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03:02
@DamkerngT. Thank you!
Sawasdee khrap!
Sawasdee khrap!
> The store of 7.5% sodium bicarbonate in bioreactor 8 run out.
I composed this sentence, but it looks not natural to me
Hmm... I'm not sure how we should improve it either.
In Russian it's very natural. Bioreactor 8 had some amount of sodium bicarbonate "attached" to it (probably stored nearby for future use) and the biotechnician discovered that this amount had run out.
They use this solution to adjust the pH of the medium
BTW, wouldn't runs out or ran out be better?
03:07
Sure!
"run out" is an error
Thank you!
No problem!
Hmm... what time is it in Beijing? ...
11:09!
Their website says, online: 09:00-18:00 Bei Jing Time, but nobody's online!
Which means that there's a good weather in Beijing
Or bad internet connection
04:05
I need help.
How do we call the sensation.. when we tighten a nut on a bolt, and we suddenly feel that the nut "jumped" one thread?
That it moved on the bolt in a jump, not in the usual gradual manner?
Anonymous
04:49
@CowperKettle The word that comes to mind is slip.
05:34
@snailplane Thank you! The Russian word "proskok" is literally "jump". But "slip" might be a better choice.
> Following the autoclaving, when a spanner was used to adjust the threaded joint of a pH sensor (the joint connected the sensor to a sampling assembly used with the bioreactor), a "thread jump" was felt by the worker, indicating that the sterility might have been compromised.
I'll remodel that to the worker felt that the thread "slipped"
 
1 hour later…
07:10
@snailplane Hi, do you reckon we might be able to reverse the linkage on this question? (based on views and therefore helpfulness to readers?). I.e. could we make the linked-to question a duplicate of this one?
6
Q: "Stopped talking" and "stopped to talk"

Fahd Salah In this exercise: Ali stopped _____ to his friend. He talked to him then. a) talk b) talking (I chose this one) c) to talk (This one is marked as the correct answer) d) being talked Why did they choose "to talk" as the right answer? And why not "talking"? I understand the mea...

 
3 hours later…
09:48
> During the expansion of inoculum in a bioreactor a DO sensor malfunctioned.
Which is better: malfunctioned or "failed"?
10:45
@snailplane @J.R. @ColleenV Hi, do you reckon we might be able to reverse the linkage on this question? (based on views and therefore helpfulness to readers?). I.e. could we make the linked-to question a duplicate of this one?
6
Q: "Stopped talking" and "stopped to talk"

Fahd Salah In this exercise: Ali stopped _____ to his friend. He talked to him then. a) talk b) talking (I chose this one) c) to talk (This one is marked as the correct answer) d) being talked Why did they choose "to talk" as the right answer? And why not "talking"? I understand the mea...

11:23
@Araucaria Ahh, but votes are a more important metric -- And the other one has more of them
11:51
> For the remaining two deviations, a CAPA plan is being drafted. (Will the reader understand this as "a CAPA plan is being drafted for each of the two deviations"?)
@M.A.R. Actually I think the answer scores are more important than the question scores. I think it makes sense to reverse the duplicate
@ColleenV shrug
Hi @ColleenV.
@ColleenV I agree! :-)
@CowperKettle Just edit it to "each of the remaining"
11:53
@M.A.R. okay, thank you!
@Lawrence \o
@M.A.R. Hello. :)
@Lawrence Howdy!
@ColleenV Ah, you're in the room. I'd like to ask something about a set of comments I made recently to this question.
@ColleenV First, I understand where you're coming from.
Since there's an answer that I think includes all of my points, would it be helpful for me to delete my comments?
@Lawrence You can if you want to, but I don't think it's necessary.
11:55
@ColleenV Ok, I'll leave them then. Thanks. :)
I wasn't criticizing what was there so much as I could see where it was heading
A comment or two is OK, but if it generates more questions, then that's an indicator that it's probably a meaty enough topic to go into a full answer
@ColleenV Yes, I understand. I normally answer in comments if it's brief and unsubstantiated, but if the OP or someone else requests an answer, I might expand on it in an answer, with useful links or logical reasoning etc.
@ColleenV Good point.
In this case, it looks like there's a bit of drift of focus - from what's the opposite to proofreading.
@Lawrence Yeah and I didn't help things with my comment about sessions
@ColleenV Haha. No, the comment highlighted a useful word from the answer (and the question).
I think it's best to try to phrase the exact sentence in the question (if there is one) when answering word requests
12:07
Hi
A well balanced diet(1)/ is essential for (2)/ good health.(3)/No error(4)
I think section b and it should be "is an essential"
@ColleenV (Sorry, I was talking to someone IRL for a while there.) It might help to number the last question in the question.
@user62015 No
Then?
@user62015 The sentence has no error
@user62015 "an essential" there would need to be followed by a noun - i.e. an essential what.
12:10
Okay.
and a good health?
@user62015 That should have no article.
You could say "Vegetables are an essential part of a well-balanced diet."
Fine.
One more question
12. I am (1)/ taller than you (2)/ aren’t I ?(3)/No error(4)
Answer key says 3
@user62015 Normally there would be a comma after "you", before "aren't I".
I am taller than you, aren't I?
12:12
But in India and UK we use "aren't" before I so I think it should be fine.
@ColleenV I don't know, are you? :)
Okay.
ahahhahhaa
Yeah, and there should be no space before punctuation
@Lawrence How tall are ya?
So can we say no error
@M.A.R. Not very. @ColleenV might well be taller than me. :)
12:13
aren't I should be fine.
@user62015 Does it say why?
@user62015 The punctuation there is important though
@Lawrence It would be much easier to work with numbers
@M.A.R. I'm sure it would. :)
12:14
But I think "aren't I" is fine, right?
@user62015 It is important
If you look at Lawrence's response "I don't know, are you?" it has a comma too
@user62015 It's fine
@Lawrence Dangit, tell me how tall you are
Thanks everyone.
Don't worry -- I'll probably remain confused for the rest of the day trying to convert feet to meters
12:15
@M.A.R. Sorry, it's personal. It's not personal. :)
!!flip/Lawrence
Haha. :P
@Dam you forgot to turn ELLBot on again
in The Periodic Table, 7 secs ago, by Chemobot
(╯°ਊ°)╯︵Ꞁɐʍɹǝuɔǝ
I'm still happy to vote for you at the next mod election.
This reminds me of the game of questions...
12:16
@Lawrence I won't run in the next, probably
@M.A.R. Why not?
I never wanted to be a mod. I wanted an active chatter to be a mod
And we have at least two chatty mods
Um, you look like you're doing pretty well on the chattering front. :)
If anything, Nathan deserves the position
I voted for him
12:18
@ColleenV But he didn't make it again :(
@M.A.R. Yes, he does. That's the person with all those scripts, right? He's practically a mod already.
Wait a sec
Do we have an upcoming election?
Not to my knowledge.
We've just had one for ELL and another for ELU. I don't expect either to be swamped so soon after the elections.
We're in pretty good shape I think, so I don't expect one soon
It was just kinda weird for the election talk to suddenly pop up
But hey, we should work on coaxing Dam and Stoney to nominate in the next election
12:21
@M.A.R. I'm not familiar with Dam, but Stoney - yes, make him an honorary mod.
Oh. (Oops.)
He won't forgive you for not being familiar with him
Well 10K+ users pretty much already are
@ColleenV Nah, mod tools are incomparable with 10k tools
12:22
@M.A.R. I don't usually abbreviate names. That looked like someone completely different.
@M.A.R. I mean "honorary mods"
(sorry DamkerngT.)
@Lawrence That's how I always ping him, and it's leaked
@M.A.R. The ping would probably succeed even if you called him "Da"! :)
OK, I need to stop procrastinating and get to work. Be well everyone.
12:24
@Lawrence As reprimand, write @Dam 1000 times on the blackboard
@ColleenV \o
Bye @ColleenV! Have a nice day!
@Lawrence Nah, I need three character to ping
@La
@Law
@M.A.R. for (int i=0; i<1000; i++) System.out.println("@Dam\n");
No cheating
@M.A.R. Oh. In an ironic twist, you'd be pingable as "M.A", then.
12:25
@Lawrence Yep
But that lack of punctuation would make you cringe sooner than me
M.A. is fine. It's like my first name
No justifying cheating
@M.A.R. You're probably right. :)
ಠ_ಠ
@M.A.R. Oh, very well.
I shall instead decline the penalty. :O
Um, where's everyone else?
12:28
I'm bored
@Lawrence Cowp is stalking, I'm chatting, Colleen is working
@M.A.R. There's an unassigned task, if you want to do it.
User62-whatever is preparing the next question
@Lawrence If it involves laziness, I'm in
@M.A.R. It involves a blackboard. :P
!!flip/Lawrence again
Haha. :)
Do two flips make a right-way-up?
12:31
Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't
in The Periodic Table, Mar 5 at 12:51, by M.A.R.
@Chemobot This is what we call an unflippable function in math
What would a flippable function be?
One that can be flipped
The production of the(1)/ factory is not satisfactory (2)/ as compared to the last year.(3)/No error(4)
@M.A.R. Well, yes. That explanation isn't very illuminating, though.
@user62015 Drop "as".
@Lawrence One that has similar reversed characters in Unicode, that bots use to flip correctly
12:34
Maybe drop the last "the" as well.
Okay.
The production of the(1)/ factory is not satisfactory (2)/ compared to the last year.(3)/No error(4)
I just realized I can flip things using 4 different bots
Well, 3 right now, because ELLBot is offline
@M.A.R. What does ELLBot do?
@Lawrence you mean the different commands?
@user62015 Try less satisfactory than last year. It still sound a bit clunky, though.
@M.A.R. Yes, commands for ELLBot and what they do.
I've seen references to bots for chat rooms, but I don't think I've successfully used any.
12:37
Okay.
Thanks everyone.
@user62015 No problem. Keep them coming. @M.A.R. is bored. This will give him something to do.
ahahahaa
@Lawrence Wiki, define, translate, ice cream, beer, flip, and probably a couple of others
@M.A.R. How do you use them?
@M.A.R. Hang on, you're an owner of the room - can you turn ELLBot on?
@Lawrence !!command and if the command accepts an argument, use /
@Lawrence Nah, it's hosted on Dam's computer
So he has to come online for the bot to do so
So for example
12:40
@M.A.R. Huh? I thought all of this was hosted on SE's computers.
!!wiki/Heisenberg
@Lawrence Well, you can run extra little programs on it
Chemobot is always online because it's hosted on a Cloud thingy
Oh.
That's cool!
What does the ice cream command do?
'ice cream' and 'beer' put pictures of ice cream and beer
There's also coffee, prolly
12:43
Another crazy guy from Yekaterinburg
Welcome back, @CowperKettle.
Good afternoon, @Lawrence!
@M.A.R. I see. Thanks for explaining!
The guy stood in front of a car moving at 100 km/hour and jumped over it
@CowperKettle Russian sounds like when I don't understand English
. . . And that was probably the most constructive comment you can hear from me on that video
o.o
12:47
@CowperKettle Phew! He'd probably be able to easily land a job as a stunt man for an action thiller.
Heading over to watch @ColleenV's clip about Rosencrantz & Guildenstern and questions. I expect that it's somewhat more sedate.
I watched the play years ago, but I remember more about the play. Apropos, really. :)
Fun chatting with you, @M.A.R.. Chat again next time. Bye!
Bye @CowperKettle & @user62015!
13:07
Bye, @Lawrence!
> Prepare the 10% bicarbonate solution in a reduced volume: 200 L instead of 300 L
I wonder if it shouldn't be "at a"
Or maybe..
> Change the preparation volume for the 10% bicarbonate solution from 300 L to 200 L
> Stunt men were living before Agamemnon
And since, exceeding valorous and sage,
A good deal like him too, though quite the same none;
But then they shone not on the YouTube page
> And so have been forgotten:—I condemn none,
But can't find any in the present age
Fit for my poem (that is, for my new one);
So, as I said, I 'll take my friend Don Juan.
@CowperKettle "at a" sounds better to my ears
Thanks!
Here's a question that I'm going to put a bounty on in a couple of days.
0
Q: Is "my hardest" a direct object in "I will try my hardest"?

Araucaria I will try my hardest. I am confusing myself by trying to figure out the grammatical relations in this sentence. It is not clear to me whether my hardest is a direct object here. If it is not, what kind of complement is it (assuming it is a complement)? If it is a direct object, how can we s...

13:23
@Araucaria I figure I've become hypersensitive to the [grammar] tag.
theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/03/… -- Trolls are winning the internet
14:21
Do we need a hyphen in "500-mL flask"?
Or is it optional?
this document says there should be a hyphen
"100-ml flask"
> When a metric value is used as a one-thought modifier before a noun, hyphenating the quantity is not necessary. However, if a hyphen is used, write out the name of the metric quantity with the hyphen between the numeral and the quantity. For example:
a 2-liter bottle, NOT a 2-L bottle;
a 100-meter relay, NOT a 100-m relay;
35-millimeter film, NOT 35-mm film
2
Q: Usage of hyphens with numeric measurements

Dave JarvisWhat is correct: two 1-Gb links; two 1 Gb links; or two 1Gb links? I suspect the first, however I do not know the name of this situation, which makes it difficult to for me to find via Google. I have found some examples of typical units of measure (cm, inch, kg, etc.) but nothing for units su...

Here the answers are too hazy
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer: What are these batteries called? by Helen Brown on ell.SE
14:41
@M.A.R. Ah, right!
Don't worry, @Lawrence! :D
@DamkerngT. Chemobot is hosted on some Cloud thingy. Wonder if you could do the same to ELLbot . . .
@M.A.R. I think I could. I planned to do that actually, but y'know, I haven't pushed Ellbot as much as I should.
IIRC, the free first year of cloud hosting for Chemobot was going to expire soon.
@DamkerngT. It's pretty helpful to flip people readily whenever we want. Please make it so
I wonder if it's still free for Chemobot.
@M.A.R. LOL
@DamkerngT. oh?
!!flip
14:46
(ノ-o-)ノ ~┫:・’.::・
Hi All
What to say while giving answer sheet to the students in the examination?
What message do you want to convey?
Because I don't think I'd say anything while giving a student an answer sheet.
Oh really!
What about saying "Take it please!"
That's weird.
Oh oh!
14:56
It might be appropriate if you give an answer sheet to them but they don't seem to be aware of it.
I don't know why
It could depend a lot on how these exams go.
May be
In more serious exams, the tests and answer sheets are already on their desks before the students come in.
Examination takes place/runs/goes or what?
Please tell
14:59
@yubraj It depends on your intended meaning.
They can go like how things go.
A principal may run an examination.
I mean the examination is continuing in my school
An examination may be taking place somewhere at a school somewhere right now.
@yubraj Continuing has its meaning too, but I guess you might not mean what it means.
I guess you wanted to say going on.
Going on/running/taking place or what is the right word to use I don't know @DamkerngT.
Try to avoid translating these phrases into your first language.
Or assigning one and only one specific meaning to each of them.
They're all flexible.
And they're all different.
"Going on" ?
15:03
@yubraj Nobody can really tell what the right word would be, because they aren't you.
Only you know what you want to say.
The closer the alternatives are, the more specific context we'll need to be sure to help.
@DamkerngT. Ok....I think ...All are right word depending on what we want to say
Can I say "Annual examination is still going on in my school".
Yes, but you'd better have a the or an an at the beginning of the sentence.
Ok sir!
15:08
Then again, considering that you use annual, perhaps is taking place or is still in progress would be more appropriate.
(It suggests that you want to keep the tone semi-formal.)
Ok
I have a question about using"there"
@yubraj This is ambiguous... hopefully what is meant will be clear from context? It could mean that there is still an annual examination done each year.... or it could mean that you're currently in the middle of an annual examination.
Can I use this sentence: "I have lefft my keys there in the office room."
Can I use "There in the" in the same way in speaking English
@yubraj Hmm... did you say or write the sentence? In what context?
Informally, I think it's fine. Even though some might say there is redundant.
I wrote it myself while speaking English
15:14
Room is redundant. An office is inherently a "room".
It's okay in spoken English, but you'd normally point or turn your head toward the office.
Yes, room is redundant, too.
Hi, @Catija!
"I have left my keys there - in the office".
@DamkerngT. :D Hi!
Though, I feel like it'd be more common for someone to omit the the "have".... "I left my keys there - in the office".
user image
3
@Catija yes! I want to say that the annual examination started from yesterday and the annual examination is still taking place in my school.
Ohhh --- so cute! :D
Looks like he's happy and ready to go about. :-)
@yubraj I might recommend "currently" rather than "still. "The annual examination is currently going on at my school". - I also recommend "at" instead of "in"... though, "in" isn't wrong.
15:17
@Catija Waw!
@DamkerngT. He's very happy :D
What do you mean by "rebundent" please
@yubraj Redundant? - unnecessary, extra, superfluous, unneeded.
But can be use in spoken English, yes? Just for filling the gap while speaking, when the right word don't easily come out from mouth
Oh I see!
@yubraj That'd be a different kind of redundancy. You're thinking of pausing, or um, ah, etc.
This there is not like that.
15:25
Oh I see!
A day after he was diagnosed with (1)/ swine flu, preventive measures were put in place (2)/ to ensure that others were not affected by the dreaded virus.(3)/No error(4)
"I met you there ...on the road yesterday, you forgot?
@DamkerngT.
@user62015 I'm not sure if there's any real error. The day would be better than A day, I think.
@yubraj Sounds okay.
Answer says were should be replaced with had been, does it make sense?
@user62015 Nah. That's rubbish.
15:29
Okay. Thanks. I agree with you.
@DamkerngT. @Catija Thanks a lot.
You're welcome (^_^)
@DamkerngT. Nah. "A day" is fine. It's a quantity thing. It'd be the equivalent of saying "one day".
@user62015 What part of the sentences are the numbers relating to? the section immediately before or after?
15:31
@Catija It sounded like a not very good choice to me. I mean, I wanted it to be One day rather than A day. But come to think of it, I think you're right.
"A day" is pretty informal but I hear people use it all the time.
@user62015 "Had been" would actually be wrong... so...
If the sentence was different, "had been" would be fine:
Okay. Thank you so much.
> The day before he was diagnosed with swine flu, preventative measures had been put in place to ensure that others would not be affected by the dreaded virus.
One thing I want to ask what to do in the situation when the right word doesn't come at the time while speaking English?
@yubraj Depends. Do you have time to think of the right word?
If it's in the middle of speaking to someone, I'd just make up a phrase that would convey the meaning
If it's in the middle of chatting, I'd do a quick Google
If it's in the middle of writing something non-urgent, I'd continue with my writing and come back to the sentence when self-proofreading it
15:43
Why this happens, while speaking in English? Another thing, I can write better but I can't speak that fluently, If I try I make a lot of grammatical mistakes too.
@yubraj It happens with everything, not just English
Sometimes stuff is on your tip of the tongue
@yubraj The answer is quite simple, if you think about it. You've been practicing written English way more than spoken English.
How could you expect otherwise?
@M.A.R. Hi! Really!
@DamkerngT. What would you suggest me, then?
Or advice
Practice spoken English more, obviously. (^_^)
What about grammatical mistakes in spoken English?
15:48
@yubraj Don't worry about it much, at least at first.
I mean, grammar.
Ok...
But like when you practice written English, you'll need a lot of input.
You must've read a lot of books to learn written English.
It's the same if you want to practice spoken English.
You'll need to listen to or watch a lot of audio or video clips.
Ok...Thank you very much for your great advice.
Hope it helps. (^_^)
Bah, I'm a native speaker and I still can't find the words that I want at times... don't be too hard on yourself about it.
15:52
Oh really?
I guess it's the same to everyone. :-)
Yes. Really... and they're not always complicated words... sometimes they're even words I just said...
@Catija Can he walk now?
16:08
@M.A.R. Nah. Just scoots around. Not quite actually crawling but he's fast.
16:57
Is there a good graphical software in which I can "translate" such chart legends fast?
I mean blot out the Russian words and simultaneously overlay English words
Paint.NET is horrible.
Ii takes a lot of operations in Paint.NET
Yeah, because it's not for translating stuff
@CowperKettle Hmm, does Google have something for this?
@M.A.R. ?
I googled for "graphics editor", but there is a million of them, and I have to submit the translation tomorrow
@CowperKettle If such thing exists, it's gotta use Google Translate or similar, no?
See if it helps
Babylon translation software is really famous here
17:14
What?
I don't need a translation software.. I need some graphics editor to quickly overlay hundreds of Russian words with English ones
I'll try to do that in Paint.NET
18:07
Oh
 
1 hour later…
19:33
The answer is nonsensical. — Ronald Sole 13 mins ago
Indeed!
It's quite surprising to see that the answerer's English is near-native for the most part.
@CowperKettle I might use Inkscape, though I can't say if it can save your time. :-)
I suppose it could, if you had used it.
Note that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, going back almost 20 years now, discourage this type of usage. Checkpoint 13.1 says: Clearly identify the target of each link. ... write "Information about version 4.3" instead of "click here". E.g., rather than "Click here to read about link text", use "Have a look at this ELL question, How to refer to link? (open, see, check etc.)"Joshua Taylor 6 mins ago
Hmm... that's pretty old!
(And yes, I think it's gonna be another HNQ.)
19:57
@DamkerngT. :/ People set the bar really low when posting
20:42
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer (batch report: post 1 out of 3): "What is it you want?" vs. "What do you want?" by Logan Neer on ell.SE
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer (batch report: post 2 out of 3): "What is it you want?" vs. "What do you want?" by Logan Neer on ell.SE
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer (batch report: post 3 out of 3): "What is it you want?" vs. "What do you want?" by Logan Neer on ell.SE
[ SmokeDetector ] All of this user's posts are spam: user 52291 on ell.stackexchange.com

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