж”.)

Well, the name is kind of a play on cider brandy, and it looks like the Russian word for that is just the Russian word for apple, capitalized, so the cereal would probably just be called «Яблоки».