And the early mammals escaped extinction by hiding under unconscious dinosaurs.
Q, E, D, kids.
Just for the non-dendrochronologicoliterate - Miyake events are real things, but as far as I’m aware, Miyake Fusa hasn’t been devoured by a tree. Yet.
“Carnivorous tree” didn’t strike me as all that implausible, given the numerous carnivorous plants out there. I did find this paper:
https://www.cell.com/trends/plant-science/fulltext/S1360-1385(01)02140-9
John Klironomos and Miranda Hart of the University of Guelph (Canada) show that a fungus, Laccaria bicolor , which is ectomycorrhizal on pine (Pinus strobus ) can predate on soil-living invertebrates and transfer some of their nitrogen to its host tree. Astonishingly, in some cases, up to 25% of tree nitrogen was derived from the arthropods.
Neat.
Something to do with theology. Hermeneutics is the study of Biblical interpretation.
Hippocampus Oath: By Mnemosyne, I swear to look up Wikipedia or Google Maps only as a last resort
San Simeon Nature Preserve Oath: Hearst, do no farm.
Hyper-sexual Oath: Fist, do no arm.
True. When I’m in Europe, and someone says “Gosh, you are so nice!” I reply “Thanks, I’m Canadian.”
When someone says “Feck off ya fecking idjit!” I say “I can do what I want, I’m American!”
Me: Opens breaker box; 2 dozen neatly typed labels; promptly fall on the floor as adhesives have dried out.
Also: A breaker labeled, “RANDOM”.
The Second Law of Thermo is the one about entropy and the ‘arrow of time’, isn’t it? So if you switch that one off first, there’s no longer any need to worry about ‘first’ and ‘before’ - right?
That’s why somebody invented the Sharpie.
And when in France, speak French as much as possible. The Canadian French accent puzzles them, but gets good service.
As a bonus, if you swear at them, they’ll smile and give you directions to a church!
Angry Scottish accents supercede the porridge test.
I was just wondering the other day if people in France hear the Quebec French accent in a similar way to how Americans hear a Southern accent.
I don’t know that you can analogise. There are definitely differences in vocabulary and idiom, but I’m not in a position to comment. Maybe some of our European posters would be able to.
I can tell this anecdote, however. Clan Piper was on holiday in Paris a few years ago, and there was a little hole in the wall pizzeria place that we patronised near our apartment. After I’d been buying pizzas there for a while, one of the staff asked me in English: “Where are you from? I’ve heard you speaking to your family in English, and it sounds American, but it isn’t. And you speak French with an accent, but it’s not an English accent; it’s different.”
I said that I was Canadian and had learnt my French entirely in Canada; she thought that would account for my French accent, and also that my English accent must have been a Canadian one. (She was British, working in Paris, but must have had a good ear for accents to pick up the differences.)
I think that, in general, when you travel abroad, people appreciate you at least making an attempt to speak to them in their own language. They’re going to be able to tell that you’re a foreigner, so they’ll make allowances for your use of the language being flawed, but they’ll know you’re at least trying.
And I don’t think that I could distinguish between a midwestern American accent and a (non-Quebecois) Canadian accent, and that’s my own native language. That staff member must have had quite the ear for accents, indeed.
I don’t know, there’s just something aboot the Canadian accent where I feel like I’d be able to tell the difference.