# Diplomatic cables leaked. Wait. Cables?!? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 11, 2019, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-cables-leaked-wait-cables/836906 "2019-07-11T14:57:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-cables-leaked-wait-cables/836906/21 "2019-07-12T14:06:13Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Next on _Ripleys’ Believe It or Not_, we still call it “dialing” a phone! > > 😉 > [@ftg](#): > > Another person surprised by the OP’s puzzlement. > > Eyeglasses have not generally been made with glass for some time. > > Old terminology persists. One of the oddest in computing is getting a core (memory) dump. Core memory died in the early 70s. Of _course_ some obsolete terminology persists. But _everybody_ knows what an email is, and everybody calls it that. Do you still talk about sending “letters”? Nobody talked about Hillary Clinton’s “memos”. Why are diplomats uniquely idiosyncratic? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-cables-leaked-wait-cables/836906/22 "2019-07-12T14:21:57Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Of _course_ some obsolete terminology persists. But _everybody_ knows what an email is, and everybody calls it that. Do you still talk about sending “letters”? Nobody talked about Hillary Clinton’s “memos”. Why are diplomats uniquely idiosyncratic? Because diplomats receive both emails and cables and the two have important differences even if they now may show up in the same tool. It’s no that different from receiving a memo by email. Hillary Clinton’s email may have included memos, but there’s no reason to assume they were exclusively such, or that the memos were more important that other missives in the leak. For Diplomatic emails on the other hand the cables are a particularly important subset. ---
**Author:** ![KMS94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ad7895/32.png) [@KMS94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KMS94)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-cables-leaked-wait-cables/836906/23 "2019-07-12T14:46:56Z")
I occasionally slip up and call the TV remote control the “clicker,” though they haven’t clicked in decades. Remember having to click all the way around the dial again, when you accidentally clicked past the channel you wanted? ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-cables-leaked-wait-cables/836906/24 "2019-07-12T15:23:53Z")
> [@BobBitchin](#): > > videoing? Video is derived from the medium (video tape rather than film) as well. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-cables-leaked-wait-cables/836906/25 "2019-07-12T15:39:35Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Video is derived from the medium (video tape rather than film) as well. But it’s a modifier of tape, indicating that it’s a visual medium. I don’t think the word “video” in itself carries any historical baggage concerning the medium, there’s nothing unusual about the etymology of (say) “digital video”. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-cables-leaked-wait-cables/836906/26 "2019-07-12T15:46:55Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Video is derived from the medium (video tape rather than film) as well. The early NTSC standards, etc. use the terms video and audio to describe the components of a TV signal. Video tape didn’t become a commercial thing until 1956. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-cables-leaked-wait-cables/836906/27 "2019-07-12T15:59:54Z")
> [@KMS94](#): > > Remember having to click all the way around the dial again, when you accidentally clicked past the channel you wanted? I don’t, but I do remember our first cable TV remote, which was wired and had two tiers of channels (1-12 and 13-24, IIRC) but only 1 row of buttons, with a rocker switch on the side to select which set of channels you wanted your button press to select. Talk about a two-click rule! ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-cables-leaked-wait-cables/836906/28 "2019-07-12T21:52:15Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > But it’s a modifier of tape, indicating that it’s a visual medium. I don’t think the word “video” in itself carries any historical baggage concerning the medium, there’s nothing unusual about the etymology of (say) “digital video”. > [@ftg](#): > > The early NTSC standards, etc. use the terms video and audio to describe the components of a TV signal. Video tape didn’t become a commercial thing until 1956. Yep, looks like I’m wrong here. Apologies, I should have been more careful in GQ. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-cables-leaked-wait-cables/836906/29 "2019-07-13T02:27:04Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Or I suppose we’d just say “I recorded it on my iPhone”, since there’s little need to restrict our recordings to audio now so we don’t often do that. Well, if you’re deliberately ignoring context and pragmatics, “recording” something was _never_ anything home enthusiasts could do. But I suppose even the people around here will fail to see my point. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diplomatic-cables-leaked-wait-cables/836906.md?page=1)