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12:02 AM
@Robusto The help page states you can jump from Ireland to the UK but not from Spain to Morroco (despite Ceuta & Mellila). I suspect most islands are excluded.
@Cerberus That name didn't ring any bell to me except a vaguely "Aix-la-Chapellesque" German ending. No glacier there though :-)
12:46 AM
@GratefulDisciple wow nice find. Yes the doc seems to be all about the US enrollment rates (and how they are all consistently going down over all the years (except for Korean). That is a big US problem
@jlliagre Oh, really? It make me think of a cuisine in that country.
Which is a different word, but I had to guess something.
Aug 10 at 21:25, by Robusto
@Mitch You do think about food a lot.
1:07 AM
0
A: Taylor Swift - Use of "them" in her text "she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them"

alphabetAraucaria's answer, though mostly correct, is missing a crucial point that explains why the version of the sentence without the "them" is, in fact, grammatical: it contains a parasitic gap (see Huddleston & Pullum (2002), p. 1095). Consider these two sentences: They do an annual report that I al...

1:23 AM
> Some myths are also securely dated to Proto-Indo-European times, since they feature both linguistic and thematic evidence of an inherited motif: ... probably the belief that the Otherworld was guarded by a watchdog and could only be reached by crossing a river.
1:44 AM
We need more Taylor Swift tweets with unusual relative clauses. Only way to get the kiddos to pay attention in class nowadays.
2:01 AM
Ughh.
Our country is in dire straits if people decide who to vote for based on the opinions of a singer-songwriter with no expertise in politics.
She is, though, a white voter without a college degree, so maybe she'll win over some of the MAGA crowd.
Well.
I don't know what to say.
She has an "honorary doctorate in fine arts," if that counts, but never graduated from anything above high school.
Haha.
Honorary doctorates suck.
By the way, don't politicians already bribe famous people to endorse them?
I should think that was already common practice in America?
I don't recall any recent examples of that happening. I don't think it's illegal, but you'd have to report it as a campaign expenditure, which would probably give it away.
2:15 AM
Either do it secretly or just do it openly.
There could be a few billionaires who pay the bribe privately?
I'm no degree snob, but seriously: there is absolutely no reason for anyone to care about her political opinions when deciding which candidate to support.
By the way, there is now a criminal lawsuit again someone who bragged about having had 1900 sexual partners. 28 of them accused him of several sexual crimes and one non-sexual. He met them all via Grinder, praesumably.
@alphabet Of course. But people are stupid.
@Cerberus That's more plausible, I guess.
@Cerberus Some people. I'm hoping that most people will know better than to be influenced by her.
Well.
At least she is against Trump.
@Cerberus I wonder if the 1900 number is anywhere close to being true. I mean, it's not impossible. Probably only realistic if you (say) travel between different major cities a lot.
Was he known for having that many sex partners before the criminal charges? Or did the charges catapult him to fame?
2:23 AM
@alphabet Why would you need to travel?
But, sure, it is possible that he travelled a lot.
@alphabet I don't really know. But he was the director of an art institute. He is now 36.
He is now accused of having had sex with two 15-year-old, when he was 22 and 26.
(He says they lied about their age and said they were 16, of legal age.)
@Cerberus I feel like you'd eventually run out of new people to hook up with. Maybe if (a) you're in a densely-populated area, (b) you're not at all selective in choosing potential partners, and (c) you're attractive enough to generate a great deal of interest.
@Cerberus At least in the US, it's illegal to have sex with someone underage even if you have no reason to think that they're underage, including if they've lied about it.
Is that the guy in question?
Yes.
Ok, now I get it.
Probably some years ago.
Haha.
He was a fairly prominent figure in artistic scenes.
There are a lot of young men here, and a ton of ever-circulating tourists and foreigners who live here for a while.
But he probably also travelled around.
@alphabet That doesn't seem fair.
He is also accused of 6 counts of rape, 2 of attempted rape, and attempted grave injury.
Jul 18 at 10:23, by Vikas
@jlliagre So suppose the puzzle has a target word "Walk" in its mind. And we have to guess it. But unlike Wordle, we type it in a text input field and check how close (similar) it is. E.g. I type "night". That isn't close. Then I type "run". This time it shows you are more closer to target word as run and walk have more similarities.
2:32 AM
@Cerberus Presumably it's because anyone could defend themselves against statutory rape charges by saying that the other party lied about their age; the law makes that defense impossible, though of course it creates the issue that you can be charged with a crime without knowingly doing anything wrong.
@alphabet What happened to praesumed innocent until proven guilty?
If you could have known or had strong evidence that someone was younger, then you can still be convicted.
So that defence only works if it is really possible that you didn't know.
@Cerberus You're still presumed innocent; it has to be proven that you had sex with someone underage--but that's a crime in and of itself, regardless of whether you knew the other person was underage.
@M.A.R. Yes
(Or believed. Or had reason to believe.)
@alphabet Making it a crime to do something that you couldn't have known harmed someone else, that is either a roundabout wait to praesume someone is guilty, or just plainly unjust, in my opinion.
Let me correct that: do something that you couldn't have known was forbidden by law.
2:41 AM
@Cerberus It's a "strict liability" crime, which puts it in a fairly unusual category, though there are a few other examples.
It would seem to be unjust.
A nice way to destroy someone's life very easily.
On the other hand, if the prosecution had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the alleged victim didn't lie about their age at some point, then convicting someone of statutory rape would be nearly impossible.
If you can show that he could have known the other person was under 16, then the burden of proof shifts and he needs to make it seem plausible that he had no idea.
You don't need incontrovertible proof to have someone convicted.
@alphabet PeterTurner, a Christianity.SE moderator and also a Catholic catechist even wrote a catechism book (for youth) featuring Taylor Swift lyrics.
@Cerberus In the US, I believe that the Constitution requires that, for a conviction, every relevant piece of the charge must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt; you can't weaken the burden of proof that way, since it'd be seen as permitting laws that would cause much larger numbers of innocent people to be convicted.
2:50 AM
Well, reasonable doubt is open to interpretation.
You can always think of some story that is not impossible.
And yet people need to be convicted.
So, in practice, reasonable doubt is often interpreted narrowly.
@Cerberus I think it'd be pretty hard to prove that someone didn't lie about their age beyond a reasonable doubt. A plausible alternative explanation that doesn't implicate the defendant is, to my knowledge, usually enough to lead to an acquittal.
There is jurisprudence about this is lots of cases.
Or even a not-very-plausible one, if you're Casey Anthony.
@Cerberus Anyway: I assume the charges are expected to stick?
@alphabet I think if the other person doesn't clearly look younger, and if ne age is mentioned anywhere in their text history, and the suspect didn't brag about it to anyone else, and there isn't some kind of large pattern, then he will probably not be convicted.
@alphabet It doesn't say. But I think so: when multiple people accuse the same person, judges tend to treat certain things as proof enough more easily.
Which is perhaps questionable. But that is what one reads in the papers about other cases.
I do think it is risky to engage in S&M-kind-of role-playing with someone you don't trust completely. Praesumably, that is what many of these people did with him.
@Cerberus What about the 1,890 partners he didn't rape? Surely those should be taken into consideration in his favor. (Sarcasm.)
@Cerberus Is that what the articles are saying?
3:00 AM
@alphabet Perhaps so!
@alphabet I think that is what he says. Or at least about some of hem. That he liked to dominate and humiliate sex partners. And many people are into that—or think they are until they actually do it, I don't know.
It's not my thing, not my scene.
@Cerberus As I recall, there was a case in the UK that established that consensually injuring someone during sex still constituted criminal assault. Not that people get charged with it regularly.
@alphabet That would make sense, if it is serious/permanent injury.
R v Brown [1993] UKHL 19, [1994] 1 AC 212 is a House of Lords judgment which re-affirmed the conviction of five men for their involvement in consensual unusually severe sadomasochistic sexual acts over a 10-year period. They were convicted of a count of unlawful and malicious wounding and a count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm (contrary to sections 20 and 47 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861). The key issue facing the Court was whether consent was a valid defence to assault in these circumstances, to which the Court answered in the negative. The acts involved included the...
@Cerberus Those partners were all men, I assume? Or has that not been confirmed?
@alphabet I think so.
@alphabet Hmm this seems to be about two issues? One is that you don't need to prove that they did not consent if they received serious harm; the other is that it is illegal even if they consented to receiving it.
One also wonders, what did they really consent to? Did they foresee the consequences of what was to be done to them?
@Cerberus The latter was the crux of the issue.
3:08 AM
@alphabet The article seems to be a bit unclear.
@Cerberus None of them ever complained to the police about having been injured. It was only uncovered by chance as part of an unrelated police investigation.
The Lords seem to be arguing what you say. It is just that the article also mentions the other issue. Oh, well.
I would say it has to be worse than a piercing, or even than a tattoo, in order to count as serious harm?
I have a lot of questions about how one ends up getting 1900 sexual partners, though I suspect the answer starts with "being very hot."
Can Guinness World Records certify you for that sort of thing?
@alphabet That sounds very funny.
Let's say he was 33, first had sex at age 14.
That is 19 years, so 100 on average per year.
2 per week.
But what if he went to an orgy and had sex with 100 people?
@Cerberus Yeah, now that I think about it it's...fairly realistic. One does wonder how young he was when this all started--hopefully not 14.
3:23 AM
When what started?
One also wonders how he kept count.
When he started hooking up with guys. 14 seems concerning, to say the least.
What do you mean?
@Cerberus If he started hooking up with random guys twice a week at age 14, per your calculations, that would seem like a cause for concern.
Haha yes.
@Cerberus With that many notches on your bedpost, it's going to collapse next time you have sex on it.
3:26 AM
So, because that would be an average, it would praesumably be more per week as an adult.
@alphabet A very practical thought.
You could also just, like, make a list on your phone somewhere.
After each orgy you add 100 names?
Somehow, he doesn't seem the conscientious type.
@Cerberus I don't think going to an orgy with 100 attendees really counts as having sex with 100 people. That said, I have no idea what exactly one does at an orgy.
Nor I.
Can't one have sex with 100 people at an orgy? What if it takes most of the day?
Then one is off the hook for a year.
Technically, I guess.
3:29 AM
Let's say one spends 10 hours at the orgy.
That is 10 people per hour, one per 6 minutes.
Hard work.
Perhaps one could do three simultaneously.
If that still counts.
I guess. This may depend on your definition of "have sex with."
Yeah.
Thing in thing?
I guess.
I'm really glad I don't need to compete.
I don't think anyone needs to.
3:34 AM
I suppose not.
@Cerberus So, I made the mistake of checking a certain app (not Grindr, the even worse one) and apparently there's an orgy scheduled for next week with 27 profiles listed as "planning to attend."
@alphabet Fun!
I have never used any other application except Tinder.
@Cerberus This ad is just a wonderful work of literary artistry:
So what will you be wearing?
> Join us in an afternoon of Naked Man Play tuesday September 17th 3-6:30. 67 Men attended our last group. DDF and good health is essential. Know your status. Room number is only sent to those who confirm their attendance.
3:44 AM
DDF?
> Bi, Straight, Married all welcome to join [...] Ethnic and racial diversity is encouraged, bring it on.
Room number? Is it an hotel?
@alphabet Ugh how PC.
I decided to redact the least-suitable-for-chat part.
@Cerberus I know, right? These DEI initiatives have gone too far.
Those straight people must be really looking forward to it.
@alphabet I really don't know those abbreviations.
I skip people using abbreviations. Swipe!
@Cerberus Yes. I think people tend to hold such events by booking a room at a hotel and inviting people in, presumably without the foreknowledge of the hotel staff.
3:46 AM
I see, I have not heard of that here, I thought people did it at someone's house.
Though perhaps not with so many people...
@Cerberus "disease and drug free"
@Cerberus Of course in my part of the city nobody lives in a house, but this is being held out in the suburbs. Probably people just don't want to risk property damage.
@Criggie Yes.
@Criggie Oh haha.
What a silly requirement.
If someone with a communicable disease were planning to attend, surely he will not think, "oh, so I'm NOT allowed to infect people there, what I bummer, then I won't come".
@alphabet What do you mean?
A house, a place where people live.
@Cerberus I mean that in my immediate vicinity people generally live in apartments or condos rather than houses.
If you live in an apartment, then your apartment is your house.
At any rate, apartments can be large.
3:52 AM
I don't think "house" is normally used that way, at least here--an apartment can be your home, but it isn't a house.
Maybe this is a non-U thing.
By house I mean any place where someone lives permanently and which is meant for that purpose, not being an hotel.
4
The U/non-U distinction doesn't really exist in the US; I've only seen people use it to describe a British phenomenon.
This is just the basic meaning of a house in any language.
@Cerberus From Britannica:
> House refers to a building in which someone lives. In contrast, a home can refer either to a building or to any location that a person thinks of as the place where she lives and that belongs to her. A home can be a house or an apartment, but it could also be a tent, a boat, or an underground cave.
That is very non-U.
3:54 AM
"House" usually means a separate building--the kind you see in the suburbs but not downtown.
@Cerberus Hey, you asked about this already:
24
Q: Does America have its Versions of U- and Non-U English?

Cerberus - Reinstate MonicaIn Britain and most of Europe, some form of U-speak exists: old-money language has certain features that distinguish it from other language. In Dutch, it doesn't really have a name, but it is still very much alive. I believe the same applies to England. The phenomenon is just very hard to researc...

@alphabet No offence, but that is like how children draw a house.
@Cerberus It's literally what the word house means in English, at least in American English.
It is typically a separate building, because that is the most visible thing.
By extension, it is the place where one lives.
"My home" is non-U.
You're confusing the words house and home.
"U" language doesn't exist in the US. There's no special prestige vernacular used by a privileged minority.
Come on, you know very well that people use the word house for this.
@alphabet I suspect that there may be some such vocabulary. One just doesn't know about it, often enough.
3:59 AM
No; I think it's pretty uncommon. "My house is an apartment" doesn't make any sense.
Then you know it now.
At any rate, there should be enough people in the inner city rich enough to house an orgy...
@Cerberus The answers to that question were unanimous. There are stigmatized dialects in the US, sometimes quite strongly so, but there isn't the sort of U/non-U divide that exists in the UK.
@alphabet If there is, who says the answerers would know about it?
It is hard to prove that something doesn't exist.
How many times have I not seen people in this very room assert that X is "never" used, just because they couldn't remember hearing it?
@Cerberus Of course, it would be quite unwise to assume something exists until you can disprove it.
Am I assuming that?
At the very least, American old money has some linguistic features.
That much is propagated even in American television series.
4:15 AM
@Cerberus To some extent; upper-class speech generally lacks certain features that are stigmatized, but I don't think there's the sort of sharp distinction that exists (or used to exist) in the UK.
@alphabet Well, it doesn't have to be the same.
But it isn't just "lacking stigmatised features".
@Cerberus In the UK it isn't. But in the US I think it pretty much is.
Don't believe everything you see on TV.
Well, if that is what is propagated, then there is probably more in reality, not less.
But, again, you wouldn't really know about it. People aren't advertising it.
Your evidence for that being?
You are approaching this the wrong way.
4:26 AM
I've known a number of people who were genuinely "old money" rich.
Even that doesn't prove a thing.
Maybe they switch how they talk when speaking to each other, but there's no special vocabulary they use.
So what evidence would persuade you, then?
Sorry but you can't know that.
@alphabet I don't even know enough about American society to know what.
@Cerberus Well then there's no point debating it, if nothing could persuade you. But I hope you're wiling to believe that I, and the other Americans answering that question, would know better than you do.
I think in all practicality there is no way for us to prove or make it plausible that such a thing does not exist.
I agree that there is no point.
I do not agree that most people would know of it if it existed.
The average Dutchman wouldn't recognise U Dutch either.
And that is probably far more developed than a potential American U use of language.
4:31 AM
But certainly nobody uses house to mean something different as a sign of prestige.
That is not what U language is about.
And I have no idea.
And it doesn't matter.
I remember one comment on this video:
> I think it has less to do with colonial past and more to do with class. America doesn't have a rigid hierarchical class/accent system. We do have class of course, but it's not identifiable by accent. At least, not in the upward direction.
> We do have some accents that would be considered "low class" by some (sadly), such as Appalachian, deep Southern, certain Black American accents, maybe even thick Boston/New York/Philly accents. But we don't really have "high class" accents. We used to, as heard in some of the old Hollywood clips you shared, but all that is long gone. There is no widely recognized "posh" American accent.
> So, when we want to make someone sound posh in a movie (evil or otherwise), the best shorthand is to use a posh English accent, which most Americans still recognize as being high class (and it's not hard to jump from high class to evil). I think it's that simple.
> Edit: Yes, as many replies have pointed out, there are some uncommon accents that may be considered upper class in America, but they are not encountered on a day to day basis. In fact, many of these accents are individual idiolects, usually of wealthy elderly people with some kind of specific speech training. On top of that, on the rare occasions that normal Americans DO hear these kinds of accents, they will actually tend to think of them as sounding vaguely British.
> People unfamiliar with transatlantic accents often wonder why all old Hollywood actors were British. For the most part, if you ask an American to name a "high class" accent, they will almost always indicate RP. (They will probably just say "British", because most Americans don't even know there are multiple English accents, let alone many more British ones)
I think this pretty much nails it.
First of all, why would this person know that it didn't exist?
Secondly, it may very wel be that the elusive/potential U American accent has some semi-British features. That is how I would expect it to sound if I had to guess.
> there are some uncommon accents that may be considered upper class in America, but they are not encountered on a day to day basis
There you go.
Just because most people don't come across X, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Importantly: they're not encountered on a day to day basis even when talking to members of those upper classes, in my experience.
This whole line of reasoning is wrong.
4:41 AM
I think you're just assuming that all cultures must have the particular pathologies you associate with your own.
@alphabet Or not everyone in this class has a U accent. Or it is not recognisable as such for outsiders.
@alphabet That is a fallacy.
At any rate, it is fundamentally wrong to think that something as elusive as this does not exist just because one cannot find evidence of it.
Which is why there is no point in arguing about it.
@alphabet By the way, American society is far more segregated than societies that have well known U features.
 
3 hours later…
7:53 AM
> The brain aged more slowly in monkeys given a cheap diabetes drug. Daily dose of the common medication metformin preserved cognition and delayed decline of some tissues. nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02938-w
 
3 hours later…
11:01 AM
@Cerberus No one ever said that!
 
1 hour later…
12:18 PM
@Conrado +1
12:31 PM
Is there any specific name of this kind of boat? Is it clipper? It has kind of square shaped sails. I want to Google images for this.
12:55 PM
Full-rigged-ship: A fully square rigged sailing ship with three or
more masts. (Why can't I bold that "full-rigged-ship"?)
@Vikas I believe it's called a "toy boat." Now try saying that fast three times.
Toy boat toy boat toy boat
Alternate it with toy cowboy : Toy Cowboy, toy boat, toy cowboy, toy boat, toy cowboy, toy boat.
What do you raise to get into a castle?
A. A moat
hahaha
#travle #639 +0 (Perfect)
âś…âś…âś…
https://travle.earth
I had to look up what the target was in Google. Never heard of it. Not a country.
1:12 PM
@Vikas nautically minded people are really particular about what your call these things. Eg not everything that you and I would call 'boat' is what they would call a boat, that is to say we would point at something and say 'thats a boat ' and they'd get all huffy and say no it's not, even though it looks like that thing in the picture.
It may seem like I haven't said anything but...
Or rather I haven't answered your question.
Or really I haven't satisfied the parameters of you question.
Which is to say, I don't know.
A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size or capacity, its shape, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically used on inland waterways such as rivers and lakes, or in protected coastal areas. However, some boats (such as whaleboats) were intended for offshore use. In modern naval terms, a boat is a vessel small enough to be carried aboard a ship. Boats vary in proportion and construction methods with their intended purpose, available materials, or local traditions. Canoes have been used since...
Wikipedia is not really a reliable source, but they do give an idea. They distinguish 'boat' and 'ship' even though I would mostly use the two the same way
Except
A small one person dinghy or sailboat are both boats to me but not 'ship'
I think a ship is a big boat?
There surely a taxonomy somewhere but as an LLM built on a bag of chemicals typing on a phone, it's kind of a pain to Google for it.
But that one has some triangular sails, too.
1:27 PM
14 hours ago, by jlliagre
@Cerberus Never heard of it and a fail.
@Vikas Second-rate ship of the line
@Mitch BTW, a submarine is always a boat, never a ship. Don't ask me why.
@jlliagre My new favorite game is showing its seamy underside already? Sheesh. BTW, is "TeufTeuf" any kind of meaningful expression in French? Some kind of pun or joke?
@Conrado Thanks
Wordle 1,182 4/6

🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟨⬛🟩⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
@Conrado I guess triangles in front are common for all these sail boats? It could be that the guy didn't make it in the art for simplicity.
1:40 PM
@Vikas Those are called "jibs."
A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its forward corner (tack) is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main types of headsails on a modern boat. == Modern yachts and small craft == Boats may be sailed using a jib alone, but more commonly jibs make a minor direct contribution to propulsion compared to a main sail. Generally, a jib's most crucial function is as an airfoil, increasing performance and overall stability by reducing turbulence on the main sail's leeward...
👍🏾
Noun: teuf-teuf f (plural teuf-teufs)
  1. clunker, banger (UK), hoopdie (an old or decrepit car)
chitty chitty bang bang
@Robusto I initially thought it was jocular because its sounds funny in French. Totof can be a nickname for Christophe, teuf-teuf is also a childish onomatopoeic noun for an old car, and teuf is a well know slang word for party (e.g. faire la teuf = faire la fête), a verlan word that became widely used. Teuteuf happens to be based on the last name of the founder of the site and creator of Worldle, Antoine Teuf so Te means Antoine here.
Looking to genealogy records, It's possible that Teuf has a Dutch origin. Teufel maybe?
2:08 PM
Yes, certainly Dutch. There were people named Le Teuf and De Teuf, also Teuffe, Toeuf, Theuf, all from Pas-de-Calais (French Flanders).
That explains why these games are devilish ;)
2:44 PM
@Cerberus it's not inconcievable that some of them bribed and talked their way into joining the new elite class, Khomeini and his buddies. After the Revolution, it was time for petty revenge, so whoever was rich and looked Western was thrown to the wolves, their property seized by Revolution Committee. As usual, I suppose, the smarter of the rich adapted or fled the country before it was too late.
I vaguely recall reading something about exactly this. But now I can't recall anything.
2:58 PM
@Conrado Jinx
3:23 PM
Could someone confuse it with alcohol (e.g., wine, vodka, beer) bottle?
I need a reference for a bottle like this but it must not be alcoholic bottle.
3:41 PM
> The constitution of Mauritius is written in English, while some laws, such as the Civil and Criminal codes, are in French.
> . For example, the French article le, la, les is often fused with the noun in Mauritian: French rat is Mauritian lera and French temps is Mauritian letan. The same is true for some adjectives and prepositions: French femme ("woman") and riz ("rice") are bonnfam (from bonne femme) and diri (from du riz) in Mauritian. Some words have changed their meanings: Mauritian gagn ("to get, obtain") is derived from French gagner ("to win, earn").
4:19 PM
@Conrado Hah tsk tsk!
@Conrado Whenever there is a newline in a message, formatting doesn't work any more (except > to make it a quotation).
@M.A.R. OK that makes sense.
4:39 PM
This is not a water bottle™
Not a pipe either.
It maybe water within a water bottle without any water in it.
An empty bottle is arguably non alcoholic.
But, how would one argue that it is alcoholic?
An alcoholic might.
4:54 PM
Yes.
5:14 PM
@Vikas I think yours looks more like a bottle for kombucha. Beer, wine and vodka generally have narrower corks.
I wonder if there is a chemical reason for this, or it is just custom (and economy, perhaps, since smaller corks could reasonably be expected to cost less).
I will need to find corkless bottle.
@Robusto I didn't look it up! Just guessed.
@CowperKettle Hmm I wonder what the diabetes drug does.
And were the monkeys humans?
5:30 PM
@Cerberus some poorly investigated changes to mitochondrial function.
Hmm.
Mitochondrial, having to do with processing energy for cells?
For now such a finding is as much "hmm, interesting" for researchers in that niche as it is for everyone else I suspect.
Just like most research published...
@Cerberus Mitochondria do much more than just regulate the energy balance of the cell. Their second most important role is in programmed cell death (i.e. apoptosis most of the time)
Let's hope it is developed into something eventually.
@M.A.R. Bringers of life and death.
5:35 PM
We have traditionally explored the interactions between molecules and targets on cell surfaces, like receptors. So in general what happens inside cells is poorly understood and much harder to study with current techniques.
If I separate mitochondria with some ultracentrifugation, how can I know whatever I research looks like what would happen to intact mitochondria inside intact cells? It's already hard enough extrapolating findings from intact cells grown in the lab.
@M.A.R. I understand, interesting.
Do we have surgical instruments that could handle a mitochondrium inside a cell?
@Cerberus doing very simple measurements, I guess so.
But most useful imaging techniques, like TEM, can't work on live cells
And something like injecting something into a mitochondrium (or is it mitochonder?)?
(Why do we have both bacterium and bacter?)
@Cerberus the existing techniques I believe allow for experimenting on two sides of a mitochondrial membrane, but no, neither the mitochondrium nor the cell would be 'intact', let alone 'alive'
It'd just be a very tiny, fragile membrane.
I suppose that makes sense.
Naughty cells.
I have to go now, later!
5:44 PM
Ciao
How close is biochemistry to developing a general theory like the general theory of relativity?
Years? Decades?
@RyderisnotRude. what would a 'theory of everything' look like for biochem? A miracle drug? Stopping aging? Curing every common ailment definitively?
It's hard to tell where the science would end and the fiction would begin
Though I suppose that itself may be a sign that we have a long way to go still
DNA is such a theory. Done.
@Xanne well, we're quite far from deciphering what's in our DNA, aren't we?
Like we haven't found the sequence that would tell us "you snuck out during class to have a smoke 20 years ago and your lungs will have payback in 10"
@M.A.R. Have they shown that molecular biology reduces to biochemistry yet?
5:58 PM
@Vikas Bottles like that were probably used for oil, vinegar, milk, juice.
@M.A.R. Details, mere details. Like locating another galaxy. Mostly engineering, experimentation, better instruments, faster chips.
The devil is in the details.
👿🔍
👹🔍🔍
@Cerberus And how'd that work out for you? ;-)
I had a shudder when I thought "How do I link Saudi Arabia to Antarctica?"
6:15 PM
@M.A.R. I want a device to change my DNA to protect me from the use of said DNA to prove I attended or failed to attend the inauguration of any particular president, say.
@Robusto Well, I got a perfect score.
I guessed based on the name.
Oh, good work then. I thought @jlliagre's quote was you saying you failed, but it was actually his. My bad.
@Xanne Okay.
How about this one? Can it be used to store water?
I want a device to access my location and show me maps without revealing where I am
Or juice, milk etc.
Except alcohol.
I don't know why they use corks for most of the bottles of this type. Is it aesthetically pleasing?
When I Googled, they say it's mostly for alcohol bottles.
And not used for water bottles.
6:23 PM
It’s a picture, an image, not a thing. That’s the whole point of “This is not a cigar.” This is not a bottle. Therefore it cannot hold or store anything. (Trick question, really.)
It represents the thing.
@Xanne I don't know if there's such a device being made currently, but I'm sure there are 'zero knowledge' methods or statistical methods so that you can find out where you are but other people can't from your location query.
However, numerous such bottles have been dug up in the back-yard trash heaps of houses in New England. These bottles held all kinds of stuff.
@Robusto My uncle used to say those 3 dots on a coconut are basically two eyes and a mouth of some god (I forgot) lol
6:26 PM
But which two?
@Mitch If you have faith it will be revealed to you.
Or are coconuts like bowling balls where the choice is obvious?
@Mitch The smallest ones you can say.
@Mitch OK, let's not blaspheme about the coconut god.
@Mitch This comforts me. Getting beyond 1984.
6:31 PM
2024=1984
6:43 PM
Synthetic biology is one of the great fears of modern tech. That, AI, and quantum computing. Of course there’s always the question whether a meteor will get us first, or the nuclear arsenal. Or global warming. So they’
xxx there’s a wide variety of angst-producing possible developments. Why anyone is free of pre-event PTSD is a wonder.
@Xanne or I may have gotten the math flipped and you don't know where you are but they do.
Anticipation is a part of life. 🧬
@RyderisnotRude. Does dread count as "anticipation"? Discuss.
Yes
@Robusto faith is fine but I'd like a backup just in case.
6:59 PM
@Mitch A shotgun is good backup.
To put extra holes in the coconut? Ok that seems like it should work.
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