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12:05 AM
@CowperKettle In Latin American countries you're not supposed to flush the toilet paper. Instead, you put it in a bin next to the toilet.
 
 
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1:31 AM
> "He was a man of honor & integrity," Troye wrote of Powell on Twitter. "Trump's disgusting & vile statement about Powell is another blatant reminder that he doesn't care nor have the capacity to understand and respect those who serve our great country."
 
2:06 AM
@Robusto What, exactly?
 
2:54 AM
 
@FaheemMitha He took his own life. Everyone was devastated. We made an annual award named for him. Yes, it's the best reference for that.
@CowperKettle hilarious
 
3:34 AM
@CowperKettle The best dinner.
Cat waited until everyone was looking into the camera.
 
 
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5:24 AM
> The researchers found activation of the hippocampus and the anterior medial temporal lobe when the sleeping children were played words they had previously learned. This activation correlated with how well they had performed when they initially learned the words a week earlier. medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10-brain-toddlers-memory-words.html
 
 
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7:15 AM
Eating black licorice for 2 weeks in a row killed a 54 yo man nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMcpc2002420
 
@tchrist Very sorry to hear that.
 
 
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10:26 AM
@Robusto The Former Guy](urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=TFG). I only just learned that one the other day. I use a different word for the F.
@Cerberus he was caught sexting with underage girls (and caught again after being convicted). But also he was an outspoken NYC area representative -and- his (now. former) wife was the primary aide to Hilary Clinton during her campaigns. (all this in the few years before Trump.
 
 
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11:42 AM
Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera (; c. 22 BC – AD 40) was a Roman-Phoenician soldier born in Sidon, whose tombstone was found in Bingerbrück, Germany, in 1859. A historical connection from this soldier to Jesus has long been hypothesized by numerous scholars, based on the claim of the ancient Greek philosopher Celsus, who, according to Christian writer Origen in his "Against Celsus" (Greek Κατὰ Κέλσου, Kata Kelsou; Latin Contra Celsum), was the author of a work entitled The True Word (Greek Λόγος Ἀληθής, Logos Alēthēs). Celsus' work was lost, but in Origen's account of it Jesus was depicted as the...
Probable father of Jesus Christ
 
12:33 PM
@Cerberus What it says in the article I linked.
And what Cowperkettle's image showed.
The article I linked just provided corroboration.
 
1:31 PM
@Mitch I should think sexting is rather irrelevant to his political career?
So I don't see why that should be in his obituary.
By the way, what age is 'underage'?
And at what age is 'sexting' (what is it even?) a crime?
 
1:47 PM
Anthony Weiner is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from New York City who has been involved in multiple sex scandals related to sexting. The first scandal began when Weiner was a Democratic U.S. Congressman. He used the social media website Twitter to send a link that contained a sexually suggestive picture of himself to a 21-year-old woman. After initially denying reports that he had posted the image, he admitted that he sent a link to the photo, which was described by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as an "erection barely covered by a man's underwear" and by iPolitics as...
 
I think sex scandals are generally not worth the paper they're printed on.
 
@Cerberus The second incident mentioned says the girl was 15. I'm guessing theat under 18 it's a crime
 
A crime, under 18??
15 is a bit young, but, if it's only messages, who cares.
 
@Cerberus It's scandalous (literally in the wiki title)
I get your point, but sex transgressions aren't so ignorable if you're on the receiving end.
 
I mean literally, who cares?
It has nothing to do with someone's policies or points of view as a politician whether or not he sends a dirty message to a girl.
Why should I want to read about it?
 
1:53 PM
I chose this example because of its borderline nature. Some (like you) might consider the whole thing overblown. But the story is the -only- thing he'll be remembered for. So does it go in the obituary or not? To not put it in would be near blindness to reality, but on the scale of sexual crimes, it's not the worst.
 
I consider it gossip.
 
@Cerberus I don't disagree but that behavior is a transgression (and by the news, a crime in the US)
 
Even so, I don't think it's relevant.
 
@Cerberus Yes, it's very gossipy
So no mention of it in his obituary?
Mention that there was a lot of scandal in his life but don't mention the details?
 
@Mitch None, indeed.
@Mitch Perhaps if it was relevant to his political career.
 
1:58 PM
@Cerberus It was totally relevant in that it caused him to lose one election and then because of a felony conviction he did not (or could not?) run again.
 
Because of a somewhat strange socio-political system. But OK.
Mention that there was a scandal, then.
I mean, things like corruption or bad policies, those should be in any analysis of a politician's life.
Because they are about that which makes him noteworthy: politics.
 
Should mention of corruption or failed policies be mentioned in an obituary?
(of course surely in some non-death related analysis)
 
Possibly, if they are important.
 
Then you would agree that mentioning Colin Powell's involvement in the Gulf War II should be in the obituary?
 
If he played important role in it, then yes.
If he did bad things, be factual.
 
2:03 PM
I guess I wouldn't call him a war criminal (which is very debatable) in the obituary, or rather that would be wrong to put in an obituary.
 
It would be wrong unless it were true.
 
Some consider his approval of the invasion of Iraq to be a 'bad thing'.
 
If it was important, that can and probably should be mentioned.
 
@Cerberus now it's 'semantics'. he's not a convicted war criminal, and the label war criminal is applied a bit too wantonly. But one could consider death counts and chain of command and he'd be on the list of people responsible and so 'war criminal' is not a crazy thing to consider.
 
@Mitch If he was not convicted as such, then the term should definitely not be used in a serious piece, let alone an obituary.
Semantics is an academic discipline or sub-field.
 
2:08 PM
@Cerberus we're debating here what journalism schools have taught future obituary writers many times over. I was initially tarted the conversation about twitter comments
 
@Cerberus You're using the semantics of 'semantics' very narrowly
 
I'm not using semantics!
 
It depends on what you mean by 'using'
and ''m'
 
@Cerberus Sexting is illegal limerence
 
2:09 PM
and '!'
in fact, how dare you.
@CowperKettle limerence is evanescent and non-reified
I bet @MattE.Эллен has a limerence about that
 
@Mitch I'm using neither semantics nor phonology at the moment!
Nor even comparative linguistics.
 
My obituary will have in it: 'Considered obituary contents problematic'
Or maybe that's my epitaph
Don't put anything on my tombstone, just let it be blank.
Let that be my epitaph.
"Don't put anything on my tombstone, just let it be blank."
 
Noted.
What stone would Sir like to have?
 
Oh
uh
I'm not particularly ready right now.
how about just a couple pebbles?
Oh..I have a story
about epitaphs
that can wait for a nother time
so at the moment I only have two outstanding stories to tell
(true stories)
(things that actually happened)
I can make up stuff anytime.
 
2:31 PM
Oh, really.
 
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, potentially bad keyword in body (96): write about your daily life by user436655 on english.SE
 
> Hilf, Herr meines Lebens,
dass ich nicht vergebens,
and a couple pebbles,
hier auf Erden bin
 
@Mitch Obsessions have come and have gone / Like Jacob had with Bella Swan / Reciprocation / of infatuation / is not something you can count on
2
 
2:53 PM
> Moscow's mayor announced four months of stay-home restrictions for unvaccinated over-60s on Tuesday and the Russian government proposed a week-long workplace shutdown as the national death toll from COVID-19 hit yet another daily high.
 
Let's hope it will work.
Why won't Putin allow the import of foreign vaccines?
 
3:12 PM
@Cerberus Because the WHO does not authorise his Sputnik vaccine
 
I don't see the conexion...
 
And it's because the authorities botched the proper testing and manufacturing process rules.
@Cerberus Putin wants the Russian vaccine to be "admitted" and "approved" by the West.
He thinks that the malicious West refuses to authorize Sputnik on purpose. To hurt Putin.
And this is his reply to 'the West'.
If he lets foreign vaccines to be freely sold in Russia, he will have admitted that the Sputnik vaccine was rightfully turned down, that the trials were run poorly, paperwork was done poorly, and manufacturing protocols were written poorly and Good Manufacturing Practice rules were not satisfied.
This will be contrary to all the blaring propaganda that started saying in the summer of 2020 that we're the first with the working vaccine.
 
@CowperKettle I would certainly not interpret it as such.
It could mean Sputnik is fine but Russians happen to be distrustful, so just let them have foreign vaccines.
 
3:39 PM
23-yo Siberian boxer Ilya Medvedev killed a bear that attacked him and his two friends on a fishing trip.
The bear first attacked a 48-yo man, and killed the man.
Then the bear attacked Ilya, but he managed to deal him several blows with a knife.
The third man loaded Ilya into the boat and delivered him to the medics. He is now in intensive care in a very serious condition.
The bear has died.
By coincidence, the surname Medvedev means "of bear", with medved standing for bear
from medu/medv - honey and ed - to eat
> Bear taxon names such as Arctoidea and Helarctos come from the ancient Greek ἄρκτος (arktos), meaning bear,[7] as do the names "arctic" and "antarctic"
Oh! So the word arctic also is cognate with bear
> The word Arctic comes from the Greek word ἀρκτικός (arktikos), "near the Bear, northern"[4] and that from the word ἄρκτος (arktos), meaning bear.[5]
 
3:58 PM
 
4:10 PM
@CowperKettle I don't think the forms 'arctos' and 'bear' are cognate. I think all Germanic varieties of 'bear' are cognate with the color 'brown'.
 
4:23 PM
Yes, I meant not the etymological root but the meaning of 'arctic'
Genetic variations that predispose to depression may also predispose to elevated inflammation jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2785322
 
4:39 PM
A 42-yo Moscow woman got her two daughters infected with covid on purpose, believing that she would then get infected from them, and will get immunity, because "it's best to carry the disease in an easy form". Her friend was having a mild covid, so she brought the two girls to her, and they stayed for several hours at the friend's flat.
After this, her 9 yo daughter got so severely ill with covid that this daughter was put into intensive care.
But later the daughter recovered, and is now in the general department of the hospital.
The woman herself got infected from the daughters, and died of covid.
 
5:04 PM
Wow, there's a whole huge article on Wikipedia. I googled for "emotion prediction error" and came across it.
Affective forecasting (also known as hedonic forecasting, or the hedonic forecasting mechanism) is the prediction of one's affect (emotional state) in the future. As a process that influences preferences, decisions, and behavior, affective forecasting is studied by both psychologists and economists, with broad applications. == History == Kahneman and Snell began research on hedonic forecasts in the early 1990s, examining its impact on decision making. The term "affective forecasting" was later coined by psychologists Timothy Wilson and Daniel Gilbert. Early research tended to focus solely...
 
@CowperKettle That's very bad luck.
 
Yes, dying is considered a sign of bad luck in Russia
 
How quaint.
This is also quaint, someone 'disinfecting' pillars and pavement in a Russian train station.
 
In the spring of 2020 our building was sprayed this way a couple of times. It was clearly very moronic.
 
Apparently, this still happens in many countries...
 
5:12 PM
In Yekaterinburg, it ceased almost instantly, there is simply not enough money for this
Despite all the efforts, daily vaccination rate hovers at 250 thousand, this is probably the maximum achievable value, and not for long.
 
@CowperKettle Yes, it is a huge waste of time and money, and alcohol can be carcinogenic, so why spread huge amounts of alcohol fumes?
@CowperKettle It seems to be going up a bit...
Why the peak in July, by the way?
 
@Cerberus Because vaccines became available in big numbers then, and because infections peaked then, and the government required a certain proportion of workers in some businesses to get vaccinated
 
No requirements later?
 
Since only about a third of Russians actively wanted to vaccinate, the rate petered out
About 40% still say that they will not vaccinate even if forced to.
 
Hmm.
This is not good for the spread of 5G.
 
5:22 PM
The FSB and the Army are not allowing cellular operators to use the better radiowave ranges for 5G, so it won't be adopted soon here.
The ranges allowed for use are only suitable for ultrashort distance use.
So, 5G in Russia will only appear in the center of big cities.
Maybe some bribes, really big bribes, will help solve the issue. I don't know.
To me, 4G is good enough. But I like the idea of ultra-fast Internet.
@Cerberus You see, the Russian vaccine was available since November 2020. President Putin's press-secretary Dmitry Peskov did not get vaccinated, and fell ill with covid in May 2021.
Russia is full of antivaxxers.
Today Mr. Peskov said that he won't get the vaccine yet, because "my antibodies are still high".
You see, Russia is full of uneducated people.
 
Alas.
 
More than that! I hope you're sitting down. Dmitry Peskov was carrying a kind of pseudoscientific amulet around his neck in the spring of 2021, hoping that the amulet, exhusing "chlorine ions or atoms", will protect him from covid.
And! After Mr. Peskov fell ill with covid, he said that "it was a pity that I took off that amulet. Maybe I would have stayed healthy".
The journalists laughed at him, and he took off that amulet.
It's like some African country, it's unbelievable.
The level of moronity is unbelievable.
Russia is the country that gave the world such people as Dmitry Mendeleyev, and the Press Secretary of our President is carrying some oompa-loompa around his neck to protect him from the virus. At a time when a vaccine is available.
 
@CowperKettle Putin should hire fewer uneducated people!
 
5:38 PM
In April 2020.
My friend, a doctor in Moscow, had his vaccine by December 2020.
Ah. So the vaccine was not yet available. April 2020. But still it was obviously snake oil.
 
I wonder what will happen to Russian society once many old, uneducated people have died.
 
Artificial Intelligence will be in charge by then.
 
Same for America. Trump lost the election by too wide a margin, but one wonders how many of his prospective voters had died.
 
The last several hundred years is a time like no other in human history. It's impossible to predict what will happen. Too many factors like peak oil, climate change, overpopulation.
In the 1990s, my dad said "soon a new generation will appear, who never lived in the USSR, and they will not vote for communists, and there will be good reforms and development." I said: "they will see corruption around them, and will see a beautiful USSR in old Soviet movies, which are truly masterpieces, and will think that USSR was great".
 
 
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8:21 PM
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at beginning of body (41): When is the word "vaccine" uncountable? by Hengbo Cai on english.SE
 
8:41 PM
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Few unique characters in body, mostly punctuation marks in body (123): Singular or Plural When Referring to Nonexistent Nouns? ✏️ by trebonianus on english.SE
 
9:15 PM
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Few unique characters in answer, no whitespace in answer (184): Plural of The Letter S by lebron on english.SE
 

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