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.

  • FundMECFS@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 day 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).

    • CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world
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      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?

    • PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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      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?

  • radix@lemmy.world
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    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
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      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.

  • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day 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.

  • ianhclark510@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    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
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      1 day 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
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        1 day 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.

  • AmazingAwesomator@lemmy.world
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    1 day 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.