English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

20:17

@terdon No research!

Need it be closed?

terdon

@Cerberus Not true! I've tried to research that before and it ain't easy to find.

Cerberus

Nevertheless, the OP doesn't show any research.

Tonepoet

@terdon Doesn't count unless you show it.

Cerberus

Too easy ≠ no research.

M.A.R.

Making research required as a policy is only going to be a pain in the A for the policy-makers

Optimizing to get the best answers is the best way to make/modify policy, IMHO

Tonepoet

20:24

@M.A.R. It has already been done:

28

Q: New close reason: include the research

After reviewing several Meta posts and related commentary, the moderator team has replaced one of the custom close reasons on the site. The General Reference close reason has been replaced by: Please include the research you've done, or consider if your question suits our English Language Lea...

M.A.R.

Will the question get a really really stupid answer whose crux is a link but one that I can't do anything to but downvoting?

YEAH, BURN THE QUESTION

terdon

@M.A.R. english.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-ask

M.A.R.

@Tonepoet Oh crap

@terdon Oh crap

terdon

@M.A.R. That's not new. That's the standard boilerplate help on all SE sites and has been for as long as I've been active.

Tonepoet

@terdon The help center in general has not been updated in a long time. It's probably the same stuff that was there since the beginning.

M.A.R.

20:26

@terdon "Do a frigging research" and "research or we'll close" are different thingies

Hmm, yeah, the how-to-ask seems not much different

terdon

It's the same.

M.A.R.

Then again, I don't remember the wording in other how-to-ask's.

Making research policy will prolly not have much effect on ELU, except people will start complaining the close vote is being misused

And that good questions are closed simply because they didn't contain "fluff" you call research

It's the same film being rerun in my mind, except the site is english.SE, not chem.SE and the close reason is "Go to ELL or do a research" not "sounds like homework. Show research"

Mitch

I'm back. So we're all having fun?

reads transcript

Oh.

M.A.R.

Ho.

Mitch

goes to do research

Ah the smell of old ... keyboards?

terdon

20:32

By the way, @M.A.R., apropos of nothing in particular, I just wanted to point out that your English has become really impressive. And has improved enormously since the first times I read you here (not that it was bad to begin with). Anyway, kudos!

Mitch

pixels dancing in the dark, patterns of knowledge like random stars resolving into constellations that fight themselve into narratives

@terdon I'm hurt. You never say that about me.

M.A.R.

@terdon (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ My Unicode glyphs have improved as well.

terdon

@Mitch That's cause yours gets worse by the second.

@M.A.R. Let me just look up what that means.

Mitch

Have you seen the landing of the returning manned Mars exploration ship? So sad about the one astronaut.

But obviously the SpaceX IPO really took off. haha business pun.

M.A.R.

A Perfect Storm at Uber

Mitch

20:37

@terdon Oh. It's like you enjoy kicking puppies.

terdon

@Mitch You know me so well.

M.A.R.

Huh. That reminds me, I must watch John Wick 2.

Mitch

@Mitch Please disregard this.

I've been time traveling a lot lately

And sometimes you go 24 hours without realizing you haven't slept and you press a couple wrong buttons and you're giving away future stock tips

@M.A.R. I hope it's not giving away too much but no puppies were kicked or even made to feel slightly sad in John Wick 2.

On a brighter note, lots of bad people were shot in the face.

M.A.R.

@Mitch Yeah, that was a critic's review

Mitch

a lot of people

I mean all those henchmen and security guards and party waiters, don't they all have families who will cry for them at their funerals (except for that one girl, that's another story) and homes that somebody else will have to clean out now because, well, they're dead?

also cars.

what is it with all the car worship?

What did bros do before the car was invented? hang out at the stable?

M.A.R.

20:43

@Mitch Nah, they don't have families. They're in a film

Mitch

@M.A.R. what?

M.A.R.

@Mitch Ride 300 horses instead of a 300-HP car

Mitch

you mean like a documentary?

terdon

@Mitch BORING!

Mitch

@terdon ah. a cat lover. you sicken me.

terdon

20:45

@Mitch Take that back!

If we're waxing serious, I like dogs over cats but am very (some would say "too", but what do they know) fond of both.

Mitch

@terdon I would if it were made in jest, but I was merely stating an objectively verifiable fact

terdon

Verifiable no less?

Mitch

that too

M.A.R.

@Mitch I'm a cat-lover too ಠ_ಠ

terdon

How dare you! You dastardly, dog loving curr!

Mitch

20:46

cats are ... there are no words

terdon

@Mitch Vicious, heartless, vindictive killers?

Mitch

@terdon haha I see what you did there

@terdon thoughtless, unfeeling

terdon

@Mitch Damn. I have to learn to stop purring when writing.

@Mitch Also cute, fluffy, warm and fuzzy though. Devious little buggers that they are.

Mitch

Three's gotta be something else than dogs or cats.

Pigs. Now they are cute

terdon

Fleas?

M.A.R.

20:48

@Mitch Snakes O.o

terdon

Fleas are cute. And they jump. Which is more than I can say for pigs.

M.A.R.

Hamsters.

Mitch

@terdon well, I wasn't really going in that direction but...

terdon

@M.A.R. Cat food.

Mitch

@terdon I can't dispute that

M.A.R.

20:48

@terdon If I like cats, why not like their food?

terdon

Fair enough

Mitch

@M.A.R. Snakes ... are weird.

You can't really pet them.

M.A.R.

@Mitch Some of them are funny and cute though

Mitch

It's not their fault

mostly

M.A.R.

@Mitch You can make a cobra angry, then pet it

Mitch

20:49

@M.A.R. You must've met some real interesting snakes

M.A.R.

@Mitch Snakes around here are usually not poisonous

Mitch

to be honest, you can't really pet a cat. You can stroke it's fur which is almost as good though

terdon

@Mitch Sure you can. Loads of people have snakes for pets, ergo they can be petted.

Just like humans can be friended.

M.A.R.

"Poisonous snakes don't like cold climates" is prolly some fact

Mitch

@M.A.R. I've heard that almost all snakes are poisonous but the 'non'poisonous ones, just have their poison fangs far enough back in their mouths that they really can't get you. so functionally non-poisonous.

Or I could have misread

M.A.R.

20:51

@Mitch Oh, I meant poisonous for hoomins

Mitch

@terdon airtight logic. but I'm feeling a little queasy

M.A.R.

Snakes are either so large that don't need to bite to kill, or are really small and really effing dangerous, or something in between and with a less dangerous poison

Most of them can fit either of three category above, AFAIK

But @ter is the biologist here

Mitch

@M.A.R. yeah me too. like if the snake bites you on the ankle, it can't use its way-back-in-the-throat fangs. but if you stick a finger way back there maybe you'll be in trouble

@M.A.R. I think we're involving actual biology in the most tenuous fashion here

M.A.R.

@Mitch Can't biology moar

Mitch

21:07

@M.A.R. what if a poisonous snake bites its own tongue? Huh? What then Mr. Biology?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch you mean venomous snake

Færd

@terdon I almost envy his command of English.

terdon

21:22

@Færd Hey, you're no slouch.

Færd

21:33

Haha! -- tries to take compliments gracefully -- Thanks.

Nick Alexeev

> Remember to check for ecoli! (shit in simplified English :-)

from the Electrical Engineering stack

terdon

@NickAlexeev Close enough. In Greek they're actually called "Ass bacteria". Well, that's what their Ancient Greek name means in Modern Greek, anyway.

But yes, that's what the coli stands for in Escherichia coli.

Well, intestine, anyway.

> Inflected form of cōlon ‎(“large intestine”) or its variant cōlum.

englishstudent

22:20

Today's chat logs are fun to read.

I need muh popcorn.

@Cerberus Well, you get a star from me. Just for your grumpiness :)

@Tonepoet That dictionary of google uses "vocabulary.com" website too. I just came across one definition from that site there.

@Mitch Whenever someone says "I see what you did there" I can never understand what they are referring to. I know it an expression of quiet, subdued admiration for one's wit but still.

@Mitch Have you ever seen a cobra snake dance? I have, it is mystical and scary.

Robusto

22:43

@RegDwigнt Meanwhile: imgur.com/gallery/sVg6s

englishstudent

wow, that's hardcore.

I have seen a similar video clip where a guy barges in a bank with a long shotgun and a customer just places his hands on the barrel and moves it aside gently and walks away from the robber lel. Crazy.

It was a real video.

Tonepoet

23:47

@englishstudent Yeah, it uses a number of sources, and is not very reliable for getting the same results twice. I'm not even sure if anybody knows them all. I just spoke in generalities last time.

It's a good personal convenience, but not very much more because of that unfortunately.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…