Michael Bates: January 2024 Archives
Hyphens and Dashes: A Refresher - CMOS Shop Talk
The different types of dashes and hyphens and their appropriate uses, from the Chicago Manual of Style. There's the hyphen-minus you get when you press the key to the right of the 0, which is different from an en-dash - or an em-dash -- and is also different from a minus which is designed to align horizontally with the crossbar of a +. There are 2-em dashes used as a placeholder for illegible or expurgated text and 3-em dashes as a placeholder for a repeated author name in bibliographies. There's also a different Unicode hyphen character which looks the same as the hyphen-minus but doesn't match in text searches, a non-breaking hyphen, a figure dash (same width as a numeral in a fixed-width font), a horizontal bar, and a swung dash (a centered tilde that stands in for the headword in a dictionary entry, as different inflections of the word and idioms using that word are discussed.
Over a thousand false convictions, with owners of contract post offices blamed and charged criminally for errors caused by faulty software mandated by the UK Post Office. A complete failure of journalism and parliamentary oversight, resulting in bankruptcy, imprisonment, and suicide.
"I spoke to all the major media outlets. I briefed journalists at the BBC, Sky News, Channel 4 and ITV as well as all the national newspapers that I had all the proof that the Horizon scandal was the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history. Journalists were keen and excited, but none were allowed by their editors or executives above them to run the story.
"That it's been left to ITV to mine it for dramatic purposes - presumably with the aim of turning a profit - using the wrecked lives that its editors and journalists deliberately ignored for years, I find particularly foul. Some of these sub-postmasters killed themselves."
The Sociopaths Among Us--And How to Avoid Them - The Atlantic
Arthur Brooks writes: "You may be allowed a measure of schadenfreude--without being accused of sadism--to learn that Dark Triads are usually not particularly successful in life. They are not, in general, capable leaders; they don't have close friends; they report lower-than-average life satisfaction. If you are worrying about whether you qualify, then, for your own happiness's sake, seek help. Well-designed Dark Triad tests can guide that decision.
"More useful for the other 93 percent of us is advice on how to identify and avoid Dark Triads. The traits to look for are self-importance, a sense of entitlement, vanity, a victim mentality, a tendency to bend the truth or even openly lie, manipulativeness, grandiosity, a lack of remorse, and an absence of empathy. Probe for these characteristics particularly when on first dates and in job interviews. You might even want to take that test imaginatively on behalf of someone you suspect may have Triad traits and see what result you get."
MORE: Jordan Peterson interview with Del Paulhus about the Dark Tetrad (the Triad of narcissism, machiavellianism, and psychopathy, plus sadism).
