English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2021-04-21 (page 1 of 2)

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12:00 AM

So you can simply convert from Catholic to Orthodox. Or to Islam.

In Italy, for example, you have to pay the tax no matter what church you associate with. Could be Orthodox or Buddhist or Hindu. Or even none at all.

Doesn't matter.

You still have to pay the same amount to the state, indicating which church it should then pass it onto.

If you absolutely don't want it to go to any church, you can let it go to state wellfare. But you can't not pay it.

> If the choice is not expressly declared on the tax form, the tax is distributed according to the percentages of the taxpayers who have declared their choice of beneficiary. While it was intended that the state should use its own share of the 0.8% tax for social or cultural purposes, in practice it has employed it for general purposes including its military mission in Iraq in 2004[18][19] and the upgrading of prison infrastructure in 2011.[20]

Well, the Italian definition of "welfare" applies, I suppose.

I'd rather pay for the upkeep of the Cologne cathedral, frankly.

@MattE.Эллен nah, it's not you, that's just English law.

Thou shalt not make a fuss.

Srsly tho, I once tried hiding under the bed myself, but then I remembered there were monsters in there.

So these days, I just close the browser instead.

2 hours later…

Bohemian relativist

2:41 AM

I am going to sleep.

the coming day will be a sunny day again.

3:18 AM

Russian scientists have found the Sputnik V vaccine 97.6% effective against COVID-19 in a "real-world" assessment based on data from 3.8 million people

3:30 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in link text in body, blacklisted username, blacklisted website in body, potentially bad ip for hostname in body, potentially bad ns for domain in body, +2 more (332): Every action in NBA 2K21 is deliberate and also at higher levels of play by Dingbest on english.SE

4 hours later…

7:14 AM

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An SMS I received today: Dear citizens of Yekaterinburg! Today due to important measures the center of Yekaterinburg (streets such and such) will be closed to traffic from 18:00

Supporters of Navalny plan to hold peaceful rallies in the center starting from 19:00

So the authorities will just cordon off the central streets, creating the mother of all traffic jams. People will find it hard to get home on their cars.

7:42 AM

Got the second shot today

But it was Sputnik, not Sinovac o.o

COMMUNISM PROTOCOL ERROR

Speaks in a mixture of Chinese and Russian

According to this article it won't kill me, but

I was really looking forward for the third-worldness to botch it up and they did it in the most unpredictable fashion

@CowperKettle paywalled

BTW that "real-world" analogy is probably not unscientific, if quoting it might shed some bad light on that. It just means it's a phase-four study

@M.A.R. This is strange! Was the first shot also Sputnik?

@M.A.R. Congratulations! I had a fever for about a day after the second shot.

Paracetamol really helped stop the fever

Paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, is a medication used to treat fever and mild to moderate pain. At a standard dose, paracetamol only slightly decreases body temperature; it is inferior to ibuprofen in that respect, and the benefits of its use for fever are unclear. Paracetamol significantly relieves pain in acute migraine but only slightly in episodic tension headache. However, the aspirin/paracetamol/caffeine combination helps with both conditions and is recommended as a first-line treatment for them. Paracetamol is effective for post-surgical pain, but it is inferior to ibuprofen. The...

8:02 AM

@CowperKettle no it was Sinovac, told you

@CowperKettle Yeah I'm really looking forward to it

@CowperKettle We often call it the American name, acetaminophen, here.

Every country, well by that I mean the few countries that come up with new blockbuster drugs, has an officially approved name, which can sometimes conflict with another country's for ubiquitous drugs like acetaminophen

@M.A.R. Then this is very strange. Combining two different vaccines. Hm. Sputnik comes as two different shots with slightly different mRNA vectors.

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Matt E. Эллен

@Bohemianrelativist Yes, that is fair. a psychologist could help you with that.

@CowperKettle Your friendly neighborhood military

The center of Khabarovsk, cordoned off by the troops to prevent people from gathering for a pro-Navalny rally today.

In the newsfeed, a slew of arrests throughout Russia. For instance, the head of Russia's Schoolteacher Union was detained today.

Matt E. Эллен

@Bohemianrelativist I have not found that with psychologists, but I can believe that there are ones out there who are not suited to the role.

@RegDwigнt unless a royal dies, and then you must make all the fuss

3 hours later…

10:51 AM

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Matt E. Эллен

😂

11:28 AM

RIP Jim Steinman.

Meat Loaf - You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night) (PCM Stereo)

Céline Dion - It's All Coming Back to Me Now (Official Extended Remastered HD Video)

Bonnie Tyler - Holding Out For A Hero (Official HD Video)

Matt E. Эллен

RIP indeed

12:00 PM

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Shapiro is full of shit but this is genuinely funny

Bohemian relativist

12:15 PM

@MattE.Эллен I have got rid of that kind of person. I hate to deal with that kind of person. It's just now I need to find good people to interact with.

I think a counselor cannot help you with that. I used to talk with a counselor about a puzzle in my undergraduate time, that's also a problem with coping with a person I regard/mind. I think this is only important point - only if that person you deal with is the one you mind or regard or care do you need to find a way to deal with them unless you have somehow dependent on or controlled by or affected by them. But I finally I didn't regard him anymore, so that problem isn't my concern at all.

actually I prefer to call them listeners rather than counselors, because they don't really give advice or guidance - they just listen.

during that talk with that listener, I told her my problem with dealing with my home host, who is a narcissist, I think. But that listener can just say:"you can solve the problem in the future by moving out when you make money." See, everyone knows that, so the listener didn't really give any advice or guidance at that time - when I didn't have money to move out and had to deal with that narcissistic home host.

that's what happened in the long past, when visiting that kind of listener was free. Afterwards, several years ago, I found visiting that kind of counselor in that city becomes fee-required (that fee isn't cheap) unless the reason for which you seek a counselor there is you have immediate life danger. I wonder if there are a substantial number of people who visit them if those counselors don't improve their level by giving helpful advice or guidance but can just listen.

I also found a data about the education of people visiting that counseling institute - the number of people visiting a counselor there dropped with the level of their education. There were not many people with MSc visiting there and the number of those with PhD is even far rarer. Most of people visiting there were teenagers. So maybe that kind of counselor can only help teenagers.

12:56 PM

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To prevent people from gathering for a pro-Navalny rally in St. Petersburg, the authorities ordered the streets to be washed. Despite the rain.

Bohemian relativist

that psychiatrist I visited last month is not interested in my problems, I think, because he hasn't replied my message for like 2 weeks.

Bohemian relativist

1:13 PM

after BSc, people either pursue graduate studies or work in industry, and since then, their problems are not easy for a psychologist to solve.

but I think if a teenager has a problem with their host family, a psychologist cannot also help unless she can find a finance source for that teenager because the obvious solution is moving away from that family home, but teenagers don't usually have money to rent a house.

> I thought I saw a flying German sausage, but it turned out to be a seabird. I took a tern for the wurst.

1 hour later…

2:25 PM

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/04/20/wat-wil-poetin-aan-de-zuidgrens-a4040625
These analysts do not think Putin is planning any big military invasion of Ukraine.

2:44 PM

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@Cerberus This is good.

In his speech today, he did not make any announcements about Ukraine. So I guess there will be no war.

Fingers crossed.

Navalny supporters designated this pedestrian crossing as the gathering place, so there were a lot of police around, not allowing anybody near.

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This was my 72nd run this year.

At this rate, I'll finish the year with 1500 km of mileage

I'm glad that they put Navalny on an IV drip of glucose.

This will decrease his potassium levels.

And he will stay alive.

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Yevgeni Roizman on a pro-Navalny walk today

Roizman is the last elected Mayor of Yekaterinburg.

After him, all mayors were appointed by Putin.

Because he is anti-Putin.

And even spoke out against the invasion of Ukraine in 2014. That takes some courage.

He took part in the IronStar race several years ago: 3 km of swimming, a full running marathon (42 km) and a 180 km bicycle ride.

I would just collapse after 42 km of running.

It took him 14 hours to complete the race.

My longest run ever lasted for about 3 hours.

Every Saturday, he holds a jogging event in the center of Yekaterinburg, after which the participants go and have some tea with pierogi (pies with different fillings)

3:10 PM

I like pierogi.

Is it plural?

I thought it was Polish, by the way?

@Cerberus Yes, it's plural

Pirog (Russian: пиро́г, IPA: [pʲɪˈrok] (listen), pl. pirogi пироги [pʲɪrɐˈɡʲi]; Belarusian: піро́г; Northern Sami: pirog; Latvian: pīrāgs pl. pīrāgi; Ukrainian: пиріг pyrih, pl. pyrohy пироги) is a baked case of dough with either sweet or savory filling. The dish is common in Eastern European cuisines. Pirogi (pl.) are characterized as "ubiquitous in Russian life" and "the most popular and important dish" and "truly national goods" of Russian cuisine.The name is derived from the ancient Proto-Slavic word pir, meaning "banquet" or "festivity". The Russian plural, pirogi (with the stress on the last...

It must be the general Slavic dish

Polish/Russian/Ukrainian/Belorussian etc

@CowperKettle Oh, is that what they look like in Russia?

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I am used to their looking like this.

Good to know they're plural. Wouldn't want to eat just one.

Ah. I seel. What the Poles call pierogi the Russians call vareniki

And the Russian pirogi is a different dish.

And Ukrainians too

> Varenyky in Ukraine are a popular national dish, served both as a common everyday meal and as a part of some traditional celebrations, such as Christmas Eve Supper

3:44 PM

Yeah I read that was the Ukrainian word.

But I'll eat all of them, no matter the origin.

3

4:01 PM

I will abstain from some of them. I'll now try to decrease my cholesterol

4:14 PM

Man jailed wrongly for 14 months, now owes $4,000 for his stay.

> But as David Allen Jones finally walked free, his life in ruins, the Clark County Detention Center handed him a bill for $4,008. Citing a 2000 state law, the jail demanded that Jones help pay for the cost of his incarceration.

Are we going back to having debtor's prison then?

Do people who were wrongly imprisoned not receive huge sums of money?

@Cerberus Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

I would assume it's in the law?

Different states have different laws.

Matt E. Эллен

@Robusto lol @ going back to

4:25 PM

Hmm.

> De Amerikaanse Craig Coley krijgt 19 miljoen euro schadevergoeding omdat hij 39 jaar onterecht heeft vastgezeten.

Matt E. Эллен

the number of people in prison because they can't afford a fine is non-zero

True.

@Cerberus You don't automatically get paid. You have to win a settlement in court.

In Holland, you'd get much less than 19 million! More like 1–2 million.

@Robusto Oh, that really sucks.

Should be automatic.

Here, I believe the rate is about €80–105 per day.

A lot of laws in this country should benefit the poor. But they don't.

I'm sure some people are trying to work on improving these laws.

Let's hope they shall succeed eventually.

4:30 PM

For some reason the USA has a fantastically high rate of incarceration

The late, unlamented Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court Justice, said that an innocent person could be convicted of a capital crime could and should still be executed even if it were subsequently proven that they were innocent. That is American justice.

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@Robusto Why would he say that?

The prison population in the USA would make Lavrentiy Beria proud.

@Cerberus You'd have to ask him. But if I had to guess, I'd say it was because he was a right-wing asshole who also believed Christianity should prevail in this country as a higher law than the Constitution.

@CowperKettle That is certainly true. The size of it anyway.

4:34 PM

@Robusto Honestly, it sounds like something that may have been taken out of context.

It's what various media often do.

@Cerberus Perhaps. But it would not surprise me at all if that was true. It would surprise me more if it weren't.

It will probably be more like, we don't need to reopen the case when certain new evidence has emerged.

Just an example of an unreasonable opinion.

Would it surprise you that Scalia's death, which happened in 2015, Obama's term, left a vacancy that Mitch McConnell refused to even consider filling until Trump took office nearly a year later?

Alas, no.

Judges should never be appointed by politicians.

Here, I think they officially are, but in practice the courts choose their own candidates.

Still a lacuna that needs to be fixed.

Sometimes I despair of any political process being any good at all.

The only thing I can do about that is go ride my bike. Which I will do forthwith. Later, everyone.

4:40 PM

Some things need to be determined by politicians. Hard choices.

Have fun.

Politicians will always try to grab as much power as possible.

In a properly functioning system, they cannot.

I think it depends primarily on whether the population is active. Once the population stops being active, any system can be hacked by politicians.

4:57 PM

That helps.

Democratic systems need time to develop.

5:16 PM

@CowperKettle It's something that's arguably happening everywhere in the world with a few European exceptions

I think most rich countries are still fairly stable democracies.

Only Arabia and China are not, although those are not rich depending on your criteria.

@Cerberus So few European exceptions.

I'm not sure what you mean.

Oh, and Canada, I guess

I just think denialism and all this nonsense in the US is because education suffered in the 80's

Could be.

But America is also fairly stable.

Not compared with e.g. Spain or Japan or Korea, but still quite stable.

5:20 PM

So now the breadwinners don't have the knowledge to ascertain which politicians are manipulating them worse

I'm not sure they ever had.

I mean, apparently before the 80's the education was better in that regard it seems

But, yes, it has problems.

Could be.

People weren't taught about DNA and Pluto not being a planet but they were taught to see manipulators better. Maybe not by schools

A properly functioning civil society is a complex thing, depending upon many factors.

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I think this is American public opinion.

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All somewhat stable.

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Public opinion seems to be tentatively shifting back towards higher taxes.

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I wouldn't necessarily say the average American is getting crazier.

5:40 PM

I think that's a pretty short timescale, innit?

P.S. the question isn't framed in a way as to measure any sort of craziness. You could have some brainwashed Trumpsters yelling "Heck no it doesn't, we'll nuke 'em if we want, YEAH"

The last one is short, yes.

Of course such polls should be read with big lumps of salt.

But still, the idea is prevalent that doom is upon us and the past wasn't horrific.

Sure, I wasn't being alarmist

Oddly, this idea tends to come up again and again in history.

I was actually comparing it to what I know of several generations ago

It's hard not to trip with all the golden age fallacy stuff

Haha yes.

The Greeks liked it, too.

5:54 PM

@Cerberus Isn't China most stable?

@Cerberus All it takes is one moomaw in the banana patch flrmglrf to throw off the average

@M.A.R. those kinds of crazies are -everywhere- in -every- nation. it's just the US ones somehow got a mouthpiece

6:39 PM

@Mitch sure, and they won't ever completely go away. I was wondering whether their rise have had anything to do with the regression of the school system

The shot's location is itchy and it's driving me crazy

At least it doesn't hurt

@M.A.R. where do you get this 'regression of the school system'? is that only in the US?

@Mitch well yeah, mainly. Schools in Iran don't have the potential to affect global affairs as much

@M.A.R. For me it felt like some one had punched me in the arm really hard, like two days ago. That is, slightly sore, but only if I move it or sleep on it.

but that same feeling lasted for three days

That was the last dose for me

It was because I clenched the muscle while buttoning the shirt, I think

This time I left it as limp as I could

@M.A.R. separate the regression from the effect. but also, aren't politicians everywhere undereducated idiots?

6:48 PM

@Mitch Not politicians, they're malicious and too far gone. I was referring to people. I think the previous generations would have spat at today's Trumpsters' idea of conservatism

@M.A.R. Not entirely irrelevantly, I have a fun and disgusting medical story to tell

They would have called its bullshit before it gained roots

@Mitch 'course you do

I have fun stories of mine, probably too many to tell.

@M.A.R. Italians voted for Berlusconi. The Brits voted for Johnson. The Canadians voted for ...well some of them voted for Ford. The French voted for Sarkozy. The Russians voted for Yeltsin. I don't think you could give a cause and effect for 'school problems in the 80's US resulted in Trump' with any sort of reliability.

@M.A.R. Yours are for real. Well mine happened but very petty.

So here goes.

So it seems like when I was a kid every thing resulted in a visit to the ER or the fear of it. Setting up a jump for you bike like Evel Knievel, setting off firecrackers embellished with glue and dirt clods and plastic army men.

..being taunted by a sibling through a locked door with a glass window so as a natural response you start crying and ramming the window with the side of your fist.

Of course it broke.

Didn't shatter.

But it broke the window.

Why does my arm feel all wet?

I blame it on my sister.

Anyway, off to the emergency room with a towel around my wrist.

The doctor was so professional (but in hindsight he was probably barely 25 years old).

@Cerberus This is not the 2nd story I promised about my sister a few months ago. this is more like a 3rd one. And I haven't told the 2nd one so you haven't missed anything. But I didn't want you to miss this 3rd one. Which is being told 2nd.

So to continue...

where was I?

something about a doctor?

@Mitch I guess not.

oh. the cut was really small, but it was bleeding so needed stitches.

maybe 2

everybody brags about 'oh I had a hangnail and I picked it out with my teeth and it was so bad it needed 20 stiches'

or 'Or I had a brain transplant and it needed 25 stitches'

(which is idiotic of course because you get a -body- transplant, not a brain transplant)

so the doctor gives me a shot of novocaine near the site. omg do those shots hurt.

7:02 PM

@Mitch Oh nice, that same question I asked about my foot after I kicked a glass instead of a football . . . soccerball, whatever you yankees call it

@Mitch Also can relate

and then he says "OK don't tense up this will go a lot easier if you don't tense up" as he plunges his suturing needle in.

What do you think I did, relax?

That anaesthetic shot before the dentist does funny things to your teeth and they vaguely ache

Oh man they're aching now

Of course not. I did what he told me not to do. As kids will do.

So I sprayed him with a fine line of blood.

That's it. That's the whole story.

Well mine involved five stitches I think so my wound is 2.5 times as cool as yours

I bet that guy felt dumb

7:05 PM

Blood isn't gross. What is this, zombieland?

He probably had glasses so he didn't get any in his eyes.

I mean I didn't laugh

at least not then

because he effing jabbed me with a needle

They deal with the sprinkling thing a lot in the operation rooms

@Mitch Always a good profession for sadists

but afterwards I cold at least appreciate that what he told me was stupid.

Yeah everyone knows you distract them by asking them about their love life

He should have said 'Hey, this is gonna hurt a shitton. So bad you're gonna pass out.'

@M.A.R. We don't call it anything because those European sports don't really exist.

7:08 PM

Imagining small Mitch saying "well I love grash an' running an' dinoshaurs an'- OH SHIT"

@M.A.R. I was like eight years old

It's painful trying to recall what I interjected as a child in such situations

My love life consisted of whether I'd get a puppy or not.

Probably just AAAAAAH

@Mitch well that's a long enough thought for the needle stabbing

@M.A.R. I remember going out to the woods to secretly say out loud all the profanity I could. It started off 'STUPID, IDIOT,... uh... dumb? ... uh ...' and because I was eight I really didn't know anymore.

7:10 PM

MEANIE

I probably wouldn't have reached that far, TBH. I had a pretty sterilized childhood

@M.A.R. Or what was more likely in that situation is "What do you mean my love l...OWWWW"

@M.A.R. How dare you!

(And TBH I think I'm the better off for it even though I'm discovering I kinda hate people maybe)

Hmm... that's a good insult, but I don't think I felt I would have gotten in trouble for that. I think I was scared of saying 'stupid'.

Like you read a story about medieval princes and what, and are like "let's see the good in people" and stuff. But IRL, all of that breaks down

@M.A.R. I think that's a rational response since people in general are awful.

7:12 PM

I can't concentrate on the good

@M.A.R. Royalty are the actual worst.

Well that's one thing that usually doesn't change between real life and good stories

Just because they're wearing some idiotic (and I mean that in the worst possible way) gold medal, we're supposed to be deferent to them?

But I think that I don't get much of a kick when I hear some guy has a cancer charity or something, but it gets one idiot to ruin the day if I bother to keep arguing with them

@M.A.R. There was that one prince who wasn't so bad.

I can't remember his name

7:14 PM

Zuko

Also that rabbit in Watership Down

No he was awful. Even if he turned around to become on the side of the good, he still had a dark heart.

That's racist

@M.A.R. Fiver?

Hmm. He was a prince, right?

You can't convince me any of the characters John Hurt voiced aren't

@M.A.R. that whole whatever you call it.. ethos? essentialism?... is racist.

7:16 PM

Even John Hurt

and obviously the fire nation is evil

because FIRE duh

But he had a bad childhood and cool hair.

Unlike the hero of the story

Watership Down, for whatever qualities that entertained me as a child, is all kinds of Churchillian conservative.

The recent animated movie made that clear

Lots of fun seeing rabbits trying to outwit cats. But still pretty conservative.

Well I guess it is

It's just sort of left the bad things unsaid though

2 hours later…

8:59 PM

'Bottle opener' is surely a single lexeme, no matter how transparent its recent etymology. I'd expect to see it listed as a separate headword rather than under either of the progenitors. // While your answer refines the analysis, it does not address the 'why' (certain combinations have ended up the preferred choices). — Edwin Ashworth 9 hours ago

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Apr '2121

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