English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

00:02

> **Why does Iran want to be closer to Russia?**

So that Iran can align itself with a world power. It provides security for the regime in the Islamic Republic and creates an alliance that protects Iran militarily and economically. And it can also give this perception to other nations that “You can sanction us, you can do anything you want, but we’re not isolated.”

But with the Iranian public, this is an extremely unpopular endeavor.

Iranians by and large are very suspicious of Russia. They don’t trust Russia because of the history of the two countries. They don’t trust that Russia has Ir…

@M.A.R. Is this accurate? It's from a NYT article.

Robusto

00:52

Still applies today. Well, except for the "hates the super-rich" part.

forest

@Robusto I know quite a few "super patriots", and most of them do hate the super rich.

The number of times I've heard them talk about Gates or Soros would be hard to fit in a 32-bit integer!

Robusto

@forest What about Murdoch?

Those people hate who their told to hate, by right-wing media. And who controls right-wing media?

forest

No one "controls" it, but some people certainly heavily influence it. The same is true with left-wing media.

Robusto

No one controls it? Hmm.

forest

No more than the DNC literally "controls" CNN.

Robusto

00:59

Anyway, your people trade in conspiracy theories about Soros and Gates. Where do they get those ideas?

Bill Gates is going to put microchips in vaccines.

Yeah, right.

forest

Social media and each other, fueled by mainstream media that just wants to tell them what they already believe.

Robusto

I'm surprised you didn't say "lamestream" media.

forest

Why?

Robusto

Pass.

forest

I'm not a fan of the mainstream media on the left or right, but "lamestream" just sounds dumb.

Vikas

01:42

@Mitch 1. The bank job 4. Passengers

Mitch

02:47

@Vikas Hints: For 1. 'fumare' is 'smoking', 4. Argent' = 'silver', 'lud' = 'play'

M.A.R.

03:13

@Robusto We are indeed trying to suck up to Russia and China, which is because I think we have no other choice. If Khomeini had declared Russia the big Satan, we (i.e., the government) would've been a staunch supporter of America in the Middle East. Point being, that everyone wants to paint the Iranian theocracy as dangerous ideologues, while they're "just" hypocrites and very bad people. People hate us trying to become Russia's best buddy,

. . . which I think is at least partly because at this point, they mistrust everything the regime does or says. We are quite uneducated (read: Our media has much lesser coverage of international affairs than English media), so yeah, even if some people mistrust Russia, it's not really because or foreign policy or whatever Putin says or has said.

Which brings me to the next bullet point, which is that while I've of course seen numerous hotheaded youngsters change their profile pictures to Ukrainian colors and say things like Slava Ukraini (and do mean them as far as they've meant other things they've said online), my impression is by and far that nobody cares or sympathizes with the Ukrainian people, because our people are generally just looking inwards.

Heck, nobody seemed to care when Taliban changed from, well, Taliban, into "freedom fighters" in a span of two weeks a while back. We were never at war with Eastasia.

People are thinking there are so many internal problems that there is absolutely no need to look outside to determine who the good guys and bad guys are, and where different people in the government stand with regards to the good and bad guys. When the negotiations were in full swing, nobody cared what was being said, to whom, by whom. Some conservatives were of course mad that we were talking to bloody foreigners, and Americans at that! But well, that's about it.

We should be very sympathetic towards Ukraine, because I tell everyone how nicely this invasion mirrors Saddam's invasion of Iran, but analogies don't persuade people that don't want to care.

3

Vikas

03:58

@Mitch 4. Silver wedding play (not sure if that is the name. There is a movie by similar name for which she probably won Oscar)

I'm not going to Google.

M.A.R.

06:29

> A guy tried to sell me a coffin today. I told him that's the last thing I need.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at beginning of answer (35): Word or phrase which means purposely playing below your skill level? ✏️‭ by perry147‭ on english.SE

Vikas

06:48

#Worldle #175 6/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟨⬛↘️
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛↘️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨➡️
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛↘️
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛➡️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

Xanne

07:13

Wordle 391 4/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Risky.

jlliagre

07:27

Wordle 391 5/6

🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

#Worldle #175 2/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜➡️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

CowperKettle

07:47

#Worldle #175 1/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

Vikas

09:35

Oh it's "Silver Linings Playbook" and not Sliver wedding play LOL

CowperKettle

10:27

1

Q: Why is "the expenditure" wrong?

Why shouldn't we use the definite article with an uncountable noun to refer to the thing we already mentioned. Take for example the sentence below. If we don't use "the expenditure", how can others know that we're referring to expenditure on the housing project in the first sentence? I know "expe...

definite-article

I think that both "expenditure" and "the expenditure" is okay there.

CowperKettle

10:44

At least "expenditure" is better than "the expenditure". I got my essay checked by a native speaker. He removed the definite article before "expenditure". — Learner110 5 mins ago

I think that "Expenditure" is a mass noun. That permits the use either with "the" or without "the".

SmokeDetector

11:05

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at beginning of answer (35): Word or phrase which means purposely playing below your skill level? ✏️‭ by perry147‭ on english.SE

Robusto

11:55

#Worldle #175 1/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

@M.A.R. Thanks for a thoughtful and nuanced reply.

Robusto

12:07

Wordle 391 5/6

⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

@Cerberus I used your technique and burned one on guess five to incorporate all the first-letter possibilities I could think of.

CowperKettle

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨

🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦

> Passing stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me as of a dream)

Robusto

13:26

@CowperKettle Whitman, b'god!

tchrist

From the days a stranger passing was passing strange.

user4539917

or just passing gas

Robusto

The grab-bag of meanings you list, while in one sense exhaustive, does not contain the answer to OP's question. The use of just there is one way of countering an assertion: "I am just as tall as my father" is most likely used to respond to someone who has said that the speaker was shorter than his father. Other uses are possible but less likely, and some would be downright strange. — Robusto 1 min ago

Cerberus

13:46

@Robusto Well done.

user4539917

a distinction without a difference

Mitch

There's a difference between a distinction and a difference

user4539917

really?

Mitch

They're spelled differently for one

and their meanings are distinct

a distinction is a rarer word than difference

also a difference is rather bland, and a distinction is, if I may be so forward, a salient difference

user4539917

but are they distinctly different?

Mitch

13:49

that is a nuance I'm not prepared to justify

wait

it depends on the context

red is distinct from yellow

but red is not particularly distinct from pink

but they are different

user4539917

> a type of logical fallacy where an author or speaker attempts to describe a distinction between two things where no discernible difference exists. It is particularly used when a word or phrase has connotations associated with it that one party to an argument prefers to avoid.

Mitch

There's identity

and equality

and equivalence

Robusto

@Mitch It depends on whether you have one of the many degrees of color-blindness.

Mitch

and isomorphism

and natural transformation

Robusto

@user4539917 What is that in response to?

Mitch

13:52

@Robusto There's a red-yellow color blindness?

Oh maybe just achromatic, not specifically red-yellow

user4539917

@Robusto the use of the word "just"

tchrist

@Robusto Only northern universities give out degrees in color blindness.

Robusto

@Mitch Not specifically. But some shades of red will blend with some shades of yellow in unknown ways for people with certain types of deuteranopia.

@user4539917 So you're saying it's unjust?

user4539917

nope

Robusto

@tchrist I think you can get them online.

Mitch

13:54

@Vikas yeah most of these are kinda funny once you figure them out

like they sound bizarre in another language

user4539917

@Robusto i'm saying justice for all!

Mitch

@Robusto I picked red yellow because I thought it would avoid nitpicking

I was wrong

Vikas

@Mitch Actually I had no clue. I just vaguely remembered the movie name as "Silver wedding play".

Robusto

@Mitch How does one avoid nitpicking in EL&U chat? I ask you, how?

4

Mitch

@Vikas to be honest that sounds like a good movie though

Vikas

13:56

Anyway how many point(s) you are going to award me?

Mitch

@Robusto uh, actually, you could avoi

cripes

trolled again

Vikas

@Mitch Oscar movies are usually good enough for me.

Mitch

@Vikas All of them

CowperKettle

> The government spent $2 million dollars on the housing project last year. Expenditure increased to $3 million this year.

Why can we use expenditure without the?

I cannot explain it.

Cerberus

It's very hard to fit into rules.

Vikas

13:57

@Mitch So I won?

Cerberus

Part of it is that it's abstract, but that is not the whole story.

Mitch

@Vikas Anybody who plays has won

tchrist

Costs increased to $3 million this year needs no article either.

Vikas

@Mitch Good

Mitch

@CowperKettle Me neither

Cerberus

13:58

There are probably many factors.

tchrist

But you couldn't use "budget" that way.

CowperKettle

But why, if this expenditure was mentioned in the preceding sentence?

It must take the

user4539917

it is not specific enough to use "the"

CowperKettle

Not specific enough?

tchrist

The expenditure of sequestered funds.

Cerberus

13:59

Especially abstract words don't always have the even when previously mentioned.

CowperKettle

A ball fell on the floor. The girl picked up the ball.

Mitch

Now that we're all here we can get down to business. First order on the agenda, thanks all the lawyers for their service.

tchrist

Balls are concrete things. Or at least rubber.

Cerberus

You can use the article in that sentence with expenditure.

Mitch

@CowperKettle You have passed the first rung of ascendance into the hierarchy of arthrous distinctions.

tchrist

14:00

It would raise the question of which expenditure was meant.

Mitch

@tchrist Air balls are emphemeral

user4539917

@Cerberus it would sound awkward

tchrist

@Mitch Airs are balless.

user4539917

imo

Cerberus

When the word spent was used in the previous sentence, it is clear enough what expenditure was meant?

CowperKettle

14:01

I learned a lot of things in school. Knowledge served me well.

Can we do this? Omit the before knowledge?

Cerberus

@user4539917 I would not use it, but I don't feel it would be wrong?

CowperKettle

Knowledge is abstract.

tchrist

Yes, but it doesn't mean what you might think.

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Yes.

Mitch

@CowperKettle I think you could think of the choice of article like gender of nouns. THere are some obvious patterns to do it automatically, but there are lots of exceptions and sometimes no signal at all and you just have to remember, for some of these less common situations.

tchrist

14:02

Did your pre-existing knowledge help you learn things?

CowperKettle

Will this Knowledge without an article indicate "the things I learned in school"?

tchrist

That's the question.

Cerberus

It is true that adding the makes it refer more strongly to the previous sentence/thing.

tchrist

It isn't clear to me.

Cerberus

@CowperKettle One thing to consider is the tense.

The simple past suggests the serving happened in the past, long ago.

With a present perfect, it would refer to the things you learned in school more clearly.

tchrist

14:03

I came to know many things in school that I had not previously known. This newfound knowledge has served me well in life.

Cerberus

Yes, has served.

Mitch

@user4539917 The difference between distinction and difference is a distinction without a difference

Cerberus

The present perfect connects past to present.

Mitch

The difference between difference and difference is a difference without a difference.

@tchrist And it shows!

tchrist

Feeling monkey today, are we?

Mitch

14:05

@user4539917 There's no giving up

tchrist

Get thee to a nunnery.

For we'll have none of your bad habits here.

Mitch

That's the trouble with Maria

tchrist

One bad rabbit will warren the next.

Mitch

A priest, a mullah, and a rabbit enter a bar. The bartender asks if someone has an extra t.

tchrist

Simpson?

What's a barren der?

CowperKettle

14:09

Is there an authoritative grammar book describing such omission of articles before abstract nouns, despite the fact that the noun clearly indicates a thing previously mentioned?

user4539917

but zero is a number that can be a difference

tchrist

Makes 0 difference.

Mitch

@CowperKettle I'd expect CGEL would have a section on that. (but I don't know)

@user4539917 It's not very distinct

and the difference is minimal

Robusto

@Mitch I use CGEL on cuts and abrasions.

user4539917

yes, and zero is nothing

no difference

Robusto

14:12

Um, actually, those two things are very different.

user4539917

how so

tchrist

Let it not be said that zero is better than nothing. Nothing is better than nothing. Or not.

user4539917

nothing from nothing leaves nothing

tchrist

Not when nothing is under nothing.

user4539917

multiplicative inverses not with standing

Robusto

14:22

Billy Preston - Nothing From Nothing (1974) • TopPop

►

Billy Preston said it, so it must be true.

user4539917

exactly

38 mins ago, by user4539917

a distinction without a difference

Mitch

The Underminer is beneath us but nothing is beneath him

Vikas

@Mitch Good one.

user4539917

14:38

negativity lurks beneath nothing

CowperKettle

But I'd better not write about it here.

user4539917

good move

CowperKettle

The thing is, under Russian law, running a mercenary company or being a mercenary is a severe crime.

Cerberus

Yikes.

Wagner is pretty terrible.

user4539917

paid soldiers like the proud boys are not criminals in america

CowperKettle

14:50

Proud Boys

The Proud Boys is an American far-right, neo-fascist, and exclusively male organization that promotes and engages in political violence in the United States. The Proud Boys has been designated as a terrorist group in Canada and New Zealand.Five leaders of the group, including its former chairman, were federally indicted on seditious conspiracy charges in June 2022, for their alleged roles in the 2021 United States Capitol attack. Their trial is scheduled for December 12, 2022.The group originated in the far-right Taki's Magazine in 2016 under the leadership of Vice Media co-founder and form...

user4539917

if trump was still pres, they would be heroes

Trumpism

Trumpism is a term for the political ideologies, social emotions, style of governance, political movement, and set of mechanisms for acquiring and keeping control of power associated with Donald Trump and his political base. Trumpists and Trumpian are terms used to refer to those exhibiting characteristics of Trumpism, whereas political supporters of Trump are known as Trumpers. The exact terms of what makes up Trumpism are contentious and are sufficiently complex to overwhelm any single framework of analysis; it has been called an American political variant of the far-right, and the nation...

Cerberus

Hmm are they really paid soldiers?

By the way, I'm secretly happy that Musk will not buy Twitter.

CowperKettle

Yesterday, Putin appointed a new Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Manturov. Today the appointee announced that Russia will "move away from a market policy in the industry, and turn towards technological self-reliance"

Cerberus

So he won't reverse the Trump ban.

@CowperKettle That kind of makes sense, doesn't it? Then again, I think Russia has been trying to do that for years, and especially and most explicitly so since the recent war.

user4539917

@Cerberus in the same way that bin laden was on the cia payroll

CowperKettle

15:02

I fear that it will be impossible. Stalin's industrialization involved the construction of dozens of mega-factories by US companies all over the USSR. There will be no massive construction of mega-factories by China, it will be too afraid of sanctions. And without such a massive project, you cannot make Russia self-reliant on industrial technology.

Cerberus

@user4539917 Hmm payroll?

@CowperKettle Oh, really, American companies did that??

I didn't know that.

I agree with you that it would seem impracticable in the foreseeable future.

user4539917

@Cerberus yup, they found out after 9/11

Allegations of CIA assistance to Osama bin Laden

Some sources have alleged that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had ties with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda and its "Afghan Arab" fighters when it armed Mujahideen groups to fight the Soviet Union during the Soviet–Afghan War. About the same time as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States began collaborating with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to provide several hundred million dollars a year in aid to the Afghan Mujahideen insurgents fighting the Afghan pro-Soviet government and the Soviet Army in Operation Cyclone. Along with native Afghan mujahideen were Muslim...

CowperKettle

> In February 1930, between Amtorg and Albert Kahn, Inc., a firm of American architect Albert Kahn, an agreement was signed [..] This company has provided construction of more than 500 industrial facilities in the Soviet Union.

Industrialization in the Soviet Union

Industrialisation in the Soviet Union was a process of accelerated building-up of the industrial potential of the Soviet Union to reduce the economy's lag behind the developed capitalist states, which was carried out from May 1929 to June 1941. The official task of industrialisation was the transformation of the Soviet Union from a predominantly agrarian state into a leading industrial one. The beginning of socialist industrialisation as an integral part of the "triple task of a radical reorganisation of society" (industrialisation, economic centralisation, collectivisation of agriculture and a...

> It employed 25 leading American engineers and about 2,500 Soviet employees. At that time it was the largest architectural bureau in the world. During the three years of the existence of Gosproektroy, more than 4,000 Soviet architects, engineers and technicians who have studied the American experience passed through it.

> The Stalingrad Tractor Plant, designed by Kahn in 1930, was originally built in the United States, and then was unmounted, transported to the Soviet Union and assembled under the supervision of American engineers.

Cerberus

@user4539917 Ah, I suppose that would seem possible, at that time and place.

But it seems to be unconfirmed, that Bin Laden actually received money from America directly?

user4539917

yes, it can never be proven in a court of law

CowperKettle

15:09

I wrote a Wikipedia page for the Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant. One of its first powerful mill facilities was called The Big Stieffel, after the US engineer Ralph Stiefer (1862-1938)

> In February 1939 the plant launched Mill 140, unofficially called "Little Stiefel".

user4539917

coolio

CowperKettle

> Ralph C. Stiefel, known as the inventor of a machine for making seamless steel tubes, died in his Winter home here last night. He was 76 years old. (NY Times, 1938)

Basically a lot of new facilities in the USSR were built or designed by US engineers.

Cerberus

I will read this later, with interest!

CowperKettle

Hundreds of thousands, arguably millions, of peasants in Ukraine, Russia and especially Kazakhstan died of hunger, because their grain was exchanged for all these facilities.

The grain was sold for gold, the gold was paid for new factories.

Kazakh famine of 1930–1933

The Kazakh famine of 1930–1933, also known the Kazakh catastrophe, was a famine during which approximately 1.5 million people died in the Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic, then part of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic in the Soviet Union, of whom 1.3 million were ethnic Kazakhs. An estimated 38 to 42 percent of all Kazakhs died, the highest percentage of any ethnic group killed by the Soviet famine of 1930–1933. Other sources state that as many as 2.0 to 2.3 million died.The famine began in winter 1930, a full year before the famine in Ukraine, termed the Holodomor, which...

Ukraine's Holodomor famine is most famous, but in terms of percentage, Kazakhstan suffered the most.

The lowest estimate puts total deaths at about 1 million people.

> Согласно Всесоюзной переписи населения СССР 1926 года, казахов в СССР насчитывалось 3 968 289 человек[9], а согласно переписи 1939 года — всего 3 100 949 человек.

Cerberus

> NSAIDs are available as tablets, capsules, suppositories (capsules inserted into the bottom), creams, gels and injections.

From the site of the NHS.

CowperKettle

15:17

The all-Soviet population census found almost 4 mn Kazakhs in 1926, and the census in 1939 found only 3.1 million.

Which means that indeed a million at least died.

Cerberus

Few fled the country?

CowperKettle

Yes, many fled the republic

Cerberus

So how many died, how many fled and never came back?

CowperKettle

One must bear in mind that the 1939 census was fake.

Cerberus

Heh.

CowperKettle

15:18

Even the fake census found 1 mn less Kazakhs

Cerberus

I'll believe it was a horrible famine.

CowperKettle

@Cerberus The 1937 census was more correct, and that's why Stalin ordered the statisticians to be sent to GULAG, and the results were made secret.

Soviet Census (1937)

The Soviet Census held on January 6, 1937, was the most controversial of the censuses taken within the Soviet Union. The census results were not published because the census showed much lower population figures than anticipated, especially in Ukraine due to the Holodomor famine, although it still showed a population growth from the last census in 1926, from 147 million to 162 million people in 1937. == Delays == After the First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union of 1926, the next census was planned to be held in 1933. On 15 March 1932, the formal commission on census organization, chaired by...

> The census results were not published because the census showed much lower population figures than anticipated, especially in Ukraine due to the Holodomor famine

> In March 1937, the four main statistical professionals working on the Census were arrested and imprisoned.

> Many statisticians, newly appointed in place of those arrested, were soon arrested themselves. There is evidence that many managers appointed to lead the statistical organization tried to avoid starting their new jobs in desperate attempts to escape persecution.

M.A.R.

@CowperKettle my god, I have been hearing this BS on TV for as long as I can remember

CowperKettle

LOL

user4539917

is putin expecting a baby girl with some gymnast

CowperKettle

15:29

The bad thing is, Iranization of Russia will not enable us to grow almonds and peaches.

The climate will remain cold.

M.A.R.

@CowperKettle thing is, if your sanctions would be anything like ours, they would indeed cripple everything, and various leaders and speakers will keep boasting about how Russia has indeed become the second country in the world in paper airplane technology or something, when they're not appropriating the efforts of some nanotech scientists or whatever's the hype at that point

Fortunately, I don't think they'll ever be like ours, but we shall see

tchrist

@CowperKettle And pistachios and saffron.

M.A.R.

And dates and walnuts!

tchrist

Walnuts grow anywhere.

CowperKettle

And apricots. I love dried apricots, they are called kuraga in Russian, might be some foreign word (Turkic?)

M.A.R.

15:35

We call them gay-see.

CowperKettle

> Uyghur: kurägä

tchrist

The western slope of the Rockies in Colorado grows apricots and peaches and sweet cherries. The eastern slope is just a touch too cold. Conversely, the eastern slope can grow sour pie cherries much better than the western slope can.

CowperKettle

I googled for gay-see farsi, and got this.

Does not look like apricots, although I did not follow the links.

M.A.R.

Well obviously it's not spelled like that

tchrist

Looks like Google's gay-dar is overly sensitive.

M.A.R.

15:37

And not with that script

tchrist

O for those florid days of yesteryear when purple gayflower still Liatris denoted.

M.A.R.

> These dried Apricots, also called Gheisi, are from the farms in the region of Azerbaijan. They are natural and organic and dried without the addition of ...

CowperKettle

Gheysi

Gheysi (Persian: قیسی) is a type of sweet apricot in Iran. that is widespread in the vicinity of Damavand, Amol, Tasuj East Azerbaijan Kerman. The best of it is found in the city Tasuj. The pieces of dried apricot called Gheysi too and is also called "Barge". Gheysi is one of the souvenirs of Bardaskan city. == References ==

M.A.R.

I'm glad that no one agrees on the Roman spelling. It helps exports immensely

(No one seems to agree on the Farsi spelling either, for that matter)

@tchrist more western LGBT propaganda

I'm sure I'll be arrested in Russia if I mentioned apricots

tchrist

16:11

@M.A.R. Pronounced "beetle juice".

user4539917

not "Betelgeuse"?

user4539917

16:27

or is this one of those distinctions that don't make a difference

CowperKettle

Yuri Borisov, the new Head of the Russian Space Agency

At least he has technical education, unlike Rogozin.

So it might be better for weathering the storm that our space industry will be plunged into.

A couple days ago Russia canceled its lunar exploration program.

A couple weeks ago, the budget of the space agency was cut by 20 billion rubles, making it similar to Italy's in cash terms.

Cerberus

16:57

@CowperKettle Italy's GDP is quite a bit higher than Russia's, though.

But I suppose it is good, not having Rogozin there.

Or will he be placed in another annoying position?

@CowperKettle Funny.

The "see" seems to be ignored.

Or perhaps it is some pornographic term I am not privy too.

Vikas

17:39

> Iranian Foreign Minister has told Kiev that his country has no intention of selling drones to Russia, despite US claims that this was a possibility.

Faheem Mitha

18:54

@Robusto @Mitch The second would be "Adventures in Babysitting", probably. And the sixth is "Pitch Perfect", not "Perfect Pitch".

@Mitch How does Esperanto work?

Xanne

Redactle 100: solved.

You solved it in 3 guesses
Your accuracy was 100.00%
You have solved 40 consecutive Redactles

Now that’s my kind of redactle. I imagine others will have a similar experience.

Cerberus

19:41

What are you??

Mitch

@FaheemMitha Yay!

I also got confused with Pitch Perfect

@FaheemMitha Well, some guy made it all up so...

Cerberus

@Xanne I have the first word in 4 guesses.

I'm trying to guess what the subject is about...

Ooh I have an idea.

> I solved today's Redactle (#100) in 6 guesses with an accuracy of 66.67%. Played at redactle.com

Mitch

It was constructed to be a universal language, easily learnable by 'everyone' (which really means Europeans). The vocab is mostly Romance and Germanic. The syntax is dang I don't know SVO or SOV. I think nouns still have gender which gets a 'no' from me if you're asking. Grammar is hard enough with having to memorize something for every word (especially when it's not part of the word already, like in Latin).

@Xanne Woohoo!

Also woohoo for me! same stats

I would not have gotten that without your hint that it was possible to do it in three.

Cerberus

Genders help a lot in language!

They allow for easy reference to antecedents.

@Mitch Yeah, that helped.

Mitch

Also, somehow the redactoin process missed a few choice words later on which with a little thought gave it all away.

Cerberus

19:48

I still needed a few more.

Mitch

@Cerberus On that point we vehemently disagree.

Cerberus

@Mitch Oh, I focused only on the first paragraph.

@Mitch We, is that you and I, or you and other men?

If you'd had an animal gender, it would have been so easy.

Mitch

@Cerberus The benefit of gender (and there is some) is so small to the learner that it is essentially a punishment to adult learners.

Cerberus

Heh.

Well, you have a point.

But they are nice to have.

> Globally, 4215 players have solved today's Redactle so far
Global Median: 35.00 Guesses; 65.84% Accuracy
Global Average: 54.94 Guesses; 67.46% Accuracy

.00

Mitch

I mean for kids you could have 10 genders, 10 verb classes but most verbs irregular, inflected prepositions, and a different verb mode for reported speech/speculative speech/speech for incidents half seen around a corner/etc and a kid wouldn't bat an eyelash even if learned running around the woods without schooling.

But for an adult, even the slightest irregularity adds a cognitive load like a lead weight.

@Cerberus Exactly

oh.

between you and me.

i am one person and you are the other person and those two people, as different people, differ.

in their opinion

differently

Cerberus

19:55

@Mitch Right, but, for an adult, the aesthetics are their own reward!

Mitch

:61591410 I see what you did there

@Cerberus That value of that reward, like the spelling of esthetics, is also something upon which we differ.

I bet you spell donut 'donought'

Cerberus

Well, I never speak about the subject.

Mitch

I bet you put a diaeresis in diaeresis

Cerberus

Not necessary.

But I prefer the word trema.

Mitch

Better to be obscene than to be obheard

@Cerberus are they ever?

I can answer that myself

Cerberus

20:00

Between colliding vowels only!

Mitch

There's a place in town called 'art coop' that locals pronounce /art ku:p/

Cerberus

Is it like a chicken coop?

Except for art?

Lest it should escape to the masses?

Mitch

when it is presumably intended to be a co-operative for art supplies

@Cerberus exactly

or rather

Cerberus

That's what tremata are for.

Mitch

but!

cooperate

there's no word /ku: per ejt/

so its pretty easy to read as /kou a per ejt/

soI guess you're saying if English were gendered we wouldn't have such problems with have to keep art penned up?

Cerberus

20:07

Re cooperate, you mean recuperate?

@Mitch Yes, exactly!

You get it.

Mitch

That'd be another benefit to a constructed language, to get everybody to understand what I mean rather than what I say.

Robusto

@FaheemMitha Yeah, that's what I meant to say, had I not had a brain cramp.

Mitch

Also diacritics are annoying for text processing

it's a whole nother thing to deal with

you have to judge whether letters with different diacritics are the same or of they are distinct.

and sometimes it depends on context

Cerberus

True.

Robusto

GOP lawmaker: Womb has ‘no specific purpose’ to a woman’s ‘life or well-being’

Easy for someone without a uterus to say.

> “The womb is the only organ in a woman’s body that serves no specific purpose to her life or well-being,” Tschida wrote on Monday, according to MTN News, the first to report the news. “It is truly a sanctuary.”

> The false claim goes against long-accepted science surrounding the pear-shaped organ and how it helps in women’s reproductive health and function. The uterus plays a critical role not just in the growth and development of a fetus during pregnancy but also menstruation and fertility. Conditions and diseases of the uterus can cause painful symptoms that require medical treatment, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Welcome back to the Dark Ages.

Cerberus

20:19

Such a weird debate.

Religions are always like that.

Robusto

I don't understand it at all.

How does the systematic practice of not facing reality help you live your life?

Mitch

It's pretty antediluvian

antebellum?

preliterate?

postmalone?

Robusto

posthensile

Mitch

🤪

backwards

M.A.R.

20:54

@Robusto plus, the uterus definitely participates in the regulations of many processes that are unrelated to fertility etc. This guy's pants should scold his legs.

The body doesn't categorize. When it produces X, it doesn't intend for X to just do a list of things and then to get rid of and metabolize it.

But well, I'm sure by this point Mr. Sanctuary would be shoving fingers up his ears and yell LALALALA

Robusto

21:20

@M.A.R. No doubt.

"Don't confuse me with the facts."

Republicans Are Already Threatening the Right to Travel

> And make no mistake: When a state claims the right to limit your travel on account of your body — when it claims one of the most fundamental aspects of your personal liberty in order to take control of your reproductive health — then that state has rendered you little more than another form of property.

Mitch

22:11

The conclusion to jump to is that the states that would secede are the ones with a large personal ownership of guns.

Robusto

23:43

Wordle (ES) #190 5/6

⬜🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟨🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟩⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

https://wordle.danielfrg.com/

jlliagre

Wordle (ES) #190 3/6

⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
🟨🟨🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

https://wordle.danielfrg.com/

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…