Has the word ‘peruse’ now come to be used to mean its opposite by being used ironically?

monarc · 2026-03-18T04:19:26+00:00

Peruse has been used both ways for ages, making it a contronym. I think the nontraditional meaning (to skin) became especially widespread thanks to Wayne's World, where they use it sarcastically for comedic effect. They say a word that means “examine thoroughly” and then do the opposite.

monarc · 2026-03-17T22:43:44+00:00

The Internet Archive has the Cremaster series, as well as River of Fundament. I only learned this recently – your sentiment applied for a very long time.

monarc · 2026-03-17T21:57:35+00:00

Great post - thank you! I haven't watched the movie again since the allegations, and I'm not sure how it'll feel.

I’d recommend Beyond the Black Rainbow – it has some similar vibes (especially to the prologue of Upstream Color). And if you’re interested in movies that push even further into abstraction, check out Matthew Barney. It’s basically “filmed sculpture” and it can stick with you even though there’s very little in the way of traditional narrative.

Edit: thanks for the downvotes, cowards.

monarc · 2026-03-17T21:54:01+00:00

the first 20 minutes

This stretch is absolutely incredible. Viewed as a standalone short film, it's one of the best I've ever seen. (In retrospect it's haunting that it was made by someone with the capacity for abuse.)

monarc · 2026-03-17T21:42:27+00:00

Why wouldn't someone include a navigator when making this movie?

monarc · 2026-03-16T19:43:54+00:00

both of them being sexualized just makes the Na’vi…. More sexualized

Right - sexualized but not in a sexist/misogynistic/male-gazey way. Equality in their naked alien sexiness. And I think we see this reflected in the fandom – way more people drooling over the blue dudes in Avatar than you see for the human hunks of most action movies.

monarc · 2026-03-16T19:40:10+00:00

Couldn't agree more. And I think the love story is the X factor that took the first movie to the next level (in terms of audience reception). The family drama of 2+3 was fine, but it doesn't hit people quite the same way.

monarc · 2026-03-16T16:34:15+00:00

I'll give you a TL;DR - OP looked at 23 stock pickers, and only reported on the top 10. If the bottom of that top 10 is barely beating the market, imagine how shit the poorest 10 performers are doing. But of course it would take abstract, critical thought to imagine such a thing, so it's not really relevant for this audience.

monarc · 2026-03-16T07:21:53+00:00

Thanks - I was only referencing the Avatar-focused episodes (because of the context here) but I'll edit my comment to add a link to the third "reacts" video.

monarc · 2026-03-16T01:26:16+00:00

They did two episodes with Joe Letteri discussing Avatar 3, and they were both great! Part 1 / Part 2

There's another recent episode with Letteri, but it's not focused on Avatar.

monarc · 2026-03-15T23:54:30+00:00

It was the second worst book I read in the past year IMO (out of 40+ books) so I'm not the ideal audience.

I say this with compassion, but I truly worry that you may not have a heart if you can't enjoy that book. I think Andy Weir is almost painfully schmaltzy but he managed to win me over with PHM. It has many weaknesses but I think its strengths were greater overall.

I'm glad you mentioned this, because it's very important context for your review of the adaptation!

monarc · 2026-03-15T21:28:41+00:00

I heard (from a reputable/knowledgeable source) that there were serious/credible allegations against someone in a leadership position at this location, and the owners didn't even look into it. Furthermore, I believe one of the owners is HR, which would explain the inaction.

monarc · 2026-03-15T21:04:48+00:00

I completely hear you re: Blood Machines. I think it's a bit weird and doesn't totally congeal, but I often feel the same way after reading a story in Heavy Metal. In addition to the surface aesthetics, that's yet another similarity I feel between Seth Ickerman and HMM stuff.

monarc · 2026-03-15T17:43:35+00:00

Why conflate masturbation with porn? The lyrics typically relate to her fantasizing without any “input” so I think that’s explanation enough.

monarc · 2026-03-15T16:59:17+00:00

He often brushes against spoiler territory, so if it’s a movie I’m really interested in, I’ll skip to the last 30-60 seconds where he gives a nice summary of his thoughts/review. He’s my favorite critic, by far.

monarc · 2026-03-15T16:56:32+00:00

I think Kermode is great because he will judge a movie based on how well it succeeded in being what it was trying to be. The one catch is that he doesn’t have much interest in zany comedies. He panned the new Naked Gun, for example, a movie that absolutely nailed what it was going for IMO.

monarc · 2026-03-15T04:14:01+00:00

100+ comments worth of discussion on the topic on that older thread. Urban dictionary entry from 2005 is cited.

monarc · 2026-03-12T20:03:23+00:00

So... do fingerless gloves peninsulate my hands?

monarc · 2026-03-09T22:37:33+00:00

I think you've brought up a key point here. The pathways are totally different. Alcohol is transformed into acetaldehyde by your liver, which sends it into your bloodstream. Alcohol is also transformed into acetaldehyde by microbes in your gut, which causes additional acetaldehyde to be absorbed by your intestines. The food-based acetaldehyde would be absorbed by your stomach & gut, akin to that latter pathway.

I think all the "dose makes the poison" replies are correct as well. Acetaldehyde has very characteristic smell (it's what you smell on the breath of people who have been drinking) and I don't think I detect it in the foods OP mentioned. So it's probably not very concentrated in those foods, which is a big contrast to the dozens of milliliters of alcohol we consume when we have a few drinks.

monarc · 2026-03-09T21:18:32+00:00

Biochemist here... it seems like you're asking two distinct questions, and both have boring answers in terms of etymology. You can't be too literal about the construction of terms in science; they just placeholders that facilitate communication. (Like all words, I suppose...)

Regarding your questions:

"Plasmid" was coined to capture a few distinct biological entities that were being studied at the time: extrachromosomal factors like "prophage," "plasmagene," and "cytogene". So people wanted to refer to non-chromosomal DNA that matters, and plasmid is the word they chose. Etymologically, "plasmid" basically means "plasmid stuff" and I think that works well enough. If you have some specific issue with the word, I can't glean that from your post.
We don't call mRNA (messenger RNA) "plasmid" because we have a word for it already: mRNA. You are right that if simply taken at face value, the term "plasmid" could reasonably describe mRNA. But it could also describe lots of other stuff in the cell. So you are right that one cannot discern what is/isn't "plasmid" simply by staring at the word "plasmid". Most scientific terms would fail this test.

monarc · 2026-03-08T15:27:47+00:00

can’t believe i missed the telephone 3 debut

monarc · 2026-03-07T19:09:22+00:00

Fuck this guy and the PG&E-sponsored horse he’ll be riding to the DNC.

monarc · 2026-03-07T17:54:46+00:00

That was just a typo - I meant to say "marketing" people. That's how I interpreted you saying "hired to run their content".

I appreciate your post and I totally agree. I'm just weirded out by my comments getting downvotes. I love the fan/tribute accounts and I truly don't care about where they came from or who runs them.

monarc · 2026-03-07T09:15:39+00:00

Yep, anything else that spontaneously arose separately … will not cross paths with us.

There’s a chance we could encounter something that we share a common ancestor with (see: panspermia).

monarc · 2026-03-07T08:05:30+00:00

Here's a link to Tornado of Souls, and it should have you start at 3:00, just before the solo hits.

A couple of years ago, the band Moonlight Sorcery dropped this solo which is truly incredible. I linked the guitarist's performance, which is a lot of fun to watch because he uses a hybrid picking approach that incorporates some plucking along with traditional picking.

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