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2:56 AM
Allo.
 
Hi.
 
How are you this evening?
Or morning, for you.
 
Fine, and you?
How is the weather?
 
It's nice now.
Around 289.15˚K today.
sips healthy, delicious, homemade smoothie
 
3:35 AM
Ah, 16 °C is fine.
 
Yes, how is the weather there in the Netherlands?
 
3:55 AM
About the same, I think.
 
Ah, OK. And what time did you go to bed? Are you regulated now?
 
9 pm. Not bad, eh?
What's your ETA?
 
ETA?
 
Estimated Time of Arrival, at your bed in this case.
 
Ohh, probably the usual.
12:30.
 
4:13 AM
And you wake up at 6:30?
 
Yep.
 
OK.
And you still don't feel you could use more sleep?
 
My body is definitely accustomed to 6 hours now, I feel great all day.
 
Hmm.
Are there border controls with the US?
 
Yeah.
Getting in is way harder than getting out, haha.
 
4:15 AM
Weird.
And do they actually check your car and all?
Go through your stuff?
 
Occasionally, if you look suspicious (I think). Never actually gone through it.
 
But you do have to stop the car and talk to officers?
 
Yeah.
 
And do they have control posts at every road that crosses the border?
 
I'm not sure.
 
4:26 AM
It would be hard to check such a long border.
I mean, effectively.
 
Yeah, of course.
It's huge.
 
Unless you build fences/walls all along the border.
As in Israel.
With cameras.
 
We don't have those.
 
Then do people often just cross the border at some unmonitored point?
 
I don't know.
I'm sorry, I really have no idea.
I don't think it's much of an issue.
 
4:35 AM
One would imagine the US might be scared.
 
Of Canadians?
Haha.
 
Of people who might do certain things on Canadian soil and sneak in.
 
Such as…?
 
Bombs, drugs...
 
I see.
I don't think it's happened yet.
 
4:51 AM
I imagine the border with Mexico is more tightly guarded?
I know they have fences and smugglers at least in some areas.
 
Oh yes, very much so.
They have a patrol that guards the fenced and non-fenced areas.
 
Is the entire border closely guarded?
 
Yeah.
 
OK.
 
They are strongly opposed to illegal immigrants.
 
4:53 AM
I wonder why countries closer to the equator are generally poorer all over the world.
There are a few exceptions, but not many.
 
Hmm, good question.
 
Mainly in east Asia.
 
Could have something to do with industrialization starting in Europe and then spreading directly East and West.
 
And even there countries get richer as you go farther from the equator.
@Mahnax Hmm...
There is no real reason why industrialization should spread like that.
 
@Cerberus Convenience?
 
4:55 AM
I really think climate must have to do something with it.
 
@Cerberus Peut-être.
 
@Mahnax It is no more convenient to industrialize Argentina or Chile (both much richer than most of tropical SA) than Japan.
 
@Cerberus Eh, maybe.
Perhaps it is climate then.
I was just tossing a random thought out there, really.
 
Yeah, in various indirect ways, probably.
@Mahnax Sure, and it is appreciated.
But I felt compelled to respond to it.
 
@Cerberus That's fair.
I have been e-mailing back and forth with a girl from my class for an hour now.
 
4:57 AM
Thanks!!
Oh?
 
We're just chatting.
 
Ahh...
 
And she's, uh, not straight.
 
Do you also chat with her in school, or is this a first?
Oh.
Hmm.
Would you have liked her to be straight?
Or is she bi?
 
@Cerberus At school too.
@Cerberus I don't think so, she is decidedly lesbian. But she's nice to chat with.
@Cerberus Maybe, but I think she'll be a good friend.
 
4:59 AM
Cool.
Heh OK.
Does everyone know?
 
Eh, some do.
 
Is it common for kids to come out of the closet at that age?
 
I don't think her parents know.
 
Hmm.
 
Yeah, I'm not really sure.
She's a vegan too, but not the obnoxious kind.
So what are your plans for today?
 
5:15 AM
Haha, good.
I'm going to study a bit, some errands, perhaps have dinner with a friend.
You?
 
School: finishing a French assignment, taking a Physics test, presenting in English class.
Maybe Starbucks at lunch.
And I might see the Avengers movie this week with a couple friends.
user image
2
 
Yup, that's how Queens work.
Ours has been on the throne for nearly as long.
@Mahnax What genre is it?
 
@Cerberus Action.
 
I glanced at a headline that said it was breaking records.
Ah.
Do you generally enjoy action films?
Am I the only one having a déjà-vu now?
 
They're OK. I heard that it was really good.
 
5:27 AM
OK good.
 
Do you see many movies?
 
Rarely.
But it's generally fun.
 
Same with me, but I enjoy them when I do.
 
Though I would not go for Hollywood films.
There are exceptions of course.
 
Hmm, really? Why not?
 
5:33 AM
I hate to sound like a snob (well, actually I don't mind), but I just don't like them.
 
Well, OK.
 
Not a huge fan of pop culture.
 
That's fair.
 
At least not the serious genres.
I am more inclined to watch certain comedy series.
And perhaps some SF.
But I like dialogues and the unexpected.
Not action clichés.
 
I like movies that I know will be good.
 
5:36 AM
But I have other guilty pleasures, so I would never hold it against people, hehe.
 
Oh, such as…?
 
@Mahnax And you dislike movies that turn out to be good while you did not know what to expect?
 
Or are you not sharing?
@Cerberus No, but I tend to see more movies that I know will be good.
 
@Mahnax I like junk food. I like awful music now and then (though only for a short while).
And countless other things.
 
@Cerberus Well, many people like junk food.
But yeah, it is guilty sometimes.
 
5:38 AM
Yeah, it's not generally praised.
But a nice, flabby McDonals cheeseburger...
 
Ohh, I love McDonald's.
 
It is plastic, but I love it.
I could eat a cheeseburger for breakfast every other day.
 
I can eat so much McD's, it's sickening to think of.
 
Maybe two.
Haha OK.
Excellent.
Other people would be appalled.
 
Like, go load up on a milkshake, some fries, and maybe around five little McDoubles and I'm set.
 
5:40 AM
McDouble?
Is that a small hamburger?
 
Yeah, they're small.
They only cost $1.39 ea.
They have two little patties, ketchup, cheese, pickles, and onions.
Mmm…
 
Nice.
Though I would take out the pickles.
 
Hmm, I like pickles.
 
I like them sometimes, in certain dishes.
Like sauce ravigote.
 
Hmm, never heard of that.
 
5:47 AM
Oh, I have just learned that it is often confused with remoulade sauce, which is probably what I have in mind (ravigote does not contain pickle).
 
Well, Google has blocked me from e-mailing this girl now because they think I am spam.
Silly Google.
 
@Mahnax What!?
That is outrageous.
But maybe switch to some chat system.
 
@Cerberus That's what I was thinking, but she had to go to bed anyways.
 
Ah OK.
 
6:03 AM
Yeah. I'm heading to bed a little early now, goodnight.
 
Night!
 
6:48 AM
Would you consider this plagiarism?
I would say the thought as expressed in the Fundstelle is too commonplace to deserve a reference.
And yet Schavan is accused of "incorrect" or faulty quotations based on passages like this, and hence plagiarism.
This particular example I would not blink at.
Though perhaps it says something about her dissertation if this is to be one of her main conclusions.
One would need context to judge, of course.
 
 
1 hour later…
8:12 AM
I suspect Carlo has sockpuppets.
 
 
2 hours later…
10:07 AM
mernang
 
10:46 AM
I'll Have Another (foaled April 1, 2009) is a North American Thoroughbred race horse, bred in Kentucky and owned by Canadian businessman J. Paul Reddam and trained by Doug O'Neill, that won the 2012 Kentucky Derby with a time of 2:01.83. Background I'll Have Another is a chestnut horse sired by the Travers Stakes winner Flower Alley. In September 2010, I'll Have Another was sent to the Keeneland sales where he was bought for $11,000 by Victor M. Davila. Racing career After winning on his racecourse debut in July 2011, I'll Have Another finished second to Creative Cause in the Grade II...
Oh FFS, we have Wikipedia articles on individual horses now?
 
11:07 AM
Wikipedia must be being sponsored by bookies.
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Hey, that horse won the Kentucky Derby. For some people that's a big deal.
6
A: What does to "bleed something" mean?

RobustoBleed means to lose something steadily in a way that is dangerous to the life of something, as bleeding is to human life. The example you cite means Rust Belt states have lost jobs. If they lose too many — bleed too many jobs — the Rust Belt is in danger of dying. Which it is.

 
Well I eated a sandwich two days ago. That was a big deal to me. I demand that the sandwich get its own wiki article now.
 
Ahh, my daily downvote. Seems I have a nemesis who's determined to bleed me.
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 You could write one yourself.
 
Apr 19 at 16:08, by RegDwight Ѭſ道
 
make it subtly poetic
 
11:14 AM
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Well, at least that one doesn't give me a daily downvote.
 
11:49 AM
Sleep Talking Man: "Fucking unicorns. 'Oh, I've got a horn!' So fucking obnoxious. You're just a horse with a party hat, dickhead."
 
The Sleep Talking Man is a lie.
 
I thought unicorns were just dickheads. You know, the phallic symbolism thing?
 
> There has been some talk of this being a hoax, especially after the audio clips have come out. He doesn't sound much like any other person I've heard sleep talking, and he hardly mumbles at all (another common occurrence in sleep talking). I really wish this were true, but I'm finding it especially hard to believe--especially with the convenient ability to market this for profit.
Just one random quote off the Internet.
If you believe in the Sleep Talking Man, you might as well believe in that quote.
 
I believe everything on the Internet absolutely and without reservation.
3
 
11:56 AM
If I believe in STM I won't believe in that quote.
If I don't believe in STM then I have no justification to believe in that quote either.
When two contradictory statements are on the internet, but you don't believe anything you read, are they both false?
 
You are false.
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 Two wrongs do make a right. I thought we'd covered that.
 
> SOOOO FAKE! grrr this annoys me and if nots fake, this guys got some major problems. pack your bags and RUN
Come on, if that has no currency, I'll eat a cake!
 
I like cake.
 
Apr 21 at 20:17, by RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
i like big butts.
 
11:59 AM
and i cannot lie
 
Jul 19 '11 at 14:09, by RegDwight
I like turtles.
 
You're in luck. It's turtles all the way down.
 
Aug 24 '11 at 16:50, by RegDwight Ѭſ道
@Robusto It's turtles all the way down.
So you listened to me! For once.
 
In retrospect, you should have lobbied for big butts all the way down, though.
2
 
Don't lobby that flobby.
 
12:00 PM
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 That is a well known meme.
 
It's over 9000 degrees in my office.
 
@Robusto oh really? I thought that was an original statement of mine.
 
It's hot enough to breed sheep.
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 That's why we go over this stuff.
 
Poor stuff.
 
12:02 PM
@KitFox Eeuuww! Bad image. The proper way to say that in polite society is: "It's hotter than two rats fucking in an old sock."
 
Not in Reaumur.
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 A difference in degree, not in kind.
 
Thank you for your kind words.
 
Anyway, I protested and left.
 
Protested sheep-breeding?
 
12:03 PM
Now I am sitting not far from the homefries, coffee, and doughnuts.
 
How not far is not far?
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 In my office, yes.
 
@KitFox Hawt!
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 About twenty metres.
 
In Reaumur, please.
 
12:04 PM
polite society...
 
I am not against sheep-breeding in general, by the way.
 
What about lieutenant?
 
Major.
 
@KitFox But it's unnatural for people to breed with sheep.
 
@Robusto If the sheep don't mind, why should I?
 
12:05 PM
@Robusto Says who? I saw no mention of that in the Bible.
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Everything in the Bible that is not compulsory is forbidden. I thought we'd been over that.
 
The Bible has no mention of us being over that.
 
Ich habe die Nase voll von dir.
 
Du hast aber eine große Nase.
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Therefore it must be forbidden.
 
12:08 PM
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Solcher Süßholzraspler.
 
The Bible forbids any definition of God.
 
The Bible forbids itself?
 
@skullpatrol Wait. I thought God was totally ripped. Six-pack abs, the whole package.
 
Inform the Arabs.
 
It forbids any other "Bible."
 
12:10 PM
@Robusto He is. Totally. God is hot.
 
@Robusto He is the "whole" package ;-)
 
So Nietzsche says God is dead. Kit says God is hot. There's no way for you to be both dead and hot unless you're in Hell. Thus, God is in Hell. QED
 
oh shit dude u used qed porperly!
 
Where is Satan?
 
Behind you.
 
12:12 PM
In my bed.
 
Wow Kit's bed is pretty close to skullpatrol.
 
I had no idea.
He must be behind that spider plant.
 
@Reg: Since my "big butts" line got starred somehow, can you put in a "way" before "down" in that sentence, please?
 
@Robusto perhaps it got starred precisely because of the lack of "way"?
 
But thank you any "way" ...
 
12:17 PM
I am the s "way" er of this room.
 
The Way, the Truth and the Life?
 
The sway, the truf, and the Lite.
@MrShinyandNew安宇 NO COMIC SANS!
 
1
Q: What is the difference in meaning between singular and plural nouns following "No"?

ForgiverFor example: No student goes to school today. No students go to school today. What is the difference in meaning between a singular noun and a plural noun following "No"?

This looks somewhat familiar.
 
12:22 PM
Better version with fixed lyrics:
but wrong album cover
 
I noticed that. How interesting.
I should've pegged you for a Pearl Jam fan.
Probably @JSB too.
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 I think we had one with "any".
 
I think we had one with "no".
But it's hard to find, that much's for shoe-ah.
 
come on Reg, you're the finder
Everyone knows the search engine for EL&U is just a browser plugin you run that polls your open tabs
 
10
Q: There are no comments / There is no comment

augustinWhich is correct? * "There are no comments." * "There is no comment." Which would you use for a web application, i.e. what to display when a blog post or an article has no comment attached? Actually, I am trying to fix an application that says: "There is no comments" ! Would that ever be righ...

1
Q: Is singular or plural standard for state of none of something?

WilliamKF Possible Duplicate: There are no comments / There is no comment Which of these is more standard? There are no balls in the room. There is no ball in the room. Or if both can be appropriate, which would be used to discuss the requirement that one or more balls is required to...

1
Q: There is no ticket or there are no tickets?

Deviprasad Das Possible Duplicate: There are no comments / There is no comment. Can someone please tell me which one is better and correct. There is no ticket. or There are no tickets. If both are right, then which one is more preferable to say?

 
see?
I knew we could count on you to hit CTRL-TAB enough times
 
12:29 PM
Over 9000, in point of fact.
 
actually the No comments one is not really the same as the no students one
 
Yeah.
The "there are" keeps interfering.
 
"There is no comment" is not idiomatic for talking about a list of comments
 
Em1
Is "out-commented" a conventional word?
 
12:31 PM
But "no student goes to school today" is correct and the difference is only in a shade of meaning
 
Which one is preferred? "Whoever came up with this name, should be ashamed of themselves" vs "Whoever came up with this name, should be ashamed of himself" vs. "Whoever came up with this name, should be ashamed of herself"
 
Em1
Btw. hello all together ;p
 
@Em1 "commented out". This is English, not German.
 
@Em1 people commonly form words with "out-" to indicate that they were beaten. He outran me.
So if there was a competition involving "comments" you could be "out-commented"
 
Yeah, and that.
 
12:33 PM
But if you mean "converted some code to a comment" then @Reg's statement is right
 
Em1
So that means: "Have a look at the commented out code." would be fine?
 
Commute. Laters.
 
@Em1 yes
In that case I might put a hyphen between commented and out
 
I'd go with "Have a look at the code that's been commented out".
 
Em1
12:34 PM
Ok... "Have a look at the commented-out code." ;p
@RegDwightB8 Good idea.
 
@Meysamرهادربند If you allow for "singular they" for cases where you don't know the gender of the person (I do allow this, some people really hate it) then go with "themselves"
 
Em1
Ok, thanks all...
<--- afk
 
@Meysamرهادربند If you're concerned about a singular-they-hater hating you for using that, use "ashamed of himself or herself"
 
him or herself
 
him- or herself.
giggles
hides in sack
No doughnuts today.
sad panda
 
12:37 PM
there is this lyrics which uses the same "singular they": "Children gaze open mouth. Taken by surprise. Nobody down below believes their eyes"
 
there is lyrics which uses: "I can't get no satisfaction" :-D
 
@skullpatrol Reminds me of the movie "Life or something like that", in which Angelina Jolie sings: "I can get nooooooooo! sa tis fac tionnnnnn!"
 
@Meysamرهادربند Well, I like singular they. Consider this: the word "you" used to be plural; before it was singular "thou" and plural "you". There are not very many circumstances where singular they is confusing.
It's a famous Rolling Stones song
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 With infamously bad grammar :-)
 
There is no such thing as "bad grammar".
 
12:43 PM
@skullpatrol tsk tsk, around here we say "infamously non-standard grammar"
@Reg jinx
 
Either something is grammatical or it is not. It cannot be badly grammatical or goodly grammatical.
@skullpatrol what would be "good" grammar, anyway?
 
user19161
A grammar is something that grams. QED.
4
 
Yeah that ^ is it!
 
Interesting factoid about Grammar...
 
@JasperLoy You misspelled grammor
 
user19161
12:47 PM
Have any of you encountered "random computer errors" which you cannot diagnose and you think is just the computer misreading a disc or file somehow? Is that theoretically possible?
 
I'm not starring anything, JFYI.
 
I thought you were leaving.
smooch
 
user19161
@Gigili It's OK, I know everything. I have six senses.
 
@JasperLoy Only in theory :-D
 
12:48 PM
@JasperLoy it could be any number of problems
like, bad ram
that's the most likely problem
 
bad u
 
@Gigili OMG double negation, watch out, you'll get reprimanded by @skullpatrol.
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 There is no such thing as "bad ram".
 
@Meysamرهادربند sorry, "non-standard ram"
 
user19161
@Meysamرهادربند Whoa, I did not get your joke until Mr Shiny pointed it out. I am slow at jokes.
 
user19161
12:51 PM
@skull Do you have enough rep to vote for mod elections?
 
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 There is no such thing as "double negation" only non-standard negation :D
@JasperLoy No.
 
user19161
@skullpatrol I am not sure how they calculate the minimum required. I sort of recall it was different on different occasions.
 
@JasperLoy When is the elections?
 
@skullpatrol very good, fast learning you are, young Padawan.
 
user19161
So far I have voted for ELU, Math, TeX and Ubuntu mods.
 
user19161
12:53 PM
@Meysamرهادربند Oh, I was just thinking about the math mod elections, not here.
 
@JasperLoy And the ones you vote for were elected?
 
user19161
@Gigili Er, cannot remember, too long ago. I think some were and some were not. In life we win some and lose some.
 
I thought we all won at the end.
 
user19161
Well, we do lose this life at the end of this life, and what happens after that is a mystery. But what we have done remain in this world for some time. For example, the theorems we have proved or the people we have cared for.
 
You could be a good theorist.
 
user19161
12:58 PM
For now, I am only a lunatic.
 
You seem to be a bit of a philosopher.
 
user19161
Yes, I do think about and observe people and life a lot.
 
Good for you.
 

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