The first three Star Wars movies were just known as "Star Wars" when I was growing up; they didn't become "the original trilogy" until "Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace" came out in 1999.
I also don't recall the the 1978 film being commonly called "A New Hope" until the late '90s. We always just called it "Star Wars."
Along the lines of pencil/mechanical pencil, "going to the bank" remained distinct from "going to the ATM." People still usually mean "going inside the bank and doing something in person" when they say "I have to go to the bank," vs. getting money or making a deposit via ATM. As someone who remembers having rush to go to the bank before they closed on Friday afternoon (they always closed really early, like 3 pm) in order to cash your paycheck, otherwise you'd have no money all weekend, the invention of the ATM was just as revolutionary as the mechanical pencil.
What do you think will happen with cars? Will electric cars become "cars" and gasoline powered cars become "gas cars" or something like that. And hybrids cloud the issue.
Certainly, but it ultimately costs more energy than burning gasoline. There is a massive technical hurdle to make hydrogen a net positive for energy storage; right now it's both dirtier and more expensive than ICE engines. We have a long way to go. You're not wrong to point to hydrogen's long term potential whatsoever - my objection is really only to the "any time soon" idea.
This is where I think it’s going as well. It’s funny that a lot of the gurus gave Toyota crap about their their hybrids when so many of the other companies were investing heavily in EVs, but Toyota has a much better strategy.
For some of the programs I wrote about for my animation encyclopedia, "The Series" or "The Animated Series" was appended to the title to distinguish them from their retronym source. However, I removed those terms when discussing the projects, firstly to consider them on their own merits, and because in the context I was working with, the terms were redundant and unnecessary.
Speaking of retronyms, I remember back when "Goatfury Writes" used to be "Kid-tantrum Doodles." Not a big fan of the adult rebrand, if I'm honest. The original was easier to follow, but you can't even find those episodes anymore.
True, but the KtD days weren't as halcyon as we might remember. Literal demons screamed at us as we dialed up to connect to the early proto-internet. It was a very scary place back during Web 1.0.
Same! Voyager and DS9 weren't awful and I watched them for a while - some very good stories here and there, but the draw of TNG is unlike any of the others for me.
What I really wonder is what will relegate diapers to plastic nappies or something. Where is tech when we really need it. Also, before cloth diapers wth did people even do!? Keep their babies outside in cages?
I'm learning that "potty training from birth" was one way. I guess the idea is to hold the kid over a creek or a hole or whatever when they need to go every time, so you kind of need to connect with the kid in ways modern parents don't always do.
This feels like a Far Side cartoon that writes itself.
"Elimination communication training" was kind of a thing amongst a small subset of crunchy moms in the early 2000s when my kids were babies. Babies do usually give some cues that they are going to pee or poop prior to doing so - they'll squirm, act uncomfortable, some will cry, etc. - so the idea is the parent learns to identify the signs and then immediately holds the kid over a potty or whatever. The idea is that way the kid doesn't get used to the feeling of peeing/pooping in a diaper, and thus will be able to potty train at an early age as soon as they get some voluntary control over it. I concede they do have a point there; some children get so used to pooping in a diaper that it can be hard for them to learn to engage the right muscles to do it without the feeling of a diaper on their body. However, "elimination training" requires that the baby be naked or close to naked as much as possible as you've got just a few seconds to get them in position; which makes it rather impractical in cold climates - not to mention it requires mom to be right there paying close attention to baby's squirms or facial expressions at all times which also seems a bit impractical even for stay-at-home moms. Which is probably why diapers were invented in the first place.
The first three Star Wars movies were just known as "Star Wars" when I was growing up; they didn't become "the original trilogy" until "Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace" came out in 1999.
I also don't recall the the 1978 film being commonly called "A New Hope" until the late '90s. We always just called it "Star Wars."
Along the lines of pencil/mechanical pencil, "going to the bank" remained distinct from "going to the ATM." People still usually mean "going inside the bank and doing something in person" when they say "I have to go to the bank," vs. getting money or making a deposit via ATM. As someone who remembers having rush to go to the bank before they closed on Friday afternoon (they always closed really early, like 3 pm) in order to cash your paycheck, otherwise you'd have no money all weekend, the invention of the ATM was just as revolutionary as the mechanical pencil.
Yes! I remember this about Star Wars, too. Nobody called them anything other than their surnames (Empire and Return for the sequels).
ATMs were revolutionary. They really blew up in the early 90s, right as I was starting to drive on my own.
What do you think will happen with cars? Will electric cars become "cars" and gasoline powered cars become "gas cars" or something like that. And hybrids cloud the issue.
Good question. We may start calling "cars" something like ICE cars, which will eventually become just ice cars, then chillicles.
Unlikely, as electrical cars will be extinct before internal combustion engines are ever phased out...
Hydrogen, or hybrid gasoline and electric combinations will be the future...
I mean, hybrid gas/electric is very much the present, isn't it? Toyota no longer makes ICE Camrys, unless I'm mistaken.
Hydrogen seems like it's more than a decade out, but I will concede that this is only a peripheral area of interest/study for me.
We've been running hydrogen powered buses in Vancouver for over a decade now, in Canada.
Certainly, but it ultimately costs more energy than burning gasoline. There is a massive technical hurdle to make hydrogen a net positive for energy storage; right now it's both dirtier and more expensive than ICE engines. We have a long way to go. You're not wrong to point to hydrogen's long term potential whatsoever - my objection is really only to the "any time soon" idea.
This is where I think it’s going as well. It’s funny that a lot of the gurus gave Toyota crap about their their hybrids when so many of the other companies were investing heavily in EVs, but Toyota has a much better strategy.
I'm pretty sure my mom was driving a hybrid in the mid 2000s, definitely a Toyota. They are just so far out in front on this that it's silly.
For some of the programs I wrote about for my animation encyclopedia, "The Series" or "The Animated Series" was appended to the title to distinguish them from their retronym source. However, I removed those terms when discussing the projects, firstly to consider them on their own merits, and because in the context I was working with, the terms were redundant and unnecessary.
You tend to do a lot of traveling back in time in your work, right? Bringing the reader along to that time?
I would be a bad historian if I didn't.
Speaking of retronyms, I remember back when "Goatfury Writes" used to be "Kid-tantrum Doodles." Not a big fan of the adult rebrand, if I'm honest. The original was easier to follow, but you can't even find those episodes anymore.
True, but the KtD days weren't as halcyon as we might remember. Literal demons screamed at us as we dialed up to connect to the early proto-internet. It was a very scary place back during Web 1.0.
Or…as we called it for some reason, “web, the only one that'll ever be.” - what a needlessly long name, now that I think about it.
I really liked "The Great Web." I'm not sure why that didn't work out.
"The Web To End All Webs."
I really want to make a Treaty of Versailles joke, but something something Excite search isn't working properly.
TNG was the best Star Trek, though I liked the corny original series for some of the cool stories.
Same! Voyager and DS9 weren't awful and I watched them for a while - some very good stories here and there, but the draw of TNG is unlike any of the others for me.
100%
Film photography. I think you could come up with a long list with analog on one side and digital on the other
Oh yes. That's a whole category now! Analog computer, EG.
Why aren’t calculators called digital abacuusses. Dabacusses
You mean analog calculators, right?
Badum tssss
What I really wonder is what will relegate diapers to plastic nappies or something. Where is tech when we really need it. Also, before cloth diapers wth did people even do!? Keep their babies outside in cages?
I'm learning that "potty training from birth" was one way. I guess the idea is to hold the kid over a creek or a hole or whatever when they need to go every time, so you kind of need to connect with the kid in ways modern parents don't always do.
This feels like a Far Side cartoon that writes itself.
"Elimination communication training" was kind of a thing amongst a small subset of crunchy moms in the early 2000s when my kids were babies. Babies do usually give some cues that they are going to pee or poop prior to doing so - they'll squirm, act uncomfortable, some will cry, etc. - so the idea is the parent learns to identify the signs and then immediately holds the kid over a potty or whatever. The idea is that way the kid doesn't get used to the feeling of peeing/pooping in a diaper, and thus will be able to potty train at an early age as soon as they get some voluntary control over it. I concede they do have a point there; some children get so used to pooping in a diaper that it can be hard for them to learn to engage the right muscles to do it without the feeling of a diaper on their body. However, "elimination training" requires that the baby be naked or close to naked as much as possible as you've got just a few seconds to get them in position; which makes it rather impractical in cold climates - not to mention it requires mom to be right there paying close attention to baby's squirms or facial expressions at all times which also seems a bit impractical even for stay-at-home moms. Which is probably why diapers were invented in the first place.
Esme, thanks for this! This is very helpful additional context.
Also: my dry, clinical description of your comment does not do the story justice. You're painting a picture of perilous pooping for us!
Ha reminds me of Norsemen where they had the communal pooping log over the creek