English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

02:51

@tchrist: Millions track the pandemic on Johns Hopkins’s dashboard. Those who built it say some miss the real story.

tchrist

@Robusto I saw that pop up but haven't read it yet.

Robusto

13:59

@tchrist One thing I don't understand from the JH state map is that the worst areas (the color of dried blood) are over 35.82 standard deviations from the norm. That's a heck of a lot of standard deviations, no? How can half the country be at the very tip-top of the curve?

Gigili

Mitch

> A waitress screamed "Does anyone know CPR?"

I shouted "Hell, I know the whole alphabet"

Everyone laughed..

Well everyone except this one guy

Robusto

@Mitch Sounds like Jack Handy.

Mitch

14:56

@Robusto twitter.com/DadsPuns

Cerberus

> In this sprawling, heterogeneous country, the pandemic has become yet another thing on which Americans are divided.

Mask-wearing for some people is an identifier of broader beliefs and political leanings. Like so many issues rooted in science and medicine, the pandemic is now fully entangled with ideological tribalism. This has played out before: helmets for motorcyclists, seat belts in cars, smoking bans in restaurants. All of those measures provoked battles over personal liberty.

...

The nation’s traditional emphasis on the rights of individuals distinguishes the United States from m…

Why do Americans think they are so special?

Nobody here wears masks, except in public transportation, and except some East-Asians in the streets.

Nobody wears bike helmets except foreigners and very young children.

And our number of ill went down quickly as soon as our lockdown was initiated. People did not wear masks, then not even in public transportation. And all shops stayed open.

Our health experts do not advise masks in public.

This isn't some culture war.

It's just different experts acting on uncertain knowledge.

What I can blame my government for is not instating its lockdown earlier. That could have saved many lives, possibly.

And we didn't have enough protective materials for nursing homes, like masks and clothing.

Mitch

15:32

@Cerberus I need to add that to my list. Another example of American Exceptionalism.

Which is...

M.A.R.

The nation is just traditionally great.

Mitch

The US stands out as very different from other countries in thinking that it stands out as different from other countries.

@M.A.R. In the American sense of tradition which is 'since WWII'.

It's like we're stuck in the 60's.

Nothing's changed.

M.A.R.

@Cerberus Oh but you're in the cold, cut-and-dry Europe. If your fatal accidents per year is a smaller stat, it must be because you do not possess the American freedom to go crash into something.

@Mitch The politicians need to update their firmware

Then they might give out more alluring speeches, and hold glasses of water in a steadier manner

Cerberus

@Mitch I would submit that many countries think they are very different from other countries.

@M.A.R. Haha, quite possibly.

Though the Corona crisis wasn't handled very well in Europe either, in the beginning.

Though we did have a lot less warning time in the countries effected most severely, like Italy.

Mitch

@Cerberus BUT THE US IS BETTER AT IT!

Cerberus

15:40

I'm sure they think so, just like e.g. Russia or Malaysia.

Mitch

@Cerberus Everybody has good right to complain that their govt's could have done much better, but we all know by looking at any chart that the US is handling it by far and well beyond the worst.

I'm wondering though how Russia is really doing.

M.A.R.

@Mitch American . . . Especialist

Mitch

@Cerberus Yeah everybody spends an inordinate amount of time on Olympics coverage on their own athletes.

@M.A.R. It's this weird parochialism.

Cerberus

@Mitch Well, it's still a bit too early to tell.

The number of deaths per 1 million inhabitants is not that great yet, in America.

M.A.R.

Heh. Our media stopped trying to make us believe we're special. At best they limit it to "Our great younguns have discovered this technology natively available only to five more countries. ONLY FIVE MORE!"

Cerberus

15:44

Still quite a bit lower than in Spain and Italy.

M.A.R.

And what people think is special about us in the govt's incompetence

Cerberus

Hah.

Oh, well.

M.A.R.

Which is also not special

Cerberus

By the way, your icon resembles Mitch's too much.

M.A.R.

I don't follow the news lately. They might have dropped the top-10 act.

Cerberus

15:46

Colours and composition.

Mitch

@Cerberus Sure, Brazil isn't doing so well (and really all of the Amazon Basin), and I just can't imagine how India could possibly slow anything down. Social distancing there means 1 foot apart.

M.A.R.

My green is sicklier

Cerberus

Yeah, it will be a while before we can see the end result in India.

M.A.R.

Or you can assume that the funnier jokes are mine

Cerberus

I hope they can slow it down enough in time for a vaccine.

M.A.R.

15:47

Even if the ox made them

Cerberus

@M.A.R. Granted. But you know how your icon would look even cooler? By making the background reddish!

I could do it in Photoshop for you.

M.A.R.

I could do it in Paint, possibly

Cerberus

Would be much more work.

M.A.R.

But depending on what reddish means, it could be really eye-jarring

Cerberus

Then you could decide on another colour.

M.A.R.

15:48

Blue?

Mitch

@Cerberus per capita? There's been some (statistician) controversy about whether absolute or relative #'s are better. My understanding is that when the prevalence is so low everywhere, that absolute #'s tell you more about the severity.

@M.A.R. haha... good one!

Cerberus

@M.A.R. OK.

@Mitch Yes, I said per 1 million.

@Mitch Why?

@M.A.R. You'd like me to make it blue for you?

M.A.R.

If you wouldn't mind

I'm going to do some exercise, BBL

Cerberus

OK.

Mitch

@Cerberus Well, it's an entirely new infection. It's not like the entire population of the world was exposed at once (or at the end of a time period of total spreading) and then mitigating effort applied. In that case per capita would be totally relevant. Since this is at the beginning of spread, then there has been no population wide exposure, only to a very small percentage of the population, or rather (which the question is about) to a small constant (i.e. low millions)

@Cerberus nice

Cerberus

15:57

@M.A.R. How about this?

I can now easily change the colour just by dragging a bar.

Mitch

How about transparent?

Cerberus

I doubt whether SE can handle that?

But I could do that and save it as a PNG file rather than JPG (which it is now).

@Mitch I agree that deaths per capita is of limited use. By why is total number of deaths any better?

Mitch

@Cerberus 1) try it and see? 2) I feel like I've either seen it or tried it and it worked.

You could make one entirely transparent square for @Jasper, and then he could be here without being seen.

@Cerberus I'm not sure how to understand that question. Is there an alternative to relative vs absolute? It's one or the other. they're both problematic but for different reasons, and it depends on the situation, the situation being either total exposure to the populations (for all the very different population sizes of countries) or exposure as a process.

Those exposed in each nation are currently, well, not the same, but it's not yet relevant how many total in a country to how bad it is. Relative is good for total exposure, absolute for small partial exposure.

I'm just trying to think through what's already been done, I'm not sure if that's really the justification.

Robusto

16:26

@Cerberus Americans as a group don't think they are special. Americans as members of a subgroup do.

CowperKettle

16:54

0

Q: Meaning of "Compensation for Damage" in a clinical trial

I'm translating a document that is presented to clinical trial participants prior to their enrollment. One section is titled "Compensation for Injury": Compensation for Injury Will you receive any compensation if you have an injury/illness related to your participation in the study? According to...

I don't get this. Damage vs Injury - what's the difference

Apparatus

17:09

Hi all

I am trying to describe a movie and I would like to say this -> The most interesting fact in the movie is the narration of contemplating how a person should be respected.

Is it correct or do you find any flaw?

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at beginning of body (41): who was really famous and sang the song just beat it by Jasmine on english.SE

M.A.R.

@Apparatus It's not grammatically incorrect but it would immediately stand out as non-native

@CowperKettle I think injury is trauma, damage is more general?

Like medication overdose would be damage, but an accidental cut would be injury

Apparatus

@M.A.R. Can you please rephrase it only if you would like to help?

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Answered on Law.

@Robusto Of course they're all different. But this statement by Mr Fauci, and the article in the Washington Post, were typical.

M.A.R.

@Apparatus "What stands out in the movie is the narrator's musings on being respected"

That could be inaccurate, depending on the context

@Cerberus Vielen dank

Mitch

17:22

@M.A.R. It doesn't sound unnatural to me.

M.A.R.

@Cerberus Well, every second mobile picture editing app can change hue too, but I think only of the entire picture

Cerberus

@M.A.R. Yes. So I needed to make some preparations before it was ready for the bar.

M.A.R.

@Mitch NNS like referring to a blank object in our mind as "fact"

Cerberus

This was still fairly easy in Photoshop, though.

If you want a slightly (or entirely) different colour, do let me know.

M.A.R.

Maybe just a squabble, but if you can do better, definitely do better

@Cerberus This'd just do

Mitch

17:24

@M.A.R. That sounds natural to me. Maybe not the most felicitous writing.

M.A.R.

All it's waiting for is a chat refresh

Cerberus

@M.A.R. Thanks for the advice. In this case, better is in the eye of the beholder, which is you.

You still look green.

M.A.R.

@Cerberus I was referring to the OP's sentence haha

I should be blue now, lemme check

Mitch

@M.A.R. I'm not a good writer so probably I couldn't do better.

M.A.R.

@Mitch Hahahaha lol

Oh, I'd forgotten to press save

Mitch

17:26

I refreshed chat and it's all... oh...

stil no...

still still no...

OMG stabs button repeatedly

M.A.R.

Chat refreshes in 15 minutes or so

Mitch

@M.A.R. NOOOOOOOOOOOO....

M.A.R.

I mean, go on, it'll eventually work

Have you tried turning it off and on again

Mitch

it?

M.A.R.

The mind eye

Mitch

17:28

@M.A.R. Nope. That didn't do it.

M.A.R.

Maybe it's not the latest update

Cerberus

Mitch

I've heard there are people that can't visualize things. That is they can't conjure a view of something in their minds.

Cerberus

Second refresh.

Mitch

And yet they walk among us like anybody as though they're no different.

Cerberus

17:29

Not in your profile either.

Mitch

@M.A.R. Maybe you should press save a few more times, just to be sure.

M.A.R.

It's blue for me on main

Mitch

Anyway, these people with no inner visual imagination, I think they're lying.

Matt E. Эллен

@Cerberus I would agree with you, but the paragraph about damage mentions "investigational medicine" which implies they're worried about damaging the person. Would your property get damaged by investigational medicine?

M.A.R.

I can't help it if your caches are parasitic animals.

7

Q: "Tu quoque, Brutus, mi fili?" Grammar question

Someone told me these were Caesar's actual last words. Google confirms this. But I can't find an explanation for what looks to me like weird grammar. First of all, shouldn't "Brutus" be "Brute" (vocative case) since Caesar would presumably be talking to him? Secondly, "mi fili"? "Fili" I assume c...

syntax morphologia grammar-identification

Even I knew it should be Brute.

Friends are idiots.

Mitch

17:32

@M.A.R. Ooh. Look at that. It's nice.

M.A.R.

Not my work obviously

Hannah, Barbara, and @Cerberus

Barberra? Barbora?

Mitch

Once we solve the chat avatar update problem, we should move on to World Peace or that Hanna-Barbera spelling problem.

Apparatus

@M.A.R. It is somewhat unsuitable to the context I think.However, thanks.

M.A.R.

@Apparatus Can't you mend it to fit the context?

Why do you have to have a name that's hard to spell.

That goes against everything names are for

Mitch

@M.A.R. No slam against Shaespeare, or Caesar, but in a similar situation I'd figure my last words would be:

ARGH!

Or

holy shit that hurts

or

stop that!

Robusto

17:39

How about "Motherfucker!!!"

CowperKettle

@Cerberus Spasibo very much!

Mitch

@Robusto Oh, that's for stubbing my toe. Self inflicted wounds.

Robusto

Self-inflicted words for self-inflicted wounds.

M.A.R.

That's only Samuel Jackson

Everyone else PG-13's it.

Robusto

Amazing how my fingers have to be watched every second or they'll type something stupid.

M.A.R.

17:41

@Mitch Mine would be "that tickles"

Because they do

Robusto

Fingers are like cats.

M.A.R.

Now I'm hungry

Mitch

blinks

was it the fingers or the cats that did it?

M.A.R.

Also just how painful is it after hemorrhagic shock?

@Mitch Mostly the barbecue outside

Mitch

it's pretty painful being stabbed before the hemorrhagic shock.

M.A.R.

17:44

I don't think it's cats but apartment balcony barbecues are evil

Robusto

@Mitch Hard to know.

Mitch

@M.A.R. Throw in some fingers and cats

Now I'm hungry

Robusto

R.I.P. Carl Reiner

CowperKettle

It's +7°C here. Brrrr.

Robusto

18:01

It was over 40°C last week in Siberia, wasn't it?

CowperKettle

Yes!

A rare event

Actually it was in the coldest part of Siberia

Very far from me.

The Ural region often gets quite cold in the summer.

Even though the winters are mild here. It rarely reaches minus 30 in the winter here.

Robusto

@CowperKettle haha. Where I am it rarely reaches below 0°C here in the dead of winter.

CowperKettle

I would gladly have the Ural summer weather all year long. I hate temperatures above 24°С

Robusto

And it rarely reaches 40°C in summer. Normal is 30 to 35, but very dry.

CowperKettle

In Moscow they have hot summers, people have to install air conditioners there.

Robusto

18:09

Well, AC is a given here. But the heat is rarely oppressive.

Big problem right now is smoke from wildfires blowing in from Airzona.

CowperKettle

We have horrible wildfires in Siberia. Last summer was the pinnacle of fires.

2019 Siberia wildfires

The 2019 Siberian wildfires began in July 2019 in poorly accessible areas of northern Krasnoyarsk Krai, Sakha Republic and Zabaykalsky Krai, all in Siberia, Russia. By the end of the month the size of the fires reached 2,600,000 hectares (6,400,000 acres). As of 30 July, there have been no reported deaths or injuries due to the fires.The 2019 Siberia wildfires generated significant publicity, especially among the social media users. As a result, a process of reviewing legal regulations regarding forest protection and forest fire extinguishing activities has started at the state level. == Extent... ==

On 31 July 2019, Russian authorities reported that 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres; 30,000 km2) were on fire, an area roughly the size of Belgium.

Robusto

That sucks.

M.A.R.

18:55

No it mostly burns

-4

Q: About stack exchange users

Doesn't anybody observe that the users of stack exchange are too much professional in sense of attitude, are they all old professional teachers?, as compared to other internet forums. They are all like answering zombies, who wants perfect answer with perfect questions? They don't even like being ...

discussion stack-exchange users

Terran Swett

20:23

Is there a single word or phrase that means "debt owed by somebody else to the person under consideration"?

Such that "I have thousands of dollars of X" means "people owe me thousands of dollars"?

Obviously, if I say "I have a lot of debt", it sounds like I'm saying that I owe a lot of money to other people.

Cerberus

22:48

@TerranSwett Hmm can't think of a single word.

I have given out thousands of dollars in loans.

@MattE.Эллен Hmm yes, I see your point.

I don't really have a good answer.

It suggests the contract is poorly worded.

Any way we interpret it, it would seem to contain superfluous or irrelevant information.

Terran Swett

23:39

The word "debt" does seem to flip meaning given enough context.

If I say "I own thousands of dollars of corporate debt", it's pretty obvious that I'm not saying that I'm a corporation who owns thousands of dollars of accounts payable.

I guess I could say "I have thousands of dollars of debt securities".

Assuming the debt is in the form of a security at all.

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