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From Ambrose Bierce’s “Devil’s Dictionary” of 1911:

Respirator, n. An apparatus fitted over the nose and mouth of an inhabitant of London, whereby to filter the visible universe in its passage to the lungs.

Plus ça change…



If you know French, I think it can help disambiguate some prepositions in Portuguese:

Por is par and para is pour.



The railway south of Cambridge splits just south of the city, with one line heading to Liverpool Street and one, the faster shorter route, to Kings Cross or St Pancras. Ever since I learned the point where they split is called “Shepreth Branch Junction” I’ve taken delight in saying “we’re taking the Shepreth branch” as if this is some forgotten branch line bywater of the network rather than the main route to London. Conjuring the romantic from the mundane just from a bit of railway geekery. Adlestrop, or the slow train.

Shepreth itself is a bit of a bywater. Express trains, like this one, skip it and its neighbours Foxton and Meldreth, so if you want to partake of their delights — a safari park! A path through a field! Tech startups that couldn’t afford Cambridge! — you’ll need to take the actual slow train.



Goddam waterpik just made my gums bleed. Apparently it’s for my own good, or summat.


Oh, Google.

You wanted:

Commission Regulation (EU) No 330/2010 of 20 April 2010 on the application of Article 101(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

You got:

0.16417910447

Patrick Hadfield reshared this.



Apropos of having just dealt with an irritating personal problem of the feminine nature, I find myself thinking back to the start of The Last Of Us.

Guys, did you even think to TRY Fluconazole?



As a child, I grew up speaking the East Midlands dialect of English.

But I was led to believe that were I to “get on in life”, I would need to speak Standard Southern British English.

As I believed this, I willingly embraced it and now I mostly do speak SSBE.

But I’m somewhat bitter about needing to, even if I did willingly embrace it at the time because, as I was taught, I thought my own dialect was “unsophisticated”.

It wasn’t; it was just different, but in the 70s and 80s even local celebrities who made it big on the national stage were encouraged to drift linguistically towards London, and if they didn’t, that acted as a barrier.

It’s less the case now, but with the benefit of hindsight I do feel a bit resentful about it.

As times have changed, and as I don’t feel that I have anything to prove, I increasingly find myself drifting back towards the way I used to speak as a child.

in reply to Sarah Brown

@Sarah Brown We can see that even in the other side of the world. Once upon a time we heard only SSBE on Radio New Zealand and I was taught it. Now we hear many variations of English pronunciation, including Asian variations and local variations—Māori and Pacific. Our English D-I-L is a case in point. Still has remnants of her childhood London accent—certainly not SSBE—and welcome presenting on RNZ. I love it. It represents our changing society.
This entry was edited (9 months ago)
in reply to Sarah Brown

And the rest of us thinks that most English accents are cool. Funny world huh?

(Emphasis on most. There’s some bad ones out there.)



Just been for a flu vaccination. Pharmacist also did a general health check. Apparently I am too healthy for a 50 year old with a cheese based diet.


If I see some text I don’t immediately recognise as a word in English I’ll try reading it backwards to see if it makes more sense that way. Does anyone else do this?
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

@pseudomonas

Yeah, that's definitely what you said, so I'm now a little confused about how I came to be confused.

Or at least surprised; I knew my working memory was totally borked, but I hadn't realised it was that bad.

Though I suppose, given the nature of the problem, maybe I HAD realised, but then forgot about it?

@Adam


Sauron be like, "dumbass elves, Imma gaslight the fuck out of them, for the lulz".

in reply to Axel Foley

@Axel Foley I be blaming rampant privateerism. Do you be having your clubcard, arrrr?



Just realised that RADIUS is "more of a comment than a question" turned into protocol design.


It appears that there may be an issue with Google Chrome not starting for some users of Mac OS Sequoia.

I have found a workaround. In the Finder, open the Applications folder, locate Chrome, drag it to the bin, then empty the bin.

Fixed



Been trying to contact a shipwright, ANY shipwright, in France, to help with my annual boat maintenance and, is it a French thing that NOBODY EVER FUCKING ANSWERS THEIR FUCKING EMAIL?

Do not make me fucking phone you. I am neurodivergent and I don't speak French.

in reply to Sarah Brown

Update: Tried texting one.

Not only did he reply, he said I can speak English with him, AND THE TEXT BUBBLES ARE BLUE!

Thank god!

in reply to GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)

@GreenSkyOverMe means they're both using the Messages app on an apple device (iphone, ipad, mac). secondarily, that they can confidently send other media eg: photos, videos to each other; it doesn't depend on phone networks to work (once each end knows the other is on iMessage, it just goes over internet) and is secure (end-to-end encrypted)


Just replaced my old Apple TV 4K with the newer model that is also a Thread border router. I now have two: the HomePod Mini (WiFi) and the Apple TV (Ethernet).

And OMG, Thread is so much faster & more reliable!

in reply to Sarah Brown

I'll probably skip it. I want to pass the 2K to my parents and get a 4K for myself, but I would need to swap the remotes otherwise my father is going to throw that thing out the window, and I don't blame him.


Slightly embarrassing moment at work yesterday. There's been a bit of a bug going round various people in the office, so when a coworker walked in saying "ooh, I'm feeling a bit grotty today" I moved to jokingly make the sign of the cross to ward off the plague before stopping myself because I remembered he's Muslim.

I'm atheist, but societal Christian defaultism can always rear its head!



Upgraded to iOS 18?

Check the calendar month view our. Try pinch zooming. Thank me later.



Rings of Power: is it just me thinking that the last words Pharazon will ever hear are, “I am no man”?
in reply to Sarah Brown

I wondered that too, but apparently if they do that it'll be non-canonical
Unknown parent

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Sarah Brown
@Ghost of Hope His nepo boy son is definitely one of them though.


Been thinking about Sarah’s history of English royalty since William t he Conquerer. Let me know if I left anything important out:

Succession crisis -> civil war.

Civil war resolved, negotiated succession.

Descendant of negotiated successor pisses everyone off -> civil war.

Descendant forced to accept terms.

Stability for a bit while they’re busy fighting other people.

Succession crisis -> civil war.

Civil war resolved violently.

Succession crisis (religion). Civil war narrowly averted.

Dynasty goes extinct. Succession negotiated.

Descendant of negotiated successor pisses everyone off -> civil war.

Civil war resolved through decapitation.

Succession crisis. Civil war averted via negotiated succession.

Succession crisis -> civil war fizzles

Dynasty goes extinct (yes, Charlie, it did. Shut up)

Parliament is finally utterly fucking sick of this lot starting civil wars, installs German puppets. The end.

in reply to Sarah Brown

Until the last year or so, I had believed something more or less along the lines of "England has been uniquely stable over the past 1000 years. Other countries have had bloody revolutions (France, Russia) or pulled themselves together out of fragmented parts (Germany, Italy) but England has missed out on all that, the elites here have always known how and when to soften and to give up a little power in order to avoid those excesses".
in reply to Ben Curthoys

@goatsarah Listening through The Rest Is History podcast has disabused me of this idiotic idea. We've had just as many usurpers, revolutions and civil wars as anywhere else, it's just that the English have had better marketing.
This entry was edited (9 months ago)
in reply to Ben Curthoys

@bencurthoys @goatsarah Fair. I think most of that view derives from Britain being the odd one out while everyone else was doing 1848/midcentury civil wars. We wrote that up as ‘look how stable we are as we loot the rest of the world’ and it was never internally criticised.
in reply to Ben Curthoys

@Ben Curthoys lol, yeah. The Anarchy, 1st barons war, 2nd barons war, Wars of the Roses, Mary marches on London, 1st civil war, 2nd civil war, Restoration, Glorious Revolution, Jacobite Rising. Probably missed some.

GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) reshared this.



You’re scared we’re going to beat you at sports.

We’re scared you’re going to beat us to death.

We are not the same.



My watch just informed me that today is my personal record for single day calorie burn. I can believe it. I am having difficulty moving now. strava.app.link/ak7QiUQwTMb
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

@Alexandra Lanes @gz You … you … shut up with your remarks about how I’m definitely not going to be trudging along Curbar edge in September 2025 wondering why the fuck I did this to myself.

Unknown parent

@Sarah Brown @Miguel Arroz I have unexpectedly managed to sunburn my face on an overcast day in the UK in September. This is most unreasonable.
Unknown parent

@Sarah Brown @Miguel Arroz Also the wind was in our faces on Stanage which would have made it feel less sunny.


If @Vagina Museum had a cafe it would _obviously_ have to get baristas to draw vulvas in the cappuccinos.


BREAKING! In a move that the Liberal Democrat party hopes will finally deal with their transphobe problem, they have handed the Sudetenland to the transphobes.

In exchange, the transphobes pinky promised that they won’t demand any further concessions, “you know, for a bit anyway”.

reshared this

in reply to Sarah Brown

A transphobe spokesworm was later overheard muttering something about what a shame it would be if something happened to that nice Poland you’ve got there.


News coming in that a second debate invitation has hit Donald Trump.


Nothing quite illustrates the desperate need for proper civics education than a man with a policy platform of “stopping imaginary transgender immigrants eating your cats” being neck and neck to be US president.


NEW! Force femmed immigrants in YOUR neighbourhood eating YOUR cat!

Trump watches some very weird porn.

gz reshared this.

in reply to Sarah Brown

I only saw bits of it on the news this morning and switched off immediately. I really feel sorry and scared for my US friends.


Apple: “And our new iPhone 16 has hardware ray tracing for unparalleled mobile gaming performance”

Mobile gaming:

reshared this

in reply to Sarah Brown

but also mobile gaming:
youtu.be/Rf5pB31k3dw?si=dRuPVG…
in reply to Alan Braggins

@Alan Braggins bet I know which ones get played and played and played.

Never seen anyone on a train or plane or bus playing a 3D FPS thing on their phone.

But word searches and distant descendentes of Tetris? All the time.



I’m assuming the answer is, “the power would go off”

reshared this

in reply to Sarah Brown

how many hours/days would you give your current location of living, until looting and riots would start, if the power was completely down?
in reply to mxk

@mxk I have experienced a 5 day power cut before. None of that happened. People pulled together.
@mxk


Now smartphones are mature products we’re into the annual “this is an incremental upgrade over last year. I’m so mad replacing my 2 thousand quid perfectly functional phone with one that’s almost the same for another 2 thousand quid” cycle.

My brother in Christ; have you considered just … not?

I’m upgrading this year. My phone is 3 years old and the camera stuff is worth it for me. My step daughter is getting my old one, which she is thrilled with.

in reply to Sarah Brown

yes, which I have done a few times, however, and this might be due to my obtaining cheap highstreet repairs, they never seemed to last long.


Why the ever-living zombienuggets does my DNS server have libtiff installed?!


Weird phrasing on the radio just now. “The winds will be into the forties of miles an hour”
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

It's not a number, it's a metaphor. Later the outlook is for the winds to be into the Cromarty of miles an hour.

Alexandra Lanes reshared this.




Yesterday I saw a discussion about whether you can smell in a dream.

As fate would have it, I had a lucid dream last night (I have a cold. That’s probably why), so I decided to test it.

Yes, you can smell in dreams.

reshared this



Spoilers for Netflix's Kaos
Loved Kaos, but it tickled me to realise that it is basically the same plot as Jupiter Ascending, only in this case Jupiter is the baddie.

in reply to Alexandra Lanes

and the difficult decisions are always the ones that hurt poor people rather then the difficult decisions that hurt rich people.


It would be justifiable homicide to off the eejit who decided to put capacitive controls on hobs, right?
in reply to Sarah Brown

Yes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with rotary knobs and other physical controls.
in reply to Ozzy

@Ozzy Can even make them waterproof by using Hall effect sensors.
@Ozzy


Long form - ADHD and suchlike
in reply to Sarah Brown

Long form - ADHD and suchlike

Sensitive content

This entry was edited (10 months ago)
in reply to 1ngi

Long form - ADHD and suchlike
@1ngi Feeling is mutual, my lovely x
@1ngi


NORMAL PEOPLE: "I couldn't find anything about it in the docs"
ME: "The documentation is not obviously loquacious on the subject"