They still make these in China, where they’re generally called two wheel tractors

From a sociological view the reason we measure things by years, or use them as the measurement for age is because it's a full cycle of the seasons. We realised that the procession of the stars corresponded with the cycle of the seasons, even in tropical regions, not the other way around. It seems to me westeros would…

But the only reason an orbit around the sun is important is because it creates the seasons. This has always bothered me about the books since everything else is so logically laid out

or more realistically the Guards regiments of the British Army

I find québécois French horribly grating, not smooth and flowing at all

And we'll just ignore the Masai people of eastern Africa who's staple diet is blood mixed with milk

There was a surprisingly awesome French/Canadian animated tv show of Arsen Lupin, called Nighthood in English I remember watching when I was a kid. It was set in the 1930s and had kind of diesel punk vibe.

Agreed. Culture is real, you can't dismiss something because it is a cultural construct, culture provides the structure for all of our social interactions.

Exactly, you can't just decide to change language to some boutique made up thing, languages evolve. They is rapidly becoming an acceptable gender-neutral third person pronoun naturally. I have a feeling this policy will last up to about the first parent-teacher interview.

I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be buying illegal digital drugs with your credit card

I had a similar experience when I was learning Japanese. I was at the bar, and I had a fairly recent arrival to the country explain to me (in English) that his Japanese was better than mine because I had not conjugated an adjective into the adverbial form when modifying a verb, something which is quite common in…

oddly enough, in Japanese, the word to go, is used for orgasm. They tend to be quite amuses at the use of to some

I can't even say that much, the first chapter of Snow Crash sounded pretty much like the first chapter of Virtual Light, written by a 14 year old. Or, conversely, since it was published a year later, Virtual Light had the first chapter of Snow Crash, written by a adult.

I've started on a new life goal of reading all the major sf awards for best novel (Hugo, Nebula, BSFA) as well as the Sidewise awards. During some slow days at work I even created a spreadsheet with all of them listed. I'm on Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis right now.

I've never been able to get behind Snowcrash. I acknowledge that it's been influential, but it just seems so... Dumb. Like something a 14 year old would think was cool. It also annoys me that he's mentioned in the same breath as Gibson