Ever specified a last name for any of the kids?
I think it’s high time they had one.
Gene.
Artur.
Irene.
And Bjorn, who didn’t get to come.
Ever specified a last name for any of the kids?
I think it’s high time they had one.
Gene.
Artur.
Irene.
And Bjorn, who didn’t get to come.
All those interesting names, and all I can think of is that surnames among the human characters in this series are likely to be boring. Maybe interesting individually as to their ultimate origins (old Earth cultures), but tending toward the repetitive as a group. Every one of these people — from Mospheira, ship, faraway station — descends from the original batch of colonists and crew. A limited pool of names to begin with, and centuries for it to shrink even further. A lot of “so-and-so X, and such-and-such X (no relation).”
Unless one of these groups doesn’t, or hasn’t always, adhered to the “copy the father’s (or mother’s) surname” rule?
Re language and style preferences, working with non-native speakers has ruined me for matters such as comma before and or before quote, displaced by things like: “a few” and “few” are not the same; “not” is usually not an optional word; “stack” does not mean “causes to become stuck.”
@BlueCatShip, re Chinese -hs- and how it’s written now: x, I believe, in the pinyin system, invented by the PRC, and tending not to make the language look quite so weird with all those hyphens and apostrophes. But it’s different in other ways, not just the x; all the difference in spelling between “Beijing” and “Peking.”
Is it the Chicago Manual of Style that causes my computer to keep telling me I have erred when I double the final consonant when I add “ed” or “ing”? I will keep doing it as I was taught, which makes good sense from a pronunciation POV. So I am travelling, not traveling.
This came up a few months ago. UK English says to always double the consonant. US English says to double it only when accented. So, traveling (US), travelling (UK), and formatting (either)–well, except for the very unusual word formating, to assemble into a formation.
But it’s all a matter of your individual spell checker and has nothing to do with the Chicago Manual of style. Your word processor might do one thing and your browser another.
Firefox oddly considers a post here not something to be spell checked. I don’t know why.
It always bothers me that most of the US spells it ‘grey’, but pronounces it ‘gray’. I just add gray to my spell checker, since that’s how I spell it.
Listen closely to how often “to” is pronounced “ta”.
I’ve been watching the live coverage of the Rosetta landing. xkcd is live-comic-ing it. Pity it’s at night for the US.
Current situation at writing: They decided to go ahead despite the problem with the top thruster on Philae, separation went well, signal between Rosetta and Philae established, landing gear deployed, waiting for first data and pictures from Philae, landing expected at around 8am PST.
Philae landed successfully!
That was one of the most exciting and significant space events in many, many years. A really remarkable achievement.
The guys at ESA were remarkably restrained, although grinning madly. In the US, we would have been dancing around and high-fiving. One of my freinds commented that when the US inspects a comet, they shoot a big bullet at it (Deep Impact). When the Europeans inspect a comet, they land and take a look around (Rosetta). This seems oddly in character.
Uhhhmmm…. Bren knows them, ask him?
Uhhhmmm…. Bren knows them, ask him? Jase, Cajieri, Tabin and the Security probably also know, but may not care.
Sorry about the doppelganger!
Heh, wouldn’t it be a hoot if Irene turned out to be some long-lost umptybajillion cousin… I’d go look up that name in the forward but its in a box. somewhere. I hope.
Kirschbau/Cherry construction
I haven’t read Wave that I recall, but I think it’s A-U, so I’ll toss in the locational last name Thule.
It would be inhuman, but that might get mispronounced “Tully”. 😉