Just two things today.
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This picture of extraterrestrials makes me go "Hmmmmm".
What kind of advantages do ETs have over we human-beings when it comes to language? After all, if we terrestrials don't shape up, the ETs will kick our ass in the universal economic game!
So, in order to give terrestrials a fighting chance, I propose the following advance in our written language.
Take the following sentence:
He was either sad or happy and hungry or thirsty.
Was he both happy and hungry, or maybe sad, maybe thirsty? Or was he definitely either hungry or thirsty, but he may have been sad or may have been happy but was definitely either sad or happy?
What? Huh?...
So, I propose that the brackets {} be liberally inserted around clauses in sentences to be used to help clarify complex writing. (The {} sort of act like directional commas. Nesting bracketed clauses within bracketed clauses within bracketed clauses... is definitely allowed.)
So, the sentence can become:
He was {either sad or happy} and {hungry or thirsty}.
Or it may be
He was either sad or {happy and {hungry or thirsty}}.
So, this last sentence would mean that:
He may have been sad, but maybe he was happy instead. And if he was happy, he definitely was hungry or thirsty.
If we have very complex sentences -- with bracketed clauses within bracketed clauses within bracketed clauses, etc -- then incredibly complex ideas can be clearly expressed. Ergo, humanity's overall intelligence increases!
This idea has simpler applications too. You have all heard the old joke about the "purple people eaters". Are the people purple, or are the eaters purple?
No more ambivalence! Just add brackets.
{purple people} eaters.
Or
purple {people eaters}.
Oh, how has humanity survived so long without this advance?!...
Remember, they are out there...
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Okay, I will post something a little more depressing.
Torture (ow!) is more acceptable to Americans now than at any other time since the US ratified treaties against it.
And Americans gave a big "ho-hum" to the fact that a war was started recently based on lies.
So, what will then, I wonder, be acceptable to Americans someday soon?
Some possibilities:
Slavery (especially if who is enslaved is based on race).
Cannibalism.
Execution of innocent VICTIMS of crimes, especially the rape-victims.
Mind-control.
Full-scale nuclear war.
Dictatorship.
Medical experiments on human non-volunteers.
Death camps and genocide.
Killing of homosexuals and the disabled.
Forced religion.
Thought surveillance.
Total environmental destruction.
Killing of the poor.
Outlawing of all forms of entertainment.
Lobotomies for dissidents.
An end to all benign science.
Etc etc etc.
There are strong forces that are trying to impose this all on us.
Welcome to what may indeed be our future.
Stay tuned...
Leroy Quet
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