Experts say flood terminology misleads the public

Fifteen years ago, after the Midwest was swamped with what was pronounced a "100-year" or even a "500-year" flood, some folks figured they would never again see such a disaster in their lifetime. Some even dropped their flood insurance.

That’s a total of 31.8 percent, far lower than the dramatic figure of 50 percent that was included in more than 300 online news reports, and multiple TV news broadcasts, including Thursday’s “Today in LA.”

We need a unicorn that looks like a camel

  What a fantastic turn of phrase.  I had never heard it before yesterday when my boss used it to describe the skills set of someone we need to recruit into the business.  I thought to myself what an absolutely sublime way to describe our conundrum.  It is so …

The American Geophysical Union blog has a link up to a very interesting table, and I feel strongly enough about this topic that I want to share it with you.

The words "mother" and "father" will be removed from U.S. passport applications and replaced with gender neutral terminology, the State Department says.

Gov. Chris Christie today made it illegal for state laws or rules to identify anyone with a developmental or intellectual disability as "mentally retarded" by signing legislation sought by people who have felt belittled by the term.

Ideas have meaning and power. Redefining the words that define them can have larger consequences that it might seem.

Coming on the heels of the Ashura tragedy, the two blasts in Karachi on Friday are a reminder that sectarian violence poses one of the greatest threats to Pakistani society.

Sen.

Good Morning Wednesday, With a Smile

Oooooooowwwwwwww......1:30am, roll over, and feel my sciatic nerve spasm just below my left shoulder blade....2:30am, COLD, roll over again, pull, tug, yank a corner of comforter to cover the draft, the ugly little nerve in my back warns me again that it's had enough....3:30am, t …

Are You a Libertarian, or Do You Just Like the Word?

I just came across an older article by The Anonymous Liberal that perfectly reflects my views on libertarians: What I always find is missing from this debate is the understanding that American politics is THE most economically libertarian in the world.

A cooler-than-thou rundown of the acronymic newspeak around technology (see, we can do it too!). Handy list of acronyms for the non-geek.

Barely a week goes by when we don't hear of the crisis in mental health. The use of psychiatric terminology is also more and more colloquial. Just like fashion and baby names, language eventually filters down the social ladder.

Like old clothes, the language of the old Cold War is comfortable, but not presentable. The "West" is not western. "Eastern" Europe is no longer eastern; central Europe is no longer central.

A friend writes about how he sometimes gets "discouraged" when he contemplates the endless mendacity and bad faith of Republicans. Yeah, I know--Duh.

Sounds like a lot of corporate speak hogwash to me. What's next - spittoon......!

Cabinet ministers have been told by the Foreign Office to drop the phrase 'war on terror' and other terms seen as liable to anger British Muslims and increase tensions more broadly in the Islamic world.

Fixing the "Pro-Life"/"Pro-Choice" propaganda, once and for all.

I have a problem.

A Wikipedian created a tool to extract terminology used in Wikipedia. This tool of course is valid if you search for corresponding terms or similar terms in other languages.

80 percent of podcasts are played by computers not portable devices. Despite the term podcast, most of these "MP3-casts" don't reach moble devices, so are they really podcasts. Who else is tired of the term podcast?

The lexicon of Newsvine

I've had some trouble lately getting all of the different terms straight. Please feel free to correct my suggestions below.