English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

The first two commas make no sense.

And I am not sure what the "what we'd like to call" is doing there in the first place.

@RegDwigнt Oh, I thought a pause makes sense.

A pause makes sense. But no comma.

@RegDwigнt Well, it's a news site/company, but we'd like to call it an initiative.

@RegDwigнt Isn't a comma meant for that?

@its_me No.

A comma is a comma, and a pause is a pause.

2:04 PM

ok

@its_me who are "we"?

@RegDwigнt The team, the people of the company

it's implied, don't worry about that

Okay, let's consider this:

> XXX is an initiative focused on technology, web, and information for the ambitious lifestyle of people in this connected age.

Better. Still marketese, but better already.

If you are focused, why is it that you are focused on three things, each of them more generic than the last?

:P I'll work on improving it over time. I need something for a start.

It's okay. We're working on that start.

Ideally the elevator pitch should say what you do. Right now the sentence talks a lot, but says nothing.

2:07 PM

@RegDwigнt Tech = gadgets, cars, etc. Web = internet, web apps, www, etc. information for the ambitious lifestyle = travel, leisure, work, etc.

So you are not focused at all.

@RegDwigнt We are focused on what matters

Matters to whom?

Cars don't matter to me.

And well, we are not just one. We have internal teams focusing on one subject each

I see.

2:09 PM

Like I said, a news company

Well, that's more like it.

Makes a little more sense now?

hmm

Yes, "a news company" makes much more sense than "an initative focused on everything". :))

So is this snippet to appear on your web site, or in some press release, or in print, or where?

@RegDwigнt Just don't want to sound aloof. We want to keep a low profile, seem normal, and let our work talk

@RegDwigнt On the about page of the website

Mkay.

2:12 PM

@RegDwigнt Thanks a lot for your time, and the tips. I'll work on keeping it more to the point, simple and less "marketese".

:)

@its_me well that right there is a hundred times better than what you have now. It is a great description.

Mitch

That's a thing? To eat pies and smoke?

@RegDwigнt thank you

(Though of course the first rule of keeping a low profile and letting one's work speak is not talking about keeping a low profile and letting one's work speak.)

But anyway. This is all a style discussion. In terms of grammar your original was fine. In terms of punctuation, only the two commas were uncalled for.

@RegDwigнt You know, as a news site we'd be working with Google News team, and they have a set of rules, and an about page is one of them. So... :/

@RegDwigнt got it

2:15 PM

@its_me yeah I understand that. It's just that I'd rather put "We are a news company, not a profile company. Go read our news instead." on the profile page and call it a day.

:) I wish stuff worked that way.

Well I thought Google was all nice and easy and not evil and a breeze to work with. No?

@RegDwigнt I think I like your point actually. I'll keep it really simple, and go with "news company" and actually talk about stuff we do/plan to do.

More power to you.

@RegDwigнt We need to look professional to get into the program, UNLESS we are already a popular news destination

2:17 PM

Yeah. Catch-22.

It's always the case, ya know.

@RegDwigнt And I was deeply insulted, of course.

I can't believe you use I. It's so pro-individualist.

Oops sorry!

You suggest I use someone's mom instead?

2:21 PM

The perpendicular pronoun was disrespecting oriental culture and apologizes.

it's far more correct to say "and insultation was felt at the part of the universe that had the comment directed at it"

@RegDwigнt Why don't you start with "your humble servant"?

I do. It's just that I proceed by deleting it.

@MattЭллен Ahh the part of the universe whence cometh the green monster head is so correct!

lol

2:23 PM

It's only thanks to the NSA that no terrorism is being committed by orcs.

@RegDwigнt How unhumble yon part of the cosmos is!

What the johnson is with your language?

Matt said one was not to use the perpendicular pronoun, lest one be perceived as propagating individualistic propaganda, thereby disrespecting non-individualist collectives.

Oops I used "one".

Oops, this one used "I".

Oops...

Oops, one did it again.

Oh, baby, baby.

2:25 PM

whatever, Britny

I have forgotten how to spell Bruttany

That's bruttanl.

Bretagne (regio)

Bretagne (Bretons: Breizh, Gallo: Bertaèyn) is een Franse regio op het gelijknamige schiereiland Bretagne en bestaat uit de departementen Côtes-d'Armor, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine en Morbihan. Tot 1941 behoorde ook Loire-Atlantique (destijds Loire-Inférieur) ertoe, en velen blijven dit departement als deel van Bretagne beschouwen. Tot aan de Franse Revolutie was Bretagne een zelfstandige Franse provincie. Rennes is de hoofdstad van de regio Bretagne. Andere belangrijke steden zijn Brest, Vannes, Quimper en Saint-Malo. Historisch gezien is de hoofdstad Nantes, maar dat valt tegenwoordig ad...

InterRegio

The InterRegio is a train service seen in some European countries. Mostly they are trains that run "from region to region", as best described by Swiss Federal Railways. Belgium In Belgium, InterRegio (IR) trains are slower than the fast IC trains, and usually call at more stations along a route. Their journey is usually not as long as IC trains, but still travel further than the Local (L) trains (stopping services). Most IR trains have hourly frequencies, some having only services every two hours (although this is mostly true only for weekend services). All trains in Belgium share the...

> and usually call at more stations along a route

That's the first time I see call used that way.

Who do they call at these stations? Their mom at home? Ghostbusters?

One hears it all the time on UK rail. well, not all the time. I suppose eventually is a better word

But IR is not part of the UK. And vice versa.

2:32 PM

"Call on [someone]" is also used, or was when I was little, to mean visit a firend's house and see if they can come out

@RegDwigнt It's used for trains and ships. You know a "port of call"?

@Cerberus no. ((

"This conversation is now calling at all the topics from here to the infirmary."

> port of call
— n
1. any port where a ship stops, excluding its home port
2. any place visited on a traveller's itinerary

"Matt is now just making all the stuff up from here to times unspecified."

I only know port of prince.

2:34 PM

call

And in the past back to the big bang.

@RegDwigнt very true

@Cerberus I'd go further, but I don't like the neighbourhood

I just call at, say, I love you.

There's tawny port.

@RegDwigнt You had me at "I".

That's nice, plenty of time to lose you again.

2:35 PM

@MattЭллен You have something against nothingness?

Nothing Hill.

@Cerberus Whatever came before, it's, well, you know... whispers unknowable

Everything Hill.

@MattЭллен Oh know!

Faith Hill.

One Tree Hill

2:37 PM

I think you just mentioned a film and a band. Am I right??

Faith Hill is neither.

Nor is One Tree Hill

Oh, I thought it was a band.

OTH I have never heard of.

Well, that's two out of two wrong. Not bad.

!!wiki One Tree Hill

One Tree Hill (TV series)

2:38 PM

One Tree Hill is an American television drama created by Mark Schwahn, which premiered on September 23, 2003 on The WB. After the series' third season, The WB merged with UPN to form The CW, and since September 27, 2006, the network has been the official broadcaster of the series in the United States. The show is set in the fictional town of Tree Hill in North Carolina and originally follows the lives of two half-brothers, Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) and Nathan Scott (James Lafferty), who compete for positions on their school's basketball team. Their relationship evolves from hear...

I got Nothing Hill right!!

Actually it's four out of two wrong. Quite a stunt.

@Cerberus Nothing Hill is neither, either.

It's also a film.

So that's six out of three wrong.

@Cerberus no it is not.

I know this, girls were swooning over it when I was 18.

Or maybe 17.

2:39 PM

That was Notting Hill.

Or was it Notting Hill..

Oh.

rofl

Damn.

Next thing you tell us, car is the same as bar.

so close

2:39 PM

Well, I was close!!

Haha look at them Cerberus, how slow he is.

@RegDwigнt Sure, places you drink in. What's the difference?

Them different places.

What does it matter when you're drunk?

So now you're saying that drinking is the same as being drunk. I rest my case.

You cannot be yeholpen!

2:41 PM

One is a present participle, the other a past participle.

I drunk, so now I drinking.

That works for philosophers, but not syntactitians.

Yeholpen is nice. Geholpen in Dutch, geholfen in German?

I dunno, you're the one who's supposedly fluent in Dutch?

I funk so now I thinking

Petszny-Prutshka in Russian?

Oh, dear. Matt is funking again.

But the palaeographical hour has struck.

2:43 PM

Funk phenomenon.

Whom has he struck and why?

strikes palaeographical hour

There.

Nice. Revenge is a thing best served immediately.

Hour is a she, like Latin hora.

You're a she.

Oops, I mean, let's call everything it, thing, it.

2:44 PM

a woman she or a man she?

No sex!

Yesterday it went to it and had an it in its it.

We must all wear indistinguishable grey onesies, like in North Korea.

climbs into grey sack

But then you wouldn't distinguish us from North Korea!

2:45 PM

@MattЭллен Yay!

climbs into sack with Matt

See, Orc = North Korea. What has this world come to.

!!

@MattЭллен That didn't make much sense. Use the help command to learn more.

@RegDwigнt Err haven't you read the news, we're all part of Greater North Korea.

2:45 PM

@Cerberus that's only because you read North Korean news.

We just don't know it yet, but the Revolution will engulf us.

Yes, I read it every day.

Except on palaeography day!

All of it. The whole one news.

This conversation is incomprehensible to me.

Over and over again.

Thanks!! We like to think so, too.

2:46 PM

@JasperLoy you are incomprehensible to this conversation. I'd say we're quits.

Oh and BTW I might have to give up on A Game of Thrones.

It is so boring.

Every five pages I have to learn eight new characters, and by the time I think I got them more or less sorted, half of them are killed off. And from all I hear, the other half will be killed off at a later point.

I am literally given no reason to care about any of them.

And so I don't.

I only care about getting well now.

No prob. Be my guest.

That must be a wishing well.

I wish that I get well soon then.

Very well.

well, well, well

2:55 PM

Swell.

My next wish is that all the people in the world are free from OCD.

looks around Well that didn't work.

I suppose Obama must declare war on OCD pronto.

PrOOf: aLl my chat poSTs are still, properly! capitAlized and Punctuated.

QED.

2:56 PM

@MετάEd That better?

@RegDwigнt You have my blessing. I'm not even going to start reading the books, and Rob and Tom say they're crap anyway.

Ah, did they say that?

I feel a bit better now.

@RegDwigнt Can the army still not declare war on their own? How inefficient.

Mr Shiny liked them. I think so did JSB.

Avner Shahar-Kashtan

Etymology questions are, I believe, on topic in the site. But how about quote-attribution questions, like this? english.stackexchange.com/questions/141199/…

My instinct says "no".

2:57 PM

@RegDwigнt Rob said annoying, Tom unliterary.

I feel like I have to expand on the latter.

@AvnerShahar-Kashtan That doesn't fit because it doesn't need an expert in the English language.

I now literally find myself counting, involuntarily, how many sentences in a row are all of the same form "X [verb] Y".

@MετάEd I disagree.

@Cerberus Of course you do.

2:59 PM

Of course you want the whole site closed.

Q: Are "who first said"-questions on-topic?

6

Is it on-topic to ask on English language & Usage: Who first said [insert quote]?

@AvnerShahar-Kashtan A good question needs an English expert to answer it.

@Cerberus Don't make up shit about me.

A woman—or man—well versed in the corpus of the English language might know whether the quotation is attributed correctly. It's what academics at the English department do, too, and they're "experts".

All be nice and have ginger cookies.

@Cerberus I dunno, I only ever know them from hearsay.

And 60% of the time, they are wrong 100% of the time.

Avner Shahar-Kashtan

@Cerberus How about literary quotations? Would asking "what book is this quotation from" be appropriate for EL&U? Of course, literature.SE hasn't made it through beta, so there isn't really an alternative, but still.

3:01 PM

I'm not sure.

Avner Shahar-Kashtan

"English departments" in universities I'm familiar with use the term to refer to English literature, not the English language.

"What book is this quotation from" is at least a clear question with a clear answer. It has a whopping book to back it up.

But the statement "you don't need an expert for that" is just not really true.

But I have to go.

Who said "my balls are hairy but not my head", on the other hand...

4 mins ago, by MετάEd

@Cerberus Of course you do.

Bye!

3:04 PM

Oh. That was a nice retort.

Bravo.

bows

CU

An exaggertation must be met with an exaggeration. Bai!

I will meet five exaggerations later tonight.

Looks like we're having a new visitor record.

good lord. I keep falling asleep at my desk. I'm starting to think I need to see a doctor about this.

3:15 PM

@MattЭллен Sleep apnea?

not as far as I know

@MattЭллен how much sleep do you get at night?

seven to eight hours

That is ideal.

maybe you need 8 to 9

3:18 PM

I suppose I could try

I feel fine until after lunch, most days

some days I'm tired in the morning, but that's usually because I get to bed late

it only seems to happen at work, too

maybe because work is boring?

I used to fall asleep in all my boring classes and never in any fun classes, irrespective of when they were or how much sleep I'd had

maybe

ot: do you read smbc?

it's more interesting that any other job I've had

maybe you've had a string of really boring jobs?

3:25 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 no :D

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 nice

I see it come up on FaceBook every so often

IFLS seem to post it a bit

yeah once in a while they have sciencey jokes, but lots of the humour is pretty nerdy

also: penis jokes.

like, one where the entire strip was a discussion about people missing the forest for the trees, and if you zoom out, the background across the entire strip is coloured to look like a big penis.

So if you don't get enough penis humour and assorted nerdy jokes, that's the place to go.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Cute.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I read it religiously.

@MετάEd me too, it's in my RSS feeds

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I have given up on RSS readers since Google dropped theirs.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I get notified by Google on my palmtop when the page is updated, and I believe that's because they monitor the RSS feed. So I sort of still use RSS.

But it was Google's app that decided I seemed to be reading that page and offered to push a notification whenever it updated.

@MετάEd I switched to Feedly.

Mitch

3:47 PM

I stopped eating

well done

Mitch

@MετάEd Yes it did. If you tried to look at everybody, you would be accused of OCD. Done.

@RegDwigнt port o' cullis

@MετάEd Same here. I think it will kill blogs. will move people to twitter (where twitter runs the ecosystem). But tweets are contentless.

Unless they are traffic or weather reports.

Or hooked up to brain sentiment monitors. Then the Matrix will game the system to make us do things to tweet that we are happier. Even though there is a deep dark bitter hole where our hearts used to be.

Because of the heart extraction surgery.

Q: Using regular expressions, how do I convert a date time string to a short date format?

4:02 PM

you're getting that too?

Robusto

4:16 PM

Don't you love it when someone asks for a solution in X language, and people offer solutions in Y and Z?

0

Example string: 2014-01-01T00:00:00.0000000 Desired output: 01/01/2014 BONUS desired output (if possible with regex alone)!: 01/01/2014 12:00am This needs to be done with Javascript.

javascript regex

He asks for Javascript and they give him Python and PHP.

His big mistake was using Angular in the first place without learning Javascript.

@Robusto Actually he failed to ask for Javascript. Someone else had to edit his question to include that, after he rejected the first answer.

So it was the OP's fault.

Q: Drag and drop video into OR drag and drop video in to

@Robusto I wouldn't say that he doesn't know Javascript. Maybe he just doesn't know Javascript Regexes very well. I'd say I know Javascript and regexes but that regex would've taken me a moment to craft, after re-reading the docs.

The more I think about it, the less I understand the question though. How does a regex format an object? The AngularJS documentation only mentions regexes for input validation.

Can I get some dupe close votes please?

0

Which is more correct? I’ve created a web page that you can just drag and drop the videos in to: http://... OR I’ve created a web page that you can just drag and drop the videos into: http://...

prepositions

4:38 PM

/regexgoeshere/ <- object

Robusto

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 It's a crummy question, to be sure, and it relies on a lot of assumptions. In UTC date code, for example, there is no "12:00 am" . . .

Anonymous

Hello @ll.

If quoting a person, who the sentences inside the quote begin in uppercase or lowercase?

ex: *She said "She does not know"* Vs *She said "she does not know"*

She said, "She doesn't know."

@Qǝuoɯᴉs If it's a direct quote, transcribe it fully.

Anonymous

4:53 PM

thanks
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Don't force me to learn about what direct quote is :p

Hi, can "nerd" be used to refer to just about anyone who's intelligent + obsessed about something + socially inept? For example, can a chef be called a nerd too? I mean, if he's totally obsessed about cooking, and stuff.

Anonymous

@its_me I would dare to say someone is nerd, if there is a heavy amount of "reading" involved.

Anonymous

So, a chef can not be a nerd imho.

@Qǝuoɯᴉs well, by that I mean that you are putting quotation marks around the quoted speech to indicate that this speech is precisely what was said. In that case, transcribe it as if it were standing alone. If you are quoting a complete sentence, include capitals, punctuation, etc.

@Qǝuoɯᴉs of course a chef can be a nerd.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Serious, right?

I really want to know.

4:58 PM

I don't generally associate nerd with being obsessed about something.

Scientific or technical pursuits are generally the focus for "nerds"

thefreedictionary.com/nerd

@SomeGuy If you don't think cooking is "technical"....

@SomeGuy From that page:

> a boring or unpopular person, esp one obsessed with something specified

@SomeGuy While that's the general association, in which case I agree, the actual meaning the word stands for is more broader I think

(even as per dictionaries)

I just wanted to be sure what the knowledgeable folks here think

I would say that you can have nerds of all kinds.

is there an SE for it? then there is a nerd for it.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Hoping that you are serious, case closed! :)

@its_me I am serious. Well, the SE part is half-serious.

But who else answers cooking questions than cooking nerds?

5:03 PM

fair enough!

or cooking geeks, I guess. I'll ignore the geek/nerd distinction. Where you find one, you find the other.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Found this in one of @RegDwigнt 's answers:

so many definitions at a glance!

yeah. But my point is that "social ineptitude" is a gradient, and what matters more is intelligence+obsession.

sure

I think you'll find that dork and dweeb do not adhere so strictly to that venn diagram.

5:07 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Why?

And geek and nerd are often self-identified, but nobody self-identifies as dweeb or dork

> Dork: a dull, slow-witted, or socially inept person.

Ah, ok

@its_me People throw out words like dweeb or dork willy-nilly, as insults. They are typically not the result of careful consideration about accuracy.

hmm, ok

Example: the "dork" definition you've just posted uses "or". So you could be just socially inept, and be labelled a dork.

5:10 PM

yeah, makes sense

it would only make sense to a nerd :D

or a geek

:D

Anonymous

I am sure there is a term in psychology or a specific word in English, to describe a moment/person, in which a person brings up a completely new topic/subject as a way to deviate attention or escape from an argument he is loosing fast.

Anonymous

Anyone know what that word is ?

5:24 PM

diversion?

Anonymous

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 yeah, but let me find it here if I can

Anonymous

List of fallacies

A fallacy is incorrect argument in logic and rhetoric resulting in a lack of validity, or more generally, a lack of soundness. Fallacies are either formal fallacies or informal fallacies. Formal fallacies A formal fallacy is an error in logic that can be seen in the argument's form. All formal fallacies are specific types of non sequiturs. * Appeal to probability – takes something for granted because it would probably be the case (or might be the case). * Argument from fallacy – assumes that if an argument for some conclusion is fallacious, then the conclusion itself is false. * Base ra...

Distraction

@Qǝuoɯᴉs red herring seems to match

You would say that. You just don't care about the children!

5:32 PM

I'm cold and heartless that way.

like a robot, with cold, heartless, flawless logic.

Anonymous

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yep. :)

I get called that sometimes.

It's hurtful.

Sort of.

!!wiki red herring

Red herring

The idiom "red herring" is used to refer to something that misleads or distracts from the relevant or important issue. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or characters towards a false conclusion. Red herrings often occur in mystery or detective fiction, or as a rhetorical manoeuvre (e.g. in politics). The origin of the expression is not known. Conventional wisdom has long supposed it to be the use of a kipper (a strong-smelling smoked fish) to train hounds to follow a scent, or to divert them from the correct route when hunting; however, modern lin...

if it hurts, it must be false, because the hurt is in your heart, which you wouldn't have if it were true.

5:34 PM

I didn't say it hurt. I said it was hurtful.

!!wiki hurtful

Hurtful (song)

"Hurtful" is the debut single by Swedish singer/songwriter Erik Hassle, taken from his album Hassle. It made its debut in his home country of Sweden almost cracking the Top 10 on the Swedish singles chart. It continues to slowly see its release throughout the rest of the world in 2009 and 2010. It was released as a free download from the U.S. iTunes Store from May 18–24. Formats and track listings CA Digital download (Released 12 January 2010) # "Hurtful" - 3:03 DK Digital Download (Released November 2009) # "Hurtful" - 3:03 # "Hurtful (Erik Hassle v.s. Penguin Prison)" - 4:35 SE Digit...

@KitFox Hm, interesting distinction. I shall ponder it. ponders

!!Wiki hurt

Hurts

Hurts are an English synthpop duo formed in 2009, consisting of singer Theo Hutchcraft (born 30 August 1986 in Richmond) and synthesist Adam Anderson (born 14 May 1984 in Manchester). Their first two albums, Happiness and Exile, both reached the top ten in the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland and Finland, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. They have sold over 3 million records worldwide. History 2005–08: Beginnings Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson met outside the 42nd Street nightclub in Manchester in November 2005, whilst their friends got involved in a fight. ...

5:38 PM

!!wiki ponder

Pinus ponderosa

Pinus ponderosa, commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, or western yellow pine, is a very large pine tree of variable habit native to western North America, but widespread throughout the temperate world. It was first described by David Douglas in 1826, from eastern Washington state near present-day Spokane. It is the official state tree of Montana. Description P. ponderosa is a large coniferous evergreen tree. The bark helps to distinguish it from other species. Mature individuals have cinnamon-red bark with black crevices. Younger trees have black to reddish...

Q: Write the following proverb, not more than 6 words

@its_me Well, yeah, that makes sense

To be safe, I'd say it should be specified like in the T-shirt, as a "cooking nerd."

Ooh, you guys have your own bot? Who's hosting it?

Robusto

0

Can you help me with this statement * put the English statement of the following proverb, not more than 6 words Failures are divided into two classes - those who thought and never did, and those who did and never though * I must write it with only six words , how I Can do it without change the m...

phrases phrase-requests

You want fries with that?

@KitFox me too

Schizoid personality disorder

Schizoid personality disorder (SPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency towards a solitary lifestyle, secretiveness, emotional coldness, and apathy. Affected individuals may simultaneously demonstrate a rich, elaborate and exclusively internal fantasy world. SPD is not the same as schizophrenia, although they share such similar characteristics as detachment and blunted affect. There is, moreover, increased prevalence of the disorder in families with schizophrenia. Some psychologists argue that the definition of SPD is flaw...

:P

5:46 PM

Yeah. It runs in my family.