Re: A chuckle......

your and you're

they're, their, there. you're, your and using run for any damn reason when the sentence should read ....ran.... Ed

It's is not, it isn't ain't, and it's it's, not its, if you mean it is. If you don't, it's its. Then too, it's hers. It isn't her's. It isn't our's either. It's ours, and likewise yours and theirs. -- Oxford University Press, Edpress News

-tih

Words take on additional meanings by use. Explosions do often follow the evaporation of liquids (I've got proof on my website), even though the evaporation is not itself an explosive act.

A volatile situation is one which may explode, given a source of ignition. This applies to what can happen in our workrooms if we're not careful with our chemical friends as well as to human relationships.

Source: WordNet (r) 1.7

volatile adj 1: (chemistry) evaporating readily at normal temperatures and pressures; "volatile oils"; "volatile solvents" [ant: nonvolatile] 2: liable to lead to sudden change or violence; "an explosive issue"; "a volatile situation with troops and rioters eager for a confrontation" [syn: explosive] 3: marked by erratic changeableness in affections or attachments; "fickle friends"; "a flirt's volatile affections" [syn: fickle] 4: tending to vary often or widely; "volatile stocks"; "volatile emotions" n : a volatile substance; a substance that changes readily from solid or liquid to a vapor; "it was heated to evaporate the volatiles"

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Volatile \Vol"a*tile\, a. [F. volatil, L. volatilis, fr. volare to fly, perhaps akin to velox swift, E. velocity. Cf. Volley.] 1. Passing through the air on wings, or by the buoyant force of the atmosphere; flying; having the power to fly. [Obs.]

1. Capable of wasting away, or of easily passing into the a["e]riform state; subject to evaporation.

Note: Substances which affect the smell with pungent or fragrant odors, as musk, hartshorn, and essential oils, are called volatile substances, because they waste away on exposure to the atmosphere. Alcohol and ether are called volatile liquids for a similar reason, and because they easily pass into the state of vapor on the application of heat. On the contrary, gold is a fixed substance, because it does not suffer waste, even when exposed to the heat of a furnace; and oils are called fixed when they do not evaporate on simple exposure to the atmosphere.

1. Fig.: Light-hearted; easily affected by circumstances; airy; lively; hence, changeable; fickle; as, a volatile temper.

You are as giddy and volatile as ever. --Swift.

Volatile alkali. (Old Chem.) See under Alkali.

Volatile liniment, a liniment composed of sweet oil and ammonia, so called from the readiness with which the latter evaporates.

Volatile oils. (Chem.) See Essential oils, under Essential. Volatile \Vol"a*tile\, n. [Cf. F. volatile.] A winged animal; wild fowl; game. [Obs.] --Chaucer. --Sir T. Browne.

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (09 FEB 02)

volatile

1. volatile variable.
2. See non-volatile storage.

(1997-06-05)

Ed,

Mine is 'nonflammable' which I used to think meant it doesn't burn. Such as warnings on a propane tank/tanker.....but they sure do explode! --

Jim Lilly - Team Z

I thought it was funny all throughout school when our teachers told us we could conversate after we finished our work. I actually brought it up to a few teachers. Some argued, and some gave me attitude for being such a "know-it-all".

-Nick

receiver incorrectly spelled reciever. etcetera incorrectly abbreviated "ect" (should be "etc")

It is "so fun" to read this stuff. Joe L.

M,

LOL! --

Jim Lilly - Team Z

I think its poor spelling actually.

Grammar is all about things like

I ate some mustard with my ham. I ate some mustard, with my wife.

If you see what I mean :-)

it's a good thing its wings stayed on.

I before E except after C, and of course

Deity Reify Leisure rein Skein Ciena :-) ....etc etc etc etc.

The word that gets me is 'gay'. Whether by accident, social antipathy or intention, I have met more miserable buggers than I care to mention :-)

Well, I got a jolt when I realised that 'burglarised' is now the more common form in both the USA AND the UK than the original 'burgled' and is even in the dictionary...

...and english USED to be the way to shorter words...till the Texans got hold of it.

No. It should be etc. really.

Oh lord. I hard a heated discussion on 'womans hour' yesterday about whether the following joke was funny, acceptable or sexist.

"If men always fall asleep after sex, how come they have such a hard time catching rapists"

I smell a rat. I can feel it in the air. We must nip it in the bud.

Once upon a time we had a technician who didn't understand the meanings of "Nonflammable" and "Combustible".

Worse, he failed to note both terms on the jugs of solvent he was using to flush an older R-502 freezer system during conversion to R-404A.

Seems he'd gotten his oxy-acetylene torch a bit too close to a gallon-sized puddle of the solvent, and was a bit disconcerted that he'd set the whole damn roof alight !

Naturally he'd spilled the solvent all over himself during his screwed-up flushing proceedure, so his pants were well and truly ablaze as well.

I think he came to appreciate the finer points of those terms somewhere between the time he leaped off the one-story roof and before he hit the parking lot doing Warp 9 on his way to a nearby drainage ditch full of muddy water.

Best impersonation of a comet I ever saw.

There is an auto repair shop near my house that has large lettering on the side to tell the public what services are offered within. It says "brakes, shocks, strut's, alignment". I wonder why they thought that they needed just the one apostrophe.