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The Random Thread
- This topic has 995 replies, 28 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 4 months ago by
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Comparing a toupee to dentures is a false equivalency.
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Weil keiner da ist!
Am I right that that wouldn’t work in the Austrian dialect because they do pronounce the R?
Written German is OK but to speak it isn’t easy. Doing it in Austrian and trilling the Rs is easier for me.
I already pointed that out for Yiddish, which is mutually comprehensible with German. Though that’s even worse since da is pronounced as do (in most dialects) or even du (in southeast, which I’m most familiar with, since it’s the dialect the Rabbi and most of the leading congregants of the synagogue I go to when there’s not a pandemic speaks)
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It can be two things, Kalman.
Seriously, it is possible for a person to have smoker’s cough AND be carrying the COVID virus despite being otherwise asymptomatic. Instead of assuming that those pedestrians are overreacting, perhaps you should consider whether there is something you can do that would reduce or eliminate the potential threat that your actions present to others.
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So, I’m standing in a queue outside a shop and passing the time reading and doing my best to avoid kicking off in the news thread (shut up Boris) and about to ask is it international pirate day. Aptly everyone is standing on X marks the spot to ensure social distancing. I get as far as typing ARRRRR when it’s my turn to enter only to be greeted by a sales assistant dressed as a bloody pirate. The staff are all going demented listening to Disney songs on a loop. They were playing some sort of speeded-up chipmunk version of It’s A Small World After All. Woody in a blue mask behind the counter was very nice but kind of disturbing looking. I reckon he’ll be ready for a session in Westworld before the end of the day.
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How do trees access the Internet?
They log on.
Why don’t trees like pythagoras?
They get square roots.
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An old friend asked me yesterday: “What are the five funniest movies you’ve seen”, and as that is impossible to answer thruthfully off the bat, I gave some bullshit answer. The Big Lebowski is the only one out of the original five I gave that even remotely fits the list.
We kept talking, however, and after a while embarrasment struck as I realised what is the funniest movie of all time and just shouted into my microphone:
“LIFE OF BRIAN!”
Those are still the only two I’ve been able to muster that I believe belong on the list. What about you? Anyone dare to say what their top five funniest movies are?
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I just got back from grocery shopping and realized that I am much hotter wearing my mask. before anyone makes an insult about my looks I mean that my temperature goes up. Maybe one of you science-y type can explain it better but It must have something to do with CO2. I hope I do not go back to work soon because I do not think I could wear a mask for 8 hours. I also have a new even greater admiration for front line workers who are managing to wear a mask for at least 8 hrs.
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I’m still trying to answer your funniest movie question, Anders.
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It depends what type of funny I’m in the mood for or if I’m in a funny mood. Right now, maybe:
I’m leaving a space for 50 other choices and when I change my mind tomorrow
Dr. Strangelove
Raising Arizona
This Is Spinal Tap
Cat Ballou
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The community is divided over the release of Tim: The Snyder Cut
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I just got back from grocery shopping and realized that I am much hotter wearing my mask. before anyone makes an insult about my looks I mean that my temperature goes up. Maybe one of you science-y type can explain it better but It must have something to do with CO2. I hope I do not go back to work soon because I do not think I could wear a mask for 8 hours. I also have a new even greater admiration for front line workers who are managing to wear a mask for at least 8 hrs.
I don’t want to worry you, but heightened temperature is a symptom of Covid-19.
Actually, more seriously, you know they are using heat detectors as one way to quickly screen people? How does that work if everybody is wearing a mask and getting hotter?
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How does that work if everybody is wearing a mask and getting hotter
Your body temperature is already at the 37C that you’re registering as heat. Only a miniscule amount of you is actually getting warmer and it negligible in terms of your body temperature.
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I am getting used to drinking coffee with no sugar. I actually taste the coffee! I could never get over those who get lemon tea etc. and put 3-4 spoons of sugar in it. What is the point? All you taste is the sugar.
Just saying…
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Actually, more seriously, you know they are using heat detectors as one way to quickly screen people? How does that work if everybody is wearing a mask and getting hotter?
The ‘hotness’ is mainly a personal perception. You are containing and recirculating your breath within the mask which is by its nature warm, it can cause you to perspire, especially when it’s me queuing for 30 minutes outside Tesco in tropical heat.
When I get to the front and they take my temperature with a forehead measure it is all perfectly normal at roughly around 36 degrees.
Your internal temperature should not hugely vary when healthy if you are in your pants on a winter’s day or in a sauna. Feeling hot or cold is relatively irrelevant. So Don is right you can feel hot and uncomfortable wearing a mask but that’s all it is.
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the simple steps to convert C to F
Beta decay of C-16?
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I am getting used to drinking coffee with no sugar. I actually taste the coffee!
Are you still using milk or creamer in your coffee? Because guess what happens when you also stop using that…
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I am not sure but I think while they pronounce it more often in different parts of a word than standard German
That’s similar to Dutch, the r changes when the place in the word is different. We have the “Leiden R” which is inherently funny sounding, it sounds like an exaggerated American R and the Gooise R from North Holland which is a bit similar and is seen by some as terribly posh, it’s the way the Royal family typically pronounced it, as well as being the “tv dialect” which presenters had. All the tv studios are in the Gooi region which is why it was called Gooise R. Weird thing is the Gooise R is on the rise throughout the whole of the Netherlands even despite the negative connotation.
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The community is divided over the release of Tim: The Snyder Cut
This is about your circumcision, isn’t it?
It’s probably just about my penis generally in that most people will never see it.
Also I’ve got ALOT of dream storyboard sequences and CGI models about it.
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My simple step is to use Google and it converts it on the spot.
Yeah, try that when you’re outside. You won’t have a convenient computer and Internet connection then, will you? What will you do then?
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Why would you go anywhere without a convenient internet connection and a device to connect with?
ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?
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Yeah, try that when you’re outside.
The 4g network around here is more reliable than my wifi, so…
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Yeah, try that when you’re outside
I’m in lockdown.
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Speaking of just using google, translating stuff with google is still relatively useless, but translation software like DeepL (friend of mine works there, thus the example) is getting really, really good. So good that even with complex sentences, there’s often little to correct now.
So, two consequences:
– Jobs for translators will be gone pretty soon. At least for the most common languages.
– Combination of this kind of software, mobile internet access and earpods means that we’ll have Star Trek communicators also pretty soon. That’ll be tough for us language teachers. (Last bit is kidding. Learning foreign languages won’t die, at least not for a while. But it’ll be pretty amazing to go anywhere in the world and be able to understand people.) -
Jobs for translators will be gone pretty soon
It’s like when we invented spreadsheets and jobs for accountants are now completely non-existent
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As translation software gets better, it will be able to translate intent as well as verbatim words. Metaphors like “on little cat feet” aren’t magic, they work because they follow well-understood rules, and you should be able to teach a machine those rules.
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I typed the first line of Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog” (“The fog comes, on little cat feet”) into Google Translate, from English to Japanese, and back again. The final result: “Fog on the feet of a little cat”.
Like Dave and Anders say, machine translations will probably be able to learn to translate commonly used idioms and metaphors; it’s all just a matter of the data basis, really, I suppose.
But as Bernadette points out, when it comes to individual literary uses, it’ll get much harder (great example, by the way, and I love how this article considers the use of the individual words). And your example, poetry, will hopefully never be something you can just machine-translate. There’s too much to consider – weighing literality of translation against rhythm and other stylistic devices you may be able to save, that kind of thing will remain impossible for AI. Hopefully.
But this is only in the field of literature, where only a very tiny fraction of working translators are employed. Everything else – common and business interaction (where probably most translation is actually needed), dialogue in all kinds of entertainment, media content, video games and so on… all this will mostly be translated by algorithms (and only proof-read by human translators) soon.
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I think while the argument has been that technological advances in the past haven’t wiped out large swathes of careers it can be underestimating the power of advanced AI.
In Japan a major insurance company removed all of their actuaries and replaced them with algorithms. If that works for them then there’s no reason for that very well paid job (that takes 7 years study to qualify for) to continue to exist.
In the US I read something like 50% of qualified lawyers are working in different industries because the heavy work of drafting legal documents has largely gone.We’re still a long way from all their work being automated but chunks of it have been.
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Everything else – common and business interaction (where probably most translation is actually needed), dialogue in all kinds of entertainment, media content, video games and so on… all this will mostly be translated by algorithms (and only proof-read by human translators) soon.
I started working on this 12 years ago. Everything on my employer’s web pages and support forums was computer translated and then proof-read. Human translators stopped being hired back then, although humans still made correction they weren’t translators but just staff members who could speak both languages.
Of course a support site from a computer company is full of pretty dry and functional language so it’s a good place to start but we could see the learning in action, the first result were a bit sketchy but each iteration needed less editing until most pages were just glanced over with no changes. We’re talking a decade back when we got to that stage.
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The abibity to make fast computations is insignificant next to the power of the wordsmith[/quo
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Has anyone ever pointed out how The Walking Dead follows the plot of Watership Down?
Because if not, I want to stake my claim on the idea.
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Has anyone ever pointed out how The Walking Dead follows the plot of Watership Down?
Because if not, I want to stake my claim on the idea.
This is like how Babooshka by Kate Bush and Escape (The Pina Colada song) are the same story.
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When Shakespeare watches West Side Story he’s going to shit a brick.
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I sew people on Twitter out of nowhere taking a piss at Mark Millar’s works in the past , it’s nothing wrong you dislike his stuff, but sometimes people can be overreacting.
(I showed this pic because recently the same guy blocked me after i pointed it out that Joe Kelly didn’t create Deadpool
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the same guy blocked me after i pointed it out that Joe Kelly didn’t create Deadpool
Hahahaha. Trolls can’t handle being proven wrong.
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The original or the upcoming Spielberg remake?
Yes
I see.
The original or the upcoming Spielberg remake?
Yes
I… see…
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I do prefer the original of “Or the upcoming Speilberg remake”
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Random thought of the day:
Thinking about the new The Stand miniseries that’s coming up, I’m wondering if Covid-19 is any different for those of us who have been fans of post-apocalyptic fiction. I mean, since a pretty early age, I’ve spent time with characters living in scenarios that are so much worse than our current predicament… maybe that does help a tiny little bit?
Far-fetched, probably; we all know the relationship between our fictions and our realities is not that simple. But I don’t know, I still kind of like the thought.
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Baby Yoda cooed across the desert, and the Mandalorian followed.
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Lots of people are making comparisons between corona-lockdown and post-apocalyptic fiction, but the thing it’s made me think of repeatedly is the Waid/Kitson “threeboot” version of the Legion, where most of the people on Earth are shut-ins who would rather talk via video-chat rather than face to face and the Legion are convention breaking kids by meeting physically.
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A novel about people staying indoors playing videogames, eating pizza, and whinging about their infringed public liberties doesn’t sound too interesting.
That’s what I’m saying, man! This pandemic is way too shit for us hardened postapocalyptonauts to get worked up about! Those fucking civilians may be out there protesting the loss of their liberty or whatnot, but when you’ve been gauging public buildings for their zombie defense status for decades, you’re just wondering what the hell these people are getting worked up about.
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Wanna go and eat some brains together? I’ll do Australia and you can do Germany. Maybe the movement will take hold??
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This is an interesting article about how the adoption of the rainbow and rainbow flags/colours etc. as a symbol of support for the NHS is being viewed by some as eroding its prominence as a gay pride symbol.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52724818
Obviously Mike’s badges spring to mind here – while they once clearly signified that pride aspect within the NHS, I wonder if their effectiveness is being undermined by the wider adoption of the rainbow as a symbol of support for the NHS but without that connotation?
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I think, as with pretty much anything that enters mainstream consciousness, there’s been a definite erosion of its intended meaning. I watched a virtual GP the other day and one of the racers had the NHS logo over rainbow colours as part of his car’s livery (absent in favour of a paid sponsor for the next race, I note now). And I don’t know, maybe Jason Plato is all for LGBT rights and pride and specifically within the NHS, but I suspect not.
As I remember Mike saying it (and I could be wrong here and I apologise to him profusely if I am) the badges were to help show LGBT patients that they could be confident in talking to staff wearing the rainbow badges and not face discrimination and backwards attitudes, which is great. But that meaning was sort of diminished as soon as the likes of Matt Hancock started going around wearing one, let alone all the subsequent rainbows in windows stuff during the coronavirus pandemic.
So I can definitely see why some gay people are wary of the use of rainbow – the six striped pride flag especially – for the NHS support stuff. Ironic really, given all the suspicion of the commercialisation and co-opting of it by brands over the last few years, that it would be the health service wot did it.
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Yep, definitely. Couldn’t have put it better.
I guess the other side of it is that it’s become a strong symbol for another positive cause, but it’s a shame that one has to come at the expense of the other.
(As well as rainbows, butterflies were also an early motif of positivity during the pandemic – maybe they could have gone for that as an NHS support symbol instead.)
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But that meaning was sort of diminished as soon as the likes of Matt Hancock started
I might be misremembering, but didn’t Mike adress this specifically on the old board?
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Fuck, Marry, Kill – Harry Potter edition. No kids, adult versions of all characters apply.
I’d… fuck Harry, marry Hermione and kill Dolores Umbridge.
You?
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Fuck, Marry, Kill – Harry Potter edition. No kids, adult versions of all characters apply.
I’d… fuck Harry, marry Hermione and kill Dolores Umbridge.
You?
I’d kill myself
So you can fuck Peeves, marry Moaning Myrtle and kill Nearly Headless Nick?
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I’d kill myself
That’s tempting, but sadly not an option for me. I’m not in the Harry Potter books.
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I’d kill myself
That’s tempting, but sadly not an option for me. I’m not in the Harry Potter books.
That’s going to make it tricky for you to fuck Harry.
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I’d kill myself
That’s tempting, but sadly not an option for me. I’m not in the Harry Potter books.
I’m the hugely offensive Irish stereotype
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Let’s not get
intoin the way of Anders’ relentless stalking of Daniel Radcliffe. AGAIN.Fixed it.
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I was just arguing with a Flat Earther. He got so angry, he stormed off saying he was going to walk to the edge of the world and throw himself off.
But he’ll come around eventually.
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