English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

12:28 AM

@KitZ.Fox or forgiven. Or both.

1:44 AM

@tchrist Editor number 15 comes along and now this gets snuck into policy... "Remember, you still have to write an actual answer, in your own words. A post that consists only of copied text, even when attributed, is not your work either. Use quotes sparingly, to support your own words."

A post that consists of attributed copied text is not plagiarism. pla·gia·rism
ˈplājəˌrizəm/
noun
noun: plagiarism; plural noun: plagiarisms

the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and **passing them off as one's own.**

–Google

;p

tchrist

2:11 AM

@Mazura Even when duly attributed, copypasta is not your own work. We expect expert answers here, and that's going to take actual effort

If you have nothing original to say, it's best to say nothing at all rather than risk being mistaken for a mindless mockingbird.

Mazura

What you expect and what's required by the rules seem to be at odds.

This is the only applicable part of your link IMO : "Do not copy the complete text of external sources; instead, use their words and ideas to support your own. And always give proper credit to the author and site where you found the text, including a direct link to it."

tchrist

Go ahead and ask Management.

Since you feel that they support answers with nothing of your own effort.

I'm fairly certain that they do not, and that they moreover have said as much. But it's not like I've never been wrong. Maybe this is one of those times. Go ahead: you pays your money, you takes your chances.

I further feel that questions whose only answers aim for 100% copypasta lists should be closed.

They aren't expert answers.

Mazura

I think management has left it up to us by design. Provided that you're not trying to pass off that work as your own. ^^ mmmhmmm. We've danced this number before.

tchrist

They're Too Broad. And Primarily Opinion Based.

Mazura

yeah, you just hate SWRs... I'm on to you ;)

tchrist

2:21 AM

They are useless drivel.

Lazy SOBs.

They are off-topic writing advice REQUESTS. They aren't even actual questions.

Mazura

I really like that new guy's formatting. You'll make a good SEer outta him yet. I just worry that people see your diamond and think it's from on high or something.

tchrist

We are not EnglishRequests.StackExchange.COM

Nope, I'm not high.

Mazura

The data shows differently.

tchrist

Show

Mazura

datum isn't a word

tchrist

2:25 AM

Verbum est.

Mazura

You can't say that and hate SWRs....

tchrist

yawns

Mazura

yep. have a good one

Robusto

2:40 AM

@tchrist: Given the new spin reality has taken since the last election, I wonder if it might not be worth reopening this question:

18

Q: Does a "fact" have to be true?

I'm struggling to decide whether to jettison use of the word fact, because the definition appears to be not solid enough to support continued usage. What do I mean by that? Look at one "meaning ladder" (taken from Random House via TFD Online) among several on the same page: fact 1. somethin...

I think it gets at something different from the question it was closed as a dupe of.

NVZ

6:28 AM

Can we have this tagged 'featured'?

3

Q: Auto review comments can save you time

There is an extension available for Google Chrome called AutoReviewComments, which can save you time if you frequent the review queues, or guide new users with your comments, and I've been using it for quite a while. Install it → Read instructions → Use it. Ask me questions, when you have them....

discussion comments review-queues

I wish more people were aware of such useful things.

NVZ

7:14 AM

I have a feature request. I initially typed it all in ELU meta question box. But chose to post it on MSE instead.

Have a look. Suggestions welcome.

1

Q: How about we delete copypasted answers by new users?

I frequent the review queues (on ELU SE), edit to improve answers from new users, and upvote them often, and later find out that they're merely copypastas of earlier well-received answers. I sometimes leave a comment guiding the new user, or notifying others about it being a duplicate. I'd lik...

feature-request

user288256

12:41 PM

It is so hot today I almost died.

tchrist

@Ghalib You're probably measuring in Kelvin; those temperatures are always dangerously high.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Email in answer: Is a student studying towards <a degree> "a <a degree> student"? by samanta on english.SE

Andrew Leach

@Ghalib How hot is so hot?

user288256

@tchrist hah, no we Celsius here. It is in mid thirties these days.

user288256

@AndrewLeach Like 35 C

tchrist

12:48 PM

"It's not the heat; it's the humidity."

user288256

Well, humidity makes it worse I guess.

tchrist

jinx

user288256

Yeah

user288256

heh

Andrew Leach

Oh. In Pakistan? We had 36C in southern England last week (but only for a day).

user288256

12:49 PM

@AndrewLeach oh I see. Was it bearable? Without AC I mean.

user288256

That is, outside in the open.

tchrist

user288256

I just hope we get rains here soon

tchrist

@AndrewLeach Welcome to Colorado!

Andrew Leach

It was OK in the shade. I have a soft-top car, and it made for a pleasant drive -- not so pleasant when not moving, though.

user288256

12:53 PM

Cool.

user288256

@tchrist Is that graph of your region?

tchrist

Yes.

user288256

Okay

tchrist

It's from NCAR, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. We have two weather stations, one at 5331 feet and the other at 6184 feet up on the Mesa. eol.ucar.edu/cgi-bin/…

Each thousand feet of elevation gain has a commensurate loss of two degrees centigrade of temperature.

Also, for each thousand feet of elevation gain, water boils at a temperature cooler by one degree centigrade. So at 10,000 feet your water boils at 90C and your tea will never taste right.

user288256

Yeah, that makes sense.

user288256

1:03 PM

It is fun to camp at those places.

tchrist

One of our mountains has an espresso coffee bar at the top of it, and it's so high that they have to make stuff differently. It's like they can use only skim milk for the cappuccinos or it won't foam up right; something like that.

@Ghalib For some reason I had thought you were in Africa.

user288256

They must use pressure cookers or something like that to make tea I'm sure.

user288256

@tchrist Oh. Why? I mean I'm curious.

tchrist

Probably no reason.

Perhaps you said something once early on that I misconstrued, and never verified my mistake.

user288256

Oh okay.

tchrist

1:12 PM

The restaurant atop Pike's Peak stands over 14,000 feet in elevation. It's dizzying to most people at first.

I realize this is nothing to the Himalayas.

The people who work there live up there 6 out of 7 days of the week so they get used to it.

user288256

Yeah, I know what you mean. I once visited Babusar Pass, it is in Gilgit Baltistan area here, and I was having some difficulty in breathing, but it was quite fun and there were hailstones.

tchrist

Hail is a daily occurrence up high.

user288256

Its elevation is quite high, around 13,691′

user288256

I see.

tchrist

Colorado has 53 fourteeners and 637 thirteeners.

No fifteeners.

user288256

1:18 PM

Cool.

user288256

Here we have lots of tall mountains but they are unsafe to climb. Like this mountain Nanga Parbat, I have been near its base camp but that's it. I hear people die in climbing it.

tchrist

The hail up high is not usually the giant kind though.

user288256

It is quite high, around 26,660′.

user288256

Yeah I experienced small hailstones

tchrist

The fourteeners are all climbed all the time; some are "easy" walk-ups, some are technical (need climbing gear), and most are in between.

Yes, 26k is above the death zone, which is like 23-26k.

The kill zone.

user288256

1:22 PM

Yeah.

tchrist

> The Death Zone lies above 26,000ft in the highest altitudes of the mountain. The oxygen level here is not adequate to support human life because the body simply can’t adapt. At this altitude the body uses oxygen faster than it can be replaced, so if climbers linger in this region too long without supplementary oxygen, they will feel like they’re slowly suffocating.

If you're in an unpressurized aircraft, you're supposed to have supplemental oxygen starting at 14,000 feet, and recommended above 12 or 12.5; I forget.

But there is more oxygen on the top of a 14,000 foot mountain than in air that's otherwise at that elevation, as the blanket of atmosphere ascends with you as you climb. But not well.

user288256

I once saw a video in which they take a helicopter to the top of Everest or maybe K2, don't remember which one. But the bird struggles up there and seems like it is about to crash.

user288256

They must have been using portable oxygen with them though.

Færd

1:39 PM

> And he would go to picture galleries, they said, and he would ask one, did one like his tie? God knows, said Rose, one did not.

> But in her opinion one liked Mr Ramsay all the better for thinking that ...

> But if they knew, could they tell one what they knew?

(from To the Lighthouse)

I don't know what it is about these ones that rings different from the contemporary use of this pronoun.

tchrist

@Ghalib I'm pretty sure that helicopters have low elevation ceilings.

> Turbine-engined helicopters can reach around 25,000 feet. But the maximum height at which a helicopter can hover is much lower - a high performance helicopter like the Agusta A109E can hover at 10,400 feet.

12

Q: What is the vertical limit of helicopter flight capabilities called?

What is the name of the maximum height that a helicopter can fly at, given that air density decreases altitude? I recall it as vertical limit, but I can't find a Wikipedia page for it other than a movie of the same title, which seems to concern mountain climbing altitudes.

helicopter terminology altitude

Wow, somebody actually asked for a term in English somewhere other than on ELU!!!!

9

A: Why can't helicopters fly at high altitudes?

Don't believe everything you see in the movies. Doubly so if the movie originated in Hollywood. The world altitude record for a helicopter is 40,814ft, some 11,000 feet higher then Everest, set in 1972 Reference: Wikipedia In 2005 Didier DelSalle famously touched down on the summit of Everest i...