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"...20700 hectares of new woodland was created..."
I figure this to be more as a contraction of an area of X hectares was created, but generally agree. The one that bugs me is "may you please". which I'm seeing more and more frequently used as a way to phrase a polite demand.
@wordnumb - yes, in theory, that might be the case for that one, but it's not what the written words actually said. However, I've just found some of my other recent examples:
- "Five van-loads of speakers & equipment was seized from the site" - BBC news article reporting on a rave at a disused quarry in Somerset.
- "A series of focus groups have been arranged to hear..." - different BBC article.
- "...the promise of good coffee and fine pastries kick off proceedings..." Bikepacking.com article about a route.
- "The use of Artificial Intelligence in these scams are making it even harder to detect" - message from my bank about phishing scams and the like.
As I say, all over the place now. You'd expect better from Auntie Beeb at the very least, so-called professional journalists without a basic command of the language. Grrrr.
"when she politely rolls off the end of my tongue"
I think I am imagining something very different to you with this sentence.
She gets the use of the green bin and a happy ever after - that will teach her.
Amazon just sent me an advert offering to sell me an ebook I already bought from amazon, based on my browsing habits which I'm 100% sure was me typing the exact name of this ebook into amazon and then immediately buying it. Oh and it's "discounted" to the exact price I paid for it 2 weeks ago.
The "you bought a toaster so now we will send you a thousand adverts for toasters because clearly you are a toaster guy" thing was annoying enough but somehow they've refined it.
Against my better judgment, at OHs request, adding a streaming service to our Sky package. It’s ok she says she’ll cancel after binge watching something.
No actually I’ll have to ring them up won’t I because she won’t and it’s a load easier to add a service than remove it.
Has anyone else noticed other drivers when approaching slip roads off motorways slowing down extraordinarily early and to a way lower speed than necessary recently?
This morning, trundling along in lane 1 with the cruise control set to 60, (I'm only going to work, so why rush) and a big van in front of me goes down to about 45mph a good half mile before the slip-road starts. I assumed there was traffic ahead of him I couldn't see, so pulled into late 2 when there was a gap and no - nothing there, totally clear. And it's a massive lazy curve off, not one that ends in an abrupt T junction. This is not an isolated incident over the last few months, noticed it loads.
I may have to start hammering down lane 3 at 90 with the Sprinters and Land Rover Defenders. 😊
Not really noticed that one, but have noticed when it's one of those junctions where eg lane 1 goes somewhere and lanes 2/3 go somewhere else, drivers will sit in lane 2 at least a mile before it's actually signposted.
Completely pointless. It's just middle lane hogging at that point. Just because Mr Lorry Driver is familiar with the road and knows he has to be in lane 2 later, doesn't mean he needs to trundle along lane 2 at 59mph for several miles before the actual split 😡
It's not a recent thing either.
Has anyone else noticed other drivers when approaching slip roads off motorways slowing down extraordinarily early and to a way lower speed than necessary recently?
Corollary: 40mph is not usually a desirable speed to be joining a free-flowing motorway. Particularly common on leaving service stations.
Many times I've slowed to a crawl or simply stopped at the Services exit in order to create space between me and granny up ahead (who will usually dive straight into the second lane without looking and stay there for the next 100 miles anyway), then I can accelerate up to a speed matching the existing traffic and merge sensibly rather than have a 30-40mph speed differential.
Having a Spitfire fly over the village 4 times with 2km to go on the Tour stage....
Has anyone else noticed other drivers when approaching slip roads off motorways slowing down
Yes! I've been complaining about it for a while to Mrs.10. The drivers who start to slow down significantly before leaving the highway.
I don't have a great answer for why, maybe they are concerned about being able to slow down adequately on the off ramp? What it does is create ripples around junctions causing the right lane to speed up and slow down.
What interests me is how we complain about similar driving habits between the US and UK. I don't remember anything in drivers ed taking about slowing down on the highway before the off ramp, and one of the reasons people use for raising speed limits is the improvements in modern brakes compared to when the roads/limits were made. I certainly don't have an issue reducing speed on the off ramps. I'm not usually 'making progress' though, 😉.
Corollary: 40mph is not usually a desirable speed to be joining a free-flowing motorway. Particularly common on leaving service stations.
I absolutely agree with that one too!
What interests me is how we complain about similar driving habits between the US and UK. I don't remember anything in drivers ed taking about slowing down on the highway before the off ramp
My experience of driving any distance in the US is that quite often on the major highways the rightmost (ie, first) lane is the off-ramp. You typically don't pull off the 'motorway' onto a slip road as you would here, rather you're taken off it unless you move out into second lane. On-ramps are the same, there's no merging to be had because a new first lane just appears next to you.
Depends on the off ramp. Some would require hard braking at 70 mph. I would normally be in the left lane nice and early, indicator on at the 300m to go board and then lift off the throttle so probably doing 55 ish as I hit the slip road.
People who email screenshots of information instead of the actual information, bunch of ****ing morons.
People who email screenshots of information instead of the actual information,
... attached as a screenshot of their laptop screen taken with their phone camera.
My experience of driving any distance in the US is that quite often on the major highways the rightmost (ie, first) lane is the off-ramp.
Depends on the highway and state. Highways in CO have regular off ramps, right lane and second to right lanes going off and left lane turn offs. I think the aim is to be as confusing as possible for out of state folks. Nothing as good as the Magic Roundabout levels of shittery though.
Other than that ****ing annoying ad just now I'm not in the shop still in the loo having a crap
These pre fab holiday houses where they expect you to drive on the verge as the lorry wings it past you at 40mph
Why not make them 3' less wide
Subtitles in movies from the UK/America. No it doesn't make it feel more authentic or immersive. It just means my eyes are glued to the bottom of the screen so miss what's going on and have to keep rewinding to read the bits I've missed while I was watching the movie. really spoils a lot of good shows.
When quoting prices it's "pounds", not "pounds". Unless it's one pound. Then it's okay.
There's a glut of adverts on the radio with stupid people giving the prices like this ("nine pound") and they just sound thick. Same as "them" instead of "those", or "what" instead of "that".
It's almost - but nor quite - as irritating as reading the prices out as single digits. Looking at you, Currys.
"it's "pounds", not "pounds""
People who can't type right until you think at it and figure out what was meant. I'm kidding. But maybe Burroughs was right [word virus stuff].
Films where someone thought it was a good idea to give Ed Sheeran a part.
Fake or Fortune.
Partly disproportionately cross because I only found it recently and now I've become disproportionately invested in watching it. I love the way that the chase down of provenance and science together to make a picture (badoom tish!) of the artwork then can be rejected in gallic shrug, Python style..."I don't sink so, 'ee already 'as wurn"
But then also disproportionately cross about the chase across the UK to various stately homes, galleries, looking at other works by the same (or is it?) artist..... only for the scientist to stick it on an XRF scanner, and a few seconds later pronounce that the pigments in the picture weren't developed until 30 years after the artist died and so it can't be genuine.
Don't get me wrong, I know it's entertainment first and foremost but there's this slow build up of excitement followed by the collapse of the case over an obvious discrepancy that could have been uncovered for comparative buttons compared to the price of the show and 2 minutes after someone has discovered this unknown Renoir that makes me feel it's - well, a bit fake?
When someone says "Go on, have some fun and be yourself" and they mean get drunk and dance around, or be loud and shout. No, not everyone's idea of fun is the same.
People who sit in the car, engine running, while their other half is in the shop for 30 mins, presumably because the AC is on. It must play merry hell with their average consumption. Just open the chuffing windows instead, and stop filling my car with your fumes, dickhead
I suspect this one is more to do with the fact that all the "safety" shite in modern cars resets itself to default ON every time you turn the car off and start it again.
So the driver has gone through 5 minutes of turning of all the lane departure warning, speed limit warning, auto brake, driver fatigue warning crap and they don't want to repeat that once they've driven 3 minutes down the road to sit outside the school waiting for little Penelope to finish for the day.
So I suppose what makes me disproportionately cross is:
people driving 3 minutes down the road on the school run
car manufacturers loading up their vehicles with all this "safety" stuff
the whole concept of "the school run"
Being stopped and fined €150 for not having a Slovenian Vignette. I suspect if we’d come into the country via the motorway, we’d have seen the signs, and bought one online (we have two back to back for Austria), but as it was generally buggered, we weedled our way from Villach to Ljubljana via a series of back roads. Literally 30 seconds after setting foot on the motorway on the outskirts of Ljubljana we got pulled. Riled me hugely, especially given the confrontational approach adopted by the local plod.
All these folk on YouTube who think they are amazing showing basic trade work they've learned but still use the term level up when they are talking about something being perfectly vertical ie plumb
Level means level across a horizontal surface
Maybe not many go to college or night school to gain City and Guilds and learn a bit more about their trade
My spirit level has a transverse bubble for checking vertical planes, I thought most did. What would you call that? "Perpendicularing up" doesn't exactly trip off the tongue. Square up?
(Also, surely "levelling up" implies a vertical surface; there is no "up" on a horizontal plane, you're simply levelling it...)
When I just want to look at a photo in the Google Photos app and it wants me to turn on auto backup so badly that I have to turn the switch off and then confirm it twice to get it to go away. I use Dropbox to sync photos, and no amount of making it more annoying to keep your app not doing it as well is going to make me want to use it. Quite the opposite.
Think of a plumb bob that was how it was done until a spirit level was commonly used
Plumb and level one is horizontal as in sea level/water level and plumb is vertical
Fair.
(I have a plumb bob. Far more useful than a ghostbuster for tasks such has hanging wallpaper.)
(Also, surely "levelling up" implies a vertical surface; there is no "up" on a horizontal plane, you're simply levelling it...)
One side is low. You bring it up to level it.
Levelling up innit.
Washing up though...
Those curly trees you get in pots mainly outside new builds.
Dicks.
Those curly trees you get in pots mainly outside new builds.
Dicks.
If your dick looks like that, you'd best get it checked out.
When I just want to look at a photo in the Google Photos app and it wants me to turn on auto backup so badly that I have to turn the switch off and then confirm it twice to get it to go away. I use Dropbox to sync photos, and no amount of making it more annoying to keep your app not doing it as well is going to make me want to use it. Quite the opposite.
google gallery?
like a flywieght photos, without all the backup baggage
People who sit in the car, engine running, while their other half is in the shop for 30 mins, presumably because the AC is on. It must play merry hell with their average consumption. Just open the chuffing windows instead, and stop filling my car with your fumes, dickhead
I suspect this one is more to do with the fact that all the "safety" shite in modern cars resets itself to default ON every time you turn the car off and start it again.
Nah, dicks have been leaving their diesel chugging away outside the school gate since diesels were a thing.
People, especially event organisers who build a jump on pristine singletrack over a freshly fallen tree instead of cutting the tree out thereby changing the character of the trail and making it unrideable for some.
^ also annoyed about levelling up.
Think of a plumb bob that was how it was done until a spirit level was commonly used
Plumb and level one is horizontal as in sea level/water level and plumb is vertical
"Plumb" is just an abbreviation of plumbum, the Latin for lead, aka Pb in the periodic table
Sea level is a height to take a measurement from and varies dependent on where you are and the water level is higher on the west coast of the US than it is on the east coast. It's correct to level up from east to west 🤣
With a degree of aplomb, I'm going to suggest vertical. Abbreviated to either "verting" or "perping", which forms satisfying schoolboy fart jokes ⊥
It's annoying that horizontal doesn't have a suitable abbreviation
My own failure to buy new headphones over the weekend after mine gave up the ghost at the end of last week. I'm having to listen to office drivel when I could be in my own musical world.
The datum in UK for sea level is taken from Nookie down in Cornwall and all the ordnance bench marks on prominent buildings, bridges etc and I'm guessing all the heights on OS maps are taken from there. Plumb is perpendicular or 90° off the level
Nookie down in Cornwall...
Another satisfying schoolboy joke 🙂