by charles thiesen - gather's only god, proud to be from gay-supporting Massachusetts
Member since:
January 14, 2006

OSA: The barbarians are at the gate, the decline is over and the fall has begun

April 07, 2008 01:01 PM EDT (Updated: April 07, 2008 02:13 PM EDT)
views: 103 | comments: 32

A front page headline in today's New York Times, above an article about foreign corporations buying American factories, read:

When Foreigners by the Factory

link to this page
Bookmark this post:
Facebook
Twitter
Delicious
Buzz
More

Comments: 32

Lainie - Just Lainie Apr 7, 2008, 1:03pm EDT
Oy vey.
Deborah O. Apr 7, 2008, 1:03pm EDT
a trend that has been going on for the last decade
Aniko   Apr 7, 2008, 1:15pm EDT
And soon we'll all be speaking English Vulgar.

(It's spelled correctly in the online version.)
penni d. Apr 7, 2008, 1:20pm EDT
Sooo, who has bought Most of America, oh, god of gather? I must know of what language we be speaking as "national" in the near futrure..:)
Wear our there centses?
Dame Ruth, Chief Executive Elitist D. Apr 7, 2008, 1:29pm EDT
Maybe they were trying to say foreigners were passing up factories? Nah.
I should specify that this is not about the content of the headline, it is about the typo: by for Buy.
I don't think companies that buy US factories are barbarians. I think the New York Times having a typo of that magnitude on the front page presages the end of civilization.
Pat D. Apr 7, 2008, 1:36pm EDT
It puzzles me why in era of spellchecking software, there seem to be more spelling errors in print then ever.

I think we need a good olf fashioned collapse of civilization. Clear the decks, clean out the gene pool, and start over. I have no doubt that I will be in the first wave of casualities.
Pat, its because of reliance on spellchecking that homophones like this, which spellcheckers can't catch, have become more prevalent in print.
Spell checkers aren't anywhere near smart enough to catch homophones. Given the state of AI tech, it's going to be a long time before they are. Grammar checking produces hilarious results. Try a predicate adjective on the grammar checker in Word. :)
Dora The Explorer and Nai Hao Kai Lan are the most popular programs on Nick, Jr.

Coincidence?
CC Miranda the artrat (or am i?) Apr 7, 2008, 1:50pm EDT
so i wonder if that's copy editor's job is now being advertised in the NY Times.
Dannielle S. Apr 7, 2008, 2:03pm EDT
*sigh*

At my job, I download Library of Congress database records, and I find similar errors. We are supposed to be hired because we are extremely detail-oriented: that's what we're paid to be, because that's what the job demands. And yet, there are homophone errors, transposed letters, and misspellings.

It's not a good sign if the excuse is reliance upon computer programs, either. What happens when we have no computers? Can we communicate effectively any more? It was possible just 30 years ago, but now I'm not so sure. A whole generation has been raised on immediate gratification and carelessness auto-corrected.
Oh, weight! I finally got the point...
I don't think reliance on computers is an excuse. I doubt that the Times headline writer or copy editor who let this through can fall back on that one either. But it is, in many cases, the reason homophones slip through. It's why I read everything I write for there/their/they're errors. Apparently my fingers type phonetically even though I understand the distinction.
Pat D. Apr 7, 2008, 2:24pm EDT
Apparently the NY Times is not 'vetting' the headlines.
;-)
Dannielle S. Apr 7, 2008, 2:27pm EDT
Some folks have MS Word on "auto-correct" and it changes what they've typed, too, or at least challenges their choices and probably gets them to incorrectly second-guess themselves.

Either way, I'm betting they pay well enough at the NYT to expect someone to catch such a goof before they print.
I think the problem is that English has enough homophones that flagging every one in a document more than 10 words long would create a lot of work for whoever is editing. The only software solution to the homophone problem is software that understands the language. We're quite a ways from that.

AI is pretty much where it was in the 80s. There are some areas where it's valuable and a lot where it isn't. Pattern matching is very hard to code. I think most people in the field believe we need an entirely different model than anything we've tried so far.

A pigeon is better at visual pattern matching than any software yet developed. B. F. Skinner wasn't as loony as people thought when he suggested pigeon guidance systems for drone bombs during WWII.
Wilma D. Apr 7, 2008, 3:17pm EDT
Wow-NYT. what is the world coming to?
Penny G. Apr 7, 2008, 5:08pm EDT
Given the ever increasing use of IM and text-speak, I doubt the next generation will even know the differene, much less care.
Kris M. Apr 7, 2008, 9:00pm EDT
I'm going to send the NYT my resume on the assumption that tomorrow they'll need to hire a new and improved copy editor.

Here's another good one, from tonight's local news: I live in SC. The state capital is Columbia. There was a news story referring to Colombia. Guess how Colombia was spelled in the story graphic?... I wanted to beat my head against the wall, and then I really, REALLY wanted to beat some graphics hack's head against a wall.
Even money "Colombia" and "Columbia" get interchanged. I usually have closed captioning on. If you want to have spelling fun, try that for a while. For live programs I'm willing to cut some slack since there's no chance to edit. For Law and Order and CSI reruns I'm much less forgiving.
Kathleen ♥ L. Apr 7, 2008, 10:34pm EDT
So much for the English language! Bad enough there are two types; American English and UK English. Worse when the NYT can't get either one correct...
Doyle ( IS SOOO 7 for 7 soon... ) C. Apr 8, 2008, 7:44pm EDT
It's IS the IN dove civilian-ization!

Regards,
Doyle I <~~~~~
Charles Temm JR Oct 19, 2008, 5:44pm EDT
we went through this in the 90s too...somehow we survived...
James C. Oct 19, 2008, 6:17pm EDT
This is an old concern. Back many years the joke was that the Japanese would buy up the nation. But the answer was, "the Arabs won't sell!" Soon it will be "the Chinese won't sell!"
Charles, James, my concern was not with the content of the article, but that THE NEW YORK TIMES, wrote 'by' for 'buy'.
James C. Oct 21, 2008, 5:53pm EDT
Charles,

No paper in the country hires proof readers anymore and the spell checkers will buy either "by" or "buy"! My wife reads those idiotic errors and sits there and fumes. I tell her to get over it, such is the future, like it or not.
"I tell her to get over it, such is the future, like it or not."

But James, that was a front page headline in the New York Times. The barbarians are at the gates! The decline is over and the fall has begun.
David S. Nov 24, 2008, 10:03am EST
Well, there you have it!


Thistles at Sunrise

Join the Conversation
Chime in! Become a Gather member to comment.
Already a member? Sign in
top
 
Gather | Friends | Groups | Share
About Gather | Engagement Marketing | Make New Friends | Gather Points | Advertise on Gather | Gather Press | Privacy | Terms of Service | Community Guidelines
Books | Celebs | Entertainment | Family | Food | Health | Moms | Money | News | Politics | Spirituality | Sports | Travel | Writing
Version 16961, "Pacino"; Copyright © 2009 Gather Inc. All rights reserved.