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Vitaly
Vitaly
00:06
Surely there must be a better tag than russian-usage?
Cerberus
Cerberus
I think Russian is superfluous.
And usage is a bit meaningless.
Vitaly
Vitaly
So I thought (having the same ELU experience as you), but then looked at the actual questions.
Cerberus
Cerberus
I think JSB killed usage on ELU.
@Vitaly The name fits the question?
Vitaly
Vitaly
11
Q: Where outside the former Soviet Union is the Russian language widely used?

Stepan VihorWhere, outside the former Soviet Union, is the Russian language so widely used that the knowledge of the other language in practically not required for traveller etc.? In Ukraine, for example, Russian is so widely used that most of the books are in Russian, and in talk-shows people answer the qu...

russian-usage
8
Q: Is Russian widely known in Georgia?

lechlukaszIs Russian so widely known in Georgia, that one can expect to be able to communicate with people in Georgia in shops, buses, hostels etc.? Older people should know Russian well from the times of Soviet Union, but what with younger people? Is it safe to assume that the knowledge of Russian is eno...

russian-usage
here's hoping that we get someone like JSB…
Cerberus
Cerberus
Who would do such hateful work?
Vitaly
Vitaly
00:10
Not me. I can barely tolerate trying to explain anything in the comments.
5 mins ago, by Vitaly
Surely there must be a better tag than russian-usage?
Not only I'm getting a knee-jerk reaction to it, but it conceivably might prove to be a continual source of misunderstanding in future.
That tag is more than a little ambiguously loaded.
Mahnax
Mahnax
00:29
I would much rather study Russian than Physics right now.
Vitaly
Vitaly
Oh, I'd much rather read about spider toxins than peruse the list of tags right now. Which (the former) I'm going to do.
Mahnax
Mahnax
Sounds like fun!
Vitaly
Vitaly
Hmm. So the mature spider toxin sequence is typically not produced as a “one-off” but rather as a collection of variants that can differ significantly or by as little as one amino acid.
I have to memorize this: seems like a good conversation-starter.
@Mahnax Can you think of an evolutionary advantage it confers?
Mahnax
Mahnax
00:50
Hmm…
If the spider's prey develops a resistance to the toxin, it would take just one slight change in the chemical makeup for the venom to be effective again.
[?]
Oh, wait.
Vitaly
Vitaly
@Mahnax Yes! According to the text I'm reading, such hypermutation allows spiders to 1) optimize toxins with new functionalities 2) target different receptors in multiple species of insect or even differentially spliced versions of the same receptor within an insect.
Mahnax
Mahnax
Oh, cool!
That is actually really interesting.
Cerberus
Cerberus
01:10
@Vitaly Chicks did that.
@Vitaly Right, the basic functions of natural mutations I guess.
Vitaly
Vitaly
01:25
> Although it may be safely said that a tarantula bite is not dangerous to humans, it is usually deadly for dogs (Isbister et al., 2003).
I am not making this up!
I find it interesting that some spiders inject less venom per bite when dealing with small and harmless prey than when dealing with large and aggressive prey.
This implies that the spider knows what kind of prey it is dealing with before the bite.
Which corroborates my hypothesis that spiders are our supreme overlords because, come on, that seems smarter than anything some humans are capable of.
Mahnax
Mahnax
01:42
Spiders are our supreme overlords?
Do you have any other evidence?
Vitaly
Vitaly
Oh, have faith!
Mahnax
Mahnax
OK!
faiths
Am I faithing correctly?
Vitaly
Vitaly
I have to acknowledge that you are faithing with incredible skill. How do you pull this off?
Mahnax
Mahnax
If you focus really hard, squint your eyes, clench your abdominal muscles, and flap your arms as a pigeon flaps its wings, then you can faith like me.
Cerberus
Cerberus
02:02
@Vitaly Why does this surprise you?
@Mahnax What a lovely sight.
Mahnax
Mahnax
@Cerberus Haha.
Cerberus
Cerberus
@Vitaly I do not contest this.
Mahnax
Mahnax
Innit tho!?
Cerberus
Cerberus
You mean innit tho!
Mahnax
Mahnax
Better?
Cerberus
Cerberus
02:05
À la Lauren from the Catherine Tate Show.
@Mahnax Yay!
Mahnax
Mahnax
@Cerberus OK.
Cerberus
Cerberus
So uhm the idea is that we all simply switch to the Russian room from now on?
Mahnax
Mahnax
Sure!
Cerberus
Cerberus
Why?
Mahnax
Mahnax
I'm kidding.
It makes more sense to stick around in the English room.
Cerberus
Cerberus
02:09
Oh I thought you were Very Serious.
Mahnax
Mahnax
No.
Not Very Serious.
Cerberus
Cerberus
Oh.
Mahnax
Mahnax
Sorry to disappoint.

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