General Questions Thread

[TinyRedLeaf]

^ I don't see why not, especially since the "-chan" honorific would serve as a term of endearment. So, if the siblings still get along very well even in old age, I wouldn't be surprised to hear a younger sister or brother addressing a beloved elder brother as "onii-chan".

After all, if my uncles and aunts — we're Chinese — still refer to their elder siblings as "kor" (elder brother) or "tsee" (elder sister), when they don't really need to, given their "age", I don't see why the Japanese would be different in this regard.

[Kurush]

Something completely ridiculous, but I'm just curious.

Let's say you hear something about you in the future. You believe it for a start, then you want to make sure that it is actually true. So, you take it to other divinators, all who do not even know each other, and you go to a total of thirty-seven.

And let's say that out of 37, only 2 disagree on the notion.

And given that the things you are told to do are not very good for either society or yourself, what would you do?

[Cipher]

How practically, in terms of practicalness, helpful are forums?

[Crisis]

Are there any websites where you can subscribe for an email update when a new season or OVA or movie is released for a particular anime?

[mit7059]

Originally Posted by Kurush

Something completely ridiculous, but I'm just curious.

Let's say you hear something about you in the future. You believe it for a start, then you want to make sure that it is actually true. So, you take it to other divinators, all who do not even know each other, and you go to a total of thirty-seven.

And let's say that out of 37, only 2 disagree on the notion.

And given that the things you are told to do are not very good for either society or yourself, what would you do?

Personally I would check myself into a mental institution because if I believed a psychic for even a moment I must have gone totally mad.

[-KarumA-]

Making such a prediction is impossible, for one you can never be precise about a situation for example they will never be able to tell you if you are going to die or if something bad is happening to the entire world like a terrorist attack is not possible. The thing you will be told is that somewhere in the future you will grief/get depressed/be saddened or something along those lines. In the future can be at any time, whether it be in an hour or tomorrow and being sad/depressed/grieving can be for any reason (bad day, break up, someone in your street died and you have it on your mind even though you don't know the guy). Never will they tell you that something bad will happen for society and yourself, you can consider it a hoax if a person can tell you stuff in full detail. I've been laying out tarot cards for over 4 years and I know that they will never give out exact information nor will they tell you if it is something that will happen to you or society because they are never exact and their meaning can count for many things, the only thing you can do is wait and find out and even when knowing act like you normally would cause most of the times that is the best solution.
If those people would've been right then the world would've ended back in 2000 D: and in the other year numbers that followed that people were wrong about

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by Gin

Can anyone tell me where is that bird from?

[JRendell]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

Can anyone tell me where is that bird from?

New Zealand my friend.

Link to the source. If you ready the first paragraph of the artcile, it tells you there

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by JRendell

New Zealand my friend.

Link to the source. If you ready the first paragraph of the artcile, it tells you there

Thx... I wonder how I missed this since this seems to be hit of some sort.

[-KarumA-]

I have a question about wordpress. I've made a site with it but now I'm looking for a sidebar widget but I have no idea if it exists and what it is called, perhaps anyone here who uses Wordpress knows it. I'm looking for a widget to put an audio player in my sidebar, nothing too difficult to use either. I've looked around but all I manage to get is getting embed audiofiles in my posts and not int he sidebar

[Irenicus]

What's the pronunciation difference between Miss and Ms., and how can someone with a non-native accent get the hang of it?

[ClockWorkAngel]

Ms is pronounced (M-is) with the "i" being almost entirely silent, but there's just enough of it to make the word tangible. The "s" is also held longer.

Miss is a much quicker sound (M-iss) almost like a snake's hiss (sssssss). In fact their endings of "iss" are pronounced exactly the same.

You'll find that you'll never be wrong with Ms. it works for either martial status. On getting the hang of it, just use it more often I would guess; there's not much else you can to get used to them do after all.

[Splitpersonality]

Ms. is oddly pronounced "Mi-zz", but you hold the i for less time and Mrs. (The abbreviation of Miss) is pronounced "Miss-uhs"

So if you wanted to use Ms, and you were talking to Ms. Smith, you would say "Hello, Mizz Smith", or at least that is how you would pronounce it.

For Miss, you can accentuate the i a bit more as in your were saying "Miss" as in "He missed the target"

In addition, here are two pages that might interest you.

How to pronounce Miss

How to pronounce Ms.

Just click the blue speaker to hear someone say it

[Clarste]

Originally Posted by Splitpersonality

and Mrs. (The abbreviation of Miss) is pronounced "Miss-uhs"

Mrs. is an abbreviation of Mistress, which was the feminine form of Master (Mr.). We still use these old abbreviations even though the pronunciation of the words themselves have changed. Master is now Mister and Mistress is now Missus.

Edit: Of course, we still use the words master and mistress, but not in the sense of everyday honorifics.

[Splitpersonality]

Originally Posted by Clarste

Mrs. is an abbreviation of Mistress, which was the feminine form of Master (Mr.). We still use these old abbreviations even though the pronunciation of the words themselves have changed. Master is now Mister and Mistress is now Missus.

Edit: Of course, we still use the words master and mistress, but not in the sense of everyday honorifics.

I know, I still refer to my teachers are "Missus so-and-so" though, and many people in my school do too, so I figured that was a common thing everywhere.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by ClockWorkAngel

You'll find that you'll never be wrong with Ms. it works for either martial status. On getting the hang of it, just use it more often I would guess; there's not much else you can to get used to them do after all.

If you read carefully, you'll notice that different newspapers and news magazines apply different "house rules" with regard to honorifics.

While Ms and Mrs are often interchangeable, "Ms" is usually understood to refer to an unmarried woman. A married woman is addressed as "Mrs" only if she is being referred to by her husband's surname, for example, Mrs Hillary Clinton or Mrs Angela Merkel. It would definitely be wrong to address them as Ms Hillary Clinton or Ms Angela Merkel.

In its modern usage, "Miss" tends to be the default honorific for very young, unmarried women, that is, teenage girls. It would be almost unkind to address an older, unmarried woman as "Miss", as it may imply that she has "missed the boat".

An older woman, regardless of her marital status, may sometimes prefer to be addressed as "Madam" instead, as this would confer a certain gravitas to her name. As with "Miss", "Madam" is paired only with the woman's maiden surname.

[SeedFreedom]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

If you read carefully, you'll notice that different newspapers and news magazines apply different "house rules" with regard to honorifics.

While Ms and Mrs are often interchangeable, "Ms" is usually understood to refer to an unmarried woman. A married woman is addressed as "Mrs" only if she is being referred to by her husband's surname, for example, Mrs Hillary Clinton or Mrs Angela Merkel. It would definitely be wrong to address them as Ms Hillary Clinton or Ms Angela Merkel.

In its modern usage, "Miss" tends to be the default honorific for very young, unmarried women, that is, teenage girls. It would be almost unkind to address an older, unmarried woman as "Miss", as it may imply that she has "missed the boat".

An older woman, regardless of her marital status, may sometimes prefer to be addressed as "Madam" instead, as this would confer a certain gravitas to her name. As with "Miss", "Madam" is paired only with the woman's maiden surname.

I was always told that Ms was used generally when you don't know the women's martial status and Miss for for unmarried women.

A quick search on Wikipedia explains it. I was wrong about Miss, and it seems to be reserved for younger, mostly under 18, women. Ms on the other hand seems to be the generic honorific for women. However the article focuses on the use in the US so it might be something that has changed since its original use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms.

[Kakashi]

Can someone explain to me what "post-hoc rationalization" means, with an example?

[JRendell]

Originally Posted by Kakashi

Can someone explain to me what "post-hoc rationalization" means, with an example?

Post-Hoc Rationalization

Meanings: after this, therefore because of this

Formulated after the fact (a post-hoc rationalization)

I think it means rather than trying to rationalize something before you know the facts, of which would be more understandable.

Someone might be able to give a better description however.

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by Kakashi

Can someone explain to me what "post-hoc rationalization" means, with an example?

Country A invades Country B for no reason.

The world is angry at Country A.

Country A justifies its invasion: Country B possesses WMD's; therefore Country B is a threat to the world.

Post-hoc rationalization: justifying an action after the fact. In this example, Country A didn't invade Country B because of WMD's, but it justifies its invasion afterward with this reason.

No relation to real world examples intended.