Your Most Absurd Pet Peeves
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I share most of the ones mentioned later in this thread, but one not mentioned yet that really gets my goat: When somebody of note dies (eg Nelson Mandela) the media (esp. rolling news TV) will not only ignore anything else happening around the world, no matter how important (esp. to those involved), but will spend all its time finding people to interview to ask either for their reminiscences about the person concerned - whether they knew them or not! - or their thoughts about what other people who might have known that person are feeling about other people who might have known that person are feeling. (Recursion: see Recursion.) Surprisingly, this didn't happen as much as I expected when Prince Philip and The Queen died, possibly because there is both more respect for them and there was also plenty of other stuff associated with their deaths to cover. For Mandela though, we ended up with the rediculous situation of someone who had never met or known him asking another perosn who might just possibly have glanced at a photo of Mandela on a newspaper page once many years ago (perhaps whilst looking over the shoulder of a commuter on the Tube) being asked what Mandela's family were feeling at the moment etc. (Repeat endlessly until something more newsworthy comes along, like the presenter dropping their pencil etc.) This carrries on still in a minor way, with long, insensitive interviews with people who have suffered some tradegy, not with the aim of improving the victim's lot, but because it makes for 'good' emotional TV and hence draws in the rubber-neckers to increase viewing figures. (Think of the coverage of that poor woman with mental health issues who drowned recently.) ... AND another thing! This trope (adopted by just about every media co now) of sending someone to stand outside a building (often in the dark/and or rain etc) with a TV crew to tell you something that the studio presenter could easily report, or which that same reporter could have said in the studio. I'm not talking about on-the-ground live-coverage/breaking news stuff here (eg reports from Kyiv etc), but when there is - for example - a ministerial or business statement. Some poor reporter and team is sent to relate the contents from outside a closed office building, or No 10 with only Larry the Cat and the policeman for company. Such a waste of time and money. --- Sorry, I'll get me coat...
One of the most ridiculous examples of this was after an airliner crashed and sunk in the ocean. A news channel was showing an image of water- probably a local river or pool in front of their building from the size of the waves.
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OriginalGriff wrote:
if you had to change "2023" to "2022" to fit in a year zero
Astronomers never suggested that. They treat 1 BC as year 0 by their scale, and BC 4, say, as their year 3. Very few of our everyday time stamps refer to years BC with single-year precision, and are unaffected by the adjustment of n BC being adjusted to n-1 BC. There are not very many textbooks making exact time references 2000 years back in time. Probably the most significant ones are those contradicting the religious scriptures, e.g. pointing out that Herod died 4 BC - it doesn't matter if we call that year -3 - they don't fit the Jesus myths anyway. On the other side of the line: Quirinius became a Legate of Syria AD 6, but that was before Jesus was born. So Jesus was born both (at least) 4 year BC (or year -3), but also at least 6 years into the AD era. I know that this does not affect believers, but to me it just strengthens the idea that the birth of one specific religious preacher should not control our calendar, especially when it provably couldn't have had happened the suggested time.
Imagine the outcry if there was a push to change the date system to something from another religion. I like the Japanese system of counting an era with the new Emperor. Fans talk about Showa-era Godzilla movies, or Heisei Super-Sentai. I want to see a Sengoku Mothra movie, or Meiji Kamen Rider. :) Oddly, nobody seems to date anime or manga after the era.
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Drivers who merge early when a lane is closed - it is actually a road rule to merge as late as possible in Oz. But when you calmly pass all the idjits that have merged out of the closing lane to merge just before the lane closes they get pissed off and some even try and stop you from merging late.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
My peeve is the constant promotion of zipper merge. It depends entirely on all the drivers being courteous. From my years of commuting in Michigan with almost-constant construction and road repair, I can tell you this would take some universe-bending magic. The other is construction of roundabouts where there's an unending line of traffic from one direction- a shift change or parents dropping off and picking up their kiddos from school. If you're on the downstream leg of the intersection, you can get trapped in a mile-long line of unmoving cars.