ELL's Cabin

Damkerng T.

12:00

@Mark Thank you for the information, but I don't know if I should agree with it. Please clarify a bit about this "and as a result [clause]" being a subordinate clause because at the moment I can't see how it can be one. It could at best be a set off phrase, imho. Also, I can't make myself read "This is done by using a database of patients and the factors which have any significance are obtained". "This is done by using X and Y" is possible, but "this is done by using X and Y which have Z are obtained" as a single clause? What do you think? — Damkerng T. 8 secs ago

So I asked.

M.A.Ramezani

Oh, he's gonna die trying to answer back.

Damkerng T.

I don't know Mark, but I assumed that English is his first language.

M.A.Ramezani

Me too.

I don't have data available, but almost all of the (new) ELL native speakers tend to feel hot and get 2k-3k rep in the first month or so.

Damkerng T.

And then?

M.A.Ramezani

Yay! Yesterday I've given the 2000th upvote on chem.SE

Damkerng T.

12:07

Or that's all you're going to assert. :-)

M.A.Ramezani

@DamkerngT. Then they don't feel as hot.

Damkerng T.

Ahh... I see.

Anonymous

Feel hot?

Damkerng T.

Not some other kind of hot, probably. :D

M.A.Ramezani

Speaking of natives... Hullo @snailboat!

Anonymous

12:08

Hello!

Damkerng T.

Good morning!

M.A.Ramezani

(Actually, feel hot is a humorous idiom in Turkish meaning "to get all hyper and active")

It's derived from when you eat honey. What happens when you eat honey?

Anonymous

I don't know. Never happened

M.A.Ramezani

Your body warms up and you feel energy boiling in and out in you, trying to get out somehow.

Damkerng T.

I got a reply.

In regards to your first point, just think of the subordinate phrase as something like: This is done by using a database of patients and, due to our work in the field, the factors which have any significance are obtained". The phrase "due to our work in the field" is a much more definite subordinate clause, and it's used in the same way. With your second point, it would benefit from a comma, but it still makes sense without. Here's another sentence with the same grammar: "The party was completed with the help of Josh and all the guests who were hungry were fed". — Mark 6 mins ago

Should I laugh or cry or what?

M.A.Ramezani

12:10

BTW @Dam I haven't read that question good enough yet XD

@DamkerngT. Self-destruct.

Anonymous

Uh oh. I'm going to have to read the whole discussion to make a determination about the appropriate levels of laughter and/or crying

Damkerng T.

"due to something" is a clause.

Or so someone (else, not me) says.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. To call it a clause, you'd want to posit that a verb has been ellipted.

Anonymous

> ~~Being~~ due to ...

M.A.Ramezani

It's considered a clause in Persian, but I don't think it's a clause in English, unless it gets a verb.

Damkerng T.

12:12

This is the first comment I got:

Hi @Damkerng, actually it's okay to put the comma after the word "and", because that turns the phrase "as a result" into the subordinate clause and "this is done by using a database of patients and the factors which have any significance are obtained" into the main clause. You can inject a subordinate clause into the middle of a main clause according to: goffs.herts.sch.uk/documents/literacy/literacy_skillswise/… — Mark 33 mins ago

Anonymous

Erm.

Damkerng T.

If I read it correctly, he says that "this is done by using a database of patients and the factors which have any significance are obtained" is the main clause. It's a clause. It's only a single clause. One clause. Main clause.

Anonymous

Okay, now that I've read the discussion, my conclusion is that the commenter doesn't know what a clause is

M.A.Ramezani

@snail readies her mighty hammer (aka comments)

Anonymous

I have no hammer

Anonymous

12:13

I just say stuff sometimes.

Anonymous

Today I will pass on commenting :-)

M.A.Ramezani

Meh. Don't care. Mark'll not get blown up this time.

Explosive hammer.

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani That doesn't make any sense.

M.A.Ramezani

20 mins ago, by M.A.Ramezani

@DamkerngT. It surprises me that you didn't take this into consideration.

Anonymous

You can't consider an English string a type of constituent in Persian.

M.A.Ramezani

12:15

@snailboat Something really similar exists in Persian.

Anonymous

So what are the grammatical criteria you use to label it as a clause or not a clause?

M.A.Ramezani

In fact, it literally translates to due to blah blah blah.

I guess the string are pretty much the same this time.

Anonymous

You haven't made it make sense yet.

Damkerng T.

I will let someone else comment on Mark's ideas.

M.A.Ramezani

Well, that might be because Persian clause is highly different from English clause.

Anonymous

12:16

How so?

M.A.Ramezani

There must be a "core" and a "dependent".

Damkerng T.

> British software developer, able to speak basic French.

Ahh

M.A.Ramezani

The core is a full sentence.

Damkerng T.

Maybe French got involved.

M.A.Ramezani

@DamkerngT. Or maybe someone forgot their high school literature lessons. :} (No offense directed at Mark)

Anonymous

12:18

@M.A.Ramezani English speakers generally are never taught what a clause is.

M.A.Ramezani

O.O

Really?

Anonymous

English speakers are taught next to zero grammar

M.A.Ramezani

English speaking countries are heavens then.

Damkerng T.

But I think they are going to put grammar/English tests in something equivalent to SAT in the UK soon.

M.A.Ramezani

All of this knowledge of Persian grammar I boast about is learned at school.

Anonymous

12:20

@DamkerngT. Yeah, but I wouldn't take that very seriously

Anonymous

Progress toward some education about grammar is a good thing (in my mind), but

Araucaria

@snailboat, @DamkerngT. I feel a bit sorry for Mark there. A little 'knowledge' is a dangerous thing. He is, quite rightly, recognising that as a result is doing the same kind of job as as a result of our being late which is doing a similar job to because we were late. These phrases are all preposition phrases functioning as an adjunct in another clause. However, because we didn't recognise that these "as" and "because" type words were the same types of words ...

M.A.Ramezani

@Araucaria You didn't ping me.

That means I shouldn't know you're feeling sorry for Mark.

And that means I shouldn't feel sorry for him.

And that means...Oh, I mean hullo!

Anonymous

Well, we already discussed the proposed tests last year, so I don't need to rehash

Damkerng T.

I'd argue that even because of our being late is not really a clause, just a phrase, but you would know better than me.

Araucaria

12:22

... we gave the different types of phrases different names. So those types of preposition phrases which included whole clauses were called "subordinate clauses" even though they were preposition phrases, which had clauses embedded. So Mark is quite justifiably, in one way, extending this label to all preposition phrases functioning as adjunct. That's one reason why the "preposition/conjunction/adverb" categories so badly needed an onerhaul, imo.

M.A.Ramezani

Onerhaul?

Googling

Anonymous

Overhaul

Anonymous

I read it twice and didn't even see the typo :-)

M.A.Ramezani

Hehe...But what does onerhaul mean? 1820 results:

google.com/…

Damkerng T.

LOL

Anonymous

12:25

@M.A.Ramezani When I was young, the "grammar" we were taught in school were a set of prescriptions like "Don't put and at the beginning of a sentence" and "Say different from, not different than" and "Don't end a sentence with a preposition"

M.A.Ramezani

Oh, so I take that as we didn't study alphabet though

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani I don't understand this message

M.A.Ramezani

That's because my mind isn't understood.

Damkerng T.

@Araucaria That makes me think of Y-grammar. :-)

M.A.Ramezani

But nevermind. That means you're a normal human @snailboat!

Or rather a normal boat.

But I dunno what boats' minds are supposed to be like.

Damkerng T.

12:28

Let's simplify the terminology of Y-grammar and call everything a "thing". The basic idea of Y-grammar is a "thing" is connected to another "thing". It's a thing connected to a thing connected to a thing. And we got a new thing from those things. :-)

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani I don't know either. Probably heavily disordered ;-)

Anonymous

My mind is full of jumbled thinking, so I spend all day trying to make sense out of stuff.

M.A.Ramezani

My RAM is full now also.

Damkerng T.

I'm watching Her.

M.A.Ramezani

Trying to digest what chemicool guys have said in this question:

6

Q: Why do cyclic ethers have higher boiling points than their acyclic isomers?

TL;DR version is the question title. Some context and data follow. I was creating an assignment for my organic chemistry students in which they would need to draw as many isomers as they could from a simple formula, for example $\ce{C3H6O}$ (which fits 7 structures - 9 if you count minor enol ta...

Anonymous

12:29

@DamkerngT. I don't think Araucaria said that it was a clause

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani Wow! Chemistry.SE is snazzy now!

Damkerng T.

@snailboat No. Me either. But the word "justifiable" makes me think of Y-grammar.

Araucaria

@DamkerngT. So, what Mark is trying to, (but perhaps) failing to, say is that the commas could come on either side of "as a result" because it's a prepositional adjunct interrupting the second co-ordinand in the same way that we could put them round "because the system weeds out irrelevant results" if we put that in instead of the as preposition phrase.

M.A.Ramezani

@DamkerngT. I think I've heard it's soundtrack. They say it's an awesome movie. It might EVEN make robots cry or what.

@snailboat Haha! That shows what a designer Kurtis is.

Damkerng T.

@Araucaria If that's the case, I think it's quite uncommon to connect two long clauses with and (as a result) without using a comma in the academic context.

@M.A.Ramezani It's quite touching.

For some unknown reason, Scarlett Johansson's voice is growing on me right now.

Araucaria

12:32

@DamkerngT. Yes, I agree. I reckon it's best to drop commas given a choice - unless the sentence is difficult to parse without them .. :-)

Damkerng T.

(She is the voice of the computer in the movie.)

M.A.Ramezani

Task manager alert: Old task: I'm wondering why ELL hasn't graduated yet.

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani Japanese.SE is supposedly going to graduate at some point

M.A.Ramezani

There isn't even a meta post saying we'll get graduated in a near future.

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani ELL is already slated for graduation.

Araucaria

12:33

@M.A.Ramezani Sorry, was I supposed to be pinging you?

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Yay!

Anonymous

They just haven't posted about it on meta, I think.

M.A.Ramezani

@snailboat Do you have something in your meta about it?

@Araucaria Nah...Go on!

I mean pass on.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Oh, no!

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani We're right at the 10 questions/day level that they want: area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/7526/japanese-language

Araucaria

12:34

@M.A.Ramezani Ok! :)

Anonymous

@Araucaria M.A.Ramezani is silly a lot of the time :-)

M.A.Ramezani

@snailboat Yes yes. But we've been topping 10 QPDs for a long time.

Even before I joined ELL.

Araucaria

@snailboat Me too! It's important to be silly sometimes ... :)

M.A.Ramezani

That means when @Dam was young(er).

Damkerng T.

@M.A.Ramezani True, that!

Anonymous

12:35

@M.A.Ramezani ELL started out over 10 questions/day.

Anonymous

It started out around 15/day, dropped to 10/day at its lowest, and has been gradually climbing since then

M.A.Ramezani

Woo! You guys have been sitting on duck feather for a long time!

Anonymous

I think there was always a high demand for an ELL site on Stack Exchange, since before the site even began

M.A.Ramezani

Still doesn't change the point, but emphasizes it.

Anonymous

Probably in part due to English.SE failing to meet the needs of learners

Araucaria

12:36

@DamkerngT. What's Y-grammar?

M.A.Ramezani

Hmm... Maybe the SE gods aren't that satisfied with our getting rid of junk thingy.

@Araucaria Sth like Y-aromaticity.

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani No, it's fine. ELL is already slated for graduation.

M.A.Ramezani

I dunno what both are.

Damkerng T.

@Araucaria A silly thing came up when CodeSwitcher and I were the only guys in the room. :-)

Araucaria

@DamkerngT. Ah I see (said the blind man)

Damkerng T.

12:37

The name Y-grammar was CodeSwitcher's idea.

The idea should be clear if you read the name aloud.

M.A.Ramezani

@Araucaria You're starting to understand me.

That scares me.

Damkerng T.

:D

M.A.Ramezani

@DamkerngT. So, it's an English Y or it's gamma?

Damkerng T.

No, it's "Y-grammar". :D

Anonymous

γ-grammar?

Anonymous

12:38

Described in the γ grimoire

Araucaria

@snailboat Y-not?

M.A.Ramezani

Maybe it's a slingshot.

Damkerng T.

Xactly!

Araucaria

@DamkerngT. It's a slingshot?

M.A.Ramezani

No, it's Xactly.

Whatever that is.

Damkerng T.

12:39

o_O <-- unfamiliar with this use.

Oh, you mean the shape. :D

M.A.Ramezani

@DamkerngT. I'm lost. Which use?

Oh!

Anonymous

I've been lost for a while now :-)

M.A.Ramezani

How did we suddenly get to 30MPMs?

(Message Per Minute)

Anonymous

My friend is trying to convince me to cook with fish sauce

agent5566

@M.A.Ramezani looks like you all drink much coffee

Anonymous

12:41

@agent5566 Not me. I drink too much tea.

M.A.Ramezani

@agent5566 NO COFFEES IN IRAN!

@snailboat America and tea?

Damkerng T.

Hmm... come to think of it, I could remember that day we came up with Y-grammar incorrectly, I think it was CoolHandLouis instead.

M.A.Ramezani

Weird combination.

Araucaria

@snailboat Why not cook with fish sauce?

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani Americans consume a pretty large quantity of tea.

Damkerng T.

12:42

@snailboat Fish sauce the salty kind?

Anonymous

Yes, the salty kind!

M.A.Ramezani

So, Americans are weird. Didn't know tea was this global!

Anonymous

Here, hold on, I'll link to the recipe

M.A.Ramezani

Ah, Cod liver oil.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Oh, try it with fried chicken. Very delicious.

Araucaria

12:43

@M.A.Ramezani @snailboat We drink about 185,000,000 cups of tea a day here in blighty

M.A.Ramezani

We sell its pills in our pharmacy.

Anonymous

rachelcooksthai.com/fried-eggs

Damkerng T.

Hmm... I think I'm not very good at describing the dish.

M.A.Ramezani

Rachel cooks Thai?

Poor Thai!

Damkerng T.

I mean ไก่ทอดน้ำปลา.

M.A.Ramezani

12:44

I knew you meant that - whatever it is.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I generally eat vegetarian food

M.A.Ramezani

@snailboat Oh the...!

Are those eggs?

Anonymous

I can't call myself a vegetarian because I don't 100% of the time

M.A.Ramezani

I likened them to duckling Kabab!

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Oh, that looks nice. It's one of my aunt thing. She's really good at making this dish. :-)

@M.A.Ramezani Yep.

agent5566

12:45

what's wrong with coffee in the Iran ?

to expensive ?

:)

Damkerng T.

Eh, it's wrong in Iran?

M.A.Ramezani

@agent5566 It can't be as cool as tea.

Damkerng T.

Oh!

M.A.Ramezani

I meant the other cool, not cool cool.

Anonymous

Coffee has too much caffeine for me.

M.A.Ramezani

12:46

Cool as in cool, ya know.

Anonymous

I'm fairly sensitive to caffeine, so even tea is quite a bit for me :-)

Damkerng T.

Hmm... Rachel didn't mention any lemon or lemonade.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Oh? Do tell

agent5566

i've got it, cool as ice)

Anonymous

How would you use the lemon(ade)?

M.A.Ramezani

12:47

Lemon + eggs...Hmm...

Could be delicious.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I'm not sure how many eggs Rachel used in that picture.

M.A.Ramezani

@snailboat I think they drink it.

Damkerng T.

But my aunt can make it bigger than that with just one egg. :D

Her secret is adding some lemonade before the stirring.

M.A.Ramezani

Robots have an anti-excessive sour taste mechanism.

That's no longer a secret.

Damkerng T.

Probably! :D

M.A.Ramezani

12:48

Let me ping every Thai I find on SE.

agent5566

cooking is the topic today?

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani What, do you suddenly have Thaidar?

M.A.Ramezani

Everything is the topic today.

Damkerng T.

Not much lemonade though; I think it's the right amount that is her secret.

M.A.Ramezani

@snailboat Is that yummy?

Damkerng T.

12:49

Oh, wait. I said stirring. But what I meant was Rachel's whipping.

agent5566

What do you guys think about pasta with pesto souce? I've discovered it for myself couple weeks ago

Damkerng T.

In case you want to search, the dish is called ไข่เจียวฟู.

M.A.Ramezani

BTW @Dam what do you think I meant by this message?

56 mins ago, by M.A.Ramezani

@DamkerngT. It surprises me that you didn't take this into consideration.

agent5566

pesto is delicious

Damkerng T.

@M.A.Ramezani I wasn't sure. I'm not sure now what I wasn't sure about. Perhaps I wasn't sure what this you referred to.

M.A.Ramezani

12:51

Hehe...I posted that in the wrong room.

Damkerng T.

@agent5566 Ah, it's an Italian sauce.

@M.A.Ramezani LOL

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani The colloquial word gaydar 'ability to detect gay people' is wordplay, based on the word radar, and by analogy colloquially -dar combines productively with other words to mean 'ability to detect X'

Anonymous

So if you had Thaidar, you'd have the ability to detect Thai people.

M.A.Ramezani

It was meant for @santiago, and what's going on in this meta request of mine:

5

Q: Design request - Can I please have the visited questions in a different color?

I thought I wouldn't like the new design, but what I can I say? I looove it! And I'm not gotta grow tired of it this soon. But...There's something that bothers me. I'm used to sleeping every night. (Who doesn't?!) The next day, I come and wanna check what questions I missed. I'll upvote the in...

discussion feature-request bug design

Anonymous

Words formed with -dar are generally considered nonce words

M.A.Ramezani

12:53

@snailboat Aha.

@snailboat Ok.

Yes.

Hmm.

Indeed.

Nods

What was this called again? Agazurichi?

Anonymous

@agent5566 I only recently found out that pesto has parmigiano-reggiano cheese in it

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani Aizuchi.

M.A.Ramezani

How did I end up adding a g to it?

agent5566

@snailboat yeah, and tons of sunflower oil

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani It's a mystery for the ages.

Anonymous

12:55

Good job on inventing a word that looks plausibly Japanese, though :-)

M.A.Ramezani

I'm usually really indifferent about sauce thingies.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Did you use the "fixed font" button?

Damkerng T.

Oh! Thanks!

Anonymous

"Fixed font" (which just adds four spaces to the beginning of every line) and quote markup are the only types of markup that work on multi-line messages

Anonymous

@agent5566 Ohh, I see

M.A.Ramezani

12:56

Shift
Then
Enter
Wouldn't
Fix
The
Font
Itself
.

Anonymous

I've never made pesto before

M.A.Ramezani

Oh, @Dam figured it out.

Damkerng T.

The Fixed font button is usually off screen, so I didn't think of it!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. It only appears when your message is multiple lines long

Damkerng T.

Ahh

Anonymous

12:57

So if you hit shift-enter on a blank line it should appear :-)

Damkerng T.

preparing data...

agent5566

@snailboat, i've forgotten story of your nick, are you snail fan ?

M.A.Ramezani

ftr         rtfedwgtfred

Like that.

Anonymous

@agent5566 I think snails are cute :-) I have several pet snails

agent5566

@snailboat i mean fan as lover not as cooler

Anonymous

12:58

agent5566

@snailboat and lover as "liker" not about sex

M.A.Ramezani

@snailboat Melon-climber.

Anonymous

@agent5566 Thanks for clarifying :-) You'll be pleased to know I understood you the first time

agent5566

@snailboat english..

Anonymous

That picture was my pet snail Bean eating a slice of banana

M.A.Ramezani

12:59

@snailboat He was being protective since I was in the room.

agent5566

@sna

@snailboat Bean looks good

M.A.Ramezani

Oh, then it's banana-climber.

1

Q: What is the difference between these sentences? about "might have" and "must have"

What is the difference in meaning between these sentences 1 and 2 (correct them if there is a mistake): 1 If you had studied much harder you must have passed your exam NB does this sentence make any sense in this situation: A: had you studied much harder? B: Yes, I had s...

meaning meaning-in-context difference modal-verbs perfect-constructions

I posted that so someone would answer it.

agent5566

who likes honey ?

M.A.Ramezani

I feel sleepy so my answers might be...well...

@agent5566 Bears.

Damkerng T.

AND AS A RESULT         1356
AND AS A RESULT ,       645
, AND AS A RESULT       654
, AND AS A RESULT ,     307
AND , AS A RESULT       566
AND , AS A RESULT ,     513
, AND , AS A RESULT     111
, AND , AS A RESULT ,   105

Anonymous

13:01

@M.A.Ramezani Don't you think the first one sounds a little weird?

M.A.Ramezani

@DamkerngT. Interesting.

@snailboat Both are weird...I always study hard enough.

@Dam now I'm thinking: Too bad @Dam isn't like me - someone who would've shoved those results into Mark's face.

agent5566

@M.A.Ramezani bears so annoying in Russia, disturb me out-of-doors

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani No one needs any face shoving

M.A.Ramezani

@agent5566 They think of you as honey.

Damkerng T.

@M.A.Ramezani Umm... I was just curious. :D

agent5566

13:05

@M.A.Ramezani that's what she said

M.A.Ramezani

Who?

Anonymous

@agent5566 Wow! You've already learned the final English retort, applicable in all situations!

Anonymous

Might I also suggest adding in bed to every sentence?

M.A.Ramezani

@snailboat Might I ask you what these Japanese letters mean?

Martin - マーチン, 水戸市、日本；Mito-shi, Japan

10.6k 2 22

discussion tags status-completed feature-request editing mathjax design

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani It says the same thing you can already read, but in Japanese

agent5566

13:07

@snailboat yeah, one blogger on youtube told this cliche joke

M.A.Ramezani

@Agent my question remains unanswered: WHO? (Be ready...)

@agent5566 What kinda a code joke is?

:}

Anonymous

> マーチン = Martin
> 水戸市 = Mito-shi
> 日本 = Japan

Anonymous

-shi means "city" so you could just call it Mito in English

M.A.Ramezani

、

What's this? Japanese comma?

agent5566

@M.A.Ramezani some girl in bed, as @snailboat mentioned

M.A.Ramezani

13:08

Turkish people have a response to a somewhat rude but similar line.

But that response is...Turkish.

BTW by Turkish I don't mean people in Turkey.

Anonymous

@M.A.Ramezani Yes

M.A.Ramezani

I mean people in East Azerbaijan, Iran.

agent5566

youtube.com/watch?v=aIWrFNDKQ6o @M.A.Ramezani

M.A.Ramezani

@snailboat Zooming in, it looks cool.

Damkerng T.

So... , AND AS A RESULT , 307; X AND AS A RESULT , 338; , AND AS A RESULT X 347; X AND AS A RESULT X 364. I've just tried . AND AS A RESULT, and got 353 results. So X AND AS A RESULT X (no comma) has only 11 results, out of 1922 cases.

Agree with most style guides I know.

M.A.Ramezani

13:11

Chuckles This is turning into another the world's record issue @Dam.

Damkerng T.

(Or should I say all?)

@M.A.Ramezani Hehe!

In any case, it could be different on BNC.

(Probably in is better; BNC is mainly a corpus, not just a website, though.)

M.A.Ramezani

@DamkerngT. Use under.

Damkerng T.

LOL

fahdijbeli

Hi

Damkerng T.

Hi!

M.A.Ramezani

13:18

Hullo!

Next sentence please. :}

agent5566

@fahdijbeli hi stranger!

agent5566

13:33

i'm going to drink some tea for solidarity with Iranians

Damkerng T.

:D

M.A.Ramezani

Come, but don't be scared when you see the tea mania here.

6 hours ago, by Damkerng T.

Hey, could there be a person name with all the letters in it?!

What does all the letters mean @Dam? With all the letters in one language?

Damkerng T.

Yes. I meant English in particular.

agent5566

@M.A.Ramezani in this case coffee will cure me

Damkerng T.

2

Q: Using "Contain" vs. "Include" vs. "Consist of" appropriately

I am looking for the differences between Contain, Include, and Consist of verbs; I am interested in precise using of each word in an appropriate context. Aside from their general meaning which implies something exists inside something else, can anybody please conceptualize the differences betwee...

meaning meaning-in-context word-usage word-meaning

Oh, this old question is...

hmm... can dictionaries help?

1

A: emotional sounding boards -- what does "boards" mean here?

A "sounding board" is, literally, a piece of wood that is placed behind a speaker so that the sound bounces off and out into the audience, rather than diffusing out in all directions. That is, the "board" is not a board in the sense of "committee", but rather a piece of wood. This is no doubt not...

I clicked upvote, then retracted, then read a bit, clicked upvote, then read a bit more, and retracted.

M.A.Ramezani

13:42

Just cut my finger.

Damkerng T.

I don't really know what the writer of that article used "sounding board" metaphorically for. It sounds to me like they used it to mean "echo".

or "reflect".

Spock reflects Kirk's logical side, so as Bones who reflects Kirk's human side.

M.A.Ramezani

This is interesting @Dam.

I thought I agreed with @Jay.

I mean, agreed with all of the points he made.

They were the first to cross my mind.

Then I read what you said.

So, I thought of my first internet friend.

All of this will get an underfull \hbox error in a LaTeX compiler.

Now I'm thinking.

Damkerng T.

@M.A.Ramezani Oh, no! So you meant you really cut your finger!

M.A.Ramezani

You might be correct.

@DamkerngT. Yes...I was eating and slicing, and eating watermelon slices.

Damkerng T.

I hope it's not very bad!

M.A.Ramezani

13:53

Nah. It's shallow.

Damkerng T.

Phew!

M.A.Ramezani

Damn watermelon skin was too tough.

Damkerng T.

Oh, you mean you got cut by the watermelon!

M.A.Ramezani

I was pushing the knife through, and suddenly it got released so fast.

Damkerng T.

Ahh

M.A.Ramezani

13:54

@DamkerngT. I didn't say supermelon!

Dang! I can't retract my upvote on Jay's answer. It was 8 mins ago.

Damkerng T.

It could look like a good answer until you sit down and read it.

M.A.Ramezani

@DamkerngT. Well, as I said, the things he wrote down were what crossed my mind, at first.

Damkerng T.

nods -- In any case, Spock and Bones aren't very passive. They weren't passive in the TV series, or the last decade movies. They aren't now in the current sequels of movies.

M.A.Ramezani

I never upvote without reading the answer, except always.

Damkerng T.

I clicked the upvote button myself, too!

Twice, even!

M.A.Ramezani

13:59

But I always upvote an ELL question that makes me think and not reach a conclusion in 30 seconds.

Damkerng T.

nods

M.A.Ramezani

thefreedictionary.com/sounding+board

You forgot to upvote Cookie guy's question.

Damkerng T.

Which one?

I haven't read all the questions today.

Oh, I see!

Thanks for reminding me. :-)

M.A.Ramezani

Anna Lear ♦, New York, NY

101 9

discussion quality-evaluation status-completed

Hehe, Anna used to be a zombie.

Now I'm trying to figure out if she's a girl.

Make up changes sex.

Damkerng T.

Wow, Anna's got a lot of posts in the Chemistry self-evaluation: let's get critical! question.

M.A.Ramezani

14:06

She feels responsible about the growth of chem.SE.

Maybe.

Oh @Dam have I shown you this post that makes me laugh?

Damkerng T.

?

M.A.Ramezani

13

Q: Why doesn't Stack Exchange pass the Joel Test with flying colors?

I was randomly browsing through the job offerings page on Stack Overflow Careers and noticed THIS monstrosity: How can Stack Exchange, the company created by Joel Spolsky, not pass his own test? Is it just me or is there something off about this?

discussion careers stackexchange

Specially the comments are awesome.

IMO, if a funny comment gets a lot of upvotes, it's bad, but if it gets not more than 10 upvotes, then it's GOOOOOD.

Damkerng T.

I agree with Laura♦: our testers are you lot!

Mwahaha!

:P

Damkerng T.

14:48

> "Simple English is no one's mother tongue. It has to be worked for."
--Jacques Barzun

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