English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2013-02-08 (page 1 of 3)

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12:00 AM

7

Q: Changes to "close as duplicate" (part deux)

I feel like we got off on the wrong foot. Due to me being an idiot miscommunication, a partial change snuck out early, and even though we announced it we didn't really explain why we made the change. So let me just start over... We've made some changes to Close as Duplicate. First, some back...

discussion vote-to-close exact-duplicates

12:13 AM

@ChrisF Answered at:

1

A: Why are actual parameters called "arguments"?

The term was adopted by computer scientists when they applied mathematical reasoning to programming in the mid 20th century. The word argument has the general sense of something from which another thing may be deduced. It comes ‘from the L. arguere “make clear, make known, prove, declare, demons...

You are of course welcome to migrate it here if it seems more appropriate.

So argument basically is “shiny thing”. I like it.

12:30 AM

I'll take a whack at it, but could you flag as a reminder? Waiwai would be good at it too

2 hours later…

2:14 AM

@simchona Done. I’m not trying to foist work off on you; I just don’t want to mess it up. Thank you.

3:00 AM

@tchrist I thought you weren't going to answer Listenever's questions anymore.

Feb 2 at 16:15, by tchrist

@Rob I am weary of that user’s questions, where he asks all these ridiculous super-extra-hyper-technical things that no native speaker every concerns himself with.

I don’t know how to answer the one he asked. I thought of just closevoting it as GR.

The problem is that he has a hole in his mind where a phoneme needs to go.

Nothing I can say can change that.

user image

There is an acute problem with that badge.

Amongst others.

How expensive is real estate in your area?

Seriously?

3:09 AM

Yes.

Seriously.

By your area I'm talking about Denver and environs.

Oh.

That’s different.

Oh, did you think I meant Boulder specifically?

The metroplex is about the same size as Seattle’s, covering like 3+ million people and quite a huge area.

I don’t think of myself as living in another town.

3:10 AM

I'm sure there's a wide range.

I have the feeling it isn't as expensive as New England.

Boulder is expensive. Capitol Hill in Denver is expensive. Many of the burbs are not.

> The median sales price for homes in Boulder CO for Nov 12 to Jan 13 was $425,000 based on 345 home sales.

What does 425k get you in Boulder?

Average listing price is $850.

You would have trouble getting a three bedroom place, that's for damned sure.

So that means most sales are probably small condos?

I have a nominally 4-bedroom place, 3 baths, which is about the average listing price in valuation.

3:12 AM

If the median price is that low.

Yes, that is right. Or at least the lower-priced ones.

Here.

Like 7 homes sold for over a million last month.

Big difference between for sale and sold prices, though.

Indeed.

Mean listing vs median sales, hard to compare.

What makes Boulder so pricey?

Hm. It's a nice place to live.

University, many government science labs.

3:16 AM

Why better than, say, Colorado Springs?

Wonderful scenery and outdoor opportunities.

FMH

Colorado Springs is for Nazis.

FMH?

Me Harder.

In the Springs, the left-wingers vote Republican.

In Boulder, the right-wingers vote Democrat.

Is it? I know nothing of the Denver area, other than that I have a friend who lives there and my sister was thinking of retiring there.

Springs is full of military and religious.

Denver is not a "real" city in the Boston, New York, Toronto, London sense. Not even Chicago.

3:18 AM

@tchrist Well, when I was a freshman in college the Young Republicans were all maoists, with posters of Che Guevara and communist workers' posters all over the place. How times have changed.

But it tries.

@tchrist Hey, Chicago is a real city. Trust me.

I know.

More real than Boston.

Interesting.

3:18 AM

Boston is a collection of cities.

And Chicago is not?

Of which Boston isn't even the most significant.

Which are?

Chicago is a huge fucking city ringed by extensive suburbs.

Denver has no subway/metro/L.

3:19 AM

Even New York doesn't have the centrality of Chicago. The boroughs all feel like different cities to me.

Well, that is not quite true.

There is light rail.

But it is not a real metro.

If you can ride it, though, I guess it is ok. It doesn’t come here. We’re pissed. Made us pay for it taxes, then reneged.

My friend lives in central Denver, sort of. Central and west.

There is nowhere in Boulder you would not feel 100% comfortable walking alone any time of the day or night.

You cannot say that of Denver.

Thornton?

Aurora?

No. Aurora is east.

I was just checking your compass. :)

3:22 AM

Let me look at his address, hold on.

Boulder is at least twice as expensive as the ’tween-cities burbs.

Longmont, Louisville, Lafayette, and Lyons are all much much cheaper.

L-burbs.

Lakewood.

Another L-town.

Lakewood is kinda SW of Denver.

Kinda West West, according to Google Earth.

It really is a suburb in that it is contiguous with Denver.

I still call it Denver.

3:25 AM

Google Earth puts the Denver pin slightly south of his latitude.

I have this country notion that there should be farmland between places with different names, not just one city block to the next.

Well, that is a very quaint notion.

Told ya.

user image

See what I mean about it being "the same place" as Denver compared with Boulder?

I shot a beer commercial in Colorado. We got a suite at the Brown Palace Hotel. I thought, "What a shitty name for a hotel."

It is considered fancier than it deserves, in my ever so humble opinion.

They think too much of themselves.

You’ll eat better in Boulder, for cheaper, and you won’t have to wear a sport coat.

3:27 AM

@tchrist Yes, I understand the difference. Boulder is more like Aurora is to Chicago. A satellite.

Hm. Is Madison a satellite of Milwaukee?

The reason Colorado Springs came to mind was that my brother lives in New Mexico and my sister will live somewhere in the Denver area, and I was thinking when I retire I might like to be somewhere in the middle. But if it's all Republican down there, I just wouldn't fit in.

You would not.

Oh wait, that's where the Air Force Academy is. Duh.

There are enclaves of coolness, like at Colorado College, but still.

3:30 AM

The Air Force has been taken over by Christian fundamentalists, which is a scary thought.

Bring on the new Millennium, and all.

And they can do it, too.

Also Ft Carson. And NORAD.

You would be happier closer to Denver, I think.

I lived in Springs. Fled.

Way too many Republicans.

It’s a bit sprawl-y, too.

But most places are.

What kind of a drive is it from Denver to Albuquerque? I can see the mileage, but I hear that 25 south of Denver can be a parking lot.

Boulder has an annual building-permit quota of only 1%.

I-25 a parking lot?

Not really.

Only in Denver is it such.

3:32 AM

That's what someone said.

But once you get south of the circle route on the map, it is ok.

I intentionally don’t drive that way when I commute, even if it is nominally shorter, because I-25 would be the death of me.

So what, six hours?

7 from Boulder.

Yeah, maybe.

Depends where you are in Denver area.

But the 285 route is prettier.

Six is reasonable.

It’s 6 hours from Boulder to Los Alamos.

On 285.

Call it to Santa Fe.

I’ve driven both routes, many times, although not lately.

There can be storms in the passes in the winter. In a normal winter. We’ve only had 2' of snow so far this season at point when last year we'd had 5'.

I’ve had to turn back late in the season due to blocked passes on I-25 at the NM border.

Just don’t do that. You won’t be stupid about winter driving.

Californians and Texans are hopeless for winter driving. They don’t keep emergency stuff in their cars.

And think that cell phones work everywhere. They don't.

3:37 AM

I've driven through Boulder on the way to Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park, IIRC.

That's right.

It’s along US-36.

That gets closed in the winter, yeah?

Kinda.

Rabbit Ears Pass? That rings a bell.

The US-34 route up over the 12,000 foot part and down the back side gets closed, yes.

But the park itself stays open. You just can’t get to the other side.

3:38 AM

Doesn't it go up to 14,000 feet in one spot? I can't remember.

The road doesn't. The park does.

Ah, ok.

Long's Peak in the park is a 14er, and is the highest part of Boulder County.

But the only place you can drive to 14k' is Mt Evans.

That's probably what I remember.

On a paved road. Pikes Peak is gravel.

Trail Ridge Road is the name of the part in the park that goes highest, up through the tundra. You saw it in The Shining.

3:40 AM

The Overlook Hotel they used is really in Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, I think.

Right. The Stanley in Estes Park was only outdoor shots.

You could live with the politics in the Denver/Boulder area. There are a few Republican enclaves, but not close to me.

Estes Park ... ha! We stayed there when I was 13.

Probably more exciting then.

Just due to youth.

It was all tourist shit. Which thankfully stopped at the park border.

But my favorite mountains of all time in the States are the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming.

Hm.

3:43 AM

They are breathtaking.

I’ve backpacked in the Wind Rivers.

From both sides.

That's west, I believe.

Yeah.

Wind River Canyon?

I’d have to look it up; been a long time.

Here.

It feels mostly like home there. Buggy, though.

3:45 AM

The Rockies near where you are are fantastic, don't get me wrong. But the Bighorns just kind of sneak up on you. One minute you're driving through prairie, and then you turn a corner around a bluff and there, rising out of the plains, are these gigantic fucking mountains.

If by home, I mean Colorado.

Funny that a mountain can sneak up on you.

Not like a canyon.

You don't see that coming.

Whereas you see the Rockies from 70 or 80 miles off outside of Denver.

You do.

They look like clouds on the horizon first, then gradually you realize they're mountains.

It’s because of the 3 14ers here. You see them a long ways off.

Pikes Peak, Mt Evans, Longs Peak.

3:48 AM

user image

Here's what I mean. The Bighorns.

There are higher mountains further in, but they stand at the Front Range to loom over the prairie.

Looks like a shot from South Park, by Two-Mile-High Stadium.

Um, Fairplay.

Where's Cartman?

It’s more country-like than in the show.

I think your shot must be taken at a higher elevation than Denver is at.

The trees cut out too soon.

Yes, timberline is a bit lower there, but still.

How's the water situation out there? Is the Big Thompson reservoir (or whatever) adequate for the area?

It depends where you live. The older communities have older rights.

I think some of the new burbs were having water issues, but I haven't.

3:52 AM

It's all snowmelt, though, right? Not much of a water table? No Ogalala aquifer?

Right.

We've at 50% right now.

Snowpack depth.

Is 100% historically normal?

Of historical average for this time of year.

Right.

That doesn’t matter too much. Our snowiest month is March, followed by April and November. We can still get plenty.

Denver is in the banana belt, I think. Warmer than you would expect.

But it has been dry lately. And hot. It was in the 50s again today, 60s a few days ago.

It is.

3:55 AM

We are going to get pounded tomorrow. I'd better go to bed so I can get up and deal with it.

Oh right, I heard.

Hope it's in feet.

I'll post pictures.

Good night.

Good night.

2 hours later…

TemporaryNickName

6:03 AM

Guys

I have a question

What does "Anything goes for golfing " means?

js1k.com/2013-spring/rules

5 hours later…

10:53 AM

@tchrist ping

@Cerberus ping

@Jez ping

Matt Эллен

11:36 AM

@TemporaryNickName anything goes [when writing code in this competition. Do not worry about the opinion of Douglas Crockford, an experienced JavaScript coder with a lot of good ideas on how to write good, maintainable code and how to avoid the unpleasant parts of JavaScript.]

golfing as in Code Golf

@Meysam Ping?

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus Pong

11:56 AM

You like ping-pong?

Matt Эллен

12:26 PM

I like the idea, but I'm terrible at it in practice

Haha.

I kind of like it.

user image

I like the girl resembling @Kit best. The others look weird.

Matt Эллен

12:50 PM

image not found!

Aww.

user image

1:25 PM

Which one looks like me?

@Kit The girl with the white collar looks like an ugly version of you.

I would totally invest in you!!

And you're at least 9000 times prettier.

She looks like my BFF from elementary school.

I was considerably smaller in 1978.

"Are you still listening to me? Stop listening to me!" — Mitch 22 secs ago

@Cerberus Hey. That's my mouse pad.

@Kit Uglier and older.

@MετάEd Really?

1:39 PM

@Cerberus I have been looking for that thing for like a year.

Take it.

I want to find and revoke the licence of the evil EFL teacher out there who is tricking his gullible students into calling letters like a, b, c “alphabets” instead of letters.

Matt Эллен

surely they're alphabits

or am I just affecting a NZ accent?

Yes.

@tchrist Who would do such a thing?

@MattЭллен Actually, I think that 32 might be the alpha bit:

macbook# perl -le 'printf "%d or %#o or %#x or %#b\n", (ord "a" ^ ord "A") x 4'
32 or 040 or 0x20 or 0b100000

Just as 64 is the control bit:

macbook# perl -le 'printf "%d or %#o or %#x or %#b\n", (ord "\cA" ^ ord "A") x 4'
64 or 0100 or 0x40 or 0b1000000

@Cerberus Blind-leading blind people, apparently.

1:55 PM

Never heard of it.

I used to lead blind people.

I saw it yesterday in two postings in the space of 5 minutes.

@Kit Fox != Dog

@tchrist I know. But it's true.

2:16 PM

@tchrist Don't blame the teachers. There's no accounting for stupidity.

I like that we have the [duplicate] label now. People can stop bitching about how the front page is full of closed questions.

Matt Эллен

yay!

Good luck with that.

And instead they can go "Oh! They were all f-cking duplicates. It's not that EL&U is unfriendly! We're just too dumb to look first."

user19161

2:32 PM

@Kit Hey colourless square.

Hi Jasper.

"just answer my effing question. so what about your uptight 'duplicate' crap."

I am neither colorless nor a square. I simply don't exist.

I think it's because they're not looking at the screen when they type their question in with the auto suggest of possible effing DUPLICATES!!. It's right effing THERE. In your face!

I think I did that a few times.

Why the black, @Jacob? You OK?

2:34 PM

If anybody here is enthusiastic about Sports.SE, kindly share your view on the new FAQ of the site.

2

Q: New FAQ Rollout

After discussion among users from the community, we seem to be in agreement to redefine/further define the scope/subject matter of the content on Sports SE. As a result, this would work hand-in-hand with improving the FAQ to be more specific to Sports SE, rather than general question/answer con...

user19161

@Kit I thought I would choose a black square to go with Jacob Black.

Oh. Well. Yes. I guess that makes a lot of sense.

user19161

@Mistu4u By the way, is "kindly" used often in Indian English? I usually use "please".

I thought you picked the name for the color, rather than the color for the name.

user19161

I know there is a discussion on "please" vs "kindly" before.

2:36 PM

it'll be closed as a duplicate.

user19161

@Kit How did you make your square? Some code?

@JacobBlack, Well it is not like that. I am trying to be polite myself anyway.

transparency?

user19161

Yeah.

I told you, it's not a square. I just don't exist.

user19161

2:37 PM

Haha, OK OK.

@JacobBlack who are you talking to?

user19161

@Mitch I also don't exist.

@Mitch I think he is talking to Kit

@JacobBlack Yes, I know that but your non-existence is palpable.

user19161

@Mistu4u I think we are just talking rubbish.

2:39 PM

@Mistu4u That makes no sense.

One Jasper is already a surfeit.

@JacobBlack @Mitch okay. I miscalculated.

@Mistu4u We're just having fun.

@Mitch Yeah I got it. :)

Frankly, for a non-trivial portion of us) we're on a snow day! We don't care! Woo hoo!

2:41 PM

I'm leaving soon to go home too.

Matt Эллен

@Kit have you heard podcast 42? 33 minutes in BAH!

Uh wut?

There's a smartphone game for kids about raising babies, and the way you make the babies is by 'woo hoo!'

That's what they call it.

these days.

Matt Эллен

@Kit "EL&U has a really high close rate"

@Kit I see you are making the full use of the transparent background.

2:42 PM

@Kit Cuz? Snow day?

Matt Эллен

Blog - Stack Exchange: Podcast #42 – It’s The Exception That Proves The Rule

Alex Miller on February 05, 2013

Welcome to Stack Exchange Podcast #42 – it’s our usual gang back this week with Joel, Jay, David, and Producer Alex. There’s plenty of inside baseball, so put on your rally caps and make sure to stick it through to the end!

David Mamet, apparently. Jay was a drama major.

Michael forgot to pay the Google bill, so our hangouts are back down to 10 person limits (but it’s fixed now!)

We have one big thing to talk about that made a change and generated controversy. Joel correctly guesses what it is: we no longer display your accept rate (the percentage of questions you asked that you accepted an answer for). …

@tchrist Yes. Big blizzard Nemo!

@JacobBlack oh and black is a pigment so a color by some version of color

@Novice Not till we see ten years of tax returns and hookup logs.

@Kit Don’t know why you wet coasters always make so much of a few feet of snow.

We still have trees.

2:44 PM

@tchrist I'd just act like I understood the joke.

@tchrist Huh? Who cares? We get an administrative holiday.

@MattЭллен I thought the stats disproved that.

Matt Эллен

they do

is one of the stats proportion of closed questions on first page (what people see)?

@Kit It’ s the overhyped chicken-little-ness of the in-your-face news media that bothers me. It’s just weather.

2:47 PM

sure, but power -will- go out. which is not nothing.

Morning.

These things happen.

and there goes the power...

@Mitch So power goes in US too....People here will likely disbelieve this.

@MattЭллен Oh, that's frustrating. They've completely misunderstood and misrepresented everything.

2:54 PM

user image

@Kit What's that about?

A discussion about EL&U/ELL culture in the podcast, starting around 31 minutes.

List of Cataclysms to be suffered in the coming years, I guess

@MετάEd or @MattЭллен, it would be great if you set the record straight.

@Mistu4u Thus has it always been.

Matt Эллен

2:59 PM

@Kit yeah. it's not the best explanation.

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