List of Annoyances for today
May. 21st, 2010 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silverflight8This is going to sound cranky. *klaxon sounding*
1. Hyper-correcting grammar.
Oh my God. The word "me" is not an eeeevil word. In sentences like: "Do you want to join Linda and I in a game of bowling?" the 'I' is wrong. Try reading it without 'Linda and'. The sentence would then be "Do you want to join I in a game of bowling?" which, to an English-speaker, sounds completely off.
Also, please don't say "Myself and another did this"; this is still hyper-correction. Similar to the one above.
2. Please don't use "survival of the fittest"; as soon as that phrase comes up, my mind goes: "Oh, it's another clueless person trying to talk about evolution!" and I grimace.
You don't have to have all but the fittest die to have natural selection (I'm assuming that's what most people refer to). All you need is an extra advantage, so that you reproduce more. For instance, maybe you can be just a little bit better at obtaining food--maybe you had slightly bigger lungs, or better gills--and so you managed to get ahead, just a little. I assure you, it's not necessary for everyone around you to die so that you can pass on DNA, which is in essence what evolution is: the change in populations over time through inheritance of genes. And there's other selection out there--evolution does not just deal with death. Aargh.
3. What's with the random apostophe use? Like ninja'ing? Why are you subjecting the poor apostrophe to more abuse? Shame, I say!
1. Hyper-correcting grammar.
Oh my God. The word "me" is not an eeeevil word. In sentences like: "Do you want to join Linda and I in a game of bowling?" the 'I' is wrong. Try reading it without 'Linda and'. The sentence would then be "Do you want to join I in a game of bowling?" which, to an English-speaker, sounds completely off.
Also, please don't say "Myself and another did this"; this is still hyper-correction. Similar to the one above.
2. Please don't use "survival of the fittest"; as soon as that phrase comes up, my mind goes: "Oh, it's another clueless person trying to talk about evolution!" and I grimace.
You don't have to have all but the fittest die to have natural selection (I'm assuming that's what most people refer to). All you need is an extra advantage, so that you reproduce more. For instance, maybe you can be just a little bit better at obtaining food--maybe you had slightly bigger lungs, or better gills--and so you managed to get ahead, just a little. I assure you, it's not necessary for everyone around you to die so that you can pass on DNA, which is in essence what evolution is: the change in populations over time through inheritance of genes. And there's other selection out there--evolution does not just deal with death. Aargh.
3. What's with the random apostophe use? Like ninja'ing? Why are you subjecting the poor apostrophe to more abuse? Shame, I say!
