TIME and the new island

[Benjamin Barrett]

The self-dumbification of "Time" came with quick summaries of news in an easy-to-read format, as well as a drop in the quality of the writing. (I was reading the edition in Japan, so I don't know what it was like in the US or other countries.) With such self-dumbification comes editors who are not so careful about such details.

As for the least common denominator, one could also get upset about using "least" when there are only two as well.

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

On Oct 4, 2013, at 7:23 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> I thought that "dumbing-down" was the process of reducing the supposedly
> "complex" to the supposedly "simple," my peevest example of this being the
> shift of
>
> "_least_ common denominator"
>
> to
>
> "_lowest_ common denominator"
>
> as though this meaninglessly-trivial change somehow "simplified" this
> concept, thereby  opening broad, new vistas of mathematical understanding
> in the minds of the children of the lower orders.
>
> But, using "about 250 ft. _long_" in place of "about 250 ft. _in diameter_"
> is not a simple dumbing down.
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 4, 2013 at 3:16 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> "The land-mass, seen here, is reportedly about 250 ft. _long_."
>>
>>
>> The photo is of an object about as nearly perfectly circular as will ever
>> be found in nature. How TF can a journal of the supposed "quality" of TIME
>> describe a circle as "*long*"?
>>
>> Give me strength.

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