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There's nothing wrong with a little bit of RAS syndrome

Per Wikipedia, RAS Syndrome is short for Redundant Acronym Syndrome and was coined in 2001 in a light-hearted column in New Scientist.

> A person is said to "suffer" from RAS syndrome when they redundantly use one or more of the words that make up an acronym or initialism with the abbreviation itself.

e.g. "I had a hard time entering my PIN number into the ATM machine because its GUI interface was unintuitive"

The sentence still makes sense and, depending on the acronyms used, is more clear. Different industries use the same acronyms for different things. If you're working with people from different industries, sometimes those overlap; having the last word spelled out can help distinguish which is being used.

There are few linguistic hills I'll die on, but this is one of them. This post brought to you by a coworker who didn't like that I said "PIN number".

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The Crazy Frog Remix of "We Are The Champions" is Better Than the Original Version by Queen

Don't know what it is, but I much prefer the Crazy Frog remix, and have always enjoyed it.

Just in general, while Queen is still good, I think they're overrated whereas I also think Crazy Frog gets too much flak.

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Ketchup on Chicago-style hotdogs is delicious

So many people have told me that it’s unacceptable to put ketchup on hotdogs, in particular Chicago-style ones. I’ve done it for years and highly enjoy the flavour. Absolutely S-tier topping AFAIC.

21

Deliberately loud vehicles should be illegal, impounded, and crushed into a cube at the owner's expense

Since the last 24 hours have had nothing but troll posts (and one that a user deleted; dunno what that one was), here's my latest gripe / reason I'm tired shaped into the form of an Unpopular Opinion. Hopefully this gets us back on track.

Nobody is impressed by you revving your engine at a stop light and cranking out 300 dB of noise from your fart cannon at 3 in the morning (or any time of day, for that matter). There is also no reason to peel out from the stop light when the next light is 2 blocks away and guaranteed to be red. e.g. We left the first red light at the same time. I drove normally, you like an asshole, and we both stopped at the next light all the same.

Driving an (intentionally) obnoxiously loud vehicle, especially driving it aggressively, should result in immediate revocation of license and the offending vehicle crushed into a cube. As much as I hate vague "disturbing the peace" laws, this seems like a good use for them (where noise ordinances don't exist).

I don't care about the extra 1-2 HP you get. Do tell me all the (street legal) things your pavement princess of a truck is going to do with that (I can see it has neither the tow package nor a speck of dirt on the tires). If you just like the sound and think I should get over it, allow me to come fart near you. If you don't like the smell, by your logic, that's on you: get over it.

Note: It may be a regional thing, but this is definitely an unpopular opinion in my (very redneck) area.

74

John Flansburgh is a superior musician to John Linnell

I've been a fan of They Might Be Giants for most of my life and have always been surprised that people universally disagree with me on this.

Linnell's songs tend to be quirkier but also shallower. (State Songs is a good example here - there isnt a song for every state and theyre often abstract to the point of meaninglessness. I expected such a project to have more inspiration behind it.

I've always found Flansburgh's more melodic and thoughtful, slightly better composed, and with a superior singing voice.

Of course they're a great duo and they play off each other's strengths. I don't dislike Linnell at all, just the songs that he sings tend to not be my favorites.

19

Buttering bread with the back of a spoon is easier and better than doing it with a knife

Try it before you dismiss it, that's all I'm saying!

Edit: I have found my people.

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