Topic: This thread is like a broken pencil: pointless. (Read 838534 times)

Akima · « **Reply #2902 on:** 02 Jun 2019, 21:39 »

Quote from: Morituri on 25 May 2019, 21:50

You may think it's only youngsters going "just look at this freaky old thing, I think they were called pay phones,"

Are phone-boxes generally gone in the USA? There are about 16,000 payphones in Australia, and Telstra, their operator, would love to ditch them, but there's a huge stink every time they suggest it. It's a legacy from when Telstra was Telecom Australia, the government telecommunications monopoly, so politically Telstra is forced to have a "universal service obligation".

hedgie · « **Reply #2903 on:** 02 Jun 2019, 21:49 »

I haven't seen one in about 15 years. Probably for the best, since I can remember all of about three phone numbers since I'm used to just using my contact list.

jwhouk · « **Reply #2904 on:** 03 Jun 2019, 04:52 »

Phone boxes are very much gone in the US. You might see the old shell types outside older gas stations, but 99% of those don't have working phones in them (mostly due to vandalism).

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #2905 on:** 03 Jun 2019, 10:12 »

Which is a pity, because they were going to be the first things back up after a natural disaster.

Cornelius · « **Reply #2906 on:** 03 Jun 2019, 10:18 »

Same here. The moment the phone companies were no longer obliged to maintain them, they all went out. After all everyone has a cell phone, no? Which is all fine and dandy until the moment you find yourself stranded on a station in the middle of nowhere, with no battery left, in the rain.

Morituri · « **Reply #2907 on:** 03 Jun 2019, 15:28 »

The phone companies around here aren't permitted to remove them, but they are not obliged to replace them when they fail.

And they've been not replacing them when they fail for about ... twenty? .... I think it's about twenty years now.

I doubt that there are more than a dozen still operating in this city, and don't know where they'd be.

TheEvilDog · « **Reply #2908 on:** 03 Jun 2019, 20:11 »

I know there's been some discussion here about getting rid of the last phoneboxes, but there's debate about whether or not some should be kept for emergencies or for more remote areas that don't have easy access to mobile or broadband service. But that's been going on for years.

hedgie · « **Reply #2909 on:** 03 Jun 2019, 20:15 »

I suppose that potential emergencies is a good reason to get a Ham license and carry a portable radio. Less likely to run out of battery if one barely uses it under normal circumstances.

Case · « **Reply #2910 on:** 04 Jun 2019, 08:54 »

Quote from: Cornelius on 03 Jun 2019, 10:18

Same here. The moment the phone companies were no longer obliged to maintain them, they all went out. After all everyone has a cell phone, no? Which is all fine and dandy until the moment you find yourself stranded on a station in the middle of nowhere, with no battery left, in the rain.

Huh?

Over here, the Telekom, as the successor to the federal post office's telecom branch, still has a Versorgungsautrag (supply mission) - in cities, one public phone must 'in close walking distance' throughout the city, which means closer than 2.5km. There's about 20.000 public phones left nationally - in various stages of repair and hygiene, I have to add.

Cornelius · « **Reply #2911 on:** 04 Jun 2019, 10:48 »

The legal requirement was scrapped in 2013, and the last one was formally removed in 2015 - though the last I've seen was in 2017. But they weren't much use, since the Proton payment system was scrapped, and phone booth cards haven't been sold since about 2012. I can't remember when I saw the last coin operated one.

jwhouk · « **Reply #2912 on:** 04 Jun 2019, 17:41 »

According to CNN, there are about 100,000 pay phones still left in America - though most of them are in NYC. And the article in question is over a year old, so many of those 100k may no longer be working.

cybersmurf · « **Reply #2913 on:** 04 Jun 2019, 23:40 »

Since the mass adoption of portable phones over here in Austria, the amount of payphones has decreased A LOT. there still are a few, but - as far as i can tell - mostly somewhere around public transport hubs, and just random places that still seem to get some use.

Blue Kitty · « **Reply #2914 on:** 06 Jun 2019, 12:43 »

TheEvilDog · « **Reply #2915 on:** 06 Jun 2019, 15:08 »

I'm sure most kids would think of hospital as something from a horror film!

Blue Kitty · « **Reply #2916 on:** 12 Jun 2019, 07:29 »

LTK · « **Reply #2917 on:** 13 Jun 2019, 04:54 »

I don't get it...?

jwhouk · « **Reply #2918 on:** 13 Jun 2019, 05:14 »

Need to get down in the gutter, LTK...

Cornelius · « **Reply #2919 on:** 13 Jun 2019, 05:15 »

Clearly the sharp ones are broken, no?

LeeC · « **Reply #2920 on:** 13 Jun 2019, 05:27 »

LTK · « **Reply #2921 on:** 13 Jun 2019, 09:38 »

Quote from: jwhouk on 13 Jun 2019, 05:14

Need to get down in the gutter, LTK...

Oh.

Ohh.

LeeC · « **Reply #2922 on:** 13 Jun 2019, 11:19 »

cesium133 · « **Reply #2923 on:** 15 Jun 2019, 10:10 »

I've been procrastinating this morning by reading xkcd, and I stumbled on this map: https://xkcd.com/1509/large/

Apparently I grew up in Dirty Dancing, went to college in Groundhog Day, grad school in Twister, postdoc in A Christmas Story, and now I live in Blues Brothers.

Jimor · « **Reply #2924 on:** 15 Jun 2019, 14:16 »

What's interesting to me about that paper plate picture is that each time I see it new, I see the upside down version, but then it flips and I can't get it to go back. Next time, same thing even though I already know which way it's supposed to go.

LTK · « **Reply #2925 on:** 15 Jun 2019, 16:30 »

Try as I might, I can't make myself see them upside-down.

LeeC · « **Reply #2926 on:** 16 Jun 2019, 06:16 »

Jimor · « **Reply #2927 on:** 20 Jun 2019, 05:28 »

https://twitter.com/DevonESawa/status/1141226179673804801

Blue Kitty · « **Reply #2928 on:** 20 Jun 2019, 18:11 »

Quote

what if the joker just did normal clown shit like spray people with prank flowers and make balloon animals but batman beat the shit out of him anyway

Akima · « **Reply #2929 on:** 21 Jun 2019, 15:40 »

Quote from: LTK on 15 Jun 2019, 16:30

Try as I might, I can't make myself see them upside-down.

I can only see them all "convex side up". The lighting is coming from the left, and all the plates have their highlight side on the left, and the shadow side on the right. If any were "convex side up" the shadows and highlight sides would be reversed.

Tova · « **Reply #2930 on:** 21 Jun 2019, 22:28 »

Quote from: Akima on 21 Jun 2019, 15:40

Quote from: LTK on 15 Jun 2019, 16:30
Try as I might, I can't make myself see them upside-down.
I can only see them all "convex side up". The lighting is coming from the left, and all the plates have their highlight side on the left, and the shadow side on the right. If any were "convex side up" the shadows and highlight sides would be reversed.

Nah, the lighting is definitely coming from the right.

LeeC · « **Reply #2931 on:** 23 Jun 2019, 18:44 »

I'm really liking this "Humans are space Orcs" trope
https://imgur.com/gallery/H7wT7d5

My favorite is the one about how all the aliens see in black and white spectrum and the human crew member sees all these bright terrible colors and repaints the ship but to the aliens its the same color.

JoeCovenant · « **Reply #2932 on:** 26 Jun 2019, 02:13 »

Just seeing this thanks to the comments in another thread...

It's quite groovy with the "Scottish Pokemon Trainer" (does she have a name?)

What is cringe worthy is the bloody awful renditions of the Scottish Accent by people who clearly only know Scots from Groundskeeper Willie (and even then, they're not listening too well!)

In pretty much all scottish dialects XP share would be best put over phonetically as "Expee Shay-yir".
(And Scots don't say "Fooking!" I mean... have they never HEARD Billy Connolly???)

LeeC · « **Reply #2933 on:** 26 Jun 2019, 07:01 »

Quote from: JoeCovenant on 26 Jun 2019, 02:13

Just seeing this thanks to the comments in another thread...

It's quite groovy with the "Scottish Pokemon Trainer" (does she have a name?)

Not yet, she is the playable character (so usually the player can name her whatever they like) but they usually do give them default names to choose from. The game is still in development and slated to come out November 15, 2019 so we may get some more information this summer or on release.

Quote

What is cringe worthy is the bloody awful renditions of the Scottish Accent by people who clearly only know Scots from Groundskeeper Willie (and even then, they're not listening too well!)

In pretty much all scottish dialects XP share would be best put over phonetically as "Expee Shay-yir".
(And Scots don't say "Fooking!" I mean... have they never HEARD Billy Connolly???)

I think the accent is less derived from Groundskeeper Willie and more from Merida from Brave and Scottish twitter but YMMV. Some are straight up just her inputted into scenes from Wreck it Ralph 2 and the Demoman from TF2. As for "fookin," some people have mentioned that "Loud Scottish Lass" as she has been dubbed, seems more like she has a Geordie accent than Scottish. But I doubt the artists/meme-ers/comic creators know the difference.

LeeC · « **Reply #2934 on:** 04 Jul 2019, 21:22 »

Happy 4th of July!!!

LeeC · « **Reply #2935 on:** 05 Jul 2019, 08:02 »

Holy shit! This animatronic Hondo is freaky good!

Blue Kitty · « **Reply #2936 on:** 05 Jul 2019, 09:45 »

LeeC · « **Reply #2937 on:** 06 Jul 2019, 09:05 »

Man o man, this is a great show.

LeeC · « **Reply #2938 on:** 10 Jul 2019, 17:36 »

Blue Kitty · « **Reply #2939 on:** 12 Jul 2019, 09:32 »

Morituri · « **Reply #2940 on:** 14 Jul 2019, 17:04 »

Ever see the right way to do something, when you're about halfway through doing it wrong?

That happens to me all the time.

LeeC · « **Reply #2941 on:** 16 Jul 2019, 20:21 »

Blue Kitty · « **Reply #2942 on:** 18 Jul 2019, 18:54 »

[tweet]1151590620063916032[/tweet]

Case · « **Reply #2943 on:** 19 Jul 2019, 11:15 »

(click to show/hide)

LeeC · « **Reply #2944 on:** 19 Jul 2019, 12:57 »

Its like sci-fi space marine weapons.

Saw this video, it really starts at the 2:40 mark but its how to pronounce Norse Mythology characters names.

Kind of cool. Not sure I could pull it off naturally. I can roll the Rs but not sure about that LL clicking sounds she makes.

Case · « **Reply #2945 on:** 19 Jul 2019, 13:42 »

Quote from: LeeC on 19 Jul 2019, 12:57

Saw this video, it really starts at the 2:40 mark but its how to pronounce Norse Mythology characters names.

Yeeeeaaaah - I'm not sure the Icelandic have exclusive dibs on the Norse pantheon, as she seems to imply - IIRC, the religion was widespread throughout northwestern Europe? I thought if anyone had dibs on Odin and Thor, it was the Danes? (Then and again, one could argue who settled Iceland ...)

Quote from: LeeC on 19 Jul 2019, 12:57

I can roll the Rs but not sure about that LL clicking sounds she makes.

Errrrh - sounds to me like she's inserting a 't' before the 'll'? Heijm-da(tt)lürrh is what I hear.

Edit: Actually, that seems to be the case: "Double ll is in most cases pronounced [tl̥], as if spelled tl" (First footnote in Icelandic IPA-Wiki)

Her 'r' isn't just rolled, it's something between the Dutch 'g' and the German 'ch'.

The vowels sound like remote cousins of German umlouts to me, but ... I've learned that I when I listen to foreign-language phonemes, I tend to hear German (or English or Dutch ones) where none are present. I once spent an instructive half-hour with a Greek colleague who taught me to actually hear what Greeks are saying when the pronounce the letter gamma. It has very little to do with what I thought of as gamma ...

Edit: Interesting that Icelandic has pretty much the same 'th'-phoneme as English. That's the hardest sound for German ESL students to learn, and there's countless jokes the 'th-enabled' use to mock their wooden-tongued compatriots.

LeeC · « **Reply #2946 on:** 20 Jul 2019, 19:04 »

Dandi Andi · « **Reply #2947 on:** 20 Jul 2019, 20:15 »

And the USAF does not disappoint.

Of course it got big enough that the USAF was obliged to take it seriously (in a "there are enough stupid people out there that somebody might actually try this" sort of way) and so they need to make sure that people know the relevant terms being used. I am sure that there wasn't a single person who didn't feel incredibly foolish explaining "Naruto running" to senior military leaders. It all makes sense, but damn if seeing a picture of a guy in urban camo in a Naruto pose and the incredulous look on his face didn't just make my night.

LeeC · « **Reply #2948 on:** 20 Jul 2019, 22:26 »

hedgie · « **Reply #2949 on:** 21 Jul 2019, 00:23 »

Aah, yes. Burrowing owls. We have 'em around here, and there are a number of habitat areas for them that are fenced off from dogs.

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Author Topic: This thread is like a broken pencil: pointless. (Read 838534 times)

TheEvilDog

TheEvilDog