Snowflakes

Some people prefer their language correct, others prefer their science correct. A story in the Guardian reports on German scientist Prof. Thomas Koop, who has had enough of unnatural depictions of snowflakes. As we all know – well, now we do – snowflakes can only be hexagonal. In other words, six sides.

The article states that Koop has had enough of snowflakes with four, five or eight sides being depicted on cards and designs, which he describes as "faux" snowflakes. He wrote to the journal Nature, reminding readers that humans have known about the structure of flakes for more than 400 years.

It shows that bug bears and so-called "pedants" exist not just in language, but also elsewhere. Next time you draw snow flakes – strictly speaking, ice crystals – make sure they only have six sides!

As a side not, the article features the following: 'Poor understanding of how snowflakes form means we are now knee-deep in fake flakes, Koop laments. "The grand diversity of naturally occuring snow crystals is commonly corrupted by incorrect 'designer' versions," his letter adds.'

Now, I don't know if it is the fault of the Guardian, or Nature or the writer, but somebody made the common error of spelling occurring as occuring. I hope it wasn't Koop...

Media Watch: advertisement

In this advertisement for Lloyd's TSB they make the common error of randomly using capital letters (a form of camel humping?). There is no need to write Bank Managers in this text. It only needs to read: Our bank managers are here to help you.

This is where the game of Whack-A-Mole comes to mind. Rather than get a marker pen out and making corrections, what is needed is a good mallet to clear out all of the capital letters.

The number of pointless capitals cropping up in peoples' texts is definitely a growing trend. This is particularly true when people confuse titles with occupations. You might write about Prof. Bloggs and Dr. Bloggs, but they – like bank managers – are still professors and doctors, with no caps. Lloyd's may know money, but not English.

Media Watch: advertisement

This is a typical example of not using hyphens with the word based.

In their attempt to describe the features of their bank account, this bank got it wrong in their signage. What the advertisement should have read was: branch-based with a passbook.

Media Watch: newspaper headline

A lot of people find definite hard to spell, so too the production staff at the Express newspaper.

Media Watch: newspaper headline

I have never been a big fan of freesheet newspapers but I came across this headline in yesterday's Metro. As someone who writes headlines every day and who has worked on daily newspaper myself, I know that sometimes –with nightly deadlines looming – the words just need to fit and that it can be difficult to do. Not to mention how difficult it can be to write great headlines.

This one, however, won't exactly go down as one of the greats, not even for a trashy tabloid (the current title still goes to "Gotcha!"). You could really go to town in debating what it actually means compared with what various meanings it could mean.

Does this mean "all girls, every two years, at regular intervals"?

Bear in mind that the US and UK differ in how they refer to VD: in the US STD is preferred, for sexually transmitted disease; in the UK STI, for sexually transmitted infection is used.

OK, so whether you label it a disease or infection, I have never heard of "sex illness". It kind of makes it sound like something out of Spring Break and Girls Gone WIld, only every two years.

Overhead: gulfo

Overhead: gulfo - proposed pan-Arab currency set to enter first its first phase in 2010, supposedly inspired by the success of the euro and dissatisfaction with the falling strength of the dollar.

First there was the "red back", the new term of affection for the chinese currency, now a new potential world reserve currency is in the making.

New reports are choosing to report it as: "The Arab currency - dubbed "Gulfo." However, like the dollar, euro, pound, yen etc, there is no need to use the capital G.

This is the same mistake that commonly occurs with the writing "Euro" (sic). The "Euro area" is correct because it refers to either the EU or Europe, but the currency should always be "euro" with a small e. So, too, the upcoming gulfo."

Overheard: cAmel hUmp/cAmel hUmping

I came across the term CAMEL HUMP today while listening to a podcast. The person speaking used it to describe the typographical name for using random uppercase letters within words or letter strings, such as the P in iPod,, the D in InDesign and the W in my own example bigWord.

I know a lot of designers like to fuse words together the make new brands, like "thelondonpaper" etc, but also, a lot of names are turning up with capital letters in the middle of them now, like you may have heard of arXiv.org. Instead of making it arxiv they prefer arXiv.

While I always find this kind of thing annoying, I never knew that it had a name. I do now: a letter like this is called a CAMEL HUMP; a lot of web programmers use CAMEL HUMPING in CSS code, such as when they create styles, e.g. SubHead. So there you go! A cAmel hUmp.

Media Watch: newspaper sign

I was walking in town yesterday and saw this sign. The first thing that caught my eye was, of course, the "free loaf of bread", which made me wonder if the recession has really got to the point where the people no longer had bread.

The second thing to catch my eye, and which is why I took the photo, is the missing apostrophe in "tomorrows" (sic). As you have probably guessed by now this should be "tomorrow's".

I know that advertisers are just as guilty as the general public in getting the apostrophes muddled up, but you would think that the people in charge at the Bristol Evening Post would be able to avoid making the same mistake.

Maybe this is what cost cutting and the belief that sub editors (copy editors, for the US readers) are a waste of space in the newsroom. Maybe they have all been sent to bake the loaves of bread.

English: it's a class thing

I read this today and thought it was quite funny:

English: it's a class thing, so pay attention in English class.

Overheard: Glunge and Peak Atmosphere

Two new words I heard this weekend:

Overheard: Peak Atmosphere

Definition – the predicted or estimated pointed where atmospheric-carbon pollution reaches critical mass. If you are familiar with Peak Oil and Peak Credit, then this new term takes on the same principle of denoting a point where atmospheric pollution reaches a) a point of no return and b) a tipping point (using Gladwell's famous term) for environmental and societal knock-on effects.

Overheard: glunge

Definition – Glamourous Grunge. Those of you familiar with the grunge music of the 1990s will know that it came and went after only a few years. Now, in 2009 and 2010, the music is apparently being revived with more attractive packaging and being called glunge. This is what glam rock was to bread-and-butter rock of the days of old and is now coming to a music scene near you. This one, however, may not last.

Overheard: skewflation

Overheard: skewflation - falling asset prices in combination with rising cost-of-living prices. To date only 45 results on google. The earliest reference I can find is from 3 September 2009 at http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/316690/%22The-Worst-of-All-Worlds%22-Don%27t-Believe-the-Recovery-Hype-Ortel-Says?

New logo for 2010

I have just uploaded the new masthead for whichenglish.com. As you will recognise, it depicts a quizzical koala. Part of the idea behind the idea is that Koalas are often mistaken called "koala bears". Koalas, obviously, aren't bears, so should only be called koalas.

It thought it was a nice way to tie in the way sometimes get certain words and usage wrong unknowingly because they have learnt it from somebody else. So I hope you like the new design.

It think it certainly gives the website a more playful feel about it, as well as making it more friendly, inviting and memorable – better than the horrible logo I originally had.

It has been a while since my last post but I have been in process of moving all of my files onto a new computer. This blog is now back, up and running.