Yeet is from a Vine (that’s like TikTok from 2010). I’m pretty sure it was only surreal at the time, just as the action of throwing the bottle into the crowd was in the first place.

One big thing I notice is that the youngest speakers all use [ɹ̈] for “r”, instead of the more traditional [ɹ], which means it’s formed in the back of the mouth now. I have to think that will change the trajectory of the whole phonology going forwards if it holds up, since dropping front-of-the-mouth r is a major tendency English has had.

Use of “like” as a hedge is the most famous change for young speakers all over the Anglosphere. It’s just handy, honestly, to have a quick way of conveying degrees of certainty in this highly complicated world. If future English grew that into a full mood system it would actually be great. At the other end, the last vestiges of grammatical gender have been on their way out for centuries, and are leaving at an accelerated rate now.

I think young people are much more comfortable verbing nouns than older generations. English is noted for doing this, but usually the words that can be used either way are fixed. In the absence of a better verb I’ll often improvise one, and be understood no problem by speakers my age, but I’ve never heard an older speaker do this.

Not that I’ve ever heard, but undercheek was a good suggestion. I’d probably go with “base part of the buttocks” unprompted.

Undercheek would be understood.

And this is my weekly reminder to work on a way to collect that data.

Almost certainly not. Touch is really just geared to detecting the presence or absence of vibration. I’d be surprised if you could get a double digit set of waveforms which could be reliably distinguished, let alone the endless combinations that make up normal hearing.

There’s an ~100% chance Helen Keller got asked about this. Uh, yep, although I don’t recognise the source and can’t guarantee it’s not fake or AI slop. The format would be new for slop, at least - the actual fact is in image form, there’s a comment section and it’s dated over a decade ago.

If someone had a copy of her autobiography they could look for the passage to verify, but I don’t.

Vibration receptors can’t distinguish frequencies well enough. Cochlear implants exist, though, and work by directly exciting the auditory nerve.

Thanks, that’s really helpful. I suppose it makes sense that not just material but cut size and bit would matter. They usually focus just on the geometry on YouTube.

Out of curiosity, what’s the lowest you’ve ever gone? It’s hard to picture machining happening at something like 60RPM.

If you want to get that through steam or electric motors or whatever that’s up to you

Since I’m interested in technological bootstrapping more generally, I think most about water wheels, actually! Steam engines need to be machined, which is a chicken-and-egg problem (or I guess crafted freehand to a machining-like precision, like Vaucanson’s lathe). Electric motors don’t necessarily, but they need a source of electricity, and that’s either a lot of batteries or another rotating power source, which again doesn’t solve the problem.

Waterwheels can be made with hand tools - maybe even primitive tools - and can achieve surprisingly modern efficiency and power density. They do require the right topography, but then again they spin indefinitely without needing to be fueled. 50hp is still a sizable wheel, near the top of what existed in pre-modern times, but I’m guessing you can do basic things with an underpowered machine.

Yes, email isn’t actually less transparent. If you’re using webmail over HTTPS it’s harder for a small adversary to intercept, but that’s it. Fax is way less efficient, though, while having no advantages I can think of.

Can you give me some typical values, maybe? That would be a big help.

Believe it or not, Canadian health services do this shit too.

Oh yeah, I have a copy of the Gingery books and I love it.

I haven’t seen Gingery into how much power you need exactly, or what blend of RPM vs. torque is ideal. What would be your guess, since it sounds like you might know?

Telling kids they can do anything is a gigantic lie and is pretty much socially required at this juncture. Setting aside the dishonesty, that sets them up for self-loathing when they actually make normal headway for someone starting in whatever social class.

The advertising blasting into our brains throughout the day is also a major contender. Past a certain age we all know it’s lies, but damn, it’s still lies, and sometimes it manages to subtly influence you anyway.

Letting maggots into wounds, too. And bloodletting in certian niche cases. You could make the case for trephination (putting a hole in the skull), even if they put you back together once your brain stops swelling now.

However, mercury as a medicine is right out.

Hard drive full of MP3s is love, hard drive full of MP3s is life.

Although ATM my folder is just 1.1GB including the music videos, so I could probably store it on a thumb drive or carefully-chosen dishwasher; it doesn’t have to be a hard drive.

It’s almost like they didn’t get any training before they became drug dealers. /s

That implies it was ever the norm. At best it’s had moments.

Everyone is looking to establish dominance at any cost, when you don’t really need to.

You know, I see the rest, but I don’t see this. A lot of people are straight-up doormats.

Honestly, developers shouldn’t be the front line for that if you’re medium-sized or bigger anyway.

It’s even simpler: AI can’t really even begin with architecting, and will stubbornly defend nonsense code 5% of the time when you need >99% correctness for the thing to run at a basic level.