English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Mitch

8:02 PM

@Laurel I couldn't find a link to your post at this hacker news link... where was it?

Laurel

It's at the very top, same link text as the title as my post.

Right next to where it says "(meta.stackexchange.com)"

Mitch

Oh

I didn't think of clicking on that.

Anyway, nice to have people look at ELU for something.

Big personal news. I'm finishing up writing my autobiography.

I intend it to be complete and unabridged.

But

I didn't quite think ahead to what that really means.

Specifically to how I close off all the quotes of what I say.

So if "I say these are my last words",

I'd have to write "My last words are 'These are my last words'".

But then those would be my last words.

So I'd have to quote that.

I'd have to write "I'd have to write "My last words are 'These are my last words'"".

You see the problem.

I'd also have to keep my mouth shut afterwards.

Except for eating. I'm pretty sure that's allowed.

But if my life-long enemy is crossing the street, and a bus is barreling along and he isn't aware of it, I couldn't be blamed for hesitating to yell something out loud to warn him.

Robusto

@Mitch Nooooooooo.

@Mitch This would be the major problem, I do believe.

Mitch

@Robusto Perfect example of a website written by hand by a tech prof.

@Robusto I know, right!

Robusto

8:17 PM

@Mitch Yep. "How hard could it be?"

Mitch

It took a few years before universities had a media department large enough to set up web pages for every prof.

Robusto

And "If I make it look too nice, people will think I'm insufficiently scientific. Or maybe gay."

Mitch

8:36 PM

@Robusto I don't think the thought process is that deep. It's more like "Colors? Why would I want colors? The info is enough."

Robusto

@Mitch Occam's Razor, indeed.

alphabet

@Mitch I believe style guides recommend a recursive footnote, e.g. [1] My last words are in the following footnote.[1]

@Robusto They had to use colors from the Approved Heterosexual Colors List. That's what they meant by "web-safe colors."

Robusto

@alphabet Yes, the AHCL. Very butch.

Cerberus

@M.A.R. Hey, did you know the Kazakh parliament is called the Mazjilis (at least in Dutch translitteration)?

I wonder what the etymology is.

alphabet

Interestingly re the previous discussion: at most US pharmacies the prescription drugs are a "loss leader"; they lose money on meds, but by offering them, they draw you in & get you to buy other stuff they can profit from.

(There are a few exceptions--mainly uninsured people--but overall their pharmacy arms operate at a loss.)

Cerberus

8:48 PM

Does that mean medicines are much cheaper in America than here?

Somehow I doubt hat, I expect the opposite.

Laurel

9:39 PM

@alphabet I don't see how it's possible that they lose money, unless there's some weird cash flow in the medication-insurance game where all the money is sucked away from both the customer and the pharmacy

jlliagre

@M.A.R. I did. I was very surprised to see that cigarettes were sold in pharmacies in the US.

Laurel

@jlliagre There are a few that stopped, and they made a big deal out of it

That was a few years ago too

Robusto

@Cerberus It depends what kind of insurance you have. I'm on Medicare, and I pay $10 a month for most prescriptions, and nothing for some.

CowperKettle

> Your kids?

A Soviet poster against hooliganism

alphabet

9:55 PM

@Laurel Exactly! It's all sucked away by the insurer, which drives up prices for both the pharmacy and the customer.

jlliagre

@CowperKettle He looks like T1000

alphabet

@Cerberus Nope, drugs are crazy expensive here. But the copay is set by your insurer, as is the amount of money that is paid to the pharmacy. Since the amount paid to the pharmacy typically isn't enough to cover the full cost of running the pharmacy, it operates at a loss.

Ah!

He is T1000.

10:00 PM

Skynet probably used the Soviet poster in its design.

alphabet

So why do insurers pay the pharmacy so little and have such high copays? Answer: supply and demand. Stores are willing to operate the pharmacy at a loss, and customers are willing to pay high copays if they need their medicine. So the insurer can drive down pharmacy reimbursements and drive up copays quite a lot--and, of course, they do.

jlliagre

Robert Patrick

Robert Hammond Patrick (born November 5, 1958) is an American actor. Known for portraying villains and honorable authority figures, he is a Saturn Award winner with four other nominations. Patrick dropped out of college when drama class sparked his interest in acting, and entered film in 1986. After playing a supporting role in Die Hard 2 (1990), he came to prominence as the T-1000, the antagonist of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)—a role he reprised for cameo appearances in Wayne's World (1992) and Last Action Hero (1993). His other film credits include Fire in the Sky (1993), Striptease (1996...

CowperKettle

He also played in Last Action Hero, I loved this movie in the 1990s

jlliagre

@CowperKettle So did I.

CowperKettle

Prigozhin's statement published yesterday.

He's warning of upcoming offensives by Ukraine, which may cut the arms of the Russian encirclement around Bakhmut.

And asking for some troops to strengthen the flanks.

Dzhankoi

Dzhankoi or Jankoy is a town of regional significance in the northern part of Crimea, internationally recognized as part of Ukraine, but since 2014 occupied by Russia. It also serves as administrative centre of Dzhankoi Raion although it is not a part of the raion (district). Population: 38,622 (2014 Census).The name Dzhankoi (Ukrainian and Russian: Джанкой; German: Dshankoj; Crimean Tatar: Canköy; Yiddish: דזשאנקאיע) means 'new village': canköy < cañı köy (cañı is 'new' in the northern dialect of Crimean Tatar). But it is often explained as meaning 'spirit-village' (< can 'spirit' + köy 'village...

Explosions have been reported in Dzhankoi.

Probably at an airbase or train station.

> From 1783 onwards, there was a systematic settlement of Russians, Ukrainians, and Germans to the Crimean Peninsula (in what was then the Crimean Khanate) in order to weaken the Crimean Tatar population.

> The first German settlements were:

Friedental – in the district of Simferopol; formed in 1806 by Lutherans
Heilbrunn – in the district of Feodosiya; formed in 1809 by Lutherans
Kronental – in the district of Simferopol; formed in 1810 by Lutherans and Catholics
Neusatz – in the district of Simferopol; formed in 1806 by Lutherans
Rosental – in the district of Simferopol; formed in 1806 by Catholics
Staryj Krim (old Crimea) – in the district Feodosiya; formed in 1805 by Lutherans and Catholics

Black Sea Germans fleeting to Hungary, 1944.

CowperKettle

10:29 PM

An ex space engineer has posted a message saying that students in the Moscow Aviation Institute are given their Diploma only after they have signed their military notice.

The govt is trying to ensure they don't evade conscription.

Cerberus

10:46 PM

@Robusto Right, I pay nothing for most medicines. But I rather meant the price insurance pays to pharmacies.

@alphabet If that is really true, I would rather say, it is possible because of monopolies and oligopolies.

@CowperKettle Interesting.

jlliagre

@CowperKettle That's the only reasonable explanation.

CowperKettle

alphabet

@Cerberus Yep. Also regulatory capture

CowperKettle

Чичерина -- Жара

►

She had a nice song in 2000 on MTV.

And grew into a woman who's inviting Ukrainians to GULAGs to be cleansed of their sins.

CowperKettle

11:15 PM

The guy says that ChatGPT 4 brought back the investment on the 3rd day after he bought it.

He used CG4 to compose a letter of complaint to the owner of a flat he was staying.

Probably in Hebrew, cause he had just moved there.

The owner returned $800 to him.

This is a guy I've been following. He had lucrative contracts in Moscow as a designer. Was the official designer for the Moscow Subway.

During the 2019 Navalny Protests, he went jogging in the morning, on the street where a protest was planned to be held some 4 hours after the jog. The police was posted there in advance, so they grew suspicious at the jogger, pinned him to the ground and broke his leg.

He was then taken to the police station and registered as an unruly participant in the protest, which had not yet started by that moment.

For this he was imposed a fine.

After 24 Feb 22, he fled Russia.

He used his Jewish ancestry to stay in Israel.

Cerberus

Major opposition politician in Kazakhstan.

Robusto

@Cerberus That's probably a different story.

CowperKettle

11:32 PM

@Cerberus Looks like a person generated by Midjourney

CowperKettle

11:46 PM

By the way. In the book Generation "П" (1999) by Viktor Pelevin, all top Russian politicians are 3D avatars generated by a supercomputer in the USA :)

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Haha why, too perfect?

@CowperKettle If only.

CowperKettle

@Cerberus A nice post-modern book

All his books are replete with references to this or that, they must be hard to translate.

There must be explanations, half a page of text, half a page of explanations.

That's why Hudibras has never been translated to Russian.

> But let that pass: they now begun
To spur their living-engines on.
For as whipp'd tops, and bandy'd balls,
The learned hold, are animals;
So horses they affirm to be
Mere engines made by geometry

gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4937/pg4937-images.html

Robusto

Empire of Psychopaths: What Lead the Romans to be Quite so Brutal?

►

Pun in the title?

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…