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2:01 PM
beanie bean been bean beanie
 
Beanie beanie chili beanie the spirits are about to speak.
 
To bean or to adder, that's the question.
 
Oh adder, of course.
 
That looks just like Happy Tree Friends.
A bit less blood.
 
It’s Rockie and Bullwinkle and Boris.
Natasha couldn’t make this picture.
 
2:08 PM
Still a fit. Happy Tree Friends are all called Flippy and Lumpy and Cuddles and Giggles.
And Russell and Mr. Pickels.
They must have had my missing Steward badges in mind when redesigning the SE bar.
Nobody reviews suggested edits anymore.
I'll be at 1000 in no time.
Every time I click, there are a couple waiting for me. This morning I woke up to a whopping seven.
 
@tchrist Of course. I have had a seat for years.
 
i haven't seen any today
I suppose I have been working.
 
Em1
Hello all.
 
Em1
Just a short question: Without any context, is the sentence "I take a math course" understood as I learn or teach math?
 
2:14 PM
learn
 
@Mitch How many miles on it?
 
Em1
Cool. Thanks :)
 
no probs :)
 
@Em1 Except it sounds really strange.
 
Em1
@Mitch Huh? What do you mean?
 
2:18 PM
"I am taking a math course" is probably what you want.
 
Em1
I see.
 
And "I am faking a math course." is what you're actually doing.
 
After you take the course, do you have to put it back so that others can also take it?
 
Mar 13 '11 at 15:36, by RegDwight
@Robusto quoting my math professor (again), I think of A, say B, write C, mean D, and E would be correct.
 
Em1
hahaha :D
Usually it happens to me vice versa, i.e that I'm using I use "I am verbing" when it's not appropriate.
 
2:24 PM
Thousands.
@RegDwigнt That would work for teacher or student.
 
The best of both worlds!
 
so @RegDwigнt I finally motorized my Lone Ranger train.
I now appreciate a lot more the old-style 9V tracks
I had to put the motor in the coal car, along with the battery pack, which means making the coal car huge
 
Hm.
 
luckily I had a small supply of dark-green bricks to help me extend the car
also I had to put the IR sensor inside the locomotive cabin, where you can see it, and where it's hard to reach with the control.
But, all said and done, it works.
 
2:37 PM
Yes, that's a different approach, putting the engine in one of the other cars
 
Aye.
 
But then the driving force for your train is the coal car and the prisoner car. I prefer my approach. I'm going to take apart the other cars anyway and build some nicer civilian cars.
 
Make the one from Toy Story.
The passenger car from that one was great.
Actually, both passenger cars.
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 wait...there's a Lego -Prisoner- car for the train?
 
@Mitch um. yes? it's a boxcar with a jail cell in it, and a conveniently-placed attachment point on the back where you can hang a stick of dynamite. Because nothing says jailbreak like blowing up the prisoner.
 
2:52 PM
@Reg I don’t suppose an IP block on the entire subcontinent would be possible, eh? :(
ELU seems to be spreading like wildfire there.
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Oh. OK. I just had different connotations of prison car (WWII rather than WWWest)
 
How long before the wildfire is become a firestorm, destroyer of worlds?
 
@Mitch ah. Yes. It's from the Lone Ranger movie.
I have no intention of seeing that movie, ever. But the lego kits they made for it were some of the better ones Lego released this year.
 
@tchrist You mean India?
 
@JasperLoy Speaking for tc, yes. to Americans, it is the easiest way to refer to Indians that are not native americans.
 
2:55 PM
There was a really big riot in Little India here last night.
 
@JasperLoy I mean what I said and I say what I meant.
 
Did they topple any statues of Lenin?
 
They toppled some police cars I think.
 
27 have been arrested.
 
2:57 PM
@tchrist However consistent you may be, that may not mean anything to him.
@JasperLoy I don't get what's the point of turning over a car.
 
Oh, and someone hacked into the minister's website here, also arrested.
 
@RegDwigнt That's incredibly offensive. Did you see how they use cut baseplates for the roofs?
 
That doesn't seem as fun as turning over a car though. Much easier in the quiert of your own home though.
 
Speaking of Indians, yes, it's strange that many of them are using ELU for their questions.
 
@Mitch An elephant’s faithful, 100%.
 
2:58 PM
A police car just wouldn't fit in your bedroom, much less have room to flip over.
 
> Of course, the answers on this page have more than adequately covered this. But I figured you might appreciate a more layman, example-ish explanation. Rest assured they are valid. I'm a forensic major. Who prefers dogs over cats because my dog doesn't sit on my face. Just saying.
 
@tchrist I heard that!
 
@Mitch I thought he would be smart enough to escape detection if he were smart enough to hack.
 
And not just baseplates... some of the other parts are cut too! scandalous.
 
@tchrist link please!
 
2:59 PM
Yeah no shit.
People who can't build, cut.
 
@JasperLoy If he's that smart, he should be smart enough to figure out that doing things like that is stupid.
 
I wanted to copy a train design I saw on flickr and it was only when I was halfway done that I realized he'd used cut pipe to make short bars. I hate when they do that.
 
Horton Hatches the Egg is a children's book written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss and published in 1940 by Random House. The book tells the story of Horton the Elephant, who is tricked into sitting on a bird's egg while its mother, Mayzie, takes a permanent vacation to Palm Beach. Horton endures a number of hardships but persists, often stating, "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred per cent!" Ultimately, the egg hatches, revealing an elephant-bird, a creature with a blend of Mayzie's and Horton's features. Acc...
 
@Mitch I thought he could have voiced his opinions on various issues in other ways.
I thought elephants lay eggs.
 
Sure, the pipe is cuttable on purpose, and Lego cuts it to whatever length they need. But I can't do that! I may need that pipe in whatever length it came in for whatever kit it came in!
 
3:01 PM
How short?
There are proper bars in 3, 4, 5.5 and 6.
 
As short as my XXX.
 
Short enough to make axles in those large wheels
 
That's three.
Use a bar.
 
I don't think I have any 3-bars
 
They aren't too common, that's true.
 
3:03 PM
Kit is very quiet these days, only the bot appears in this chat.
 
actually I just realized I have some short pipes, they are from a ninja-turtles set
 
I think I have like four in total. Out of 170000 parts.
 
That's over 9000.
 
Been meaning to stack up. Alas, been meaning to stack up on everything else as well, so.
 
@JasperLoy Kit's got a new job. She ain't got time for this!
 
3:04 PM
@MattЭллен Boo! And I've got my usual problems.
 
oh! I think Michelangelo's nunchuck handles are the right size! sweet
 
Her new job involves not talking to men with short XXX and usual problems!
 
@JasperLoy Have you tried switching it off and on again?
 
Geezis.
 
Have you tried switching it off and not on again?
 
3:05 PM
@MattЭллен No, doesn't work that way.
 
@JasperLoy Have you checked that it's plugged in at the wall?
 
I think I shall keep my accounts just to come to chat.
 
BTW, I don't think that a 1×1 round brick to a half pin is a legal technique @Mr.Shiny.
 
@RegDwigнt Maybe not, but it's not under tension. it fits pretty loosely, actually
 
3:09 PM
Oh damn it I just answered a dupe.
 
Here comes your Resurrector badge or whatever it's called again.
 
Mornin!
 
Oh but with colors!
That steam chamber is obscenely long.
It's no funny no more.
 
Yeah the one on flickr is all grey, which looks sharp and all, but A) I wanted it more festive, and B) I don't have that many of those circles in any colour but tan.
 
3:12 PM
Circles? Tan?
looks closer
 
the 2x2 round bricks
I have lots of tan ones. Not so many others in a single colour.
 
Ah those.
 
Also not with matching round dome brick.
 
Hm. I have like a million. I don't know where to put them.
Bley and dbley are ubiquitous.
 
I did mark one to close as dupe, but then I turned around and answered another. Sigh.
 
3:13 PM
It's okay, we won't judge you. Not more than usual anyway.
 
This whole train-copying experiment was an exercise in finding out exactly which combination of semi-rare parts I had together. e.g. to make the presents, I needed to have a jumper and 2x3 plate in the same colour. Surprising how many colours that eliminates.
 
See, this is why I like having all parts in all colors.
 
I have millions of jumpers, but almost no overlap between those colours and 2x3 plates.
 
-1
Q: Reasons to choose / for choosing

kchlup There are many reasons to choose X or There are many reasons for choosing X Are these sentences equivalent/interchangeable?

1
Q: Is a comma or "if" needed in this sentence

Kwaio "X might not have been made had money been a priority" We are discussing with friend about this sentence, which I had trouble understanding at first. To me, it'd have been more idiomatic adding "if" or a comma in the middle like : "X might not have been made if money had been a priority...

 
Which of these is a dupe of the other?
 
3:15 PM
Neither, but both are dupes of other things that they are now linked to.
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 your tender looks nothing like the tender.
 
Or so say I.
 
You can't have possibly run out of black 1×1 plates.
 
I have
 
Then again, looking at the wheels on the last car...
@MattЭллен put your plates in the oven, put the oven on full whack. Voila, more black plates.
 
3:17 PM
@RegDwigнt only the top is different.
 
We’re multicolliding on thousands? Weirdos.
 
@RegDwigнt good idea!
goes to oven
 
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 You don't need 2×3 plates for those presents.
 
No, I didn't run out of black, but I stuck two of those curvy pieces on top and then left it. I didn't have that other piece in red and the only white one is on the front of the train.
 
You don't even need 1×3 plates. 1×2 and 1×1 will do.
Or 2×2 corner plates.
Really a multitude of options.
 
3:19 PM
Arrrrrgh, scurvy pieces of eight!
 
hm.
well, 1x3 pieces are also relatively rare in fancy colours. but those corner plates, I have zillions.
yay, I think using something other than 2x3 plates would allow me to make maybe one or two more ribbon colours for the gifts.
 
So some rocker in Oldenburg got a package from the district attorney, with marihuana and amphetamines. He was expecting to get back the gold watch he'd been stolen.
 
he'd had stolen*
 
No, transitive.
A stealing is a TRANSaction.
 
I'm used to things being CISactions, I guess
 
3:25 PM
Anyway, the watch was filed under 5873, and the drugs had the number 5783.
 
well, maybe he could sell his new haul and buy a new watch
 
Yeah gold is cheap again.
 
@RegDwigнt Well, it is Christmastime, you know.
 
@RegDwigнt I guess since he didn't have enough time, he'd need more speed.
 
3:41 PM
@RegDwigнt Bitcoin is the new gold.
 
@Robusto Tulips.
 
Exactly.
Apr 20 at 15:49, by Robusto
Still feels like a Ponzi scheme to me. Or a bubble like the, ahem, tulip bubble that happened a few hundred years ago in, ahem, your country?
 
commutes, over the river and through the hills
 
You work at grandmother's house?
 
Don't forget the cookies.
 
3:43 PM
The browser handles those.
 
That's what they'd have you believe.
 
Bitcoin has dropped about $300 usd in value over the last 5 days
 
Browser cookies are pretty tasteless, in virtually all meanings of that word.
@MattЭллен That's just China throwing its weight around.
 
But where China leads, others will follow.
 
3:47 PM
You can only throw China around once. Just saying.
 
also, that's just for mtGox, other exchanges are more erratic
 
Pictured from left to right: China, Bitcoin.
 
3:58 PM
 
I never understood what the hell Bitcoin is, or why the hell we need it.
When I first heard the name (like a year ago), it was way too late to begin to understand.
 
I tried to explain to a colleague once, but I didn't do a good job, and confused myself to boot
 
The point is, you might as well invest in cereals. Or LEGO. It's completely arbitrary that it's Bitcoin.
 
The only thing I know for sure is that there will never be more than 21000000 bitcoins
 
And because it's completely arbitrary, it can also collapse completely arbitrarily.
 
4:01 PM
@RegDwigнt I think bitcoins has potential to fix a lot of bs we see in the world today.
 
@MattЭллен and why is that? to what end?
 
@RegDwigнt yep
 
Currencies in general are pretty arbitrary imo
 
Currencies used to be tied to gold.
Which is very rare and finite.
 
it's not backed by a central bank or governmant, so... um... that is better somehow
 
4:02 PM
That some currencies are no longer tied to gold, is a man-made problem.
 
Gold is also arbitrary, not much technical use. Just a history of being agreed on to be valuable.
 
@RegDwigнt bitcoins are rare and finite
 
@MattЭллен which is my point.
 
Lol
 
4:03 PM
We already had bitcoins. For the last five thousand years. But the trend is clearly away from rare and finite to print whatever we want.
 
No need to print anything, just lend it multiple times.
 
Also a great idea.
 
Widely implemented, fractional reserve banking.
@RegDwigнt Gold?
 
@MattЭллен it's better because Steve Ballmer or Steve Jobs would never screw anyone.
 
@MattЭллен It is simpler, that is appealing to me.
 
4:07 PM
@RegDwigнt unless one person or conglomerate somehow get 51% or more of the coins, then the currency will for ever be controlled peer to peer. not centralising
 
> a user must broadcast a payment message digitally signed with the associated private key. Transactions are verified by a decentralized network of computers. Specialized computers use a proof-of-work system to prevent people from copying and spending the same bitcoin multiple times, a problem for digital currencies known as double-spending. The operators of these computers, known as "miners", are rewarded with transaction fees and newly minted bitcoins
Seriously, fuck this and gimme some Zimbabwean dollars.
@MattЭллен how do you "get" a coin?
I see they are being "minted". Doesn't that mean the minter starts off with all the coins?
 
similar to how SETI@home, folding@home or any of those things works
you run a programme on your computer that mines for coins
 
I don't know how SETI@home works. I'm still not seeing any aliens.
 
miners start of will coins and spend them on something
these days getting a bitcoin is so difficult that there's little point being a miner unless you were a miner when it was financially worthwhile
 
I don't understand any of this.
Who are the miners? How do you become one?
 
4:13 PM
a miner is someone who runs bitcoin mining software
 
What do you mean by getting a bitcoin is difficult? I thought it was a currency anyone could pay anyone with?
@MattЭллен and where does it mine it from?
Why aren't there 21000000 right from the start?
 
Why don't people get money the old fashion way by earning it?
 
Well I do.
I also spend it way faster than anyone can understand what the heck a bitcoin is.
 
@MattЭллен I thought they were shutting that down. No more would be created.
 
@RegDwigнt incentive.
@Robusto no, you can still mine
 
4:15 PM
I'm not sure how that's an incentive.
Incentive for what?
 
diminishing returns means it's probably not worht it
@RegDwigнt to get you to be part of the network
 
Incentive for pumping ever more actual money into a virtual system?
 
bitcoins require computer power to verify transactions
it's a peer-to-peer currency
so every node does this verification
 
So I give you access to my machine, and get a fraction of a virtual coin in return which is worth exactly zero as soon as China says it is?
 
it's difficult, computationally
 
4:18 PM
I'm already letting NSA have access to my machine, but at least I get some nice drama out of it.
 
@RegDwigнt someone sends a transaction out. verification happens across the network. bitcoin is worth exactly what people will give you for it
 
Okay, and how does that giving happen?
 
you take your 0.01 bitcoin and buy a pizza
like with paypal, only with bitcoins instead
 
But I don't have a bitcoin.
 
then it's like trying to buy pizza in the USa without and dollars
 
4:19 PM
I could get dollars on every street corner, in any bank all over the world.
 
and you can get bitcoins at bitcoin exchanges
on the internets
 
So they are the ones who will take my hard-earned actual cash.
 
And why should I be trusting them? Who are they?
 
you trust them like you trust anyone who takes your money online
they're just people who say they'll give you bitcoins for money
 
4:21 PM
So okay.
Now I've lost track again of that computational power thing.
Why would I give them access to my PC, again? If I can just buy bitcoins for money?
 
you don't give people access to your pc. you send out your transactions
any use of bitcoins will use the network
 
Well yes, and what's in for the network?
 
well, there are two possible things: transaction fees, which allow people to give transaction precedence. e.g free transactions get processed more slowly than paid for ones
and also if you process a transaction then there is the possibility of mining a bitcoin — i.e. free bitcoin
 
Okay.
 
that probablility decreases with each bitcoin mined
so that the maximum number of bitcoins in circulation never exceeds 21,000,000
 
4:26 PM
So once all coins have been mined, there is no incentive for people to join the network, or stay in it.
 
transaction fees and spending bitcoins
bitcoins can be spent in fractions, down to 0.000001 I think
some small fraction
there's no incentive to be in the dollar except that people accept it for goods
 
@MattЭллен So you're back to what credit card companies, or Paypal, or every bank everywhere has been doing forever.
 
and services and so on
@RegDwigнt yeah, but not centralised
 
@MattЭллен that's the next point. Nobody at all accepts Bitcoins.
 
@RegDwigнt that's not true
 
4:28 PM
> As of November 2013, the use of Bitcoin in the retail and commercial marketplace is relatively small compared with a relatively large use by speculators.
 
that's > nobody
 
I have never heard the word Bitcoin outside of this chat. I have heard Paypal or dollar many times.
@MattЭллен yes, a Lamborghini dealership in Korea.
 
I hear about bitcoins outside of this chat
 
Interesting.
 
although I don't know how uptodate that list is
 
4:29 PM
@MattЭллен places on that list that I have ever heard of:
 
I don't even know what bitcoins are.
 
That looks so incredibly shady, I have no words.
 
I'd rather pick up a half-eaten piece off the pavement.
 
4:31 PM
I, for some reason, have thrown away all my CDs.
 
And only available in the US and Australia.
 
So now I have no more Mariah Carey.
But the songs are in my heart.
I hope for a miracle in my life soon...
 
Anyways, thanks for the crash course. Must commute now.
 
no probs :)
CU
 
Will stay invested in plastic. The shelf-life on that is 600 years.
 
4:34 PM
I am feeling so bad these days that I don't even wanna put "there can be miracles when you believe" in my profile, lol.
 
@JohanLarsson Sure, it's very valuable technically, lots of desirable manufacturing possibilities. But that is almost entirely unrelated to its worth in currency.
 
@JasperLoy are you still taking walks around the city?
 
@MattЭллен I have not gone out for two weeks, since right after that incident happened. I am still dealing with its effects.
But otherwise, before that, yes.
I saw this huge xmas tree in ny on tv.
 
@MattЭллен @Cerberus I think this means 'Sell! Sell! Sell!'
 
4:43 PM
@Mitch You are one of the few who read the transcript regularly!
 
@JasperLoy Yeah sounds like Rockefeller center.
@JasperLoy I can't stand twitter....I need -some- semblance of a thread.
 
that rock fellow. such a christmas lover
 
Wait, I have another opinion coming...
 
@Mitch I never joined twitter or facebook.
 
Nope...nope...it passed.
@JasperLoy I saw a thing yesterday about how the things you put on a facebook page can be questionable for future employers and such...but the same article said having very little on that page can also be judged negatively. But the the explanatory text of that didn't support that point of view, so forensically, I'm in doubt.
 
4:46 PM
Lol
 
@Mitch I have also visited fuckbook.com, nothing interesting there.
@badass You caught the lol bug, lol.
 
time to go!
 
@MattЭллен CU
 
Later
 
5:25 PM
@Mitch Oxidation resistance is the only one I can think of.
 
@JohanLarsson Coffee is good for that.
 
true but different applications many times
 
5:46 PM
@Mitch Mayhaps.
From a different perspective, they have gained 40 % in value over the past day or two.
 
Is mayhaps between perhaps and maybe?
 
Perbe.
Hey, it wasn't my invention!
Although mayhaps I should get a patent...
 
Start here :-)
 
Pretending to be British?
Wai?
Does that imply it is an Americanism?
 
possibly
 
5:59 PM
Hi. I need a good topic about my essay. My essay is about(Breakup Friendship)
 
> The End of a Friendship
 

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