What is the newest installment of 'Random Thoughts' on Physics Forums?

[WWGD]

Kind of strange that some stores have rolled back holiday schedules by closing only like 30 minutes earlier. I can understand rolling back by one hour or more, but I don't see the sense of doing it only for 30 min.

 

[Ibix]

Interesting fact - a roast dinner can be cooked with a watch and a spreadsheet. And an oven and stuff, obviously. But if you write a list of what needs to be cooked, how long it should take (Google is your friend), specify a target time, muck around with formulae a bit, and sort, you have a to-do list with time stamps. The rest turns out to be pretty much purely mechanical.

One of my greatest culinary triumphs - and I owe it all to my mad spreadsheet skillz...

 

[Ibix]

Mentors are fast, even at Christmas. I reported an obvious status spam, replied to the status with a bit of snark, edited it a bit to express the depth of my disgust for spammers (I'm an armchair warrior when drunk, sue me) but the spam had gone while I was editing. Nicely done, whoever it was...

 

[WWGD]

Interesting fact - a roast dinner can be cooked with a watch and a spreadsheet. And an oven and stuff, obviously. But if you write a list of what needs to be cooked, how long it should take (Google is your friend), specify a target time, muck around with formulae a bit, and sort, you have a to-do list with time stamps. The rest turns out to be pretty much purely mechanical.

One of my greatest culinary triumphs - and I owe it all to my mad spreadsheet skillz...

EDIT: Microwaving is faster :) (For those like myself unable to cook far beyond eggs). Some of these microwave dinners are tasty-enough that I don't see any use in
my trying to cook better; I will never reach a similar level of skill.

 

[Rive]

(I'm an armchair warrior when drunk, sue me)...

That makes two of us.
I have a random thought that somebody has to be (will be) (slightly) drunk if still online at Christmas night.
Maybe I'm wrong. But I'm also (slightly) drunk and listening to some (not so interesting) music without volume limit at 23pm.

 

[Ibix]

Merry Christmas, all.

 

[OCR]

Oh my! . I forgot to give everyone a happy holidays wish. . . . So. . . Merry Everything ! ☺

.

 

[WWGD]

Interesting phrasing:" I like dogs, specially hot ones"(Overheard);. I guess some languages/people have a different take on things.

 

[WWGD]

I have always been curious about those who refer to themselves inthe third person, e.g. 'Bob' talking about himself as " Bob has a masters in literature and likes to swim". Strange.

 

[fresh_42]

I have always been curious about those who refer to themselves inthe third person, e.g. 'Bob' talking about himself as " Bob has a masters in literature and likes to swim". Strange.

I have observed that interviews e.g. with sportsmen changed in the last decades. People don't use me and I anymore. They use either we and us or mainly one as pronouns. One is much more common in German than it is in English. I assume it corresponds to the third person version you refer to. "Why did you lose the race?" - "One wasn't able to find the right fine tuning." As if some unknowns did a bad job. Heck, you were just too slow! You haven't found the fine tuning, not the crew. "One will see." Who is that one? I won't, if you continue to shift responsibilities!

 

[WWGD]

I have observed that interviews e.g. with sportsmen changed in the last decades. People don't use me and I anymore. They use either we and us or mainly one as pronouns. One is much more common in German than it is in English. I assume it corresponds to the third person version you refer to. "Why did you lose the race?" - "One wasn't able to find the right fine tuning." As if some unknowns did a bad job. Heck, you were just too slow! You haven't found the fine tuning, not the crew. "One will see." Who is that one? I won't, if you continue to shift responsibilities!

Likely the case. Wwgd agrees with you ;).

 

[WWGD]

Fresheimer, not sure if I understood, you mean it is also common in Germany?

 

[fresh_42]

Fresheimer, not sure if I understood, you mean it is also common in Germany?

The pronoun "man" is more common than the pronoun "one" is in English. It is approximately the same, i.e. used similar, however, it's a bit different. "One" sounds closer to "someone" whereas "man" is closer to "human", i.e. "anyone". A typical sentence would be: "Man kann nicht sicher sein." (= One cannot be sure.)

It is neither wrong nor a bad style to use it in cases where the third person singular isn't specified. In English I would probably use "you" more often in such cases: "You cannot be sure." does not really specify you as a person, rather "you=one" as any person. In this sense "man" is more common.

But to use it as a synonym for "I" is ridiculous and bad style. And it's frequently used in interviews if people speak about themselves. They refer to themselves as "man". I hate it. And the only reason I see is, that they create distance between them as a person and that what they did or did not. "Man hatte kein Halt auf dem Feld." (= One hasn't grip on the pitch.) ***, you idiot had the wrong shoes, that's all. Don't blame the weather and do not speak of a third person "man", if you want to cover your own stupidity.

"Man sieht sich!" (= See you!) is another example. It could mean anything, from "I hope to see you again" to "I hope to cross the street in time next time I see you coming". It's non-binding. Stick it where ...

 

[WWGD]

The pronoun "man" is more common than the pronoun "one" is in English. It is approximately the same, i.e. used similar, however, it's a bit different. "One" sounds closer to "someone" whereas "man" is closer to "human", i.e. "anyone". A typical sentence would be: "Man kann nicht sicher sein." (= One cannot be sure.)

It is neither wrong nor a bad style to use it in cases where the third person singular isn't specified. In English I would probably use "you" more often in such cases: "You cannot be sure." does not really specify you as a person, rather "you=one" as any person. In this sense "man" is more common.

But to use it as a synonym for "I" is ridiculous and bad style. And it's frequently used in interviews if people speak about themselves. They refer to themselves as "man". I hate it. And the only reason I see is, that they create distance between them as a person and that what they did or did not. "Man hatte kein Halt auf dem Feld." (= One hasn't grip on the pitch.) ***, you idiot had the wrong shoes, that's all. Don't blame the weather and do not speak of a third person "man", if you want to cover your own stupidity.

"Man sieht sich!" (= See you!) is another example. It could mean anything, from "I hope to see you again" to "I hope to cross the street in time next time I see you coming". It's non-binding. Stick it where ...

I always thought the whole "See you" , specially See You next time"? What next time. You mean see you... next time I see you? Maybe we should seek for universal acceptance of variants of "Hasta la Vista" ~ "Auf Wiedersen".

 

[Bystander]

synonym for "I" is ridiculous and bad style.

..., as is "Myself and my friends, ..." An affectation of literacy.

 

[RPinPA]

I have observed that interviews e.g. with sportsmen changed in the last decades. People don't use me and I anymore. They use either we and us or mainly one as pronouns. One is much more common in German than it is in English. I assume it corresponds to the third person version you refer to. "Why did you lose the race?" - "One wasn't able to find the right fine tuning." As if some unknowns did a bad job. Heck, you were just too slow! You haven't found the fine tuning, not the crew. "One will see." Who is that one? I won't, if you continue to shift responsibilities!

I gather you're talking about German speakers, but this sounds a lot like how the French use "on" which is literally translated as "one" but is used in many situations where in English we would use "you" or "we".

 

[fresh_42]

I always thought the whole "See you" , specially See You next time"? What next time. You mean see you... next time I see you? Maybe we should seek for universal acceptance of variants of "Hasta la Vista" ~ "Auf Wiedersen".

The pronoun "man" makes the difference. Both just mean cu. But with "man" it becomes a sentence, however, one without a specific subject. Not the best of my examples. The other one was better:
Man kann nicht sicher sein = (lit.) One cannot be sure = (vulg.) You cannot be sure.
In this case the use of "you" doesn't refer to a specific person as "man" doesn't. But who actually uses "one"?

 

[fresh_42]

I gather you're talking about German speakers, but this sounds a lot like how the French use "on" which is literally translated as "one" but is used in many situations where in English we would use "you" or "we".

Yes. And to use "on" instead of "je" is ridiculous.

 

[Evo]

I'm shucking pecans for my world famous fruit cake, which I guess should really be called Pecan cake. EVERYONE loves it. It's not my recipe, it's Mrs Harvey's White Fruitcake, my VP at AT&T told me she hated fruitcake, but mine didn't look bad, so she tried a piece, so she came over to tell me this was the ONLY Fruitcake she EVER liked. You can replace all or some of the cherries and pineapple with dried cranberries, apricots, dates, apples, etc... I am experimenting.

https://www.cooks.com/recipe/h02ng8bj/mrs-harveys-white-fruitcake.html

I have shucked pecans since I was a small child, it was something you did in the south in the fall and it was a source of enjoyment. Having my own set of nut crackers and nut picks when I got married was one of my greatest joys.

Now I think I may have been nuts as I sit here cracking and sorting and cracking and sorting.

 

[WWGD]

Yes. And to use "on" instead of "je" is ridiculous.

If those upset you, I agree. Another one I saw today , a classic I think, almost got someone a punch:

Anxious person:" I lost my phone!?"
Idiot: "Where did you lose it?"

With insults from anxious person: If I knew where it was it would not be !#%@ lost!

 

[epenguin]

I gather you're talking about German speakers, but this sounds a lot like how the French use "on" which is literally translated as "one" but is used in many situations where in English we would use "you" or "we".

Just what I had been going to say. School French lessons (they go all through of course the first second and third person singular and plural verbs) had not prepared me for the relative rareness in speech of the first person plural - it seems to me you will rather rarely hear "nous pensions que..." or "nous avons l'habitude" but rather "nous, on pense que..." or "nous, on a l'habitude"

 

[WWGD]

I have been having this slip of saying "The World will end inna few days", instead of "The year will end in a few days". I noticed after getting a few strange looks, though many just assented and went on.

 

[Klystron]

This true anecdote is for @WWGD:

While driving on the local loop freeway that circles our fair valley, Google navigation informed me of a disabled vehicle up ahead. How, I wondered, did Google know the driver was disabled?

 

[epenguin]

I have been having this slip of saying "The World will end inna few days", instead of "The year will end in a few days". I noticed after getting a few strange looks, though many just assented and went on.

Maybe they thought they had better economise their time.

 

[WWGD]

This true anecdote is for @WWGD:

While driving on the local loop freeway that circles our fair valley, Google navigation informed me of a disabled vehicle up ahead. How, I wondered, did Google know the driver was disabled?

I heard that if they realize they're wrong about the passenger being disabled they send a crew to beat the #$% out of him, to have plausible deniability: He seemed disabled. We did what we could. Edit: But good point, kind of scary that Google knew.

 

[WWGD]

Hope we'll have intelligent clothes soon so we can dress up for days that go from 54 to 41 in a some 6-7 hours. Or heat and rain, etc.

 

[BillTre]

Hope we'll have intelligent clothes soon so we can dress up for days that go from 54 to 41 in a some 6-7 hours. Or heat and rain, etc.

Sounds like dressing in layers.

 

[WWGD]

Sounds like dressing in layers.

Yes, but sometimes the number of layers changes kind of drastically when the day goes from , e.g., 54 to 30 or the other way around. What do I do with all those layers when I don't need them?

 

[BillTre]

Yes, but sometimes the number of layers changes kind of drastically when the day goes from , e.g., 54 to 30 or the other way around. What do I do with all those layers when I don't need them?

Backpack.

 

[WWGD]

Backpack.

Could be, but I already carry one and it's full to the hilt.