AFKBRBChocolate

First? The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree. I read the Oz books pretty early. I read all the Sherlock Holmes books in junior high, I think.

Oh yeah? I didn't realize that.

I believe it's the domain for Malaysia.

Yep, same thing

That was actually the context of when she said it - she read the bugs bunny comic books (which I didn't know existed) and said that character's name.

I knew a girl who was raised in a small town in the middle of nowhere, without TV or movies, but she read a lot. She had so many things like that. Yosemite rhymed with hose-mite.

You're joking, right? Under what standard are words in American English pronounced incorrectly? I mean, let's just take this example:

They say it that way because in the US that's how it's pronounced. The argument that it's pronounced differently in other countries, so the US way is wrong, is stupid. Even within a language/country, there are regional dialects.

I grew up in the US, but my dad was from England. There were lots of times I said a word the way I had always heard my dad say it, only to have people correct my mispronunciation. The one that pops into my head was capillaries (the little blood vessels). My dad always said ca-PILL-ah-rees, not CA-puh-lar-rees. Neither is wrong, it's just pronounced differently here and there.

When I check the dictionary, it says in the US it's pronounced goo-dah.

I don't think there's an objective "better." Some people have distinct preferences, some don't. Of the people who prefer physical books, some have an affinity for the more tactile nature.

So was it a government (state or federal) water treatment plant? If so, I can tell you how it happened. The government contracting agencies have boilerplate text they're supposed to add to contracts to make sure salient requirements get flowed. They're supposed to delete or tailor anything that doesn't make sense, but the contracts people aren't usually very technical. We had requirements flowed to us about password management and account monitoring, but no one logs into a rocket engine or a torpedo. When we'd point it out, they'd say "oops, we should have deleted that."

The gun is likely a laser. White doesn't absorb much light, but black does, so the laser is passing through the white balloon without it heating significantly, but the black balloon is popping because it's absorbing the light and getting hot.