Thursday, March 28, 2013

In order to omit needless words and cut deadwood

Wherein the Monitor?s language columnist vents a bit on redundancies she loves to hate, but also warns wordsmiths against turning into 'search-and-replace' editors.

By Ruth Walker / March 28, 2013

I was reviewing the work of an esteemed colleague, collating her corrections of our manuscript and those of our author, when I noticed a lot of striking through of the first two words of a usually unremarkable three-word phrase: "in order to."

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Hmm, she seems not to like "in order," I thought. At all.

There was perhaps a bit of professional jealousy involved. My colleague obviously had a spiffier version than I of our annotation software. Hers let her strike through offending words incontrovertibly, as with a red ballpoint and a ruler. Take that! And that!

But back to "in order to": Is it always deadwood?

As it happens, Copyediting, the newsletter, ran an item recently on this raging controversy in its weekly tips column, and took a nuanced position. In a sentence such as, "In order to control class sizes, the district will also place seven portable classrooms at the four schools," the "in order" should be trimmed, in the great Strunk & White tradition of omitting needless words.

But the Copyediting columnist, Erin Brenner, cited Bryan Garner's "Modern American Usage" as saying that "in order to," while wordy, can be useful in sentences in which there is already an infinitive.

To cite Mr. Garner's own example: "The controversy illustrates how the forces of political correctness pressure government to grow in size and arbitrariness in order to pursue a peculiar compassion mission."

Ms. Brenner, though, thinks there's more to it than that. "In order to" isn't just an extra little verbal ruffle; it's an established idiom meaning "for the purpose of." It's a much-used idiom at that. Often the "in order" is out of order, but sometimes it's needed.

For example: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union..."

That's my example, not Brenner's; but the sense of "purpose" comes through there ? along with the repetition of the three "or" sounds ("order ... form ... more"). And the rhythm would be wrong without "in order."

Another editor I've much admired once commented: "You don't want to be a 'search-and-replace' editor." That is, do more for your writers than just execute a string of reflexive deletions.

But I can also hear, with the ear of memory, other editors I've worked with over the years and the redundancies they have pointed out to me: "reason why," as in, "I asked him the reason why he looked so glum." Usually either "reason" or "why" on its own suffices. Or "outside of": "Outside" alone is generally all you need.

The "or not" of "whether of not" is often, though not always, redundant. It's not needed here: "The board is to decide tonight whether or not to fire the president." But it is useful in, for instance, the sentence, "Whether or not he gets the job, he'll still need some new clothes."

I suppose I have redundancies I love to hate, too: "track record" where "record" alone would serve, for instance.

My newest pet peeve is the Roman numeral "I" some are attaching to the name of the new pope. Stop it, everyone, right now, before it becomes a habit. It's entirely unnecessary. He will be Francis I only after he's gone, and a new pope takes the name Francis II. And given that it's taken a couple of millenniums for the Roman Catholic Church to have its first Pope Francis, we needn't hold our breath for a second one anytime soon.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/aaDTvuF6dgU/In-order-to-omit-needless-words-and-cut-deadwood

joe budden notre dame notre dame football Bcs Bowl Chuck Hagel ncaa football CES

Founder Mike Lazaridis to leave Blackberry May 1st as vice-chairman and director

Lazaridis to leave Blackberry as

On the heels of today's earnings release, Blackberry vice chairman Mike Lazaridis announced that he'll leave the company on May 1st. The exec founded the company formerly known as Research in Motion almost 30 years ago, with Jim Balsillie as its early CEO -- who resigned this time last year himself and recently sold off his remaining shares. Lazaridis said that he'll focus instead on his new Quantum Valley Investments venture, which recently backed a research center in his home town of Waterloo, Ontario.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: ADVFN

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/28/mike-lazaridis-to-leave-blackberry/

NFL.com Superdome Iron Man 3 Trailer Super Bowl 2013 Ray Rice sodastream dan marino

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Under the skin, a tiny laboratory

Mar. 19, 2013 ? Humans are veritable chemical factories -- we manufacture thousands of substances and transport them, via our blood, throughout our bodies. Some of these substances can be used as indicators of our health status. A team of EPFL scientists has developed a tiny device that can analyze the concentration of these substances in the blood. Implanted just beneath the skin, it can detect up to five proteins and organic acids simultaneously, and then transmit the results directly to a doctor's computer. This method will allow a much more personalized level of care than traditional blood tests can provide. Health care providers will be better able to monitor patients, particularly those with chronic illness or those undergoing chemotherapy. The prototype, still in the experimental stages, has demonstrated that it can reliably detect several commonly traced substances.

The research results will be published and presented March 20, 2013 in Europe's largest electronics conference, DATE 13.

Three cubic millimeters of technology

The device was developed by a team led by EPFL scientists Giovanni de Micheli and Sandro Carrara. The implant, a real gem of concentrated technology, is only a few cubic millimeters in volume but includes five sensors, a radio transmitter and a power delivery system. Outside the body, a battery patch provides 1/10 watt of power, through the patient's skin -- thus there's no need to operate every time the battery needs changing.

Information is routed through a series of stages, from the patient's body to the doctor's computer screen. The implant emits radio waves over a safe frequency. The patch collects the data and transmits them via Bluetooth to a mobile phone, which then sends them to the doctor over the cellular network.

A system that can detect numerous substances

Great care was taken in developing the sensors. To capture the targeted substance in the body -- such as lactate, glucose, or ATP -- each sensor's surface is covered with an enzyme. "Potentially, we could detect just about anything," explains De Micheli. "But the enzymes have a limited lifespan, and we have to design them to last as long as possible." The enzymes currently being tested are good for about a month and a half; that's already long enough for many applications. "In addition, it's very easy to remove and replace the implant, since it's so small."

The electronics were a considerable challenge as well. "It was not easy to get a system like this to work on just a tenth of a watt," de Micheli explains. The researchers also struggled to design the minuscule electrical coil that receives the power from the patch.

Towards personalized chemotherapy

The implant could be particularly useful in chemotherapy applications. Currently, oncologists use occasional blood tests to evaluate their patients' tolerance to a particular treatment dosage. In these conditions, it is very difficult to administer the optimal dose. De Micheli is convinced his system will be an important step towards better, more personalized medicine. "It will allow direct and continuous monitoring based on a patient's individual tolerance, and not on age and weight charts or weekly blood tests."

In patients with chronic illness, the implants could send alerts even before symptoms emerge, and anticipate the need for medication. "In a general sense, our system has enormous potential in cases where the evolution of a pathology needs to be monitored or the tolerance to a treatment tested."

The prototype has already been tested in the laboratory for five different substances, and proved as reliable as traditional analysis methods. The project brought together eletronics experts, computer scientists, doctors and biologists from EPFL, the Istituto di Ricerca di Bellinzona, EMPA and ETHZ. It is part of the Swiss Nano-Tera program, whose goal is to encourage interdisciplinary research in the environmental and medical fields. Researchers hope the system will be commercially available within 4 years.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/HjbSJwuy0Hg/130319202151.htm

ann curry euro 2012 Colorado Springs pga tour Nora Ephron

Winter storm slams travel in the Dakotas

FARGO, N.D. (AP) ? A late-winter storm shut down schools and caused travel problems Monday throughout much of North Dakota and eastern South Dakota.

Motorists in many areas were advised not to travel or to use extreme caution because of blowing snow. The wind was forecast to gust up to 60 mph in northeastern South Dakota.

"It doesn't take a whole lot of snow with these strong winds to cause problems," National Weather Service meteorologist Ryan Vipond told the American News in Aberdeen, S.D. Ice also was a problem on roads in the region, according to KELO-TV.

Parts of eastern North Dakota were expecting more than half a foot of snow. The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for much of eastern North Dakota and for northeastern and east central South Dakota.

Many schools started late or called off classes for the day. Personnel at Minot Air Force Base in north central North Dakota who were not considered "essential" were allowed to come to work late.

People had to be rescued from more than two dozen stranded vehicles on Interstate 29 between Fargo and Wahpeton in southeastern North Dakota late Sunday and early Monday, Highway Patrol Capt. Bryan Niewind told The Forum newspaper.

The storm occurred a few days ahead of the next NWS outlook for spring flooding, due out Thursday. Hydrologist Mike Lukes told The Associated Press that the additional moisture could increase the risk for flooding in the Red River Valley of eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota.

"We're sitting somewhere between 3, 4, 5, 6 inches of water in the snow already," he said. "Additional (moisture) will add to it, but as far as (the flood risk) going up significantly higher, that probably isn't in the cards."

Lukes estimated the new snow in the southern Red River Valley contained about half an inch of water, and the snow in the northern valley about 3- to 4-tenths of an inch.

This system continues a pattern of winter weather in the area, as Fargo saw several inches of snow Friday. It also was preceded by record cold. The temperature at Grand Forks dropped to minus 18 degrees on Saturday and minus 23 degrees on Sunday ? both city records for those dates.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/winter-storm-affecting-travel-dakotas-132252593.html

sacagawea new hope baptist church associated press foster friess new orleans hornets ghost rider spirit of vengeance hornets