English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@simchona My wife had, in her 2nd year of pharmacy school, 8 exams in 7 days (some were finals, some were midterms). Last two exams were on the 22nd of december.

simchona

@Mahnax I'd say it if I were caffeine-sober too

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Eep.

Mahnax

3:25 AM

@simchona Oh, okay.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Ouch.

Um, Merry Christmas?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mahnax Well, what this course did was read from the bible and explain what was being said, and develop the "history" that was revealed in the pages. But the problem is that the history in the bible is not exactly, shall we say, accurate.

Mahnax

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Yes, this could pose a problem.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@simchona Yeah, and she was the "study study study study as much as you can" kind of student; this was the first time in her life that she ever prepped for less than 8 days for a test.

simchona

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Shh! You might get in another creationist argument

Mahnax

I think that a class that compared history, according to the Bible, with what is commonly accepted to be history could be interesting.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:27 AM

@simchona No, I'm not even going to talk about creation; actually that course treated it as allegory.

Sonic The Hedgehog

I am right here ya know ;)

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mahnax Yes, that would be interesting.

Mahnax

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I wonder how many students would take it.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@sim avoid what predicament?

Mahnax

It would need to be an optional course open to all grades.

simchona

3:28 AM

@SonicTheHedgehog Read the transcript

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@SonicTheHedgehog I've thought a bit about our conversation the other day. I want to apologize if I came across as rude or patronizing.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@MRS I though I was patronizing...

@sim so, avoid getting 3 midterms in same week?

mmk.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@SonicTheHedgehog Well I don't have time to debate tonight. But suffice to say that I think science can explain many things, if one doesn't just throw away the parts of science that one doesn't like. science is truly impartial and apolitical. It's merely a process.

Sonic The Hedgehog

Of course.

Mahnax

Ooh, the Oilers and the Jets are playing.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:30 AM

Learning to be wrong is one of science's most fundamental precepts.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@MRS You know what I say. Science is inexact Science.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@SonicTheHedgehog Well... that's partly valid and partly invalid, I guess. :)

Sonic The Hedgehog

@Mah Who is winning?

Mahnax

@SonicTheHedgehog The Oilers! That is a surprise.

nhl.com/ice/realtime.htm?id=2011020934

simchona

@Mahnax Eulers?

Mahnax

3:32 AM

@simchona Nope, sorry.

This is hockey, not Maths.

Sonic The Hedgehog

I am a Patriot fan myself... who lives in New Jersey.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Anyway @SonicTheHedgehog try watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos or reading A Brief History of Time by Hawking or reading one of Dawkin's biology books.

Sonic The Hedgehog

I hate those glowering Giant fan jerk who gets in trouble all the time.

@MRS Sure.

@MRS If you have any problems with what Bible says, just ask it on Christianity.SE. I am sure we could give a good explanation..

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@SonicTheHedgehog Oh gods I avoid that place. It's like watching a train-wreck.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@MRS Why?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:35 AM

@SonicTheHedgehog Because of the fundamental flaws in the very notion of the site and its subject matter.... Maybe I shouldn't get started on this.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@MRS Eh.

Mahnax

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Not now, please.

Sonic The Hedgehog

Lets talk about Apple and Windows!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Let's just say that I cringe when I see people debate, endlessly, on the finer details of, for example, what St. Paul wrote and what it means, when it begs the question as to why anything Paul wrote should be considered important at all in the first place. We only have his word for it that he saw Jesus. But we only have the Bible's word that Jesus even existed. etc.

Sonic The Hedgehog

I am sure @Cerb would be happy to participate.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:37 AM

@Mahnax ok I won't say anything else.

Mahnax

@SonicTheHedgehog Meh. Studying, and you have homework.

Cerberus

@SonicTheHedgehog Hi! In what?

Sonic The Hedgehog

@MRS Not much different from discussing Darwins idea... But that's for another time.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Oh: I recall now the connection I made: Christianity.SE is to Christians what startrek.SE would be to trekkies.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@Cerb Sorry, I think Mah vetoed it.

Cerberus

3:38 AM

Oh. Too bad.

Sonic The Hedgehog

But you are free to do it with Mr. Shiny right here.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@SonicTheHedgehog It is different... it's fundamentally different in so many ways.

Sonic The Hedgehog

And @simchona if she wants to.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

But right. No more debating religion. Or operating system choice (which is a different kind of religion).

Mahnax

Or I could tell you all about polysaccharides.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:39 AM

snores

Mahnax

Would you like to know how they are formed? I bet you would!

Sonic The Hedgehog

@Mah I'll tell you about alcohols, then.

Mahnax

Two words: dehydration synthesis.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

just kidding why don't you summarize

Mahnax

@SonicTheHedgehog I know how alcohol is produced.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Really?

Oh boy.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:40 AM

Well, you're studying, right?

Sonic The Hedgehog

gets his pillow out

Mahnax

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Yep!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Try to explain it to me in 10 chat msgs or less

pretend I never took a biology class since grade 10. Cuz that'd be about right.

Mahnax

It's relatively simple.

A monosaccharide is a sugar that has between 3 and 6 carbons, and those have various amounts of H and O attached.

These can bind together via dehydration synthesis, when an OH from each monosaccharide comes together.

Water forms from two H's and an O, and what's left is an H connecting two monosaccharides. Ta-da! Disaccharide.

The process repeats multiple times, and you then have what's known as a polysaccharide.

Done.

Sonic The Hedgehog

Ovation

Mahnax

3:44 AM

Thank you, thank you very much.

Sonic The Hedgehog

Tosses flowers

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Ok, good. So what does that mean, in the wild? Does this just happen willy-nilly? Is this why the price of gas keeps going up?

Mahnax

It means that these compounds store more energy. For example, starch is a polysaccharide. Nothing to do with gas prices, I'm afraid.

Another example of a polysaccharide is pectin.

Which is used to set jams and jellies.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@Mah If you can lower the gas prices, then you'll be famous.

Millions will thank you.

Mahnax

@SonicTheHedgehog Haha, I don't have any control over those.

David Wallace

3:47 AM

Science is a process, but religion is a fait accompli.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

This is starting to sound familiar

Mahnax

What is gas at in NJ, Sonic?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

BTW: Mitt Romney gave a great speech about his memories of Detroit's Golden Jubilee celebration, only, he wasn't actually born when those memories were formed: thestar.com/news/world/article/…

> The timelines suggest Romney could well have been conceived that day. But it is inconceivable he was actually there.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@Mah lowest is about 3.20, I am afraid.

simchona

meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/123723/…

This is the "French beak" question guy. I think he got mad.

David Wallace

3:49 AM

So he was remembering someone telling him about it. It's not that different from remembering the event itself.

Sonic The Hedgehog

"The question is closed but you still may downvote it guys don't be shy!"

I literally ROFLed.

simchona

@SonicTheHedgehog And it's not his only question. He's just asking to be Meta banned.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@Sim he is giving chess and math bad names.

simchona

@SonicTheHedgehog that he is

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@simchona French beak?

Cerberus

3:51 AM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Haha, brilliant.

simchona

@MrShinyandNew安宇 let me find it

Sonic The Hedgehog

-4

Q: How to describe "French lips"

How would one to tell a person that she has the lips to speak like a French person? I told a person she had the French beak, but is that pejorative?

differences dating-advice

@sim beat ya.

Mahnax

@SonicTheHedgehog That's way cheaper than here.

simchona

@SonicTheHedgehog That you did

Why is there a tag:dating-advice?

Sonic The Hedgehog

@Mah whats the price there?

@sim well, he is asking about pick-up line...

Mahnax

3:53 AM

Right now, around $1.09/L, so around $4.12/gal.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@Mah cringes

David Wallace

I can see it working if the victim of the pick-up line DIDN'T have gallic lips. Something like "you look like you're in need of a French kisser"

Sonic The Hedgehog

My Dad would be furious.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mahnax Sweet ginger chicken! I'm paying over $1.30/L

Mahnax

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Woah.

David Wallace

3:54 AM

Crumbs. For 91 Octane here, it's about $2.13/L. Our $ is about 86c US, so this is close to $1.83US.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

They are forecasting that it will reach $1.45 or so

Mahnax

Bicycles, anyone?

Sonic The Hedgehog

@Mah My dad is Taxi Driver.

No bikes for him.

Oh wait!

Mahnax

@SonicTheHedgehog In Finland they have bike taxis.

Sonic The Hedgehog

I found a solution to this problem!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:55 AM

@Mahnax yeah, seriously. I was actually car-free until last year this time, but having two kids to shuttle around made it kinda inconvenient to take transit.

Mahnax

Cycle rickshaw

The cycle rickshaw is a small-scale local means of transport; it is also known by a variety of other names such as bike taxi, velotaxi, pedicab, bikecab, cyclo, becak, trisikad, or trishaw or, simply, rickshaw which also refers to auto rickshaws, and the, now uncommon, rickshaws pulled by a person on foot. Cycle rickshaws are human-powered, a type of tricycle designed to carry passengers in addition to the driver. They are often used on a for hire basis. Cycle rickshaws are widely used in major cities around the world, but most commonly in cities of South, Southeast and East Asia. C...

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Ah, that makes sense.

Sonic The Hedgehog

Behold, the solution to this dreaded problem! Millions will thank me!

►

Mahnax

Hahaha... Nice.

Sonic The Hedgehog

Pogosticks!

Its a genius!

Mahnax

Hop on your pogo stick ♪ ♫

Sonic The Hedgehog

4:00 AM

your pogostick, your pogostick ♫

Hop on your pogostick ♪

Mahnax

…Anyways.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I like the golf one

Sonic The Hedgehog

@MRS OMG I loved that one too.

Especially the song at the end.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Well that was edifying.

Sonic The Hedgehog

edifying?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:07 AM

I learned that old Disney cartoons contained billboards that said "Beat the Jap with Scrap".

David Wallace

That doesn't seem very enlightened.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Anyway, I must be off. It's bed time now.

simchona

@SonicTheHedgehog Tags aren't really supposed to be about the subject matter

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

bye everyone

Sonic The Hedgehog

@MRS ...Simchona...won't be pleased.

@MRS cya.

David Wallace

4:10 AM

@simchona What??

Sonic The Hedgehog

@David That's what I thought too...

Mahnax

Hmm.

David Wallace

Aha - let me see - tags are supposed to indicate which sorts of people would be the right experts to give expert answers to the question? So if I'm an XYZ expert, I look for questions tagged XYZ and answer them. However, doesn't that mean that the questions tagged XYZ had better be about XYZ?

But in this light "Downvotes" isn't a terribly useful tag. How does one get to be an expert in downvoting?

Mahnax

@DavidWallace I'm getting there.

David Wallace

Of course, I can understand how one gets to be expert in getting downvoted :-)

Mahnax

4:14 AM

I feel horrible...

David Wallace

OK, so you're an expert downvoter, but that doesn't mean that you should supply answers to questions tagged "downvotes".

Mahnax

True.

David Wallace

Is there any way to see that information added up across all the sites? I cast votes on several.

Mahnax

@DavidWallace Hm, maybe.

David Wallace

And I'm sure you don't really feel horrible.

Sonic The Hedgehog

4:26 AM

Hop on your Pogostick ♫
Your Pogostick, Your Pogostick ♪
Hop on your Pogostick ♫
And Hop on through the day. ♪
Who cares if rubber's short ♫
Just laugh it off and be a sport ♪
Just hop on your Pogostick ♫
Just like a kid at play. ♪
No stopping, No red lights, ♫
No worrying over headlights ♪
No fenders, No bumpers ♫
No monthly notes on cartel junkers ♪
Who needs a limousine ♫
What is always out of gasoline ♪
Hop on your Pogostick ♫
And Hop your cares away! ♪

Mahnax

Nah, I don't, really. I try to downvote when necessary, but not for no reason.

I do feel a little bad about being so stingy with upvotes though.

►

rainymood.com

Listen to the song with rainymood.com open in another tab.

Profit.

David Wallace

I upvote liberally.

Mahnax

Good, good.

David Wallace

But more often for answers than for questions.

Mahnax

I think I've downvoted all of about 5 answers, ever.

David Wallace

4:43 AM

I figure that if somebody posts a bad answer, it's more useful to put a comment explaining why it's a bad answer, and giving them a chance to fix it, than to downvote it.

Mahnax

Yeah.

And, you don't lose the precious reps.

Jasper says they don't matter, but he lies.

David Wallace

It's always seemed somewhat disporportional to me; that the downvoter loses half as much reputation as the downvotee.

Mahnax

Yep, but that's the way it is.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@David I think it was to avoid spams.

Mahnax

I think they do that to prevent downvoting all other answers on something that you've answered, in order to make yourself look good.

Jinx.

Sonic The Hedgehog

4:48 AM

Double Jinx

David Wallace

It also seems wrong that if I get one upvote and five downvotes, I come out even

Mahnax

@SonicTheHedgehog Not really.

Gimme my coke.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@Mah Never.

Mahnax

@SonicTheHedgehog Fine, I'll just get one from the fridge upstairs.

Sonic The Hedgehog

I finally finished my algebra homework.

Mahnax

4:49 AM

grumbles about coke nazis and hedgehogs

Sonic The Hedgehog

Here is another cheesy riddle.

David Wallace

Maybe then, you should only get the -1 if you downvote an answer to a question that you yourself have answered.

Sonic The Hedgehog

What is first part of Geography book called?

Mahnax

The table of continents?

Sonic The Hedgehog

The Table of Contents.

You got it.

Did you cheat?

Mahnax

4:51 AM

Nope.

Sonic The Hedgehog

Heh.

Mahnax

I tend to be good at riddles.

Sonic The Hedgehog

You didn't get my first one, Padawan.

Mahnax

That one didn't make any sense, and I'm older than you.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@Mah by only few months.

Mahnax

4:52 AM

@SonicTheHedgehog Meh, still.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@Mah besides, I am going to be 15 in 5 days.

Mahnax

@SonicTheHedgehog Sure, but I'll still be older than you.

Sonic The Hedgehog

...I see a hole in middle of the comments.

Do you see it? Its not my screen, I scrolled up and down.

Mahnax

I don't see one.

Sonic The Hedgehog

Hmm...

Better post it on Meta.

Mahnax

5:06 AM

Maybe.

Don't say anything rude.

Sonic The Hedgehog

Yeah.

Mahnax

Don't act angry, either.

Sonic The Hedgehog

dude, I am going to ask this in formal, polite way.

sheesh.

Mahnax

Good.

On EL&U Meta or MSO?

Sonic The Hedgehog

0

Q: An error on the chat system

While I was chatting in the Incomprehensible room, I have encountered on this strange error. I have notified other chatters in the room, but they claim that they do not see it. Is it some sort of problem?

bug

EL&U Meta.

I gotta sleep soon...

Mahnax

5:14 AM

Yeah, you do.

Sonic The Hedgehog

yawn

Mahnax

hands Sonic melatonin Sleep.

Sonic The Hedgehog

Yeah...*yawn* Seeya tomorrow.

Mahnax

Laters.

simchona

5:40 AM

@david I was referring to the question's "dating advice" tag--the tags that are more like meta tags than, say, tags like "word choice"

Mahnax

Hey @sim.

Woah, WMT got all different. I have 77 WB but elite is gone...

simchona

I haven't played that in a long time now

Mahnax

Aww.

Well, I should go to bed.

Then again, I have decided not to.

David Wallace

6:11 AM

@simchona Sorry, I'm still not with you. How is "dating advice" more meta than "word choice"?

Do you mean that it's a mass noun phrase, whereas "word choice" could be a count noun phrase?

Theta30

6:23 AM

I think it's a weird tag

and should be eliminated

David Wallace

It's not a tag I would expect to see on ELU.

"Dating advice" isn't a category of English Language and Usage, although, arguably "Pickup lines" is. Perhaps it should just be renamed rather than removed.

Theta30

maybe we should leave it...as an internal joke

David Wallace

No, because then somebody will think it's a good idea, and we'll end up with "dessert recipes" and God knows what else.

Grokdashit!

Somebody asked a question on math.stackexchange.com, waited until there were two answers, then changed all the numbers in the question to make it completely different.

Now, neither of the two answers makes sense, and the question also doesn't make sense. I feel a downvote coming on.

Theta30

why would he do that?

perhaps he didn't write the problem he wanted

David Wallace

Shagged if I know.

Yeah, the edit is commented "wrong question". Way to make sure lots of people help him/her in the future.

Theta30

6:36 AM

they sometimes copy and paste without paying attention to what

David Wallace

I should never have answered it. Not only is it quite obviously homework, but it's also tagged "statistics" when it's actually combinatorics.

simchona

@david no, it's like tagging a question that asks for punctuation for a sentence involving cars with "cars"

(sorry, on phone so can't reply directly to that message from before)

David Wallace

@simchona Oh, I see what you mean. Sorry, I was clearly being dense.

Like asking how to spell "mousse" and tagging it "dessert recipes". Is that what you mean?

simchona

Exactly!

Theta30

ha, i saw how statistics is named when it's probability, combinatorics, set theory,...That is because statistics classes might have introductory classes that include terms from other domains

David Wallace

6:42 AM

Yes. When I was in my last year of high school, we had courses called "Maths with calculus" and "Maths with statistics". People referred to the latter as "stats" even though it included lots of other disciplines (including combinatorics).

@simchona I was also confused by your use of the word "meta".

Matt Эллен

10:24 AM

is this question off topic proofreading?

0

Q: Is this slogan proper English?

We are a group of web developers, creating our online presence ... We chose this slogan, "Web passionate young powers at your service" Is this proper English? Does this hold any "contempt" on our side when using "at your service" in western traditions? Any suggestion for a similar meani...

grammar word-usage phrase-requests

Matt Эллен

10:36 AM

Apr 12 '11 at 14:05, by RegDwight

@JSBangs dating-advice would be an extremely useful tag, actually, as it applies to every single question asked by ~~vehomzzz~~ Anderson Silva.

Jun 1 '11 at 13:47, by JSBangs

dating-advice is a bit of a joke wherever it appears. joke tags like this are theoretically frowned upon, but we've gotten away with this one because it's very seldom used, and we hi-rep users need some way to amuse ourselves

so I guess that's why :)

David Wallace

@MattЭллен Does that include 'What is the difference between “into” and “onto”?'?

Matt Эллен

heh. I think things've gone beyond dating by that point

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@MattЭллен It can't get any more off-topic than that.

I am surprised you have to ask at all.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwightѬſ道 I was tempted to read it as a question about grammar

plus he's new

RegDwight Ѭſ道

So?

Matt Эллен

10:45 AM

so I wanted to be nice for a few minutes

user19161

Ah, nothing for me to close, closed!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

New people are precisely the ones who have to read the FAQ before posting.

Matt Эллен

yeah. I know. I was just struggling to think up a good comment.

user19161

@MattЭллен "Nice" is the solution to the crossword puzzle that day.

Matt Эллен

@JasperLoy I'm afraid I don't remember what you mean

David Wallace

10:47 AM

I want to know what "powering at" someone's service looks like.

user19161

@MattЭллен Someone asked for the opposite of "mean" that has 4 letters and with third letter c.

David Wallace

Isn't "service" a word for a fancy tea set or something?

user19161

@gigili Boo!

Matt Эллен

@RegDwightѬſ道 I was probably distracted by the fact that I can't parse the sentence.

Gigili

Hello. Do you know of a performer called "Anakim blabla" or something?

Matt Эллен

10:49 AM

@DavidWallace that does ring a bell

Anakin Skywalker?

in other words, no @Gigili :D

user19161

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Gigili

And does "in the novel sense of deter" make sense to you?

David Wallace

►

Matt Эллен

@Gigili only if there is a novel sense of deter. can't say I can think of one

Gigili

@MattЭллен Is it possible to ingore the Sky part? Anakin Walker?

user19161

10:51 AM

@SonicTheHedgehog That hole is weird. Be careful, the aliens might invade earth through it.

Gigili

I'm listening to an audio, it says Anakin Walner or something like that is an example of a really good performer

Matt Эллен

@Gigili ignore it how? Anakin Skywalker is a character's name. If you remove part of it, you're no longer talking about him

Gigili

I think she's a great example of what it means to be a really good performer
I had the feeling that at each second she knows exactly what to do, at the same time had the feeling that everything was frush and improvised
in the novel sense of deter

Matt Эллен

@Gigili ah, sorry. Anakin Skywalker is fictional

Gigili

@MattЭллен Him? um, so it's not the one I'm looking for. Should be female.

Matt Эллен

10:53 AM

I see

David Wallace

@Gigili I tried to post a youtube link, but it turned into a video. The group is called Anakin. The song is called Bla bla

Gigili

@DavidWallace :P , I see. I want a name sounds like Ana kim Walnet or something

=\