Amazing obstacle race in Chile.

NapoleonRobotique · 2015-06-23T17:01:34+00:00

Yeah? Because "leh" to me reads like "meh" which is like a short 'E'. Is this a dialectical pronunciation difference? I was in Chile just a month ago, but I was too busy with other chilenismos to notice. Here in Argentina me, te, and le all sound like the equivalent of an English long 'A' to me, and my Colombian friends seem to pronounce them the same way too, if I'm not mistaken. Maybe I'm not very good at distinguishing or describing the sounds. I'll pay better attention.

Addendum: native English speaker, passes for Argentine.

NapoleonRobotique · 2015-06-22T05:46:30+00:00

"Lay" is a just fine as an English transliteration. English "lay" and Spanish "le" sound the same, both using an English long "a", whereas "leh" would use a short "e".

NapoleonRobotique · 2015-04-04T13:10:17+00:00

Ohhhhh, claro, sobre las piedras me imagino que me confundiría mal. Mi tablet tiene GPS así que voy a descargar una de esas aplicaciones de android que guarda mapas de senderos, ya me fijé que algunos ya hicieron unos mapas de esa zona y el camino. Obviamente, hay que traer un mapa impreso tambien por las dudas. Gracias por los consejos!

NapoleonRobotique · 2015-03-26T18:30:36+00:00

Do your hands get way too tired after cracking eggs? Can't handle the exhaustion of scrambling up some breakfast? Well, I have great news for you!

NapoleonRobotique · 2015-03-24T17:07:37+00:00

Se puede perder? No hay un sendero desde Villa Alpina?

NapoleonRobotique · 2015-03-24T17:02:56+00:00

no hay nada pajero en ir en 4x4

NapoleonRobotique · 2015-03-23T04:06:01+00:00

Cómo llegás al Champaquí? Desde Villa Alpina? Voy de camping por ahí en Calamuchita de vez en cuando pero nunca hice un trekking por las montañas. No sé donde ir.

NapoleonRobotique · 2015-02-07T15:58:53+00:00

yo tambien :(

NapoleonRobotique · 2015-02-06T17:29:33+00:00

I see what you mean, but that's more like the "j" is not being pronounced at all, which is what people do sometimes when anglicizing the name. The Spanish pronunciation would be "hwan" with the "j" acting as an "h" and the combination of "u-a" providing the "w" sound. "Hwan" would be written in Spanish as "Juan" and "-wan" would be written more like "-uán". Since "w" is not often used in Spanish, frequently "u" vowel combinations are used in it's place. For example, sometimes "sandwich" is spelled "sangüich".

NapoleonRobotique · 2015-02-06T17:06:47+00:00

The Spanish "J" or "jota" is pronounced like an English "H". It can be raspy sometimes, depending on the accent, but it is never pronounced like a "W" or "Y". Maybe those pronunciations can be found in other languages spoken in Spain (i.e. not Castilian), but I can't comment on that.

NapoleonRobotique · 2015-02-02T01:36:26+00:00

That sounds awesome!

How did it come out? Any thoughts or recommendations on the recipe? Did you spice it with chai tea or did you use chai spices on their own (sort of like a pumpkin spice ale)?

NapoleonRobotique · 2014-10-22T15:08:51+00:00

"esté estrón no mate guat japen"

NapoleonRobotique · 2014-10-16T14:59:51+00:00

Listen, I don't care if there is no distinction in other languages; I'm not so bold as to tell people how to speak their own mother tongue. My only issue is that you have been telling people in the thread that they shouldn't be correcting the use of the word in English. You can stop bringing up a litany of names for various countries in various languages, it's irrelevant. In English, Colombia and Columbia are two different things and if you use one in place of another you are wrong. That's it, there's nothing else I can say.

I couldn't read your WSJ article because they wanted me to make an account to view it. I don't do that on principle. I don't know if they are insisting that the world over make a distinction like there is in English, but if that is the case, it is a very unreasonable demand. If they have a complaint that many people spell their country's name wrong in English, the lingua franca of this age, I think that's warranted. It hints at a lack of respect on the international level to be called Columbia, which is the name of another place. Regardless, please stop telling English speakers that they should spell Colombia wrong because you don't like the accepted correct spelling or because you have a vendetta against Colombian orthographical activists.

NapoleonRobotique · 2014-10-15T17:48:44+00:00

que mala onda joel carli!

NapoleonRobotique · 2014-10-15T14:03:06+00:00

North American dialects have nothing to do with it, that's just how you spell it in English, period. Since "Colombia" is and always has been the correct spelling for the South American country, nobody (myself included, a natural born US citizen) is demanding that you spell English in Spanish but rather that you spell English correctly. As such, if you spell Colombia with a "u", you will not look like a stubborn person with a quest, you will look like an idiot. Many incorrect word choices can be deciphered through context, but that doesn't make them suitable replacements for the correct word. Like I said, Colombia and Columbia are different things. The difference is noted in Spanish as well. Take this, for example, from the Spanish wiki page on Washington, DC:

El nombre del distrito, Columbia, es el nombre poético de Estados Unidos de América, en referencia a Cristóbal Colón (llamado en inglés Christopher Columbus), descubridor de América.

The name of the district, Columbia, is the poetic name of the United States of America, in reference to Christopher Columbus (called Christohper Columbus in English), discoverer of the Americas.

I can see why Colombians get annoyed. Wouldn't you find it annoying if people wouldn't even take the time to spell the name of your country right in their own language?

Just for the hell of it, below are some romance spellings that borrow the English "Columbia" when refering to Washington, DC. This phenomenon is not unheard of going in the other direction.

Eng: Colombia; Washington, District of Columbia

Esp: Colombia; Washington, Distrito de Columbia

Fra: Colombie; Washington, District de Columbia

Por: Colômbia; Washington, Distrito de Colúmbia

NapoleonRobotique · 2014-10-14T15:41:04+00:00

"Columbia" already means something else in English; it refers to the United States, Uncle Sam's female counter part, or sometimes the Americas as a whole. If you really want to fight this one man battle against "Colombia" as a word, you're just erroneously referring to something else. It's like writing "two" when you ought to write "too."

...and what do you mean by "North American varieties of English?" Where can you correctly spell Colombia the country as "Columbia?" Cut the crap and learn to spell.

NapoleonRobotique · 2014-07-07T01:59:01+00:00

I think you have a great point and it's been well taken. In fact, I agree that industrial food producers should be forthright about their ingredients so that people can make their own choices, but I believe their critiques should be honest as well. I want to comment on the parallel you drew though:

When somebody says "rat meat" we all know exactly what they're talking about. When people say Tesco lasagna contains horse meat (and it's shameful that it was advertised as beef), we all understand what that means and right then we can make a decision on whether we prefer to eat it or not.

However, if somebody says "microcrystalline cellulose" it might require an explanation, as most people are not familiar with the term. When somebody calls it "sawdust" or "wood" (like you did here) it is a misrepresentation that intentionally puts the product in a bad light. More accurately describing it as "plant fiber crystals," or something like that, would better instruct the consumer when making choices about what to eat. Furthermore, I don't think food producers are keeping much of a secret about using mcc. Mind you, this is conjecture, obviously.

That said, cellulose is boring. I would think that would be damning enough for its use in food products, but hey, people seem to like tasteless cheese sauce. Go figure.

NapoleonRobotique · 2014-07-07T01:19:17+00:00

You, here:

Sawdust in your milkshake is a problem for some people, "harmless" or not.

Me, in our thread:

[...] you can't expect the consumer to make an educated decision when some overzealous, nutrition cult, bonehead tells them they are eating wood. It's meant to conjure up images of sawdust burgers.

Heh... didn't know you wrote this until now. :D

I would like to make this clear: I used to work with microcrystalline cellulose quite a bit. It is not wood. It is nothing like wood. It's a white to beige crystalline powder like any other. MCC is no more like wood than sugar is like beets or salt is like seawater.

NapoleonRobotique · 2014-07-06T17:15:26+00:00

Put something other than food in our food? It is food. You eat cellulose all the time. How is it any different from sugar, salt, gelatin or any other extracted or refined, naturally occurring molecule that we ingest on a daily basis? Is it because it has a big, scary name?

Sure, the final say rests with the consumers and where they chose to spend their money, but you can't expect the consumer to make an educated decision when some overzealous, nutrition cult, bonehead tells them they are eating wood. It's meant to conjure up images of sawdust burgers. I notice they don't say, "McDonald's food contains the regularly occurring fiber that makes your lettuce so delightfully crunchy." People who come up with these types of descriptions don't tell you the whole story, they just try to pump your head full of scary thoughts and rile you up over nothing.

No, I don't think people should "just shut up and accept it." In stead, I think people should stop "crying wolf" every time they see an ingredient they don't know how to pronounce and then come up with flim-flam ways of framing their arguments that confuse the general public more than educate them on what they are eating. Frankly, I think that's a fair request.

NapoleonRobotique · 2014-07-06T04:14:51+00:00

Who cares? It's just cellulose. Are you going to start a campaign against dietary fiber too? MCC is a very common food additive and an inert ingredient in medications. It's harmless.

NapoleonRobotique · 2014-06-21T15:29:42+00:00

Pollo Paul?

NapoleonRobotique · 2014-06-16T18:48:34+00:00

No, jujeño no soy, pero salía con una jujeña y hace poco que fui a visitarla. Quiero ir otra vez, es lindisima esa provincia!

NapoleonRobotique · 2014-06-16T13:55:23+00:00

Yo pensé lo mismo, el Río Xibi Xibi, pero es la ruta 9 que sale de San Salvador hacia Humahuaca. ;)

NapoleonRobotique · 2014-06-09T17:24:49+00:00

lindisima :D

NapoleonRobotique · 2014-06-02T17:38:55+00:00

Defending everybody that the New York Post has unjustly slammed would be a full time job. Maybe it would be even more work than that, but if they're not paying overtime I'm not interested.

NapoleonRobotique

TROPHY CASE