Americans have the weirdest blank spots. I distinctly remember a situation where I had to have a good 15 minute conversation with an otherwise brilliant and intelligent colleague explaining the time descriptor of for example ‘half three’ as meaning half past three not half way to three (two thirty) or the even more infathomable interpretation that it meant one thirty (for instance ‘half seven’ would be three thirty)
Amazing.
I think we should adopt that sort of time nomenclature.
See you at half twelve in the evening. *Head explodes*
Tbf they struggle enough with a 24 hour clock so it was unfair of me to expect they could understand such a radical concept as ‘just not using the word past’
"Back of" can get to fuck, though.Originally Posted by phonics
$310.38 savings per tax payer now. Good work boys.
An Xbox Series S in every home, courtesy of Donald Trump.
Just in time for the Switch 2.
That’s a common thing in other languages to be fair. All the Germans I work with would take “half three” to be 30 minutes until 3 too. But usually they grasp the concept within 10 seconds once you explain it.
I'm mesmerised by that half seven idea.
'I start work at nine, and finish at half ten.'
Yeah, half three is simply "halfway to three" in German, maybe they got it from here. I always thought it's the Britons who are the weird ones on this. Never made the effort to find out what's more prevalent in other languages, though.
Edit: The half seven = three thirty interpretation is brilliant
Last edited by Serj; 15-02-2025 at 09:00 AM.
Good use of 'Britons', only hear it these days when some have died in a far-flung plane crash.
French say et demie, Spanish y medio. So I'm afraid it's our central European brothers in arms who once again find themselves at social odds with the rest.
After a quick check I'm happy to see we can rely on our Germanic brethren in the North/North-West to also have adopted proper etiquette.
More to phonics point, the inflexibility or rather complete ignorance of the fact that other people do things differently even within the same language does come up with Americans especially, I feel. I remember spelling something out for a woman over there and when I said "zed" instead of "zee" that started a whole spinoff conversation because she'd never heard of that and it blew her mind.
Makes sense though, when you're basically a whole continental society within the same borders plus the world's dominant cultural power I guess it's natural to be very inward-focused.
I thought I spoke Spanish until I turned up in Colombia and started talking about conduciendo mi coche, they looked at me like I was a martian. In Spain you conduct a coach, in Latam you manage a car. Borges was right.
Depends where in Latam.
I used to think I was half decent at understanding Spanish, then I heard some Chileans at work jabbering in the smoking shelter. The fuck is their lingo all about.
JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference.
You have absolutely no way of knowing whether the answer is no.
Musk's team already doing a great job of keeping that data safe. Firs they got hacked, now they've released classified data online:
https://newrepublic.com/post/191580/...l-data-website
Hilarious to see Europe now shitting itself at the prospect of Ukraine/Russia US led peace talks. If the Orange-a-tang swoops in and sorts a deal out after three years of their pissing about with no end in sight they're all going to look like absolute twats.
I'm sure Europe could have arranged a similar deal with Putin getting everything he wanted.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/14/clima...ump/index.html getting rid of the waste
Oversimplification though, Trump has arranged a peace summit Moscow say they wont attend and prior to him the US were supporting Ukraine. He seems to be destabilising conflict zones like Gaza spouting all his plans.
Worst take of all time imo
Imagine that.
As I said upthread, those that despise Trump are incapable of ever admitting he might actually do something good, let alone that he has if he actually does.
Destabilising Gaza? I’d not noticed it was swimming in peace and stability.
Yes, all praise Trump for his master negotiating skills of giving Putin everything he wants and asking for all of the minerals from Ukraine. That's amazing deal making.
Politics is just the new soccer for people who get old. Nobody has ever or will ever change anyone's mind about anything.
Is that’s what’s actually happened, what you genuinely think will happen or how you’ll describe whatever does happen?
In the middle of the cease fire and hostage exchange he was saying he was going to evict the Palestinians and make it a beach resort.
Honestly with regards to the Ukraine thing are you being contrary for the sake of it? All Russian response has been they aren't attending any peace talks. Trump's effort on this is like me setting up a date with Kelly Brook.
Finally, a sensible post.
The difference between Trump and the EU is that the EU is a project which exists to uphold various isms and principles, whereas Trump has none of these. Now obviously if one is a fan of these isms and principles it means that you are unlikely to be a fan of Trump, but it also means he can negotiate with Putin as an arch-pragmatist, which the EU cannot, and nor could a Democrat president of the type that they have served up recently.
I think all of the 'rare earths' are in the Russian bits of Ukraine anyway so Ukraine might as well offer Trump whatever access he wants.
Europe could easily replace the American contribution to Ukraine, and Trump probably isn't going to give Russia what it wants (they would be mongs to accept some frozen conflict at this point), so it's all just a shakedown to save money.
That a deal won't happen, you'll resolutely ignore it and desperately search for the next "positive" thing Trump does until it turns out not to be positive and you can pretend that doesn't exist either.
I was thinking surely their best bet would be to offer Trump an 'ownership position' in the Donbas, I mean, it literally has his name on it.
If the deal is “ok, putin, actually we will stop fighting for the land you’re trying to steal and we want to keep and give you the land you’re trying to steal that we are fighting for if you promise not to try and steal more” I’m pretty sure any of us could have made that deal, never mind Biden or Ukraine.
If Ukraine doesn’t have a security guarantee they might as well keep fighting now and hope Europe step up with resources into the fight if things look bleak.
I doubt Poland would want the Russians at their border.
You can’t reward aggression.
Ok, just admitting to wanting to be a dictator now. Not at all worrying. Still, he is funny, I guess.
The sooner people realise it's personality/controversy that gets you popularity, the better.
That goes for politics, onlyfans, instagram or otherwise.
Sad but true. Look at those twats KSI and Fake Paul for confirmation.
Last edited by AJ23; 17-02-2025 at 07:02 AM.
I also don't trust Trump. This guy has been convicted of a lot of things, but he has been alleged of releasing secrets of Ukraine to Russia to Putin. From his last time in charge.
Of course then he can say I can stop this war. Dirty egotistical man. He's in tight with Putin, who he admires because he's a similar despot, and was a big part of why Brexit happened, to destabilise Europe. You can stop a war if you know the secrets. Look it up more. Now he'll look like the US hero with a deal
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...uk-book-claims
Last edited by AJ23; 17-02-2025 at 06:59 AM.
Very cool.
It's all good bro stop being so hysterical bro they are just beneficently cutting through the red tape bro.
You can keep being hysterical and negative. Me, I will focus on the great positives:
Are low-flow toilets normal toilets as opposed to your ridiculous toilets that you can dip your balls in?
I don't know what the cutoffs are, but my current upstairs toilet doesn't have enough power to flush one big shit in a single go. Criminal stuff.
This is children arguing in a playground level of conversation now.
Sorry it's still so far above your level.
Be that as it may, I want you to know you're better than this. Or you certainly can be.
The deal they offered Ukraine is genuinely mental. It makes the Versailles Treaty look generous.
Except Ukraine hasn't done anything wrong lol.
Unless he's playing some 12D chess, it's probably time to accept that RL was right. That Ukraine deal is some Mafia shit.
Last edited by Spikey M; 18-02-2025 at 07:15 AM.
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