back to article Internet child porn investigators net South Aust MP

A South Australian state Labor MP has been arrested and charged for using the Internet to access child exploitation material, in an ongoing police operation called Operation Decimate*. According to South Australia Police, the MP was arrested at home and charged with possession of child pornography, an aggravated count of …

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  1. david 12 Silver badge

    Decimate

    Standard English is "a large proportion of", and isn't using standard english a good thing?

    But perhaps the SA Police force is pedantic, and use the word 'decimate' to indicate that

    (a) as with the Theban Legion, the process will be repeated until none remain, or

    (b) all the leaders will be executed, or

    (c) that the offenders are turned on their friends, or

    (d) members of the police force have been turned on their own associates.

    1. Alister
      WTF?

      Standard English???

      WTF do you mean by Standard English?

      Decimate means to remove one tenth... what's so hard about that?

      From the Latin "decem" : ten

      As in Decimal.

      1. John Riddoch

        word changes

        The word "decimate" was used to define the execution of 1 in 10 of a legion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_%28Roman_army%29) but common usage is now towards a larger percentage (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/decimate - "to destroy a great number or proportion of").

        Language is not defined by rules, it's defined by usage and "decimate" now generally refers to a somewhat higher percentage than 1 in 10.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        RE: Standard English

        Standard English is the English spoken by native English speakers - as opposed to Queen's English or Poncy Pedant's English.

        Do you not see the irony of your claiming a meaning in English by quoting a foreign language?

        Anyway, many words in English do not technically mean what the user thinks they mean, but as the listeners think it means what the user thinks it means then in reality it does actually [in standard English] mean what the user thinks it means.

        As a number of examples:

        Broadband - = high throughput even though typically it is baseband and not broadband

        Bad / sick / awesome etc - usage rarely meets dictionary definition

        Gay - doesn't mean "happy" any more. Although to be fair most of the people I know who identify themselves as gay are generally rather cheerful souls.

        Pirate - even though pedants try to separate galleon based raping murderers with wooden legs, eye-patches and parrots from spotty freetards who don't want to pay for shit, the general public, when presented with the word "piracy" thinks of music downloading.

        and so on. However if you check your favourite dictionary (or http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/decimate?view=uk if you can't be arsed) you will see that the primary meaning for "decimate" is "to kill, destroy or remove a large proportion of".

        Welcome to the 21st century - I am sure you will come to love it in time.

        1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
          Joke

          What a cheerless bunch

          So - how do you explain "estimate" and "sextimate"?

          Joke alert because it's clear some people need to get a life.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Grenade

        And Gay means happy....

        ...and nothing to do with man love. Do people still live in Londnium, or do they now live in London?

        Get over it, the English language changes.

        If we listened to the pedants, we'd still be going ug ug......

        1. Alister

          @AC

          "If we listened to the pedants, we'd still be going ug ug"

          Shouldn't that be ug ug?

          The comments on El Reg would be fun to read though, wouldn't they:

          ug UG ug, ug ug ug.

          UG, ug ug /ug/ ug.

          Ug?

          Ug. Ug ug, ugugugug...

      4. peyton?
        Paris Hilton

        chiming in...

        Even if one refuses to accept conventional use of a word - it's in the Oxford English Dictionary:

        'to subject to severe loss'

        If the OED isn't an authority on what is an acceptable use of a word, who is? Can one of the "thumbs-downers" point to a more authoritative source that says '1 in 10' is the only acceptable usage?

        1. Allan George Dyer
          FAIL

          Well 1/10th is severe

          It is harsh punishment for a legion to have a tenth killed in a single incident outside of a battle.

          I would consider loosing a tenth of my fingers a severe loss. Also a tenth of my wealth.

          The OED definition is compatible with the literal translation, and it doesn't say "most" or "majority".

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Headmaster

          @peyton: chiming in...

          No, as with all dictionaries, OED does not authorize acceptable use of the words. Its function is to explain the past and current usage of the words. Society and custom determine acceptability, dictionaries determine definitions based on observed usage. Etymological dictionaries may try to determine how that usage arose or explain the root origin, but none of that goes to authorize acceptability.

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. Head
    Thumb Down

    hm.

    Sack the SA government!

  4. John G Imrie

    We presume South Australia Police don’t know that “decimate” only gets rid of one in ten

    Note also; decimation was done by the Romans to their *own* troops as a punishment for losing.

    I await with bated breath the announcement that 1 in 10 of South Australian police have been arrested and charged for using the Internet to access child exploitation material.

  5. Chrissy
    Grenade

    Decimate?

    Maybe they DO know that decimate means remove 1-in-10, and have decided to fit up 1-in-10 regardless of evidence, a la Operation Ore?

    Gotta have targets, after all.

  6. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    Decimate

    "We presume South Australia Police don’t know that “decimate” only gets rid of one in ten."

    Maybe that's the whole idea? Get rid of one Australian MP in ten?

  7. Will Godfrey Silver badge

    @Adam 54

    That would be truly ironic wouldn't it? However, I suspect that were that the case some form of block would be placed on publication as 'not in the public interest'.

  8. Winkypop Silver badge
    Joke

    Build the great firewall !!

    The Politicians know how to save us from Interweb Filth !!!

    ...oh

  9. Code Monkey
    Headmaster

    Won't somebody think of the English Language!

    Loving the pedantry on this thread!

    (FWIW I'm with the "destroy a large proportion of..." crowd).

    1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
      Flame

      ORLY?

      FWIW, I'm with the "don't give a shit, but it's fun to watch the pedants squabble" crowd.

  10. Graham Marsden
    Thumb Up

    "such offences invoke an automatic suppression order"

    Whereas in this country the suspect's name would probably already be splashed across the front pages of the tabloids such that even if they are subsequently exonerated, their reputation would be destroyed...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      unless said offender was, say, a politician

      in which case such offences invoke an automatic suppression order blah blah blah...

    2. serviceWithASmile

      but only

      if it was a setup.

      otherwise, you'd never hear of it, or they would never have been investigated.

      funny how a publicly reported "sex scandal" or embezzlement of some description almost always precedes a UK MP's dishonourable discharge.

      won't somebody think of the - actually better not.

    3. The First Dave
      Alert

      "such offences invoke an automatic suppression order"

      But that doesn't stop the police from dropping some pretty heavy hints - how many South Australian MP's are there? And how many were seen leaving police stations that day, looking a bit shell-shocked?

      One of the few things the Ozzies get right - actually presuming that suspects are innocent until proven guilty, rather than the current trial by tabloid that is the norm for the UK.

  11. Blubster
    Happy

    @Lee

    "Anyway, many words in English do not technically mean what the user thinks they mean, but as the listeners think it means what the user thinks it means then in reality it does actually [in standard English] mean what the user thinks it means."

    Fuck me, are related to Humphrey Appleby?

  12. Lord Lien
    WTF?

    Standard English...

    Ha Ha, I just spat my tea out all over my scone over that.

    Better get the butler to butter me another one & pore a fresh cup.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sinister Plot

    Perhaps some politicians backed the scheme to create an Internet blacklist so they could use it as a reading list. So that they could find a good dentist.

  14. Lghost

    I saw what you did there

    UK MP's dishonourable discharge

  15. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    Is anyone else *hoping* it's one of those paedogeddon spouting Aussie firewall supporting

    born again Christian types whose attends church *every* Sunday and teaches Sunday school?

    The rest of me is thinking that everyone has a right to a fair trial and anonymity until they are convicted (and their reputation is destroyed anyway) or found not guilty and allowed to get on with the rest of their life.

    Unlike the situation in the UK press. *Unless* you're a premiership footballer who can afford a *very* good lawyer that can explain that while their client *is* seen by 20 million people every Saturday how many other people he sleeps with (did I say people, I meant women), how often he does so, and how much (if anything) they are paid when he is not at home with his loving wife and young children is *entirely* his own business.

  16. Rattus Rattus

    Decimate

    I think you'll find only 1 in 10 of SA police even know how to spell decimate. Asking them to know what it means is way too much.

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