DesktopMonitor's recent activity

  1. Comment on The most mispronounced brand from every country in ~humanities.languages

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    The author likely heard the recording through their first language and imposed that ‘r’ on it. Also, yeah, Japanese has a thing called pitch accent. For example, the word "neko" (cat) has a...

    The author likely heard the recording through their first language and imposed that ‘r’ on it. Also, yeah, Japanese has a thing called pitch accent. For example, the word "neko" (cat) has a high-low pitch pattern, where the first syllable is pronounced with a high pitch and the second syllable with a low pitch. In contrast, the word "inu" (dog) has a low-high pitch pattern, where the first syllable is pronounced with a low pitch and the second syllable with a high pitch.

    Regarding Hitachi, according to NHK’s Japanese accent dictionary it’s the ‘ta’ that would sound “stressed” and not the ‘hi’.

    3 votes
  2. Comment on The most mispronounced brand from every country in ~humanities.languages

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    But there’s a huge catch here. Think of all the foods and ingredients that you have come across and how you pronounce those compared to how people in the food’s originating country (a tricky...

    But there’s a huge catch here. Think of all the foods and ingredients that you have come across and how you pronounce those compared to how people in the food’s originating country (a tricky concept itself) do. Are you mispronouncing some of those things? Relative to whom? Does the pronunciation even have solid agreement or the name for the thing itself even have agreement within the country to which that thing ‘belongs’?

    Now with brands we have an interesting case because you could say that the company may dictate how its name is pronounced. Sure, but does it always want to? And, is that not similar to how a person from country A in country B would accept alternative pronunciations of their name?

    5 votes
  3. Comment on The most mispronounced brand from every country in ~humanities.languages

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    If they were serious about this, yeah, they'd have to go back a few steps. Just off the top of my head…. Start with a simple study measuring Forvo visitors’ self reported reasons for using the...

    If they were serious about this, yeah, they'd have to go back a few steps. Just off the top of my head….

    Start with a simple study measuring Forvo visitors’ self reported reasons for using the site and establish that a significant majority visit because of self-perceived pronunciation issue(s). You could do an MSc dissertation on this.

    Continue with another study that confirms that these pronunciation issue(s) on the part of site visitors are in fact deviant in some meaningful way(s). There’s a PhD in this part alone.

    The next studies could get into the brand-related stuff.

    3 votes
  4. Comment on The most mispronounced brand from every country in ~humanities.languages

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    The author(s) from *BusinessFinancing.co.uk note that… Based, presumably, on their Forvo listening. Man, this is some seriously bad linguistics.

    The author(s) from *BusinessFinancing.co.uk note that…

    The Hitachi name is made from two kanji characters: hi means “sun,” and tachi means “rise.” The name should sound like “hit Archie”

    Based, presumably, on their Forvo listening. Man, this is some seriously bad linguistics.

    3 votes
  5. Comment on Wiley to shutter nineteen more journals, some tainted by fraud in ~science

  6. Comment on The limits of the lunchbox moment in ~food

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    My daughter will likely have some moments like this when I make her lunch for school events here in Japan. That said I am /definitely/ making her a tasty sandwich. Some kids want to bully her...

    My daughter will likely have some moments like this when I make her lunch for school events here in Japan. That said I am /definitely/ making her a tasty sandwich. Some kids want to bully her about it, I would like to think it’s because they wish they were eating one too.

    1 vote
  7. Comment on Cyberpunk 2077 — Update 2.1 overview in ~games

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    So I guess cyberware malfunction now gets stacked with overheat while fighting him. Wonder if there’s anything else I should be doing…

    So I guess cyberware malfunction now gets stacked with overheat while fighting him. Wonder if there’s anything else I should be doing…

    2 votes
  8. Comment on Ordering off a 5,000-year-old Mesopotamian menu in ~humanities.history

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    The interior shot from the article got me thinking… did people really leave their footwear on indoors back in Mesopotamia?

    The interior shot from the article got me thinking… did people really leave their footwear on indoors back in Mesopotamia?

    4 votes
  9. Comment on Patients don’t know how to navigate the US health system — and it’s costing them in ~health

  10. Comment on Could the Israel - Gaza conflict be about an alternative to the Suez canal? in ~misc

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    Off topic but Raistlin Majere, right? As in, brother of Caramon?

    Off topic but Raistlin Majere, right? As in, brother of Caramon?

    1 vote
  11. Comment on The bizarre story behind Shinzo Abe’s assassination in ~humanities

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    The whole thing was so weird. No one around me really knew what to think at first but there was some slight palpable relief when it turned out to be a Japanese rather than a foreign actor. A...

    The whole thing was so weird. No one around me really knew what to think at first but there was some slight palpable relief when it turned out to be a Japanese rather than a foreign actor.

    A handful of days later the news broke that the assassination was somehow linked to that cult. Blew my mind since some sorts (some.) of LDP supporters are the same sorts you used to get screaming about every small grievance in their lives being due to some Korean conspiracy and then holy shit it turns out the ones in on the conspiracy were hundreds of their own politicians.

    Few weeks later and there were some guys cosplaying Yamagami at Abe’s state funeral (scroll down a bit). Anyway, when I see a picture of Abe it doesn’t even feel like the guy actually died. LDP’s still doing their thing. Yen’s burning in a raging dumpster fire. At least we’re not hearing so much talk of revising the post-war constitution so they can turn the JSDF back into an army.

    15 votes
  12. Comment on Europe’s coming reckoning on immigration – large-scale immigration is the only thing that can prevent Europe from becoming an empty amusement park in ~misc

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    It is a top down policy proposal that would overlook quite a bit. I’d be able to put a sharper point on it if this were my field but I’m just another concerned individual so I’ll just try and do...

    the most braindead, easiest policies to implement for massive prevention of additional emissions. It doesn't require some engineering solution, it doesn't require mass infrastructure work, and it doesn't ask people to engage in personal sacrifice.

    It is a top down policy proposal that would overlook quite a bit. I’d be able to put a sharper point on it if this were my field but I’m just another concerned individual so I’ll just try and do my best to explain my view below.

    Basically, I don’t think you’d really get the desired effect of long term net GHG emission reductions by implementing this policy by itself.

    Even if Canada changed its policy tomorrow, years later you’d still see the oil sands have continued to be tapped for all their worth. If the domestic market for oil were down due to population decline that’s just oil that’d be sold elsewhere (read: developing countries with population growth).

    If any number of Canadian companies had similar issues they’d do the same thing. Development would happen elsewhere.

    Without, as I previously mentioned, robust sustainable development practices implemented the wold over, your policy would at best just be transferring GHG emissions from one geographic area to another and from one point in time to a future point in time.

    Importantly, this would all happen while millions of immigrants were denied an opportunity contribute to Canada’s future. They would just go elsewhere, and I think that’d be a loss for Canadian society. Finally, and not the least bit perversely, this very same policy would by its own logic more easily allow for an Australian or U.S. worker to migrate to Canada, since they’re already producing around as much GHG emissions as your average Canadian is responsible for.

    The whole thing just doesn’t work. It has the net effect of pushing into the dirt the faces of millions of people who have as much of a human right to bettering their lives as anyone else. I agree with you wholeheartedly that GHG emissions need to be decreased the world over, but I don’t think this policy need be part of the solution.

  13. Comment on Europe’s coming reckoning on immigration – large-scale immigration is the only thing that can prevent Europe from becoming an empty amusement park in ~misc

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    I don’t think I’m misinterpreting anything here but do you live in a developed country? Because if so the above reads as a pretty privileged position to take. Like, /we should limit immigration...

    if you take a bunch of people living low-carbon lifestyles in the third world and bring them to the first world, then they are going to emit much more carbon over the course of a lifetime than they otherwise would've.

    I don’t think I’m misinterpreting anything here but do you live in a developed country? Because if so the above reads as a pretty privileged position to take. Like, /we should limit immigration from developing countries so they don’t start producing all the GHGs we do/. What would happen instead? I’m no economist and I know it’s dangerous to reorient conversations like these with such broad strokes, but with populations declining in the developed world, developing world markets will just be increasingly leveraged as a sources of revenue to satiate endless growth capitalists. The solution isn’t to deny migrants a future of their choosing based on their potential carbon footprint, it’s to embrace robust sustainable development practices the world over and rid ourselves of the notion that there should be no upper bound on the growth of a given company or net worth of an individual.

    3 votes
  14. Comment on Just passed my PhD defense :) in ~talk

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    Congratulations! I immediately read fiction. Some books I’d been looking forward to for a while. I was able to read them faster than I’d ever read anything else in my life and to this day I...

    Congratulations!

    I immediately read fiction. Some books I’d been looking forward to for a while. I was able to read them faster than I’d ever read anything else in my life and to this day I remember them much more clearly than any other novels I’ve read.

    Waking life and sleep quality were awful for a while. It took until a couple months after getting the actual diploma in the mail for the after effects to really subside.

    4 votes
  15. Comment on Morning routines and getting ready for the day in ~life

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    Wake up between 5:05 and 5:30. I remind myself of what day of the week it is, consider how close it is to the next non-working day, and vaguely consider the amount of work I have to do. This...

    Wake up between 5:05 and 5:30.

    I remind myself of what day of the week it is, consider how close it is to the next non-working day, and vaguely consider the amount of work I have to do. This happens within about 3 seconds after waking up.

    Make a pot of pour over coffee

    Do 15 minutes of exercise

    Work on my iPad for 15-30 minutes until wife and kid are awake. Getting my kid out of bed is fun because she’s small and the whole experience is very cute.

    We all get breakfast ready and eat it while getting ready to go out the door. These days I have started to eat oatmeal with a can of fish in it or some fruit. The former is better than you would think.

    6:50 I shave and take a shower while my wife gets the garbage ready to go out.

    7:05 I bring the garbage to the curb on my way to the train.

    7:50 Wife packs kid and stuff in car to drop her off at daycare and go to work.

    During corona I’d wake up at like 7-7:30 and switch on the computer at about 8:30-9:00. It would be better for my family if I could work from home, but I don’t see how I can do it.

    1 vote
  16. Comment on It’s not just Paris. Bedbugs are resurgent everywhere in ~health

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    I am sorry you had to go through that. It sounds terrible. I'm glad you were able to get rid of them by yourselves, but I would never recommend anyone do the same. If you have a good exterminator...

    I am sorry you had to go through that. It sounds terrible. I'm glad you were able to get rid of them by yourselves, but I would never recommend anyone do the same. If you have a good exterminator that is using heat treatment and many other things then they should guarantee the job. I think it is surprising and disheartening to hear that you weren't offered such a guarantee. I paid at least $3-4k for treating a 2BR apartment and I do not regret a cent of it. The guys who did the job would come back for an additional treatment as part of what I paid them so long as I strictly followed their guidance. I mean, it was that level of confidence in their work that helped to dissipate some of the terrible emotions that were overwhelming my whole family at the time. I really wish those things would disappear off the earth forever.

    10 votes
  17. Comment on It’s not just Paris. Bedbugs are resurgent everywhere in ~health

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    Don't think a lot of people who have won their war against them want to talk about them again. Lifelong trauma. Took a whole lot of joy out of life. No longer want to travel many places. Always...

    Don't think a lot of people who have won their war against them want to talk about them again. Lifelong trauma. Took a whole lot of joy out of life. No longer want to travel many places. Always got some part of me looking around for signs of their presence. Worst part is knowing there are people out there that can't call a professional and take care of them properly either out of ignorance, selfishness, lack of finances, their psychological situation, or maybe something else. Remediation is better than it was 10-15 years ago and if you get a professional in and follow their instructions you'll be ok, but it's real hell.

    24 votes
  18. Comment on How to download and install Linux in ~comp

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    What’s up with the ‘a boomer thing’ and ‘for old people’? Desktop software vs. web platform is just a decision based on cost, performance, and productivity concerns. Over time, sure, more...

    What’s up with the ‘a boomer thing’ and ‘for old people’?

    Desktop software vs. web platform is just a decision based on cost, performance, and productivity concerns. Over time, sure, more functionality from desktop software is being transferred to and augmented by mobile apps and cloud platforms but the desktop remains a productivity hub. Anyway, this conversation and related points have everything to do with tech development and not user age. I don’t get it.

    20 votes
  19. Comment on Brewing your own rice wine (makgeolli, doburoku, chojiu, etc...) in ~food

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    Is mead as easy to make as the recipe in this video? That stuff is amazing.

    Is mead as easy to make as the recipe in this video? That stuff is amazing.

    1 vote
  20. Comment on How to argue against identity politics without turning into a reactionary in ~misc

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    From the article: My reading of the article: You were initially sympathetic to its goals [but] have since recognized that the identity synthesis presents a real danger [because of this article’s...

    From the article:

    Many people who were initially sympathetic to its goals have since recognized that the identity synthesis presents a real danger. They want to speak out against these ideas, but they are nervous about doing so. It’s not just that they don’t want to risk alienating their friends or sabotaging their careers. They fear that opposing the identity synthesis will, inevitably, force them to make common cause with people who don’t recognize the dangers of racism and bigotry, push them onto the “wrong side of history,” or even lead them down the same path as Mr. Weinstein.

    My reading of the article:

    You were initially sympathetic to its goals [but] have since recognized that the identity synthesis presents a real danger [because of this article’s argument against it]. You [now] want to speak out against these ideas, but you are nervous about doing so. It’s not just that you don’t want to risk alienating your friends or sabotaging your [career]. you fear that opposing the identity synthesis will, inevitably, force you to make common cause with people who don’t recognize the dangers of racism and bigotry, push you onto the “wrong side of history,” or even lead you down the same path as Mr. Weinstein.

    I can’t get behind anyone who writes like this no matter what their message may be. It’s way too manipulative. I don’t need this guy to shepherd my thoughts and (dis)allow me from feeling one way or another.

    9 votes