Special to the Herald/Review
The top, front-page headline in The Arizona Republic for Oct. 24, 2008 reads: “Greenspan: I am not to blame for crisis. Fed’s ex-chief admits mistakes.” Well, who is responsible for the current great financial meltdown? You may not realize it, but you read it in this column first on Feb. 24, 2002 (yes, 2002) and again on Feb. 17, 2008. The following three paragraphs first appeared more than six years ago in Writing Wrongs for Feb. 24, 2002 and were repeated in Writing Wrongs for Feb. 17, 2008.
How’s this for irony. An Associated Press item in the Feb. 6 [2002] Arizona Republic under the headline: “Greenspan: Financial knowledge essential,” Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told the Senate Banking Committee that schools should teach basic financial concepts better in elementary and secondary schools. “Greenspan told the senators he learned as a child to work percentages by keeping up with baseball batting averages.” Oops Mr. Chairman!
|
|
Although the AP tabulates batting, and other, averages, under the column headings of “Pct.,” they are not percentages, but decimal fractions. An average of .345 is a decimal fraction; as a percentage it is 34.5. For many years, I have attempted to persuade the Associated Press to correct “Pct.” to “Av.” or “Avg.,” but I’ve been told sports fans would be up in arms. However, The Arizona Republic did partly change, at least for a while. Although their AP-supplied tabulations were still wrong, other local sports data use average instead of percent — and there was no reaction at all from sports fans! Some TV sports programs have been persuaded to use, say, “34.5 percent” instead of “.345 pct.”
So now we know how the Federal Reserve can get us out of the present [2002] recession — move all the decimal points over two places to get their percentages correct. If only the Associated Press had not misled young Alan Greenspan all those years ago.
So there you have it: the cause of the 2002 and 2008 financial recessions — and how to extract ourselves from the latest one — just move all the decimal points over two places! And stop publishing erroneous sports data!
Removing tongue from cheek, let’s move on to answering a technical question from Hernia Hemlock: “I’m confused with all this watt and lumens stuff about the new high-efficiency helical light bulbs. Please explain.”
Incandescent light bulbs have always been rated by their wattage, that is, by the power consumed. However, most of the power consumed appears as heat and only a small amount appears as light. The amount of light emitted is measured in lumens. Fluorescent light bulbs, those long tubular units, when they appeared, were measured by wattage also, but they were much more light efficient than the incandescent bulbs. Less power consumed, less heat emitted, and more lumens of light emitted. Recently, a compact thin-tube fluorescent light bulb wound in the shape of a helix has been produced that screws into regular light fixtures. These helical bulbs are clearly rated in lumens, the rating of the future, and also their light output is compared with the light output of the outgoing incandescent bulbs. As an example, a new helical bulb that consumes 23 watts of power produces 1,600 lumens of light, the same amount of light as produced by a 100-watt incandescent bulb. The helical bulbs are available in bright white and soft white versions.
Ed Raymond lobbed a few undated Herald/Review clips over the transom recently. Erstwhile Ed decried a Boston Celtics’ story in which appeared: “… pithy comments which he hoped were being taken in the proper vain.” Veingloriously, I presume.
I notice our president-to-be is continuing the tradition of both Presidents Bush with loose grammar usage. In his first ‘press conference’ president-elect Obama said: “I do not underestimate the enormity of the task that lies ahead.” Not ‘great wickedness’ but ‘enormousness.’ I’ve never forgiven George H. W. Bush for changing “kindlier and gentler” to “kinder and gentler.”
DR. KEN HOOTON will be happy to receive wretched wrongs from language lovers. Write to Writing Wrongs, Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review, 102 Fab Ave., Sierra Vista AZ 85635, or fax to 459-0120, or e-mail writingwrongs@cox.net. His column appears the third Sunday of the month.
