The Off Topic Topic

[mongers]

Second languages around the world:

Charts seem to confuse "second language" with "second most spoken language"
I.e. in some countries it seems to be capturing the first language of big linguistic minorities and not the languages actually spoken as second languages.

Isn't French still the most popular 2nd language worldwide by total population, followed by Eengrish?

Not if I'm attempting it. 

Damn, hard to decide which was worse, my language 'skill' or Britsh 1970s teaching of foreign languages.

[Sheilbh]

As for the car itself, I think a used car is a big gamble, so I would prefer something with still manufacturer guarantee on it.

Those are often not worth the paper they're written on - the things that are most likely to go wrong are rarely covered. Go second hand and get a car-savvy friend to kick the tyres and suck his teeth at the state of the engine for you. Check Autotrader for the reliability of the model and year, and the price you should be paying for the condition.

Yeah the only people I know who buy new cars have adequacy issues.

[The Larch]

Second languages around the world:

Charts seem to confuse "second language" with "second most spoken language"
I.e. in some countries it seems to be capturing the first language of big linguistic minorities and not the languages actually spoken as second languages.

It is indeed a "second most spoken language in each country" map. It's not exactly a scholarly affair (info is pulled from the CIA factbook and wiki, and for some countries it's sketchy and definitely not homogeneous) and there are a few glitches and bizarre stuf here and there, but it's a funny exercise. 

[The Minsky Moment]

Turkey was the giveaway.
Somehow I don't see Turkish secondary schools pushing Kurdish languish instruction.

[The Larch]

Or Catalan for Spain. 

[MadImmortalMan]

In what part of Spain would understanding Mexican Spanish be least useless?

[The Larch]

In what part of Spain would understanding Mexican Spanish be least useless?

It'd be quaint (and hardly useful) everywhere in the country, Mexican Spanish is kinda its own thing and not really similar to the Spanish spoken anywhere in Spain, although it's not unsurmountable at all.  Now, if we're talking about some kind of Caribbean Spanish (think Venezuelan or Colombian, for instance), the Canary Islands would feel almost like home.

[derspiess]

I was instructed in proper Castillian Spanish in high school and college, but the Mexican dialect never sounded *that* different.

What are the Latin American countries whose version of Spanish is more easily understood by Spaniards? 

[Sheilbh]

I was instructed in proper Castillian Spanish in high school and college, but the Mexican dialect never sounded *that* different.

What are the Latin American countries whose version of Spanish is more easily understood by Spaniards?

I remember being told, in Latin American, that the BBC World Service like to use Colombians and Venezuelans (I think, I was drunk and now wonder if it was Peruvians and Ecuadorians Caribbean or Andean :blink) for their Spanish language broadcasts because it's the sort-of cleanest accent.

[lustindarkness]

And then you have us dirty ricans that manage to mangle two languages at the same time by speaking spanglish. 

[The Minsky Moment]

 JUSTICE SCALIA:  Is there any other provision of Federal law that has a lesser penalty than 20 years that could have been applied to this ­­captain throwing a fish overboard?

MR. MARTINEZ:  Well, Your Honor, he was convicted of violating 2232.  The statute that Petitioner agreed he could have been charged with2(c)(1), also applies a 20­year penalty . . .

JUSTICE SCALIA:  And that's it?  . . . There is nothing lesser than that? . . . You know, frankly, you come here, and, yeah, he only got ­­ what did he get, 30 days or something?

MR. MARTINEZ:  Yes, Your Honor.

JUSTICE SCALIA:  But he could have gotten 20 years.  What kind of a sensible prosecution is that?

MR. MARTINEZ:  Your Honor ­­

JUSTICE SCALIA:  Is there nothing else you ­­ who ­­ who do you have out there that ­­ that exercises prosecutorial discretion?  Is this the same guy that ­­ that brought the prosecution in Bond last term? [NOTE: Bond was a case where a jealous woman who tried to poison her lover was charged with terrorism counts for use of a weapon of mass destruction]

MR. MARTINEZ:  . . . Congress looked very closely at that penalty . . .

JUSTICE SCALIA:  No, I'm not talking about Congress.  I'm talking about the prosecutor.  What kind of a mad prosecutor would try to send this guy up for 20 years or risk sending him up for 20 years?

JUSTICE GINSBURG:  You charged two offenses . .  So here's a case where the one
statute has a 5­year maximum, the other 20.  The one that has the 5­year clearly covers the situation. Is there anything in any kind of manual in the Department of Justice that instructs U.S. attorneys what to do when there are these overlapping statutes?

MR. MARTINEZ:  Your Honor, the ­­ my understanding of the U.S. Attorney's Manual is that the
general guidance that's given is that the prosecutor should charge ­­ once the decision is made to bring a criminal prosecution, the prosecutor should charge­­ the offense that's the most severe under the law ...

JUSTICE SCALIA:  Well, if that's going to be the Justice Department's position, then we're going to  have to be much more careful about how extensive statutes are.  I mean, if you're saying we're always going to prosecute the most severe, I'm going to be very careful about how severe I make statutes.

MR. MARTINEZ:  Your Honor, that's ­­

JUSTICE SCALIA:  Or ­­ or how much coverage I give to severe statutes.

[The Minsky Moment]

Case involves application of Sarbanes-Oxley's document destruction criminal rules against a fisherman who threw under-sized fish overboard.

[MadImmortalMan]

That's funny. 

Is it 20 years per fish? 

[Sheilbh]

The wonders of the Church of England in one clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLCg6BI2Vwc

Rev. Richard Coles of the Bronski Beat and the Communards talking about his story.

And because they've been mentioned, the magnificent Smalltown Boy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuz94ZIPfJk

[alfred russel]

JUSTICE SCALIA:  Well, if that's going to be the Justice Department's position, then we're going to  have to be much more careful about how extensive statutes are.  I mean, if you're saying we're always going to prosecute the most severe, I'm going to be very careful about how severe I make statutes.

I didn't think the judiciary was supposed to make statutes.