Actually, it is. It contains Caffeine, Theobromine, and other chemicals, that with the correct dose can kill you. Theobromine is actually responsible for the death of dogs and cats that have consumed too much chocolate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobromine
Yes, I was being flippant. It cost me over $1000 for a vet to look after our Kelpie/Heeler cross when he ingested about 1/2 kilo of my daughter's dark chocolate earlier this year. Fortunately, one of the girls recognized the problem, when he started getting hyperactive and racing around the yard.
The girls wouldn't allow "nature to take it's course", and get another similar dog from the pound for $50 next weekend - oh no! It had to be the full service, with my car as the ambulance to transport a hyperactive cattle dog to the overnight vet at about 1 a.m. local time. My credit card, as well, of course!
Needless to say, chocolate is now kept either behind locked doors, or on a VERY high shelf in our house.
If you're convinced enough of that that so you're willing to limit others' personal choices (as in banning or limiting abortion), then it's not hard to see going from there to being in favor of a ban on research.
It's amazing, isn't it. So called "Pro-Lifers" have no compunction at all about trying to force their beliefs on everyone else (regardless of the merits or sources of those beliefs), while defending bitterly their own right to deny anyone else trying to do the same, but from the opposite direction. It's worse than that, actually, because most of what the non "Pro-Lifers" want to achieve has no direct bearing on the "pro-lifers", but still they oppose it "on principle(?????)"
Wouldn't we all be better off if people minded their own business, and allowed their fellow beings to do the same? Without going off the deep end every time someone who disagrees with their stance says anything?
Being an aviation buff from way back, at 61 I still find Microsoft's Flight Sim (current version FSX) to be a great way to relax, use the grey matter a bit, and exercise the old coordination a lot. I started with FS2, back in the days of MS-DOS, and haven't missed too many beats since then.
If playing games doesn't fully satisfy, try building add-ons for the "opener" of the games. Once again, FS has always been remarkably open (for a Microsoft product), and you can go beyond the simple repaints / remodels available for some other games out there, and build whole cities, airports, airlines, and lots of other add ons, for the world to enjoy.
Flight Sim not your speed? How about Sim City? Or for a shoot-em-up that still works for me - GTA?
Whatever you decide on, there is no doubt in my mind that we do slow down, and if you are afflicted with arthritis, I am truly sorry for you - it's a penalty that a lot of people get as they age (including my wife), and one that can really restrict what a person can do.
I'm not turning it off to save money - I'm turning it off to minimize the greenhouse effect it has wehen it's not in use. In an earlier life, I was a professional programmer myself, so I understand where you are coming from with your comments about the technology.
Unfortunately, I also have a passion for possibly the most machine intensive game ever developed, and am still trying to find a hardware combination capable of running MSX with a full load of AI, high quality scenery, and all the bells and whistles turned on (FS9 gave me decent results, but that's a different story). MY PC returns in excess of 23000 (yes 000) in 3DMark05, and over 11,000 in 3DMark06, but a measly 4.5 frames persecond in a lot of places in FSX!
Um, I have to confess that I always close down my computers when I'm not using them. I also turn off lights, televisions, radios, heaters, coolers etc, when there is no need to run them - but then, I do pay the fuel bills in my housdehold, and have to try to counteract two adult daughters, who seem to think that electricity grows on trees!
I have a power switch to remove power from my PC and its accessories, once I've powered down the PC.
Personally, I don't care whether I kill the PC a couple of years earlier or not - it's going to be replaced anyway, and that includes the PSU, because whatever you have in there is going to be too small next year, anyway.
In my case, that lost life is more than compensated for by the power savings I make, on a regular basis, by having as few electronic devices powered up as possible. Even my digital converter set top box is powered down at the switch when I'm not using it, and the television that it's connected to is powered down then, too.
Small efforts, but if enough do it, then big savings.
Now, back to the original question. I usually have FF open, with between 1 and about 36 tabs open - the latter when I am trying to download a series of files from an on line repository (old fashioned that I am, I don't torrent, or P2P, but thyen the files I'm downloading usually aren't big enough to worry). 1 window for Outlook, sometimes 1 window for Hotmail (in IE - I've always found that FF tends to screw up Hotmail - even more than it already is!). 1 window for Word, often with half a dozen documents open at the same time, Excel with two or three, and Paint Shop Pro cutting in and out as needed. A virus scanner that takes over the PC at the most inconvenient times (I know - you set your own times, but whenever that time is, it's always the most inconvenient time that week - a possible reason for keeping the PC on one night a week, perhaps?). All the other stuff comes and goes as required, so that's about it. Total of perhaps 20 - 30 if you count individual open documents as being equivalent to open windows (as appears to be the case with FF tabs) - otherwise, half a dozen at most for me.
Unless you have a 1990 (or there abouts) Nissan Pulsar with a Bosch circuit board in the computer, in which case Nissan was replacing them in cars up to 4 years old (well outside of warranty) because of faulty circuit boards!
Free market anarchy is fine, and i do tend to agree with a lot of what you say, but i have a couple of worries.
1 - The Second Amendment is a national legal instrument that plays no part in life outside of your borders. Many countries, for their own 9often valid) reasons, have chosen to either regulate or ban firearms, and your Second Amendment has nothing to do with their approach on the law. For those countries, firearm trafficking is a big problem - even if it isn't for you.
2 - The abrogation of all copyright laws is well and good for users of the intellectual property who believe that it's a good idea not to pay for anything that they can get away with. Just a few problems with that approach:
2.1 - The smaller the (paying) market, the larger the payment necessary to recompense for the cost of development, whether it's software, music, video or any other work of intennectual endeavour. Now, I know that many develop for the love of it, but for many others, this is their work, and the source of their livelihood. Will you, for the free property, pay to fead, heat and clothe the people who will from now on provide your entertainment but who now have no income? Get another job, you say! OK, so who now is making your software, your videos, your music? Because in the end, it's about money, and it has to be sourced from somewhere.
2.2 - It's all about free choice. You (and I) are free to pay or not to pay for someone else's intellectual capital, and if that someone else is willing to give it away for free, then well done, that fellow, thanks a lot, and all that. But if someone says "No, I want to sell this instead of give it away", then that is his or her right to do so, and taking it without payment is no less theft than stealing someone's car, or burgling someone's house. You may not like it, but the first time you have a home that you own taken over by squatters, you'll see the other side of this particular problem. In the mean time, believe me when I say that copyright, however poorly it currently serves us, is better than the alternative.
Cigarettes? Don't care!
Alcohol? Don't care
Fish poaching? DO care. The Japanese have just been caught out overfishing Blue Fin Tuna for the past 20 years or so, to the tune of many billions of dollars of this limited food stock. It's taken this long for the world to catch up with them, and they've just about fished out Blue Fin Tuna now. They are trying to do the same to the Whales, in the name of "scientific research", and if a large number of national governments can't satop them, what chance do you think that Green Peace or their ilk has?
Well, this is a list of monetary values of trafficked goods, and i suppose the key word is traffcked. How do you put a value on something that we are told is traded across the world with little or no money changing hands, just because the perverted b******s who do it get their jollies from showing this filth to other people? Big, high number in my list of trafficking PROBLEMS, but probably low in the list of money earners.
Hopefully, there aren't enough sick MFs out there to make monetary exchange worth some crim's time.
I would have absolutely no problem with documents that impact on our daily life, provided they are truly global in their application, or if not global in themselves, they contain sufficient globally applicable material to make them worth while.
Unfortunately, global is difficult, even within a single language group, because of differences between cultures within a single language group.
As for my nationalistic high horse - that really does sound like the pot calling the kettle black.
"Wikipedia and Slashdot originated in and are owned and run by people in the United States. Sure the Internet is a worldwide thing, but don't gripe if a majority of people on those sites appear to be American."
How do you think that comes across if not jingoistic and very 19th century?
While you are facing inward, I am very much in a minority here, by the looks of things, in wanting desperately to face outward, and encompass people, not shut them out of the resource that is Wikipaedia, but if you stuff it full of US-centric stuff, guess what? You'll have lost the rest of the world, and that would be very sad, and you too will be among the losers.
If people have seen my comments as high handed, or anti anything, I unreservedly apologize.
I'll be in the US again in about 10 days time - the seventh time in the last 24 months, so i am definitely not an American hater, or anything like it.
In my defence, I'll just say that I, along with a lot of other people, cannot abide the attitude that appears so prevelant that anything American is good - anything else doesn't matter, unless it controls lots of oil (joke! Really!)
My comments were to point out that most of the prior posts in the thread were discussing items that are, to the rest of us, very provincial, and that for $100m to be spent well, requires a LOT of careful thought, and should be spent to improve the Wikpaedia resource for everyone, not just a small part of the world's population.
I personally think that to spend it satisfying the requirements of any provincial population would be a shame, but if it is to be, then so be it.
BTW, what would you think if it turned out that the benefactor were European, and wanted a European bias in everything that the money was spent on? Does that change your attitude towards the value of textbooks, etc, that may end up in the Wiki as a result of the donation?
I can agree with your weish that everyone use the same textbooks, but whose textbooks should we all use?
Religious studies from Iran?
History from Japan?
Politics from North Korea?
Economics from Brazil?
English from the West Indies?
And that's part of the rub. The NIH syndrome.
The other part is the academic's perquisites. Ever noticed how the text you have to study is often written by yout lecturer, or one of his/her friends? Think it's coincidental? Not on your life. Academics aren't particularly well paid, and they extend their income by regularly revising their own textbooks, thus forcing people to buy new copies, instead of relying on last year's model.
So, as soon as you buy the copyright for some textbook, I can just about guarantee that the person who wrote it will be out there, beavering away, to change his/her text sufficiently to warrant a new edition for next year's students!
And as for standardized curricula across national boundaries, it would probably be worth considering getting some agreement on curricula issues between states, or even between counties, in a lot of parts of the world, before the thorny issue of amalgamating curricula between countries is tackled.
A nice cosy little world we live in. I had thought that Wikpedia was for the world's use, but i see now that I am wrong. By the flavour of the posts above, it is very much an American resource.
Text books, for instance. Where countries have radically different curriculum at different years, and text books do change from year to year, and from location to location (economics, accounting, history, politics, botany, language, English, geography, medicine, pharmaceuticals, law, for example) ALL vary from year to year and from country to country.
Reminds me of the story of the very eminent economist who went back to his alma mater for a visit, and saw the current examination papers.
"Why, these are the self same questions I had to answer when I was here!" he exclaimed.
"Yes", replied the Dean, "But the answers are completely different!"
Repair manuals is another area where geographic and periodic differences would render anything of this nature very transient.
What is the average life of a model of car, or a model of washing machine, for instance. Not very long, if the marketers have any say about it. And not very geographically wide spread, either. In America, do you know what a 2006 Monaro, or Statesman, or even Falcon even look like? No, most of you, except for the car freaks probably say "No", and I'd say the same about your makes and models, too, of course.
Gutenberg, atlases, ancient literature and history, and just aboiut any material that doesn't impact on our daily lives, with multiple interpretations would be fine for this, but manuals, text books, histories - only if you want to kill Wikpaedia off as an internationally reputable repository of information.
Yes, cause of effect.
I am a Type 2 (mature onset) diabetic, and I controlled my diabetes for many years with diet and tablets. My weight hardly varied from one year to the next, but the effect of the tablets slowly lessened, and eventually I had to start using insulin. That was about 12 years ago.
Next Monday, I go to see the Melbourne Retina Association, because my optometrist has identified (he thinks)wet macular degenration in both of my eyes. I am using 100 units (not sure if that means any thing in the US) twice a day of Mixtard 30/70 to control my blood sugar levels, and on insulin, weight control is MUCH more difficult, according to my Endocrinologist AND my GP, but I have managed to maintain, and slightly decrease, my weight since I started on insulin injections.
What does this all mean? Well, for one, it means that the time that I can continue to contribute to forums such as this is probably limited, as when I lose my central vision, and am left with just peripheral vision, I don't believe that computers will be a resource available to me any more. Then there are the small veinous haemorages in the lower ventricles of my heart, that currently only show up after forced, vigorous exercise, and which will get worse over time. Add to that the lack of any hair on my legs (yes, hair disappears from the lower extremities) and the much lowered libido that comes with the tablets that they pump in to you.....
Do any of you think that I am enjoying going down hill like this? Or that if more exercise and an even more rigorous diet would help that I wopuldn't be at it straight away? If you do, then you are in cloud cuckoo land!
Now, I for one resent the "Fatties of the world" tag, and find the smart arse comments distasteful, to say the least.
I would describe them as "Conservative Socialists", as they are all in favour of the state supporting their core constituents (the farmers) at every turn. They tend to be against any policy that extends the same welfare to the non-farming community, being of the mind that such people are there to SUPPORT the farmer, and thus should be grateful to be able to contribute to farming subsidies!
They are now called the Nats - a shortening of their name that they couldn't contemplate prior to changing their name from the Country Party, of course.
I quite agree with the usage and abusage of words in our shared language.
Gay is another word that has totally changed its meaning. Liberal, Sophisticated (tried a sophisticated wine lately?), for instance, not to mention such subtlties as Freedom Fries, etc.
A language that stagnates, dies. Much as you may want to set it in concrete, it isn't going to happen, because English is a living, changing language. And the dictionary writers fully recognize this - that's why they issue new versions of their product every 10 years or so - not to force all and sundry to purchase their works, but because the language has cxhanged.
Most of the rude little four letter words that we mostly shy away from in venues such as this one have good Anglo-Saxon roots, and as such, were freely used in polite society by that community. Funnily ewnough, a lot of them are coming back into more common usage than they have enjoyed for several hundred years.
Scuttlebutt is in use in your navy (or was, the last time I looked), but its meaning is nothing like what it originally meant.
"He fell for it, Lock, Stock and Barrell" still gets used, but what does it REALLY mean?
"Hook line and sinker" is a similar, but still identifiable, simile to the above, of course.
Face it, you want to strangle the language, and not let it evolve naturally, you're just an old fuddy-duddy reactionary. In that, you have plenty of soul mates, I'm sure.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, I was being flippant. It cost me over $1000 for a vet to look after our Kelpie/Heeler cross when he ingested about 1/2 kilo of my daughter's dark chocolate earlier this year. Fortunately, one of the girls recognized the problem, when he started getting hyperactive and racing around the yard.
The girls wouldn't allow "nature to take it's course", and get another similar dog from the pound for $50 next weekend - oh no! It had to be the full service, with my car as the ambulance to transport a hyperactive cattle dog to the overnight vet at about 1 a.m. local time. My credit card, as well, of course!
Needless to say, chocolate is now kept either behind locked doors, or on a VERY high shelf in our house.
More like lecturing gramer! (you know - as in "teaching gramer to suck eggs" - loaded with botulism, of course!)
Oh no! CHOCOLATE IS TOXIC!!!!! How will we ever survive without it! (I KNEW that there must be a rerason why it tastes so good!)
It's amazing, isn't it. So called "Pro-Lifers" have no compunction at all about trying to force their beliefs on everyone else (regardless of the merits or sources of those beliefs), while defending bitterly their own right to deny anyone else trying to do the same, but from the opposite direction. It's worse than that, actually, because most of what the non "Pro-Lifers" want to achieve has no direct bearing on the "pro-lifers", but still they oppose it "on principle(?????)"
Wouldn't we all be better off if people minded their own business, and allowed their fellow beings to do the same? Without going off the deep end every time someone who disagrees with their stance says anything?
Oh yes - the old ones are always the good ones!
Oooooh! She wouldn't like that!
I thought that it was an old car from Mitsubishi, so perhaps Demming was involved, after all!
I thought that the original of this was that people don't get the politicians that they need, they get the politicians that they deserve!
If playing games doesn't fully satisfy, try building add-ons for the "opener" of the games. Once again, FS has always been remarkably open (for a Microsoft product), and you can go beyond the simple repaints / remodels available for some other games out there, and build whole cities, airports, airlines, and lots of other add ons, for the world to enjoy.
Flight Sim not your speed? How about Sim City? Or for a shoot-em-up that still works for me - GTA?
Whatever you decide on, there is no doubt in my mind that we do slow down, and if you are afflicted with arthritis, I am truly sorry for you - it's a penalty that a lot of people get as they age (including my wife), and one that can really restrict what a person can do.
Unfortunately, I also have a passion for possibly the most machine intensive game ever developed, and am still trying to find a hardware combination capable of running MSX with a full load of AI, high quality scenery, and all the bells and whistles turned on (FS9 gave me decent results, but that's a different story). MY PC returns in excess of 23000 (yes 000) in 3DMark05, and over 11,000 in 3DMark06, but a measly 4.5 frames persecond in a lot of places in FSX!
I have a power switch to remove power from my PC and its accessories, once I've powered down the PC.
Personally, I don't care whether I kill the PC a couple of years earlier or not - it's going to be replaced anyway, and that includes the PSU, because whatever you have in there is going to be too small next year, anyway.
In my case, that lost life is more than compensated for by the power savings I make, on a regular basis, by having as few electronic devices powered up as possible. Even my digital converter set top box is powered down at the switch when I'm not using it, and the television that it's connected to is powered down then, too.
Small efforts, but if enough do it, then big savings.
Now, back to the original question. I usually have FF open, with between 1 and about 36 tabs open - the latter when I am trying to download a series of files from an on line repository (old fashioned that I am, I don't torrent, or P2P, but thyen the files I'm downloading usually aren't big enough to worry). 1 window for Outlook, sometimes 1 window for Hotmail (in IE - I've always found that FF tends to screw up Hotmail - even more than it already is!). 1 window for Word, often with half a dozen documents open at the same time, Excel with two or three, and Paint Shop Pro cutting in and out as needed. A virus scanner that takes over the PC at the most inconvenient times (I know - you set your own times, but whenever that time is, it's always the most inconvenient time that week - a possible reason for keeping the PC on one night a week, perhaps?). All the other stuff comes and goes as required, so that's about it. Total of perhaps 20 - 30 if you count individual open documents as being equivalent to open windows (as appears to be the case with FF tabs) - otherwise, half a dozen at most for me.
Unless you have a 1990 (or there abouts) Nissan Pulsar with a Bosch circuit board in the computer, in which case Nissan was replacing them in cars up to 4 years old (well outside of warranty) because of faulty circuit boards!
Nah - Basil Brush, without a doubt!
1 - The Second Amendment is a national legal instrument that plays no part in life outside of your borders. Many countries, for their own 9often valid) reasons, have chosen to either regulate or ban firearms, and your Second Amendment has nothing to do with their approach on the law. For those countries, firearm trafficking is a big problem - even if it isn't for you.
2 - The abrogation of all copyright laws is well and good for users of the intellectual property who believe that it's a good idea not to pay for anything that they can get away with. Just a few problems with that approach:
2.1 - The smaller the (paying) market, the larger the payment necessary to recompense for the cost of development, whether it's software, music, video or any other work of intennectual endeavour. Now, I know that many develop for the love of it, but for many others, this is their work, and the source of their livelihood. Will you, for the free property, pay to fead, heat and clothe the people who will from now on provide your entertainment but who now have no income? Get another job, you say! OK, so who now is making your software, your videos, your music? Because in the end, it's about money, and it has to be sourced from somewhere.
2.2 - It's all about free choice. You (and I) are free to pay or not to pay for someone else's intellectual capital, and if that someone else is willing to give it away for free, then well done, that fellow, thanks a lot, and all that. But if someone says "No, I want to sell this instead of give it away", then that is his or her right to do so, and taking it without payment is no less theft than stealing someone's car, or burgling someone's house. You may not like it, but the first time you have a home that you own taken over by squatters, you'll see the other side of this particular problem. In the mean time, believe me when I say that copyright, however poorly it currently serves us, is better than the alternative.
Cigarettes? Don't care!
Alcohol? Don't care
Fish poaching? DO care. The Japanese have just been caught out overfishing Blue Fin Tuna for the past 20 years or so, to the tune of many billions of dollars of this limited food stock. It's taken this long for the world to catch up with them, and they've just about fished out Blue Fin Tuna now. They are trying to do the same to the Whales, in the name of "scientific research", and if a large number of national governments can't satop them, what chance do you think that Green Peace or their ilk has?
Hopefully, there aren't enough sick MFs out there to make monetary exchange worth some crim's time.
Unfortunately, global is difficult, even within a single language group, because of differences between cultures within a single language group.
As for my nationalistic high horse - that really does sound like the pot calling the kettle black.
"Wikipedia and Slashdot originated in and are owned and run by people in the United States. Sure the Internet is a worldwide thing, but don't gripe if a majority of people on those sites appear to be American."
How do you think that comes across if not jingoistic and very 19th century?
While you are facing inward, I am very much in a minority here, by the looks of things, in wanting desperately to face outward, and encompass people, not shut them out of the resource that is Wikipaedia, but if you stuff it full of US-centric stuff, guess what? You'll have lost the rest of the world, and that would be very sad, and you too will be among the losers.
I'll be in the US again in about 10 days time - the seventh time in the last 24 months, so i am definitely not an American hater, or anything like it.
In my defence, I'll just say that I, along with a lot of other people, cannot abide the attitude that appears so prevelant that anything American is good - anything else doesn't matter, unless it controls lots of oil (joke! Really!)
My comments were to point out that most of the prior posts in the thread were discussing items that are, to the rest of us, very provincial, and that for $100m to be spent well, requires a LOT of careful thought, and should be spent to improve the Wikpaedia resource for everyone, not just a small part of the world's population.
I personally think that to spend it satisfying the requirements of any provincial population would be a shame, but if it is to be, then so be it.
BTW, what would you think if it turned out that the benefactor were European, and wanted a European bias in everything that the money was spent on? Does that change your attitude towards the value of textbooks, etc, that may end up in the Wiki as a result of the donation?
Think about it.
Religious studies from Iran?
History from Japan?
Politics from North Korea?
Economics from Brazil?
English from the West Indies?
And that's part of the rub. The NIH syndrome.
The other part is the academic's perquisites. Ever noticed how the text you have to study is often written by yout lecturer, or one of his/her friends? Think it's coincidental? Not on your life. Academics aren't particularly well paid, and they extend their income by regularly revising their own textbooks, thus forcing people to buy new copies, instead of relying on last year's model.
So, as soon as you buy the copyright for some textbook, I can just about guarantee that the person who wrote it will be out there, beavering away, to change his/her text sufficiently to warrant a new edition for next year's students!
And as for standardized curricula across national boundaries, it would probably be worth considering getting some agreement on curricula issues between states, or even between counties, in a lot of parts of the world, before the thorny issue of amalgamating curricula between countries is tackled.
The only one of those I've even HEARD of is the VW Golf, and you don't see many of them on our roads, anyway!
Text books, for instance. Where countries have radically different curriculum at different years, and text books do change from year to year, and from location to location (economics, accounting, history, politics, botany, language, English, geography, medicine, pharmaceuticals, law, for example) ALL vary from year to year and from country to country.
Reminds me of the story of the very eminent economist who went back to his alma mater for a visit, and saw the current examination papers.
"Why, these are the self same questions I had to answer when I was here!" he exclaimed.
"Yes", replied the Dean, "But the answers are completely different!"
Repair manuals is another area where geographic and periodic differences would render anything of this nature very transient.
What is the average life of a model of car, or a model of washing machine, for instance. Not very long, if the marketers have any say about it. And not very geographically wide spread, either. In America, do you know what a 2006 Monaro, or Statesman, or even Falcon even look like? No, most of you, except for the car freaks probably say "No", and I'd say the same about your makes and models, too, of course.
Gutenberg, atlases, ancient literature and history, and just aboiut any material that doesn't impact on our daily lives, with multiple interpretations would be fine for this, but manuals, text books, histories - only if you want to kill Wikpaedia off as an internationally reputable repository of information.
Next Monday, I go to see the Melbourne Retina Association, because my optometrist has identified (he thinks)wet macular degenration in both of my eyes. I am using 100 units (not sure if that means any thing in the US) twice a day of Mixtard 30/70 to control my blood sugar levels, and on insulin, weight control is MUCH more difficult, according to my Endocrinologist AND my GP, but I have managed to maintain, and slightly decrease, my weight since I started on insulin injections.
What does this all mean? Well, for one, it means that the time that I can continue to contribute to forums such as this is probably limited, as when I lose my central vision, and am left with just peripheral vision, I don't believe that computers will be a resource available to me any more. Then there are the small veinous haemorages in the lower ventricles of my heart, that currently only show up after forced, vigorous exercise, and which will get worse over time. Add to that the lack of any hair on my legs (yes, hair disappears from the lower extremities) and the much lowered libido that comes with the tablets that they pump in to you.....
Do any of you think that I am enjoying going down hill like this? Or that if more exercise and an even more rigorous diet would help that I wopuldn't be at it straight away? If you do, then you are in cloud cuckoo land!
Now, I for one resent the "Fatties of the world" tag, and find the smart arse comments distasteful, to say the least.
They are now called the Nats - a shortening of their name that they couldn't contemplate prior to changing their name from the Country Party, of course.
Take away the lock, the stock and the barrel, and you don't have much left of the musket.
Similarly, if you don't use a rod, fishing without hook, line and sinker would be most difficult!
In Australia, the conservative party is called the Liberal Party. Go figure!
Gay is another word that has totally changed its meaning. Liberal, Sophisticated (tried a sophisticated wine lately?), for instance, not to mention such subtlties as Freedom Fries, etc.
A language that stagnates, dies. Much as you may want to set it in concrete, it isn't going to happen, because English is a living, changing language. And the dictionary writers fully recognize this - that's why they issue new versions of their product every 10 years or so - not to force all and sundry to purchase their works, but because the language has cxhanged.
Most of the rude little four letter words that we mostly shy away from in venues such as this one have good Anglo-Saxon roots, and as such, were freely used in polite society by that community. Funnily ewnough, a lot of them are coming back into more common usage than they have enjoyed for several hundred years.
Scuttlebutt is in use in your navy (or was, the last time I looked), but its meaning is nothing like what it originally meant.
"He fell for it, Lock, Stock and Barrell" still gets used, but what does it REALLY mean?
"Hook line and sinker" is a similar, but still identifiable, simile to the above, of course.
Face it, you want to strangle the language, and not let it evolve naturally, you're just an old fuddy-duddy reactionary. In that, you have plenty of soul mates, I'm sure.