English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

00:11

@snailboat But what is an official name?

Mitch

01:30

@Cerberus Fungophagous nematodus. All is fair.

Fard

01:56

@tchrist Sir, you don't know how much time I'm spending on that table. It's a gem for me. Thanks you.

Lawrence

06:14

@Mitch Whaddaya know - there actually is a FAQ for chat! <http://chat.stackexchange.com/faq>

sumelic

07:59

8

Q: What source explains the different pronunciations of "hol" in "alcohol" and "hollow"?

According to Merriam-Webster, the pronunciation of alcohol is "ˈal-kə-ˌhȯl" while the pronunciation of hollow is "ˈhä-(ˌ)lō." Why are they pronounced with different vowels? I think I've figured out the reason (my explanation is further below) but I haven't been able to find any source to confirm ...

What do people think? Would this qualify for reopening? I tried to make it more clear, and I don't really think the question is primarily opinion-based or off-topic.

SmokeDetector

08:50

[ SmokeDetector ] Repeating characters in answer: Words Starting with Double Consonants by Cailen on english.stackexchange.com …

Lawrence

09:02

@sumelic How do you get the fancy white box to appear in the message?

Shafizadeh

10:44

"Rather than" is the same with "Instead of" ?

Andrew Leach

11:01

@Lawrence Just post a link to the question. The system converts it to an extract. Same with links to Wikipedia articles and a couple of other things (I forget exactly what).

@Shafizadeh @Shafizadeh You will need to be a bit more forthcoming. "Rather than" probably implies a preference, whereas "instead of" is probably only giving a neutral alternative.

Hmm. I think I need a new mouse: the button bounces. Sorry about the double-ping.

Shafizadeh

@AndrewLeach ah ok tnx :)

Lawrence

11:29

@AndrewLeach Thanks!

@AndrewLeach Do I need to format the link in any particular way, square brackets, perhaps? The link in my message just before sumelic's was rendered as text.

Test: [chat.stackexchange.com/faq]

Test: chat.stackexchange.com/faq

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector ] Offensive answer detected: "Will have" vs. "Would have" by bhosdika on english.stackexchange.com …

Andrew Leach

11:51

@Lawrence No, just a link, with nothing else.

0

Q: Is there a more specific term than hyperbole for this kind of outlandish exaggeration?

I quite often make outlandish exaggerated statements to emphasise a point; for example, if I'm particularly frustrated with a programming problem I'm working on, I'll say something like If it doesn't work this time, I'm going to set fire to everything forever. I know that as defined, this i...

single-word-requests phrase-requests

That was just this:

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/313572/is-there-a-more-specific-term‌-than-hyperbole-for-this-kind-of-outlandish-exagger

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

12:26

@RegDwigнt Yes, I saw this a few days ago, it's really great.

Kit Z. Fox

13:25

Happy Pi Day.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Happy Pi Day to you! Though as a non-American, I write the date as 2016-03-14 So I'll only have Pi day in the year 3141

then every day will be pi day

whoops it's not 20016 yet.

IͶΔ

Happy Pi day @Kit

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Only in Gregorian calendar.

Kit Z. Fox

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Um. It's the day that's important, not the year.

Oh! I just got notice that we're getting bonuses in the next paycheck!

Andrew Leach

Bonus?! What's one of them?

Kit Z. Fox

It's where they give you money for free.

Andrew Leach

13:39

Oh.

That's never happened to me.

Not even a cost-of-living pay rise with my current (American) employer.

But, good for you!

Kit Z. Fox

Wow. That sucks. Although, this is the first place I've worked where I get regular raises and merit pay.

Andrew Leach

Sorry: we're coming to the end of the contract and it's all being handled rather badly. I'll try not to let any more leak through.

Lilienthal

A question that I believe may be too short/minor to post, in the following paragraph from an interview, is the use of the word "indeed" incorrect? Or can it actually be used to mean "even"?

> Mike Wallace: Ayn, I'm sure that you have stimulated a good many people, more people than [you] already have, to read your book Atlas Shrugged, and The Fountainhead, and I'm equally sure they will be stimulated for the reading, indeed, if they do not agree.

It seems to me that the phrasing might be "they will be stimulated indeed" with an "even" missing from "if they do not agree".

Of course, let me know if this should be posted as a question.

Kit Z. Fox

It doesn't sound wrong to me.

It's sort of like an emphatic 'even'.

Kind of implying contrast.

It sounds educated to me.

Andrew Leach

It doesn't work in British English. That needs an even (indeed, even if the indeed remains).

Kit Z. Fox

13:47

Indeed, if they do not agree, they will be equally stimulated for the reading.

Andrew Leach

It works that way round, but not the other way round.

Kit Z. Fox

hmm

Lilienthal

Ah, so the "equally" doesn't compare the interview and the reading, but rather "equally stimulated if they do not agree"

Kit Z. Fox

Maybe it is because I can hear Mike Wallace saying it.

@Lilienthal It reads to me like "they will be simulated regardless of whether they agree".

Lilienthal

Here's the video at the sentence.

Kit Z. Fox

13:52

yes. That's how I was interpreting it.

they will be stimulated for the reading ... indeed, if they do not agree.

Lilienthal

@KitZ.Fox Yeah, I think my confusion comes from the "indeed" being added as a sort of emphatic interjection and being placed right where the "even" would be, while that "even if" was shortened to just "if".

Kit Z. Fox

Yes, I can understand that. Like I said, it feels like an emphasis but also a kind of contrast -- the expectation might be that people who disagree would not want to read it, but this statement counters that.

Lilienthal

Yeah makes sense. Thanks for the input.

Mitch

15:31

@sumelic Was it closed as off-topic? Anyway, it seems to be open now. But rereading it, it looks like you added quite a bit to your question, well beyond the point where my answer seems misguided. I don't know what to do now, edit, or answer separately (I'd answer differently to your current question.)

@KitZ.Fox Pfft...tau day is antimisunderrepresented

@Lilienthal I disagree about the content.

I think Mike Wallace is just trying to be diplomatic.

Rand wrote (in my opinion) better than average alternate-history science fiction. And that's not everyone's cup of tea.

Some people are stimulated by baseball. Others are not. Some are stimulated by pseudo-logical narcissism in a sci-fi plot. Others maybe not as much.

Most science fiction is really just nerd Mary Sue.

Also, Pol Pot was really misunderstood; some of his lesser known policies...

Kit Z. Fox

Dude.

Not cool.

Mitch

16:00

@KitZ.Fox You and your π hegemony... I get symbol-nausea when I hear it.

sumelic

@Mitch It was closed mainly as "primarily opinion-based," but some people had other reasons. Sorry for changing the question on you! I appreciate your answer as it is; but if you'd like to edit, that's fine also.

Mitch

@sumelic When I wrote it before, the examples seemed all the same to me. Now that I read your extended question, it's obvious that there is the cot/caught distinction for some (or LOT/CLOTH). I think I'll emend. or is it 'amend'?

Kit Z. Fox

17:26

TIL that I can put notices on posts for needing citations.

Is that a mod thing? It must be.

JohnB

it is a mod thing!

Kit Z. Fox

Hi @JohnB.

JohnB

Hi Kit!

Anyone can also go here to see posts that have notices

Kit Z. Fox

Well, look at that.

Hard to believe I've been a mod this long and had no idea about that.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

17:42

Didn't they teach you that in mod school?

Kit Z. Fox

Maybe. I'm pretty sure I was carousing that day.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

you're such a carouser.

Kit Z. Fox

I am.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

better than being a carousel

Kit Z. Fox

Speaking of carousing, I am about to eat pie.

Because it is Pi Day.

Matt E. Эллен

17:57

I had pie yesterday, because π is irrational

2

Mitch

18:07

@JohnB ??? What is a 'notice'? I couldn't figure out any tags or anything that would mark those as such.

JohnB

bounties and locked posts also count as having "notices"

Mitch

huh. how about that.

@JohnB so bounties fall off that list pretty quickly, and locked items are forever on that list (until unlocked. But 'citation needed'? How is that 'notice' removed (if in fact a citation is added to the content)?

JohnB

@Mitch it must be manually removed, there's no way to set a "timed" notice like you can with locked posts

hence the need to have that page, I guess

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

18:23

@MattE.Эллен Hey, I did too! It was chocolate-pear pie

Matt E. Эллен

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 we had chicken and mushroom pies :D

Kit Z. Fox

I have been up and down so much today I think I am going to lose my mind.

Mitch

@JohnB but that's the question, how do you manually remove it? I see no UI artifact to manually either put it on that list or remove it.

@KitZ.Fox would pie help? Of course it would!!

JohnB

18:39

the option to add one turns in to an option to remove one once it has one

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 chocolate-pear? That's a thing? It sounds like two random things were put together like salt and caramel or velvet and cake or Pol Pot and pot pie.

Already by association he's not looking so bad

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch yeah it was a chocolate pie with pears in it.

Mitch

And it was good?

The pear part with the chocolate

Obviously one or the other is great

@JohnB must be a mod superpower

JohnB

yep

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

it was alright. I think it would've been better if it'd been a little lighter on the chocolate side. fluffier, less chocolatey.

Kit Z. Fox

18:46

Now I'm wondering why some of these are locked rather than closed.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Sometimes if you lock the door before you close it, you can't close it.

Kit Z. Fox

That's deep.

Mitch

But practical

Are all the locked questions on that list? I suspect so. Many questions were locked intentionally to prevent them from being closed (eg the content was historically off topic but we want to keep it for posterity and we like it)

RegDwigнt

18

Q: Why is second the duration of exactly 9192631770 periods of radiations?

Why is a second equal to the duration of 9192631770 periods of radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom? Why is the number of periods so complicated? It could be any simple number, why is it exactly 9192631770?

time history si-units metrology

Because you're a troll.

JohnB

Is that a troll question to ask?

Delta Escher

19:00

@IͶΔ What was that StackApp link again?

I'm on a different computer and I forget it

RegDwigнt

@JohnB yes, that is a troll question to ask.

Delta Escher

@RegDwigнt Mind if I ask how (though I have a sneaking suspicion)

JohnB

okay

RegDwigнt

The only way you know that number is by looking it up somewhere. That somewhere, no matter what it is, will have the explanation how the number came about.

Delta Escher

@RegDwigнt Not necessarily

It might not, and then that question would be perfectly fine

We're just begging the question if he did or not when we could just either answer the question and get free rating, or ignore it and have nothing change

RegDwigнt

19:04

Yeah, we either benefit from feeding the troll or we do not.

Delta Escher

And you can't flag it, because it's a perfectly legitimate question and you'd just look like you're beating down on an innocent person if you do flag it.

JohnB

It's a big assumption that there's an explanation accompanying the text, I'd give the benefit of the doubt that there wasn't and that's why they asked. Otherwise, meh

Delta Escher

Can I ask someone a favor?

I need a sound uploaded to any stock sounds website I can access so I can use it as a sound for something.

JohnB

That depends, do I have the right to say no (especially if you want money from me)?

Delta Escher

You do have the right to say no

RegDwigнt

19:08

@JohnB It's not a big assumption at all, since that is not the definition of a second. Any definition of a second will be quick to point just that out.

@DeltaEscher now that is a big assumtion. Of course I can flag it. Watch me do.

JohnB

I could definitely imagine scenarios where the fact is removed from all context without explanation. Maybe on the bottom of a Snapple cap :)

Delta Escher

Here's the sound

drive.google.com/open?id=0B9tibeiE_-OsSDF3SmxVZ0ZtMTA

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

We should just make caesium-133 transition its ground state levels at a more convenient frequency.

Delta Escher

Tell me if you get it up so I can use it

Matt E. Эллен

@DeltaEscher what sites can you access?

RegDwigнt

19:11

@JohnB in which case you must go on to imagine that that person meticulously typed off the numbers off a Snapple cap.

Delta Escher

@MattE.Эллен Any as long as I can get a link of the file that plays the sound for my SE Chat sound applet

Matt E. Эллен

ah

Delta Escher

Oh hey I haven't changed my avatar recently

Boop

@MattE.Эллен A direct link to the sound would be awesome

JohnB

@RegDwigнt I am more inclined to assume that some people just find it easier to ask others than to find out for themselves. We see it all the time all over the network, questions that are so easily googled they make you wonder what bubble they're living in :P

Delta Escher

The Drive link doesn't work

Matt E. Эллен

19:13

@DeltaEscher doesn't it work from that google drive link?

Delta Escher

@MattE.Эллен No

It's not a direct link to the sound itself, and Google Drive won't let me do that

RegDwigнt

@JohnB yes, absolutely correct. But that is the point at which it logically follows that there is no way on Earth they could have possibly found Physics.SE.

Delta Escher

So I need a direct link to the sound from the internet because the applet is complete garbage and doesn't let me upload sound files

Matt E. Эллен

@DeltaEscher I see. I don't think I know a site that will do that

Delta Escher

@MattE.Эллен Just the first sound uploading site you find would work

I just need any link to the direct sound

JohnB

19:15

@RegDwigнt heh, if only we had access to more powerful analytics. I actually did ask a new user once how they found our site, they just took it the wrong way and got offended :S So I stopped doing that

Delta Escher

My school is super strict on site access

RegDwigнt

@JohnB self-censoring, eh. To cater to ignorance, no less :-P

As some German philosopher (or was it a chancellor?) once said, "Der Klügere gibt nach; das ergibt die Herrschaft der Dummen".

JohnB

On Graphic Design we have a font identifcation tag, it has been a mystery to me how people possibly come to our site as a new user to ask for a font to be identified. There are so many other hits on Google before us, I would really love to know what people are searching for that leads them to us first.

RegDwigнt

The smarter person will give in first. Which results in the reign of stupid.

@JohnB not to mention that your site's name is nowhere as cool as "What The Font".

Matt E. Эллен

@DeltaEscher picosong.com/Aj9G

does that work?

RegDwigнt

19:19

Seriously, who clicks on "Graphic Design" if they can click on "WTF"?

JohnB

:D

GD = God damn? Maybe? Eh? Nope, still not as cool :(

RegDwigнt

Gosh darn, please. This is a family channel.

JohnB

Sorry families :(

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

God Design

Fard

Anyone knows what this is? My windows provides random Login Screen backgrounds, All of them natural till this one.

RegDwigнt

19:24

It is a picture on the Internet.

Fard

Right. I didn't think of that.

RegDwigнt

I am here to help.

Other than that, it reminds me of a really bad movie with Johnny Depp.

Fard

Could it possibly be actual lighting?

JohnB

It is a long exposure photo taken in what looks to be a lilac field

Matt E. Эллен

Really Old Fonts, Layouts, Colours, Overlays, Printing, Typesetting Educational Resource

Fard

19:26

@JohnB I have to look up exposure field now.

RegDwigнt

@Fard Yeah it could. The two bright lights in the centre make me suspicious, but those could either have been a) actually quite dim, and b) photoshopped.

JohnB

@Fard d'oh

Fard

None of them were photoshoped before.

JohnB

I suspect someone had a blinking light at the end of the rope, spun it around as they ran down the field, then pointed it directly towards the camera at the end

or in reverse

RegDwigнt

My wife does this sort of photography. It used to be quite a trend about eight years ago.

Fard

19:28

@JohnB That makes sense.

But where is that someone hiding himself?

RegDwigнt

It's long exposure. Remember that the shutter was open the entire time.

JohnB

This appears to be the original source and author's profile 500px.com/photo/73479425/…

RegDwigнt

The person was running all over the place.

Delta Escher

@MattE.Эллен No. For some reason it just resets all sounds to the default one.

At least in the menu

Ping me regularly

Fard

@JohnB Thanks.

Matt E. Эллен

19:32

@DeltaEscher How is this for

Delta Escher

@MattE.Эллен Default

Matt E. Эллен

:(

Delta Escher

Let me see if I can mess with the code a little.

JohnB

@Fard explanation video here, you can see someone swinging a flashlight around in the beginning just as I described youtube.com/watch?v=CFlgMdiZHhc

Fard

How and where did you search for the original picture?

RegDwigнt

19:33

Tineye or similar.

JohnB

a few iterations of Google's reverse image search

Fard

That's a good tool.

RegDwigнt

@Fard tineye.com/search/2abd412255f1ee8cea139afc40b342ba4f2e5a64

Delta Escher

Well how about that

The actual post about the App says its broken

JohnB

very powerful and surprisingly difficult to fool!

Delta Escher

19:36

nice

RegDwigнt

Mosaic looks the best.

Mitch

Ooh like mom when you're five years old. How does she know when you're lying?

RegDwigнt

Just like back in the 1990s.

@Mitch she's a WITCH.

Mitch

Part her hair in the back, she really does have eyes in the back of her head

Delta Escher

@Mitch From radiation though

Mitch

19:40

Either she's the alien or you have a birth defect for not having the extra pair

RegDwigнt

Seriously, nobody who's not a witch can possibly tell when a five years old is lying. Easy proof: have the five year old say, "my mom is a witch".

The witch will burn.

Mitch

Not in my experience. I'll send you my data journal

Like HP-MoR. You can do experiments

RegDwigнt

Mitch is a witch.

Mitch

Sez you

RegDwigнt

And to conceal that he had nothing better to do than flip a letter upside down. Which means he's apparently also a satanist.

Mitch

19:44

Screw this. I'm getting a donut

rage donut quits

RegDwigнt

ʇnuop ɐ ƃuıʇʇǝƃ ɯ,ı ˙sıɥʇ ʍǝɹɔs

See how he's uttering some magic rubbish?

Beware!

Mitch

rage comes back

RegDwigнt

It's Rage Strikes Back, you heathen.

Fard

@RegDwigнt Thanks. tineye.com/search/545297fee83b17338a45ed97fc5d601537c02428

Mitch

Better heathen and a pagan than gristle in a castle

RegDwigнt

19:48

@Fard yes. And that's how easy it is to find out my full legal name.

Fard

Was that such a secret? I'm sorry then. :P

Mitch

@RegDwigнt oh Elton... sigh

RegDwigнt

@Fard au contraire, quite obviously it wasn't.

Otherwise I'd have used something else.

Fard

I know. Anyway, makes no difference to me. I can't read your name.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt oh Bubo Scandiacus... sigh

RegDwigнt

19:50

Nobody can. That is the actual punchline.

Which is why I'm not hiding it. You can't do anything with it. Not even begin to read it.

Fard

Not that your screen name makes any more sense to me.

RegDwigнt

I like hiding things in the open like that. To mess with everybody's brains.

@Fard well maybe you should google for it, then :-P

Elton John

Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is an English singer, songwriter, and composer. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriting partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date. In his five-decade career Elton John has sold more than 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. He has more than fifty Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 US albums, 58 Billboard Top 40 singles, 27 Top 10, four No. 2 and nine No. 1. For 31 consecutive years (1970–2000) he had at least one...

Matt E. Эллен

You misspelt Heracles

Mitch

LMGT... Oh you just did

RegDwigнt

@MattE.Эллен You misspelled Hisacles. You oppressive mysoginist shitlord.

Matt E. Эллен

19:53

@RegDwigнt Hey man, it's free speech

RegDwigнt

It's not free if I charge you for it.

Mitch

@MattE.Эллен best Disney ever. Meg (short for Megara). "Call IXII" for help. Ha ha ha.

Matt E. Эллен

stop oppressing my rights

RegDwigнt

Haven't thought about that now, have you?

@MattE.Эллен fine with me. starts oppressing Matt's lefts

Matt E. Эллен

@RegDwigнt You can't be a communist!

RegDwigнt

19:55

I can't, and yet I am. I suppose that makes me some kind of god.

Matt E. Эллен

@Mitch I haven't seen it, but I see a lot of stills on tumblr. People really like Hades

@RegDwigнt what kind? a communist god?

RegDwigнt

Oh, so you read tumblr. No wonder you're such an oppressive misogynist.

Matt explains all things.

Matt E. Эллен

Just like Sabrina

RegDwigнt

Hey people come here, gather around, Matt does all the explaining.

Matt E. Эллен

Once upon a time, in a far away land, a fairy lived.

It was a tall fairy, like about 15cm

RegDwigнt

19:57

Matt E. Эллен

The fairy had the power to grant wishes

RegDwigнt

Yes, especially "make my dishes clean".

Matt E. Эллен

But there was noöne to grant wishes to, so it granted wishes to itself

It created a bus full of people

RegDwigнt

If wishes were dishes, we'd all swim in richesses.

Matt E. Эллен

and that's how everything started

RegDwigнt

19:58

But then history became legend, and legend became mythoginist.

That concludes my offerings for today. vanishes

Matt E. Эллен

that mute commie

Johan Larsson

21:12

Mythbusters Uncut: Bullets Fired Up Uncut

►

^ something similar was discussed here a year ago or so

Johan Larsson

21:43

Amazing Resonance Experiment!

►

IͶΔ

21:56

@DeltaEscher remind me to remind you to remind me to dig it up tomorrow. My shovel's asleep.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…