English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

20:11

#WhenTaken #141 (17.07.2024)

I scored 836/1000 🎉

1️⃣ 📍 1986 km - 🗓️ 19 yrs - ⚡ 108 / 200
2️⃣ 📍 2 km - 🗓️ 2 yrs - ⚡ 198 / 200
3️⃣ 📍 90 km - 🗓️ 5 yrs - ⚡ 191 / 200
4️⃣ 📍 208.3 metres - 🗓️ 16 yrs - ⚡ 167 / 200
5️⃣ 📍 72 km - 🗓️ 13 yrs - ⚡ 172 / 200

https://whentaken.com

Cerberus

20:24

@Robusto I'm also 19 years off for the first one!

So we guessed the same year.

And are you allowed to Google anything at all?

I am a bit nonplussed by the second one, the colours and symbols.

Robusto

@Cerberus There are clues.

@Cerberus It is not forbidden. You can google the clues you see. What you can't do is google the images.

@Cerberus Yes, that was a hard one.

Cerberus

@Robusto Do you ever Google for clues?

I wouldn't Google the image itself, that would kind of take apart the heart of the game.

Although it will be interesting to see whether GPT can tell.

Robusto

20:39

@Cerberus SPOILER

Mouseover info on the SPOILER

Cerberus

OK so I don't want to hover over it?

I want to spoilers.

Robusto

You DO want to hover over it to read it.

It's a clue on how I did #2.

Cerberus

But I don't want any help!

I'm just wondering, do you ever Google for clues yourself?

Robusto

From the information on the image I sometimes Google.

Cerberus

OK then I will do that.

Robusto

20:43

Often there is no information worth googling. Then you just have to guess.

Cerberus

Right!

Googling the colours did give me an idea of the location, perhaps.

Robusto

If I went by the colors on #2 I would have been very far away (from my assumptions).

Cerberus

The colours combined with the language.

But the street sign...

Maybe that is their alternative language?

But the people don't like they come from that place.

jlliagre

@Mitch Hand(-)washing seems ambiguous while lavage des mains isn't.

Robusto

@Cerberus The WhenTaken conundrum, I call it.

Cerberus

20:55

OK I guess I'll just Google some of the text.

@Robusto Indeed.

Oh, my.

Both text elements I Googled lead to sites with a domain from a very specific country.

Which kind of matches the street sign.

And I think the language is also possible there.

Only the colours and flags I still need to find.

Robusto

@Cerberus Sounds like you're working the problem. nods approvingly

Cerberus

Did you also find it by Googling the text?

I haven't even Googled the street sign, but now I know where it must be.

Robusto

@Cerberus To answer that, refer to my spoiler when you're ready.

Cerberus

OK.

jlliagre

I found that location without googling but I would have done it faster with an higher resolution picture.

M.A.R.

21:24

@Cerberus they're theorizing why psilocybin distorts our sense of space and time. Well, theorizing part of the possible theory explaining it. They just look at the patterns of neurons firing at different parts of the brain, and saying that even though neurons in area A and B tend to fire together normally, after taking psilocybin, they seem to fire less synchronously

If the language seems ugly (which I agree with) it's 'cause it's imaginative jargon getting out of hand

Alexander

@M.A.R. hello again. Glad to see you.

M.A.R.

@Mitch every neuron is continuously 'pulsing'. What, do you think they just send the one cute action potential shown in the schematics and then call it a day?

@Alexander hey

@Mitch only in the sense that they're both chaotic situations involving repetitive action potentials that normally work fine.

Alexander

Such a nice site... amazing. I am so happy I've returned here after a ten-year break. Very intelligent people. I think I'll visit you from time to time if you permit. I finally learned (learnt?) how to address a specific message rather than pinging smb.

M.A.R.

I was explaining it to Rob a while ago, that the electrical activity of the heart generated in the sinus node resets the whole heart, and that's why the heart acts in unison. In case of fibrillation, the heart muscle tissue has been deformed into something else (either parts of it are dead in the event of a heart attack or the muscle has grown thicker and larger, for example)

Alexander

@jlliagre I feel sorry but I didn't want to be bad. I meant nation.

M.A.R.

21:32

So parts of the heart muscle tissue don't reset. Or sometimes they recover too early from a reset.

@jlliagre who's winning the French race?

Robusto

@M.A.R. No spoilers about today's race, please. I haven't watched it yet.

M.A.R.

When the muscle tissue is out of balance, it stops contracting in unison. The result is the atria (or the ventricles) just sorta vibrate in place, instead of contracting.

jlliagre

@Alexander No problem. No reason to be sorry for anything.

M.A.R.

Naturally, when it happens to the ventricles, the patient is almost dead.

jlliagre

@M.A.R. There are several ongoing races, which one are you talking about ?

M.A.R.

21:35

@jlliagre Iran also has multiple ethnicities, all equally oppressed.

Okay that's a lie. Not all ethnicities are being equally oppressed.

@jlliagre there should be a rating system for the whole thing you know. Like, if someone we like won Tour de France but the far right won the elections, we'd call it a 5/10 year.

jlliagre

@M.A.R. Ah, I was just writing this to you: One of our races is the Tour de France but I quit watching it because it's more like a doping contest than anything these days.

M.A.R.

Caffeine can be considered a doping agent above a certain level.

I don't get it. Incidentally I also don't get caffeine addiction either.

When I drink coffee the only noticeabale effect is heartburn.

Alexander

By the way, my father and I have recently discussed some of racing flags of "Formula-1". Red = extreme danger, so the race has been stopped; yellow = mediocre or minor danger (you may continue but you may not overtake); green = no danger anymore, you may overtake now; white = slow car somewhere in front of you, so be careful; blue = you must yield to a faster car that is currenty behind you; state flag = start; checkered flag = finish; black = you were disqualified...

M.A.R.

The only thing I have to say about Formula One is Rush is a decent movie

Alexander

@M.A.R. decent = good, nice. Thanks, that's a new word for me.

jlliagre

21:45

@M.A.R. The far right won the French Européennes and the first round of the Législatives but the ad hoc Nouveau Front Populaire (Left) won the second round. The issue is that Front Populaire is made of parties that can't stand each other so it looks like it will be complicated for us to get a new Prime Minister. The previous one is still acting despite his resignation.

@Alexander Purple flag = jellyfish and stingrays ahead.

Alexander

By the way, this year I've also learned by heart all twelve Old Iranian months. I think @M.A.R. would be proud with me. فروردین, اُردیبهشت, خرداد, تیر, اَمرداد, شهریور, مهر, آبان, آذر, دی, بهمن, اسفند

@jlliagre damn, thanks. Stingrays are dangerous (or perilous? can I choose the adjective 'perilous' instead)?

Mitch

@jlliagre 'handwashing' is not a word I use. It makes sense that it is a word, and doesn't sound strange, and works equally well/makes appropriate contextual sense in the two example sentences, but I myself would use 'washing of hands' or 'washing by hand' respectively.

Which reminds me, I should probably go wash my hands.

jlliagre

@Alexander I can't help with vocabulary questions, I'm a learner. Regarding stingrays, I guess they are, like jellyfish, a slip hazard when you run over them driving your formula one car.

Alexander

Still very bored.(( If possible ask me smth. Either personal data or it can be about my country... I'm simply too passive to start a proper conversation myself. @Mitch, nice to see you again. So many users starting with M.

Mitch

22:00

@M.A.R. uh...kinda... yeah. how do the next ones know when its really pulsing or just sort of pulsing to keep up appearances? ie when is it an 'on' signal and when is it an 'off' signal, if a neuron is always pushing out potential?

jlliagre

@Alexander Does the Russian spoken in Moldavia includes "Romanianisms"? I mean words or expressions peculiar to Romanian.

Mitch

@M.A.R. Which ones are treated worse, Jews (are any left) or Bahai's?

Alexander

@jlliagre I am pretty sure it DOESN'T. There may be a tiny bit of exceptions but the big general answer is NO. We are Slaves (sorry, slaves... what a word, but if capitalized then it's a group of Indo-European languages).

Mitch

@M.A.R. And The Fast and The Furious is an awesome movie only because it has the identical script to Point Break. the camera is on cars instead of surfboards.

jlliagre

@Alexander There is still slavery in Moldavia? Or do you mean 'We are Slavs'?

Alexander

22:08

Slavic languages

The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Early Middle Ages, which in turn is thought to have descended from the earlier Proto-Balto-Slavic language, linking the Slavic languages to the Baltic languages in a Balto-Slavic group within the Indo-European family. The Slavic languages are conventionally (that is, also on the basis of extralinguistic features) divided into three subgroups: East, South, and...

Oh, sorry. Slavs. Not Slaves.

I can tell you absolutely everything about our beautiful Russian language. Everything. Phonetics, grammar, syntax. I am perfect. Lexis, letters, sounds, parts of speech, countries where Russian is official...

Mitch

@Alexander In English, the words 'slave' and 'Slav' do not evoke the other (I think it's the vowel that makes them sound so different). It's an obscure piece of trivia for an English speaker that they are cognate.

Alexander

@Mitch, thanks. That's a new piece of information for me.

Mitch

@Alexander Where in Russia is Russian -not- the main language? I'm alays surprised when I hear of some weird semi-autonomous republic right in the middle of Russia where they are Turks or something like that... Chuvash? Tatar?

Alexander

This forum is VERY useful, you are so intelligent.

Mitch

@Alexander You didn't reply to the message you were referring to.

jlliagre

22:15

@Alexander The issue with Russian is it's Greek to me. At least, with Romanian, I can understand a few words. Its grammar looks to be very obscure though.

Mitch

@Alexander That's all we do here, throw out little pieces of trivia.

For example, fun fact - 'trivia' refers to the 'trivium' of the Classic Roman educational system of reading writing and arithmetic, 'tri-' for three.

Alexander

@Mitch sorry again. I will try to use this grey arrow function. I now know how to do it. Well, I remember Russian has 21 autonomous republics. Each republic has its own language (Tatar, Chuvash, Bashkir, Chechen, Mordva, Mari, Udmurt...). But since it's a federation Russian still dominates all of them.

Mitch

@Alexander Nice you got it!

Alexander

Oh, I am a bit sorry. 24, not 21.

Mitch

@Alexander This may be an impertinent question, but why didn't Russia... um... just... you know... get rid of them?

Alexander

22:19

Heh... the three new republics are in fact occupied territories.)))))))

Mitch

@Alexander Are they 'colonized', ie now all Russian ethnically or at least a majority Russian?

Alexander

@Mitch Well, they are totally inside. How can you let them go? I think you know the map of South Africa (Lesotho is inside).

@Mitch I don't exactly know. I think they are half by half. E. g. 50 % of Tatars and 50 % of Russians in Tatarstan. Not too sure though.

Mitch

@M.A.R. Oh. Really? I mean people have AFib all the time and it's not great or anything (strokes and stuff) , but VFib is that much worse? Pulmonary embolism? But you're hinting that the it's not blood clots but actual heart stoppage is near when you have VFib?

Alexander

By the way, do I need a space between a number and the per cent sign in English? In Russian, it's an absolute nightmare, such an ambiguous question you cannot imagine it!

Mitch

But anyway, the analogy with the heart is interesting and all, but the main question was about neurons in the brain... really, they're shooting off all the time? and in unison for the whole brain, or at least an area all together?

@Alexander I'm just being simple minded... like when an army encircles another army, that's it for the surrounded army, they have to give up.

@Alexander no space. and it comes after the number, just as you would speak it 50% i ' fifty percent'

Alexander

22:26

@Mitch I'm not sure if I understand you but I wanted to say: if Russia lets them go, there will be too many holes in its map. It will look ugly.))

Mitch

unlike the dollar sign... that is a painful lesson in 4th grade (10 years old?) when you have to learn that it goes -before the number, the opposite of how you say it. $50 = 'fifty dollars'

Alexander

@Mitch yesss. Fortunately, I know this rule.

Mitch

@Alexander I'm kinda saying the other direction... why doesn't Russia just say they are no longer autonomous or semi-autonomous and get rid of those silly internal borders.

@Alexander It's almost as bad as the month/day/year ordering in the US. It is literally insane.

well not totally insane. In the US you say July 4, 1776, so you can read that directly off the numbers 07/04/1776

Alexander

@Mitch oh now I understand extremely well. Well, I know the answer and I am glad I can share it with you. We, Russians, are tolerant! You can read this answer: bolshoyvopros.ru/questions/… Or I could translate it for you. The essence is that if we now see a foreign word and we want to borrow it, then we leave it in Latin letters!!

Mitch

@Alexander can you translate (or cut and past a short relevant piece here)?

Alexander

22:33

@Mitch in Russian, July 4, 1776 is 04.07.1776. I think I'll translate it now.

Mitch

@Alexander Yeah that's the sane way to do it... or even better 1776/07/04

Alexander

But why are the messages here so short? "This message is too long" I'm crying((((

But I'll try to convey the essence.

Mitch

@Alexander yeah that's annoying to have to split things up... I think sometimes it is possible to use the 'fixed font' button and you can put a long passage in one message.

jlliagre

Just insert a new-line in your posting and it switches to the fixed-font behavior.

a
b
c
d
.

Mitch

Insert a newline with 'shift-return' (not just simply 'return' as that submits the message)

Alexander

22:48

Essentially, in that answer I told you that if you must integrate the word "Windows" into Russian, then you have a zillion of different possibilities!!!!! Incredibly!!!!! Firstly, you can always use plenty of slang words (sorry to mention this fact but it can be true). Secondly, you can translate it (not quite correct but people will certainly understand you). After that, the third option is transliteration (the most harmonious and balanced option). Well, what about the fourth possibility? Surely there is a fourth! Don't use

alphabet

@Alexander Didn't Putin (or some of his fanboys) effectively take over half of Moldova and turn it into a puppet state? I only half-remember that news story.

Alexander

@alphabet dear alphabet, if you want to talk about Putin or politics, then... I essentially want to told you that Putin is actually a VERY GOOD person. Calm voice, gentle manners. Personally I have very little to do with politics but I'll try to answer you questions as I can.

tell... not told. sorry.

M.A.R.

@Mitch AFib can cause clots. VFib, well, when your ventricles aren't pumping blood, tissues everywhere will run out of oxygen very fast. VFib is sometimes right before that long beep in hospital monitoring systems that gives everyone a sad face.

@Alexander I think it's quite unlikely that anyone will change anyone's mind here about Putin, but out of curiosity, why do you think he's a very good person?

Alexander

@M.A.R. It's a long story. Is politics totally allowed here? Won't you imprison me for my words? I'll still try to be polite and not to slander too much. I promise.

M.A.R.

23:04

"Actual heart stoppage" is called "asystole". No systole. No beats. There's also "sudden cardiac death", for when it's more, well, sudden. "Pulseless electrical activity" may happen after a VFib, or instead of VFib, it's basically the heart's electrical system wobbling unsteadily, about to shut off.

@Alexander no one will reimburse my travel costs to arrest you, so probably not.

Alexander

I'll try to operate with some undoubtful facts. You can't deny obvious things!

M.A.R.

No matter how congenially we start an argument, it's worth pointing out that we're going to keep prodding at each other's arguments until we get frustrated. People should just be vigilant for when that happens and pull the brakes.

Alexander

In fact, in my little heaven (Big Question) there are tons and tons of politics... nobody will arrest them, so it's OK I think.

M.A.R.

@Alexander things seeming obvious to us may simply be a trick of repetition.

Alexander

I haven't eaten anything for about five or maybe seven days. It's true. Just beverages. You may think of me as of an intelligent person, but I am EXTREMELY weak.

M.A.R.

23:12

People usually do that before gastrointestinal procedures. Like scans and endoscopies and stuff.

It's not weird. Might just be unhealthy.

Alexander

@M.A.R. why are you so cruel? What procedures? I am a disabled person. My disability benefit is 2000 lei but my utility pays are 7000 lei.

M.A.R.

@Alexander you misunderstood me. I'm saying it's not bizarre to just have drinks instead of solid food. It's more common than you think

Alexander

@M.A.R. well, now I quite understand you. Still, I want some sympathy.

M.A.R.

Sorry

@Cerb the city is called "Pekæn" in Farsi, BTW. "Beijing" always sounds weird to Iranians.

Alexander

I am sorry to repeat this, I think I've said it once. I frequently ask my father Bogdan Petrovich: "My dear father, why did you make such a bad thing to me?" Bodgan Petrovich replies: "My dear son, there are no prophets!! I couldn't predict the future!!"

youtube.com/watch?v=wnDxHTaeNX0 see 06:00

M.A.R.

23:27

@Alexander my first impression is Moldova, like Iran, is suspended in time, which is responsible for the pseudo-apocalyptic untidy look of the places he's showing us.

The embezzling, the corruption, heh

Alexander

@M.A.R. thanks. I've translated you for myself using my GT.))) I have nothing to lose, they have already totally robbed me.

alphabet

@Alexander Isn't Putin the one imprisoning people for their words? (Particularly given the number of Americans in this chat, you'll find that most of us have a very negative opinion of him.)

Alexander

2014 Moldovan bank fraud scandal

In 2014, $1 billion disappeared from three Moldovan banks: Banca de Economii, Unibank and Banca Socială. This bank fraud in Moldova was a coordinated effort involving all three banks working together to extract as much loan finance as possible from the banks without any obvious business rationale. Ilan Shor, a Moldovan businessman, "masterminded" the scam. Shor was chairman of the board at Banca de Economii (Savings Bank) up to November 28, 2014. Funds worth $1 billion were transferred to United Kingdom and Hong Kong shell companies used to conceal the real owners of assets, then deposited into...

M.A.R.

The old man uncomfortable about talking about the living conditions, out of fear of some hidden secret police trying to entrap him.

A ridiculous notion of course, but the fear is taught better than any school lesson.

Well, FWIW, Iranians have a more religious and uptight culture, so the chernobyl scenes in the video of desolate apartments are not that common here.

We're the sort of poor people who put most of their money into looking presentable or maybe even affluent. Eastern Europeans are more honest about their conditions, one could say.

So garbage doesn't normally pile up in every abandoned building. At least in most of Tabriz.

Alexander

@M.A.R. I am 35 years old. Doctors tell me I have never had any tooth decay. You understand, tooth decay is when something SOFTENS (-en suffix, i.e. it was INITIALLY HARD). Well, what's in case when it's ALL SOFT and painful? Doctors try to touch me, I cry in extreme pain, they get extremely angry and shout at me: "You abomination!" Why are people so cruel?.. Do I have the right to live?

M.A.R.

23:37

@Alexander you could focus on doctors that are better people, kinder, more meaningful interactions. That negative experience sticks around, and will sting for as long as you let it. I won't pretend to know what you're going through, just some advice when I had it really bad.

Alexander

@M.A.R. in fact I had TWO GOOD doctors in my life. Oh, maybe some more... Well, about ten would be quite true. As for total number of doctors I've encountered, they were about several thousands.

In Moldova, it is completely normal for a doctor to leave a piece of a dental bur in patient’s jaw. It's routine, casual work.

M.A.R.

A horrible person is horrible to you once, but constantly to people around them. They would die alone. You can move on though.

2

Alexander

We are the sun. They are the moon. We (exclusive "we"... melabat, not mipela) are different from them.

Oh, articles. I think "sun" and "moon" do require definite articles before them.

M.A.R.

Yeah I like them better with than without.

Anyway I should call it a night.

G'night o/

Alexander

So am I right you are leaving for now? Thanks for the conversation... but can I still stay here for a bit please.

Cerberus

23:57

@Robusto I haven't looked at your spoiler, but I can see the little cupola on Google Street View.

Just haven't found the exact spot yet.

I was on the phone with my friend for a long time.

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