English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

11:00 PM

@RegDwigнt Only your closest friends?

Færd

@tchrist Is there anyone there to take care of them?

@tchrist Haha, yes.

@Færd Kind of.

Good then.

@Cerberus Yes. Only the people I have personally offended on the Internet, and only in the last week.

tchrist

11:00 PM

But it's a fragile thing, very fragile. Single point of failure.

Færd

True. That's why they and the few people that they have to interact with should be extremely cautious.

@RegDwigнt Make it a Skype party and invite how many you want.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus nah, Rob earlier provided the asterisk that it's only Europeans from countries that don't have golf courses.

@Færd for a split second there I sat contemplating whether I'd prefer Skype to corona.

Færd

Hahahaha

There are better apps too, if it helps with the decision.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Oh, only those. For my party, I was planning to invite only those who are wrong on the Internet.

RegDwigнt

It's 2020 and I still cannot make video calls of any variety. I know a few people who likewise can't. It's just not something we can possibly do. Not just unconfortable, genuinely distressing.

Cerberus

11:04 PM

@RegDwigнt I saw that. Still more right than wrong.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus there's more than eight of those.

Or did you misspell "right".

That would have been a good joke.

Cerberus

Over 9000?

At some point, there were exactly 9000 official cases in Iran, I think?

It made me think of you.

RegDwigнt

People always think of me in times of great tragedy.

Cerberus

Fondly or to curse you?

tchrist

This unchecked cases *= 10 each and every week is really going to eat everybody's lunch. It's too fast a freight train as they say.

Already is, in some cases. We're all little more than a week behind each other, like little ducklings walking the plank.

RegDwigнt

11:15 PM

@Cerberus I enforce no guidelines on that.

tchrist

Wait, how can both stocks AND bonds tank at the same time?

Cerberus

Noted.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist because only one is the corona, and the other is them Saudis and Russians.

tchrist

It's the last thing I'm worried about, trust me, but I surely do not understand it.

oh

Thanks.

RegDwigнt

Russia is always the answer.

tchrist

11:16 PM

Putina Arabia.

Put in a rabia, the dogs are gaining on us.

RegDwigнt

Reminds me of a wonderful song from my childhood.

Олег Газманов Путана

►

Cerberus

@tchrist The yield on German bonds has decreased again, so that people lots of people are buying them.

tchrist

Italy yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Cerberus

So people are fleeing the stock market and into bonds.

At least German ones.

tchrist

@Cerberus That's what you would expect.

Cerberus

11:22 PM

It is what is happening.

tchrist

That's a fresco by Luigi Vacca depicting the plague of 1630, BTW.

Cerberus

> LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Two-year bond yields in Germany were back below minus 1% on Thursday

People have to pay a 1% interest rate if they buy two-year German bonds.

tchrist

> While most investors have been focused on the rapid decline in the stock market, which had its worst day since the crash of 1987 on Thursday, a different drama is going on behind the scenes on Wall Street — potentially with bigger implications for the economy.

The swift, global spread of the coronavirus has chipped away at one of the cornerstones of the financial system: the vast market for bonds, where companies and governments go to borrow money to fund operations. Wall Street banks, as well as sophisticated investors such as pension funds and hedge funds, trade these bonds, including …

Cerberus

@tchrist Well, American bonds have never been among the safest.

All I can tell you is that German bonds are doing very well (for the German government).

RegDwigнt

@tchrist I wonder what the appropriate painting for the US would be.

Why maybe this one.

Cerberus

11:25 PM

> In Italy, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak in Europe, the 10-year bond's yield gap over Germany on Monday blew out 50 bps -- the biggest widening of the spread in a single day since May 2018.

Other sovereign bonds' spreads over Germany have also widened.

RegDwigнt

De grote vissen eten de kleine (tekening)

De grote vissen eten de kleine is een pentekening van de Zuid-Nederlandse schilder Pieter Bruegel de Oude, die zich in het Albertina in Wenen bevindt. == Voorstelling == Het stelt een oude man voor die een klein jongetje wijst op een enorme vis met in zijn bek en in zijn maag een grote hoeveelheid kleinere vissen, die op hun beurt weer nog kleinere vissen in hun bek hebben. De tekening diende als model voor een gravure van Pieter van der Heyden. Deze gravure is getiteld de Verdruckinghe der armen met als ondertitel De rijcke lieden verdrucken u door gewelt. Deze titel is ontleend aan het evangelie...

Cerberus

This, too, makes sense: people flee into safe bonds. Which have never been Italian bonds, and certainly not now.

RegDwigнt

What about Greek bonds?

Cerberus

I haven't looked. Probably not great.

RegDwigнt

Haha. So nice to be taken seriously.

Cerberus

11:27 PM

Better than Italian ones.

tchrist

Meanwhile, the bombing has begun. Again.

Cerberus

Syria?

tchrist

> U.S. Carries Out Retaliatory Strikes on Iranian-Backed Militia in Iraq
American warplanes hit militia weapons storage facilities in southern Iraq in a strike designed to destroy rockets like those fired at U.S. and British troops.

Can't we just tell them they can't fly to the United States and be done with it?

M.A.R.

Jan 26 at 15:51, by It's Over

Why does 2020 suck so much already?

I'm pretty sure I talked about this year being sucky before the Pandemic began

Cerberus

You prophet.

M.A.R.

11:30 PM

Inorite.

At this rate, if this year ends without a bloody nuclear war or worldwide financial crisis we should be thankful

tchrist

> A few months ago, it was great. It was the holidays, I was drunk on eggnog, I was watching ‘Cheer,’ I was falling in love with baby Yoda, I was looking forward to impeaching the president. Remember that feeling?”

“It’s only March,” he said. ”2020 has done the impossible: Made me nostalgic for 2019.”

M.A.R.

We didn't talk about disasters so they keep happening, so let's talk about them so future ones can be avoided.

Cerberus

If we can follow the Chinese example, albeit belatedly, perhaps we can control the damage.

RegDwigнt

@M.A.R. and I'm pretty sure I replied to that. Not that I remember what.

Jan 26 at 16:23, by RegDwigнt

@It'sOver what video game is that that you're playing?

Ah here it is.

M.A.R.

Well, you should eat your hat.

RegDwigнt

11:33 PM

Why.

tchrist

@Cerberus And the dragon will come when he hears the drum. At a minute or two 'til two today. At a minute or two 'til two.

RegDwigнt

For me it's one of the best years so far.

Also I don't have a hat. Sadly.

M.A.R.

@RegDwigнt Hats are rich in vitamin C and it's all the craze now.

tchrist

> What a to-do to die today, at a minute or two to two;

a thing distinctly hard to say, but harder still to do.

We'll beat a tattoo, at twenty to two

a rat-tat-tat- tat-tat-tat- tat-tat-tattoo

and the dragon will come when he hears the drum

at a minute or two to two today, at a minute or two to two.

3

RegDwigнt

Even the last hat season they only gave me The Shit Hat for Twats.

M.A.R.

11:34 PM

@tchrist I missed the whole dragon thing, it's 3 a.m. here

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Twats are just has-been twits.

M.A.R.

Timezones.

tchrist

Time is the crucible in which we burn.

RegDwigнt

@Færd I am trying to take that corona quiz, but it's so boring that I'm only at the 4th question and already I'd rather take my life instead.

@M.A.R. more to the point, you missed the whole Balrog thing.

Now that was a craze alright.

M.A.R.

Boo, all I see is talk of a hundred-nanometer-long Balrogs

RegDwigнt

11:37 PM

I told you you missed all the good bits.

Cerberus can brief you in.

Me, I'll go get some sleep. The best weapon against any virus.

tchrist

Even if Trump doesn't get coronaed/corondead beforehand by some passing virus, I can't possibly imagine him making it through this election with the Great Depression II and the Great Plague he's massively mismanaged. I can't even imagine the summer let alone the autumn given that we're already in the winter of our discontent before spring has sprung.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist a man can hope. But alas, the man has hoped before.

Færd

@RegDwigнt You're not fit to study medicine then.

BTW, this is powerful:

tchrist

@RegDwigнt He's not getting tested because Putin slipped him the vaccine.

Færd

Porter Presses CDC Director To Confirm Coronavirus Testing Will Be Free | NBC News

►

RegDwigнt

11:39 PM

@Færd a friend of mine actually took the German Medizinertest. It is the most boring thing ever. But I did pass all the questions.

tchrist

@Færd What's that, more silly Medicare For All? :)

Færd

@tchrist Testing will be free for you guys.

tchrist

@Færd Is it not free for you?

Or have they stopped bothering?

Færd

@RegDwigнt So you're not fit for Harvard medicine.

RegDwigнt

I refuse to watch any American network except the Onion. And even the Onion I don't watch. Because it constantly reminds me of all the horrible dross I'm trying so hard to never watch.

Færd

11:41 PM

@tchrist There's a severe shortage. They don't test just anybody. The bigshots are prioritized.

RegDwigнt

NBC had Seinfeld, and that was great, but that was under Reagan, and he was great and everything was great.

tchrist

@Færd Exactly. We have the same problem. It's a scarce resource.

> This was before he threw jabs at coronavirus task force leader and "a man who has quarantined his mind from knowledge"—a.k.a. Vice President Mike Pence, who revealed during Wednesday's press briefing that health care providers were joining Medicare and Medicaid to waive all co-pays and cover costs of treatment for those affected by the coronavirus.

"What a cool idea. It's like Medicare, but for all," Colbert cracked.

Færd

@RegDwigнt I have yet to understand the fuss around Seinfeld.

RegDwigнt

@Færd I do not want to be fit for Harvard medicine. Fuck Harvard with a broomstick.

Færd

Hehe

tchrist

11:42 PM

@Færd It's dumb. You have to be a Nude Yorger I think.

RegDwigнt

You people are dumb. And you're only dumb because you didn't watch Seinfeld. Had you watched it you'd be not dumb instead.

Look at me. I watched all the Seinfeld all the time many times. Look how smart I am. I don't even have the corona.

Anyway.

Færd

@tchrist You have enough money and resources to import and then start to produce on your own.

RegDwigнt

If Seinfeld is not great, then that only ties into my earlier point that nothing on NBC is.

So basically we're on the same page.

Færd

@RegDwigнt I tried really hard. I failed.

And I watched Friends thru to the end.

RegDwigнt

So did I. And Will and Grace.

And Married with Children.

tchrist

11:45 PM

@Færd Oh we are making our own. Just not fast enough. And we've run out of the RNA reagent.

RegDwigнt

Every episode, many times.

Cerberus

...

Now who's sick.

RegDwigнt

I'm not sick now. I watched them all earlier.

Færd

Go watch your own Star Trek.

tchrist

Because we're ten weeks behind at getting our shit together. That's how people die.

RegDwigнt

11:46 PM

@Færd oh that's also a good one. Give it to him.

Færd

@tchrist Seems like you're starting to take bold actions.

But three weeks is a long time.

RegDwigнt

More like Bolder actions.

tchrist

There's no federal coordination. It has all devolved on the states. There isn't even global coordination with WHO because nations are being naughty.

RegDwigнt

Feb 9 at 16:13, by tchrist

@RegDwigнt We just had a 4yo kid die of the flu in Denver a couple days ago because the anti-vaccine mom refused to fill the Tamiflu script her physician gave her for the lad.

tchrist

We can't have 55 different plague-plans and get anything done.

RegDwigнt

11:49 PM

In hindsight, that mom saved her child from the corona.

tchrist

Kids don't get corondead.

RegDwigнt

Well then she saved herself behind penitentiary walls.

Just you wait till the thingie breaks out in a prison somewhere.

How much of your population is in prison? 20%?

It will not be nice.

Cerberus

Heh.

In some countries, I believe this has already happened.

RegDwigнt

Yeah but they don't have Fox News.

Færd

RegDwigнt

11:53 PM

Russian prisons have like tuberculosis and pox. But who cares, certainly not the Russians.

Cerberus

Færd

How much a delay of one day can cost.

RegDwigнt

Oh speaking of which, you do know that Russians have a vaccine against the corona, right?

Cerberus

Is that from the article I posted yesterday?

RegDwigнt

Or are we still keeping it to ourselves...

Cerberus

11:54 PM

Do they, really?

Færd

@Cerberus Was it the famous Medium article?

Cerberus

@Færd Probably.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus is my question. Has the knowledge reached you yet.

Færd

Then probably

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt No, indeed.

@Færd OK.

RegDwigнt

11:55 PM

Do you remember the Contergan scandal in Germany in I dunno the 70s or something.

Cerberus

I wasn't born.

RegDwigнt

Neither was I.

But it was so huge it is still widely known. And all those kids from then are adults now.

Cerberus

Sounds like a medicine?

RegDwigнt

Anyway, it was a sleeping pill that they later discovered would cause miscarriages on a massive scale. Stillborn and disfigured children. Thousands upon thousands.

People born with no legs, no arms, no eyes.

Huge scandal, obviously.