@Cerberus No, he addressed that as well in the same blog post. It simply isn't possible to sustain energy growth using renewables. Presumably the energy comes from nuclear.

@Cerberus gods I hate our current government.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 But uranium deposits will not last very long, I read.

@Cerberus That's fission. There's always fusion.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yeah, guess what our government thought was a good idea to propose this weekend?

retroactive immunity for illegal spying?

Expanding what the secret service can do, including...unlimited wiretapping! Sort of.

Close!

I'm sure they already have the retroactive immunity...

yeah we have another bill in parliament which grants unlimited wiretapping, etc.

Howdy.

Nice.

Hi!

I have been ASMRing.

But our parliament did vote explicitly to never again allow any treaties that are like ACTA.

And we have net neutrality.

I forget who all was in on the circles/hexagons discussion @Cerb @Robusto @tchrist, but I recently painted one of my fingernails using clear nail polish and a sprinkle of glitter. Upon close inspection, I found the glitter to be microscopically hexagonal.

@Cerberus to what?

Dan Carlin had an interview with William Binney, who said that what these services are setting up as a "turn-key totatalian state" for the first politician who chooses to exercise it.

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 That's scary!

so I tried voting on webapps, but you need 150 rep and I only have 145

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 It's hexagons all the way down.

@Cerberus that I painted my nails with glitter, or that glitter bits are hexagonal?

Well, just the one nail.

I think this answer is probably worth at least ONE upvote:

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Well, various people! There is this one guy I wanted to let you people listen to, I want to know how you would describe his accent. Then there is Heather Feather...I forgot, are you an ASMRess?

You should try a fractal nail polish.

Perhaps a higher class of glitter is round.

@Robusto Now, that is exactly the problem.

@Cerberus I believe myself to be, but am either particular or it is low grade.

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 That I did not know!

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Hmm. Have you taken some time to explore the triggers, at a time when you were feeling relaxed and were not disturbed?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I'll give you a semi-blind up-vote.

@Cerberus I have not.

How would you describe this guy's accent?

Never mind what he's actually saying.

@Cerberus yay, thanks

Now you can vote, have fun!

It's my duty to make sure Evan Carroll doesn't win an election

Heh.

I don't recognize that guy's accent.

How would you describe it?

I've heard people that talk that way but they were usually oddballs.

Haha.

I don't know how I would describe it.

Perhaps you could say "Indian" or "Australian" or "American"...

Or Canadian?

Well, it's definitely American or Canadian.

OK.

at least, it sounded that way to me.

Probably not from the American "South"?

I don't like that one.

No, it's just for the accent that I posted it.

OIC

How would you describe it?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 have two.

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Thanks. I only needed 5 points though :)

@Cerberus I'm not sure, aside from American. I had to close the tab.

@Robusto I'm also interested in your first impression of this guy's accent (don't listen to the inane things he's saying): youtube.com/watch?v=3OJGqcsx-kg

withdraws upvote

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 OK. So it couldn't be Canadian?

I'm kidding!

@Cerberus I'd have to listen longer.

You left him hanging for an awfully long time there!

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 OK no need.

I was just looking for first impressions.

Or hear a word with -out in it.

Heh.

I don't believe he has the -out.

@Cerberus So far he maybe sounds Irish trying to affect an American accent.

@Robusto OK so he's not American?

I don't know if I'm mishearing, or what, but it sounds like his speech is unusual. Like, he seems to be saying "dere" instead of "there"

Hmm.

I don't know of any accent that has that feature.

@Cerberus I feel like he's not American.

I feel like he is.

Also, "hairdresser" is a British term.

Maybe some pockets say hairdresser in America?

it's not an uncommon term in Canada

Hmm.

Could his accent be German?

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 YOU WILL HAVE A HAPPY HOLIDAY

He overenunciates the way Dominic West did in The Wire. I didn't know West was a Brit for a long time, but something about his accent tripped an alarm in my ear. He "over-pronounced" certain words, if you know what I mean.

Notice, by the way, how I'm steering the room on topic.

His speech sounds American to me. Do British speakers say "I'm like" when they mean "I said"?

@MετάEd O_O yes sir

@Robusto OK noted.

WTF is ASMR?

So could his accent be German?

@Cerberus I wondered that. He leaked out a dat for a that once. But so do a lot of people. He’s trying extra hard with his r's, so I think they aren’t natural to him.

@Robusto It's the weird tingly feeling. Remember, we talked about, Kit has it too, and she also makes ASMR videos.

@tchrist OK observation noted.

@Rob the way that Bob Ross' voice makes your scalp feel.

@tchrist He's done that lots of times. I randomly clicked around and heard the d/th substitution all over.

He's not German. I would bet Irish, but I could be wrong.

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 _O_

Okay, well, the only thing I know about him is: his native language is German.

From the south of Germany, possibly Austria.

He also has videos in German.

That would do it.

But I have to say I would never, ever have guessed.

@MετάEd I had a happy Thanksgiving in spite of the sinus infection.

blows nose

And he must have lived in America or Canada for some time, or still be living there.

gotta run

Bai!

He rounds his o’s, putting the same vowel in cloth as in cot.

Young kid. Things he’s thinking new things.

Huh. You pronounce those two vowels differently?

Sure.

That is West doing a fake British accent while doing an American accent.

Huh?

@Cerberus OK, I could see Austrian. But the way he accents certain words, like talkin' and so forth, ya know, and his vocal cadence has hints of Irish in it.

That was supposed to sound British?

It was supposed to sound like an American faking a British accent.

Broadly speaking.

All my simple ears heard was "American". I didn't really hear any British sounds, neither fake nor pretend-fake.

rocknroll was British-sounding.

@Robusto Perhaps that is the southern-German cadence?

They have that.

here come the jesters / one, two, three

Really?

What was British about his rocknroll?

The vowels.

@Cerberus [kʰlɔθ] vs [kʰɑt].

@tchrist Oh, I say /klɑθ/.

@Cerberus Too much time in Southern California, I can see.

So he's saying [kʰɔt], you mean?

They can’t round any vowels.

@tchrist Umm...I don't know, ɑ sounds more RP to me, perhaps I'm wrong.

@Cerberus Yeah, like that. Remember I can’t hear the difference between [ɒ] and [ɔ] though.

The OED gives both for cloth.

OK noted.

@Cerberus No it doesn’t. Are you lysdexlick?

My OED does.

> cloth [klɒθ], [-ɔː-]

Uh...

That's what I'm saying.

The OED gives /klɒθ/ and /klɔːθ/. I say the latter. Southern Californians say /klɑθ/, which is what you said you said. You’ve been watching too many movies again, haven’t you?

Oops, I pasted the wrong vowel.

No, never ɑ!

I mixed them up.

I should hope not!

So what were you accusing him of again?

It really annoys me.

He pronounces which word how?

I don’t recall now, but it was one of those words like not that really don’t sound like they start off sounding like they’re the start of naughty, but in his mouth, they did.

I will always perceive both [ɒ] and [ɔ] as /ɔ/, no matter which was said or meant.

So he might pronounce not like /nɔt/?

Yeah.

Still confused.

He rounds it.

OK.

I don’t.

Why do people I don't know add me to their circles on Google?

And you were saying you couldn't hear the difference...

I’ve wondered that myself.

@Robusto Go to "your" G+ settings and block everything.

I have centillions of people I don’t know, and I don’t know why.

I've done it too, it isn't hard.

@Cerberus Wah!!!!!

You aren’t understanding what I’m trying to say.

I am well aware of that.

I have two phonemes only: /ɑ/ as in not and /ɔ/ as in cloth.

If he sneaks an [ɒ] into one or the other, they will both sound like /ɔ/ to me.

And saying /ɔ/ where I am expecting /ɑ/ is what I am saying he was doing.

I have no minimal triple of /ɑ/ vs /ɒ/ vs /ɔ/. Almost no American does.

But the Southern Californians have only the first of those three, which is weird.

Think of the Thai dish, Phad Thai.

Consider the triple: Phad vs pod vs pawed.

In some speakers, the first two will be the same, and in others, the last two will be. At least in my ear.

Oh, wait, because Americans pronounce not as /nɑt/, I wasn't paying attention.

YES

I was saying /nɒt/ to myself and not getting you.

I will hear some speakers where Phad = pod = /pɑd/ but with pawed = /pɔd/, while I will hear other speakers where only Phad alone is /pɑd/ and with pod = pawed = /pɔd/. And in SoCal, all are only /pɑd/ alone. But nowhere can I perceive a /ɒ/ that is distinct from a /ɔ/. I’m just not wired that way.

So any rounding on that vowel at all shoves it into my /ɔ/ phonemic bucket.

I’m sure I say both [ɒ] and [ɔ] allophonically, but the whole point is that they are allophones, not phonemes, and so are “the same” in my head.

For example, cloth probably has the first allophone and clawed the second one, but to me those are the same phoneme.

I wouldn't be so sure...

Of which?

Maybe I do say [ɔ] only. I don’t know.

But if you pronounce odd as though it were awed, it sounds British to me.

And odd.

But...

It's /ɒd/.

I can do that, but I just switch all the ones that I know they use [ɒ] for into [ɔ].

@Cerberus I want -proactive- immunity!

Sahrry.

@Cerberus No, no such phoneme.

@tchrist I hate that! If only they'd read the things I've already read!

@Cerberus I can only say [ɑd] or [ɔd]. Which do you want?

@Cerberus If I’m in mawk-Brit mode, I’ll do the latter, but not normally.

@tchrist anywhere that they are all three different? Wait..is this an old ELU question?

@Cerberus I know this is probably shawking to you.

@Mitch Yes, mine.

@Mitch Don't worry, you'll get that, too, with the new recommendation.

@tchrist Well, neither are RP, I believe, so...

Recommendation? For what? A new Thai restaurant?

@Cerberus I have failed to communicate.

For what permissions to give to the secret services.

And you have confused both for neither.

@tchrist Yes. But, hey, as long as it sounds British to you...

@Cerberus You mean they will be taking -my- recommendations- on what permissions they should have?

Either are good.

@Mitch Alas, no.

Some commission.

I recommend that they allow Thai restaurants to have grilled cheese sandwiches. That would be awesome! A Thai-style grilled-cheese.

Either are in the back room.

@Mitch Did you just say tat?

@Cerberus But at least that's cash. Or is it in bitcoins?

@tchrist Wow, that's good. I -thought- about saying tat but ended up not.

kawsh | bitcwahnz.

tits

If that's some way of saying 'Thai-style grilled cheese', then I love it.

@Mitch sigh Did you do actual work? Do you deserve a commission, then?

@Cerberus Hell yeah. I did... thought work. And I decided. I decided to let them use my expertise. By choosing. Their recommendation. That's worth more than just management fees. It's value added!

Also, I had to listen to your sighs and spend useful time watching your eye rolling.

You owe me opportunity costs!

Okay, okay, you have convinced me (that risqué picture of me you intercepted through the undersea cable was quite convincing).

I could have been deciding more things in that time period.

The proof is in the picture.

Ah, good, old black male.

We don't need your risque pictures. We can manufacture enough ourselves.

Fair enough.

Fair is right. Fair for us. How else do we justify our high salaries?

It was 65 today, but the winds were gusting to 75 perpendicularly to my direction of travel. Super tumbleweed city. Now we’re getting a cold snap moving in that wil drop us into single digits positive by day and possibly double digits negative by night — and that’s without the wind effect. They’re now saying 8-14" down low and 2-3' up higher. Every time I listen they keep increasing all the extremes.

By 'we', I mean not the surveillance team.

Oh, so it's not just commissions?

So I commuted today. Figured it was my last chance for the week.

Oh, dear.

The snow is not cleaned up / salted?

@Cerberus and fees. and tips.

What good would salt do?

Melt the snow?

Salt-water freezes at 0. That’s the whole point.

Uhh...

I thought everyone is slowly switching to dirt or gravel, which does just as good as salt but without the cost and runoff problems.

You have never heard of putting down salt to counter ice or snow?

When it’s warm.

When it’s below zero, it won’t melt it without pressure or solar energy cheating.

And yes, they use a 50–50 mix of KCl and NaCl for that.

Oh, zero F, I get it.

Well, you were saying it was above 0 F, right?

Your light bulb has been very delayed tonight.

Oh, by day it will.

By night it won’t.

The problem is the wind.

It will blow drifts.

It's just so automatic to read below zero = freezing.

When it is that cold.

Below zero is freezing — of salt-water.

But we still use it for when people step on it, because that creates heat from pressure.

So if you are close, it works.

If you are not close, like –20, it does not.

Also, traction.

But the wind!

We are getting gale-force winds to accompany all this madness.

You cannot keep a road open when it keeps getting blown over with already-fallen snow.

Especially the road I have to take to get to work. It’s very often closed for that very reason.

Actually, I’m wrong. 74 is gale-force. 75 is hurricane-force.

If you employ enough snow ploughs?

shivers

On just that one road?

I remember when scores of cars were stranded on that road overnight.

I don't know, as many roads as possible?

Um.

Geography.

You keep thinking in two dimensions, not three.

Build a high monorail?

Waste of money.

But fun!

Perhaps.

We were hoping for one up the middle of I-70 for ski-season.

Isn’t going to happen. Way too expensive.

No cure.

How about a slow, rickety monorail?

The mountain trains cannot always get through either.

It’s just the way it is in the mountains.

Or how about a simple train? They have trains in Russia.

Roads close.

Yes, and we have trains here, too, but there are times that you get ten feet of snow not counting avalanches, and you just aren’t getting through that.

100 years ago this week they got more then 7 feet of snow, and the drifts were 20 to 50 feet high.

It’s the drifts that are the real problems.

It takes serious construction equipment to clear them.

Snow plows don’t work for those.

I know two-storey houses in the mountains whose second story has a door leading to a balcony, which becomes the normal access point in winter because the lower storey is now under the snow that’s a dozen feet high, a rather gross number of inches.

> High winds with gusts as high as 75 mph continue to rip through the Front Range, leading to downed power lines and flying debris across Boulder County. The National Center for Atmospheric Research recorded a peak gust of 75.4 mph at its Mesa Lab just before 1 p.m. today.

> Boulder police dispatchers have reported multiple cases of downed wires and malfunctioning traffic lights, and Xcel's website shows several outages including one affecting nearly 800 customers near 28th Street and Iris Avenue. The wind is expected to continue, with the National Weather Service forecasting an overnight lowof 38, with winds 38 to 43 mph with gusts as high as 75 mph.

Great.

Time to find the flashlights.

Oh, not the wires again.

Yeah.

Snowed in and without electricity?

And broken traffic lights.

Do you at least have gas pipes underground?

We’ll see.

@Cerberus Yes.

So at least you have heating.

Right.

And do you have a diesel generator?

Just this one.

Great, that will protect you against the snow.

Seriously, has there ever been a vote on underground wires?

Electricity and phone/fibre.

You are so funny.

Yes, we could all vote to have a billion dollars.

What good would that do?

Is it really so expensive?

Yes.

Any idea how much p.p.?

And often impossible except for a downtown area.