Thinktank Aims To Crowdsource Government Earmark Analysis

Al writes "The Sunlight Foundation, based in Washington, DC, hopes to raise an army of web volunteers to analyze all the earmarks in government bills. The group's new Sunlight Labs transparency corps invites users to join an effort to analyze the information collaboratively. Users are presented with PDFs released by hundreds of different offices and asked to enter the pertinent information like the date and dollar amount of a request, name of the requester, description of the project, and so on. These then become part of a searchable database. The project's launch roughly coincided with the launch earlier this month of the government's new IT Dashboard. But this tool is somewhat limited — users can find the primary recipients of IT project funding, but not subcontractors; it's not easy to discern the origins of contracts or their geographic distribution, and it's almost impossible to see how they are connected to elected officials."

Comments

Re:Verbification and Neologism Running Amok!

[AP31R0N]

"Langwidges morfph get ust 2 it"?

Merriam adds new words every year to drum up new sales, it's an advertising gimmick. Most dictionaries are descriptivist, meaning they add whatever the fuck for whatever reason. They list how words are USED, not just what they mean. The downside of this is some semi-educated twat will point to entry 5 for "source"... and people become just a little bit dumber. English becomes a little bit less expressive.

Impact means collide, not change. Its meaning is independent of the ignorance of journalists and politicians who don't know the difference.

The 'languages evolve/change' bit is an excuse for the ignorant or by marketeers and MBAs to justify their buzzwords. Instead of correcting children when they make a mistake, we let it slide lest we hurt their feewings. A gross example of this is Ebonics. By not requiring black kids to learn English, they are automatically regarded as stupid. Condemned to what is effectively baby talk, because whites are either too evil to fund the schools properly, or too culturally thenthative to correct them. Obama would not be president if he hadn't mastered subject verb agreement.

It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or
hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.
- George Orwell

Go back to making excuses for your ignorance and laziness.

And stay off my lawn.