Science vs Faith

Science wants to know how something works.
Faith is content in the belief that it does work.
There is no conflict.

Science goes beyond Faith in an effort to understand. It takes Faith as a starting base, then uses observation and analysis to reach a greater understanding of what is.

These efforts may take years, and may never succeed. But even True Believers will (or should) acknowledge that we have the mental capacity as well as the moral obligation to try.

We are given these abilities. We should use them.

Lost Privacy

The Orwellian Age is here, and we have willingly and eagerly signed on.

People are giving up their sense of privacy. Posting details of their daily lives on Internet social media sites and shouting into their mobile phones in public places are symptoms of a major change in society. Then there are those who record their actions on video and post the pictures on Web social media sites. For example: Teenagers who recorded their beating of a homeless man, posted the video on the Web, and were soon arrested.  What a surprise.

Lesson for the Day: There is no privacy on the Internet. Ever. Computers never forget. Anything. Ever.

Deleting something only moves it to a different file, which may (or may not) be overwritten with new material. Someday. Eventually. Perhaps. Maybe. Or not.

Rule Number One: If you don't want the world to know, don't put it into the computer.

Thus spake Pogo, the Okefenokee Sage:  "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Moral Economy

A society's cultural values show up in many ways; in fact, its values are expressed in every aspect of any social group, no matter its size.

Concepts of morality, politics, government,  business, economics and religion are all intertwined. And within each concept, there are opposites, always in conflict.

Thus, in morality, there are those who do evil. In politics, there is debate about the "right" policy. In government, there is conflict over how to carry out policy. In business, there is competition for customers. In economics, there is, in Joseph Schumpeter's phrase, the "creative destruction" inherent in capitalism, and Karl Marx's belief that capitalism will destroy itself completely. And in religion there is not only its opposite -- atheism -- but debate over which spiritual path is the most "righteous."

In short, what works for one society may not work for another. A hunter-gatherer tribal society does what it does because it works. Giving a mechanical harvester combine to a people with no experience in large-scale agriculture is an extreme example, but the principle remains.

In many ways, then, morality is culturally defined. What is acceptable behavior in one social group may not be in another. Even so, there may be a core set of beliefs that could be termed a "univeral morality" that is shared by all humans. Perhaps science can find out whether such a morality is "hard wired" in the human brain.

Word Breaks

The rules for hyphenating a word at the end of a typewritten line are simple. Any computer can be, and all have been, fed these rules. But there also many times where these rules do not apply, such as in compound words. It takes an understanding of the meaning to know when to ignore the rule. For example, one rule is to hyphenate a word between syllables; another is to break up the word between a vowel and a consonant, which is where most syllable breaks occur. But what is a syllable? Until computers can be taught semantics -- the meanings of words and syllables -- they will continue to blindly follow the rules.

Why is this a problem? Consider compound words, where a two-word verb phrase becomes a one-word noun. Computers at the New York Times missed out with the noun "tradeoff." It starts life as a verb, "to trade off," and becomes a single word when used as a noun. But the hyphenation rule says to break up the word between a vowel and a consonant when it reaches the end of a line in type. Thus, the NYT computer perpetrated "tra-deoff."

The solution has been available for decades. Computers have, in addition to the set of rules, a lexicon of words and their preferred hyphenation. But it takes human intervention to add words to the list.

Let's hope newspapers (and magazines) assign someone to add words to the list whenever a sharp-eyed copy editor catches a misplaced hyphen.

SPELLCHECK CHECKUP -- There is a province in France called Provence. Don't mess with it. The Oxford University Press, of any house, should know better, but somehow in a caption the name of a town came out as Aix-en-Province, while the text had it, properly, as Aix-en-Provence.

Cultural Economics

For decades, Western Economics has emphasized the financial aspects of the field almost to the exclusion of all else. More recently, practitioners have expanded their studies to include Behavioral Economics, which takes into account the fact that people do not always behave rationally. Economists have begun to study the non-rational part of human behavior, but so far it is limited to Western economies.

To the extent that it helps to explain what Alan Greenspan called "irrational exuberance," this is good. But Greenspan's remark dealt only with financial markets.

It may be time to incorporate Anthropology and Sociology into the the study of Economics, especially when dealing with aid programs to developing countries. Why? It's not only unfair, but it's also unrealistic to attempt to superimpose Western economic principles onto the cultural practices of other nations.

In part, it's an example of the Fallacy of Composition: It works for me, therefor it will work for everyone else -- a common error found in "true believers" of any stripe.

In the early years of Economic study, the field was known as Political Economy, and took into account human behavior. It's time to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear, and expand the field to consider the cultural practices of societies as well as the financial. Especially since many developing countries do not have a financial structure as complex as many Western nations.

The High Cost of Cheating

Cheating on tests has long been a problem in education. In the past, the issue was limited to students attempting to get higher grades. In recent months, however, news stories have exposed a new wrinkle in cheating scandals: Teachers and administrators changing test answer sheets to justify performance bonuses and to meet federal mandates to improve education levels.

From Philadelphia to Atlanta to California, school staffers have been caught changing student answer sheets to yield higher test scores, so that the school system would show better performance, thus justifying federal aid as well as bonus payments to the educators in charge.

The short run benefit is easy to identify: More money for the schools and for the administrators. But in the long run, grade inflation erodes economic performance as surely as monetary inflation erodes purchasing power. Teachers forging answer sheets and granting high grades to students who don't deserve them is like the Federal Reserve pumping up the money supply. The end result is higher wages and prices, but with no guarantee of better quality. Graduates with high grades may get more pay, but their ignorance soon shows. (For some not-so-funny examples keep in mind some of the comments by current presidential candidates.)

As for monetary inflation, as any tourist knows, prices rise to absorb the amount of money available.

Economic aliens

Classical economics -- the theories of the 18th and 19th centuries --were all products of a social system that prevailed in Britain. Even the 20th Century theories of John Maynard Keynes reflected his own British background. But to superimpose these theories and practices on American society and customs presupposes that the two nations are identical in culture and economics. This is not a valid assumption. There are similarities, of course; language being the least important -- but as Winston Churchill put it, we are "two nations separated by a common language."
American economist John Kenneth Galbraith called classical (British) economic theory "an alien doctrine," maintaining that transporting 19th Century British economic theory onto American capitalism is a mistake. Any system or perception of class in America is based on money or education, not on blood line or heritage.
Designing a program for economic analysis or recovery should take into account the customs and culture of a society, and should not inflict or superimpose the theories that apply to one culture onto another. The same can be said for economic theories propounded by German- or French-trained economists.
The so-called WASP (white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant) is and always has been a minority in America. Therefore, to base economic policy solely on WASP values is not only unfair to the rest of the nation, it is foolish.

Experts

The conventional wisdom of the economic "experts" of the 1930s -- business executives, bankers, politicians and academics -- held that the cure for the ills of the Great Depression was a balanced budget, reduced spending and lower taxes. This, they said, was not only the right, rational thing to do; it was the only thing that would work. As the downturn accelerated, however, these measures not only failed, but exacerbated the problem, plunging the nation into the worst economic malaise in the nation's history. The motto then was, "let nature take its course, and the economic body will heal itself."

We hear similar chanting today, as conservatives sing a song of "hands off" by government, and in the long run, all will be well.

It wasn't. In the mid-1930s, government took some strong measures, including a ban on financial institutions acting as both bankers and brokerage houses. That ban was lifted during the Reagan years, and what happened? A rerun of the chaos of 1929.

When will they ever learn?

Candidates

So Texas Gov. Rick Perry has declared his candidacy for President.

 

I can hear his supporters singing: Praise the Lord and pass the tax breaks.

 

TV SPOTS -- AHA ! Division -- "If you suffer from painful and swollen joints, I've been in your shoes."

So that's why. Stay out of my shoes, you twit!

 

PHILLY BOOS -- Mayor Nutter criticized the "mob mentality" of rambunctious teenagers indulging in nightly escapades. Isn't "mob mentality" an oxymoron? Especially when applied to teenagers?

Philogisms

   What is it with Philadelphia TV news presenters? Have they forgotten the basic ideas of facts and grammar? One recent story on the NBC affiliate was about a woman who had "been following the Phillies on television for 94 years." Nice trick, since television hadn't yet been invented in 1917, and was barely getting started on radio ... if then. The video gadget had its first major public demonstration at the New York World's Fair in 1939, but commercial use was put off until after the end of World War II.  When was the first televised baseball game? I don't know. Look it up.
   The point of the story, of course, was the Phillies fan was herself 94 years of age, and was in the stadium for the first time, a birthday gift from her family.
   Second example, from another Philly station: "Between she and her husband, they take xx medications daily." Better phrasing would be: "Together, she and her husband take ... " Or, if you must use between, use the objective form "between the two of them, they take ..."

Jingoism

   Dust storms that struck Phoenix recently were so severe that weather reporters began using the term for similar storms that occur regularly in the Sahara. But some folks were upset about the use of an Arabic word -- haboob -- claiming it was an insult to the American military serving in the Middle East and to the victims of 9/11.
   One response, however, is that if we stop using that word because it is Arabic, we should also stop using other words borrowed from Arabic, including such terms as algebra, zero, and alcohol. In addition, there is the issue of numerals: How would we do arithmetic, add up our grocery prices, reprogram all the cash registers, and, for that matter, how would we refer to the year? Are we now in the year MMXI? And is it an insult to the victims of the World Trade Center disaster to use the Arabic numerals 9/11? Or must we use the Roman version -- IX/XI?

Profitable schooling

   If education leads to greater productivity, then insufficient or inefficient education leads to a decline in productivity.
   In a nutshell, this sets up the problem of grade inflation, the granting to students of higher marks than are deserved. However, as with so many issues, there is the corollary issue of whether or not grade inflation exists.
   Critics claim that higher grades are given to students who have not rightfully earned them, and this means a decline in education, just as an inflated currency indicates a drop in the value of a dollar. And just as a dollar no longer buys a full cup of coffee, an inflated or unearned A grade no longer shows the full value of an education. Therefore, the person with the inflated Grade Point Average (GPA) is not as well educated and consequently not as productive as other graduates who enter the workforce.

   Grade inflation is a form of cheating; higher grades that do not adequately reflect performance diminish the value of the grade. If new hires are paid the same as or more than earlier workers, the firm gets a lower return on its investment in the worker (wages paid) because of a drop in productivity.

Competitive talking

Too many health care professionals seem to believe that anyone over the age of 60 is either deaf, senile, stupid or all of the above. Couple that attitude with a habit of interrupting and/or not listening, and you brew poor interaction with the patient, at best, or a medical disaster, at worst. A lack of empathy, patience and understanding is counterproductive.

   There may be hope, however. Recent letters to the New York Times from medical students with undergraduate work in literature, as well as from more experienced health care professionals, show that there are at least some in the field who know of the importance of listening to the patient.

   If only others in the health care field will listen to their colleagues, we might have a better health care system.

   In fact, a general increase in listening and a decrease in interrupting would be a good thing. It's time to rid society of competitive talking.

Reality check

Martin Feldstein is one of of the most influential economists of the 20th Century, and his ideas are still enormously popular among Conservatives. But while some of these ideas may sound good in the abstract, and in theory, they don't always track well when applied to the real world. For example, he writes in Capitalism and Freedom that "voluntary cooperation" of the private sector can ensure freedom and serve as a brake on government expansion and abuse.

Feldstein was an idealist. It may well be true that the private sector can prevent abuse by government, but what of constraints on abuse of consumers by corporations? Does Feldstein really believe that consumers are always free to take their business elsewhere? In fully competive capitalism, perhaps yes, but it is in the nature of capitalist firms to eliminate competition where they can, and seek a monopoly. In the real world, consumers are not always free to take their business elsewhere. Regulation by government is sometimes necessary to prevent gouging of consumers who have no realistic choice of product or service providers. Examples include so-called "natural monopolies" such as electricity or rail transportation. In the interest of efficiency, government sanctions single-provider operations.

Government regulation is supposed to prevent collusion in the private sector to the detriment of consumers. Again, however, reality intrudes and there sometimes arises collusion between government and corporations. Who regulates the regulators? Voters, that's who.

Altruism is a wonderful thing, but it can be a rarity in the real world.

Justice thinking

Why is everyone so wound up about Casey Anthony and whether she "should" have been found guilty? The jury said the prosecution failed to prove its case. She may indeed have done the deed, but the burden of proof is on the state, beyond a reasonable doubt. The defense planted a reasonable doubt (cause of death not definitive) so the jury acquitted. Granted, Casey Anthony did some stupid things, but there is no law against stupidity. If there were, we would all be locked up. But then, who would hold the key?

School goals

The purpose of education, beyond that of passing on knowledge of basic principles -- the Three R's -- is to teach how to think, not to teach what to think.
   The latter -- mandating what to think -- is medieval, but such attitudes are still found among fundamentalist groups, religious and otherwise, worldwide.
   Fundamentalists are a danger, no matter their origin or beliefs.
Otherwise, education becomes indoctrination.

Peer Review

Peer review and peer critique are useful methods of teaching only if those in the group have at least a modicum of knowledge or skill in the topic or technique. Using peer review sessions in a Fourth Grade writing class. for example, or even for some high school and college freshman classes, is silly, since many, if not most, students in such groups have only minimal skills in writing. Moreover, they are reluctant to say anything negative about the work of others. In a larger sense, how are they to know what good writing is if they have no standard by which to judge it?
   Society seems to feel it is harmful to a child's psyche if he or she is told that his work is ever less than praiseworthy or "excellent." The term "Good job!" is used so often, and with so much emphasis and enthusiasm as to make it meaningless. Children know false praise when they hear it.
   As adults (and this includes college students), people are reluctant to say anything negative about others during these so-called "peer review" sessions. Consequently, nothing productive is ever said.
 

Liberty

Liberty is a process. Freedom is a goal.

Truth, according to a dictionary definition, is that which conforms to fact or reality. But there are many concepts that we hold to be true that do not conform to fact or reality. For example, the U.S. Declaration of Independence refers to the "self-evident" truth that "all men are created equal," and that they are endowed with certain "inalienable rights," including the rights of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."

To say that we are all created equal is conceptually true, but to say that we are all treated equally under law does not conform to fact or reality. Certain it is that we should be; but in reality we are not.

Happiness, moreover, is not a right; only the pursuit thereof. There is no guarantee of success, and the reality is that there are many obstacles -- legal and otherwise -- in the way of that pursuit.

The Rights so cherished by the Founders are true only in the abstract; but they are no less true because they are abstract.

As for being equal,  I may have the right to pursue the happiness of playing professional basketball, but the reality is that such a career has never been a viable option, since I have neither the height nor the talent. In that sense, I am not equal to Shaquille O'Neal. But then, how good is he at editing, or playing the bagpipes?

Media Muddle

QUESTION -- Why did the mainstream media let itself be used so blatantly by the so-called birthers regarding Barack Obama's citizenship? Regardless of where his father came from, or for that matter where the President himself was born, Obama is a "natural born citizen" because his mother was a native of Kansas. You don't get much more American than that. So why did the media continue to give space and airtime to the ranters over a non-issue?
   John McCain was born in Panama, not in America, yet the radical right made no fuss over that. The senator from Arizona is a citizen because his parents were citizens. The same applies to the children of the many thousands, if not millions, of those born to parents serving in the military, the diplomatic corps, or just plain tourists.
   So the answer to the question is either because it made for a "good story" or because the print and broadcast news outlets were incompetent. Either way, it means the media were irresponsible.

Birth Rights

MEMO TO BIRTHERS -- The Constitution says nothing about location as a condition of citizenship and eligibility to be President of the United States. It requires that the President be a "natural born citizen." If only one parent is a U.S. citizen, the child is a "natural born citizen," no matter where born. But the birthers, currently led by Donald Trump, apparently have not read the Constitution, and insist that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, refusing to even look at the long form birth certificate with raised seal issued by the State of Hawaii and released by the White House. Now they are demanding to seen his college transcripts, and seem to be on the verge of claiming a vast conspiracy to perpetrate a fraud on the American people.
   Millions of Americans were born in other countries, including John McCain (born in Panama), and are "natural born citizens" of the United States because a parent was a citizen. And this is certainly true of Barack Obama's mother.
  

Incumbents

PREZ QUIZ -- Dick Polman, columnist for the Philly Inquirer, devoted a piece to this question: "How many Democratic presidents have been defeated for a second term in the last 120 years? A grand total of  one." Eventually, he got around to supplying the answer. It was Jimmy Carter in 1980. Polman's point was that the odds favor incumbents. True enough, but it would have nice if he had also noted the number of Republican presidents who have been defeated for a second term in the last 120 years. Five minutes in an Almanac provides the answer: Four. Benjamin Harrison in 1892, William Howard Taft in 1912, Herbert Hoover in 1932, and George H.W. Bush in 1992.

Trumped

MEMO to the Donald -- Where's your birth certificate? Instead of demanding proof of citizenship from incumbents, those who aspire to public office, or are even considering a bid for one, should volunteer evidence of their qualification to hold any office of public trust. How do we know the Donald even has the right to vote? Did he show his birth certificate when he registered to vote? Is he, in fact, a registered voter? Has he ever voted, and if so, when and where? The Donald often puts his mouth where his money is, but that's not enough. A big mouth is not a good qualification for political leadership.

BIRTH PLACES -- John McCain was born in Panama and Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona before it became a state. No fuss was ever made about their right to run for President. Sen. McCain was born on a military base in the Canal Zone, a strip of land leased from the nation of Panama. The Canal Zone was not, technically, part of the United States, but for the purpose of establishing citizenship, U.S. military bases are considered sovereign territory, albeit temporary.

Readability

FONT-HAPPY -- Computers provide hundreds of different fonts to choose from and many printers are able to cope with these fonts. But just because you can, does not necessarily mean that you should. Those of us who remember manual typewriters know that you had a choice of two fonts, pica or elite. You made the choice when you bought the machine, and that was it forever. Later, IBM came up with the Selectric, which had interchangeable ball-shaped elements, which provided a wider range of fonts, but still limited.
   Now, writers can select fonts that range from the merely odd and strange to the downright unreadable, even if the recipient's computer can reproduce the chosen font. We are able to spot a word that is misspelled because we are able to identify the individual letters in the word.  The combination of recognizable letters make up the words that we recognize. Thus, if we cannot recognize the letters, we cannot recognize the word, and we cannot read the message. Those who use these curious fonts need to ask themselves which is more important, the medium or the message.
   Typographical gimmickry goes only so far, and a little goes a long way.

GADGETS -- We encountered a driver recently who was so intent on following the directions given by his GPS system that he passed right by his destination, even though there was a prominent sign in front of the building. Not only that, but the GPS sent the driver on a three-mile roundabout route even though the destination was only half a mile from his starting point -- and on the same street. The episode reminded me of the compulsive use of spellcheck, which recognizes individual words, but not context. Technology provides many useful tools, but we need to remember that they remain just that -- tools, not substitutes.

MISLEADING PHRASE -- Advertising writers are fond of words and phrases that sound good, but are essentially meaningless. Example: The packaged food made from "farm-picked ingredients." All food ingredients come from farms, where they are picked. Unless, of course, the ingredients were concocted in a chemistry lab somewhere.

OPINING -- Someone once said that people are entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts. But it's also true that opinions are often based on a selection of available facts. Propagandists, advertising writers and politicians often select those facts that buttress their previously conceived opinions, and ignore those facts that might erode their positions.

The Power of Twelve

There are:
12 inches in a foot
12 months in a year
12 times 2 = 24 hours in a day
12 times 5 = 60 minutes in an hour
12 times 30 = 360 degrees in a circle
12 times 10 = 120 beats per minute, the standard military marching pace
12 times 10 = 120, the optimum systolic blood pressure
12 volts in automobile electrical systems
12 was the base for early mathematics

There are also:
12 grades in the American school system
12 signs of the zodiac
12 items in a dozen
12 pence in a shilling
12 people on a jury
12 tribes of Israel
12 apostles in Christianity, which borrowed the idea from
12 apostles in Mithraism
12 days to the Christmas season, from Yule to Epiphany
12  parts to the Boy Scout Law (Trustworthy, loyal, etc.)
12 steps to humility (St. Benedict, 520 A.D.)
12 steps of pride (St. Bernard of Clairveaux, 1130 A.D.)
12 steps to sobriety (Bill Miller, founder of AA, 1937)
12 original Bill of Rights Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
 -- Proposed in 1789, in force by 1791
--  Proposed amendments One and Two were not ratified promptly, so Three through Twelve became the Bill of Rights as we know it today
-- Proposed Amendment One was ratified in 1992 as Amendment 27, concerning Congressional pay hikes
-- Connecticut, Massachusetts, Georgia did not ratify the Bill of Rights until 1939.

Sentenced

HOW LONG -- Through the 19th Century, writers believed in the challenge of being able to keep a sentence under control regardless of length. Henry James, for example, typically wrote sentences ranging well above 100 words. And the opening of John Milton's "Paradise Lost" rambled all the way to 157 words, including 17 commas. The problem is that modern readers have no patience or desire to wade through those murky waters, all the while keeping track of the pertinent thought beneath the surface. This is particularly true of questions. Consider this one, from the New York Times, March 9, 2011:

   "Is the reliance on mass-produced bikinis -- a far cry from the elaborate, hand-crafted costumes Trinidadians had grown accustomed to -- stifling the creative works that have been the hallmark of traditional Carnival, which the government of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bisselsar has been pressing to revive since she took office last year?"

This twists its way to 52 words, with a 14-word clause inserted between the opening phrase and the controlling verb, thus burying the key thought (Is this stifling...?). It's certainly true that in print, readers can go back and reread the sentence if they don't fully grasp it the first time. But why should they have to? Moral: Don't make them. In broadcast news writing, you only get one chance to get your message across. Apply the same attitude to print.

(I know, I need a life, doing something other than counting the number of words in a sentemce.)

NEWS ITEM 1 -- Women now outnumber men in colleges, but still lag in pay after graduation.
NEWS ITEM 2-- More men are taking apprenticeships for skilled trades, especially in computerized manufacturing and high-tech fields.
CONCLUSION -- That's why men earn more. Liberal arts degrees don't pay much, and colleges don't teach skilled trades.

Free speech

COUNTRY COUNTRAST -- The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the right of a radical religious group to say nasty things near military funerals. In Pakistan, blasphemy gets you the death penalty, and disagreeing with radical Islamism is illegal, even if you are a Christian. On the same day of the Supreme Court ruling, a Christian cabinet minister who opposed Pakistan's blasphemy law was assassinated.

SHORT VERSION -- You have the right of free speech. I have the right to ignore you.

ATTENTION BIRTHERS -- There is no requirement that the President of the United States be a Christian. In fact, the Constitution specifically prohibits such a requirement, for any public office. That's not in the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of religion, but in the main body of the Constitution itself, in Article VI, which states, "There shall be no religious test for any office of public trust." There are many non-Christian politicians in America, including Hindus, Jews and Muslims, and that's as it should be, so that the entire population is represented. "America is a Christian nation," is the claim; (except for 6 million Jews, 5 million Muslims, 3 million Buddhists, 1.5 million Hindus, 1 million of the Baha'i faith, and 300,000 Sikh, not to mention the 2 million atheists and the 33 million who are non-religious. In addition, there are those of the Zoroastrian, Confucian, Shinto, Tao, Wiccan, and Druid spiritual paths, as well as the many in the Native American Tradition.) And if the President of the United States should happen to be a Muslim? As Colin Powell said, "So what if he is?"

SAY WHAT? -- Office technology department: "Please listen closely to the following options. If you are calling from a rotary phone, press zero."

Semantics

SUPPLY AND DEMAND -- Words don't always come on demand. Writers struggle for the best word -- the most effective word -- to convey a meaning, an image, or a message. But much also depends on the recipient -- the reader or the listener -- who brings a set of experiences, a history of beliefs and practices, which attach to a word or phrase new meanings, alternate meanings, or meanings that the writer did not intend to send or may not have thought of when framing the sentence. This is why so many domestic arguments are really about semantics, not issues.
Or, as comedian Dave Gardner put it, "What do it look like to both of us? Now we gettin' someplace."

PUNCHY -- Consider why style manuals often recommend Anglo-Saxon short verbs over polysyllabic Latin-based verbs. Multiple sounds in a single word tend to overwhelm the thought or idea the writer is trying to convey. Also, some words are construed to be more active than others. But what makes them more active? Is it that Anglo-Saxon verbs are shorter, and therefore more lithe? In sports, smaller, lighter athletes are often faster and with quicker reflexes than larger, lumbering competitors. The same may be true with words. Or it could be that on a linguistic DNA level, Latin is still a foreign language.

BASE LINES -- I went to an ophthalmologist recently, who was surprised when I pointed out that the medical term "presbyopia" was derived from the Greek for "old eyes." And years ago, I asked a dermatologist, "What do you call this indentation, or pit, on the inside of the elbow." He harrumphed a few doctor noises, and replied: "It's the antecubital fossa." After I got home, curiosity drove me to a dictionary, because I remembered that the element "ante-" meant "in front of," as in "anteroom," and that the word "cubit" was an ancient unit of measurement calculated as the distance from the wrist to the elbow. It turns out that "fossa" means "pit." So "antecubital fossa" is medical jargon for "pit in front of the elbow." Two good examples of the use of jargon, or a way to communicate with fellow members of a select group, and keep outsiders ignorant.

CLICHE CORNER -- Arctic blast, polar plunge and icy grip should all be banished from the lexicon of weather reports. Once is clever, twice is noticeable and three or more usages mean the writer has no imagination.

SHAKESPEAREAN DISSING -- Old Will was a master of the insult. Try using that fact when teaching Elizabethan drama to teenagers.

OVERHEARD -- "You're a Druid, aren't you? That's funny, you don't look Druish."

OVERHEARD, PART TWO -- "I'm going to plant pansies, but I'll do it in a manly fashion."

TRADE SECRET -- The secret of good writing is not in knowing what to put in, but in knowing what to leave out.

Press Freedom

Bill Keller, the managing editor of the NY Times, regarding the Wikileaks fallout, wrote: "A free press in a democracy can be messy. But the alternative is to give the government a veto over what its citizens are allowed to know."

 

The first thing a repressive government tries to do is to control the flow of information. This has been happening in Cairo and historically has happened in many other countries. One of the things that worry me about Sarah Palin is her almost obsessive control of her message. She communicates almost entirely through her web site, Facebook and Twitter. Her public speeches are only to friendly audiences; she takes no questions, and avoids reporters like the plague.

Blitzed

BLITZED -- Or, Sherlock Blitzer strikes again. CNN anchor: "Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut announced today he will not run for re-election next year. Here's CNN's Wolf Blitzer with a commentary. Wolf, what does this mean?"
   Blitzer: "It means that Joe Lieberman will no longer be in the Senate."

SPACED -- Farhad Manjoo posted a rant on Slate with this pronouncement: "Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong." And, he claims, "Every third e-mail I get from readers includes the two-space error," and many in the public relation profession, he adds, are among the ignorant offenders. Guess what, friend Manjoo: The point is, in fact, arguable, and is not necessarily wrong. The single-space practice began with the advent of computers and computerized typesetting. Ranter Manjoo must be of the computer generation. We geezers who learned spacing B.C. (before computers) got into the practice with manual typewriters, when a tad of extra space was helpful to readers in spotting the end of a sentence. Computers can be programmed to add a smidgen of extra space, just as the machine can automatically justify the type to align the right-hand margins, which typewriters cannot do. I guess it didn't occur to the ranter that if so many professionals disagreed with him, there might be some validity to their positions.

  COMMA-TOSE -- And as for the ranter inserting a comma after the penultimate item in a list, as he does with "totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong," that, too, is arguable. Academics say yes, newspaper usage says no. It's a matter of style, which in this case refers to consistency of usage. There is no right or wrong, it's the way any group of editors decides to do it. Another example the use of percent. Should it be one word or two, or abbreviated to pct. or substituted with the symbol %? Each is correct. Writers use whichever form the editor of a particular publication prefers.

Brilliant!

DUH --- Wolf Blitzer, CNN, 8:35 p.m. Saturday, 8 January 2011: "Authorities said they are not convinced the shooter acted alone. That means there may have been another person involved."
   Reaction from the Samurai Rim Man: "Ain't he all broke out with brilliance."