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7:00 PM
Poor air system in your flat stack?
 
@tchrist I agree the translation is bad :)
 
I will totally disagree with What Is to Be Done?
 
@tchrist air system == opened windows
 
Well, now that you have said so, I will concur. I didn’t wish to bring it up.
 
ok, will do some clojure now, for a future possible job
 
7:01 PM
It is indeed a textbook example of English using up more words than Russian and German combined.
 
@RegDwigнt What book? What to do?
 
What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement (Russian: Что делать?, tr. Shto delat'?), is a political pamphlet written by the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in 1901 and published in 1902. Its title is inspired by the novel of the same name by the nineteenth-century Russian revolutionary Nikolai Chernyshevsky. In What Is to Be Done?, Lenin argues that the working class will not spontaneously become political simply by fighting economic battles with employers over wages, working hours and the like. To convert the working class to Marxism, Lenin insists that Marxists should form...
Beautifully simple, and beautifully simple to translate into German, but entirely untranslatable into English.
 
Aug 17 '12 at 3:04, by tchrist
Here is but one pathetic example of the sort of dross that these miserably incompetent ESLlers bring us:
“My private tragedy, which cannot, and indeed should not, be anybody’s concern, is that I had to abandon my natural idiom, my untrammelled, rich, and infinitely docile Russian tongue for a second-rate brand of English, devoid of any of those apparatuses — the baffling mirror, the black velvet backdrop, the implied associations and traditions — which the native illusionist, frac-tails flying, can magically use to transcend the heritage in his own way.”
 
Still, even a "`What now?" or better still a "Now what?" would have been a much better title.
 
@RegDwigнt schlechtenargumentweildeutschnureinworthat
 
„Was tun?“ (russ. Что делать?, wiss. Transliteration Čto delať?) ist eine 1902 erschienene Schrift von Wladimir Iljitsch Lenin, die als sein Hauptwerk gilt. Darin begründet Lenin durch die Betrachtung der Zusammenarbeit von Bildungsbürgertum und Arbeiterklasse innerhalb sozialistischer Parteien die Theorie der „Avantgarde des Proletariats“, die innerhalb des Marxismus-Leninismus eine zentrale Stellung einnimmt. Der Titel der Schrift bezieht sich auf den gleichnamigen Roman Nikolai Gawrilowitsch Tschernyschewskis, dessen Verfasser Lenin auf diese Art und Weise ehren wollte. == Die Kommunisten… ==
Weep in marvel.
 
Curse you! Now you make me tease out — muse out, even — what differences may lie between Now what? and What now?.
 
@tchrist save that one for the Winter Bash.
 
@RegDwigнt Do all Russians’ frac-tails fly?
 
Dunno, but some Russians' flies a banana.
 
7:06 PM
@RegDwigнt I’m so screwed up I was partway through before I realized that I had not suddenly been granted the gift of being able to read Russian.
 
I think it should be illegal for time warner to pretend that a bad domain name resolves to send me to their own search engine
makes a fuss
 
George keeps making so many fusses, I don't even know where to store them anymore.
 
What to do?
Aug 24 '12 at 16:42, by tchrist
What a to-do to die today, at a minute or two to two;
A thing distinctly hard to say, but harder still to do.
For they'll beat a tattoo, at twenty to two
A rat-tat-tat- tat-tat-tat- tat-tat-tattoo
And the dragon will come when he hears the drum,
At a minute or two to two today, at a minute or two to two.
 
makes inane net neutrality signs and pickets alone in a field
stop soap! and pipes!
fuss fuss
 
"What to do" is much better than "what is to be done", but it's still crap. The to is completely rubbish. It should really be "what do?"
 
7:09 PM
“What’s to be done?” implies that something must be done.
And the question is just what that thing is.
I’m hipshooting here.
 
The question really is "now what". It does not imply anything and is indeed outright comical in its simpletonity. All of which German knows to preserve.
 
@GeorgePompidou Maybe if you write a few masters theses as answers, people will garland you with 500-rep bounties and soon you too can join the ranks of the evildoers on ELU.
@RegDwigнt You mean the German translator knew to preserve, right?
 
Or maybe nobody will ever give you a bounty at all except during a Winter Bash.
 
best time to get bounties
 
I gave one out yesterday my time.
 
7:12 PM
posted on August 13, 2014 by sgdi

We started a whip round at work To get our old MD to twerk If we get enough money It’ll be hella funny Unless his hips break, that old berk

 
@MattЭллен The best time for bounties is when you are cast aside in a lifeboat by Mister Christian.
 
(1) a handler
(2) an handler
 
@tchrist no no. I'm going to copy paste from online dictionaries, like that Italian kid.
 
@nosmoking probably (1)
 
then I'll get millions of rep.
 
7:14 PM
@MattЭллен ok
 
@Matt Joe Blew a gasket.
 
indeed
 
@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Ha! One for the cognoscenti.
 
I popped onto my work computer to get an email address just in time to get an email from the COO calling an emergency all-hands meeting for IT at 5pm.
 
the one who cognos
 
7:15 PM
@GeorgePompidou That’s just plain insensitive. Of course Italians love copypasta. Have the grace to apply the right salsa though.
@KitFox OH NO!
 
Yes, exactly.
Holy shit.
They aren't streaming it, and I can't go, so I asked a friend to call me.
 
@KitFox are people expected to sever their hands and send them to a meeting room?
 
@KitFox good luck!
 
@tchrist Choosing to apply the right salsa requires grace now, does it?
 
“Who’s number one!? —— Be seeing you.”
 
7:16 PM
We're speculating wildly.
But there are really only three options.
 
@tchrist makes some carbonara copy to pasta some answers
 
@Robusto gratia plena
@KitFox Company folds?
 
Quitting, firing, death.
It's just IT, so it can't really be anything else.
 
I dunno. You Know Who laid off 100% of IT contractors without a single meeting. Just took them out in back and shot them.
 
Nah, it's a 5pm meeting, with 2 hours notice.
 
7:18 PM
In contrast, the employees got an all-hands before the fusileers had their way with them.
 
This is something they didn't plan for.
 
"out in back"? head asplode
 
Business system analyst is stressful so
 
analists.
 
@KitFox Are all corporate officers’ whereabouts known? Did one get shot down overflying Ukraine, or get arrested by the FBI?
 
7:19 PM
banalest
 
@KitFox Layoffs are planned.
 
@tchrist There is only one, and he's been "on vacation" although he was in a staff meeting yesterday.
 
@tchrist Did one get shot down Ukraine to overflying
 
@tchrist Yes. That's what I'm saying.
 
get your word order right
 
7:20 PM
Even if some horrible thing happened that caused mass layoffs, they would not do that suddenly.
@KitFox Suicide (noun).
 
as a martyr, again
oh no, not a verb
 
@tchrist Could have been an administrative leave.
 
@KitFox The “on vacation one”, you mean.
 
Yes.
 
I wish you had told us you were working for the local police department.
We would have been a lot nicer to you.
 
7:24 PM
Me?
 
The American double quotes are elegant
 
@KitFox Administrative leave happens when a cop shoots a civilian without cause.
 
elegants never regret
 
Caenorhabditis elegans.
 
@tchrist I know.
We had one recently, like last week.
Maybe Monday.
 
7:27 PM
There is no such thing as coincidence.
 
co-incident
 
@tchrist correlation == causation
 
@Kit Please come back and tell us, if you can.
 
@MattЭллен 2 brothers can be correlated, are they "causated" between each other?
 
@nosmoking no such thing as coincidence
 
7:30 PM
The consensus of the current speculation is that he was fired for losing too many employees.
 
Am I the only native speaker in existence who finds “Her entire family is biologists” to be ungrammatical?
 
> Evidence collected from Bravo’s iPhone includes records of him using the phone’s flashlight function nine times from 11.31pm to 12:01am [...] and asking the phone: “I need to hide my roommate”. According to evidence reproduced from the trial by local news stations, Siri responded “What kind of place are you looking for?” before offering four options: “Swamps, reservoirs, metal foundries, dumps”.
 
is + plural isn't grammatical
 
why not just say "Her entire family is comprised of biologists"?
 
@KitFox For terminating them, for hectoring them into resignation, or for mislaying them?
 
7:31 PM
or composed
or whatever
 
I didn't know Zooey Deschanel came in male
 
@tchrist All of the above.
 
@GeorgePompidou is masscred by biologists
 
Well, if they were mislaid, there could be legal ramifications.
 
I think there's some weight to the firing theory. My friend who just quit had her exit interview this morning.
 
7:34 PM
Yes, that adds another tally in that column.
 
@nosmoking it is linguists who will disagree with you.
 
@RegDwigнt But is it linguists who disagree with you or who disagrees with youse?
 
I can flip a coin if you're really that interested.
 
examines coin first
 
I vote we remove conjugation from English and just say one word to mean everything. like effervescent. that's a fancy word, right?
 
7:35 PM
marklar
 
this way effervescent can just mean any sentence in the world.
 
English already uses the same word for everything, it's set.
 
marklar marklar
 
Her whole family is/are/were/asspancakes biologists blah blah gay.
just becomes Effervescent.
 
@GeorgePompidou All Englishmen enjoy conjugal rights.
 
7:36 PM
smooth, concise, gets the point across.
trouble-free, easy to remember.
 
If only the same might be said for all Englishwomen!
 
you name the quality, effervescent has it.
 
@GeorgePompidou if you're gonna make it simple, why make it complicated?
 
@GeorgePompidou ebullient
 
@RegDwigнt effervescent.
@tchrist effervescent.
 
7:37 PM
I can't read that. I think you mean duh.
Duh is so much better.
 
@nosmoking 🚭 + 🚭 = 🚭 🚭 🚭
 
We even have a good scientific sample.
 
I have it on good authority that her whole family effervescent'nt biologists anyway.
so the premise of that question is a lie.
 
passes around spacecakes
 
OK, I'm off. I'll check in later.
 
7:40 PM
@KitFox effervescent!
 
@RegDwigнt oh right, good catch
 
what a damn fancy word.
utterly fancy.
it's so good looking!
 
Is it in the fast lane?
 
life in the fast lane
 
@tchrist What does it mean, smoking ban signs reproduction?
 
7:41 PM
doodadoodaloo ladadoodaaloo
life in the fast lane!
 
@nosmoking Two nonsmokers progenate a third.
 
@tchrist oh, indeed
I need to start soon
 
Note: progenate != impregnate
 
What, you're an expert in no-smoking-sign reproduction now?
maybe it does take two no-smoking-signs to impregnate a third
 
smoker + non-smoker = 29% smoker + 71% non-smoker
 
7:45 PM
so @RegDwigнt I took apart the haunted house and started storing its parts. It has so many of some parts that it is overwhelming my storage. e.g. the light-bley upward slope 2x1s... I have more of those than any other 2x1 upward slope, just from one kit
@nosmoking You're forgetting 2nd-hand smoke
 
smoker + smoker = 50% smoker + 50% non-smoker
 
smoker + non-smoker = 2*smokers
 
Greetings
 
Let's do a Markov chain about smoker reproduction
 
Salutations!
 
7:46 PM
"I have a challenge for you" or "I have a challenge to you"?
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 :-)
 
for sounds better
 
OK, thank you all!
 
@Chris'ssis generally you have something for someone
 
7:49 PM
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 ah, I see your point.
 
You could say, "it is my challenge to you" or start with "my challenge to you is..."
That's of course different from the original sentence
 
@Alraxite The first sentence sounds vaguely wrong to me
 
Hmm.
The to version sounds better to me in this case.
 
@Alraxite Then I use "my challenge to you is..." and never "my challenge for you is..." ?
 
But your intuition is better.
 
7:51 PM
@Alraxite Both your examples have to, but I don't like "it is my challenge to you"
I can't say why.
@Chris'ssis I'd prefer for
 
@Chris'ssis But sound OK to me. But I think I'd use to.
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I see.
 
Though you should go with Mr. Shiny's advice.
 
@Alraxite OK
 
He knows the language better than me.
 
7:52 PM
Well, ngrams isn't finding "my challenge for you"
so maybe i'm wrong
 
my advice to you is to use your favorite solution
 
Based on ngrams I'm going to say go with "my challenge to you".
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 this books.google.com/ngrams/… ?
 
No, I was doing "my challenge to/for you"
 
"progenate" is what happens on Fridays and Saturdays at college town.
all the males get together and shout very loud mating calls and then the females show up undressed and they all try to mate with each other while listening to dubstep
I haven't figured it out myself. I much prefer Skyrim.
 
7:58 PM
parade nuptiale
 
I’m up to my alligator in assholes.
 
and lately, playing with my raspberry pi. it's a fun toy!
 
so looking at keyword in context on COCA, I find far more examples of "challenge for you" than "challenge to you"
 
you can program it to light up and do other fun stuff.
 
So I'm not sure what's up with ngrams
 
7:59 PM
@GeorgePompidou what programming language does it understand?
 
Which non-deleted ELU question has the most views?
8
Q: Is it acceptable to use "Much Appreciated" as the closing for a letter or email?

KristenWhen I send an email requesting assistance from someone, I am tempted to close the email with the phrase “Much Appreciated”. Is it acceptable to use that phrase outside of a sentence?

 
I use "Respectually"
 
@nosmoking mine runs debian linux so pretty much most things that'll run on it. the little modules and addons provide mostly python APIs and some node.js and a few perl.
 

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