The very many questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread XXIII

[MagisterCultuum]

From what I've looked up, Отечество/Отчизны pretty clearly means Fatherland. The word is grammatically neuter, but it is based on the masculine word отец which means father.

It is apparently seen as very formal and is rarely used except by government leaders.

The common man usually prefers to use the term родина, which means "birth land." It is grammatically feminine, and often personified as "mother Russia."


метрополия apparently means "metropolis," in the older sense of the word. It is the city or state responsible for founding a colony. It seems to be the word that would be used the way that an American might refer to Britain as the mother country, not the way a Russian would ever refer to the land where he has lived all his life.

 

[Quackers]

Why did Angelina Jolie's double masectomy attract an enormous amount of media attention? To my mind, a disproportionate amount considering what she did.
Thoughts?

 

[dutchfire]

Boobs generate clicks.

 

[Borachio]

I think a double mastectomy, especially one done for preventive reasons, is a fairly very significant operation. Don't you?

The reason it's getting so much attention is because it's significant and she's a celebrity.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22520720

Her chances of developing breast cancer have now dropped from 87% to under 5%, she said.

She praised her partner, actor Brad Pitt, for his love and support throughout the procedure, and said she was reassured that her children had found nothing in the results "that makes them uncomfortable".

"I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity," she said.

"For any woman reading this, I hope it helps you to know you have options," Ms Jolie went on to say.

"I want to encourage every woman, especially if you have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, to seek out the information and medical experts who can help you through this aspect of your life, and to make your own informed choices."

If it raises the profile of the issues faced by women in general, what is there to decry?

 

[Flying Pig]

What is the logic behind this?:

Jake Davis (aka Topiary) - 24 months in a young offenders institute, of which he will serve 38 days. He has been wearing an electronic tag for 21 months which count against his sentence
Ryan Ackroyd (aka Kayla) - 30 month custodial sentence, of which he will serve half

 

[Borachio]

I'm not sure what you mean.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22526021

Jake Davis, who went by the online alias Topiary, says he now regrets "95% of the things I've ever typed on the internet".
"It was my world, but it was a very limited world. You can see and hear it, but you can't touch the internet. It's a world devoid of empathy - and that shows on Twitter, and the mob mentality against politicians and public figures. There is no empathy.

"So it was my world, and it was a very cynical world and I became a very cynical person."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22552753

 

[Cutlass]

What is the logic behind this?:

These things develop over time as the way to handle the situation. It's not necessarily that they look logical in isolation, but they sort of do if you're experienced with the whole system in context. Saying someone has "X sentence, with time off for good behavior" is supposed to 1st, encourage that good behavior, and 2nd, allow that time off to be revoked on very little pretext, and without the time and expense of another trial, should there not be good behavior.

There are also budget constraints. Can't put everyone in prison forever, or you'll run out of prisons. This method allows them to give harsher sentences without the cost of actually keeping someone locked up.

 

[Cutlass]

Why did Angelina Jolie's double masectomy attract an enormous amount of media attention? To my mind, a disproportionate amount considering what she did.
Thoughts?

The news media tends to be lazy, cheap, and sensationalist. This allows them to be all 3 while pretending that they are doing their jobs.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Is there a word or technical term or whatever that describes this..... impression you get of something somehow appearing bigger than the average of whatever group it belongs to when you look at it, and yet it is actually *smaller* than that average? I dunno if I'm making any sense, really, but I really don't know how to describe it. And no, I don't think it's like that moon illusion thingy, as it is a lot more... subtle?

 

[Farm Boy]

Is there a word or technical term or whatever that describes this..... impression you get of something somehow appearing bigger than the average of whatever group it belongs to when you look at it, and yet it is actually *smaller* than that average? I dunno if I'm making any sense, really, but I really don't know how to describe it. And no, I don't think it's like that moon illusion thingy, as it is a lot more... subtle?

I'm 99% sure this isn't quite what you are going for, but it's what came to mind with your question.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Anyone know of any other university YouTube channels with quality (full lectures and discussions, not snippets) and quantity (roughly a dozen or more per week) approaching that of the University of California's?

 

[Cutlass]

Anyone know of any other university YouTube channels with quality (full lectures and discussions, not snippets) and quantity (roughly a dozen or more per week) approaching that of the University of California's?

I don't know about youtube, but there's some stuff from Yale
http://oyc.yale.edu/
And some stuff by MIT
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/index.htm

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I just subscribed to Yale's YouTube channel, actually. I also have MIT there already.

 

[Lohrenswald]

Does anyone know about any good internet sources where you can find music sheets or whatever it's called in english (You know, these things) for orchestral instruments, including solo pieces?

 

[anyoldguy]

I've gotten dozens of piano scores for free off of Scribd. Some of them I can't download as images without them corrupting, though. I think you need to pay to get full functionality.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

I'm 99% sure this isn't quite what you are going for, but it's what came to mind with your question.

Close. In my case, when looking at said smaller object, the "average" object is nowehere near, and is completely out of sight, and yet the smaller object still appears "larger-than-average" to the eye or mind.

 

[madviking]

sounds kinda like cognitive bias.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Yep. I think that's probably what it is. Thanks.

 

[Muhammed]

I may apply for double citizenship.. What does this mean to my international identity? Do I get two seperate passports or do I get one double? If the former, will I be able to completely hide my citizenship to one of the countries when I travel?

Also: Do you know of any cons of having double citizenship?

 

[bhsup]

Also: Do you know of any cons of having double citizenship?

Where would your loyalties lie if the two countries you are a citizen of went to war against one another?