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“Which word begins with “y” and looks like an axe in this picture?”
- CJefferson 9y agoThis is the kind of deep investigation of a super specific issue I always enjoy reading. This is what I thought the internet would be, 20 years ago.
- morninj 9y agoYou were right!
- nothis 9y agoPretty sure we had stuff like that in 1997!
- jpcosta 9y agoI would love to see a deep investigation proving/disproving this point
- collinmanderson 9y agoSomewhat related: USENET's culture was destroyed as early at 1993. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
- KGIII 9y agopours one out for my homies More seriously, I sometimes sorta miss USENET. However, my ISP actually still provisions it. It has been a while, but I have gone back to check it out. It's nothing like I remember, so I don't end up making it a point to check the groups regularly and I leave it alone for a few more years.
- thearn4 9y agoIt's a shame that the internet devolved into cat pictures, pervasive advertisements, and political shouting matches. On the other hand, there are still some great communities out there for great discussion. I consider HN to be one of them.
- coldpie 9y agoPerhaps unintuitively, the Something Awful forums are another relatively small, intelligent community.
- therobotking 9y agoI genuinely worry about the day the SA forums get shut down for whatever reason. I've been posting there since 2003 and it's my first stop on the 'daily internet check' ritual.
- Latty 9y agoIt didn't devolve - it expanded. There is still plenty of great content out there, it's just mixed with a lot of other content of varying quality.
- Double_a_92 9y agoMaybe "diluted" is a fitting word.
- ryandrake 9y agoNot really, "dilution" implies that when the Internet grows to include another crappy site everything else in the "solution" is slightly crappier. If a new web site for cat pictures or political shouting matches opens up tomorrow, it does not affect the quality and usefulness of HN.
- chongli 9y agoNo, but I've seen plenty of good subreddits go bad after a flood of new users!
- paulgb 9y agoThe smaller stack exchanges are a really wonderful source of content I never thought I needed to know. I always check out the "hot network questions" side panel when I land on stack overflow and almost always find something interesting.
- nsxwolf 9y agoI always thought they were about "networking" as in IT so they'd really confuse me.
- pkamb 9y agoI always get sucked in to the addicting Hot Network Questions as well when I land on Stack Overflow, which is why I need to block the entire sidebar so that I can get some work done! https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hide-hot-network-question/jommfgnflipjalbpbgcfghdpoeijpoab?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hide-hot-network-q...
- dufferzafar 9y agoI do this too! Firefox - uBlock's "Block Element" feature.
- Anthony-G 9y agoI also block the Hot Network Questions on Stack Exchange sites while at work – though not when using my home profile. As a Firefox user, I simply added the following lines to my `userContent.css`: @-moz-document domain("stackoverflow.com"), domain("superuser.com"), domain("serverfault.com"), domain("askubuntu.com"), domain("stackexchange.com") { #hot-network-questions { display: none; } }
- sp332 9y agoIt's a sign of a "cognitive surplus", because we have more educated people now than we have jobs for them to do. Also it's a sign of how these sites get people to work for them for free, and concentrate huge amounts of other people's work for their own benefit. This poster got nothing for all that work, but SE still gets advertising revenue driven by interest in the content.
- logicallee 9y agoanother example that there is not enough work to go around is that if you go into any downtown anywhere in the world at 7 pm to 8 p.m. you will see people drinking beer in bars. These same people could still be working, since there is no reason they shouldn't be in an office, factory, etc, for a full 14-hour workday. Clearly there is just not enough work to go around, which manifests itself as people sitting around drinking or going on fun Internet sleuthing that nobody would mistake for work. (well, except that one guy.)
- YesThatTom2 9y agoChildren are the same way. All that time they spend playing could be spent in a factory making sneakers.
- mcphage 9y agoI don't know about your kids, but mine would make some shitty sneakers :-)
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoThey'll be fine after a few days of training.
- sp332 9y agoI'm not arguing from first principles here. Workforce participation is down. This is just a symptom. I'm not against having free time, but against companies who ask you to work for them for free. If people had the ability to make money with their time and effort, that guy would be more likely to be paid for his post.
- ryanx435 9y agoyou should read some of /pol/'s analysis of the email leaks from last year: it was truly a wonder of crowd-sourced investigation. They even set up meta investigators (managers?) to help guide the anonymous users' investigations to make sure that all of the emails got read and categorized. it was quite fun to be a part of, actually.
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoOnce you strip out the racist and homophobic filler was it actually good analysis?
- ryanx435 9y agoIt was. Very professional, considering it was all anonymous. But there were high standards and major findings had to be verified before being disseminated.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- johan_larson 9y agoI'm happy to report there is a website specifically for investigations like this: http://nounsstarting.com http://nounsstarting.com Oh internet, never change.
- oblio 9y agoIsn't the internet just a reflection of humanity, at this point?
- amrrs 9y agoA Point. We seem to make a lot of cost-benefit analyses for every decision make instead of just doing something because it's good to do. We living in the age of matured internet seemed to be only interested in contents that could help us make a point (Read: ROI) during a discussion or debate unlike people earlier just wanted to know something with no reason. Hence triviality didn't come as a filter.
- asciimo 9y agoExactly. I started skimming the article like I do most these days, scrolling to the punch line while collecting the gist. When I got to the part about the ball being a knock-off, I was struck with excitement because I knew I wanted to read this whole thing, word for word. Almost as good as the story about the missing German family (http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/ http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hun...)!
- drworm 9y agoWhat an interesting story! Thanks for sharing. The way it's written, and the theme, remind me of: http://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/page1.html http://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/page1.html
- octalmage 9y agoI've always loved this kind of stuff from Quora, for example: https://www.quora.com/Suppose-I-just-stole-2-billion-dollars-from-a-bank-How-should-I-use-this-money-without-being-traced/answer/Seth-Neal?share=a28bebd2&srid=hHDK https://www.quora.com/Suppose-I-just-stole-2-billion-dollars...
- yuleanswer 9y agoYule. For Yuletide
- jrs235 9y agoThat's what I came to guess too.
- coldpie 9y agoI'm thrilled that you created an account to post specifically this comment. It is, indeed, a yule answer.
- TazeTSchnitzel 9y agoWhich is a phrase used much more in modern Swedish than English.
- likelynew 9y agoI tried to google that without much success. What is that?
- jbob2000 9y agoThe answer is one of the top comments: > Yellow. Looks like a squiggle of yellow oil paint squeezing out of a short, fat tube.
- tyingq 9y agoPossible, but there's ample evidence around the Yxa (Swedish name for axe) theory. Even use in a similar context: https://i.stack.imgur.com/LNTu2.jpg https://i.stack.imgur.com/LNTu2.jpg https://i.stack.imgur.com/xzaQ9.jpg https://i.stack.imgur.com/xzaQ9.jpg And it matches the "U" for "U-Boat", which apparently would be more common in Swedish (Ubåt) to refer to a submarine. It does require you believe whoever made the ball mixed Swedish and English, which seems possible given that it is a Chinese knockoff of a Hedstrom product.
- jeltz 9y ago"Ubåt" is the most common word for submarine in Swedish, and there is also a little used longer version "undervattensbåt" which also starts with "U".
- scott_s 9y agoThe top response is far more convincing (it's a loan word from Swedish, and it's a knock-off ball, making such mistakes more likely).
- jessaustin 9y agoWe've all been trolled by a toy artist...
- Udik 9y agoYou look at the axe and wonder: "why?" :)
- xattt 9y agoYoke?
- emodendroket 9y agoDoes the picture look anything like a yoke?
- rplnt 9y agoI thought the Worm was a Maggot.
- eyeownyde 9y agoMy initial impression was mealworm.
- ninjakeyboard 9y agoTube of paint squeezing out some yellow sounds reasonable.
- rangibaby 9y agoI'm with you. That "handle" looks like paint to me.
- nsxwolf 9y agoLooks like a scroll-end axe handle to me.
- BugsJustFindMe 9y agoExcept that neither the axe head nor the intersection between it and the yellow look anything at all like that.
- maxk42 9y agoPerhaps the concept artist drew poorly a tube of acrylic paint squeezing some yellow goop and the person responsible for the final product couldn't figure out what the heck they were looking at, but said "Well it looks like an axe to me" (in some language other than English) and changed it accordingly.
- metaphor 9y ago25 physical. 1 abstract. Internet throws Occam's razor out the window.
- magic_beans 9y agoThis was such a delightful read. A quote from the wonderful Okja recently released on Netflix: "Never mistranslate!"... unless you make balls for toddlers!
- johan_larson 9y agoIn fairness, there aren't a lot of good choices for Y. year yell yacht yellow yearling yeti yoga I'd probably go with yoga, myself.
- tyingq 9y agoThe original Hedstrom ball used a yo-yo.
- SamBam 9y agoLooking at posters online, I find the most common, in order, are Yo-Yo, Yacht, Yak, and Yellow.
- CiPHPerCoder 9y agoWhy not a yatagan?
- johan_larson 9y agoToo obscure.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- wallabie 9y agoIt may still be an axe, but with a silent Y in the front. A 'yaxe', if you will.
- saimiam 9y ago"Y? You Axe..."
- Luc 9y agoThe top answer is a picture of the use of Yxa in a Swedish alphabet learning book, yet there's still people here clinging to the yellow paint tube theory. Incredible. Not sure what cognitive bias is at play here (or more charitably: perhaps they didn't scroll down). EDIT: Some say these are pictures of a paint tube and some yellow paint: https://jimthechairmaker.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/my-carving-axe/ https://jimthechairmaker.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/my-carving... The fact that an axe is used in the exact same way in the Swedish book is very strong evidence. There's prior art.
- Latty 9y agoThat top answer is hardly conclusive - it's definitely a possibility, but given the weird choices in the art for the "axe" (bendy handle, not a defined edge at the bottom) - I buy it could have been a yellow paint tube. Nouns beginning with Y are not exactly easy to come across (the official "Yo-Yo" is hardly as common as the other words on the ball), and as has been pointed out, it's entirely possible the art was worked on by multiple people and changed or whatever. Maybe the wrong-language thing is more likely (the U-boat choice is the thing that makes me lean this way the most), but I don't think the yellow paint tube idea is completely impossible.
- iak8god 9y ago> Nouns beginning with Y are not exactly easy to come across There are a lot of animals on this ball. How about "Yak"?
- mnarayan01 9y agoA semi-esoteric bovid does not strike me as easily distinguishable given the style of the illustrations.
- iak8god 9y ago"Toddler Words | Words Starting With Y" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuR7ao20nko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuR7ao20nko Yogurt, Yak, Yam, Yarn. There really just aren't a lot of options.
- thought_alarm 9y agoAnd now, back to my thesis.
- peterkelly 9y agoThis reminds me of the scene in Silicon Valley where Peter Gregory notices the popularity of Burger King, the number of sesame seeds they use, and remembers that sesame seeds only grow in Myanmar, Brazil, and Indonesia - the former two of which have large Cicada populations that emerge at different times. After some research, he finds that this is about to occur simultaneously in both countries for the first time in a couple of centuries. Apparently Indonesia doesn't have cicadas, so he purchases some surprisingly cheap Indonesian sesame seed futures based on the expectation that the price will spike next year. Whoever did the detective work in the top answer to this article should get into investing, if they aren't already.
- ozzmotik 9y agoi certainly have to agree entirely with what you said. i just recently got into watching silicon valley and have been binge watching it, and you definitely have a point with how the analysis in the top answer is very reminiscent of the mentality that Peter Gregory would so frequently display.
- pouetpouet 9y agowhich episode?
- rkuykendall-com 9y agoThe pilot.
- teirce 9y agoIt's not the pilot, but it's definitely in the first few episodes.
- rkuykendall-com 9y agoOh sorry, thanks for the correction, I really did confidently believe it was the final scene in the pilot for some reason. Wish I could delete my comment.
- ryan606 9y agoOne of the best guerilla marketing tactics I've seen in a while.
- emodendroket 9y agoYep, those Chinese bootleggers of a Swedish children's toy are gonna be rolling in it.
- rdiddly 9y agoHappily I see that my pet theory involving yaks is represented in the answers; I can now go back to work.
- flipcoder 9y agoLooks like yellow paint being sprayed out of the top of a spray paint can
- armandososa 9y agoA long time ago I worked as a "designer" for somebody who owned a chain of medium retail stores in Mexico and a also biggish printshop. When there was a (printed) product was selling very well, he would go to me and ask me to make one as similar as possible so he can manufacture it and get more of the profits. He did it all the time and didn't care at all for the quality of the product. At first I tried to make the illustrations myself or actually try to do an original spin on the product, but he put pressure to just pull a clip art and call it a day. Some times I tried to hide some in-jokes or innappropiate stuff just to see if anybody noticed. For example, he once got me to to copy a whole book on some catholic saint, on a hurry, and refuse to pay some one to proff-read it. So I intentionally replaced some words here and there to change the meaning and I even changed the name of the saint to "Batman" in the middle of the book. Nobody ever noticed. So my guess is that whoever designed this ball is on a similar situation and did put even less effort into doing it, than whoever has the third top answer in the Stackoverflow post. Or maybe she even put a swedish axe just to see if anybody would notice.
- thedrake 9y agoI found the BALL manufacturer!!!! https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Alphabets-print-ball_573748097.html https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Alphabets-print-ball_... (not able to comment on the original thread on the page bc I do not have the 50 points needed. Pls post a link there to further the discovery)
- kochb 9y agoPosted as a comment on the main answer: https://english.stackexchange.com/a/395385/63201 https://english.stackexchange.com/a/395385/63201
- Ajedi32 9y agoDirect link to the comment: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which-word-begins-with-y-and-looks-like-an-axe-in-this-picture/395385#comment941032_395385 https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which-wor... (For future reference, you can get that link by clicking the timestamp next to the comment.)
- danbron 9y agoDude. You are my hero.
- danbron 9y agoCan you tell me more about your process? How did you hunt this down?
- thedrake 9y agoI thought as the shop owner. Where would I buy things for cheap. Alibaba was my first thought. Went there and searched for the ball... bingo! Now I am hot on the trail of unraveling the entire mystery... What I am now doing is to think like the person who designed it. The more I can be in their shoes the better. This has led me to find the discrepancies from the original ball and this one (the knockoff). I have focused on what is different between the two. So far it is Y. V. and U which has led me to look for clip art that is similar between them. I am not of the belief that it is an axe (yxa)until it is proven. My first search was the other products from the company to see if it was used other places/products to no avail. Now I am finding the clip art in alphabet sets and flashcards. The more that are similar will lead to the answer(s). I found only one u-boat flashcard http://www.picturesof.net/_images_300/U_Is_For_U_Boat_Alphabet_Card_Royalty_Free_Clipart_Picture_101010-210774-313048.jpg http://www.picturesof.net/_images_300/U_Is_For_U_Boat_Alphab... but now do not think that is the actual image. Now looking for clipart that has V is for volcano. Found a few and now looking for axes etc but... My current theory is that it is NOT an ax or yxa but paint for Yellow like the second post shows. My photoshop skills are not great but I think it is a combination from this image http://clipground.com/image-post/90353-red-color-tube-clipart-7.jpg.html http://clipground.com/image-post/90353-red-color-tube-clipar... or this image http://clipground.com/image-post/90353-red-color-tube-clipart-6.jpg.html http://clipground.com/image-post/90353-red-color-tube-clipar... (I also think that it does not have to be originally yellow as that is a simple change to do in photoshop so the other colors can work) The caps in this picture are very close as are the paint threads and my guess is that they can be overlaid with near perfection if my photoshop skills allowed. I was led to this site because of the image for U-boat is here on the same site http://clipground.com/image-post/62547-submarine-boat-clipart-11.jpg.html http://clipground.com/image-post/62547-submarine-boat-clipar...
- racl101 9y agoHoly schnikes. I'd love to have that much free time ... and powers of insight.
- omgbear 9y agoyellow brick road? Could be a castle at the end.
- raldi 9y agoNow let's see if we can solve one of /r/whatisthisthing's most longstanding mysteries: What does the J stand for on this blanket? https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/58o43m/help_what_does_j_stand_for/ https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/58o43m/hel...
- just4themoney 9y agoWhat is N?
- raldi 9y agonest
- louprado 9y agoAssuming this was made in China, there are two sources of confusion that could lead to this mix up. 1. The letter 'A' and an upside down Y-shaped character share the same key on a Chinese/English key board. This could lead to an unintended subconscious relationship between these symbol shapes.[1] 2. The orientation of these characters abruptly changed on the ball graphic between W and Q, leaving the orientation of the Y-shaped letter unclear to someone with minimal familiarity of Latin letters. An upside down Y is also easy to confuse with the letter A if you are not familiar. This all assumes that Axe was the first common-'A' word selected. Perhaps they postponed the choice of the common-'Y' word given it is challenging. After misattributing Y for A, then someone just added an Apple graphic. [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/Standard_Taiwanese_Keyboard_Layout.svg/420px-Standard_Taiwanese_Keyboard_Layout.svg.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/St...
- louprado 9y ago⅄xe
- justinhj 9y agoDon't y'all have y'own axes?
- thedrake 9y agoSOLVED!!!! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14673626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14673626
- danbron 9y agoCan you post it again? That link just leads to a comment which says "[dead]". I'm new to HN. I may be doing something wrong.
- thedrake 9y agosubmissions | comments * 1 point by thedrake 4 hours ago | parent | un-favorite | on: “Which word begins with “y” and looks like an axe ... SOLVED!!!!!! I spent several hours looking for an axe or a hatchet or an Ubåt This is NOT what the designer would search as they most likely do NOT speak English (Chinese made from earlier research above of the ball manufactuer) Me getting into the shoes of the designer: Assumptions: The designer is in a hurry. They would search in their language which I found via google translate is https://www.dropbox.com/s/h585tt6fwcb0x54/Screenshot%202017-.. https://www.dropbox.com/s/h585tt6fwcb0x54/Screenshot%202017-.... 斧头 So my next google search is http://lmgtfy.com/?q=clipart+%E6%96%A7%E5%A4%B4 http://lmgtfy.com/?q=clipart+%E6%96%A7%E5%A4%B4 I looked at the images and in the top right I saw IT... and began to tremble as it was right there.... The Original (bottom right in my screenshot) The Found Ball (top right) And THE IMAGE that was used: https://www.dropbox.com/s/oho6qtlyja7quaq/Screenshot%202017-.. https://www.dropbox.com/s/oho6qtlyja7quaq/Screenshot%202017-.... The google search: https://www.google.com/search?q=clipart+斧头&tbm=isch&imgil=ay... https://www.google.com/search?q=clipart+斧头&tbm=isch&imgil=ay...: Thanks for the all the help along the way
- thedrake 9y agosubmissions | comments * 1 point by thedrake 4 hours ago | parent | un-favorite | on: “Which word begins with “y” and looks like an axe ... SOLVED!!!!!! I spent several hours looking for an axe or a hatchet or an Ubåt This is NOT what the designer would search as they most likely do NOT speak English (Chinese made from earlier research above of the ball manufactuer) Me getting into the shoes of the designer: Assumptions: The designer is in a hurry. They would search in their language which I found via google translate is https://www.dropbox.com/s/h585tt6fwcb0x54/Screenshot%202017-.. https://www.dropbox.com/s/h585tt6fwcb0x54/Screenshot%202017-.... 斧头 So my next google search is http://lmgtfy.com/?q=clipart+%E6%96%A7%E5%A4%B4 http://lmgtfy.com/?q=clipart+%E6%96%A7%E5%A4%B4 I looked at the images and in the top right I saw IT... and began to tremble as it was right there.... The Original (bottom right in my screenshot) The Found Ball (top right) And THE IMAGE that was used: https://www.dropbox.com/s/oho6qtlyja7quaq/Screenshot%202017-.. https://www.dropbox.com/s/oho6qtlyja7quaq/Screenshot%202017-.... The google search: https://www.google.com/search?q=clipart+斧头&tbm=isch&imgil=ay... https://www.google.com/search?q=clipart+斧头&tbm=isch&imgil=ay...: Thanks for the all the help along the way
- awesomebing1 9y agoI've always found English SE to be interesting, because it varies between questions like this with extremely well thought up answers and questions that are so-so.