English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

kiamlaluno

9:00 PM

@simchona I know that. I was asking for the singular word. :)

Matt Эллен

The female moderator at The register referred to herself as The Moderatrix. However I believe she has moved on

kiamlaluno

If the plural is moderatoresses, then I was right about the singular. :)

user19161

@MattЭллен The plural would be moderatrices then.

ΜετάEd

@MattЭллен Ah ... she motrixed.

kiamlaluno

@MattЭллен Maybe she was thinking of dominatrix.

Matt Эллен

9:03 PM

@kiamlaluno here's her send off post

cornbread ninja

@ΜετάEd I have been schooled.

Matt Эллен

good night

cornbread ninja

@MattЭллен sleep tight, &c

Mitch

9:30 PM

THere should be an area51 proposal for ELU-WTF

-2

Q: 'woman' is to 'bachelorette' as 'man' is to what?

The http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/bachelorette reads: bachelorette, young woman who is not married. Is there an English word [X] which fits the following definition? [X], young man who is not married.

single-word-requests

And my condolences to the new mods, who have obviously gone off to their orientation to find out what really disgusting things they have to take care of now, cleaning up other people's crap.

RegDwight АΑA

@Shog9 I think if there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that being male is a sure-fire way to lose an election.

Simchona 1st, Kit 2nd, Martha 3rd.

Congrats to our fine ladies.

Mitch

@ΜετάEd how do you know the ranking? all we know are the top two, right?

RegDwight АΑA

@Mitch that's an inside-out dupe.

1 hour ago, by Anna Lear

Here's a handy election breakdown for those of you who lack OpenSTV (or just like pretty graphs): http://www.opavote.org/results/491070/0

Mitch

@RegDwightАΑA you're too kind. It's plain idiotic.

ΜετάEd

9

Q: 2012 Community Moderator Election Results

English Language & Usage's second moderator election has come to a close, the votes have been tallied, and the two new moderators are: They'll be joining the existing crew shortly - please thank them for volunteering, and share your assistance and advice with them as they learn the ropes!...

discussion featured election

Mitch

9:34 PM

Oh. late to the party as usual.

ΜετάEd

then click the "summary report" link.

RegDwight АΑA

@Mitch actually my point is kind of that the original is idiotic, too.)))

Mitch

arg...I didn't see the links.

that's not fair. people who can bake (and self-promote) got higher votes. I'm telling EC.

RegDwight АΑA

-2

Q: What is the word for an unmarried female?

An unmarried male is called a bachelor. Is there an English word for an unmarried female?

single-word-requests

Mitch

Actually, now he can't complain that he's being kept down by the Man.

RegDwight АΑA

9:39 PM

@Mitch nope, now he'll complain that he's being kept down by the Woe Man.

@Mitch, then, 'bachelor' is the male form of 'bachelorette'! — Xavier Vidal Hernández 1 min ago

Don't answer that.

Mitch

I so want to.

simchona

So...does this mean CR won't come back?

Mitch

I'm holding back.

please let it be so.

RegDwight АΑA

Hello blue sim.

Mitch

but I don't think he let's facts get in the way of his pronouncements.

simchona

9:41 PM

Hello blue Reg

Mitch

@Reg why aren't you hazing the new crop of initiates?

user19161

@Mitch lets

Mitch

making them chop off their own pinkie?

RegDwight АΑA

I am not? Hm. Perhaps I should work on my attire or something.

simchona

@Mitch That's the Yakuza

user19161

9:41 PM

@RegDwightАΑA Where's your comb?

RegDwight АΑA

@JasperLoy I never promised to have a comb, let alone bring him with me to this room.

Mitch

@simchona says the secret guild member.

user19161

@RegDwightАΑA I see you have become Xavier.

RegDwight АΑA

I am become Death.

Death of that question, that is.

You should have stopped piling onto it, folks.

user19161

Well, what to do, I have piles.

Robusto

9:46 PM

I'm back! I'm back! Trailing clouds of glory, I'm back!

pause for strumpet fanfare

simchona

RELEASE THE STRUMPETS

RegDwight АΑA

Es ertönen diverse Fanfaren, majestätisch.

a beat

then, with a high heart, Robusto:

user19161

@Robusto Just in time for my glorious announcement above.

kiamlaluno

Now I see more blue, in this room.

Mitch

flags?

RegDwight АΑA

9:48 PM

@JasperLoy You are not Robusto.

@kiamlaluno neither are you!

@Mitch et tu, Brutus!

kiamlaluno

@RegDwightАΑA Hey! I am already blue! Even my avatar is blue.

RegDwight АΑA

But you are not Robusto.

Mitch

ohhh...slow again.

RegDwight АΑA

Only Robusto is Robusto.

0

Q: A single word to describe some one who is both old and wise

I am trying to find a word which describes someone who is both old and wise. I would like the word to describe someone who is extremely frail and infirm. It might also have the connotation that their counsel is quirky and hard to follow, even if it is sound advice.

single-word-requests

Mitch

and his socks

RegDwight АΑA

9:50 PM

And only Robusto is the some one in question here.

kiamlaluno

@RegDwightАΑA I am sure not! I am kiamlaluno!

Robusto

@RegDwightАΑA I am a wise-ass, it's true.

kiamlaluno

Now, I could be robusto too. Nobody has seen a picture of mine.

RegDwight АΑA

@kiamlaluno sorry, but we don't need pictures for that.

Robusto

@kiamlaluno We have seen plenty of pictures of yours. We just haven't seen a picture of you.

user19161

9:53 PM

@Robusto Actually I have seen neither.

Robusto

Oh, that reminds me. Who are the new mods? Matt and Sim?

user19161

@Robusto kit and sim

kiamlaluno

Oh right… I forgot those pictures.

Robusto

Kind of a little frisson there. I voted for both. Also for Matt. I kinda thought Matt would make it, though, since he and Sim were about even in the primaries, way ahead of everyone else.

RegDwight АΑA

But this time round people had to decide for one of them.

user19161

9:54 PM

I was surprised by the results too.

user19161

Clearly those who intended to vote on the final round decided to trick us all.

Robusto

@RegDwightАΑA Yes, there is that. Also, Matt's a dude. He suffered because of reverse discrimination. I think he should sue. Or maybe he should Sue! (Note to Matt: sex-change surgery has come a long way.)

RegDwight АΑA

23 mins ago, by RegDwight АΑA

@Shog9 I think if there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that being male is a sure-fire way to lose an election.

KitFox

room topic changed to English Language and Usage: aka The Incomprehensible Roomba (no tags)

Robusto

@RegDwightАΑA I know, right? We only have female mods now.

KitFox

9:56 PM

Just kidding. I'll change it back.

I got heady with power there for a minute.

Robusto

It didn't change for me.

RegDwight АΑA

@KitFox hey now! You might be a mod, but you're not the room owner. Easy tigerette.

KitFox

OMG! I'm blue!

room topic changed to English Language and Usage: aka The Incomprehensible Room (no tags)

RegDwight АΑA

►

Robusto

@KitFox Head is one of the perqs of power.

user19161

9:57 PM

@RegDwightАΑA You misspelled tigress.

RegDwight АΑA

@JasperLoy you misspelled "OMG Jasper, seriously, a whoosh again?"

user19161

Shall we change the room name?

Robusto

Well, congrats @KitFox and @simchona. Now you can really start taking the mickey from everyone.

user19161

@RegDwightАΑA Well, that was a meta-whoosh on my part.

RegDwight АΑA

@JasperLoy and I'm meta-bored now.

user19161

9:58 PM

@Robusto Some prefer to give minnie instead.

KitFox

@Robusto mumbles something deflective

I was just pressing buttons. Now I have to get back to my family. I will return later.

Robusto

Wow, FF's in a bad mood today. Did someone hit a ball into his back yard again?

RegDwight АΑA

@JasperLoy the main surprise for me is that Kit won vs. Martha by a single vote.

Robusto

Is there a public page for vote tallies?

user19161

@RegDwightАΑA WTH happened to Matt?

user19161

10:00 PM

It seems people do prefer women to men.

simchona

@Robusto There's a Meta post with the results and rounds of voting.

9

Q: 2012 Community Moderator Election Results

English Language & Usage's second moderator election has come to a close, the votes have been tallied, and the two new moderators are: They'll be joining the existing crew shortly - please thank them for volunteering, and share your assistance and advice with them as they learn the ropes!...

discussion featured election

RegDwight АΑA

26 mins ago, by RegDwight АΑA

1 hour ago, by Anna Lear

Here's a handy election breakdown for those of you who lack OpenSTV (or just like pretty graphs): http://www.opavote.org/results/491070/0

Why do I even bother anymore. Let the new modettes handle the workload.

Robusto

@JasperLoy Not everyone.

►

RegDwight АΑA

I am actually trying to look for a dupe. Everybody keeps interfering.

-1

Q: How would you categorize your versus you're? Usage? Spelling? Grammar?

I'm having a debate about categorizing the use of your versus you're/ I think it's a grammar issue.

category

I know this is in vain, but, erm, @Cerberus, do you remember where we put the original?

Robusto

1

Q: Are the fictitious names "Initech" and "Initrode" a play on words?

In the comedy film "Officespace", the protagonist works for a company called "Initech". At the end of the film, his co-workers take jobs at a competing company called "Initrode". It seems that these names are meant to sound silly, but can someone here tell me if these fictitious names may also ...

idioms connotation

Really? Only 3 close votes (inc. mine)?

RegDwight АΑA

10:11 PM

> Origin of my question comes from name of a subject to come on my univ

How the hell do I reword that?

I'm stuck.

Went with a lecture being titled that way.

user19161

By the way, two math mods took a break so there are two new mods there today as well.

RegDwight АΑA

10:27 PM

Speaking of math, I am glad I spent a couple hours reading up on STV.

user19161

Oh, better to watch the TV instead.

ΜετάEd

@RegDwightАΑA Done right it is quite nice because everybody's ballot counts. We aren't quite doing it right because we are allowed only three preferences on a slate of ten, but it's better than many alternatives.

RegDwight АΑA

@ΜετάEd On average, people have lost 8/69 of their vote in this election. I am proud to report that I lost 0/69. I.e. my entire vote counted; and in fact decided the outcome. But I will say no more because that is enough to reverse-engineer at least two out of my three choices, in the correct order.

ΜετάEd

In this election, 16 ballots did not count.

Yes. 8/69.

I don't care who knows how I voted: I cast my votes for the top three candidates, it turns out.

RegDwight АΑA

Yeah I read that.

ΜετάEd

10:33 PM

I would have liked to know the minority status of the candidates; that might have influenced my voting.

Those 16 ballots should not have gone to waste, though. The second and third place might have been different.

The result is fine with me, but not necessarily as fair as it would have been if we could have indicated preference on all ten candidates.

RegDwight АΑA

True.

ΜετάEd

(By "fine with me" I mean "I like who was elected".)

Dammit, this election was Florida all over again! snark

RegDwight АΑA

Well not yet.

We are still waiting for Evan to demand a recount.

ΜετάEd

Ah, you're expecting hanging chad.

hanging Evan.

RegDwight АΑA

Well the establishment wins once again. And I told him that would happen. How could I have known, ahead of time?

Clearly this is a rigged riggedy-rig.

Anyway. I must go catch up on London 2012. Haven't seen a single competition today.

ΜετάEd

10:38 PM

Just point him to his primary result and remind him that the proletariat have spoken.

Because they have.

RegDwight АΑA

@ΜετάEd aye, but there's the rub: the proletariat is part of the establishment. This site is permeated with corruption, down to the lowest-ranked hobo.

Off I go! Y'all have fun.

ΜετάEd

Yeah, that's the problem with communism. All the damned people.

It's like we say where I work. Business would be so much easier without all the damned customers.

cornbread ninja

10:55 PM

@ΜετάEd or the salespeople.

ΜετάEd

@cornbreadninja There's that.

We like the salespeople, really. Especially when they sell stuff we actually make.

cornbread ninja

@JasperLoy the natural enemy of the pile is the hole.

ΜετάEd

@cornbreadninja The first rule of holes: stop digging.

cornbread ninja

@ΜετάEd as opposed to selling stuff that isn't ready for prime time?

that's what ours do mostly.

ΜετάEd

@cornbreadninja "Oh, I thought we made one of those."

But we recover pretty well, usually.

cornbread ninja

10:58 PM

@ΜετάEd fast, cheap, correct; pick two.

ΜετάEd

In my world #3 was "supported".

cornbread ninja

what were you quoting earlier?

ΜετάEd

You mean Aliens Ate My Buick?

cornbread ninja

it made me think of the minutemen for no good reason, which made me remember that they covered Dr. Wu, which made me remember that I heard Korn's cover of Cameo's Word Up earlier today. -_-

ΜετάEd

Song by Thomas Dolby?

cornbread ninja

10:59 PM

I spose so

I only know the one Thomas Dolby song ._.

ΜετάEd

afk gotta run the fork lift again tonight it seems.

cornbread ninja

fun!

drive cautionly

Cerberus

@RegDwightАΑA Uhh I don't know, though I'm sure we've had similar questions. It is about inconsistent correspondence between spelling and pronunciation, not about one isolated thing. I don't feel that it is GR, though. It may be a duplicate, but it is now closed as GR.

By our senate.

ΜετάEd

Back.

@cornbreadninja Which one is that.

Cerberus

@Kit: Congrats, Lady Moderatrix! I had to run, the doorbell rang. The high-school inappropriate behaviour seems similar indeed: on rare occasions, it is annoying if people take you too seriously.

@simchona Congratulations to you too, Other Lady Moderatrix!

ΜετάEd

11:15 PM

It will be fun to watch the power go to their heads.

Cerberus

Indeed.

Shouldn't take long.

ΜετάEd

This is why you should not be a moderator.

Three heads.

Cerberus

My heads would blow up and I would hover off into the distance?

British media report that 1 billion people watched the opening of the Olympic games; however, the real figure is probably closer to a few hundred million.

Based on available data about television sets owned world wide, and on programmes watched in certain countries like France, America, China.

ΜετάEd

I know 1 billion can't be right.

I didn't watch. So at most it's 999 999 999.

Cerberus

There are other people than those 1 billion, you know.

Like Xan Hua Wen.

ΜετάEd

11:30 PM

What's the name of that fallacy.

Cerberus

The ΜετάEd-1,000,000,000 fallacy?

ΜετάEd

11:44 PM

No, the one where you inject an unverifiable claim into a debate. Your opponent doesn't know what you're talking about, so can't counter it, so you've won the point.

I'm sure there's a cutesy name for it.

Cerberus

Ad ignorantiam?

I don't know, some of the names are badly chosen.

Argument from ignorance

Argument from ignorance, also known as argumentum ad ignorantiam or "appeal to ignorance" (where "ignorance" stands for: "lack of evidence to the contrary"), is a fallacy in informal logic. It asserts that a proposition is true because it has not yet been proven false, it is "generally accepted" (or vice versa). This represents a type of false dichotomy in that it excludes a third option, which is that there is insufficient investigation and therefore insufficient information to prove the proposition satisfactorily to be either true or false. Nor does it allow the admission that the c...

It could be this.

ΜετάEd

Right, could be

Maybe also "moving the goalposts", sort of.

Cerberus

I always forget what all of those labels stand for.

I even took an entire class centred round argumentative theory and fallacies once.

ΜετάEd

Moving the goalposts as a debating tactic is covered pretty well here.

It's a bit different from moving the goalposts as a fallacious argument.

KitFox

OK, so I'm back.