Speaking of modals: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/198031/…. My impression is that had to've done is more persuasive and suggestive, while must've done is more conclusive (or deontic and epistemic, respectively, if you're into those sort of things).

I have a feeling the answers are gonna unanimously say they're the same thing, however.

Or maybe... wait, no.

My prediction is as follows: the first one or two answers will say they're the same thing, and then to spite them, of course, a new answerer will rear their feline head, and in the manner suggesting they did in fact swallow the canary, they'll triumphantly declare they differentiate between the two. (Sorry about the idiom butchering.)

I guess these days alotta cats is outta line... hm.

> The Bank of Canada is warning people to stop drawing Spock on their money

"Previous studies have established that FR autoimmunity represents the major cause of the infantile-onset CFD syndrome [17,18]." -- does the major imply that it's a predominant cause, overshining other causes?

@CowperKettle yes “a major” would mean one of several similarly important causes

“The major” means the predominant one

> The Alexander horned sphere has a “wild” embedding.

Word of the day: Alexander horned sphere

@ColleenV Thank you!

@userr2684291 Still no answers, but I'm writing one that somewhat agrees with what you have said here.

@CowperKettle It is a very common example in books on algebraic topology.

sigh

I wonder, does /me work here, like IRC?

/me will find out.

Eh, guess not.

I have never used IRC, but my friends have.

When you use /me, it renders the output differently. Actually, it encodes it as a different style of message over the network, but where someone saying something normally would be displayed by the client as "SamBC> Hello", usually with the "SamBC>" to the left of a margin, /me messages get displayed like "SamBC says hello", all to the right of the margin. That message would be produced by typing "/me says hello"

The site is asking if I want to move a comment conversation with Lambie to chat...

I used to use mIRC from 2002 to about 2005.

After that, the Internet became so cheap that it was possible just to go everywhere and download anything.

And Wikipedia appeared, and I got into writing articles there.

> Genetic and environmental factors interacting in the genesis of neuro-psychiatric conditions should be distinguished from a subgroup of systemic folate and vitamin B12 deficiency that can be identified by detection of macrocytic anemia and several neuropsychiatric phenotypes [1].

What on earth could this sentence mean?

I'm amazed at scientists' inability to communicate in plain English.

Eh, that one is only a little excessive.

Like, there's a few esoteric words where they could have used more prosaic options, and the sentence structure is a little convoluted and would be better broken up.

You should distinguish between neuropsychiatric conditions caused by (interaction of genetic and environmental factors) AND (a subgroup of folate and B12 deficiency throughout the body that lead to macrocytic anaemia as well as neuropsychiatric conditions)

@SamBC That happens automatically when comment section gets too long.

@CowperKettle That about covers it, though rendering it with a mixture of normal writing and logical notation isn't ideal. It would be better as a list.

@Jasper I figured. I'm very much in two minds about inflicting it on chat.

So basically they are saying that folate/B12 conditions are a subset of the general mishmash of conditions caused by all kinds of stuff.

Thank you!

@SamBC You should just do it. Everyone does it this way.

@CowperKettle More that some neuropsychiatric things are caused by folate/B12 deficiency, and some by more general interactions of genetic and environmental factors.

@SamBC It creates a new chat room for the post

It doesn't copy stuff into main chat

@SamBC More on that from the "create chat room" privilege page in the [help] : ell.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/chat-rooms

@ColleenV That's reassuring...