Unintelligibly illiterate BBC News article link text

[spot]

Some have said they were told that they were instructed they were acting as a backup in case

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ctors-text

Q1: Poo to that for clarity then. Discuss. 10 marks.

Q2: And are "some" the same people as "they"? Pick any of the theys when answering. You may offer a probability, or yes, or no. If yes, explain why you're so certain. 10 marks.

Q3: Add appropriate Wikimedia templates ("who", "citation needed", "clarify", "by whom" and "when") where needed. 10 marks.

Q4: (a) Estimate the appropriate aggregated jail time for all defendants. You may choose to exclude Rudy Giuliani on the grounds of probable requisite competence. (b) Give reasons with precedents. 10 points.

Mr Giuliani is 80.

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I get so puzzled on occasion. What on earth is this?

A US Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued a man who was left clinging to an ice box in the Gulf of Mexico after his boat was stranded overnight in waters roiled by Hurricane Milton.

[...]But on Thursday searchers located the man about 30 miles (48km) off Longboat Key, Florida, clinging to an open cooler chest

[...]US Coast Guard rescues man clinging to ice chest in Gulf of Mexico

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ane-milton

What on earth is an ice box / open cooler chest / ice chest? Are we discussing a freezer here? The idea that the report gives three synonyms, all in some sort of of localized vocabulary instead of plain English, in what purports to be a news item in an allegedly English language newspaper, is ridiculous. I have no reason to believe "an ice box / open cooler chest / ice chest" is a freezer. For all I can tell it's something the size of a lunch box used to carry ice.

While I'm on the same page, "after his boat was stranded overnight" is equally baffling. His boat was on a beach? How is that a problem. What else could stranded mean? From the context of being winched from the sea 30 miles offshore it makes no sense at all. If his boat was on a beach, how can that be relevant? If they mean sunk, say sunk. If they have no idea where the boat is, then he found a floating thing and clung to it having been parted from his boat. Would an open freezer not sink? Mine would, it weighs well over a hundred pounds and has no inherent buoyancy. My open picnic cool box might just float given it's made of plastic, but that's as unlikely in this story as a lunch box.

[Bryn Mawr]

I get so puzzled on occasion. What on earth is this?

A US Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued a man who was left clinging to an ice box in the Gulf of Mexico after his boat was stranded overnight in waters roiled by Hurricane Milton.

[...]But on Thursday searchers located the man about 30 miles (48km) off Longboat Key, Florida, clinging to an open cooler chest

[...]US Coast Guard rescues man clinging to ice chest in Gulf of Mexico

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ane-milton

What on earth is an ice box / open cooler chest / ice chest? Are we discussing a freezer here? The idea that the report gives three synonyms, all in some sort of of localized vocabulary instead of plain English, in what purports to be a news item in an allegedly English language newspaper, is ridiculous. I have no reason to believe "an ice box / open cooler chest / ice chest" is a freezer. For all I can tell it's something the size of a lunch box used to carry ice.

<Snip>

It’s an electric cool box, usually 12 volt.

[spot]

I get so puzzled on occasion. What on earth is this?

A US Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued a man who was left clinging to an ice box in the Gulf of Mexico after his boat was stranded overnight in waters roiled by Hurricane Milton.

[...]But on Thursday searchers located the man about 30 miles (48km) off Longboat Key, Florida, clinging to an open cooler chest

[...]US Coast Guard rescues man clinging to ice chest in Gulf of Mexico

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ane-milton

What on earth is an ice box / open cooler chest / ice chest? Are we discussing a freezer here? The idea that the report gives three synonyms, all in some sort of of localized vocabulary instead of plain English, in what purports to be a news item in an allegedly English language newspaper, is ridiculous. I have no reason to believe "an ice box / open cooler chest / ice chest" is a freezer. For all I can tell it's something the size of a lunch box used to carry ice.

<Snip>

It’s an electric cool box, usually 12 volt.

So... it's not capable of making or storing ice???

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George Osborne backs ‘HS2 light’ plan for Manchester-Birmingham route

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... gham-route

"light"? What??

It's like seeing people write "tonnes" to mean lots.

"Lite"!

For goodness' sake, if you're going to use a dumbed Americanism at least do it properly.

[spot]

Good lord... <wince>

The UK handling of the COVID 19 pandemic has been nothing short of disastrous with many thousands of unnecessary lives lost

Professor John Ashton, author of Blinded by Corona: How the Pandemic ruined Britain’s Health and Wealth and What to do about it
A Timeline of the Plague of the Plague Year [PDF]
https://covidtheplagueyear.wordpress.com/

That's a harsh judgement, "unnecessary"!

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What does it take?

Wilhelm von Schadow’s the Artist’s Children which was restituted to the estate of Max Stern, in a still from the film Spoils.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesig ... estitution

"restored"!

Who on earth thinks they can just invent "restituted"? What spell-checker would allow restituted through?

"The Spoils follows the continuing attempts to restitute the assets of a German-Jewish art dealer, drawing attention to how loaded a political and cultural issue restitution has become."

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A train is only submerged in flood water if the flood water is over the train's roof. That is the meaning of submerged. I doubt whether this train's axles got wet. The word required is stranded, not submerged. A train became stranded in flood water, true. A train also became submerged in flood water? Poppycock.

These people just don't use dictionaries, it's the only explanation. From today's Guardian:

Hundreds of homes were left underwater, roads were turned into rivers and winds of up to 82mph were recorded across parts of the country.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... storm-bert

I guarantee no homes were left underwater. The suggestion is insane. Perhaps the word sought may have been flooded.

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I dislike this.

A road has been blocked after a van driver found themselves stuck under the "most bashed" bridge in Britain.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0q01jl39kko

The vandriver is singular. "They" is the agreed neuter in favour of "It". But the word has to be "themself". Seriously it does, English can accomodate so far but no further. A van driver found themself stuck.

The correct place to put that is in your pipe. BBC. Once it's there you know what to do.