Good, Bad, and Ugly

Not the right word…

5.6 magnitude Oklahoma quake causes some damage

In Prague, Oklahoma, where the earlier quake was centered, City Manager Jim Greff said the latest tremblor caused a chimney to topple over and crash through the roof of a home.

The correct word is “temblor,” NOT “tremblor.” “Tremblor” SEEMS as if it would be appropriate, because the ground does tremble. Nevertheless, “tremblor” is wrong and “temblor” is right.

Charles R.

You are correct, “temblor” was the word we wanted.

Tremblor seems to be creeping into the language, and I even find it in an online thesaurus as a synonym for temblor, but I also find this advice on a language site:

Earthquake experts call each vibration produced by an earthquake a “temblor,” derived from the Spanish word for “tremble.” It’s not surprising that many people turn this word into “tremblor,” but journalists and others who may have experts among their readers would be wise to stick with “temblor.” GBU Editor

Galileo and the Bible

God was behind Big Bang, universe no accident: Pope

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – God’s mind was behind complex scientific theories such as the Big Bang, and Christians should reject the idea that the universe came into being by accident, Pope Benedict said on Thursday.

Benedict and his predecessor John Paul have been trying to shed the Church’s image of being anti-science, a label that stuck when it condemned Galileo for teaching that the earth revolves around the sun, challenging the words of the Bible.

I would like to know where in the Bible it says that the earth does not revolve around the sun. I would love for you to show me because it’s not there.

You are leading many people to believe the Bible says something that it does not. There needs to be a retraction if there is no supporting evidence. For example, if a common belief of the times was that the world was flat does NOT mean that’s what the Bible says.

The Bible does not say that the sun revolves around the earth, and it is a lie to say otherwise.

Holly

Quit while you’re a head…

Embalmed head of France’s King Henri IV found

Charlier said three “cutting wounds” were also visible, corresponding to the separation of the head from the body by a revolutionary in 1793.

Radiocarbon dating also gave a date of between 1450 and 1650, “nicely bracketing the year of his death,” the report said.

Could you please confirm the contents of this story?

There seems to be slight problem. The story says his head was cut from his body in 1793, and the carbon dating puts his death between 1450 and 1650.

My calculation is about 150 years from when his head was removed in 1793 and his death 150 years earlier.

L.A.

A bad one…

Many obese people see no need to lose weight

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A substantial proportion of obese people don’t think they’re too fat, new research shows.

Among more than 2,000 obese Dallas County residents surveyed in 2000-2002, 14 percent of African Americans and 11 percent of Hispanics — but just 2 percent of whites — believed that they needed to lose weight, Dr. Tiffany M. Powell of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and her colleagues found.

Who do I contact about an massive error in this story?  Your article reported the exact opposite of actual research finding

The second sentence should read, “Among more than 2000 obese Dallas County residents . . . just 2 percent of whites — did NOT believe they needed to lose weight.” Please advise.

Deb

Yikes. This was a bad one. We corrected: GBU Editor

Legume it may concern…

Special report: BRIC breaking: Brazil’s China syndrome

What accounts for their vastly different fortunes? China. Its demand for commodities like soy is nearly insatiable. In recent years, China has steadily ramped up its imports of the grain.

Not a question, a correction. I think  you’ll find that soy is not a grain, but a legume.

Harry J.

Soybeans are a legume, not a grain.

However, in common understanding and usage in economics, soybeans are generically understood and accepted as a basic commodity of world grain trade. CBOT, the world’s largest grain exchange, has listed a soybean contract for 100 years.

In future, the proper term to use as a reference would be “oilseed.”  GBU Editor

It isn’t hydrogen…

Argentina sells DNA as world demands more beef

Once the semen has passed quality checks, it is diluted to make up to 300 doses that are kept in liquid hydrogen and sold for around $10 each. Garcia said the price can be much higher if the animal has a good breeding record.

“300 doses that are kept in liquid hydrogen.” WRONG!

Biological samples are kept in cryogenic storage in liquid nitrogen, not liquid hydrogen.

D.Z.

You’re right. We corrected: GBU Editor

Rational Explanations?

British X-Files describe secret UFO encounters

Some cases subsequently received rational explanations, such as meteors burning up in the atmosphere, but many are unsolved.

Kudos to the Ministry of Defense of Great Britain for continuing to release once-classified documents regarding UFO sightings in the U.K., even if many of them are listed as “unsolved.”

But I must take issue with the Yahoo! news article – carried from Reuters – for its poor use of subtle misleading labels.

Why is the word “rational” used to describe mundane explanations? It implies that any other explanation — i.e., the possible existence of other intelligent life ‘out there’ — is IRrational.

I am not saying that “unsolved” sightings are assuredly extraterrestrial; all I am saying is that the idea is far from “irrational.” It is this kind of thinking and wording that held all of Europe in the dark ages for centuries.

Matt

Seven million million…

Scientists inch towards finding “God particle”

The LHC, a 27-km (17-mile) looped tunnel which creates mini-Big Bangs by smashing together particles, is currently colliding particles at around half its maximum energy level — 7 million electron volts, or 7 TeV.

In the article “Scientists inch towards finding ‘God particle’” it says 7 TeV is 7 million electron volts which is incorrect. 7 TeV is 7 tera-electron volts which is 7 trillion, not million.

M.T.

A number of readers noticed that. Our original story said “7 million million electron volts,” which is how scientists phrased it, but in the online version, one of those millions was removed by a spell-check program that thought it was redundant. We corrected: GBU Editor

Scientists look at pictures of the first successful collisions at full power at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experience control room of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin, near Geneva March 30, 2010. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

Ancient ship?

Ancient ship unearthed at World Trade Center site

Parts of lower Manhattan, including the twin towers which fell on September 11, 2001 when two hijacked aircraft crashed into them, were built over the Hudson River, archeologist Michael Pappalardo told reporters gathered at the site.

The ship, Pappalardo explained, likely dated back at least 200 years when part of the river was filled in with trash, debris and wooden beams in order to expand a fast-growing Manhattan.

Please, gang, in no way is a 200-year-old ship ‘ancient.’ It just ain’t. Ancient. And in the head, no less.

Centuries old, yes, or Colonial-era, or early New York, or (possibly) pre-Revolutionary, but not ancient.

And it’s also inaccurate to say that parts of Manhattan were ‘built over the Hudson River.’ They were built on land reclaimed from the Hudson, or built out into the Hudson, or on land-fill created along the Hudson, or on an extended shoreline created by filling the water w/ trash, etc. But ‘built over the Hudson’ conjures the image of stilts.

I smell overwork, or perhaps this story slipped through w/o the attention of a copy editor. IMHO Reuters should be way above and way beyond this sort of imprecision; please don’t undermine my faith in a legend. I’m sure Santa and the Easter Bunny would agree with me.

Asbestos banned?

EnPro unit files for bankruptcy over asbestos claims

Asbestos, once widely used in manufacturing, has been banned by the U.S. government after it was proven to cause cancer, often in people who were exposed by breathing in asbestos particles.

You incorrectly stated in this article that asbestos has been banned in the U.S.

Please print a correction on this immediately. Thank you for your attention to this very important matter.

Sarah L.

Thank you. We corrected: GBU Editor

A woman covers her face as she walks near the site of a steam pipe explosion in midtown Manhattan during the morning commute in New York July 19, 2007. Debris from an explosion of an aging steam pipe, that occured July 18, contained asbestos, New York authorities said on Thursday, but no airborne samples of the dangerous mineral fiber were detected. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid