tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18541596.post7321758531234001692..comments2024-01-02T23:01:07.198+00:00Comments on Gecko's Progress: More or Less RightPeterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08681252401882405721noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18541596.post-83744233812545076032013-06-15T23:03:55.879+01:002013-06-15T23:03:55.879+01:00I wrote to More or Less last year to bring to enli...I wrote to More or Less last year to bring to enlist their help in getting rid of the 'up to' and 'more than' expressions used so often on the radio news. Did you know that ten billion people were demonstrating in the streets of Aleppo? What the announcer actually said was,'more than ten thousand' -- a definition which includes ten billion. And on the 25 May 2012 at seven o'clock in the morning on Radio 3 (yes I actually got up to write it down) the news reader said that 'more than two out of three beaches in the UK are free from pollution.' Now, let's think about that. Without entering into a discussion on existentialism you have to admit that you cannot have half a beach. A beach is either a beach or it isn't. So more than two beaches has to be, in their parlance, at least three. So all the beaches in the UK are free from pollution but not only that, it could be four out of three beaches that are clean. So some things which are not beaches have to become beaches in order to be judged as unpolluted.<br />More or Less did not come back to me on my enquiry which was disappointing but I suppose it was probably no more than I could have expected. Or was it less than I did not expect?<br />Martin (famous author)Martin Lloydhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448583815985056423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18541596.post-35421145552746023152013-05-31T13:40:19.317+01:002013-05-31T13:40:19.317+01:00Sad to say, the only Romanian immigrant in England...Sad to say, the only Romanian immigrant in England I can think of is a rather famous fictional one... and yes, he committed a lot of crimes.dmarkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07269773990064736457noreply@blogger.com