English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

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CowperKettle

00:10

Anti-tank dogs (Russian: собаки-истребители танков sobaki-istrebiteli tankov or противотанковые собаки protivotankovye sobaki; German: Panzerabwehrhunde or Hundeminen, "dog-mines") were dogs taught to carry explosives to tanks, armored vehicles and other military targets. They were intensively trained by the Soviet and Russian military forces between 1930 and 1996, and used from 1941 to 1943, against German tanks in World War II. Initially dogs were trained to leave a timer-detonated bomb and retreat, but this routine was replaced by an impact-detonation procedure which killed the dog in the process...

Cerberus

Expensive bombs.

2 hours later…

tchrist

01:56

@reith "I knew that if I had gone home, I'd see/have seen my family."

tchrist

02:08

Or: "I knew that if I were to go home, I would see my family." Notice how that avoids the ambiguity.

Because backshifting cannot ever produce an irrealis "were" form.

5 hours later…

Cerberus

07:08

@tchrist Good point.

CowperKettle

A further 12 ambulance workers have resigned in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast of Russia's Far East Region, bringing the total resignee count to 27 rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/61843de39a79472fc2eac641?from=from_main_4

They have refused to get vaccinated with Russian vaccines, which, according to them, "have not undergone proper clinical testing to support safety and efficacy".

Unvaccinated workers are discouraged from working in certain industries since November, and this includes ambulances.

> Google Translate: "The staff of the ambulance station in Obluchye wrote letters of resignation in full force, they were joined by doctors from Pashkovo. Doctors do not want to sabotage the work of the ambulance, but they will not be vaccinated with "untested" vaccines"

This leaves two small settlements in the Far East of Russia without ambulance services.

They will probably have to hire people from other regions. Tough task, provided that Moscow and St. Petersburg have been denuding the rest of Russia of medical workers since the start of the pandemic, offering really high wages.

> In the summer, a survey of the team of the "Doctor's Handbook" mobile application showed that a third of doctors in Russia (35%) do not want to be vaccinated against coronavirus. At the same time, 45.4% of respondents indicated that coercion by the authorities will change their attitude towards vaccination for the worse.

Basically a summer poll showed that every third doctor in Russia does not want to get vaccinated.

And if pressed, they will rather leave the job.

If I were a sociologist, I would be on the seventh heaven. I would collect all the data I could, while I could.

Because it's so interesting: why are medics antivaxxers in Russia?

One may write a book on this, I mean if one collects a really lot of good data, intervews etc.

Cerberus

Is it only Russian vaccines they refuse, or also Western ones?

By the way, I think there no longer are many Jews in the Jewish Oblast?

CowperKettle

07:39

@Cerberus YEs, only 1%. There are 3 times more Ukrainians there.

@Cerberus Only the Russian ones

Cerberus

OK.

CowperKettle

08:22

sponge choanocytes express genes that in neurons produce the postsynaptic “scaffolding” involved in receiving and responding to neurotransmitters

Thus the origins of the neural networks are in the digestive system. Amazing.

There was never such a time, when nature's secrets were so rapidly untangled in such detail.

reith

09:28

@tchrist Thank you! Just to be clear, does the second example says there was weaker probability of seeing parent in case of having gone home? (for some reason I feel the second example puts more emphasis on his mental relation between action and result, while in the first one, he emphasis is that he didn't go home)

And, can I use that second construct when the action is less likely to be my choice? for example, "I know if I were to fail in my exams, the scorn would be on me, not the crowded environment"

maybe I should have asked it in the forum..

oops, sorry for typos :\

2 hours later…

CowperKettle

11:19

Pfizer says antiviral pill cuts risk of severe COVID-19 by 89%

SmokeDetector

11:44

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Potentially bad keyword in body, repeating characters in body (66): Collocations exercise ✏️ by user437961 on english.SE

1 hour later…

tchrist

12:48

@reith No, it says nothing about the consequent. The consequent will occur whenever the hypothesis is true. You express how likely the hypothesis is by selecting from a sequence like this running from most to least likely: If he calls, if he should call, if he were to call.

That's how you express how likely the speaker believes the call to be.

The first is most likely, the last least likely. The middle is between those two. Note that anything but the first is uncommon, particularly in speech.

You can use inversion in the second and third.

Which sounds a bit fancier.

> Should he call, please tell him that the deadline has passed.

> But were he to call, the problem would be solved without intervention.

> If he calls, tell him I've stepped out for a bit.

1 hour later…

CowperKettle

14:13

Current weather, 0°C.

tchrist

15:01

It’s tough to remember that Fifteen November
When yesteryear’s season forgot
𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑠 Thirteen Gregorius
Wrote to move dates up a lot.

CowperKettle

15:34

Inter gravissimas

Inter gravissimas (English: "Among the most serious...") was a papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII on 24 February 1582. The document, written in Latin, reformed the Julian calendar. The reform came to be regarded as a new calendar in its own right and came to be called the Gregorian calendar, which is used in most countries today. == Description == The intention expressed by the text of this bull was "to restore" the calendar so that seasonal events critical for the calculation of Easter dates would be back in their "proper places" and would be prevented from being moved away again. The idea...

Cerberus

15:49

@Mitch Yes, everyone ought to just let her speak.

@M.A.R. I suppose so! Kind of.

CowperKettle

16:51

Surname etymology of the day: Rossignol -- nickname for a person with a good singing voice, or ironically for a raucous person, from Old French rossignol 'nightingale' (Old Provençal rossinhol, from Late Latin lusciniolus).

Cerberus

17:17

@CowperKettle I know that word from Portuguese!

@CowperKettle They should be arrested.

@CowperKettle Looks promising, but those multinationals should be forced to make the pills inexpensive.

2 hours later…

reith

18:51

@tchrist Excellent, thank you!

Robusto

19:42

Jenny Lind

Johanna Maria "Jenny" Lind (6 October 1820 – 2 November 1887) was a Swedish opera singer, often called the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she performed in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and undertook an extraordinarily popular concert tour of the United States beginning in 1850. She was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music from 1840. Lind became famous after her performance in Der Freischütz in Sweden in 1838. Within a few years, she had suffered vocal damage, but the singing teacher Manuel García saved her voice...

She was "The Swedish Nightingale" in her time.

Cerberus

20:40

> From 2029, no new cars with combustion engines may be sold in Flanders.

I think it's 2030.

But I expect these terms to be advanced.

The big problem is that power generation, power distribution, and industrial production of batteries may not be ready for clean energy until much later.

2 hours later…

tchrist

22:15

@Cerberus I'm impressed that the Flemings are already making cars from 2029. That's way ahead of us Lemmings.