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CowperKettle
CowperKettle
1:24 AM
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
1:34 AM
Not too bad a start.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
A Russian schoolgirl covertly recorded their teacher's harangue about Alexey Navalny. The teacher says to the class "You are so dumb! What about the Queen of the USA? Is she shitting in the hole? No, she also all covered in gold! Why should Putin live like a beggar? Of course he has riches!" twitter.com/VVP2_0/status/1352698177812574208
"The Queen of the USA" (Американская королева, the American queen) really cracked me up.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Heh.
A metaphor?
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Probably just an emotional slip of the tongue
Some teachers are not very bright.
I lived in a small and rich town, so our teachers were very good. They say that here, in Yekaterinburg, some teachers are not very smart. Because smart people find a better-paying job.
When I was in school, it was Yeltsin time, and teachers were not forced to intimidate us to prevent us from going to a political rally.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Hmm.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
In Yekaterinburg, kindergarten managers(!) yesterday sent out messages to the parents of kids, intimidating them in order to prevent their kids (haha) going to the political demonstrations today.
That's excessive zeal, I'd say.
People have been laughing about this.
And sharing snapshots of these stupid messages.
The local governor probably gave an order to force all educational institutions to send such intimidating messages to everyone.
I can imagine a revolt of five year-olds -- a news report about this on our local website
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
1:50 AM
Do you think Russia will be a better place once current millennials come into power?
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
No.
I don't know. With the AI developing so fast, and the Earth's resources squandered so fast, I would not dare imagine any future, it's too complex to predict it. Too many factors.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Okay.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
> This version of the US flag scaled each star proportionally to their state’s population while roughly maintaining it’s geographical position.
 
Robusto
Robusto
2:05 AM
@CowperKettle Where are Alaska and Hawaii?
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Invisibly small?
 
Robusto
Robusto
Well, you can see the Dakotas, and they have more sheep than people.
You can even very faintly make out Wyoming.
Oh, maybe they're the very faint ones beneath Texas and California?
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
2:24 AM
I know it not.
I do wonder whether Texas might flip in 2024.
Perhaps not so soon.
Unless the new census will make a big difference.
Or the Republican electorate is fractured.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@Cerberus That would be amazing.
Probably not likely, given how gerrymandered it is.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Right.
Demographic pressure is mounting, though.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
2:52 AM
Police in Khabarovsk now
> "Putin, wash my underpants"
 
tchrist
tchrist
Is this a duplicate?
0
Q: Adjective-Denoted Nationalities without "the"

gene b.I came across the following in the Wall Street Journal, as part of the main story (not the headline), ... Swiss voted narrowly against more hunting, by 52% to 48% ... ... Last year, Swiss voted on increasing the stock of low-cost housing, ... Does that mean I can refer to adjective-denoted nati...

articles omissibility
Of this?
0
Q: Can French/British be used as plural nouns?

listenevaNeither British nor French can be used as a singular noun. For example, (a) is ungrammatical. a. *A French/British is dancing. Although the French/British can mean 'French/British people' collectively, French/British is usually analyzed as adjectives. For example, (b) is grammatical and nat...

nouns irregular-plurals
I only found it after I'd answered. :(
 
 
2 hours later…
Cerberus
Cerberus
4:37 AM
No harm, eh?
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
0
Q: What is the meaning of "subcortical retraction" in a description of MRI of a Kearns-Sayre syndrome patient?

CopperKettleI came across the term subcortical retraction and cannot understand its meaning. Does it mean "the withering of the subcortical areas" (shrinking of subcortical white matter)? From Follow-up of folinic acid supplementation for patients with cerebral folate deficiency and Kearns-Sayre syndrome: C...

terminology brain neurology mri white-matter
An odd term
 
 
1 hour later…
user 85795
user 85795
5:40 AM
Btw, Oakland Las Vegas.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
5:59 AM
Pro-Navalny demonstration in Yakutsk, at minus 50°C
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
6:26 AM
> The surname O'Callaghan means descendant of Ceallachán who was the Eóganachta King of Munster from AD 935 until 954. The personal name Cellach means 'bright-headed'.
 
 
2 hours later…
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
8:53 AM
@CowperKettle Does Putin do press interviews?
How does this sentence sound?
> Until recently, both these pumps were functioning, and were
used alternately for brief periods, like one or two weeks.
The idea I'm trying to express is that of switching between pumps.
 
SmokeDetector
SmokeDetector
9:44 AM
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Blacklisted website in answer, username similar to website in answer (157): Metaphor or idiom for "poor substitute"? by treasurebox on english.SE
 
Andrew Leach
Andrew Leach
10:20 AM
@FaheemMitha Yes: use one for a fortnight, then switch to the other. I don't like like there: why not just say "used alternately for brief periods of one or two weeks"?
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
@AndrewLeach That sounds good. Thank you.
@AndrewLeach So,
> Until recently, both these pumps were functioning, and were used alternately for brief periods for one or two weeks each.
?
Sorry
of one or two weeks each.
 
Andrew Leach
Andrew Leach
@FaheemMitha Yes, that's fine. Each is an improvement.
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
@AndrewLeach Ok, thank you.
What sounds better, and why?
> Given that this is an urgent matter
vs
> Given the urgency of this matter
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
10:42 AM
@FaheemMitha Yes, of course
 
Andrew Leach
Andrew Leach
@FaheemMitha That's purely a personal style choice, although using a word like matter would tend to go with urgency; if you wanted to use urgent, just say "Given that this is urgent,..." [But as I say, it's personal writing style.]
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
I went to the pro-Navalny demonstration on my bike. It was minus 30°C
Quite a lot of people. Good.
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
@CowperKettle It's not obvious. Modi doesn't, and never has.
So do journalists at these press conferences ask him why he is acting like an evil dictator, or not?
@AndrewLeach Ok, thank you. I went with the latter.
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
11:21 AM
@CowperKettle A lot of that doesn't factor in how people evaluate their lives though. A global crisis is something to accept as-is, to deal with in daily life. People somehow aren't too unhappy when everyone is more miserable because of something.
An inseparable part of why younger Iranians want change is how things are elsewhere.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
11:41 AM
@FaheemMitha No, he talks only to journalists accredited by the Kremlin. They usually ask fawning questions. Once a year he goes before a wider audience of journalists, and there he sometimes gets harder questions, but in the recent years there have been more and more sifting and sorting of this big conference, and the questions have gotten milder.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
11:56 AM
> Lost in translation
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
12:08 PM
@CowperKettle Once a year is not very often.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
1:03 PM
> Mercè
Does this sign over "e" mean that the stress falls on this vowel?
 
Andrew Leach
Andrew Leach
@CowperKettle What language is that? If it's Chaucerian English, then no: it simply means that that forms a syllable on its own (like mercy).
 
 
2 hours later…
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
2:54 PM
@AndrewLeach Oh, sorry. It's Spanish, it's a name: Mercè Pineda
 
tchrist
tchrist
3:06 PM
@CowperKettle Spanish uses acute accents for indicating unusual stress not predicted by the orthography. It does not use grave accents.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@tchrist How does that explain accents on monosyllabic words: que vs qué, el vs él, etc.?
 
tchrist
tchrist
@Robusto Those are always stressed there.
It's to distinguish homographs.
It's prosodic stress.
"para el otro" vs "para él".
The first "el" has no stress; the second does.
"se sabe" vs "sé bueno"
same
"algo que haces con tu vida" vs "¡Qué haces tú?"
 
Robusto
Robusto
Yeah, but the meanings are clear through context already. I wonder why those are thought necessary.
 
tchrist
tchrist
So that you can read them more easily.
"para él, otro" is "for him, another"
"para el otro" is "for the other"
 
Robusto
Robusto
The comma is a sufficient signpost there, I should think.
 
tchrist
tchrist
3:21 PM
There used to be more. "Santa Fé" is now just "Santa Fe" even though nothing has changed.
And as of quite recently, you use "solo" for both only and alone. It used to be written "sólo" for the adverb but not the adjective.
They also used to write "fué" and even "fuí".
 
Robusto
Robusto
Consider just in English. Do we ever get confused between uses of the adjectival and adverbial meanings?
 
tchrist
tchrist
It's still for stress.
"aún" has two syllables; "aun" just one.
> Como se mencionó al principio, “aun” es una palabra átona y no lleva tilde.
 
Robusto
Robusto
Well, I grant the single-to-multi-syllabic necessity.
My issue is with the mono-á-mono one. ^_^
 
tchrist
tchrist
> 3.1. Tilde diacrítica en monosílabos. Muchos de los usos de la tilde diacrítica en español afectan a palabras de una sola sílaba:
Read that part.
 
Robusto
Robusto
> Las palabras de una sola sílaba no se acentúan nunca gráficamente, salvo en los casos de tilde diacrítica.
Pero, ¿de qué otra manera se acentuarían gráficamente?
Back in a few, need to attend to something.
 
tchrist
tchrist
4:24 PM
> The pastoral meadows filled with gentleman cows and lady stallions were guarded by __________.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
were guarded by shepherd dogs.
 
tchrist
tchrist
Right answer.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
> Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
Why do sinners’ ways prosper? and why must
Disappointment all I endeavour end?
 
tchrist
tchrist
Pastoral care being the clue.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Clue? I just answered at random
 
tchrist
tchrist
4:28 PM
The priming agent, perhaps.
I should think though that a field full of long horned bulls would be its own protection.
I messed with the genders of bulls and mares.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
One Russian guy today during protests donned the same outfit as the horned guy who stormed Congress
People were gleeful.
 
tchrist
tchrist
Haha.
50 below is murderously cold.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Yes
It can be nicely seen on Ventusky - the temperature zones
The Ural mountains form the border between the warm and the cold zones
That's just as far as Gulf Stream's influence goes
 
tchrist
tchrist
It's hard to imagine the fervor required to brave that cold for a protest.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
@tchrist It is harder to brave the heat. And still the Americans protested this summer
In the hot weather, you cannot help it. In the cold weather, you can get some warmer clothes.
 
tchrist
tchrist
4:35 PM
Not in real heat. Nobody was marching in the 130 degrees some of our scariest places saw this summer.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Basically, climactically the USA is like our Central Asia - Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan. In terms of warmth
 
tchrist
tchrist
Reminds me of how I was just reading about the Younger Dryas period, when the mountain avens, a flowering plant which flourishes only in tundra whether alpine or arctic, was found so much farther south than normal. Possible Gulf Stream interruptions.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@CowperKettle I think you mean climatically. ^_^ Climaxes are incidental to climate.
 
tchrist
tchrist
Colorado is today the most southerly latitude it can be found at, and even then only above timberline, up where the ptarmigan roam.
Mostly it's in the treeless far north now. We know how cold it was during the Dryas periods because of it.
If the Gulf Stream gets lost again, or when, Europe will no longer be so unnaturally warm. And the ice will come again. This can happen suddenly. Paradoxically even triggered by initial warming.
Man doth not live on mountain avens alone, nor at all, for one cannot make bread from it.
 
Robusto
Robusto
> Experts say that SARS-CoV-2’s exact post-pandemic trajectory will depend on three major factors: how long humans retain immunity to the virus, how quickly the virus evolves, and how widely older populations become immune during the pandemic itself.
 
tchrist
tchrist
4:50 PM
I knew that some time ago, although I wasn't yet sure of it a year ago.
@CowperKettle Though you've already explained its provenance by way of the Urals and the Gulf Stream, your long east–west line of demarcation there still really stands in contrast with some expected north–south line based solely on latitude.
 
 
1 hour later…
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
5:59 PM
I think that this might be an overexaggeration
I don't think the melted reactor could produce a full blown nuclear explosion
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
6:40 PM
@CowperKettle Indeed, I believe it cannot.
Besides, an explosion at ground level is far, far less destructive than one at high altitude.
Thirdly, if an accidental explosion should occur, I'm sure it would be far weaker than a bomb.
Lastly, a 'nearby' city: this suggests the reactor is not inside the city. The degree of destruction from an explosion decreases greatly as one is farther away from it. So it is nothing like a bomb in the middle of a city.
 
tchrist
tchrist
7:16 PM
@CowperKettle "Fortunately, the reactor cannot explode. A nuclear explosion cannot occur because the fuel is not compact enough to allow an uncontrolled chain reaction."
 
tchrist
tchrist
7:39 PM
"....in the last decade"
 
 
2 hours later…
tchrist
tchrist
9:13 PM
> “It’s clear that only public pressure, only street protests, can get Alexei out of Matrosskaya Tishina where he was put by Putin,” said Leonid Volkov, an ally of Navalny’s and one of his few aides who was not detained last week. “That’s what Putin is scared of more than anything on earth.”
Putin is more afraid of street protests than anything on earth?
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
What are your comments meant to signify?
 
tchrist
tchrist
Which one(s)?
"in the last decade" draws attention to longevity and older troubles.
The other questions why this would be his greatest fear.
> Families homeschooling in lockdown are discovering the full horror of the primary grammar curriculum – and they’re mystified
They have a grammar curriculum? How fancy!
> Jeremy Williams is one of many parents now seeing the full horrors of this. “Yep, it’s taken homeschool for me to become aware of this joyless obsession with the mechanics of language,” he wrote on Twitter. “I write for a living and had to ask my nine-year-old what a fronted adverbial is, so I’m not convinced it’s necessary.”
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Ah, I see.
@tchrist It is a bit of an exaggeration.
But there is nothing else that can really threaten him in Russia.
If the large majority should want him gone, he would probably be ousted by other oligarchs eventually.
 
tchrist
tchrist
Because civil unrest is bad for corrupt business moguls?
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Certainly.
Protesters have friends and relatives.
 
tchrist
tchrist
9:25 PM
To be used against them, no doubt.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
You cannot destroy them without basically destroying or enslaving the entire population.
 
Conrado
Conrado
@tchrist Perhaps it means that "Putin is afraid of [Alexei out of Matrosscaya Tishina] more than anything on earth."
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
I don't think so.
Even though the grammar is ambiguous.
 
Conrado
Conrado
@Cerberus :) This joyful obsession with the mechanics of language.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Yay.
 
tchrist
tchrist
9:31 PM
> Arizona Republicans are poised to censure three of their own party’s most high-profile members.
Apply your obsession to that one. :)
 
Conrado
Conrado
> he would probably be ousted by other oligarchs eventually.
Who would later be more afraid, in their own turn.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Yes.
 
Conrado
Conrado
@tchrist At least they will leave the rest of their own parties' most high-profile members alone.
 
tchrist
tchrist
Political porn.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
9:46 PM
Not good for their own party, methinks.
MacCain should run herself next time.
 
Færd
Færd
10:45 PM
> Democrats could change the Senate rules to a simple majority with the support of all 50 Senate Democrats as well as Vice President Kamala Harris via the “nuclear option,” or a unilateral rules change.
The rules have been changed by a majority three times since 2013, once by Democrats and twice by Republicans — first on gutting the filibuster on most nominations, then on Supreme Court picks and finally to shorten the debate time for some nominees. Changing the legislative filibuster would effectively make the Senate much more like the House, a majoritarian institution.
Get rid of it.
> “It’s generally up to the majority as to whether they want to pursue a conversation about changing the rules. And we should reserve that right,” added Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “I’m a supporter of filibuster reform, I obviously want to make my case to the caucus when and if that moment arises.”
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
11:29 PM
I think coöperation is the only way to stem polarisation.
 

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