rogerclee Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 people who like everything except country Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mycroft Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 people who like everything except countryNah, I don't (usually) like opera either. Cue the Blues Brothers reference... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onoway Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 people who put advanced or even expert on their BBO profile when they barely know the names of the suits and think they have done something remarkable when they can claim they play Stayman and know what a finesse is. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxx Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 Webpages that have Flash ads with sound. Good Lord. Almost as NSFW as pron, IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vampyr Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 I don't mind which way people do it, but I care if they choose the method based on whether they want the change to appear small or large. Yes, like X increases chance of cancer by 300%, when the risk was originally one in 5 million. Sounds different to "2 more cases of cancer per 5 million people". I also really hate the way statistics are manipulated, especially since most people will believe what the statistics framers intended them to believe. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vampyr Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 Webpages that have Flash ads with sound. Good Lord. Almost as NSFW as pron, IMHO. So you are drawing a salary for surfing the web? Nice work if you can get it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BunnyGo Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 Yes, like X increases chance of cancer by 300%, when the risk was originally one in 5 million. Sounds different to "3 more cases of cancer per 5 million people". I also really hate the way statistics are manipulated, especially since most people will believe what the statistics framers intended them to believe. FYP 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickyB Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 I don't mind which way people do it, but I care if they choose the method based on whether they want the change to appear small or large. I was amused by an article in the Daily Mail. Tax on second homes was reported to be increasing from 50% to 90% of the standard rate. The headline described this as a 40% increase. I wondered at the time whether the paper had deliberately got it wrong to avoid confusing their readers, at the cost of making their story sound less impressive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winstonm Posted January 21, 2012 Report Share Posted January 21, 2012 The Discovery Institute Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dicklont Posted January 21, 2012 Report Share Posted January 21, 2012 Dutch people who switch to English immediately (and permanently) as soon as I mess up one plural of one noun.Sorry Gwnn, we zullen het niet meer doen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dicklont Posted January 21, 2012 Report Share Posted January 21, 2012 Dutch people who think that they know how to speak English but use terms like "World convention" when they mean "Leaping Michaels" (or "undertaker" when they mean "entrepreneur", i.e. someone who undertakes some activity) leaving those who actually do speak English completely confused. Rik One of the best known examples of Dunglish took place between the Dutch foreign minister Joseph Luns (a man whose main foreign language was French, the language of diplomacy prior to World War II) and John F. Kennedy. At one point Kennedy inquired what hobby Luns had, to which he replied "I fok horses". The Dutch verb fokken meaning to breed. Kennedy then replied "Pardon?" a word which Luns then mistook as the Dutch word for "horses" ("paarden") and enthusiastically responded "Yes, paarden!"[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunglish 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwnn Posted January 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 people who complain about computer dealt hands 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickyB Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 people who complain about computer dealt hands On the way back from a match in which we had lost to a much weaker team, one of our players blamed the captain for allowing pre-dealt boards to be used, which had led to wilder distributions and thus greater variance. Not only should we have dealt by hand, we should have been careful to avoid shuffling too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulg Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 people who complain about computer dealt handsOn the way back from a match in which we had lost to a much weaker team, one of our players blamed the captain for allowing pre-dealt boards to be used, which had led to wilder distributions and thus greater variance. Not only should we have dealt by hand, we should have been careful to avoid shuffling too much.Was he from the West of Scotland? Fear of computer-dealt boards is endemic there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finch Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 Phrases such as "the average businesswoman spends £400 per year on.." or "the average household has 3 televisions" . They mean "the average number of televisions per household is...." but what they say is something completely different, and often meaningless. And I hate pre-things. What does 'pre-reserved' or 'pre-warned' mean that 'reserved' or 'warned' doesn't? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 Phrases such as "the average businesswoman spends £400 per year on.." or "the average household has 3 televisions" . They mean "the average number of televisions per household is...." but what they say is something completely different, and often meaningless.It's precisely because the literal wording is meaningless that it DOES mean what they intend. It can't mean what was said, so it's easy to interpret it. And after enough uses, the that's what the phrase means. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 The following: 1) I only need about three hours of sleep every night; 2) I had seven hundred emails today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 And I hate pre-things. What does 'pre-reserved' or 'pre-warned' mean that 'reserved' or 'warned' doesn't? You and George Carlin :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trinidad Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 And I hate pre-things. What does 'pre-reserved' or 'pre-warned' mean that 'reserved' or 'warned' doesn't?Well, this thread is all about pre-venting. ;) When I was doing my PhD work, you had to start by coming up with a research proposal that you needed to defend for your exam committee. For some reason that I never understood this was called a "pre-proposal". I still find this one of the ugliest words I know. Rik 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y66 Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 re: pre-reserved: In Learning Python (2006), M Lutz wrote "In Python 2.6, the words with and as are scheduled to become new reserved words. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordontd Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 I heard a new annoying phrase recently. When our plane landed we were told that we wouldn't immediately be able to "deplane the aircraft". And I'm irritated by those who "give 110 percent" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BunnyGo Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 I heard a new annoying phrase recently. When our plane landed we were told that we wouldn't immediately be able to "deplane the aircraft". And I'm irritated by those who "give 110 percent" While in general I agree with both, they've been using the former for years now (gah!) and the latter is technically possible. For example, you can give 110% of what you can do safely. Thus (likely) injuring yourself, but getting the job done. This happens a lot in engineering with safety limits etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 People who complain about figures of speech because their literal meanings don't make sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwnn Posted January 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 Complaining is not the same as posting in a pet peeve thread methinks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vampyr Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 1) I only need about three hours of sleep every night; This is a peeve? You are so lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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