But this is different - they have done long term studies following the total life health of 1000s of pilots who have been exposed to these scanners 10x a day for their whole careers.
No, but they did use mouse pilots in a long term animal study of 3 years (20 years in human pilot equivalent years).
Most of the study subjects reported dizziness, headaches and the infamous restless paw syndrome, which made it pretty much impossible for them to continue flying safely.
Hmmm, my coffee must not have kicked in at that point. I skipped right over the "mouse pilots" part and just assumed "mice."
It seems entirely plausible that they have exposed mice to backscatter scanners for extended periods and studied the reactions/effects. That study I would be interested in, but it seems rdtsc was making a funny. I understand now.
There is an apparently dwindling minority of people who would consider this to be sarcasm and not irony. For these few, irony is never merely logical negation. It necessarily involves unintended and opposite consequences flowing from the protagonist's actions. A short internet search suggests I may be the last of this kind.
The only problem I have with caveats like this is that on all the hundreds of occasions when I've heard someone say, "Actually, that's not irony," the subsequent explanation of what does qualify as irony has been different every single time.
This is additionally confounded by the fact that British people really do mean "sarcasm" when they say "irony." (At least, most of the British people I've spoken with do.)
> This is additionally confounded by the fact that British people really do mean "sarcasm" when they say "irony."
I've never experienced this in actual conversation with British and/or other non-US English speakers. But the internet definitions I'm finding seem to all include 'sarcastic but somewhat subtle' in the definition of ironic. For me the definitions of sarcasm and irony do not intersect. Sarcasm is intentional whereas irony is at best random or more often a signifier of implied 'fate'.
Irony certainly can be random or a signifier of implied fate in the case of literary/dramatic irony.
Verbal irony, which is closely related to but not identical to sarcasm (though there is quite a lot of debate on exactly the relationship among psycholinguists) is most certainly intentional.
"I don't wear my seat belt because if I'm uncomfortable I'll drive more dangerously."
"Sounds like you've really thought that one through."
Verbal irony, possibly sarcasm depending on whose definition you buy, but definitely intentional in any case.
"-Synonyms
1, 2. Irony, sarcasm, satire indicate mockery of something or someone. The essential feature of irony is the indirect presentation of a contradiction between an action or expression and the context in which it occurs. In the figure of speech, emphasis is placed on the opposition between the literal and intended meaning of a statement; one thing is said and its opposite implied, as in the comment, 'Beautiful weather, isn't it?' made when it is raining or nasty."
Actually I think 'Unfortunate' would have been the appropriate word in that song. Most of the situations described don't involve any direct negation of the protagonists intentions. The only possible qualifier is
'Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
"Well isn't this nice..."'
... but the last line is still sarcasm, not irony.
Take an example of irony--the story of Oedipus. Oedipus leaves his family specifically to avoid a prophecy that he would kill his father, and marry his mother. The action of leaving his home, by which he intends to stop the prophecy by removing himself from proximity to his parents, causes it to come true, because unknown to Oedipus he was adopted. Oedipus causes the prophecy to come true by accidentally returning to his biological parents.
So we have the action of a protagonist causing the opposite effect of what was intended--irony. The items Alanis lists are mainly really annoying.
Alanis is a regional manager, overseeing several stores. Her office is located in a specific store. Alanis decices to institute a 'no smoking' policy on breaks for all stores, but not her own store (where her office is located - she loves to smoke cigarettes).
Corporate agrees and it becomes company policy. Impressed by Alanis's HR policy, they transfer her to an ailing store, where smoking is banned and she cannot undo corporate policy.
Yes it is technically sarcasm - at least in common English usage. Since irony doesn't seem to exist in America I'm not sure if American-English makes the same distinctions.
@ARTICLE{oiuytgfyhujik:11,
author = {{oiuytgfyhujik}},
title = {{on: World's largest association of pilots boycotts body scanners}},
year = {2011},
journal = {{Journal of Ironic Internet Postings}},
note = {\url{http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1885309}}
}
