Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics"
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
― nickn, Wednesday, 26 June 2013 23:01 (ten years ago) link
i think i've IAed about *OTUS before, it's still the worst. feels like it came out of nowhere and everyone's using it like it's been around forever, but it hasn't been around forever because it's fucking stupid and pointless and ugly and weird
FLOTUS by far the worst tho
― ty based gay dead computer god (zachlyon), Wednesday, 26 June 2013 23:17 (ten years ago) link
FIrst I ever noticed POTUS was All the King's Men and Nixon's memoirs.
You couldn't come up with a better acronym to fit its subject than what the Committee to RE-Elect the President called itself.
― pplains, Thursday, 27 June 2013 00:24 (ten years ago) link
doing laundry and my long-sleeved shirt comes out with one of the sleeves inside-out. fuck that noise
― mookieproof, Thursday, 27 June 2013 01:53 (ten years ago) link
Fuck a laundry, it's like doing a final exam in topology sometimes the way shit comes out.
― This amigurumi Jamaican octopus is ready to chill with you (Phil D.), Thursday, 27 June 2013 01:58 (ten years ago) link
I've always railed against these acronyms, but at least SCOTUS distinguishes it from state supreme courts, a lot of which exist. POTUS is just pointless, and FLOTUS sounds like something left over in the toilet after an incomplete flush.
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Thursday, 27 June 2013 02:05 (ten years ago) link
the phrase "staycation"
― Neanderthal, Thursday, 27 June 2013 03:29 (ten years ago) link
breakfast places that call omelettes ommys
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 27 June 2013 06:03 (ten years ago) link
WHAT.
America, please cut it out with the baby-talk. It's lacking in dignity.
― on the sidelines dishing out sass (suzy), Thursday, 27 June 2013 07:06 (ten years ago) link
In our office, we put all the used teaspoons (used for making tea etc) in a mug containing hot water and leave it by the hot water taps. The water in the mug usually gets changed twice a day. Two things IA me:
a) Just put the spoons back in the mug when you've finished with them rather than leaving them in the side ffs. Leaving them out looks messy and isn't really in keeping with the spirit of arrangement.b) When taking a spoon from the mug, a quick rinse under the tap is acceptable; spending 5 minutes scrubbing it like its been used to clean someones ass is not. WTF hygiene freaks.
― Random .mdb Memories (NotEnough), Thursday, 27 June 2013 08:44 (ten years ago) link
I think ommys is actually Dutch.
― Jeff, Thursday, 27 June 2013 11:24 (ten years ago) link
Wow, so in England, not only do you get just one spoon, but you have to share it with the others
― pplains, Thursday, 27 June 2013 11:56 (ten years ago) link
Who calls omelettes ommys? That sounds like an Australian thing to do. Everything there gets a cute, truncated nickname.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 27 June 2013 12:51 (ten years ago) link
oi, ommys in the arvo
― mookieproof, Thursday, 27 June 2013 13:43 (ten years ago) link
You'd think their inexpensive nature would ensure that there are plentiful supplies of spoons, but no, everywhere I have worked has had a shortage. I assumed it was an office thing rather than a GB thing.
At least they haven't tried foisting those stupid little wooden stirrers onto me yet.
― Random .mdb Memories (NotEnough), Thursday, 27 June 2013 14:16 (ten years ago) link
We got goddam 40 steel teaspoons inside one mug with hot water, here!
― Mark G, Thursday, 27 June 2013 14:50 (ten years ago) link
Sometimes coworkers bring in excess apples, oranges or whatnot from home fruit trees that people can take home. Pretty standard
The other day someone left a storebought bag of *rotting* plums, fermented syrup oozing out in a pool all over the counter. Literally half the plums were collapsed and rotten and fermented.
NO WE DONT WANT YOUR ROTTING PLUMS YOU FUCKING SAVAGE
(*not innocuous or irrational)
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 27 June 2013 14:53 (ten years ago) link
What the hell kind of person brings in rotten produce to share with the office? Actually, it sounds like something that my cousin's (other) grandmother, who had Alzheimer's, would have done (well, not take it to work, but bring it out when you went to visit her and tried to give it to you). Come to think of it, my grandmother who did not have Alzheimer's always tried to feed us something like brown, partially liquefied lettuce or ice cream that was chewy with freezer burn or sandwiches no bread with little divots missing where she'd plucked out the moldy bits when we went to her house.
― carl agatha, Thursday, 27 June 2013 15:12 (ten years ago) link
― Jeff, Thursday, June 27, 2013 1:24 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
It's not.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 27 June 2013 15:52 (ten years ago) link
xp I know someone whose mother-in-law does that. You go to her house for "dinner" and she finds the last inch of dried out tomato sauce in a jar in the back of the fridge and puts it on stale crackers and calls it bruschetta.
― Tottenham Heelspur (in orbit), Thursday, 27 June 2013 15:56 (ten years ago) link
Actually, I think it's Chilean.
― Jeff, Thursday, 27 June 2013 16:13 (ten years ago) link
Or martian.
xp I always chalked it up to some lingering "lived through the Depression" psychosis. That is at least a kinder approach than "cheap, gross old lady," which was probably a pretty defensible opinion.
― carl agatha, Thursday, 27 June 2013 16:29 (ten years ago) link
i click this thread occasionally and absent-mindedly bookmark it even though i don't want to see it all the time
that's almost perfect
― goole, Thursday, 27 June 2013 16:30 (ten years ago) link
I've got bad timing.
As a grandchild, my Depression-era grandmothers would've pulled the ol' "tomato sauce on a cracker" business, but now, as a parent, the Boomer grandparents of today bring over for the kids milkshakes, cookies and fast food.
Don't know what I'll serve as a Gen X paw paw. Maybe something ironic like Pez and Crystal Pepsi.
― pplains, Thursday, 27 June 2013 16:36 (ten years ago) link
there is one cheap gross old lady who i am pretty sure is the culprit
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 27 June 2013 16:39 (ten years ago) link
We've got a guy who brings in ducks during hunting season. The whole office goes apeshit for them, but I abstain. At least he puts them in the freezer, but still.
― pplains, Thursday, 27 June 2013 16:45 (ten years ago) link
I would probably accept a (dead and dressed) duck from a coworker.
― carl agatha, Thursday, 27 June 2013 17:07 (ten years ago) link
i have a duck in the freezer! it's from costco though.
― paula deezen (get bent), Thursday, 27 June 2013 17:20 (ten years ago) link
Tomorrow Feedbin will be moving to a new home at SoftLayer. Feedbin will be down from 9:00AM PST - 3:00PM PST.
daylight time, goddammit
― mookieproof, Thursday, 27 June 2013 20:18 (ten years ago) link
the spoons issue has received some scholarly attention http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1322240/
― stefon taylor swiftboat (s.clover), Friday, 28 June 2013 04:19 (ten years ago) link
when the same people who just insisted on driving 50 in a 35 and pass you for driving too slow hit a road with a 50 mph limit and then drive 10 under in the left lane for no explicable reason.
― Neanderthal, Friday, 28 June 2013 04:34 (ten years ago) link
they're just fucking with you.
― Romantic style in da world (crüt), Friday, 28 June 2013 04:40 (ten years ago) link
touchless faucets in public bathrooms that only give hot water
because the only possible thing you could want water for in a public bathroom is to eliminate the germs from your filthy hands
― j., Friday, 28 June 2013 04:48 (ten years ago) link
Reading this morning that they are rebooting Terminator. There was a time when movie sequels were a big sign of the creatively bankrupt nature of the movie industry. But really a sequel is 100% more original than an effing remake. Damn Hollywood forever.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 28 June 2013 14:55 (ten years ago) link
people still watch hollywood movies?
― Autumn Almanac, Friday, 28 June 2013 14:59 (ten years ago) link
GD cars that are started in novel, confusing ways, e.g. the 2013 Prius I rented today. The manuals (2 of them) said to have the door lock remote inside the car and press the Start button (and the illustration showed the remote inside the driver's pocket).
Finally called iGo and they told me you have to hold the remote up to the Start button, press the button and wait for the green light. Then press and hold it in until the display to say it was running. But don't move the remote or you have to start over!
― Je55e, Wednesday, 3 July 2013 03:03 (ten years ago) link
And what does "B" mean on the gear selector? The quick-reference manual explained D(rive), N(eutral), and R(everse), but not "B." B(rake)? B(lastoff)? B(ut I'm a Cheerleader)?
― Je55e, Wednesday, 3 July 2013 03:07 (ten years ago) link
people who say 'as well'
― j., Wednesday, 3 July 2013 06:54 (ten years ago) link
'5c from every burger will be donated to charity!! omg aren't we fabulously generous'
― Autumn Almanac, Wednesday, 3 July 2013 07:22 (ten years ago) link
how baout (a) i give $3 to charity (b) fuck you
also, baristas who are always up for a fucking chat
― Autumn Almanac, Wednesday, 3 July 2013 07:32 (ten years ago) link
the word 'barista'.
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 3 July 2013 09:11 (ten years ago) link
Also, the corporate "asking of you" which happens in Waitrose, particularly..
Lateish Sunday:Asst: "Had a good weekend?"Me: "Yeah!"
Now, she probably wants to know why, and I am not about to tell her, am I?
― Mark G, Wednesday, 3 July 2013 09:18 (ten years ago) link
I bet it makes her irrationally angry that you won't tell her.
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 3 July 2013 09:19 (ten years ago) link
She would be if I did.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 3 July 2013 09:19 (ten years ago) link
Waitrose: fostering irrational anger in customers and staff since 1904.
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 3 July 2013 09:21 (ten years ago) link
jesse the B is for engine braking
― educate yourself to this reality (sunny successor), Wednesday, 3 July 2013 13:55 (ten years ago) link
Oh weird. I never would have expected that.
― Je55e, Wednesday, 3 July 2013 14:00 (ten years ago) link
- when people carry more than two bags on their regular commute (nb I sometimes carry three bags - purse, laptop bag, and grocery bag, and that makes me angry, too).- when people act weird in elevators. It happened more in my old job where everybody was super weird but it happened here today. Guy got in the elevator and kept half flapping his arms and whispering to himself. - the guy at Argo Tea this morning who said, "Absolutely not!" when I asked him if they carried any decaf black tea.- the guy in front of me at the shoe repair shop this morning who spent ten full minutes with the shop assistant picking out shoelaces for his shitty frat boy suede high top oxfords, including dickering over the correct length and color and then pulling his shoes off and slapping them on the counter and asking the assistant to lace them (the assistant seemed happy to do so, so I don't think the actual request was out of line, but at that point this guy could have rescued a baby from a burning building and I would have been annoyed if it meant I had to wait any longer to drop off my sandals).
― carl agatha, Wednesday, 3 July 2013 14:18 (ten years ago) link