Zompist Bboard Again

Man in Space wrote: ↑Sat Mar 01, 2025 10:39 pmIIRC in the TNG episode it’s mentioned contact has been attempted multiple times but frustrated because nobody understood them. Dorath kidnapping Picard and having him be the one to understand is, to the Tamarians, a diplomatic overture.

he's thinking for the love of q, please work!..and-or, this is the only thing my predecessors didn't do - please please please for the love of q, please work!

So I order something for about seven and a half Euros from an online store. And then they "offer" me, first, an additional two year guarantee for about 25 additional Euros, and second, a video call with someone to "advise" me on how to "install" the thing - a pair of earbuds, and not bluetooth- or WiFi earbuds, but plug-in ones - for an additional about 30 Euros.
Really, folks, if I had so much money that I could afford to simply throw away 30 Euros, I would have been seriously tempted to take them up on the video call offer, just to see what the "advisor" would have told me on how to install cheap plug-in earbuds.

I just found two Wikipedia articles in two different languages that describe the very same thing, but aren't connected to each other through the usual menus. How can I (or someone else) connect them with each other?

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Mar 06, 2025 8:16 am I just found two Wikipedia articles in two different languages that describe the very same thing, but aren't connected to each other through the usual menus. How can I (or someone else) connect them with each other?

I tried to follow the instructions here ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Interlanguage_links ), but it didn't work.

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Mar 06, 2025 10:46 am

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Mar 06, 2025 8:16 am I just found two Wikipedia articles in two different languages that describe the very same thing, but aren't connected to each other through the usual menus. How can I (or someone else) connect them with each other?

I tried to follow the instructions here ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Interlanguage_links ), but it didn't work.

I now followed the instructions for merging Wikidata objects, and it worked!

If we aggregated all the text posted to this board, would Zipf’s law hold?

Man in Space wrote: ↑Wed Mar 12, 2025 7:46 pmIf we aggregated all the text posted to this board, would Zipf’s law hold?

I assume it would, yes.

Though thats assuming something else: that the server doesn't notice all those posts being aggregated by so many users in a short span of time (a day? week?), that the server goes oof, I need a nap and is inaccessible for a few more days.

Out of curiosity, something I've been wondering about for a while, related to the question of to which extent athletic talent, or the lack thereof, is genetic: has there ever been someone who was a well-known, accomplished athlete in a physical sport, but whose biological parents were both very geeky, fitting the geek/nerd stereotype to a t?

Raphael wrote: ↑Sun Mar 16, 2025 9:22 am Out of curiosity, something I've been wondering about for a while, related to the question of to which extent athletic talent, or the lack thereof, is genetic: has there ever been someone who was a well-known, accomplished athlete in a physical sport, but whose biological parents were both very geeky, fitting the geek/nerd stereotype to a t?

Just for the record, I don't see why fitting the geek/nerd stereotype and having good athletic genes are in any way contradictory.

Consumers of fiction have an expectation that the story will have an element of "justice" to it. If a character is physically weak, they will be compensated by being "smart". Since "intelligence" must be demonstrated in non-intellectual ways, having geeky interests is a popular trope by which this can be done. This tends to go down better than being told that the character speaks languages or solves differential equations, which comes off as manipulative. Since stories typically won't discuss the details of the languages, the details of learning them, or the differential equations for fear of bogging down the narrative, assuming the author has even thought about such things, it feels like the author is declaring by fiat that the character is intelligent without demonstration.

A story doesn't necessarily have to follow any of these paths. But since writers are aware of these expectations, stories tend to either follow similar techniques of demonstration or defy them with a kind of Nietzschean shrillness. If a story does sidestep "justice", prepare to have other reactions evoked in your consumer, from pity to anger to (according to Aristotle) shock. It may be that that's what the story calls for at that point in the narrative, but you might not want to keep such characters around for the entire duration of the story. If you do, it might end up changing the story's genre.

Raphael wrote: ↑Sun Mar 16, 2025 9:22 am Out of curiosity, something I've been wondering about for a while, related to the question of to which extent athletic talent, or the lack thereof, is genetic: has there ever been someone who was a well-known, accomplished athlete in a physical sport, but whose biological parents were both very geeky, fitting the geek/nerd stereotype to a t?

I didn't know anyone who was as geeky as me while growing up, so I don't know how useful my experience is going to be.

My closest friend in school was very athletic. His father had been a policeman. He was and still is super duper into Harry Potter. Back in school, we read all the books. Nowadays, he has apparently watched every movie in the Potterverse. Others kind of thought of him as a dork even though he came first or second in every race. He was picked on more than anyone else I knew in school. I was never picked on in school despite my obvious lack of coordination (possibly because I'm taller than average and neither thin nor fat). My friend had big, round glasses and thought of himself as Harry Potter. He apparently thought of me as Neville Longbottom even though I was better than him at academics.

Here's the thing: Having geeky hobbies takes a lot of time. Once of the smartest kids in my class was also the most athletic. He spent most of his time training or studying. Tragically, he was rejected from the army for having imperfections in his knees. Weird, since he came first or second in every race alongside my friend. They said his knees would degrade quickly and get arthritis if he didn't favor his knees. He was an acquaintance, but I never did anything with him.

My friend was not that great at academics. Other friends in our circle were the science fiction guy and the anime guy. I was probably the best at academics as the computer guy. The anime guy was close despite never studying. I was awful at sports. I also spent a lot of time with the Feynman guy (different from the guy who trained and studied), but no one else could tolerate him because he was very socially inept. The Feynman guy sometimes greeted us with a spine cracking slap on the back. He was better than me at academics, and he talked about science nonstop, so I thought I might learn something from him. The Feynman guy thought geeky stuff was dumb. While we were in school, I never managed to convince him that the entire material world has wave-like properties. He was also better then me at cricket, but he was the only guy who lost to me at arm wrestling. He is now a professor teaching Machine Learning. My friend, the Harry Potter guy, does AI-adjacent scripting. My life was derailed after an accident in 2006.

Even though my circle were the class geeks, none of us had watched Star Trek, though we wanted to. None of my school friends were particularly interested in Lord of the Rings or GRR Martin. Even I was more into the Silmarillion than LoTR proper. I got my brother into GRR Martin eventually. I never found anyone else IRL who was into conworlding unless you count the science fiction guy, who was into creating fictional technology.

quinterbeck wrote: ↑Mon Nov 04, 2019 9:23 am At around age 9 I used the conjunction 'for' in the sense of 'because' in a piece of writing and my teacher marked it incorrect (though I knew it was quite correct, thank you very much).

Most likely I picked it up from reading the Bible

Brings back bad memories of college…there was a TA in one of the Gen Eds I took (a history class) who marked off every “has/had X” as a use of the passive voice, which said TA seemed to have a fixation against (and also marked off a reference to a globe as not having been in common use in the 1700s despite the fact I was citing said globe in an effort to speak to the distance between two places generally).

I should’ve complained to the university…

Wow, rotting bones, thank you!

Travis: well, lack of athletic ability is kind of part of the stereotype.

Raphael wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 5:25 am Wow, rotting bones, thank you!

Travis: well, lack of athletic ability is kind of part of the stereotype.

Someone (I forgot who) once said that jocks are just sports geeks

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 5:35 am
Someone (I forgot who) once said that jocks are just sports geeks

OK, "geeking out" about things one is interested in can sound very similar no matter whether the topic is rugby or Sindarin.

Then again, arguably a sports geek is more like someone who knows a lot of baseball statistics, without necessarily being able to hit a ball.

Raphael wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 5:46 am

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 5:35 am
Someone (I forgot who) once said that jocks are just sports geeks

OK, "geeking out" about things one is interested in can sound very similar no matter whether the topic is rugby or Sindarin.

Then again, arguably a sports geek is more like someone who knows a lot of baseball statistics, without necessarily being able to hit a ball.

Yes, that's what I'd understand "sports geek" to mean. I have met such people myself.

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 9:31 am

Raphael wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 5:46 am

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 5:35 am
Someone (I forgot who) once said that jocks are just sports geeks

OK, "geeking out" about things one is interested in can sound very similar no matter whether the topic is rugby or Sindarin.

Then again, arguably a sports geek is more like someone who knows a lot of baseball statistics, without necessarily being able to hit a ball.

Yes, that's what I'd understand "sports geek" to mean. I have met such people myself.

This is of course the linguistic equivalent of somebody who knows the words for "beer", and their complete entomologies, in several languages but doesn't know how to make a nice hot cup of tea.

alice wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 3:09 pm somebody who knows the words for "beer", and their complete entomologies

Gosh, I had no idea there were many so many insects in beer.

(Alas, Raphael got there first in the Quotes thread…)

bradrn wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 7:56 pm

alice wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 3:09 pm somebody who knows the words for "beer", and their complete entomologies

Gosh, I had no idea there were many so many insects in beer.

Well, it is just a running gag of alice which has long gone stale - confounding the words entomology and etymology.

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Tue Mar 18, 2025 6:30 am

bradrn wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 7:56 pm

alice wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 3:09 pm somebody who knows the words for "beer", and their complete entomologies

Gosh, I had no idea there were many so many insects in beer.

Well, it is just a running gag of alice which has long gone stale - confounding the words entomology and etymology.

Hey, it made it into the Syntax Construction Kit!