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1 month ago

in Vending machine prints any book in minutes - Odd News | newslite.tv on Odd News | newslite.tv
It says in the article it has a library of 500,000. But no doubt it won't be long before it, or something like it, can access internet resources or simply print any file you give it. Meanwhile you go and enjoy a different kind of espresso!

3 months ago

in Verbing Weirds Language on Leximo - A World Dictionary
Martti - go ahead, take your Big Book Of Unquestionable Rules of English and knock yourself out telling people what's "correct". Oh that's right, there's no such thing. There is "standard" usage (although even that changes over time, albeit at a slightly slower rate), and I agree that there is a benefit to having a dialect that can be understood by everyone in a given country - provided it's equally available to everyone. But don't kid yourself that it's any more "correct", any more logical, any more objectively understandable or any more expressive.

Having said that, everyone's allowed their subjective opinions of creative use of the language. Some noun-verbing is fun, useful, humorous or artistic but its overuse in government-/corporate-speak is like fingernails down a blackboard to me. You're not "regime-changing Iraq", you're changing Iraq's regime - its *exactly* as easy to say!

PS: "business-jargony"? Some language-purist you are :P

5 months ago

in Blue Screen of Death on Truck Bearing Kibble
How do you know? It has a brain, doesn't it...

1 year ago

in On being open minded on FreThink
Rather irritating that the word agnostic has ceased to refer to that excellent philosophy and has been appropriated by "weak atheists" (those that do not actively believe there is a god, as opposed to so-called "strong atheists" who are sure there isn't) in an apparent effort to not offend the religious. Although to be fair "weak atheist" is not the most flattering label in the world, I suppose it makes sense they want to call themselves something else.

1 year ago

in No Ordinary Fish on Simulated Comic Product
Well done actually looking up a real language! I saw an SNL skit yesterday which involved a guy reading the news to ZImbabweans, and he just talked jibberish and smacked his lips a bit. I mean it was pre-Internet, so it would have taken a bit more effort to look up a couple of lines of a foreign language than it would now, but still... (Ironically, according to Wikipedia the news in Zimbabwe is mostly transmitted in English anyway)

1 year ago

in Visiting Hours on Simulated Comic Product
Hmm. I kind of agree with Nate and Amy earlier - it's a little self-important to release a comic you realise is "incomprehensible" and challenge people to work it out. I'm not one of these people who think that you owe your readers anything, just saying a good piece of art tells its own story, and doesn't need to be explained. A little ambiguity can be good, but from the comments it looks like nearly everyone was mystified.

1 year ago

in Field of Battle on Simulated Comic Product
I love the black pawn's outfit, very Les Mis. What does the black army look like - do the king and queen have heads?

PS - if you ask me, the whole religion/science debate is just one big stalemate... (see what I did there?)

1 year ago

in Scientists successfully create human-bear-pig chimera (manbearpig) on Think Gene
You've created simultaneously the smartest, most deadly, and most delicious land mammal ever...

YOU MANIACS! How many men will lose their lives in a vain attempt to hunt down this mouthwatering killing machine? And it will learn from each encounter, and grow stronger - you've doomed us all.

1 year ago

in Taking a swim in the Devil’s Pool on TutzTutz.com
I really don't think it's any more dangerous for (bright and well-behaved) children than it is for adults, given that the only accident that's likely to befall you is the cliff-face eroding away beneath your feet.

Course that f*ing stupid Bryony in Atonement is a different matter.

1 year ago

in The IT Crowd: The Work Outing on Webomatica
Dave - so it's not as long as some TV series?

1 year ago

in Cool Stuff: How did R2-D2 Get His Name? on /Film
Simpsons Reference Number 1: This just reminds me of "Max Power? Cool name" "Hehe, thanks. I got it off a hairdryer"

Simpsons Reference2 : This sounds so much like Comic Book Guy it's unreal...
"Andras Says:
Wow - that’s real breaking news. Especially if you ignore that it was in “Skywalking”, the unofficial George Lucas biography about 20 years ago."

1 year ago

in What Revolves Around the Earth? [ The French Answer ] on dmiessler.com | grep understanding

"don’t make fun of a culture if you yourself cannot extend the reason around your own languages grammatical structures.


Comment by robeph"


That should of course be "language's", unless you happen to be patronising a polyglot, when "languages'" might be appropriate. Feeble-minded amateur grammar Nazis (the sort who correct single-character mistakes that could easily be typos) are often troubled by confusion stemming from the similarity in form of possessives (which generally take an apostrophe in English) and plurals (which don't). Do take better care next time...

1 year ago

in What Revolves Around the Earth? [ The French Answer ] on danielmiessler.com | grep understanding

"don’t make fun of a culture if you yourself cannot extend the reason around your own languages grammatical structures.


Comment by robeph"


That should of course be "language's", unless you happen to be patronising a polyglot, when "languages'" might be appropriate. Feeble-minded amateur grammar Nazis (the sort who correct single-character mistakes that could easily be typos) are often troubled by confusion stemming from the similarity in form of possessives (which generally take an apostrophe in English) and plurals (which don't). Do take better care next time...

1 year ago

in Square peg, round hole on BenCrowder.net
Not exactly new... they mentioned this on the Simpsons years ago (and if that's anything to go by - don't buy one, as they soon pop back into roundness, making you drop them on the pavement)
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