English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

I know. I hate it so much. By driving I avoided both Milwaukee and Chicago. But it's hard to avoid Rockford and Beloit. I guess I could have hung low and gone over to Harvard, up 12.

Cerberus

@tchrist For every language, there will be people telling you it's very hard.

tchrist

Walworth County is still nice, free of the creeping death.

Robusto

12:33 AM

@tchrist When I was a kid there were actual woods near our house. Then one day they were gone. All gone.

tchrist

Rock is ok till you get close to I-90 which is a multigenerational disaster of never ending torture.

@Robusto This is what so traumatized Tolkien as a child. Some of the oldest woods that I knew are gone around Geneva, over by the Trostels plant, but most remain.

Mom has done her part getting two places permanently protected there. It takes constant hard work to stave off the creeping death so children can breathe free.

Robusto

In many ways I think I was lucky to be born when I was. So many good things of my youth are never to be experienced again by anyone.

tchrist

That right. 80% of the butterflies are gone just by counting body mass. Many, many birds too. Silent Spring indeed, Rachel.

Robusto

Indeed.

tchrist

Monsanto.

Robusto

12:39 AM

shudders

tchrist

Who needs the Earth when you have video games and cities?

Simon And Garfunkel Sparrow

►

Robusto

@tchrist Nice.

tchrist

1:51 AM

> A family that lost a 15-year-old boy when a Tesla hit its truck is suing the company, one of a growing number of crashes involving the company’s Autopilot system.

Even the New York Times can't figure out their pronouns. :(

Families are never "its" for me.

CowperKettle

@Robusto Cool! In Yekaterinburg, there was the Uktus airport, which is now slated for demolition, and a huge shopping mall is under construction there.

Only the 1930s building of the airport remains standing, but not for long.

Antonov An-2

The Antonov An-2 (Russian nickname: "Annushka" or "Annie"; "kukuruznik"—corn crop duster; USAF/DoD reporting name Type 22, NATO reporting name Colt) is a Soviet mass-produced single-engine biplane utility/agricultural aircraft designed and manufactured by the Antonov Design Bureau beginning in 1946. Its remarkable durability, high lifting power, and ability to take off and land from poor runways have given it a long service life. The An-2 was produced up to 2001 and remains in service with military and civilian operators around the world. The An-2 was designed as a utility aircraft for use in...

An-2s used to fly there.

The plane has been produced nonstop since 1947

I flew on the An-2 only once, and it was a chore, it shook so badly. One could not lay one's head to rest.

The vibration forced you to stay awake.

The views were good though, because it flew very low.

Bohemian relativist

finished writing the mail

don't understand why time is so scarce to use

it has been dawn, I think.

it's very absurd to go to a person's room to talk, isn't it?

so why is it so difficult to find a place to talk with a person in school?

bedroom is a private place

this dormitory is very strange in not only that males and females are accommodated in the same building but also that there isn't even a living room to sit down to talk.

tchrist

2:10 AM

I'm surprised there isn't a living room.

We always had big ones on each floor of the dorm.

But it was completely normal to go to someone's dorm room to talk. A dorm room is not like a private bedroom.

Bohemian relativist

is this the western culture that male and female students go to each other's bedrooms to talk?

tchrist

Only if one or both are gay. :)

Just kidding.

Bohemian relativist

because there is even no living room to sit down to talk.

tchrist

That seems weird.

We had one wing for girls and the other wing for boys. The giant living room was between the two. You weren't really supposed to have "the opposite sex" over to your room at night, but that didn't seem to stop anybody.

Bohemian relativist

in Chinese island, female and male students are accommodated in different buildings.

tchrist

2:13 AM

And your dorm room wasn't yours alone. There were always at least two there, and some dorms had three. Only the floor resident had his own room, and that's because he would often need to talk to somebody in private.

Bohemian relativist

and female dormitory is strictly protected - any man who wants to enter the dorm needs to apply in advance.

tchrist

@Bohemianrelativist Yes, that's sometimes that way here, too. OFten, perhaps.

Exactly, so that's how it was for my mom when she went to college. Drove her crazy.

You can live in a sex-exclusive dorm most places if you want to, but most students choose mixed-sex dorms.

Bohemian relativist

@tchrist here it's very strange that money is paid to avoid to be annoyed.

if you pay more money, you can have a room on your own.

tchrist

My nephew's dorm is two two-man bedrooms and shared living room and little fake kitchenette.

@Bohemianrelativist Oh that might be possible. I'm really not sure.

Bohemian relativist

@tchrist but what if mixed-sex dorm doesn't even have a living room outside personal rooms to sit to talk?

tchrist

2:17 AM

@Bohemianrelativist That surprises me.

Bohemian relativist

does that mean we need to go to the rooms of people of opposite sex to talk with them if we want to talk with them?

tchrist

I think they stopped trying too hard to exclude mixed-sex visitors at night when they realized that there was still sex going on with same-sex visitors, and on both the girls' halves and the boys', so it would have been too hypocritical to say that only those folks were allowed to be around people they wanted to have sex with and nobody else could.

@Bohemianrelativist Like I said, I'm surprised they do it that way there.

Bohemian relativist

mixed-sex classes are fine for me since I have been in that kind of class in elementary school, secondary school, high school, undergraduate, master's school.

tchrist

You should certainly be able to have a shared common area that is not your bedroom.

Bohemian relativist

but the mixed-sex dormitory is my first experience.

@tchrist only kitchen and corridor and stairs but there are no chairs there to sit

tchrist

2:21 AM

I've only lived in the dorms in two countries. One was mixed-sex, the other was same-sex. But it wasn't mixed-sex sharing the same room.

And as always there were common areas for folks to socialize in safely, without having to look at each other's underwear.

Bohemian relativist

@tchrist of course they won't make different sexes share a room, but don't you want to talk with different sex? go to their bedroom because there is no chair outside personal rooms.

tchrist

After a year or at most two, most of the time you grab a few friends and rent some place together. Then there are not rules. But when children first leave their parents' home, it can be good to have peers close by in a sort of communal living arrangement, with a few older guardians sprinkled around, because their parents often do not prepare them well enough for independent living.

Bohemian relativist

if there is no chair to sit, nobody would stand to talk with you for long.

tchrist

My dorm had two bunk beds one atop the other, giving us room to have a third chair for a visitor. :)

People normally left the doors of their dorm rooms open when they were in them and weren't studying super hard or sleeping. That way your neighbors could just wander by and say hello easily.

It's very hard to be in a completely alien culture. You would probably have had many of these same cultural shocks in England or Canada, but at least there you would have already known the language. The culture where you live now is that of Eastern Europe, and it has its own cultural history, both benefits and handicaps. At first you can only ever see the handicaps.

I would hate the food terribly.

Your descriptions often make them sound old-fashioned, or very cheap, or simply unaware.

Bohemian relativist

@tchrist indeed here food is a very difficult issue.

tchrist

2:32 AM

So for example, this sounds rather nicer than what you are describing. But it is for an international audience.

> Each residence hall has a quiet study lounge, a TV room, a computer room and a laundry facility. The monthly rent ranges from EUR 75 to 160 (PLN 315-670) per person, depending on the type of the room.

See, they have other shared rooms. Yours arrangement sounds like your place does not have those.

Bohemian relativist

today I entered a restaurant after walking randomly because I was hungry, but my phone can't reach the internet. I don't really know why the restaurant sells, then a person saying something I cannot understand to me. So I asked her if she can speak English, but she still said something I cannot understand. But I saw her gesture looks like she cannot speak English, so I just left.

tchrist

Yeah, that's awful!

Oh wait, are you in graduate dorms not undergraduate dorms?

Bohemian relativist

@tchrist no, it's very strange here outside personal rooms there are only kitchen and stairs and corridors. In Chinese island, there were indeed these rooms outside personal bedrooms in university dormitory.

@tchrist this is doctoral house and some people even carry children living here.

tchrist

@Bohemianrelativist I've never heard of a dormitory that did not have common rooms that were not the bedrooms. Are you supposed to go to the dining hall just to talk?

@Bohemianrelativist Oh yes, then some of those are even set up for young families with a baby or two. But those don't look like the regular dorms either.

Bohemian relativist

@tchrist so it's sometimes noisy here

tchrist

2:40 AM

You would think they would treat doctoral students better. We always felt that they had nicer facilities than the rest of us.

Bohemian relativist

I just don't understand how these people have time to have children here.

tchrist

They're Catholic. They have no choice. :)

But I understand what you mean. I cannot imagine both raising a family and going to university full time.

Bohemian relativist

2:56 AM

the environment makes befriending very difficult.

actually the kitchen only allows 1 person to be there at a time because of Covid-19.

but it's strange that it's desiged to have roommate.

this dorm is designed to suffocate residents - it doesn't provide any facility in public areas for socialization but regulates to have a roommate unless you want to pay higher rent.

Bohemian relativist

3:11 AM

in the past I didn't usually socialize in dorm, but now there is really no place to meet people besides dorm because there is no physical activity.

tchrist

@Bohemianrelativist It's summer. Why in the world are you trying to meet somebody inside a room instead of outside on the grass somewhere nice?

Go walk around a lake together or something.

CowperKettle

4:01 AM

Oliver Stone shot an eight-hour documentary about the first president of KZ, Nursultan Nazarbayev, entitled "Qazaq. The Story of the Golden Man."

Trailer of feature documentary QAZAQ History Of The Golden Man

►

CowperKettle

7:58 AM

@Robusto At what altitude did the plane let the glider loose?

CowperKettle

8:13 AM

Old river boats on storage in Perm Region

Look like alien starships

CowperKettle

10:10 AM

Word of the day: isocapnic hyperpnea

> IH increased elimination rate of ethanol in proportion to blood levels, increasing the elimination rate more than three-fold.

Matt E. Эллен

something too much sleep?

CowperKettle

No, just "deep breathing"

nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76233-9

Matt E. Эллен

oh!

that's what the pnea means in apnea

CowperKettle

And in pneumatic

Matt E. Эллен

I suppose it wouldn't be to do with sleep otherwise "sleep apnea" would be redundant

@CowperKettle I see it now :D

CowperKettle

10:14 AM

> The enabling technology for IH, which uses a pneumatic mechanism (no electronics or computers) to provide CO2 to inspired gas in the exact proportion to replace exhaled CO2 for any minute ventilation and breathing pattern, and thereby maintain constant arterial PCO2, has been known for just the past 20 years.

Basically, provide enough CO2 to avoid hyperventilation, and ask the person to make deep breaths.

And alcohol will go out of the system much faster.

Matt E. Эллен

interesting. probably not fast enough to get out of a drunk driving ticket

Robusto

12:49 PM

@CowperKettle We'd climb to 3,000 feet (about one kilometer). If there were decent thermals (rising warm air currents) you could stay aloft for quite some time. My record was 73 minutes. Otherwise you just did a few turns and got into the approach.

Mitch

@MattE.Эллен Too much perp

Robusto

1:09 PM

@CowperKettle: There was one incident (I'll never forget it) when the tow plane wasn't going to clear the trees at the end of the runway and cut us loose at maybe 50 feet (15 m). It was probably my third or fourth lesson. The instructor (Major Sandeen, iirc) yelled at me to get off the controls, he took over and whipped the glider into a 180° turn, literally standing it on its wingtip, and landed us back on the runway in the opposite direction.

This was the training glider (2-seat tandem):

Schweizer SGU 2-22

The Schweizer SGU 2-22 is an American two-seat, high-wing, strut-braced, training glider built by Schweizer Aircraft of Elmira, New York.The 2-22 was designed to replace the two-place training gliders surplussed at the end of World War II . Production was started in 1946 and it was produced until 1967, when it was superseded by an improved version, the SGS 2-33. From the 1940s until the 1960s it was the most numerous two-place training glider in the USA. == Design and development == The end of World War Two resulted in a large number of military training gliders being sold as surplus. The...

And this is the one we used for performance:

Schweizer SGS 1-26

The Schweizer SGS 1-26 is a United States One-Design, single-seat, mid-wing glider built by Schweizer Aircraft of Elmira, New York.The SGS 1-26 enjoyed a very long production run from its first flight in 1954 until 1979, when production was ended. The 1-26 was replaced in production by the Schweizer SGS 1-36 Sprite. The 1-26 is the most numerous sailplane found in the US.In October 1963 a special issue of Soaring magazine was dedicated to the 1-26. Harner Selvidge wrote: "Much of the glamour of soaring lies in the realm of high performance, high aspect ratio open class sailplanes, but the backbone...

Our squadron sold candy door to door to pay for those.

tchrist

@Robusto Did the tow plane crash into the trees?

Robusto

@tchrist No. He didn't crash because he cut us loose in time to gain enough altitude.

That was the emergency plan, always talked about, rarely utilized. But you had to be ready for it.

That's the thing about flying. It's pretty routine most of the time, but then there are those six seconds where you have to react correctly or die.

That was our tow plane, a Piper Super Cub. (The model, not the actual one. Ours was colored rust orange.)

Bohemian relativist

1:32 PM

@tchrist no, I don't try to meet people in dorm - I mean it's like the only place to meet people is in the dorm because I stay in the dorm in a lot of time. I would prefer to meet people in faculty but I don't know how to because there haven't been many seminars or classes conducted in faculty - most of them are still conducted on web, during which nobody can't see anybody.

I don't actually feel the dorm is a good place to meet people because first it's like the only place to chat much in dorm are personal bedrooms, but I don't like to let people go in my bedOrom and I don't like to go to others' bedrooms, either, because I feel the bedrooms should keep as privacy; second, I prefer to meet people sharing similar scientific interests and this is of more possibility in the faculty.

in the past when I had roommates in far different departments from mine, and I seldom talk with them.

We even didn't know each other's names.

Robusto

@tchrist: You must get a lot of gliders up near you. The edge of the Rockies is perfect for wave soaring. I think the US record for distance happened there, but I could be wrong.

Bohemian relativist

@tchrist there are always people on the grass, street, bus, supermarket, but they won't talk with you. Usually there should be some activity collecting people of the similar interest for the participants to talk and know each other.

Robusto

Hmm, nope. It was in Pennsylvania.

> National Distance record - Out and return 1023.42 miles, April 25, 1983 flown by Thomas Knauff from Ridge Soaring, PA.

And worldwide:

> The current world record for the furthest a glider has flown is 3,008km set in 2003 by Klaus Ohlmann. This was flown using mountain waves in South America.

Yeah, the Andes would be amazing for wave soaring. Better bring some oxygen, though!

Matt E. Эллен

@Mitch who are you calling a perp?

CowperKettle

1:57 PM

@Robusto Amazing. 15 meters is literally the height of a 5-storey building

My grandfather was a capitain of a bomber, and flew American planes from the Far East during the WWII, but I never knew how exactly he was taught to fly. I've never seen him in person.

The USSR launched a country-wide campaign in the late 1920s intended to train many pilots and parachute jumpers.

But in the 60s and 70s, there was no widespread glider / small plane movement.

The doctor today said, you may have a sinus node disfunction, go to the cardiologist, have an EKG and heart ultrasound, and take his opinion.

She was amazed at my heart rate of 43 bpm. Said that weakness could be caused by this syndrome and not by GI tract issues, as I thought.

Robusto

@CowperKettle I read about that program.

Planes were ferried up through Alaska and across Siberia. Russian pilots took over in Nome, IIRC.

@CowperKettle My uncle was a bombardier in WWII. Flew in a B-24, which was like a flying truck.

Consolidated B-24 Liberator

The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models designated as various LB-30s, in the Land Bomber design category. At its inception, the B-24 was a modern design featuring a highly efficient shoulder-mounted, high aspect ratio Davis wing. The wing gave the Liberator a high cruise speed, long range and the ability to carry a heavy bomb load. Early RAF Liberators were the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean...

@CowperKettle That's not a weakness. It just means your heart is very, very fit.

Your cardio-pulmonary system delivers oxygen to your body very efficiently.

If someone's resting heart rate is above 70, IMO they're not very healthy.

Tour de France riders have resting heart rates ~30 bpm or even lower.

CowperKettle

2:25 PM

Here he is in his flying uniform

"Happy new 1940!"

Robusto

@CowperKettle Cool!

I only got Novm ^_^

CowperKettle

Here he is some 10 years before

He is holding the box with the bullets

I uploaded this photo to Wikipedia's article on Maxim Gun

Robusto

Nice.

@CowperKettle Looking all stern and resolute, in the way of young military men everywhere.

CowperKettle

@Robusto He served in the NKVD for several months, but noticed that NKVD was killing innocent people, and got himself transferred to aviation

NKVD is the precursor of KGB

Robusto

@CowperKettle The "box with the bullets" is called a "magazine" btw.

CowperKettle

2:29 PM

Yes ))

Robusto

@CowperKettle Yes, I know that one. He was lucky to get away from them.

CowperKettle

Here he is together with his bomber navigator

Robusto

What kind of plane did they fly?

CowperKettle

I've no idea. Just at the start of the war, they flew a bombing mission over Germany from their base in Ventspils, in the Soviet-occupied Baltic

It did not do much harm to Germans

Robusto

Probably a 2-seater.

G Warner

2:34 PM

ELU is quick to approve my edits.

Not to interrupt @CowperKettle

CowperKettle

@Robusto There is an official record in the All-Russian database, but it only says the bits on why he was awarded, and does not say which planes he flew

There is a big database where you can look up your relatives. But the data is scarce.

Robusto

Yeah. Record-keeping was not top-of-mind for obvious reasons.

G Warner

Your ancestry?

CowperKettle

Once in the 20s or 30s they were brought to a camp in the Far East to get them fattened up, because they suffered from low weight. When they traveled back on train from the Far East, they lost their weight back. The army, haha.

Because it takes a week on train from Far East to Moscow

Here he is with his platoon during training

He is the first one. Crossing a river using a rope.

No idea where it was. Just a photo from a box

Robusto

@CowperKettle Figures. They didn't quite understand that people shouldn't have to go to the Far East to get, uh, some food?

CowperKettle

2:39 PM

@Robusto Yes, that was a strange logic

Maybe because in the USSR some regions had more food

My another grand-dad served as midshipman with the Far East Navy the whole war

It was the safest place in the USSR, probably. Because Japan never attacked.

Robusto

@CowperKettle Well, they did have trains, and could transport people there and back. Maybe, I don't know, use the trains to transport food?

CowperKettle

@Robusto In the 1980s we traveled to Uzbekistan and there was food, food everywhere

Robusto

@CowperKettle Well, the Soviet Union and Japan had a pact.

CowperKettle

Somehow the USSR was clumsy in distributing things.

Robusto

Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact

The Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact (日ソ中立条約, Nisso Chūritsu Jōyaku), also known as the Japanese–Soviet Non-aggression Pact (日ソ不可侵条約, Nisso Fukashin Jōyaku), was a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan signed on April 13, 1941, two years after the conclusion of the Soviet-Japanese Border War. The agreement meant that for most of World War II, the two nations fought against each other's allies but not against each other. In 1945, late in the war, the Soviets scrapped the pact and joined the Allied campaign against Japan. == Background == After the Fall of France and...

CowperKettle

2:42 PM

Yes, but the USSR still kept my granddad and some other sailors there just in case, and he spent the whole war waiting.

Robusto

Better waiting than dying.

CowperKettle

Yes

THe Japanese even were allowed to mine some mines during WWII in Soviet territory. It was very complicated.

Японские нефтяные концессии на Северном Сахалине в годы Великой Отечественной войны

Японские нефтяные концессии на Северном Сахалине в годы Великой Отечественной войны — японские нефтяные разработки на территории принадлежащего Советскому Союзу Северного Сахалина, осуществлявшиеся в период с 1941 по 1943 год. == Японские концессии на Северном Сахалине в довоенный период == 23 ноября 1920 года В. И. Лениным был подписан «Декрет об общих экономических и юридических условиях концессий», разрешавший предоставление концессий иностранному капиталу. Первая иностранная концессия на территории РСФСР появилась в 1921 году. 20 января 1925 года в Пекине была подписана Конвенция об основных...

Here, they pumped some oil, despite the fact that the war was ongoing.

But the whole oil pumped there in 1942-43 was only "one week's worth" for the Japanese Imperial Navy.

Robusto

War is such a terrible absurdity.

CowperKettle

2:58 PM

Komorebi { 木漏れ日 } is the Japanese word for sunlight, which is filtered through the leaves of the trees. In particular, it means the visible light rays. “Komorebi” is composed of several parts of the word: “Ko” means tree or trees. “More” means: something that comes through, something that shines through or seeps through. “Bi” means: sun or sunlight.

Mitch

3:18 PM

@Robusto What happens if those guys retire? I mean if they are prevented from doing their normal 5 hrs training a day? I bet their cardiovascular fitness stays with them for quite a while (forever?) but their metabolism probably goes through a rollercoaster.

they're probably used to eating 20k calories a day when training

@MattE.Эллен Hi, Perpnea!

AncientSwordRage

3:38 PM

hi everybody

Matt E. Эллен

@Mitch they seek Perpnea, they seek Perpfar

Gigili

Hi @AncientSwordRage

Are you that guy?

AncientSwordRage

@Gigili ¯\_¯\_(ツ)(ツ)_/¯

Just this guy y'know?

Gigili

Ha! I know you.

AncientSwordRage

@Gigili I can't place you're username...

it's damned familiar though

Gigili

3:51 PM

Yeah, happens all the time. I know everyone but no one knows me.

winks innocently

AncientSwordRage

@Gigili only guilty people need to wink innocently

somewhere on math stack exchange?

hi @CowperKettle!

Gigili

@AncientSwordRage Probably, yes

CowperKettle

@Robusto But since it has always existed, it's probably impossible to get rid of it. There was a temple in Ancient Rome, in which the doors were open to the four sides of the world if there was a war in the correpsonding direction. I've read that throughout Rome's history the temple was only completely closed for several years.

@AncientSwordRage Good evening!

Temple of Janus (Roman Forum)

The Temple of Janus stood in the Roman Forum near the Basilica Aemilia, along the Argiletum. It was a small temple with a statue of Janus, the two-faced god of boundaries and beginnings inside. Its doors were known as the "Gates of Janus", which were closed in times of peace and opened in times of war. There are many theories about its original purpose; some say that it was a bridge over the Velabrum, and some say it functioned as a gate to the Capitoline. This article includes the origins, legends, and modern remains of the Temple of Janus in the Roman Forum. == Origins == According to Livy 1...

> Its doors were known as the "Gates of Janus", which were closed in times of peace and opened in times of war.

AncientSwordRage

@CowperKettle Good Afternoon, from where I am, to you

Robusto

4:47 PM

@Mitch I don't know. But you use it or you lose it.

When I've had periods of forced inactivity, my fitness went way down.

@CowperKettle I know it exists. But surely we as a species must come to a dawning of, if not intelligence and maturity, at least some awareness that self-preservation involves the abolition of war?

War is road rage on steroids.

@Mitch: Further thought: You can keep yourself at an acceptable level of fitness even after you surrender the mantle of world-class athlete. What the Tour riders are doing now is at the extreme pinnacle of aerobic effort, rivalled only by long-distance runners and swimmers.

AncientSwordRage

Me again. Based on McWhorter's eloquent treatise on "ass" as a modern pronoun (yes, pronoun!), consider a revision: "his ass would not quit. In fact, it took up a second job in a soup kitchen on weekends." Careful: this appropriates Black American culture, so you'd only want to use it in an appropriate context. — Royster 28 mins ago

I've not come across this concern as a British English speaker

which has definitely given me pause

Robusto

@AncientSwordRage It's quite common in AmE, but it always involves the possessive: In a construction like "Get your ass out of here" it is a synecdoche substituting for the person being addressed.

Cerberus

5:03 PM

@AncientSwordRage It sounds rather vulgar, nor like a pronoun!

AncientSwordRage

@Cerberus Not vulgar

@Robusto oh I'm familiar with it that way, I didn't think proposing that it refused to quit would be problematic

Robusto

@CowperKettle 漏らす (morasu) as a verb means "leak" and one of the nuances is to divulge or disclose. So 木漏れ日 has overtones of truth being revealed, perhaps only to the viewer who was there in that moment.

A very Wallace Stevens notion, if you ask me.

@AncientSwordRage Hey, you're a scifi mod, yeah? Can you find a deleted question of mine there and give me the link to the question it duplicated?

AncientSwordRage

@Robusto I can give it a go

Robusto

I think it's the only question I asked.

AncientSwordRage

9

Q: SF story where man must answer questions to get to untold treasure

There was a great SF story I read some time ago (probably 25+ years ago) where there was a well known treasure trove, guarded by a killer robot that would ask all comers a series of difficult questions from all areas (math, physics, literature, history, etc.) But everyone eventually failed and d...

story-identification

Robusto

5:18 PM

But I should have merely left it closed, not deleted it, because now I forget the answer.

AncientSwordRage

Easier than I thought

Robusto

@AncientSwordRage Yes! Thanks!

AncientSwordRage

@Robusto I'll undelete it for you then

Robusto

Thank you.

AncientSwordRage

looks like it was roomba'd six years ago

@Robusto no problemo

CowperKettle

5:49 PM

Abbreviation of the day: SSRI (Soviet Stalingrad Recapture Inhibitor)

Robusto

@CowperKettle And here I thought that stood for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor.

tchrist

6:20 PM

@AncientSwordRage If you're ten years old, maybe not. But the word "ass" is considered vulgar even if now you can say it before the watershed. And you still really shouldn't use the word in civil discourse, including in SE titles.

It's slang for an intimate body part. These are always coarse.

Bohemian relativist

so hot

why don't our offices have air conditioner but secretaries' offices do?

tchrist

@Bohemianrelativist Because you are required to provide your paid workers with a safe working environment, but you are not required to do so for your paying students. They're just there for the money. :)

adamaero

6:44 PM

What are funny alternative ways to say, "what on earth are you talking about"

I should abide by the rules of this nutrition subreddit 'Be professional and respectful of other users.' Or else I would probably say, what in the fat hell are you talking about?

Bohemian relativist

7:01 PM

@tchrist we are paid students, not paying actually.

Robusto

7:25 PM

What Do Europeans Think About American Life? | NYT Opinion

►

I agree with most of this.

Upon further review, almost all of it.

tchrist

8:25 PM

@Bohemianrelativist I still think it's inhumane to make anybody work under those conditions.

Mitch

10:30 PM

@Robusto yes but I'm trying to tease out the nuances of what fitness is. Surely a Tour de France rider that quits cold turkey would start to lose endurance and speed and such but would still remain well above someone who never did that, and their heart lung efficiency would last quite a while (like your and Cowper's low resting heart rate and short time from exertion to resting rate). But what other effects? would BP maintain like heart rate?...

... Would metabolism slow down or would you still have to eat a lot or would you start to gain wait quickly or what? I don't know!

I considering training for the Tour so that I can stop and find out. Or I could just ask.

@adamaero Oh. I think trying to be funny will only be funny to yourself and others, and hardly ever to the person you're saying it to.

G Warner

11:56 PM

@adamaero Q&A posted here. I am sure it could still be relevant.

24

Q: Is "what on earth" still commonly used in real life? Is there any alternative that is not cursing or obscene?

I'm a non-native speaker. When I was at school, we were taught that "on earth" is used for emphasis in questions such as: What on earth are you talking about? However, from my experience (English movies, TV, online discussions, etc.), I seldom see people actually use the phrase "on earth". ...

word-choice phrases word-usage offensive-language minced-oaths

Robusto

@Cerberus: Do the names Wouter and Wout in Dutch correspond to Walter and Walt in English?

Cerberus

@Robusto Yes!

Wout is basically short for Wouter.

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