COMMAS

"Marty Peretz, a former editor and owner of the New Republic, insists that commas must always come in pairs. He once made his staff count the commas in an entire issue of the magazine, telling them that the number had better come out even. (The incident, which is not fiction, was made famous in the film "Shattered Glass".) (...)

Mr Carey quotes Gertrude Stein: "A comma does nothing but make easy a thing that if you like it enough is easy enough without the comma." Not quite true: commas clean up many things that would be a mess for the reader without them. But few comma-rules are absolute. Don't trust anyone who tells you otherwise."

Comp Time

Compensation Time = Overtime Bank = Banco de Horas

Time banking / Time Credit (UK) / Time Dollar (US)

        Time banking is a pattern of reciprocal service exchange that uses units of time as currency. It is an example of a complementary monetary system. A time bank, also known as a service exchange, is a community that practices time banking.
        The unit of currency, always valued at an hour's worth of any person's labor, used by these groups has various names, but is generally known as a time dollar in the U.S. and a time credit in the U.K.
        Time banking is primarily used to provide incentives and rewards for work such as mentoring children, caring for the elderly, being neighborly—work usually done on a volunteer basis—which a pure market system devalues. Essentially, the "time" one spends providing these types of community services earns "time" that one can spend to receive services. As well as gaining credits, participating individuals, particularly those more used to being recipients in other parts of their lives, can potentially gain confidence,social contact and skills through giving to others.
         Communities therefore use time banking as a tool to forge stronger intra-community connections, a process known as "building social capital." Time banking had its intellectual genesis in the U.S. in the early 1980s.[...] Today, 26 countries have active Time Banks. There are 250 Time Banks active in the U.K. and over 276 Time Banks in the U.S.
From Wikipedia 

Responsibility vs. Liability

Briefly: a person is responsible for duties and is liable for obligations.
Responsibility is an obligation you have to do something. "You're responsible for finishing your work".
Liability means that you're subject to repercussion if your duties are not finished.
"You're liable to get in trouble if you don't finish your work" .

Trooping the Colour 2013 -The Queen’s Birthday Parade

Saturday, June 15, 2013

TRIFLES

"Trifles make perfection and perfection is not trifle."

"Pequenas coisas fazem a perfeição e a perfeição não é uma pequena coisa." 

   Michelangelo

Horas

“8h00”; “17h30” ou “17h30min”. Não use dois pontos [“:”] e nem “hs”.

Brazilian Currency: Real

Brazil's currency unit is the real (plural = reais) and is made up of 100 centavos and written using the symbol R$. The currency exchange symbol for the real is BRL. The real is issued in denominations of 1 real (coin), 2 reais, 5 reais, 10 reais, 20 reais, 50 reais and 100 reais notes. Centavos are issued in denominations of 1 centavo, 5 centavos, 10 centavos, 25 centavos and 50 centavos. (coins)

Abreviaturas

Abreviaturas: Como regra geral, abreviaturas não são terminadas em vogal.[Correto: “Ap.”; Errado: “Apto.”]
Somente em palavras femininas é que a abreviatura incluirá o “a”. [Ex.: “Dra.”, “Sra.” ]

“Atenciosamente”?: Correto: “At.te”. [Obs.: Se a correspondência for formal, use “Atenciosamente”; se for informal, não escreva nada.]

Curiosidade: No inglês, a tendência é não usar ponto nas abreviaturas: Mr    Mrs   ie   etc

Euro

The full term ‘euro’ is used when there is no direct reference to the amount, e.g. in table/graph footnotes (such as ‘The euro became the new currency for 15 Member States’. In English and German, the term euro (German: Euro) is never written in plural. In French, a plural ‘s’ is added (euros). In English and French, euro starts with a lower case letter, in German with an upper case letter. If there is a reference to an amount, the ISO 4217 code of euro ‘EUR’ is used (such as ‘EUR 30’).

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." - Leonardo da Vinci

Desculpem-me pelo longo e tenebroso inverno. De repente, fiquei sem vontade de postar, atarefada com uma reforma do apê, aguardando visitas de Albion [Britain]. Tudo já passou, foi muito bom mas não deixo de reconhecer que às vezes exagero. Ainda tenho muito a aprender.

EDITION Vs. ISSUE

           edition (edição): The entire number of copies of a publication issued at one time or from a single set of type. A single copy from this group.  The form in which a publication is issued: a paperback edition of a novel; an annotated edition of Shakespeare. A version of an earlier publication having substantial changes or additions: a newly revised edition of a standard reference work. All the copies of a specified issue of a newspaper: the morning edition; the Sunday edition. A broadcast of a radio or television news program: Thursday's edition of the six o'clock news
           issue (exemplar) : Something produced, published, or offered, as: An item or set of items, as stamps or coins, made available at one time by an office or bureau. A single copy of a periodical: the May issue of the magazine. A distinct set of copies of an edition of a book distinguished from others of that edition by variations in the printed matter.

ONLY

Professor Ernest Brennecke of Columbia is credited with inventing a sentence that can be made to have eight different meanings by placing ONE WORD in all possible positions in the sentence: "I hit him in the eve vesterdav."
The word is "ONLY". The Message:
ONLY I hit him in the eve vesterdav. (No one else did.)
I ONLY hit him in the eye vesterdav. (Did not slap him.)
I hit ONLY him in the eye vesterday. (I did not hit others.)
I hit him ONLY in the eve vesterdav. (I did not hit outside the eye.)
I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday. (Not other organs.)
I hit him in the ONLY eve vesterdav. (He doesn't have another eye.)
I hit him in the eye ONLY vesterdav. (Not todav.)
I hit him in the eve yesterday ONLY. (Did not wait for todav.)

Cair bem / dar-se bem / fazer bem

cair bem = becoming (adj): Death looks becoming on you (cair bem). That shirt's very becoming on you.
dar-se bem = fare well (v+adj): Audiences have fixed expectations of big-canvas movies, and those who try to subvert them do not fare well.= não se dão bem (se dar bem / dar-se bem)
fazer bem = do well (v+adj): A little planning ahead does you well (fazer bem)

PICKUP LINES

cantadas (pickup lines) - Bad pickup lines:
“Can I have your phone number? I seem to have lost mine.”
“Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk past again?”
Read more: http://uk.askmen.com/top_10/dating_top_ten/35b_dating_list.html#ixzz2HTSNdVgL

"Fiscal cliff" heard round the world:

 how the term translates across the globe
Argentina:              abismo fiscal
Brazil:                      abismo fiscal (Portugal: "penhasco fiscal")
Denmark                 Afgrundens rand /Økonomisk afgrund / den Finansielle afgrund og "Afgrunden".
England                   in British English it is "WTF are those idiots in the US doing now"
France                     le fiscal cliff / mur de la dette (literally debt wall or “mur budgétaire", or literally, budgetary wall
Germany                 Fiskalklippe / sparbombe (actually, this sounds even scarier than a cliff)
Indonesia                jurang fiskal (which in Indonesian actually translates as "fiscal abyss"
Ireland                    fiscal baby step ("You think that is a fiscal cliff, you should see what we went over in 2008" )
Italy:                        abisso fiscale
Montenegro, Serbia and Croatia     fiskalna litica
Norway                   budsjettstupet  (budget ravine)
Portugal:                 Penhasco fiscal
Spain:                      precipicio fiscal
Sweden                   stupet (the idea of a ravine also holds sway) / finansiella stupet / budgetstupet
Thailand                  หน้าผาทางการคลัง". It pronounces "Nah-pah-tarng-karn-klang"
The Netherlands    Belastingkloof  / begrotingsravijn / begrotingsafgrond / fiscale kloof
Turkey                     mali uçurum (Turkish) (i.e.: capital flight... literally, money running away)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/fiscal-cliff-blog/2012/dec/27/fiscal-cliff-translated-around-the-world

Feliz Ano Novo! Happy New Year!

2012 was a marvelous year. Hopefully 2013 will be twice as good for all of us!

Good Riddance Day (Times Square, New York)

       "On December 28, say goodbye to your worst memory from 2012 once and for all on Good Riddance Day.
        Whether you're bidding farewell to pink slips or parking tickets, credit cards or Valentine's Day cards, your bad memories from 2012 will be destroyed, never to be seen again. A Cintas secure, mobile shredding truck along with a dumpster and sledgehammer were on hand to discard any distasteful, embarrassing and downright depressing memories from 2012.
         Good Riddance Day is inspired by a Latin American tradition in which New Year’s revelers put artifacts from the previous year into giant dolls and set them on fire.

Twelve Days of Christmas (song)

           The "TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS" is an English Christmas carol that enumerates a series of increasingly grand gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas.

The twelve days in the song are the twelve days starting Christmas Day, or in some traditions, the day after Christmas (December 26) (Boxing Day or St. Stephen's Day, as being the feast day of St. Stephen Protomartyr) to the day before Epiphany, or the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6, or the Twelfth Day). The Twelfth Night is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking."
           Currently, the twelve days and nights are celebrated in widely varying ways around the world. For example, some give gifts only on Christmas Day, some only on Twelfth Night, and some each of the twelve nights, with each day of the Twelve Days representing a wish for a corresponding month of the new year.
           The "Twelve Days of Christmas" is a cumulative song, meaning that each verse is built on top of the previous verses. There are twelve verses, each describing a gift given by "my true love" on one of the twelve days of Christmas ...and so forth, until the last verse:

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

RESILIENCE / BOUNCING BACK / REBOUNDING

capacidade de recuperação/adaptação

           "The resilience frame speaks not just to how buildings weather storms but to how people weather them, too. Here, psychologists, sociologists and neuroscientists are uncovering a wide array of factors that make you more or less resilient than the person next to you: the reach of your social networks, the quality of your close relationships, your access to resources, your genes and health, your beliefs and habits of mind.

          For example, “resilience thinking” is starting to shape how urban planners in big cities think about updating antiquated infrastructure, much of which is robust in the face of normal threats like equipment failures but — as was just demonstrated in the New York region — fragile in the face of unanticipated shocks like flooding, pandemics, terrorism or energy shortages.

          “After 9/11, Lower Manhattan contained the largest collection of LEED-certified, green buildings in the world,” he said, referring to a rating program for eco-friendly design. “But that was answering only part of problem. The buildings were designed to generate lower environmental impacts, but not to respond to the impacts of the environment” — for example, by having redundant power systems."
Source: NYT

“In behalf of” vs. “on behalf of”

Q: Which is proper, “on behalf of” or “in behalf of”?

A: Both expressions are correct, but they mean slightly different things.

“In behalf of” means “for the benefit of” or “in the interest of.”

“On behalf of” means “in place of” or “as the agent of.”

So I might give a donation, “on behalf of” my gardening club, to be used “in behalf of” tree restoration in the park.

Lei da Ficha Limpa

Clean Record Law

BUSINESS YEAR / CORPORATE YEAR

Ano Social / Exercício Social
ano / período contábil = accounting year / period
ano / exercício financeiro (período entre balanços) = financial year [UK]; fiscal year (US)
ano / exercício contábil = accounting year
ano / exercício social = corporate year
exercício / período contábil  =   accounting period, fiscal period
exercício fiscal =  fiscal year, tax year  

BOLETO DE COBRANÇA BANCÁRIA

bank collection slip

NA PESSOA DE

XX, pessoa jurídica a ser citada na pessoa de um dos seus representantes legais = XX, a legal entity to be served on one of its legal representatives

ABAIXO-ASSINADO

The residents will sign a collective petition.

LOCATION / PLACE / SITE

            location: A place where something is or could be located; a site. A tract of land that has been surveyed and marked off.
            place:  An area with definite or indefinite boundaries; a portion of space. A building or an area set aside for a specified purpose: a place of worship. A business establishment or office.  locality, such as a town or city: visited many places. A public square or street with houses in a town.
           site: The place where a structure or group of structures was, is, or is to be located: a good site for the school.  The place or setting of something: a historic site; a job site.

Warehouse vs. Depot

Warehouse:place where goods are stored for a business or organization that is a separate building.
Depot: place where goods are stored for distribution (however not for just a store but for many different places). 

Difference between Stock and Inventory

            While stock deals with products that are sold as part of the business's daily operation, inventory includes sale products and the goods and materials used to produce them.
              For example, the cars, car parts and accessories are sold during normal business practices, but the machines that run diagnostic tests on cars or the car lot itself are not. Inventory takes in account all of the assets a business uses to produce the goods it sells and determines the sale price for the stock. The stock determines the amount of revenue a business generates. The more stock that is sold, the higher the revenues

Difference between Finance / Financial Managers

            The Finance Manager does the general duties relating to the Finance Department, while the Financial Manager deals with the acquisationa and utilization of long and short term funds.

            In today's competitive global environment, financial managers are continually faced with the ability to engage in activities bringing value to the firm and the shareholders. In order to achieve their goals successfully, financial managers need to set strategies to influence the direction and success of the company. Such strategies include internal company

             Finance is the management of money and financial management shows the management of financial activities properly to achieve firm's goal ( wealth maximization). Actually financial management shows the techniques and strategies to determine the needs of the fund, to identify the possible and plausible sources of fund, to collect the necessary fund from the identified sources and to invest the collected fund in different profitable sectors by maintaining the principles of finance to achieve the goal of the business firm.