I meant to include this wry article in my previous post on surveillance, abuse of power, and abuse of language, but then I decided that it deserves its own post. Rather in the spirit of Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary, Philip Bump proposes that we bear in mind the NSA Surveillance Dictionary when trying to …
Newspeak, anyone? Language has long been a tool for persuasion and in the fight against tyranny and oppression, and in 1984 George Orwell pointed out how important language is when he featured the effects of the state’s attempts to steer and control the content and use of language. This week, more reporters are revealing the …
Language, Deception, and the People Comprising the Surveillance State Read More »
As trenchant observers of human nature, great fiction writers are often very good social scientists. Jane Austen, one of my favorite authors, was a writer with great analytical depth and insight. In addition to the irony and wit for which she is famous, Austen’s writing reflects the philosophical and cultural mindset of the “long 18th …
Lynne Kiesling The Oatmeal is a great one-man operation with outstanding, witty visual representations of a range of topics, including 10 Things You Need To Stop Tweeting About. For this one he earns my undying gratitude: 10 Words You Need To Stop Misspelling Love.Love.Love. Will be sharing with all of my students. I wish I …
Michael Giberson The true number of hits for the “true number may be higher” are lower than reported. Mind Hacks (via Cheap Talk and Marginal Revolution) points out news reports often stress when stating an estimated value that the “true number may be higher,” but infrequently that the “true number may be lower.” The primary …
No Results Found for “True Number May Be Lower or Higher” Read More »
Michael Giberson An economist is quoted in Platts’ Megawatt Daily commenting on a proposal within ERCOT to apply the same performance standards to wind farms as apply to other generators: On the one hand, it is desirable to have all market players working under the same rules, but on the other hand, rules are usually …
Michael Giberson So I was quietly reading about Austin, Texas electric power developments in the Austin American-Statesman (“Mueller becoming a lab for energy: Research plans, neighbors’ efforts converging“) when I stumbled across a remark of such – I don’t know what to call it – irony? Orwellian newspeak? Not quite sure what to say, so …
Don’t Worry, the City Council Will Plusgood Monitor Big Brother to Prevent Abuse Read More »
Lynne Kiesling All of this Eric Holder gossip today unfortunately creates an opportunity for me to pick a grammatical nit: the plural of “attorney general” is “attorneys general”, not “attorney generals”. The “general” in “attorney general” is an adjective that modifies the noun “attorney”. The plural attaches to the noun, not the adjective. Bet you …
Lynne Kiesling Welcome to Hit & Run, Instapundit, and Volokh Conspiracy readers, and thanks to those respective parties for their links. Pro Libertate’s comment from Katharine Mangu-Ward’s post yesterday that linked here wins my prize for the most erudite comment I have seen on our current political environment: Will no one rid me of this …
Lynne Kiesling OK, I *love love love* my job, love being an economist, love teaching, love talking to policymakers and firms about technology and policy … but I am having serious career envy of Lisa Gold (as represented at her new blog), who did research for Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle trilogy. If I got this …
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