Windows Support Chat

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Wednesday, 17 May 2006

Well I'll be dammed! ... Or, Dammed Pedantry?

Posted on 18:41 by Unknown
What is is that set one's thoughts dashing off in unpredictable directions? A short while ago I came across an article somewhere on the Web which referred to "Liars, Damned Liars, and Statisticians". If you do a Google search for this term, you'll get quite a few hits.

What annoyed me about it was that the original wording was "Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics" and it was made famous by Mark Twain, but not necessarily of his invention. It could have come from famous British PM Benjamin Disraeli (or elsewhere), as the following articles suggest: Lies, Damned Lies, and Something About Statistics and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_Damn_Lies,_and_Statistics

Switching my brain into pedant mode:
The correct term is "damned lies" and not "damn lies" -- certainly not "dam lies" as some unfortunates write.

One of my earlier laptop computers had a very nice LCD screen but I was bitterly disappointed to find that one of the pixels was dead, so that a dark spot appeared whenever there was a light-coloured background. That particular supplier had a policy of accepting a couple of dead pixels as within tolerable manufacturing bounds, so they refused to replaced the screen -- and naturally enought I made a mental note never to buy their brand again!

Switching myself into ultra-pedant mode now:
The same "faulty pixel" sort of thing happened to me regarding Gone With The Wind, a most memorable production in all respects -- except, that is, where Clark fluffed his famous line when Rhett tells Scarlett: "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!"

Listen to this MP3 soundclip or this WAV soundclip to hear it for yourself. Clark really should have delivered the line as: "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." But with cannons booming, Atlanta burning, and all the other powerful storyline events, I suppose that most people wouldn't notice this wayward placement of word stress!

Maybe it's just the way that Americans like to treat upon the English language -- anoher example of "a common language dividing nations" perhaps? The Australian (more-or-less-British) pronunciation would have stressed "damn" and not "give". Maybe it was all Clark's fault, no one else to be held responsibe!

I'm now switching off pedant mode ... In my research I luckily cam across some interesting articles, including this page of Memorable Quotes from Gone With The Wind (such as "I believe in Rhett Butler, he's the only cause I know.")

Finally, going back to "lies and statistics" again, here's a real gem: The Worst Social Statistic Ever ... Can you believe it: "Every year since 1950, the number of American children gunned down has doubled."

Richard Schwarz commented points out one aspect of some poor journalistic efforts that manage to get published. In a similar vein, even an august sorporation like IBM persisted, until about ten years ago, in data storage capacities (for disks, tapes, diskettes) with statments along the lines of "equivalent to a pile of double-spaced typed pages reaching half way from the Earth to the Moon". Why double-spaced? What font size and how many characters per line? What interline spacing and how many lines per page? From which part of the Earth to which point on the Moon, and at what stage in their relative orbits? What average thicjness of the paper sheets? ... You know what I'm getting at, don't you!\!
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home
View mobile version

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • I was going to delay writing this, but here it is anyway …
    What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy?    ANSWER: I don’t know, and I don’t care! It’s been one of those days for me, ...
  • The premise is … I’m getting even madder
    I was reading this IBM Redbook today, and it didn’t make a good first impression: I really love IBM Redbooks, but not at all the way...
  • "Simple Signer" - Freeware tool to easily sign Lotus Notes databases
    This is a deliberately simple tool enabling you to select any Lotus Notes database -- local, or on a Lotus Domino server -- and then to sign...
  • Which one is "bigger" -- Microsoft or IBM?
    There's an IT industry debate that has been going on for a decade or more now, about whether or not " The mainframe is dead." ...
  • Another weird LotusScript compiler problem
    I had barely told you about a LotusScript compiler error that I had a few days ago (see The curious case of the "Name previously decla...
  • Get knotted!
    Hey, you might find any topic discussed on this blog! These days, I tend to dress very formally and don't have all that much use for th...
  • How to fix Eudora when the spell checker doesn't want to remember added words
    I started using Eudora as my mail client way back in 1993 or thereabouts. I still use Eudora to this day; it's not perfect, but has many...
  • How to install CDBurnerXP (and WinSCP) without Open Candy
    CDBurnerXP is free and very good software for burning CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray disks, but unfortunately the default installer installs OpenC...
  • Hot topic? A new ice age is coming (eventually)
    My science/engineering background is bubbling to the surface again. I’ve just examined Burt Rutan’s presentations and highly recommend them...
  • Life Begins at Requirements (not at 40)
    "Few people have the same notion of what requirements are and where they fit into the big picture" writes Richard M. Marshall, in ...

Categories

  • Add-ons
  • Adobe Reader
  • AJAX
  • Application Platform
  • Architecture
  • AS/400
  • Asia
  • Australia
  • Bad Software
  • Browser
  • Browser Share
  • Bug
  • Bushfire
  • Business
  • Chemistry
  • China
  • Coding
  • Communication
  • Communities of Interest
  • Crossword
  • Crosswords
  • Curiosity
  • Device Drivers
  • DLL hell
  • Documentation
  • Dragon
  • Durian
  • Ecosystems
  • Error Messages
  • Eudora
  • Extensions
  • Facetiousness
  • Failure
  • Firefox
  • FOSS
  • Freelance
  • Freeware
  • Fun
  • Heat Wave
  • Humor
  • i Series
  • IBM
  • IBM Systems
  • IE
  • Image resource manipulation
  • Innovation
  • Installation
  • Internet Explorer
  • Intranet
  • Japan
  • Koala
  • Linux
  • Live Writer
  • Lotus Domino
  • Lotus Notes
  • Lotus Notes Lotus Domino
  • Lotus Software
  • LotusScript
  • Mainframe
  • Melbourne (Australia)
  • Microsoft
  • Multiple
  • Natural Disaster
  • NaturallySpeaking
  • Nigerian 419 fraud
  • Notes Mail
  • NotesTracker
  • Nuance
  • Open Source
  • OpenNTF.ORG
  • Patents
  • POSS
  • PowerPoint
  • Pragmatism
  • Presenter
  • Print Server
  • Project Management
  • Pronunciation
  • Proprietary
  • Registry
  • Releases
  • Research and Development
  • RIA
  • SDMS
  • Security
  • Service Oriented Architecture
  • SNA
  • SOA
  • Software
  • Software Package
  • speech recognition
  • Spell Checking
  • Standards
  • System i
  • System/38
  • TCP/IP
  • Technology
  • Usability
  • Usability Testing
  • Versions
  • Victoria
  • Weather
  • Web 2.0
  • Web 3.0
  • Web Design
  • Web Pi
  • Web Services
  • Webshots.com
  • Windows
  • Windows 7 backgrounds
  • Words
  • z Series

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (25)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  October (2)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  June (7)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  April (7)
    • ►  March (2)
    • ►  February (4)
  • ►  2012 (25)
    • ►  December (7)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  September (3)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  July (1)
    • ►  June (6)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (1)
  • ►  2011 (20)
    • ►  December (3)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  July (2)
    • ►  June (2)
    • ►  March (4)
    • ►  February (2)
    • ►  January (5)
  • ►  2010 (69)
    • ►  November (2)
    • ►  October (3)
    • ►  September (5)
    • ►  August (13)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  June (3)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (10)
    • ►  March (10)
    • ►  February (8)
    • ►  January (10)
  • ►  2009 (41)
    • ►  December (5)
    • ►  November (6)
    • ►  October (5)
    • ►  September (4)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  February (9)
    • ►  January (5)
  • ►  2008 (16)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (3)
    • ►  August (2)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  February (1)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2007 (39)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  July (5)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (11)
    • ►  March (5)
    • ►  February (8)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ▼  2006 (98)
    • ►  December (8)
    • ►  November (25)
    • ►  October (6)
    • ►  September (6)
    • ►  August (5)
    • ►  July (6)
    • ►  June (16)
    • ▼  May (17)
      • A Vista on Desktop Search
      • Leery about Theory?
      • The Distributed Computing Fallacies
      • Migration between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice ...
      • Being objective about database replication
      • Well I'll be dammed! ... Or, Dammed Pedantry?
      • Notes Presenter -- Let's eat our own dog food
      • Magnetic Tape is alive and kicking
      • (Additional software license may be required) !!!
      • Back to the Future (with AJAX)
      • Comparing CRM software offerings
      • A Plain Warning
      • What is a "service" and what exactly is SOA?
      • Our tangled web of expertise
      • Business model of Web 2.0 startups
      • How to improve a "creepy mess"
      • Russ Olsen's Five Truths About Code Optimization
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (4)
    • ►  February (3)
  • ►  2005 (38)
    • ►  November (5)
    • ►  September (2)
    • ►  August (10)
    • ►  July (14)
    • ►  June (3)
    • ►  April (3)
    • ►  March (1)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile