English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

3:00 PM

Düdé, I hädn't thought of that!

Mötley Crüe. Effin' SWEET!

Otherwise, just use the USM link in [this page](http://panmental.de/symbols/info.htm).
This will open a small window where you can cut'n paste from in the upper left corner of your desktop.
Select the "international" option and click on the corners.

Kit

0

Q: Please define the grammar errors (by their generally accepted terms) in this sentence.

My goal in asking this question is to learn to name my errors. I write many sentences and think, "that's not right," and then I change it to make it sound better. It usually works OK, and my boss is happy but I want to know WHY they are not right. My current problem sentence is in bold: We dre...

sentence

Maybe this should be on Writers.

Since there aren't actually any errors.

It's just terrible style.

@AlainPannetier Ooo, nice.

psmears

@RegDwight ẗöüċḧë is more metal...

Kit

Saw this on the back of a cement truck on the way to work this morning:
Driver has been instructed not to back up without instruction.

Made me giggle.

I know it's not redundant, but it reminded me of the Department of Redundancy Department.

RegDwight

@Kit I am waiting for @Robusto to mention hyperbaton or some such.

Robusto

3:09 PM

@RegDwight — Hyperbaton. OK, migrate away.

@psmears — That is more meretricious than metal ...

RegDwight

Baton is Russian for "loaf of white bread". So every single time I see hyperbaton, it makes me giggle like a little Kit.

Kit

Kits are already little.

Robusto

@RegDwight — hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton hyperbaton

I'm waiting ... btw, did you notice how I cleverly rearranged the normal word order in that post?

z7sg

гипербатон ?

Robusto

Normally the last three "hyperbaton"s would appear at the beginning.

RegDwight

3:14 PM

@Robusto Yeah, the second-to-fifteenth hyperbaton is totally out of the order I would have expected.

Kit

@RegDwight THWACK!

RegDwight

@Kit WUT?

Kit

:1127592 THWACK!

Bad joke!

Robusto

I'm still wondering who died and made you @Martha.

RegDwight

Are you just thwacking everything now? This inflation will not stand!

@Kit That was not a joke, and if it were, it would've been awesome.

Kit

3:16 PM

@Robusto I've been certified by the almighty @Martha herself!

@RegDwight Are we to have a conflagration over the innovation of the thwacking inflation?

RegDwight

@z7sg Ayup.

Гипербатон

Гипе́рбатон — фигура речи, при которой тема высказывания выделяется путём постановки в начало или конец фразы; при этом также может разрываться синтаксическая связь. Иными словами, гипербатон — разъединение смежных слов. Классификация и этимология Наряду с анафорой, гипербатон относится к фигурам перемещения (инверсии). Сам термин происходит от — «перестановка». Употребление Гипербатон используется в основном для усиления выразительности речи. Гипербатон — фигура достаточно изощрённая, оставляющая впечатление вычурности, а поэтому он редко используется в разговорной речи, однако нере...

Robusto

Yeah, no joke, RegDwight is simply stating a fact about the word order in that sentence.

Kit

growl

RegDwight

I am not a growl, I am an owl.

Kit

Thinks he's bloody Archimedes, he does.

Martha

3:18 PM

@Kit Precisely. Will y'all quit running to mommy every time you're thwacked? I'm trying to work here.

RegDwight

@Kit Archimedes wasn't bloody, you must be confusing him with Achilles.

Kits these days...

Martha

But since I'm here, Kit, you're a database-type: is there any problem with including a smalldatetime field in a primary key?

Kit

@RegDwight Friggin' aegolius.

@Martha I wouldn't, but I've always been uncomfortable using dates instead of proper numerics in key fields. Almost as bad as strings in my mind.

Of course, I pretty much never use a natural key, and rely on artificial ones instead.

Robusto

@RegDwight — Au contraire, mon frer. Archimedes was plenty bloody once the Romans finished with him.

Vitaly

@Kit — Interesting, thank you. Was there anything else in the reply?

Alain Pannetier

3:25 PM

@Robusto, just because the old fool did not understand an ignorant Roman soldier was a very dangerous person.

Martha

The way I understand it, a date field is numeric, but with fancier display. I'm debating whether to just use an autonumbered field as the primary key, or whether I should go with the user ID + the date. (It's a timesheet - one record per day.)

Kit

@Vitaly Just the usual pleasantries.

Robusto

@AlainPannetier — Haha. He should have been smart enough to know that ignorant people are dangerous. Roman, Greek, whatever — all dangerous.

Vitaly

@Kit — They didn't clarify explicitly what “They made bones” might mean?

Kit

@Martha Any chance the user ID can be put in incorrectly? Datestamp could be incorrect?

RegDwight

3:26 PM

@Robusto Fair enough, but then again, Archimedes invented buoyancy, while Achilles only invented heels. So Archimedes wins anyhow.

Kit

@Vitaly No, unfortunately. I had the impression she mentioned bone meal because I specifically asked about that phrase.

Vitaly

Hmm.

Kit

@Martha And you're right, date datatypes are just "fancy" numbers.

Rhodri

@Kit Possibly much the same as my reaction. I spotted "pen and ink" straight away, but "They made bones" doesn't mean anything to me.

@Kit Nice bit of research all the same.

Kit

@Rhodri That could be.

Thanks. Wish it were most conclusive.

Martha

3:30 PM

@Kit Well, if the user ID is wrong, we've got bigger problems. The date could be wrong only in the sense of being the wrong day, but in that case the correction would be a new record entered with the correct day.

Kit

@Martha So no typos with the user ID, ok. And if you used the full timestamp, then the date isn't a problem (no duplicate keys). Yeah, you could do that. What do you use the key for?

(In this particular case. I know what keys are for.)

Robusto

Next question for Skeptics.SE: End-of-the-world predictions: are they more reliable now than they used to be?

4

Kit

@Robusto Love it! Goes right in with the argument that if you apply the scientific method to the scientific method, then all science is bunk.

Robusto

I'm, like, so totally beyond science it isn't even funny.

Kit

@Vitaly I thought it was helpful to know that a stinker wharf probably meant a tannery or a knackery though. That narrows things down a bit. Do you have a link for the interview?

z7sg

3:36 PM

@Martha I prefer using a surrogate key and creating constraints as needed. But it's one of those horribly contentious issues. I don't get on with our database people so well now after they changed to this way of thinking but then decided they would call all of the key columns 'id'.

Kit

@z7sg Do they use admin as the password for the sa account?

RegDwight

Come on people, you're driving @Rhodri away!

Feb 8 at 17:35, by Rhodri

I don't know, I wander in here to get my mind off coding issues and what do I find? :-)

Kit

I'm sorry, @Rhodri. Let's talk about how hot Johnny Depp is instead.

Martha

Mostly, I just need to define a primary key because the database (practically) requires it, but if I don't use a natural key, then I'll need to do something to prevent one user from having more than one record per day. Of course, if I do use a natural key, then I'll have to do something to prevent the users from seeing 500 Internal Server Error pages...

z7sg

@Kit No... they're smarter than that, they use CompanyName01. Everywhere.

Kit

3:40 PM

Wait, you're British, aren't you? David Tennant, then.

z7sg

@Rhodri you're a guy surely?

Kit

@Martha I think you'll find it will save you more headache to use an autonumbered key.

@z7sg What's that got to do with anything? Surely you find Johnny Depp irresistibly hot?

Gigili

Pft, why everyone is programmer? I should change my mind then.

Martha

Ok, you've convinced me. Surrogate key it is. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled incomprehensibility.

Kit

@Gigili Programming is the paper-pushing of the 21st century.

@Martha Still an headache though. Just a smaller one.

Vitaly

3:44 PM

@Kit — Sadly, no, I don't have one.

Kit

@z7sg Frig, you're a Brit too, aintcha? David Tennant, then. Sexy m-f.

@Vitaly Oh! You accepted my answer. But I'm not absolutely sure about the bone meal part. Are you sure you want to do that?

z7sg

Neither of those guys really doing anything for me @Kit

Kit

@z7sg Jeremy Irons? Jason Statham? Come on now.

Don't be shy.

Robusto

@Alain: "Wow, cool! That's totally noteworthy, dude!" ^_^

Alain Pannetier

Yeah I just see your comment. That's too emphatic. Let me rework this.

RegDwight

3:52 PM

@z7sg Shirley is not a male name.

Kit

@RegDwight That's not such a funny joke when you write it out.

Lunchtime! TTFN.

RegDwight

How is that a joke? It's a fact.

Robusto

@RegDwight — In fact, it's a fact.

RegDwight

Fact: Robusto's right.

Rhodri

@z7sg I am indeed a guy. And Johnny Depp is hot :-)

z7sg

3:57 PM

@Kit Actually I can't really even think of a hot female to talk about instead. I have never understood that stuff, they are just people off the telly and in films.

Alain Pannetier

@Robusto, sounds better now ?

Robusto

I will look.

Alain Pannetier

But your "Wow, cool! That's totally noteworthy, dude!" would not work with interesting either.

Robusto

@AlainPannetier — The words I gave in my response are the words I would use to express interest in something (informally, of course). Obviously I meant my reply to you as a gently sarcastic comment. OK, maybe not so gentle.

Alain Pannetier

No offence taken. Helped me realise I was off the mark.

I found your proposal more "real life" indeed.

Gigili

4:03 PM

@AlainPannetier You throw me through a loop .. "jarsearch by alainpannetier"> alainpannetier > jarsearch > alainpannetier ...

Alain Pannetier

@Gigili How is this an infinite loop? I don't believe my sourceforge project points at my SO page ;-)

Gigili

@AlainPannetier Haha, you don't have any other solution.

RegDwight

K party pipls, me's gotta go.

For once, I'm outta here before @Martha has posted a single baby picture.

3

Alain Pannetier

As a blog? I used to have a JRoller blog eons ago!

Robusto

JRoller? Really? And precisely when did you stop rolling J's?

Alain Pannetier

4:08 PM

@Robusto when J's stopped being rhotic.

Robusto

@RegDwight — Coward! Go ahead, flee. Leave the rest of us to sort out here baby picture onslaughts.

@AlainPannetier — R R R, very funny.

Alain Pannetier

@Robusto, @RegDwight This will teach you!!!

Robusto

@AlainPannetier — Bastard! I'll get you for this!

But not now. Lunch beckons.

Alain Pannetier

@Robusto, Tut mir leid!!! Out of reach! All you can do is rearrange a few pixels on my screen... ;-)

Kit

@AlainPannetier Supercute!

(Or is it fils-et mignon?)

@Rhodri Yes, but what about David Tennant? How do Brits feel about him?

Rhodri

4:24 PM

Baby-pictures and programming! Aiiiiiiiii

Kit

@Rhodri Focus on David Tennant. This is a burning question of mine.

I need to know.

Brit-on-Brit, if you catch my drift.

Rhodri

@Kit Yes'm! He's very pretty, but not my type

But that accent... <sigh>

Kit

What's his accent?

Rhodri

I clearly have a weakness for soft Scots accents

Alain Pannetier

@Kit "très mignon". Junior had cut his eyebrow 3 days before and lived day and night with his cap...

Kit

4:25 PM

Ah.

@AlainPannetier So much for my crappy French puns.

@Rhodri Apparently I do too. And now I have a name for it.

@Rhodri So Jeremy Irons? Jason Statham? Where you weigh in on those guys?

Rhodri

@Kit I think it's an Edinburgh accent, but I'm not sure.

Jeremy Irons. Brideshead Revisited. No more need be said.

Kit

I'm getting all worked up just thinking about it...

Phew! Is it hot in here or it is just this AS/400?

Rhodri

Perhaps you need a Mechanic to see to it?

Kit

@Rhodri Hmm, is this an oblique reference to a movie?

Alain Pannetier

I'm off. TTYL

Kit

4:35 PM

See you!

Kit

4:56 PM

@Alenanno It's superfluous regardless of context. The outcome is the same no matter how the condition is evaluated.

Rhodri

5:45 PM

@Kit: People are being wrong on the Internet again. In that question. And I don't mean you or @Alenanno.

Unfortunately I'd feel like an Internet Stalker if I set about correct that specific "people" again :-)

aedia

@Kit they let me go home eventually. Still have to trample many more charts and tables into submission today, though.

Kit

@Rhodri Which what? I've been ogling David Tennant again. I forgot where I was.

Rhodri

1

Q: How can I reword this sentence such that it is not as redundant?

If the table contains more than 10 entries, only the first 10 will be displayed. Is this correct? It seems redundant to me.

sentence

The third answer in vote ranking (I'm trying hard not to name names here) is very firm, definite, and wrong. I think all of his answers that I've seen thus far have exactly the same qualities.

Since I seemed to spend all of yesterday chasing him round the site contending his answers, I'm a bit reluctant to do it again.

aedia

I was hoping that question would get thrown over the wall to Writers.

Kit

@Rhodri I'm finding the whole thing quite irritating. @aedia's right. Let's feed it to the dogs.

aedia

5:58 PM

It falls somewhere between writing critique and correctness... so it's inviting people to rewrite, and that's the trouble. You get answers guessing at what the author meant to say, instead of explaining how language works.

Kit

@aedia Agh! Charts! There's something I conveniently forgot I had to do before Monday's progress meeting.

[insert expletive here]

Rhodri

@aedia: Good point

aedia

Not that we know how language works, but... our best answers explain why a particular usage makes sense or doesn't, why people use it, what context it's used in, that kind of thing. Maybe with questions like this if we're not going to give them to Writers somebody could jump in to edit them sooner to make them a little more about correctness

I dunno. Now I'm rambling.

Gotta get back to the salt mines, anyway.

z7sg

Downvote it! I downvoted that immediately.

aedia

@Kit I am starting to hate 'em. Charts and meetings both.

Rhodri

6:03 PM

@z7sg I must admit I rarely up- or down-vote questions. It's not actually a stupid question, but it has attracted the odd stupid answer.

And it would be better on Writers.

Anyway, I must away. I have to go and be moral and upright, or at least pretend to be.

z7sg

@Rhodri If people aren't sure how to answer, it's a bad question. If it is a new user I always leave a comment first but if comments have been ignored.. I vote down.

see ya

Kit

Well, I'm not really sure what's so wrong about that answer.

z7sg

The whole thing is pointless. Repeating a word is not a crime. There is nothing wrong with the way it is written imo, in fact, most of the alternatives are worse! At least the OP's sentence can be read once and understood.

This for example: The table can display only up to 10 leading entries.

Leading entries what is dat hmm?

Kit

Ok, true. I feel mildly defensive because I answered the question too.

And I think that answer is a knock-off of mine.

z7sg

You got a bunch of rep for it... but now you have over 3k I guess you don't even care any more. It's just for Frigg's honour now.

Kit

6:12 PM

But I answered his question and explained my suggestions. I'm not sure what he doesn't like about his own sentence. It isn't really redundant.

You know, I lost out on about 470 rep yesterday because of the cap.

MrHen

Ugh. pageman is being a dick again.

Kit

For the honor of Frigg. Yes, I like that.

@MrHen Where?

z7sg

That supercollider rep is undeserved... you wouldn't have felt good about that rep. Now you know all your rep is the good rep. :)

MrHen

1

Q: What does the phrase "only if monkeys could use skype" mean?

I just read this phrase somewhere. Do you have any idea what it means? only if monkeys could use Skype

meaning phrases

Kit

@z7sg Thanks, you're right. I do feel a bit better now.

MrHen

6:14 PM

I challenged his answer and now I am getting comments on all of my activity on that question

Also, can we close that question, please?

Kit

Lack of context?

MrHen

@Kit I voted Too Narrow but NARQ would also apply

Er, wait, I apparently voted Off Topic

:P

Too many choices :)

Kit

If she could verify the context, I think it's a valid question.

You're right about pageman, though.

It's a fine display of douchebaggery.

MrHen

No, wait, I did vote Too Localized (so many down votes recently...)

@Kit Yeah... except I don't personally think this is an interesting case

If the quote is from the movie than the context in the movie makes it pretty clear

Just looking up what the words mean would explain the meaning of the sentence

But I would have probably just ignored it then instead of voting to close

Kit

Well, so it's not so interesting. It gives someone the opportunity to use the word adynaton.

z7sg

6:19 PM

Really comment #1 should be 'Can you provide some context'? then if the OP ignores that people should downvote or vote to close instead of just guessing at the answer. That's my tuppence.

MrHen

@Kit Well, this was the last attempt. The future will just downvote without explanation

@z7sg Agreed. I just answer some of these to curb the mess.

z7sg

@MrHen Please do not modify your behaviour because some people are annoying, your comment was appropriate! :)

MrHen

@z7sg No, I meant just that I have a list of people I don't bother talking to

They just get silent downvotes

z7sg

I know what it's like though, sometimes I think 'jeez i don;t wanna start another argument'

OIC

MrHen

Comments explaining downvotes are a favor. If someone doesn't appreciate that, they don't get them.

Kit

6:23 PM

@MrHen Downvote? I flagged that emeffer. His answer is not an answer and he's being obnoxious. Slap that bitch and teach him how to hunt.

@MrHen You know what, MrHen? If I get uppity, you call me on that sh*t, aight?

MrHen

@Kit I am not in the business of slapping bitches. But if you give me your card, I will refer all bitches that need slaps toward you.

2

z7sg

G-deasley you are right!

MrHen

@Kit Er, as far as I know.

Do you get uppity?

Oh, "aight" not "alright"

Kit

@z7sg No, no, it's like "god-damned," remember?

MrHen

Haha, misread

Yes, will do. :)

z7sg

6:25 PM

@Kit Uh-huh ok, i will use it just like you said, even when you're not looking!

Kit

@z7sg Didn't we establish that tuppence is slang for vagina?

z7sg

it's all about context

Kit

Criminey! It's Reg!

Quick, delete the last five minutes!

MrHen

@Kit Yeah, you aren't good a nonchalance, are you?

Kit

@MrHen Um, subtlety is not my forte.

I mentioned that I'm a computer programmer, right?

@RegDwight Do I have to bowdlerize the "cunny" in cunnyf*ck?

MrHen

6:28 PM

@Kit In terms you understand: Subtly is the difference between x += 10 and x *= 10

Kit

@MrHen (that should throw him off our scent)

@MrHen Ah. Totally ; that.

MrHen

@Kit They are properly segmented from the rest of the text; chat just doesn't show it well.

RegDwight

@Kit Um. Take a poll or something. I dunno.

MrHen

@RegDwight Hello. Seems like it's been a while.

Kit

@MrHen No, that was the joke. I was ending the statement.

RegDwight

6:31 PM

@MrHen Ahoi, Kamerad!

MrHen

@RegDwight A Hawaiian communist?! What the devil?

pushes nuke button

RegDwight

Ahoi is not Hawaiian. In fact, it's the exact opposite of Hawaiian.

MrHen

@RegDwight What was I thinking of?

RegDwight

Hawaii, I suppose.

Robusto

@RegDwight — I thought the opposite of Hawaiian was Russian.

RegDwight

6:34 PM

@Robusto Russian is the opposite of everything.

MrHen

@RegDwight Well, in case, greetings. How is the moderating been?

Kit

@MrHen Aloha?

MrHen

Enough of opposites; what are the antonyms?!

@Kit Ah, yes. That would be it.

@Robusto BTW, I have continued experimenting with Skeptics.SE. Not much to report, however.

RegDwight

@MrHen Tiring and tiresome. They introduced flags upon flags, so now deciding what to do with a flag is quite a pain.

Robusto

Hmm ... so Aloha in Russian is Ahola?

MrHen

6:35 PM

@RegDwight Link? I haven't read up on those yet.

I suppose I could try to eek out another 2k and help or something.

RegDwight

22

Q: Feedback on tools/flagged changes

10k users have always had visibility to some of the flags in the system, in particular they could see spam/offensive and comment flags in the tools/flagged route. The trouble was that these are the easiest flags for us mods to deal with. The trickier ones to deal with are all the rest. We jus...

discussion flagging 10k-tools flags

MrHen

Ah, thanks. Reading...

Robusto

It's a trick. They are just teasing us with these "new privileges" ...

MrHen

Eh. They don't have tasty screenshots so there isn't much for me to learn yet

RegDwight

@MrHen They have a screenshot here:

Not very useful to you anyway, cause you'll only get there at 10k.

But do feel free to eek out those 2k.

MrHen

6:46 PM

eke; eek

Heh

TIL

But I've been repping up at Skeptics

RegDwight

I actually prefer eek, it's easier to add more E's that way.

MrHen

So... I guess I should stop that

@RegDwight Does more Es mean more or less with regards to eke?

RegDwight

Possibly both.

MrHen

"manage to support oneself or make a living with difficulty"

That's what my dictionary says

RegDwight

MrHen

999 14

physiology neurology gender religion government medicine biology

You are an upside-down Satan!!!!

MrHen

6:49 PM

@RegDwight Yeah, 11 questions 2 answers

So... not repping very quickly

Robusto

@RegDwight — You people are misspelling Eeeek! ... I mean, come on. That is a registered meme belonging to @Martha.

MrHen

Hmm...

@Robusto Hmm... "I am going to Eeeek! out another 2k rep"

RegDwight

@Robusto I'm not sure MrHen warrants that many E's, Satan or not.

Robusto

@MrHen — There's a good lad.

MrHen

@Robusto Then why do I feel so dirty?

Robusto

6:50 PM

@MrHen — I wouldn't care to speculate about that.

RegDwight

@MrHen Because see your top starred comment right now.

MrHen

@RegDwight I should ask Skeptics if I am the devil.

@RegDwight As opposed to those other comments I have starred?

RegDwight

@MrHen Great idea, actually.

"I see that I am at 999 reps. Am I really Satan hanged upside down by his tail?"

MrHen

@RegDwight "Am I a deity?" would probably be more entertaining

Haha, or "Am I a brain in a vat?"

RegDwight

Okay, let's settle for "Am I not a deity?"

MrHen

6:52 PM

I really don't understand their topicality rules

RegDwight

Ask @Robusto. He excels at figuring out Skeptics.

MrHen

@RegDwight No no, it has to be worded for Skeptics: "What evidence is there that I really am not a deity?"

RegDwight

@MrHen D'oh, obviously that would go into the body of the question.

Robusto

You could try the Cartesian approach: "I stink, therefore I am." Actually, that should be rendered in Latin. Where's @Cerberus when you really need him?

MrHen

@RegDwight skeptics.stackexchange.com/search?q=title%3Areally

RegDwight

6:54 PM

Or are you one of those "the question is all in the title" folks?

MrHen

Eh? I am just commenting on how people ask questions at Skeptics.

RegDwight

@Robusto Antifumo, ergo sum.

MrHen

skeptics.stackexchange.com/search?q=title%3Aevidence

Kit

"Did Alexander the Great really say the quotation...?" WTF is wrong with people?

RegDwight

@Kit Wait, shouldn't they start by asking if Alexander the Great actually existed?

Kit

6:56 PM

And I agree, it ought to be "What is the evidence that MrHen is not a god?"

@RegDwight I can't really believe that you said that quotation.

MrHen

In all honestly, when I first joined I wanted to ask if a butterfly could really cause an earthquake on the other side of the world.

RegDwight

@Kit I never sayed that quotation, I only discovered it.

Robusto

I guess I have to change my question then: End-of-the-world predictions: Is there any evidence that they are more reliable now than they used to be?

MrHen

I figured it wouldn't have made a good first impression.

RegDwight

Mar 29 at 13:16, by Borror0

-1

Q: Who discovered the Language English?

I want to know who discovered the language English. For example, who discovered the definition for the words? Say, nap means sleep. Who decide this?

history

MrHen

6:57 PM

@Robusto I don't see "really"; you need a "really"

Robusto

Damn.

Too late. Meeting time. Stupid Fridays.

TTYL

MrHen

@Kit: I have never heard of "cat-putting"

Kit

Is there really any evidence? <- conveys skepticism

@MrHen Any expression that involved putting cats?

MrHen

@Kit "Is there any evidence that [x] really [y]?"

@Kit Nope.

RegDwight

Ah. Now I understand. So the question must be reworded as "Is there really evidence of who really discovered the Language English?"

Kit

6:58 PM

@MrHen <- conveys skepticism

MrHen

@RegDwight Yes.

Kit

@RegDwight You forgot the last "really."

MrHen

That is how to make all questions on topic for Skeptics.

RegDwight

Thx brb.

MrHen

@RegDwight Uh-oh

Kit

7:01 PM

So, @MrHen, about the cats...

nudge

MrHen

@Kit What? I have no idea what "cat putting" means

It didn't hit anything interesting on an internet search

RegDwight

@MrHen Sorry, on my way over to Skeptics I forgot your guidelines and totally screwed up the English question.

1

Q: Is anal sex pleasurable?

I know this has a huge amount of subjectivity, and the answer is most likely "It can be." However, I have met people who say it is, and that people who don't think so are repressed and those that say it isn't, and that people who think it is are deluding themselves. Has there been any studies s...

psychology physiology sex

MrHen

@RegDwight I voted to close that, btw.

RegDwight

I think it still kind of asks the same thing, but it could use some editing.

How come this hasn't been closed yet:

14

Q: Is driving the speed limit on a highway safer?

I'd have thought this would have been asked already but I didn't see it. Is driving the speed limit safer on a highway? By "highway" I mean high-traffic areas, such as 4-lane divided thoroughfares. Having commuted for some time, I've noticed that people who clearly drive at excessive speeds seem...

cars safety traffic

Which highway? All highways? All speed limits ever?

MrHen

Another thing that bugs me about questions is that pointing out the subjectivity of a question in the question itself does not make it okay to actually ask the question

@RegDwight I pick my battles

Right now I am trying to get them to agree on topicality before getting picky about question formation.

RegDwight

7:07 PM

@MrHen I see. I never pick mine. It's just me against the world.

Speaking of which, @Cerberus keep an eye on our two wars.

MrHen

Meh. I don't have infinite energy to wage war. They got grumpy when I told them that irrelevant images should be edited out... so content quality isn't apparently a major concern.

It is sort of like trying to get a style consensus out of Meta.EL&U

RegDwight

Are you implying we ain't got style?

Kit

@RegDwight You got sauce.

All flash and no dash, though.

RegDwight

@Kit Thwack yourself at your own leisure.

Kit

How is that thwack-worthy? It's a simple ribbing.

RegDwight

7:14 PM

Welcome to the club.

You keep thwacking me for no reason whatsoever, and I keep wondering. Have a taste of your own medicine.

Kit

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

RegDwight

Sour grapes of wrath?

Kit

Are you feeling irate?

Internal server error at 3:30 on a Friday. Great. I'm terrifically happy.

Martha

@Kit We usually get those at 6:30 on Friday.

Kit

That's right #500 - I got your ticket! Chew on this, mcnugget!

RegDwight

7:29 PM

Fresh baguette with French cheese at 21:30 on a Friday. I'm terrifically happy.

TTYL.

Kit

Bye!

@Martha What are you doing monitoring servers at 6:30 on Friday?

Martha

Working.

Kit

Sounds like a crappy job to me.

Martha

Hmm, you think?

Kit

Hmm. Wait...Isn't that what I do?

Well, you'll just have to come work for me then.

Martha

7:31 PM

Even better is when the boss comes up with "just one more question" as I'm packing my stuff to leave for the weekend.

Kit

Love that one.

My project lead was in here yesterday to ask me if I could add two more modules to the project.

His favorite phrase seems to be I don't see what's so hard about...

Laity. Bunch of bitches.

Then again, I'm on EL&U chat for most of the day...

Martha

@Kit Nah, that doesn't have anything to do with productivity. Right?

Kit

I figure if I can type a fully fledged answer in ten minutes with a baby on my hip, I can probably chat and program at the same time.

Martha

Here, lemme cut into your productivity some more: wordsplay.net

(It's 5x5 Boggle, but they can't call it that)

Kit

@Martha Do you know why he needs my email? The link just redirects to the same page.

Martha

7:44 PM

He uses emails as logins, figuring people are more likely to remember them than Yet Another Username and Password.

I've never gotten any spam or anything, but I think you can use a fake email if you're worried.

Kit

@Martha No, I was just put off by the re-direct. He suggests gifts from his Amazon wishlist if people are uncomfortable donating using PayPal, and he likes Neil Gaiman. Sounds pretty trustworthy to me.

Kit

8:09 PM

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig. Thanks for the game, @Martha. TTFN.

Martha

Take care!

MrHen

8:20 PM

Hellos @Martha; as I was mentioning earlier it feels like its been a while since we've had a good chat :)

Martha

It does seem like it. It probably doesn't help that I've been spending less and less time on chat. Stoopid work.

Have I mentioned how much I hate JavaScript?

I was hoping html 5 would remove the need for much of the javascript I struggle with, i.e. with number spinners and especially datepickers, but (1) too few browsers are compliant, and especially (2) the date/time input fields can't be customized, like, at all. If you don't like 24-hour time, you're SOL. If your users get confused by dates that aren't mm/dd/yyyy, ditto.

MrHen

@Martha Haha, stupid customers and their stupid date formats

MrHen

8:57 PM

6

Q: An antonym for "continuum" to describe a limited set of possible options

I came across this sentence while reading Wikipedia and the second occurrence of "continuum" stood out to me as totally wrong since a continuum is specifically a range which can be divided into an unlimited number of possibilities. "Some linguists consider the rough/soft continuum more accura...

word-choice antonyms

With all of the edits and comments on this question, I gave up and voted to close as NARQ.

I have no idea what is being asked.

Martha

9:12 PM

I think the OP has basically completely misread the original quote. I mean, completely.

aedia

@MrHen I don't understand it anymore, except it looks to me like it turned into peeving on the author's part.

z7sg

@Martha I think you're right ;D

Martha

I've downvoted the question and posted a comment, but I still think there might be a real question underneath the peeving, so I haven't voted to close.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…