English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

12:36 AM

@M.A.R. Ah, what an odd subject.

But I have heard good things about his films.

Even though I am not a film person.

@M.A.R. OMG that diagramme.

What's the summary? Antibiotics can prevent or cure cancer somehow?

CowperKettle

> death, emigration, or December 31, 2016, whichever came first.

CowperKettle

1:58 AM

Newly negotiated two-state solution

Lovely, gentle & unfiltered.

Mitch

2:15 AM

@M.A.R. Don't the 'conditions' need to be right? Temperature, water, balance of elements, energy source?

@Cerberus well whales are related to chickens too but the scientific consensus is that the taxonomy shows that among mammals the cetaceans are nearest to the even-toed ungulates of which both cows and deer are members.

which are further away from odd-toed ungulates (horses, rhinos).

which together (plus other ungulates like elephants) are further away from rodents and primates and carnivores

Cows n shit

Cerberus

2:34 AM

Cetacea

Cetaceans (from Latin: cetus, lit. 'whale', from Ancient Greek: κῆτος, romanized: kētos, lit. 'huge fish', sea monster) are aquatic mammals constituting the infraorder Cetacea (). Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel themselves through the water with powerful up-and-down movement of their tail which ends in a paddle-like fluke, using their flipper-shaped forelimbs to maneuver.While the majority of Cetaceans live in marine environments, a small number exclusively reside in brackish water or...

@Mitch Oh, I see now that I was wrong.

I always thought whales were closer to deer than to cows, but in fact it's aequal.

tchrist

2:55 AM

@M.A.R. grieves

Cerberus

3:17 AM

Greetings.

How are things?

M.A.R.

5:46 AM

@Cerberus not cure, treat. Basically try to selectively kill cancerous cells, by various methods. And yeah, turns out we had antineoplanstic antibiotics as early as 1952 (actinomycin D) As for prevention, everyone of course has some vague guesses on how to decrease the likelihood of getting cancer, but it often just boils down to avoiding what's really carcinogenic, which is actually sorta difficult.

But if anti-cancer antibiotics are surprising, wait till you hear about bacteria, viruses, or parasites that induce cancer

Or how your gut flora is pretty important in cancer prevention (which is why antibiotics are a 'double-edged sword' in cancer, to quote a review article)

@CowperKettle Israel has vetoed two-state resolutions until the Oslo agreement literally just handed them everything. I mean, pretty sure the extremists in Palestine also don't want an Israel to exist, and by now it's sort of America all over again, though honestly probably less cruel. The native population gets to keep their lives or even clean Israeli toilets if they feel so gracious

@Mitch some of it yeah, I expect it's just not possible for life to happen in really high or really low temperatures, because the enthalpies and the entropies of the basic reactions only allow for a small variation.

Still, that range is probably bigger than the highest and the lowest temperatures recorded on Earth, so it could span over a couple hundred Kelvins. Not that small.

The starting element has to be carbon, but still, that doesn't mean the planet has to be made of diamonds or anything, Earth has very little carbon in its composition.

Not to mention there are probably billions of planets out there just like Earth, not 10 degrees warmer or cooler, just like Earth.

So it's again a bit like that "the laws are so because we're here to observe them" schtick

CowperKettle

6:47 AM

@M.A.R. I am pro-Israel, as you know. I don't know what this particular installment of the war is about - I mean the immediate cause.

CowperKettle

7:13 AM

I do not believe that Jews see Palestinians as some "low-caste natives". After all, they are all the same people, they only have differing religions.

But I have no energy to read in depth about the whole current story. The spread of Israeli settlements seems insidious and criminal.

My main fallback idea is "why Arab/Muslim countries just don't poor a lot of money into Palestine to make it rich". That should stop the conflict, and Arab/Muslim countries are awash with money.

The population of Palestine is just 5 millions, there must be enough money to provide for schools/hospitals/jobs etc.

Matt E. Эллен

8:41 AM

@Cerberus says the mythological figure

Faheem Mitha

10:10 AM

Hi folks. How is everyone doing?

CowperKettle

10:57 AM

@FaheemMitha More or less fine, but I'm having some troubles with stomach

Absurd chart of new covid cases in St. Petersburg

Flat as an ironing board

Faheem Mitha

@CowperKettle Sorry to hear that. Get some rest.

CowperKettle

Okay! I'll get some!

Faheem Mitha

@CowperKettle Also imaginary?

CowperKettle

12:23 PM

Mitch

12:45 PM

@M.A.R. What the hell then. Where are they all then?

@CowperKettle I think it is possible to be supportive of both sides.

@CowperKettle As to 'low-caste', yeah I'm pretty sure a large part of the Israeli populace does think of the Palestinians as ... well, that 'low caste'. And the government pretty much enforces that. But yes there is also a large proportion of the Israeli populace that doesn't approve of the treatment of the Palestinians. But they're not running the government.

CowperKettle

Mitch

@CowperKettle but 'same people/different religion, barely different' is not at all how people there think of it.

CowperKettle

1:03 PM

@Mitch Have you been to Israel, or do you live there?

Mitch

1:19 PM

@CowperKettle I lived there for a couple months and know a few people who are from there or lived there a significant amount of time.

M.A.R.

@CowperKettle I just know that Netanyahu is a corrupt piece of shit that stirs shit up to stay in power

Mitch

Corrus are the worst

Oh

Yeah all that is awful too

M.A.R.

Feb 27 at 2:29, by Cerberus

Many people want to dump them.

He is killing people, including Israeli civilians, to stay in power.

That's what it's called in every legal jurisdiction AFAIK

@CowperKettle you clearly haven't seen enough racists. Sharing the same number of eyes and limbs doesn't make them hesitate about anything.

Mitch

@M.A.R. what what is called?

M.A.R.

@Mitch actively provoking two parties to engage in a fight that gets them murdered?

Mitch

1:28 PM

@M.A.R. Exactly. I can't tell the difference between the Irish and the English (and the Scots and the Welsh and Essex Girls) but there's a good history of them all killing each other.

M.A.R.

@Mitch well turns out the universe is kinda big, so that's always data extrapolated from what Hubble has seen in a large-ish region

Mitch

@M.A.R. were you referring to this as 'corruption'?

M.A.R.

@Mitch no, "killing"

It's some degree of manslaughter

But since manslaughter degrees are not like burn degrees I can't remember jack

Mitch

@M.A.R. I think the speed of light is limiting communication. You could have all these bajillions of independently created life systems on all these planets, but the light-cone-bubble around each would never intersect over 14 billion years.

M.A.R.

The universe is flat

Prove me wrong

Well they're not that far, but right now they only have to be a couple of light years away to make reaching them sound implausible

Mitch

1:32 PM

@M.A.R. oh ok but that doesn't seem to be the right word then for Israeli's. He may be leading to their death by his leadership actions, but I wouldn't call that killing.

@M.A.R. That's cool. Jack probably can't remember you either so it's all good.

M.A.R.

There are even blue watery planets just like Earth, I don't think it's too rare

Mitch

@M.A.R. right.

M.A.R.

@Mitch he froze to death, or maybe died of shame for being outwitted by a ten year old

Mitch

but if we were writing science fiction...I bet civilizations that were at 2 lt yrs distance could, if not actually travel, they could communicate and transfer information.

@M.A.R. I think his problem is Alzheimer's, so it's even more tragic.

M.A.R.

Jack and Alzheimer were rivals? It's all coming together

Mitch

1:37 PM

I live in the US so all TV is bombarded with pharmaceutical ads mostly for diabetes or anticoags or Alzheimer's, and I forgot what I was talking about.

Oh...just remembered...

Nope

lost it again

M.A.R.

It must suck hating pharma

Mitch

oh, one of the constant 'memory-loss-prevention' drugs I keep seeing ads for is 'Premagen'

which

M.A.R.

Here the industry isn't all that big, so it's the purest thing ever

Mitch

which, as far as my internetting can show,...

is a total placebo.

M.A.R.

@Mitch IIRC that's just some supplement?

Yeah might as well say as good as a placebo

Mitch

1:39 PM

I don't think it does anything bad, but it actually does nothing at all, no clinical trials or clinical trials that show no significant improvement (I can't remember which)

M.A.R.

We're only beginning to understand neurodegenerative diseases AFAIK

Mitch

BECAUSE I"M NOT TAKING PREMAGEN

M.A.R.

And unless you find a receptor and make a drug that excites or inhibits it, supplements won't do jack

Because Jack is dead

Mitch

Charlatanism really bothers me.

M.A.R.

Yeah well here it's mostly just the population's overall lack of education and skepticism and alternative medicine

Mitch

1:41 PM

I mean outright killing is pretty much the worst (viz. our previous comments)

but assuming that one isn't a monster

M.A.R.

@Mitch if it makes you feel better there are charlatans everywhere

Mitch

or rather the killing kind of monster

Then charlatanism is up there.

M.A.R.

You just happen to have charlatans that have several million dollars to spend on ads

Mitch

Killing at the top

Abuse next

a couple more I can't think of

and then charlatans

get rid of those first few and the charlatans are the worst

M.A.R.

China has really pushed hard to get some herbs registered as "Alzheimer's cure" because in traditional Chinese medicine they were used for dementia

Mitch

1:44 PM

@M.A.R. I thought about that and I'm kinda leaning towards it not making me feel better

M.A.R.

Ginseng being one of them

You know what everyone's problem is? They all Google "Ginseng tea benefits", not "Ginseng tea side effects".

If it tastes bitter and is white, it's bad. If it tastes bitter and is a green leaf, it must be good

Mitch

@M.A.R. 'traditional medicine' is in a weird middle area. some of it is voodoo (ie magical thinking) some of it is charlatanism (profiting off of others credulity) , some is placebo (which is a nontrivial substantive good thing that can be used) and some tiny bit of scientific thinking that slips through.

But for the most part, it's horse shit

M.A.R.

Googles "horse shit benefits"

Mitch

@M.A.R. wait...what's the white stuff?

M.A.R.

Pills

Mitch

1:47 PM

@M.A.R. Tell me what you find. There's a lot of ... what do you call it... nitrogen and fertilizer stuff in there

@M.A.R. Oh. Pills can seem a bit magical and untrustworthy (especially with charlatans around) to people who are not thinking.

M.A.R.

Well I'm almost sure if it wasn't called that some of these green morons would try it as herbal medicine

It's mostly half-digested cellulose

Mitch

eg GMO has a bad name despite (for the most part) it having huge benefits.

@M.A.R. That's good fiber!

M.A.R.

Googles GMO side effects

Mitch

maybe have a few more!

M.A.R.

@Mitch right? Told ya.

Mitch

1:52 PM

@M.A.R. I'm pretty sure the only bad side effects are secondary or production properties, like monoculture (only using one variety which is poor planning for adverse events) or companies controlling markets with their own seeds which are not reproducible.

things like 'escaping monster genes into the wild' are plausible but I think are not actually doable at the moment, just sci-fi fears.

M.A.R.

I don't know much about modified food, but genetically modified bacteria are the future

Mitch

I'd like to be part of the future

at least until lunch time.

M.A.R.

Me too

Mitch

after that...

M.A.R.

We have a lot in common

Mitch

1:54 PM

well after that I want to be part of too

lunch tomorrow

M.A.R.

Quick, favorite color

Mitch

blue

M.A.R.

Honestly I don't know my favorite color

Mitch

you have to answer real fast without thinking about it

M.A.R.

Well it's always going to be blue or green

Red is too red and yellow is too yellow

Mitch

1:55 PM

When I was a kid, I remember thinking about that question, and thinking that greem was my all time most hated color...

M.A.R.

You were thinking of horse shit

Mitch

because there was this one cup colored this particular ugly green, so I associate the ugliness of that one shade with all green and with that question.

What I'm saying is that green is really in general pretty nice

and that one green was an outlier.

M.A.R.

I hate cyan

Mitch

But purple? Fuck purple.

JINX!

M.A.R.

Purple is not so bad

No u jinx

Mitch

1:58 PM

@M.A.R. I don't know about the horses where you from, but their manure isn't -that- green.

M.A.R.

I mean, dark purple is probably bad

But that violet indicator color

Which is just polite purple

Or potassium permanganate

Mitch

purple violet and indigo were invented by paint sellers to sell more paint.

also Newton

He totally invented the color 'indigo' as an in-between color between blue and violet because there was a gap on the spectrum there -just- big enough for another word.

M.A.R.

That's a conspiracy theory

Mitch

@M.A.R. oh -now- you get fancy with the science shit

M.A.R.

Newton would never!

Mitch

2:01 PM

Well...

he might

M.A.R.

Noooooo

Mitch

I mean he's no St Theresa

CowperKettle

@M.A.R. Saffron surprisingly turned out to be (probably) effective in depression psychiatrictimes.com/view/…

M.A.R.

Not Luke Skywalker 'no' nor Darth Vader 'no'

CowperKettle

> An early metanalysis of 6 double-blind RCTs, all conducted in Iran, encompassing 230 adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) brought forward compelling evidence for the efficacy of saffron as an antidepressant.[4]

Mitch

2:03 PM

@CowperKettle What's your take on the recent news about psychedelics used for depression?

CowperKettle

@Mitch It's very interesting. I'm unsure about long-term effects. But it would be interesting to read about the mechanisms in animal models.

Mitch

@M.A.R. Did DV ever say 'noooo...'? I thnk maybe that's a key to his problem.

M.A.R.

@CowperKettle oh I don't doubt many plants have medicinal properties. They're often sold as what they're not though. The whole point of making pills is to concentrate often herbal compounds, and to remove that extra stuff that will probably kill you

@Mitch you kidding me?

CowperKettle

I've just started a Russian page about copeptin on Wikipedia

M.A.R.

nooooooooooooo.com

Mitch

2:05 PM

@CowperKettle I feel like in the past couple months a lot has come out about micro-dosing, but t's hard to separate exuberance from science

M.A.R.

Was it 13 o's or 14?

Mitch

@M.A.R. Look man I havne't taken any premagen today. How do you expect me to remember?

was it Ani who said it?

M.A.R.

The internet was created as a replacement for Premagen

No it was Vader when, what, Luke fell or something I think

Mitch

@M.A.R. I clicked on that link and I am twelve and what is this

CowperKettle

M.A.R.

2:07 PM

@Mitch you're welcome

Mitch

@M.A.R. It's working

CowperKettle

They actually started laying off subway workers .. just for being Navalny supporters in their spare time.

Mitch

@M.A.R. link please

M.A.R.

@Mitch oh, it's from Revenge of the Sith actually. So you weren't far off.

Anakin Becomes Darth Vader - "Noooo" Scene | Star Wars Revenge of the Sith (2005) Movie Clip HD 4K

►

I dare say you are eleven and what is this

Mitch

@M.A.R. Oh. Yeah... I guess I wasn't paying attention. I forgot about that.

I wasn't taking premagen at the time

People spout off these lines from classic movies. I can never remember them. All I gt out of the movie is some cloudy 'eh, it was OK' feeling.

or for more nuance 'eh, it was all right'

Like with Transformers all I remember was that Shia LaBeef's mom was pretty funny but the action scenes with the graphics hurt my eyes.

Matt E. Эллен

2:21 PM

I'm tired of all the nuances. What was wrong with the oldances?

ConGovDeIn

4:38 PM

@CowperKettle Hello. I just heard that some 57 nations which are Islamic are going to held an emergency meeting on 16th May related to Israel’s air strikes on Gaza. However, when I was talking to someone on this issue, he said that these 57 nations have this feeling that Russia might support them and there would be a treaty between Israel and them. How come they want arbitration of Russia in this?

CowperKettle

5:17 PM

@ConGovDeIn I've no idea

CowperKettle

5:37 PM

Word of the day: asterixis (It can be a sign of hepatic encephalopathy, damage to brain cells presumably due to the inability of the liver to metabolize ammonia to urea.)

> Corsair points out that when DDR5 settles into the marketplace, mainstream motherboards could accommodate 512GB or even 1TB of memory.

I remember upgrading my PC from 4 Mb of memory to 8 Mb

After that, I could easily launch "Comanche" without fine-tuning the autoexec.bat and config.sys

Comanche 1993 - 2020 Graphics Evolution

►

M.A.R.

6:20 PM

@ConGovDeIn That is because Israel can absolutely take on these 57 nations on their own, and that also probably most or all of these nations are only helping Palestine to save face.

CowperKettle

M.A.R.

So I think it's pretty obvious why they plead to Russia, because the enemy of my enemy is my friend even if they're antireligious communists

@MattE.Эллен that's ageist

CowperKettle

6:46 PM

> "The First Cell" is the title of a revolutionary book written in 2019 by oncologist Azra Raza from the Columbia University Medical Center. In it, she calls for a radical shift in cancer funding away from its current predominant focus on late stage treatments, and towards early detection of what she calls "the first cells."

With that in mind, his new theory suggests that dreams happen to make our understanding of the world less simplistic and more well-rounded—because our brains, like deep neural networks, also become too familiar with the "training set" of our everyday lives. To counteract the familiarity, he suggests, the brain creates a weirded version of the world in dreams, the mind's version of dropout.

An AI-inspired theory of dreams.

M.A.R.

7:31 PM

@CowperKettle interesting perspective

I dreamed I was being chased by a lion and I woke up with sweat and an elevated heart rate

I thing it's fair to say I do lack being chased by lions in my life

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