Some new notes

Forestry Notes

 

For anyone who wonders what the heck I do for a living, this video may help. No, it’s not about the joys of double-entry bookkeeping, but rather it’s a multimedia video produced by the European Forest Institute (no, I didn’t know there was such a thing either).

The video, European Forests: Central to the World we Live in, gives an overall picture of Europe’s most versatile ecological infrastructure. It’s an illuminating 10 minutes.  

Janesy Notes

Janesy’s blog, the kraken wakes, is taking on a life of its own. As well as there being far greater productivity than this here blog, as well as being somewhat more provocative and edgy (sweary in other words), and a damn sight funnier, it has now moved on to new realms. 

For the grand sum of 99p, you can now download a copy of the blog for the Kindle, via Amazon. I kid you not. Go look here.

Pedantry Notes

Good article in The Times this weekend about lazy journalism, and use of words like ‘more’ and ‘less’.

“If I have 100 objects, and someone else has ‘three times more than’ I, how many does that person have? Three times 100 = 300, therefore three times more is 100 + 300 = 400. However, I suspect that in most cases the writer means 300, that is to say three times as many as I.

“If someone else has ‘three time fewer than’ I, how many does that person have? Three times fewer than 100 is then 100 - 300 which equals minus 200. Does the writer mean one third the number I have? Or possibly one third fewer.

“The same applies to ‘less’, e.g. three times less wine than before. Is this meant to mean one third as much or one third less? Why can’t you say what you really mean?”

Wise words there from a fellow pedant.