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3:00 PM
People often face backwards to row. If you were moving one oar from one side of the boat to the other, you might pass it over the stern.
 
I think having an oar over the stern is like having an improvised rudder
oh, yeah, or that
 
oh, I didn't read the quote
he has his back to the squall
Sculling generally refers to a method of using oars to propel watercraft in which the oar or oars touch the water on both the port and starboard sides of the craft, or over the stern. By extension, the oars themselves are also often referred to as sculls when used in this manner, and the boat itself may be referred to as a scull. Two-oar sculling Two-oared sculling is a form of rowing—both competitive and recreational—in which a boat is propelled by one or more rowers, each of whom operates two oars, one held in the fingers of each hand. This contrasts with the other common method of ...
Maybe that's what is happening
@birdman1234 you should probably read up on sailing, rowing, boating, ship, etc jargon
 
So
the effect is the oar is above the stern side
like
a blanket over the face.
?
this "Over"
 
thanks
on the other side of WW2. means the end of it?
 
3:12 PM
after the end of it
 
Oh after
Thank you
 
Does the search engine allow boolean?
Or quotes?
I mean, the quotes would tell the search engine to search the entire phrase within the quotes.
 
184
Q: A new search engine for Stack Exchange

Nick CraverAfter the performance problems we have run into with Lucene.NET we've decided to make a change, we're moving the network on to elasticsearch. Here's where to get started: http://stackoverflow.com/search What works: All search operators should be in Many changes below from the old search behav...

 
3:29 PM
So, SE is currently powered by Lucene.NET?
 
@DamkerngT. I think they moved over last year to elastic search
 
Ah, I see.
What about the rest of the backend? .NET too?
 
oh yeah, SE is a .NET system for the most part
I don't even know if they have anything non-microsoft
 
Oh! I thought it was PHP. Thanks for letting me know.
 
no probs
 
3:36 PM
@Mitch No, no, not blasé. You're thinking of a boring French composer.
 
> He died in Paris.
It would be funny if that was all the wiki article said
 
3:55 PM
When I read an answer begins with "Dear, the thing is ..." it spooks me every time.
Especially when the answer is good without "Dear, ".
 
Does anyone have problems logging in?
The SE sites are taking very long to load for me.
 
Not me. But I didn't log in for two months already.
By the way, you look different again. :-)
 
I've been logged in for a while, so no. chat stuttered a while ago
 
I log in all the time, I store nothing in the browser.
 
in The Bridge, 31 mins ago, by Frank
ARQADE IS DOWN! EVERYBODY PANIC!
 
3:57 PM
I just spent a thousand dollars on books from amazon.com.
 
@JasperLoy I'm the same at work, but I haven't closed the browser all day
@JasperLoy wow.
that's a lot
 
Congratulations!
 
@MattЭллен Some very expensive hardcovers.
 
(To both Jasper and Amazon.)
 
I won't buy any more books for a long time to come.
 
3:58 PM
@DamkerngT. mostly Amazon lol
 
@skullpatrol :P
 
These books are very important to me, I will carry them with me to the grave.
It is now midnight.
 
hopefully it will not take that long to read them...
 
so you're 8 hours ahead!
interesting
 
You are at GMT?
Is there DST?
 
4:00 PM
aye
yes. BST. starts at some point
it's not BST now
 
So tomorrow my mum will be visiting the relatives, and I will probably stay at home.
 
@JasperLoy Should I Happy New Chinese Year to you?
 
I have some conflicts with several relatives, I will write a letter to them when I am ready.
@DamkerngT. No need, I am not too keen on the event, lol.
 
I see. I see.
I hope things would work out well for you, anyway.
 
Is it a holiday in Thailand?
 
4:03 PM
Nope.
 
But I thought there are many Chinese there.
 
But many are on the street over a week already. :-)
 
Are you Buddhist then?
 
@JasperLoy Yes. So a holiday, unofficially.
Yup.
 
Happy New Year
 
4:04 PM
@DamkerngT. There is a famous four-faced Buddha statue there near Hyatt Erawan.
 
Oh, yes.
Have you been there?
 
@skullpatrol Nice blue.
@DamkerngT. Yes, several times when I was young. I am old now, 33, lol.
 
Not as nice as you.
 
I see. I see. :-)
 
Anyway, World Cup is coming!
 
4:07 PM
to Qatar?
 
| image = WC-2014-Brasil.svg | size = 160px | caption = 2014 FIFA World Cup logo | country = Brazil | dates = 12 June – 13 July | confederations = 5 | num_teams = 32 | venues = 12 | cities = 12 | champion = | count = | second = | third = | fourth = | matches = | goals = | attendance = | top_scorer = | player = | goalkeeper = | young_player = | prevseason = 2010 | nextseason = 2018 }} The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th F...
 
@JasperLoy Don't even start.
 
Let's try Lion Dance...
 
@DamkerngT. I saw on the news about the ongoing riots or demonstrations.
 
Oh, yes.
Too bad that's a fact. :(
 
4:12 PM
Your country is one of the few which has a Theravada Buddhism tradition.
 
7
Stack Overflow (in Canadian)

Proposed Q&A site for Canadian techies. So here's the thing, eh? When I write a question I don't want the topic to confuse Americans when I use metric, get in a debate about poutine or maple syrup, or go to the gutter if I talk about beavers.

Currently in definition.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇
 
@MattЭллен Erm don't Canadians speak English?
 
"Out of a cloud, I snatched a speck of stardust---impossible, you might say---but don't worry, your temporal existence is itself but a sentence of the Grand Novel of God's imagination. Out into the clearness of crackling night danced my soul. Ha, a playful fey, come back soon, or I will be a hull to be sent back into the soil, dry, filthy, oh worms and all, tickling my skin, my rotting skin! My soul, is it also coming with me? Or what is it pursuing but a more permanent existence on Earth's bed.
What do you think of this?
 
@birdman1234 Somebody wants to be James Joyce, but can't.
 
I mean grammar...
errors.
 
4:14 PM
@birdman1234 Did you write it?
 
yeah
 
So you are learning to write like Dickens?
 
no...just an experiment.
 
I am not a writing expert, so I cannot comment.
 
Maybe xe's learning to write like the dickens.
 
4:15 PM
can you point out grammatical errors if any.
 
@MattЭллен followed!
 
@birdman1234 Should the last line end with a question mark instead?
 
oh yes...thank you
any others?
 
None I could see.
 
4:17 PM
thanks.
Shiny what do u think?
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I did not know you were bald until you told us that day, lol.
 
@birdman1234 hm?
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Of his writing above.
 
my prose up there
 
@JasperLoy It's not exactly a secret. Except in winter, when I wear a toque.
@birdman1234 You wrote that? For realz?
 
4:20 PM
yea
what do you think?
as a native speaker?
 
It's flowery and poetic.
 
any grammatical errors?
 
> Out into the clearness of crackling night danced my soul
er, oops
> Or what is it pursuing but a more permanent existence on Earth's bed.
I'd write:
> Or what is it pursuing, but a more permanent existence on Earth's bed?
Otherwise I don't see any grammatical errors.
 
with a comma?
I see. thank you.
 
Yes. I won't insist that you put it in, but that's what I'd write
 
4:24 PM
Thank you.
 
Hey.
 
hey is for horses.
 
I realised that the different amazons (amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca etc) carry different products and have different prices.
 
@RegDwigнt Which German form? Verstanden? I...don't think so? Maybe caricaturally, but I don't know.
So it's not right?
 
4:27 PM
@JasperLoy indeed. they even compete with each other in some respects.
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 So far, for my purposes, the US one is cheapest and has the most books.
 
0
Q: progressive forms: participle or gerund?

rogermueProgressive forms of verbs consist of a form of to be + participle. At least that is what most English grammars say or they are imprecise and speak of ing-form. My question is what follows after the forms of to be? - I'm working in the garden. Is working here a present participle or rather a ger...

 
what is a last star?
 
@Cerberus rheinische Verlaufsform
 
what does it mean? I couldn't find it in my dictionary
 
4:28 PM
Last star?
Where did you see it?
 
Sentence please.
 
@Cerberus the Rhine progressive.
Ich bin am Machen. Du bist am Schwimmen. Wir sind am Chatten.
Als rheinische Verlaufsform oder am-Progressiv bezeichnet man eine unter anderem in rheinischen Dialekten übliche grammatikalische Variante. Diese ist auch in angrenzenden Gebieten und Dialekten bekannt und wird dort entsprechend als Ruhrpott-Verlaufsform oder westfälische Verlaufsform bezeichnet. Solche Klassifizierungen sind allerdings irreführend, da sich diese Satzkonstruktion im gesamten westdeutschen Sprachraum bis in die Schweiz nachweisen lässt. Sie besteht darin, statt zum Beispiel „Ich arbeite gerade“ eine der englischen Progressiv-Konstruktion ähnliche Form zu verwenden: „Ich bin...
No wiki in any language but German, but I am not asking about German anyway, I have German covered myself.
I am asking about Dutch.
@RegDwigнt You're right, this construction is perfectly normal in Dutch. Ik ben aan het koken = "I am cooking". — Cerberus 41 secs ago
Aha, excellent.
So in Dutch too, it uses the definite article, and is neuter.
So it's identical and obviously related to the German thingamajig, but is a far cry from the English progressive.
 
4:44 PM
That's progress
 
I see there's even a dedicated chat room now.
But I have no time to check it out right now, alas.
Will be back later.
 
@RegDwigнt Yes, without a doubt.
That guy is falling into the typical trap of amateur linguists: they focus too much on semantics, too little on syntax and morphology, when explaining a syntactic construction.
 
5:04 PM
@MattЭллен Thanks, by the way!
 
Hola!
 
5:20 PM
ahoy-hoy
 
+1 for the reference to the First Grammatical Treatise. Only just now do I realise what is meant by the phrasing “[Y] skal af því ina fyrri kvísl af hǫfuðstafs ui, sem áðr er þeim í stafrófi skipat”. It suddenly makes sense! — Janus Bahs Jacquet 3 hours ago
anybody have a clue what this person is talking about?
 
Dunno. Sounds snarky.
 
the guy has 6k rep and doesn't appear to be a troll
if only i understood old norse...
 
He's been around a bit.
I'm surprised you haven't noticed him before.
 
icelandic, not norse
google translate sez: "Y must be of the first branch of Ina hǫfuðstafs ui, which is before the alphabet arranged in"
which is surprisingly lucid
 
5:29 PM
@JSBձոգչ Janus is knowledgeable.
I respect him, he is usually right, and has even admitted it when he was wrong one time, which says something about a person.
 
My daughter: when the elephant sneezes, that means it's the end of the month.
Me: ... Wha?
My daughter: it's from the song. (singing) The elephant sneezed, and fell on its knees, and that was the end of the month!
 
5:45 PM
Oh. Yes. Of course. That song.
 
guys! guys guys guys guys guys!
TOP DECKING SEASON 2 IS OUT! @MattЭллен (and all other MTG folkses)
 
@mplungjan, @Andrew Leach, @FumbleFingers, @phenry, @Bradd, @Szonye, @RegDwigнt Comments don't allow multiple recipients, I hope chat does. About meta.english.stackexchange.com/q/4485/12918 I don't think closing a question for a wrong reason is good. OP himself says "While the title is a question, I'm just attempting to make people aware that none of the information that I've seen on this site has been correct and has only wasted my time".
so you can't say it's a duplicate of the question it's pointing to. Off-topic, fair-enough, but duplicate shows that the question (not the title) hasn't been read by those asking for closure and makes a point to OP's statement of english.se "contributing to the misinformation". Personally I'm not for closure but for debate to take place. Although I downvoted the question straight away, before transfer from main site, for reason explained in my comment(s).
 
@JSBձոգչ See, this is why I don't come to chat very often! I'm already too slow to keep up with you guys, and now I'll probably be delayed from making another post for several days while I watch Top Decking Season 1 (which I'd never heard of until now).
 
Hiya @Fumble.
 
@FumbleFingers oh, do watch season 1. it's very good.
also, i admit that i have a personal interest: the heavily bearded guy who plays Eric is one of my best friends
 
5:53 PM
@Laure I'm not sure that engaging in a rant about the utility of the site is helpful.
@JSBձոգչ Oh! Now I must go look.
 
@JSBձոգչ I could have killed the "mate" who got me hooked on Breaking Bad without telling me I'd have to wait 6 months to see the second half of the final season! But I guess I can manage one season of Top Decking so long as I know in advance there won't be a full season 2 for a while.
 
@KitFox hee hee. normally i think that mentioning personal connections will make people want to watch it less
 
@Laure What I think is the system has to choose some reason for the eventual "banner" saying why it was closed. In the case in point, I personally had a different rerason, which I explained in a comment. If everyone commented their closevotes your "issue" wouldn't matter much.
 
@Laure Close reasons on meta aren't really that important, IMO. That particular "question" doesn't actually ask a question except in its title. So you could close it as off-topic, I guess, but it's pretty much irrelevant.
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Can we read anything into the fact that IMHO most people include an "H" there?
 
5:59 PM
@FumbleFingers Those people are over-compensating.
 
@JSBձոգչ I feel like I know all these people already.
 
All my opinions are honest, as honest as the H in IMHO.
 
I thought...oh. I see.
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 So you reject the implied accusation of imperiousness?
 
@JSBձոգչ But now I feel sad because bad things are happening to my friends, so I have to stop watching it.
 
6:01 PM
@FumbleFingers Oh, you read the H as "humble"?
 
@KitFox start from the beginning! it's mostly happy
and funny
 
I read it as "honest"
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I don't think it's irrelevant. Off-topic would be a real reason. Saying it's a duplicate just makes OP's point. @FumbleFingers, RegDwigнt : how would you say in English "mettred de l'eau dans son moulin" ?
 
@JSBձոգչ Maybe after I finish the Guild. It does look funny.
 
i never got into the Guild
 
6:02 PM
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I guess secretly I could imagine I'm saying In My Haughty Opinion
 
@Laure The OP's point is that some people are uninformed, and he doesn't care how the site works. What does that have to do with a meta post having a wrong close reason?
 
@Laure My french isn't that good - is it something like "Don't shit on your own doorstep"
 
Do it for the love of it.
What does it mean?
Do it coz you like it?
 
@birdman1234 do it because you like it and/or approve of it, not for personal gain or other base motives
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Let it be closed as off topic, not as duplicate. It isn't a duplicate.
 
6:04 PM
i see. thank you
 
@Laure I agree that the close reason is wrong. But I don't see how it's important. It's a meta post.
Not just a meta post. A rant by someone who doesn't like our site and can't be bothered to understand it.
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 exactly the same issue can arise on main, though
 
@FumbleFingers Sure. Mistakes of any kind can happen on main. Sometimes they get corrected.
You can vote to reopen stuff.
 
@FumbleFingers I didn't know it in english because there's no equivalent (I just checked) it means sthg lioke it fuels/contributes to his (i.e. OP's) point of view.
 
@Laure oh right - the english eqv is all grist to the mill
 
6:06 PM
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Don't put gasoline on the fire.
Don't feed the trolls.
There are probably other good idioms.
 
@KitFox if i remember right, moulin = mill
 
@Laure So you're saying that the site picking one close reason out of possibly 5 unique reasons (We only know of one, FF's) gives the troll credibility in his assertion that we're all uninformed nitwits?
 
@FumbleFingers Puts the water in the wheelhouse.
 
@FumbleFingers I don't think so. More like fueling his fire. The literal translation is "put water on his mill", which I interpret as referring to a water-powered mill having more power since it has more water.
 
Thanks for all those!
 
6:09 PM
@KitFox never heard that one. On the post being discussed here I wanted to work in power to your elbow in my snarky endorsement of mari-lou's comment pointing out the OP's typo/spello
 
@KitFox Right, except Laure's expression didn't have a "don't"
 
Right.
Puts gas on the fire.
waves hands
 
exactly.
I think.
 
I like 'puts water in the wheelhouse.' I'm going to use that.
 
Anyway @Laure I agree that the close reason is wrong. However since the post doesn't seem to be in good faith, and it's on meta, I don't see why it's important.
 
6:10 PM
@KitFox (also hand-waving) I still say it's all adding grist to his mill
 
Maybe. I think of grist to the mill as things to think on.
 
I dn't - I think it means rubbish that can be put to "good" use churning out things like "saussage factory" troll complaints
 
Fair enough.
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Not exactly, saying it's a duplicate shows we haven't read his post, that does not mean we are nitwits, careless maybe ?
 
@KitFox check out some of "all grist to his mill" - he's not usually going to be thinking about the grist - just churning out more of whatever he already does, using any and all available material
 
6:15 PM
We're not the careless ones. He's the one who has titled his question in opposition to his post.
@FumbleFingers Oh I believe you.
 
grist to his mill ! Best equivalent thanks
 
@Laure Well, he might read that, or worse, into it, but given that the page only shows one close reason irrespective of how many there are, we can't be sure if only one person "didn't read the post", or if they did read the post, and charitably took him at his word that he was asking that question.
 
@KitFox A hit! A palpable hit! Someone should go back and post it as a comment!
 
A little more than grist, a little less than grind.
 
@Laure I'm not sure it means the same thing.
 
6:16 PM
@KitFox But he explains why....
 
> While the title is a question, I'm just attempting to make people aware that none of the information that I've seen on this site has been correct and has only wasted my time.
Which means, essentially, "I wanted people to read my complaint, and I didn't think they would waste their time doing so if I used that as the title."
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I'm sure the french and english saying will be "cognate". It's just that the french wouldn't worry about grist in their suassages (they already yum up snails, pigs trotters, etc. But they wouldn't want the saussage to be watery.
 
@Laure His explanation doesn't hold water. Anyway I think we should just delete the post. Any jerk can barge into a room and demand attention and respect. We are not obliged to provide it, though.
@FumbleFingers Now you're just being silly.
 
Anyway I'll think about fuel and grit and mills and compare and post a question if I can't tell the difference. Busy weekend ahead.
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I'm being a bit flipant, but I rreally do think they're cognate. Since I hate to "lose", I'm gonna ask on French.SO... I may be some time.....
 
6:20 PM
Dinner time here in France
 
Oh, and so you know, the close reason is the majority of the reasons given, or I think the first if it is evenly split.
 
@JSBձոգչ thanks!
 
@Laure fueling a fire makes the fire bigger. grist for the mill implies that it doesn't matter what it is, the miller will just grind it.
Example: Ignoring his question and providing wrong close reasons provides fuel for the fire of his argument. Our attempts to discuss the issue with him are just grist for his trolling mill.
That's my "H" opinion.
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 So it's fueling the fire I needed
 
@Laure yes, if you ask me
water powers the mill, fuel powers the fire
 
6:35 PM
can yo undertsnad yeats?
poet
 
More importantly, can yo undertseliot yeats?
 
what>>
yates.
O dpm't knpw
Je ne sais pas.
Je suis cremite
I must do it now or be made fun of by those people
what does it mean?
Is it correct?
 
@Laure if you're not bothered about hanging on to the "moulin" sense, consider that a common thing to say is "Don't egg him on!" Anglophones don't usually use the petrol/flames image in respect of helping a bad guy do more of whatever he's doing.
 
Speak for yourself, limey.
:-þ
;-Þ
:-o
 
I must do it now or be made fun of by those people
what does it mean?
 
6:44 PM
@KitFox okay - British Anglophones don't usually use it like that. We talk about petrol/flames in the context of situations more than people and their need for encouragement.
 
I'm just fanning the flames here. Pay no attention to me.
 
@username901345 presumably, just what it says. these people will make fun of me unless I do it
@KitFox watch it, or I shall piss on your parade. Or piss on your boots and tell you it's raining, as you yanks say.
 
@FumbleFingers egg on, cnot sure it's the same. Referring to 5th of november?
 
Gunpowder treason. Oh touché.
 
I should really visit more often, learning lots of new expressions. Nice when at an age you think you know it all....
 
6:48 PM
@Laure I'm always sure (even when I'm wrong! :) But this time I'm right - see egg someone on
 
Had looked before I answered.. lots of opened windows on my computer
 
@Laure the downside for the likes of me (and you?) is that we can't keep up with these young scallywags who can type fast and accurate and run several conversation threads at once.
 
My favourite on the net : phrases.org.uk/meanings/egg-on.html. I've got those things made of paper that sit on shelves as well. Of that generation!
 
Origami cranes?
 
@FumbleFingers I was thinking the same. I type very slowly compared to some people
 
6:53 PM
@Laure I don't know if it's come to anything, but here's the question I asked on French.SO - is “mettre de l'eau dans son moulin” cognate with “all grist to the mill”
 
@Laure [Sorry for delay, on a train at the moment.] At least three people out of five voted for the duplicate. I can't remember whether I was one of them or not (If there's a 2/2 tie, then the final close vote sets the reason). But rants like that are not constructive. If something is wrong, post an answer, don't complain about the site. And anyway, he's almost certainly wrong himself: the majority of high-voted answers are correct.
 
@Laure I din't choose my online handle at random. I type with two fingers of one hand (the other hand always contains cigarette superglued to fingers).
 
This room is well named incomprehensible... all those conversations crossing and recrossing
@FumbleFingers I've fixed the typo ! i'm sure you'll get answers. I 'll try and not anwer.
 
A pensioner is a person? Is that like retiree?
 

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