Saturday 7 December 2013

I Promise This Is Not A Story From 'The Daily Mash'...

A lottery scratchcard has been withdrawn from sale by Camelot - because players couldn't understand it.
The Cool Cash game - launched on Monday - was but taken out of shops yesterday after some players failed to grasp whether or not they had won.
I know, I know. You're suspicious, aren't you?
To qualify for a prize, users had to scratch away a window to reveal a temperature lower than the figure displayed on each card.
As the game had a winter theme, the temperature was usually below freezing.
But the concept of comparing negative numbers proved too difficult for some Camelot received dozens of complaints on the first day from players who could not understand how, for example, -5 is higher than -6.
Yeah, sure reads like a 'Mash' article, doesn't it?
Tina Farrell, from Levenshulme, called Camelot after failing to win with several cards.
The 23-year-old, who said she had left school without a maths GCSE, said: "On one of my cards it said I had to find temperatures lower than -8. The numbers I uncovered were -6 and -7 so I thought I had won, and so did the woman in the shop. But when she scanned the card the machine said I hadn't.
"I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it.
"I think Camelot are giving people the wrong impression - the card doesn't say to look for a colder or warmer temperature, it says to look for a higher or lower number. Six is a lower number than 8. Imagine how many people have been misled."
Awww, that's it, you cry, 'fess up, Julia! It's the 'Mash', isn't it?

Well, no. It's the Manchester Evening News. And unless they've been suckered, it's all too horribly real.

Frankly, the truculent outrage of Tina Farrell rings all too horribly true,doesn't it? Thicker than a whale sandwich and convinced that it's everyone else that is wrong...

H/T: James Masterton via Twitter

20 comments:

NickM said...

I used to live in Levenshulme. This does not surprise me.

Mr Angry said...

Bloody hell, some people really are too stupid for words......

Anonymous said...

Levenshulme was where the local Lefties tried to get that UKIP Immigration poster banned from...though this story is several years old, I'm curious as to how it came across your radar now?

DSD

Bucko said...

Yea cannea change the laws of physics, but entitlement trumps mathematics now?

Demetrius said...

Perhaps the answer may be that they tend to have hot tempers in Manchester.

Tatty said...

Anonymous - "I'm curious as to how it came across your radar now?

Well, there's this thing called The Internet....


:)

The Blocked Dwarf said...

"I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it. "

This was no doubt the same lady who asked for the films "The Madness Of King George I & II" at her local Blockbuster...

Longrider said...

We are so fucked.

Anonymous said...

*** speechless *** AGAIN!

MTG said...

That contribution must have taxed your brain cells, Longrider.

How readily the philosophical points raised by negative numbers are ignored when concepts prove useful in calculations.

You are blasted with coarse bigotry because a little thought from the above commenters was too much like effort, Ms Farrell.

selsey.steve said...

The stupid, it burns!
Ahahahahahahaha!
*breathes deeply* Ahahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!

Leg-iron said...

And to think, no blogger believes I can convince people that eggs are vegetables...

I can convince these drones that chee
se is mined, with less effort. I'll try that next.

Edward M. Grant said...

Should send them to Canada for a winter; they'd soon learn that -40 is actually lower than -4.

Longrider said...

That contribution must have taxed your brain cells, Longrider.

My brain cells are not remotely taxed. Clearly "pithy" is a word beyond your limited understanding.

Longrider said...

Should send them to Canada for a winter; they'd soon learn that -40 is actually lower than -4.

Heh!

Anonymous said...

The reason she doesn't understand is because her IQ is also in minus figures.

twentyrothmans said...

Should send them to Canada for a winter; they'd soon learn that -40 ...
Is that Celsius or Fahrenheit?

MTG said...

Oops-a-daisy.

Longrider said...

The reason she doesn't understand is because her IQ is also in minus figures.

Yeah, but an IQ of minus 120 is higher than an IQ of minus 6 innit?

JuliaM said...

"....though this story is several years old, I'm curious as to how it came across your radar now?"

The H/T at the bottom is a clue... ;0

"This was no doubt the same lady who asked for the films "The Madness Of King George I & II" at her local Blockbuster..."

:D

"And to think, no blogger believes I can convince people that eggs are vegetables..."

Our woeful educational system prepares them well for you...