English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

user87637

12:06 AM

Oh, he is gone, good. I am putting anti on my ignore list now.

Cerberus

I'm sure it's the same user.

user87637

Next thing you know, he will raise a post on meta saying we are anti-gay...

Cerberus

Heh.

That could be fun.

user87637

At first, I liked him, but now I know he is just a troll, big time.

Cerberus

Trolls can be funny.

tchrist

12:41 AM

As recounted by the worthy men of faith (but God knows more), in the
earliest days there was a king of the isles of Babylon who gathered
together his architects and mages and commanded them to build a
labyrinth so perplexing and subtle that the most prudent men would not
risk entering, and those who did enter would be lost. That work was a
scandal, for confusion and wonder are attributes peculiar to God, not to
men. Over time there came to his court a king of the Arabs, and the king
of Babylon (to make a fool of the simplicity of his guest) forced the

Cerberus

Is this an arbitrary Bible quotation?

tchrist

Heh.

Hardly.

It’s Borges.

In traduction.

Cerberus

Oh.

tchrist

Cuentan los hombres dignos de fe (pero Alá sabe más) que en los primeros
días hubo un rey de las islas de Babilonia que congregó a sus
arquitectos y magos y les mandó construir un laberinto tan perplejo y
sutil que los varones más prudentes no se aventuraban a entrar, y los
que entraban se perdían. Esa obra era un escándalo, porque la confusión
y la maravilla son operaciones propias de Dios y no de los hombres. Con
el andar del tiempo vino a su corte un rey de los árabes, y el rey de
Babilonia (para hacer burla de la simplicidad de su huésped) lo hizo

Cerberus

Alá, really?

tchrist

12:54 AM

Sí.

That’s what he wrote.

Cerberus

Per che?

tchrist

I translated it as God. Was that wrong?

Cuzza. :)

Cerberus

I don't believe that is a word!

tchrist

Looks Eyetalian!

Cerberus

Have you played the Great Language Game yet?

tchrist

12:55 AM

Ignoro.

Nebber heard of it.

Cerberus

@tchrist It sounds like Mouthalian.

See the star wall.

You might like it.

tchrist

Praps.

Cerberus

You have to guess which language you're hearing.

tchrist

Eek.

Cerberus

You hear a woman talking, and you have to choose between Swahili, Portuguese, and Maori...

It is very hard, especially if you're unlucky. But fun.

I once had to choose between Bosnian and Croatian. That was evil. Because they're different accents of the same language, basically.

And beware, each language has 5 different samples or so.

tchrist

12:59 AM

Cute.

I’m sure a lot of people get Portuguese wrong.

Cerberus

Portuguese is by far the hardest of the Romance languages, I would say.

But I got it right every time.

I consistently fail at Turkish, though.

> Final score: 450

Even though I have been to Turkey and can speak a few words.

MετάEd

@Cerberus I, T.

@Cerberus Really? Nasılsınız?

Cerberus

@MετάEd Ah.

@MετάEd A few means three.

I know cami, ne, olur, gitme...

But I know very well how it sounds, I'm very well acquainted with its phonetics as a listener.

> Final score: 450

Theta30

1:57 AM

I got once 900 and once 450

it becomes harder as you play, more choices

the problem is with languages such as Burmese, Swahili, Lao

exotic ones

I imagined Tonga should have more t,o,n,g and a's

Cerberus

Wow, 900?

You must have looked things up?

Still impressive.

@Theta30 Haha.

Theta30

@Cerberus no

Cerberus

Oh! Then I applaud you!

My top score is 700.

Yes, the exotic languages are the hardest; but the main thing that determines everything is whether or not you have two exotic languages from the same subcontinent to choose between.

That is impossible.

Mitch

2:29 AM

I just got hindi and urdu. That's almost as bad serbian and croatian or czech and slovak

or american and canadian

or french and french

Cerberus

@Mitch Waaaah!

@Mitch Yes.

Mitch

hm... Tongan?

Cerberus

I got Polish, Slovak, and Czech.

Mitch

wow.

Cerberus

@Mitch If it sounds weird and like nothing else, it's Pacific.

Mitch

2:32 AM

I always thought modern greek was like that.

but also, portuguese doesn't sound like anything at all until they say like one word that's obviously romance.

Cerberus

Heh.

Mitch

I don't think you get more points for doing it faster. So you can listen for a while to get a feel for it. Sort of learn the accent.

Cerberus

Yes, Portuguese and Greek both sounds very different from related languages.

@Mitch Yes.

As for Portuguese, you just have to know their typical sounds. Very nasal.

Mitch

Except Greek really isn't related to anything.

Cerberus

Well, to Ancient Greek.

Mitch

2:35 AM

even though it's not classed as a language isolate like Basque, it is sort of an outlier (like albanian)

@Cerberus ok...anything nowadays.

Cerberus

Sure, it is its own branch.

Mitch

did greece have a language risorgimiento like italy and germany?

like their dialects in the 1700's were barely mutually inteligible until they had some school/language reform and they all started using Athenic greek?

Cerberus

Ansolutely, in the 20th century.

Mitch

Modern Greek

Modern Greek ( or "Neo-Hellenic", historically and colloquially also known as "Romaic" or "Roman", and "Greek") refers to the varieties and dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the "modern" period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic modern features of the language had been present centuries earlier, from the fourth to the fifteenth century AD. During most of the period, the language existed in a situation of di...

Cerberus

Katharevousa

Katharevousa (, , lit. "puristic [language]"), is a conservative form of the Modern Greek language conceived in the early 19th century as a compromise between Ancient Greek and Dimotiki of the time. Originally, it was widely used both for literary and official purposes, though seldom in daily language. In the 20th century, it was increasingly adopted just for official and formal purposes, until Dimotiki became the official language of Greece in 1976 and Andreas Papandreou abolished the polytonic system of writing in 1981. Katharevousa was conceived by the intellectual and revolutionary l...

Mitch

2:39 AM

doesn't mention a school reform though.

@Cerberus Oh.

excellent.

Hmm-hmm.

OK. gotta go. later!

Ok bai!

300

Yay!

2:49 AM

:D

And with that, bed.

Night!

Night!

What triceps?

The ones he sticks the needles in.

Cerberus

Oh, those thin flubby little reeds.

I can barely see them.

Hey, how come you have only 234 reps on Math?

You have garnered many more up-votes!

cyberskull

2:57 AM

I don't have time for that

in fact, I believe it is a form of academic dishonesty

Cerberus

For what?

You have 30+ up-votes on your answers, so you should have 300+ rep. And yet you have only 234.

That surprises me, I did not think it was possible.

If you mean writing with the sole purpose of getting votes, yes, that is hardly "pure".

cyberskull

I used up a lot of points on "bounties."

I gave away 400 points once

wanna see it?

Cerberus

Ahhh that explains it.

I hadn't though of that.

cyberskull

32

Q: "Negative" versus "Minus"

As a math educator, do you think it is appropriate to insist that students say "negative $0.8$" and not "minus $0.8$" to denote $-0.8$? The so called "textbook answer" regarding this question reads: A number and its opposite are called additive inverses of each other because their sum is zero,...

Cerberus

Ah, nice.

cyberskull

3:06 AM

thanks

Cerberus

You truly gave yourself to your audience.

cyberskull

Yep...most of them laughed.

But when I put the 400 point bounty on it they immediately stopped.

Cerberus

Haha.

What's the max bounty?

cyberskull

That's it.

Cerberus

400? Okay.

cyberskull

3:10 AM

Yes.

I think.

Cerberus

I can go up to 500.

cyberskull

I think it depends on your points.

Total reputation.

Cerberus

Yeah.

cyberskull

400 was the max allowable for me.

MετάEd

2

Q: Is it acceptable to use "to be" to describe possession?

I recently was explaining a couple of Marathi phrases to my friend, and I realized that the language doesn't have the word "to have". We have multiple different ways of expressing posession, but I found a particular one rather interesting: When I want to say "I have a pen", I instead say "My pen ...

verbs object to-be

Quite an interesting discussion of my pen is.

MετάEd

4:30 AM

0

A: Report sites that use Stack Exchange content without following attribution rules here

languageusage.com is scraping “English Language & Usage” without following attribution rules. For example, http://www.languageusage.com/q/answers-neutral-term-for-a-person-in-the-same-organization-50864.html is a scrape of http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/50864/neutral-term-f...

Hugo

5:52 AM

0

A: Report sites that use Stack Exchange content without following attribution rules here

3mr.me is scraping at least Stack Overflow and English Language & Usage without following attribution rules. For example, http://3mr.me/what-is-the-origin-of-the-slang-kicks-meaning-sneakers/ http://3mr.me/how-to-copy-the-current-file-full-name-to-global-clipboard-in-vim/ are scrapes of: h...

snap!

Bradd Szonye

6:27 AM

5

Q: How to understand the word cascade in CSS?

Why it is called cascade, instead of inheritable, or derivable, or chained, or something else? Maybe I have misunderstood the word? And, when should I use the word cascade in my own software architectures?

meaning

This years-old question appears to be attracting low-quality new answers.

tchrist

10:21 AM

Looks like Boulder is going down under its first 100-year flood since 1894. Massive flooding and evacuations everywhere, streets impassable, some homes destroyed, at least one death. And the rain just won't quit. The road up to my place is closed, but I got home before they closed it. I'm on a hill so probably no danger. Just trapped.

Story here

A dam has failed.

Boulder Creek normally has a flow of around 200 gallons per second. Right now it is clocking in at 22,000 gallons per second, so like 2 orders of magnitude greater.

Great, now they’re evacuating the evacuation shelters.

Hm, wonder if it’s already too late to fill a bathtub with potable water. Looks like the sewers are in trouble.

tchrist

10:39 AM

Some photos and videos at #BoulderFlood on twitter.

Matt Эллен

10:53 AM

At least you're still online!

have you got food and such?

tchrist

Food yes.

Water, no.

Don’t know if the water supply is compromised.

And one internet service is dead.

I actually pay for two. Don’t ask.

Lights are dodgy.

Basement bedroom soaked but not flooded.

Matt Эллен

hmmm

tchrist

This is not going to be a day to commute.

Matt Эллен

quite :D

tchrist

Given that I don’t have an inflatable raft.

Matt Эллен

10:56 AM

Seems like that might be quite some ride if you did

tchrist

Well, if I got close to one of the big streams, now rushing rivers.

I think that’s why my street is closed, it’s a perennial stream leading down from the mountains, normally too minor to notice.

University students are out tubing in the flood, the nutters.

Matt Эллен

That's students for you :D

user87637

Send the nutters to me, lol.

cyberskull

Is there an evacuation going on?

tchrist

Yes.

cyberskull

10:59 AM

Has the national guard/army been called in yet?

tchrist

Creek crested at +7.01 feet this morning.

No.

user87637

@cyberskull Those muscles are too large to look nice.

tchrist

That’s a record height.

user87637

The floods here are too small to kill anyone.

cyberskull

@tchrist I would get the hell out pal.

tchrist

11:01 AM

All city services and facilities closed, including schools and libraries. Travel very severely discouraged.

@cyberskull Can’t. Boxed in.

Roads are closed.

cyberskull

swim :D

just kidding

tchrist

No one has ever swum to safety in a flood, only climbed.

cyberskull

do you know how to swim?

tchrist

@cyberskull You aren’t sitting at the first halfway level ground east of the Continental Divide fifteen miles west of you and nearly two miles higher. It all runs downhill.

user87637

I can swim a little, not too good.

tchrist

11:02 AM

@cyberskull Sure, but not far.

cyberskull

@tchrist can you get a life jacket?

tchrist

Don’t need one. Live on a hill.

The street that’s closed leading here due to flooding is a couple hundred feet beneath me.

It won’t rise that high.

user87637

This sounds like a scene in Indiana Jones.

user87637

I am surprised that even with ELL, the number of basic questions here is still very high.

Matt Эллен

well, they come here first and need diverting to ELL

tchrist

11:05 AM

The sheriff has asked all county residents to stay at home today unless under evacuation.

Matt Эллен

Can you ask anyone about how potable your tap water is?

user87637

@MattЭллен I have not seen that word for a few years I think.

Matt Эллен

41 mins ago, by tchrist

Hm, wonder if it’s already too late to fill a bathtub with potable water. Looks like the sewers are in trouble.

you're missing out!

user87637

The tap water here is certainly potable.

tchrist

My phone is filled with those red buzzing emergency notices you get when in the middle of an imminent disaster zone. I think I got 6 overnight.

user87637

11:08 AM

Oh dear, is your life in danger @tchrist?

tchrist

@JasperLoy Not unless I try to go somewhere.

I’m trying to figure out how to check on the water.

user87637

Anyway, this chat might turn out to be helpful in an emergency!

cyberskull

@tchrist Just try to stay calm, are you alone?

tchrist

There’s a Boulder County Office of Emergency Management site.

No, not alone.

Flood warning now extended until 10am. "Warning"? Like they think it only might still happen. Sorry NWS, you’re behind the times.

Aw shit, the scanner just said there’s now a wall of water 20’ high barrelling down Left-Hand Canyon.

This is not going to be good.

Both our hospitals are in the flood plain, too.

cyberskull

►

tchrist

11:14 AM

The firefighter who called in the 20' wall of water coming down the canyon called it from the top of a tree where he climbed to to survive it.

I hope they get to him in time.

This feed is kinda spammy but real-time. Somewhere I have the sheriff scanner link. Guess I’d best turn it on.

Apparently 4-7" fell overnight, and more is still coming. The storm is stationary, dumping up to an inch an hour or more.

We normally get 18" a year, total.

Some areas in the county northeast of me got 6" in just 2 hours.

Mandatory “shelter in place” order for neighborhood ½ mile to my west.

And they have no gas or electricity there. I guess I should be prepared to lose mine.

If so, seeya.

The old curse: May you live in interesting times.

Matt Эллен

heh

tchrist

11:33 AM

> On Wednesday night, a woman broke her ankle while playing “slip and slide” on Farrand Field.

Duh.

Matt Эллен

ow

tchrist

We’ve got four canyons overflowing, one with a wall of water. So far it looks like the Barker Reservoir dam is holding. If that goes, I expect hundreds of deaths, or worse. There will likely be some from the Left Hand breach that is crashing through right now.

cyberskull

WOW this is getting serious.

☔🌊☔🌊☔🌊

all i see is 3 boxes

11:37 AM

Ladies and gentlemen, step right up and place your bets! It’s Umbrella vs The Flood. Can you predict the winner?

cyberskull

@MattЭллен thanks

Matt Эллен

np

user87637

@MattЭллен I see something different from you, I have even less fonts!

cyberskull

@tchrist What are the odds?

Matt Эллен

11:39 AM

carayzee

tchrist

Après moi, le déluge!

Matt Эллен

►

cyberskull

“After me, the deluge"

tchrist

Matt Эллен

!!

cyberskull

11:43 AM

Here is some music to help you enjoy the moment ;-) @tchrist

tchrist

heh

Clean feed

Don’t listen to the 2-foot wave stories: sheriff said 20 feet. Somebody dropped a 0.

Death #2 just came in.

Boulder County Sheriff & Fire Dept live scanner feed

cyberskull

:O when did the rain start?

tchrist

@cyberskull Monday night.

Long ago now.

cyberskull

what is the weather forcast?

tchrist

Heavy rain.

cyberskull

11:50 AM

for how long?

tchrist

Checking now

All day today, then possible for three days after today.

cyberskull

All you can do is watch what you can not change...

tchrist

> Floating shelter now taking animals two-by-two in Boulder.

:)

cyberskull

How biblical.

Matt Эллен

:D

tchrist

11:54 AM

Local storm report

Well, it’s a disaster but not yet a catastrophe for most folks.

It still may become that though.

cyberskull

Keep a close eye on the weather reports pal.

tchrist

Crap, looks like another firefighter’s just gone missing.

The sheriff scanner is scary.

I have one strandee at my house, locked in from closed roads after stopping by last night.

My kitty woke me up at 3:15am jumping in bed soaking wet. He must have tried to go outside.

Well, must have succeeded.

I couldn’t get back to sleep because of the horrible pounding on the roof.

> Earlier centers at the YMCA at 28th and Mapleton and the North Boulder Rec Center had to abandoned because of rising water.

If the rain lets up, I may hoof it to the overlook and see what I can see. Don’t worry, it’s above me.

And this came after a week of temperatures still up in the 90s.

cyberskull

When the rain lets up.

Hope for the best.

tchrist

Well, I mean at daybreak.

> The firefighter in the tree is yelling over scanner: "I'm in a tree and the tree is washing away." OEM talking about whether a rapid water rescue team is needed for firefighter stuck in tree.

It will probably be too late.

Boulder Police saying they don’t know that the worst has already come, because it’s still coming down.

cyberskull

12:14 PM

@tchrist i love a rainy night

tchrist

Do you now?

I don’t know what to do about my basement. Will need fans. And I know my insurance doesn’t cover flood.

It’s dark to my immediate west, power cut.

Sun will be up soon.

I hope.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

12:30 PM

Yikes!

cyberskull

@tchrist Is Denver in trouble too?

cyberskull

1:02 PM

I mean the people in Denver, especially those that play on the Broncos };-)

Jez

1:39 PM

allow me to vent about knights in chess

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

that's better

cyberskull

@Jez why do the knights in chess need venting?

Jez

i can defend well against all pieces except knights

knights are a knightmare

i'm always getting pronged

lose your king or lose your bishop? lose your rook or lose your pawn?

fucking things

in the endgame they are a menace

cyberskull

@Jez have you seen the chess.SE?

Jez

yeah

cyberskull

1:57 PM

What a way to start your life:

What a way to end it

Matt Эллен

being born like that would be painful for the mother. I think it's safer to start as a baby

Andrew Leach

2:10 PM

The Colorado storm has reached the BBC.

bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24068804

Matt Эллен

it's over Birmingham?!

Andrew Leach

That's in Alabama.

Matt Эллен

oh. phew

> Ms Boerkircher said one person was killed when a structure collapsed in the town of Jamestown.

I think it's weird they won't say what the structure was

the US news reports were the same

They must know what fell on them

cyberskull

Obviously, they don't want us to know...

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@cyberskull ?

cyberskull

2:18 PM

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Strange huh?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@cyberskull who is that?

cyberskull

loljam.com/post/6879

MετάEd

@MattЭллен wrong

They don't know because they haven't got anyone in Jamestown.

Why do people assume that just because it's the 21st century everyone has perfect information.

cyberskull

what happened to James?

Mitch

@MετάEd Or they know but it's too long to fit in the title. Single Word Request? Yes!

MετάEd

2:26 PM

@Mitch title of what?

Matt Эллен

@MετάEd how do they know something fell, then?

cyberskull

Yay if something falls and there is nobody around to hear it...

Matt Эллен

I'm not assuming perfect information. I'm assuming if you know someone's been crushed under somthing then you know what it was that did the crushing.

Mitch

@MετάEd title of the article. fine, content of the article. journalists aren't authors they don't get paid per word, but paid per inverse word count.

@MattЭллен It was a structure. as opposed to a vehicle (which is definitely not a structure) It could be a part of a building, or a band shell or bleachers or your mom. It could be a lot of things.

Matt Эллен

@Mitch if it can be your mom, then it can be a vehicle

2

Mitch

2:32 PM

@MattЭллен zing!

Matt Эллен

:D

Mitch

> Ms Boerkircher said one person was killed when her mom collapsed in the town of Jamestown.

cyberskull

@RegDwighT What a waste of LEGO