Nephele

There are probably only two that I would recommend, and both are really onomastics sites more than baby names sites, and are owned by friends of mine. Norah owns NameNerds.com (to which I've already given you the link). My other friend, Mike, owns BehindtheName.com -- Nephele

Well, I was already familiar with these names. As you know, names are my game (along with anagramming). But you'll find these names and more at the website of an old friend of mine who specializes in names of the British Isles: http://www.namenerds.com -- Nephele

It's one of my favorite names and, unfortunately, there's no masculine form that I know of. How about... Ruaidhri: pronounced ROO-ah-ree, a masculine Irish Gaelic name that means "red king". -- Nephele

Is that a fighting fish? Oooo, it's beautiful. I think it's a "she" (because she's so beautiful) and here's a name suggestion: Lasair

An excellent essay, Faustus! With fine pictorial contributions from Klingan. And, Northern Neil, you know I adore your miniature Roman models. Thanks for posting that link of yours. I think it should be added that the Roman domus also served as the family's center of worship, in that a special chapel area was dedicated for the display of small images of the family lares -- guardians of the home. The miniature temple to the family lares (mounted on a table or enclosed within a cupboard, with a small brazier for burning incense) in earlier times would have been in the atrium, but afterwards (at least by the 2nd century CE) it was to be found in its own niche just off the peristylium. -- Nephele

You forgot to include "Buy lottery tickets" on your list. -- Nephele

What great pictures! Thanks for posting these! That Grand Hotel looks a bit like the Overlook Hotel from Stephen King's The Shining. Niiiiice! And, I read that cars are outlawed on the island. What fun to really need a horse! If I ever win the lottery, I'm buying one of those skillionaire's houses -- with a cupola! You guys are a beautiful family! -- Nephele

That is just so damn rude. Tell Denise to tell her friend to tell idiots like that: "Well, I can always get thinner, but you'll never get smarter." Have a new anagram alias, DoL. You're a goddess! Your first name, middle initial, and last name = Asherah Roman Asherah: Near Eastern nature and mother goddess. No wonder you like kids so much! And, of course, the surname of "Roman" is self-explanatory. -- Nephele

"Oh, honey, you should have those spots looked at. You can't be too careful!" That's when you should have regarded her quizzically, then slowly peered at yourself and exclaimed in sudden alarm: "HOLY SHIT! I didn't have those spots when I came in here!" Rub yourself frantically with a towel. "What the fuck IS this??? OH MY GOD, there must be something contagious going around the gym!!" At this point, grab hold of the woman in desperation. "Do you have it, too??" If you don't give the old yakhne a heart attack, it might at least be amusing to see her try to squirm out of your "contagious" grasp. -- Nephele

It was a hoax. "They are the amazing pictures that were beamed around the globe: a handful of warriors from an 'undiscovered tribe' in the rainforest on the Brazilian-Peruvian border brandishing bows and arrows at the aircraft that photographed them. "Or so the story was told and sold. But it has now emerged that, far from being unknown, the tribe's existence has been noted since 1910 and the mission to photograph them was undertaken in order to prove that 'uncontacted' tribes still existed in an area endangered by the menace of the logging industry." Secret of the 'lost' tribe that wasn't -- Nephele

"If you can't say 'fuck', you can't say 'fuck the government.'" -- Lenny Bruce We'll miss you, too, George. -- Nephele

I know I should have asked Mrs. Rand, but that phrase just doesn't make any sense. Maybe you need to read The Fountainhead. -- Nephele Maybe. But as The Fountainhead is a fiction work, I really doubt there would be the anthropological evidence that might have supported her extraordinary assertion on the savage's existence as public (?). Is anyone aware of her rationale for this specific phrase? The quote comes from Ayn Rand's character, the architect and protagonist of The Fountainhead, Howard Roark. Roark is the quintessential individualist. He speaks these words in his defense during the courtroom scene in the novel, when he is on trial for having dynamited a building that he designed, but which had been subverted by "second-handers". It's a long speech, that Roark gives. It's a speech about individualism, the virtues of selfishness and reason, the nature of achievement, and the folly of collectivism. Here is an excerpt which contains the quote (at the end): -- Nephele

Not if you're comfortable with your government having the power of life and death over you. Frankly, I'm not comfortable with that at all, especially since our government makes mistakes (and sometimes those mistakes are deliberate). -- Nephele Don't get my wrong, Lady N; I'm not defending the Lex Talionis or capital punishment, even less its implementation by anyone, but just trying to explain what I think that specific question on the political compass' quiz means and what it is intended to measure. I understand that. But what I'm saying is that the "eye for an eye" proposition on the quiz really is not clear at all as to whether it's a gauge of where one stands on the issue of capital punishment (this is a political quiz, after all, and "eye for an eye" is the phrase most often used in justifying capital punishment), or whether it's simply to determine whether one believes in personally giving back as good as one gets. The FAQ describes the proposition this way: Regardless of whether you answered "agree" or "disagree" to the "an eye for an eye" proposition, this doesn't address an individual's concern regarding whether our government should have the power to deal out fatal retribution. The proposition may be "unambiguous in its call for punishment that approximates the crime" (as the author claims), but when it comes to addressing the issue of life-and-death power over us being placed in the hands of our government (i.e. capital punishment), the proposition in the quiz is vague, or metaphorical, or silly, or whatever you wish to call it. -- Nephele

Not if you're comfortable with your government having the power of life and death over you. Frankly, I'm not comfortable with that at all, especially since our government makes mistakes (and sometimes those mistakes are deliberate). As I said, the power of life and death over us is too much power for our government to wield. And that is the reason why I am opposed to capital punishment. -- Nephele

Thanks, Faustus and Asclepiades (and anyone else who adds to this thread). I'm thinking of sending a link to this thread to the new Director of the NY Aquarium. I did indeed. Saturday was the day of the annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade (New York's answer to New Orleans' Mardi Gras), which was my main reason for heading out to Coney Island. But, of course, a trip to Coney Island isn't complete without a visit to the wonderful NY Aquarium. -- Nephele

Yesterday I visited the New York Aquarium at Coney Island and, right as you're leaving one of the exhibits, there's this kind of faux ancient fresco on the wall with the attached inscription (see close-up in 2nd pic that I snapped): I never heard of such a thing, but a quick check of the "Electric Ray" entry at Wikipedia turned this up: It's kind of a weak confirmation, if any, as treatment for headache and gout hardly falls into the same category as improvised defibrillation for a heart patient. Rather than roll an incredulous eye at the dedicated and justifiably-proud-of-our-fish NY Aquarium folks, I thought I'd ask my fellow UNRV-ers: Can anyone here could provide any ancient sources to confirm the claim that the ancient Romans and Greeks used electric fish as defibrillators? -- Nephele

Some of those propositions could be answered either way, depending on what one imagines is meant by them. Such as "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Is that asking whether one believes one's government has the right to impose capital punishment for a crime resulting in the death of the victim -- or simply whether you are justified in punching someone back who punched you first? Anyway, here's how I fared on this test: http://www.politicalcompass.org/printableg...0&soc=-6.05 While I was somewhat surprised to see myself placed so far to the right, I was interested to read this in the FAQ: -- Nephele

I know I should have asked Mrs. Rand, but that phrase just doesn't make any sense. Maybe you need to read The Fountainhead. -- Nephele

100%/100% for me, too. Nicely said, MPC. But I'm having a tough time seeing how one can even have boring economic freedom without personal freedom. If your government threatens you with imprisonment for using your freely earned dollars to purchase recreational drugs and prostituted sex (prohibited because your nanny government knows what's best for you), or prevents you from earning a living for yourself through prostituting your own body (if that's your choice, considering that your body is your property -- not your government's property), then you don't really have economic freedom (as well as personal freedom). It just seems to me that economic and personal freedoms are inseparable. -- Nephele

I'd pay money to see both those movies. How about... Juvenal's Delinquents: The story of the late 1st century C.E. Roman poet who proposed the enforced teaching of Latin to Rome's barbarian youth, to keep them off the streets and out of trouble. Oh, wait... That somehow has a modern ring to it... -- Nephele

Everything you need to know about the popular movies in 30 seconds, brought to you by: Angry Alien Productions and the 30-Second Bunnies Theatre -- Nephele

Hulk vs. Cloverfield Monster -- who do you think would win? -- Nephele

Minerva, you are a freedwoman. Your former master was Publius Satureius, a Tribune of the Plebs in 133 BCE. An impetuous man, he was noted by the historian Plutarch (Lives: Tiberius Gracchus, 19.6) for having been the first to strike Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (assassinated in the Forum by his fellow senators). Satureius smote the unfortunate Gracchus on the head with the leg of a bench. Upon his own deathbed years later, Publius Satureius decreed that a number of his loyal servants be set free, you being among them. As was customary, you took the name of your former master (in the feminine form), and thus your Roman name became Satureia. For your cognomen, you retained your original Greek slave name of Thalassa (meaning "the sea"). Your full Roman name is: Satureia Thalassa = hahsarlsaisktate -hk +au Welcome to UNRV! -- Nephele

We have a huge Pow Wow every year on Long Island, over the Labor Day weekend. Believe it or not, we do have two Indian reservations on Long Island. It's the Shinnecocks (I love that name -- the other tribe is the Poosepatucks, an equally wonderful name) who invite the public onto their reservation every year for the big Pow Wow. Representatives of tribes from all over the U.S. and Canada come to the Pow Wow, and the costumes, dancing, and food makes for a really fun day. Looking forward to your Gladiatrix review! And, any kind of dancing rocks harder than running, jogging, and especially learning English while you work out. -- Nephele