What does “Ithaca is Ganja” mean?

Ithaca is a small city isolated in Central New York’s Finger Lakes region. Ithaca is the home to Cornell University and Ithaca College. Cornell is the Land Grant college in New York. As such, agriculture is a major focus of instruction at Cornell. Additionally, Cornell, Ithaca College and Ithaca in general are proud of their efforts to promote ecologically friendly agendas. For example, Cornell recently pledged to drastically reduce their “carbon footprint” over the coming decades. Ithaca College as a matter of policy strongly promotes sustainability. Ithaca, once named “the most enlightened city in America” by the Utne Reader magazine, is populated largely by “green” people who behave largely according to how the environment will be affected. One example is a community nearby that lives “off the grid.” Country Home magazine recently named Ithaca the second greenest city in America.

Ganja is a green plant that grows wild and weed-like in many parts of the world. It has been known since prehistory and probably originated in Central Asia. Like all green plants ganja uses photosynthesis to take carbon dioxide from the air and water from its roots to produce energy to live and in the process give off oxygen. Carbon dioxide is the major “greenhouse gas.” Though CO2 occurs naturally in the atmosphere too much of it is being added by human activities contributing to global warming.

The ecologically-minded people of Ithaca know that more photosynthesis by green plants means more oxygen in the atmosphere and more carbon dioxide taken out of the atmosphere. Thus, the people of Ithaca respect ganja for doing its part to help the world sustain…mon.

Review of the movie 300

This movie is based on a graphic novel (uptown comic book) of the same name. The story, however, is based on real events that occurred about 480 B. C. The battle of Thermopylae, though the Spartans were defeated, ultimately inspired the Greek city states to unite and stop the Persian Empire from conquering Europe. The major facts of the real event are preserved in this movie though some characters and plot are added to personalize the already abundant drama.

The look of this movie preserves the feel of a graphic novel without actually being fully animated. The special effects involved are not ground-breaking but well chosen. Most of the acting was done in front of blue screens and the sets were computer generated. If this movie had been fully animated it would have had far less emotional impact. If it had been portrayed realistically on film it would have been as corny as the gladiator films of the fifties now seem.

None of the actors in this movie are stars yet the quality of the acting is perfect for the concept of a graphic novel brought to the screen. Everyone is over the top without appearing silly. The characters are larger than life but not so much that you have to consider this a fantasy rather than a story based on a real historical event.

The purpose of art is to cause an emotional reaction. This movie does that in a big way. The target audience for this movie is probably teenagers, even though it is R rated, yet people of all ages are sure to be moved by the bravery and integrity of King Leonidas and the 300. It’s a good idea to show teens, and everyone else, that sometimes people have to do what is right because it is right in the face of impossible odds as well as opposition and intrigue from your friends. Super heroes are fantasy and so movies about them are entertaining but ultimately forgettable. Movies about real heroes who give what Abe Lincoln called the last full measure of devotion change young lives, form character, and inspire respect and admiration for those who serve and protect their countries.

What does “i pwn n00bs” mean?

Nibble on this: “i pwn n00bs” may look like nonsensical keybanging but in fact it is a simple declarative sentence. If you were to spell it out in standard English it would look like this: I pone noobs. That still doesn’t make much sense to some of you, I know. So let me explain it bit by bit.

The i is the personal pronoun I (referring to oneself, the speaker in this case). “Why isn’t it capitalized?” you may ask. Good question. This sentence would usually appear as part of a computer-based communication such as a forum post, an e-mail, a text message, or a message that one player of a World Wide Web based game would send to another or to the world in general. People who communicate in this fashion simply do not have time to pay any attention to the tired old constraints of yesterdays conventions such as grammar, spelling, proper usage and such. For the people who would type “i pwn n00bs” the world, or at least the game they are playing, moves much too fast. Precious milliseconds can be saved by not capitalizing the personal pronoun, the first word in a sentence, or anything for that matter.

The first word in the sentence “i pwn n00bs” was the easy one to explain. The final two words are, at first blush, more obscure. The word pwn is pronounced as if it had a vowel, the long O. The word pwn rhymes with the words bone, phone, and cone. “So why does it have the ‘w’ in it?” you may ask. Another good question. The word pwn also rhymes with the word own. The legend is that someone meant to type the word own but because of limited typing skills or no time or willingness to proofread what was typed the word came out pwn. The word n00bs is another instance of alternative keyboard based spelling. It is short for the word newbies.

So what does “i pwn n00bs” mean, already? Let’s consider some possible meanings. There is a real word in English spelled and pronounced pone. It is a sort of fried cornbread and sometimes referred to as corn pone. The contraction and alternatively spelled n00bs is itself a contraction for newbies. Newbies is a bastardization of another word, but which one? One candidate is the word nubile. Nubile is an adjective that refers to young single women suitable for marriage. Another possibility is the word Nubian. Nubian is an adjective that refers to people from Nubia, which long ago was a powerful nation along the Nile River in northeastern Africa in what is now southern Egypt and northern Sudan.

So, being an educated person, you might be tempted to think that “i pwn n00bs” means “I give fried corn bread to single, young women in northeastern Africa.” Of course, if you thought this you’d be wrong… and maybe a little bit nuts. First of all, most women prefer a gift of flowers to a gift of fried cornbread. Second, newbies is a combination of the word newcomer and the term wannabe. Someone who is new to some activity is a newbie. In the early days of the world wide web experienced computer geeks used newbie as a pejorative term for novice computer users, especially members of America Online (AOL). The word newbie had been used to mean a newcomer in many contexts long before computers became widely available. The word pwn probably does mean own in the context of gaming (computer and otherwise) competition. For example, when the Buffalo Sabres easily defeat the Boston Bruins every game they play during the regular season the Sabres are said to “own” the Bruins. Likewise, when person A regularly defeats person B at Halo person A owns person B. In this context to own someone is to regularly and soundly defeat them. Bobby Fischer owned Boris Spassky.

So “i pwn n00bs” means something like “I regularly and soundly defeat players who have much less experience at this game than I have.” It is a boast, bragging, trash talking. Of course, an experienced player should regularly and soundly defeat novice players. But n00bs have a way of getting better, so watch your back because the pwnr could become the pwnee.