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Comments
+4
Aug 17, 2011
@jojoba I'm not going to refrain from calling you stupid just because you derided me for calling you stupid ahead of time. You are stupid. What's worse is that you made inflammatory comments fully expecting a negative reaction, which makes you a troll. I would suggest that you go crawl under a bridge, except that I cannot imagine that you're intelligent enough to find one.
-1
Aug 17, 2011
@levassspNo, data is the plural of datum. It is commonly and erroneously used as a "mass noun." But if you wanted to correctly reference a collection of data, that singular collection would still be called a datum. Common usage is not the same as correct usage. If it was, the meaning of "there" would quickly become the same as the meaning of "their," as this is also a common mistake that writers on the internet make.
However, this has no bearing on the strip as engineers commonly say 'data' when they mean 'datum'. Whether or not it is correct, it is certainly realistic.
0
Aug 17, 2011
To this person:It should be "what the data say" The word data is plural. You wouldn't say "that what the points says".
Not necessarily, "data" can be BOTH a mass noun or a count noun. Assuming that it is used as a "mass noun" in this case, then it is used correctly.
