On 01/01/2012 06:37, Ian Bingham wrote:


"Dave Cornwell" wrote in message
...

Tudor Hughes wrote:
On Dec 31, 10:35 am, "Ian Bingham"
wrote:
I apologise for being somewhat OT, but am I the only one irritated
to the
nth degree by Jeremy Paxman pronouncing the word “meteorology” as
“mee-tree-ology”? He’s been doing it for years. You would have
thought
someone would have told him by now or, as the erudite fellow he
seems to be,
he would have looked at the word and worked it out for himself.
And while I’m about it, even more OT, have you noticed how in all
media,
people are saying “epicentre” when all they mean is “centre”.
Sounds more
technical, you see.
And then there’s the word “dissect”. Almost everyone pronounces it
“dye-sect”, but there’s a double ‘s’ so the ‘i’ is short. Even highly
educated people do this.
Phew, that’s better!

Ian Bingham,
Inchmarlo, Aberdeenshire.

You've been watching University Challenge, haven't you? Good man.

Nobody can tell Paxo anything of course though he has yet to meet
me, for instance.

You're dead right about "dissect" and "epicentre" also. What
about "anticipate" as posh for "expect"? I won't bore the group with
the very worthwhile distinction.

While we're on about journalists, have you noticed the very
curious intonation of those reporting from various places? Also, they
talk about eye-WITnesses as oppeosed to EYE-witnesses. Weird lot -
are they of this world? I think I'd rather listen to like up-speak?

Now I must go and kickstart the car as I go through the course
of the afternoon period.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.

--------------------------
Another notable thing with our Jeremy is his bias to the arts. You will
get somebody getting some genuinely difficult PhD history question and
he will deride them and basically say "How stupid ,it obviously couldn't
be the Venerable Bede" then the question will be an O'level (GCSE for
the younger) question such as "What is the chemical symbol for lead?"
and when the answer is Pu he says "Oh, bad luck, you were only one
letter out"
Despite that, I quite like him in a way and my daughter who has spoken
to him as part of her job said he was very pleasant.
After all it could be even worse - I mean what is the point of a dumbed
down Celebrity Mastermind that just can't be dumbed enough. There was
some woman, my wife says something to do with the X-factor, who when
asked the name of the famous white sparkilng wine from a northern region
of France said "Jacob's Creek" . The other answers were as cringe worthy.
Dave

Yes, I've noticed his bias towards the Arts. I think most of those
BBC types are Arts graduates.
But I think Paxo does a good job on University Challenge. Strong men
have blanched before
his thunderous "YOU MAY NOT CONFER". I just wish he could pronounce
the word "Meteorology", that's all.

Ian.

The bias towards arts and media studies is now notable on all quiz shows
of whatever standard, to the point where in spite of holding an array of
(science based) qualifications and high IQ, it would be a waste of time
me entering any of these quizzes as I would be "floored" by all the
questions asking who starred in this film or that soap opera. Such
things may be very interesting, but they do not make the world go
round. Or, to put it another way, if it wasn't for the apparently
rapidly shrinking ranks of scientists, there would be no "media" for the
"media studies" students to study.

If you think from this that my impression of education today is not
great, you would not be wrong - an impression strengthened by figures
published which show that the chances of getting 3 straight "A*"s (the
new top-level qualification) at "A" level today are about the same as me
getting my three straight "A"s at "A" level were in the mid-1970s. And
it was very rare then to see anyone take more than 3 "A" levels - there
wasn't time to do the work required. Of course there hasn't been any
"grade inflation" or "dumbing down" of the curriculum.

Mind you, lack of general scientific knowledge is not that new or
confined to TV quizzes. In the days of my youth, I got a question in
our local village quiz - "What is the common name for 'Tinnitus' ".
Much to the merriment of the audience, I chirpily answered "Ringing in
the ears". The look on the QM's face when he read the answer off the
card was a treat to see.

--
- Yokel -

Yokel posts via a spam-trap account which is not read.