From: CDB on
Robert Bannister wrote:
> Hatunen wrote:
>> "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott(a)csuohio.edu> wrote:
>>> Hatunen<hatunen(a)cox.net> wrote:
>>>> "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott(a)csuohio.edu> wrote:
>
>>> [...]
>>>
>>>>> That may be another point of contention: pleasantly cool
>>>>> means about 25�, and really good weather starts at about
>>>>> 30�. And 5:30 or 6:15 is a nice time to go to bed.
>
>>>> I do hope you mean celsius degrees.
>
>>> I do indeed; Rob's posting from Oz.
>>
>> When mentioning temperatures I always try to remember to use "C"
>> or "F".
>
> I thought there was only one country that used F, although I suppose
> Canada swings both ways, so we only have to remember who lives in
> America.
>
We still use imperial for some things, but temperatures, apart from
body-temperatures, are Celsius. I would be surprised to find someone
under 30 who was comfortable with Fahrenheit.


From: Evan Kirshenbaum on
Hatunen <hatunen(a)cox.net> writes:

> On Mon, 1 Mar 2010 13:43:07 -0800 (PST), "Peter T. Daniels"
> <grammatim(a)verizon.net> wrote:
>
>>There is no longer a Lincoln's Birthday holiday (except, presumably,
>>in Illinois -- just as Patriots' Day is observed in Massachusetts),
>>because Lincoln and Washington were together packaged into Presidents'
>>Day.
>
> No. They weren't, save for perhaps a very few juridictions.

California punts on the question, just giving the date (except,
interestingly, for Thanksgiving):

Cal. Gov. Code 19853. (a) All state employees shall be entitled
to the following holidays: January 1, the third Monday in January,
the third Monday in February, March 31, the last Monday in May,
July 4, the first Monday in September, November 11, Thanksgiving
Day, the day after Thanksgiving, December 25, the day chosen by an
employee pursuant to Section 19854, and every day appointed by the
Governor of this state for a public fast, thanksgiving, or
holiday.

but the Department of Personnel Administration apparently calls it
"Presidents Birthday".

http://www.dpa.ca.gov/personnel-policies/holidays.htm

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Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
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From: Peter T. Daniels on
On Mar 1, 5:44 pm, Nick <3-nos...(a)temporary-address.org.uk> wrote:
> "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...(a)verizon.net> writes:
> > On Mar 1, 2:10 pm, Nick <3-nos...(a)temporary-address.org.uk> wrote:
> >> "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...(a)verizon.net> writes:
>
> >> > On Mar 1, 2:59 am, Nick <3-nos...(a)temporary-address.org.uk> wrote:
> >> >> "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...(a)verizon.net> writes:
>
> >> >> > "State" is not a useful term for 'nation-state' because it is serving
> >> >> > a different, much more salient function not only in the US, but also
> >> >> > in (at least) Mexico and Brazil, and I think Germany.
>
> >> >> So are you suggesting that "failed state" and "rogue state" are
> >> >> expressions that have no meaning in the US.
>
> >> > No, there is a difference between a bare noun and a qualified noun. Did
> >> > you not see that I used "nation-state" above?
>
> >> So "state" doesn't mean US state when qualified with - oh how about
> >> "Pacific".  OK that's perfectly clear.
>
>               ^
> what happened there?  I didn't put that in.

Didn't put what in?

> > Wait a minute, you're posting from one of the mathematical groups and
> > you don't even understand first-year logic?
>
> No I'm not.

Then where are you posting from?

> > Don't you know the difference between converses and inverses versus
> > contrapositives?
>
> No I don't.

It's very simple. Given the statement "If A, then B," there is only
one valid inference: "If not B, then not A." The inferences "If not A,
then not B" and "If B, then A" are not valid.

For instance:

If "state" means 'nation-state', then it has some sort of
qualification.

If "state" doesn't have some sort of qualification, then it doesn't
mean 'nation-state'.

But not

If "state" doesn't mean 'nation-state', then it doesn't have some sort
of qualification.

and not

If "state" has some sort of qualification, then it means 'nation-
state'.

(And, of course, I didn't say "never"; I said "not useful.")

> I don't know why I'm doing this either.  But let's try again.
>
> In the world according to you, "state" means a state of the US
> because that's what state always means when used by an American.  Unless

Where did I say "always"?

> it's qualified.  When it's qualified by "rogue" or "failed" then it
> means a country, but when it's qualified by "Pacific" it goes back to
> meaning a part of the US.
>
> So what rule applies?   Is a "govinde state" part of the US or not?  And
> how on earth are the rest of us meant to know?

Why do you think there is a single "rule" that applies?

I've no idea what a "govinde state" is, if such a thing exists.
From: Peter T. Daniels on
On Mar 1, 11:28 pm, Evan Kirshenbaum <kirshenb...(a)hpl.hp.com> wrote:
> Hatunen <hatu...(a)cox.net> writes:
> > On Mon, 1 Mar 2010 13:43:07 -0800 (PST), "Peter T. Daniels"
> > <gramma...(a)verizon.net> wrote:
>
> >>There is no longer a Lincoln's Birthday holiday (except, presumably,
> >>in Illinois -- just as Patriots' Day is observed in Massachusetts),
> >>because Lincoln and Washington were together packaged into Presidents'
> >>Day.
>
> > No. They weren't, save for perhaps a very few juridictions.
>
> California punts on the question, just giving the date (except,
> interestingly, for Thanksgiving):
>
>     Cal. Gov. Code 19853.  (a) All state employees shall be entitled
>     to the following holidays: January 1, the third Monday in January,
>     the third Monday in February, March 31, the last Monday in May,
>     July 4, the first Monday in September, November 11, Thanksgiving
>     Day, the day after Thanksgiving, December 25, the day chosen by an
>     employee pursuant to Section 19854, and every day appointed by the
>     Governor of this state for a public fast, thanksgiving, or
>     holiday.
>
> but the Department of Personnel Administration apparently calls it
> "Presidents Birthday".
>
>    http://www.dpa.ca.gov/personnel-policies/holidays.htm

So only people born on the third Monday in February can be President
of California?

What happened on March 31?

Why couldn't they say "the fourth Thursday and Friday of November"?
From: PaulJK on
Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> On Feb 28, 9:50 pm, "PaulJK" <paul.kr...(a)paradise.net.nz> wrote:
>> Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>>> On Feb 28, 1:42 am, "PaulJK" <paul.kr...(a)paradise.net.nz> wrote:
>>>> Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>>>>> On Feb 26, 1:40 am, "PaulJK" <paul.kr...(a)paradise.net.nz> wrote:
>>>>>> Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>>
>>>>>>> Do the Pacific states get the same coverage we do?
>>
>>>>>> Ignoring the various pay, satellite, and cable channels, there
>>>>>> are about twelve free-to-air locally broadcast channels.
>>>>>> One of the free-to-air channels (Prime) broadcasts Winter
>>>>>> Olympics every day nonstop from 5:30am to 6:30pm. Looking
>>>>>> at today's Friday schedule, apart from the half-hour WO news
>>>>>> at 5:30am and Cross Country skiing at 10:30-11:30am all the
>>>>>> events are live.
>>
>>>>>> If by "same coverage" you mean "identical programming" then
>>>>>> the answer is no. All commentators are either New Zealanders
>>>>>> or people who are aware of commenting for the downunder
>>>>>> or specifically kiwi audience. Now and then they interrupt
>>>>>> the program to switch to another competition to show
>>>>>> a kiwi athlete, who would we normally not see, perform
>>>>>> their shtick and then switch back.
>>
>>>>> Eh? You take "Pacific states" -- in the context of time zones -- to
>>>>> include New Zealand??
>>
>>>> Whoops, sorry, I didn't realise that by "Pacific states" you meant
>>>> "US Pacific states".
>>
>>> We very, very, very rarely use "state" to mean 'independent nation'.
>>
>> And we very, very, very rarely use the expression "Pacific states"
>> which would exclude the majority of Pacific states (i.e. non-US
>> states in the Pacific).
>
> "Pacific states" is a wel-established term -- sometimes it includes AK
> and HI, sometimes not.
>
>> This just shows that no matter how hard I try I still sometimes
>> fail to correctly translate Merkin E. semantics to English E.
>
> "State" is not a useful term for 'nation-state' because it is serving
> a different, much more salient function not only in the US, but also
> in (at least) Mexico and Brazil, and I think Germany.

I don't particularly care about lectures on what "nation-state"
"nation" or "independent nation" mean in AmE. God knows why
you've dragged these in at this late stage when the original mis-
understanding was simply between what I thought you meant by
"Pacific states" in your "Do the Pacific states get the same
coverage we do?", and what you meant by it.

Being a resident of one of many Pacific states I responded.

Then you said (my emphasis):
*We* very, very, very rarely use "state" to mean 'independent nation'.
And I responded (my emphasis):
And *we* very, very, very rarely use the expression "Pacific states"
to exclude the majority of Pacific states (i.e. non-US states in the Pacific).

There is nothing more to keep arguing about.

Unless you want to keep discussing, yet again, who, USians
or the rest, use the words "state" and "nation" with correct
meaning.

pjk