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Featured Questions
Featured Questions
1:15 AM
2
Q: My brother has turned writer VS. My brother has turned a writer

danI encountered a quiz: My brother has turned _____ writer. I am proud of him. A. a B. the C. / D. an The answer key is C. As I understand, zero article might be ok here because writer is an occupation. But on the other hand, answer A is probably ok as well especially when we take it as ...

articles
 
 
1 hour later…
SmokeDetector
SmokeDetector
2:27 AM
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at beginning of body (42): Please help me with my dictation. He's British by soico on ell.SE
 
 
1 hour later…
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
3:33 AM
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
3:57 AM
I've run 26 kilometers, my longest run thus far.
 
 
3 hours later…
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
6:58 AM
@AIQ Heh, don't get me started
 
AIQ
AIQ
Hi
 
 
2 hours later…
New Meta Question
New Meta Question
8:39 AM
0
Q: Is it appropriate to base an answer on details not included in a question?

TimA recent question was asking if the usage of the term “cop” was derogatory. A reasonable question, with some background around the context. It did include the (ironically derogatory) usage of the word “Karen”, and had more than one question within the body, but otherwise an acceptable post. The (...

discussion
 
SmokeDetector
SmokeDetector
8:55 AM
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at beginning of body (42): Please help me with my dictation. He's British by soico on ell.SE
 
AIQ
AIQ
9:08 AM
@EddieKal This is getting a bit out of hand now
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
 
AIQ
AIQ
Sorry, I don't mean to keep you from doing your work ...
But I don't get what the problem is with some people ... if the answer solves my problem then why is it hurting them
 
Eddie Kal
Eddie Kal
I will come back tomorrow and deal with the comments. As for the meta post, everybody is entitled to their opinion
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
@AIQ On the Internet, there'll always be someone who don't likes what you write.
 
Eddie Kal
Eddie Kal
@AIQ I wanted to discuss your question and some comments in a meta post. Would you mind me quoting you?
 
AIQ
AIQ
9:10 AM
Go ahead ...
 
Eddie Kal
Eddie Kal
I have to thank you for bringing up some very important issues.
I also wanted to talk about the bias for native speakers. Not sure if I will have the space
To be honest, I think the reason that some people are more sensitive than others to certain things is because them being able to switch worlds and see things from different perspectives
 
 
1 hour later…
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
10:23 AM
Word of the day: leptomeninges /ˌlɛptəʊmɪˈnɪndʒiːz/
 
 
3 hours later…
AIQ
AIQ
1:18 PM
@snailplane and @ColleenV Hi. I need some advice. I don't know if you have seen my recent question. Some commentators strongly feel that I delete "Karen" from my question. I was aware that it would create some heat ... and I spoke to @M.A.R. about this. @M.A.R. correctly pointed out that the term would be distracting. And I then deleted it and used the neutral "rude". But by then @EddieKal had written an answer that was based on my original post (which had "Karen").
I felt that deleting it would be wrong because people would not understand the relevant part of the answer. So I kept it in. In a way, I didn't want comments like "this is irrelevant, because OP does not say anything about racism". So I wanted to ask here what you think I should do about the term.
I personally don't care about opinions from someone who is not a reputable regular ELL member. But I care if you all think it shouldn't be there (by "you" I mean the mod team and all users who contribute to ELL on a regular basis). If that is the case, I will happily remove it. If, for example, either of you edited my question to delete the term, or someone like ColinFine, or M.A.R. or Jason, I would gladly accept.
But when someone who I absolutely don't know edits my question to delete a full sentence that they think is not needed - that is when I have a problem. When you get a min, please look into it. If my question is bad for ELL, I am happy if the mod team removes it.
 
 
2 hours later…
Eddie Kal
Eddie Kal
3:29 PM
I would disengage from that meta ell post
 
Eddie Kal
Eddie Kal
3:47 PM
@AIQ Relax. It's all going to be ok
 
AIQ
AIQ
4:10 PM
@CowperKettle That looks pretty strong... thought you said trees aren't that large where you live ... or was that a different place?
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
@AIQ I used to live in Noyabrsk uptil 17 years of age, but now I live in Yekaterinburg, that's a southern city, by Russian standards, about 850 to the south of Noyabrsk
Yekaterinburg is about 50 km to the north of Edinburgh in terms of latitude
About the same latitude with Moscow, but it's much warmer in Moscow because Moscow is 2000 km to the west, and it's affected by the Gulf Stream
 
AIQ
AIQ
Oh I see ... so probably no wilderness with habitats of tigers
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Gulf Stream's warmth reaches as far east as Yekaterinburg, but only just.
 
AIQ
AIQ
how long is your summer
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
To the east of Yekaterinburg, Gulf Stream's warm influence vanishes, and it's really cold there.
@AIQ Snow fully melts by mid-April, first snow falls in mid-October
Snow cover fully sets in by mid-November, snow cover becomes unfit for skiing by March 20
Some sporadic snow may fall as late as June 1st, but that will not stay on the ground but melt away instantly
Right now, its +13°C
Here's the forecast for the next couple of days
 
AIQ
AIQ
4:18 PM
oh ... the Gulf Stream temp effects are difficult to understand ...
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
It will go as low as +8°C on Monday
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
@CowperKettle Warm sunny beaches
 
AIQ
AIQ
That is actually very nice
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
@AIQ I remember some rule of thumb that as you move from the Russian border to Moscow, each 100 kilometers is like climbing a particular height on a mountain.
That was a huge mistake made by Napoleon and by Hitler, they missed this fact somehow and did not prepare properly for cold weather.
 
AIQ
AIQ
You clearly have an excellent grasp of geography
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
4:20 PM
@AIQ This is a minor issue. Collaborate with Ed, which is thankfully conveniently available in chat, and decide.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Now, I was a C-grade studen in my geography class ))
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
@AIQ This is also a minor issue
When you post something, it's no longer really yours.
Well, half yours and half the whole world's.
 
AIQ
AIQ
@CowperKettle I beat you. I failed.
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
@CowperKettle IIRC Hitler didn't care, he just wanted to storm Russia
He didn't know about your AK-47's
 
AIQ
AIQ
@M.A.R. Like the mad queen
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
4:22 PM
@M.A.R. AK-47 was only adopted in 1947
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
Something held him up. He was delayed a very important 24 hours for some reason, and that is what people cite as his biggest reason for failure
 
AIQ
AIQ
@M.A.R. Gracias
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
@CowperKettle You do know I have enough things to deride, so I digress
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
@M.A.R. Haha, yes
 
AIQ
AIQ
@M.A.R. What is a good source?
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
4:23 PM
@NewMetaQuestion Jeezuz. All hell broke loose
@AIQ Me
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
The revolt in Yugoslavia held Hitler up for 4 weeks, and that may have been crucial
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
I'm lazy. Go be an academic to someone else.
 
AIQ
AIQ
Oh learnt a new word: Deride to laugh at someone or something in a way that shows you think they are stupid or of no value
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
Hmm, I was actually looking for "jeer"
Jeer, deride. Look how similar they look
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Invasion of Yugoslavia
The invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War or Operation 25, was a German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II. The order for the invasion was put forward in "Führer Directive No. 25", which Adolf Hitler issued on 27 March 1941, following the Yugoslav coup d'état.The invasion commenced with an overwhelming air attack on Belgrade and facilities of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force (VVKJ) by the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) and attacks by German land forces from southwestern Bulgaria. These attacks were followed by German...
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
4:25 PM
There are so many revolutions in Russian history that a Russian gets the revolution wrong
 
AIQ
AIQ
@M.A.R. But you have enough things to deride ... No seriously like a book to read or sth ... I don't want the politics ... just the strategy ...
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
Writes down in the list of future joke topics
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
This invasion resulted in a postponement of the invasion of Russia, which was initially slated for late May, to late June 1941
 
AIQ
AIQ
I can google but if you and Cowp already know then ....
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Had he not invaded Russia, he could have conquered the whole Middle East easily
The Suez canal, and Egypt.
 
AIQ
AIQ
4:28 PM
@M.A.R. Wait, I didn't mean to attack you or anything ...
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
No worries
I'm very rarely offended in chat
If you wonder what something I said meant, it's often an attempt at a joke
@CowperKettle What did he need starving peoples and almost already ruined infrastructure for?
Besides, Russia looks . . . slightly big.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
@M.A.R. The starving peoples in the Middle East?
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
In some maps I can't even put it between my fingers
@CowperKettle People here were starving, at least.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
He wanted to knock Britain out of the war by knocking out Russia. Besides, he thought of Ukraine as a future colonization territory since the 1920s.
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
And I'd think that except Turkey no other nation would have fully recovered from the fall of the Ottomans
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
4:31 PM
That was his initial idea, to settle Germans in Ukraine and Crimea
 
AIQ
AIQ
son, watch them talk and learn some history
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
And he thought that Russians would not want to fight for the oppressive regime of Joseph Stalin.
He thought the whole system would collapse.
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
@AIQ son, you should really go check out ELU's chat if you want to learn things
This is idle chatter
 
AIQ
AIQ
@M.A.R. I wouldn't understand anything they say ...
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
You're underselling yourself
They're just as human. But, unlike me, and I think @Cowp, they've spent most of their life learning and thinking
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
4:34 PM
I would not be surprised if Putin instigates a new war in the near future. I turn on the TV now and then and it's often full of talk of the specifications of military equipment and so on. I've never heard so much military talk on Russian TV before. The channels is the usual conventional news channel.
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
No offense there Cowp. I'm pretty sure you're too busy translating
@CowperKettle He might not need it
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Yes, but he is getting old.
Getting old damages your brain.
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
I'm almost of the belief that wars, the ones fought with your people, are almost over.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
When Brezhnev got very old in 1979 he attacked Afghanistan.
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
It's either third-world crazed and hungry proxies, or manipulating a people into voting for an orange orangutan
 
AIQ
AIQ
4:35 PM
@CowperKettle wait wait also rolling with blackbelts and sparring damages your joints and brain
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
No offense to orangutans. The one in Planet of The Apes was wise
 
AIQ
AIQ
Putin regularly goes to BJJ
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
@AIQ Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
Is that like a toilet
 
AIQ
AIQ
Yes!!!
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
4:36 PM
Oh
He'd choose single combat then
 
AIQ
AIQ
I watched some of his videos ... I get very concerned about his rolling partners ... I mean they all top class blackbelts ,... but they are working with Putin ...
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Right now, voting is underway to change the Russian Constitution, allowing Putin to stay in power until 2036.
He has been in power since late 1999.
Observers are largely barred from observing the vote.
 
AIQ
AIQ
He also has a major injury in his hip
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
It's only 10% as much free observers on this vote as on the vote in 2018.
 
AIQ
AIQ
in his hip on his hip
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
4:39 PM
And the voting has been extended to a full week, which makes rigging the count much easier.
 
AIQ
AIQ
@CowperKettle What do you mean by observers?
like media?
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
@AIQ People who are present at the voting stations and have the right to appeal to authorities to cancel the results at this station due to fraud
 
AIQ
AIQ
@CowperKettle Normal folks can do that?
okay
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
@AIQ Previously they could, but since 2018 only people affiliated with political parties are permitted.
And on this vote, it's even harder to become an observer.
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
@AIQ "on" implies visibility, so I think it's often the natural choice
And well, if someone meant the bone, they'd say "in the femur", I guess.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
4:41 PM
Election monitoring
Election monitoring is the observation of an election by one or more independent parties, typically from another country or a non-governmental organization (NGO), primarily to assess the conduct of an election process on the basis of national legislation and international election standards. There are national and international election observers. Monitors do not directly prevent electoral fraud, but rather record and report such instances. Election observation increasingly looks at the entire electoral process over a longer period of time, rather than at election-day proceedings only. The legitimacy...
 
AIQ
AIQ
@CowperKettle How many votes can you cast?
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
That's an odd question?
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
In 2011, monitors in the parliamentary elections in Russia uncovered a lot of rigging, hence the rules were tightened afterwards to decrease the number of monitors.
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
Unless the lid of the kettle votes separately
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
@AIQ What do you think?
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
4:43 PM
I VOTE PUTIN
There. He's gonna get elected. My vote is the only one that counts. You'll see.
 
AIQ
AIQ
@CowperKettle Well wiki says
> 2003 – Mixed system is abolished for a fully proportional representation system, with a 7% threshold.
not sure if that is a mixed-member proportional representation ... if it is then each voter has two votes
but I guess that isn't the case
@CowperKettle holy
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
@CowperKettle Were people trolling the ballots?
 
AIQ
AIQ
So Putin has been the president/prime minister for ~ 22 years ...
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
To be a bit nihilistic, how much of it matters, when you can't influence it much?
As sort of a moral sanity checker, it's probably fine to admit to hating his corruption. It might even fail at that.
I can hate someone's immorality when my senses aren't being clouded by the obvious benefits of cheating
And to look at it from another perspective, will Putins prevail?
There isn't a single tyrannical dynasty in all the history of all the Eastern or Western civilizations that endured how it started
Tyrannical multi-century regimes are purely restricted to dystopian novels.
 
AIQ
AIQ
5:01 PM
Ours have been in power for a ~ 17 years ... and continuing
moral sanity checker
head scratch
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
It might well be outside my life's frame, but I take no less solace in knowing that they're always toppled. By better or worse people, they're always toppled, and soon enough that they leave only a trace in history
@AIQ Brainfart. "sanity check"
 
AIQ
AIQ
5:23 PM
@EddieKal You said you live in an apartment ... and you do eat spicy food ... I know a lot of apartments/condos have the kitchen openly attached with the living room ... Does the spicy smell bother you or your partner?
how do you get rid of it?
 
SmokeDetector
SmokeDetector
 
Eddie Kal
Eddie Kal
@AIQ I have lived in several apartments/condos in the past few years with varying layouts. Sometimes the smell does bother me and/or the people I live with. It does more so in recent years than it did before. Not only spicy food.
The other week I rendered some tallow and the smell lingered on for days
 
AIQ
AIQ
Yeah ... my gf says all her clothes, furniture, and curtains smell of onions, garlic, and turmeric powder ... her kitchen is attached with the living room ...
like it is so noticeable that one of her work colleagues mentioned it
 
Eddie Kal
Eddie Kal
Some places, like the unit I live in now, have fairly OK kitchen ventilation
 
AIQ
AIQ
Most house in NA don't have a ceiling fan
 
Eddie Kal
Eddie Kal
5:32 PM
Do ceiling fans help?
I don't know. A lot of apartments have ceiling fans installed in bedrooms.
 
AIQ
AIQ
A lot ... every single house in my country - rich, poor - have at least one
besides kitchen fans of course
but yeah sometimes the smell is a bit problematic ... like ... no one wants to wake up fresh in the morning and smell spice
 
Eddie Kal
Eddie Kal
If your gf lives in a house with an open kitchen, the smell does sound like a bit of a sticky headache
 
AIQ
AIQ
it is because all we cook is ... spicy food
 
Eddie Kal
Eddie Kal
Shower in the morning?
 
AIQ
AIQ
yeah for sure always ... that helps ... I think it depends on the type of house ... if one is willing to pay a lot then maybe a better placed kitchen can be found
 
Eddie Kal
Eddie Kal
5:37 PM
I cook a lot of spicy food too. What I do now is I keep the windows open while I cook, but the downside is I get a lot of flies and gnats in the unit
I spend a good part of my day swatting flies
Summer problems
 

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