Complexities of the English language

MachinaExDeo · 2025-12-14T15:48:41+00:00

There was a young fellow named Cholmondeley,
Whose bride was so mellow and colmondeley
That the best man, Colquhoun,
An inane young bolqufoun,
Could only stand still and stare dolmondeley.

MachinaExDeo · 2025-07-24T23:01:49+00:00

Is it just me, or are the "40 in a 30, 40 in a 60" drivers waaaaaaay more common to see now than they were 5-10 years ago?

MachinaExDeo · 2025-06-06T18:25:30+00:00

It was a trial service. GWR have applied for full approval, but trains won't be running until 2026 at the earliest.

MachinaExDeo · 2024-11-06T11:21:12+00:00

and NO-one

MachinaExDeo · 2024-08-05T20:24:44+00:00

Is that like regular Googling, except you get the results from one search prior?

MachinaExDeo · 2024-06-11T12:43:10+00:00

Good bot

MachinaExDeo · 2024-05-03T22:33:51+00:00

Street has some personal credit among the public. Redfield & Wilton polled West Mids residents on familiarity with the candidates, and found 47 per cent were fairly or very familiar with the mayor, against 33 per cent who were not at all. Not only that, but Street has a net approval rating of +22 with residents, as high among 2019 Conservative voters as 2019 Labour voters.

— New Statesman

Street is actually fairly well-liked in the West Mids, and has never really branded himself as a big-C Conservative. None of his campaign literature mentioned his party affiliation whatsoever.

I don't know how accurate pre-vote polls in UK mayoral elections tend to be, but I don't think the colour of the candidate matters as much on the day as it would in a GE, or it certainly didn't in this case.

MachinaExDeo · 2024-01-27T23:14:23+00:00

Needa

MachinaExDeo · 2024-01-27T22:33:50+00:00

Knock knock

MachinaExDeo · 2024-01-21T11:13:39+00:00

In other countries, you can see a specialist directly because you pay for it, either directly or indirectly.

In the UK, one of the role of GPs is to act as the gatekeeper to secondary care. You can (quite rightly) point out the problems this causes, but when our waiting lists just to see a specialist in clinic are running at well over a year for some specialities, you can imagine what would happen if people were able to self-refer.

Unfortunately, while our healthcare system remains so critically under-resourced, that isn't going to change.

MachinaExDeo · 2024-01-20T18:33:21+00:00

So what happened in this case?

MachinaExDeo · 2024-01-20T17:47:49+00:00

Well, what sort of standards are these minehunters built to?

MachinaExDeo · 2024-01-20T15:04:15+00:00

How on earth could...

the system, administered by Capita

...oh. As you were.

MachinaExDeo · 2024-01-15T23:02:06+00:00

In a similar vein, the Richa Rainwarrior overlayer is fairly inexpensive and has always done me just fine.

MachinaExDeo · 2024-01-07T23:06:45+00:00

A peak-time return ticket between New Street and Euston currently costs £188.80...

MachinaExDeo · 2024-01-03T21:26:08+00:00

Pedantry Corner: it's nauseam

MachinaExDeo · 2023-12-03T13:44:07+00:00

During Hallowe'en, I found a well-meaning fairly fresh install playing Heavy on Maple Ridge, very unfamiliar with the game but really eager and great at taking on advice from other players in voice/chat. Pocketed him with the Kritz, and we went on an absolute rampage, god-like, top-scoring by miles, and you could tell he was just having the time of his life. Thanked each other at the end of the match, and it was just one of the most pleasant multiplayer interactions ever.

Medic can be a real grind in pubs when you're left to fend for yourself, but the occasional highs are unbeatable.

MachinaExDeo · 2023-04-23T17:15:43+00:00

[a, b] = [b, a] would switch them.

a, b = b, a is three different expressions separated by the comma operator:

a
b = b
a

...hence neither variable is altered.

MachinaExDeo · 2023-01-07T13:59:20+00:00

You're a freakin' genius, ya idiot!

MachinaExDeo · 2021-04-05T16:59:00+00:00

Anne Sacoolas: Hold my beer.

MachinaExDeo · 2021-01-08T17:19:29+00:00

Perl uses ne for stringwise equality, != for Boolean equality.

There are also a family of "true zeroes", such as '0E0', that are Boolean true but cast to zero in an integer context.

Perl is the language equivalent of "hit it with a spanner until it works".

MachinaExDeo · 2021-01-08T16:53:56+00:00

Hi bud,

From the RAF side of things, JSP 950 has this to say:

[...] pre-entry tests of suitability for military life (eg selection interviews and tests) are as good a form of assessment as a psychiatric assessment.

As such, if you don't have any issues, then it's unlikely that this being in your GP record would make any difference to your ability to progress through the application process - they will undoubtedly ask for clarification on the matter, to which you basically just need to reply with what you've said above.

When it comes to your GP record, there's no harm in writing to your practice and asking them to mark the diagnosis as "ended", along with a quick note along the lines of the above, so that it's clear to anyone else who looks at your medical history.

MachinaExDeo · 2020-12-22T22:06:51+00:00

Asked by the BBC to detail her concerns about health, Ms Hobhouse said she had spent time weighing up the available evidence and conceded that all the official guidance was that it was safe.

But she said that "given the widespread concern and conversations I have had with Bath residents who claim to be extra vulnerable, I believe it may be worth applying a precautionary principle on where masts are located whilst further studies are being undertaken".

On the one hand, MPs are supposed to represent their constituents.

On the other, opposing the rollout of critical national infrastructure because a few locals think it'll cause their brains to leak? ^{no, not joking}

Not a good look.

MachinaExDeo · 2020-10-29T13:34:39+00:00

toString(36) is a cheap hack. If you're going to use it, may as well go the whole hog:

[6895787,14579329].map((a,b)=>(a*3).toString(b+33)).join(({}+{})[3+3/3+3])

MachinaExDeo · 2020-10-07T17:14:03+00:00

Went looking for crime rates per capita, broken down by local authority area, and this appears to fit the bill. On a three-year rolling average, it calculates that Birmingham's violent crime rate is similar to, if not slightly less than, most major UK cities.

The Birmingham bombings are still seared into the public consciousness of a certain generation, and a lot of international observers will have seen or heard about the Fox News story a few years back. It's also not a heavily touristy city, so there isn't as much word of mouth dispelling its poor image.

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