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The BBC news website has a world exclusive on the largest pistachio plant ever discovered. Usually they are small trees capable of bearing, at most, 200kg of nuts. This one was extraordinarily vast.

The 42,000lbs of pistachios went missing from a plant in Central California this month.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science_and_environment

Junk food TV adverts to be banned before 9pm.

No.

Junk food TV adverts before 9pm to be banned.

The rules are quite simple, I've no idea why the BBC would prefer wrong to right yet they keep doing it.

While I'm at it I very much dislike

Big numbers apply to be European astronauts

Big numbers can't apply to be European astronauts, it stands to reason. They're numbers, not people. You could use "Large numbers" which can imply people, but not "Big numbers". Better yet, if you insist on not being explicit about people, use "Many":

Many apply to be European astronauts.

Or how about the totally explicit "Many would-be European astronauts apply".

"If a Victorian-era landowner hadn't been thwarted, Hampstead Heath as we know it might not exist."

How many nested negatives is the reader supposed to unwrap? What's wrong with "Thwarting of a Victorian-era landowner led to survival of Hampstead Heath"?

I offer the following sentence from today's Guardian as this year's most incomprehensible news jibberish.

Spitz’s shredding is all over the big-shorted thrashers’ Persistence of Time LP.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/202 ... er-changes

I have no idea whatever.



And while I'm at it, the same edition has the bizarrely pointless "Since the 1950s, more than 8bn tonnes of plastic have been produced – equivalent in weight to 1 billion elephants – ".

Here's one that showed up today on the American news:
Teen shot in head while heading home from Astros game on life support.

My first thought, "Was the game that bad?"

LarsMac wrote: ↑Fri Jul 09, 2021 7:03 am Here's one that showed up today on the American news:
Teen shot in head while heading home from Astros game on life support.

My first thought, "Was the game that bad?"

This incident stems from a finger in the air followed by a six-mile tailing by the chap who did the shooting, who then randomly shot at the back window.

Anything to do with American driving leaves me bemused. A side panel has a link saying "The average number of Texas wrong-way deaths is up 29% to 77 fatalities per year. Here are some expert tips to avoid being a victim". How does anyone drive the wrong way in a lane?

spot wrote: ↑Fri Jul 09, 2021 7:38 am

LarsMac wrote: ↑Fri Jul 09, 2021 7:03 am Here's one that showed up today on the American news:
Teen shot in head while heading home from Astros game on life support.

My first thought, "Was the game that bad?"

This incident stems from a finger in the air followed by a six-mile tailing by the chap who did the shooting, who then randomly shot at the back window.

Anything to do with American driving leaves me bemused. A side panel has a link saying "The average number of Texas wrong-way deaths is up 29% to 77 fatalities per year. Here are some expert tips to avoid being a victim". How does anyone drive the wrong way in a lane?

Patty was talking about that being a big problem in Arizona. People, for whatever reason get on the wrong side of four-lane divided highways, and end up in someone else's windshield.
We just had one of those in Colorado yesterday.

The BBC news website sub-editors simply can't get their head round this "more than" construct, it keeps recurring:

Location of Biak Space Port
The closest residents live within a radius of more than 2 km from the launch site.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56797133

Yes, BBC, and so do I. The radius in my case is about 13,000 km.

Today's BBC news website has an extremely ugly-hyphen. A detestable hyphen, in which someone " long-feared this footage would be made public".

The person may have long feared it. Long is a modifier to the fact that the event was feared. The hyphen is a disgrace.

I didn't moan the first time but this is the second. I do not like this. It offends against my sensibilities. It is ugly.


Regarding the Hubble Space Telescope,

It's the worst malfunction in years to hit the venerated observatory.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57885865

The ugly aspect is that the writer clearly means venerable in the sense of old: "Worthy of veneration or respect on account of age or antiquity; rendered impressive by the appearance of age."

Venerated, by contrast, has no such usage or implication: "To regard with feelings of respect and reverence; to look upon as something exalted, hallowed, or sacred; to reverence or revere". That's it. Nothing at all about age or antiquity.

spot wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 2:56 am I didn't moan the first time but this is the second. I do not like this. It offends against my sensibilities. It is ugly.


Regarding the Hubble Space Telescope,

It's the worst malfunction in years to hit the venerated observatory.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57885865

The ugly aspect is that the writer clearly means venerable in the sense of old: "Worthy of veneration or respect on account of age or antiquity; rendered impressive by the appearance of age."

Venerated, by contrast, has no such usage or implication: "To regard with feelings of respect and reverence; to look upon as something exalted, hallowed, or sacred; to reverence or revere". That's it. Nothing at all about age or antiquity.

Well, I have long looked upon the Hubble with respect and reverence. The pictures of our local (and not so local) corner of the universe have long been held with fascination, ever since those first images were shared by NASA. It was far more impressive an accomplishment than those guys bopping around on the Moon, as far as I'm concerned.

LarsMac wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 3:36 pm Well, I have long looked upon the Hubble with respect and reverence. The pictures of our local (and not so local) corner of the universe have long been held with fascination, ever since those first images were shared by NASA. It was far more impressive an accomplishment than those guys bopping around on the Moon, as far as I'm concerned.

I do take your point. I would stop short of reverencing, hallowing or exalting a machine though I would certainly respect its designers and the team which constructed it. I do think the change of meaning in venerable as old applies equally to machines and people, but I think it's an exception and carries none of the implication of worship that the other words do.

spot wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 12:14 am

LarsMac wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 3:36 pm Well, I have long looked upon the Hubble with respect and reverence. The pictures of our local (and not so local) corner of the universe have long been held with fascination, ever since those first images were shared by NASA. It was far more impressive an accomplishment than those guys bopping around on the Moon, as far as I'm concerned.

I do take your point. I would stop short of reverencing, hallowing or exalting a machine though I would certainly respect its designers and the team which constructed it. I do think the change of meaning in venerable as old applies equally to machines and people, but I think it's an exception and carries none of the implication of worship that the other words do.

You are probably right. Though I view the entire project, from conceptualization to the latest Code updates as an entity worthy of respect and even reverence. One of the truly great Human accomplishments of Twentieth Century.

Does anyone at the BBC news website actually reed what goes online there?

Ruth Davison, Refuge's chief executive, said: "Bristol Rovers' average attendance pre-Covid was 8,320. If that was compromised entirely of women, at least 2,080 would have experienced domestic abuse at an average game.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-57990366

We'll ignore the compromised compromised, shall we. That's presumably a hung-over typesetter.

It's the last bit. We have a hypothetical crowd where no men are present. Despite the lack of men, "at least 2,080 would have experienced domestic abuse at an average game". Clearly nobody at the average game would have time to watch the players on the field then, the terraces would contain 2,080 women domestically abusing each other and the remainder standing there watching it happen. Are we being directed to think that if only the game had been less average they'd have settled down and enjoyed watching the sport instead?

Or we could adjust the clause to say "at least 2,080 at an average game would have experienced domestic abuse", I suppose. Though the whole impossible women-only crowd projection was laboured to start with. Every word there has problems. The "average" was already stated, for instance, correctly applied to the crowd size but then apparently repeated about the team performances.

This Guardian article just screams bogus arithmetic:

Three Americans create enough carbon emissions to kill one person, study finds

[...] The lifestyles of around three average Americans will create enough planet-heating emissions to kill one person, and the emissions from a single coal-fired power plant is likely to result in more than 900 deaths, according to the first analysis to calculate the mortal cost of carbon emissions.

The new research builds upon what is known as the “social cost of carbon”, a monetary figure placed upon the damage caused by each ton of carbon dioxide emissions, by assigning an expected death toll from the emissions that cause the climate crisis.

The analysis draws upon several public health studies to conclude that for every 4,434 metric tons of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere beyond the 2020 rate of emissions, one person globally will die prematurely from the increased temperature. This additional CO2 is equivalent to the current lifetime emissions of 3.5 Americans.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ocial-cost

So we get

"4,434 metric tons of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere" + "the 2020 rate of emissions" = "one person globally will die prematurely"

and

"This additional CO2" (4,434 metric tons of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere) = "the current lifetime emissions of 3.5 Americans"

Clearly the two parts to the right of the equals sign aren't equal, because the two sides on the left of the equals sign aren't the same as each other.

It's like watching find-the-lady on Oxford Street.

So, every 3 and a half Americans basically kill off one Earthling?
So we are still at a 2.5 to 1 expansion rate
Hmm, well, no, that doesn't quite work, does it?
So, are they saying that Americans put out more CO2 than other Earthlings?

LarsMac wrote: ↑Thu Jul 29, 2021 12:35 pm So, every 3 and a half Americans basically kill off one Earthling?
So we are still at a 2.5 to 1 expansion rate
Hmm, well, no, that doesn't quite work, does it?
So, are they saying that Americans put out more CO2 than other Earthlings?

Either it's air conditioning or it's flatulence. Take your pick.

BBC link text:

'My husband refused a divorce for nine years'

Under orthodox Jewish law, a husband must give his wife a document to allow the marriage to end.

Quite the reverse, in fact. That link text is inexpressibly badly constructed.

The whole point made in the linked article is that giving the document is not mandatory under orthodox Jewish law, the grant must be entirely at the discretion of the husband. Any sign of the husband having been coerced invalidates the document.

Under British law the husband can be jailed for refusal but, under orthodox Jewish law, applying to a British court to apply pressure automatically invalidates whatever document he might issue.

The link text is a fumbled attempt at "Orthodox Jewish law recognizes a marriage until the husband grants the divorce."

I'd be interested to know the status of a same-sex marriage.

The Guardian just employed the infelicitous "mishit forehand". Please could all concerned adopt a hyphen in such circumstances from now on?

"The father of a man found dead at Michael Barrymore's home is "gravely ill", his friend and publicist has said."?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-58552565

Sometimes I wonder how the BBC UK News editor decides on what's newsworthy, and how anyone qualifies as a publicist in today's Human Resources job market. Having the ear of someone on the BBC news desk might help. Ignoring https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t1324 ... ny-bennett might, too. That's not the first time this year the BBC web news site has carried that PR release.

People stopped by a lone plain-clothes officer should challenge their legitimacy, the Met Police has said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-58768109

"Met", for those not local to London, is an abbreviation for "Metropolitan".

I think the BBC needs to appoint an adjudicator for lines like the quote to be honest, it's gone beyond my remit.

The BBC is claiming that the Metropolitan Police is itself telling members of the public to call lone plain-clothes officers bastards to their face?

I foresee writs flying.

And why should we restrict ourselves to just those in plain clothes?

For anyone who notices these things, this may be the most stretched-out split infinitive in recent years...

"I now want to in whatever way I can educate the public about the behaviours within the White House" - Stephanie Grisham

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... 24-revenge

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!!

My great Aunt Margaret, who made a living as a High School English Teacher, must have spun her way clear through China by now.

LarsMac wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 8:10 pm My great Aunt Margaret, who made a living as a High School English Teacher, must have spun her way clear through China by now.

That’s odd. It’s the second time I’ve heard that in the past couple of days - surely it would be Western Australia rather than China?

Bryn Mawr wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 11:50 pm

LarsMac wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 8:10 pm My great Aunt Margaret, who made a living as a High School English Teacher, must have spun her way clear through China by now.

That’s odd. It’s the second time I’ve heard that in the past couple of days - surely it would be Western Australia rather than China?

Well, Aunt Margaret would have been the first to point out that it would have been the south Indian Ocean, rather than China she would have been digging to.
She would point out that to dig to China, assuming that we could, we must start in South America.
(She also taught Geography)
But the analogy falls apart with too mant details.

LarsMac wrote: ↑Sat Oct 09, 2021 2:17 pm

Bryn Mawr wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 11:50 pm

LarsMac wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 8:10 pm My great Aunt Margaret, who made a living as a High School English Teacher, must have spun her way clear through China by now.

That’s odd. It’s the second time I’ve heard that in the past couple of days - surely it would be Western Australia rather than China?

Well, Aunt Margaret would have been the first to point out that it would have been the south Indian Ocean, rather than China she would have been digging to.
She would point out that to dig to China, assuming that we could, we must start in South America.
(She also taught Geography)
But the analogy falls apart with too mant details.

We always say digging for Australia but it’s the far side of New Zealand if you’re being accurate.

"The Biden administration is targeting our sovereign rights. We're medical professionals"

From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58851205 so not a link, just a sentence in a BBC article.

But... you're medical professionals? You're not a nation state?

You don't have sovereign rights then.

You've got a degree but you think you have sovereign rights? Really?

What do they teach people these days.

"My beliefs are religious. I believe that my creator endowed me with an immune system that protects me, and if I get sick, that's an act of God. I would not take a medicine that affects the immune system," said Ms Cushman.

Hmm,... I thought the Medical system taught SOME sciences.

Queen to officially open Welsh Senedd's sixth term

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-58883468

I'm perplexed. On how many occasions has a term of the Welsh Senedd been unofficially opened?

Or, indeed, on how many occasions has a term of the Welsh Senedd been opened by anyone other than the Queen?

Never, in both cases.

The article title, in the unlikely event that anyone considers the occasion to be news, is surely "Welsh Senedd's sixth term
opens". The reason it's not news is that opening of each term of the Welsh Senedd is not optional, it's a legal obligation which happens quinquennially. It's a diary entry foreshadowed by a very public election of which nobody west of Worcester could have been unaware.

Looks like your basic Social Page announcement.

I actually had no idea of such an event. I suppose most Welsh folk would know all those details, but, I suppose there are many Brits who may never have paid much attention to such stuff.
And I learned something new, so it was not a complete waste.
So, not a complete waste.

Again this may be the wrong thread, but it's a paragraph from a Guardian article about the reaction to news that a "Spanish female author" turns out to have been three published male authors writing in collaboration.

Last year, a regional branch of the Women’s Institute recommended one of Mola’s works as part of a selection of books by female authors including Margaret Atwood that could “help us understand the reality and the experiences of women in different periods of history and contribute to raising awareness about rights and freedoms”.

https://www.castillalamancha.es/actuali ... ista-y-con

What I take from that paragraph isn't the alleged duplicity of the three collaborators, it's the spectacularly rubbish claptrap written by the "regional branch of the Women’s Institute". What possible element of detective Elena Blanco, a “peculiar and solitary woman, who loves grappa, karaoke, classic cars and sex in SUVs" is even tangentially related to "the reality and the experiences of women in different periods of history and contribute to raising awareness about rights and freedoms"?

Elena Blanco is an impossible and frankly repellent creation from start to finish, the character says nothing at all about "the reality and the experiences of women in different periods of history and contribute to raising awareness about rights and freedoms". Not that I intend reeding the novels, you understand.

Wooden bird bought for £75 revealed to be Anne Boleyn’s – and is now worth £200,000

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/202 ... rth-200000

Well, no. The carving was worth £200,000 all along. Replace "now" with "consequently".

spot wrote: ↑Sun Nov 07, 2021 6:53 am

Wooden bird bought for £75 revealed to be Anne Boleyn’s – and is now worth £200,000

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/202 ... rth-200000

Well, no. The carving was worth £200,000 all along. Replace "now" with "consequently".

By rights, anything is only 'worth' what someone else is prepared to pay for it.

spot wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 7:19 pm Again this may be the wrong thread, but it's a paragraph from a Guardian article about the reaction to news that a "Spanish female author" turns out to have been three published male authors writing in collaboration.

Last year, a regional branch of the Women’s Institute recommended one of Mola’s works as part of a selection of books by female authors including Margaret Atwood that could “help us understand the reality and the experiences of women in different periods of history and contribute to raising awareness about rights and freedoms”.

https://www.castillalamancha.es/actuali ... ista-y-con

What I take from that paragraph isn't the alleged duplicity of the three collaborators, it's the spectacularly rubbish claptrap written by the "regional branch of the Women’s Institute". What possible element of detective Elena Blanco, a “peculiar and solitary woman, who loves grappa, karaoke, classic cars and sex in SUVs" is even tangentially related to "the reality and the experiences of women in different periods of history and contribute to raising awareness about rights and freedoms"?

Elena Blanco is an impossible and frankly repellent creation from start to finish, the character says nothing at all about "the reality and the experiences of women in different periods of history and contribute to raising awareness about rights and freedoms". Not that I intend reeding the novels, you understand.

We could start a book club

When mentioning Thanksgiving, the introduction "With the holiday fast approaching" is inappropriate. Thanksgiving is quite definitely not a day of fasting.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... ing-dinner

California's fires threaten to ravage mighty sequoia forests

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59842464

No, BBC. There is no such thing as a mighty forest of sequoias in California. The largest grove in California has at most 20,000 sequoias, the next largest considerably fewer. 20,000 trees do not make even a small forest, much less a mighty forest. The suggestion that there's several of these mighty forests is even more extreme. I'm not sure why the BBC link text should want to make the remaining number of sequoias in California appear so high but it's misleeding.

Besides, they have already been ravaged.

Kerala backs gender-neutral uniforms

"Girls race against the boys, hitching up their knee-length shorts, cargo green for girls and teal blue for boys, as they go."

Scarcely gender-neutral then, are they.

You'd get more accurate link text from unpaid volunteers than the bonkers nonsense appearing on the web pages at the moment.

But Jafer Neroth, a leader of the Islamic organisation Sunny Students’ Federation who was leading the protests, said the uniforms were “political tools”.

“The government is helping the implementation of liberal ideologies on students and without consultation with religious leaders. Biologically, men and women are different, and it is the denial of diversity,” he said.

I should hope so too. Religious authority continues to be the most damaging form of insanity on the planet.

Insulation's a difficult topic when you can't proof-reed.

It's on https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk at the moment but it's not a permanent page.

spot wrote: ↑Sun Feb 06, 2022 6:10 am Insulation's a difficult topic when you can't proof-reed.

It's on https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk at the moment but it's not a permanent page.



insulted.png

And rightly so, one of the homes is "absolutely devastated" by the insult

What a terribly written article. I'm sure that was some five year olds homework.

'I don't matter': Queen jokes about her platinum jubilee cake being upside down – video

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/vid ... down-video

It's not upside down, it's just back to front. Who sub-edited that? - "upside down" is plain click-bait.

And while I'm at it, could I note that using the word "driver" to mean "vehicle" is an appalling cultural offence.

As in, for example, "What's your driver?" "I gorra Cleo", unless the chauffeur is so named.

This is just inexcusable exactitude:

Glenn Shuttleworth, Devon and Cornwall Police control room supervisor, tweeted that it had been the "busiest shift I've experienced", with more than 1,000 999 calls.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-60428046

Rather than "more than 1,000 999 calls", all it needs is the word "thousand" in place of 1,000.

spot wrote: ↑Sat Feb 19, 2022 12:24 am This is just inexcusable exactitude:

Glenn Shuttleworth, Devon and Cornwall Police control room supervisor, tweeted that it had been the "busiest shift I've experienced", with more than 1,000 999 calls.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-60428046

Rather than "more than 1,000 999 calls", all it needs is the word "thousand" in place of 1,000.

Maybe he couldn't spell "a thousand"

LarsMac wrote: ↑Sat Feb 19, 2022 9:43 am

spot wrote: ↑Sat Feb 19, 2022 12:24 am This is just inexcusable exactitude:

Glenn Shuttleworth, Devon and Cornwall Police control room supervisor, tweeted that it had been the "busiest shift I've experienced", with more than 1,000 999 calls.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-60428046

Rather than "more than 1,000 999 calls", all it needs is the word "thousand" in place of 1,000.

Maybe he couldn't spell "a thousand"

Well he is the plod after all

Sadiq Khan’s plan would cut number of most polluting cars on London’s roads by further 20,000-40,000 a day

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... sadiq-khan

I'm somewhat puzzled. How many of most polluting cars on London’s roads would be cut per week? Or per month, or per year?

A further 20,000-40,000, presumably.

Perhaps The Guardian should run remedial classes in arithmetic for their reporting staff. They clearly need it.

Or perhaps the word "journeys" was omitted, who can guess. What's written is unintelligible.

I put it here for what it's worth - from the FreeBSD forum...

The battery as new was 45000MWh and now laptop charging circuit will only charge it to 33540MWh

Gosh. The difference just one case change can make.

Quite a battery though.

spot wrote: ↑Thu Mar 17, 2022 10:38 am I put it here for what it's worth - from the FreeBSD forum...

The battery as new was 45000MWh and now laptop charging circuit will only charge it to 33540MWh

Gosh. The difference just one case change can make.

Quite a battery though.

The national grid could do with a few of those

Would anyone like to see...

The Most Egregious Apostrophe Error In The History Of Guardian Headlines!

By a mile. Not just slightly.

Alarm over North Atlantic right whale's survival after recent deaths"

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ion-canada

Why the world should pick on that particular right whale I'm not sure, but The Guardian certainly picked.