They still do. It’s just that the trend in branding/naming has shifted from cobbling together a nonsense word from 2-3 real words (Covidien - cooperation - provide - ambien(?)) to a completely unrelated word that you take over (Uber/Bird/Lime/Twitter/Slack).
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Well, the “problem” with the latter is that they are regular words, and therefore not completely trademarkable: only in conjunction with a subject or logo.
I’m sure the people who dreamt (hey Google, dreamt is a fucking word you stupid, lazy twits) up Covidien hoped that they could then use that trademark to prevent journalists from referring to them. Not an unreasonable idea given the direction of IP law in the last 30 years.
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Great watch via @jwz’s blog:
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Just one thing re:data gatherers - while I haven’t had the time to play with the numbers myself, colleagues and friends are. And the report they are livid due to the delivery of the data, e.g., by the ECDC. Badly standardised Excel files, e.g. proprietary software and no checks of data consistency. Changing variables. Changing location of the files.
I’ve seen similar from people in the US. Someone complained on twitter that even the DATE wasn’t standardised.
The media noticed some two weeks ago that Johns Hopkins University data and Robert Koch Institute data weren’t comparable, and some media even tried to explain why.
However, communication-wise and for all analysts, this situation is not only annoying. I find it at least slightly dangerous. Conspiracy stuff will grow on this like hallucinogenic mushroom on a bull’s faeces.
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Not surprised. I worked for the US census in 2010 and the federal gov. sent us data in the form of a huge text file. Some of us cobbled together a program to extract the needed info and put it in a spreadsheet file.
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Why would Chinese people be relevant to the spread of Trumpvirus?
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That’s the OPPOSITE of what I am worried about. A huge comma separated text file which is time-stamped in a consistent way is much, much better than a bloody spreadsheet!
You can use versioning with text files, for transparent corrections e.g.
If you want to to have an idea what I am talking about and do not know what GitHub is, go to any Wikipedia page and look at the version history.
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Trumpvirus was originally reported in China, probably due to the large numbers of Americans doing business there.
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My point is that effective cohesive government leadership would be able to help those idiots, leadership we don’t have, which is why it’s a microcosm of the far larger catastrophe unfolding on land, and a sign of what we’re all in for.
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well, don’t forget the people who’s job it is to staff the cruise. they were probably facing the choice of no job and no healthcare ( presuming they get healthcare ) if they didn’t stick with it.
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Fortunately I got my monthly cut just before shit got serious. Also, my regular is a #4 buzzcut, and we have a set of electric clippers, easy!
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I may have to give myself a buzzcut at some point… that, or go back to wearing a ponytail like I did in the early 2010s. I did find a clipper kit in the house, at least, so I won’t have to order one. It’ll probably end up looking ridiculous. 
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More willful stupidity. I guess these people forgot about “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
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Drones intone ‘you must stay home,’ eliciting moans from those in the zone: Flying gizmos corral Brits amid coronavirus lockdown
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