Bananas. Diesel. Armadillos. The square root of 1,364.
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The Random Thread: The Next Generation
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There is an added health component to a Wetherspoons over other pubs though, the 1.2km walk to find the bogs.
In my experience of Wetherspoons many people seemingly never find them and piss straight into the beer pipes.
Ah, the British source of Budweiser is revealed!
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there will be (probably already is in some fields) a shortage of specialists.
In the US there is already a shortage of plumbers, electricians, painters, carpenters and other “blue collar” specialists, especially in big cities and surrounding suburbs. There are lots of people going into higher education for engineering degrees and computer programming degrees, but few who are learning trades. As a result a good plumber/electrician/tradesman is in high demand and can pretty much name his own price. High school guidance counselors would be doing a service to some students by recommending that they learn one of those trades.
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Coding has been touted as this great solution when there really aren’t that many opportunities.
And really, it’s a game for the young. for the better end of the pay scale, you’re putting in god-awful amounts of time that tends to burn out most people by the time they hit 30.
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In the US there is already a shortage of plumbers, electricians, painters, carpenters and other “blue collar” specialists, especially in big cities and surrounding suburbs. There are lots of people going into higher education for engineering degrees and computer programming degrees, but few who are learning trades. As a result a good plumber/electrician/tradesman is in high demand and can pretty much name his own price. High school guidance counselors would be doing a service to some students by recommending that they learn one of those trades.
It’s the same in the UK. In recent years 50% of school leavers go to university. When I went in 1893 I think it was less than a fifth of that. Obviously I’m all in favour of education and I wish we lived in a world where 100% of the population could be free to learn anything they wanted while robots did the hard work. But the reality is that we don’t need 50% of the population to be graduates, and many of them will end up in low-level jobs that they are vastly over-qualified for. A few more people trained in plumbing or other skilled trades would be far more useful to society (and probably more fulfilled personally) than another Media Studies graduate filling in Excel spreadsheets for a living.
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When I went in 1893 I think it was less than a fifth of that.
Damn, you’re old!
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DavidM wrote:
When I went in 1893 I think it was less than a fifth of that.Damn, you’re old!
That would explain DavidM’s fascination with music that has harpsichords and lutes…
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DavidM wrote:
When I went in 1893 I think it was less than a fifth of that.Damn, you’re old!
That would explain DavidM’s fascination with music that has harpsichords and lutes…
We need to get him into bardcore.
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Pop songs don’t last long enough
https://qz.com/quartzy/1438412/the-reason-why-your-favorite-pop-songs-are-getting-shorter/
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High school guidance counselors would be doing a service to some students by recommending that they learn one of those trades.
In my experience, the parents don’t want to hear that.
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In my experience, the parents don’t want to hear that.
Certainly in some cultures parents want their children to be doctors or lawyers, but if all you want is for your child to do better than you financially, get him or her an apprenticeship with a plumber or electrician.
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Certainly in some cultures parents want their children to be doctors or lawyers, but if all you want is for your child to do better than you financially, get him or her an apprenticeship with a plumber or electrician.
I completely agree. I’m just saying as far as high school counselling is concerned, they do already recommend that. I know that here in Germany at least, we try our best to give that advice to students who are unlikely to succeed in an academic field, and the experience is that parents most of the time are not very open to this.
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For big commercial projects in the NYC area, most of the big contractors are unionized, and hire primarily union subcontractors for plumbing, electrical, etc. just to avoid the complications and bad publicity of picket lines. Small businesses and home-owners typically hire a tradesman who is self-employed or a small non-union labor, as the Unions won’t bother putting pressure on such small clients. I should note that those small operators still have to be registered with the NYC Department of Buildings and maintain the appropriate insurances (Workers Compensation, Disability, Liability, etc) in order to apply for permits; but many of them don’t bother and take the risk that they won’t get caught and fined.
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From Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
First known use of weaponize is from 1957.
First known use of normalize is from 1847.
So “weaponize” is older than the treaty of Rome, and thus the EEC and the European Union, while “normalize” is older than the country Germany.
But to your point, I like new words. The world is changing, we need new words to map it out.
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Stop awfulizing everything, Al. You’re so sus.
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You know:
I am not a crusader for good English grammar, but I am none too crazy about these new “words” I read on social media.
Words such as “normalize” and “weaponize”. I prefer to say make normal and make into a weapon.
What is with these words anyway?
I see it is time to post one of my favourites again:
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I bet Calvin is who popularised “gift” as a verb, the little shit. That raises my hackles every time I hear it.
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Creating new words embiggens us as a people.
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Bigly
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Regarding English, I find a frustration with people over others who have been in the country for over twenty years, have children who speak English, yet don’t speak English well themselves. They still speak a “broken” form of English after all this time.
It happens when they stay in their own social circle speaking their native language all the time. Surprising that they don’t pick up the language watching American TV or movies.
Like the american black community?
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Actually, is Airplane now on the blacklistlist of unapproved films due to that scene?
(Serious question.)
None of this will ever affect the German dub is all I know, because in a stroke of genius the synchronisation studio didn’t try and go for some kind of German street slang, but instead has them speaking in the Bavarian dialect.
I swear, if you can speak German, this variation is really, really funny.
As for answering the question seriously… I think this is the kind of scene you probably wouldn’t in this way today, but on the other hand it’s not all that far from the kind of thing Key and Peele have been doing until recently. Nobody is in blackface and the humour of the scene is in the absurdity of the old white lady speaking slang; I don’t think that’s very problematic?
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My brother was posted to Bosch in Stuttgart during his sandwich year in university. He spent a few months trying to get some basic German listening to linguaphone tapes and he’s quite good at self learning so got at least to a level he could carry out a simple conversation.
On his first day he introduced himself in German and got the response ‘ah you’re from the UK, great, I can practice my English’. He had that so often that he didn’t really use the German much at all and when he got home a year later wasn’t that much better than when a left.
It links to your first point because for many people they don’t learn easily on their own and need some formal instruction, while people in monoglot English speaking countries often moan about immigrants not learning the language they don’t do very much to help them. There’s irony present in how they expect it to be easily done with little support when they have never learnt a second language themselves.
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In the German refugee/immigration discussion, one of the little absurdities was that last year or so, people complained a lot that so many immigrants hadn’t learned any German yet and there was a political debate about making taking language courses mandatory (and tying that to monetary benefits – if you don’t take a language course, you’d be punished by having the monthly money you get to survive being reduced). At the same time, if you looked at the actual situation, the problem wasn’t that immigrants refused (or didn’t bother to) take language courses but that there weren’t enough of them being offered, and that they didn’t have the skills to maneuvre the German bureaucratic system well enough to get the free courses (what with there only being German-language application forms and whatnot).
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Bayrisch sounds to me like someone speaking mock Yiddish.
Edit: I looked up the differences between Bayrisch and Standard German, and it makes sense I heard some Yiddish. Bayrisch grammar is more like Yiddish grammar then that of Standard German, and the forms is for ist and a for ein are common between Bayrisch and Yiddish. The r sound and the shift of a to o are also commonalities, but most of the other phonetic differences are more like standard German in Yiddish.
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Of course, did you forget who is the #1 performer in Germany?
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Huey Lewis Gordon Ramsay.
Devoid of all other context, “Huey Lewis Gordon Ramsay” sounds like something the immigrant character with hilariously broken English in some shitty movie would say to prove they know about western pop culture.
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Like Borat.
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Like Borat.
Well a lot of context just slammed into me all at once there
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This is weird: things keep evolving into crabs.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a34389129/crab-evolution-carcinization/
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It’s not as weird as that time when everything was turning into cake.
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It’s not as weird as that time when everything was turning into cake.
Metabolically bisturbile.
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Something Gar might be interested in, I think.
It’s too late for this year’s Booker shortlist but Pat Sharp has written a book in which he inserts himself into history, Forrest Gump-style pic.twitter.com/6FqFWh3FHq
— Anita Singh (@anitathetweeter) October 22, 2020
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Last night I dreamt I was at an airsoft happening in a big warehouse but I somehow got a real gun.
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Something Gar might be interested in, I think.
Never heard of Pat Sharp on this side of the pond. All this time I thought Gar’s avatar was Lief Garrett.
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Never heard of Pat Sharp on this side of the pond
I wouldn’t expect you to, I doubt many people in the UK under 30 know who he is and at best he was a minor TV presenter 2o+ years ago.
I just like his silly 80s hair for my avatar which have always carried a theme of obscure D-list British celebs.
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Huey Lewis Gordon Ramsay.
Devoid of all other context, “Huey Lewis Gordon Ramsay” sounds like something the immigrant character with hilariously broken English in some shitty movie would say to prove they know about western pop culture.
That movie is a guilty pleasure of mine, and Hueylewis is his youngest son, and is a traditional name in his version of his country
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Few things:
My barbershop (Astor Place) is going to close down the end of the month because of Covid. They lost 90% revenue so…
Now I will go one last time before they close for good, exchange numbers with my barber, maybe follow him where he goes etc..
Or find a new place and new guy I can trust. Decisions, decisions…—–
All these streaming subscriptions… I might get CBS All Access for all the Star Trek shows and other things. Seems to offer more for me. 5.99 (really 6 bucks) a month, comes out to 72 a year. Not bad, but things are slow these days. Again decisions, decisions.
Any ideas?——
Might change my avatar again. Won’t go crazy like the old MW days but…
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All these streaming subscriptions… I might get CBS All Access for all the Star Trek shows and other things. Seems to offer more for me. 5.99 (really 6 bucks) a month, comes out to 72 a year. Not bad, but things are slow these days. Again decisions, decisions. Any ideas?
Have you seen much of the new Star Trek stuff yet? I quite enjoy Discovery but thought Picard was a bit dull.
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I would look at $72 a year and think, I could buy the full Star Trek original series on Blu-Ray for that. And then next year, all of TNG. Then next year…
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I would look at $72 a year and think, I could buy the full Star Trek original series on Blu-Ray for that. And then next year, all of TNG. Then next year…
The problem is they haven’t done Blu-ray releases of DS9 and Voyager and likely won’t because of poor sales on the later years of TNG
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Anyway, I am on the proverbial fence trying to decide to go for the streaming or not… I need a little more content and better word of mouth.
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As for the pictures thread, @davewallace saw what I was doing and did a send up of it. Well done! I found it funny as well.
Not all the pictures have to be funny but they can be interesting, thus expanding on the thread. I found what @stevesensible posted on Mr. Rogers and Thor to be cool…———
Oh, and for now my avatar for those inquiring is the singer Halsey. And don’t worry: I will refrain from posting booty pictures in the picture thread.
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Random puzzle for @Al-x (or anyone else):
What is the maximum number of knights you can place on a chessboard in such a way that none of them can take any other one (hypothetically, not as part of a real game of chess)
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64, if they’re all of the same colour.
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I was watching The Expanse just now and noticed a TV meme, specifically American, that has been going on for ages but is a bit silly.
Pouring and drinking large glasses of whisky all the time.
Whisky (or whiskey) is a very strong beverage but right back to watching Dallas as a kid characters in these shows keep knocking back glasses of it with seemingly no impairment.
I’d like a new version where they decide all this business and machinations shit is a waste of time and it’d be good to have a karaoke session followed by an unhealthy takeaway. Then fall down.
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I…noticed a TV meme, specifically American, that has been going on for ages but is a bit silly.
Pouring and drinking large glasses of whisky all the time.
That’s an unfair generalization, Gar.
Sometimes we drink gin. Or vodka.
Occasionally rum…
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Okay, you got me, Al. I clicked and now I know that Scarlett is with a guy called Colin Jost, who looks encouragingly average and is a comedian I have never heard of. I also now know that it’s her third marriage (in her thirties! Bloody hell, Scarlett!).
So… thanks, I guess?
“Terror” vs. “Horror”: Which One Is Worse?
Many of the most suspenseful moments of fiction—within the Gothic genre or others—are caused by terror. As writer and editor Lincoln Michel notes, “Terror is the feeling of dread and apprehension at the possibility of something frightening.” He describes horror as “the shock and repulsion of seeing the frightening thing.” A Gothic novel can use terror to build suspense, while works of horror often put extreme violence on full display. Of course, some novels combine elements of the two.
This reminds me of the Jamie Delano Hellblazer GN The Horrorist, drawn by David Loyd. I need to reread that one.
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We really need to do away with Daylight Savings Time. It just confuses me when I’m trying to figure out if my relatives in Europe are 5 hours or 6 hours ahead of me.
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I think you’re focusing on the wrong end of the day, Al. When our clocks changed last weekend I got an extra hour of light in the morning
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There’s lots of discussion about staying on DST, but don’t count on my vote.
At the darkest point in the year sunrise wouldn’t happen until almost 9:00 AM.No way. I’m all for doing away with changing, just keep it the way it is now (Standard Time).
Plus, I just got back my hour you stole from me.
Don’t think you’re going to take from me without paying it back!1 user thanked author for this post.
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Do American parents ever really name their sons “Bubba”, or is it a nickname?
It wouldn’t surprise me if it has happened but it tends to be a nickname.
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Hey y’all I’m back. I’m going to post funny pictures mostly. And tell you what beer I’m drinking.
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Great to have you back Arjan.
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Thanks I had a rough couple of weeks and I noticed posting here was a bit “triggering”. So I had to stop for a while. I feel a lot better now but I don’t think I am going to engage in any heavy debating.
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Good to have you back, Arjan!
If you think a particular thread might be triggering, it is best to avoid it.
On the other hand, The Thread of Goodness and Positivity can always use new content!
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I don’t think I am going to engage in any heavy debating
So you don’t want to weigh in on whether MAN OF STEEL is better than PROMETHEUS?
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I had a parcel left with a neighbor while I was out shopping.
As it’s illegal for me to meet my neighbor at the moment, the best plan I can think of is to throw stones at his window from the garden gate until he looks out, then mime him putting my parcel in the street while I back off
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As it’s illegal for me to meet my neighbor at the moment, the best plan I can think of is to throw stones at his window from the garden gate until he looks out, then mime him putting my parcel in the street while I back off
Don’t forget coronavirus can remain active on various surfaces for hours or even days, so he’d better just leave it in the street for you to retrieve on Monday.
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