The Reading Room

2:29 AM

> "I remember the will said 'May God thy gold refine.' That must be from the Bible."
"Shakespeare," Turtle replied. All quotations were either from the Bible or Shakespeare.
- Ellen Raskin, "The Westing Game"

Mithrandir

7:01 AM

@BESW I've read that one! That's the first time I recognized one of your quotes! :P

BESW

@Mithrandir Yey!

Gallifreyan

8:11 AM

Hey, someone from the Russian SO actually thanked me for posting that challenge there:

in Stack Overflow на русском, 1 hour ago, by Nick Volynkin

@Gallifreyan спасибо за ссылку! Очень круто, что Стругацких любят и читают и за рубежом.

> Thanks for the link! It's cool that Strugatskys are loved and read abroad as well.

Thanks for the stars, by the way. My message is still pinned

Mithrandir

@Gallifreyan Now we just have to get them to actually post here.... scheme scheme scheme

Rand al'Thor

9:20 AM

Serial voting reversed :-/

@Skooba, that you?

@Gallifreyan Nice! And not just anyone, but a Russian.SO mod.

Gallifreyan

@Randal'Thor Cheers! His nickname isn't blue for some reason

Oh, it is now

Rand al'Thor

@Gallifreyan Transcript vs main chat?

Nobody's name is blue in the transcript.

Gallifreyan

@Randal'Thor Exactly.

Skooba

12:29 PM

@Randal'Thor Aw, I hope not :(

It should tell me on my profile somewhere right?

Bookworm

1:23 PM

0

Q: Does GRRM have a habit of making meta statements?

One passage from A Dance with Dragons has got me wondering how GRRM leaves clues for his readers. He tried to count the pennies nailed to the old oak, but there were too many of them and he kept losing count. What’s that all about? The Blackwood boy would tell him if he asked, but that would...

george-r-r-martin

DVK-on-Ahch-To

2:34 PM

@Gallifreyan True, though I suspect you know the answer yourself :)

@Gallifreyan - it really is way-too-obvious of an anagram; especially if you know the context

@Gallifreyan re: your answer about Anka/Anechka: one point I was going to make is that the Russian grammatical term for the form is "уменьшително-ласкательное" - it's not only diminutive; but "dimunitive-endearing/affectionate"; the latter being often (though not exclusively) used in romantic context. I don't think the hero's ages are right for the latter to have been a factor but not certain.

DForck42

3:07 PM

mornin

Rand al'Thor

3:36 PM

@Skooba Hmm, I don't know whether votes are still visible to the voter on their profile after they've been reversed. I've never been a serial voter ;-)

Actually I did get some of my votes reversed once, but it was on meta (same user posting a bunch of poll-type answers and I downvoted too many too quickly).

DForck42

@Randal'Thor from what I remember the one time it happened to me, there's no indication of the votes

but, that was 3-4 years ago

Rand al'Thor

@DForck42 Afternoon.

Skooba

@Randal'Thor I thought when I was new over at SFF, and serial voted Slytherincess, it told me somehow....

DForck42

@Randal'Thor :-D

Skooba

but that is like year ago now so memory is vague

DForck42

3:38 PM

@Skooba I think it tells you that your votes were rolled back, but doesn't tell you which

Skooba

@DForck42 yeah, i remember it giving me some notification and possible a meta link to explain why I was a bad boy lol

If that is the case, it didn't happen here

DForck42

@Skooba lol

Skooba

@Randal'Thor Coincidentally real life got in the way shorty after I got my Electorate and my voting has lessened.

Rand al'Thor

@Skooba Who are you calling Shorty? :-P

Skooba

@Randal'Thor I don't know, but apparently we need to Get him....

DForck42

3:43 PM

@Skooba be cool...

Skooba

@DForck42 you better stop, or my mom will shoot

DForck42

@Skooba I dunno that one

Skooba

@DForck42 i went for the Stallone angle.

DForck42

@Skooba ahh

Skooba

DForck42

3:46 PM

lol

Gallifreyan

5:01 PM

@DVK-on-Ahch-To I'm afraid I don't. I tried googling РБИА or РБА, but it was all unrelated. And my age didn't allow me to have witnessed any of the Soviet political stuff, so this question, shall it be asked, would be left entirely to you.

@DVK-on-Ahch-To Regarding your comment - I tried to convey that in my answer, but my English vocabulary constrained me. Also, I think it would be more likely that Anton would have some sort of romantic feeling towards Anka, since they seem to be similar in some ways, and he clearly likes her. Pavel seems to busy playing pirates.

@Randal'Thor I congratulate you for prompting a thoughtful book discussion involving knowledge of Russian language and culture after only having read the prologue :P

DVK-on-Ahch-To

5:19 PM

@Gallifreyan Ah OK. If someone asks it, I do have an answer.

Gallifreyan

@DVK-on-Ahch-To @Randal'Thor you heard the man!

Bookworm

5:48 PM

0

Q: Recommend a short story during the realism period

This is not a question. Can you recommend a short story(1-15 pages if possible) that was written during the realism period(Ca 1830-1860) and is realistic. Thank you.

short-stories

Gallifreyan

@Bookworm Yay, our first recommendation question!

DForck42

@Gallifreyan lol

Gallifreyan

6:21 PM

yawn

DForck42

@Gallifreyan yup

Gallifreyan

No Hard to be a God questions today :(

DVK-on-Ahch-To

6:40 PM

@Gallifreyan You can ask too :)

Gallifreyan

@DVK-on-Ahch-To Numerical modeling homework :(

DForck42

6:54 PM

@Gallifreyan fun

Gallifreyan

@DForck42 Not so much when it's not working.

DForck42

@Gallifreyan :(

what're you using?

Gallifreyan

@DForck42 MATLAB

DForck42

@Gallifreyan ahh, I've never had to play with that

Bookworm

2

Q: Where did Saruman know Frodo from?

Near the end of The Return of the King, the last Volume of the Lord of the Rings, the hobbits return to the Shire. There, they meet up with Saruman and his follower Grima (Wormtongue). When Grima attempted to slay Frodo, failing because of the Mithril coat, Frodo replies, 'No, Sam!' said Fr...

j-r-r-tolkien the-lord-of-the-rings

DVK-on-Ahch-To

7:17 PM

@DForck42 You keep using that word "fun". I don't think it means what you think it means :)

DForck42

@DVK-on-Ahch-To lol

maybe I should put it as fun /s

Gallifreyan

@DVK-on-Ahch-To in the matlab case it's

function xdot = orbits(t, x0)

Mithrandir

Kids my age are strange.

EspEspecially onlkonline

UhUh okoh

ItsIt's deadead agagain

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@Mithrandir I typically find people of ALL ages strange. Online or off

DForck42

someone reboot the @Mithrandir robot

DVK-on-Ahch-To

7:28 PM

@DForck42 Only Eru Iluvatar has permission to reboot @Mithrandir

4

Mithrandir

in The Singularity, Jan 2 at 13:52, by Henry WH Hack v2.0

!!/update @Mithrandir now

@DVK-on-Ahch-To annoying Balrog...

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@Mithrandir I always imagined that those two were drinking buddies back in Mayar days :)

Mithrandir

@DVK-on-Ahch-To I can't tell you...

Breach of Maiaship.

DForck42

@Mithrandir what does breaching your ship have to do with telling us about the thing?

Mithrandir

@DForck42 Secret

DForck42

7:39 PM

@Mithrandir you're a secret

Mithrandir

@DForck42 exactly

DForck42

@Mithrandir exactly what?

Mithrandir

@DForck42 how'm I supposed to know? :P

DForck42

@Mithrandir well you're supposed to be some divine spirit or something

figured you'd know better than me

Mithrandir

Ugh.

DForck42

7:58 PM

@Mithrandir ehh?

Mithrandir

@DForck42 keep pasting the wrong thing.

DForck42

@Mithrandir ahh

Rand al'Thor

8:40 PM

@Gallifreyan Thanks :-D

Gallifreyan

@Randal'Thor Seriously, that's a loot of thinking for just ~10 pages

Rand al'Thor

@Gallifreyan @DVK Unfortunately Gilles already gave me the answer to the direct question of "what's the anagram reference?" But I could still post something along the lines of "how is Don Reba meant to represent the real-world figure, beyond the similarity in their names?", in the hope of some insightful character analysis.

Gallifreyan

And to think...

yesterday, by Rand al'Thor

Actually I didn't realise that would be so assumption-explodey for lit analysis. All I was trying to do was move away from the SFF mentality of overanalysing every little unimportant detail.

@Randal'Thor huh, where?

Who is it?!!!

Rand al'Thor

@Gallifreyan Urgh, numerical modelling. You should come to the dark side and do pure maths ;-)

Gallifreyan

@Randal'Thor It's pretty dark in here - my deadline is Wednesday, and my two planets just won't orbit each other.

Doesn't look good

DForck42

8:46 PM

@Gallifreyan needs more gravity

and more giffy

Shokhet

And suddenly, one of my top tags (tied for first place [but caching]) belongs to a book I've never read.

DForck42

@Shokhet lol

Rand al'Thor

@Gallifreyan Spoilers, sweetie.

@Shokhet Welcome to my world.

Gallifreyan

@Shokhet Sounds like my IB Language A1 presentation :D

b_jonas

literature.stackexchange.com/q/2224/139 "Was the sealed letter ordering Hamlet's death a Biblical reference?" should really need an answer from someone who is actually familiar with Shakespeare's work and the background on it.

Like, you know, a literature expert.

Of which we have too few.

Rand al'Thor

8:58 PM

@b_jonas It's got a pretty good answer already, IMO. But if you want to find a Shakespeare expert, @JoshuaEngel implied that he's directed various Shakespeare plays.

b_jonas

@Randal'Thor I hope he or other Shakespeare experts will find the question from its tag.

Shokhet

@Randal'Thor Wait, you never watched Star Wars? :0

Also, because of its popularity, those questions/answers probably get an inordinate amount of eyes/votes

b_jonas

@Shokhet top tags! with 9 reputation! and people look at me funny if I'm not answering questions about the Dark Lord anymore because I don't want [voldemort] to become my second bronze tag badge.

Rand al'Thor

@Shokhet Why would I watch that rubbish? :-)

@Shokhet True, but still. 50 answers.

Shokhet

@Randal'Thor Why would you answer the questions, then? :p

Gallifreyan

9:00 PM

@Randal'Thor Link that Tucker video :)

b_jonas

I think there are also people who don't watch Star Trek but have several answers in it. I only have two.

Shokhet

@b_jonas Well, the site is still pretty new (and I'm a newer user than many here)

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@Randal'Thor Sure it's a good Q

Rand al'Thor

@Shokhet I used to care more about rep.

Shokhet

@b_jonas Aren't you trying to burninate [voldemort]?

Is that why?

Rand al'Thor

9:02 PM

@b_jonas I got a bronze star-trek tag badge before starting to watch any Star Trek.

Shokhet

@Randal'Thor But now you're a moderator, and that's beneath you? ;-p

@Shokhet Or am I confusing you with someone else in Mos Eisley?

b_jonas

@Shokhet Not really. It's that I don't want it to seem like dark magic is all I'm interested in.

Shokhet

@b_jonas That's fair.

b_jonas

It would be OK if I could get bronze badges in other tags first, but [voldemort] is leading by far.

Rand al'Thor

@Shokhet I stopped caring so much about rep (slightly) before running for mod.

Shokhet

9:04 PM

~~@b_jonas~~ He Who Shall Not Be Named, is truly an expert in dark magic. All shall tremble before his might!

Rand al'Thor

@b_jonas Ask @DVK about his collection of HP and SW tag badges ;-)

<afk>

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@Randal'Thor Just check "On the site, I have tag badges in the following tags." in my SFF profile

Shokhet

@Randal'Thor I was mostly kidding, but it's interesting that I was (partly) correct about the correlation.

DVK-on-Ahch-To

> darth-sidious,darth-vader,horcrux,sith,voldemort, and severus-snape Also, 1-2 answers away from death-eaters and kylo-ren.

This is minorly counterbalanced by having a bronze jedi badge and gold harry-potter badge.

Shokhet

@DVK is eeeeeevil!

3

DVK-on-Ahch-To

9:07 PM

@Shokhet I prefer to use the term "powerful"

Shokhet

But seriously, that is an impressive list.

b_jonas

Whereas The Dark Lord has an [albus-dumbledore] bronze badge, because he studies the ways of his enemies now.

Very good idea.

(Worked out well for Saruman too.)

And Slytherincess has a [voldemort] and [horcrux] badge.

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@Shokhet Just to be clear, they are all bronze tag badges (my only gold tag ones are harry-potter and star-wars and the-force-awakens and silver star-trek)

Shokhet

@DVK-on-Ahch-To Even so

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@Shokhet Legendary and the gold The-Force-Awakens are probably two I'm most proud of. I would be proud of 8 "great answer" ones but in my opinion, HNQ basically makes this a meaningless badge, as are most rep based ones at this point.

Bookworm

9:25 PM

0

Q: What pen did George Orwell use?

Not sure if this is the right place to ask but is it known what pen/pencil did George Orwell use to write?

george-orwell

Rand al'Thor

10:27 PM

@DVK-on-Ahch-To @Gallifreyan Done: literature.stackexchange.com/q/2238/17

Bookworm

0

Q: What parallels can be drawn between Don Reba and Beria?

From the afterword of Hard to be a God: On the advice of I. A. Efremov, we renamed the Minister of the Defense of the Crown Don Reba (he had previously been Don Rebia—an overly simple anagram, in the opinion of Ivan Antonovich.) -- 2015 translation While I enjoy anagram puzzles, I wasn...

character-analysis russian-literature strugatsky-brothers hard-to-be-a-god

Shokhet

11:18 PM

@DVK-on-Ahch-To Those are pretty impressive badges. I wish I had those

Rand al'Thor

11:50 PM

@DVK-on-Ahch-To Especially since you got the gold TFA badge in the space of, what, a month? after the film came out and the questions started being asked.

Meanwhile, over on Puzzling, I now have the only gold tag badge and 60% of all silver tag badges ever awarded :-)

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