English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

What if 30% of the population have already been infected?

Then you won't need 85% vaccinated.

They have not been.

Had they been, there would have been far more excess deaths. Do the numbers and you'll see.

What are current estimates?

Not sure.

I think the relation with excess deaths is complex.

3:07 AM

It is.

Here young people are the most likely to have been infected, and also the least willing to be vaccinated.

So they help with group immunity without dying nor vaccination.

I'm tired as well.

Huh, it might be as high as 20% of the populace have been infected already.

Some percentage of those are refuseniks.

And so will not become vaccinated. I can't guess the portion.

But it changes the figures.

Would be nice if crazy people are both careless and against vaccination: then a large percentage of those 20% will be refuseniks.

So the crazy and the young will probably be over-represented amongst the infected as well as amongst refuseniks.

3:11 AM

The 18–24 yo cohort are the ones who don't want to be vaccinated, and their cited reason is they don't want the vaccination side effects. This is stupid, as those are nothing compared with the actual disease.

> The term refusenik is derived from the "refusal" handed down to a prospective emigrant from the Soviet authorities.

Looks like I used the word incorrectly.

Well, it has become extended.

@tchrist Yes. But that means they are more likely to have already been infected. The overlap helps society reach group immunity.

> 2. colloquial. A person who refuses to do something, esp. as a protest.

Sense 1 is what you mention.

I don't like such extensions based on laziness or misunderstanding.

3:14 AM

Were you vaccinated just today?

If so, your morrow may be under the weather. But probably not.

I have one friend who had a strong reaction to the first shot, Pfizer, and a weaker but still call-in-sick one to the second. Most people it's the other way around.

But the mRNA ones have a somewhat different profile from the others, too. In any event, Moderna has more juice for your body to complain about than Pfizer has.

@tchrist Yes.

@tchrist OK we shall see.

And you're still awake. Well, you're young. The rest of us were very tired by nightfall that day.

So far, it's only the muscle that hurts.

Tired from the vaccination?

Yes, that was the same for me. I was just more tired than usual that night.

Yes.

I'm always tired, I think.

3:18 AM

And then by midday the next day I had to call it quits for the day at work so I could go nap.

I didn't feel "sick". Just very tired. The arm stopped hurting by the third day.

But tired means I can find even less willpower to go to bed.

My chair was spontaneously becoming my bed. It seemed imprudent.

I also drank a bit more than planned this evening.

Oh that does interfere with sleep. Biphasic etc etc.

@tchrist That only happens to me when I'm not mousing nor typing, except when I am extremely tired.

I do often get sleepy after drink.

But today no more so than usual.

3:20 AM

I was in a video meeting where the other guy was presenting something to me, and I was nodding off.

Hah, ouch.

Passively listening, yes, I might fall asleep then as well.

It's easier when you are the passive receiver.

Yes.

On the second shot, I really just didn't want to get out of bed much the next day. Took two naps.

Never felt sick-sick. Just tired.

But I have made progress by never drinking alcohol at the Concertgebouw.

@tchrist Interesting.

Does everyone get at least somewhat tired?

3:22 AM

There was some body-ache.

@Cerberus Everyone I know, including down to age 30.

I wonder whether I will notice such things amongst the various other factors that make one tired.

It makes it hard to think.

Like alcohol, sleep deprivation, and sleeping-pills.

Just like being tired does.

We'll see.

3:23 AM

Go to sleep!

I will brush my teeth.

I told my parents good night because I'm past my sleep-date.

And not shut down the computer yet.

Date?

I'm probably not clear enough of mind to understand that joke...

brushing...

time

date-time-stamp

I see.

And "told": just now?

3:26 AM

There's a "best used before" data stamped on many perishable foods.

A few minutes ago.

Hm, almost a half hour ago.

sleeps

Ah, OK.

Good.

They always stay up later than me.

Different time zone?

I can see you're tired by your case!

3:57 AM

Word of the day: barcharta (a dance preferred by statisticians)

> The total number of DNA base pairs on Earth, as a possible approximation of global biodiversity, is estimated at (5.3±3.6)×1037, and weighs 50 billion tonnes.

M.A.R.

5:15 AM

@tchrist It's more reasonable than what they would write after an assassination or something, but the traces of it are there, especially in the beginning. "Iran's regime is unique" is told to a western audience to call the regime "a unique threat", and used here to pander to the jingoistic crowd. In light of all the other generalizations (rising populists and chaos hardens the government etc.), I also fail to see how anything much is unique about our situation.

Of course, I'm not masochistic enough to ponder these things as long as any of these folks

9:26 AM

A 43-year old man jumped from a 5-storey window in Yekaterinburg. He survived. Lying on the ground waiting for the ambulance, he screamed that he is a harbinger of Apocalypse and the Son of God.

znak.com/2021-06-21/…

Another barbershop cropped up near my house

I wonder how they stay afloat financially, there are so many of them.

Where do they get all the clients.

9:44 AM

Main battle tanks per 100 thousand people

Why does Greece need so many tanks? It's an island nation.

It should have a strong navy.

12:04 PM

Will it play in Peoria?

Will it play in Peoria? is a US-English figure of speech that is traditionally used to ask whether a given product, person, promotional theme, or event will appeal to mainstream United States, or across a broad range of demographic and psychographic groups. == Origin == The question derives from a theme repeated by characters in Horatio Alger Jr.'s novel Five Hundred Dollars; or, Jacob Marlowe's Secret, which was first published in 1890. Alger was a best-selling author in the 19th century, especially among young people, and his books were widely quoted. In the book, a group of actors play in Peoria...

12:26 PM

1:53 PM

> Vetera analecta, sive collectio veterum aliquot operum & opusculorum omnis
generis, carminum, epistolarum, diplomaton, epitaphiorum, &, cum itinere
germanico, adnotationibus & aliquot disquisitionibus R.P.D. Joannis
Mabillon, Presbiteri ac Monachi Ord. Sancti Benedicti e Congregatione S.
Mauri — Nova Editio cui accessere Mabilonii vita & aliquot opuscula,
scilicet Dissertatio de Pane Eucharistico, Azymo et Fermentato ad
Eminentiss. Cardinalem Bona. Subiungitur opusculum Eldefonsi Hispaniensis

2:23 PM

Why are there no afraid mice?

2:37 PM

how do you study without a cooler now in Europe?

Shade? Breeze? By the way, "a cooler" will usually make an American think of a small box to store beverages and such in while on a camping trip or a picnic. We would say "without air conditioning" or just "without AC" for short. I very much sympathize with your situation because I suffered the same in high school. That's a significant part of why primary and secondary education normally takes the hot summers off.

@tchrist but there is a heater almost everywhere. a heater is also an air conditioner?

if this is in Chinese island, where there is no heater but there is always a cooler in any public office, everyone would just strike.

nobody can tolerate to work in an office without a cooler in summer in Chinese island.

if there is no cooler in Europe, it's better to be here in winter than summer because it's warm indoors in winter but it's too hot indoors in summer.

the weather is harsh here - in April it's still too cold outdoors but in June it has been too hot both outdoors and indoors, so it looks like only May has a habitable weather without needing heater nor cooler.

2:55 PM

@M.A.R. Yeah it doesn't seem that extraordinary in those respects.

3:18 PM

@Bohemianrelativist What is "Chinese Island"?

Mitch

@Bohemianrelativist The tech depends. Some things work only one way, like a space heater has electrical resistance coils which just produce heat, or a central boiler system which send hot hair or steam through a building, or a window AC which only produces cold air. But some machines like fuel pumps can do both heat -and- cold. The one way systems are the usual system, fuel pumps are more modern. The units you're used to at home are probably fuel pumps.

The single direction systems produce much more heat (or much more cold) than fuel pumps.

3:59 PM

I'm afraid of eating )) Feel full and when I eat something hard-to-digest, like meat or vegetables, I feel full and weak. Feels like my digestion is working very slowly.

Digestive enzymes in tablet form seemed to be helping, but still for the last several days I feel unable to work.

4:19 PM

@CowperKettle Any U.S. tanks still there? How about troops?

@Bohemianrelativist A fan helps. So does a wet towel over your shoulders. Or go the an air-conditioned place (maybe a large grocery oy department store, or coffee shop) and hang out.

Lidl sells mobile airconditioners for €200.

@Xanne but I need to study. I need a place with air conditioner to study.

They will probably help somewhat at least, in smaller rooms.

4:37 PM

My sister used a portable air conditioner in India. It works just fine. You have to stick a corrugated pipe out the window for the warm air to go out, and that's all.

@Xanne There are some US tanks, especially after Russia invaded Ukraine.

But not that many.

According to the latest poll by a high-quality sociology firm, 39% of Russians consider Stalin to be Russia's most eminent person in history.

Lenin is at second place with 30%

Poet Alexander Pushkin at third place with 23%

Peter the Great is at fourth place with 19%

Vladimir Putin is at fifth place with 15%

Ah, wait. It's not Russia's. It's "Who's the most eminent person at all, in history".

WTF.

There is even Adolf Hitler with 5%.

Albert Einstein got 9%.

Why not Jesus Christ? That's odd.

Or Alexander the Great.

He spread Hellenic culture as far as Afghanistan.

Napoleon I is at the same level with Hitler.

Napoleon was quite eminent. He established the first modern Civil Code of laws, for instance.

Curiously, Joseph Stalin peaked in 2008, the year when life in Russia was best. The economy had been growing for several years in great strides, and people felt like life was really improving rapidly.

4:52 PM

What connotations does the Russian word for "eminent" have?

@Cerberus Famous probably. I'll look up the precise word now

novayagazeta.ru/articles/2021/06/21/…

"Outstanding"

The word "famous" already sounds slightly less positive than "eminent", perhaps.

And perhaps "outstanding" even less so.

Probably the person who changed the world most noticeably, irrelevant of whether he was good or evil.

That would make sense.

Judging by books, Hitler was an outstanding public speaker.

5:02 PM

I'm not impressed.

Some people were...

That makes a big difference, assuming respondents seriously thought about it.

The wrong people, I should say.

While Stalin was outshone by all other Communist speakers. But he had one advantage. He really loved to install his people on important positions and spent a lot of time on bureaucratic stuff, while the other Communists considered this too boring.

LOL. In the Urals a man has been fined for "verbal abuse of authorities" after posting a message on the social network about "the baldheaded one".

Putin is baldheaded and thus some people try to avoid being fined by not mentioning him directly.

On the corner of Neva and Eva?

5:31 PM

Do songbirds get mad at hummingbirds for not knowing the words?

5:48 PM

I never heard of Bard College until just this second.

Bard College

Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District, a National Historic Landmark. Founded in 1860, the institution consists of a liberal arts college and a conservatory, as well as eight graduate programs offering over 20 graduate degrees in the arts and sciences. The undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 10:1. The college has a network of over 35 affiliated programs, institutes, and centers, spanning twelve cities, five states, seven countries, and four...

What has it done to gall Putin, I wonder.

6:34 PM

"Following the examination of materials, received on June 21, the Prosecutor General’s Office decided to recognize the Bard College foreign-based educational NGO undesirable on the Russian territory," the Office said. "It has been determined that the NGO’s activity threatens the constitutional order and security of Russia."
The decision was forwarded to the Ministry of Justice of Russia, in order to amend the list of undesirable foreign organizations. Currently, the list includes 34 organizations, with Bard College to become 35th.

I first thought it was a college named after Shakespeare

John Bard

John Bard (June 2, 1819 – February 12, 1899) was a Christian philanthropist who, along with his wife, Margaret Taylor Johnston, founded Bard College in New York, which was then known as St. Stephen's College, in order to train Episcopal Church ministers. == Early life == Bard was born in Hyde Park, New York on June 2, 1819. He was the eleventh of fourteen children born to Catherine (née Cruger) Bard (1781–1868) and William Bard, an attorney who was a pioneer in life insurance in the United States.Bard was descended from a family of physicians and professors. His paternal grandfather was Samuel...

6:59 PM

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

Why don’t my Wikipedia pastes show up properly?

@Xanne Because they are mobile versions. You should remove the .m. from the path

You probably are on the phone now.

On my iPad. But sometines it works. Thanks.

iPads are cool, my nephew-once-removed has had one back in 2015. I visited his house then. It was quite handy to use.

He probably has the latest version now.

Russian undesirable organizations law

The Russian undesirable organizations law (officially Federal Law of 23.05.2015 N 129-FZ "On amendments of some legislative acts of the Russian Federation") is a law that was signed by President Vladimir Putin on 23 May 2015 as a follow-up to the 2012 Russian foreign agent law. The law gives prosecutors the power to extrajudicially declare foreign and international organizations "undesirable" in Russia and shut them down. Organizations that do not disband when given notice to do so, as well as Russians who maintain ties to them, are subject to high fines and significant jail time. Critics say...

There we go. Thanks again @CowperKettle

7:14 PM

@Xanne you're welcome! (Pozhaluista in Russian)

9:42 PM

@Xanne when you need to exercise your brain, you need extra comfort.

if you don't need to exercise your brain, you can probably tolerate more hotness.

Mitch

10:08 PM

@CowperKettle It's not a well known college in the US. It is one of a number of small old private liberal arts (liberal arts = just humanities) colleges in the northeast of the US. They do tend to be in the liberal direction.

As to Putin, I don't think he randomly found out something about their reputation. I'm guessing some student group did something -in Russia- and that is the only connection.(specifically the NGO thing Xanne found.

Most of these private colleges were founded originally with some quasi- or outright religious purpose (it mentions Bard for training Episcopal ministers) but that was in the 18th or 19thc...that just doesn't apply any more. They're very secular now.