Rex, you may not be aware that Stanford University recently came out with a guide for approved acceptable words. I'm sorry to tell yout hat "blind" studies are now verboten. According to the gurus at Stanford, "blind" studies "unintentionally perpetuates that disability is somehow abnormal or negative, furthering an ableist culture.” The new correct wording is "masked" studies. Don't get mad at me, I didn't make this stuff up! In fact, as an ophthalmologist who runs a small biotech company currently doing a Phase 3 clinical trial that is "blinded", I am not surprisingly, unimpressed with Stanford's new approved words list ( "blind" study is but one word that made the new list). I'm also pretty sure that the folks at the Hoover Institute (a conservative think tank on Stanford's campus) had a small stroke when this list came out recently. I'm also guessing that nobody asked the Lone Ranger if he objected to the word "masked" as a substitute.
There are a couple of good laughs on the Stanford approved words list (which took 18 months to complete).
Behold the school’s Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative.
www.wsj.com
Sorry for the OT. Now back to our regular programming......