Assume v. Presume

Now they have "San Bernadino" and "San Bernardino" in different parts of the same screen.
I doubt caption generators have spell checkers, seeing as most of the output is going to be names...

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Presumably, because prpr has brought your attention to it, you decided that there had to be only two.:frantic:
 
Aaarrggghhhh!!!!!

Sound-bite on PM tonight about the Hatton Garden raid, regarding the remaining wanted man who "may of disabled the alarm system".
 
Black Hole said:
Nah, I'm happy to use "either" to prefix a list, because I don't know of an alternative.
Click to expand...
The alternative and correct way to do it is just to remove the word either.
Thus you get "A or B or C" instead of the inelegant (and just plain wrong) "either A or B or C".
 
In C-ish: { Either A Or { Either B Or C } }

Without anything, there is nothing to signal the list or what must be done with it. The use of "either" to introduce the list tells the reader to select one from the following, and is useful (if traditionally incorrect). I see no reason to restrict the scope of "either" to introducing a list of exactly two.
 
Electronic Weekly 4/11/2015 page 8 said:
The area of a 16:9 format screen roughly quadruples when the diagonal doubles.
Click to expand...
Clearly some strange meaning of the word "roughly" I wasn't previously aware of.
 
It quadruples if you double the length of the sides, but does the diagonal have the same relationship? (I'd incline to yes, but my maths/geometry is so rusty I'm not certain.)
 
Take a piece of A4 paper and fold it in half. Then fold it in half again. Unfold it and look at the diagonals of the whole sheet compared to the diagonals of the four quarters.

Or as Pythagoras would have it

(2*a)^2 + (2*b)^2 = (2*c)^2

Where a and b are the lengths of the sides and c is the length of the diagonal (hypotenuse).
 
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"Cats v Dogs: Which is Best?"
Surely, "Which is Better" or "Which are Best"?
Already the presenters have used "most" and "more" seemingly interchangeably, and wrongly. Had to turn it off in disgust.
 
Better is comparative and Best is superlative.
When there are only two items, then it is correct to use the comparative, i.e. Better of the two
When there is more than two, you should use the superlative best. i.e. Best of three (or more).
So it should be "Cats v Dogs: Which is the better?" Because there are only two items to compare, even though those individual items are themselves plural.
Well, that's my take on it.
 
Cats v Dogs: Which are Better

OR

Cat v Dog: Which is Better

OR

There is an implied comparison with all other pet animals which changes the game.
 
There is no implication at all. It's difficult to imply anything other than a or b with the statement a v b: Which is better?
So how would you say it for fish v sheep, when the word for the plural is the same as the singular.
Fish v Sheep: Which is better?
 
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