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RE: Intellectual Lazines
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by AquaHerp on January 16, 2009
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Yup. Just took me a while to get the bird abb. down to a second-nature process.
I too did a lot of bird work in the past and I am still quite involved with the APC project ;)
It's a big planet out there and it's always good to have a wide and varied interest; never get bored that way!
Thanks.
DH
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RE: Intellectual Lazines
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by earthguy on January 17, 2009
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Yeah. I band and do amphibians in the winter when the reptiles are mostly dormant. It keeps me busy and off of the streets :)
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RE: Intellectual Lazines
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by FSB on January 20, 2009
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Definitely a pet peeve of mine, as John well knows. I have some sort of natural inborn aversion to slang (I remember when our music teacher, in a failed attempt to make music class "hip," made us sing that song "Groovy" in second grade. I hated that word, and song, with a passion, and just wanted to throw up).
Knowledge easily gained is easily lost, and that seems to be the way with jargon. Sociology was an easy "B" in college because it was almost all just a bunch of jargon for things that are mostly common-sense, and so taking Sociology as an elective won me a lot more time to practice banjo without really hurting my grades. It was all easily and quickly forgotten, but many years later one of my son's elementary school teachers made my head spin with strings of the same long-forgotten acronyms, obviously thinking she was just impressing my pants off.
When I first started working at my brother's veterinary clinic, the acronyms flew thicker than flies in a horse barn, and I was at first lost until I began realizing that things like HBC stood for "Hit By Car" and VGP meant parvo shot. Seems to take the same amount of breath. It was all just a power trip.
On the other hand, terms like "opistoglyphous" and "occipitomaculata" take more effort to learn, but they tend to stick. They are also beautifully descriptive and filled with meaning.
A few acronyms, such as ATB, EDB and WDB, I will defer to and use, since typing "Eastern Diamonback Rattlesnake" can admittedly be laborious, especially on a forum. I'm with Doug on "coppers" and "cottons" though, as I find them a bit too familiar and trivializing of my favorite snakes. I don't even like "rattler" though, preferring "rattlesnake" in all its dignified glory.
Truth be known, I'm not even really crazy about the term "hot" (even though it is part of the name of this august society). I never heard it before, when... the 1990's? Where did it come from? I'd just be curious to know. It does seem to fit, in an annoying sort of way, but it also seems to diminish nonvenomous snakes as being "un-hot."
To each his own, however, and whatever flips your tin!!
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RE: Intellectual Lazines
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by Cro on January 20, 2009
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Great Points Fred. I feel sorry for the folks who can't see the beauty and eloquence expressed in some Latin words like occipitomaculata or rhombomaculata.
As far as the use of EDB and WDB, well, those are so well known, it is probably safe to use them. However, what the heck is a ATB ? Perhaps a African Tree Boa ? LOL.
One of the things that really gripes me is a field herper who use the term "AC." I though they had found a dump and were flipping old "Air Conditioning" units that had been disgarded, but the nitwhits were using that term for "artificial cover." What ever happened to flipping tin or boards ? Had to be a yankee who thought that one up, LOL.
And the worst of all, are the folks who still use a term that started in the 1970's, and is even worse than the song Groovy. It is the term "Herptile." Who ever invented that one should be flogged, LOL.
Best Regards
John Z
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RE: Intellectual Lazines
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by tigers9 on January 21, 2009
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Cro u r right. Does that mean I have to keep saying ‘PIN number” instead of just PIN ???;-)
Anyway my lion's name is BB which usually means Bam bam, but on some days it might mean Big Boy, Big Butt, Bad Boy, Big Bum...
Z
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RE: Intellectual Lazines
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by FSB on January 22, 2009
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Oh dang, that's what I should have said: "Whatever flips your artificial cover." Has such a nice ring to it...
Yes, I agree that "herptile" is an odious term. Sounds like some of these ultra-stupid cheesy new dinosaur names they've been coming up with, like "Supersaurus."
That's a super-sized sauropod, I guess, w/ fries.
Anyway, ATB is "Amazon Tree Boa." Guess that makes a Sanzinia a MTB. Hey, we could do this all day: CBC= Colombian Boa Constrictor, BP=Burmese Python, ARP= African Rock Python and PA=Puff Adder.
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