The kind of stuff that makes you choke over your breakfast. This from the world’s most read English Language Newspaper.
Sphere: Related Content
Clap
Mar 312010
Jan 142010
Once again my eye chances upon something that induces your my jaw to hit the floor and come back up in very, very slow motion. The world’s largest selling English language daily in association with the owner of an IPL team bring you this :
as my biz partner SR would point out “paidayashi aise the, ki halaat ne aapko aise banaya”.
Sphere: Related Content
Oct 032009
Where there is friendship, can originship be far away ?
This from the DNA :
Am not sure if this is the DNA or PTI – but it seems as if all newspapers and news agencies have laid off the copy team.
p.s. – i don’t go looking for copy mistakes, they just rise out of the page and thump me !
Sphere: Related ContentClap
Oct 022009
rather boring three days. was at holy spirit for death by boredom and a zillion and one tests. caught up on reading and actually read the newspapers instead of getting a RSS feed. Almost died of a heart attack when i saw this :
i can’t make up stuff like this 
Clap
Sep 292009
Dictionary.com has around 76 known usages of the word cast.
I am reproducing 6 of those here, do check out the rest – they too are illuminating !
–verb (used with object)
1. to throw or hurl; fling: The gambler cast the dice.
2. to throw off or away: He cast the advertisement in the wastebasket.
3. to direct (the eye, a glance, etc.), esp. in a cursory manner: She cast her eyes down the page.
4. to cause to fall upon something or in a certain direction; send forth: to cast a soft light; to cast a spell; to cast doubts.
5. to draw (lots), as in telling fortunes.
6. Angling.
a. to throw out (a fishing line, net, bait, etc.): The fisherman cast his line.
b. to fish in (a stream, an area, etc.): He has often cast this brook.
It has 6 different uses of the word caste :
1. Sociology.
a. an endogamous and hereditary social group limited to persons of the same rank, occupation, economic position, etc., and having mores distinguishing it from other such groups.
b. any rigid system of social distinctions.
2. Hinduism. any of the social divisions into which Hindu society is traditionally divided, each caste having its own privileges and limitations, transferred by inheritance from one generation to the next; jati. Compare class (def. 13).
3. any class or group of society sharing common cultural features: low caste; high caste.
4. social position conferred upon one by a caste system: to lose caste.
5. Entomology. one of the distinct forms among polymorphous social insects, performing a specialized function in the colony, as a queen, worker or soldier.
–adjective
6. of, pertaining to, or characterized by caste: a caste society; a caste system; a caste structure.
Times of India – the world’s leading English Language newspaper – as a part of its austerity drive, has gotten rid of its dictionaries as raddi, and its copy editors have been deputed to make chai -as a part of their head count rationalisation measures. All very commendable, and possibly explains this story :
@vijaysankaran tweeted on, well, twitter
@calamur give toi a break:-)..they think of cast all the time. Diol bole cast on set, wanted star cast, katrina cast with srk, ….:-)
I could say a 100 things or more – but i guess a picture speaks more than words
Clap
Jun 182009
choking on your coffee is not the best way to wake up.
as i was catching up on the morning’s headlines on google news – this one caught my eye.
fYi – there is no word called fule
copy editor - is not someone who copies from the net and pastses pastes on-line
I hope that this didn’t get printed, and is only there in the on-line edition.
And finally, to err is human. But, to put it on-line without checking is asking for trouble
Clap
Oct 062008
This from the DNA in “Why are we comfortably numb in a violent decade?” on violence in media and on whether it numbs us.
It starts with a ‘quote’
‘Violence repels us but violence also attracts us;
Violence alarms us but violence also entertains us;
Violence destroys us but violence also protects us.’The above lines are taken from a report by the World Council of Journalism and epitomise the times we live in today.
Guess what, the World Council of Journalism doesn’t exist, except in an article by the DNA. What made me google it – well, something about ‘council’ set off my alarm bells. Councils govern. and no self respecting journalist ought to be a member of a council. An association yes, a club yes. a council …. i seriously don’t know.
So I googled the quote – the bit on violence attracting & entertaining. there is one source for the entire quote – A Book called “Art therapy and Political Violence” and the quote is attributed to the World Council of Churches.
It is possible that the World Council of Journalism exists in a ramshackled old shed somewhere and doesn’t have an online presence. In which case, I apologise. But, i have this terrible feeling that a source has been manufactured and not very intelligently.
The piece contains other gems such as:
Even music, the medium of Beethoven and Chaurasia has mot been spared the lyrics of bloody mayhem. Genres like death metal, and to an extent hip hop have used violence to lure the youth to their corners.
Ahem, music is not a medium. sound is. air waves are. radio is. music is an art form.
Sphere: Related ContentClap
Jul 012008
Was in Sri Lanka for a week, for a reccie for a NGO film. I didn’t really do the tourist circuit, but saw the Sri Lanka in which people live a work. Villages & communities recovering from the Tsunami, villages and communities coping with a changing environment that can have serious repercussions on their lives and livelihood. ….
The first thing that strikes about Sri Lanka is that it is so very beautiful. the second thing that strikes you is the silence — people don’t drive with their hands on the horn, the third thing that strikes you is that it is beautiful, and the fourth and the fifth…..
Clap
May 312008
One of the most difficult parts of teaching is making sure that students get it into their heads that plagiarism is wrong.I am known to have thrown bitch fits when i have discovered chunks of projects from the net. ‘you will lose your job’ i tell them, ‘no one will hire you’, ‘it is stealing’ …….
But, at the back of my mind I know that – the message may not get through. After all this is a country where people attain success through blatant lifting of ideas, music, formats and other rights. There seems to be no penalty, only successes. Although recent cases give hope to the notion of ownership of copyright, the bulk of the times copyright is taken as the right to copy 
So, it is hardly surprising that the Hindustan Times got the wrong definition of copyright when they used Nita’s picture without attribution, or permission or payment.
I wonder what i should tell my students the next time someone decides to pass on someone else’s work as their own ! It’s ok, the HT will hire you, it seems to be company policy !!
Sphere: Related ContentClap
May 052008
The day after news channels and politicians got their combined knickers in a twist about George Bush’s comments on India’s food consumption contributing to rising prices some interesting stats :
Figures released by the US Department of Agriculture for 2007 say each Indian eats only 178 kg of grain in a year, while a US citizen consumes 1,046 kg.
Likewise, milk consumption per person per year is 36 kg in India, while in the United States is 78 kg. While each American consumes 45.5 kg poultry meat per year, an Indian takes in only 1.9 kg.
Besides, while the US per capita grain consumption rose from 946 kg in 2003 to 1,046 kg in 2007, India’s per capita consumption remained static during this period.
I am too lazy to do primary research. I am sure that Arab News has not made up the figures and it comes from the correct primary source. (aside – ToI carried a similar piece yesterday, here.
I also think that while Bush is an ass and a moron, he has been taken out of context and hammered, and this is not a new phenomenon for the Indian media. They did that to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not so long ago when they went to town with ‘PM says that Musllims must have first claim on resources. ‘
Sphere: Related ContentClap
You Said