English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

22:02

@simchona The only authoritative one!

Matt Ellen Д

indeed!

simchona

@Cerberus I didn't want someone to be like "No! The XXX is authoritative too!"

I would've superlatived it earlier

superlativated?

Matt Ellen Д

superlevitated?

or is that flying?

simchona

@MattEllenД The OED casts superpowers. I think the OED must be able to superlevitate, but not other dictionaries

Matt Ellen Д

that would make it a lot easier to carry the full collection

Cerberus

22:07

@simchona I'm glad we're in the same boat!

FallenAngelEyes

...what

1

A: Why does gasoline have the word "gas" in it, if it's never gaseous?

Because it's highly volatile and combustible--and therefore becomes gaseous easily.

Just... no.

Matt Ellen Д

exactly my thoughts

who voted it up?!

gah

simchona

I wanted to flag as "not an answer"

FallenAngelEyes

I don't know what's reeling more, my English sense or my science sense!

It is an answer, just a wrong one, so I downvoted.

simchona

The mods actually do listen to not an answer flags

Matt Ellen Д

22:10

indeed they do

FallenAngelEyes

Wrong answers don't usually need to be flagged, just downvoted into oblivion, at least if it's not egregious in any other way.

simchona

well, I'm off for now

talk to y'all later

Matt Ellen Д

toodloo @simchona

FallenAngelEyes

later @simchona!

goes focus on writing a blog post now

Matt Ellen Д

22:28

sleep

aedia λ

@KitΘδς kisses be safe!

@Cerberus Indeed! It's sunny outside. Except for the wind you wouldn't even know it had just been hurricane-ing.

Cerberus

@aediaλ Yay!

So no damage to your house and all?

aedia λ

Doesn't seem so! Lots of leaves and small branches off the trees, though.

There was a bigger tree down, but people were already busy out removing it when I went out for a walk.

Cerberus

OK good.

aedia λ

A little bit of floodwater in low areas in the park was the worst I saw.

New York City seems to have gotten it bad, with streets being flooded in some places.

So I guess it's good that they evacuated some areas.

It's odd having family and friends still in the storm at the same time that I have sunny skies, and knowing it's the same storm.

Cerberus

22:45

Yeah that sucks...

But no casualties in your region?

aedia λ

Not near me. I think nearly 20 deaths total have been reported, but none close to my area; we seem relatively unharmed.

Cerberus

22:59

Hmm 20 is still not good.

aedia λ

Yeah.

It's odd, there's hardly any damage here so now that I'm looking at photos of the flooding and stuff it is hard to fathom.

New York Times has some roundups of the east coast damage like this one that includes the MD coast.

That's Ocean City, a few hours from me.

In NYC here's the bad flooding.

Cerberus

23:18

Wow that's pretty bad.

Public transport in the city was interrupted for the first time in history? Wow. It sometimes gets interrupted here even with only a few inches of snow.

FallenAngelEyes

@Cerberus Having grown up in upstate NY, Dutch reaction to snowfall makes me giggle.

aedia λ

@Fallen! Hi!

FallenAngelEyes

I can't believe you ran out of salt 2 years in a row

Heya @aedia, how goes it?

aedia λ

@FallenAngelEyes Is it anything like DC reaction to snowfall?

Cerberus

@FallenAngelEyes I know! But it's just public transport that reacts stupidly. They even had huge problems a few years ago with the trains merely because of the leaves that were falling from the trees in autumn!

aedia λ

23:26

We can't handle an inch or two down here. A couple inches and they shut down aboveground metro and panic.

Cerberus

@FallenAngelEyes Yes, that too! It was a very long winter, but still.

aedia λ

Also, I think they have random passerby drive the plows and there are sites to report if they knock down your mailbox.

FallenAngelEyes

@aediaλ Ahaha, sites, seriously?

aedia λ

@FallenAngelEyes Like, the county website has a special form, I mean.

FallenAngelEyes

@Cerberus I remember that! You'd think they'd be used to that with your autumns being constantly rainy and crappy.

@aediaλ That's awesome.

We just accept it as a matter of course.

Cerberus

23:28

@FallenAngelEyes I know! The trains were said to have gotten square wheels from the leaves... come on!

FallenAngelEyes

Mailboxes must sometimes fall prey to the necessity of a clear driveway. It's like a wintertime food chain.

aedia λ

I didn't understand it when I first got down here (being from the north as well). I was like, why are you people panicking? Then I realized... it's because they do nothing to deal with the roads until it's wayyy too late.

FallenAngelEyes

@aediaλ Yeah, they're not prepared at all. We have so many snowplows and so much salt in upstate that it's rarely a problem.

Cerberus

That's probably expensive...

FallenAngelEyes

Despite the weather being awful, our high school didn't close for a single snow day from when I was a freshman until I graduated.

(I was not happy about this)

aedia λ

23:30

@FallenAngelEyes If everyone would just drive, carefully, like they do up north, we'd be fine. But no.

We had one in college for the ice!

FallenAngelEyes

@aediaλ Oh man, people freak out here in the NL over snow.

"THERE'S A CENTIMETER OF SNOW, HIT THE BRAKES AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Stupidly enough, Dutch people on the highways drive stupidly for heavy rain too.

aedia λ

We seldom had snow days when I was a kid either. A nearby school district always did, somehow. We envied them.

FallenAngelEyes

The spring, autumn, and winter are rainy! A lot! Why are you people not used to this!?

@aediaλ That happened to us too!

I'd sit up in the morning watching all the names of other schools flashing by on the news.

Waiting... waiting... Nope.

aedia λ

It would be really funny if we were actually from those neighboring school districts and just thought the other got more snow days.

Cerberus

@FallenAngelEyes Hmm how should they drive then?

user19161

23:34

@Cerberus With their eyes, hands and feet. Boo!

FallenAngelEyes

@Cerberus Not by freaking out and going slowing down to 50kph for a regular rainshower. YOU HAVE RECLAIMED THE SEA! Why, why are you driving like a centimeter will kill you?

Cerberus

Hi!

@FallenAngelEyes So drive faster?

FallenAngelEyes

@Cerberus It's hard to when you're stuck behind all the people freaking out over the rain and not moving to the right. :P

Dutchies are silly. sagenod

Mana

I can confirm this.

aedia λ

Hola @Mana y @JasperLoy!

Cerberus

23:39

I don't drive so I have no idea...

aedia λ

Is it actually possible to live without a car there?

Cerberus

But if the roads are crowded and your viewing distance is decreased a great deal, is it still safe to be driving 100 km/h?

@aediaλ Certainly! It would take me ten years to get a permit to park a car anywhere within miles of my house.

aedia λ

@Cerberus Here it's like, if you ever want to leave your city you must have a car. I have a membership in a car-sharing service (that I haven't tried yet) just in case I need to use one when my husband is using ours.

Cerberus

Unless I pay € 2000 a month or something.

aedia λ

We have to pay out the nose for parking, certainly, but not that bad!

Cerberus

23:41

Right, we have car-sharing services too. But as long as you're going to a city, trains are often faster than cars because of bad traffic.

aedia λ

There are spots available with a lot of apartments or municipal garages, for <$200/mo.

Cerberus

Parking is € 6/h here.

You could try to find a private garage for rent nearby. That would probably cost € 600/m or something, if you could find one.

aedia λ

@Cerberus We have a DC/Baltimore train but it is inconvenient and it doesn't run on the weekend!

I wish it were better.

Cerberus

Haha, no train during weekends?

Wowie.

aedia λ

It would be a lot better than driving, even though it takes longer.

Yeah, that's the stupidest thing ever, right?

user19161

23:44

Quick poll here: What dictionaries do you use normally?

Cerberus

We have night trains that visit the major cities ever hours through the night.

aedia λ

Made me so mad when I first moved down here.

Cerberus

OED

If you mean for English.

aedia λ

OALD, Wiktionary

Cerberus

And Dictionary.com for speed.

user19161

23:45

@Cerberus You get free or paid access?

FallenAngelEyes

@aediaλ Parking in Amsterdam is awful

aedia λ

@Cerberus We have "real" trains (the other I mentioned is a commuter train, so it's cheap, around the price of a fancy coffee) but the fast big trains are hideously expensive, like $100-$200 just to go to NYC.

I like them if I go to visit my family, though, 'cause I can take them overnight and it's nicer than flying, if not faster or cheaper.

FallenAngelEyes

Yeah the rail network in the US is not nearly as affordable as it is here in the NL.

user19161

Parking here is free during weekends in a lot of places.

aedia λ

I've heard that about almost all Europe.

Cerberus

23:48

@JasperLoy I have free access online through my uni's VPN, and two cracked versions on my computer that are older but just run much faster.

user19161

@Cerberus That is naughty.

aedia λ

@JasperLoy Parking in our suburbs is different than cities. Cities can be awful; suburbs are free and like those giant parking lots you see in photos of Wal-Mart.

Cerberus

@aediaλ Wow that is a lot. But perhaps distances are just much greater there? How many miles is that?

user19161

@aediaλ Ya though it is free, it can take half hour to find a lot.

Cerberus

@JasperLoy Wowie! It could be that parking is free here between midnight and 6 am at some places.

aedia λ

23:49

NYC is... uhh a couple hundred miles? I don't really count miles, it's like, six hours if I tried to drive?

user19161

@Cerberus Anyway I don't drive, but my friends do.

user19161

Buses and trains are the best in this small country.

aedia λ

My family is like, an 8-12 hr drive depending on traffic I think.

user19161

It is cheaper to take taxis everyday than get a car here.

aedia λ

After the first couple hundred miles it starts to not matter so much.

FallenAngelEyes

23:51

@aediaλ Haha, I count distance in time as well.

user19161

But riding a motorbike would be cool, though I can't even ride a bicycle.

user19161

I can only ride a tricycle.

Cerberus

@aediaλ Wow. That is far. Twice the length of my country, perhaps. I just never travel that far by train; that's why it's less expensive here! Then again, a one-way ticket to the south of France is only about € 100 or so, which is about 1800 km, so 1100(?)ish miles.

FallenAngelEyes

@aediaλ The NL is only about 1.5x the size of New Jersey, so if you drive a couple hundred miles, you've left it behind long ago.

aedia λ

@FallenAngelEyes So it's smaller than the width of New York? Ish?

FallenAngelEyes

23:52

@aediaλ Yep

Super tiny.

aedia λ

Wow.

I somehow didn't realize that.

FallenAngelEyes

But very, very densely populated.

Cerberus

Besides, everyone lives in the same small patch.

FallenAngelEyes

There's 16+ million inhabitants here, I believe. Is that right @Cerberus?

Cerberus

Yes.

user19161

23:53

@FallenAngelEyes Well, he doesn't know everything.

Cerberus

The four major cities are within an hour's train ride.

FallenAngelEyes

And the NL is one of the most densely populated countries in the world.

aedia λ

@Cerberus &%!# I can't even get to work in an hour on the metro!

Cerberus

I sometimes go to the provinces for vacations, which takes about two hours and a half max by train.

user19161

@Cerberus I believe you can walk across the country here in one day.

Cerberus

23:54

@aediaλ Aww! Well, getting from one side of Amsterdam to the other by tram will take more than an hour too, depending on the route.

@JasperLoy Cool!

You win.

FallenAngelEyes

List of sovereign states and dependent territories by population density

This is a list of countries and dependencies ranked by human population density, and measured by the number of human inhabitants per square kilometre or square mile. The list includes sovereign states and self-governing dependent territories based upon the ISO standard ISO 3166-1. The list also includes but does not rank unrecognized but de facto independent countries. The figures in the following table are based on areas including inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers). Data are estimates for July 2005, taken from the United Nations World Prospects Report (2004 revision), unless ...

The NL is #30

Cerberus

The point is, everybody lives near the center. So provincials will have horrible experiences with public transport here as well.

FallenAngelEyes

Keep in mind stuff like The Vatican is ahead of it, so not completely separate "countries," technically.

Cerberus

@FallenAngelEyes Yeah we dropped a lot. Asian freaking countries overtaking us.

FallenAngelEyes

Hehe

user19161

23:56

When I take over the whole world I will homogenise everything.

user19161

Matt wants to do that too.

Cerberus

I will heterogenise you back hard!

user19161

No, you can't. I am John Lennon -- Imagine.

aedia λ

Okay, based on your population, I'm totally comparing you to NYC in my head from now on.

You the Netherlands, I mean.

Cerberus

@aediaλ That is correct!

aedia λ

23:58

All y'all.

Cerberus

We don't mind.

I presume getting around by car in Manhattan isn't easy either?

aedia λ

That makes a lot more sense now that you can get places in an hour.

user19161

►

Cerberus

But American cities are designed much more spaciously than Dutch cities, so you can probably get around Manhattan by car far easier than in Amsterdam, at least near the centre.

aedia λ

@Cerberus The subway is great and the LIRR gets you to the "suburbs" fast, but the rest of New York is screwed for transit, and you're right, you absolutely cannot drive or park there.

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