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San Diego Zoo Creates Biomimicry Incubator
waderoush writes "The San Diego Zoo has built a world famous reputation as a tourist destination, for helping to rescue the California Condor, and maybe (if you're old enough) for Joan Embery's appearances with Johnny Carson. Now the zoo is using its expertise to drive innovation by establishing a new 'Centre for Bioinspiration.' While the Anglicized spelling of 'center' might seem pretentious, the zoo has a down-to-earth goal of innovating through the emerging field of biomimicry, which is exemplified by Qualcomm's Mirasol display technology (the displays generate colors using the same type of interference between light waves that causes iridescence in butterfly wings). The center includes an incubator for developing new bio-inspired products and technologies, where ideas would be advanced to a proof of concept or working model, and then licensed. The incubator also intends to help develop bio-inspired ideas from outside the zoo."
While the Anglicized spelling of 'center' might seem pretentious
You must be American to believe words can have social standing, I mean damn I guess that is why you had a war on "terror". :-/
I am glad I am not a word in the dictionary, sounds like a very oppressive place to be.
while Anglicized spelling of 'center' might seem pretentious
How is it pretentious to use correct spelling? Should they have called it the "Can I has Bioinspiration Centr, LOL"?
1. Too, many, commas;
2. "(if you're old enough)" is redundant - we can work out our own ages and guess why we may not have heard of something;
3. Never use the phrase "drive innovation" unless you're writing a management speak generator;
4. British English is still spoken by far more people than American;
5. What is the purpose of biomimicry? Don't give me an example - give me some idea of why it's useful so I want to read more;
6. The display "generate colors" - submitter was clearly so proud of being able to insert a non-pretentious Americanised spelling that he forgot his gramma;
7. (don't explain things in brackets like this);
8. For "products and technologies, where ideas would be advanced to a proof of concept or working model...", see 3. Too much babble. How about "An incubator will develop proofs of concept or working models for licensing";
9. What is "bioinspiration"?
Why, yes, I did get out on the wrong side of the bed this morning, but that doesn't excuse this summary.
Yeah and the first person to talk about the article has to hand in their geek card.
I'll take the trace-elements of pretentiousness and excessive punctuation allegedly within the article-summary gladly before I'll tolerate another narcissistic frothing comment from another hissing pedant of trivialities. Lighten up folks. Why not be satisfied that other slashers are trying. As if the NSA couldn't find some old POS you wrote somewhere along the path of life. And the same for anyone else too. Also, don't take this personally -- it was an opportunity to address multiple grouches at once. At least you provided what could possibly be argued as constructive criticism.
I didn't get up on the wrong side of the bed; I just aint gotten into it yet.
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
*Hands in geek card* Would it be offensive to suggest the Chinese are going to be super-badass in the field of Biomimicry in the future? They sure are getting a lot of experience in reverse-engineering.
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
I think it's time for the person that hands them out in the first place to hand THEIRS in!
I'm guessing there will be more discussion on the correct spelling of 'Centre' than the actual topic at hand...
It's a bit idiotic to spell it as "centre", yes. That's not how it's spelled in the States. Do we consider it pretentious...? ... absolutely, yes. While you can get away with theatre for theater when your subject is legit theater, you'd get mocked as pretentious if your "theatre" was in reference to a street puppet show.
But.. Centre? That's nothing but elitists trying to distance themselves from the low-brow American and aping the erudite and superior European -- neither stereotype, of course, is accurate. It is what it is, though, and pretentious Americans tend to latch on to European spellings, habits, etc etc etc, in an effort to appear more fancy and sophisticated.
It's shallow, trite, and pointless -- and those who made the choice did so intentionally to affect an air of elegance and nobility. That's pretentious, yes.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
At least it's actually a real word, if not the spelling you may prefer, unlike "Bioinspiration".
According to the next article, this apparently means that this new center won't really do anything. After reading how "buzz-wordy" the summary was, I can see why the authors feel that way. All this summary said to me was "zoo buzzword buzzword buzzword' which translates to "zoo overpriced dull ill-advised".
Great warrior...hrmph! Wars not make one great.
Er, what? Is this like a modern day "Television isn't a real word" type of deal?
Its gotta start somewhere. In this case, I've seen "Bioinspiration" used a number of times already.
Maybe they aspire to make their centre international, rather than a local US center.
Korma: Good
Wow, your'e 'flamebait' for pointing out that the whole of slashdot is distracted from an interesting concept by a gnat that flies accross the screen!
Er, what? Is this like a modern day "Television isn't a real word" type of deal?
No, it's like the old days, when words were in "books", such as "dictionaries".
Its gotta start somewhere. In this case, I've seen "Bioinspiration" used a number of times already.
I don't read lot of zoo press releases, so I guess I'm out of the loop on this.
So is Google apparently
I have two recollections of the San Diego Zoo, despite never having been there: the first is of Joan Embry, on Carson; the other is Jerry Pournelle, speaking as the character "Nat Reynolds," giving a shout-out to his brother George in the pages of Footfall -- George had some rhinos to house at the zoo, but he didn't know what temperature they needed their water at. So, he threw a gradient across the pool and let them figure it out.
Unfortunately, to avoid an Off-Topic mod, I don't know how many commas he mis-used in making that happen...
education is no substitute for intelligence
Centre? That's nothing but elitists trying to distance themselves from the low-brow American and aping the erudite and superior European
Oh gawd. Not everything is about "elitists". When you see two spellings used, it's hard to remember which one is correct for your country. Probably most people who say "centre" think that that's the correct spelling when you talk about a building as opposed to a geometrical concept.
This is why I don't watch cable "news".
No, it's like the old days, when words were in "books", such as "dictionaries".
New words come into use all the time. How many things do we say now that has no entry in a dictionary yet? Bioengineering wasn't in dictionaries until ~1955. Before that, I suppose we had cynics like you trying to mock it since it's a newer concept? Give me a break.
What? Um, no. Hard to remember which one is correct? Give me a break -- this is American English 101. Words don't end with -re, over a century ago they were changed to "-er". The ONLY time you'll see "centre" is on foreign-sourced and non-localized media.
Any Americans who use "centre" over "center", excepting those who have immigrated from an English-speaking nation that uses English-English, is doing so purposefully to affect a European feel to whatever it is they're saying or labeling -- because in their opinion, European means fancier. That's pretentious.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
Right, because everybody in the U.S. is so good at spelling.
We you one of those people who claimed that Obama was an elitist because he was heard asking for Poupon mustard for his burger?
You're reaching for fucking straws. Do you think they ACCIDENTALLY misspelled center as centre? It was *absolutely* a conscious decision.
I love how you're painting me as a right-wing whacko, though, merely because I'm not such an idiot to excuse away pretentiousness as a simple accident or misremembrance. No, asking for a type of mustard you like is not pretentious. Don't be a fucking idiot any more than you already have been.
Calling this place a "Centre" as opposed to "Center" is pretentious. It's a US institution masquerading as European. Ask yourself why that would be done. Seek the most simple explanation. People in the US often consider anything European to be superior to anything American, and it's horribly common to find little brats online who think they're better than their peers distinguishing themselves from the vast unwashed masses by using English rather than American spellings. The 15 year old from Nebraska who insists on spelling it "colour" because they've the opinion that using that spelling will make them appear more sophisticated than using the American spelling "color".
This is simply choosing the English-English spelling of a word in order to appear fancy.
That's pretentious.
This has nothing to do with politics, so kindly fuck right the hell off with that bullshit.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
Maybe you're not a right wing wacko, but the way you angrily and obsessively motives into a simple spelling error is pretty wacky.
Of course, I don't really know what's going on in other people's brains. And neither do you.