Minor things that bother you

[1995hoo]

The OTUS acronym. I hate it.

POTUS, SCOTUS, FLOTUS, etc. I even read it last week in relation to waters of the United States. WOTUS.

I don't like them either, they just sound weird. It's unnecessary in most contexts anyway to specify that you're talking about the United States president, or United States Supreme Court, etc.

Totally agreed, it's unnecessary and sounds weirdly condescending at the same time.

....

For some reason, a lot of people in government and the legal profession have some hangup where they insist on using the "of the" form for possessives wherever possible. For example, they'll say "the order of the court dated April 4, 2023," instead of "the court's order dated April 4, 2023." (It's not totally trivial–if you're subject to a word-count limit, the "of the" form wastes words.) "The argument of the plaintiff that this court should reverse" is just plain awkward compared to "The plaintiff's argument that this court should reverse."

With all that said, "Supreme Court of the United States" is that entity's formal name. I'm not sure why, in today's Internet age, people feel the need to include every word in abbreviations–traditionally, you eliminated prepositions and articles–but I will concede that when read as an acronym, "SCOTUS" sounds better than "SCUS," and if instead you said "USSC" to refer to "United States Supreme Court," it wouldn't work as a word.

(Arguably "SCOTUS" sounds a bit like a part of the male anatomy.)

[kphoger]

At least with blood types it's something physical that theoretically could (but almost certainly does not) affect someone's personality.

Just here to point out that constellations are something physical too...

[JayhawkCO]

Sort of. It's really just a "physical thing" because of our angle. The same stars viewed from elsewhere would be nothing.

[hbelkins]

With all that said, "Supreme Court of the United States" is that entity's formal name.

As opposed to New York, where Supreme Court is a trial court. (Kentucky actually has two trial court systems, district court for traffic offenses, misdemeanors, and small claims cases and smaller civil suits, along with probate matters. Circuit court handles felonies, civil suits over a certain amount, divorces, child custody issues, and other matters.)

The OTUS acronym. I hate it.

POTUS, SCOTUS, FLOTUS, etc. I even read it last week in relation to waters of the United States. WOTUS.

how about the SEC acronym. SECDEF, SECSTATE, and just plain SEC?

Securties and Exchange Commission? 

Southeastern Conference.



A totally unrelated thing that bothers me -- LMGTFY or other dismissive comments when someone asks a question somewhere and someone refers them to Google in an offhand or arrogant manner.

Google does NOT have the answer to everything. I know this for a fact. I have been unsuccessfully searching for two years on how to disconnect the 36v hybrid system and run my Saturn Vue Greenline only on the gas engine and 12v system, since there's some sort of issue with the 36v system that keeps the 12v system from charging. I know that it can be done, because someone on one of the Saturn Vue groups on Facebook of which I'm a member has a Vue that this has been done to, but it was done before he bought it and he doesn't know how it was done. But I cannot figure out HOW to do it. Google doesn't have that information.

Google is ubiquitous enough that if someone asks for answers online in a forum, social media post, etc., it's obvious they haven't found the info they're looking for there.

[JayhawkCO]

A totally unrelated thing that bothers me -- LMGTFY or other dismissive comments when someone asks a question somewhere and someone refers them to Google in an offhand or arrogant manner.

Google does NOT have the answer to everything. I know this for a fact. I have been unsuccessfully searching for two years on how to disconnect the 36v hybrid system and run my Saturn Vue Greenline only on the gas engine and 12v system, since there's some sort of issue with the 36v system that keeps the 12v system from charging. I know that it can be done, because someone on one of the Saturn Vue groups on Facebook of which I'm a member has a Vue that this has been done to, but it was done before he bought it and he doesn't know how it was done. But I cannot figure out HOW to do it. Google doesn't have that information.

Google is ubiquitous enough that if someone asks for answers online in a forum, social media post, etc., it's obvious they haven't found the info they're looking for there.

But there are lots of times when you could say something like, "I ate some A5 Wagyu the other day," and someone might respond with "what's that?" when they simply could have Googled it. It's not that Google has every answer, but there are plenty of things that it does answer that a few people don't bother taking the time to look at. That's when people will say LMGTFY. Not when it's something complicated.

[Scott5114]

At least with blood types it's something physical that theoretically could (but almost certainly does not) affect someone's personality.

Just here to point out that constellations are something physical too...

From an astronomy point of view they're about as physical as counties are–they're just regions the sky is divided up into, in this case to make finding things easier. If you look on a star map, "Orion" doesn't refer to just the stars that make the outline of the hunter dude, it refers to a box that contains all of him.

So that basically leads to the question of whether "Rawlins County" is "something physical". Sure, the stuff inside Rawlins County, like Atwood, are physical things. But given that "Rawlins County" is basically just "everything between these surveyed lines" and can be abolished by a few dozen people in Topeka if they agree to do so, maybe it's not so physical as it appears.

Actually, constellations are even less physical than counties are, because at least you can go to Rawlins County and say "I am in Rawlins County." You can't really go to Orion, because none of the stars that make it up are physically close to one another; they differ on the z axis as seen from Earth by thousands of lightyears.

[kphoger]

So that basically leads to the question of whether "Rawlins County" is "something physical". Sure, the stuff inside Rawlins County, like Atwood, are physical things. But given that "Rawlins County" is basically just "everything between these surveyed lines" and can be abolished by a few dozen people in Topeka if they agree to do so, maybe it's not so physical as it appears.

Sure, the stuff inside Atwood are physical things.  But given that "Atwood" is basically just "everything between these city limits" and can be abolished by a few dozen people, maybe it's not so physical as it appears.

But my point is that constellations are made up of physical objects with gravity and everything.  Of course, I'm not at all suggesting astrology is legit.  It isn't.

[JayhawkCO]

So that basically leads to the question of whether "Rawlins County" is "something physical". Sure, the stuff inside Rawlins County, like Atwood, are physical things. But given that "Rawlins County" is basically just "everything between these surveyed lines" and can be abolished by a few dozen people in Topeka if they agree to do so, maybe it's not so physical as it appears.

Sure, the stuff inside Atwood are physical things.  But given that "Atwood" is basically just "everything between these city limits" and can be abolished by a few dozen people, maybe it's not so physical as it appears.

But my point is that constellations are made up of physical objects with gravity and everything.  Of course, I'm not at all suggesting astrology is legit.  It isn't.

So, a county is made up of physical things but isn't itself a physical thing. A constellation is made up of physical things but isn't itself a physical thing.

[ZLoth]

A totally unrelated thing that bothers me -- LMGTFY or other dismissive comments when someone asks a question somewhere and someone refers them to Google in an offhand or arrogant manner.

It only goes downhill from there. In addition to a wanna-be road geek, I'm also a wanna-be weather geek. I have several weather sites all configured for weather on both my and my mother's computer. You can even get the local weather from Alexa. You can click on a icon in the taskbar to see the forecast for the next few days. You can even ask Alexa for the weather forecast. My mother has elected to ask me for the weather forecast, which means I have to stop what I'm doing and LMGTFY.

[formulanone]

So that basically leads to the question of whether "Rawlins County" is "something physical". Sure, the stuff inside Rawlins County, like Atwood, are physical things. But given that "Rawlins County" is basically just "everything between these surveyed lines" and can be abolished by a few dozen people in Topeka if they agree to do so, maybe it's not so physical as it appears.

Sure, the stuff inside Atwood are physical things.  But given that "Atwood" is basically just "everything between these city limits" and can be abolished by a few dozen people, maybe it's not so physical as it appears.

But my point is that constellations are made up of physical objects with gravity and everything.  Of course, I'm not at all suggesting astrology is legit.  It isn't.

So, a county is made up of physical things but isn't itself a physical thing. A constellation is made up of physical things but isn't itself a physical thing.

I think the point that a County is really just a 2-dimensional outline which doesn't really change what it encompasses when viewed from another perspective. Whereas a Constellation would look very different in 3-dimensional space if it was viewed from a different (and distant) perspective, since its "borders" are sort of hanging by a flat outline superimposed on what can be seen from just our planet (although, I suppose little of it changes within our own solar system).

[kphoger]

I think the point that a County is really just a 2-dimensional outline which doesn't really change what it encompasses when viewed from another perspective. Whereas a Constellation would look very different in 3-dimensional space if it was viewed from a different (and distant) perspective, since its "borders" are sort of hanging by a flat outline superimposed on what can be seen from just our planet (although, I suppose little of it changes within our own solar system).

I just looked out the office door.  Sedgwick County looks a lot different from my perspective than it did a year ago, when I was in an airplane looking down.   

[formulanone]

I think the point that a County is really just a 2-dimensional outline which doesn't really change what it encompasses when viewed from another perspective. Whereas a Constellation would look very different in 3-dimensional space if it was viewed from a different (and distant) perspective, since its "borders" are sort of hanging by a flat outline superimposed on what can be seen from just our planet (although, I suppose little of it changes within our own solar system).

I just looked out the office door.  Sedgwick County looks a lot different from my perspective than it did a year ago, when I was in an airplane looking down.   

Ah, but Sedgwick County is still contained with the same borders, whether looking at from your front door, at thirty-two thousand feet, or from a planet on Chi Virginis.

The constellation "Virgo" will look like Virgo from Sedgwick County, but very different from Vega, and likely completely different from Alathfar, which is even in the same constellation as Vega. Of course, the constellation as we know it will be misshapen from Earth in many thousands of years because everything is expanding.

[hbelkins]

One thing about constellations is that they aren't necessarily made up of adjacent stars.

Let's pretend that instead of being one five-sided building, the Pentagon was actually five separate buildings that are in close proximity to one another. That would be vastly different than, say, the Big Dipper where the stars merely appear to be closely situated (relatively speaking) to one another.

[CtrlAltDel]

Here's an interesting image I found about Orion, showing all this:

[JayhawkCO]

Exactly, so I would argue that the constellation, a.k.a. the pattern of stars that represented something to the Ancients is only applicable basically in our direction. There is no "constellation" when viewed from the side like the illustration.

[CtrlAltDel]

Exactly, so I would argue that the constellation, a.k.a. the pattern of stars that represented something to the Ancients is only applicable basically in our direction. There is no "constellation" when viewed from the side like the illustration.

The stars in a constellation have no necessary connection to one another, as seen in the picture. On the other hand, though, a constellation is defined astronomically as a wedge of the sky, so in that regard they are just like counties.

[hotdogPi]

3D "counties", once they exist, would probably be closer to a cubic lattice, not wedges radiating from a single point.

[vdeane]

While I agree that constellations aren't really a real phyical object because they're basically an arrangement of stars as seen from Earth, but playing Devil's Advocate, it's worth noting that when the states and colonies were young, their borders were basically defined as bands of land going all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

I think the point that a County is really just a 2-dimensional outline which doesn't really change what it encompasses when viewed from another perspective. Whereas a Constellation would look very different in 3-dimensional space if it was viewed from a different (and distant) perspective, since its "borders" are sort of hanging by a flat outline superimposed on what can be seen from just our planet (although, I suppose little of it changes within our own solar system).

I just looked out the office door.  Sedgwick County looks a lot different from my perspective than it did a year ago, when I was in an airplane looking down.   

Ah, but Sedgwick County is still contained with the same borders, whether looking at from your front door, at thirty-two thousand feet, or from a planet on Chi Virginis.

The constellation "Virgo" will look like Virgo from Sedgwick County, but very different from Vega, and likely completely different from Alathfar, which is even in the same constellation as Vega. Of course, the constellation as we know it will be misshapen from Earth in many thousands of years because everything is expanding.

I would think the fact that the solar system orbits the black hole at the center of the Milky Way and moves to different parts of the galaxy over time (as do other stars) would be the bigger factor.  There's also the fact that the Earth's axis wobbles, so which constellations are where when changes over thousands of years.

[kkt]

I think the point that a County is really just a 2-dimensional outline which doesn't really change what it encompasses when viewed from another perspective. Whereas a Constellation would look very different in 3-dimensional space if it was viewed from a different (and distant) perspective, since its "borders" are sort of hanging by a flat outline superimposed on what can be seen from just our planet (although, I suppose little of it changes within our own solar system).

I just looked out the office door.  Sedgwick County looks a lot different from my perspective than it did a year ago, when I was in an airplane looking down.   

But counties are surveyed so the county can exercise a taxation and regulatory oversight over all the land within the county.  The stars in a constellation are just as they are visible from earth - their 3D existence is quite different.  Not only may the stars we see in a constellation actually be quite distant from each other along the axis away from Earth, but the starlight we see may have been travelling for millennia while the star that produced it may be changed beyond recognition or even gone completely.

[1995hoo]

Earlier this week my boss gave us all today off. Until he cancelled that around 4:45 last night because of work he failed to complete. He promised we'd be done by noon, in part because he wanted to attend Good Friday church services. I told my wife I fully expected today to turn into a full work day. It's now 1:05 and I'd be very surprised if we're done before 5:30. Not that I had anything in particular planned today, but it's mildly annoying to be given multiple promises of time off that are then cancelled because someone else isn't able to get his work done.

[JayhawkCO]

Earlier this week my boss gave us all today off. Until he cancelled that around 4:45 last night because of work he failed to complete. He promised we'd be done by noon, in part because he wanted to attend Good Friday church services. I told my wife I fully expected today to turn into a full work day. It's now 1:05 and I'd be very surprised if we're done before 5:30. Not that I had anything in particular planned today, but it's mildly annoying to be given multiple promises of time off that are then cancelled because someone else isn't able to get his work done.

I would have said I already made plans, but I'll see if I can get away for a couple of hours to help.

[1995hoo]

Earlier this week my boss gave us all today off. Until he cancelled that around 4:45 last night because of work he failed to complete. He promised we'd be done by noon, in part because he wanted to attend Good Friday church services. I told my wife I fully expected today to turn into a full work day. It's now 1:05 and I'd be very surprised if we're done before 5:30. Not that I had anything in particular planned today, but it's mildly annoying to be given multiple promises of time off that are then cancelled because someone else isn't able to get his work done.

I would have said I already made plans, but I'll see if I can get away for a couple of hours to help.

Not quite that simple, unfortunately.

[JayhawkCO]

Earlier this week my boss gave us all today off. Until he cancelled that around 4:45 last night because of work he failed to complete. He promised we'd be done by noon, in part because he wanted to attend Good Friday church services. I told my wife I fully expected today to turn into a full work day. It's now 1:05 and I'd be very surprised if we're done before 5:30. Not that I had anything in particular planned today, but it's mildly annoying to be given multiple promises of time off that are then cancelled because someone else isn't able to get his work done.

I would have said I already made plans, but I'll see if I can get away for a couple of hours to help.

Not quite that simple, unfortunately.

It never is. Maybe see if he'll let you take another day some other time instead.

[kkt]

What an annoying boss.  Don't make promises you can't keep.

[Big John]

Your incompetence is not my emergency.