English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

tchrist

20:00

> Think of the AQI as a yardstick that runs from 0 to 500. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concern. For example, an AQI value of 50 or below represents good air quality, while an AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality.

For each pollutant an AQI value of 100 generally corresponds to an ambient air concentration that equals the level of the short-term national ambient air quality standard for protection of public health. AQI values at or below 100 are generally thought of as satisfactory. When AQI values are above 100, …

M.A.R.

> Therapsids evolved from a group of pelycosaurs called sphenacodonts. Therapsids became the dominant land animals in the Middle Permian, displacing the pelycosaurs.

Bam.

tchrist

@M.A.R. Most are from dry lightning, but some are idiots.

After months in the nineties or hundreds or above, it doesn't take much. And we have vast tracts of beetle-killed forest just waiting to go up like tinder.

M.A.R.

I'm now thinking if Gondor was today some idiot would have ended up burning the white tree

tchrist

Sauron the Liar did that in Númenor.

M.A.R.

Well, he meant to do it

tchrist

20:04

> The tree of Tol Eressëa, Celeborn, was itself descended from Galathilion, the White Tree that stood in Tirion that was made by Yavanna herself. Its descendant Nimloth stood in the courts of Armenelos for thousands of years, but when Sauron gained control of Númenor's government, he saw the White Tree as a link to his enemies the Valar, and ordered it destroyed. So the White Tree of Nûmenor was cut down and burned on the altar-fire of Sauron's temple.

M.A.R.

Even he wouldn't have come up with the ingenious plan of melting ice caps in a geological blink and poisoning everything with plastic

tchrist

> The line of Galathilion did not end in Sauron's flames. Isildur the son of Elendil had stolen a fruit from the Tree before it was lost. The fruit grew into a seedling that Isildur carried to Middle-earth with him after the Downfall of Númenor. That seedling was planted in Minas Ithil, and was destroyed before the end of the Second Age. Its seedling in turn grew into the first of the White Trees of Minas Tirith, a line that was to outlast Sauron himself.

@M.A.R. That's Morgoth.

Not Sauron.

He who arises in might.

M.A.R.

@tchrist Howard Shore music

tchrist

Morgoth's Ring

Morgoth's Ring (1993) is the tenth volume of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume series The History of Middle-earth in which he analyses the unpublished manuscripts of his father J. R. R. Tolkien. == Contents == This volume, along with the subsequent The War of the Jewels, provides detailed writings and editorial commentary pertaining to J. R. R. Tolkien's cosmology that eventually would become The Silmarillion. This volume mentions a few characters excluded elsewhere, including Findis and Irimë, the daughters of Finwë. The title of this volume comes from a statement from one of the essays: "Just as...

> The title of this volume comes from a statement from one of the essays: "Just as Sauron concentrated his power in the One Ring, Morgoth dispersed his power into the very matter of Arda, thus the whole of Middle-earth was Morgoth's Ring".

M.A.R.

He must be a huge guy

Mitch

20:07

All I know about Middle Earth comes from offhand mentions in poorly remembered Led Zeppelin lyrics that were probably written while high.

M.A.R.

tchrist

@Mitch *listened to

Rush-Rivendell (Lyrics)

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Mitch

@tchrist heard in the background of Jack Black comedies.

tchrist

It's a nice song.

Completely acoustic, too. Another soft one from them is Madrigal, although that has rather more instrumental backup.

Rush-Madrigal (Lyrics)

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Roundabout (2008 Remaster)

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Songs from the endless summers of youth.

Robusto

20:23

@tchrist Both are terrific.

tchrist

From back when harmony and melody still mattered, back when progressive rock put voice to progressives and hippies alike.

Robusto

Yes - I've Seen All Good People: Your Move / All Good People

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It's A Beautiful Day- Bulgaria

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As long as we're on prog rock ...

But no King Crimson, because Robert Fripp blocks everything on YouTube.

tchrist

Living in the Past (2001 Remaster)

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Robusto

While we're on the subject ...

Back to the Family (2001 Remaster)

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In fact, that whole album.

tchrist

Tarkus - Emerson, Lake & Palmer [1971] (HD)

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Robusto

20:37

Of course.

And then ...

Astronomy Domine [Live]

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tchrist

Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres

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Robusto

Yeah. And today Neil Peart is gone, along with so many others.

Chris Squire ...

The Man Who Sold the World (2015 Remaster)

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Yes, and David Bowie as well.

tchrist

Some of these are hard to listen to because of all that.

Robusto

Indeed.

Mitch

Who are these people who think Bowie's "Let's Dance" is even marginally danceable?

Fight me.

tchrist

20:51

Here, this one you can put on and wander the house as the strains of Stravinsky remind you of the Great Gates of Kiev:

Yes - Yessongs (Full Album - 1973) Live - Remastered

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Robusto

@tchrist Great album.

And although all the Queen songs are obvious (and wonderful) here's the one that caught my ear way back when, though it was way upstaged by "Bohemian Rhapsody" ...

Queen - '39 (Official Lyric Video)

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That's a Brian May song, and sung by him as well.

A bit of very touching science fiction ...

tchrist

Utterly.

Captain Nemo chord progressions there.

Early works are eclipsed and forgotten by later ones.

Simon & Garfunkel - Benedictus

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Færd

21:07

I spent no more than four hours on translating (and refining) a contract for a German consultation firm, and it payed for my rent for the next two months. Crazy.
They went through some gymnastics to get the money to me, and it took a while. But it was totally appreciated.

Robusto

@tchrist Yes. Paul Simon has been amazing all throughout his career.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto that was the worst reading of anything ever.

In the history of history.

Easily in my personal Top 10 of the worst things either of us has posted in this chat.

And I have posted casu marzu to this chat.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Told ya.

RegDwigнt

@Mitch quit rehashing shit from five years ago. We discussed this five years ago. Someone even posted a video of someone dancing to the song on some BBC show. Maybe it was actually you. (Not dancing, posting. Or maybe also dancing.)

Also, I don't dance to anything because I'm not a ponce. Fight me.

@Robusto it's not even that she doesn't seem to know what words mean. It's as if she doesn't even know that words mean.

Robusto

It's a reading you could get from someone in sixth grade.

RegDwigнt

21:16

I turned it off midway through the third line.

She may have read the rest better than Wallace himself for all I know, that would've never made up for it.

Robusto

Spoiler alert: she didn't.

RegDwigнt

Oh no. You spoiled it. Now I can never listen to it.

Robusto

She might as well have been reading a grocery shopping list.

RegDwigнt

It's actually an apt comparison.

Let me see. I need purple and yellow. And buns and milk.

Can I get it done by ten o'clock? I wonder.

Robusto

Here's another analogy: she doesn't realize the poem did not start life as a white cold statue but was painted in the vibrant colors of life.

RegDwigнt

21:23

Little boxes, on the hillside, little boxes, made of tiki-taki.

I need to wipe my memory clean. Lemme listen to Loriot or something.

Krawehl, krawehl!

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Now that's how you read poetry.

Robusto

Spanish is fucking with my German. When I see a world like genial in the comments I pronounce it in my mind first the way Spanish would.

And my mind is a stew of four or more languages anyway. If I don't know a word in a language I have learned, why it tries to shoehorn a word from a different language that means the same thing.

RegDwigнt

See, you should've built that wall against them Mexicans after all.

Germans never invaded anyone.

Randy Newman "Louisiana 1927"

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Let's listen to good music now.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt No, of course not.

RegDwigнt

Natürlich nicht!

Not even a million views in 12 years on that song.

That's why we can't have good things.

Mitch

Jul 28 '15 at 15:23, by Mitch

@RegDwigнt Let's Dance most popular piece of crap ever

That's about it.

RegDwigнt

21:37

Fake news.

Lonely at the top

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Robusto

Speaking of Randy Newman ...

Sail Away (Remastered)

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RegDwigнt

21:52

I remember listening to that song thirty years ago in a shitty suburban ghetto. The air was filled with sulfur from nearby ironworks and every square inch of everything was covered in graffiti. I had no money, no piano, no girlfriend, had only just graduated from high school, and lived in a shared flat with junkies.

For as long as this song played, it was the most beautiful thing on Earth.

SmokeDetector

22:24

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Repeating characters in answer (80): Why "the powers that be"? ✏️ by Pacerier on english.SE

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