English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

CowperKettle

01:36

Biology of the day: "mitochondrial synapses"

> At the intracellular level, discoveries now reveal the existence of ‘mitochondrial synapses’ establishing mitochondrial networks, with defined chromatin-modifying mitochondrial output signals capable of orchestrating gene expression across the genome. sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0166223615001307

Cerberus

Interesting.

CowperKettle

04:12

Dannyu NDos

05:38

[SynthV Ninezero] [English Adaptation] 전인권 ― 제발 (Please)

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CowperKettle

07:35

Word of the day: staircase wit

Araucaria - Him

@CowperKettle Riff on l'esprit de l'escalier

2

I think most English speakers use the French

Araucaria - Him

09:40

@MetaEd Yes, please!

Dannyu NDos

10:31

Few minutes ago, without intention, I wrote an ambiguous sentence.

Namely, "Are the lyrics in Write In C ranting about Fortran outdated?"

So I edited it to "Is the rant about Fortran, as shown in the lyrics in Write In C, outdated?"

Robusto

12:20

Wordle 1,131 4/6

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tchrist

12:52

Nothing rhymes with noodge.

But would you does rhyme with noodge you.

Robusto

Also could you.

alphabet

13:10

Erdogan's Türkiye plans life imprisonment for 15 newborn raccoons

(Imma start spelling it that way just to irk people.)

Mitch

14:08

@Araucaria-Him Staircases are not known for their humor.

@alphabet I thought 'racoon' was the annoying way.

OMG ... 'gain a lot of wait'...

I gotta get new glasses.

Or a new brain.

The old one is shot.

MetaEd

16:19

"My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people." ---Orson Welles

Wordle 1,132 4/6

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jlliagre

Wordle 1,131 4/6

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CowperKettle

16:35

> At 24, Julia’s battle with mental health has dominated her life for too many years.

“In the past nine years, I have not spent more than two months out of inpatient treatment,” said Julia, who lives with a severe form of OCD, a mental health condition characterized by intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors that can significantly disrupt daily life. https://www.massgeneralbrigham.org/en/about/newsroom/patient-stories/deep-brain-stimulation-ocd-julia

OCD is tough. I had a friend with OCD.

MetaEd

"Well, Mr Ashworth, we needed to repair the supply from your right ventricle to the pulmonary artery. However, there was some difference of opinion between myself and this auxiliary agency supply nurse here, Mr Smith. I argued that the right ventricle was the one that was your right, but Smith suggested that it was in fact the right from the point of view of the observer

if observing the heart from the front, which indeed we were. In other words, the right ventricle is the one on the right as it would appear at first glance to a student studying a textbook, i.e. the lower ventricle on the right-hand side of the page (as opposed to what might be written therein).

"Now, you will be very pleased, Mr Ashworth, that not only did I humbly concede that there can be disagreement about such matters (and indeed QED, because there was one going on at that very moment it would have been both obstinate and churlish of me to disagree), but that I also agreed to a balanced way forward in light of this, as I was assured by your wife,

you would most certainly approve of and in fact suggest yourself, were you actually conscious at the time of the disagreement (although admittedly it might have been disconcerting position to be in whilst you had your chest wide open and your insides being chilled by our wintery NHS air-conditioning system).

"So what we did in the end to satisfy us both, a balanced approach you see, was we took what I considered to be the blocked outlet from your right ventricle to your pulmonary artery, dissolved the obstruction and performed a balloon angioplasty. However, we did not stop there, and in accordance with what we assumed, and indeed were assured, would have been your wishes, we also took into account the views of auxiliary agency-supply-nurse Smith.

Under Mr Smith's keen and observant eye, and under his direct supervision, I disconnected what he maintains is your right ventricle from whatever tube was erroneously feeding out of or into it, depending on what view you take of the original biology, and also connected it, as the good Lord originally intended according to the views of Mr Smith, to your pulmonary artery."

@Araucaria-Him

Cerberus

@CowperKettle What did he do?

jlliagre

17:10

'Inpatient treatment'? How confusing! (Okay, now I understand it).

M.A.R.

17:44

"Out of inpatient treatment" is clumsy. Just "outpatient", duh

Vikas

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Xanne

Wordle 1,131 3/6

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MetaEd

@M.A.R. you're being funny right

CowperKettle

18:06

@Cerberus She was afraid to go out her flat because of incessant rituals

Word of the day: to ostend (to exhibit, to show)

> I thought to myself, “The sun is shining over there,” five times in rapid succession, each time mentally ostending a different place: in order, the sunlit corner of the lab, the visible front lawn of the hospital, Houston, Mars, and Jupiter.

Robusto

18:24

@CowperKettle That is the root of ostentation.

Mitch

@M.A.R. I read that as she'd been an inpatient for 9 years except for 2 months.

Which sounds like a lot for a 24 yo woman

Robusto

18:47

@Mitch They don't make 'em like they used to.

#WhenTaken #148 (24.07.2024)

I scored 517/1000 🎉

1️⃣ 📍 234.6 metres - 🗓️ 9 yrs - ⚡ 187 / 200
2️⃣ 📍 5266 km - 🗓️ 20 yrs - ⚡ 74 / 200
3️⃣ 📍 18920 km - 🗓️ 30 yrs - ⚡ 15 / 200
4️⃣ 📍 749 km - 🗓️ 3 yrs - ⚡ 175 / 200
5️⃣ 📍 6172 km - 🗓️ 21 yrs - ⚡ 66 / 200

https://whentaken.com

Wow, that's with absolutely no help. Just studying the photo and that's it.

jlliagre

#WhenTaken #148 (24.07.2024)

I scored 750/1000 🎉

1️⃣ 📍 534 km - 🗓️ 4 yrs - ⚡ 180 / 200
2️⃣ 📍 633 km - 🗓️ 25 yrs - ⚡ 116 / 200
3️⃣ 📍 18917 km - 🗓️ 10 yrs - ⚡ 85 / 200
4️⃣ 📍 2 km - 🗓️ 6 yrs - ⚡ 193 / 200
5️⃣ 📍 2 km - 🗓️ 13 yrs - ⚡ 176 / 200

https://whentaken.com
Tough. No googling but not many things to google anyway.

Daily Octordle #912
🕚9️⃣
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Score: 63

Daily Sequence Octordle #912
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Score: 70

MetaEd

19:04

@jlliagre I would be so bad at this.

jlliagre

@MetaEd If you don't try, you can't fail.

MetaEd

@jlliagre That's what I say about the Lottery and it's worked great for me so far :D

Robusto

@jlliagre Hard to google anything when there are, like, no clues at all.

MetaEd

@Robusto the when, I assume ... the where is easy to google with image seaerch

Robusto

@MetaEd That is forbidden.

How dare you!

alphabet

19:10

> [Netanyahu] added that Israel must have “overriding security control” over Gaza “for the foreseeable future,” but that Israel “does not seek” to resettle the region.

jlliagre

@Robusto #3 country strikes again.

alphabet

I believe this is code for: when the settlers move in anyway of their own accord, we'll make sure nobody is able to stop them.

Robusto

@jlliagre Of course. And there is a clue there if you have ever been to that place.

MetaEd

I see two ways to play. One tests your knowledge. The other tests your google-fu.

Robusto

@MetaEd Google-fu is cheating. Like using a computer to cheat at chess.

MetaEd

19:12

Google-fu is a test of your research ability when you are actually allowed to use research materials.

Robusto

@MetaEd It is a skill of a disappointingly low order.

jlliagre

@Robusto The best clue is when you recognize yourself on the picture but the odds are quite low, especially when you never visited the country.

MetaEd

@jlliagre from a Buddhist perspective, you can recognize yourself in anything

so that becomes less useful :D

Robusto

19:28

> No more moon in the water.

MetaEd

@Robusto I mooned in the water until they threw me out of the pool

Robusto

Some have it as "No water, no moon."

> Thirteenth-century Japanese Buddhist Mugai Nyodai, the world’s first Zen abbess, struggled to achieve enlightenment until, one night during her training, the bottom fell out of an old bamboo-bound pail she was using to carry water. The spill freed her. “No more water in the pail!” she wrote in a poem commemorating the experience. “No more moon in the water!”

Xanne

19:52

#WhenTaken #148 (24.07.2024)

I scored 635/1000 🎉

1️⃣ 📍 869 km - 🗓️ 4 yrs - ⚡ 170 / 200
2️⃣ 📍 6047 km - 🗓️ 75 yrs - ⚡ 16 / 200
3️⃣ 📍 17370 km - 🗓️ 1 yrs - ⚡ 99 / 200
4️⃣ 📍 1379 km - 🗓️ 1 yrs - ⚡ 161 / 200
5️⃣ 📍 343 km - 🗓️ 0 yrs - ⚡ 189 / 200

MetaEd

20:02

@Robusto a.k.a. "what is this thing and how did it get here"

MetaEd

20:28

> Huaijang entered the room and bowed to Huineng. Huineng asked: “Where do you come from?” “I came from Mount Sung,” replied Huaijang. “What is this and how did it get here?” demanded Huineng. Huaijang could not answer and remained speechless.

Araucaria - Him

@MetaEd Thanks, Ed. That's the business. Appreciated!

Robusto

Daily Octordle #912
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Score: 56

Speaking of history, as we were doing yesterday:

> Not to know what happened before one was born is always to be a child. —Cicero

Cerberus

20:51

@Xanne Oh, my friend and I just did it in a café on a phone, I think we got a similar score.

You got so close with the years!

Except that one...

MetaEd

@Robusto And speaking of Zen as we were doing today, that reminds me of: "What did your face look like before your parents were born?"

Cerberus

@alphabet *any way?

Robusto

21:02

@Cerberus anyway -> nevertheless

Araucaria - Him

@MetaEd Thanks, Ed. That's the business. Appreciated!

(Anyone know why comments sometimes refuse to load?)

Robusto

@Araucaria-Him Sometimes they are deleted by mods.

Cerberus

@Robusto Oh, I see, they are not moving in any way.

Robusto

Correct. They are moving in.

"Our new house is ready for occupancy, so we are moving in tomorrow."

Xanne

21:22

I have just seen a few episodes of Lost. I may be getting hooked.

jlliagre

@M.A.R. Nine years for a impatient inpatient.

alphabet

@Cerberus "Anyway" is (according to Google dictionary) "used to indicate that something happened or will happen in spite of something else."

Cerberus

Yes.

I thought you meant it in the other way.

In any way.

alphabet

In this case, I mean that the settlers will be able move in despite the fact that Israel doesn't have an official policy of trying to resettle the strip.

Cerberus

Yeah I understood upon rereading.

alphabet

21:32

As has happened in many parts of the West Bank.

Cerberus

I don't know about Gaza.

There isn't much there for colonists?

alphabet

Israelis used to have settlements in Gaza; then Israel left in 2006; then Gazans elected Hamas.

Cerberus

Yeah, but tiny ones, no?

alphabet

Since they tried settling it last time Gaza was in Israeli hands, they may do so again.

Cerberus

I don't know.

It is less holy?

alphabet

21:41

I don't think that that has much of an effect on settler activity. I don't think most of them decide to resettle there because of religious considerations; there are plenty of even holier sites within the 1967 borders.

Cerberus

They keep saying Judea and Samaria are their holy and ancient birthright.

alphabet

Many settlers move purely because they want to claim it as Israeli territory; others do so because of massive housing subsidies.

@Cerberus It's a form of irredentism based on an ethnoreligious group; there is a religious dimension to it, but I don't think that Gaza's status in the Jewish religion will make it less likely to be settled.

Cerberus

I do think Judea and Samaria are more likely to be settled.

alphabet

A number of prominent Israeli figures have expressed a desire to recolonize Gaza; if things go as planned, they won't face any obstacles to achieving that goal.

Cerberus

Just as they have been.

alphabet

21:49

From Ben-Gvir, their National Security Minister:

> “To end the problem, in order that the problem won’t come back, we need to do two things: one return to Gaza now! Return home! Return to our holy land! said Ben Gvir from the stage of the rally set up at the end of the march.

> "And second, encourage emigration. Encourage the voluntary departure of Gaza’s residents…It is ethical! It is rational! It is right! It is the truth! It is the Torah and it is the only way! And yes, it is humane,” he continued

Does Netanyahu want that? Maybe, maybe not. Will he stop settlers moving in? Absolutely not.

Cerberus

@alphabet Holy, but less holy.

@alphabet I don't know.

> Encourage the voluntary departure of Gaza’s residents…

Well, well...

Araucaria - Him

@Robusto Ah, I meant messages you think you've sent in chat :)

alphabet

@Cerberus I believe the "encouragement" will involve refusing to punish egregious acts of settler violence, which has worked fairly well in displacing people in the West Bank.

Cerberus

Perhaps.

Is the Palestianian population of the West Bank shrinking, though?

alphabet

22:04

@Cerberus Not in absolute terms, but their territory certainly has.

Mitch

@Cerberus don't the Palestinians have one of the highest birthrates in the world?

I remember seeing that in the past ten years.

Cerberus

@alphabet Uhh that is not what this was about.

@Mitch In the world, really?

I wonder whether the table above includes the Jewsish colonists, I think so.

Mitch

That's what I remember seeing.

But I e heard there is a concern that the birthrate among Israeli-Arabs (Palestinians who are Israeli citizens) is higher than that of Jewish Israelis, and so even with a two state solution, the JIs will lose voting share to AIs.

alphabet

@Cerberus I was talking about internal displacement and territorial expansion in the West Bank. Ben-Gvir's proposal for Gaza is substantially worse, but I'd assume he'd be willing to accept something more like the situation in the West Bank.

Cerberus

@Mitch Really? But the orthodox Jews breed like rabbits. Or, as we say in Dutch, fokken als konijnen.

Mitch

22:12

A little googling shows that in the 60s, the Palestinian birthrate was ~8 per female

But in 2022, it's down to ~2.9, and for Jews it is a tiny bit higher. So my inference worked back in the 60s but not any more

@Cerberus that may be but most Jews in Israel are secular. The Orthodox Jews in Israel are a small minority.

Cerberus

@Mitch I believe they are already a majority in primary schools?

They breed really fast.

Mitch

I need to check actual data rather than my memory...

alphabet

As I recall, the percentage of the population that is orthodox has been rising due to declining birthrates among secular Israelis.

Mitch

(but yes, compared to Secular Jews in Israel or not, Orthodox tend to have much bigger families)

Cerberus

Mitch

22:23

Nice

Yeah that looks like what I found.

The birthrate of Haredim is growing, while that of Muslims and Christians is going down. (I think most of the Christians in Israel are Arabs (ethnically Palestinian))

Cerberus

They seem poised to take over society in a couple of decades.

Mitch

@Cerberus note that that is a projection to the future based on current rates

Cerberus

@Mitch Naturally.

Mitch

I really had thought the within-Israel Palestinians were going to birth their way into controlling Israel... I guess the data show that it is the Haredim

But...

Just the other week there was some law passed that says Ultraorthodox have to join the army like everybody else.

I haven't heard what all the army age Haredim think of that.

Maybe they'll meet a nice girl in the army and have lots of kids?

Cerberus

Hah.

I just think the country is lost, both morally and demographically.

Mitch

22:30

Some kids are shy.

@Cerberus if you squint, the headlines have hardly changed in 50 years

Just some little details

Cerberus

@Mitch Exactly.

That is why the current episode doesn't touch me very much.

Mitch

I mean Rwanda is not such a bad place nowadays.

Cerberus

In some ways not.

Mitch

Well...

I'm not sure if want to live there

But that's me

I wouldn't expect the internet to be great.

Let's just say a lot better than 1994.

Cerberus

It's probably fine in the cities.

Araucaria - Him

22:35

@Mitch No, they're only at war with a couple of their neighbouring countries. Probably better than a genocidal civil war.

Mitch

Malaria

That's still a problem

@Araucaria-Him better does not mean good

How is Ecuador? Still having martial difficulties?

Araucaria - Him

@Mitch These days I'm not up to date with the state of the unreported on world, I'm sorry to say.

Mitch

@Araucaria-Him oh

Huh

Araucaria - Him

@Mitch Not as much as I'd like or used to be, that is

Mitch

I mean frankly most of my screen time is cat and dog videos

Travel.state.gov says Ecuador is 'increase caution's with a number of places 'reconsider' or 'do not go'

Araucaria - Him

22:42

@Mitch No siree. A guy from one of the countries Rwanda's currently (or was a few months ago) at war with was recently on Question Time (a UK politics talking heads thing where the talking heads are politicians and the audience are theoretically representative of the voters at the latest election)

The previous shower i.e. the UK government at the time, were still promoting sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, and this guy asked o minister concerned whether he would get sent back to Rwanda to get killed.

Cerberus

They weren't going to send Rwandans to Rwanda, I believe?

nrc.nl/nieuws/2024/04/14/…

This article had photos of the facilities, where they had been waiting for asylum seekers from Britain for two years.

Araucaria - Him

And then the ***ing prat concerned (i.e. the British Minister) let it be known that even though this was the flagship be a hostile and evil environment for refugees policy they were touting, and which has been dragging on for several years now, he didn't know the difference between Rwanda and Congo.

Cerberus

The photos look nice.

Araucaria - Him

Here's the video of the complete ***wit Chris Phillips making a penis of himself:

Question Time: Policing minister Chris Philp appears to confuse Congo and Rwanda

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Cerberus

Looks more like a holiday resort than a refugee settlement.

alphabet

22:51

@Mitch Have we staged a coup there recently, or was it some other country's turn?

Cerberus

It explains why the project was so expensive for the British government...

alphabet

@Cerberus I don't think that that one hotel will fit all of them.

Cerberus

@CowperKettle That is unfortunate.

@alphabet The article will mention the numbers, I think it was quite a few buildings.

Araucaria - Him

@Cerberus No, the UK country had to pay it because that is what the UK government bribed them with in the first place

Cerberus

> Abdifatah Ahmed fled Somalia and lives here with his wife, a two-year-old child and almost one-year-old twins. He finds the shelter in Rwanda ‘very nice’ and especially a huge improvement over Libya. ‘There I didn't dare go out on the streets after six o'clock, here you can still go out at midnight if you want. If I were asked to stay here, I wouldn't mind,’ Ahmed says. Nevertheless, he too is leaving soon, it will be Belgium.

Araucaria - Him

23:00

@Cerberus Here's my picture:

history.com/topics/africa/rwandan-genocide

Cerberus

> Asylum seekers from the UK are welcome here, says a Rwandan student chatting with friends nearby, because Rwandans take others as they are.

‘Because of the genocide, we are extra vigilant about security and preventing any divisions in society.’ At the same time, Ruhumuriza understands very well why ultimately no asylum seeker at the UNHCR centre chooses to stay. ‘Every African wants to go to Europe or to the United States, it's a kind of disease,’ he says. He himself dreams of it too, he admits. ‘The opportunities to study, to earn money, to gain life experience there... Ideally I would …

Araucaria - Him

Can't get the picture to load

Cerberus

The article is quite interesting, giving an inside look of what it is like to be an asylum seeker or refugee in Rwanda.

> Could Rwanda handle thousands more inhabitants? Of course, says student Patrick Ruhumuriza. ‘It would only be good for our economy, because all those people also need stuff. All those court cases are a waste of time. Rwanda ís safe.’

Araucaria - Him

@Cerberus Why should one not feel that it is propaganda/advertising?

Cerberus

Why do you ask?

It is written by a mainstream/left-wing newspaper.

alphabet

23:08

Now you're making me wanna move to Rwanda.

Cerberus

There is probably less freedom than in Israel.

Araucaria - Him

Because I'm unfamiliar with the outlet and also because it apparently seems to omit the fact that Rwanda is effectively involved in a genocidal war with factions from Congo. r (see previous video above).

Cerberus

I don't remember whether Rwandan involvement in Congo is mentioned, but that isn't what the article is really about?

They are just taking a look at the facilities where Britain was planning to send asylum seekers.

alphabet

If Rwanda's so great, why would they force people to go? Just offer them a plane ticket. If it's as luxurious as described, they'll take the offer.

Cerberus

13 mins ago, by Cerberus

> Asylum seekers from the UK are welcome here, says a Rwandan student chatting with friends nearby, because Rwandans take others as they are.

‘Because of the genocide, we are extra vigilant about security and preventing any divisions in society.’ At the same time, Ruhumuriza understands very well why ultimately no asylum seeker at the UNHCR centre chooses to stay. ‘Every African wants to go to Europe or to the United States, it's a kind of disease,’ he says. He himself dreams of it too, he admits. ‘The opportunities to study, to earn money, to gain life experience there... Ideally I would …

@alphabet Rwanda may be fine, but Europe is better.

Araucaria - Him

23:20

@Cerberus Shall we see how that sounds with suitable substitutions for the type of refugee and the type of genocidal regime? Or can you see how that might pan out?

Cerberus

I don't follow?

The British government paid a billion euros or so, for a few hundred houses for asylum seekers, so it was expected to look OK.

alphabet

Granted, nobody knows how to solve this problem, since international asylum law was never intended to be used this way.

Cerberus

Right, that is one issue.

More and more parties want to change those laws.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…