Random Thoughts

[kenarmy]

Sooo.. I travelled to Baltimore and the amount of "Lee Highway" and "US 11" exits esp. from I-81 were depressing. And I also ended up on US 1 & 40 without knowing until I paid very close attention.

[kurumi]

Why is red cabbage purple?

Anthocyanins--the same things that give red onions their purplish color.  (Why the term red is applied to vegetables with this pigmentation is an interesting etymological question; however, the Wikipedia article on red onions notes that an Italian variety, cipolla rossa di Tropea--"red onion of Tropea"--has a protected designation of origin.)

I call this the dumbing down of color; we have a whole color wheel yet society uses about 6-8 colors to describe everything.

"Red hair" is mostly orange, for example.

I can't find a good cite, but I believe orange was viewed as a type of red when the term was coined. Historically (and even now) different languages have different sets of "primary colors" than the should-be-obvious 6 colors plus brown, gray, pink, white, black we have in English.

In Japanese, 青 is mainly blue but still blue/green in many ways, even to the point of a green traffic light being 青. Russian has different words for light blue and dark blue. In Homer's "Wine-dark Sea", was the sea really like a glass of pinot noir? Or did the sea-color and wine-color just map to the same color slot back in the day?

[J N Winkler]

In Homer's "Wine-dark Sea", was the sea really like a glass of pinot noir? Or did the sea-color and wine-color just map to the same color slot back in the day?

A recent piece in the New Yorker suggests it is a metaphor for the sea having the same dark depths as a glass of red wine.

[kirbykart]

Sooo.. I travelled to Baltimore and the amount of "US 11" exits esp. from I-81 were depressing.

That is very prevalent in New York. I looked in Google Maps and found no less than 20 different exits that either lead directly onto US 11, or exit out very, very close to it on an intersecting road. I intentionally under-estimated my count in case any tried to give me a real issue about it. But yeah, that's a lot.

[Scott5114]

A dedicated politics thread that's 1v1 Crash_It (D) vs. HighwayStar (R). (Neither user is banned right now.) Other people can't join the debate, since it's 1v1; they can post, but only in a way that a moderator would in a live debate.

Would this mean I'd have to open up my archive of Grand Alan photos so that everyone can post in the way I would in a live debate?

[Max Rockatansky]

A dedicated politics thread that's 1v1 Crash_It (D) vs. HighwayStar (R). (Neither user is banned right now.) Other people can't join the debate, since it's 1v1; they can post, but only in a way that a moderator would in a live debate.

Would this mean I'd have to open up my archive of Grand Alan photos so that everyone can post in the way I would in a live debate?

Yes, in fact there is be a Quindaropedia equivalent for the lore of Illinois is flat (Flatpedia?).

[zachary_amaryllis]

"Red hair" is mostly orange, for example.

And the color of dogs' fur will be listed as "red" on their paperwork, when really it's brown.

Or "blue"  for dark grey.

Or "warm" for 96 degrees. Oklahoma and Arizona excepted.

[Scott5114]

After this week, 96 would feel downright nice. (Even up in Kansas City, where I've spent the last week, it's still been hotter than that.)

[zachary_amaryllis]

After this week, 96 would feel downright nice. (Even up in Kansas City, where I've spent the last week, it's still been hotter than that.)

Hot af here in colorado, too. Normally, when I'm working I can shut my a/c off shortly after sunset. Last night, I went to go home, and was just going to run the vent. No dice. Give me freon, or give me death.

[hotdogPi]

Warning: this is fictional.

Chick-fil-A has seen a sudden 8% increase in customers from people who have previously boycotted the restaurant due to their anti-LGBT beliefs. Why? A user on Instagram posted a viral video about how to abuse Chick-fil-A's rewards program and coupons in a way that they actually lose money from a given customer's service. Some doctors, however, are discouraging going all in on Chick-fil-A for health reasons, as it's still fast food.

[Scott5114]

Whenever I feel compelled to eat at Chick-Fil-A, I always take an excessive number of mayonnaise packets to try to sort of cancel it out.

[CtrlAltDel]

Why is red cabbage purple?

Anthocyanins--the same things that give red onions their purplish color.  (Why the term red is applied to vegetables with this pigmentation is an interesting etymological question; however, the Wikipedia article on red onions notes that an Italian variety, cipolla rossa di Tropea--"red onion of Tropea"--has a protected designation of origin.)

I call this the dumbing down of color; we have a whole color wheel yet society uses about 6-8 colors to describe everything.

"Red hair" is mostly orange, for example.

I can't find a good cite, but I believe orange was viewed as a type of red when the term was coined. Historically (and even now) different languages have different sets of "primary colors" than the should-be-obvious 6 colors plus brown, gray, pink, white, black we have in English.

In Japanese, 青 is mainly blue but still blue/green in many ways, even to the point of a green traffic light being 青. Russian has different words for light blue and dark blue. In Homer's "Wine-dark Sea", was the sea really like a glass of pinot noir? Or did the sea-color and wine-color just map to the same color slot back in the day?

You can tell that orange is a latecomer too the English color-word repertoire by its very name, which originally, of course, referred to the fruit. So, there's something of a gap there that just got filled later, without previously existing words changing. Also, and this is more of a personal observation on my part, the "distance" between red, orange, and yellow on a RGB color chart is pretty small, smaller than between cyan and blue, which in everyday language are both hues of the sane color, so it makes sense to me why orange as a color is fairly new.

[formulanone]

Sooo.. I travelled to Baltimore and the amount of "Lee Highway" and "US 11" exits esp. from I-81 were depressing.

At some point, I-81 and US 11 should really get a room.

[kirbykart]

I just realized that in the logo of the Disney Channel show "Big City Greens", Big City is written in all-caps Clearview.

[Scott5114]

I just realized that in the logo of the Disney Channel show "Big City Greens", Big City is written in all-caps Clearview.

That's not Clearview. It's some other typeface in the humanist sans-serif family (they all look similar enough that I can't tell what it is precisely from only seven characters).

[kirbykart]

I just realized that in the logo of the Disney Channel show "Big City Greens", Big City is written in all-caps Clearview.

That's not Clearview. It's some other typeface in the humanist sans-serif family (they all look similar enough that I can't tell what it is precisely from only seven characters).

It does look very similar to Clearview...but I guess it's not. Thanks for helping me out!

[LilianaUwU]

Sooo.. I travelled to Baltimore and the amount of "Lee Highway" and "US 11" exits esp. from I-81 were depressing.

At some point, I-81 and US 11 should really get a room.

Speaking of roads getting a room, there's a lot of exits for NB 130 on TCH 2 near Edmunston, New Brunswick, which is understandable since 130 is old 2.

[ZLoth]

The phrase "Please listen carefully as our options have recently changed". Uh, riiiggghhhttt.... I've been calling the same number on a regular basis, and the options have not changed in the past six years. What is your definition of "recent"? What is wrong with stating "Our options changed on May 3rd, please listen closely"? The same thing with stating "some of your favorite menu items may have a new number".

[kurumi]

The phrase "Please listen carefully as our options have recently changed"

It just leaves us cynical, and it seems like this:

Lies:
* our menu items have recently changed
* your call is very important to us

Truth:
* to hell with you for calling us, especially to hell with you for trying to get through to a live person, and we'd prefer you just give up and hang up

[ethanhopkin14]

The phrase "Please listen carefully as our options have recently changed". Uh, riiiggghhhttt.... I've been calling the same number on a regular basis, and the options have not changed in the past six years. What is your definition of "recent"? What is wrong with stating "Our options changed on May 3rd, please listen closely"? The same thing with stating "some of your favorite menu items may have a new number".

Yes, it happens with every automated calling service.  I think it's their way to make everyone use the automated version, because "if we tell them to listen closely, they will hear their option because in the old days they 'didn't listen closely and got frustrated and just went looking for an operator.'"

[hotdogPi]

I've had the exact opposite happen with one business (a country club with a restaurant open to the public) – the numbers were switched around, but the options in the menu hadn't updated, so I called the wrong extension first. Fortunately, the person there told me which extension to call.

[kkt]

The phrase "Please listen carefully as our options have recently changed". Uh, riiiggghhhttt.... I've been calling the same number on a regular basis, and the options have not changed in the past six years. What is your definition of "recent"? What is wrong with stating "Our options changed on May 3rd, please listen closely"? The same thing with stating "some of your favorite menu items may have a new number".

Yes, it happens with every automated calling service.  I think it's their way to make everyone use the automated version, because "if we tell them to listen closely, they will hear their option because in the old days they 'didn't listen closely and got frustrated and just went looking for an operator.'"

How dare they not care about how we distribute our tasks to our grunts!

[hotdogPi]

I've been on this forum since 2013, and I've figured out lots of things that you wouldn't expect (how to get the system to think your post is under 25000 characters or your signature is under 300 when including heavy markup, determining who is banned and who isn't, etc.), but I didn't realize until two weeks ago that posts are rate-limited; you can't post twice within 15 seconds. Almost 9 years without knowing.

(I had two windows open and tried to hit post on both just a few seconds apart. I didn't spend less than 15 seconds typing a post.)

[webny99]

I think I figured out several years ago (within a year or two of joining) that you can't make two posts in under 15 seconds. Can't remember how it came up, probably a similar situation with two posts open in separate windows.

[Max Rockatansky]

I've gotten the 15 message a bunch of times on my phone when I'm not sure if a message has posted.  Basically I backtrack to the previous page, go forward and hit post.