English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

JSBangs

01:22

so i see we've turned back into ELU chat after our brief stint as religion, atheism, and anthropology chat

someone should change the room description

random musing after perusing the last few hours of chat logs: it's interesting how much calvinism comes up in descriptions of atheism. the context in which modern atheism arose was heavily influenced by calvinism, and thereby the theism of which atheism is a- is often just calvinism. elements of calvinism are often misconstrued as core tenets of christianity in general, and elements of christianity are often misconstrued as features of religion in general.

anyway, thanks to @RegDwight, @Vitaly, @AlainPannetier, @MrHen, and everyone else for an unusually civil and interesting discussion

Boob

08:45

Hej, please take a look at my answers if it is possible for you, and tell me if my answers are sensible when i copy and paste them from the reference i mentioned , or I better keep my mouth shut =D

I really appreciate it

Alenanno

09:17

@Boob What do you mean by sensible? It's ok to look for external references. What matters is that: 1- you mention and possibly link those references. 2- In your answer you should write those things either by copying or re-writing but not as long as the original reference, just write the main and important things, especially those related to the question. This way if the link goes down (the site disappears for example) the answer will still be valid for other users because they will read your

"resume" :D

F'x

09:51

@JSBangs @RegDwight please change the room description

Alenanno

@Fx :D ahah

Boob

@Alenanno Takk

Alenanno

@Boob Welcome!

Boob

@Alenanno what's the difference between white space in art or in computer sciences?

Alenanno

Honestly I don't know :D

Whitespace (programming language)

Whitespace is an esoteric programming language developed by Edwin Brady and Chris Morris at the University of Durham (also developers of the Kaya programming language). It was released on 1 April 2003 (April Fool's Day). Its name is a reference to whitespace characters. Unlike most programming languages, which ignore or assign little meaning to most whitespace characters, the Whitespace interpreter ignores any non-whitespace characters. Only spaces, tabs and linefeeds have meaning. An interesting consequence of this property is that a Whitespace program can easily be contained within the ...

White space (visual arts)

In page layout, illustration and sculpture, white space is often referred to as negative space. It is that portion of a page left unmarked: the space between graphics, margins, gutters, space between columns, space between lines of type or figures and objects drawn or depicted. The term arises from graphic design practice, where printing processes generally use white paper. White space should not be considered merely 'blank' space — it is an important element of design which enables the objects in it to exist at all, the balance between positive (or non-white) and the use of negative spa...

Boob

10:04

@Alenanno Then honestly, you know ;)

Alenanno

Not personally, let's say :P

Boob

@Alenanno It's programming specific, the tag that is used in programming languages for "white space" not about the spelling or something like that

Problem with the usage of “but”

?

Alenanno

Yes, you think it's Problem with usage of "but"?

Boob

yes, it sounds weird

Alenanno

10:20

Correct it, you're free to do it :D

Boob

@Alenanno I'm free to do everything , even teasing you .. but I don't like to do them without reason , haha

Alenanno

lol it would be pointless?

Boob

@Alenanno Seriously, I cannot understand why "the" usage and not usage

@Alenanno Test it, You're free to do it ;)

Hooray ! = D another badge!

Alenanno

which one?

Boob

@Alenanno which one what? or which which one?

Alenanno

10:25

Which badge lol :D

anyway if I search for "problems with usage of", I get About 12,700 results. If I search "problems with the usage of", I get About 8,720,000 results

Boob

Supporter , Now i can support you =D

@Alenanno Did Not Make Big Difference! They are only numbers, It's thought that counts

Alenanno

Not a big difference? :P

@Boob By the way, I wanted to ask, why did you chose "boob" as nickname?

:D

Boob

@Alenanno No special reason (really?) =D

@Alenanno I'll explain in details, next time.. gotta go , have fun

Alenanno

10:40

ahah ok see ya!

:)

brilliant

10:53

@Vitaly Vitally, can you prove to me that Biblical deity doesn't exist?

Robusto

12:54

@brilliant — You can't prove a negative proposition. But positive propositions can be, and this is the means by which science advances. It remains for people who believe in God to prove that such a being does exist. Until they do so, I remain skeptical. No one seriously contends that flying spaghetti monsters did not create our world, but there is as much proof that they did as there is that some Biblical deity was responsible.

RegDwight

room topic changed to English Language and Usage: General discussion about English Language and Usage

Robusto

Work that diamond, baby. Work it.

Miss

webmath.com

RegDwight

@Robusto You mean I should ban you? For discussing God in a room about English?

Moin an alle.

Robusto

Ban me if you want to.

Vitaly

12:57

YO.

Robusto

I need a reason to find other, more enriching pursuits anyway.

JSBangs

somebody please remind me why i have the korean keyboard layout installed

RegDwight

yesterday, by RegDwight

@Robusto Everyone knows you're just hanging out on Skeptics. Whom are you trying to fool?

@JSBangs So you can type in Korean.

Robusto

@JSBangs — You never know when a Korean might steal your computer. And wouldn't it be awful if he couldn't use it properly?

RegDwight

Or that.

Though I am skeptical about the latter.

Robusto

12:59

It's the most obvious explanation.

OK, let's add that you might one day sell your computer to a Korean. How's that?

Vitaly

@Robusto I don't quite understand that. Could I ask a few questions?

RegDwight

O, M, G.

Robusto

You don't understand flying spaghetti monsters? Really?

1

Q: Can I use "guy" and "man" with female?

Almost of my fellows are male, so I usually say "See you man" or "Guys, I have some problems and need your help". It seems very strange if I use those sentence with my female friend. I want to know, can I use "man" and "guy" in this case? If not, what should I say?

word-choice

Can we get a "close as dupe" on this?

JSBangs

@Robusto accepted as the correct answer

Robusto

Hahaha. In your face, diamond boy!

Vitaly

13:05

@Robusto No. I don't understand why a person who never heard of any deities before (i.e. an untheist) should have any trouble in choosing between the account of Genesis and evolutionary theory (presented with respective books), in choosing to believe the claim about Biblical inerrancy and not to believe it, in choosing to believe anything that is described in the Bible literally and contradicting evidence from archaeology, history, biology, physics etc.

It pretty much amounts to disproving the existence of a deity that has all properties attributed to it by the Bible, I think.

…of any deities and of any science (but somehow, in sound mind)

Robusto

I say that is the wrong tack to take. I say that if there is proof of a biblical deity, someone should produce it straightaway. Otherwise we should just rely on empiricism.

Vitaly

@Robusto Yeah but… doesn't studying historical and natural sciences amount to disproving its (the deity's in possession of all attributes given to it by the Bible) existence anyway?

Alenanno

Hello everyone

Vitaly

@Alenanno YO.

Robusto

I think science generally moves without that specific purpose in mind. It is concerned only with what can be proven, so it must be indifferent to the infinite number of contentions which cannot. The only exception to this that I've seen is String Theory, which ultimately may have to be excluded from scientific inquiry because it does not, and cannot, yield to scientific method.

Vitaly

13:13

good point

it just occurred to me that if someone accepts that the Bible is just a story and still believes in the deity it refers to, then she should believe in the deities of the Enuma Elish and the deities of proto-Judaism (Asherah, Marduk, whatever) because those include slightly differing versions of the Biblical deity

and are as much stories as the Bible (well, not always written down in the case of proto-Judaism, but we know about them nevertheless)

Robusto

@Vitaly: I'm kind of amused that you are trying to apply logic to any of this.

RegDwight

That's what everybody kept saying yesterday as well.

Vitaly is trying to approach this way too seriously and too logically...

Just like the fundies do.

But yeah, to each his own.

At least that's what the Bible says.

Robusto

Well, the fundies make a show of using logic when it suits their purpose, then quickly ignore it when it doesn't.

RegDwight

To be fair, that's what everybody does to some extent or another.

Robusto

Not people who are serious about scientific method.

RegDwight

13:28

Even people who are serious about scientific method lie to their wives.

Robusto

People who are serious about scientific method know better than to try to use logic with their wives.

RegDwight

Or, as my dad says, "you can't argue with women".

Robusto

But that is an assumption. We must admit that those statements assume a priori that people who are serious about scientific method are not women. Or, if they are, that they are the kind of women who have wives. Which presumption must not go unchallenged or untested.

RegDwight

Interesting point. I'm off to Skeptics.

Robusto

You are totally crushing me there, btw. I stand in awe of your 227 rep.

RegDwight

13:32

Just wait for my next edit. It will push me to 229. Yes, you heard that right. Nine. I will laugh at you from high above.

Robusto

I would need more than 32 points just to tie you. It seems impossible. I should just concede the game is lost.

Vitaly

@RegDwight Sounds like someone from Portal 2.

RegDwight

@Robusto Well, it's not like I never give you any hints, or share a trade secret or two.

May 3 at 22:40, by RegDwight

@Robusto was smarter than me in that he did include a picture, but he also wasn't smart enough in that he forgot to shop a "(c) NASA/JPL" into one of its corners.

May 3 at 22:40, by RegDwight

NASA pictures or no pictures at all. Wimps and posers, leave the hall.

Just photograph your next rainbow from space, dude.

Robusto

But it was such a pretty rainbow. How can someone be skeptical of pretty rainbows?

RegDwight

You should ask that. On Skeptics.

"I am skeptical that anybody can be skeptical of rainbows." Instant rep cap.

Robusto

13:37

Would I have to prove that I was skeptical of such people? Where would I find a citation?

Vitaly

WTF? How that managed to escape any measures for 5 freaking hours?

F'x

hi all

RegDwight

@Robusto Nah, only a mod would ever ask you to prove that. The rest wouldn't care.

Vitaly

Hi F'x

F'x

is it wrong perception on my part, or is the traffic much heavier today than the rest of the week?

Robusto

13:38

:984203 Hmm ... I guess this is what is meant by "light moderation" ...

RegDwight

:984203 Just a quick note: that one shouldn't be merely flagged for mod attention. Feel free to flag it as spam.

6 flags, and it disappears. No mod intervention necessary.

Vitaly

Oh, cool.

RegDwight

@Fx We're tanking today. But only because @Mitch gave us such a huge bump that there is absolutely nowhere to go from there but down.

Robusto

Yes, tanking ... see above.

40 mins ago, by Robusto

RegDwight

At least we're still floating high in the skies, even when we're tanking.

@Robusto Oh, and you forgot to shop (C) JPL onto that one.

That's why we go over these things.

Vitaly

13:47

How do I flag a post that copies something verbatim off the Web w/o using the blockquote?

Robusto

Umm, the dog ate my homework?

I got an upvote this week on an answer on SO, which caused me to look at it, which caused me to notice that the accepted answer blatantly ripped off my answer (and admitted it!) and put it in a form that would make it 1) hard to read and 2) liable to OOB exceptions. Ah, SO it goes.

RegDwight

@Vitaly Flag for mod attention -> other -> say where you think the unattributed content comes from.

Robusto

5

Q: How to think in English?

Some peole have told me that I should try to think in English in order to learn it well. Now I can read and write in English, but I can't think in English. How can I think in English when I'm not a native English speaker?

american-english learning

Really? This hasn't been NFO yet?

RegDwight

May 9 at 21:23, by RegDwight

We have almost fifty 3k users now. I can't be closing questions unilaterally. That trains the community to be lazy. But if you can't count on Super Reg to close everything, that's when the site starts really working as intended.

Vitaly

@RegDwight There is a link though.

RegDwight

13:53

@Vitaly Okay. Then just click the edit link and fix the formatting yourself. +2 reps.

Robusto

@RegDwight — Well, it would be trilaterally, not unilaterally. And you just closed the "guy/gender" question trilaterally. So hop to it, bub. Earn your stipend.

Alenanno

NFO?

Vitaly

@RegDwight And how are edits approved?

Robusto

May 1 at 21:42, by Robusto

Alenanno

XD

lol

RegDwight

13:55

@Vitaly I see the edit, click "dismiss", then make the exact same edit myself. That's how edits are approved.

Vitaly

@RegDwight Oh ok, I will just flag it for mod attention then.

Flagged.

RegDwight

You're so repophobe, Vitaly, that's really something.

Vitaly

:D

Robusto

Well, sad to say, I'm off to work. We have a release coming out for June 1 and I am in hell. When they find my corpse at the keyboard, please say kind things about me.

Vitaly

Later @Robusto

Alenanno

13:57

Something like this? farm2.static.flickr.com/1058/781991458_bf92635b5d.jpg

:D

RegDwight

OMG working on a Saturday. Who's a free country now?

CU @Rob.

Alenanno

Bye @Robusto

Vitaly

14:17

Are you kidding me?..

google.com/…

In other words,

1

Q: How to think in English?

Some peole have told me that I should try to think in English in order to learn it well.How can I think in English when I'm not a native English speaker?

learning english thinking

RegDwight

I don't see anything unusual.

Miss

is this setence right :

why the room is so isolated..

RegDwight

@Miss No. If that's a question, it should be "Why is the room so isolated?"

Miss

or it should be :" why is the room so isolate...?

hmm ok thanks

Alenanno

@Vitaly I don't get your point :D

RegDwight

14:22

@Miss I'm not sure whether isolate(d) is really the word you're looking for.

Vitaly

@Alenanno That same question was asked 2 months ago on StackOverflow by the same user.

Miss

hmm

F'x

@RegDwight it was asked on SO

Alenanno

@Vitaly Yeah?

ahha

RegDwight

@Fx Yes, and closed there.

Vitaly

14:23

Well if that's not unusual, I don't know what is.

RegDwight

@Vitaly Not unusual in the slightest.

Alenanno

Did he get answers there?

RegDwight

SO has thousands of questions that would be a better fit for ELU.

Vitaly

Ah. lol

Miss

@regdwight: or can we say that "why is there no silency in the room" ?

RegDwight

14:24

@Alenanno No. Closed within 2 minutes. As it should be. Again, nothing unusual.

@Miss Can you please explain, in most simple words, what you're actually trying to say?

F'x

@RegDwight 2 minutes? Whoa, they have the efficient mods, while we're stuck with the slow and lazy ones…

Vitaly

@Fx Word, word!

RegDwight

The noun is "silence", and "why is there no silence in the room" would be grammatical, but it would be asking something completely different from your original question.

Miss

i want to say that why people are so quiet....

Alenanno

quiet*

RegDwight

14:25

@Fx No. They have an efficient community. Closing that question did not involve a single mod.

Alenanno

@Miss it's quiet... Quite is a different word

Miss

@alenano : ok thanks

RegDwight

@Fx It got closed before any mod had a chance to even look at it.

F'x

@RegDwight killjoy!

RegDwight

@Miss Then ask just that, "Why are people so quiet here?"

Vitaly

14:27

@Fx Word, word!

Miss

hmm ok

RegDwight

Or "Why the silence?" or "Why is the room so quiet?" or "Where's everybody gone?" or whatever.

But isolated has nothing to do with any of those.

@Fx I have killed enough questions within 30 seconds of them being posted. :P

Vitaly

I need a picture of a horny dodo.

RegDwight

But that's not my job, actually. My job is to do as little as possible.

@Vitaly That's not my job either.

Alenanno

@Vitaly what the? lol

RegDwight

14:31

Dodos are gone.

Feb 4 at 14:38, by RegDwight

Gone the dodo style.

Vitaly

AFK.

brilliant

@Vitaly "Yeah but… doesn't studying historical and natural sciences amount to disproving its (the deity's in possession of all attributes given to it by the Bible) existence anyway?" - Can you bring some "classical" examples of how recent natural sciences disprove the existence of Biblical deity?

@Robusto "You can't prove a negative proposition" - Why is that impossible? I mean I kind of agree with that, but is there any such law of logic or something that has already formulated that impossibility?

"I think science generally moves without that specific purpose in mind. It is concerned only with what can be proven" - I absolutely agree with this.

Vitaly

@brilliant No sorry, I am too busy disproving the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster right now. It turns kind of difficult, since there is so much pictionary evidence of it.

brilliant

Evidence is not yet a proof! Merely an indication to a possibility.

Vitaly

For the time being, I am happy to redirect you to a relevant LessWrong article, titled Religion's Claim to be Non-Disprovable

brilliant

14:47

@Vitaly Thanks. I'm reading it now hoping to find any proof.

RegDwight

@Vitaly The thing is, the Flying Spaghetti Monster does exist. It might not exist as a physical collection of atoms, but that's like saying that this text here doesn't exist.

Vitaly

@RegDwight This text here exists as a physical collection of atoms on my computer screen, a physical collection of fields those atoms generate, a physical collection of atoms in my brain and my eyes, and the physical state of the atoms in my brain that allows me to perceive that text.

RegDwight

21 hours ago, by Vitaly

So does this.

Vitaly

So does the picture of the Flying Spaghetti Monster exist, yes.

RegDwight

There is no difference whatsoever between those pixels and these ones here.

Vitaly

14:50

Mathematical logic, anyone?

RegDwight

@Vitaly Precisely my point.

Vitaly

The difference between the variable, the name of the variable, and the name of the name of the variable, and the contents of that variable?

RegDwight

Use-mention.

This is a linguisticky chat. Use linguisticky terms here.

Vitaly

YO?

RegDwight

Anyhow.

Vitaly

14:52

I just be chillaxin' man and sittin' 'round up to nuthin gud man

Wat is a lingusticka chat anyways man

Yo man do I look like a lingusticka man?

RegDwight

Once you say "flying spaghetti monster", I know exactly what you mean. Once you say "Jupiter moon", I know exactly what you mean. Once you say "linguistics", I know exactly what you mean. I have never seen, smelled, or touched any of those things.

And if I were really serious about approaching stuff with cold mathematical logic, then the Flying Spaghetti Monster does or does not exist in the exact same ways and to the exact same extent as the Moon landing or Paul McCartney.

But we've been there before, when we last discussed Skeptics.

Vitaly

15 mins ago, by Vitaly

For the time being, I am happy to redirect you to a relevant LessWrong article, titled Religion's Claim to be Non-Disprovable

Apr 17 at 21:53, by RegDwight

You always post stuff that I have to think about really hard to get it.

Time to think hard.

RegDwight

Now, now. No need to get snotty.

Vitaly

17 hours ago, by Vitaly

‍

RegDwight

15:08

@Vitaly Oh, and that piece is of writing is rather disappointing to say the least. It doesn't make me think hard. It doesn't make me think at all. It talks a lot but says nothing. It could just as well repeat "the sky is blue" five hundred times over, that would be just as informative.

And in fact I don't see how it's related to our discussion here.

Vitaly

5 mins ago, by RegDwight

Now, now. No need to get snotty.

RegDwight

@Vitaly You reap what you sow.

Vitaly

:D

RegDwight

But I'm actually serious. That was a very weak write-up, especially in the context of write-ups you usually post. It presented me with exactly zero new information.

Not that it would never work for anyone.

I'm just saying that this is kinda 101.

Vitaly

Someone had to write the obvious. Plus you can't deny that it's well-written, as in as if by a good public speaker.

RegDwight

15:13

Yeah, I guess that's what I'm trying to say the whole time.

No sneaky edits. <shakes fist>

I can very well deny its well-writtenness.

Just as I won't swallow every single word of Obama's as the best poetry evar, as some people do.

Vitaly

Oh, I meant to ask you a question

Do you ever read the comments to LW posts to which I link?

RegDwight

Ever? Yes. Always? Hell, no.

Vitaly

Haha.

brilliant

@Vitaly I just finished reading that article. I am quite "amused" by the level of arbitrariness of the author's judgments about the Bible. In some places it really shows that he doesn't really know the Bible well. I have found at least 4 such "incompetent judgments". However, I wasn't reading it to find the author's mistakes. I was really hoping to find some proof to the nonexistence of the biblical deity. Sadly, there is no proof there at all.

Vitaly

@brilliant Oh, you mean he doesn't know the modern interpretations of the Bible very well? Yeah, that I can agree with.

RegDwight

15:19

See, Vitaly? That's what I'm talking about. That article only works for people for whom it works anyway.

Not unlike the Bible, actually.

Vitaly

@brilliant If you could just forget for a moment about all those interpretations (God, I loathe that word) modern faithists produce, and treat the Bible according to its historical context (first millennium BCE), then it's quite obvious that the Bible makes at least one scientific claim, namely, that El(ohim)/Yahweh/Adonai created man from dirt. This claim is scientific, and it's falsifable: already falsified by modern evolutionary synthesis.

Therefore, no deity exists that created man from dirt (and this is an attribute of the Biblical deity, therefore, the Biblical deity doesn't exist)

Just as if I make a claim that Moscow was populated by dinosaurs a thousand years ago, it would be scientific and therefore falsifiable

brilliant

Not necessarily modern interpretations(though, if we really want to be scientific about the matter we should not discard any possible interpretations). In that case where the false profits were killed he himself tries to provide his own (which is, ironically, quite modern) interpretation to the reason as to why they were to be killed - so that there would be no falsified hypothesis, as he says.

Vitaly

And absolutely contrary to any evidence whatsoever

brilliant

In fact, the reason for killing those false prophets is way more simple and it doesn't really need any modern interpretations as it had already been explained in the Old Testament - worshiping other gods was a defilement for them according to their law. They were simply following their law in that particular case.

RegDwight

(Prophets?)

brilliant

15:27

yes, "prophets" (sorry)

RegDwight

@Vitaly We do all ultimately come from dirt. We're descendants of that first aminoacid that synthesized itself in a puddle of mud somewhere.

brilliant

@Vitaly I am re-reding your post about man'being created out of dirt and Moscow's having been populated by dinosaurs - it may take some time for me to get you logic there (I am sorry I am kind of slow)

Vitaly

@RegDwight And this is a modern interpretation.

RegDwight

@Vitaly Sure, no arguing about that.

But it is a possible interpretation.

Vitaly

No way. It's way out of historical context.

RegDwight

15:31

The Theory of Relativity gets re-interpreted and stretched and falsified, too. And it's way younger than the Bible.

Vitaly

Or else you would have to admit that the Enuma Elish can be interpreted too, and its deities can exist.

Enûma Eliš

The ' (Akkadian Cuneiform: ) is the Babylonian creation myth (named after its opening words). It was recovered by Austen Henry Layard in 1849 (in fragmentary form) in the ruined Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (Mosul, Iraq), and published by George Smith in 1876. The Enûma Eliš has about a thousand lines and is recorded in Old Babylonian on seven clay tablets, each holding between 115 and 170 lines of text. Most of Tablet V has never been recovered, but aside from this lacuna, the text is almost complete. A duplicate copy of Tablet V has been found in Sultantepe, ancient Huzirina, loc...

RegDwight

Do you know what Einstein really had in mind? You're interpreting lots of what he's wrote way out of historical context, too. You have no other choice.

Vitaly

@RegDwight Really?

RegDwight

Of course.

Vitaly

Feel free to discuss it over → there.

RegDwight

15:34

That's why the String Theory exists in the first place.

Vitaly

Do you know what J. R. R. Tolkien had in mind? He could have been the Creator of this Universe, who, having assumed the human form, wrote the ultimate account of the Creation of Man, those hobbits could have been our evolutionary ancestors etc etc — only if you interpret it correctly!

RegDwight

The Theory of Relativity has its limits. There's a need for a larger Theory that would tie things together and provide the missing pieces. Much like the Theory of Relativity helped explain lots of stuff that could not be explained using Newtonian Physics.

Physics is an evolving science. It doesn't stand still.

@Vitaly Start that religion, and you will be surprised how many people will follow and give you huge monies.

Vitaly

No, I won't.

Because I am not surprised at how many Christians are there.

Got used to it.

RegDwight

Okay, one serious question, if I may. Why are you so focused on Christianity?

I don't see you attacking Buddhism or Scientology.

Vitaly

I am not.

RegDwight

15:39

Okay.

Vitaly

And it looks like that because I don't happen to see any Buddhists or Scientologists here.

Or Muslims for that matter.

RegDwight

You never know.

There are quite a few on the main site.)))

Teaching us how to pronounce Islam and Tehran correctly.)))

Vitaly

IDK, the main site is not for that sort of trash talk

The chatroom, however, is. :P

RegDwight

Actually, I always wondered what the Skeptics chatroom would be like.

I keep forgetting to pay a visit.

Vitaly

It's empty.

Been empty for a couple months (?).

RegDwight

15:43

Yeah, we previously discussed their stealing the name etc, and it was quite empty then, but I thought it surely would've evolved.

Looks like Skeptics are not that much into evolution, after all.

Haha, speaking of which:

Skeptical questions on Evolution

Questions which doubt evolution will for sure be voted down.

Vitaly

strictly speaking, evolution is any kind of hereditary change by natural selection, it shouldn't necessarily be an increase of complexity

WTF?

lol

RegDwight

Look at who's in that room...

Vitaly

It was quite active at the start, the stolen room

this reminds me, I like the Western policy for administrators and mods

RegDwight

Which one is that?

Vitaly

American websites and services tend to generally promote mods as ‘babysitters’, like you put it, if you know what I mean

Russian websites mostly have mods that treat the websites like their personal playground

RegDwight

15:54

Oh well. Where does that put me? Am I even possible in this Universe?

That funny chat room made me follow some links all the way to Physics.SE.

Vitaly

I've been an appointed mod/admin for an American network of websites for a few years, and I really don't want to do that again — it is exhausting

but after that, I can't stand Russian websites

RegDwight

My wife's just returned from Russia. She can't understand how she managed to live there for 20+ years. She can barely spend 20 days there without freaking out.

Vitaly

yeah…

RegDwight

Cultures are like that.

I'm sure I wouldn't stand a snowflake's chance in Hell in, say, Singapore.

brilliant

@Vitaly "No way. It's way out of historical context" - Why do you say it's out of historical context? Bible tells us that the man was created out of the dirt/dust/soil. And historically (I mean according to the historical record of the Bible) it happened before the fall of men. Bible also says that when the sin entered into men (at the fall of men) it entered into the whole creation; thus, the whole creation experienced quite a

huge change at that moment (so huge in fact, it became mortal):"... by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin" (Rom. 5:12), "For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly..." (Rom. 8:20). There are many passages in the Bible stating that change as a huge and drastic change that took place "on all levels" - not only on the level of humans. It is logical, therefore, that some kind of

RegDwight

15:58

Hahaha. Back to square one.

Have fun, Vitaly. I'm AFK.

brilliant

change in the chemical composition of the dirt/dust/soil must have taken place at that time. And the dirt/dust/soil that we can be researching today is quite different from what it was before the defilement of the whole creation happened. To me it all looks quite consistent - at least with the Biblical record.

Vitaly

ARGHHHH.

Again.

brilliant

I am sorry - I am slow at typing.

Vitaly

Yeah, to me it looks even more consistent, given that the Garden of Eden was probably a temple in the Ancient Judea, which had the king as high priest, and that king refused to pay tribute to the Babylonians, and so the Babylonians sent an army that destroyed the temple, and so it is rendered in the Bible as the Fall of Man, or more precisely, the king as Adam

Cool story, bro

I am AFK, too.

brilliant

High priests were appointed way much later. Here you seem to pass as arbitrary

judgments on the Bible as that author of that article did.

And there were no temples either. There were even no cities yet!

(I mean, speaking in terms of the historical record of the Bible)

RegDwight

16:04

Except Taiwan. Taiwan's always been there. It's just that the Taiwanese part of the Genesis got lost because no sane person could read it.

brilliant

@RegDwight Please use smileys when you are not being serious. Was this one a joke?

In case it was not a joke: I have no idea about where Taiwan was at that time, and I don't really care.

@Vitaly I am sorry to state it, Vitaly, but, even though you put forth earlier the idea that "studying historical and natural sciences amount to disproving its (the deity's in possession of all attributes given to it by the Bible) existence", so far you haven't provided anything valid that could remotely resemble some kind of proof.

RegDwight

@brilliant I have posted 21,800 messages now. At 3–7 chars per smiley, that would make 65,400–152,600 additional characters. At 300 characters per minute, that would make up to 508 minutes, or roughly 8,5 additional hours wasted here. In short, SORRY, NO.

And I don't think I can actually reach 300 cpm when typing stuff such as \(^_^)/.

brilliant

@RegDwight I am sorry, RegDwight, I didn't know that you have posted so many messages here (21,800 is damn a lot!). Sure, you don't have to type smileys. Except, I am quite slow at times and may not tell a joke from a serious statement.

Spare Oom

16:20

hi folks

Boob

@RegDwight I'm deeply sorry, you've edited my posts over 87453547363 times today :\

RegDwight

@SpareOom Helloes.

Boob

will be more careful in the future

RegDwight

Your math is off. One is not over 87453547363. It is over 9000, though.

Spare Oom

thanks for the welcome @RegDwight

Mind if I ask an actual English related question?

RegDwight

16:24

This is what this chat is for.

Boob

@RegDwight Whatever, Main problem won't change

Spare Oom

I heard a slang term, that seems to have too many meanings to know how to use.

Boob

@SpareOom I kindly recommend you not to use slang terms

Spare Oom

urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cise

not a bad slang term

but it has so many meanings, how is one to understand what someone means

Oops! I should be using full sentences in this English room, shouldn't I?

RegDwight

First off, I'm not sure I have ever heard this one before.

Secondly, everything on the Urban Dictionary has like 70 meanings.

That doesn't mean jack.

The top-voted description sounds reasonable to me.

Nobody expects you not to ignore the rest.

Where did you hear this one at all?

Spare Oom

16:29

Except that wasn't the meaning which I heard used.

A teenager said something like, "I'm gonna cise me a peanut butter sandwich"

RegDwight

Sounds like a good question for the main site.

Spare Oom

I questioned the meaning and the response was "like I can't believe you don't know what that means." It seems a very locally defined word. I suspect I listen to the wrong radio station in the area.

RegDwight

Cite what you've heard, mention that Wiktionary and Merriam-Webster don't have entries on this, and that Urban Dictionary ain't of much help (as usual), and you've got yourself a nice question for the main site.

Chances are, you'll get a response from someone in that area.

Vitaly

@RegDwight If you are a native speaker and the word is very local (cannot make it to the dictionaries), how do you go about it? I doubt there are native speakers from the same area (the size of a town or a few towns) who also happen to be lexicographers on the main site

RegDwight

@Vitaly UD mentions DC, Maryland, Virginia. Doesn't sound that bad.

Vitaly

16:34

UD doesn't mention the word cise (*** a sandwich) as opposed to the word cise (hype)

Spare Oom

She said cise was related to extremes or making one happy.

RegDwight

Vitaly, what's your point? (^_^) That an audience of two and a half Russians is somehow better than an audience of 8000 enthusiasts plus the entirety of the googling humanity?

Vitaly

Haha.

Yeah well, @SpareOom it would make a reasonable question on the main site

Let's see how it goes after you post it

Spare Oom

I'm not willing to listen to the radio station which seems to have invented the word, but that may be the way to hear the word in more context, except that it has too many contexts.

Okie-dokie.

RegDwight

Very good. I mean, we already have not answered your question. The worst thing that can happen now is that someone else doesn't answer it, either.

Vitaly

16:38

Oh and I just saw your new message, it somehow didn't say there were any new blips

I am not familiar with yer yer either

Spare Oom

That one is English, as opposed to American.

Vitaly

So that makes two questions, I suppose, unless you already figured out how it's used in BrE

british-english

RegDwight

Meanwhile elsewhere:

4

Q: Find Possible Word Rectangles

Johnny is trying to create crossword puzzles, but he is having difficulty making words match each other. He has come up with several simple word rectangles: that is, groups of words that form a rectangle where all horizontal and vertical paths form a word. //2x2 PA AM //2x3 GOB ORE //3x3 BA...

code-golf crossword

Skeptical questions on Evolution

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…