English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

CowperKettle

1:47 AM

CowperKettle

2:42 AM

Cover of a Soviet popular science magazine

Artificial intelligence sheds light on how the brain processes language

> They found that the best-performing next-word prediction models had activity patterns that very closely resembled those seen in the human brain.

> "It's totally transforming my research program, because I would not have predicted that in my lifetime we would get to these computationally explicit models that capture enough about the brain so that we can actually leverage them in understanding how the brain works."

tchrist

3:44 AM

⮦ coronavirus
↓ coroanvirus
↓ coraonvirus
↓ ocraonvirus
↓ orcaonvirus
↓ oraconvirus
↓ roaconvirus
↓ raoconvirus
↓ ʀᴀᴄᴏᴏɴvirus
↳ zoönoticity

Cerberus

3:58 AM

Hmm.

We seem to be peaking again, especially in the Bible Belt and immigrant neighbourhoods in cities.

tchrist

I had my Moderna booster Friday night, and I still have a fever from it.

Cerberus

Oh, hmm.

Did the previous injections cause you any fever?

tchrist

Yes, but not this long.

Cerberus

Only the immuno-compromised are receiving third injections here.

@tchrist Interesting.

But most unpleasant: how long has it been?

tchrist

The second injection hit harder, but shorter.

Cerberus

4:02 AM

I didn't notice anything whatsoever from either injection.

tchrist

How long has what been? Three days and four hours.

Cerberus

Oh, I'm sorry, I totally overlooked "Friday".

That's long!

tchrist

Both made me tired the next day.

Cerberus

Not me!

Even though I had drinks with friends on the night of my first injection.

Has your fever at least reduced somewhat?

tchrist

This one did that, but days two and three also caused fatigue in afternoon. And "mild" fever with headache. Normal set point is around 97.6 and it was 99.9 yesterday and 99.7 today. Can't seem to get it below 99.4 even with antipyretics or whatever you call such drugs.

Stop being able to think by lunch or so.

Just tired.

Only sleep helps. I don't awake with fever.

They said it was ok to take those afterwards for relief.

Just not before. You have to let the fire get started on its own.

Cerberus

4:08 AM

Hmm.

tchrist

Alcohol isn't really advised during active immune responses.

Since it may divert resources from that.

Cerberus

They said here alcohol was fine.

tchrist

I was just speaking generally.

Like if you're sick with something that's got your fever spiking, you shouldn't drink booze.

Cerberus

Yeah, I was wondering about it, but the website of the institute of health specifically said you could drink after vaccination.

tchrist

Just out of principle.

Well, that's different.

Cerberus

4:10 AM

I mean, I specifically looked it up before my first injection.

tchrist

> Can You Have Alcohol After the Covid Vaccine?
Moderate drinking is unlikely to impair the immune response to the Covid vaccine, but heavy drinking might.

Cerberus

Maybe it said moderate, too.

I was moderate.

tchrist

nytimes.com/2021/04/27/well/eat/alcohol-covid-vaccine.html

April seems so far away now.

Cold sober, cold sober, it must be October.

Cold drunk and cold drunk stinks like a mad skunk.

Sunrise was so late this morning.

7:24 am

Cerberus

Quite.

Do you like autumn?

I don't like the rain.

And I'm putting off turning on the heating.

It is 16.5 degrees inside.

tchrist

Rain?

Hasn't rained yet.

Cerberus

4:22 AM

Not since when?

tchrist

We got a half an inch in September.

I don't think it's really rained much since.

And that's not much.

We got two thirds of an inch in August thanks to the monsoon.

Either way, it's hardly very soggy. It was warm and clear today. 75.

But soon, soon.

CowperKettle

4:35 AM

> The escalator is temporarily stairs

tchrist

The mountains may see a foot tomorrow, at least above timberline. Maybe one to two thirds of that above 9500.

We may see one to three hundredths of an inch, and not of the frozen kind like up higher. But probably none. Typical.

CowperKettle

We're having a light snowfall right now, here's the online webcam: youwebcams.org/online/ekaterinburg/plotinka

tchrist

> Updates on the 11 lions and two tigers who tested positive for COVID-19 can be found on the zoo's website.

I like how people here use "who" with cats. :)

Denver zoo.

We haven't had snow yet down low. Last year it fell 7 weeks earlier than now back in summer no less.

West Coast was getting dumped on by a bomb cyclone.

Probably still is.

CowperKettle

4:55 AM

In Russian, we don't use it for animals

But on the other hand, we don't use it for a vast amount of non-animate objects.

Or maybe all objects are animate, since there is no border between living and nonliving matter

Cerberus

@tchrist Wow, is that normal?

@tchrist Zoos love anthropomorphising their animals. It's good for business, baby names and all.

@CowperKettle What do you use it for, then?

In Dutch, it's ocmplicated.

Xanne

5:54 AM

npr.org/2021/10/24/1048862514/…

A couple of good photos of the N CA storm.

CowperKettle

9:30 AM

@Cerberus For words ending in -o and -e, for instance

solntse (sun)

okno (window)

They are both "it"

tchrist

11:03 AM

@Cerberus Well, it's not especially abnormal, per se.

CowperKettle

11:15 AM

Interesting, a huge Wikipedia article, but in English only:

Max Brödel

Max Brödel (June 8, 1870 – October 26, 1941) was a medical illustrator. Born in Leipzig, Germany, he began his artistic career after graduating from the Leipzig Academy of Fine Arts, working for Dr. Carl Ludwig. Under Ludwig's instruction, Brödel gained a basic knowledge of medicine and became recognized for his detailed medical illustrations. In the late 1890s, he was brought to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore to illustrate for Harvey Cushing, William Halsted, Howard Kelly, and other notable clinicians. In addition to being a prolific medical illustrator, he developed new artistic...

CowperKettle

11:55 AM

Cerberus

2:20 PM

@CowperKettle Do you not have three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter?

Hairi

Hello folks

I would like to ask what is the term in English for a payment that can be split into several fractional payments distributed in time.

For exaple I by a car for 1000$
I pay 500$ now and I would need to pay the rest 500$ in 6 months

Cerberus

2:34 PM

@Hairi You pay in instalments?

Hire purchase

A hire purchase (HP), also known as an installment plan or the never-never, is an arrangement whereby a customer agrees to a contract to acquire an asset by paying an initial installment (e.g., 40% of the total) and repays the balance of the price of the asset plus interest over a period of time. Other analogous practices are described as closed-end leasing or rent to own. The hire purchase agreement was developed in the United Kingdom in the 19th century to allow customers with a cash shortage to make an expensive purchase they otherwise would have to delay or forgo. For example, in cases where...

Andrew Leach

2:46 PM

@Cerberus The Wikipedia article is redirected from "Instalment payment", but what you're describing isn't really hire purchase — as that is generally monthly payments over an extended term, with interest. You don't have interest, so I'd call it deferred payment, I think. (There's an accounting term deferred payment which has a specific definition, so you may need to be careful about the context.)

@Hairi Hmm. Clicked the wrong reply, sorry Cerberus.

CowperKettle

@Cerberus I do

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Few unique characters in answer (88): In the phrase "a button click", what are the parts of speech of each word? by Lourdes Garcia on english.SE

Hairi

So
defered paument
vs
Hire purchase
vs
Leasing (which I believe is the most inapropriate term in my case)

Cerberus

3:06 PM

@AndrewLeach What am I describing?

I don't know whether the asker had interest in mind or not.

On the other hand, I do not think the word instalment by definition requires interest being charged?

CowperKettle

curious name, "the never-never"

> The “never-never” part meant you’d never own it and never finish paying for it. At least that’s how it felt to people.

At the end of the federal fiscal year last September 30, the U.S. government's assets were $6 trillion and its liabilities were $33 trillion.

Can the US dollar just crash terribly in one instant?

What happens if the U.S. defaults on its debt?

Cerberus

3:32 PM

It would sooner spin up its printing presses.

CowperKettle

That would eventually lead to a hyperinflation, making people poorer.

In a word, this will make people pay the debt by the mere fact of them becoming poor.

It's like the story with the Moskva bank, run by one of Putin's clique. It ran into debt, and was bailed out by a huge infusion of money from the Russian budget, which triggered a slightly higher inflation. Thus, every Russian citizen has paid a couple thousand rubles to bail out a friend of Putin.

By raising the debt ceiling, the US politicians are stealing money from children of the common people. It's the children who will suffer by repaying the debt through being poorer.

CowperKettle

3:54 PM

CowperKettle

4:11 PM

Turns out Wikipedia has no Kolmer cell article.

I should start one.

Mitch

@Hairi 'Hire purchase' must be a British thing because this is the first time I've ever heard of it.

In the US, you say 'installment plan' or 'on layaway' (I think the latter means you pay for it little. by little but only get it at the end).

'Rent to own' is the modern way to say it (but is also associated with gouging the buyer with high than necessary payments).

For cars one says 'payment plan' (and not these others). It's the identical concept but it would just sound weird to say 'pay for a car by installment'.

For houses it is just called 'a mortgage' (except behind the scenes the bank pays for the house entirely, and you pay the bank monthly (with lots of interest) and you live there.

@Hairi 'leasing' is just a different word for the same idea of 'renting'. You never expect to eventually own when you lease.

Hairi

Thanks Mitch

It seems that it heavily depends on the context.
I think I would go for defered payment as it seems best suites my situation.

M.A.R.

4:40 PM

@Robusto yeah, but he's gonna have to live with shooting someone, and I heard he was actually an anti-gun guy

@CowperKettle I think geometry was not the namer's strong suit

@CowperKettle okay this is weird. I always think that the letter M is cool. And considering how many abbreviations have M and spies and secret agents also like M I thought it was sorta universal.

There's even a movie called M. Actually two.

Are people that infatuated with their initials?

Mitch

5:48 PM

@M.A.R. Nope. It's just you.

.

M.A.R.

6:44 PM

@Mitch bummer. Guess I don't like myself anymore then.

The die has been cast