A word of the year

As some of you know I am developing in to a sesquipedalian in my old age. That's just fancy speak for, "I like to unnecessarily use big words."

I am blaming my imminent completion of law school on this phenomenon. Hopefully it will pass.

In the mean time however, I was reading Paul Levy's recent entry, "I'm gonna scream." In it, he points to a recent NYT article that detailed the words of the year that have been added to the English lexicon.

Chief among them ... Vuvuzela.

Yes folks, I just can't get enough ...

Just to finish the year off right, here is a fun story from CNN detailing the history of the fabled horn.

No Vuvuzela for you!

Here today, gone tomorrow. While the debate rages on about if vuvuzelas should be allowed for the remainder of the World Cup, broadcasters have taken the matter into their own hands.

Earlier I shared (2) opinion pieces with you about why or why not the vuvuzela should be allowed at the remainder of the World Cup. For now however several broadcasters are filtering out the noise with specially designed filters, apparantly to the liking of their viewers.

Broadcasters Filtering out World Cup Vuvuzelas

By Scott Roxborough

June 17, 2010

COLOGNE, Germany (Hollywood Reporter) - Around the world, broadcasts of the football World Cup have been accompanied by the same, annoying drone ... of commentators complaining about the vuvuzelas.

The plastic horns are a traditional noisemaker in South African sports stadiums, local officials claim. But the sound of thousands of vuvuzelas honking has commentators, networks and audiences at home raising their voices in protest. ...

Complete story here courtesy of ABC news.

France, and now the Florida Marlins?

Did Vuvuzela-like Horns Cost Marlins a Baseball Game?

France was the first World Cup team to complain about vuvuzelas, the cheap plastic horns that are a tradition at soccer games in South Africa. The team claimed the constant droning, compared to a hornet's nest, messed up their communication. You would have thought that other sports would have realized supplying horns to fans wouldn't be a good idea, but go ask the Florida Marlins.

Full story here, courtesy of huliq.com.

Opinion: Ban the Vuvuzela

Following is an excerpt from a engineering eMagazine I subscribe to that shared an opinion about the Vuvuzela, albeit in a software test/risk management sense. The following is courtesy of stickminds.com.