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units

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,5205…

Police in Germany are searching for a motorist who attacked a 24-year-old woman because he was outraged over the price tag of asparagus she was selling.

The female vendor called law enforcement officials after the man screamed at her and hit her in the face, threatening to unleash his dog at her, police said.

“The motorist said her prices were totally over the top,” Dietmar Keck, police spokesman in the Havelland district west of Berlin told Reuters.

White asparagus prices in Germany fluctuate during the springtime season, peaking at about $13.50 for about 2 pounds of the valuable vegetable.

“for about 2 pounds”.

I love ‘journalists’.

They could either:

  1. note that the asparagus is $13.50 per kilogram
  2. divide $13.50 by 2.2 to get the price per pound
  3. or round 2.2 to 2.0, as a result get the number 10% wrong, and throw the word “about” in to cover their asses

…and they chose option 3.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 6:02 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “units”

  1. delurking Says:
    May 22nd, 2009 at 6:55 am

    You mean 9.1% wrong. Or were you rounding?

  2. eddie Says:
    May 22nd, 2009 at 7:18 am

    “throw the word ‘about’ in” … twice.

    Once I could almost see. Twice should have been ringing alarm bells in the heads of any competent writer, even the utterly innumerate ones.