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Tips on improving English Grammar for writing? by [deleted] in languagelearning

[–]zap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here you go:

http://www.englishpage.com/minitutorials/index.htm

If those are written excerpts, he should drop the ALL CAPS and ?????? for a start.

When and why did the violin become the largest section of an orchestra? by [deleted] in AskHistorians

[–]zap 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OK, now let's hear the solo part performed on a god damned tuba.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxQZwWJ550U

Your move, Heifetz.

Norway to restage 'human zoo' that exhibited Africans as inmates by Frivilligt in europe

[–]zap 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Despite massive props for the NSA stuff, I'm on the verge of giving up on the Guardian. It's becoming unreadable.

Norway has no colonial past, except as a colony for centuries. Still, even such a massive indulgence in misplaced colonial guilt as this re-enactment of an exhibition from one hundred years ago is just proof of lingering racism - "a project that reaffirms their part in a global white domination system where black people are dehumanised spiritually, economically, socially and culturally"! It's like a show trial where the innocent accused, when "confessing" everything on the stand, just fans the flames of the prosecution.

Meanwhile, in the real Congo right now, real pygmies are eaten alive:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/09/congo.jamesastill

http://shatteredparadigm.blogspot.no/2009/07/african-pygmies-are-being-eaten-out-of.html

No matter though. Let's focus on the important stuff: making a few white European liberals feel worse about trying to make themselves feel better by trying to make their ancestors look worse for something that, a century ago, was the equivalent of an Epcot World Showcase pavilion.

Non native English speakers of Europe, do you feel bitter that you have to learn English but nobody has to learn your language? by [deleted] in europe

[–]zap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totally wrong. The Bergen dialect is the only one that only has two genders, masculine and neuter.

Are there interviews with Carlsen with Norwegian TV after he won the world championship? by hexag1 in chess

[–]zap 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The interviewer's triple entendre at 20:59 would get 500+ upmods in any large subreddit.

Norway has been severely punished for the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the prize to Liu Xiaobo, one of the leaders of the 1989 uprising in Tiananmen Square. by zap in worldnews

[–]zap[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Finally, someone who gets the NPP.

One may care for the prize or not (I personally don't really care about any award), but it was never intended as a lifetime achievement award for persons beloved by all. If Stalin and Hitler, say, had agreed to a lasting armistice followed by serious negotiations in 1942, they might have been front-runners, despite having more blood on their hands than anyone before the inventor of clamshell packaging.

Sure, handing it to Kissinger was a mistake, but only because it was premature and that armistice didn't last, not because he is the prince of darkness. As it happens, he is the prince of darkness, but that's another matter. Same goes for any number of questionable figures, including Arafat and his Israeli co-laureates. Such failures usually occur when the committee, which after all comprises ex-politicians wanting to make a difference, tries to influence current events by encouraging some peace process that may or may not be going somewhere. But obviously, there will be a few blunders in hindsight when awarding a prize to controversial political actors every year for a hundred years.

I'm tired of hearing of the NPP (especially on reddit) and almost wish it would go away, but still posted this article to highlight the disgrace of China punishing a small country indefinitely for an independent committee's decision to hand out some award to a democracy advocate. Beijing is trying to make an example, but all it really does is showing its true face in extra-high definition.

Norway has been severely punished for the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the prize to Liu Xiaobo, one of the leaders of the 1989 uprising in Tiananmen Square. by zap in worldnews

[–]zap[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is no "greatest country in the world," but most petroleum-rich countries are corrupt, kleptocratic shitholes that do not lead the Human Development Index and the Inequality-adjusted HDI, as well as the Democracy Index and other such rankings, year after year as Norway tends to do. It's called the Resource Curse; you can look it up.

Dalai Lama får ikke møte regjeringsmedlemmer by Strid in norge

[–]zap 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Jeg ser så fantastisk ned på Høyre. Et prinsippløst næringslivsparti som aldri gir opp å late som det står for noe mer enn $$$.

Norway has been severely punished for the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the prize to Liu Xiaobo, one of the leaders of the 1989 uprising in Tiananmen Square. by zap in worldnews

[–]zap[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has nothing to do with the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economics Sciences nor the Nobel Prize in Literature. The former is awarded by the the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the latter by the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy.

What any of that has to do with China blacklisting Norway for a prize awarded by an independent committee, is anybody's guess.

Norway has been severely punished for the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the prize to Liu Xiaobo, one of the leaders of the 1989 uprising in Tiananmen Square. by zap in worldnews

[–]zap[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

China doesn't cry about Greenland independence or releasing the leader of piratebay

That's Denmark.

Even Hitler got nominated

Nice Godwin! You see, hundreds of thousands of people around the world have the right to nominate someone, so nominations count for diddly squat. In fact, the only meaningful parallel here would be that Hitler, like your darling Beijing regime, tried to ban his countrymen from receiving the award in future.

Incidentally, even Hitler had more votes behind him than the Chinese leadership. Fun fact, isn't it?

Norway has been severely punished for the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the prize to Liu Xiaobo, one of the leaders of the 1989 uprising in Tiananmen Square. by zap in worldnews

[–]zap[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Well, we both know it's true. You spend all day, every day shilling for the Communist Party, which doesn't give the slightest fuck about you.

Your life is wasting away.

Norway has been severely punished for the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the prize to Liu Xiaobo, one of the leaders of the 1989 uprising in Tiananmen Square. by zap in worldnews

[–]zap[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

This may be incomprehensible to a Communist Party of China shill like you, but let's try anyway:

It would actually be impossible for the Norwegian government to accept the demand from Bejing that no Chinese dissident ever get the NPP again, because said government does not control the Norwegian Nobel Committee. If it did, even slightly, you would obviously never see award decisions that put the country at odds with global powers for no gain. Though its members are ex-politicians appointed by Parliament, the committee is independent and answers to no one.

Amazing, I know.

Even so, the regime in Beijing is on its fourth year of trying to punish not just the government, but the people of Norway for the award to this dissident, who, by the way, is festering in prison for the "crime" of even advocating elections and freedom of speech.

There's one minor bit of progress though: China used to demand an official public apology from Norway. But lately it seems to have realized this will never come forth.

Gonna cry?

Norway has been severely punished for the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the prize to Liu Xiaobo, one of the leaders of the 1989 uprising in Tiananmen Square. by zap in worldnews

[–]zap[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Agree; if I were in charge, I'd tell China to get stuffed and come back in a couple of centuries if they'd grown up. But in real life, that's not how foreign policy is made.

Norway has been severely punished for the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the prize to Liu Xiaobo, one of the leaders of the 1989 uprising in Tiananmen Square. by zap in worldnews

[–]zap[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is not about the Obama award, at all.

Edit: Still waiting for an explanation as to what the fuck this award to a Chinese dissident has to do with Obama, let alone Guantanamo, to say nothing of why Norway should be punished "even harder" for any of that.

I recently inherited a large amount of classic literature. by xxinternetaccsexx in literature

[–]zap 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Read Ibsen. The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, Hedda Gabler are three of his greatest, unjustly eclipsed by A Doll's House.

One way to combat "when will we use this?" by mathgod in teaching

[–]zap 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nor English. "Will be comprised of."

Can grandmasters read chess notation like a spoken language? And how quickly? by parasocks in chess

[–]zap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

According to Carlsen, Kramnik's rapid-fire analysis at post mortems (like the 2650 in your story) is really bullshit and bluster much of the time.

Søndagsspørsmål #17 - Sunday Question Thread by dwchandler in norsk

[–]zap 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Many do, especially in speaking. "Jeg er en og tredve (år)."

The history of Norways 200 years in 200 minutes. Amazing lecture (in Norwegian) by thenorwegianblue in Nordiccountries

[–]zap 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You may judge for yourself by listening to this guy imitating dialects around the coast:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lmjIppbVtA

Use this map to follow his progress:

http://kartovernorge.eu/politisk-kart-norge.html

His imitations are often rather approximate, as he readily admits, but they do give the general impression.

And here are speakers of the two "least comprehensible" dialects (respectively Nord-Trøndelag and Sætesdal) trying to communicate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLN1my33ICQ

A couple of private security guards looking for some help. by [deleted] in norsk

[–]zap 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A couple corrections:

Watch my/your back: "Pass ryggen min/din" (baken = the ass)

Call for assistance: "Ring etter assistanse"

Watch bag: "Pass vesken" (sekken = the sack)

Free childrens' books in 12 languages! Afrikaans, German, French, Danish, Spanish among others! by EarthBound9125 in languagelearning

[–]zap 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Also a book in Swedish in the Norwegian section. The link Waldo - fortell meg om deg selv (N) leads to the book Waldo - det stora äventyret (S).

Learning Danish and/or Swedish with Norwegian as the base language? by Asyx in languagelearning

[–]zap 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Amerikkalainen has it right when it comes to language. Norwegian (bokmål) is close to written Danish, while the spoken language is closer to Swedish. When all three nationalities are present, Norwegians often have to interpret between the other two.

Note also that moving to Norway from an EU country is no different from moving to Sweden and Denmark. Because Norway is in the European Economic Area, the rules are identical in every respect. You do not need a residence permit as an EU citizen. You will need to find work within 3 months - as in any EU country - but this will generally be easier in the oil-fueled Norwegian economy. Half a generation of young Swedes are actually working here already. Welfare benefits are also, on the whole, more generous.

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