Quote of the day

“I promise to fix the problem. And if I do not fix the problem now, I will fix it later, or some future president will, after I am long gone. I promise he will. Absolutely, positively, I am committed to that future president fixing the problem. You can count on it. Would I lie to you?”

…

Greg Mankiw, “translating” part of Barack Obama’s latest health care speech.

Academia…

Greg Mankiw points me to this hilarious post on “how to publish a scientific comment in 1 2 3 easy steps“. Let’s just say it’s sometimes not quite as simple as you’d think.

It gradually gets worse and worse. One bit of it, step 105, is as follows:

105. Consider using txt msg shorthand 4 actual words 2 further shorten ur Comment, but decide not 2 when u realize that the hundreds of frowny-face emoticons u couldn’t resist adding actually lengthened ur Comment 2 2 pages

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The last step is the real kicker, and the addendum really adds insult to injury – but please, do read all of it! (and yes, I’ll grant that it might not be all that funny if you are currently working in academia. But I’m not under the impression that (/m?)any of my readers are).