Just so you know: I'm a native of the Deep South. I'm primarily of Anglo-Irish descent, and all my ancestors were in North America prior to the American Revolution. (FWIW, I'm eligible for membership in the SAR, SAC, and the Mayflower Society.) Both my parents have Master's degrees (my mother's degrees are in English Lit and Library Science). Our family moved North (to the Midwest, actually) while I was in elementary school. After high school and a couple of years of college (still in the Midwest), I spent about 15 years in Appalachia, then a couple of years in CA/AZ. After that, I lived in Australia for several years before coming to Sweden nearly 7 years ago. I've been mostly a writer and editor by trade for the last 15 years, and before that I worked in broadcasting as an announcer and copywriter for nearly a decade. In all the standardised tests I've ever taken, I've ranked consistently in the 97th or better percentile in all categories relating to English.
So I'd say that my credentials as a knowledgeable speaker and writer of English are pretty good.
I also speak fair amount of German and Spanish, can get by in Swedish, and have recently started tackling Mandarin.
And just so you don't think I'm just trying to impress you or whatever, I'll add that it's a damned good thing for me I can speak and write English as well as I do, since it makes me quite valuable here; I'd be in a tough spot without that ability, since I'm not that great a coder, and my mastery of spoken Swedish leaves a lot to be desired even though I've lived here for quite some time.
The o in "work" is actually an example of the o+e ligature (which Slashcode filters out, dammit) or ö except that modern English orthography is allergic to special characters and diacritics. (Compare the pronunciation of the same vowel in horse or sport.)
I think that was changing the acceptable meaning of "literally" to include that which is not.
You're kid--no, you're not. So "literally" has been redefined to mean, well, nothing, really.
I've already updated what our style guide says regarding this word to LITERAL, LITERALLY: Per the OED, the adverb has become purely a 'noise' word which must therefore be avoided. For the same reason, avoid employing the adjective as well, except in strict technical usage, e.g. when referring to a 'bare' representation of a value of a given type, e.g. 'binary literal', 'string literal', and so on.
I have enough of a problem with _accepting_ ignorance much less _encouraging_ it.
You are not alone, trust me. Words ought to mean things.
I actually looked up "twerking" on Google yesterday, and the first hit was from OED.
I didn't realise it at the time, but I was likely amongst the first few people to see the OED entry--and had no idea that it had been added the same day--until I saw this story.
I realise that times and language change, but, yeah, I suppose that I am feeling a bit of that "Stop the Internet, I want to get off thing" right now.
The mistake is in caring about keeping up with trends or slang or "what's cool" in the first place.
Write your own life story, and quit worrying about what other people say or think. You'll be surprised how much happiness is linked with this approach.
The Chinese are with us vs. the Muslims. Look at how they treat theirs.
Wrong.
The Chinese are in favour of stability. They are opposed to massive disruptions that are bad for (their) business, or that might give radical and/or separatist elements within their own country any bright ideas.
Yep. Watched that one a while back. Pretty sure I followed a link someone posted on/., don't recall now who it might have been or which discussion, so let me express my thanks here.
Interestingly enough this list reads like a list of the biggest capitols [sic] on the planet.
According to Wikipedia, the 10 largest national capitals by population are: Beijing Tokyo Moscow Seoul Djakarta Tehran Ciudad de México Lima Bangkok London
Hong Kong is pretty small, and remains quite distinct from the Chinese mainland as regards political system, economy (including banking and currency), infrastructure, language, personal freedoms, educational system, border control, etc., etc. It is essentially a separate entity over which Beijing gets to exercise bragging rights.
It's not just about speed. It's also about security and privacy. Given the proclivity of Singapore to micro-manage its citizens' lives, I doubt your data is very private. Remember, this is a place where chewing gum is illegal.
Slashdot Mirror
Just so you know: I'm a native of the Deep South. I'm primarily of Anglo-Irish descent, and all my ancestors were in North America prior to the American Revolution. (FWIW, I'm eligible for membership in the SAR, SAC, and the Mayflower Society.) Both my parents have Master's degrees (my mother's degrees are in English Lit and Library Science). Our family moved North (to the Midwest, actually) while I was in elementary school. After high school and a couple of years of college (still in the Midwest), I spent about 15 years in Appalachia, then a couple of years in CA/AZ. After that, I lived in Australia for several years before coming to Sweden nearly 7 years ago. I've been mostly a writer and editor by trade for the last 15 years, and before that I worked in broadcasting as an announcer and copywriter for nearly a decade. In all the standardised tests I've ever taken, I've ranked consistently in the 97th or better percentile in all categories relating to English.
So I'd say that my credentials as a knowledgeable speaker and writer of English are pretty good.
I also speak fair amount of German and Spanish, can get by in Swedish, and have recently started tackling Mandarin.
And just so you don't think I'm just trying to impress you or whatever, I'll add that it's a damned good thing for me I can speak and write English as well as I do, since it makes me quite valuable here; I'd be in a tough spot without that ability, since I'm not that great a coder, and my mastery of spoken Swedish leaves a lot to be desired even though I've lived here for quite some time.
The o in "work" is actually an example of the o+e ligature (which Slashcode filters out, dammit) or ö except that modern English orthography is allergic to special characters and diacritics. (Compare the pronunciation of the same vowel in horse or sport.)
Make of all that what you will.
I'm a lifelong native speaker, and it looks and sounds plenty like English to me... a bit like "twerp", perhaps.
That could sort of apply to Miley as well.
I like to think of myself as a Language Authoritarian rather than a Language Nazi. ;) Glad to be of service.
I think that was changing the acceptable meaning of "literally" to include that which is not.
You're kid--no, you're not. So "literally" has been redefined to mean, well, nothing, really.
I've already updated what our style guide says regarding this word to LITERAL, LITERALLY: Per the OED, the adverb has become purely a 'noise' word which must therefore be avoided. For the same reason, avoid employing the adjective as well, except in strict technical usage, e.g. when referring to a 'bare' representation of a value of a given type, e.g. 'binary literal', 'string literal', and so on.
I have enough of a problem with _accepting_ ignorance much less _encouraging_ it.
You are not alone, trust me. Words ought to mean things.
I actually looked up "twerking" on Google yesterday, and the first hit was from OED.
I didn't realise it at the time, but I was likely amongst the first few people to see the OED entry--and had no idea that it had been added the same day--until I saw this story.
I realise that times and language change, but, yeah, I suppose that I am feeling a bit of that "Stop the Internet, I want to get off thing" right now.
We'll overlook the obvious typo, but the word for the thing that ought to be carefully weighed before it's added to the dictionary is neologism.
The mistake is in caring about keeping up with trends or slang or "what's cool" in the first place.
Write your own life story, and quit worrying about what other people say or think. You'll be surprised
how much happiness is linked with this approach.
Thanks, I think I needed that this morning.
So in other words, it's a lot like cash, but less likely to bear trace amounts of cocaine?
The Chinese are with us vs. the Muslims. Look at how they treat theirs.
Wrong.
The Chinese are in favour of stability. They are opposed to massive disruptions that are bad for (their) business, or that might give radical and/or separatist elements within their own country any bright ideas.
Yep. Watched that one a while back. Pretty sure I followed a link someone posted on /., don't recall now who it might have been or which discussion, so let me express my thanks here.
You are in need of some serious help.
Seldom have I seen someone go to such lengths to justify their own psychopathy.
Your understanding of "reproducibility" is flawed.
Otherwise known as "enlightened self-interest".
Booga-booga-booga! to you, too, good sir.
Not that that one's not good, but it really has little to do with the current discussion. You might be thinking of The Power of Nightmares , perhaps?
I live in Stockholm, and you've obviously no idea what you're talking about.
"Altruism is TEH EVIL!" --Motto of neocons everywhere. Or maybe it's Al-Qaeda. I confuse them sometimes.
That's one thing that truly sucks about Mainland China. In order to use most free wifi hotspots there, you must register with a Chinese mobile number.
Or talk the girl at the counter into letting you have her passcode and phone number. (It helps if she thinks you're exotic and cute.)
Interestingly enough this list reads like a list of the biggest capitols [sic] on the planet.
According to Wikipedia, the 10 largest national capitals by population are:
Beijing
Tokyo
Moscow
Seoul
Djakarta
Tehran
Ciudad de México
Lima
Bangkok
London
So, no, it doesn't.
Except that the points originally being touted as positives were the ones that were identified in the response as being temporary.
Hong Kong is pretty small, and remains quite distinct from the Chinese mainland as regards political system, economy (including banking and currency), infrastructure, language, personal freedoms, educational system, border control, etc., etc. It is essentially a separate entity over which Beijing gets to exercise bragging rights.
Is that really the best you can come up with?
No member state has ever left the EU, although each state has the right to do so.
The remainder of your assertions are also highly suspect.
It's not just about speed. It's also about security and privacy. Given the proclivity of Singapore to micro-manage its citizens' lives, I doubt your data is very private. Remember, this is a place where chewing gum is illegal.