Way back in 1999 I applied for a job as a statistician with a large Australian company I’ll call BigCo. If my application was successful I would be working closely with BigCo’s IT department so the chief information officer (CIO) interviewed me. She mentioned that BigCo IT had a mission to be what she called “a centre of excellence.” I thought that sounded pretentious.

My application failed - possibly because I mentioned that calling yourself a centre of excellence seemed pretentious. Not for the first time my big mouth cost me dearly. But perhaps it was just as well. BigCo shut down its IT department and outsourced its entire IT function two years later. Something about a project running 200% over budget with no end in sight.

Later I discovered the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE).

See: http://www.nice.org.uk/

NICE’s main function seems to be to act as gatekeeper for treatments the NHS will fund. A more accurate name might be the You’re Going to Die Because I Won’t Fund Your Treatment Institute (YGTDBIWFYTI) but I guess NICE sounds, well, “nicer.”

Someone has to do NICE’s job and perhaps they do it excellently.

Then a fortnight ago I received an invitation to attend a lunch time seminar hosted by the National Centre of Excellence in Islamic Studies (NCEIS) at Melbourne University.

See: http://www.nceis.unimelb.edu.au/

Are you beginning to see a pattern?

I googled NCEIS and came across this:

How to be a useful idiot: Saudi funding in Australia

See: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/32626.html

I think it reasonable to assume that anything the Saudi government considers excellent most Australians would consider awful.

Excellence seems to have become the most misused word in the English language. If you don’t believe me google “excellence” and see what comes up.

Can anyone come up either with more egregious uses of the world “excellence” or other examples of an English word that is consistently being misused?

“My application failed - possibly because I mentioned that calling yourself a centre of excellence seemed pretentious. Not for the first time my big mouth cost me dearly.”

Hence forth I am your biggest fan Steven. I am making pompoms you wonderful man.

“Can anyone come up either with more egregious uses of the world “excellence” or other examples of an English word that is consistently being misused?”

“Awesome” springs to mind – nothing truly is. Any world where the letters PCP now mean Post Consumer Product - sucks

allways good to hear from the jewel
[both of you]

excellence is a great word
for those who excel..at what they 'do'

i expecially love the timming of your new posts steven
[i heard on bbc last night that turkey navy is going to escort the convoy to palistein..

intersting timming eh what...armogeddon comming soon?]
but back to your topic

you mean them same darn peskey saudie arabs...
[that are blamed..what flew planes into the twin towers?]

that are usa's closest allie...
[in the semite middle east
next to [after]..israel?

yes its good to be cautious

but mate...
*statistics is an art..of selective spin

"nice" sounds so nice

much nicer..
and they got the research to prove it

but isnt it supposed to read nifce?..or knife for short?
National Institute *for Clinical Excellence..clinical sounds so..*clinical

anyhow as usual
when i see your topic
my mind says wonder what israel is up to today
[for reasons i have previously espoused]

so im off to read the latest at what really happend
this means when i click on that link..my web acces will again become compromised..via clever redirection by my server..that they somehow force into my computa..via some cookie or other clever stux like bug

but heck..this gaza flotilla
that could now get serious

even a clinical strike.. by our pals in israel
will be a declared an act of war...
par excellence?

[are we being too 'nice'?]

anyhow thanks for the heads up

i will visit what really happend..
to find out..what is really happening

play nice now guys

Here’s a sample of what I got when I googled with the words “centre” and “excellence” this morning.

http://www.cfecfw.asn.au/

http://www.cfenet.ubc.ca/

http://www.excellenceforchildandyouth.ca/

http://www.oce-ontario.org/Pages/Home.aspx

http://www.thecentreofexcellence.com/

"Excellence" seems to be multiplying! Soon the whole world will be engulfed in "excellence."

AND I SUPPOSE IT HAD TO HAPPEN.

The British Government, yes THAT British Government, has published a “how to” booklet in case you want to set up your own centre of excellence.

See:

http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/TheCentreOfExcellencePocketbook.pdf

Is the British government itself a “centre for excellence?” And if not why not? They claim to know how to do it.

JEWELY

this website contains a list of “1000 awesome things.”

http://1000awesomethings.com/

Now all we need is a centre for AWESOME excellence

Crisis.

Overheard outside the undergrad labs recently:

"Bill and Ted's Centre for Awesome Excellence"

Yes Way.

Rusty