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Chris in the weeds

@chrisintheweeds.bsky.social

Gardener, dad, language geek, programmer, sinister leftie (πŸ™Œ), rat-adjacent, permanently bemused. Open to friendly discussion about most things. He/him/any.

396 Followers  |  192 Following  |  1,029 Posts  |  Joined: 09.04.2023  |  2.2157

Latest posts by chrisintheweeds.bsky.social on Bluesky

galadriel: and for you samwise gamgee....this cool stick I found.  You can pretend it's a sword and swish it around like this.
actually, no, i'm keeping this

galadriel: and for you samwise gamgee....this cool stick I found. You can pretend it's a sword and swish it around like this. actually, no, i'm keeping this

i will never apologize for a post

20.02.2025 17:32 β€” πŸ‘ 1020    πŸ” 192    πŸ’¬ 10    πŸ“Œ 3

But if your interests are somewhat niche, the odd secondhand bookshop is your best chance now, because even the biggest sellers of new books in the country are going big on cafes and airy spaces and not on dense shelving.

20.02.2025 18:23 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I guess they assume everyone will just get access via Amazon or... other online methods. But it's nice to just browse physical books and discover interesting things.

20.02.2025 18:21 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

The sad thing, though, is how impoverished places like Foyles are for academic books. They used to have all kind of random interesting stuff... now the linguistics section is a few shelves of introductory stuff.

20.02.2025 18:19 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I don't really agree with the theoretical stance of many of the authors, but it's still interesting to see how different people approach things.

20.02.2025 18:16 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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I've been hitting the secondhand bookshops again.

20.02.2025 18:15 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

But if this is the case, it does mean it'll get worse if Trump concedes elsewhere. If China takes Taiwan and Trump breaks NATO etc etc., then bullying some weaker neighbours will be the way to prove this isn't evidence of the irreversible decline of US power.

16.02.2025 21:33 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

How can they be weak when they can bully Canada and Denmark so successfully?

16.02.2025 21:27 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Although I suppose the current aggression is because they're starting to worry that maybe they might lose face or status as others rise and the relative capabilities of the US decline. Trump is the way they deny that possibility and bury it.

16.02.2025 21:26 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

The US hasn't really lost for so long, they can't really imagine what losing something would feel like. The losses they talk about are mostly just invading someone else then eventually going home, not losing their own territory or being forced to be a client state run by quislings.

16.02.2025 21:23 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Idk, it's hard to increase exports when your domestic market has very different tastes and regulations to most of the international market.

16.02.2025 16:51 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Our new family car is a Skoda Octavia, a decent sized estate, which looks more or less like this. It does everything we need and it's not as tall, as heavy or as big as the most popular American SUV types.

16.02.2025 16:50 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

This means that any American company that sells monster trucks in the domestic market needs to manufacture whole new lines specifically for export.

16.02.2025 16:37 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

European cars have gotten a bit bigger in recent years, but they're still very much sub American SUV and not monster trucks. Partly because of cost and partly because of environmental regulations.

16.02.2025 16:36 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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A Ka looks like this.

16.02.2025 16:35 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Why don't Europeans buy more American cars? Trump wants US vehicles to be more popular in Europe, but it's a difficult market for them to crack.

Just look at that picture. I'm pretty sure that one of the most popular cars Ford, an American manufacturer, has ever sold in the UK was the Ka.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

16.02.2025 16:34 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

The thing about Marind though is that much of the morphology is a bit separable anyway. Arguably, you could also say almost the entire set of verb inflections is hosted by an auxiliary copular and all other verbs are really coverbs, instead of a zero copula hypothesis?

16.02.2025 16:13 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

NᴏAα΄…HᴏᴄCᴏɴsα΄›Κ€α΄€ΙͺΙ΄α΄›s:
assign a violation for each ad hoc constraint introduced in this paper

16.02.2025 15:44 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

Mr Blobby would probably do a better job than most reporters we have now.

16.02.2025 14:42 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

The Orban strategy

16.02.2025 14:31 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Congratulations!

16.02.2025 14:13 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

It's perfect. It doesn't need a massive front if there's no ICE inside, and it allows much better visibility of small humans (children) for a vehicle travelling along urban roads a lot.

16.02.2025 13:16 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Uncertain times are awkward. I don't think retreating into bonds is as low risk as it used to be either. And holding cash doesn't pay much.

16.02.2025 11:40 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

The distinction just doesn't matter much in societies with anglo nuclear family arrangements. Related by marriage but not blood + generation is more than enough information.

16.02.2025 11:38 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Feeds don't seem to work

16.02.2025 11:28 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I don't know what to do with my stocks and shares ISA to be honest. I don't know whether it's better to have US exposure or to not have such exposure, where might do better, why nothing is shifting much so far and if that will change...

16.02.2025 11:03 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

New car has one, and it's nice. Heated seats too.

16.02.2025 11:01 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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See also AA for a family not having any of it.

16.02.2025 10:57 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I've been indoctrinated by Big Phonology into thinking that CV should be the default syllable shape.

16.02.2025 10:44 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Even English is kind of like that. My native language loves a closed syllable more than most.

16.02.2025 10:44 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

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