Word: formulaic
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...trial is pretty definitive and measurable - like, say, death. Other times, the outcome parameters can be as nebulous as "satisfaction" or "discomfort" - but in these cases, when numbers are assigned to subjective experience (e.g., "my discomfort level is now three out of 10") and plugged into an algebraic formula, they produce "rational" or "evidence-based" conclusions, which suddenly have the ring of scientific truth. As far as the evidence-based movement is concerned, heeding mere "expert opinion," from even the most successful clinician, would be akin to taking the word of a bearded man with a wand...
...waiting for someone to come up with a better latex formula? Right now, I have to focus on things I think will be successful in the immediate future...
...compelling figure, and shake-ups happen. His real problem is the political environment. He's a Republican in what is emerging as a Democratic year. And he's aligned with Bush in a year of Bush fatigue over the Bush economy. Emory University's Alan Abramowitz has concocted a formula that has predicted the popular vote winner in 14 of the last 15 elections; it missed in 1968 but got the razor-thin margin right. His barometer uses three criteria: the approval rating of the incumbent President, the economic growth rate and the "time-for-a-change" factor of whether...
...year-career in traffic court. His style places him in the ranks of troubleshooters like Philip Habib and Richard Armitage, whose authority derives not from their titles but from their willingness to operate in the highly volatile, here's-the-deal-dammit world of eyeball-to-eyeball diplomacy. The formula is simple: earn the trust of the principals, talk straight and cut the best deal you can; then tell the boss what you have done. If Oakley radiates a no-nonsense stability and mental toughness, it is partly because, in the words of Robert Carswell, former Deputy Treasury Secretary...
Alternative rockers keep a clear conscience about all the borrowing because their hodgepodge sound is homemade, not the formula of a record company. "I don't like labels," warns alternative rocker Juliana Hatfield, a winsome woman with a girlish voice and a guitar that barks. "But if you want to put me in that category, it's O.K. with me, because being labeled alternative has a certain amount of respect that goes along with it. It means that you've started out on your own, the ethic of doing everything yourself...