English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Oh, I just read the article. Maybe the workbenches where they do their experiments involving this material are attached to the ceiling of the laboratory.

Johan Larsson

I agree with @Cerberus if it is lighter than air I would expect it to float on air

tchrist

No, because gas dispurses.

Johan Larsson

but it is probably carbon with air between

David Wallace

Maybe the scientists are upside-down-walkers like me.

Cerberus

3:25 AM

@DavidWallace You think so?

David Wallace

Maybe there's an adhesion effect, that keeps it on the table. Like water around the edge of the inside of a glass.

Meniscus. That's the word I was trying to think of.

Mahnax

Capillary action?

Meniscus is the name for the curved thing.

Johan Larsson

No love for the theory that the web of carbon is "filled" with air?

David Wallace

"It could be used for waterproof clothes, for lighter computers ..." This isn't what I meant when I spoke of keeping my data in the cloud.

Mahnax

All this "cloud" nonsense irks me.

I like having my data on my hard drive.

David Wallace

3:29 AM

Why?

Mahnax

Then I can access it any time, Internet access or no Internet access.

David Wallace

It's a whole less reliable than an army of co-operating hard drives that you don't even have to look at.

Keep your unimportant stuff that you use often on your hard drive.

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson Then it would still be lighter...

@Mahnax I partly agree.

Mahnax

Also, the idea of some third party keeping all of my stuff on top of some water vapour is not very reassuring.

David Wallace

Cerb converted me to living in a dropbox.

Cerberus

3:31 AM

@DavidWallace My home internet connection is less reliable than my hard drives in most scenarios, and my mobile internet is way, way worse.

Mahnax

Well, if I have something really important that I must not lose, I put it in my Dropbox.

Johan Larsson

@Cerberus but the carbon is not lighter?

Cerberus

@DavidWallace No! What have I done?

Mahnax

But I would like my music library kept on my hard drive.

David Wallace

@Mahnax As well as or instead of the cloud?

Cerberus

3:32 AM

@JohanLarsson Either the material itself is lighter than air, or not. Mixing it with air cannot turn it from lighter into heavier or the converse.

Mahnax

@DavidWallace Instead. I don't want to spend time and possibly money uploading it all to a cloud.

Johan Larsson

privacy is nice when having things at home

Cerberus

@Mahnax Why not both, at your discretion?

David Wallace

I bought a new laptop a few weeks ago, when my last one's hard drive inexplicably stopped working one morning. Without my dropbox, this would have been a major problem.

Cerberus

But I agree about having stuff exclusively in the cloud. That makes no sense.

Mahnax

3:33 AM

@Cerberus It's just such a bother! If I cared about backing up my music collection, I'd put it on an external drive.

Johan Larsson

@Cerberus but the material is carbon, was it not just a manufacturing technique enabling them to create a web of nano tubes

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Yeah, clouds are great for back-ups.

Mahnax

Plus, if my hard drive gets wiped, then I can transfer everything from one of my iPods back to my computer.

Cerberus

@Mahnax Well, at your discretion means you don't have to!

Mahnax

Although Dropbox does have its merits, so I guess I'm not entirely opposed to the clouds.

Johan Larsson

3:34 AM

I bought a NAS with RAID a while ago, intend to keep things at home for a while

Mahnax

@Cerberus Oh, right.

Cerberus

I certain't can't and won't back-up all of my music and videos to the cloud.

@JohanLarsson That's great...but objects located near each other can be destroyed in a single event.

Like a fire, or some heavy water damage.

Johan Larsson

very true

Cerberus

Or theft.

Or a collapsing table.

Or mice.

Johan Larsson

been nagging my brother to buy one so we could mirror, DIY cloud?

Cerberus

3:36 AM

Or the powder from a powder-based fire extinguisher used elsewhere in your house.

@JohanLarsson Yeah that's great.

There is an easy application that lets you do this.

What was it called again...

Something like Safe Plan or something.

Crash Plan, that's it.

lifehacker.com/5299993/…

Johan Larsson

ok, ty

Cerberus

Haven't tried it myself.

Johan Larsson

there are probably lots of alternatives for backup and sync

Cerberus

Yes.

Johan Larsson

Have to make brother buy one first, he is cheap

Cerberus

3:41 AM

But it's not always easy to find a program that does exactly what you need.

Johan Larsson

trudat

Cerberus

Or just buy him an extra HD.

Mahnax

Hrm, CrashPlan looks interesting.

Cerberus

One should be enough to secure your files in the event of a disaster.

Hrm indeed.

Johan Larsson

@Cerberus 14TB?

Cerberus

3:45 AM

Uhh...

Do you have 14 TB of essential files that you cannot afford the 0.01 % chance of losing?

cornbread ninja

Hiyall

Cerberus

Yo cat.

Mahnax

Hey there, Cornbread.

Johan Larsson

@Cerberus lol no, maybe 2-3 pics and stuff

cornbread ninja

catbread!

Cerberus

3:47 AM

2–3 pictures. I see.

Johan Larsson

and one is backed up on SO

bookmarked crashplan, ty again

Cerberus

I don't think 14 TB will enough for 2–3 pictures.

Nor for 1–2.

Mahnax

@cornbreadninja Ehh?

cornbread ninja

@tchrist don't know how close you are or if you've head of it, but the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum has to move/may soon cease to exist, but is having a last hurrah this saturday. I will be close to there a week later, but they are closing too soon for me to make it. :(

@Mahnax chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/7423573#7423573 + chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/7423575#7423575 = catbread

Mahnax

Ah.

tchrist

3:52 AM

@cornbreadninja Thanks, but I am superbusy before flying back tomorrow.

cornbread ninja

@tchrist shrug

I didn't get to see the Damned in England, either.

Johan Larsson

could also be^^ (cat ninja?)

Cerberus

Damn, you have destroyed our incognito.

Mahnax

Wow, Catbread is really beating Cerby up.

David Wallace

She's already knocked off his other two heads.

Cerberus

3:56 AM

It's just friendly wrestling.

cornbread ninja

Ha!

we're not in the same weight class :\

Cerberus

We heard someone say the word "cheese" so we raced for the kitchen.

Remember?

OMGCHEEES

You do remember.

Indeed.

3:57 AM

We can be a tad disorderly when cheese is involved.

cornbread ninja

Or we saw the chuck wagon

Cerberus

Umm or that.

tchrist

@simchona The or/xor question is an exact duplicate. Super sorry for not noticing.

Johan Larsson

gnight, been an honor

cornbread ninja

Turn it down first.

►

Cerberus

3:58 AM

Gbai.

cornbread ninja

@JohanLarsson night

Cerberus

Oh hahah, so it's a local brand.

David Wallace

Good night Johan.

cornbread ninja

@Cerberus local to America, I guess. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_the_Chuck_Wagon

somewhat related

Cerberus

@cornbreadninja Yeah exactly.

cornbread ninja

4:04 AM

@Cerberus :x

I thought maybe you meant local to the Midwest

David Wallace

If I hear the word "Midwest" or "Midwestern" one more time today, I am going to scream loudly.

Sorry, @cornbreadninja, that wasn't really directed at you.

cornbread ninja

@DavidWallace I will listen for it.

Cerberus

@cornbreadninja Local to the Midwest would be like saying "local to Atlantis": noöne knows where it is exactly.

David Wallace

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH‌HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

5

cornbread ninja

Apparently, per this morn--

yikes

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:09 AM

good evening!

Cerberus

Well I'll be damned.

I mean, hello.

cornbread ninja

Howdy @Mr.ShinyandNew安宇

I like this ad:

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

it's snowing here

cornbread ninja

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

first snow of the season

cornbread ninja

4:11 AM

nice

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

that's a funny ad. if a little inaccurate.

David Wallace

OMG. I think the man who lives upstairs from me just smacked his kid hard, for no reason. Judging by the sound effects. Is there anything to be gained by my interfering?

cornbread ninja

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 It's in my advertising textbook under puffery.

For the kid, perhaps.

David Wallace

I can't be sure from the noises I heard exactly what happened though.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Lucky.

@cornbreadninja Haha.

cornbread ninja

4:12 AM

do you hear crying? :\

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus yes, lucky me, I'll have to shovel it

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Hmm that's hard. What else do you know about these people?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@DavidWallace you could just act concerned

David Wallace

A loud percussive noise followed by a child crying could have been the result of the child falling off something.

Cerberus

I would want to be pretty sure before doing anything.

David Wallace

4:13 AM

There is no further noise now.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Yes, falling, or some other object fell that scared the child, or many other things.

David Wallace

But this man shouts and swears at his child, and at his wife. His wife shouts and swears back. They are an unpleasant family to have as neighbours.

Cerberus

Yikes.

If it gets really really bad, you could call some government agency that protects children. Or the police.

David Wallace

I think the words he shouted just before the percussive noise were "get the fuck down from there". Which is why the "child fell down" theory is quite plausible.

Cerberus

But you have to be really sure that it is really bad.

@DavidWallace Oh, that doesn't sound too bad.

When you say "swears at" I read that as his calling the child names a lot.

cornbread ninja

4:16 AM

:{

David Wallace

Umm, no, I mean uses four-letter words.

The day before yesterday (if I recall correctly) - Shut up and put the fucking toys in the box.

Who talks to a small child that way?

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Is that such a problem?

@DavidWallace It's bad, but not serious imo.

The result of such a lack of decorum will be bad-mannered kids.

If that's all it is.

David Wallace

Yeah. This morning, he asked his wife where she was going as she left. Her answer - "I'm going to get a paper you fucking idiot".

Cerberus

If it comes with a lot of aggression and not enough love, it will be a more serious problem.

@DavidWallace I say just bad manners.

People have survived bad manners literally for decades, if not millennia.

David Wallace

It does come with a lot of aggression. It's more the tone than the words that offends me. Which of course, I can't accurately reflect here. But it's all the time, and so nasty. The question is, is the problem merely that their talk offends me, or are they doing serious damage to their kid.

Mahnax

4:22 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 First?? Wow.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mahnax let's just say the first snowfall with accumulation. technically the 2nd or third snowfall.

Mahnax

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Hmm OK.

I could take a picture of the mountain of snow that has gathered by my driveway.

I think we've had around 60cm of total snowfall.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace It may very well be the former...

Family fights often sound worse to outsiders.

And different people have different manners.

David Wallace

Maybe. The fact remains that the father is a nasty man, and the child will probably grow up to be the same. Normal people don't behave this way. But actual harm? You're probably right.

Cerberus

By the way, are you guys seeing the meth video that has been flagged?

I clicked "not sure".

@DavidWallace Yeah, many people are nasty. Usually all we can do is deplore the fact.

On one hand, the video itself is OK; on the other, it is presented in a misleading context, and some of the images are what I would call shocking, especially the one that the thumbnail is taken from.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:33 AM

well I just remembered I have to work tomorrow. So I'm off! bye folks

David Wallace

Bye, Mr S&N.

Snow has fallen five times in Wellington during my life. On the first occasion, I was too young to remember anything. On the second occasion, it was extremely light and there was almost no accumulation. On the third and fourth occasions, I was overseas. So I have only really seen snow on the ground here once. That was last year, and Emerik and I built a snowman.

tchrist

@cornbreadninja It’s getting closer: 4/50/99.

Cerberus

Night!

@DavidWallace Aww I had no idea Wellington was that close to the equator!

David Wallace

It is surrounded by sea.

Cerberus

That helps.

But still.

We have lots of sea too, and the Gulf Stream.

David Wallace

4:47 AM

It's not warm here. It's just never truly cold.

Cerberus

I bet you have one of those graphs like Noah's.

shakes jealous fist

I must depart.

David Wallace

I imagine Noah's graph goes a lot higher than mine.

I should really depart too. The stuff that I have to do won't do itself.

Cerberus

It seemed to stay lower than mine.

Then I wish the stuff good lucking getting done.

And you departing.

Tabee!

David Wallace

Yeah, I wish similarly for the stuff.

Good night, @Cerberus.

Robusto

5:28 AM

From Far Cry 3, which I got for Xmas.

GnomeSlice

6:05 AM

Argh, why do you guys tag based on answers.

Mahnax

@GnomeSlice How do you mean?

GnomeSlice

@Mahnax english.stackexchange.com/revisions/95614/3

Mahnax

@GnomeSlice That's one instance, and one person.

I don't see it occur too often.

GnomeSlice

Oh, okay.

Mahnax

I see what you mean, but yeah, it's not too common.

Then again, what would you tag that question?

GnomeSlice

6:18 AM

@Mahnax I have no idea, I don't know what tags you guys use. But tagging based on answers is generally pretty bad.

Mahnax

@GnomeSlice That tag happens to be the most relevant one. Since the question is answered, I think it's constructive to have it tagged thusly.

If I wanted to search the site for questions about dummy-it then I would do so.

…by searching for dummy-it.

If the question did not bear said tag, then I might not find it.

I think that tagging the question with the answer prior to someone answering is poor form.

GnomeSlice

@Mahnax Except the asker of that particular question didn't know what a dummy-it was, but I see your point.

simchona

6:38 AM

@GnomeSlice He knew what an expletive it was, though, which shows that the tag is pretty okay there

Johan Larsson

9:04 AM

A few of the new words in [SAOL](http://www.svenskaakademien.se/svenska_spraket/svenska_akademiens_ordlista/saol_pa_natet/ordlista) this year:
Nomofobi, the fear of being out of mobile phone contact
Emoji, increased usage of animated gif's in text
henifiera, In Sweden he is 'han' and she is 'hon', it has been pc fashion to use *hen* as a neutral alternative. 'henifiera' means the act of replacing the old words with hen
kopimism, a group of file sharers applied to make filesharing a religion in Sweden and they had found a loophole so they had to be granted. kopimism is the name of the new re…

Another fun one, köttrymden, meatspace i.e. not cyberspace

tchrist

Wow, two hours ago I suddenly got 9 downvotes in rapid succession. Sure looks serial to me; if so, the script should find it.

simchona

@tchrist If it doesn't, flag one of the questions and either the mods or an SE employee can take a look

tchrist

@simchona I couldn’t leave the expletive tag, because that is for swear words.

Ok, thanks. Not sure when the script runs.

simchona

@tchrist Yeah, I couldn't figure out what a better one was

tchrist

I guess you do part-of-speech and pronouns, but blah.

Johan Larsson

9:18 AM

I like the idea of mandatory, anonymoys or not, comments for downvotes more and more

simchona

@JohanLarsson There are lots of reasons against it, though. Like how a lot of people likely have the same reason to downvote so new comments don't help.

Johan Larsson

@simchona ok, but that could be a +1 for the existing reason (comment). I don't however doubt there are good reasons

David Wallace

Maybe all comments could be allowed to be anonymous.

Or at least, anonymous to the casual reader - obviously mods would be able to see who it was.

I'm trying to think about whether it would open up some kind of abuse.

Johan Larsson

@DavidWallace I read about your neighbor thing, that happened to me once. Heard a sound that sounded like domestic violence in the middle of the night. I did like this:
Though it was 03:00 I rang the doorbell at every neighbor and explained what I though I had heard and 'demanded' to see that their wife was ok.

David Wallace

Wow, that's very brave of you.

Johan Larsson

9:33 AM

My reasoning was this, if it would have been violence I think doing that would be very effective in making everyone aware of it

David Wallace

But I have to tell you that if a strange man knocks on my door at 3am and demands to see my wife, I will tell him to f*** off.

Johan Larsson

@DavidWallace I was not hostile or confrontational at all, just explained what I did and why

David Wallace

If I hear a noise coming from upstairs that sounds reasonably like the man is doing serious damage to his wife or one of his children, I will phone the police first, and THEN go upstairs to assist.

Johan Larsson

I found the neighbor where it must have happened, they were drunk but the woman looked ok, probably it was someone who fell or something

David Wallace

This afternoon, I guess I didn't really know what I heard. And if it was a smack, it was only one.

The police won't come if I tell them that a man smacked his child just once, even though it is illegal here to do so.

I used to have a female friend whose (non-live-in) boyfriend used to beat her up regularly. If she thought he was in a violent mood, she would invite me around, so that she could feel safer. But then, if there was conflict between them, and I tried to intervene, she would suddenly side with him, and I would have to leave. I came to the conclusion that she was beyond help. She had already been to the police and had a restraining order against him though. So glad I'm out of that situation.

Johan Larsson

9:43 AM

@DavidWallace yeah it's not easy but I think that showing that things gets noticed can be effective

David Wallace

I get annoyed when people actively sabotage the people who are trying to help them. One of my character flaws.

Johan Larsson

@DavidWallace She could have been scared, lot of pressure

David Wallace

I know. But still. Me being there was her opportunity to help herself.

Johan Larsson

I understand the frustration of course

David Wallace

I was very young. I didn't really have a clue how to handle such situations. Of course, that's not to say that I know how now.

tchrist

10:29 AM

I see that the mobile-appliance–addiction question has already hit the multicollider. Big surprise.

Mysterio

11:39 AM

Hello everybody. I'm currently in the process of applying for a masters programme in Europe. I would really appreciate it if someone could have a look at my draft for my letter of motivation. Anybody up for it?

user19161

12:41 PM

@DavidWallace Here parents cane their children, and criminals are caned.

tchrist

@JasperLoy Here you would be arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced for child abuse if you did that. They might well take your children from you for their own protection.

user19161

I want to add that there are things much worse than physical violence.

user19161

Also, sometimes the use of physical force is not abuse but self-defence of some form.

tchrist

Beating a child is self-defence?

user19161

No, I am just speaking in general.

user19161

12:46 PM

Also, I am thinking of some of the things I have done to others after they did things to me.

tchrist

Which you think were worse than physically assaulting them? What did you do, have them executed?

There. Done. That was a ridiculous amount of work.

user19161

@tchrist Done what?

tchrist

Got the Big Hat.

“Monarch by Right” = Five Rep-caps. But I also had a 199 on top of that. And today I have had 12 downvotes from people who are not pleased with me.

user19161

@tchrist Well, it's complicated. People have done many things to me other than physical violence, and I have done many things back other than physical violence. I am just saying that there are very serious situations in which laws may not apply, or may apply wrongly, or may apply inadequately.

tchrist

@JasperLoy I will gladly let it go at that.

user19161

12:50 PM

Anyway, why am I saying all this?

tchrist

To David, perhaps.

user19161

There are many things which are not prosecutable that can torment a person.

user19161

Some of these things however can be prosecuted to a certain extent in certain countries, but not others.

user19161

Anyway, let me give an extreme example of injustice. Suppose A rapes B and B slaps A. But there is no evidence of the former but only evidence of the latter. B then gets prosecuted but not A.

Robusto

@tchrist Grats.

tchrist

12:59 PM

Ayah.

Robusto

We had to put our cat down last night. He had a growth in his trachea and couldn't breathe.

tchrist

I am very sorry to hear that.

How old was he?

Robusto

14

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…