geordief

I hear tell there is a whole new telescope coming on stream on the next couple of days What might be the most interesting results we could expect? There is no chance that we might get a better look at our Galaxy's black hole is there?

That sounds like the way some of us pronounce "gotten" where we drop the "tt" and say "go-en" with the "tt" replaced by what I would call a "global stop" and may be the same thing as that "voiceless glottal fricative" in your link. A "fricative" sounds like it should mean "caused by rubbing" and "glottal" means "connected to the tongue" (from Greek)

Don"t think so I don't see any pattern when looking at aspirated french words and non aspirated french words vs their counterparts in the English language . Nothing stands out to me ,anyway (could be buried in history) I am not sure of the history of the well pronounced "h" in either language -It did exist in Latin on paper but I have no idea how it was actually spoken. Probably (=certainly),as with us it varied across the regions.

Is this form of words any good? "Mass and energy-momentum have been converted into the spacetime curvature of the BH" If that wording is accurate enough does spacetime curvature also get (re)converted into mass and energy-momentum in due course?

Yes ,what do they say ... a picture is worth a thousand words.

I think that is the "received wisdom" that I was questioning. It was feeling to me as if part of that Ship was sunk without trace.or got lost in its Bermuda Triangle. But my line is now that it is a trick of the mind because we rely so much on memory for our sense of identity(well it makes practical sense too)

So many consequences and so little import. Like a Heston Blumenthal recipe.

Yes , thanks and that is convincing.So my problem really is just with memory? Whilst an amazing tool ,when it lets you down it can give the illusion that the former "you" has died . Mind you ,I think it may be a genuine philosophical question as to whether the past is completely " dead"or if it "lives on" in an unfolding present(too hard for me) ....unless that is just the same question Actually, I would be more inclined to use the term "event" to describe the more instantaneous occurrences of an ongoing grouping of connected events (a fire or a life ) So I would not say our lives are events. But this is the philosophy section and so words here mean just what we want them to mean ... Or ,this is the philosophy section and we have to pin down each word and each meaning every step of the way

Take a period in my past: I have documentary evidence and ( probably but not necessarily )some memories that show I was alive . Now take any moment in that timeframe and the odds are that I have no memory at all of it and yet logically I must have been alive then because this moment occurred in the middle of a timeframe in which I know(and it can be shown) I was alive. So if I was alive at that particular moment has that person who was alive then now died? To extrapolate ( or just generalize) are our lives a succession of experiences characterized by a feeling of being an individual ,each one of which effectively dies unless it is remembered later on with sufficient force to create an apparent (misleading?) link with the later individual doing the remembering ?

Wasn't there a "Follygate" as a part of the MP expenses scandal in UK a while back? I can find the MP who claimed for cleaning his moat but nothing about a folly on anyone's land Maybe the description never grew legs? As an aside I used to walk to school along a "folly"(well we called it "the folly" which was a narrow path between 2 roads about 120 metres apart. (across the houses' back gardens ) I never came across another "folly" since so I don't know if they exist elsewhere (that was in NE Essex)

Too much to hope that he will go sooner? I wonder how this will play out aside from tar baby's uninteresting fate. Will the informal pact btw Lib Dems and Labour break down now that Labour has abandoned any faint hope of Remainers for a return to EU? Will the Tories find someone ugly enough to replace the outgoing con man?

Yes,pretty interesting (is that canned laughter,though?)

What is the story with the actual pronunciation of the letter "H" ? Is it "aitch: or "haitch"? I have heard both (we need to know) He knows now

Listening to Anderson Cooper j on CNN just now he asked his guest whether the subpoena against Lindsay Graham in Fulton County ,Georgia could be "squashed" His guest replied (if I remember correctly) that it could probably not be "quashed" I wonder if AC is a bit challenged in that regard as it may not be the first time I have noticed him make this kind of linguistic mistake. I think he may have said at one time that he was autistic.Maybe that could have something to do with it(or maybe it is just a tricky little word ready to trip us all up)

Why don't you apply for a post in this government ? They are looking for people with your attitude

And an understanding of what is expected of a political leader(plus a genuine attempt to work towards that when it became clear such a change of course was required) Instead we are the fools who don't get his unique qualities. For his part Starmer,the Labour leader has promised to step down if the same kind of charges are brought against him as were brought against Johnson

Glaswegians too Should be given their notice if they can't talk intelligible. Mind you I mightn't be happy if Danish english became the norm (or Bronxese)

Prechance you are right. Higgsactly

You mean a predant?

I learned that some 50 years ago when being taught ancient Greek.It was a characteristic of the many regional dialects at that time to change the position of the "r" to after from before the vowel. (from the standard language we were taught) I assume this prolly continues across other languages across the ages and I include it in my own familial dialect now and then as a bit of fun. So a tried and tested feature of the natural evolution of language. Try not to be a dinosaur.It may not be a successful strategy

That is the risk , that we end up making class judgements on whole categories of people The French tried to keep Englishisms out of the language top down (le weekend,le pc etc) but Plastic Bertrand wasn't paying attention (a Belgian anyway) "It's not today que le ciel tombera sur ma tête" https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/plastic-bertrand-6921.php

Well in the example I just gave I had my own mother down as a snob for using "amn't" and not "aren 't" when I expect you know it is fairly commonly used in Ireland, where she was brought up.

I'm real energised with this thread amn't I? https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/arent-i-or-are-i-not-correct-usage

Can you explain?(Would you be so kind?😉 )

Good