Oddities

  • Male? Welsh? Problems with your love life? Try Tesco!

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Oddities

    If you are male, speak Welsh and have problems with your love life, particularly those related to erectile dysfunction, then maybe the new Aberystwyth store opened by Tesco (motto: every little helps) can come to your rescue.

    The Daily Post reports that the cash machine installed at Tesco’s new outlet in Aberystwyth is offering a “free erection” (codiad am ddim) to Welsh speakers whilst Anglophones have to be content with withdrawing cash free of charge.

    shot of cash machine at Aberystwyth Tesco
    Sexual favours for Welsh speakers?

    According to the Post, a Tesco spokesperson is reported to have said: “We’ve taken down the sign and will replace it with the correct translation. We appreciate this is a sensitive area.”

    Here’s a little help for Tesco: next time use a professional translator! 😉

    Hat tip: M J Lee.

  • Google invents amphibious delivery truck

    Steve WoodsMedia, Oddities, Tech

    Readers who have been reading the IT press for some time will be familiar with Google’s invention of the ‘flying car’ just after the inception of Google Earth in January 2006 that was reported at the time by The Register.

    News now arrives that Google has followed this up with the invention of the amphibious, sea-going delivery truck, as shown on another Google product, Google Maps.

    image showing delivery truck out at sea

    Judging by the scale of the map and the predicted time of delivery, it would appear the amphibious delivery truck can also manage speeds of some 400 km/h. 😀

    Hat tip: Angharad Stone.

  • Stephen Williams MP caused by Al Qaeda – Post exclusive

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media, Oddities, Politics

    It’s not very often the Bristol Post manages to come up with an exclusive, but today’s online edition proved a winner on that score.

    The text below was concealed in a letter to Post from reader Stephen Farthing:

    THE news of 15-year-old girl Yusra Hussien leaving Bristol to become a supporter of IS, allegedly, is a worrying outcome and I echo what Stephen Williams said, that such an objective is not only foolish but profoundly unwise.

    In some ways, what Al Qaeda started in 2001 has produced many problems of his kind.

    Yes, you did read that correctly: “problems of his kind“, i.e. problems like him, if you prefer to paraphrase.

    image of Stephen Williams MPThe Post has exclusively revealed that Bristol West MP Stephen Williams is a problem that has been caused by Al Qaeda, an organisation never before known for its links to the UK’s Liberal Democratic Party, let alone elected members thereof.

    Perhaps Mr Williams would care to comment on his links to Al Qaeda below; or alternatively perhaps the Post could employ a little more care when publishing reader’s letters where a lost or missing consonant can give a phrase a whole new meaning.

  • School English: see me after class

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Oddities

    I do worry when schools display lack of proficiency in the English language. After all, they are establishments whose tasks include imparting formal training in the vernacular.

    In particular, they seem to have problems with the use of the apostrophe (posts passim), whether that entails its use as a possessive or as an indication of omission.

    The latest example from the nursery slopes of Mount Academia was found almost on my doorstep at St. Nicholas of Tolentine RC Primary School in Pennywell Road, Bristol, which seems to think that childrens is the plural of child.

    showing misused apostrophe on school notice

    Should anyone from the school happen to be reading this, the correct punctuation is children’s. In the words of several of my old teachers: you could do better; see me after class. 🙂

  • Nice one!

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Oddities

    News site www.thebusinesswomanmedia.com has got the emphasis just right here on its report on a wedding that’s causing the media to get excited and distract attention from all the nasty things going on in the world like Ebola in West Africa or the continuing madness in the Middle East (news passim).

    screenshot of headline stating internationally acclaimed barrister Amal Alamuddin marries an actor

    However, it could have added the word(s) ‘ageing’ and/or ‘greying’ in front of ‘actor’. 😉

  • Islamic State: potted history

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities, Politics

    If you’re having difficulty in understanding what’s happening with the militants of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria at the moment without going any further back than Bush War II (the overthrow of Saddam Hussein – and the roots of the conflicts and tensions in the region do go back to at least the end of World War 1 and the Treaty of Versailles! Ed.) then Aubrey Bailey of Fleet in Hampshire has provided a concise and not too confusing potted guide.

    image of newspaper letter with the heading Clear as mud

    Hat tip: Marina S.

  • Mobility scooter drink-driving case adjourned due to lack of interpreter

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities, Politics

    image of gilded statue of Justice on top of Old BaileyYesterday’s Stoke Sentinel reports on the case of a Romanian man in court on a charge of being drunk in charge of a mobility scooter.

    On 7th August Staffordshire police stopped Romanian-born Silviu Croitoru on the A34 London Road in Newcastle-under-Lyme: 47 year-old Croitrou – now resident in Trent Vale, Stoke-on-Trent – was driving his mobility scooter at the time and gave reading of 95 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath; the legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

    Magistrates at the North Staffordshire Justice Centre in Newcastle-under-Lyme adjourned the case to arrange for the attendance of an interpreter and to allow time for defence representations.

    One would have thought that if the defendant required an interpreter, this should have been noted and arranged for the initial hearing, but waste and incompetence seem to be endemic in the justice system nowadays.

  • Bristol’s Bitcoin machine handles £38K per month

    Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Oddities, Tech

    bitcoin logoThe Bristol Post is not renowned locally for its in-depth coverage of technology, let alone such exotic areas as crytocurrencies, but today proved an exception as it reported on the fortunes of Bristol’s only Bitcoin cash machine, which is located in Superfoods in St Stephen’s Street (review here) in the centre.

    a Bitcoin ATM similar to the one in Bristol

    SatoshiPoint, the machine’s owners have hailed it a success after the machine processed 250 transactions and the equivalent of £38,000 in Bitcoins in the month of August alone.

    SatoshiPoint’s Hassan Khoshtaghaza said: “Bristol is doing very well, in fact better than our London ATMs because there are now six of them in London so the use gets spread out. We are getting users from as far as Cardiff and Bath coming to use the machine in Bristol and our volume is increasing each month on buy and sell transactions.”

    The company recently installed a Bitcoin machine in Brighton and further cities under consideration are Cardiff, Manchester and Edinburgh, plus Newcastle Airport, according to Khoshtaghaza.

    SatoshiPoint’s Bitcoin machines accept £10 and £20 notes, but not debit or credit cards and users can buy anything from £10 to £1,500 worth of Bitcoins a day, at the live price plus 7% commission.

    Originally posted on Bristol Wireless.

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