Debunking Humor...

External Quote:

Should We Believe Him?
I mean... I guess he has an honest face... but the accent sounds shady.
You're in a minority:
External Quote:
The current study investigated how voice accent and frequency-of-use affected
users' credibility assessments of search results delivered by voice-AI assistants.
Participants, who were native speakers of American English and self-classified
themselves according to how frequently they used voice-AI assistants, listened
to statements produced by neural text-to-speech in either an American English
or British English accent. They then rated the credibility of both the information
content and the voice itself, along several dimensions. Results showed that in
multiple conditions, participants perceived information delivered by British-
accented voices as more credible than that delivered by American English-
accented voices.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/computer-science/articles/10.3389/fcomp.2024.1411414/pdf
Frontiers in Computer Science: /The influence of accent and device usage on perceived credibility during interactions with voice-AI assistants/
Anne Pycha and Georgia Zellou
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2024.1411414

Of course, there's no such thing as a single "British" accent (I think we're *far* more varied than America in that regard), so let's drill down deeper:
External Quote:
This is the most trustworthy accent in the UK, according to a new study

By Lisa JoynerPublished: 22 October 2020

Yorkshire has been crowned as the most trustworthy accent in the UK, with a new study finding it to be 'intelligent' and 'calming'.

The research, which was commissioned by OnBuy.com, asked 2,221 people to listen to 15 British accents and say which they would be more likely to trust in job interviews.

While Yorkshire accents were voted as one of the most pleasing to the ear, in second place with 57% is Received Pronunciation — a dialect most commonly found in Hertfordshire, London, and Kent.

Scottish and Welsh accents took the third and fourth spots, respectively. Participants said they would be more likely to hire someone with the Scottish accent, with many describing it as 'soothing' and 'friendly'.
-- https://www.countryliving.com/uk/news/a34435560/most-trustworthy-accent-uk/

And the relevance, in case no-one's put tan and tan together to make mether:
External Quote:
West grew up in the small town of Bingley, West Yorkshire ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_West
 
Of course, there's no such thing as a single "British" accent (I think we're *far* more varied than America in that regard),
While agreeing that there is a wide array of accents in Britain, I suspect you are underestimating the array of accents in The Big M ('Murica.)

I, for example, am from the South, known for (among other things) grits, okra, wrasslin', NASCAR and "the" Southern accent. But the array of accents in the region is vast -- as there is not one British accent, there is not one Southern accent. It does not take a very discerning ear to recognize whether a person is from Charleston, SC, or New Orleans down in however Looeeziana is spelled (Louisiana, I guess, according to spell check). Well doggies and slap my butt with a possum, there are regional accents across this here state of North Carolina, from the folks in the hollers up in the Smokey Mountains (noted for "you'ns" as a plural of "you) to the folks in the swampier counties to the North East of the state (called the "Hoi Toiders" for their pronunciation of High Tide.

Even in the much smaller than London city of Charlotte,where I live, we have at least one surviving neighborhood accent, the "Mahs Pahk" drawl of the Myer's Park neighborhood, similar to the WIlliam F. Buckley or a more relaxed Katherine Hepburn with a veneer of honeysuckle and magnolia.

I am given to understand that Yankees have a similar thing going on, but who knows what all Yankees get up to?
 
am given to understand that Yankees have a similar thing going on, but who knows what all Yankees get up to?
A Cleveland accent is different from a Pittsburgh accent is different from a Cincinnati accent. Hungarians settled in Cleveland, Germans and Kentuckians in Cincinnati, and I have no idea about Pittsburgh, except that it must be where a lot of Canadians ended up. And then there's Massachusetts... ayup!
 
While agreeing that there is a wide array of accents in Britain, I suspect you are underestimating the array of accents in The Big M ('Murica.)

I, for example, am from the South, known for (among other things) grits, okra, wrasslin', NASCAR and "the" Southern accent. But the array of accents in the region is vast -- as there is not one British accent, there is not one Southern accent. It does not take a very discerning ear to recognize whether a person is from Charleston, SC, or New Orleans down in however Looeeziana is spelled (Louisiana, I guess, according to spell check). Well doggies and slap my butt with a possum, there are regional accents across this here state of North Carolina, from the folks in the hollers up in the Smokey Mountains (noted for "you'ns" as a plural of "you) to the folks in the swampier counties to the North East of the state (called the "Hoi Toiders" for their pronunciation of High Tide.

Even in the much smaller than London city of Charlotte,where I live, we have at least one surviving neighborhood accent, the "Mahs Pahk" drawl of the Myer's Park neighborhood, similar to the WIlliam F. Buckley or a more relaxed Katherine Hepburn with a veneer of honeysuckle and magnolia.

I am given to understand that Yankees have a similar thing going on, but who knows what all Yankees get up to?
I'm not thinking of just having a large variety of subtle differences, heck there's probably a dozen yorkshire accents, and nearly as many estuary ones; distinguishing St. Helens from Liverpool is easy, but everyone would admit they're extremely similar. I'm thinking of *wildly* different accents, so distant you could argue that they were in fact dialects. Do you ever subtitle American TV programs broadcast in America for American viewers? Brits have needed to subtitle British television in British English for British audiences because our accents can be so at least unidirectionally, sometimes mutually, unintelligible. I've experienced this first hand, I've failed to have a conversation in English once because neither party could understand the other. At all. (And given that I speak RP, that came as a surprise to my non-British travelling companions who consider my accent to be one of the clearest they've heard.)
 
Do you ever subtitle American TV programs broadcast in America for American viewers? Brits have needed to subtitle British television in British English for British audiences because our accents can be so at least unidirectionally, sometimes mutually, unintelligible
FWIW, I have in fact seen television programming in America where the Southerners, and where the African Americans, are subtitled...

I've experienced this first hand, I've failed to have a conversation in English once because neither party could understand the other. At all. (And given that I speak RP, that came as a surprise to my non-British travelling companions who consider my accent to be one of the clearest they've heard.)
I've had the same experience with the Hoi Toiders and with folks in rural Louisiana! Though nobody has ever called my accent on of the clearest they've heard -- while I at one time had a decent "Standard American" accent I could use for acting work, I've mostly lost it and sound, I am told, soemthing like Bill Clinton. I don't hear it, but I've been told by overseas friends in particular, more than once...

Something I have seen in my life is the blurring and fading of accents as more folks are exposed to TV /movies earleir and more constantly, and as people migrate around. Most of the Charlotte local accents are pretty much gone, the Mahs Pahk drawl hangs in among old-time neighborhood residents and those who move in and pic it up more-od-less by intent to sound more like proper rich folks... ^_^
 
I've failed to have a conversation in English once because neither party could understand the other. At all. (And given that I speak RP, that came as a surprise to my non-British travelling companions who consider my accent to be one of the clearest they've heard.)
A co-worker of mine was from Yorkshire, and he told me the tale of a man from India, a recent college graduate whose English was impeccable. His company sent him to Yorkshire, and he was crushed to find out that all his studies had not prepared him to communicate with the local people. :)
 
lowering the level of discourse yet again
480564872_1387792315711629_3455010244631974433_n.jpg
 
I can't decide into which of the Calvine threads this important announcement should go, so will post it here, on neutral ground.

After reviewing the leading theories of the case (is it a thing on a string, is it a reflected object half-submerged in water, is it done using a sheet of glass?), and applying a great deal of intelligence and brain stuff like that, I have undertaken to assemble a Grand Unified Theory of the Calvine UFO Case. The answer to all of those questions is "yes," as I think this absolutely undebunkable photograph, possibly the most important photograph ever taken and destined to become a classic, amply demonstrates...
calvine.jpg


Clearly this is how it was done, and we can all relax now.

(Though it has been argued that the Truth is more Out There than I thought, and that the Calvine UFO picture exists in a quantum super-state of possible techniques, and only collapses down to one specific technique when Observed by a Debunker... but that, of course, can be rejected by the serious student of the UFOlogy on the grounds that it is just silly.)

I'm now off to take a quick victory lap, and then to try to get that sliding window unit back on its tracks before the house fills up with birds, bugs, butterflies and other wannabe UFOs...
 
This could be your route back into the movie industry - pretty faces don't last for ever, but practical craftsmanship is always useful. Expect a call from Steven Spielberg some time soon! Practice getting the perspective right so that the bike is way smaller than the moon, that's always one of the tests.
I actually met Spielberg on the set of "The Color Purple," while I was working as an extra. It was the scene where Oprah is teaching the mayor's wife how to drive, and the extras were scattering in panic. It was a two0day shoot because the first day we lost time to a rain storm -- Oprah, Quincy Jones (who did the soundtrack and was visiting the set for some reason), a few other extras and Your Scribner wound up sheltering in an abandoned storefront on the small town street where we were shooting, and conversed about not much and it was all rather pleasant.

Later, I had a chance to visit the Amblin' offices in LA with a delegation of film industry recruiters from NC, and contrived to drop my resume in Mr. Spielberg's office, in the one-in-a-million chance he'd pick it up, think "I like this kid's moxie!" and give me a call. Though one in a million chances are said to pay off nine times out of ten, this was apparently the tenth time and I never heard from him.

Hopefully he's forgotten all about it so when he sees my amazing miniature set construction he won't have a bad taste in his mouth about "that rube who littered in my office." I hear he is contemplating another UFO movie...
External Quote:

In April 2024, it was announced that Steven Spielberg is making a new UFO movie based on an idea of his. David Koepp, who worked with Spielberg on movies like Jurassic Park, will write the script.

The movie will star Emily Blunt, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo, and it will be released in theaters by Universal Pictures on May 15, 2026. Not much is known about the film yet, but Koepp recently teased what fans can expect.
https://www.imdb.com/news/ni65009411/

Edited to include link and quote...
 
I see that Andrew Tate has finally returned to the US.
No one seems to know to what lofty position DJT will appoint Tate.
Some concern that--given the other appointments--Tate is overqualified...
 
I used to be able to identify any episode from the opening FX of whatever planet the Enterprise was orbiting, but then CBS Digital went and replaced the 1960s VFX with CGI versions...

They don't make Eminiar VII like they used to.
I will admit to liking the "remastered" version. They did a decent job of making the effects cleaner with mostly keeping the original aesthetic. And they added some ships that were never on-screen originally due to lacking the budget to make new models and shoot new FX footage. Like the Medusan Ambassador's ship...

tumblr_od3y7uP1jy1rzu2xzo1_400.gif
 
There's a thread Mars Rover captured something interesting, which has some photos taken by the Curiosity rover of some unusual looking rocks. They are interesting, but what some Reddit users thought more interesting was that they could see a Tic-Tac.

Not an exciting, rapidly-manoeuvring Tic-Tac evading David Fravor's F-18, but a very small bit of rock that looked like it had a Tic-Tac shape from some angles.

Along with other users, @deidre posted some useful photos from NASA which clarified that the "Tic-Tac" was, well, a small blob of sticky-out rock, one of many similar structures in that immediate area:

1742053545668.png


But have we debunked this too soon?



1742076257509.png
 
I came across this while looking at Jake Barber's tweets and now I feel everyone else here has to see it too.


Source: https://x.com/TUPACABRA2/status/1888308092146000235


I'm sorry or you are welcome, depending on how you feel about it.

Apropos of nothing, I was at some talk years back where sci-fi author/physicist David Brin said he was part of a government advisory panel dreaming up threats and he said they came up with some meme that could lead to civil unrest/societal collapse if it were to be made public, so he wouldn't say what it was...
 
Apropos of nothing, I was at some talk years back where sci-fi author/physicist David Brin said he was part of a government advisory panel dreaming up threats and he said they came up with some meme that could lead to civil unrest/societal collapse if it were to be made public, so he wouldn't say what it was...
Had he been watching Monty Python recently, specifically the first episode, and imagined that because he had liked the sketch, he was part of it?
 
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