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Culture: Pedantry
More accurate building names   (+7, -4)  [vote for, against]
Enough of this terminological inexactitude on building names

Whilst riding around on the Tube, I was struck by the name of the Oval station, in way could it be described as oval,see link.

When listening to the news, I could not help but notice that it mentioned the Pentagon...

Even on the very simplest level, it's not a pentagon, as a pentagon is 2 dimensional. It might be described as a pentagonal prism, but I prefer to think of it as a septagon. Five sides, a top and a bottom. seven sides.

Can I call on my fellow halfbakers to refuse to use such a wooly description in the daily life?

I propose a device, an automated system, that finds buildings with geometric name by scanning the internet which then runs image recognition software on the photos of said buildings, then sends facile emails, with an admixture of very poor jokes and cheap puns until the victims, ermm, building managers find a more accurate name. There could be a google earth add-on in there somewhere.
-- random_patenter_syndrome_victim, Nov 17 2009

Oval Station wiki http://en.wikipedia...i/Oval_tube_station
Link to Oval station wiki [random_patenter_syndrome_victim, Nov 17 2009]

We will pledge ourselves to fight unto your death to promote this idea, [random_patenter_ syndrome_victim]...

[+]
-- 8th of 7, Nov 17 2009


//Can I call on my fellow halfbakers to refuse to use such a wooly description in the daily life?// Yup. Don't expect us to agree with you on what to call things, though - if we can't argue, we go comatose and die.
-- lurch, Nov 17 2009


//Whilst riding around on the Tube, I was struck by the name of the Oval station//

They really should screw those signs up a bit tighter.
-- DrBob, Nov 17 2009


//I prefer to think of it as a septagon//
At it's simplest level, the 'Pentagon' is a toroidal dodecahedron, but then there's 5 'rings' that are essentially separate, so it could be described as a nested penta-toroidal hexacontrahedron (sp?).
-- neutrinos_shadow, Nov 17 2009


that's a funny observation, but it's not a halfbakery invention... which you've now wrapped into a threadbare excuse for a mechanism, njjjjrg.
-- jutta, Nov 17 2009


"Leicester Square; Russell Square; Sloane Square; Euston Square; Arsenal."

Understandably, it's the Arsenal one that really worries me :)

"They really should screw those signs up a bit tighter." Should have been wearing my brass perforated trilby, actually I think the tube is screwed up enough as it is..

"Colonel, these are the latest orders from the Nested Penta-toroidal Hexacontrahedron". I like it! And a good way to prevent wars, by the time people have pronounced the name they will have lost the element of surprise, or maybe kind of counting up to 10 for military folk?

"And you can't spell woolly, either" U hav noh ideuh howe mayknee wurds eye carn't spel. But, seriously I think that might be a US/UK English difference? Like axe and ax.

"Each floor of the Pentagon is a pentagon" Umm, they're the only 2D floors in the entire world? Damn, that's definitely been reverse-engineered off that downed Roswell UFO.
-- random_patenter_syndrome_victim, Nov 18 2009


// brass perforated trilby //

You can forego the brass trilby if you travel by Leather Omnibus, but be sure to wear your Moriarty Nose Protector in case of Punch-Up-The-Conking.

Batter Pudding, anyone ?

// that's definitely been reverse-engineered off that downed Roswell UFO //

Too right, the damn Army cares nothing for our patent rights on that .....
-- 8th of 7, Nov 18 2009


And you're from the UK but you spell in US English? Mmmkay... — UnaBubba,

Well I can either go for

1)it's a fair cop but society's to blame. Actually, I spent a long time teaching American English out east..my Japanese mate laughed at me when I said "elevator". It's a cruel world.. or 2) I'm fighting a one-person campaign against lexicographical geographism, we live in a networked world and isn't it time we turned our backs on those passe sovereign state based language paradigms?

On revue, option1 is less likely to have me referred to mental instituition, but option 2 would get me an Arts Council grant. You decide/
-- random_patenter_syndrome_victim, Nov 19 2009


I bunned this with a flat bun, but I have always had a problem with a city that I travel to and people say - "go up to the square" and that place is an absolute circle!
-- xandram, Nov 19 2009


//On revue// I must be tired.

Actually I quite like American English, like "in back of" it's a bit more logical, but then again you get things like "My bad"...took me 3 years to actually find out what it meant..

But, don't even get me started on onety-one, onety-two and so on for 11, 12 etc
-- random_patenter_syndrome_victim, Nov 19 2009


Yes, what's wrong with "eleventeen" ?

<'Enery 'Iggins>

"Why can't the English teach their children how to speak ?"

</'Enery 'Iggins>
-- 8th of 7, Nov 19 2009



random, halfbakery