[-] [email protected] 41 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Actually, the conversation would go like this.

Kid: Dad, someone on the internet said Jesus dies for our sins.

Dad: What do you think of that?

Kid: I'm not sure but it's weird. How can someone dying have anything to do with the bad things that other people do?

Dad: It only makes sense if you understand that back then, they used to kill animals as a sacrifice to God. They believed that God will show them more favor, the larger the sacrifice. If you do something God doesn't like, killing something will make God happy with you again.

Kid: This is getting more bizarre, and creapy.

Dad: So, Christians believe that Jesus was sacrificed to forgive all humans for all the bad things they do so God will be happy with them again.

Kid: O...K... So, we're all forgiven for everything we do.

Dad: Not exactly. You have to feel bad about it and ask Jesus to forgive you. If you're Catholic, you have to go through a priest.

Kid: David cries when he has to go talk to the his priest.

Dad: Yeah, that's a different topic, but that's what they believe.

Kid: Why does God want them to kill things?

Dad: It seems that he changed his mind. Somehow, since killing his "son" was such a big deal, that he's happy with us without further killing.

Kid: Is God supposed to be smart?

Dad: They believe that he knows everything and makes everything happen.

Kid: Isn't he suppose to help good people and punish bad people?

Dad: We'll get there later, your question was about sacrifice. Have you heard of communion?

Kid: Isn't that when they drink juice and eat a cookie.

Dad: That's right. The cookie is supposed to be the body of Jesus, and the juice is supposed to be his blood.

Kid: Seriously?!

Dad: Yes. It's symbolic cannibalism. According to the bible, Jesus told them to do it.

Kid: Like half the kids as school and all of their families do that!

Dad: Yup. Pretty weird.

[-] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago

A Trojan horse with neon lights announcing the hidden soldiers and surrounded by anti-Greek protesters.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 2 years ago

For some reason, Republicans accuse their advisaries of the things they themselves are actually doing. My guess is that OP was Republican, has come to see that the Republicans are full of shit , bit still believes the lies they told about Democrats.

[-] [email protected] 27 points 2 years ago

This really calls for a picture, or there's not much to say.

[-] [email protected] 30 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

What is the Democratic scaremongering and propaganda?

Democrats are shitty because they are generally corporate sellouts. Republicans do the scaremongering and propaganda.

[-] [email protected] 44 points 2 years ago

If someone gave me 700mil, I'd probably retire too.

7
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

If you do not know Cirque du Soleil, it is an avante-garde circus, and musical experience that tells a story. They explore the edges of human abilities and present it through amazing beautiful images and sound. I sound like an ad, but this is not--I'm just a huge fan.

[-] [email protected] 24 points 2 years ago

Define Asian. I live in "Asia" and have never seen this.

[-] [email protected] 181 points 2 years ago

Make the coordinates public and let curiosity run its course.

6
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

If you must be out, have an umbrella in one hand and a sports drink in the other. It's supposed to be 37 tomorrow. Take care of yourself and pay attention to people who have to work outside.

2
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

When I lived in Norway, we had a similar thing that you need to do absolutely anything. It was actually very convenient, saved a lot of paperwork, and made life easier. You can generally trust the Norwegian government to look out for your interests and not abuse a system like that.

I'm hearing very negative opinions about the MyNumber system here in Japan. I trust the Japanese government less than I do the Norwegian government. What do others think? Are the risks greater than the benefits, if there are benefits? I'm legitimately curious and have no solid opinion on this.

2
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

The gas station will open in a few days--Aug. 1. But if it is like the other Costco, they'll require a MasterCard.

If you are not a member, if you pre-register before August 24, you get 1000 yen off.

[-] [email protected] 28 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

🥕 3 shredded carrots 🍋 juice of one lemon 🧂 a little bit of salt

An amazingly fresh and delicious summer salad.

1
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

The em dash is called the em dash because on old typewriters it was as long as an M. Why do I feel closer to this punctuation mark than the others? It could be partly because I ignored it for so long that it is the last punctuation mark that I got to know, and when I found it, I learned that it could do the work of several other punctuation marks, especially my archrival, the semicolon!

I mean, semicolons have their place. In my opinion, two places: lists within lists can be indicated with semicolons, and when you want to show your English teacher that you were listening in class. That's about it.

I was taught that if I want to show that two independent clauses (an independent clause is a complete simple sentence) have a stronger connect than just being right next to each other, we can add a semicolon. And then they proceeded to show us examples of full, complex, sentences with semicolons between them. So, they weren't wrong, but they could have just said that they link two sentences to show a stronger connection--other specific syntactic units have nothing to do with it.

See what I did there? I used an em dash where a semicolon would have been. If you don't know where it is on your keyboard and your app doesn't make it automatically when you write a double dash, then a double dash (--) will do fine.

If you are among the continentally-challenged users of English, you may use a single dash ( - ) to achieve the same thing as a double dash. If you use the en dash, leave a space before and after the dash, but not with the em dash.

The em dash can also replace (parenthesis) or commas to set apart a phrase in the middle of a sentence.

"My best friend—the one who moved to Australia last year—just sent me a postcard."

So, we've now replaced the semicolon, parenthesis and commas in at least some of their uses. We're coming for you now, ellipsis.

The ellipsis (...) does a lot of things: omission, pause, cutting off a sentence part way through, and suspense. The em dash can be used for all but omission. So, if you leave out some text from the middle of a sentence, replace it with an ellipsis, but otherwise, you may want to use the em dash. When constructing an ellipsis, shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three.

When using an em dash to cut off a sentence, it comes across as a bit more harsh. "If I have to come in there again--" When you want it to kind of trail off more gently, maybe an ellipsis is called for. "But I thought Christie was..."

I've seen them replace quotation marks and colons, but that's not something I do with them.

I would be happy just to have them rid us of the semicolon and Kurt Vonnegut agrees with me. He said, "Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons... All they do is show you've been to college."

Thoughts?

1
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

My Microsoft account at work made me re-think this because it is pushing me to add more commas that I usually do.

I'm of two minds here. On one hand, punctuation is for clarity. If a sentence is clear without additional hyphens or commas, you could argue that they are not needed. For example:

I want ice cream too. (Acceptable in informal writing.)

I want ice cream, too. (Expected in formal writing.)

I want to eat, mom. (Always a good idea.) I want to eat mom. (Or the police could be involved.)

Or with hyphens when putting two adjectives before a noun, as with: "a well-known author" or "a high-speed chase." With both of these, leaving out the hyphen would not change the meaning or cause confusion.

However, with "high-school students" vs "high school students" the police could get involved again over omitting the hyphen.

I tend toward leaving it out unless it improves clarity or changes meaning.

Now for the Oxford comma. Have we all seen the memes?

However you feel about strippers, is would probably be less confusing if "the strippers, Kennedy, and Stalin" suddenly arrived, than it would be if "the strippers, Kennedy and Stalin" arrived.

Not using the Oxford comma can make the phrase ambiguous, but when it doesn't become ambiguous, as with, "Get me the carrots, potatoes and celery", we can really leave it out without problems.

I go back and forth on these. Even the most careful writers and editors can fail to see the ambiguity in their phrases, so choosing to always include the punctuation is a good way to go. Then again, if you feel confident and want to remove the clutter, I can respect that too. If you have a style guide you must follow, do that, if not, then stay consistent with whatever you choose.

Thoughts? Or more fun examples are welcome.

1
Less vs. Fewer (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Of course the official rule is that for countable things, like apples, we say fewer, as in, "Why are there fewer apples?" And for things that you can't really count, you use less, as in "We need more dream time and less screen time."

But recently, even from native speakers who've been to university, you can hear people using 'less' when the grammar books say they should use 'fewer'. Language changes and there are many examples of things that we say differently than we write. What are your thoughts?

Should we grammar nazi this until everyone gets back in line? Should we just let language evolve and enjoy the ride? Do you think it will settle in with spoken and written forms being different? Do you think this will become the norm in English?

By the way, I blame supermarkets with their "9 items or less" signs.

1
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

I see there are no comments here yet.

I am an English professor, and have experience in magazine, book, and test editing. I often comment on grammar related subs on "that other social media site", but I'm trying to help Lemmy grow by contributing here instead. But to do that, there ~~needs~~ need to be posts. : )

The way to get a community growing is to start posting. I'm going to start some seed topics, so please comment on them and add your own. Questions are good too.

[-] [email protected] 29 points 2 years ago

I taught my daughters the usual logical fallacies from a young age. While doing that I learned that while occasionally, they appear in pristine form (looking at you, Slippery Slope and No True Scotsman), usually, they come rather nuanced, often clustered together, and difficult to identify.

A great way to get good at them is watch Fox News and identify them as they come. You can watch other networks and find them, but for a constant stream, Fox is a goldmine.

2
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Mandheling is a type of Sumatra and has the same low level of acidity as Starbucks Sumatra. (They are probably from similar beans.)

Mild taste, easy on your stomach. After going to three Starbucks and not finding them, I got my fix from Kaldi.

2
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Sometimes I'm just happy to be able to log in. I think Lemmy is worth the early days issues.

Reporting stuff is helpful and for now I ask for your patience.

I am open to questions about anything.

2
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

We've started our own wild yeast batch, and you can get dry sourdough yeast off of Amazon which has more punch that our wild batch, but sometimes a professionally done loaf is convenient.

Any clues on where to find good local sourdough bread?

37
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

spoilermoneyless socialist utopia
I mean, we all know that's what it is, but I'm pretty sure that's the first time they've said it straight out in universe. And then the plot reminds of it several times as that very thing is put in danger.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago

I need more than a picture. I'm going to support him unless he became disruptive toward others.

What's the story? They didn't just arrest him for buzzing while he practiced his L and J strokes.

[-] [email protected] 35 points 2 years ago

Please remove countries I've been to.

I've been to these African countries.

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OsakaWilson

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