• SOS became the international maritime distress signal (3/10/1906)

    From Ross Clark@21:1/5 to All on Thu Oct 3 23:35:30 2024
    ...---...
    At the First International Radiotelegraph Convention, in Berlin. The
    Germans had already begun using this signal.

    "neither so short as to be ambiguous nor so long as to be unwieldy"
    (Crystal worded this with "too", which seems wrong.)

    It's technically a _prosign_ (procedural sign) -- a single unit, not a
    letter sequence.

    it's an _ambigram_ -- reads the same when flipped over (useful if you've written it on the ground and people are searching for you from different directions...)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Aidan Kehoe@21:1/5 to All on Thu Oct 3 17:56:19 2024
    Ar an triú lá de mí Deireadh Fómhair, scríobh Ross Clark:

    ...---...
    At the First International Radiotelegraph Convention, in Berlin. The Germans had already begun using this signal.

    “In both the 1 April 1905 German law and the 1906 international regulations, the distress signal is specified as a continuous Morse code sequence of three dots / three dashes / three dots, with no mention of any alphabetic equivalents.”

    So the specification of the dots and dashes came first, and given there were two common alphanumeric encodings for Morse code at the time, the alphanumeric meaning was not then specified.

    "neither so short as to be ambiguous nor so long as to be unwieldy"
    (Crystal worded this with "too", which seems wrong.)

    It's technically a _prosign_ (procedural sign) -- a single unit, not a letter
    sequence.

    it's an _ambigram_ -- reads the same when flipped over (useful if you've written it on the ground and people are searching for you from different directions...)

    --
    ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
    How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
    (C. Moore)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From HenHanna@21:1/5 to Aidan Kehoe on Fri Oct 4 07:14:25 2024
    XPost: alt.usage.english, soc.culture.french

    On Thu, 3 Oct 2024 16:56:19 +0000, Aidan Kehoe wrote:

    Ar an triú lá de mí Deireadh Fómhair, scríobh Ross Clark:

    ...---...
    At the First International Radiotelegraph Convention, in Berlin. The
    Germans
    had already begun using this signal.

    “In both the 1 April 1905 German law and the 1906 international regulations,
    the distress signal is specified as a continuous Morse code sequence of
    three
    dots / three dashes / three dots, with no mention of any alphabetic equivalents.”

    So the specification of the dots and dashes came first, and given there
    were
    two common alphanumeric encodings for Morse code at the time, the alphanumeric
    meaning was not then specified.

    "neither so short as to be ambiguous nor so long as to be unwieldy" (Crystal worded this with "too", which seems wrong.)


    What was the sentence with "TOO" ?



    It's technically a _prosign_ (procedural sign) -- a single unit, not
    a letter
    sequence.

    it's an _ambigram_ -- reads the same when flipped over (useful if
    you've
    written it on the ground and people are searching for you from
    different
    directions...)




    WHen i started studying French (around age 20), several
    mysteries got solved....

    One of them was
    "SOS" (signal) has nothing to do with "May Day"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ross Clark@21:1/5 to HenHanna on Fri Oct 4 22:29:32 2024
    XPost: soc.culture.french

    On 4/10/2024 8:14 p.m., HenHanna wrote:
    On Thu, 3 Oct 2024 16:56:19 +0000, Aidan Kehoe wrote:

     Ar an triú lá de mí Deireadh Fómhair, scríobh Ross Clark:

    ...---...
    At the First International Radiotelegraph Convention, in Berlin. The
    Germans
    had already begun using this signal.

    “In both the 1 April 1905 German law and the 1906 international
    regulations,
    the distress signal is specified as a continuous Morse code sequence of
    three
    dots / three dashes / three dots, with no mention of any alphabetic
    equivalents.”

    So the specification of the dots and dashes came first, and given there
    were
    two common alphanumeric encodings for Morse code at the time, the
    alphanumeric
    meaning was not then specified.

    "neither so short as to be ambiguous nor so long as to be unwieldy"
    (Crystal worded this with "too", which seems wrong.)


                  What was the sentence with "TOO" ?

    "neither too short to be ambiguous nor too long to be unwieldy"

    which doesn't make sense when you think about it.
    Book needed an editor.

    ;
    It's technically a _prosign_ (procedural sign) -- a single unit, not
    a letter
    sequence.
    ;
    it's an _ambigram_ -- reads the same when flipped over (useful if
    you've
    written it on the ground and people are searching for you from
    different
    directions...)


    WHen i  started studying French (around age 20),  several
    mysteries got solved....

    One of them was
                   "SOS" (signal)  has nothing to do with   "May Day"

    Yes, but the French source usually given ("m'aidez") is ungrammatical
    according to the Standard French we were taught. Should be "aidez-moi".
    I suppose it could be understood as from "[venez] m'aider" (come and
    help me). I don't know if that's the standard explanation.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From HenHanna@21:1/5 to Ross Clark on Fri Oct 4 19:05:25 2024
    XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.language.latin

    On Fri, 4 Oct 2024 9:29:32 +0000, Ross Clark wrote:

    On 4/10/2024 8:14 p.m., HenHanna wrote:
    On Thu, 3 Oct 2024 16:56:19 +0000, Aidan Kehoe wrote:

     Ar an triú lá de mí Deireadh Fómhair, scríobh Ross Clark:

    ...---...
    At the First International Radiotelegraph Convention, in Berlin. The >>> Germans
    had already begun using this signal.

    “In both the 1 April 1905 German law and the 1906 international
    regulations,
    the distress signal is specified as a continuous Morse code sequence of
    three
    dots / three dashes / three dots, with no mention of any alphabetic
    equivalents.”

    So the specification of the dots and dashes came first, and given there
    were
    two common alphanumeric encodings for Morse code at the time, the
    alphanumeric
    meaning was not then specified.

    "neither so short as to be ambiguous nor so long as to be unwieldy"
    (Crystal worded this with "too", which seems wrong.)


                  What was the sentence with "TOO" ?

    "neither too short to be ambiguous nor too long to be unwieldy"

    which doesn't make sense when you think about it.
    Book needed an editor.



    or a better one (an editor).


    i didn't get it at first, but you're right....
    considering, e.g.


    Bob is too big to fit into that spot.

    Bob is too big to be comfortable in that spot.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)