Random Thread

[Travis B.]

The schools around here have just started spring break. As you can see, the weather is appropriate:

It was raining all today yesterday, but most years it would still be liable to snow at this time the year here. Of course, today it is cool but very sunny.

[Raphael]

It was raining all today yesterday,

Is that a typo, or some feature of English I wasn't aware of?

[Travis B.]

It was raining all today yesterday,

Is that a typo, or some feature of English I wasn't aware of?

I mistyped that - "today yesterday" ought to be "day yesterday". I have a habit of making typos where instead of typing the wrong characters I write entirely different words that look or sound similar.

[Raphael]

Thank you!

[keenir]

Is the restaurant Little Caesars closed today out of respect for its mascot?

I hadn't heard it was closed (but also wasn't keeping my ear to the ground, so not surprised i hadn't heard)...but it makes sense.

[foxcatdog]

So recently i watched a Youtube short about how people would be more willing to try plant based items if they were marketed as environmentally friendly instead of as plant based. The thing here is i would consider it false advertisement if i would buy say an "environmentally sustainable ice cream" and only later find out it was plant based rather then the environmental sustainability come from some other factor.

Thoughts?

[Ares Land]

So recently i watched a Youtube short about how people would be more willing to try plant based items if they were marketed as environmentally friendly instead of as plant based. The thing here is i would consider it false advertisement if i would buy say an "environmentally sustainable ice cream" and only later find out it was plant based rather then the environmental sustainability come from some other factor.

Thoughts?

Same, I think. 'Plant based' feels a little annoying too - why not market it as vegetarian or vegan?

[zompist]

'Plant based' feels a little annoying too - why not market it as vegetarian or vegan?

Technically petroleum is plant-based...

[Ares Land]

'Plant based' feels a little annoying too - why not market it as vegetarian or vegan?

Technically petroleum is plant-based...

A friend of mine used to object to the 'biologique' label ('organic', that is). 'Of course it's biologique. What else can it be? Nuclear?'

[bradrn]

'Plant based' feels a little annoying too - why not market it as vegetarian or vegan?

Technically petroleum is plant-based...

A friend of mine used to object to the 'biologique' label ('organic', that is). 'Of course it's biologique. What else can it be? Nuclear?'

Relatedly, I find Goldberg et al. (2014) an invaluable reference guide.

[xxx]

coal comes from forests and is therefore more plant-based than oil,
which comes from marine plankton and is therefore also zoological...
but plants and animals are just one continuum... including sensitive ones...

[Torco]

Technically petroleum is plant-based...

A friend of mine used to object to the 'biologique' label ('organic', that is). 'Of course it's biologique. What else can it be? Nuclear?'

Relatedly, I find Goldberg et al. (2014) an invaluable reference guide.

I expected "using capture of alpha radiation and the latest nucleosynthesis techniques, we manufactured a molecule of starch" or something. I've been watching too much scifi

[Raphael]

Does anyone here know anyone affected by that bridge collapse?

[Glenn]

Does anyone here know anyone affected by that bridge collapse?

(I assume that you are talking about the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.)

I live about an hour and half drive away, and my wife and I have driven across the bridge in question in the past, but I do not know anyone who has been directly affected.

The number of casualties is still unknown, as the search and rescue teams are still looking for bodies in the river, but there were certainly fatalities. The one saving grace is that the collision happened in the middle of the night, when there were only a small number of drivers and construction workers on the bridge, rather than during the daytime commute, when there would have been hundreds or even thousands of people there.

(For those who do not know: a container ship apparently lost power and collided with one of the bridge pillars, causing the central portion of the bridge to collapse.)

[keenir]

Does anyone here know anyone affected by that bridge collapse?

I used to know people around there, yes, but its been a few decades since I lived in the area, and I fell out of touch with everyone thereabouts, sadly.

I have a relative who, after 9/11 happened, said that, had the terrorists been thinking tactically, they would have hit the Key Bridge and one other bridge that was a vital artery for cars into DC, rather than the Twin Towers.

[Glenn]

Update: The container ship was apparently able to send out a mayday a few minutes before hitting the bridge, which allowed the transportation authorities to block new traffic from entering the bridge prior to the impact (I presume by bringing automated barriers down in the incoming lanes). The only people confirmed to be on the bridge section that collapsed were eight members of a construction crew that were repairing potholes on the bridge. Two of them were rescued, one with serious injuries; the other six are missing and presumed dead. (One report claimed that the body of one of the latter has been recovered, but I have not seen confirmation of that elsewhere.) The crew of the ship are all accounted for and safe onboard.

Overall, it is a tragedy and a disaster that will require a massive rebuilding effort, but it could have been much worse.

[linguistcat]

TIL that an exclamation point in front of conditions on a sound change means it occurs unless the condition is present. Despite being midway through my thirties and part of the conlanging community for about twenty years. At least it's nice to know I still have things to learn even in the basics of things I enjoy.

[Ares Land]

TIL that an exclamation point in front of conditions on a sound change means it occurs unless the condition is present. Despite being midway through my thirties and part of the conlanging community for about twenty years. At least it's nice to know I still have things to learn even in the basics of things I enjoy.

I didn't know that either!

We'll see how much you love the current system when you inevitably* have to work under a bad boss.

so, because bad employers exist, the entire system needs to be abolished? okay, then name a system that humans haven't abused or gamed to take advantage of on some level. i don't think such a thing exists or ever existed.

Moving this to the Random thread (though I suppose we could revive the Capitalism thread if necessary).

rotting bones I'm very curious as to how you'll react when you actually end up working for a good boss?

I've been a sort-of-civil-servant for a long while (so in about as socialist a situation as you could wish for!); before and after that I worked in the private sector. I've had good and bad bosses in both situations.
Poor management happens but it's really not inevitable. I've been working for close to twenty years now, and I've been in a couple of pretty bad situations but to be honest I've found management to be generally pretty OK.

Horrible situation can and do happen. I think blaming these on the market doesn't necessarily work. The problem is, as I said before, the market can blamed for just about any situation.
So we can either hope for the Revolution, and wait until the market goes away -- and that is never going to happen.
Or we can look at how, precisely, bosses can be bad and work on that right away.

(The second approach works. I'm a lot happier at work than my coal-miner ancestors were so there has been some progress.)

[rotting bones]

I've been a sort-of-civil-servant for a long while (so in about as socialist a situation as you could wish for!); before and after that I worked in the private sector. I've had good and bad bosses in both situations.
Poor management happens but it's really not inevitable. I've been working for close to twenty years now, and I've been in a couple of pretty bad situations but to be honest I've found management to be generally pretty OK.

In my experience, there are no good bosses in the Third World. Under the global market, the choices are: 1. be exploited, or 2. starve.

[alice]

TIL that an exclamation point in front of conditions on a sound change means it occurs unless the condition is present. Despite being midway through my thirties and part of the conlanging community for about twenty years. At least it's nice to know I still have things to learn even in the basics of things I enjoy.

The influence of the C programming language shows up in many unexpected places!