One small piece of business-speak grates my ears everytime I hear it. The word is processes. For some reason, supposedly intelligent business people are often reduced to pronouncing this word as if its root was an imaginary Greek word, processis. That is, they pronounce the last syllable of the plural as “EEZ.”

Unfortunately, like aks, nucular, and irregardless, “incorrect” pronunciations are used often enough by educated individuals that they become “accepted” or “acceptable” pronunciations.

This follows the general trends of language and dialect transformation throughout history, so I guess I can’t complain too much. Language is fluid.

Related links:

• Dictionary.com entry for “process”
• Top 100 most often mispronounced words

• History of the English language

  Update: I swear this is just a coincidence. George W. Bush mangled English again today when he used the word disassemble (and defined the word incorrectly) when he meant dissemble (which happened to be Monday’s word of the day at Dictionary.com). Here’s the White House press transcript.

• Tips for blogging productively. Here are some good tips, many of which I should consider. Most regular readers of this site are fellow bloggers. Check it. [Seen on All Things Financial]
• Some like it hot, and some don’t. Home prices increased in Florida, California, and the north east, while Canton and Syracuse showed some decline.
• W. Mark Felt is Deep Throat. This is not porn-related. At least, with the mug on this guy, I hope not.
• Hai Tieu, a millionaire teacher in the making. The introductory paragraph in this story was written to me. He’s making his way with a $60,000 salary and by renting out part of his home.

• ClearChannel launches a “pirate” radio station… and asks for donations! Their website was taken down once word got out, but some text is mirrored.

A few weeks ago, we had a good conversation about the merits of an MBA degree. Today, Anne Fischer from Fortune Magazine says it’s a good time to be an MBA.

She claims there’s been a change in hiring patterns. Instead of companies hiring MBAs in advance, companies are picking up new graduates “just in time.” On top of that, graduates are not concerned with the uncertainty. The top concerns of employers looking to hire are ethics training and critical thinking skills, while the top concerns of students are lifestyle and work-life balance.

The bottom line is that while 2004’s hiring numbers were flat, there has been a 51% increase in 2005 hires.

Microsoft’s [MSFT] amazing climb from its humble beginnings is well-known. Thanks to stock options and other benefits, many early Microsoft employees are millionaires. They’re showing up as successful business owners and philanthropists.

The New York Times article profiles:

• Rich Tong, cofounder of Ignition Parters, a venture capital group.
• John Sage, owner of Pura Vida Coffee.
• Stephanie DeVaan, political activist.

• Chris Peters, owner of the Professional Bowlers Association.

Over the weekend, the Billboard Liberation Front celebrated 50 years of McDonalds by modifying a billboard (including animatronics) by Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

The billboard is clear in the picture but the animatronics depict Ronald force-feeding a supersized burger to a supersized kid. The billboard modification was perpetrated by people dressed as Ronald McDonald, the Hamburglar, and other McDonalds characters.

For more insight into McDonalds’ corporate strategy, check out the multimeda experience entitled What Will the Corporation Do? by Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. The song and accompanying slideshow are based on a management presentation a few decades old. One lyric: “We need more advertising to tell our story, and keep hamburgers before our customers.” You can download an MP3 here (registration required).

Also: I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend, whether Memorial Day was celebrated or not. It was nice to have a long weekend and I always enjoy barbecuing with friends and family. I met some distant cousins—both retired lawyers—and received some insight into the choices I’m making for myself and my future.

See, I told you I couldn’t stay away for long. Here are some interesting links I came across today:

• The Flickr tag: knockoff. First of all, Flickr is a photograph sharing site where items are “tagged” with a category. The “knockoff” category is a repository for photographs of generic consumer products that are designed to look like their brand-name counterparts.
• Dan Bricklin, the guy who invented the electronic spreadsheet (think: Microsoft Excel), produces podcasts now (among other things). Here is his recording setup.

• Here’s an interesting search concept: Yahoo Mindset. Search the web using terms as usual, then pull the slider from one direction (shopping) to another (researching). It’s search based on intent.

It’s a holiday weekend, and for me that means I’ll be spending some time catching up on things I need to get done, seeing family and a girl, and barbecuing. The weather just happens to be wonderful, which makes the fact that I’m leaving the office at 2:00 pm even better.

Have a great weekend! (Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll be online at least part of the time…)

Earlier this month, I presented an introduction to hedge funds. Today, CNN is reporting that hedge fund managers want to repair their image among the investing public.

In an attempt to do so, some mutual fund companies are set to bring hedge-like funds to everyday investors. One such fund is the DB Hedge Strategies Fund. This fund will charge a 1.95 percent annual fee and a 0.25 percent administrative fee. That’s less than some actively managed mutual funds, but still pretty pricey. The minimum to invest is $50,000.

Rydex offers a fund of hedge funds, an index that follows the S&P’s Hedge Fund Index the same way other index funds follow the S&P 500. Take a look at their tables; the difference in performance between the “with load” and “without load” is big.

The CNN article goes on to list some others.