Your Letters
16:46 UK time, Friday, 13 October 2006
Re the 大象传媒's story "workers find unexploded bomb": is there any other sort? Surely once it has exploded it is no longer a bomb of any sort.
James Carter, Manningtree, UK
Re , please may we change the terminology? Call what is considered the norm as "unethical" food, and what should be the norm, food. Why should we aspire to be "ethical" (i.e different or noble or special) when those who actively support bad business practices, through their own consumer choices, escape the labelling reflecting their behaviour?
RG, Herts, UK
So, , but at the same time .
J Rogers, Ipswich
Dear MM [ah, sweet], Being unable to locate a Letter box or suggestion of one on this day, Thursday, October 12, I have taken a liberty, and use the one displayed next to Mondays' insert. In buzzing through the Technology portion I note there are clear inferences to be drawn from the text therein, but my comment concerns the enormous number of SPAM stuff that comes across dated 2036 and 2037. Is this another attempt to infiltrate beyond the boundary of the current time(s)?
Respectfully,
Dickie, NY USA
With respect to your , please could I ask everyone in the UK under 5 foot to lose some weight? You're skewing the average results!
Tom Brownlee, Birmingham, UK
MM - are you a national secret? Or can I Freedom of Information you?
Rick P, Oxford, UK
Could Oscar of Cambridge (Thursday letters) be a bit more precise in his citation? I did a quick search of the Time archive and did not find the Sun's Korea headline. Absolutely agree though that a joke this good deserves proper credits.
Curt Carpenter, Dallas, Texas, USA
I think Prof Chris Pollack has set MM readers the ultimate unit conversion problem in his : "How much milk yield is a red squirrel worth?" story.
Jason, Ontario
Duncan, Hove: I'm weighing in on this one. If the sentence was changed to "the band" rather than the "The Darkness", wouldn't it be "is", not "are"? the people are, the band is. Depends on your perception of the grammar.
Kay, London
MM: below is the, in this case, self-incriminating relevant 大象传媒 News website style guide entry.
SINGULARS & PLURALS* (REVISED 4/03)
We treat companies, governments and other bodies as singular 鈥搃ncluding sports clubs in their role as business concerns (eg Arsenal has declared a big drop in profits). BUT: sports teams are always plural (eg Arsenal have been relegated) 鈥 and so, too, are rock/pop groups (eg The Who are to play in Eastbourne). Take care to be consistent within a story (eg do NOT say 鈥淭he jury has retired to consider its verdict鈥 followed by 鈥淭he jury are spending the night at a hotel鈥).
Note that media* is a plural (singular, medium). Likewise, bacteria* (singular, bacterium), paparazzi* (singular, paparazzo), and criteria* (singular, criterion). However, agenda* and data* should be treated as singulars. Also: paratrooper* is a singular (the plural is paratroops); whereas water cannon* is the same, singular or plural, as is stone* (as a unit of weight).
Re PM's gender. Not only confusing Paul and Jason Ronbinsons, but finds the Indy "System failure" headline 'bewildering'(it referred to the switch to 3-5-2). Now, the offside rule...
Paul, Singapore
Has anyone considered the idea that there may be more than one Paper Monitor?
Philip, Nottingham, UK
Anyone who uses the phrase "bish-bosh" has to be a man. Is the identity of the monitor starting to slip out?
Nick, London
The 
