I really hope I can have more time to use.

I hope I have a time inflation machine.

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at beginning of answer (34): What's the verb for troop movement, when a unit of soldiers travel by foot together? ✏️ by Benjamin Harman on english.SE

@CowperKettle “After administering oxygenated perfluorocarbon enemas to anaesthetised mice with intact rectal linings, the researchers put them in chambers with a restricted oxygen supply, to see what would happen.” Today I learned that Bruce Willis needs to remake The Abyss.

@tchrist It IS. Does = female deer.

@user21820 That doesn't work. It's just an eye trick. It's not in the real language.

@M.A.R. Hmm. K. I’ll give it a try

@M.A.R. Have you served in the military?

Etymology of the day: t-shirt -- from Tyrannosaurus rex (due to the species' short hands), also known as T-rex, hence t-shirt

@SrijanM.T what a random question. No, I haven't

> Military service, where active duty can last up to 24 months, is compulsory for males aged between 18 and 49, although a person can volunteer from the age of 15. There is no alternative to military service in Iran and conscientious objection is not recognised.

OMG. From the age of 15? O_O

Insane.

I personally would increase the minimum age to 24 or 25

I am glad that I did not have to serve.

@CowperKettle Pretty sure no one volunteers

People are not really having a bout of patriotism these days

Compulsory service does suck, to be honest.

In the Russian army, there is a lot of brutal hazing. People are commiting suicides due to severe beatings and intimidation by other soldiers, or take up arms and kill other soldiers. The army is like a prison.

But a nation that keeps yelling at the world and considers itself constantly threatened can't not have compulsory military service. I know Israel and probably China also have it

@CowperKettle Oh, I doubt it's anything that dramatic here, maybe because everyone has to serve at one time or another

It often just mostly means compulsory service as a chef in some police station or something

My schoolmate went absent without leave in Tyumen in 1995, and visited my flat there together with his army friend. He said he had accidentally broken the windshield of a crane car he was operating. His officer told him to go AWOL, steal a new windshield in the night, and bring it to back.

The worst part about it is I think how it's a gigantic waste of time

But I dunno, I won't ever serve

In the Russian army in the 1990s the service lasted 2 years. The second year soldiers were called "old men" and the first year soldiers were kind of their slaves.

The first year soldiers were sent to beg in the streets, then go and buy illegal weed in the suburbs for the old soldiers, and bring it back to the barracks.

Heh, sounds like the stereotypical western high school with bullies

. . .

Maybe a bit further than that

If an officer came to the barrack when soldiers were smoking weed, he was told to fuck off.

Only a really tough officer would know how to deal with such soldiers

But the pay was so low that all really good officers had fled the army.

The army was a real cesspit.

Is it compulsory?

Yes

Then I dunno what to say

My friend was punished by being told to clean toilet bowls with a toothbrush

I wouldn't be surprised that if anything drastic was happening to soldiers here, no one would have talked about it

And also to do push-ups on his hands, plunging his head inside the toilet bowl (which was level with the ground)

@M.A.R. This hazing dates back to the 1950s in the USSR, when the GULAG system permeated all facets of life

All that suicide talk and depression and worrying for the youth of the country is such a Western pseudoproblem for the majority of people here

My dad recalled how a bunch of old soldiers from Central Asia were going down the corridor, coming into each barrack and heavily beating up every first-year soldier.

One by one.

But I haven't seen any evidence of that

That was in the 1960s

My cousin has just finished serving his 2-years. He was a cook.

One of my contemporary friends finisheed serving his 1 year.

The current time is only 1 or 1.5 years.

He was quite happy there.

So mabye in the recent years it has gotten better.

He was a tank crew member.

Here it's two, but as I said, it's always seemed to me to be 'come work for the police essentially for free for 2 years'

Oh. It's only 12 months now.

@M.A.R. In the Soviet times, it was 2 years in the army or 3 years in the Navy.

Because it took longer to learn your ropes in the Navy.

My paternal grandpa was a midshipman in the Far East Navy, by the way ))

Well, two entirely different nations

I look at the map and I'm intimidated by Russia.

His boss in the navy stole a train wagon worth of army goods. My grandpa signed a document that helped him steal the goods.

So my grandpa landed in a prison camp for several years.

I think our regime hasn't ever been so intimidating, so even if they wanted to, they couldn't instill the culture of suppression under dictatorships

There is alternative service in Russia, but the authorities make sure you will find it very, very hard to get directed there.

You would have to prove that you're a devoted pacifist.

Run through a bridge unarmed and bring back wounded soldiers?

No, you would have to prove that you've been a real member of some well-established pacifist religion for some time.

Or something like that. It's very hard, almost impossible to evade army in this way.

@M.A.R. K.

Hamas has built tunnels with more than 100 entries. A whole network. And has fired thousands of rockets. Had it spent all this money on schools and hospitals for Palestinians, that would have improved their lives significantly.

@M.A.R. There are dictators in just about everything, including English.

???

Yekaterinburg has hit a record high temperature for a third time in a week. Today is officially the hottest-ever 16 May, at 32°C e1.ru/text/spring/2021/05/16/69917063

@user21820 I have no idea who you're sniping at but it's probably not me

Memes in ELU chat? SACRILEGE

Now that's better

@M.A.R. Lol that meme was unrelated to my comment to you.

@M.A.R. But indeed, natural scenery is much more beautiful than most of what humans have done.

@user21820 like taking pictures of natural scenery, Those pesky hairless monkeys

@Yashas contributions of what? Can you give us more context?

Right now I'm not sure the sentence makes sense. Probably not the right choice of prepositions.

I would phrase it as "the difference between the contribution(s) of bananas and pineapples to world peace is minimal."

@M.A.R. A protein is a long chain of amino acids (think of them as constitutents of a protein). The amino acids interact with each other and all the interactions together determine properties of the protein. Here, the contribution refers to how much an amino acid contributes towards the protein's stability. It can be expressed as a numerical quantity.

"the difference between predicted stability contribution in the reference and mutant proteins is Z" is the full sentence

I think there should be an article before "predicted".

@Yashas I know what a protein is, but the format is "something contributes some other thing to some third thing" You need to clarify what these are.

@Yashas the difference between the predicted stability contribution to the reference and mutant proteins is Z.

I should think.

If something is giving stability to reference and mutant proteins.

Hmm, I used "in" because the amino acid is in two different environments: reference and mutant proteins. "to" would also work I think.

As for whether it should be singular or plural, I think both should work, but the singular flows better

The difference between the predicted contribution of stability by the funny-looking serine aminoacids to the reference and mutant proteins is Z

"predicted contribution of stability" sounds a bit odd to me.

I think some people prefer "contributions" if they can break them down to, say, being from different sources or differently explained theoretically

@M.A.R. Yes, I was wondering about the same. We can think of contribution as one aggregate numerical value or as a bunch of interactions that together contribute towards stability.

@Yashas either form works, but if you're ever looking to beautify your writing, not having so many trailing adjectives is usually recommended

@Yashas even then the singular form wouldn't be wrong, some author might want to treat all them as a single item (the aggregate)

@Yashas better yet, why not "the difference in the contribution of X (aminoacids) to the stability of the reference and mutant proteins is predicted to be Z"

@M.A.R. Hahaha... anyway here's another language joke:

Greetings! How goes **it?

Been away for too long. My English has atrophied.

@Yashas I do not think it is good to omit the source of the contribution. "The contributions of A to X and Y differ by D." Plural is the right way, as the natural parsing of the English tells you.

@Færd Greetings!

What's with the asterisks?

@user21820 Hmm what's the the bracket?

@Cerberus It's because Russians who use emoticons have been observed to have a tendency to remove the eyes.

@user21820 Ah, how amptutational of them.

LOL )))

@Cerberus It's to avoid saying shit.

Have you been vaccinated?

@Færd Oh, I see.

Did it work?

No, they are now vaccinating people born before 1960 here, I think.

@M.A.R. I didn't know there was a stereotypical Western high school? I should think there are vast differences between Western schools in this regard.

@Cerberus Apparently not!

@Cerberus That's... 60 years ago. You're 15 years ahead of us.

Yeah, censoring rarely does.

@Færd Hmm let's hope you will get more vaccines soon!

How goes shit then?

No real changes!

I was wondering, the other day, where you were.

While considering the fluency of our Persian regulars.

Oh. There are so many of them now!

I've been busy with university.

Trying to get my act together I guess.

Well, not that many...

Oh, dear.

How is university?

What are you reading?

Yeah. It's not fun. Mostly I feel I'm wasting my time.

I mean, what programme do you do?

Poli-sci

Oh, that is a pity.

Can you switch?

Oh, I have to be off for a bit, someone needs putting to bed.

Umm I'm thinking about making a switch to political economy after I finish this program.

And move abroad, probably.

That's cool

@Cerberus Talk to you later

@Færd Do move here!

@Cerberus Haha I wouldn't be able to strike up a conversation in a taxi or café there, would I.

Like those are the most important thing in the world. But I'd like to be able to live and grow in the language of the people.

Plus isn't it a bit cold there most of the year?

@Færd The reason why it is difficult to learn Dutch is that everyone will reply to you in English here...

Yeah that's to be expected!

No the temperature seems mostly moderate!

So you would be able to converse with anyone.

Yes, we have a sea climate and the Gulf Stream sends us warmer weather.

Of course it is much colder and rainier than Tehran.

Okay I'm convinced I should consider Holland!

Yay.

Is it humid too often?

Most winters, there will be a week or two below zero, I'd say.

It is always humid, though not so humid as in the tropics.

Cool.

In Summer, we usually get maybe a week or sometimes two over thirty degrees.

We go below zero easily in winter, and sometimes in spring.

And easily over 40 in summer.

Impressive.

We touched forty last year, for the first time in recorded history.

Oh shoot I remember. It was like a shock wave for Europe.

A heat wave.

I think climate change does not only increase the average temperatures, but it also causes more peaks.

And higher peaks.

Yeah. It makes some climates more chaotic and loony.

Some others just boringly morbid.

@Færd But you can learn Dutch if you make an effort. It just doesn't come as easily as in most other places, because people tend to switch to English.

@Færd Which others?

You know I already learned to say hi and bye. But I've forgotten.

Hah.

@Cerberus Maybe some hot dry ones just become hotter and drier?

Like in desert areas.

I have a Brazilian friend who likes to speak Dutch with me. And his Dutch is not bad, but it just feels more aequal if we both speak English.

@Færd Yes, probably.

On the other hand, the vast Russian tundras may become viable land.

I'd feel embarrassed to put that burden on people's shoulders.

To make them uncomfortable in order to learn their language.

Heh.

If somebody likes it, that's another matter for sure.

It's cool if it is for a short while.

And I like teaching some stuff.

Uh-huh. Or in a language exchange.

Right!

But you're a teacher by profession, right?

Yes.

Though not a teacher of Dutch.

That's like giving free rides after a day of work.

Hah.

Doing some easy work for a friend for free can be enjoyable.

Sure.

What works is living in with a Dutch family.

I've heard of such arrangements.

Where young women lived in with a family and took care of the babies and did some chores in exchange for a chance to acclimate to the culture and learn the language.

Yes, as an au pair.

But that would probably not be right for you.

Heh yes.

My brother has a male au pair.

But he is 18.

So there are other arrangements of living in with a family?

It's strange for me to think about. I'm not sure if I'd feel comfortable.

I'm not sure.

Maybe attending a school or university where they teach in Dutch would also work. But then you'd have to know some Dutch already.

Yeah I'd need to commit to it for a few months at least.

I think, if you make an effort, you can learn the language without any of those things, just by talking to other people every day and studying, and taking some courses.

The big advantage is that you can move without learning any Dutch first, as you will be able to function in society with just English.

It will be hard to find a white-collar job, without speaking Dutch, but I think there are quite a few companies where you can get by just speaking English.

Ah. Learning a new language is a daunting task.

I guess I'll try to find good programs first and see where they take me.

I think, if you want to move to Holland or Scandinavia, you won't need to learn the language beforehand.

But, yeah, better see what programmes they have at home that suit you.

I have friends who live in Germany or France and they haven't learnt the language.

I wouldn't miss the chance though. But they're getting along fine.

I was trying to work on the various political and economic aspects of granting citizenship to some of our Afghan immigrants as my thesis. Professors are not interested.

I'm afraid I'll have to compromise and work on something that's not a question that's genuinely bugging me.

But I should throw in some econ if I want to switch to political economy later.

@Færd I'm sure they are! Especially if they don't plan to stay for more than a few years, it's OK. But many people end up staying longer and regret not learning the language (sooner).

@Færd That would probably be very well received here!

I mean, that subject.

@Cerberus The au pair is 18, or your brother?

@Xanne The au pair.

If my brother were 18, he'd probably not need an au pair to watch over him!

Nor would he be able to hire one.

Right...18 seems young for an au pair.

Why?

I mean, do you mean for the age of the au pair?

It's the normal age here.

Between high school and university.

@Cerberus I know, right? Migration an interesting subject.

You could get at surprising results:

> When we randomly match a high- with a low-educated immigrant from the same country, more than one-quarter of time the low-educated immigrant has a higher hourly wage

sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/…

> Immigrants thus exhibit a 80% higher entrance rate into entrepreneurship. Moreover, immigrants do not just start many small firms; rather, they start more firms of every size.

kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/jones-ben/htm/…

@Færd In which country is this?

I also think it depends very much on the place of origin.

But, still, a surprising result.