English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

CowperKettle

03:47

RegDwigнt

08:31

Last night someone commented on one of my scores as follows:

> O.K

That was literally the entirety of their comment. Including the missing period. Or rather, not including it.

The Internet is a very helpful place. We should make a site that benefits from that.

M.A.R.

o.K

Matt E. Эллен

11:52

Stack Ovflow just told me I was assuming that the asker had tried something, and asked why I was assuming that. Well, FU SO, I wasn't assuming that. I was CLEARLY trying to elicit a response along the the lines of "I haven't tried anything" OR "I have tried...".

anyway. rant over.

M.A.R.

@MattE.Эллен I have no idea what you're talking about

Is it a system message, or a mod tsk'ing?

Matt E. Эллен

12:19

System message

Anyway, the less people know what I'm talking about, the better

M.A.R.

I could maybe go and try to figure it out but meh

Cerberus

15:26

2017 ^.

2019 ^.

> ISIS not asked in Turkey [2017]

I wonder why not.

I wonder why Canada is emitting so much CO2.

And why Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan? Are they perhaps burning lots of oil and gas from wells?

Matt E. Эллен

@Cerberus melting permafrost, perhaps?

Cerberus

@MattE.Эллен Hmm.

I wonder whether they include emissions that aren't caused by the local population.

And I wonder whether they include methane. I should hope so, technically it says they don't.

Too bad Mr Shiny isn't here to pester.

Matt E. Эллен

15:41

yeah, I'm sure he keeps a record of everyone's emissions :D

CowperKettle

17:44

@Cerberus Huge reserves of brown coal in Kazakhstan. There's a huge power plant near Yekaterinburg that works on Kazakhstan's brown coal. I visited that little town once, and you can feed the sulfur in the air as you approach the town. At the station, you can feel the sulfur everywhere.

The Reftinsky coal-fired power plant, one of the most powerful in Russia

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Such a lovely sight!

So what you are saying is that the production of electricity in Kazakhstan is much dirtier than in e.g. Russia or China?

And so they produce more pollution per per capita even though they probably use less energy per capita?

CowperKettle

Perhaps so! I'm not an expert on that, but this might be the case

The lake is actually a cooling reservoir for the plant.

And a large portion of it stays ice-free through the winter, it's so warm. Hence it has a lot of fish.

And hence quite a lot of fishermen die there, falling through the thin ice.

Cerberus

And the water is probably polluted?

RegDwigнt

19:11

0

Q: I'm writing a DAW paper and I need help

I want to write: In my personal opinion. How could I change that to non-first person?

@Cerberus it's all them bears farting.

@Cerberus they produce more pollution per capita because they have no capita. How many people do you know that live in Kazakhstan?

Every single person from Kazakhstan that I know does not live in Kazakhstan.

And every single person that I know that's not from Kazakhstan most certainly does not live in Kazakhstan.

Cerberus

Energy use is proportional to population.

RegDwigнt

Not if your President drives a Humvee 24/7 through empty streets devoid of people.

Which is exactly how half of them stans operate.

Also all of them djans.

In Astana in particular, you are expected to not pollute the street by your presence. You have to go out go somewhere, you must do it in a car.

Google for them pictures. Huge humongous alleyways with huge buildings lining up each side. Not a single person anywhere.

I'm not even joking. You can't tell me that kind of deeply engraved and even legally enforced lifestyle does not show in your CO2 balance sheet.

@Cerberus And at any rate, your very own chart proves that very assumption wrong.

Then all countries would be coloured in in the exact same shade of the exact same colour.

Cerberus

19:27

@RegDwigнt It isn't only proportional to population.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus well no. You build shitty houses out of paper, you need more energy to keep yourself warm because all the warmth keeps escaping through all the cracks.

Cerberus

So it doesn't seem Kazakhstan is using energy proportional to its pollution.

So the dirty-power-plants factor seems likely.

4 hours ago, by Cerberus

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus Well yes it's a factor. As you just said, there's a multitude of those. Which is why it makes little sense to try and reduce it to just one. Which sort of happens automatically as soon as you mention only one or two or five factors, rather than five thousand.

Nobody has any idea what's happening.

Cerberus

A salient factor.

RegDwigнt

Meh. Weasel wording.

Putting something in one pocket, taking something out of the other.

Cerberus

19:33

Kazakhstan is just a striking example of the maps not matching.

And dirty power plants may be a big factor.

RegDwigнt

Well, have you considered that all them Russian rockets are fired into space from Kazakhstan?

Cerberus

I doubt whether that will make such a huge difference.

RegDwigнt

I could heat my home till I die with that kind of energy.

Yours, too. And Angela Merkel's.

Cerberus

I even doubt whether those will be registered at all.

RegDwigнt

Well, I'll just call it a factor, then. A salient factor.

Cerberus

19:35

I.e. included in the CO2 estimates.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus you don't know that. I doubt the people who drew the map knew.

Never trust statistics you haven't shopped yourself.

Have you considered that someone just clicked on the wrong color in Photoshop?

How would we even know that they did if they didn't even notice it themselves.

Cerberus

Kazakhstan emits about 280 million tons of CO2 yearly.

RegDwigнt

Prince Edward emits as much all by himself.

Cerberus

How many rockets would say are launched in Kazakhstan yearly?

What order of magnitude are we looking at?

> Each of NASA’s space shuttle launches created 28 tons of CO2

RegDwigнt

I knew you would bring that up, as well you should. Here's a Gegenfrage: how many test runs are there for each successful launch?

And just how much CO2 do you need to bring all the people to the site. Those are huge sites. Takes a long time to get across in a car. Every single day. For tens of thousands of people coming to work.

Cerberus

19:44

I think the latter is insignificant on this scale.

RegDwigнt

I saw a documentary about French Guyana once. Very illuminating. And that's, like, the whole country is the size of my mobile phone.

Kazakhstan is like a giant desert. You drive for days to get anywhere.

@Cerberus well yes, but we're not talking scale I thought. I thought we were still talking per capita.

You shoot three capita into space for 28 tons of CO2, you do the math.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt That makes no difference.

RegDwigнt

If it makes no difference then I have no idea why everyone on Facebook is so upset about me taking the plane or using the car.

I am just one caput. I could go burn all the world's brown coal right now, it makes no difference.

On a side note, now that I have you here, why the fuck is it per capita and not per caput. How does that make any sense.

Cerberus

It seems NASA launches about two rockets a month.

So lets say it's 100 rockets a year in Kazakhstan.

And lets say they emit twice the CO2 per launch compared to a Space Shuttle.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus Seems a bit steep. By an order of magnitude. But I've no idea. My father might know.

Cerberus

19:53

@RegDwigнt Then what would you take as a number?

RegDwigнt

That's like two rockets a week. Never mind fuel, we don't have that much steel.

Cerberus

Ten, then?

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus Dunno. Make it twice a month. 25.

Cerberus

OK.

Mitch

@Cerberus Brown coal powered rockets?

Cerberus

19:54

That would be 25 * 2 * 28 = 1400 tons of CO2 yearly from rockets.

16 mins ago, by Cerberus

Kazakhstan emits about 280 million tons of CO2 yearly.

RegDwigнt

That's more than my mom weighs.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt .

Cerberus

So I think we can safely say that the rockets are insignificant.

RegDwigнt

You're insignificant.

Also you're not a rocket.

Mitch

Insults twice

RegDwigнt

19:55

I never said the rockets were significant. I said they were a salient factor.

Cerberus

That makes 0,000078 % of the country's CO2 emissions.

Mitch

Bettern factual salsa

OK these figures are dumb.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus yes and the rest is the President driving around in his Humvee. The math checks out.

Mitch

Who cares what the weight of the gas is.

Unless you know what the total weight of gas is.

It's just a dumb number

Cerberus

So dirty power plants make for a much better candidate.

RegDwigнt

19:57

Gas does not weigh anything per se. Nothing has a weight. Only a mass.

Mitch

that says nothing

sound and fury

like a

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus I am sorry, how many dirty power plants do they launch into space each year?

You can't just skip past that important question like that.

@Mitch If I push against you real hard, your weight triples.

Your mass stays the same tho. Unless you're eating a donut.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Good question.

Ask on Latin.SE!

RegDwigнt

I would but I've been burnt before.

Also how would I know it's per capita in Latin. I only know it's that in English.

Cerberus

Burned, on Latin.SE?

RegDwigнt

20:00

No.

Cerberus

You can ask whether the use in English is justified based on the Latin.

That would make for a great question.

Tanner Swett

Sure gas has a weight. The weight just differs a bit depending on where, exactly, the gas is.

Cerberus

You'd get lots of views, possibly have one of the most popular questions on the site!

Distributed per in Latin ("all over x") can be used with singular and plural. But, with singular, it would mean "all over a head".

You could say per urbem "throughout / all over the city".

Or per urbes "throughout / all over the cities".

So I think per capita is the proper expression.

But I could be wrong.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus why do you not have a tag for "nouns".

How am I supposed to tag my shit.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt You could add it!

Or use substantive.

RegDwigнt

20:07

I could if I had 150 reps.

Cerberus

I'll look at it and find a nice tag for you when you're done.

RegDwigнt

0

Q: Why "per capita"?

I don't speak Latin and I can't think of a non-dumb way to ask this. But my understanding is that capita is the plural form of caput. So I'm wondering how "per capita" makes any sense, then. Seems like a contradiction in terms to me. Did Latin itself even have this term at all? Or was this a m...

substantivum plural

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Yay!

RegDwigнt

Ah I see you've added an explanation for what "per capita" actually means. My bad. I figured a Latin person would know. XDXDXD

Anyway. I'm so used to upvoting my own shit on YouTube that I'm kinda pissed right now I can't do likewise on SE.

What gives.

Now that I'm posting questions, I'm going to Meta and asking them to fix that.

Cerberus

So you're saying Youtube is superior to SE?

RegDwigнt

20:14

Well, for starters you can't even post videos on SE!

14

Q: Why can't we add video (or even audio) clips to posts?

In a recent question, a new user asked how to classify the accent as heard in a video clip from youtube. However, that required going off-page to hear it, and some users objected to that. I tried to edit to paste the clip, but was informed by the system that the source format was unacceptable...

discussion feature-request

Also, there's nowhere as many "fuck you you suck" comments on SE as on YouTube.

An inexcusable oversight on the part of the developers, if you ask me.

You could easily add a bunch of those completely automatically underneath every post. Wouldn't even cause that much CO2.

Cerberus

You could also add a couple of brown-coal plants to SE.

RegDwigнt

On that note, have you noticed that your question on the wall has been answered on the wall?

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt It is rather that she might not understand why it was counter-intuitive without thinking of the translation.

RegDwigнt

Cerberus

Hmm ahh.

RegDwigнt

20:19

Hope that helps.

Cerberus

Answered in advance.

RegDwigнt

We always do.

Cerberus

Indeed.

RegDwigнt

We burn through coal at such a rate, we're literally ahead of the time.

Cerberus

How far aheads?

RegDwigнt

20:25

OVER 9000 heads aheads.

Cerberus

Latin is a slow site (being a dead language), so it may take a while for people to notice. But I'm sure you'll get an answer eventually.

RegDwigнt

It's not like it's burning under my nails. But thank you.

Cerberus

Sure, sure.

RegDwigнt

Have they not graduated every site recently?

Cerberus

Only very old beta sites.

I think.

RegDwigнt

20:26

But Latin is the oldest of them all.

Cerberus

Quite so!

By the way, would you have posted your question if I hadn't posted a link to the site?

RegDwigнt

I wouldn't know if there were a way to tell from the design. I only noticed it was blue.

@Cerberus I had my question all typed up at that point. I came back here to ask for where the fuck your tags were. That's when I first saw your link.

Cerberus

Ah!

You're not lazy like me.

@RegDwigнt I don't believe so: they have detached design from beta status.

RegDwigнt

But I'm just one data point. And the worst data point of them all. I am literally the last person on the Internet who knows how to look for things. So don't use me to adjust your behaviour. Post links. Always post links. People click on links. People don't click on not links.

Cerberus

But the word beta should have disappeared...

@RegDwigнt Exactly.

If you're the last person on the Internet who knows how to look for things, then how did you find it?

RegDwigнt

20:29

Just a couple hours ago I mentioned the six degrees of separation on MuseScore. And like not one but half a dozen people posted back "I don't know what the fuck you're on about" and "lol what" and "does anybody have a translator".

Fuck people. Fuck all of them.

How hard is it to type "six degrees of separation" into Google. That's much faster, too, than typing up "I don't know what the fuck you're on about".

Cerberus

Odd.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus I typed latin into the address bar and was half expecting for the auto-complete to auto-complete it. But it did not. So then I just appended .stackexchange.com.

It's not rocket science, exactly.

But I am the last person to know that it is not.

Cerberus

You types all of that?

I always type latin stack into the address bar, then click on the link in Google.

RegDwigнt

Oh! I have a wonderful aria for you. And also @Robusto.

Philippe Jaroussky records Gluck: Che farò senza Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice)

►

Gorgeous. Mesmerizing. Spectacular. Intricate.

Cerberus

Nice.

He was in town last year.

But he only sang some modern piece.

RegDwigнt

20:37

In the last couple days I've listened to dozens of interpretations of this particular piece. In dozens of arrangements and instrumentations. And half a dozen different languages.

This one towers above them all it's not even funny.

Not the same ballpark, not the same postcode, not the same country.

Cerberus

It is a great piece.

You didn't like the one by Aafje Heynis?

RegDwigнt

Monday or Tuesday someone on MuseScore asked for a score for the piece. I responded in kind that I would do it. But also in my usual passive-aggressive way that they shouldn't be such a moron for asking for it in such and such way.

So like half an hour later the post vanished.

And I finished the transcription last night and they probably won't even ever know. Shrug. Some people.

Cerberus

Ouch.

RegDwigнt

Yeah. So now all the world has the sheet music that one person asked for, except for that one person who asked for it.

Cerberus

Perhaps a thousand people will find it in the future.

Do you ever listen to public sessions of singing lessons on Youtube?

RegDwigнt

20:42

Many more will. Nobody else has transcribed it on MuseScore yet. And now it's all mine.

Cerberus

Good.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus I follow quite a bit of channels. But not singing. Not yet.

I was thinking about joining a layman choir actually.

Cerberus

Vocal tips for opera singers: Joyce DiDonato Masterclass in full (The Royal Opera)

►

RegDwigнt

Or rather, someone at my music school asked me if I was interested.

And then a friend of mine asked me if I knew of such a choir in town because she very much was interested.

Cerberus

These videos make me appreciate singers even more. And the technique they use.

RegDwigнt

20:43

So we agreed to go there together once she decides to.

Cerberus

Good!

I have friends who sing in choirs, and they all enjoy it very much.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus well don't start watching videos on how to play the clarinet, then. Or the harp, for that matter.

Cerberus

I have considered watching instrumental videos.

But the singing lessons attract me more.

RegDwigнt

I watch dozens every day. For all kinds of instruments I don't even own.

Cerberus

All the more so when they practice pieces I know.

But you don't watch singing?

RegDwigнt

20:45

Not yet. Never thought of doing that.

Cerberus

I love it when Joyce Di Donato lets this young singer do the same line several times over, each time concentrating on one aspect and improving it. I can often even hear the difference, with may layman's ears.

RegDwigнt

Well yes. There's tons of videos like that for all the instruments. I saw a trumpet lesson like that once. It was just like you say in every particular.

And I don't even play the trumpet, and probably never will. And that student that played it played it at the highest of levels. But the teacher made him play even better. And then better still.

Cerberus

Exactly.

The second student in that video does the aria from Dido.

When I am Laid in Earth.

It's so nice to hear all the differences.

RegDwigнt

I'm not quite at that point yet.

It's two hours, give me time.

I must say most of the videos like this that I watch have nowhere the number of views though. Impressive promotion skillz.

Even, like, violin classes by the one and only Vengerov himself get like a couple thousand views and that's it.

2018 Menuhin Competition | Maxim Vengerov Masterclass | Ysaye's 'Caprice d'apres l'Etude'

►

This one seems to have caught up quite a bit. But still nowhere near yours.

And there's like a thousand violinists for every singer. Strange.

Cerberus

Oh, you're actually watching the video. I am tempted to watch it again.

RegDwigнt

20:59

Hey quid pro quo, watch mine first.

Cerberus

Perhaps because Juilliard and DiDonato are good at marketing?

RegDwigнt

Maybe.

But it's not like Vengerov isn't.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…