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Petty pedantry (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

It's common to the point of mootness, but: when describing the planet, Earth is a proper noun and should be capitalized. Otherwise you are referring to soil.

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[-] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 122 points 5 days ago

While we're on the topic, that's not how colons work.

[-] Banana@sh.itjust.works 45 points 5 days ago

When you can smell his colon on your pillow 🥰

[-] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago

You want pink eye? Cause that's how you get pink eye

[-] Banana@sh.itjust.works 20 points 5 days ago

Omg pink is such a pretty colour I'd lovvvvvve that

[-] Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

Sounds like true love to me

[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 days ago

How would you write that, then?

[-] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

Pretty much the same, but without a colon.

[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago

So, "Breaking News Susan Crawford"?

[-] suicidaleggroll@lemm.ee 20 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

The complaint isn’t about the colon in OP’s image, it’s the colon in OP’s explanation.

OP complaining about an insignificant capitalization mistake in a Twitter post, while making a far more egregious grammatical error in their explanation is just...*chef's kiss*

[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days ago

It isn't even an error, though. It's just wrong. "Earth" should be lowercase. I can understand being pedantic, but pedantic and wrong is super irritating.

[-] Bazoogle@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

The original post is technically correct on the topic of capitalization for "Earth". When referring to the planet, it is a proper noun, thus capitalized. source

However, that is a pretty egregious use of a colon XD

[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Keep in mind that idioms follow their own rules. Down to earth, what on earth, and move heaven and earth do not capitalize the planet, and four corners of the earth or salt of the earth take the definite article.

"On earth" (e.g. "richest man on earth") is one of those idioms, so the E is lowercase. See here.

on earth

used for emphasis. What on earth are you doing?; the stupidest man on earth.

It's a bit confusing, but they aren't literally referring to "the planet Earth" in an astronomical sense. If you were writing a sci-fi story and comparing the wealth of the richest man on Earth to, say, the richest man on Mars, then it would be capitalized.

[-] Jtee@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

Keep looking

[-] PyroNeurosis 6 points 5 days ago

Yeah. Never managed to properly get the hand of punctuation.

[-] vladmech@lemmy.world 56 points 5 days ago

For a person complaining about pedantic language stuff you’re really falling apart 😂

[-] PyroNeurosis 16 points 5 days ago

I know precious few rules and when even those don't matter, I know even less.

[-] vladmech@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago
[-] Bazoogle@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Then why make this post in the first place?

[-] PyroNeurosis 1 points 4 days ago

┐( ̄ヘ ̄)┌

It's ok, my colon doesn't work very well either.

[-] AmidFuror@fedia.io 2 points 5 days ago

Too much cream in one place, not enough in another.

[-] FundMECFSResearch 64 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

My rule with langauge:

If you understand what they’re trying to say, then they did a good enough job expressing themselves.

(Also I love how this post is getting loads of upvotes because people are just seeing Bernie’s message and liking it lol).

[-] AmidFuror@fedia.io 24 points 5 days ago

I think its knot just you understand but how quicker it is to get demeaning it is also important. The more pour spells and grammer makes you to backup and red again, even if you can finally deciver it, the wurst it is.

At some point you give up, but well before that you have every right to be annoyed.

[-] XM34@feddit.org 6 points 4 days ago

You have no idea, how much I hate you right now!

[-] PyroNeurosis 8 points 5 days ago

I get the message and generally don't care for prescriptive grammar, but for some reason this particular rule haunts me.

Let those votes be a lesson: camouflage your actual point behind a picture everyone loves and you will .... win fake internet points?

[-] zaph@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago

win fake internet points?

Don't even get those here

[-] magnetosphere@fedia.io 2 points 5 days ago

I think you deserve credit for finding a humorous, joyful way to make your point, instead of being obnoxious about it. I don’t even want to imagine what this post (and the accompanying comments) would be like on The Site That Shall Not Be Named.

Ok but what type of LAN gauge? Are you talking like an ethernet cable tester, a protocol analyzer, what? Are we dealing with fiber, ethernet, or even shudder token ring?

[-] radix@lemmy.world 56 points 5 days ago

For all we know, in that moment Elon was standing on some dirt, making him the wealthiest person on lower-case earth.

[-] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 10 points 5 days ago

Exactly. So if we want to be pedants, earth or Earth would be fine here. Even if he's in a building, that building is still on the soil. Even if he's flying in an airplane, that airplane is supported by air, which it itself supported by earth. The only way you can't be "on earth" is if you're in space and/or in freefall. And Musk is too much of a coward to climb aboard one of his own rockets.

[-] Rockbear@feddit.dk 3 points 5 days ago

Also, he's definitely on something. Might be earth

[-] AmidFuror@fedia.io 2 points 5 days ago

I suppose the ocean is also over earth?

[-] Zachariah@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

you could be “on grass” instead

[-] transientpunk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago

Remind me, what does grass grow on/in?

[-] Zachariah@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

not “on the grass”
“on grass”
then you’re too high to be on earth

[-] AmidFuror@fedia.io 2 points 5 days ago
[-] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 21 points 4 days ago

Sorry Bernie forgot to capitalize EARTH TO MAKE IT A PROPER NOUN

[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 20 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

My dictionary says it's lowercase. I've only ever seen it in lowercase, unless you're taking about it in the astronomical sense (e.g. "the planet Earth").

See the first entry here. "On earth" is an idiom, and "earth" starts with a lowercase E.

[-] whotookkarl@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago

Who names a planet after dirt?

[-] rockerface@lemm.ee 11 points 4 days ago

Most of it isn't even covered in dirt. Should have named it Water, or at least Rock.

[-] ianhclark510 10 points 5 days ago

Um ackshully, can you name a person wealthier than Elon Musk that’s ever stood on dirt, loam, soil, silt, or clay?

Checkmate atheists

[-] teft@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Mansa Musa of Mali. His wealth was in the trillions. He basically showed up in Cairo with a bunch of his buddies in tow and spent so much and so lavishly, including just handing out gold to everyone, that he wrecked Egypt's economy for a decade. He owned something like half the world gold reserves at the time.

[-] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago

That's kind of a myth. Musa and the Mali empire were certainly wealthy for the time but you can't really compare an emperor in the 14th century with a modern oligarch.

Musa liked to boast about his wealth at every opportunity. Like, he would tell people that gold grows like a plant in Mali while he threw gold bars at them. And all the reports of his immense wealth come from the people he encountered on his pilgrimage.

The amount of gold he brought (18 tons!) would be worth about $1.5B today. That was likely all of the gold the empire had collected during his reign. And it wasn't technically his, it belonged to the empire.

The price of gold in Egypt dropped by about 15%, which was a lot but well within normal fluctuations. He also ran out of gold on the return trip and had to beg for loans which he never repaid.

[-] Litebit@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

make Felon Musk bankrupt.

[-] AmazingAwesomator@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

i am glad a more liberal judge was elected to the supreme court, but she was backed by the democratic party. this is not a grassroots movement, its backed by an extremely rich party committee. this wasnt a david v goliath.

[-] funbreaker@kbin.earth 4 points 4 days ago

The Principle of Least Effort always wins in the end.

[-] HatchetHaro@pawb.social 3 points 4 days ago

i feel like this YT short might help explain it.

this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2025
767 points (100.0% liked)

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