Passive voice example should have been, "He has been sick, but he has gotten well."

It is proper English. It is the difference between the active and passive voice. "He was sick, but he got well." "He was sick, but he has gotten well." The difference is actually tangentially related to the story subject. When I was in university [mumble] decades ago, all scientific papers for publication, and by extension all term papers, were required to be written in the third person past passive voice. This was thought to appear more objective. Printing costs for scientific journals drove the change to active voice, because, in English, that voice uses fewer words. Now that journals are largely electronic, printing costs are less of an issue, leaving aside Dilbert's PHB's concern about using up electrons. Active voice may also be more readable, particularly for those being taught by teachers who say things like, "Me and him went to the store."

In a lot of countries, that may not be spoofed.

Unless, of course, they turn out to be Cnidarians with a truly spectacular neurotoxin in their stinging cells.

>Trash company - ok

Where do you live that the trash company isn't a wholly owned subsidiary of Mafia, Inc? I've never heard of such a thing.

Who cares? No one pays attention to Italian traffic lights anyway. A red light is not even a suggestion; it's an insult.

Out here on the West Coast, all it takes to get a good dinoflagellate bloom going is ocean water temperature a bit higher than normal. A variety of factors can contribute to this, including El Nino, lower than normal winter rainfall, increased air temperature, weakening of the longshore current. Of course in the Southeast, consideration of climate change is illegal in many states. In Florida, it's probably easiest to blame it on Cuban Communists.

>And I thought my hometown of Detroit was fucked.

You are correct. Detroit is fucked. Your other observations are correct also.

Sadly for Brazil, Neymar went through the recent World Cup with very low soccer playing activity as well. Brazil's defense seemed to exhibit very low brain activity as well.

You doubt the Ministry of Love's ability to reliably detect thought crime, Citizen? Please report to Miniluv Headquarters to explain yourself. Ask the receptionist to take you to Room 101.

copy con

I have had about the same experience, with one exception. In 2006 at a new job, my employer bought me a 17" HP that was built like a tank and worked flawlessly for six years. Of course it cost more than a comparable Macbook at the time. Battery life was awfule, as in I had to buy new batteries every 18 months, but it worked great. It also weighed as much as a tank. I currently use a 13" Retina Macbook Pro that is better in every way.

The "average eleventh grader" can't write three consecutive sentences of of grammatical English let alone pass any AP test. Actually, the average eleventh grader is not going to go to college, although if you leave out Joe Average, Jill Average is likely to enroll in some sort of post-secondary education.

Yes, you can sim lock such phones. One of the great things about T-Mobile is that they have always unlocked phones for free and without hassle.

Back in the late Sixties, everyone regarded AT&T as the Acme of Evil, an avatar of the Great Enemy on Earth. The Beast was chopped into bits, stakes driven through the multiple hearts of the bits, and each bit chained and confined to separate parts of the land. People grew complacent, and slowly the separate parts of the Beast began to stir. Tentacles slithered into emerging areas of the telecommunications industry and into the pockets of regulators and legislators. Slowly, the bits began to reassemble themselves into a new form until now it has fully reemerged to prey on the unwary.