terminology and common usage

"NY" wrote in message
o.uk...

(*) Then there's the habit of BBC newsreaders referring to "an increase of
half of one percent" rather than "an increase of nought point five
percent" which (to may ears anyway) sounds less clumsy and more consistent
with "an increase of three point five percent". I've even heard "an
increase of nought point seven of one percent" :-). Come to think of it,
given that all typewriters and computers have had the % symbol for many
years, which do a lot of newspapers write "1.7 pc" rather than "1.7 %"?

I find it faintly irritating when shops say "up to half price" rather than
"down to half price" or "up to half off".

--
Max Demian

Max Demian wrote:

I find it faintly irritating when shops say "up to half price"

Ah well, what they mean is, it might be seven-eights of the full price,
it might be three-quarters of the full price, but there's a chance it
might be up to half the full price.

You don't have to be too logical with these things. Most people don't
have logical minds.

Think how much ******** people will believe. I've just this minute seen
a picture of Michael Brown, the man who was shot in Ferguson, on the BBC
News. The picture they always use shows a chubby lad of about 15. He
looks quite sweet. In fact the person the policeman faced was a 300
pound six foot two body building obsessive hooligan with a criminal
record who had just robbed a shop. And here's the words the BBC always
use: ... failed to charge a white police officer in the fatal shooting
of an unarmed black man. They always say 'white' and 'black' and
'unarmed'. An unarmed bloke of that size and weight is actually capable
of doing you severe damage. Why do they mention 'black' and 'white'
every time? When there's yet another case of Asian gangs raping white
children in the UK the BBC doesn't mention the race of the attackers or
the victims, or if they do it's well down the story.

Bill

On Mon, 1 Dec 2014 23:43:46 -0000, Max Demian wrote:

"NY" wrote in message
o.uk...

(*) Then there's the habit of BBC newsreaders referring to "an increase of
half of one percent" rather than "an increase of nought point five
percent" which (to may ears anyway) sounds less clumsy and more consistent
with "an increase of three point five percent". I've even heard "an
increase of nought point seven of one percent" :-). Come to think of it,
given that all typewriters and computers have had the % symbol for many
years, which do a lot of newspapers write "1.7 pc" rather than "1.7 %"?

Yes, and leaving a gap before "%" (also gaps before e.g. "?" and "!" or even
""")
Then there's using words for values 10 in an article that's all about the
numbers.

I find it faintly irritating when shops say "up to half price" rather than
"down to half price" or "up to half off".

That means, to me, that nothing is above half price. Saw a sale that said
"Up to -40% discount" - that's an increase!

The X7 and X4 busses through Northampton to MK used to have, based on the
two timetables, "Up to every 30 minutes". Now that's an interval, not a
frequency. Of course, they were /down/ to every 30 minutes.


--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

On 01/12/2014 23:37, Max Demian wrote:
"Indy Jess wrote in message
...
On 01/12/2014 13:11, Peter Duncanson wrote:
On Mon, 1 Dec 2014 10:02:07 -0000, wrote:

where did 12 come from as a common base for inches in a foot,

This includes some suggestions for the origin of base-12 counting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dozen

12 was the greatest number that could be counted on one hand.
Using the thumb, indicate each of the finger sections on the same hand in
turn. 3 per finger, four fingers, gave 12.

Using the other hand as well, 12 x 12 was possible, hence gross.
Also 5 x 12 giving 60 (seconds in a minute)

Using the binary system, you can count up to 15 on each hand or 255 on both
hands, with the thumb used to hold your fingers in position.

Tis true, but in the days when handy counting systems came into being,
nobody would have thought of binary. It is not something the average
human can easily imagine.

Just my 110010 pence worth. :-)

Jim

On Mon, 1 Dec 2014 23:37:50 UTC, "Max Demian"
wrote:

snip
Using the binary system, you can count up to 15 on each hand or 255 on both
hands, with the thumb used to hold your fingers in position.


Err 1023 if you can get your fingers to work - up for one folded for
0.

On Mon, 1 Dec 2014 23:29:37 -0000, "Max Demian"
wrote:

Which reminds me, I listened to a recent PC world advert on the radio, and
they said the items being sold were available in pink and blue, laptops as
it happens, and I thought, this sounds like stereotyping to me, I thought
we had got away from pink for girls blue for boys years ago. Brian

Apparently it used to be the other way round:

"Back in the days when ladies had a home journal (in 1918) the Ladies' Home
Journal wrote: 'There has been a great diversity of opinion on the subject,
but the generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl.
The reason is that pink being a more decided and stronger colour is more
suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is
prettier for the girl.'"

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2...5/genderissues

I remember buying a bicycle from a continental manufacturer, Puch, for
my daughter back in the 1970s. This model was available in two
versions for boys and girls with the usual slight variation in
construction, but I was surprised to note that the boys' version was
red and the girls' one was blue. We were told that on the continent
this was the convention.

Rod.

"PeterC" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 1 Dec 2014 23:43:46 -0000, Max Demian wrote:

"NY" wrote in message
o.uk...

(*) Then there's the habit of BBC newsreaders referring to "an increase
of
half of one percent" rather than "an increase of nought point five
percent" which (to may ears anyway) sounds less clumsy and more
consistent
with "an increase of three point five percent". I've even heard "an
increase of nought point seven of one percent" :-). Come to think of it,
given that all typewriters and computers have had the % symbol for many
years, which do a lot of newspapers write "1.7 pc" rather than "1.7 %"?

Yes, and leaving a gap before "%" (also gaps before e.g. "?" and "!" or
even
""")

Then there is the American habit of including punctuation (usually a comma
or a full stop) inside the double quotes, even when it belongs to the
overall sentence rather than the words being quoted:

UK: See the section "Choosing Photo Gallery Options", later in this
chapter.

US: See the section "Choosing Photo Gallery Options," later in this
chapter.

The UK convention is more logical because the section heading doesn't
include the comma so it shouldn't go within the quotes.

Our convention on dates is probably more logical too because it lists the
day, month and year in ascending order or significance (a month is bigger
than a day and a year is bigger than a month).

Interesting how different countries adopt different conventions. Our "u" in
words like "colour" and "humour" doesn't really add anything to the words
and could probably be omitted, and "theater" is probably a more
straightforward spelling, given the pronunciation, than "theatre".

"Roderick Stewart" wrote in message
...
I remember buying a bicycle from a continental manufacturer, Puch, for
my daughter back in the 1970s. This model was available in two
versions for boys and girls with the usual slight variation in
construction, but I was surprised to note that the boys' version was
red and the girls' one was blue. We were told that on the continent
this was the convention.

Yes but there is a world of difference between a good manly pillar-box red
and a girly dayglo pink :-)

"Roderick Stewart" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 1 Dec 2014 23:29:37 -0000, "Max Demian"
wrote:

Which reminds me, I listened to a recent PC world advert on the radio,
and
they said the items being sold were available in pink and blue, laptops
as
it happens, and I thought, this sounds like stereotyping to me, I
thought
we had got away from pink for girls blue for boys years ago. Brian

Apparently it used to be the other way round:

"Back in the days when ladies had a home journal (in 1918) the Ladies'
Home
Journal wrote: 'There has been a great diversity of opinion on the
subject,
but the generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl.
The reason is that pink being a more decided and stronger colour is more
suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is
prettier for the girl.'"

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2...5/genderissues

I remember buying a bicycle from a continental manufacturer, Puch, for
my daughter back in the 1970s. This model was available in two
versions for boys and girls with the usual slight variation in
construction, but I was surprised to note that the boys' version was
red and the girls' one was blue. We were told that on the continent
this was the convention.

Colour coding is always rather arbitrary until it is set in people's minds.
Apparently the red and green traffic signals are based on the port and
starboard lights on boats and aeroplane wingtips, so could easily have been
the other way round. "Well obviously red means go as it's such a fierce
colour..."

Similarly for hot and cold taps. "Green is hot as green chilli peppers are
hotter than red."

--
Max Demian

"NY" wrote in message
...

Our convention on dates is probably more logical too because it lists the
day, month and year in ascending order or significance (a month is bigger
than a day and a year is bigger than a month).

yyyy.mm.dd is better for automatic sorting by character code, and
corresponds to numbers (thousands, hundreds, tens and units). I think only
Sweden and Japan use this format officially.

--
Max Demian