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Really, get away from your computer screen for a while. Get a passport, visit places. Know about the rest of the world, what they wear, what they eat, how they

Really, get away from your computer screen for a while. Get a passport, visit places. Know about the rest of the world, what they wear, what they eat, how they talk, how they write.

judk 13y ago
Where do they write "phosphorous"? They don't indiscriminately sprinkle 'u' after every 'o'. That would be "phosphourous".
- DanBC 13y ago
  phousphourous? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Phosphorous#Spelling_and_etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Phosphorous#Spelling_and_e...) > According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the correct spelling of the element is phosphorus. The word phosphorous is the adjectival form of the P3+ valence: so, just as sulfur forms sulfurous and sulfuric compounds, phosphorus forms phosphorous compounds (e.g., phosphorous acid) and P5+ valence phosphoric compounds (e.g., phosphoric acids and phosphates).
lutusp 13y ago
> Get a passport, visit places. I have: http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Long-Distance-Sailor-Paul-Lutus/dp/1435710274/ http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Long-Distance-Sailor-Paul-... If you had any idea to whom you're speaking, you would realize how utterly absurd your suggestion is. Speaking purely on a probabilistic basis, I know more about the world than you have any chance of knowing.
- skosuri 13y ago
  Yeah, and if you had any idea of who you were criticizing, you might be willing to overlook a spelling mistake. Mike Eisen is a world-class evolutionary biologist, professor at UC Berkeley, founder of PLoS, and an HHMI investigator.
  - lutusp 13y ago
    Then he has no excuse. Do you really think academic status excuses academic hubris? Do you really think science is about authority and titles? I could go on like this, but you should know better than to recite someone's titles in a science discussion, and frankly I doubt anything I might say will change your behavior. The bottom line -- in science, evidence means everything, reputation means nothing. The greatest amount of scientific eminence is trumped by the smallest amount of scientific evidence.
    - DanBC 13y ago
      But spelling is usually not that important. It's not as if anyone is confused by the use of the incorrect word "phosphorous". While it's nice to have the correct spelling this is the kind of word that can fail spell check (because phosphorous can be correct in other contexts) it's not a serious typo. It's not like silicone / silicon - often misused where people have to guess from context. (No one is getting a silicon breast implant; no one is making silicone chips.) It's not like mistaking the units, 1.50 mg instead of 1.50 μg, or putting the decimal point in the wrong place, 1.50 μg instead of 15.0 μg. Having said all that the Underground Grammarian makes a good point in "Trifles": > Our educators, panting after professionalism, are little interested in being known for a picayune concern with trifles like spelling and punctuation. They would much rather make the world a better place. They have tried on the gowns of philosophers, psychologists, and priests. That's why, when they think of their "teaching goals," they say those things in the questionnaire. They see themselves as guides to emotional development, instigators of creative capacities, and molders of moral character. When they must attend to the factual content of some subject, they prefer to say that they impart that "general insight into the knowledge of a discipline." Niggling details, like spelling and punctuation, seem base by contrast with those noble goals. Our educators have established for us what may be a genuinely new kind of cultural institution--although it is something like the Austro-Hungarian Empire--that stubbornly avoids those undertakings in which it might succeed and passionately embraces those in which it must probably fail. (It's a long piece and I didn't know which bit to use as a quote). (http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/less-than-words-can-say/06.htm http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/less-than-words-can-say...)

Really, get away from your computer screen for a while. Get a passport, visit places. Know about the rest of the world, what they wear, what they eat, how they talk, how they write.

judk 13y ago

Where do they write "phosphorous"? They don't indiscriminately sprinkle 'u' after every 'o'. That would be "phosphourous".

DanBC 13y ago
phousphourous? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Phosphorous#Spelling_and_etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Phosphorous#Spelling_and_e...) > According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the correct spelling of the element is phosphorus. The word phosphorous is the adjectival form of the P3+ valence: so, just as sulfur forms sulfurous and sulfuric compounds, phosphorus forms phosphorous compounds (e.g., phosphorous acid) and P5+ valence phosphoric compounds (e.g., phosphoric acids and phosphates).

lutusp 13y ago

> Get a passport, visit places. I have: http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Long-Distance-Sailor-Paul-Lutus/dp/1435710274/ http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Long-Distance-Sailor-Paul-... If you had any idea to whom you're speaking, you would realize how utterly absurd your suggestion is. Speaking purely on a probabilistic basis, I know more about the world than you have any chance of knowing.

skosuri 13y ago
Yeah, and if you had any idea of who you were criticizing, you might be willing to overlook a spelling mistake. Mike Eisen is a world-class evolutionary biologist, professor at UC Berkeley, founder of PLoS, and an HHMI investigator.
- lutusp 13y ago
  Then he has no excuse. Do you really think academic status excuses academic hubris? Do you really think science is about authority and titles? I could go on like this, but you should know better than to recite someone's titles in a science discussion, and frankly I doubt anything I might say will change your behavior. The bottom line -- in science, evidence means everything, reputation means nothing. The greatest amount of scientific eminence is trumped by the smallest amount of scientific evidence.
  - DanBC 13y ago
    But spelling is usually not that important. It's not as if anyone is confused by the use of the incorrect word "phosphorous". While it's nice to have the correct spelling this is the kind of word that can fail spell check (because phosphorous can be correct in other contexts) it's not a serious typo. It's not like silicone / silicon - often misused where people have to guess from context. (No one is getting a silicon breast implant; no one is making silicone chips.) It's not like mistaking the units, 1.50 mg instead of 1.50 μg, or putting the decimal point in the wrong place, 1.50 μg instead of 15.0 μg. Having said all that the Underground Grammarian makes a good point in "Trifles": > Our educators, panting after professionalism, are little interested in being known for a picayune concern with trifles like spelling and punctuation. They would much rather make the world a better place. They have tried on the gowns of philosophers, psychologists, and priests. That's why, when they think of their "teaching goals," they say those things in the questionnaire. They see themselves as guides to emotional development, instigators of creative capacities, and molders of moral character. When they must attend to the factual content of some subject, they prefer to say that they impart that "general insight into the knowledge of a discipline." Niggling details, like spelling and punctuation, seem base by contrast with those noble goals. Our educators have established for us what may be a genuinely new kind of cultural institution--although it is something like the Austro-Hungarian Empire--that stubbornly avoids those undertakings in which it might succeed and passionately embraces those in which it must probably fail. (It's a long piece and I didn't know which bit to use as a quote). (http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/less-than-words-can-say/06.htm http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/less-than-words-can-say...)