English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

aedia λ

7:00 PM

I have such a headache. Why are you guys talking so brightly?

Kitḫ

@aediaλ shh, shh Lie down here.

Cerberus

I press certain buttons to program the browser; then I will never have to press a certain button again, one which I have to press tens of times a day.

@aediaλ Aww.

aedia λ

Ooh, pirate! Where? @MetaEd? Hi!

MetaEd

We refer to a person as a "headache" because there's a "cad" in it.

Cerberus

whispers Does the headache have a particular reason?

MetaEd

7:01 PM

For example.

aedia λ

hits screen until it gets dimmer

Cerberus

@aediaλ Not with your head, silly!

MetaEd

I am not going to be happy until I remember or rediscover where the game came from.

aedia λ

@Cerberus Whoops.

Cerberus

Here, use this hammer.

Kitḫ

7:02 PM

@MetaEd Hmm. Sounds tricky.

aedia λ

@Cerberus Biology gifted them to me.

Kitḫ

@Cerberus Wait, wait! I'm a qualified trepanner!

Cerberus

@aediaλ That sucks.

@Kitḫ Hmm if you prefer a trepan, I say go ahead!

aedia λ

proffers skull

Kitḫ

@aediaλ This will pinch a bit.

incises skin just behind right ear

dremels hole through skull

exorcises demons

replaces skin

trims with skin glue

Cerberus

7:05 PM

@Kitḫ Heyyy you're stealing my clients!

I bought my certificate on Ebay.

Kitḫ

I highly recommend trepanation. Without trepidation.

aedia λ

Ahhh. That's a little better.

@Cerberus giggles

Cerberus

It's not mine, but it could have been.

aedia λ

Who wouldn't want to feel more manly?

Kitḫ

Much better and more efficient than trephination.

@aediaλ Hmm. It may be that your bodily humors are out of alignment. That could be what allowed the demons in your head in the first place.

Cerberus

7:07 PM

@aediaλ Heyyy is that a chest hair?

@Kitḫ You say we should let some blood?

Kitḫ

I could, ah, take care of that for you, but I would have to do it in person.

Cerberus

Hmm wait...

Kitḫ

@Cerberus Nah. Bleeding is so 19th century.

I was thinking leeches.

aedia λ

@Cerberus I'm sure it's just a stray bit of mane that the Roomba didn't catch on its last visit.

►

I googled "roomba leeches" and got a dog with a bag on its head

I don't know why I did that or why this happened to me

I can't stop laughing

Cerberus

@Kitḫ Oooh but aren't leeches used in bleeding? Hmm.

aedia λ

7:14 PM

Did you liberate too many of my thoughts while I wasn't looking?

Cerberus

@aediaλ Ahh yes, I'm sure it is. Bummer.

@aediaλ Heyy mummy there you are!

See where I got my stupid genes?

MetaEd

@Cerberus Out of your stupid chest of drawers?

Cerberus

@MetaEd It's not stupid; it's just intellectually challenged.

Kitḫ

@MetaEd thwack

@aediaλ It's temporary. Just go with it.

Kool-Aid?

MetaEd

ObOif

aedia λ

7:27 PM

I want some Kool-Aid!

Kitḫ

Excellent.

aedia λ

wait, has it got anything "special" in it that may be detrimental to my further existence on this plane?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@aediaλ I don't think you're allowed to bring liquids onto the plane

aedia λ

All right then, we're good!

Kitḫ

Um.

MetaEd

7:29 PM

Damn. My Blood Game program disappeared in the great decoding, apparently.

aedia λ

You just have to reread all of Thurber and Twain to find out if it was their idea.

That won't take long, right?

Kitḫ

doobl mage

I don't think I can play this game.

MetaEd

Thurber, Twain, Bradbury, White (T.H.), ...

Kitḫ

Warming up coffee BRB

aedia λ

Ooh Bradbury

MetaEd

7:31 PM

It's on my bookshelf I'm sure, but I haven't learned to Google that.

Already tried book search.

aedia λ

I really want real-world search.

It would be very useful for when you can't find that thing you put down.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@aediaλ I read a book where they used rfid to solve that problem

Kitḫ

I used rfid to solve that problem.

aedia λ

My environment ought to know where my coffee cup and my phone are by now.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

since so many items have rfid, you just put rfid readers in everything, like the couch, bookshelves, bins, etc. Then when you want to find something, it looks up the )auto-generated) rfid db and lights up the bin where you left it

aedia λ

7:33 PM

Yeah, but has anyone ever built a practical prototype?

Matt Эллен

@aediaλ I've had to resort to putting things down where I expect to find them. It really messes up my day when I don't.

Kitḫ

RFIDs are cheap. Just tag your stuff.

We did it in my graduate lab.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Just never put anything down, like a character from an old-school Sierra adventure game.

Matt Эллен

:D

Kitḫ

Oh, good idea. Where'd I leave that bag of infinite holding?

Matt Эллен

7:34 PM

are you Guybrush Threepwood?

aedia λ

@MattЭллен I do that too. My work environment may look messy, but there are even mental rules about where old coffee and new coffee goes.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@aediaλ you have OLD coffee? as in, coffee you didn't finish?

aedia λ

Uhh that doesn't ever happen to you?

Matt Эллен

@aediaλ spectacles go on the red dinner mat. Keys go in the bag. Phone goes by the bed side...

Kitḫ

1

Q: Why 'should' instead of 'if'?

I have seen the usage, 'should you need any help', 'should you have any queries' and etc. Why not 'if you need any help', 'if you have any queries'? What's the difference between the two?

Huh. I have never thought about that before.

aedia λ

7:37 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Sometimes I have a cup I brought in, or a cup I bought from the deli in the morning, that has like 1/8 cold in the bottom that I didn't finish, especially if it was so cold outside that the bottom bit got cold (when it's not my awesome thermos). So then if it's a rushed day I get another cup from the deli at lunch or in my desk mug without stopping to get rid of the first one.

Kitḫ

@MattЭллен You wear specs?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@aediaλ Hm... it's plausible. You may continue.

Matt Эллен

@Kitḫ when I need to see far away or middle distance

aedia λ

It didn't used to be such a problem until I was doing more than one person's job and now there are some times where I just don't get a good break for hours.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Kitḫ They're called gregories over there.

Matt Эллен

7:39 PM

hahaha

I've not heard that one before :D

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

my dad knows a guy who actually calls them that

aedia λ

Mondays, especially, but last week I built a coffee cup graveyard by Friday. I just kept forgetting to take home the mugs I brought from home. It was awful.

Matt Эллен

(honestly)

aedia λ

I brought a bag of four mugs home Friday.

All my mugs/thermoses.

It was yucky.

Matt Эллен

euw

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

7:40 PM

I have a "nothing on my desk when I leave" policy

aedia λ

But, the fact that they go in the old-coffee-spot and not the new-coffee-spot saves me from too much biohazard, or I like to think so.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

except for whatever lego set is currently gracing my workplace

aedia λ

I have a computer desk, a paper desk, a bookshelf, and another computer desk (shared-ish, so I don't put stuff on it) right now

I only clean up at the end of the week

Other than, normally, I try not to leave coffee cups or other yuck around at the end of the day.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

a computer desk and a ... paper? desk? what on earth is THAT for? :)

aedia λ

But papers and anything I need for the morning are allowed to stay right in their piles until the end of the week.

It was there when I got the cube.

But I do sometimes have to deal with dead trees, so it kind of helps.

I don't have space on the computer desk for any dead trees.

Except mountains of sticky notes.

MetaEd

7:44 PM

I found a ghost. web.archive.org/web/20041023150244/http://metaed.servebeer.com/…

Kitḫ

@MrShinyandNew安宇 thwack

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@MetaEd neat

Kitḫ

@aediaλ I have a computer desk, 11 bookshelves, four filing cabinets, a satchel and mittens table, a meeting table, and 7 chairs.

And three windows.

MetaEd

That's a scrape by the Wayback Machine of my poor blood game program, which doesn't exist anymore.

Kitḫ

And a bike.

@MetaEd Surely you can write it again?

MetaEd

7:47 PM

Yes.

aedia λ

I don't have a window!

MetaEd

Dammit.

aedia λ

Except at home. There we have a window.

Kitḫ

You want one of mine?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

we have several windows but one mushroom that works here insists that the aluminum shades be completely closed at all times

Kitḫ

7:48 PM

I have two bulletin boards too.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

1

Q: Why 'should' instead of 'if'?

I have seen the usage, 'should you need any help', 'should you have any queries' and etc. Why not 'if you need any help', 'if you have any queries'? What's the difference between the two?

word-usage american-english should

2

Q: Are "should" and "if" interchangeable at the beginning of a sentence?

If "should" comes at the beginning of a sentence, and the sentence is not a question, then can it be replaced with "if?" Is there any difference at all?

conjunctions modal-verbs

aedia λ

@Kitḫ Oh I have one of those that I forgot about.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Your votes, please.

6

Q: A special use of "should"?

I saw a sentence like this: Wilkinson is contesting the release, and threatened to sue should it be released. I could understand it but do you know what do they call this kind of use of "should" in grammar?

grammar terminology modal-verbs

Cerberus

@Kitḫ How have I been able to live and work without a satchel-and-mittens table!? I must buy one this week! Are they expensive?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

2

Q: "Should" cannot replace "if?"

Possible Duplicates: Are “should” and “if” interchangeable at the beginning of a sentence? A special use of “should”? For sentences that begin with "If", it seems that "should" can replace "If." For example: If you ever... Should you ever....

meaning synonyms conjunctions

aedia λ

7:50 PM

@Kitḫ I'll trade you my extra chair for a window!

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 Hey I already voted on that one in May, funny.

MetaEd

Which one's the best?

Kitḫ

@Cerberus Mine was free.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 Okay, voted on all.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Wow, all? Circular dupes?

Kitḫ

7:53 PM

"A special use of should" is actually better. Rats.

Cerberus

@Kitḫ Are the puppets that you put your mittens on attached to the table or modular?

@RegDwightѬſ道 All except the oldest one.

Kitḫ

@Cerberus Puppets? No puppets. scowls

Cerberus

@Kitḫ No? And how about the gnome that holds your satchel: is it modular too!?

aedia λ

I really can't read today. For a moment, I thought you said you put your mittens on puppets.

Cerberus

I have never heard of so strange an S&M table.

@aediaλ Kit does, not I.

Matt Эллен

7:58 PM

I once tried to make a table out of cardboard and papier mache. I got bored, so I gave up. you know how it goes

Kitḫ

No gnomes. scowls harder

Cerberus

@Kitḫ A secret automated pie maker, then?

@MattЭллен You "got" bored—so you weren't bored when you decided to make a table out of cardboard and paper maché?

aedia λ

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus I had a surfeit of cardbored and newspaper, and a desire not too throw it away

aedia λ

^ This is my actual robot vacuum, if you are interested in greeting her.

Matt Эллен

8:08 PM

shiny! hello robo :)

Cerberus

@MattЭллен I suppose that is a good reason. I always save such things for St Nicholas' Day, where we have to make stuff for people.

aedia λ

I have been trying to think of a name that fits her that is like a starship (because she docks at that little charging base) or a robot pet (like ED-E in Fallout).

Cerberus

@aediaλ Oohhh you actually have one of those babies?

aedia λ

We got her for Xmas, yes!

Cerberus

@aediaλ Why have you decided she is a she? Does she have a socket?

aedia λ

8:12 PM

I haven't decided for sure.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus yes, until I threw it away. I couldn't get the legs even.

aedia λ

I have tried both pronouns.

Cerberus

@aediaλ How do you like her? Does she clean well?

aedia λ

But "she" is more common for shiplike things.

@Cerberus She is awesome!

Cerberus

@MattЭллен You kept cutting bits off the longest leg until the table magically disappeared?

@aediaλ Hmm, yes.

@aediaλ How much energy does she consume: any idea?

Matt Эллен

8:13 PM

@Cerberus essentially :D

Cerberus

I really, really want one of her friends.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@aedia how about AMEE ("Autonomous Mapping Exploration and Evasion") from the science fiction film Red Planet.

Cerberus

@MattЭллен You could use it for heating next time. Maybe open a window.

aedia λ

@Cerberus She has a tiny socket where you can charge her instead of using the charging base if that doesn't work well, but I'm leaning towards feminine more because of the ship-ness, and because she requires a little maintenance like a boat or starship, to empty her dirt trap and use this little cleaner tool on the brushes.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus eh?

Cerberus

8:16 PM

@aediaλ Hmm, I see.

How about naming her after this little heroine?:

Spirit rover

Spirit, MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover – A), is a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010. It was one of two rovers of NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, Opportunity (MER-B), landed on the other side of the planet. Its name was chosen through a NASA-sponsored student essay competition. The rover became stuck in late 2009, and its last communication with Earth was sent on March 22, 2010. The rover completed its planned 90-sol mission. Aided by cleaning events that resul...

aedia λ

@Cerberus I honestly don't know.

Cerberus

Actually I think her name is ugly.

But she herself is quite handsome.

aedia λ

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I like the name, but I don't know the film.

Cerberus

aedia λ

tears up and tries to hug screen

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

8:18 PM

@aediaλ me neither, I got it from tvtropes

tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RobotNames

Cerberus

Hey, for all we know, she is still alive but just can't talk any more.

MetaEd

Dedicating a roomba to the Spirit rover? That's ... sweet ... I think ...

aedia λ

@Cerberus MER? Or Spirit? MER is a stupid name but Spirit is pretty, I think...

I feel like that (to name a vacuum for Spirit or Oppy) is maybe too... I don't know. Overreaching. Roombas can't even map rooms by default; they kind of just bounce around.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

aedia λ

Hey hey don't make me cry!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

8:21 PM

it makes me cry a bit too

even though it's actually not a sad story but an amazing success story

Matt Эллен

awwwww :'(

Cerberus

@aediaλ Yeah I don't know, Spirit sounds a bit...not to my taste. And, as you say, it might be a bit irreverent. So perhaps some other, more subtle reference.

aedia λ

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I know! I'm so proud of the lil rovers and the amazing teams and roverdrivers and and sniffles and everything...

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Aww that is actually touching. Why must you post this when I'm really tired? sad faces

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

How about naming it after the mars polar lander then?

@Cerberus It's funny because until I saw this comic I never anthropomorphized the rovers enough to feel sad for them.

aedia λ

8:25 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Oh god!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Even though they're obviously built to be "cute", or "photogenic", for marketing reasons.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 You robot!

Or...how about Qom?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus I prefer the term "sentient mechanical critter"

Cerberus

You know, referring to the ayatollahs who clean up pockets of heresy in Iran?

aedia λ

MPL would almost be appropriate... I do have to worry about her a little. She has already eaten a cap off a doorstop and I have to pick up the mats in the bathroom or she will push them around and shut herself in there for the entire day until her battery dies.

Cerberus

8:27 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 My apologies, you organically challenged critter, or what was it.

@aediaλ Hmm can't you close or block the bathroom?

How long will it be until Roombas become affordable, say < € 100?

aedia λ

@Cerberus Oh I can shut her out of there obviously but I want her to get in some of the time.

Cerberus

@aediaλ OK.

How often do you send her about?

aedia λ

Well right now we have been scheduling her to run almost every day kind of for the fun of it and to try to determine if there are areas she can't get into, or things that are a problem for her (certain cords we discovered she couldn't vacuum well around, so we lifted them up or tied them down, for example).

She hasn't made a disaster, but it's kind of funny if we come home and she is not back at the base seeing that she got stuck dutifully trying to vacuum up my husband's paper that missed the recycle bin or something.

She has a schedule function so she can run midday while we're not home.

I'm probably going to decrease her to a couple times a week because she runs for like an hour and I don't think our small apartment really needs quite that much cleaning now that she's got the worst of it.

Kitḫ

8:46 PM

How about Annie, short for Anathema Device?

Cerberus

@aediaλ Well, she sounds very attractive. I want her.

@Kitḫ Haha, lovely.

@aediaλ Let me know how often you need to run her to keep things reasonably clean when you find out.

aedia λ

I will!

@Kitḫ Hehe that's a good name, but not so robotic... hmm.

Kitḫ

@aediaλ K-9?

aedia λ

Awwh I love K-9!

Kitḫ

I can't believe I never noticed that "Torchwood" is an anagram of "Doctor Who."

K-9 (Doctor Who)

K-9 is the name of several fictional robotic canines (the name being a pun on that word) in the long-running British science fiction television series, Doctor Who, first appearing in 1977. K-9 has also been a central character in three of the series television spin-offs: the unsuccessful K-9 and Company (1981), The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011) and K-9 (2009–present). Although not originally intended to be a recurring character in the series, K-9 was kept in the show following his first appearance because he was expected to be popular with younger audiences. There have been at leas...

aedia λ

8:51 PM

I was reading about Mars Polar Lander again and came up with Scarpa, but I still feel like even referencing MPL is maybe too far in the depressing rather than the "oh it's a good beginning" direction.

(MPL was supposed to land at Ultimi Scopuli; characterized by scarps, which is from Italian scarpa; kind of makes sense as it cleans where the shoes go)

Kitḫ

Twiki?

aedia λ

@Kitḫ I never noticed that either! I can't do anagrams. Like, I really really suck at them. You could be lying to me right now and I wouldn't be able to notice if there were a couple extra letters in there.

Kitḫ

Muffit?

en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Muffit

aedia λ

I just had a really good thought and now I can't think it again! Drat!

Where did it go!?

Kitḫ

I used to have a Muffit "action" figure.

@aediaλ Oh. I like that!

Cerberus

8:59 PM

@aediaλ Are you my identical twin?

I can't listen to spelling either.

aedia λ

I think I was thinking something about how the roomba's pathfinding seems eerily Dalek-like.

Kitḫ

Ex—term—in—ate!

aedia λ

Please move Roomba to a new location! Ex-term-in-ate!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

So why not just "Dalek"

stick a plunger on it

►

Kitḫ

Laterz, yo!

Matt Эллен

9:06 PM

or marvin

cya @kit :)

aedia λ

Omg I can't believe I forgot Marvin!

Bai @Kit!

Matt Эллен

no one remembers Marvin. Brain the size of planet, but can any one think about him?

Cerberus

Marvin is in Kongai!

A very deep, strategic card-battle game.

kongregate.com/games/Kongregate/kongai

aedia λ

Do you think it's enough to keep him busy?

Matt Эллен

I'm fairly sure Marvin is at the foot of the Quentulus Quazgar moutains on

aedia λ

9:13 PM

Share and Enjoy!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

maybe instead of trying to name your roomba after a robot, you should try to name it after things that suck.

Like, I had a friend who named his computer "Lightning" because "Lightning Crashes"

(also: the computer wasn't fast)

Matt Эллен

:D

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

and vacuums suck, right?

Matt Эллен

:O

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

How about iSuck (Asimov)

Cerberus

9:17 PM

►

In case you forgot about this video.

Welcome, Matt II!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

time to go! bye everyone

Cerberus

Bye!

Matt Эллен

@MrShinyandNew you might like this story and cya :)

aedia λ

One of my high school science teachers had a sign that said something like "Science doesn't suck, it blows". That was the response to anyone who complained or who got the idea backwards :P

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Hasta pronto!

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Aww cute.

Matt Эллен

9:32 PM

phew! I thought I was vying for place as official Matt of this room, looks like the other guy couldn't take the heat

Cerberus

Your story's awwwness felled him.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus yeah, it's a sweet story.

I R TEH CHAMPEEUN

Cerberus

My poor sock puppet.

Matt Эллен

??

The other Matt was you?

Cerberus

I was going to use Matt II to support whatever point of view whim called me to defend, and star everything I said.

Matt Эллен

9:35 PM

:D

excellent

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Actually, no.

But it would have been a sound plan.

Matt Эллен

no one would have suspected

@Cerberus I see, so he was your lackey...

Cerberus

Indeed; if anyone, they would have suspected you.

Matt Эллен

:D

Cerberus

@MattЭллен My lackey, my everything.

Matt Эллен

9:36 PM

everything! Like, he does all your housework?

Cerberus

Of course I would have started by having him enter and leave the room at the same time you did. Then, after a few weeks, I would accuse you of being he. Then it would begin to talk and always argue against me. Then, come spring, it would be ready. Grudgingly, it would assent that my stuff was good and the other stuff bad.

Matt Эллен

and then he left just like that? So sad.

Cerberus

Yes. Perhaps he identified my virus (I need a truly independent IP address, of course).

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus you want to replace me!!

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Hahaha.

Well, no: you actually betray an independent mind, which would be detrimental to my objectives, of course.

Matt Эллен

9:40 PM

hence your need to replace me ;)

Cerberus

I like to think of it as assistance.

Matt Эллен

What's assistance?

I like to lend my hand where it's needed

Cerberus

No, he was meant to be your assistant. To subtly steer you in whichever direction I needed you to turn.

kiamlaluno

Did we have moderators' elections just once?

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus I see. very cunning.

kiamlaluno

9:46 PM

No owls around.

Matt Эллен

I haven't voted for mods here at all, so probably

kiamlaluno

@MattЭллен In which here?

Matt Эллен

EL&U

kiamlaluno

@MattЭллен Oh, you mean there.

Matt Эллен

well, possibly

I have voted in two SO elections

I think

kiamlaluno

9:49 PM

@MattЭллен Cogito ergo sum?

Cerberus

Hi!

Matt Эллен

@kiamlaluno Cogito ergo Cogito

Cerberus

Psychology makes me so sceptical and tired sometimes.

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus Hi! Who are you greeting?

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus sceptical how?

Cerberus

9:50 PM

@kiamlaluno You!

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus By the way, why does just a head out of three greet?

@Cerberus tired, how.

Cerberus

@MattЭллен As the results of their research are presented, they often draw wild conclusions from, to me, highly inconclusive tests, without eliminating even the most banal alternative explanations.

> He and his colleague Judson Mills set up an experiment at Stanford in which they invited students to join an exclusive club studying the psychology of sex. They told students to get in the group they would have to pass an initiation. They secretly divided the applicants into two groups, one read sexual terms from a dictionary out loud to a scientist, and the other read aloud entire passages from the most famous romance novel of all time, Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus Well, that depends on what type of psychology you're reading. IMO

Cerberus

> As Tavris and Aronson point out, this was 1950s America, so either task was massively embarrassing, but reading aloud sex scenes filled with F and C-bombs evoked a megadose of awkwardness. After the initiation, both groups listened to an audio recording of the sort of group discussion they had just earned the ability to join.

> The scientists made sure the discussion they heard was as dry and boring and un-sexy as they could make it, going so far as to focus the sex talk on the mating habits of birds. They then had the students rate the talk. The people who read from the dictionary told Festinger the sex group was a drag and probably not something they’d like to continue attending. The romance novel group said the group was exciting and interesting and something they could not wait to begin. Same tape, two realities.

kiamlaluno

Zzzz...

Cerberus

9:53 PM

@MattЭллен Yes, most probably. But the articles that one finds in newspapers and in popular literature, at least are often dissatisfying.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus I guess they're picked to please the lowest common denominator

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus Newspapers are good to hit flies, not to read about psychology.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus so they concluded that romance novels continue to be arousing, while lists of sexual terms do not?

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Perhaps. But studies in other fields often sound much better, at least to me.

kiamlaluno

Talking of flies, there is one I could happen to hit with a newspaper, if I had one.

Can I print some webpages, and hit the fly with that?

Matt Эллен

9:55 PM

@kiamlaluno I'm not sure of the laws in Italy, but in the UK we're allowed

Cerberus

@MattЭллен The conclusion is that people rate a discussion as far more interesting if they have been exposed to something more interesting before the discussion, even though the discussion itself is the same.

kiamlaluno

Then, I could say the fly has been trapped in the web.

@Cerberus Well, that depends.

Why is my gravatar smaller than the other ones?

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus I see, well possibly. I'd like to read the whole paper, rather than just a summary to get a better picture. I find that reports of psychology studies often miss out a lot of context. It's not like physics. It's messy

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Yeah, I'm sure there is good psychology too. It was on my short list to study, long ago.

@MattЭллен Yes, I often think so too. But I thought the same thing about Stapel's Broken-Window Theory.

Or at least I think it was his.

Matt Эллен

is that the one where one broken window turns a street into a den of crime?

kiamlaluno

9:58 PM

@Cerberus Does that apply to Windows bugs too?

Cerberus

@kiamlaluno Yeah, I don't know, it doesn't sound good to me.

@MattЭллен Yes, sort of.