Tilting at windmills for a better tomorrow.
In 1930 your risk of developing melanoma was 1:1500 people. Today it is 1:75, due in large part to decreasing protection from our chemically shrunken ozone layer. Skin cancer rates are increasing by about 3% per year.
I’ve always hated the industry trend toward capitalization of the words “internet” and “web.” The arguments in favor of capitalization are that one or the other are proper inventions and thus count as proper nouns. Other arguments maintain that because “web” comes from the acronym “World Wide Web,” it should carry the capitalization with it from the acronym.
I don’t buy either argument. Lots of things are invented but aren’t proper nouns. The internet isn’t a product like a Yo-Yo or a Segway. It’s a technology, like “computer” or “radiation.” These words are no more deserving of proper noun status than are “power grid” or “sky.” Heck, we don’t even capitalize “earth” in most contexts.
Nevertheless, more style guides and publications are formalizing the capitalization of these pedestrian terms, elevating them to a god-like or person-like or country-like status I don’t think they deserve.
Update 08/08: In 2004 Wired magazine changed their official house style to lowercase internet and web. Now waiting for the rest of the world to get on board…