Media mistakes

[gomezz]

That one doesn't fly if you accept that the first day of the first millenium of the CE was 1 Jan Year Dot (ie Year Zero).

 

[SemiRamis]

1 Jan Year Dot (ie Year Zero).

There's no such thing.

 

[prpr]

if you accept that the first day of the first millenium

Age of someone has nothing to do with dates. Non sequitur.

 

[Black Hole]

That one doesn't fly if you accept that the first day of the first millenium of the CE was 1 Jan Year Dot (ie Year Zero).

There was no year zero. The years went from 1BC to 1AD (stuff the CE/BCE crap – I'm atheist but "BC" and "AD" do not offend me as much as bending-over-backwards-not-to-offend does!). The new millennium began on 1st Jan 2001, no ifs no buts. The celebrations on 1st Jan 2000 were simply for three zeros on the odometer.

The problem is that it is a difficult concept to sell to the uneducated masses. Even I, when watching the BBC NEWS channel as it counts down to the hour in seconds (heavy drum riff playing in the background), am sort-of surprised when the seconds reaches zero but there's another second to go (yes, I do know why that is).

 

[Black Hole]

Channel 5: The Great Flood of London – "...millions of cubic tons of ice..."

 

[SemiRamis]

The celebrations on 1st Jan 2000 were simply for three zeros on the odometer.

You're quite wrong. The celebrations were for the "new millenium" with idiot-in-chief Blair (not comprehensive educated this one)

BBC NEWS | UK | Millennium celebrations 'a huge success'

 

[Black Hole]

The celebrations were for the "new millenium" with idiot-in-chief Blair (not comprehensive educated this one)

Just because that's what people thought, doesn't invalidate what I said.

 

[EEPhil]

Channel 5: The Great Flood of London – "...millions of cubic tons of ice..."

I can't really work out what a cubic ton is. Except wrong!

Also, I was always under the impression that (in British English) "ton" was 2240lb (or 2000 US pounds) and "tonne" was 1000Kg. I wonder which C5 were referring to. Like most spellings am I out of date? (eg. I still prefer gramme not gram) Does ton now mean 1000Kg?

 

[Black Hole]

I was always under the impression that (in British English) "ton" was 2240lb (or 2000 US pounds) and "tonne" was 1000Kg.

Indeed, but as the phrase in question was spoken rather than written, it was hard to decide which to write and I chose Imperial. Note that 1 tonne is very close to 1 ton (Imperial, not US).

One tiny saving grace is that one cubic metre of water weighs a tonne.

 

[gomezz]

Depending on salinity.

 

[prpr]

Water is not saline.

 

[gomezz]

Tell that to the experts

https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-08/documents/mgwc-ww-intro.pdf

 

[Black Hole]

Depending on salinity.

If you want to be that pedantic, you forgot to mention temperature. But if we're being that pedantic in this thread (ie Media Mistakes), we'll be here until the cows come home.

 

[gomezz]

Their home or our home (in the form of burgers)?

 

[SemiRamis]

Just because that's what people thought, doesn't invalidate what I said.

Yeah right

 

[Black Hole]

Even Hannah Fry can't get it right: "seven knots per hour"

 

[prpr]

Even Hannah Fry can't get it right: "seven knots per hour"

 

[EEPhil]

Even Hannah Fry can't get it right: "seven knots per hour"

Some context required. Was the Prof. referring to an acceleration? Probably not, but without the context how can we be sure?

 

[Black Hole]

Speed of a tidal drift. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022z38

 

[gomezz]

I listened to that just yesterday and missed that blooper. I think I was diappointed we already knew the outcome was a good one as the man involved was telling us the story from his viewpoint. But would have like Hannah to compare the methods used to narrow the search area to the case of the missing Malay airliner.