The quality of writing on the BBC News website

[Blue Jam]

Growing up I remember the right-wing media going on about bringing back "learning parrot-fashion" or "rote learning" (whenever they weren't banging on about bringing back O levels).

I am 39 next week and don't know my times tables. This has never held me back and I sure as fuck don't regret not sitting in a classroom reciting them while being bored shitless.

[touchingcloth]

I think it frees you up to do more complicated types of maths without being encumbered by learning how to become a human adding machine. I'm decent with maths but not to the point where I would ever consider, say, a degree in the subject, and I feel I'm far better places than someone with my same skills in a previous generation because there's a lot you can do with knowledge of how to use a calculator, write a bit of code, and use search engines. Knowing my times tables well feels like it would just be needless brain clutter.

[Blue Jam]

I was taught French verbs via rote learning. Can I remember any of that now? Can I fuck.

The Michel Thomas method, based on the principle "If you know the rules of a language, you know that language" makes more sense to me, as does Duolingo.

Learning a language as an adult is really quite fun. Learning one as a child makes you feel like you're being punished.

[touchingcloth]

Learning as an adult is also quite hard I am finding as someone living in forrin, but yeah it's also a lot of fun and I find learning Duolingo style in full sentences without big tables of verb conjugations is much more manageable. You quickly learn just which verb forms are actually necessary for 90% of interactions, so I'm quite comfortable with realising that it's going to be some years before I become comfortable with the future subjunctive or personal infinitive, if I ever really need to use them at all.

[Shit Good Nose]

I was taught French verbs via rote learning. Can I remember any of that now? Can I fuck.

The Stargate method, based on the principle "If you know the rules of a language, you know that language" makes more sense to me, as does Duolingo.

Learning a language as an adult is really quite fun. Learning one as a child makes you feel like you're being punished.

Fixed

[Ambient Sheep]

From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-54092547

Mrs Sacoolas, 42, the wife of a US intelligence official, claimed diplomatic immunity following the crash in Croughton, Northamptonshire, and was able to return to her home country, sparking an international controversy.

She was charged with causing death by dangerous driving in December but an extradition request .

Radd Seiger, the family's spokesman, told reporters the family felt "hopeless" after the meeting and that the US had not changed its position on the immunity claimed by Mrs Sacoolas.

Updated an hour ago, which means it's been up that long (or more) without them noticing that the middle paragraph is .

[BlodwynPig]

From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-54092547

Updated an hour ago, which means it's been up that long (or more) without them noticing that the middle paragraph is .

Get rid of the BBC

[Ambient Sheep]

So glad I bothered to post.  Is there any other sentence you're capable of typing these days?

But yes, perhaps abolish BBC News, yes.  Something has gone badly wrong with it in the last couple of years.  The rest I have very little problem with.

[BlodwynPig]

So glad I bothered to post.  Is there any other sentence you're capable of typing these days?

But yes, perhaps abolish BBC News, yes.  Something has gone badly wrong with it in the last couple of years.  The rest I have very little problem with.

Can you not take a joke? ffs, can't even play a character on here anymore. At least it prompted some kindred response from you.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I was taught French verbs via rote learning. Can I remember any of that now? Can I fuck.

The Michel Thomas method, based on the principle "If you know the rules of a language, you know that language" makes more sense to me, as does Duolingo.

Learning a language as an adult is really quite fun. Learning one as a child makes you feel like you're being punished.

I know people learn in different ways but this is the only way I can learn anything.

Fine if something can be boiled down to formulas or rules where you can work out the rest on the hoof, useless at things that require you to have a mental 'lookup table'.

[popcorn]

I was taught French verbs via rote learning. Can I remember any of that now? Can I fuck.

The Michel Thomas method, based on the principle "If you know the rules of a language, you know that language" makes more sense to me, as does Duolingo.

Learning a language as an adult is really quite fun. Learning one as a child makes you feel like you're being punished.

When I was teaching ESL I used to divide everything into rules and exceptions. Sometimes things in English are weird and don't initially make sense , but if you can understand the rule behind it, you can apply it to other things in future. But there are lots of exceptions too. And the case of exceptions, the sooner you realise it's an exception, the sooner you can just accept it and move on with your life. You just need someone to be able to tell you.

I always used to marvel at the number of ESL teachers who would completely fail to grasp these rules, though. Like why do we say "Go to London" but we don't say "Go to there"? Answer: because "London" is a noun but "here" and "there" are, counter-intuitively, adverbs. If you know how adverbs work then this is a pretty satisfying explanation and you can apply it as a general rule when using those words. But I once saw a teacher say we don't say "go to here" simply because "sometimes English doesn't make sense, you just have to accept it". This is not only untrue in this case, it's a completely unsatisfying answer to a student of English as a second language.

Sorry, ranting about ESL again. Byeee!

[idunnosomename]

I am 39 next week and don't know my times tables. This has never held me back and I sure as fuck don't regret not sitting in a classroom reciting them while being bored shitless.

"you won't always have a calculator in your pocket!!!"

haha fuck you

[touchingcloth]

Go to grave.

[Sebastian Cobb]

"you won't always have a calculator in your pocket!!!"

haha fuck you

When they said that to us James Percival already had one on his wrist. Fucking idiots.

[dissolute ocelot]

Primary school teacher horror movies always go to vast trouble to separate children from their calculators. "Oh no with the strong magnetic field from these rocks, all our electronics are useless!" (they would definitely treat electronics as a plural).

[NoSleep]

From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-54092547

Updated an hour ago, which means it's been up that long (or more) without them noticing that the middle paragraph is .

Maybe take a snapshot of such webpages via archive.org's Wayback Machine. I always forget to do this.

[touchingcloth]

Maybe take a snapshot of such webpages via archive.org's Wayback Machine. I always forget to do this.

It's not an issue with the BBC as such (though who the fuck knows in future), but archive.org will retrospectively obey a robots.txt, and if a site they had previously archived places on on their pages then they will wipe them from the archives.

I think services like http://archive.today/ which let you snapshot pages don't work in the same way.

[Icehaven]

"you won't always have a calculator in your pocket!!!"

haha fuck you

And even before smartphones if you'd wanted to carry a calculator with you everywhere you quite easily could. They're literally called pocket calculators.

[Shit Good Nose]

Just get yourself one of those Casio watches.

BUT MY FINGERS ARE TOO SAUSAGE LIKE TO PUSH THE BUTTONS.

[NoSleep]

It's not an issue with the BBC as such (though who the fuck knows in future), but archive.org will retrospectively obey a robots.txt, and if a site they had previously archived places on on their pages then they will wipe them from the archives.

I think services like http://archive.today/ which let you snapshot pages don't work in the same way.

I thought that was the point of it being a dated snapshot, that it would be frozen in that state. Do wiki pages update themselves on archive.org?

[touchingcloth]

I thought that was the point of it being a dated snapshot, that it would be frozen in that state. Do wiki pages update themselves on archive.org?

It might have changed now, but there was a time a while back where the Tories nuked the archives of their website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24942040

[touchingcloth]

Since probably the late 80s I've been aware of (and lusted over in the Argos catalogue) those watches which were a calculator and also a TV remote.

[EOLAN]

Catching the main BBC news at 6 earlier; as the wife had control of remote. Wow it was infantile. Probably worse than Newsround. They had a scientist on to discuss schools going back; what her specialist field was I don't know cos the caption only called her "Scientist"  with some silly crayon like font on the screen. When she was speaking they seemed more interested in showing her palms and finger movements which were fidgeting rather than emphasising any point (not the scientists fault).

BBC Ulster news on after at least seemed to be more mature in its presentation at least.

[Zetetic]

I thought that was the point of it being a dated snapshot, that it would be frozen in that state.

The snapshot is retained by the Internet Archive, unchanged. They retroactively apply the most recent robots.txt when it comes to making that snapshot available to the public, as a courtesy.

[NoSleep]

As a courtesy to those that rewrite history? Take a new (other) snapshot instead.

[honeychile]

Ridiculously inflammatory subbheading masquerading as posing and answering the burning questions. And in the follow-up sentence, passive voice to weasel out of saying exactly who is blaming "young people".

Job done:

Orwell made this point in the essay Politics And The English Language. If you haven't read it, I urge you to do so.

Thanks, will look this up.

[BlodwynPig]

This morning they had some Points of View soul-searching programme on instead of Breakfast, or maybe just after Breakfast, with Samira Ahmed asking "the tough questions" posed by viewers about 'impartiality' and 'the purpose of BBC News'. It may have been the Beeb's head of news who was answering, but all his answers were weak sauce centrist, partisan guff. "It's not our job to hold the government to account, merely to explain to the viewer's what the Government mean".

[honeychile]

Nick Robinson describing his role as ITN political editor:

'It was my job to report what those in power were doing or thinking... That is all someone in my sort of job can do.'
(Robinson, The Times, 16 July 2004)

[NoSleep]

If only they'd just stick to that weak sauce.

[Bazooka]

Nick Robinson describing his role as ITN political editor:

That's easy for Robinson considering he is a mind flanger demon.