Even on this side of the Atlantic, we have noticed:

Burris, standing at the governor’s side, said he’s eager to get to work in Washington “to face a convergence of parallel crises.”

 One’s first thought is that either in Chigaco or Washington the geometry is of Riemann’s elliptic variety. 

But it then struck me, that the word “parallel” has long taken on the meaning “simultaneous” as in multi-tasking or even parallel processing.  Another case where mathematical and scientific usage run counter to (or even athwart – lovely old Anglo Saxon word) common usage.