Modern Vespa

But now I have a suitable emoji for when I want to express that I just had a prostate exam. You know, without being overly wordy.

Thank you, world of emojis.

Hot Take: Polarized sunglasses are shit. Not the shit, just shit. Unless you are someone who spends time on the water or in bright snow, polarized sunglasses suck giant donkey balls and the person that convinced you they were great was lying to you. They make everything look like crap and don't provide any other benefit.

One of our cars has a HUD. The other day I left my sunnies in the house and did not realize it until I was on the road. My wife had a pair of sunglasses in the cupholder so I put them on. A few minutes later I'm wondering what happened to the display that's usually visible in the windshield (or floating on the road ahead).

I start messing with the dimmer switch, the lights, scrolling through the menu on the info-system to see if the display was disabled..

Polarized sunglasses.

Maybe I'm just used to them. But what is shit is transition lenses. Work fine outside, but get in a car and they do nothing. I recently got my second pair, supposed to work in a car, but no.

You may be used to them, but do you actually need them?

Quite. I've never worn sunglasses, never felt the need.

I am not arguing against sunglasses, though I suppose they would be less useful in the part of the world where you grew up.

But I know for certain they are useful where you now reside!

They are definitely indispensable on my boat but you missed one more. I use them while flying too, crazy amounts of glare from reflected light up there. No giant donkey balls in the plane or on the boat! 🤣😝

Totally fair, but also (in the grand scheme of things) a pretty niche usage.

Here's my take for today. I've been super busy working on the weekends and my lunch breaks these last two months and haven't had much time to dial in my Malaguti engine build. Yesterday saw a real breakthrough in getting it close. Today was going to be the first real ride and wouldn't you know it, it's raining. I know we need the water here but couldn't it wait till tomorrow? The roads I would be using are slicker than c@# on a gold tooth with the rain so it isn't worth the risk. Oh well, wating again.

I had heard that polarized glasses are problematic for modern aircraft because they do not play well with glass cockpits.

Is this not true?

Yes, some of the avionics will get blurred out like Shebalba's hud. I fly a lot of different general aviation type planes and most of the instruments and radios are not effected. The worst part is coming in for a landing with the sun directly in your face. The windshields are mostly curved plastic and pick up all kinds of glare in the right situation. The polarized lenses have been an asset to me.

My eyes are light sensitive so sunglasses come in useful especially in a pub garden or a BBQ, polarised sunglasses? I have no need for them whatsoever.

Well, it didn't take long for Mr. Stiller to read my mind.

This gave me a chill. And not in a good way, either.

Most transition lenses activate when exposed to UV rays.
Most car windows have UV protection built into the glass.
Since the car windows are blocking the UV rays, the transition lenses think you're inside, and they go back to normal.

I was speaking with an optician recently who said that new ones work differently, but I'd rather pay for a pair of Rx sunglasses and keep them in the car than pay the markup for transition lenses (again) and have them be useless.

The ones I had didn't work when I wore my helmet with the visor down, either. And it didn't matter if I was using a tinted or clear visor, they just didn't transition.

I had my cataracts removed & vision corrected
Any old bifocal reader will do so I can read the dash. I don't like progressive which make me have to move my head to read
I still have trouble with bright light, leading to a variety levels of tinted bifocals & super dark over glasses

I like my transition shield, except when the edges shed strings of coating. The strings will wave in your peripheral vision simulating bugs or eyelash hairs
Nowhere near dark enough

Anyone have strong opinions about the color of the tint for glasses?

I tried green uvex safety glasses instead of goggles off road. Dappled light was seizure inducing, last pair of polarized transitions had sort of a green tint
I like brown/amber, better than blue, straight up grey is always nice

I live in orange county California and ride using sun glasses with a dark tint 🕶️ for sunny/bright days and amber tint or clear 👓 for night riding you can get all three pairs for $10 on Amazon there cheap enough so I buy six pairs at a time they have rubber cushioning around the eyes to keep the wind out so are very comfortable to wear with any helmet there not unbreakable but the lenses are still strong enough to resist stone chips there my go to for the last 34,000 miles and have served me well.
Amber tint cuts the sharp brightness of headlights at night down a little so you can see the lines in the road and what the actual vehicle is when it's coming towards you instead of just two bright lights.

The only problem I have with standard progressive lenses is that they set them up with the distance part above the centerline, and an "intermediate" prescription in the middle. My distance Rx is fairly weak (-1.00 right, -0.75 left). I have no problems with seeing things in the "intermediate" range, I have problems with distance. The first pair of progressives I had were set up in the standard way, and I found that I had to move my head down to be able to see clearly to drive, so I never wore them. The next year, I mentioned that to the optician, and they marked the lenses to have everything shifted down. Yes, that means I lose some of the reading Rx, but that's fairly weak, too (+2.5 each, which ends up being around +1.5 R, +1.75 L after the distance adjustment). The problem is that online eyeglass companies won't do that shift. When I bought a pair from Zenni Optical, they set it at their standard setting. It was just slightly too high, but not as high as my first pair was.

I get almost all of my glasses from Warby Parker, and I go in to a physical location so that the opticians can mark the lenses with my preferences, then I have them shipped to the store, so that we can check them when I pick them up. I've been happy with that process for over 4 years.

I have almost the opposite problem. I have fine distance vision, but need reading glasses. Because of the work I do it's a hassle to put on and take off readers constantly, and I'm always going back and forth between seeing six feet away and reading up close.

I spent the usual $400 for a pair of legitimate prescription glasses and hated them. I was happy when they broke. I need no prescription beyond about a foot, and anything between my eyes and what I'm looking at messes up my vision. That distance has changed a little with age, but I'm even typing on my laptop right now with no need for glasses.

I've been using progressive reading glasses off and on for the last few years, and they seem to fit the bill pretty well. I have a three pack arriving this week from Amazon to replace the scratched up pair I have now.

Eyes are tricky. I've always had excellent vision, and presbyopia drives me absolutely batty.

I could never get behind transition sun glasses. I also kind of think they look silly. I use dark tinted sun glasses only for bright sunny days both on the scoot and in the car. On a long day drive in the car, the dark tint reduces fatigue.

Mine are prescription. I keep both my regular glasses and the dark tinted glasses in my briefcase which goes everywhere with me. It is is cloudy, although bright, I use my regular glasses. On a trip with the scooter, I keep the other pair in the under seat.

Bob Copeland

I'm not sure where the animosity toward polarized sunglasses stems from. I don't wear sunglasses that aren't polarized anymore. I won't go into the science behind them because everyone knows what it is they do, but the effect is glare reduction and in most situations, especially driving, they make vision much clearer.

The only situations where they cause problems is when you are reading through another polarized lens ... a window, gas pump, a calculator or something of that nature. In those cases I remove them. I notice with my polarized lenses I cannot tell if my dash cam is on; I have to look over the lenses. Glare from water, snow, traffic, anything is greatly reduced. Simply tinting glass for sunglass lenses will cut out all visible light without reducing glare. I've found non-polarized lenses actually restrict my vision, and that always bothers me.

I call bullshit. Glare is a genuine issue in a handful of use cases, but it is not so pervasive as to be the primary reason to wear sunglasses in all cases.

My primary problems with polarized sunglasses are (a) they make everything look like shit, and (b) they often black out the screens of LCD displays that themselves use a polarized filter. And a distant (c) is that every tinted rear window on every car looks like it was applied by a posse of clowns.

Notably, polarized lenses do nothing at all to reduce UV exposure.

I loved polarized glasses for fishing and sight casting, and of course they're great in snow. But, yes otherwise not at all needed.

OK - probably already a hot take made by someone else in this thread but...

Tik Tok, Reels, etc are creating a new wave of aquired ADHD in teens and adults.

Picking up where Sesame Street left off.

I have to call BS on that. The real truth is… wait, what the government doesn't want me to know about… is that a dog catching a fish?…

Chris from CLE

There's no need for most people to have sharp pointed kitchen knives, rounded end knives would be just fine for 99% of kitchen tasks, but sharp pointy ones look better!

I guess we have to agree to disagree on this one. I've always found the opposite for point a (which needs more description to understand what you're implying), I agree with point b because that's just how light works and I actually enjoy c. It's a funny side effect.

Thing is, all of my polarized lenses are ALSO UV protective. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Bright sunny driving in the city, they make everything sharper and clearer, and with all the Cybertrucks on the road now, glare reduction is more important than ever.

Have you never looked at vegetation of any kind with polarized sunglasses? Agreed, but the marketing for polarized sunglasses is notoriously deceptive.

They do?

Words with silent letters! Whats the point?

Why what and not wot?
Why lamb and not lam?
Why gnat and and not nat?
Why why and not just y?


Not very efficient use of letters says I

I was just giving everyone the benefit of the doubt. If anyone doesn't, there's the internet. I didn't want to type a tl;dr on how polarization works.

Wait. You've been on the internet and you think that everyone there knows how light interacts with polarised filters?

What about magnets? Do people know how they work?

Bg ltr is cmn fr u.

What is this "internet" of which you speak?

Here you go: https://ssulinguafranca.org/2009/01/09/ask-the-linguist-the-story-of-h-by-dr-jon-aske/

I enjoyed that.

Hi Coddy,

Here is a solution that's been around since 1946:

https://randolphwest.ca/humour/tasteful/maihem/

Maihem in ce Klasrum
by Dolton Edwards
First published 1946

BECAUSE WE ARE STILL BEARING SOME OF THE SCARS OF OUR BRIEF SKIRMISH with II-B English, it is natural that we should be enchanted by Mr. George Bernard Shaw's current campaign for a simplified alphabet.

Obviously, as Mr. Shaw points out, English spelling is in much need of a general overhauling and streamlining. However, our own resistance to any changes requiring a large expenditure of mental effort in the near future would cause us to view with some apprehension the possibility of some day receiving a morning paper printed in — to us — Greek.

Our own plan would achieve the same end as the legislation proposed by Mr. Shaw, but in a less shocking manner, as it consists merely of an acceleration of the normal processes by which the language is continually modernized.

As a catalytic agent, we would suggest that a National Easy Language Week be proclaimed, which the President would inaugurate, outlining some short cut to concentrate on during the week, and to be adopted during the ensuing year. All school children would be given a holiday, the lost time being the equivalent of that gained by the spelling short cut.

In 1946, for example, we would urge the elimination of the soft c, for which we would substitute "s." Sertainly, such an improvement would be selebrated in all sivic-minded sircles as being suffisiently worth the trouble, and students in all sities in the land would be reseptive toward any change eliminating the nesessity of learning the differense between the two letters.

In 1947, sinse only the hard "c" would be left, it would be possible to substitute "k" for it, both letters being pronounsed identikally. Imagine how greatly only two years of this prosess would klarify the konfusion in the minds of students. Already we would have eliminated an entire letter from the alphabet. Typewriters and linotypes, kould all be built with one less letter, and all the manpower and materials previously devoted to making "c's" kould be turned toward raising the national standard of living.

In the fase of so many notable improvements, it is easy to foresee that by 1948, "National Easy Language Week" would be a pronounsed sukses. All skhool tshildren would be looking forward with konsiderable exsitement to the holiday, and in a blaze of national publisity it would be announsed that the double konsonant "ph" no longer existed, and that the sound would henseforth be written "f" in all words, This would make sutsh words as "fonograf" twenty persent shorter in print.

By 1949, public interest in a fonetik alfabet kan be expekted to have inkreased to the point where a more radikal step forward kan be taken without fear of undue kritisism. We would therefore urge the elimination, at that time of al unesesary double leters, whitsh, although quite harmles, have always ben a nuisanse in the language and a desided deterent to akurate speling. Try it yourself in the next leter you write, and se if both writing and reading are not fasilitated.

With so mutsh progres already made, it might be posible in 1950 to delve further into the posibilities of fonetik speling. After due konsideration of the reseption aforded the previous steps, it should be expedient by this time to spel al difthongs fonetikaly. Most students do not realize that the long "i" and "y," as in "time" and "by," are aktualy the difthong "ai," as it is writen in "aisle" and that the long "a" in "fate," is in reality the difthong "ei" as in "rein." Although perhaps not imediately aparent, the saving in taime and efort wil be tremendous when we leiter elimineite the sailent "e," as meide posible bai this last tsheinge.

For, as is wel known, the horible mes of "e's" apearing in our writen language is kaused prinsipaly bai the present nesesity of indikeiting whether a vowel is long or short. Therefore, in 1951 we kould simply elimineit al sailent "e's," and kontinu to read and wrait merily along as though we wer in an atomik ag of edukation.

In 1951 we would urg a greit step forward. Sins bai this taim it would have ben four years sins anywun had usd the leter "c," we would sugest that the "National Easy Languag Wek" for 1951 be devoted to substitution of "c" for "th." To be sur it would be som taim befor peopl would bekom akustomd to reading ceir newspapers and buks wic sutsh sentenses in cem as "Ceodor caught he had cre cousand cistls crust crough ce cik of his cumb."

In ce seim maner, bai meiking eatsh leter hav its own sound and cat sound only, we kould shorten ce language stil mor. In 1952 we would elimineit ce "y"; cen in 1953 we kould us ce leter to indikeit ce "sh" sound, cerbai klarifaiing words laik yugar and yur, as wel as redusing bai wun mor leter al words laik "yut," "yore" and so forc. Cink, cen, of al ce benefits to be geind bai ce distinktion whitsh wil cen be meid between words laik:

ocean now writen oyean
machine " " mayin
racial " " reiyial

Al sutsh divers weis of wraiting wun sound would no longer exist. and whenever wun kaim akros a "y" sound he would know exaktli what to wrait.

Kontinuing cis proses, year after year, we would eventuali hav a reali sensibl writen langug. By 1975, wi ventyur tu sei, cer wud bi no mor uv ces teribli trublsum difikultis, wic no tu leters usd to indikeit ce seim nois, and laikwais no tu noises riten wic ce seim leter. Even Mr. Yaw, wi beliv, wud be hapi in ce noleg cat his drims fainili keim tru.

Sorry, what is that third word supposed to be?
Gah! And that last one. There just doesn't seem to be a pattern....

Lilkly te pnt, h?