English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Perhaps this is a bit too pessimistic?

12:54 AM

Mark my words.

If they strongarm this and hence the election too, well, if you thought you saw protests before, you haven't seen anything yet. Anything.

You're assuming the judges Trump appointed are against democracy?

It doesn't work that way.

Look at the decisions.

They're conservatives, but are they also without a conscience?

@Cerberus That is the definition of conservative these days.

Perhaps not all.

12:58 AM

It isn't just recently. They started tearing it apart when they overruled the Voting Rights Act and when they let in unlimited anonymous money to political races.

That was in a while ago, like 2012.

And our current Chief Justice has been one the chief supporters of anti-democratic voting suppression.

Remember Bush v. Gore? That's coming around again.

Mommy, I don't like this movie. I wanna go home.

@Robusto Yep, and with the shoehorned fake justice.

vox.com/21211880/…

Anything is possible now. I mean it.

How can things just keep getting worse?

This is just the worst.

This isn't just bad for the US, @Cerb, it's bad for the planet. We had a shred of hope left about climate change, but this kills it.

I think maybe you're being a tad pessimistic about how this will change the election results.

The gerrymandering and campaign stuff has been there for a long while now.

He's a cheater. He'll use this to cheat again, twice and then some.

1:09 AM

How?

First he'll shoehorn a pet Justice into her seat.

One who promises to do side with him when he contests the election.

And that's that.

Don't you think the Republican Party will want him to appoint someone who respects democracy and the rule of law, at least at the level of the current conservatice justices?

Are you on drugs?

Look at the last dildo.

@Cerberus Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

What did he do?

1:11 AM

Committed perjury, amongst many other things.

He isn't interested in the law.

The abortion stuff.

Don't you think those things are several steps below declaring Trump victor when the votes and the electoral colleges clearly elect Biden?

Watch. Learn. Weep.

> And nothing is left but comic ugliness
or lustred nothingness.

Are you happy that Trump and the Republicans didn't repeal Obamacare?

@Cerberus It wasn't for want of trying. And it's still not settled.

1:16 AM

I'm happy if you aren't.

Well, I'm happy it hasn't happened yet. But it's the happiness of the man who falls off a building and halfway down someone asks him how he's doing. He replies, "All right so far."

                     The genius of misfortune
Is not a sentimentalist.

More than fifty thousand new covid cases today here. Two hundred thousand dead already in this country alone. You can't avert that lumbering battleship from its appointed course now.

Vaccines seem to be on course?

He's wrecked the CDC. He's deliberately sent out directions that are designed to make more people get infected under the "herd immunity" bullshit. That's the silent and official policy. Just them it burn through us. We'd be lucky to get out of that without millions dying. Millions.

Most people won't be able to get a vaccine in the next twelve months.

Perhaps the weak will all be vaccinated in a few months from now.

1:22 AM

A year, minimum, and just for that.

@tchrist What he calls "herd mentality" ...

That's not what I heard?

They hope to start that by April.

They say the vaccination itself can be done fairly quickly, using existing procedures for the flu.

For "the weak".

Um.

> Fauci: We'll likely be wearing masks for most of 2021, even after a vaccine rolls out.

1:25 AM

EMA said just ten days ago that a vaccine could be approved before the end of the year, if we're lucky.

That's three months. Then we need some more time for distribution and vaccination.

Production is already underway, but that, too, may take some extra time.

Of course a worse-case scenario would take longer for everything.

@tchrist We had an experiment with masks here, for a month or so.

But the city stopped it, because it seemed to have no effect on people's behaviour (keeping their distance etc.).

Three months will see another hundred thousand more American deaths, and many times more than that with lasting, often permanent after-effects.

And the effect on preventing infections is deemed to be very small.

If they won't behave, arrest them.

@tchrist That is of course terrible.

@tchrist The police didn't even have the capacity to fine everyone in the tiny area in which masks were compulsory.

If they're in school, expel them from the institution for life. And keep their money.

1:30 AM

But the first wave (March-May) was broken without masks except in public transportation (where compliance is very high).

I just hope the alcoholic's prayer is true: "This too shall pass."

WHAT FIRST WAVE?!

We're still in it. And it's growing.

Large parts of your country are apparently still in the first wave.

"Broken" my ass.

But surely other parts are past it now?

1:31 AM

@Cerberus You tell me.

Those are the worst places over time. Do they look "past it" to you?

And the states where it's rising fastest are in the middle of the country.

We cannot have people in any congregate setting. That includes schools, colleges, bars, stadiums.

People hospitalised in the Netherlands, by day of admittance.

Perhaps you underestimate the severity of our situation.

It started much later in your country.

And I know the situation is more serious that it was here.

It's never gone down. We fucked up.

Because people here are too stupid, too selfish, and too impatient.

But mostly, because of the current regime.

I think New York got past its first wave?

1:41 AM

@Cerberus Yes, they seem to have settled down into around a thousand new cases a day.

Right.

And the number of hospitalisations and deaths?

They should be similar?

@tchrist Weird, that page gives me an OOM error.

That's not over it. That's a continuing level of community spread.

@Robusto Hate that.

@Robusto It loads for me.

I have 32 GB of RAM and it's giving me an OOM error?

1:43 AM

I presume theirs not yours, or is it your browser that's stuffed?

Seems unlikely.

Some bitcoin miner from a bad ad?

I block advertisements and most Javascript.

I'm only using 11.8 GB currently.

Processes: 574 total, 2 running, 572 sleeping, 3034 threads                                                                       19:43:54
Load Avg: 1.92, 1.80, 1.79  CPU usage: 4.26% user, 11.49% sys, 84.23% idle  SharedLibs: 230M resident, 67M data, 41M linkedit.
MemRegions: 353662 total, 5753M resident, 108M private, 1418M shared. PhysMem: 16G used (3972M wired), 58M unused.
VM: 2906G vsize, 1373M framework vsize, 61066898(0) swapins, 65098176(0) swapouts. Networks: packets: 87495265/60G in, 109800567/30G out.

Should be a good 20 GB left.

That's mine, at half your physmem.

Run top and see what it says.

1:44 AM

And yet your browser is telling you it or your computer is out of memory?

Ha, on reload it came up instantly.

I guess it felt shame.

Okay yay. I've had problems sometimes at first loading that page from Android, but not from Darwin.

I'm on Windows.

So yeah.

You are so fucked.

Which browser?

1:46 AM

I'm running Chrome at the moment.

Brave. Chrome clone.

And is it it he 64-bit version?

...

I Firefox.

Of course.

1:47 AM

Safari and Firefox are my "backup browsers".

There are things you simply must do only on Safari for keyring issues. I hate that.

I think I had the 32-bit version installed at first, and it did run out of memory and performed odd tricks.

Why not use Firefox as your main browser?

It cares about your privacy.

And it gives you the most freedom.

There's some equivalent systools for Windows that shows you top-like output.

Sysinternals.

Yeah, but I can't recall them at the moment. I used to use those all the time, but I'm retired now, remember?

procmon, maybe. Been a very very long time since I spun up the VMWare image.

I always used Cygwin.

1:51 AM

Process Explorer

Process Explorer is a freeware task manager and system monitor for Microsoft Windows created by SysInternals, which has been acquired by Microsoft and re-branded as Windows Sysinternals. It provides the functionality of Windows Task Manager along with a rich set of features for collecting information about processes running on the user's system. It can be used as the first step in debugging software or system problems. Process Explorer can be used to track down problems. For example, it provides a means to list or search for named resources that are held by a process or all processes. This can...

@Robusto Yeah, you and me both. Even from within the fucking VMWare box.

Yep.

I'm using a lot a hard language tonight, much more than normal. My ire burns.

Yeah. I feel hopeless.

> Quantus tremor est futurus

I bet you don't need to know anything Latin to read that one. :/

Nope.

1:55 AM

> ¡Cuánto terror habrá en el futuro!

Sí.

Were you in Walworth County, WI?

@Cerberus The worst is yet to unfold. It won't be long now though.

@Robusto Yes, the one that's glowing now.

I was going to say.

The fibs have been flooding us.

Doing their summery crowding.

Fibs?

@Cerberus I use Firefox as my secondary browser. It's always open.

1:59 AM

@Robusto badgerherald.com/artsetc/2012/01/19/rivals-on-all-border

@tchrist Perhaps.

@Robusto Why not primary?

@Cerberus I like the things Brave does for privacy. More than Firefox, apparently.

I always use Duck Duck Go search as well, unless I really need to find something, and then I use Google.

What things?

I still vacillate between Firefox and Kiwi on my new phone.

@tchrist OIC. In Boston we were Massholes.

@Cerberus What do you think of this tool?

@Robusto I don't know it, but I do know that CCleaner has a bad reputation for including some kind of badware.

2:04 AM

@Robusto Not even a wan one at least for now.

@Cerberus I don't know why it does. It got labeled erroneously as bloatware, apparently, because some manufacturers (?) put the free version onto their offerings.

Wan is a curious word. It's never pronounced with the TRAP vowel.

CCleaner

CCleaner (, originally Crap Cleaner), developed by Piriform (a company acquired by Avast in 2017), is a utility used to clean potentially unwanted files and invalid Windows Registry entries from a computer. It is one of the longest-established system cleaners, first launched in 2004. It was originally developed for Microsoft Windows only, but in 2012, a macOS version was released. CCleaner has been reviewed by Chip.de, TechRadar, PC Magazine, and TechRepublic. == Features == CCleaner can delete potentially unwanted files left by certain programs, including Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox...

@tchrist True. I guess that goes right back to infancy: waaaah!

Some data collection and malware.

2:06 AM

"This attempt was unsuccessful."

So, yeah. I guess anything can be a vector.

Do you use an antivirus?

Just Windows Defender.

@Robusto Acyclovir?

Haha.

On my XP, which hadn't been updated since maybe 2011, I never used any anti-virus software.

@Cerberus I've been using ESET antivirus and web protection. So far no complaints.

2:08 AM

ESET has a good reputation.

So about Kamo: I don't know it. The page doesn't explain anything.

I know. I've used it since, like, 2008?

It seems aimed at laymen.

Aaaaand McConnell has just now tonight said he is going to push through RBG's replacement ASAP in the Senate. Whyever the fuck might he do that, eh? I TOLD YOU.

@Cerberus Yeah. I've looked for reviews on it and there's nothing.

I remain sceptical.

2:09 AM

@tchrist Of course.

@tchrist How respectful.

@Cerberus These orcs are evil. Haven't you figured this out yet?

Well, that's it for me tonight, folks. Have a good evening. I'm going to see if I can take enough drugs to let me sleep tonight. I'll need them.

Sayonara.

Hasta el alba.

@tchrist Yeah.

@Robusto Good luck.

Captain Bohemian

3:15 AM

the gender inequality stars significantly from marriage - marriage taxes a woman a heavy burden of work while helping a man greatly.

ancient emperors always have a lot of wives because the more wives an emperor had, the more aid he had.

the current president has no husband at all because husband can only bring burden to her.

Captain Bohemian

3:29 AM

that the government encourages breeding by advocating marriage is really not favorable

because marriage isn't really a device to have children

breeding needs incubators

marriage is such a boring regulation which binds a man and a woman together forever just for breeding.

it's better there are factories which are responsible for incubating babies.

Captain Bohemian

4:34 AM

so hungry now

obscene men are most despicable animals in this world.

Faheem Mitha

6:42 AM

@tchrist I just learned that Ginsberg died. Commiserations.

3

skullpatrol

7:47 AM

RIP

skullpatrol

7:57 AM

Just days before her death, Ruth Bader Ginsburg told her granddaughter that her "most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,"

:-(

8:22 AM

> The data were remarkably consistent: All species experienced a dramatic decline in REM sleep when they reached the human developmental equivalent of about 2-and-half years of age. The fraction of time spent in REM sleep before and after that point was roughly the same, whether the researchers studied rabbits, rats, pigs or humans.

medicalxpress.com/news/…

"students list" or "student list"?

8:34 AM

@Wes student list

just to be clear, i meant it as "list of students"

SmokeDetector

9:10 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Potentially bad keyword in answer, potentially bad keyword in username, potentially problematic ns configuration in answer, username similar to website in answer (66): "Technology" vs. "a technology" by Newsronic on english.SE

M.A.R.

9:33 AM

@Wes both should work I think

10:39 AM

thanks

11:09 AM

In 1914, 73% of Russian WWI recruits could read and write.

11:36 AM

I downloaded a long audiobook on Russian Revolution in English.

A nice book but some statements are hard to believe.

12:10 PM

Word of the day: gun cotton

Turns out it was very dangerous, and people made films from it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Clinic_fire_of_1929

12:28 PM

12:41 PM

1740: Britannia rules the waves.
2020: Britannia waives the rules.

12:55 PM

@CowperKettle I would bet that's from all the RP influence from television.

@CowperKettle That as close to London.

Seattle windshield pitting epidemic

1:36 PM

The Seattle windshield pitting epidemic is a phenomenon which affected Bellingham, Seattle, and other communities of Washington state in April, 1954; it is considered an example of a mass delusion. It was characterized by widespread observation of previously unnoticed windshield holes, pits and dings, leading residents to believe that a common causative agent was at work. It was originally thought to be the work of vandals but the rate of pitting was so great that residents began to attribute it to everything from sand flea eggs to nuclear bomb testing. Originating in Bellingham in March, police...

@CowperKettle Who's to say speech impediments are not contagious? Not I.

2:43 PM

> Books by Total Number of Checkouts from the New York Public Library since 1895

The Snowy Day seems a nice book, nice illustrations.

G Warner

3:16 PM

@Robusto Roll up?. ELP is a little ahead of my time but I am sure it refers to the act of rolling a marijuana cigarette.

G Warner

3:28 PM

Too much time on my hands right now so I will admit I looked up the the Chinese in @cornbreadninja麵包忍者

RegDwigнt

3:47 PM

@Robusto so what you're really saying is, that's totally the song Jesus actually used to wake himself up from the dead.

Hot damn, I never realized it was this simple.

Should've listened to Einstein. "Make everything as simple as possible."

> I’ve just found an old school report where my maths teacher described me as average. How mean is that?

4:30 PM

Chadwick Boseman

Chadwick Aaron Boseman (November 29, 1976 – August 28, 2020) was an American actor, director and producer. After studying directing at Howard University, he landed his first major role as a series regular on Persons Unknown (2010). Boseman's breakthrough performance came as baseball player Jackie Robinson in the biographical film 42 (2013). He continued to portray historical figures, starring in Get on Up (2014) as singer James Brown and Marshall (2017) as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Boseman achieved international fame for playing superhero Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe...

I looked up the most viewed pages in Wikipedia, and discovered this.

He caught cancer at the age of 39. A very early case.

4:54 PM

what's surprising about that?

that sounded a bit aggressive, i meant that his premature death shook the internet and it's no surprise. marvel movies are very popular, and he was very important for the black community.

@Robusto So I'm up in the shower when I hear someone play G4 downstairs on the piano. This was troubling because there was nobody else in the house but the doors were all standing wide open. Receiving no answer to "Who's there?" I put myself together quickly and investigated. Kitty Lorin was curled up on the piano bench in the morning sun.

6:24 PM

> My grandpa just broke a second car in a single week

7:40 PM

@tchrist Cats do that to you. Mine like to do that when they get into my office and the keyboard is on and open. Only no single notes. Just a traipsing up or down.

♪ Smoke on the suuuuuunrise ♫ The fire in the sky ♪

7:56 PM

Not a happy tune, actually.