You may remember a few weeks ago when someone discovered a very political sample sentence for the “democracy” entry in OS X’s built-in Thesaurus. Well, after writing to Oxford University Press (who publishes the Oxford English Dictionary, which is the source of Apple’s Dictionary) about this interesting sentence, has now received an answer.
According to Oxford customer service, the “democracy” sample sentence (which reads: “a democracy in Iraq is quite unlikely for now or any time soon”) does not appear in the New Oxford American Dictionary & Thesaurus, and it is suggested that Apple programmers added the entry.
Hmm, a rogue programmer sneaking in some of his/her political views in a little, unnoticed (until now) sample sentence. It seems plausiblem or, maybe this could have come all the way from the top, from the big man himself…Steve Jobs. Aha, it must be a conspiracy against the government by Apple! And this would also explain the sample sentence for “president”: “terrorists assassinated the president.” Be prepared for an all out war to start in Cupertino tomorrow.
[via digg]
There are others as well:
Terrorist will also show "The detainees are suspected terrorists".
Government will show "the government announced further cuts".
Vote will show "a rigged vote".
Poll as a verb will show "most of those polled supported the vice president".
Bias will show "he accused the media of bias".
Acquiesce will show "Bush wants to ensure that Beijing will acquiesce in a possible American war against Iraq".
I use a Mac and my built-in dictionary doesn't include the word "plausiblem". Maybe this is a conspiracy by Cupertino to highlight articles so banal that even the proof readers cannot be bothered to read them.