Tag Archives: en

Buzziness of Buzzwords

Stob at The Reg shares the latest of word on the buzziness of buzzwords:

Jargon Credibility
(1.0 best, -1.0 worst) agile -0.17 design by contract -0.82 data-driven -0.76 fluent 0.97 functional 0.95 injection 0.65 inside-out/outside-in 0.32 lightweight 0.57 native 0.81 object-oriented -0.84 pattern -0.13 performant -0.21 pushback 0.77 seam 0.93 technical debt 0.16 test-driven 0.12 top-down/bottom-up -0.72 unit test (as noun) 0.36 unit test (as verb) 0.43 virtual -0.53

Incidentally, one of the latest BOFH is about jargon too. So, am I not the only one tired of jargon?… -->

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USA love TSA!

The Reg reports on a recent survey that conclusively shows that “the majority of Americans think the Transportation Security Administration, which handles security screening at US airports, is doing just fine…”

Overcoming the initial shock, my conclusion is that if the government keeps something up long enough, people will just swallow it in the end because they will no more know any better. Duh, the humanity.… -->

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Helpless police?

WSJ reports in an article “Police shoot, kill man near NYC Times Square” that a man was shot after a “slow speed pusuit” that lasted 7 blocks and lunging at a police officer with a knife.

What I personally find strange in this story is that the police could not take the knife away from a person allegedly smoking marijuana. He had the knife drawn from the beginning and was wildly swinging it around. Would it not be a part of the police training to know how to take a knife away from someone? Do they really have to shoot dead the guy? And there were many police officers there, mind you. What is next? Will they shoot people wielding sticks? I can tell you, a stick can be more dangerous than a gun if wielded properly.

Why is the police so helpless suddenly that they have to use firearms in a very basic situation? I do not feel comfortable with the police escalating the violence instead of using the techniques, training and their wits that they should have had about them.… -->

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An undeground sect. Literally.

The news report that in Kazan, Russia, an Islamist sect was found living underground for more than 10 years. The members were forbidden to leavean 8-storey (!) bunker they dug (probably themselves) under the basement of a building. Some children never saw daylight.

Related articles
  • Islamist sect found living underground near Russian city for nearly 10 years (guardian.co.uk)
  • Russian police raid underground Islamist sect – Reuters (reuters.com)
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Olympics 2012

I wonder, is it only my personal impression or Olympics 2012 is really quite a bit understated and under-promoted? I have a feeling that all previous Olympics were going up the curve in terms of publicity, advertisements and public expectations.

This time… it feels like if the world has a lot on its mind and could not care much for a yet another Olympics. Weird.

Kinda related :)
  • Hottest Female Athletes in the Olympics 2012
  • The naughty 2012 Olympics logo
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Murders, rapes and walking in the dark

Bumped into some statistics today and found it interesting enough to share:

  • Murders (per capita) by country
  • Rapes (per capita) by country
  • Walking in the dark by country

Not obvious a priori, say?

I picked out some for you:

Country Safety Perception Murder rank Rape rank Sweden 85% #16 Canada 82% United States 82% Denmark 81% #14 Finland 81% #12 #7 Netherlands 81% #25 Japan 78% #45 Austria 78% #28 Switzerland 77% #20 France 77% #27 Belgium 77% #17 #3 United Kingdom 70% Italy 65% #21 Australia 64% #18 New Zealand 62% #29 #2… --> continue reading →

Some farmers they are

Historically, farmers tended to try and defend their crops, sometimes with weapons, sometimes with the tools of trade. But this is still amazing, as Reuters reports that:

Farmers armed with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars forced Lebanese government troops to abandon an operation to destroy their illegal cannabis crop in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley on Monday

Farmers? With mortars and rocket-propelled grenades? Those are some farmers, I tell you.… -->

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