English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

RegDwigнt

12:04 AM

@Xanne I'm here. Not unlike always. What with the lockdown and all.

Some poor sod just calculated that all the Corona viruses in the world would fit into a coke can.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt looks behind himself

RegDwigнt

That's what lockdown will do to people. They will even remember maths!

I say, if they can all fit into a Coke can, the fuck is Coca Cola doing not fitting them in there.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt And we wept, Precious. We wept to be so alone. (Fish, and we only wish, so juicy sweet.) And we forgot the taste of bread, the sound of trees, the softness of the wind.

RegDwigнt

I blame Coca Cola.

Buy Pepsi.

For the next generation.

@tchrist I'll give you two out of the three.

Remember how flour was sold out everywhere.

If people don't know what to then do with it, that's their own fault.

tchrist

And pasta. And rice.

And toilet paper.

RegDwigнt

12:08 AM

See. We never forgot the taste of toilet paper.

Always look on the bright side of life.

tchrist

And now we have root cellars packed full with dry pulses and dry grain.

RegDwigнt

At least now the Soviets may come.

tchrist

That's why Putin told Johnson he could have Britanny.

RegDwigнt

To be fair, everyone told Johnson he could have his fucking Britanny. @MattE.Эллен

tchrist

By using artificial nucleotide analogues in your vaccine you can control the secondary structures of your fake µRNA long enough to evade the metabolic tripwires and get the cell to crank out your cuckoo proteins.

But it will take a really long time to fill up your vial of coke.

RegDwigнt

12:17 AM

Well, get cracking, then.

I see @Rob has been giving secret advice only a musician can give.

Xanne

@RegDwigнt Nice to see you! Coke now comes laced with coffee, si leave room in the can.

RegDwigнt

Literally every linguist in the world is oblivious to it.

I think with that he's out of the Magic Circle.

@Xanne it's even better than that. If you leave enough room in the can, none of it will be coke.

Anyway. Yeah. I basically spent the last two weeks ordering my musical output.

As in, making a giant spreadsheet.

With all the opus numbers, all the pieces' names in all the languages. Dedications, key signatures, arrangements. Whether I have the sheet music and which state it's in. All the links to YouTube, MuseScore, Instagram, SoundSlice, and whatnot. Cover versions by others. Basically everything.

Once you start with a spreadsheet, you cannot stop.

I have those weird spikes of activity every five years or so, where I obsess with making spreadsheets for whatever it is I'm doing at the time.

Like, playing World of Tanks.

Can't remember what the one before that was about.

Oh yeah! LEGO. Of course.

And before, that WMT game we played with @Rob and @Cerberus.

Still have all them spreadsheets still today.

Cerberus

12:36 AM

@RegDwigнt I know the feeling!

Game was fun.

As a group effort.

RegDwigнt

Did you carry on playing that other card game that you played before, and tried to get me into but I was meh?

Cerberus

Heh.

Not really.

Nobody plays it any more, alas.

But it is a great game.

RegDwigнt

Yeah. I got on Kongregate like once since then. Some time two years ago.

I think I only played Desktop Tower Defense.

I might play that other game some time where you had to type words using the letters. That was fun.

Crosswords?

No, not crosswords. But something something words.

There were spiders.

And cogs.

There should be at least one record of that on the main ELU site, lemme check.

43

A: Is there a word that contains all the vowels?

I totally rule at Clockwords by using sequoia and facetiously. Wikipedia used to have a list of words containing all the vowels, but the article has since been deleted. Some of the fun facts it mentioned included: The word Iouea, a genus of sea sponges, contains all five regular vowels and no...

Ah yes! Clockwords.

tchrist

Miracle.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt You would have loved it!

But now you need special plug-ins to play Flash games.

So it's still up there.

RegDwigнt

12:45 AM

Pfft. I have special plug-ins to play SNES games on my original XBOX.

I'm, like, all cool and stuff.

Still can't quite fit the Van Halen CDs into my current smart phone. That's a bummer.

Cerberus

Perhaps you should file the edges until they fit.

RegDwigнt

Meanwhile on MuseScore.

Dear next person who complains about ELU, this is for your consideration.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt What advice would that be?

RegDwigнt

To record yourself.

Xanne

@RegDwigнt I liked your “Summertime” piece on You-tube.

RegDwigнt

12:59 AM

The one on the wall.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Oh right.

RegDwigнt

@Xanne that's very kind, thank you.

I do love clouds.

Robusto

It is very weird when you hear yourself, though.

RegDwigнt

Wait till you hear yourself play the violin.

Robusto

Well, I have heard myself do that. And it's not something I would willingly share with the world.

RegDwigнt

1:01 AM

Is the point. Is why you do it. To know where you stand before the world does.

Robusto

Yeah. I knew enough to pull the plug on that ugly mess.

RegDwigнt

But yeah, to my original point in this case: I've heard no linguists recommend it.

Even though linguists record things all the time.

But not for that purpose they don't.

Robusto

Seriously? Why not?

RegDwigнt

Maybe more to the point, language teachers just never record anything, ever.

Robusto

That seems selbstverständlich to me.

RegDwigнt

1:04 AM

You don't really learn languages from a linguist.

Robusto

No, they are theoretical, not practical.

tchrist

You learn languages from hearing people speaking.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto is what I'm saying. You're a musician. You know the tricks.

Robusto

nods

RegDwigнt

@tchrist yes, but this is specifically about checking your own pronunciation.

It's not about reading the newspaper like it's your mother tongue.

tchrist

1:07 AM

We keep getting pineapples asking why they heard some native speaker pronounce a word as X when the dictionary says they are supposed to pronounce it as not-X. They don't understand dictionaries, or natives, or something.

RegDwigнt

Natives are only worse.

Nobody understands dictionaries, but natives understand them least.

tchrist

They ask if the native got his own language wrong.

RegDwigнt

Well yes, that's every question on ELU ever.

tchrist

Then I feel like I can die now.

RegDwigнt

But again, at least these people don't have to google for Wikipedia to find out what a dictionary is.

Native speakers are nowhere near as savvy.

Robusto

1:10 AM

See, a native speaker can fuck things up non-stop and it still works. But when you do it it sounds wrong, and you don't get any slack at all.

RegDwigнt

Is why I'm doing it. Name's trolling.

tchrist

Somebody hated on me for saying that dictionaries lie.

It's hard to put a finer point on it though. It's just not the way things work.

3

A: Is "awe" pronounced as /ɔː/ or /ɑː/ in American English?

Aw, shucks! Your ear is right, those dictionaries are wrong. The proof is in the hearing, which you have done properly. Those sources are "lying" to you. To put a finer point on it, they have committed a certain class of formal deductive error. In particular, just because some people say some ins...

She has a very fine ear, our querent.

Too fine, I fear. She hasn't learned to stop hearing pronunciation differences.

RegDwigнt

Somebody hated on every single video of Daniel Barenboim's and Hilary Hahn's and Bach's and Stravinsky's.

I wouldn't care.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt You weren't here for my RIP Chick Corea.

That really shook me. The RIP, not you missing it.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto I believe I was, actually. You just didn't know.

But I'm not doing another RIP video for 2021.

Too much work.

Robusto

1:14 AM

Well, I actually fell into a bottle of scotch that night. Not too bad, but lately I don't drink much at all.

RegDwigнt

At any rate, I watched the videos you posted. I was really quite cross at that dancer lady.

tchrist

There is far too much false idolatry of treating a dictionary as the Word of God.

Or maybe true idolatry of a false God. Unclear.

@Robusto It won't hurt you not to drink too much at all.

Robusto

I know. Why I don't do it.

@RegDwigнt Which dancer lady?

RegDwigнt

@Robusto the one that danced around for like no reason. And then got tired after two minutes and left.

The Barcelona video.

Robusto

Oh. I only listen to those. I don't watch them.

I find videos distract me from the music.

RegDwigнt

1:20 AM

Yes. Is me point.

I was like, the fuck lady, quit doing this, none of this is about you.

Robusto

My point too. Don't come between me and my music.

RegDwigнt

Good thing you didn't watch it, then.

Robusto

So how ya been? Whatcha been up to?

RegDwigнt

The Spreadsheet.™

1 hour ago, by RegDwigнt

Anyway. Yeah. I basically spent the last two weeks ordering my musical output.

& cetera.

Robusto

Yeah, you got into an organizational mood. Did you get that out of your system?

RegDwigнt

1:34 AM

Plus zoom violin lessons and zoom choir rehearsals and still an occasional piano lesson, but that's like only once a week now.

@Robusto I hope I did. More to the point, it was actually productive. I resurrected all kinds of sketches from my old phone and stuff like that.

Robusto

Cool.

RegDwigнt

Yeah. Most are still sketches, but at least I now have them all in one place and the same format.

Turned one into a proper piece. Wrote at least one other ancient piece down in the latest MuseScore version.

Robusto

Happy with it?

RegDwigнt

So it wasn't all just wanking about in the end. Which I sort of did worry about at first.

Robusto

As the bible says, there's a time to wank and a time to make music.

RegDwigнt

1:37 AM

@Robusto happy with the piece? Yeah, I was happy with it all these years. But now it's like published and all.

Robusto

Link?

RegDwigнt

musescore.com/user/27897310/scores/6606994

Robusto

Miles has to finish his track first, then I'll check it out.

RegDwigнt

Spanish quiz question at the very end in the last bar, if you read along with the music.

Robusto

Sounds like fun.

Hopscotch?

RegDwigнt

1:43 AM

Yes.

Robusto

I like it.

At first listen, I like the accompaniment more than the melody. Probably because of the MIDI violin.

RegDwigнt

The family lived for like a decade on las Canárias, and all three children were born there. Milena is the oldest and is pretty much native in Spanish to date. The two boys moved away at still too young an age and basically only speak German.

Robusto

The intro is very nice.

RegDwigнt

Well, I'm a piano player.

Plus as we discussed, we're used to synthetic piano by now. So it's easier to make sound convincing.

But it's great fun to play on the violin. Not just very easy, but really quite satisfying.

Robusto

Synth piano sounds more like piano than does synth violin.

I kind of expected the penultimate bar to be more marcato, but the synth violin always gives you that semi-detached legato.

RegDwigнt

1:48 AM

With the new version I have more options there.

Robusto

I just listened again and read the program. Interesting.

@RegDwigнt How so?

RegDwigнt

So for example the legati I actually meddled with to make sound more legato. And the last bar I deliberately made sound more marcato than it did. But I didn't meddle with every note of the rest, so it's kinda neither here nor there.

@Robusto well there's basically a straight-up MIDI editor where I can doctor with the length of each note individually.

Robusto

Can you play the piece on the violin?

@RegDwigнt As I thought. Which is hard work, much harder than just playing the music on a real instrument.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto Well I couldn't quite at the time this was written. But yeah by now it's very easy even for myself.

Robusto

It's like trying to calculate your steps to the corner store rather than just, I don't know, walking.

RegDwigнt

1:52 AM

@Robusto yeah, yes and no. The way I see it, MIDI is just yet another instrument. On a real instrument, you voice and articulate every single note, too. And it's tons of work, too. Like, literally decades, if you know what I'm saying.

Robusto

Been there, done that.

RegDwigнt

Yes, which is why by now to you it's walking.

The MIDI stuff is never quite there, you can't just intuitively play, you have to specify all the hard numbers. But you do get much faster at that, too.

Robusto

Yeah, but I found that I didn't really care for doing drum tracks over a couple of days that a real drummer could just sit down and play, and sound better, with no rehearsal and seemingly no effort.

RegDwigнt

Inorite.

I could never be Hans Zimmer. The fuck he's even doing with his life.

Then again, he has assistants for that.

Robusto

Well.

How about recording yourself playing the violin to your piano accompaniment?

Then put that up on YouTube.

RegDwigнt

1:57 AM

After a certain point on the ladder, you just become a sound engineer, in the most literal sense of the word. You sit there with Chris Nolan for two days and try to find the best timbre for the one-note Joker theme.

But then from there you just give it to a team of composers and copyists and players and they handle the rest.

@Robusto I'm getting always closer to that. But I'm not quite there yet.

And of course that's a ton of additional mixing work. Every video will take three weeks instead of one, then.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Yeah. All work and no play.

RegDwigнt

Again, something I'll get much faster at with time. But the first one will be damn hard.

@Robusto I do get to play all them pieces live with my teacher.

So I'm not really missing out, only the rest of the world does.

Robusto

rest of world raises hand

RegDwigнt

Like, that latest Mandelstam romance, I think I didn't even show you. Wevs. But we just played it as violin duo to a pre-recorded piano karaoke track coming out of a Bluetooth pill that I got for like 20 bucks off Amazon.

And we basically do that with all my pieces now. When we do have proper rehearsals and not via zoom. It's been like two months, damn.

musescore.com/user/27897310/scores/6406054

This is incredibly musical in a live setting. You wouldn't know after hearing the MIDI.

And I've meddled with most of the notes there as well. But no cigar and not even close.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Quite lovely. On first listen, I'd say it's the best thing I've heard from you.

In my head I found myself playing the top line on the flute.

RegDwigнt

2:07 AM

Thank you.

I did a proper translation of the lyrics, too. I rarely attempt that.

But this one's one of my violin teacher's all-time favs as well.

Robusto

Smart lady.

RegDwigнt

To be fair, I knew it would be, she has a soft spot for minor plagal turns of phrase.

And here I basically do nothing but that for three minutes. Re-harmonizing the flat vi every which way.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Don't we all.

RegDwigнt

Flat, not minor. I'm an idiot. What am I even on about.

Robusto

I also like that there's just more of it. You have time to develop ideas a bit more than usual.

RegDwigнt

2:10 AM

Well that's because in this case there was so little of it otherwise that I had to make more.

You've said that about other pieces in the past, and I'm sometimes on the fence and sometimes meh.

But here the whole thing is like less than a minute. Just the actual romance alone.

Robusto

I think you'll find you have the necessary skills now to start working on wringing the music out of longer pieces.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto the other week in some theory video that I found out about via Adam Neely's latest video, I heard that in a third video somewhere Jacob Collier argues that Minor Plagal is basically as strong as Perfect Authentic. Which to me is like, yeah right on, but historically it was never seen that way.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Speaking of Neely, did you see his video on Lady Gaga's performance of the national anthem at Biden's inauguration? Really good.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto I just get bored after a while. Not meaning that I don't do it, but meaning that it takes me a long time. I just don't write ten minutes in a single sitting. I write one, then go do something else for an hour or a year.

@Robusto yes!

Robusto

@RegDwigнt One way to start is to do one of your normal short piece accompaniments, then do it again a different way, then a different way, then after a while you have lots of ideas you can then meld into a longer piece.

RegDwigнt

2:17 AM

Yeah this is not really about melding, even. Though by now I have built up such a library of snippets lying around that that certainly does help.

But it's really more about doing anything at all for more than five minutes on end.

Robusto

I hear ya. But that is your stone, Mr. Sisyphus. Start pushing.

RegDwigнt

I do everything like that. Even actual work at work. I write an email for five minutes, then do something else for five minutes, then a third thing. Whether or not that email is half done, only a first draft, or totally finished and all I need to do is press Send.

And in home office it's kinda worse. Because here I have even more options. I can write an email for five minutes, then practice the violin for two, then write twenty seconds of music, then make scrambled eggs.

But it's also easier that way, at least for me. In the end it's all still finished. Just not consecutively but all at once.

Robusto

Hey, I'm an ADHD kind of personality as well. So I hear you. But sometimes you just have to gut it out on one thing.

RegDwigнt

So I'm writing a ballet now and a symphonic poem and thirty more waltzes. And none of it will be finished for years to come. But then you get a ballet and a symphony and a waltz book all at once.

Robusto

You might run out the clock on me.

RegDwigнt

2:23 AM

@Robusto that's what I do with MuseScore. I basically force myself to publish two or three pieces every week, come hell or high water. Arrangement or transcription, or original piece. Violin or piano or flute or accordion, whatever. Just do something, anything at all.

So then at the end of the year you look back and you're like holy fuck, I did all this shit? Whoa.

CowperKettle

A man in Yekaterinburg cut off his ear in the street

RegDwigнt

Like, I transcribed the entire Requiem by Duruflé last year. That alone should've sufficed. But that still only counts as one upload, and then two days later you need to have something else done.

Robusto

Yes.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto there's that contemporary American composer I showed you a couple times. His First American Symphony, and that piece where the lady played five different flutes. He started doing occasional streams on YouTube now. Composing live. I find those streams extremely motivating.

Because what it does to me it shows me, here's a guy composing right now, and you're not.

Robusto

Heh. He shows you by showing you up.

RegDwigнt

2:28 AM

So what happens next is that we're just sitting there composing simultaneously.

That is a very zen experience.

And he'll sometimes do it, like, for just 20 minutes before his viola lesson. And like 15 of them he may well spend on just figuring out one note. But then by the end he has written a couple more bars for his Second Symphony, fully orchestrated, or half a piece for oboe or whatever.

That's how you do it. Just do it.

Robusto

Yup.

Xanne

@tchrist My favorites are the users who find grammatical errors in the writings of Herman Melville, Mary Shelly, George Bernard Shaw, and other sundry literary notables, the latest to bite the dust being Joan Didion.

tchrist

@Xanne How small their minds.

And how gullible.

Robusto

@Xanne My AP English teacher prefaced his class by saying, "When approaching a piece of literature, always assume that the author is at least as intelligent as you are."

RegDwigнt

Yes. Samuel Andreev recommends the same for listening to music. We talked about that a year ago or so.

tchrist

2:34 AM

How has our education system so failed our children that it should come to this?

RegDwigнt

If you can't listen to Lygeti, don't assume it's somehow his fault.

tchrist

Wait, it's ELU. We only get the dumb ones.

CowperKettle

74-year old woman in Yekaterinburg who was grabbed by 5 policeman for standing in the street with a sign against repressions has been fined 1000 rubles for "violating the pandemic rules". The fuckers did not allow an eyewitness into the court building.

RegDwigнt

Just 1000 roubles? That's like 11 Euro. In France she'd be fined 1500 Euro for the same thing.

user 85795

23 hours ago, by user 85795

Etymology of the day: naive In philosophy, "unreflecting, uncritical" (1895), used of non-philosophers.

\o @RegDwigнt

Students are drilled to death on finer points:

2 hours ago, by tchrist

Too fine, I fear. She hasn't learned to stop hearing pronunciation differences.

They become zombies.

Must. Ace. Standardized. Test.

Robusto

2:53 AM

Aug 28 '19 at 21:41, by Robusto

@RegDwigнt Ha, that's what my AP English teacher said when I was in his class as a senior in high school. "Now, with the literature you're reading, I want you all to assume the author is at least as intelligent as you are."

I said it better a year and a half ago.

SmokeDetector

3:39 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at beginning of answer (34): Online rhyme dictionary/rhyming resource that lists rhymes by vowel sound (assonance) by George on english.SE

CowperKettle

3:56 AM

@RegDwigнt "Whataboutism" is the lamest recourse to support a crime.

@RegDwigнt 74 year old man in Kaliningrad fined 180 thousand rubles for participating in a political demonstration. You will call this stability, I know. Just like the extrajudicial killings ordered by Putin. tvrain.ru/teleshow/vechernee_shou/pensioner-524754

@RegDwigнt Communist Party of Russia forbidden to hold political meetings in 11 cities of Russia on 23 February. The majority of the meetings were not planned as anti-Putin meetings, they were meant to celebrate the Army Day. ovdinfo.org/express-news/2021/02/16/…

Stability, yes?

@RegDwigнt A new draft law proposed by Putin's deputees that would make it possible to shut down websites for accusing a person of committing a crime. That would make it possible to shut down any sites with information about Putin's Novichok assasination squad, for instance. zona.media/news/2021/02/16/block

Stability, yes?

@RegDwigнt A man from Yekaterinburg describes the process of "court hearings". He and many others were grabbed during a peacefull rally in Sochi. Made-up accusations by dummy "plaintiffs" who complained that they could not reach the other side of the street due to the crowd. Hearings lasting 15 minutes, in a cookie-cutter manner. e1.ru/news/spool/news_id-69770552.html

Stability, yes?

@RegDwigнt In Rostov on Don, the authorities banned the planned picket commemorating Boris Nemtsov, who was killed on orders of Putin's friend Ramzan Kadyrov. They said that one of the stated aims of the meeting, "to remind that the rulers should regularly replaced", is subversive

Stability, yes?

@RegDwigнt In my region, the local "parliament" stuffed by Putin members has just made it harder to get a permit for a peaceful demonstration or rally: itsmycity.ru/2021-02-16/…

Stability, yes?

@RegDwigнt Starting from 1 March, if I repost a news report by a media deemed a "foreign agent", without explicitly stating that it is a foreign agent, I would be fined 2500 rubles. meduza.io/news/2021/02/16/…

Stability, yes?

@RegDwigнt 27 citizens of Russia were forced by the police to declare their allegiance to the Islamic State on camera, after which 25 were shot, and 2 were suffocated to death. Putin's press secretary said that "He has not heard about this". novayagazeta.ru/news/2021/02/16/167896-kreml

Stability, yes?

@RegDwigнt An old woman who just stood at a political rally was kicked in her tummy by Putin's policeman. This was recorded and went viral. Now she is being investigated against by child protection services, she is being denigrated by Putin's propaganda. tvrain.ru/teleshow/vechernee_shou/…

Stability, yes?

She just stood in the way, and got kicked in the stomach so hard, she ended up in an ICU.

@RegDwigнt A new law proposed to bar relatives of Putin's political prisoners from taking part in elections. The law is specifically aimed at Alexey Navalny's wife novayagazeta.ru/articles/2021/02/15/89227-odna-satana

Stability, yes?

@RegDwigнt Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Russia has only a small root cellar in his propery. Five square meters. What a pauper! It's lucky that his 21-year-old son is a multi-millionaire with a business empire, and his family members own luxury apartments totaling over 500 million rubles in value. znak.com/2021-02-15/…

Stability, yes?

@RegDwigнt Parliament of St. Petersburg hears a bill under which opposition parties will be barred from introducing their own topics for discussion in Parliament. What the fuck? Isn't a parliament a place specifically created for discussion of issues brought up by opposition? vk.com/wall2480895_49598

Stability, yes?

That's news just over the last 3 or 4 days. There is a deluge of news about repressions, people jailed and intimidated, people fined, new repressive laws entered for consideration.

I just picked several from the long, long newsfeed.

Xanne

5:46 AM

Meanwhile two Russians in the Australian (tennis) Open, Rublev and Medvedev, are battling to win one of the quarter-finals. Alex Zverev, my favorite, has already lost to Djokovic, who is, I think, Serbian. Zverev’s parents are Russians who left Russia to play competitive tennis in the West, so Zverev was born in Hamburg and is known as “the German.”

Zverev and Djokovic are arguing that the tennis tour is untenable; they cannot continue to quarantine, play without fans, etc., and travel on some passports is restricted. What’s interesting to me is the dramatic improvement in Zverev’s English in the last four years or so, in both accent and syntax. Djokovic knows the words but creates awkward sentences and has a more obviously foreign accent.

Xanne

6:17 AM

Alexander Zverev: "Very upset with the result" press conference (QF) | Australian Open 2021

►

Zverev has trouble with “th.”

Xanne

6:36 AM

Novak Djokovic plays Aslan Karatsav, yet another Russian, who lucked out when is injured opponent couldn’t play.

Hairi

10:19 AM

Is there a word (adjective) to describe a man who is very sparing in his words and often unclear. He leaves few words to describe a requirement. Often he avoids putting references and/or examples and he assumes we can read his mind.

Like concise - but without being clear :)

Gigili

10:59 AM

@tchrist Not all countries are like USA, some have long history and splendid culture.

4

RegDwigнt

1:24 PM

@Robusto yes, that's the precise conversation I was referring to.

I couldn't be bothered to look up the correct number of months that it took place ago.

I had a symphony to write or sumthin.

Lol at the 13 other notifications from someone who decided to drop all pretense and go openly mad.

I wouldn't accept that number even from our doggy. And our doggy doesn't say stupid things.

Patricia Taxxon - Crocus [Full Album]

►

tchrist

2:09 PM

@Gigili The point is that it was not called "Iran" then, which is a modern nation-state. People confuse land with country.

Although perhaps calling Iran modern is stretching matterts. :)

Recent.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive title detected, potentially bad keyword in title (54): (potentially offensive title -- see MS for details) by KDay on english.SE

M.A.R.

@Cerberus Bam is in Kerman province, and roughly 1000 kilometers away. I'm almost as removed as you are about that incident

1300, according to Google

That's not to say Tabriz isn't ripe ground for earthquakes

Robusto

2:58 PM

Guys, can we dispense with all the acrimony in chat? Please?

2

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at beginning of body (42): “You go and dry yourselves while I polish the car.” or "You go and dry yourselves while I'm polishing the car." by fei on english.SE

Gigili

3:49 PM

@tchrist If I change my name, I am still the same person. But I understand how you might feel about it, an awesome country that has been denied by some governments for a long time, it is not easy to believe Iran is one of the most advanced ancient civilization in history.

2

tchrist

@Gigili I have studied ancient history not a little. That is not at issue. How do you feel about the forgotten United States cities of fifteen or twenty-five hundred years ago? Does this truly not bother you?

Cerberus

@M.A.R. Sure, you might be more likely to have relatives there than I!

M.A.R.

4:05 PM

@Robusto ew, you watch Tyler Perry?

Robusto

@M.A.R. I dunno what you mean.

I've heard the name "Tyler Perry" but I do not know what it signifies.

M.A.R.

Acrimony (film)

Acrimony is a 2018 American psychological thriller film produced, written, and directed by Tyler Perry. The film stars Taraji P. Henson, Lyriq Bent and Crystle Stewart, and follows a loyal wife who decides to take revenge on her ex-husband. Principal photography began in October 2016 in Pittsburgh. Acrimony was released in the United States by Lionsgate on March 30, 2018. It received generally negative reviews, and has grossed $46 million worldwide. == Plot == Melinda Moore is a steadfast, hardworking wife who supports her husband, Robert Gayle, an engineer trying to sell an innovative battery...

Just trying to lighten up the mood

Robusto

OIC

M.A.R.

@Robusto He's terrible

> Taraji will rise again, she always does. But enduing a full 120 minutes of this shitstorm takes its toll.
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

That review seals the movie's fate haha

Robusto

Ah.

FWIW, I have known the term acrimony for at least half a century before that film was ever made.

M.A.R.

4:13 PM

Excellent answer. I have to say, the pore selectivity in (for example) voltage-gated channels permeable to sodium or potassium but not both is something that I find to be one of the most remarkable feats in evolution. — Bryan Krause ♦ 24 hours ago

Well, how about parasites that reduce the predator aversion in mice and make them easier targets for cats?

(Which helps the parasite end up in cats and start its reproductive cycle)

I wonder what our microbiome does to us

Robusto

It's all down to cats, then. They are the culprits for all our current maladies.

Cerberus

Other parasites do this too!

Robusto

I still blame cats.

tchrist

@Robusto Doubtless the feline is mutual.

Cerberus

Cats are culprits, but the way they go about it is rather cute.

Robusto

4:17 PM

@tchrist They started it by accepting my largesse while still maintaining an air of feiline hauteur.

Robusto

4:32 PM

TIL that the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" vignette from the Disney film Fantasia was based on an Ancient Egyptian tale.

> Servant statues, called ushabtis (“I’m answering”), were intended to come to life in the next world and do work for the deceased.

Mitch

4:50 PM

@Robusto Tyler Perry is the bajillionaire actor director behind the whole Madea's Mad Black Christmas Vacation series.

tchrist

Elijah - "Baal, we cry to thee," "Call him louder," "Draw near, all ye people"

►

Mitch

@Robusto Yeah dude open a window

Robusto

7:48 PM

I just texted my son "Ping me when you're ready" (for a Skype call) and the phone "corrected" that to "Ping me when you're dead" ...

Sometimes I think these phones do that shit on purpose. They're secretly laughing behind our backs.

Cerberus

9:37 PM

@Robusto You should buy a new dwarf.

Robusto

@Cerberus Nevermore!

Cerberus

@Robusto Is that a fake one to discourage pigeons?

Robusto

@Cerberus If it's a fake, it's a pretty good one, since it preens and crows and hops around up there.

Cerberus

Cool.

It has all the electricity it needs.

Robusto

Also: no pigeons around here anyway.

Cerberus

9:48 PM

Good for you.

Is it The Raven?

Robusto

Maybe a descendant.

Cerberus

What birds is it scaring?

Robusto

Beats me.

Cerberus

Or is it art?

Robusto

I think it's just looking for roadkill or some other food. I saw it on my walk today and got a picture.

Cerberus

9:50 PM

Looking for roadkill?

Oh, you said "if".

Robusto

You know the term roadkill?

Cerberus

So it's real.

Robusto

Yes.

Cerberus

Yeah.

Dead deer it can pick at.

Robusto

Well, if so it's looking in the wrong place. There aren't any highways within a couple miles of there. I expect it's just looking for targets of opportunity.

Maybe it's just enjoying the sunshine, since we've had a few days of cold and snow and no sun.

Can Computer Algorithms Learn to Fight Wars Ethically? Probably not, since humans haven't been able to learn that yet.

All that will mean will be that humans have abdicated their ethical responsibilities entirely. If they ever had any at all, that is.

Robusto

10:53 PM

Also, you know, that whole SkyNet thing ...

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