English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2011-07-18 (page 2 of 7)

« first day (249 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (4658 days later) »

9:06 AM

@trg787 ecole = school

aha

tu es français?

Brother, I'm a pure Belorusian. Both my mom and dad from local villages

ah

tu veux apprendre le français? :-D

You can't imagine HOW the local ppl respected French movies. It was impossible to buy a ticket...... Crowds crowds.... if Pierre Richard or Louis de Funes..... Until now these actors are very respectfu herel

9:22 AM

heh

PS I meant the time of the USSR, 70-s

@Jez, it was impossible to buy a ticket...... So many ppl, I was a little boy at the time.... But until now we like your comics VERY MUCH

@trg787 i am not French :-)

oops :)

Mr. Disappointment

9:40 AM

6

A: What is the origin of != in the meaning "not equal to"?

C and the unix shells use != for not equal, it comes from the maths symbol ≠. The earlier computer langauge FORTRAN that was (and is) used for more mathematical work uses .ne. because it was invented before the symbols on keyboards were standardised

@MrDisappointment Yeah, saw that yesterday before going to bed.

Haven't checked the site today much.

Mr. Disappointment

This, IMO, is OT. Unless we suddenly want to entertain malformation of mathematical symbols in non unicode text. WTF?

Only read waiwai's and nohat's exchange on meta.

Mr. Disappointment

I flagged it, but it got 'invalid'.

@MrDisappointment Wasn't me.

Mr. Disappointment

9:41 AM

I wasn't pointing the finger, just saying - but I would have perhaps expected a comment on the question by that mod, to help clear the question up a bit if they thought otherwise.

I see three close votes.

Me, I'm on the fence.

Mr. Disappointment

Protected is good.

Especially as per OP's comment.

If it starts finding its way into everyday language, having some "etymology" info on it doesn't really hurt...

I dunno.

← 14 messages moved from War Metal Tyrant

9:56 AM

Why the arrows guys?

Alain Pannetier

@z7sg What arrows? Where do you see arrows?

← like this

Alain Pannetier

← Do you mean
← "← Why the arrows guys?"

Why the "←" guys?

@RegDwight hello SIR

10:05 AM

← look at me wooo i is a unacorn

Alain Pannetier

← Just kidding. No idea...

← ah okays

← So what's up?

user image

I love homm2

user image

10:27 AM

Morning, all.

hey

this is a deathly boring day.

even the internet's dead

11:03 AM

The Internet is never dead.

It's just resting...

27

A: What are the metaphorical ways to say that someone has died?

Courtesy of Monty Python: It's passed on! This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late parrot! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed him to the perch he would be pushing up the daisies! Its metabolical pro...

But yeah, I wouldn't mind closing the site for a week and getting some sleep.

Talking of which, any signs of an apology from our not-so-benevolent dictator?

Meta is quiet today. Thankfully.

I actually hope to get some work done today. Imagine that!

@RegDwight Say it isn't so!

11:27 AM

Morning!

I'm off to get coffee. Anyone else want some?

@Kit Yes please

@Kit No thanks, it's about time for me to go to lunch. We always have lunch together as a company on Mondays.

@Rhodri We've having company lunch to celebrate my birthday today.

@z7sg Here you go! I hope you like cream and sugar.

@Kit I hate sugar. :(

@z7sg Crud, sorry. You take yours black?

11:41 AM

Or perhaps I should say something like, "You're sweet enough already."

Usually full-fat milk but cream sounds even better. I think drinking straight black coffee is too bitter.

Ha ha — BARF

Yeah yeah I know :D

I used to like my coffee the way I liked my men — dark and bitter.

Fortunately your tastes improved before you married one I take it?

Yep. Now I still like my coffee the way I like my men — sweet and creamy.

@GraceNote I hope you have studied up on Yuri Gagarin, you heathen! :-)

Now I've got a ridiculous amount of coffee in my cream and sugar.

11:49 AM

@Kit Well, at least this time I'm only a heathen.

@GraceNote What were you before?

(And no, no I did not do any studying)

shaking head with disappointment

@Kit With the Chernobyl incident, I was various degrees of moron, idiot, and pretty much spent the day as the absolute stupidest person in the room.

@GraceNote Oh, there must be more than what I heard about. I'll have to look.

11:51 AM

@Kit Eh, it was in a different community. Someone mentioned Chernobyl. I asked what it was. Which apparently was extremely stupid.

@GraceNote Not if you are under the age of 30.

I'm guessing you are mid-twenties.

@Kit I was under the age of 20 at the time, in fact.

So not stupid. Just exasperating.

@Kit That's fairly accurate.

@Kit Haha, thanks. I only wish they were as kind back then.

It's like when I forget that the students I work with think of Star Wars as the awful three-that-came-after.

11:54 AM

@Kit I ran into some kids who didn't know who the Flintstones were. I was baffled.

@GraceNote Ah, so you begin to understand. It only gets worse as you get older.

@Kit So I hear.

Just wait. When you are my age, you will talk to someone who you don't think of as being any younger than yourself, and then suddenly "World Trade Center? Oh yeah, I remember when we covered that section in American History." It will sit you on your ass.

@Kit I know you're a parent, but honestly that represents a very wide range of ages.

It amuses me to think that there will come a time that what I knew as a child will eventually be the stuff of history books, though.

@GraceNote Oh, you mean the "When you're my age?" I mean, in about ten years.

11:58 AM

@Kit Ahha

Reminds me of an anecdote I heard about an elementary school teacher who recognized the name of a soldier from the textbook, only to dawn on the concept of "I used to date someone that is in my history book".

Oh, that would hurt.

It does give one an interesting perspective though. I wish I had understood that when I was younger. But of course youth is wasted on the young.

Aye to that.

12:15 PM

7

Q: Is "staff" plural?

Which one of these two statements is correct? Our staff do ... Our staff does ... Is staffs correct?

grammatical-number verb-agreement

0

Q: Is it ever valid to say "staffs" (as in people not sticks)?

Sentence in a book by Rudy Giuliani: I could ensure my deputies and commissioners were working off the same page and could carry a coherent message back to their staffs. But isn't staff a mass noun with no plural? (this is staff people not walking sticks:)

Dupe?

Sorta, but I don't think it's quite close level.

The earlier one is asking about whether the word "staff" is plural or singular (and makes a short note about "staffs" but doesn't seem truly concerned about it), while the latter is asking if "staffs" is a valid word in the specific context.

@GraceNote I was on the fence myself. It's really more of a "Is it ok to pluralize mass nouns?" question.

'a staff' is being used as a countable noun IMHO

like 'a team'

There should definitely be a comment that mentions on one question that the other question exists as a related topic.

Which... you just wrote, I see.

@GraceNote Ta da!

12:21 PM

> My son picks his nose and, yes, eats it. How can I get this to stop?

Bah, I still do it in private. Best way to clean it out!

@Jez You eat it? Ick. But it's supposed to be good for your immune system.

@Jez Eating it? Really? Can't you find a... healthier disposal method?

@Jez And the answer is, don't bother.

i just don't find it nasty... like you don't find your own saliva nasty but you do others', i guess. and i wouldnt say it's unhealthy. do you think you get ill from it?

it's all cultural. people should probably be allowed to pick their nose like they rub their eyes.

@Jez If I'm not mistaken, part of the purpose of mucus is to catch dirt and other nasties and stop them from getting deeper into your respiratory system.

12:23 PM

@Jez I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I remember that it boosts your immune system.

@GraceNote right, but swallowing it puts it into your stomach where the acid terminates it.

@Jez Yes, but I don't likewise enjoy the concept of eating plain dirt and such. That's why we clean food before we eat it, typically.

I pick my nose, but I don't eat it. That makes me feel like barfing just thinking about it.

the funny thing is, i don't know how people blow their nose. i've never found a way to do it without it going all over my face. picking is much cleaner. :-)

@Jez Agreed.

12:24 PM

@Jez Also, I'll go blind if I rub my eyes.

@GraceNote I find it has a nice savoury flavour.

And on that high note, I am going to sign out so I can focus on preparing for this morning's progress meeting. TTFN.

Eating OTHERS', that's a different matter.

@Jez I think it's cleaner when it's solid. But when it's liquid and running, I don't find that picking it is really all that effective.

picking and sniffing works as well as anything

though if i have a cold, a good load of water to wash stuff down is needed

12:26 PM

Perhaps my technique is off, then.

:-)

3

Q: Getting a toddler to eat more and gain weight.

Our toddler isn't gaining weight, and our doctor told us to fix it. We stopped breastfeeding and she gained a kilo in just two weeks, but since then (soon two months) she hasn't gained anything again, possibly even lost a bit. The weather is fantastic and she is running around like crazy both in...

toddler nutrition weight

Hmm, not a natural American toddler then!

Mrm.

@Kit Woo! Happy birthday, Kit

G'day, @Rhodri

so @Rhodri you decided to come back?

12:43 PM

@Jez: no, I'm just waiting about in the vain hope of seeing something vaguely resembling an apology from Jeff before my "I don't want my name associated with this" deadline expires.

what deadline?

Mr. Disappointment

@Kit That's definitely a dupe.

@Jez: Oh, I'd say about a week from when Jeff decided bullying was a viable option. So tomorrow.

It's not one I bothered voicing. That wouldn't have achieved anything

@Rhodri Thankfully I was abroad when this all happened, but from what I read, I share your opinions, though possibly less vehemently so.

I don't want an apology as I never felt personally attacked but I would like to see this jokes issue resolved as per the community consensus.

12:46 PM

I decided to ignore it because I didn't think I could help or change anything.

I just take from this website what I like and ignore the rest. I like chat and answering certain questions. Perhaps that is self-centred.

@Cerberus Well, as long as you continue to work hard on positive contributions, you're doing the best help that's available, I'd say.

@GraceNote I don't think that solves the issue... but yeah what else can one do?

Mr. Disappointment

I've decided to retreat from input other than (attempts at) quipping comments - I think he made it clear that this place isn't for me (or supposed to be welcoming to anyone like me, i.e. at my level of English.)

@Cerberus I'm decidedly on that second point myself.

The basic conversation is: "Dirtyish joke", "Don't put dirtyish stuff in titles, it gets syndicated", "Can't we just remove them from syndication?", "No", "Why?", "..."

Mr. Disappointment

12:48 PM

I'll hang around in chat though, obviously, this is a much separated section of the community.

I don't think there's a problem of being overrun with junk content as Jeff seems to imply, but I do find myself agreeing with some of Jeff's notes that askers are taking advantage of the generous nature of how much this community is willing to provide in answers.

@MrDisappointment At you level, huh? ;-)

Mr. Disappointment

Indeedy.

Was getting all Scottish 'nd shi.

@Cerberus That's fair enough. I'm the one being selfish.

I haven't been around long enough to say that I can know how prevalent it is or not. Any evidence I have (such as this extremely bare question from today) is merely circumstantial and what-found-in-hand, not conclusive.

12:50 PM

Sounds more Cockney to me.

@GraceNote Possibly so... I never agreed with SE's aggressiveness in general towards askers anyway, but the issue remained dormant for me for a long time. Now it has erupted.

@Cerberus I think there's some level of aggression on other sites, but I don't think we really need as much aggression on this site.

@Rhodri Not quite. You are principled, and probably more apalled, because you were there when this shit happened.

something's screwed up with the mini-Gravatars. I'm still seeing Reg as an owl.

Identification shows just how unaggressive Gaming is on that, haha. We really are even worse when it comes to "Getting taken advantage of"

@Jez He switched back to an owl, last I checked.

12:52 PM

oh, he's back to that

@GraceNote By aggression I mean the strict application of rules on on-topicness that have been unclear to me even to this day, on ELU.

@Cerberus Maybe. Maybe it's just that this site is almost unique in that I'm me on it. This ID links straight back to my front door, more or less.

@Cerberus I don't really think "on-topicness" is really as much an issue as people seem to think it is.

And I won't be associated with bullying. Not nohow, not no way.

I liked Jeff's "radio edit of raps" analogy

either a rap is edited beyond recognition, or (more often) not played at all on prudish stations

that's what will happen here

12:54 PM

On both sides, even. I don't think Jeff has any intention of changing the scope of the English site, and really his initial targetting of joke questions seems indicative of rushing into the situation without fully grasping not only the circumstances, but even what he was perceiving as the true problem.

@Rhodri Understandable. The atmosphere and the lack of etiquette in some people makes me cringe as well. And there is no telling when this will happen next to another .se site.

Swedish?

@Grace: that just makes his subsequent behaviour all the worse.

There's two separate beasts he's actually working on handling, but I think they're being conflated to similar scenarios while he isn't really saying anything to counter that interpretation. Which makes a mess of things.

Mr. Disappointment

yesterday, by Mr. Disappointment

@RegDwight Also, I fail to see what NYT has to do with anything here; well, on the contrary, actually... that, to me, is kind of doubling back on the earlier stance of attracting the right people - surely those people read journals and papers published within their field, and don't expect to rely on the Times to enable them to further their vocational expertise.

12:56 PM

@Jez Agreed. It is anti-intellectual to censor such things. Even so, I could live with Kosmonaut's compromise that only the titles were censored.

.Stackexchange

@Rhodri I'm not really here to defend Jeff as I am to try and divine what is actually a focus point for site growth.

@GraceNote Agreed.

Isn't it basically Jeff and MrHen disagreeing with everyone else?

@GraceNote I know, I don't want to put you in that invidious position. I'm just saying, is all.

I do think Jeff had all the brightest of intentions, but I cannot defend the words he used last week. I have no intent to do so and even I was appalled by them.

12:58 PM

what did he say about Kosmo before he edited it away? i didnt see it

@Jez I don't think MrHen is really "disagreeing with everyone else" to any degree more than anyone else on the site is.

user19161

@Jez Regarding the nose-picking, just tell him it's bad for health to eat it.

@GraceNote To be honest, I have been scared off for the most part. I feel disinclined to answer any more questions. The fun has gone. They have effectively destroyed the link between the community spirit and this website.

@JasperLoy I defended nose-picking, and it isn't unhealthy ;-)

@Jez: I think MrHen disagrees with everyone on principle :-)

12:58 PM

I think MrHen is, like I and others here, just trying to find a way that we can push through this so that English can return to its former glory.

Alain Pannetier

@GraceNote As for me I can't help noticing the joke that triggered it all was making fun of the Christian faith. Is there a distinction between jokes and well... jokes.

(Just watch, when he appears he tell you that's not true. Proof, I say! :-)

@AlainPannetier Hi, and, no, there shouldn't be.

Mr. Disappointment

@Cerberus I even went to far as to delete some of my input, and I intend to get rid of more.

user19161

@Jez At least you should not eat what is picked.

12:59 PM

@Jez I should like to see that myself too.

not much else to do with it

@AlainPannetier I don't think that's much the issue at heart here, and I don't really think that joke really had any serious implications about faith as being the concern.

« first day (249 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (4658 days later) »

Transcript for

Jul '1118

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…

Not for the faint of heart or those easily triggered by Englis...

phrase-requests pronunciation single-word-requests synonyms

join this room
about this room

00:00

06:00

12:00

18:00

all times are UTC

site design / logo © 2024 Stack Exchange Inc; legal

mobile