Things you were shockingly old when you learned

Yeah how could one have been so shockingly ignorant about the origins of the Judeo-Christian notion of a soul.

I mean when I was like five I had this silly attachment to the Emersonian ideal of an oversoul. Then in like third grade I was big into the Nietzschean ubermensch concept. I was tempted by Manichean duality as a preteen, but it somehow the true historical path of these never quite crystallized for me. Good on ya, lunch

That no one else says vapid out loud.

I feel less bad about overusing that word as a vapid youth

I read somebody saying that policy wonks are nicknamed as such cos they know everything backwards! Which is obv wrong because the dictionary says it is slang for for someone with an eye for tedious detail or an inexperienced sailor (1920s).

vapid = 'vaped' right, please tell me i'm correct or i will be embarrsed

"When learning English, Russians have to practice making the "w" sound because they are not used to it. At first, they will often pronounce them as "v", which leads to being corrected by the teacher. This constant practice of substituting "v" with "w" leads to over correction wherein they become so conscientious about the substitution that they do it even when they're not supposed to."

vapid = 'vaped' right, please tell me i'm correct or i will be embarrsed

― Yul, Tied: A Celebration of Brynner in Bondage (Old Lunch)

it took me until like five years ago to learn how to spell embarrassed. i couldn't remember if it had two rs and one s or two ss and one r.

mark s: I worked with a Ukrainian who would often go to the wending machine.

i agree with kids who say a W is actually drawed like a double-vee. sorry that’s my only opinion. Inconsistently said, incorrectly named, what a mess. and a danish pal went on for a minute about the sport of “wallyball” and i couldnt figure out if that was just a weird way of saying volleyball, or a different sport.

In spanish, V is "ve" and W is "doble ve"

ah true. sorta pronounced doble b some places tho?

i agree with kids who say a W is actually drawed like a double-vee.

The VVitch
VValgreens
VValt Disney

vvtf

Very very the fuck indeed

vvolwes

Vvolves aye vve

That there's another famous Don Cherry that isn't the jazz guy

Famous on ILX maybe.

the (scott) walker (joe) walsh (don) cherry trio, uluv2 hear it

The acronym "FAP" is a reference to masturbation.

(Lol that the fame of the hockey Don Cherry is an ilx phenomenon.)

Is 'fap' an acronym in that context? 'Flogging a peen'?

Ha, we used to use it as an acronym for "fancy a pint" when planning ilx0r get-togethers. Idk if the original is also an acronym, though.

North American rather than ILX.

the acronym is not, and as far as I know "fapping" is onomatopoeia

didn't that come from some ages old webcomic? was it Megatokyo??

p sure this exact same discussion arose v early on (possibly courtesy much-missed NZ poster lady di)

the acronym is not, and as far as I know "fapping" is onomatopoeia

― mh, Monday, November 18, 2019 10:19 AM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yikes, is that what it's supposed to sound like?

'Hen fap' at the very least has its origins in a photograph from a late-'90s Onion article.

didn't that come from some ages old webcomic? was it Megatokyo??

https://www.sexylosers.com/

Yesterday I learned that you can’t drive through the Chunnel! I thought it was like the Holland Tunnel, basically. Now I’m a little obsessed with the drive-on trains.

It's like your car is inside a big crate, you can't see anything of interest, and the novelty wears off after about 30 seconds, if that.

sounds better than the holland tunnel

The worst part of Eurostar is the scenery is so dull, especially in Northern France.

needs more poppies iirc

What happened to the enormous horse planned for the English side?

I didn't learn until last year that lady chickens lay eggs on a regular schedule. They don't have to have sex with a male chicken. They just lay eggs. Until that point I had always assumed that chickens in farms were artificially inseminated or something like that. I mentally equated their reproductive cycle with our own.

Imagine if human women gave birth to children every nine months, regularly, whether they had been fertilised or not. The unfertilised children would be zombie-like meat puppets without souls. I picture hairless white-skinned humanoids that never sweat and can be taught to do simple tasks. Like Donald Pleasence but without a soul.

It took me years to learn how to consistently spell Donald Pleasence's surname correctly. I don't often have a chance to use that knowledge.

if eggs are fertilized they have chicken fetuses in them just fyi

Imagine if human women gave birth to children every nine months, regularly, whether they had been fertilised or not.

its not that weird, my wife does this

zombie-like meat puppets without souls

Ah, so you've met my kids?

the gestation takes place inside the fertilized egg

wait until you learn human women do eject an unfertilized egg every once in a while

Was gonna say...

lmao

In their natural environment chickens will typically lay 12 or so eggs a year, too. We've bred them to be egg laying machines.

What happened to the enormous horse planned for the English side?

― koogs, Tuesday, 19 November 2019 18:53 (yesterday)

Officially "on hold" due to lack of funds IIRC - it was to be funded by subscription, the estimated costs rocketed and the donations / subscriptions did not. Shame.

People actually experimented on the veracity of the boiling a frog myth/metaphor. Seems to have been done several times over the last couple of hundred years.
Apparently a frog tossed into a boiling pot will have a lot of damage done whereas one put into a tepid one that is slowly heated is likely to jump out way before the heat gets too high.
Whodathunkit.
Works as a metaphor though & a lot of those have a recognised gulf between saying and reality.

I have found out why 'Strictly Come Dancing' is called that and it's gone from being a slightly stupid name to a really fucking stupid name

Strictly Ballroom reference? I don't really get how it works. We were having a similar conversation just now too.

The title is an amalgamation of the titles of the 1992 Australian film Strictly Ballroom and Come Dancing

yeah I get that, just not why they've combined them like that. loads of viewers surely don't know one or either of the original shows.

Yes, exactly - it doesn't even amount to a shit pun, it's not even up to the standard of a working title, why would they go for that?

Anyway, people apparently watch it and like it, really not for me. I went and looked at some Come Dancing from the 80s and, well, also very much not for me.