English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

KitFox

3:00 PM

Now really, meeting. Later.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Gigili lmgtfy.com?q=define:dictionary (apologies for the lgtmfy snarkikness)

@KitFox I don't know many examples from Judaism because I don't come from that culture.

user19161

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I know what lmgtfy means, but I just learnt that that is an actual site, amazing!

user19161

Now I am thinking maybe we have roflmao.com as well.

Gigili

@MrShinyandNew安宇 What in the name of all that his holy and good. You told me "define:word".

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Vitaly well I really don't understand. He's a rabbi. If he says something is a religion, that's a compliment. Why would I need to refute it? Anything bad he could say about my religion, he'd be saying about his.

Gigili

3:02 PM

Ah just got it.

Define: the word I want.

Got it, got it.

user19161

define:gigili

Vitaly

1

Q: Shnayim Ve'arba'im - mi yodeya?

Who knows forty-two? Please cite/link your sources, if possible. At some point in the next few days, I will: Upvote all interesting answers. Accept the best answer. Go on to the next number.

Gigili

I was typing "rotation define:word".

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

What does this mean? — Yahu May 26 '10 at 1:45

See. QED.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 No, he is attacking atheism by claiming it is becoming a religion, which as Vit pointed out last night is full of irony, but he means it as "you are becoming what you (claim to) hate".

user19161

3:05 PM

@Vitaly Is that a serious question there?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@MrShinyandNew安宇 still, that's like George Bush coming over and accusing me of murdering someone. He's responsible for the deaths of a million people, so what do I care about his opinion? He does not have the moral high ground. Case closed.

Doubly so if I, in fact, have not murdered anyone.

user19161

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Which Bush?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@JasperLoy them's all the same.

Downvote: not jewish. — Chanoch May 26 '10 at 19:28

Jews don't read books?

user19161

Hi @corn!

cornbread ninja

@JasperLoy you've returned! ;) Hello! Dig the gravatar.

user19161

3:07 PM

@mahnax I suspect you are the one who downvoted all the closed questions.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Yes, that's fine, except that people listen to George Bush and they just whine about you in this chat room. My goal is to try to help people stop listening to Bush and his ilk. I am not a famous speaker/writer and probably won't ever be, but if I can save just one person yada yada yada....

Mahnax

@JasperLoy Eh?

Oh, some of them.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy There are hundreds of them and they are posted by a mod. Must be serious.

user19161

@Mahnax Well, it's just that I saw how their negativity all increased.

Mahnax

It would be ridiculous to say that I downvoted all of them.

Vitaly

3:08 PM

Mar 26 at 18:17, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

I like Judaism. Where there's a mod who once a week just posts a question, "Who knows 1?", "Who knows 2?" etc, etc.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mahnax on a scale of 1-10, how ridiculous would it be?

Mahnax

@MrShinyandNew安宇 7.

user19161

I prefer 23 to 42.

user19161

23 is my favourite number.

Mahnax

There have been a lot of closed questions.

2358, to be specific. That's not including the deleted ones, though.

Vitaly

3:11 PM

Oh. The closed questions. I took Mahnax's post to mean “I downvoted all of the mi-yodeya-series questions”, for some reason.

Now, that would be some accomplishment.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I don't have the rep.

May 17 '11 at 11:50, by RegDwight

I don't think anyone could pull off this stunt on any other site of the network.

Matt Эллен

seriously, people, name your functions properly! float LAPACKE_slamch( char cmach );

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Mar 26 at 18:21, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

Free rep for the mod, subjective and argumentative to boot.

Matt Эллен

slamch cmach?

user19161

Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Some avatars have shadows while others don't.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

3:14 PM

Some people are shallow.

Matt Эллен

@JasperLoy on the main site? yes, for ages

user19161

@MattЭллен Why is that so?

Matt Эллен

@JasperLoy if you don't have anything in your profile's description, you don't get a shadow

@JasperLoy hover over to find out more

user19161

I tried to divine the governing pattern but to no avail.

cornbread ninja

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 I hate it too, but this is somewhat funny. mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-comic-sans-asshole

Matt Эллен

3:15 PM

5

Q: Why do some avatars have drop shadows?

I was looking at a question today and I noticed that the OP and I have drop shadows beneath out avatars and the person who edited the question and the other answerer do not. Who gets a drop shadow, and why?

discussion style

user19161

@MattЭллен Ah, that's why I have a shadow now. Because of "There can be miracles when you believe."

Vitaly

… when you believe everything in Comic Sans on the Internet

user19161

@Vitaly Comic

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy ouch... belief doesn't shape reality. Miracles are just luck.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@MrShinyandNew安宇 take it up with Whitney Houston.

Oh wait.

Gigili

3:19 PM

Do I have a drop shadow? Whatever that is.

user19161

@Gigili Yes, because you have entered enough characters in your profile.

user19161

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Well, she passed on the baton to me.

user19161

@MattЭллен Hmm, I upvoted the question and answer long ago.

Matt Эллен

lol

I do that too

I'm almost as forgetful as @Cerb

user19161

@MattЭллен In this case, it was because I did not read the question carefully.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:25 PM

sigh so I just now followed the link in that rabbi's original article to the guy he quoted who puts forth "self-reflection" as "proof of god". I, uh, shouldn't'a done that. Now I might have to write TWO posts.

This was me last night:

What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!

user19161

@MrShinyandNew安宇 You may like to write your own book on atheism in future.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Jun 10 '11 at 15:11, by RegDwight

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

Vitaly

@MrShinyandNew安宇 :D

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@MrShinyandNew安宇 see. Why bother? Just let them go to hell for all their sins.

Their God will take care of them alright.

Gigili

Don't get me started?

Matt Эллен

3:28 PM

Yes please

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

May 31 at 12:34, by RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Gigili I thought Simply Red got disbanded, no?

Gigili

You insulted me in every possible way. Now I don't have anything to say but to ask you leave.

user19161

As I mentioned before, "There can be miracles when you believe" can be interpreted in many ways. It is certainly true for suitable ones.

Gigili

Can you say how long did it take the answerer to write an answer like that?

31

A: Integration by partial fractions; how and why does it work?

What you are trying to do is a partial fraction decomposition. Idea. Imagine your calculator is broken and a bunch of hoodlums stop you on the street, and demand at knifepoint that you compute $\frac{191}{105}$ as a decimal (part of their initiation into the Mathies Gang, you see), or else they ...

Matt Эллен

(0-0)

only 1% of the time it would take me to understand it

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

3:30 PM

@Gigili "You insulted me in every possible way" is always a nice challenge. People are never aware of how many ways there actually are.

user19161

@Gigili It takes very long but the idea is simple. There are some things that are simple but hard to write out, and some things that are hard but simple to write out.

Gigili

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 There are seven ways, JFYI.

I know, the point is that's insane.

To explain a simple idea in a thousand pages.

user19161

I may take ten years to prove a theorem and write the proof in one line. QED.

Gigili

I was like, What in the name of all that his holy and good for five minutes.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Gigili that's what the Bible is all about.

user19161

3:33 PM

Well well, I have never met such an antireligious chat as this one.

Gigili

@JasperLoy Don't say it, you prove every difficult and simple theorem in a line by putting a QED at the end.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 hmmm, I think the bible is two ideas: god hates us, jesus loves us, we're all gonna burn in hell

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@JasperLoy You don't meet many chats.

user19161

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 That is true.

Gigili

You don't chat many meet.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

3:33 PM

@MattЭллен the Bible is one idea: just fucking be nice already.

3

user19161

@Gigili I noticed you use a weird sentence structure that is nonstandard.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

But God was bored, so he dressed it all up a little.

Gigili

Reg, may I flag Jasper?

Matt Эллен

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 the old testament doesn't say that though. the idea there is to be obedient

niceness is irrelevant

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Gigili why would anyone do any such thing?

Gigili

3:34 PM

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 I got offended.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@MattЭллен see, obedient is just another word for nice.

Matt Эллен

"I told y'all not to be gay. Time to burn"

Gigili

I never told you but I'm a native speaker of many languages including English.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Gigili again? I thought we had used up all the ways.

Mahnax

@Gigili Aww.

user19161

3:36 PM

"Can you say how long did it take the answerer to write an answer like that?" I would write that as "Can you say how long it took the answerer to write an answer like that?" @gig.

Gigili

Let's face it.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I can't face anything. Too busy facing the monitor.

Gigili

Seriously Jasper, I don't care how you'd write it. I don't know what gave you the impression that if I so pah.

End of story.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I fail to see the offending part, so how about we skip to chasing unicorns on rainbows.

Matt Эллен

offend of story

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

3:39 PM

Nice litotes.

Gigili

Unless you're Reg, which is very unlikely.

Story of nice.

user19161

But really, I think Jesus is not the man the bible made him out to be. One may dismiss the book, but let us not dismiss the man so quickly.

Gigili

I see my messages are shown twice.

I'm being Jasper again.

user19161

All religious texts will contain much colouring. But they may also contain huge portions of truth.

user19161

@Gigili Now I am not sure what the adjective means.

user19161

3:43 PM

I think rather than bashing a single line in a text, let us try to see the bigger picture.

Matt Эллен

J'espere

user19161

Wait, did this religion talk start with Mariah Carey?

Matt Эллен

No, it started with that maths question

Vitaly

@JasperLoy Earl Doherty nicely argues for the nonexistence hypothesis in his Case for for a Mythical Jesus, and I'm inclined to accept his arguments

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy If you dismiss the book, you are not left with much about Jesus. He never wrote anything and probably didn't exist at all.

skullpatrol

3:45 PM

@MattЭллен Math and English don't mix :D

user19161

It is true that one plus one is two. There, a mixture of English and math!

Gigili

How did you do that?

user19161

@Gigili I am awesome like that.

2

Gigili

I just noticed that what in the name of blahblahblah is too long.

user19161

@Gigili Yeah I did not understand that line either.

Matt Эллен

3:48 PM

What in the name of hades are you talking about?

user19161

@skull No need to remove that! It's fine!

Gigili

@MattЭллен Is that even a question?

About Jasper and his awesomeness.

Matt Эллен

No, I was just exclaiming :)

I like to keep in practice

user19161

This reminds me of the practice practise question I answered.

Gigili

I've got an idea.

Matt Эллен

3:51 PM

gets behind cover

user19161

Yes, go on.

Gigili

Users must put a prize or something on their questions instead of bounties.

user19161

What kind of prize?

user19161

Do you just mean renaming bounty to prize?

Gigili

Like, a chocolate or a book or an smartphone or whatnot.

user19161

3:53 PM

Ah, OK. The first prize will be dinner with the user.

Gigili

Then it'd make more sense to spend time on it.

@JasperLoy Depends on the user.

user19161

@Gigili Also, air tickets are not complimentary.

Gigili

"Don't touch me" would be an appropriate prize sometimes.

user19161

@Gigili That has multiple interpretations.

Gigili

I meant the last interpretation more than others.

Vitaly

4:01 PM

> The anthropologist Helen Fisher speculates that when a human female wears high-heeled footwear the buttocks thrust out and the back arches into a pose that simulates lordosis behavior, which is why high heels are "sexy".

KitFox

@Vitaly Don't forget the flexed calf and delicate ankle is also sexy.

user1111261

Hey guys, how can I say in English reportage?

KitFox

Huh?

user1111261

A short video about a retiring football player

that was aired in news on ABC

at 7:30 pm or I don't know when ABC aires its main news

or basically any news video that is between 1 minute and 5 minutes long

KitFox

Are you asking a question?

Matt Эллен

4:06 PM

this question feels familiar

user1111261

reportage is a German word for that

Yes

KitFox

A video clip?

user1111261

What's the English word for that

KitFox

A news story?

user1111261

I give you a link

this one:

KitFox

4:07 PM

A featurette?

report?

it's from swedish tv

A news report?

probably a news report

KitFox

4:07 PM

A blurb?

A spot?

Vitaly

A Roget's?

KitFox

Um. Yes.

user1111261

Le reportage filmé in french

KitFox

Filmed news coverage?

Matt Эллен

oh, that's right, when we were discussing recorded vs prerecorded

user1111261

4:10 PM

news report or news coverage is good

KitFox

Live! Film at 11.

Matt Эллен

@user1111261 are you listening to any of the things Kit is telling you?

oh, good

user1111261

Yes

;o)

why?

Matt Эллен

Oh, just because you kept going describing despite Kit answering your question.

user1111261

haha

Matt Эллен

4:11 PM

anyway, you were, so nevermind :D

user1111261

i thought there is just 1 word for that in English

KitFox

I was just going to keep talking until I was right anyway.

We have many words in English, but only 1 for that.

Namely, that.

OK. Lunch. BRB

user1111261

Btw, did you know that they chose French to English as a language for laws in the European Union 50 years ago since French is much better for expressing what you want to say especially for such an important thing as writting laws...

?

Matt Эллен

time to go!

KitFox

4:27 PM

@MattЭллен toodle pip!

Damn, I wish I'd not picked this dressing.

user1111261

where do you live? NY ?

Monica

Hello, everyone

skullpatrol

hi

KitFox

@user1111261 What? Who?

user1111261

new york city

KitFox

4:39 PM

Me?

Vitaly

R.I.P. Ray Bradbury.

KitFox

sad panda

user19161

Where did sad panda come from?

user19161

Is it some cartoon with a sad panda in it?

user19161

@Monica What was that grammar book you were using with "She showed me to the doctor"?

Monica

4:42 PM

It was a Russian text-book

Dictionaries are even worse

user19161

Ah, Russian seems so difficult to learn.

Mitch

@MrShinyandNew安宇 So were you upset when, in the first Scooby Doo movie, it turned out the man in the mask (Scrappy Doo) was actually using real magic?

Monica

German are Russian seem similar to me

user19161

@Monica and

Mitch

If you don't know either

Monica

4:45 PM

Ha ha

user19161

@Monica textbook

Monica

My first langauge is Russian

user19161

@Monica language

Mitch

not Georgian?

Monica

That's why I can compare and that's why it seemed so easy to me

No

Mitch

4:47 PM

structurally (and abstract syntax) I can see, but vocabulary?

user19161

I am confusing Mitch and Monica because both start with M and both are silvery.

Mitch

and we both talk about the same things.

Monica

But Mitch is a native speaker

Mitch

to each other

user19161

@Monica That's what you think. How would you know?

Monica

4:48 PM

so if you see mistakes you can say who it is

Mitch

and 'Monica' looks longer.

user19161

@Mitch looks

Mitch

What?

Monica

would know what?

Mitch

if that's the way you feel like you need to se it then fine, fixed.

user19161

4:49 PM

If you see someone correcting spellings in chat, you know who it is.

Mitch

Who?

Who does that?

Monica

:D

Jasper of course!

:D

Mitch

-You- did that? I mean you did that?

Monica

I used to help an American with Russian

user19161

4

Q: X, along with Y, 'were'/'was'

I was interested in the following sentence which appeared in a brief Tom Daschle's biography in The Washington Post, Politics, (WHO RUNS GOV). She, along with Mark Childress, were set to be Daschle's deputies at the White House before he stepped down. Can someone clarify if the fragment ...

grammatical-number

user19161

4:50 PM

I was thinking of this question myself.

user19161

Jay has given an answer and cornbread has deleted hers.

Monica

I have to ask you about something

user19161

Is there any authoritative answer?

Monica

need some help if you please

user19161

Yes, ask.

Mitch

4:52 PM

@Gigili: have you heard of this Israeli/Iranian singer Rita?

youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC4C8C16DA93A71AC

Monica

As I have found out When got this cup broken?
When got the mistake corrected?
When got the car repaired?
When got the dinner cooked?
When got the car bought?

Gigili

@Mitch No, never heard of it.

Monica

Were all wrong because I didn't use 'did'

user19161

@Mitch I think they posted her video recently.

Mitch

When got X Y'ed? -> When did X get Y'ed?

Your examples are all wrong (don't repeat them). You have to do the goofy inversion.

user19161

4:53 PM

@Monica When did this cup get broken? When did the mistake get corrected?