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04:00
They have four legs, except when tearing down my birdfeeders.
We have some next door neighbors that have parties a lot, with lots of beer drinking and bottles clinking. but it's actually kind of nice because one of the party'ers is a young cop.
Does that make it nice?
He's keeping the noise and littering under control?
Eye-candy nice?
Or he gives away free ammo?
well, what out-of- control there is is not extreme.
You said that twice.
04:01
Great.
No, you said is twice.
Also he plays guitar really well. so it's entertaining.
That's not nearly as raunchy as I had hoped, but OK.
no not raunchy at all. sorry.
Any people with swimming pools?
04:04
the worst we have is racoons going through the trash.
We use cats to do that and seagulls.
No need to trouble the raccoons. They're happy enough at the zoo.
@Cerberus no swimming pools. too far north for that. only California ...a and maybe Texas, oh definitely florida... have swimming pools in general.
I see.
People have swimming pools here, sometimes.
By the way, my dictionary insists on raccoons with double c?
Raccoons is right. two c's. I misspelled.
04:07
a common enough abbreviation is 'coons' which led me to the error.
> sometimes spelled racoon,
So you're in the clear.
What’s that, a map of where people have swimming pools?
what does blue mean?
Hot tubs
negative raccoons?
04:08
Introduced.
Red is native.
deocratic raccoons?
“Please allow me to introduce myself.”
I didn't knew they had raccoons here.
holy crap..Germany is overrun!
And Holland!
04:09
People love coons.
They are llittle bastards.
They make a mess of trash.
and really aren't afraid of people.
We call them mini-bears.
Or perhaps I mixed up the maps. Was this the axis powers, with Japan and Großdeutschland?
They're harmless large rodents....
except when the have rabies.
!! with little enclaves of axis around Europe?
@Mitch That didn't make much sense. Use the help command to learn more.
04:10
Don't you have trash cans that can't be opened by animals?
@Mitch Well I don't know. Cities declaring allegiance? Claimed by Germany?
@CapricaSix you don't understand me. BUt that's OK, as long as you 'get' me.
and armenia
@Mitch WTF? Coons are Carnivora not rodents!!!!!
Hmm yes, dirty Caucasians!
@Cerberus Raccoons are clever. They can figure things out, and teach each other how to do stuff.
Annoying.
04:11
I may very well be a raccoon impostor right now.
Seagulls have beaks.
In case you were unaware.
The only way you can make a can that a coon can’t open is pad-locking it.
So I thought I'd mention that.
Actually, there are special bear-cans.
Keeps out both sorts.
They can't open stuff.
04:12
Pain in the butt.
@Mitch See? Car! Ni! Vor! A!
oops yes, Carnivores. THey're so rodent like though.
No they aren’t.
Far more devious.
So you're telling me my opinion?
shocked
> When fed with cat food over a long time period, raccoons can develop gout.[223] With respect to the research results regarding their social behavior, it is now required by law in Austria and Germany to keep at least two individuals to prevent loneliness.
Awwww!
Those Germans and Austrians, always so compassionate.
04:21
Nice.
> In a major blow against freedom of the press, a federal appeals court in Virginia has ruled that New York Times journalist James Risen must testify against his own source as part of a leaks investigation led by the US Department of Justice.
I knew that. It is evil.
> The decision reflects an extreme "zero tolerance" view taken on by the Obama administration that has caused American journalists to become routinely entangled in criminal cases related to the leaking of classified information.
> In May, it was revealed that the Justice Department seized the private emails of Fox News journalist James Rosen after labeling him a "co-conspirator" in the low-level leak of a CIA report on North Korean nuclear tests. Earlier that same month, the Associated Press reported that the Justice Department had seized the phone records of more than 100 of its reporters over the course of three months as part of a different leaks investigation.
Anyone wonder why Snowden leaked in England, Germany, and Brazil?
He had a full bladder?
Because the journalists he leaked to might be prosecuted in America.
> ...the Espionage Act of 1917, which the Obama administration has used to prosecute more leakers than all previous administrations combined.
Dark times.
And that was not a pun. Or maybe it was.
Haha, I just found out that Schindler's List is actually an English title.
And that it is about an English list, not a German/Dutch list.
German/Dutch list = "ruse".
I thought the book/film was about Schindler's ruse to save Jews from the Nazis or something.
04:37
?? Well the stroy is about how Schindler fooled the Nazis to save some Jews in his factory.
Why the question marks?
Apparently, the story is about a list.
The title.
I thought the English title was something like "Schindler's Ruse".
I don't understand your misunderstanding, but I guess it has something to do with the multilingual pun of ruse/list.
7 mins ago, by Cerberus
German/Dutch list = "ruse".
The English title is 'Schindler's List'
Is this clear?
04:41
Hi @Cerberus
How do you do?
Yes, and I thought the Dutch title was "Schildler's List" (with or without apostrophe). But it must be "Schindlers Lijst".
Hello, Sudhir.
there is a ruse involved, and it also involves a list, but they aren't connected linguistically at all.
You still don't understand?
Don't worry, it took me 15 years.
I came at morning to chat with you. But you're offline.
I see.
04:43
I'm confused between the two:
"cannot" and "can not".
There is no difference.
But in most cases "cannot" is preferred.
Oh I see.
I only spell "can not" in special cases, such as when "not" has emphasis.
Or when you're echoing some other statement with the same "not..." but without the "can".
I wish this heatwave would break already
You have my sympathy.
Ours is about to begin.
04:45
Would you please give the instances where I can use it.
Do you ever wonder if the Prudie stories are fake?
If you always use cannot, you're never really wrong. I would just do that, if I were you.
@simchona They asked her that question once, live.
At least I think it was live.
I think I read the answer--it's interesting how much vetting they do
At any rate, she said she thought the large majority were real.
Thanks.
04:47
Yeah.
Some people are just...dumb
@Sudhir By the way, you can also use can't, which is exactly the same, but a bit less formal. Just like is not and isn't.
Who's dumb?
@Cerberus The people in some of the letters
"My husband wants to impregnate his ex. Should I let him?"
04:48
Yes, some are.
Oh, that one...that one I felt was complicated.
Maybe that wasn't the best example
If she had had a biological child with her husband and she was 100 % sure that nothing would ever happen again between him and the ex, then I'd perhaps say, "why not?".
But that was clearly not the case.
So I mostly agreed with Prudie.
But in the US, there's some strict child fiscal protection
Which is why the guy could basically always be on the hook for providing for the child
Yeah, well, they could probably work something out. The ex was rich or semi-rich.
Current state doesn't always indicate future state
04:51
Of course I 100 % agree that they should have talked about finances and made it very clear who was going to pay for what and when.
Otherwise, no deal.
True. Covering all the bases
But, really, that woman sounded silly, I agree.
Why did she never really talk about children with her husband? She only told him long ago that she didn't want a biological child, for a (I'm sorry) silly reason, and he "seemed to accept that".
Maybe she took him at his word
Why didn't she ask him what he wanted, and how they could work things out?
If she felt that strongly, he may have just caved (if they had that discussion early on)
04:55
He probably did.
But it's all about her.
And he's not man enough to really tell her about his misgivings.
Well, she may have had stronger feelings
So hers took precedence
The "ok, honey" principle
She seemed to suggest that she merely told him what she wanted.
Haha, is it a principle now?
The first principle of dating
I don't know, I'd prefer an equal footing, especially on important things.
I'm with you
Otherwise, something's gotta give later on
04:57
@simchona You should say, "OK, honey".
Yes, dear (principle 2)
Haha, wait, there are two principles now?
That's what a woman says, I presume.
Or a man. Could go both ways
I see.
nods sagely
04:58
So complicated.
We women are.
And don't you think her reason for not having bio children was a bit silly?
I don't recall it offhand
"There are so many starving children in the world. So we must adopt."
Oh, god. That's imbecilic.
04:59
@Cerberus: Especially in my country.
I mean, maybe she's a huge philanthropist. But that's not really the best reason.
I mean, fine, if that's what you'd prefer, but it is a lot to ask of your husband, and the opposite of a compromise, which would be one bio, one adopted.
@Sudhir I know! Alas.
Right from the birth, they strive hard for food.
@Sudhir I'm not sure "strive" is a good choice there
@simchona Yeah. Prudie rightly corrects her, saying she could do other things to help children, and she could have both bio and adopted.
"Crave"?
05:01
@simchona Then?
Here there is no much poverty.
@Cerberus But what if she resents her own bio child? Then there's a psychologically unwell child, and an adopted child
Whereas the adopted one was basically a "good deed", she could feel resentment towards the bio child she "had to" have
@simchona Well, she should first get over herself, then have the bio child. Although I think she will love it anyway, as mothers do. If she is incapable of loving her own child after deciding to have it, she's insane.
@Cerberus I think she needs therapy before even thinking of having the bio child.
Possibly...
For what, exactly?
She sounded silly rather than totally crazy to me.
But you never know, from a few paragraphs.
05:08
True.
I think Prudie usually has more info, she abridges letters.
@Cerberus She stood ----[on, over] the red carpet.
@Cerberus I hope nobody ever relies on the advice--I think it takes her months to reach/publish a letter.
@Sudhir On.
Why not over?
Because.
05:13
@simchona You think so? Why? Some of the letters ask for urgent advice.
@Cerberus I think in one interview she said it takes a while to vet and such. Maybe urgency is given some priority
@Sudhir You would use over if there were air between the foot and the carpet.
Which is not possible with "stand".
@Cerberus Or if she's just defeated it in battle.
Oh I see.
@simchona Yeah, probably.
@simchona Uhh...
A battle on red carpet?
05:15
@Cerberus She stood over the red carpet, yelling 'TAKE THAT!'"
Never said she was sane
Ah yes, OK.
She needs therapy, right?
Yup.
Hehe, we just had a 6.8 earthquake at 11km. Alhamdu Lillah.
@Sudhir So what Sim says is you can stand over a line if you have crossed the line and are now standing on the other side.
@Cerberus No, that's not what I said
05:17
So the carpet could function as a kind of line or place you can cross over.
To "stand over" something does not mean to cross over it
@DavidWallace Oh, dear. But no damage, right?
Oh, I'm sure there was some damage somewhere. Not in my flat though.
I don't have anything worth damaging!
@simchona Wait, then what do you mean?
@DavidWallace Oh, dear. Damage in the city, you think?
@Cerberus You "stand over" something if you're standing next to something looking down at it
05:18
@Cerberus Probably.
Yeah OK, that is another possibility.
Like, "Buffy stood over the vampire she had knocked down"
Yeah OK.
@Cerberus: Isn't your bed time?
@Cerberus Seems like you have a stalker, monitoring your every move
05:19
But then part of her body is probably over the vampire.
It's more like straddling, not fully crossing over
Yeah.
Ah yes, there have been some reports of damage already. And it was about 10 minutes ago.
So then there's air between the carpet and that part of her body that's over the carpet.
@DavidWallace Serious damage?
@Sudhir Yes, thank you.
@Cerberus: Which dictionary you use when you're unfamiliar with any word?
05:21
The Oxford English Dictionary.
Don't know. Just yellow squares on the felt map. And there have been four pretty big after shocks already.
Oh, dear.
They have downgraded it from 6.8 to 6.5 now.
Oof.
Felt map?
Oh, felt like "I felt that", not the fuzzy material
Haha.
And on that happy note, it's time for me to break my fast!
Oh dear, was it at sea??
05:23
yes.
No tsunamis, I hope?
I don't want tsunamis.
I'll let you know. Unless I'm drowned.
No!
I don't want that either.
@Cerberus: We've faced Tsumnamis.
Happy breakfasting!
@Sudhir I know all about it.
05:25
They're very dangerous.
Herculean.
like a huge dinosaur
Wow, look at that list now. And they're happening both north and south of Wellington.
> An earthquake centred offshore needs to be at least magnitude 7.5 for a tsunami to be considered possible, GeoNet says.
We have had three reasonably big quakes in the last couple of days. But this one was the biggest.
Frightening.
05:28
It went on for quite a while, definitely.
Hmm, I wonder how high above sea level I am here. A tsunami could be interesting.
There won't be much warning, given how close to me these quakes are happening.
Haha, the news web site seems to have a standard template for reporting these things.
A large ___ earthquake has hit _______, sending office workers diving under their desks.
It's Sunday, people!
They always say "felt as far away as Hamilton", no matter where in the country the quake occurred.
06:01
A fire service spokeswoman said the phone had been ringing off the hook, with power lines down, people trapped in lifts and multiple sprinkler activations in city buildings.

"We've had reports of damage to some buildings down town. We've got power lines that are coming down."

Every fire truck had been sent to jobs, she said: "We've got all of Wellington out now. And we've got jobs waiting to be addressed. We are prioritising jobs."
 
4 hours later…
10:18
This is some really funny prank call in a while
10:32
posted on July 21, 2013 by sgdi

There once was a diamond tree It was quite amazing to see It was in a wood Where metal plants stood Pollinated by silicon bees

 
2 hours later…
12:54
9
A: Please allow low-occurence tags to be declared persistent

GillesTags that have a tag wiki no longer expire even if they are only applied to one question. Therefore, you can vet a tag by writing a tag wiki for it.

13:24
> My wife and I lived in New York City for a while, a gorgeous place if you enjoy humanity, but then we begat a little girl, and we brought her home to Minnesota so she could enjoy her aunts and grow up among slow-spoken enigmatic people. (Are they — a. resolute, b. bored, c. thoughtful, d. drugged?)
@tchrist: I'm looking in the Kindle books for those novellas, not sure which are which exactly.
I mean, this one is a graphic novel.
Not graphic novels. Stories.
I’m sure the graphic novels are nice enough for what they are, but the original novellas are written tales without pictures.
Yeah, well maybe it's Amazon's shitty filtering, but that's the one that comes up in Kindle.
Broader search shows it available as hardcover as well. No Kindle.
I know my pals got The Mystery Knight electronically. Or at least, I thought they did.
Actually, I thought they got all three that way. I’ll ask them. Just had their return-from-East-Coast-exodus housewarming party last night.
> Republicans are all about Old Glory and school prayer and the sanctity of marriage and the Fatherhood of God but when it comes to actually needing help from them, you shouldn’t get your hopes up. They might send an ambulance or they might just send a Get Well card.
> In yellow-dog St. Paul, you will be rescued by the St. Paul fire department and there is no better emergency service anywhere in the civilized world.
> You may be flat on the floor feeling as if an elephant stepped on your chest, or your child may have swallowed a fistful of God knows what medication, or your grandma may have slipped on the ice and banged her noggin and she insists she’s okay but in Swedish—whatever your dilemma, the St. Paul rescue squad will deal with it in swift and professional fashion.
> Republicans have perfectly nice manners, normal hair, pleasant smiles, good deodorants, but when it comes down to cases, you do not want them to be monitoring your oxygen flow: they will set it to the minimum required to sustain basic brain function, and then they will recite a little prayer for you.
> They are a party that is all about perceptions, the Christian party that conceals enormous glittering malice and is led by brilliant bandits who are dividing and conquering the sweet land I grew up in. I don’t accept this.
There once was a good Democrat
Who was able to talk through his hat.
    Such smart things he said
    Off the top of his head
Or else out the place where he sat.
13:41
What we have is a two-party plan
The Dem and the Re-pub-li-can
   They talk sweet as honey
   But it's all about money
Which they're stealing as fast as they can
> It’s one thing to get into power and do favors for your friends; it’s quite another to touch the conscience of a nation. The last Republican to do that was Teddy Roosevelt.
Yeah. The G.O.P. has turned 180° since the days of Teddy R.
It’s from 2004.
As Dan Carlin points out, "Politicians listen to the people who pay them and make laws for them. There's nobody out there lobbying for the Bill of Rights."
Right before the Second Darkness.
It’s “Homegrown Democrat”.
13:46
I'll look at it later. My son's coming over soon and we're going to make Eggs Benedict on the new range and with my new double boiler.
Got it bookmarked.
Hah, good point about the weather. Them Eurotrashes don't appreciate what it means to sweat and freeze, them with they's tepid climate.
> Why don’t they pass a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as Prohibition did, in five years we will have the smartest people on earth. —Will Rogers
Also from the same source:
> I am no believer in this “hard work, perseverance, and taking advantage of your opportunities” that these Magazines are so fond of writing some fellow up in. The successful don’t work any harder than the failures. They get what is called in baseball the breaks.
Hi, is "hapless" archaic word?
*an archaic
Not quite.
It's a word educated people will understand, so perhaps that makes it archaic in a sense.
Thanks
> Democrats take the whole thing as a joke. Republicans take it serious but run it like a joke.
> A flock of Democrats will replace a mess of Republicans. It won’t mean a thing. They will go in like all the rest of ’em. Go in on promises and come out on alibis.
I know.
No hypothetical “third” party would fare any different.
13:57
> Ain’t it funny how many hundreds of thousands of soldiers we can recruit with nerve. But we can’t find one politician in a million with backbone.
It's amazing how little things have changed since Will Rogers was making these judgments.
People are still people.
This is the problem.
> Papers say: “Congress is deadlocked and can’t act.” I think that is the greatest blessing that could befall this country.
Here's one that sums up Clinton's presidency:
> Being serious or being a good fellow has got nothing to do with running this country. If the breaks are with you, you could be a laughing hyena and still have a great administration.
And Obama's:
> If I was a President and wanted something I would claim I didn’t want it. Congress has not given any President anything he wanted in the last 10 years. Be against anything and then he is sure to get it.
...
When I was a kid I always thought my grandparents were too interested in the news and politics and “domestic affairs”. I thought those were all silly things, things not to bother with.
> You wire the state or the federal government that our cow or dog is sick and they will send out experts from Washington and appropriate money to eradicate the cause. You wire them that your baby has the diphtheria or scarlet fever and see what they do....why can’t we get a government to at least do for a child’s protection, what they do for a cow or a hog?
Now I see that after enough decades of crap, it bothers you enough to start noticing it.
14:01
@tchrist Same here. But only as a very young child.
I’m talking < 10.
That's what I would call very young.
> The short memories of American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.
Damn, he keeps throwing strikes.
Apr 27 at 13:32, by Robusto
As Will Rogers said, "If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of Congress?"
> Nothing will spoil a big man’s life like too much truth.
@tchrist But here's the thing: Even when I've cast my vote for the winning candidate, I've somehow wound up losing ground anyway.
Losing ground?
@tchrist Yes. In that the things I was promised were not delivered, except by accident, and even then never completely.
What meaningful promises are ever kept?
14:07
> There is no argument in the world carries the hatred that a religious belief one does.
I'm trying to think of kept promises, but even if there have been zero cases doesn't there shouldn't be some.
> Personally I don’t think you can make a lawyer honest by an act of the Legislature. You’ve got to work on his conscience. And his lack of a conscience is what makes him a lawyer.
> One thing that a poor person should never be expected to pay for is medical attention and not from an organized charity but from our best doctors. Your doctor bill should be paid like your income tax, according to what you have.
> There is nothing that keeps poor people poor as much as paying doctor bills.
A lawyer’s job is to speak for somebody else, to promulgate that person’s position. He’s paid to take someone’s side.
@tchrist And?
How is this any different from a whore, who’s also paid to take someone’s part(s)?
> The minute you read something that you can't understand, you can almost be sure that it was drawn up by a lawyer.
It’s not like conscience goes with that job, either — nor with most.
14:13
> The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.
> When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.
That last one still has a political edge to it, if you think about it a bit.
Déjà écouté, ça.
@tchrist I think other comedians have stolen that one over the years. In fact, Jack Handy might just have used that, IIRC.
Or Juvenal.
They had cars in Juvenal's time?
Sure.
You don’t think the wealthy walked, do you?
14:18
No, but I doubt they had many fatal accidents in sedan chairs.
The pedicab is hardly a new idea.
> The problem ain't what people know. It's what people know that ain't so that's the problem.
Nor are the Quakers’ black buggies.
The Coachman is a mythic figure.
I'll wait for you to produce the joke from Juvenal or some Amish gent.
> Liberty doesn’t work as well in practice as it does in speeches.
> An Amish lady trots down the road in her horse and buggy when a cop pulls her over. "Ma'am," says the cop, "I'm not going to ticket you, but I do have to issue you a warning. You have a broken reflector on your buggy." "Oh, I'll let my husband, Jacob, know as soon as I get home," responds the Amish lady.
> "That's fine. Another thing, ma'am. I don't like the way that one rein loops across the horse's back and around his balls. I consider that animal abuse. Have your husband take care of that right away," instructs the cop.
> Later, the lady tells her husband about her encounter with the cop. "He said the reflector is broken," she tells her husband. "I can fix that in two minutes. What else?" asks Jacob. She says, "I'm not sure, Jacob -- something about the emergency brake."
14:21
Funny, but not the same joke. Also, the joke works because of a prior understanding of how cars work.
Ah, brunch time. Laters.
> Whenever fortune wishes to joke, she lifts people from what is humble to the highest extremity of affairs. —Juvenal

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