English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

13:00

@MattEllenД — That's right. Shame the victim.

Cerberus

@Robusto I don't see how your homonymatopeia should make you a victim of anything.

Robusto

@Cerberus — It's more like "Oh no!"-matopoeia.

Cerberus

Or homophonopeia.

Robusto

@Cerberus — Or homopohonophobia.

Cerberus

Whose?

Robusto

13:02

@Cerberus — I leave that to you to determine.

user19161

Name the victim, blame the victim, shame the victim my poem

Cerberus

Then I propose Jasper!

I'm sure he'll bear the cross without complaint?

Matt Ellen Д

is VicTim one of those hollywood couple things, like Branjoleena?

user19161

I have no idea what you are talking about. I only interrupted to show off my poem.

Robusto

@Cerberus — Some days you cross the bear, some days the bear crosses you.

Matt Ellen Д

13:04

good poem

Robusto

@JasperLoy — Which you brazenly plagiarized from me.

user19161

@Robusto Indeed. I noticed you used those lines more than once.

user19161

When you lose inhibition, you gain exhibition. another verse

Matt Ellen Д

so, @Cerberus, hexameter?

user19161

Love is not about possession, but about obsession. yet another verse

JSBᾶngs

13:09

btw @Cerb regarding the conversation from last night, using the adjective biblical pretty much always leads to the interpretation "in the bible" rather than "about the bible". for your thesis i would just call them "early christian poets"

Matt Ellen Д

Stalking's not about talking

user19161

@MattEllenД Good one!

user19161

Do the talking, then the stalking, then the walking.

user19161

The banana in the papaya in the iguana in the zenana is in Panama.

Robusto

@JasperLoy — Said the pineapple to the kumquat.

user19161

13:14

This is actually possible by cutting the banana and papaya to the right sizes.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy Anything is possible with appropriately-sized bananas and papayas.

JSBᾶngs

why are we talking about fruit when we could be talking about squid reproduction?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JSBᾶngs Are you a fan of PZ Meyers by any chance?

JSBᾶngs

@MrShinyandNew安宇 no. why?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JSBᾶngs He sometimes posts blog posts about squids.

or, squid.

JSBᾶngs

13:20

42 mins ago, by JSBᾶngs

►

^ this is mostly what i'm trying to get people to watch

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JSBᾶngs Yeah I watched some of it.

It confirms my theory: Oceans are weird.

JSBᾶngs

@MrShinyandNew安宇 tru dat

Cerberus

@MattEllenД Huh what about my hexameters?

@JSBᾶngs I'm writing in Dutch anyway, but I normally just say "biblical epics".

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

user19161

@JSBᾶngs The length of the video and the music make one sleepy.

Matt Ellen Д

13:24

@Cerberus thought I would poke you towards writing a thesis. how's it going?

user19161

I wrote a thesis while playing with faeces.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 What!? An abnormal drug trafficker? Good heavens! I am glad Spiderman stroked him. I hope he liked it.

@MattEllenД Meh, as always.

But thanks.

Matt Ellen Д

@MrShinyandNew安宇 O my gawsh. I nearly split my sides trying to stifle my laughter.

JSBᾶngs

@Cerberus yeah "biblical epics" in english could only mean the epics that are actually in the bible (eg. job, abraham, etc.)

Matt Ellen Д

@JSBᾶngs technically it could mean epics about the Bible, but no one would ever think that

as in biblical proportions

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

13:28

@MattEllenД Let it out! We even have a word for it, "lol"! (pronounced lawl)

Matt Ellen Д

@MrShinyandNew安宇 ROFLCOPTER

user19161

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Anyway is that really how you pronounce it?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy Not me. But I've heard people say it out loud in person.

Usually if I want to indicate that I found something funny, I laugh.

Cerberus

@JSBᾶngs Michael Roberts, Biblical Epic and Rhetorical Paraphrase in Late Antiquity (Liverpool 1985).

user19161

Of course the other variation is lolz, which would be pronounced as lawlz.

user19161

13:33

Chancre is better than cancer.

Matt Ellen Д

I believe that's the lesser of two evils

user19161

@MattEllenД Exactly. Chancre on its own is just a painless sore.

whoabackoff

If someone writes their name as "John Smith, Ph.D., P. Eng. (NS)", what does the (NS) signify?

Matt Ellen Д

@whoabackoff First google hit for "P. Eng. (NS)" indicates it could be Nova Scotia

whoabackoff

yeah, that's what I figured

user19161

13:40

@MattEllenД What is P Eng?

Matt Ellen Д

@JasperLoy I'm guessing someone with a PhD in engineering

user19161

@MattEllenД But who would put a place name there?

Matt Ellen Д

@JasperLoy it might be where they're registered as a chartered engineer

whoabackoff

a P Eng is a professional engineer

Matt Ellen Д

but this is all supposition.

Cerberus

13:42

> You need to acquire your P.Eng designation to practice as an engineer

Matt Ellen Д

on my part

user19161

@whoabackoff professional engineer in Nova Scotia, makes sense.

whoabackoff

the person in question lives in Ontario, I guess it was added to indicate that he studied in Nova Scotia

user19161

NS can mean national service in other contexts though, eg CPT(NS) Dr Matthew Ellen.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@whoabackoff It might mean that he's a P.Eng only in NS, the designation has to be applied-for in a particular province and I'm not sure to what degree it is effective outside the province. It's a regulated profession.

user19161

13:47

@Cerberus practise, thought you used BrE?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Regulation and licensure in engineering

Regulation of the engineering profession is established by various jurisdictions of the world to protect the safety, well-being and other interests of the general public, and to define the licensure process through which an engineer becomes authorized to provide professional services to the public. The professional status and the actual practice of professional engineering is legally defined and protected by a government body. In some jurisdictions only registered or licensed engineers are permitted to use the title of engineer or to practice engineering professionally. Another earmark th...

According to wikipedia the P.Eng designation is only valid in the province in which it was issued.

Cerberus

@JasperLoy See the little dotted line there?

user19161

@MrShinyandNew安宇 So it all makes sense now.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Ding!

user19161

@Cerberus I see.

whoabackoff

13:49

thanks @MrShinyandNew

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@whoabackoff So technically he might not have studied in NS but he is licensed there.

@whoabackoff np. I studied engineering but never went for a P.Eng., it's not that useful in my line of work.

whoabackoff

@MrShinyandNew, what's your line of work?

user19161

If one studies engineering and then does reverse engineering, he has wasted his whole life.

3

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@whoabackoff Software development, currently for a website.

whoabackoff

@MrShinyandNew, care to share the website?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

13:56

@whoabackoff No, I don't want my online pseudonym being associated with my real-life work. I like to keep them separate.

z7sg Ѫ

14:21

PENG!

I always go for a peng.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

So I was thinking about X-Men 2 the other day. How was it that Lady Deathstrike was susceptible to the serum that controlled her, and why did it leave a scar, if she has a healing factor?

z7sg Ѫ

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Movie Trivia.SE

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@z7sgѪ Is that an actual site?

z7sg Ѫ

Erm... it should be

JSBᾶngs

actually, this question is probably on-topic for sf.se

insofar as x-men is clearly an sf franchise

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

14:26

alright, I'll ask it there

z7sg Ѫ

98

Movies

Proposed Q&A site for movie enthusiasts, collectors, and people who enjoy watching movies. No TV shows and programs.

Currently in commitment.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Link back to it when you do plz. :)

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

0

Q: Mutants with healing factors in the X-Men movies

Some mutants, notably, Wolverine have a healing ability, so they basically don't age (or don't age much) and they recover perfectly from wounds and injuries, and they can't be poisoned. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, we learn that Only Wolverine can get the adamantium because his healing abil...

x-men

FallenAngelEyes

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Because X-Men 2 was a terrible movie

And they completely ruined the Lady Deathstrike character for it

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@FallenAngelEyes Ruined the character, sure. Terrible movie? I dunno. I liked it. Probably best out of all 5 movies.

FallenAngelEyes

Better than 3 at least

twitch

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

14:44

@FallenAngelEyes Maybe my expectations aren't as high as yours :)

FallenAngelEyes

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Haha could be

Anna Paquin's completely inability to maintain a southern accent was very grating to me

I've heard mostly positive things about X-Men: First Class though

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@FallenAngelEyes I liked First Class. I'd say it's as good as the others. It might be the best, or 2nd-best. If you number the films by release year, I might rate them from best to worst: 2,5,4,3,1.

FallenAngelEyes

I skipped over Wolverine

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

First Class seemed to work hard to maintain the continuity while rebooting the concept a bit (i.e. they are, once again, explaining the idea of mutation and "normals" are being introduced to mutants for the first time, etc)

Wolverine was good, IMO. Don't expect anything ground-breaking. It just tells you what he did. There are some fight scenes. It explains how he lost his memory.

First-Class breaks a bit of continuity with X3 but doesn't harm X1,2,4.

JSBᾶngs

@MrShinyandNew安宇 yeah, but i don't think that i want those things to be explained. wolverine is more intriguing when he's unknown

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

14:52

@JSBᾶngs Personally, I'm glad that they got it out of the way, I was getting tired of "where did wolverine come from" being a constant trope in the movies.

JSBᾶngs

15:08

0

Q: A word or a phrase meaning the following::

"I am highly impressed and in awe with your work and it has inspired me to do something similar." A word or a phrase for the above sentence. Thanks, Siddharth

single-word-requests phrase-requests

^ voted not constructive. a very bad single word request

-1

Q: "This serves as a quick reference to verifying resource availabilities in Espresso"

What is the correct way of expressing the following sentence¡ This serves as a quick reference to verifying resource availabilities in Espresso. This serves as a quick reference to verify resource availabilities in Espresso.

grammar

^ off-topic, as it's basically a proofreading request

Matt Ellen Д

@JSBᾶngs it's being edited into oblivion!

Cerberus

I am preparing the following question:

"How can I say the whole Odyssey in one word?"

You think that will be on topic?

Waggers

@Cerberus You missed out the "d" - you probably mean Odyssey

JSBᾶngs

we need a new se to handle @Cerb's request. word-for-things.se

Matt Ellen Д

@Cerberus if it is in English, then yes :p

Cerberus

15:12

Whoops!

I prefer "word-for-huge-text" myself.

@MattEllenД OK thanks!

Waggers

Isn't a single word for "whole Odyssey" just "Odyssey"?

Matt Ellen Д

@Cerberus in fact, just edit coderAtHeart's question, and put yours in its place!

Cerberus

@Waggers Hmm I hadn't looked at it that way.

@MattEllenД Yeah only a minor edit, right?

Matt Ellen Д

@Cerberus exactly. you're asking practically the same thing. I wouldn't want you to post a dupe!

Robusto

@JSBᾶngs — I thought he was asking for a term to describe that kind of sentence. But the whole thing has been edited down to a nub now. IDK.

Cerberus

15:17

I'm not testing such questions anyway.

Matt Ellen Д

@Robusto aye.

JSBᾶngs

0

Q: Different forms of the possessive

I want to know what's the different between the ownership usage: "He's her mother's son" "He is the son of her mother" What's the difference between using "'s " and "of"? Also, because I don't know exactly how this should be called I call it ownership. But what's its proper name? Ano...

differences possessive

^ dupe, mentioned as such in a comment by someone who i assume doesn't have close-vote privileges (since he didn't actually vote)

@Reg ping me when you get in, i want some tag synonyms created

RegDwight Ѭſ道

15:37

Oh I'm here all the time, but I'm mostly a) working while b) looking at a huge LEGO Unimog. So I'll ping you when I get home or something.

Robusto

@RegDwightѬſ道 — That is so non-block. LEGO trucks should have square wheels.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

You should have square wheels.

JSBᾶngs

Robusto would be much improved with square wheels

Robusto

@JSBᾶngs — Et tu, Brute? And after I went ahead and approved your tag edits.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Some people go ahead, others afoot.

JSBᾶngs

15:44

@Robusto i don't think you're considering the advantages of square wheels.

Robusto

@RegDwightѬſ道 — Alas.

@JSBᾶngs — Uh, great for parking in San Francisco?

JSBᾶngs

@Robusto convenient excuse when creepy neighbors ask you out

Robusto

@JSBᾶngs — Still, no guy ever scored in a square-wheeled vehicle.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

►

Robusto

@RegDwightѬſ道 — I rest my case. This guy never scored either.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

15:48

►

JSBᾶngs

@Robusto yes, but what about the fourth-grader interviewing him?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Robusto To his defense, you can't really score in a bicycle. That's how cruel English prepositions are.

Robusto

@JSBᾶngs — I predict a zero-score future for that one as well.

@RegDwightѬſ道 — Well, his bike does have a basket.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

So that's where the name "basketball" comes from... Interesting!

You'd need basketballs of steel to score on a bicycle.

JSBᾶngs

@RegDwightѬſ道 it would be difficult, though not impossible, to score on a bicycle

RegDwight Ѭſ道

15:50

@JSBᾶngs Me point precisely.

JSBᾶngs

@RegDwightѬſ道 you could always try it without any balls at all. perhaps Kit could explain that to you

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I'm not seeing @Kit around much these days.

Grace Note

She was here a bare amount yesterday

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Well, it would seem she likes everything bare.

But now I gotta commute. Laterz.

Robusto

CYA

Matt Ellen Д

16:04

I'm guessing Kit is stressing out about her web pages, since she was meant to have them done by this week and still had 11 to do on Friday

Grace Note

That's... terrifying

Matt Ellen Д

indeed

Robusto

16:21

@MattEllenД — 11 web pages is terrifying? Pfft.

Matt Ellen Д

@Robusto Well, it depends on the content. I'm quite scared of cannibalism, so 11 pages of cannibalism would be terrifying. I imagine trying to make 11 functional pages in an afternoon is hard.

If you've got no templates

Cerberus

Scared of cannibalism?

What a petty attitude.

Grace Note

@Robusto 11 pages for teachers in 3 days, yes.

Matt Ellen Д

@Cerberus I haven't belittled your fears yet! Why belittle mine?! sob

Cerberus

@MattEllenД I was just gravely offended by your disparaging, discriminatory remark on my life style, that's all.

Have I ever spoken ill of your feeder friends?

Matt Ellen Д

16:33

@Cerberus my friends who like Feeder?

I think I'm the only Feeder fan I know

escapes the cannibals

Cerberus

Fat fetishism

Fat fetishism is the strong or exclusive sexual attraction to overweight or obese people. As well as traditional attraction, the topic also incorporates feederism and gaining, where sexual gratification is obtained via the process of gaining body fat. Fat fetishism also incorporates stuffing and padding, whereas the focus of arousal is on the sensations and properties of a real or simulated gain. Attraction A 2009 study found that male fat admirers preferred females that were clinically overweight and rated both overweight and obese women more positively than slighter individuals. The s...

See Feederism.

Robusto

@Cerberus — I thought that was a gaming term.

Cerberus

Oh?

I only know this kind of feeding.

Grace Note

@Robusto Being a feeder is a gaming term, but we don't have Feederism. There's also eaters, but they're completely unrelated to feeders.

Cerberus

I see.

I suppose a feeder is a player/faction/etc. you sacrifice to make some other player stronger?

Grace Note

16:41

@Cerberus Replace "some other player" with "the enemy".

Cerberus

Oh...

So it is bad?

Grace Note

Quite.

Cerberus

I see.

Funny that it should be contrary to real life.

Or at least very different.

Grace Note

Quite. (again)

Robusto

@Cerberus — A feeder is a noob player who dies early and often, therefore boosting other players' scores. I.e. feeding them.

Cerberus

16:48

@Robusto Got it.

And no comment.

ChaosGamer ΕΛ-Υ ēel-ū

What are Eaters?

Grace Note

People who "eat" shots and attacks harmlessly because of their high ping. It's not a prevalent problem and so it's not a very widespread term, but you don't hear much of it outside of that context.

Cerberus

17:06

Ping, as in connection ping?

Mana ಠдಠ

What's happening in ELU today... scans chat

Cerberus

17:17

N'n.

Grace Note

@Cerberus Yes

Cerberus

OK.

Matt Ellen Д

17:32

@Manaಠдಠ we were all talking about how great we think you are, but someone flagged it as offensive, so it's been deleted and the room was suspended for 2 minutes

Mana ಠдಠ

Oh man....

aedia λ

Who's eating popcorn? I can smell it, you know. You're making me hungry.

Matt Ellen Д

are you at the cinema? Popcorn is evidence of a cinema

JSBᾶngs

@MattEllenД you've confused correlation and causation again. it's well known that cinemas cause popcorn, but popcorn does not necessarily cause cinemas

Cerberus

No?

You're saying that if I make a bucket of popcorn and play a film on my computer, it's not a cinema?

Matt Ellen Д

17:36

@JSBᾶngs what?! but all my studies suggest this! I mean, I haven't looked for popcorn anywhere else, but still..

aedia λ

We'll have to excavate all the popcorn and find out if there's a cinema at the bottom.

JSBᾶngs

@aediaλ i assume you mean excavate with your teeth

Cerberus

No need, the popcorn does that.

aedia λ

@Cerberus The popcorn does what now? Excavates with my teeth?

Cerberus

Oops I missed "with".

Matt Ellen Д

17:43

eh?

Cerberus

And my thingy wasn't even funny then, hehe.

Matt Ellen Д

Amoire?

aedia λ

@Cerberus I'm laughing now!

@MattEllenД bee?

JSBᾶngs

@aediaλ see?

Cerberus

@aediaλ Why am I only when when I'm not trying to be? Odd.

JSBᾶngs

17:47

@Cerberus way to accidentally the adjective

Cerberus

@JSBᾶngs Haha that is unbelievably apt.

This is always fun:

JSBᾶngs

move that to WMT

Cerberus

Oops!

Wow are the heavens made of water after all? Then they're falling down hard.

Robusto

18:08

@Cerberus — They really fall down hard if the water is in a comet.

Jez

18:20

Hmm, is it legitimate to pronounce "Koch" identically to "cock"?

Robusto

@Jez — New York City used to have a Mayor Cock (Koch).

Jez

I've genuinelly always prounced it like that

though with the Koch brothers, i'm now wanting to do it on purpose

I'm wondering whether it's a pronunciation I just invented independently

aedia λ

18:48

Sorry for running out on you, but earthquake.

5

Matt Ellen Д

!!

aedia λ

content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/08/…

Matt Ellen Д

are you ok?!

aedia λ

All ok here and we've un-evacuated the building.

Matt Ellen Д

phew!

aedia λ

18:50

Family and friends on the East Coast seem generally accounted for but cell networks are still a bit clogged.

@GraceNote All okay up there? I'm hearing New Englanders felt our earthquake too.

Grace Note

Nope, I didn't get hit.

They say it rocked the entire East Coast but apparently it skipped Massachussetts.

aedia λ

That's good!

JSBᾶngs

this is the first i've heard of any earthquake

seems like there were few if any casualties and little damage. so that's good

aedia λ

It was a little scary here. I haven't been in an earthquake since I was a kid and I didn't know what it was at first.

I'm kind of glad I wasn't home, actually; I'm sure my building is probably fine, but I live in a high rise and it took me long enough to get used to how much it shakes just in the wind. And it's terrifyingly slow to evacuate down all those stairs, as one fire alarm proved. I don't like to think about it too much.

Robusto

@aediaλ — I heard about it from coworkers. I felt nothing. This is about 8 miles from central Boston.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

19:03

We felt it up here in Toronto

That is, my coworkers felt it. Once again, I was out of the office and missed the earthquake. This happened last time there was an earthquake too.

Spare Oom

@Aedia, I was going to ask if you felt the earthquake too. I guess so.

We had a little one about a year ago, but this was unnerving.

aedia λ

@JSBᾶngs Washington Post has a few updates on actual broken things but it appears most of the devastation is like this or this.

Spare Oom

It didn't even do that here.

Apparently it made some dogs bark.

Now the news will continue with nothing newsworthy for as long as they can milk it.

aedia λ

@SpareOom It made our floor shake so much, but it had stopped by the time we got downstairs. Now that I'm back inside nothing even seems shifted.

Nobody was sure what to do except move away from the windows. I always confuse earthquakes and other storms.

Spare Oom

@aedia The floor and house were definitely shaking. I actually felt that one from July 16, which was tiny, but it didn't last as long either. This is the first "real" earthquake I've experienced.

I didn't think to take a movie of it. Rats!

Matt Ellen Д

19:10

@aediaλ apparently the safest place to stand is in a door frame

aedia λ

I always seem to miss the small ones. This is the first big one I can remember.

Spare Oom

The epicenter of the small one last year was closer to me.

The small ones I've felt have been in other places.

Matt Ellen Д

I've only been in one earthquake and it was in May when I was on holiday in Turkey. I remember thinking it was a truck going by the hotel, then it kept going for longer than expected, then it stopped. Everything went back to normal.

aedia λ

@MattEllenД fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_during.shtm ...All I could think at the time was "these office cube walls and doors are all fake!"

Spare Oom

@MattEllen The truck passing kind is kind of cute. ;)

@aediaλ I'll have to remember that for the aftershocks.

Robusto

19:17

I slept through a 4.x earthquake in L.A. once. Didn't even notice anything strange in my room and didn't find out about it till the next day.

Spare Oom

@Robusto They're talking about the depth being only 3 1/2 miles. Does that make any difference as to how far it could be felt? Toronto seems far to me.

JSBᾶngs

i was in this earthquake:

2001 Nisqually earthquake

The Nisqually earthquake was an intraslab earthquake, occurring at 10:54 a.m. PST (18:54 UTC). on February 28, 2001, and was one of the largest recorded earthquakes in Washington state history. The quake measured 6.8 on the MMS and lasted approximately 45 seconds. The epicenter of the earthquake was under Anderson Island, about northeast of Olympia. The focus was at a depth of . Tremors were felt as far away as Scio, Oregon, across the border in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and 175 miles east in Pasco, Washington. There was also reports that it was felt as far away as Sandpoint, ...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@SpareOom Apparently they felt it in Ottawa, which is even farther.

JSBᾶngs

this was when i was in college in Seattle. not much happened there, though... my bookcase rattled, mostly

Robusto

@SpareOom — IDK, I have never felt an earthquake in my life, though I'm told I have endured them.

Spare Oom

19:25

When I moved here, I though this was a safe area - no hurricanes, tornados or earthquakes, but they followed me.

JSBᾶngs

i also felt the 2004 Bucharest earthquake, though i was in Suceava (some 9 hrs away) at the time, and it was barely perceptible

@SpareOom where are you exactly? DC?

Spare Oom

In Maryland, but within 25 miles of DC

The day the furniture arrived, so did hurricane Isabell.

Hurricane Isabel

Hurricane Isabel was the costliest and deadliest hurricane in the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season. The ninth named storm, fifth hurricane, and second major hurricane of the season, Isabel formed near the Cape Verde Islands from a tropical wave on September 6 in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. It moved northwestward, and within an environment of light wind shear and warm waters it steadily strengthened to reach peak winds of 165 mph (265 km/h) on September 11. After fluctuating in intensity for four days, Isabel gradually weakened and made landfall on the Outer Banks of North Carolina...

It wasn't a big deal inland, though.

1999 Pacific typhoon season

The 1999 Pacific typhoon season has no official bounds; it ran year-round in 1999, but most tropical cyclones tend to form in the northwestern Pacific Ocean between May and November. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The scope of this article is limited to the Pacific Ocean, north of the equator and west of the international date line. Storms that form east of the date line and north of the equator are called hurricanes; see 1999 Pacific hurricane season. Tropical Storms formed in the entire west...

That one was a big deal.

aedia λ

@SpareOom I'm also in MD. At home I can see DC from my backyard. If I had a backyard.

I was still up in the Northeast in school during those storms.

Cerberus

You people having bad weather too?

Spare Oom

No the weather is very nice.

I just thought that the DC area was supposed to be free from natural disasters.

I was wrong.

Cerberus

19:34

Oh, dear.

Spare Oom

Well, there haven't been any bad ones, really. But the potential is certainly here.

Cerberus

We just had a terrible rain storm here, power went down several times, huge leakage, sucks.

Cleaning it up as we speak.

Spare Oom

Oh. Leaks in Venice and the Netherlands are frequent, I'd think.

Robusto

@SpareOom — We have enough political disasters there. We don't need natural ones.

Spare Oom

@Robusto Amen!

Cerberus

19:36

Well, not if your house is well maintained.

Unfortunately my house is 400 years old.

Spare Oom

@Cerberus My country isn't even 400 years old.

Cerberus

Aww.

Spare Oom

Though I hear the ground is.

Cerberus

Well, then you won't have much leakage.

Let's hope your water won't leak down to China.

Spare Oom

Oh, there are other factors, but I live pretty much on the top of a hill. The basement can leak anyway, though.

Cerberus

19:38

See? The ground.

Spare Oom

yeah. The water table must be fairly high.

But it can't compare to the Netherlands.

Cerberus

My house has always been below sea level, but that isn't a problem! It's just the rain.

Spare Oom

Do you even have basements?

Cerberus

Yes.

They are usually water-tight concrete boxes, I am told.

Jez

►

Cerberus

19:40

And because everything here is soft clay, all houses are based on wooden poles that are drilled 10–20 meters into the clay until the first or second layer of sand.

aedia λ

@Cerberus Aw, I hope there isn't too much of a mess!

Spare Oom

I grew up in Kansas, where basements are necessary for tornado shelters (unless you want to be blown over in a trailer home).

Jez

Philosophical question: why would guys with $100 billion spend all their time campaigning for MORE money?

isn't that, like, the last thing that they need?

Cerberus

@aediaλ Thanks! It looks like we're going to be all right, not much damage, and the leaking is subsiding.

aedia λ

storyful.com/stories/1000006928 This is the best summary I have seen yet of the earthquake news.

Cerberus

19:42

@Jez People are irrational. They think more of a good thing is always good, disregarding the possibility that it doesn't help over a certain level.

aedia λ

And now I'm really for real going to stop reading about earthquakes.

Spare Oom

@Cerberus Good to hear.

Matt Ellen Д

@Jez Coke Brothers? Is there a Loke Ness Monster too?

Cerberus

So when was this Virginian EQ?

Just now?

Jez

@Cerberus Are they really that deluded, though?

Cerberus

19:43

I didn't know they had them so near the east coast.

Jez

I suppose they might genuinely be, but it would seem blindingly obvious to me that once you get to that level, you dont need any more for pretty much anything

Cerberus

@Jez I think so. If you have spent years and years doing a certain thing, like amassing money, it becomes a habit, and you keep doing it. If you stop, you fall into a black hole, your life lacks purpose.

Spare Oom

@Cerberus not quite 2 hours ago. 1:51 pm Eastern time.

Cerberus

@SpareOom I'm glad there were no casualties.

aedia λ

@Cerberus earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/…

Spare Oom

19:45

@Cerberus Me too.

Jez

Regarding the earthquake; guys, my heart goes out to you all. :-( jmckinley.posterous.com/dc-earthquake-devastation

Cerberus

OK.

Jez

@Cerberus with $22 billion, I'd find purpose.

aedia λ

41 mins ago, by aedia λ

@JSBᾶngs Washington Post has a few updates on actual broken things but it appears most of the devastation is like this or this.

Jez

Heck, I could pay a bunch of people to find purpose for me.

Spare Oom

19:46

@Jez Yeah, I lived through that one too. >.<

Cerberus

@Jez Oh no! Thank God Japan never gets that.

Spare Oom

@Cerberus I lived through an earthquake in Japan like that too! I want a t-shirt.

Jez

> I just flew in to Detroit on business, so I didn't feel it, but you can see it pretty clearly impacted the area near downtown. It shook a few houses to the ground, it left immense cracks in the streets, and I can already see looting going on.

> God, some areas look like a third-world country now! I hope the other places handled it better.

Cerberus

BRB

aedia λ

Earthquake hipster jokes are so last hour.

simchona

19:57

You just wait til you guys have tsunami warnings and have to evacuate...except that the past two times nothing happened

Cerberus

Yeah tsunamis are the worst.

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