ATTN: Copyeditors and Grammar Fiends

Haha no, I can see my error there actually, you're quite right. x-post

Is this time to dig out the original number and say something like "compared to 350 for most laptops"? Maybe that isn't sufficiently punchy, though. Don't ask me, I can barely form a sentence.

You could dispense with the troublesome "times":

"Its chief breakthrough is what Apple claims is an eight-hour battery that can offers 1,000 recharge cycles (three times as many as most laptops)."

But maybe not enough people know what "recharge cycles" means.

(three times more recharges than most laptops)

Can you use recharge as a noun?

"that can offers", rather.

or (three times more recharge cycles than most laptops) then you've defined cycle already, kind of

OR ...

(three times the number of most laptops)

Its chief breakthrough is what Apple claims is an eight-hour battery that can be recharged 1,000 times (a threefold improvement over most laptops).

Ooh - threefold. How could I forget lovely threefold?

*applauds*

Actually I would have said "triple what other laptops can do" but I guess that's a bit conversational?

yeah I don't think you'd use 'do' in this context

triple what other laptops can offer

triple what other laptops' batteries can offer?

"Apple laptop batteries come with three times as many complimentary donuts."

three times the recharge cycle lifespan of most other laptops

three times as often as most other laptops

Flib flabbity fram jamma!

xpost That makes it sound like you need to charge it more often.

well, "can be charged three times as often " as opposed to "needs to be charged three times as often" but yeah see your point there.

How about more than the work of three normal laptops?

Its chief breakthrough is what Apple claims is an eight-hour battery that can be recharged 1,000 times (which would take a thousand monkeys working feverishly at a thousand normal laptops to achieve).

How about just:

"Monkeys!"

"Apple lie about battery life."

Oh god, company names as plural, grrrrr

Next you'll be saying band names are singular.

Blur: is shite.

OK, this is ridiculous, but does the word "pants" (in the UK English sense) always mean men's underwear? This is what I am arguing now. Women don't generally wear pants, do they?

Yes, they do. Next.

You're more likely to call them knickers, though.

Actually, I think I might call them 'pants' as much as 'knickers'.

I love the fact you appear to have spent a whole minute thinking about that.

If the planet we live on is the Earth, why is the moon not the Moon?

Cos that's its name, right? Our moon happens to be called Moon, no?

Where I work, it's "the Moon" when referring to it as an astral object ("The Moon is thousands of miles from Earth") and "the moon" in more poetic or metaphorical usages ("man in the moon," "reach for the moon").

Also, there seems to be a trend toward deleting the "the" before "Earth," as I have just done, since it's just one planet among eight, but no one seems to be suggesting that the same be done for "Moon."

Actually, I have seen "the" dropped from Moon quite a bit.

it's "the moon" for the same reason it's "my mom" vs "Mom" or "the sun" vs "Sol" etc

I like the sound of Man on Moon. But that is not a good guide for usage.

merriam-webster says both "often capitalized" and "usually used with 'the,'" which i dont really agree w/

of course, saying "often" is essentially read as "ask someone else"

"Internet" vs. "internet" also y'alls.

Maybe "the" should be dropped from "the Internet".

I will look for this tasty recipe on Internet.

iirc AP says "Internet" and "E-mail" which i think is ridiculous

That's, "the E-mail".

Anyways it's all just "mail" now thanks to the wondrous technology of backronyms and "snail" or "postal" mail.

pleas no hyphen in email

and no e in please doh

plas

oh, AP also says "Web site"

my bad, AP doesn't capitalize email, but it does add the dash

I get into this conversation fairly often, but "Internet" and "e-mail" are so standardized to me that it's impossible for me to imagine them any other way. On the other hand, "Web site" has always looked silly.

We go with the Internet, but email and website.

But anyway, we have started extracting stuff from the reports we doand putting them into PowerPoint, which we then have to sub (a bit).

But it drives me mad!

For example, how can I do a non-breaking hyphen, an optional hyphen, a non-breaking space? Help!