Posts by Kyle Matthews
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Farmers know that fire is necessary, that bush must be controlled.
There's a two part statement.
Fire has, in many parts of the world, been part of the natural order of things.
Controlling bush is a much more modern, and not particularly 'natural' concept.
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The beard wasn't a big hint?
Or was it a really strange part of China?
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But getting 7th formers to explain it would be a worthwhile subject.
I believe it actually requires multiple PhDs in the topic of Chaos Theory. And a supercomputer based inside a planet run by mice.
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So we try to find all kinds of ways to convey our meaning more clearly without all the non-verbal clues we absolutely rely on in face to face communication.
Well yes. But that's the ambiguity of written conversation, the opposite of the ambiguity of oral conversation, which was my... original thing.
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Because in writing you lose the marvellously subtle and not so subtle cues of verbal intonation.
Again often, but not always. Or again, these things are not always necessary for understanding what someone is communicating.
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If you were giving instructions to an assassin, would it actually matter if you wrote "Kill the king not, to fear is good" as opposed to "Kill the king, not to fear is good"? Or how about not punctuating the sentence at all, for that extra hint of plausible deniability?
Yes. Or it would if you were foolish enough to write down instructions to an assassin.
But the debate is only really interesting where an element appears in the written language, but is not necessarily reflected in the spoken language. Its/it's. Two/to/too. Not the case with a comma, which makes sense to appear written, as it's a pause when spoken.
If it can be figured out orally via context, why does it appear written down?
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Shouldn't that be, when you get to ten pencils, use them to make a tank?
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And the caravans too. Some sort of 15 story mobile road hazard for users.
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although I didn't go all the way like this uber-mom
Meh, that's pansy.
You should have done a cake 15 feet across, and recreated March of the Penguins, including falling snow and gale force winds. Morgan Freeman optional.
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Also, mounted police charge
The insistence of some police forces around the world using horses for crowd control is really stupid. They're incredibly difficult to keep under control, they spook in crowds, loud noises, and they don't like sirens.
Elephants would make about as much sense.