English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2015-10-02

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user116848

12:03 AM

@Mitch Fair enough. But what about all the nootropics? They contain a label that's why they are considered legit?

Hi guys, is anyone about?

user116848

Hi.

user116848

I'm about but I'm a non native speaker of English.

Hi! I hope it's okay to ask here - I'm communicating by email with someone who invited me and a group of people to an event and am now sending them a CV. In initial emails I've been starting it with Dear Surname, however they are always responding with Hi Forename, so I feel like my formality is a bit much. Is it appropriate to drop the formalities or should I stick with Dear Surname?

user116848

If they are addressing you by your first name, you can address them by theirs. It would be okay that way I think.

12:10 AM

Awesome, thanks! I thought it'd be okay but just wanted a second opinion :)

user116848

Sure :)

12:58 AM

@Mitch But what if everyone ignores the blonde?

1 hour later…

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

1:59 AM

@tchrist Is the difference between a lunar day and a solar day related to the gap between civil twilight and nautical twilight?

Oh yeah, astronomical twilight.

I am a dumbass.

2 hours later…

4:00 AM

@RegDwigнt: would you know how to do this? (Change the tag “present-perfect-tense” to “present-perfect” by itself) I believe you're technically capable of doing it as a moderator, and the SE Meta post I read made it sound like the process is fairly straightforward.

1 hour later…

5:07 AM

So three logicians walk into a bar. The bartender says "Do all of you want a beer?" The first one says "I don't know," the second one says "I don't know," the third one says "Yes!"

But is not the joke itself illogical? Either of the first two might have not wanted a beer and still given the same answers. The third one is making assumptions.

So three logicians walk into a bar. The bartender says "Do all of you want a beer?" The first one says "No."

5:34 AM

Ah. This is why I am not a logician. I just read this: puzzling.stackexchange.com/a/12476/9783 and now I think I understand.

5:47 AM

@skillpatrol Nice problem!

6:14 AM

Thanks @DamkerngT. Mitch introduced it to us :-)

Ahh... Perhaps Mitch is the first logician. :P

:D

3 hours later…

9:45 AM

@sumelic done.

@Robusto TIME: Study: 11% of Americans Think HTML Is an STD

10:20 AM

@RegDwigнt It is.

So you're saying 89% of Americans are dumb?

At least that amount.

That's a lot. I smell a business opportunity!

Too late. Facebook is already a success.

So is Twitter.

Yes, it sucks ass alright.

But my product would have electrolytes.

10:23 AM

Are you smarter than a football player.

2

user image

Been there, done that.

50 questions in 12 minutes. Man, that's 62 things in total. I don't think I am interested.

@Robusto oh yeah but it's the crappy G series. My series would at least be H.

Screw that, we'll go straight with Z.

The series is going backwards.

A grades are overrated.

@Robusto so I've spent the first two of the twelve minutes staring at a black page while shit loads.

How much point do I gets?

@RegDwigнt Hey, I'm an American. Don't ask me.

Well, I tried asking Russians first, but they started bombing Syria.

I don't think I'll do that again.

10:30 AM

Yeah. Russians and Americans view business opportunities differently.

0

Q: Does this stackoverflow forum answer questions related to IELTS?

I am a programmer but seeking emigration in an English speaking country, which requires IELTS band of 7 in each module.Can I use this forum for IELTS? If not please suggest me other forum similar to stackoverflow.

Someone who is neither Russian nor American.

0

Q: What is the expression that means : Try to stop crying

Sometimes, when I get emotional. I get in a situation when only talking can lead in a burst of tears, so I try to prevent it and I feel like crying is on hold inside my throat. Is there an expression in English that sums it up? or a sentence that describes it well? I hope I could define well t...

And I don't know what that person is.

> What is a word for the feeling that you're getting trolled really hard on ELU?

Fuck this quiz. Seriously, the time has almost completely elapsed and I'm only at question 11 because every new question takes half a minute to load.

@RegDwigнt Are you saying football players may actually be smart?

I pinned the question. Let's see if others have the same problem.

I am saying they must have a better Internet connection than my T3 line.

Football players have internet connections?

@RegDwigнt Would you say that you have a tendency to diverge?

10:38 AM

Are there badgers in your country?

Yes.

Then the question answers itself. (Had to look it up, though, didn't you?)

> You have run out of time.
You scored 14
That's as good as Donovan McNabb. He scored a 14

McNabb twice led the Eagles to the Super Bowl but never came away with a victory. He also later played with Washington and Minnesota.

@Robusto no, I meet them all the time when walking the dogs

@RegDwigнt But he also has an internet connection. So you are way smarter than he is.

10:40 AM

So I'm do no van McDweeb just because some idiot can't HTML.

@JohanLarsson Do you invite them over for tea?

@JohanLarsson Then it took you an awfully long time to type in y-e-s.

@RegDwigнt HTML is a disease, not a verb.

And now: coffee.

user image

@Robusto ^

Ah, screw this. Tried a second time, the timer's down a full two minutes and I'm only at question three. The first two questions having been, I shit you not, "what does scold mean", and "which is bigger, 5 or 400".

> And where did you hear it? BBC?

Which would make it seem that speed issues aside, nobody can do better or worse than a football player, because it's either questions everyone knows the answer to (which is bigger, 5 or 400), or questions nöone knows the answer to (what is the population of Germany divided by pi to the number-of-cats-in-Russia-in-the-year-1886th degree). No middle ground.

10:53 AM

Is ^ correct punctuation?

serial question like that

Er, how else would you punctuate it?

Oh BTW this is what happens if you give up:

> You have run out of time.
You scored 3
That's almost as good as Morris Claiborne. He scored a 4

Claiborne was drafted with the 6th overall pick by the Dallas Cowboys after being widely considered the top defensive draft prospect in the 2012 NFL draft.

We have now identified the person with the slowest Internet connection!

He probably had to mail the answers.

Also, stinkin liars. I didn't score 3. I gave up after two questions. That's a score of 2.

Do you say "you should hover over the link" or "you should hover on the link"? #1 looks ridiculously redundant

Over.

hover over ovaries, meh, ok

That's the whole point why #2 does not look redundant: because you cannot possibly hover on things.

White milk doesn't look ridiculously redundant because milk is black; it looks redundant because milk is white.

11:08 AM

I affirmatively agree

11:34 AM

@JohanLarsson Nice.

@RegDwigнt Srsly?

Well. Have you not taken the test?

I have not. I suppose I should.

It really is "which is bigger, 5 or 400" or "what is the population of Germany divided by pi to the number-of-cats-in-Russia-in-the-year-1886th degree" with no middle ground.

And yes, do prepare to know what scold means, or valiant.

Meanwhile in Paris, we'll be watching some fashion.

user image

user image

user image

Models create ‘human knapsacks’ at Rick Owens show during Paris Fashion Week

As if we needed any proof that nobody needs fashion, or weeks.

@RegDwigнt I took it and when I got to the end it just started over. WTF?

Well. It wanted to make sure you didn't forget the meaning of scold in the mean time.

You should be thankful for such devotion.

11:49 AM

Seemed like a stupid test. I hadn't finished, actually, the timer just went out.

Tell me about it.

Then it started over at 1 and I said fuck it.

We should be friends or something.

But who cares if you can do fast arithmetic? I write software to do that.

I used a calculator.

Because I am smart.

11:50 AM

Heh.

Only an idiot would try to calculate the number of cats in Germany by hand.

And don't tell me no football player used a calculator to divide 10 by 2.

Just evening out the playing ground here.

All in all, a thoroughly pointless exercise. Kinda like football itself. I suppose that's a form of genius then.

I choose to suppose it's a form of happenstance.

Even a blind squirrel may sometimes score a touchdown.

@RegDwigнt So how much is Nieman-Marcus selling the pussy-in-your-face backpacks for this season?

That's another thing. They will show off all this thing called "fashion" and then never actually sell it anywhere.

Most pointless waste of shit ever.

12:03 PM

Donald Trump would buy one.

Even if only for his wife.

I really do not understand the economics of this business. People do not do anything, and what they do you can't buy, and what you can buy you can't afford, and if you can afford it you're probably a movie star so they'll give it to you for free.

And yet they make gajillions every minute.

The Beatles • Ob-la-di ob-la-da • Lyrics

Life goes on [like a] bra.

It's a fashion statement.

A bra, CAD, a bra.

12:17 PM

@RegDwigнt Let's not get carried away. It's more like bazillions.

2 hours later…

1:48 PM

Is it time yet to Dutch-uncle janochen? I mean, at least Yoishi's questions were interesting, mostly. These jano's are just sucking up a lot of cycles for nothing.

Nah, we're too invested now, I want to read that crowd-written novel.

Then I can harass random people on the street with the book in my hand, pointing them to sentences and exclaiming, "I put the word 'of' here!"

You would actually have to answer one of his questions first. Otherwise . . . no royalties.

Oh I am more than sure I have.

0

Q: is it appropriate to use "yet"

For background, here is the story (just example, not real): I applied for a job but they want a person who don't smoke. In my resume I wrote as I don't smoke. They invited me for interview. 15 min before interview meeting I smoke a cigar. When I talk with HR manager, He felt that I smell cigar a...

sentence sentence-structure

So . . . two people, one of them a mod, have chided the OP that we don't do proofreading here. Yet only I have voted to close for that reason.

He's asked 513. I have answered 683. There is no chance in hell there's no overlap.

There should be a way to search for asker:1234 answerer:5678. Right now you can only do either is:question author:1234 or is:answer author:5678, which is sort of pointless.

1:55 PM

SQL is pointless.

SQL is the most pointless sequel in the history of sequels.

English is the JavaScript of human languages.

Vini Vasundharan

rf

Humans are the English of the JavaScript.

@ViniVasundharan I think you left out the T and the M?

The English are polluting our JavaScript!

@RegDwigнt Hey, he can't trademark rf. I own that.

1:57 PM

I will tradmark tradmark.

Then you'll have to pay me roylties.

no roylT for u

Yeah no chickening out, we've already seen you use it!

Shut up or I'm going to take all the vowels and go home.

Wait, I am home.

See. What a giant failure right from the get-go.

Hi @ViniVasundharan

2:29 PM

@Arrowfar Sure there are medications that are nootropic, and there's no reason to believe that natural foods don't have them (caffeine might be considered such), but 'brain food' is a myth.

I don't consider stimulants (like caffeine) to be nootropic but they do facilitate mental activity (i.e. they're not direct pharms to aid mentality)

And also I don't think almonds have anything resembling a nootropic.

@RegDwigнt: Have you been to the LEGOland in Bayern? I was just reading about it in an article in Spanish, no less.

@Mitch Obviously, you've never heard of nootella.

@Mazura Which blonde? What random barely coherent message of mine are you referring to?

@Robusto no. I didn't even know there's one.

I know there's one in Schleswig-Holstein. Or maybe it's Denmark already.

@RegDwigнt It's called Legoland Deutschland. Or something.

2:33 PM

@RegDwigнt Nutella is a nirvanotropic.

@Robusto I'd have thought that one to be the one in the North.

@Robusto That makes too much sense

I'll look it up.

But what do I know. I'm not into all this children-horde business.

Legoland Deutschland
Legoland Deutschland es un parque de diversiones Legoland situado en Günzburg, Alemania.Tiene un tamaño de 43,5 hectáreas, y es una de las principales atracciones turísticas de Baviera. La zona Miniland contiene varias reproducciones de LEGO de ciudades y zonas rurales de Alemania. Es propiedad de Merlin Entertainments (70%) y el grupo LEGO (30%).

Legoland Deutschland is a Legoland amusement park situated in Günzburg, Germany. It is 43.5 hectares in size, and is one of the main tourist attractions of Bavaria. Etc.

2:35 PM

Yeah and then there's that. I'm not visiting anything owned by anyone named Merlin.

That's racist.

@Robusto oh yeah thank you for the translation.

You have something against blackbirds.

Congratulations, you have now translated 0.0001% of all Spanish text.

@Robusto nothing that works, no.

@RegDwigнt I am not knowing that you find this in the.

2:37 PM

I am very asombrate with your.

Also, Dude, "blackbird" is not the preferred nomenclature.

It doesn't matter to which bird you pray, precious time is slipping away.

Oh? And what's so precious about it?

No me gustan los pájaros.

Jul 30 '12 at 14:12, by RegDwight АΑA

@tchrist de colores son los pajaritos que vienen de afuera.

And if you don't like colores, then you're racist. QED.

QuE Dolores.

2:42 PM

Aug 11 '14 at 12:20, by RegDwigнt

De dolores son los pajaritos que vienen da afuera.

You cannot make any wordplay that's not been made before in this chat.

I can make worldpay though. Watch out.

Or, in your country, Vorsicht! Vorsicht!

I think you just don't want to go to Bavaria.

Not even for LEGOland.

in Ask Different Chat, Jul 25 '12 at 19:05, by Jason Salaz

you said that already

@Robusto For all I know I am in Bavaria right now, lying under the table at Oktoberfest. For all you know, even more so.

@Mitch Why do you keep bringing that up?

It won't bring up itself.

2:45 PM

@RegDwigнt Lying under a table sounds like too much effort for you.

Apparently because it's not running on Duracell.

@Robusto yes, that's why I advise against Oktoberfests.

All work and no play.

@Robusto It beats another mention of Nutella?

Jun 2 '11 at 2:05, by Robusto

Too late.

2 l8

lern 2 spel

NOEU

2:48 PM

EUSA.

@RegDwigнt Wait, why are you having a fucking Oktoberfest in Oktober? That is un-German.

I am not having anything. I am working. Under the table. Now leave me alone, it's all hard and stuff.

I can't be paying attention to months just for your convenience. Sheesh.

So undeutschlich.

That's how I roll. Under the table.

If you were echtdeutsch you would pay attention to months for their own sake. Because it is correct to do so.

2:50 PM

No, if I were echtdeutsch the months would pay attention to themselves cuz they'd be friggin afraid of me.

user image

Pfft. Only the Monaten would be afraid of you. The months would proceed as usual, in a chain, to the last syllable of recorded time.

See, this German month has been clearly paying attention.

It required no interference on my part, and it was well advised not to.

@Robusto yeah you people so lazy, you not even pronounce As in the middle of words. That is not correct. That's why you can't have nice things.

We can't have nice things because only the rich people can have nice things.

Now the Republicans want to lower the taxes of the top 1% to 25%. Turning us into Greece.

Or worse.

Turning the world into Greece.

Nothing is worse than Greece.

Don't think it can't happen.

2:54 PM

I just don't think, period.

Men have that luxury. Women have to think period.

Did you know that as soon as you start thinking, all those tasty burgers you've been eating start turning into heat? That's not right. Why'd you do that to burgers. I'm not a monster.

Depends on your definition of monster.

Charlize Theron.

And I'm clearly not Charlize Theron. I even have witnesses to back up that claim.

You are totally not as hot as Charlize Theron. I'll grant you that.

3:00 PM

Thank you. That's the first grant of my career.

Don't spend it all in one place. And now I must go from this place, and come back later. Ciao!

CU

3:33 PM

> An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one orders a beer. The second one orders half a beer. The third one orders a fourth of a beer. The bartender stops them, pours two beers and says, "You're all a bunch of idiots."

@Mitch

[ SmokeDetector ] Offensive answer detected: What do you call the base amount for a loan, investment etc? by Jeff on english.stackexchange.com

@RegDwigнt Oy!

You're not wrong, of course, but oy!

I'm looking at a job offer. What do "Life and AD&D", "401(k)" and "Summer Hours" mean?

> We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes:
- Medical, Dental and Vision
- Life and AD&D
- 401(k)
- Flexible Spending Accounts
- Transit Accounts
- Tuition Assistance
- Summer Hours

Advanced dungeons and dragons? 401,000 a yer? Daylight saving time? WTF?

@Robusto any idea? ^^

Accidental Death and Disability. Attention Deficit and Disorder. Ahead Damn The Dorpedoes!

401k is the document/paragraph number of the federal soemthety something that provides for personal tax deferrred saving, i.e. it is the label used for a retirement account.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@terdon The first two are insurance. 401k is retirement savings. Summer Hours usually means shifting or reducing your working week during the summer so you get more weekend time off.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Ah. So, AD&D is "Accidental Death and Disability', really? I get compensated if I die on the job? And what are retirement savings?

A kind of pension?

3:44 PM

Flexible Spending accounts (which you ommitted because it is so obviously boring and meanigless) is extremely meaningful for health care spending. BEcause money (and health (and money for health)) is so perverse, medical insurance doesn't pay for a lot of things.

@terdon yes, it's the new name for pension (or how pension is handled)

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@terdon usually it means the employer contributes to your savings.

once you retire, you withdraw from those savings.

The first part of AD&D is for your family. The second part is if you're still alive but are prevented from working.

@Mitch Oh, I assumed that was an actual spending account. As in, they send me somewhere and I get pocket money.

@Mitch Right

OK, thanks guys.

@terdon No. not at all. are you effing crazy?

Well, the job in question does actually involve being sent to conferences abroad so I expect some kind of spending account will be needed.

3:47 PM

The flexible spending is for things that med insurance doesn't cover, like special dental procedures (not even cosmetic, unless having teeth is considered cosmetic) that are real expensive. So you put money ahead of time into the account -pre tax- and pay with that. Sort of a discount because you don't have to pay tax on that amount.

Wow. That will take some getting used to if I move to the States. I've never lived anywhere without a public health system.

@terdon i don't think an FSA is for that. Company travel - you either book it through a company assistant (who pays for it), yourself through a company credit card (paid), or your personal credit card and get reimbursed (keep your receipts!!!!).

@terdon US and health money is messed up.

@Mitch Yes. Which I've always known and from which I've derived a certain sense of schadenfreude. Looks like it might get a bit more personal.

@terdon Also, people come to the US thinking it's the best thing ever, but it's nothing like the movies.

Tell me about it. I want to have lived in the US while not really wanting to live there. Unfortunately, I can't really do the one without the other.

3:52 PM

@terdon Lot's of great things. But not the movie stuff

@Mitch What? No guns sold in supermarkets?

@terdon You almost have to have a car (but you might be able to get away without one if you live in a big enough city)

@terdon No, just alcohol. For the guns you have to go next door to the Walmart or Total Blow-Out Guns and Arrows Super Store (the arrows are an afterthought, for the women-folk and sissies)

ha ha. that's not everywhere. Also you need a car to get there.

We have the best effing air conditioning in the world, and screen windows to keep out the bugs when you want a breeze.

Also big effing jars of Nutella. I'm sure you can get those in Europe but it doesn't taste as good there without the air conditioning.

All stores are open 24 hours a day. (that's not totally true, you should call first)

@Mitch Big effin everythings of everything as far as I can tell. I have been there a few times.

Gah, I remember the first time I went to the states as a teenager and I kept trying to find one woman who wasn't big enough for me to hide myself and all my luggage behind.

And my distress when, after bravely managing to finish the bucket of coke that came with my food, the waitress just refills the damn thing with no comment!

4:11 PM

@terdon haha...that's the south.

@terdon to put a terible spin on that, that shows how well business optimization is, the cost of producing blind calories is so minimal, that food business doesn't care about quantity at all.

Yup.

@terdon Accidental Death and Disability, as @Mitch said.

4:35 PM

Hey all, wanting a quick opinion on something - how exhaustive do answers need to be? Should they be as complete as possible, and beyond the scope of the question? I'm happy to raise this on meta, but I'm keen to get an informal opinion.

@Robusto Thanks

@jimsug I'd say same as any other site. Answering the question is enough. Going the extra mile will be appreciated.

@terdon Sounds about right. Okay. I might sit on this for a while, it's not really a problem yet.

2 hours later…

6:23 PM

Persimmons are the most delicious thing on Earth

Is "kit" a prefix for small? (kitten, kit fox)

@jimsug We often prefer citations if we can get them. Good use of examples is always welcome. Although I have a few one- or two-sentence answers that have received a lot of upvotes, that's rare. Average answer length varies, but I would say I'm at around four to eight sentences where a @tchrist or a @svenyargs would be double or triple that.

Matt E. Эллен

6:47 PM

@jimsug For a single word request, answers must be more than the single word. "I think floogle is the word you're looking for" is not acceptable.

otherwise, enough detail that you think you've answered the question for someone who doesn't know the answer, rather than for someone who does.

7:01 PM

0

A: Would you italicize chapatis?

Regarding chapatti itself, I recall that the word was not set off either in quotes or italics the first time I read it in a novel several decades ago. This may be due to the fact that it's a British novel that deals with a former British possession, or that it's a first-person narrative by a ...

There is a good example of how I answer questions when I feel like going into a little depth. As you can see, it's not exhaustive by any means, though I hope you will agree that it is at least informative.

what is difference between "now" and "right now" ?

Matt E. Эллен

@crl kit is a shortening of kitten which comes from Anglo-Norman kitoun

@Sajad right is an intensifier. it is meant to make now seem more immediate

but I think "right now" seems more immediate, is it not ?!

@crl No. It's not a prefix at all. And "kit" is probably a shortened form of kitten.

@Sajad How is that different from what @Matt said?

@Robusto ah, sorry, I got wrong ...!

@MattE.Эллен thanks

Matt E. Эллен

7:10 PM

no problem

@MattE.Эллен You should get his email address in case you have a problem later.

You never know.

Matt E. Эллен

:D

7:43 PM

ok, thanks for the enlightenment on kit

2 hours later…

10:09 PM

@Robusto "Kitten", in turn, is probably the past participle of "kite".

@MετάEd Or "kitteh"?

10:26 PM

qui t'es?

@crl Who am I? Who are you?

Las reglas insisten en que no se hable.

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Oct '152

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