Reply
Mon 7 Aug, 2006 09:13 am
I'm so tired of hearing about "robust" this and "robust" that.
Trendy words that spread throughout Washington like the flu virus.
What over used trendy words annoy you?
BBB
Definitions of robust on the Web:
physically strong
full-bodied: marked by richness and fullness of flavor; "a rich ruby port"; "full-bodied wines"; "a robust claret"; "the robust flavor of fresh-brewed coffee"
strong enough to withstand or overcome intellectual challenges or adversity; "the experiment yielded robust results"; "a robust faith"
rough and crude; "a robust tale"
Robust means healthy, strong, and durable.
Full-bodied, powerful, heady
Describes a full-bodied, intense and vigorous wine; possibly inflated.
Descriptive of a full-bodied, intense, vigorous, heady wine.
Full-bodied, intense.
A process which is relatively insensitive to human foibles and variables in the way (for example, an assay) is carried out, a statistical term. Algorithms glossary
Akin to "big" as a description for a full-bodied, full-flavored wine, but perhaps even more so.
the strength and health of a species
Big assertive and full-flavored.
Related to Risk Models, robustness is a measure of a model's strength in handling data and data errors without model failure.
A large or heavily built body or body part.
Vigorous, full with a lot of heart, a big scaled wine.
Used to describe a sound, full-bodied wine.
The categorization of a system that has high functionality, reliability and consistency when operating in a normal capacity and can endure periodic stress conditions.
Assertive, full bodied, characteristic of good red wines at a young age. Similar to big.
(ro·bust) (ro-bust¢) in statistics, a somewhat imprecise term that is applied to a procedure that is relatively insensitive to violations of the assumptions on which it is based or to procedures that are based on weaker (more easily satisfied) assumptions, eg, nonparametric tests.
An adjective commonly applied in marketing literature to information technology products in several ways. A robust product can be one that doesn't break easily. Thus, an operating system in which any individual application can fail without disturbing the operating system or other applications can be said to be robust. Robust is also sometimes used to mean a product or system of products designed with a full complement of capabilities. ...
An adjective describing a desirable feature of a feedback loop. A loop is robust if it keeps working properly even if the real plant is different than that which was used to design the loop. Examples of things which could be different are the time response of an actuator and the values of transfer matrix elements.
Able to function or continue to function well in a variety of unanticipated situations.
Capable of successful misuse; continuing to operate under adverse conditions. Used of a statistical procedure which is relatively resistant to blips and oddities in the data set, or to unmet requirements in the assumptions about the underlying population. If a procedure is proper to normally distributed data, but one can regularly get away with using it on data that is not normally distributed, that procedure is robust. ...
A full-bodied and intense wine.
Likely to be successful in a wide range of future scenarios.
A statistic is robust if changing a small fraction of the data set does not really change the statistic. The median is an example of a robust statistic because changing any of the ranked data points, except the middle one, does not change the value of the median.
The condition or state in which a response parameter exhibits hermetically to external cause of a nonrandom nature; ie, impervious to perturbing influence.
Full-bodied, intense. Rock & Rye - A liqueur made from rye whiskey and rock candy.
"Big-boned," heavy, thick-walled skeletal tissue. Robust early hominins had very large teeth.
"comprehensive" is getting pretty tiring as well...
BBB
Another word that George Bush uses excessively is "Freedom" in the context of the Middle East deserving freedom.
Bush is such an uninformed idiot that he doesn't know or care how the word "freedom" is defined in that region. The word "freedom" in the Middle East and in many other countries means "special privilege."
The Middle East and other countries controlled by dictatorial and corrupt governments have had more than enough of being dominated by those with "special privilege."
Every time Bush says "freedom" he is reminding the underclass population of the special privilege of the economic elite that oppresses them.
How sad that we have such a dolt as president.
BBB
Fascists of All Varieties
Fascists of All Varieties
By Marc Ash
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 11 August 2006
Reveling in yesterday's announcement that a plot to blow up American Airlines planes departing from British airports had been foiled by British authorities, George W. Bush leapt at the opportunity to sell his "war on terra" to whoever would listen. Using the best Madison Avenue technique money can buy, he was even ready to roll out a new slogan du jour on cue for the event. Today's phrase that pays: We are at war with "Islamic fascists."
First let me say that if British law enforcement did in fact do all of what the US mainstream press is implying they did, I thank them for finding an efficient, non-violent way to guard the public safety. "Efficient" and "non-violent" being the key words in the preceding sentence.
Efficiency and non-violence have been glaringly absent from US-British national security operations over the past five years. And that absence contributes greatly to the current atmosphere of conflict. War and a warlike mentality are espoused at every turn as the remedies of choice in dealing with all threats to Western security. As a result, Western security has suffered.
What worked in foiling the plot to destroy the airliners was good old fashioned police work and a solid investigation. Not military action. The tools used by British authorities are tools that were available on September 11th 2001. They were available the day the US invaded Iraq, and they are available today. We have always had good tools to safeguard our security. Launching massive invasions is not helping, it's adding to the rage that fuels the madness.
Fascism at Issue
Since, Mr. Bush, you have chosen to put the issue of fascism before the public, it begs a broader dialog on fascism's role in our lives today. I accept the challenge to enter that dialog. Frankly Mr. Bush, many Americans refer to you as a fascist. There really isn't any other way to state that than bluntly. Blowing up an airliner full of passengers is barbaric and completely unacceptable, regardless of the objectives of those involved, but it really doesn't fit the definition of fascism.
From Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language:
FASCISM: A system of government characterized by rigid one party dictatorship, forcible suppression of opposition, private economic enterprise under centralized governmental control, belligerent nationalism, racism and militarism, etc.
That's really the heart of the matter now isn't it, Mr. Bush. One might wonder if you are troubled by by the specter of fascism in your inner thoughts when you cast the accusation wildly into the public discourse.
What would the people of Iraq say about fascism if asked? But then they haven't been asked, have they - they've been liberated, of course. What would our founding fathers say about detention without due process, without end? Electronic surveillance of all Americans, without regard for the law? What is democracy if the citizens have no confidence in the integrity of their elections? Our military hurls five-hundred pound bombs all day and all night. They land on whom they land on. It is not an isolated act of madness, it is a coordinated act of state. All the while private corporations profit wildly.
Fascism, Mr. Bush, is not your strongest card. You should change the subject again.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace