When the industrial revolution started the workers "would never allow it" then, either. Small groups of people, however organised will never stop truly revolutionary technologies, what ever century they're living in.
What makes you think it is equally as valid as "regardless"?
Because the words used to make a point are not the point themselves, attacking the words someone uses to argue a point when it is clear what they meant is a logical fallacy. Just because someone uses words like "gonna", "ain't" or "irregardless" doesn't make their argument less sound. If you disagree with someone, attack the message, not the means used to deliver it.
The english language is full of problematic and nonsensical words and phrases; that doesn't make them any less valid. For example, I've noticed Americans seem to use "could care less" instead of "couldn't care less" (used here in the UK), but despite not having seen nor heard the American phrase before visiting slashdot I understood the meaning immediately due to the context. The same goes for the word "irregardless", we understand the meaning from the context, I do it with Americanisms in every other post, and I'm sure you do it it Brit-speak as well. Besides I sure ain't gonna stop using common words just so I sound proper...;p
Heh, that's as good as my favourite way to "insult" Americans: "I've got drunk in pubs older than your country" (This isn't actually that hard). Fortunately, most take it in the good humour intended, but I've accidentally really annoyed one or two people with that line (obviously this just makes it funnier).
I'd love to know what exactly that's supposed to mean. Does time work differently in Europe than it does in the rest of the world?
Time works different in Europe in the same way that distance works different in the USA. To quote the old axiom, Americans think that 100 years is a long time, Brits think 100 miles is a long way. Remember we've got over 2000 years of history in the UK alone. OK, a big chunk between the Romans and the Norman invasion in 1066 is missing but that still means we have a over thousand years of documented history. That's just the UK, add the histories of all the other Europian nations and Between us there's a lot of History.
I'm happy for UK to throw its self in with the UN to declare Hindi the international language, provided it can be easily written on computer and there's a common script amongst all these people
Yeah, it's easy to type in if you have the right fonts installed; and hindi itself has a single script. However the other various languages (punjabi, gujrati, urdu etc.) all have different scripts. Ironically (IMO) the one that sound the the most similar to hindi look the least like it!
Other added advantages it has is that it sounds the way it looks, and that it has almost no punctuation (just full stops) so we would eliminate grammar nazis over night.
Disadvantages are that it's a lot less fluid than english, it dosn't change much; new slang etc. all gets spoken in the regonal languages. This has the unfortunate side effect of making it less nuanced than many other languages, but much more definate.
I could tell an almost identical story except using Indian and Hindi instead of Chinese (seriously, it happens whenever I go on holiday with my dad; we always end up at a local Indian restaraunt!).
I guess the moral of the story is being multi-lingual helps when travelling.
Mandarin and Hindi are often listed as the most spoken languages but I think in both cases they encompass a lot of dialects. Perhaps Spanish would be a better international language?
But I'm guessing you'll just say I'm an arrogant European then?
If you want to learn a language from the Indian sub-continent, learn Hindi; you'll be able to communicate not only with those Urdu speakers (spoken, the languages are very similar to the point where no translation of Bollywood movies is needed) but most of the people who speak an indian dialect like gujrati, punjabi etc. also speak Hindi. Indeed, if you go to India, most of the educated classes (i.e. the ones that have been able to afford to emigrate here) speak three languages: local dialect, hindi and english.
Disclaimer: I'm a 3rd gen Indian immigrant who never has to use my Hindi skills; when I try I end up speaking hindi in my native Hampshire accent. I still fully understand it when spoken though.
I live in the UK, I'm a native english speaker. I recently visited Rome, guess what? Making the effort to speak a little Italian, just a few tourist phrases (even if it's only "Mi non parlo Italiano, parli inglese?"; "I don't speak Italian, do you speak english?") meant I could converse with the locals and they certainly seemed to appreciate the effort.
Without that basic knowledge (i.e. a phrasebook), there are many places I went where I could have not have otherwise gone because not everyone speaks english. Yes, even in Rome, a major Capital city people didn't speak english (just try shopping in a non-tourist area).
I hope to go back to Italy, maybe my Italian will improve, but I'm not going to let something as small as a language barrier limit my holiday destinations, I've not been to Spain or Germany or the Chezch Republic yet; I'll learn a little of the local tongue when I visit them as well.
Exactly. Thats one of the things that always pissed me off about Euro trash, you get these guys who are 'like dumb Americans don't know geography' because people don't know what countries border the Black Sea, yet when you ask them what states border the Great Lakes they are like 'whats it matter.' I hate ethnocentrism, especially when its ethnocentrism bashing other countries for being ethnocentric. Maybe people just don't stare at maps all day?
Your comparison is unfair, no one's asking you to name the component parts of the UK, or the German states that Border France; we're just asking for you to be aware that "Europe" is made up of many separate sovereign nations. Basically, don't be This woman. Whilst I can't specifically name the states that border the Great lakes, I think that I could name most of the US States, if you can name most Europian countries, then that's all most people ask.
And I also posted this post so long ago. And I still stand by it.
I don't use Opera myself, but you are aware that it hasn't had ads for quite a long time now. You don't have to buy it any more, so that old post is almost meaningless in today's context.
I think either you missed my point, or I didn't express it well enough. My point is that if people talk about "NuLab" or "Zanu Laour" doing x, y or z then you know they think that the action they are taking are more comparable to IngSoc or Mugabe's ZanuPF as opposed to those of a responsible political party of government in a western democracy. It's a hyperbole and a quick comparison to show your disgust at the action, not a detailed analysis of the situation. Either way, it's not really flamebait to anyone execpt Labour party members anyway (and after her statement yesterday it seems even some of them would be happy with the OP's description of Jacqui Smith as "Wacky Jaqui").
Would someone who knows please explain how the EU Court has jurisdiction over national laws? Has the UK (and other countries in the EU, for that matter) ceded its soverignity to the EU to such an extent that the EU acts as a Supreme Court? Is the EU as a whole like the Federal government is to the US states or Canadian provinces? I really do not know myself and am asking for a serious answer. Thanks.
It's not an "EU court" it's part of the Council of Europe, which whilst it share a flag with the EU is a separate body with different membership. When we signed the European charter of Human rights (this was soon after WW2 and IIRC it was largely written by British solicitors), we ceded any powers in that treaty to the ECoHR, after all that's how international treaties work.
Probably because of the unnecessarily incendiary language in GP like "NuStasi" for New Labour.
Only true NuLabour sheeple would think otherwise.
...And here you're doing (a lesser form of) the same thing that got the GP rightly modded as flamebait.
If you don't want to get posts tagged as flamebait, explain and justify your opinions without peppering your posts with gratuitous insults; in short, use arguments instead of epithets.
Interestingly I've been seeing more and more of this type of language around the internet; my favourites are "Jaquiboot Smith" for the home sectary as it sums up my opinion of her, and "NuLab" because of the obvious Orwellian comparisons to IngSoc. I don't think it's flamebait, just a concise way to sum up thoughs on the creeping authoritarianism of this new* Labour Goverment
*how long can they justifiably continue to style themselves as "new"?
What does the Human Rights Court say about the UK's adoption of Sharia Law as an alternate legal system?
No one has asked them to look at it, so nothing. In fact I can't think of why they would need to look at it since AFAIK it's not part of the law of any signatory to the ECHR
Nothing? Is that silence I hear?
Well, I guess some human rights violations are more equal than others.
Nope, the silence you hear is because courts need someone to ask them to pass judgement. If you're so concerned bout this issue, take the relevant parties to court.
The Europian court of human rights is part of the Council of Europe, not the EU. They share a flag, and IIRC all EU members are also members of the Council, but there are a whole load of other countries in the council of Europe besides the 26 EU member states.
I've been switching between the different free AV software to see which I liked, and I have mixed feelings about Avira Antivir.
On the one hand, it found a trojan on my computer that AVG and Clamwin had both missed. On the other hand, it seems to have really limited options. For example, I can't get it to scan only my PC's internal drives, without also scanning my terabyte external drive, which takes forever. Avira also pops up a window advertising the pro version periodically.
AVG 8 sucks system resources and ClamWin couldn't detect a virus if it punched it in the face. I guess I'll try Avast next.
I recently switched from Antivir to avast! after getting annoyed with it; I can't say that I've noticed a huge difference in system performance, I've not had any viruses and I' finally rid of that damn popup that Antivir kept shoving in my face after every update. I personally like it better, and though I've never tried it the settings seem indicate that you can choose which discs to scan like you want.
Yep, most people I know had two working parents. Today, it's needed more than ever, you just need to look at house prices. There's no way a single income could pay for the mortgage, utility bills,and other essential items and still pay for "luxuries" like a computer, internet connection, car (and associated costs) satellite TV etc. that make up a typical British, middle class lifestyle.
I think a large part of it is that more people own property here than on continental Europe (IIRC), and the mortgage can take up most of one salary, also the government here encourages people back to work after having children, and makes it more financially attractive for both parents to work.
Ironically, if the parents lived apart it's probably more attractive for one to stay at home; but that's a failing in our benefits system, and to their credit the government is trying to fix problems like that where they can. I don't like this government much, but their welfare reforms havn't generally been too bad IMO.
ha, your inlaws at least have some knowledge. With mine its,
"Can you show me ho to burn CDs on my harddrive at home?"
"Your computer"
"yea, thats what a harddrive is right?"
What? You have relatives that refer to a "harddrive", mine just call it "memory" as in "I think our computers getting slower because we've almost filled the memory up." Of course, they still had over half the hard drive space left, and the problem was the huge amount of malware on the PC, and nothing to do with memory (it also had tonnes of RAM) whatsoever.
What part of Europe are you in? Here in the UK, both my parents went out to work, and they did so from when I was quite young (certainly throughout most of my school years); I'm in my mid twenties so I'm sure that it's not gotten any easier for people.
Slashdot Mirror
When the industrial revolution started the workers "would never allow it" then, either. Small groups of people, however organised will never stop truly revolutionary technologies, what ever century they're living in.
What makes you think it is equally as valid as "regardless"?
Because the words used to make a point are not the point themselves, attacking the words someone uses to argue a point when it is clear what they meant is a logical fallacy. Just because someone uses words like "gonna", "ain't" or "irregardless" doesn't make their argument less sound. If you disagree with someone, attack the message, not the means used to deliver it.
The english language is full of problematic and nonsensical words and phrases; that doesn't make them any less valid. For example, I've noticed Americans seem to use "could care less" instead of "couldn't care less" (used here in the UK), but despite not having seen nor heard the American phrase before visiting slashdot I understood the meaning immediately due to the context. The same goes for the word "irregardless", we understand the meaning from the context, I do it with Americanisms in every other post, and I'm sure you do it it Brit-speak as well. Besides I sure ain't gonna stop using common words just so I sound proper...;p
it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing.
I think that a slashdot post counts as casual writing.
There's nothing wrong with that word: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/irregardless
Heh, that's as good as my favourite way to "insult" Americans: "I've got drunk in pubs older than your country" (This isn't actually that hard). Fortunately, most take it in the good humour intended, but I've accidentally really annoyed one or two people with that line (obviously this just makes it funnier).
I'd love to know what exactly that's supposed to mean. Does time work differently in Europe than it does in the rest of the world?
Time works different in Europe in the same way that distance works different in the USA. To quote the old axiom, Americans think that 100 years is a long time, Brits think 100 miles is a long way. Remember we've got over 2000 years of history in the UK alone. OK, a big chunk between the Romans and the Norman invasion in 1066 is missing but that still means we have a over thousand years of documented history. That's just the UK, add the histories of all the other Europian nations and Between us there's a lot of History.
I'm happy for UK to throw its self in with the UN to declare Hindi the international language, provided it can be easily written on computer and there's a common script amongst all these people
Yeah, it's easy to type in if you have the right fonts installed; and hindi itself has a single script. However the other various languages (punjabi, gujrati, urdu etc.) all have different scripts. Ironically (IMO) the one that sound the the most similar to hindi look the least like it!
Other added advantages it has is that it sounds the way it looks, and that it has almost no punctuation (just full stops) so we would eliminate grammar nazis over night.
Disadvantages are that it's a lot less fluid than english, it dosn't change much; new slang etc. all gets spoken in the regonal languages. This has the unfortunate side effect of making it less nuanced than many other languages, but much more definate.
I could tell an almost identical story except using Indian and Hindi instead of Chinese (seriously, it happens whenever I go on holiday with my dad; we always end up at a local Indian restaraunt!).
I guess the moral of the story is being multi-lingual helps when travelling.
Mandarin and Hindi are often listed as the most spoken languages but I think in both cases they encompass a lot of dialects. Perhaps Spanish would be a better international language?
But I'm guessing you'll just say I'm an arrogant European then?
If you want to learn a language from the Indian sub-continent, learn Hindi; you'll be able to communicate not only with those Urdu speakers (spoken, the languages are very similar to the point where no translation of Bollywood movies is needed) but most of the people who speak an indian dialect like gujrati, punjabi etc. also speak Hindi. Indeed, if you go to India, most of the educated classes (i.e. the ones that have been able to afford to emigrate here) speak three languages: local dialect, hindi and english.
Disclaimer: I'm a 3rd gen Indian immigrant who never has to use my Hindi skills; when I try I end up speaking hindi in my native Hampshire accent. I still fully understand it when spoken though.
I live in the UK, I'm a native english speaker. I recently visited Rome, guess what? Making the effort to speak a little Italian, just a few tourist phrases (even if it's only "Mi non parlo Italiano, parli inglese?"; "I don't speak Italian, do you speak english?") meant I could converse with the locals and they certainly seemed to appreciate the effort.
Without that basic knowledge (i.e. a phrasebook), there are many places I went where I could have not have otherwise gone because not everyone speaks english. Yes, even in Rome, a major Capital city people didn't speak english (just try shopping in a non-tourist area).
I hope to go back to Italy, maybe my Italian will improve, but I'm not going to let something as small as a language barrier limit my holiday destinations, I've not been to Spain or Germany or the Chezch Republic yet; I'll learn a little of the local tongue when I visit them as well.
You never know, I might actually learn something.
Pop quiz: name one Christian Theocracy which has existed in the last 400 years?
How about Vatican City?
Also interesting is that you can't really convert to Hinduism (no one knows how),
On the contrary, it's easy you just need call yourself one. You don't even need a belief in god: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism_in_Hinduism , let alone follow any religious doctrines ;p
but you can easily form a cult and call yourselves a Hindu ( Mono :-)
Yeah, the hare Krishna's learned that one...
Disclaimer: I was born and brought up a hindu, yet am only mildly religious, and even then only on Tuesdays.
Exactly. Thats one of the things that always pissed me off about Euro trash, you get these guys who are 'like dumb Americans don't know geography' because people don't know what countries border the Black Sea, yet when you ask them what states border the Great Lakes they are like 'whats it matter.' I hate ethnocentrism, especially when its ethnocentrism bashing other countries for being ethnocentric. Maybe people just don't stare at maps all day?
Your comparison is unfair, no one's asking you to name the component parts of the UK, or the German states that Border France; we're just asking for you to be aware that "Europe" is made up of many separate sovereign nations. Basically, don't be This woman. Whilst I can't specifically name the states that border the Great lakes, I think that I could name most of the US States, if you can name most Europian countries, then that's all most people ask.
And I also posted this post so long ago. And I still stand by it.
I don't use Opera myself, but you are aware that it hasn't had ads for quite a long time now. You don't have to buy it any more, so that old post is almost meaningless in today's context.
I think either you missed my point, or I didn't express it well enough. My point is that if people talk about "NuLab" or "Zanu Laour" doing x, y or z then you know they think that the action they are taking are more comparable to IngSoc or Mugabe's ZanuPF as opposed to those of a responsible political party of government in a western democracy. It's a hyperbole and a quick comparison to show your disgust at the action, not a detailed analysis of the situation. Either way, it's not really flamebait to anyone execpt Labour party members anyway (and after her statement yesterday it seems even some of them would be happy with the OP's description of Jacqui Smith as "Wacky Jaqui").
Would someone who knows please explain how the EU Court has jurisdiction over national laws? Has the UK (and other countries in the EU, for that matter) ceded its soverignity to the EU to such an extent that the EU acts as a Supreme Court? Is the EU as a whole like the Federal government is to the US states or Canadian provinces? I really do not know myself and am asking for a serious answer. Thanks.
It's not an "EU court" it's part of the Council of Europe, which whilst it share a flag with the EU is a separate body with different membership. When we signed the European charter of Human rights (this was soon after WW2 and IIRC it was largely written by British solicitors), we ceded any powers in that treaty to the ECoHR, after all that's how international treaties work.
Probably because of the unnecessarily incendiary language in GP like "NuStasi" for New Labour.
If you don't want to get posts tagged as flamebait, explain and justify your opinions without peppering your posts with gratuitous insults; in short, use arguments instead of epithets.
Interestingly I've been seeing more and more of this type of language around the internet; my favourites are "Jaquiboot Smith" for the home sectary as it sums up my opinion of her, and "NuLab" because of the obvious Orwellian comparisons to IngSoc. I don't think it's flamebait, just a concise way to sum up thoughs on the creeping authoritarianism of this new* Labour Goverment
*how long can they justifiably continue to style themselves as "new"?
What does the Human Rights Court say about the UK's adoption of Sharia Law as an alternate legal system?
No one has asked them to look at it, so nothing. In fact I can't think of why they would need to look at it since AFAIK it's not part of the law of any signatory to the ECHR
Nothing? Is that silence I hear? Well, I guess some human rights violations are more equal than others.
Nope, the silence you hear is because courts need someone to ask them to pass judgement. If you're so concerned bout this issue, take the relevant parties to court.
The Europian court of human rights is part of the Council of Europe, not the EU. They share a flag, and IIRC all EU members are also members of the Council, but there are a whole load of other countries in the council of Europe besides the 26 EU member states.
/pedant
I've been switching between the different free AV software to see which I liked, and I have mixed feelings about Avira Antivir.
On the one hand, it found a trojan on my computer that AVG and Clamwin had both missed. On the other hand, it seems to have really limited options. For example, I can't get it to scan only my PC's internal drives, without also scanning my terabyte external drive, which takes forever. Avira also pops up a window advertising the pro version periodically.
AVG 8 sucks system resources and ClamWin couldn't detect a virus if it punched it in the face. I guess I'll try Avast next.
I recently switched from Antivir to avast! after getting annoyed with it; I can't say that I've noticed a huge difference in system performance, I've not had any viruses and I' finally rid of that damn popup that Antivir kept shoving in my face after every update. I personally like it better, and though I've never tried it the settings seem indicate that you can choose which discs to scan like you want.
Yep, most people I know had two working parents. Today, it's needed more than ever, you just need to look at house prices. There's no way a single income could pay for the mortgage, utility bills,and other essential items and still pay for "luxuries" like a computer, internet connection, car (and associated costs) satellite TV etc. that make up a typical British, middle class lifestyle.
I think a large part of it is that more people own property here than on continental Europe (IIRC), and the mortgage can take up most of one salary, also the government here encourages people back to work after having children, and makes it more financially attractive for both parents to work.
Ironically, if the parents lived apart it's probably more attractive for one to stay at home; but that's a failing in our benefits system, and to their credit the government is trying to fix problems like that where they can. I don't like this government much, but their welfare reforms havn't generally been too bad IMO.
ha, your inlaws at least have some knowledge. With mine its, "Can you show me ho to burn CDs on my harddrive at home?" "Your computer" "yea, thats what a harddrive is right?"
What? You have relatives that refer to a "harddrive", mine just call it "memory" as in "I think our computers getting slower because we've almost filled the memory up." Of course, they still had over half the hard drive space left, and the problem was the huge amount of malware on the PC, and nothing to do with memory (it also had tonnes of RAM) whatsoever.
What part of Europe are you in? Here in the UK, both my parents went out to work, and they did so from when I was quite young (certainly throughout most of my school years); I'm in my mid twenties so I'm sure that it's not gotten any easier for people.
He was law abiding up to that point.
IIRC He was in possession of an illegal firearm. (the one he used to shoot the bungler) I wouldn't call that law abiding.