English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

tchrist

00:05

@Robusto Welcome to our awful.

Nose twingles outside now.

Robusto

@tchrist We're not there yet, but it sucks when I can't see more than 20 miles.

tchrist

Robusto

That's near Española today.

Where is yours coming from?

tchrist

I think ours is mostly from further west, the Grizzly Greek fire (87k acres) at Glenwood Canyon on I-70 and the Pine Gulch fire (27k acres) north of Grand Junction, but it might perhaps be the much closer Williams Fork fire (6k acres) just over the Continental Divide from me or the Cameron Peak fire (12k acres) west of Fort Collins. I have a lot to choose from. :(

It's unhealthy out there right now.

Wait, what's your plume?

I don't see anything you should be seeing within close eye distance at fire.airnow.gov

@Robusto My Los Alamos friend is on the phone, talking about your fire.

Robusto

00:30

@tchrist What is the deal with it?

tchrist

Tesuki

Tahsuki

She isn't speaking in IPA, damn it.

Robusto

Tesuque.

North of Santa Fe.

I've stayed there when doing the Santa Fe Century bike race.

tchrist

Yeah.

santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/…

abqjournal.com/1487545/…

> SANTA FE, N.M. — Fire officials on Tuesday were rallying resources in an effort to fully suppress a fire that broke out Monday in the Santa Fe National Forest north of Santa Fe near Tesuque.

The Medio Fire had grown to more than five acres by noon Tuesday but increased to about 150 acres by mid-afternoon.

“It sort of unexpectedly pushed up a hillside, so for a while, once it hit the ridge top, it sent off a big plume of smoke,” said Julie Anne Overton, a spokeswoman with the Santa Fe National Forest.

Dunno if that's what you were seeing.

I've got what looks like some sort of nuclear holocaust.

Robusto

@tchrist A friend was riding up that way and took a picture.

Sounds like the same thing.

tchrist

Here it smells and looks like you should be packing and getting the hell out of Dodge. But I "know" this is from the fires I mentioned, not in my immediate neighborhood.

Gets in your lungs and you can't breathe. Burns your eyes.

Robusto

00:44

That's where she was riding today. Not sure where she snapped the picture.

tchrist

Yup, that's what it must be.

Robusto

@tchrist Yeah. On days like that I can't ride my bike, and I'm unhappy.

tchrist

Crap, this is our closeby fire.

Robusto

How close?

Williams Fork?

tchrist

yeah that one

Robusto

00:54

Might your house be in danger?

When I drove a water truck for forest-fire fighters one summer there was always that smoke. You could be 30 miles away from the actual fire and it would still be there.

tchrist

No.

Robusto

Same when I went through Yellowstone in 1988 and it burned the fuck down.

tchrist

It's over there near Fraser.

And the crazy car route is because you simply cannot get there from here.

So over on the other side of the Divide. Moffet Tunnel goes through but that's only for trains.

Robusto

Yeah. So you're about 40 miles away as the crow flies.

tchrist

Right.

Really a huge lot of smoke.

Robusto

01:00

Yeah, it doesn't take much.

tchrist

I've have had to evacuate before.

Robusto

That would suck.

tchrist

But not from something this super far. But the current air quality is in the don't be a dumbshit territory.

Robusto

We had to evacuate Yellowstone at 3:00 a.m., out the opposite entrance from the one we came in.

Ranger came banging on the cabin doors. "You gotta get out now!"

tchrist

I've been at the North Rim when it was burning up there.

Robusto

01:03

This after the nightly fire report meeting said, "Nothing doing, we're fine, no danger."

And then the wind shifted.

In other news, Florida now has more total CoViD cases than all of New York.

Gee, I wonder why ...

tchrist

That's the Florida forecast: "Nothing doing, we're fine, no danger."

> Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his administration are doubling (or tripling?) down on opening schools during the coronavirus pandemic and keeping them open even when cases of the disease are diagnosed.

On a phone call with school district superintendents late last week, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran urged them to be “surgical” when dealing with covid-19 cases, as opposed to “sweeping” — and told them not to close a school without calling state officials first to discuss it.

Boulder schools gave up on any in-person classes when almost 300 teachers in the district filed for work exemptions because they're at risk or someone they live with is.

That's K-12. Haven't checked university.

Robusto

Yeah, well, I don't blame the teachers for wanting to stay alive.

tchrist

The mean age is 59.

Dunno median.

Robusto

Exactly.

tchrist

But we have a not-totally-insane governor. We get to do this sort of thing. Florida? Not so much.

Robusto

01:17

@tchrist Republicans. Evil or stupid or both?

tchrist

Yes.

Robusto

My county is down to onesies-twosies per day now. The whole state has taken a nosedive in those statistics.

tchrist

> Gov. Jared Polis (D-Colorado) announced a statewide fire ban Tuesday afternoon that will remain in effect for 30 days as Colorado deals with extreme heat and firefighters battle four large wildfires, three of which were human-caused.

"This is, unfortunately, the ideal environment for forest fires to spread," Polis said. "We need to do everything we can to prevent new fires from starting in the first place."

We got 12 more today, and 1 death. The University found 6 of those.

That's more in a day than we've been running lately.

That's County.

Robusto

We had a couple days of zero new cases in my county. Which is encouraging.

tchrist

We're at like 2177 cases, 77 dead for the county.

Most but not all the dead are from long-term care facilities.

> He said morning briefings are held over radio communication instead of in-person and said the firefighters are kept with their own smaller group instead of gathering together at meals or for sleeping. Colorado National Guard members are also prepared to provide COVID-19 testing for deployed firefighters should the need arise, according to Polis.

Officials said those changes were made seamlessly because they've been planning all year how to deal with a crisis such as a wildfire during the pandemic.

Yeah, close quarters for firefighters.

Robusto

01:22

Typically "with underlying conditions" is who is dying.

tchrist

Yes.

Even if you're a teenager, if you're fat you're doomed.

Robusto

Lotta Hispanic teenagers you see down here are very heavy.

tchrist

Yes.

And dying.

Indians, too.

Robusto

Yeah. Though one Indian who rides with the club is merely squat, not heavy.

tchrist

They aren't squatters, they were here first! :)

Robusto

01:25

..............

He's a Chickisaw Indian from Oklahoma, whose ancestors were expelled from Mississippi (IIRC) by Andrew Jackson, the Donald Trump of the 19th century.

tchrist

But they're moving up in the world. Pretty soon we'll have a Jamaican Indian as Veep, although how long that will last is unclear. She might level up at any moment.

Robusto

Well, Biden still looks like he can handle things.

tchrist

Jackson was a jerk. I tried to peel his kisser off my twenties but they told me it was a crime to deface our currency.

Robusto

Yeah. We were supposed to get Harriet Tubman on the 20, but I guess Trump nixed that.

tchrist

Too black. Too female.

Robusto

01:28

Kinder, gentler currency would be a bit soothing just now.

@tchrist "She was a nasty woman."

tchrist

@Robusto I wish they were all in jail. Somewhere they can be forced into the hard slave labor they so adore.

Have to imprison them somewhere else though, Colorado doesn't use slaves for firefighters the way California does.

Robusto

They deserve it. A guy in Louisiana gets life in prison for stealing a pair of garden shears, while the fat cats stealing billions don't even get charged.

tchrist

I would see them ruined.

Robusto

Yes. Absolutely.

About time we had a little justice in this country.

Captain Bohemian

09:09

hunger trouble

I think industrialists tend not to understand hunger trouble because they don't have empathy for thinkers.

Captain Bohemian

11:04

Headache

Captain Bohemian

13:44

So hot

How nice if there is a robot to help me with chores!

I want a fetching service going downstairs to fetch water.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive body detected, offensive title detected, toxic body detected (154): (potentially offensive title -- see MS for details) by Mahdi mehrabi on english.SE

CowperKettle

15:06

> Using stem cell technology, Salk researchers generated the first human insulin-producing pancreatic cell clusters able to evade the immune system, as detailed in the journal Nature on August 19, 2020. These "immune shielded" cell clusters controlled blood glucose without immunosuppressive drugs once transplanted in the body.

Amazing. A mere 100 years ago diabetes was a death sentence, and here we are nearing a cure.

Robusto

@CowperKettle Link?

CowperKettle

@Robusto medicalxpress.com/news/…

Robusto

Thanks.

Yes, that is encouraging.

CowperKettle

15:22

I have diabetes, but it's weird. It sometimes goes away. And it's very mild. I only take 2 to 6 units of insulin per day.

My friend injects a minimum of 20 units of fast insulin on top of slow insulin.

The docs say that I probably have a MODY diabetes, but it's hard to tell.

Maybe some other metabolic derangement that manifests as a mild diabetes

Robusto

@CowperKettle How does exercise affect your diabetes?

Do you use less insulin on days when your body is burning glucose that way?

CowperKettle

@Robusto It went away almost completely at one moment when I was bicycling a lot and hiking. I had to drop the dosage from 6 units to 1 unit per day. I went to the doc and she said "well, adjust your dose as you think proper". But then it again returned, then again got milder.

I use about 2 units a day now.

In the last month, up to 5 units, cause for some reason the sugar got higher.

Robusto

Hopefully the HILO technique can eliminate the need entirely.

Captain Bohemian

16:53

are you happy?

Captain Bohemian

17:19

Captain Bohemian

17:32

I think the government should allocate a robot to everyone when they were born.

The robot is our attendant.

It will help us do all chores.

CowperKettle

17:52

Alexandr Shabarchin sentenced to 2 years of penal colony for dressing up a Putin mannequin in prison uniform in Perm and making a mock "arrest" of Putin, an art performance, in 2018

> The mannequin was dressed in a prison jumpsuit and had signs taped to it that read “Liar” and “War criminal Pynya V.V.” (the word “pynya” references a Russian meme that’s become associated with Putin).

@CaptainBohemian And they will get smarter and get rid of us

What is consciousness? Philosopher, Dan Dennett explains

@CaptainBohemian More or less. More when I don't jog a couple of days. The antidepressant really kicks in. Then I go for a jog and feel depressed.

Confluence, Pennsylvania

Confluence is a borough in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 780 at the 2010 census. == Geography == Confluence is at 39°48′36″N 79°21′24″W (39.809997, -79.356692). The borough is located at the southern end of Lower Turkeyfoot Township, and the borough of Ursina sits to its east. Confluence is named for the juncture of the Casselman River and Laurel Hill Creek with the Youghiogheny River. It therefore provides many opportunities for boating and fishing (and hiking, as Pennsylvania's highest...

Curious place name

I was reading about cell culture confluency, and came across this.

Robusto

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

Truth or Consequences, often abbreviated as T or C, is a city in and the county seat of Sierra County, New Mexico, United States. In 2010, the population was 6,475. It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names for having chosen to name itself after the Truth or Consequences radio show. == History == The first bath in the area was built at "John Cross Ranch" over Geronimo Springs in the late 1800s. However, major settlement did not begin until the construction of Elephant Butte Dam and Reservoir in 1912; the dam was completed in 1916. Elephant Butte Dam was a part of the Rio Grande...

That one is even weirder.

We have many odd place names in the US.

The above was named after a game show.

CowperKettle

@Robusto It is so famous that I learned about it many years ago, when I still watched TV ))

Robusto

Haha

CowperKettle

Мошонки

Мошонки — село в Мещовском районе Калужской области. == Географическое положение == Село находится в 39 км восточнее районного центра Мещовск, на юго-западе от Калуги (74 км). Рядом с Мошонками протекает река Серена. == Население == == Достопримечательности == Церковь Александра Невского в Мошонках == Примечания == == Ссылки == История села Мошонки...

Moshonki village, reading like "scrotums" in Russian

Robusto

Wow.

CowperKettle

18:05

The Old Russian word moshna means "a large purse", hence the name

Добрые Пчёлы

Добрые Пчёлы — село в Добро-Пчёльском сельском поселении Захаровского района Рязанской области России. Административный центр. == География == Село расположено в низменности. В конце села ручей. Почва черноземная. Луга болотистые. Имеется много торфяников. Ближайшие города: Новомосковск, Коломна, Ступино. == История == В писцовых книгах от 1574 года село впервые упоминается как владения Богословского монастыря. В «Списках населенных мест Российской империи» за 1862 год упоминается как деревня «Добрыя Пчелы» при урочище Пирожках.В 1899 году в селе была учреждена церковно-приходская школа. В 1915...

Dobrye Pchyoly, a village whose name reads like "kind bees"

This one is nice.

And the Bolshie Koty (Big Cats) village on Lake Baikal is very picturesque

Robusto

@CowperKettle I'm assuming there's no city named "kind mosquitoes" out in Siberia.

CowperKettle

@Robusto Probably not! The Kind Bees were named after a bee-keeping farm kept by an ancient monastery there ))

In old Russian, "kind" often meant "abundant". It modern Russian, it means "abundant, rich, fit etc." only in poetic contexts or in literary language

Apparently derives from *dhabhro- (Indoeuropean) meaning "smith"

Robusto

Interesting.

Færd

20:53

> tell ya --> teya
> Italian --> Itayen

What accent is this? Bronx?

Italian American or something.

Or maybe more widespread.

Mitch

21:21

@Færd Where did you hear/read this?

It doesn't sound like an accent thing at all, just an easy elision to make in rapid speech.

Færd

21:54

@Mitch It was some random video online I cannot find again. Yeah it could be that but it was lazy speech, not easy rapid speech.

Never mind. It was an inconsequential observation.

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