International News Broadcasters

Collective noun just means that it's an organization composed of various individuals. In American English, the trend is to refer to the organization as its own entity -- whether it's a sports team, a company, or an entire country -- and thus it uses the singular form the same as with individuals. But in British English, organizations are, in linguistic terms, treated simply as a group of individuals, and thus they use the plural form.

I was mostly just joking.   

I meant a collective noun as in one would say "a flange of baboons", "a pride of lions" or "a rabble of students." Though it's mostly used for groups of animals, it's sometimes used to humorously label other groups.

oh fuck me don't confuse me..! i thought i had it..

It has no relevance for what you were asking about, don't worry. Just a joke.

I just can't bring myself to say "The corporation are ...."  

Bluebottle wrote:I was mostly just joking.   

I meant a collective noun as in one would say "a flange of baboons", "a pride of lions" or "a rabble of students." Though it's mostly used for groups of animals, it's sometimes used to humorously label other groups.

Ah, I get what you mean.

David H wrote:I just can't bring myself to say "The corporation are ...."  

I know, it just sounds wrong to my ears. More so than most other English languages differences.

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Isn't Russell Brand a 9/11 truther?  That kind of reduces my ability to take him seriously on politics.

Edit: Okay, I'm watching his episode about the Ottawa shooting, and my initial impression is that he's pretty obnoxious and fixates on stupidly minor stuff like there being flags in the Parliament chambers, but I'll try to overlook that. He makes some decent points about the TV news jumping to conclusions without sufficient evidence, and I suppose what he says about Harper "editorializing" is true. But then he goes off on a rant about the purpose of the military being to protect the elite in society and prevent any "dialogue" about changing that social structure, and all of a sudden I feel like back in my first year poli sci class listening to one of the angry kids. When's the last time the Canadian military tried to shut down political dialogue? You could maybe make this complaint about the police, like in the context of demonstrations being broken up or something, but here it's an irrelevant and untrue aside.

And he keeps pushing his luck with some of his complaints. "You don't know what inspired" the hit and run attacker ... except the guy was being monitored by counter-terrorism intelligence officers, so there's a pretty good chance they do have a clue what motivated the guy, no? I'm starting to feel that Brand (like a lot of people) has confused critical thinking with just reflexively disagreeing with what someone in authority said.

I hope this doesn't come across as overly harsh or assholish but I had a rough day so I'm not being as diplomatic as I probably should. :/

Dont be worried about being diplomatic or not Eldo. Here is a guy ( brand) that fell into the limelight by acting like an over active odd ball. Is he gay or not, is he a cross dresser ? is he gender swapping ? is he Bi ? ,*boring*, He can be witty at times ( not often enough ) & he can do that which most of us can do...state the obvious & make a sensible remark but, he then wraps it up by being too clever & pushes the line of over reacting & the "me me me " syndrome.Thinking that marrying Katy Perry would stabilize his station in society hasnt really done the job. I find him an annoyance, a nasty buzzing fly that Id happily swot !

He's certainly one of those people who doesn't fail to get a reaction from people. Whether you like or dislike him. I don't really have a strong opinion. He certainly comes across as erudite and reflected, though how much of that is the erudicy and how much is actually well reflected opinion, I'm not so sure. I guess we tend to accept opinions from people who can speak well for themselves that we wouldn't necessarily accept from others.

Eldorion wrote:I hope this doesn't come across as overly harsh or assholish but I had a rough day so I'm not being as diplomatic as I probably should. :/

Ah, sorry to hear that Eldo. *pats on back* But I guess, and Petty might support me on this, getting to rant at someone might at least have some teraputic effect.

Yup, very healthy. A good crabbit rant cleans the mind.

Thanks guys.

And thanks for posting the vid, Forest. It's always good to get other perspectives on issues.

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Forest:

I found this completely hilarious. As satire it works brilliantly.



Edit:

The good old "campaign funding is going haywire!" type of video (in the spoiler below). I didn't finish this one yet, but the all-encompassing "every single presidential election in U.S. history has been decided by the amount of money spent on campaigning" statement is provoking me to go look up the actualities behind such a strangely blanketing claim. I mean, it's rather obvious that the methods by which Presidential campaigning has been conducted over the centuries has changed drastically (the special interest parties may have always been there, but mass-broadcasting was so much slower back in the 19th century), so this strikes me as an odd statement.
Regardless, I find these entertaining and interesting. I always feel rather paranoid about not wanting to "buy into" a set of moralities and ideas that will lead me wrong later in life, and so it's an interesting (albeit slightly stressful) intellectual exercise.
Or maybe I'm an idiot. But hey, there has to be more intellectual and moral value in watching something like this:

More trews:

Than something like this:

Some other Youtube Celebrities:

Right?  


Edit:
I find the greatest difference between myself and people who care about politics is that they think things might change if we do something. I've never really felt like that about anything larger than my own life.

I regularly watch The Trews- Brand is excellent at highlighting hypocrisy and issues, and its always done amusingly.

Unfortunately when he tries to put up alternatives it quickly becomes clear he doesn't have any. Just a lot of vague assertions in flowery prose.

Although the flowery nature of his book did lead to a humorous satirical take on Blurs Parklife using extracts from his interview on BBC newnight instead of the songs original narrator-



Although in fairness to him he took it well and this was his response-

It's a dynasty!

Reuters wrote:Rupert Murdoch, the 84-year old media baron, will hand over the chief executive reins at entertainment conglomerate Twenty-First Century Fox Inc to his 42-year-old son James, a source familiar with the situation said on Thursday.

Fox Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey will step into an advisory role as part of the generational shift at the parent company of Fox News and movie studio behind "X-Men" and other series, the source said, adding that James Murdoch and his 43-year-old brother Lachlan would work as partners.
The elder Murdoch, whose media career spans the better part of a century, will take on the role of executive chairman, according to published reports.
While James will have day-to-day control of the company, Lachlan will be an integral part as co-executive chair. The wheels of this partnership were set in motion when Fox announced their promotions in March 2014.

This will be the first time that only Murdoch family members will occupy the top three positions at the company.

Fox said Thursday it would take up the succession issue at its next board meeting. It was not immediately clear when the next meeting would take place.

Murdoch family is gunning for the Hearts' spot as "worst family business in the history of media".

Rupert himself is already the second generation of news dynast in his family btw:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Murdoch

Russell Brand is a pretentious hypocritical twat. He rants about society while living in million dollar house, he rants against society while employing Bangladeshi slave labour to make trendy t-shirts. He refused to explain that one. He is a loathsome reptile.

#notverydiplomatic

Well, to quote Game of Thrones, no one is perfect.

The Onion's video staff have been golden lately.

http://www.theonion.com/video/onion-explains-rise-china-50855

http://www.theonion.com/video/onion-explains-putins-russia-50910