English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@Cerberus "I am a bad ghost? No, I am the best ghost in the world."

I thought böser had the connotation of mean or angry, not shoddy or crummy; but that would be the counterpoint to "best ghost" I think.

7:47 PM

@Robusto The question is, were these exact words in the libretto?

Oh. Not sure.

@Robusto Böse kan be angry or wicked/evil. Wicked is meant here.

So "beste" is a bit odd as well, in opposition to "böse".

OK.

PAMINA
Wohl denn! es sey gewagt! Sie gehen, Pamina kehrt um. Aber wenn diess ein Fallstrick wäre - Wenn dieser nun ein böser Geist von Sarastros Gefolge wäre? -
sieht ihn bedenklich an

PAPAGENO
Ich ein böser Geist? - Wo denkt ihr hin Fräulenbild? - Ich bin der beste Geist von der Welt.

PAMINA
Doch nein; das Bild hier überzeugt mich, dass ich nicht getäuscht bin; Es kommt von den Händen meiner zärtlichsten Mutter.

But I read that as the superlative of "gut" as opposed to "evil".

Gen ref

7:50 PM

Yeah, but GR is no fun.

Clickums da link.

So "von" and "beste" were in the original...

But "nee" was not.

Jenseits von Gut und Böse.

Beyond Good and Evil

Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future () is a book by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, first published in 1886. It takes up and expands on the ideas of his previous work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but approached from a more critical, polemical direction. In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche accuses past philosophers of lacking critical sense and blindly accepting Judeo-Christian premises in their consideration of morality. The work moves into the realm "beyond good and evil" in the sense of leaving behind the traditional morality which Nietzsche subjects to a des...

I usually used to see nee spelled nö in Germany.

Isn't that pronounced like—well, nö?

Pronunciation would be the same, I suppose

PAPAGENO
Richtig, bey der Liebe! - Das nenn ich Gedächtniss haben - Kurz also, diese grosse Liebe zu dir war der Peitschenstreich, um unsre Füsse in schnellen Gang zu bringen; nun sind wir hier, dir tausend schöne und angenehme Sachen zu sagen; dich in unsre Arme zu nehmen, und wenn es möglich ist, eben so schnell, wo nicht schneller als hierher, in den Pallast deiner Mutter zu eilen.

That bey der Liebe seems pretty archaic.

7:52 PM

@Robusto Why?

Wouldn't it be bei?

I would pronounce nö like Dutch neuh, and nee like Dutch nee.

@Cerberus But we're talking Deutsch, not Dutch.

@Robusto Yeah, looks archaic.

@Robusto But it's the same sound and meaning.

Why else would they write ö, if it were pronounced ee?

Pallast, unsre...

Because it's not exactly pronounced ee? Where is @RegDwighт when you need him?

7:54 PM

But it sounds like nee.

I would think ee would be a little flatter, less rounded.

And I know nee exists in German.

I just don't know how they spell it.

4 mins ago, by Robusto

I usually used to see nee spelled nö in Germany.

Why do you think that?

I specifically recall that, because I had always thought it would have been nee.

7:55 PM

Those are two different variants to me.

And I was surprised to see it spelled nö.

They have both what sounds like "nee" and what sounds like "nö".

Same meaning.

Sosiouxme.

Anyway, I pointed you to the libretto. The rest is a question for @Reg.

Yeah.

Is nö common in the area near Frankfurt? Because that's where I was.

7:59 PM

I think it is common in many regions?

Dunno.

Apparently, nee is typical for Berlin...

I've forgotten all my German geography along with the language.

Get your maps!

Ich habe meine Landkarte verloren!

8:03 PM

Ach so.

Das ist wirklich schlimm.

Papageno, du solltest einen neuen Plan holen.

Das kann ich mir denken.

8:51 PM

@Cerberus Hold on, though. Mozart was Austrian. Perhaps they have variant spellings.

@Robusto Hmm not now, I believe. The German Empire did not exist in his time anyway...

> Microsoft ... has been more profitable as a patent-licensor in the mobile space so far than as a player ...

@Cerberus They make more in patent licenses from android vendors than they made on Windows Phone licenses per-device. And there are WAY more android devices.

Yes.

I know.

I bet many of their mobile patents are as silly as Apple's.

so someone posted a picture of a nearly naked girl in "The Bridge".

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/12/…

9:06 PM

But I wasn't able to counter-flag it.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 did they get banned?

I invalidated it.

@JSBձոգչ I dunno. The message came up as flagged.

It was hardly "nearly naked". The lady was wearing full underwear.

a woman or a girl?

9:07 PM

Black bra and panties.

@Cerberus Well, she was nearly naked.

there's a big difference in this case

She was probably, I don't know, 20?

@JSBձոգչ oh, "woman". But I say "girl" to refer to anyone younger than me.

definitely an adult. It was a Maxim photo.

well, that's not so bad. we've posted bra shots here before

mostly of @Kit ;)

9:08 PM

It was fine.

99 % of flags are by idiots.

anyway, i'm off for the day. see y'all tomorrow

No offence.

Bye!

@Cerberus i should flag that

bye!

Nooooooo......

Haha.

Meanwhile, I have a quiche with goat cheese + figs in the oven...not home made, alas.

God, I hope it will be good.

> ... said that her company's legal spend went up by 500 percent in 2010

gah! her company's legal "spending", or "costs", not "spend"

9:11 PM

Why can't "spend" be a noun? Prescriptivist!

Anti-prescriptivist!

Or, hypocrite!

> For every patent lawsuit filed, she noted, it's estimated that 25-50 patent demands are made with no lawsuit. In the recent Innovatio case, the estimate was that even though 26 cases were ultimately filed, about 8,000 letters were sent out demanding cash for using Wi-Fi.

The lawsuits are but the tip of the iceberg.

@Robusto It can be. But it hurts my brain to hear it.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Then I'll have to gift you with some aspirin.

Stop it!

I mean, cease it!

@Robusto It's not very nice to see someone take it personally and react this way. (I strictly avoid personal remarks, However: The someone who up voted this last comment of yours may find favor with you but that does not mean it's correct or justified.) "No one else mentions this:" With this atmosphere prevailing, it would be no surprise that no one would so much as care to speak up and say anything that may invite unwarranted personal remarks. Sorry that it hurts some people, but I stand by what I said. see: english.stackexchange.com/a/93612/14666 — Kris yesterday

Kris is off the deep end.

9:22 PM

Is she being unpossible again?

She?

Isn't she a she?

I was under a female impression.

I dunno. But whoever it is is being wicked and away.

And I don't mean under a physical female impression, thank God.

Aug 16 at 0:43, by Robusto

Huffy Henry hid    the day,
unappeasable Henry sulked.
I see his point,--a trying to put things over.
It was the thought that they thought
they could do it made Henry wicked & away.
But he should have come out and talked.

All the world like a woolen lover
once did seem on Henry's side.
Then came a departure.
Thereafter nothing fell out as it might or ought.
I don't see how Henry, pried
open for all the world to see, survived.

What he has now to say is a long
wonder the world can bear & be.
Once in a sycamore I was glad

9:23 PM

I should like to converse with her about her views on strictness.

all at the top, and I sang.
Hard on the land wears the strong sea
and empty grows every bed.

I wonder how that got trimmed the first time.

Oh, the "See full text" link doesn't get carried along with the quote.

@Cerberus They are variable. I'm the only one she singled out for censure and downvoting, even though none of the other answers satisfy her peculiar sense of rightness.

@Robusto Yes, she is always super nice and never personal otherwise.

In short, she is often like this. Perhaps she hits your harder than most people, but she does flail around routinely.

No, I'm not hurt. The bite of a flea will not bring me down. Nor will your flea-bite down votes. It is just something of a puzzle why you bear me such an animus. Not an interesting puzzle, mind you, but a puzzle nonetheless. — Robusto 27 secs ago

This won't stop the sucking.

Gotta commute. Bai.

9:34 PM

Bai.

one of these days he'll transmute.

And fly off?

or maybe squirm away

to me, Kris is a boy's name. My boss is named Kris and he's male.

> "intentional damage to a protected computer” under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. “Conspiracy” to attack a protected computer could add another five years.

Why do they have such insanely high punishments?

9:37 PM

I don't know.

it seems ridiculous

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I have no idea.

@MattЭллен Agreed. Now, if there is actual damage, that's different. Then you can sue for real damages.

maybe computer crime scares them more than normal crime?

But 10 years in prison for damaging a computer??

fear does weird things to people's perceptions

@MattЭллен Probably, but the main point is probably: if you can't catch people, you simply increase punishment.

A silly reflex.

9:39 PM

true, but most criminals get away with petty crimes all the time

Yes.

and the punishment for that doesn't go mentally high

Indeed not.

Well, they are probably insanely high in America.

But not this high.

lol

Perhaps those are somewhat tempered by tradition?

9:40 PM

perhaps

> All that Santa Cruz County would have to show was that Doyon had caused $5,000 in damage (in the end, the county came up with a figure of $6,300), and he could be looking at years in prison.

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/12/…

10:02 PM

gud nicht

10:19 PM

@Cerberus Because they have their heads up their asses.