2011-04-10, 02:55 | Link #4762 | |||
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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Quote:
While I'm sure that quantum physicists and engineers would giggle like little girls, slinging esoteric equations at each other till the cows come home in earnest debates over their pet topic, for the most part, the rest of the world would be left confused at best, and irritated at worst by the condescending attitude of scientists talking down to ignorant plebians. Or, someone could come up with a "concrete" metaphor, like Schrodinger's cat, to illustrate the paradoxes and strangeness of quantum behaviour in ways that even a child could comprehend. In similar ways, abstract ideas like "human rights", "freedom of speech", "gender identity" are just that: concepts with no shape or form. An individual could perhaps relate to these on an intellectual level but, on a gut level, none of them would mean anything personal unless he can relate them to concrete events he observes happening on a day-to-day basis. Quote:
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2011-04-10, 08:21 | Link #4764 |
sleepyhead
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: event horizon
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In Signature Edit. Write [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] in the signature box.
Oh and, your signature won’t show on your old posts.
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2011-04-10, 23:04 | Link #4765 |
tl;dr
Join Date: Jan 2009
Age: 32
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I remember hearing before that the Associated Press style book recommends using the spelling that comes first alphabetically when a word has two valid spellings (like octopi vs. octopuses). However I've completely forgotten where I heard this, be it from a teacher, an article, or Google, and now I can't find any confirmation for this alleged fact. Does anybody have any idea?
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2011-04-11, 04:11 | Link #4766 | |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
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Besides, you do understand that the term "grammar nazi" and the Third Reich salute still can be used against the critics right?
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2011-04-11, 04:42 | Link #4767 | |||
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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Quote:
So I checked with a senior copyeditor, and he has no recollection of ever coming across such a "rule". That said, we work with a different set of house rules, and he concedes that it's possible that he just hasn't chanced upon it, despite 30 years of journalistic experience. Our style-guide entry for "plurals" is pretty long, though it's not as comprehensive and decisive as I would like it to be. With reference to the specific example you brought up — octopuses or octopi — this is the section that applies: Quote:
So I did, and found this: Quote:
Long story short, I highly suspect the "rule" you remember may be myth. It's hard to imagine a bunch of crusty old journalists fiercely proud of their language skills coming up with such an arbitrary rule that could result in a mistake. |
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2011-04-11, 05:08 | Link #4768 |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
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They got sick of holding down the "Shift" key just to type the open/closed inverted commas everytime a politician bowdlerises or invents a new word, thus they simply go along with what we know today as "Fedspeak" - the condensed term for "political jargon that makes little or no sense".
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2011-04-11, 10:36 | Link #4769 | |
tl;dr
Join Date: Jan 2009
Age: 32
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Quote:
Yeah octopus may not have been the best example... cactus may have been better, since I think it went through Latin from Greek first, and Wiktionary lists both "cacti" and "cactuses" without any caveats. There are other words that from what I could find seem to have two generally accepted spellings, first that comes to mind being advisor/adviser. I figured the "rule" seemed reasonable enough-- definitely arbitrary, of course-- in terms of being a way to ensure consistency without having to compile a massive list of recommendations for every single word that has a debatable spelling. But I guess judging by the results it's probably a myth.
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2011-04-11, 12:00 | Link #4770 | |
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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Quote:
Adviser is the more commonly accepted British spelling, while advisor is more commonly found in America. Similarly, it's usually protester in Britain, and protestor in America. Ditto for artefact versus artifact. Those are just some of the less commonly known differences between British and American spellings. The more usual ones that people notice are the s'es and the z's (for example, criticise versus criticize), the single l's versus the double ll's (instil and instill, travelling compared to traveling), and the ou's versus the o's (colour as opposed to color). All the annoying fuss arising from a nasty dispute over a silly bit of tea. Well, it keeps me employed, so I shouldn't complain. Still, as someone who is now hypersensitivised to such differences, I can't help but wince when I see American spelling instead of the British norm. It's quite possibly the same reaction Chinese who studied traditional script get when they attempt to read communist-mandated simplified script: It feels like watching someone butcher the language with a hacksaw. |
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2011-04-11, 20:26 | Link #4771 |
tl;dr
Join Date: Jan 2009
Age: 32
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I've read different explanations for the advisor/adviser thing and different statistics, some of which made it seem like merely a significant but not overwhelming majority of one spelling over the other in the two countries, but I'll take your word for it.
As for American spelling vs. British "norm"... I mean so far as I know the standardization of English spelling is rather new, and as recent as two hundred years ago you could get away will spelling things willy-nilly so long as it could be pronounced the same way. Webster first standardized American English, dunno who did it for British, but while we definitely owe Britain the original language I'd hesitate to call one "right" or the "norm" over the other-- just British English and American English.
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2011-04-13, 22:57 | Link #4772 |
✘˵╹◡╹˶✘
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Australia
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I have some problem with Window 7. It was not a problem until recently so I don't know what did i change to make it like this...
The screen resolution is recommended to be 1920 x 1080. And every time i drop it down to 1600 x 900, the whole screen is narrowed down with the surrounding area becomes all black. In another words, when lower my resolution, the window screen does not scale itself up to fit the monitor screen. I can keep 1920 x 1080 of course. But if i play a game with 1600 x 900 setting, then the same thing happens in game
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2011-04-14, 02:09 | Link #4773 | |
(。☉౪ ⊙。)
Author
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: In Maya world, where all is 3D and everything crashes
Age: 36
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Quote:
If you lower that down then the other resolution should fit. I forgot where to find it, it should be in the same menu but under advanced or something. |
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2011-04-14, 02:11 | Link #4774 | |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
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Quote:
If it is the solution Karuma suggested, it is the refresh rate. Default is 75hz, but I think you can increase it under right click > screen resolution > advanced > monitor tab.
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2011-04-14, 12:46 | Link #4775 |
✘˵╹◡╹˶✘
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Australia
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The refresh rate options for me only either 59hz or 60 hz. So i went for more research and it mentioned that maybe the problem lie on the monitor (and need driver update or something). But my monitor is Benq T2200 and it seems the "driver update" for this does not exist.....
Then it turn to the possibility of my graphic card NVIDIA, but once again couldn't find the scaling option they mentioned. Reupdated but it does not work. Stuck there also Basically, i kinda give up for the moment =/
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2011-04-16, 09:00 | Link #4778 |
Le fou, c'est moi
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Age: 34
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^I wouldn't say "if it's good" because that implies a certain level of market presence. It's only an extremely small minority and the ones that come over are practically only light novels with anime adaptations that are somewhat known in the USA.
So basically unless you hear definitive news that there's a series that has been licensed by a company over here, don't hope for it. There is however as pancakes answered an existing "window" so to speak. |
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problem, q&a, serious |
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