Random Thoughts Part 5: Time to Split Again

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The discussion revolves around various topics, including a dream about a person named Borek, reflections on the book "The Martian," and the complexities of educational systems in the US and UK. Participants share insights on the long and short scales of numbers, particularly regarding the term "billion," and discuss the differences in high school and college education between the two countries. The conversation also touches on personal anecdotes, such as perfecting a Kung Pao sauce recipe and experiences with local disturbances. Overall, the thread showcases a blend of light-hearted personal stories and deeper discussions on education and cultural differences.
  • #31
I've been to an Asia shop yesterday. I now know how peanut sauce for satay is made. There are occasions you do not want to know details.
 
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  • #32
Enigman said:
Stretching may lead to a pain in the ass.
Serious, I never feel pain there after stretching, except my back and groins when I try to widespread my legs into 2 opposite directions then lower my body until it reaches the floor.
 
  • #33
zoobyshoe said:
I would think that 'losing the appetite for' automatically means 'experiencing no temptation for'.
No, I mean _up until now_, I craved , but , _recently_ I do not crave any more. Just to say that Idid not eat much of it _despite_ craving it. I will try to write a program next time, with all details included to avoid ambiguity. Strictly speaking I should have said that I had largely avoided despite the temptation to give in _u8ntil recently_.
 
  • #34
WWGD said:
A nice change: for a few weeks now, I have lost much of my appetite for junkish food (which I largely avoid, but have to fight the temptation*). Hope it remains this way.
WWGD said:
No, I mean _up until now_, I craved , but , _recently_ I do not crave any more. Just to say that Idid not eat much of it _despite_ craving it. I will try to write a program next time, with all details included to avoid ambiguity.
The ambiguity comes from the original post employing the present tense where it should have been a past tense: "...I have lost much of my appetite for junkish food (which I largely avoid, but have to fight the temptation*)."

Should have been: "...I have lost much of my appetite for junkish food (which I largely avoided, but had to fight the temptation*)."
 
  • #35
I just saw something pretty cool: a flat bed truck carting an antique helicopter somewhere. As a matter of fact, it might even have been an autogyro. It was very small, and had a 1930's or 1940's style to the design. Might have been going to the aerospace museum in Balboa Park.
 
  • #36
Just saw the 14th Dalai Lama on a CNN clip. He spoke only one word in the scene: 'possible', but I had to laugh. An incredible gift.
 
  • #37
zoobyshoe said:
The ambiguity comes from the original post employing the present tense where it should have been a past tense: "...I have lost much of my appetite for junkish food (which I largely avoid, but have to fight the temptation*)."

Should have been: "...I have lost much of my appetite for junkish food (which I largely avoided, but had to fight the temptation*)."
I assume that some context can be reasonably filled in if you assume the post is not absurd, which you do not seem to assume, on a consistent basis.
 
  • #38
zoobyshoe said:
I just saw something pretty cool: a flat bed truck carting an antique helicopter somewhere. As a matter of fact, it might even have been an autogyro. It was very small, and had a 1930's or 1940's style to the design. Might have been going to the aerospace museum in Balboa Park.

Do you mean the helicopter was somewhere within the truck or that the helicopter was being taken somewhere? I mean, how can the helicopter really b e somewhere within a flat truck. Besides, how can a truck be really flat? Don't you mean flat-style -truck , or at least flat-bed truck, to know that flat modifies bed, and it is then a flat-bed truck, and not a truck that has a bed but is flat? Or maybe you have a flat bed (??) which also happens to be a truck?

EDIT: Common, Zooby, please leave the rigor for the serious forums in PF. Plenty of opportunities to be precise there, let's leave this forum, specially the Random Thoughts part of it, free of demans for rigor, as an outlet.
 
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  • #39
Would you both consider the possibility that spoken or written language is neither context-free nor unambiguous and we are no push-down automatons?
 
  • #40
fresh_42 said:
Would you both consider the possibility that spoken or written language is neither context-free nor unambiguous and we are no push-down automatons?
That is my whole point; "ambiguity" is contextual. Besides, I am not writing an academic paper here, I am not aiming for the highest level of precision. But neither does Zoobyshoe seem to be, as I pointed out in my previous post.
 
  • #41
WWGD said:
That is my whole point; "ambiguity" is contextual. Besides, I am not writing an academic paper here, I am not aiming for the highest level of precision. But neither does Zoobyshoe seem to be, as I pointed out in my previous post.
I know. Very likely I sounded more serious than it was meant to be. I hoped someone jumped on the picture of humans as stack machines ... closing the circle to junk food. :wink:
 
  • #42
I think I'm the only meat-eating person I know of who doesn't care for lamb.
 
  • #43
lisab said:
I think I'm the only meat-eating person I know of who doesn't care for lamb.
You mean you are not a shepard to a flock of lamb? Maybe Zoobyshoe can interpret it better :) .
 
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  • #44
WWGD said:
You mean you are not a shepard to a flock of lamb? Maybe Zoobyshoe can interpret it better :) .
Just keep him away from any livestock...do you have any idea what a hungry Zooby is capable of?!
 
  • #45
lisab said:
Just keep him away from any livestock...do you have any idea what a hungry Zooby is capable of?!

Given his (at least Avatar) size, I can see him picking up a lamb and eating it raw, spitting out the bones. He will make no bones about it, and leave no bone unturned before spitting it out.
 
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  • #46
lisab said:
I think I'm the only meat-eating person I know of who doesn't care for lamb.
Me, too.
 
  • #47
fresh_42 said:
Me, too.
Me two (one for LisaB, one for Fresh, but no for me, so the total , so far, is two), i.e., I like lamb.
 
  • #48
I remember how I would , ridiculously, become annoyed at the fact that the expression ' i.e '., would often appear as i.E , since the writing software would interpret the period after the i in i.e., to denote the end of a sentence and would then go on to capitalize the next letter , ending with i.E . Definitely a first-world complaint.
 
  • #49
WWGD said:
Me two (one for LisaB, one for Fresh, but no for me, so the total , so far, is two), i.e., I like lamb.
But the portions are so tiny. (I owe you a good laughter on the 'i.e.' part!)
 
  • #50
fresh_42 said:
But the portions are so tiny. (I owe you a good laughter on the 'i.e.' part!)
So your issue is more with portion size than with taste?
 
  • #51
WWGD said:
So your issue is more with portion size than with taste?
Taste, too, but I admit it's been a long time since I last tried it. My memory on mutton, however, is not really a nice one. So I stay away from sheep and goats. Except for the cheese. I love beef most, even uncooked.
 
  • #52
zoobyshoe said:
I just saw something pretty cool: a flat bed truck carting an antique helicopter somewhere. As a matter of fact, it might even have been an autogyro. It was very small, and had a 1930's or 1940's style to the design. Might have been going to the aerospace museum in Balboa Park.
There's a small airfield near us with a couple of autogyros operating out of it. They're kind of cool.
 
  • #53
Ibix said:
There's a small airfield near us with a couple of autogyros operating out of it. They're kind of cool.
I would reply to Autogyros re Lisab and Fresh_42's posts: an autogyro as a place where I can prepare my own (Lamb; this is the 'Auto'/self part) gyros (Isn't lamb the usual meat used for gyros?)
 
  • #54
EDIT: Common, Zooby, please leave the rigor for the serious forums in PF. Plenty of opportunities to be precise there, let's leave this forum, specially the Random Thoughts part of it, free of demans for rigor, as an outlet.
So you say, but then within a couple posts:
WWGD said:
I remember how I would , ridiculously, become annoyed at the fact that the expression ' i.e '., would often appear as i.E , since the writing software would interpret the period after the i in i.e., to denote the end of a sentence and would then go on to capitalize the next letter , ending with i.E . Definitely a first-world complaint.
The main reason I pick on you about grammar or linguistic logic is because of your long history of posts here in which you minutely examine and complain about the same sorts of things.
 
  • #55
Ibix said:
There's a small airfield near us with a couple of autogyros operating out of it. They're kind of cool.
I've never actually seen one fly. Anyway, this thing went by too fast for me to make out which it was, but it was interestingly old.
 
  • #56
WWGD said:
And there is , IMO, a reasonable time and place for being precise in the areas of grammar and linguistic logic, and a whimsical thread like this one is not one of them. May I respond , reciprocate when I see a complaint on your part, or are you a sort of unique enforcer?
I am, actually, a sort of unique enforcer because I am specifically trying to help you write better jokes.
 
  • #57
I finished, "Wolves Eat Dogs." On pages 88 and 89, Arkady Renko discovers the terrifying significance of the strange clue left in the victim's apartment (which is not actually a Dos Equis bottle, but I don't want to spoil anything). On page 90 we suddenly find him in a completely different place, where he remains for the rest of the book, ostensibly investigating a whole different murder. The descriptions of life in this second place are extremely interesting, such that I have a strong desire to find out how much of it is fact-based. It also drove me to read a long historical article on Wiki.
 
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  • #58
WWGD said:
I would reply to Autogyros re Lisab and Fresh_42's posts: an autogyro as a place where I can prepare my own (Lamb; this is the 'Auto'/self part) gyros (Isn't lamb the usual meat used for gyros?)
Yes, and gyros means it's sticked on a turning pick. I had immediately to think about food as I read 'autogyros'. There's a Turkey (not the bird) around the corner who serves the Turkish version of it. And I'm getting hungry. Or shall I walk to the Asian diner which is also not far. Or shall I get to the next Drive-In at McDonald's? That comes from debating junk food ...

By the way: we call those tiny flying somethings gyrocopter. The emphasis on copter doesn't make you all of a sudden hungry.
 
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  • #59
fresh_42 said:
By the way: we call those tiny flying somethings gyrocopter. The emphasis on copter doesn't make you all of a sudden hungry.

I guess then that the name : delicious slices of meat with the right spices -copter is out of the question?
 
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  • #60
My Wiki and general searches are somehow getting results with/in Hebrew letters and Jewish themes all of the sudden. Go figure.
 

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