On Wednesday, 18 January 2012, Soisson, Stephen M wrote: > But if we were to follow that convention we would have been stuck with > Multi-wavelength Resonant Diffraction Experimental Results, or, quite simply, > MuRDER.
You could switch that to Multiple Energy Resonant Diffraction Experiment but I don't think that would help any. As to "anomalous" - the term comes from the behaviour of the derivative delta_(optical index) / delta_(wavelength) This term is positive nearly everywhere, but is anomalously negative at the absorption edge. Ethan > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On Behalf Of Jacob > Keller > Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 3:13 PM > To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK > Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Merging data collected at two different wavelength > > This begs the question* whether you want the lemmings to understand > you. One theory of language, gotten more or less from Strunk and > White's Elements of Style, is that the most important feature of > language is its transparency to the underlying thoughts. Bad language > breaks the transparency, reminds you that you are reading and not > simply thinking the thoughts of the author, who should also usually be > invisible. Bad writing calls attention to itself and to the author, > whereas good writing guides the thoughts of the reader unnoticeably. > For Strunk and White, it seems that all rules of writing follow this > principle, and it seems to be the right way to think about language. > So, conventions, even when somewhat inaccurate, are important in that > they are often more transparent, and the reader does not get stuck on > them. > > Anyway, a case in point of lemmings is that once Wayne Hendrickson > himself suggested that the term anomalous be decommissioned in favor > of "resonant." I don't hear any non-lemmings jumping on that > bandwagon... > > JPK > > *Is this the right use of "beg the question?" > > > > > > On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 1:57 PM, Phoebe Rice <pr...@uchicago.edu> wrote: > >> > >>> Can I be dogmatic about this ? > >> > >>I wish you could, but I don't think so, because even though those > >>sources call it that, others don't. I agree with your thinking, but > >>usage is usage. > > > > And 10,000 lemmings can't be wrong? > > > >