Random Thoughts Part 5: Time to Split Again

In summary, the conversation revolved around various topics such as dreams, different numbering systems, and education in different countries. The participants shared personal experiences, opinions, and debated about the merits of different theories. The conversation also included a discussion about a book and a recipe.
  • #2,626
I was watching a series about linguistics and in one video where the guy talks about ambiguities there's this sentence:
"The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families."
It's after min 4 here
What does it mean?
 
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  • #2,627
Sophia said:
"The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families."
What does it mean?
"Houses" is a verb here. It means "The complex provides housing for soldiers who are married and their families, and for single soldiers".
Edit: I've interpreted a bit there; it actually say soldiers who are married or single and their families, so if a single soldier has a family that would be included.
 
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  • #2,628
Jonathan Scott said:
"Houses" is a verb here. It means "The complex provides housing for soldiers who are married and their families, and for single soldiers".
Edit: I've interpreted a bit there; it actually say soldiers who are married or single and their families, so if a single soldier has a family that would be included.

I see! Thank you :)
 
  • #2,629
Oh gosh, I got the 4 year family prize tonight. I feel so special, like I'm part of something. Thanks to PF. I'm a lone wolf, a lonely soldier for the better part of two decades. It's great to be part of a great community. Recently, I was accepted to a graduate program in computer science, which I know almost nothing about, so I'm a bit spooked. But they wanted me in the program under a DARPA and NSF grant because of my background in in evolutionary neuroanatomy and systems neuroscience. I'm attending in the fall, so I'm trying to at least learn Python so I don't look like a fool.
 
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  • #2,630
DiracPool said:
Oh gosh, I got the 4 year family prize tonight. I feel so special, like I'm part of something. Thanks to PF. I'm a lone wolf, a lonely soldier for the better part of two decades. It's great to be part of a great community. Recently, I was accepted to a graduate program in computer science, which I know almost nothing about, so I'm a bit spooked. But they wanted me in the program under a DARPA and NSF grant because of my background in in evolutionary neuroanatomy and systems neuroscience. I'm attending in the fall, so I'm trying to at least learn Python so I don't look like a fool.
Good luck with it!
 
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  • #2,631
Sophia said:
I was watching a series about linguistics and in one video where the guy talks about ambiguities there's this sentence:
"The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families."
It's after min 4 here
What does it mean?

I don't know if the show Married with Children is the best way of learning (isn't that Bud Bundy?)
 
  • #2,632
WWGD said:
I don't know if the show Married with Children is the best way of learning (isn't that Bud Bundy?)
Lol! He really looks a bit like Bundy when you look from a new perspective [emoji2]
 
  • #2,633
Two days of fighting with a set of Java Spring configuration files and I finally got two projects to play nice with each other. Just as I was about to commit the files, my IDE crashes and deleted all of the new and updated files in one of the projects. I've never seen it do anything like that on a crash before. Of course it had to be just then. I had backups of some files but not everything. :headbang:
 
  • #2,634
The 99 cent store had a brand of yogurt called "Liberté". The container boasted it was "Yogurt Perfection!" I thought, "No. Perfect yogurt wouldn't end up at the 99 cent store". But I bought some, because it was 2 for 99 cents.

To my amazement, it WAS yogurt perfection! I'd never has such creamy, rich tasting yogurt. I bought more.

But something was bothering me. A thing scratching at the back of my mind that I wanted to ignore. Finally, I checked the calories. Each little container had 120 MORE CALORIES than the average yogurt! No wonder it tasted so much better.
 
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  • #2,635
Sophia said:
I was watching a series about linguistics and in one video where the guy talks about ambiguities there's this sentence:
"The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families."
That's not actually ambiguous, though. Sure it takes two goes to parse, because at first glance it looks like "married" is the verb, but the "and" makes that untenable. "Houses" is the only other candidate. Although if you've not come across it as a verb before I can see it would be difficult to guess.

Years ago my English teacher gave us a truly ambiguous headline (mot sure if it's genuine or not) from the Vietnam war: "Vietcong push bottles up US Marines". If you read "push" as the verb it looks like some kind of torture is being described in rather flippant terms. However, it was actually meant to mean that an offensive (a push) by Vietcong forces had surrounded (bottled up) a lot of marines.

Langauge is an interesting topic.
 
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  • #2,636
zoobyshoe said:
The 99 cent store had a brand of yogurt called "Liberté". The container boasted it was "Yogurt Perfection!" I thought, "No. Perfect yogurt wouldn't end up at the 99 cent store". But I bought some, because it was 2 for 99 cents.

To my amazement, it WAS yogurt perfection! I'd never has such creamy, rich tasting yogurt. I bought more.

But something was bothering me. A thing scratching at the back of my mind that I wanted to ignore. Finally, I checked the calories. Each little container had 120 MORE CALORIES than the average yogurt! No wonder it tasted so much better.

Was it perhaps cream yoghurt (something between yoghurt and sour cream) with min. 10% fat? Those are my favourite! :)
So much better than those yucky fat-free with artificial sweeteners. Taste like a chemical experiment.
And when you eat this creamy yogurt you are full and not hungry again in an hour :)
 
  • #2,637
Ibix said:
Years ago my English teacher gave us a truly ambiguous headline (mot sure if it's genuine or not) from the Vietnam war: "Vietcong push bottles up US Marines". If you read "push" as the verb it looks like some kind of torture is being described in rather flippant terms. However, it was actually meant to mean that an offensive (a push) by Vietcong forces had surrounded (bottled up) a lot of marines.
Langauge is an interesting topic.

You see, this is interesting. I didn't understand that "houses" is a verb in the previous example even though I have seen it before. On the other hand, I think I've never seen "bottles up" before, but I instantly knew it has to be a verb. I didn't quite understand the meaning of the headline, but I definitely didn't see the torture before you mentioned it :)
I guess it has 2 reasons:
had to memorize a list of phrasal verbs with "up" so I was prepared for the possibility of a verb
in my language, there would probably be prepositition "into" in case of torture
 
  • #2,638
Yikes! We just had an earthquake! Startled me. Almost pitched me forward headfirst onto my computer.
 
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  • #2,639
Oh I like the vibration.
 
  • #2,640
zoobyshoe said:
Yikes! We just had an earthquake! Startled me. Almost pitched me forward headfirst onto my computer.
In which region do you live?
 
  • #2,641
I guess he is coming from San Diego.
 
  • #2,642
zoobyshoe said:
Yikes! We just had an earthquake! Startled me. Almost pitched me forward headfirst onto my computer.
Sorry about that! Hopefully nothing more serious happened to you or someone you know.
 
  • #2,643
zoobyshoe said:
Yikes! We just had an earthquake! Startled me. Almost pitched me forward headfirst onto my computer.
So that's what that was! I was making a (late night) fish sandwich and I heard a noise and saw the blinds shaking. I thought it was a rodent darting around in the kitchen. I guess it was an earthquake after all.
 
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  • #2,644
collinsmark said:
So that's what that was! I was making a (late night) fish sandwich and I heard a noise and saw the blinds shaking. I thought it was a rodent darting around in the kitchen. I guess it was an earthquake after all.
I felt it, too :biggrin: lol...I shouldn't have been up that late, but whatever. @collinsmark Don't eat that late!:smile:
 
  • #2,645
ProfuselyQuarky said:
I felt it, too :biggrin: lol...I shouldn't have been up that late, but whatever. @collinsmark Don't eat that late!:smile:
Did I mention that I woke up around sunset?
 
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  • #2,646
collinsmark said:
Did I mention that I woke up around sunset?
So you're a rooster? :smile:
 
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  • #2,647
collinsmark said:
Did I mention that I woke up around sunset?
I woke up at 6:00 am o:) At one point, I woke up around 2-3 am daily so I could have enough time to study and complete work while still finishing other things. Unfortunately, I am having a hard time undoing that habit. What's your excuse? Work?
 
  • #2,648
Sunset is a bit earlier than a rooster or even 2am in most places.
 
  • #2,649
I had a nail in my foot today i just pulled it out out, i have had tetanus shots but it has gone all red should i be worried
 
  • #2,650
wolram said:
I had a nail in my foot today i just pulled it out out, i have had tetanus shots but it has gone all red should i be worried
Ouch regarding the nail :sorry: Sorry, wolram. Couldn't you go back to the doctor about the redness? That doesn't sound right.
 
  • #2,651
wolram said:
I had a nail in my foot today i just pulled it out out, i have had tetanus shots but it has gone all red should i be worried
I think you should have a doctor to take a look at it. Beside tetanus there can also be an inflammation. And there are various other ugly viruses as well. At least I would spend it some whiskey.
 
  • #2,652
It dopes not hurt so i just washed it in anti septic that should be okay should it not?
 
  • #2,653
wolram said:
It dopes not hurt so i just washed it in anti septic that should be okay should it not?
My grandma always said that one has to watch whether it develops a growing red string. She meant that would indicate a sepsis. Don't know whether it's true or not.
 
  • #2,654
wolram said:
It dopes not hurt so i just washed it in anti septic that should be okay should it not?
You're in the UK, right? Give 111 a ring if you're worried - they're supposed to provide advice without you needing a GP/out of hours docs/A&E.
 
  • #2,655
wolram said:
It dopes not hurt so i just washed it in anti septic that should be okay should it not?

i'd soak it in antiseptic solution. When i crushed a big toe they told me to mix Betadine in hot water and soak twenty minutes a day.
Puncture wounds are difficult for unlike a wide cut they don't bleed enough to wash themself clean.
 
  • #2,657
wolram said:
I had a nail in my foot today i just pulled it out out, i have had tetanus shots but it has gone all red should i be worried
If no maggot comes out in a couple of days, I think you are fine.:biggrin:
I would be more worried about a big callus that gets developed after your open wound is healed. That annoying thing is more hurtful while walking barefoot.
 
  • #2,658
I don't have a particularly common first name. However, today, of the first four people to sign into an online seminar, three of us had the same first name. The fifth person to join had a foreign variant spelling of the same name. After that about another dozen people joined, and I think that there were no repeated names except for the four of us.

It was odd to see.
 
  • #2,659
Ibix said:
I don't have a particularly common first name. However, today, of the first four people to sign into an online seminar, three of us had the same first name. The fifth person to join had a foreign variant spelling of the same name. After that about another dozen people joined, and I think that there were no repeated names except for the four of us.

It was odd to see.
But you're sure it wasn't a seminar about your first name?
 
  • #2,660
fresh_42 said:
But you're sure it wasn't a seminar about your first name?
Pretty sure. My name is not R. I did consider proposing that we make the group "Ibixes Anonymous", only (a) we'd not be anonymous; and (b) "Hello everybody, my name's Ibix, and I'm an Ibix" sounds really silly. Even if you substitute my real name.
 

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