English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

20:01

> Alben also announced there would be a controlled explosion later today in Watertown, at a house that was secured by police but deemed unsafe for investigators to search.

Hmm, glad that isn't my house.

RegDwighт

@Robusto because math has a steep learning curve.

Johan Larsson

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 but also heavyweight :(

Cerberus

@Robusto Oh, I hate that.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@JohanLarsson :(

Cerberus

It's like "literally" and "technically".

Turning words into bland intensifiers/weakeners.

Robusto

20:03

@RegDwighт Apparently the learning curve is ... exponential.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Johan You should fight Brock Lesnar.

aedia λ

@Cerberus It doesn't bother me any more than the literally exponential increase in hyperbole.

hides

Robusto

For some people, the math learning curve is asymptotic. They just hit a wall in 4th or 5th grade and stop in their tracks.

aedia λ

but can't stop giggling, so you'll probably find her

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

shields aedia from robcerb

RegDwighт

20:06

@Cerberus I am pretty sure the word intensifier never volunteered to be an intensifier.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Roberus. Cerbusto.

Johan Larsson

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 didn't he retire after getting whopped by Overeem?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@JohanLarsson yes.

Or someone.

Robusto

Actually, I've heard it said that most people never reach the formal operational stage of cognitive development. They remain rooted in the concrete operational.

RegDwighт

@Robusto the saddest thing is that they then flirt with that their entire lives, and everyone's fine with that.

Johan Larsson

20:07

@Robusto I think the thing with the math learning curve is that it must be differentiable

Robusto

@RegDwighт Yep.

RegDwighт

Nobody goes around merrily announcing, "I can't even read", but if you say "Gosh I so always hated math", you get pats on the back left and right.

Everywhere, mind you. Everywhere I've been to.

Robusto

Yeah. And it's not like you're asking them to do non-linear differential equations. Just fucking algebra, ferchrissakes.

Or basic logic.

RegDwighт

Ten percent of fifty percent.

They can't even use the calculator for that.

Nobody even knows what that means.

Robusto

Haha.

Cerberus

20:09

@aediaλ !

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

People don't communicate with math.

Johan Larsson

not that much difference between solving differential equations and algebra imo. A set of axioms that needs to be in place.

RegDwighт

Even though everyone constantly sees sales announcing X percent reductions.

Cerberus

@aediaλ casts Winter's Breath on you

Robusto

Seriously, they can't multiply .1 x .5?

RegDwighт

20:10

Well ask a bunch of people on the street. Any age.

@Robusto and I'm not sure if that way of putting it isn't harder still.

Cerberus

Sure they can.

Robusto

I think I told you the story about the fifth-grade teacher who couldn't tell that 10% of 2.5 million was not 25,000. Because the answer in her answer book was wrong, and she was sticking with that.

RegDwighт

Haha. No I don't think you did.

Robusto

I showed her three different proofs, and she finally took my word for it, but remained skeptical. I was challenging the authority of the answer book!

RegDwighт

You were a rebel. That you did mention.

Challenging nuns, for crying out loud.

Cerberus

20:13

@Robusto Hey, it's always good to be sceptical.

Robusto

My first proof went way over her head. "Just knock a zero off of the end of 2,500,000 and what do you have?"

Cerberus

Lest the evolution lobby or the environment lobby deceive you again.

cue @Kit

RegDwighт

@Robusto I have to side with her on that one, you left out the QED.

Cerberus

@Robusto Then the commas are all wrong!

RegDwighт

Always end your proofs with QED. For best results, start them such, too.

Mitch

20:15

@aediaλ What word would you use? 'coherent' is my word of the week so I use it wherever I can even if it's not the best. That wasn't very coherent, was it.

Robusto

@Cerberus i no rite

RegDwighт

@Cerberus Well, as a recent question on ELU goes, "what is the differenc if we put coma?"

Robusto

Seriously, it's no wonder people grow up hating math and science and literature. Crappy, ignorant teachers ruin those for nearly everyone.

Cerberus

Well. How about consciousness?

RegDwighт

@Cerberus I have a stream of those.

aedia λ

20:17

@Mitch Unintelligible? Very dimly having some meaning lurking in its murky depths? Jumbled word spew?

Robusto

@RegDwighт If you put coma you not awakenned.

RegDwighт

Very wise ansr pls post so I can except.

Robusto

How to pos ansr?! plese halp!!!?

RegDwighт

1st u go 2 univresity off Nigeria than u kno all

aedia λ

Y u put as comant? Post anser I wil acept.

Cerberus

20:20

I couldn't understand your line, Sir, because it started with a capital.

RegDwighт

@Cerberus but it was the capital of Rome!

Cerberus

Hwhere?

Robusto

you r funy i dont no

RegDwighт

That's left of Turkey.

Cerberus

The capital of Rome that's left of Turkey...okay.

Robusto

20:21

u must live in sirbia

RegDwighт

Check next thxgiving, what's left is the Rome.

Then take capital of that, and u don.

Cerberus

Is it like leftovers of the roaming turkey that you shot and prepared?

aedia λ

@Cerberus opps!!! sry ty for hlp me learn 2 using forum

RegDwighт

No, not leftover. Just left.

U no read?

Over is too high.

Cerberus

@aediaλ It's *cerebus, silly.

But I appreciate your...authenticity.

RegDwighт

20:22

@Robusto I don't must, but shit hapens.

Robusto

All it takes is a simple anagram to turn seaside into disease.

Cerberus

Maaangr!

RegDwighт

yesterday, by RegDwighт

Morphologically speaking, the opposite of dis is disdis, of course. Or disease for short.

Also,

yesterday, by RegDwighт

The opposite of dis is es.

Which, as everyone knows, is a Stephen King book.

Robusto

> The authorities were investigating whether the dead man had a homemade bomb strapped to his body when he was killed, two law enforcement officials said.

Really? How long does it take to determine that?

RegDwighт

Robusto

20:24

Das ist es.

RegDwighт

Which, in turn, as everyone knows, is Moselfranconian for "she".

Robusto

Sorry, not even Stephen King can make clowns anything but annoying.

RegDwighт

Cosmo Kramer can.

tchrist

Hm, busy flag day. Even the bat signal went off. I sure wish it were a bat, though.

RegDwighт

That's probably the only time I laughed at anything remotely clown-related.

Robusto

20:26

english.stackexchange.com/a/111857/2303

Cleanup in aisle spam.

RegDwighт

0

A: Why are Greek letters pronounced incorrectly in scientific English?

I original learnt the English version of Greek letters, but then relearned them in ancient greek lessons in Sweden where I was suprised to see that Pie was pronounced Pee. I thought about this and wondered, if I were French how would I spell it? Pi? As an Englishman how would I pronounce this? P...

Johan Larsson

@RegDwighт I'm proud to not know that until now, assumption right back at ya!

RegDwighт

@JohanLarsson only if it's assymptotic. I do not accept aassymptotic ones.

Not sure how to clean up on aisle Swedish. Perhaps you know.

Ancient Greek lessons in Sweden.

That's something.

tchrist

@RegDwighт That one’s a dupe, IIRC.

RegDwighт

What now, the answer?

tchrist

20:30

Heh.

RegDwighт

The question has no closevotes.

tchrist

That’s no answer.

I mean the question he put in the answer box.

I thought we had a question that answered it.

RegDwighт

This is too complicated for me. I am too distracted from this.

Johan Larsson

@RegDwighт lost me

tchrist

22

Q: Why are Greek letters pronounced incorrectly in scientific English?

In Greek, for example, the letter β is pronounced "veeta", but in science, people use "beta". Some other offenders are η "eeta", ι "yiota", μ "mee", ν "nee", π "pee", τ "taf", χ "chee", ψ "psee". I understand the difficulties of pronouncing the γ sound and such, but the translation of the "ee" s...

bayda != beeta

RegDwighт

20:32

@JohanLarsson it's okay, I've already cleant up on that aisle.

tchrist

I want to fix that ugly table.

RegDwighт

Der Geist ist willig, aber das Fleisch ist schwach.

tchrist

:%s/[-+|]/ /g

@RegDwighт I’ve already had my exercise for the day.

Plumb out of ghosts.

RegDwighт

The ghost is willing but the flesh is swach.

You can work from there.

tchrist

Done.

Johan Larsson

20:42

geist?

MετάEd

@JohanLarsson I did the book interior design.

@AndrewLeach I'm not Anita, no.

@JohanLarsson It's a very nice book.

My favorite chapter I think is the one that ends, "And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair".

2

Johan Larsson

nice! ^

Johan Larsson

21:06

@MετάEd Maybe I'll buy it and have a look

MετάEd

@JohanLarsson I have to say the poetry is amazing.

Johan Larsson

starred it to be able to find it in the future

MετάEd

@JohanLarsson Maybe there's confusion. The line I quoted has to do with what you said about "The Prophet".

It's not from the new poetry book.

KitFox

I love my sitter.

She cleans the whole house, washes the dishes, does the laundry. I don't know how she manages. She's so diligent.

Johan Larsson

@MετάEd no confusion and that is rare when I'm involved here :D

RegDwighт

21:13

@KitFox you don't have a dishwasher?

KitFox

My husband, yes.

But she does them too.

Johan Larsson

She just said she has one made of meat

RegDwighт

Even I have a dishwasher now. And I never had a dishwasher, like ever.

KitFox

But we did just install a dishwasher, except that it is plumbed in, but no electric and no cabinetry yet.

RegDwighт

I thought in the US it was a ubiquitous commodity.

KitFox

21:14

It's just sitting in the middle of the floor looking promising.

The kitchen here is quite small. We only realized that we could replace our makeshift kitchen island with a dishwasher about two months ago.

So when we called the plumber to plumb in the new half-bath that we put in the hallway (instead of a hallway), we had him plumb in the dishwasher at the same time.

But the drywall in the half-bath needs to be primed and painted before we can place the commode, and that's more important than the dishwasher right now.

RegDwighт

Priorities, priorities.

Cerberus

@RegDwighт Isn't it in Germany?

Johan Larsson

I started with two bedrooms and ended up with zero, expanded kitchen into one and turned the other one into storage. Moved the bed to the livingroom :D

Cerberus

Some people don't have dishwashers, but the large majority do.

RegDwighт

@Cerberus well yes it is.

KitFox

21:17

Well, we only just figured out that we could move the toilet from the bottom of the stairs to an actual private room about four weeks ago.

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson But...if you receive guests...

RegDwighт

@KitFox oh make it a nice loo in the garden.

What you call these in English.

KitFox

You mean a planter?

Johan Larsson

@Cerberus I don't do guests

RegDwighт

Scheißhäuschen.

KitFox

21:18

@RegDwighт A shithouse.

An outhouse.

Or a privy, sometimes.

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson Ehm you don't have to do them...

RegDwighт

Like something like this.

Cerberus

Umm.

KitFox

Outhouse is the most common term.

RegDwighт

Well it's not the archetypical image, but you get the idea.

So outhouse it is, then.

KitFox

21:20

Built like a brick shithouse.

RegDwighт

Bricks were built, then shat.

KitFox

Describes a large-busted woman, usually.

Which I find weird.

But I guess a brick shithouse would be sturdy and fancy.

RegDwighт

In German it's "viel Holz vor der Hütte", much wood in front of the house.

Johan Larsson

@Cerberus no not with the current arrangement or maybe the opposite (StackOverflow)

KitFox

@RegDwighт Haha. Cute. Does wood carry the same implications in German?

RegDwighт

21:22

No it does not, and in fact as you can see from this usage it sort of does the opposite.

KitFox

Stacked.

I wonder if they are related.

@RegDwighт Nah, a woman built like a brick shithouse would give me much wood in the house.

RegDwighт

google.com/…

KitFox

If I had wood to give, that is.

RegDwighт

NSFWish

KitFox

Zoing. Thanks for sharing.

RegDwighт

21:23

I no rite.

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson Um okay...

RegDwighт

This one's particularly apt.

MετάEd

@KitFox Husbands? A sitter who does husbands?

KitFox

That's disturbing.

-ly erotic.

RegDwighт

Drink your tea and have it, too.

KitFox

21:25

@MετάEd Er, no.

MετάEd

This is how I start rumors^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^hrumors get started.

RegDwighт

Well at least them's no one-liter beer glasses.

KitFox

Well, I don't have a sitter cater to my husband's needs. That would be silly. That's like hiring an accountant to write code.

Cerberus

@RegDwighт PS.

Johan Larsson

@KitFox maybe more like hiring an intern to Bill Clinton?

RegDwighт

21:30

@Cerberus perhaps, but so what, still an illustration of the idiom.

KitFox

@JohanLarsson No, because that would actually make sense.

Cerberus

crosses arms, legs, and heads

Johan Larsson

@KitFox yeah I guess

MετάEd

@JohanLarsson I think you would hire an accountant to bill Clinton.

Johan Larsson

I wouldn't mind a sitter writing some code for me while I chat at times

KitFox

21:36

I wouldn't mind an accountant.

My ex-sister-in-law hired a guy to handle her finances and then fired him because he told her she couldn't spend money on anything she wanted.

Johan Larsson

would you go Clinton on him?

KitFox

It blows my mind that someone can make a quarter of a million dollars a year and still be deeply in debt.

@JohanLarsson I'm not sure what you mean. Probably not.

RegDwighт

> Gauck, 73, who was a Lutheran Christian pastor in the former communist East Germany and assumed his post as president early last year, is not considered a divisive public figure.

That's putting it mildly,

He's da awesum juice.

thelocal.de/national/20130419-49247.html#.UXFLwcrxmuI

KitFox

I think my little son has pink eye.

RegDwighт

Too much wind?

KitFox

21:48

Could be. We were flying kites earlier.

MετάEd

22:14

@KitFox Debt is just another way of saying partner.

KitFox

Deeply in her partner? Nah. One of the many reasons they divorced.

MετάEd

@KitFox Heh.

KitFox

Just thinking about her makes me crazy.

It makes me feel all stupidly petty.

MετάEd

@KitFox Thinking about my ex always upsets me a bit.

KitFox

Funny how they can get under your skin like that, innit?

She's not even my ex.

MετάEd

22:17

@KitFox Doesn't matter, does it.

KitFox

Nope.

But I need to remind myself that she lives in a hell of her own making.'

I should feel pity for her instead of bile.

Johan Larsson

22:39

Took puppy for a walk, when we came back in he drank what sounded like a gallon. Means no sleeping for a while.

RegDwighт

You mean you will have to take him for more walks all night long?

Johan Larsson

yeah at least one more in an hour or so

no biggie but felt I should share it here Facebook-style :)

tchrist

You need to teach him to use a litterbox.

0

Q: What is the slight difference among assign, appoint, and dispatch?

They seem similar, but how could I tell the difference from them?

meaning

Difference among???????

Johan Larsson

22:55

maybe, his perfect record is broken btw

tchrist

Time to kick the snot out of some NNS ESL teacher who lies to his students about using between for two things only.

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