I'm American. Ask me anything.

[anothersam]

Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? If so, why? If not, why?

I was going to say yes, because the song has me tending that way

View: https://youtu.be/mlwfGh-SVXw

and it’s one of those triteisms which seems not too off base. However, I’m not sure how to square this with beautiful things which go unseen. The School of Life people are also up in arms: Why You Should Never Say: ‘Beauty Lies in the Eye of the Beholder’.

I wasn’t sure what the School was all about – it sounded like Kool-Aid might eventually be served – so I looked into it and found Alain de Botton, who while not the fount of all wisdom, is a pretty knowledgeable and thoughtful chap. (Also I learned a new word today: mondegreens! Made a new one, too: triteism.) Verdict: nice try.

Depends on whether it is quantum beauty.

The Quantum of Beauty? Rotten Tomatoes rates it Phwoar.

…There is no way to know that what you perceive as the colour red is how I perceive the colour red, the only consensus is that we can both distinguish it.

Time to bring The Dress out of the closet again.

Might yet get that callback for Star Trek

“The brain cannot be accused of epistemic modesty.”

 

[classic33]

If true, what a pathetic town. I really like those simple american place names. ***Gulch is a particular favourite form.

T'is true
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_or_Consequences,_New_Mexico

 

[Shadow]

As this thread seems to have stalled, allowing our fave CC 'Mercan a well-earned rest, I have some fun weird geographical queries relating to your homeland.

If you are standing at the heart of downtown Detroit, MI and walked due south, what is the first country you would come across?

 

[Edwardoka]

As this thread seems to have stalled, allowing our fave CC 'Mercan a well-earned rest, I have some fun weird geographical queries relating to your homeland.

If you are standing at the heart of downtown Detroit, MI and walked due south, what is the first country you would come across?

Without looking, isn't it Canada?

 

[Shadow]

Without looking, isn't it Canada?

Correct.
The city of Windsor, ON is immediately to the south of Motor City.

Next question follows tomorrow.

 

[Blue Hills]

Correct.
The city of Windsor, ON is immediately to the south of Motor City.

Next question follows tomorrow.

Worth an entry in true factoids. My ignorance of US geography goes deep - only recently realised that some states are way north of where I imagined them to be.

 

[Edwardoka]

Correct.
The city of Windsor, ON is immediately to the south of Motor City.

Next question follows tomorrow.

It was an educated guess. I know the border gets extremely funky around the Great Lakes and I knew that Detroit was on a peninsula. I didn't know that it had another half right across the river.

I guess that part of Canada doesn't have any oil

Nor did I know until looking at it now that Michigan is in fact two peninsulas (because few of the inland states are even remotely interesting. Oh look, a square in which they grow corn.)

 

[Drago]

Why are the American media even worse that ours for making stuff up, ignoring inconvenient facts, and driving the narrative to increase shareholder value instead of simply reporting events?

 

[Blue Hills]

Why are the American media even worse that ours for making stuff up, ignoring inconvenient facts, and driving the narrative to increase shareholder value instead of simply reporting events?

Am I allowed to answer?

 

[swee'pea99]

Made a new one, too: triteism

Top neologism dood!

 

[Shadow]

Today's question:

Why would a resident of WA require a passport to travel to any other town/city/place in WA?

 

[Edwardoka]

Today's question:

Why would a resident of WA require a passport to travel to any other town/city/place in WA?

Again, without looking, I'm guessing that there's a USian exclave contained entirely within Canada.

Borders are weird. There's a Mexican town in the USA (or is it the other way around?) because the border was defined along the centre of the Rio Grande which changed course over the years since the border was agreed.

 

[Edwardoka]

Today's question:

Why would a resident of WA require a passport to travel to any other town/city/place in WA?

Looked it up on Google Maps, I was wrong. Point Roberts, WA is on a peninsula south of the 49th parallel, but has no mainland access without crossing the Canadian border.

 

[C R]

Looked it up on Google Maps, I was wrong. Point Roberts, WA is on a peninsula south of the 49th parallel, but has no mainland access without crossing the Canadian border.

There's a Canadian Island on the east coast that has no mainland access to Canada, sort of mirror situation.

 

[Edwardoka]

I wonder if there's enough interest in geographical or boundary oddities to make a thread of them. I like the Saatse Boot or the Catalan town of Llivia surrounded entirely by France. Or the bit of Russia no-one acknowledges.