English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@tchrist I don't know...lots of strong claims made in that article.

I think we know that Egypt desertified during the 4th-6th centuries BC. I know it is commonly attributed to human activity, but I do not know that this has been proven.

12:30 AM

Centuries?

Human activity?

What I find hard to believe is that Egypt became what it was because people were forced to leave the desert.

And that the major events in Egyptian history can be definitively explained by just looking at water levels.

By history I mean from the 4th millennium onwards.

12:59 AM

Wow.

I am watching the revelation of the new Samsung Galaxy S 4, and it is the silliest, most ridiculous thing I have ever seen.

What is it?

@Cerberus Sorry, millennia.

I just heard the weirdest thing.

70% of American drivers had chatted on their cellphones over the last month, and only 20% of Brits. Germans and Frenchmen got 40%.

Wasn't me.

Chatted?

Talked.

OK. Then I don't believe it.

Used the phone as though it were a phone.

1:08 AM

Or do they mean while driving?

While behind the wheel.

Yes.

Ah.

Well, laws may be different.

That’s the thing.

We have laws, too, at least somewhat.

Doesn’t seem to change anything.

But they may be different.

You aren’t supposed to send text messages or email while driving.

1:09 AM

Either way, one would need to study the methods of this research paper or whatever it was.

There’s a law.

Read what I said.

Yes, this was an abbreviated story.

The laws may be different.

Is it illegal in Britain?

1:09 AM

Probably.

In some States, you must have a hands-free set.

Here is the story that I just heard.

That looks like a reasonable survey, not just hearsay.

The CDC does good work. This isn’t some hack political organization or commercial enterprise trying to push their agenda.

You don’t normally drive a car, do you?

Nope.

Public transport is usually more reliable and faster...

What with traffic and all.

Yes, I agree.

It doesn’t work that way very much here, but some people in urban centers get away with it.

Your cities have straight, broad roads.

Makes it easier to text. :)

1:23 AM

Much less densely built.

It depends on the city, but you are for the most part correct.

Easier, but more expensive...

The oldest ones are messier.

I think all your cities have broader and straighter roads than ours!

But out here in the West, they’ve had some foresight to build on a grid. Sometimes.

Most of our cities were never goatpaths.

I wonder what you would think of Southern California, with all its sprawl.

You would have to be there; I’m not asking for an off-the-cuff opinion.

1:25 AM

It will no doubt be less dense.

Except where you have skyscrapers.

But then there's still plenty of space for wide roads.

Whereas tall buildings are mostly not allowed here.

Boston has some of the rats’ nest effect.

chatkillah

@tchrist how long did it take?

Since they started the new queues.

chatkillah

@tchrist :<

heh

@Kris, (from one Kris to another), what's the problem with courteousness? :-) If you're old enough and from the US, you might remember the song, "Try a Little Tenderness" - particularly with our new community members! — Kristina Lopez 7 hours ago

A: CSS "color" vs. "font-color"

The same way Boston came up with its street plan. They followed the cow paths already there, and built houses where the streets weren't, and after a while it was too much trouble to change.

1:36 AM

@chatkillah Well, at least she didn’t sing “Put a Little Love in Your Heart!”.

@Robusto I said most.

chatkillah

and the world

will be a better place

@tchrist You didn't say that about Boston.

I said most of our cities weren’t built atop goatpaths.

Meaning the city plan.

I also said that Boston was different.

Didn’t I?

You seem to be looking for an argument when I was agreeing with you.

Ah, I said rat’s net.

Ok.

1:40 AM

Nevertheless, I will get off your lawn.

Aw.

I've been playing my piano all evening. It is wonderful. Now I'm tired.

Good and good.

Oh, right, it is late there.

I’ve been on borrowed time for an hour, I swear.

Frickin' Eastern Daylight Time fucks with my head.

I had this vision of a string of bats like so many Christmas lights along the underside of my balcony.

The missing sun fucks with my head.

Every time it goes down, the melatonin kicks in and I get all sleepy.

And vice versa. When it comes up, I perk up.

Even after an all-nighter.

1:44 AM

Do you know that the Eastern Time Zone is the widest time zone in the continental USA? It extends from the eastern "nose" of Maine to the western tip of the UP of Michigan.

Maine is in the wrong timezone.

It should be in Atlantic Time.

And the UP is just nuts.

Nobody cares enough to change it.

That’s west of Geneva.

Isn’t part of the Florida panhandle in Central Time?

That's 1,113.63 miles, according to Google Maps. 1,792.18 kilometers, for you European metric queens.

Oh, you can’t do it that way, can you? Don’t you need to run the Great Circle algorithm?

1:46 AM

It's built in.

Oh, so that isn’t the roadmap, then? Ok then.

When I connect the dots, it shows a faint arc, not a straight line.

That’s the same distance as Boulder to Geneva, or Boulder to Burning Man.

It is a fuck of a long annoying drive.

Worse to Wisconsin, since they don’t let you drive very fast on the roads to the east.

All I can say is, I hate being at the eastern end of a time zone. I've lived in one all my life. First Chicago, now Massachusetts.

Because of the light?

1:49 AM

Yes.

Is your solar noon far off from civil time then?

Never checked. But probably, yeah.

Boston: 6:57 AM EDT – 6:49 PM EDT

You can drag the earth up and down and the line bows different ways depending on whether your perspective is north or south of it. It's a straight line if you're directly overhead.

Sault St Marie, MI: 7:51 AM EDT – 7:42 PM EDT

That’s quite a bit of difference.

At SSM isn’t even at the westernmost edge.

1:52 AM

Make that 1,826.92 kilometers, 1,135.19 miles. I adjusted it based on a more zoomed-in view.

I'm still getting up in the dark. But in summer it gets light at like 4:30 a.m.

Houghton, UP: 8:08 AM EDT – 7:58 PM EDT

About 15 minutes later.

Yeah. Then you have Indiana and Arizona, who don't do DST.

Er.

It’s . . . complicated.

The Navajo Nation does.

Except Indianapolis does do DST, so ...

Except for the Hopi Nation within the Navajo Nation, which does not.

It’s a doughnut-shaped timezone.

1:55 AM

Can't we all just ... get along?

AZ is on MST, always, which is currently like PDT. The Navajo Nation within AZ is now on MDT. But the Hopi Nation inside it is back to MST.

Well, we could get along if they stopped fucking with the clocks.

The Hopi consider themselves the originals, and the Navajo invaders.

Whoever gave them clocks should be sued.

Sail on, silver girl.

And I'm off to bed. Laters.

night

me too

I live in Eastern Time, I swear.

Maybe Atlantic.

2:25 AM

1 hour later…

3:51 AM

@tchrist Nice.

What about it?

Imperator totius Hispaniae

I can actually make out what letters are what. Usually I can’t.

I found it here, which I find to be a really rather surprisingly long web page for its topic:

Imperator totius Hispaniae is a Latin title meaning "Emperor of all Spain". In Spain in the Middle Ages, the title "emperor" (from Latin imperator) was used under a variety of circumstances from the ninth century onwards, but its usage peaked, as a formal and practical title, between 1086 and 1157. It was primarily used by the Kings of León and Castile, but it also found currency in the Kingdom of Navarre and was employed by the Counts of Castile and at least one Duke of Galicia. It signalled at various points the king's equality with the Byzantine Emperor and Holy Roman Emperor, his ru...

But I’m going back to bed. Just got up for a snacky.

Funny, Spanish kings calling themselves emperors...

Good night.

Can you read all the letters?

I don’t know. I didn’t try them all.

There are clearly some scribal abbreviations there.