April fool’s jokes rounded up in the News Blog at The Guardian: I confess that I didn’t spot the “Was Shakespeare French” hoax — if indeed it was a hoax — on today’s Today Program!
Posts from April 01, 2010
Stone the crows
Stone the crows
Originally uploaded by Chris P Jobling
It’s April first but this is no joke. I spotted this dead crow in the front area of a house in Alexandra Terrace, Brynmill. What killed it I wonder?
It's its not it's
Just posted my last post and I noticed that I’d typed it’s when I meant its. This is a common error that I pick up my students on all the time, but it’s one that I make myself quite frequently.
Its is the possessive adjective form of the pronoun *it* used in the post in question as “YouTube has changed **its** user interface”. It’s is a contraction of *it is* as used in “*First impressions*: **it’s** [that is YouTube’s new interface *is*] certainly much less cluttered”.
Student beware: this type of error won’t be picked up with a spell checker … it might be picked up by a grammar checker … but don’t count on it. Since *its* is actually quite rare, as things don’t usually possess other things, it’s probably *it’s* that you want. But if you are unsure, ask yourself “is it its or is or is it it is?”
New look YouTube
Visited YouTube today to rate Stephen Fry’s “unboxing my iPad” video (thanks to Digital Inspiration for the link) and noticed that YouTube has changed its user interface. If you visit the site,
“Take the Quick Tour” (highlighted middle right) will show you what’s new. First impressions: It’s certainly much less cluttered. Do I like it? Time will tell.