Speak Good English Campaign

[JR8]

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

The only Latin I can appreciate is the binomial nomenclature of my insects...

Drosophila melangastor!

(Did I get that about right? )

[JR8]

Serious? The wall came down quite a while ago now and anyone under 40 should be able to speak it to a certain deegree

Yah I know, coincidentally I was sitting on top of it on NY Eve 1989 .
No I was serious in what I said. I find it curiously fascinating how society is split on their linguistic abilities. I must say that I tend to deal with what in the UK might be called blue-collar and the manual trades (i.e. non-'professionals') but putting a finger in the air I'd estimate say 2/3rds of people I deal with speak no English. A good example would be say, walking into an electronics shop and asking a salesperson in German whether they speak English. You get two responses, either a look of terror, or a pause and then 'Yes a little bit', the latter usually means they are near fluent It is also routine that I'm somewhere and they have to go and find their colleague, 'the one who speaks English', to deal with me. It doesn't necessarily correlate with age. Though I imagine if you work on the shop-floor you might not have much need to speak English, but still this is a very long way away from an earlier suggestion made that 'All Germans speak English'. Believe me, I wish they did as it would make my life a whole lot easier!


That's typical French, though - the same applies to Spaniards and Italians. They don't need English and don't want English as a language.

Maybe so. Maybe also why they travel half way around the world and yet dine at each meal surrounded only by their neighbours from back home.

Has nothing to do with it. It's an ethnic thing - they are proud of their language and are keeping it . . . unlike the Dutch, as an example

I have a lot of time for the Dutch. They tend to be very easy going, open minded and just nice people to be around. Maybe there is a parallel here in why The Netherlands and the UK have such a long and happy history of cooperation.

English is my third language and it is by far the most useful . . . in most parts of the world, by no means everywhere

I can see an argument for English being the single language taught and used in the EU. If you think about it it makes sense. But since the big-beasts of the EU would never accept that piece of post-nationalist common sense, it never has a hope of happening.

[the lynx]

Drosophila melangastor!

(Did I get that about right? )

Drosophila melanogaster But nice try!
Our faithful friends that comes a-flying when our bananas are left for more than 2 days

Here are something interesting for you. Trust the great Carl Linnaeus to name them that way:

Periplaneta americana, Blatella germanica, Periplaneta australasiae

[JR8]

Drosophila melangastor!

(Did I get that about right? )

Drosophila melanogaster But nice try!
Our faithful friends that comes a-flying when our bananas are left for more than 2 days

Here are something interesting for you. Trust the great Carl Linnaeus to name them that way:

Periplaneta americana, Blatella germanica, Periplaneta australasiae

Fruit flies, aka bar flies. We bred them to study the genetics of their recessive vestigial wings. Yuk to the roaches!

Bring on parasites (I'm ok at them ). Taenia saginata...

[the lynx]

Yup, and also the black eye/red eye trait. Ah the classic illustration of Mendel law of genetics...

Happened to come across one in your steak?

[JR8]

Yup, and also the black eye/red eye trait. Ah the classic illustration of Mendel law of genetics...

Happened to come across one in your steak?

Quite.

Can't say I've come across flies in my steak. But I was a little taken aback to buy a couple of nice fat cod steaks from a regular fishmonger of mine in NYC, take them home, unwrap them and see a load of red nematode worms all out and waving hello

Have to say the missus took it amazingly well, as she is normally the uber-hygiene freak!

p.s. I have specifically studied fish parasites, but never seen them like that. More ectoparasites perhaps. Apparently all retail fish is routinely put over lamps so they can spot and extract these worms. The spotter must have had an off-day and we certainly got a refund+ on that purchase. Well, learn something new every day eh.

[the lynx]

Happened to come across one in your steak?

Quite.

Can't say I've come across flies in my steak.

I was actually referring to Taenia saginata in your steak, not flies.

But yeah, endoparasites in fishes are actually quite common, especially in cod, tuna and salmon. Which can be quite scary if you happen to like sushi.

http://www.charkbait.com/article/RAPC2.htm

Right now I am reminded of my parasitology lab back in uni years. Not pleasant.[/quote]

[JR8]

I was actually referring to Taenia saginata in your steak, not flies.

But yeah, endoparasites in fishes are actually quite common, especially in cod, tuna and salmon. Which can be quite scary if you happen to like sushi.

http://www.charkbait.com/article/RAPC2.htm

Right now I am reminded of my parasitology lab back in uni years. Not pleasant.

[/quote]

Ah platyhelminths, how long since we have been acquainted !

p.s. (without 'posting my whole resume' to the world) did you have to visit abattoirs too, and wade in your wellies amongst the guts collecting samples? Oh, happy days

[JR8]

Do you recall what those unbelievably grim mother-loads of death you found on horse's livers are called. The cysts of larvae?*

Just what you did back then, but now looking back really pretty cringe-tastic.




* At the time I had the idea of shooting one with a catapult into the equine estate of some rich Arab (obviously having sent a ransom note before hand) lol.

[beppi]

And I though we were already off-topic when the discussion turned to Latin and German ...

[JR8]

And I though we were already off-topic when the discussion turned to Latin and German ...

Well you underestimated 'the power'

[the lynx]

p.s. (without 'posting my whole resume' to the world) did you have to visit abattoirs too, and wade in your wellies amongst the guts collecting samples? Oh, happy days

Not to that extent yet, but I've done plenty of dissections on rodents and meddling with human feces for parasites.

(Echo) Oh happy days!

[the lynx]

Do you recall what those unbelievably grim mother-loads of death you found on horse's livers are called. The cysts of larvae?*

Just what you did back then, but now looking back really pretty cringe-tastic.




* At the time I had the idea of shooting one with a catapult into the equine estate of some rich Arab (obviously having sent a ransom note before hand) lol.

Antihelminth companies would love your ideas

I think you are either referring to Strongylus vulgaris or Sarcocyst spp. (Not sure if they attack on liver like you mentioned but yeah, both involves cystic stage in equines)

Note: We are waaaaaaaay off-topic

[sundaymorningstaple]

Definitely the understatement of the morning!

[Asian_Geekette]

I see Nak has discovered another use for the Kannada script and I didn't need a Masters to figure it out.

It's all over the internet; I just started to bring it here...like what I did with "+1".

Maybe if someone posts something rage-worthy, I could reply with this:

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

O.o <--That's what I use


And O.o at the way the topic went from language to parasites!