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How cold was it?
I guess there's nothing surprising about the press writing about the cold weather instead of Senator Obama's speech. But why say that it was subzero and also that it was 7 degrees F? I'm not thinking seven is warm but it is higher than zero; at least I thought it was.
Barack Obama has already had to endure stories of surpassing silliness and evil innuendo and absolute falsehood. More is in store for him and all who hope for a better America. But let the word go forth: plus seven is not below zero.
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If it were up to the increasingly insular upper class Ivy League press corps, you'd never hear or see anyone outside of NY, DC or CA.
But thanks, you've just reminded me of another good thing about Obama. Anyone who can grow up in Hawaii and move to Illinois winters by choice is a someone who demonstrates the capacity to change and grow (unlike the Washington press corps).
February 10, 2007 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe they were thinking that 7 degrees Farenheit is actually below zero in Centigrade. I offer this only because I know what deep thinkers we are constantly exposed to by those who choose to talk about the weather instead of, for example, a MOMENTOUS OCCASION!
HMMMM, much easier to talk about the weather. I wonder if they were peeing on the sidewalk and timing how long it took to freeze.
Jan Knaus
February 10, 2007 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Continued use of the Fahrenheit temperature scale is just another instance of US exceptionalism. In Australia and the UK we maqnaged to painlessly quit that nonsense decades ago. That billion dollar initial mistake with the Hubble telescope wouldn't have happened if the US had gone metric like the remainder of the former imperial-measurement English-speaking world.
February 10, 2007 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, you folks are in the distinct minority on which side of the road to use.
Being fair, units were an issue in the loss of the Mars Polar Lander (Newtons vs. pounds of thrust) but not for Hubble. That was due to setup error in the test rig. A reflection off the aiming cap that sits on the end of a measuring rod placed the distance to the mirror surface as about one mm closer than it was. Still works pretty damn well, don't ya think?
In any case, while colloquial use and manufactured products are mostly in English units, here, all science and much engineering reasearch is done in metric units.
February 10, 2007 3:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Journalists eager to be seen as dedicated and weather-hardy newshounds may have 'corn'fused actual temperatures with the so-called 'wind chill' temperatures, which state an actual temperature equivalent in terms of heat loss of skin exposed to a given wind at a given temperature.
You can bet that their narrative will include heroic descriptors whenever it reflects on them.
February 10, 2007 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Never mind.
February 10, 2007 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
As my mother used to say it was colder than a well digger's hoo hoo. The old decaying state capitol building, made out of sandstone looks like it belongs in Athens. They had to be happy with the turnout, must've been at least 30 buses from all over the state. I understand they expected 17,000 plus. At least 10 satellite trucks. I was interviewed by a camera crew from God knows where while standing in line. If you see a blue faced, snot nosed 51 year old in a White Sox hat saying I like Obama for his big brain and big heart that's me. After standing in the cold for an hour both he and Durbin were blessedly short.
February 10, 2007 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, you were cute! Blue and snot-nosed is the new hot!
Jan Knaus
February 10, 2007 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Glad to see that media bias boils down to an editing error over temperatures or perhaps a willingness to take "subzero" to mean "subfreezing," as I myself often do. (I'm a science editor, but other posts reminding us of U.S. exceptionalism in metric matters are not worthless.)
Reed might wish to count to 10 before posting.It's also wise, of course, to link to articles rather than display a long URL, with unfortunate consequences for the home page.
Alas, to my mind, Reed was valuable here in reflecting on his tenure in office dealing with media control, and I wish he would return to his area of expertise. Too many wasted posts, in my humble opinion.
John
http://www.haberarts.com/
February 10, 2007 6:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am quite sure the press folks were discreet enough not to pee on the sidewalk, except for those who tested the temperature by sticking their tongue on a light post. What else could they do then?
By the way "centigrade" is just so....not with it nowadays. We say "celsius" now. Would this be the place to devote a few pages of comments to the reason for this?
Hoppy in Sacramento
February 10, 2007 6:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
My kids make fun of me because I say "centigrade" when any NORMAL person uses "celsius." Is one cooler than the other, or is one really right and the other wrong? I will keep on saying Centigrade because they shamed me into saying, "SaturDAY, SunDAY, MonDAY" instead of StaturDY, SunDY, MonDY, etc, so I am holding my ground on this vestige of ancientness.
With much work, I changed the weekday pronunciations because they said I sounded like a "hick." OK, I REALLY changed it because Dubya also says SunDY, etc!
Jan Knaus
February 10, 2007 7:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seriously did you see it? The mystery camera crew was wore no insignia and I didn't think to ask where they were from until they were gone.
February 10, 2007 9:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
U r probably right!
February 11, 2007 6:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not sure. I didn't notice the type of hat, because I had seen it before your post. Let's just say it WAS you, because it probably was, anyway! (That was good enough for WMD's, right?)
Jan Knaus
February 11, 2007 8:31 AM | Reply | Permalink