The Box of Chocolates Thread (You never know what you're going to get!)

I miss the slide rule

oh for the joys of somone earnestly explaining why it was important to use one.

I've never typed on an IPAD but that's interesting that you would need to switch keyboards just to use an apostrophe.

I'm usually on my phone swiping where autocorrect will automatically place them or on my laptop which has an apostrophe in the normal place.

But yeah "dont" is jarring and I hate seeing the squiggly red line underneath anything I write and really need to switch my laptop from British english to American english so that when I write a word like "recognize" it stops telling me that I've misspelled it.

I hope it explodes if you type 'burglarized'

Our point of disagreement is the apparent connection you make between grammar errors and education and intellect, specifically when found in an internet forum post. If we were talking about grammar errors in a business proposal or a brief to the SCOTUS, I would agree with you. There is an expectation that one is presenting their best effort and carefully proofreading those documents. No such expectation exists with an internet forum post most likely typed on a tiny phone. I just happen to believe that the vast majority of mistakes in forum posts are not due to intellectual or educational deficiencies. They certainly should not be surfaced in a forum discussion as a reason for discounting a poster's argument on a specific topic. That's a deflection away from rebutting the actual position.

[strike]burglarized[/strike]....[strike]burgularized[/strike].....robbed.

**** I'm awake with the Brits and the people in Thailand and don't seem to have any intention of trying to fall back asleep.

In my first week of freshman chemistry in college we were taught how to use a slide rule. And we actually used them on homework and exams. Then during the second semester people started getting Texas Instrument calculators. They cost a great deal of money back then relative to living expenses. But those who could afford one gladly paid the price, because it could keep track of the exponent value using scientific notation in calculations.

Recognizing the advantage that gave students with calculators versus slide rules, they altered the test multiple choice answers so that you chose the correct set up of the calculation but didn't have to actually complete the calculation. It's funny looking back 50 years, as those TI calculators we thought were so amazing are surpassed in capabilities today by calculators they sell next to the pencils and pens for $2.00.

LOL i have that same problem. If I happen to wake up in the early morning in Thailand, there are dozens of new posts posted since I went to sleep. So I start reading and responding, and before I know it's time to get up.

Yeah I don't want to get too graphic but I woke up at like 1:45 having to take a crap and it was of the sort where a shower is called for afterwards, and I'm in Colombia and there is no hot water where I am and it's in the mountains. And when you take a cold shower at 1:45 AM going back to sleep isn't easy.

You seem hellbent on ascribing a single cause to all errors all posters make when posting, which is slopinness/carelessness/laziness. I am saying that for some posters this is the case, and for others it is a lack of education.

I did not make any comment about surfacing the errors as part of a forum discussion. Literally the only point I am making is the one elucidated in the short emphasised sentence above. It's also common sense and uncontroversial, IMO.

Np and I edited all the minor little mistakes in that post like making sure that AM was capitalized because I knew you'd be reading it and I didn't want to be judged.

I'm afraid that ship sailed a long time ago.

I would like to propose the thread be named the "lucky dip thread" - sometimes you open it and get nuggets of wisdom from me, and other times you open it and get Luckbox talking about shitting himself.

It wasn't that bad but I've got 4 hours of bus rides planned for later most of it on bumpy dirt roads so hopefully I get it together.

Here is an Inca/Green jay from yesterday.

That gave me an idea for a place holder name until other suggestions have time to come in.

Nice.

In the spirit of the present discussion: can you remove the space after the opening parenthesis please? Or did you do that on purpose to make my OCD flare up?

Meant to post this earlier but forgot.

Spring is sprung
The grass is riz
I wonder where the birdie is
The birdie is upon the wing
No, that's absurd
The wing is on the little bird.

Browser owns the mushrooms and the field as well.

Neanderthal.

When you're forming a common contraction,
Please avoid a familiar infraction.
Do be sure that, with taste,
Your apostrophe's placed
With precision and great satisfaction!

Limericks should be reserved for small children and rugby parties.

Someone should start an interesting thread. All of the current ones have run their course. (Have ran their courses?).