English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2013-01-16 (page 6 of 8)

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5:03 PM

> If a device you need to use is connected to an electrical panel that has been labelled with a lockout/tagout device you may remove the lockout/tagout device and power up.

I'm surprised this question is on the employee exam.

@KitFox: Hmm maybe? The only thing is that it sounds a little bit pineapply, as if you had forgotten the...hey, what do you think of a less descriptive, but but more "crative" name, like...okay, I know this sounds bad, but just as an example of the genre I am talking about, The English Academy? Many SE sites have less descriptive names. I don't know. — Cerberus 1 min ago

I always get the minimum egress wrong. In my head, it is firmly 36 inches.

Yay, I passed my annual safety training exam.

@Cerberus I was going for a resolution that paralleled the "religious studies/study of religion" issue.

cornbread ninja

@KitFox yay!

@KitFox 18?

28.

Which is the dumbest number.

cornbread ninja

one is the loneliest number

that you'll ever dooooo

5:09 PM

@KitFox Yeah I thought so. Many new programmes have names like X Studies.

I remember saying "You can't put it there. I don't think that's going to give you a three foot egress." once, and the look on the other person's face was...hilarious.

@BillFranke: Absolutely, but I was thinking of sloppiness. Many ESL questions are sloppy, and those irk me. Your English can be terrible, but you can still ask a question that says "I took care to write down my question to the best of my abilities". — Cerberus 1 min ago

Sort of a "you're pretentious" plus "you're an idiot" plus "what the hell does that mean?"

@Cerberus And yet still you don't see how ESL is pejorative.

36 inches is about 90 cm...three feet is about 1 m, so that's not too far off?

@KitFox I don't think it is exactly pejorative, but I am sort of in favour of ELL over ESL now.

However, a question of paramount importance is pressing upon us:

Hyphen or no hyphen?

> English-Language Learners

@Cerberus They are close. But I always think it is 36 inches = 3 feet. And it isn't. It's 28 inches = 2 1/3 feet.

@Cerberus No hyphen.

5:13 PM

Ahhhh....

@KitFox head assplodes

So why 28 inches? I don't know. 3 feet persists because it is easy.

@KitFox Is it "a certain type of Language Learners, namely English ones"? Or "Learners of the English Language"?

OK then. Let's name it "Learners of English Language."

I'm just brainstorming.

Then we can name its sister site "Learners of Other Languages" and get lots of free promotion.

5:15 PM

How about "Learners of English"?

As a noun, it always the language.

Or even Learning English?

Or Learn English?

It has the advantage of brevity.

And is it any less clear than ELL?

LearnEngrish.Stackexchange.com

cornbread ninja

ha

That, or LearnChinglish.

cornbread ninja

explore english

I would like to find something that would indicate that it is for learners and teachers.

5:17 PM

Or what do you call Indian English?

Indian English.

@KitFox Right.

cornbread ninja

mastering english

@KitFox No funny name like Chinglish/Engrish/Dinglish?

Or is it Denglish?

cornbread ninja

Inglish

5:18 PM

Really?

cornbread ninja

Shrug.

shrugs

> Learning and Teaching English

Not one I know.

Fundamental Elements of English Etc.

> English Teaching and Learning

5:19 PM

Fundaments of the English Tongue.

Because that would be easy for NNS.

Foundations of Chinglish Realning.

how2speekgud

$website_name

Oh it is so hard to let go off adorable children's clothing.

Pass it on to children of friends?

5:22 PM

There is no one suitable currently.

I have kept a few favorites, but after three years, it does seem rather silly.

user19161

Did I miss an exciting flag?

No.

It was some silly picture.

user19161

Oh.

user19161

The strange thing is that many flags seem to come from people not in the room.

The strange thing is that I forgot all about this clock my dad gave me until just now.

5:26 PM

@KitFox It's OK to keep a few.

user19161

You can keep the clothes for the third child.

Is it a good clock?

user19161

A good clock should remain accurate over time.

user19161

It should also have a pleasant ring tone.

user19161

Hmm, I think I should start Clocks SE!

5:27 PM

Hey Jasper, what do you think: do Asians wear glasses more often than Europeans?

@JasonBourne No more children for us.

Because that is my impression.

@Cerberus Yes.

user19161

@KitFox Yeah, two is ideal.

It could be their eyes are worse, or that they don't wear contacts.

user19161

5:28 PM

@Cerberus Well, I don't have that impression.

@KitFox And the memories?

@JasonBourne Hmm OK.

@Cerberus Yes.

OK.

user19161

But what I would like to know is if some races are inherently smarter than others.

Oh. Found my wedding album.

user19161

5:30 PM

I guess there isn't really any reliable way to know that, and any results showing a difference might be perceived as racism.

@JasonBourne If there is a measurable difference, it will probably pale in comparison with other factors.

I suppose it depends on how you measure.

And on your definition of race.

Asians are reliably shorter than Caucasians, for instance. Is that racist? shrugs

user19161

First, one must determine what intelligence factors to measure. Second, one must filter out cultural influences if we are to talk about "inherent smartness".

5:31 PM

There are more races in central Africa than in the rest of the world, genetically, whatever a race is.

@KitFox OMG you racist!

user19161

@KitFox Shorter in the underwear too.

That I wouldn't know.

Presumably it correlates with average body size.

user19161

I have been thinking why people have such different perpectives on various things in different parts of the world, and I have come to this conclusion.

user19161

That there was some initial random difference, and then inertia took over.

user19161

People follow what others around them think.

5:34 PM

You mean evolution?

user19161

Evolution? No. I mean perspectives on anything.

Gah. What the hell is the name of the thing...it's like an annotated bible?

All I can think of is apocrypha, and that's not what I mean at all.

user19161

So man doesn't think too much in general. And if man thinks more, the world will be a better place.

user19161

And then I start to wonder, if everyone just follows the people around them mostly, how can we say this person is stupid to think this way and that person is not if they just happen to follow different people?

It's not about the following, it's about the thinking.

Or not.

user19161

5:38 PM

And so I come to the conclusion that at the end of the day, although most people don't think much, we call them evil if their actions lead to others' suffering and not otherwise.

[As it turns out, Bob had simply outsourced his own job to a Chinese consulting firm. Bob spent less that one fifth of his six-figure salary for a Chinese firm to do his job for him. ](webcache.googleusercontent.com/…)

user19161

So I have sort of resolved this matter for myself summarised by the above flow of thoughts. QED.

@Cerberus I know a guy who does that.

Seriously?

Does it work well for him?

It is sort of...rational.

And everybody profits.

user19161

Cerberus is one of the few who never change their username or userpic.

5:40 PM

As a freelancer, it would be totally acceptable. As long as you check the work you pass on for quality, and don't give sensitive information about your client to this Chinese company.

@JasonBourne I am consistent.

I don't need symbols to express my unique personality.

He's a jackass, and I don't like him much.

Hmm.

Is he lying to his employer?

user19161

The private beta hasn't started yet.

No, it's his company. They do website development for local businesses.

I wonder, can we still change the name of the site?

5:42 PM

He overcharges and underdelivers and uses RentACoder to get the actual work done for cheap.

@KitFox Ah OK. Then it would be acceptable with the caveats above.

Also, he divorced his wife for the Scarlet Harlot.

user19161

Caveat emptor, caveat lector.

When his son was less than a year old.

user19161

I never bothered to look that up!

5:44 PM

And has secured, for his own business, work for the city of which he is mayor.

user19161

Wow, now I wonder who this guy is.

@KitFox Oh God.

This calls for an anonymous letter to local television stations and newspapers.

Everybody knows about it. Yet still there he is.

His response was "I'm not doing anything wrong. I don't know what your problem is."

The police could investigate.

6:00 PM

Right.

OMG that was a big ass fucking table I just moved.

pants

Heavy as all-get-out.

Well done.

Thank you.

Coffee for lunch sounds good.

6:20 PM

my lunch includes bacon

ergo, it's better than your lunch

Hmm. I think I have bacon. I could make a bacon quesadilla.

that would probably be delicious

I'd have to have time to do that though. :-( If I don't finish the housework, my husband will beat me.

Haha. Not really, but my living room is a disaster right now.

Well, technically it's the dining room, but it is being used as the...why am I telling you this?

we're just now getting over 2 weeks of family sickness, so our house is in a parlous state

user19161

@JSBձոգչ More bacon, less sickness!

6:26 PM

yes, well, things have been trending that direction

user19161

Though having too much bacon could also lead to sickness, LOL.

My old stamp collection, with a letter in it from a mysterious "Judy."

@JSBձոգչ That's good.

user19161

@KitFox One of your exes?

We're trying to finish renovations and get the house on the market by the beginning of April.

@JasonBourne No, someone my parents knew.

When I was 6.

I didn't know I collected stamps when I was six.

market? why are you selling?

user19161

6:29 PM

Well, although I am not gay, I remember being turned on by a guy once when I was 12 and then another time when I was 14.

@KitFox that's my grandmother's name. clearly you two were friends.

@JSBձոգչ clearly.

@JSBձոգչ We're going to buy my mother-in-law's house. She's building a new house in the backyard.

user19161

@KitFox Building? All by herself? LOL

ooh, nice. are you looking forward to it?

@JasonBourne When boys are that age, a stiff breeze will turn them on.

@JSBձոգչ Yes, very, very much. But we've been working at a breakneck pace since about September and I am really tired of it.

My husband wants to have shoulder surgery at the end of March, so we've got to be done by then.

Good lord, I had no idea we had so much Tolkien in the house.

(I'm repacking a bookshelf.)

6:35 PM

@KitFox you can never have too much tolkien

user19161

@KitFox My books are sorted according to author title, like in a library.

I'm not really sure what the value is in keeping Comparative Politics or A Theology of Liberation.

get rid of those. replace with more tolkien

I'm sure I can toss Windows 98 for Dummies.

user19161

@KitFox I don't even know what those mean, LOL

6:36 PM

btw, have you seen the Windown 95 Tips and Tricks blog?

Although generally I cringe at the thought of throwing out books.

@JSBձոգչ No...

user19161

@JSBձոգչ No, is it still relevant?

user19161

@KitFox Do you have a fireplace?

Not here. A wood pellet stove.

user19161

Otherwise, just burn the books.

6:37 PM

@KitFox windows95tips.tumblr.com. Read it. You want to. You need to.

Creepy.

Oh hey, what's that called that's like an annotated bible? "Apocrypha" has been pushing the correct word out of my reach.

er, please be more specific

concordance?

user19161

Ah yes, concordance!

user19161

Definitely not an apologetic!

Oh yes, that's it. Thank you.

6:41 PM

a concordance is like an index. you look up a word, and it gives you all the places the word is used.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking of.

user19161

Anyone of you heard of Cram101 books?

WTF? The Prose Edda? How do we have that?

This has been a surreal day.

i think you need the prose edda

similar to how you need tolkien

I find the complete works of Tolkien and the Prose Edda. In my house.

This is just weird.

6:43 PM

we have the complete Left Behind series in our house. they were left here by the previous owners, who evidently didn't want them, either

3

Hahaha.

user19161

I threw away most of my old books.

My ex had those.

Hi

Hi.

user19161

6:44 PM

Hi..

How are you?

user19161

I usually respond to How are you with nothing.

Fine thanks. How are you?

Haha

user19161

How are you to me is a greeting, not a real question.

6:45 PM

I am fine

user19161

Of course, it could be a real question.

@JasonBourne: Whatever you assume

:)

user19161

But I have seen so many How are you?/I am fine that it sounds so silly to repeat it over and over again, LOL

Yeah you are right

@KitFox A book that has mainly interpretative notes on a primary text is called a commentary. Normally a commentary and a concordance are not printed in one book.

6:48 PM

@JasonBourne How are you?

user19161

@Mitch I am not fine, as you know.

@Cerberus Concordance was what I was trying to think of though.

OK.

@Cerberus is there such things as a talmudic concordance (a concordance of the commentary?)

I just found a book from an old flame.

6:48 PM

@JasonBourne Oh. I wasn't really asking.

Ha ha, I'm messing with you.

user19161

@Mitch Oh.

hilarious.

user19161

@Mitch Yes, I am also messing with you, but also choosing to reply.

anyway I came to give a feckless complaint about ana snwer on ELU...

2

Q: Words based on the names of gods

While the word christen means "to baptise" or "to make Christian", in another sense, it has shed its religious connotations to simply mean "to name" or even "use for the first time". Is there any other word which is based on the name (or epithet) of a god or prophet, (or possibly some other signi...

single-word-requests religion

user19161

So you see, I am flexible and awesome like that.

6:49 PM

@KitFox:Database programmer.

@JasonBourne !!

you got me

You are awesome.

@Mitch Uhh a concordance of a commentary? What purpose would that serve?

user image

like a god.

This is what a concordance looks like.

that stomps around in big god boots.

I want boots like that.

user19161

6:50 PM

@Cerberus Wow, lovely.

Except that paper concordances have become somewhat obsolete now that we have databases.

So much work turned useless by technology!

user19161

I think bibles are very well made. If only normal books are bound as nicely.

@Cerberus of course not, I mean a commentary on a concordance. what the frequency of words and such really say about the original text...sort of a meta-hermeneutics.

@Mitch You're right. Why the hell is that open?

Don't they have Bibles made in all shapes and materials?

Matt Эллен

6:51 PM

@Cerberus and when the machines rise the whole of humanity will become useless

head explodes

ha ha get it.

critical mass!

user19161

@Mitch I have an answer to that question: Geezis. LOL

user19161

HAHAHAHAHAHA

@KitFox actualy it was about JL's answer, which I can't downvote because his answers are always super excelletn, well reasoned and insightful (even if I may disagree often with their facts or interpretation

but I so want to down vote it because...

@Mitch Of course, such studies are conducted. But you don't usually need a whole book for that. It will usually be an article. If it is a book, then it's just a study. You don't need a special structure in this book the way concordances used to be made like, which was to facilitate looking up occurrences in (little but substantial) context.

6:53 PM

because it is not an answer to the effing question!

@MattЭллен Yes.

It is not constructive.

The whole question is not.

the question?

oh

user19161

@mitch DO you think I should post that as an answer?

"What are all the words in the English language that are derived from god names?"

6:54 PM

I don't know. sometimes, hell, it's an interesting thing. just let the discussion happen. it's when I don't like the topic that an NC bugs the crap out of me. "Can someone make up a word for me that captures 'blahdey blah nblah'?"

Matt Эллен

@KitFox "except for the ones I don't like"

I would like to see a list of common English adjectives based on the names of gods.

I have been thinking of compiling such a list myself.

@KitFox I would like to see a god. That would be awesome.

and if I could borrow their boots. icing.

Matt Эллен

walk a mile in them

give them back

@JasonBourne uh...post what as an answer?

user19161

6:56 PM

@Mitch Geezis.

user19161

It is based on the name of a religious figure, and yet it has no religious meaning when used.

@MattЭллен before you judge someone, walk a mile in their shoes. Then when you judge them, you're a mile away and they have no shoes.

Jovial, martial, saturnine, mercurial are the interesting kind.

@JasonBourne You know how awesome I am? I already answered that. In a comment. So awesome it hurts. others that is.

Racist.

user19161

6:57 PM

@Mitch Is that original.

@JasonBourne totally original.

user19161

@Mitch Wow, fools seldom differ.

Just not your original.

oh...do you mean by me? No then.

jinx

woo hoo! a round of water for the house!

I win!

user19161

Actually, "Jesus" really is an answer to that question.

user19161

6:59 PM

It should be converted to an answer!

Totally.

I'm sorry, I can't do that.

Dave.

user19161

Of course, I won't plagiarise Robusto and say "Geezis" instead.

refuses to open pod bay doors

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Jan '1316

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