Redundancy

The three Rs of the Whitewater hearings: recuse, react--and redundancy. HUGH GLENN Irvine

WASHINGTON - The Interior Department proposed new rules to regulate hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas on federal land Thursday, drawing criticism from environmentalists that it had weakened an earlier draft to placate industry. Industry officials were not mollified, however, reiterating their objections to federal standards. Last year, they criticized the department's earlier draft rules as inflexible and onerous. "We are proposing some common-sense updates that increase safety while also providing flexibility and facilitating coordination with states and tribes," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said.

Re "Editor's Note," editorial page, June 12: The ongoing change in The Times in the format of the editorial page will do little to comfort the readers who focus on content. Readers who make it to the editorials, or those of us who go there first, deserve better than Sunday's example of the usual Bush bashing in your front-page African piece and Michael Kinsley's Iraq negative redundancy. Jack Weber Oxnard

When the New York Giants play at Green Bay on Sunday, temperatures are expected to dip into the low teens. Surely, somebody will refer to the "frozen tundra" of Lambeau Field. Funny thing about that phrase, though, is that Vince Lombardi didn't like it, and didn't want it used in the Packers' highlight films. It was coined by Steve Sabol, now president of NFL Films, and he used it in his script for the "Ice Bowl," the 1967 NFL championship game between the Packers and Dallas Cowboys.

It is no wonder that our children do not know how to speak properly. Especially bad are the [broadcast] sports commentators. If it is not poor grammar, it is out-and-out redundancy. For example, during halftime of the Florida State-Auburn game on Oct. 23, one of the talking heads said, "It is hard to catch up from behind." JACK DANIELS Los Angeles

All of the temporary fixes that delay the implementation of area code overlays are just that. In the not too distant future all telephone numbers will include the area code for everyone in the U.S. The spread and utilization of communications are growing too rapidly for it not to happen. What The Times has failed to point out is the utter redundancy of dialing the 1 in front of the real 10-digit number. Since we in the overlay area must dial all 10 digits no matter whom we call, the leading 1 is totally unnecessary.

Richard Milani and Peter Nagy manipulate the hyper-real, out-of-focus, schematic representation associated with media reproduction processes such as color separation, electronic transmission of imagery and Ben Day dotting. They use the format to comment on the information glut and the technology that duplicates information to the point of blurring context and meaning in an addictive white noise.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. - The ship's engineer was seasick and spitting up his medication. A deckhand had been tossed past the mainmast, breaking three ribs. The captain had been slammed against a cabin table, wrenching his back. He could barely walk. Capt. Robin Walbridge, sailing the tall ship Bounty from Connecticut to Florida, was trying to outflank Hurricane Sandy, which was roaring toward New York. But instead of slipping around the storm, the ship had crossed directly into Sandy's path.

The prime-time television schedule now has two series whose titles are redundancies: "Unsolved Mysteries" and "Equal Justice." GEORGE D. PUTNAM Santa Monica

So how many times does Gov. Pete Wilson get to "announce" that he's running for President? That he's really running, honest? Answer: As many times as he can get away with it. As many times as we in the news media treat his reiterations as "announcements." In recent elections, candidacy "announcements" have gotten out of control. They have become boring rituals, with sophomoric antics substituting for suspense. Typically, the candidate already has been running for weeks or months.

When the state budget is $28 billion in the red with all the easy cuts already made, it's hard to argue with Gov.-elect Jerry Brown for eliminating the Office of the Inspector General, which is run by former L.A. Controller Laura Chick. Chick was tasked with ensuring that California's $50 billion in federal stimulus funding was properly spent, but Brown said her office was "redundant" because the job could easily be assigned to the already established Bureau of State Audits, state Controller's Office or governor's Department of Finance.

The U.S. trustee and creditors in the Crystal Cathedral bankruptcy proceedings have questioned spending at the Garden Grove-based megachurch, which has long kept its finances under wraps. In documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana, the trustee and the creditors concluded that the church paid at least three insiders for what appeared to be redundant duties. They also question the six-figure housing allowance paid to Chief Financial Officer Fred Southard, which allowed him to largely avoid federal income taxes, according to tax documents filed in court.

As the state that once embodied the American dream has devolved into an American nightmare, Californians have begun looking for ways to rescue their state from its own dysfunction. We are awash in constitutional proposals, some sensible (eliminating the Legislature's two-thirds-vote requirement for passing a budget or raising taxes; abolishing term limits), some not (enacting a flat tax). In this spirit of reinvention, then, permit me a few modest queries: Why in the world do we have a two-house Legislature?

Most of the things that make up the "Star Wars" universe these days -- movies, TV shows, toys and video games -- are lacking the magic that made the original trilogy of films so incredible. Gone are the spectacle and awe. Instead, we get halfhearted disappointments (such as the current "Clone Wars" animated movie). Sadly, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is no exception. It should be an amazing story bridge between Episodes 3 and 4 and one that boasts groundbreaking new artificial intelligence and gaming technology.

Spot Runner Inc., a Los Angeles-based advertising company that has raised at least $111 million in funding from media heavyweights, said Wednesday that it had laid off about 50 workers but planned to hire about 60 as part of a reorganization.

Early in the revival of "Klub" at the Actors’ Gang, a peroxide-blond actress with a balloon chest is told by her director that her nose looks crooked. She nonchalantly pulls a power drill from her tool kit, aims it at her face and performs her own rhinoplasty. After the messy operation, she turns to the audience with a gigantic smile as if to say, "Is that better?"

Re "The Case of the Missing Pool Fencing Statute" (Oct. 3): The Board of Supervisors is being asked to reenact a deleted law requiring pools to be fenced despite the fact that California has a state code requiring the same. The reason for this redundant legislation, as given by county officials, is that people--especially children--are still being hurt, and that there is therefore a need for "maximum safety requirements." Yet every day, gay citizens are beaten and sometimes killed in hate crimes while legislators decry the need for specifically anti-gay federal hate crime legislation as redundant and unnecessary.

A house of cards is how some engineers describe the steel truss system used on the Interstate 35W bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River, saying that almost any piece of the complex design that failed would have brought down the entire span.

The Los Angeles Police Department relies on outdated and deficient fiscal controls that expose the agency to "significant financial risk" and hinder it from deploying more officers to fight crime, according to a city audit released Monday.