English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2011-03-10 (page 1 of 4)

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12:33 AM

0

Q: Biweekly, bimonthly, semi-confused.

There seems to be a fair amount of confusion surrounding the meaning of the prefix bi when used with units of time measurement. Biweekly, according to dictionary.com, can mean either "occurring twice weekly," or "occurring once every two weeks." Falling within the same realm of confusion are bimo...

usage confusables prefixes

I think this is the new canonical example of "peeving disguised as a question"

12:46 AM

That's such a pity, as bi is an interesting beast indeed.

I am crossing my fingers that the question-asker fixes the question before it gets closed

Well, I just voted to close.

@Martha — I think I've flagged maybe two on this site, mainly because they were egregious questions and we don't have a lot of vote-to-close-capable members.

I can only recall flagging one obvious piece of spam on SO itself.

1:12 AM

This one sounds like poor punctuation or missing context:

1

Q: What does "this" refer to?

What does "this" refer to in the following quote from the Wikipedia article on Learning Curve? The learning curve can also represent at a glance the initial difficulty of learning something and, to an extent, how much there is to learn after initial familiarity. For example, the Windows pro...

usage pronouns structure

Solved.

Then it's just a poorly worded sentence.

Yup.

Not the worst I've ever seen on Wikipedia.

(I have never seen a single chunk of spam on this website. Nor have I seen anything else worth flagging besides perhaps two or three things.)

1:18 AM

I edited my response to add: Now that I've seen the context that preceded the sentence, it is clear that the sentence itself is very poorly worded and thus confusing. The paragraph is much clearer and more informative without it.

@RegDwight — Faint praise indeed.

@Reg: Right, and you are probably looking at the better half of Wikipedia most of the time: there are countless pages on sports players and Pokemon stuff and whatnot...

@Cerberus Just wait till you reach 10k, and — bam!

Are you exercising your litotes muscle?

Your litotissimus dorsi?

Oh dear, what happens at 10k? You see all the deleted stuff? One reason to start attracting down-votes...

@Cerberus I have edited hundreds of pages on sports players and Pokémon stuff and whatnot. But there are hundreds of thousands more.

1:22 AM

This is fun, in an answer to the "this" question by Calli-something: "... whereas other things, perhaps like learning a new language, may take a long time to do but once done, are done."

BTW, I just edited that again to highlight the OP's original stand-alone sentence.

@Cerberus — Nah, it's not that hard. Unless you're a moderator you can just ignore most of the stuff.

At 10K rep you become what is politely termed a "gentleman moderator".

@Reg: Right! I have tested relative numbers once, with the random-article button, and I got mostly sports stuff, pop culture, and geography (French villages).

@Cerberus You are probably generating more passive rep by now than you could possibly lose to downvotes.

@Rob: I see... well I hope it won't clutter my pages too much.

The reference is from "gentleman farmer" or "gentleman rancher" — someone who owns a farm or a ranch but doesn't do the work to maintain it. It's kind of a hobby farm or ranch.

1:25 AM

@Reg: You don't wanna know how many down-votes I will be able to get in no time, once I get to 10k... Muwahaha...

@Cerberus — NO WAY. I'm going on a mission to get you over 10K, pronto. We need more gentleman moderators.

Hmm... is it a historical term? Then we have it too in Dutch. It is mostly used by provincials aspiring to a higher class when talking about their ancestors, who would otherwise be called peasants...

No, it's not like that at all.

A gentleman farmer is wealthy enough to buy a farm to play with. That's all.

And they cost more than 10K in real life.

@Rob: You have no idea what you are doing. Do you want prescriptivist armageddon to descend upon EL&U? And crappy spelling EVERYWHERE?

@Cerberus — I fail to see how that would change things.

1:28 AM

It would get me down-votes, right?

@Cerberus This week, it took me a whole two days to get ahead of vgv8. Just sayin'.

"Ahead", as in deal with his crap?

@RegDwight I'm surprised you don't have the Epic badge yet. Seriously, dude.

I never took you for a slacker.

Mar 6 at 20:51, by RegDwight

In fact, if you look at this week's stats, Reg is way behind vgv8. While Rob is ahead of you. Yes, you.

What does that badge do?

1:29 AM

@Cerberus That badge says that you're awesome.

And it makes you breakfast.

And brings you flowers, like twice a day.

I was going to say what it really does, but I don't want to get banned.

@Reg: Oh, that! Two days, huh? Weird guy he is that vg.

I suppose it is something a married man should not be getting from a badge?

It even miraculously repares your John Deere equipment.

After having pared it once already? Nice.

Sorry. Hehe.

@Robusto I have like 60 days where I got 175-195 rep.

1:32 AM

Cerberus ... your non-native speaker detector is working nicely.

And 175 days where I got 60.

Meh I'd rather think errors based on homonyms are typical for native speakers!

So what does this mean on the rep page:

days represented 106
rep cap was reached via rep from upvotes *only* on 53 days
rep cap was exceeded on 52 days

People, if typos are no longer allowed here, hten I just take my bowl and go home.

The thing is, I got the Epic badge when my numbers were like 44 and 45, respectively.

1:34 AM

Sorry I was just being a dick. Was in a mean mood.

Nah, I'm looking at Robusto.

Oh him.

So how many gold badges are there anyway?

Bull. You covet my back yard, so you're never going to leave.

I don't think I have one.

Feb 25 at 13:25, by RegDwight

I'm not sure these will help you, but I am pretty sure they won't.

1:35 AM

So what do those two rep cap statements mean?

Feb 25 at 13:25, by RegDwight

I'm not sure these will help you, but I am pretty sure they won't.

@Cerberus Eleven, it would seem.

english.stackexchange.com/badges

Some engineer who programmed the reputation page obviously was quite content that communication was achieved, and as the output didn't break any build, he or she went home and slept well and never thought about it again.

Well, ain't that what an engineer's supposed to do as per his job description?

Excuse me, he or she went home and sleeped well.

Harharhar.

1:39 AM

I'm American, so I have to say sleeped instead of slept.

He goed home.

That he doed.

Thanks for the link. Those badges seem to be as hard to get as in fact they are, if you look at how many of them have been awarded.

I should have said, "I'm American and illiterate," but I guess that's a redundancy.

I assume the one with "edited 500 posts" is about editing someone else's posts?

1:41 AM

You mean you should have sayed.

@RegDwight — I should hang around here more. I learn so much from you.

That's because I'm so clever. I also amed very clever as a child.

Yes, you ared.

How willed you know?

I just knowed.

1:45 AM

@Cerberus Someone else's, not CW, not deleted.

And it used to be 600.

Ok thanks.

Mar 4 at 15:47, by Martha

...wait, didn't it used to be 100 edits for S&W? It says 80 now.

That's why most people only have 1 gold badge then.

BTW, someone tried to edit this one to make it less abrasive, but I rejected the edit.

1

Q: Biweekly, bimonthly, semi-confused.

There seems to be a fair amount of confusion surrounding the meaning of the prefix bi when used with units of time measurement. Biweekly, according to dictionary.com, can mean either "occurring twice weekly," or "occurring once every two weeks." Falling within the same realm of confusion are bimo...

usage confusables prefixes

Any amelioration should come from the OP himself.

I think he's just gonna duck out.

@Cerberus Excuse me, but most people don't have any gold badges at all.

1:48 AM

I don't think ANYBODY is going to get Great Answer or Great Question on English.SE. Not enough population to support it.

For Copy Editor you just have to be a grind.

@Robusto JSBangs is well on his way.

Feb 16 at 12:34, by RegDwight

Hm. And JSBangs has killed my record. He now has the highest upvoted answer ever. Congrats for taking the lead, @JSBangs!

@Robusto Or wait till it gets reduced to 50.

hahaha.

Well, now he has one more. It was a worthy answer and I'm surprised I didn't see that one before.

85 and counting. Go @JSBangs!

And what's great about it is it wasn't a cheapie, like my two highest scores.

The first Great Question will go to davebug.

Yeah how come I get the most votes for my cheapest ESL answers, like "is it suppose to or supposed to" etc.?

No fun.

At least I'll be getting my first Popular Question in a few weeks.

1:54 AM

Popular...

Well, paraprosdokian wasn't exactly a cheapie, but it didn't exactly involve a lot of work. But "Nevermind" was just upvoted because of the Nirvana reference. So I profited off of poor Kurt Cobain's suicide (and talent).

Aww.

@RegDwight — Damn, I don't have anywhere near that.

But I do have two Populist badges :)

@Robusto Yeah, seen that.

My "retarded and gay" question generated 561 views. I think it will peter out way before 1,000.

1:56 AM

@Robusto My highest upvoted answer is a wall of text. My second-highest upvoted answer is a comic I stole from Reddit.

No wait, it's no longer second.

Wow how on earth do you get lots of votes for a tl;dr?

Popularity.

And how can I see how many views a certain question has?

BTW, @RegDwight, I won (winned) one of those populist badges because someone accepted your obviously less popular answer.

@Robusto I was there when it happened. Wasn't I the first one to congrat?

But anyhow,

Feb 16 at 12:34, by RegDwight

Then again, I still hold the record for the highest upvoted comment and the most downvoted answer. Just try to beat that one!

1:58 AM

IDK, that was my 2nd populist badge. You congratulated me on the first.

For which I thank you.

Most downvoted? I gotta see that.

But this ... whoa, mama, shill question to end all shill questions:

@Cerberus -10, last I checked.

40

Q: What is the origin of ZOMG?

I have looked in a number of places, with contradicting results. The Urban Dictionary provides a whopping 73 "explanations", of which I will quote just a few. (Original spelling and punctuation preserved.) ZOMG is a varient of the all-too-popular acronym "OMG", meaning "Oh My God". ZOMG...

etymology slang fun internet

I mean, you judged the audience perfectly with that one. You'd be over 2K views if you'd just managed to work a little sex into it.

Seriously, great question.

@Robusto Nah, it just happened to be a Friday afternoon.

2:00 AM

But I love giving you grief.

Huh I didn't see any downvoted answers in your list... oh well.

My most popular question on MSO was posted on a Friday afternoon as well.

@Cerberus You have to look. It ain't deleted. As ArthurRex would put it, think, think, think.

Hmm ... I don't think I get a whole lotta love on Friday afternoons.

Meh... thinking... what is it good for.

@Robusto Post that as a question! On a Friday afternoon!

2:01 AM

Whole Lotta Love

"Whole Lotta Love" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin. It is featured as the opening track on the band's second album, Led Zeppelin II, and was released in the United States and Japan as a single. The US release became their first hit single, it was certified Gold on 13 April 1970, when it sold one million copies. As with other Led Zeppelin songs, no single was released in the United Kingdom, but singles were released in Germany (where it reached number one), the Netherlands (where it reached number four), Belgium and France. In 2004, the song was ranked number 75 on Rolling S...

There it is: iTunes to the rescue.

@RegDwight — Nah, that question would be closed in a hurry. In fact, it would go down faster than Paris Hilton at a frat party.

@Robusto It would easily get 2k views if it got posted today, what's with the recently added automatic tweets and all. The site was still tiny back then.

@Reg: Oh you probably mean downvoted literally, not votes balance, d'oh... now I am too lazy to click all your questions with lots of votes... but, still, nice work!

You mean ... we're Tweeting and some of us don't even realize it?

I promised my mother I would never, ever Tweet.

@Cerberus 11 downvotes, 1 upvotes.

[Sic]

One is plural on SE.

Hey, no lurking in here! Contribute something useful to the conversation or take a trip through the Spank-o-matic!

2:06 AM

@Rob: So did I! Twitter is even more of a narcissict blerg than Facebook.

Stack Overflow Blog: Twitter Question Feeds for Stack Exchange

Posted by Jeff Atwood on January 11th, 2011

If you ever listened to our sadly defunct podcast, you probably heard about Twitter … a lot. I’ve been a longtime user (since 2007) and I was always surprised how much utility I got out of the thing. Even Joel Spolsky, a longtime skeptic of the service, is a believer now.

We decided to create Twitter accounts for each Stack Exchange 2.0 site that will broadcast interesting questions every so often. Believe me — I despise spam as much as anyone, and I fully realize that Twitter is not RSS … …

Huh then that answer should have -10 total; and yet I only saw positively balanced answers in your list...

@Cerberus — I sure hope it's too late for you to edit this:

@Cerberus Think,think,think - if it was easy, it wouldn't be funtastic.

1 min ago, by Cerberus

@Rob: So did I! Twitter is even more of a narcissict blerg than Facebook.

My new favorite term is narcissict blerg.

2:08 AM

@Rob: Hehe why would I want to edit that...

@Reg: Okay I am looking at your page one last time. kids

@Cerberus Because you sayed did, and it shalled have beed doed.

@SimonStewartRinier: I just approved your first edit. Congrats.

So stop being a narcissict blerg and say hi to the gang.

Simon Stewart-Rinier

@Robusto Thank you!

That's not a hi.

See? That wasn't so hard.

2:10 AM

@Reg: Eh, while I approve of all your amed-ing, I do not feel obliged to join you guys. But thanks.

Simon Stewart-Rinier

@RegDwight Hahaha! Fine. "Hi, gang!"

Hi Simon.

@SimonStewartRinier There you go.

@Reg: I have failed. It appears I do not understand how this website works. Oh well.

@SimonStewartRinier — Umm, I said say "hi to the gang" — not "Hi, gang!" ...

2:11 AM

Hahaha.

This feels like an AA meeting.

Feels?

Or EL&UA meeting, that is.

No, it feels more like an AAA meeting.

A meeting of small batteries?

2:12 AM

Which can be either American Automobile Association or Anti-Aircraft Artillery ... you make the call.

What does this have to do with batteries?

Jinx!

Oh that.

Stop, you're both wrong.

@Robusto Oh, don't let me make the call.

Nah, you're a narcissict blerg, why would I ask you?

2:13 AM

You know, AAA batteries? I always think of battery, it is so horny. Is that what you wanted to hear?

I am SO making a macro for "narcissict blerg" ...

@Rob: No don't tell me, Reg doesn't... you know, talk like a bird?

Feb 11 at 15:12, by RegDwight

Society of Core Analysts!

Feb 11 at 15:10, by Robusto

This chat will self-destruct in 5 minutes. You have 5 minutes to get clear of the chat room.

Incidentally, is blerg even a word?

Hmm ... I thought that was Society of Sore Anal Cysts

2:14 AM

Sure it is.

OK.

I will be packing my stuff then.

@Cerberus — You're the one who speaks Dutch, you tell us.

@Robusto Yeah, we know that you're vgv8, no need to prove it.

Heh. Right.

OMG it's 3:15 in the morning.

2:16 AM

@RegDwight — Well, at least I don't hang out at the Korova Milk Bar with my droogs.

Why not? It's a cozy place, and the company even more so.

@RegDwight — Redundant for someone who lives in Deutschland.

It's 3:15 in Dutchland, too.

Yeah I am pretty exhausted. And still a bit under the influence, blerg I forgot to drink water.

Stupid 3.17 am.

Alex and droogs.

2:18 AM

Oh, Dutchland is ahead of Duitsland by two minutes. Almost like Zealand and Sibirsk.

@Robusto Nice try, Mr. Stanley Kubrick.

Zealand?

Yes.

New or Old?

I thought I was vgv8. Now I'm Stanley Kubrick?

Oh wait it is a Danish island?

2:20 AM

Mar 6 at 14:06, by Robusto

@RegDwight — So what else is new?

Feb 21 at 16:30, by RegDwight

Well, 8 hours is almost 6, and that's the difference between NZ and Novosibirsk, which are in the same time zone. Q.E.D.

You are sometimes a bit like the Pythia:

Alles klar, Herr Kommissar?

Zu befehl!

You relegate mysterious but eloquent messages.

2:21 AM

Do you guys find German beautiful?

Oh right. Rock me, Amadeus.

I found it ugly until I learnt to appreciate after high school.

You are biased, as a Dutchman.

Am I?

Yes.

That's like Ukrainian vs Belorussian, or Swedish vs Danish.

2:23 AM

Then did I overcome bias, or did bias finally catch up and smother my pristine appreciation?

Oh.

Well we also have Belgium to mock...

In fact we have more jokes about Belgians.

It's hard to like a country that stole all your cheese. I sympathize with Cerberus.

Thank you!

I do appreciate it.

@Cerberus But unlike Pythia's, my messages have links you can click on for further context.

@RegDwight — Stop selling so hard.

@Reg: True. But unlike Croesus I am lazy.

2:25 AM

I'm not selling, I'm helping.

Uhuh.

Something better than Falco, with a more German name:

Not available in my country.

No way.

Oh?

Which country>?

2:26 AM

Well, I am enjoying the hell out of it.

It is in mine.

Should I post a Klaus Nomi video or what?

@Pythia: I still do not get your -10-votes oracle.

Nah. This place sucks up too much of my time already.

Kind of one of these:

2:29 AM

I must be off. Cheese-making is astarting.

Cya, Cerb.

Klaus Nomi reminds me of a denatured version of this:

Goede nacht.

Presently I shall be unable to continue my conversation with inhabitants of our former colonies and those whose sovereign wanted to copy our capital as his own.

Bye!

Ja, mata.

What?

2:31 AM

@Robusto A denatured version of Talking Heads would be Tom Jones and the Cardigans.

Is that Twitterese?

Hey! Get to your cheesemaking, you!

You're right! Happy un-cold-warring.

I hope he brings us some of that cheese tomorrow.

I'm going to bed, too.

Hey @MichaelMyers, get your party started.

2:37 AM

Cya later, später tater gator.

I'm outta here too.

Which is the same as it ever was ...

Ciao!

10 hours later…

12:27 PM

Dupe?

0

Q: American English: which vs that.

We've had an American Americanise some phrases for us (with the point of teaching children English), e.g: UK English: There’s a little white dog which lives on the second floor. US English: There’s a little white dog that lives on the second floor. But there are three sentences which were not a...

american-english british-english

This is the first time I hear about this having anything to do with BE vs AE.

12:56 PM

We've seen this before. It has nothing to do with BE vs. AE, that is a red herring.

@RegDwight — De do do do, de da da da, that's all I want to say to you.

I can't believe someone dissed rhetoric like this:

0

Q: Term for “powerful, moving words”

What is a term for powerful, moving words? Rhetoric implies the opposite (“empty” rhetoric). The nominee’s speech was filled with XXX

single-word-requests

Rhetoric is like a gun: it can be empty, or it can be fully loaded:

Dozing at your desk, Mr. @RegDwight?

1:26 PM

@Robusto Nah, fixing products.

Could you be less specific?

Gladly.

0

Q: what's better 'double connected domain' or 'doubly connected domain'

'doubly connected domain' returns more in google search but it looks more strange for my ear. Which is the correct form according to rules so far?

Sink your teeth into that one.

Scholars have been debating exactly that question for, well, centuries.

I wonder which doctor I should be seeing if something looks strange for my ear.

No doctor at all. Just the girl at the jewelry counter.

I've been meaning to talk to you about your poor taste in earrings, my friend.

1:36 PM

Feb 24 at 13:11, by kiamlaluno

I didn't know ear ring was an insult. :-)

As Fowler said, "Such freaks should be left to the Germans."

1

A: Has there been an Anglo-Saxon movement in English?

After posting the question I realised I may be misremembering the following from Fowler's The King's English. Note that "foreword" is common in English now; apparently it wasn't then! "Prefer the Saxon word to the Romance". […] In some sense it is that: the writer whose percentage of Sax...

Gotta run. Talk atcha later.

CU.

2:28 PM

здравствуйте!

Hi @Kosmonaut.

On-topic, off-topic?

1

Q: Can you help me to fill my NDA?

I need to fill a non disclosure agreement (NDA) at the end of the file it is written: In Witness whereof, this NDA is executed as of the date first above written: Recipient: Per: .... (What should I write here?) Signature: ... (ok) Name: ... (Is it the same as Per:?) Title...

Hi

Urg.

Sounds like a candidate for Law.SE.

I don't know.

^ This.

2:29 PM

You don't know either?

Yes.

We shouldn't be giving advice on legal language, purely from a liability standpoint.

@Kosmonaut Why do you think I'm asking you?

I mean, it could use some rephrasing, "what does 'per' mean here" or something.

I wasn't sure if "^this" was supposed to be pointing to "I don't know" or "Law.SE" suggestion

@Kosmonaut That's why I waited for a few seconds before posting it.))

Use your stopwatch, please!

2:31 PM

Okay, okay, let's just move on! Let's stop dwelling on the past!

OK, ignore me. =P

I think "what does per mean here" is a legit question

After that, it really depends on the specifics of NDAs and law

I shy away from giving any advice on legal documents.

The person who should answer this question is the one who gave him the NDA in the first place.

This is akin to asking an SE site what Mary Jane wants for her birthday.

That's hyperbole, but not far off.

I just don't know how common "per" is in such contexts.

Usually it means in reference to a particular authority's directive.

2:36 PM

Should we suggest that the person modify the question, or else it will be closed?

Sounds like a good idea.

I have a feeling that if we say "just ask about per, and not specifically in your NDA, but in NDAs in general", the person won't be interested

But that would mean that it's clearly off-topic.

The intent is clearly off-topic.

The content could have on-topic bits extracted from it.

I really wish I had never gotten involved in this discussion:

6

A: Is it correct to say "I feel painful" to mean "I feel pain"?

No, it is not correct English to say "I feel painful." You can say "I feel pain", or "I am in pain", because 'pain' is a noun, but "painful" is an adjective so you would need to use it qualify something else (as in your "I feel painful sensations" example).

Oh Dear God in Heavens.

2:42 PM

(OK: The joke "who has called me?" would be too banal.)

@Kosmonaut — I've said it before, but comment dialogues that are more than a two or three exchanges long militate against resolution of the issue and agreement between the parties involved.

You are right.

Every so often, I get to this point where I am now, and I think "how the heck did I get here?"

You get points for: "If there is any rule at play here, it is: "use the word that means the thing you want it to mean"

How often people ignore that one.

@Kosmonaut The longest journey begins with the first step.

@Kosmonaut — "And you say to yourself: This is not my beautiful house. This is not my beautiful wife!"

2:46 PM

Haha

So, um, everyone's seen their all-new shiny reputation tab yet?

No.

Ooh. Shiny.

No

Which tab got removed? There used to be 5, right?

Activity.

2:50 PM

oooooh

Activity was useful!

Why'd they dump it?

No idea. Haven't seen anything on MSO yet. I would guess it's a bug.

Ah. It's on the top of the page now.

How else do you find questions you've commented on but not replied to?

Jeez, we now have like fifty-three tab rows.

It's over 9000!

2:54 PM

I am still seeing the "activity" tab.

Yes, and we are seeing it again, just in a different place.

Thank God.

Actually, looking deeper, I like the changes.

There's some job that needs to run more often, though. Here's what it says on my profile: "last activity: 12 hours ago"

Yeah, they are cool.

Homework? Too localized?

0

Q: What is the right usage of apostrophes in the following words?

For grammar class, the teacher told us to write the possessive for each word or group of words below by using an apostrophe and an –s (´s) or an apostrophe alone (´). Teacher Teachers Ms. Sandoval Adults Deer Man Country Countries Dog Celia

apostrophe homework

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