@Cerberus Gird your loins and cinch your pantaloons but do not take the buckle through the airport security scanner qua MRI.

@shingu Did you look up the words in a dictionary?

Hi pal @Arrowfar how are you?

Heat wave in Pakistan, yeah?

@Arrowfar sure

hello

Raining here today, about 60° F or 15° C.

Not at all.

You may have noticed that I have stopped going there.

This is the only chat I frequent.

I tried JS chat, but it was an unpleasant experience.

Good plan pal :-)

JavaScript.

Go where you feel comfortable.

She removed me from the room owners list just as a show fo authority a few months back.

I saw that >8(

I was thinking of returning until I saw that...

It's a big tent.

...Damkerng seems nice enough though.

All kinds come in here and talk about all kinds of things.

She kinda reminds me of kit...

...depending on her mood.

Let it go pal

the internet is a big place :-)

What's an egghead?

@crl A smart person. An intellectual.

@Arrowfar Don't just "guess," actions speak loader than words...if they want their own little private world let them have it.

ah ok

Unclear what he's asking.

:-)

live & let live

@Robusto So the good thing is that, rationally, if all you care about is money, then you can ignore gays and drug users and let them do their thing. Tolerance.

By the way, some American states have overtaken Holland in pot legality, so congratulations! Things are going fast on your side of the pond.

Hey, I didn't know we could silence people here! That's kind of nice, although I don't think I will ever use it, except in case of spammers.

I did mean that those states that didn't have gay marriage (until yesterday) would eventually buckle under/to the trend of gay marriage.

@tchrist Pantaloon is a funny word; in English I know it only from Vance.

In Dutch, the French word pantalon is non-U.

A pentaloon is a pair of divers and three chicks.

Heh, divers as in loons?

Aye.

@shingu Okay, in that example it means "are the basis of, are the reason behind".

@Cerberus Well, that's like saying the good thing is that the robber just wants to kill you, not steal your stamp collection.

@Robusto It is rather the other way around: he just wants to steal your stamp collection, not kill you (no money in that).

Well, but the point I'm making is that what we're seeing may be a false spring.

Sure, be happy about this, but don't believe the battle is won, or even over.

Not over.

But we have seen many partial victories.

The elephant in the room is climate change. Big-money interests are lined up on the wrong side of that one, and the stakes are way higher than any two people's individual happiness.

The Washington Post ran an article yesterday about scientists saying we're entering into the 6th mass extinction event, which is due to human beings, and the world's ecology could essentially collapse within three human lifetimes. Against that, pot-smoking and gay marriage seem like rounding errors on balance.

Sorry if I sound depressed, but this news I find very depressing.

Do animals count as "someone" ?

The more so because I don't see how anything can be done to forestall it.

@ImranBughio Are you asking if they have personalities, or if the word someone usually can refer to an animal as well as a human being?

@Robusto As a word.

That's not a distinction. It's already a word, no matter how you use it.

I mean as a word does it represents animals apart from humans?

If you hear the word someone it almost certainly refers to a human being. Some people will use it fancifully to refer to a pet or other animal, but even then it will be ascribing human characteristics or personality traits to the animal.

For example, if the pet dog comes begging for food, the owner might say, "Well, looks like someone is hungry."

But if you said, "Someone came to the door today," nobody would think you were talking about an animal.

Makes sense, but I was having trouble finding it's proper association hence should I post this on main thread so that others can know as well? Or it's common sense to most of the peoples.

So we have to provide explicit context when using the word "someone" for animals.

Common sense to most people, but it's not necessarily a bad question. Might be better for ELL.

@ImranBughio Yes. And as I said, it's a fanciful usage in that case.

@Robusto Ok, Thanks.

@Robusto Would you like answering it or should I extract an answer from our conversation on my own?

@ImranBughio Just did.

@Robusto Great

Robusto is right.

@Robusto That's right, climate change is a different animal.

Someone has financial interests lined up against it, as you said.

But even there, there is some progress.

> A court in The Hague has ordered the Dutch government to cut its emissions by at least 25% within five years, in a landmark ruling expected to cause ripples around the world.

theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/26/…

My friend's father was one of the judges.

> Alexis Tsipras: They will not succeed. The very opposite will occur: the Greek people will stand firm with even greater willfulness.

Funny considering the circumstances.

> Vond tien jaar geleden nog slechts 14 procent van de evangelicals dat homo's moeten kunnen trouwen, inmiddels is dat 27 procent.

"Ten years ago, 14% of American evangelicals supported gay marriage; now it is 27%."

@Cerberus But they still don't believe in climate change. And 27% is pathetic anyway.

But progress is quick.

Perhaps they are slower about climate change, but most of the world is also progressing in that area.