KEY POINTS:
Sideswipe readers' list of the 10 Most Irritating Phrases:
1. Do you have a fly-buys card?
2. Is the homeowner there?
3. In any way, shape or form.
4. I myself personally.
5. Perfect storm.
6. He/she gave 110 per cent.
7. "My bad" instead of "sorry, my mistake".
8. "Pacific" instead of "specific".
9. NZ banks are safe/stable economy/good governance/toxic loans.
10. Ordinary, hard-working Kiwis (a backhanded compliment if ever I heard it).
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Nick has regular contact with people who are new to New Zealand and learning English. He's noticed that the warnings on medical product packages are hard to understand if you don't have a good command of the language. "Imagine what a novice English speaker would make of the following:
Not to be taken = Don't eat this.
Consult a physician = Visit a doctor.
Healthcare practitioner = Doctor or nurse.
Marked drowsiness may occur = This might make you very tired.
This language could be putting new English speakers at risk. If anyone has any other examples I'd be interested to hear them - this issue does have a very serious side."
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Research in the Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy explores why women still earn less money than men, even in similar jobs, and suggests the reason is gender discrimination. In fact, researchers found women who were established in jobs and then had sex changes increased their earnings, but men who became women lost about one-third of theirs. (Source: Time magazine).
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A study details how spammers still make big money, despite receiving a response to only one in every 12,500,000 emails they send out. Researchers from four US universities infiltrated a large spam network and used two of the most popular ploys used by spammers, a fake pharmacy site and a herbal Viagra-style remedy. "After 26 days, and almost 350 million email messages, only 28 sales resulted," says the research paper. Despite the lack of response rate, researchers estimate that the controllers of a large network can make £4430 ($11,800) a day or £2.21 million over a year. (Source: TechRadar.com)
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Today's Webpick: Thinking of joining the Kevin Bacon fan club? Watch this first.
These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
