[SA Chris]

D'oh. Class.

[slackline]

Pull your thumb out and find yourself a job you lazy bint 

[dave]

Pull your thumb out and find yourself a job you lazy bint  

so she got a degree and didn't have a job inside 3 months? neither do most graduates. cry me a fucking river.

[Jaspersharpe]

Galloway expresses opinion shocker!

[Jaspersharpe]

Scottish heritage rocked by haggis revelations.

[SA Chris]

That explains why it tastes like shit

[Jaspersharpe]

Russians: Never let the truth get in the way of drinking shitloads of booze..

[Jaspersharpe]

Middlesbrough IS the worst place to live in Britain so stop complaining says Ofcom

[tomtom]

'Pretty boy' insures his legs for £90 000 000.....

[Drew]

Scottish heritage rocked by haggis revelations.

I hate to be a pedant (well actually, I rather enjoy it, but it can be a burden sometimes), but shouldn't the first paragraph read: "... an historian...", as opposed to "...a historian..."? Surely the BBC should be getting these sorts of things correct? Is it actually me who's wrong (it has been known to happen)?

[slackline]

Scottish heritage rocked by haggis revelations.

I hate to be a pedant (well actually, I rather enjoy it, but it can be a burden sometimes), but shouldn't the first paragraph read: "... an historian...", as opposed to "...a historian..."? Surely the BBC should be getting these sorts of things correct? Is it actually me who's wrong (it has been known to happen)?

Unless you're breaking the rule you use 'an' in place of 'a' when the following word begins with a vowel or vowel sound.

You can check at one of these  

[galpinos]

Scottish heritage rocked by haggis revelations.

I hate to be a pedant (well actually, I rather enjoy it, but it can be a burden sometimes), but shouldn't the first paragraph read: "... an historian...", as opposed to "...a historian..."? Surely the BBC should be getting these sorts of things correct? Is it actually me who's wrong (it has been known to happen)?

Opinion appears to be divided but there's no need if the 'h' is sounded:

a historian

an hour

[Jaspersharpe]

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutgrammar/hotel

[Will Hunt]

To be fair to Drew I think he was more referring to the highly old school way of doing it were just about any word starting with an H was used in conjunction with "an".
A bit outdated I think.

[Drew]

To be fair to Drew I think he was more referring to the highly old school way of doing it were just about any word starting with an H was used in conjunction with "an".
A bit outdated I think.

Great, so now I'm old too!   

[GCW]

I still talk proper, like, by using an in front of h- words.

Oh, and h is pronounced aitch, not haitch

[dave]

I recon if you're into your silent (h)aitches, then words like "historian" should be spoken (and indeed written) with an "an", but if you're a toff who slavishly pronounces every letter in a word then you need to say "a historian". People who say "an historian" with an H are idiots.

[Drew]

I recon if you're into your silent (h)aitches, then words like "historian" should be spoken (and indeed written) with an "an", but if you're a toff who slavishly pronounces every letter in a word then you need to say "a historian". People who say "an historian" with an H are idiots.

I think I sit midway between those people who pronounce every single letter, and people who totally miss out letters "I'm from 'emel 'empstead". I don't always pronounce them, but they're still there.

[cofe]

Hardly old school or outdated. BBC journos and editors should have one of these on their desk. Which should prevent this kind of error in print. It's 'an historian' by the way in there, which interestingly contradicts the Ask Oxford link above. I'll stick with the dictionary I think, not the internet.  

[Sloper]

I think we should settle this with a fight.

[BB]

Mick Ryan in crap article shock!

"A new study by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy of the Research Institute at the Nationwide Children's Hospital found that as the popularity of the sport has escalated, so have the number of injuries."

Really, sir? You surprise me.

[slackline]

Its not surprising, its bullshit.


Basically they have hard facts on the number of injuries but fuck all idea about the increase in the number participants, so whilst there has been an overall increase in injuries it might actually be a smaller percentage of those participating.  You'd also really have to account for the time each person spends on the rock too to work out a rate of injury per-person hour of time spent climbing (standardised by the age structure of the population).

[dave]

the supposed 63% increase is also over the period of 17 years, which all things considered doesn't seem that much of an increase - only works out at about 3% year on year if you took it to be a steady increase (it won't be).

[dave]

just when you thought it was safe to turn on the radio

[slackline]

He just doesn't get it does he?