facepalm

  • Bristol Post: England invests £168 in roads

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media, Oddities, Politics

    Road works traffic signAccording to yesterday’s online edition of the Bristol Post, the Department of Transport is to invest the princely sum of £168 – the largest amount it has spent on tarmac for four decades – in England’s road network.

    Of this total, the amount earmarked for local authorities in the Bristol area swells magically to more than £2 mn., according to a this piece by an unidentified Post hack.

    The second paragraph of the report reads as follows:

    The handout from a £168 funding pot which will see more than £3 million potholes filled is part of what is being billed as “the biggest investment in roads since the 1970s”.

    For those who prefer their information unmangled by the illiterates of the local media, the original Department of Transport press release is available here.

  • Photo captions: out of focus

    Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Oddities

    There’s a certain art to captions for photographs used to illustrate news pieces; photographs provide additional interest to what could otherwise be a dull bit of prose.

    Today the Bristol Post features one story which seems to provide an element of unintentional comedy, as shown by the following pictures and their captions used in a slideshow in the piece in question.

    image of police car with wrong caption
    Foxtrot Oscar?
    image of dancers with police car caption
    Thank you for a lovely evening on the beat…

    The International Journalists Network has published guidance on writing photo captions. Its first paragraph states:

    Photo captions are often the first elements of a publication to be read. Writing photo captions is an essential part of the news photographer’s job. A photo caption should provide the reader basic information needed to understand a photograph and its relevance to the news. It should be written in a consistent, concise format that allows news organizations to move the photo to publication without delay.

    I’ll note quote the rest of the photo captions advice, but would recommend it be read – and acted upon – by the residents of Bristol’s Temple Way Ministry of Truth. 🙂

  • An inappropriate juxtaposition

    Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Oddities

    The screenshot below comes from the Bristol Post website early this morning and shows 2 news items in succession about Nick Gargan, the Chief Constable of Avon & Police.

    image of 2 news items on Nick Gargan

    Is being suspended for ‘inappropriate behaviour’ part of a typical light-hearted day for Avon & Somerset’s finest?

    Answers in the comments below, Bristol Post hacks and sub-editors. 🙂

  • The rustication of Clifton

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media

    Earlier today, the news section of the Bristol Post transported the city’s affluent district of Clifton to the countryside, describing it as ‘rural’, as shown in the following screenshot.

    screenshot of Post website showing dodgy wording

    According to the Oxford English Dictionary rural has many meanings; the one implied by the Post’s usage is the OED’s definition 1c:

    Employed or stationed in country districts.

    Are the people of Clifton yokels?

    Bristol absorbed Clifton in the 19th century, so any green wellies seen will be very clean and not covered in cow’s muck; they’ll be worn for fashion not for necessity. Although Clifton’s renowned Downs are still common land, the locals don’t seem to graze much livestock upon them. Nevertheless, some activities which may be regarded as animal take place up there.

    The word rural has since been removed from the headline.

    I always believed press articles supposed to be sub-edited before being posted. Apparently this does not seem to be the usual practice down at the Temple Way Ministry of Truth.

  • Liberal Democrats cannot spell Sussex

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

    image of Norman Baker MP
    Illiterate – Norman Baker MP
    It seems hardly a week goes by without the Liberal Democrats having difficulties with their literature (posts passim).

    Brighton’s regional newspaper, The Argus, reported yesterday that Lewes MP Norman Baker has been spelling the name of the county wrong on the front page of a booklet sent out to his constituents.

    Apparently, Sussex was misspelt as Susex on the front of copies of the Let’s Talk booklet delivered to homes across his constituency.

    image of Catherine Bearder MEP
    Illiterate – Catherine Bearder MEP
    According to the report in The Argus, the leaflet states that Norman Baker and Lib Dem MEP Catherine Bearder are…. “Delivering for East Susex“.

    There was then an attempted cover-up with stickers being used to mask the error, but – as so often happens – some leaflets escaped this procedure and were delivered.

    Let’s Talk is another one of those template Liberal Democrat leaflets where local supporters supply the relevant text and locality name (posts passim).

    Here’s a little bit of advice for the Liberal Democrats: you’re probably using a word processor to produce copy for your leaflets. The word processor has a very useful little feature called a spellchecker. 🙂

  • The importance of the space bar and proofreading

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities, Social Media

    The Wig and Pen public house in Truro, Cornwall had some unexpected publicity earlier this week when a badly temporary temporary sign was snapped by an amused regular before being hurriedly removed by embarrassed staff, according to yesterday’s Western Daily Press.

    By the time the sign came down, its fame had spread round the world by social media; and it’s easy to see why.

    sign saying The Wig & Penis Is Open For Business

    However, according to the Western Daily Press article, the sign itself was not the only linguistic clanger involved in the episode:

    But a remember [sic] of staff named Georgie-Tim later took to Twitter to say: “Well, it got you’re attention!

  • Bristol Post Balls – the invisible Widdecombe

    Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Oddities, Politics

    The Bristol Post has for years given favourable coverage to a North Somerset ‘zoo’ which has an interesting sideline in promoting creationism.

    Today’s edition continues this trend.

    Noah’s Ark ‘Zoo’ Farm has just taken delivery of a new African elephant and former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe was allegedly there to welcome its arrival, according to the photo caption in the report.

    Bristol Post screenshot

    I’d like to congratulate Ann on her choice of camouflage outfit!

    If you can see Ann in the picture, please let me know via the comments below.

  • Can’t figure out Linux? Become a Romanian schoolteacher!

    Steve WoodsLinux, Tech

    Last year, Romanian supermarket chain Profi donated laptops running Edubuntu Linux to schools in that country. Quoting Romanian TV station Pro TV, Joinup, the EU’s public sector open source news website, now reports today that some of those schools are letting their donated laptops gather dust because the teachers don’t know how to use Linux. In at least one school the laptops are still in their boxes, whilst other schools have replaced Edubuntu and its bundled software with Windows and proprietary alternatives.

    About half of the 1,800 laptops donated to schools are still not being unused, according to Pro TV.

    Edubuntu log-in screen
    Edubuntu log-in screen

    Writing on its website, Pro TV states that only a few teachers know how to use Linux. When asked about the laptops gathering dust, one headteacher is reported to have said: “It is impossible for teachers to teach using two different programs.” Pro TV also quotes one IT specialist who stated that it would take just a few weeks to learn how to use the laptops. “It is easy and the great advantage is that it is free.”

    Romanian free and open source advocates are concerned upset about teachers’ poor IT skills. “I’ve been contacting the Linux groups across the country to get them to help the schools get started”, says Răzvan Sandu. “But it is possible that schools will hesitate to accept help from outsiders.”

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