A front-page, above-the-fold article in today's New York Times mentions that "Johns Hopkins receives more federal research money than any other university, $310 million last year." The newspaper gives no source for that claim. Figures from the National Science Foundation indeed rank Johns Hopkins at the top of the research money list -- but the figures, available online in PDF format at http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf01323/pdf/fssb11.pdf, put the sum at $855 million. If the number were $310 million, Johns Hopkins would rank seventh. There are also plenty of accounting games being played here. If you treat the University of California as one entity rather than as separate campuses, its combined federal research dollars far surpass those of Johns Hopkins -- and even more so if you add in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that the University of California runs on a federal contract. If you count grants made to Harvard Medical School's teaching hospitals like Mass. General and Brigham & Women's as part of Harvard's money, Harvard's ranking gets a boost. As usual, the Times article about the Johns Hopkins research scandal manages studiously to avoid any mention of the university's chairman, who just happens to be running for mayor of New York City.
Lost at Sea: The weekend section of today's New York Times carries an article about rowboats. "This fantasy is a departure from my usual approach to boats, which is to avoid bright work (the lovely varnished wood you see on elegant wooden yachts) at all costs," the Times article says. "Bright work has to be regularly maintained (read varnished)."
Merriam-Webster's online collegiate dictionary defines brightwork (one word) as "polished or plated metalwork." Webster's New World, the Times newsroom dictionary, defines it (one word) as "shiny metal trim or fittings." The American Heritage dictionary online defines it as "metal parts or fixtures made bright by polishing." You do see varnished wood occasionally referred to as bright work in a nautical context, but, as the dictionary definitions indicate, the term is much more commonly accepted as a description of the cleats and other metal hardware that are attached to the wood. If the Times is going to write with a relatively obscure usage like this in place of the more commonly accepted one, it would be easier on readers if, in defining the term, some reference were made to the more common usage.
Personal Price: The sports section of today's New York Times reports on its front page, under the headline "Hamm Pays Personal Price for Soccer," the fact that soccer star Mia Hamm and her husband have begun divorce proceedings. Would the Times puts a male athlete's divorce on the front of the section with a headline claiming the man had paid a personal price for whatever sport he plays? Would it do the same thing on the front of the business section to a male corporate executive? Even if Ms. Hamm herself blames her soccer career for the divorce, the treatment seems unusual.