this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
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Bonus points if there's a known onomatopoeia to describe the sound.

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 8 months ago (8 children)

"Myrornas krig"

"The war of the ants"

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

This goes so fucking hard

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Nothing more fancy in Boston than "snow".

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Yeah that's a common one, I wonder if it would seen as more or less commonly like that depending on how cold the local climate is.

[–] alquicksilver 8 points 8 months ago

California, here, and not any of the parts that get snow. (Closest we get is hail, which feels like it happens maybe twice a decade.) We called it "snow," too. :)

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[–] p0ppe 50 points 8 months ago

War of the ants

[–] [email protected] 46 points 8 months ago

We called it static.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What prompted this question is some Japanese TV service ended this past weekend for a relative and the word to describe the static noise was "sand storm".

Thought it might be interesting to hear what it's called elsewhere.

[–] lettruthout 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

So Japan still uses analog broadcast TV? Maybe it's different for other US TVs, but since the switch to the digital broadcast system my TVs show black when a channel is not available. Snow has gone the way of the old test pattern of years ago.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Schneesturm (snow storm) or Ameisenkrieg (ant war) in German.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago

We always called it Ameisenfußball (ant soccer).

[–] orgrinrt 7 points 8 months ago

Had the exact same two in my childhood and youth in Finland. Probably some nuance differences in language, but semantically very similar ones! Muurahaissota and lumisade πŸ•Ί

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[–] Anticorp 27 points 8 months ago
[–] [email protected] 23 points 8 months ago (1 children)

"the war of the ants" (myrornas krig)

/Sweden

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Know the term β€˜Ants Soccer’, quite similar (Germany)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Ameisen Fußball? Never heard of that, super cool

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Always called it "Ant races"

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Snow or static. It's cosmic microwave background radiation - the remnants of the big bang.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago

Some of it is cosmic background radiation - it's also machine vibrations, manufacturer defects, power line radiation, and nearby appliances. The more remote and well shielded you are the more likely it's pure background radiation... but in a big city it's likely to be local radiation sources. The inverse square law has a big role here.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That's cool. Something like "flickering", I would guess?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago

Yeah, pretty much. It's danish btw πŸ™‚

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (3 children)

In Poland it was β€žΕ›nieΕΌy” (snowing).

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[–] robocall 17 points 8 months ago
[–] z00s 16 points 8 months ago (1 children)

We called it the "Chinese rice fight"

...the 80s was a different time lol

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Back in the days when we all had antennas and cable hadn't been born yet, the static stations were a great thing to watch if there might be a tornado in your area. Apparently if one formed, it would significantly change the look of the snow on the TV and give you a warning to quickly head to the basement. I never actually saw it happen, but there were a couple times we had local warnings and my parents plopped me down to keep an eye on the TV.

[–] andrewta 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Never heard about this. Interesting tid bit.

I remember getting our first tv about 1982 I think.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I actually started questioning whether this was something my parent's told me to keep me busy, but turns out it's a real thing.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

Dreh die Antenne nach links, ich krieg nur rauschen hier unten.

It would be white noise, β€œweißes rauschen”, but nobody ever said the β€œwhite” part.

[–] tacosplease 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Static or Snow where I grew up in the US Southeast

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

In Chiba city, it is described as "The sky above the port"

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

The sky above the port.

[–] Daerun 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

Salt and pepper fight!

[–] 13esq 10 points 8 months ago

UK here, we just called it static.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

'Sneeuw' in the Netherlands.

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[–] reddig33 9 points 8 months ago

No. But I did learn that if you put your sunglasses over one eye and look at it, it makes a trippy 3D motion effect.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

In Croatia, we call(ed) it 'snow' (snijeg).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Yea white noise and static

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

"Bures" -- javanese

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

sssssssss - dumbass kid

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

We called it "flies" or "snow".

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

We call this "fleas" in my language

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Salt and pepper fight!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

In China we call it snow and describe the sound using the exact onomatopoeia as rain

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Polish: Ε›nieg (snow) or kasza/kaszka/kaszana (groats)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

In Poland we say that it's show or it's snowing.

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