But the aliens wouldn’t share the resources with us, or maybe like just a pittance to keep us alive so we could be used as cheap lab… oh I see where this is going.
Irregardless, if a word shifts spelling or meaning like this and is generally understood, even if initially by mistake, than it becomes becomes another correct meaning too. Like, literally.
Bonus points (BPs) for when you get entire sentences full of abbreviations (SFOA). Even more BPs when you get SFOA with abbreviations containing abbreviations within them (SWACAWT). I really hate SWACAWTs.
This is real. It’s also one reason why laws against gay sex were on the books in many states until finally overturned by the Supreme Court in 2003 in Lawrence v Texas. Sometimes police would use the laws directly, but more commonly since gay sex was considered a criminal activity, landlords would use it as an excuse to deny lgbt people housing or evict them.
Common misconception about the voltage though, the US does have a 240v system (well in houses, some places have three phase power which gets weird). The breakers can be wired to give 120v or 240v. The large appliances like driers or electric car chargers and things that do need a large ampunt of current get wired up for that. It’s really only a slightly slower electric kettle to deal with as a minor inconvenience. Or maybe if you wanted an absolutely enormous electric space heater or something, but those are dangerous as it is. Not a lot of things used need more than the 1800 watt maximum. As far as I can tell it’s just a relic of history, Edison ran his generators at about 110v originally and that’s the voltage original light bulb filaments wanted and higher voltage filaments weren’t used until after the US had already been electrifying to a good extent. Theoretically 120v might be a little safer from a getting shocked standpoint, but electrocutions are pretty rare as it is, just a historical artifact and not a conscious design choice as far as I can tell (and yes, volts do matter too, not just amps. Especially if what’s being shocked has very high resistance, like human skin).
So the ten men can all do a tenth of the labor now right?
Oh you’re going to fire nine, cut the tenth’s pay, and make him work even longer hours, and keep the vast majority of the profits for yourself, got it. That’s fine too I guess…
I think you’ve misunderstood the article. What happened was a district attorney in the united states caught someone smuggling antiquities into the country. So the district attorney who caught them had everything sent back to the country of origin, exactly what they should do with smuggled antiquities. It turned out the guy was trafficking in mostly forgeries of pieces that are in other known locations and were never brought to the united states. The experts the district attorney used thought they were authentic. What on earth do you think the new york DA did wrong here? I guess they could hire better experts. But if they have what they think to be authentic artifacts that were smuggled out of countries, they did the right thing and sent them back to the country of origin. They’re saying this is just embarrassing for the DA because they billed this guy as a smuggler in their court case, but actually he’s a forger. I don’t see any reason for anyone to be outraged though, except maybe at the forger.
Maybe it would help if you knew there were more? Or maybe that would make it feel worse, but there are more. It’s a pretty common pattern in language for some reason, called “contronyms.” So literally can mean actually or figuratively, but others include clip (cut off or attach), oversight (to overlook, or to scrutinize closely), sanction (approve something or penalize it), or even fast (moving quickly or still, as in held fast). Context is key, people will adapt as meanings are ever shifting.
Pro tip, ghostery add-on for Firefox. Works on both desktop and mobile. Automatically goes through the cookie pop up when you load a page, denying all, among other functions.