English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

01:32

@RegDwigнt Ah, it really is!

@terdon God, that's horrible!

Glad I missed it.

@Robusto We know SE is no stranger to censorship. We've seen this before. Breathe and step over it (rather than step into it and have it seep through your shoe's seams).

11 hours ago, by Robusto

This is the kind of shit that will get Trump reelected.

It's really too bad people can't see the truth in this.

Polarisation crushes the centre, leaving only the extremes.

And we know which extreme is bigger (the right).

In other words, if the far left crucifies ordinary people, it will kill the centre and thereby ultimately itself.

2

Mitch

01:52

'Blorp blorp blorp'

Turaluralura

If that is the right word for it

Mitch

02:33

Also, what the hell is going on with all these white questions?

Robusto

03:44

@RegDwigнt: For your amusement:

When a 12 Year Old Plays Better Than You

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@Cerberus Well ... sometimes this shit is just so damn depressing.

(As is the pettiness in this chat sometimes. Can't win an argument? Call the thought police!)

Cerberus

05:14

@Robusto Well, we've managed to deal with chat friction many times in the past as well!

RegDwigнt

12:48

@Robusto I haven't checked out that one, will do in a minute. But in the mean time do check out their latest one:

The Most Blatantly Fake Violin Acting...EVER

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The first 9 minutes is business as usual, they explain things obvious to any professional musician, but if you stick around after that, or skip to about 9:44, they actually went to the effort of re-dubbing the entire scene to how it must have sounded IRL, and that bit is really quite impressive.

RegDwigнt

13:50

@Robusto Well. They've sight-read it better than I can sight-read Ah! vous dirai-je, maman, so there's that.

And each of them is younger than me by more than the age of the girl.

But can she play Tchaikovsky on an accordion, that's the question.

(Not that I can, but I'm just wondering.)

Actually let me go play some Tchaikovsky on the accordion. That'll show'em.

RegDwigнt

14:21

Well I've played something alright. Not sure it was quite what Tchaikovsky had in mind, but I can't ask him, he's dead.

Meanwhile YouTube decided to suggest I watch this:

Triple concerto for faucet, water pipes and fiddle... More - www.av-kwartet.art.pl

►

This seems encouraging. I can play the faucet's part.

RegDwigнt

15:21

Okay now watch this carefully.

The question:

4

Q: If all harmonics are generated by plucking, how does a guitar string produce a pure frequency sound?

A guitar is a plucked instrument and it is played by plucking a string at an off-centre point fixed at two ends. In general, Fourier analysis tells that all harmonics (the resonant frequencies of the string) will be excited and the string will vibrate in a superposition of different harmonics. It...

The answer:

8

A: If all harmonics are generated by plucking, how does a guitar string produce a pure frequency sound?

Human perception is involved here because when you humans talk about noise this generally means a sound that is aperiodic. However the tone produced by a guitar will be something like: $$ A(t,x) = \sum_{i=0}^\infty A_i \sin(n\omega_i t - k_i x) $$ i.e. a superposition of the frequencies $f$, $2...

The first comment on that answer:

I think I may ask a related question here. What it means to tune a detuned guitar and why do different strings make different sounds? — mithusengupta123 5 hours ago

I have no words.

That's gotta be the single most unrelated related question in the history of history.

Færd

18:37

Any German TV series to recommend? Not featuring particularly flowery language.

I'm not much of a couch potato, but to give you an idea, I liked the Sopranos and Community from American TV.

Hmm. And not much else. I probably learned more English from Friends than anything else, in my early twenties, although it never appealed to me, really.

KannE

18:55

I'm so tired of seeing that henpecked thing every day--BITCH! BITCH! BITCH!--everybody knows the word is bitch...they're just too chicken to say it.

Mitch

@KannE chicken-> chicken shit

@Færd I have heard (but not experienced it) that 'Tatort' is supposed to be good. A cop drama like 'Law and Order' (for those who know the American thing).

@KannE you should add that.

If you dare.

@Færd Supposedly Tatort is very ... localised, each episode (or season) of the series is centered in one city, so you get local flavor and accents and slang.

Robusto

21:11

@RegDwigнt I didn't hear any guitar, either, never mind the tambourine.

But the clapping ... well, that could be the most genuine part of that movie scene. People can't reliably even clap on 1 and 3, never mind 2 and 4.

I recall attending a jazz concert at the Olympia in Paris where the warmup band (for Miles Davis, iirc) was playing "Jump Monk" while the audience tried to snap their fingers in time. Well, nobody even got close to 2 and 4. It was a cascade of white noise, nothing more. Excruciating. One wished them simply to accept that there was music playing and leave it at that.

Speaking of which, here's a nice recording of that piece:

Charles Mingus - Jump Monk

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Færd

21:51

@Mitch I'm far from able to appreciate the minutia of various dialects at this level (apart from some obvious ones), but thanks, nevertheless. Gonn' give it a try.

RegDwigнt

22:48

@Mitch Tatort is the worst piece of shit on Earth. I dare you to watch just one episode to the end. You will kill yourself out of despair that anybody could make that kind of garbage.

@Færd I stopped watching German TV like five years ago. Cold turkey. Only occasionally watch the Eurovision Song Contest and the Oscars if I don't forget.

German TV is in a state of utter disrepair and utter despair.

You could argue it has always been, but that's the thing: that was their highest point and they are now miraculously managing to be on a steep decline from that.

It's a marvel of German engineering.

Series in particular, do not bother. There are none. They have telenovelas, every single one of which is worse than the worst telenovela you can dig up in Peru or Indonesia.

And they have Tatort. Which, well again. Don't take my word for it. Watch just one episode. Make sure to have someone around for the occasion, for if you are watching alone you will do unspeakable things to yourself.

Now, German movies are a different thing entirely. I would not skip on those. There's real gems in there. And new ones occasionally get made. But it is a mine field. Tread with caution.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt How do you feel about Midsomer Murders?

@Mitch I remember watching some Tatort very long ago, on linear television as a child.

I think I liked it.

RegDwigнt

Oh, as a PS: Tatort is not technically a series. It's a bunch of completely unrelated stories, with completely different actors, set in completely different locations. Basically every episode gets made in a different German state, which is a major reason in why people keep watching them. Every couple years you hear your town is about to come up, so you sit down and watch eagerly. Then you tear all your hair out. After killing yourself.

@Cerberus never heard of that one.

But it doesn't sound very German to me.

Cerberus

It's English.

RegDwigнt

I had googled before I typed that.

I don't like to be wrong.

Cerberus

Of course.

How would you compare Derrick with Tatort?

RegDwigнt

23:01

Now Inspector Barnaby is a name that I recognize. But not from watching him in anything.

@Cerberus Derrick was way, way before my time. I am not eighty!

Cerberus

I remember watching Derrick as a child.

Could have been reruns.

RegDwigнt

But from what little I've seen of the series, I might enjoy it for its camp value. You know, like watching VHS tapes from the 80s for fun.

Cerberus

Derrick ended in 1998.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus oh there were reruns alright. But after seeing Alien and Terminator 2, I wasn't exactly enthralled by the visuals of Derrick.

Cerberus

Too bad.

I've never really liked action series.

But I do like detectives.

RegDwigнt

23:04

@Cerberus yes, but even the last episode probably looks and feels like something made in the 1960s. Because, well. In a way it was. In more than one way.

Cerberus

Does that matter?

RegDwigнt

So yeah if you nailed me to a cross and asked me to pick between one episode of Tatort or ten of Derrick, I'd probably pick the latter.

Cerberus

We're watching captain Picard now.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus it does. Because the 60s had that specific charme.

Tatort has no charme. It has nothing.

Cerberus

And the new Star Trek as well, at the same time.

RegDwigнt

23:05

I figured. You won't stop talking about it.

Cerberus

So it doesn't really bother me when it was made.

RegDwigнt

I think you are missing my point entirely.

I am saying Derrick looking like an old thing is a positive.

Cerberus

Ah, OK.

> I wasn't exactly enthralled by the visuals of Derrick.

This didn't sound positive.

RegDwigнt

I'd rather rewatch James Bond from the 1970 than any of the James Bonds from the 1990s. You know. Both are completely stupid, but in very different ways.

Cerberus

Probably.

I often like old stuff as well.

RegDwigнt

23:07

@Cerberus there I am explaining why I never watched it. That has nothing to do with whether I ever would.

Cerberus

So you're saying you didn't like it then because it looked old, but you may like it now?

RegDwigнt

Yes I am saying it looked horribly dated back then, but now 30 years later that might be its greatest plus.

Like, again. Nobody would watch the original Star Trek back then. Everyone said it looked like shit and watched TNG or Voyager instead.

Cerberus

Okay.

RegDwigнt

Now people say TNG looks dated and shit, but instead go watch Captain Kirk because it has transcended.

Cerberus

I do think Discovery looks better than Picard.

I've never seen Kirk.

Transcended, that's a big word.

RegDwigнt

23:09

Well yes. But I've heard very differing opinions on that one from fans. So I reserve judgment until I watch it.

Cerberus

Computer animation has improved quite a lot since Picard, so we're seeing the result of that.

Which doesn't mean the plot is any better.

RegDwigнt

Some say it's way too Star-Warsy and completely not Star Treky. Like, starting with the very foundation. The plot and the storytelling. The conflict. Etc. Not even the visuals or the props, but the basics of the format.

Cerberus

I don't know Star Wars.

RegDwigнt

But at least one person I trust said they enjoy it quite a bit.

So I am uncertain at this point.

Cerberus

The second season is more like old Star-Trek than the first season was.

RegDwigнt

23:11

@Cerberus well I skipped on the last 7 movies. Holy shit. Yes, seven! But they had managed to make 6 movies before that. And those I saw.

Cerberus

A bit more episodic.

I think I've only ever seen one Star-Trek film (no Star Wars).

RegDwigнt

Don't watch the other ones.

I am not even joking, honest recommendation.

Cerberus

I feel about SW the way I feel about HP.

RegDwigнt

Oh ST not SW

Cerberus

Sorry, I forgot to hover over your message earlier.

RegDwigнt

23:13

Well ST you can watch like all of them but quite a few of them are incredibly silly.

Like, completely and utterly bonkers.

Cerberus

I believe it.

RegDwigнt

But I can't say I hated any of them at any point.

Cerberus

Hmm.

RegDwigнt

SW you just hate with a passion start to finish, and then for quite a while after that.

Cerberus

The Klingons in the first season of D. are super annoying.

@RegDwigнt Noted.

RegDwigнt

23:14

Right. I will take my leave now.

Cerberus

Good-bye.

Sleep well.

RegDwigнt

I only really wanted to warn Faerd.

Cerberus

Or drink well.

RegDwigнt

That mission I have accomplished I hope.

Cerberus

Oh, dear.

RegDwigнt

23:15

No drinking, it's not Friday I don't think.

Got work tomorrow.

Cerberus

Ah.

RegDwigнt

So yeah. Talk to you when I'm at work.

Cerberus

Good luck getting up in the morning.

RegDwigнt

Yes. That's why I no longer go to bed at 3 but try to make it by midnight.

Wie dem auch sei: über und aus.

Cerberus

Gut!

@RegDwigнt Why the dative?

In Dutch, we just say "hoe het ook zij".

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