English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Mitch

14:01

@IͶΔ which brings up the whole issue of clowns

Obviously

IͶΔ

@Mitch The fat ones, or the tall skinny ones?

Lawrence

@IͶΔ I think the 'help' page acts as our FAQ. If so, it should be renamed FAQ :) . I've just done a search in meta - it seems the help page actually was called FAQ at some time.

IͶΔ

@Lawrence Ha, I'm not talking the name of the help center though, and "tour" and "help center" used to be called FAQ together, IIRC. If you type [FAQ] on the main site now in a comment, it would link to tour.

Lawrence

Interestingly, Mitch also provided an answer to the question on that linked page. (Just saw your comment.) Yes, the URL www.english.stackexchange.com/faq reroutes to the tour page.

IͶΔ

@Lawrence My comment where?

Lawrence

14:12

@IͶΔ That's interesting. Even more tidbits. I think we really should have a FAQ about site navigation.

@IͶΔ The comment starting "Ha, I'm not talking the name of the help center though ...".

IͶΔ

Aha. I stick to their SE labels.

Lawrence

@IͶΔ What's the proper name for a chat 'line'?

IͶΔ

@Lawrence And some FAQ about navigating in that FAQ about site navigation.

@Lawrence Message.

Lawrence

@IͶΔ Oh.

@IͶΔ Well, let's hope it doesn't get to that. :)

@IͶΔ As we were just discussing, ... :P . I'm sure it's documented on the site ... somewhere.

IͶΔ

@Lawrence Meta.SE? Sure, everything is there.

But it takes some Google fu and shovel work.

Lawrence

14:20

@IͶΔ :)

Mitch

15:25

@Lawrence 'how to do it' info and rules of behavior and such is all over the place. And it's different for every SE site. I don't know what a good solution is. I think there is a big problem with finding it but I don't have a good suggestion.

@IͶΔ both. It's a big deal.

Or was. I sincerely forgot how this was connected to clowns.

IͶΔ

15:37

Me too, and from the start.

But one does not simply ask questions in this chat, so.

Lawrence

15:55

@Mitch Heh, I'd have a look at reorganising the help page and pulling more of the blog into it, but I've got my hands full trying to improve the reopen process at the moment. :)

Faheem Mitha

I feel I should correct this terrible mess of a sentence:

> The music, while was made available on a soundtrack album, does not exist any official edited music sheet for this music.

from:

The King and the Mockingbird

The King and the Mockingbird (French: Le Roi et l'oiseau, literally The King and the Bird) is a 1980 traditionally animated feature film directed by Paul Grimault. Begun in 1948 as The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep (loosely based on the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen), the film was a collaboration between Grimault and popular French poet and screenwriter, Jacques Prévert. However the film suddenly stopped production and was released unfinished by its producer, without the approval of either Grimault or Prévert. Through the course of the 1960s and 1970s, Grimault obtained...

A famous French animated masterpiece, if you haven't seen it.

How about:

IͶΔ

@FaheemMitha Ugh, so that's French formality?

Faheem Mitha

> The music, which was made available on a soundtrack album, does not exist in an official edited music sheet version.

How about that? ^^

@IͶΔ I don't really know French. But it does sound like a non-native speaker translating literally from another language.

IͶΔ

@FaheemMitha This I can understand.

Faheem Mitha

@IͶΔ Improvements appreciated. I'll leave it for a bit, if anyone else wants to chime in.

IͶΔ

16:00

@FaheemMitha Omit the "which was made"?

Faheem Mitha

@IͶΔ Ah, good point.

> The music, available on a soundtrack album, does not exist in an official edited music sheet version.

user174558

17:39

...

IͶΔ

. . .

Why didja change your view @Jasp?

user174558

@IͶΔ Just for fun.

IͶΔ

Now it looks as if I owe you something.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector ] Shortened URL in answer: A word to describe a dark, solemn, good person? by MindSpaceApocalypse on english.stackexchange.com …

user174558

Sometimes, this "show your research" is taken too far. Sometimes, nothing can be found easily.

user174558

17:48

Only silly people follow rules to the extreme, because they cannot think for themselves.

IͶΔ

@Jasper Are you talking about my comment, since that's spam?

No affiliation disclosed. This only looks like a smart spam injection. — IͶΔ 1 min ago

user174558

@IͶΔ Nope. Just ELU in general.

IͶΔ

Well, trust me, you're better off with people yelling "SHOW ME SOME RESEARCH" than not caring about it.

user174558

Notice I said sometimes above.

IͶΔ

Of course not many will comply. But at least it's something that's being pronounced. Yelled.

@Jasper That's why I agree, but I want them to continue shouting. :)

user174558

17:50

Anyway I won't be here for long, so there is no need to say more. I will be deleting my account soon.

user174558

I think this site was much more pleasant five years ago.

IͶΔ

@Jasper :o Why?

@Jasper Oh.

:/

Well, of course it was, because it was a small site back then.

user174558

@IͶΔ No particular reason actually. I have deleted many accounts, including one with over 25k rep.

IͶΔ

Oh good. So no meta drama.

And no rage-quitting thing.

user174558

@IͶΔ Back then, there were many users who knew English well, but today there are just those pretending to know English well, giving silly unneeded references that make their answers look better than they really are.

IͶΔ

17:54

:) That looks like a tired hero.

user174558

Perhaps a site that is open to the online world is bound to decline.

IͶΔ

Indeed, keeping quality on the Net is next to impossible.

user174558

I need to poo.

user174558

18:07

I am back.

RegDwigнt

19:43

If you are looking for a non-political example, be my guest: "what is the area of a right triangle with a hypothenuse equal to 10 and an altitude to the hypothenuse equal to 6?" — RegDwigнt ♦ 5 mins ago

Your homework for tonight, people. Get cracking.

tchrist

...

RegDwigнt

@Fard exactly. Just like Microsoft is a hundred times larger than Math.SE and is still doing fine with all the horrendously asinine questions.

Apples to oranges.

tchrist

So, probably not a good W question.

@RegDwigнt Apples to avarice, oranges to honesty: the fruit falls not far from the truth.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist way better than getting everyone enraged by pointing out how Obama is no different than Bush.

tchrist

Now you're just trying to whitewash one of them. Not sure which though.

RegDwigнt

19:48

Hey it wasn't me who painted Bush black and put him in the office for two more periods.

My educated guess would be, that was Cheney.

tchrist

As a neighboring state to Wyoming, I can neither confirm nor deny that.

RegDwigнt

I didn't know you were a state. Sorry to hear that. Those 9-cent burgers are doing your waist line no good.

tchrist

They aren't, no. And you know I don't eat cowpigs.

RegDwigнt

Cows are not pigs. Only men are pigs.

tchrist

I see you've been reading the late great Poul Anderson again.

RegDwigнt

19:51

And since cannibalism is outlawed in your state in favor of cannabis, I am not surprised.

tchrist

I am not a weed.

Feb 23 at 9:56, by tchrist

@Cerberus "In the 1990s (when the term probably originated)" is silly. Back in 1979 Poul Anderson published a piece of political satire disguised as a a mock-serious essay entitled “Of PIGS and MEN”, where PIGS stood for People In Germanic Settlements and MEN for Mediterranean Ethnic Neighbors.

RegDwigнt

That sonds really weed.

@tchrist Oooh, so what does MICE stand for, then?

tchrist

MICE is Multi Indian Cultural Ethnics.

RegDwigнt

That's racist.

tchrist

Let them marry whom they please.

RegDwigнt

19:53

Let them merry whom they merge.

tchrist

If the Hindu lies down with the Mongrel, who am I to judge?

RegDwigнt

You are a state next to Why, oh Ming.

I suppose that's somewhere in Mongolia, no?

tchrist

Vasically.

RegDwigнt

Vasicenemy.

IͶΔ

@RegDwigнt Genghis has been busy the last few hundred years.

RegDwigнt

19:55

Oh so that's why I can't find him on Twitter.

tchrist

And the sons of the ~~Ganges~~ ganja will be with us always.

I wish I had the time to waste my mind. Or the mind.

Fard

@RegDwigнt @RegDwigнt I kinda took it back later:

7 hours ago, by Fard

@Jasper There's one difference though. Anyone can spam on almost any question about Linguistic stuff, but that doesn't happen in math and science as often.

tchrist

Spam?

I think not.

RegDwigнt

@Fard nah, I think Math.SE is actually a good example to draw parallels to ELU.

Except not to ELU, but to ELL.

Because Math.SE is historically an off-spin, too. Created specifically for all the elementary questions Mathexchange couldn't bear the thought of handling.

Fard

I mean anyone can talk gibberish about language.

That's not true about math.

RegDwigнt

19:58

So yeah, in the long run I totally expect to be ELL ten times larger than ELU, and still doing fine with all the elementary to advanced questions.

tchrist

Which is why ELU has so many 100kers.

But point taken. Proofs are proofy.

RegDwigнt

@Fard that is another very good point. Everyone thinks that math is hard. Mathematicians are used to that. But on Linguistics, the tables are reversed. Because absolutely everyone speaks a language, and thus feels entitled to call themselves an expert.

tchrist

The canal connecting ELU and ELL is an alimentary one.

Fard

@RegDwigнt Still not a well-defined boarder between the sites will be achieved.

RegDwigнt

Anything with an x in math = hard. Anything with an x in language = hey, ask me, I know everything about it.

tchrist

20:01

@Fard The sites are their communities.

RegDwigнt

@Fard maybe. Likely. I don't know.

Actually I don't know how well the border between Math.SE and Mathexchange is defined.

tchrist

Asymptotically.

Fard

I wasn't aware of Mathexchange.

IͶΔ

Math Overflow is for research-level questions.

tchrist

Mathsexchange.

RegDwigнt

20:02

But I do know that the former is easier on noobs, so that's probably where I'd turn by default. I am not seeing how that same strategy can't be applied by others to ELL vs. ELU.

tchrist

Everyone does research on SE.

IͶΔ

@Fard I strongly disagree that Math.SE is doing well, as a guy who blabs meta here and there.

RegDwigнt

I thought the horrible drama on Math was like, two years ago.

No new drama has been sickling through to me as of late.

I mean trickling. The Marxist indoctrination is showing, my oh my.

tchrist

We need less meta and more matter.

Fard

@IͶΔ I wasn't comparing them in all their problems. That site has problems because of the nature of its topic too.

IͶΔ

20:05

@Fard Math.SE's problem is that they can't judge effectively whether a question is homework or not.

So the front page is full of homework crap.

Also, math is a topic in which there's no limit to how trivial a question can be.

Fard

Be it a homework or not. So what.

RegDwigнt

22 mins ago, by RegDwigнt

If you are looking for a non-political example, be my guest: "what is the area of a right triangle with a hypothenuse equal to 10 and an altitude to the hypothenuse equal to 6?" — RegDwigнt ♦ 5 mins ago

Would probably pass with flying colors on Math.SE.

And it's really as trivial as "How does Obama differ from Bush?"

IͶΔ

@Fard The so-what is the feeling you get when you read the question. It sounds like a 16-year old chav messaging his girlfriend instead of a real question.

Mitch

@tchrist there's a vas deferens between math. SE and math.SO

IͶΔ

What you're saying is that it doesn't matter whether a question is good or not.

RegDwigнt

20:07

And when the girlfriend answers, they turn to ELU to ask, "WTH does she mean?"

IͶΔ

@RegDwigнt Wow, they do capitalize and put question marks there? I'm surprised.

Mitch

"Does this mean she likes me?"

RegDwigнt

@IͶΔ no, but we edit our crap so fast that the OP believes it is their original spelling.

IͶΔ

"duz dis meen she digz mwa?"

Fard

@IͶΔ It still can be a valid question for a 16 year-old, or even a 6 year-old. That site wants to serve everybody.

Mitch

20:08

Or a 40 yr old

70, they're just screwing around

IͶΔ

@Fard There comes a time when you have to choose between maintaining quality and coddling OPs.

RegDwigнt

@Mitch Haha you funny man, everyone knows there's no such thing as 40 yr olds on the Internet.

IͶΔ

You honestly haven't spent a day moderating a busy site, or you would've understood what I'm talking about.

Mitch

On n'est pas serieux quand on a soixante-dix ans

Effing autocorrect

tchrist

qu qu qu

Mitch

20:10

And eyes

RegDwigнt

Il n’y a pas des sots si incommodes que ceux qui ont de l’esprit.

At least that's what Sherlock Holmes said.

Fard

@IͶΔ Let's talk in Farsi so they won't understand.

RegDwigнt

Haha fail.

IͶΔ

Mhm, would CW upvotes count towards serial voting @Reg?

RegDwigнt

We understand everything.

IͶΔ

20:11

@Fard I'm pretty bad at speaking Persian in English.

tchrist

/me waits

Mitch

@IͶΔ yeah Reg you slacker

Fard

@RegDwigнt I doubt it. I know a language only I can speak.

RegDwigнt

Also we could immediately trick you into switching back to English simply by wondering, "why the hell are they conversing in Arabic?"

@Fard well, good luck conversing in it with others, then.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt l'esprit à l'escalier

RegDwigнt

20:12

I don't think you've thought it through.

Mitch

I wish I had said that before

Fard

We know some Arabic too, and we've done Arabic here before.

RegDwigнt

So have we.

Fard

Good for you. :)

IͶΔ

Nah @Fard, we should instead reply to them according to what Google Mistranslate gives us. NOW that would be a lot of fun.

Mitch

20:13

@RegDwigнt incomprehensible google translate to Arabic

@Fard no. Good for you, and your little dog too.

@IͶΔ haha jinx

RegDwigнt

@Mitch no, actual linguists with degrees. Actually living in Egypt, looking at the tanks in the streets out of their appartment. I don't think Google Translate has ever lived in Egypt.

IͶΔ

@Mitch rejinx

tchrist

reginx

Mitch

@IͶΔ you can do that? puts in jinx rule book

IͶΔ

@Mitch You haz no ideaz

RegDwigнt

20:16

In my capacity as both Reg and regina, I can reginx any time.

tchrist

loca

Fard

@Mitch What dog?

Mitch

@RegDwigнt the hunters with gun turrets on top hidden by cami nets in every other alley? Makes you feel secure. You're being looked after

RegDwigнt

@Fard yo dog, of course.

user174558

I am back.

RegDwigнt

20:17

Good. Take over, Jasper.

Mitch

@Fard Toto. Look it up. There's detailed support in the literature

Fard

Alright.

Mitch

@IͶΔ I think that sums it up nicely

RegDwigнt

I'm sure at least Jasper will calculate the area of the triangle. Nobody else ever does their math homework here.

Mitch

@Fard I don't see you looking it up

user174558

20:19

I am wondering why the Langenscheidt Standard Dictionary for French and German has 120k entries but Spanish only 90k entries...

Mitch

It's not my responsibility to open my eyes.

What are you some kind of essentialist?

RegDwigнt

It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you.
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do.

user174558

So it seems that it should not be called Standard but Substandard.

Mitch

@Jasper Spanish is smaller in everything.

user174558

@Mitch Even worse, Italian Standard is no longer in print.

Mitch

20:20

That's mostly a quantitative thing but also a judgement of character

RegDwigнt

Even their inquisition is so small, nobody ever thinks of seeing it.

Mitch

@Jasper right. No words at all

RegDwigнt

Langenscheidt has more entries for German than Spanish because Langenscheidt is a German company. DUH.

Check your privilege.

user174558

Compact Oxford for French German Italian Spanish all have 120k entries.

RegDwigнt

Like, in total?

user174558

20:22

Each, LOL.

Mitch

Proves that all languages are identical through translation

RegDwigнt

@Jasper For a mathematician, you're exceptionally unprecise.

Mitch

Sapir whorf can suck it

Or eat dirt. They're both dead

user174558

I got the Langenscheidt Standard for French and German because (1) It has headwords in blue (2) It has vinyl cover (3) It has full IPA for foreign entries.

RegDwigнt

@Mitch I don't think Michael Dorn would do that.

user174558

20:24

I guess Italian and Spanish are not as important to the Germans than French and German...

RegDwigнt

@Jasper so you bought your dictionary like a valley girl buys a car. I see.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt to die with your enemy blah à blah blah Klingon blah blah.

They really need to manage their anger better

RegDwigнt

Mar 13 '12 at 13:25, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

taH pagh taHbe'

I don't think blah has a phonotactic place in their vocabulary.

Mitch

flagged

user174558

I think the girl in the picture is very pretty.

Fard

20:25

I bid farewell to everybody with this beaut I took 10 days ago. Sleep well when the night comes to you.

Mitch

Pix please

RegDwigнt

Hm. I am not seeing any girl in that picture. Unless the picture is of Jabba the Hutt's mum.

Mitch

@Fard that sounds like a veiled threat that you'll come to our country and set our clocks to an inconvenient time

user174558

I am thinking of when to delete my account. I guess very soon.

RegDwigнt

Yeah because our clocks are only set to inconvenient times twice a year.

Mitch

20:28

@RegDwigнt no hut mom jokes in chat. Unless they're covered in vinyl

Fard

@Mitch I'm gone and asleep. Don't ping me.

RegDwigнt

I am a vinyhilist, sorry.

Good night, Fard.

user174558

Oh there is also a Compact Oxford Russian with 120k entries.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt causes a statistically significant increase in heart attacks

Fard

G'night all.

user174558

20:29

But I won't study Russian cos it is too hard.

RegDwigнt

@Jasper Худафанк.

Mitch

@Fard no problem. Pinging off

I have total control of your sound. Which I've stopped

RegDwigнt

Anyway, I'm off to gleaner shores.

user174558

Did I tell you guys I watched Saw 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and Wrong Turn 1,2,3,4,5,6?

Mitch

Can you pick me some up while you're there?

RegDwigнt

20:31

Yes, you did repeatedly tell us you were into weird porn.

user174558

Next I will watch Final Destination 1,2,3,4,5 and Scream 1,2,3,4.

RegDwigнt

And torture porn is clearly among the finest weird porns.

But don't worry, for every crap movie you watch I take it as my duty to watch three good ones.

Mitch

@Jasper what's the highest number you've gotten to?

RegDwigнt

OVER 9000.

user174558

@RegDwigнt Since I may not see you again, I wish you happiness this life and the next. You are a good man.

Mitch

20:33

@RegDwigнt that almost sounds like a meme. If it weren't so racist

RegDwigнt

Yeah, since I may not see you again until you create a new account, I wish you happiness with your next account. You are a good account now.

user174558

@Mitch Hmm, I once watched a few Nightmare on Elm Street but I forgot how many.

Mitch

They change the names slightly, like fast and furious. It's pretty confusing

RegDwigнt

@Mitch which reminds me.

Mitch

But #6, that one is amazing.

RegDwigнt

20:34

Toddles.

Mitch

"You've got furious"

user174558

@Mitch What languages do the Americans like to learn, in order?

Mitch

Sorry I blinked and the internet went away

@Jasper there are actual reliable stats on the web that you can find but I'll say anyway

Spanish, French by far the most (usually either is the default)

user174558

Aha. These two are world languages on Wikipedia.

Mitch

Then depending on your location, Latin, Chinese,Italian, Japanese, German in equal amounts. Maybe Russian.

user174558

20:39

Latin? LOL.

Mitch

Yeah. A holdout of the 19th c

user174558

What good is Latin today?

Mitch

21:03

@Jasper Half of English is Latin. And it's the educated half. Also knowing it makes French Spanish Italian trivial

Russian on the other hand is painfully hard to learn and only useful to talk to your parents or do business with gangsters (usually the same)

user174558

21:26

I am deleting my account, goodbye.

Anonymous

22:12

@pleasedeleteme Talk to you soon!

Cerberus

23:52

Nematophagous fungus

Nematophagous fungi are carnivorous fungi specialized in trapping and digesting nematodes. Around 160 species are known. There exist both species that live inside the nematodes from the beginning and others that catch them mostly with glue traps or in rings, some of which constrict on contact. Some species possess both types of traps. Another technique is to stun the nematodes using toxins, which is a method employed by Coprinus comatus, Stropharia rugosoannulata, and the family Pleurotaceae. Nematophagous fungus can be useful in controlling nematodes. Purpureocillium for example can be used as...

Anonymous

@Cerberus I wondered because, for the first two examples I found, it did turn out to be part of the official name! :-)

Anonymous

But I didn't really expect that to be the case generally.

Anonymous

Still, there's an awful lot of stuff I don't know, so what I expect and reality aren't always the same thing. I kept looking until I found some where it wasn't part of the official name.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…