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1:00 PM
It sounds so much better in Dutch.
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 So the accusative indicates that you have a kind of "werfen" in there too, implicitly?
Thanks!
Would you Englishers use an kind of "throwing" with that expression?
 
@Cerberus Cast.
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Gar nicht übel.
 
@DavidWallace Ah, yes.
 
Yay, I made a litotes in German! beams
 
1:01 PM
Congrats.
 
Not my first, mind you.
 
Fuck, it's 1am. Good night everyone.
 
Good morning!
 
Night!
This is pretty.
But does it stutter as much for you as it does for me?
 
@Cerberus Not a bit. Totally smooth.
But I have 16GB of RAM.
XP gives you, what, 3.4GB?
 
1:08 PM
Yes.
But I think it was my connection: it runs OK now.
 
Well, there's your problem right there.
 
Yeah.
Forgot I had my VPN on.
But it's pretty right?
 
Awesome.
Astronauts have the best commutes.
 
Want it.
I could just stare out the window all day.
 
It does go much slower in reality...
Did you notice the reddish line of lights?
I wonder what and where that was.
Could you make out the location @Kit?
If you start at 4:30, you will see it fly by on the left.
 
1:17 PM
Um. Could you be more specific?
 
Sorry ^.
It is also in an earlier scene.
It looks even redder there.
 
Let me look.
 
It pops up about 8 seconds later.
 
@KitFox time lapse is key. Without it, you would get bored after a minute.
Cf travelling by train vs plane.
 
I should have a time lapse and a slo-mo button.
 
1:19 PM
@KitFox I would just have a mo-fo button.
 
@Cerberus It's hard to say. It looks like something in one of the great lakes.
Let me look some more.
That just can't be it. Great Wall maybe? Let me look at the satellite maps.
 
Yeah I was thinking the Great Wall too, because it has the general shape, but why would that be so brightly lit, and in reddish orange?
I think the colours have been altered anyway.
A narrow, densely populated river valley looks different, broader (like the Nile).
 
It looks like it could be some kind of ship's wake in a phosphorescent sea?
 
I thought that, but phosphorescence would be green or bluish.
 
@Cerberus how do I start at 4:30? I am not able to.
 
1:25 PM
I am pretty sure that's the Great Wall.
 
Do they light up the Great Wall at night?
 
I thought that myth was disspelled for good, no?
The Great Wall is the size of a street, lit up or not.
You don't see individual streets in that video.
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Just click on the bar?
 
@Cerberus doesn't work.
 
@Robusto That brightly?
 
1:27 PM
Only within the buffered area.
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Weird? It works for me. Try FF?
 
@Cerberus I'm expressing doubt, not venturing a possibility.
 
It is even clearer at 4:04, the red line.
 
Ah. Seems they may have lit it for a marathon event around that time.
 
@Robusto I know, I know.
@KitFox Oh?
 
1:28 PM
@Cerberus I don't see it. (((
 
I guess the images are a bit misleading anyway: I bet you can't see all the lights in reality as well as in the video.
 
3:48 shows it really well.
 
@KitFox ah thank you.
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Huh wait, I got the time wrong, it sometimes jumps around, I meant Kit's time frame.
 
(Still none at 4:04 or elsewhere.)
 
1:31 PM
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 No, that one was meant to be around 3:40, but it showed the wrong time, sorry.
 
I have it again around 4:38.
 
Yeah that was the first one I mentioned.
Anachronically.
You know me.
 
Man-made structures visible from earth orbit without magnification (by mechanical aids such as a camera or binoculars) include highways, dams, and cities. The most commonly cited example, the Great Wall of China, is barely visible from Low Earth Orbit (LEO; under perfect conditions), but not from the moon. Part of the problem in authoritatively answering questions about visibility from space is that such questions are often very vaguely put: Askers frequently do not precisely define how far above sea level their hypothetical or actual observer in space is located. When just speaking of "s...
> The claim the Wall is visible has been debunked many times, but is still ingrained in popular culture. The viewer would need visual acuity 17,000 times better than normal (20/20) to see the Wall from the Moon, and vision 8 times better than normal to see it from low earth orbit.
 
It looks like we're traveling toward SSE over the Indian subcontinent there, possibly.
 
It is lit at night.
 
1:33 PM
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 We're not seeing what you would see with the naked eye.
These are low-light cameras.
And God know what else they have done to the images.
 
That would explain the Goa trance music in the background, BTW.
 
They have been "refurbished", among other things.
 
In the comments, someone says: it’s the border between India and Pakistan which is lit up with floodlights.
 
1:36 PM
> the reflection of the Moon on the Earth below following along our point of view at 2:50 into the footage;
That's weird.
I see it; but how can the Moon reflect on the Earth?
It's not smooth.
 
@KitFox That would make sense.
 
@Cerberus Everything reflects on everything. Right now as we speak. Smooth or not.
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 But visibly?
 
4 mins ago, by Cerberus
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 We're not seeing what you would see with the naked eye.
 
@Robusto It would except the shape isn't right and the angle is all wrong.
 
1:38 PM
Compare.
We're flying SSE over the border.
 
God knows how many Megawatts are being wasted there. And what for, anyway?
 
The yellow line there is the border viewed from the NNW.
 
Ok, that shape looks right.
It doesn't look the same on Bing maps.
crumples up Bing maps
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Because when two countries really hate each other they don't mind sacrificing energy, money, lives, and common sense.
 
The land masses don't look quite right though.
Let me look again.
 
1:40 PM
@Robusto but that's the thing. Why would you throw light on someone whom you hate? I'd prefer not to be reminded of them.
They have nuclear weapons, FFS. Both of them. And they are afraid of a couple trespassers? Yeah right.
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."
 
It is Pakistan/India definitely.
 
Jez
image not found
@cerb
 
> An orange line snaking across the landscape marks the fenced, floodlit border zone between India and Pakistan, as seen in a picture taken from the International Space Station and released September 5. The fence is designed to discourage smuggling and arms trafficking.

The bright cluster of nighttime lights nearest to the border shows the Pakistani city of Lahore, while a similar cluster of lights to the upper left in this frame is the Indian capital of New Delhi.
 
> The fence is designed to discourage smuggling and arms trafficking.
 
1:43 PM
Still, it's weird.
 
I, for one, am discouraged by the very name Pakistan.
You wouldn't be able to pay me to smuggle stuff there.
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 I don't know, I really don't think any focusing would happen when an imagine "reflects" on a totally unsmooth surface like land and vegetation.
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 It is the other way around.
 
@Cerberus atmosphere.
 
@Cerberus And we see the Gujarat peninsula right after that. Then the southern tip of India and Sri Lanka off to its left.
 
India doesn't want the stuff smuggled in.
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Hmmm you think?
 
1:45 PM
@Cerberus well I am not exactly volunteering to smuggle stuff to India, either. Even less so if it's from Pakistan, which I would have to enter first.
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 You could enter Pakistan from Afghanistan, no risk of getting caught at the border there!
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Slacker.
 
Seriously, they should just nuke each other and then go drink a beer together. And if they don't like the nuking part, they should proceed to the beer-drinking part right away.
 
@Cerberus Yes, everything reflects on everything visibly. But in order to resolve an image of one object on another the conditions have to be pretty good.
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 Exactly.
 
1:48 PM
I think the conditions of "it's on the Internet" are exceptionally good when wanting to see stuff that's not there.
 
But perhaps Reg is right and it is the atmosphere.
 
@Cerberus but that doesn't mean that two non-smooth objects can't reflect in such a way that you can see one object where you'd think you normally couldn't.
 
Or perhaps the window of the ISS?
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Settle it with beer-drinking. Best answer yet out of Germany.
 
The moon and the earth are both brightly lit. And huge. From the right distances, in the darkness of space, that makes for some "pretty good" conditions.
 
1:49 PM
@MrShinyandNew安宇 Ehh you are reformulating basic scepticism here, hehe.
 
Jez
 
What I mean is, "pretty good" has a different meaning when you're talking about reflecting two huge things off each other.
 
Jez
nice summary of the Bush/Blair years
 
Gotta restart me computah. BBL.
 
So it seems to be in the sections marked "14. Views of the Mideast at Night" and "18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia at Night"
 
1:51 PM
It's really India/Pakistan. Have you looked at the NG picture?
@Jez Haha, nice.
@MrShinyandNew安宇 I don't know. A dark grey object still looks dark grey from a million km.
 
I think I can see Sri Lanka clearly in the second pass, so I'm willing to believe it.
 
OK.
 
@Cerberus Consider your first comment, about smoothness.
From up close the surface of the earth ain't that smooth.
But from thousands of kilometers away it may as well be
 
sceptical look
 
Just recently the hubble telescope used the moon as a mirror for some kind of image
or maybe it hasn't done it yet... either way. The point remains.
 
1:58 PM
This says nothing about focus.
They are merely looking for any reflected light.
I don't think this has anything to do with acquiring a map (however vague) of the face of Venus.
Look at this reflection of the moon next to the light emitted by cities: almost equally bright.
I'm still sceptical.
But who knows.
In any case it is counter-intuitive.
 
by definition, any light emitted from any object will reflect or be absorbed by any other object. If it is reflected you have a partial image.
not a photograph, for sure.
 
I like the part where you can see the ionosphere getting ionized.
 
That is sooo hawt.
 
All this because of Rob's code.
 
2:13 PM
@Cerberus What? How does my code take time-lapse videos from outer space? It ain't rocket science.
 
As good as.
I was testing it on various websites.
And it worked here.
 
> Lastly I am strongly against the wrong decision by moderators.
@RegDwightB8: ^^
You have been warned.
The rest of us are pretty much OK with "the wrong decision by moderators," but our standards just aren't as high, I guess. Our failing, no doubt.
 
We're also against life.
 
And gay marriage.
And evolution.
 
I don't know about that one.
What do people call themselves who are against gay marriage?
Pro-anti-gay?
 
2:26 PM
Well, if you're not pro life, you're amateur life, in which case you should have been extinct long ago.
 
Heh.
 
@Cerberus Christian.
 
I mean lobby groups.
Like "pro life".
 
Christian Coalition?
Who cares what they call themselves?
 
@Robusto don't be a bigot! Lots of other religions also hate gays!
 
2:27 PM
There is no specific anti-gay-marriage group?
 
what about me? i'm indifferent to gay marriage, but i'm definitely not pro gay marriage
 
Usually the euphemism is "sanctity of marriage" or some shit.
 
I don't know: if you have a fancy label for yourself, I'd like to hear it.
 
@JSBᾶngs See? It's people like you who give gay-bashing a bad name.
 
@Robusto Oh, yes, I've heard that one.
While pro-life is a straw man, sanctity of marriage is just beside the point.
 
2:29 PM
@Cerberus Newt Gingrich actually used "sanctity of marriage" in one of his speeches. This from a guy on his third wife, who divorced one wife on her deathbed because I guess he thought she was taking too long to release him from that troublesome sanctity.
 
Oh, yes, I heard about that.
Someone posted stuff about it here.
 
@Cerberus i prefer to call it "magical unicorn pony marriage"
 
Here's a protip for people who are against marriage between people of the same sex: Don't marry someone of the same sex. Problem solved. You're welcome.
3
 
@JSBᾶngs That is fancy all right.
@Robusto But what if you're a closeted gay homophobe?
 
@Robusto don't you get it? If we let them marry, the gays will start breeding gay babies and will take over the world!
 
2:31 PM
@Cerberus Pray away the gay is all you can do in that case. Muwahahaha!
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 They already have. They filled the gaps left by the Jewish global conspiracy.
@Robusto Aren't those camps just dating groups for gay Christians?
 
@Cerberus If the abuse doesn't destroy them or lead them to suicide, perhaps?
 
Oh, well.
You can't have it all.
 
now you tell me!
gives some of it back
 
I know.
You can't have the cake and eat it.
 
2:33 PM
but I can have my cake then eat it
 
What would be the point of having a cake if not to eat it?
 
there by doing both
 
Yes, you may.
Sell it?
Give it away?
 
do I not have the cake while eating it?
 
Display it?
Throwing it away if it is gross?
 
2:34 PM
perpetually? or is someone eventually going to have it, and eat it?
 
@Cerberus I dunno. Never been to one.
 
Perpetually, yeah, why not.
@Robusto Such an hiatus in your upbringing.
I mean, just in case.
 
@MattЭллен The cake is a lie.
 
reminds me of a story where a friend baked a cake and it got a bit burnt, so she took it out of the pan and flung it into the back yard for squirrels to eat. But it was more burnt than she thought, and it bounced off a tree and didn't break.
 
Haha.
 
2:36 PM
@Cerberus I prefer to think of it as a lacuna.
 
@Robusto You are going the wrong way.
 
That is hard to accomplish with cake.
@Robusto Oh, much better.
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 lol
 
@MattЭллен You mean I should go the gay way? What?
 
Who wouldn't want a lacuna?
 
2:36 PM
and the other day my mom made brownies, and the bottom was a little burnt, and when she put them on the plate the plate rang as if it had been hit with a spoon. And we both simultaneously said "remember that time ann baked a cake...?"
 
And were they good nonetheless?
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 Was this at gay camp?
@Cerberus Lacunae are cute, fur-bearing omissions.
 
@Robusto No, I'm too old and not gay enough for gay camp.
 
@Robusto I know you're there. I can feel you here.
 
By the way, do you guys think there is any way one could use a Windows Message to switch focus from Flash to Firefox proper?
 
2:38 PM
@MrShinyandNew安宇 Well, how gay do you have to be? I mean, we're talking camp here. Nobody's supposed to be an expert except the counselors.
 
Actually I know some people who feared that their son was gay, so they sent him to Shanghai, where being gay is illegal.
 
And...that was supposed to work how?
 
@Cerberus honestly I have no idea.
 
Not only did they send him to a cesspit of urban intermingling, but they also put his future at risk?
 
well presumably he'll at least have to be discreet
 
2:39 PM
@MrShinyandNew安宇 Is that the origin of the verb to shanghai someone?
 
I don't even know why he went along with it. He was like 25 at the time.
 
Like acting as a shill?
 
@Robusto I heard, from a tour guide, who is never wrong, that the origin is from San Francisco, where people would get kidnapped in chinatown.
 
Was he gay?
 
shanghai |ˈSHaNGˌhī|
verb ( shanghais , shanghaiing |-ˌhī-iNG|, shanghaied |-ˌhīd| ) [ with obj. ] historical
force (someone) to join a ship lacking a full crew by drugging them or using other underhanded means.
 
2:40 PM
@Cerberus he was in san francisco, so obviously he was gay
 
Hmm.
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 I know the origin. I was making ze joke again.
 
@JSBᾶngs Ah, is that so? So SF is as bad as Amsterdam.
 
@Cerberus SF is where all of the gay in america comes from
 
I think of people living in the city centre here, about 40 % are gay.
 
2:41 PM
@JSBᾶngs Wait, I've been in San Francisco! checks self for gay genes
 
presumably you europeans manufacture your own gay
 
Ah.
I thought it was a contagious disease?
 
Hm, I didn't pick up any genes in SF but I did get some jeans, maybe those were gay...
 
Did women look at them with envy?
 
Is that what happens with gay jeans?
 
2:43 PM
Yes.
To North-American standards, those are tight.
 
@Cerberus No. SF isn't even a patch on Amsterdam. But it has better scenery. Also, earthquakes. And when SF has earthquakes, stuff burns down. If Amsterdam ever had an earthquake, the North Sea would put out the fires.
 
Presumably.
@Robusto The North Sea would also put out the city.
But how do you mean a patch: the gay population of Amsterdam is much larger?
 
I thought it was hilarious that most large buildings in SF are, or are slated to be, retrofitted for earthquake-proofing. But not hotels. The hotels want an excuse to build a nicer hotel after the current one falls down.
 
You don't need genes. All you need in North America is Axe body spray. Then you literally can't walk across the street without getting accosted by women wanting to have sex with you. Use it carefully, and be sure to read the warning labels.
 
Ah, I have seen those commercials here too.
 
2:45 PM
@Cerberus A fortunate byproduct of putting out the fires.
 
Hey!
 
Oh geezis. Axe body spray just sets me on fire.
 
See?
 
Seriously?
It stinks.
 
@KitFox don't use a match to apply it
 
2:45 PM
Someone dump the North Sea on KitFox, please.
 
It's embarrassing.
 
Haha.
Come live here!
Actually Amsterdam is quite far from the sea.
 
user19161
@Robusto Is there really such a spray?
 
30 km or so (that counts as far here).
 
Axe (or Lynx in Ireland, the UK, South Africa and Australia) is a brand of male grooming products, owned by the British–Dutch company Unilever and marketed towards young males. History Axe was launched in France in 1983 by Unilever. It was inspired by another of Unilever's brands, Impulse. Unilever were keen to capitalize on Axe's French success and the rest of Europe from 1985 onwards, later introducing the other products in the range. Unilever were unable to use the name Axe in the United Kingdom and Ireland due to trademark problems so it was launched as Lynx. The European launc...
Haha, stupid Europeans, spelling Axe l-y-n-x.
 
user19161
2:47 PM
@Robusto I seriously doubt its efficacy.
 
@ClarkKent just watch the commercials. You'll see
 
Whoa, Jasper, jump back. You mean you don't believe advertising campaigns? What the hell's wrong with you, man?
Doesn't Singapore teach you to be a proper little consumer? How will your economy survive?
 
Blasphemy.
I will hear none of this.
 
I can't believe I'm hearing this stuff.
 
@Cerberus that's good because this chat room doesn't normally transmit sound
 
2:49 PM
I also love how people say they don't "trust" some corporation any more if some minor scandal erupts.
 
Hahaha. I don't think there's a corporation in the world that I do trust.
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 Then what is all this yammering about Windows 7 and virus scanners that I hear all the time?
@Robusto Exactly.
 
I don't trust Wordpress anymore, after the gravatar not updating scandal
 
It's not a matter of trust: it's just business.
 
@Cerberus why not? you have to put a certain amount of trust into corporations. otherwise you can't buy their products because they might kill you.
 
2:50 PM
Actually, I do trust them. I trust them to screw me however they can.
 
@MattЭллен What!??
 
@Cerberus you heard that? with your ears?
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 I don't trust the corporation so much as regulation and reputation.
 
@Cerberus yeah! my gravatar didn't update for over 2 days after I cahnged it. I had to dele the old one to get it to change!
 
user19161
@MattЭллен But it's not about Wordpress right?
 
2:51 PM
@ClarkKent Wordpress support/maintain gravatar
 
When will you people realize that the gravatar is a lie?
 
@Cerberus Still, you have to trust that they are following the regulations.
 
I mean, I trust them in so far as their interest coincides with mine, but not an iota farther.
 
user19161
@MattЭллен Well, the problem might even lie at gravatar itself!
 
user19161
Gravatar is so universal that people have equated it to avatar.
 
2:52 PM
I say picture or icon.
 
@Cerberus Your father was an iota? I thought you Dutch peoples was tall and all.
@Cerberus You misspelled porn. Twice.
 
@Robusto He was a Dutch iota. It's taller than a regular European iota.
 
user19161
@Cerberus There is also the favicon.
 
@Robusto Your ears are untrained to a British accent, it seems?
 
@ClarkKent I hate it when people pronounce the "a" in "favicon" to rhyme with "cat". It should rhyme with "favourite", duh.
 
2:54 PM
Julius Caesar crossed the Favicon, and Rome was never the same after that.
 
@ClarkKent Hmm yes, I might use that in a certain very specific context, but reluctantly.
 
The fabicon is a gay icon.
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 fayv-eye-con?
 
user19161
@MrShinyandNew安宇 Oh dear, I think I thought it was pronounced like cat.
 
@Cerberus It's only useful in one context, when talking about favicons. That's a specific thing.
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 exactly
 
2:55 PM
Where's the stress?
 
favicon: short for "favourite icon"
FAYV-eye-con
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 nobody cares about etymology.
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 I would just call those icons in many contexts.
 
You don't call women wife-men, either.
 
@Cerberus they are a specific kind of icon
 
2:56 PM
@MrShinyandNew安宇 you'll hate the way I pronounce it then :D
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Wait, what about gay marriages?
 
@Robusto those are not between women. QED
 
I always say /'fævɪkən/.
 
user19161
@Cerberus Very exotic!
 
But I know there is some controversy.
 
2:57 PM
@Cerberus Liar. You sometimes say other things. We've all heard you.
 
Just allophones.
 
If only he always just said favicon.
 
user19161
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Gay can refer to women as well.
 
@ClarkKent not to straight women.
Oh, and QED.
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 But in many cases context makes it clear enough what kind of icon you're talking about.
 
2:59 PM
/fævɪkɒn/
bleh, I hate figuring out pronunciation
 
But it is different between gay men and Lesbians. For gay men, it takes ten or fifteen acts of intercourse before they'll consider going out on a date with each other. For Lesbians, the second date involves a U-Haul. (Disclaimer: This joke was told to me by a Lesbian I know.)
 

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