English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@RegDwigнt "Ein Anal-Phabet gehört zur Gruppe der Phabete, also ein Satz eindeutig definierter Zeichen zur Verschriftlichung menschlicher Äußerungen, in diesem Falle jedoch nicht oraler Lautäußerungen, sondern mit jener, der zweiten möglichen Lautquelle, dem Anus."

@RegDwigнt Your wife would never let you.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist verbal diarrhea so typical of Germans, especially those trying to be funny.

Robusto

I think pi to 39 decimal places is something like enough to calculate the circumference of the universe to the width of a hydrogen atom.

tchrist

Germans logorrhoeic? Say it isn’t so!

RegDwigнt

@Robusto hey cool. TIL I almost have that skill!

I am more powerful than I thinked.

Robusto

12:07 PM

Well, get calculating.

RegDwigнt

Feb 25 '11 at 11:53, by RegDwight

"It is currently estimated to be up to deep. The trench is about long but has a mean width of only."

tchrist

“Which ƒ-stop falls exactly halfway between ƒ/1 and ƒ/2?”

RegDwigнt

s/trench/universe/

Robusto

@tchrist None.

RegDwigнt

I used to be the main f-press, all steam and whistles heading west.

But this f don't stop, this f don't stop, this f don't stop there anymore.

Robusto

12:08 PM

Isn't ƒ/1.4 the only stop between those two?

RegDwigнt

Depends on the ratio of ir to nal.

tchrist

ƒ/1.4142135623730950488016887242096980785696718753769480731766797379907324784621‌070388503875343276415727350138462309122970249248360558507372126441214970999358314‌132226659275055927557999505011527820605714701095599716059702745345968620147285174‌186408891986095523292304843087143214508397626036279952514079896872533965463318088‌296406206152583523950547457502877599617298355752203375318570113543746034084988471‌⋯

RegDwigнt

Yep, that's Tanya being an idiot.

The root of all two.

tchrist

1.414 is a half-double.

RegDwigнt

Also, DIN A4.

tchrist

12:10 PM

Nobody need remember what a half-triple is.

RegDwigнt

Half- and tri- in one word reminds me of the beautiful German construction Doppelhaushälfte.

Robusto

@tchrist That looks like the ratio of the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle formed from a corner-bisected square to one of the sides.

RegDwigнt

Two doublehousehalves.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt No Russian duplexes in chat.

tchrist

We call that a . . . fmh.

Duplex.

Robusto

12:12 PM

jinx

Also, anticlimax.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Where’s the tri- part?

RegDwigнt

I said "reminds me of". I didn't say "copies exactly".

From time to time you have to read unbetween the lines.

tchrist

I think they only say duplex of low-end homes. High-end homes become shared-wall somethings.

Undie tweens?

Robusto

No. "Shared-wall" is a marketing euphemism.

tchrist

Tween undies?

@Robusto I did say they were high.

RegDwigнt

12:14 PM

But yeah, it's easy to by-analogy-have Dreifachhausdrittel, Vierfachhausviertel, and so on. Try pulling that off with your pathetic duplex. Muwahahahaha.

tchrist

I can count in Latin just fine, thank you very much.

Robusto

Duplex, triplex, quadraplex, etc.

tchrist

Nor am I alone, apparently.

Robusto

Easier and better than German.

Above triplex we usually just say "condominium."

tchrist

However, the world gets weird after that.

@Robusto A condominium is a good thing not to leave.

RegDwigнt

12:15 PM

@Robusto also, shared wall is different. In lots of streets in Europe, especially old streets from the 19th, 18th, 17th... centuries, all houses share walls. But those are no doublehousehalves. Those are individual houses.

tchrist

For some reason, they wedged pentaplex between quadruplex and hexaplex.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Things are different in Europe. So what? You have a shared wall with Greece, and how is that doing for you?

RegDwigнt

I never shared anything with Greece. They wish.

That's their whole problem now.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt And there lies the problem.

tchrist

We were just discussing Russia/Putin liberating Greece.

It’s not a long ways away.

The Sacred Orthodoxy must be rescued.

@Cerberus Pentaplex bothers me.

RegDwigнt

12:18 PM

@Robusto yes, which might be related to my saying "that's the whole problem".

They sure want me to share, but I am too busy looking up how to properly spell Φακ οφφ.

tchrist

φunny guy.

RegDwigнt

The only wall us communists ever shared was with capitalists. And look what came out of that.

Never again!

tchrist

Communal wall.

RegDwigнt

Now it's doublehousehalves with Crimea all the way. All the way.

tchrist

The Persistence of Vision, by John Varley.

@RegDwigнt The Land of Crime.

RegDwigнt

12:20 PM

Crimea and Putinment.

tchrist

Crimea: A tale told of rivers and fury, signifying Sudetenland.

Robusto

A tale told by a mythological bureaucrat, signifying Nothung.

Gram (mythology)

In Norse mythology, Gram, (Old Norse Gramr, meaning Wrath) is the name of the sword that Sigurd used to kill the dragon Fafnir. == Description == Gram was forged by Volund; Sigmund received it in the hall of the Völsung after pulling it out of the tree Barnstokkr where Odin placed it. The sword was destroyed in battle when Sigmund struck the spear of an enemy dressed in a black hooded cloak. Before he died, Sigmund instructed his wife to keep the pieces so that it might be reforged for their unborn son (Sigurd). The sword was eventually reforged by Regin for Sigurd's use. After it was reforged...

tchrist

Nuremberg can fix that Nothung problem.

Robusto

Before someone makes a joke of the name.

Too late.

tchrist

Or were they shot? I think they were hung.

I guess being slowly gassed was never seriously considered.

Robusto

12:24 PM

Hung.

Except Göring. He suicided.

tchrist

Was allowed to.

Or something like that.

RegDwigнt

Nothung Hill.

tchrist

Seal them up in a room without doors nor windows suffused with non-lethal levels of mustard gas and nothing else but padded walls. Wait a few days. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Please don’t tell George Martin.

RegDwigнt

> Gram was forged by Volund

Lies. It was forged by French Revolutionists.

Perhaps they misspelled Voltaire.

tchrist

Stupid crackers.

RegDwigнt

12:30 PM

> Präzise formuliert: Ein Gramm destilliertes Wasser nimmt bei einer Temperatur von 3,98 °C und einem Luftdruck von 101,325 kPa das Volumen eines Kubikzentimeters bzw. eines Milliliters ein. Seit 1889 ist der tausendste Teil des Urkilogramms, welches in Paris aufbewahrt wird, als ein Gramm festgelegt.

See. Präzise formuliert. Eat that, Volund.

> Voland is Satan in the disguise of a "foreign professor" who is "in Moscow to present a performance of 'black magic' and then expose its machinations". This exposure never occurs; Voland instead exposes the greed and bourgeois behaviour of the spectators themselves.

tchrist

Your funnynumbers reminded me of how our L10N-module germanauthor is presenting a talk on his work in Granada at YAPC::EU this September. I’m thinking of going. It’s his first paper/talk given in English instead of German or Russian, so he's a bit nervous.

He has a clever trick for making the numbers localize to commas instead of dots.

RegDwigнt

Хи вил ток виз а сик акцент, ю синк?

tchrist

Is clever trick tautological?

RegDwigнt

Not at all.

tchrist

I guess there are stupid human tricks.

RegDwigнt

12:33 PM

Most tricks are actually dumb.

Dumb Trick

►

tchrist

@RegDwigнt I said or, not and.

I wonder which counties offer non-English versions of their websites that aren’t in Spanish?

Maybe a Louisiana parish in French? No money in that.

RegDwigнt

Pennsylvania Dutch.

Trannsylvania Transexual.

tchrist

Too many midnight movies.

RegDwigнt

Michael Rennie was ill.

tchrist

census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language

RegDwigнt

12:41 PM

BTW, as I'm sure you know, apart from SEAT Barcelona also has Mr Hankey. Before your non-white state stole it.

tchrist

Ok, the mapper tool is ok.

RegDwigнt

tchrist

Poopy.

RegDwigнt

No, Tio.

Catalunyans are... special...

tchrist

Holland or Catalunya?

Whichever has the nativity shitter.

RegDwigнt

12:43 PM

tchrist

That’s almost more fun than the KKK kitsch you can get of the hermanedades sevillanas.

RegDwigнt

tema.livejournal.com/1854176.html

You have to feed sweets to the log, every day. If you've been naughty not nice, the log might not eat the sweet that day.

tchrist

Ok, the census map works in Safari but not Chrome. I wonder why.

RegDwigнt

On Christmas Eve, you have to give the log some thrashing, exclaiming "shit, log, shit". Then the log shits sweets.

tchrist

When in Rome...

Oh damn it they weren't kidding about needing French Creole in Florida.

RegDwigнt

12:47 PM

@tchrist that doesn't make census to you?

tchrist

We have native French speakers but no native French Creole speakers. Is that even a written language?

RegDwigнt

Whatcha mean the French Creole.

tchrist

Well, I guess that's why you ship your msgcats off to a translation company.

So far, we haven't had to.

RegDwigнt

Anyone is free to make up a French Creole of their own. That's what Creole means.

tchrist

ug

RegDwigнt

12:48 PM

In the Carribbean, every other island has a French Creole of its own.

tchrist

This is the Merkan Gubs, they aren’t subtle.

@RegDwigнt I never could catch anything of what they were saying.

RegDwigнt

Feb 18 '11 at 20:16, by RegDwight

If I was talking French like my neighbor does, my teacher would have thwacked me so hard, you wouldn't be talking to me right now.

tchrist

Kaybecker you can kinda get without breaking your brain. Creole and Cajun, forget it.

French pigeons.

RegDwigнt

The only people who care about French are French teachers abroad. You go to a native speaker, you don't understand a word because that's not remotely the same language as any language you can possibly learn at any school anywhere.

tchrist

Isn’t that something?

My buddy who did his PhD à Lyon discovered that the hard way.

RegDwigнt

12:51 PM

I'm not even talking about dialects or anything. Forget Lorraine, forget Bretagne, just your usual Parisian run-of-the-mill stuff.

Completely not what you'd get anything above an F for back at school.

tchrist

He thought he knew French fairly well. And he did. We used to speak it when we didn’t want Certain People listening in. But trendy university brat French was something else again.

RegDwigнt

Well, Lyon is a special case because it's mostly 110% Armenians, and then some −10% French.

tchrist

I’m looking at the language tool’s placement of Russian speakers in the U.S. and noticing a strange concentration in Minneapolis–StPaul and Denver–Boulder. Well, we won’t have to do them.

RegDwigнt

Mr St Paul is very popular with Russians. Together with his pal Mr St Peter.

And Denver, le dernier dinosaur, was a very popular TV series in Russia.

tchrist

Funny name for a singer.

RegDwigнt

12:56 PM

Jan 18 '13 at 11:14, by RegDwighт

►

DinosaurE, my bad.

tchrist

dafuck

RegDwigнt

Whachamean, I've posted it @ you before.

Right very there, in fact.

Jan 18 '13 at 11:14, by RegDwighт

@tchrist Denver, le dernier dinosaur !

tchrist

@RegDwigнt And not even fem. Sigh.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist yeah, el terrorista con el agua.

tchrist

They’re pronouncing the final r in Denver. How unFrench.

RegDwigнt

12:58 PM

Oh, rien de rien, oh, je ne regrettE rien.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Ah, but terrorista is actually masculine while agua is actually feminine — even though both take el.

RegDwigнt

In French they will pronounce everything as long as it suits them.

@tchrist exactly my point.

Two examples of two different kinds.

And so quickly, too. You should be most very impressed with my mad skillz.

tchrist

Well, you’ve been traduced.

RegDwigнt

As long as there's a salary for that

By the way, I only remember exactly one thing from that show:

in one episode, the protagonists, four blokes and the dino, somehow participate in some sort of Jeopardy.

And the last question is about some shit in America, and nobody knows the answer to it.

And the dino is basically Groot so all it can say is "I am Denver".

Luckily enough, "Denver" is the answer sought in that last round.

So they win.

Stellar writing right there, take notice Hollywood.

And that was the first time I learned there was a city named Denver in the US. It was also the last time I heard of it in the next 25 years.

tchrist

It is strange, but Boulder makes the news much more often than Denver.

> To supreme a citrus fruit is to remove the skin, pith, membranes, and seeds, and to separate its segments.

TIL

RegDwigнt

1:03 PM

The only thing I've ever heard about Boulder was that excellent game for the original Game Boy.

I love-love-loved it.

That is all I know about Boulder to this day.

tchrist

I know Balderdash, and that’s not it.

If you subscribe to "science" news feeds, Boulder pops up constantly.

RegDwigнt

Yeah so does the MIT and so what, what have they ever done for me.

I'd rather subscribe to Putin's tweets.

tchrist

Well, space is here.

And ocean.

And sky.

Those aren’t at MIT.

RegDwigнt

Yeah, and they participated in the making of exactly none of these things.

BRB subscribing @God #BreakingNews

To see everything that's wrong with science, twitter, facebook, the world, and people, go check IFuckingLoveScience.

Warning: will result in sudden death by killing yourself.

"Scientists have discovered atoms in eggs" 697091521125259539267 LIKES

I fucking love science!

tchrist

Must. Not.

Robusto

1:16 PM

@tchrist Ocean? In Boulder?

RegDwigнt

Meanwhile Google labels black people as gorillas. Fully automatically. Now KKK will have to go out of business.

Hooray for Artificial Intelligence! Hooray for progress!

Robusto

MIT has more ocean than Boulder.

RegDwigнt

> Google Photos, y'all fucked up. My friend's not a gorilla.

> We've got a fix rolling out into prod now; ETA of a few hours for it to be fully live.

Somewhere in there is a joke about the fix being a s/gorilla/African-American/g.

We'll be watching closely.

Robusto

But this guy is black!

Blacker than any people.

RegDwigнt

It is also less Unamerican than most Americans.

Coincidence? I think not!

Robusto

1:21 PM

What kind of editor would not see the mistake in that question? And would actually bet money that there wasn't one? — Robusto 28 secs ago

RegDwigнt

> skin tones and lighting, etc. We used to have a problem with people (of all races) being tagged as dogs, for similar reasons.

Ah, Google. You brighten up my days.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

And hello!

RegDwigнt

@Robusto certainly you mean "what kind of editor are, would not see, the mistake".

tchrist

@Robusto blue

Robusto

@tchrist Could just be the lighting.

@RegDwigнt I mean what, I said and I, stand, by it.

RegDwigнt

1:29 PM

When, the night, has come, and, the land, is dark.

Robusto

You, spoil Donkey, Kong.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto so what you're saying is, because of the skin tones and lighting, it must be labeled "dog". Got it. Getting down to work now. ETA of a few hours for it to be fully live.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt It could be, a cat.

RegDwigнt

That was probably the first line of code they wrote.

if (1) "it could be a cat"

Then they bloatwared from there.

Robusto

> All cats are black in the dark.

RegDwigнt

1:32 PM

Especially in Jeannes Dark.

Robusto

Porfirio Rubirosa

Porfirio Rubirosa Ariza (January 22, 1909 – July 5, 1965) was a Dominican diplomat, racing car driver and polo player. He was an adherent of the dictator Rafael Trujillo, and was also rumored to be a political assassin under his regime. Rubirosa made his mark as an international playboy for his jet setting lifestyle and his legendary sexual prowess with women. Among his spouses were two of the richest women in the world. == Early life == Porfirio Rubirosa was born in San Francisco de Macorís, Dominican Republic, the third and youngest child of an upper middle-class family. His parents were Pedro...

My imagination, or does he look like a young Joe Biden?

RegDwigнt

Malagueña Rubirosa.

tchrist

flavedo, albedo, peduncle

RegDwigнt

@Robusto I don't know what a young Joe Biden looks like, or what advantages in life I would gain by obtaining such knowledge.

tchrist

The last one will get you arrested.

RegDwigнt

1:34 PM

So a Pedobear, a Peduncle, and a Pope walk into a bar.

tchrist

I thought popes took definite articles, not indefinite ones.

RegDwigнt

Have you checked how many Popes there's been?

tchrist

Well, we are in a queer situation of having two of them.

And not just at Avignon.

RegDwigнt

Even if you only count the women, there were over 200 of them!

Robusto

@tchrist That's a lot of papal bull.

tchrist

1:36 PM

131pp

Robusto

pp is the abbreviated plural of pope?

131 papas.

tchrist

Misericordiae Vultus

RegDwigнt

Habemus papaq!

Papakha

Papakha (Armenian: փափախ; Azerbaijani: papaq; Georgian: ფაფახი [pʰapʰaxi]; Russian: папа́ха; IPA: [pɐˈpaxə]), also known as astrakhan hat in English, is a wool hat worn by men throughout the Caucasus. The word papakha is of Azeri Turkic origin. There are two Russian papakhas. The first is the papaha, and is a high fur hat, usually made of karakul sheep skin. It has the general appearance of a cylinder with one open side, and is set upon the head in such a way as to have the brim touch the temples. Some of them have ear flaps which can fold up when not in use. The other Russian papakha is called...

tchrist

Oh, it was an encyclical not a bull.

RegDwigнt

tchrist

1:38 PM

So wrong.

RegDwigнt

I don't know what's funnier, a Sovietchik camoing as an Azeri, or a US President camoing as a Russki.

Are we completely sure he was not a Russian?

tchrist

Which one?

RegDwigнt

The Geraldiy Fordov one.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt The 500 Hats of Gerald Ford, by Dr. Seuss.

tchrist

You know, I think Papa Paco may have published Laudato Si’ in English not Latin.

Oh, stupid bowser.

RegDwigнt

1:41 PM

tchrist

I bet they emitted N simultaneous versions in N languages. I wonder which ones.

RegDwigнt

Latin, Pig Latin, and Farsi.

Certainly not English, certainly not.

tchrist

I’ve found EN, ES, IT, FR so far.

RegDwigнt

Lies, lies, more lies, and Vatican.

tchrist

And PT.

After which my reading ability drops like a roc.

Carrying an elephant.

Robusto

1:46 PM

A baroque idea if ever there was one.

tchrist

Bah, you can't poke at their website for two-letter language codes, they’ve used the first two letters from the English-language version of the word, so SP not ES.

GE not DE.

PO not PT.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist backwards Albanian?

tchrist

Since when does the Holy See think in English?

No Russian.

RegDwigнt

And not a single Russian fuck was given.

Вати—что??

tchrist

Arabo - Francese - Inglese - Italiano - Polacco - Portoghese - Spagnolo - Tedesco