...to feel like there's something wrong with this picture.

Sure, tweak their brains and then "sacrifice" (the scientific euphemism) them. That's nice. As boingboing noted, time to order more Flowers for Algernon (a brilliant short story by Daniel Keyes that everyone should read, which was made into an okay movie called "Charly").

7:23:37 PM    please comment []

I touched off a little debate with my question about "w00t!" a couple of days ago in I realize this damages my geek cred... (check out the comments).

So, from you language mavens: I'd like to know: when did "SO" become a common all-purpose intensifier? How far back? Was it originally valley-girl speak?

I ask because I just came inside and announced to my colleagues "It's SO going to pour any minute now." Needless to say, this is not quite standard English, but I realized that I say this sort of thing all the time. It used to be that "so" only modified adjectives. Now any gerund phrase is fair game.

What's up with THAT?

7:04:41 PM    please comment []