Monthly Archives: July 2005

Author wants to stop words

â€œDeath Sentences: How ClichÃ©s, Weasel Words and Management-Speak are Strangling Public Languageâ€ is a book written by Australian Don Watson that wants to change the way we use words. He wants to get rid of ridiculous corporate speak that is destroying our language. Clearly, he needs to prioritize his mission statement to better implement his concepts so the optics of his position are more market-orientated on a multi-paradigm, multimedia medium of……..

His website has examples of what needs to be changed. Here’s an example

Time budget: ‘As in “Sorry I over extended my time budget this morning, it was my wifes birthday”. No, he was late!’

HIV Halted (almost)

Asahi.com is reporting that a new drug blocks HIV from entering other cells. Unlike other drugs designed to combat HIV/AIDs this one uses human cells to block out the attacking badness. This drug may need more testing, but this approach to the issue is not one I’ve heard of before (but comes as no surprise).

Yellow = Green

New York City yellow cabs are going green. They were having some problems with government red tape, but that seems all cleared up now. The cabs will be converted into hybrid cars to ensure much better fuel efficiency. Apparently 7 out 10 New York state citizens support a switch to hybrid vehicles.

Hopefully this will pave the way for more and more cars turning into green machines.

Euro Patents No-Go

The BBC is reporting that the European Parliament has given a resounding NO to the proposed patent legislation. An amazing rejection vote of 648 – 14.

Here is a brief reason of what is wrong with software patent legislation. This is really good news for small software developers and the open source community.

Death Maps

Americans, Iraqis, British, people of all nations are dying in Iraq, this is not good. The situation in Iraq is nowhere near good, in fact things are only getting worse. So why does this post exist on a website that is dedicated good things?

The Palm Beach Post has provided a map of Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another site Casualty-Maps shows conflict-related deaths. A third site is another visualization of deaths, but shown where the casualty was in Iraq.

The good thing that comes from these sites is that they are educating Americans (and others) about the cost of war. These maps are limited insofar that they show only American deaths and fail to represent Iraqi casulaties. By making the statistics easier to understand it allows for faster communication of a complicated issue. Support for the war is at an all-time low and these sites may help explain why.

I would like to see a an Iraqi death map to follow up with these maps. A site that provides graphs such as the financial cost of the war, the human cost, and the environmental costs all in a easy to read fashion would be great to send to all those pro-war people. Anything that proves that war is a negative thing is good to me – thus this post.

Things Are Good

Inspirational and good news.