It's not a fundamental misunderstanding on the level of mbclev thinking "Why can't you take a picture of a man with a wooden leg? Because a wooden leg isn't a camera!" was offensive to amputees and the otherwise leg-lacking, so I'll leave it there.davey wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:03 amLynn Truss writes-seaborgium wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 3:46 amThe joke isn't ambiguity; it's the absurd sense of the phrase, which requires the comma after "eats" for that sense to exist in writing. Its presence turns "shoots" and "leaves" into verbs instead of objects of "eats," whether or not there's a comma after "shoots."davey wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 12:14 amThe absence of the serial comma is what makes the statement ambiguous (and incorrect). If there are 2 commas, the statement makes singular if absurd sense.seaborgium wrote: ↑Wed Sep 07, 2022 11:51 pm
It's not the absence of a comma that makes the joke possible, but the presence of one (or two, if you include an Oxford comma). Really, though, the joke is only really possible in spoken form, where "eats shoots and leaves" isn't intoned any differently from "eats, shoots, and leaves" and thus you don't have to digress before the punchline to say that the dictionary used in the joke has been punctuated improperly.
My own feeling is that one shouldn’t be too rigid about the Oxford comma. Sometimes the sentence is improved by including it; sometimes it isn’t.
Maybe she didn't intend her title as an illustration - she doesn't mention it in her section on the Oxford comma. But it seems apt to me, so I'll continue to consider it "part of" the joke...
2022 Current Events Discussion Thread
Moderators: alietr, trainman, econgator, dhkendall
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Re: 2022 Current Events Discussion Thread
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Re: 2022 Current Events Discussion Thread
The J! writers will do a clue using the 337 year gap between Charles II & Charles III.
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Re: 2022 Current Events Discussion Thread
For all we know he may not take his first name as his regnal name (George VI was Albert Frederick Arthur George, for example).MarkBarrett wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 1:52 pm The J! writers will do a clue using the 337 year gap between Charles II & Charles III.
Edit: Opus covered that in the RIP thread already.
Last edited by seaborgium on Thu Sep 08, 2022 2:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2022 Current Events Discussion Thread
New Prime Minister and new Monarch in the same week. Things becoming completely different around here.
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Re: 2022 Current Events Discussion Thread
Hilariously, that still leaves Armageddon as the highest worldwide grossing film in the Criterion DVD/Blu-Ray catalog. WALL-E would become the highest grossing domestic film. (And accounting for inflation, Armageddon would win that back too)MinnesotaMyron wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 2:16 pm November will see the first Criterion Collection release of a Pixar film, WALL-E.
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Re: 2022 Current Events Discussion Thread
So is anyone on this board old enough to remember the last time Britain had a king?
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I’m not nearly old enough, but it was 1952.opusthepenguin wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:05 pm So is anyone on this board old enough to remember the last time Britain had a king?
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Yep. I'm pretty sure we've got a boardie or two who was alive the last time Britain had a king. But I'm thinking we might not have anyone who remembers it.LucarioSnooperVixey wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:21 pmI’m not nearly old enough, but it was 1952.opusthepenguin wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:05 pm So is anyone on this board old enough to remember the last time Britain had a king?
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Victoria died 51 years before Elizabeth took the throne so I imagine a number of people then remembered two queens. But there will likely be a king on the throne through near the end of the century. (Prince George was born in 2013).opusthepenguin wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 8:21 pmYep. I'm pretty sure we've got a boardie or two who was alive the last time Britain had a king. But I'm thinking we might not have anyone who remembers it.LucarioSnooperVixey wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:21 pmI’m not nearly old enough, but it was 1952.opusthepenguin wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:05 pm So is anyone on this board old enough to remember the last time Britain had a king?
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And just for fun, the longest gap is William II to III (Aug 1100 to November 1650).MarkBarrett wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 1:52 pm The J! writers will do a clue using the 337 year gap between Charles II & Charles III.
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I'm old enough that I probably watched it with my parents, but I have no memory of it.opusthepenguin wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 8:21 pmYep. I'm pretty sure we've got a boardie or two who was alive the last time Britain had a king. But I'm thinking we might not have anyone who remembers it.LucarioSnooperVixey wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:21 pmI’m not nearly old enough, but it was 1952.opusthepenguin wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:05 pm So is anyone on this board old enough to remember the last time Britain had a king?
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Re: 2022 Current Events Discussion Thread
Tried to make a J! clue out of that fact--failed, except as a math problem. Asking for the regnal name is too hard, I think, even for a bottom-row clue, unless we're in a UToC or GOAT tournament.econgator wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 10:38 pmAnd just for fun, the longest gap is William II to III (Aug 1100 to November 1650).MarkBarrett wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 1:52 pm The J! writers will do a clue using the 337 year gap between Charles II & Charles III.
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Re: 2022 Current Events Discussion Thread
"Rock You Like A Hurricane" is ruined for me now.
I had a dream that I was asleep and then I woke up and Jeopardy! was on.
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Re: 2022 Current Events Discussion Thread
I figured the link would be to an article in The Onion, but I guess not.Bamaman wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 9:28 am The NFL is replacing the Pro Bowl with a flag football game and skills competition.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/346 ... atform=amp
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At the Pro Bowl following the 1998 season, Patriots rookie RB Robert Edwards suffered a knee injury so bad he barely escaped amputation. The injury occurred during a flag football game on the beach. I wonder if the decision makers are old enough to remember that.Bamaman wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 9:28 am The NFL is replacing the Pro Bowl with a flag football game and skills competition.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/346 ... atform=amp
I don't remember any serious injuries during the actual Pro Bowl game.
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And I -literally- had that open in another tab as I copy/pasted Tsitsipas's name overGolf wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 3:54 pmLaver Cup. Not Ryder Cup. Ryder Cup is golf.Volante wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 3:45 pm Tennis name to probably know: Frances Tiafoe
Defeated Nadal at the 2022 US Open and clinched the Ryder Cup win for Team World defeating both Nadal and Federer in doubles (with Jack Sock; this was Federer's last professional match as well) and Tsitsipas in singles.
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Re: 2022 Current Events Discussion Thread
I used to get the Davis Cup (Tennis) and the Ryder Cup (Golf) mixed up. Maybe I should have had Laver Cup and Ryder Cup mixed up instead of Davis Cup and Ryder Cup? Anyway, I remember them now because the golfers ryde around in a cart when they play their cup, so that's why it's the Ryder Cup.Volante wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 4:17 pmAnd I -literally- had that open in another tab as I copy/pasted Tsitsipas's name overGolf wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 3:54 pmLaver Cup. Not Ryder Cup. Ryder Cup is golf.Volante wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 3:45 pm Tennis name to probably know: Frances Tiafoe
Defeated Nadal at the 2022 US Open and clinched the Ryder Cup win for Team World defeating both Nadal and Federer in doubles (with Jack Sock; this was Federer's last professional match as well) and Tsitsipas in singles.
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Re: 2022 Current Events Discussion Thread
I think that many physicists would agree with Einstein. All the available evidence suggests that flipping the spin of an entangled particle will result in its partner flipping its spin (because Pauli) instantaneously , no matter how distant. Thus, information seems to travel faster than the speed of light, which contradicts a tenet of relativity.Volante wrote: ↑Tue Oct 04, 2022 9:53 am https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63121287Einstein called entanglement "spooky action at a distance", one of his rare misses.This year's Nobel Prize in Physics rewards research into quantum mechanics - the science that describes nature at the smallest scales.
The award goes to Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger.
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This year's three laureates conducted ground-breaking experiments using entangled quantum states, where two sub-atomic particles behave like a single unit even when they are separated.
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Re: 2022 Current Events Discussion Thread
Seems.Woof wrote: ↑Tue Oct 04, 2022 10:03 amI think that many physicists would agree with Einstein. All the available evidence suggests that flipping the spin of an entangled particle will result in its partner flipping its spin (because Pauli) instantaneously , no matter how distant. Thus, information seems to travel faster than the speed of light, which contradicts a tenet of relativity.Volante wrote: ↑Tue Oct 04, 2022 9:53 am https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63121287Einstein called entanglement "spooky action at a distance", one of his rare misses.This year's Nobel Prize in Physics rewards research into quantum mechanics - the science that describes nature at the smallest scales.
The award goes to Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger.
...
This year's three laureates conducted ground-breaking experiments using entangled quantum states, where two sub-atomic particles behave like a single unit even when they are separated.
(Also, I love that channel, even though I understand about 15% of it...and it keeps going down cause all they have left are advanced topics to cover )
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Re: 2022 Current Events Discussion Thread
A couple of comments since I know two of the recipients. K. Barry Sharpless (his first name is Karl but everyone calls him Barry) is only the second person to receive two Nobels in Chemistry (joining Fred Sanger) and only the third person overall to win two in the same field (the other being John Bardeen in Physics).Volante wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 10:49 am https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63121338(Not to be confused with meet-cutes involving a Adam Sandler + Christopher Walken movie)The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has gone to three scientists for their work on linking molecules together, known as "click" chemistry.Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and Barry Sharpless' work allows molecules to link together, like Lego pieces.
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"Two chemical partners are perfectly designed to match each other so that when they come into contact with each other in the right environment, they just click together," [Professor Alison Hulme] told BBC News.
But at first it could not be used in living cells - essential for understanding disease - because it involved the use of copper which kills cells.
Professor Bertozzi's groundbreaking discovery made click chemistry work in living cells. She was able to bypass the copper ions by using other components that react.
I’ve known Carolyn Bertozzi since her days as a graduate student at Berkeley. She is flat out brilliant and a good person to boot. Her contributions go well beyond the one reaction cited here. Fun fact: she was congratulated by Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine: they were band-mates at Harvard (she played keyboards).