cajen2

Another customer for @Ags:

If there are already galaxies travelling away from me at 99% of the speed of light, they won't see me at all.....I won't have been born yet either!

The first one looks like a moray eel or snake's head.

Come back, Jules Verne, all is forgiven? 😉

I fear we're having the urine extracted...😉😄

Oh God, yes. Comedy classics that I can watch over and over again until I can repeat the whole script, yet still enjoy.

Sure you don't mean 'electricity was utilised'?

Yes.. I utilised my finger to type this...

In true SGL fashion, this thread has gone from the speed of electricity to the history of modern English in no time! 😆

Actually, 'orientate' has been used since the 19th century, so it isn't exactly Johnny come lately...

Yes indeed, Jim. For example, everything American is suddenly fashionable. Almost overnight, the past participle of 'get' (for centuries in Britain 'got') for 90% of the population is 'gotten'. Why? Because that's what Americans say. It makes my teeth ache, so I'll never use it, but I've never tried to be fashionable..... I could bore you with a list of other recent Americanisms, but I won't bother. Having said that, if anyone answers "How are you?" with "I'm good", I always think "I wasn't asking about your sexual prowess". 😄

Oh, plenty, Jim. The biggest debate in grammar is 'prescription' v. 'description', i.e. whether grammar should tell people what they should say or describe what they really say. I'll leave you to guess which one holds sway currently. In the case of gerunds, this debate is irrelevant, as both are applicable.

The definition of "gerund" as it's applied to the English language has never changed, Jim. What has also never changed is that "past", while being a noun, adjective, adverb and preposition, has never been a verb form. You mean "passed". 😆😆😆😆

The next time I'm travelling at 90% of the speed of light, I'll let you know....😄 Mind you, I'll have put on a lot of weight!

BTW, the date of the Battle of Jutland is still fixed.....😉

RW is a poet and songwriter. The opening of the song from which that quote comes is "You may have observed, when you walk into a wall, you get a certain sensation of reality...." He is also a bard and raconteur and a very wise man

A germane quote from Robin Williamson which laughs at both our positions: "All your so-hard facts painted thinly on the void....why were you not more pleasantly employed?"

If you prefer a different example, try Singapore. Since independence, the capital is (and quite probably will always be) Singapore city, since there are no other large cities there! I suppose they could build a new capital ( like Brazil did) but, believe me, there isn't much room in Singapore for that!

Absolutely right, but even then, any debatable areas are very rare, short lived and soon accepted by all.

Best experience for me: getting my first proper scope and seeing M42 (for example) for the first time with my own eyes.

As Tolkien said, "I've been suspicious of allegory ever since I was old enough to recognise it". So literature, as you say, is all about interpretation. This, apart from being subjective, is also a product of society's norms at any given point in time. Some subjects just aren't about interpretation. What's the capital of Peru? Any debate? What amuses me the most is that scientists constantly question things (great, so do I). But they're human, so will often say or hint that their current understanding is the correct one. After all, until only a generation ago, virtually all biologists accepted evolution as a constant linear process and all cosmologists accepted the steady state theory. I often wonder when the next paradigm shift will be, and people who accepted dark matter and energy as a fact are laughed at!😆

Also, I trust you aren't implying that I reason like a child? 😉😄

Not exactly. A gerund is always a gerund, a present participle is always a present participle and the date of the battle of Jutland is not debatable. Some subjects seem to avoid grey areas....😉

I remember my old physics teacher at the beginning of a new school year saying: "Remember all the things you learned last year? They aren't true!". I think it was at that point I decided that physics wasn't for me....

Thanks both. Rather as Terry Pratchett called education "Lies to children". 😉