English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Mitch

02:04

@Cerberus Was there an incident? Did all those birds attack the tower and pull it down?

Cerberus

02:16

@Mitch I think it was a storm.

It was some time ago.

Mitch

03:00

@Cerberus Oh

I think my story was better

Cerberus

@Mitch Definitely.

Mitch

Maybe the birds do something in your story?

Or are they just watching

like afterwards

Cerberus

@Mitch They watch after their cousin has left.

Mitch

That's intriguing

Cerberus

The last megalosaurus on Earth, who lives in a nearby forest.

Mitch

03:03

What did the cousin do?

Cerberus

He was angry.

Mitch

@Cerberus oh

wow

that escalated

Cerberus

His phone wouldn't charge, so he attack the powerline.

Mitch

the last one

Cerberus

He regretted it, but he is just like that.

Mitch

03:04

that's an annoying personality... if they regret it afterwards...think of it -beforehand-

come on

Cerberus

He can't help it.

He was cloned to destroy things.

Mitch

i mean you get to that age you'd figure that you've picked up some things about people

or megalasauruses

Cerberus

He was clones fairly recently.

Mitch

he's big enough to knock over powerlines, he's big enough to be responsible

Cerberus

I think I see him nod ruefully.

Mitch

03:10

cripes

don't look

just trying to get sympathy

Cerberus

03:22

OK I won't look.

Mitch

aw man he's coming over to us now trying to get our attention

so embarassing

CowperKettle

03:39

Russian Duma deputy Fyodorov, a well-known clown from the tiny People's Liberation Movement (NOD) wrote in his Telegram channel that Russia has 2 tasks to perform: restore its former Soviet borders; persuade the NATO to dismiss the countries neighboring Russia from the treaty.

"If the USA does not agree to the shrinking of the NATO, we should use nuclear force".

Here's a famous photo of this "deputy".

The signs says "Let rip the USA apart using Putin's rocket!"

He is completely nuts.

Every city and town has a tiny branch of his NOD movement, and God are they crazy.

They stage protests against the evil USA regularly.

They believe that the Russian Constitution is a "colonial constitution composed in Washington", and Russia is a hostage to the USA.

Their typical fan art. "Down with the American occupation"

According to their lore, Putin is also under US occupation, but is trying to slowly wrench Russia out of it.

> Also, according to the ideology, the Russian Federation pays "daily tribute" in the form of ruble emission through the Central Bank

People usually take a wide circle when they meet NOD pickets in the streets. They are seen as mad people.

It's a miracle he even got elected into the Duma. Probably a rigged election.

Cerberus

Hmm odd.

Perhaps these clowns serve a certain function for Putin?

CowperKettle

03:55

@Cerberus I think they serve the function of gauging the public opinion.

And also they make these bold statements to get noticed by Putin's functionaries. It's like a signal in a biological system "I'm on your side. See, I'm making a clownish, mad statement in your favor. You can trust me, I'm ready to be smeared in mud and be laughted at, and this was all for you, you can take me in your team, I won't let you down".

One example is Igor Kholmanskih, who was Head of the Assembly Shop at the large Nizhny Tagil Plant north of my city.

In 2011, there was a wave of protests against the rigging of elections. Putin was afraid.

Igor Kholmanskikh said at press conference that "I will gather my working lads from the Urals, put them on the train, and we will ride to Moscow and disperse those anti-Putin crowds".

He was immediately noticed by the Putin system.

He was appointed Presidential Plenipotentiary in the Ural Region.

That's quite a rise from Head of Assembly Shop.

All for making a statement that made people despise him.

Putin's system sees itself as a besieged fortress that has no strict walls. Enemies can trickle inside the fortress. Inside Putin's party etc.

And these hysterical statements make them calmer. They see that you are a true Putinite.

CowperKettle

04:26

Two chimney sweeps in Tallinn, Estonia (1984)

Cool attire.

Cerberus

04:38

Nice.

CowperKettle

08:16

My friend came across a fox in Krasnogorsk

CowperKettle

08:55

> Prince Andrew didn't kill himself!
Sorry, just practicing it

> "Lenin in Petrograd. Meeting the Dawn", painting by Semyon Aladzhalov, 1960s

Xanne

10:08

@CowperKettle Foxes, like cats, direct-register.

That’s a beautiful fox.

SmokeDetector

10:28

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Mostly non-latin body, mostly non-latin title (159): چطور زبان انگلیسی را سریع و راحت یاد بگیرم ؟‭ by نیک فایل‭ on english.SE

CowperKettle

11:34

-12°C here

CowperKettle

12:37

A typical picture in Russian cities. Places near buildings and inside inner yards are crowded with cars.

I heard that in Japan, if you live in a big city, you cannot own a car unless you have a place inside a specialized car park.

This way, there are less cars crowding out people in the streets.

I would do the same. I don't think personal cars are necessary in cities. There should be more trams and trolleybuses, they have a huge carrying capacity.

If you are wealthy enough, then go on, park your car inside a multistorey parking. If you are not, use trams and trolleys.

Алексей Шиманский

13:00

walking and jogging is all we need %)

CowperKettle

Yes ))

And bicycling, as here on the crossing of Bolshakova and Sheinkmana streets today.

Алексей Шиманский

13:16

I'm getting cold if I just look at the photo :)) bicycle and winter ...🥶

CowperKettle

17:18

US intelligence indicates that Putin might be preparing a Gleiwitz incident

Mitch

@CowperKettle You're burying the lede considerably here.

"The US has information that indicates Russia has prepositioned a group of operatives..."

They've turn people into a closed-set grammatical category!

"The expectation is that front line Russian troops will be interjectioned by these operatives with numerous casualties."

CowperKettle

merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/bury-the-lede-versus-lead

Mitch

"Unfortunately, the sentence adverbs had no comment"

CowperKettle

I'm sure that there will be no invasion, because today putinites started saying that "We'll place rockets at bases on Cuba and Venezuela". That's just great, and I would be happy.

Placing rockets is not bad. This is not war.

Mitch

Another remark, if this were the Soviet Union (which arguably might be considered the case), this would literally be a red flag operation.

CowperKettle

17:32

But I noticed this news in Twitter.

Mitch

I'm on fire today!

Not literally!

That would be awful!

Also, hurting a lot!

CowperKettle

The Soviet Union's false flag operation in Finland was very poorly conducted. They did not make even an attempt of plausibility. Archival research turned up nothing. No injuries, no deaths in the alleged shelling of Russian army posts from Finland.

The Sovet press just invented the story, and voila, an invasion.

Germany at least conducted some theatricals.

My grandfather took part in the invasion of Finland. Luckily, he survived. Probably because Finland had no proper air force and anti-air defences, and he flew a bomber.

Mitch

wait

I take all that back

"a red flag operation" is just a sign of danger

cripes

google search converts a search for red flag operation to 'false flag operation'.

I wonder if that's a common mistake (enough for the algorithm to connect the two)

Nobody knows what it means but it's provocative

►

CowperKettle

> British sailors mutinied near the mouth of the River Thames in 1797 and hoisted a red flag on several ships.

Would have been interesting if the Soviet Union was created in the UK in 1797.

Incidentally, in 1917 it were sailors who led the overthrow of the Provisional Government, starting the Soviet Union.

Mitch

@CowperKettle The communist revolution was supposed to start in industrial England (and Germany) so... not far off.

CowperKettle

17:41

But they regretted that bitterly and mutinied against the Bolsheviks in 1921. To restore plurality in the Soviet Union.

Mitch

@CowperKettle Was that the Battleship Potemkin?

CowperKettle

@Mitch Yes, and sailors from the Kronshtadt, a very high-tech navy island guarding the entrance to St. Petersburg. The most advanced specialists lived there.

Mitch

specialists in what?

CowperKettle

In military matters, but there were also advanced medical research personnel.

And a printing press, and so on and so forth.

Mitch

radio transmission?

CowperKettle

17:43

They were educated and more advanced than the rest of the Empire

Mitch

ballistic calculations?

CowperKettle

@Mitch Yes, the radio which they tried using to raise the country against the Bolsheviks later, and to restore free elections in the Soviets.

Kronstadt rebellion

The Kronstadt rebellion (Russian: Кронштадтское восстание, tr. Kronshtadtskoye vosstaniye) was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors, soldiers and civilians against the Bolshevik government in the Russian SFSR port city of Kronstadt. Located on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland, Kronstadt defended the former capital city, Petrograd, as the base of the Baltic Fleet. For sixteen days in March 1921, rebels in Kronstadt's naval fortress rose in opposition to the Soviet government they had helped to consolidate. Led by Stepan Petrichenko, it was the last major revolt against the Bolshevik regime...

The tragedy was, there were too little of them.

The Bolsheviks just brought the army and stormed them over the ice.

Basically it was the last attempt to restore the real Soviet Union.

Mitch

As is the nature here, the most important question about all of this is...

Why is it called 'Kronstadt', a very German name?

CowperKettle

According to a book by a US historian of the Russian revolution, the real Soviet system was destroyed by Lenin in mere months after the Bolsheviks came to power.

Mitch

The wiki article doesn't address that

CowperKettle

17:46

@Mitch Yes, Peter the Great was a great fan of German and Dutch

Mitch

Oh

and French?

CowperKettle

I live in Yekaterinburg after all.

Not "Yekaterinograd", as it would be called in Russian tradition.

Mitch

Oh not just of the language but also the ... um ... people?

@CowperKettle oh I get it now

CowperKettle

What people?

Mitch

I was eupehemising to not sound sexist. I meant He was a fan of German -women-.

German and Dutch and French language sure. But also, the women.

CowperKettle

17:50

Lovers of Peter the Great:

Категория:Любовницы Петра I

Six women are listed, no men.

So we can assume he preferred women.

Mitch

and their nationality?

CowperKettle

Mary Hamilton (lady in waiting)

Mary Hamilton, or Maria Danilovna Gamentova (died 14 March 1719), was the lady-in-waiting of Empress Catherine I of Russia and a royal mistress of Tsar Peter the Great of Russia. She was executed for abortion, infanticide, theft and slander of Empress Catherine. She is pointed out as one of the possible inspirations for the song Mary Hamilton. Mary Hamilton was a member of the Scottish family Hamilton, whose ancestor Thomas Hamilton had emigrated to Russia during the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, and was probably the daughter of William Hamilton and the cousin of Evdokiya Grigorievna Hamilton...

One was a Scottish woman

And died young.

Joan Baez - Mary Hamilton [HD]

►

Mitch

theft -and- slander? how awful

CowperKettle

Joan Baez wrote a song about her tragic death.

Mitch

Joan Baez is interesting

She was a famous folk singer in the 60's (60 effing years ago)

CowperKettle

17:55

I first came across her name in a toilet.

In Soviet toilets they used newspapers for toilet paper.

Mitch

but the only song I recognizably associate with her is "The night they drove old Dixie down" which is sort of topically the opposite of the usual 60's folk song fare.

CowperKettle

And I took a scrap of newspaper. And there was a little note about "The US peace activist and singer Joan Baez who speaks out against American imperialism". I thought to myself "must be some shitty singer, only praised by Soviet newspapers for her opposition".

God was I wrong.

I have a lot of her songs stashed for my mp3 player.

Mitch

@CowperKettle I think the song os about a different Mary Hamilton.

The maid to Catherine was born and raised in Russia as a descendant of Thomas Hamilton.

But the song was about a maid to some pre 1700s Queen of Scots (not the famous Mary Queen of Scots)

CowperKettle

@Mitch I know, I was just burying the lede, to make you listen to the song.

CowperKettle

18:22

Gebroken geweertje, "broken rifle", a lapel pin used by Dutch anti-war activists in the 1930s

Pronounced as "khebrokeh khevertieh"

Cerberus

18:48

@CowperKettle Not quite, but OK.

People need to practice the /x/ sound.

And the schwa they already know, so they should not pronounce it eh.

And the double ee before r is pronounced like /ɪər/ (with the r depending on accent/dialect).

Mitch

19:08

@CowperKettle I heard the song but did not listen. I was too busy half reading all the wikipedia articles interrupted by all this singing going on.

M.A.R.

21:46

@Cerberus it's not the guttural gargling in Persian and Arabic, is it? Like in Xosro? More like a guttural /k/ right?

RegDwigнt

22:16

in TRPG General Chat, 35 mins ago, by doppelgreener

and my legs are strong. Back when I was using the leg press regularly, I reached something like 120kg on it.

Why is this getting flagged.

Also, how is 120kg a lot.

Many people weigh that much, like. Or almost that much. Their legs carry them all day no problem.

Anyway.

Poetry hour!

I did a translation and it said "bogus tenderness" and now I'm getting pushback for that.

Even though that's what the original says, but that's beside the point for now.

Can tenderness not be bogus?

Question at all resident collocators. Thanks.

Full sentence is

> With bogus tenderness stand next to your own bed
And lull yourself to sleep, all life long.

Full original sentence is

> С притворной нежностью у изголовья стой
И сам себя всю жизнь баюкай.

Full context is a song.

musescore.com/the_alex/…

Cheers.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt But they don't carry themselves.

And as limbs go, they are non-negligeable in weight.

I'm not saying you have fat legs but...

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