TheVat

Yes. Look like for drill press chucks. What I've always wondered is if there is actually a masonry bit that will handle repeated use on early 20th century concrete. They clearly used a different formula, that stuff is like neutronium trying to get a hole in it (say, anchoring a new wall to an old foundation). I've thrown away several ruined bits, dealing with that stuff. And I'm talking carbide. I think some of that old concrete requires diamond bits. So, serious $$$.

I did and it was pretty funny. I nearly split my pantaloons. ;) Nice, and now I know Prokofiev wrote klezmer - wouldn't have suspected. Now I'm wondering what American bluegrass and traditional music would have sounded like if all those fiddles had been violas...hmm, maybe such questions shouldn't be asked.

That is brilliant. Content downsizing is also horrific. You think the brand has kept their price steady, while they sneakily keep reducing the net weight an ounce at a time. Chip (crisp) mfrs are the worst. (a possible joke in this post is someone trying to decide what mfrs stands for...)

From what I understand, it is wombats who are more Platonic in their outputs. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-wombats-make-cube-shaped-poos-180970847/ The Australian marsupial pushes out little piles of cube-shaped poos, and naturalists and biologists have wondered for years how the round sinuous plumbing found in most animals could produce an end product that looks like it came from a brick factory.

Me too. I think the self-loathing relates more to the feeling that it got less repertoire from composers and less glamorous parts. I'm told it was sometimes also seen as a consolation prize for musicians who couldn't gain mastery of the violin. It is a lovely sound, and I imagine a lot of the oniony jokes are mostly in jest, and maybe self-deprecation. The writer is advancing the opinion that overuse of a slang or diminutive form of a word can debase proper usage. We all pushed back and pointed out how the word cello had long ago become accepted, and the usage should be seen as a normal part of the evolution of language. The same with pianoforte becoming piano a couple centuries ago.

I don't know what Canada would do, and I'm starting to wonder about their umpires. Really weird definition of a ground rule double, last night. It did favor the visiting American team, which was certainly polite.

Yup. Akin to the use of pf for piano, even though it hasn't been called a pianoforte for centuries. The innovation was that, unlike the predecessor keyboard instruments, it had dynamic range, hence pf meaning "softloud." So, yes, we're now calling it a "soft" even when someone's banging away in a honkytonk. I have a full-sized Ivers and Pond upright which weighs over 500 pounds and can make the house shake when a heavy bassline is played. When just goofing off on the keys, it becomes a pianofarte. Old viola joke (usually told by violists themselves): What's the difference between a viola and an onion? No one cries when they chop up a viola.

In the words of Mance Rayder, I do not bend the knee. The elbow, now that a different matter...;)

I could, on the same solipsistic basis, say all existence began in the mid-1950s. Both our claims have equal empirical support, i.e. worthless. I feel like you brought this up before, either here or at another website, under another nom de plume. And you didn't answer to problems of logic or evidence there, either. Like, for starters, why must there necessarily be a first cause, or logos? Philosophers have been pointing out its logic problems for millennia. Quantum physics has rendered it an antique concept.

Agree, and I mos def was referring to O&G in the States. And I know the shift to NG as a bridge has been a major carbon stepdown. My major complaint, as always, is with governments...and their unwillingness to sign and honor international protocols - the treaties which should be getting all global industry on the same page. But that's a bit OT, so will leave that for now.

I had that same problem! I've wondered if the republic would fragment several ways, with a west coast which joins up with BC, and a Northeast with Quebec and Toronto, wherever that is. If BC is taking hipster refugees, please know that I am hip, Daddio, not like these squares down here in Dullsville. I love hanging with all the cool hepcats, if you can dig it, man.

Ok. Will check that out. Though wasn't there this same patter about the need for interim projects while moving towards wind/solar...25 years ago? Seems like we've all had a generation to get off fossil fuel and that steady adaptation hasn't happened because the big energy companies really didn't embrace renewables - it's drilling and pumping that keeps shareholders comfy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Piddle I note that the stream which passes near the village of Shitterton flows into the River Piddle. Anyway, original Marxism doesn't seem much like a religion, even if its Leninist or Maoist offshoots did take on some quasi-religious features. Really seems more a philosophy of class struggle and societal modes of production.

Carbon capture and burial still smells scammy to me. Expensive, and that money is better spent on green energy installations. Pellets are a scam, causing deforestation up and down the Eastern US. "Strip miner" operations are jumping on the pellet bandwagon and using various loopholes to dodge replanting that would match the harvesting.

Well it's certainly been useless in physics! 🤨

So math wouldn't be useful in, say, physics then? Mapping, description, measurements, those sorts of endeavors where math tools are used? No?

I would imagine that, to British eyes, shitton would look more like the name of a town..."It's an hour by train from Reading to Shitton." 😄

I think calculus resolved Zeno. IIRC the concept of limits and infinite series in calculus provides a way to resolve such paradoxes by showing that an infinite number of steps can be completed in a finite amount of time.

Slang, mainly American, usually written as "shit ton," meaning "very large amount." In the US, those of slightly more dainty speech will say "crap ton" instead.

Reading about Melissa's destructive force in Jamaica, I was wondering what projections and planning are being done on what storms of her intensity would do, if they started showing up on a regular basis in the US. The Post this morning describes the mechanism: It sounds like the landfall winds could have been over 190 mph. So I went to NWS site (still up and running) and it describes such winds... Hurricane winds - 130 to 160 mph gusts 170+ mph: Devastating damage is expected. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer. * At least one half of well constructed homes will have roof and wall failure. All gabled roofs will fail, leaving those homes severely damaged or destroyed. * The majority of industrial buildings will become non functional. * Concrete block low rise apartments will sustain major damage, including some wall and roof failure. * High rise office and apartment buildings will sway dangerously, a few to the point of total collapse. All windows will blow out. Airborne debris will be widespread and may include heavy items such as household appliances and even light vehicles. * The blown debris will create additional destruction. People, pets and livestock exposed to the winds will face certain death if struck. * Power outages will last for weeks as most power poles will be down and transformers destroyed. * Water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards. * The vast majority of native trees will be snapped or uprooted. So...how do you think, say, Miami could prepare for this? Is it even worth it, or should cities be moved inland?

Definitely a weapon in the wrong hands.

Hasn't been seen here. Not since the apocalyptrophe.

I'm sorry...did you say freeze dryer? Not that I expect anything to make sense anymore but how does that associate with a threat?

Dude. My wife was a symphonic musician. I had cello lessons when I was a child, for a year, from a professional cellist. I've socialized with classical musicians for fifty years. It's called a cello. No one's called it a violoncello since before the Civil War. If your mother tongue is not English and it's violoncello in that language, fine. But it's cello in English.

Nobel laureates tend to be smart. The current executive branch of the US government is really scared of smart people. And given its Grand Turnip's affinity for white supremacy, it is deathly afraid of smart black people. The Grand Turnip, early on, set about finding the smart senior officials in the Dept. of Defense who had very swarthy complexions and firing most of them.