The Off Topic Topic

[grumbler]

That one is funny in my experience, because I started off believing in "centrifugal force", then in physics class we were taught there is no such thing and that there is centripetal force, and then I read engineers discuss things and they use "centrifugal force" all over the place.  Turns out in certain contexts it's a useful way to think about things.

In my field the analogue would be "correlation is not causation".  When people start out not thinking about it, they probably implicitly believe that it is.  Then they get taught that "correlation is not causation", and suddenly they see anyone using correlation in any argument as a sign of ignorance.  Then you learn more and find out that while correlation is indeed not causation, in many contexts that truism is irrelevant, and that it's still very useful to establish correlation.

Centrifugal force is a useful fiction, but a fiction nonetheless. "Orwellian thinking" is another useful fiction.

[crazy canuck]

Just had a big tremor hit the lower mainland.

[Valmy]

Just had a big tremor hit the lower mainland.

What mainland?

[Jacob]

Just had a big tremor hit the lower mainland.

What mainland?

British Columbia. We had a 4.8 earthquake. Just a bit of shaking really.

[crazy canuck]

Just had a big tremor hit the lower mainland.

What mainland?

Sorry, that is what we call Vancouver and surrounding communities

[Tonitrus]

Just had a big tremor hit the lower mainland.

What mainland?

Sorry, that is what we call Vancouver and surrounding communities

Is the "mainland" distinction in reference to Vancouver Island, or something else? (or not at all...but I would presume the "upper mainland" would be everything else in BC beyond the mountains surrounding the Vancouver metro area)

[crazy canuck]

Just had a big tremor hit the lower mainland.

What mainland?

Sorry, that is what we call Vancouver and surrounding communities

Is the "mainland" distinction in reference to Vancouver Island, or something else? (or not at all...but I would presume the "upper mainland" would be everything else in BC beyond the mountains surrounding the Vancouver metro area)

Yes, exactly. It is to differentiate the lower mainland from Vancouver Island.

Oddly though, until you mentioned it,
I hadn't really thought of it, but we don't call anything the upper mainland

[Tonitrus]

That's why I put it in quotes...I didn't actually know, but suspected it wasn't a thing.

[Josquius]

Walking down the street with my 1 year old we saw a brown dog.
 "woof woof" he shouted.
A minute later we saw a black and white dog.
"moo" he shouted.

[Josquius]

Tweeter?

[Grey Fox]

This will  make Josq proud. Contractor guy redoing my indoor stairs is plastering the entire walls. He calls it glazing.

[mongers]

This will  make Josq proud. Contractor guy redoing my indoor stairs is plastering the entire walls. He calls it glazing.

 

I guess you're paying him a pretty penny, because over here people who can do a good job at that can demand a heafty payment.

[Josquius]

A theory I heard today which makes a lot of sense.

You noticed we talk a lot about generations these days?
It's all gen z this, millenials that, hoy boomer, etc...
The reason we are doing this is we stopped talking about decades.

Noughties is widely used but not quite as universally as 90s,80s,etc... Were.
The 2010s just fail to have a name at all. They aren't really described.

Something we do instead is describe things in terms of shit events.
Post 9-11, post 2008, post covid...

And of course generations. Which serve to divide us. The 80s had dumb fashions which are dumb 80s fashions. Not dumb gen x fashions. The guys who were into it at the time have been able to move on.
Dumb stuff from the noughties meanwhile is millenial. It's stuck on them. Its not a shared experience as decades were.

It got me thinking for sure.

[crazy canuck]

The problem with your theory is that we were using the terms Baby Boomers and Gen X long before we even started worrying about y2k

[Sheilbh]

Yeah and I think "generations" and decades are different (obvs all periodisation and categories like that is arbitrary and mad).

Gen X are not the only people alive in or experiencing the 80s - and certainly based on my family photos it was not just the youngsters wearing 80s fashion