English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Mitch

15:10

That's a lot to read

Mitch

15:20

people jumped down the throat of the guy who wanted zero-tolerance against bigotry, but everybody seems OK with zero-tolerance against profanity.

I kinda think there should be more tolerance altogether, sorta of freedom of speech- defend the rights of those who say things you abhor.

Or is it the 'zero' part that's the problem?

tchrist

The FCC ban on certain words has never once stopped horrible things from being said.

Mitch

Profanity is just easier to point at and say "My regex matched this exactly". There's no regex for bigotry.

wonders if tchrist probably already has one

Kit Z. Fox

15:36

@Mitch The "zero" is the problem, and also this user been involved in a considerable amount of chat drama herself.

Mitch

Yes. his post didn't seem unreasonable but his attitude in the comments was inflammatory

or dickish

or... tries to come up with of ELU SWR question for this

intolerant of intolerance. that seems so sophomoric. but I don't know how to get out of it.

Matt E. Эллен

We're offended that you're offended

Mitch

@MattE.Эллен sputters

I'm aghast at your tolerance of offense.

or is it intolerance

or is it offence

Kit Z. Fox

Hey, speaking of chat philosophy, we should find something topical to talk about.

Mitch

ooh philosophy.

how about that categorical imperative?

Kit Z. Fox

15:42

Um...

Mitch

Oh... I have a philosophy joke. But it includes implied profanity, not profanity itself.

Matt E. Эллен

what's the categorical miperative?

Mitch

also despicable ideas.

but at least I'm 'appy.

oops... elevenses is coming up.

Matt E. Эллен

at a quarter to four?

Imericans, I don't know. Next you'll be telling me you don't worship the Queen neither.

Mitch

Thanks. nice prosody adds to lyrics

Matt E. Эллен

15:45

is there any merit to linguistic analysis of Florida Man headlines?

Mitch

@MattE.Эллен we worship the Queen's ... um ... nether cold nor rain nor heat of night shall deliver us from these bowels of weevil.

@MattE.Эллен Yes, yes there is.

I thought it was a Florida Woman who did that though.

'Florida Woman Analyzes Mans Headlines'

Matt E. Эллен

very meta

Kit Z. Fox

What is happening?

What are Florida Man headlines?

Matt E. Эллен

e.g

> Florida Man attempts to smoke crack in ICU, almost burns down hospital.

Mitch

@MattE.Эллен It wasn't as good as a real headline

Matt E. Эллен

15:52

@KitZ.Fox there's a propensity for men in Florida to do weird things that get reported by newspapers. They have become one man: Florida Man

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox 'Florida Man' is always doing something idiotic in headlines. I'm sure people in other states do similar idiotic things but somehow the guy from florida gets the headline.

Matt E. Эллен

he has a twitter account

Kit Z. Fox

Oh I see. Like the Onion's "Area Man" etc.

Matt E. Эллен

yes, but real :D

Florida Man Hides From Deputies in Swamp, Eaten by Alligator http://news.brevardtimes.com/2015/12/florida-man-eaten-by-alligator-when.html

Tweeted by _FloridaMan on December 8, 2015 at 1:33 AM

Kit Z. Fox

Should we get Mitch involved in our Meta post plan, since he is right here?

Matt E. Эллен

15:53

yes, that sounds good

Kit Z. Fox

He could be our user-on-the-street. You up for it, @Mitch?

Mitch

Florida man gives winning lottery ticket to his dog, cashes it anyway

@KitZ.Fox I'm up for anything! Woo hoo! Go go go! I got my human squirrel suit, my 10 in Bowie knife. Metamucil. Where's that eskimo woman you want me to wrassle?

You realize most chatters don't care and won't bother with reading.

Sort of like a constitution.

Of China

Kit Z. Fox

@Mitch Inuit.

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox Ha ha...successfuly trolled!

Unless...

Augh! meta trolled again!

Kit Z. Fox

So we were going to create a series of Meta posts as chat-faqs.

Mitch

15:59

Huh.

Sounds serious

giggles

Kit Z. Fox

srs bizness

Mitch

stands up straight

imperceptibly slouches unconsciously

So if adverbs are deprecated, would a second adverb dedeprecate the first one?

so what's the plan?

Kit Z. Fox

So we thought maybe you could post the very first question for it, on the topic of I want to discuss things - How do I access chat?

You don't have to. One of us mods can do it. Just thought you might think it was fun.

Mitch

"Canadian Man Sorry for Chugging Eight Beers and Swimming to Detroit"

I'll bet he'll be sorry. That water's nasty.

@KitZ.Fox That would be fun, but because I wasn't part of the convo before, I'm not sure of the direction, how much to fill it out, etc.

And where would this go? ELU meta?

Matt E. Эллен

yes, EL&U meta

Mitch

16:10

do you have a list of titles to these posts (and maybe an abbreviated outline)?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Plus links to canadian man's antics?

It's sorta like teaching. The students don't really care, but they might pick up enough to pass the test. It's the teachers who really get something out of it.

It's the quiet nondisruptive ones who get overlooked, and the annoying troublesome ones who get all the attention.

Matt E. Эллен

I imagine that's the way they want it

people who are quiet don't want attention and noisy people do

Kit Z. Fox

@Mitch Nah, it's better from you then because you're not thinking of the drama when you're writing it. Just imagine that you are a user who has never been to chat before and has seen the "discussion is for chat" comments, and you don't know how to get there to do that.

And you really want to! Because it sounds like fun!

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox Oh. So I'm the one who earnestly asks the questions? Would these questions be, let's say, not particularly lengthy. Almost to the extent of "Title: How do I get to chat? Content: "I keep seeing people say in comments 'let's take this to chat' or' this is better in chat' But I don't know how to get there I've looked all over the FAQ and it mentions chat but I don't see the link. How do I get me some chat?"

Like that?

Kit Z. Fox

Yes.

Please not lengthy.

Mitch

But I am thinking of the drama! Well, more comedy or action thriller with jokes. But not like the old James Bond. Gah Roger Moore was the worst.

@KitZ.Fox How many questions? When do I start?

Kit Z. Fox

16:19

He was pretty bad.

@Mitch Just the one for now, if you're OK with it. You can do it whenever you want.

Tag it with support and then ping @Matt so he can make a nice answer with screenshots.

Mitch

Brosnan and Craig are OK. Monica Bellucci was finally age appropriate but that scene was abhorrent.

Kit Z. Fox

Really? I haven't seen the last two.

MετάEd

"take this to chat" comments should use the chat tag.

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox Ooh. Tag team. Nice implicit pun.

Kit Z. Fox

@MετάEd When we move comment chains to chat, it makes its own room, so users who haven't been there before are completely lost.

Mitch

16:24

@KitZ.Fox Sceptic or Scenic or Scepter I can't remember. It was OK. Skyfall was better. Casino Royal had a great parcourt scene at the beginning just like what was that rihanna movie.. no um... what's her name, the chick in that Avatar movie (which was racist casting by the way) Zoe Saldana Columbiana

This 10 year old girl does some great parcourt at the begining.

Kit Z. Fox

Yeah, that was really cool.

In Casino Royale. I haven't seen Avatar.

Mitch

Columbiana has the parcourt. Avatar I think is a really entertaining movie (so I recommend it) but ... hm I wouldn't say flaws. A lot to think about. a lot of 'what it means for X, Y, or Z'. Thinking about it, it doesn't have the flaws that Planet of the Apes has (one of the best sci fis ever but kitschy sets and other annoying stuff)

So I won't give spoilers. until you've seen it.

@KitZ.Fox so for the first one just ask 'how do I get there?' saving 'What the hell is this for' for later?

tchrist

What's the plural of Triceratops?

Mitch

@MattE.Эллен meta.english.stackexchange.com/questions/7393/…

@tchrist Lunch!

Sorry. Role playing there.

Matt E. Эллен

ta

will answer later

Mitch

16:36

Triceratogmata

@MattE.Эллен Well, it might be closed quickly because there are dupes.

Just sayin

Kit Z. Fox

@Mitch Yes.

Thank you.

Mitch

da nada

wait is it de nada?

Matt E. Эллен

de nada

Mitch

uh oh.

all these years.

switches to 'xie xie'

Kit Z. Fox

bu xie

MrHen

16:38

@KitZ.Fox Oh, hey, one thing you could probably do is prune the gigantic comment chain that prompted the chat room discussion

Kit Z. Fox

Where is it?

Mitch

argh... there's better.

mei shi

MrHen

2

A: What the "primarily opinion-based" close reason is for

The purpose for closing questions is to remove questions that are not helpful for future visitors or would be extremely difficult to answer in the StackExchange format. "Opinion" questions can bump into the latter problem and the relevant question to ask oneself when deciding whether to close vot...

Kit Z. Fox

Hmm. I'll take a look. I very rarely prune comments on Meta.

MrHen

Pretty much everything after meta.english.stackexchange.com/questions/4805/… turned out to be pointless

your call

Mitch

16:40

@KitZ.Fox or mei guan xi

MrHen

doesn't matter to me

Kit Z. Fox

@Mitch Right.

MrHen

not sure if they'd take offense; I have no way of predicting what ivan/makoto care about

Kit Z. Fox

Bu xie ~ no problem.

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox oh... mei shi er, that's the way to say it.

@KitZ.Fox yeah that's good too.

There's ten ways to say no problem that all mean different things subtly.

Andrew Leach

16:43

@tchrist Triceratopes, I think. ὤψ (face) which is effectively -ς goes to -ες.

Kit Z. Fox

@Mitch Well, mei shir ~ ain't no thing, mei guanxi ~ no trouble.

Mitch

@MrHen Nice. "The purpose for closing questions is to remove questions that are not helpful for future visitors or would be extremely difficult to answer in the StackExchange format. " That's all we should ever say.

MrHen

@Mitch It's surprisingly controversial

Or, it was

Mitch

@MrHen Your attempt to communicate using probability is commended.

Andrew Leach

Ooh. A new Meta question.

tchrist

16:47

@AndrewLeach Thanks!

Kit Z. Fox

@Mitch Sorry, I deleted that part.

Mitch

probabilities with 'given' are easy to get the direction mixed up.

Kit Z. Fox

@AndrewLeach Which one?

Andrew Leach

0

Q: Chat: How do I get to it?

I keep seeing people say in comments 'let's take this to chat' or 'this would be better in chat' But I don't know how to get to there. I've looked all over the FAQ and it mentions chat but I don't see the link. How do I get to chat?

Kit Z. Fox

Yes! First in our chat-faq series! Mitch volunteered.

Matt was going to answer it later.

MrHen

16:49

@Mitch Yeah :P

Mitch

@AndrewLeach WTH...why didn't mine one-box when I referred to it? This place sucks.

Kit Z. Fox

@Mitch Because you had a @MattE.Эллен in front.

@Mitch meta.english.stackexchange.com/questions/7393/…

See?

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox But andrew had a kit fox in front. NF.

MrHen

@KitZ.Fox They have a top rep on Math? How do they not understand Bayesian notation?

Mitch

@MrHen it's not bayesian, just (extremely elementary) probability notation (which also how do they not know). But even extremely elementary notation can still be difficult to understand, especially probability.

Andrew Leach

16:54

@Mitch Mine was a response and had a :number in front.

MrHen

@Mitch Eh, true.

Mitch

@AndrewLeach I'm sensing making excuses/moral hazard. The machine needs to take responsibility for its own shortcomings.

@MrHen current probability notation is like using roman numerals for multiplication

MrHen

@Mitch Is there a better notation?

Kit Z. Fox

coughs

MrHen

@KitZ.Fox Hm?

Kit Z. Fox

16:57

@Mitch nuh-uh, Andrew had a message id in front.

@MrHen Just fixed that discreetly.

MrHen

@KitZ.Fox Eh, I missed it then.

Matt E. Эллен

0

A: Chat: How do I get to it?

You're right to want to come to chat. It's a wonderful place where lots of great and constructive discussion happens. To find your way to chat you'll have to look at the top of the site, to the left of where your avatar is: There you'll see the Stack Exchange logo. Click on that and a menu wi...

Kit Z. Fox

Hey wait. How did you get Mitch's screenshots?

Matt E. Эллен

:D

f12

Kit Z. Fox

gasp

Matt E. Эллен

17:03

I iz hakker

Kit Z. Fox

Well, good thing you did it because it was only after I was looking at it that it occurred to me that mods would have lots of different other sekrit stuff in that shot.

Matt E. Эллен

exactly

Kit Z. Fox

Including that thing we aren't supposed to talk about.

Matt E. Эллен

the thing we're not supposed to talk about, yes. I specifically didn't mention it

Kit Z. Fox

good good

How is it I still haven't showered?

shakes fist @Mr.ShinyandNew安宇

Mitch

17:14

@MrHen not one that is accepted. I think it should be entirely functional, and not have names so overloaded. Also, Pearl has 'do' notation but that's only for subcases and doesn't fix all the problems.

MrHen

@Mitch As mostly a math outsider, I think most mathematical notation is annoying :P

I like my programming syntax.

@KitZ.Fox Mod only sekrets?

Mitch

@MrHen there's a lot to be said for programming like functional syntax that math people should use (essentially lambda calculus) that would make things more explicit/easier to understand. But culture, you know.

MrHen

@Mitch Culture, huh, what is it good for?

Kit Z. Fox

@MrHen Yiss. shh

MrHen

@KitZ.Fox If it's mod-only sekrets I'd probably rather not know about it anyway... :)

Kit Z. Fox

17:19

Well. There's an election going on over at Software Recs. I think.

Mitch

@MrHen It's what we talk about when we're avoiding talking about... war. Which is just a metaphor for sports. which is just a metaphor for war. but the buck stops at sex. I blame Aristophanes.

MrHen

@KitZ.Fox Huh? What's a Software Recs?

Kit Z. Fox

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox @MattE.Эллен Yeah! That deserves a WTF, no bowdlerization for you.

@KitZ.Fox person references and chat references should have a superclass and the linking/rendering function should be moved up to the superclass. If you know what I'm sayin.

Kit Z. Fox

That's some crazy stuff you're talking, @Mitch.

Mitch

17:24

@MattE.Эллен I'm waiting for other possible answers so I can judge which one to accept.

@KitZ.Fox crazy smart is what you're thinking.

Matt E. Эллен

@Mitch that's fair

@Mitch don't worry. I didn't read many of your emails

MrHen

@KitZ.Fox wut why would I want that

Kit Z. Fox

@MrHen Just because how else are you going to get a diamond?

MrHen

@KitZ.Fox I don't really want a diamond though

Mitch

@MattE.Эллен ha ha. wait...

OK. Ha ha... 'mostly harmless'.

Kit Z. Fox

17:30

@MrHen What?

MrHen

@KitZ.Fox Diamonds sound stressful

Hm, I wonder how long it would take to get back on the first page of rep

Mitch

Like that guy in the movie after the fall of the Berlin wall and everybody goes to look at their 'files' (the ones that have all the incriminating evidence, and questionable associations, disgruntled ex girl friends, blackmail opportunities, etc), and after searching through the stacks of files, finally finds his own, opens it up and there's a copy of a birth certificate, and a single thin page, and only a couple lines at the top 'Not important. Don't bother wasting any time on this one'

or 'page intentionally left blank'. that's the worst.

Kit Z. Fox

@MrHen Almost time for the Hat Dash. Better do it soon if you're going to do it.

@Mitch Not quite as bad as 'this page accidentally left blank'.

MrHen

@KitZ.Fox I haven't decided if I care about answering yet

Kit Z. Fox

That's what was in my file.

MrHen

17:34

Maybe I'll just upvote some "unanswered" questions

Matt E. Эллен

not as good as "This page deliberately has a doodle of a puppy"

Mitch

@MattE.Эллен not as bad as "this page deliberately has a doodie of a puppy"

Matt E. Эллен

:D

bad dog

Mitch

that dog's filing system... ugh.

Kit Z. Fox

I still haven't showered. sighs bbl

Delta Escher

17:38

Hai

Mitch

I'm glad someone is thinking of these things.

I think 'too simple' is a bit judgmental.

Also, Happy Ada Loveless birthday

Matt E. Эллен

@DeltaEscher more black than white, I see

Delta Escher

I felt inspired

i don't like it

Matt E. Эллен

no?

Mitch

Only 4 months till Happy Lucy Lawless birthday!

user174558

18:48

@DeltaEscher Beautiful pic.

Mitch

19:11

Good question and equally good answer, but to find this 'how to' guide, a user has to find Meta, now where do I find meta? Yes Meta has more visibility with the side-bar block 'Featured on Meta' on most pages, can we have a link to meta and chat in the top bar visible at all times, without negotiating the drop-down. — Christopher 47 mins ago

how do we make sure that those who randmoly show up to chat have seen these things already.

Also what's my next assignment?

Chat: WTH?

Kit Z. Fox

@Mitch Not sure yet. Let me look it up.

Oh, but it's not here. Never mind. I need to nap.

Mitch

19:31

I'm trying to articulate my comments on the 'philosophy of chat'. I feel like:
- flags and validation only by people within a room at a time, and only room or site mods can impose bans (culture is important, profanity and sarcasm are whatever locals determine)
- no auto bans (flags get a mod to say something to the two people (flagger and flaggee))
- stop google indexing chat (but keep searchability at SO)
- mods need to be active to be mods (chat or main)
- not being nice is what we're trying to limit

Hmm...I thought there was a lot more to my platform. Things like plant more trees or normalize relations with Cuba or something.

But anyway, it seems like the 'allow culture even if not agreeable to outsiders' is not the most popular opinion on that thread.

user174558

19:47

Check out stackexchang.com.

terdon

@Mitch the problem with that is not really profanity as much as blatant homophobic, sexist, racist or otherwise truly offensive statements. Sadly, there are rooms on the network where that sort of thing is accepted. The "but it's our room's culture" excuse has been abused by that sort of asshole which is why it's so unpopular.

For example:

-140

Q: Request for community attention on a moderator's behavior

It has come to a handful of people's attention that at least some of the newly elected moderators might not be exactly up to challenge. Here's a message that very clearly demonstrates this incompetence, that was a result of a particular argument that appeared in one of the SO chatrooms: Madar...

discussion moderators

The timeline on the rape comment started here with your comment "I don't know where you came from, and your forced entry was a bit iffy, but you're gaining points", to which mafagafogig replied (in the now-deleted message) "@sehe When she likes the rape in the end." which you then followed up with "Sorta kinda I guess" and then "peeps, no flagging here. If there's an issue, we'll quietly signal the mods." — Brad Larson ♦ Dec 2 at 3:37

People have been defending rape jokes with the "it's our culture" argument. Nobody really gives a fuck about saying fuck but we need to draw the line somewhere.

Kit Z. Fox

@Mitch The objection to the first part -- handling flags within the chat room only -- is covered by what terdon said.

Especially if you have a group of regulars who are room owners who think that talking about "fags" and making rape jokes is perfectly fine and if it bothers you, then you're the problem.

While we try to honor differences between chat communities, there are some things that are just not OK ever anywhere on SE.

user174558

Yes, like poop.

user174558

I just had a lovely cold shower again, after two days.

Kit Z. Fox

Yes, Jasper, like poop. Except that's probably OK on Parenting.

user174558

19:59

The sound using earphones on my desktop is very good. From no sound to good sound, miracle.

user174558

Now I can listen to music and watch movies all day long on a big screen.

user174558

It is 21 more days to 2016, woo!

user174558

I suppose the internal speakers integrated with the monitor are damaged, but the sound card is fine.

user174558

Over here there is an army song with a line 'rape my girlfriend', people complained, and the lyrics were changed.

user174558

In the ideal world I conceive, anyone can say anything in real life and online. But this is not that ideal world.

Mitch

20:09

@terdon Oh. Wow. But that can't be handled under the 'don't be a jerk' idea?

This ain't naming names, but which room has talk like that?

terdon

@Mitch Sure it can, I'm just giving you some context to explain why people are getting fed up with the room culture excuse.

@Mitch The C++ lounge for one.

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox OK so there is SO culture and also specific site culture. why can't a visitor to a site flag a mod so that the mod can come in and check if it's out of line? (as opposed to lots of random people taking things superficially out of context.

@terdon Oh. OK. But then that can lead to other restrictions like 'no talk about religion because that pisses people off'. That is, you can't just kick culture to the curb. culture needs to be allowed. (using culture to justify being a jerk is not allowed though). There are cultural normals and meta cultural norms.

@terdon good to know.

I don't think we're going to solve everybody's problems at once. we have to allow people to solve their own problems.

terdon

@Mitch I know. We need to think of a way to allow the one but not the other.

user174558

Is parenting really a good site for parenting? Aren't they subjective opinions instead of facts?

Mitch

subjectivity is not a bad thing. sometimes answers come with context.

@JasperLoy one could say the same thing a bout a nutrition site. (science is pretty chaotic there)

There are opinions in mathematics too.

There are no true answers ever. shudders

Even Nutella is not the answer. sobs uncontrollably

Kit Z. Fox

20:20

There, there @Mitch.

Mitch

sniffs

What about statistics? Do you think we might get partial answers?

user174558

Statistics is the science of lying.

Mitch

bawls loudly

Kit Z. Fox

Here. Try these. pushes box full of old answers @Mitch

Mitch

blows nose on one of them

Oh I'm sorry. I ruined that one.

blows nose on another

sighs heavily

So one could mathematically model it as the Earth going around the sun or the Sun going around the Earth? Just the former equations are a little less messy?

wipes single tear

Kit Z. Fox

20:29

@Mitch That's right.

Have you been reading my blog again?

Mitch

brightens a little

But what about ... so none of my pets ever went to heaven and neither will ... my parents?

user174558

@KitZ.Fox I saw the snow. I don't like how it autoexpands when I scroll down. I prefer to use previous page and next page.

Mitch

wells up a little

user174558

@Mitch I believe they will all be reborn in various world systems.

Mitch

@JasperLoy Statistically speaking, I guess so.

And really church isn't so bad. most priests really are saints, it's just those handful of bad ones. Think how much worse people are who aren't trying.

user174558

20:33

I think religions which tell you that fornication is a sin is bad, very bad.

user174558

Seems that people don't like simple words for SWR. They want complicated words.

Mitch

@JasperLoy I personally believe I'll be reborn as millions of necrotic/flesh-eating bacteria or at least their organelles, most likely the contents of vascicles. Literally.

user174558

@Mitch It is difficult to know where you would be reborn. Only a buddha can tell.

Mitch

@JasperLoy I'm pretty sure it's going to be in a medical waste incinerator. well, not exactly reborn.

MrHen

Boo, out of votes.

Mitch

20:38

I want to be reborn in the beard of Jeff Bridges after being cremated and having the wind blow back on him when the ashes are dumped off the coast.

user174558

@Mitch Be careful what you wish for. You might just get them.

Mitch

I wish for nutella. I wish for nutella. I wish for nutella.

checks cabinet

Yay!

Yahoo!!

Woo hoo!! dances around room

crashes into full length mirror

shards of glass cut carotids

user174558

I think this idea of having references in your answer is overused. No need to have a reference when it is a simply word, for example. It looks so silly.

Kit Z. Fox

@Mitch pulls out glass and sutures wounds

Mitch

bleeds out over carpet that we bought that one sunday at the antique mart, where we fought over wh_ther to get that or the armoire with inlaid mother of pearl

Those stains will never come out.

@JasperLoy You're right. Nutella is overrated.

Also, I don't think there's any thing that is actually food in it. You know, like hotdogs. Taste great... but probably shouldn't eat them too often, know what I'm sayin?

@KitZ.Fox Thanks. Quick thinking. Those arteries are really spurty. A real mess.

Kit Z. Fox

20:46

Nutella is horribly bad for the planet. Unfortunately. Anything with palm oil is kind of pretty much evil these days.

Mitch

Oh.

stares blankly into distance

Nutella is dead to me.

What about coconut oil? Is that saturated? mon? or poly unsaturated?

Kit Z. Fox

Aww. Maybe they can make synthetic palm oil.

Mitch

Exactly.

Really it's just organic chemistry.

perks up

Kit Z. Fox

It's not because of the saturation of the oil. It's because of deforestation and stuff: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

Mitch

So here's a planning question. Suppose 'we' come up with an efficient alternate energy source, that's not petroleum based. So yay, global warming decelerated substantially (we still need to fix it though). But what'll we do instead of plastics?

Kit Z. Fox

20:51

I wonder about that all the time.

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox Oh. Fine, bring science and data ands stuff into it.

Kit Z. Fox

Same thing with "OK electric cars, but what about industry?"

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox Really? You're just saying that to make me feel better.

Kit Z. Fox

Even if you take all the cars off the road, you've still got a huge emissions problem, especially in CHina.

@Mitch No, it's true. You're very insightful to think of that. Most people don't.

Although it only occurred to me because of playing SimCity so much.

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox I did hear that with self-driving cars and the resultant huge drop in road fatalities, that there would be a problem in supply of healthy organ transplant sources. One of those interconnectedness things. Not that we should stop reducing trafffic fatalities, just that... well, there' be an effect.

Kit Z. Fox

20:54

Yes. We'll have to grow them instead.

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox cough, cough

literally

Kit Z. Fox

Although that's probably more efficient really.

Mitch

@KitZ.Fox What? grow what instead? Cars? I lost my train of sorry my railway of thought.

We can make plastics out of biologicals? Like corn?

Kit Z. Fox

And potatoes.

Mitch

Everybody complains about monocultural crops like bananas and corn, but no one ever seems to do anything about it.

@KitZ.Fox Potatoes have the largest caloric yield per arable land area.

I learned that from an interview with the guy who wrote The Martian and the guy who does XKCD.

Total geeks.

Kit Z. Fox

20:58

TIL

user174558

What is TIL?

Kit Z. Fox

today I learned

Mitch

sekret codz

unjinx

user174558

I thought 'talk in lounge' for mods.

Mitch

wait, there's a lounge? Like the teacher's lounge?

Kit Z. Fox

21:00

Um.

Mitch

Again a place that really isn't as interesting as it might seem.

They just smoke in there.

user174558

@AndrewLeach Good answer, +100.

user174558

@KitZ.Fox Are biology textbooks in college expensive? A calculus textbook can cost over 200 USD, LOL.

Kit Z. Fox

@JasperLoy They can be. Around $100 - $200 US I think.

I'm off. See you!

user174558

C U.

user174558

21:03

I am off too, I am here only to talk to Kit, LOL.

MετάEd

21:53

Well is it too late or do I still need to solve the "chat problem". >:-)

user174558

It is never too late, even if you are dying.

MετάEd

Has anybody brought up "A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy"? It isn't an official discussion of StackExchange culture until somebody has brought this up.

Anyone? @KitZ.Fox? Bueller?

user174558

22:33

Well, like I said, even if chat has no moderation, nobody will die.

terdon

@MετάEd Wow, that looks both interesting and very relevant. Still going through it but thanks, I'll bring it up in the seecrit mod room.

MετάEd

@terdon If you google "A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy" site:stackexchange.com you'll find it comes up a lot in this type of discussion.

terdon

Not surprised. Very interesting.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…