Everything that includes the word 'black' is considered racist these days, and any accusation of racism is true without proof. That's the way it works these days.
Not in the UK, but I can understand it's different in the USA.
Just to pick out a few: http://www.joe-ks.com/phrases/phrasesP.htm Paint the town red. Pan out. Pass with flying colours. Pig in a poke. Pleased as punch. Pot to piss in. Pull the wool over his eyes. Pull your finger out. Put a sock in it.
These phrases enrich the English language, and, when used in conversation correctly, concisely convey a complex concept.
Do you really still heat water by putting it in a metal kettle and putting that over an open fire?
Of course not, but I'm aware of what's involved. There are plenty of people that do boil water on an open fire.
Combichrist is a great band btw, people with good taste in music deserve to find eachothers!:P
I don't much like many of Combichrist's lyrics. There's too much misogyny -- songs like "Shut Up and Swallow" and "Give Head If You've Got It" especially. Panzer AG (LaPelgua's other harsh EBM project) is better.
I live in London, let me know if you visit:-). I'm often found at Slimelight.
My cooking pots are stainless steel. My kettle is likewise stainless steel. Nether can talk and as far as I'm aware nether has racist tendencies.
Racist? The phrase has nothing to do with racism. A cooking pot or kettle, when used over an open fire, get sooty (i.e. black).
(Or, alternatively, the kettle is clean and shiny, as it's not put on an open fire. Then the pot's accusation is based on its own reflection in the kettle.)
I'm unclear about the number of levels of indirection and sarcasm in your first paragraph due to that last sentence. Therefore I will ignore the last sentence and play your first paragraph as mostly straight.
Yes, homophobia is acceptable as is spouting racism. Hating women is fine too. Just don't assault someone and you can be as much of a homophobic, racist, sexist fuckstain as you want.
Homophobia and racism are allowed (you can make homophobic and racist remarks) in general in Europe. What you often can't do is make such remarks towards specific people -- e.g. at a funeral, or picketing a house. You also can't threaten people based on their sexuality/race (or anything else for that matter, but if you do it because of race etc the penalty is worse).
See, for example, this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_in_the_United_Kingdom It's interesting that the last case cited seems odd (he was holding an offensive sign, but was convicted). But the cited article suggests he'd have successfully appealed, except he died. (it was in the lowest court.)
You could mount a tri-square underneath your camera to speed up lining up the document.
(But personally I think it's a waste of time for home records. I dump mine in a box, they're in reverse-chronological order the two times a year I need anything. New year = new box, the old one goes in a cupboard.)
I'd like to know if there's any correlation between accidents and "speed traps." There's a lot of braking and bunching up whenever there is a visible police presence, and I wonder if speeding itself is more dangerous than "avoiding a speeding ticket"....
But if people knew they'd never be caught for speeding, average speeds would rise -- which increases risk.
Not necessarily. (I'm at IT pro, but I have nothing to do with this kind of work, so this is based on my general knowledge.) In the UK privacy laws are a bit stronger than the US, so:
Your personal information is safe with us and will never be released to companies outside the Tesco Group for their marketing purposes.
We may use and share anonymised information outside the Tesco Group. However, we would like to reassure you that this never includes your personal information
If you agree, we may contact you: [...] * with offers and information about partners' products or services
(The result is similar. I might still get an offer from AA Insurance based on Tesco's knowledge of my petrol purchasing habits, but I think Tesco would have to approach AA and say "we have 25,000 people who spend more than £X on petrol per month, we'll charge you £Y to send them all your junk mail".)
Almost everybody gets sick now and then, kids break their arms or legs or whatnot, and to take them to the emergency room without insurance would cost me my house.
I thought children got free healthcare in the USA? Please don't tell me I'm wrong...
I wonder if a society would actually decide to change their language if there was sufficient evidence that it hinders their cultural development.
Danish might be slow for children to learn, which might hinder their development (last time I read about this, that was the claim). I don't know how many multilingual Danish parents would consider teaching their child another language though...
I tend to get confused when thinking about English grammar (it's too flexible, and I've rarely thought about it), but, "tomorrow I write another one" is wrong. However, you could give an order: "write another one tomorrow".
A German once told me English people were obsessed with time, because we would say things like "I was going to get that done by last week, but I should be able to have it mostly ready by tomorrow".
(Ich lerne Deutch, aber sehr langsam. Ich sollte mehr üben...)
As an aside, me being nerdy, only wanting to stay at home playing games together or separately, watching movies/anime, not liking shopping or going to bars, and being just generally a lazy, fat f*ck I don't really seem to be what people are looking for anyways...;)
You've pretty much described my flatmate's girlfriend, and my flatmate (although he's really thin). I think they met at a Combichrist gig.
She pretty much initiated things though. Loads of geeky guys are really shy (including me).
Depending on the country, certain segments of the European population eat worse food than the rest. That's why the statistic is an average.
I see more fat people if I go to Asda (cheapest large supermarket in the UK), or if I travel outside the biggest urban areas (I live in London, where people walk a lot more than average).
Cable companies, due to their comfortable position thanks to the expense of installing cabling, don’t have that much incentive to innovate.
Get the government to break the monopoly.
A couple of months ago I got some junk mail from BT, advertising their newest ADSL (or FTTH, or whatever it is) service, with a download speed of 50Mb/s.
Last week, I got a letter from Virgin Media, the cable company, saying they were increasing the broadband speed from 20Mb/s to 60Mb/s at no extra charge. Looks like they didn't want to lose any customers.
I see adverts for competing broadband providers all the time. "Broadband for only £2.99!* (*first three months half price, normal price £5.98/month, 40GB/month download limit" is the top advert if I search for "cheap broadband".
My contract's pretty old (18 months?), but I have an HTC Desire with Orange. It costs me £17/month, for 400 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited (or is it 1GB?) data. 2 year contract, and I didn't pay anything upfront for the phone! Total about £400, which was about what the phone cost at the time.
It's with e2save. I've had no problems with the cashback.
how is it $20 instead of $80. I thought your bill wasn't going down if you bought a phone outright or after your 2 year contract is over(your bill still doesnt drop, supposedly you have paid them back the subsidized portion.
Here in the UK, where many people buy subsidised long-contract phones (though probably not as much as in the US), when the contract ends the company will offer a "free upgrade", but you can refuse it and ask for a discount instead. You do have to ask (or otherwise threaten to leave, e.g. ask to port your number), they won't do it automatically.
As a US citizen now thoroughly ashamed of my society's behavior (esp. regulatory capture, as well as the all-classes corruption of the housing bubble), this news is the first time in my entire life that European society has seemed superior.
The first time ever? That's incredible.
Europe and the US have different views (to varying degrees) on many topics. Money, commerce, society, art, sex, the poor, the rich, military, environment, privacy, citizen rights and restrictions, punishment, education, transport, sport, patriotism, police, tax...
Pick any one of those and I'll be able to describe things I like about Europe (and dislike about America), and vice-versa.
Huh? Maybe the heat is making me dense today, I don't quite follow on why would they need to lay down data connections along every length of track, would you please elaborate?
It's not likely that, right now, every length of track is lined with data connections, yet they managed somehow to do their job.
I don't know for North America, and I don't really know for anywhere else, but I think almost all track has various cables along it. The signals and points (switches) need them, for a start, and telephones at the side (in case the train driver needs to contact the signaller). The tracks have a current run through them to detect if a train is on them (the train completes the circuit).
That means there's already somewhere to put the cables -- round here (UK) there's often a concrete trough at the side, although it's probably buried sometimes too.
It used to be the normal way of paying for mobile phone service in the UK... and it still is, just about:
Actually, no it wasn't; pre-paid mobile phones came out a long time after contracts.
"Used to be" doesn't mean "at first" or "originally". I meant the period in the mid/late 1990s, when you first could buy a PAYG handset for £30 or so.
If I were to guess I'd say the increase in the proportion of contract customers was a result of newer, "must-have" handsets (smartphones in particular) being priced so highly when bought sim-free or with a pre-paid SIM.
Yes, the article gives that reason, and some others (availability of cheaper SIM-only contracts, monthly contracts, bundling with home broadband etc).
In most countries cell phone service is pre-paid. From what I understand if u don't have extra money in your account the extra service like pay-for numbers doesnt go through. Can anyone with more info on this verify?
That is correct, and I'm surprised this method is so alien to the US.
It used to be the normal way of paying for mobile phone service in the UK... and it still is, just about:
This phenomenon has been especially evident in the UK, where since Q4 2007 the share of contract customers has risen from around a third (35.4 percent) to almost half (48.6 percent in Q2 2011) of all subscribers, due in part to the introduction of new types of contract tariffs aimed at attracting existing prepaid users to switch to contracts.
With a pre-pay phone you don't need a bank, credit card, address, or any of the infrastructure for that. The original method (still used) to add balance is to buy "vouchers" from a shop. Scratch of the silver panel, type it into the phone, £10 instantly credited. Nowadays you can also top up online, by text, by phone, by credit/debit card, at an ATM... lots of ways. But the vouchers are still sold everywhere.
I think most children have a pre-pay phone, also most students, and many people with a low-paid job. And people who don't use mobile phones very often -- including my well-paid parents and my grandparents. (Although the statistics are probably skewed by tourists and other visitors. I have a contract with a British company, and a pre-pay SIM for Germany, since I travel there fairly often. I swap the SIMs around in the airport, and get cheap calls and internet in Germany.)
Usually, a phone call (or YouTube video, or whatever) cuts out as soon as the remaining credit is used up. The phone continues to receive calls and texts, and allows whatever methods exist to add credit, contact customer services etc.
On the other hand, a lot of college kids are just lazy middle-classers (as distinguished from the much larger working class which you're talking about)
I'm surprised you actually had time to talk to them...
Forty hours of work per week (more than my full-time job), plus studying, sleeping and eating... was there any time left? We live in different countries, with different values, but though I admire your dedication it's not something I think we should aspire to.
(Officially, my university was "concerned" about any students working more than eight hours a week. In practise, they were concerned about any job more demanding than working for the university or student union.)
At my school (and most other schools in the UK, I think -- they're pretty standard) we had "hundreds, tens and units" to play with (aged about 5). Mostly we arranged them into squares, cubes etc -- just as you've explained (though we didn't have a million).
The units were 1cm cubes, the tens a stick, the hundreds a square, and thousands a cube. The "thousands" cube was hollow, and (of course) held a litre of water. Place value, decimal system, and the metric system, all at once:-) Here they are.
For a different visualisation, one of the large, cubic containers used for transporting chemicals (in Europe anyway -- these) has a volume of 1m^3, hence a 1,000,000cm^3.
Slashdot Mirror
Most folks use pans to fry things, not pots... That said, doesn't aluminum typically have better heat distribution than steel or iron?
I think copper pots (or copper-based pans) are best. Iron holds heat very well, and doesn't distribute it much (useful in a wok), but is very heavy.
Aluminium is light, but aluminium ions have been linked to Alzheimer's disease... only now that I've checked that, it seems they haven't. Or maybe they have, depending who you believe (see Wikipedia). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookware_and_bakeware#Cookware_materials
Everything that includes the word 'black' is considered racist these days, and any accusation of racism is true without proof. That's the way it works these days.
Not in the UK, but I can understand it's different in the USA.
Just to pick out a few: http://www.joe-ks.com/phrases/phrasesP.htm
Paint the town red.
Pan out.
Pass with flying colours.
Pig in a poke.
Pleased as punch.
Pot to piss in.
Pull the wool over his eyes.
Pull your finger out.
Put a sock in it.
These phrases enrich the English language, and, when used in conversation correctly, concisely convey a complex concept.
Do you really still heat water by putting it in a metal kettle and putting that over an open fire?
Of course not, but I'm aware of what's involved. There are plenty of people that do boil water on an open fire.
Combichrist is a great band btw, people with good taste in music deserve to find eachothers! :P
I don't much like many of Combichrist's lyrics. There's too much misogyny -- songs like "Shut Up and Swallow" and "Give Head If You've Got It" especially. Panzer AG (LaPelgua's other harsh EBM project) is better.
I live in London, let me know if you visit :-). I'm often found at Slimelight.
Cross-licensing of patents is actually a good thing
I disagree -- it's fine for the large companies, but it blocks out small, perhaps more innovative companies.
My cooking pots are stainless steel. My kettle is likewise stainless steel. Nether can talk and as far as I'm aware nether has racist tendencies.
Racist? The phrase has nothing to do with racism. A cooking pot or kettle, when used over an open fire, get sooty (i.e. black).
(Or, alternatively, the kettle is clean and shiny, as it's not put on an open fire. Then the pot's accusation is based on its own reflection in the kettle.)
I'm unclear about the number of levels of indirection and sarcasm in your first paragraph due to that last sentence. Therefore I will ignore the last sentence and play your first paragraph as mostly straight.
Yes, homophobia is acceptable as is spouting racism. Hating women is fine too. Just don't assault someone and you can be as much of a homophobic, racist, sexist fuckstain as you want.
Homophobia and racism are allowed (you can make homophobic and racist remarks) in general in Europe. What you often can't do is make such remarks towards specific people -- e.g. at a funeral, or picketing a house. You also can't threaten people based on their sexuality/race (or anything else for that matter, but if you do it because of race etc the penalty is worse).
See, for example, this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_in_the_United_Kingdom
It's interesting that the last case cited seems odd (he was holding an offensive sign, but was convicted). But the cited article suggests he'd have successfully appealed, except he died. (it was in the lowest court.)
You could mount a tri-square underneath your camera to speed up lining up the document.
(But personally I think it's a waste of time for home records. I dump mine in a box, they're in reverse-chronological order the two times a year I need anything. New year = new box, the old one goes in a cupboard.)
I'd like to know if there's any correlation between accidents and "speed traps." There's a lot of braking and bunching up whenever there is a visible police presence, and I wonder if speeding itself is more dangerous than "avoiding a speeding ticket"....
But if people knew they'd never be caught for speeding, average speeds would rise -- which increases risk.
And you've given me permission to sell that data.
Not necessarily. (I'm at IT pro, but I have nothing to do with this kind of work, so this is based on my general knowledge.) In the UK privacy laws are a bit stronger than the US, so:
http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/clubcard/charter.asp#information_used
Your personal information is safe with us and will never be released to companies outside the Tesco Group for their marketing purposes.
We may use and share anonymised information outside the Tesco Group. However, we would like to reassure you that this never includes your personal information
If you agree, we may contact you: [...]
* with offers and information about partners' products or services
(The result is similar. I might still get an offer from AA Insurance based on Tesco's knowledge of my petrol purchasing habits, but I think Tesco would have to approach AA and say "we have 25,000 people who spend more than £X on petrol per month, we'll charge you £Y to send them all your junk mail".)
Almost everybody gets sick now and then, kids break their arms or legs or whatnot, and to take them to the emergency room without insurance would cost me my house.
I thought children got free healthcare in the USA? Please don't tell me I'm wrong...
I wonder if a society would actually decide to change their language if there was sufficient evidence that it hinders their cultural development.
Danish might be slow for children to learn, which might hinder their development (last time I read about this, that was the claim). I don't know how many multilingual Danish parents would consider teaching their child another language though...
I tend to get confused when thinking about English grammar (it's too flexible, and I've rarely thought about it), but, "tomorrow I write another one" is wrong. However, you could give an order: "write another one tomorrow".
A German once told me English people were obsessed with time, because we would say things like "I was going to get that done by last week, but I should be able to have it mostly ready by tomorrow".
(Ich lerne Deutch, aber sehr langsam. Ich sollte mehr üben...)
As an aside, me being nerdy, only wanting to stay at home playing games together or separately, watching movies/anime, not liking shopping or going to bars, and being just generally a lazy, fat f*ck I don't really seem to be what people are looking for anyways... ;)
You've pretty much described my flatmate's girlfriend, and my flatmate (although he's really thin). I think they met at a Combichrist gig.
She pretty much initiated things though. Loads of geeky guys are really shy (including me).
Depending on the country, certain segments of the European population eat worse food than the rest. That's why the statistic is an average.
I see more fat people if I go to Asda (cheapest large supermarket in the UK), or if I travel outside the biggest urban areas (I live in London, where people walk a lot more than average).
There were even more when I visited the US.
(And the UK is fatter than the rest of Europe.)
Cable companies, due to their comfortable position thanks to the expense of installing cabling, don’t have that much incentive to innovate.
Get the government to break the monopoly.
A couple of months ago I got some junk mail from BT, advertising their newest ADSL (or FTTH, or whatever it is) service, with a download speed of 50Mb/s.
Last week, I got a letter from Virgin Media, the cable company, saying they were increasing the broadband speed from 20Mb/s to 60Mb/s at no extra charge. Looks like they didn't want to lose any customers.
I see adverts for competing broadband providers all the time. "Broadband for only £2.99!* (*first three months half price, normal price £5.98/month, 40GB/month download limit" is the top advert if I search for "cheap broadband".
My contract's pretty old (18 months?), but I have an HTC Desire with Orange. It costs me £17/month, for 400 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited (or is it 1GB?) data. 2 year contract, and I didn't pay anything upfront for the phone! Total about £400, which was about what the phone cost at the time.
It's with e2save. I've had no problems with the cashback.
how is it $20 instead of $80. I thought your bill wasn't going down if you bought a phone outright or after your 2 year contract is over(your bill still doesnt drop, supposedly you have paid them back the subsidized portion.
Here in the UK, where many people buy subsidised long-contract phones (though probably not as much as in the US), when the contract ends the company will offer a "free upgrade", but you can refuse it and ask for a discount instead. You do have to ask (or otherwise threaten to leave, e.g. ask to port your number), they won't do it automatically.
The welfare system still cares for the mentally ill. I've never thought of them as typical criminals.
Addicts, too, can find help (often charities rather than the state, although the state might fund them).
The British press most often use "opportunist" to describe minor crime, rather than desperate.
Excellent :)
Write to Them has a convenient link to MEPs (and MPs, etc).
As a US citizen now thoroughly ashamed of my society's behavior (esp. regulatory capture, as well as the all-classes corruption of the housing bubble), this news is the first time in my entire life that European society has seemed superior.
The first time ever? That's incredible.
Europe and the US have different views (to varying degrees) on many topics. Money, commerce, society, art, sex, the poor, the rich, military, environment, privacy, citizen rights and restrictions, punishment, education, transport, sport, patriotism, police, tax ...
Pick any one of those and I'll be able to describe things I like about Europe (and dislike about America), and vice-versa.
Huh? Maybe the heat is making me dense today, I don't quite follow on why would they need to lay down data connections along every length of track, would you please elaborate?
It's not likely that, right now, every length of track is lined with data connections, yet they managed somehow to do their job.
I don't know for North America, and I don't really know for anywhere else, but I think almost all track has various cables along it. The signals and points (switches) need them, for a start, and telephones at the side (in case the train driver needs to contact the signaller). The tracks have a current run through them to detect if a train is on them (the train completes the circuit).
That means there's already somewhere to put the cables -- round here (UK) there's often a concrete trough at the side, although it's probably buried sometimes too.
It used to be the normal way of paying for mobile phone service in the UK... and it still is, just about:
Actually, no it wasn't; pre-paid mobile phones came out a long time after contracts.
"Used to be" doesn't mean "at first" or "originally". I meant the period in the mid/late 1990s, when you first could buy a PAYG handset for £30 or so.
If I were to guess I'd say the increase in the proportion of contract customers was a result of newer, "must-have" handsets (smartphones in particular) being priced so highly when bought sim-free or with a pre-paid SIM.
Yes, the article gives that reason, and some others (availability of cheaper SIM-only contracts, monthly contracts, bundling with home broadband etc).
In most countries cell phone service is pre-paid. From what I understand if u don't have extra money in your account the extra service like pay-for numbers doesnt go through. Can anyone with more info on this verify?
That is correct, and I'm surprised this method is so alien to the US.
It used to be the normal way of paying for mobile phone service in the UK... and it still is, just about:
This phenomenon has been especially evident in the UK, where since Q4 2007 the share of contract customers has risen from around a third (35.4 percent) to almost half (48.6 percent in Q2 2011) of all subscribers, due in part to the introduction of new types of contract tariffs aimed at attracting existing prepaid users to switch to contracts.
(Source)
With a pre-pay phone you don't need a bank, credit card, address, or any of the infrastructure for that. The original method (still used) to add balance is to buy "vouchers" from a shop. Scratch of the silver panel, type it into the phone, £10 instantly credited. Nowadays you can also top up online, by text, by phone, by credit/debit card, at an ATM... lots of ways. But the vouchers are still sold everywhere.
I think most children have a pre-pay phone, also most students, and many people with a low-paid job. And people who don't use mobile phones very often -- including my well-paid parents and my grandparents. (Although the statistics are probably skewed by tourists and other visitors. I have a contract with a British company, and a pre-pay SIM for Germany, since I travel there fairly often. I swap the SIMs around in the airport, and get cheap calls and internet in Germany.)
Usually, a phone call (or YouTube video, or whatever) cuts out as soon as the remaining credit is used up. The phone continues to receive calls and texts, and allows whatever methods exist to add credit, contact customer services etc.
On the other hand, a lot of college kids are just lazy middle-classers (as distinguished from the much larger working class which you're talking about)
I'm surprised you actually had time to talk to them...
Forty hours of work per week (more than my full-time job), plus studying, sleeping and eating... was there any time left? We live in different countries, with different values, but though I admire your dedication it's not something I think we should aspire to.
(Officially, my university was "concerned" about any students working more than eight hours a week. In practise, they were concerned about any job more demanding than working for the university or student union.)
At my school (and most other schools in the UK, I think -- they're pretty standard) we had "hundreds, tens and units" to play with (aged about 5). Mostly we arranged them into squares, cubes etc -- just as you've explained (though we didn't have a million).
The units were 1cm cubes, the tens a stick, the hundreds a square, and thousands a cube. The "thousands" cube was hollow, and (of course) held a litre of water. Place value, decimal system, and the metric system, all at once :-) Here they are.
For a different visualisation, one of the large, cubic containers used for transporting chemicals (in Europe anyway -- these) has a volume of 1m^3, hence a 1,000,000cm^3.