Did you write a moderator for an opinion to satisfy your curiosity? I'm guessing either no mod has read your first question or those who have don't consider it worthwhile to act upon.

Perhaps nobody's complained. I'd guess the word is probably not considered seriously vulgar by most speakers of English. If a reader did earnestly complain, someone might act. (I thought about reporting it, to see what happens, but it just wouldn't have been an honest report for me. It doesn't bother me.)

What are you after, in the end? A clear and bright list of forbidden words? I think the mods don't have one, and context probably makes a big difference whether some particular strings of characters should be welcomed here or shunned.

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Mods almost always just ignore any PMs I send them, so I couldn't be bothered doing that. Anyway, I was only curious as to what's deemed offensive or not.

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I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, was in no way fair comment and was motivated purely by malice. I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.

In the U.S., the word is virtually unknown, except for what you might hear in a British TV import. I'd associated it with "nonsense" and nothing more.

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Why are you two playing "kick me hard" with the mods? Just curious.

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"The beauty of that discussion of averages is that you don't have to be an expert in Apollo or in photography in order to see where this time study "analysis" breaks down. You just have to be, well...not an idiot." -JayUtah

Ah right. Well, earlier in this thread was:.
The word in question is certainly not one you'd say to a classroom full of British 11 or 12 year olds (is that what a US sixth grader is?). I suppose different words have different meanings in different places, and different grades of swearitude too.

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I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, was in no way fair comment and was motivated purely by malice. I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.

Um, sorry?

Seriously I didn't mean anything by it. But I suppose as an American in the UK it really doesn't have the same impact for me as it might a full-blooded Highlander such as yourself.

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I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet, so who am I to judge?

It's gotten to the point where careful investigation is needed just to tell parody from reality. I think that means reality is broken.- Noclevername.

Naw, I wasn't getting at you at all and know it was meant in its "nonsense" meaning. I was merely wondering where the profanity line was. As for impact - I am never offended by language.

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I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, was in no way fair comment and was motivated purely by malice. I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.

Lianachan,

Even within the US it can be like that. I had to come up with the "casual cursing" phrase to explain the phenomena. You see, some areas of the US don't use certain phrases as casual cursing. Which as expected gets "harder" the more urban you get. Even with television and movies.

In bootcamp, where this big culture collision is going on anyway, the big shocker for a lot of guys was the refference to one's mother. Where a lot of the guys came from that just wasn't said, while some of us from New York, L.A. and San Francisco had been using it since grade school. Meant nothing.

Guys got into to some injurious fights over comments meant to be no more insulting than, "Hey, dumb ***!"

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"The beauty of that discussion of averages is that you don't have to be an expert in Apollo or in photography in order to see where this time study "analysis" breaks down. You just have to be, well...not an idiot." -JayUtah

astronomically, what's supposed to happen in 2012? I think I heard somewhere that the solar system passes through the galactic plane?

Also, the Mayans didn't necessarily think the world was going to end. They just thought the world as we knok it would end. i.e. we'd enter a new age of some kind.

Depends on what you mean by "astronomically". By astronomical observation, the sun passes through the galactic plane every year around the time of the winter solstice (and again at the summer solstice). However, the sun physically passes through the galactic plane as it orbits the milky way, about every 28-33 million years and it is believed to have last happened about 3 million years ago as I understand it. There is some uncertainty in the figures I have quoted (I am reciting from memory) and it not easy to know our position and motion with absolute precision. (well...if you're a mayan priest, perhaps you can figure it out.)

-V

Well, a new age in the same way that this New Millenium is a new age. It's technically different from the last millenium, but pretty much, people are still going about their lives as they did in 1999.

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Kai's home computer is broken and her posting may be eratic for a while - ToSeek
"The only way to explore the universe is to go and look." - Brian Cox
Well, the best way to find out is to go there and, find out. - Raven's Cry
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx

Not me. I made more money in 1999.

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Tuckers! Science! Automotive Oddities! Boycott Trek XI! Building my hot rod with the help of the intarwebs

Not only did I have a higher income in 1999, the cost of living was a Heck of a lot lower too!
Gas was about a buck a gallon where I lived.

I would NOT say things have changed for the better, in many many regards, many of which are too political to discuss on BAUT.

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"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." -- Vaclav Havel

Quote:

We just don't know much.

Yet if not for those words, what would science be for? - KaiYeves

I propose an ATM corollary to Godwin's law: an ATM'er will inevitably compare himself to Copernicus (Or Galileo), when the going gets tough. - CodeSlinger

Hence my saying "pretty much", rather than "exactly".

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Kai's home computer is broken and her posting may be eratic for a while - ToSeek
"The only way to explore the universe is to go and look." - Brian Cox
Well, the best way to find out is to go there and, find out. - Raven's Cry
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx