Word: useless
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...setting up temporary eye camps in remote villages. There surgeons perform more than 100 operations per day on patients from the surrounding area. When a blind man's relatives lead him in, says Wilson, "they are usually bossing him around, bored with having to care for this useless invalid. After the operation, when the family leaves the camp, he is a man transformed, his status restored...
Pryor and other critics charge that agencies often sign contracts for useless and overpriced studies, play favorites by hiring former Government staffers as consultants, and employ outsiders as full-time employees in order to get around hiring freezes. Most important, Pryor claims that agencies increasingly are allowing consultants to make important policy decisions. Says he: "It's a really scary situation. They [the consultants] are elected by no one and are accountable to no one." Among the examples of questionable practices and mismanagement detailed in the GAO report: - The Department of Health, Education and Welfare ordered a survey...
...recommended in the past for early detection of lung cancer in smokers and others at high risk, are no longer deemed necessary. Nor is sputum cytology, an analysis of lung cells contained in sputum. One reason: lung cancer is still so resistant to cure as to make early detection useless and a waste of money. Rather, prevention, especially by avoiding smoking, should be emphasized...
Know-it-alls come in two types: "real experts," who are right about 75% of the time, and "phony experts," who are inept and usually wrong. The real experts are highly valuable, but dogmatic, stubborn and often "so superior in tone that they make others feel useless." Co-workers who must face a know-it-all should do their homework carefully, and instead of arguing, ask "extensional" questions, such as "How will this approach work with our five lands of customers?" The questions may lead know-it-alls to see their errors because they are among the few troublemakers...
...says "parity" unavoidably, even if silently, admits to the possibility of "dis-parity," that is, superior and inferior entities. Were this not the case, we would have no need for arms limitations. We could readily permit the Russians to squander their resources on accumulating until the end of time useless arsenals of still bigger and more adequate missiles while we enjoyed the good life behing our deterrent...