A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own

[Guy]

My Sympathy Glands have dried up!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-42070712

The 39-year-old studied at Brasenose College...

Shouldn't that be Brassneck College?

[mrcharly-YHT]

My Sympathy Glands have dried up!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-42070712

He's 39. So he should have a work history of at least 15 years. No matter what degree he had, his work history would override that degree result

I work in a high-tech environment. Every one of my colleagues has a degree, many a Phd. I dropped out of uni, I got this job and hold my own based on experience. So, sympathy none for this jerk. He has a 2:1 from Oxford and is unemployed, blames it on the uni that he left over a decade ago. Boo hoo

[fimm]

3) seen the Northern lights 

Hoping to tick that one off the list in Iceland in January. Is it worth it? I have a horrible fear that it's going to be one of those experiences that won't live up to the hype and/or it's too cloudy for the whole of our time there...

The only time I've ever seen them was in Scotland one New Year - they were pretty faint and not that spectacular, if I'm honest, but it was the whole "What is that?" "Is it what I think it is?" etc moment that made it for me.

[Basil]

but it was the whole "What is that?" "Is it what I think it is?" etc moment that made it for me.

Same here.   Sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan a few miles outside Traverse City.
Not particularly spectacular and I have never seen them before or since.

[nicknack]

I'm sure it's been covered before but, sorry ICBA to search. If you buy something on Amazon (or other places linked up to the great spendy webby thing) why do you get bombarded with adverts offering the same item? I've just bought it, I don't need another until the one I've just bought gives up the ghost.

[Ham]

I'm actually encouraged by that - it means that the advertising isn't that plugged into my vital data. Let them waste their advertising pennies, I don't care.

[hellymedic]

I'm sure it's been covered before but, sorry ICBA to search. If you buy something on Amazon (or other places linked up to the great spendy webby thing) why do you get bombarded with adverts offering the same item? I've just bought it, I don't need another until the one I've just bought gives up the ghost.

Fucking cookies left when you first visit a site.

I don't mean biscuits!

[Tim Hall]

Tonight I donated my 100th unit of blood/platelets.

I'll have a glass of claret to celebrate.

[andytheflyer]

3) seen the Northern lights 

Hoping to tick that one off the list in Iceland in January. Is it worth it? I have a horrible fear that it's going to be one of those experiences that won't live up to the hype and/or it's too cloudy for the whole of our time there...

I was in Iceland in February, many years ago, for work.  The NL were huge  raining curtains of purple, red and blue, IIRC.  They were spectacular, they must have been for my ageing memory to remember them some 30 years later. 

If the atmospheric conditions are right, they will create a lasting impression.  Go for it.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Tonight I donated my 100th unit of blood/platelets.

I'll have a glass of claret to celebrate.

That's very impressive. Congrats, and, as the Americans say "thank you for your service".
(I didn't get past 30 and they won't take my blood now because it is contaminated with strange drugs)

[T42]

I'm sure it's been covered before but, sorry ICBA to search. If you buy something on Amazon (or other places linked up to the great spendy webby thing) why do you get bombarded with adverts offering the same item? I've just bought it, I don't need another until the one I've just bought gives up the ghost.

Fucking cookies left when you first visit a site.

I don't mean biscuits!

It's altogether more sinister these days. If I google an item I need via my main box, next time I go into e.g. the NYT site on my tablet I get ads for it inserted in the pages.

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world / Like a Colossus

[Cudzoziemiec]

Tonight I donated my 100th unit of blood/platelets.

I'll have a glass of claret to celebrate.

Good stuff! And I don't (mainly) mean the claret!

[Guy]

We've got the General in bossness of Home Command visiting tomorrow... And he's coming by squirrel! 


Unfortunately

https://www.raf.mod.uk/equipment/Squirrelht1.cfm

[Andrij]

We've got the General in bossness of Home Command visiting tomorrow... And he's coming by squirrel! 


Unfortunately

https://www.raf.mod.uk/equipment/Squirrelht1.cfm

Shame.  This would have been much more impressive. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Just to add to the occasional and ongoing threads about signing, sign languages, deafness and so on, yesterday I went to a performance of Romeo and Juliet which was mostly in BSL. All the characters signed, one or two spoke English from time to time, including Romeo, and some were physically unable to speak, including Juliet. Shakespeare without the words does, surprisingly, work.

[barakta]

Which theatre company was that? I know a few of them have done some great work properly interpreting Shakespeare into BSL by meaning and it's done by people with strong English and strong BSL skills and they argue each line out and the context and try acting it till it works.

If you like poetry, language and sign language then you might like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ-_L4f7LU8  - the person in this may well have been involved in your theatre thing if it was in your local area.

[Cudzoziemiec]

It was nothing to do with her, though her name and face do seem familiar to me. It was a performance by a school for the deaf, part of Shakespeare Schools Festival. I rather liked that poem though. One thing I noticed, in that video, in the performers and in the signer who interpreted for the other performances (I've seen other SSF things in the past and he's not been there), is how expressive sign language is in the face and hands, so the mood is expressed even to those who don't know the words.

As for the bilingual poet's dilemma, does BSL have a written form? I'm fairly sure I've asked that before and the answer is no, but perhaps it should do, as the grammar is different? That would enable signers to write poetry and stories and whatever, and even switch between written languages as easily as pisząc po obcemu języku.

[mrcharly-YHT]

It was nothing to do with her, though her name and face do seem familiar to me. It was a performance by a school for the deaf, part of Shakespeare Schools Festival. I rather liked that poem though. One thing I noticed, in that video, in the performers and in the signer who interpreted for the other performances (I've seen other SSF things in the past and he's not been there), is how expressive sign language is in the face and hands, so the mood is expressed even to those who don't know the words.

As for the bilingual poet's dilemma, does BSL have a written form? I'm fairly sure I've asked that before and the answer is no, but perhaps it should do, as the grammar is different? That would enable signers to write poetry and stories and whatever, and even switch between written languages as easily as pisząc po obcemu języku.

Why, in this age, should it have a written form?

Expression (on face) and the 3D positioning of hands/arms are part of the language.

We have video these days. There are BSL poets.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Of course it doesn't need a written form, it would simply add another means of expression. One that we're taking advantage of right now.

[Kim]

As for the bilingual poet's dilemma, does BSL have a written form?

There's an extremely complicated artificial one, used by academics studying the language (which appears briefly in the video).  Like the international phonetic alphabet it's not something you can really 'read', but it's useful for, say, indexing a dictionary.

<sometimes> <sign language> <G-L-O-S-S> <write> <why?> <help> <grammar> <explain>

Also useful, but it's a partial translation.


But yes, video is the canonical way to record sign languages.  It's only been possible since the proliferation of the cine camera, with all that implies.  The technological changes of the last 20 years have been as radical as you'd expect.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've just learned elsewhere of a wonderful new unit of measurement. The miliHelen: the amount of beauty required to launch one ship. 

[Basil]

Bzzzt.  I mentioned that years ago.

Might have been the previous place.   If so, I  withdraw my bzzzt.

[Kim]

milliHelens are common in places where firkin/furlong/fortnight measurements are used.  I've certainly encountered them in the Scary Devil Monastery and likely Ye Shedde TAAW.

[Beardy]

Just to add to the occasional and ongoing threads about signing, sign languages, deafness and so on, yesterday I went to a performance of Romeo and Juliet which was mostly in BSL. All the characters signed, one or two spoke English from time to time, including Romeo, and some were physically unable to speak, including Juliet. Shakespeare without the words does, surprisingly, work.

I've been trying to find BSL classes locally, mainly for interest, but also because I am deaf, and going deafer and SWMBO thinks it would be a GoodThing^TM but have so far failed to find anyone to teach me

[Kim]

I've been trying to find BSL classes locally, mainly for interest, but also because I am deaf, and going deafer and SWMBO thinks it would be a GoodThing^TM but have so far failed to find anyone to teach me

Usually found at the local FE college, but also some Deaf organisations and adult education services, particularly for the popular Level 1 courses.

Signature (formerly the CACDP - they're what passes for an examining body in such things) has a course finder here: http://www.signature.org.uk/british-sign-language - I'm not sure how complete that is.


Also consider a lip-reading class.  There's some overlap in skills, and it'll give you strategies that work for non-signers.