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01:52
@alphabet "Mango and tajin flavored Cheetos topples extreme centrist government of Mongolia. Waves of horsemen breach the border."
I'm so hungry right now I expect that headline sooner than 10 years.
 
1 hour later…
03:20
@Mitch That only seems slightly more absurd than the headlines in the Times these past few weeks.
"Trump drop-kicks kitten off a cliff"
"Mike Johnson supports Trump in kitten dispute"
"Kitten reappears as ghost in dream, Trump says"
"Trump reassigns all FBI agents investigating Elon to work on hunting ghosts instead"
"Under political pressure, FBI releases report endorsing existence of ghosts"
"CDC announces that ghosts are a public health threat"
"NIH directs all grants to focus on ghost-hunting"
"NIH-funded scientist announces development of ghost-killing machine"
"Trump declares 'victory' over kitten ghost that haunted his nightmares for weeks"
"Ghost-killing device was just a laser pointer wrapped in duct tape, anonymous source alleges"
"As evidence for laser pointer theory mounts, CDC says that the device works because 'laser pointers distract cats'"
"DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asks if machine will work on dog ghosts"
Etc etc etc.
5
Q: What is Germanic about English -- an incomplete list. Can others add things I missed?

Michael HardyI attempted a list of features of the English language that are clearly Germanic, and wrote only what came to mind off the top of my head. Doubtless it is woefully incomplete and has other flaws. What should be added or emended? Only two verb tenses in English are simple (as opposed to compound...

The close thugs came around to close this well received question 8 years later.
@GratefulDisciple Yes, patience helps.
 
4 hours later…
07:16
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, bad keyword in title, bad phone number in body, potentially bad keyword in body, potentially bad keyword in title (294): How to refund a wrong transaction in PhonePe?‭ by D kartik‭ on english.SE
 
5 hours later…
12:30
@Cerberus just reopened
@alphabet I've stopped looking at the satirical "New York Times Pitch it" because you can't tell anymore if it's made up or not. Like The Onion but for Twitter/Blue sky
13:32
The Third Policeman is a novel by Irish writer Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It was written in 1939 and 1940, but after it initially failed to find a publisher, the author withdrew the manuscript from circulation and claimed he had lost it. The book remained unpublished at the time of his death in 1966. It was published by MacGibbon & Kee in 1967. == Plot summary == The Third Policeman is set in rural Ireland and is narrated by a dedicated amateur scholar who studies de Selby, a scientist and philosopher. The narrator, whose name the reader never learns, is orphaned...
I downloaded the audio version and I've been listening to it, but it's hard to grasp, so I will try to re-read the synopsis.
13:56
> The old song of "Chevy-Chase" is the favourite ballad of the common people of England, and Ben Jonson used to say he had rather have been the author of it than of all his works.
14:35
Unfortunately I have finally caught mild symptoms of cold (a bit sore throat and a few sneezes). I don't want to go to a doctor yet because the first thing they will throw at me would be Azithromycin.
@M.A.R. I have read this from chat gpt: If your sore throat and sneezing are due to a viral infection, taking azithromycin would not be beneficial.
#travle #803 +0 (Perfect)
✅✅✅✅✅
https://travle.earth

#WhenTaken #363 (24.02.2025)

I scored 808/1000🏅

1️⃣📍886 km - 🗓️0 yrs - 🥈173/200
2️⃣📍466 km - 🗓️1 yrs - 🥇185/200
3️⃣📍1.7K km - 🗓️4 yrs - 🥈152/200
4️⃣📍1.1K km - 🗓️16 yrs - 🥈135/200
5️⃣📍1.4K km - 🗓️0 yrs - 🥈163/200

https://whentaken.com

Wordle 1,346 3/6

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But then I wonder why many doctors here commonly prescribe it for similar symptoms.
Should I take it if doctor prescribes me same for these mild symptoms? I don't tend to take it.
In fact, I hope symptoms don't increase further so I won't even need medicine.
14:50
Connections
Puzzle #624
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Strands #358
“Step to it”
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15:03
Daily Octordle #1127
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Daily Sequence Octordle #1127
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Daily Extreme Octordle #1127
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@Cerberus It's at 2 votes again
I often carry a bottle of kefir to take drinks now and then
@Vikas Get well soon!
@Laurel @Cerberus maybe this'll help?
@Greybeard Be lenient. Don't 'press the button' just because You can. This is an interesting question in good faith, Hey! People who like to close questions!Mitch 3 mins ago
Frankly I think things have been going well lately re closing. But this one is egregious.
I'm annoyed at non experts shutting down experts.
If indeed 'annoyed' is the right word.
15:21
@Mitch I mean, it's going better. Close stats are a little over 50% last I checked
@Laurel oh. That still seems like a lot. I'm just going off of my personally anecdotally experience of the 'reopen' queue rather than actual stats
Yet another humanoid robot
@Laurel I mean I will keep saying that there are definitely some closable/deletable questions, but there are too many false positives by the usual gang.
@Mitch It might include questions that got reopened. It more likely than not includes migrations too
Luckily migrations aren't going horribly. ELL has like a 15% close rate
 
1 hour later…
16:51
I don't get it. The close voters seem to be having a lot of Reputation so they must be experienced, yet they close questions that shouldn't be closed?
17:06
@Vikas 1) yes, you need high enough rep to get some moderation abilities, like ability to vote to close. Rep (reputation) is a fuzzy marker of engagement, not necessarily something as specific as quality of judgement for closing questions.
But yes they are experienced with closing.
However there are a small group of closers who seem to be overzealous in closing what many others feel are quality questions.
So 'should' is very much open to interpretation.
👍🏾
17:23
@CowperKettle No.
gosh i didn't expect for it to be borne out like this! (cc @Cerberus)
Oct 5, 2020 at 19:12, by Færd
They would be able to carry what you call weak echoes of Nazism to much farther extremes if the conditions were more favorable to them; ie, if it weren't for the civil society and the rest of the political system. In fact, they're already posing a serious threat to US's (admittedly faulty) experience of democracy and liberalism.
hey you all
hope the world is not tumbling down around you too hard
Wordle 1,346 5/6

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Hi, guys. Can I check with you these sentences? Do they sound natural enough to say?

I woke up late today.
I was practicing playing bass. Now, I think it's time to practice playing lead guitar.
This is one of the coolest things I've seen in some time!
This is about the cutest and saddest thing I've seen. I'm crying.
I received the package through the mail.
I received the package via mail.
17:39
Strands #358
“Step to it”
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🔵🔵🔵🟡
Connections
Puzzle #624
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@Færd hey!
@Færd the sky is not exactly falling for everybody, but I keep seeing enough shards of it that you just can't walk barefoot anymore.
That was a very tortured metaphor. I'm not sure if it made sense
@MichaelRybkin all very natural to speak or write with the following qualifications:
@Færd This is just the normal way of things. "All political regimes are subject to fall."
You can say 'practicing playing bass' but more likely to say just 'practicing bass' (same for lead guitar).
'I received the package via mail' : 'via' is a bit formal, most likely not something someone would speak.
18:07
@Mitch yay! is everyone alive and well?
@Mitch to torture your metaphor a bit further, the institutional sky tumbles down in strange ways: all at once or by and by, chaotically overall.
@MetaEd i was just expressing hope that it wouldn't fall on your head or something. for personal safety in tumult.
or local safety: you and your loved ones
open to interpretation
ever the alarmist, am i not
18:38
@Færd the US government is so big and influential, I think this will hurt most people on the planet, in big or small ways
 
1 hour later…
19:42
@Færd Hey, mister!
It's been a while!
@Mitch Thank you! I'm afraid we're in a closing-war already. It was recently closed, then reopened, and now it's at 2 votes to close again.
I wonder, what if I mad a blacklist of close-happy users on Meta.
Would that be out of line?
I think it would become a trash bin fire 🔥 pretty quickly.
What do you think would happen?
A lot of flame baiting.
What is that, concretely?
I'm not good with Internet terminology.
Retorical questions meant to enrage users
19:55
So what if they get angry?
They go from close-happy users to close-angry users.
@Cerberus JFC
@Cerberus I think that's a little weird. (But it is easy to see exactly who are the closers and reopeners)
@Færd everyone here is alive and well. The ones who don't show up, sometimes we wonder if everything is OK. Eg you we wondered for a while. But sometimes people like to visit and then they tire of it all and go somewhere else.
20:02
Flaming, also known as roasting, is the act of posting insults, often including profanity or other offensive language, on the internet. Flaming is distinct from trolling, which is the act of someone causing discord online or in person. Flaming emerges from the anonymity that Internet forums provide for users which allows them to act more aggressively. Anonymity can lead to disinhibition, which results in the swearing, offensive, and hostile language characteristic of flaming. Lack of social cues, less accountability of face-to-face communications, textual mediation, and deindividualization are...
@Færd to torture a metaphor even further, torturing metaphors is what we do here.
Not to mention data.
@skullpatrol we also do local weather forecast
🌨️🌩️🌧️
@Mitch Literally.
20:08
If you torcher the metaphor long enough, it will say whatever you want.
@Mitch Thank you ever so much for your help.
20:40
@Cerberus it has!
@Mitch glad to hear you are okay. as for me, i just waited for a while to be surprised by the points accrued to me while absent
@Mitch sounds satisfying
until metaphors rebel and start torturing us
Hi, @Færd! Long time no see!
@CowperKettle Hey Cowp! happy to see you :)
Happy to see you too! ))
how cold is it up there?
This year? Extremely warm.
Unnaturaly warm. This has been the warmest winter ever.
20:44
huh. and yet we got more snow than our recent past.
I forgot, were you in Tehran?
In late January, temps hovered at about zero degrees, while usually they fall to minus 20
@Cerberus yes
Right!
@CowperKettle sounds like a drastic difference
20:45
What is the temperature?
My friend in Ankara has -11.
right now it's -1
which is a good average around the present moment
for the nights at least
Hmm we had that a few days ago and most of this year.
But now we jumped to +11.
In the weekend, even +16.
it's gotten too jumpy
Yeah, I'm not sure what to think.
The warmth is nice. But the rain is not.
#WhenTaken #363 (24.02.2025)

I scored 874/1000🏆

1️⃣📍1.2 km - 🗓️0 yrs - 🥇200/200
2️⃣📍467 km - 🗓️1 yrs - 🥇185/200
3️⃣📍1.7K km - 🗓️5 yrs - 🥈152/200
4️⃣📍1.3K km - 🗓️10 yrs - 🥈150/200
5️⃣📍839 m - 🗓️9 yrs - 🥇187/200

https://whentaken.com
Wordle 1,346 3/6

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@CowperKettle ah, the ideal life, sitting in the dark, getting drunk and watching your kids play badminton with kangaroos :)
maybe those are both speaking tubes and not glassware but I stand by this
i first thought they were smoking hookahs
> We found that eating one medium orange a day may lower the risk of developing depression by about 20%. medicalxpress.com/news/…
21:13
@jlliagre how small we are
@CowperKettle Funny how that took nigh a century and a half to come true.
@CowperKettle That would seem unlikely.
@Færd So how have you been, what's new?
@Cerberus i've been on such a roller coaster i don't know where to begin
Oh, hmm, that does not sound good?
You can talk about but you don't have to.
it has felt personally very fulfilling at times and very painful at other times
maybe it's partly a midlife phase: losing friends, directions, etc, and maybe gaining new ones in the process
21:23
That sounds complicated.
I hope you will emerge stronger.
thank you.
i guess i will, at least with regard to what i hold important in life:
i now know much better what i don't want to do
Yes, that is important.
You say midlife, but I thought you were younger.
doesn't 35 count as midlife?
Daily Octordle #1127
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Do you plan to die at 70?
21:33
i do estimate that i'll die about that point
i've got no definite plans yet
> Midlife: the period of your life, usually considered to be from about 45 to 60 years old, when you are no longer young, but are not yet old.
Cambridge
fair enough. but my earlier years weigh more in calculating the middle period. so my midlife starts a bit sooner than others.
midlife starts whenever you have the crisis
Daily Sequence Octordle #1127
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@Færd You may turn 100 before you know it.
21:45
Daily Extreme Octordle #1127
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@Cerberus Everybody does.
@Cerberus you know, if time does go by fast enough, i have no objection to great age. be it 100 or 1000. (i would still object to infinite age tho)
@MetaEd You think so?
@Færd How does it go by fast?
when it goes by "before you know it". that captures it i guess.
but when it starts screeching, then it's not like that
That's a bit too fast!
I would like to grow very old, but in reasonable health.
21:53
hope you get there in good health!
Connections
Puzzle #624
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@Cerberus to start with, could a person correctly know they were 100 before they actually were 100?
@MetaEd Perhaps not literally, unless one were a Time Lord.
@Cerberus right ... now, at the exact moment that one turns 100, does one know it? or is there a cognitive delay of at least a few ms between (a) the clock strikes midnight, and (b) you know it?
conclusion: everybody who turns 100, turns 100 before they know it.
@MetaEd Infallible logic.
Although...you know in advance the exact atomic vibration at which you turn 100. So you need not wait for any signal.
22:28
@Cerberus that would take some miraculous timing ... if you could know with certainty that your brain has a fixed 2ms lag, then you could set your watch 2ms ahead so that you would know you were 100 at the same moment that you actually turned 100. But a person's cognitive delay is not fixed, it's impossible to know.
but I'll go so far as the possibility that you could have thousands of 100-year-old people with their clocks set ahead a few ms and maybe one of them might, by sheer cooincidence, recognize their age at the same moment that they achieve it
@MetaEd Exactly.
@MetaEd That, or they could have computational augmentations built into their brains.
@jlliagre Isn't midlife when you're...roughly halfway through a typical life expectancy? So like 35-45.
Exactly is the very problem. It seems very unlikely that someone would land exactly on it. In fact, now that I think about it, the chances of landing exactly on it are zero. You'd need error bars.
The question remains, though, whether 'knowing' is a process with duration or something that happens at a point in time.
@Cerberus right, it's like birth and death versus existence and non-existence. Conventionally, we don't exist, then there's a point in time "birth", followed by existence which has a finite duration, then there's a point in time "death", followed again by nonexistence. Is "knowing" more like "birth" or more like "existence"
heck, if you get distracted at any time, you don't know you're 100 anymore. you know something else, like "squirrel"
22:41
@MetaEd That is the question.
@MetaEd A definition of knowing needs to be established first.
@Cerberus I can't define knowing, but I know it when I see it.
22:54
@alphabet That would be its arithmetical definition but it seems that the term “midlife” is not generally understood in that way. Rather, it refers to the age you are when, even optimistically, you start to consider that you have more years behind you than ahead of you. Note that midlife crisis is generally translated as crise de la cinquantaine (50's crisis) in France.
23:12
@MetaEd It quacks?
23:22
I've picked up a troll. A lofty one. Jesus Christ Superstar.
Why can't old f***s just admit that…I'm directly quoting something.
I'm just directly Effin' Quotin' Something'
That Everybody Should Already Know
He's arguing with dictionary.com
He can't decide whether he likes it or not
He thinks that I wrote it…and that I can't read it.
At the same time.
You know, some ppl might have dementia and a lot of Scotch at the same time.
Who knows?
Somethin'
I'm gettin' tired of wrong corrections…

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