Aston University + gerbil merch thread

[GrimbutGerbil]

By request. The shop is here

https://grimut-gerbils.teemill.com/

And then even the keyboard turned into chocolate, and then I woke up.

This... This is what my life should be like!

That's all kinds of weird! 😁

Logical ≠ unimaginative. Bat tells you nothing about what to expect - die Fledermaus gives you a surprisingly good idea.

Compound nouns are a glorious thing: Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft (Association for Subordinate Officials of the Head Office Management of the Danube Steamboat Electrical Services) anyone? I maintain that die Handschuhe (gloves) should instead be die Handsocken though.

I think the French have 'chauve souris'...bald mouse? Shaved mouse!?

talking of bald mice I'm thinking of booking the gerbils in fur a mini break at the local mousatery

Turns out i should have read the brochure properly, they are actually ninjas masquerading as monks!

So much for the gentle relaxing retreat!

Nope, ninjas wear black. Those are Shaolin Monks I reckon. I'm not quite old enough to remember the Kung Fu TV series properly, beyond the old blind (I think) monk calling one of the Caradine brothers "Grasshopper", but his costume in this picture looks about right. The bloke who gets dumped in the pond at the end of the IMDB trailer is a ninja

That’s thought to be courtesy of some Latin going wonky - the French bald mouse comes from a Latin one that started as an owl mouse. But the owl bit got mangled because Spelling Optional + Regional Dialect/Heavy Accent etc. Owl mouse, again, makes sense, with those big flappy wings.

So... when did 'mouse' become the default animal? Are fish 'watermice'? Is a starfish a 'starwatermouse'? Is a horse a 'largeridingmouse' (and if not why not?) and then would a seahorse be a 'largeridingwatermouse' even if really tiny?

German sounds fun. Unfortunately, I studied French at secondary school and was untalented (and that's being very generous) at the subject.

We've already established that some of them seem to have jedi powers, Shaolin monks isn't too much of a stretch.

Incidentally, I barely remember Kung Fu, the TV series, but I do remember it. My sister and I used to re-enact the title sequence on the dunes when we were on holiday in Wales. Although there was a bit in the link to it upthread that I didn't recall, but it didn't half remind me of the bridge fight in Men in Tights

@RainWithSunnySpells

I don’t think we’re quite at mouse as default…

German for horse is das Pferd - hippo is das Nilpferd, or Nile Horse. Generally not recommended one keeps them in a bathtub.

That's epic! 😆

Looks like something out of warhammer.

That's a relief. Not gonna lie, I low-key imagined the French passing the long and cold winter evenings catching and waxing mice.

There's something that I can't quite bring to mind, a language (perhaps a patois?) that calls animals as an adjective-default creature. This is going to annoy me! I wonder if it was in a fiction book I read?

I went off and googled Jerboas, and learned from Wikipedia that they are predated by owls, and that In addition to the Jerboa's large ears, they also have large feet which are a result of multiple genes overlapping each other in their DNA.[7] Researchers found a gene called the shox2 gene that is expressed in Jerboa feet. This gene has the ability to turn other genes on and off and also has been seen to cause mutant limbs.

mutant limbs . . . .

spooky

Also there was a bloke on the radio yesterday who said that every AI image called up represents some huge number or actual human being working hours (80? 800??) put in by badly paid if not enslaved people working to convert each term into a representative image. Here, this bit. https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22415215/ must listen again when I'm not driving a car.

Lots of lovely linguistic fun and games going on here, I love it

This just popped into my memory:

With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things.

which is about a donkey, what would Chesterton have made of a jerboa? Or Boiled's arachnoid/rodent mashup?

Nothing in the slightest bit gerbil related I just wish to vent.

Did a SAR about a complaint.

11 documents back the first time.

Asked them to look again...

21 documents on the second attempt, 7 repeated from the first time.

Rather annoyed me writes a third time invoking their ombudsmen and the fact that the complaint i was doing the SAR about was currently being looked at by a different ombudsman.....

Many months later after their solicitor had to do the third response...

142 documents!

Tossers!

But I have caught them actively trying to deceive the complaint ombudsmen people

Happy face!

Slopes back off to continue reading internal emails that they really wish I couldn't see with coloured highlighter to hand.

I could be some time!

(This is our wonderful NHS at work!!)

Well done @Boiledbeetle . They may regret taking you on.

I think for a long while they thought i was being vexatious! Then the email from the complaint ombudsman lands in the organisation's email box and all hell broke loose!

And I know this because the daft idiots sent me emails that weren't covered by my original SAR!

Oh dear never mind!

I may have forwarded them on to the ombudsman 😏

Well done @Boiledbeetle

I'm not too sure about the teeth! (You ask the ai one time to draw a beetle at the dentist and all beetles going forward seem to have human teeth!)

Good luck, Boiled! You are not alone...

This one's running a little late.

You have their support too!

Bravo Boiled Beetle!