English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

00:47

Speed of light in real time.

Robusto

01:20

> The Department of Health on Tuesday reported X additional deaths in New Mexico related to COVID-19

tchrist

@Robusto 0x0A?

Robusto

Seriously? You couldn't be bothered to count the list items that followed?

@tchrist 0x1B

Cerberus

@tchrist I...should rather keep out of it.

There are some errors in that answer, but, who knows, they could be mediaeval oddities.

tchrist

@Cerberus heh

Robusto

01:36

Cerberus

Almost.

I've been out book-binding.

Robusto

You were certainly out-bookbinding me.

Cerberus

If you work through the night, perhaps you'll catch up.

But the booklet is actually finished, it's currently drying at my colleague's work room.

I haven't taken a picture of the end result yet.

Robusto

Post it when you do.

Cerberus

02:04

I will!

He bought a complete set of book-binding equipment and materials from an old woman some time ago.

Including some lovely patterned paper, which she may have made herself.

I used that on the cover.

The back is fish leather.

tchrist

9

A: ¿Cuál es la finalidad de la medalla "Disciplinado"?

Persona 0: ¿La tierra es plana o redonda? Persona 1: ¡La tierra es plana! Persona 2: Llevas razón, +1 Persona 3: Gran verdad, +1 Persona 4: Me he emocionado al leer tus palabras, +1 Persona 5: ¿Pero sois todos idiotas? La tierra es redonda. Aquí mis fuentes: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tierra_e...

Mitch

@Cerberus ??

Fish skin you can do that with?

Cerberus

@Mitch Don't question me, Eddie!

Yes, you can.

Mitch

Like goldfish?

Cerberus

His friend got some skins from the fishmonger around the corner from my house, actually.

And this friend tanned them himself.

No, edible fish.

I forgot which fish it was.

Maybe salmon or tuna.

I always assumed leather which looks like that was reptile leather (snake?), when I saw it in objects like books.

Mitch

02:15

Eel?

Smelt?

Cerberus

Certainly not eel, different shape.

I think it's a fairly small fish, probably less than half a metre long.

tchrist

@Mitch The incredible Mister Limpet.

Mitch

You can get good strips of the skin

tchrist

Shameless hussy.

Mitch

Like ermine and sable

Cerberus

02:18

@Mitch I've looked it up: too small.

That is, Wikipaedia says a common spiering is up to 30 cm long.

Mitch

Neon tetras?

Cerberus

Smelt = spiering.

Mitch

Whale shark?

Oh. Duh. Shark leather

Their skin is thick

Cerberus

Not shark.

The skin looks like reptile skin.

It had scales before they were removed.

I'll show you soon.

It's brown.

Mitch

Sea snakes?

Cerberus

02:20

Does your local fishmonger sell those?

Mitch

My local fishmonger?

I'll have to ask

Maybe under the counter

Cerberus

Oh, dear.

Where he keeps the coelacanths and the axolotls?

Next to the baby dinosaurs?

Mitch

That would make good leather

Scales on or off?

Cerberus

02:45

@Mitch Hmm I don't even know which dinosaurs have scales.

tchrist

03:00

The musical ones.

Mitch

@Cerberus I think they didn't. Maybe feathers but not scales

Cerberus

I don't really know!

Mitch

I think I changed what I was talking about. Is the fish leather for the book with scales or withiut?

Cerberus

The scales were removed in the tanning process.

Mitch

takes notes

Do you eat the fish first or save it for later?

Cerberus

03:19

@Mitch Good question!

I only know they got the skins from my fishmonger.

Well, "my": there is actually another one in my very street.

The one they got the skins from is at the square at end of my street.

I don't think they bought that much fish, though.

They probably just asked for some skins.

Mitch

I broke down and googled for it.

philobiblon.com/bindorama20

mostly salmon

some trout, some sole

I can see salmon skin being strong enough

In a different turn...

If I were the one to design life...

and I'm not saying I haven't been approached for that task...

but if I were the one to design life...

Cerberus

@Mitch Nice.

Mitch

I kind think maybe I'd think of chlorophyll

Cerberus

It could be salmon; it looks much like the brown skins on that page.

Mitch

some kind of way to convert sunlight into bioenergy

Cerberus

03:27

It smells of leather.

@Mitch Hurray.

Mitch

and maybe I would think of of death and sex (but those are pretty wild when you think of it)...

Cerberus

Couldn't you have thought of photovoltaics?

Mitch

but the thing I don't think I would have ever imagined is...

Cerberus

SE?

Mitch

one life form eating another one.

that just seems crazy

Cerberus

03:28

It's inevitable, really.

Mitch

like -why-?

Cerberus

Because it's cheating.

Mitch

I wouldn't have figured that that would be a thing to do.

like you'd naturally want to avoid doing that.

you might end up eating a ot of your own kind

Cerberus

Because you're a cow?

Mitch

I'm not saying I am a cow.

Maybe I'm thiniking of cows

you know being empathetic

Are you calling me a cow?

I can imagine being a cow like anybody else

Cerberus

03:32

Yes, I am.

We can see it.

Mitch

I mean it's not an insult, not an insult to me.

Maybe you mean it as an insult

but I dont recognize it as such

cows are perfectly fine

for what they are

Cerberus

Why would I mean it as an insult?

I just say what I see.

Mitch

I don't know. some people might think it is an insult

I mean I've heard 'big fat cow'

It doesn't sound like it was intended as a compliment.

maybe it was

but

it didn't sound like it

one cow to another

Cerberus

You are a big cow.

Mitch

I am surrounded by cows

Cerberus

03:35

Unless you're a mini-bison?

Mitch

@Cerberus and fat in a very healthy degree

very healthy degree

Cerberus

Good.

Mitch

@Cerberus What? Oh, that's just a picture.

Cow's are certainly big though

but have you been next to an elephant?

They are chonky

chonk city

like a car but

like a car that can step on you

Cerberus

@Mitch Nah-uh.

Mitch

It is a picrure, that's for sure

Cerberus

03:38

Elephants are bigger than greengrocer's.

Mitch

you mean the actual grocer? or the grocer's shop?

Cerberus

@Mitch I meant to refer to your apostrophe in cow's are...

Mitch

04:04

@Cerberus oh haha

which is the English version of ooh la la

Cerberus

<mean smirks>

Smirk

A smirk is a smile evoking insolence, scorn, or offensive smugness, falling into the category of what Desmond Morris described as Deformed-compliment Signals.A smirk may also be an affected, ingratiating smile, as in Mr Bennet's description of Mr Wickham as making smirking love to all his new in-laws in the novel Pride and Prejudice. == Etymology == The word derives from Old English smearcian, via Middle English smirken. It is from the same root as smile, from Proto-Germanic *smar-, but with a velar root extension -k- (with intensive or frequentative function) particular to English also found in...

I actually like the Wiki description.

Mitch

I never understood why it's 'La Gioconda'. It's not even a smirk

And it's not a likeness of a face, it's a painted creation. and he jsut sort of painted it that way, not because the model was smiling.

no one could smile that long

your face would give out in a couple minutes

@Mitch which is the French version of too ra loo ra loo ra

@Mitch which is the Irish version of 'la la la, la la la laaaa'

Cerberus

@Mitch You do know it is simply her (family) name?

@Mitch Perhaps he first painted a quick smile on her face.

Mitch

@Mitch which is Elmo's version of 'lolz'

@Mitch which is a cat's version of oh haha

@Cerberus Like the clown that she is

@Cerberus that's unlikely.

but maybe it's the village where she grew up?

Cerberus

But but Wikipaedia says her husband's name was Giocondo?

Mitch

04:15

It should be changed back

Cerberus

Lisa del Giocondo

Lisa del Giocondo (Italian pronunciation: [ˈliːza del dʒoˈkondo]; née Gherardini [ɡerarˈdiːni]; 15 June 1479 – 15 July 1542) was an Italian noblewoman and member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany. Her name was given to the Mona Lisa, her portrait commissioned by her husband and painted by Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance. Little is known about Lisa's life. Born in Florence and married in her teens to a cloth and silk merchant who later became a local official, she was a mother to five children and led what is thought to have been a comfortable and ordinary middle...

I don't know.

Mitch

@Cerberus huh

maybe that's true

It sounds made up

But for the record, seeing that picture right now, it definitely does not look anything like a smile.

Cerberus

Perhaps someone forgot to remove an April Fool's gioca; who knows?

tchrist

04:40

@Mitch these ones

Good ol' U. jubatus. No jokes please.

user 6232128

Winterbash 2020 Hat list 👒 🎩

3

Cerberus

@tchrist Odd.

Those stiff, straight appendages don't look much like ribbons?

SmokeDetector

06:50

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad ip for hostname in body, bad keyword in body, bad keyword in title, blacklisted website in body, link at beginning of body, +2 more (532): 8 Facts Everyone Should Know About Canadian Extracts Hemp Oil by GainesJoy on english.SE

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad ip for hostname in body, bad keyword in body, bad keyword in title, link at beginning of body, pattern-matching website in body, +1 more (433): 8 Facts Everyone Should Know About Canadian Extracts Hemp Oil by GainesJoy on english.SE

CowperKettle

07:13

Faheem Mitha

07:34

Welcome to the Indian police state. Literally: thewire.in/agriculture/…

2

Even I was a little taken aback when I read about this.

For context, Gujarat is the home state of the Fascist Idiot in Chief.

M.A.R.

09:31

@CowperKettle "I don't like guns. Guns are too . . . quick. You don't have time for all the little . . . emotions"

Matt E. Эллен

@CowperKettle lol @ indigestion

Conrado

11:15

@MattE.Эллен However, there is a slice at about 8 o'clock (~4π/3) that is not labeled. It is the same color as "Baked into pie".

Matt E. Эллен

@Conrado the uncategorised deaths! perhaps too horrific to reveal

M.A.R.

11:27

Covid

CowperKettle

11:42

CowperKettle

12:20

2

parvin

hi

I have this sentens and i'm sure it's incorrect!

"This certificate is presented to Ms. Y on April 25, 2019,
Winning the first place team in the Firefighter Robot section of the fourth robotics competition of X University"

is there any way I can make it correct?!

Or maybe this one

This certificate is presented to Ms. Y on April 25, 2019,
as a member of the first-place team in the Firefighter Robot section of the fourth robotics competition of the X univeristy

Faheem Mitha

@parvin This certificate was presented to Ms. Y on April 25, 2019

would be more normal/standard. Since 2019 is in the past.

parvin

Thanks

CowperKettle

12:40

Numbers and percentages of people with anti-covid antibodies in Yekaterinburg, daily figures; from a network of commercially-operated testing stations. The people tested are paying volunteers curious to know their covid antibody status.
Can anything be deduced from these figures, or are they too biased to be used as any kind of indicator?

The network of testing stations tests for all kinds of parameters such complete blood count, urynalysis, hormones, anything you are wishing to pay for.

Our local media have published a news report saying "50% of Yekaterinburg citizens have an immunity to covid", but I'm very sceptical. I think that people who are willing to pay in their own cash must have some strong grounds for testing and thus the sample must be biased.

Færd

12:53

It's funny when the same word has two opposite senses. Like sanction, meaning approve and punish.

Matt E. Эллен

I sanction this sanction

Faheem Mitha

@Færd Funny ha-ha or funny peculiar?

Mitch

14:08

@tchrist stifles joke

Whæt! It's a Speardane!

@FaheemMitha Yes.

CowperKettle

14:45

2

CowperKettle

15:46

UK has vaccinated 138 000 persons since the start of vaccination a week ago.

Not much but it's a start.

Conrado

@CowperKettle Shakespeare and 137 999 more!

CowperKettle

16:37

Robusto

17:17

@RegDwigнt: OK, I've watched the entire video by Shaun on the use of nukes in WWII. I think he makes some excellent points, and it's good that he includes the absolute callousness of Japan's leadership. I agree with him on many things. But I don't accept his final conclusion, which is IMO too small and too narrowly circumscribed. He doesn't get all the way to my point about war, which is that war itself is the true evil. Once war is on the table it has its own logic and its own rules.
Shaun hints at this when he talks about nobody really giving the orders to drop the bomb; the rough beast h…

Cerberus

@Robusto I agree.

Morally, a bombing is a bombing.

Robusto

Yes.

Murder is still murder, however small the scale.

Robusto

17:32

Joe Biden’s Biggest Challenge

►

CowperKettle

Word of the day: theria, a subclass of mammals. Cognate with Russian zveri via a common Indoeuropean root

Cerberus

17:53

@Robusto Yes, but the scale is also similar in this case, isn't it?

Robusto

19:38

@Cerberus Perhaps, although it is hard to put anything else in the same scale as nuclear weapons. For immediate gross and wanton destruction they are in a class by themselves. To put it into perspective, a train carrying high explosives would have to be 500 km long to equal the destructive power of a single one-megaton weapon. The Japan nukes were smaller, but the same train would still be ~16 km long—longer than any modern freight trains by a wide margin.

Cerberus

@Robusto Sure.

But as used in the War, compared with the other types of bombing.

Robusto

Some bombing raids rivaled their destruction, yes.

Cerberus

19:56

Exactly.

But, in a new, total war, atomics could cause far more destruction than conventional weapons.

Robusto

There are few military targets that would require a nuclear weapon to destroy. Nukes are the ultimate terror weapons, since the only targets that seem to merit them are cities.

Mitch

@Robusto There's the MOAB which is conventional explosive that has the immediate destructive power of some kind of nuclear bomb

but nuclear has so many extra awfulness to it with long term effects (radiation sickness and cancer) and long range effects (fallout drifting in weather patterns) and EMP destroying electronics.

But it's not like I'm advocating one over the other

Robusto

20:13

@Mitch From Wikipedia: "Blast yield 11 tons TNT (46 GJ)" ... which makes it not even 1/1000 the yield of the "baby" Hiroshima bomb.

Mitch

any use against non-combatants should be ... well, if it's not allowed, who is enforcing the 'not allowing'

Robusto

Nobody. That's the point.

Mitch

@Robusto OK. Sure. facts.

but it can kill a lot of people with one use?

Are we convincing ourselves that war is probably not a great thing?

Robusto

I sure hope so.

Mitch

Grand Theft Auto and those zombie games are an outlet.

Watching Fox news is an outlet

Except isn't Fox News getting canceled by the right?

I mean the Great British Baking Show can be pretty brutal.

You can tell that when someone is kicked off the show, and everybody hugs at the end and sometimes an eye a little extra moist, and then someone looks just a tiny bit sideways.

Daggers

Don't meet them in a dark alley way late at night

look over your shoulder

when you don't think they're giving you a second thought, when you've forgotten all about them, that's when their plan is put in motion

What I'm saying is British cooking shows are just like full nuclear exchange

Robusto

20:31

Feb 7 '11 at 15:29, by Robusto

In heaven, the cooks are French, the engineers are German, and the police are English. In hell, the cooks are English, the engineers are French, and the police are German.

This is not accurate to six decimal places, of course. Do not use except for humorous purposes.

Mitch

... moms are Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss.

What would Russians get to do in heaven? rocket scientists?

Cerberus

20:55

Canada could have had French cuisine, British humour, and American work ethic.

Is how I know the joke.

("Know" is relative: I'm making things up as I might have heard them.)

Robusto

21:23

How Did Beethoven Hear Music?

►

Robusto

21:41

So my state's department of health website has a menu that lists "Categories." These are: Alerts, Awareness, Celebrations, Diseases, Healthy Living, Information, Safety, Vaccinations (boldface my own). My question: What are those other categories? Don't they contain information? Or is information confined only to that category?

Cerberus

Yeah, that is somewhat incomprehensible.

Perhaps they mean, "Other"?

Robusto

Who knows?

People are incompetent, especially in communication.

4

They announced today that there are now three categories for coronavirus risk in counties: red (the worst), yellow, and green (the best). But nowhere on the site do they say what counties are what color.

So that information is utterly useless. Like stopping your car to ask a passerby where you are, and they say "You're in a car."

Cerberus

Bleh.

Johan Larsson

22:21

@Cerberus do you know what is going on in belgium?

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson No?

What is?

Johan Larsson

the covid numbers, they are 2x the neighbors

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson Th deaths, you mean?

Johan Larsson

yes

Cerberus

Yes, they had a bad first wave, I believe.

But I don't know why.

Mitch

23:02

@Cerberus can't you like ... yell out your window and ask them? With a mask on of course you'll have to yell louder.

I'm finding that causes are really hard to judge.

(except for the general trend in the US, for which it is very easy to point the finger)

and maybe New Zealand. closed system, an island, lots of control

like Africa...how do you explain how well they are doing (comparatively)?

Cerberus

@Mitch Agreed on all points.

@Robusto That could be read in two ways: people in general are incompetent at communicating; or people who work in the field of communication (marketing types...) are incompetent.

Mitch

23:55

Dec 4 at 3:12, by Mitch

I AM VINDICATED!

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