Wednesday, March 20, 2013

3706 Dangling

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

A common mistake that people make when trying to
design something completely foolproof is to underestimate
the ingenuity of complete fools.
-- Douglas Adams --

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From Gullible.info:  On average, 4.3 storms per year are referred to as "the storm of the century".

Gullible.info's statistics appear out of nowhere and are unverifiable, but this one I believe, and I don't think I'm the gullible party.

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I found this today, in an article written for the Wall Street Journal law blog:
Federal prosecutors accused Mr. Keys last week of helping and encouraging Anonymous hackers to deface the website of the Los Angeles Times. After leaking log-in credentials for a server operated by the paper’s parent company, a hacker vandalized the headline and a paragraph in a story about a tax-cut package, said prosecutors.
In that second sentence, who leaked the credentials?  Mr. Keys or the hacker? [Correct answer:  Keyes, but the sentence says the hacker leaked the info.]

Again, this is from a professional reporter for a highly respected newspaper.  Apparently schools are also no longer teaching about dangling participles, the worst mistake in grammar a reporter of facts can make.

I rest my case.  Clear communication is officially dead.
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