In English, of course, because between the Welsh and the Finnish they can defeat you soundly.
Today I Learned #2: Gone for a Wiki Walk
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Once you get more than about 20 characters, they aren't really words anymore. Words are useful things that we utilize in regular communications.Once you get past about 20 characters, the collection of letters is mostly useless except to very narrowly focused specialists.
Ajidica
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Several foreign languages see you challenge and accept it.
They are the exceptions that prove the rule. The fact that you can find a few 20+ character long words in common use doesn't change the fact that such words are just freaks of language,
No need, they are bit players among languages. Relics. I wonder if word length has anything to do with that? Hmmm...
Berzerker
Deity
A Seneca Indian, General Eli Parker and member of US Grant's staff, wrote out the terms for Lee's surrender at Appomattox
Lee saw him and commented 'at least there is one real American in this room'. Parker said, 'we're all Americans here, sir'.
The night Lincoln was assassinated, JW Booth allegedly looked into a carriage carrying Grant and his wife. She was convinced the man was Booth.
Lee saw him and commented 'at least there is one real American in this room'. Parker said, 'we're all Americans here, sir'.
The night Lincoln was assassinated, JW Booth allegedly looked into a carriage carrying Grant and his wife. She was convinced the man was Booth.
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Berzerker
Deity
crab people crab people crab people
aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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Today I learned that someone wrote a program (a simple AI?) to learn to play classic NES games:
The best part is it playing Tetris. When it was about to lose the game, it paused the game indefinitely.
The best part is it playing Tetris. When it was about to lose the game, it paused the game indefinitely.
aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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Today I learned about United States v. Article Consisting of 50,000 Cardboard Boxes More or Less, Each Containing One Pair of Clacker Balls. Also, I learned about clacker balls. And that a lot of in rem jurisdiction cases have unintentionally hilarious names.
yung.carl.jung
Hey Bird! I'm Morose & Lugubrious
Finnish seems to be doing well enough, and the fact that anyone can easily pronounce Eyjafjallajökull with just a bit of practice I think disproves your theory, even if the word isn't exactly 20 characters long. it rolls of the tongue if you have ever heard a fin say it.
example:
Agglutinating languages may then have predicates that are really long words and convey lots of information, but are not hard to understand to the native speaker. Their languages are simply structured differently then ours, and our understanding of language is not universal. an example of an agglutinating language word would be this mongolian word for electrician (the job), which is about 20 letters long:
Цахилгаанжуулалтыхан
This Turkish phrase means "to become successful", again one word:
Muvaffakiyetsizleş(-mek)
TIL:
A Multipronged Strategy for Obesity
Recent research has deepened our understanding of how to use diet, medication, therapy and surgery
BY LAURA LANDRO
In the Covid-19 pandemic, people with obesity are at higher risk for severe illness and death— adding new urgency to efforts to rethink the way doctors treat what has long been a public-health problem.
Instead of focusing only on diet and exercise, medical experts say, health-care providers need to shift to a multipronged strategy that includes new prescription weight-loss medications, behavioral therapy and possibly surgery. And to ensure the best results, they argue, this new approach should be overseen by clinicians specially trained in treating obesity.
To be sure, doctors have long known that combating obesity could involve a blend of approaches. But recent research has deepened the understanding of each strategy and how they work together.
The current crisis is heightening the need for better treatment of obesity, but the problem has been growing more serious for years. New federal data show that the obesity rate in the U.S. has hit 42.4%, up from 30.5% in 1999-2000. And many of those affected are in minority groups and underserved populations with little access to care.
A growing number of medical groups classify obesity— defined as a body-mass index of 30 or greater— as a chronic disease and are pushing for wider coverage of treatment costs. Covid-19 puts the body’s response into overdrive, and the inflammation already present due to obesity may be one reason such patients do worse. Compared with people of normal weight, obese patients also are more likely to have other chronic conditions and pulmonary problems such as asthma and lung disease that increase the risk for serious illness.
“It has taken a devastating and potentially fatal illness like Covid-19 to shine a light on obesity, which has always been thought of as a background factor, chronic and hard to treat, so why bother?” says Robert Kushner, a professor of medicine at Northwestern University and director of the Northwestern Medicine Center for Lifestyle Medicine. Here are some developments in obesity care that hold promise.
Turning to specialists
One longstanding obstacle to more-comprehensive treatment of obesity is that many doctors haven’t gotten specialized training. That’s one reason physicians have tended to frame treatment as a matter of eating less and moving more—and when that doesn’t work, they often see it as a failure on the part of patients, rather than a condition that can be out of their control. The more patients cut calories or exercise, the more the metabolism wants to compensate, slowing down to maintain weight and releasing hormones that increase appetite. Genes have also been associated with difficulty losing weight.
The fast-emerging specialty of obesity medicine aims to close the education gap. Specialists learn about the interplay of biological, genetic, psychological and environmental factors that contribute to obesity and how to personalize strategies for diet, exercise and behavioral change. They also are trained to recognize which patients need extra help from drugs or weight-loss surgeries.
Caroline Andrew completed an obesity fellowship at the Weill Cornell Medicine Comprehensive Weight Control Center in 2018 and now has her own practice at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, where surgeons often refer patients to her to help them lose weight before a joint replacement. She works with patients for at least three to six months to lose 5% to 10% of their body weight. Among her services, she may provide behavioral counseling or prescribe a weight-loss drug, or refer patients to a therapist or dietitian for additional help.
One patient, John Kelly, 56, was referred by his surgeon before a hip replacement. He had struggled with his weight for years, he says. At one point, he weighed 372 pounds and was never able to stick to a diet. In addition to a low-carbohydrate diet with protein shakes as meal replacements and snacks, Dr. Andrew started him on metformin, a diabetes drug that has shown benefit for weight loss. Over eight months, he lost 77 pounds and had a successful hip replacement in December 2018. He is now able to add more exercise and continues to see Dr. Andrew.
Educating more physicians
While there are not enough full-time obesity specialists to treat the majority of patients, the American Board of Obesity Medicine certifies doctors who have taken at least 60 hours of education on obesity causes and treatments. “We want the average doctor to be able to deal with obesity and overweight patients, starting with being able to bring it up in a conversation,” says Louis J. Aronne, director of Weill Cornell’s weight-control center in New York and a director of the obesity medicine board. The training covers a number of areas. One of the most important: treating patients with sensitivity. Doctors learn to create a patient-friendly environment, including training staff to be careful with language, such as “a patient who has obesity” instead of “obese patient.”
Then, rather than dictate a specific diet, doctors are encouraged to learn patients’ food preferences and what diets or exercise programs have been effective or ineffective. Doctors prescribe a regimen based on patients’ preferences and health status and determine whether drugs or surgical procedures are appropriate.
More drugs and surgery
There are also signs that a big obstacle to obesity treatment is starting to crumble: resistance to weight-loss drugs and surgery. These can be highly effective treatments, but they often aren’t covered by insurance, and doctors are often reluctant to prescribe them. In part, that is because doctors tend to focus on diet, and in part because drugs and surgery have carried risks in the past.
But that is changing. Recent research has shown some surgeries to be effective on a broader range of patients than previously thought. And newer generations of drugs are much safer and more effective than earlier ones, studies show. So, more private insurers and employers are covering weight-loss medications, and some states are considering legislation to expand coverage of surgery and weight-loss drugs by public health plans.
Gayle Novak, a 57-year-old Chicago advertising executive, says her weight rose to almost 285 pounds and she began to have health issues, including high blood pressure. Dr. Kushner at Northwestern’s Center for Lifestyle Medicine helped her design a diet plan that focuses on healthy choices and intermittent fasting but allows some indulgences, Ms. Novak says.
Dr. Kushner also prescribed the drug Qsymia, which helps curb her cravings and control portions. The treatment hasn’t focused only on physical issues. Ms. Novak had been coping with the deaths of her sister and her best friend within a few years of each other. Part of her regimen has been therapy to cope with her grief and emotional and stress eating patterns.
After a year she lost about 75 pounds, and is now down 106 pounds from her peak weight.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, she has been working from home and having phone and video sessions with Dr. Kushner and her therapist. She tries to get outside to walk every day and do strength training at home. “I have not allowed the stress and strangeness of this time to fall back to old habits,” Ms. Novak says.
Weight-loss drugs and surgery are going mainstream among doctors. Gayle Novak has lost more than 100 pounds, mostly through a doctor-supervised weight-management program.
I'm not saying that the languages don't work well or are dysfunctional in some way. My point is that Welsh and Gaelic (plus others) are just sideline players in the world and pointing out that perhaps that is because their long words make them harder to learn, so fewer people do so. That keeps them as merely bit players. For example, Spanish is a pretty easy language to learn and not noted for its use of long words. Short simple expressions make attempts to use it easy for folks without a "language gene". Lo siento.
aimeeandbeatles
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Today I learned (well, re-learned—still going through my bookmarks) about the World Digital Library, which has lots of old manuscripts and maps and rare books and other cool things available freely online.
TIL that you can be convicted of a crime and sent to prison for bringing a civil case in the wrong court.
A group of Lebanese IT distributors have been handed prison sentences for contempt of court after running afoul of Dell and breaching an anti-lawsuit order.
The four broke anti-lawsuit injunctions that Dell had previously secured against them. SETS was an authorised, non-exclusive Dell distributor between 2004 and 2017 until the contract was terminated. Dell claimed SETS broke the contract; SETS said Dell wrongfully terminated the contract and sued in Lebanese courts.
Citing an "exclusive jurisdiction" clause in the contract, Dell filed an anti-lawsuit case in London's High Court.
Maher and Marwan Junior Chahlawi were ordered to be committed to prison for 18 months with Sarah Bibi and Pierre Chalhoub both receiving nine-month sentences.
The four broke anti-lawsuit injunctions that Dell had previously secured against them. SETS was an authorised, non-exclusive Dell distributor between 2004 and 2017 until the contract was terminated. Dell claimed SETS broke the contract; SETS said Dell wrongfully terminated the contract and sued in Lebanese courts.
Citing an "exclusive jurisdiction" clause in the contract, Dell filed an anti-lawsuit case in London's High Court.
Maher and Marwan Junior Chahlawi were ordered to be committed to prison for 18 months with Sarah Bibi and Pierre Chalhoub both receiving nine-month sentences.
aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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Today I learned there's an online tool to make rainbow text in bbcode!
https://www.stuffbydavid.com/textcolorizer
https://www.stuffbydavid.com/textcolorizer
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