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00:34
@Alexander There's no rule against it, for better or worse.
@alphabet, thanks a lot. I think you are a very good person but I'm not too interested in politics. My strong sides are maths and probably chemistry. Could you please visit my room? I feel so bored and I want to talk.
@Alexander I'm not sure on what basis you'd conclude that I'm a very good person, but thanks I guess?
I don't think we need to be alone in a room together if you just want to talk.
01:22
@alphabet. Everyone is the best. Everyone is amazing. Everyone is beautiful!! This is my life position in general. And I am a bilingual person. You can verify me on lie detector and it will show my little heart has sheltered two languages that I love equally, one of which is English.
I am sorry, I realize it may sound like hypocrisy.((( I do have some people in my head which are... which could be better. I absolutely promise I won't slander and I'll be polite, trust me.
@Alexander That life position seems like quite a perilous one! And I'm not sure how your being bilingual is relevant to your wanting to talk to me.
@alphabet, I'm not harmful. Sorry, I didn't know what is perilous but I translated it. Now I know it. We could talk about something YOU wish to talk rather than something I'd like to talk. I don't want to be too persistent. But... I want to discuss our site.))) Can we talk about some rules, what's good and what is bad? Rules of questions, answers... I simply came here from another site. I promise I'll respect the rules...
@Alexander If having a worm in your head can turn you into RFK Jr., I hate to think what having a person in there would do. And no need for supplication.
@Alexander "Perilous" = dangerous. It's dangerous to think that everyone is amazing because then you would end up trusting people who don't have your best interests in mind.
@alphabet, yes.))) I 've already learnt it just before you explained it to me.
01:39
@Alexander You can find more about the site's rules here. If you have more specific questions, this room is indeed the right place to ask.
I'm in fact using my Google translator. It helps so much. (My country is Moldova, I speak Russian.) I have no idea who RFK Jr. is...( And my shame, I don't know the word 'supplication' either((( Oh, but I do have my Oxford dictionary nearby; my father bought it to me in 2023. I think I'll look in there. Oh, thanks for the link about rules.)
@Alexander @alphabet seems to like talking about free food, especially donuts.
Oh!!!! I think I have figured out. Did you mean Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy?? Oh my God.
@Alexander A presidential candidate and professional nutcase. The closest thing we have to entertainment this election season. Has a history of brain worms.
I have a hard time believing that story
Suppose he really had a brain worm. Then he probably wouldn't be able to tell people that he had one. You know, because the worm is eating his brain.
01:44
I mean RFK Jr., the son of the more famous RFK.
On the other hand, if he does not have a brain worm, then he wouldn't be crazy enough to admit that he has a brain worm.
@Mitch Apparently there actually are worms that cause parasitic brain infections, and in his odd escapades RFK Jr. spent time where those are endemic. They don't literally eat your brain, though, just absorb nutrients and then die eventually.
@alphabet oh
Never mind then
JFK = John Kennedy, 35th president. I know all US presidents by heart.) So RFK is Robert. Mind worm = it's like mind block, am I right? In any case, I am a pluralist (is there such a word?). If someone thinks Earth is flat or 2 + 2 = 17, I will agree with him just in order to save my nervous system. Oh, RFK JUNIOR. Thanks, I am very dumb. So, father and son had the same name, like George Bush.
@Mitch So he was probably basically telling the truth. Some doctors were all over the news explaining it; RFK Jr. was probably being honest, though saying that the worm "ate" his brain wasn't technically accurate.
@Alexander RFK Jr. literally had a worm infection in his brain. It's not a metaphor for anything.
01:47
@alphabet I mean I feel embarrassed admitting that I got a sunburn
@Alexander 2+2=5 is one I can sort of see but 2+2=17? That's taking things too far!
@Mitch Sunscreen is for losers. I just slather myself with lead-based paint.
Jul 2, 2023 at 3:09, by alphabet
@Robusto Melanoma shmelanoma.
Can I please ask my friends what country are you from? My country is Moldova.)
@alphabet See! You get it!
@Alexander I'm from the United Federation of Planets.
@Alexander 'Murica.
@Alexander do you speak any Moldovan/Romanian?
01:55
@Mitch, thanks so much, I accepted your heart. I think you meant USA, greatest country in the world. I've recently had a dream where I met a group of Americans (mostly women) and I began to complain about my poor life. I begged so much about if they could take me out of this hell and integrate me into their society, and they in fact agreed. I know about 7,000 different English words but I'm not against learning smth new.
@Mitch, sorry. Russian.
@Alexander My country is Russia
> Chlorophyll and Hemoglobin. The major difference is that plant blood carries a Magnesium (Mg) molecule where our blood contains a Iron (Fe) molecule. Magnesium is what is responsible for making plant blood green, and iron is what makes our blood red.
@CowperKettle I think the oxygen transport chemical for horseshoe crabs is mostly the same but with Cu (copper) in that center spot
Making their blood blue
RGB
Fe Mg Cu
Also I'm fairly certain that plants don't have a circulatory system.
Red, Green, Blue!
Fe, Mg, Cu!
01:59
Or rather they have water transfer by capillary action and maybe some weird sap thing going on
Animals, Plants, Crabs!
@CowperKettle Rah! Rah! Rah!
@CowperKettle, thanks. I am very glad/happy.)))) Closing parentheses mean joy. I have graduated from Chisinau State University in 2013. Faculty of pure chemistry (that means not applied). I am not saying I am a good chemist in any way. I do know all 118 chemical elements by heart in correct order though. However, organics is a total nightmare for me. SN1, SN2...
Plants commit murder in cold sap.
@CowperKettle hm I wonder what spider blood is like, if they have any at all.
@CowperKettle Dong dong.
02:01
@Alexander I've never graduated from any university. I self-taught chemistry to enroll for a biotechnician in the mid 2010-s, but felt that I would not have the energy to study there and work at the same time
That was the sound effect in that American TV show Law and Order, which plays whenever there is a big decision made, like when the criminal is final arrested or when the judgement of guilty or innocent is made.
@CowperKettle, thanks. That's quite interesting to hear! Self-education... great. Can I ask if you are male or female? I suppose the former but I may be wrong. I am male, Alexander is my first name.
@Alexander I'm male
@Alexander the US is awesome but other countries can be pretty awesome too. Also if you look at a lot of 'quality of life's stats, it is nowhere near the top (of OECD states... Those are most of the developed nations)
For example, 0 days paid leave for new mothers. (Most European countries have a minimum of 3 months)
@Alexander Do you think that Moldova should unite with Romania, since they have the same language?
02:07
@Mitch One wonders if at least some foreigners who idolize America and end up moving there find that it doesn't live up to their expectations. Or if Americans find that idolization odd because they don't realize their own privilege. Or both.
Also our (I'm from the US) avg lifespan is upper 70 yrs, and most European countries are in the low 80's.
Thanks a lot. Internet. What can I say. You do not see your interlocutor's face. That's why it's so obscure for me. I am so sad there were a few people who thought I am artificial intelligence or a neural network. Trust me I am NOT. I am a guy. My written Russian is nearly absolutely perfect. If you see a mistake (or a typo) in my works you have the right of lynching me immediately, and I won't blame you. I am 35 years old.
While at the same time health care expense per capital in the US is around twice that of the next highest country (I think Switzerland?)
@Alexander what chat room do you usually talk in?
02:12
@Mitch, sorry, I am a terrific noob. Absolute beginner. I am confused with those chat rooms.((((
@Mitch The US does have an unusually large economy, of course. The UK has a smaller GDP than California despite having about twice as many people.
@alphabet I know what you're saying. For Europeans I think the plusses do not outweigh the minuses.
But for people from developing countries (or politically unstable ones) there are way more positives.
@Mitch Western Europe at least. I wouldn't want to move to Belarus.
People who end up going back tend to be idolized for their having spent time in the US.
@alphabet Estonia seems to be the hot place to expatriate to.
@Mitch, I am sorry, I am probably interrupting. Plus - plusses? Hmmm... Bus - buses, walrus - walruses. Well... quiz - quizzes.
02:15
What's going on with Lukashenko, by the way? Has he fed Steven Seagal any more produce?
@Alexander no problem. If there's any place in the internet you can interrupt with a question like that, this is it.
And you might even get a straight answer
Yeah I don't get it either. I'm pretty sure the plural of plus is plusses, but the plural of minus is minuses.
There's no guarantees in English spelling.
@Alexander The double letter rule: if a word ends with a vowel symbolized by one letter followed by a consonant symbolized with one letter, and if that last syllable is stressed, then the consonant gets doubled.
There was an interesting question on ELL from someone who saw the word taping and assumed (quite sensibly) that it was from the verb tap when in fact it can only be from the verb tape.
@Mitch, I am not harmful. I am like biblical Job. I understand it may be hard to believe. I suffered too much in my life though. My tonsils weere cut twice (1994 and then the remaining constantly bleeding halves or lobes in 2010); they shouted at me, the doctors slapped me and tied me to the chair. I forgive everyone! Thanks for the grammar rule, it's useful, I appreciate it. I do distinguish between taping and tapping extremely well!
Oh sorry I wanted to address @alphabet. I am an idiot!!
02:23
OMG
Tonsils were cut? For what?
Were they inflamed?
It's a long and sad story. I have total arthritis. But no direct life threat.
Wildernesses and cresses have double "s"-es
> I murmur under moon and stars
In brambly wildernesses;
I linger by my shingly bars;
I loiter round my cresses;
(I suppose there are some interesting caveats around non-rhoticity. If you pronounce spa and spar as homophones, you still have to pretend that spar ends with a consonant letter, giving sparring.)
@Alexander I'm sorry to hear that!
Bye, off for work.
And in 2013 I found my heaven.
I have an extreme question: can I please ask: do all StackExchange answers have to be unique? E. g. John posts an answer; a few moments later, Peter visits the same question and posts an identical answer. Would it be punishable? If yes, then how, what would the punishment be?
02:33
@Alexander By "identical" do you mean "word-for-word plagiarized," or just "similar to"?
@alphabet, hmmm, in fact, I want to discuss every single possibility. E. g. the question was: "What is the second-to-last English letter by frequency?" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_frequency I think it's Q. John knows it; Peter also knows it. Would you blame people they share the same fact of knowledge?
@Alexander Regardless of whether it breaks the rules, it isn't helpful for the asker to receive the same answer twice, and the point of a Q&A site is to help the people asking questions.
@alphabet, yes, but the same essential answer can have more details (or less). For example, John said it's Q but he was very stingy; then Peter came and he was generous. So Peter gave a great and marvellous answer while John's answer was very short.
@Alexander Then it's fine to leave a second answer, assuming you're providing a substantial amount of useful new information, or giving a clearer explanation than the existing answer, or whatever.
^ Raccoon teaches the value of helping others.
@alphabet, it becomes clearer and clearer for me. Still a million of questions in my head. E. g. if there were a zillion answers for one question, would the peers check them methodically and verify which answers are plagiaristic and which are not? I'll better shoot myself than try to verify such amount of infomation...
02:49
@Alexander You pretty much never see a "zillion" answers to a question. If your answer is providing new information, it certainly isn't all plagiarized. That said, you can prove your answer is based on original work by including citations for the sources you use.
@alphabet, clearer and clearer. I think I start to understand it now (I am not sure: must I use infinitive or gerund after 'start'?). I judge everything by my own standards. Oh, I wish someone could explain the downvotes to me. Why do people downvote here?
@Alexander In that sentence, you need to use "I'm starting" rather than "I start." Normally start can be used with either a gerund or an infinitive, but, because since you can't use one "-ing" verb after another, you need an infinitive there: "I'm starting to understand it" is correct, but "I'm starting understanding it" is incorrect.
OK. Ohhhhhhh... Present Continuous. Thanks.
There are many reasons to downvote an answer. Usually I downvote answers if they're either incorrect or clearly based on personal opinions rather than any reliable sources.
@Alexander Indeed. Understand is stative (so you'd say "I think I understand it"), but start is dynamic (so you'd say "I think I'm starting to understand it").
@alphabet, thanks. I mean no harm to StackExchange or people. I meant QUESTION downvotes rather than answer downvotes though.) I came here from a little heaven, and, on my site, we allow questions like "In my nightmare, I can't open the door of my car. Why is it so and what should I do?" or even "When will the heating be turned off in Rapture in 3024?" Also, such questions can receive a bunch of upvotes.
03:02
@Alexander It really depends on the question.
@alphabet, thanks.)) We could talk about anything that is admittable to discuss here and what pleases you. You can call me an idiot but I think you didn't told me your country, did you? I know by now Mitch is from the USA. (I feel extremely bored [bored, not boring] in my country. My sole human friend is my father (his name is Bogdan Petrovich Chorny [ch like in church or chess, not like in chemistry]). He is a true saint, he helps me so much!
@Alexander I'm also from the US.
@alphabet, greatest country in the world despite the fact my dad hates it so much! I think everyone has the right to have his/her own opinion. Daddy hates it, but I love you.
I'm very sorry(((((( Did I offend you?((((( Maybe I shouldn't tell you my father's opinion.((((((((( Forgive me!
03:18
@Alexander No, you did not.
Plenty of Americans complain about America. Plenty of foreigners have good reason to do so.
@alphabet, thanks, I respect your soul and your country. Americans are simply the best. In 1998, I have had appendicitis. Twice. Our doctors couldn't even detect it properly. It transformed into peritonitis.. I still have three scars on my belly that kind of 'internally' bleed. Also, 2003... psychiatry... I've been in a hospital for psychos. I behaved extremely well though; belive me, I never bite or hit or do any harm to anyone including animals or plants.
@Alexander We are not the best. You're thinking of Canadians.
@alphabet, I am smiling now. )) Why Canadians? But perhaps in fact you ARE right.
@Alexander They have a reputation for being unusually polite and friendly, at least compared to Americans.
03:34
@alphabet, they have a zillion (of) lakes. [Do I have to use 'of'? A dozen eggs, not a dozen of eggs... not sure about zillion..]. Ice hockey. So I wonder why can't they have their own president like you? Sorry... I think they are... too passive. Such cold climate, no need for president.))
@Alexander No, you wouldn't use "of" there, since it isn't partitive.
They're a Commonwealth country and their system of government is more similar to that of the UK. Their (ceremonial) head of state the British monarch, King Charles III, and their head of government is a Prime Minister, not a President.
@alphabet, yes.))) I knew it. Thanks in any case.
I was rooting so hard for England at the 2024 European Championships. (Is there such a verb 'root'? I'm currently using my Google Translator - just for some specific words though.) In other words, I wanted England to become the Europe's soccer champions in 2024. My dream didn't came true. I feel such terrible grief but it doesn't mean the end of my life.
@Alexander Yes, you're using that verb correctly.
Though I think you meant "didn't come," not "didn't came."
03:45
Yes, of course. Either a mistake or a typo. But I knew the rule. "Did" requires the infinitive, not Past Simple. It's terrific heat we have. 41 degrees Centigrade.
Here it's 26C, but it's also almost midnight.
Hmm, 41 is forty one. Forty + one. Forty requires plural but the word "one" requires singular. So is it 41 degrees or 41 degree? @alphabet, thanks. 26 is heaven,
Tomorrow afternoon we'll be "enjoying" some lovely Boston weather: 33C and thunderstorms.
@Alexander "41 degrees."
@alphabet, thanks a lot. You are helpful. So are you from Boston indeed? Believe me, I know all US states and their capitals. I tried to memorize every largest city in each state but they sometimes do change (population changes). Also, I think I used to know all US state nicknames. Massachusetts is Bay State.
Here, I have my Oxford English Reference Dictionary. Is has some extremely useful appendices at the end.
Massachusetts = Bay State or Old Colony.
04:02
@Alexander Yes.
One of my biggest dreams is to somehow visit Minsk in the future. I think everyone knows whose capital is Minsk.
Or visiting Minsk. Infinitive vs gerund. I don't know.)
04:17
@alphabet, I am sure Americans are generous. I'll try to be polite. OK. I just want to share it with you that in our Moldova we have some cases as follows. We have a school meeting. Our headmaster has a speech. Then he suddenly sees a person whom he doesn't like. The headmaster approaches that innocent boy, takes him by his collar and then literally hits his head against a wall.((((( It's terrible. Why did people appoint or elect him? Can you explain it? You are a wise person!
@Alexander Generous? Not particularly so, I think, but maybe by comparison with some places.
@alphabet, you are the sole remaining superpower in the Universe. I like you and your country, believe it or not. Still wanting to know about school violence though.
@Alexander What happened to the headmaster? I'm pretty sure that, if anyone did that here, he'd get fired and quite possibly arrested.
Well, he was eventually fired but it didn't come at once. [came, not come... I know my lesson.]
But that principal got arrested and charged with third-degree assault and battery. He's currently on "administrative leave," i.e. they want to fire him but the union is making it complicated.
04:26
Oh... I didn't tell you the truth. I'm sorry. I wanted to say he was fired from his headmaster's duties specifically. But they didn't totally fire him. He still remained a school teacher.
@Alexander Yikes. What parent would accept him teaching their kids? People who have no other choice, I guess.
There was a more newsworthy case of a student getting shoved into a wall a while back in New Jersey, but that case got incredibly complicated because of the circumstances around the incident and (of course) allegations of racism.
In our Moldova, if I was coming 10 seconds too late to our everyday morning college meeting after the bell had rang (due to my bus being delayed), they didn't even allow me to step on the porch. I had to stay for half an hour outside of the main building (severe frost), then they allowed me to enter and they were beginning to scold and offend me. Headmaster, headmster's helper etc. Thus, as the result of all those offenses, I was forced to miss my first lecture totally. But I still forgive them!
(That case had the same result: the principal is on administrative leave and is now facing potential prison time.)
@Alexander You do encounter those teachers who insist that anyone who arrives late not enter the classroom at all. But making someone stay outside the building is insane.
04:44
I frequently ask my dear father: "Why, why, daddy, why? What did you make such a disastrous mistake? It's worse than black death (plague)?" What does he usually respond: "My dear son! THERE ARE NO PROPHETS! I didn't know we would dissolve into pieces, annihilate into nothing!" Well, it's a paradox, I am the strangest person in the world, but in fact I AM a happy person!!!)))
On that note, I should probably get going, given that it's almost 1am and I have work tomorrow.
@alphabet, thanks a lot. I've understood you. So you must work now. You are a very pleasant interlocutor. I didn't know before today that in South Carolina or New Jersey you do have some similar cases!
I'm very sorry about my complaints, I am an absolute whiner... but do I even have the right to live if my disability benefit is 2000 Moldovan lei and my utility pays are 7000 lei? I don't know. Sorry.(
 
1 hour later…
05:59
Hey I'm a pleasant intercommuter too! jealous
@CowperKettle stability? Too abstract for my tastes. Would have to read the article itself to find out what they're saying. Anyway propofol is a fascinating drug, and its mechanism of action has been mostly unclear, maybe up to now.
@Alexander don't read too much into it. People today call their own shadows AI.
Wait.
skeptically looks at own shadow
Phew.
@alphabet they're incidentally often, though not always, the sort of people whose class you wouldn't mind missing.
@Alexander blatant plagiarism shouldn't be tolerated anywhere, but if it's less obvious, depends on the site and the answer. If people on Academia catch a whiff of plagiarism, they'd crucify the answerer, but maybe less "serious" sites like Sci Fi would be more lenient
06:15
@M. A. R., thanks a lot. I am glad to see you. Can we talk about smth pleasant? Some kind of neutral topics.
@Alexander after you type @M press tab and the pingee's username would appear right away
There are no spaces in my username, so I wouldn't have caught that ping
Welcome to chat, BTW
@M.A.R., thanks. I am a capable student. No spaces! Understood.
What do you want to talk about?
How about you tell us a bit about yourself, whatever you're comfortable with?
@M.A.R. I don't even know... But maybe smth general. Your country, for example. Also, we could talk about our beautiful language which I in facr adore but I am extremely far from perfection.
@M.A.R. JD Vance wants to bomb Iran.
06:22
@Vikas tell him to get in line
lol
@M.A.R., sorry I'm too nervous.((( So you want me to talk about myself, yes? Always!
@Alexander well, my country is a bit . . . Polarizing. If there was only one magnetic pole.
And JD Vance wants to bomb it.
I see political discussions are not prohibited here.))
I am from Chisinau.
You'd think a discussion between a Moldovan and an Iranian would be interesting, but I uh, am not overconfident in my knowledge of Moldova
Eastern European countries are mostly just reminiscent of the USSR anthem for me.
06:29
@M.A.R., I'm essentially not against any nation, believe it or not. Every nation has some good people and probably a few bad ones. Jews, Gypsies etc. So you can see I'm just a mature child.
Except Ukraine, which has some radioactive undertones, and Poland, which has more homophobic fascists than one would expect
Whenever Hungary shows up on the news I'm reminded of LOTR's Nazgul
And I am not Moldovan.)) Sorry, I don't know if you knew it but we often use closing parentheses in order to indicate a smile. That doesn't mean I humiliate you or smth else. For humiliation, the symbol is totally different.
@Alexander no worries, we have a Russian in chat who also smiles with both of his mouths
What do you mean?
Nevermind, just a bad joke
So, tell me about Moldova
06:33
Is he a hypocrite or smth.... both mouths
> FCDO advises against all travel to parts of Moldova.
Dear @M.A.R., it's a very sunny country. We have lots of sun.
Well FCDO probably advises against all travel to all parts of Iran, so we're ahead there
@Alexander no, just that the English smile has a parenthesis for a mouth, so the Eastern European one can be interpreted as two mouths smiling
We have very good climate. We do not currently have a war. Believe me or not. Our eastern neighbor has one though. As for smiles, they can be any number of them... We call it smailik. We usually omit the eyes and the nose in casual informal writing.
My province's climate is quite reasonable, despite generally arid conditions in most of Iran.
I only complain of the heat half the summer days
@Alexander are Moldovans happy with their living conditions? How is healthcare in Moldova?
Do Moldovans consider themselves closer to Romanians than Russians?
06:44
@M.A.R., you can ask me anything you want. But it would be like "War and Peace." Believe me or not, my written Russian is incredibly perfect. If politics is permitted here, we can talk a lot but I'll be a little bit obscure if you permit.
Sure, as long as it's not in Russian since I can't read Russian
Religion, politics and other touchy subjects are discussed here all the time. Disagreements are common too, but mutual respect usually keeps things civilized
I am currently using my Google Translator. It is helpful. I actually do know about 7,000 different English words.
Wow, GT must work really well for Russian or Romanian or whatever input language you're using. It's a wreck for translating Farsi, or maybe I need to try it again sometime
It's a pity I don't have a printed dictionary in my hands but I think I feel English intuitively pretty well and my Google search will also help me.
@M.A.R., yes, I think GT actually works damn well. At least for me.
Don't hesitate to use your own words sometimes too. Nobody's born fluent.
Except maybe tchrist.
06:53
By the way, I know Farsi alphabet pretty well.))) Just alphabet. Not words.
It's mostly the same as Arabic, with four extra letters
I've always found it weird that there's no separate letter for the p sound in Arabic.
@M.A.R., it's simple. I can explain it. In prehistoric times, they had it. Since then, it has lenited to [f]. Languages prefer laziness rather than efforts. Fricatives are easier to pronounce than plosives!
Pfft
The voiceless bilabial plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in most spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨p⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p. == Features == Features of the voiceless bilabial plosive: Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a plosive. Its place of articulation is bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips...
Still though, it just feels like such an essential sound. They use ب to repesent it instead
07:00
Our beautiful language has a [p]. And we have trillions of songs! Well, maybe it's an exaggeration but plenty of songs, an uncountable number.
Alright, I need to go AFK for now. See you later
Hmmm, could I also ask: in Farsi, do you roll your R's or do you TAP them?
Oh... sorry. I was glad to see you. Good bye by now.
@Alexander trilled, usually
07:22
@Alexander When I first joined this room, I couldn't relate anything here. I felt like weird chat going on all the time lol
@Vikas, hello, I'm glad to see you. Can I ask what country are you from?
Thanks for you encouragemant. I feel you encouraged me.
 
1 hour later…
08:51
@Alexander Hi. I'm from India.
09:07
@M.A.R. I liked being under propofol
And my cat was operated once under propofol, it was the calmest experience for me, since the owner usually holds the cat while it's operated upon
09:22
@CowperKettle, добрый день. Рад Вас видеть. Дискуссии на русском языке здесь разрешены? Можно так делать или не приветствуется? If they are not welcome, then I will switch back to English.
 
2 hours later…
11:26
You know what's funny? It's been uncomfortably hot the past few days here (I know, I know, also everywhere else too, but I'm not there I'm here).
@Mitch, thanks a lot. I'm nearly dying but I think I will survive.
Anyway it's been uncomfortably hot here, close the windows, AC in high, close the shades to keep out the sunlight, AC in the car on hi but when first getting in, place a towel on the seat so you don't burn your thighs (oh yeah also shorts).
And you still wake up sweating, and start sweating after a shower to cool yourself down.
What I'm saying is that it's been uncomfortably hot.
But the point is, if indeed there ever is a point is that...
Where was I?
Oh yeah it's been uncomfortably hot, not just complainably hot but something needs to be done hot.
And just now it happens to be morning here and...
It's 10C less than the max in the afternoon...
@Mitch, thanks a lot, you are nice. So I think you have a car, yes? My father takes our bath towel, moists it in water and puts it on my back. I feel much better after that. I think I haven't eaten for five days. Believe me, we are VERY poor.
And...
As nice as it feels...
It's kinda too cool.
That's it.
I'm just saying, whatever the situation, I could find something to complain about.
"Hey this buffet of donuts is awesome, something for everyone, and all excellent!" "Well there doesn't seem to be much fiber or vitamins in them"
Can I please ask what is AC? AC in high, AC in the car...
11:36
Yes, you may ask.
Oh. You just did.
so what's it if it is not a global secret?)
We only deal in local secrets.
@Mitch, I don't blame you for it. It seems you have good sense of humor. [Did I need the indefinite article before 'good sense'? We have no traces of articles in Russian.]
@alphabet I'm guessing that some of the stories in those have happened (or thinly veiled retellings) in order for them to feel like they have to give them as an example to say "don't do this, it really pisses people off"
-or- I could be totally wrong and they're making up harassment stories out of whole cloth. For some nefarious agenda.
@Alexander "you have a good sense of humor"
Oh, a good sense. Thanks.
11:44
Oh cripes of on a tangent as usual
AC is air conditioning.
@Alexander even if your language already has articles, knowing which one to use is different from language to language.
Ohhhh... air conditioning. Amazing!
I mean even within English, different varieties do it differently.
@Alexander I'd rather like to see some Romanian if you can use it. There is not enough Romanian in this chat!
Brevity is the sister of talent. Is this sentence correct? It's Chekhov's favorite quote/quotation.
There's (surely) a question on ELU about how in the UK you say 'go to hospital' and in the US it is 'go to the hospital'
11:47
As for Romanian, my Romanian is... bad, worse and the worst.
@Alexander Ars Longa, Vita Brevis
@Alexander Hi! Sorry, I'm quite tired after bicycling for 5 hours! I think it's better to talk in English!
Speech is Silver, but Silence is Golden
@CooperKettle, no problem.
Whereof one has nothing to say, one must STFU
.
I've said too much already.
11:50
🤫🙊
I'm just going to talk about that thingngs recursively
Any good self-referential jokes?
This sentence is false.
A termite walks into a bar and asks Is the bar tender here?"
Is that self-referential?
Or is it just juvenile word play?
Слово — серебро, молчание — золото. Oh, sorry, I just repeated your saying, dear @Mitch. It's amazing we share smth similar!!! Oh, thanks for the termite joke... I think I may have understood it.
@user85795 that's a very serious accusation.
When in doubt, assume they're making a joke.
11:54
Definition of self-referential: see self-referential.
Except at a funeral. You can always say 'This too will pass' and people will think you're so sensitive and thoughtful
@user 85795: it's called recursion... Thanks.) I knew it.
There's a joke in which Ilya Muromets, a mythical Old Russian hero, is fighting with the Three-Headed Dragon (Zmey Gorynych) and takes off the dragon's head, so only two heads remain. Then another head is off, so only one remains. Then the third head is off, so only 255 remain, because it's an 8-bit dragon.
@Alexander puns in other languages are really hard to get. I'm always amazed at how little kids (6 year olds) can get them.
@CowperKettle that was pretty good.
@CowperKettle, thanks. There are just ten kinds of people: ones who understand binary system and ones who don't.
11:57
@Alexander also a good one.
9.999...= 10
There are 3 kinds of people, those who are good at math and those who can't count.
There are 2.999... kinds of people.
@Mitch, thanks. So 'kinds' is a totally correct choice?! I thought of using 'sorts' or 'types'.
I wish you knew how many math problems I've already solved in my little heaven. CowperKettle knows Russian. Here are some examples: bolshoyvopros.ru/questions/…
I don't know why they killed my quote block but it's irrelevant.
@Alexander in that particular context, all three are perfectly good. Of course in some other context it might be different
12:06
@Mitch, thanks, my math (maths?) knowledge is up to double integrals. Triple ones are beyond my domain of knowledge.
Oh, and I think I needed to put: "I wish you knew how many math problems I HAD already solved." Sequence of tenses.
But I am so poor... My mom constantly scolds me. "What do you want to eat?" - "I'd like to eat some good fish." = "You abomination!! You won't eat it, bastard!!" I mean no harm, but why do you, my dear mom, multiply me by zero?
I'm so bored... can you please ask me smth. I'll be polite, I promise.
12:49
Wordle 1,124 4/6

⬛⬛⬛🟨🟨
⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛
⬛🟩⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Wordle 1,124 4/6

⬛⬛🟩⬛🟨
⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛
⬛🟩⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Daily Octordle #905
9️⃣🕚
🔟7️⃣
5️⃣6️⃣
8️⃣3️⃣
Score: 59
13:23
Daily Octordle #905
🕚🔟
7️⃣6️⃣
4️⃣8️⃣
9️⃣5️⃣
Score: 60
13:39
Wordle 1,124 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
🟨⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Oh, sorry, I thought those are bots. What does those colored squares mean though?
#WhenTaken #141 (17.07.2024)

I scored 900/1000 🎉

1️⃣ 📍 391 km - 🗓️ 7 yrs - ⚡ 179 / 200
2️⃣ 📍 3 km - 🗓️ 22 yrs - ⚡ 147 / 200
3️⃣ 📍 253 km - 🗓️ 0 yrs - ⚡ 191 / 200
4️⃣ 📍 1 km - 🗓️ 1 yrs - ⚡ 199 / 200
5️⃣ 📍 324 km - 🗓️ 5 yrs - ⚡ 184 / 200

https://whentaken.com
orange - it's a bull? Right letter in right place?
sorry, not orange... peach
Wordle is a web-based word game created and developed by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle. Players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given for each guess in the form of colored tiles indicating when letters match or occupy the correct position. Wordle has a single daily solution, with all players attempting to guess the same word. During 2023, Wordle was played 4.8 billion times. Wardle created the game to play with his partner, eventually making it public in October 2021. The mechanics are similar to the 1955 pen-and-paper game Jotto and the television game show...
Oh. so I was wrong. I am an idiot, a moron, Green = bull, yellow = cow. @jlliagre, thanks anyway, you are helpful.
it's amazing!))
Can a word in Wordle have two or more identical letters?
Eureka!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got it on my sixth try!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Incredible!
13:59
@Alexander Instead of 'pinging' someone in chat (by using '@' followed by their name in your message, you can connect directly to the message you want to refer to by clicking on the arrow (or 'down triangle) next to the message you want to refer to, and then click on 'reply to this message' in the dropdown menu. I did that with this message referring to your message that starts with '@Mitch, thanks, my math...'.
It makes replying easier. You know exactly what text you are referring to rather than having to guess.
@Alexander what are bull and cow? Are those what you call a 'correct answer' and 'a close but not correct answer' in Russian?
@Alexander OK challenge accepted... what place should we -actively- colonize first, Mars or Antarctica. (note: there are already permanent outposts on Antarctica)
@Mitch, thanks. I think I got what you've said about pinging. So I am was a moron and then I became a genius. Green highlight = bull (correct letter in correct place); yellow = cow (correct letter but in a wrong place). I can't believe on my 6th attempt I got five bulls!
bolshoyvopros.ru/questions/… here was my BQ question about Antarctica. Essentially, I've asked if there is at least one school or maybe one store in Antarctica. They replied that it's true! They even have a coffee market there. "De Corner Mart Antartika"
I have little knowledge about Mars though.
Also, "There are just three types of people: ones who know their math well and ones who can't count" joke is incredibly amazing. I've already told it to my father.
15:21
@Alexander Yes, but why those words, bull and cow, which are animals and don't have any obvious metaphorical connection?
Also, I don't think you figured out the 'reply to' feature yet. YOu pinged me but didn't refer to a specific message. If you see the little gray curved arrow next to -my- message, if you rool your pointer over it, -your- message will be highlighted.
Try again but follow my instructions above and see if you can refer to one specific message of mine.
@Alexander There are probably better worded versions of that... I can only ever remember the vague meaning and not the wording that would give the right punch.
@Alexander I just googled for it and the most common rendering is "There are 3 kinds of people in the world, those who can count, and those who can't."
@Mitch My initial reaction was: isn't that just the board game Mastermind? Turns out Mastermind was based on it.
15:50
@Mitch, thanks. A little gray arrow on the left. I think I am starting to really understand it now. (AmE = gray, BrE = grey, I know it.) Bulls and cows etymology... sorry, I have no idea. It's like Guinea pig. Does it have anything common with pigs? it's a herbivore rodent. In Russian, it's "sea pig" which is even much more ridiculous, double absurdity.
And now we have had a thunderstorm... I was trying to have a little nap, but my attempt failed. No trouble, I still want to talk a little bit.
But oh my God how do you make those arrows??? I'm a triple moron. I don't see this option.
Ooooooh. I must click the triangle, then choose "reply to this message". Complicated!
Lost in translation.
16:10
@jlliagre can we talk a little bit, what country are you from?
@Alexander Marseille.
@jlliagre so you are French. Thanks. Nice nation.
@Alexander As you say.
@jlliagre I generally respect people if they did not offend me. I guess you didn't. Can I please ask if you are a male or a female (I guess former but...)?
@Alexander Oh, no offense intended. Male.
16:20
I think Frenchmen are a very nice race. Middle Europeans... what can I say? Really handsome men and amazing beautiful women.
@Alexander Not sure being French is a 'race', and you'd probably have trouble if you say that in French :-)
> For many Frenchmen, the very term race sends a shiver running down their spines, since it tends to recall the atrocities of Nazi Germany and the complicity of France’s Vichy regime in deporting Jews to concentration camps.
Race is such a taboo term that a 1978 law specifically banned the collection and computerized storage of race-based data without the express consent of the interviewees or a waiver by a state committee. France therefore collects no census or other data on the race (or ethnicity) of its citizens.
16:48
Something I read or saw not long ago about the perception of France abroad was that it had improved, particularly in the US, and that part of the explanation for this was the popularity of the Netflix series ‘Emily in Paris’. I don't know what to make of that, because Emily's life in Paris, the positive and negative clichés and stereotypes exhibited, and the Paris she lives in aren't exactly close to reality...
@alphabet Oh wow nice find. Yeah I never knew about Bulls and Cows.
Bulls and cows (also known as cows and bulls or pigs and bulls) is a code-breaking mind or paper and pencil game for two or more players. The game is played in turns by two opponents who aim to decipher the other's secret code by trial and error. Bulls and cows predates the commercially marketed board game version, Mastermind and the word-based version predates the hit word game Wordle. A version known as MOO was widely available for early mainframe computers, Unix and Multics systems, among others. == The numerical version == The numerical version of the game is usually played with four digits...
@Alexander Yes. Try it with this message.
@jlliagre What is it? It's lost in just looking at it. Is it a ... 'finger bowl' a bowl for washing your fingers in after having, say, lobster or an artichoke?
@Mitch It's the bottom of a mug. handwash != wash your hands.
Should have been: lavage à la main.
@jlliagre That little tidbit was probably incepted (inserted surreptitiously into the public Weltanschauung) by a member of the 'Emily in Paris' marketing team.
My vague impression of that show (from a handful of 2 second clips seen randomly over the past couple years) was that the Emily character was, while I'm not sure how representative she was of Americans as a whole, an absolutely awful person.
So maybe France came off looking much better?
@jlliagre Oh. 'wash by hand' or 'do not machine wash'
Possibly the translation was performed by a NNS of both French -and- English using an online translator.
@CowperKettle What does that mean?
In practice?
The abstract is full of unknown terminology.
"Desynchronise": you can't become separate from time.
18:00
> we found that witnessing community violence and crime, even in older teens, was associated with key regions of their brain losing volume over time. In effect, witnessing violence made regions of their brains shrink a bit, which is a pattern seen in people suffering from PTSD and in soldiers deployed to war neurosciencenews.com/…
18:54
Daily Sequence Octordle #905
5️⃣6️⃣
7️⃣8️⃣
🔟🕚
🕛🕐
Score: 72
@Cerberus It's not a journal designed for general audiences, or even general PhD level non-medical audiences. Most of the terminology is going to be technical jargon, unknown to those outside.
@Cerberus That's not what that means either for a general audience or technically.
@Mitch I figured.
@Mitch It just doesn't make much sense to me in context.
In dance, it would make sense.
In general, it means that two (or more) things that concurred over time (synchronous) became less so (weren't in synchrony anymore).
In the article they use it in context where the technical meaning is apparent. They're definitely not obliged to define every word for the non-expert.
@Cerberus Individual neurons, when activated, have a ion differential that travels down the length of the axon. That takes some small amount of time. I wasn't aware of this, but the wording 'desynchronize' assumes some sort of synchronization in the typical state, that is (I assume) the activation potentials of groups of neurons can fire together. And the medication disrupts that.
@Mitch It implies that things happen in a kind of rhythm?
Is it about brain waves?
@Mitch OK neurons fire together, I see.
@Cerberus It might make more sense to @M.A.R. who has a lot of the technical vocabulary (maybe for neurology?).
19:08
Or Cowper.
@Cerberus I'm not sure. Kind of maybe? Surely not like a sinus rhythm you see in the heart. @M.A.R.?
Maybe!
@Cerberus yeah they keep referring to 'groups of neurons'. Somehow my interpretation of that is that our brain is continuously pulsing. It doesn't feel like that.
My head is going to explode.
I think that might be the case.
By extrapolating and analogy, maybe desynchronizing is like fibrillation of the heart?
My head is going to explode.
Ahh..nope, just a sneeze.
Gotta get a towel to clean off my screen.
19:13
I think that might be the case.
Neural oscillations, or brainwaves, are rhythmic or repetitive patterns of neural activity in the central nervous system. Neural tissue can generate oscillatory activity in many ways, driven either by mechanisms within individual neurons or by interactions between neurons. In individual neurons, oscillations can appear either as oscillations in membrane potential or as rhythmic patterns of action potentials, which then produce oscillatory activation of post-synaptic neurons. At the level of neural ensembles, synchronized activity of large numbers of neurons can give rise to macroscopic oscillations...
Brain waves... hm I never thought of that as neurons pulsing together.
Maybe that's the whol point of the article is that what they're doing is measuring brain waves and the amplitude gets lower after taking psilocybin?
Perhaps so!
I don't know whether the things you see in a scan (areas lighting up on the surface of the brain) are in fact brain waves?
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