English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

CowperKettle

01:12

twitter.com/_Fashington/status/1301217252252016640

Two cranes fell in Tuymen due to high wind.

Makes me wonder. I received a couple of SMS messages warning of the high wind upcoming. The construction manager should go to jail for this.

She must surely have gotten the same messages from the Emergency Ministry.

CowperKettle

01:44

80 million tests over 5 months, and starting in October some 50 million tests will be produced every month. That's impressive.

Johan Larsson

05:19

@Robusto I went afk and missed it

Captain Bohemian

05:45

eye pain

CowperKettle

06:26

> If the tumor remains stable by midgestation

Autocorrect has suggested an edit: midge station

RegDwigнt

09:21

@CowperKettle and you would have stopped the wind, how?

"I received the same message as someone else may or may not have.

"They did nothing, and I did nothing.

"Consequently, they must go to jail and I must not."

CowperKettle

09:45

@RegDwigнt It's standard practice to stop all crane work if wind is forecast.

Cranes can be fixed so as not to tip over. Boris Yeltsin in his autobiography recalls how during construction at his construction site a crane nearly tipped over due to wind, because it should have been fixed.

I've forgotten the proper English term for incapacitating a crane.

Basically, it is put in a safety mode somehow.

In any case, it must not be under load in a heavy wind, and no people should be present in the crane cabin or the possible area of damage.

> Health tip: White Man's Foot collected near the Chernobyl power plant can heal even open fractures.
Comment: yes, but you must catch it first.

CowperKettle

10:08

Weightlifting cranes: wind loads, acceptable wind limits and methods of determination. A state standard document published in 1977 and still apparently in force. internet-law.ru/gosts/gost/33021

CowperKettle

10:28

> Health officials across the US have reportedly been notified that they should expect a coronavirus vaccine available to health workers and high-risk groups by November, amid concerns the accelerated vaccine development process has become politicized.

> In hypothyroid women who are planning pregnancy, TSH levels should be evaluated preconception, and L-T4 dose should be adjusted to achieve a target TSH concentration below 2.5 mlU/L.

Why is there no the before L-T4 dose?

Matt E. Эллен

sometimes people drop the article in technical documents. I'm not sure the reason. also it could just be a mistake

CowperKettle

10:49

Yes, it must be due to the technical nature of hte document.

I'm just always unsure with articles. They are the most complex part of English.

M.A.R.

12:02

@CowperKettle Wait till you hear about other European languages . . .

And Arabic. Arabic has noun genders and it's always seemed like a huge and complicated system. There are no noun genders in Persian, and no specialized possessive pronouns and such

CowperKettle

@M.A.R. Russian has noun genders.

Coffee used to have a masculine gender, but it was allowed to have a neuter gender recently, which galled many hardcore linguists.

M.A.R.

@CowperKettle it would, my impression is Russian is one of the more complicated languages to learn for me

CowperKettle

12:18

Ukrainian has some features of Old Russian that died out in Russian. For example, Russian has 6 cases and Ukrainian has 7 cases. It has a special case for addressing a person.

In Russian this 7th case has only been retained it a couple of antique phrases used by the Church.

M.A.R.

@CowperKettle vocative?

Arabic has a vocative uh, maybe it's called case

But the noun ending in a vocative is special

CowperKettle

@M.A.R. Yes, vocative

For example, Russians say mama either then speaking about their mother or when addressing their mother personally. Ukrainians say mama when speaking about their mother, but mamo when addressing their mother in person.

So curious.

When speaking of earth, zemlya, when addressing it directly - zemlye.

When speaking of grandmother, babusya, when addressing her, babusyu

When speaking about night, nich, when addressing the night, noche

When speaking about a gentleman (or any person courteously), pan, when addressing multiple persons - panove

It's complex.

SmokeDetector

12:38

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive answer detected, toxic answer detected (158): What do you call someone who gives you the wrong advice? ✏️ by Joe Lee on english.SE

M.A.R.

@CowperKettle mamo sounds so weird, haha

Peter Panove

CowperKettle

12:58

I haven't run for a couple of days, and my heart rate is 38 bpm.

I noticed that it keeps high for several hours after a long run. Relatively high. Then it starts declining, and in a couple of days it hits a low.

I had bought a finger oxygenation thingie in case I have covid, and I'm checking it out sometime. It has a heart rate meter

CowperKettle

13:12

Hoooray.

I finshed proofreading a long text, and can go jogging.

The weather is sunny.

Robusto

@CowperKettle That's pretty low. Mine only drops to the low 40s, and only at night.

And yeah, after a good workout it's normal for mine to be in the high 60s or low 70s for a few hours before it settles back to normal.

My new watch has a blood 02 meter, which is more of a novelty for me.

The heart rate monitor it has is better than the one on my Garmin watch, which I bought for $600 four years ago.

M.A.R.

14:30

I never measure my heart rate but I probably have more reason than you guys to do so

I doubt it'd get anywhere below 50 during rest times. That's how I remembered it was after transplant when I was attached to lots of different monitoring devices

My only problem seems to be I can't at all shed this extra weight.

Færd

14:45

@Mitch Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the emphasis/stress in noun+noun combinations is never on the second noun.

Your theory could explain the necklace vs shoelace difference, tho.

@Robusto Now it clicked. sigh of relief

Robusto

@M.A.R. You had a heart transplant?

Cerberus

@Færd Correct.

@M.A.R. Eat less?

Matt E. Эллен

Eat so much that you start losing weight. Overflow your weight integer

Robusto

@MattE.Эллен What if it's an unsigned integer?

Matt E. Эллен

that's what I'm assuming. go from 255 back to 0

Robusto

14:59

That was true back in the good old days. Now an unsigned integer has a value of 4294967295. So you'd have to eat enough for everyone on earth to get it back to 0. Which would create resentment.

Cerberus

I'm afraid biological creatures operate on other inconsistencies.

M.A.R.

@Robusto Much easier, but dire enough. It's not like you just cut it up and put a kidney there.

@Cerberus heh, doesn't seem to cut it.

The anesthesiologist in the transplant ward kept refusing a dialysis patient to get a transplant. They were in triage every three days, but they hadn't been transplanted for 3 months while I was there.

There was a minor issue with the heart and the anesthesiologist believed the operation too risky.

The major cause of death for all transplant patients in general is cardiovascular disease. The medication we get our whole life is nothing short of slow poison.

Literally. Tacrolimus is a less potent version of a fungal poison.

Cerberus

@M.A.R. What is easier than what?

@M.A.R. Oh, I see. Its function is to suppress the immune system or something?

Robusto

@M.A.R. Ouch.

M.A.R.

I haven't studied the more detailed version of this, but from what I know, there is an important "leaking" effect in CNS. For example, the reason some people get sinus arrhythmia during, for example, intense periods of exercise is some of the signal in the vasomotor system leak to lower medulla oblongata, affecting the parts that regulate heart rate.

@Cerberus A kidney transplant vs., other organs, especially heart

Matt E. Эллен

15:13

@Robusto hate me if I'm fat, hate me if I eat all the food. I can't win

M.A.R.

@Cerberus the ultimate purpose of all transplant medication is either prevention of infection or immunosuppression. After a year or so, we only take immunosuppressive drugs, lower doses, but essential for preventing acute rejection for the rest of our lives.

Cerberus

@M.A.R. CNS?

@M.A.R. Ah, OK, that makes some sense.

@M.A.R. That, too, makes sense.

M.A.R.

The problem here, and the reason for my rant, is these drugs 1) increase appetite 2) Increase ghrelin levels 3) Increase fat storage by other means 4) reduce basal metabolism rate 5) increase bone tissue degeneration, which decreases basal metabolic rate 6) Increase fast blood sugar etc.

@Cerberus central nervous system

Specifically grey matter

Cerberus

@M.A.R. OK that sucks.

Robusto

Yeah, it does suck.

M.A.R.

15:18

I need to lose around 20 pounds (used to be 15, I'm inclined to think I gained back some muscle mass from before dialysis times) and my levels of activity should have done it if it wasn't for the medication

Robusto

@M.A.R. Can you exercise?

M.A.R.

@Robusto Easy running, 7 mins per kilometer, 40 or so kilometers a week.

Some supplementary push ups, burpees, squats etc.

Yet nothing changes. Absolutely zero change. Been two months. Not a single pound.

Robusto

You can't up the pace and duration?

Gradually, I mean.

M.A.R.

Duration probably not, I once tried to increase pace but suddenly burnt out last time

What's the grading system of each university term/semester there? Is it out of 100?

Cerberus

We only have grades per class.

From 0 to 10.

You don't get a grade for a semester.

Robusto

15:28

@M.A.R. In the US you usually have a 4-point grade system per class. Some have a 5-point system.

M.A.R.

@Cerberus huh. Probably a healthier, less score-oriented system

@Robusto isn't that just for SAT?

Good to know

Cerberus

@M.A.R. I didn't know you got a grade for a semester in other places.

Robusto

@M.A.R. No. SAT is a 2400-point system, 800 for each of three disciplines: verbal, math, and writing.

At least it was when I last took it.

Cerberus

I suppose we do get an average for the entire degree, but it is of little importance.

Robusto

The GRE is the same.

M.A.R.

15:33

Our SAT has Persian literature, Arabic grammar, English, theology, geology, math, physics, biology and chemistry. I dunno how many disciplines that is

Wiki:Konkour

Uh

Wikipedia:Konkour

Robusto

Well, there are subject tests for the GRE, but those are extra.

M.A.R.

How did the magic thing work again?

Robusto

Magic thing?

M.A.R.

wiki:konkour

Robusto

Dunno.

M.A.R.

15:34

It's supposed to convert to a Wikipedia page. Nevermind

Robusto

I just copy the url of the page and paste it in here.

M.A.R.

Iranian University Entrance Exam

The Iranian University Entrance Exam, simply known as Konkour (Persian: کنکور; from the French Concours), is a standardized test used as one of the means to gain admission to higher education in Iran. Generally, to get a Ph.D. in non-medical majors, there are three exams, all of them called Konkour. In recent years there was a parliament bill to gradually eliminate this university entrance exam in Iran. == Nationwide == In June each year, high school graduates in Iran take a stringent, centralized nationwide university entrance exam seeking a place in one of the public universities. The...

Robusto

Voilá.

M.A.R.

That image is so black and white it throws us back 100 years

This parliament bill to get rid of Konkur is at least a decade old

Anyway, ours is out of 20.

Konkur is out of . . . I dunno. There are 270 questions, and four hours and half to answer them. 600000 people take the exam, fewer than 10000 people get what they want. The rest either study in a field they don't like, or try again next year.

Robusto

When I took the GRE I scored in the 99th percentile in verbal skills, and only the 75th in math. But if you didn't have a perfect score (800/800) in math the next percentile was 86!

M.A.R.

15:40

JEE in India is apparently worse in its selection. 3000 I think out of 1.2 million

Robusto

My 75th percentile score was enough for me to be above the mean for all engineering students going on to grad school.

M.A.R.

@Robusto In ours, biology is like that. Other topics are as difficult as they can be, to be sure. A selection of 5000 for prestigious medical fields out of 600000 is no easy task

Robusto

Heh, I think you must have dropped a digit there somewhere. Or added one somewhere else.

5000/600000? Really?

M.A.R.

Honestly, I never really cared much for the reasons people enumerate for Iran's first place for brain drain. Democracy and freedom are intangible, not much better everywhere outside Iran (e.g. China is worse). But terrible education is something I've personally dealt with the effects of

@Robusto There are about 10 prestigious universities, three prestigious medical fields (medicinal doctorate, pharmacy, dentistry, and to a much lesser extent, nursery), fewer than 300 available positions for the three field each semester. When you do the math, it doesn't seem at all considerable compared to 600000 konkur applications

Robusto

Oh, now I see what you're saying.

CowperKettle

17:08

> In November 1693, Charles issued a Royal Decree, providing sanctuary in Spanish Florida for escaped slaves from the British colony of South Carolina. The policy was formalised in 1733 by his successor Philip V, and led to the founding in 1738 of Santa Teresa de Mose, the first legally sanctioned free black town in the present-day United States.

Interesting.

Fort Mose Historic State Park

Fort Mose Historic State Park (originally known as Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose) is a U.S. National Historic Landmark (designated as such on October 12, 1994), located two miles north of St. Augustine, Florida, on the edge of a salt marsh on the western side of the waterway separating the mainland from the coastal barrier islands. The original site of the 18th-century fort was uncovered in a 1986 archeological dig. The 24-acre (9.7 ha) site is now protected as a Florida State Park, administered through the Anastasia State Recreation Area. Fort Mose is the "premier site on the Florida Black...

19 km run

CowperKettle

18:46

So human breathing, about 4 sec/breath, is a microwatt? Sustained sneezing is about as fast. Gophers breathe 3x faster, but their lungs are 300x smaller. So one steadily sneezing gopher yields 10 nanowatts. A 747 launch needs 90 megawatts, or 900 quadrillion sneezing gophers, covering a square about a thousand miles on a side. — Camille Goudeseune 2 days ago

Word of the midnight: tonneau cover

Robusto

20:17

@CowperKettle You put one of those on top of your pickup truck bed.

Xanne

21:08

Big Blue crane collapse at Miller Park

►

Here's a clip of the mother of all crane accidents.

Cerberus

@Xanne Ouch...

Near you?

Robusto

@Cerberus That was in Milwaukee. She's in the San Francisco area.

Xanne

21:30

@Cerberus No, Minneapolis, when the open-shut dome was being built. Construction accidents do happen, and in the U.S. somewhat fewer than 100 people a year are killed in crane accidents, which are due to wind, things falling on people below, operator error, failure to install all the bolts, torqued loads, etc.

Oh, Milwaukee, yeah. There are you-tube compilations. The red/white crane accident is slow; then it just falls over. Someone says "Not a good day."

Cerberus

Not good indeed.

Vuurwerkramp enschede Beelden Explosie

►

This is what happens when you build a fireworks factory close to a residential neighbourhood.

Worth watching until the end of the live footage.

2 minutes or so.

Xanne

It reminds me of Beirut. People forget, they are casual; they are not all criminal.

Although I bet the pilot of the Japanese tanker that went aground off Mauritius has been fired.

Robusto

@Cerberus It looks like a bombed-out city in WWII.

Cerberus

@Robusto Yeah, exactly.

@Xanne Yeah, it's similar. Except that this happened in a well managed country that could have easily avoided this.

Of course the Libanese exlosion was much worse.

Robusto

This is why we have zoning.

Cerberus

21:41

Yeah, it should not have been there.

There had been warnings and complaints.

But...

Robusto

That's the kind of thing you hear about happening in India or China. China especially.

Maxim Vengerov: Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 (1990)

►

@RegDwigнt ^

You could play like that at 16, right?

M.A.R.

22:29

The internet seems to be brimming with free online English fluency tests. Do you have any you'd recommend?

Robusto

23:48

@M.A.R. I certainly don't. And not only that, but you seem pretty fluent already, at least in writing.

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