# Tiny errors that drive you insane **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 29, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557 "2016-02-29T19:58:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/81 "2016-03-02T03:14:48Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Whenever I read someone is an alum, I wonder how he could be an aluminum potassium sulfate. Might he be used in pickles? > > Finishing the word with -nus (or -na for a female) really wouldn’t be that hard. But it is hard, actually. You’d have to remember to use the right gender, and then there’s the problem of mixed groups. The Latin plurals are difficult as well, because the _-i_ and _ae_ suffixes sound the same in different systems of Latin pronunciation. You could probably say “alumnas” for the female plural, but “alumnuses” for the males sounds awkward IMHO. As for being used in pickles, I never did consider that career possibility. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/82 "2016-03-02T03:54:50Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **j666** : > Big and fast are not comparative, and no, something cannot be partially unique; unique is an absolute. Of course big and fast are comparative. Is ten miles big? Yes if that’s the size of a single building, no if it’s the size of an entire country. And if “unique” is an absolute, then I challenge you to provide me a single example of something that isn’t unique. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/83 "2016-03-02T04:35:19Z")
> [@j666](#): > > . . . Big and fast are not comparative, and no, something cannot be partially unique; unique is an absolute. But something can be “nearly unique,” so some modifiers are permitted. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/84 "2016-03-02T04:36:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > . . . I challenge you to provide me a single example of something that isn’t unique. Electrons. ---
**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:** [March 2, 2016, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/85 "2016-03-02T05:14:04Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > Nice guess, but that’s not it. A lot of cameras (at least low-to-medium end) have a “discreet” mode where the camera is totally silent. Maybe point-and-shoot cameras, but not SLRs, which is what professional photojournalists use. > [@j666](#): > > …something cannot be partially unique; unique is an absolute. Unique is only an absolute written down on a dusty piece of paper somewhere, not in the way people really talk. And the way people really talk is all that really matters. Three of us on my street have the same car–same year, make, model, and red color. Another guy is the only one with a blue one so it’s unique. But my other friend that has a different model so it’s even more unique. And the RV parked down the street is the most unique of all. – A recovering prescriptivist ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/86 "2016-03-02T06:29:42Z")
[Delta God Damned V](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta-v) Every space movie ever effing made (or at least a hell of a lot of them) Tv shows, it doesn’t really matter, They all make the same mistake with this. Burn hard and late instead of early and soft. Any Pilot of any kind of craft would know the importance of this and know it well. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/87 "2016-03-02T06:45:23Z")
Well, _Star Trek_ was absolutely riddled with scientific errors. One that made my jaw drop when I heard it was in an episode of the original series, _Court Martial_, when they turned up all the audio on the ship so that they could hear everyone’s heartbeat: “_When I flip this switch, all the sounds on the ship will be amplified by a factor of one to the fourth power_”. Yeah, ok. Then there was some _Next Generation_ episode where the captain, or perhaps it was Riker, ordered the ship to go into a stationary orbit over the south pole (of this here moon). Umm, what? Perhaps he said “stationery” orbit? Because it sounded ok on paper? No, really, it is kind of terrifying: if you want to watch a show that has really good science in it, stick with _Futurama_. At least Groening gets it right. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/88 "2016-03-02T07:23:09Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Well, _Star Trek_ was absolutely riddled with scientific errors. One that made my jaw drop when I heard it was in an episode of the original series, _Court Martial_, when they turned up all the audio on the ship so that they could hear everyone’s heartbeat: “_When I flip this switch, all the sounds on the ship will be amplified by a factor of one to the fourth power_”. Yeah, ok. > > Then there was some _Next Generation_ episode where the captain, or perhaps it was Riker, ordered the ship to go into a stationary orbit over the south pole (of this here moon). Umm, what? Perhaps he said “stationery” orbit? Because it sounded ok on paper? I’m sure that there’s some fanwank about how those totally make sense. Star Wars fans try to explain how Han’s usage of “parsec” as a measure of time totally makes sense, and Star Trek fans are more into overexplaining. > [@](#): > > No, really, it is kind of terrifying: if you want to watch a show that has really good science in it, stick with _Futurama_. At least Groening gets it right. Probably David X. Cohen with his physics and CS training, or some of the other writers have a bigger influence on the science. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Windshoeffel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Max\_Windshoeffel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Windshoeffel)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/89 "2016-03-02T11:13:39Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Wow! A double possessive?!? :eek: I’ve never heard this!\* > > The logical question is, “The court of St. James’s what?” :dubious: 😕 > > \*I’m not puzzled by the _-'s_, just that it’s used in combination with _of_. [The Court of St.James’s Palace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_of_St_James's#Name). ---
**Author:** ![chaika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chaika/32/405_2.png) [@chaika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaika)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/90 "2016-03-02T14:01:49Z")
I see frequent errors WRT Russian naming conventions in non-Russian movies and books. Patronymics and last names are often confused or treated as interchangeable. In addition, male characters are sometimes given female names and vice versa. I once read a Cold War-era spy thriller with a male character who had been given a woman’s name. I don’t remember the actual name but it was something like Petrova instead of Petrov. Also, the first name + patronymic combination is the formal way to address someone. It always tickles me when non-Russian writers use that style of address between people who would be on familiar terms. Pronunciation is a big issue in movies. It really grates to hear someone who is supposed to be a native speaker of Russian put the stress on the wrong syllable of his own name. And don’t get me started on the use of language that sounds as though it has been produced by Google Translate. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/91 "2016-03-02T14:16:05Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > “_When I flip this switch, all the sounds on the ship will be amplified by a factor of one to the fourth power_”. Snerk. “Aye Sir! So… uh… amplified by a factor of… one. Check!” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/92 "2016-03-02T14:22:29Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > He has a didactic memory for print, not sound! Eidetic. Please slap your spellchecker for me. > [@chaika](#): > > Pronunciation is a big issue in movies. It really grates to hear someone who is supposed to be a native speaker of Russian put the stress on the wrong syllable of his own name. And don’t get me started on the use of language that sounds as though it has been produced by Google Translate. Broth… wait… uh… sibling! ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/93 "2016-03-02T14:50:18Z")
> [@chaika](#): > > And don’t get me started on the use of language that sounds as though it has been produced by Google Translate. Not a movie, but this happened with _Breaking Bad_. There are scenes in the fourth season that take place at the cartel boss’s house, where everyone is speaking Spanish. Now, I don’t know the language well. I took a couple of years in high school, and I spent most of my life in California. I ran a restaurant, employing many Hispanics that I had to communicate with. When I watched those scenes on BB, something seemed off with the way they were talking. I looked it up later, and found that none of the actors were native speakers, and some of them didn’t even know the language! ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/94 "2016-03-02T15:03:40Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Well, _Star Trek_ was absolutely riddled with scientific errors. One that made my jaw drop when I heard it was in an episode of the original series, _Court Martial_, when they turned up all the audio on the ship so that they could hear everyone’s heartbeat: “_When I flip this switch, all the sounds on the ship will be amplified by a factor of one to the fourth power_”. Yeah, ok. The amplification factor of 1 isn’t actually the worst part of that. It’s that every sound should be amplified, not just heartbeats. Assuming the bridge mics are turned off (so you don’t get this fatally loud feedback loop of sound) you still should be able to hear every sound the ship makes, every pump, every fan, plus of course any other sound Finney is making. Like footsteps. Breathing. Digestive sounds! :eek: > [@eschereal](#): > > Then there was some _Next Generation_ episode where the captain, or perhaps it was Riker, ordered the ship to go into a stationary orbit over the south pole (of this here moon). Umm, what? Perhaps he said “stationery” orbit? Because it sounded ok on paper? Ok, I’m a fanwanker. But I don’t think they use “orbit” the same way we do. I think by the 23rd century it has the same relation to the original meaning as “dialing” does to phone calls. I think a “standard orbit” actually means powered hovering over the point of interest. That’s why losing power (as in Court Martial) means the ship spirals down rather than just continuing to orbit. > [@eschereal](#): > > No, really, it is kind of terrifying: if you want to watch a show that has really good science in it, stick with _Futurama_. At least Groening gets it right. I hope you’re going for a whoosh here. Otherwise you’re delusional. 🙂 Futurama is the world where disembodied heads live in fluid filled jars and speak. Heads of people that were dead and turned to dust centuries before the technology became available. It’s the world where Bender’s body is larger on the inside than the outside. It’s the land where a dog can die lying down on a street in NYC (and probably picked up by the garbage trucks) but yet ends up encased in dolemite in a standing position. It’s the world where being your own grandpa causes you to not have the delta brainwave (whatever that is). It’s the world where finglongeres exist. Where paraboxes are possible. Where aliens watch American TV shows and go to war over it. Where Zoidberg can get a job as a doctor. I think it would be easier to list the moments of good science. Other than the answer to the question “how many atmospheres of pressure can the ship take?” I can’t think of a one. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/95 "2016-03-02T15:33:13Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > For a real nitpick: you don’t pour concrete, you place it. Even when it’s being pumped to the top of a building and comes sliding down a chute, it’s being ‘placed’. I suspect there are few outside of the construction game who know that. Well, I’ve heard someone definitely in the construction game refer to the event as ‘a pour’, multiple times. They weren’t a fancy nitpicking engineer type, so maybe the people with clean white hardhats do actually say ‘place’, but at least the grunts talk about ‘a pour’. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/96 "2016-03-02T15:59:27Z")
> [@Max\_Windshoeffel](#): > > [The Court of St.James’s Palace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_of_St_James's#Name). Aha! Ignorance fought! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/97 "2016-03-02T16:41:49Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > On the same note it’s attorneys-general, not attorney-generals. Lets not get started on crap like “PIN number” or “ATM machine”. How about “courts-martial” and not “court-martials”? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/98 "2016-03-02T16:56:16Z")
> [@chaika](#): > > Also, the first name + patronymic combination is the formal way to address someone. It always tickles me when non-Russian writers use that style of address between people who would be on familiar terms. I find it grating when the Russians in Tom Clancy’s books regularly Russify foreigners’ names. In more than 40 years of dealing with the Russian language, I have never encountered a native speaker who would do this. Jack Ryan would be “Jack” or “John,” not “Ivan Emmetovich.” I have heard some howlers from professional interpreters, though. Like Carter’s man who expessed the president’s “great lust for the Polish people,” or Brezhnev’s, who told official Washington “I will not say ‘good-bye,’ but rather ‘good-bye.’”\* \*The correct translation would have been “not ‘good-bye,’ but _‘au revoir.’_” ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/99 "2016-03-02T18:25:02Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Unique is only an absolute written down on a dusty piece of paper somewhere, not in the way people really talk. And the way people really talk is all that really matters. > > Three of us on my street have the same car–same year, make, model, and red color. Another guy is the only one with a blue one so it’s unique. But my other friend that has a different model so it’s even more unique. And the RV parked down the street is the most unique of all. > > – A recovering prescriptivist Nope, if there’s only one of each they are equally unique _among the cars on your block._ And most likely none of them are unique without restriction- other people in the world have identical blue cars or the same make/model/color/year as the “different model” car or the RV. Anything mass-produced is not going to be unique without being restricted in some way. “Unique” doesn’t mean exactly the same thing as “different” or “distinctive”. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/100 "2016-03-02T18:45:15Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Eidetic. Please slap your spellchecker for me. I’ll slap myself: :smack: I didn’t second-guess myself like I always should! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557.md?page=6)