« first day (4289 days earlier)      last day (626 days later) » 

12:00 AM
#Statele #138 1/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://outflux.net/statele/
 
@Robusto The FBI have executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.
 
🌎 Aug 9, 2022 🌍
🔥 10 | Avg. Guesses: 9.2
🟨🟥🟥🟩 = 4

#globle
 
12:30 AM
@jlliagre yes. Competence in the field of choice is necessary. It's more fun to point out the somewhat more optionsl
 
1:03 AM
> #Worldle #200 1/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr
Phew, the region I knew, but the exact territory was a bit of a guess.
 
raf
1:29 AM
Can anyone here please suggest me what would be the right wording to say, "this turned me on intellectually"?
I feel like using "turned on" is kind of weird to use in a decent document so I wanna replace it but couldn't find any suitable replacement.
 
@raf This stimulated me intellectually.
This piqued my interest.
 
@raf this was intellectually stimulating
Jinx
 
Yay.
Etc.
 
This piqued my stimulation
 
Hmm.
This stimulated your pique?
 
1:33 AM
I don't claim ownership of soccer players
 
Uhh.
 
I think I broke Google
Oh, nevermind. Searching for "pique" now returns a 500 for me
 
raf
@M.A.R. I am having the same issue
 
raf
2:13 AM
"this turned me on intellectually" here I am referring to a specific academic subject/topic.
 
2:27 AM
@M.A.R. 👍🏽
@Cerberus I also think smaller are better.
I started Reddit last year only.
 
 
1 hour later…
3:35 AM
Adjective: couleis m (oblique and nominative feminine singular couleice)
  1. (of a door, a window, etc.) sliding; designed to slide
In Russian, the word kulisy means the wing flats (in theatre)
A flat (short for scenery flat) or coulisse is a flat piece of theatrical scenery which is painted and positioned on stage so as to give the appearance of buildings or other background. Flats can be soft covered (covered with cloth such as muslin) or hard covered (covered with decorative plywood such as luan). Soft-covered flats have changed little from their origin in the Italian Renaissance. Flats with a frame that places the width of the lumber parallel to the face are called "Broadway" or "stage" flats. Hard-covered flats with a frame that is perpendicular to the paint surface are referred...
Oh, the expression in the wings is derived from wing flats of the theatrical stage.
coulisse is cognate with portcullis
 
4:16 AM
Coolie(s) is also a word.
 
 
1 hour later…
6:19 AM
@raf so were we, yes. Cerberus' first two messages were the response to your question
 
6:49 AM
@M.A.R. Interesting comments on Reddit. I've never participated, though I come across the occasional Reddit thread. I agree that by general internet standards SE is relatively functional. Though given those standards, it's really not saying much.
There is some sort of equivalent of the Third Law of Thermodynamics which says that human organizations tend towards dysfunction.
 
7:02 AM
There should be paid moderators and paid administrators to keep a communal site functional. Wikipedia is gathering litter for lack of paid moderators who would winnow out unnecessary text.
> I recall on Aug 8,1974 turning to my wife and saying “what the fuck!” It was at the end of intermission at a ply in DC. We heard Richard Nixon announce his resignation”
What is "intermission at a ply"?
Got it. It's play
 
@CowperKettle It's unclear if they would do a better job.
 
8:00 AM
@CowperKettle it's a fancy word for double-layered paper tissue
 
8:19 AM
Quantum theology? Bleurgh
 
@M.A.R. The "God particle"?
 
8:39 AM
It randomly occurs to me that Melville and Dickens have a not-dissimilar prose style in some respects. They both like to randomly comment on lots of things, are very descriptive and idiosyncratic. There are other similarities that are harder to pin down.
 
9:16 AM
Wordle 416 3/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
 
 
2 hours later…
11:29 AM
We had a heavy rain today for almost two hours. Best of this year. But after that weather changed instantly and sky has become clear with strong sunlight. Like nothing happened. You realize it rained only by seeing water in the streets.
 
 
1 hour later…
12:33 PM
> Eating between 7AM and 3PM is more effective for losing weight & improving blood pressure and mood than eating the same low calorie diet throughout the day twitter.com/davidasinclair/status/1556971107281928192
 
1:17 PM
@M.A.R. But Astro-dentistry is purely practical... on the missions to Mars, someone is definitely going to have some tooth problems.
huh... I wonder if there's any stories about people on the ISS?
@FaheemMitha Also too long. So many words. Like they're in a race with Tolstoy for longest book.
But to be fair there are Short Assamese movies:
 
2:01 PM
Huge explosions at an airbase in Crimea, 200 km from the frontline.
This is way out of HIMARS range. Odd.
 
@CowperKettle Perhaps locally set not fired from a distance?
 
Could be even some mistake in handling munitions. Who knows
 
2:20 PM
The US announced that they had started giving Ukraine some HARM rockets, which act against radars. Now OSINT people on Twitter wonder how Ukrainians duct tape these rockets to their Soviet planes.
 
> Daughter: “Dad why are you staring at the orange juice bottle?”
> Dad: "It says concentrate."
 
Haha
 
@CowperKettle secret nazi techniques
Didn't nazis meet the aliens first? I know my history
 
> What do you call a tiny mother?
A minimum.
 
2:42 PM
Early today, there was an unconfirmed report of an explosion 150 km from the frontline, also in Crimea, and also double the range of HIMARS. But it was not believed because of the range.
 
3:06 PM
And in Hindi, Minima.
A big mother would be maxima.
 
3:41 PM
A naked tiny mother:
A bareminimum
 
4:41 PM
Hindi remake of 'Forrest Gump' will release this week. Hope it doesn't flop.
 
@Vikas Life is just like a golgappa...
 
@jlliagre Did you just watch trailer?
 
Right
 
Haha. I also watched it now. Looks well made.
 
It does. Are Hindi remakes common?
 
4:51 PM
@jlliagre Yeah common. I've even watched some Hindi movies which I later realized those were actually remakes of Hollywood movies. I realized it when I watched those Hollywood movies.
There is even a remake of 'The Usual Suspects'. It was super flop in Hindi. Years later I watched 'The Usual Suspects' and I couldn't enjoy it much because I already knew what's going to happen in the end. So it was ruined. Now I do some research before watching Hindi movies :P
 
5:32 PM
@Mitch This was prompted by a curious thing I read called "Bartleby the Scrivener".
I'm not really familiar with Melville, but I recognize his tone of voice.
 
 
3 hours later…
8:09 PM
@FaheemMitha We had to read that in middle school (7th or 8th grade). It was hilariously depressing.
 
@Mitch I don't recall having read it before. But it was mentioned in some article in passing, so I looked it up.
 
Probably in preparation for Moby Dick later in high school, which somehow I avoided (like the teacher chose another book for us)
@FaheemMitha It's fairly short, right?
 
@Mitch Yes, it's a short story, I suppose.
 
Mpby Dick is not a short story
It's a long story
 
Though I'm not sure if the term "short story" was used at the time.
 
8:11 PM
It's a long long story
@FaheemMitha Novella?
there are all sorts of words
 
@Mitch I meant Bartleby, obviously.
 
@FaheemMitha Of course. And I was introducing a related work by the same author, Moby Dick for contrast.
Do you see how that works? That's something people do sometimes.
 
@Mitch OK. I wasn't sure if you had misunderstood what I was referring to.
@Mitch What, be confusing? Humans do that all the time. It's practically a feature.
I'm not familiar with Moby Dick, though when younger I tried multiple times to read it. How is it?
 
Also, didn't you read my sentence which introduces 'Moby Dick' with respect to 'Bartleby the Scrivener'?
 
@Mitch I did.
 
8:13 PM
@FaheemMitha No I introduced it then referred back to it. It's how conversations work.
 
Well, I was confused by your sentence.
 
@FaheemMitha If you read what I said above you'd know that I mentioned Moby Dick -as a book I haven't read-.
4 mins ago, by Mitch
Probably in preparation for Moby Dick later in high school, which somehow I avoided (like the teacher chose another book for us)
 
3 mins ago, by Mitch
Mpby Dick is not a short story
 
"which somehow I avoided"
 
@Mitch Indeed, I didn't read that sentence attentively. So you've not read Moby Dick in the years since?
 
8:16 PM
That now is a reasonable question to ask since it is ambiguous about reading it later (though crystal clear I didn't read it in high school_.
And the answer is...
no I haven't read Moby Dick ever.
Can you guess why?
 
@Mitch OK.
 
I'll answer that for you.
Because it's too long
 
@Mitch How long is too long?
 
How can you tell if a book is too long without reading it, you might ask?
By looking at how think it is.
@FaheemMitha About 'so' big.
400 pages is lengthy but not preventatively long.
500 pages is really pushing it.
 
Well, I thought you might have read part of it. Whatever. I've read long books, though mostly as a child, when there seemed to be plenty of time. The plentitude of time, however, is an illusion, as I have since discovered.
 
8:18 PM
There has to be something special to bother with 600 pages
 
If you think you have plenty of time, you've forgotten about the many things you should be doing. Unless you are super rich and can hire people to do everything for you. And even that might not work out well, if you hire the wrong people.
@Mitch Well, maybe it was special. Though honestly the beginning didn't grab me.
 
I've read Harry Potter 4,5,6,7 and all are above 600.
But
I wasn't happy about it.
each book could have cut 400 pages out and still been coherent.
 
@Mitch You didn't like any of the HP books? But still kept on reading?
 
Well, I liked the idea of them.
 
@Mitch Yes, they tended to be a bit long. And more importantly, not terribly well written.
 
8:21 PM
and also I wanted to see how it turned out.
@FaheemMitha They're not Jane Austen
or Dostoyevsky
 
@Mitch Well, the "good guys" win. Like in all the Hollywood movies. And unlike real life, where the people with the most guns mostly win.
@Mitch I personally think Jane Austen is rather overrated.
 
Someone should write some Austen/Dostoyevsky mashup
 
@Mitch I don't know Dostoyevsky at all.
 
that would send a lot of people to the asylum
 
@Mitch The mashup? They would have to read it first.
 
8:23 PM
@FaheemMitha Also, strangely, real life doesn't have actual magic. So if you're looking for realism, you're probably not going to find it there.
 
@Mitch Well, I was talking about "popular culture" in general. Including the non-magical variety. In real life, if you are better at killing, you usually win.
 
But HP is intended for young adults, and because of that it is intentionally aimed at that reading level.
 
@Mitch What reading level?
 
Again, not Austen or Dostoyevsky
 
I've read a couple of Austen's novels. They aren't about much of anything, IMO. Still, mildly entertaining, I suppose.
And still readable after 200 years, which I suppose is some sort of accomplishment.
 
8:26 PM
@FaheemMitha The movies are 1) only made for fun and 2) only really give the plot. So the quality of those movies is a little independent of the books.
 
@Mitch Are we still talking about Austen?
 
As books though, Austen is top shelf.
@FaheemMitha If you follow the links you'll see immediately that I was responding to a post you made mentioning Jane Austen. That's another way conversations work in chat.
 
@Mitch Just checking. I was wondering why you suddenly mentioned Austen movies. I was clearly talking about the novels.
 
@FaheemMitha I don't think she was planning on future readability, but it's nice for her that it worked out.
 
Though I see only after the comment you linked to.
 
8:29 PM
@FaheemMitha Follow the links, not the linear order of things.
 
@Mitch I don't suppose she was.
 
We have yet to trash Dostoyevsky.
 
Anyway, in case there is any doubt, when I wrote
7 mins ago, by Faheem Mitha
@Mitch I personally think Jane Austen is rather overrated.
I meant the novels.
 
@FaheemMitha OK, that clarifies it.
The subject matter is not for everybody.
 
And since Austen wasn't actually involved in the making of any Austen movies, they don't seem terribly relevant to the discussion.
@Mitch I've read "Pride and Prejudice" and "Emma". Possibly others, but those two I'm sure of.
 
8:31 PM
I don't 'get' Thomas Hardy or EM Forster both of whom I was at gunpoint to read (or rather read in summer for preparation for the school year).
 
I wouldn't say they are bad, but not so staggeringly wonderful as people seem to think. She certainly knew how to turn a sentence.
 
@FaheemMitha Since you had not as yet clarified I assumed wrongly that you didn't care for Austen because of the movies.
 
@Mitch I rather like Hardy, who wrote beautifully, but his subject matter was rather depressing.
Though I'm not very familiar with his work either. He wrote quite a lot of novels.
 
@FaheemMitha Some people effuse diarrhetically over their faves, so it is hard to tell quality from that.
 
@Mitch One cannot judge an author by the films that were made of his or her books. That would scarcely be fair.
 
8:33 PM
@FaheemMitha I had to read Jude the Obscure (holy crap...another summer reading item) and just didn't get it.
 
@Mitch Yes, that's one of those with depressing subject matter.
 
Then recently someone did a reading/interlaced commentary of it as a podcast, and ...
and I didn't get it then either even while it was being explained to me practically sentence by sentence.
 
I suggest "Far From the Madding Crowd", which is quite upbeat, for Hardy.
 
I mean I understood what was going on, I just couldn't really engage.
@FaheemMitha And yet, it's easy to do.
 
And I seem to remember the film starring Julie Christie was pretty good.
 
8:35 PM
judge that is
books by the movie
 
@Mitch People do so, of course.
Bathsheba is a spirited heroine, to which nothing really bad happens. Perhaps Hardy just forgot to make some horrible things happen to her.
Though she does go through plenty of trauma over the cause of the novel.
But I suppose live as a working class person during that period was probably pretty rough.
In case of confusion, I was referring to
Far from the Madding Crowd is a 1967 British epic period drama film adapted from Thomas Hardy's 1874 book of the same name. The film, starring Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Terence Stamp and Peter Finch, and directed by John Schlesinger, was Schlesinger's fourth film (and his third collaboration with Christie). It marked a stylistic shift away from his earlier works exploring contemporary urban mores. The cinematography was by Nicolas Roeg and the soundtrack was by Richard Rodney Bennett. He also used traditional folk songs in various scenes throughout the film. It was nominated for one Oscar for...
 
@FaheemMitha It was not confusing since you had not been using references and then the reader follows sequentially.. That's how chat works.
 
@Mitch Yes, you already explained how chat works.
Hardy was a poet, which probably helped his prose style. I find that poets often make good prose writers. At least in certain aspects.
It can help with the stylistic aspects, but I suppose there are other aspects where it would not help so much with.
 
9:29 PM
@Cerberus Guess where.
I'm seeing these more and more on twitter
 
9:49 PM
@CowperKettle Have they taken into account different sleep cycles?
@Mitch Could be the Haarlemmerstraat?
Yup, it's the Haarlemmerdijk, which is the same street, it just changes names halfway through.
I think cars are still allowed in the street, but they drive there only very rarely.
Probably only those that need to be in exactly that part of the street to deliver something.
The new terror of the streets: electric bicycles.
Those have exploded.
And they go too fast.
 
10:32 PM
@Cerberus Stop them from exploding seems to be the best strategy.
@Cerberus I thought it was tourists?
and nutella waffles?
 
@Mitch Those, too, of course.
Both tourists and electric bicycles make traffic worse.
And tourists various things beyond traffic.
 
I have seen only one or two electric bicycles out here in the suburbs, and they weren't going that fast, so they have yet gotten annoying.
aren't the electric scooters there also getting dangerously speedy?
 
@Mitch Yeah, it used to be that way, until three years ago or so?
 
@Cerberus huh
 
Yes, but electric scooters often come instead of combustion scooters, so the scooter issue has not become worse.
 
10:35 PM
I thnk of scooters as more dangerous to themselves than others
 
They hit bicycles.
They speed.
 
one chink in the sidewalk and you're toast. broken wrist, maybe some dentistry needed
 
Also because scooter riders tend to be, well, lower-class and/or arrogant yuppies, so they generally behave poorly. Like taxis.
Combustion scooters are also extremely loud and dirty. So that's a plus for electric scooters.
 
But scooters are super convenient. you can get somewhere pretty quickly (within a city center) but you don't have to worry about/take time with locking up your bike or carrying it up 5 flights of stairs
a scooter folds up cleanly even in wet weather
well maybe not that cleanly
 
The only thing is that electric scooters are so silent you don't hear them coming even when they are speeding, so they might hit you in the back when you are overtaking another bicycle.
 
10:37 PM
@Cerberus or kids
they should all go to hell. and together
 
But an important way in which electric bicycles are worse is that they are allowed on bicycle lanes, unlike scooters.
 
@Cerberus ??? that seems like overkill to have a gas powered motor on a scooter.
 
@Mitch Wait, I think we are talking about a different vehicle!
A scooter (motor scooter) is a motorcycle with an underbone or step-through frame and a platform for the rider's feet, emphasizing comfort and fuel economy. Elements of scooter design were present in some of the earliest motorcycles, and scooters have been made since at least 1914. Scooter development continued in Europe and the United States between the World Wars. The global popularity of motor scooters dates from the post-World War II introductions of the Vespa and Lambretta models in Italy. These scooters were intended to provide economical personal transportation (engines from 50 to 150...
 
@Cerberus oh haha yes I'm talking about.... searching for pic
 
Ah, a kick scooter, perhaps?
We don't call those scooters here.
Only children use those here.
 
10:40 PM
 
Probably because electric 'kick' scooters are illegal here.
 
I've always wondered about that word. annoyingly ambiguous
 
They are too dangerous, mostly for themselves, as you said.
@Mitch And we have a ton more ambiguous words for various two-wheeled vehicles with engines.
 
motorcycle?
 
Yes, we have motorfiets, bromfiets, snorfiets.
I can never remember which is which.
 
10:42 PM
cripes
 
One can go on the highway.
Another cannot, but can still go pretty fast.
 
like Inuit and snow
 
The third goes less fast.
Each of the three has different types of number plates.
 
omg a scooter on the highway... so scary, for the rider and for the other vehicles
 
Those we do not call scooters, though!
 

« first day (4289 days earlier)      last day (626 days later) »