Jargon fits this category too. Which might more accurately describe the phenomenon of txt speak.

I've got a degree in Anthropology and the linguists in the department will agree with you on this point. The official Anthropological stance is that language is just language, there is no "right" or "wrong." If it communicates, then it does its job.

Having said that, I'm not sure I agree with the linguists. There is something to be said for formal writing; baseline communication. What you do in your spare time (on facespace or in text messages) is your own business. But what you do on academic time or professional time is another matter. There are plenty of people out there that can speak or write in multiple dialects, and there's no reason to think that the children of today suddenly lost the ability to cross those kinds of boundaries at will.

I think the sloppiness is just an amalgamation of laziness and arrogance compounded by certain sociological factors (viz. that college is just an extension of high school with beer and sex, not really a learning institution; or that universities are first and foremost businesses and not learning institutions).

That's the funniest thing I've seen in the last five minutes. Thanks.

If they make virtual currency and meat world currency identical in the States, does that mean I can pay my rent by farming gold in WoW? 'Cause I can farm gold for a couple hours a day... then I'd never have to work. Sounds like a deal to me.

Still no cure for cancer :(

I happen to live in the town that the NBAF lab is scheduled to be built in. There was minimal an largely ineffectual noise made here when the project was announced. A few people feel that living in proximity to lethal viruses is maybe a bad thing. All in all, not a huge public outcry. It seemed (still seems really) that the project will go forth and multiply, as it were.

As for the whole "Tornado Alley OMGWTF" business: this was all started by Texas. Texas was butt hurt that they didn't land the project because, after all, who has even HEARD of Kansas? At first they tried to file an injunction to stop the process because there were going to be tornadoes here. That didn't go over too well with the courts, so they tried again arguing that Kansas law stipulates that land offered for federal projects has to be given unconditionally and that the current proffered land grant is conditional on the fact that said lab would actually be built. That direction seems to be landing too a little short of its mark.

A couple of things:

1) We had a smallish tornado here last year. Prior to that the last tornado we had here was nigh 20 years ago and it touched down for about 30 seconds. I've lived here for 30 years and I don't fear tornadoes.

2) I almost guarantee that the paper trail of this tornado-leveling-NBAF scare leads directly to Texas politicians. It seems they're going to try their damnedest to keep this in a court somewhere until such time as the feds give up and just plant the thing in Galveston. "Try" is the operative word here. I'm no fan of Sam Brownback, but he's a pretty powerful influence on Capitol Hill and doggedly determined to get this lab landed in my back yard.

3) Texas sucks.