“We will get rid of the redundancy and duplication that wastes your time and your money.”
Official White House statement, Dec. 14, 2017. MAGA, indeed.
Thursday, December 14, 2017
Friday, December 24, 2010
Slate: Ocean's One
What's the point of stealing casino chips?
Slate is an online magazine that has nurtured a reputation for being smart and explaining things that people either are or should be thinking about. They've provided here an extra bonus (see how I did that?) by revisiting one of redundancy's greatest hits, the nefarious armed gunman. After all, how effective could an unarmed gunman really be?
Details: www.slate.com
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wall Street Journal: China, Google and the Cloud Wars
What does Google know about you? What does the Chinese government know about you?
Now you know a less-spoken reason why Google has gone to the mattresses over Chinese hacking. Always in the cards, since the birth of the Web, was the possibility that some great Internet business—a Yahoo or Google or Amazon or Facebook—would be destroyed overnight by a cataclysmic loss of trust in its protection of consumer data.
We haven't seen this phenomenon yet, but it has seemed almost inevitable that sooner or later we will.
Now you know a less-spoken reason why Google has gone to the mattresses over Chinese hacking. Always in the cards, since the birth of the Web, was the possibility that some great Internet business—a Yahoo or Google or Amazon or Facebook—would be destroyed overnight by a cataclysmic loss of trust in its protection of consumer data.
We haven't seen this phenomenon yet, but it has seemed almost inevitable that sooner or later we will.
This all sounds really ominous. But so what? Gloom and doom will just have to wait while we nitpick. In this instance, the nit we are picking is "reason why." What does a reason do? It tells you why. So knowing "a less-spoken reason Google has gone to the mattresses" (mattresses?) serves our needs just fine.
You may now return to your previously scheduled gloom and doom.
Details: online.wsj.com
Monday, January 11, 2010
Tulsa Business Journal: Traveling by invisible bracelet goal
Noah Roberts wants to go everywhere that people travel and provide emergency personnel vital medical data should the need arise.
No, the Docvia president and chief executive officer doesn’t want to be physically present during the travels. That would mean dividing himself as many ways as the number of people who signed up for his service.
Rather, he wants an invisible bracelet that his firm developed to do the traveling. The bracelet would contain basic health information and up to 10 emergency contacts stored under a computer-assigned PIN number.
No, the Docvia president and chief executive officer doesn’t want to be physically present during the travels. That would mean dividing himself as many ways as the number of people who signed up for his service.
Rather, he wants an invisible bracelet that his firm developed to do the traveling. The bracelet would contain basic health information and up to 10 emergency contacts stored under a computer-assigned PIN number.
Maybe that means it's extra secure. After all, there's not merely a personal identification number between you and identity thieves. No sir, this will have a personal identification number number.
Details: www.tulsabusiness.com
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Los Angeles Daily News: Rose Parade dress rehearsal
The first Rose Parades featured flower-covered horse-drawn carriages, and related events included polo matches and bronco-busting demonstrations, according to the Tournament of Roses Web site.
In more modern times, officials for the past 20 years or so have organized a separate equestrian event the week before the parade, said Asman.
The location and format evolved over time, solidifying into Equestfest, which has been held for the past seven years, she added.The Department is a big fan of properly executing the term Web site, so this citation for redundancy will contain less snarkiness than the usual post. Credit for good behavior, as it were.
The problem? Evolve means to undergo a process of change or development. Clearly, any process has a time element. So saying something has "evolved over time" is like saying it has "changed over time over time." It's safe to simply say evolved.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Business Week: Despite crisis, Cuba says GDP rose 1.4 pct in '09
Cuba used its unique brand of state accounting Sunday to claim 1.4 percent economic growth for the year, avoiding an official recession but failing to meet original forecasts...
When calculating growth, Cuba's government includes what it spends on free health care and education through college, as well as subsidies for housing, transportation and food rations. Critics say that exaggerates the economy's output.
The economy was hit hard by the recession this year, with productivity declining 1.1 percent, exports falling 22 percent, and officials slashing foreign imports 37 percent.
I'm pretty sure that if it's an import, it came from a foreign country. If Business Week were to discover a domestic import, that news would rock the financial world. But they won't, I'm certain, so they should just say "import" and be done. We'll all know what they mean.
Details: http://www.businessweek.com/
When calculating growth, Cuba's government includes what it spends on free health care and education through college, as well as subsidies for housing, transportation and food rations. Critics say that exaggerates the economy's output.
The economy was hit hard by the recession this year, with productivity declining 1.1 percent, exports falling 22 percent, and officials slashing foreign imports 37 percent.
I'm pretty sure that if it's an import, it came from a foreign country. If Business Week were to discover a domestic import, that news would rock the financial world. But they won't, I'm certain, so they should just say "import" and be done. We'll all know what they mean.
Details: http://www.businessweek.com/
Friday, December 18, 2009
Pendaflex® Launches I.Organize™ Information Management System
Esselte®, a leading provider of office products and organizational solutions under its premier Pendaflex® brand, is excited to announce the introduction of its innovative new Pendaflex® I.Organize™ information management system. I.Organize is a customizable project management solution providing superior functional advantages over 3-ring binders.
Melville, NY (PRWEB) December 7, 2009 -- The Pendaflex I.Organize is the professional choice for organization and management of your project and task documents (& materials). I.Organize is a customizable and active organization system that saves time and enhances
productivity by allowing you to quickly access, categorize and securely store your most important project papers, whether you are in the office or on-the-go.
The information management system’s patent pending technology, developed specifically through observation research of mobile workers on the road, consists of a binder and easily interchangeable filing tools that combine together utilizing a unique locking mechanism which ensures that documents remain safe and secure.
This horrid example is pulled from the world of public relations. Like the news media, it is populated with both brilliant people and people who are not yet ready for prime time. The redundancy causing the furrowed brow here is bolded above. Combine together. As opposed to those other kinds of combining, the non-together kind. I can't think of any, but apparently Esselte knows of some.
In real life, the Department lives in the PR world. So I can't help but critique other aspects of this disaster. Note that above is only a portion of the release. More fun — and opportunities to test your own critiquing skills — is available via the link at the end of this post. Onward:
Melville, NY (PRWEB) December 7, 2009 -- The Pendaflex I.Organize is the professional choice for organization and management of your project and task documents (& materials). I.Organize is a customizable and active organization system that saves time and enhances
productivity by allowing you to quickly access, categorize and securely store your most important project papers, whether you are in the office or on-the-go.The information management system’s patent pending technology, developed specifically through observation research of mobile workers on the road, consists of a binder and easily interchangeable filing tools that combine together utilizing a unique locking mechanism which ensures that documents remain safe and secure.
This horrid example is pulled from the world of public relations. Like the news media, it is populated with both brilliant people and people who are not yet ready for prime time. The redundancy causing the furrowed brow here is bolded above. Combine together. As opposed to those other kinds of combining, the non-together kind. I can't think of any, but apparently Esselte knows of some.
In real life, the Department lives in the PR world. So I can't help but critique other aspects of this disaster. Note that above is only a portion of the release. More fun — and opportunities to test your own critiquing skills — is available via the link at the end of this post. Onward:
- Who on earth puts ® and ™ in headlines?
- Why does somebody in a news release always have to be "excited" about something? (Bonus points to Esselte here, though, for having the entire corporation "excited" rather than the usual CEO.)
- "NY" is a postal service abbreviation. Datelines use N.Y.
- When referencing a specific date, abbreviate the month if it exceeds five letters, i.e., all but March through July.
- An ampersand? Was typing out a-n-d too laborious?
- If you need to use parentheses in your first sentence, what you really need is a new first sentence.
- A challenge to us all: Write a news release without using "solution." You'll probably end up with a better, more believable release.
- Am I not in the target market if I am merely on the go rather than "on-the-go"?
Details: www.prweb.com
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