Poor grammar: Is it just me...
msmeow
8 years ago
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martin_z
8 years agoannpanagain
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Why can't journalists use correct grammar?
Comments (42)I thought 'journalists' were supposed to be professionals in their line of business. Every other word and/or sentence structure is grammatically incorrect. Aren't the writers required to be college graduates? The poor sentence structures, along with mispronounced words is just sinful!!!! For example: The words "lie" and "lay". People "lie", objects "lay". That isn't too difficult! When asked, "How are you?" 99%respond, "GOOD"! If I hear that one more time, I will scream!!!!! THE CORRECT RESPONSE IS "WELL"! Again, not that difficult. Every commercial, commentator, etc. ends their sentences with a preposition! Again.....wrong. For instance, "Where did you get that FROM? "FROM" is a preposition. Proper grammar, "From where did you get that?". AND, THE MOST WIDELY MISUSED, INCORRECT PHRASE IS..........."FOR FREE". We don't get things "FOR FREE". We get them "FREE"! American citizens aren't even capable of using our language correctly. Open the dictionary.....you will be amazed how much there is to learn!!!!!!!...See MoreGrammar Minefields
Comments (33)Interesting pronunciations, Mary. Yours are different from mine, which are, I suppose, of the west-of-the-Mississippi sort. I (and most American westerners) pronounce rather with the hard /th/ of than, the, though, not the soft /th/ of thorn, thick, thin...wrath. Does your wrath end with the hard /th/? I definitely don't rhyme rather with father. Neither do I rhyme father with water. My "water" rhymes with cotter (the closest real word that I can think of at the moment). Vee, I doubt any transcription will give you the proper idea of how Americans pronounce farther, so I suggest you visit a site with audio of American pronunciations. I can attempt it but I doubt it will do any good. However, here goes: Think of the letter R and how Americans say it (the letter itself) -- It is "Ar" with the tongue curled. Pirates supposedly say "Argh!" an awful lot -- the beginning of their word is the same as the American pronunciation of the letter R (not to be confused with the sound of every R, though -- initial, internal, or ultimate). The English I know tend to pronounce the letter R as "Ah" without curling the tongue. This is important because it is one of the primary reasons American English sounds different from English English. This one letter causes more problems and misunderstandings, I think, than any other. The English (and some American-English speakers) who cannot curl their tongues for R, or even imagine that sound, will not comprehend this, I'm afraid. Okay, here's how I would transcribe farther, keeping in mind that many (most) Americans definitely pronounce the R in the position of the way it is spelled. FAR-thur -- the AR sound is the same as in the pirate's "argh!" The /th/ is hard as in thou, and the /ur/ sounds just about identical to the Cockney pronunciation of her: 'er.Maybe that will help, but I think it's probably a matter of being very familiar with American pronunciations as compared to those of English- or British- or Australian-English. Pronunciations really need to be heard, not transcribed, but transcription will give a pretty good idea if both transcriber and reader are familiar with the same sounds and conventions....See MorePoor Val....poor me
Comments (39)The twitch is a chain loop on a heavy stick...almost like a bat. It is used to twist around a horse's lip to distract them. It can be used very severely, or just enough to have a little more control. There are other kinds of twitches, but that is the kind they used on Val. I was not crazy about that, but I know he had to stand very still because he was being injected into an area just above his hoof. He was sedated and in a stock....a pipe enclosure just big enough for him to stand in there...but it was necessary for him to stand perfectly still. As soon as it was over, which was just a minute or so, they took it off of him. I am fine...Jody is fine, except they still don't know why one chamber of his heart isn't working right. I am going with him to his next cardiologist appointment because he never asks questions. He is not to lift anything heavier than 10 lb for two weeks....which means I will be unloading the truck when I pick up feed. I can do it...it will just take me a long time. The hardest part will be trying to keep Jody from helping. Becky is not doing well. She had a doctor's appointment yesterday and she might lose her leg. They are trying to save it, but that is a possibility. I feel so bad for her. Commercial boats are very dangerous places to be. Jody is out right now, getting an air conditioner for her. She has one, but it can't keep up with the heat we are having right now....See MoreHomestead tomatoes - poor germination rate or just uneven germination?
Comments (16)@dirtygardener It’s just an experimental precaution against disease, which also helps dissolve organic debris somewhat. It also releases copper into the water (especially if something acidic is being zapped, or if you zap for a long time, in which case the water turns blue). Copper is antimicrobial. I hypothesize that copper aside, the zapping also helps, but I make no definitive scientific claims. I think there might be something to some things that Hulda Clark said, but I don’t agree with everything she ever said. I can tell you garden-related anecdotes. For instance, I saved and zapped seeds from tomatoes with anthracnose, and the plants I grew didn’t have anthracnose (whether or not the zapper was the reason). Also, I haven’t seen nearly as many signs of alternaria on tomatoes since I started zapping. They're just a few simple anecdotes from a few uses of zapping, though (not published studies). Whether zapping is ever superior to fermenting, zapping is not always superior to fermenting, but I personally prefer it in most regards. I don’t claim that either method is superior. You can do both to the same seeds, for that matter, should you want to do so (be sure to ferment first, if you do); zapping fermented seeds does make them smell better, anyhow. However, if an extremely high germination rate is your primary concern you’d probably be better off fermenting, whether or not you also zap. Zapping doesn’t distinguish between inviable and viable seeds (while with fermenting, the sunken seeds are usually viable, and only some of the floating seeds are viable). With zapping, you just get them all, the same way you would if using hydrogen peroxide or bleach. However, there are probably loads of other ways to sift out the inviable ones, should we discover them. Fermenting also is kind of like digesting; I think that process wakes some seeds up that would be harder to germinate otherwise. I’m personally confident enough with zapping that I’m no longer anxious about disease in my garden. So, whether or not it technically works, I’m happy. I’ve been very curious if it would cause any mutations in seeds or stuff like that, but I haven’t seen an increased rate of obvious mutation among plants from zapped seeds. In fact, I’ve probably seen more mutations from seeds I haven’t zapped. You’d need a lot more plants to draw any conclusions there. Disease aside, I should try growing several seeds from the same fruit, some zapped, and some not zapped, and observe if there are any obvious differences between the two groups. I'm the only one who uses zappers on seeds, to my knowledge. Here’s what I do: Supplies needed: • A Z4EX (I got mine from zapperguy.net; I’m not affliated with them, nor with any other company) • A 9-volt battery (the ones that read 9.6v on a multimeter are ideal; the Sunbeam ones at the Dollar Tree are fine; rechargeable ones usually read less then 9.6v) • Copper pipes (I got mine from The Home Depot; they cut them to size for me—probably about five inches long each; these aren’t as good as the pipes that come with the zapper, but as zapping things in water can corrode the pipes, you may want some cheap ones for the purpose) • A widemouth quart or pint jar • Tap water • Fruits with seeds • A fine mesh strainer (about 3 to 5 inches in diameter), or a blender • A countdown timer, or a clock • Labeled empty herbal tea bags (if you’re doing multiple kinds of seeds at once) I grow plants, such as tomatoes, watermelon, muskmelons, peppers, ground cherries, wonderberries, Morelle de Balbis, eggplant, tomatillos, West India burr gherkins, and so forth. I remove the seeds from the fruits. How to do this differs depending on the plant. For tomatoes, a fast way is to cut each fruit in half, get a fine strainer, turn the faucet on and wash the seeds from the fruits into the strainer (but the fruit tastes better if you tediously take the seeds out without using water to help). If the seeds have a lot of gel, you can optionally either ferment them first, or else put them in the blender on the lowest setting for a second or two, to remove the gel sacks. The blender method is very effective at removing the gel sakcs, but it does destroy and mar some seeds, however (on some varieties more than others). Instead of fermenting or blending, since I like to get nearly as many seeds per fruit as possible, I usually just use my thumbs and fingers to rub the gel sacks off on the strainer, while I have some water going (it takes some time and effort, and skill, but yeah). The gel sacks don’t always come off perfectly by rubbing, but it’s not the end of the world, since zapping dissolves them somewhat, too (the seeds may stick together when they dry, if it’s not completely gone, but it’s easy to break them apart and get nice-looking seeds without gel on them). I’ve recently taken to using baking soda to assist in removing the gel from some seeds while rubbing (it helps for some varieties more than others). Leaving the gel in its entirely on the seeds should be fine, if you’re confident that zapping works, if you don’t mind sticky seeds. However, gel sacks are said to contain things that inhibit germination (and while my experience tells me tomatoes will sprout with gel sacks on them, I don’t know whether zapping would denature those germination-inhibiting substances). Anyway, then I have a quart or pint wide-mouth jar with two copper pipes in it. I put the cleaned seeds inside labeled empty herbal tea bags. I tie the bags and put them in the jar. I can put up to about 15 kinds of seeds in a jar with the standard I decided to set (although another standard may or may not be as effective). I fill the jar two or three inches with water (maybe a little more sometimes); I make sure all the seeds are wet, and ideally submerged (as long as they’re wet, though, they should get zapped). I attach the zapper’s alligator clips to the copper pipes. I turn the zapper on the 15hz setting for 15 minutes. Directly afterward I turn it on 2.5khz for 15 minutes. Directly afterward, I turn it on 30khz for 15 minutes. Zapping a lot longer doesn’t kill the seeds, in my experience. If the water turns blue, that’s okay (it just means there’s more copper in the water, probably due to acids in whatever you’re zapping). Then I remove the water from the jar and the herbal tea bags (I usually rinse the seeds afterward, but not always). I put the herbal tea bags on brown paper bags on a table in a room with a fan going nearby (to dry). When they’re dry, or when I need to open the bags, I like to put them in those plastic zipper bead bags. When I put the seeds in storage, I put them in a cheap foam cooler in my room. The foam cooler is mostly just a buffer against rapid temperature and humidity changes, while keeping things dark, but it’s also a handy box to put them in. It should be noted that seeds in water will get a strong and thorough zap, due to the water, the small quantity of stuff being zapped, and to how the electrodes are extremely close together. I think my 15 minutes per frequency is probably overkill. 3 minutes per frequency is probably enough to do about the same thing on seeds, but I haven’t tested the 3-minute way more than on one year on a few plants....See MoreKath
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