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The New Yorker’s eccentric diacritic is the diaeresis rather than the umlaut.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/mary-norris-diaeresi...


For those wondering, they are written differently in handwriting, but are typically displayed the same in fonts.


The interwebs tells me that

| Whereas the umlaut represents a sound shift, the diaeresis indicates a specific vowel letter that is not pronounced as part of a digraph or diphthong.

I.e., graphically there's no difference. Thus I don't really care to call it one word or the other. Sure, 'diaeresis' is more correct that 'umlaut', but most English speakers -I suspect!- are more likely to recognize the latter than the former.


As I said, there is a very distinct difference in writing. The umlaut is written more like ő with two short lines (handwriting only!) whereas the other is written ö (two dots).


> handwriting only

I'd have to see it. I'm not sure I believe it :)

It might just be a stylistic thing that distinguishes not diaeresis from umlaut so much as German handwriting from others'. That is, it might be that Germans don't distinguish between the two themselves, and then also the French, the Spanish, etc. If that's the case then I'd say there's zero difference between the two. A test of this would be to ask a German person (or several, including linguists as well as non-linguists) to handwrite a German word that uses umlauts and also a non-German word that uses diaeresis, and if they write it the same then I'd conclude that there is no difference.

And if it's handwriting only, then is there a difference as far as Unicode goes? No, there is not. In Unicode diaeresis and umlaut are the same (U+0308 Combining Diaeresis).


You’re saying “the interwebs tell me…” and taking that as stronger evidence than someone who was actually taught handwriting for both languages?

I’m speechless.


Why are you putting words in my mouth? And when did you say you taught this?

The evidence I'm finding is that there is no semantic difference between umlauts and diaeresis, and that the only real difference is in handwriting style, and I'm then wondering whether that style difference has to do with the language one is writing in or in one's upbringing, which is a very fair question to ask.

The style difference seems smaller and less noticeable than the handwriting difference in Latin ligatures. If the difference lies with what language one is writing, then it is closer to a real difference, but if it lies in where one learned, then it's a negligible difference.

Either address that question or get out.


I quoted your post up thread word for word.

I’m done here.


It’s weird that the Wall Street Journal doesn’t say what party he’s considering running as. People who know he hired political consultants would also know who they are and thus if those consultants are Republicans or Democrats.


The article characterizes him as a "moderate Republican," which is an endangered political class in the state. His core constituency is probably your median "social moderate/fiscal conservative/anti-labor" CxO residing in the ultra-moneyed enclave of Highland Park, where he moved to last year. Take his show on the road to any major blue city or the deep-red GOP bastions in the west and he'd quickly discover just how unloved he'd be.


If he runs, it’s definitely as an R.


A plan which makes small children responsible for preventing their own deaths at the hands of adults driving vehicles they personally chose seems at the very least unlikely to produce good results, assuming you are trying to keep children from dying. I suppose if your metric is “nanny state impositions prevented” rather than “children being crushed to death” then it could be considered a success.


Formatting it with the company as the top-level item would make clear at a glance that you’ve been at places for a lot longer.


A suggestion on your sample. It says “The librarian goes to the stacks, finds the book, and brings it back to you.

The next time you need that same book, the librarian doesn't have to go all the way to the stacks again – they can just grab it from the shelf behind the counter.”

This is missing the step where after you return the book to the librarian, they put it on the shelf behind the counter.

Then if you want you can talk about the shelf only fitting a limited number of books, and the librarian having to decide what to do if the shelf is full.


This is very good suggestion, thanks. I'm in the process of rewriting some sections of the sample and will update the 'librarian' part.


Very cool! I see there are biographical sketches of you, your father, and others involved with the project at https://www.domesdaybook.net/home/contact


Yes... Somewhat out of date. I wish I still looked the same!

The amount of technology we had to invent was crazy. It would be much easier these days.


I liked that when a major person in Italian organized crime was arrested, US newspapers called him a “capo dei capi” while Italian newspapers called him a “boss dei boss”.

For example, here’s a book using that title

https://m.libreriauniversitaria.it/amp/product/BIT/978887928...


The subject of the book is also featured in an Italian TV show using the title Il Capo Dei Capo: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_capo_dei_capi


That document says “Chinese Communist Party (CCP)” then uses CCP 7 more times. It uses CPP once, which is clearly a typo.


The half marathon record is 57:31 for 21.1km, so it’s not too far off.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_marathon_world_record_p...


As the article says: “Social-media and ad-tech industry practices, however, discourage tracking potentially sensitive traits such as sexuality, according to people who work with digital information. This data can essentially create a list of vulnerable users in parts of the world where some LGBT people face harassment and violence.”

There don’t tend to be laws against liking kites or airplanes, nor violence against people who like them on the basis of that interest.


Name one major platform that if you watch LGBTQ related content you don't get suggested more LGBTQ related content. You can only do that if you track it, and each specific category within it as it's not just one category and many niches within each category. This is no different than any other category, like rock music or classical, and more specific various subgenre within (modern rock, classic rock, 70's rock, hard rock, speed metal, heavy metal, nu metal, grunge, etc). If you don't categorize content and don't categorize viewers, you can't recommend like content. So I'm wondering where this "industry practice" is actually implemented beyond virtue signaling to the media.


Generally people associate sexuality with other protected classes, not music genres. While I agree that these systems are indeed setup as feedback loops, it does seem like a bad idea for certain things.

> So I'm wondering where this "industry practice" is actually implemented beyond virtue signaling to the media.

Old people, people from other places, religious people, disabled people, pregnant people and veterans.


The article seems really wrong on this.

E.g. there’s a big trend of congratulating companies for allowing users to opt out of Mother’s Day / Father’s Day ads, which requires companies to keep list of sensitive data about user’s relationship to parents. Similarly, FB has the “interested in” field on profiles… maybe some platforms don’t expose this to advertisers, but they all collect that data.


The fact I don't want a Mother's day email isn't that sensitive. The specific reason why is.

> maybe some platforms don’t expose this to advertisers, but they all collect that data.

They all collect interest data, sure. They could be blocklisting advertisers from from seeing sensitive interests like LGBTQ. I don't know if they do, it certainly sounds like a responsible choice.


What if one would like to opt-out of gay content? not taking a stance, food for thought


This isn't tracking sexuality. It's tracking who watches this content, which is definitely not aligned with sexuality.


If TikTok didn't have a LGBT category, they'd be called out by modern "journalists" for suppressing/not recommending LGBT content and treating LGBT unicorns as second class citizens.

It's disappointing that the full WSJ link was submitted instead of an archive.org link, outrage bait should not be rewarded with ad impressions.


I'm glad someone gets it. So many comments in this thread are frighteningly naive.


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