English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

JSBangs

16:00

brb, meeting

Cerberus

I think the world is doing remarkably well.

user19161

@MattEllen I expect you to have improved your spelling when you return.

Robusto

Maybe we should just nuke everything from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Cerberus

The banks are a bit of an uncertain factor on the long term; but I don't see any other problems that are really new.

We should congratulate ourselves on our progress and relative well-being.

The rise of China makes it even better for everyone.

Well, perhaps another destabilizing factor I could think of would be if terrorists got their hands on large amounts of nuclear bombs. That would be a problem. But that isn't going to happen within the next few years, at least.

Kit

@Martha @JSBangs You guys are hilarious.

Jez

16:04

@Cerberus I think illiberalism in the USA is something to really regret.

no patting on the back until that is extirpated

oh, and stop people saying it's a "Judeo-Christian country". they couldn't miss the point more if they tried.

user19161

@Cerberus That's what we would like to believe. Maybe they can already make their own.

Cerberus

@Jez It is regreattable; but it is nothing new, and I see no evidence that it is getting worse on the scale of decades yet, let alone centuries.

Jez

no, it's getting worse much faster

user19161

@fallen >...>

Cerberus

@JasperLoy That is very difficult. You need expert knowledge and huge installation where you can work without disturbance.

@Jez Isn't it a ripple on a lake?

user19161

16:07

@Cerberus You sound like the expert they need.

Cerberus

Yes, I know everything about nuclear bombs, as a classicist.

Jez

@Cerberus a tsunami is a better analogy

Cerberus

Don't let the terrorists get their hands on Homer!

Robusto

@Cerberus — Pfft. I bet you don't even know the formula for Greek fire!

Cerberus

@Jez Hehe. Well, I see no prohibition, no punishing gays, no forced religion.

Jez

16:09

@Cerberus you're not looking in the right places.

Cerberus

@Robusto Indeed I do not! But perhaps Vitruvius or the like would have it...

FallenAngelEyes

@JasperLoy Yeeees? >_>

Cerberus

@Jez It isn't in the prominent places where it used to be.

Jez

prohibition of cannabis isn't prominent?

Robusto

@Cerberus: Oh, btw, been meaning to ask you. What do the parts of Cleopatra's name mean in Greek?

user19161

16:10

@FallenAngelEyes Nothing, just practising my eyes like you do.

FallenAngelEyes

Hehe

Cerberus

@Jez It isn't exactly the same.

Jez

of course it isn't exactly the same, or it would be prohibition of alcohol

user19161

@Robusto I know wood + friction = fire.

Robusto

@JasperLoy — Wood + friction = ... nah, I'm not gonna go there.

Cerberus

16:11

@Robusto Hmm... -patra is no doubt "of a father", and cleo- is probably "fame/famous". Or it could possibly be the Muse of History, Cleio. Probably fame.

Robusto

@Cerberus — Thank you.

Jez

@Robusto there is no language better than English for making innuendo out of any given sequence of words

Cerberus

So I'd say it means "of a famous father", but I'd have to look it up to be absolutely sure.

Robusto

@Cerberus — When you get a chance and you think of it, if you wouldn't mind ...

user19161

@Cerberus prohibition of what?

Cerberus

16:13

@Jez Then it is different. Everbody used to drink alcohol before the P; not everybody used drugs before the WoD.

@Robusto I will do it right now.

Robusto

And Demosthenes would mean "strength of the people"?

Jez

@Cerberus plenty of people didn't drink

but a ton of them did. a ton use soft drugs.

neither harms society much, especially soft drugs

Cerberus

thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Cleopatra

user19161

@Jez Right. Here people get hanged quite easily for drugs.

Cerberus

They interpret it as "fame/glory of the father". It doesn't really matter which part to take as the head.

Kit

16:15

@Cerberus Is this my new nickname? Or maybe Berenice?

user19161

@Cerberus Since you have three.

Jez

thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Jeremy

user19161

@Kit Both sound lovely.

Robusto

@Cerberus — Hahaha, and here I thought you were going to quote me a classical source. But thanks, I didn't think of that one. ^_)^

Jez

wow, my name was nearly #1 in the US in 1960!

Cerberus

16:16

@Robusto Probably, yes, something like that. Or "[descendent] of the strong people".

user19161

@Jez You mean 'Jez'?

Kit

@Jez Jeremy was on our short list both times.

Cerberus

@Robusto Hehe I would have no idea whether any classical author actually explained it. It is just that the parts are obvious.

user19161

@Kit Or you can use mine.

Cerberus

@Kit Is your name Cleopatra? Wonderful!

Kit

16:18

@JasperLoy I love, love, love the name Jasper. And Jasmine, too.

Cerberus

@JasperLoy Indeed!

Robusto

@Cerberus — Yes, it is that kind of casual assumption that prevented me from discovering it for myself. Everybody assumes everybody knows it. So noobs like me get the bum's rush.

user19161

@Kit I love the name 'Rachel' for girls, dunno why...

Cerberus

@Jez But many fewer use drugs than drink.

Kit

@Cerberus I was thinking Berenice—victory bringer.

Jez

16:19

@Cerberus what's your argument, anyway?

Cerberus

@Robusto I can look it up in a classical encyclopaedia: that would be the best source. I will VPN into one on my other computer.

Jez

what percentage of society has to use something for it to be 'legitimate' to ignore the law on?

Kit

@Jez 4%

user19161

@Jez That's something the lawmakers and law enforcers decide.

Kit

@Jez Whatever percentage I'm a part of.

Cerberus

16:20

@Kit I Googled it (hehe), and, yes, ber(e)- appears to be Macedonian for Greek fer- "bring".

@Jez My argument is that society was more illiberal then than now.

The Prohibition was more illiberal than the War on Drugs.

Kit

@Cerberus So Berenice → Ferenice → Ferenc → Fennec.

Jez

did they incarcerate hundreds of thousands of people because of Prohibition?

see, the idea of Prohibition was more illiberal. but they didn't really enforce it.

Cerberus

@Kit Ehh I thought Ferenc came from Frank?

But I am not sure.

Jez

what makes the WoD so evil is that there are a bunch of old white men who are just fine with locking up other people.

Cerberus

Yes, Germanic ~"frank" = free; (=> France => French) => Francus = French; => Ferenc. Probably.

user19161

16:25

@Kit I got a bit confused by all this name thing. I thought you were thinking of a name for your newborn.

Cerberus

@Jez I agree that the WoD is also very illiberal. I just mentioned a bunch of illiberal things that they don't have any more.

Robusto

@Cerberus — In OE France was Francrice (Frank-ritcheh)

Cerberus

@Robusto Right, it still is in German and Dutch!

Robusto

German is Frankreich ... not quite the same.

user19161

Frankenstein.

Kit

16:27

@Cerberus It's a joke, you see.

Cerberus

@Robusto The same roots.

@Kit The Fennec part was a bit suspicious looking...

Robusto

Here is the funniest one. A popular term for America in Japanese is beikoku, meaning "Rice Land" ... written with the characters for rice and country.

Cerberus

But I was seriously wondering about Ferenc.

@Robusto Rice!?

Crazy.

Robusto

Ayup.

When they speak of relations between the U.S. and Japan, they call them nichi-bei: Sun-rice relations.

user19161

Does America produce rice?

Robusto

16:29

Yes, lots. More than Japan, even.

But the Japanese consider the American rice to be inferior.

Cerberus

Of course.

user19161

Perhaps they consider the sun to be inferior as well, since it is land of the rising sun. :)

Robusto

Ah, lunch beckons. TTYL.

user19161

Yes, no mayonnaise.

Kit

@JasperLoy Oh, no, both of my boys are born and named already.

user19161

16:33

@Kit I see. My friend called his Jon and Max. Very exotic I must say.

Kit

@JasperLoy That's funny. :-) Max was on our short list too.

FallenAngelEyes

Well, stuff wasn't found, going to go file police report now. :( Later all.

Grace Note

Boo. Later, @Fallen

There's a Fishing question on Gaming, by the way, if you want to just look up the answer.

JSBangs

16:50

@Kit you also have two boys? as do i...

Kit

@JSBangs Yes, as I recall ours are about the same age too. Mine are 1 and 3.

JSBangs

@Kit i knew you had one, but i had forgotten about your other. mine are also 1 and 3

Cerberus

Never mind, I thought two girls and two boys.

@FallenAngelEyes Aww that sucks... well, you have my sympathy. And that of everyone here.

user19161

17:06

My friend's two boys are 0 and 3. And why am I talking about my friend's kids. Because I have none.

Grace Note

My friends... don't have kids yet because it'd raise all sorts of alarms to have kids at 1 and 3 when you married only the previous month

Kit

I know a few people who got married after their first or second.

Grace Note

@Kit Were they fresh out of college?

user19161

There is a mathematician who had kids with four women but married none of them. He has gone missing for the past decade after burning thousands of pages of his writings.

JSBangs

@JasperLoy damn mathematicians. destroying the fabric of society, they are

Grace Note

17:11

@JasperLoy When I was on Jury Duty, I heard a similar story, except it wasn't a mathematician and the person sure as hejudas wasn't missing.

user19161

@GraceNote Hejudas is your favourite word hehe, and oop has become mine, together with kit kat.

Cerberus

@JSBangs And what good comes of it?

Grace Note

Nevertheless, he never married and never claimed to be a parent to the children of the four wives, which was beneficial because if they had a loser dad then they'd have to live off his loser pay, but if the dad was missing and unknown, then they get all sorts of child support.

JSBangs

@GraceNote that's a perverse incentive if ever there was one

but anyway

1

Q: Please explain this sentence (a precept, really)

Intuitively, aside from being convoluted, it doesn't seem to make sense. Power of an imagination can arise from what it refuses to foresee.

meaning

Grace Note

@JSBangs And yet it is legally invincible

JSBangs

17:14

can we get two more close votes on this one?

user19161

@JSBangs I wasn't sure about closing but I just followed suit in this case.

user19161

And the user 'fuck u' just left some offensive answer.

user19161

on the needle question I mean.

JSBangs

@JasperLoy needle question?

user19161

4

Q: More idioms like "needle in a haystack" relevant to hidden/hard to find items?

Are there more idioms, sayings or phrases similar to "needle in a haystack" that are relevant to hidden objects, or difficult to find items? Also interested in similar nouns relevant to the somewhat oppositional concepts like "needle" and "haystack" or "3-leaf clover" vs. "4-leaf clover" where ...

phrases idioms saying

user19161

17:17

This will def increase my flag weight hehe.

JSBangs

i think that's off-topic as a list request

user19161

@JSBangs I am talking about the answer by 'fuck u'.

JSBangs

yeah, what a crappy question with crappy, crappy answers

@JasperLoy i know, i flagged that one, too

but in the meantime i think that the original question should be closed

user19161

@JSBangs OK I will just follow suit, as I do 90 per cent of the time.

user19161

@JSBangs At least he is not American.

JSBangs

17:21

@JasperLoy yeah, damn americans. almost as bad as mathematicians!

aedia

17:48

Where is everyone?

simchona

I'm here!

aedia

The people bar is near empty! We're going to run out of stamina!

@simchona Yay!

simchona

I think chat logged people out. I had to log in again this morning

RegDwight

Ze tschat iz buggy.

simchona

Something about the data being old?

RegDwight

17:49

Half roomz not their lol

Kit

Sorry, all. I unplugged the Internet by accident while I was vacuuming.

RegDwight

So you're broadcasting in stereo now, I see.

aedia

@Kit S'ok. I was at the art museum anyway. Needed to get out of the house.

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