English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

12:06 AM

@Mitch Well, think of the money we'd save if everyone died before retirement. Or if no babies were ever born again. Or if hospitals euthanized people if they showed up at the emergency room.

M.A.R.

Cerberus

12:40 AM

@Robusto Or if the Earth exploded.

CowperKettle

1:38 AM

@M.A.R. Yes, my cholesterol is still high. I should ask for a prescription of some statin drug next time I go to the cardio doctor.

CowperKettle

5:02 AM

What do you call these small buildings that convert high voltage current to the standard 220V current to be served out to the nearest buildings?

A converter station?

They are all around in cities.

Robusto

Electrical substation

A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions. Between the generating station and consumer, electric power may flow through several substations at different voltage levels. A substation may include transformers to change voltage levels between high transmission voltages and lower distribution voltages, or at the interconnection of two different transmission voltages. Substations may be owned and operated by an electrical utility, or may...

CowperKettle

@Robusto The pictures show some complicated and highly dedicated substations.

Clearly does not look like the buildings I see everywhere in Yekaterinburg.

Robusto

They also show humbler ones.

Not every car is a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.

CowperKettle

I googled the images for transformer vault, and some look like the typical Russian buildings in cities.

Robusto

@CowperKettle In any case, you'll find the answer to your question in that Wikipedia article.

@CowperKettle I don't know what you call them in Russia, but a transformer vault is a kind of electrical substation.

The Hoover Dam and a beaver dam are still both dams.

> Substations generally have switching, protection and control equipment, and transformers. In a large substation, circuit breakers are used to interrupt any short circuits or overload currents that may occur on the network. Smaller distribution stations may use recloser circuit breakers or fuses for protection of distribution circuits.

CowperKettle

5:09 AM

In Russia, the typical simple buildings in cities are called трансформаторная будка (transformer cabin)

Robusto

The type of substation you're looking for is probably called a distribution station.

CowperKettle

I recorded it in my Anki as "transformer vault", that will do.

Close enough for government work.

The cardiology clinic and institute

My mother was at a get-together with some longtime friends at their apartment several years ago. And one man started feeling bad. Pain in the chest, reflecting to his back. She insisted that he go to this clinic, since it was nearby. He called his doctor friend, and the doctor friend said "it's nothing serious, judging by your description", but my mother really got under his skin and forced him to visit the clinic.

They immediately wheeled him away for an emergency treatment, and several weeks later said that she saved his life.

He had some extreme heart condition.

That's why men die earlier than women.

They have doctor friends, and pesky women are not always around.

Vikas

5:39 AM

@Cerberus Okay. MistakeS? Plural has something to do with the difference?

CowperKettle

> By keeping within these borders, you prolong your life!

A sign near the room where I get my free insulin pens at the outpatient clinic.

M.A.R.

8:23 AM

@CowperKettle I think you should discuss it with your physician. Dyslipidemia is an expected side effect of corticosteroids like prednisolone and dexamethasone, and considering the levels aren't abnormally high, at worst borderline, I don't think statin therapy justifies its risks vs its benefits.

Definitely discuss it with your physician tho

@CowperKettle BP naturally increases with age as vessels lose their elasticity. This advice probably applies to patients around <65 years of age I should think.

@CowperKettle Huh? Angina isn't serious?

I mean unless he was on medication for angina, then, hmm

CowperKettle

@M.A.R. I was having chronically elevated cortisol, for unknown reasons, in 2018.

Maybe my cortisol somehow causes my lipids to increase.

@M.A.R. Yes, his doctor friend was quite strange.

-8°C today

M.A.R.

9:02 AM

@CowperKettle Dexamethasone actually suppresses your adrenal a bit, for obvious reasons

I mean, statins don't cure anything. At worst they hide some important problem and at best they will only cause a moderate change in your lipid profile (because it's not very bad in the first place) while interacting with quite a few other drugs.

What I would be a bit concerned about is myopathy, and you'd have to monitor your phosphocreatine kinase from time to time to check for muscle damage. And, I mean, you're an active individual, so.

Not trying to scare you or anything, obviously your physician would have the best advice.

CowperKettle

9:20 AM

@M.A.R. My kinase is fine ))

I only have a slightly elevated amylase, at about 105-120 against a reference range of [28-100], but it's very mild.

Amylase sometimes gets high when your pancreas is inflamed, but it goes several-fold high, not just 3% high. So it must be some glitch or hitch.

This is odd. We usually have a well-defined sawtooth pattern of temperature only starting well into February.

Has the Sun gotten stronger?

SmokeDetector

10:17 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in link text in body, potentially bad ip for hostname in body, potentially bad ns for domain in body, potentially bad keyword in body, potentially bad keyword in username (73): Which Is the best shampoo in Pakistan?‭ by Beautyfly‭ on english.SE

M.A.R.

11:10 AM

@CowperKettle hopefully. I mean, is it likely to improve future outcomes and/or increase quality of life? If the answer to that is an overwhelming yes then extra medication is desirable. I'm not qualified to answer it definitively, but I think for an active, almost fully healthy individual such as yourself, the answer is unlikely to be yes.

Cerberus

1:50 PM

@Vikas No, but you simply made a typo somewhere. I didn't want to leave it uncorrected.

CowperKettle

Золотое безумие. Реальные фотографии дворца Путина

►

Almost 4 million views in its first 24 hours of release.

A new movie about Putin's palace.

Is now at 1st place on the Russian YouTube by recent viewership.

And has English subtitles.

But frankly, I did not watch even the first one about the palace.

It's just a palace, there are many palaces in the world.

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Not at first place?

CowperKettle

@Cerberus *now

I'm making typos ))

I'm grateful to Navalny's team for disclosing the fact that Putin is a thief. But I'm not very interested in the interior decorations of a typical palace.

Cerberus

@CowperKettle OK.

CowperKettle

I believe that in a normal state, Navalny would be just a regular politician trying to eke out votes by muckracking investigations. There would be dozens of Navalnys.

Cerberus

2:05 PM

@CowperKettle No doubt it is the nouveauest of the nouveau.

But perhaps the interior will attract more viewers?

CowperKettle

That's the marker of the insufficient development of political consciousness in Russia's people. I believe that people should have been alarmed in 2004, when Putin dismantled parts of Russia's criminal prosecution system and used the modified monster to attack his political opponent Khodorkovsky and put him into jail.

It's a bit late to react in 2022, when Putin has already mutated the whole legal system of Russia into a repression machine.

Cerberus

True.

CowperKettle

Today the police in Yekaterinburg announced that it started an investiogation into a.. series of photos, placed in a social network. In the photos, two ladies in lingerie pose near a window, and through the window, you can see the domes of a church.

This is a real news. Not a fake news from a comical site.

Cerberus

But perhaps people never really trusted the state anyway, before Putin's machinations.

CowperKettle

nods

Cerberus

2:09 PM

@CowperKettle Sounds like Arabia.

CowperKettle

Here it is, 21 January 2022.

It was impossible to think of such bullshit even a couple of years ago.

Almost weekly there are such news about new criminal cases launched against a woman that bared her buttocks on a photo with some church in view. theins.ru/news/248030

Cerberus

Saddening.

The church has gained a lot of influence.

An alliance between mafia and church.

CowperKettle

5 days ago, in the city of Dzerszhinsk.

Pole dancing, and you can discern some church in the distance.

The Russian Orthodox priests in the city said that they saw nothing bad in this. But the police ... started an investigation anyway.

pikabu.ru/story/tanets_na_sheste_8766145

It's done just to keep people in terror.

Cerberus

@Mitch The body of directors of local institutes of health, which must carry out all Corona testing and rules, have issued a statement that the quarantining of entire classes when just 3 children are infected is detrimental to (amongst other things) children's relational and sexual development. Do you think directors would issue such statements about children in America?

CowperKettle

A commenter from my city writes. "Here in Yekaterinburg, you should think twice before baring your buttocks just anywhere", and attaches a map with the churches shown

Cerberus

2:14 PM

@CowperKettle What would be the ultimate purpose?

CowperKettle

@Cerberus To show the common folk: you can always be pressed, arrested, fined. You better not show any interest in politics.

Cerberus

But this is not interest in politics.

CowperKettle

Yes. Exactly.

Cerberus

By the way, what would happen if Putin simply announced that there would be no more elections?

CowperKettle

This is done to show the populace. There is no way you can escape terror, if you show any interest in politics. See, we are punishing people at random. And you can do nothing about this. So keep low.

Cerberus

2:16 PM

But that will also make more people dislike the régime.

CowperKettle

@Cerberus If his approval rating falls after this, some coup will follow, so he will never do the Napoleon III thing

What would he announce himself, an emperor?

Old Soviet people hate monarchy.

The Communist party is the only party of any significant standing that sometimes speaks out against Putin.

There's the Yabloko party, but its support base is hardly above 5%. Democrats.

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Why would some coup follow?

CowperKettle

@Cerberus This probably shows that Time is hard even on Putin. You cannot stop time from making your brain less flexible.

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Just permanent president.

CowperKettle

@Cerberus Why not, if Putin would become widely despised, and some minister would become admired?

@Cerberus This is the way he has chosen, he changed the Constitution and now can legally re-elect himself until 2036.

2020 amendments to the Constitution of Russia

The amendments of 2020, which were proposed in January 2020, are the second substantial amendments to the Constitution of Russia of 1993. To introduce these amendments, Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, held a national vote. They were approved on 1 July 2020 by a contested popular vote. With Putin's signing an executive order on 3 July 2020 to officially insert the amendments into the Russian Constitution, they took effect on 4 July 2020. == History == Since the ratification of the Constitution in 1993, only three amendments have been proposed. In 2008, in order to prolong the presidential and...

It was such a farce. With the first female spaceflight person in history, Valentina Tereshkova, suddenly taking to the pulpit in Duma and asking for an amendment that would nullify Putin's election record.

Thus, in 2024 he would run for his, haha, "first" term.

Valentina Tereshkova jokes really went to the stratosphere after that.

This is what power does to you. Turns you into an evil Disney character.

She would have better stayed in orbit. Sad.

She has been licking politician asses even since her first spaceflight.

Vikas

2:25 PM

@Cerberus Ah! Thanks :D

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Why would they care about popularity at all?

@CowperKettle Haha.

CowperKettle

@Cerberus Because there is still free press, like Novaya Gazeta and a lot of local websites with news. The Internet is still free. There are local elections, although stifled. We are living in an early 17th century Britain, with flawed electoral system, overweening Church and a monarch, but with popular opinion having some power too.

@Cerberus yes ))

Cerberus

@CowperKettle But can't they just ignore what free press is left, and suppress any revolts?

Mitch

@Robusto That's abominable. The potential patients should be given at least a head start.

CowperKettle

@Cerberus That's why the 500 000 strong Russian Guard was established several years ago. But they think it would be bad to just flat-out suppress anything.

Mitch

2:29 PM

@CowperKettle nice

CowperKettle

National Guard of Russia

The National Guard of the Russian Federation (Russian: Федеральная служба войск национальной гвардии Российской Федерации, romanized: Federal'naya sluzhba voysk natsional'noy gvardii Rossiyskoy Federatsii, lit. 'Federal Service of the Troops of the National Guard of the Russian Federation') or Rosgvardiya (Russian: Росгвардия) is the internal military force of the Russian Federation, comprising an independent agency that reports directly to the Russian president under his powers as Supreme Commander-in-Chief and Chairman of the Security Council. The National Guard is separate from the Russian Armed...

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Why bad?

CowperKettle

Putin's political gendarmerie, established 2016.

@Cerberus Maybe because they are not that evil. I don't know.

Cerberus

OK.

@CowperKettle Why not simply use the police or the army?

CowperKettle

Why did Charles I allow elections, even though he wrote a treatise proving that Kings have the divine right to rule?

Mitch

2:31 PM

@Cerberus I have no idea. School boards and such are all over the map (literally). Different ones do different things entirely.

CowperKettle

@Cerberus That's a mystery. Maybe because Putin is not trustful enough to the police.

Ответ генералу Золотову

►

Look at the video

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Because he didn't have the power to suppress the nobility with success?

CowperKettle

Head of the National Guard is General Zolotov, who is very stupid, and is a very close friend of Putin.

Navalny earlier showed that Mr. Zolotov is a thief, and is stealing money from National Guard coffers. Using elevated prices on food for National Guard. And lives in unbelievable luxury.

Cerberus

Unsurprising, alas.

CowperKettle

Mr. Zolotov is a former bodyguard, he was appointed General just because he is a crony of Putin. He has zero experience, zero army education.

Mitch

2:34 PM

@Cerberus If you mean the use of 'sexual development' in the the statement, yes that seems unlikely. I think the presumption is that they get enough of that through media or on their own?

CowperKettle

After Navalny's investigation, official data on prices used in food contracts for the National Guard were made.... state secret. Which basically proved that Navalny was right, and Zolotov is a thief.

Cerberus

@Mitch They cannot see and have sexual experiences with other children when they are at home every day rather than at school.

Mitch

If 'sex' things are what you are defining Puritanical as, then yes, the US is much more puritanical in some instances (but not all) than Western Europe.

I think of Puritanism more as denial of pleasure in general and I think the US culture is way more indulgent than anywhere.

CowperKettle

General Zolotov called Navalny to meet in a duel. And this video is a reply to Zolotov's duel call.

It's a masterpiece of satire.

Mitch

@Cerberus Sure, in some abstract sense, but the terms 'sex' and 'children' evoke a certain dissonance that would not appear in an official school declaration like that. It would be subsumed under 'social relations'.

Cerberus

2:38 PM

@Mitch I think the context was sex and nudity.

American culture is a layer of Puritanism with a layer of hedonism on top, isn't it?

CowperKettle

Can you imagine a general in the West, being exposed for being a thief, stealing from his own comrades, and remaining in his position. Further, even daring to call the investigating journalists to a duel. This is the absolute degradation.

Mitch

@Cerberus Public nudity yes, is very European.

Cerberus

Haha.

Although it is not allowed in almost all public spaces.

@CowperKettle You are of course correct.

Mitch

Profanity and sex talk are frowned upon in formal news media.

But both are extremely popular in informal news media.

You ignoring the latter.

@Cerberus So we're talking about degrees of Puritanicity then. Europeans are just slightly less Puritanical than the Americans.

Cerberus

Am I?

@Mitch Isn't everything about degrees?

In neither place are women compelled to cover up their entire body.

Mitch

2:43 PM

@Cerberus OK then. Then you would accept 'Europeans are slightly less Puritanical than the Americans' defining Puritanism as 'sex talk and nudity' and comparing the world?

Cerberus

But it's not just Europe versus America, is it? When you look at Canada and Australia and New Zealand and Brazil and Mexico and Chile, I think you'll see less Puritanism than in America, in many situations.

@Mitch Sure, though I wouldn't like the word 'slightly'.

Of course emancipation and many freedoms have progressed in America just as in Europe and elsewhere.

It is an ongoing process everywhere.

Mitch

@Cerberus Toplessness for women is pretty scandalous in the US, but of course one can go to (rare I think) nude beaches here or more commonly 'gentlemen's clubs'. Also I think donut shops in some skeezy places like Florida?

For the record I like donuts for the donuts.

@Cerberus In comparison to the rest of the world.

Cerberus

@Mitch I'm actually not entirely sure about e.g. Korea or South Africa or Russia.

Mitch

@Cerberus In European churches and cathedrals, you can't even wear shorts, men or women. How puritanical. In the US you can practically show up in a bikini.

CowperKettle

On Russian beaches, topless women are not rarity. I don't think there is anything bad about topless women.

Mitch

2:48 PM

Women too.

Cerberus

@Mitch Heh I think that's only in southern Europe.

See, Russia is in some ways less Puritanical than America.

CowperKettle

Maybe being puritanical is not bad? Maybe it's part of the spirit that keeps the US working as a democracy? If so, I would also be against topless women.

Like, in the republican-era Ancient Rome people were much more puritanical than in Greece.

Mitch

@Cerberus There are all sorts of anecdotes: very common public breast feeding in South Korea. coed naked hottubs in Japan (which otherwise is very Puritanical by your standards)

CowperKettle

They always wore clothes, while Greeks went in the nude at their athletic events.

Mitch

@CowperKettle "keeps the US working as a democracy" - that's in a lot of doubt these days

Cerberus

2:51 PM

@CowperKettle Nah.

@CowperKettle I wouldn't be so sure about that.

Mitch

@CowperKettle And the Germanic tribes even moreso than the Romans (at least with respect to marital fidelity)

Cerberus

Roman women had more freedom than Athenian women, for example. There was much variation between Greek cities.

Mitch

@CowperKettle I heard that that was a requirement to prevent women showing up to men's events and ruining the vibe.

haha

actually

@CowperKettle The missionaries in the Amazon were always so upset when they gave the locals clothes to cover themselves because they would cut out the chest and the crotch to make them more comfortable.

Cerberus

Haha very smart, good for them.

CowperKettle

Every year on Jan. 19, the Russian Orthodox Church commemorates the Feast of the Epiphany.

Cerberus

2:55 PM

I think European clothes were not a great fit, uncut, over your penis gourd.

CowperKettle

And people go swimming in holes in ice on January 19 and 20

As a way of "baptism", a tradition.

Cerberus

Cold.

Here, people go swimming in the sea on January 1.

But I think it's a newish 'tradition'.

CowperKettle

There's a joke. "Russian urinologists and general practitioners after the Epiphany swim"

Cerberus

Mitch

@CowperKettle I don't get it

Cerberus

2:58 PM

It is suggested that you get a bladder infection from swimming in cold water.

CowperKettle

@Mitch Some people get ill from the cold. January 20 is usually the start of the coldest period of the winter in Russia.

Крещенские морозы (Epiphany frost)

Temperatures usually fall at their lowest.

Mitch

@Cerberus They do sort of get in the way and are a bit warmish in the rain forest atmosphere.

@CowperKettle But the picture. How does that fit in? Because his clothes are yellow?

CowperKettle

@Cerberus I hope nobody gets lost and drowned in such a crowd.

@Mitch This is a famous man from India, a billionaire who ordered a shirt made of pure gold.

Mitch

@CowperKettle Ohhh.

CowperKettle

Doctors get rich on patients who come with their problems to them )))

Cerberus

3:01 PM

Mitch

@CowperKettle Got it. My heart stops just looking at the water and the cold like that

Cerberus

But I think this whole 'tradition' may have been hijacked or even created by a commercial party, some multinational.

Whence the hats.

Mitch

The hats to keep themselves warm?

Mom always said don't forget your hat.

She never said 'Don't forget all you clothes'

They need to be reminded

CowperKettle

Cerberus

@Mitch I think it is to advertise for some brand.

CowperKettle

3:04 PM

In Canada, it's called "Polar Bear Dip"

Cerberus

At least they have sunny weather.

That doesn't exist here.

Mitch

@Cerberus A brand of AED

defibrillator

OK that's enough of heart jokes

Hah.

haha

Heh.

4:20 PM

> What is the difference between an Arabian Sheikh and Putin?
- The Sheikh has a harem and shares his oil revenues with his people.
- Putin has the people (wordplay: "is having the people", i.e. "is fucking the people") and shares his oil revenues with his harem.

In Russian, the verb иметь can be used to mean "have" or to "have carnal knowledge of".

CowperKettle

5:30 PM

This Roman blue glass bowl has been unearthed perfectly intact (!) at an archaeological dig in Nijmegen.

Алексей Шиманский

@CowperKettle I want this in my kitchen :D

CowperKettle

@АлексейШиманский It reminds me of the crack-proof bowls I do have in my kitchen, although they are dark brown/grey in color

And they are probably not made by hand, while this Roman bowl was made by hand.

Алексей Шиманский

5:48 PM

yeah, beautiful ^_^
Fortunatelly, I have this

I've bought it in "Magnit" and now I drink water from it ^_^

Like the ocean

CowperKettle

6:30 PM

@АлексейШиманский Nice one!

We also have Magnit stores in Yekaterinburg.

Алексей Шиманский

6:40 PM

If you want the same cup - search for "кружка Грация" %)

http://otzovik.com/review_4250159.html

There's a lot of colors of them))

Vikas

7:19 PM

Hi

Which is correct:

1. Asians when they see Europeans are playing games
2. When Asians see Europeans are playing games

My confusion is, should the subject be in the starting of sentence?

Ti-cul Ti-caille

7:53 PM

Hey hi, a Happy New Year! I was wondering, something like boutique services, why would you select the word boutique instead of custom or personalized? What's the core idea behind this adjectival function, is it that of custom or that of craft or both? Or is it exactly like custom but the loanword has some prestige to it and that's what makes it trendy?

I mean I've seen that with IT, like boutique IT services. Ultimately firm offering or the whole thing before firm, for instance.

As you add stuff to the attribution, like boutique IT networking services firm, is that boutique two-ways, as in small + custom at once i.e. boutique firm (small), boutique services (custom) all in one?

Ti-cul Ti-caille

8:10 PM

I know it's Friday, but that's not all...

That pool there. Many words can mean a group or set of things which go together, sometimes in sequence, sometimes randomly, sometimes becoming one thing in fact or in some abstract way, sometimes not. Like a pool of resources. Is there a standard reason why you would select pool instead of batch, pack?

Consider the following scenario. You have edits, changes made by a group of people to different objects. Before those changes are applied, they go to this abstract place so that at a later time they are applied and go live.

Is that a pool of changes?

You have to understand I have no expertise whatsoever in linguistics, in English, so I may come up with funky stuff. Like this. I really want to know when you use something like a pool of servers, computers, does that word carry the image of the water pool, osmosis, liquifaction and such. Is it very metaphorical for the native speaker. I often wonder about such things because of all the idioms. Or is pool as "mathematical" as set or stack or group, if you get my meaning?

Thanks.

p.s. furthermore there are q&a's on these topics (boutique and pool) on the French language site if you're interested. Your input here or there is welcome.

Robusto

9:39 PM

@CowperKettle Yeah, why not go with something no native speaker of English would use or recognize.

Cerberus

11:46 PM

@Vikas Neither of these makes much sense to me.

Perhaps it becomes clearer when you add commas in the right places?

Or if you explain what it is that you want to say?

Cerberus

11:59 PM

@Ti-culTi-caille I don't know, but it sounds terrible to me.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…