English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@JasperLoy slowly it does, my neighbor for example, if I see him smoking, upwind of me but I don't smell it, I can tolerate. The aerosols in smoke diffuses well after 5m

Jasper Loy

@RegDwigнt I somehow knew you would say that.

nosmoking

So I'm getting better and better in smoke tolerance, but 3 meters is a limit

RegDwigнt

@JasperLoy the easiest way to get rid of aversion to smoke is to start smoking. Soon enough you won't want to live without it.

nosmoking

The equations of smoke are difficult, at same time a dirt and an aerosol, so a fluid and a gas

RegDwigнt

10:30 AM

Exposure therapy

Exposure therapy is a technique in behavior therapy intended to treat anxiety disorders. It involves the exposure of the patient to the feared object or context without any danger, in order to overcome their anxiety. Procedurally it is similar to the fear extinction paradigm in rodent work. Numerous studies have demonstrated its effectiveness in the treatment of anxiety disorders such as PTSD and specific phobias. Exposure-based therapy may be effective in preventing the progression from acute stress disorder to post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a report in the June 2008 issue of Archives...

Matt Эллен

Exposure therapy only works if you have adequte support from people who understand what you are trying to achieve

nosmoking

@RegDwigнt The pain therapy :)

Jasper Loy

Yes, I am familiar with this technique.

Matt Эллен

As someone who exposed himself to phone calls to rid himself of his fear of phone calls can atest.

nosmoking

Imagine I'm afraid of receiving punches in the face

Would exposure therapy be adequate?

Matt Эллен

10:32 AM

yes

skullpatrol

Not for a boxer.

nosmoking

so you should do boxing, and lose plenty of neurons?

Jasper Loy

The place I live in is only good for one thing --- making money.

nosmoking

@skullpatrol was thinking of that yes, it's maybe the extrem and repeated case

RegDwigнt

@nosmoking yes! That will heal your fear of losing neurons, too!

Matt Эллен

10:33 AM

@nosmoking depends on what you mean. if you think people are always going to punch you, simply being around people in a supportive environment should help quell that fear

RegDwigнt

Two birds with one punch in the face.

nosmoking

being with people help, indeed

Matt Эллен

best way to collect birds

skullpatrol

with a shot gun?

Jasper Loy

My psychiatrist went back to India, and transferred me to another Indian doctor, lol.

The hospital is full of Indian doctors.

nosmoking

10:35 AM

because people inhale toxic gas for you, and thus clean you air :d

CO2 is less dangerous than many things

Jasper Loy

I think it will take me one year to learn German.

nosmoking

Achtung, Ich li bedish

skullpatrol

@nosmoking like getting punched in the face

Jasper Loy

I already know Eine kleine Nachtmusik.

nosmoking

I need to find one positive aspect of tobacco smoke outdoor

Jasper Loy

10:39 AM

Why did everyone stop talking?

nosmoking

*chatting

Matt Эллен

@nosmoking it's not tobacco smoke indoors

Jasper Loy

@nosmoking Actually my second choice is go to France.

nosmoking

@MattЭллен that's one, it spreads better

@JasperLoy at ENS Paris, or Polytechnique, or you could try ENS Cachan if you're refused

Jasper Loy

It will also take me one year to learn French.

nosmoking

10:41 AM

or Mines Nancy like me

@JasperLoy C'est facile, d'apprendre les bases

Matt Эллен

tries to mine Nancy. Nancy complains

nosmoking

apprendre=learn

@MattЭллен more this kind of Mine ^

But this is an historical name, not really meaningful now

Matt Эллен

That's the sort of mine I meant, with pickaxes, dynamite and such

nosmoking

There's another school called Pont-et-chaussées, (Gates and roads), another called supelec (elec..tricity)

Jasper Loy

@nosmoking Have you thought about coming to my country?

skullpatrol

10:44 AM

and a canary

nosmoking

@JasperLoy after my medication, if I feel strong yes, the heat isn't a problem at all, it breaks more quickly smoke

heat recycles smoke quicker than cold (in my opinion at least)

that's a stupid argument to come to Singapour also, just kidding, New York is also a cool place, not many smokers

Matt Эллен

I suppose it must spread it more quickly, as the air will be moving more due to the increased pressure

nosmoking

@MattЭллен oh right, more agitation

Jasper Loy

I wonder where I will be 3 years from now.

Matt Эллен

EL&U chat

everyone will be here

skullpatrol

10:48 AM

not me

Jasper Loy

I hope I am no longer where I am now.

Notice that I try not to state my location.

nosmoking

if Stack Exchange didn't go bankrupt

Matt Эллен

doesn't become bankrupt

skullpatrol

or infected by viruses

Jasper Loy

Maybe I will be in heaven then.

skullpatrol

10:50 AM

hacked to shreds by trolls

Jasper Loy

I watched the movie Far From Heaven.

nosmoking

@JasperLoy I believe we are reincanated in a plant first, then in an animal that eats plants, then again in possibly a human

skullpatrol

who knows where this internet age will be in 3 years?

Matt Эллен

the internet will be subsumed into EL&U chat

Jasper Loy

I hope I don't go to hell.

skullpatrol

10:52 AM

maybe we are all in hell right now

Jasper Loy

I am going to watch some TV.

skullpatrol

it can only get better

Matt Эллен

you could be shot into space with the person you hate most, in a capsule with only 8 hours of oxygen, forced to watch Earth being blown apart in 2 hours, spending the remaining 6 hours contemplating your death.

skullpatrol

but you still don't know what will happen after you die

Matt Эллен

if you are dead, there is nothing to worry about.

skullpatrol

10:59 AM

you don't know that

yes I do

how so?

by knowing it

ok

@skullpatrol thank you for reminding me.

I went and closed the shotgun question again.

Konrad: first off, I never said this was a useless question, only that it was general reference. These are two completely orthogonal things. There are lots of useful questions that don't belong on this site. Indeed, most useful questions don't. Second off, saying that I fail to realize what non-native speakers think is ludicrous. I am a non-native speaker myself. And not just any non-native speaker, but one who campaigned real hard for a dedicated sister site for non-native speakers. Your comments completely miss the mark. — RegDwigнt ♦ 6 mins ago

skullpatrol

11:07 AM

Well said.

RegDwigнt

I believe there was also a dedicated meta question for that question. But I'm too tired to check and I don't see the point of explaining myself there as well. Everyone knows we close much, much more complicated and interesting stuff if there's a half-assed mention of it on etymonline, a site no one knows to begin with. This here is more basic, and answered by pretty much every reference on our gen-ref list.

I just checked. Wikipedia, dictionary.com, etcetcetc.

And of course the thing is, Konrad was already googling.

Andrew Leach

5

Q: Hasty flag decline and question close?

I haven't got a lot of time to argue for someone else's question but I really can't understand why a question that's gained almost 2000 views in a day and has a useful answer and an informative comment, has been closed as general reference. Isn't the word "shotgun" a self-redundancy? The only ...

RegDwigнt

If you already are googling why shotgun means X, no need to stop and not google why it means Y.

Matt Эллен

shotgun Googling

RegDwigнt

Anyway. I had to reboot my machine so now I have to spend some quality time starting up all the programs I had running.

I had to reboot because three out of five letters wouldn't type. Weird shit like that keeps happening in Linux. Never once under Windows.

Matt Эллен

11:14 AM

That's a feature Linus Torvalds added because he likes to be angry

skullpatrol

Return to Windows.

RegDwigнt

This is at work.

I never went away from Windows privately.

skullpatrol

icic

Matt Эллен

Since that's the case, I shall eat lunch in the fog.

RegDwigнt

Bulletproof logic.

Since we don't have fog, I shan't.

skullpatrol

11:16 AM

Bullet = fool

RegDwigнt

Bullet = Steve McQueen with two typos.

skullpatrol

greatest car chase scene ever

RegDwigнt

Hence the typos.

skullpatrol

at that time

RegDwigнt

The suspension was really meh back then.

As opposed to the suspense.

skullpatrol

11:20 AM

if you wanted suspense, Hitchcock was for you pal

the crows

RegDwigнt

I am going to say something unpopular now, but I never got the hype around Hitchcock.

I've watched some of this movies, and each and every single one bored me to tears. No redeeming qualities whatsoever. I was appalled.

skullpatrol

did you watch the crows?

RegDwigнt

Nope.

skullpatrol

classic

RegDwigнt

I know. But he himself completely spoiled it for me.

skullpatrol

11:22 AM

not all his stuff was good, but that one was

don't believe the hype

RegDwigнt

Yeah I totally believe I should have watched The Birds before watching Marnie, but alas, tis too late now.

skullpatrol

that's what I meant, The Birds

trapped in a house being attacked by birds

Jack Nicholson did some good suspense movies too

l

|

i

11:36 AM

You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just going to bash your brains in.

skullpatrol

me?

are you talking to me?

Matt Эллен

I don't see anyone else around here

RegDwigнt

Well you're the only one here.

Lots of echo in here.

Awww.

And I was going to say just how nice your visual representation of echo was, by uncapitalizing the capital.

Subtle and elegant.

skullpatrol

say hello to my little friend

RegDwigнt

I will say hello to your little friend for 3000 dollars.

skullpatrol

11:42 AM

not everything that counts can be counted

not everything that can be counted counts

1 hour ago, by skullpatrol

@RegDwigнt everything has a price for you

Matt Эллен

12:15 PM

Thanks Matt. I just add async: false in my code and now it works perfectly. — user3477339 3 hours ago

no. damnit, that's not what I meant

Andrew Leach

:)

SJAX

Matt Эллен

quite :D

user116848

Hi folks :)

Matt Эллен

HI

Andrew Leach

Arrowfar! You've shaved your beard off!

user116848

12:24 PM

haha Yes

user116848

Isn't she pretty? :D

user116848

It's not me actually. I am a dude :)

Matt Эллен

On the Internet, noöne knows you're not a dog

user116848

meaning? :)

user116848

That you could be anybody?

Matt Эллен

12:28 PM

you can say you are whatever you like :D

user116848

Yes that is true :)

Matt Эллен

On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog

"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" is an adage which began as a cartoon caption by Peter Steiner and published by The New Yorker on July 5, 1993. The cartoon features two dogs: one sitting on a chair in front of a computer, speaking the caption to a second dog sitting on the floor. As of 2011, the panel was the most reproduced cartoon from The New Yorker, and Steiner has earned over US $50,000 from its reprinting. == History == Peter Steiner, a cartoonist and contributor to The New Yorker since 1979, said the cartoon initially did not get a lot of attention, but later took on a life of...

user116848

Oh ,that :D

user116848

@MattЭллен Why don't you upload your photo? You are good looking I bet.

Matt Эллен

My gravatar is a self portrait

user116848

12:31 PM

gravatar? Never heard of it :)

Matt Эллен

gravatar is what Stack Exchange used for avatars before they started doing their own. you can still use gravatar here, in fact

user116848

But I wrote in my profile that "I am a guy" just to be clear :)

Matt Эллен

gravatar.com

user116848

Let me see.....

Matt Эллен

The Matt on the front page is not me

user116848

12:33 PM

Oh, I noticed that haha

RegDwigнt

On the Internet, everyone knows Cerberus is a dog.

That Dutch Cerberus, mind you. The original Cerberus nobody at all has ever heard of.

Matt Эллен

I thought kerberos was from Massachusetts

RegDwigнt

Massa what lol. You only just made that up. Every letter is double, how lazy is that. You can do better.

Matt Эллен

Worcestershire

RegDwigнt

I can see nothing special about that.

Matt Эллен

12:45 PM

It's all in the intonation

RegDwigнt

Metric tons or regular tons?

Matt Эллен

if it were metric it would be mtonation, so it must be regular

tchrist

Long ton.

RegDwigнt

The original name of London.

Until the Brits bastardized it.

The Brits bastardize everything, especially the English language.

Matt Эллен

Getting married is overrated

reproduce as much as possible. be like Genghis Khan

RegDwigнt

12:51 PM

Gengis Khan? You mean the former German goalkeeper?

Matt Эллен

maybe. did he also rule the Mongol empire?

RegDwigнt

I don't think he has children.

Matt Эллен

Then I don't mean him

RegDwigнt

@MattЭллен yes, he ruled a lot. There's videos of it on YouTube.

:D

12:53 PM

1:16 PM

Today's Listening | EDM / Glitch / Dubstep (Mixsets day 7)

Robusto

1:35 PM

This question appears to be off-topic because it is about the rules of a game, not English per se. — Robusto 27 secs ago

terdon

He's asking about the terminology involved, not the rules.

RegDwigнt

The rules of cricket are clear and inflexible.

Robusto

@terdon Still OT.

terdon

@RegDwigнt Nothing about cricket is clear. Nothing.

@Robusto I don't see why. It's a question about words that are commonly used in English. I don't see why you think it's off topic.

Robusto

@terdon Because he's not asking about the words as used in English, but in the specific, narrow context of a game.

> This question appears to be off-topic because it is about the rules, terminology, or practices of a game, not English per se

@AndrewLeach: Hmm, "even more" explicitly about language? Methinks thou'rt too generous by half.

tchrist

1:43 PM

Kris if a frickin’ idjit! I swear he’s an unbound djinn that somebody let out escape from his lamp by forgetting to put the lid on it.

@Kris You appear to have confused the not-unheard-of acres of flooring with square miles of it. Not to put too fine a point on it, but you are wrong to the point of appearing foolish, and your downvote was uninformed and unwarranted. The buildings of China’s Forbidden City have 37 acres of flooring and those of Versailles have 16½ acres of it; even my local Whole Foods Market has 1.8 acres of flooring! Remember that while a square mile is 640 acres, an acre is only 4,840 square yards, so 43,560 square feet. “Acreage of flooring” is quite like “miles of road” or “tons of food”. — tchrist 1 min ago

Johan Larsson

Read a somewhat interesting book today The Sleeping People by our prime minister when he was 28.

Dunno if it is translated and probably not interesting for people outside of Sweden

He says some funny things like that the average Swede is mentally disabled from years of social democrat rule :)

He has a point.

tchrist

I move that we cancel the native speaker licence of anyone who cannot pass the basic USTOFEM exam, damn it!

RegDwigнt

Hey cool I don't even know what USTOFEM means, I pass the test as a non-native!

Matt Эллен

US to Female?

tchrist

It’s pure innumeracy at is lowest.

The United States Test of Fluency with English Measures.

Matt Эллен

1:49 PM

oh

George Pompidou

that doesn't even exist.

RegDwigнt

Hah thanks but no thanks. I am not going to pass a United States anything.

tchrist

Sure it does. You just haven’t passed yet.

George Pompidou

and I may never—I'm no native speaker.

RegDwigнt

At least you're already in the US.

They'd never let me in even for a day unless I gave them full access to my bank account.

tchrist

1:50 PM

@RegDwigнt You’re one of the few pineapples I know with demonstrated fluency in such matters. I realize you are a KGB mole under deep cover, but that’s hardly an excuse for not being an idiot.

RegDwigнt

Not to mention that I'd have to answer the "do you want to kill the President" questionnaire at the airport.

Matt Эллен

"Who doesn't?"

tchrist

@RegDwigнt They meant Putin.

Johan Larsson

@RegDwigнt Choke 'em both with one feather?

Matt Эллен

Killocracy: last person alive wins

RegDwigнt

1:52 PM

@tchrist see, that is precisely where you are completely and utterly wrong. Being an agent is an excuse for being an idiot. It is the best excuse indeed.

Oh wait, you said "not". Haha. QED.

Or perhaps you screwed up misnegation again.

tchrist

Down.

RegDwigнt

@MattЭллен that is the confusing thing, that option is missing. I'd totally screw it up.

Today is the international screwup day.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwigнt oh damn. I haven't tried to enter the US since 1997. It's all changed.

RegDwigнt

Yeah they even somehow shut down Enron. Go figure.

Matt Эллен

TIL!

RegDwigнt

1:55 PM

Even though the've recreated it in Germany with a couple letters missing, that's really not the same thing.

Robusto

@tchrist Ah, is it an accident that kris is a name for a type of blade? Could have called himself dirk as well. Or shiv.

RegDwigнt

E.ON

E.ON SE (formerly E.ON AG), marketed with an interpunct as E·ON, is a European holding company based in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It runs one of the world's largest investor-owned electric utility service providers. The name comes from the Greek word aeon which means eternity. It operates in over 30 countries and serves over 26 million customers. It is one of the 30 members of the DAX stock index of major German companies and a member of the Global Titans 50 index. Its chief executive officer (Vorstandsvorsitzender) is Johannes Teyssen. == History == The company came in...

Matt Эллен

Oh!

I think they supply my power.

George Pompidou

does anyone say clammering instead of clambering or is that just me?

Matt Эллен

well, I pay them to pay other people to supply my power

RegDwigнt

1:56 PM

@MattЭллен note how the letters missing are NR, and it's based in ***N***orth ***R***hine Westphalia.

tchrist

@MattЭллен Welford or Wethersfield? I can believe them turning you away from Wethersfield; they do background checks for Welsh blood.