Even the most polished publications are not immune to that dreaded mistake committed frequently in English -- the "misplaced modifier."
Here is a current example from the august Wall Street Journal, an excellent publication to which I'm a subscriber:
"Mr. Zagorsky studied data from 7,403 Americans who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a representative sample of Americans funded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics." (May 5-6, 2007, p. B4)
Here it reads as though the Bureau of Labor Statistics has funded the "Americans" who were in the "representative sample"!
But of course that's not true. We know that the study itself was the entity that was funded by the BLS.
That's why the correct sentence should read:
"Mr. Zagorsky studied data from a representative sample of 7,403 Americans who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth funded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics."
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Rich are not Smart?
"How come you're not rich if you're so smart?" goes the popular putdown.
In general, we expect very smart people to be also very rich, don't we?
But there does not seem to be a strong correlation between IQ and income and wealth, according to a scientific study conducted by Ohio State University's Jay Zagorsky.
Zagorsky's study of 7,403 Americans who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth between 1979 and 2004 showed that smarts and riches are very loosely connected. Each additional IQ point corresponded to only an additional $202 to $616 of income a year.
Other complicating factors: You can have high income but if you don't save, you won't be wealthy. Or, you can be wealthy on paper but if your wealth is tied up in non-liquid assets (like real estate with mortgage) then again you may not have a lot of income.
In general, we expect very smart people to be also very rich, don't we?
But there does not seem to be a strong correlation between IQ and income and wealth, according to a scientific study conducted by Ohio State University's Jay Zagorsky.
Zagorsky's study of 7,403 Americans who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth between 1979 and 2004 showed that smarts and riches are very loosely connected. Each additional IQ point corresponded to only an additional $202 to $616 of income a year.
Other complicating factors: You can have high income but if you don't save, you won't be wealthy. Or, you can be wealthy on paper but if your wealth is tied up in non-liquid assets (like real estate with mortgage) then again you may not have a lot of income.
Friday, May 4, 2007
E-MAIL SCAM ~ “Iraqi re-construction effort”
This is a new one… Someone with an Arabic name is sending e-mails on behalf of the “Iraqi re-construction effort” and “PM Al-maliki regime” to solicit “your co-operation in a multi million dollars worth of contracts to supplies on various goods /construction…”
Notice the bad English. Usually these scam letters contain grammatical or stylistic errors since they are copied many times over before being sent out, sometimes by scam artists who can barely read or understand English. Random errors made during such replications inevitably multiply over so many copy-and-paste cycles.
All scam letters claim they are trying to give you money (and millions of dollars at that) if only you would “cooperate”… And the kind of “cooperation” they have in mind requires you (eventually) turning over all your bank account information to parties you don’t even know!
But the first letter is always a “warm-up letter” asking only for your “direct telephone numbers and exclusive e-mail and a scanned attachment of your well articulated tender/products and prices.”
And once you do that and prove to them that you will follow orders like a sheep, you will be demanded in a subsequent letter to turn over your bank information as well so that they can “transfer” your “fee” in return for your “indispensable services…” etc.
The letter usually comes from an “intermediary” who speaks “on behalf” of someone rich and powerful. This other person, the “real boss,” is either trying to transfer money out of a troubled country or has a business offer for the taking. The “Iraqi re-construction” scam is of the latter type.
Another give-away in this scam is the country-code at the end of the return e-mail – “si”, which stands not for Iraq but Slovenia.
If you can convince yourself why Prime Minister Al-Maliki’s “director general of the budget department/debt management office (DMO) of the ministry of finance” would send you a job solicitation e-mail from Slovenia, then perhaps you deserve to be parted from your savings as well.
Notice the bad English. Usually these scam letters contain grammatical or stylistic errors since they are copied many times over before being sent out, sometimes by scam artists who can barely read or understand English. Random errors made during such replications inevitably multiply over so many copy-and-paste cycles.
All scam letters claim they are trying to give you money (and millions of dollars at that) if only you would “cooperate”… And the kind of “cooperation” they have in mind requires you (eventually) turning over all your bank account information to parties you don’t even know!
But the first letter is always a “warm-up letter” asking only for your “direct telephone numbers and exclusive e-mail and a scanned attachment of your well articulated tender/products and prices.”
And once you do that and prove to them that you will follow orders like a sheep, you will be demanded in a subsequent letter to turn over your bank information as well so that they can “transfer” your “fee” in return for your “indispensable services…” etc.
The letter usually comes from an “intermediary” who speaks “on behalf” of someone rich and powerful. This other person, the “real boss,” is either trying to transfer money out of a troubled country or has a business offer for the taking. The “Iraqi re-construction” scam is of the latter type.
Another give-away in this scam is the country-code at the end of the return e-mail – “si”, which stands not for Iraq but Slovenia.
If you can convince yourself why Prime Minister Al-Maliki’s “director general of the budget department/debt management office (DMO) of the ministry of finance” would send you a job solicitation e-mail from Slovenia, then perhaps you deserve to be parted from your savings as well.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Linux or Windows?
As I'm writing these words, DELL has decided to ship some of its new models with Linux OS. They have selected UBUNTU distribution of Linux. Go DELL!
A perfect choice because I've been using UBUNTU on one of my machines for over a year now and I have nothing but qualified praise for it.
Qualified? Yes. Because I cannot run any of my Windows application (like Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive) on Ubuntu.
GIMP comes close to doing what Photoshop can do (at least at my level of graphic comptetence) but other Windows applications do not have their Linux-copunterparts yet. There is nothing over the horizon yet, for example, to match the reliability of power of FrameMaker in a Linux environment.
So why I still like my Ubuntu? Let me count the ways:
1) It's FREE.
2) OpenOffice that comes with it is FREE as well and it can match WS Office in every category, except in mail management.
3) No viruses. Period. I have not used any anti-virus programs or firewalls with my Ubuntu system yet. Knock on wood.
4) No system crashes. And when I crash my system (a rare event) while trying to open 10 different applications or files at the same time, Ubuntu recovers beautifully, restoring each crashed file one by one when you restart the system.
5) Auto updates... when you click this great little "you have updates" button on top of the screen, UBUNTU automatically downloads (after your approval of each item) whatever updates are developed by hard-working Linux volunteers around the globe.
I do all my writing, for example, on my Linux machine. Since OpenOffice also has a free PDF conversion utility built right into its word processor, I'm writing my new book ("Copyright-Free Content for Your Web Site and Newsletters") also on my Linux machine.
Click here for a great article that compares UBUNTU with MS Vista
Monday, April 30, 2007
Circulation at the Top 20 Newspapers
By The Associated Press
Average paid weekday circulation of the nation's 20 largest newspapers for the six-month period ending in March, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period.
1. USA Today, 2,278,022, up 0.2 percent
2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,062,312, up 0.6 percent
3. The New York Times, 1,120,420, down 1.9 percent
4. Los Angeles Times, 815,723, down 4.2 percent
5. New York Post, 724,748, up 7.6 percent
6. New York Daily News, 718,174, up 1.4 percent
7. The Washington Post, 699,130, down 3.5 percent
8. Chicago Tribune, 566,827, down 2.1 percent
9. Houston Chronicle, 503,114, down 2 percent
10. The Arizona Republic, 433,731, down 1.1 percent
11. Dallas Morning News, 411,919, down 14.3 percent
12. Newsday, Long Island, 398,231, down 6.9 percent
13. San Francisco Chronicle, 386,564, down 2.9 percent
14. The Boston Globe, 382,503, down 3.7 percent
15. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., 372,629, down 6.1 percent
16. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 357,399, down 2.1 percent
17. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 352,593, up 0.6 percent
18. Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 345,252, down 4.9 percent
19. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, 344,704, up 0.5 percent
20. Detroit Free Press, 329,989, down 4.7 percent
The Dallas Morning News is reporting for the first time since being censured in 2004 for misstating circulation figures. The Chicago Sun-Times has not yet resumed reporting.
Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Average paid weekday circulation of the nation's 20 largest newspapers for the six-month period ending in March, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period.
1. USA Today, 2,278,022, up 0.2 percent
2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,062,312, up 0.6 percent
3. The New York Times, 1,120,420, down 1.9 percent
4. Los Angeles Times, 815,723, down 4.2 percent
5. New York Post, 724,748, up 7.6 percent
6. New York Daily News, 718,174, up 1.4 percent
7. The Washington Post, 699,130, down 3.5 percent
8. Chicago Tribune, 566,827, down 2.1 percent
9. Houston Chronicle, 503,114, down 2 percent
10. The Arizona Republic, 433,731, down 1.1 percent
11. Dallas Morning News, 411,919, down 14.3 percent
12. Newsday, Long Island, 398,231, down 6.9 percent
13. San Francisco Chronicle, 386,564, down 2.9 percent
14. The Boston Globe, 382,503, down 3.7 percent
15. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., 372,629, down 6.1 percent
16. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 357,399, down 2.1 percent
17. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 352,593, up 0.6 percent
18. Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 345,252, down 4.9 percent
19. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, 344,704, up 0.5 percent
20. Detroit Free Press, 329,989, down 4.7 percent
The Dallas Morning News is reporting for the first time since being censured in 2004 for misstating circulation figures. The Chicago Sun-Times has not yet resumed reporting.
Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Sales Receipt - Printing the Full Credit Card Number is Against the 2003 Law
My local Sears store may get sued one of these days because it is still printing the full credit card numbers on their sales receipts.
According to the U.S. Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, which went into effect on December 4, 2006, the retailers are not allowed to print their customers' full credit card numbers on the sale receipts in an effort to prevent consumer fraud and identity theft.
Some claim card expiration dates should also not be printed but the law is not clear on that point.
Big merchants such as Rite-Aid, Wendy's, FedEx, TJX, and Ikea are already being sued for doing exactly that.
100 class-action lawsuits are already filed at the federal courts and district courts (in California, Pennsylvania, and Kansas) for continuing to print full credit card numbers on sales receipts.
The lawsuits contend that the retailers are "wilfully" violating the law, which carry a $1,000 penalty per transaction (not per person). So, if a consumer has bought 10 sandwiches from a store with 10 different receipts displaying the full credit card number, the penalty sought would be $10,000.
To prevent the onslaught of these new lawsuits, VISA started to demand its vendors back in 2003 to accept new machines that print only the last four digits of a credit card number. That still remains the legally accepted practice but I personally see quite a few stores still printing their sales receipts the old fashioned way.
I guess it's time to have a friendly talk with the Manager of my Sears store...
According to the U.S. Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, which went into effect on December 4, 2006, the retailers are not allowed to print their customers' full credit card numbers on the sale receipts in an effort to prevent consumer fraud and identity theft.
Some claim card expiration dates should also not be printed but the law is not clear on that point.
Big merchants such as Rite-Aid, Wendy's, FedEx, TJX, and Ikea are already being sued for doing exactly that.
100 class-action lawsuits are already filed at the federal courts and district courts (in California, Pennsylvania, and Kansas) for continuing to print full credit card numbers on sales receipts.
The lawsuits contend that the retailers are "wilfully" violating the law, which carry a $1,000 penalty per transaction (not per person). So, if a consumer has bought 10 sandwiches from a store with 10 different receipts displaying the full credit card number, the penalty sought would be $10,000.
To prevent the onslaught of these new lawsuits, VISA started to demand its vendors back in 2003 to accept new machines that print only the last four digits of a credit card number. That still remains the legally accepted practice but I personally see quite a few stores still printing their sales receipts the old fashioned way.
I guess it's time to have a friendly talk with the Manager of my Sears store...
How to write columns and get syndicated?
by Bhumika Ghimire
http://www.helium.com/user/show/68604
April 29, 2007
Writing columns and getting syndicated can be a great career moment for freelance writers. With this you can expect a steady pay and also increased name recognition.But before I get deep into benefits of getting syndicated, lets talk about what syndication means and how it works.
Syndication means that you column will run in more than one national or local newspaper or magazine. For example: you write a column on fashion which will be carried by newspapers in your home town as well as others across the nation. Which publication carries them depends on your contract. Usually an agent shops around and gets you a syndication deal. Your pay also depends on the terms in the contract, you can either be paid a certain percentage based on circulation or have a fixed amount. About the frequency of publication, some get it weekly and some have it daily. Though it is very rare to get a daily space.
So now that you know how syndication works, lets talk about how to get syndicated.
Click here for the rest of this useful article
http://www.helium.com/user/show/68604
April 29, 2007
Writing columns and getting syndicated can be a great career moment for freelance writers. With this you can expect a steady pay and also increased name recognition.But before I get deep into benefits of getting syndicated, lets talk about what syndication means and how it works.
Syndication means that you column will run in more than one national or local newspaper or magazine. For example: you write a column on fashion which will be carried by newspapers in your home town as well as others across the nation. Which publication carries them depends on your contract. Usually an agent shops around and gets you a syndication deal. Your pay also depends on the terms in the contract, you can either be paid a certain percentage based on circulation or have a fixed amount. About the frequency of publication, some get it weekly and some have it daily. Though it is very rare to get a daily space.
So now that you know how syndication works, lets talk about how to get syndicated.
Click here for the rest of this useful article
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