Thread: saying America when actually referring to the USA

Originally Posted by Боб Уайтман

I just wonder if you know that just out of curiosity, or did you learn either of those languages?
I'm asking that because I was never exposed to languages like Farsi or Arabic.

You just need to be a bit closer to Langley, VA to know it

Originally Posted by Doomer

You just need to be a bit closer to Langley, VA to know it

Sorry, I did not get the joke.

Originally Posted by Боб Уайтман

Sorry, I did not get the joke.

I was referring to CIA headquarters that resides in Langley, VA
Throbert is in Virginia, as well

Originally Posted by Doomer

I was referring to CIA headquarters that resides in Langley, VA
Throbert is in Virginia, as well

Throbert has BEEN to the CIA headquarters at Langley and got to go on a tour! Biggest surprise: Their large collection of Abstract Expressionist paintings, including artists like Jackson Pollock. Second biggest surprise: The experimental "роботическая стрекоза" from the 1970s. Total non-surprise: Like a lot of the CIA's big ideas, the robot-dragonfly did not actually work. (Or, rather, it worked in the laboratory, but only if they turned off all the fans and air-conditioners, because the slightest breeze made it crash.)

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Throbert has BEEN to the CIA headquarters at Langley and got to go on a tour! Biggest surprise: Their large collection of Abstract Expressionist paintings, including artists like Jackson Pollock. Second biggest surprise: The experimental "роботическая стрекоза" from the 1970s. Total non-surprise: Like a lot of the CIA's big ideas, the robot-dragonfly did not actually work. (Or, rather, it worked in the laboratory, but only if they turned off all the fans and air-conditioners, because the slightest breeze made it crash.)

And to think, all I got to do was drive by there while we were in DC for the "Rally to Restore Sanity" a few years back.

(Unfortunately, our rally did not succeed in restoring sanity)

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Second biggest surprise: The experimental "роботическая стрекоза" from the 1970s.

I guess it is a tricky part of Russian but you can't say "роботическая стрекоза".
However you can say "стрекоза-робот" or "робот-стрекоза" or even "роботизированная стрекоза"

DoD has a hummingbird now, totally works - Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) - AeroVironment, Inc.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Throbert has BEEN to the CIA headquarters at Langley and got to go on a tour!

It's all jokes, man
A guy who lives in VA and knows half a dozen languages could look suspicious to mere mortals

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Throbert has BEEN to the CIA headquarters at Langley and got to go on a tour! Biggest surprise: Their large collection of Abstract Expressionist paintings, including artists like Jackson Pollock.

I am just afraid to ask how exactly did they come to possess those paintings. Did they secretly spend some extra budget money? Took as gifts from lobbyists? Confiscated from commies during McCarthyism? Trophyed from Saddam's palaces?..

Originally Posted by it-ogo

I am just afraid to ask how exactly did they come to possess those paintings. Did they secretly spend some extra budget money? Took as gifts from lobbyists? Confiscated from commies during McCarthyism? Trophyed from Saddam's palaces?..

Apparently, the CIA spent a small part of its budget on these paintings in order to promote Abstract Expressionism, because they believed that it would totally freak out and demoralize the Soviets who were accustomed to the blandness of Socialist Realism!

In other words, the idea was that if this is your idea of proper art...



...and you find out that the crazy decadent American artists are making paintings like this...



...then your skull will do this:



Look how free we are in America, sovki!

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Apparently, the CIA spent a small part of its budget on these paintings in order to promote Abstract Expressionism, because they believed that it would totally freak out and demoralize the Soviets who were accustomed to the blandness of Socialist Realism!

еще раз подтверждается что США намного дальше шагнули в процесса распила бюджета по сравнению с Россией
Это ж надо - вбухать средства в такую нелепую идею. Кто-то наверняка премию получил за это

Originally Posted by Doomer

I was referring to CIA headquarters that resides in Langley, VA
Throbert is in Virginia, as well

OK, It makes sense now