Looking at the city limits, I don't understand why East Palo Alto isn't called North Palo Alto instead.

I always assumed it was because San Francisco is "North", and East Palo Alto is on the "East" side of highway 101.

It's more East than North of El Palo Alto - the tree Palo Alto is named after.

I have red-green weakness but only saw a lighter green around the circle as it became smaller.

I saw this as well.

Mine's listening for proe-ject instead of prah-ject.

Do you call program “prah-gram”? Do you call pro shops at the golf course “prah shops”? I will die on the proe-ject hill.

I'd never seen the word "subvention" before. Today I learned it's another way to say "subsidy".

It's a europeanism. In both French and German (and probably other EU languages) the word for "subsidy" is something like "subvention" so native speakers of these language often reach for an unnatural word in English.

Btw other examples include "actually" which is used to mean "currently", and "eventually" which is used to mean "maybe".

Personally I'm torn whether to consider this incorrect use of the language as it is quite widespread. Maybe it would be better to consider this as the emergence of a new dialect.

You are correct.

I actually double checked the word "subvention" on google to see if I'm not misspelling it and the results said I was correct. But yes, I used that word because it was direct translation from my language.

Other examples you gave are also correct.

Engrish is hard.

EDIT: as a kicker I will add that while working for BigCo I was resposible for taking care of colleages coming from abroad and the very first thing I was telling them after saying "hello" was "do not ever ask anyone how are you". ;)

One thing that throws me off even after a decade in Finland is people saying “we are ready” or “you are ready” when they mean “done”.

Dinner is ready when it is done. I'm sure there are others in English as well.

Yeah, a thing can be ready to be used/eaten/etc. What confuses me sometimes is, for example, a doctor writing some notes on their computer and then saying to me "now you are ready", meaning that we're done and I can go.

In that context, my response would be "ready for what?"

Dinner being ready, my car being ready (at a mechanic), things like that have proper context that being ready means being done.

I'm an English as single language pleb though

"Eventually" is the worst false friend I think. Because in english it implies certainty while in latin languages it only implies possibility. But since the meanings are so close, it looks legit in context 90% of the time.

"Actually" does look out of place when used in english with the latin meaning so it's safer.

It's probably a new dialect if speakers of it understand each other, and also understand when usages of their dialect are wrong.

European flavored English has existed for a while though since the existence of the EU as an institution has required a lot of English learning and writing as one of its official languages.

English being just one of the official EU languages would not have mattered much. No one is picking up Portuguese or Polish, even though they are also official languages and have been for a long time.

The important fact is that English is the lingua franca of both trade and administration in the EU. People sometimes still learn some French and German, but the vast majority of international EU discussions are in English, both in the EU bureaucracy and in business circles.

> the word for "subsidy" is something like "subvention" so native speakers of these language often reach for an unnatural word in English.

A Google search for subvention turns up government publications from UK, India and South Africa.

Yeah it's a real word but it's not commonly used by native speakers.

Some already consider this a new dialect. It's called Euro English[1]. There are some more examples in that wikipedia article. Not just synonyms, but grammar as well.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_English

Interestingly, it has kind of spread into standard Irish English now, as well. Used very frequently when talking about government subsidies.

Yep it’s “subvención” in Spanish.

oh, and to add to your vocabulary - the word pathetic, especially around Elbonia, can be used with the intention of saying something is full of "pathos".

Are we just lying for fun now?

No it's only HNers and their lack of humour. It's a joke and the hint is "Elbonia".

I'm really sorry, engrish is really hard

here's a list of words that will help you communicate better with Elbonians:

  sympathetic - pleasent
  pathetic - exalted
  eventually - alternatively
  actually - currently
  lecture - reading
  fabric - factory

I've been signing "CHECK ID :)" for several years now and it's only a few times a year that someone notices.

Wait a minute, that sounds like an old friend of mine. Were his initials ŠP?

Not everyone can vote or is registered to vote.

That's a fair point -- justice would require admitting alternate forms of evidence of residence. Maybe receipts from over-the-counter credit card transactions at local businesses could serve.

Yeah, perhaps alternatives like permanent address on a government issued ID would be better. But exceptional circumstances should be the exception; the more exceptions are made, the more loopholes creep in

For the purposes of shaping public policy, shouldn't the focus be on those who can vote? They comprise the body politic, after all.

I would half expect them to sue the computers for obstruction of justice... and then just keep them.

Early thirties here: my friends and I do not call people except for older relatives on occasion. We've kept our phones on vibrate for a decade and a half now.

We do, however, know our own phone numbers, and asking a cute stranger or a new friend for their number is still a thing.

Interesting. I'm in my thirties, too and phone calls between me and close peers are quite common. Business also. Less so, than a decade ago though.

> We've kept our phones on vibrate for a decade and a half now

I get that you prefer not to call people. But why are you less interested in incoming calls (could be important)?

For younger group, you don't generally know or give out your number in the first place for person to person communication, which means that for the rare chances you are expecting, say, a medical call once a quarter or less, it's a scam. I don't know my best friend of 10+ years phone number but I can reach them in multiple ways.

If you're older the ratio probably tips it further into the "likely to be a valid call" I'm guessing.

I receive something on the order of one legitimate call every 5-8 months, everything else is spam/scam. There is absolutely no point in me accepting a call.

A formal phone call is generally synchronous, not asynchronous. It is extremely blocking behaviour and I hate it. Joining a group call with a few friends or even just 1-2 other people on discord or whatever else that you can drop out at any time without notice is a different type of "mood" and completely different set of standards. You can drop in and out in seconds, pop in to say hi and leave while you have your airpods in on while riding bart, , or spend hours just discussing dumb shit, etc.

Not the GP, but my phone is almost always on my desk (when working), on the coffee table (when at home), in my pocket (when out and about), or hooked up to my car giving me music. I only rarely miss a call even though, other than when it's connected to the car audio system, my phone only vibrates when I get a call or message. It's pretty hard to miss. A ringtone would only help if I kept it in a separate room, which only happens when I forget it in the basement gym.

Could be? the signal to noise ratio is something like 1:100, and if it's important they'll leave a message.

At least for me, most incoming calls are spam. If it's important, I will either anticipate it or the caller will leave a voicemail. In the past several months, I think I've received one unanticipated call from a friend.

Very rarely have I found an incoming call to actually be important, unless it's something I'm anticipating (i.e. A callback from a doctor's office)

I'm 40. My parents are the only people who call me ever.