Re: Professor Julius Sumner Miller

davidc4430 · ‎19-01-2019

Professor Julius Sumner Miller maintains his faith in physics despite Why Is It So? near-miss

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-19/julius-sumner-millers-faith-in-physics-why-is-it-so-1964/1056...

i fondly remember watching this crazy old guy on telly as a boy, they just dont make em like him anymore and they sure dont put em on tv in their own show!

kopenhagen5 · ‎19-01-2019

Miller was intolerant of misspelled words and misplaced punctuation, and often angered his colleagues because he charged that the students of most faculty were not learning enough. During an interview in the 1940s, he stated that intellectual life in America was in trouble, a belief he held for the rest of his life.

We are approaching a darkness in the land. Boys and girls are emerging from every level of school with certificates and degrees, but they can't read, write or calculate. We don't have academic honesty or intellectual rigor. Schools have abandoned integrity and rigor.

A bit like what has been going on here in Australia.

He passed away in 1987 aged 77.

davidc4430 · ‎19-01-2019

i think he would be apalled by my spelling.

as he would by todays 'reliance on technology'

zanadoo_56 · ‎19-01-2019

@davidc4430 wrote:
i think he would be apalled by my spelling.
as he would by todays 'reliance on technology'

Bad spelling is endemic in society these days. I've given up....mind you, now that my laptop is getting on in years (by computer standards) and the keys are beginning to stick or sometimes barely work at all, technology may be responsible in more ways then one, rather than human error. It certainly is an issue in my case. 🙂

Sometimes I also wonder if it would be easier to ban the apostrophe completely than expect it to be used correctly....after which I would ban the (American) word 'gotten'. 😉

But then again, there are common words misused that do make me smile - phased instead of fazed is one of my favourites.

davidc4430 · ‎19-01-2019

i dont completely disagree about bad spelling for anyone who is a product of a full education, but those of us who didnt finish high school for whatever reason usually dont misspell on purpose or laziness. i do my best. i hope i get it right most of the time.

unless i know a person has had a full education i hope i dont feel the need to point out their spelling flaws.

as long as i can decifer what they mean i'm fine.

what really gets under my skin are the ones in pointing out someones bad spelling make obvious mistakes.

Anonymous · ‎19-01-2019

I know exactly what you mean

I taught myself to read and write and had almost no formal education until I set foot in a classroom to do my HSC in the 90's

Another forum I was on years back had a member who took great delight in pouncing on all my spelling errors (and another girl for whom English was her second language)

Funnily enough,this same woman would at times post while drunk to the eyeballs and her posts would be full of spelling mistakes......but that was ok

imastawka · ‎19-01-2019

Good on ya Bear.

David, I left school with only year 8 under my belt.

But I've always been an avid reader.

I think that helps. You absorb all the spelling/grammar.

It also helped that my mum was a primary school teacher,

and so I got a lot of these

zanadoo_56 · ‎19-01-2019

I didn't finish high school (I quit near the end of 5th form (year 11) to go to TAFE) but English was my best subject. BTW this is balanced by not being so hot at Maths. 🙂

I was actually thinking of a family member who did finish 6th form.....but for whom near enough was always good enough when it came to spelling. I had a message from him recently where 'you're' was used instead of 'your'....sigh. He loves new technology and SMS and all that stuff because (and I quote) 'No one cares anymore about spelling, it's the changing face of English.' blah blah blah. In other words he doesn't have to bother worry about accurate spelling....not that he ever really did. 😉

My pet hate is not where individuals make mistakes but when the mistakes are probably subject to review....and are not corrected. I'm talking about what's said on TV (like gotten), in the newspapers and especially in signage and even catalogues. It makes me wonder: if someone in say a signage company sees a mistake, so, do they approach the client to suggest correcting it...or just do it exactly as it came to them? Or maybe they too think it no longer matters.

My working years were spent where clear and concise English was essential. It became a major yet unofficial part of my job to make corrections. I guess it kept me on my toes. These days the sticky laptop keys are so annoying I've (shock horror) let mistakes remain uncorrected more than a few times. 🙂 I'll bet that Professor Julius Sumner Miller would not be impressed.

performance_parts_clearance_centre · ‎22-01-2019

My response to the "No one cares anymore about spelling" argument is to politely ask if they'd be OK with the nurse giving their child an injection not being able to spell the name of the drug correctly, and grabbing the one that has a similar name but potentially fatal consequences if injected...

The only ones who use the "spelling / grammar / punctuation doesn't matter" argument are those who are no damned good at them...

So far as the media goes, as someone who works in radio (albeit community radio) I find the level of mis-spelling in the media just plain offensive.

kopenhagen5 · ‎22-01-2019

I am also amazed at the number of media personnel using grammar incorrectly on a daily basis.

Pure lazyness if you ask me.