English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

> Biden has authorized the provision of antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine...

> The name La Mancha is probably derived from the Arabic word المنشأ al-mansha, meaning "land without water".

A soldier with a wounded leg wouldn't become addicted to injected morphine. But if they take some while they're fine and not experiencing a lot of pain, then yeah.

@Cerberus I fail to see the advantage of refusing to follow normal English usage.

Because a parliament is a specific subtype of legislature that operates within a parliamentary system of government rather than many other sorts, to conflate these two erases important distinctions which I do not think helps us here.

There is a joy in being able to speak other languages.

We must free our children from leash laws and from the surveillance state.

Siempre hay un pez más grande, There is always a bigger fish.

Word of the day: boink. (Informal, US) To hit or strike (someone or something); to have sex with (someone).

Earlier I'd complained about British lexicographers being unable to properly describe American pronunciation. I take that back; they can't describe British pronunciation well either.

@AlMa1r Please, don't make us kick-mute you here. If you want to behave in a respectful, collegial manner, you are welcome. If all you want to do is yell at everybody for imagined injuries, that is a different matter entirely.

The problem is that if 99.997 people want the question open, but 3 people pass by who click the close button, it is closed.

Schindler's Lift ^

@Cerberus again, everyone in Europe. India, China, the Muslim world are much more prudish.

Ranting is allowed here.

He is a bad thing.

Twain of the day: "Notwithstanding all this furniture, there was still room to turn around in, but not to swing a cat in, at least with entire security to the cat."

You're my preferred presenter. What's it say?

@Xanne No, I suffer from the belief that dictionaries usually give the standard meanings of words.

Luckily, I never trust people to know that nobody uses X just because they don't recall hearing it.

@alphabet There's a joke in which two university professors talk, along the lines, "- How many ancient Greek and Roman philosophers do you know? -Well, I can name a dozen. - And from pre-19century Europe? - I can recall a dozen. -How then our university manages to churn out a couple dozen every f-ing year?"

Strange how people only start caring about women's sports when trans women may be involved

2) when you posted your first message about it, you could have saved multiple people the effort of having to search for it by cut and pasting the link that you already had right in front of you. That's what other people do here.

Sounds about right.

But being in this chat room is probably one of the less brain-destroying ways of doing so.

General renters' protection would be a good first step.

I just ate 12 pumpkin-spice caramels like I needed the wrappers to deactivate a bomb…somehow. No more real candy! Dang. Till Halloween. GN.

My new bike has a built-in power meter. I never cared about it to buy one independently, but it's an interesting stat.

The Our World in Data-Grapher for those interested.

AI-generated organisms. 🎶Is this the real life? Or is it fantasy?🎶

I don't know about you, but France gives me the crepes!

No, that's the meth talking.

@DannyuNDos maybe not meth exactly

Enabled by the Pigeon and Pet Potroast Prevention Act of 2025.

The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences

I don't think it is good manners to ask to ask or ask to talk, in a chat room. If there is something you want to ask or tell someone, just do it.

And the average American is far less extreme than the average Syrian.

Just a hypothetical...what if, for whatever reason, a bunch of Americans decided they wanted to move to your country. As in actually emigrate, get jobs, send their kids to school, disdain all the tourists, just like locals. How would that make you feel?

Sure is good he picked a slow news day to do this; otherwise it'd look like he was trying to hide something.

I need one of those amyloid plaque removers. You can get it in a a scrub brush or in an abrasive wash.

@Robusto Baron Harkonnen was intentionally chosen by the Bene Gesserit to further the chances of a Mahdi.

"reality has a well-known liberal bias"

And yet another Media Bias Chart This one a bit easier to parse.

@Robusto Not here, thanks to our "German timezone".

I found out while investigating today the very sad news that our Prof Lawler has apparently passed away. All I could find was this mention here. No obituaries or anything like that anywhere. Or none that I could find.