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Must-reads

I came across this thoughtful, well-written, objective essay in Newsweek, discussing how the Teabaggers use the Constitution as their "bible" to get their message across, and how incredibly misguided and just plain wrong this notion is.

And an item about how the Republicans, in this election cycle, have decided that the electorate is just plain stupid (hmm...).

This article from Techdirt contemplates the nature of centralized vs distributed organisms, in the context of Wikileak's recent exposures of the U.S. Government's behavior in Iraq. Regardless of one's opinion of this particular situation, it's worth reading because it provides food for thought about what our future may look like.

English as she is spoke!

This space features funny language-related boo-boos from World Wide Words ©, with regular updates.

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Now that I'm back, I'm finally getting to update this...

• Last Saturday's Guardian included a quote from a woman whom it identified as Atha Cain "who carried her husband's ashes into Hull Crown Court for the trial of the woman who caused his death by wreckless driving."

• A recent comment about having a backup program that issued the message "An invalid argument was encountered" put Robert Hart in mind of a response he once received from an earlier generation of computers: "Wrong Error". He commented, "This was from IBM in its heyday. I feel it transcended mere obscurity and approached the metaphysical."

>> I can personally identify with this, having encountered and enjoyed many nonsensical errors over the years. My personal fave was the ever-present gem from IBM:
Error: An error has occurred.
Action: Correct the error.

Back then, you had to consult a hardcopy manual to discover this profundity. Sadly, to this day, I still see this sort of BS.

• The Observer's monthly food supplement in December recommended the
single malt Highland Park as "a genuine classic that never fails to disappoint."

• An aerial photo submitted to the Boston Globe, Anne Reece tells us, had the intriguing caption "A view of Diamond Head crater taking off from Honolulu at the end of August".

• On November 8, this was reported in the Huffington Post: "White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs grew so angry with Indian security officials on Sunday that he got into a heated shouting match with them - and even blocked a door they were trying to close with his foot." Maybe they shoulda just used their own hands?

• On his blog, Making Light, on 24 October, Patrick Nielsen Hayden reported an example of a classic error that's reminiscent of the famous (and apocryphal) book dedication, "To my parents, Ayn Rand and God". It was a caption to a picture of Merle Haggard in the Los Angeles Times of 21 July and referred to a documentary about him: "Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall".

• Peter Smith read an item on Sky News, dated 22 October, about a plane crash in the Congo that killed 20 people, including the pilot, Chris Wilson: "Generally viewed as being in a chronic state of disrepair, Mr Wilson had apparently expressed concern about the Czech-built Let-410 before the crash."

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