I would argue that the fact that we have homophones in the first place is a bad thing. Ideally: One sound, one spelling, one meaning (except possibly allowing for metaphorical meanings derived from that).
You do realize that by doing so you would kill the pun, thus depriving many people of the only humor they understand.
I like the flexibility of English spelling. It is actually useful. Since there are many ways to spell the same sounds, you can spell different words that sound the same differently. That way you don't have to rely on contexts exclusively. For instance: "He went to room number five two." vs "He went to room number five too."
I know it bothers some people, but I use the singular "they" for a gender neutral third person pronoun. I think once a person gets used to it they will prefer it to "he or she".
It's all going to come down to texting. While you're in a driverless car you can text to your hearts content while traveling without fear of being pulled over. Or watch movies. Or have sex. Or drink a fifth of Scotch. Or do all at the same time. How many people are going to turn down this ability for some hypothetical baby/dog recognition bug?
Meanwhile, at Bizcock Studios:
"Ya see, they made two Roy Battys, and one of them did figure out how to stop the incept date, so he lived and he grew old. Ya see, we bring back Rutger Hauer, and that's why he's old, because he stopped the incept date. And we can bring back Daryl Hanna, but she only has one eye, because she looks bad-ass with an eye-patch. And Harrison Ford is out living in the woods and he's happy, and he has a beautiful daughter played by Jennifer Lawrence who is also a mixed martial arts fighter. And Rutger Hauer is leading an army of replicants, just like Battlestar Galactica, and they come to destroy humanity, and they're being controlled by a central brain inside a worm-hole, and Jennifer Lawrence has to send a nuclear bomb through the worm hole."
Growing up in the 70s and 80s I always thought that by this time I would be driving along in some barren post-apocalyptic wasteland in my cobbled-together hot-rod fighting off mohawked motorcycle gangs and saving busty babes from mutant frog-people. Instead I'm reading slashdot in my cubical as my code compiles. Sigh.
13. Supreme Being glances over and says "Hey! I haven't destroyed those ungrateful little twits yet? Kindof embarrassing, I told them Armageddon was supposed to happen 2 thousand years ago. Oh well, if I do it now maybe no one will notice I'm late"
14. Vogon construction of an intergalactic highway.
I can usually tell who wrote the code in the office by whether or not they put a space after their ifs: if(i == 0) vs if (i == 0); where they put their brackets, whether or not they replace their tabs with spaces, how they deal with bools: if (!var) vs if (var == false) and several other telling signs. There are so many combinations of variations no two programmers in the office (about 12 of us) have the same style.
99% of alien life can be undetectable for whatever reason. If 1% is expansionist, a representative of that 1% could colonize every star system in a galaxy the size of the Milky Way in less than 3 million years, a cosmic eye blink.
There was a book a while back, "Rare Earth", that touched on a lot of these issues. One of the possible conclusions is we may actually be the first intelligent species to hit space flight in our galaxy. At some point there has to be a first after all.
I hope we are the first. Otherwise we Terrans would end up being second class citizens of the galaxy.
I used to work on my '78 Chevy Nova because it was easy to reach all the parts of the engine. You could practically climb into the engine compartment. When I look at the engine compartment in my Ford Focus the parts are fitted as tightly as the stones in Machu Picchu. Now I take my car to the shop and let them handle it.
I have an iPhone 4, still in perfect condition, that I have in an OtterBox. I keep the thing clipped to my belt--I know it's not cool to keep your phone clipped to your belt, but I've been waiting since childhood to live in a future where I can walk around with a computer/communication device clipped to my belt, so dammit I'm going to do it!
Economic inequality is just getting back to its historical levels. Starting with the Great Depression, the US government realized it had to do some serious wealth redistribution to avoid societal collapse. Then came World War II, another big wealth redistribution. After the war there was the GI bill and the Cold War, where the United States, in order to look good compared to Communism, tried to build the Great Society. After the Cold War there was no reason for those in power to reduce economic inequality, so now it's going back to the norm for history.
Slashdot Mirror
Look at the US. It took less time to bread out intelligence.
I come to slashdot for the rye remarks.
No because 'they' is plural those leading to more ambiguity. If you want a neuter third person use 'It' as it is the neuter second person in English.
Is "you" singular or plural?
I would argue that the fact that we have homophones in the first place is a bad thing. Ideally: One sound, one spelling, one meaning (except possibly allowing for metaphorical meanings derived from that).
You do realize that by doing so you would kill the pun, thus depriving many people of the only humor they understand.
I like the flexibility of English spelling. It is actually useful. Since there are many ways to spell the same sounds, you can spell different words that sound the same differently. That way you don't have to rely on contexts exclusively. For instance: "He went to room number five two." vs "He went to room number five too."
I know it bothers some people, but I use the singular "they" for a gender neutral third person pronoun. I think once a person gets used to it they will prefer it to "he or she".
Once the internet is officially no longer anonymous, you'll see the power skew significantly toward 'the Man'.
My job is a lot more difficult than raising my daughter is (although not a more important job than being a dad).
You haven't been through the teen years yet I take it.
It's all going to come down to texting. While you're in a driverless car you can text to your hearts content while traveling without fear of being pulled over. Or watch movies. Or have sex. Or drink a fifth of Scotch. Or do all at the same time. How many people are going to turn down this ability for some hypothetical baby/dog recognition bug?
Meanwhile, at Bizcock Studios: "Ya see, they made two Roy Battys, and one of them did figure out how to stop the incept date, so he lived and he grew old. Ya see, we bring back Rutger Hauer, and that's why he's old, because he stopped the incept date. And we can bring back Daryl Hanna, but she only has one eye, because she looks bad-ass with an eye-patch. And Harrison Ford is out living in the woods and he's happy, and he has a beautiful daughter played by Jennifer Lawrence who is also a mixed martial arts fighter. And Rutger Hauer is leading an army of replicants, just like Battlestar Galactica, and they come to destroy humanity, and they're being controlled by a central brain inside a worm-hole, and Jennifer Lawrence has to send a nuclear bomb through the worm hole."
This episode of often mentioned as one of the worst, but it's one of my favorites, especially the "What is brain?" scene.
Unless there are multiple Spocks with one brain.
WHY CAN'T THEY JUST LEAVE ENOUGH ALONE! (pump fist into the sky) THERE ARE SOME THINGS MORE IMPORTANT THAN MONEY!
Time to start raising my clone body for the head transplant when I'm old.
Damn, you beat me to it.
I want to make a new food product for babies that contains traces of peanuts, dog and cat dander, and bee venom.
Growing up in the 70s and 80s I always thought that by this time I would be driving along in some barren post-apocalyptic wasteland in my cobbled-together hot-rod fighting off mohawked motorcycle gangs and saving busty babes from mutant frog-people. Instead I'm reading slashdot in my cubical as my code compiles. Sigh.
13. Supreme Being glances over and says "Hey! I haven't destroyed those ungrateful little twits yet? Kindof embarrassing, I told them Armageddon was supposed to happen 2 thousand years ago. Oh well, if I do it now maybe no one will notice I'm late"
14. Vogon construction of an intergalactic highway.
Actually they have recently introduced style cop, which enforces some things, but it ignores a number of discernible quirks.
I can usually tell who wrote the code in the office by whether or not they put a space after their ifs: if(i == 0) vs if (i == 0); where they put their brackets, whether or not they replace their tabs with spaces, how they deal with bools: if (!var) vs if (var == false) and several other telling signs. There are so many combinations of variations no two programmers in the office (about 12 of us) have the same style.
99% of alien life can be undetectable for whatever reason. If 1% is expansionist, a representative of that 1% could colonize every star system in a galaxy the size of the Milky Way in less than 3 million years, a cosmic eye blink.
There was a book a while back, "Rare Earth", that touched on a lot of these issues. One of the possible conclusions is we may actually be the first intelligent species to hit space flight in our galaxy. At some point there has to be a first after all.
I hope we are the first. Otherwise we Terrans would end up being second class citizens of the galaxy.
I used to work on my '78 Chevy Nova because it was easy to reach all the parts of the engine. You could practically climb into the engine compartment. When I look at the engine compartment in my Ford Focus the parts are fitted as tightly as the stones in Machu Picchu. Now I take my car to the shop and let them handle it.
I have an iPhone 4, still in perfect condition, that I have in an OtterBox. I keep the thing clipped to my belt--I know it's not cool to keep your phone clipped to your belt, but I've been waiting since childhood to live in a future where I can walk around with a computer/communication device clipped to my belt, so dammit I'm going to do it!
Economic inequality is just getting back to its historical levels. Starting with the Great Depression, the US government realized it had to do some serious wealth redistribution to avoid societal collapse. Then came World War II, another big wealth redistribution. After the war there was the GI bill and the Cold War, where the United States, in order to look good compared to Communism, tried to build the Great Society. After the Cold War there was no reason for those in power to reduce economic inequality, so now it's going back to the norm for history.
At some point, all words are made up. Irregardless is a perfectly cromulent word.