Posts by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
(DIR) Post #AVDFRqcDx56iE57LQ8 by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2023-05-01T13:41:22Z
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@clive — Yes, Eunice Foote was the first to demonstrate that CO₂ is a major greenhouse gas. She was not, though, as the *Medium* article declares, “the first to document the greenhouse effect” — that would have been Horace Benedict de Saussure in the 1760s, documenting the greenhouse effect caused by glass. Joseph Fourier was the first to speculate that the Earth’s atmosphere might work like a greenhouse, in 1827. Foote deserves great honor, but her work built on those previous insights.
(DIR) Post #AVkosP1hAeAoyeVu2S by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2023-05-17T18:24:36Z
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@grammargirl @xahteiwi — Not a mountain peak, but an overlook at the edge of a relatively flat shelf of land above a canyon. “Point” refers to the fact that it’s a spot where the shelf thrusts outward.
(DIR) Post #AXfcUGmjdidLwyPuJE by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2023-07-14T01:56:24Z
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@grammargirl — Horrors!
(DIR) Post #AZ1ob6nedf98BKV2dU by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2023-08-23T16:47:42Z
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@grammargirl — Much as I hate to say this, Gill Sans was a typeface on British Rail signs for only about fifteen years. Rail Alphabet, a blander typeface resembling Helvetica, replaced it beginning in 1964-65. Still later, the company also started using Joanna, a serif face designed by the same Eric Gill who crafted Gill Sans. British Rail was “sectorised” in 1982, and its various descendants, seeking to establish their own identities, have each taken up a different typographic look.
(DIR) Post #AZ1y0CWdO6PwlYZvGK by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2023-08-23T18:32:55Z
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@grammargirl — Glad to be of some assistance. I could wish Gill Sans was more widely used in signage; for all its clunkiness, it has an endearing character.
(DIR) Post #AaJ4HTTqoVlk55j6uG by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2023-09-30T22:25:42Z
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@grammargirl — You presumably know there are shorter sentences that achieve the same thing. The “quick fox” requires 35 letters. “Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow”, a sentence beloved of typeface sellers, does it in 29.And I’ve just been freshly reminded that there’s a sentence that does the job in a mere 26, albeit using archaic words: “Cwm fjord bank glyphs vext quiz,” which means “Carved symbols in a mountain hollow on the bank of an inlet irritated an eccentric person.”
(DIR) Post #AabEknFNFxtCX7yb68 by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2023-10-09T16:47:51Z
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@grammargirl — We use “located” because it is precise and reduces a mild ambiguity. Simply saying “was in” can be construed as an overstatement of something like “was formerly listed in the lobby directory of” or “held officers’ meetings in” or “had employees frequently present in”.
(DIR) Post #AbJNuYI6NFugY2dxj6 by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2023-10-30T23:57:49Z
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@grammargirl — This is perhaps tangential, but not, I think, irrelevant.Fowler, in his *Modern English Usage*, rejected the hyphenated forms “co-operation” and “co-partner” with the observation that “hyphens in the middle of words are no ornament, & admittance should be refused to all that cannot prove their usefulness.” But it seems to me that the different forms can easily carry different shades of meaning — “coworker”, for instance, suggesting a tighter or more conventional combination than “co-worker”. And so, not being subject to the tyranny of AP, I adopt the looser form when my meaning *is* something looser. I might write, for instance, that Politician So-and-so has proved my unwilling co-worker in some matter. I’m thereby carefully avoiding the implication that the unhappy fellow actually collaborated with me.Even Fowler was willing to admit that the hyphen might be appropriate when describing something novel — a co-secretary, for example. So I think my position has precedent, and I would willingly stare down the AP Borg on the matter.Apart from that quibble, my praise for your work.
(DIR) Post #AbR03NNMYHI0UmH09Q by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2023-11-03T16:08:11Z
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@grammargirl — Well, this does get us into murky waters about humanness, sentience and intent, does it not?Is it wrong to say “Uncle Sam wants you,” as the famous recruiting posters did and do, because Uncle Sam lacks those attributes?Is it wrong to say “the plants want to be watered”? How about (begging Descartes’s pardon) “the cats want to be fed”?If we allow the general rule that Uncle Sam, plants and cats can be grammatically treated as possessing such attributes, despite not being *H. sapiens*, then on what grounds, apart from the grinding of political axes, do we deny AI admission to the club? Theology?How far does our right to denial of *seeming* humanness and sentience on political or theological grounds extend?Hugo-award-winning science fiction author Connie Willis wrote a wonderful science fiction novella about this a few years back: “All About Emily”. An utterly convincing AI in a young woman’s form has her/its heart set on becoming a Rockette, to such a degree that she/it weeps, visibly heartbroken, upon being refused. The Rockettes are so much won to her side that they dance in her honor on the street. Where should you and I stand on this?
(DIR) Post #AbR6Ge9S5iOq0uTgJc by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2023-11-03T17:17:50Z
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@grammargirl — “All About Emily” was one of Connie’s annual Christmas stories, so unless you are allergic to secular Christmas rites, this is an especially enjoyable time to be reading it, including aloud to older children.On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/All-About-Emily-Connie-Willis/dp/1596064528On Ebay:https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p4432023.m570.l1313&_nkw=connie+willis+all+about+emily&_sacat=0
(DIR) Post #Ac2SVDpsrD0mDXeWsy by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2023-11-21T17:51:17Z
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@grammargirl —How soon they forget, eh?
(DIR) Post #AdD1XP8b3QX4gXl6Ku by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2023-12-26T18:02:40Z
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@8petros — Quakerism as a whole is not inclusive and nonhierarchical. Only the liberal branch — approximately 15% of the whole — is like that.
(DIR) Post #AdEp2kgY53LzP3B16G by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2023-12-27T14:52:05Z
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@olaf_radicke @8petros — In Friends United Meeting (FUM), which is the pastoral, Methodist-like branch of our Society; in Evangelical Friends International (EFI), which is the evangelical-Protestant-like branch; and in Ohio Yearly Meeting, which is the most Conservative of the Conservative yearly meetings, there is an administrative body composed of human beings that can, and sometimes does, disown those who break the rules — kicks them out of membership. This has happened in FUM and EFI in very recent years, and in Ohio in my early adulthood.
(DIR) Post #AiDVDHaJJMoDsJ2TOS by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2024-05-24T12:54:53Z
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@aral — What fascinates me more is the fact that the DNC has taken every opportunity to squelch Biden’s primary challengers. It would clearly rather have a Trump regime starting next year and continuing indefinitely, with all the consequences, than put a Dem in the White House while losing neoliberal control over its own party.
(DIR) Post #AlC2IkaB80Ya2evA9o by SeumanOtwal@social.vivaldi.net
2024-08-21T13:33:05Z
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@aral — The fascism is no longer just optional, alas.