User Comments - Right-Wingnut

Posted on: Upgrading Software

I have to admit that my unwillingness to take words like this on board has less to do with the words themselves, and more to do with where these words are spoken.

Posted on: Upgrading Software

"Plenty relaxed at home on this wet but warm Sunday"

Christ, its Monday, I should be at work.

Ahh, relax. Its a public holiday.

Posted on: Upgrading Software

You are British, yet apparently (see post above) because you don't know this word you don't speak standard English. Its like a Swiss person insisting to a Berliner that his language is not standard. I wonder if he'll suggest that you get out more.

Posted on: Upgrading Software

Plenty relaxed at home on this wet but warm Sunday, thanks all the same.

If 'getting out more' means visiting the US (apparently a necessity to hear this word in use), I think I'll pass on that one.

Posted on: You've Been Blacklisted!

Transcript of Podcast here

Posted on: Upgrading Software

Interesting - the number one definition says:

"Usually said by drug dealers, or people who are really into a particular drug. when they are running low they 're-up' the stash."

So, John, where have you heard this word?

Posted on: The Wives of Gay Men

This book is freely available on the web, and I spent a little bit of time scanning through parts of the book, but clearly I'll have to read it more closely to form a proper opinion. But a couple of things stand out already: 1. It is not mainstream science; 2. They argue well why prehistoric societies MIGHT have been non-monogamous, but at least in the sections I looked at, there seems to be very little direct evidence.

I looked for reviews, and from Wikipedia I got:

"biased reporting of data, theoretical and evidentiary shortcomings, and problematic assumptions"

"(presents) a distorted portrayal of current theory and evidence on evolved human sexuality"

"(the authors) ignore and/or misrepresent reams of anthropology and biology in their eagerness to make a brief for some sort of Rousseau-ian sexual idyll that exists—and/or existed—only in their overheated libidinous imaginations"

"has been taken as scientifically valid by large numbers of naïve readers … whereas it is an intellectually myopic, ideologically driven, pseudo-scientific fraud."

Don't get me wrong - I also think marriage is a farce and I would love if this turned out to be fact. And I'm not saying their ideas are necessarily wrong, but it is only one viewpoint and cannot be stated as fact as you have. Some authors are very good at swaying readers through hand-waving arguments, so you need to make sure you read other balanced accounts as well. Have you read the rebuttal "Sex at Dusk" ?

Posted on: Upgrading Software

He's from England, I'm from Australia. So its either an Americanism or its young people's language, I suspect the former. Either way its slang, and I always get annoyed hearing non-standard English when I'm trying to learn Mandarin.

I'm still not sure after listening exactly what it means. You say it mean 'pay to have it continue'. I can't see how 'up' fits with that meaning. Is that the precise meaning, and how would you put it in a sentence?

Posted on: 李娜

But thank christ Murray lost.

Posted on: The Wives of Gay Men

I can accept the possibility that we might be hard-wired to be monogamous, but I think it might be a bit of a stretch to say we are hard-wired to enter into some form of contractual obligation.