(no subject)

[commotiocordis]

The motto of Western Australia, cygnus insignis, means "distinguished by its swans".

They couldn't think of anything else that distinguished them but swans?

Comments

[ijemanja.livejournal.com]

Hee. Well, WA is a very swanny place. Because of the black swans, which are native there and pretty much nowhere else. Also, the capital city (Perth) is on the Swan River. It's like, the world sees a kangaroo and thinks of Australia - well, Australians see a black swan and think of WA. So the motto might be lame, but it's accurate.

(Also: we have state mottos? So did not know that.)

[crashcart9.livejournal.com]

Black swans? Didn't even know those existed. You guys should make that your new Australia Awareness campaign: "We're not just fun accents and kangaroos. We've got swans like you've never seen, America."

I actually knew the Swan River thing, but I didn't make the connection, LOL. I don't dispute the accuracy, but it does seem strange that seeing as how your most distinct feature is probably the marsupial, that they'd pick the odd swan to honor in river-naming and motto-making.

And yeah? Interesting. Ours are often on our state quarters, flags, and/or car license plates, so they're easy enough, though nobody bothers to learn them most of the time after your 4th grade state history course. Though people probably think of my state's fake one, the whole "Show-me State" thing, instead of the actual, which (though I can't remember the latin), is something like "The welfare of the people is the supreme law."

[chaosity.livejournal.com]

LOL, we should indeed use black swans for promotional purposes. I think it'd totally work.

It's weird, because I (like finding_jay said) think white swans are weird. I've only really seen black ones. They're awesome.

I think they chose the black swan because they're only native to us, making us rather special in that area. *is proud*

I fail epicly at history, but I'm pretty sure that the Swan River was, like, among the first places to even be named, because the people couldn't get over seeing black swans. Knowing them they prolly would have run around waving crucifixes and holy water in the air first. BLACK SWANS? WHAT IS THIS BLASPHEMY?! and such.

*drops macaroni cheese down her shirt* Well, fuck.

[chaosity.livejournal.com]

*points* WHAT SHE SAID.

And I didn't know we had state mottos either. Just flora and fauna.

[finding-jay.livejournal.com]

I'm so used to black swans, the first time I saw a white swan I did a double-take. Damn albino birds.

[crashcart9.livejournal.com]

LOL. When I first saw a picture of a black one, I didn't know what was wrong with it. It's pretty wicked looking, though. I particularly like the way the red of the beak is so striking against the black. I also wonder if a white swan and a black swan would have grey babies.

[finding-jay.livejournal.com]

Like an elephant and a pot belly pig? I think I've just found a new quest!

[chaosity.livejournal.com]

OH, OH, OH NINTH GRADE SCIENCE IS COMING BACK TO ME. Um. From what I've seen, when a black and white swan mate, the babies come out either white or black. I'm PRETTY sure.

I tried to remember something about what that says about their genes (as in, a certain "type" of gene would mean mixing the white and black to produce grey, and another type of gene would mean it has to be one or the other), but I couldn't. lol high school drop-out.

[veils.livejournal.com]

Silly Lolstralia!


...Says the person who's national icon is a useless furry bird that can't fly :(