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That is a very difficult one to explain to someone with no coding experience.

I disagree. The try-catch block just performs an action while listening for special return values indicative of failure. Take establishing a connection, which may succeed or fail. If the failure code (or exception) is found, the program reacts differently than if it is not. I think most people would catch on quickly, especially if with some pseudocode to point to.

How can you ask a computer to "try" something, really?

I think "try" is a lot like "do," with uncertainty. Take a look at the definitions of "try". Def. 1 seems circular, but Defs. 2 - 4 and 7 seem to apply pretty well to the program. Of course, if we use Def. 8 instead, then few of us ever "try."

Ahh, semantics (being the study of meaning, I actually think semantics is pretty important).

http://dictionary.reference.co...

After watching the convenience store surveillance footage, how can somebody honestly say that Michael Brown wasn't a thug?

When I look up the definition of the word "thug", the first entry for it is:

a cruel or vicious ruffian, robber, or murderer.

Was Brown's attack on the store clerk "cruel"? It absolutely was.

Was Brown's attack on the store clerk "vicious"? It absolutely was.

Was Brown's attack on the store clerk something a "ruffian" would do? It absolutely was.

Was Brown's attack on the store clerk and the taking of merchandise things that a "robber" would do? They absolutely were.

Thus it's clear that "thug" is a perfectly appropriate word to use to describe the person shown in that video.

http://dictionary.reference.co...
verb (used with object)
3. to steer; direct.

English is a descriptive language, not prescriptive, so if a word or suffix is used in a particular fashion by enough people, that becomes the meaning. You should probably get over that, as otherwise you'll have a very annoyed life. Language evolves, as do the meanings of the words we use.

Further reading

Apparently the suffix has existed since 1931. How old are you that this "recent" change annoys you?

http://dictionary.reference.co...

hanged

Religion can induce people to believe anything - including the horrors of vaccine. Notably, definitions 6 and 8 here
explicitly allow for this, many other definitions and interpretations do so to some extent too.

I hate to break the news to you, but these so-called "Millenials" you keep ranting about do not exist. And if they existed, theyd' all be 14 years old.

I hate to break it to you but the group called the "Millennials" are not called that because they were born at the beginning of this millennium but because they were born at the end of the last one. Generally that means from early/mid 1980's to 2000.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Millennial
http://www.livescience.com/38061-millennials-generation-y.html
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/millennial+generation

You use this word "rarified". It does not mean what you think it means. In fact it does not exist at all. This spelling does, however.

No. We talk about ranges and orders of magnitude. Once there is a hundred or more of something, we can say it is counted in the range of hundreds; the count might be one, but the range is hundreds. You only need to look in a dictionary;

4.
hundreds, a number between 100 and 999, as in referring to an amount of money:
Property loss was only in the hundreds of dollars.

You do not need to reach 200 before you can say there are "hundreds", 100 will do, and likewise you do not need to have 20000 before you can say "tens of thousands", 10000 or more is all you need.

In this context "draw the line" was meant to be a legal one between free speech and threats. http://dictionary.reference.co...

Interesting twist on the topic! Is it still free speech if one is drawling

It's too bad that breast doesn't mean the outer, front part of the thorax, or the front part of the body from the neck to the abdomen; chest, or meat from the front part of the body of a bird or an animal, or something. The article doesn't make sense otherwise.

Linguistic fail.

Medic = Doctor
http://dictionary.reference.co...

read the dictionary definition, not the deliberate misinterpretation used as an attack on systemd (or any other systems trolls don't like). If you can take bits out of it or add to it via configuration at run time, its modular.

Do you class every binary as monolithic because by your definition virtually every binary is if it has a dependency i.e. a library, and modular should not exist in any way in computing.

The only way a binary can be truly monolithic is not to have any dependencies outside its own binary.

here's a dictionary definition http://dictionary.reference.co...

http://dictionary.reference.co... - read it.

Its legal to lie to government investigators in your jurisdiction?

That's not what the guy was arrested for, dumbass.

Here is a new word for your vocabulary list for the week:

"conspiracy"
conspiracy, in law, agreement of two or more persons to commit a criminal or otherwise unlawful act.
http://www.reference.com/brows...

Here is an example of its usage, from the first line of my original response to you:
"He entered into a conspiracy to lie to government investigators."

This "sheds" (gets rid of) the "load" (electricity on the line).

No, an electrical load is something that uses electricity, not electricity itself. E.g., "that circuit can handle a 20 amp load." And "load shedding" is shutting off electricity to certain users so that there are fewer loads on the system. See this definition, for example.

I know how to use a dictionary. It didn't help:
http://ask.reference.com/web?s...

How the fuck am I meant to know you're trying to introduce the word nigger into a discussion on gender politics? Do you have the remotest idea of how to engage in discussion, debate or even argument? Your non-sequitors are not terribly constructive contributions.

I like your point, but seriously... "copyright", "copyrited", AND "copywrite" all in one post?

He's casting a wide net to cover all possibilities...

Its a Mountweazel in case someone plagiarizes his wonderful post.

Pretty much the same as the dictionary:

http://dictionary.reference.co...

I'm still trying to figure out what my comment about Joan -- white Joan -- had anything to do with Kelly. Yes, I walked on egg shells around Kelly from then on.

It's called solipsism. You can't really negotiate with a solipsistic person since even abstractions that obviously are intended to show them things about others invariably, in their minds, come back to them.

Word of advice, though, from experience in dealing with these types of people. The best defense is to make it clear you are a hard target. By hard I mean, you will defend yourself and make it costly even if they nominally win the fight. No one wants to suffer at best a pyrrhic victory.

Best advice ever.

I'm still trying to figure out what my comment about Joan -- white Joan -- had anything to do with Kelly. Yes, I walked on egg shells around Kelly from then on.

It's called solipsism. You can't really negotiate with a solipsistic person since even abstractions that obviously are intended to show them things about others invariably, in their minds, come back to them.

Word of advice, though, from experience in dealing with these types of people. The best defense is to make it clear you are a hard target. By hard I mean, you will defend yourself and make it costly even if they nominally win the fight. No one wants to suffer at best a pyrrhic victory.

Right because anything but the current model means I want to literally kill them and eat them.

Jesus fucking Christ this sort of argument offensively retarded.

Satire motherfucker, do you get it?

With apologies to Quentin Tarantino.

I can't imagine why people might think that "progressive" is a complement...

Progressive
adjective
* favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform
* making progress toward better conditions
* characterized by such progress, or by continuous improvement
noun
* a person who is progressive or who favors progress or reform

Progress
noun
* developmental activity in science, technology, etc., especially with reference to the commercial opportunities created thereby or to the promotion of the material well-being of the public through the goods, techniques, or facilities created
* advancement in general
* growth or development; continuous improvement
* the development of an individual or society in a direction considered more beneficial than and superior to the previous level

Synonyms
1. advance, progression. 4. increase; betterment. 11. proceed; develop, improve, grow, increase
Antonyms
1. regression. 11. regress

Yep... Sounds horrible! How *dare someone be in favor of improving the state of things?! /s

Similar in the UK. "Juice" is 100% expression of fruit, though may be concentrated for shipping and again diluted prior to packaging, and may contain pulp or any other part of said fruit ("Juicy bits" juices, for instance). Anything else is a "Juice drink"; Extra sugar, sweetener, water, stabiliser, preservative... All prevents the use of the word "juice" only to describe the drink.

I think poor Walter means that "It can continue to SHIRK the comments of ordinary Americans" not shrink.

http://dictionary.reference.co...

Okay, so you're moving up to just posting the directly absurd.

I'll give you this, though, if being "pedantic" means posturing as vaguely "above the topic" in knowledge and pretending therefore that simply scoffing at questions in lieu of actually engaging the topic is sufficient, then you are certainly the ideal person to recognize it.

"Ostentatious"... yes, that's the word I was looking for.

Is making up bullshit English words in some failed, self-defeating attempt to avoid sexism a new feminist/social-justice-warrior fad these days?

"Professora" is not even an English word, goddamn it! The English word is "professor", and it applies equally well to both men and women and any one of the thousands of other "genders" that allegedly exist today.

"Emerita" is an English word. It can be used with the English word "professor" to create the English term "professor emerita".

Since "professora" is not an English word, the term "professora emerita" is not English. It is gibberish.

And since you're probably the kind of self-righteous dickweed who probably screams "CITATION NEEDED!" all of the time, let me give you one: Proof that "Professor Emerita" is the correct English term.

stress: the physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain.

Source: http://dictionary.reference.co...

They are the exact same thing. Stop trying to fabricate new meanings for words that you don't understand.

> he was going to suicide

"Suicide" is not a verb.

Yes, it is.

Definition 4: http://dictionary.reference.co...

verb (used without object), suicided, suiciding.
4. to commit suicide.

Webster says it's a verb: http://www.merriam-webster.com...
As does Oxford: http://www.oxforddictionaries....

You are definitely part of the problem.

Here's a nothing, kid. Buy a dictionary. "conformity with fact or reality; verity", "actuality or actual existence", "accuracy, as of position or adjustment" ... Science is the pursuit of truth. What it is not is a declaration that a matter is forever settled. Everything is open to question. Some of the debates are considered settled for all practical purposes, and don't really need to be revisited unless other base assumptions are challenged by new findings, but that still doesn't mean that science is not a pursuit of truth. That everything is open to question is you know that it is. If the goal were to feel good, then we could declare all current matters closed.

Or he could just be referring to the etymology of the word schizophrenia: from schizo, split, and phren, mind.

Or he could just be referring to the etymology of the word schizophrenia: from schizo, split, and phren, mind.

Or he could just be referring to the etymology of the word schizophrenia: from schizo, split, and phren, mind.

Taxation is not theft.

Well, the dictionary disagrees with your:

to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, especially secretly or by force

The government is taking my property without my permission, and it gives itself the right to do so. The government partially does it secretly, and if I don't comply I will go to jail.

But you took my words out of context. I am talking about "general forms of tax". For example income tax, sales tax and all taxes that have no specific purpose. Buy an airline ticket? You pay security tax. Fine, fair and square. I choose to buy an airplane ticket and the government has to provide security, ATC etc. So I pay taxes for it. But why the F should I pay income taxes to the government can bail out "Too big to fail" crooks?

I am not opposed to paying taxes in general, I'm just opposed to that "we're taking your money and put it in our wallet, and we'll see later what we'll do with it. But trust us, it's in your interest" crap. You want my money, I want to see (and preferably have a voice as to) what you're doing with it.

Actually, the "u" in utopia means "not", u-topia = not a place. Reference

> If your ideas are valuable, market them

Again and again this fallacy. Please grow up: valuable [2, 3] does NOT imply marketable. There are a lot of thing of great value or invaluable not marketable. Most of the fundamental science falls in this category.

Huh. "Illiquid" has been a word for more than 300 years. The more you know!

Actually, that might just be the improvement to pull Microsoft out of the dulldrums!

Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.

*A* person might be smart, somewhere, but it isn't you.

what is yammer.

From reference.com:

verb (used without object)
1. to whine or complain.
2. to make an outcry or clamor.
3. to talk loudly and persistently.
verb (used with object)
4. to utter clamorously, persistently, or in complaint:
They yammered their complaints until she let them see the movie.
noun
5. the act or noise of yammering.

Every definition I've seen disagrees with you.

Your flat tax is actually defined as "proportional," not "progressive."

"Beg the question" is a commonly misused phrase that you probably confused with the uncommonly used phrase "begs questions".

You are apparently objecting to something that did not even exist except in your own mind.

I suppose if I were not a native English speaker, I could not have a conversation with you because you would be constantly correcting me on idioms I supposedly misused, only to find I simply mistranslated something that you otherwise, if not for your thickheadedness, would have understood just fine.

Mr. or Miss "as if you care", we don't care, and we would be better off without you.

Here's why: Every year "the dictionary", read as various dictionary publishers, routinely add new words that are in common use. Why? To document their usage and meaning.

Here's why also: "The dictionary" commonly adds meanings to words because of the different ways they are used. Encyclopedic dictionaries typically give date ranges for when they were introduced as meaning that.

http://dictionary.reference.co...

According to dictionary.com, "prompt" as you used it above could mean any of 14 different things. How am I, as a simple grammar Nazi, supposed to determine which of 14 different meanings you intended? Maybe I can narrow it down to 5 or so by diagramming your sentence.

Here's an idea: go back in time and tell everyone who uses "beg the question" incorrectly to FOAD before their idiocy becomes popular.

If you can't do that, go back in time to the first instance of you reading some idiot complaining about incorrect usage of "beg the question" and tell that person the fight is already lost because people are too stupid to use words correctly.

If you can't do that, stick a sock in it and let us get back to talking about things.

> Big turbines with lots of high pressure steam get the job done far better than little ones. Of course you could have something like a lot of little pebble bed reactors

Modular
noun
something, as a house or piece of furniture, built or organized in self-contained units or sections.
http://dictionary.reference.co...

Modularity has nothing to do with big versus small. Think of a modular home for example, it's not made up of lots of little homes. Modular means steam from one reactor core piped to different turbines, for example, because the turbine attaches to the reactor core only at defined interface points, otherwise they are separate modules. Which means you can do maintenance on a turbine module without touching the reactor core.

Lets add some fuel to this fire. The "correct" phrase is "I couldn't care less", which started as a British saying. Somehow stateside the abbreviated "not" portion got stripped. Once it became "I could care less" it became nonsensicle, sense it implies that there is some small amount of caring there.

Source:
dictionary.com
Grammar Girl

Breaching unpaid-for features is theft.

You are so full of bullshit that it is leaking out of your nose. Shill.

Theft: the wrongful removal of personal property. You have to deprive some owner of the benefits of his ownership. Tangibly. Never mind bullshit like "presumed profits now unrealized". Nobody is taking away anything that belongs to anybody else here. This is simple reverse engineering (a rather trivial form of same) which has been a natural right since time immemorial. Not until governments were completely bought off by fucking soulless corporations did patently immoral and unfair shit like the DMCA get passed into (grossly evil and illegitimate) law.

Suppose someone actually discovered a natural fountain of youth, took ownership of it by bribing the government, and merchandised it. Suppose he sells 100 ml bottles of it labeled "plant food" for $5, and 100 ml bottles of it labeled "cancer cure" for $500,000. Let it be stipulated that they both "work"; i.e., they are effective in their labeled applications. Now someone analyzes them both chemically and determines that they are identical. So he publishes his findings on the internet and points out that you only have to spend $5, not $500,000 to cure your cancer. Theft? HELL NO.

That's because the Meriam Webster definition quote from above only quotes the abstract, not the full definition:

the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group

emphasis added.

It is not enough to merely kill (nor is killing a hard requirement). The main point behind genocide is an attempt at destruction of the race. This is also reflected in other sources

Wikipedia:

Genocide is the systematic destruction of all or part of a racial, ethnic, religious or national group...

Dictionary.com:

the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.

The amount of Palestinians killed by Israel is so small, it has not even stopped natural growth. You cannot destroy a race if you're not even significantly affecting natural growth.

This brings me back to my original claim: Either Israel is being completely incompetent about it, or this claim is pure bullshit.

It's not clear whether Hamas is attempting genocide or something else. I for one, haven't managed to deduce any meaningful aims from their actions.

One way or the other, genocide is very clearly listed in Hamas's charter. Then again, equally clearly, is that even if that's what they are attempting, they are very very very far from successful. In this case, however, you can blame incompetence. I think their incompetence renders the question of whether that's what they are attempting moot.

Shachar

duct tape and bailing wire not included

bail: to clear of water by dipping (usually followed by out ): to bail out a boat
bale: to make (hay, etc) into a bale or bales

Try "baling". Also, try not using words you don't understand.

duct tape and bailing wire not included

bail: to clear of water by dipping (usually followed by out ): to bail out a boat
bale: to make (hay, etc) into a bale or bales

Try "baling". Also, try not using words you don't understand.