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12:11 AM
@Robusto no poop talk in chat
@Færd +1
@Cerberus re your point about actor vs actress is uh on point
I can never figure out which to say
 
Just speak as you always do.
 
I don't know what I always do
 
Then do what you never do.
Just to surprise people.
 
Actroid?
Actron?
Hey you?
Faker?
 
12:45 AM
@Mitch Who are you to decide who poops in chat and who doesnt?
 
1:01 AM
No, but she can play that flugelhorn.
@Cerberus And just like ELU chat to pile on when I make a joke at my own expense.
 
Did you expect anything less from us?
 
@RegDwigнt This is too much like a morning drive-time radio team. Too much self-congratulatory joking around and not enough getting to the point. Had to turn it off.
@Cerberus No, but I wish you would stop living down to my expectations.
 
Wouldn't want to upset your world view.
Your entire being.
 
@Cerberus Not possible.
@Cerberus Still less likely.
 
You would say that.
 
1:10 AM
What is it with hats? They are very strange things.
 
Hats?
The SE thing?
 
Things people put on their heads.
 
Is it that time again?
 
No, not SE hats. Just regular hats.
 
Oh, humans.
Who knows what moves them.
 
1:11 AM
@Cerberus Yeah. You remember them, right?
 
I ate a few.
 
Yeah, that qualifies.
 
Then I know hats.
 
1:14 AM
The Egyptian civilization used a number of different crowns throughout its existence. Some were used to show authority, while others were used for religious ceremonies. Each crown was worn by different pharaohs or deities, and each crown had its own significance and symbolic meaning. The crowns include the Atef, the Deshret, the Hedjet, the Khepresh, the Pschent, and the Hemhem. == List of crowns of Egypt == == Atef == Atef, the crown of Osiris, is a combination of Upper Egypt’s white crown, the hedjet, and ostrich feathers on either side. It also often has a golden disc at its tip. The ostrich...
Hence my earlier remark about the pschent.
 
Yes, the combined crowns of Egypt were cool.
 
1:35 AM
@Cerberus What is this get-up all about?
 
 
3 hours later…
4:39 AM
@Robusto Pennsylvania Dutch bonnet?
The hat for the discriminating woman.
 
Almost 3 mn doses/day in the US
 
5:12 AM
@Robusto I've no idea! I just Googled "Charles hat" for images.
 
Mennonite hats look high tech
 
 
@Xanne Are you in the vaccination queue?
Congrats!
 
@CowperKettle No, I was there today, got my second Pfizer. This
 
5:21 AM
Ah. Good. Now in a couple of weeks you'll have full protection.
 
This is the Santa Clara Convention Center in northern California. They can do up tp 6,000 a day bit are getting less than 1,000 people a day.
Yes! I am hoping not to get side effects. Some people get flu-like symptoms for a couple of days.
 
I got a light fever, 37.6C, which lasted only about 15 hours and was easily suppressed with paracetamol
In Yekaterinburg, we only get 3000 jabs/day.
And a couple of days ago they run out of fresh vaccine.
They expect to get new shipments in a couple of days.
They only do second shots now.
Until new batches arrive. Looks like we sold too much to other countries, and overestimated our production capacity.
I enrolled my mom a month ago, and still she has received no call from the clinic.
I should re-enroll her, in case they somehow lost her record.
 
Good idea, about the paracetamol. US brand name is Tylenol, I think.
 
@Xanne It is good because it does not interact with my antidepressant, escitalopram
 
You got the vaccine but your mom is still on the waiting list?
 
5:32 AM
It does not work through the route used by Ibuprofen
@Xanne Yes, because in Russia there is no strict system
I was enthusiastic about the vaccine, but it took 2 months to persuade my mother.
She refused to get enrolled.
My father still refuses, although two family friends have died of covid.
Interestingly, Tylenol might work via the endocannabinoid route.
I came across the possible mechanism while translating a paper about endocannabinoids.
It might elevate the local concentrations of endocannabinoids, and thus diminish pain.
 
Oh dear. Apparently our main group of reluctant folks are young men, who perhaps think it’s macho to rely on their own immune systems.
Some people claim to be addicted to Tylenol.
I just hope we get to herd immunity world-wide before the mutations get too much of a hold, although the vaccines can be tweaked to handle variants.
 
5:49 AM
Trials of variant-adjusted vaccines are already underway
> Frequent, intense, persistent suicidal ideation with plans. May discuss intent, but has no gathered means or had rehearsal behaviors.
Either I am getting dimmer, or this sentence is written in a very dim way.
"Has no gathered means" seems to contradict "had rehearsal behaviors".
Oh, well.
 
6:30 AM
Folks, there's an American expression "to drink Kool-Aid", which means to listen to somebody's marketing or propaganda.
Where does this expression come from? Why Kool-Aid, in particular, of all the drinks?
I have two hypotheses, but I'm not going to post them yet, because I'd like to hear yours first.
 
"Drinking the Kool-Aid" is an expression used to refer to a person who believes in a possibly doomed or dangerous idea because of perceived potential high rewards. The phrase often carries a negative connotation. It can also be used ironically or humorously to refer to accepting an idea or changing a preference due to popularity, peer pressure, or persuasion. In recent years it has evolved further to mean extreme dedication to a cause or purpose, so extreme that one would "drink the Kool-Aid" and die for the cause. The phrase originates from events in Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978...
 
@CowperKettle That was one of my hypotheses. The other one was less sad.
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a 1968 nonfiction book by Tom Wolfe. The book is a popular example of the New Journalism literary style. Wolfe presents a firsthand account of the experiences of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters, who traveled across the US in a colorfully painted school bus, the Furthur, whose name was painted on the destination sign, indicating the general ethos of the Pranksters. Kesey and the Pranksters became famous for their use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD in order to achieve expansion of their consciousness. The book chronicles the Acid Tests (parties...
 
@CowperKettle I think they’re trying to describe someone who has thought about suicide but has not acquired the means to commit the act and has not rehearsed the process.
 
@Xanne No, that's not what they are trying to describe. They are describing people who were to naive, and brainwashed into committing a suicide. In mass.
 
@Xanne But "has no" does not agree at all with "had rehearsal behaviors". Maybe I should ask this on main site. But it'll be downvoted.
 
6:37 AM
When the term is used in everyday speech, it means that somebody was brainwashed (by school, or emplyer, or trade union, etc) into doing something dumb.
 
@NickAlexeev I’m responding to @CowperKettle’s description, not “drinking the Kool-Ade.”
@CowperKettle Well, I think no should be not, and I think they meant the “not” to apply to rehearsals. Basically I’m agreeing with you, that otherwise it’s not logical. How can you rehearse without the means?
@CowperKettle no . . . or should be not . . . nor. Could a translator make this error?
 
7:00 AM
@Xanne On a different note. Is it the Hoover tower on your avatar?
 
@CowperKettle I found the article on line. Your quotation is in a table, so it's abbreviated in meaning. I now think "no gathered means" is a noun phrase. And the rest of it, not sure whether there's been rehearsal or not. Not clear if the "or" relates to "no gathered means" or the early part of the sentence, the intense ideation or whatever.
The rest of the article is well written.
@NickAlexeev Yes.
 
@Xanne Are you in that institution? I've done time in that institution.
2
 
@CowperKettle What does a translator do? Either you translate so that you achieve the same ambiguity as the original (which in this case is not intended to be ambiguous) or you read the surrounding text to figure out what it was the authors meant. Lots of trouble, not a linear process.
 
8:06 AM
@Xanne Yes. I should read more the context and guess what the authors meant.
 
9:00 AM
Several dozen regional deputies who came to Moscow to take part in a forum titled "Municipal Russia" were arrested today right in the midst of the first forum session. zona.media/chronicle/mundep
They are now posting their photos from inside prison-barred Black Marias. I mean police vans. Probably they will get fined for something. Or maybe get 10 or 15 days in jail each. I don't know.
Putin's 'stability' showing itself every day.
> Me, being arrested during the forum
That's Ilya Yashin, an opposition deputy.
Really quite an ordinary guy without any noticeable charisma, but by the mere dint of being opposed to Putin's thugs he is popular. That takes some courage.
> There are three municipal deputies along with me in the police van. How many in yours?
 
9:23 AM
> "Our forum of municipal deputies is taking place approximately thus". A deputy from Tomsk.
 
 
2 hours later…
11:27 AM
Spring is in the air
Local Krishna followers are kicking ass
Or kicking up their heels
In the Green Grove
It's minus 5C. Two weeks from now, snow will start melting.
 
12:27 PM
170 persons detained by the police
Basically they put all municipal deputies into police vans.
A huge operation.
This is a good teambuilding exercise for all the deputies. Now they will feel that they must fight together for the future of Russia.
On the right is Vladimir Kara-Murza. He was poisoned on Putin's orders too, like Navalny, and also survived, but spent some time in emergency wards on artificial ventilation and stuff.
On the left is Andrey Pivovarov, he helps out political prisoners.
 
 
1 hour later…
1:36 PM
@Xanne Poke bonnet from early 19th century America.
@CowperKettle I admire their bravery and their dedication.
 
 
3 hours later…
4:22 PM
@Xanne Yeah, those are the same old-fashioned styles, which the Amish and Mennonite cultures favor.
Those people are so conservative that they use hooks and eyes as fasteners on clothing because buttons are hochmütig (prideful).
But these are really uniforms, I suppose, to distinguish a group in its solidarity.
 
4:49 PM
Feb 12 '13 at 17:10, by Mitch
@MattЭллен we rock the poop.
 
5:09 PM
@Mitch Better than pooping a rock.
 
5:34 PM
The new "saint" in Mexico: Jesús Malverde.
Jesús Malverde (literally meaning "Jesus Evil-green" in English), possibly born as Jesús Juarez Mazo (1870–1909) (pronounced [xeˈsus malˈber.de]), sometimes known as the "Cjuba Lord", "angel of the poor", or the "narco-saint", is a folklore hero in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. He was of Yoreme and Spanish heritage. He is a "Robin Hood figure" who was supposed to have stolen from the rich to give to the poor. He is celebrated as a folk saint by some in Mexico and the United States, particularly among drug traffickers. == History == The existence of Malverde is not historically verified. He is...
 
@Mitch I'll believe it when I hear it.
 
 
4 hours later…
9:50 PM
> After repeated visits to Africa over fifty years, I concluded that foreign aid as it is conventionally practiced is essentially a failure, futile in relieving poverty, and often harmful, relieving the ills of a few at the expense of the many. Most charities are diabolically self-interested, proselytizing evangelists, tax-avoidance scammers with schemes to buff up the image of the founder—often someone in disgrace or mired in scandal or obscenely rich. Claiming to be apolitical, such charities allow authoritarian governments and kleptocracies to go on existing, because the charities do the
> The best example I have seen close up is the presence of China in Africa, offering rogue aid to despots in return for valuable commodities. The United States once did this in small and subtle ways; China now does it conspicuously and with impunity. When I took my Africa trips for Dark Star Safari and The Last Train to Zona Verde I saw how with backhanders or huge loans China bought dictatorships in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Sudan, and Angola, in order to obtain ivory, gold, bauxite, oil, and much else, leaving the countries in deep and sometimes unpayable debt—indeed debt slavery.
 
@Robusto Whatever gets suggested to replace it, English seems like a really silly language for the EU now.
 
Well, all languages are really silly, aren't they?
@Cerberus: When you get a chance would you mind editing out the second citation in my second quote? I didn't notice that until it was too late to edit myself.
 
10:32 PM
@Robusto What second citation?
As to foreign aid, I'd say it depends on the organisation and what it actually does.
I think some aid is useful.
@Mitch Great idea.
I think everyone agrees that the influence of English has become too strong. It's very bad for culture.
But, as a lingua franca, it won't be replaced any time soon.
 
@Cerberus You didn't change it? Or are you just being arch now?
 
The latter.
 
Thought so. Thank you.
 
The last couple of paragraphs of the article are not really correct, though. @Mitch
But it doesn't matter.
 
11:15 PM
@Cerberus The contents of the article are all very... questionable.
 
@Mitch All?
 
But right it doesn't matter. What should be is not the same as what is.
 
It is of course the Turkish state that is speaking.
 
wow I didn't notice that. I thought it was Irish? But even if Turkish, it does seem a little parochial for some French guy to make a statement like that. Almost sounds like how some dumb Americans do it.
@Cerberus a lot
 
What seems parochial, and why?
 
11:21 PM
@Cerberus how is it bad for culture? because of the cultures it is associated with?
@Cerberus OMG you're asking for me to do research for my vague opinions?
 
Language is perhaps the most important aspect of a culture.
2
 
that are half baked
 
Destroy it, and what's left?
@Mitch Not really!
 
@Cerberus aren't all languages of equal worth?
 
Worth?
 
11:22 PM
@Cerberus value?
how much you pay for it?
 
It is about losing one's language.
Dutchmen barely learn to write a proper text in Dutch at university.
 
English is no more or less bad for culture than any other single language for the continent.
 
Because most of the education they get is in (bad) English.
@Mitch Absolutely untrue.
 
so it's not English itself but any outsider language?
 
Dutch is in no way under threat from Polish or Italian.
English is the threat.
 
11:24 PM
@Cerberus OK
What if it became German real quick?
 
In a way, Latin was the threat 1500 years ago.
German was feared eighty years ago, but it never became a real threat.
 
Tuscan ruined the Italian peninsula
 
In a way.
The big problem with English is that its utmost tentacles are heavily influenced by the worst parts of it, marketing and military speak.
 
military speak?
 
I do not think we took the worst parts of German or French, in the 18th and 19th centuries.
@Mitch E.g. the endless abbreviations.
 
11:27 PM
acronyms?
 
Or things like "Cyber Security-Centrum".
I could go on forever.
Handy.
"Team".
 
learnings
 
One problem is a deepening divide between the learned and the unlearned: the former use English a lot, the latter do not read it well.
 
maybe another language would be better in the US because they have the same problem as the Dutch with Dutch.
 
We don't want to become 1900 Russia.
 
11:30 PM
??
too much French?
 
Where the élite spoke only French and was unable to understand the lower classes.
Another problem is that English comes with the worst ideas from the Anglo-Saxon world.
 
good cause for a revolution
 
There is a rising awareness that the role of English and the Anglo-Saxon influence should be reduced.
Of course foremost in France, but also elsewhere.
 
Everybody's got their problems
If the Dutch were running things, the Germans would be all disgruntled about it
 
No doubt.
Many Nazis thought they'd be welcomed by their fellow Germanic people when they occupied Holland.
They see us as a cute little friend.
 
11:43 PM
Ok here's another language thing
That one's Irish
 

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