Annoying

[wstol]

Why do people talk like such berks nowadays?

They talk about combined ages.

Or combined totals.

For example, there's three old bats in a nursing homes - their ages are 87, 89 and 92.

And this stupid young reporter has to get excited and talk about their combined age of 268 years.

Meaningless.

They are of similar ages, and have each lived somewhere between 87 and 92 years - not 268.

I'll give you another.

Father and son business. The father has been at it 46 years, the son 22 years. Some prat decides to tell all and sundry that that's 68 years of experience.

It isn't.

Meaningless.

 

[wstol]

I'll give you another one.

There's three men and a woman who have been dealing drugs, and have been sentenced for a combined sentence of 41 years.

Meaningless.

 

[maltrab]

I agree like they cannot explain the actual size of something so they use either, 4 football pitches, 3 olympic size swimming pools, so many london double deckers and the best one 6 aircraft carriers,all of this means nothing to me

 

[Pearl]

Three people sentenced to a total of 50 years?? Pointless reporting.

 

[captain clutterbuck]

The combined IQ of a Premiership football team wouldn't reach three figures [anon Private Eye]

 

[barmpot]

I agree like they cannot explain the actual size of something so they use either, 4 football pitches, 3 olympic size swimming pools, so many london double deckers and the best one 6 aircraft carriers,all of this means nothing to me

The only one of these I have any sure recollection of size is a London double decker - for simple reason when younger (at school) regularly travelled in a LT bus and if sat behind the driver the dimensions were written up in the cab

Height: 14' 6"
Width: 7' 6"
Length: 27' 6"

and for some reason that stuck in the memory! I make that 192 to the mile

 

[brendalovescompo]

Father and son business. The father has been at it 46 years, the son 22 years. Some prat decides to tell all and sundry that that's 68 years of experience.

It isn't.

Meaningless.

It just tells me that the son has been handing the dad a screwdriver or holding a flashlight (torch) for 22 years. Thought it was just me!

 

[Big Unc]

I do agree with most of what has been said but have one personal caveat. I have always had a hangup about the size of an acre. What does a housing density of "ten houses per acre" imply, for example. It was only when I could fix an acre as approximately the size of a 50 by 100 yard football pitch that I could really visualise it.

And if you are daft enough to want to read all about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acre

 

[Pearl]

My brain just exploded Big Unc. I have no idea what an acre is or what the size of a football pitch but I'm happy being clueless.

 

[Big Unc]

My brain just exploded Big Unc. I have no idea what an acre is or what the size of a football pitch but I'm happy being clueless.

Of course, we have adopted that nasty continental measure, the hectare, around 2.5 acres.

​

 

[Adanor]

So what is the bottom line? I wish to hypothesize that we are intrinsically wired to look at the bottom line and that bottom line is always a total. So reflexively we always add things up to arrive at a total. Even if the total is meaningless. Even if the total doesn't make sense, we are just wired like that.

 

[Marianna]

It was only when I could fix an acre as approximately the size of a 50 by 100 yard football pitch that I could really visualize it.

Having grown up on a 150-acre farm, half tillable or pasture and half wooded, I can easily visualize an acre. So when I first read Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner at age six, I knew immediately how big the 'undred Acre Wood was. I later learned that the Hundred Acre Wood is only part of the Ashdown Forest.

Marianna

 

[wstol]

So what is the bottom line? I wish to hypothesize that we are intrinsically wired to look at the bottom line and that bottom line is always a total. So reflexively we always add things up to arrive at a total. Even if the total is meaningless. Even if the total doesn't make sense, we are just wired like that.

I'm not sure what you mean.

While I am often often aware how old someone is, or how long something has lasted, or even trying to get to a 'nice round number' or at least an even number to conclude things, I certainly don't go round adding all the seperate totals together.

 

[barmpot]

Q!

Bottom line relates to Balance sheets and Profit and Loss accounts - the bottom line is either net assets or profit/loss respectively. Both important numbers if you are in business.

But increasingly it is being used in a non financial sense and thus loses clarity, and can be almost meaningless - or as politicians are calling them RED LINES.

Heard of red sails in the sunset but we were never allowed to draw in red ink at school!

 

[barmpot]

How did I get a Q! in that last post?

 

[Big Unc]

Bottom line relates to Balance sheets and Profit and Loss accounts - the bottom line is either net assets or profit/loss respectively. Both important numbers if you are in business.

But increasingly it is being used in a non financial sense and thus loses clarity, and can be almost meaningless - or as politicians are calling them RED LINES.

Heard of red sails in the sunset but we were never allowed to draw in red ink at school!

In my time working with the Royal Navy I once signed something in red ink and was told by a RN Commander that only Rear Admirals were allows to sign in red.

 

[Pearl]

Of course, we have adopted that nasty continental measure, the hectare, around 2.5 acres.

​

No.

 

[barmpot]

In my time working with the Royal Navy I once signed something in red ink and was told by a RN Commander that only Rear Admirals were allows to sign in red.

And in finance red usually meant over-drawn; can still recall bank statements with entries in red with the appendage o/d which I always thought meant "oh dear".

As one of my sisters was told in her spendthrift days by the bank that the idea was that she banked with them, not they banked with her!

 

[Big Unc]

In my time working with the Royal Navy I once signed something in red ink and was told by a RN Commander that only Rear Admirals were allows to sign in red.

And even green ink was a no no. Reserved for Vice Admirals. Reminds me of a trivia question. what is colour of queen's blotting paper? BLACK.

 

[barmpot]

And even green ink was a no no. Reserved for Vice Admirals. Reminds me of a trivia question. what is colour of queen's blotting paper? BLACK.

Green used for auditors in business and finance.

I used to use purple when at school in the early 1960s - nobody had laid a claim to it at that stage!