editing people, opinions?

"this, along with these, does that thing"

The commas really belong there set the central clause off; one wouldn't write "this along with these does that thing." But what is that bugger? It's not an appositive (it's in addition, not describing or elucidating). It's not introduced by a conjunction and forming a plural subject (one wouldn't write "This, along with these, do that thing.") I feel as if I know how to punctuate this sentence and what the correct verb agreement is, but I don't know *why* (or, more accurately, how to describe that clause, or even what the construction "along with" is) and it's bugging the heck out of me.

clearly what we needed was not marriage counselling but a gyroscope...

"Gyros sense angular shifts (changes in orientation)..."

use the gyro, Luke!

"Single-degree-of-freedom (SDF) gyros sense angular disturbance..."

Yes, but do they sense a disturbance in the Force?

whew!

Got another item (i.e., chapter) finished. Eleven more to go, but from here on in they're all 5-10 pages at most instead of ~30. I should be able to get half of them done tomorrow and the other half either over the weekend or on Monday. It's not the rate I'd hoped, but I quickly learned that the project manager is quite happy with it (since apparently he's putting in all my corrections!)

Now out into the rain to get groceries, go home and make dinner, then go out and get more groceries. No soccer tonight! :-(

wow

http://www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights/LesbianGayRights.cfm?ID=16142&c=101

That's about as far as I can go in describing my astonishment. Some congressmen think they can pass a law making it unlawful for the Supreme Court of the United States to review a piece of federal legislation or state courts' action on it. I don't know whether to be angry at their arrogance and bigotry or pity them for their stupidity. The former, I think, because I have to assume they're not actually stupid and are offering the legislation for propaganda purposes because they think their constituents will be stupid enough not to know it's unconstitutional prima facie.

Wow.