English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2024-04-25

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1:18 AM

> If foul air attends a sound,
To seek its source just turn around,
We learn this truth in barefoot youth,
And lose our fragrance, but gain couth.

(Jim Reynolds, first two lines)

udio.com/songs/o1Q2DR79F5kZACG8ZTtgZ8

2:12 AM

French of the day: Tolstoï est réduit à l'état de chair à saucisse

Said about the movie fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuits_de_feu

2:49 AM

Pro-Palestine Protesters Are on the Right Side of History

> As far back as 2021, more than one in three young American Jews told pollsters they think Israel is an “apartheid state,” and common sense would suggest that everything that’s happened since then has almost certainly considerably increased that number.

> Jewish students are often the ones for whom the issue feels most intensely personal, given their sense that Israel commits these crimes “in the name” of the Jewish people as a whole

> Future generations will be disgusted by the posture of those who saw millions of Palestinians displaced from their homes and tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians murdered with US weapons — and decided not to join the cease-fire protesters gathering on and off campuses but to smear them

3:10 AM

Baby raccoon learns to swim

3:53 AM

user image

4:28 AM

> The platypus is a mammal but lays eggs, it's duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed and venomous. It has electroreceptors for locating prey, eyes with double cones, no stomach, and 10 chromosomes. It's fluorescent and glows under UV light.

8 hours later…

12:26 PM

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@alphabet Interesting statistic. I wonder if it's true

timesofisrael.com/…

1:03 PM

@CowperKettle Sounds like it's 26% of the Jewish population, but a third of younger Jews. That sounds about right to me; it's a disproportionately progressive population.

1:36 PM

> The survey of 800 voters, conducted by GBAO Strategies from June 28 to July 1 online and via texts, has an overall margin of error of 3.5 percentage points; the replies of those under 40 have a margin of error of 6 percentage points. (The margin of error for the Orthodox subgroup was 11.6 percentage points.)

> Among respondents to the survey commissioned by the Jewish Electorate Institute, a group led by prominent Jewish Democrats,

It's unclear from that description if the selection of respondents is reliably broad... 'US Jewish voters' sounds to me like they've cobbled together some list of registered voters in the US that are Jewish and pushed surveys to them through their cell phone numbers or by email (= 'online'?).

But that's way way better than some optional website that gets promoted virally on twitter. It'd be nice if the newspaper article mentioned the response rate (I may have overlooked that).

@CowperKettle As to plausibility, do you think that is too high or too low?

2:20 PM

According to Pew, 31% of American Jews age 18-34 say Hamas' reasons for fighting Israel are "valid," which seems like a substantially more extreme position, though of course all age groups overwhelmingly disapprove of the 10/7 attacks themselves.

(Nor, of course, do they support Hamas.)

One issue, though, is that this Pew poll only included people who described their religion as Judaism, so it excluded the population of secular Jews.

2:58 PM

@alphabet Nothing is valid when one fights without caring about the cost of innocent human life.

@alphabet or it's not clear if the poll specified religion vs ethnicity

@Vikas Human life has proven to be the cheapest commodity in the world through all of history.

@Robusto Oh, I thought it was oats.

@Mitch Glad I could enlighten you.

@Robusto I learn things here

3:05 PM

That's why we go over this stuff.

There are some tings that are new under the sun.

@Robusto That was my Jamaican accent slipping through.

A: I took my wife on a Caribbean vacation last month.
B: Jamaica?
A: No, she was happy to go.

3:19 PM

The Colditz Story - Three Corney Jokes

B: Where did your wife go?
A: Alaska.
B: What, you mean you don't know?

A: You my main man.
B: Actually, I'm from Illinois.

@Mitch They stole that from me.

@Robusto Goddam time travellers

inorite

4:30 PM

@Robusto 🤔

@Mitch 🤔

@Vikas 'Jamaica' sounds like 'Did you make her?'

@Vikas 'Alaska.' sounds like 'I'll ask her.'

@Mitch Damm!

@Mitch Damm!

Only natives would understand it, I think.

So what country is "my main"?

5:16 PM

@Vikas Maine -> main

Maine ( MAYN) is the easternmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and northwest, respectively. Maine is the largest state in New England by total area. Of the 50 U.S. states, it is the 12th-smallest by area, the 9th-least populous, the 13th-least densely populated, and the most rural. Maine's capital is Augusta, and its most populous city is Portland, with a total population of 68,408, as of the 2020 census. The territory...

@Vikas the fictional magical place where Stephen King novels happen

If your mother country is "my main" you must be french (maman)

@MetaEd Or "my hand" ...

@alphabet well didn't they call Chomsky a self-hating Jew?

@Mitch it would have been more acceptable for each side to burn each other's oats

@jlliagre Brendan?

5:48 PM

@Robusto I see you want to discuss this mano a mano

6:12 PM

@MetaEd I was just trying to give you a hand.

6:29 PM

Is Jonathan Haidt Right About Social Media Rewiring Kids' Brains??

Man, they made a sequel faster than Marvel churns them out

@Vik a question: Why are Indians so insistent on using crores? Is it of some cultural significance?

Well, I mean Indian media

7:04 PM

@M.A.R. Yes, that's the standard antisemitic slur used against Jewish supporters of Palestine.

More or less the Jewish equivalent of "race traitor."

@alphabet Ouch.

Wordle 1,041 3/6

🟨🟩⬛⬛🟨
⬛⬛🟨🟨⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

7:27 PM

@M.A.R. Because they lakh another word.

@alphabet a race traitor sets booby traps for the runners behind them

@Mitch I just set myself up for that one

It'd make sense if it's something like toman vs. rial.

Their difference used to matter in trading, but thanks to decades of inflation, everything costs several powers of ten of rials or tomans.

So 10 M rial is 1 M toman. Everyone uses tomans since they're more convenient, and rial is only reserved for official stuff, like bank deposits and such

A US dollar is 600 000+ rials.

The Iranian rial is worth less than oats, or human life.

2

I mean 10,00,00,000 is just bloody confusing

7:51 PM

@M.A.R. 🎉

Yeah I can never remember which is which and my mind explodes when they say 100 crore lakh

@Robusto I've heard that more than once, that the blindingly obvious effect of social media on mental health (that everyone including myself believes is strongly negative) has no actual experimental evidence.

eg Watson points out that thoughwe all experience 'addictive' behavior (like spending way too much time flipping from video to video over and over til hours have gone by), that 'addictive' behavior' doesn't seem (there is no experimental evidence) to have the same additional negative behaviors associated with addiction, like petty crime or STDs or ER visits.

@M.A.R. Joe!

@M.A.R. At that level of inflation, one wonders why anyone has "bank deposits."

except for those couple of people who were taking videos of themselves at the Grand Canyon and they backed up too far and fell in.

#WhenTaken #58 (25.04.2024)

I scored 822/1000 🎉

1️⃣ 📍 5 km - 🗓️ 11 yrs - ⚡ 182 / 200
2️⃣ 📍 1478 km - 🗓️ 2 yrs - ⚡ 158 / 200
3️⃣ 📍 524 km - 🗓️ 22 yrs - ⚡ 131 / 200
4️⃣ 📍 545 km - 🗓️ 4 yrs - ⚡ 180 / 200
5️⃣ 📍 794 km - 🗓️ 5 yrs - ⚡ 171 / 200

https://whentaken.com

@jlliagre Mama?

@alphabet everyone is getting poorer, but on the upside we're sticking it to the great Satan

8:01 PM

@M.A.R. Yo!

@M.A.R. If you break down the constituent elements of the human body, it would pay you about $9.

If you break down into organs and sera and marrow and complex chemicals, it's about $1M.

If you leave it whole and tie it up to an Amazon order processing assembly line, it's $0.000835 per barcode line per nanosecond.

It adds up.

@Mitch I haven't yet been presented with any compelling evidence that half of psychiatry is not made up

@M.A.R. I think psychiatry would teach me enough to allow me to parse that sentence.

I mean, I'm still not all that sure what addiction really is.

I'm addicted to food.

8:08 PM

Physical dependence makes sense

Psychological dependence makes less sense.

I get the heebie jeebies if I don't have any for a while.

If it's tickling the reward centers, yeah, food does that too

Heebie Jeebies are these little candies you get at the movie theater.

If it's withdrawal symptoms, there's plenty of drugs that are associated with them but are not 'addictive'.

like caffeine?

8:09 PM

No caffeine addiction is totally a thing

I mean, purportedly

Oh.

Any other example then?

There are plenty of drugs that sedate you and kill your pain, and they have withdrawal symptoms, but are not considered addictive.

Gabapentin, for example.

We have this recurring customer that was feeling pretty upset since he was thinking he's an addict for needing loads of gabapentin, but well, if he doesn't take any, his neuropathic knee pain would return

And, well, he talkes like an addict. At ×1/2 speed.

He's sedated throughout the day because of his gabapentin dose

"Love your enemies. They'll go crazy trying to figure out what you're up to."

@Robusto Gotta hand it to ya then.

@M.A.R. OK got it.

I mean I understand. I don't got any gabapentin. If that wasn't clear.

8:33 PM

@M.A.R. I've heard you get a headache if you stop abruptly?

Not really a Trainspotting situation.

More like Traincatching-on-time-but-someone-who-talks-loud-sits-next-to-you

@M.A.R. Apparently the new Ukraine bill puts more sanctions on Iranian oil for...some reason. Probably to help Biden's reelection campaign.

8:53 PM

@M.A.R. Every now and then I swear off coffee, and in 72 hours I'm a new man. Trouble is, the new man wants a cup of coffee.

@alphabet they think it'll stop the drones, but really it'll mean that, for some inscrutable reason, transplant drugs will become scarce again

@Mitch well it's of course not gonna be as bad as alcohol withdrawal

Which is the only withdrawal that can kill you pretty easily if left untreated, BTW

Opiate withdrawal really sucks but you won't die from it unless you're really dehydrated

@Mitch I've gotten headaches from coffee withdrawal, but mainly I just get fatigue.

9:13 PM

#WhenTaken #58 (25.04.2024)

I scored 846/1000 🎉

1️⃣ 📍 2 km - 🗓️ 1 yrs - ⚡ 199 / 200
2️⃣ 📍 1146 km - 🗓️ 7 yrs - ⚡ 158 / 200
3️⃣ 📍 525 km - 🗓️ 9 yrs - ⚡ 171 / 200
4️⃣ 📍 537 km - 🗓️ 6 yrs - ⚡ 177 / 200
5️⃣ 📍 1080 km - 🗓️ 14 yrs - ⚡ 141 / 200

https://whentaken.com

@jlliagre I can't seem to stay away from this for long.

That and caffeine

Delirium tremens

Delirium tremens (DTs; lit. 'shaking frenzy') is a rapid onset of confusion usually caused by withdrawal from alcohol. When it occurs, it is often three days into the withdrawal symptoms and lasts for two to three days. Physical effects may include shaking, shivering, irregular heart rate, and sweating. People may also hallucinate. Occasionally, a very high body temperature or seizures (colloquially known as "rum fits") may result in death. Alcohol is one of the more dangerous drugs to withdraw from. Delirium tremens typically occurs only in people with a high intake of alcohol for more than a...

@M.A.R. Indeed. It's amazing what a pick-up I get from caffeine when we stop for coffee on a long (50+ miles, 80+ km) ride.

A fourth level wizard spell

TIL about geocaching.

I mean, it sounds fun.

Until someone starts cheating of course.

There's always a cheater.

@M.A.R. so I take it, as far as dying from withdrawal, heroin is better than alcohol.

9:28 PM

Yeah. Clonidine withdrawal can kill you too, by raising your blood pressure to insane levels.

Bzd withdrawal can cause seizures

Multi-drug abusers use Bzd as a downer so they'd be able to 'feel' the next shot of coke again

@M.A.R. furiously taking notes

Otherwise people who misuse bzd's (the definition being that they take higher doses than their prescriptions indicate due to dependence) are unlikely to feel really severe withdrawal symptoms, mostly just a bit of hand tremor and agitation

Bzd = benzos?

Benzodiazepines. Xanax, Valium, the like

Xanax is way more addictive than Valium

Prozac?

9:33 PM

Since it's shorter acting and more potent

@Mitch that's an SSRI. Quitting it will cause withdrawal symptoms but they're not addictive, it's just that standard protocols require months of treatment

The typical attitude is actually not wanting to take Zoloft or Prozac: They're a constant reminder to the depressed person that they're sick and abnormal

@M.A.R. make it an addictive to the water supply

@M.A.R. I can't imagine anything less appealing that stops short of actual physical pain or other abuse.

All these hikers and mountain climbers when they get to the top of the mountain sit down and curl into a ball and wonder what it's all for

Since Prozac has a very long half-life in the body, it may be "self-tapering" for some people: They wouldn't have any noticeable withdrawal symptoms since the drug is being very very slowly excreted despite being abruptly stopped

@M.A.R. what is BZD?

9:39 PM

Benzodiazepines

Depressants

@Robusto really? How so?

@Mitch Like Xanax?

@M.A.R. Wandering around searching for the meaning of life only without meaning and very little life.

@Robusto yes. @M.A.R. spelled it out above

I mean, Pokemon Go stole that idea, right?

@Robusto you mean made it better!

9:41 PM

@Mitch if I were a mountain climber I'd do that without the antidepressants. It's literally Sisyphean

@M.A.R. OK, I suppose it's something to do on your way to the grave.

@Mitch anxiolytic is the word you're looking for

They're also muscle relaxants. And effective antiseizure drugs (which is why severe withdrawal can cause seizures)

And the greatest thing about them is they don't depress your respiratory centers, so they're not lethal even in crazy overdoses

However, most cases of Bzd poisoning are not due to Bzd's alone. One example I already mentioned is them being used by multi-drug abusers. Overdosing on heroin or meth or coke will be fatal if untreated

The most dangerous drugs that are still around are tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs).

They will in overdose cases induce seizures, slow heart rates to a stop, block conduction in the heart, lower blood pressure to dangerous levels etc.

And they're available in doses that make an overdose possible with just a few pills.

Anafranil, for example.

Araucaria - Him

@XanderHenderson "Jewish-serving" <-- I don't understand what that means as a UK person. What does "Jewish-serving" mean?

Xander Henderson

9:57 PM

@Araucaria-Him In US law, there are a number of carve-outs and funding streams for institutions which are [x]-serving. E.g. Title V provides funding for institutions which are "Hispanic serving", which is a designation that can be obtained by institutions which have a student body that is at least 25% Hispanic.

A similar "non-Tribal, indigenous-serving" category exists for institutions which have a student body that is at least 20% native.

@XanderHenderson Does Brandeis have that sort of funding? I'd only heard about it for HBCUs.

Xander Henderson

So the idea of an institution being [x]-serving roughly comes down to the proportion of students at the institution from group [x], relative to the size of that group's population in the general public.

The HBCU designation is again different---that is not about being "black serving", but about being explicitly dedicated to the education of black people prior to the 1960s (indeed, Brandeis is, perhaps, more philosophically like an HBCU, in that Brandeis was explicitly established with a Jewish world-view in mind).

In any event, when I used the phrase "Jewish serving", the intention was to highlight that the Jewish population at Brandeis is disproportionate to the Jewish population in the US, and by a significant degree (i.e. more than an order of magnitude, in this case).

@alphabet Brandeis is a private institution, so I doubt it gets much by way of federal funding, modulo federally supported loans.

Xander Henderson

10:13 PM

#WhenTaken #58 (25.04.2024)

I scored 936/1000 🎉

1️⃣ 📍 8 km - 🗓️ 4 yrs - ⚡ 196 / 200
2️⃣ 📍 1 km - 🗓️ 2 yrs - ⚡ 198 / 200
3️⃣ 📍 519 km - 🗓️ 2 yrs - ⚡ 182 / 200
4️⃣ 📍 260 km - 🗓️ 9 yrs - ⚡ 178 / 200
5️⃣ 📍 426 km - 🗓️ 5 yrs - ⚡ 182 / 200

https://whentaken.com

user image

Onigiri but bread? I cannot tell whether this is cursed or blessed.

And they cost like 2.5 USD each. Dang.

1 hour later…

11:32 PM

@M.A.R. didn't they used to be called depressants? 'downers'? Valium? I don't know.

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