Oh, Sam and Michael, Michael and Sam. Oh dear. Oh… dear.

Vocaroo | Voice message

Nick Nicholas’ answer to How would you describe the dialect and accent of the languages which you can speak? has at least some explanation about why these sound as bad as they do.

Jeremy, you know, and I know, anyone you’re stuck with in a room for a lifetime, however cute, however intriguing, however chill, you’re going to want to kill them after a year, never mind a lifetime.

So you’re off the list.

And what would drive you insane is being stuck with the same soul day after day; but I’ll take a shapeshifter, so at least I’ll get some visual novelty. Proteus, for instance?

What? No deities?

The question said I could raise the dead; bring a deity along shouldn’t be that much more of a stretch.

The “last three centuries” gives me pause.

Syntactically, there have been changes from Ancient Greek to Modern Greek, and in fact Katharevousa is closer to Modern than Ancient Greek, though it did pick up nesting articles inside articles (“the of the meeting chairperson”). But in the big picture typologically, they’re all pretty similar:

• free (pragmatically determined) word order, unlike English
• head–modifier, like English (although Ancient Greek is SOV, Modern is SVO)
• subordinating and clause-chaining, to an even greater extent than English (more parataxis in Demotic)

There was a lot of calquing of expressions into Katharevousa, but it wasn’t from English, it was from French. There is some translationese from English now entering the language of the press. Otherwise, there has not been significant syntactic influence.

• You need programming chops, though nothing too flash and algorithmic.
• You need to be across regexes.
• You need to pick up some linguistics, but honestly, not as much as you might think. You certainly don’t need formal syntax or phonology. You will need to know what morphology is, especially if you’ll be working on languages other than English.
• You will inevitably end up getting into some stats and stochastic work. The NLP that works best is statistical, not rule-based.
• You can pick up a lot from Natural Language Toolkit. Python these days is the premier language for NLP, and the NLTK is the major reason why.
• Look for patterns; don’t be too prescriptive; know when close enough is good enough.

Originally Answered:

I need help from Quora moderation. How can I find a contact?

Marc Bodnick’s answer to Is moderation@quora.com a reliable way to get attention from Quora moderators?

We have phased out moderation@quora.com. The best way to get attention from Quora’s moderators is to report policy violations using the Report flow. For more information, see this blog post: Simplifying Reporting on Quora. You can also contact us using our contact form.

I’m skipping the US. For obvious reasons.

I’m using the lists in Rahul Sinha’s answer to Which Quora user has the most followers? and Laura Hale’s answer to Which Quora user has the most followers? as a starting point. Because they are big lists. I’m stopping at 5 per country.

Yes, I know a lot of these people are expats/immigrants/diasporan. *Shrug*

• India: Balaji Viswanathan, Virali Modi, Deepak Mehta, Triya Bhattacharya, Tejasvita Apte
• UK: Oliver Emberton, Ellen Vrana (she’s a Brit now!), Graeme Shimmin, Jack Rae, Tatiana Estévez
• Australia: Xu Beixi (recently Singapore), Tim O’Neill, David Stewart, Peter Baskerville, Kat Tanaka Okopnik
• China (incl. Hong Kong): Kaiser Kuo, Joseph Wang, Paul Denlinger, Robert Charles Lee
• Thailand: Andy Lee Chaisiri
• Israel: Noam Kaiser
• Sweden: Mattias Petter Johansson, Kjell Pettersson
• Germany: Mikka Luster, Judith Meyer, Joachim Pense, Lorenzo Peroni
• Canada: Alex Tabarrok, CamMi Pham, Seb Paquet, Viola Yee, Brett Williams
• Spain: Sabrina Deep, Laura Hale
• Romania: Diana Crețu
• Norway: Eivind Kjørstad
• Pakistan: Faisal Khan
• Mali: Rory Young (formerly Zambia)
• Netherlands: Julien Vaché, Liang-Hai Sie
• Singapore: Visakan Veerasamy, Gwen Sawchuk
• Japan: Mikhail Kotykhov, Sed Chapman
• Malaysia: Ryan Chew, Denis Oakley
• France: Akli Baitiche, Bruce Bracken
• Switzerland: Natalia Nezvanova

---

Those were the objective metrics. I’ll add the subjective metric of the most popular Quoran I follow from countries not already listed:

• Iran: Pegah Esmaili
• Serbia: Lara Novakov
• Greece: Dimitra Triantafyllidou
• Qatar: Sven Williams
• Cyprus: Eutychius Kaimakkamis
• Belgium: Sophie Dockx
• South Africa: Riaan Engelbrecht
• Brazil: Alfredo Perozo
• Turkey: Ayse Temmuz
• Kosovo: Aziz Dida
• Georgia: Thomas Wier
• Croatia: Tomislav Patarčić
• Italy: User
• Albania: Athanasios Canko
• Poland: Karol Emil Thornton-Remiszewski
• Finland: Joonas Vakkilainen
• Luxembourg: Anna Bomby
• Lebanon: Ali Mahmoud

See Necrologue, where I maintain a list of bans and blocks of popular people.

In addition to those listed in Anonymous’ answer to Can someone list the names of popular Indian Quorans who got banned recently? :

• Raghu Bhaskaran (November)
• Aashrai Arun (October)
• Dushyant Chauhan (September)

See e.g. http://personal.bgsu.edu/~dcalle… : Principle II: The Linear Nature of the Signifier

The linearity principle is Saussure’s statement that, because linguistic signifiers are sounds (spoken words), they are intrinsically sequential (“linear”). They cannot be perceived simultaneously, the way visual signs are: they must be perceived one after the other, as a sequence in time. That principle is also carried over to writen words, as a visual representation of spoken words.

As an epigrammatic means of defining appropriate civility in exchanges on Quora: it is a very good ideal, and one that is lacking in many online fora. My libertarian heart has chafed against it, but I have appreciated how it has helped me off the ledge in interactions with other users on more than one occasion.

There are areas for interpretation which cloud it, of course. A forum that uses the “Be Nice” to ban sarcasm or swearing is not a forum I have much time for. The way it is used to suppress discussion of moderation actions is one I have consistently resented as specious. And any extension of BNBR to public figures, I regard as illegitimate.

But as an ideal for one-on-one interaction, yes, it is a good thing.

Its implementation, on the other hand, is as flawed as you’d expect. No transparency, rulings that leave you scratching your head, inconsistencies, vulnerability to vendettas.

I’m going to give one for each decade from the 30s through the 70s. I’m going to put up, not necessarily my favourite songs, but the songs I think have had the greatest cultural impact.

1935. Φραγκοσυριανή (Frangosyriani): Catholic Girl from Syros. Lyrics: Markos Vamvakaris. Music: Markos Vamvakaris.

Markos was the master of the Peiraeus tradition of rebetiko, which switched from an Anatolian, plaintive setting for songs about hashish and swag, to a Greek, jaunty setting for songs about hashish and swag.

Frangosyriani marks the beginning of the end of the tradition. Wikipedia says it was written in ’35, but it already sounds like it was written in ’36, when the Metaxas dictatorship censored both the lyrics and—more lastingly—the scales of rebetiko. It’s just a list of scenic locations in Syros where Markos would take his fellow Catholic girlfriend. Its music lacks the bite of what made Markos great.

But this is his lasting legacy, a tune that gets everyone swaying, a tune suffused with elegance and romance—and jauntiness.

Here’s the best known, 1960 recording.

stixoi.info: Φραγκοσυριανή

I have a swelling, a flame, inside my heart
as if you’ve cast a spell on me, sweet Catholic girl from Syros.

I’ll come meet you down by the beach.
I’d like to fill you with caresses and kisses.

I’ll take you on a trip to Finikas and Parakopi,
to Galissa and Della Grazia, even if I get a heart attack.

At Pateli, at Nichori, a fine time at Alithini,
and romancing at Piskopio, my sweet Catholic girl from Syros.

---

1948. Συννεφιασμένη Κυριακή (Synnefiasmeni Kyriaki): Cloudy Sunday. Lyrics: Alekos Gouveris or Vasilis Tsitsanis. Music: Vassilis Tsitsanis.

If Markos was master of the Peiraeus blues, Tsitsanis was master of what came next: the transformation of rebetiko into a genre palatable to the masses, cleaned up, and with virtuoso flourishes.

Cloudy Sunday is the song that, at least when I was young, every Greek knew by heart, and was guaranteed to bring a tear to every Greek’s eye. It has a dignified, stately melancholy to it, a proud swelling of the heart.

Tsitsanis let it be understood that the song was written in 1942, while Athens all around him was starving. That was no doubt a big part of why the song became so well loved. The prevalent theory is that the lyrics were written in 1946 by a friend of his, because his soccer team had lost that Sunday.

In truth, that doesn’t diminish the song a bit. The song stands just fine on its own. Here’s the definitive performance by the great Stelios Kazantzidis.

stixoi.info: Συννεφιασμένη Κυριακή

Cloudy Sunday, you’re like my heart,
that’s always overcast—Oh Christ and Virgin Mary.

When I see you all rainy, I have not a moment’s peace.
You blacken my life, and I sigh bitterly.

You’re a day just like the day I lost my joy.
Cloudy Sunday, you make my heart bleed.

---

1958. Δυο πόρτες έχει η ζωή (Dio Portes Echi i Zoi): Life has two doors. Lyrics: Eftichia Papagianopoulos. Music: Stelios Kazantzidis.

Kazantzidis also wrote songs, and this is perhaps one of his greatest.

Kazantzidis is perhaps an acquired taste. In my youth, I dismissed him as boorish, mawkish, too Oriental. I matured, I learned there’s a place for that in life. I learned that pain in life deserves wallowing in music. And after I took part in a drunken singalong to this, I could never dismiss him again.

I’m living my last night tonight.
And those who have embittered me so,
now that I am leaving life behind,
I forgive them all.

Everything is but a lie,
a breath, a sigh.
Like a flower, a hand
will cut us one dawn.

Where I am going, tears and pain have no purchase.
Suffering and sorrow
will stay behind in life,
and I will leave alone.

Life has two doors: I opened one and went in.
I took a stroll one morning,
and by the time sunset came
I left by the other.

---

1962. Ένα Δειλινό (Ena dilino): One evening. Lyrics: Mikis Theodorakis. Music: Mikis Theodorakis.

Theodorakis is a defining figure in Greek music and Greek politics; his star has been tarnished, but he expressed a generation, and that does not change, even if the generation has become disillusioned since.

This was likely his greatest song, where he transformed the bouzouki song into a a not-so traditional lament for the dead. The song was one of many Theodorakis used in his play on the reccent Greek Civil War—each and every one a hit.

And none more transcendental in its keening than this.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=FVb8YkFuTZE

stixoi.info: Ένα δειλινό

One evening, they bound you to the cross.
They nailed your hands, they nailed my insides.
They bound your eyes, they bound my soul.

One evening, they broke me in two.
They stole my sight, they took my touch,
My hearing remains, to listen to you, my child.

One evening, like the golden eagle,
swoop over the sea, swoop over the fields.
Make the mountains flower, and the people rejoice.

---

1974. Τα λόγια και τα χρόνια (Ta logia ke ta chronia): The Lost Words and Years. Lyrics: Manos Eleftheriou. Music: Yannis Markopoulos.

I’ve already posted about this song, and its cultural resonance, in Nick Nicholas’ answer to What are your favourite lyrics?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=xIgakumAkUE

Yes, there’s wild applause whenever the altered lyrics alluding to the Athens Polytechnic uprising are sung (“Friday the Killer’s night”). That kept happening throughout the 70s.