Zompist Bboard Again

Raphael wrote: ↑Wed Apr 08, 2026 10:07 am In standard English terminology, do your in-laws stay your in-laws if you get a divorce, or do they become your former in-laws?

Depends how much you like them as people.

malloc wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2026 9:45 pm Planning on attending a No Kings protest this weekend and just need to decide what my sign should say. I think something simple and specific like "No war with Iran".

Glad you're taking action! This is a good sign (pun intended).

cèjè
[ɕèdʑè]
‘moniker for a specific head of state; authoritarian policies; (pejorative, archaic) Big Brother-esque authority’

Initial affricates lose the stop and become plain fricatives.

I grew up with a graphic designer mother, so I knew terms like fuchsia since early childhood. But my main connection with fuchsia these days is from a webcomic involving aliens with a social hierarchy based on blood color, fuchsia or tyrian (sometimes treated as the same, sometimes the latter being ...

Happy(?) Ash Wednesday. Somehow that snuck up on my Catholic parents. Dunno if they're planning to go to church or not for a blessing.

If you use Discord, stop using it immediately . The new 'age verification' they are introducing is a major privacy trojan horse, as you are feeding your personal data directly into the hands of Palantir (the surveillance company) if you 'verify' your age with them despite the promises they make (wh...

Furthermore, what about all the people who have claimed that AI has cost them their jobs? Numerous artists, writers, and coders over the years have talked about AI taking their jobs. Either all of those people are lying or AI can produce content good enough that customers regularly choose it over c...

Second, as smart as computer scientists and software engineers are about computers, I don't trust what they have to say about human cognition. I would trust the people who understand that, especially if for example, they have also studied non-human intelligence. Please don't accept malloc's blithe ...

Sure but I could easily find numerous AI images that are impossible to distinguish from human-made ones. You can reasonably argue that AI often misses the mark but AI advocates could say the same about human artists. It may well be that AI cannot produce fine art or literature but it definitely see...

generative AI doesn't even make usable "art" without human intention behind it. And I don't mean the prompt written to make an image. I mean like, I saw a piece that was supposed to "Celebrate the American heroes of WW2" or something like that. Only the AI had the soldiers runnin...

And if you really need to make the distinction, you have "medical fasting" vs "religious fasting". Technically the period from your last meal before sleep, and your first meal after sleep is considered a fast as well. Hence, break fast is the first meal of the day.

I don't know what exactly these three comments are referencing, but I suspect that there might be people on the ZBB who do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complaint_tablet_to_Ea-n%C4%81%E1%B9%A3ir Probably my favorite internet meme; poor Ea-nasir. You sell one batch of copper, that one time... The p...

Could be fun trying to make one based on Japanese kana (maybe a mix of both hiragana and katakana, including odd uses of daku- or handakuten, and small kana). Though I think it would be hard to start off, and it still would make use of basic mora unless forced to use phonemes directly. Kana is admi...

Could be fun trying to make one based on Japanese kana (maybe a mix of both hiragana and katakana, including odd uses of daku- or handakuten, and small kana). Though I think it would be hard to start off, and it still would make use of basic mora unless forced to use phonemes directly.

Travis B. wrote: ↑Thu Jan 29, 2026 7:53 am

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Jan 29, 2026 6:10 am

bradrn wrote: ↑Thu Jan 29, 2026 5:00 am

Excellent! I’m glad you managed to get things sorted out.

Seconded!

Thirded!

Congratulations!

Certain mental conditions (depression, anxiety, being on the autism spectrum, etc) make one view others as more personally hostile than they actually are. So malloc, please understand I'm not trying to diminish your situation (a dead car battery is still a moderate issue and worse if you have little...

malloc, while I feel for your situation, two or three "horrible years" is neither unprecedented nor unsurvivable. I would say that almost every year in my twenties were "horrible years", and I am now here at 37 with a better life than in times that were more politically favorable...

How does the plural possessive of nouns with irregular plurals sound to people? For me, "mens'" as in "mens' clothing" sounds okay, probably because it's common, but for other nouns it just sounds wrong, simply leaving these nouns with no plural possessive form. Sounds Okay: - m...

Man in Space wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 11:03 am

bradrn wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 10:09 amI don’t listen to heavy metal so am not an expert, but from what I recall, there are a lot of similarities in the melodic lines too.

ISTR that at least one of the guitarists for DragonForce was a classically-trained musician.

System of a Down are also classically trained musicians.

I have suggested that people settle in Antarctica. They don't want to because they don't want the ice sheets to melt even faster. The sea floor is even more dangerous because of the high pressure. Also, I'm personally sad that no one suggests colonizing Venus seriously even though there is actually...