Today’s Open Thread is hosted by the newly named baby elephant from Taronga Zoo:
A tiny baby elephant is hiding under his mother's belly as they frolic in water. His trunk is raised and his mouth open in a cheery expression akin to "IT'S GOOD TO BE ALIVE :D !!1!"
Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, Frank Sartor, today announced that Taronga’s new elephant calf will be named Pathi Harn (pronounced ‘par tea harn’).
“The people of NSW and zoo keepers have chosen Pathi Harn – the Thai word for miracle – as the new name for Mr Shuffles,†Mr Sartor said.
The little darling has been called a miracle since his birth, as zoo vets had given up hope that he would be born alive after they ceased to detect signs of life.
Anyway, during an IRC conversation earlier today Mary noted that we really don’t have a name for our beloved commenters:
<mary> You know, geekfeminism.org doesn’t have a name for our commenters.
<mary> I mean, like Twisty‘s Blamers, or Shakesville‘s Shakers.
We figure, what the heck, why not let you name yourselves. In a similar fashion to how the adorable bundle of ubercute above was named, we’ll take ideas and poll the suggestions we like most in a future thread.
So, Open Threaders: What do you, our geekfeminist.org community, wish to be nicknamed?
After reading that article, I want to be nicknamed “Ms. Shuffles.”
Yeah, I’m out on this one. I’m horrible at nick names.
How about “the geekfeminism.org collective”?
“Collective” has a history as a word associated with feminist groups, and “.org” sounds an awful lot like “borg”, and there’s no way a Star Trek reference isn’t geeky.
(And it can be referred to as “The Anita Borg Memorial Collective” or something like that officially for extra geekfeminism-related references)
IIRC “hivers” was suggested, which immediately made me think of “zerglings”. I’m not sure the reference is inferrable enough, though.
“Collective” is my favourite so far.
“hivelings” would work too.
Also, the reference is only lost if we let it stay obscure.
I like the hive mind analogy, so I did a little Wikipedia-ing to try and find a suitably geeky and tongue-in-cheek extension to the metaphor.
I looked at bees (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_bee#Life_cycle): drones, workers, queens, honeybees, beeswax.
I looked at swarm intelligence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_intelligence): ants, agents, swarmers.
I looked at collective consciousness (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_consciousness) but didn’t get any inspiration there.
My pick would probably be ‘hive agent’ as it sounds slightly geeky and slightly spy thriller-esque: I personally don’t identify with Star Trek or more obscure sci-fi references! However, I’m a fan of ‘hiveling’ too (despite not getting the reference at all).
“Collective” doesn’t apply to an individual though. If you wanted to say “Mary is a _____” or “I’m a _____” about a gf.org reader, what noun would you use?
Wouldn’t you say “I’m part of the collective”? Or “Mary is part of the collective” or “Mary has joined the collective” or possibly “Mary has been assimilated”, though that seems a bit much.
This term may lose out to geminists though.
Ok, pretend we need to Hat Tip a commenter or attribute a guest post to them. Does “Part of the collective Mary” work in that context? No. “Shaker Mary” or “Blamer Mary” does. We want something like the examples I provided in the post.
Geminists!
that’s perfect
nothing to do with the naming, but this is an open thread, right?
http://acidcow.com/pics/6367-the-most-beautiful-smith-in-the-world-32-pics.html
Wow.
Wow indeed. http://www.callane.com/ appears to be her website and focuses on her work rather than whether she’s a “beautiful smith”.
amazingly, many of the comments on the blag spz linked to actually manage to focus on her work. refreshing, despite the title of the post :)
“A rose by any other name…” reminding me of David Tennant & Katherine Tate in this skit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxB1gB6K-2A
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APWLD has an opportunity to provide support for a volunteer Web Developer here at the Chiang Mai secretariat. If you know of a woman candidate that has experience in website design and programming, we’d love to hear from her. The position will be responsible for the complete technical development of a new APWLD website as well as IT responsibilities supporting the secretariat and members. The candidate should have a commitment to activism and women’s human rights.
Through an opportunity with a funder the volunteer Web Developer would be provided with a relocation allowance, insurance, a 4 week orientation and language course, a living allowance and accommodation allowance. She would have the institutional support of the funder and APWLD while here in Chiang Mai. The position would be for a minimum of 6 months, possibly extending to 13 months.
Any inquiries, can be addressed to Tina, tina@apwld.org
Thank You,
Tina
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) is an independent, non-government, non-profit organisation committed to enabling women to use law as in instrument of change to achieve equality, justice, peace and development.