Monday 6 August 2018, 12:59
I'm very interested in cognitive deficits: tasks it may seem
human brains ought to be able to perform, but that at least some brains
cannot. This time around I'd like to say a few words about mathematical
foundations and the ability to understand them. The fact is that there are
some questions - and they're very simple ones - that neither a human brain
nor anything that functions like a human brain can answer. And
understanding that fact is itself a problem that may be challenging for at
least some brains.
Sunday 4 September 2016, 11:18
Vincent: So if you're quitting the life,
what'll you do?
Jules: That's what I've been sitting here
contemplating. First, I'm gonna
deliver this case to Marsellus. Then,
basically, I'm gonna walk the earth.
- Pulp Fiction
Wednesday 20 July 2016, 02:25
My contract with the IT University of Copenhagen ends at the end of
August, and I'll be returning to Canada around the end of September.
Saturday 30 October 2010, 21:40
I saw a Web BBS posting recently in which the poster, who was a foreigner learning English as a second language, asked "Which is correct - 'based off' or 'based off of'?" The person asking the question can probably be forgiven because they don't know any better, and at least were smart enough to ask, but if you know me you'll probably be able to guess that the general agreement among the answers, that "based off of" is incorrect and you should say "based off" instead, caused me to consider the merits of a tri-provincial killing spree.
I will not apologize for being a prescriptivist. There are some usages that would be wrong even if all the other native speakers of English used them; and "based off" (with or without an "of") is such a usage. I'm willing to accept "different than" as an issue of formalism, and acceptable in speech or informal writing even though I do not use it myself; I'm willing to (very grudgingly) grant that persons from the United States of America may be allowed to say "anyways" as a regional dialect thing, even though it makes them sound illiterate; but "based off" is just completely unacceptable.
Nonetheless, from a scientific perspective and from the point of view of "know the enemy," it may be interesting to look seriously at the questions of who does say "based off," and when they started.
