Associated Press Carelessness Reaches Boiling Point
from the forget-fact-checkers,-we-need-laugh-testers dept
Recently, we were all very proud when the Associated Press finally figured out how to use hyperlinks (sort of). But perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised that it took them so long to master such advanced technology, since it turns out they are still struggling with thermometers:
Northeast braces for temps near boiling point
NEW YORK (AP) — The extreme heat that's been roasting the eastern U.S. is only expected to get worse, and residents are bracing themselves for temperatures near and above boiling point. Weather service heat warnings and advisories have been issued Friday from Ohio to Maine.
The high temperatures and smothering humidity will force up the heat indexes. Boston's 99 degrees on Friday could feel like 105 degrees; Philadelphia's 102 degrees like 114 degrees and Washington, D.C.'s 103 degrees may seem the same as a melting 116 degrees.
I guess the AP never passed AP Chemistry, because as you've probably noticed, they have made a small conversion error. As it turns out, cheesesteaks are still the meltiest things in Philadelphia, and the Gulf of Maine has not turned into the world's biggest lobster bisque. In fact, here in Toronto we've been enduring similar temperatures for the past week, and the only damage is to our beer budgets.
(Since the AP is fond of making un-noted corrections, here's a screenshot)
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Filed Under: fact checking, journalism, temperatures
Companies: associated press
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Math, eh...
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Math, eh...
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Re:
Think about that for a second, then read the AP's headline and lead sentence again...
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I guess
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Well technically...
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Re:
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Let me bait a bit
Of course, then any sane person would think "100 degrees ambient temperature? This cannot be right, oh wait, it is just that crazy USA temperature unit again, what was that conversion formula again...?"
</troll>
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Associated Press
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I am glad that copyright is keeping this particular post from being "rewritten". Wouldn't want anyone else writing about "boiling" temperatures in the Eastern US.
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Re: Let me bait a bit
Yeah, that's the part that got me. I don't care how bad you are at math or how little you know about temperature scales, if you've ever spilled coffee on your hand you should know that "boiling point" temperatures would be a globally reported natural disaster, not a quirky weather report...
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Re:
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Re: Let me bait a bit
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Let me get out from under this bridge here...
Enjoy your silly non-standard unit of measure.
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It's just a future headline
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Re:
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So, help me understand: you are publishing, broadcasting, and distributing this but you don't want it to be published, broadcast, or distributed?
It's a wonder your industry is struggling.
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Re:
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Then I thought "Oh, it must be sarcasm."
Wait...
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Re: It's just a future headline
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"boiling point" is a turn of phrase that doesn't necessarily refer to 212 Fahrenheit.
WOB
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Re: Re: It's just a future headline
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Re: Re: It's just a future headline
Which takes us to the article: they are probably talking about the temperature in Kelvin!
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It's obvious that whoever wrote this article stupidly and carelessly mistook Fahrenheit for Centigrade and never actually thought it through. Then nobody gave it a second thought all the way through the editorial chain, and it got pushed out across the wire with a hilarious error.
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Re: Re:
;-P
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Re: Math, eh...
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Re: Re: Re: It's just a future headline
several deaths have been attributed to the event, and leading climate change skeptics have been tarred and feathered
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air pressure
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Re:
It takes skill to state the point and miss it at the same time. I tip my hat to you sir.
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Well, maybe Bromine
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Re:
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Re: Re: Let me bait a bit
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I think your overreaching here
I like TechDirt and don't care for AP but, knowing TechDirt's past reporting on AP, this reads like petty editorial bias. Please stick to items with some some substance.
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Re: I guess
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Actually, I think it is, or at least within a few degrees (100 C or 212F) so perhaps they're a little off.
On the other hand, at what temperature would you begin to boil? Me...probably long before that. I get crabby when it's 100F...a few more degrees and I'd be boiling mad.
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http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2007/06/countries-that-do-not-use-metric-system.html
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Re: I think your overreaching here
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Re: I think your overreaching here
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Re: I think your overreaching here
Really? I'm sorry, but I honestly just don't see that at all. They say boiling point twice, both in ways that suggest they mean it very literally - and they happen to be talking about temperatures crossing 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It seems entirely clear that they made a very stupid error. How is it a "metaphor"?
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Re: Re: I think your overreaching here
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I have never tested this theory though.
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Re: I think your overreaching here
"Temperatures reach a boiling point."
That's a metaphor.
"...bracing themselves for temperatures near and above boiling point."
That just sounds badly written.
But the headline?
"Northeast braces for temps near boiling point"
Unless this story has something to do with a bunch of pissed off employees from Kelly Services, I think someone just flat out fucked up.
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Re: Re: I think your overreaching here
So the only value in my comment is to let you know that one of your (non-paying) customers thinks it's a waste of time ... and I'm wasting your's and mine so I'm going to close this thread and not comment any further.
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Math FAIL
Assuming....
100 degrees Celsius equals boiling point of water (fact) and the temp in Boston is approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit (also fact) it does NOT follow that thetemperature in Boston is approaching the boiling point of water --- HUGE FAIL!
Well technically at least, I'm sure 100 degrees Fahrenheit may be A boiling point for something (or someone), it's not THE boiling point they are talking about. ;)
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Re: Re: Re: I think your overreaching here
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Re: Math, eh...
(YEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!)
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Re: I think your overreaching here
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Re: Re: Re: It's just a future headline
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Re: Re: Re: It's just a future headline
But even then, the earth will be much the same, a lot of bad things will have happened because we, nor any of earth's species, will have enough time to adapt, but we'll survive. After enough time, nature will even adapt to humans using so much carbon.
The thing is . . . we know droughts and other disasters are going to happen, and we can make everyone in the future richer than they otherwise would be by avoiding this calamity . . . so why not avoid this global calamity?
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Re: Re: Let me bait a bit
Oh, wait...
(Took me a while to get it myself, since I skipped over the headline and intro and jumped straight to the numbers. Had to reread to pick up the error)
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Re: Re: Re: Re: It's just a future headline
Now, such dire outcomes may not be *likely*, but they're definitely possible. We can see the oncoming train - it makes sense to step off the tracks.
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Re: Re: Re: I think your overreaching here
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Re: Re: Human Tempature limits
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/07/25/138603776/when-does-a-person-start-to-boil
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Why not? This is the apparent method for dealing with other first world problems.
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Re: Re: Re: Human Tempature limits
And as someone else mentioned, the boiling point of the water in you would be higher than 100C because you're a solution, not pure water, but by that point you'd be much too dead to worry about it.
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Re: Re: Re: I think your overreaching here
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Re: Re: Math, eh...
First Post Squared + Second Post Squared = Funny Squared
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Human Tempature limits
personally I like it when it is 75 degrees, not too hot to be active, but not too cool to sit around.
(PS html does a weird thing to your degrees symbols, it turns them into a "C")
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Re:
No, it isn't.
Sorry - what? The temperature of an area is not affected by humidity. 35C is 35C regardless of whether the humidity is 0% or 100%.
The humidity can affect how hot or cool the air feels, because it changes how effective the body's cooling systems are. But that doesn't change the actual temperature.
No. The wind can make the temperature seem cooler, because it can affect the body's cooling system, but it doesn't change the actual temperature of the air.
Yes, and they don't understand that 100F is not the same as 100C. That's the joke.
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....im using these words!
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Re: Let me bait a bit
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Re: air pressure
Just FYI, Mount Everest is just short of half that altitude.
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Accuracy rom newspapers...
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anonymous trolls
It's certainly related to Mike's work, in that a lot of "press coverage" is about as factual and well-researched as the opinion of Pastor Blowhard and calls into question the entire "factual" basis of these "news items."
It's also about a news organization putting out a story through multiple layers of editorial handling and review that would get you an D or F on an 8th grade writing assignment. That this type of mistake is made my "professional reporters" is exactly the type of thing Mike points out and documents in the articles he chooses to deal with.
Is that helpful, Anonymous Trolls? I hope so. Because you finally crossed the line from crabby provocateurs into ludicrious self-mockery. Or maybe that was your plan?
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Re: AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
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Re: Re: Re: Math, eh...
*runs*
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Re: Re: Re: Let me bait a bit
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Steamy baby!
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Steamy baby!
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Offshoring Work.
There is a genre of jokes about people trying to operate in a language not their own. One of my favorites, in Maria Von Trapp's autobiography, concerns a German immigrant who told a New York grocer (in the 1940's): "Behold your asparagus! For twenty-five cents, I can become asparagus around the corner." (German: Behalten = Keep, Bekammen = Get, Obtain).
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It was clearly a stupid mistake on the AP's part, and to claim otherwise is just ridiculous.
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Re: Re: Let me bait a bit
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Hmmmm
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Re: Re: Re: Re: It's just a future headline
You sure he didn't just pee in the pool?
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Re: Re: Re: It's just a future headline
When the Earth gets hot, the poles become tropical and the tropics become in hospitable dry desert wastelands where anything that can burn generally does. ... It won't get that bad.
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you are honestly telling me that sounds like a casual usage to you?
Well, suit yourself, but I can't agree.
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Are you telling me that the same article is claiming water melts at 116 degrees?
I don't know, maybe the guy is obsessed with phase change metaphors. I think he probably didn't know enough to tell when it sounded like scientific usage like it does in the phrase you quoted. But reading the whole article gives me a different impression.
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But whatever. There's no clear answer unless the author speaks. A lot of people have picked up this story though (and not through me), so I'm afraid you're in the minority.
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Grilling point
When did the boiling point become such a high temperature?
Out here we grill our steaks on the sidewalk.
Now, let me know when they reach the "grilling point", then we can talk.
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I'm afraid you're in the minority.
I'm used to it.
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