English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

It is true that as a fox, I should know this, so consider this a spoilers warning. In a recent post, Geek Girl mentions that the mating call of the fox is a series of sharp, eerie barks and that this is called gekkering. This is supported by a citation in Wikipedia, but the reference is not one ...

EnglishMaster

So only way to make profit from Bitcoin is through mining, isn't it?

Hugo

I was just about to ask about this. I didn't quite get what you meant by *spoilers*:

"It is true that as a fox, I should know this, so consider this a spoilers warning."

I didn't see anything that followed that would give something away. What exactly did you mean?

JSBձոգչ

@KitFox way to troll for points with timely pop-culture cross-references

EnglishMaster

1 BTC = 772.6

usd

Phuck my life

Cerberus

4:33 PM

@EnglishMaster Or as an investment. Making a profit through mining is impossible for normal people.

KitFox

@JSBձոգչ I was just trying to get views. One more hat!

EnglishMaster

@Cerberus How many BTC did you buy when it was cheaper?

KitFox

@Hugo I was joking that I was giving it away that foxes gekker.

Cerberus

@EnglishMaster 2.

EnglishMaster

Damn

JSBձոգչ

4:37 PM

@EnglishMaster so it's recovered about half its value after the China crash

Cerberus

If you take the lowest point as a reference, yes.

Robusto

Yeah. Nice to get in at $10 and out at $1200.

EnglishMaster

phuck, I think some people made huge amount of money with BTC

KitFox

Well, that was fast.

@Hugo english.stackexchange.com/a/144144/8360

Hugo

@KitFox Excellent!

Cerberus

4:41 PM

> Fix the bug that modified tab interface colour settings cannot be saved in stylers configurator.

Stupid noun adjectives!

Robusto

@KitFox +1 for being a good reporter.

KitFox

Good reporter?

Robusto

@Cerberus Stupid poor punctuation!

@KitFox Yes. You got a source quote and ran with it. This is how reporters work.

Cerberus

Well, how would you punctuate it?

Jasper Loy

@EnglishMaster If you want to say phuck, you might as well say fuck.

RegDwigнt

4:42 PM

@Robusto real reporters run with it to the NSA, not the public. Sheesh.

Robusto

@Cerberus "Fix the bug that modified tab interface; colour settings cannot be saved in stylers configurator."

Cerberus

But that is not correct!

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Real reporters don't have to run to the NSA. It comes to them.

@Cerberus Then what sense are you trying to convey?

KitFox

@Robusto Oh. Well. Also, I wanted something that I could plausibly add so that I could get the sockpuppet hat.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto That's more about the realness of the NSA than that of the reporters.

Jasper Loy

4:43 PM

I have 12 hats now, not too bad.

Cerberus

@Robusto "You"? I would never so abuse noun adjectives!

Robusto

@KitFox Hey! It's 2014! The hat craze is so last year.

KitFox

Says the guy who is losing to me.

Cerberus

> Fix the bug that [[modified tab interface colour settings] cannot be saved in stylers configurator].

Jasper Loy

Anyway, hats are going to disappear soon, so no point getting more.

Robusto

4:44 PM

@KitFox All the more reason to move on.

Cerberus

See? That's the structure they intended.

Robusto

Besides, don't bother me today. I still have a hangover.

Cerberus

Who doesn't? Oh, the Hibbit.

KitFox

@Robusto Eat a greasy breakfast.

Robusto

@Cerberus Fix the bug wherein modified tab-interface colour settings cannot be saved in [the] stylers configurator.

Cerberus

4:47 PM

Yes, somewhat better. Still ugly as hell, though.

Robusto

Perhaps you also mean "styler's"?

@Cerberus Well, you always have the option to recast the sentence.

Cerberus

I think that is another noun adjective...

@Robusto And that is what they should have done, yes.

EnglishMaster

I'm crying now

Robusto

This is why editing is hard. Frequently you just want to rewrite the whole damn thing. But if you accept the narrow scope of the given prose and try to make minor adjustments, you get nitpicked to death.

Jasper Loy

@EnglishMaster What happened?

Cerberus

4:48 PM

But I think it is a good example of noun adjective abuse confusion.

Jasper Loy

@Robusto That's why editing posts on SE is hard.

EnglishMaster

because I didn't buy Bitcoin when it was $13. I knew it existed but I reacted to it like "That'a not a reliable way to transact money!" and "Hmm, interesting technology, I love P2P so I should look into its technical side"

God

Robusto

►

Jasper Loy

@EnglishMaster I am not sure about the value of bitcoin, I would never buy it, so don't be sad, it's not real money.

Hugo

@KitFox Added to Wiktionary: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gekker#English

Cerberus

4:51 PM

@Robusto Yes, you have to either know exactly what was going on in their convoluted minds, or have the authority to change their sentence entirely.

KitFox

@Hugo I hope he doesn't mind that.

But that's pretty cool.

Hugo

@KitFox I expect he doesn't, but I can remove it if you think best

KitFox

Now if we can multicollider it, I can get one last hat.

@Hugo If he happens upon it, he can ream me out then.

Hugo

for once in a few hundred, a question where we can actually say who coined it!

Robusto

If you want to draw the attention of law enforcement, make sure you buy and sell a lot of bitcoins. Since they're becoming the currency of convenience for drug cartels, this is one way TPTB will try to track them.

KitFox

4:53 PM

@Hugo Now we're tied for #4.

Jasper Loy

Shit, there is no sound on my Linux Mint. One reason to use Windows instead.

Hugo

@KitFox I think I'm pretty much hatted out, unless I get one last Horror hat from @Ste on meta.english.stackexchange.com/a/4375/9001

KitFox

I could theoretically still get Horror-ed, but it is such a long shot. And I don't feel like putting the effort into writing a few more good questions either.

Even though I like the look of the bunny ears.

Hugo

we have 6 from ELU in the network-wide top 10

RegDwigнt

And probably 26 in the top 30.

Hugo

5:02 PM

and ELU is a good number 9

Jasper Loy

@Hugo That's a great achievement.

KitFox

Considering how small our population is compared to the other SE sites, that's pretty good.

Jasper Loy

Hey @MattЭллен!

Matt Эллен

ho ho ho happy new year everybody

hi @JasperLoy

@KitFox so we need to breed more users for next year. got it.

KitFox

Happy New Year!

Jasper Loy

5:12 PM

It's already the second of Jan here, lol.

KitFox

10

Q: What does the fox say?

It is true that as a fox, I should know this, so consider this a spoilers warning. In a recent post, Geek Girl mentions that the mating call of the fox is a series of sharp, eerie barks and that this is called gekkering. This is supported by a citation in Wikipedia, but the reference is not one ...

etymology terminology fox-english spoilers

Go look at it!

Jasper Loy

@KitFox Are you aiming for views?

KitFox

Yes!

It's on the MC, but toward the bottom. @Reg is hogging!

EnglishMaster

huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/12/30/…

This guy is my role model

KitFox

shrugs

Jasper Loy

5:15 PM

@EnglishMaster Geezis!

Hugo

@KitFox some more answers might help

KitFox

Maybe. Close to 200 views already is not too shabby, but I only have another day to get to 500.

ima make some coffee, do some coding.

Robusto

@KitFox Speaking of the MC, where is that located in the new interface?

KitFox

It's buried on the bottom right nav "hot network questions" or something.

Robusto

@KitFox "bottom right nav"? I know not whereof you speak.

KitFox

5:27 PM

looks at hands

Right column. You know where "tagged" is?

On the main page, where the question count is large and bold at the top?

Robusto

Oh, you mean the right rail. Got it.

KitFox

Rail. Yes. OK.

makes note

Oh yeah. Coffee. brb

Why won't this table paste? Paste, damn it, paste!

Robusto

Wrong number of cells selected? One or exact match is all you get.

KitFox

It won't paste at all, no matter what I choose.

Robusto

Excel?

KitFox

5:39 PM

Maybe I need admin privileges or something. I'm trying to copy a query result and paste it into Excel. This is usually no problem at all.

I'm doing it across the network though.

Oh. I guess that was it. Or my keyboard is messed up. It has been finicky lately. I wonder where I put that compressed air?

RegDwigнt

@KitFox oink-oink!

I'm no longer in the top 3.

I'll be skating off pretty rapidly now.

Hello @D.M.Davidson!

You could use more hats!

tchrist

We’re being spammed.

RegDwigнt

-2

Q: Here is Practical Explanation about Next Life, Purpose of Human Life, philosophical/religious facts, theories etc

Here is Practical Explanation about Next Life, Purpose of Human Life, philosophical/religious facts, theories etc. http://jayagauranitai.blogspot.in/

meaning word-choice single-word-requests grammaticality grammar

D. M. Davidson

Having never been to a NY's party before, it's really something to be offered a 'limited edition' 2014 hat!

2

tchrist

Comme j’ai dit avant

RegDwigнt

5:49 PM

@D.M.Davidson Indeed! There, enjoy yours!

But you could still get half a dozen more in about a minute.

@D.M.Davidson simply go remove the smiley from this answer. I would do it myself, but I'd get zero hats for that. If you do it in my stead, you'll get three. Yes, three.

And talk to us!

Say nine more things and you'll get yet another hat.

Cerberus

What does "deleted by community" mean again?

RegDwigнt

It's really quite simple.

Matt Эллен

nine more things and you'll get another hat

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus it's when people flag it to the extent of it getting removed automatically due to the number of flags.

Cerberus

Ahh OK!

KitFox

5:57 PM

@MattЭллен Don't you need stars too?

Cerberus

How many flags do you need for that?

tchrist

Meaning just peons’ flags, or yours too?

Matt Эллен

oh! I just remember @RegDwigнt and @MrShiny New Scientist has a LEGO competition, if you didn't already know

KitFox

> post 10 messages in chat with at least two of them starred

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus six.

Cerberus

5:58 PM

OK noted.

Matt Эллен

I'm a bit late in telling you. the deadline's 14th jan

Cerberus

Why not seven?

RegDwigнt

@MattЭллен no I did not!

Matt Эллен

@KitFox I thnk I've got all mine

RegDwigнt

@MattЭллен I'd probably not participate anyway, I suck at competitions.

Matt Эллен

5:58 PM

from chat, anyway

KitFox

@RegDwigнt I was thinking your animals should go in one of the Idea Books. We got two of them for the boys for Christmas.

@D.M. Getting hat fever yet?

Matt Эллен

those are the competition rules, if any lego fans are interested

tchrist

RegDwigнt

@MattЭллен see. So much hassle.

And such soft requirements that there'll be a very stiff competition.

I'll be competing against photos of three-year-olds eating Duplo. And losing.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt I shouldn’t have thought you’d be into that sort of thing.

@Kit Notice the completion Google gives on "que dice": it’s el zorro

RegDwigнt

6:05 PM

And yeah, the Beautiful LEGO book, while nice, only contains pics you can find online for free, on absolutely any remotely LEGO-related site in existence.

The Hayabusa set is a CUUSOO one, it's actually quite rare but also very bland.

!!lego 21101

KitSox

brickset.com/detail/?Set=21101-1

tchrist

@Kit youtube.com/watch?v=7mW_t41Wb44

RegDwigнt

A yellow box with some grey stuff.

@tchrist ...OK.

6:08 PM

Oh. I see.

tchrist

I think you will like the Video more than you are expecting.

KitFox

Oh, I didn't keep watching. Should I watch the whole thing?

I have some coding to clean up.

tchrist

Oh. You don’t read Spanish.

KitFox

I do a bit.

tchrist

It’s a really funny lyric.

Translation

Well, kinda. I think those don’t always match the printed lyrics from the video.

Eek, someone used the dreaded esl tag.

> With the chord progression of C♯m—B—F♯, the song is written in the key of C♯ dorian, with lead vocal range spanning from C♯4 to F♯6.

C# dorian — now that’s a popular key for a pop song, isn’t it?

The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)

"The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)", also known as "The Fox", is an electronic dance song and viral video by Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis. The top trending video of 2013 on YouTube, "The Fox" was posted on the video-sharing website on 3 September 2013, and had over 300 million views as of 24 December 2013. "The Fox" peaked at number 6 for three consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, and is also the highest-ranked song by a Norwegian artist on the chart since a-ha's number-one song "Take on Me" in 1985. Originally an "anti-hit" produced as a part of the duo's new season of Norwegian t...

> Due to the popularity of the song, TMZ reported on 18 October 2013 that two weeks away from Halloween, the sales of fox costumes had already risen by almost 40% at one costume outlet from last Halloween, according to the data from Spirit Halloween, BuyCostumes and Amazon.

I really like this answer:

1

A: How accepted is ‘f***ing’ in informal conversation?

Swearing in a foreign language is very rarely a good idea. As well as the difficulty of judging the level of acceptability of swearing in what will by definition be an unfamiliar social situation, there is the difficulty of judging any particular word (the French con is a very mild insult while ...

KitFox

6:29 PM

@tchrist It looks like the same as the English version of the video.

tchrist

@KitFox Ok.

KitFox

But yes, they are pretty funny.

tchrist

The Spanish lyrics seem fun to sing.

KitFox

Yes. I like singing Spanish songs.

Probably because I can focus more on the sounds and tones than the 'proper' words.

tchrist

I never thought of it that way.

The full R that appears all over is fun.

It cannot be approached timidly, only full on and furious.

Why does it feel like Sunday on ELU?

I mean, all the lame crud.

Johan Larsson

6:40 PM

Prolly hangovers around the sphere, not me though.

Cerberus

Yo.

Did you have fun and eat lots of traditional Swedish NYE food?

Johan Larsson

jå

Cerberus

Good.

Is that pronounced somewhat like German joh and Dutch joh, you think?

Johan Larsson

We had a homemade pizza, don't know if there is any traditional food. Had a standard lazy night at home. I never leave the dogs alone on nye.

tchrist

@Reg Oh cool, NPR has an interview with Elton John on right now.

Cerberus

6:42 PM

Heh.

OK I see.

tchrist

I think it’s a rerun from a few months ago.

Johan Larsson

@Cerberus That would be my guess, it is not a real word though. It is yo spelled in Swedish.

Did you have fun?

tchrist

Right, you can listen to it here.

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson Oh haha. In Dutch, it is a casual way of saying "ja". A bit like English "yeah", but even more casual.

It is like saying "yeah, sort of".

@tchrist I am ashamed to admit I kind of like listening to Spanish pop songs.

Johan Larsson

Actually jå sounds like yeah with a Finnish accent.

Cerberus

6:46 PM

The enjoyment of listening to a language one has to make something of an effort to understand is an added bonus.

@JohanLarsson Haha.

►

I actually enjoy listening to this song once in a while.

And trying to fully understand the words and the grammar. I looked at the lyrics a while ago, so I can understand it now.

Johan Larsson

I would be surprised if the lyrics are good given the sound of the song :)

I think I prefer it in Spanish

Cerberus

They'd be pretty boring if you translated them into English or Dutch...

tchrist

Yes. Isn’t that odd?

@JohanLarsson Yes.

Cerberus

"Return to see you", more or less, is the title.

"I can't be happy without you" and such crap.

Johan Larsson

Sounds like this type of song:
    while (time < 3:20){
        Standardlines.Next();
    }

Cerberus

6:50 PM

@tchrist Do you know why it is volverte a ver, and not volver a verte? I suspect it is metri causa?

KitFox

Is it about how she left him because he had a crappy flat, but then he met some hippie chick who didn't mind getting rained on inside?

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson Haha, exactly.

@KitFox Yes, that is exactly what the Spanish says.

KitFox

I am some kind of genius with this stuff.

Cerberus

Except the Spanish word is more like "hippie-emo" than merely "hippie".

KitFox

emo-hippie

Cerberus

6:52 PM

Hippo-omie.

KitFox

Yes, I forgot the Spainards put the adjectives on the other side.

Cerberus

That would mean "hippo granny" in Dutch.

Johan Larsson

I was in Kingston Jamaica in a club once. I remember the DJ, he was funny. When they sang "I'm gonna love you forever" he interrupted with the microphone yelling "LIES".

Cerberus

Haha, nice.

KitFox

I'm gonna love you for as long as it takes.

Johan Larsson

6:56 PM

We were 19 and not sober at all, I remember the locals thought we were the FBI.

Cerberus

Haha, really?

How is Kingston?

tchrist

@Cerberus Perhaps so. I agree the other way sounds more normal. But there is also a tendency to promote/move clitics to earlier positions in the VP than they belong. It’s just that the reflexive version of volver, volverse, changes the meaning from “return” to “become”. But then it makes no sense to have a ver “to see” afterwards, so this has to be that clictic regression I mentioned.

Cerberus

@tchrist Right, that is what I was thinking.

tchrist

@Cerberus Centaur? :)

Johan Larsson

@Cerberus hmm, nice is the wrong word, interesting.

Cerberus

7:00 PM

Sure!

RegDwigнt

I am moving to chat here.

Three rooms at once is two too many.

Cerberus

Hippy.

RegDwigнt

Before It Was Cool!

tchrist

@Reg Did you listen to the Elton episode on Fresh Air?

Cerberus

And by hippy I mean pussy but tailored to your kind.

tchrist

7:01 PM

Speaking of hippy....

Cerberus

RegDwigнt

@tchrist I only just got your NPR message to my inbox. This very second.

Cerberus

Sony is more Dutch than Bensdorp, apparently.

Welcome to tax-haven paradise!!

tchrist

There were lines a hundred+ people long waiting in lines overnight in Denver for the opening today of the nation’s first legal recreational pot shops.

Cerberus

Haha.

I thought you were going to say fireworks...

RegDwigнt

7:03 PM

That's not OVER 9000.

Cerberus

No? It could be.

tchrist

There were many lines each over a hundred.

RegDwigнt

I thought it'd be OVER 9000 and the nation would collapse and the world would end. That's what I kept hearing!

tchrist

No, only Colorado alone.

Cerberus

Listen to your other voices.

RegDwigнt

7:04 PM

@tchrist world, Colorado, where's the difference.

tchrist

Much of Colorado is already OVER 9000 anyway.

The mean is 6800.

Which means you don’t go too many sigmata away to hit 9000.

RegDwigнt

That's approximately my number of views.

tchrist

Aye.

RegDwigнt

Yours is halfway there.

Cerberus

Why stigmata?

tchrist

7:07 PM

stdevs

> In statistics and probability theory, the standard deviation (represented by the Greek letter sigma, σ) shows how much variation or dispersion from the average exists.

Standard deviation

In statistics and probability theory, the standard deviation (represented by the Greek letter sigma, σ) shows how much variation or dispersion from the average exists. A low standard deviation indicates that the data points tend to be very close to the mean (also called expected value); a high standard deviation indicates that the data points are spread out over a large range of values. The standard deviation of a random variable, statistical population, data set, or probability distribution is the square root of its variance. It is algebraically simpler though in practice less robus...

The first Boulder County licence for pottery is apparently to go to Nederland, which is 8228 downtown but OVER 9000 elsewhere in this bumpy hamlet.

Actually, ’tis bigger than a hamlet.

Almost a village.

Cerberus

Haha.

How many Nederlanden are there?

tchrist

Various.

BTW, a nice and short, informal, but very clear discussion of clitic promotion in Spanish VPs can be read here, in section 4, "Clitic promotion".

There are many scholarly papers about this, actually, but that is short and sweet and to the point.

@Cerberus Can’t you use the same tool that did that to find the other Neds?

> A clitic that functions as the direct or indirect object of a gerund or an infinitive can usually be attached either enclitically to the gerund/infinitive or proclitically to the governing finite verb. In the latter case clitic promotion is said to have occurred....

> Quieren comprarlo or Lo quieren comprar, Seguí cantándolo or Lo seguí cantando.

Cerberus

@tchrist I merely copied an image, didn't use a tool.

tchrist

@Cerberus Drat.

Cerberus

@tchrist Still not the same as attaching it to a different verb.

tchrist

7:20 PM

Yeah. They talk about things you “can’t” do below that. Your metri causa may yet rear its poetic head.

I can find only two towns in America named Nederland. The other one is in Texas.

Cerberus

We also have a town called Nederland in Nederland.

RegDwigнt

I tried to take a pic of the muffins, but failed grandiosly.

Cerberus

Aww.

You can post an ugly picture.

RegDwigнt

Perhaps I'll upload one of these shitty ones some day.

tchrist

@Cerberus Odd.

Cerberus

7:23 PM

Quite.

Also Amsterdam.

And America.

And probably Holland as well.

tchrist

Amsterdam is a country?

Cerberus

A small town.

Like America.

tchrist

That same site has a good section on allophones you should really read regarding the stops getting fricasseed.

RegDwigнt

And in that pan are the leftovers of what I cooked for breakfast.

Cerberus

Yay!

I like.

RegDwigнt

7:26 PM

The pic is a lie.

They are brown.

Dark brown. What with the cocoa and chocolate and Kahlúa.

Cerberus

Huh.

RegDwigнt

Yeah.

This is more like it, but only because in this pic, everything is dark brown.

Anyway. I'm off to take them out of the form.

tchrist

Let there by light!

Sandhi also produces fricatives.

Apparently only 24 pot shops opened this morning, across 8 towns.

Well duh, it’s NYD.

> Within hours, the hand of the free market was already evident. In the face of strong demand, one shop raised its price for an eighth of an ounce from $25 to $45. Others kept prices steady. A number of shops imposed limits on the amount of pot customers could buy.

> Charles Bechtel, 57, said he'll likely return to LoDo Wellness, which charges about the same as his dealer.

Sigh. Price-parity with the black market is hardly the goal here.

> While marijuana sales remain illegal under federal law, no place in the world — not even Amsterdam — has gone as far as Colorado to legalize and regulate sales of relatively small amounts of marijuana.

Take that, Nederland!

RegDwigнt

Well, Nederland has come full circle. Expect the same to happen for Colorado.

All it takes is a bunch of stupid tourists.

Ste

@Hugo You got it! Happy new year!

RegDwigнt

7:44 PM

So how do you keep track of who's still todo and who's done with?

Must be quite some work.

Cerberus

@tchrist Except Uruguay!

Hugo

@Ste Thanks! The Hat Santa of Sunderland strikes again!

Only three more votes need here to repay Ste and give him a Horror hat:

37

A: Has anyone on EL&U been awarded the 'I See Your Point' hat yet?

If this answer gets to 40 upvotes, I will get my "Oh the Horror" hat. Please help, especially if you're one of those to have received the hat from me on the club question.

Cerberus

I'm on my ~~mobile~~ Handy btw.

Had to leave in a hurry.

KitFox

8:39 PM

There are ten secret hats. I have eight, then there is Eureka for nine, and what is the last one?

Matt Эллен

the dog one?

yeah, you don't have that one, so probably that one

KitFox

I think that's a fake one.

Matt Эллен

ah

have you got all the other ones from the sprite map?

KitFox

But not even Manishearth has 10 secret hats.

But there are ten clues for ten hats.

30

A: Winter Bash 2013: Secret Hats

They're not really all that secret if we give it all away so easily, are they? Here are some hints - if you can figure them out, you're on your way to some SECRET hats: ...then I took an arrow to the knee. Earned ten of the most meaningless points on the 'Net I live... AGAIN! He ain't no drag...

...then I took an arrow to the knee.
Earned ten of the most meaningless points on the 'Net (I See Your Point)
I live... AGAIN! (Bushido)
He ain't no drag
from JBM to JWH (Chuck Yeager)
Humpty Dumpty, or perfect in every way? (I'm Not Listening)
There are only so many people capable of putting together words that stir and move and sing. (mod hat?)
You look like an absolute idiot.
You may have to go to Puerto Vallarta, break the law and then fight extradition to get over this one. (IG-88)
Solve these riddles and it's yours (Eureka!)

I'm not sure which goes with IG-88, I'm Not Listening, Before It Was Cool.

I'm missing one.

Oh three hats.

Matt Эллен

there's the greyed out face and the autobot's insignia. Im not sure if they're real hats either

@KitFox I'm not listening is probably humpty dumpty

and that other robot one

KitFox

8:52 PM

Autobots v. Decepticons?

Oh.

19

A: How Do I Get the Winterbash 2013 Secret Hats?

Chuck Yeager "from JBM to JWH" Ghost of Winterbash Past "I live... AGAIN!" I See Your Point "Earned ten of the most meaningless points on the 'Net" Before It Was Cool "He ain't no drag" Eureka! "Solve these riddles and it's yours" IG-88 "You may have to go to ...