On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 10:09 AM Thomas Jollans <t...@tjol.eu> wrote: > > On 10/10/2018 23:32, Gregory Ewing wrote: > > Rhodri James wrote: > >>> I'm a great fan of erroneous spelling and this blog needs a spelling > >>> check as this quote shows > >>> > >>> "Mathematica exemplifies the horde of new Vandals whose pursuit of > >>> private gain threatens a far greater pubic loss–the collapse of > >>> social systems that took centuries to build." > >> > >> OK, colour me confused. The only spelling mistake I can spot in that > >> is in the subject line of this thread. What am I missing? > > > > Presumably Romer meant that it was a loss suffered by everyone, > > but that's not quite what he wrote. > > Sure it is. He's contrasting *private* gain with *public* loss. If there > is any ambiguity here it is whether there is a threat *of* a public > loss, or *to* a public loss ^_^
Now read the quote again, very VERY carefully. The human brain is very good at ignoring insignificant errors. (The troll brain is very good at pointing out insignificant errors.) ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
