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So ... was that coke or pepsi?
I'm never sure, to me they both taste like sweetened fermented bat urine...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: I'm never sure, to me they both taste like sweetened fermented bat urine...
I'm assuming you've had to taste that in order to make the comparison.
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OriginalGriff wrote: like sweetened fermented bat urine
I am that close to make a bad joke about coronavirus...
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Broken again. 
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Don't worry, you have a reputation.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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That's what I was worried about. 
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He forgot to take his pills.
Now, where did I leave my coat?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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There's just nothing I can say to that - hope it won't be too verbose
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Thanks for not calling him a Florida man! 
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Whole Foods had run out of Perrier.
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Some training companies tend to drown you with spam once you have attended one of their courses. Today, there was an email in my inbox from one of these, with the subject line:
"Courses for you who love embedded"
My immediate reaction was: That's the male experience, isn't it?
(The text really was in Swedish: Kurser för dig som älskar embedded, but it translates well.)
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Ahem.
It's interesting that they used embedded verbatim. Any French outfit doing this would probably be fined, at least in Quebec.
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Greg Utas wrote: ny French outfit doing this would probably be fined, at least in Quebec
And I fully understand that. French is a dying language and they feel protective of it.
I'm going to get my shovel and help out with the natural course of events.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Va te faire voir, patate !
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Suck it up (as none do so well as the French) - you deservedly lost.
Maybe learn a real language of global importance - you know - English, Spanish, Chinese - and learn what a real language is all about.
Rage wrote: Va te faire voir, patate !
Practice that with a mirror.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries !
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The words of the spawn of escargot !
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: French is a dying language
No way. It's taught in the American public education system so no way can it die.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: And I fully understand that. French is a dying language and they feel protective of it.
I was born and raised as a French speaker (in Ontario), but from my perspective, when I see Quebec's French protectionism is being enforced at the expense of teaching English, then I'm completely against it.
A parent of a good friend of mine - currently in his late 50s, early 60s, "100% pure Quebecois" - told a bunch of us that he would've loved to learn English, but because he hasn't, he's felt all his life that he had been at a disadvantage. I don't blame him.
I honestly believe that Quebec's French protectionism is purely political, and the population is smart enough to understand this is working against them. Yet they can't bring themselves to vote these people out.
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dandy72 wrote: Yet they can't bring themselves to vote these people out.
Vote whom out? I don't think there's a major political party in Quebec that advocates getting rid of this nonsense. It's purely political all right, because it's pure pandering. Quebec voters are brain dead, no different than most other Canadian voters.
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Greg Utas wrote: Quebec voters are brain dead, no different than most other Canadian voters.
I was going to protest, but given our current government, clearly I'm in no position to present a sensible counterargument.
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Aren't everybody who disagees with you brain dead? Is there any reason to distinguish between them?
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I wouldn't go quite that far... 
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: And I fully understand that. French is a dying language and they feel protective of it.
Isn't English in the same situation?
First, Chinese (Mandarin) is gaining significance in economy and industry as China's economic strength is increasing. They have the benfit of the iconic written language being common to a great variety of spoken languages. Other Asian languages also have an increasing impact - most certainy on the internet, 30 years ago almost exclusively English, today both Asian and other languages make an increasing impact.
Second, the English language, as a result of being used all over the world, is experiencing a babelization. Even for the "established" variants: If I haven't been speaking with Scots for a few months, it takes me a day or two to be re-accustomed to their variant of English. For Africans, it can take me a week. For most Far East people, I never get used to their so-called English, but must be constantly on 100% concentration to understand what they are talking about. People from India are in the middle between for me: For those I knew well, I have learned their special way of using the language. With others, I struggle.
My impression is that English has gone some way on the path to dissolve as a language. It has already gone so far that any English attempt to teach the world "the proper language" is futile. The Americans have been ecessively eager to spread the comercialism and socalled "freedom" ideals, completely ignoring cultural aspects such as language. Besides, American "freedom" ideals would never permit any control or management of such a personal thing as your language. The result of that is that every population group speaks its own "English" language - related, yet a different language. This includes "extreme" slang, leetspeak and other tribe languages.
English proponents are not really doing much seriously to keep their language from dwindling away. They trust that because it is so important today, it will reamain so forever. Hundred years ago, Frehch was the "lingo franco", the common language of the diplomats. Fifty years ago, the "International Communication Union", ITU, was recongized as CCITT, "Comité Consultatif International Téléphonique et Télégraphique", until 1993. At least into the 1980s, if you applied for a job in the Norwegian Postal Service, you had to demonstrate a basic familiarity with French - "Par avion" wasn't fully replaced by "Air mail" until the 1990s.
French dwindled away as The language among diplomats, the language for international standardization, the international postal service language... in spite of the French Academy's work to keep it unambiguos and well defined. The complete abscence of such efforts for the English language makes it a lot more vulnurable. I wouldn't be at all surprised if English fifty years from now are no more essential than French is today.
The French have always been provocative of their language. They certainly were, fifty years ago. The problem with English is that the USAnians, in their self-confidence, do not feel any need to be provocative of it. That may turn out to essential to the future of English as a world language.
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Basically, you have it all backwards in your conclusion.
English has become dominant for precisely the reason you say it will "dwindle away": it readily embraces words from other languages and grows. It is often said that the international language of science is broken English - and my personal experience causes me to agree.
It grows - it is a living breathing thing - certainly compared to a static corpse like French. All that's left of the language is their ego.
As for Asian languages - the major dominant 'contender' is Mandarin. It has the problem in that it is not an alphabetic language. Over the comparatively recent centuries there have even been internal wars over switching over to an alphabetic writing system. Oddly enough, their current form of government could just mandate it but, for whatever reason, has not.
But know ye this!
Adaption is necessary for survival.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
modified 5-Mar-20 9:36am.
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