English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Matt Эллен

11:00 AM

interesting

JSBձոգչ

killed mysqld, the memory hog. trying again

may have to exit some instances of vim, too

Matt Эллен

no loss there /emacs

JSBձոգչ

emacs uses way more memory than vim

Robusto

@JSBձոգչ But you get so much more for your memory blocks with emacs.

Matt Эллен

@JSBձոգչ :D I'm just stirring.

Robusto

11:15 AM

cudgels brain for joke about Microsoft Wizard School, gives up

RegDwigнt

Vim doesn't even have syntax highlighting. Emacs has Tetris.

JSBձոգչ

Vim has so much syntax hilighting i don't even know what you're talking about

RegDwigнt

Precisely my point.

But I will gladly reword: Vim doesn't even have non-rubbish syntax highlighting, so that everyone and his dog is forced to write a package of their own.

I know I did.

It has OVER 9000 highlighting and it ALL SUCKS. Emacs, meanwhile, has just one Tetris, and it is ALL AWESUM.

QED.

Matt Эллен

Tetris is awesum

RegDwigнt

QED!!!

JSBձոգչ

11:21 AM

when i tell Magic Online to show me cards I don't own, the first thing it does is remind me that i don't own ANY foil Black Lotuses

screw you, Magic Online

RegDwigнt

It is indeed so awesum that not once in the entire game do you have to type wq!

@JSBձոգչ I am missing something. So it does precisely what you instructed it to do?

JSBձոգչ

@RegDwigнt it rubs my face in the fact that i don't own any $400 cards

Robusto

@JSBձոգչ Sounds like the mere application of $400 will solve that problem.

RegDwigнt

@JSBձոգչ well it has to start with a card. So it might as well sort by price descending.

@Robusto yeah that's how Magic works. You throw $400 at it and they never make another card again.

Robusto

Worth their weight in card stock.

RegDwigнt

11:25 AM

Perhaps noseless? — tobyink 4 hours ago

Teehee.

Robusto

Animetic?

Why are we answering such questions?

> Why are you not kicking the shit out of Private Pyle?

RegDwigнt

I think going by the answers we can just close it.

Pout, wide-eyed, intense.

Car, billiards, sputnik.

Robusto

theorem, elephants, microencephalic

Matt Эллен

@RegDwigнt yes

RegDwigнt

Clearly the word is ( \ / ).

Robusto

11:29 AM

Why is the punchbowl of ELU always filled with such turds?

RegDwigнt

Because you keep your gold and diamonds to yourself.

You could totally share. But you're all greedy.

Robusto

Oh, this is my fault.

RegDwigнt

Cf. Axiom 1.

Robusto

Which stage is "punishment of the innocent"? I forget.

RegDwigнt

All stages.

Easy to forget, I know.

Robusto

11:31 AM

Six phases of a big project

The six phases of a big project is a cynical take on the outcome of large projects, with an unspoken assumption about their seemingly inherent tendency towards chaos. The list is reprinted in slightly different variations in any number of project management books as a cautionary tale. One such example gives the phases as: Enthusiasm, Disillusionment, Panic and hysteria, Hunt for the guilty, Punishment of the innocent, and Reward for the uninvolved. == References... ==

Stage 5.

RegDwigнt

That's why I never get involved with anything.

Sweet, sweet rewards.

Robusto

But you are involved. You ran for mod, and won. Now it's your fault if there are fuck-ups.

RegDwigнt

Nah, you forgot that the SE policy is "a good mod does nothing at all".

Robusto

Doesn't matter if you do anything. You are a mod, you bear responsibility.

RegDwigнt

Nope, bearing is a do-word.

Robusto

11:38 AM

Tell that to a woman in childbirth. See how long you remain standing.

RegDwigнt

I'm still standing better than I ever did. Looking like a true survivor.

But you go tell a woman in childbirth that love love is a verb love is a doing word feather on my breath.

Robusto

Isn't it a bit early to be imbibing, even in Deutschland?

RegDwigнt

It is never too early in Deutschland.

Robusto

Or Russland.

JSBձոգչ

facebook.com/…

^ note the position of Romania on this list. And Germany.

skullpatrol

11:46 AM

Note how much waste is produced by third world countries

Andrew Leach

How has Ireland managed to deal with more than 100%? Do they import waste from elsewhere?

Robusto

@skullpatrol Those are percentages, not absolute quantities.

KitFox

Putting up with the UK's garbage.

Robusto

It may well be that Germany's landfills are more gianter than Romania's, because more stuff.

Andrew Leach

Belgium has less than 100%. Perhaps they import it from there.

skullpatrol

11:50 AM

I understand that @Robusto but if one were to look at absolute values such as what I mentioned along with oil spills such as the one in the Gulf of Mexico recently, I believe recycling would take on a different meaning in this context.

Robusto

Oil spills are recycling by other means.

skullpatrol

Are they really?

How so?

Robusto

In the joke universe. Lighten up.

skullpatrol

:D

Matt Эллен

I assume because I take the same route to work, I've recycled a lot

skullpatrol

11:55 AM

You're right, it is a joke.

Have you fully recovered from your cycling "accident" @Matt?

Matt Эллен

yes, thanks. my leg is fine now.

skullpatrol

Good, good.

KitFox

My chat window is behaving weirdly this morning.

It must need more coffee.

Matt Эллен

pour it through the fuel intake at the front of your machine

KitFox

Hmm. It is near the cup holder?

Matt Эллен

12:02 PM

yes. it's quite small, relative to the size of the cupholder.

RegDwigнt

@JSBձոգչ and I'd like to see further breakdown still because Romania's definition of landfill is not even anywhere the same as that of Germany.

Matt Эллен

about the size of usb A jack

KitFox

Oh. That seems to have fixed it.

Andrew Leach

Fixed it good and proper, I expect :)

RegDwigнt

Landfills in Germany are heavily regulated recycling factories in their own right.

In Eastern Europe, you just dump your plastic in the forest, voila there's your landfill.

Matt Эллен

12:04 PM

excellent. I should be in charge of tech fixing

KitFox

They have plastic in Eastern Europe?

RegDwigнt

Eastern Europe is 99% plastic. And 1% communism.

KitFox

Huh TIL.

RegDwigнt

That's why LEGO is so unpopular there. Nobody understands why they should pay horrendous sums for more plastic. Everyone already has seven metric tons of it.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt They still have forest? Or is that what they are calling the mountains of trash these days?

RegDwigнt

12:07 PM

@Robusto hey now some of the plastic is green.

Matt Эллен

they should buy stuff to reform their platic into lego

RegDwigнt

Or at least looks greenish if you let funghi do their job.

And with some effort and time, it can even bake into a nice black mass so you have a Black Forest of your own.

KitFox

@MattЭллен Like a special waffle iron.

skullpatrol

Can't they make Lego from something other than plastic @RegD?

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Which reminds me. Did you see the episode of Community where the group has to deal with an outsider as a lab partner, and after they "break" him he starts talking to himself, wondering whatever happened to Lego? "It used to be so simple. Now it's all these complicated kits with pieces you don't understand . . ."

Matt Эллен

12:09 PM

@KitFox yeah!

RegDwigнt

@skullpatrol metal and wood building toys are exceptionally popular, yes. Much more than plastic.

KitFox

Black Forest used to be my favorite kind of cake.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto you misremember. It was the coach who wondered that. A black guy who came fresh from prison where he made his PhD in biology.

Robusto

You misoverestimated me.

RegDwigнt

►

Robusto

12:11 PM

Oh, right. Omar from The Wire.

skullpatrol

He is called a man of color these days.

Robusto

Correct episode, however.

RegDwigнt

Yup.

Which is why I said "misremember" rather than "make shit up".

-1

Q: Using Oxymorons for phyiscal beings

I had a thought. I was thinking about how I walk to work whilst listening to "The Magnificent Seven" by The Clash, which depicts the stupidity of work. I thought that, in a way, is an oxymoron, listening to music that hates work whilst walking to work. It then spurred a runaway thought train, wha...

oxymoron

skullpatrol

You calling me a moron?

RegDwigнt

I don't think any kind of being will appreciate being used as a moron of any kind.

KitFox

12:13 PM

Runaway train...which band was that again?

RegDwigнt

@skullpatrol only if you're phyiscal.

@KitFox soul asylum.

KitFox

Ah yes.

skullpatrol

Np I'm a half-bright twelve year old moron.

KitFox

Are you sure you're twelve? That's a violation of the ToS.

RegDwigнt

Twelve years and twelve months is okay.

KitFox

12:17 PM

I want candy. brb

Matt Эллен

@skullpatrol how many years have you been twelve for?

KitFox

Sour apple flavored green jelly army men. om nom nom

skullpatrol

Ask tchrist that was his judgement @Matt

Matt Эллен

@KitFox yum!

KitFox

@skullpatrol Hey, that's a pretty good compliment then.

Andrew Leach

12:23 PM

An answer from the horse's mouth!

0

A: What is the name of the "agency" fallacy?

The blog you linked to was my own. I first came across the agency fallacy in a series of audio lectures on evolutionary psychology by Allen MacNeill ('Evolutionary psychology' from 'The Great Courses' audio series available for download on Audible). I'm pretty sure Ben Shermer references it in hi...

KitFox

Except it's not really an answer.

Matt Эллен

It sort of is

KitFox

Sort of.

Matt Эллен

I mean it cites his source for agency fallacy as the answer to the question

KitFox

It should probably be clarified before the community shuts it down.

Hey! Hey! Guess what I am doing today?

RegDwigнt

12:26 PM

At any rate, the hope that helps nonsense had to go.

Matt Эллен

yeah. I can do that, I think

RegDwigнt

Aug 1 at 13:55, by RegDwigнt

If you do not hope it helps, why the hell are you posting?

@KitFox playing with LEGO.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox juggling with fire?

fencing with swordfish!

RegDwigнt

Juggling with burning LEGO.

Andrew Leach

Eating jelly babies.

(That's what we call them, anyway)

KitFox

12:28 PM

Writing requirements.

Matt Эллен

yay! that's what you're paid to do, right?

KitFox

Yep.

Matt Эллен

How did the meeting go?

KitFox

The guy I have constant contention with had this to say to me (which he cc'd my manager on):

> Just wanted to thank you for a great presentation today.

Matt Эллен

nice

KitFox

12:31 PM

Sent from his iPhone at 10pm last night.

Matt Эллен

congrats!

KitFox

Feels creepy. Hard to explain.

But the meeting was great. I kept 10 people on track for an hour.

Matt Эллен

wow

KitFox

And we covered everything that needed covering.

Matt Эллен

I can't even keep myself on track for that long

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

12:32 PM

I can't even keep my Lego train on track for that long

KitFox

And everybody left feeling happy and informed and excited about the project.

Matt Эллен

go you!

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 even with a circular track? :D

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@MattЭллен "circular track".... hm. Interesting. Not sure why I'd want one of those ;p

Matt Эллен

:D

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I guess at Christmas I did build a long oval track. Well... more like a rounded rectangle. An iPhone track.

Usually I try to put in lots of twists and turns and branches and unnecessary complexity, because it's fun.

Matt Эллен

12:35 PM

what you need is 3 pieces of tack and a robot that moves the end to the beginning

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 yes!

Robusto

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 The adjectival form of oval should be Ovaltine — "a long Ovaltine track."

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto Hm. But then it'd need to include a secret decoder ring.

Robusto

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Sounds more like a feature than a bug.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Anyway it's not, strictly speaking, an oval. And if there's one thing we do here, it's strictly speak.

Robusto

Well, Ovaltine is not, strictly speaking, oval. So the imprecision is warranted.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

12:40 PM

good point

Robusto

Ain't language grand?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I'm writing the OED now to have them add an entry

Ovaltine: adj - not, strictly speaking, an oval

Robusto

Good man.

Make sure @tchrist includes that in his Perl-searchable copy.

skullpatrol

Good luck.

Matt Эллен

I would think that oval tines are not very effective

Mitch

12:45 PM

@RegDwigнt I read that as "using oxymorons for physical beatings"

at least I fixed the spelling.

@MattЭллен preteens are very effective... at annoying the crap out of everybody.

(it's OK because @skullpatrol is a preteen)

Matt Эллен

if you're pre-tines you're probably using a spoon

Mitch

Ouch. Like putting saltine on a cracker.

skullpatrol

@Mitch not as effective as teens

@Mitch :-)

Robusto

<pre>teens</pre>

user2370114

1:07 PM

Hello :)

I've been trying to search for a question to legitimately ask on ELU but as I'm browsing Meta, what's being filtered over to ELL, and what's downvoted or duplicate, I sometimes wonder if there are any questions left to ask :) So, changing the subject, what would be a type of question that you'd like to answer?

RegDwigнt

I'm not quite sure why you throw in duplicates into the mix like that.

Or downvotes, for that matter...

Really these are three entirely separate things.

Anyway, why are you specifically searching for a question to ask? If you have a question, then ask it. If you don't, don't. Why invent a question you don't actually have?

user2370114

1:25 PM

duplicates: because they remind me that the question has already been asked. Downvotes because ... never mind. Why am I searching for a question to ask? Because in other realms, I'm usually the one answering questions. Sometimes I'd just like to find out what other people think about things I find curious.

RegDwigнt

Well, here's a list of recent questions that are upvoted and not closed.

2

As you can see, we reliably get more open and upvoted questions every day than most other sites get questions, period.

As to what questions are interesting, it's a) hard to predict and b) yeah many have been long asked by now.

user2370114

Thank you for the search query. That appeals to me on several levels.

RegDwigнt

Actually finding interesting questions is not easy, whether here or elsewhere on SE. Simply browsing the top voted questions doesn't cut it, lots of outliers in there. Picking a top user and browsing through his top answers is a tad better, but still ultimately the same. What seems to work better is picking a bunch of top users and browsing through their top favorited questions.

Basically, as with so many things, the higher the payoff you want, the bigger the effort you need to put in.

skullpatrol

@user2370114 Good advice^

donut consumption is always the first consideration

RegDwigнt

Energy is too bitter. I prefer to consume donuts.

skullpatrol

1:37 PM

especially if you're a cop :)

Johan Larsson

random link

2

RegDwigнt

Four minutes? Seriously? I ain't got no time like that.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt I am taking your name in vain.

@Mari-LouA Do you truly believe that the “answer” you reference adds value to the site? However nicely formatted it may be, it contains virtually no new material whatsoever. This conflicts with the directive an answer consist principally of the poster’s own words, not just copied-in text. It’s also a veiled appeal to authority, feigning to support its position with a dictionary yet disallowing independent verification. Lastly, it conflicts with these directives. — tchrist 37 secs ago

RegDwigнt

And yeah, so they basically just lucked out.

tchrist

Which is another veiled appeal to authority. :)

RegDwigнt

1:41 PM

Just a couple degrees in either direction would have screwed them up, and you just can't go telling me it was possible to plan this down to a degree.

You'd have to X-ray the tree. Over its entire length, too.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Do people truly use the favorite thingy much?

Johan Larsson

Yeah, it was strange that they attempted it

skullpatrol

@JohanLarsson :-O

user2370114

@RegDwigнt Start at 2:55 youtube.com/…

RegDwigнt

@tchrist not much at all, but a) isn't that the whole point of telling wheat from chaff and b) over several people and years, it accumulates alright.

@user2370114 that is exactly where I did. Thank you.

@tchrist well careful there as there's been no reaction from the author and consequently that whole answer is about to get nuked.

tchrist

1:46 PM

@RegDwigнt I was thinking about that. I’d like to preserve your comment. I feel though that you have made it before, and so perhaps there is somewhere else for me to find essentially the same thing.

RegDwigнt

I have made that comment before a zillion times, but per definition it was on a zillion stuffs I went on to delete.

tchrist

But comments on a meta post aren’t the optimal place for discussion either, so I’m not exactly contributing in the right way. But I don’t know what else to do there with Mari-Lou’s response to Andrew, and I do feel like she is a conscientious member who deserves not to be ignored.

Ok, I’ll verbatim copy in your text I guess. With proper attribution. :)

Andrew Leach

If my answer is a good place for that, add it in there.

kwak

@skullpatrol better now, each day is better, since the 2 massive initial injections

tchrist

@AndrewLeach Ok, I’ve put a band-aid on the issue by copying in @Reg’s comment, so now he can delete that answer without completing orphaning the text I’m linking to. But if you want to use it to flesh out your answer, that would be great, since then we don’t have a long comment chain and we can cut down on my non-constructive stuff.

skullpatrol

1:53 PM

@kwak I wish you all best :-)

Stay strong.

tchrist

@AndrewLeach Gosh, I’m slow. I misread you.

@JohanLarsson Well, we’ll never know, because the videos where they screwed it up they didn’t put up for public viewing.

Johan Larsson

@tchrist did you figure out the bs : honest work ratio?

user2370114

@tchrist I realize I'm new here, but I'm in the camp that copy/paste dictionary definitions is wrong in general, attribution or not. Especially, formatted as a dictionary definition. That's not an answer, that's a reference copy.

tchrist

@user2370114 I believe I agree with you. I haven’t always clearly understood this myself, I readily confess.

Andrew Leach

@tchrist Not to worry. Done.

tchrist

1:58 PM

@user2370114 Were you born on Wednesday, January 28th, 1970?

@AndrewLeach Thanks.

user2370114

@tchrist No. I suppose I could change that

tchrist

@user2370114 Cool. :)

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…