The Refuge of the Toads

[screwtape]

You all saw the movie, his robomom has vicious Slovenian werewolf hounds to guard her and the new Antichrist.
A few months into his presidential term, Daddey Donald dies in a freak accident, when he goes to pet one of his friend's (Vlad Putin) pet tiger and the pussy grabs him. Oh the irony.

Nice Russian Reversal.

[Billie from Ockham]

Looks like the election forecasting sites are sniping with each other:

Nate Silver Goes to War With HuffPost Writer: ‘You Have No Fucking Idea What You’re Talking About’

I read a few paragraphs of the HuffPo article yesterday and then quit because it was clearly written, to borrow a phrase, by someone with no fucking idea what they were talking about. Why I read anything there is beyond me.

I can't say that I'm impressed by Nate Silver's tweets, however. Deep breaths, dude.

[deLurch]

...in Soviet Russia, pussy grabs you!?

[Kirbmarc]

What's interesting to me is that the Horrible Misogynists and Racists like The Amazing Atheist or Total Biscuit have raised actual money to help poor, disenfranchised women of color while the Good White Knights of The Social Justice Table prefer to give their money to people who make shitty videos on Patreon or youtube series of the horrible mistreatment of video game female characters.

One of the big divides between myself and what I'm going to start calling "Woke Culture" (as that's what they're calling themselves more and more) is that quite frankly, they think having everybody drink the kool-aide is all you really need, and in fact that's the only fix for these things. The only way to fix these issues is to spread their ideology to everybody.

So they give money to people who are going to to just that, spread the ideology.

Well it's easier to watch and repost/retweet crap videos than to do any real activism. Also those videos are easy to produce. Laziness FTW.

[jet_lagg]

Looks like the election forecasting sites are sniping with each other:

Nate Silver Goes to War With HuffPost Writer: ‘You Have No Fucking Idea What You’re Talking About’

I read a few paragraphs of the HuffPo article yesterday and then quit because it was clearly written, to borrow a phrase, by someone with no fucking idea what they were talking about. Why I read anything there is beyond me.

I can't say that I'm impressed by Nate Silver's tweets, however. Deep breaths, dude.

Jeez. You're not kidding. All those spelling errors don't make for good optics even if Silver is on the right side of this.

[John D]

Here is what is important to remember according to Nate Silver...

" But the still-high number of voters not committed to either Trump or Clinton — about 13 percent of the electorate says it’s undecided or will vote for a third-party candidate, as compared with just 3 percent in the final 2012 polling average — contributes substantially to uncertainty".... Nate Silver

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ele ... 6-forecast

[CommanderTuvok]

Just heard the latest on that "serial killer" case in the US, where the woman was locked in that cage.

Have you Pitters seen and heard that sheriff? He keeps on thanking God, so much so, he seemed to be talking about God more than details of the case. If this happened in the UK, people would think something was seriously wrong with him.

[John D]

Just heard the latest on that "serial killer" case in the US, where the woman was locked in that cage.

Have you Pitters seen and heard that sheriff? He keeps on thanking God, so much so, he seemed to be talking about God more than details of the case. If this happened in the UK, people would think something was seriously wrong with him.

I was in South Carolina when the woman was found chained up in a storage container. Someone heard her pounding on the side of it. Her boyfriend is missing. She told the cops there are probably other women on the property. It was the big story when I was down there. Really horrible.

The people of South Carolina are very religious. They are also really nice people in general. Most people there talk about god with a simple assumption that god exists. It is very different. Waitresses say stuff like... "oh bless your heart... you are all out of soda. Let me get you a refill hun."

They hate Hillary for the most part... wow. I think they might try to start the next succession movement if she gets elected. Haha.

Can you link to the Sheriff's comments? I assume this is the Sheriff of Spartanburg county.... right?

[comhcinc]

Waitresses say stuff like... "oh bless your heart... you are all out of soda. Let me get you a refill hun."

Not for naught be "bless your heart" normally means "I pity you" and is used about people we feel sorry for.


Also no person born in raised in South Carolina would call it soda. It's coke, even if it's pepsi it's coke.

[John D]

Waitresses say stuff like... "oh bless your heart... you are all out of soda. Let me get you a refill hun."

Not for naught be "bless your heart" normally means "I pity you" and is used about people we feel sorry for.


Also no person born in raised in South Carolina would call it soda. It's coke, even if it's pepsi it's coke.

Well... I respectfully disagree. We chatted at length with this waitress.... and while "bless your heart" can be used as a passive insult, this is not always the case. Everyone I talk to in the Spartanburg area calls it soda.... or Pepsi (since this is Pepsi country). Maybe the fact that this is "Pepsi" country they don't say "coke". Just remember that Spartanburg is well inland and not an East Coast area. This could make the difference.

If you doubt my honesty or the veracity of my lived experience then fuck you shitlord!

[Sunder]

Looks like the election forecasting sites are sniping with each other:

Nate Silver Goes to War With HuffPost Writer: ‘You Have No Fucking Idea What You’re Talking About’

I read a few paragraphs of the HuffPo article yesterday and then quit because it was clearly written, to borrow a phrase, by someone with no fucking idea what they were talking about. Why I read anything there is beyond me.

I can't say that I'm impressed by Nate Silver's tweets, however. Deep breaths, dude.

Jeez. You're not kidding. All those spelling errors don't make for good optics even if Silver is on the right side of this.

In Silver's defense you don't go to a statistician for reel gud spelling, but for the numbers.

I'll give him some credit. He does seem to genuinely wish to right his ship after making an ass of himself editorializing against Trump during the primaries.

[comhcinc]

Waitresses say stuff like... "oh bless your heart... you are all out of soda. Let me get you a refill hun."

Not for naught be "bless your heart" normally means "I pity you" and is used about people we feel sorry for.


Also no person born in raised in South Carolina would call it soda. It's coke, even if it's pepsi it's coke.

Well... I respectfully disagree. We chatted at length with this waitress.... and while "bless your heart" can be used as a passive insult, this is not always the case. Everyone I talk to in the Spartanburg area calls it soda.... or Pepsi (since this is Pepsi country). Maybe the fact that this is "Pepsi" country they don't say "coke". Just remember that Spartanburg is well inland and not an East Coast area. This could make the difference.

If you doubt my honesty or the veracity of my lived experience then fuck you shitlord!

Bless your heart. You didn't realize all those people were where just trying to be nice to you. Lol soda.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2012-1 ... 5.00PM.png

I bet you were giving really weird looks for not ordering sweet tea.

[John D]

Not for naught be "bless your heart" normally means "I pity you" and is used about people we feel sorry for.


Also no person born in raised in South Carolina would call it soda. It's coke, even if it's pepsi it's coke.

Well... I respectfully disagree. We chatted at length with this waitress.... and while "bless your heart" can be used as a passive insult, this is not always the case. Everyone I talk to in the Spartanburg area calls it soda.... or Pepsi (since this is Pepsi country). Maybe the fact that this is "Pepsi" country they don't say "coke". Just remember that Spartanburg is well inland and not an East Coast area. This could make the difference.

If you doubt my honesty or the veracity of my lived experience then fuck you shitlord!

Bless your heart. You didn't realize all those people were where just trying to be nice to you. Lol soda.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2012-1 ... 5.00PM.png

I bet you were giving really weird looks for not ordering sweet tea.

Look you a-hole. I know you like to think you are the expert of all things southern... but do you even know where Spartanburg is? It is in that fucking yellow spot of your fucking map. You just proved my point and get a fucking clue. Jesus Christ. Please add something of value when you post. You are such an a-hole... really. Listen for once. okay? Just listen for once. Have you ever been to Spartanburg? I have spent weeks there.

[jet_lagg]

Jeez. You're not kidding. All those spelling errors don't make for good optics even if Silver is on the right side of this.

In Silver's defense you don't go to a statistician for reel gud spelling, but for the numbers.

I'll give him some credit. He does seem to genuinely wish to right his ship after making an ass of himself editorializing against Trump during the primaries.

No need to defend Silver to me. Ryan Grim is a being a blowhard cunt who apparently doesn't even have basic understanding of what's happening, but wants to opine from a major platform anyway. Silver is understandably pissed off about that. Losing your cool doesn't help make your case though. That's my only point.

As to why Grim is a cunt, compare how Grim describes the process

The short version is that Silver is changing the results of polls to fit where he thinks the polls truly are

To how Silver explains it

The model detects movement in the polls by making comparisons between different editions of the same poll. For example, if Clinton is at 46 percent in the Quinnipiac poll of Florida in August and was at 43 percent in the same poll in July, that suggests she’s gained 3 percentage points. Likewise, if Trump’s at 41 percent in the Rasmussen national poll this week and he was at 40 percent last week, that suggests he’s gained 1 percentage point.

The model runs this calculation for Clinton, Trump and Johnson separately. It’s possible for all candidates to gain (or lose) votes from undecided.

By making an apples-to-apples comparison, this method removes a lot of noise.

Next, the model takes these comparisons and draws a trend line from them using loess regression.

You don't need to be a statistician to see the difference between that and "changing the results to fit where you think the polls are". Grim links directly to the page I pulled those quotes from, so it's not as if we're looking at two different explanations.

[comhcinc]

Look you a-hole. I know you like to think you are the expert of all things southern... but do you even know where Spartanburg is? It is in that fucking yellow spot of your fucking map. You just proved my point and get a fucking clue. Jesus Christ. Please add something of value when you post. You are such an a-hole... really. Listen for once. okay? Just listen for once. Have you ever been to Spartanburg? I have spent weeks there.

If you can't handle a little ribbing then bless your heart and fuck off. But if you really want to be serious for a second sure let's do that.

Yes I know where Spartanburg is, I have lived in South Carolina before. Do you know where it is? I ask because Spartanburg is not in the yellow area. Spartanburg is west of that area.The yellow area is closer to Colombia, another place I have been.

Now I can add some more data. The information in that graph (the one you read incorrectly) is from http://popvssoda.com/. It's a unscientific online survey. The data is also from before 2003 if you go there now and find Spartanburg on their map you get this. (I enacted the labor for you)

http://i.imgur.com/ehLCswL.jpg

Which still shows people in that area overwhelming call the sugar water coke.

I might not be an expert on the South but I know a lot fucking more than you do with your couple of weeks of staying somewhere (are you sure it was Spartanburg? ) in South Carolina.

[Old_ones]

Here is what is important to remember according to Nate Silver...

" But the still-high number of voters not committed to either Trump or Clinton — about 13 percent of the electorate says it’s undecided or will vote for a third-party candidate, as compared with just 3 percent in the final 2012 polling average — contributes substantially to uncertainty".... Nate Silver

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ele ... 6-forecast

He's spent a lot of time and words explaining why his probabilities are where they are, and what assumptions would change them. They ran a whole piece on this not long ago called "why our model is more bullish than others on Trump".

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ele ... -on-trump/

Here's a list of what they came up with

Assumption No. 1: The high number of undecided and third-party voters indicates greater uncertainty.

Assumption No. 2: The FiveThirtyEight model is calibrated based on general elections since 1972. [as opposed to using only elections since 2000]

Assumption No. 3: The FiveThirtyEight model uses a t-distribution with “fat tails,” which gives a greater likelihood of rare events.

Assumption No. 4: State outcomes are highly correlated with one another, so polling errors in one state are likely to be replicated in other, similar states.

They note that assumptions 2 and 4 both contribute substantially to the lower probabilities for Clinton. If you remove either, Silver says, her chances go past the 90th percentile (pre-Comey). Personally, I think assumption 4 is defensible, but I have more questions about assumption 2. Politics post 2000 has changed relative to where it was in the 70s and 80s. We've seen pretty strong patterns in the results since 2000 w.r.t. margins and which states tend to go red and blue. I don't think the Reagan landslides have much bearing on what we should expect from this election.

[John D]

Look you a-hole. I know you like to think you are the expert of all things southern... but do you even know where Spartanburg is? It is in that fucking yellow spot of your fucking map. You just proved my point and get a fucking clue. Jesus Christ. Please add something of value when you post. You are such an a-hole... really. Listen for once. okay? Just listen for once. Have you ever been to Spartanburg? I have spent weeks there.

If you can't handle a little ribbing then bless your heart and fuck off. But if you really want to be serious for a second sure let's do that.

Yes I know where Spartanburg is, I have lived in South Carolina before. Do you know where it is? I ask because Spartanburg is not in the yellow area. Spartanburg is west of that area.The yellow area is closer to Colombia, another place I have been.

Now I can add some more data. The information in that graph (the one you read incorrectly) is from http://popvssoda.com/. It's a unscientific online survey. The data is also from before 2003 if you go there now and find Spartanburg on their map you get this. (I enacted the labor for you)

http://i.imgur.com/ehLCswL.jpg

Which still shows people in that area overwhelming call the sugar water coke.

I might not be an expert on the South but I know a lot fucking more than you do with your couple of weeks of staying somewhere (are you sure it was Spartanburg? ) in South Carolina.

Oh yeah... so now you want to claim your data is shit and that my interpretation of your shit map is also shit.... and haha... that you were just kidding... whatever.

I don't post my personal experiences on here so that they can be trolled... but go right ahead.

You can't really find any data to claim my observations are false. Tell you what.... why don't you start your convo with me by saying... geee wizzz John.... I always thought people in SC say "coke" instead of "soda". and then I could say, "I don't know... but whenever I am in Spartanburg they say "soda"... I wonder if they say different things in different parts of the state? Then you say something like "Well John, here is a map of word usage and it does look like there is a lot of variation across the state. And I would say... yeah... the map shows that there is more use of "soda" in the general Spartanburg area than other parts of the state.

And then you could say.... gosh John... are you sure that waitress wasn't personally insulting you when she said bless your heart. And I would say,... well in this case her comment was not prompted. She just came up and filled our "soda". She was very sweet and we chatted for a while. I don't think she was insulting me.

Your trolling is annoying.

[Shatterface]

I think we should ask Nate Silver what Southerners call sugar water.

[comhcinc]

I acknowledge that the data that I am using as example is not the best. It is still better than your data. You have one data point. You have going to Spartanburg before and you think people say soda. I have two data points. I have lived in South Carolina and gone to Spartanburg before and I think people say coke. My other data point is a map (two of them) that show that people in the Spartanburg area say coke.

And yes I can admit that my data is not strong while also pointing out that you misread the map. Which you did. And that's okay because people make mistake.

I wasn't trolling you. I consider you a friend and I was generally ribbing you. I'm sorry if I came off too strong.

[screwtape]

Where I grew up in rural Wiltshire, the local brand was Corona and was generally referred to as a fizzy drink. Never provided at home at all, where you could drink water, milk, squash, tea or coffee, I did sometimes save up pocket money so that I could buy a bottle of fizz at the far end of a bike ride, and lie in the sun drinking it before pedalling, burping outrageously, home.

If Com lived there, I suspect he knows his onions.

[MarcusAu]

The data may not be granular enough - there may be variations in preferred nouns within Spartanburg.

And of course, we cannot be completely certain that the waitress grew up in the vicinity or if she was following convention.

[Sunder]

I think we should ask Nate Silver what Southerners call sugar water.

Sweet tea.

But seriously, while I do enjoy a good iced tea and only rarely bother with the hot variety, the policy at many restaurants seems to be to steep it as little as possible so it doesn't pick up too much actual tea flavor, then dump in enough sugar to cause diabetic shock.

[free thoughtpolice]

[comhcinc]

I think we should ask Nate Silver what Southerners call sugar water.

Sweet tea.

But seriously, while I do enjoy a good iced tea and only rarely bother with the hot variety, the policy at many restaurants seems to be to steep it as little as possible so it doesn't pick up too much actual tea flavor, then dump in enough sugar to cause diabetic shock.

My mother would put 2 cups of sugar per gallon of Tea to make her sweet tea. When I make it nowadays I use about a cup plus a little extra to taste.

If you like iced tea and can get it the best is [url=https://reddiamond.com/pages/our-tea]Red Diamond[/ur].

[comhcinc]

Well messed that up.

https://reddiamond.com/pages/our-tea

[Kirbmarc]

The data may not be granular enough - there may be variations in preferred nouns within Spartanburg.

And of course, we cannot be completely certain that the waitress grew up in the vicinity or if she was following convention.

This is a job for a linguist. I remember that I've read several interesting papers on the use of shibboleths about soft drinks in the US. I'll dig in my virtual library and use the localized corpora and see what comes out, then I'll write a long post with some references.

[CaptainFluffyBunny]

The data may not be granular enough - there may be variations in preferred nouns within Spartanburg.

And of course, we cannot be completely certain that the waitress grew up in the vicinity or if she was following convention.

This is a job for a linguist. I remember that I've read several interesting papers on the use of shibboleths about soft drinks in the US. I'll dig in my virtual library and use the localized corpora and see what comes out, then I'll write a long post with some references.

Or you could just skim for pithy things that agree with you on Wikipedia and reference a stand-up comedian's routine. Then imply that anyone who disagrees with you hadn't read the material correctly and definitely has their head in the sand or some other place the sun doesn't shine. Then persist ad nauseam. Afterwards, mass deportations for Muslims and hookers for white people!

[Shatterface]

Sugary drinks are a social construct and, as such, cannot be subjected to empirical analysis by patriarchal science.

Who are we to mansplain the lived experience of southern women?

[MarcusAu]

Sugary drinks are a social construct and, as such, cannot be subjected to empirical analysis by patriarchal science.

Who are we to mansplain the lived experience of southern women?

Can we all just agree that John D. is at fault?

I mean they don't call it the War of (Sugary Drink) Northern Aggression for nothing.

[free thoughtpolice]

Grab him by the Pepsi.

[jugheadnaut]

One regionalism I noticed on biennial Family road trips to Florida for winter vacation when I was a boy was crushed ice vs. cubed ice. There was a point south of which you would always get crushed ice with your drinks in restaurants and north of which you would always get cubes. It's not difficult to figure out why southern areas would prefer crushed ice, since not only are they hotter, but historically poorer with less access to refrigeration so something that would chill even warm drinks quickly was needed. Popularity of iced tea probably also has something to do with it, since crushed iced is best for iced tea. But the suddenness and uniformity of the transition was impressive. I was eventually able to isolate the transition point (at least on the I-75) to about 10 km north of Cincinnati.

[free thoughtpolice]

Comey has informed congress no wrongdoing found in the new batch of emails.

[Badger3k]

When it happened (before it was determined to be a man with a sign) - maybe even now, since twitter trumplings were still posting it non-satirically - there were a bunch of "steely gaze, facing death, badass, etc" tweets. Looking at that image larger and off my phone, he looks confused rather than determined. I could see him getting angry though - the secret service were interrupting him, and the peons even had the nerve to touch him!

As far as I know the Trump Star thing is probably real, someone did vandalize it, and if the video is real the people who did it are assholes deserving of prosecution, whatever their political bent. I do think it is worse this year than in the past - there are a lot of Americans who are angry, and when you have demagogues and identity politics stirring the pot, and people playing on the anger and fear (the ones denying anthropogenic climate change but believe in a satanic ritual - seriously??). More social media doesn't help (or rather, more focus on it and on clickbait "journalism").

[Badger3k]

FA has another post up about the uselessness of offering prayers in lieu of actual aid.

This bugs me because there are countless examples of secular statements of "oh gosh I hope things get better" or "I hope somebody else does something." You might even call it virtue signalling, though I suspect for many people it's genuine compassion.

And most of the time that people are making such statements, whether religious "prayers" or secular well-wishing, it's because they can't do anything. Very few people are actually in a position where they could make a real difference and instead deciding to wish it better instead, and yes, those people are assholes. Most humans of any ideological stripe will lend a hand when the pressure's on.

In most cases, if they say it to someone, even me, I don't get offended. If they offer prayers or platitudes when they could do something (hard to determine - can they afford to donate to an actual charity, or go to help a disaster?) I might get bothered, but for the most part they mean well. They can't do anything to help, but want to try to feel better about it and make you feel better (they normally assume you appreciate the prayers or whatever).

Now if they are offering prayers at a government function, that's a wholly different thing.

[JayTeeAitch]

Just heard the latest on that "serial killer" case in the US, where the woman was locked in that cage.

Have you Pitters seen and heard that sheriff? He keeps on thanking God, so much so, he seemed to be talking about God more than details of the case. If this happened in the UK, people would think something was seriously wrong with him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Anderton

[gurugeorge]

I knew the Dredd writers (specifically John Wagner and Alan Grant) would only steal from the best. To whit the Blobs - where there was a trend for citizens to adopt a generic look through surgery.

There was an original series Twilight Zone episode along those lines too.

Also an s-f short story by John Varley (scenario: our solar system populated with colonies, science is advanced enough so you can change physically without too much trouble, e.g. alter appearance, change gender; in one particular colony on I think it was the Moon, the fashion is that everyone's physically identical and asexual; the story is about trying to find a criminal).

[Badger3k]

Comey has informed congress no wrongdoing found in the new batch of emails.

That can't be true. Alex Jones said that the FBI would issue and indictment any minute! Hillary must have had someone in Comey's family killed. Or deported to those Fema Death Camps he went on and on about near the Y2K brouhaha.

[Easy J]

They're all "Cokes" here in Texas. A transplanted northerner I worked with years ago was headed to the breakroom & asked if I wanted a "pop". It took me a minute to figure it out & we ended up having a conversation about regional stuff like that.

Around here pickups are "trucks", too. Proper trucks are "diesels" or "diesel trucks".

Some of it may be generational, too. I asked a coworker from Indiana about the coke thing & he said the older folks say "pop" but the younger ones say "coke".

Apropos of nothing: My Stephenville buddy's dad calls spray paint cans "rattle cans". I never heard that until he said it, but my buddy said it was an old man thing he'd heard before.

[comhcinc]

One regionalism I noticed on biennial Family road trips to Florida for winter vacation when I was a boy was crushed ice vs. cubed ice. There was a point south of which you would always get crushed ice with your drinks in restaurants and north of which you would always get cubes. It's not difficult to figure out why southern areas would prefer crushed ice, since not only are they hotter, but historically poorer with less access to refrigeration so something that would chill even warm drinks quickly was needed. Popularity of iced tea probably also has something to do with it, since crushed iced is best for iced tea. But the suddenness and uniformity of the transition was impressive. I was eventually able to isolate the transition point (at least on the I-75) to about 10 km north of Cincinnati.

Crushed ice also has the advantage of being easier to munch after you have finished off your sweet tea with lemon.

Also "crushed" ice is normally just frozen that way.

http://cdn.foodbeast.com.s3.amazonaws.c ... 8/ice4.jpg

I believe that shape probably melts slower than the traditional "cube" ice. Cubed ice has more surface area and thus melt quicker.

[free thoughtpolice]

Comey has informed congress no wrongdoing found in the new batch of emails.

That can't be true. Alex Jones said that the FBI would issue and indictment any minute! Hillary must have had someone in Comey's family killed. Or deported to those Fema Death Camps he went on and on about near the Y2K brouhaha.

Sounds like the election is rigged again. Not saying Obama did it but we all know what rigger rhymes with. ;)

[JayTeeAitch]

They're all "Cokes" here in Texas. A transplanted northerner I worked with years ago was headed to the breakroom & asked if I wanted a "pop". It took me a minute to figure it out & we ended up having a conversation about regional stuff like that.

Around here pickups are "trucks", too. Proper trucks are "diesels" or "diesel trucks".

Some of it may be generational, too. I asked a coworker from Indiana about the coke thing & he said the older folks say "pop" but the younger ones say "coke".

Apropos of nothing: My Stephenville buddy's dad calls spray paint cans "rattle cans". I never heard that until he said it, but my buddy said it was an old man thing he'd heard before.

We had a perfectly reasonable word for truck in England - 'Lorry' and then you got us all calling them trucks. Now, every time I watch TV you call fucking pickups trucks and fucking trucks tractor trailors or some shit like that. We already have tractors here so if we start calling our trucks tractors, what the fuck are we going to call our tractors? :x

[DaveDodo007]

While you are all arguing over fizzy drinks, did you know that the Clinton's and the top of DNC are all Satanists. I wish I was joking, though it should go down well in a mostly Christian country. Anyway look up SpiritCooking in Wikileaks.

There are some links in this twatter hashtag:

https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpiritCooking?src=hash

[comhcinc]

They're all "Cokes" here in Texas. A transplanted northerner I worked with years ago was headed to the breakroom & asked if I wanted a "pop". It took me a minute to figure it out & we ended up having a conversation about regional stuff like that.

Around here pickups are "trucks", too. Proper trucks are "diesels" or "diesel trucks".

Some of it may be generational, too. I asked a coworker from Indiana about the coke thing & he said the older folks say "pop" but the younger ones say "coke".

Apropos of nothing: My Stephenville buddy's dad calls spray paint cans "rattle cans". I never heard that until he said it, but my buddy said it was an old man thing he'd heard before.

We had a perfectly reasonable word for truck in England - 'Lorry' and then you got us all calling them trucks. Now, every time I watch TV you call fucking pickups trucks and fucking trucks tractor trailors or some shit like that. We already have tractors here so if we start calling our trucks tractors, what the fuck are we going to call our tractors? :x

Let me help you.

This is a tractor:
http://bright-cars.com/uploads/peterbil ... 351-09.jpg

This a trailer.
http://cooling-concepts.com/wp-content/ ... 2big64.jpg

This a a tractor trailer.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/or ... b6c7ed.jpg


You are right about the "tractor" part. It's just the oldest name for them. Most people call them trucks. When I hear the word "Lorry" I invision a box truck like this
http://www.seattlemitsubishifuso.com/wp ... 185.B3.jpg
But I understand that also covers tractor trailers?

[free thoughtpolice]

What's the big white thing behind the tractor?

[DaveDodo007]

and some very funny memes.

[MarcusAu]

...
Sounds like the election is rigged again. Not saying Obama did it but we all know what rigger rhymes with. ;)

Cunt?

[comhcinc]

What's the big white thing behind the tractor?

Nothing important to the conversation. :cdc:

[Easy J]

They're all "Cokes" here in Texas. A transplanted northerner I worked with years ago was headed to the breakroom & asked if I wanted a "pop". It took me a minute to figure it out & we ended up having a conversation about regional stuff like that.

Around here pickups are "trucks", too. Proper trucks are "diesels" or "diesel trucks".

Some of it may be generational, too. I asked a coworker from Indiana about the coke thing & he said the older folks say "pop" but the younger ones say "coke".

Apropos of nothing: My Stephenville buddy's dad calls spray paint cans "rattle cans". I never heard that until he said it, but my buddy said it was an old man thing he'd heard before.

We had a perfectly reasonable word for truck in England - 'Lorry' and then you got us all calling them trucks. Now, every time I watch TV you call fucking pickups trucks and fucking trucks tractor trailors or some shit like that. We already have tractors here so if we start calling our trucks tractors, what the fuck are we going to call our tractors? :x

I blame Yankees or DMV bureaucrats for the tractor-trailer thing. We were happy enough to just confuse pickups & trucks & left it at that. I sometimes see "tractor number" on work related paperwork & have to stop & think about what they're asking for.

[John D]

And... for something completely different.

Many mornings I wake up and can't figure out what I am doing and even get quite sad. I can barely get moving. Work seems to have little value. Things would go on fine without me.

But... then... some days... like today... I watch a bit of TV, I work on the house, I am in the moment. Everything is as it should be.

I just walked my mutt for a mile or so. The weather is perfect, I chatted with my neighbors, the trees are gold, and red, and brown as the fall comes in full bloom. The dog chases a couple of squirrels up a tree and then returns to the leash. and.. I think... this is fucking paradise. I don't think my life could ever be better than this moment.

Anyway... thanks to you all for being you. Even when you act like a-holes.

If I save enough money my wife and I want to drive around the country in one of these.. with the dog of course.

http://leisurevans.com/serenity/

Maybe I can pop in and see some of you. Even you com.....

[MarcusAu]

Don't say 'pop'.

[JayTeeAitch]

They're all "Cokes" here in Texas. A transplanted northerner I worked with years ago was headed to the breakroom & asked if I wanted a "pop". It took me a minute to figure it out & we ended up having a conversation about regional stuff like that.

Around here pickups are "trucks", too. Proper trucks are "diesels" or "diesel trucks".

Some of it may be generational, too. I asked a coworker from Indiana about the coke thing & he said the older folks say "pop" but the younger ones say "coke".

Apropos of nothing: My Stephenville buddy's dad calls spray paint cans "rattle cans". I never heard that until he said it, but my buddy said it was an old man thing he'd heard before.

We had a perfectly reasonable word for truck in England - 'Lorry' and then you got us all calling them trucks. Now, every time I watch TV you call fucking pickups trucks and fucking trucks tractor trailors or some shit like that. We already have tractors here so if we start calling our trucks tractors, what the fuck are we going to call our tractors? :x

Let me help you.

This is a tractor:
http://bright-cars.com/uploads/peterbil ... 351-09.jpg

This a trailer.
http://cooling-concepts.com/wp-content/ ... 2big64.jpg

This a a tractor trailer.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/or ... b6c7ed.jpg


You are right about the "tractor" part. It's just the oldest name for them. Most people call them trucks. When I hear the word "Lorry" I invision a box truck like this
http://www.seattlemitsubishifuso.com/wp ... 185.B3.jpg
But I understand that also covers tractor trailers?

No, a tractor in the UK is the farm vehicle with the 2 big back wheels and 2 small front wheels.

[JayTeeAitch]

They're all "Cokes" here in Texas. A transplanted northerner I worked with years ago was headed to the breakroom & asked if I wanted a "pop". It took me a minute to figure it out & we ended up having a conversation about regional stuff like that.

Around here pickups are "trucks", too. Proper trucks are "diesels" or "diesel trucks".

Some of it may be generational, too. I asked a coworker from Indiana about the coke thing & he said the older folks say "pop" but the younger ones say "coke".

Apropos of nothing: My Stephenville buddy's dad calls spray paint cans "rattle cans". I never heard that until he said it, but my buddy said it was an old man thing he'd heard before.

We had a perfectly reasonable word for truck in England - 'Lorry' and then you got us all calling them trucks. Now, every time I watch TV you call fucking pickups trucks and fucking trucks tractor trailors or some shit like that. We already have tractors here so if we start calling our trucks tractors, what the fuck are we going to call our tractors? :x

I blame Yankees or DMV bureaucrats for the tractor-trailer thing. We were happy enough to just confuse pickups & trucks & left it at that. I sometimes see "tractor number" on work related paperwork & have to stop & think about what they're asking for.

What are these called in America? Actually, it probably depends on which part of America:

[screwtape]

FA has another post up about the uselessness of offering prayers in lieu of actual aid.

This bugs me because there are countless examples of secular statements of "oh gosh I hope things get better" or "I hope somebody else does something." You might even call it virtue signalling, though I suspect for many people it's genuine compassion.

And most of the time that people are making such statements, whether religious "prayers" or secular well-wishing, it's because they can't do anything. Very few people are actually in a position where they could make a real difference and instead deciding to wish it better instead, and yes, those people are assholes. Most humans of any ideological stripe will lend a hand when the pressure's on.

In most cases, if they say it to someone, even me, I don't get offended. If they offer prayers or platitudes when they could do something (hard to determine - can they afford to donate to an actual charity, or go to help a disaster?) I might get bothered, but for the most part they mean well. They can't do anything to help, but want to try to feel better about it and make you feel better (they normally assume you appreciate the prayers or whatever).

Now if they are offering prayers at a government function, that's a wholly different thing.

I have been prayed for a good deal (and probably rightly, for all sorts of reasons) since my diagnosis. Personally, I don't give a shit if someone prays for me with respect to the act of praying, but simple good manners tells me what they are really saying, and so I thank them. I'm not thanking them for the prayers of course, but for the thought behind the act. One must do this with good grace; they mean well, so why snub them?

Manners provide guidance to all sorts of conflicts. I happen to believe in free speech, even if I have never lived in a country where it is protected (sadly, UK and Canada, I'm referring to you). Voltaire told me I ought to allow others all the freedom of speech they want, but what if I believe them to be wrong? Shall I shout them down? Let them go uncorrected? Personally, I use the principle used in court for allowing evidence in to cross-examination: if you introduce the topic I am free to comment and argue, but if you don't raise it, then I will keep quiet.

So should those who pray for me ask me to join them, or to give some form of assent to their well-meant efforts, then things can get heated, but I try very hard to thank and not denigrate something that is well-meant, even if I cannot condone the form it takes. As for the concept that a non-religious 'I will be thinking of you' or some such form of well-wishing is really a virtue signaller—no, not for me. I would simply see it as good manners to say something like that, and it is probably sincerely meant.

[comhcinc]

No, a tractor in the UK is the farm vehicle with the 2 big back wheels and 2 small front wheels.

Same in the U.S. they both get their name from the engine. From wikileaks um I mean pedia

A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction. Most commonly, the term is used to describe a farm vehicle that provides the power and traction to mechanize agricultural tasks, especially (and originally) tillage, but nowadays a great variety of tasks. Agricultural implements may be towed behind or mounted on the tractor, and the tractor may also provide a source of power if the implement is mechanised.

The word tractor was taken from Latin, being the agent noun of trahere "to pull". The first recorded use of the word meaning "an engine or vehicle for pulling wagons or ploughs" occurred in 1901, displacing the earlier term "traction engine" (1859).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor

Both vehicles do the same thing, pull things.

I still want to know what vehicles the term "lorry" emcompasses for you?

[Easy J]

What are these called in America? Actually, it probably depends on which part of America:

That, sir, is a tractor. I've never heard of anything else referred to as such outside of DMV literature.

[screwtape]

Do Brits still call big tractor-trailers 'juggernauts' or has that hindu borrowing fallen by the wayside?

I'm so far behind on Brit usage. I left before 'chav' was a word.

[deLurch]

While you are all arguing over fizzy drinks, did you know that the Clinton's and the top of DNC are all Satanists. I wish I was joking, though it should go down well in a mostly Christian country. Anyway look up SpiritCooking in Wikileaks.

There are some links in this twatter hashtag:

https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpiritCooking?src=hash

Already discussed. It is all bullshit. Crushed ice clearly has a higher surface area per ounce than cubed ice does.

[comhcinc]

What are these called in America? Actually, it probably depends on which part of America:

There are also called tractors through I have know a few people to call them all "John Deeres" regardless of brand.

[JayTeeAitch]

No, a tractor in the UK is the farm vehicle with the 2 big back wheels and 2 small front wheels.

Same in the U.S. they both get their name from the engine. From wikileaks um I mean pedia

A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction. Most commonly, the term is used to describe a farm vehicle that provides the power and traction to mechanize agricultural tasks, especially (and originally) tillage, but nowadays a great variety of tasks. Agricultural implements may be towed behind or mounted on the tractor, and the tractor may also provide a source of power if the implement is mechanised.

The word tractor was taken from Latin, being the agent noun of trahere "to pull". The first recorded use of the word meaning "an engine or vehicle for pulling wagons or ploughs" occurred in 1901, displacing the earlier term "traction engine" (1859).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor

Both vehicles do the same thing, pull things.

I still want to know what vehicles the term "lorry" emcompasses for you?

Lorry used to be any sized truck, big or small like the one you posted earlier. Like you I think we'd still refer to the little ones as lorrys - though I haven't lived in the UK for about 10 years.

[comhcinc]

What are these called in America? Actually, it probably depends on which part of America:

That, sir, is a tractor. I've never heard of anything else referred to as such outside of DMV literature.

I had a great great uncle who had a mobile home (named for the city not their mobility) moving business and he always called it a tractor. He was born in 1899 through so he was an old school.