English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

04:13

How do you feel about this?

That's our PM.

With a female "supporter".

He's single.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

How should I feel about it?

Outraged on your behalf?

Cerberus

Nah.

It's just funny.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

She has nerve, anyway :)

Yeah, my next guess was going to be "amused"

Cerberus

Heh.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

like that picture of Obama and ... Sarkozy? eyeing some hot woman at some international function.

Cerberus

04:17

She knows nobody could stop her, now would anyone bother to comment on it.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Really?

But eyeing is a bit...subjective.

And innocent.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Cerberus

Hmm.

It's so hard to interpret a picture like that.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

please

you don't need to figure out the TRUTH

just go with the funniest interpretation!

Cerberus

You can't tell what his line of view is.

Right, right.

takes notes

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

they're BOTH eyeing her ass

Cerberus

04:20

I can photoshop a picture of you like that!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Sarkozy's like "sweet!" and Obama's like "where? oh yeah"

Cerberus

Heh.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus well, you could, but I think this pic is legit

Cerberus

Obama is the better dresser.

Although I'm not so sure about his shoes.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yeah, it's probably not PS'ed.

But still.

Okay, shoes have been officially outruled.

Next president.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I know what you mean. Like, if you're his wife, you can't say "hey! you're just ogling every piece of booty that goes by! proof!". But it still makes for a funny snap.

And you KNOW Sarkozy's into it.

Cerberus

04:22

Certainly.

Sarko is unpossible.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

But that was never a question.

Cerberus

So glad he was got rid of.

Should have done so years ago.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

so, on the basis of that picture, you judged O as better dressed than S?

Cerberus

Yes.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

to me it looks like they are both wearing indistinguishable suits.

nearly identical shirts

different colour tie, different shoes.... well, hard to see the shoes.

what is your basis for choosing O's subtle variation of "men's suit" over S's?

Cerberus

04:26

The cut of Obama's suit is good.

Sarko's could be better.

Wrong tie colour (why wear a black or almost-black tie? it's the only thing you can add some colour to).

Wrong shoe colour (brownish).

And Obama's trousers have cuffs.

But then it could be that Sarko's suit would look better if he stood up straight.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

wow, you think about this way harder than I do

Cerberus

It's not really thinking.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

When I look at a suit, things like "cut" and "cuffs" are irrelevant details.

Cerberus

Really?

I rarely wear a suit.

I agree that it is boring.

But still.

When there is a standard, variations are all the more noticeable.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

To me, the variation between the two suits in the photo are so small as to be unimportant. the tie colour is also usually not something I notice unless it varies TOO much from what I expect.

but whatever.

Cerberus

04:36

It could be an interesting project.

Mahnax

Bonsoir.

Cerberus

Bonne nuit.

Mahnax

So how are you all?

Cerberus

Almost sober.

You?

Mahnax

I'm okay. Tired, and work was pretty stressful tonight, but I'm really enjoying school.

Cerberus

04:44

Hmm.

Why was it stressful?

Mahnax

I was working the TB kitchen alone, and I was getting huge orders, one after another.

exempli gratia 18 chili cheese burritos.

Cerberus

That sounds burdensome.

Mahnax

Rather.

Those are annoying because you need to steam them and then roll them up.

Cerberus

How much do have you earned tonight?

Mahnax

…what?

"Almost" sober, indeed.

Cerberus

04:46

I mean, how much do you earn per hour?

Mahnax

I make $10.00/hour.

I worked 5.5 hours, so $55.00.

Cerberus

Ah.

That's none too shabby.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

then the gov't takes away half

Mahnax

Minus a few little deductions.

Cerberus

Ah , gross.

Mahnax

04:47

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Nuh-uh, I don't make enough for that.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mahnax just wait and see.

Mahnax

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 For what? When will they start eating all of my money?

Cerberus

eats some

is hungry

Mahnax

You give that back!

Cerberus

Are you sure?

Mahnax

04:49

clutches torn, soggy bills

Yuck.

Cerberus

Those bills won't look pretty.

Jinx.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mahnax tax time.

But I'm exaggerating. You'll probably get a refund

Mahnax

I got a refund last time.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

one year my refund was bigger than my total tax paid, i.e. I made money.

Mahnax

It was small, so it didn't cancel out what I paid.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

04:51

but I must be going. Tomorrow has already arrived and I should be asleep.

cya'll later.

Mahnax

Bonne nuit.

Cerberus

Night!

I should be sleeping too.

Mahnax

Yeah, it's late there. Thursday night is an interesting time to be out drinking, but I guess you don't work tomorrow.

Cerberus

Yeah, and I never work early.

When I work, it's often until 2 am or so.

Mahnax

Wow.

Cerberus

04:54

It was last time.

Okay, so boa noite!

Mahnax

Bye!

Cerberus

huge puff of smoke

insufferable stench

John Junior

@Cerberus Are you going to write something for the ELU Blog?

David Wallace

05:25

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Isn't there a similar photo with Prince Charles and one of the Spice Girls?

Mahnax

05:55

0

Q: What qualification you are looking for?

Well this may be a very silly and obvious question but it's bothering me so I am asking it here. I am writing a letter and I asked the question What qualification are you looking for? However my colleague says it should be What qualification you are looking for? Well, some how I think...

grammaticality

What is going on here?

A too-basic question and an awful answer.

David Wallace

Don't worry, I've fixed it.

John Junior

06:13

@DavidWallace +1

David Wallace

The bad answer has been deleted.

John Junior

And I've up-voted the good answer :)

David Wallace

Thank you.

John Junior

The question itself is reasonable...

David Wallace

Somebody just accepted an answer of mine, that I posted over six months ago (on a completely different site). It seems odd that it would them six months to make up their mind. Or maybe they were waiting for someone to post a better answer.

StackOverflow actually.

Mahnax

06:20

@DavidWallace Yeah, I got my 1 rep back.

I am supposed to be sleeping, but apparently that isn't working out.

David Wallace

@Mahnax Yes, it's wonderful when that happens.

I see downvoting an answer as an investment. The payoff is a better site. But you risk losing everything that you invest.

Mahnax

@DavidWallace It's a nice surprise.

David Wallace

Vitaly had the right idea; not to care about rep.

John Junior

In my opinion, we should try to come up with an idea to counter balance the serial down voters.

David Wallace

There are serial down voters?

@John, are you from Oakland?

Mahnax

06:23

Yeah, there are. And their nonsense gets reverted when the serial voting script gets run.

Or maybe he's talking about the frequent downvoters, like me.

David Wallace

But if you space your votes carefully, the serial script will miss you.

Mahnax

Yep.

David Wallace

I speak from experience :-)

Mahnax

Or if you don't go over a certain number…

Hm, @JohnJunior, why the name change?

John Junior

@DavidWallace No, I'm not from Oakland.

David Wallace

06:26

The only other Raiders I know of are the Canberra Rugby League team.

John Junior

@Mahnax Part of the fun and games in the math chat room, there is a John Senior there ;-)

Mahnax

@JohnJunior I see. From what I recall, you've been Rob and skullpatrol before.

David Wallace

Oh, you're him!

Mahnax

Well, I'm off to try to negotiate with Mr. Sandman. Bye.

John Junior

later

@DavidWallace Have you considered writing something for the ELU Blog?

David Wallace

06:33

Actually, I have not. I don't think the readership is particularly high.

John Junior

@DavidWallace The Canberra Raiders' logo doesn't look anything like the Oakland Raiders' logo. I remember someone telling me that there is a team down under with the same logo as the Oakland Raiders, do you know their location?

David Wallace

Sorry, I don't.

The logo is not the slightest bit familiar to me.

Shyam K

07:25

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Aah.. a penny :P

ΜετάEd

07:37

I hate exponential growth.

I hate combinatoric explosions.

But I'm going to really, really enjoy giving my daughter the list of 1,500 combinations she can try on the combination lock she bricked.

ЯegDwight

08:57

Did you really just say "have ran"? — tchrist 8 hours ago

John Junior

09:07

A good question and a good answer.

I'm learning so much here :)

Robusto

09:54

Visualizing one trillion dollars.

Shyam K

@Robusto wow... u sure that ain't Monopoly money?

Robusto

What's the difference?

ЯegDwight

The difference is that people don't print their own Monopoly money.

> I'm unable to understand what you want to do, but i have below code, Might be its help you.

SO is hilarious.

I don't know what C# is, so here's some Turbo Pascal. It works!

Robusto

I don't know the meaning of the word you want. You should look in a dictionary, but meanwhile here is a phone book.

ЯegDwight

Sorry, I don't listen to Wagner.

Robusto

10:07

In Soviet Union, Wagner listens to you!

ЯegDwight

Actually, and halte Dich fest, I answered a question on SO yesterday night.

Robusto

We all slip up from time to time.

ЯegDwight

Some guy forgot a </table> in his code.

Robusto

Also, I'm glad you're showing self control by halting your dick fests. Remarkable restraint.

ЯegDwight

So my answer literally was, "You forgot a </table>. Also, why the fuck do you use tables."

Robusto

10:08

Did you really say "why the fuck"?

ЯegDwight

I got a whopping 15 reps for that. That's almost half as much as I get on a good day from passive reps doing nothing.

@Robusto nah.

But I meant it!

0

A: Something is wrong with my ul

You forgot to close the first table tag, before the tabWrapper div. </table>  <div id="tabWrapper"> What are all those blind tables doing there anyway? Just style your divs.

Robusto

15 reps, huh? stares enviously

ЯegDwight

Should I add the fuck?

Robusto

I'm hanging around, 30 reps from an even 13,000. I haven't had a passive rep from that place in days.

ЯegDwight

All questions on SO are too localized now.

Seriously, every second question is a typo the OP themselfs discover three seconds after asking.

Robusto

10:11

Also, the people who just give you a checkmark without the reach-around of an uptick are just selfish.

Jez

Greek-style yogurt with honey

ЯegDwight

The rest are questions where someone else discovers it four seconds later.

Jez

that's my breakfast today

ЯegDwight

@Robusto he didn't have the reps. That's the other problem. Everybody and his dog is at 1 rep on SO.

Robusto

His dog? I didn't know @Cerberus was allowed on SO.

ЯegDwight

10:14

Cerberus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

103 4

bookmarklet combine firefox greasemonkey javascript

Robusto

Haha. He accepted an answer but didn't get an upvote for the question?

ЯegDwight

> If this question is totally unsuitable, please forgive me. I don't know anything about programming. I should learn Javascript, I know, but it is a bit difficult for a total layman.

Never! Never will I forgive!

@Robusto someone favorited it, though.

Could be Cerberus himself. Or not. Don't know which would be more hilarious.

Robusto

Bit of a discrepancy.

ЯegDwight

I upvoted teh kvestchon.

Robusto

Also, look at the answer to the question he asked. That's a lot of work for 25 reps.

ЯegDwight

10:17

Or do you mean the discrepancy between the reps and "member for like two years, last seen just the other day"?

@Robusto right. And the doggy kept saying "thank you so much but" and asking for moar stuffs, and the answerer kept giving him moar stuffs. Over and over again.

Robusto

Haha. Well, I sprinkled some upvote largesse amongst the both of them.

ЯegDwight

Meanwhile elsewhere "wut is favorite browsarrr" was asked and gained everyone 200 reps.

Robusto

facepalm

double facepalm

I'm guessing Chrome won the 200 reps?

ЯegDwight

Probably.

Robusto

Also, why that not be closed?

ЯegDwight

10:21

I am illustrating with an example. I'm not saying that exact question was asked. Just something to that effect.

And yeah, that shit does get a close vote when I happen across it.

Often enough, it's from 2008.

Robusto

Frühstück.

user19161

11:54

@ЯegDwight I have no account there or I would give him an upvote too.

user19161

@JohnJunior Well, there aren't that many of them. Besides I sometimes engage in revenge downvoting too!

user19161

@Robusto In Soviet Russia, not Soviet Union.

John Junior

@WillHunting Did you see my question on the "New feed items"?

user19161

@JohnJunior I did not see the feed. Do you want me to see your question?

John Junior

@WillHunting Please.

user19161

12:06

@JohnJunior No please with bros, just say DO!

John Junior

0

Q: four plus two "equals" ( or "is equal to" or "is") six

You write 4 + 2 = 6 and say "four plus two equals (or is equal to or is) six." After reading the following passage here, equals is equal being a verb, in the present tense. is equal to is equal being a predicate adjective, with its auxiliary verb in the present tense. English is full of p...

grammar

DO!

Robusto

@WillHunting You don't even know the trope, Jasper. Don't presume to school me.

user19161

@Robusto OK OK, I knew I was in for trouble after I typed that.

user19161

@JohnJunior Well, I am not familiar with these grammatical terms. Just listen to Barrie, he's the expert not me.

John Junior

@WillHunting Barrie says he's confused :(

user19161

12:11

@JohnJunior No, he just gave you the syntax analysis. There is no confusion anywhere.

user19161

@JohnJunior OIC, someone gave a seemingly different analysis. Well, I can't comment on those grammatical terms.

John Junior

@WillHunting Thanks for having a look :)

user19161

@JohnJunior OK you just have to keep bombarding the JL and the BE with your doubts. :-)

user19161

This WH is quite useless.

user19161

@JohnJunior I was inspired by your question on negative 3 versus minus 3. I think I will use minus 3 from now myself.

John Junior

12:16

@WillHunting I thought you were the grammar nazi?

user19161

@JohnJunior That's what the number nazis call me. They and I know nothing about grammar. :-)

John Junior

lol

user19161

Also I know nothing about numbers either. In short, I know nothing. I am just a janitor.

John Junior

stop, stop your killing me :-D

user19161

@JohnJunior But maybe that will change. It depends on whether I recover.

John Junior

12:19

@WillHunting I have faith in you.

user19161

@JohnJunior I have faith in you too bro.

4

John Junior

@WillHunting Please don't call me "bro" anymore.

3

user19161

@JohnJunior OK, though I think it is pretty harmless. But if you don't like it...

user19161

@JohnJunior Actually, I picked up that habit from Bro Jonas! 8-)

John Junior

@WillHunting Yes I know.

user19161

12:26

@JohnJunior Why the hell did you call yourself JJ?

ЯegDwight

@WillHunting creating an account ain't exactly brain science.

user19161

@ЯegDwight Brain science is not terribly hard, no offence to brain scientists here. Essentially, they know nothing about the brain. Just look at all the crazy people on earth...

user19161

Rocket science isn't hard either, just look at the number of rockets that crashed...

John Junior

@ЯegDwight Have you seen my "New feed" item?

user19161

@JohnJunior I think you may wish to ask Cerberus the Grammar Boy about this when he is around for his divine opinion.

John Junior

12:29

@WillHunting What makes his opinion divine?

user19161

@JohnJunior He seems to be the chat residential grammarian.

ЯegDwight

@WillHunting How is that a contradition? If brain science is not hard, then anything less hard than that is even less hard.

@JohnJunior you have a feed?

John Junior

@ЯegDwight All I'm asking is how do you read "4+2=6"?

ЯegDwight

Correctly. I read it correctly.

user19161

@ЯegDwight I am saying in the above that they can just study something and not produce concrete results. So anybody can do that. Take it with a sense of humour.

John Junior

12:32

1

Q: four plus two "equals" ( or "is equal to" or "is") six

You write 4 + 2 = 6 and say "four plus two equals (or is equal to or is) six." After reading the following passage here, equals is equal being a verb, in the present tense. is equal to is equal being a predicate adjective, with its auxiliary verb in the present tense. English is full of p...

grammar

user19161

@JohnJunior That's not what you are asking right? You are asking about the syntax analysis. As to whether they are correct, yes and they all mean the same.

John Junior

Yes they all mean the same thing.

A grammatical syntax analysis with more examples.

The linguistics guy says "English is full of pairs like this, useful if one needs an extra syllable."

tchrist

plus /plʌs/. Etymology: a. L. plūs more. As in the case of minus (q.v.), the quasi-prepositional sense 1 did not exist in Latin, but the words plus and minus were used by Leonardo of Pisa in 1202 for the excess and deficiency in the results of two suppositions in the Rule of Double Position. The signs + and − are used, app. as well-known signs, in the Behende und hübsche Rechnung auf allen Kauffmannschafft of Joh. Widmann 1489 (and subseq. edd. to 1526); but while he refers to the latter as minus, the former is said to stand for mer (i.e. mehr) ‘was − ist, das ist minus, und das + ist das …

The OED doesn’t know what part of speech to call it. It tries quasi-prep.

John Junior

I gave up a 400 point bounty on a question like this on MSE.

tchrist

To what end?

John Junior

12:40

No conclusion.

tchrist

Link?

I fail to understand your question.

John Junior

18

Q: "Negative" versus "Minus"

As a math educator, do you think it is appropriate to insist that students say "negative $0.8$" and not "minus $0.8$" to denote $-0.8$? The so called "textbook answer" regarding this question reads: A number and its opposite are called additive inverses of each other because their sum is zero,...

algebra-precalculus soft-question education teaching

tchrist

Well, I hold with those who think saying negative for minus is weird.

But your ELU question confuses me: you want a syntactic analysis explaining mathematical operators and copulative verbs?

John Junior

@tchrist I have edited it with my wants at the bottom.

tchrist

5  + 2 ==  7
5  & 2 ==  2
5  - 2 ==  3
5  | 2 ==  5
5  * 2 == 10
5  / 2 ==  2.5
5 ** 2 == 25
5  x 2 == 55

So your syntactic analysis would be equally applicable to those, I presume?

sighs

$$\begin{array}{l}\text{We don't need no education}\cr\text{We don't need no thought control}\cr\text{No dark sarcasm in the classroom}\cr\text{Teacher leave them kids alone.}\end{array}$$ — Will Jagy Jun 12 at 4:19

Must be nice to be able to have multiple lines in comments.

Robusto

13:37

@tchrist Plus one.

@ЯegDwight Hmm ... I can't tell whether you're using past or present tense here. Stupid written English!

Monica

14:15

Hello

Do moderators delete closed posts that have been answered?

simchona

@Monica Depends on the question, but yes.

Monica

I had better save my post

simchona

@Monica You should be able to see your own deleted posts, but you need to remember where they are. Not sure, though.

Monica

Oh, I am not sure I will be able to find them

What a cute kitty :). Is she/he yours?

simchona

Haha no, it's just a cute picture I found online.

Monica

14:27

:)

Robusto

14:58

... the funny is that, contrary to the word meaning as it results from Greek, the hypotenuse does not really minimize the sum a^2 + b^2! — Xavier Vidal Hernández 35 mins ago

Yeah, that's a real knee-slapper.

simchona

Should I delete the "joke"?

Robusto

15:14

Why? It lets people see XVH being XVH.

Mitch

@simchona just because it's weird does not make it a deletable comment

simchona

@Mitch It's related to my deleting "not constructive" comments

Noah

hello

@Robusto why a knee slapper?

@Robusto why not a face-slapper?

ΜετάEd

15:30

@Noah Why not a knee jerker?

Robusto

@simchona I think you should take a step back and chill. The site does not need to be moderated within an inch of its life.

user19161

@Robusto I was about to ask about that. What does he mean?

Robusto

@WillHunting It is a private joke. Private unto himself alone, perhaps.

user19161

I guess to even understand it, I would have to dig into what the Greek really means.

Cerberus

Hello.

user19161

15:37

@cerb Do you know what hypotenuse really means in Greek?

user19161

late 16th century: via Latin hypotenusa from Greek hupoteinousa (grammē) 'subtending (line)', from the verb hupoteinein (from hupo 'under' + teinein 'stretch')

user19161

From ODE.

Cerberus

That sounds right.

Never seen the word in Greek, though.

user19161

But what is under and stretch?

user19161

I mean how do we relate that to the hypotenuse?

Cerberus

15:40

Perhaps the standard representation of a triangle in Plato's time was with the hypotenuse flat down?

ΜετάEd

Maybe it should be "hypotencanada".

Cerberus

Then it stretches out under the two short sides.

@ΜετάEd Hah. Hah.

user19161

@Cerberus Seems plausible.

user19161

This makes XVH's comment gibberish.

user19161

We have a fascinating answer on that question though.

Cerberus

15:44

Was it ever anything else?

user19161

The answer got 4 votes and the question only 1. No fair.

user19161

Answers are already rewarded twice as much as questions per vote.

user19161

Without questions, there can be no answers.

user19161

0

Q: Is this grammatically correct? “We were thinking of holding a meeting...”

The following sentence seems incorrect to me, but I am not entirely certain: We were thinking of holding a meeting next Tuesday.

grammaticality

Robusto

@Cerberus That is one of the worst triangles I have ever seen. Who turned it on its hypotenuse? Am I the only one who cares about the rules?

user19161

15:53

OT as it constitutes proofreading.

user19161

@Robusto I think it sits comfortably on the longest side.

Robusto

I knew you were going to say that.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…