English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Aug 4 at 13:44, by RegDwigнt

Dear next person who uses "english" instead of "English": I will personally come to your home and bludgeon you to death with a giant E.

@RegDwigнt And we're still waiting.

What, you expect to see that on the evening news? I know my trade, man.

Jim Jefferies - God is drunk at a party

1:23 PM

@terdon:

►

This is one of my fave Jefferies bits.

Jefferies bits sounds like tasty cancer-inducing sweets.

You can get crabs from lollipops?

@tchrist Depends on where they've been.

compulsively rerewashes himself

Quick, hide the crabs from lollipops.

1:27 PM

@RegDwigнt Guy has a nut thing: look at all the roundesses all over that painting.

Sphericals.

@Robusto That's pretty good :)

Well. Who do you think Apple stole their design from?

Fact: iPad was first described in a Soviet popular-science periodical "Science and life" in the late 70s.

To a tee.

Russia invented iPad!

Well okay, make that the late 80s.

And it weighed 14 kilos and had a twelve-minute battery life.

Hey, nobody's saying Steve Jobs didn't steal shit. We know he did. Just ask Xerox PARC.

1:31 PM

@Robusto not quite. According to the article, the device was invented by "students of the Illinois university".

Russia gives credit where credit is due. Then steals your shit.

@RegDwigнt The Illinois university? Would that be The University of Illinois, my alma mater?

It will never pretend the latest Spielberg movie you're watching for free was not made by Spielberg. Never!

It's impossible to know all these things you talk about. One would have to learn Russian, and what sane person would attempt that?

> Каким будет персональный компьютер 2000 года?

Конкурс идей на эту тему провела американская фирма «Эппл», создавшая первые персональные ЭВМ в 1976 году.

В конкурсе победила группа студентов Иллинойского университета. Победители представляют себе компьютер близкого будущего как коробку размером с толстую общую тетрадь. На одной стороне коробки — цветной экран на жидких кристаллах. Нет никаких клавиш или кнопок, кроме кнопки включения. Изображение клавиш с обычным набором цифр, букв и знаков появляется на экране при включении ЭВМ. Чтобы вводить в машину текст или цифры, надо прикасаться к…

Feed that into Google Translate if you must.

Is the last word tablet?

> Another way - to write directly on the screen with any sharp object

1:34 PM

> What will be the PC in 2000?

The contest of ideas on this subject held American company "Apple", which created the first personal computer in 1976.

The contest has won a group of students of the University of Illinois. Winners imagine a computer near future as a box the size of a notebook thick. On one side of the box - color liquid crystal screen. There are no keys or buttons except the power button. Picture of keys with the usual set of numbers, letters and characters appear on the screen when you turn on the computer. To enter the car text or numbers, you have to touch the images of …

Nice! Take a cutter and carve up your iPad!

> Another way - to write directly on the screen with any sharp object. Written stored in memory or in manuscript form, or by the owner converted to typed text that immediately displayed on screen and can be printed on a printer connected to the computer. In the same manner it may be administered in a variety of graphics memory and curves.

If now the PCs are connected to the data banks and other takiim the machines via the telephone network, while in 2000 they will communicate with the outside world by radio. In addition, the screen can be called any TV program.

> Radio communication with the system of navigation satellites and a data bank on transport will enable a computer at any time to find out your location on the planet to within a few meters and quickly calculate the shortest and best route to any other point . And if a computer is kidnapped , you will immediately know where he is, sending broadcast their personal callsigns .

The creation of such a personal computer does not require major new breakthroughs in technology or scientific discovery . Almost everything you need for it already exists.

1988, children.

> If now the PCs are connected to the data banks and other takiim

Incomplete translation alert!

Certainly you mean, iimcomplete translation alert.

Make that a таким, stupid Google can't recognize basicest typos.

> If now the PCs are connected to the data banks and other such machines over a telephone set

> What I think is John Lawler's and FumbleFingers' answers are worth to read. The reason why I noted that someone who wants to learn the answer of this question, accidentally misses FumbleFingers' answer.

To quote W., "Who cares what you think?"

And I mean that in the harshest possible sense.

1:41 PM

Wait, did you just agree with Dubya?

No. I used Dubya as a clubya to beat someone with.

I see.

@RegDwigнt trekking tricorders

Actual beer goggles.

There's a man who always sees the glass half full.

Or half of a full glass anyway.

1:46 PM

How could Mcfrancis Mawufemor not be a troll name? Worst fake name since Mclovin in Superbad.

1:56 PM

Mawufemor is apparently Ghanaian

Mcfrancis... who knows?

"Ghanaian" sounds suspiciously Armenian.

@Robusto How do you find these guys? Do you just constantly watch the new users page? He doesn't even have any posts!

Plot twist: Robusto is Mawufemor.

Q: the use of seeks and sought

@terdon Au contraire, mon frere.

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I will like to know the various uses of seek and its past participle sought. for instance, is it right to say; It is advisable the secretary seeks clearance from her boss before issuing permit. OR It is advisable the secretary sought clearance from her boss before issuing permit.

tenses

Mawufemor (female name) has a post

1:58 PM

Welshish? :)

Mcfrancis might be a male name, so It's hard to know what pronoun to use!

but google plus says him

@Robusto Ugh, stupid new profile page. Still not used to it.

Ghanaian sounds suspiciously Ghanaian to me

Nah. Gayan.

NOU!

2:08 PM

@RegDwigнt Hey, the whole world used to be pan-gaya.

Then heterosexuality was invented and people started procreating.

Whoopsie.

@tchrist Stop trying to stop people from procreating.

HAMMERTIME!!!

Well, you don't want to leave it to amateurs.

Why would Whoopsie stop you from procreating?

2:12 PM

Because of procreationism.

@terdon If you have to ask, you can't understand the answer.

Damn. One of those. Again?

Well. Who does understand Whoopsie.

What if you'd just sorta like to ask?

Nov 15 '12 at 16:20, by Robusto

@RegDwighт That's half of the joke. The other half is that she is famous for anything.

2:13 PM

Not a full-blown necessity.

There. Better.

And we're back.

Look for full blown necessities
Most fully blown necessities

Dunno, I'm quite fond of Whoopie.

@RegDwigнt They're mother nature's recipes.

Forget about your whoopsies and your strife

:)

2:15 PM

I only have deflated desires

Apr 13 '11 at 9:55, by Robusto

Stop staring at my twice.

@RegDwigнt Shouldn't that be wife?

@Mitch So much degativity.

@Mitch There's a pill for that.

@terdon Unmowglich.

2:15 PM

After four hours I saw a doctor

After five hours I saw a pink elephant.

That's racist.

That's observant.

What you want, a medal?

After 12 hours of labor it feels like a pink elephant.

I've heard

Frank Zappa only managed an hour.

2:17 PM

Frank Zappa managed a team

He is the American dream.

Frank Zappa should have managed the Cubs. Then at least they would have been entertaining.

Nobody can manage the unmanageable.

Or if they can they're illogical

Don't teach me how to be logical,
Sensible, responsible, practical.

2:20 PM

Frank Zappa is no Supertramp

More like Supercramp.

Crampersand.

2:48 PM

tinder in brooklyn

Icon for "likes this" looks like icon for "hates this and has downvoted".

Icon for "reposted this" looks like icon for "likes this and has upvoted".

In conclusion, idiot design by idiots.

Who else do you want it done by?

Morons.

3:07 PM

Quick, guess the poster's nationality: "Which usage of the below sentence is right?"

"Please add a comment if you think this question could be improved." Oh yeah? Here's my comment: "Don't ask stupid questions."

@Robusto average high-school student. Nationality: any.

In other news, right now in England:

@RegDwigнt Nope.

Apr 22 at 12:50, by Robusto

@Mitch Q. Why do Morris dancers wear bells? A. So they can annoy the blind as well.

@Robusto what I'm saying is, for once teh grammer is actually fine, the problem is that it just fucking makes no sense at all. That puts it squarely into a category that on ELU, YouTube, and Reddit alike I might as well label "American teenager".

The problem is that people can't formulate a thought. Even to themselves. Sticking words together works. Just the sense and sensibility are lacking.

I think it makes sense. It's just awful. And it marks the speaker as being from the SC.

Well yes, then we're on the same page.

3:22 PM

Inglish.

South Carolina? Santa Clara? SoCal?

BTW, I don't have anything against Inglish, it's just really hard to understand, especially over headphones.

Curtiss SC Seahawk

The Curtiss SC Seahawk was a scout seaplane designed by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company for the United States Navy. The existing Curtiss SO3C Seamew and the Vought OS2U Kingfisher were 1937 designs that, by 1942, needed to be replaced. == Design and development == Work began in June 1942, following a US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics request for scout seaplane proposals. Curtiss submitted the Seahawk design on 1 August 1942, with a contract for two prototypes and five service test aircraft awarded on 25 August. A production order for 500 SC-1s followed in June 1943, prior to the first flight...

@RegDwigнt Looks like an adapted P-47 Thunderbolt.

huhuh, you said bolt, huhuh

thunder, huhuh, bolt

Republic P-47 Thunderbolt

3:24 PM

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is one of the largest and heaviest fighter aircraft in history to be powered by a single piston engine. It was built from 1941-1945. It was heavily armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns, four per wing. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to eight tons, and in the fighter-bomber ground-attack roles could carry five-inch rockets or a significant bomb load of 2,500 pounds; it could carry more than half the payload of the B-17 bomber on long-range missions (although the B-17 had a far greater range). The P-47 was designed around the powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800...

From the front, anyway.

I don't think Russia ever officially recognized that republic.

My father would know. He knows all the planes. Me, I can't tell a P-47 from an AK-47.

You should ask him.

I just might, problem is I will immediately forget.

Me, I was interested in WWII planes growing up, so I know most of them.

It's not like he never introduced me to a plane before.

I sat in some. I built paper models, plastic models, wood models.

3:30 PM

Well, you don't ask your dad about things like that for your benefit. You ask so he can have the pleasure of enlightening you.

I could barely tell a Yak from a La these days.

Again.

Don't worry, he'll forget you asked the previous time.

Or if he remembers, he'll be so glad to be able to impart that bit of wisdom that he'll overlook it.

Last time I was in Moscow, we went to this place:

Nice. I'd like to see that sometime. And I will, next time I'm in Moscow.

It's awesome. My point is, I could (and will) visit again, and it would be like my first visit.

I don't remember a single stat about a single plane.

National Museum of the United States Air Force

3:32 PM

We've been here:

The National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the United States Air Force Museum) is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 6 miles (9.7 km) northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF has one of the world's largest collections with more than 360 aircraft and missiles on display. The museum draws over 1.3 million visitors each year making it one of the most frequently visited tourist attractions in Ohio. == History == The museum dates to 1923 when the Engineering Division at Dayton's McCook Field first collected technical artifacts...

I wish I could visit one of them plane cemeteries.

I often do, via Google maps, but it's, um, not quite the same.

@Robusto name's Monino. It's on the outskirts, but easy to reach.

Central Air Force Museum

The Central Air Force Museum, housed at Monino Airfield, 40 km east of Moscow, Russia, is one of the world's largest aviation museums, and the largest for Russian aircraft. 173 aircraft and 127 aircraft engines are on display, and the museum also features collections of weapons, instruments, uniforms (including captured U2 pilot Gary Powers' uniform), other Cold War-era US spy equipment, artwork, and other air-related items. A library containing books, films, and photos is also accessible to visitors. Tours are given by ex-pilots. The museum opened its doors in 1958. Prior to 1999, the museum was...

Just out of curiosity, how would an American in Moscow be received by the locals these days?

Hm. Nobody would even notice? It's a 14-million city, who gives a shit.

That's my conjecture, anyhoo.

I've not been for almost a decade myself, plus traditionally Moscow does not have any tourists at all.

It is traditionally impossible to navigate, let alone inhabit, without solid knowledge of Russian, or at the very least Cyrillic.

Somehow they don't get this whole tourist thing. Money? Who needs tourist money. We have oil money.

> Since the museum is situated on the territory of a military unit (Gagarin Air Force Academy), all visitors must pass the entrance gate to the military complex. As of summer 2006 special permission to visit is no longer required.

Funny they'd mention that. That's pretty much my only lasting memory of the visit, we visited in 2007 I think, and I still remember how my father said at the gate, you got any cigs on you? Give a pack to the officer.

The actual "entrance" to the actual museum was guarded by a wooden stool and an old woman, who was so bad at maths, she let me in for free after my father had paid for his ticket, because she failed at counting how much he'd given her and thought he had paid for mine as well.

Which reminds me. Peanut-commie-muting time, muting time, muting time, peanut-commie-muting time!

3:49 PM

Peanut?

Need moar downvotation.

I wonder if we changed our name to something whose first word weren’t English it would save us the ignominy of our current front page.

Like maybe “Anglospherical Philology” would skip past their radar and they’d abuse ELL instead.

4:19 PM

Today I learned that Muslims can't even sell alcohol to non-Muslims.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Depends on which Muslim you ask.

Muslin

Muslin (/ˈmʌslɨn/ or /ˈmjuːslɨn/) is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. It gets its name from the Indian port town Masulipatnam, known as Maisolos and Masalia in ancient times and the name 'Muslin' originated from the name Maisolos. Early Indian muslin was handwoven of uncommonly delicate handspun yarn, especially in the region of what today is Bangladesh. It was imported into Europe for much of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Fine linen muslin was formerly known as sindon. In 2013, the traditional art of weaving Jamdani...

Mousselin.

@Cerberus well, there are fairly clear instuctions in the Koran that say you're not allowed to sell haram things.

No follower of any religion follows every rule in its holy book to the letter, not even the ones who think they do, if only because they often contract other rules and are open to interpretation.

4:23 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 What about giving it away?

It is a mistake to think of a holy book as merely a set of beliefs and precepts, and of its professed adherents the executors of the computer code in the book.

@Cerberus Thank you, Prof Cerberus, for explaining things I already know.

What you said didn't seem to indicate that you did.

@terdon Hm, interesting question. Probably forbidden, based on what I recently read.

@Cerberus *contradict

4:24 PM

Oops too late...

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 So, basically, if you find a bottle of scotch in your house, you're screwed?

Then you might as well drink it.

@Robusto No, contract. Rules are like diseases that way.

@Cerberus Look, I'm not 12. I personally know Muslims who drink alcohol, despite it being forbidden in the strongest terms. That doesn't really change the truth value of the statement "Muslims aren't allowed to drink alcohol".

Hah.

4:25 PM

@terdon You should just destroy it.

It's not that you can't touch it. You could dispose of it.

Although you're not supposed to even touch pork. So getting rid of a dead pig is a chore. you'd probably have to perform some kind of cleansing ritual.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I think your language and the underlying, subconscious notions underneath it seem somewhat simplistic, but I am glad to hear that.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 How about a living pig?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That could be taken as an offering to pagan gods, though.

@Cerberus From now on, you can mentally search and replace any statements I make about religion to make them less precise to fit your notions of how strictly I should be speaking. In fact, just do that with every statement anyone writes in chat.

@Cerberus presumably you just shoo it out with a broom.

@terdon Nah, Allah will know the difference.

He's all-powerful, and has strong opinions about pigs and what you do with your genitals.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 OK sounds like a plan!

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That sounds too easy.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Same thing.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Damn, we have so much in common!

4:33 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 ★

Anyway there's a flight attendant in the US who converted to Islam, learned that selling alcohol was haram, and then refused to sell it. At first, other flight attendants would sell it for her, but then someone complained that she wasn't doing her job, so now she's suspended.

Isn't it funny, though, that religions often tend to reserve their most violent antagonism for those religions closest to them?

Shia vs. Sunni, Islam vs. Judaism, etc.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Would you suspend her?

When religious people inconvenience others for irrational reasons, I have little patience with them.

@Robusto Exactly.

@Cerberus maybe? It's a smallish accomodation, and yet, her job clearly requires that she sell alcohol. Maybe she's in the wrong industry.

@Cerberus And when do they ever inconvenience each other for purely rational reasons?

4:38 PM

But one often comes to be as a reaction to the other.

@Robusto Never, except in ways that irreligious people might.

My basic position is that "god won't let me" is not a good reason for not doing your job that you're paid to do.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yeah, I mean, I am all for accommodating disabled people, but I am not in favour of accommodating sef-inflicted, reversible handicaps.

That said, I'd accomodate people who can't work certain shifts, due to Sabbath or whatever, if possible.

@Cerberus heh

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I am against it in principle. But in practice I might accommodate them.

I guess if you were a Muslim who got a job at a Denny's yet couldn't handle bacon you'd have a problem.

4:40 PM

@Robusto yeah. In that case you shouldn't work there.

Wear gloves?

It's way too haram for that.

Surely not?

Haram scarum.

Anyone who follows that rule couldn't work there

4:41 PM

So tiresome.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Good rule.

pshhh

you can't sell it, you can't touch it, you can't even take money from the proceeds of the sale.

Johan Larsson

sauna

That's patience leaking from me like air from a balloon.

4:43 PM

That's the problem right there.

Careful, Cerb is about to pop!

You've filled your balloons with the wrong thing.

pop, or implode?

I have long popped, or I wouldn't be leaking!

Everyone knows they should be filled either with water or with helium.

4:43 PM

@JohanLarsson You're out of your element, Donny.

My desired contents were patience, patience, patience. But they proved too thin and dispersed.

A flower for @Cerb. Well, two flowers.

@Robusto You're saying he shouldn't start his own medical practice?

He lacks the patiens for that.

Those are the kind I'm using to seeing as a wildflower. Jewelweed.

4:57 PM

@Robusto Those are nice. Are they supposed to inspire patience? Religious awe?

@Cerberus Do you know what they're called? There is a clue on this page.

Hydrocera triflora, says Google.

BTW, I scored 5.0 out of 5.0 on my Spanish progress exam yesterday.

@Cerberus Also called impatiens.

But I see only two flowers.

Well done!

Ah.

Too bad you couldn't find a three-bloomed picture.

You're never satisfied.

5:00 PM

I am impatient.

@Cerberus Mine has three lissom blossoms.

Q: The use of "at/on/in" and "undergraduate program" in this sentence

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I have the following text: Currently attending the 2nd semester undergraduate program in Design at College Name, after dropping the undergraduate program in Law at Other College Name on the 3rd semester, due to lack of identification with it. I tend to like everything related to Te...

grammar

Occulted proofreading question.

A: Where does the word “jism” come from?

0

In Ryan and Jetha's Sex at Dawn (2010, Ch. 5), they suggest that both 'jism' and 'jazz' come from the Ki-Kongo word dinza, meaning "to ejaculate", citing Robert Farris Thompson's Flash of the Spirit (1984) and Ventura's essay "Hear that Long Snake Moan" (1986). Culturally, rooting this word in a...

That one was a long time in coming.

5:38 PM

@terdon Do you have eliaphobia?

And is that really the best way to spell that?

ἐλαία should be olive.

I don't know the "right" transliteration.

@Cerberus Guessies?

Elaeophobia?

WTLITERALF

lol

Elæophobia

Pecans. What about fear of pecans?

that brings up nothing

5:48 PM

There's an Elaeophorbia drupifera.

Which is not what I was after.

Fear of nausea. That should bring up something

It's some Japanese houseplant.

Apparently a succulent.

Next.