Canada’s Canwest Newspaper Group, which was bought by businessman and former Canadian politcian Paul Godfrey earlier this year, is now called Postmedia Network. “Canwest” always sounded to me like a tuna factory, while “Postmedia” sounds like “the party’s over,” which may not be far from the truth. Mr. Godfrey, naturally, tells a more rousing tale in a memo to employees that was reproduced in The Tyee, an independent news blog based in British Columbia:
What we arrived at was a name that looks to both the past and the future. It highlights the journey of our industry and our brands. It showcases the evolution of the technologies that we use to move news and information to our readers and audiences. And it represents our strong value proposition to marketers, advertisers and our partners.
(Hat tip: Luc LaTulippe.)
*
The Pentagon may be changing PSYOP, its acronym for “psychological operations,” to MISO, which stands for Military Information Support and/to [sic] Operations. More savory, or more watered down? As an anonymous commenter on the Small Wars Journal blog pointed out, “So instead of PSYOPers they’ll be MISOgynists?” My own gripe: that ungainly “and/to.” (Sources: Wired and Johnson, which calls the spelled-out new name “tongue-numbing.”)
*
The campaign to adopt “hella”—a versatile intensifier that originated in the Bay Area—as the prefix for 10 to the 27th power (1 followed by 27 zeros) continues to gather steam. The Los Angeles Times reports that UC Davis physics student Austin Sendek’s Facebook pro-hella petition has more than 60,000 supporters. Fritinancy first reported on the “hella” campaign back in February (scroll down to the final item). (Hat tip: MJF.)
*
Did you know that the ASICS, a brand of athletic footwear that originated in Japan, is an acronym derived from a Latin phrase, “Anima sana in corpore sano” (a healthy soul in a healthy body)? Learn about how eight other sneakers companies got their names over at Mental Floss. My favorite story is the one about PF Flyers.
The "hella" would be 1, not 10, followed by 27 zeros, as described in the LA Times article.
Posted by: HarveyP | July 09, 2010 at 10:44 AM
Funny, I learned that Latin as "mens sana in corpore sano" -- mind, not soul. But MSICS just ain't got that sneaker-name swing, I admit.
Posted by: Jan Freeman | July 09, 2010 at 11:41 AM
HarveyP: Thank you! I've made the correction.
Jan: That's how I learned it, too. Maybe "MSICS" sounds too much like a British intelligence service ... or a BMW.
Posted by: Nancy Friedman | July 09, 2010 at 01:15 PM