AUstar

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I find white people in New Orleans saying “ax” instead of “ask” super amusing however.

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"Ax" for "ask" is VERY old and predates African-American Vernacular (AAVE). We have evidence that whites in New England said it in the 1700's and it almost certainly came over from England. The same is true of "be" for "is/are/am."

John Neal (an American novelist born 1789) wrote his novels in phonetic vernacular where you can see all of this. He later wrote an article on the funny speech of people in rural Maine (where he was from) during the American Revolutionary days. Here are some words he mentioned:

Afraid was "afeard"
Ask was "ax."
Chair was "cheer" (scare was "skeer")
Concern was "consarn"
Drowned was "drownded"
Fellow was "feller"
Seen was "see'd"
This/those was "this here" or "them there"

And my favorite from Neal. He said American sailors sometimes said "Shiver me timbers." Neal noted this phrase about 60 years before the novel "Treasure Island" was written. So, yes, it was something actually said on both sides of the pond (the author of Treasure Island was a Brit).

This all sounds very hillbilly to us now, and only heard in rural Appalachia. But it was once far more common and normal in early America. Black people have "maintained' some of these old pronunciation quirks because they were always a tight-knit and sort of segregated community. This is common all around the world - rural people often speak in "old" dialects that modern people think are "weird." In reality they are just old.

ATT Fiber 1 gig here. I like ATT because they use XGS-PON which means each node is on 10 gigs, so your neighbors are less likely to slow you down. Many of the municipal fiber companies are still on GPON which is 1 gig shared.

Still I would take any fiber over the cable companies. Fiber is just more reliable because it doesn't need amplifiers or any powered equipment at all between the central office and you. This means there's nothing to "fail" unless someone digs and cuts a cable (or if overhead if a tree falls, etc.)

5 or 7.

6 looks like it has herpes.

I haven't kept up with this much. Has the government rolled out any little green men yet?

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What is the con to common bermudagrass?

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There's dudes on Youtube with amazing common Bermuda lawns. Like this baw:



Of course, he has a reel mower and keeps it short like a golf green. The main disadvantage of common Bermuda is it doesn't look as good as the cultivars if you don't keep it golf green short.

The bottom line is DNA has proved that the ancient Greeks were not African. They have lots of ancient Greek DNA samples from old bones and those samples were wholly European.

So we don't need to rely on modern people to "guess' what the ancient Greeks were - we can dig up their bones and test them directly.

The revolution was mostly fought over land and money. People might disagree, but I think the colonists were most angry at the king for decreeing that there would be no westward expansion.

Ain't no aliens been to earth. They are probably "out there" but

1) They don't know we exist

2) The distances are too vast, especially for biological beings.

The only slim chance is if they have sent out self-replicating probes that have been traveling for millions of years. In other words, if they created AI and it took off doing its own thing. It wouldn't be bound by finite lifespans like biological beings and could travel as long as it wanted. Still, I think such a presence would be obvious and not some secret.

According to AI, there is only one strain of hantavirus that is contagious - the Andean strain. Since the ship left South America, they think that's what this is.

These cruise ships I am sure are pretty diligent about rats, so the person probably got on board sick already.