An open-source robo-surgeon (Economist)

Posted Mar 6, 2012 17:28 UTC (Tue) by branden (guest, #7029)
Parent article: An open-source robo-surgeon (Economist)

What a wasted opportunity.

"Universities across America took delivery of the first brood of Ravens in February."

That totally should have been:

"Universities across America took delivery of the first murder of Ravens in February."

What's the matter--are they afraid of giving malpractice attorneys ideas, or something?

An open-source robo-surgeon (Economist)

Posted Mar 6, 2012 18:30 UTC (Tue) by JEFFREY (guest, #79095) [Link]

nevermore.

An open-source robo-surgeon (Economist)

Posted Mar 6, 2012 20:00 UTC (Tue) by aaron (guest, #282) [Link] (7 responses)

"Universities across America took delivery of the first murder of Ravens in February."

That's parliament of ravens, as opposed to a murder of crows. And as much as I like our corvid friends, who wants a crow pecking at your insides, anyway?

But it'd be totally funny, otherwise.

"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows."
—Henry Ward Beecher

An open-source robo-surgeon (Economist)

Posted Mar 7, 2012 0:58 UTC (Wed) by PaulWay (guest, #45600) [Link] (5 responses)

* A murder of crows.
* An unkindness of ravens.
* A parliament of owls.
* A watch of nightingales.

etc.

cf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns

Have fun,

Paul

An open-source robo-surgeon (Economist)

Posted Mar 7, 2012 12:38 UTC (Wed) by tcourbon (guest, #60669) [Link] (4 responses)

You have exposed a stunning part of the English language to my foreign eyes and hears.

Thank you.

An open-source robo-surgeon (Economist)

Posted Mar 7, 2012 14:45 UTC (Wed) by mattdm (subscriber, #18) [Link] (3 responses)

Most of these are rarely used outside of jokes and people making lists like that. No one actually says "a shrewdness of apes" or "a blush of boys".

An open-source robo-surgeon (Economist)

Posted Mar 7, 2012 16:09 UTC (Wed) by clugstj (subscriber, #4020) [Link] (2 responses)

But many are in common use: herd, pack, team, school, colony, swarm, plague, troop, cloud, flight, flock, pride, drove, bevy, gang, gaggle (at least my grandmother used gaggle).

An open-source robo-surgeon (Economist)

Posted Mar 7, 2012 16:31 UTC (Wed) by felixfix (subscriber, #242) [Link] (1 responses)

I don't think they are nearly as common as they used to be. Most people say "look at the cows", not "the herd of cattle", and "how many cows is that?" instead of "how many head of cattle is that?".

Out of your list, I think the only common ones used the old way are herd, flock, and school, and not very often at that; I can't remember the last time I heard anyone use them in conversation. Team is only used as in a team of horses pulling a wagon, where it is not a general collective noun so much as a different noun denoting the fact that they are connected and working together.

An open-source robo-surgeon (Economist)

Posted Mar 8, 2012 14:40 UTC (Thu) by sorpigal (guest, #36106) [Link]

Pack is pretty darn common, and colony too. In some circles flight and gaggle are used often as well.

I think which ones are common it will depend on who you ask and where they live.

An open-source robo-surgeon (Economist)

Posted Mar 8, 2012 10:49 UTC (Thu) by branden (guest, #7029) [Link]

D'oh!

I usually *would* be totally funny, but for my actual wit.