The Frying Pan

In Finnish, the letters ä, ö and y are the "front vowel" counterparts to the "back vowel" letters a, o and u — grammatical endings and word suffices using these letters will use either the front or back form depending on the vowel harmony of the word they are affixed to. The glyphs for ä and ö are derived from the similar looking German umlauted letters, but as with y versus u, they are considered letters in their own right and thus alphabetized separately (after z).

Mien

@Sobachatina Would you call it a cake?

ElendilTheTall

Jay

@rfusca No not always.

Sobachatina

@Mien This is exactly what I'm talking about! 'eaux' and the x is silent?! I get the feeling that French is just trolling the rest of the Latin-alphabet-using world.

rumtscho

@Mien are you required to learn French in Belgium?

Mien

8:04 PM

@rumtscho Yes.

@Sobachatina It's not silent when it's followed by a vowel.

then you have to pronounce a z

ElendilTheTall

@Sobachatina It's not like English doesn't have silent letters, you psycho

:)

Jay

37

Q: Platformer/action game about a guy in a yellow shirt and a red hat

I used to play it 9 years ago on Windows 98. It came with a lot of other games on a CD. The game was a single file. It was a kind of an action/beat'em up game. You started in a forest, playing a yellow-shirted guy that had a red hat. He had to kill aliens and you gained exp by doing it. This co...

rfusca

@Sobachatina you know, they pronounce it when talking to each other, just not to everybody else. Its a giant, centuries old, joke that they play on everybody

Sobachatina

@ElendilTheTall Yes but those are mostly loan words from French. :)

Mien

@rfusca Haha :)

rfusca

8:05 PM

@Jay yup, still stupid

rumtscho

If you had called him a knee-psycho, it would have sounded like a literal translation of a swearword from another language.

Sobachatina

Actually now I'm just making things up again.

Cerberus

@ElendilTheTall Thumped me? You no like Nicky?

Jay

@rfusca i dont think it is. It's a legitimate question and he provide a lot of details and information about the game itself

Mien

@Jay It's better defined than our question.

Sobachatina

8:07 PM

@ElendilTheTall Actually I suppose 'psycho' is from Greek. Is the 'p' pronounced in this context in Greek?

Cerberus

Yes.

rfusca

@Jay sure, its a valid questions for him - but its not like a large group of people are going to remember those details and then also have the same question

otherwise one of them would remember

Cerberus

I think only English leaves out the /p/.

Just like the k in knight.

ElendilTheTall

@Cerberus no, he's a dickhead

Cerberus

It is pronounced in Dutch.

@ElendilTheTall What! Why?

Sobachatina

8:08 PM

@Cerberus Actually the k is pronounced- just watch Monty Python.

rfusca

but it ended up taking a bounty just to get somebody to dig it up

Cerberus

He seems really nice. And he's Dutch!

@Sobachatina Haha, I see.

rumtscho

I still think that English pronunciation is less logical than French pronunciation. Even though English was my first Latin-alphabet language.

ElendilTheTall

@cerberus he's a lying turncoat git who betrayed all his promises and half the electorate just to get a sniff at power

Sobachatina

Actually though- that was Monty Python making fun of the French pronouncing it.

Cerberus

8:09 PM

@rumtscho True. The thing is that English spelling has been reformed much less than that of most other languages.

Jefromi

@rfusca I think it could be useful, though - if between the question and answer, there's a complete description of the entity, then anyone else searching for the same entity now has a good possible search result which might not have existed on the internet before!

rfusca

@Jefromi i guess ...

rumtscho

@Jefromi searching by what term?

Cerberus

@ElendilTheTall Hmm but isn't that what's necessary in a coalition? He made Cameron break some promises he made to his voters too.

Sobachatina

@Cerberus We need a socialist dictator to reform it. Maybe if Barrack gets another term...

Cerberus

8:10 PM

@Sobachatina But he's a Muslim!

And he was born in some Muslim country!

Or what was it again that the Birthers claimed?

Jay

Oh god... can we keep politics out of this chat room?

rumtscho

I just learned a new word

But it's fun!

Prosody

Also Greek.

8:11 PM

Anybody care to guess what it means?

Cerberus

I know it.

Sobachatina

@Jay Sorry. I was actually trolling for a star from @hobodave and @rfusca.

ElendilTheTall

@rumtscho the study of poetry?

Mien

@rumtscho Yes, there is less consistency in English than in Spanish. Dutch is in the middle.

Cerberus

Cf. ode.

Mien

8:12 PM

@rumtscho I know what it means :)

rumtscho

@Cerberus that's not fun if you already know it.

Mien

Well, I know what 'prosodie' means, it's a dutch word. But I guess it would be the same.

Sobachatina

@rumtscho The state of being a fan of drunkeness.

Jay

@Sobachatina Speaking of which, haven't seen hobodave in a little while

Jefromi

@rumtscho I don't know, some kind of bag of words thing: <location> chocolate cake strawberries|cherries citrus...

rumtscho

8:12 PM

I think that Italian is the most consistent language spelling-to-pronunciatin-wise.

Mien

@Jay He was here a couple of hours agao.

@rumtscho More than spanish?

Sobachatina

@rumtscho Like I said- socialist dictator. works everytime.

rumtscho

But it may just happen that it spells closest to Bulgarian standard trasnliteration rules.

Mien

I think Esperanto is also very logical.

Jay

was he? o i must had either been away or not paying attention

rumtscho

8:13 PM

@Mien Sjure.

Sobachatina

Russia had it's reform the same way.

rfusca

@Sob anything anti-Obama earns a star

Mien

@rumtscho :)

rfusca

no matter how trolllike or obvious or bad

Mien

I'm really out of here, I can't focus :) See you in a couple of hours.

Sobachatina

8:14 PM

@rfusca I knew it!

rfusca

@Jay if all the crap you guys bring up is ok, then politics certainly is

Jay

@rfusca i think things like religion and politics should be off limits personally.

ElendilTheTall

@rfusca who gets your vote for the next pres?

rfusca

@ElendilTheTall at this point, my dog probably

Sobachatina

@Jay I don't like talking about politics personally but I don't mind other people talking about it.

ElendilTheTall

8:15 PM

what are his thoughts on tax reform?

:)

rfusca

@ElendilTheTall he's pro bacon treats

ElendilTheTall

and, may I say, Probably is a very odd name for a dog

rumtscho

@ElendilTheTall Forget tax reform, I want to know his thoughts on external affairs, I don't live in America.

Sobachatina

@rfusca It will take a different kind of lobbyist.

rumtscho

@ElendilTheTall "here, Probably" "Play dead, Probably" shouted in the park? I think it is a good name.

rfusca

8:17 PM

its probably a good name

ElendilTheTall

I still think Pat is the best name for a dog

Sobachatina

@ElendilTheTall I'd call him Patrick for short.

rfusca

I'd just call him P

ElendilTheTall

ooo, I've got £15 to spend on a book

Jay

When i get a dog, I'm naming him Howl and his nickname will be Howie

ElendilTheTall

8:19 PM

In-store, not online

a cookbook?

rfusca

@ElendilTheTall ?

ElendilTheTall

a photography book?

choices choices

Jay

@ElendilTheTall a book on raising your baby right?

since its your first child

ElendilTheTall

@jay I wrote the book on that, buddy boy

Jay

or your wife already got a hoard of those already

rumtscho

8:20 PM

I would invest more than 15 pounds in such a book

rfusca

books about babies just make you worry

ElendilTheTall

Boarding school from 3-18, then the convent, just so she doesn't meet any boys

perhaps I'll get @rfusca a book on punctuation :P

Jay

@ElendilTheTall O so its a baby girl?

rfusca

@ElendilTheTall don't get me one on punctuation - i know what is right, i'm just too lazy. big difference

ElendilTheTall

Perhaps I'll get @rfusca a book on self-motivation :P

@jay she is indeed

rfusca

8:22 PM

that would be more fitting

@Jay guess that 'she' part musta been the clue, eh?

Jay

wierd... can someone go to the gaming.SE and check and see if chat is missing

rumtscho

@ElendilTheTall you know, if you don't break up contact with her immediately, she may retain unconscious memories telling her that men exist on the planet.

rfusca

@Jay nope, its there

Jay

@rfusca did they ban me from chat or something lol i cant see it

rfusca

@Jay yes, there was a internet wide message about it

ElendilTheTall

8:24 PM

@jay Not without the realms of possibility I'm sure

rumtscho

The Bridge

General Arqade Chat. We tried to leave once, but the door lock...

9

@jay can you follow the link?

Jay

yea i can click the link

but as you can see in my screenie, the chat link is missing

rfusca

what about the link on the right side of the page?

Jay

@rfusca nothing on the right

rfusca

whoa does this work now <strike>hmm</strike>

dangiit

rumtscho

8:28 PM

29

Q: Eeeek! Where did the chat top navigation link go?

The chat link in the top navigation bar is gone. Instead there is a shiny blog link. Where did the chat link go?

discussion support chat

@jay it is because they have a blog post

Jay

@rumtscho yup, Grace told me

rfusca

~~wooohoo~~

rumtscho

Also, I can see the link to the right.

@Jay OK, nice

rfusca

~~strike-through ftw~~

rumtscho

~~how did you know that this is the syntax?~~

Jay

8:30 PM

@rumtscho Grace told him

lol

Jefromi

@rumtscho It's a feature, not a bug!

rfusca

@rumtscho ~~I'd been wondering about this for over a year now, its almost as good as the steam injection for making my day~~

i'm done now

rumtscho

And I still need to shop, make and eat dinner tonight

rfusca

@rumtscho eating, very overrated

Jay

So the bug has been posted almost half a year ago

Sobachatina

8:33 PM

0

Q: Why is the texture of my choclate chips cookies foamy?

The last couple of batches of my chocolate chip cookies went from delicous to foamy tasting I am using the same recipe and ingredients and sam measuring methods.. Confused as to why the texture changed so drastically...

consistency

rumtscho

@Jay which bug?

Sobachatina

The tag choice is awesome.

Jay

@Renesis - it may well be weird, but that's the situation at the moment. – ChrisF Aug 19 '11 at 8:28

rumtscho

I think they like it that way.

Jay

@rumtscho really? that's kinda absurd

rumtscho

8:34 PM

@Sobachatina The tag choice makes perfect sense if you come from a language where this is the default word for texture

I tried to hunt a better translation two days ago and gave up too.

Sobachatina

@rumtscho But no cookies' 'chocolate' 'baking', etc. Just 'consistency'

rumtscho

@Sobachatina A user with 1 rep? Nice that they found a tag to fit at all

Jay

@rumtscho i dont think you can post a question without at least one tag

rfusca

i've never heard of 'foamy' cookies

Sobachatina

@rumtscho Maybe they didn't mean 'texture' maybe they meant that they were getting inconsistent results from their recipe. :)

rumtscho

8:37 PM

@Jay you need a tag, but new users sometimes find something less fitting than "texture" when complaining about bad texture (at least I assume that this user was thinking of texture when choosing the synonym consistency)

Jay

@Sobachatina definitely the wrong tag to use in that case

rumtscho

On the other hand, their sentence says "foamy tasting" which makes me think it tasted like soap -> too much baking soda, maybe not a texture problem after all

rfusca

@rumtscho i don't get 'foamy' => soap

rumtscho

@rfusca I asked for clarification, but when I hear "foamy tasting", I think of soap foam.

rfusca

and he said the recipe was the same everytime but sometimes they work and sometimes they dont, so if he's right, its technique, not ingredients.

Jay

8:39 PM

I did not know there was a SE online store... 0.0 Although the products doesn't look too cheap though

shop.stackexchange.com/collections/frontpage/products/…

Sobachatina

@Jay Not at all- they are concerned about the consistency of the recipe over time. :)

rfusca

@Jay i have a few things from there

Jay

@Sobachatina Yea but that tag specifically is used to texture, so its not the right tag to use

rfusca

btw, i made a spinach, cheese, turkey omelet for lunch that was heavenly

Cerberus

Wow.

Just wow.

rfusca

8:41 PM

@Cerberus ?

Cerberus

Every time I enter someone is either describing or showing extremely delicious food.

Jay

@Cerberus Thanks. I try to wow everyone everyday

Sobachatina

@Cerberus Odd- that's not our usual feedback for chat.

Cerberus

@Jay I'm sure that's easy for you!

rfusca

lol

Cerberus

8:41 PM

@Sobachatina No?

rumtscho

hello @badp

Cerberus

Normally everyone barfs in disgust?

Sobachatina

I think gigili might disagree with you.

Jay

@Cerberus Yea, usually its wow... i expected to hear about food, instead I am hearing about the mating habits of a cougar

rfusca

@Cerberus you're crazy lucky then

badp

8:42 PM

@rumtscho ohey, I was just making sure the question about gaming's link to chat had been answered

Cerberus

@Sobachatina What? But...how?

Sobachatina

@Cerberus Normally we get complaints that we don't talk about food at all.

Jay

@Cerberus Lol are you flirtin'?

Cerberus

@Jay Oh...hmm. Perhaps I'm just easy to please?

rumtscho

@badp Yes, thank you. Grace answered it in the Lounge.

Cerberus

8:42 PM

@Jay I wouldn't dare.

rfusca

if you've come in twice and we're talking about food - you need to play the lottery

Cerberus

@rfusca No, I mean, earlier today Rum posted some drool-inducing photos.

And I saw breads coming by...

Jay

@rfusca Totes. And give me some of the money

rumtscho

(and then I retold the answer here)

Sobachatina

@Cerberus Are you referring to her campaign photo?

rfusca

8:43 PM

@sob lol

Cerberus

Campaign?

rumtscho

@Cerberus Are you referring to me as Rum?

Cerberus

Or the challenge thing?

I don't remember what it was for.

@rumtscho Yes!

rumtscho

Also, I don't remember posting photos today.

Cerberus

Wasn't the tiramisu yours?

rumtscho

8:44 PM

@Cerberus Yes, that was yesterday.

Cerberus

Oh.

Then it was some other photo!

rumtscho

There is a coworker helping me do some stuff for an experiment I'm doing at a conference

I brought him a lasagna pan full of tiramisu as a thank-you

He loved it, and ate the whole pan during the afternoon

rfusca

wow

rumtscho

A 15x20 pan

Cerberus

Haha I would totally do that too.

rumtscho

8:46 PM

I had expected him to take it home and bring me back the pan after two days or so

rfusca

lol

see, do that for you dates

rumtscho

I was impressed. He is thin, btw.

Cerberus

jealous

rfusca

cooking for my wife was something I did very early on, its a hook ;)

Jay

@rumtscho is he a big man or a small guy? usually its the small guys who somehow vacuums food into their blackout pit of a stomach

rumtscho

8:49 PM

@Jay He is taller than I am, but not very tall for a man. Maybe 6'1-ish. And he doesn't have a broad-shouldered figure, he is normal to thin without much muscle.

Jay

@rumtscho wow 6'1 isn't considered tall?

im a freaking dwarf then

rumtscho

I think 6 feet is average for men.

At least in Europe.

In Germany, it is probably even more.

Jay

Quick poll, how tall is everyone

<--5'10ish

Sobachatina

6' even.

rumtscho

Human height

Human height is the distance from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head in a human body standing erect. When populations share genetic background and environmental factors, average height is frequently characteristic within the group. Exceptional height variation (around 20% deviation from average) within such a population is usually due to gigantism or dwarfism; which are medical conditions due to specific genes or to endocrine abnormalities. In regions of extreme poverty or prolonged warfare, environmental factors like malnutrition during childhood or adolescence may account f...

rfusca

8:51 PM

Human height

Human height is the distance from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head in a human body standing erect. When populations share genetic background and environmental factors, average height is frequently characteristic within the group. Exceptional height variation (around 20% deviation from average) within such a population is usually due to gigantism or dwarfism; which are medical conditions due to specific genes or to endocrine abnormalities. In regions of extreme poverty or prolonged warfare, environmental factors like malnutrition during childhood or adolescence may account f...

6'3"

Jay

lol

rumtscho

OK, so 5 ft 10 in is average for Germany then

Jay

@rumtscho so if i lived in germany im avg height. i can live with that

rfusca

@rumtscho ummm what?

Jay

too tall and too short isn't that much better. although its bettr to error on the tall side for men

Cerberus

8:53 PM

I'm 6'2ish.

rfusca

oh, dang, there's two different sets for germany

rumtscho

@rfusca Germany 1.780 m (5 ft 10 in) 1.650 m (5 ft 5 in) Adults Self-reported 2005 [25]

The first height is for men, the second for women

Jay

rumi, how tall are you?

Cerberus

Wow Germans are dwarves.

rumtscho

Oh, I didn't see the second one either.

rfusca

8:53 PM

@rumtscho no there's two rows, I was looking at the first row, but its for 18-19

Sobachatina

@Cerberus 2" does not a dwarf make.

rumtscho

@Cerberus by the second set, 18-19 yo Germans are 5 ft 11 1/2 inch, 1/2 more than Dutch men

Cerberus

interbasket.net/news/4385/2009/09/…

rfusca

Dinaric Alps apparently is a tall place

Cerberus

@rumtscho What statistics are you using?

rfusca

8:55 PM

3 mins ago, by rumtscho

Human height

Human height is the distance from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head in a human body standing erect. When populations share genetic background and environmental factors, average height is frequently characteristic within the group. Exceptional height variation (around 20% deviation from average) within such a population is usually due to gigantism or dwarfism; which are medical conditions due to specific genes or to endocrine abnormalities. In regions of extreme poverty or prolonged warfare, environmental factors like malnutrition during childhood or adolescence may account f...

rumtscho

@Cerberus the Wikipedia article I and @rfusca linked above

rfusca

well, i'm off for a bit folks

rumtscho

Hmm. I knew that Dutch men are tall, but I didn't know they are taller than Scandinavians.

Cerberus

@rfusca Ahh...so then we're second.

Bye!

@rumtscho We beat everyone! Muwahaha!

rumtscho

@Cerberus If you call that "beat". For example, I'm not into tall men - especially for a bf, I prefer him to be the same height as me.