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ScraperWiki. How to think like a computer: 5 tips for a data journalism workflow part 3. This is the final part of a series of blog posts. The first explains how using feeds and social bookmarking can make for a quicker data journalism workflow. The second looks at how to anticipate and prevent problems; and how collaboration can improve data work. The final workflow tip is all about efficiency. Computers deal with processes in a logical way, and good programming is often about completing processes in the simplest way possible. If you have any tasks that are repetitive, break them down and work out what patterns might allow you to do them more quickly – or for a computer to do them. The website IFTTT makes it particularly easy to automate such processes. The acronym stands for ‘IF This Then That’, and allows you to select triggers (such as a new email from someone, or a particular time of day) and subsequent actions (such as adding a new row with those details to a Google spreadsheet, or publishing a particular tweet).

You can adopt the same approach anywhere. Be focused. Mr. People. Was bombshell singled out because of her looks, pageant queen status? Leave it to a lawyer. You may have read in the news recently the fascinating story of one Kendra McKenzie Gill, the bomb-throwing beauty queen. Miss Gill has had quite the eventful summer. On June 8, the pretty, 18-year-old blonde was crowned Miss Riverton, and began making preparations for competing in the Miss Utah "Scholarship" Pageant. But then, on Aug. 2 -- apparently taking a break from the rigors of pageant life -- Gill and three 18-year-old friends decided to blow off a little steam. And with that, the inevitable "bombshell" jokes began.

All four teens face felony bomb-possession charges, although prosecutors and defenders have been negotiating a plea agreement. Which brings us to defense attorney Wally Bugden, who wins this week's Folks Say the Darndest Things Award. "Charging this as a felony is way out of proportion," Bugden said. Fair enough. "They did it because she's a pretty girl and a pageant queen," Bugden said. "I hope that calm heads prevail," Bugden said. » Columnist: I use words that sort of sound right together JIMROMENESKO.COM. Writer chastised for ‘egregious’ grammatical error in column. Today we offer -- at nearly 600 words -- the world's longest newspaper correction. I made what turned out to be a fairly glaring grammatical error in a recent column here in the Standard-Examiner, and I've been just sick about it ever since.

Following my Sept. 3 piece about the bomb-throwing beauty queen, a hyper-alert reader pointed out that I incorrectly used the word "because," when I clearly should have used "that. " I deeply regret the error, and promise I'm going to feel bad about that one just as soon as I can manage to develop even an ounce of shame over my writing skills. In the meantime, I offer my heartfelt apologies to you, the reader; to the members of the Noah Webster family; and especially to Doris Rounds, of South Ogden, who brought the transgression to my attention. Doris wrote: It seems clear that you intend not to pay attention to my repeated suggestions that "the reason is because" is an egregious error, in spite of the rules governing linking verbs.

Egregious? Writer chastised for ‘egregious’ grammatical error in column.