@Cerberus You can have any number of lookaround constraints active at the same point.

@Cerberus France. Yes, I mean that.

However I would've preferred "What country is Paris in?"

Texas, for $64.

hi guys

"The body of the abstract may not exceed 350 words in length." Does it mean it is okay if the abstract exceeds 350 words? Or it has to be maximum of 350 words?

Hah, yeah, I guess that's also a valid answer to the question as it is asked. It'd probably be better asked "Where is Paris?" in that case.

However that doesn't exemplify the dangling preposition.

@CoKoder It means it cannot be over that.

It's a maximum. The adverb "not" almost always negates a preceding auxiliary verb, which in this case is "may".

@Tonepoet I just want to know how strict that statement is. It seems using "may" gives some flexibility. What do you think?

I don't think it does, although technically "can not" would do just as well if not better in this circumstance.

@Tonepoet or it is common language usage of "may not" instead of "cannot", Right?

The only difference is regarding whether you have the permission or the ability. In this case, it is the same result either way.

@tchrist But will this match "regular expression"?

@Cerberus Yes.

@Tonepoet But there is no ellipsis in that.

@tchrist Why, yes, I see it.

@Cerberus The sentence lacks a prepositional object otherwise.

I tried to use a look behind yesterday for something, which would have worked, if it had not been the case that its length had to be fixed.

@Tonepoet I wouldn't say so: it's just in a different place. At any rate, there is no ellipsis: you can't supply anything to make the sentence complete.

It's also not typical of questions.

I'm going to have to search my internet history to respond to that one. I was hoping to link you a P.D.F. file when I mentioned it earlier, but it seems like the question that had my comment was deleted.

@Tonepoet Whatever you call the phaenomenon, it's just not the same thing.

@cerberus I didn't read The Short Answer: Implications for Direct Compositionality (and visa versa): Online Appendices by Pauline Jacobson beyond the first several pages but I believe it touches upon the subject, since it has similar examples within those pages.

I'm sure it does.

Anyway, I've gotta go, stuff to do.

Adios!

@Cerberus What is the purpose of that chart?

I don't see a difference (in meaning) between the two. Does anyone?

This answer relies on using continue in the sense of resume. It's a valid sense of continue - see definition 2. But is the case about the difference more stated than made?

There are probably syntactical differences, like I doubt people would typically use consecutive gerunds if they could avoid it but I can't presently see a semantic one. I mentioned something about it in the reviewer's chat-room by mistake.

Then again do [gerund] isn't any better.

hi

is it ok to say "please see my attached cv"?

@FastSnail Yes.

2 hours later...

Which is to say...

An old question, edited to push to the top is about reneg

The 'official' etymology is that it was a 15thc neologism from late Latin 'renegare'.

That just seems way too convenient to me.

Also I have my own opinion, that it is an abbreviation for 'renegotiate'.

Mine sounds like a folk etymology, but here are my reasons:

Wow, @Mitch, coincidentally, I just saw your post about reneg. I never thought of it that way, but I like it!

- 'reneg' is not in most dictionaries

again this is against web search data, but is my personal recollection of having looked it up in paper dictionaries before there was the internet

Does renegare carry the negative connotation of reneg?

@GreatBigBore I'm not that familiar with LL to say what the real connotations of renegare are. That explanation is very plausible and sounds authoritative because 1) in the OED, 2) Latin!

which, being scientifically suspicious, sounds too convenient to me

@Mitch quod satis est ad me!

@GreatBigBore negare is pretty negative (if it literally means 'deny' then certainly)

I'm sure Cicero is spinning in his grave

@GreatBigBore wait...which post? I'm looking at al the 'reneg' questions, almost forming an additional answer for them, almost expecting to see a previous answer of mine, but I don't. Do you have a link?

Back to reasons:

@Mitch You mean 'renege'?

@KitZ.Fox or that. I consider it an alternate spelling.

Huh. OK.

1) reneg not in paper ddictionaries or in E-to-Foreignlanguage dictionaries.

(i.e. it is slang)

(online dictionaries will put -anything- in them)

2) it sounds like an abbreviation.

3) all the situations where 'reneg' works, 'renegotiatie works (slightly metaphorically)

4) invoking latin for a non-word seems overkill

So 'renegare' is holding the dripping knife over the body, but there are bloody sneaker marks running away from the scene.

Also, an analogy is the dumbest justification for an argument, but the most convincing to people in the absence of any actual facts.

Also, to me it's pretty obvious that all those people saying that people are stupid/uneducated for thinking reneg is racist are stupid/uneducated. Also stupid uneducated for thinking this is ironic.

@KitZ.Fox Because 'renege' should be pronounced 'renedge' based on any interpretation of English orthography, and 'renegue' is ungainly.

Racist?

Why? Because it has an n and a g in it?

Because no one ever seems to think vinegar is racist.

@Mitch To renege has little to do with renegotiation per se. It's simply breaking a prior commitment, not necessarily seeking to make another.

@Lawrence and you have a native English understanding of the Latin connotations of 'renegare'?

@KitZ.Fox Of course not. If it started with Emacs, well ... :)

@Lawrence It has a lot to do with renegotiating.

@KitZ.Fox there's a continuum.

@Mitch :) I just tuned in.

@Mitch What does renege have to do with renegotiate, except perhaps precipitate it?

also, it is classic linguistic pattern of words getting replaced or modified because of their taboo associations. huh-RASS -> HAIR-us because it sounds too mush like 'ass'

@Lawrence same social situation. when you 'reneg on a deal', you're 'renegotiating the deal', mostly by 'going back on the deal'.

@KitZ.Fox doesn't sound enough like a taboo word.

@Mitch Hair-ass is preferable to huh-rass?

@Mitch I guess we don't pronounce it the same.

@KitZ.Fox with the stress on the first syllable, the vowel in the second syllable is reduced to a schwa.

@KitZ.Fox how do you pronounce harass?

@Mitch I don't understand the American taboo about ass (even if it's not the donkey), given the acceptance of words that are significantly more explicit.

@Mitch huh-rass.

How about harassment?

@Lawrence harass and banal and uranus are higher register words, and the repronunciation is an attempt to keep them from sounding like low register words.

@KitZ.Fox for harass and harassment, my basic pronunciation is like yours, but the trend is to pronounce them to avoid the 'ASS' syllable, instead unstressed and schwa

@Mitch Wasn't your point that the pronunciation changed in an attempt to avoid the lower register?

> ha·rass həˈras,ˈherəs

@Lawrence yes. I think that's what I said.

oops '...keep them from sounding...'

@Mitch I was talking about vinegar.

Yes, let's talk about vinegar. Much more civilised.

:)

@Mitch Well done for getting in before the edit window closed. :)

coughs, looks evasive

@KitZ.Fox Sorry, I sidetracked your discussion. Yes, anything can sound racist / offensive if one tries hard enough, or is sensitised to the subject / sound / etc.

@Mitch Not sure what we're talking about here. Do you mean my ham-handed Latin and my comment about Cicero? The Latin was in response to your comment about Latin, and the Cicero was a follow-on to my bad Latin

@Mitch Chalk it up to a badly executed attempt at humor. I have to work on my schtick

@Lawrence haha. I didn't do that. some magical rainbow unicorn did that.

Or Kit

@Mitch It's great to have Ms Fox on your side. :)

@GreatBigBore semper ubi sub ubi

@KitZ.Fox Oh. I don't think vinegar sounds enough that sounds taboo. VIN ih gr, not vuh NIG r

shrugs Just saying.

With the emergence of what some are calling apartheid, but with 'whites' on the less favoured end, this discussion might have a rather sobering reversal.

Do you think people would ever consider the title "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" to be racist purely because the word White is present?

It's pretty racist.

Not because of the word though.

@KitZ.Fox Maybe that was a bad example. I was trying to say that some phrases which we don't bat an eyelid at today could become taboo due to social changes.

That's been said before, I know, but I find that sometimes it doesn't hit home until, well, sympathy changes to empathy.

(Please excuse the clichés.)

Very well, then. Speak with skill :) .

:-)

@KitZ.Fox I just got a notification about something on The Nineteenth Byte. I clicked the comment box (to 'upload' my previous message) and it disappeared. Having reviewed the notified message on The Nineteenth Byte, I don't think it's a problem - is there any way of getting that box back for voting?

The box disappeared because it is already settled.

Ah - coincidental, then.

I think so.

@KitZ.Fox Thanks for clarifying.

np

Nice chatting with you all. I'm off for now. Bye!

cya

@Lawrence sobering only if you're white. Otherwise it is 'those little white kids are so cute playing in the cesspool!'

not to mention the "trailer parks"

apologies to all those who live in one

@Sᴋᴜʟʟᴘᴇᴛʀᴏʟ tornado magenets

indeed @Mitch

hey guys, how would I explain to a 4 year old child the meaning of curiosity? I'm looking for an answer thats quite deep and less intuitive.

actually (brings out geek hammer), or maybe just obviously, tornadoes don't care where they go, it's just that mobile homes are actually quite flimsy, so lighter tornado winds mess them up before damage happens to more permanent homes.

@lifestooshort 'being curious means you really really want to know'

for deep and less intuitive, I'd go for more formal definitions like in a dictionary.

1. I'm surprised to learn the word renege isn't in most paper dictionaries. 2. It's almost always used in the context of simply not honoring an agreement and especially a bet, which scarcely sounds like renegotiation to me. That doesn't mean there's no etymological link, but I'd scarcely be willing to use renegotiate as a substitute...

@Tonepoet I'm not saying they are identical, just that they are close enough semantically. When some one changes the details of a deal unbeknownst to the others, that in effect is renegotiating (without the discussion usually associated with negotiating).

You do agree that if 'renegotiate' were abbreviated, it would be 'reneg', right?

Well it could be rene. or renegot. too, but reneg. is a plausible option too.

@Tonepoet those first too are not likely given English pronunciation.

That's probably true.

argh..also 'two'

@Mitch Would you do me a favor and look up the Renege on Merriam-Webster's website and tell me if it's there? The website's not loading for me. I think it should be since it's in the 10th collegiate edition.

If it's on the website, it's probably in through the current 12th edition.

Well, I guess not.

@lifestooshort Kids know the innate urge for food they experience when hungry. Or the innate urge, sometimes a desperate urge, to find a bathroom when they need one. Maybe they've experienced real thirst, or air-thirst (if they've held their breath long enough). These can all be described as "appetites". Curiosity is the appetite for knowledge. It's as innate, unmotivated, and constant as hunger (in people who have curiosity).

@Mitch ^^^

god, I haven't touched a paper dictionary in a decade

Oxford paperback dictionary from 2000

pretty common place, if you ask me

@DanBron I have a few :) admittedly I more often use online

a great time capsule would be to collect a copy of every meaningful paper dictionary, in every meaningful version, all together

send that 400 years into the future

not just English, but all of them.

I can't speak for Mitch but I must've spelled it wrong earlier 'cause I could've sworn it wasn't on Farlex's website just before now. Maybe I spelled it wrong.

It seems to be in enough dictionaries that I don't have to worry about a conspiracy.

renege? that's how I've always spelled it.

never quite confident in how to spell its synonym, welsh (welch?)

The problem is most of the time I hear it it's pronounced renig, so I might've spelled it like that.

I hear re-NEG (as in negative)

Yeah, that's also an acceptable pronunciation a far less unfortunate one too.

I've always heard it as /rɪˈneɪɡ/

(renayg)

I've never heard a "y" in there

but admitted it's a word I see more often written than spoken

I remember there was a piece on the local news here once which was teased with "Here's a word that sounds super racist -- BUT ISN'T. Join us after the break".

It was about niggardly.

was such a weird topic for a real newscast

like "This just in - Fransisco Franco is still dead"

lol, yeah.

"here's a piece of non-news"

I wish Perl6 were more well-established already. I'm doing exercises in Matlab and it's just so painful. Clearly showing its age, before broader patterns became clear.

It's a good bit of sensationalism I suppose.

@Tonepoet I actually read it as cynical pandering. It pissed me off at the time.

Keep in mind that my primary exposure to the word Sensational is the Holmes stories, so it's not exactly a positive word in my mind. =P

Holmes always complained that Watson's reports were too sensational.

yeah, but secretly he liked it

if he didn't, he would have browbeat the good dr into compliance

watson was, for the lack of a better word, merely Holmes' publicist

I wish we'd gotten to get to meet Mycroft more

I think he was a bit more than a publicist.

there is some good work on him in the extended universe, but not enough in the canon

At least, in my mind.

Watson was also a good assistant at times. Holmes could count on Watson to not deduce what was going on exactly.

he's ostensibly more than that, Sherlock's guy friday, his conscience, his aide de campe

but that's all BS in my head

Which would spoil his plans.

because Sherlock was all about the reveal

Watson just humored him because he liked him.

because ultimately he was a narcissist

all he wanted was recognition of his powers

and Watson served that role admirably

@KitZ.Fox especially in the slash fiction

oh gross

they slashed Holmes and Watson?

I mean it makes sense, but boo.

Oh. That's what you mean by slash fiction.

oh, well it's a term for sexual fanfiction

usually male/male

not always but usually

yeah

As in Sherlock/Watson fic (see the slash there?)

I might see how somebody could characterize Holmes as a narcissist, but an egotist he was not.

@DanBron especially since the BBC series

the latest BBC series

@DanBron Only insofar as women are underrepresented in fiction.

yeah, everyone went nuts over the skinny guy

with the weird name

not listneing lalalalalala

shit. now we must play the game.

@KitZ.Fox That could be a contributing factor, but I think the male/male aspect has become a core feature of the genre. It's "in the tradition" now.

wait, there's a game about his weird name?

I can never remember the real one.

Englebert Humpetyback.

@DanBron Yes. It's your fault that now we have to play it because you mentioned him.

oops

sorry about that

Billbob Bandersnatch

I didn't even know slash fiction could refer to anything but homosexual male relations until now...

does it have to be <syllable x 2> <syllable x 2> <atch>?

Any other constraints?

I thought that was strictly gory horror fiction. shrugs

That's a slashER film

@DanBron Ish, yes. It's flexible. Silly is preferable.

or maybe even a slash film? not sure. but not slash fiction.

Slash fiction sounds like shipping to me.

it is shipping, but mostly gay

It is more or less.

and I think they can cross canons?

(heh)

Yeah, I'm not sure of all the connotations though. Usually just that it's considered squicky.

I think it's more consciously and deeply erotic

as in, it's mostly about things that throb or gleam

Deeply erotic sounds pretty good.

as opposed to like, I don't know, whatver is normal in shipping. Letters and sodas, all that old-fashioned shit.

@KitZ.Fox shipping is just saying "these two should be in a relationship" slash fic is the imaginary manifestation

That seems less like something that would throb and gleam though.

glisten, then.

I think maybe you mean more explicit. Erotic is generally not terribly explicit.

I think some of the content matter might be more objectionable than mere eroticism...

Oh, I guess that's fair.

I think of 80s-90s romance novels as "erotic", and they have a lot of throbbing and glistening.

thinks 'erotic paraphernalia', giggles quietly

It might have to do with those "Cloud x Sephiroth" pairings, in which case I'm sure it's more objectionable.

Don't research that if you don't get it already.

That reminds me that I was going to get my ears licked today.

weird, I know my friends and I have fetishized the female characters from the FF games since we were kids (well, pubescent). It honestly never occurred to me women & gay men would do the same with the male characters.

They seem less overtly sexualized to me.

hahaha

Though I guess they show skin too.

oh.

well, it's true they don't have large breasts, but that's because male secondary sexual characteristics are different.

Yeah.

When I said "show skin", I was thinking "they can't show cleavage, but they often show pecs or abs"

And if you aren't sexually attracted to men, you wouldn't notice that these traits are also exaggerated.

Also impossibly narrow waists.

That doesn't really apply to Final Fantasy VII though.

right. in retrospect it seems silly to have overlooked the possibility.

but that's hindsight for you

Your whole world just changed in an instant.

:)

not really. I'm still in Camp Tifa.

Well, there aren't really any other options in the game if you assume Cloud is heterosexual.

There's Aerin or whatever her name is

the one who died (spoiler alert)

That's always been a big divide among teenage boys who played FFVII

I don't understand about options relating to sexuality. Is it a sex game or something?

No, it's more akin to an anime cyberpunk fantasy if anything.

No, it's which character you crushed on (and therefore wanted he protagonist, Cloud, to date, so you can live vicariously).

The only actual element is you go on one date during the game, and the person you get to go on the date with is determined by how you've interacted with all the characters up to that point.

It's even possible, through enough snubbing of the three women, to end up on the date with the Mr T character

There's more to it than that though. I remember there was what is strongly implied to be a brothel in the slums of Midgar: The Honeybee Inn.

But in that case it's treated as slapstick, as opposed to dating any of the women, which is treated as romance

Wow, I dislike those kinds of games.

I'm giving you the wrong impression. The whole dating thing is a single cutscene in a much much larger game.

The game

The bulk of the game is just standard turn based R.P.G. fare. It virtually set that standard actually.

itself is a classic, really awesome, RPG

Meh. I tried 7 and didn't get past the first ... level? It was too linear.

Really? At the time it felt so open relative to its predecessors and the genre at the time

It opens up somewhat once you leave Midgar.

Of course by today's open world standards, it's damn railroad track

Yeah, definitely felt freer in the overworld

I guess I never got that far. I think I played it around the time I was playing Morrowind, maybe sometime after GTA 3 and it just seemed leaden to me.

Also you don't call the stages levels in an R.P.G. because in that context, the leveling system has more to do with the strength acquisition system. Every time you gain enough experience points, you gain a "level". I think the word more commonly used is Dungeon.

fair enough.

I call them "stages". Dungeons have to be ... dungeony. For me.

Yeah, that's fair. I'm just saying that's the commonly used word, not the most appropriate one.

I think I've also seen "areas", as vague as that is.

It probably has to do with the fact that in many R.P.G. type games one or more of the stages actually is a dungeon, esp. near the beginning.

To be fair, areas makes more sense in some games and contexts. Particularly when you're not spending your time in a distinctive subsection of the world.

It more often applies to action R.P.Gs. though.

'cause those have more of a continuous flow to them.

And also because the over-world can't accurately be described as a dungeon.

right

@Tonepoet It's there

@MattE.Эллен You and your 'facts' and 'knowledge' and 'experience'. Also, why did you deface your dictionary with such bright magic marker. For shame. Also probably radioactive.

Ah, yeah, I did misspell it the first time. I spelled it as reneg and I should've realized it upon seeing the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia's definition.

It's probably time to resurrect the C.D.C's. spelling given that character limitations are what they are.

@MattE.Эллен Also, by using the subtle change in lighting over the page, the time of day and longitude from the declination of the sun, the quality of stomach contents of the picture taker (assuming it's you; I can't know everything), I'm guessing that you can leave for the train 10 minutes later than expected. BR, amirite!

@Mitch lol

@Mitch mmmm. Radon paint. It's got a half life, so you don't have two

Howdy.

Hey howdy.

@Mitch Yay! The Pi-th comment :31415939

or close

:31415927 well this is really it. hm...how do you round?

@Mitch A pithy remark.

@Mitch Aaand this message wasn't in this room.

I love it when a joke fails.

Lokk man, I do with what I got

@MετάEd I woodn't deny that

@Mitch You're running rings around me, logically.

@Mitch Well, we can play the ancient and pretend pi equals 10^1/2.

@MετάEd dendrochronometrically

@TIPS 3 cubits and a thumb?

@Mitch If you like

@TIPS I was going for more ancient

You aimed too high.

*ancienter

Here's more ancient: 22/7 (and actually more accurate)

*ANCIENTER

here's even more ancient: between 3 and 4

here's even more ancient:3

* ANCIENTER

Ancientest: What's pi?

argh you beat me to it!

> And then: it’s this feeling that is the cause of the renewed xenophobia and nationalism across the western world. It’s this feeling of insecurity and chaos that is igniting the platforms of divisive strong-men like Trump, Erdogan, and Putin. It’s this feeling that has consumed the consciousness of millions of people, and caused them to look at their country through the lens of a fun-house mirror: exaggerating all that is wrong and minimizing all that is right.

markmanson.net/…

I've seen loads of these these days, but this one makes more sense.

Sounds like EL&U.

Meta.ELU.

Oh BTW, I haven't seen you guys rolling in your meta for a while.

@Kit is there anything special about the featured meta post?

Insofar as it was needed.

I suppose I can unfeature it now.

I thought I had something to add regarding the VLQ flag, esp. since we had a related discussion on Chemistry Meta, but I didn't.

We had a discussion somewhere about it.

There have been quite a few meta post recently about flags.

Particularly about why flags are declined.

It's like commentgate for the next generation.

@KitZ.Fox Commentgate? Definitely an episode for 'Star Trek: Muppetbabies'

ha ha ha. Star Trek isn't like it used to be.

@Mitch Commentgate is the classification for all meta posts concerning deleted comments.

revs up old person rant... goes to pee instead

I guess we should have a flaggate, but that seems like it means something else.

@KitZ.Fox Oh. I mean of all things to get upset about. But still it feels bad and capricious when it's my effing comment.

Comment?

Comment puis-je laisser un commentaire à la porte?

Now you've started it!

Car il pleut.

pour

When it pleuts, it plours.

Quand il pleut, je suis sourde.

Is that like gaining water-weight?

No, it's just a tin roof.

nice.

rice.

also, google search box is really getting good at giving answers without even have to search.

Oh. hahaha. I remembered my vocabulary incorrectly.

What is it supposed to be then?

@KitZ.Fox baby don't hurt me...

@Mitch sourde. deaf.