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12:06
0
Q: phrases where opposite words can be used to mean the same thing

John For example "1 in 20 Americans suffer from..." and "1 out of 20 Americans suffer from..." "it is down to you" and "it is up to you" They seem like great ways to add to creative writing. Are there any other examples of such phrases?

How is this still open?
All of our European friends sleeping late?
So whachawhachawhachawant.
I don't see all of our American friends falling over themselves closing.
I just got here.
Well, I just got to the point where I can sit down and look at stuff.
Except I need some coffee.
And I have to present to the Dean this morning, so I'm feeling a little tweaky.
I didn't see it when I got here. sozzers
It may be related to this article in wiki.
@KitFox Just wear the purple shirt.
12:09
I can't. That's too obvious.
@skullpatrol no, that's kind of the opposite.
purple socks!
I changed my clothes three times this morning.
thigh high socks
And anyway, it's too late now, I'm at work.
12:10
Morning.
It's never too late to not be at work.
stripy purple thigh high sock and a short skirt
You'll be fine.
Hi @Cerb :)
12:10
@MattЭллен And a looooonnnngggg jacket.
If only I had that kind of freedom.
I would be so cool.
I decided on a black skirt and my power-blue blouse with a white undershirt.
And no push up bra.
But I did wear a bra!
sounds killer :)
And my dancing shoes.
@KitFox Wow. Have a medal!
12:12
Thanks.
It means so much coming from you.
I didn't realise wearing a bra was an Olympic event
Can we play my national anthem?
Picture!
@MattЭллен for Kit it is.
12:12
what is your national anthem?
Bra- bra- brasputin!
I'm sorry, were we supposed to wear the purple socks?
12:14
@KitFox Not bad.
Never mind the slideshow.
That's my anthem for today.
@KitFox not available in Germany. Looks you'd be forced to be naked there.
Oh. The music. Not the clothes.
My point still stands!
My fingernails shine like justice.
@RegDwightАΑA Sorry, man. You'll have to play your CD instead.
Justice Bieber?
There is no Bieber, there's just us
12:17
nah nah nah nah nah...nah nah nah nah naaah nah
coffee time...
brb
0
Q: "consist of" usage

StanleyThe following sentences with the word "consist" are considered as unacceptable, how should they be rephrased ? 1 A regular computer system is mainly consist of some RAM, a hard disk, a display and a processor. 2 A regular computer system is mainly consisted of some RAM, a hard disk, a display a...

Another ELL question.
Closed, but I'm posting it here for easy reference. We still need moar example questions.
It's funny how drugs become an indispensable part of our daily rituals.
I cannot get up and not drink tea.
@Cerberus do elaborate.
@Cerberus well that's you.
Many people "need" coffee to work at all in the morning.
People need cigarettes.
I need orange juice
and my inhaler
12:19
May 12 at 11:54, by RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
Coffee drinkers are the socially accepted drug addicts.
People get mad if they don't have alcohol at a party.
and get mad if they do
1
Q: Those images is my selection or are my selection?

VennsohToday I was constructing a sentence in my mind and something struck me. 1) Those images are my selection. or 2) Those images is my selection. or both are grammatically incorrect. - I know you could easily re-construct the sentence into something like, Those are my selected images.

You know the wrong people.
@MattЭллен What happens when you're out of juice?
@Cerberus I get sad and annoyed at myself for not planning better
Jez
Jez
12:20
@KitFox did you see my last question after you left?
then I have a glass of water and get on with my day
But the funny thing is that the addictive substance itself is probably only a small part of the process, in many cases.
@MattЭллен I have that too, if I'm out of milk for my tea.
luckily I rarely run out of juice.
Same.
I walk to the station to buy milk if I forgot, because it is open until 12.30.
In the morning, if I've run out of juice, I don't have time to go to a shop.
12:22
No, I wouldn't go in the morning.
I need it nao.
@Jez Yes. I can't decide if it's too much or not.
@Cerberus I only drink it in the morning
well, pretty much
I drink it whenever I'm at home, but I need it in the morning.
But I would not leave the house without waking up.
smart move
It's just ritual. And I like the taste.
12:24
Same.
Plus it helps me think better.
@Cerberus leaving the house asleep is a step on the road to disaster!
But I really need to have my ritual.
And I can quit any time I want.
@Cerberus That's kind of what makes it a ritual.
@MattЭллен Indeed. I might involve falling out of the window straight out of bed.
I'm not worried about it. People need routine.
@KitFox Yeah it's fine.
but not too much routine
Except when you're out of coffee!!
Lots of routine!
And poutine!
12:25
like locking your door 6 times before you leave
That's different.
or scrubbing your hands between changing channels on the tv
@KitFox it's ritual. it's a routine
That's just hygiene!
I don't necessarily need routine, but, in the morning, I need tea with milk, and I absolutely hate having to decide what I'll have for breakfast. So there must be something good to eat that is readily available.
12:26
@MattЭллен Now you get me.
@KitFox Haha.
Now I do!
@Cerberus I don't break my fast until lunch, except on weekends.
@MattЭллен I always check the stove. Then check it again. Then again. Then it's sunset already and I'm still not quite sure.
@KitFox Oh...then we're wired differently.
I need food ASAP.
12:27
I probably do too.
But I hate finding food when I'm hungry.
@RegDwightАΑA oh gods! the stove! but I'm 9 miles away now.
Never stopped me.
I believe the latest advice is to not worry about having breakfast if you don't want to.
Where it used to be that everybody needed breakfast.
That will change in a couple years.
so i see that our election primaries are up
12:28
Just ignore all advices. That is my advice.
@RegDwightАΑA I will have to hook up a web cam and temperature sensor
but where are the starred messages?
@MattЭллен That's actually not too hard.
What star massages?
Jul 23 at 20:00, by waiwai933
2012 EL&U Moderator Election! Please be sure to vote in the primary, happening now.
12:28
@JSBձոգչ Refresh.
They sometimes disappear.
ah, there they are
Sometimes I just manually unstar everything.
It's boring, but it's fun.
I'm surprised I'm doing so well in the primaries. I thought for sure I'd be behind JSB.
Yeah I am astonished JSBangs is such a slacker.
yeah, i'm in the middle
12:30
Go JSB go.
which is fine, really. it's not like i'm crying myself to sleep.
sniff
You are my top choice, you know.
He has the highest voted answer on this site, dammit.
awwww, thanks, kit.
gives JSB cup of tea, Earl Grey with milk
12:31
that reminds me, i should make myself some tea
I have a feeling it does matter what info is or is not in your nomination.
Like what?
@RegDwightАΑA He should probably mention that in his spiel.
@Cerberus Like look at Martha.
I think getting a good initial seed helps.
12:32
The regulars will know everyone anyway. But the vast majority of people have no idea so they take everything at face value.
@KitFox but i linked to my highest-voted answer
what else was i supposed to do?
@JSBձոգչ But you didn't mention that it was the highest voted on the site.
Imagine you're a noob coming to this site for the fifth-odd time. Now read Martha's nomination with that in mind. No wonder she gets so many downvotes.
I have a feeling that Kit saying she'd support the "terrifying green orc head!" had an effect
Hahaha.
12:33
@RegDwightАΑA I suppose. But they will look at reputation and behaviour in comments.
A vote for the terrifying green orc head is a vote for justice!
@Cerberus which comments?
@JSBձոգչ Did you kiss any babies? Did you eat a hot dog with a "regular Joe" on one of your campaign stops? Did you pander to special-interest groups? Dude, you need a campaign manager or something.
Nobody looks through comment histories of ten people. Nobody.
And the comments are gone anyway.
12:33
He means those on the site, I guess.
@Robusto no, but i did promise to use the reins of power to flog the people to death. that's what the successful candidates do, right?
@JSBձոգչ facepalm
@JSBձոգչ nonono, they do do that, but they do not promise that.
i'm pretty sure that was Bush's campaign strategy
I mean if you have a couple of hundred reps, you may have noticed Kit's comments on various questions and judged her.
12:34
But I want to be flogged!
You are fogged.
But not to death.
@Cerberus I can barely remember when I last saw a comment of JSBangs's or simchona's or even Kit's.
You give people way too much credit.
@RegDwightАΑA What!?! sim comments on everything.
I have a general impression of Sim and Kit's commentary.
12:35
flog verb — sell in a potentially underhand manner
They come to the page, they look at three-odd candidates out of eleven, you should be happy if they do that much at all.
i'm disappointed that the primary system doesn't show negative numbers
I'm pretty sure they judge by the avatar.
Evan actually has 64 downvotes
It is just part of what makes up one's general impression.
12:36
but you'd never see that unless you click on his number
I think the 0 is telling enough.
@KitFox I suppose I'm there before her each time.
I think we should vote to switch Barrie and Lawler's reps.
2
@RegDwightАΑA Could be.
@Robusto then what?
12:38
Yeah, what is that good for?
I think we should vote to switch Robusto and Cerberi reps.
Nonono, what it's good for is clear. It's fun.
But I'm asking about the aftermath of fun.
@RegDwightАΑA Then sit back and laugh.
Jinx
@Cerberus See, now you're just spoiling the game. You have no feel for this stuff.
Indeed I do not.
@Cerberus what do cerberries taste like?
Thing is, if Rob switched his reps with 3I's, 15900 out of 16000 people wouldn't notice or care if they were forced to.
12:40
But honestly, tell me all those reps aren't a burden!
Also, your paws are tracking mud all through chat. Out! Out, until you clean them off in the grass.
Jez
Jez
@KitFox you can't decide? argh!
@Cerberus "Heavy lies the head that wears the crown."
soils your jacket with paws
Someone make the doggy clean his paws on something besides my clothes.
12:42
@Jez Well, post it again.
whips out cloth, wipes @Cerb's paws in one fell swoop, continues business
That's a Mommy skill.
@Robusto Heavily plods the ox that drags along the spoils of its work in a shabby cart.
@KitFox Whoa—what was that?
Something flashed past.
And now I'm clean.
@Cerberus Stop quoting Aeschylus's ex-wife.
@Cerberus Don't worry about it. Here, eat this.
Aeschylus?
eats whatever it is with good appetite
@reg I definitely comment
12:44
Aeschylus (, Aiskhulos; c. 525/524 BC – c. 456/455 BC) was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays can still be read or performed, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. He is often described as the father of tragedy: our knowledge of the genre begins with his work and our understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in plays to allow for conflict amongst them, whereas previously characters had interacted only with the chorus. Only seven of his estimated s...
@Cerberus oh noes, not my shoelaces!
@simchona not sure where to fit that in.
I like mah chew toy
@KitFox And a great skill it is. Thank you.
@Robusto Ohhh is that who Aeschylus is, never heard of him.
@Cerberus Why would you have?
12:45
@reg under "sim is walking to work, topic switching be damned"
No idea.
@simchona gee, not sure where I have that manila folder.
So many Greeks all went bust. Like the bust of Aeschylus depicted in that article.
@reg no "non sequiturs, misc"?
@simchona that's the main folder, duh. Also it's called "Desktop".
12:48
Work to go to have I. Later UC.
If you say so.
Jez
Jez
@KitFox can't you scroll up?
I could.
@Jez Personal question.
12:51
Hmm there seems to be a small problem in India.
Only 670 million people without power.
oh dear. where did it go?
The underground stopped working in New Delhi.
@MattЭллен Up in the air?
Oh! My bad. I was using it and forgot to return it.
So dominant.
Has there ever been a power outage that affected so many people?
@MattЭллен Her Majesty took it with her when she left, and now they've used up what little they had saved up.
12:54
This is a list of notable wide-scale power outages. To be included, the outage must conform to these criteria: # The outage must not be planned by the service provider. # The outage must affect at least 1,000 people and last at least one hour. # There must be at least 1,000,000 person*customer hours of disruption. In other words: * 1,000 people affected for 1,000 hours (42 days) minimum, but if fewer than 1,000 people, event would not be included (regardless of duration) * One million people affected for a minimum of one hour, but if duration is less than one hour, event would not be in...
Jez
Jez
I've been saying that India's population density and unchecked population growth will come back to bite it for a while now
@Cerberus ah, handy numbers. Pure, distilled thin air.
Why thin?
Surely those estimates will be somewhat comparable.
Of course, to each other.
That I accept.
But not a single one of them will withstand any kind of close examination.
@RegDwightАΑA "lots of people have no power"

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