English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@tchrist Amazingly, the crack-smoking former mayor was re-elected to his old council ward. But his brother was NOT elected mayor, though he did get 35% of the vote.

Jasper Loy

@mah Boo!

tchrist

4:21 AM

@Mitch If you’re bored and feel like you have nothing better to do, I might suggest a place for a delete vote — and also a fine place for an upvote.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 See Marion Barry.

Marion Barry

Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. (born March 6, 1936) is an American politician who served as the second elected Mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991, and again as the fourth Mayor from 1995 to 1999. He has been a member of the Council of the District of Columbia, representing Washington, D.C.'s Ward 8, since 2005. A Democrat, Barry previously served two other tenures on the DC Council, as an at-large member from 1975 to 1979 and as Ward 8 representative from 1993 to 1995. In the 1960s, he was involved in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, serving as the first chairman of the...

> His celebrity transformed into international notoriety in January 1990, when Barry was videotaped smoking crack cocaine and arrested by FBI officials on drug charges. The arrest and subsequent trial precluded Barry seeking re-election, and Barry served six months in a federal prison. After his release, however, he was elected to the DC city council in 1992 and ultimately returned to the mayoralty in 1994, serving from 1995 to 1999.

Second verse, same as the first.

Cerberus

6:53 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Phew, that is more than the previous polls, isn't it, those 35 per cent?

Will Rob be relatively harmless in that position?

Is the new mayor the centre-right candidate?

fahdijbeli

10:46 AM

hi

ProgramFOX

Hi!

RegDwigнt

12:00 PM

Voting patterns of two users. Each has 3000+ votes, and both have pretty much the same upvote/downvote rate. Yet the vote distribution couldn't be more different. Fascinating.

Jasper Loy

One of them must be Kris.

RegDwigнt

Math is really a crazy thing. This is totally counterintuitive at first.

The explanation, of course, is that this is just the top 140 targets for each user.

So the left one hides all their downvotes in the long tail. Say, by downvoting random spammers and the like.

Conversely, for the one to the right it is the upvotes that form the long tail. Just a couple upvotes per user should be enough!

Jasper Loy

I can't live here anymore. People are extremely stupid and evil. I can't breathe anymore.

Robusto

> And, finally, most importantly, the keyboard in the F4 supports emoji!!!!!!!

What, only seven exclamation points? And not a single smiley?

RegDwigнt

So, this is "heavy upvotes to a few select users and a downvote for absolutely everyone else" vs. "heavy downvotes to a few select users and an upvote for absolutely everyone else", and yet when you look at the sums of all votes, they are all but identical.

Matt Эллен

12:10 PM

@Robusto their keyboard clearly doesn't support emoji

RegDwigнt

@Robusto the exclamation points are the smiley. Hair standing up.

And I unlearned how to edit.

Jasper Loy

I see strange lines across my browser now and then. Welcome to Linux!

Robusto

@RegDwigнt That was an interesting edit. "g" became "And I unlearned how to edit."

RegDwigнt

@Robusto QDE.

Jasper Loy

@MattЭллен Thanks for closing my meta question lol.

Matt Эллен

12:11 PM

Quick! Don't Edit

Robusto

No dont

Matt Эллен

@JasperLoy No worries!

RegDwigнt

@MattЭллен I thought Quick got replaced by Excel?

Or was it Norton?

Robusto

Do you have Prince Albert in the can?

Matt Эллен

not around here.

RegDwigнt

12:13 PM

@Robusto the g belonged to the line above it. Once I moved it, I had no use for the line I moved it from, so I had to write some other shit there. So write some shit I did.

Ice Boy

lol

Robusto

So work increases to fill the expanded room?

Jasper Loy

misaq, Hamadan, Iran

15 6

RegDwigнt

But I am happy you find my edits interesting. I strive to become the most interesting editor in the world.

Jasper Loy

Why is he wearing a mask?

RegDwigнt

12:14 PM

@Robusto the first law of thermodynamics.

Jasper Loy

Or is he a she? In any case, that is a flu mask.

Robusto

More like hermaphrodynamics.

RegDwigнt

How is a hermaphrod different from a hot rod?

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector ] Phone number detected: +91-9950211818 Bla ck Magic Mantra For Money on english.stackexchange.com

Robusto

BTW, what is everyone doing to fight the scourge of Ebola? Me, I'm no longer handling bodily fluids of Ebola patients.

Jasper Loy

12:15 PM

One os hot and the other is not hot.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto I give my bodily fluids away to charity, so whatever's in there is gone for good.

Robusto

I just flush mine, as usual.

RegDwigнt

Same difference. They all wash up in Sierra Leone.

Look up Gulf Stream.

Robusto

Gulfstream Aerospace

Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation is a American wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics. Gulfstream designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and services business-jet aircraft. Gulfstream has produced more than 2,000 aircraft since 1958. Gulfstream's range consists of the G150, G280, G350, G450, G500, G550, G600 and G650. == History == === Origins === The company that evolved into Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. started in the late 1950s when Grumman Aircraft Engineering Co., known for military aircraft production, developed a business aircraft at its facilities in Bethpage, N.Y., called...

Immediate disqualification for taking the instructions literally.

I guess you don't know how to play this game, huh?

Further disqualifications for entering chat messages and then redacting them with alarming regularity.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto see, they are sweeping it under the rug already. "Range consists of the G150, G280..." but no mention of the "G186536".

Robusto

12:21 PM

I think you're confusing that with the GI tract. (Not to be confused with the GI Bill).

RegDwigнt

I only know GI Joe. Or do you put him on bills now?

Matt Эллен

Good old GI Bill

Robusto

We put him on Benjamins. Only you can't see him.

RegDwigнt

Benjamin the Elephant

Benjamin the Elephant (original German name: Benjamin Blümchen; "Benjamin Blossom") is an animated children's television show produced by Kiddinx Studios in Berlin. The show is based on audio stories by Elfie Donnelly. On the show, the eponymous main character resides at the Newtown Zoo, with friends Otto and Stella. The adventures Benjamin gets involved in often require slipping into various roles, learning new jobs, or discovering new and distant places. == Characters == Benjamin - an elephant, is big and strong, cuddly and good-natured. He loves lazing around. But when something is going on...

Jasper Loy

My friend's wife is giving birth now.

RegDwigнt

12:23 PM

Matt Эллен

@JasperLoy is she in a gulfstream?

Robusto

Ha, the Germans are now calling elephants "little flowers" . . .

Jasper Loy

@RegDwigнt Even German elephants look more beautiful than those here. I must be reborn in Germany.

RegDwigнt

No, not now. I think this is like thirty years old.

It is also retarded.

Robusto

And gay.

Matt Эллен

12:25 PM

Does Benjamin the Elephant fly in a gulfstream?

RegDwigнt

I'd rather listen to Avril Lavigne in Guantánamo.

Robusto

What was her name before she changed it? April?

Jasper Loy

I just got a downvote. Lo and behold, Kris just logged in 2 min ago.

RegDwigнt

Robusto

hold me closer tiny dancer

RegDwigнt

12:26 PM

I mean, this is the kind of shit we're talking about.

Robusto

Ghey.

RegDwigнt

And it's thousands upon thousands of hours of this.

No exaggerations. Really thousands.

Matt Эллен

elephants squashing piglets.

Jasper Loy

All the pictures seem to be slowing down this chat.

RegDwigнt

VHS, music cassettes, blahblah.

Robusto

12:27 PM

What do the Germans call a combine (the farm implement shown in the back left of that picture)?

RegDwigнt

Funny you'd call it a combine.

I'd call it a combine harvester.

Matt Эллен

RegDwigнt

Combine is the Russian word for it.

Robusto

I don't call it that. American farmers call it that.

RegDwigнt

Mähdrescher

Ein Mähdrescher ist eine landwirtschaftliche Erntemaschine zur Ernte von Körnerfrüchten wie insbesondere Getreide, aber auch Raps, Sonnenblumen, Ackerbohnen, Grassamen oder Ähnlichem. Wie die zusammengesetzte Bezeichnung (vgl. auch im Englischen: combine harvester) andeutet, kann der Mähdrescher mehrere Verfahrensschritte in einem Arbeitsgang erledigen, insbesondere die Mahd und den Drusch der Körnerfrüchte. == Beschreibung der Baugruppen == === Schneidwerk bzw. Erntevorsatz === Vorne am Mähdrescher ist das Schneidwerk oder ein Erntevorsatz angebaut. Diese nehmen das Erntegut vom Feld a...

Matt Эллен

12:28 PM

The Wurzels call it a Combine Harvester

Robusto

Kind of like a Frandrescher?

RegDwigнt

A mow-thrasher.

@Robusto probably the same root, actually.

Robusto

I didn't realize drescher and thresher were rooted together, but I guess it makes sense.

RegDwigнt

Зерноуборочный комбайн

жаткаЗерноубо́рочный комба́йн — сложная зерноуборочная машина (жатка-молотилка), выполняющая последовательно непрерывным потоком и одновременно: срезание хлеба (то есть растения), подачу его к молотильному аппарату, обмолот зерна из колосьев, отделение его от вороха и прочих примесей, транспортировку чистого зерна в бункер и механическую выгрузку из него. Одна из важнейших сельскохозяйственных машин, способная выполнять сразу несколько различных операций. Например, зерноуборочный комбайн срезает колосья, выбивает из колосков зёрна и очищает зёрна струёй воздуха. Сложная машина выполняет функции…

Robusto

That doesn't say combiner.

It says combine.

RegDwigнt

12:29 PM

Ah, Wikipedia. Who the fuck put a "Зерноуборочный" there.

That is literally the first, and also the last, time in my life or yours that you've come across it.

They might as well have titled it Avril Lavigne комбайн.

@Robusto I mistope.

Robusto

What does zernoborochny mean?

RegDwigнt

I had also fuxed the typo before posting the link. Get with the programme.

Robusto

Hey, who reads your shit? Also, who reads it twice?

RegDwigнt

@Robusto Zerno = grain. Ubirat = clean up, get away with.

So grain-removing combine. Seriously nobody talks like that.

It's just combine.

Robusto

Do they also have fingers-on-buttons-pressing keyboards?

RegDwigнt

12:32 PM

The Klaas stuff is probably the same everywhere.

But I suppose you can still find good old analog stuff in a kolkhoz somewhere. Or in a kolkhoz everywhere, for that matter.

Ice Boy

RegDwigнt

That is not kolkhoz. That is Kolvin and Hoz.

Oct 23 at 14:27, by RegDwigнt

But I've killed enough time for today. Let me do something else. Lators.

Robusto

Klators.

Jasper Loy

12:46 PM

To avoid giving Kris more authority by giving him more rep, I shall not upvote any more of his posts.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus It is consistent with previous polls. But it means that more than 1/3 of Torontonians want an ignorant, racist, lying bully as mayor (whose best and only idea while in office was to build a monorail - like in the Simpsons episode), rather than people with a track record of civility and actually getting stuff done.

Ice Boy

I thought he was a drug addict too?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

No, that's his brother.

Ice Boy

oh

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

The drug addict dropped out of the mayoral race on account of he has cancer. Instead, he ran for and won his old council seat.

Jasper Loy

12:52 PM

0

Q: Should I use plural possessive in this instance?

I am attempting to write a personal statement at the beginning of a resume and am having an predicament as to how to write the following: I am a super hero with seven years' experience in blowing out fires with my exhalation... I assume that, since the experience doesn't belong to the seven...

grammar possessive

Is there anything wrong with this question and answer? Why the downvote?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Have you guys seen Google+'s "halloweenify" thing? It's neat

Ice Boy

what will they think of next :D

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Or you can do a "fun" effect instead of "spooky"

Ice Boy

nice

Robusto

For smaller values of "fun".

Jasper Loy

12:59 PM

Wow, very nice pics.

Anything wrong with this answer? 2 downvotes?

-2

A: Should I use plural possessive in this instance?

To avoid using the apostrophe, you can write I am a super hero with seven years of experience in blowing out fires with my exhalation. However using the apostrophe and writing I am a super hero with seven years' experience in blowing out fires with my exhalation is fine, because i...

Matt Эллен

I don't see a problem

Jasper Loy

Exactly. Kris must be one of the downvoters, and Thursagen the other. Both accounts belong to the same XXX.

Matt Эллен

I'm fairly sure that thursagen isn't Kris

also, Thursagen hasn't been around since Feb

Jasper Loy

Different countries? LOL. Mods and their spying tools. Maybe he has an international organisation of downvoters who downvote correct answers online.

Robusto

@MattЭллен Feb 2012

Matt Эллен

1:08 PM

yes, that even

Jasper Loy

@MattЭллен 2012 is even, and Feb is month 2 and 2 is even.

@MattЭллен Maybe someone is helping me to achieve a multiple of 5 for my rep.

Matt Эллен

lol, maybe.

Robusto

@JasperLoy That depends on whether your arrays are 1-based or 0-based.

Type new Date().getMonth() into your console and it will give you 9 (this month only).

SrJoven

1:27 PM

english.stackexchange.com/search?q=views%3A200000

12 questions with over 200,000 views (each).

I wonder ... are search engines counted in this?

@IceBoy I think we should language a verb.

Ice Boy

:D

Jasper Loy

@MattЭллен That question is not even asking about singular versus plural possessive. It is asking about the use of the possessive for non-literal possession, something the downvoters probably missed because they were too hasty.

Matt Эллен

possibly so

Jasper Loy

1:42 PM

I think I should delete my account, lol. Rage quit, lol.

Matt Эллен

lol. no

tchrist

@SrJoven Not if they can help it.

@SrJoven I’m always surprised at the scarlet letters of their view count when they show up on the front page.

Mitch

2:02 PM

"I am a super hero with seven years' experience in blowing out fires with my exhalation..."

Wait, doesn't all that extra oxygen encourage fire?

Matt Эллен

@Mitch no

due to the speed at which it is travelling

Mitch

Or is the exhalation more an eructation?

@JasperLoy I'm gong to rage join. "You're all wrong! Here is the right answer!"

Wait.. that's what Joe Blow does!

Jasper Loy

@Mitch The other answer, which does not answer the question as intended, has more upvotes than mine. I am very disappointed in the internet.

Matt Эллен

see, pressure is inversly proportional to the velocity of the fluid, so a fast moving stream of air will suck the air along with it, removing oxygen. also only 23% of the oxygen breathed in is breathed out

Mitch

@JasperLoy The Internet is dumb.

Matt Эллен

2:05 PM

@Mitch possibly

Jasper Loy

@Mitch Just like the people here, lol.

Mitch

@MattЭллен You fail to notice that the concentrated stream of high velocity gas is also contributing a higher concentration of oxygen, for a net increase in oxygen concentration.

Matt Эллен

@Mitch how? since there is less oxgen

Mitch

@JasperLoy I thought "years'" was actually a green grocer's apostrophe. I think I must be wrong, but I don't feel wrong.

:18361906 that's because you don't actually see them.

Matt Эллен

the blind leading the blind

tchrist

2:14 PM

@Mitch Every other time you thought you were right but were actually wrong, you didn’t feel wrong, so whether one should happen to not feel wrong about something is no indicator than one is actually right about it after all.

Mitch

How does blind man's bluff work? Don't we lose a lot of kids that way?

@tchrist What if that's wrong?

!!rimshot

Matt Эллен

@Mitch only while your eyes are closed

Mitch

opens eyes

Holy crap!

shuts eyes quickly

Matt Эллен

it's better that way

tchrist

2:41 PM

The OED speaks of hackneyed asses, but does not seem to connect these with chapped ones.

1

A: Word for an animal that has been ridden too much?

You could use hackneyed, pronounced /ˈhæknɪd/. Here are two senses for it: Used so frequently and indiscriminately as to have lost its freshness and interest; made trite and commonplace; stale. Habituated by much practice, experienced; sometimes with the ulterior idea of disgust or wear...

Mitch

2:59 PM

desuetudinal donkeys.

So does 'hack' (expedient but potentially unsafe coding) come from 'hackneyed'?

Matt Эллен

3:22 PM

this swr really annoys me

0

Q: Word for an Original Idea

Is there a good word for an idea that someone came up with on their own? I'm talking about an original idea. The reason I want such a word is for my notes so that I can annotate, with as few words as possible, whether I reached an idea on my own or whether I used someone else's. I prefer a form...

word-choice single-word-requests nouns formality

it's just so "I have an answer, but I don't want to use it because I don't feel like it."

Mitch

3:47 PM

@MattЭллен It's because you don't have an original idea, that's why.

Matt Эллен

@Mitch I've had fifty original ideas. they were all great

Mitch

I have a word for that but i"m not going to tell you. Because it's an original idea. I don't want you stealing it. — Mitch 9 secs ago

Matt Эллен

lol

Robusto

4:29 PM

We really have to admire English for giving us the word clusterfuck. It is so very useful for describing so many aspects of human endeavor.

Robusto

4:44 PM

@Mitch No. A hackney was a type of horse used for coaches or cabs, and the cabs themselves became called by that name (an example of synecdoche). The cab was later called a hack, and sometimes still is.

terdon

Robusto

The old meaning is plenty good enough.

Jasper Loy

I prefer to say pretty but it seems the Americans love using plenty there.

Robusto

You are mistaken.

Jasper Loy

Different meaning? I don't know.

Robusto

4:46 PM

Nobody says "pretty good enough."

Jasper Loy

Oh yeah, without the enough.

Robusto

So you didn't read that far?

You'll go six words, but not seven?

Jasper Loy

I was too hasty in typing.

I also never say a couple bananas. I always say a couple of bananas.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I knew someone who would say that something was "pretty ok"

Jasper Loy

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That sounds very common to me.

Robusto

4:49 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 But not "pretty ok enough" I'd venture to guess.

Jasper Loy

I have not heard from Maria for a week, I am very sad.

Perhaps she doesn't want to talk to me anymore.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy It sounds weird to me. "ok" is positive with a neutral sense, like "acceptable" or "enough". "pretty" is an intensifier like "very", so "very neutrally good" is odd.

Robusto

Comma splice.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto No, not that I heard, but it wouldn't have surprised me.

Jasper Loy

@Robusto Yes, I use lots of them in chat.

Robusto

4:51 PM

Take them back to your land.

Jasper Loy

Perhaps I should start using proper punctuation in chat.

I need to keep refreshing outlook.com, but I don't need to do that for gmail.com.

Also, the conversation view in gmail is much better than in outlook.

Mitch

@Robusto I had mine removed. With pliers.

Jasper Loy

yahoo.com doesn't even have a conversation view, the last I checked.

Mitch

@JasperLoy 'plenty' ? that really doesn't mean the same thing as 'pretty'.

Jasper Loy

@Mitch OK.

Mitch

5:07 PM

@MattЭллен I had an idea once. The shrink wrap and box were long gone, the battery was dead, and frankly had been left outside for two winters. And then it got caught in the lawn mower so I threw it away. But I'l always remember that...um... whatever it was.

Jasper Loy

My answer got 14 upvotes and 4 downvotes. I am very happy, lol.

Mitch

@Robusto etymonline.com/index.php?term=hack

So it's a lot of things for my meaning, it could come from hack- to cut roughly or hack the common drudge (from the old horse)

Robusto

That doesn't contradict what I said, though I telescoped the progression a bit.

Mitch

@JasperLoy That's a little strange...a highvoted question but also with non-trivial downvotes.

Robusto

Fuck. It's supposed to snow on Sunday. That's no fucking fair.

Mitch

5:20 PM

@Robusto But there's little semantic connection between a hatchet job/hack writer and common drudge.

Robusto

I bet they're all connected to the drudge meaning.

Mitch

@Robusto I think it's allowed. since it'll be November. If it were Friday, it would totally be against the rules.

Robusto

And if I have a hunch about language, we can take it as extremely likely to be true.

@Mitch How am I supposed to ride my bike in the snow?

Mitch

@Robusto etymonline separates them: 'hack' for roughly chopping wood and hack for hackney (for the horse) for Hackney the place name in England.

@Robusto tire chains. also with great difficulty.

Robusto

@Mitch Shows you what good etymonline is, if it disagrees with my hunches.

@MattЭллен: One could use knackered to modify a noun, as in a knackered donkey, right?

Jasper Loy

5:25 PM

There is only rain here, no snow.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto I used to bike in the snow.

Robusto

But I don't like that.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I had a paper route, and I rode my bike all year round.

Mitch

@Robusto I wwouldn't call it a donkey at that point. Just donkey pieces

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 hills?

Robusto

Donkey pieces are probably still fungible.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

5:27 PM

@Mitch Yes, but not huge hills.

I guess, thinking back, the hills weren't a big factor. Mostly it was flat. There were some hills though.

Mitch

fungible donkey pieces. that is not a good punk band name.

Yeah, hard to get up or down hills in snow

Freddy

tchrist

5:43 PM

@Robusto google.com/…

Robusto

I used the term knackered. There's a difference.

terdon

@Robusto Would that be understood by AmE speakers?

Robusto

4

A: Word for an animal that has been ridden too much?

If you don't mind using a term usually confined to British English, try knackered. From TheFreeDictionaryOnline.com: knackered adj 1. exhausted; tired out 2. worn out; no longer working, esp after long or hard use

Read the first sentence of my answer.

The top-tier Americans will understand it. I don't give a shit about the rest, frankly.

Also, it's a great word that should be in every American's lexicon. So there.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…