Recent content by prabe

The only thing I can see--and I don't know enough about kotos to know if this is the case--is if, as you say, the strings are stored on long spools or something and cut to usable length as needed. I do not know the extent to which they are different diameters the way guitar strings are. The fact...

The most traditional koto strings are silk, but otherwise not wildly different. I could see "koto string" and "a koto string" being different things that got just-missed in translation. (Or in reading comprehension, which I think is a possibility @jian mentioned, I'm not intending to slag on...

I don't know the novel, but I wonder if there's some weirdness in the translation (presuming you're reading it in English, of course). I agree there's an issue with the solution.

Wikipedia says the instrument itself is usually about 180 cm in length. It looks as though the strings cover at least most of that. Does that help?

Expanding on what @Autumnal said, a koto is about the size of a full-size electronic keyboard, it's like an upsized hammered dulcimer (if you know what that is). I'd expect the strings to be longer than guitar strings, possibly more like four feet or longer. Well, that's the size I remember the...

That is ... really something. Like, not even arguably Ptolemaic.

Do you really need AI to tell you to try unplugging it and plugging it back in?

Seems as though there's another reading, to the effect that investors are starting to believe that AI won't be as profitable for tech as tech has been promising. I think both these things can be true, I'm certainly not arguing, here.

Still not a headline, though. :LOL:

No, I grew up learning the rules for headline titles. There are enough edge-cases (or different interpretations) that I'm sincerely happier just capping the first letter of the first word. And I've always seen that as "OBJECTS IN MIRROR MAY BE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR." (I've never seen it as a...

I dunno, there are two kinds of title capitalization: headline (Expert Reaction to Study Looking at Physical Fitness of Transgender and Cisgender Women) and sentence (Expert reaction to study looking at physical fitness of transgender and cisgender women) and the latter is--or was, last I read a...

And I just requested this at the local public library of my choice. Maybe it'll get to their closest branch before I swing in to pick up The Far Edges of the Known World by Owen Rees (recommended on acoup.com). There seems to be some thematic stuff in common, and that's at least part of where my...

Yeah, I wasn't thinking "more popular." While that's a thing, I think it's plausibly easier for a movie to be more popular than a novel--or at least have more impact at a moment. Books just take longer for most people to absorb, among other things. Also, I try to avoid conflating "popular" and...

I don't think it's wildly unusual for (say) a movie adapted from a novel to be a better movie than the novel was a novel. I mean, both Jaws and The Silence of the Lambs are, IMO. My wife really enjoyed this book, and I'll probably be reading it at some point. I'll gesture at the main point of...

I don't mind reading a big novel, if it's any good. I just spent my weekend nights reading a big novel that isn't, and I'm not super-happy about it (it has a reputation, so I didn't tap out--though I did skim a lot of it once I realized it was garbage).