Jerseygirl

I also cannot abide seafood, or any kind of fish.

scotty9000

looks like the work of a 12 year old, seems a bit early for retirement

Gordon Barlow

Linda and I once (long ago) met the friend of a friend who had spent time In Bahrain and who always called it Bakh-rain; and every time she said the name she blinked her eyes with the effort of getting the -kh- just right. Of course ever thereafter we ourselves pronounced it her way, and chuckled.

Gordon Barlow

Pulling up a month-old post of yours, abner: what do you think of the slight change of name of Turkey - the country, not the bird? The new spelling is Turkiye but with an umlaut over the -u- , which of course is not an English letter. Wikipedia tells us the first syllable is pronounced "Tyr", which I take to be "tier", so the whole word would be tier-key-eh. Now the Turks themselves can pronounce it how they like, and the umlaut is present in the Turkish written language. But should we say Tier-kish in English? Is -ish kosher in the language of Tu-umlaut-rk-iye?

And for that matter, what do we do with the last syllable of Burmese, when we no longer say "Burma"? It can't be Myanmar-ese, surely! Or can it? How far must we go, to conform to the new rules?

What do you reckon?

abner

So might makes right, then. The big white fella transited through in 1770 and got to rename everything. Is that it?

***

Except he didn't: James Fraser didn't turn up to the area until 1836, at which point he and his missus were shipwrecked near present-day Rockhampton, and rescued by Aboriginal locals. He died in the aftermath, she didn't. Once she made it back to Sydney she made a fortune from her story, including complaints that she'd been asked to pitch in to communal tasks by the locals.

So "Fraser Island" wasn't named as such for "settlers" of any era, original or otherwise, but for a shipwrecked sailor who spent at most a few weeks there. Hardly enough, by your own exacting standard, to lay claim to the naming rights...

And so more recent Australians have judged his legacy in relation to the island -- and its name -- as ephemeral, and reverted back to a longer-established and better-grounded tradition for the name.

Surely you approve?

abner

Gordon, it's just not that hard. It would seem polite just to ask them how they'd like to be addressed, don't you think?

I don't have any plans to visit there, nor do I correspond with anyone from there. But if I did have the occasion to do so, I'd look up and/or ask about forms of address, and their accepted transliterations to English..

Just seems like the right thing to do.

Gordon Barlow

Oh, I do approve. I approve in the same way that I - if I had the authority - would re-name New South Wales, so arrogantly re-named by some other "big white fella". From now on I shall call it "NEW SOUTH K'GARI". I hope you will help it to catch on.

Gordon Barlow

I've started a whole new thread for the history of the Australian aborigines, so it's time for another shrimp to be thrown on the barbie here. It's an old shrimp that fell off a while back, but I've brushed the dirt off it and it's good to go. Not to worry!

I expect that many BE members have Facebook accounts, or Instagram, or some other social forum in which their names and doings are spread far and wide - and yet they maintain anonymity on BE. Why is that? I'm genuinely interested; it seems anomalous. Earlier in this present thread - way back; months ago - it was claimed that anonymity gives protection against scammers. And maybe it does. But if it does, doesn't that also apply to Facebook and the rest? Unless those forums allow fake names, and BE members use them there. I don't know. (There is a specific reason why I long ago decided to use my real name everywhere except where I'm actually required to dream up a fake one. It's a boring story, not relevant to the main issue.)

Finknottle

Good question! I suppose if you're just posting your (irrelevant) current activity (ie drinking coffee) on Facebook then using your real name doesn't matter, but if you're posting opinions then it does - maybe?

christmasoompa

My Facebook and Instagram accounts are locked down with tight privacy controls, so my 'doings' aren't visible to anybody that isn't a relative or good friend. BE is a public forum, so anybody on the internet can see anything I post on it. Very different IMO.

btar

I suspect that some people have to be very careful about revealing their names or other personal identification features. I recall one place where the local magistrate lived in a house protected by a number of security cameras and whilst they are clearly a very public figure, many in the law and order world may not wish to be known.
As an aside, I wonder what AI will make of all this information that can now be assembled in response to very searching questions!

Dorothy

Not all people use their "real" name on social media. I know I don't. I rarely post anything on social media, and when I do it's generally in a few closed groups I belong to - one or two pottery groups and a few sewing groups. The very rare time I post on a public group it's not my real name that's used. No employer or random who wants to find me will do it easily.

And as Christmas says, my public interactions on sites like BE are a whole lot different to my private interactions with my close friends and family on social media.

PS, I fixed your quote.

Gordon Barlow

A report last year told of a telephoned ransom-demand to a mother by kidnappers of her teenage daughter. The daughter's distinctive voice in the background could be heard tearfully begging her mother to get her out of there. Panicking, and quite without thinking, the mother called the girl's phone and discovered that all was well. It was presumed that AI had somehow been used to fake the girl's distinctive voice. These days there is plenty of that sort of thing going on, and "deepfake" substitutions of people's faces and bodies too. Where can it end?

We read reports of pranksters pretending to be the Presidents of countries interviewing (by phone) the actual Presidents of other countries. I don't think AI is used there, which is even more scary! I suspect there is no practical way for anybody to protect himself or herself from being deep-faked. The web has plenty of videos of public figures "speaking" words that have been artificially put into their mouths. What to do, btar? (If "btar" is your real name, of course!)

btar

What to do indeed, hence the reason for dropping this little sprat onto the barbie to see if any mackerel might bite. Your description above of the telephoned ransom is scary and would trick most people into believing it to be genuine. No doubt we have to proceed with even more caution than before, validating everything about which we have the slightest doubt. Perhaps there is an AI solution which could be used in a defensive mode but when you are up to your backside in alligators etc etc.

Gordon Barlow

One of my corporate clients the other week was hacked. Its monthly order to its local bank to pay US suppliers' bills, contained a small change in the designated branch of one of the US banks - correct account number, but slightly incorrect branch address. The change came to light when the local bank, as per longstanding agreement, phoned the payer's nominated individual in the accounts department and read back the word-for-word line-by-line instructions for every one of the umpteen payments. Would AI have picked up the difference? Probably. But would it have recommended such a low-tech procedure in the first place? Maybe not.

I don't know enough about AI to say yes or no. What do you reckon, btar?