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There's another domain where predominantly white males give arbitrary names: Physics. While there are many examples of funny or quirky names there, none of them
by ignifero 15y ago
There's another domain where predominantly white males give arbitrary names: Physics. While there are many examples of funny or quirky names there, none of them is offensive. For the extra reason that the innuendo loses its humor after the first time you use it, and these names are meant to stick indefinately.
P.S. Also Biology, but these people are not even comfortable with sonic the hedgehog.
- possibilistic 15y agoBiologist here. The Drosophila community is rife with humorous (and sometimes offensive) gene names like "Cheap Date" (ethanol sensitivity), "Ken and Barbie" (genitalia fail to develop), and "Fruity" (male fruit flies show no attraction to females) -- that one was so controversial it got renamed "fruitless". http://flybase.org/reports/FBgn0004652.html http://flybase.org/reports/FBgn0004652.html The research communities for organisms such as E. coli tend to think this practice is immature. Genes should follow a specific nomenclature: fis (factor for inversion stimulation), mot (motility), etc. This issue with software has been around a while, too. A ton of people dislike the name "Gimp", for instance.
- ignifero 15y agoWow, i didn't know fruity was a slang word for gay. But see, the community changed it eventhough it's a milder case than the one presented here (as "pantyshot" presumably refers to a non-consensual/harassment act (not that i am not sympathetic to gay drosophilas))