Yeah, my first thought was that it was a British-ism, but the journalist correctly calls them "negative numbers". A quick check of Wiki and Google Fight (http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=negative+numbers&word2=minus+numbers) convinces me that it is a global barbarism.
(Alas, yes, Mirriam-Webster's Tenth does have an entry for "minus" as an adjective as well as a preposition, and not just in the acceptable phrase "B-minus". The fact that someone got it wrong in 1800 does not make it correct or even acceptable in modern language, and this point should be understood by a fellow mathematician better than anyone.)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-05 09:33 pm (UTC)(Alas, yes, Mirriam-Webster's Tenth does have an entry for "minus" as an adjective as well as a preposition, and not just in the acceptable phrase "B-minus". The fact that someone got it wrong in 1800 does not make it correct or even acceptable in modern language, and this point should be understood by a fellow mathematician better than anyone.)