Ads that get right on your tits

[OX mkII]

http://www.adturds.co.uk/

[carolen]

'British' Aluminium vs 'American' Aluminum.

It's got an [extra] 'I' in it you bastard, not a 'U'

[(o)(o)]

'British' Aluminium vs 'American' Aluminum.

It's got an [extra] 'I' in it you bastard, not a 'U'

The American spelling doesn't have that 'i'.

He's saying why are you pronouncing it Aloominum when it's got a 'u' in it.

I think. It made sense to me anyway.

[KlaxonCow]

'British' Aluminium vs 'American' Aluminum.

The British discoverer of this element, Humphry Davy, originally called it "alumium". But, by 1812, he'd settled on "aluminum" (plural: "almina") in his published works.

The spelling "aluminium", though, conformed better to the precedent set by his other recent discoveries (i.e. potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, and strontium), was felt to have a more "classical sound" and gained traction amongst, notably enough, American chemists in the 19th century.

From Wikipedia (with my own emphasis):

In his advertising handbill for his new electrolytic method of producing the metal in 1892, Charles Martin Hall used the -um spelling, despite his constant use of the -ium spelling in all the patents he filed between 1886 and 1903. It has consequently been suggested that the spelling reflects an easier to pronounce word with one fewer syllable, or that the spelling on the flier was a mistake. Hall's domination of production of the metal ensured that the spelling aluminum became the standard in North America; the Webster Unabridged Dictionary of 1913, though, continued to use the -ium version.

Meanwhile, internationally, "aluminium" took off and has been accepted by IUPAC (the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, who are effectively the authority on these matters) as the official name of the element (although they do accept "aluminum" as a valid alternative spelling).

So, the supposedly "British" aluminium is not British in origin and the supposedly "American" aluminum is not American in origin and, in fact, the spellings were once reversed, with American chemists preferring "aluminium", despite its British discoverer initially preferring "aluminum".

That is, after a while, because the element's original name - at discovery - was actually "alumium" (and, really, in hindsight, it's this indecision and revision of the name that caused all the trouble, as he opened the door to alternatives and debate over what it should be called by, himself, not being able to decide if "alumium" or "aluminum" or "aluminium" was the best name).

The American change to "aluminum" seems to have possibly been nothing more than a misprinting and the British change to "aluminium" was just gradually conceding to international consensus and popular usage.

Just a little cautionary tale there about the perils of getting too jingoistic, in a world that's far more complicated, chaotic and arbitrary than such simplistic analysis of the human race allows.

[TFO]

'British' Aluminium vs 'American' Aluminum.

The British discoverer of this element, Humphry Davy, originally called it "alumium". But, by 1812, he'd settled on "aluminum" (plural: "almina") in his published works.

The spelling "aluminium", though, conformed better to the precedent set by his other recent discoveries (i.e. potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, and strontium), was felt to have a more "classical sound" and gained traction amongst, notably enough, American chemists in the 19th century.

From Wikipedia (with my own emphasis):

In his advertising handbill for his new electrolytic method of producing the metal in 1892, Charles Martin Hall used the -um spelling, despite his constant use of the -ium spelling in all the patents he filed between 1886 and 1903. It has consequently been suggested that the spelling reflects an easier to pronounce word with one fewer syllable, or that the spelling on the flier was a mistake. Hall's domination of production of the metal ensured that the spelling aluminum became the standard in North America; the Webster Unabridged Dictionary of 1913, though, continued to use the -ium version.

Meanwhile, internationally, "aluminium" took off and has been accepted by IUPAC (the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, who are effectively the authority on these matters) as the official name of the element (although they do accept "aluminum" as a valid alternative spelling).

So, the supposedly "British" aluminium is not British in origin and the supposedly "American" aluminum is not American in origin and, in fact, the spellings were once reversed, with American chemists preferring "aluminium", despite its British discoverer initially preferring "aluminum".

That is, after a while, because the element's original name - at discovery - was actually "alumium" (and, really, in hindsight, it's this indecision and revision of the name that caused all the trouble, as he opened the door to alternatives and debate over what it should be called by, himself, not being able to decide if "alumium" or "aluminum" or "aluminium" was the best name).

The American change to "aluminum" seems to have possibly been nothing more than a misprinting and the British change to "aluminium" was just gradually conceding to international consensus and popular usage.

Just a little cautionary tale there about the perils of getting too jingoistic, in a world that's far more complicated, chaotic and arbitrary than such simplistic analysis of the human race allows.

Hmmm. I read somewhere that the reason the Americans still use Aluminum name was that there was a global symposium about a hundred or so years ago in which they were going to decide the name once and for all. The gathering decreed that the international word was going to "Aluminium", except the American representative didn't turn up due to being hungover after getting riotously pissed the night before. As a result, he never agreed to the change and so it has been stuck sans-i ever since.

[gilesgoat]

Just to let you know is "Alluminio" in Italian.

"Alluminum" to me would sound more like some "Allume" salt of something like that ( KAl(SO4)2 · 12H2O ).

[KlaxonCow]

"Alluminum" to me would sound more like some "Allume" salt of something like that ( KAl(SO4)2 · 12H2O ).

Well, that's essentially where the name is derived. From "alum", with the original "alumium" literally meaning "alum (salts) -ium", so to speak.

Davy tended to name things in that kind of way.

For example, potassium - another one of his discoveries - is "potash -ium", because he isolated potassium from potash (with the name "potash" itself also being derived from the process of how it was obtained, as it was leached from pots containing the ashes of burnt wood. Ergo, the ash in the pot is "pot ash", becoming "potash", and the element extracted from the potash is "potash -ium", becoming "potassium").

[Rubisco]

New Maggi advert:

Brat: "Like an experiment?"
Mum: "Sort of"
Brat: "Like Einstein?"
Mum: *nods* "Pretty much"

NO, NOT LIKE THE THEORETICAL PHYSICIST ALBERT EINSTEIN YOU LITTLE TURD!

[Truder]

Current irritation for me



Along with all compensation adverts.

[Rubisco]

[Cloudane]

Whoever invented PPI claims can fuck off and die a lot harder than the guy who invented PPI. It's a much bigger and more oversold scam than PPI ever was in the first place, the hypocrisy of it all is just.... amazing.

I am not one of the x million people who didn't have the balls to say "no" to the salesman trying to bundle it in with a finance agreement nor was I stupid enough not to read the fine print to see if I had to opt out. If I was, it'd serve me right for being a gullible cunt. I was dumb enough for buying into finance agreements in the first place when there were 0% cards around (or patience and saving-up) and I hereby declare that I fully deserved to be arse raped for 2-3x the cost of the item I was buying for being a stupid idiot who couldn't be arsed to use a calculator. And so does everyone else. Grow up, accept responsibility for your own actions and let these claim companies with their incessant text spam die in a fire.

Similarly, injury compensation. I can't entirely blame people for that because a) by definition it's someone else's fault and b) it can often be written into employment contracts that if you're hospitalised by something that was someone else's fault, they won't keep paying you unless you claim compensation and give a certain amount to them (it's in ours anyway).
But for goodness sake, stop trying to scam me with text spam. "We're contacting you about your accident".. erm I've never *touch wood* been in an accident! If I had, I wouldn't go to someone who harasses me with text spam (quite possibly illegally) if they were the last company on Earth.

Someone please gather all these PPI and injury lawyers and fire them into the sun or space them or something.



On the positive side of ads, I do find it a clever and smart move that Go Compare realised the tenor was annoying as shit and capitalised on it with funny ads about kicking him in the balls or whatever. Even Stephen bloody Hawking signed up to that one - good show. Though they too are now getting rather old.

[(o)(o)]

...for goodness sake, stop trying to scam me with text spam. "We're contacting you about your accident".. erm I've never *touch wood* been in an accident! If I had, I wouldn't go to someone who harasses me with text spam (quite possibly illegally) if they were the last company on Earth.

I once had a caller to my mobile with a distinctive foriegn accent who wanted to confirm my details so he could help me claim for an accident I'd never had. He stated he worked for a legal firm which operates under the NHS. When I asked him to identify himself or furnish me with contacts details for a third time, he called me a motherfucking cunt and slammed the phone down. I thought to myself, this isn't the sort of customer service I've come to expect from the NHS.

[Cloudane]

You must have caught the NHS in a good mood there

[gilesgoat]

On the positive side of ads, I do find it a clever and smart move that Go Compare realised the tenor was annoying as shit and capitalised on it with funny ads about kicking him in the balls or whatever. Even Stephen bloody Hawking signed up to that one - good show. Though they too are now getting rather old.

I actually preferred the tenor more than those 'let's try to show we think it was annoying' ads.

Actually apart a couple of those I think they are quite a bit on the bad taste definitely "time for them to find out a totally NEW set of ads" because the joke went more than thin, it's really not funny any more, pretty patetic actually.

It seems also they ran out of meerkat stuff, the new "meerkat" thing I find it quite patetic as well the meerkats are definitely better than the humans for that kind of ads.

For reasons I am still trying to figure out and I cannot explain I find quite funny that ad about "snack enlightment" .. mah .. probably ads brain damage I guess ...

[KlaxonCow]

I think 'power grid would go mentalist'

Those in charge of the UK National Grid are perfectly convinced that it wouldn't.

As an addendum to this, Robert Llewellyn has made another video about this issue, from the opposite angle.

Obviously, electric cars run on electricity, so it's clear that they put a demand on the National Grid.

But what about petrol cars? How much demand does the process of refining oil put on our electricity networks?

This is the other side of things that, interestingly, no much ever talks about...