And I thought lyrics of songs in 19th century operas couldn't be any worse. Much rather have 19th century lieders by Schumann / Schubert / Strauss (hey, a connection!) that speak of deep human emotions that are more healthy and more fit to be put to songs.

@GratefulDisciple Have you seen the music video, where halfway through she starts stabbing paintings and cutting the nipples out of a guy's shirt?

@tchrist Hmmm. This might be a pond thing. Your example without the pronoun's good for me, but the to-one's wonky! Need to come back and look at it in the hard light of day, but I think that's how we'd mostly see it over here.

@Araucaria-Him The first one has the pronoun, just as a direct object "...doing me"--I don't think any dialect accepts that.

This is the problem with the usage of the term pro-verb; people think it means "verb you can substitute with another verb," not "verb whose meaning is determined anaphorically."

> The name "Schenectady" is derived from the Mohawk word skahnéhtati, meaning "beyond the pines"

".. narrative synthesis suggested longer-term benefits, including a 29% reduction in sickness absence among participants who took cold showers.." - cold water immersion propably does not improve proofreading skills

@CowperKettle It's not worth it.

@Cerberus Reminded me of spyhopping en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetacean_surfacing_behaviour

@alphabet I haven't tried it..

Showers are not for cleaning. Showers are for standing in while you delay going into work until the last possible second.

journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/…

@CowperKettle Maybe those can be agents of a black hole, too.

:)

Upvote this plz. Not my answer--but it's correct and the current top answer is wrong.

Normally, of course, you should upvote all my answers and downvote all the competitors, because I need internet points so that I can checks notes "access site analytics."

Wild weather. The period from 20 January to 20 February is always the coldest one.

Such thaws are common in late December, sometimes the first days of January, but after 15 January it's always minus 10 to minus 20°C

Beyond weird.

They call them"Epiphany Frosts" (Крещенские морозы)

@alphabet Hmm the top answer does seem iffy. I can't really verify whether Herisson is right, though. But then...he usually is.

@Cerberus It misses the crucial relevance of the meat/meet merger, which explains the odd spelling. (Herrison's answer addresses this without using that term explicitly.)

And "the pronunciation changed because peer is easier to pronounce than pear" is, in this raccoon's opinion, total BS.

I don't know anything about English phonology.

@alphabet Yeah I noticed some things which did not seem reliable.

Also wrong about Latin pronunciation, and the history of English, and pretty much everything

So perhaps downvote the other answer

But at least upvote herrison's

Because it is, I believe, 100% correct and matches some research I was doing earlier but got too lazy to complete

@alphabet I have.

@Cerberus Funny that he's not Harrisson or Hearisson, eh? :)

I did have to look up the spelling...

You know, tchrist could just ask that on the main site

Perhaps a raccoon, whose messages he cannot see in chat, could be of assistance

@alphabet Perhaps if you looked up the dispute and posted a heart-felt apology, that might do something? I have no idea.

@Cerberus I'm not particularly interested in relitigating things.

@alphabet Is that the same thing?

@Cerberus I'm not sure who exactly was to blame for tchrist ignoring me; certainly it was his decision, not mine.

Okay, then.

I have no other suggestions.

All I can do is keep putting love and positivity out into the world. You know me, always doing that, never being disagreeable.

I'm just a sedate, easygoing raccoon full of kindness and boundless respect for each and every one of you humans.

@alphabet Never.

@Cerberus Aw, c'mon, I'm just full of hugs and cuddles.

@alphabet Yes, I watched it and because evaluating TS properly we need not only look at the melody, lyrics, and arrangement, but maybe primarily as TS herself embodying the inspiration behind the lyrics, and seeing the video made me shudder. To be fair, I'm sure this is a license to fantasize and some sort of encouragement for a young woman to be independent. But my question to TS fans: which other songs would represent the exploration of a healthy romantic love?

From the man's side, this 1987 song by Michael Bolton When a Man Loves a Woman (lyrics here) would be my appeal to the women: "And baby baby please don′t treat me bad" from his album "Time, Love & Tenderness".

@tchrist Oh, now I see you got those from this NYT opinion article The Six Principles of Stupidity. I just read it. I like it that most principles have a reference. Good article, helps one to process and rise above the chaos. The writer includes his definition of Rationality, taken from psychologist Keith Stanovich, which highlights "experience", "prudence", and "expertise", certainly valued by a Thomist too.

Keith Stanovich has entered my radar (not that it's significant for anyone here, just sharing...). We should be able to find the formal definition in one of his publications, possibly this one: Rationality and Intelligence, a chapter from The Handbook of Rationality, MIT Press, 2021.

My main question when reading this chapter is the scope of his definition in relation to the scope of Thomistic definition of rationality, which prior to reading is most likely more restrictive because the chapter is in the context of cognitive science (which is probably why the book is published by MIT Press).

The other question of interest to me as a budding AI researcher is of course how his definition enriches the model he makes of human cognition so it can potentially be implemented in computer (though his focus is more on "training" humans). Here's his model (as an appetizer for reading the chapter):

Fact checking TCG's claim that Canadians prefer the American healthcare system, does this article provide a defensible and fair cost comparison for its rebuttal?

@GratefulDisciple I would say yes.

@Robusto Having experienced both systems, TBH I'm a little anxious for my future retirement health care. I experienced how in his final years my dad's health need was 100% provided by Medicare plus the premium he pays for secondary insurance, and how there was no waiting at all. But in Canada I hear stories of seniors on waiting list for non-life-threatening procedures, or to simply see specialist doctors. For the moment I tend to say that provided one lives in a big metropolis US is better.

I would say no because of the dollar exchange rate.

@handan_toddler How is that a factor? What's more a factor is the generally lower salary in Canada.

Yes, that too.

@GratefulDisciple OK, but "I hear stories" is not documentation. And plenty of seniors here wait for procedures.

@GratefulDisciple Insurance doesn't always enter into it. In some regions and specialties, may never be possible to see specialists without a long lead-in time. Especially when it's someone you've never seen before.

@Robusto I admit that my experience is very limited to the people I know. It's really hard to have a data-based fair comparison.

@tchrist Yes, I hear that in rural areas it's hard to have a good care due to lack of doctors / specialists. And the stats on uninsured and underinsured are quite concerning. Basically, only if you have continuous coverage from employer you'll be set. But my focus now is when you retire.

@GratefulDisciple It can still take six months to get into see a new rheumatologist or cardiologist or endocrinologist or whatnot, even if you do have good continuous coverage. I have friends from Los Alamos who make the six-hour drive to Denver to see their rheumatologist here.

@GratefulDisciple An expensive procedure in the US is a lot more expensive in Canada.

Instinctively I still like the American model where the private sector competes for better hospital and physician care. And that the economy provides more incentive for medical research and technology to be rewarded financially.

Besides the guy who just retired this past week, the third "old" (60+) guy on my team also feels that he has to work at least till 65 because unlike the first guy, his wife's corporate insurance can't bridge him over until he can get Medicare at 65.

@handan_toddler Really? Is that out-of-pocket cost or the cost that the provider bills the insurance?

@tchrist I guess it really depends on where one lives, very uneven availability.

@GratefulDisciple Yes. Even the idea of driving an hour into Denver each way for regular appointments would drive me nuts, let alone six hours.

@tchrist Yes, that makes sense; US coverage is heavily biased to those who work.

@GratefulDisciple out of the pocket, I believe.

@handan_toddler I see. Maybe the higher-price-in-Canada you cited also assumes that one doesn't have secondary insurance. My employer in Canada provides it, but I haven't yet explored how much out of pocket I still need to pay for big procedures like coronary artery bypass.

Unfortunately, the guy who just retired, the one who's been counting on his wife's insurance, has a new problem. She works for the VA, whom Trump commands. There are 50 people in her group here, but during Covid they sold their expensive office building and just have 8 "hotelling" office places yet that those 50 rotate through every now and then, working almost exclusively from home. And now Trump says they must all go into the office every day or be fired. What office?

And that's not all: a couple years ago she was transferred on paper to the Chicago office not the Denver office.

So now they have no fucking idea what's going to happen to them.

It was fine for her to use the Denver hotelling stations now and then, so the paper transfer changed nothing. That is no longer true.

He just wants to say "You're FIRED".

VA=Veteran's Administration

@handan_toddler I know. The new Muskies.

:-)

@tchrist Yes, I know what VA stands for. I'm sorry for him. I hope after the chaos TCG does for optics, the final state doesn't affect him much. Isn't he known for backtracking?

@GratefulDisciple Yes, but so too are paramecia during Brownian motion. It's not predictable.

@tchrist Yup, (I had to google that phrase :-) ). Unpredictabllity is the rule of the day :-( . I have to take a deep breath before opening a news site.

Stochastic government.

chaos rules

All the better to eat you with, my darlings.

Also, Russian rules.

Same thing.

@handan_toddler It's like unthinkingly throwing "proposals" (if you can call it that) to the wall and see which one sticks by seeing various parties' response.

Yup, pretty much.

Gotta go. Have a good weekend, everyone.

cya pal

v

For many reasons, it is simply impossible to assess what all is going on right now inside the federal government. There's too much, it's too big, and its actions are all spread out, many hidden. One cannot see any big picture from the ground or from the air under the fog of war.

A little bit will become clearer in five years. Much will not, and it will be at least fifty before everything comes out that's going to do so.

@GratefulDisciple In the American model, insurers compete in their advertising, not in their offerings, which overall remain largely the same.

No matter how often people draw parallels to democracies falling into autocratic or plutocratic or oligarchic rule, we simply have no idea of the extent that any of those may apply here. Too close, too much, too soon: it is not knowable at this point.

@tchrist I don't have that much time.

@tchrist Oh, but Trump knows all, sees all, dontcha know, down to the tiniest governmental detail.

@Robusto Few of us have fifty years. Some may not have five.

I'm hardly in a far different categorical class than you are, or at least, I hope I am not.

@tchrist Are you on Medicare yet?

@Robusto I would basically need to be on dialysis for that to even be able to kick in, so no. My A1C is in the normal range anyway, so it would have to be from something else.

Not being able to have Medicare, terrible though Medicare is, remains a major factor behind not being able to retire.

@tchrist So if you're not 65 or over, you're not in at least one categorical class.

I understand that.

I was considering the health prospectus, not the health coverage.

@tchrist So far Medicare has been fine to me. Much better than I expected.

I need to go pound ice. Well, and soon mud. It will rain today, and then the next three days will near 70. It's almost uncanny.

@tchrist It'll be 70 here through the week.

Song about a beaver

Yes, it's really going to be called the Gulf of America.

Yet another pointless gesture of nationalism from Republicans. Anyone remember "Freedom Fries"?

It's getting hard not to feel shame that this is my country.

Mexico's president calls on Google to identify US as 'América Mexicana’

@Robusto You should take Geoff Lindsey's new survey from his new video.

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported question (93): Infer to mean imply‭ by Bike‭ on english.SE

@tchrist Wow, he does expect a lot, doesn't he?

Also, his assumption of how I pronounce sushi is rather suspect. Mine rhymes with pushy, which is more Japanese-ish than most Americans' "sooo-shi" or "sue she" ...

OK, finished. Some of those were difficult to place.

@Robusto so sue me

@Robusto Agreed. Sometimes I had to say either, and a few times I said neither.

Yes, it does take a long time to tease out what's really going on with any given individual using various word pairs. But I do think he's asking right questions to get at the heart of gnarly matters that seem never to be accurately shown by any dictionary.

I also left him copious notes. Like seriously.

You know, if you're on his Discord, you can literally just @ him and he sometimes responds.

I pointed out several things he probably should have asked about :) but perhaps didn't because they don't happen in the UK nor in the American dialects he may be most familiar with.

(I actually sent a message about the tense/lax neutralization before /ŋ/ that tchrist talked about earlier. I didn't attribute it to tchrist, not knowing if he'd want it attributed, but I did advise against quoting me about it.)

One of you people in tchrist's good graces could repeat the last two messages I just sent, since they may be sufficiently relevant to tchrist that he'd find it useful despite his ignoring me.

The link is here.

@tchrist I left him a few notes, but not copious.

Like no FATHER vowel in CALM but a THOUGHT vowel often with remnants of L. Like ROOT/FOOT and ROUTE/SHOUT. Things like that from the Midwest. I offered up my armchair hypothesis of molar-R forcing neutralization to tense vowels before R due to the constraints that R places on the openness of the oral cavity. I connected it with possible explanations for tense vowels in KING, RANG.

Should tchrist want the remark about /ŋ/ attributed to him rather than to nobody, I can edit said Discord message.

And I told him about KE?SUP because he asked about KETCHUP. :)

@tchrist You might want to talk with him directly. @alphabet just gave a link where you can ping him on Discord: discord.com/invite/UBWMy5wqZY

Sounds like you have a lot more to say, so ... bon appetit.

@Robusto Can you just repeat my preceding messages verbatim, if you don't mind? Particularly since I don't want his claims getting attributed to me, though I did specifically request otherwise.

Alphabet's actual words ^

@Robusto Specifically you can link to this thread--though that link only works if you've already logged in

Discord seems like the place to go.

I mean for lots of things.

How much wool would a wool wolf wolf if a wool wolf would wolf wool? ’Bout as much as a wool wolf would would a wool wolf woof wool wood!

Discord's interface is so much better than SE chat

Ugh

We should move this chat room to Discord

I'm about 50% serious

> we suggest that there is no 'language network' in the brain. What appears as such is an inevitable illusion created in part by the methods we use. nature.com/articles/s41583-024-00903-0

I thought that people on Discord chat in actual voice, on their headsets

@CowperKettle You can, yes.

A fair number of people use it to talk (via voice) while playing video games, as I recall.

But a lot of people just use its chat features.

I wonder if I can find an interesting channel where people talk in voices about neuroscience or psychiatry or medicine or physiology, and switch it on during my work, to listen to during work.