yes

I wonder why he chose Hong Kong and not Switzerland.

How China is Hong Kong?

They are very autonomous.

As greed with the Brits.

But there are limits...

> Ask yourself: if I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn't I have flown directly into Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now.

He answered the Hong Kong q

> There was a distinct possibility I would be interdicted en route, so I had to travel with no advance booking to a country with the cultural and legal framework to allow me to work without being immediately detained. Hong Kong provided that. Iceland could be pushed harder, quicker, before the public could have a chance to make their feelings known, and I would not put that past the current US administration.

@tchrist raises hand

He probably thought only China would be 100 % willing to protect him, I think, and Hongkong cannot be pressured by foreign countries.

Yeah, that.

@Robusto We appear to be in an uncommon class.

Some sort of Chicago-area effect. Dunno.

Calm = /ɑ/ and call is /ɔ/ for me, so...

me too, I think

I certainly have /ɔ/ in both. Plus a dark /l/ in calm, just like in call.

how do you know the phonetic stuff, you google it somewhere or just skill?

I just know IPA.

It's in all the dictionaries I use.

Plus we used it in college.

Hmm /ɔ/ in calm, interesting.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I have just found out that my mother's mobile phone company charges her € 2,88 per MB.

@Cerberus It's like the palm of your hand.

I just realized that I created a whole weird set of tables for no purpose. These could just be columns in the one table and everything would be a lot easier.

Hey @Matt, can I ask you for some input?

@tchrist Pɑːm.

@KitFox hi! sorry, I didn't hear the ping

yes

Come on over.

@Cerberus That seems like a lot.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yeah, it's crazy.

So you don't have a monopoly on gouging phone companies.

The maximum rate within the entire EU is € 0,50 or so per MB, and yet they get to charge 400+ % more domestically.

Just get a foreign sim for data :)

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Actually, that might be a great idea!

Serious, it would work.

You'd just have to somehow get a plan in, say, Belgium with a Dutch bank account and passport.

Or you could open a Belgian bank account. I'm sure that would be possible.

And soon all roaming charges will be illegal within the EU, starting in 2014 or so.

So then I could open an Estonian bank account and get an Estonian plan, where you pay € 0,50 per GB.

Yes, that's jiggabyte, or ghigabyte.

I was thinking of getting a prepaid sim at whatever foreign company has the best rates. Like, I paid €10 for 3GB data in Austria.

so, not as cheap as Estonia I guess

but I paid cash.

Yeah, great for a prepaid SIM.

all those funny Euro bills that are different sizes

The bigger, the better!

Get a dual-sim phone and then she doesn't even need to change her phone number

I wonder if that'd work.

It is unfortunate how my € 500 bills never fit in my wallet.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Exactly. Sure, it would work.

@Cerberus the only catch is that some dual-sim phones don't support all the same features on both sims

@Cerberus I like my bills to be all the same size.

That's because you aren't blind.

Also the Euro coins get pretty small in the low end.

@KitFox Canadian money has braille on it anyway.

That's new?

I don't remember that.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Like which? Normal, modern dual-SIM phones support Internet on one SIM and calls on the other.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Like all this size?

@Cerberus image not found

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Euro coins have different edges for the blind.

But actually, I don't think € 1 is larger than € 0,50?

Nor do I think € 0,10 is larger than € 0,05.

The French really like coins like this one:

@Cerberus Prisoner of Her Majesty?

?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That's ok, provided that size is a $100 bill.

Since they don't circulate the thousands any longer.

@tchrist they should hardly bother with the 100s either since so few places accept them.

@Cerberus What a shit job of centering.

Take it down 10% and try again.

Security mechanism?

And make it smaller.

But the French like it big.

That means make it 10% smaller.

@tchrist the 'l' is the same for me but really, I don't know the difference between /ɑ/ and /ɔ/

@Cerberus I thought it was what all the kids are wearing these days.

@Mitch /ɑ/ is like in Phad Thai or Gengis Khan. /ɔ/ is like in pawed, cost, caught, dog, law, thought.

Maude. Tawdry.

@Cerberus P.O.M.

@tchrist Depends on your accent.

I don't think most Americans would say /dɔg/ for dog.

@Cerberus Huh?

How else would we say it?

/dɒg/?

Please don't say /dɑg/. It is definitely /dɔg/ .

Americans don't have a three-way phonemic distinction between /ɑ, ɒ, ɔ/.

We don't really have a /ɒ/ vowel at all. Just /ɔ/.

Cloth and thought and thawed all have the same vowel for us.

And that vowel is /ɔ/.

There are those with the cot-caught merger, though. They do conflate things.

How about oh my Gaaad?

That is either /gɑd/ or /gɔd/ depending on the speaker.

We really don't have a distinct /ɒ/.

In southern California, they tend to have only /ɑ/ everywhere. It sounds weird to me.

Every time I hear them talking about /dɑgz/, I cringe.

I guess I have /kɔlm/ in calm.

It may be a Milwaukee/Chicago thing.

@tchrist argh...mine is in between! father=cot < calm < caught = law

I can't say I have /kɔlm/ because there's too much 'l' but /kɔm/ doesn't have enough.

@Robusto Ł

Sooo.

Yes?

@KitFox she's napping again.