Zompist Bboard Again

The one thing we can say about our current physics is that it does not yet completely model the universe, so if we discover new physics, it is conceivable that that might tell us it is possible to go faster than light. But I consider it exceedingly unlikely. And I'm not sure that even that would ma...

Trivial note: a few days ago, I noticed that the word "laboratory" contains the names of both of the major British parties (yes, I know about the missing "u"), and now I can't unsee that.

Nice to see something good happening to you once in a while!

Just yesterday my brother and my other brother's girlfriend got into a pretty serious car crash. My brother sustained a concussion and a minor injury to his spleen while my brother's girlfriend sustained two broken limbs, a shattered pelvis, marrow on her lungs and a more serious concussion. Both w...

I wish the solution to global antisemitism was as simple as "give the Jews a nation-state", but it really isn't. Without the support of the USA, would Israel even still exist? And if that's the case, then for Jews to be safe in Israel they have to be safe in the USA as well. An antisemiti...

Travis B. wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2024 10:34 am

Man in Space wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2024 4:31 am - Not just one, but two 1:6-scale Mr. Clean action figures (still in their boxes)

Did anyone actually specify how tall Mr. Clean is?

The text that came with those figures, perhaps?

It's now been about ten years since I bought the first handful of DVDs that eventually grew into a fairly large de facto DVD collection. I say "de facto" because I never set out to collect DVDs, the way people set out to collect sports cards or action figures. I just thought it would be ni...

An elderly friend of the family is in the hospital after a stroke. I don't know her that well personally, but I know her husband fairly well.

Which pronunciation of Chicago do you favor (I have been listening about "End of Beginning" by Djo, i.e. Joe Keery, on repeat today), which prominently has THOUGHT in Chicago while from hearing people from Chicago speak I generally hear it with a clear centralized or even fronted LOT (i.e...

Raphael wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 3:44 pm What is the exact meaning of the word "cute" in Hiberno-English? It seems to be subtly different from its meaning in most other varieties of English, but I'm not entirely sure how.

Bump?

From the Nietzsche thread: Well ok. I have never actually watched Southpark so I didn't get the reference. Pretty much everyone I know considers the show intensely bigoted and reactionary, for what it's worth. They were libertarians, but they do oppose Trump. Penn Jillette was libertarian too until...

Are Americans that interested in socialism? If the answer turns out to be'not that much' well, it still sucks but the situation does reflect public opinion. The key thing is that the vast majority of Americans don't know what socialism is and confuse "socialism" with either social democra...

Got hit with a slur today by some guy who claimed that English has stopped evolving and is now frozen. This is the first time I can recall having been hit with a slur that refers to a group I belong to. 1) Sorry to hear that. 2) Is that slur a relatively recent coinage? In that case, it would be qu...

It's been said all over the internet, but it's worth repeating: The entire strategy of the Democratic Party is to be one yottameter (no more no less) to the left of the GOP, so they can stake a claim to 50% of the Overton window without spooking their donors or rattling their own personal finances....

What is the exact meaning of the word "cute" in Hiberno-English? It seems to be subtly different from its meaning in most other varieties of English, but I'm not entirely sure how.

Good luck, bradrn!

bradrn wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 12:59 pm

(Also, re Ares Land: ‘there’? I got the impression that you live in Paris yourself…)

I think he mentioned a while ago that he was moving somewhere else, which was part of why he didn't post much for a while.

Anyway, I mostly stay out of the "Libs discover world politics" threads, but geez, this one is bad. Err, what? If by "Libs" you mean "anyone who's neither a tankie nor a right-winger", then, whatever the flaws of their own understanding of the world, they at least make...

rotting bones wrote: ↑Sat Mar 30, 2024 2:00 pmTaking random vitamins for general health is a scam. (Originally, scammers sold them as a cure for cancer!)

Yes, that's the reason why I posted my initial question.

Problem is, I'm not in an actual apartment building. I'm in what different parts of the English-speaking world apparently call an ADU or a granny flat. So all things related to house management are generally handled less "formally" than they would be in a regular apartment block. The annoy...

Our heating and hot water are gone, and our landlady and landlord are on vacation.