Again our news media (AP story) mentions that the Palestinians broke down the barrier(s) to Egypt using a blowtorch (on the metal fences). Do they really mean an oxy/acetylene cutting torch? Did the phrase blow torch ever mean anything other than the little hand held jobbies that holds what we used to call "white gas" and was used for heating metal objects?
Yes and yes. The Hamas guys used cutting torches, and jewelers in the Middle Ages used a torch with a tube into which the jeweler actually blew air, to melt gold.
On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:32:21 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "Ivan Vegvary" quickly quoth:
Who knows what our braindead media meant? The massive corrugated panels I saw the Palestinians stepping over appeared to be pushes over, with no markings on the bottom from cutting torches that I could make out.
-- You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. -- Mark Twain
Fox News is apparently a bit more clueful than the AP:
"a Hamas border guard interviewed by The London Times at the border admitted that the Islamist group was responsible and had been involved for months in slicing through the heavy metal wall using oxy-acetylene cutting torches."
Similar to the use of "tire iron" to hit someone with. When I show someone a tire iron and a lug wrench, the seem to get it, but most of the knuckle heads that are in the news media have never ever seen a tire iron, let alone know how to use one.
What do you expect from a liberal arts major? Check out the first two paragraphs in this story, written by a man who uses words as we use tools.
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How many of you machine-heads have actually seen a real steam roller? I doubt the press has. Anyone who is not gay actually refer to your dog as a "pooch"? (that could be an east-west thing though) Who assigns the word "turbo" to something that does not incorporate an acual turbine? I really get a kick out of it when i ask someone if an item is made of brass or aluminum respond "no, its metal".
I think I saw a "steam shovel" once when I was about 6 yrs old. That was 69 yrs ago. As to the "pooch", yes we (lots/most) people called smalish dogs pooch, if there wasent an obvious better name available, back in PA when I was growing up. As to "turbo" that has become the latest greatest thingo. ...lew...
You want to know the original reason old PCs (the "turbo" buttons) had buttons on them to slow them down? I wondered that for years and years and finally an old Silicon Valley engineer told me it was for playing old games that would go too fast if run on a newer PC.
You need to let those old computers go, Gerry! :-)
It is, no doubt, the only torch term they know so they use it constantly. Any torch is a blow torch just like any rifle is an AK47. Just goes to show you what kind of "journalists" our public education system is turning out.
Blowtorch has become a generic term that is meaningful enough for people who don't care what fuel or oxidizer is used; they only care that it was a torch, and they get enough British reporting these days that you'd better prefix it with "blow" if you don't want them to think flashlight. As for your annoyance, they really don't give a shit. Neither does 99.9% of their audience. It's a torch, it produces a flame, it somehow destroys metal fences, and that's damned well enough to know about a story that really concerns Palestinians defying the Israeli military to seek food and essential goods in Egypt.
You really have to separate meaningful information from the trivial if you're going to report on a wide range of subjects to a general audience. The key is to know where to focus attention and detail. If you get into the details of the type of torch used you give the impression, in a general-interest article, that the fact is somehow important and deserves the technical detail. It does not, and you will distract from the key facts of the story if you give the detail or if you use technically correct but generally obscure terms that beg the question of why you have created the distraction. If someone has to look the term up, you've screwed up.
It strikes me that we've discussed this subject here before. Let me re-emphasize a point: If what I have said above isn't glaringly obvious to you, then journalism, or any kind of general-audience communication, is not for you. d8-)
-- Ed Huntress (proud to have been a journalist, of both the general-interest and the technical types, for half of a lengthy career)
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