mcswell

19 ms·

361.
by mcswell 2y ago
Then substitute one of my drawings (or paintings, if I painted) of a person. There's no way in the world that anyone--anyone!--would think mine were better. That's because mine are truly awful.
362.
by mcswell 2y ago
IMO, the switch from sodium lamps to LED lamps (one of the article's gripes) was for a good reason: lower use of electricity. I also happen to think that the light from sodium lamps looked ugly--much worse than a properly working LE
363.
by mcswell 2y ago
41 AD was a very good year.
364.
by mcswell 2y ago
"They concluded that the process can’t happen if there is a mismatch between host and endosymbiont at any point in the adaptation process." But it sounds like it can't happen without a bicycle pump, either, and so far as I k
365.
by mcswell 2y ago
A year or so ago, there was a complaint from the NY Times (IIRC) that by asking about some event, they were able to get back one of their articles almost verbatim--and alleging that this was a copyright violation. This appears to be a simi
366.
by mcswell 2y ago
A comment based on the computers I see on this desk--so not really relevant to the point of the post :(. Why do people do serious work on a laptop? I mean when they're not traveling. I'm typing on a laptop now, because I'm a
367.
by mcswell 2y ago
Not to mention how fast the clouds are moving!
368.
by mcswell 2y ago
What exactly makes a drone "mysterious" or "omonious[ly]"?
369.
by mcswell 2y ago
It's unclear whether any opposing force is "opting for this route".
370.
by mcswell 2y ago
The bases have been mapped years ago, maybe decades. By satellite.
371.
by mcswell 2y ago
I don't see the "Feedback" button. I'm using the Vivaldi browser (based on Chromium, I think). Most of the place names are clickable, with the notable exception of Israel (both Judah and Samariah) around 900 BC, and for
372.
by mcswell 2y ago
And somewhere nearby there used to be a gold cross, which is in a museum.
373.
by mcswell 2y ago
I don't think anyone has seriously claimed that Modern Standard Arabic has been intentionally made complicated. It's clearly related to a lot of other Semitic languages (including the regional varieties of spoken Arabic). And
374.
by mcswell 2y ago
And some comments at Language Log here: https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=67023
375.
by mcswell 2y ago
> Egypt didn't have these clay cigars Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I'll escort myself out now...
376.
by mcswell 2y ago
I blame Microsoft for that--in particular, the Ribbon (and before that, toolbars).
377.
by mcswell 2y ago
Speech is far more like alphabetic writing than it is like logographic writing. Spoken words are not single units, rather they're made up of phonemes.
378.
by mcswell 2y ago
People still survive that way.
379.
by mcswell 2y ago
The Quipu were definitely not an alphabetic system, and probably not a system for transcribing words.
380.
by mcswell 2y ago
Not sure, but I think Hangul counts as a second invention of alphabetic writing. If you count syllabic writing systems (which are not technically alphabetic, but are more so than Chinese, or Mayan or Egyptian hieroglyphics), there are more:
381.
by mcswell 2y ago
Almost as bad as a fuel oil fire on a cruise ship.
382.
by mcswell 2y ago
Danger! I made the mistake of following the link to AbeBook's list of books for sale. As a result, I spent $60. You have been warned.
383.
by mcswell 2y ago
I distinctly remember an article in the late 1990s (guessing 1998) which I read, but which I now can't find. It was about Y2K, and the bottom line was, we need more work to prevent disaster, but no matter how much is done, it will sti
384.
by mcswell 2y ago
"...all of which will still fall to the ground (ocean) as debris..." After it's been flying in orbit for awhile, where it could in theory hit something else. As you say, the other part of it--and probably more important--is
385.
by mcswell 2y ago
Wow...I was just about to throw out a charger that has both USB-A and USB-C ports. The A ports work to charge a device I plugged in, the C ports do not. I thought it was the charger, I'll have to check some more.
386.
by mcswell 2y ago
Thank you! I don't know how many projects I've seen on github which sound like they might be interesting, but where there's no way to really understand what it does without installing it. If people want their widget to be u
387.
by mcswell 2y ago
"Is this not obvious?" No. But I'm going to stop there, because there are pages of comments saying the exact opposite (and of course some agreeing with you) above.
388.
by mcswell 2y ago
Whether language's purpose was communication or thought is not easily answered. For one, how would you know? It left no fossils, nor do we have any other kind of record from that time. For another, the very question implies a teleol
389.
by mcswell 2y ago
One, two, ...many.
390.
by mcswell 2y ago
"Highly intelligent" is not a word to be used with apes, dogs, rats or crows.

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