English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Mechanical snail

7:01 AM

@Cerberus Lapland?

Mahnax

@Cerberus Northern Scandinavia/Lapland or I'll eat my hat.

Cerberus

@Mechanicalsnail Ding!

@Mahnax Ding!

Mechanical snail

Mahnax

@Cerberus Knew it. You can't slide that one past a half-Finn.

Cerberus

@Mechanicalsnail Kamchatka.

Otherwise...

@Mahnax Of course! You're so very Finnish.

Mechanical snail

7:07 AM

@Cerberus Yes.

Cerberus

OK.

Mahnax

@Cerberus blushes

Aww, thanks.

Cerberus

Heh.

Mechanical snail

@Cerberus Lake Ontario?

Cerberus

Yes!

Was that easy?

Mechanical snail

7:10 AM

Cerberus

Uhhh...

That is a bit hard.

No details, small coastline...

Mahnax

I have no idea, personally.

Cerberus

Ireland?

I don't know what those dotted lines are.

Mahnax

smirks

Try figuring that one out, map geniuses.

Cerberus

Hehe.

I think both your maps are close to CBA.

Mechanical snail

7:13 AM

Bir Tawil

Bir Tawil or Bi'r Tawīl (بيرطويل in Arabic; Bi'r or بير, meaning "tall water well") is a area along the border between Egypt and Sudan which is claimed by neither country. It is sometimes referred to as the Bir Tawil Triangle, despite the area's quadrilateral shape, with the longer side in the north of the area running along the 22° north circle of latitude. It is the only area where the administrative boundary of 1902 between the two countries runs south of the political boundary of 1899, which had been defined as the 22° north circle of latitude. East-to-west, the area is between lon...

Mahnax

@Mechanicalsnail I see.

Cerberus

Oh haha.

Funny.

Never heard of it, though.

However large its metropoles.

Mahnax

@Cerberus Umm, the space between England and Ireland?

I do not know what it is called.

Cerberus

Ding!

Mahnax

Whee!

Cerberus

7:19 AM

St George's Channel.

Mahnax

Right, I have heard that before.

Cerberus

You'll be an expert before soon.

Mahnax

I can't wait!

I would love to be expert at something.

Cerberus

Hehe.

Oh, you will be that.

Mahnax

I'm not sure how difficult this will be for you.

Cerberus

7:23 AM

Hmm...

That's not Scotland, is it?

Mahnax

Nope.

Cerberus

I don't recognise this specific shape...

Mahnax

It's a pretty small area, but it's a unique shape, so I figured I'd give it a go.

Mechanical snail

@Mahnax NW corner of Iceland

Cerberus

Could be...

Ah, I suppose it is.

Mahnax

7:24 AM

@Mechanicalsnail Ding!

Cerberus

That bit at the top is the large peninsula.

That was difficult.

@Mechanicalsnail Was that easy for you?

Hudson Bay, perhaps?

Nope.

Hmm...

I have seen this before, but I don't know.

It's not England either...

It's too small for me, I'm afraid.

Does the snail know?

drops a single grain of salt @Mechanicalsnail

Mahnax

7:29 AM

Alright, time's up, Mr. Lightly Seasoned Escargot.

Argentina.

It has this nice dipsy-doodle on the side.

Cerberus

Ah rats.

I was going to say that, then decided it looked slightly different.

Mahnax

You'll never get this one.

(Hint: Think Eurasia)

Mechanical snail

@Mahnax The Bahamas

Cerberus

Hmm...

Is it an island?

Jinx.

Then it must be the Bahamas, yes.

Mechanical snail

@Cerberus Sardinia and Corsica

Cerberus

7:32 AM

Ding!

Mahnax

Wow, that was fast.

Cerberus

Contrary to popular expectations, snails are fast with respect to land.

Mahnax

Well, he is mechanical.

Cerberus

That may be it.

Mahnax

Oops, I assumed gender. Thon is mechanical.

Cerberus

7:33 AM

It.

It is a snail, after all.

You are biased against things.

Mahnax

But thon seems sentient enough to be a thon!

Cerberus

I don't know.

Mahnax

Therefore thon = thon, QED.

Cerberus

Hrmpf.

Mahnax

prances gaily about the room

2

I have school tomorrow but the classes are all review! Yay!

Cerberus

7:36 AM

Is that what thon-sayers do?

Review?

Mahnax

Finals are coming up.

I have three days of school left in this semester.

I even get to write one of those nasty diploma exams.

Cerberus

Are they nasty?

Mahnax

They are worth 50% of one's mark in the subject they are taken in.

So if you have a 90% in Maths, and then get a 50% on the diploma, you end up with 70%.

Cerberus

Ah yes.

Are they hard?

Mahnax

Apparently.

We did a practice one in Biology, as a "test market" for new questions, and I did alright without studying at all.

It wasn't summative.

Cerberus

7:40 AM

Ohhh then you'll be all right.

Mahnax

I still must study though. Study hard.

Cerberus

Yeah.

Mahnax

And it is all MC/NR. No written response.

Cerberus

OK.

Are you good at those?

Mahnax

Sure. Nothing hard about multiple choice.

You just have to know your stuff.

Cerberus

7:41 AM

I agree.

I find MC easier.

You'll be fine.

Mahnax

I prefer to do written response though. It is more telling of a good student.

Cerberus

Speaking of being, I should be in bed.

Mahnax

I should also be in bed.

Fortunately, I am.

Cerberus

Right.

Then let's!

Lucky.

Then I wish you good night!

Mahnax

Good night, Cerb! See you later.

1/sin(poof)

Cerberus

7:43 AM

That's a lot.

Bye!

user19161

9:28 AM

@Mahnax Good belated night!

RegDwighт

9:39 AM

0

A: What do you call that person who needs other people to be dependent upon?

this might be the droid you're looking for: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codependency

The droid?

TemporaryNickName

10:03 AM

devil from paranormal activity perhaps?

Matt Эллен

10:42 AM

@RegDwighт inappropriate star wars reference

RegDwighт

23

A: I hate one of our coding standards and it drives me insane, how to process it?

Some people like it your way and other people don't. Either way someone is going to be annoyed. It is just your turn this time. Suck it up and get on with the job.

Ah, the MultiCollider. Never ceases to do what it does best.

Matt Эллен

colliding multies

RegDwighт

Matt Эллен

:D

my cross SE flair had 6 gold and 66 silver badges until yesterday

my true colours have to be displayed somewhere

RegDwighт

Satanic is a color? What's its Pantone number?

Matt Эллен

10:53 AM

uhhh

666

RegDwighт

Silly me.

That was to be expected.

Matt Эллен

indeed

:D

kinda lilac

or maybe lavender

RegDwighт

0

A: Is there a good rule of thumb for plurals from words ending in "o"?

i thin that kyah is a very good freind and is a comidian

Insightful.

Matt Эллен

11:08 AM

+5

I have to applaud their correct use of the indefinite article

is there any country that is named after what it produces?

it seems such an odd hypothesis.

Are Americans named after the pubic hair wig or did the public hair wig get its name from Americans?

tchrist

@MattЭллен Chile. Turkey. Greece.

Matt Эллен

lol

tchrist

11:25 AM

@MattЭллен Where does that show up, again?

Matt Эллен

@tchrist english.stackexchange.com/users/3559/matt/flair

I keep it on my website

tchrist

@MattЭллен You got something against desaturated violets? There’s more where those came from:

macbook# colorgrep 'violet|purpl' | perl -ne 'print if s/:.*/,/' | fmt
amarant, amethyst, aubergine, claret, crimson, damson, gridelin,
hyacinth, ianthine, indigo, jacinthine, lilac, manganese, mauve,
modena, orchid, pansy, pelagian, perse, petunia, pink, plum, prune,
puce, puniceous, purple, purpureous, purpurine, purpureal, raisins,
ruby, sloe, violaceous, violascent, violescent, violet,

Matt Эллен

there re too many of them. they're coming in here and taking our women and our jobs

tchrist

Puniceously.

user19161

Are they taking your men as well?

Matt Эллен

11:28 AM

we are our men

tchrist

In a country where it rains men, there can never be a shortage.

user19161

The only thing that can be rained is rain itself.

Matt Эллен

hallelujah

tchrist

stands

user19161

You're all nuts.

tchrist

11:29 AM

No, only them two. I’m American.

David Wallace

Fire can be rained.

tchrist

As can frogs. May I interest you in a free plague?

Matt Эллен

and cats and dogs, so I've heard

tchrist

I fear Jasper has expired from a terminal case of whooshery.

Matt Эллен

waits patiently for the reinvention of the air powered car

tchrist

11:36 AM

@RegDwighт On a leggy hunch, I googled leguitos and was delighted to find that the first hit was: “Este jo’puta está jugando con sus leguitos, qué vergüenza da.” Isn’t that just la mar de cutesiness? Leggies! I must perforce edumate my newly LEGO-ensorcelled nephews in leggish cant. [all sic, very very sic]

RegDwighт

11:47 AM

Si.

4

Q: Is it appropiate to bring coffee and cookies to a PhD defense?

First of all, I've already asked my adviser about this, but I just want to see what is the overall idea of the community on this. In Mexico it is usually required for the student to do this, but that is about the only place I have references of people doing defenses. I was thinking on bringing ...

Matt Эллен

good question

RegDwighт

Now we know which site to migrate all our Ms Manners questions to.

Matt Эллен

just edit in the word professor and we're good to go

tchrist

What’s an adviser? We only have advisors.

Matt Эллен

You're on the wrong side of the Atlantic.

we have advisers

especially independent financial advisers

tchrist

11:58 AM

I am above the Atlantic, not below it. That definitely puts me on the right side.

Your advisers probably date your subtrahends and cancel each other out.

Why do I have a premonition that this one has far to go before it peters out?

0

Q: "To shot out of cannon into sparrows"

In Russian we have idiom/saying "To shot out of cannon into sparrows" (literal translation) which is used to convey an idea of applying too drastic measures to small problems. I believe there should be some native-English equivalents to this saying. Can you share if there are any?

idioms saying

RegDwighт

Bah, Barrie is faster.

tchrist

I am surprised that the Mother Church permits such extracanonical acts of emberizicide.

Than a speeding closevote?

RegDwighт

I offer two, however.

@tchrist for once no, than my answer.

tchrist

I think there really are a bunch of these, or at least several. I must commute; perhaps they will come to be then.

RegDwighт

Yeah I'm trying to think of more, but to no avail.

In German it's actually the same idiom as in Russian. Mit Kanonen auf Spatzen schießen.

Matt Эллен

12:04 PM

to use a blunt instrument when a delicate on would be more appropriate

RegDwighт

@MattЭллен yeah, something with surgeons.

Matt Эллен

hmmm

RegDwighт

But I'm not sure if it went the other way round.

Either way it escapes me.

Matt Эллен

oh, mine's not an idiom

perform surgery with a ...

tchrist

@RegDwighт Sperling?

What, did I learn the wrong sparrow word?

Matt Эллен

12:07 PM

tchrist

I had to learn all the damned bird-words when I was teaching in Germany a lot.

Not in German. Gah!

Amsel for their equivalent of our (not your) robin. Adler. Lerche. Wait, what the hell is a magpie in German?

Matt Эллен

ananas?

probably something sensible like "black and white crow"

they have piebald crows in Dubai

Pica pica.

quite odd

Die Echten Elstern (Pica) bilden eine Gattung aus der Familie der Rabenvögel (Corvidae). Sie haben lange, gestufte Schwänze sowie schwarze und weiße Grundfarben mit iridierendem blaugrünen Glanz. Das Verbreitungsgebiet der Gattung umfasst das gemäßigte Nordafrika, Eurasien und Nordamerika. Die Nahrung der Echten Elstern ist wie bei den meisten Rabenvögeln sehr vielfältig und wird von ihnen meist am Boden aufgenommen. Merkmale Echte Elstern sind schlanke, mittelgroße Rabenvögel mit charakteristischer Gefiederzeichnung. Der größte Vertreter der Gattung ist die Elster-Unterart P. pica bot...

Matt Эллен

12:12 PM

no! not Dubai. Turkey. wrong holiday

Magpie, not turkey.

:Þ

A gay magpie.

out and proud

Hard to miss that boy in the forest.

It looks like one of those color-negatives.

RegDwighт

12:15 PM

Hah. I knew I saw the sledgehammer before.

tchrist

Fishing with dynamite. Except that that actually happens.

David Wallace

Nobody has mentioned nuking a mosquito! That's the obvious idiom here.

RegDwighт

Now I'm aiming for another Necromancer, of course.

0

A: "To kill a fly with a..."?

Actually the idiom goes, "to break a (butter)fly on the wheel". The wheel in question being a torture device, for humans rather than flies. From Wikipedia: The breaking wheel, also known as the Catherine wheel or simply the wheel, was a torture device used for capital punishment in the Middle...

The top answer has got it all mixed up.

tchrist

What, not linked yet?

RegDwighт

I was busy answering.

tchrist

12:19 PM

RegDwighт

Still too much space around colons.

Matt Эллен

space : colons

invented by NASA

RegDwighт

These are the adventures of French Spacing . Boldly going where no spacing has gone before .

tchrist

Pleasemakeitstop.

Matt Эллен

 ____
|    |
 ----

RegDwighт

12:23 PM

Wait till you see the adventures of Internet Spacing .... You will be thrilled..

Matt Эллен

monospacing

tchrist

Monkey pacing?

Or monks?

poof

RegDwighт

Speaking of pleasemakingitstop,

1

A: "To shot out of cannon into sparrows"

“Never use a shotgun when a flyswatter will do.”

Why is there a bullet?

Upwards compatibility?

Matt Эллен

I thought the idiom was "who brings a knife to a gunfight?" but what do I know?

RegDwighт

Wait till it hits the MC, and you will get at least three answers saying that.

I am still thinking there was something with scalpels.

Matt Эллен

12:27 PM

John Hanna reports it the other way around

doing keyhole surgery with a pneumatic drill?

RegDwighт

@MattЭллен See, still enough room for three answers reporting it the other other way round.

@MattЭллен something to that effect, yes.

Matt Эллен

indeed!

lunches

RegDwighт

It already is no. 14 on the MC. Outscored only by trendsetter.

So, um. @Matt, wasn't it you who mentioned the new About page the other day?

I can't find it in the transcript.

Anyway, you don't seem to have the badge for reading it.

Informed.

Matt Эллен

12:45 PM

I did. I wonder how long I have to stay on there to get the badge...

RegDwighт

Not stay. Scroll all the way down, is all.

The description is "Read the entire page", not "Stared at its title for three days".

Matt Эллен

I've scrolled all the way down on several occasions before now

RegDwighт

Hm.

I got it immediately. It was AJAX stuff.

Matt Эллен

maybe I wasn't logged in?

RegDwighт

The last section is about badges and as you read it a line appears, "in fact you have just earned one!"

Matt Эллен

12:48 PM

but I must have been to tell y'all about it

well, I've got it now

RegDwighт

Welcome to the exclusive club.

Matt Эллен

thanks :D

so you can search on the number of views a question has, but not on comments. Why would you search on the number of views at all?

RegDwighт

To limit the results to popular stuff?

Comments come and go. Views stay.

Matt Эллен

view counts are even more transient than comments

I suppose I'm only one type of search user. I'm sure they've done market research that says people really want to find questions with x views

not even x+?

odd

KitFox

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