English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

tchrist

00:59

¿POR QUÉ nosostros HABLAMOS y los chimpancés NO?

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Robusto

@tchrist Si no me equivoco, los chimpancés del "Planeta de los Simios" hablan bastante bien.

tchrist

Mejor que los gorilas militares, peor que los orangutanes científicos.

Y que no me preguntes porqué decimos el gorila.

> Del fr. gorille o del ingl. gorilla, estos del lat. cient. Gorilla, y este del gr. Γορίλλαι Goríllai 'gorilas', tribu salvaje africana de mujeres peludas, según Hannón, explorador cartaginés del s. VI o V a. C.

Xanne

I notice that when we expect dipthongs, they’re not quite there. That would be Southern, but not deep south. There is nothing of New England, midwestern flatness, Brooklyn
& related, but good elocution without effort. My first guess was Kentucky but . .

>Isaiah Markin was born on June 2, 1999 and resides in Tennessee.[3] Growing up in the Appalachia region, his parents would tell him stories about mountain monsters to scare him into staying indoors. Whenever he went outside with his father, he would learn about the nature around him and grew up with a deep appreciation for the natural world. Aside from YouTube, he is a full-time biology student and previously a Sunday School teacher.

Also part Cherokee. All this is self-reported. Another source says LA is his birthplace.

Mitch

01:19

@tchrist maybe they just don't think we'd be interested in what they have to say?

@Laurel You can tell me when it's over

Xanne

Goodness, Great Britain needs better weather forecasting.

Mitch

@M.A.R. I'm still finishing up September

tchrist

@Xanne ?

Xanne

@tchrist ?

tchrist

Why does Great Britain need better weather forecasting?

Xanne

01:31

They’ve just had a snow storm that left people on highways for up to 19 hours.

tchrist

That sounds like a different problem?

Xanne

Oh, it must be global warming! Of course!

tchrist

I was going to suggest they don't know how to drive in the snow. :)

It doesn't look to me like they got much snow, but that's just from random photos.

Xanne

No doubt that too. I remember having fun on ice in the midwest, doing quarter-turns just by breaking.

tchrist

Yeah, they're full of it. They may get two inches of snow on the roads. They're just pansies.

Strike that: pansies are cold tolerant. They are not killed by frost.

> Drivers had to be rescued from their cars after up to 3ft of snow fell in parts of the Lake District on Saturday, when the area was busy with day-trippers.

But that, that is different.

Day trippers can be no more expected to handle a yard of snow than of ale.

Xanne

01:42

And AWD is probably rare.

tchrist

Either that, or chains.

They probably didn't pre-treat the roads.

> Why can't the UK handle snow?

Mitch

I came here to say that I am really disgusted by the use of 'quantum' as a mass noun.

Xanne

The typical UK car is a Ford Fiesta.

tchrist

The typical Ford Fiesta should be partying in Mexico.

Mitch

For example, 'Quantum will enable advanced in medical science through protein calculations'

Almost as disgusted as with 'learnings'

tchrist

01:52

@Mitch Isn't that just the name of some company?

Mitch

@tchrist that would be ok if that were the case.

tchrist

What is it that they think they're talking about?

Mitch

I'd expand it to say quantum science or even just quantum mechanics

Ah no...it's bad in the same way that they use 'cyber' as a thing

Xanne

Quantum computing.

Mitch

I'm nauseous now

Back in a moment

Xanne

01:55

”Learnings” is awful. Corporations love it.

Mitch

@Xanne yeah that's a variation that would work in many instances

@Xanne it's gross

But

tchrist

@Mitch You're contagiously nauseated?

Mitch

It doesn't have a succinct alternative

''things that were learned'?

tchrist

You learn your lessons.

Mitch

@tchrist I'm spreading the nausea with my words

Robusto

01:59

@Mitch Eeeuuuwwww.

I think I have to go throw up now.

Mitch

If you can't read English it won't work

Robusto

The SAT Question Everyone Got Wrong

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tchrist

@Robusto This bothers me. Take two quarters.

Robusto

He does show you with two quarters.

Mitch

I'd be more convinced if it were done with dimes

tchrist

02:09

@Mitch May your contagious logorrhoea lead to no cacoloquent coproloquy nor vice versa.

Mitch

Ew

Robusto

*

tchrist

No digas cacas.

@Robusto Right, think of gear shafts.

Robusto

@Mitch Help yourself ^

Mitch

@Robusto I'm making cut outs of these as we speak

Robusto

02:13

I don't use change anymore at all.

If I pay cash for a coffee I dump any change into the tip jar. Better than to have it in my pockets.

Mitch

I haven't used bills in a year

Robusto

And I only pay cash to avoid adding a tip on my charge, because it offends me to do so.

Mitch

I did have to rummage among the car seat cushions to get a dime and nickel for a parking meter

Robusto

No city has coin-op meters anymore.

Mitch

@Robusto that is a problem if you don't have paper money

@Robusto except for the one I used the other day

Robusto

02:16

Yes, it is. But I do tip waiters in a restaurant, because they literally wait on me. When I go up to a counter and order a coffee, I am literally waiting on them.

The whole tipping thing has gone off the rails.

tchrist

Electronic effing panhandlers can get off my lawn.

Robusto

When I took the family down to Curaçao a decade ago, we ate at this excellent restaurant called The Wine Cellar. The meal was great, the service exemplary. But when I tipped 20%, like an American would, the owner came out and insisted I reconsider and remove the tip. Which I did.

tchrist

I refuse to tip at the counter.

Just say no.

Robusto

Just say 0.

Mitch

02:58

Even worse is when the counter's electronic payment gives you an option of 20%, 25%, 30%. So the tip for the minimal service is going into the company not to the cashier?

Xanne

Uber now lets you tip in advance.

Or encourages it.

CowperKettle

03:34

CowperKettle

04:14

Word of the day: sine center

CowperKettle

07:23

Which is the better-looking science paper title?

1. Urgent care for an emergency patient in diabetology

2. Urgent care for the emergency patient in diabetology

CowperKettle

07:43

Shmiska - Запальничка | Завжди буде третьою лишньою

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Nice pop song in Ukrainian.

> Dear Santa, I'm writing you this letter on a sheet of sandpaper because I know what you did with my previous letter.

A Russian joke, but could easily be a translation from English.

Russian term derived from Dutch: shpangout (шпангоут), from spant - rib and hout - wood. The ship's frame.

At least that's how the Russian Wikipedia explains it.

Spant (schip)

De spanten van een schip zorgen voor het dwarsscheepse verband van de romp: de "ribbenkast". == Functies == Spanten worden op regelmatige onderlinge afstand op de kiel geplaatst. Nabij het middenschip hebben spanten meestal min of meer een U-vorm. In de richting van de voorsteven verloopt dit geleidelijk naar een V-vorm.In de richting achtersteven krijgt de spantvorm vaak min of meer het profiel vorm van een wijnglas. Over de buitenkant van de spanten wordt de scheepshuid (bekleding romp) aangebracht. Naargelang het materiaal van de spanten of de scheepshuid kan de bevestiging op verschillende...

> Study finds interrupting periods of prolonged sitting with squats improves brain function journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/japplphysiol.00437.2023

Xanne

08:06

Wordle 898 4/6

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩
🟨🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

@CowperKettle I’d go with the. You want the generic here, not a specific case, I think.

CowperKettle

09:15

@Xanne Thank you!

Minus 11°C

Vikas

+24° indoor here. I don't like it already.

At night it's +11°C

CowperKettle

09:32

The forecast for this Thursday says minus 27°C, but who knows, it's too long a term

Vikas

@CowperKettle If you take a cold drink bottle with you, will it freeze while you drink?

CowperKettle

@Vikas No, I don't think it will freeze while I drink

The stream from the bottle will be too thick to instantly freeze

Vikas

I guess then you have to leave it some time on ground then it might freeze.

CowperKettle

Maybe they don't call it "stream" but some other word. I forgot.

@Vikas Yes, on the ground, or if I will run for a couple of hours

Vikas

YouTube just recommended me this:

Society of the Snow | Official Trailer | Netflix

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CowperKettle

09:46

My YouTube recommendations are a mix of AI lectures, scientific discussions or popular movies about science, and Ukrainian music, but there are other videos too, they are strange.

For instance, examples of new games built on the Unreal 5 engine youtu.be/49kBFSh7urE?si=fVgL0P8DqbQi5CIb

They are almost like a real video record.

Vikas

@CowperKettle Tomorrow the trailer of probably the most awaited game of this century (so far) will be launched. Around 28 hours later exactly. It would easily beat Unreal 5 engine in terms of realism.

GTA 6 Official Trailer Countdown Livestream

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CowperKettle

@Vikas This is cool.

Vikas

Twitter might explode.

CowperKettle

Yes..

Word of the post-noon: conservatorship -- Under U.S. law, a conservatorship results from the appointment of a guardian or a protector by a judge to manage the personal or financial affairs of another person who is incapable of fully managing their own affairs due to age or physical or mental limitations.

I never heard this word before.

Xanne