English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Ed Guiness

15:01

Despite all the fuss and apparent dislike of single-word-requests it seems they are the questions that keep EL&U ticking over.

RegDwighт

@EdGuiness They are the "give me the codez" of ELU.

For better and worse.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Swr: can I get a word that means better and worse?

Robusto

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Meh.

RegDwighт

"For meh." Yeah, works.

Robusto

@Kosmonaut Not a nuclear horst wessel, I hope.

RegDwighт

15:07

Kisses for meh, kisses for uh.

Robusto

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 They have fast food in Wien? Quel damage!

RegDwighт

@Robusto Yes, but they take ages to eat it. They are Austrians, remember.

Robusto

@RegDwighт Radiohead blamed everything on a black star.

►

Ergo, Radiohead are racist.

RegDwighт

You'll be done with your six-course menu well before an Austrian will be done with saying "a burger and a coke, please".

Robusto

Priceless.

Fuzzy Booleans rule!

RegDwighт

15:19

But a Boolean is composed of three probablys. Haven't you heard? They found it out at CERN.

Robusto

You mean with the Higgs Participle?

RegDwighт

Of course. You do realize that "Boson" ends in a preposition, right?

Robusto

So antimatter has Bosoffs?

tchrist

If you say so, Dad.

RegDwighт

@Robusto those are spelled Bœuf Stroganoffs. Don't be lazy.

tchrist

15:24

Kine sex in this chat?

Robusto

Bœuf and œuf for breakfast!

ΜετάEd

@Robusto Which reminds me why the French eat such a light breakfast.

tchrist

déjà dit

Robusto

Light? hahahaha. Endless brioche and croissants with butter is not light. Also, petit-pains.

RegDwighт

2k calories.

tchrist

15:25

It gives the kine something to do.

RegDwighт

And that's the petit déjeuner.

Robusto

If I lived in Paris I would be 300 lbs. [Europeans can work that out in metric.]

ΜετάEd

@Robusto Just remember that one egg is un oeuf.

RegDwighт

@Robusto twenty meters centigrade?

Robusto

@RegDwighт Now, now, let's not be petty about this.

@RegDwighт Something like that, Lord Kelvin.

@ΜετάEd You are un oaf.

tchrist

15:27

@RegDwighт Only in your house.

ΜετάEd

@Robusto Thank you, my job here is done.

RegDwighт

@tchrist in my house we use Réaumur, as is well documented in this very room.

Robusto

@RegDwighт I thought that was only a rumor.

ΜετάEd

@Robusto Don't pet the sweaty things.

RegDwighт

@Robusto see, you should never think.

Robusto

15:28

@ΜετάEd Aww, you're no fun at all.

tchrist

@Robusto Of the Kevlar Oaves, no doubt.

Robusto

@RegDwighт Which is why I gave it up. Hence the use of past tense.

RegDwighт

So Tom Petty meets Pat Sweaty...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

When my son wants to pet a dog he says "I want to petal the dog"

ΜετάEd

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 You can do the same to a bicycle.

RegDwighт

15:32

Let him play Petals around the rose.

ΜετάEd

A dog = a bicycle. Q.E.D.

RegDwighт

QED ≠ QED. QED.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I think he'd pedal a bicycle. Or maybe peddle it. He has a toy cash register now.....

∞

Wow I just discovered that my phone can type ≠ and ∞

Matt Эллен

nice!

RegDwighт

Mine can type ЯegDwight.

Robusto

15:35

I just learned a new acronym: FOUC, as in FOUC you.

ΜετάEd

Flash of unstyled content

A Flash of unstyled content (FOUC) is an instance where a web page appears briefly unstyled prior to loading an external CSS stylesheet, due to the web browser engine rendering the page before all information is retrieved. The page corrects itself as quickly as the style rules are loaded and applied; however, the shift is quite visible and distracting. After the web page appears, the viewer sees unstyled HTML morph into a differently styled document. The aberration, called FOUC, was documented and named circa 2001 in an article at [http://bluerobot.com/web/css/fouc.asp/ BlueRobot.com]. A...

This?

Robusto

Yes.

Did someone flag FOUC? Really?

RegDwighт

Where?

I'm not seeing anything.

Mostly because I'm not here. Commute.

Robusto

There's a blue flag button in the lower left that won't go away. Usually that happens if it's one of my posts that was flagged.

It says "No flags to display" but still there's a button.

Refreshing the page works.

Matt Эллен

I have that too

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

15:50

One thing I don't like about Vienna is the amount of cigarette smoke I am inhaling.

tchrist

@ΜετάEd People don’t understand what a so-called “editor” actually does at O’Reilly these days. They are nowadays mostly just a book-shepherd, and not so much a copyeditor.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

In Toronto there is very little smoking. I am not used to smoking in restaurants, and everywhere else.

tchrist

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That’s disgusting!

Matt Эллен

it's because you can't catch cancer from smoking in Europe

ΜετάEd

@tchrist Right. It seems like the primary copyedit on modern books is done by spellcheck. :-(

tchrist

15:54

@ΜετάEd Even that is pushing it.

There is no spellcheck phase in the production process. You are expected to have done that yourself.

ΜετάEd

@tchrist Right.

tchrist

Books are virtually never copyedited anymore, and only on uncommon-to-rare occasion even proofread.

But in a print-on-demand world, fixes are now able to get rolled back into the new printing very quickly.

This is the argument that given enough eyes, all bugs are shallow.

It doesn’t matter how many eyes look at something: if it’s big enough, there will always be errors.

There were something like 200 errata to the first printing of my last book that got sorted out in time for the second printing. It is demoralizing but inescapable.

tchrist

16:14

@AndrewLeach Plurals of single letters actually do take apostrophes.

Noah

Howdy

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Try some hooka

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Probably better and in some instances even less dangerous for your health than cigarirates

@tchrist Does it mean editors dont read your draft anymore?

tchrist

@Noah I cannot speak for everyone.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@noah 'better for your health than cigarettes' is a little like "nicer to Jews than Hitler was"

tchrist

But yeah.

Noah

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 No, I should have said better in taste

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 but I guess it's less dangerous than cigarettes

@tchrist So if you suck at writing, you better work on it and dont rely on your editor to fix your mistakes...

@tchrist on a different note, how difficult is it to write a book? assuming you write it for the first time...

Andrew Leach

16:38

@tchrist I have no input into that question except formatting the quote correctly. See my Meta question!

0

Q: Different users' edits are amalgamated

Revision 3 of http://english.stackexchange.com/posts/83629/revisions is attributed to me. I edited the question to remove the code formatting and present the quote correctly, and did only that. A short time prior to that, the OP had removed a few words and an apostrophe, but this edit is shown a...

Noah

Welcome buck guys

Sorry I gave you a buck, I meant back

Andrew Leach

I'd rather have a buck than a back. Unless it's back bacon. I haven't had bacon for ages.

KitFox

@EdGuiness was here?!? Holy crap!

Noah

@AndrewLeach No buck for you, you seem to be a rich man... and it's a sin to distribute your bucks among the riches

@KitFox who's that?

Livres= Books, What language is this?

My google is acting a bit weird these days...

Andrew Leach

Livres is French for books.

And why do I seem rich? (You don't need to answer that)

Noah

16:51

@AndrewLeach I dont need to answer what?

Andrew Leach

The question about why I seem rich to you. I don't think I am, particularly.

Noah

@AndrewLeach I think you are

You are worth 12K

Much better than me at least

What does MSO mean?

Andrew Leach

Oh. 12k? Not 11.2k?

MSO is Meta Stack Overflow. It's the Meta for all SE sites.

Noah

You are very observant

We are not auditing...

Andrew Leach

Stick around. Your worth will increase!

Anyway, I'm off home. It's been a quiet day today.

Noah

16:56

@AndrewLeach I will...

Alright

Good day

or good night

not sure where you are

Carlo_R.

@Noah - "good afternoon"

Noah

@Carlo_R. why is that?

@Carlo_R. I meant [have a] good day

Carlo_R.

Andrew is in Europe

Noah

@Carlo_R. Omm..

Cool

So everthing prefixed with "good"

you were not on the site for quite some time, @Carlo_R. were you hibernating?

Carlo_R.

Waiwai has hibernate me

Noah

17:03

Did he? Hope you didnt mind it

Carlo_R.

However the question on ELU are only on usage expression and I do not have answer

I'm tired with these question and I hope in ELL

Noah

Which questions?

Carlo_R.

I'm referring to the recent questions posted on ELU

People ask only for usage.

There are no longer questions on grammar

People, I think, are tired for these questions.

Last month had been dramatic in this sense

Noah

Well, we get all sorts of questions... you cant force people to ask the kind of questions that you want... I guess we get a good amount of questions on grammar. But I share your grief and for that I think they are working on creating a sister website...

ΜετάEd

@AndrewLeach MSO is Mineral Seal Oil, but welcome to my world.

Noah

17:08

I also saw a proposal for italian.SE, are you still supporting that?

Carlo_R.

@Noah Yes. There Paola is doing a great work.

Noah

@ΜετάEd you could make all sorts of shit from abbreviations, but context matters :)

Carlo_R.

I hope ILU start, but there are a lot of difficulties.

Noah

@Carlo_R. such as?

ΜετάEd

@Noah Right, like I say, welcome to my world.

Where there exist an animal called a mineral seal, apparently.

KitFox

17:11

I've gone clubbing with mineral seals.

Carlo_R.

@Noah Paola has called all people that followered the old ILU

But now we have stlill 29 questions with 10 or more to be voted.

Noah

@Carlo_R. I see. I hope you guys make it to the next phase...

Carlo_R.

@Noah - probabily you could interested in following and voting ILU.

Noah

@Carlo_R. I would, but i dont speak Italian..

ΜετάEd

@KitFox Ah, so you know where baby oil comes from.

KitFox

17:13

unfortunately so.

Cerberus

Harvested from babies?

Carlo_R.

@Noah Ohhh... Sorry. Italian is a beutiful language.

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus Baby mineral seals.

Cerberus

Mineral seals?

Noah

@Carlo_R. No, I am sure it is. I will support the proposal...

Is ice a mineral?

@Carlo_R. Send me link if you dont mind

ΜετάEd

17:17

@Noah Generally speaking, a mineral is solid at room temperature.

Carlo_R.

@Noah thank you a lot. I appreciate your work here and often I have upvoted your answers. I'm going to take the link. Thank you.

Noah

@ΜετάEd So, ice is out of luck

ΜετάEd

@Noah However ice and mercury are apparently given honorary mineral status by the IMA.

Noah

@Carlo_R. No pproblem

Carlo_R.

@Noah - area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/42949/italian-language-usage

Noah

17:20

@Carlo_R. Done. Upvoted a few questions...

@ΜετάEd Is mercury also not solid at room temperature?

@KitFox what's the picture in your profile?

KitFox

What picture? My sleeping fox?

Carlo_R.

@Noah - Thank you again. And good night.

Or good afternoon

Noah

@Carlo_R. u welcome. same to u, c u

@KitFox yea

@KitFox Is that a fox?

simchona

@Noah It's a rabbit.

A killer rabbit.

Noah

@simchona No it has got big ears

couldn't be a rabbit

simchona

17:27

@Noah Rabbits have big ears

Noah

@simchona prove it

KitFox

It's a fox.

tchrist

Dupe:

-1

Q: Can we use minutes as singular noun?

10 minutes are given as a break between two games. 10 minutes is given as a break between two games. Can we use minutes as singular noun?

grammatical-number

simchona

@Noah google.com/…

Noah

@KitFox How do you come to like foxes?

@tchrist I cant smell a dup unless you give me a solid link

Robusto

17:33

Gigili

What is this grammar?

> What I’m normally say is:

@tchrist ^

I am so tempted to rollback your edit.

Cerberus

17:53

@Gigili That's simply wrong. Probably a typo.

Have you used your GN yet?

ΜετάEd

@Noah That is correct. At 25 °C, mercury is a liquid.

Robusto

@ΜετάEd Also at -38.83 °C. Else how did mercury thermometers ever work?

KitFox

Magic

tchrist

18:29

Is it just me, or is “proper way to write slang” oxymoronic?

Robusto

@tchrist It could be sarcastic too.

tchrist

I rather doubt it was meant that way.

But who knows?

RegDwighт

I'm watching an interview with Tommy Lee Jones and something's confusing me. He seems to be talking with a somewhat Britishy accent. Certainly not Texan. Or is that what Texan sounds like? That's sure as hell not the Texan I'm used to from Dubya and Westerns movies.

spon.de/vfirC

KitFox

Oh that's just what he sounds like.

RegDwighт

First time I noticed.

tchrist

18:44

@RegDwighт Can’t get your link to do anything for me.

RegDwighт

in Islam, 7 hours ago, by TRiG

Meh. (NSFW)

This is rather hilarious.

KitFox

I know. It keeps getting flagged.

And I find myself asking, what is so offensive about "Meh"?

RegDwighт

I find myself asking, what is so offensive about that image to Moslems?

KitFox

Muslims.

Unless you want to sound like you are from the 50s.

RegDwighт

Sorry, German mode. Too much Spiegel Online.

tchrist

18:46

Fixed it.

"digh by digh"

KitFox

@RegDwighт It has penises in it.

RegDwighт

@tchrist yes, that.

@KitFox I'm almost afraid to ask... there are religions whose followers do not have penises?

tchrist

"rahght for the role"

Matt Эллен

amazons?

KitFox

@RegDwighт I don't know of any.

RegDwighт

18:47

@tchrist so I'm not alone, thanks for that.

tchrist

It’s just a Texan accent. There are many.

KitFox

But it is a depiction of homosexual acts.

That is offensive to some.

Carlo_R.

@RegDwighт but I'm sure to have read in the FAQs that users can ask to delete their questions.

RegDwighт

@tchrist well I've watched Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada in the Country for No Old Men in Black many times, and I never noticed!

KitFox

And Tommy Lee Jones doesn't sound Britishy to me. I think it's funny that you think so. I mean, funny haha. I never thought of it that way before.

It's even funnier that you never noticed.

tchrist

18:49

Too much R for this side of the Wall.

KitFox

But he is very hesitant in his speech in that interview too.

tchrist

The Germans sure talk funny, though.

RegDwighт

@tchrist his consonants are American alright. His vowels aren't.

tchrist

Sure they are.

RegDwighт

@tchrist their English is very, very good for a German.

tchrist

18:50

They just aren’t standard.

RegDwighт

@tchrist well however you word it.

tchrist

The dialects of the American South owe more to recent British accents than the northern ones do.

RegDwighт

That's kind of my initial question.

KitFox

I thought the Germans were doing very well.

tchrist

There are lots of non-rhotics there. And there is no such thing as a one-syllable word in suthun.

RegDwighт

18:51

He also doesn't sound anywhere as nasal as Americans usually do.

tchrist

You should know better than that!

Carlo_R.

@RegDwighт I'm happy to see you changed the "R". Now it is more simple ping you.

KitFox

cringes that Reg thinks she sounds nasally

tchrist

An educated southern accent doesn’t have a hillbilly twang.

KitFox

pfft

RegDwighт

18:52

@KitFox well I sure hope you don't quite reach Warren Christopher's level, but then again only Donald Duck does.

tchrist

@KitFox You can’t sound nasally unless you are a horn. You can only sound nasal.

KitFox

@RegDwighт Haven't you heard my voice?

tchrist

I’ve worked with Texans, in Texas. The PhD guy and the trailer-park girl sound quite different from each other.

RegDwighт

@KitFox where would that have been?

tchrist

Why did they have to bring up Hitler?

RegDwighт

18:56

@tchrist ♪ She's horn; horn, horn, horn.

Aug 13 at 20:02, by RegDwight АΑA

►

KitFox

@RegDwighт I posted a link once with my master's thesis blurb. It was me talking in my flight attendant voice.

RegDwighт

@tchrist it's an online discussion, there are Germans involved, and that is your question?

tchrist

What’s with all the flags?

RegDwighт

Where? I see no flags.

tchrist

They’re gone now. It said 2.

I never get to them before they disappear.

Robusto

18:57

@RegDwighт He's an educated Texan, and a smart man. He has a Texan accent, but the difference between his and Dubya's accent is only that when Jones went to Harvard he actually went to class and paid attention.

RegDwighт

@tchrist Looks like someone's late to the religious party.

tchrist

For some reason my browser doesn’t clear them once they’ve been handled.

RegDwighт

@Robusto I will make sure to rewatch The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada in the Country for No Old Men in Black, then. Again.

@tchrist that is status-baddesign.

That's Bad Design in both English and German.

tchrist

And French?

RegDwighт

"Bad design" is not a string that makes sense in French for me.

tchrist

19:00

Not my idea of a Bad.

RegDwighт

In German it means "bathroom design". With a typo because obviously that's a compound, but tell that to the Germans.

KitFox

Hmm. Can't remember if I like Bela Fleck.

tchrist

@RegDwighт Hence my comment.

@KitFox Of course you do.

I hate the ring designs even worse.

KitFox

@tchrist I do? What's my favorite song?

I kinda vaguely remember hanging out with the Flecktones that time in Carolina, but there was a lot of pot and booze involved and I can't remember any of their music off the top of my head. How odd.

Robusto

@RegDwighт Good. And pay attention this time.

@KitFox Yes, you do.

KitFox

19:09

I do? What's my favorite song?

RegDwighт

@Robusto pay what? Which time is it?

Robusto

@KitFox Labyrinth.

KitFox

I find this all very odd.

RegDwighт

Stop searching for it, then.

Or, if Kafka is to be believed, start searching stronger.

Robusto

@RegDwighт Steig ab.

RegDwighт

19:11

"He who searches doesn't find. But he who doesn't search will be found."

@Robusto in die Zweite Liga?

KitFox

It's weird. I feel like "YES!" but the more I look, the more it seems like Bela who?

shakes head Today is just a weird day.

Robusto

@RegDwighт Irgendwo.

RegDwighт

Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann.

Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann

"Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann" is a 1984 song by Nena which was a commercial success in Europe. Due to the success many cover versions of this song appeared, including samples as well as other languages. The song is about love. At the beginning of the music video itself a garage door opens and Nena emerges and runs through spider webs. She goes to a car in another scene, people running and snap it. Nena then goes through a pyramid and sees a mummy awakened by Nena touch to life. When Nena in a later scene sits in the car, soldiers pass through the area and one of them joins her....

@Robusto also, *irgendwohin.

Robusto

@RegDwighт Luftballons.

RegDwighт

It's German, remember. Where is location, not direction.

@Robusto Mehr als einer?

Robusto

19:13

@RegDwighт I was giving you direction, not a direction.

@RegDwighт Mehr als 98.

Weniger als 100.

RegDwighт

Das ist zuviel für mich. Ich muß mich setzen.

¡Hola @Gustavo!

Gustavo Bandeira

@RegDwighт Yo!

KitFox

Is 'hola' Portuguese?

RegDwighт

No.

KitFox

OK.

Gustavo Bandeira

19:16

It's taco, not portuguese.

Robusto

Tako is octopus.

KitFox

I see.

ΜετάEd

I have a spam flag on my icon ... that's a first. Two, actually. And when I click on the button I get "there are no flags to display". Why, then, do I have the flag?

RegDwighт

Wow people keep coming to this party that's so over.

A very persistent bug.

tchrist

I’m sure with the right link, we could start it up again.

RegDwighт

19:18

►

Robusto

@tchrist But in German, links != right.

RegDwighт

Links ist da wo der Daumen rechts ist.

tchrist

►

Robusto

@RegDwighт So you say.

RegDwighт

@tchrist RIAA.

Robusto

19:21

yesterday, by Robusto

Blame It On RIAA

tchrist

@RegDwighт No entiendo.

ΜετάEd

@tchrist AÍ! A BALROG HAS COME! And flagged my messages.

RegDwighт

@tchrist Precis.

tchrist

Preciso entenderte.

RegDwighт

29

Q: A way to "downvote" a suggested edit and affect *both* the edit suggestor and reviewers

I find a lot of suggested edits pretty poor. For me, it feels like that more than a half of the suggested edits doesn't properly address all issues in the post. The trigger of today was this particular example. It does not remove the PLEASE HELP ME screaming of the OP and even more, it introduces...

discussion suggested-edits rant

So now people suggest mechanisms for reviewing the reviewers.

tchrist

19:24

ipsos custodes

RegDwighт

When will this madness end? Just show your GMAT score at the door or GTFO.

Seriously though, that edit is... something.

We only get such crap from Anonymous.

knocks on wood

David Wallace

@RegDwighт @Reg In answer to your question; Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them both) are prophets of Islam. Of course it's offensive to Muslims to see two beloved prophets engaged in some crazy group sex with an elephant. Also, that image is shocking in its intent to offend so many people of so many different religions, which is not something a Muslim would ever approve of, no matter which religions it is that are being attacked.

tchrist

Please, please don't ever add the string "Have you meta-moderated today?". :) — Ether Feb 3 '11 at 22:08

@RegDwighт I dunno about GMAT, but TEFL has a certain appeal.

KitFox

@DavidWallace That's a god, not an elephant.

RegDwighт

@tchrist you weren't around back then to catch the reference.

Basically Jeff Atwood ran amok on our meta waving his GMAT score.

tchrist

19:32

Arrest his dealer.

RegDwighт

Which eventually resulted in Kosmo leaving.

KitFox

Well, his percentile technically.

RegDwighт

Whatever. I still don't even know or care who GMAT is.

KitFox

He was waving his percentile around and talking about how big it was.

Typical boy behavior.

RegDwighт

Speaking of JA Rule, they deleted a hilarious comment of Evan's on JA's latest post.

9

A: The homework tag is now officially deprecated

With a big tag that needs cleanup, I do two things to triage, and I'd suggest the same with homework View the tag ordered by votes, then go to the bottom (lowest voted). Deal with the "worst" 100-200 of these first. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/homework?page=1222&sort=votes Vi...

> He's back from retirement telling moderators what to do again. — Evan Carroll Sep 21 at 0:49

tchrist

19:34

Ah.

KitFox

giggle

RegDwighт

And speaking of Evan, has he won on Webmasters yet?

Or was it Webapps? Or Webtools? Or Webwebs?

tchrist

More places not to go.

RegDwighт

Election ends tomorrow!

David Wallace

@KitFox Sorry, I don't consider ganesha to be a god. But even if I did, it would not affect my answer to Reg's question.

KitFox

19:37

@DavidWallace Well, your attitude offends me.

RegDwighт

@DavidWallace I appreciate the explanation, though as an Orthodox Christian I guess I will never understand what's so offensive about crazy group sex with an elephant.

Jesus is God, and it was God who invented all kinds of sex, and elephants, and sex with elephants.

But let's not go there.

tchrist

Maybe the problem is that it’s a male elephant.

RegDwighт

Actually I thought it was a hermaphrodite.

Carlo_R.

@marc cenedella you might be interested in our proposal SE site for Italian language lovers Please, see here area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/42949/italian-language-usage

RegDwighт

Should I have put my glasses on?

BRB laundry. Hot and steamy.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…