Those who could become the New Intellectuals are America's hidden assets

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"In a just-released report, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) claims that renewable energy is the most cost-competitive source of new electricity generation worldwide, The report further claims that '91% of new renewable power projects commissioned last year were more cost-effective than any new fossil fuel alternative” ...

"If those claims sound too good to be true, it’s because they are. IRENA’s boasts ignore a fundamental reality: the intermittent electricity generated from wind and solar is fundamentally different than electricity generated by traditional generating resources that are not subject to the whims of the weather. ...

"The inherent intermittency of wind and solar reduces the physical and economic value of their capacity relative to traditional generating resources, since sufficient reserves or storage must be maintained to meet demand when they are unavailable. Merely reporting total wind and solar capacity misleads because it does not account for the adequacy of the electrical energy generated to meet demand, and the actual costs to do so. ...

"Promoting misleading claims about wind and solar power distorts policymaking and will only exacerbate the growing inadequacy of electric supplies to meet increased demand .... It will lead to more frequent electricity rationing ...

"That may appeal to hairshirt environmentalists, but it won’t appeal to the broader populace ..."

~ Jonathan Lesser from his report 'The U.S. Energy Information Administration Needs to Fix How It Reports Renewable Power Capacity' (hat tip Watts Up With That?)

Suzanne Lucas comments on what sounds like an astounding failure of mentoring.

An intern at a major law firm ended up being fired for biting five of its employees over a period of time, leaving marks at least once.

Relevantly, toddlers get written up for biting at daycare on the first offense, and put on the kiddie equivalent of a PIP.

Lucas does an admirable job of speculating on how something like this happened, and probably correctly calls out the intern's supervisors for a share of the blame:

I don't know why the powers that be ignored the intern's bad behavior for so long, but I suspect it had to do with the misplaced desire to be nice. But what would have been nicer is if the very first person she bit had responded sharply with, "What on earth did you just do? I cannot believe you bit me! I'm reporting this right now."

And then, if her boss and HR had very firmly informed her that this was unacceptable behavior and this was her final warning, and she would be terminated if she did it again, there is a good chance that she wouldn't have bitten again.

And then, she'd finish up her summer internship and move on with life. Instead, it escalated until she was fired. While I don't know her name (and made zero effort to find who it was), finding that information would not take long for a dedicated internet sleuth.

Being nice may well have flipped this from "oh my word, I can't believe I was so dumb to think biting at work was funny" to "I'm never going to get a job at a good law firm." [bold added]

I say probably correctly here only because, as Lucas acknowledges, we're not privy to what actually went on.

But in today's rapidly-disintegrating culture, it is far from inconceivable that someone could reach adulthood without knowing that biting other people is unacceptable workplace behavior.

Mentoring -- or even simply being a good coworker -- can indeed more closely resemble parenting these days.

-- CAV

Proponents of foreign aid say it can help lift countries out of poverty, but the evidence tells a different story.

We're busy losing the adverb. I blame sporting commentators.

"Get it in quick," they say.

Quick is an adjective, for goodness sake. It doesn't describe "get."

The word you're looking for is QUICKLY! An adverb. That is: a word used to describe the verb. Often ending in -ly. 

"How should we get the ball in?" "We should get it in QUICKLY."

When should I correct my speech impediments? Immediately!

And while we're bitching about parts of speech, about nouns becoming verbs, and vice versa....

An invitation is not an "invite" — if I intend to invite you [verb] then I will send you an invitation [noun].

And if you want to invite me, then send me a noun too. A thing. Not a bloody verb. Sending a verb makes no bloody sense.

I don't care what your bullshit bit of software wants to call it: it's an invi-bloody-tation.

Can we get that sorted, please?

Ta.

And by the way, "disconnect" is a verb.

The noun you're looking for is DISCONNECTION!

"We have a disconnection between forwards and backs." 

"We have a disconnection between politicians and citizens." 

"We have a disconnection between parts of speech and people who know how to bloody use them."

Sort yourself out.

And what about "kids."

A child is a child. The plural is children. Kids? Kids are baby goats. 

Sure, you can use the English verb “kid”with the meaning “to treat as a child.”

But the noun, kid, is a baby goat.

Show some respect. These little people are children, for Galt's sake!

And here's another one: "momentarily."

"Momentarily" doesn't mean in a moment. It means for a moment. There's a difference. "He paused by her door for a moment" —which means he paused momentarily, and then "in a moment he would knock" – which means he would knock very soon. See the difference? He wouldn't knock momentarily, 'cos that would mean he'd only knock for a moment. 

You know, it's really not difficult.

We could also talk about misnomers, like so-called" reality TV," which is nothing like real life; or so-called artificial intelligence, which is clearly not intelligent (a triumph or marketing that); or a Bitcoin not being an actual coin (another triumph of marketing over reality). But it's not the time, is it.

So: Any other language crimes you abhor?