English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

00:10

Presumably, she never turned black but was so born.

Mitch

01:19

@MattЭллен flagged for vulgarity

Even you!

tchrist

01:52

I want to change ELU’s bold so that it is small caps instead.

Cerberus

@tchrist We do not.

We have talked about this.

tchrist

It is much more tasteful, traditional, and NON SCREAMY-SHOUTY!!!!!!

Cerberus

And hello.

tchrist

Screw bold.

It distorts the color of the page.

Where by color, I mean the technical typesetting term.

Cerberus

Maybe if you hadn't used CAPITALS IT WOULD HAVE BEEN LESS SCREAMY-SHOUTY.

tchrist

01:54

No, it would have been.

Iᴛ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴀʟʟ ʙᴇ ʙᴇᴛᴛᴇʀ ɪꜰ ᴡᴇ ᴅᴏ ɪᴛ ʟɪᴋᴇ I ᴀᴍ ʜᴇʀᴇ.

Cerberus

Ugh.

tchrist

That is the traditional way of doing these things.

Maybe you like being bashed by type. I don’t.

Cerberus

@tchrist You sound like the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

tchrist

That looks disgusting.

One uses italic for titles.

Cerberus

Specially for you.

tchrist

01:55

One does not use bold.

You should not use bold.

Nobody should #$^@$%&@#$%^&$^@&@$%&$%&@$%^!#$%#$%&@$^&# use bold.

Cerberus

Only bold was appropriate under the given circumstances.

Johan Larsson

What are you wearing Tom?

Cerberus

I.e. teasing you.

tchrist

A nice argyle sweater, jeans, trail-runners.

Johan Larsson

And is fuck broken?

tchrist

01:57

Bold is the last resort of the incompetent and unlettered and uncultured.

2

And using the font’s small capitals is just about infinitely nicer looking than the Unicode versions I just used.

That requires CSS magic.

Johan Larsson

You have attention to details.

I'm the only one with OCD in the project. The rest of the guys just type harder if there is a turd on the keyboard.

Cleaned up a copy-paste fest today. A method was copy pasted ten times.

And if that was not enough they had dumbed before copying the first time.

All broken.

Cerberus

@tchrist I use bold for the essence of my answer, usually one or two words, so that it may be immediately found at a glance.

Johan Larsson

So much for the nice policy.

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson That is a nice description.

Johan Larsson

02:21

Nice description of something not so nice

Robusto

02:56

Hola

Johan Larsson

07:52

Matt have you ever seen anything this beautiful?

Matt Эллен

@Mitch I didn't realise vulgarity made you tired. I'll be more careful in the future

skullpatrol

08:32

Even you? :-/

skullpatrol

08:44

It appears that once semantic satiation sets in syntactic indigestion will soon follow.

Mitch

14:26

Who is this 'Ving'? — Mitch 50 secs ago

@MattЭллен It's where the rubber meets the road.

skullpatrol

the tread?

skullpatrol

14:42

:D

Robusto

15:01

Your slip is showing.

skullpatrol

It's better when they show you their slip than when they give you lip.

Robusto

►

skullpatrol

I just found out that 0 cannot be written in scientific notation.

:O

Robusto

:0

skullpatrol

what does this say about science?

Robusto

15:15

Science needs to adapt to zero more than zero needs to adapt to science.

skullpatrol

But its notation explicitly refuses to adapt

btw this also applies to negative numbers

Andrew Leach

"The special case of 0 does not have a unique representation in scientific notation" does not mean that it cannot be written in scientific notation.

As that page shows.

skullpatrol

there is a mistake there

1<= |a| < 10

a =/= 0

Andrew Leach

0 x 10¹ satisfies that condition.

Robusto

0 x 10 to the anything satisfies the condition

Andrew Leach

15:25

So it's a special case, having both valid and invalid representations. Does that make all representations invalid?

skullpatrol

a X 10^p

Andrew Leach

Oh. Right. I may have misread something.

Crawls back under stone

skullpatrol

np pal

:D

Mitch

16:43

@skullpatrol bridges start falling

Thanks. That's what you get when you say stuff like that out loud.

skullpatrol

@Mitch I just find it amazing that I have never thought of this question :-/

Mitch

Wouldn't convention say "just use 0"?

skullpatrol

I don't understand what you mean pal.

The convention says "you cannot write zero in this notation" @Mitch

Or any negative numbers.

Scientific notation, by definition, is only for positive numbers.

Zero is neither positive nor negative.

Mitch

a can be negative: "...is a real number satisfying 1<=|a|<10."

actually it seems it means that 0 cannot be written in that definition (therefore my suggestion that should be written as '0')

@skullpatrol For the French, 0 is both positive and negative.

skullpatrol

But he uses 0 in his example at the end @Mitch

Mitch

16:58

0 is in [1,10) so he is breaking his own rules.

skullpatrol

This definition has been taken from his encyclopedia of math

When he talks about "not unique"

Mitch

so are you suggesting it should be "a in [0,10)"? that would give nonunique reps for n with a in [0,1)

skullpatrol

I am not suggesting anything @Mitch I just want to know if zero can be represented in scientific notation by that definition.

tchrist

17:15

$ printf "%e\n" 0
0.000000e+00

skullpatrol

17:26

Does the program @tchrist use the definition we are talking about here?

tchrist

It is simply a way of specifying floating point numbers in a uniform manner.

$ printf "%+e\n" 5 50 50000 500000000000 -5 -500 -0.5 -0.00000000005
+5.000000e+00
+5.000000e+01
+5.000000e+04
+5.000000e+11
-5.000000e+00
-5.000000e+02
-5.000000e-01
-5.000000e-11

skullpatrol

icic

Having no "formal" representation of zero in scientific notation is no big deal :-)

nbd

Mitch

17:42

@skullpatrol but you should complain to mathworld about the problems with their entry.

skullpatrol

From a learning point of view it is good to have a notation that can get arbitrarily close to zero and leave zero itself as a "special case". If you know what I mean @Mitch

►

Mitch

@skullpatrol what are the alternatives?

skullpatrol

Complain to them as you said. But this is a matter of definition.

I don't think they are going to change their definition.

tchrist

18:02

If anyone has some ideas about what to do with this question, I’m all ears:

-1

Q: Is there any institute that can create a word which it would mean he or she, or creation of any other word?

We continuously experience creation of new words in science and technology and after a while people start using it ; it would be much less hustle to use the created word,instead of using he or she or he/she.if we use "they" it would be in plural form. meanwhile my question is about the institute...

single-word-requests

The OP has changed it since I closed it, and now I am at a loss to figure out how to edit it so that it can be understood, let alone answered.

Mitch

@tchrist It's closed as it should be (it's a dupe, the answer is 'no', etc) The edits don't realy change anything.

tchrist

I think perhaps now that it is a duplicate of this question:

2

Q: Does the English language have an official Academy?

For some languages, there are academies that decide topics such as grammar and spelling of things, for example, for the Spanish language, there are 22 academies in 22 different countries, all making decisions on spanish grammar in their country. I would like to know if there is something that ser...

grammar american-english british-english australian-english spanish

I’ve added a comment that it is also a duplicate of that other one.

Mitch

I think, in order to answer that question properly, we should form an official academy. Supported by the American government. And the UK and everyone else will have to follow it. What we says goes. 'gifting' is not a word.

tchrist

Lawler did this already.

Mitch

The Lawler academy?

skullpatrol

18:08

:D

The long arm of the Lawler.

tchrist

It should go to The Academy. — John Lawler Mar 6 '12 at 3:58

Mitch

That academy has no standing with people that matter. The British Monarchy is moribund to the point that 'monarchy' is not a word in the officially sanctioned English. What is the government of the UK? There's no word for it.

tchrist

I’ll be sure to let them know you said that.

skullpatrol

Anthenum?

hichris123

Can someone give this question a better title? english.stackexchange.com/questions/216046/…

tchrist

18:19

I wish such titles were banned.

hichris123

@tchrist Yeah, my bot picked it up because it's so bad. :P

Jasper Loy

@hichris123 Done.

hichris123

@JasperLoy Thanks!

skullpatrol

Well done.

Jasper Loy

Hi @simchona hope you are well.

@skullpatrol That would be one million dollars.

Stack Exchange

18:38

Limerick Machine: This whisky is rather nice Once it’s been diluted by ice The burning sensation From this...

posted on December 20, 2014 by sgdi

This whisky is rather nice Once it’s been diluted by ice The burning sensation From this libation Has turned into something with spice

Mitch

@JasperLoy pricey!

Jasper Loy

19:03

@Mitch I see you often come here on Sat as well. Is your life that boring?

Mitch

This is a wonderful distraction.

Jasper Loy

OK, I did not think you needed a distraction. I thought I was the only one who needed it.

skullpatrol

All work no play makes Johnny a dull boy.

Jasper Loy

@skullpatrol Oh, Ted called me obnoxious in the math room, I was a bit upset.

skullpatrol

19:24

I saw pal @JasperLoy

Jasper Loy

@skullpatrol Anyway I am alright now, I should not overreact, lol.

skullpatrol

@JasperLoy have you ever seen the water roll off a duck's back?

Jasper Loy

@skullpatrol No, what about it?

skullpatrol

@JasperLoy name calling is like the water. Never let it get inside.

Jasper Loy

@skullpatrol Oh well, I guess it was just a little misunderstanding.

skullpatrol

19:32

There was nothing to understand @JasperLoy you were giving your opinion and he did not like it. What is there to misunderstand?

skullpatrol

19:46

You see jasper people who come into that room and try to dominate it so completely are just another form of a cyber bully.

►

Here^ is a humorous way to look at it. Don't let it upset you, just leave the keyboard (afk).

@JasperLoy

Jasper Loy

@skullpatrol Will you be spending Christmas alone?

skullpatrol

Yes.

Jasper Loy

Is there anything at all you need in your life right now?

skullpatrol

Inner peace is all I want.

Jasper Loy

OK, I pray that you get inner peace.

skullpatrol

19:57

Why do you capitalize both the O and the K?

Jasper Loy

Because that is the way it is supposed to be written!

skullpatrol

It reads like Oooh Kaay!!!

Jasper Loy

I prefer writing OK to ok or okay.

skullpatrol

Oh

Jasper Loy

I think you can check a dictionary and get all the possible forms.

skullpatrol

20:00

Yes.

Jasper Loy

I also prefer DJ to deejay.

And MC to emcee.

skullpatrol

Consistent right down to the case of your letters :-)

Jasper Loy

Yes. A clear case of mental illness, lol.

skullpatrol

Not just consistent to the letter.

It helps in math. @JasperLoy

Consistency is crucial

Andrew Leach

@JasperLoy No. I prefer OK, DJ, MC and PC too.

skullpatrol

20:06

ic

Jasper Loy

@AndrewLeach Well, you are also mentally ill, in a way, lol.

Andrew Leach

Thanks. Aspergers is not a mental illness. It's a condition.

Jasper Loy

Well, I am just kidding. Don't be too serious.

Anyway, illness or condition, they are all words.

Andrew Leach

Raw nerve. Although it does mean that I like things right and don't like people cutting corners.

Like newspaper editors saving space with Pc instead of PC.

Jasper Loy

I have not seen Pc before.

skullpatrol

20:08

lol should be LOL

Jasper Loy

PC also means platoon commander to me.

Andrew Leach

@JasperLoy telegraph.co.uk/news/6617115/…

Old, but the first example I came across.

skullpatrol

20:25

@AndrewLeach tragic story

The Taliban story in Pakistan is horrid.

Jasper Loy

Life is full of tragedies.

skullpatrol

These kinds of deaths are tragic .

Jez

21:07

hi all

skullpatrol

hi pal

Jez

sup? im bored

skullpatrol

21:22

this will wake you up

Jez

wtf is that?

skullpatrol

Old school gangsta

Jasper Loy

21:48

I decided to be blue again.

tchrist

If you have spare upvotes that will expire just two hours from now, you might pitch at some of these:

0

A: Use of "has been"

Correctness is one things; appropriateness another. It is certainly possible to use the construction: SINGULAR SUBJECT has been PAST PARTICIPLE. However, this works best when the actual agent is named, because otherwise it is an unidentifiable anonymous agent that can sound like pretentious...

0

A: What is the noun in the second sentence?

You should not analyse things like “a number of” as prepositional phrases, but rather as premodifiers occupying the determiner slot in a noun phrase. Some purchases were detected. Several purchases were detected. Many purchases were detected. Few purchases were detected. No purchases were detec...

0

A: comma with phrases that use "yet"

Like the coordinating conjunction but, the coordinating conjunction yet can coordinate various sorts of things. The difference between them is that yet is even more emphatic when used this way than is but. In short sentences like yours, where the items coordinated are themselves short, a comma ...

0

A: Is "scathingly small" used correctly?

No, this is an mistake of one or another sort. The adjective scathing per the OED means: Of invective, etc.: Very sharp and damaging; searing, ‘withering’, cutting. And for the derived adverb scathingly, it provides such citations as: 1847 Tait’s Mag. XIV. 238 ― A feeling of his insi...

0

A: Can one ever say for certain a word does not exist?

Words are things people say or write As Lewis Caroll so famously wrote: ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. Or as another English don would later pen with at least eq...

In one of them, I have realized small capitals by trickery-pickery.

0

A: When did content become a noun?

The OED has content as a noun as early as the 1500s: 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 6 b, ― All this worlde with the contentes in the same. 1547 Boorde Brev. Health lxxiii. 23 ― Yf in an urine doo appere a content lyke as heares were chopped in it. However, your particular sense ...

skullpatrol

22:16

+6

tchrist

thanks

skullpatrol

np pal

Hugo

23:05

any chance of a single vote?

0

A: What is the expression or saying "I've got butterflies" used for?

"To have butterflies" sounds like an abbreviated form of "to have butterflies in my stomach", which can mean to be nervous or anxious. See also Wiktionary on that phrase.

skullpatrol

Done

Hugo

thanks!

Jasper Loy

23:24

Hi @Caleb, how are you?

Jasper Loy

23:51

OK, I think I have tried enough times to talk to him, so I shan't talk to him anymore, lol.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…