Aug
7
Happy BC Day to all those Canadians stretched out in the sun while the rest of the world works.
- ‘A basic rule of punctuation’. An example of why the business world needs more English majors: a simple comma in a contract may cost Rogers Communications an extra $2.13 million.
- Online obits: a new threat to newspapers?. The threats to newspaper revenue just keep coming. At Editor’s Weblog.
- Tibetan government in exile launches online TV site. Getting the message out gets easier and easier. Found via Boing Boing.
- Mainstream Media Meltdown III. Chris Anderson with the latest round-up of sobering numbers from the mediascape.
Thanks $2 million this one… and just when I’m sorting out the new semester web links!
Eats, shoots and leaves behind quite a bit of cash, eh?
[...] The next time someone tells you grammar doesn’t count, point them to this article. Rogers Communications may be out more than $2 million because of an errant comma in a contract with Aliant, Inc. The clause in question: The agreement “shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.” The problem? That second comma changes the meaning of the sentence from its intent of enforcing the deal for the first five years and then giving a one-year out afterwards. (Go back and look.) Now it would seem to give the one-year out immediately, and Aliant has excersized that right. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has ruled that the comma does indeed change the meaning of the contract. Watch your punctuation. (Via Corante) [...]