Earth Hour vs. Earth Hour

  

Main Entry:

hour 

Pronunciation:

\ˈau̇(-ə)r\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

Middle English, from Anglo-French ure, eure, from Late Latin & Latin; Late Latin hora canonical hour, from Latin, hour of the day, from Greek hōra — more at year

Date:

13th century

This style of breaking a day into roughly 24 equal portions started back in the middle ages and today it is pretty much the standard of the way we perceive time.  That being said for some reason we have 2 ways of visualizing a 24 hour day.  In two blocks of 12 that start in the AM and then end in the PM which then ends in the AM (So which came first?  The AM or the PM?)  And military time which works with a straight 24 hour clock and is denoted by using the word "hundred" after 1 through 24.  Within each hour we have smaller units called minutes - there are 60 of these in an hour.  This information should not be new to anybody seeing as reading this blog takes rudimentary literacy, so the understanding of simple time progression shouldn't even come close to rocket science.

Earth Hour was conceived of  by Leo Burnett in conjunction with WWF Australia in 2006.  Their idea was to create a campaign to provide hope to everybody, making individuals empowered into directing the future of the planet.  Initially this project was named, "The Big Flick"

Fast forward to 2009, this global movement is set to take place on March 28 between 8:30 and 9:30pm (or 16:30 and 17:30 for you military buffs).  In the previous year Earth hour attracted over 371 cities and town and 35 countries around the world.  From their website it states that they estimate a total of 50 million people participated in this event.

Easily I can get behind an actual Earth hour.  I need to know when my favourite soaps are on the television, what time I need to wake up for work, at times, what time I need to go to sleep.  And most importantly, when my cell phone calls are free.    Being able to break a 24 hour block down into smaller portions makes keeping track of things to do a potentially reasonable task.

Earth Hour in theory is a great way to make people feel like they are helping the environment out.  But since there really isn't any monitoring system to tell how much power was saved world wide, except with the fact that your lights are off, doesn't give a quantifiable justification to taking part in this "feel good" activity.  In the past, in Canada we were given the 1 Ton Challenge.  This idea was to try to reduce your carbon footprint by 1 Ton.  The site had a way for you to calculate how much energy you used in a day.  There were 2 problems with this.  One, the site was rather confusing and unless you were a little internet savvy, calculating your actual usage was a little tricky.  And two, well we all like to feel like we are doing what's best for the environment.  So who's to say that we didn't fudge the numbers a little to make ourselves not feel so bad.

I am all for saving the environment, but getting involved shouldn't just be about joining in with your friends so you have something to discuss in between Grey's Anatomy.  It should be something you can measure.  For instance, if you truly want to help the environment, don't participate in Earth Hour one day a year, do it every day.  And if you find that you are missing out on key prime time television and your TiVo happens to be off too, well there are a multitude of ways to reduce the amount of energy you use.  I would start with a broad search on Google and work your way to a specific area of your lifestyle that you feel could become more energy responsible.  And the best way you can see if you are making an impact on the environment is if your bills for utilities drops at the end of the month (those living in apartments where they are inclusive, well I figure you won't really be looking to save energy as that was a key point in renting the place).

Bottom line is I am happy we have real Earth hours so I can choose not to recognize Earth Hour.

Chaps vs. Assless Chaps

    

Main Entry: chaps

Pronunciation:

\ˈshaps, ˈchaps\

Function:

noun plural

Etymology:

modification of Mexican Spanish chaparreras

Date:

1844

: leather leggings joined by a belt or lacing, often having flared outer flaps, and worn over the trousers (as by western ranch hands)

Like a lot of things cowboy these days, the whole profession has been Broke Back Mountained from a very manly trade into a lot of gay jokes.  Nothing has been whipped harder then the trusty piece of attire that no cowboy goes without - chaps.

I hear a lot of people say "Assless  Chaps" without realizing that chaps don't actually have a bum part.  So basically the word "assless" is only used to make the statement more amusing or "shocking".  You could probably achieve the same effect through saying "Chaps made from dead orphan skin", although that particular detail would definitely make it different from regular chaps.

What I am trying to get across is that there really isn't anything called "Assless Chaps."  So if you want to say something funny, be creative and don't say something that is just plain redundant!

Apples vs. Oranges

"It's like comparing Apples to Oranges"

We have all heard this idiom and it's generally used when we are trying to compare things that we believe are incomparable. 

In fact, like many pioneers into studies that are obviously wastes of time and are done just for the sake of doing it, Scott A. Sandford of NASA Ames Research Center actually took the time to do a scientific comparison.  His research concluded:

"[...] the comparing apples and oranges defense should no longer be considered valid. This is a somewhat startling revelation. It can be anticipated to have a dramatic effect on the strategies used in arguments and discussions in the future." (quote taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apples_and_oranges)

The truth of the matter seems to be that Apples and Oranges are compared on a regular basis.  Like many things they are more similar then different and the one thing that I found surprising while doing my crack research for this "Comparing Things" was that aside from people reveling in drawing pictures that depicted Apples and Oranges, it seemed as if we as a species really just enjoy pissing on the establishment and thumbing our noses at all sorts of idioms.

(image from http://shirts-by-eye.blogspot.com/2007/01/apples-oranges.html)

IM Grammar vs. Bad Grammer

 

Defined by Merriam-Websters dictionary:

gram·mar

Pronunciation:

\ˈgra-mər\

Function:

noun

1 a: the study of the classes of words, their inflections, and their functions and relations in the sentence b: a study of what is to be preferred and what avoided in inflection and syntax2 a: the characteristic system of inflections and syntax of a language b: a system of rules that defines the grammatical structure of a language3 a: a grammar textbook b: speech or writing evaluated according to its conformity to grammatical rules4: the principles or rules of an art, science, or technique grammar of the theater> ; also : a set of such principles or rules

— gram·mar·i·an \grə-ˈmer-ē-ən\ noun

Today we rarely use these rules to form well thought out sentences to communicate with each other.  Mostly it's fractured ideas, run on tangents, and with the invention of the internet, a more widely used set of acronyms.

I remember in the 80's with the show Murphy Brown the letters FYI.  And I wondered what that was.  Not until later did I start using it instead of saying, "for your information," and I thought i was so cool!  And then 90's ushered in a new world to me as I learned to sprinkle the word "like" and "um" into all my like, um, sentences... you know!

A few years followed and I entered the digital age with all my nerdy compatriots as we charted the unexplored realm of Al Gore's self proclaimed backyard - or as we know it today, the internet.  Intrepid were we, taking our pencil and paper D & D characters and posting them on our BBS's.  And thus was my first exposure to IM (instant messaging) shorthand.

With the explosion of ICQ and AIM, MSN messenger and iChat we see more and more people being exposed to all the ROTFLOL's and what's worse is that it's leaking into our spoken language.  A few nights ago I was thinking about this blog and I actually heard a girl yell at her friend "LOL" and I thought that it would have probably be easier to actually laugh then to communicate it that way.  Toss in some bad grammar and we form ideas and thoughts that would not be understood by any generations then those exposed to computers and more importantly, the internet.

For the direction of language today, as long as the other person can understand what you are saying it doesn't really matter how poor your grammar is.  The art of communicating will always be changing, and I am not a conservative, I just keep "WTF" to the interweb and "FUCK OFF" to the people who deserve it the most - assholes that say "OMG" and "LOL" out loud.

Comparing Things

This blog is to compare those things that we use, see and in some pleasurable instances, do.  So join me as I use my trusty digital camera and lots of photoshop to "COMPARE THINGS!"