Indeed and likewise :)

Coming from the XHTML view rather than the HTML5 view I'd say that the semantic meaning of b and i respectively have been lost due to the misuse of them. I saw your other reply as well, and while I agree in principle on that being a correct usage of it in that case, I disagree with those definitions/usage as being the way they're most commonly used. Also, assuming they DO actually have a semantic meaning (differing from strong and em) that is commonly accepted, you should then use span and CSS for those cases when it is only typographically you want to change it.

<span class="i b">Bold Italics</span> .i {font-style:italic;} .b {font-weight:bold;} vs <i><b>Bold Italics</b></i> Not much of a difference really in my opinion, with one you get a few more characters, in the other you're nesting it deeper....

How is it more bloat to add a span than a b or i tag?

By using span and css?

Damn it now I've got it as well..... That song should be banned by law :( Usually I just listen to some progressive rock or metal when coding.