Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Hating on Sports Analogies

Particularly when the person using them does not understand the underlying sport.

Case in point, Greg Sandoval, who in writing about a German court order banning an ISP from providing bandwidth, titles the article, " Studios score another TKO against Pirate Bay," in discussing the short-lived offline period.

Less than 12 hours later Pirate Bay was back on line.

I'm not sure if Mr. Sandoval wrote the headline, or if someone else did, but whoever it was, they have no f%$#ing clue as to the sport of boxing, nor what a TKO is.

TKO stands for "Technical Knock Out," and when it occurs, it's game over, and someone has lost:
A knockout (also referred to as a K.O.) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, Karate and others sports involving striking. A knockout is usually awarded when one participant is unable to rise from the canvas within a specified period of time, typically because of fatigue, injury (serious or temporarily incapacitating, e.g. a bleeding cut above the eye can blind a fighter), loss of balance, or unconsciousness; that is, the person may literally be knocked out. A technical knockout (also referred to as a T.K.O.) is often declared when the referee or other judges (such as official ring physician, the fighter, or the fighter's cornermen) decide that a fighter cannot continue the match, even though he did not fail the count, or, in many regions, a fighter has been knocked down three times in one round.[1] British records refer to TKOs as either "retired", if the fighter refuses to continue, or "R.S.F.", for Referee Stopped Fight. In amateur boxing, a knockout is scored as "RSC," for Referee Stopped Contest. A technical knockout ("Outclassed") can also be declared if a fighter is ahead by 15 points in a bout.
If you want to use a sports analogy, this is something like a yellow card. It's inconvenient, and a warning, but the game is still on.

Better yet, Don't Use a Sports Analogy!!!!

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