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[pwhodges]

Webster deliberately set out to simplify spelling (like colour => color and suchlike) by putting his changes in his dictionary; there were also some that didn't take, but he was more successful than those who tried similar changes in England, like G B Shaw.  Some of the differences in vocabulary stem from the US retaining older words when the UK has changed (best-known example: fall/autumn).  Both of these are perfectly reasonable and acceptable sources of difference.

However, one that irritates me above all others is the complete defiance of actual meaning when Americans (usually) say or write "I could care less" when they actually mean "I could not care less".

A curious case is Aluminum vs Aluminium; in this case the originator of the word changed his mind (and there's even a third option, which I forget), and the dictionary makers changed their preference, and so the UK and the US ended up out of step more or less by chance.

[GarandMarine]

I don't think so... Webster's is pretty much standard world wide for English. Our major problem is filthy immig... err our valuable and diverse culture. English has this issue in general, but American English in particular has a metric fuck ton of loan words.

[idontunderstand]

"I could not care less" weirds me out too, though. So you could not care less... because you care so much and it's impossible for you to stop caring? It's such a open-ended phrase to me.

[nekowafer]

I could not care less meaning I care so little that it would be impossible to care any less.

Most people say it wrong though, saying, I could care less, meaning... it's possible to care less than they do meaning that they actually care.

I prefer to say that I could not possibly give a fuck.

[idontunderstand]

I get that, I was just saying.

[Thrillho]

I could not care less meaning I care so little that it would be impossible to care any less.

Most people say it wrong though, saying, I could care less, meaning... it's possible to care less than they do meaning that they actually care.

I prefer to say that I could not possibly give a fuck.

I prefer to use one of two quotes that I've stolen from elsewhere - 'I can't think of anything in the world I care less about' (Dr. Cox from Scrubs) and 'I could fill a warehouse with the fucks I don't give' (an article from Cracked about honey badgers).

[Carl-E]

oh, there are always going to be dialects that are bizzare, no question about it. but at least those dialects (normally) know how to spell, understand that grammar is in fact a thing that exists, and have some sort of functioning phonics system.

 

You have a very high esteem of other places.  I think you'll find that, though familiarity with American edumacation has bred contempt, there are stupid and illiterate people everywhere. 

everywhere.

Everywhere I've been in the US has zero understanding of or desire to have any of that. Public schools teach stuff that's just WRONG

Well, so long as no children are left behind...


Look, it is certainly dismal, but there are still intelligent and literate people out there, teachers who care and students who learn.  Yes, they are fewer than any of us would like, but they are not a vanished species. 


Just endangered. 

[Bluesummers]

I prefer to say that I could not possibly give a fuck.

I just pull out my phone, play the "We don't give a fuuuuuck *SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEECH*" clip from Skrillex's rendition of Lady Gaga's "Born this Way". It's short, sweet, to the point, and absolutely ear-splitting.

[mtmerrick]

+1 to you bluesummers. That's awesome.

[Emoroffle]

I miss comedies in the vein of Airplane! and The Naked Gun. Mostly, I miss Leslie Nielsen.

[Boiled Dove]

Surely you can't be serious.

[Emoroffle]

That line doesn't work in text.

[nekowafer]

Well I don't want to be called Surely either!

[mtmerrick]

how about Surly?

[Emoroffle]

I picked the wrong week to quit drinking.

[Thrillho]

You ever seen a grown man naked?

[Emoroffle]

Yes, my ex-boyfriend.

[Boiled Dove]

Do you like gladiator movies?

[Thrillho]

You ever seen the inside of a Turkish prison?

[Zebediah]

Today in "Poorly phrased sentences": According to the Wikipedia home page, today in 1999 "Under the terms of two laws passed by the Canadian Parliament in 1993, the Northwest Territories carved all of their inhabitants into two pieces."

Ouch. 

[mtmerrick]

wiki's mainpage is always done up wonderfully for April 1st.

[Pilchard123]

I'm not seeing any changes. Am I too late?

[Emoroffle]

You're too late. She's dead.

[mtmerrick]

Its dead Jim. 

[HappyHavoc]

Its dead Jim. 

NO not Jim!

[mtmerrick]

slim jim?

[Emoroffle]

Whose dead Jim? The sentence was clearly stating that something had possession of a dead Jim.

[mtmerrick]

oh dear mata nui, i've been grammar nazi'd.

But yes, i have a Dead Jim™. 

[Emoroffle]

Now I wish I had Photoshop. Just so I could take a pic of Hitler then add in a dictionary and backwards baseball cap with a quote in the foreground saying "You've been Nazi'd!"

[mtmerrick]

i don't have photoshop but i do have google image search and MS paint. lemme see what i can do.

[LTK]

oh dear mata nui, i've been grammar nazi'd.

But yes, i have a Dead Jim™. 

I don't know which is worse. The fact that you just referred to a Lego universe deity, or the fact that I know this to be the case. 

[mtmerrick]

@ Emoroffle: here ya go. use it well.



@ LTK: Bionicle was and is one of the best storylines i've ever been involved in.

[Redball]

wiki's mainpage is always done up wonderfully for April 1st.

I missed it, but Google is reaching out to another of our senses on today's page.

[Emoroffle]

You forgot the dictionary.

[mtmerrick]

aw dangit. i'll see what i can do.

[Loki]

Bionicle had a storyline? Damn, now I regret not having enough money for them back then even more.

[mtmerrick]

MASSIVE storyline. Huge, deep, & detailed.
http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Educate yourself. =P

Also, :

[Valdís]

So hey, that was pretty cool. Zach (SMBC-comics) had a twitch-stream and goofed around some and, well:

(click to show/hide)

(Yes, he was doing that on purpose. )

[Patrick]

Wow I did nazi that coming

[Redball]

Question: I think it's a physics question. I make a latte in the morning in a cheap Mr. Coffee espresso maker. When I start to froth the milk, the sound of steam bubbling through the milk isn't white noise but is skewed to higher frequencies. As the milk warms, the range of frequencies goes lower, down to a kind of rumble. If I let it steam much longer, it will begin to boil. I've heard the same descending frequencies in a coffee shop.
I assume it has something to do with sound being generated in an decreasingly dense medium. Is thist a common topic of conversation among sciencey folks in coffee shops?

[pwhodges]

I think it's as simple as the bubbles getting bigger.

(And white noise sounds skewed to higher frequencies; pink noise is the darker one.)

[Carl-E]

Actually, there was a similar study done years ago based on the bubbles in hot cocoa.  Basically, the bubbles trapped in the liquid slow the speed of the sounds, making them deeper in pitch.  In hot cocoa, as you tap a spoon on the bottom of the mug, the pitch will rise as the bubbles float up to be froth on top.  Stir the froth back in, and the pitch goes back down...

So as the milk begins to froth and hold more bubbles, the sound emanating through it will become deeper in pitch. 


Ah yes, Wikipedia to the rescue...

[GarandMarine]

I miss throwing hand grenades. Little orbs of explosive day ruining <3

[mtmerrick]

Sounds great fun.

My dad has plenty of fun stories from his time is the military....

[GarandMarine]

Grenades are great, the first time I held one was freaky though. The in briefing for grenade training starts with a grenade body (so no explosives or anything) being tossed into the middle of the platoon and the instructing Sergeant explaining how many of us just died, and how many are just injured. (Quite a few, we were packed into those bleachers tight!) so we've become keenly aware that these little orbs of pain are extremely dangerous, so fucking up in this particular case doesn't mean getting yelled at. It means your parents getting a "deeply regret" letter and a folded flag. When grenades are shipped, each grenade has a little house it lives in till it's taken out to be given to someone who's going to hurt things with it, well to save time the Marines issuing the grenades out had pulled the top halves of the houses off of all the grenades, they did this during set up about 4-5 hours earlier, this is Southern California in the summer. Those grenades are now WARM. Imagine, you're picking up an explosive device you know has the capacity to turn you into red mist, and it's warm. It was great, guys were kinda freaking out all over the place. One genius from another platoon actually asked if the grenade was warm because of the explosive charge.

[mtmerrick]

@last sentence: *epic facepalm*

[Is it cold in here?]

It would be true for some explosives: if you put your hand on the pit of a plutonium-based bomb it would be warm to the touch.

[Boiled Dove]

Ah, the gentle warmth of radioactive decay.

[Loki]

It's true what they say:

Give a man a fire, and he will be warm for a few hours.

Put a man next to a plutonium-based bomb and he will be warm for the rest of his life.

[Is it cold in here?]

Actually, you could spend a long time close to high-grade plutonium without getting hurt.