THE phrase "shovel ready", which was invoked incessantly this year by Barack Obama as a way to sell his administration's $787 billion (£487bn) federal stimulus bill, died yesterday. The official cause of death was overuse, according to Lake Superior State University, which announced the phrase's demise in its annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. I've actually become pretty fond of it, as in: "Dr. Quincy! I believe this one's shovel-ready!"
"Shovel ready" dug its own grave by forcing its way into speeches and out of the mouths of the president and too many other politicians in past months. "Stick a shovel in it. It's done," seethed Joe Grimm in his nomination to the Word Banishment Committee. Mr Grimm is a visiting journalist at Michigan State University and a former editor at the Detroit Free Press.
"Shovel ready" became a clarion call for the White House as shorthand for the kind of taxpayer-funded work projects that had been through the design and permitting process and were ready to launch. Yeah. All they needed was a contract and they were ready to go. Guess who was in line to get the contracts?
The phrase was joined in dialectical death on the Michigan school's 35th banned words list by, among others, "czar", "sexting", "tweet" and "teachable moment".
App -- as in the iPhone's "there's an app for that" ad -- was preceded in death by "killer app", which was banished in 2002. "Killer app" was executed? Oh, noze!
Many other terms related to the federal stimulus -- or the failing economy that inspired it -- have been thrown on to the semantic scrapheap for 2010, including "stimulus" (the more blunt "bailout" bit the dust last year), "toxic assets" and "too big to fail" -- apparently, failure was an option.
"Shovel ready" is survived by many other scrutinised phrases, including "death panel", "low-hanging fruit" and "door-buster", but none of them should assume immortality. I think we'll have some of those words around for a few more years. "Sexting," for example, won't go away until the over-40 crowd picks it up. "Teachable moment" will remain, just not in the mouths of them as first barfed it out. We had about 35 "czars" as of last count, which sounds more like an oligarchy or even just a committee than absolute despots. And as far as I know, Twitter is continuing to... ummm... tweet. "Stimulus" is more sexual and less descriptive than "bailout," but still too descriptive. I think it's replacement will be something much more innocuous-sounding, like "resource augmentation" or maybe "monetary oatmeal."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/02/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The Obama administration is itself "shovel ready" if you ask me.
#4
I nominate the use of the word "grow" as a verb for things outside the world of nature.
In a business context the words "build" or "advance" are much better. I always think it sounds stupid when executives talk about "growing a business". I mean, what? Did they feed the headquarters some Miracle Gro and provide plenty of sunlight?
#6
Did they feed the headquarters some Miracle Gro and provide plenty of sunlight? One of the functions business-speak serves is to feed the public BS & keep them in the dark. The media cooperates by merely parroting jargon and re-printing it, rather than turning it into plain English. Wouldn't want the public to have a clearer understanding of what is going on behind closed doors. Read the NY Times archives from the crisis years of 1932-34 & notice the vast difference in the quality and clarity of everyone's writing about business & the economy compared to current publications.
China, whose mines account for 97 per cent of global supplies, is trying to ensure that all raw rare earth elements are processed within its borders. During the past seven years it has reduced by 40 per cent the amount of rare earths available for export.
#3
Doesn't seem likely that 97% of the global accumulation of rare earth elements should be in China. More likely the percentage is that high because up until the very recent past the primary use for minerals containing rare earth elements was for making fireworks colorful - and that was an overwhelmingly Chinese business. Now the unusual properties of REE in electronics and other cutting edge technology is providing a higher value growth market for that old Chinese supply, so it makes sense for them to restrict access. I wonder where future supplies will be found, and who will be first to develop. Sudan? China? (WAG)
#5
America was the world leader in rare earth mineral production. But US wage rates couldn't compete with Chinese $200/month.
Posted by: ed ||
01/02/2010 20:28 Comments ||
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#6
America was the world leader in rare earth mineral production. But US wage rates couldn't compete with Chinese $200/month. Seriously, would you want to live in that kind of nation
A shopping centre in China's Hebei province has built a car park with wider spaces that it says is designed especially to suit women drivers.
The women-only car park in Shijiazhuang city is also painted in pink and light purple to appeal to female tastes.
Official Wang Zheng told AFP news agency the car park was meant to cater to women's "strong sense of colour and different sense of distance".
The parking bays are one metre (3ft) wider than normal spaces, he said.
The Wanxiang-Tiancheng shopping centre had also "installed signs and security monitoring equipment that corresponded more to women's needs", he said.
The Global Times website says female parking attendants have been trained to help guide women drivers into their parking spaces. The bays also have extra lighting.
Driving in China is a dangerous activity, with more than 200 deaths in road accidents each day last year, AFP reports, citing police statistics.
Ulan Bator, Mongolia -- Mongolia, a formerly communist nation sandwiched between two autocratic and powerful neighbors, once seemed an unlikely candidate for democratic reform. But while its mighty neighbors China and Russia are allowing authoritarian tendencies to diminish rule of law, impoverished Mongolia has persisted in building a more accountable government.
In one of the most underreported stories of 2009, Mongolia is forging ahead with reforms aimed at making its society more open and less subject to the endemic corruption that has plagued many former communist states.
Mongolia was once considered among the least likely of former communist nations to make a successful transition to democracy. But it now holds regular national elections under a mixed parliamentary-presidential system.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/02/2010 00:00 ||
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#3
Just returned from the Georgia coast. The local teevee real estate channel at St. Simons was awash with area properties for sale from the mid-$300's to $7.5m. Foreclosures right and left, even on the high dollar properties. Appears a lot of folks are getting out of the coastal property business.
Already, senior White House aides have privately assured Latino activists that the president will back legislation in 2010 to provide a road to citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented workers now living in the United States. And your little health care too....
#2
good. we don't the healthcare and cap and trade to be a failed suicide attempt. With the trifecta, they're sure to seal the deal. F*ck em. Get out and VOTE
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/02/2010 15:40 Comments ||
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ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The proponents of conventional application of military force, in a nuclear overhang are chartering an adventurous and dangerous path, the consequences of which could be both unintended and uncontrollable, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Kayani said on Friday.
Responding to a recent statement by Indian Army chief General Deepak Kapoor, General Kayani warned that the situation would get out of control in case of any dangerous adventurism, a private TV channel reported.
Principle: Addressing senior officers at the General Headquarters (GHQ), he said peace and stability in South Asia and beyond was the logical and fundamental principle underlining the security paradigm of Pakistan.
The ISPR quoted the COAS as saying that the Pakistan Army was fully alert and alive to the full spectrum of threat, which continued to exist in conventional and unconventional domains.
However, he said, as a responsible nuclear capable state, the Pakistan Army would contribute to strategic stability and strategic restraint as per the stated policy of the government.
But at the same time, it [the military] will continue to maintain the necessary wherewithal to deter and, if required, defeat any aggressive design, in any form or shape such as a firmed up proactive strategy or a cold start doctrine, he was quoted as saying.
The COAS reiterated that the army stood committed and prepared to respond to any existing, potential or emerging threat.
An army supported by 170 million people, with faith in Allah, is a formidable force to reckon with, he said.
Earlier, the COAS visited a unit in the Rawalpindi Garrison and interacted with troops and officers and appreciated their high morale
Posted by: john frum ||
01/02/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The local government system became a provincial subject after midnight on Thursday.
Provinces have decided to retain the system after making some amendments required in their jurisdictions.
Except in Sindh, all district Nazims will stop functioning from Jan 1 and administrators from the bureaucracy will be appointed to serve in their place till fresh LB elections are held.
President Asif Ali Zardari, on the advice of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, deleted laws concerning local governments from the sixth schedule of the Constitution.
Deletion of Balochistan Local Government Ordinance, 2001 (XVIII of 2001), North West Frontier Province Local Government Ordinance, 2001 (XIV of 2001), Punjab Local Government Ordinance, 2001 (XIII of 2001) and Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 2001 (XXVI of 2001) allowed the provinces to make changes in the local government laws.
The president's spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, said Mr Zardari described it as a new year gift to the nation which would promote provincial harmony.
"As the clock strikes midnight heralding the advent of 2010, the provinces are free to make their own laws relating to the local bodies either through legislation or ordinances. They are free to hold fresh elections or appoint administrators."
A press release issued by the Prime Minister's House said Mr Gilani observed that the provinces, according to their need and circumstances, may make laws and hold local bodies' elections. He further observed that omission of laws from the sixth schedule was a valuable dividend of democracy.
It is believed that there would be no uniformity in the LG system in the provinces because some will retain it while some will scrap it.
It has been learnt that except for Sindh, administrators would be appointed soon in provinces till the holding of fresh elections.
President Zardari has expressed the desire that the provinces should hold fresh LG polls within 90 days.
However, Punjab and NWFP governments have decided to hold elections in three and six months respectively. "Our party has prepared a bill concerning amendments in the LG system and it is likely to be passed soon," PML-N Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal told Dawn.
He advocated non-uniformity in the LG system, saying the provinces should have autonomy to take a decision according to their conditions and requirements. "Actually the uniformity in the system was desired by former president Pervez Musharraf who wanted to control the provinces through the LG ordinance," Mr Ahsan alleged.
ANP's senior leader Haji Adeel said his party had also prepared a draft bill containing proposed amendments in the LG system. Fresh election would be held within six months, he added.
Former chairman of the National Reconstruction Bureau Daniyal Aziz, who along with his predecessor Gen (retd) Tanvir Hussain Naqvi, gave a new concept of LG system, told Dawn that the system should not be wrapped up and if required amendments should be made.
He said he had been urging the provincial governments not to scrap the system because it was made for the betterment of people and to delegate powers to the grassroots level.
Mr Aziz recalled Article 140-A of the Constitution, which says: "Each province shall, by law, establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the 'elected representatives' of the local governments."
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement has rejected the proposal to appoint administrators and said the Sindh government should hold LG elections in three months.
When the term of LGs lapsed in October, the Punjab government had sent a resolution, or draft amendment, to the president with three main points: appointment of administrators, revival of magistracy and postponing of LG polls.
Not only Punjab but the NWFP and Balochistan have also demanded that the local governments' mandate should be restricted to municipal functions. Uplift projects and tax functions should be reviewed and assigned accordingly, the suggested.
They pleaded that law and order should be purely a provincial subject and executive magistracy should be introduced.
Meanwhile, a senior official of the ministry of local government said the provinces did not want wrapping up of the whole LG system, but demanded some amendments to put it under provincial set-up.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/02/2010 00:00 ||
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New Delhi, Jan. 1: The government has authorised an outright purchase of 145 ultra-light howitzers from the US, a highly-placed defence ministry source said today.
The ultra-light howitzers are for the mountain artillery divisions of the Indian Army to be used in high-altitude frontiers opposite Pakistan and China. They can be transported slung from some helicopters.
The defence acquisitions committee has decided to take the foreign military sales route. Foreign military sales is a US programme of government-to-government sales of military hardware bypassing a lengthy system of competitive bidding. But bidders who lose out to foreign military sales orders allege that the system lacks transparency.
We will also look at other options, defence secretary Pradeep Kumar said.
The Indian Air Force has taken the foreign military sales route to contract six Lockheed Martin-made Hercules C130J air lifters and the army did the same to buy artillery fire-finding radars.
Two brands of ultra-light howitzers were initially in contention for the Indian Armys estimated $2.5-billion artillery modernisation programme ST Kinetics Pegasus and BAE Land Systems M777 made in the US.
BAE Land Systems has bought over the erstwhile Swedish firm Bofors that sold 410 155mm howitzers to India in 1986. The army has not bought a single big gun since the last of the Bofors howitzer was delivered in 1987, 22 years back.
ST Kinetics was blacklisted this year after the company figured in investigations into the deals struck by the former director general of the Ordnance Factory Board in Calcutta. The government has lifted the bar on trials in multiple-vendor situations.
If the government takes the foreign military sales route, the order is likely to go to BAE Land Systems. The source said the defence acquisitions council authorised the foreign military sales route before Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs visit to the US last month.
The army wants to buy 145 ultra-light howitzers, 158 towed and wheeled, 100 tracked, and 180 wheeled and armoured guns in the first phase as part of its field artillery rationalisation plan, the programme to upgrade its artillery divisions.
Defence secretary Pradeep Kumar said the government has speeded up the buying of military hardware. Between 2007 and 2009, a total of 465 contracts have been signed. These are worth more than Rs 1,35,000 crore.
He said in 10 years, the defence ministry had doubled the capital expenditure for new acquisitions. The acquisitions were worth Rs 62,272 crore between 1999 and 2004. They total Rs 1,37,496 crore between 2004 and 2009. In the current year (2009-2010), Rs 41,000 crore was being spent on direct capital acquisitions.
The acquisitions have included Phalcon Airborne Warning and Control Systems, Sukhoi 30MKI fighter aircraft, aircraft for VIPs, missiles of different types and tanks.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/02/2010 00:00 ||
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Britain is bracing itself for one of the coldest winters for a century with temperatures hitting minus 16 degrees Celsius, forecasters have warned.
They predicted no let up in the freezing snap until at least mid-January, with snow, ice and severe frosts dominating.
And the likelihood is that the second half of the month will be even colder.
Weather patterns were more like those in the late 1970s, experts said, while Met Office figures released on Monday are expected to show that the country is experiencing the coldest winter for up to 25 years.
On New Year's Day 10 extreme weather warnings were in place, with heavy snow expected in northern England and Scotland.
Despite New Year celebrations passing off mostly unaffected by the weather, drivers in parts of the country, particularly areas of Northumberland, Cumbria and the Scottish Highlands, were warned not to travel unless absolutely necessary.
The continued freezing temperatures did not signal bad news for everyone however. CairnGorm Mountain said it has had its best Christmas holiday season in 14 years.
With heavy snow in the area, the resort said that over a four-day period following Christmas Day it has had more than 8,000 skiers and snowboarders using its runs - including 800 on New Year's Eve.
Over 15,000 skiers have used the resort since the start of December, compared to 2,000 last year.
A spokesman for the Met Office said: It is certainly a while since we had cold weather like this and there isn't any sign of any milder weather on the way.'
Considerable amounts of showery snow' is expected over Scotland and eastern England over the coming days, he said, whilst the rest of the United Kingdom would remains dry but very cold.
He added that temperatures in the Scottish highlands could dip to minus 16 degrees while even southern areas of England could see lows of minus 7.
The cold weather comes despite the Met Office's long range forecast, published, in October, of a mild winter. That followed it's earlier inaccurate prediction of a barbecue summer', which then saw heavy rainfall and the wettest July for almost 100 years.
Paul Michaelwaite, forecaster for NetWeather.tv, said: It is looking like this winter could be in the top 20 cold winters in the last 100 years.
It's going to be very cold the for the next 10 days and although there could be a milder spell at some stage the indications are that the second half of the month will be even colder.'
Revellers braved temperatures of minus 6 degrees to see in the New Year, with only the celebrations in Inverness being cancelled because of the cold.
Matt Dobson, forecaster for MeteoGroup, the Press Association's weather division, said last month had been the coldest December for 13 years. "It has been the coldest December on average since 1996," he said. "The second half of the month was very cold indeed but the first half was relatively mild. If it had been colder in the first few weeks we would have seen more records broken."
#1
The Met Office Predicted this winter to be MILD and the summer to be a BBQ summer.
Neither was right. Maybe the Met office needs to look less at the needs of left wing politics and more at the big yellow ball of hydrogen fusioning through 150,000 tons a second...
#2
The poor polar bears!
Sniff.. all that melting ice... they'll drown...
Posted by: john frum ||
01/02/2010 11:13 Comments ||
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Met Office figures released on Monday are expected to show that the country is experiencing the coldest winter for up to 25 years.
Ummm, didn't Al Gore fly your way lately?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/02/2010 12:46 Comments ||
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#4
The amusing part of this (aside from the Met being unrelentingly wrong) is that they just bought themselves one big-ass honking super-computer. How do you say "garbage in, garbage out" in British?
#12
It kills me that Europeans are leading the Global Warming scaremongering. Rome is as far north as NYC. Paris is as north as Maine and Oslo is up Santa's arse. One would think they would be burning tires 24/7 to get an extra degree or two.
Posted by: ed ||
01/02/2010 20:36 Comments ||
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ScienceDaily (Dec. 31, 2009) Most of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity does not remain in the atmosphere, but is instead absorbed by the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems. In fact, only about 45 percent of emitted carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere.
However, some studies have suggested that the ability of oceans and plants to absorb carbon dioxide recently may have begun to decline and that the airborne fraction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions is therefore beginning to increase.
Many climate models also assume that the airborne fraction will increase. Because understanding of the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide is important for predicting future climate change, it is essential to have accurate knowledge of whether that fraction is changing or will change as emissions increase.
To assess whether the airborne fraction is indeed increasing, Wolfgang Knorr of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol reanalyzed available atmospheric carbon dioxide and emissions data since 1850 and considers the uncertainties in the data. In contradiction to some recent studies, he finds that the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades.
The research is published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/02/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
very timely as the EPA is preparing for a power grab over CO2 if Cap and Tax dies its' well-earned death. Suck it, Carol Browner!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/02/2010 7:35 Comments ||
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#2
This research doesn't sound very sound, so lets not get our hopes up.
Is there a difference between Anthropomorphic CO2 and "natural" CO2? Nope.
AGW is still a scam. But using bad science to prove it is shooting yourself in the foot.
#4
Geophysical Research Letters has been intended as an outlet for rapid publication of new areas of research, and peer review has tended to be less rigorous in order to speed up publication.
This article does not prove or disprove AGW; it DOES point out the complexity of the system, and how much we still don't know.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
01/02/2010 1:31 Comments ||
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#2
Beck is a geek and would be more interesting if he knew what he was talking about. But hey, to each his own.
Posted by: Yo Adrian ||
01/02/2010 13:18 Comments ||
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#3
Beck doesn't do it for me and I predict that somewhere down the line, he'll have a breakdown like Morton Downey Jr., Pat Buchanan, or Andrew Sullivan and a lot of folks on the Right will be chagrined to admit they ever followed him.
#5
au contraire Yo Adrian.. Beck does know what he's talking about, and when he's unsure, he brings in credible experts to assist him. You should watch sometime.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
01/02/2010 21:36 Comments ||
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#6
Beck, with all of his faults and his double-sided axe blackboard and giant graphics has had more of an impact on politics than Chris "tigles" Matthews, Olberman, Couric, Williams, and Anderson (CNN) combined.
Plus - the left hates him with a passion almost rivaling their unbridled hatred for Palin. And to me that's a good thing.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Britain is bracing itself for one of the coldest winters for a century with temperatures hitting minus 16 degrees Celsius, forecasters have warned. 
ScienceDaily (Dec. 31, 2009) Most of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity does not remain in the atmosphere, but is instead absorbed by the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems. In fact, only about 45 percent of emitted carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere.
