What minor thing grinds your gears atm?

Started by Legend, Feb 02, 2021, 06:26 PM

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Legend

The Moon is capitalized. When random people write, it doesn't really matter. When professional journalists don't capitalize it, it grinds my gears.

"The Moon is Earth's moon." = correct
"We are going to the moon." = incorrect
"Have you heard of Deimos?" The moon is super tiny!" = correct

Lowercase refers to moon as a concept while uppercase is a name.

Legend

Science educators that present controversial theories as if they are facts.


I discovered this youtube channel which is genuinely great but simultaneously sucks because of this.



The video description clarifies that there is a lot of debate on these things but the video on its own presents a flawed if not dangerous hubris. The general public needs to understand scientific facts like evolution, vaccines, and gravity are completely different than scientific best guesses.

the-pi-guy

Linguistic prescriptivists.   ;D

"The moon" is totally fine because it is still understood by people.  8)

But then again, I think "could care less" is a terrible phrase.  

The video description clarifies that there is a lot of debate on these things but the video on its own presents a flawed if not dangerous hubris. The general public needs to understand scientific facts like evolution, vaccines, and gravity are completely different than scientific best guesses.
I would say this isn't all that minor.  Or maybe it wouldn't have been minor 50 years ago, but it seems more and more like people are conflating vaccines with best guesses.  

Legend

Linguistic prescriptivists.   ;D

"The moon" is totally fine because it is still understood by people.  8)

But then again, I think "could care less" is a terrible phrase.

There is a war over the Moon and I will die fighting on the correct side. It irks me every time a space reporter does it wrong, so let's check official company pages

Capitalizes: SpaceX - Missions: Moon
Blue Origin | Blue Moon
Mission To The Moon | Rocket Lab
Home - Moon: NASA Science
Moon to Mars | Lockheed Martin

Does not capitalize: Boeing: Historical Snapshot: Apollo Lunar Spacecraft

Does both lol:
   Astrobotic Selects United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur Rocket to Launch its First Mission to the Moon

Space Legacy - Northrop Grumman

I would say this isn't all that minor.  Or maybe it wouldn't have been minor 50 years ago, but it seems more and more like people are conflating vaccines with best guesses.  
True. People can be radicalized by a million paper cuts. It's one of the reasons I'm such a huge fan of Tom Scott's videos vs other channels that try a bit too hard at being authoritative.

the-pi-guy

Very minor thing that grinds my gears.

Basically identical products that get marketed towards different groups, so people assume it only works for the one thing.  

Like SD cards, or hard drives. They'll often include some software for something specific, but there's nothing to stop someone else from using them.  


I kind of got hassled because someone didn't think a hard drive would accept anything other than photos.  

SWORDF1SH

Threads that are about what grinds people gears.

Legend

Threads that are about what grinds people gears.
I respect that.

Legend

Another one: microgravity


The term is used to try and teach people that gravity doesn't just stop when you reach space. A human on the ISS is being pulled by Earth almost as strongly as someone on the surface. Hence places describe the ISS as having microgravity in order to avoid confusion.

The problem with this is that it's just as unscientific yet even more confusing. From both a pure physics and a pure laymen perspective, the zero g experienced on the ISS is identical to the zero g experienced when floating outside the solar system. "Correcting" people who say there is zero g on the ISS is not just pedantic, it's wrong.


(There are magical places where the pull of gravity balances out, but these places tend to act like they have gravity and pull things together/apart lol Lagrange point - Wikipedia )

the-pi-guy

In the grand scheme of things, this one doesn't really matter it's just a style.  

But there's a style of misinformation that grinds my gears perhaps more than any other.  I've only seen it a few times, but it's irritated me disproportionately compared to other misinformation/disinformation.  

The general style is that of a dialogue between someone who is supposed to be an expert and someone who proves the expert wrong.

Made up short example:

Spoiler for Hidden:
<br>A: so Mr. Science man, how do you know climate change is happening and it&#39;s man made. &nbsp;<br><br>B: well we are seeing record high temperatures all across the globe, and we are seeing melting ice in various parts of the world. <br><br>A: have you ever considered that the sun was getting warmer?<br><br>B: uh no we haven&#39;t. &nbsp;<br><br>A: so I guess we might not be the cause. <br>


They're usually obnoxious, 3 pages worth of every bit of misinformation they could think of.

It's additionally frustrating because it completely mischaracterizes the argument.

Dr. Pezus


BananaKing


Legend

Covid-19
It's very frustrating having Colorado go back into restrictions.

In 2020 it felt like a war effort. Do your part to help everyone.

In 2021 it's just stupidity. Why the heck can't people just vaccinate or wear masks?

Dr. Pezus

Covid is minor?
If only

It's very frustrating having Colorado go back into restrictions.

In 2020 it felt like a war effort. Do your part to help everyone.

In 2021 it's just stupidity. Why the heck can't people just vaccinate or wear masks?
The vaccinations don't prevent infections that well. See the situation over here in Iceland where almost everyone over 16 is vaccinated. They do seem to prevent serious disease pretty well though as expected.

BananaKing

It's very frustrating having Colorado go back into restrictions.

In 2020 it felt like a war effort. Do your part to help everyone.


In 2021 it's just stupidity. Why the heck can't people just vaccinate or wear masks?
I agree. With the vaccine now out, everything should basically go back to normal

Its clear you won't be able to control the virus, but the vaccine breaks the link between deaths/hospitalizations and number of infections. So even if numbers are still raising in some places, its not the lethal thing it used to be. At some point the world needs to move on, and I believe that time is now.

Legend

If only
The vaccinations don't prevent infections that well. See the situation over here in Iceland where almost everyone over 16 is vaccinated. They do seem to prevent serious disease pretty well though as expected.
I hadn't seen that reported till now. Was under the impression that they decreased transmission a lot.

Well I wouldn't call it minor but that grinds my gears I guess.

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