People who don't understand the difference between "then" and "than" tilt me to ****.

2+2 Pokercast Episode 165 about March Madness:

Mike Johnson:"There are less games going on."
Alan Boston:"FEWER!"

Good cartoon:

http://www.newyorker.com/images/2011...15695_p465.gif

Quick question, what is the correct formatting if I wish to use an image in a research paper?

**Not the citation, but actual inclusion in the paper. Do I just reference it and attach a copy at the end?

I'm not sure off hand, but I'd imagine even that depends on MLA, APA, etc, no?

Sorry, should "have" included that, Chicago Style.

I'm not sure if you're serious.

I'm really tired, and sick of typing currently. My grammar being immaculate on an internet forum is incredibly low down on my priorities. I'd appreciate help on my question instead of senseless trolling, its a bore.

I would include the image right in the body. These days, research papers and essays and most published material both online and in print will cite images right in the body. Then footnote it with a reference to where the image was obtained.

That seems reasonable to me.

Because hitting 2 extra keys is going to ruin you. ANYWAY. I will help you.

Is this for a research paper for submission to a journal? If so, have you checked the author guidelines? They are generally quite thorough with this.

Also go here

I would also say using someone else's image is not a good thing to do, and you should adapt it as your own image and just say "figure adapted from Bloggs (2000)". That's just me.

Chinese Restaurants:

We Delivery & Free Deliver

How do you guys prefer to write something like "what are you crazy?" or "what is this the Matrix?"

a) "What, are you crazy?" / "What, is this the Matrix?"
b) "What are you, crazy?" / "What is this, the Matrix?"
c) other

I lean towards b) but I often find myself just using no punctuation at all and letting the reader infer a rhythm.

This is a weird one because if I had to pick, I'd use option b, but i'd probably write it without any punctuation like you said. I think to be totally correct though you might have to go with the double question mark.

ie "What is this? The Matrix?"

Sans punctuation is bad imo. I think the double question mark is okay for the Matrix sentence.

As for PJ's options, I'd go with "What, are you crazy?" and "What is this, the Matrix?" This is how they're spoken, no?

Also, "Are you crazy?" works perfectly well without the "what."

B is totally standard here imo

Not the first one, no. It's usually spoken "whatareyou... CRAZY?" (That's exaggerated, but I often hear the first three words quickly together in a monotone delivery, then a brief pause then an accented "crazy."

Kinda like a David Mamet-type of line "what are you f***ing deaf?" Would be delivered more like "What are you, ****ing deaf?" So that's probably how I would type it but it doesn't look grammatically correct.

It wouldn't look grammatically correct in narrative prose but it works in dialogue. The double question marks disrupt the flow of the sentence too much, as if the speaker is actually stopping to wonder if the person is crazy. It's a rhetorical device, and I think the comma provides the proper emphasis.

Seems like A and B are asking subtly different questions. The "what" can be omitted in A but not B.

Yeah, as I say it out loud a few more times, I agree with you about how it's spoken. But I'm not sure that's what it means. If you replace the comma with a question mark, I think it helps clarify what is really being asked:

(a) What [the f*ck]? Are you crazy?

vs.

(b) What are you? Crazy?

I think the sentence really means (a), and I would assume the comma is best used in place of the question mark.

FWIW, a quick google news search reveals no consensus on this point.

Not even subtle, I would think.

What, are you crazy? = What? Are you crazy? = What did you just say? And doesn't that make you sound crazy?

What are you, crazy? = What are you? Crazy? = What's wrong with you? Is it that you are crazy?

Since both are possible, this seems to argue for the value of punctuation as a guide to meaning. (Spoken, they would sound different.)

not sure if this is the place, but I guess this is the one place where I won't have to explain what I'm talking about. was having a brief argument in another forum cause someone posted that the words "rum" and "dumb" (m-w.com links) are pronounced ˈrəm and ˈdəm, respectively. I was certain that was wrong but was confused because I figured they must have copied and pasted it from somewhere, turns out they got it from m-w.com. Am I missing something here? I've been to a lot of parts of the country and never heard people pronounce these words this way (only "rʌm" and "dʌm"). The only thing I could think of was that it was some kind of british pronunciation, but I'm pretty sure M-W is supposed to have american pronunciations, and also the audio file on m-w.com pronounces them with a ʌ (again, unless I'm missing something). thoughts?

For those of us too lazy to look up what sounds the inverted e and the caret represent, how about you just give us rhyming words?

ʌ - as in "plus"
ə - as in "fur"

the second one is called the schwa and is used in tons and tons of multi-syllabic english words