I think yours is only a little crazier.

A parody on congratulatory pictures usually sent by old Russian relatives via WhatsApp

@CowperKettle They're just saying that when the Russian bear and the Korean magpie together mount the white lion of England, the world is graced with purrfect rainbows.

@CowperKettle Yes, well. That's Thomas Friedman for you.

In the 1940s, men dressed in shorts and cowboy boots served up to women at a drive through in Dallas, Texas "Log Lodge Tavern"

Imagine jelly beans that taste like chicken.

Creators of the Sputnik V vaccine have created pilot versions of the vaccine adapted to the newest covid strains tvrain.ru/news/…

Good news. I hoped they would do it.

@Mitch You forgot the Wagner operas.

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at beginning of body (40): Indianisation of "Thank You, M'am" written by Langston Hughes by Sayak Banik on english.SE

> Lilliputian hallucinations are not as harmless as traditionally assumed

@CowperKettle does the person see themselves to be small or others? Or both?

And are any sorts of hallucinations harmless?

Hey @M.A.R. Hope you are having a good weekend.

@M.A.R. Yes, there are harmless hallucinations. In periods of grief. Well, they are not associated with decline of brain function, like in schizophrenia.

@FaheemMitha hello there! Our weekends are Fridays actually, but I'm doing great, staying home, these walls seem whiter than before

So they can be conditionally termed harmless

> Biologists found a marine green algae during a trip to the island in 2019. It took two years to identify it and give it a name: acetabularia jalakanyakae. The main feature of the species is that the plant is made up of one gigantic cell with a nucleus

I wonder if all these "caps" are a single cell. Or maybe each cap is a cell.

@M.A.R. Whiter than before?

@FaheemMitha I'm being silly. It's been more or less the same these past two years.

Except I first lost weight, and now have gained some.

@M.A.R. Oh. But I assume you meant something by it.

Lots of staying indoors, I suppose. Have you been vaccinated?

@FaheemMitha yeah but two shots aren't enough for transplant patients and delta and lambda are masaccring the population

@M.A.R. You should go to your doctor and request an additional dose

Might work.

@M.A.R. We're expecting a third wave here. Only a minority of the population have been vaccinated. The govt has been handling the vaccinations really terribly. The vaccines are available, but only if you go to private hospitals and pay. This is by design.

@M.A.R. How many shots do you need? How many have you taken, and which ones?

@CowperKettle there's a vaccine shortage. Once the ministry of health approves that a third dose will be necessary we'll get one. Otherwise I'm not sure, because we don't have antibody tests in Tabriz and my request would not be based on individual data.

@FaheemMitha Are there no government-paid vaccine campaign in India?

In Yekaterinburg, there is a stockpile of 200 000 available vaccine doses.

People are really medieval and don't want to get vaccinated.

It's beyond me.

@FaheemMitha two shots, one was Sinopharm, the other Sputnik V.

BRB

@CowperKettle The govt divided the vaccines between free (purchased by the govt), and non-free (purchased by private entities). At least here, there is a shortage of the free ones. Also excessive waiting times. Current costs are Rs 780 (Oxford/AZ), and 1250 (The Indian BharatTech one).

You can't have a vaccine campaign without vaccines.

In Russia, more and more factories are retooled to produce Sputnik V

India has a really powerful pharma industry, so I'm sure they will ramp up production.

Rs 780 is a lot of money in India.

@CowperKettle Again, this is by design (I think). Presumably you are aware that Indian's central govt is currently run by a gang of fascist morons?

780 rupees is 779.23 Russian rubles.

Hindi Russi bhai bhai so to speak

@CowperKettle The ruble and the Rupee are almost on partity? Huh?

@FaheemMitha It was a surprise to me too

Yes, weird. But maybe temporary.

I'm guessing a ruble is not a lot of money in Russia.

A loaf of bread is 30 to 60 rubles

A monthly salary is 30 000 to 60 000 rubles

@CowperKettle Here a loaf of bread, as of today, is Rs. 40.

@CowperKettle That would be a pretty nice salary in India.

At least, most of India. It would not go far in Bombay.

I recall the time when there were just two types of bread. Nowadays, there are dozens.

@CowperKettle The Indian Govt. has restricted the BharatTech vaccine manufacturing rights to a few manufacturers. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure what they are. They're calling it Covaxin.

I buy black bread that has seeds and dried fruit embedded in it. It is delicious.

And there are many types of dairy. A dozen types of cottage cheese.

@CowperKettle My cook buys something basic and boring. Not sure if they are better things available. Maybe or maybe not.

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at beginning of body (40): Indianisation of “Thank You, M'am” written by Langston Hughes by Sayak Banik on english.SE

@CowperKettle Same with cheese.

My cholesterol is elevated, so I switched to zero-fat cottage cheese to get my protein.

I will try to bring cholesterol down by diet.

scroll.in/article/993257/…

Some discussion of the BharatTech vaccine IP.

@CowperKettle Oh hmm. I guess still by definition they're not really that harmless, because losing grasp of reality can be dangerous in doing sensitive activity.

Sorry for leaving in the midst of the conversation BTW

@M.A.R. I thought one was not allowed to mix different vaccines. Are those two-shot vaccines, or single-shot?

@FaheemMitha If Odin appears at them at all (is he even mentioned) he is at most tangential. I would go on to say that the Nibelungenlied is just a bunch of made-up bedtime stories to keep little kids in line, but then you would reasonably counter that -all- of those other guys are too.

@M.A.R. aren't all dreams essentially hallucinations? or rather they are the same mental process just expressed under different circumstances?

theintercept.com/2021/08/17/…

Thank you, Americans, for using yet another completely clueless instrument which will now be used to identify anyone who worked with the government or foreign troops.

Their completely disregard for privacy, and their complete lack of any plans for the future of the country they invaded, will now probably get a ton of people killed by the Taliban.

They may have given the Taliban the ability to use the same surveillance society that they instituted, and identify anyone retroactively.

@Cerberus That's interesting. Can you tell me more about so I am like an average chatbot?

@Cerberus Remember the discussion about "objective + [be] + verb-ing"? It seems like there is some difference in usage between BrE and AmE.

40 days from now, there will be trouble. Last time, cases went up sharply in the last days of September. I would expect the same this time.

> seem to be asleep

vs

> seem asleep

In an old book by AS Hornby it is written that "to be" can't be omitted.

But I have found examples without "to be"too.

> Outside the AccorHotels Arena, it was a perfectly average November Sunday in Paris. The city seemed asleep beneath a heavy blanket of fog that rendered the top half go the Eiffel Tower indecipherable.

From The Washington Post

> It was already late; not a sound; not a breath; the air itself seemed asleep

From The Immoralist by a French Author Andre Gide

> The wizard seemed asleep, but with lids not fully closed:

From The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

@FaheemMitha well we've had this conversation before . . . CDC used to say don't, now says shouldn't, and I think the primary reason is not that they would certainly be ineffective, but that the effect is unpredictable and the data sparse on it.

I've learned it's apparently not that rare at all. Heck, even centers in Canada seem to operate this way: They tell you what you're going to get, but you'll get the vaccine they have available on that day and you can't choose.

Hii guys

I have decided to study in Germany for my undergraduate for year 2022

I am from India.

@Mitch I don't think so. It's probably misleading to define hallucinations as just 'seeing things that aren't there'. In dreams your brain is working, granted, doing something it doesn't do during the day but still, things are balanced, the hormones and transmitters more or less function correctly and you see things long after your sensory input has shut down. In hallucinations, something is definitely off-balance, I think.

If anyone of you are studying in Germany. It would be very grateful of you if I can talk to you about it. I need some guidance.

So even if a normal person can hallucinate because of trauma or grief, their brain is so off-balance it's like a pathogenic state, but the balance isn't lost and things would hopefully more or less go back to normal

@M.A.R. I'm no sleep or brain specialist but it seems the opposite of misleading to me, I'm helping people understand that they actually are the same - whatever imbalance you might think is there in a hallucination is the same kind as in dreaming.

Which is to say that I expect that any kind of pharmaceutical or surgical modification that would result in change in hallucinations (reducing them or creating more) would affect the quantity and strength of dreams.

@Cerberus Nay, for surely the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Agency would never render inhumanitarian aid to the Taliban! 1, 2, 3.

@Mitch True, the Norse goda actually hardly appear. And I'm hardly familiar with Wagner anyway.

@Mitch All religions (and a lot of other things) are made-up bedtime stories to keep little children in line.

@M.A.R. I don't recall that conversation.

@M.A.R. I see. Here they won't let you do that. As far as I know. I have not tried, but it all seems very bureaucratic and fixed.

@S.M.T Probably not the best place to be asking about this. Probably good decision, though. I would have thought there would be better and more on-topic forums. But you'll need to get a reasonably good working knowledge of German first.

@FaheemMitha Ok. I know they ask B2 level in German language minimum.

@S.M.T Did you want to ask about people's experiences in Germany, or did you have some specific questions?

@FaheemMitha Yes. Into that. Did you go from india too ?

@S.M.T I've never studied in Germany, but I am Indian.

@FaheemMitha But also there is an option that if I study in India for 1 year in college , I don’t have to do studienkolleg + I’ll have practiced German language much better. That is one option. But I personally wanted to go with the procedure that they accept my JEE rank( Entrance exam for college admissions in India) after which I wont need studienkolleg

@FaheemMitha K.

@S.M.T OK, sounds like you need a specialised forum for such questions.

@FaheemMitha Ok. Can you recommend me one pls “

Maybe try asking the universities you are interested in if they know of suitable forums.

@S.M.T No idea, sorry.

@S.M.T You realise that living in Germany is very expensive, right? And I don't think you will be permitted to work. Though maybe I'm wrong. In any case, that strikes me as the single biggest issue from my bystander perspective. I've lived outside India. It's quite different. Never lived in Europe, though.

@S.M.T Try doing a search for "studying in germany forums". This brings up a bunch of stuff.

The second link here appears to be India-specific.

@FaheemMitha Yes.

@FaheemMitha But I’ll be going in public uni.

@S.M.T Still costs money, though.

Which will cost me around 400 ,500 euros at max for s semester = 50-70000 rupees

@FaheemMitha If you compare it with india , I think it is better to spend this much money in Germany.

@S.M.T Is it that cheap? That doesn't sound like very much money for Germany. Are you planning to share a room?

India doesn’t have a well settled system for students except IIT,NIT.

@FaheemMitha Exactly. You should check it too. It’s too cheap for public uni.

That's the kind of money homeless people probably receive to keep them off the streets.

@FaheemMitha Also , even a job of janitor , carpenter is very well paid in Germany.

That’s the best part.

@S.M.T I definitely think studying in Germany is a good idea. Though of course I don't know you, so take that for what it's worth.

IIT or nit will be like 1.5 lakh

They are the hardest uni to get into.

@S.M.T I'm not sure I follow. Are you talking solely about living expenses? The education part is all free, correct?

Other all are so Costly.

@FaheemMitha Yes tuition fee is 0

Living in Europe will also be a good cultural experience.

@FaheemMitha Only other educational cost = 400-500 euros. This is the cost in TUM. Best uni in Germany

@FaheemMitha Exactly . Only problem is with what is the procedure. It is quite complicated

@FaheemMitha If you check , many Indian students prefer Germany as top 5 locations for abroad. Mostly middle class. Like me 😅

@S.M.T What is the 400-500 euros for, then? If not for tuition?

lthough you can study for free at public German universities as an undergraduate, there is a charge per semester for enrolment, confirmation and administration. This is typically no more than €250 (~US$290) per semester, but varies depending on the university.

Europe is a much better place to go to than North America these days. At least, IMO. Good place to travel and meet people.

Maximum as I have know is is 500 euros

@S.M.T I see. That's still quite expensive for an Indian, though.

So 500 Euro a year for fees, approximately? How about living expenses?

So education is not actually free, then.

@FaheemMitha I think similar

@FaheemMitha Sorry to keep you waiting . Had gone to make tea for my mum

@S.M.T So what is your estimated total cost per year? Not that it matters, just curious.

@FaheemMitha Overall or I should say complete expenditure for 1 year including all things is like 2 lakh.

@S.M.T What is that in Euro?

@FaheemMitha Also , you are allowed to do job which can get you around 40,000

@FaheemMitha Rupees

Still, that actually sounds quite cheap.

@S.M.T Yes, I know. What is that amount in Euro?

@FaheemMitha Also , you are in the best uni.

@S.M.T Oh, I was wrong then.

@FaheemMitha You can just you google converter for that. I don’t remember

@S.M.T OK.

@FaheemMitha As I know , all jobs are Germany are well paid. Every job has its respect.

@S.M.T Well, relative to India, sure.

@FaheemMitha If you can get any help. Then do contact me pls.

Rs 2 lakh is approximately 2,300 Euro.

@FaheemMitha What are you doing ?

Job , which country ?

@S.M.T I live in India. I don't really have a job. Keep meaning to look for one.

@FaheemMitha Studying in college ?

@S.M.T Nope.

@FaheemMitha What’s your stream ?

Computer science , mechanical or else ?

@S.M.T Stream?

@S.M.T Two math degrees, one statistics degree. I can also program and stuff. Why?

@FaheemMitha Just asking .

@FaheemMitha Interesting & amazing. See you later. Babye

@S.M.T Bye.

Guys , I am going to start practicing for essay & letter writing practice form Tom. I needed some help since I do no have someone who can check up my writing. Is there any other way I can check it or I can put them on this site or sth else ?

Thank you.

@WhoSaveMeSaveEntireWorld What is your guess?

@CowperKettle: They look identical, I think.

@WhoSaveMeSaveEntireWorld Then you should get your eyes checked out.

A and B are transitive. C is intransitive.

The object of A is the subject of B, and vice versa. C has no object.

It is as Zeno wrote of the race between Achilles and the Tortoise: just because the race of snails is inferior to the race of rabbits doesn't mean the snail is doomed to being served up on a steaming platter of escargot to the racist gourmands waiting at the end of their race.

@tchrist Thank you. I meant the meaning is identical.