English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

user4539917

00:47

@Robusto quack, quack 🦆🦆🦆

CowperKettle

01:14

Christopher Kanan is building algorithms that can continuously learn over time — the way we do.

@FaheemMitha In Russia, ritalin is forbidden, and people resort to bying metamphetamine on the black market in desperate attempts to help them stay employed or continue education.

They also try some other drugs, like some particular antidepressants, which have a distantly similar effect to ritalin. But it's bad without ritalin for them.

Maybe ritalin is over-prescribed in the US, but the opposite situation is also dire.

forest

@Robusto Strictly speaking, natural gas is composed primarily of methane but it is not pure and is defined by how it is obtained. A canister of methane would not be considered natural gas.

CowperKettle

In the city of Nizhny Tagil, in the Urals, a book burning ceremony is slated to occur.

This book with some LGBT content will be burned. The local branch of a patriotic party bought out the whole print run of the book, in order to publicly destroy it.

forest

01:30

That's disgusting.

I mean, it's their right (if they get the fire permits), but it's still an awful thing to do.

CowperKettle

Yes, and a stupid thing too. People will google the title and the sales of the book will go up.

Duma Chairman Volodin is widely believed to be homosexual. So it's such a travesty when Duma passes anti-LGBT laws

tchrist

01:52

@CowperKettle Pretty sure it would still be a travesty even if he weren't prone to same-sex sex.

@CowperKettle Using methamphetamine as a substitute for methylphenidate (ritalin) is a really bad idea. It's even a really bad idea to use it as a substitute for the dextroamphetamine + amphetamine salts that make up Adderall. Methamphetamine is something like 20x too powerful in its effects compared with dextro- and straight amphetamine.

It's not that methylphenidate and dextroamphetamine/amphetamine can never be abused. They can be — by people who want to do that. Methamphetamine is really harsh; it may not be possible NOT to abuse it; I honestly don't know. It does bad things in ways that methylphenidate and dextroamphetamine do not. It's been a long time since I read up on the details though.

In any event, the potential for abuse is radically different.

And, specifically, harm to self and others.

CowperKettle

02:16

> Who is it that says most, which can say more,
Than this rich praise, that you alone, are you,
In whose confine immured is the store
Which should example where your equal grew?

It took me quite some time to understand the last line here.

@tchrist I came across the use of meth recently on a psychiatry website. A person with ADHD said that "meth is helping, I can do work for 12 hours non-stop, but it's very bad for one's health, and once the drug action stops, it's impossible to motivate oneself to do anything".

He also says "Anybody knows how one can get Ritalin or Adderal in Russia?"

Of course nobody would reply in a forum, one can get years of jail for this.

Maybe there is a black market for Ritalin, and somebody might contact him via direct messaging.

tchrist

@CowperKettle Wow, that's awful. I imagine it might be possible to microdose down to something that has no greater effect that methylphenidate or dextroamphetamine, but it would be tough to measure. I think that dextroamphetamine is prescribed in like 10 to 30 mg doses, so you'd need to divide that by like 20 or 25, so really very little. And street drugs are not pharmaceutical grade. They're a mess and you never know.

CowperKettle

Yes

tchrist

I'm not sure that that "once the drug action stops, it's impossible to motivate oneself to do anything" effect is unique to meth. I have that with caffeine. :)

forest

It's just stronger with meth. A lot stronger.

tchrist

Caffeine is actually a much harsher "come down" than the things they give for ADHD. There is no physical withdrawal from them. With caffeine there very most definitely is, and it's terrible. I think meth users also have withdrawal symptoms, but I'm not feeling up to finding one to ask. :)

But people who "abuse" ADHD drugs may be taking much higher doses than would normally be prescribed, so I dunno what happens then.

@CowperKettle Can't blame you. :)

@forest I know I've heard David Sedaris make jokes about this, but it was too long ago to remember how those went.

Vita brevis.

Vikas

03:10

@Mitch I don't get it.

CowperKettle

> In January 1892, Stephen heard that his erstwhile pupil, the 28-year-old Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, had died of pneumonia at Sandringham, after contracting influenza. On hearing the news, Stephen refused to eat, and he died 20 days later, aged 32.

James Kenneth Stephen

James Kenneth Stephen (25 February 1859 – 3 February 1892) was an English poet, and tutor to Prince Albert Victor, eldest son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. == Early life == James Kenneth Stephen was the second son of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, barrister-at-law, and his wife Mary Richenda Cunningham. Known as 'Jem' among his family and close friends, he was first cousin to Virginia Woolf (née Stephen), and shared with his cousin symptoms of bipolar disorder that would afflict him increasingly in later life. As a youth attending Eton College as a King's Scholar, Stephen's prodigious size and...

M.A.R.

05:11

@CowperKettle they can all pretend it's nice and civilized if you call it a "ceremony".

CowperKettle

05:50

> Sales of cars and light trucks in Russia down by 75% y/y in July, which is better than in June, when it was down 82% compared with June 2021

Gradually the decline is starting to level up, but 75% is a massive slump.

> Over the January - July period of 2022, sales of cars and light trucks are 60% lower than in January-July 2021.

> Car factories in St Petersburg expect to resume work in September, if they are able to reroute their parts logistics (to China and Iran)

Sales of light cars in Russia, by month

Cash inflows into the Russian budget from the sale of oil (red) and natural gas (blue), and the price of oil, with a 1-month lag (green)

Vikas

06:16

> 'Breaking Bad' In Mumbai? Chemistry Grad Arrested In 1,400 Crores Drug Haul

Faheem Mitha

07:14

@Mitch I don't think natural gas is "clean". It produces carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Possibly other things.

@Mitch Yes, so I've heard. Also, the oven will stay hot longer after being turned off, I suppose. So tradeoffs, I guess. With no clear winner? After doing a little reading online, there doesn't seem to be a consensus, though people seem to lean more towards electric ovens vs gas ovens.

Though that could just reflect whatever links I happened on.

@Mitch They get delivered. But yes, it's a hassle. But we don't plan to move off gas. It's clearly better for burners, which is what we used the vast majority of the time, anyway. We only use the oven occasionally.

This place has piped gas once. But it stopped. Not sure what happened.

@M.A.R. Yes, I'm aware. I was just trying to point out that in the case of mental illness, maybe try to find out whether the thing you think is a mental illness is actually what you think it is before trying to smother it? Sometimes (often) environment factors can seriously exacerbate things, and amplify underlying issues which wouldn't be so much of a problem in a different environment. I already mentioned my school as an example.

Actually, I remember at one point in my school, they sent me to some kind of counsellor. Who was, of course, completely useless.

I am pretty sure I didn't tell her that I didn't enjoy spending all day (from 8.30 am to 3.30 pm) being locked up with a bunch of nasty, brainless, little Indian thugs. And I'm also pretty sure it wouldn't have helped me if I had. Might have made things worse.

The boys were worse, of course. But I don't think the girls were that much better.

(Excuse rambling. Sorry.)

@M.A.R. I don't think the likelihood of the human race surviving much longer is very high. Of course, miracles can happen. But generally don't. But yes, I agree that with advancements there is the possibility of better treatments.

@CowperKettle Why is it forbidden?

@CowperKettle Sure, I can understand that.

@CowperKettle I doubt it is only over-prescribed in the US.

Andrew Leach

07:59

@CowperKettle I didn't realise that that Duke of Clarence was third in line to the throne (the Prince William of his day). That explains the various memorials I've seen in cathedrals: there must have been public grief — at least, grief as it was expressed in those days.

Xanne

08:36

I’ve been reading the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (in translation) but haven’t gotten to the most interesting parts yet.

Xanne

08:54

Wordle 412 5/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟨🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Not the easiest one.

jlliagre

09:28

Wordle 412 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Vikas

09:55

#Worldle #196 1/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

jlliagre

10:11

#Worldle #196 6/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜⬅️
🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜⬅️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨↘️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨➡️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨⬆️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

My bad, I first rejected that country because was expecting a lake to be visible in its shape.

#Statele #134 4/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜↖️
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜⬅️
🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜↖️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://outflux.net/statele/

🌎 Aug 5, 2022 🌍
🔥 6 | Avg. Guesses: 9.67
🟧🟨🟨🟨🟥🟥🟥🟥
🟧🟥🟥🟩 = 12

#globle

Vikas

11:35

@jlliagre Not impressed!

Robusto

12:00

#Worldle #196 1/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

🌎 Aug 5, 2022 🌍
🔥 6 | Avg. Guesses: 6
🟨🟨🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟩 = 8

#globle

__________________
Wordle 412 4/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

@jlliagre 10,000 lakes!

jlliagre

12:27

@Robusto Indeed, including the "Mille lacs lake".

Robusto

12:48

@jlliagre Et au nord le lac des bois.

jlliagre

@Vikas I was impressed by your first attempt success.

Mitch

@M.A.R. There have been a number of medical miracles (antibitotics, vaccines, anesthesia, hand-washing (haha I know is that really a miracle?))

and dialysis and transplantation and X-rays and etc etc

that non-medicals (is that a word) kind of expect more miracles.

but of course there's no guarantee.

Robusto

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." —Arthur C. Clarke

Mitch

To proclaim all explanation in a single sentence, I think public education over the past couple centuries saturated knowledge to a degree that most lo-tech miracles have been made already.

@M.A.R. I finally have the energy (used to avoid doing real things) to do the minimum research possible of questionable reliability.. wikipedia:

Natural gas

Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Usually low levels of trace gases like carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, and helium are also present. Natural gas is colorless and odorless, so odorizers such as mercaptan, which smells like sulfur or rotten eggs, are commonly added to natural gas supplies for safety so that leaks can be readily detected.Natural gas is a fossil fuel and non-renewable resource that is formed when layers...

> Both the gas itself (specifically methane) and carbon dioxide, which is released when natural gas is burned, are greenhouse gases

so burning and leaking of the fuel contributes to global warming, ... but

> natural gas emits fewer toxic air pollutants, less carbon dioxide, and almost no particulate matter compared to other fossil and biomass fuels

so it is not as bad as say burning coal or wood

(yes I know you know this but this is just for reference)

Robusto

@Mitch But if you don't burn it and just release it into the atmosphere it is much worse than CO2.

This is why we dread the thawing of the permafrost.

Mitch

13:01

@Robusto But this (propane) is probably what @FaheemMitha will be using, which may well have different (od different enough) properties, even though it has 3 carbons instead of one. Wait

so why don't they use ethane as a fuel? or maybe they do? I just haven't heard of it used that way? Am I uptalking too much?

Robusto

Better uptalking than puptalking.

Mitch

@Robusto All I've been repeating is only qualitative. Actual number comparisons would help but that's beyond my energy

@Robusto A pup talking is better than a peptalk

Robusto

You're barking up the wrong tree.

Mitch

And a ted talk is a chalktalk with no chalk

@Robusto The tree doesn't grow far from the acorn

Robusto

You win some, you lose some.

A bitch in time saves nine.

Mitch

13:06

@M.A.R. I'm the food taster in my family, so any overdone things I take care of. I mean I'd prefer my toast not to be ashy, but that's activated charcoal right there nature's food filter getting rid of heavy metals

1) remove a cigarette and the boat is lighter by one cigarette, ie it's one cigarette lighter than before

2) a cigarette lighter is an implement to light cigarettes.

Which uses butane

which is related to methane and propane

and is probably a green house gas

Robusto

Is windowpane a greenhouse gas?

Mitch

not to be confused with a green housegas

which you can get by (accidentally) washing with chlorine bleach and then rinsing off with... vinegar?

M.A.R.

@Robusto 25 times as bad IIRC

Mitch

@Robusto That sounds like one of the superhero sidekicks, whose powers aren't that great but they make really good coffee

Windowpane, Invisigirl's sidekick

All he can do is see through glass.

Robusto

Invisigirl's more apparent sidekick.

Mitch

13:12

He can see through -you-

M.A.R.

@Mitch I suppose it's more accurate to say that all the easy things we could have done with the help of a really big magnifier are already done.

Mitch

just to the other side. no funny stuff

M.A.R.

Now that we have seen things, it's time to decipher them. Then we'll learn how to alter them, and finally become those crazy scifi echoing voice energy beings or whatever.

Robusto

Apparently, I am an apparent parent.

M.A.R.

Mind you, we really only have done like 10 percent of the seeing of ourselves and what's in our immediate surroundings, and less than one percent of what's not.

@FaheemMitha that's really bleak. I don't believe that. We're still capable of very horrible things of course, we might raze entire countries to the ground. But humans have survived supervolcanic eruptions and stronger predators. The human race will continue.

Robusto

13:21

@M.A.R. I fear that assertion will be tested.

M.A.R.

@FaheemMitha the public in general has some way to go and quite a few misconceptions to fix about mental illness, but as far as I've seen people who do research about these illnesses do have the right attitude. They know that these are still enigmas and that our band-aids have a long long way to go before they can be as effective as a cure. Even the most enthusiastic "this drug turns you into Einstein" PhD students have spent years learning how damaging the drugs are and at times how ineffective

Mitch

@M.A.R. This may be a truism (or trite? or is it sophomoric?) but humans are -the apex predator and really have been since we started being able to run long distances on the savannahs of Africa. Gorillas are just pussycats with really good 'angry faces', and chimps are so clumsy and can't run.

M.A.R.

@FaheemMitha it's clean in the sense that should they replace traditional fuel, breathing would be less lethal in the most polluted cities out there, like Beijing

Mitch

OK lions and tigers are pretty badass, but I don't think they're that smart.

or ambitious.

@M.A.R. YOu could take a cocktail of amphetamines and steroids every day, become superman/frankenstein, solve all world problems with your bare hands, and then all your internal organs will explode after 3 months.

M.A.R.

Regular fuel, and imagine timber and the like as well, release hydrocarbons and all sorts of nasty nitrogen compounds into air, and since they're never ideal, they don't burn nicely in engines either and release a lot of particles too.

@Mitch you're saying superman is high?

tchrist

13:29

@Robusto It must be: it causes acid rain.

Mitch

The biological combustion engine, with biomass fuels converted into mitochondrial energy still emits methane as a green house gas.

M.A.R.

That's if they don't have sulfur additives, which would be worse

Mitch

or is that just GI tract bacteria?

M.A.R.

@Mitch yeah, and ethanol in Brazil also releases carbon monoxide and dioxide upon combustion

@Mitch human intestinal flora can sometimes make H2S, but I dunno about methane

Mitch

@M.A.R. His superpowers come from simple biophysics, being raised on Krypton with a higher mass, his muscles are used to higher gravity. It's like if we moved to the moon.

That all science

M.A.R.

13:32

@Mitch anyway it doesn't work like that. The bad effects don't wait for the good effects to end.

Mitch

@M.A.R. We're somewhat related to cows and cows produce butt methane, so I highly suspect we do to.

@M.A.R. What?

checks diagrams

M.A.R.

@Mitch withdrawal is different, but you don't "enhance" yourself and then feel the heat. The heat would already be there.

Mitch

nop, three months is it. the superpowers peak pretty quickly and there's a lag time of three months before the superunpowers become deblitating

yes, there'll be tremendous headaches during month two, but by then you've already built a space elevator

with your own hands

M.A.R.

@Mitch Trust me, theawesomeluthor.com is not a reliable source.

Mitch

I mean, you'll probably want gloves

M.A.R.

13:35

And shorts too in case people with telescopes see you

Mitch

@M.A.R. That's just comic books. I'm using as a reference...

an amphetamine and steroid enhanced fever dream

@M.A.R. Oh. There I would recommend jeans just because you don't want to scrape your knees on steel beams and boulders.

M.A.R.

Wouldn't it be awesome to inject something that would instead give you a billion dollars?

Then you can buy any superpowers you can

Mitch

@M.A.R. starts taking notes

somehow I feel like injecting stuff is an extra step we could bypass.

Let's think about it first

M.A.R.

Let's make it an inhaler

Or dermal patch?

Mitch

maybe this injectable substance instead of injecting it we could make some flat panels of it and use that as an exchange device.

M.A.R.

13:38

Enema?

Mitch

whoa

back up one step

patch

don't they already have caffeine patches?

M.A.R.

Yeah, and scopolamine patches

Mitch

I don't know what that is but it sounds great

M.A.R.

And some contraceptive implants.

tchrist

Have you tried those? How often do you have to water them?

Mitch

13:40

instaed of a transcutaneous insulin pump, are there insulin patches?

M.A.R.

There are also inserts that you put inside your eyelid

Mitch

@M.A.R. That's a no from me.

no eye stuff

M.A.R.

@Mitch not that I know of

@Mitch how are you gonna shoot lasers then

Mitch

Well get on that then

M.A.R.

Or will you just glare down your enemies?

Mitch

13:41

@M.A.R. From a laser gun?

@M.A.R. The raised eyebrow is the final touch that does them in

M.A.R.

@tchrist for some, growing five progesterone bushes on their arm might be appealing. Not for me.

Why does a superbeing that can move planets need lasers anyway.

I know what France looks like on a map. Hooray

Worldle has never put up Iran. Where's the justice

Robusto

@M.A.R. Countries have to pay to get higher up on the rankings.

If you're gonna cheap out, you're gonna be at the end of the line.

M.A.R.

@Robusto you don't deceive me! How did Zimbabwe get put up one day?

Robusto

@M.A.R. Corruption, obviously.

M.A.R.

I wanna file a complaint at the UN

Robusto

13:52

Baksheesh will help with that.

M.A.R.

Reminds me, there are verses in Quran that say if you lend money to someone, it's haram to collect interest on that debt. This is also taught in schools. I've asked people how they justify what the banks do. Haven't received an answer yet

Mitch

@M.A.R. THere are supposedly Islamic-consistent investment/loaning situations, where 'usury' does not occur.

jlliagre

14:24

Le Mot (@WordleFR) #208 4/6

⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
🟨⬛🟨⬛⬛
🟨🟨⬛⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

https://wordle.louan.me

Wordle (ES) #211 5/6

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

https://wordle.danielfrg.com/

Mitch

Islamic banking and finance

Islamic banking, Islamic finance (Arabic: مصرفية إسلامية), or Sharia-compliant finance is banking or financing activity that complies with Sharia (Islamic law) and its practical application through the development of Islamic economics. Some of the modes of Islamic banking/finance include Mudarabah (profit-sharing and loss-bearing), Wadiah (safekeeping), Musharaka (joint venture), Murabahah (cost-plus), and Ijara (leasing). Sharia prohibits riba, or usury, defined as interest paid on all loans of money (although some Muslims dispute whether there is a consensus that interest is equivalent to riba...

which as with all concepts implies that -some- banks in the islamic world follow Islam-safe practices and some do not.

Vikas

@jlliagre Yeah I have memorized its shape.

Mitch

so you're hearing what the imams say (interest on loans is haram), but seeing that most banks still charge interest (most banks do this, but also most banks in Islamic countries).

Vikas

14:40

@Mitch Hahaha hahaha hahaha haha another tricky joke!

Robusto

15:01

@M.A.R. That was a problem with Christianity as well. Usury is one reason they tolerated the Jews, and one reason they didn't tolerate them. Religion is weird.

tchrist

@Robusto So charging interest was forbidden for reasons of morality, but not paying interest?

Robusto

Apparently.

Look at the contempt Antonio feels for Shylock in A Merchant of Venice.

tchrist

I was thinking of that.

These asymmetric moralities confuse me. Like how irrumation isn't considered immoral, only fellation.

Robusto

And the resentment Shylock feels for that.

Faheem Mitha

16:04

@M.A.R. That wasn't intended to be bleak. Just a simple statistical statement, which one can trivially demonstrate with elementary math. You should check on the impact of a nuclear war on the Earth. Even a relatively small nuclear war, such as between India and Pakistan would cause the industries of the world to collapse, and lead to mass starvation etc on a global scale. And a major nuclear war would mean the end of the human race, at least in any organized sense. Some survivors might remain.

Notice that something as comparatively trivial as the Ukraine was has caused significant stress to the international economic system. Which of course, being largely based on the Western industrial capitalism model, is very fragile and unstable.

There are articles on the topic you can read, which are easy to find. It merits almost no discussion in the "mainstream" media, but it's much discussed in other places. Not that I particularly recommend doing so. It won't make you sleep any better at night.

M.A.R.

16:20

@Mitch what is this mythical "Islamic banking"?

I'm obviously far from literate in the topic, but our banks have always seemed like a ripoff of Western banks to me, with the ever-present lag behind in technology and services.

AFAIK, any loan for any possible use has interest rates, unless explicitly stated otherwise, like when the government is giving away money for some purpose.

The rest is like the communist platitude "if we do manage to fully implement it, it'd be heaven!"

Those other profit-sharing models exist of course. But they haven't replaced or eliminated the need for riba, ever.

@Robusto the guy was so pissed he wrote a poem about it

Robusto

@M.A.R. Kinda like @CowperKettle in that respect.

;-)

M.A.R.

Besides, AFAIK most people that say interest isn't riba are really saying "it's not riba if the banks do it, and it's riba if you do it"

IOW, sorta justifying controlled riba as this "necessary evil".

Really, most of this is superfluous; my nth attempt at convincing myself maybe this whole Islam thing wasn't as well thought out as I've been told on numerous occasions, and when you say it out loud, it sounds pretty obvious.

We should instead talk about how many tons of Zimbabwean currency was sent to the guy who owns Worldle.

Maybe I should send him a 50k toman note. It's roughly worth a dollar and 40 cents.

Mitch

16:44

@M.A.R. What?

@CowperKettle washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/05/…

If you can't read it it's a description of the American basketball player on trial in Russia just sentenced to 9 years in a 'penal colony'.

Two things of note...

1) 'penal colony' is a term and concept that is strange and little known in the US. 'colony' has other implications so is weird with 'penal'. Also, though some US prisoners do work (and under less than good conditions) it's (most likely) not comparable to the Russian conditions.

Is 'penal colony' just the translation of 'gulag'? 'Gulag' is a perfectly acceptable word in English (as a Russianism for a Russian prison for political prisoners). Or is there a two word Russian term that translates to 'penal' and 'colony'?

2) Griner plays often on a Russian team in ... Yekaterinburg! (in the article she says she really likes your city, like a second home to her).

M.A.R.

17:09

3 hours ago, by M.A.R.

@Robusto you don't deceive me! How did Zimbabwe get put up one day?

CowperKettle

@Mitch It's a kind of jail.

A penal colony is basically a jail but there you live in barracks with other convicts, you are forced to work. You first undergo education to obtain some working profession, like a sewing machine operator. And you work, and get paid some meagre money.

I'm very sorry for that basketball player girl. I do hope she gets exchanged for someone, or otherwise gets her freedom.

@Mitch Yekaterinburg is a very likeable city.

Skyscrapers, museums, a lot of foreigners (relatively), a lot of educated people.

Putinites dubbed it The City of Devils, for large anti-Putin demonstrations and the only openly anti-Putin mayor, now a former mayor.

I ordered a hand-painted T-shirt, with some devils walking around and a sign The City of Devils, for my friend on her birthday.

A local artist made an entry sign, Город Бесов, the city of devils, but it was quickly taken down

Robusto

17:26

@Mitch But it does have that Kafkaesque ring to it.

@CowperKettle Imagine how long it would have stayed up if it had merely been broken.

Vikas

19:02

> Ukraine accuses Russia of attacks near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

> Russia accuses Ukraine of ‘nuclear terrorism’ after strikes near power plant

Source Aljazeera.com

CowperKettle

19:22

> So runs the round of life from hour to hour

(Tennyson)

Everybody accuses everybody else

user4539917

19:43

along with "pointing fingers"

and, of course, calling names

Robusto

> I solved Redactle Unlimited in 41 guesses and 2 hours with an accuracy of 65.85%. Play at redactle-unlimited.com

That two hours included time out to vacuum my car's interior and wipe down the various surfaces, plus lunch.

Mitch

20:23

@Robusto When you go to word-game heaven, they'll look deep into your darkest of hearts and know that you were secretly turning over the possible solutions in your head and deduct points accordingly.

Robusto

@Mitch I wasn't doing it consciously, so it doesn't count. I have no control over my lizard brain.

Mitch

Word-game Jesus is not as forgiving as wash-the-feet-of-prostitutes Jesus

Robusto

@Mitch Well, I guess he was just kinky that way.

Nowadays I bet you have to pay to wash the feet of prostitutes.

Mitch

a lot

one or two feet, that's a freebie

Robusto

Let's not point ~~fingers~~ toes.

Mitch

20:27

@CowperKettle Yes. 'Penal' says that right there. So is 'penal colony' another term for 'gulag'? Or does Russian use two words that correspond to something like 'penal' and 'colony'?

@Robusto That's another $50 for pointing

Robusto

@Mitch Maybe they misspelled "penile"?

jlliagre

I solved Redactle Unlimited in 32 guesses and 5 minutes with an accuracy of 78.13%. Play at redactle-unlimited.com

Robusto

@jlliagre Teacher's pet.

jlliagre

Hmm Calling someone a teacher's pet is an insult, it implies that the person does not deserve his high status and has an unfair advantage. The word pet in this case refers to a pampered or spoiled person. Really? ;-)

What does a teacher's pet look like?

Normal. Teacher's Pet has dark tan skin and freckles, and she has turquoise eyes that she wears big black glasses over. Her lips are pink and she has very faint blush. Her magenta hair is worn up in buns held by a braid around the base, where a small azure bow rests.

Mitch

20:49

@Robusto Then it would be 'peen-aisle' the place in the hardware store where you find all the hammers.

tchrist

@jlliagre pet < Scottish Gaelic peata tame animal, now also ‘spoilt child’ (Early Irish petta, Irish peata tame animal, occasionally referring to spoilt humans), probably ultimately < an extended form (-t- extension) of the Indo-European base of classical Latin suēscere to become used to (see mansuete adj.).

@jlliagre ....The Scottish Gaelic and Irish noun is also used preceding a noun in the genitive to specify the kind of pet, e.g. Early Irish petta eoin a pet bird, literally ‘a pet of a bird’. This may underlie the uses as adjective in English.

You know how you get a spoilt child, right? By leaving them sit out on the countertop overnight instead of putting them away right after dinner.

jlliagre

@tchrist Pet is also a famous false friend. Teacher's fart! :-)

tchrist

ça y est

jlliagre

or Pet pourri

tchrist

Which is worse, an English pedo or a Spanish pedo? :)

The latter is a stinker, the former a stalker.

We should probably spell it paedo for paedophile so as not to confuse the pedologists but that ship has sailed.

Spanish pedo is of course the cognate for the French pet you mentioned, both from the same Latin pedĭtum, and having nothing to do with petitions.

Pedology is "The branch of science that deals with soil, esp. its formation, nature, and classification; soil science. Also: the pedological characteristics of a soil, an area, etc." It must not be spelled with Paedo-.

But paedology can be spelled pedology. It's "The study of the growth and (esp. mental, social, or educational) development of children; child psychology." — and now largely historical.

> This approach to child development was a particular characteristic of educational psychology in Russia and the Soviet Union in the early part of the 20th cent., but all forms of pedology were banned there in the 1930s.

Robusto

21:01

@jlliagre I'm just kidding you.

You beat me fair and square, so as a humorous bit of indignation I called you a teacher's pet.

tchrist

> V. M. Bekhterev, who founded the first Paedological Institute in Leningrad in 1907, viewed paedology as an interdisciplinary study of the child, with emphasis on infancy and early childhood. Vygotsky regarded it as a science of child development.

Robusto

Obviously we don't even have a teacher.

tchrist

Paedagogy is unrelated to paedogoggling and to paedogoogling.

Robusto

So does encyclopaedia involve bicycles?

Learning how to cycle?

Learning how to recycle?

tchrist

Tricyclic training is part of the trivium.

Robusto

21:06

So driving a car is part of the quadrivium?

tchrist

Bingo!

Robusto

I'm glad we went over this stuff.

tchrist

Have you never received a papal encyclical?

jlliagre

@

tchrist

@Home me thinks.

Robusto

21:07

@tchrist Not personally. I think one of my friends might have.

Did you ever call someone a f@head?

tchrist

Father fathered fatherds.

The slim ones didn't live.

An encyclopaedia is but an encyclical compendium.

It just rained here. How odd!

jlliagre

Monsoon?

tchrist

Yeah.

It was heading for 100 again but the monsoon knocked it back down again.

Denver has 97; clouds didn't make it there. I've got like 79.

Robusto

21:23

It poured like crazy in the middle of the night last night.

About one or two in the morning, for like half an hour. A bit of lightning as well.

@tchrist Full fathom five thy father lies.

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
                                             Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them,—ding-dong, bell.

tchrist

@Robusto I've never understood why fathom isn't fathoms in that verse.

Robusto

I don't know. It always just made sense to me as it is. [A] full fathom [times] five.

What I just noticed now that I never thought about before is the Ding-dong.

tchrist

And a sea change.

Robusto

So they had bell chimes like we do? The major third dropping to the tonic, like a standard doorbell?

You know, half of our modern idioms are taken right out of Shakespeare.

tchrist

That's why he wrote in modern English.

Robusto

21:33

Maybe that's why modern English changed less after Shakespeare. We didn't want to lose all that richness. Or something.

@tchrist And then there's the alliteration factor. The four F's of that line have an other-worldly feel; kind of like Joyce's "... falling faintly, and faintly falling ..."

If you tried to make it more utilitarian, more crystal clear, you would lose the magic.

jlliagre

Astonishing picture taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, showing Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Sun!

Robusto

Wow!

jlliagre

Qui plus est: it tastes good!

Robusto

21:49

That we can see sunspots on a dwarf star from four lightyears away!

jlliagre

A chorizo star...

Robusto

Or pepperoni.

jlliagre

Can I substitute pepperoni for chorizo?
Pepperoni is a dried product compared to the cured and dried Spanish chorizo. Substitute an equal amount of pepperoni for Spanish chorizo and reduce any added spices in the recipe to compensate for the spicier pepperoni.

Robusto

@jlliagre Yeah, but huevos rancheros wouldn't be the same without chorizo. Pepperoni just wouldn't be quite the same.

Cerberus

22:24

@jlliagre I think pepperoni normally don't contain cumin?

jlliagre

@Cerberus I don't know. Pepperoni is not something very popular here.

Cerberus

OK.

I think pepperoni contain Spanish peppers but no cumin, unlike Chorizo.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…