English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:47 AM

Bacon: is there anything it CAN'T do? thestar.com/business/article/…

Cerberus

Dear Lord.

I suppose if it is OK for vegetarians...

RegDwight Ѭſ道

10:26 AM

0

Q: Can I get more of those free bacterias?

When I was traveling in Vietnam 15 years ago, I had a great fun discovering, on mineral water bottles, the proud advertisement "Free bacteria!". Is it common in English that the position of the adjective (before or after a word) change drastically the meaning of the sentence ? (I'd like to read...

Ugh.

user19161

10:58 AM

@RegDwightѬſ道 Ugh. Boo! Hahaha.

user19161

12:36 PM

Morning @kit! Hope you sorted out your sorting.

Kitḫ

1:03 PM

@JasperLoy Not yet.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 My friend says "So that's why the universe keeps pelting us with asteroids."

Hugo

5

Q: What does "Ship it!" mean?

This is the answer to my letter. I wrote the letter like this: "Dear XXXXX, I am writing to inform that I found the workaround solution for bug....." And got the answer: "Great! Ship it!" If I correctly guessed, "Great!" phrase means approval of my solution. Could you, please, describe wh...

meaning

Jeff closed this as general reference

"This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information."

I can't find any such standard internet reference source to answer this.

Kitḫ

Wow. And a supermod had the accepted answer.

That's ballsy.

Hugo

Nor do any of the four (quite distinct) answers supply one

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Well, it is gen ref if you ask me.

Look up the meaning of "ship, v." in a dictionary of your choice. If you still don't understand, then ask.

Kitḫ

I still don't get it.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

1:15 PM

Well what I don't get is why Shog answered it.

But not why Jeff closed it.

I have closed way more advanced questions as gen ref.

Hugo

@RegDwightѬſ道 Who's shog and why shouldn't he answer?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Why don't you click on his name?

Shog9 ♦, Colorado

215 8

meaning

Kitḫ

I don't think it's gen ref because I don't think it's clear how "ship it" applies to a bug fix.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

He's a community coordinator with SE.

@Kitḫ That's not what is being asked here.

That Russian guy is literally just asking what "ship it" means.

He couldn't even be bothered to look up "great" in a dictionary. He guessed it, as he says himself.

Kitḫ

OK then.

Picklepuss.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

1:18 PM

Heh.

Hugo

@RegDwightѬſ道 I clicked his name, but are community coordinators not meant to answer?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Hugo They are not meant to answer questions they themselves rage against as too basic.

Kitḫ

As he did in his recent meta post.

Hugo

@RegDwightѬſ道 ok

Kitḫ

8

Q: Single word requests, crosswords, and the fight against mediocrity

A call to action This topic has been brought up here numerous times before, most recently by JSBangs: I'm now of the opinion that single word requests should be either disallowed entirely or subject to much more stringent requirements. The reasons are as follows: We get lots of...

discussion featured appropriate-questions scope

Posted 19 hours ago.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

1:21 PM

I like how it's a well-laid out argument with tons of links, thouroughly written and all, and then the top and only answer still has the balls to just take a stance against it.

Hugo

@Kitḫ I'll have to read through that. And posted just four hours after answering "Ship it!"

@RegDwightѬſ道 anyway, I just looked "ship v." in a dictionary, the last of 10 definitions is most appropriate: "to be sent for delivery <the order will ship soon>"

but still I don't think that answers the question

Source: merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ship

RegDwight Ѭſ道

> Could you, please, describe what does "Ship it!" mean? Is it kind of slang? Is it means some special emotion?

Which of these questions does M-W not answer?

Hugo

it doesn't address the perceived irony of telling him to release software just because a bug has been fixed; a lot more usually needs to be done before releasing

doesn't answer the "special emotion" bit of an over-enthusiastic reply

RegDwight Ѭſ道

The irony is in the eye of the beholder.

I don't have enough context to say that there is any irony involved.

@Hugo Excellent. Then he should be asking that.

"I looked up ship in M-W, here is what it says: QUOTE, but I am not sure if there's a sarcastic undertone in this context: CONTEXT".

That is a question that can stay open.

Though even then, we can only guess.

Only the original author can answer with confidence.

But right now the question is literally "I see these three words, I guessed what one of them means, but it's too hard to guess the other two, halp".

Hugo

yes, the question isn't the clearest and could do with more context to answer definitively. but I think this is what he's after with "Is it kind of slang? Is it means some special emotion?"

RegDwight Ѭſ道

1:32 PM

@Hugo You give him way too much credit.

Hugo

@RegDwightѬſ道 :)

what do you think he means with "speical emotion"?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

He's probably asking that because he has no idea how ship, a sea vessel, fits there at all.

Hugo

@RegDwightѬſ道 yeah, could be that simple

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I am willing to put actual money on that.

Anyway.

Can't wait to see where Shog's meta question will take us.

Kitḫ

Czechs?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

1:35 PM

It will take us to Czechs?

I don't want to be taken to Czechs!

You want to be taken to Czechs?

Cause I don't.

Kitḫ

Um. No. I meant, would you put Czechs on it?

Hugo

4

Q: Battle of the sites - cancelled

In response to the community's feedback on this contest, we've decided to cancel it. We never intended to favor quantity over quality, but we can see how this contest missed the mark. We appreciate all the constructive criticism regarding this idea, and will be working to come up with ...

discussion

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Kitḫ If I had any, I'd give it a think.

Hugo

cancelled!

Kitḫ

@RegDwightѬſ道 Okey-dokey

RegDwight Ѭſ道

1:37 PM

@Hugo Gah. Was ist das?

Never seen that one.

Not the best idea, indeed.

Kitḫ

You missed that?

It was all the rage yesterday.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I missed that, but I don't miss it.

Kitḫ

I think I was the first one to bitch about it.

In chat, though.

I didn't write a missive like Rob did.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Good fennec.

Kitḫ

perks up

Yay! Praise from Reg!

user19161

1:46 PM

@Hugo I don't really understand Robusto's smells like teen spirit.

user19161

Yay! I joined unix SE today and asked my first question.

user19161

1

Q: Significant difference in speed between fsck using ext3 and ext4 on Debian Squeeze

Recently I installed Debian Squeeze, first using ext3 and then again using ext4 on the same machine. The automatic fsck done after a certain number of mounts is much faster using ext4 (about 1 min) than ext3 (about 5 min). What are the reasons for this great difference in speed? If ext4 is much ...

debian ext4 ext3 fsck

Hugo

maybe something to do with selling out for low quality questions to get higher numbers because "it's for charity!"

selling out, acting low, that sort of thing

user19161

I don't see what this has got to do with teen spirit.

user19161

Or is it a TV show?

user19161

1:49 PM

So now there is f*ck, fcuk and fsck, very interesting!

Hugo

@JasperLoy Smells Like Teen Spirit is a song by Nirvana, he quotes some of the lyrics in italics there

user19161

@Hugo Ah I see, I thought he was talking about teen behaviour! Now even meta is Incomprehensible!

user19161

0

Q: What is the opposite of "fragile"?

In his article Antifragility -or- The Property Of Disorder-Loving Systems, Nassim Taleb coins the term "antifragility" to mean the opposite of "fragility." Just as a package sent by mail can bear a stamp "fragile", "breakable" or "handle with care", consider the exact opposite: a package that...

single-word-requests adjectives antonyms

user19161

This is a very weird question to which I have given a weird answer.

user19161

I seriously doubt a non-weird answer exists.

Hugo

1:56 PM

23

A: Word meaning "the act of intending to do nothing"

We students love the word SLACK. OH YEAH!

"This post has been locked while disputes about its content are being resolved. For more info visit meta."

I can't find this in meta, can you?

user19161

@Hugo WTF!

user19161

@waiwai What is the locked post about above? Nothing on meta, or maybe you just locked it.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:52 PM

@Hugo It's referenced here

7

Q: Single word requests, crosswords, and the fight against mediocrity

A call to action This topic has been brought up here numerous times before, most recently by JSBangs: I'm now of the opinion that single word requests should be either disallowed entirely or subject to much more stringent requirements. The reasons are as follows: We get lots of...

discussion featured appropriate-questions scope

So, it's considered a joke answer. Actually I don't think it's that much of a joke, "slack off" is an actual term that people use when they intend to do nothing.

Hugo

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I agree, it's a real answer, albeit jokingly answered. But why lock it? It was referenced as an example (along with many others), but where are the "disputes about its content ... being resolved"?

user19161

Yay! I capped again today!

user19161

Please wait 9 more hours before voting.

user19161

@Hugo Sounds pretty serious that it had to be locked. I would have thought that Jeff was the one to do it.

user19161

@Hugo He usually does that when a question attracts a lot of attention, like the barrel roll one.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:09 PM

OT: english.stackexchange.com/questions/48497/…

RegDwight Ѭſ道

1

Q: "Try not to" vs "try to not"

When negating verbs that are commonly followed by the infinitive, is there a difference in meaning between placing the "not" before and after the "to"? e.g. I try not to care or I try to not care

grammar verbs infinitive

Dupe.

8

Q: Order of "not" with infinitive

This is one thing that keeps bugging me, and maybe there's a direct answer. Gramatically, which one is more correct of these two? Does it make a difference? "I tried not to do that." or "I tried to not do that."

word-order infinitive

user19161

@RegDwightѬſ道 Done and I just learnt that the comment appears automatically when we close it as dupe. We learn new things about SE everyday!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Heh. You never noticed that before?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

sigh. So many high-rep users go around answering narqs and dupes, while I always try to vote to close. And thus I am being pushed off the first page of users while others keep scoring easy points.

user19161

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Sorry, I am guilty as charged! Why don't you answer them first and then close, like I do sometimes?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:20 PM

I think a question that is closed as dupe should not award rep for votes unless the answers are merged, to the original, or unless the answer's score is above some high threshold.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@JasperLoy That doesn't sit well with many people.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy because I consider that dishonest.

There are rules here, or guidelines anyway.

so @Reg, been to the lego se? It seems to be failing

user19161

Well, sometimes it's not too clear whether we should answer or close, so I vacillate, and then do one of them, and then do the other. So I think in my case at least it's one of being unable to decide.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I did visit once...

in War Metal Tyrant, Oct 23 at 19:28, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

The LEGO proposal will enter private beta on Tuesday. I have no idea what we were thinking, seriously. It will never fly.

user19161

Also if you give a good answer to a simple question or a duplicate question I think that's fine too, "rules" aside.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

3:23 PM

@JasperLoy That's duplication of effort.

user19161

@RegDwightѬſ道 Hmm I see it as contributing differently phrased answers to further enrich the site.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

If the original question has a good answer already, your energy is better spent elsewhere. And people should be voting up that answer instead of yours.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@RegDwightѬſ道 yes, this exactly

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@JasperLoy Rephrasing the same answer does not enrich the site.

user19161

@RegDwightѬſ道 Yes, people can vote up that answer plus the new one.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

3:25 PM

Why would I waste double the time on reading the exact same thing, and voting twice when one vote would suffice?

user19161

And also sometimes I just cannot find the duplicate even though I tried.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy if you have a new answer on that topic, you are supposed to put it on the old page, where it can be upvoted if necessary.

@JasperLoy that's why duplicate questions are not deleted, it makes it easier to find them as they accumulate.

user19161

@MrShinyandNew安宇 OK noted. But just to add, I find that often an old question with lots of answers already doesn't get its new answer looked at even though it may be the best.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

There is nothing, nothing still left to contribute to a vs. an questions, say. Everything has been said. A thousand times over. Even if you post an off-topic comment that doesn't answer the question but praises noodles instead, chances are that even that has been posted several times already.

user19161

@mrs Don't worry about your rep. I will upvote all your new answers from now. You may keep your hair!

user19161

3:28 PM

@RegDwightѬſ道 Waiwai's blog post says it all amazingly well!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Yes. We now even have a blog post.

user19161

I hope to get to 10k soon and see all the invisible content, hehe.

user19161

@RegDwightѬſ道 And I even corrected two typos there, hehe.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Haha. Hopefully not an a into an an.

user19161

I have a feeling waiwai got some flags about the slack answer which made him go to the extent of locking it.

user19161

3:31 PM

I mean it is correct after all.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Nah.

Don't bring waiwai into this.

Or flags, for that matter.

user19161

I'm not blaming him. I'm just speculating why he locked it.

user19161

And I was thinking of saying stone instead of slack but it seems that the term is not really used except here, or at least among my friends.

user19161

I am on an answering spree this month so I don't think too much about closing, but I will do some self-reflection and repentance.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

1

Q: "Please would you take the television down?"

We have a TV that folds into the roof in our car and one morning, as it was folded away my son asked, "Please would you take the television down?". I didn't think this was the correct use of the word 'take' - the TV was not being moved anywhere, just folded down for viewing. Am I correct or is ...

grammar

Oh my.

So now we are asked to review childspeak.

@martha's niece once said:

Mar 13 at 16:31, by Martha

t te

I didn't think this was correct English. Am I correct or is Martha's niece?

user19161

3:39 PM

Yay! I got +2 for my first Q on unix.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

+2?

For accepting an answer?

Or do you mean votes, not reps?

user19161

2

Q: Significant difference in speed between fsck using ext3 and ext4 on Debian Squeeze

Recently I installed Debian Squeeze, first using ext3 and then again using ext4 on the same machine. The automatic fsck done after a certain number of mounts is much faster using ext4 (about 1 min) than ext3 (about 5 min). What are the reasons for this great difference in speed? If ext4 is much ...

debian ext4 ext3 fsck

user19161

I really felt like joining unix today. Reason? Don't laugh when you hear it...

user19161

It's because..., any guesses?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Because it's the International Unix Day.

user19161

3:42 PM

Is it? Nope. I joined because I was attracted by the web page design. I prefer blue to red, and EL&U is red.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Hear that, Jin? Blue gets you new users.

user19161

Just like I prefer Debian to Ubuntu because Debian is blue but Ubuntu is red.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Debian is blue?

user19161

I mean the default wallpaper and themes.

user19161

Please laugh, hahahahahah.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

3:45 PM

Doesn't get any bluer than that.

user19161

-2

Q: What is considered asking for money?

Among these sentences: If you found my advice helpful, please consider making a donation. Please donate to me. Donate to me. Which ones are asking for money (to be paid), why and what are the others doing ? How would you rewrite the first sentence to make it a suggestion (if it wasn'...

expressions interpretation

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Jasper belongs in the intersection of (people who choose their operating system based on the default theme) and (people who realize that the theme/wallpaper can be easily changed and that such changes can persist across OS updates and reinstalls)

z7sg Ѫ

@RegDwightѬſ道 that's green

user19161

I just realised what is going on here, very funny. I mean the above question.

user19161

So now both his questions are closed.

user19161

3:48 PM

-5

Q: What is considered "asking" and what is not

Among these sentences: If you found my advice helpful, please consider making a donation. Please donate to me. Donate to me. Which ones are asking, why and what are the others ? How would you rewrite the first sentence to make it a suggestion (if it wasn't) ?

expressions interpretation

RegDwight Ѭſ道

"Closing your question repeatedly is considered asking not to post it yet again."

"And next time we will actually ask for money."

user19161

@RegDwightѬſ道 Virtual money, like sonic gives out virtual kimchi to aedia.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I will not settle for virtual monies. Or kimchis, for that matter.

user19161

I want to make a confession here. I went to downvote all the highly downvoted questions after searching for them.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

If they have been closed for a long time, better vote to delete.

user19161

3:56 PM

@RegDwightѬſ道 Soon, when I reach 10k.

user19161

I targeted end of Dec, but looks like end of Nov it might happen too.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Ha, so now he's edited his question to point out that it's a dupe.

-3

Q: DUPLICATE What is considered asking for money?

Possible Duplicate: What is considered “asking” and what is not Among these sentences: If you found my advice helpful, please consider making a donation. Please donate to me. Donate to me. Which ones are asking for money (to be paid), why and what are the others...

expressions interpretation

user19161

For what?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

This is not the first time I've seen people do this, maybe we need some kind of FAQ or something that appears when the question is closed, so that people know what to do. "Your question was closed, now what?"

user19161

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Matt has asked him to edit his old question. Oh I mean Mahnax.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

4:01 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 They should start by reading the auto-added close notice.

"It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. See the FAQ."

aedia λ

It doesn't really make it that clear that what you should do is edit and not ask again.

And hi.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Helloes.

user19161

@aediaλ Hi!

Mahnax

Hi.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@aediaλ It does make it clear that you should not post the exact same question with identical wording.

But people still do that.

So what makes you think that they wouldn't ignore any other advice you give them?

user19161

4:04 PM

@Mahnax Hi!

aedia λ

The jolt of optimism I have from drinking this coffee?

Don't worry, it'll fade.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I am not worried in the least.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy I am amazed that you have the copy editor badge.

That anyone could have the copy editor badge.

user19161

@Mahnax You should be amazed I have the sportsmanship badge.

user19161

Now all those high rep users know where you got your votes from, from me!

Mahnax

4:06 PM

@JasperLoy Just from you?

user19161

@Mahnax For a start you can try doing 5 a day. But you should get 2k first so that your edits don't have to be approved or be so substantial or perfect.

user19161

@Mahnax Well, of course not.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@RegDwightѬſ道 I'd be inclined to spell out some action steps about what the user should DO, instead of explaining what has already happened. "Your question was closed because blah blah blah blah blah". Users are pretty confused about the fact that it can be edited at all let alone after it's "closed". And especially since they don't know about the lifecycle of a question and can't tell that closed != deleted.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy Sorry, I wasn't sure what the sportsmanship badge was until about 5 seconds ago. I now understand.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@MrShinyandNew安宇 That would be a suggestion for the meta Meta. Though I suppose it wouldn't be a new one.

Mahnax

4:10 PM

@JasperLoy I'm working on the 2k thing, but it's slow going for me. I don't really have the ability to hit the rep cap every day... ahem

user19161

@Mahnax Maybe you need to find the right time to come here. For example the traffic is greatest at around 2 hours from now.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy During lunch? Forget it.

user19161

If you come at the wrong time there will be not enough questions to answer or they would be answered already.

user19161

And there are almost no questions over the weekends.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy I'm aware, but I'm not really able to get on here two hours from now.

I can come on for about an hour now, maybe another after school, and then it depends if I'm working or not.

user19161

4:13 PM

@Mahnax Then nvm, real life is much more important.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy I suppose so. I live in such an inconvenient time zone.

user19161

@Mahnax You can also try improving your existing posts so that they get bumped around and more people see them.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy That makes me wonder... Do edits on one's own posts count towards copy editor/strunk & white?

user19161

@Mahnax NO

Mahnax

@JasperLoy Figured as much, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

That's a pretty angry "no".

RegDwight Ѭſ道

4:17 PM

Heh.

NOU Y U AKS

Mahnax

@RegDwight You're scaring me.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I'm here to scare you.

Mahnax

That's a right shame. And here I was thinking I'd like it here.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

How is that even related?

You can still like it here.

Mahnax

That's true, I suppose.

I do like it here.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

4:20 PM

@Cerberus right there scares the hell out of me. Or into me. Anyway, hell!

Still, you don't see me fleeing.

At least not more often than once a day.

Mahnax

@RegDwight Well, it is Cerberus. I'm not in here enough to see you flee.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I can demonstrate.

Mahnax

Ahh! There's an owl floating across my screen.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

You saw that? Did you see that?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Hey, even I saw it.

user19161

4:22 PM

@RegDwightѬſ道 I saw that.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

You can expect that to happen once a day.

Mahnax

Yes, I did see it. Ah! It floated back in.

user19161

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I made my confession on your meta post. I like to go public about my sins.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

so @Reg, if I post feature requests in our meta, do they get attention from the stack folks?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Sure.

user19161

4:23 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Jeff seems to go to every meta.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Especially if you actually tag it as feature-request

Mahnax

@MrShinyandNew Rumor has it that Shog9 likes watching EL&U. But he rarely participates.

user19161

Oh I got an offensive chat flag saying shut the f up but I invalidated it.

user19161

@Mahnax I chatted with him on several occasions. He's quite funny.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Yeah, but it got two more flags.

Mahnax

4:26 PM

@JasperLoy I've never talked to him, I've only observed him in his natural habitat.

user19161

@Mahnax which is?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

EVERY TIME I try to respond to a flag, I'm told "an error occurred". I suspect that it's because by the time I investigate the out-of-context message in context, the flag is already dealt with.

so

-5

Q: What is considered asking for money?

Among these sentences: If you found my advice helpful, please consider making a donation. Please donate to me. Donate to me. Which ones are asking for money (to be paid), why and what are the others doing ? How would you rewrite the first sentence to make it a suggestion (if it wasn'...

expressions interpretation

has been updated. Is it a real question now?

Mahnax

@JasperLoy Meta Stack Overflow/Stack Overflow.

user19161

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Sounds good enough, done.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Huh, does it?

Mar 9 at 3:45, by Kosmonaut

I read through this question a few times and now I feel like I don't understand English anymore.

Mahnax

4:29 PM

If I could vote to reopen, I wouldn't, personally.

user19161

I mean good enough for us to understand the OP's intention even though it is not clearly expressed.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

"How to differentiate suggestions from commands and requests?"

Step one: look up suggestion, command, and request in a dictionary of your choice.

user19161

So when we answer we don't take the question literally but have the OP's intention in mind.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

You can only guess other people's intentions.

user19161

Yes, and it becomes good enough if we think we can make a good enough guess.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

4:32 PM

Jul 20 at 17:10, by RegDwight

Hint @everyone: if you don't know what the OP means, don't guess and answer. Vote to close and comment.

@JasperLoy My guesses are always good enough for myself, otherwise I wouldn't be making them.

It doesn't matter if I think that my guess is good enough.

user19161

Hello @rob! A passionate answer on battle of the sites.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Yeah, while Maths and Stats were patting each other on the shoulder for their answers, ours just silently blew them both out of the water.

Robusto

@JasperLoy Thank you.

Further proof of the aptness of this term.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Old.

Robusto

New to me. Someone just forwarded it to me in email, btw. Was it linked here already?

Would be funny if it came full-circle.

Mahnax

4:41 PM

@Robusto I've never seen that before. Cool.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Aug 1 at 20:25, by aedia

And look, if that ain't Rob's comments all over the place.

aedia λ

Wow, we used to have lots more hours in the day. Look at all that.

5

Q: Weird behavior of two fruits' names (ananas/pineapple, banana/plátano)

Some time ago I found two tables that reported the names for two fruits, which were supposed to be funny, because they specifically reported a single exception among those several languages, where this fruit's name was different for only one of those languages. I cropped the images to avoid spa...

language-change evolution cognates

The fruits even made it over to Ling.se.

z7sg Ѫ

5:26 PM

0

Q: What does the word "ship" mean in this newspaper article?

The smartphone with the biggest momentum appears to be South Korea's Samsung, which shipped 25 million of its Galaxy smartphones that use the Android operating system, to Apple's 17.3 million. I read this from today's Toronto Star. I'm not sure what the word "ship" means in this context....

meaning verbs meaning-in-context ambiguity

gen ref :)

wow gone already

Kitḫ

So I get this email "Celebrate Education Support Professionals Day as Part of American Education Week"...

I read the whole email twice. I click the link and read the informative webpage twice. I read the email again.

z7sg Ѫ

how do you do that? get the bunting out, party poppers etc.?

is there a punchline coming?

Kitḫ

It has a nice history of ESP Day. It tells me all about different kinds of support professionals.

Know what it doesn't tell me?

z7sg Ѫ

wait for it....

ah

Kitḫ

Which day it is.

z7sg Ѫ

5:34 PM

Which day is it?

"Education support professionals should be recognized not only today but on every single day of the year" can't argue with that

every day is ESP Day

Kitḫ

So I emailed them to ask. The reply was a simple "Wednesday, November 16."

That's what I got back. No "oops!" No "it's right there in the bottom left."

Just the date.

shrugs

I guess I was supposed to use ESP.

z7sg Ѫ

maybe you're supposed to know already. like you don't have to tell anyone what day Independence Day is

Kitḫ

Which day is Independence Day?

Oh right. There was that movie, so now the whole world celebrates it on the 4th of July.

I actually got into a brawl with a woman because I told her that I found that movie offensive.

z7sg Ѫ

my you are a feisty fox!

why offensive? i just found it crap

Kitḫ

I think it is pretty offensive to say things like "Now the whole world will have to celebrate July 4th as their Independence Day." Hey, that's just me, though.

I don't think we'd much like it if some other country was all like "Ahora todo el mundo necesita celebrar cinco de Mayo!"

Hmm. Maybe that's not a good example.

z7sg Ѫ

5:42 PM

i've never heard of cinco de mayo

Kitḫ

Mexican Independence Day?

It's actually pretty popular in the US.

An excuse for drinking tequila.

Also, immigrants.

Well, not drinking immigrants.

z7sg Ѫ

that's important too. people love all things american over here though. except american beer because that's awful

Kitḫ

I mean, I'm sure the immigrants drink tequila as well.

@z7sgѪ No shit, right? Except a lot of microbrews are really tasty, but I doubt they get exported.

z7sg Ѫ

yeah i've never heard of those... i'm glad you have them too though

Kitḫ

Which? Microbrews or immigrants?

z7sg Ѫ

5:47 PM

i wish i could visit and see it all for my self

oh microbrews

;D i know about the mexicans

Kitḫ

The US is a very big place. I haven't even seen it all, and I live here.

z7sg Ѫ

not literally everything, just check out some of the things you see on the news and tv shows, but 4 real

Kitḫ

Like what? I'm curious.

user19161

@z7sgѪ I prefer the British undergrad system to the American one, though for grad school it would be the opposite.

Robusto

@RegDwightѬſ道 — So I forgot about it. It happens. As you yourself noted, this is the age of short-term memory loss and Google. As I've said before, sometimes I look up things on StackOverflow and find that the accepted answer was written by me.

Kitḫ

5:54 PM

Hi @Rob!

Where you been?

Robusto

Hai.

Working.

Kitḫ

Eww.

z7sg Ѫ

@Kitḫ ah just things like the big portions in restaurants, massive shopping malls full of fat people, whether everyone really says "have a nice day", is everything bigger and noisier than in britain

Kitḫ

People don't say "Have a nice day." That's Canada.

z7sg Ѫ

are there lots of absurdly patriotic people?

user19161

5:56 PM

@z7sgѪ But there are fat and thin people everywhere on earth! Only unicorns are not everywhere.

Kitḫ

@z7sgѪ Um. Perceived that way, yes I think.

A lot of Canadians seem to think we can't remember what country we live in so we put American flags up everywhere.

But it's no different than having a pink flamingo on your lawn or a car up on blocks in your driveway.

It's not patriotic so much as just decoration.

z7sg Ѫ

it sounds silly but say you watch a documentary about america... they will always have flag shots.

i don't know if it's real!

@JasperLoy you just need to travel more i think!

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