Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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I'm sure that someone will come looking for that stray and return it to its herd, soon.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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No no - it isn't spare, it has to move one letter to the right.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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‘Stunning’ Anglo-Saxon burial site found along HS2 route

“The fifth and sixth centuries are not ones we know a lot about, and all the objects we found will be able to tell us a lot about these people. It gives us a great snapshot of society.”

https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... -hs2-route

Fifth and sixth centuries? Between 400 and 599? There wasn't an Angle or a Saxon anywhere on the island, much less on the HS2 route. How is this Anglo-Saxon?



eta: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Sax ... %80%93660)

Okay, I recant, retract, submit. It's not what I'd call Anglo-Saxon though. 5th century migration apparently qualifies.
Most modern scholarly consensus now regards Hengist and Horsa to be mythical figures, and much scholarship has emphasised the likelihood of this based on their alliterative animal names, the seemingly constructed nature of their genealogy, and the unknowable quality of the earliest sources of information for their reports in the works of Bede. Their later detailed representation in texts such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle can tell us more about ninth-century attitudes to the past than anything about the time in which they are said to have existed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hengist_and_Horsa


Bah.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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So, A-G moved in after the Romans left - Give or take a few decades.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

Post by Bryn Mawr »

LarsMac wrote: Thu Jun 16, 2022 8:19 am So, A-G moved in after the Romans left - Give or take a few decades.
Pretty much - the romans left in about 410 and the raids started soon thereafter.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

Post by LarsMac »

Yeah, I thought that the Romans lasted into the mid century, in some facsimile of an empire, but they lost the British area after they withdrew their troop.
It is interesting how much longer, after the Roman collapse that people began to realize just how inefficient hereditary rule really was, and yet it was not until the 20th century that it really was actively replaced in most civilized countries.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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So, the Anglo-Saxons were basically the descendants of Saxons who had found there way to the British isles after the Romans retreated back to the "Continent"
And from what I have read, lately, the Celts seem to have originated in the Sub-Alpine regions of Austria and Germany.
So, who were the people in Britain prior to the Romans?
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

Post by spot »

Until 6000 years ago the island of Britain was part of mainland Europe, before sea levels dropped and the wide landbridge Doggerland sank into the North Sea. That was all pre-farming Northern European Homo Sapiens.

Then you get stone age farming, which implies either a cultural or a physical migration from mainland Europe and an ability to cross the English Channel in boats. The lowland forest was cleared for agriculture.

Then the iron age, with your Celts turning up and pushing the first farmers west, just as the Anglo Saxons later pushed the Celts west - either culturally or physically. The Romans didn't push anyone, they just taxed and administered and educated and provided long-term infrastructure and stability. If only America could actually live up to that standard one might welcome its interventions.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

Post by Bryn Mawr »

LarsMac wrote: Sat Jun 18, 2022 11:36 am So, the Anglo-Saxons were basically the descendants of Saxons who had found there way to the British isles after the Romans retreated back to the "Continent"
And from what I have read, lately, the Celts seem to have originated in the Sub-Alpine regions of Austria and Germany.
So, who were the people in Britain prior to the Romans?
You forget the Angles and the Jutes who were separate tribes to the Saxons. The Jutes settled in Kent, the Saxons in Essex, Middlesex, Sussex and Wessex and the Angles in most of the rest before the Danes pushed them over.

Before the Romans there were the Celts who ended up in Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and before them the Picts who were pushed into the remoter corners.

As Spot says, the originals who came in at the end of the last ice age were the northern hunter gatherers and their last holdout appears to be the Basque lands.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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It's not just the BBC, or even the British news outfits,

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/21/politics ... index.html

I got a kick from this statement:
The Point: Moss' life -- and that of her mother -- is unalterably changed by Trump's unwillingness to accept that he had lost an election. And that's a damn shame.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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Maldon crematorium plans to be carbon-neutral

https://www.maldonandburnhamstandard.co ... l/?ref=rss

That's so unambitious. A well-designed modern crematorium should be supplying the electricity grid, not just breaking even.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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Zermatt, a Swiss mountain village which usually sees July temperatures in the twenties, has had recent highs of 30C (86F).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-62466095

One would think even a BBC news editor could see the arithmetic pothole there.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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The research team, led by Brittany Trang, identified a new mechanism to break down the PFAS by using a common chemical called sodium hydroxide - which is used in household products like soap or painkillers.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62561756

Whatever that quote started out as, it got mangled before it reached the website.

Next time I wash with soap I'll check whether I have any skin left afterwards.

And painkillers???

How about "used in the manufacture of".

As for the article as a whole, I'd love the chance of a bet that fewer than 0.1% of all future PFAS will be destroyed by any process developed by "Northwestern University, US", over any proffered timescale. Let's put a low-estimate figure on that - 10 tons. Their badly-worded process relates to a carefully selected unused 100% fresh-from-the-reactor blob of PFAS, not the contaminated aftermath of a major fire incident or a discarded lipstick.

I have a mitigation process, if anyone wants it - stop producing the stuff. Problem solved.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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Mr Syms, from St Stephen, told BBC Radio Cornwall: "We are literally heartbroken [...]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-62601863


Silence would have been more sensible than that
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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hmm,...

I'm literally dumfounded.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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To prevent homes and public spaces being flooded after heavy rains, the system is designed occasionally to overflow and discharge untreated sewage into rivers and the sea.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62670623

Here we see a textbook instance of the BBC refusing to split an infinitive despite losing their intended meaning. The fact that "the system is designed occasionally to overflow" is irrelevant. The system is [invariably] designed to occasionally overflow. That's the design flaw being highlighted. It should be designed to never overflow. It wasn't. It never has been. It needs redesigning.

"British water companies have said they are investing in solving the problem". So they ought, not that I believe their lying PR departments. Until they get it right the water utility companies should issue no dividends, the required investment should take priority over every dividend payment. Once they've got it right they should still issue no dividends, because every dividend payment is a disguised tax on the paying public for a fundamental necessity of life. Thatcher's one-time car sale of the Public Utilities was straightforward unadulterated theft and it clearly hasn't led to any saving on efficiency or improvement of the infrastructure. What it's predictably done is to steal from the powerless poor to give to the porcine rich.

As for enforcement, until the board members of public utilities consistently serve significant jail time for neglecting corporate legal obligations nothing at all will change.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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spot wrote: Wed Oct 06, 2021 3:39 pm
spot wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 5:09 am Renee Zellweger plays the titular role in Judy, which is released in the UK next month.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49265599

Titular role? As opposed to title role?

I think not, BBC. I think your copy editor just bunked off early and didn't look at the article.

Titular: Nominal, especially as opposed to real or actual.

eta: I have seen the OED 3b reference to eponymous and concede today's usage might fall within the category, but it's still an ugly pointless complication of a far cleaner commonplace alternative. The OED would do better to regard their one quote for "a titular role in Spenser's romance" as overweening floridity.

I'll be especially peeved if the BBC's sentence ends up in the OED.
Today:
The first trailer for the Oscar-tipped Cyrano, which features Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage in the titular role, was released on Wednesday.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-58678918
No, BBC. No no no. That's twice, you sods.

No! Not titular!!
Hell's teeth. Now it's the New York Times!
Welcome to the set of “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” the unconventional biopic of the beloved parodist “Weird Al” Yankovic, featuring Daniel Radcliffe in the titular role.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/busi ... rd-al.html

It is wrong. Titular has a different meaning to the one being attempted. Doing this is destructive of the English language.

Stop it.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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I do hope that you forwarded that to the BBC Editors
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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River-flow rates in England at lowest point since 2002, data shows

Photo caption: A stretch of the River Avon earlier this month. River flows in England in July were lower than normal in 88% of rivers.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... nment-data

I wonder on occasion what goes on in newsrooms. Anyone, presumably, could have volunteered that the photo shows the tidal reach of the Avon and has always looked lower than that twice every day. Nobody appears to have cared enough to have said anything. All the photo chooser was bothered about was the muddy banks. River flow rate is a total irrelevance in that photo.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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Reading BBC today, there are several articles referring to Nasa.
From reading these articles, it is plain that they are discussing the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
That is NASA. Not Nasa.
How would they like to be referred to as Bbc?

[end rant]
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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The text on the front page of today's Times is an utter balls-up. "A life in service"?

That might be the title of an autobiography by a house-servant, but definitely not the Queen. Perhaps someone overthought the words. She lived a life of service. "In service" is very specific and not queenly at all.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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The careless illiteracy of some headline writers defies belief. Is it not blatantly obvious that there is no overlap in meaning between the headline "Darius Campbell Danesh died of accidental inhalation of chloroethane" and the actual "Darius’s death was an accident caused by chloroethane, which is used to treat pain and that tragically lead to respiratory arrest". The headline is quite simply untrue.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/ ... loroethane



(I definitely have my doubts about the subsequent "caused by" as well - it's not what you use, it's what you do with it that matters.)
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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"More than half of the world's palm trees in danger"?

No, BBC. More than half of the world's palm tree species are "in danger", as you put it. That's fewer than 0.1% of the world's palm trees. You keep on time and again in articles using terms like "trees" when you mean "tree species". They are not the same units. The described threat you're reporting on is to biodiversity, not to biomass.

The distinction you fail to ever mention is between domesticated species and wild species. What is endangered is overwhelmingly wild species, primarily because humans willfully refuse to leave wild species sufficient room on the planet to survive and additionally because of human induced climate change. Each of those choices has been making species extinct for several thousand years. Preventing both should be essential government priorities worldwide.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63038597
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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A rather wonderful lack of proof-reeding on the BBC website this morning:

It came after Mr Raab was denied his application to move to an open prison in May amid fears he still posed a risk to the public.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63058074
That's "justice secretary Dominic Raab", for those unfamiliar with obscure former UK Cabinet members.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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The Guardian this time. Some fatuous reporter seems to think the average number of miles driven by men and by women per journey is the same. The headline is even more deranged.
Male drivers three times more likely to be in road collisions with pedestrians

[...] Including trips by car, van, motorbike and in other private vehicles, this equates to 2.8 serious collisions – those involving a pedestrian being injured or killed – for every 10m journeys by men, compared with 1.04 for women.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... edestrians
How about women are more likely to drive where there are pedestrians, that would be a good start.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

Post by LarsMac »

Interesting.
There was a piece done in the US not long ago, discussing how men drivers tend to be "multitasking" while driving.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

Post by spot »

It distresses me to upbraid the Coventry Telegraph but "Drivers who wear glasses could face £1,000 fine and three licence points under DVLA rules" rather misses the point.

The penalty applies to drivers who cannot "read (with glasses or contact lenses, if necessary) a car number plate made after September 1, 2001, from 20 metres, or who have an inadequate field of vision".

While is it is true that if I were to drive wearing my reeding glasses I would fit the terms of the headline, that's not what needs conveying.

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/ ... d-25164916
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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Well, it does get one's attention, I reckon.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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LarsMac wrote: Mon Oct 10, 2022 8:21 am Well, it does get one's attention, I reckon.
Does a state driving license in the US allow a driver to drive in every state? Do states decide the terms by which a driver qualifies for the license, a bit like getting married does? Is any aspect of driving permission federal? Can a license be withdrawn by a court? Does the withdrawal apply just to the state court's jurisdiction or is it national? Can you get banned progressively in ten different states but continue to drive in the other forty?
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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spot wrote: Mon Oct 10, 2022 8:55 am
LarsMac wrote: Mon Oct 10, 2022 8:21 am Well, it does get one's attention, I reckon.
Does a state driving license in the US allow a driver to drive in every state?
Yes, each state respects the licensing of all the other states
spot wrote:Do states decide the terms by which a driver qualifies for the license, a bit like getting married does?
Mostly, all state driver licensing is the same. Anyone from another state is responsible for knowing the peculiarities of whichever state they may plan to drive in.
spot wrote:Is any aspect of driving permission federal?
Any driver licensed in any state is presumed to be licensed for all states.
spot wrote:Can a license be withdrawn by a court?
Does the withdrawal apply just to the state court's jurisdiction or is it national?
Yes. and now almost all states subscribe to a national database so that all infractions are recorded and reported to all states, so, a driver who has been relieved of his license in California would be disallowed in any state. Though as long as he was not stopped and questioned by law enforcement, he could get away with it for some time.
spot wrote:Can you get banned progressively in ten different states but continue to drive in the other forty?
Not legally, no.

It should be noted that the insurance companies are the major force behind the database, and once you have no license in any given state, you will not be able to acquire insurance, and with no insurance, no state will issue a license.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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We have a single database, which simplifies matters. Anyone can apply for a license if they've passed the government-run driving test. Nobody needs insurance unless they are driving a car. I held a full license for decades but I only bought insurance when I owned or hired a car..
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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spot wrote: Tue Oct 11, 2022 5:52 am We have a single database, which simplifies matters. Anyone can apply for a license if they've passed the government-run driving test. Nobody needs insurance unless they are driving a car. I held a full license for decades but I only bought insurance when I owned or hired a car..
We don't need auto insurance unless we own a car, but, since I have almost always owned one, I have always had the insurance.
If you earn enough infractions to lose your license, you may still own a car, but the insurance companies will not insure your car unless someone else is on the owner list. And should you get caught driving your car, then, you relative could lose their license for allowing you to drive your car.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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Article link text and Headline: "Only official bathing spot on Thames fails tests for bacteria linked to sewage"

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -to-sewage
If The Guardian thinks the only bathing spot in the UK to fail tests for bacteria linked to sewage is an official one on the Thames, they should come to Cornwall and see what real pollution looks like.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

Post by spot »

I'm moderately convinced that this is unmitigated garbage, but I'm prepared to be told otherwise:
Water accounted for up to 11% of the meteorite's weight - and it contained a very similar ratio of hydrogen atoms to the water on Earth.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63631563
One wonders what the reporter thought either "atoms" or "water" means.




eta: The Guardian's alternative account clears up the BBC's nebulous imprecision: "The research also found that the ratio of hydrogen isotopes in the water closely resembled the composition of water on Earth".

https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... rths-water
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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BBC local news reporters completely baffle me on occasion. This time we have
The note was signed and dated by two male workers

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland- ... e-63678138

The tale relates to a note put in a bottle 135 years ago by two building contractors. How in god's name does the fool think two building contractors in 1887 could possibly have been female? Why is their gender even slightly relevant to the report, come to that?

As for "a family friend looked on the 1881 census and found the men's names living just a few miles away", I seriously doubt the men's names lived anywhere at all. Perhaps it's a badly-educated sixteen year old on work experience.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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spot wrote: Tue Nov 15, 2022 3:46 am
Article link text and Headline: "Only official bathing spot on Thames fails tests for bacteria linked to sewage"

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -to-sewage
If The Guardian thinks the only bathing spot in the UK to fail tests for bacteria linked to sewage is an official one on the Thames, they should come to Cornwall and see what real pollution looks like.
As, for instance,
Cornwall issued with 16 sewage pollution alerts across its beaches ahead of stormy weather

The number of beaches affected could actually be much higher

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornw ... on-7845050

The board of the local water company (South West Water) should all be jailed annually until a new board fixes their corporate inadequacy. The fact that the company distributes dividends to shareholders is disgraceful.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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Marcus Rashford double puts England top of group and sends Wales home

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... tch-report


If Marcus Rashford's double is so good a footballer that he can put England top of their group and send Wales home, one wonders why Marcus Rashford continues to be selected for the England team.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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"NYC man charged in brutal beatings of Boston terrier puppy later euthanized".

That's harsh.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

Post by Bryn Mawr »

spot wrote: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:19 am "NYC man charged in brutal beatings of Boston terrier puppy later euthanized".

That's harsh.
Anyone who would brutally beat a puppy deserves to be euthanised!
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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Bryn Mawr wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 7:42 am
spot wrote: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:19 am "NYC man charged in brutal beatings of Boston terrier puppy later euthanized".

That's harsh.
Anyone who would brutally beat a puppy deserves to be euthanised!
Agreed
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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"Consultants want up to £262 an hour to cover strike days for junior doctors"?

You'd be lucky to get a senior solicitor for that low a price - why would senior doctors be any cheaper?

The Health Service would be far more effective if it halved its pointless overpaid smug workshy self-satisfied complacent management, paid more to the working medical and ancillary staff and had a large dose of structural slack built into its resources.

This is in the wrong thread, it ought to be under moaning. It was at least link text though.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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Not the BBC, just the local paper. But really...

"A resident, who didn't want to be named, told CornwallLive: "As you might know, a prominent resident of Fowey used to be Dawn French, [...]"

One wonders what the this prominent resident of Fowey calls herself now, if that's true.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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spot wrote: Thu Aug 25, 2022 4:17 amIt is wrong. Titular has a different meaning to the one being attempted. Doing this is destructive of the English language.

Stop it.
Good lord, it's unstoppable.
He was known as the titular hero of 1970s TV detective series Baretta and starred in the 1997 film Lost Highway, but his career struggled following his wife's 2001 fatal shooting.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64911189
That's even worse than "titular role" - meaning role in name only. Now we have "titular hero" where the required word is eponymous, "That gives (his) name to anything". He was the hero whose name was used as the program's title. He was the eponymous hero.

I think I might lose this fight, but I ought not. I'm right and the BBC news editor is entirely philistine. "An uneducated or unenlightened person; one perceived to be indifferent or hostile to art or culture", as the OED has it.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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'Extinct' lion spotted in Chad national park

A lion has been spotted in Chad's Sena Oura National Park, where the big cats have not been seen since 2004 and were believed to be extinct until now.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65342010

What will it take for sub-editors at the BBC news website to accept that extinction is not a regional phenomenon, it's a terminal irreversible species event. The lack of lions in Chad's Sena Oura National Park does not mean lions are extinct. It doesn't even mean they're extinct in that national park, it means the park's population has died and none are left there. That is not extinction.

As ChatGPT puts it: "The word you're looking for is "extirpated." When a species is extirpated, it means that the species no longer has any living members in a specific geographic area, though it may still exist in other areas. This is different from extinction, which refers to the complete disappearance of a species from the entire planet."

It's a sad day when ChatGPT gets the point but the BBC repeatedly fails to.

I pushed for a more passive phrasing. ChatGPT can be very condescending on occasion. "Yes, you can use the phrase "died out" to describe a situation where a species no longer has any living members in a specific geographic area. This term is more informal and less precise than "extirpated" or "locally extinct," but it still conveys the general idea."
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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Chat GPT has recently become far more sensitive to human feelings.

"I'm sorry, but it would not be appropriate to use the style of Mark Twain to make an observation about a current and sensitive political issue such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Mark Twain's style is known for its humor, satire, and wit, and using it to comment on such a serious topic could be seen as disrespectful and inappropriate. As an AI language model, I strive to provide informative and neutral responses, and I believe it's important to maintain a respectful tone when discussing sensitive topics. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask."
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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The BBC News website is staffed by some of the most grammar-blind vocabulary-incompetent carelessly ineducable illiterates on the planet.

What did the Romans use to count?

I II III IV V VI ...

Letters.

Not numbers!

For goodness' sake...

111.png
111.png (12.3 KiB) Viewed 2422 times
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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Hmm.

The [Planck Observatory] telescope, which worked from 2007 to 2022 before being dismantled, was funded by the US National Science Foundation.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65243132

That, I suspect, might have been rather difficult. The correct word is undoubtedly "decommissioned". Dismantling the European Space Agency's Planck observatory would have taken rather more effort than getting it into orbit in the first place.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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I seem to recall that it was decommissioned in 2013 and parked in a "Junk Orbit.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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The first full-sized digital scan of the Titanic, which lies 3,800m (12,500ft) down in the Atlantic, has been created using deep-sea mapping.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65602182

That is such total gibberish that I have absolutely no idea how to interpret it into meaningful English. I hurd it announced on Radio 4 this morning and I was convinced my ears had betrayed me.

If anyone has a suggestion I would be grateful.
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Re: Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

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New York Christian university fires two staff for including pronouns in emails – reports

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... d-pronouns


That, Guardian, is not what happened at all.

The staff were fired for specifying inclusive pronouns in their .sig which is not at all what your headline implies.

For clarity, I request a consistent avoidance of all binary-gendered third person references to spot.
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