English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

12:14 AM

Children with autism often appear to develop normally at first but start "regressing" later; this regression, and the subsequent diagnosis of autism, often happens around the same age when vaccines get administered.

This can make it appear that the vaccines caused the autism, when in fact autism becomes visible at the same age regardless of vaccination status.

Robusto

12:39 AM

@alphabet The post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy rears its ugly head once again.

CowperKettle

1:46 AM

@alphabet Yes. And the fact that the regression sometimes is triggered by a mild fever

Mitch

2:08 AM

@alphabet or, now hear me out, having autism causes vaccinations

alphabet

Mitch

@Robusto how can you let words like that come out of your mouth? What your mother would think...

Robusto

3:27 AM

@Mitch She would think I'm very logical.

CowperKettle

3:51 AM

Harry Potter but in Japan

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CowperKettle

6:14 AM

> Russia may sign a deal with Iran for purchase of its Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar missiles - ISW

CowperKettle

6:36 AM

An apple tree in bloom, in Chelyabinsk Oblast, in September. It happens, during bouts of unnaturaly hot weather after a spell of autumnal cold

Vikas

7:48 AM

A puppy was looking for food on the road. There were vehicles going on around it. I waited like ten minutes to see if he goes away. But he stayed on the road.

CowperKettle

8:11 AM

@Vikas He looks so well-groomed

CowperKettle

8:32 AM

Google is 25 years old today. In other news, Leonardo DiCaprio has announced that he'll be using Bing search from now on.

@Vikas Great nature too. We are already having a cold autumn.

The central heating was turned on today in my apartment block.

So I took off my two pairs of trousers and three layers of t-shirts.

Nice to be in the warmth again.

I wonder if heating radiators that use steam instead of water are more efficient.

You don't have to push all that water up many stories. But if a radiator breaks, a whole apartment could be ruined by steam.

The Hidden Complexity of Wishes

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A homemade moonshine still exploded on the balcony of an apartment building in Voronezh.

Quite powerful.

Vikas

@CowperKettle I will soon turn off my "central cooling" ;) Just fan would be enough.

@CowperKettle Winter will start here in about late November.

CowperKettle

9:31 AM

When do you have the right to scold your coffee?
When you have more than sufficient grounds!

CowperKettle

9:58 AM

DORA THE GROWNUP 2

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I didn't even watch the original, only heard of it.

Vikas

12:15 PM

My laptop touchpad needs great force for the touch to work. I thought it's become faulty. The laptop battery health is very poor. And now I think it must have swollen and it probably affected the touchpad area.

CowperKettle

1:10 PM

Dickens of the day: belcher handkerchief

James Belcher

James Belcher, also known as Jem Belcher (15 April 1781 – 30 July 1811), was an English bare-knuckle prize-fighter and Champion of All England 1800–1805. == Early life == Belcher was born at his father's house in St. James's churchyard, Bristol, on 15 April 1781. His maternal grandfather was Jack Slack (d. 1778), a noted fighter, who had defeated Jack Broughton in April 1750. Although never formally apprenticed, 'Jem' Belcher became a butcher. == Boxing career == In his youth he became known for his pugilistic- and other- feats at Lansdown fair. Belcher was a natural fighter, described ...

> He had a brown hat on his head, and a dirty belcher handkerchief round his neck: with the long frayed ends of which he smeared the beer from his face as he spoke. He disclosed, when he had done so, a broad heavy countenance with a beard of three days' growth, and two scowling eyes; one of which displayed various parti-coloured symptoms of having been recently damaged by a blow.

Vikas

> Johnny Depp starts shooting for ‘Modì’ in Budapest

Eye catching headline.

CowperKettle

@Vikas I've never gotten used to them.. so I always carry a mouse :)

There are special tiny mouses for travellers

Vikas

I also don't use touchpad. I just realized it when I was debugging something.

CowperKettle

In the 1990s, my dad had a very advanced laptop at work, and I took it home to play Warcraft. It was a sub-sized laptop, so it only had a ministick right in the middle of the keyboard, and I nearly broke my finger playing Warcraft.

Vikas

I've seen that thing. I don't even know what's the use of it.

Robusto

1:49 PM

#Worldle #615 1/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
⭐⭐🏙️🪙
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

@CowperKettle Poor substitute for a mouse.

🌎 Sep 28, 2023 🌍
🔥 44 | Avg. Guesses: 4.29
🟥🟥🟧🟥🟩 = 5

globle-game.com
#globle

Wordle 831 5/6

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Robusto

2:23 PM

Daily Quordle 612
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m-w.com/games/quordle/

Daily Octordle #612
6️⃣🟥
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Score: 72

And it started out so promising.

jlliagre

Wordle 831 6/6

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Robusto

2:39 PM

@Mitch: Now NYTSB won't accept pupping. Seriously? pupping vb, pups, pupping or pupped (Zoology) (of dogs, seals, etc) to give birth to (young)

CowperKettle

3:17 PM

This is beyond me. Make pupping great again!

Mitch

3:41 PM

@Robusto As in 'The muddle-pupping New York Times'?

To be honest, when I say the word... I thought 'that ain't a word' and second thought maybe with affixes? and only then did I see the giving birth defnition. So I guess it's a real word.

jlliagre

Daily Quordle 612
6️⃣5️⃣
8️⃣3️⃣
m-w.com/games/quordle/

Mitch

also then 'pupper' is OK

also 'puppering' and 'pupperment' and 'puppermentship'

and 'antipuppermentarianism'

0

Q: What is Hypercorrection?

I was assigned a presentation on Hypercorrection yet I have absolutely no idea what it is (the definitions I found were really vague). Please help me grasp the basis of it and kindly provide some examples/cases. Thank you so so much!

hypercorrection

@alphabet I saw this closed.

CowperKettle

Mitch

I started to comment on it after you saying 'It's also a mother-pupping RtDMH: Request to Do My Homework'

But I didn't submit my comment because I went into a ... what is it called when you're stuck in a whirlwind of thought and can't be bothered to be disturbed by others to snap you out of it?

A Sophic fit?

A Socratic fit?

Oh yeah, an 'ontic fit'.

Of which Socrates, a well-known Sophist, was famous for falling into, annoying the shit out of his friends who were trying to ask him for a smoke, but he kept 'ignoring' them, afterwards making up some shit about 'ontic fits'.

Anyway, back to the point.

Of which I'm sure I had one.

And it was...

dare I say...

not that important.

jlliagre

Daily Octordle #612
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Score: 57

Mitch

3:52 PM

I got all philosophical about if a RtDMH was in and of itself, per se, sui generis, ipso facto, and obiter dictu, an actual 'Bad Thing' (a closable offense).

I mean he looked it up on wikipedia (but didn't link it...because the dude is a first time visitor), and didn't understand wikipedia.

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Haha that is just so horrible.

How so many nice, intelligent people end up working in finance, marketing, corporate law.

Why are the high-paying jobs also the ones contributing the leats to society?

Or even being a net loss, according to David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs.

Mitch

I haven't looked at it either because I'm too lazy to type in the google search bar (but not so lazy that I can't waste time here spitting out my linguistically coordinated thoughts.

@Cerberus That kid's gotta eat

when he grows up.

So a homework question by an ELU newbie may very well be on topic. That's as far as my fingers will go into decoding my neurons.

CowperKettle

Phrase I've never, ever seen before of the day: well-appointed. Have you ever come across this phrase?

well-appointed

Adjective: well-appointed (comparative better-appointed or more well-appointed, superlative best-appointed or most well-appointed)

Properly equipped with a complete set of whatever equipment is needed

Mitch

Sure

sounds fine

CowperKettle

Mitch

4:03 PM

depends on context

oh there you go

CowperKettle

Indian Railways coaching stock

Indian Railways offers various travel classes on their coaches. Depending upon their travel class, the passenger cars feature different seating arrangements or berths subject to availability. == Coaches == The following table lists combinations of class-accommodations in normal operation. == Classification of berths and seats == Berths are classified as follows: LB = Lower Berth. MB = Middle Berth. UB = Upper Berth. SL = Side Lower Berth. SM = Side Middle Berth. SU = Side Upper Berth.Seater train coaches have no berths, and only the seater coaches(EA, EC, CC, 2S) are classified into three types...

I was reading this, and thought that maybe this phrase is more common in India, as some phrases are

Like do the needful en.wiktionary.org/wiki/do_the_needful

Mitch

using it like that sounds a bit ... metaphorical. And now that I see the Indian connection, it could be a bit more common in InE.

@CowperKettle Yeah that's totally an Indianism (to me)

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Yes, I know it.

CowperKettle

It's already dark at 19:00

The prevailing wind in Yekaterinburg is from the west.

Maybe it has affected the trees.

The poplars.

In the summer, huge branches fall down during storms. Sometimes people get mangled.

Poplars are precarious.

Mitch

@CowperKettle isn't weather (and most wind) usually from the west for you?

CowperKettle

4:10 PM

@Mitch I don't know. Maybe yes.

I just have noticed a long time ago that the wind is almost always from the west

Maybe that's why the climate is clementer than further east.

For instance, Birobidzhan is 800 km further to the south, compared with Yekaterinburg. But it has a helluva winter, while we have a mild one. weatherspark.com/compare/y/106006~143222/…

Birobidzhan is where Stalin wanted to set up a Jewish land.

It does have a full summer's worth of good agricultural temperatures though, Birobidzhan.

While in Yekaterinburg planting stuff is precarious.

In Yekaterinburg, you can be sure of growing stuff only in July, LOL.

And in some days in June and August.

Vikas

@CowperKettle I had a hard time understanding it when I booked first time. I still give a quick reading to it before I jave to book a ticket.

CowperKettle

@Vikas Ah!

I wonder if it's comfortable for people to climb to the third tier.

In Russia, third tiers are used only for suitcases and bags, and are tilted a bit.

As a child, I used to climb there when we were playing with other kids during long train rides (they lasted 3 days from Noyabrsk to the Crimea)

Vikas

4:27 PM

@CowperKettle It's not. I don't like climbing up. It's not difficult but it's not something I'm proud of.

But yeah for kids it's fun.

@CowperKettle In some coaches (let me check the class name again by reading), not everyone follows rules. There's so much crowd that they even sit or sleep where only luggage should go.

CowperKettle

What I liked best in the Crimea train in the 1980s, is that the whole train was loaded onto a huge ship, it literally just rolled onto the ship, on the way to Crimea, to cross the straight. You could leave the couch and walk upon the ship's deck.

@Vikas It was the same in the USSR in the 1920s to 1940s, people crowded in and paid bribes to coach officers or whatever they are called, to ride in any nooks and crannies.

In the 1980s, you could bribe your way onto a coach if the coach officer knew there was an empty bunk up to some location.

My mom, dad and their friend once boarded the wrong train and travelled to Yekaterinburg instead of Tuymen in the late 1970s

I mix up coach and couch

Vikas

@CowperKettle It's called Unreserved or General class which is most affordable and keast facilities. That's crowded the most.

I can remember many horrible experiences from childhood from this class travel.

CowperKettle

Yes, this also existed in the USSR, but usually they sold approximately the same amount of tickets as there were seats.

Blissfully, it's not as hot in Russia as in India though.

Vikas

4:44 PM

@CowperKettle Exactly.

@CowperKettle No such rule here. You can still get tickets if it's full.

@CowperKettle you meant this as the "third tier" right?

It's titled upwards a bit.

People here sleep on that when there's no place to even sit.

Not to mention people would sit on floor right in front of stinking toilets.

CowperKettle

5:01 PM

@Vikas No, I thought it was not made of rails, but of solid stuff

This one seems too flimsy, made for suitcases :)

I'm amazed that people sleep there.

Sycamore Gap Tree

The Sycamore Gap Tree or Robin Hood Tree was a sycamore tree standing next to Hadrian's Wall near Crag Lough in Northumberland, England. It was located in a dramatic dip in the landscape and was a popular photographic subject, described as one of the most photographed trees in the country. It derived its alternative name from featuring in a prominent scene in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The tree won the 2016 England Tree of the Year award. The tree was felled in September 2023. == Location == The Sycamore Gap Tree was by Hadrian's Wall, between Milecastle 39 and Crag Lough, about...

A tree had its own Wikipedia page.

Vikas

@CowperKettle Maybe in Russia they have better one.

@CowperKettle It's not comfortable but when you're very sleepy during long journey, you'd want to sleep wherever you think it's comfortable lol

Also it's very common for passengers to ask to give them "some space" to sit while they're sleeping. So the sleeping passengers have to adjust a bit.

But if I have to travel now I'd choose one step better class (SL = Sleeper). It doesn't get crowded. Seats according to tickets only.

I haven't travelled in AC class yet.

The biggest railway station I've seen is in New Delhi. It was a nightmare for me to find the right platform for my train. When I finally reached there, I kept asking from others again and again if this is the platform for the train. I couldn't afford to miss the train as next day it was a festival and I had to reach home. And one guy even noticed that I'm getting too nervous. He said relax it's going to be okay.

> India To Get 120 New Vande Bharat Trains; Pact With Indo-Russian JV Sealed

> Despite concerns over global sanctions, the Indian Railways has signed a pact with Kinet Railway Solutions, an Indo-Russian Joint Venture. The joint contract is for the production of Vande Bharat trains.

MetaEd

5:20 PM

Wordle 831 3/6

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CowperKettle

@Vikas Ah! Probably a huge station!

Vikas

Yeah

CowperKettle

Vande Bharat (trainset)

The Vande Bharat trainset, formerly known as Train 18, is an Indian Electric Multiple Unit trainset designed and developed by Indian Railways at its Integral Coach Factory in Chennai. The train achieved a maximum speed of 183 km/h (114 mph) during its trial runs but the operational speed of the train is restricted to 160 km/h (99 mph) due to tracks' inability to support such speeds. == History == === Dawn of EMUs === The first electric multiple unit (EMU) technology in India was introduced in Mumbai as a suburban railway service on 3 February 1925. With an increase in demand post-indep...

Vikas

Although I knew it must have been produced with the help of a foreign country, I didn't know if a Russian company is part of it.

MetaEd

@CowperKettle there's an interesting bit of vandalism on the Sycamore Gap Tree page

CowperKettle

5:26 PM

It runs up to 160 km/hour, which is quite fast.

The Yekaterinburg to Moscow track is 1707 km, so theoretically a Bharat train might make it in about 14 hours, if we take into account stops and precarious places.

@MetaEd Yes, a 16 yo boy cut it down

MetaEd

5:51 PM

@CowperKettle I mean vandalism to the page itself

It's interesting -- maybe the page vandal is the tree vandal

Vikas

6:05 PM

@CowperKettle But it's significantly lower than it can travel I guess. The speed has been capped because of Indian railway infrastructure may not be good enough to handle this. Shame. Hope it will get better.

CowperKettle

6:16 PM

Can you guess without looking up? This state was founded during the Ancient Roman times by a saint. In 1945, a Communist-Socalist coalition came to power there, and ruled until 1957, making it the only communist-ruled republic west of the Iron Curtain.

Vikas

Not me.

CowperKettle

6:33 PM

Not me either. I only learned about it today :)

CowperKettle

7:01 PM

NAC, NAC, Knockin’ on Heaven's door: Interpreting the mechanism of action of N-acetylcysteine in tumor and immune cells

Always inventing catchy paper titles :)

> Tumor enhancing and antitumor immune mechanism of NAC is intriguing.

"In an arXiv research paper titled "Language Modeling Is Compression," researchers detail their discovery that the DeepMind large language model (LLM) called Chinchilla 70B can perform lossless compression on image patches from the ImageNet image database to 43.4 percent of their original size, beating the PNG algorithm, which compressed the same data to 58.5 percent."

arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/09/…

alphabet

7:46 PM

2

Q: "Coat" vs. "jacket" in AE

In some regions of the U.S., can the term "coat" be used to designate what other native speakers of other U.S. regions -- and from farther out -- would call a jacket? Please consider this Ngram: source And this other one also...source

american-english word-usage

Aren't "coat" and "jacket" just synonyms? Sure, their are certain more specific terms that use one or the other (like "suit jacket" or "trench coat"), but does anyone actually think these mean different things?

Xanne

Wordle 831 5/6

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MetaEd

8:02 PM

@CowperKettle Too bad it doesn't document whether it takes more or less time.

And memory.

@alphabet They mean different things. So there's your answer: yes.

Robusto

8:16 PM

@alphabet The same way "pot" and "kettle" are synonyms. To respond to a question like "Name a round container that can be used for cooking," either will suffice. But if you're looking for a round container that a Cajun might cook a mess of burgoo to host a gathering for an extended family, "kettle" is the more obvious choice.

Mitch

@alphabet there are no exact synonyms

But anyway a coat is generally thicker than a jacket

MetaEd

@Mitch that's cooincidental

... and that's a typoo

Robusto

8:45 PM

@Mitch Not when it's a coat of paint.

Mitch

@Robusto or a yellowjacket

Robusto

@Mitch And what if a particular coat doesn't suit you?

Mitch

@MetaEd you lost me at 'co'

MetaEd

@Mitch I meant to say it is coöincidental

Mitch

@Robusto You can put on a jacket but you can't put on a show

unless you have a barn and some old clothes in the attic

Robusto

8:50 PM

@Mitch Do lawyers always wear lawsuits?

Mitch

In the US you drive on the pavement but in the UK you walk on the pavement

What did the resident say to to the surgeon who cut himself? Suture self.

eats another popsicle as fast as possible to see the dad joke printed on the stick

MetaEd

@Mitch I mean I meant to say it is coöïncidental

Mitch

You're holding back

Robusto

When I'm in England I'm often on the verge of walking on the ~~curb~~ kerb.

Mitch

9:05 PM

çöôïñßí∂éµ†å¬

alphabet

racooncidental

Mitch

occidental

oxycontin

and we're back to heroin

alphabet

coricidintal

Robusto

9:28 PM

@Mitch Occidents will happen.

MetaEd

10:08 PM

occidental ... oxycontin ... heroin ... tom wolf ... remus lupin

CowperKettle

10:55 PM

Mark Zuckerberg: First Interview in the Metaverse | Lex Fridman Podcast #398

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Under a new amendment package, which has just passed the first reading in the Duma, any non-negative statement in regard to any person who is marked as an "extremist" (like Navalny and many others) could get you up to 5 years of jail. bbc.com/russian/articles/cd1mdd0z7ydo

Today the same might get you 15 days of jail at worst, or a fine.

alphabet

@CowperKettle "I hate Navalny because he always has to be right about things"

2

But yikes.

CowperKettle

11:12 PM

Even with today's State Duma, a whopping 54 deputies voted No.

Which tells a lot.

A Communist deputy during the session said that under the amendments you theoretically could jail millions.

Because it allows to persecute a person if he draws parallels. If you say you like what the Decembrists did during their revolt in 1825, and the court decides that you were hinting at today's regime, you could be judged guilty.

CowperKettle

11:37 PM

Which celebrity is always ready for cereal?
Reese With Her Spoon

alphabet

@CowperKettle To which the response should be: isn't that the point?

They could force the prisoners to work building weapons. Just like in the good old days.

I assume it's almost certain to become law at this point?

CowperKettle

For the first time, Russia will hold a whole-country civil defense exercise for civil defense officers and managers of large companies, on October 3. Under the imaginary script, 70% of the country's housing was destroyed by massive bombing, the country is under total mobilization.

ura.news/news/1052689685

@alphabet Yes, 100%

@alphabet Communists are allowed to act the good policeman in the Duma. All bark and no bite. They still vote YES even after criticizing.

Probably to vacuum up the disgruntled voters.

alphabet

Awful news, but not exactly unexpected.

CowperKettle

11:55 PM

I was again woken up at 03:30 am. L-methylfolate.

It looks like it activates me.

alphabet

Those Communists are just following their principles. I believe it was Lenin himself who said "Give lots of performatively angry speeches, then give up and don't actually do anything. Also keep fighting pointless wars, nobody would ever want peace or anything." /s

CowperKettle

But the side of my foot is a mess, the skin broke down in patches, it's red with some blood.

The immune system reacts to L-methylfolate

alphabet

Sounds like you should see a doctor, I don't think that's a normal reaction to it.

CowperKettle

I've been having eczema on that side of the foot ever since I was 17.

All the doctors say is "apply some corticoid ointment"

And "we don't know the cause"

And "genetics? Haha! Don't you know that genetics is Capitalism's harlot?" (a Stalinist cliche)

"We had two dermatology labs in the city, but now there are zero"

(Putin had the state healthcare "modernized" with many units slashed).

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…