V'dibarta Bam

I didn't even have time to read the questions

@Menachem אשרנו שיש לנו מדינה כזאת

4:13 AM

@Shokhet See my edit.

@IsaacMoses אמן

(Still haven't mastered mixing RTL & LTR, so no '!' there...)

4:46 AM

@Menachem Six contestants in. So far, my favorite parts are when the contestant goes on and on with a super-correct response, and the chief judge interrupts impatiently with "12 points" (full score)

5:04 AM

@IsaacMoses Meanwhile, I'm watching University Challenge interspersed with Only Connect. The two toughest shows on television.

@TRiG Sounds like fun.

@IsaacMoses Fun. Or humiliating. Depends on your perspective, really.

They're both BBC, so they're all free online.

@TRiG I definitely feel beneath humbled when I see the Tanach fluency displayed by these people.

5:24 AM

@IsaacMoses This might annoy you, so: ignorance of the minor prophets at 22:31.

(You call them something else, but I can't recall what. The Twelve?)

@TRiG Yes

Of the three minor prophets questions, the first and last were very simple. The second I had to guess, but I guessed correctly. They got only the first, and were painfully wrong on the second and third, particularly the third.

@TRiG same, except I guessed the second wrong :(

@TRiG Interesting.

@msh210 That looks a lot better. I think it's in line with the original intent of the OP....let's just hope the he doesn't complain that you took away the book he wanted written for him ;-)

5:50 AM

@Shokhet I suppose that means that there would be some subjects on topic on a potential Kabbalah site which would not be on topic here, so the site would not be entirely redundant. However, Christian Kabbalah is so minor that it's hardly worth breaking out a separate site for it. And besides, it's on topic on Christianity SE.

@TRiG That's true.

The proposal description claims that it's a "widely misunderstood" topic, which is true....but I think that SE would just spread the misunderstanding more, with the "anyone can answer" method.

You could require sources, like Skeptics does, but it's hard to do that well.....and anyways, that brings us right back to Mi Yodeya :P

Yeah. People asking about standard Kabbalah can ask here. And the tiny number of people who want to ask about the Christian variety can ask on CSE. I don't see a place for an independent site.

Double AA

@Menachem Isn't that Alex? @IsaacMoses

Shmuel Brin

6:16 AM

@DoubleAA That's why I brought it up. He just seemed to know everything

@DoubleAA 1.5 years AWOL and still top three

6:39 AM

@ShmuelBrin / all : My knowledge of Hebrew and of Tanach is poor enough that I need to clarify: The one he got wrong -- is it only because he answered with the speaker rather than the addressee? (I watched from the linked-to spot, and referring to the one he got wrong there; if he answered others wrong at other times in the video, I don't know about it.)

@IsaacMoses Where is the q/d stat shown?

NVM, it's in the list, not tiles.

The fact that the question mark in Hebrew isn't reversed always strikes me as odd.

@TRiG Me, too. Also multidigit numbers.

@msh210 I imagine phone numbers, at least, are written in right-to-left order.

But there's no reason to swap the multidigit numbers: they arose in languages written from right to left. Europe picked them up from Arabic, which got them from Hindi.

@TRiG You must also imagine invisible pink unicorns.

2

6:49 AM

@msh210 Oh dear. That is confusing.

@TRiG I don't believe that they are, IIRC

FWIW, I don't think this question deserves the close votes for the specific off-topic reason chosen -- it has to do with understanding the Torah. It is, however, based on many questionable assumptions, which is a reason to downvote. — Shokhet 2 mins ago

Awesome sequence round in Only Connect series 2 episode 3. You're shown three clues, and then have to say what the fourth clue in the sequence would be. In the picture round, there was a pink rose head glistening with moisture, then two small cats looking at each other. The team buzzed in before seeing clue three, thereby earning themselves an extra point, and announced what the fourth picture would be.

I wouldn't have got it.

(I did once see a team, not on the picture round, buzz in correctly on clue 1 to earn the full five points. That was impressive.)

@ShmuelBrin Yeah, well first place to Israel!

(Fourth picture was, of course, <rot13>oebja cncre cnpxntrf gvrq hc jvgu fgevatf</rot13>.)

@Scimonster Is that a news article, or a political party broadcast?

@TRiG News article. Why?

6:55 AM

@TRiG :-) I never would've gotten that. Especially because it should be the fifth, not the fourth, in the sequence.

Well, no, I wouldn't've anyway.

@Scimonster I can't imagine any Irish newspaper fawning over politicians like that.

@TRiG Well, Israeli news sites do. :P

@TRiG What am I looking for? That's 29 minutes long.

@msh210 It's worth it. But if you want to skip to that round, head for 14:40.

6:58 AM

@TRiG Thank you. Will do.

@msh210 And you were right, and I misremembered it. Oops.

They pronounce "zeta" with an /i/ ("ee") sound in Rightpondia? Interesting. Do they do that to "beta" and "eta" and "theta" also?

@msh210 Yup.

... How did I manage to misremember that order so badly?

@TRiG Hm. Here those all have /ej/ as in "rate", "weight", or "flay".

@TRiG Don't feel bad. You last saw it mumble ago.

rtl strikes again

7:03 AM

@msh210 I think that's more accurate to modern Greek. (Which is also, of course, a v sound.) I don't know which is more accurate to classical Greek.

@TRiG Other punctuation also, such as commas. (Occasionally when writing i do make some of those backwards.)

@msh210 Well, I last saw this show earlier tonight. I've watched a couple of other episodes, and a couple of other quiz shows, since.

@TRiG I was referring to the source data for that sequence, not the show.

@msh210 Yeah. That was mumble ago.

7:19 AM

@TRiG All the rest of you, learn from my mistake. Do not follow that link.

@TRiG On the right side of ibm.com/contact/il/he near the top of the text content is:

> טלפון: 03-9188111
פקס: 03-9188211

The words mean "telephone" and "fax" respectively, and the "03" is an area code.

@msh210 That makes my brain hurt. What happens if the number goes over the line?

@TRiG unicode.org/reports/tr9 :-)

@msh210 *wimper*

7:23 AM

@TRiG Seriously, though, how often does a phone number straddle a line break?

@msh210 In running text it might.

@msh210 (Also, Andrew Huang is awesome.)

@TRiG I suppose. I imagine the start of the number would go on line 1 and the balance on line 2. What else could they do?

@msh210 I'm now imagining someone reading aloud, coming to a phone number which spans a page break.

@TRiG What's the problem? The start of the number is on line 1, so he's going to read it right.

7:39 AM

Start at 14:30 for somewhat better biblical knowledge.

@TRiG Once I saw two clues, I knew it, too. But had you asked me the reverse -- to name the 2d, 3d, or 4th (let alone all of them) -- I'd've been completely unable to name the people.

@msh210 Well, I did seed it by telling you it was biblical.

@TRiG The one after that bible one I knew after 2 clues.

@TRiG Would've anyway, I think. Adam's age at death is well known to me.

@msh210 I had nothing to offer on the Chessmen's wall (round 3). Rugby Boy's wall coming up.

@TRiG I stopped watching after the "Q" question.

And now I've gtg. Tzt.

Q: Questions about reasons for differences in davening

7:47 AM

@msh210 I didn't have a hope on Q.

I wouldn't have got the biblical ages one either. I'd've known the name, but not the age.

@msh210 Timezone: It's just coming up to 8am, and I've been online all night. I think I've gtg too.

Meta-Man

2:25 PM

0

I don't really think that questions like this one (as understood by this comment) are really answerable without simply saying, "Some people do one thing and others do another thing." I would say that such questions shouldn't be allowed here. It seems like this would open up questions like "Why do...

discussion

Daniel

2:54 PM

@TRiG They're not

Stack Exchange

4:20 PM

Blog - Stack Exchange: Stack Exchange Gives Back 2014

Robert Cartaino on December 24, 2014

There are few things that make me more proud to be part of Stack Exchange than the outpouring of good will that comes from our communities during our “Giving Back” program. Each year we set this time aside to remember the organizations and people who need our help by offering to make a $100 donation to charity on behalf of each community moderator. It’s just a small gesture of thanks to our moderators on behalf of each community whose hard work makes this all possible.

In our sixth year of Giving Back, I started to wonder if asking Moderators to select their charities year after year might become somewhat routine and unremarkable. …

4:42 PM

@IsaacMoses oh is it Dec 25 already? :-)

@MonicaCellio SE is very machmir on tosefet yom tov.

2

... but not on tosefet Shabbat, oddly enough!

@IsaacMoses yeah, I noticed that that one was UTC. I had to queue stuff up in advance to get that hat.

4:57 PM

@MonicaCellio Wow. “He who prepares on Friday, will eat on Shabbos.” (Avodah Zara 3a)

@IsaacMoses :-) I had some questions I'd been emailed (as previously discussed), so I prepared them with some self-answers. But when I got on Saturday night I saw a couple other questions I could answer, so I haven't used all those yet. (Which is good; I felt funny about possibly posting five self-answers at once.)

And then I learned that the five answers don't all have to be on the same Saturday. Oops.

By the way, @IsaacMoses, congratulations on your leading hat collection. :-)

@MonicaCellio Thanks. :) I'm sure my sole position in the lead will be short-lived.

... or maybe not :)

5:13 PM

@IsaacMoses we'll see! I'm happy to see you as the hat leader, though @Scimonster might have something to say about it. I'm not particularly trying to compete with either of you; y'all have been fun to watch. :-) (I do plan to post from an app sometime in the next ~30 hours, but my main goal was to get this elaborate headdress thingie.)

@MonicaCellio Are you sure there's nothing out there that deserves the extra attention a bounty would bring it? :)

5:30 PM

@IsaacMoses there is, and I may well choose to deploy another one soon (to go along with my gelty one). But do I want to do that to you? :-)

@MonicaCellio As my kids will ruefully testify to, I am a firm believer that competetive games are only fun if everyone's trying to win. :)

@IsaacMoses that's true. I guess I haven't figured out if I'm playing a competitive game with you and Sci. Ok, sure -- why not? Game on. :-)

(Apropos of nothing, I've got to bounty something on MSE, if nothing else just because of all the rep hats have gotten me there as a side-effect.)

5:45 PM

Oh hey, a twofer -- I just earned Stockings and Gelt on MSE with the same bounty, because of the fuzzing of dates. I wasn't expecting that.

7:06 PM

@MonicaCellio Just did that on SO. :)

A: What halachic issues are involved in turning off a mobile phone while praying the quiet Amidah?

There've been comments and flags on the two answers posted by "rabbi" to the question about turning off a cell phone during amida. For convenience, the two answer links:

-1

In short, he should switch off the phone! No one has permission to be a mazik (damager)!!!! NO to mobile phones during tefillah!!! YOU can't daven properly knowing your phone could ring any second. You are also chancing disturbing everyone else's tefillah, mitzvah haba beavairah and the rest. Th...

-1

A: What halachic issues are involved in turning off a mobile phone while praying the quiet Amidah?

(או"ח צז) אם נשמט טליתו ממקומו יכול למשמש בו ולהחזירו, אבל אם נפל כולו אינו יכול לחזור ולהתעטף בו, דהוי הפסק. there are plenty sources that could be used to say it is ossur, however there are others that would denote heter. bottom line i think that one must switch it off, as i wrote above. its ...

I don't see how this answers the question. — Shokhet 21 hours ago

@rabbi Ok, but what halachic issues are involved with doing so? — Double AA ♦ 21 hours ago

^ (both to the first answer) @Shokhet @DoubleAA He says "No one has permission to be a mazik (damager)". With four explanation points, no less! :-) That seems to be an halachic issue. Terrible answer IMO, but an answer. No?

Then to the second answer:

You know you can edit your previous post to include this information, right? — Shokhet 13 hours ago

^ Yes, but he raises a different halachic issue in his second answer from the one he raises in his first:

> אם נשמט טליתו ממקומו יכול למשמש בו ולהחזירו, אבל אם נפל כולו אינו יכול לחזור ולהתעטף בו, דהוי הפסק

(Actually a reasonable idea IMO, though he should of course translate it. And the rest of this answer post is not good.)

So I don't see any reason to delete either answer. I'd like to see others' thoughts on this, though.

YeZ

.

@msh210 Makes sense.

@msh210 I actually skipped reading the Hebrew; oops. ....the rest of the answer reads the same as his first answer (I think)

Q: Is this an appropriate question re belief in evolotion by religious scientists?

7:23 PM

@YeZ ?

YeZ

@Scimonster Just making my presence known. Or accidentally sent a .

Meta-Man

0

I want to ask about the ethical impact of being a scientist and belief in the Torah, but I'm not sure how to keep it from being opinion-based. A member of my shul, an award-winning bio-chemist who was on the short-list to win a Nobel a couple of years ago (he was in the top 5 of scientists in th...

discussion asking-questions

7:37 PM

in The Junk Drawer, 2 mins ago, by Shokhet

@iliveunderawesomerock Cool. I really mostly only hang around SE, because there's an absolutely amazing community over by Mi Yodeya :)

in The Junk Drawer, 2 mins ago, by Scimonster

in V'dibarta Bam, 2 mins ago, by Shokhet

in The Junk Drawer, 2 mins ago, by Shokhet

@iliveunderawesomerock Cool. I really mostly only hang around SE, because there's an absolutely amazing community over by Mi Yodeya :)

@Scimonster What's with you and stacking chat messages??? :P

@Shokhet Because it's Stack Exchange!

@MonicaCellio would you like to take a look at the conversation starting here, in the Junk Drawer?

8:03 PM

@Shokhet thanks for the heads-up.

BTW, do any of the other Android-app users in here see this? Happened to me on Mi Yodeya and MSE (the latter when posting that question).

8:19 PM

I keep getting distracted by chat pings - i'm trying to retake 1st place!

YeZ

There are exactly 13 questions tagged ikarim. Coincidence?

3

I'm kind of confused about the halacha-theory tag. Is this a good fit for it or no?

10:15 PM

@Scimonster No, IMO. Halacha theory is for "meta halacha" (to borrow @msh210's wording in the revision history, or "how does halacha work?" type questions, not for questions about "what would the halacha be in a theoretical case?"