[blackshoe]

When I finished my last tour in the Navy, during which I spent three years on exchange with the Royal Navy, I returned to the US on a British Airways flight. Before the plane took off, the passenger in front of me (who turned out to be another American) put his seat all the way back, crushing my knees. When I asked him politely to put the seat back up, he turned to me and said indignantly "I have a right!" I replied quite calmly "I have a right too. And a left, and you're going to get them both if you don't put the seat up!" Which he did, and I had no trouble with him the rest of the flight.

[gwnn]

starting the film at the climax and then '48 hours ago...' soooo original

[Trinidad]

gwnn, on 2012-January-18, 02:58, said:

Dutch people who switch to English immediately (and permanently) as soon as I mess up one plural of one noun.

Dutch people who think that they know how to speak English but use terms like "World convention" when they mean "Leaping Michaels" (or "undertaker" when they mean "entrepreneur", i.e. someone who undertakes some activity) leaving those who actually do speak English completely confused.

Rik

[y66]

Truck drivers who don't secure the stuff in their trucks, like the guy traveling in front of me a few days ago on a freeway with a ladder that fell off and bounced toward me. I decided not to swerve because I was traveling too fast. Fortunately the ladder bounced out of my path. The guy coming up behind me in the next lane was not so fortunate.

[Elianna]

kenberg, on 2012-January-18, 07:27, said:

You might enjoy this true story.



I was a new faculty member at the University of Maryland and I needed some work done by the office. Things were not moving very fast. Someone came in and addressed me as Dr. Berg, at which the secretary said "Oh my God, I have been treating you like a graduate student".

Yep, that story sounds exactly like some of the things I was complaining about...

[jillybean]

blackshoe, on 2012-January-18, 16:00, said:

When I finished my last tour in the Navy, during which I spent three years on exchange with the Royal Navy, I returned to the US on a British Airways flight. Before the plane took off, the passenger in front of me (who turned out to be another American) put his seat all the way back, crushing my knees. When I asked him politely to put the seat back up, he turned to me and said indignantly "I have a right!" I replied quite calmly "I have a right too. And a left, and you're going to get them both if you don't put the seat up!" Which he did, and I had no trouble with him the rest of the flight.

Which reminds me of another pet peeve, Bullies.

[barmar]

I googled "airline seat recline" and found dozens of blogs and other web sites discussing reclining wars. So this appears to be a very common peave.

I admit that I never really thought about it much, as it doesn't seem like seats recline very far. But I'm a short person (5'6""), so I rarely have legroom problems that taller people do.

[barmar]

BunnyGo, on 2012-January-18, 00:09, said:

I hate when people talk about modifying percentages by a percent in an ambiguous way. An example from today's headlines "Gov. Christie proposes 10% cut to NJ income tax." Is that saying we'll save 10% more of our income, or we'll pay 10% less than what we're paying now? This also comes up a lot in political polls.

What gets me is when they talk about a percentage change to something that's already a percentage. E.g. if the tax rate is currently 5%, and they say they're increasing taxes by 1%, does that mean they're going up to 6% or 5.05%?

But I've never experienced the confusion you describe. It seems obvious to me that they mean the reduction to apply to the tax rate. If they meant that you'd keep more of your income, they'd say "10% increase in take-home pay."

To make things more confusing, we have a law in Massachusetts called "Proposition 2 1/2". It states that towns can raise property taxes by at most 2.5% each year. But it doesn't apply to the tax rate itself, it applies to the total property tax the town can levy. If home values decline, the town can raise the tax rate to make up for this, and then another 2.5% on top of that. If you happen to be lucky enough that your home's value didn't decline as much as the average, YOUR tax bill will go up more than 2.5%.

[BunnyGo]

barmar, on 2012-January-19, 03:28, said:

What gets me is when they talk about a percentage change to something that's already a percentage. E.g. if the tax rate is currently 5%, and they say they're increasing taxes by 1%, does that mean they're going up to 6% or 5.05%?

But I've never experienced the confusion you describe. It seems obvious to me that they mean the reduction to apply to the tax rate. If they meant that you'd keep more of your income, they'd say "10% increase in take-home pay."

To make things more confusing, we have a law in Massachusetts called "Proposition 2 1/2". It states that towns can raise property taxes by at most 2.5% each year. But it doesn't apply to the tax rate itself, it applies to the total property tax the town can levy. If home values decline, the town can raise the tax rate to make up for this, and then another 2.5% on top of that. If you happen to be lucky enough that your home's value didn't decline as much as the average, YOUR tax bill will go up more than 2.5%.

We're discussing the same problem, just not so clearly...but I don't think they'd say "10% increase in take-home pay" any more than they'd say "1% less take-home pay" in the example you gave.

[nigel_k]

I don't mind which way people do it, but I care if they choose the method based on whether they want the change to appear small or large.

[rogerclee]

people who like everything except country

[mycroft]

rogerclee, on 2012-January-19, 14:40, said:

people who like everything except country

Nah, I don't (usually) like opera either.

Cue the Blues Brothers reference...

[onoway]

people who put advanced or even expert on their BBO profile when they barely know the names of the suits and think they have done something remarkable when they can claim they play Stayman and know what a finesse is.

[Foxx]

Webpages that have Flash ads with sound. Good Lord. Almost as NSFW as pron, IMHO.

[Vampyr]

nigel_k, on 2012-January-19, 13:36, said:

I don't mind which way people do it, but I care if they choose the method based on whether they want the change to appear small or large.

Yes, like X increases chance of cancer by 300%, when the risk was originally one in 5 million. Sounds different to "2 more cases of cancer per 5 million people".

I also really hate the way statistics are manipulated, especially since most people will believe what the statistics framers intended them to believe.

[Vampyr]

Foxx, on 2012-January-19, 16:08, said:

Webpages that have Flash ads with sound. Good Lord. Almost as NSFW as pron, IMHO.

So you are drawing a salary for surfing the web? Nice work if you can get it...

[BunnyGo]

Vampyr, on 2012-January-20, 08:45, said:

Yes, like X increases chance of cancer by 300%, when the risk was originally one in 5 million. Sounds different to "3 more cases of cancer per 5 million people".

I also really hate the way statistics are manipulated, especially since most people will believe what the statistics framers intended them to believe.

FYP

[MickyB]

nigel_k, on 2012-January-19, 13:36, said:

I don't mind which way people do it, but I care if they choose the method based on whether they want the change to appear small or large.

I was amused by an article in the Daily Mail. Tax on second homes was reported to be increasing from 50% to 90% of the standard rate. The headline described this as a 40% increase. I wondered at the time whether the paper had deliberately got it wrong to avoid confusing their readers, at the cost of making their story sound less impressive.

[Winstonm]

The Discovery Institute

[dicklont]

gwnn, on 2012-January-18, 02:58, said:

Dutch people who switch to English immediately (and permanently) as soon as I mess up one plural of one noun.

Sorry Gwnn, we zullen het niet meer doen.