Is there such a thing as twin giraffes?
September 7th 2008 09:15
A lesson in how not to trust (some) answers you find on the Internet.
'Is there such a thing as twin giraffes?' was one of those strange questions that people ask on the Net, and it doesn’t seem to have had any real answers. I’ve written about giraffes a few times, but never about twin giraffes, and getting one of my posts as a search result can’t have been very helpful to the questioner.
But if that first question struck you as at all strange (and perhaps it isn’t), this next one seemed stranger: Why is Dunedin (New Zealand) covered in cute giraffe graffiti?
My response to that is, Is it? I’ve never noticed, and I’m fairly attentive to what’s around me. But here is an answer to this response, as written on a site called Life Assistant. I’m not sure whether it’s one answer or two, as both paragraphs appear to me to be pretty obscure. I reprint them as they appeared:
aha I undergo just what you mean. They're everywhere. I counted how some as I was travel along Kaikorai Valley Road onpostcard printing oad once. I hit no intent where they came from, I asked a discourse kindred to this a patch past but no digit knew!
postcard printing ...It's our helper fear animal, you know. An older Oceanic legend. Apparently, the Otago Peninsula is the cervix of a glucosamine chondroitin of a ruminant which arrived by canoe some thousands of eld ago, and collapsed when it saw the example of the landscapelong distance companies
Is that first paragraph in English? It sounds like it’s been translated (very badly) from some other language by a machine. The second answer isn’t much better. ‘It’s our helper fear animal, you know.’ Is it? Not that I’ve ever heard. And how come an older Oceanic legend includes an animal that doesn’t exist in this part of the world. And what the heck is all that stuff about glucosamine chondroitin, which are both health supplements as far as I can figure out. Perhaps the words have got into the paragraph in error, as it reads perfectly well without them. Equally ‘long distance companies’ seem to have snuck in without permission.
My suspicion is that the Life Assistant site is a bit weird. It's like trying to find something in a storeroom and someone keeps moving boxes. Check out any answer given to questions on this site and you’ll get mangled English as a matter of course. Who the heck runs it?
Mr and Mrs Giraffe by picture taker 2
But if that first question struck you as at all strange (and perhaps it isn’t), this next one seemed stranger: Why is Dunedin (New Zealand) covered in cute giraffe graffiti?
My response to that is, Is it? I’ve never noticed, and I’m fairly attentive to what’s around me. But here is an answer to this response, as written on a site called Life Assistant. I’m not sure whether it’s one answer or two, as both paragraphs appear to me to be pretty obscure. I reprint them as they appeared:
aha I undergo just what you mean. They're everywhere. I counted how some as I was travel along Kaikorai Valley Road onpostcard printing oad once. I hit no intent where they came from, I asked a discourse kindred to this a patch past but no digit knew!
postcard printing ...It's our helper fear animal, you know. An older Oceanic legend. Apparently, the Otago Peninsula is the cervix of a glucosamine chondroitin of a ruminant which arrived by canoe some thousands of eld ago, and collapsed when it saw the example of the landscapelong distance companies
Is that first paragraph in English? It sounds like it’s been translated (very badly) from some other language by a machine. The second answer isn’t much better. ‘It’s our helper fear animal, you know.’ Is it? Not that I’ve ever heard. And how come an older Oceanic legend includes an animal that doesn’t exist in this part of the world. And what the heck is all that stuff about glucosamine chondroitin, which are both health supplements as far as I can figure out. Perhaps the words have got into the paragraph in error, as it reads perfectly well without them. Equally ‘long distance companies’ seem to have snuck in without permission.
My suspicion is that the Life Assistant site is a bit weird. It's like trying to find something in a storeroom and someone keeps moving boxes. Check out any answer given to questions on this site and you’ll get mangled English as a matter of course. Who the heck runs it?
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