TH3Y NED 2 AKSEPT TAHT LANGUAEGS EVOLVERS AND ADAPT 2 NU EKOLOGIKAL NICHES.

TH3Y NED 2 AKSEPT TAHT LANGUAEGS EVOLVERS AND ADAPT 2 NU EKOLOGIKAL NICHES.

Lungage nazies makz bunnys cry. *Epic fail*.

Admit it, it is a bit ironic to complain about internet language on the internet. The reverse of communication skill?

Hmm, actually I guess you’re just an idiot then. Oh well.

I am aware of all internet traditions.

Especially with internet postings, or even fictional prose if the story is from a colorful character’s POV. None of this is technical writing. I think some people still haven’t come to terms with this new form of communication.

TH3Y NED 2 AKSEPT TAHT LANGUAEGS EVOLVERS AND ADAPT 2 NU EKOLOGIKAL NICHES.

Oh, love the site. Had a couple of my captions get pretty good ratings. I’m must getting annoyed by people using Internet speak in real speech. LOL is fine in text because it’s expedient. Actually saying “Ell Oh Ell” makes one look like a tool. In many cases, when spoken, such things cease being shortcuts.

I’m a pragmatist. Whaddya want? LOL! KTHX! BYE!

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/skeptical-cat-is-fraught-with-skepticism.jpg

I recall reading a few decades ago that a similar composition was used as the logo for an engineering society. It’s probably happened more than once.

Anyone with the enormous amount of spare time on their hands required to conduct a Google search will find tons of results for the search terms ” ‘three gears’ logo”.

Why did Phil’s use of the common phrase “casting aspersions” immediately make me think of an aspersion foundry?

Anyone with the enormous amount of spare time on their hands required to conduct a Google search will find tons of results for the search terms ” ‘three gears’ logo”. For example:

http://www.dreamstime.com/three-gears-image4281957

Why did Phil’s use of the common phrase “casting aspersions” immediately make me think of an aspersion foundry?

I dunno. Some people are awfully clever:

http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~gershon/EscherForReal/

- Jack

But really, people, since when is an writer (of any kind) obligated to restrict himself to the Queen’s English(TM)? The beauty of english is its diversity, with all its various lingos and brogues and jargons. Phil has every right to choose among them and use any expression he wants to convey the message he wishes to the audience he targets. The only justifiable measure is understandability.

It’s like faulting Shaw because Eliza Doolittle spoke in cockney.

LOLCAT iz not amuzed!

If you want to attack something, attack people who use LOLCat speak in real life.

Now *that* crap is simply off the hook!

http://craphound.com/images/pacgentleman.jpg

Impossible, but a totally awesome in concept and execution.

Honestly, this is the sort of nitpicking that gives skeptics a bad name.

but gears=engineering isn’t very original.

It is, however, archetypical, which is of far more importance in advertising.

C Murdock replied: Andrew, it’s internet jargon. Ever heard of “epic fail”?

Phil Plait wrote in his defense: Andrew, I quite intentionally wrote “fail”. You might want to do yourself a favor and brush up on your intertoobs lingo before casting aspersions.

I totally agree with Andrew on both points: The poor grammar as well as expecting better from Phil. In answer to C Murdock: No I also have never heard of “epic fail” and i darn sure won’t take the time to do a Google search to discover that Phil is a sheep following such trendy excuses for “hawt” writing.

Phil generally writes really great stuff and is a master at usage of the English language. However, there are those all too often occasions when he feels the need to “dumb down” his writing and excuses it as simply being “intertoobs lingo.” I personally don’t like the switching between excellent expository writing and dumbed down jargon-filled posts. It neither enhances the writer’s position nor makes those posts filled with utter nonsense words any more interesting.

I suppose that next Phil, in an attempt to gather more diggs and reddits from ethnic minorities, will stoop to writing blog posts in LA gangsta or Detroit rap lingo, filled with the usual assortment of vulgarities and misogynistic references.

However, since I still enjoy learning what Phil has to teach and those more serious articles are great, I’ll continue to stop by here daily.

Finally, I have donned my asbestos suit in anticipation of the usual flames in defense of sloppy writing (which I used to encounter daily while trying to teach English…).

-Tod

Yeah, they should be using T-Squares, triangles and rolled up blueprints in front of a skyscraper skeleton.

- Jack

Since the top and bottom gears have different pitches, it is just possible that they do not engage each other

Enlarging the image shows that they do (just) engage. The difference in pitch just makes it worse.

Boy, I bet he feels dumb! Sure glad I didn’t ask that question here! That would be too embarrassing!

I see stuff like this all the time. You can try to justify that they MEANT for the ad to be that way for all kinds of nonsense reasons, but let’s not make excuses here. Their graphic designer was told to just “make something that looks like something’s working or something”. It’s like the ten billion commercials that try to show someone playing videogames, and the “game” on the screen doesn’t even remotely look or play like any videogame that’s ever been conceived. It always looks like a CGI cartoon show from the 90′s. Companies just use shortcuts and assume that 99% of the audience won’t notice or just won’t care.

I wouldn’t have noticed this one unless I had been sitting on a train or something and had absolutely nothing else to do besides stare at the ad for a few seconds.