English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

David Wallace

12:21 AM

@Cerberus You mean it occurred more than once?

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Oh, what, I am supposed to keep count?

David Wallace

If you need to count in order to distinguish "once" from "more than once", then, well, yes.

Cerberus

All right, next time I'll try to count.

David Wallace

Don't, if it will be too challenging.

Cerberus

Is she hawt or what?

Jez

12:53 AM

Reasons to do your market research: when it first launched, Coca Cola marketed their water as "bottled spunk" in the UK

@Cerberus Shemale

Cerberus

@Jez Eww.

@Jez Naaaah.

I don't think so.

Jez

i do

the face is very masculine

Cerberus

Not very.

Robusto

1:07 AM

@Cerberus That's so not like you.

Cerberus

Well.

I was just amazed at how good she looked with that leg.

Good in a somewhat cheap way, but still.

Robusto

1:27 AM

@Cerberus Something wrong with cheap?

Cerberus

You can't brag about how expensive your thing was?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:56 AM

Ah, security theatre. Will society ever grow tired of this show?

Cerberus

What's going on?

> I teach English to international students. One of them is a shy 9-year-old who has been here for four months. One day she wore a T-shirt to her class that said, "Don't hate me cuz I'm beautiful. (And in larger, bolder print) [Expletive] me cuz I'm HOT."

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I was thinking of a conversation I had with a parent at my daughter's daycare

Cerberus

What did she say?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus ok that's just wrong.

Cerberus

nods

I can think of exactly one expletive.

It can't be anything else, can it?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:58 AM

@Cerberus he and I were discussing the requirement that the daycare has regarding parent-volunteers for field-trips: you must have a police background check before you can go on the trip

@Cerberus no, I don't think it could be anything else.

Cerberus

Does the field trip involve longer periods where one parent is alone with a child?

@MrShinyandNew安宇 OK.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

So I started saying how it was pointless to do background checks on the parents and he was like "well, then some pedophile will be diddling your daughter"

Cerberus

Haha.

I hope you responded, "and a meteor will fall on your daughter"?

You should have told him that you felt it was irresponsible to have a gathering of children unprotected by a meteor-proof roof.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus no, they precisely don't, and anyway, it's irrelevant, because convicted pedophiles who have children in my daughter's class are probably not going to be signing up anyway. It's only the people who don't have criminal records who are likely to be a threat. And given that they have no anonymity or plausible deniability they are not likely to engage in anything untoward.

Cerberus

Why won't convicted pedophiles sign up?

I needed a police statement when I was hired to work with children.

And these are high-schoolers.

I agree that it probably won't make much of a difference.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:03 AM

@Cerberus yes, hired. You weren't the parent of one of the children involved, paying your own money to send your child there.

Cerberus

Then again, at work I am rarely alone with children, while I have been tutoring children at home for years.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 True.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus I just think it's incredibly unlikely that a convicted pedophile would be in the position of being the parent at the daycare who is volunteering for a field trip. Most pedophiles are restricted from even going to a daycare and probably don't have access to their own children.

Cerberus

I think we have had the discussion about current attitudes towards paedophiles and risks, with Kit.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

we have

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 They may be legally restricted; but who is going to find out?

I have no idea how that works?

When some paedophile is arrested, the news sometimes says that he had been arrested before.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:06 AM

@Cerberus Their parole officer? I dunno. If someone was convicted of a serious crime like that, it's likely that they are simply not allowed to be near a daycare under any circumstances.

Cerberus

Someone is following him every day?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus sure, there are repeat offenders. And they're not always convicted, etc, etc. But we're talking about known pedophiles among the group of parents whose children are going on the field trip. what are the odds? It's ridiculous.

Cerberus

Does the field trip involve a sleep-over somewhere?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

No

This is for ANY field trip that this daycare operates

Cerberus

Then I'd say the risk is just too low.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:07 AM

Note that public schools, also including my daughter's other daycare which is run in a school, have no such requirements. Parents, grandparents, whatever, you volunteer, you're welcome to come.

Cerberus

Working at a daycare or going on a trip that takes several days, in some house in the woods—those might be situations where a background check wouldn't hurt. Otherwise I think it's silly.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus for employees, I would agree that it couldn't hurt. For parents on long trips it's probably not necessary. My parents volunteered on lots of trips, including some overnight ones, and never had anything like a background check.

Cerberus

It depends on the situation.

What will they be doing?

What ages are the children?

How is it organised?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I mean, out of all the field trips ever taken by students, have there ever been cases where students were abused by a parental volunteer, and the abuse started on that trip? What is the percentage? And most importantly: would any of those cases have been prevented with a police check? I bet maybe zero cases would have been prevented, out of almost zero occurrences.

Cerberus

Suppose the children are 6 years old, the children sleep in single bedrooms, there is no way to see what's happening at night, and children go to and from their rooms all the time during the day, and you have twenty adults walking around too.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Perhaps. If that is so, and the trip is no different from those average trips, then it wouldn't make sense, of course.

Some children needs their medicines at various times. Others need bandages, comforting because they are homesick, etc. etc.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:12 AM

@Cerberus Yes, you can concoct a situation where the parents are being placed in a high level of trust and there is great potential for abuse, then it might make sense to consider the possibility. But there are so many precautions you can take, like never having two adults alone, or never having the children alone, or whatever.

But again, you are only going to catch the volunteer parents who have already been caught in the past.

Cerberus

Two adults alone? Oh, my...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

er, I mean, always requiring at least two adults together

Cerberus

Hehe.

You just sounded very modern-day-Victorian.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

cuz that's totally me, right? I'm all about being Victorian

Cerberus

Assuming that either sex could fondle either sex when left alone for a second, and that their precious innocence would have been destroyed.

Your world must look...threatening.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:15 AM

@Cerberus snorts yeah, it's a veritable mine-field.

Cerberus

As long as you wear your chastity belt, you will survive.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

between the pedophiles, and the terrorists, and the people who are wrong on the internet, it's amazing I can sleep at night.

Cerberus

Especially the latter!!

Jesus.

It's Hell.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I, er, may have accidentally gotten into an argument with a crazy fundamentalist orthodox jew.

Cerberus

The guy in Taiwan, huh.

I smelled Judaism.

I knew it.

I mean, what!?—you, in an argument? And with a crazy fundamentalist Jew? Shocking.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:19 AM

oh.. yeah, actually he is jewish too. but I meant a different crazy jew.

a blogger

Cerberus

Oh.

Not Ron?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

ron?

Cerberus

Never mind.

He's not that crazy. He just feels that all professional physicists are wrong and he knows better.

So who is your new sparring partner?

Should I be jealous?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Aaaaaaaaaanyway, I shouldn't have bothered posting, but I thought "surely this clear and straightforward explanation will illuminate this gentleman", but then he was ignoring what I wrote, making up new shit, twisting everything I said, and being rude, so I eventually gave up. But also, I'd already posted a couple replies on that one post when I read some of his other posts and I realized that I'd made a huge mistake in even coming to this blog.

I should know better, I really should

but the crazy guy's blog is here

Cerberus

> surely this clear and straightforward explanation will illuminate this gentleman

Are you xcdk?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:22 AM

you mean "This is important: someone is wrong on the Internet!"? Yes, yes I am.

Cerberus

Yes.

> I was raised as a non-practicing Lutheran by my adopted parents and I converted to Judaism at age 16. This blog as a rule follows the teachings of the Lithuanian rabbinical seminaries of the 1920s and 1930s. Specifically, I have been very influenced by the recordings and writings of Rabbi Avigdor Miller obm.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

But I actually thought that I had a novel rebuttal to his post. At least none of the other comments had taken that approach.

Cerberus

This says it all.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Just because someone is a convert to judaism and an orthodox at that doesn't mean they can't see reason at all.

Robusto

hey, @Cerb, how would you say "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink" in ancient Greek?

Cerberus

2:26 AM

Robusto

Wait, that ain't Greek.

Cerberus

@Robusto Are you in a similar position as Mrs? I would have to think about it, and getting the accents right would take me an hour...

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Well. I suppose not.

Robusto

I can wait.

Cerberus

What do you need it for?

I would have to study the correct application of accents to verbs...

Robusto

A friend was wondering. I said I might know someone who could do it. If it really is a bother, never mind. It's not that important.

Cerberus

2:28 AM

With perispomena and all.

@Robusto I can come up with a quick and sloppy version that at least makes sense in Greek, but lacks accents and is probably not stylistically correct.

Robusto

@Cerberus I'm sure he ain't too fussy. He always tries to speak German to me and absolutely murders the accent.

Cerberus

Haha.

Do you want it in Greek letters or in Latin translitteration?

Robusto

@Cerberus Greek letters, of course.

Cerberus

All right.

How free can the translation be?

Robusto

BTW, it may interest you to know that Leonidas' famous reply to Xerxes demand that the Spartan surrender his weapons (Μολών λαβέ) has been put onto bumper stickers by gun nuts here in America. Surprisingly literate for rednecks, IMO. Well, we're talking Massachusetts rednecks.

@Cerberus Pretty free, but it should have "horse" and "water" in it, I should think.

Cerberus

2:45 AM

> Ἱππον εἰς ὑδωρ ἀγειν ἐξεστιν, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀν πίοιτο.

@Robusto "It is possible to lead a horse to water, but it may not drink."

Robusto

Thank you.

Cerberus

I am not responsible for stylistic damage!

Robusto

I'm sure any such will go roundly undetected.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus I'm holding you responsible

Cerberus

And I need at least three accents that I have skipped.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Nooo...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:46 AM

you can't just go around damaging stylistically and then disclaiming it

There are rules you know

Robusto

Did the Greeks use commas? Somehow I doubt it, but ...

Cerberus

@Robusto Oh, that is funny. In that case I am pro guns from now on.

@Robusto Not consistently.

I used modern punctuation and spacing.

Robusto

That's fine.

Cerberus

I'm also quite sure that minuscles from the classical era looked vastly different.

Accentuation was also different.

But this is the modern, humanist way we normally use now.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

能带领马水但不能把它喝

hm on second thought I'm not satisfied with that one

能带领马水但不能让它喝

better

Cerberus

2:57 AM

Looks pretty.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

The actual chinese idiom is about a cow, not a horse
牛不饮水，不能按牛头低

(It means: If the cow isn't drinking, you can't push it's head down (and force it))

@Cerberus There's way more to Chinese writing than fancy lines. There's also pointless complexity, cryptic ambiguity, confusing lack of punctuation, and missing or misleading pronunciation cues.

For example: the word 按 (àn) is pronounced similar to 安 (ān). But the word 让 (ràng) is not pronounced like 上 (shàng)

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Yay!

> Ἱππον μέν εἰς ὕδωρ ἄγειν ἔξεστιν, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἂν πίοιτο.

@Rob: A somewhat improved version, with the right accents.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:13 AM

I spent my chinese class this evening discussing lego minifigs with the teacher and the other student. It's rather amusing. My teacher is an old, gay, white, American, who doesn't really understand why his two adult students buy lego minifigs.

Cerberus

(I just copied them from existing texts.)

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Of course gay Americans don't understand minifigs. Barbarians.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Google translate says "Horse mέn exestin agein in water, but would not have pίoito."

Cerberus

Haha.

Very...interesting.

It got "horse", "water", "but", and "not" right.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

hey, now that I know what it is supposed to mean, I can almost read the word Ἱππον

Cerberus

But I see I got the wrong accent on men.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Good!

It says Ippon, and the comma is the h.

So hippon.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:16 AM

That little dot above the I is the h, then ... dammit I was going to write that

Cerberus

Yup.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

but I didn't know what the ν is

Cerberus

I actually need another accent next to the comma, but my unicode inputter won't let me.

You could have seen how Google "translated" men that v = n.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus I could have, but I wasn't trying that hard

Cerberus

Hehe.

Hippon is horse (object).

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:17 AM

I was happy enough to have remembered that hippo=horse

Cerberus

Men is a particle that should introduce a contrast, but it may be wrong here.

Eis = to/into.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

btw did I tell you that I named my Asus tablet "Asterion"?

Cerberus

Aww.

Little star?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

No, it's supposed to be the Minotaur's given name

don't tell me wikipedia let me down?!

Cerberus

All right.

Then the Minotaur's given name was little star?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:19 AM

don't you know the minotaur's given name? isn't that the kind of thing you should know? of all the people here or anywhere?

Cerberus

Alas, I know very little.

Asterios means starry.

So asterion would be neuter.

So "starry animal".

Or possibly diminutive "little star".

But that isn't in the dictionary.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

> In Greek mythology, Asterion ("starry", "ruler of the stars") denotes two sacred kings of Crete.

Asterion

In Greek mythology, Asterion ("starry", "ruler of the stars") denotes two sacred kings of Crete. The first Asterion (Ancient Greek: ) or Asterius (), the son of Tectamus son of Dorus called by the Greeks "king" of Crete, was the consort of Europa and stepfather of her sons by Zeus, who had to assume the form of the Cretan bull of the sun to accomplish his role. The sons were Minos, the just king in Crete who judged the Underworld; Rhadamanthus, presiding over the Garden of the Hesperides or in the Underworld; and Sarpedon, likewise a judge in the Afterlife. When he died, Asterion gave hi...

I would have thought that our resident greek-o-phile would know all this stuff

Cerberus

I once tried to convert a Greek booklet on mythology into a genealogy of Greek gods and goddesses.

I started with one page.

Then I had to glue another page to the first one.

Then another.

> Ἱππον μὲν εἰς ὕδωρ ἄγειν ἔξεστιν, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἂν πίοιτο.

This is with the correct accent on men.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

see? after all that work, you forgot it all?... wait, I guess that's characteristic of you. ok, nevermind :)

So here is Asterion's avatar:

He has an avatar because he has his own google account so that he can be reached by google-talk no matter who is using the tablet at that time.

Cerberus

Hahaha great.

He's cute.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:29 AM

Well, I should get going. Time waits for no man, or man-bull-hybrid.

Cerberus

Say hi to Asterion!

Or are you on him now?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

no, the tablet isn't good for chat like this, it's hard to type on the screen

he's sleeping

but I'm going to wake him to play a bit of Samurai vs Zombies

anyway, cya later

Cerberus

Bye!

Meysam

4:51 AM

Is the plural form of "rich" (riches), pronounced like "reaches"?

Mahnax

I don't pronounce it like reaches.

Meysam

@Mahnax is it pronounced like "richs"? without 'e'?

Mahnax

@Meysam I pronounce it rich-ehs.

Sort of.

You know that upside-down IPA e?

That's the eh.

Meysam

@Mahnax Yea I know. I don't know why I had the wrong pronunciation of "reaches" on my mind. My mistake

Mahnax

@Meysam Alright.

Meysam

7:09 AM

Is it possible to replace "acquaintances of his" with something like "his acquaintances" in the following sentence?
"In Citizen Kane (1941), the story of Charles Foster Kane is told by five different acquaintances of his, each with varying opinions of the character"

Mahnax

Not really.

The different makes it hard.

Meysam

alright

Jez

9:05 AM

@Meysam no, but I would remove of his

Matt Эллен

I smell a Nortonn S Win Win1

hmmm, maybe not

Mahnax

I should go to bed.

Hello, by the way.

Matt Эллен

you should have gone to bed hours ago, young man!

Hello :)

Mahnax

Ah, it's only 3:19.

Matt Эллен

don't get into a sleep cycle like Cerb. You'll start forgetting everything

Mahnax

9:20 AM

Hehe, I'll try not to.

good, good

No promises though!

On your bed be it!

What?

It's a pun?

9:22 AM

Uh…

How?

Matt Эллен

a pun on "on your head be it" but bed rhymes with head and you're avoiding sleep

Mahnax

I have never heard someone say "on your head be it".

That would explain why I didn't get it.

Matt Эллен

oh :(

May 3 at 16:02, by RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Another day, another sophisticated joke.

Mahnax

Sorry, I guess I'm not cultured enough.

locates yogurt

Matt Эллен

:D

On your head be it

Mahnax

9:24 AM

Yeah, I already looked it up.

Matt Эллен

oh! sorry :D

Mahnax

No need to apologize!

Matt Эллен

So why for are you up so late?

Mahnax

Oh, I was watching a TV show.

Also chatting with a friend.

Matt Эллен

is it good?

Mahnax

9:28 AM

Yeah, the first episode was good.

The Newsroom.

Matt Эллен

Very new.

Mahnax

Yep.

The first episode is on YouTube in its entirety.

No commercials or anything, it was good.

Matt Эллен

(0_0)

legally?

Mahnax

Yep.

HBO put it up.

Matt Эллен

gosh

Mahnax

9:31 AM

I was surprised too.

Anyways, I should sleep. Bye!

Matt Эллен

Yes! good night :)

RegDwight ΒВB

9:52 AM

Oh crap.

Just noticed this:

9

A: Which is the proper spelling: "disfunction" or "dysfunction"?

Merriam-Webster lists "disfunction" as a variant of "dysfunction" dys- is a Greek prefix meaning "bad", "abnormal", "difficult", or "impaired". dis- is a Latin prefix with none of the above meanings. dys- has the right meaning, but "function" is a Latin word. Hence the confusion.

Matt Эллен

Crap?

RegDwight ΒВB

Copied verbatim from elsewhere with no attribution.

Now I have to delete it.

But it's the best answer.

Someone should reword and repost or something.

Matt Эллен

Can't you edit it to include the proper attribution?

I can edit it

RegDwight ΒВB

It's gone.

Matt Эллен

oh

RegDwight ΒВB

9:55 AM

Do not edit. Delete on sight. Network-wide policy. If we get hit with a DMCA takedown notice, you are showing prior knowledge.

Matt Эллен

but if one edits it, surely you won't be hit with one?

RegDwight ΒВB

The whole point ot the excercise is, "you never know". Of course in practice nobody will ever give a shit even if you don't. But theoretically they might.

I'm no fan of all these legislations, as you will know, but you will also know my stance that if a law is crap it should be changed rather than broken.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwightΒВB I don't really understand, but that's ok. Can an answer that reference the forum be given?

@RegDwightΒВB yes, I agree with you (of course)

RegDwight ΒВB

Of course. In fact you can just repost pretty much the same thing as a quote with attribution.

Something similar happened to one of Carlo's questions just the other day.

It was a nice question, actually. But he went off on a tangent for which he used a verbatim quote from The Phrase Finder with no attribution. That was doubly silly, because it added nothing and in fact distracted from the question at hand. The question itself could have been summed up in one sentence. Instead there were like five paragraphs, one of them stolen.

Matt Эллен

d'oh! Carlo is a little over enthusiastic

RegDwight ΒВB

10:06 AM

english.stackexchange.com/questions/72389/…

I hope someone asks it again. With all the fluff removed.

RegDwight ΒВB

10:23 AM

@Matt: s/it's/its/. You have three minutes :P

Matt Эллен

thanks!

RegDwight ΒВB

Hooray for boobies.

Jez

11:28 AM

sigh, i need to refactor my backup program's code but i really can't be bothered.

I'm gonna play Colonization instead

Robusto

@Cerberus Muchas gracias.

JonW

Can I run a test-question past you before I post to the main site, incase it's OT here?

It's about uses of footnotes, particularly in online sites (such as Wikipedia or even StackExchange). When should references be provided in-line, and when should they be given a footnote so the reference is found at the end of the content? Is that on-topic for this site?

I'm mostly curious about what format to use when posting answers / questions in SE sites really, so trying to find out the correct rules for the use of footnotes.

It might even belong on MetaStackOverflow rather than here, tbh.

KitFox

12:15 PM

@JonW I don't think it is on-topic here, but probably on topic for Writers

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JonW That sort of question is off-topic here

But also, footnote/citation style is often prescribed by a style guide for wherever you expect your work to be published.

KitFox

There might be an existing question over there.

So @MrShiny, I think I might have to get an iPad for my kids.

The little one has been playing with my new one all morning.

Problem is, we'd have to get two or else they would fight over it all the time.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox Nah, just make them take turns

My kids fight over the tablet and I just take it away if they can't share

There are tears for a few minutes but they deal.

Ok this is awesome: buildwithchrome.com

KitFox

12:34 PM

Oh, I know. I was just being funny.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox ah, right. I should have guessed.

> A neighbour who stabbed elderly woman he called a second mom 91 times, is sentenced to life in prison.

He called her a second mom 91 times? And she still didn't hear him? no wonder he got mad at her

KitFox

I can't conceive of stabbing someone 91 times. There is just not enough room.

►

RegDwight ΒВB

@KitFox I can't conceive of stabbing someone 9 times, say. But 91 is just as plausible as 1.

JonW

@MrShinyandNew安宇 OK cheers, I'll go investigating elsewhere on SE.

KitFox

@MrShiny, I posted a request for help over in The Overlook, if you are interested in doing something randomly useful that might help me write.

@RegDwightΒВB Right, yes. That's what I meant. Stabbing people is not something I think about doing.

Not even once.

RegDwight ΒВB

12:41 PM

Nah, what I'm saying is once you're in rage you stop counting.

I'd probably stop or even freeze after the first stab or two. But once I've stabbed nine times, I may as well stab another ninety.

So one makes sense (that's when your brain stops you) and ninety makes sense (that's when you're just physically exhausted), but nine is neither here nor there — it's a figure you arrive at when you get interrupted from the outside.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I just wonder how they can tell that he stabbed her 91 times. Where there 91 individual wounds? You stab one spot enough times and you end up with something that resembles hamburger rather than an incision

RegDwight ΒВB

I think people doing that kind of counting are way more experienced in these things. It's their whole job.

Matt Эллен

Quincy: Stab Counter

RegDwight ΒВB

Plus of course it doesn't really matter if it was 91 or 92. Chances are, the very first one was lethal.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@RegDwightΒВB Oh, I know they're experienced. I just wonder how accurate their technique is at distinguishing the 89th cut from the 90th, then deciding that "91" was the actual total instead of "over 90" or "OVER 9000"

@KitFox I'm not sure how I can help, kit

RegDwight ΒВB

12:50 PM

Again, I think these people are smart enough and experienced enough to be the very first to eagerly admit that their figure is an educated guess.

I think they will have very conservative methods, too. So we can take a 91 to mean 134, but never 34.

0

Q: Difference between "swims among turtles" and "swims among the turtles"?

I was wondering which of the following is the proper sentence: The woman swims among turtle, or The woman swims among the turtles. Or are they both valid under different contexts? Thanks.

Should go straight to the ESL proposal.

Title doesn't match body. NARQ.

Matt Эллен

It took me several reads to notice the difference

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@RegDwightΒВB sigh obviously. conservative, yes, but significant digits, man! If you say "90" that implies one significant digit. If you say 91 it implies two. So it's just odd that they say she was stabbed 91 times instead of "over 90", as if they precisely know that it was 91, no more, no less. It doesn't matter, I just find it odd.

RegDwight ΒВB

Oh, that.

But what I'm saying is that the whole point of a conservative method is that every digit is significant. Whether or not it's zero.

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