English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

00:05

@JohnLawler: That analogy is unreasonable. The debate around evolution is not merely about terminology and definitions, but about whether or not something actually happened in the past. Using one of the various acceptable definitions of the word "tense" is fine, and the one you are on a crusade against happens to be the one that is most widely used. Linguists use many different definitions. Why do you care so much about the definition of a word? You're battling windmills. — Cerberus 10 secs ago

tchrist

Good.

Cerberus

I have voted for your comment.

tchrist

Figgered. :)

> Snowden Is Said to Claim U.S. Is Blocking Asylum Bids

Quoth the New York Times.

“Said to”?

Observe diverted airplane.

And I do not mean it was enjoying itself, either.

Cerberus

Yeah.

I suppose it cannot be proven.

tchrist

You would think that if they refueled at Spain, they could have kept going.

This makes no sense. They went backwards!

Cerberus

00:13

Yes. Perhaps Spain only allowed them to fly backwards.

But then they could have swerved off over sea at some point.

Mare liberum.

tchrist

Don’t you think it’s time that you guys got to vote in American presidential elections, given how he seems to be telling you what to do?

Cerberus

Hehe.

Well, the EC also works for corporate interests.

tchrist

By what right that America is allowed to cancel the flight plans of diplomatic planes over other countries, I shall never understand.

Cerberus

And there is probably lots of influence in the other direction too, from Europea corporate interests...

@tchrist They request it, of course, and the French government also spies on its own citizens, so they may not be much better.

tchrist

It’s like the passport-cancelling thing. How does that work? Once you have no passport, you become a non-person?

@Cerberus Don’t they know that that’s our job?

Cerberus

00:17

No, but you need a valid passport to get through customs.

@tchrist Everybody does it.

tchrist

So you have to ask your country for permission to travel?

Isn’t that in violation of some international rights thing?

Cerberus

We have stupid data retention laws and massive phone bugging too, have had it for a long time.

tchrist

So they just lie.

Cerberus

@tchrist It is rather that every receiving country demands that passengers on a plane have valid passports, and the country of departure has to guarantee that the passport is valid on departure.

@tchrist Who lie?

Yes, to some degree, although most of the stuff is known.

tchrist

Whoever says they aren’t bugging you because it’s illegal, but are.

Cerberus

00:19

Huh?

Who says what?

tchrist

Well, our guys, for one.

But didn’t you say you get bugged, too?

Cerberus

Our secret service say they are bugging us only on court orders, but there are serious doubts whether they don't at least occasionally violate those rules.

And ISPs have to retain data for 6 months or so.

But, in general, I think it isn't done on a scale nearly as massive as in your country or in England.

They probably don't collect all data by default.

tchrist

Yes, I think we’re the aces in the communications surveillance arena.

Cerberus

And I don't think ISPs will give them data without a court order.

And we don't have secret courts.

tchrist

How would you know?

O0oO0oOO0ooO

00:23

Guys, I was talking about this girl for a while with my Japanese friend

►

Cerberus

The existence of a secret court is not secret, merely its operations.

tchrist

Well, that’s one kind. :)

Cerberus

Your FISA courts were always known as such.

tchrist

Yeah, I know.

O0oO0oOO0ooO

and he believes she is amazingly hot, and I agree with him but do you think she is just average looking girl in western point of view?

tchrist

00:24

These gag orders are creepy.

Cerberus

I suppose we do have secret court sessions, but that's better than an entirely secret court, I would say.

tchrist

@O0oO0oOO0ooO You may want to try another channel.

O0oO0oOO0ooO

do you mean channel in terms of chat channel or youtube channel?

tchrist

Chat.

O0oO0oOO0ooO

oh

but I want to learn English =/

nvm

tchrist

00:25

Non sequitur.

Not Very Macho.

Cerberus

@tchrist Yes: they should only be applied when there is a specific need to keep certain specific details secret, and only for a limited time. The way your government is abusing secrecy in order to prevent any checks and balances on the system, and thereby any change or criticism, is really something special. I don't think we have that.

tchrist

Special, indeed.

> The CDC found that the number and rate of prescription painkiller overdose deaths among females increased about fivefold 1999 to 2010. Among men, such deaths rose about 3½ times.

Sigh.

Don’t take more than the bottle tells you, idiots.

Cerberus

Suicide?

tchrist

No.

Accidental.

Cerberus

It doesn't say that...

tchrist

00:28

“Overdose deaths” means you took too much.

> CDC researchers reviewed death certificates, which are sometimes incomplete. Specific drugs were not identified in every death. In others, a combination of drugs was involved, such as painkillers taken with tranquilizers. CDC officials think more than 70 percent of the overdose deaths were unintentional.

Hm.

So less than 30% were intentional then?

Cerberus

An overdose can be intentional.

tchrist

Apparently.

> One striking finding: The greatest increases in drug overdose deaths were in women ages 45 through 54, and 55 through 64. The rate for each of those groups more than tripled between 1999 and 2010. In 2010, overdose deaths in those two groups of middle-aged women added up to about 7,400 — or nearly half the female total, according to CDC statistics.

Cerberus

Odd.

tchrist

> It's an age group in which more women are dealing with chronic pain and seeking help for it, some experts suggested. Many of these women probably were introduced to painkillers through a doctor's prescriptions for real pain, such as persistent aches in the lower back or other parts of the body.

Heh: “real pain”

Cerberus

Is it bad to take painkillers with tranquilizers?

tchrist

00:30

I guess.

I think the benzos may also be central nervous depressants.

Cerberus

One should think many people needed both.

tchrist

But the bottles don’t say not to mix with opiates.

Yes, and are probably prescribed both.

I get the idea they take more than they are supposed to take.

Or mix with things that aren’t on the Rx list.

Cerberus

So it may rather be an overdose of both.

tchrist

It isn’t like barbiturates where mixing with booze was so often fatal.

Cerberus

> barbiturates are still used in general anesthesia, for epilepsy, and assisted suicide.

Very similar conditions.

tchrist

00:33

It’s like with Heath Ledger.

> The report concludes, in part, "Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine." It states definitively: "We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications."

That’s more than one opiate AND more than one benzo.

Cerberus

That's a lot.

And he/she probably took a lot of all of those too...

tchrist

Heath Ledger was a he.

Cerberus

Hey, does this advertisement appeal to your patriotic sense?

tchrist

The guy in Brokeback Mountain

Cerberus

Haven't seen it.

tchrist

00:35

@Cerberus No, I don’t care for it.

The advert.

> While the medications found in the toxicological analysis may be prescribed in the United States for insomnia, anxiety, pain, or common cold (doxylamine) symptoms, the vast majority of physicians in U.S. are extremely reluctant to prescribe multiple benzodiazepines (e.g., diazepam, alprazolam, and temazepam) to a single patient, let alone prescribe the same to a patient already taking a mix of OxyContin and Vicodin. A

Cerberus

It doesn't give you warm, tingly feelings?

tchrist

I’m not like that.

Cerberus

Do you think it would appeal to many people?

It's interesting how different countries deal with patriotism.

tchrist

Somebody certainly did.

Cerberus

We are totally allowed to gush over the monarchy (though never without some irony), but practically everything else is taboo.

Flags are also taboo, except on a few national holidays.

tchrist

00:38

Flags are taboo?

Cerberus

All but.

tchrist

Some people fly the flag all the time. Some people fly in on the Fourth.

O0oO0oOO0ooO

yay South Park Season 14 started

Cerberus

Buildings of Parliament.

No flags.

tchrist

That is so weird.

I'm no crusader; I'm not invading anybody's turf. You can say anything you want, and call stuff anything you want, and correct people for anything you want. No problemo. But I believe I have that privilege as well. That's all. — John Lawler 16 mins ago

Bah. I have to step out for a moment and clear my head of frustration dueling with miasma and ennui. And allergies.

Cerberus

00:42

The central court of Parliament, still no flags.

tchrist

That’s a church.

Canon court?

Cerberus

I don't think it ever was a church.

It's just Mediaeval.

@tchrist Arg!

tchrist

Note US and Colorado flags flying in front of gilded cupola.

That’s real gold, too.

Cerberus

Nice.

Still, the number of flags is modest.

tchrist

What other flags could we fly at the State Capitol building?

There is no Denver flag. :)

Cerberus

00:45

More American flags!

On every corner ten!

A national holiday, and we get a flag!

tchrist

Why would anyone fly the same flag more than once?

Cerberus

Don't people often do that?

This is the office of a far-right party in some parliamentary building.

They like flags.

And I believe that was some extra-patriotic flag with an orange lion on it.

It was quite a scandal.

The French like flags, see?

tchrist

Yes.

Cerberus

Notice three French flags against one European flag.

tchrist

Why are there three of the same flag in the same place?

Cerberus

00:52

Can never have too many flags?

tchrist

I don’t understand why you would ever have more than one of the same kind.

It’s weird.

Cerberus

tchrist

Arlington?

Dead soldiers?

I prefer trees.

Cerberus

tchrist

No permission to access.

Cerberus

00:56

Odd.

It's tens of American flags from a city hall.

@JohnLawler: I didn't mean to say you were burning the cities of future-tense-sayers, it was a metaphor. I'm also not forbidding you, just correcting, OK? — Cerberus 2 mins ago

tchrist

He’s just quibbling, not even condescending to answer the question asked, just bitching about something that doesn’t matter.

O0oO0oOO0ooO

01:14

I hate when a guy says "Oh I love Maths so much, they are so interesting!!" after learning some functional programming and calculus but he didn't study much when he was in highschool

Cerberus

@tchrist Yup.

simchona

@tchrist Anything I should look at?

Cerberus

Nah.

simchona

Carry on, then.

Cerberus

Only personal insults require intervention.

They will be flagged.

Mahnax

01:23

@Kit Happy birthday!

tchrist

01:45

@JohnLawler I’ve edited his question to replace your shibboleth with more appropriately professional terminology so that you can finally answer the actual substance of the question asked instead of quibbling about the precise terms used to phrase it. — tchrist 16 secs ago

Cerberus

Haha!

tchrist

When in doubt, use your thingy.

2

1

A: Can't search for a question about "that" and "which"

Search now does a much better job of this, which is no longer a stop word - take a peek: http://english.stackexchange.com/search?q=appropriate+use+of+that+and+which

I still find more with Google.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

02:07

Ugh. I hate tick for check mark.

A tick is a bug you have to dig out of your skin, or what a clock does half the time.

tchrist

Almax’s $5,130 mannequins watch shoppers, using demographic-profiling software to collect data on customers for merchants.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@tchrist they were creepy enough to begin with. O_O

tchrist

Beware the clowns.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Send in the clowns.

Cerberus

Scary.

tchrist

02:16

What’s clown in Latin? I keep coming up with gravedigger.

If that’s correct, it’s rather dark humor.

> Another Bolivian official said later that Italy had also refused permission.

Cerberus

Annoying.

Clown is a rather specific word.

I'd need a definition.

tchrist

Maybe the Romans didn’t have clowns?

Cerberus

If you mean jester, then of course they had them.

insanus
morio
morus
scurra
stultus

tchrist

Lots of words for the court fool.

Although I don’t know that I would think of a stultus that way.

Cerberus

Uhuh.

tchrist

02:25

I can see why it applies though.

Cerberus

My dictionary says "nar", which means jester very specifically.

tchrist

Nar is new to me.

Cerberus

It's Dutch.

tchrist

Well, that would be why.

Semper ineptiens

Mahnax

02:40

@tchrist There are ten flags all bearing the name of the same grocery store in front of said grocery store here.

@O0oO0oOO0ooO They still make that junk?

tchrist

That and 17 million other reasons.

Mahnax

Well, yes.

tchrist

Hey, you get to quench flags now!

Mahnax

Quench flags?

tchrist

It says 10.1k by your name, so you will see “offensive” flags in chat now.

Mahnax

02:44

Oh, I've had 10k for ages. I'm retired.

tchrist

What was wrong with the old ones?

Mahnax

Old what?

tchrist

Tires.

Mahnax

Pfffff.

tchrist

Pneu.

Mahnax

02:45

Oh my, I seem to have cracked up.

tchrist

This is not a disease one ever recovers from you know.

Once you’re funny, you’re stuck that way.

Mahnax

I suppose I'll stay humorless, then.

tchrist

Sanguine.

Mahnax

Oh no! It's too late! My eyes! They've been infected with… vitreous humour! The worst kind!

tchrist

Through a Glass, Darkly.

Throw water on it, quick.

Mahnax

02:48

Gah. I can't stop waking up early here.

The sun sets for all of two hours, if even that.

I woke up just before 4:00 today.

Although I did go to bed at seven last night. Wasn't feeling well.

tchrist

Sounds like me.

Well, the 4.

I really love the sun.

Love hate, I guess.

I am so diurnal there are people I could share a bedroom with and never see.

I’ve been up in Alaska in June. Very bright.

Mahnax

I'm further north than Anchorage right now, for comparison.

tchrist

Gosh.

Anchorage is about as far north as I’ve been.

Mahnax

I think they're at about 61˚ latitude, and I'm at 64˚.

tchrist

It’s kinda funny that you have America as both your southern and your northern neighbor.

Mahnax

02:53

Heh, yeah.

Although parts of Canada may be a teensy bit further north.

I'd have to look.

tchrist

That is really exciting. There’ll be time enough for darkness when you’re dead. Enjoy the sun in the days of your youth, before the cold bitter days at life’s end.

I tend to get naturally high this close to the solstice. I would be just whacked up there.

Seasonal affective bounciness.

Mahnax

Haha.

jasonjifly

Any expert know what's difference between "relational" and "related"? thanks very much

Mahnax

I'd be happier here, but certain members of my family are making this trip difficult for me.

tchrist

Oh I am sorry to hear that.

Mahnax

02:57

S'okay. I tend to avoid my dad at home because my views and personality kind of clash with his, but here that's difficult. We get along best when we haven't seen each other for awhile.

tchrist

I know exactly what you mean.

"Intimacy breeds contempt" versus "Absence makes the heart grow fonder".

Mahnax

Exactly.

tchrist

Lock even the fondest friends together in an 8'-square room for a long enough while, and pretty soon they’ll be clawing each other’s eyes out.

Mahnax

And eventually, you'll all get closer than you ever thought possible.

The last two lines are the story of my high school experience thus far.

Since we've all been in the same class together for ages.

Haha, "high school experience".

Silly silly.

tchrist

Same circle of friends going through the tumultuous years together.

Knowing more about each other than you’ll ever likely know about that many people again.

It continues through college, then peters out.

Mahnax

03:04

Yeah. And sometimes I wonder whether we'll even remember each other's names in fifteen years.

I'd like to hope so.

tchrist

You’ll remember the names of the ones you’ve slept with. Actually.

And quite a few more, but you may not have talked to them for those 15 years.

Then something will happen and you will realize you haven’t even thought of them for 10 years.

Mahnax

Hmm.

Time will tell.

tchrist

I still keep in contact with a few high school friends. Very few, but some.

Of course, this is from “before” the Internet, so to speak.

So you only keep in contact if there is a lot of shared context.

Mahnax

Right.

tchrist

Same set of people I also worked and lived with in college, and a bit afterwards.

One still works at our first job out of school.

Mahnax

03:09

Yeah, I am trying to figure out living arrangements for university, actually.

tchrist

Depending where you go, you might have to live in assigned dorms at first as a freshman.

Some schools do that.

Mahnax

I'm thinking of actually avoiding dorms and living off campus.

tchrist

Oh, they allow that? Some places won’t if you’re a freshman.

Mahnax

Some places won't let students live at home, for example?

tchrist

That one I am unsure of.

I know that I had no choice about staying in a dorm my first year, nor did my mom or siblings.

Wait, that is not true.

My sister I think never lived in a dorm. Not sure.

Of course when Mom was there it was segregated.

Now they mix genders even on the same floor sometimes.

Mahnax

03:14

I want my own food preparation facilities. That's the number one priority for me, I suppose.

tchrist

Yes, when you lived in the dorms you had to buy the awful meal plan.

Oh wait, the sun is up for you, isn’t it?

Mahnax

Yeah, why?

tchrist

Mine is just fading.

I was thinking you were up really late, but it’s the other way around.

Mahnax

I'm looking at costs for dorms, and unless I want to live in a shared space with four people, it's cheaper to live in an apartment with one other person.

tchrist

Hm.

Most students I’ve known always live with a lot of people. I only lived with just one other person for one year, and with two other people the other years.

But here there are houses with five students or more in them.

I knew a lot of four-person pads.

Mahnax

03:20

I'm kind of demanding in that I do not want to live with a) people I don't know or b) people I dislike.

(and I want a kitchen).

tchrist

The only time I lived with someone I didn’t know, which I dreaded extremely, was as a freshman in the dorms.

They paired me with another small-town high-school valedictorian. It worked out ok.

Other than that, I only lived with friends.

Mahnax

Gosh, they want a minimum of $3k/8mo. for the meal plan. Heck no.

tchrist

This can become somewhat trying, though. Be careful on the craziness of whom you live with.

That sounds about normal.

Mahnax

@tchrist You were a valedictorian as well, then?

tchrist

Sure.

I’m an over-achiever.

Mahnax

03:23

That's almost four hundred bucks a month for food. I can live off of half of that.

Easily.

tchrist

That’s a hundred bucks a week.

Which is only a lot if you’re preparing it yourself. From scratch.

Not if you’re paying somebody else to make it for you.

I can go through that much in food a week. Fresh fruit. Catfood. :)

Mahnax

Ah yes, how's your kitty doing?

tchrist

Just fine, thanks.

Mahnax

Good to hear. He's such a lovely creature.

tchrist

And I have learned that the neighborhood black fox is a black vixen, now with two black kits.

She runs through my garden. My kitty crouches down very low when that happens, but no conniptions yet.

Mahnax

03:25

Aww.

tchrist

There’s a bear prowling the neighborhood again, going into people's garages for birdseed and garbage.

Mahnax

Uh-oh.

tchrist

Yeah. There were animal-control officers prowling around yesterday with flashing blue emergency lights and guns.

I learned an interesting thing.

There’s a two-strikes-and-you’re-out rule with transporting bears.

With moose, there can be repeat offenders. :)

But it is very traumatic for the animal. One actually died of fright during transport.

Mahnax

We had a moose in the sandbox once.

@tchrist Oh no. Poor thing.

tchrist

A real moose, or a toy moose?

Mahnax

03:28

A real moose! It moseyed on over and nibbled at a tree, from the sandbox.

tchrist

Hah.

People here aren’t always aware that moose are dangerous.

A former mayor of a kinda-nearby town was actually killed by one a few years back.

Mahnax

We stayed inside. Luckily, in all our years on that acreage, nothing bad ever happened in terms of dangerous wildlife and the like.

@tchrist Wow.

Except for one time a man chased his wife through our backyard with his shotgun.

tchrist

dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_23566258/…

Mahnax

He never hit her, but she was scared nearly to death and the police had to shoot him.

Not dead, mind you.

tchrist

@Mahnax My goodness. I thought you lived in an exurb or something.

Mahnax

03:31

@tchrist We do now. That was before.

tchrist

Oh.

Mahnax

Yeah. I would rather live in a real city.

tchrist

That doesn’t seem to keep the moose and elk away around here.

But not so much in the way of bears and lions.

Lotsa coyotes everywhere though.

Mahnax

Oh, breakfast time. I'll talk to you later!

tchrist

Bye!

Good night and good morning.

MετάEd

03:50

@tchrist Moose are awesome.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yo mamma so fat, her hip size an RSA prime.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yo mamma so ignorant, when she say she be tired, she think she using the subjunctive.

MετάEd

04:21

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yo mamma so old, she written in ALGOL.

Yo mamma so skanky she douche with Norton Antivirus.

Cerberus

04:47

> De onvoorziene landing die op de luchthaven van Wenen werd gemaakt werd echter ingezet vanwege een probleem met de brandstofmeter, blijkt uit het radioverkeer.

They landed in Vienna because of a problem with the fuel gauge.

Tural Teyyuboglu Aliyev

Hey there

Guys please help

"It's a great honor for me to be here today and to share the stage with such great speakers. " I used 2 times great word in this sentence. help me to find synonym to this word

@Cerberus can u help?

Cerberus

@TuralTeyyubogluAliyev Outstanding? Fascinating?

Brilliant?

Extraordinary?

Tural Teyyuboglu Aliyev

@Cerberus I'm not native speaker where you'd replace one of this synonyms? where they look best?

Cerberus

?

You were looking to replace "great" before "speakers", weren't you?

Tural Teyyuboglu Aliyev

"It's a great honor for me to be here today and to share the stage with such outstanding speakers. "

?

Cerberus

04:56

That would work for me.

Tural Teyyuboglu Aliyev

thx

Noah

Hello

Every one.

O0oO0oOO0ooO

Do westerners think coffee in cans (or can-coffees) gross?

Noah

Have never tried coffee in cans.

And your defination of westerners seems a bit too broad.

MετάEd

05:16

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yo mamma so computer ignorant she think C++ her cup size.

Noah

@Cerberus know anything about Ubuntu?

Cerberus

@O0oO0oOO0ooO I have never heard of such a thing, but I assume they would hate it, yes.

@Noah Alas, no.

O0oO0oOO0ooO

I realised that I have never seen one of them while I was in Australia. Do you think can-coffees are any worse than Starbucks coffee? In terms of quality, I think they are equal XD....

Cerberus

As I said, I have never seen one.

And I don't drink coffee.

O0oO0oOO0ooO

oh ok

Cerberus

05:24

I do know that Starbucks is generally not considered high quality here.

O0oO0oOO0ooO

I drink coffee a lot. I am super coffee drinker

Cerberus

Great.

I like the smell.

O0oO0oOO0ooO

Starbucks started crap coffee business and it has inspired others to make their own crap coffee businesses =/.. I hate u starbucks...!

Cerberus

Haha.

Noah

No starbucks is great.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…