That would be NOT hone in.

Sheesh.

Some people are so sloppy they don't bother to copyread a short post.

Using "carbon" for carbon dioxide and methane is just a way for the nitwits politicians and journalists to feign knowledge when most haven't taken a serious science class since 10th grade. I noticed the same phenomena last year in Cincinnati when the media within a week of each other stopped refering to our airport as "the airport" or "the Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky International Airport" (ugh), substituting CVG. e.g. "it's 70 °F downtown, 72 °F at CVG".

BTW, whatever happened to the words "earth" or "world". Now everything is "The Planet". As in the most important concert on The Planet, or we must save The Planet... argh!!!

This is what we get for letting two "C" students (Bush & Gore) control the debate on the most important scientific issue today. Marketing fluff is as important as actual data in shaping policy and decisions.

This has been an enjoyable collection of letters to read, probably because the topic is not one of deep personal pain as are so many. My favourite: carlrennie lecturing FredRated on the incorrect use of "steep learning curve". I checked the link, and as FredRated points out in his reply, the steep learning curve is indeed the progress of learning (y axis) over progress of time (x axis) and the word steep refers to the shape of the curve and not any difficulty in acquiring the learning.

When we have words clearly stated on a page and people can read them so very differently, then one has to marvel not at the degree of miscommunication, but at the high level of communication that we seem to achieve!

It is ironic, too, that idioms and expressions are being picked over by so many writers in a country with such gratingly incorrect use of adverbs!

lol, not if you're a Donny Osmond fan!!!

"one bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch girl!"

wee hee!

in other words, it's just an expression

people say, 'anyways'

why do soo many folks add that 's'?

The word is anyway.

And don't use "myself" when you mean "me". And don't flaunt your ignorance by using flout in that sentence. And mind your apostrophes (not you're apostrophe's).

We all should know better. It isn't that hard! It's almost like it's our native language, even.

One phenomenon; two, or more, phenomena. This, or that, phenomenon; these, or those, phenomena. My contribution to the pile of misuses and mispronunciations is dissect, which is correctly pronounced diss-sect, not dye-sect. This is similar to the pronunciation of divide, dissemble, and disassemble.

Yours sincerely

I don't think anyone's pointed this out yet, but the yellow ribbon's military symbolism predates Tony Orlando by quite a bit of time. The song "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" was copyrighted in 1917, and existed as a marching song in the army before that. If I were a jackass, like the letter-writer, I would be incredibly upset that he couldn't be bothered to do a little research about the symbolism which offends him so.

I'm not sure why you need to be "anonymous" when commenting on this terribly controversial subject, but of course, it is your choice.

However, on dissect, I see both pronunciations listed in every resource I consulted on the pronunciation. I looked because I have never heard it pronounced as you suggest, rather alway rhyming with bisect. Not even in college biology was the word ever pronounced with the first syllable similar to divide. Apparently, some decades ago, there was discussion over which was correct, and now both are acceptable.

I hope nobody is going to come for me, since I'm posting only semi-anonymously, under my user name.

a pet peeve of mind - in business, when people talk about 'flushing an idea out' as if is a frightened quail. You flesh an idea out, as in, adding some meat to the bare bones.

first time I ever saw someone else remark on the inappropriate use of 'jive' vs. 'jibe', whee-o

Why not call the problem exhaust, "Fossil Fuel Remainder (FFR)," "Fossil Exhaust Gas (FEG)," or, "Gaseous Carbon Compounds (GCC)"?

If it doesn't matter, why are you hassling me?

Um, like, imprecise language is a hallmark of American English and shit? Which rules. I mean. Just saying.

Sandra M: YES!!!! Hate that.

Almost all marketing/broadcast communication of supposedly familiar, but complicated, environmental concepts has been drilled down into a simple phrase that allows people to dismiss or diminish the issue -- hence the surreal masterpiece of a few decades ago, "dolphin-safe tuna."

Carbon-neutral probably evolved from "carbon dioxide neutral" when too many people were tripped up and accidentally referred to it as "carbon monoxide neutral."

It's much easier to understand if you remind yourself that a lot of the media and advertising language surrounding science is devised by professional communicators (public relations people, advertisers) and tested by focus groups to see which language is the most palatable and positive.

If you want to communicate with your clients and much of the mainstream, you'll accept such phrases when they use them and then figure out a way to be more precise on your end without them disliking or not understanding you. (I'm not trying to be condescending here, just pointing out that it might be a challenge since not everyone is as invested as you in the issue or language.)

it's like, he was all, and I'm like, you know?

As in the "war on terror" or "terror suspects".

They're distinct things, right? Yes, the goal of terrorism (a tactic) is to cause terror (an emotion), but they are not the same thing. And terrorism is not the only cause of terror either. A "war on terror" would include not only a war on terrorism, but also a war on, I don't know, horror movies. And laws against letting kids ride roller coasters. Or whatever.

(P.S., I support the view that punctuation should be logical; thus, if a period is part of a quotation, it should be inside the quote marks, but if not, as in my first sentence above, it shouldn't.)