Joined the Mayqueeze.

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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • There are two views on this: language creates grammar after the fact, those are rules, we need to stick to these rules, and this be the hill I die on.

    The other view is more liberal. Native speakers don’t care about these rules and naturally deviate from some. Not all, not all at once, and not always to an extent that is recognized by the majority of speakers. But occasionally, certain uses make it. The use of the past tense in constructions that by the laws of grammar should require the past participle is a feature of Black American English. The popularity of hiphop and rap have spread this all over the world. With the now much derided term “woke” it has even reached other languages.

    By heart I’m a narrow minded stickler for the rules myself. The nonsensical use of “literally” still makes me mad. But that horse is so far out of the barn you can barely see it on the horizon. Fighting the fight for clean past tense/past participle separation may be one against windmills.

    English as a Germanic language comes from a protolanguage that probably only had irregular verbs in the vein of sing-sang-sung. Over time, and probably out of desperation by people who needed to learn it as a second language via migration and mingling, the verbs we now consider regular (team -ed) came about later. Language changes. English is living proof with its spelling making no sense at all and clear influences of Viking and Norman invasions and the spread around the world via the Empire. American English made spelling changes. Indian (Asia) English developed its own unique characteristics that may deviate from the King’s version. There is such a thing as EU English where you can see what happens when mostly non-natives go to town in it.

    Grammar came after the spoken version. It’s like a constitution that can be changed by quiet, gradual consensus.





  • I have a feeling if he had always turned into a Tarkasian bear for battle, fans would have complained that he is too much like the Hulk.

    I think they landed on this idea and the sufficiently large budget for the CGI too late but the tentacle throwing golden blob is an interesting battle form.

    Isn’t it funny how the production technology informs the storytelling? I heard that TNG in the first two seasons had a price tag of something like 5000 dollars per hand phaser beam so they used almost none. In S7 they shoot 100 times willy nilly in Gambit and hit almost nothing, no problem. Odo in S1 morphs in the pilot and then almost never on screen for a long time. And by S6 or 7 they’re like, sure, morph him into fire, fog, or an emu, wgaf!




  • I am going to go all Goodwin Godwin (edited) here: I just yesterday heard a snippet of a voice recording of Hitler discussing the Finnish winter war with their PM. The recording wasn’t supposed to happen, somebody forgot to hit stop on the recorder and then stashed it away. The man sounded like just another guy at the bar.

    To varying degrees this probably applies to all heads of state and government. If they don’t derive any advantage from being the bully in the interaction and they’re reasonably sure only trusted ears are listening they talk normally.

    I remember Obama being caught on a hot mic at a summit talking with then Russian president at the grace of Putin, Medvedev, saying something like: “I have the midterms coming up. Tell Vladimir that after that I can cut him some more leeway.” That’s the kind of horse trading we’re not hearing about normally. But it happens, and in normal language.

    Dictators may have a much smaller circle of trusted ears. So Putin and Kim probably don’t go full locker room: “So, Vlad, my homie, you’re really running a fucking meat grinder in the donbass, aren’t you!” - “Fuck you, your starving dwarf soldiers are also ending up in the sausage, motherfucker.” And then they laugh and pat each other on the back and order shots. But I’m sure they make fun of the orange.






  • The premise of the question is wrong. Trains need fuel like every other means of transportation. They can help consumers and logistics operations save on their individual fuel cost if they make use of rail rather than roads. A great passenger network saves fuel over all because people share a large passenger carrier rather than individually driving mostly empty cars, especially SUV tanks with only a driver behind the wheel.

    Trains also don’t “park” on open lines. There is a reason why it stopped and it’s most likely safety. So it doesn’t hit another train or runs into rail damage, construction crews, people, a shrub fire, etc. Since you say this happens regularly, It’s likely the train infrastructure is old. Maybe it’s a combination of those problems with too tight running schedules creating a bottleneck. Bring this to your local political leaders, complain to the train companies.

    I don’t know how hot it is there. What are the rules on not idling your engine while waiting in traffic jams and at railroad crossings? And if drivers are supposed to turn their engines off, this may be a clusterfuck caused by a train but blame must be disturbed. Even if it was hot (and unless I had infants or infirm folks in the car), I would switch off my engine these days because of your president’s adventures in Iran.


  • English? Yes.

    If we apply strict rules that both parts have to be directly linked, i.e. no space, I suspect English will have fewer examples of this. Because it doesn’t always write combos without a space. Lighthouse vs. house light, but horserace vs. racehorse. I think the “proper” Germanic languages, i.e. unencumbered by Norman invasion, will probably have more.

    German has shit like:

    Fußballverein (football club) and Vereinsfußball (football organized in clubs, differs by one letter). Hausboot (houseboat) and Bootshaus (again an extra s). Turnhalle (school gymnasium) and Hallenturnen (indoor gym class, annoyingly an extra n this time), etc.



  • Thanks for writing that. It’s quite long but I can see your point. I’m relieved that you didn’t just read two headlines and sent him to the digital gallows. Personally, I don’t reach the same conclusion as you. If you’d say in reply my standards were perhaps lower I would not disagree with you. As I wrote before, this is not enough for me. Weir is not a saint. I heard hin trash talk his own follow-up to the Martian in an interview when Hail Mary came out. He knows he’s not Asimov or Dick. Or Shakespeare.

    In terms of what science fiction is best at doing, we don’t appear to be that far apart. Allegorical storytelling is great. That’s why I mentioned Picard S2 where there is none of that. They have characters sit in ICE detention or looking at the burning mountains in 2020 and say this is shit (which, of course, it is). Zero allegory, all in our face virtue signaling. Virtues that I find valid but in a sci-fi story told in a very literal (read: shit) way. Politics overrode good story telling. (Then again, it was the pandy, there are extenuating circumstances.)

    You don’t have to answer this; I’m just curious. How is your enjoyment of 90s Trek knowing that Rick Berman was involved? I’d argue he’s a far bigger sob than Weir.



  • They shouldn’t let it end on purpose. The lifespan of Lizzy2 shouldn’t set the boundaries. If Amazon were smart here, they’d continue the path of limited releases on the silver screen as event cinema. I say “were” because I’m non convicted they won’t completely eff it up.

    Every new iteration of the franchise has been criticized, the casting choices, the stories, the gadgets, etc. And yet it prevails in the culture through the generations. Even my least favorite Bond movie is still an enjoyable re-watch (Die Another Day, if you’re wondering). I don’t want it to end.

    There is still potential in that franchise. They could do a height of the cold war period piece. Or one about WW2 origin of modern espionage. Also, Hollywood has run out of ideas. There is no way they won’t go back to the double-0 well. They are looking at Schwarzenegger to return as Conan and in a Predator sequel …