Confusing headlines

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Man in Space
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by Man in Space »

Raphael wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 1:26 am
alice wrote: Tue May 12, 2026 2:34 pm
bradrn wrote: Mon May 11, 2026 4:19 pm Illicit whisky still uncovered after 200 years
*I* was going to post that!!!

Apparently they're debating whether (1) it's drinkable
That might depend on whether, by "drinkable", you mean "not any more downright poisonous than distilled alcohol generally is", or "acceptable to the tastebuds of people used to drinking the finest Scottish whiskies".
Or “technically you can drink it but you won’t come out alive”.
Ares Land
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by Ares Land »

Every liquid is drinkable, at least once :)
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by zompist »

Ares Land wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 3:34 am Every liquid is drinkable, at least once :)
Wait till you try root beer.
Travis B.
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by Travis B. »

zompist wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 3:40 am
Ares Land wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 3:34 am Every liquid is drinkable, at least once :)
Wait till you try root beer.
Hey! Root beer is good!
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by zompist »

Travis B. wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 9:07 am
zompist wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 3:40 am
Ares Land wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 3:34 am Every liquid is drinkable, at least once :)
Wait till you try root beer.
Hey! Root beer is good!
Yes, but you're American, that's the point. Non-Americans generally think it's horrible.
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by Travis B. »

zompist wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 2:50 pm
Travis B. wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 9:07 am
zompist wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 3:40 am

Wait till you try root beer.
Hey! Root beer is good!
Yes, but you're American, that's the point. Non-Americans generally think it's horrible.
I remember reading on how Linus Torvalds commented on how he found root beer awful and how he viewed non-root beer as the "good stuff", when I personally love root beer and I find non-root beer to be not very palatable.
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bradrn
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by bradrn »

A headline confusing for a reason entirely different from the usual syntactic ambiguity:

How to kick down a door without breaking your ankle

Concise, to the point, descriptive, and totally baffling.
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Man in Space
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by Man in Space »

bradrn wrote: Thu May 14, 2026 9:58 am A headline confusing for a reason entirely different from the usual syntactic ambiguity:

How to kick down a door without breaking your ankle

Concise, to the point, descriptive, and totally baffling.
Useful in emergency situations.
bradrn
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by bradrn »

Man in Space wrote: Thu May 14, 2026 10:46 am
bradrn wrote: Thu May 14, 2026 9:58 am A headline confusing for a reason entirely different from the usual syntactic ambiguity:

How to kick down a door without breaking your ankle

Concise, to the point, descriptive, and totally baffling.
Useful in emergency situations.
Well, I’ll take your word for it…
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Travis B.
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by Travis B. »

bradrn wrote: Thu May 14, 2026 9:58 am A headline confusing for a reason entirely different from the usual syntactic ambiguity:

How to kick down a door without breaking your ankle

Concise, to the point, descriptive, and totally baffling.
Somehow I'm not confused at all about this, unlike the last headline that left me wondering whether the whisky was still drinkable.
Yaaludinuya siima d'at yiseka wohadetafa gaare.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
bradrn
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by bradrn »

Travis B. wrote: Thu May 14, 2026 1:21 pm
bradrn wrote: Thu May 14, 2026 9:58 am A headline confusing for a reason entirely different from the usual syntactic ambiguity:

How to kick down a door without breaking your ankle

Concise, to the point, descriptive, and totally baffling.
Somehow I'm not confused at all about this, unlike the last headline that left me wondering whether the whisky was still drinkable.
It’s confusing more in the sense of, ‘why on Earth would they have an article on that?’…
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linguistcat
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by linguistcat »

bradrn wrote: Thu May 14, 2026 1:23 pm
Travis B. wrote: Thu May 14, 2026 1:21 pm
bradrn wrote: Thu May 14, 2026 9:58 am A headline confusing for a reason entirely different from the usual syntactic ambiguity:

How to kick down a door without breaking your ankle

Concise, to the point, descriptive, and totally baffling.
Somehow I'm not confused at all about this, unlike the last headline that left me wondering whether the whisky was still drinkable.
It’s confusing more in the sense of, ‘why on Earth would they have an article on that?’…
Would you rather break your ankle when kicking down a door? :P
A cat and a linguist.
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Man in Space
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by Man in Space »

A Guardian headline c/o Threads user @pplatt69:

Scientists find 30 potential new species at bottom of deep sea using robots
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Raphael
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by Raphael »

Man in Space wrote: Fri May 15, 2026 5:49 pm A Guardian headline c/o Threads user @pplatt69:

Scientists find 30 potential new species at bottom of deep sea using robots
Now why isn't this THE big news that everyone is talking about?
Richard W
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by Richard W »

Raphael wrote: Fri May 15, 2026 11:59 pm
Man in Space wrote: Fri May 15, 2026 5:49 pm A Guardian headline c/o Threads user @pplatt69:

Scientists find 30 potential new species at bottom of deep sea using robots
Now why isn't this THE big news that everyone is talking about?
Deeply implausible. Why would a deep sea organism make a machine to do the work of a man?
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Man in Space
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by Man in Space »

Richard W wrote: Sun May 17, 2026 3:47 am
Raphael wrote: Fri May 15, 2026 11:59 pm
Man in Space wrote: Fri May 15, 2026 5:49 pm A Guardian headline c/o Threads user @pplatt69:

Scientists find 30 potential new species at bottom of deep sea using robots
Now why isn't this THE big news that everyone is talking about?
Deeply implausible. Why would a deep sea organism make a machine to do the work of a man?
Why were the robots using the deep sea in the first place? And did the organisms just get inside the robots’ chassises or did they take them apart by force?
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by Travis B. »

I'm frankly wondering how we didn't all hear about the robot-using deep sea organisms outside of this thread. You'd think that this would be huge news that would be covering the Internet.
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Man in Space
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Re: Confusing headlines

Post by Man in Space »

Travis B. wrote: Sun May 17, 2026 8:01 pmI'm frankly wondering how we didn't all hear about the robot-using deep sea organisms outside of this thread. You'd think that this would be huge news that would be covering the Internet.
Well, as Popular Science tells us:

Mysterious giant sharks that outlived the dinosaurs lurking in Puget Sound

Given a choice between dinosaurs and no dinosaurs, the public always responds better to something with dinosaurs.
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