English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

brilliant

05:14

I don't know what I would do if I were Tarantino. I think according to the law paparazzi has the right to film outside anyone they want to film, but I would definitely be pissed by the cameraman videotaping me without even asking for permission. A permission, of course, would not be legally required, but would be an act of politeness, which any normal person should do.

brilliant

05:33

So, since he wasn't polite enough as to merely ask for a simple permission - put it shortly, was rude toward me - I would also think up a way of how to be legally rude toward that cameraman.

Here we see that Tarantino struck the cameraman (twice, I think). To me it's not a good way of paying back to the rude cameraman as striking, as well as any act of physical aggression, is illegal and you can be easily persecuted for that.

A good way, I think, would be carrying a mace pepper spray always with you. In this way, if some paparazzi all of the sudden starts sticking his camera right in my face (just like here on this video), I would shout something like :"What is it? Is it a camera or a weapon? It looks like there is a handgun behind your camera! Are you trying to kill me?!" and than I would go ahead and spray him right in his face.

I see on YouTube somebody has already suggested it before me.

Alain Pannetier

09:58

@F'x
http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/879766#879766
I've noticed the discrepancy: Ubuntu 10.10 FF 3.6.16 shows the cross above.
WinXP FF4 shows the cross inside WinXP FF 3.6.15 shows the cross above.
In all cases Firebug says the first font in the font-family CSS attribute is 'Helvetica Neue'.
Wikipedia says the sign for earth should be **inside**.
See [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Earth_symbol.svg).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Earth_symbol.svg

Robusto

11:27

Morning.

RegDwight

Sure, if you say so!

Robusto

gravatar.com/avatar/…

Is that kinda getting dangerously close to a swastika?

The algorithm used to make these gravatars could conceivably produce a gammadion (swastika).

RegDwight

Well, except for the stupid nazis, there's nothing wrong with a swastika. Let us not let them have their way.

Robusto

Yeah. The Nazis screwed up a lot of things. If you ever read (or have read) The Great Gatsby your eye has to be caught by a description of a tile floor of a building in New York that was decorated in swastikas. This would have been in the '20s. It was a common geometric pattern.

I saw a similar floor-tile design at an old drugstore in Chicago.

RegDwight

Take any Greek vase, it will have swastikas all over the place.

Robusto

11:35

Now the only place you see it is in jailhouse tats in the U.S.

RegDwight

Apr 12 at 18:13, by RegDwight

@Martha Well, my screen says that I have provided 333 answers. Am I half Satan now or what?

Now that number is official. As in, excluding deleted answers.

Hm, another fake "+1" by pageman...

Robusto

@RegDwight — Yes, you can be a half-assed Satan.

RegDwight

0

A: Meaning of "don't ask don't tell"

This would have been a good example of an answer to a recent question because it embodies the notion that, if we choose to not know about it, it doesn't exist. We might say, "I'm not so sure he's ADHD, but he's definitely DADT."

Robusto

What's a "fake +1"?

OIC.

RegDwight

4

A: Word to refer to the person who creates something that gets reused or remixed?

progenitor An originator of a line of descent; a precursor. An originator; a founder: progenitors of the new music.

On these two answers, he commented "+1" without actually upvoting.

Robusto

11:50

It's possible he just doesn't get it. He seems clueless in other ways as well.

RegDwight

Yeah, but now he's been pointed into the right direction by Callithumpian and myself.

JSBangs

Христос воскресе, товарищи

Robusto

Somehow I doubt that will make a difference.

JSBangs

did everyone enjoy their weekend?

RegDwight

Воистину воскресе!

Robusto

11:52

Hey, stop feeling so smug just because Atheism.SE died.

RegDwight

@Robusto Well, I'm watching him closely. He also provided that Tetris answer and that Twitter link to some Cupertino attorney.

Robusto

Yeah, except for the fact that all the frickin' stores were closed here yesterday. It's un-American!

JSBangs

@Robusto that be true. easter is totally un-american. i have it on good word that it was invented by jews and pagans

Robusto

I couldn't even buy a power strip. Hey, what about separation of Church and State? Whatever happened to that?

RegDwight

As if your wife doesn't take you shopping often enough.

Robusto

11:54

There weren't even any good sports on TV. A total bust.

JSBangs

man, sucks to be you

RegDwight

Here's some power strip for you.

21 hours ago, by F'x

JSBangs

did anything interesting happen here over the weekend?

RegDwight

Yeah, but most of it got deleted.

Robusto

@RegDwight — Yeah, but would they stay under your desk?

JSBangs

11:55

hah

i just gave @Kosmonaut a star for his comment on syntax, because i feel exactly the same way

RegDwight

Remember that you can always have a Best-Of (and a Worst-Of) in the 10k tools.

Robusto

Oh ... I thought he was talking about a "sin tax" ...

RegDwight

@JSBangs english.stackexchange.com/questions/22225/…

JSBangs

@RegDwight well, that's... comprehensive. i would actually love a tetris clone that referred to the play area as the зумпф

RegDwight

Also, if you click on that comment by Kosmonaut, it was actually starred because it marks the beginning of an interesting discussion about how language works etc.

22 hours ago, by RegDwight

He seems to just have typed "well" into an online dictionary, and quoted every single result.

22 hours ago, by RegDwight

"Spa town", "lawyers's places", "elevator shaft", "good", "stairway", "sump".

Robusto

12:01

I don't think he's deliberately spamming, though. I think he's more like a one-man blender site. He Googles something and core dumps the result. That's probably where he got the lawyer, too. "Never attribute to malice what may be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity."

RegDwight

"..., but don't rule out malice."

Seriously though, I agree.

Oh, and @JSBangs, in other news I got serially downvoted by a six-year old Russian child who doesn't like owls.

JSBangs

lolz. seriously?

RegDwight

Starting here:

21 hours ago, by RegDwight

Hahaha, look at my rep report. I must have pissed someone off. http://english.stackexchange.com/users/300/regdwight?tab=reputation

{Obviously, the votes are gone now.}

BTW your very personal downvoter seems to behave.

Im in ur answerz fixing ur dashes cause them displays as -
-
for me.

JSBangs

that's because i wrote them as --

RegDwight

Illuminating!

JSBangs

12:12

i sort of hoped in vain that markdown would transform -- into &emdash;

Robusto

@RegDwight How do you know it was a 6-year-old Russian child?

RegDwight

@Robusto I asked.

If you click on that link, the Evil Perpetrator showed up here in chat immediately after that.

Robusto

Em dash is made (on a PC) by holding down ALT and pressing "0151" on number pad.

RegDwight

Or —

Robusto

Well, ToS kind of solves that problem.

—

Nope. It yields —

Not —

RegDwight

12:14

Here in chat, yes.

Robusto

BTW, on Mac it's as simple as Option-Shift hyphen.

RegDwight

I don't think you can type <a href="http://www.examples.com">this</a>, either.

On the main site, it works.

Robusto

Can you type (this)[examples.com]?

Nope, not that either.

RegDwight

You've got the brackets mixed up.

It's [text](URL).

E.g., Robusto is evil

Robusto

12:29

Noted. And now I'm off to do my evil deeds. And go to work. Laterz.

RegDwight

CU.

I think I'll go watch TV and play with LEGO. A Hitchhikers's Guide is on.

JSBangs

have fun

i'll sit here all alone

though i see that @Kosmonaut just became active

asserted: Ctesias of Cnidus has the best name of any Greek author

logicbird

12:48

In English: kick the bucket

JSBangs

@logicbird what about it?

it means "die", if that's what you're asking

logicbird

sorry hit enter to soon

in French: eat dandelions by the root

JSBangs

really? that's cool

logicbird

in Danish: to take off the clogs

lol, danish fail. french win.

JSBangs

in romanian: to give <something> to the priest. that's a da ortul popii, but i don't actually know the literal meaning of ortul

the first dictionary i looked in didn't have it, either. but when i looked in the big dictionary i found it: ort - a quarter of a leu (Romanian unit of money)

the word is now v. rare outside of this expression

logicbird

12:58

so in other words, to pay the priest.

JSBangs

right

logicbird

thats pretty good

Alain Pannetier

@JSBangs, chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/881357#881357

Given the value of a leu... that's hardly surprising !

Hello all !

logicbird

I like the Romanian and French versions much better than "kick the bucket"

JSBangs

@AlainPannetier well, the new (revalued) leu is like $0.40

so an ort would be $0.10, which is at least a measurable quantity of money

they even have bani (pennies) now!

Alain Pannetier

13:04

I missed that revaluation, I still have plenty of the post Ceaucescu banknotes and a lot of coins worth much more in weight of metal than their value.

I have banis of 1966 (my first trip there !, I was 5 !)

JSBangs

they revalued at 10,000 : 1 about three years ago

most romanians still refer to the old denominations. so when they say that something costs un milion de lei, they actually mean 100 RON

Alain Pannetier

RON ?

JSBangs

RON = lei noi, ROL = lei vechi

Alain Pannetier

So I guess now the popes can eek a living out of funerals at last. The Charon way I guess !

Robusto

13:32

@AlainPannetier — Popes can eek out a living? Isn't that carrying @Martha's meme just a little too far?

Kosmonaut

Monkeys eek out a living.

logicbird

I'll be a monkey's uncle

F'x

@RegDwight english.stackexchange.com/questions/22573/…

RegDwight

14:00

Can I have some opinions on whether this should be migrated to Programmers?

0

Q: What "Downstream/upstream design" means?

What "Downstream/upstream design" in software development means?

meaning

Kosmonaut

@RegDwight Yes, in my opinion.

Alain Pannetier

@Robusto, that wasn't intentional, please blame it on being a non native speaker. Although I'm afraid I won't be able to hide very long my inclination for the man who coined the "meme" term himself (Richard Dawkins).

Robusto

@RegDwight — Totally. Migrate.

Alain Pannetier

@RegDwight, this question will probably have better answers in programmers.se indeed.

Robusto

It can only be answered by specific technical jargon, and Prog.SE is a much better place to find that.

@AlainPannetier — Hey, don't be hatin' on me mate Richard Dawkins.

Alain Pannetier

14:03

And they always complain about being the bin of SO, never from EL&S !!

RegDwight

Done. Thanks @all.

Robusto

It's the thin edge of the wedge. After we complete enough probes we will start sending the death ships to Prog.SE! Oh wait, would that mean we have to reinstate vgv8?

RegDwight

Werbepause vorbei, I'm out again!

Kosmonaut

yesterday, by Robusto

I'm going to write a Stephen Hawking cookbook. I'll call it A Brief History of Thyme.

amazon.com/Brief-History-Rhyme-Greatest-Hits/dp/B00069YE70

Robusto

Mar 4 at 13:31, by Robusto

►

Alain Pannetier

14:06

I don't hate people, too costly.
As for RD, I've been following his works for some time now and although I don't share the need to stirrup these topics, I rather agree with the thesis.

Kosmonaut

@Robusto ha

Robusto

@AlainPannetier "... stirrup these topics"? Interesting image.

Alain Pannetier

@Robusto, what I mean is that I love RD's "Selfish Gene" theory. It's such a eye opener on life. About 'preaching' atheism, I can see the point but there is no real hurry.
@F'x, did you reach a conclusion about your location

Vitaly

Hello.

Alain Pannetier

Hi Vitaly !

Vitaly

14:19

Does any of the following sentences sound odd to you with regard to tenses, @Robusto?
1. I have finally realized that the earth was round.
2. I have always known that the earth was round.
3. I have often thought that the earth was round.

Robusto

Here's what I would say:
1. I have finally realized that the earth is round.

Vitaly

OK, thanks.

Robusto

2. I have always known that the earth is round.

3. I have often thought that the earth is round.

POSSIBLY: 3. I have often thought that the earth was round. (Might indicate that now I think it's flat.)

Vitaly

Huh. A paper I am currently reading claims that 1 is anomalous, whereas 2 and 3 are acceptable.

JSBangs

i find all three equally acceptable

Vitaly

14:22

the author distinguishes the perfectives in 1, 2 and 3, calling them the resultative perfect, the universal perfect, and the existential perfect

oh well…

Robusto

Well ...

F'x

@AlainPannetier my location?

Alain Pannetier

Planet Earth and the unicode codepoint that does not render correctly depending on the browser.

Robusto

Change the sentence:
1. I've finally realized you are smart.
2. I've always known you were smart.
3. I've often thought you were smart.

JSBangs

actually, let me correct myself. the first is unusual, and I'd prefer @Robusto's formulation with is rather than was

F'x

14:24

@AlainPannetier oh, there are two Earth symbols, so each font can draw the glyph as it wants

Alain Pannetier

@F'x wikipedia shows a cross inside !

JSBangs

but it's not unusual enough to jump out at mq

Robusto

If I say "I've finally realized you were smart," it may mean you were smart once but maybe I don't think so now.

If I say "I've often thought you were smart," it means you may still be smart.

Alain Pannetier

I see. Made me realize that Windows does not have the Helvetica Neue font (cos Linotype does not give it away for free I guess).

F'x

@AlainPannetier and I have it, but only half of my browsers are smart enough to find it :(

Robusto

14:26

@AlainPannetier — Well, I'm glad my work here has not been in vain.

Alain Pannetier

@F'x Looks like FF4 can find it.
@Robusto. "my work" ?

Robusto

Kidding.

Alain Pannetier

Are you the local Dawkins fan ?

In addition to Hawking I mean ;-)

Kosmonaut

Dawking

Robusto

15:10

@Kosmonaut: Someone just told me that the guy who wrote Perl was not a programmer but a linguist.

Larry Wall

Larry Wall (born September 27, 1954) is a programmer and author, most widely known for his creation of the Perl programming language in 1987. Education Wall earned his bachelor's degree from Seattle Pacific University in 1976. While in graduate school at UC Berkeley, Wall and his wife were studying linguistics with the intention afterwards of finding an unwritten language, perhaps in Africa, and creating a writing system for it. They would then use this new writing system to translate various texts into the language, among them the Bible. Due to health reasons these plans were canceled,...

Kosmonaut

That's interesting.

I didn't know that.

Robusto

Me either.

Vitaly

15:27

Did backshifting exist in Old English?

Kosmonaut

I have no idea.

JSBangs

@Robusto that seems to be splitting hairs. obviously, if larry wall was able to program the implementation if perl, then he was a programmer, even if his training was linguistic

heck, my college education was in linguistics, but i'm a professional programmer

and my claim to fame is that for a while i went to church with Larry Wall's daughter, where we were friends and hung out in the same circles. i once met larry when he came by to visit his daughter and son-in-law

RegDwight

16:00

OMG I know someone who knows someone who is related to someone famous!

I rule!

Mar 1 at 14:38, by RegDwight

The six degrees of Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg!

JSBangs

woo!

Sankar Ganesh

16:15

@JSBangs: and @RegDwight: Hi, Friends

RegDwight

Hi there.

JSBangs

hello

Sankar Ganesh

@RegDwight yes, I m here

@JSBangs Hello, How do you do

RegDwight

Sorry, wife calling.)))

Sankar Ganesh

@RegDwight: and @JSBangs: A Big Question, when you are saying one example , which is the right word to use , example or ForInstance

@RegDwight hmmm, go, no problem, take care

JSBangs

16:21

Either "for example" or "for instance" is correct. there is little or no difference between them

"for example" is probably more common

RegDwight

12

Q: "For instance" vs "For example"

What is the difference in usage between for instance and for example? Are they just interchangeable? I suspect they are not strictly but cannot seem to find an authoritative explanation.

usage word-choice example

Sankar Ganesh

@RegDwight Nice Answer

@JSBangs: Thanks

@drachenstern: Hmm, Seeing you Here, Made me more JOy

drachenstern

Eh, how's that now? I have several places I lurk, easier for people to get ahold of me.

Sankar Ganesh

@drachenstern :)

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…