Europe voted for sanctions against Putin's cronies. Nice. Although I doubt the sanctions will hit them hard.

@CowperKettle Money talks louder than sanctions, unfortunately.

My gift from Wikipedia for donating last year. ^

Imagine the trillions of pixels the photographer had to burn to get that shot.

Or the hours spent just trying to get that single 1/5000 of a second.

Cute.

Wouldn't he just set up a camera and take a picture ten times a second?

Dunno.

@CowperKettle Why?

I believe half of London is owned by Russian oligarchs?

@Cerberus But I don't know how he could expect to see those birds in that place in that pose. With that focus, ISO, f-stop, and shutter speed.

@Cerberus sadly no longer part of the EU

@Robusto Can't he set those things up with a camera pointed at a bird's nest?

@MattE.Эллен Oh, I forgot.

@Cerberus That's not a nest.

Hmm now that you mention it, it looks too flimsy.

Perhaps the birds are stuffed.

I've gone out with a bird photographer before. They stalk birds like a hunter would, and it takes them hours sometimes even to get a shot, much less a good one.

Those birds aren't stuffed.

My girlfriend is still angry with me for the time I "made" her miss a picture of a bittern.

You monster

Seriously

Don't give the camera to me, if you don't want me to not understand when you're asking for it back!

Dude

That's right, blame the victim.

You screwed up

I hope you apologized

I might have

I'm thinking you didn't apologize

I might have also complained that I didn't know what she wanted

Wow. A rookie move.

Dude

I

can't even

Just consider yourself lucky

@Robusto Joke!

@Mitch considers

And reflect

on how you can do better

A better bittern

That's all I came here to do. Thank you and good night!

A better bitter batter needs butter.

good night :þ

@Robusto Don't stop there

(also, I'm back)

So

as far as news goes

@Mitch I've exhausted my store of b*tter words.

did that guy return the plane?

to the plane library?

I think they kicked him down the stairs and took off.

He seemed so angry at the end, but the nice old man lent him the plane.

I was concerned that the other old guy, the angry one, would just sort of keep it

out of spite

@Robusto oh... there's more

He will now spend the rest of his days telling anyone who will listen how much he accomplished and how horribly he was wronged. NOBODY accomplished so much or was treated so poorly! And gradually he'll be talking to fewer and fewer people.

bidder, bedder, biter, berater. I mean, you could just keep going

@Robusto "Sir, this is a Wendy's"

Or a Denny's.

Or a prison mess hall, hopefully.

Even the Proud Boys have dumped him.

What are you talking about?

Vietnamese jokes?

@Gigili Someone who left office yesterday on Air Force One, which came back to Washington D. C. empty.

Hi guys I have a question

"Are you all packed for your trip" What is the tense of this sentence?

@IceGirl Hi

@Conrado Hello

@IceGirl are is present tense

> The new COVID-19 variant identified in South Africa can evade the antibodies that attack it in treatments using blood plasma from previously recovered patients, and may reduce the efficacy of the current line of vaccines, scientists said on Wednesday. medscape.com/viewarticle/944427

@IceGirl If it were a statement, the sentence would say: "You are all packed for your trip." It means now. That is the present.

Is it a passive sentence?

Why does the write use 'are' instead of 'do'?

Packed is a past particle or an adjective; you cannot use do with those.

I am Cerberus.

I am friendly.

I am leaving.

I am packed.

@Cerberus Yes, you are packed.

I am friendly too,

sometimes.

In all of these sentences, the subject does or is something. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_voice)

Why, thank you.

@Conrado That is somewhat generic?

@Cerberus Where are you going?

Some place nice I hope

To the couch.

You?

Hm

Do you really need to pack for that kind of a trip?

@Cerberus Oh me? No I have no special plans

No, but I'm packed anyway.

I mean... I have a couch to go to too

but

A special plan...on a couch...

Hello, can someone help phrase a sentence in a better way.

OK.

I'm not going to make a big deal out of it

How modest.

and... meeting

@vikasnautiyal You can ask anything here!

As long as you don't ask specific people you aren't already in a conversation with.

@Cerberus Packed with fun facts

But you wouldn't.

@Conrado You're packed as well.

With man.

Are you not?

@Cerberus Sorry, I didn't realize where that was going

Forgive my false step.

@vikasnautiyal That's two sentences.

@vikasnautiyal I'd replace "fostered me to acquire" with just "fostered".

Yes they are.

@vikasnautiyal You wrote: "can someone help me to rephrase this sentence."

Yes.

I'd remove the comma after parents.

Maybe "fostered the development of multiple life skills"

@Cerberus Yes, that too.

Can it be restructured from the begning?

Or "fostered the acquisition of multiple life skills".

By the way, it may not be obvious to all readers why being the eldest child to working parents should give one ever increasing responsibilities. It didn't to me.

@vikasnautiyal The word "unique" is clearly not appropriate here.

Okay, I see.

Maybe "difficult" or "stressful" or similar.

@vikasnautiyal I'm also unclear what's special about being the eldest child.

@Cerberus did the elder ones not have more responsibility as compared to the younger ones

special maybe in a sense that you are the first one.

@Cerberus, maybe I should do away with the 'ever increasing' part.

@FaheemMitha, I see, unique can also be removed. Thanks

The sentence is too complex, can the complexity be reduced more?

@FaheemMitha being the eldest child can enjoy the most recourse provided by the parents.

@Bohemianrelativist recourse?

The right to compensation?

@Cerberus maybe the sentence is explaining that oldest of 2 working parents fostered these skills...because both parents are working?

No its should say the first child that fostered the skills

and so the oldest has to take care of the younger ones while the parents are busy?

Yes.

@FaheemMitha yes, you were born the earliest when your parents have the most recourse to provide you. The youngest has the lest recourse, like my youngest sister, who had to live without my father's recourse when she was in junior high school.

@Bohemianrelativist I don't think that's a correct use of the word.

@vikasnautiyal "Being the eldest child of working parents felt special, but it put me in a unique position. The ever-increasing responsibility led me to acquire multiple life skills like assertiveness, empathy, and cooking at an early stage."

I have my father with me until the second year of my MSc studies.

That is my suggestion ( personally would use 'oldest' instead of 'eldest' even in formal language like this.

@Mitch Thanks, sounds good. I am still improving and simplifying it.

@vikasnautiyal Others might suggest differently.

(there's no guarantee mine is what fits best for you)

my sister had to depend on school to support her when she was in junior high school, but you know a junior high school wouldn't support good recourse for their students.

I read that eldest is prefered over oldest esp when the comparison is with age

A slew of arrests in Russia. Top functionaries of Alexey Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation have just been detained. Some on the street, some in their homes.

Sure, it works in formal writing.

a person can only be supported economically for education generally when they go to MSc school and further.

before MSc school, the economical recourse students can get from school is generally limited.

if you have no recourse from parents before going to MSc school, it can be very difficult.

And which led him to acquire life skills early.

@Bohemianrelativist In Russia, studient stipend paid by the state is extremely meagre, and will not allow one to survive.

There are some additional stipends for top-notch students showing the highest marks.

But it's hard to get them, you should study as hell.

A friend of mine was an eldest child. Responsibilities increased with every child, until there were six. At 18 years old, she said she was going to become a nun. They said “Oh, no!” but she said “Oh, yeah!”

@Xanne She was joking?

My brother had a friend, a girl, who actually became a nun. She got admitted to a monastery near Yekaterinburg. After a year's stint there, she decided to quit. She called him, and he and she together went to buy her some new glintzy shoes.

A happy ending.

Eternal soul sold for shoes.

By the way, today is the 21-st day of the 21-st year of the 21-st century

Be sure to make a wish at 21:21

No. that’s what she did. She became a nun. And loved it. She rose to positions of considerable responsibility. The dialogue is invented, though.

@CowperKettle This is scary, because by the time we get done carefully rolling out the vaccine and “safely” reopening, the existing immunity may have faded, the vaccine will be ineffective, and we’ll be back at ground zero.

@Xanne I hope that the new viral variants will not be as deadly, because a virus is primarily interested in copying itself, not in killing the host.

@vikasnautiyal Not really?

I am the eldest.

@Xanne From what I have heard, it will be easy to adjust the RNA vaccines to various mutations if needed, which would allow for quick reapproval.

And so, even if current vaccines don't work as well against new mutations, it's still not a total disaster.

And it may also be the case that those vaccinated with an older vaccine will still have partial immunity, so they won't get seriously ill.

@CowperKettle but

(and I'm not pro virus or anything)

more people die if R (the transmission rate) goes up than if the death rate (of those who get it number of those who die) does

so if you're choosing

and luckily we're not given the choice

if you'd rather have a bigger transmission rate or a bigger dying rate, fewer people die with the bigger dying rate.

the labels are misleading, but that's the math.

@Mitch Only up to certain limits.

If hardly anybody dies from the virus any more, the aequation shifts.

@Mitch That’s gotta depend on the death rate for each variant. If it’s approaching zero . . .

But we'll have to see.

If partial immunity + less deadly virus result in a total death rate for the vaccinated of 0.1%, it will have become the flu.

Because of higher transmission rate, more people will die than from the flu, but not that many more?

@Xanne oh. yeah. right. yes it depends on the scale

@Cerberus yes, that's what @Xanne is saying too

@Cerberus I hope it gets to be like the flu. But I think it’s going to take five years or so.

the flu ain't so great

you need a shot every year

but the medtech works out nicely, you don't have to start from scratch each year

It would be nice to travel again

i wouldn't mind living in a place where there's less fear of armed fascist insurrection

-and- nice weather all year

No it ain’t

Well then what are you doing in Boston?

@Xanne Perhaps not if we're all vaccinated against older variants.

Problem is the vaccines may fade with time.

@Xanne It's really nice for some of the year

@CowperKettle I missed it

I’ve lived there, Mitch. But what keeps you there? You could become a snowbird . . .

@Mitch buy a stairway to heaven

@Xanne I feel like I've heard in the past year that there is supposed to be a prototype of a new 'universal' virus vaccine? it doesn't get you to create antibodies against all of the varieties but it does something structural to all virusses themselves? Something like that?

@M.A.R. sometimes words have two meanings

Your path would lie in creepy wind though

@M.A.R. that's very ominous sounding.

I think that's bydesign

You don't want billionaires to buy a stairway to heaven

@Xanne the wine is good but the meat has spoiled

Why do you think Musk is trying to build a spaceship to heaven, then

what I mean to say is

the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak

I'd -like- to, but one also needs means to do so.

Well that’s what we should aim for and hope for. Meanwhile I can’t even get an appointment for something that needs to be kept at -70.

@M.A.R. to quote the song that Elton John stole from David Bowie, the weather in space.. "It's cold as hell"

@Mitch wow such wisdom

@M.A.R. much wow. so meme

@Xanne It's like an out of work coal mner

wait

that metaphor doesn't work the way I expected it to

@Mitch I lived for a while on Charles St, at the foot of Beacon Hill. I loved it. Very happy there.

> It’s often said that use of the passive voice is a dead giveaway, and it’s true here, as well. McConnell’s claim that “the mob was fed lies [about the election]” elides the role that many members of the Senate and House GOP — and McConnell himself — played in this feeding.

It could even be said that a rather active role was played by those members.

Indeed.

The dead giveaway is never more apparent when a company or a government says "mistakes were made." Not "We made mistakes," which would likely be received better (or even "we screwed up," which would be something everyone can relate to).

Yeah.

It's very Yes Minister.