CONTENTS FEATURE: ''Ground Zero' and "9/11" terms are insolent SPOTLIGHT: EditPros clients in the news WELCOME: The newest EditPros client NET NOTES: Captivating web sites FEATURE: 'Ground Zero' and '9/11' nicknames are disrespectful      Americans have an affinity for nicknames. Baseball player George Herman Ruth was "the Babe." President Richard Nixon was "Tricky Dick." Singer Eleanor "Billie" Holiday was "Lady Day." Actor Humphrey Bogart was "Bogey."      Many popular nicknames and other abbreviations these days are numerically oriented—perhaps a reflection of the prevalence of digital technology. Pro basketball player Dennis Scott acquired the nickname 3-D for his shooting accomplishment. Tough anticrime legislation is called "Three Strikes." The neurotransmitter compound serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) is known as "5-HT." President George W. Bush is nicknamed "43" because he is the 43rd president.      While catchy nicknames are acceptable for entertainment and political figures, they are deplorable for tragedies. Two objectionable nicknames in current circulation are "9/11" and "Ground Zero." Used in reference to the depraved acts of Sept. 11, 2001, both are insolent because they trivialize the attacks and dishonor their victims.      News reporters and talk show hosts almost immediately seized upon the coincidental relationship between the "911" emergency telephone code and the numerical shorthand for the date, labeling the day and the atrocity itself "9/11". Besides diluting the existing meaning of "911," the date reference is ambiguous because in European nations, that numerical sequence actually denotes the ninth of November.      News periodicals presumptuously dubbed the World Trade Center site "Ground Zero"—capitalizing it as if it were a formal name—in disregard of etymology. "Ground zero" is the standard technical term for the point on the ground directly above which a nuclear bomb is detonated.      The original use of the term "ground zero" occurred at the Trinity test site in Alamogordo, N.M., where on July 16, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb was detonated atop a tower that was marked as "zero" on maps used by officials engineering the test.      A blast wave of extremely hot, highly propelled gases radiates outward from a nuclear explosion, creating destruction in its path. The blast wave's percussive force is calculated in relation to the lateral distance from the "ground zero" map coordinates.      The horrendous explosion of the jet fuel from the two commercial planes that crashed into the World Trade Center towers created an inferno that caused structural collapse of the two towers. Yes, clouds of granulated glass, metal and other debris were propelled through the streets of Manhattan's Financial District, and immediately neighboring buildings were damaged or destroyed by the heat from the World Trade Center. However, unlike a nuclear detonation, the collapse of the towers did not create widespread damage more distant than a few blocks. The destruction was concentrated at the 16-acre World Trade Center site and immediate vicinity.      Dictionaries say that "ground zero" also can refer to a starting point, synonymous with the concept of returning to "square one." That sense of the word might be defensible if it had come into use today, a year following the disaster, in connection with determination of what to build on the site now. But a new start clearly was not on the minds of those courageous, desperate people who were crawling furiously through the smoking rubble in search of burned survivors, bodies and body parts. The people who worked in or were visiting the buildings the morning they were struck by aircraft were not at "Ground Zero." They were at the World Trade Center.      Furthermore, "Ground Zero" has been used to describe only the site of the World Trade Center. What of the airliner on which intrepid passengers thwarted another attack on a population center by wrestling control of the aircraft from the hijackers and diving the plane into a field in Pennsylvania? What of the victims of the airliner crash at the Pentagon? Referring to the World Trade Center as "Ground Zero" denigrates the bravery, sacrifices and suffering connected with those other two crashes. The "Ground Zero" concept simply does not apply to the attacks of Sept. 11.      The news media have a bad habit of concocting and perpetuating nonsensical nicknames. Following the June 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., news sources and reporters alike appropriated "gate" as a suffix, attaching it to any available noun involving abuse of power or cover-ups. Journalists dutifully reported on Irangate, travelgate, nannygate, Contragate, winegate, troopergate, fornigate and Monicagate. Such terms reveal ignorance of the derivation of the originating term Watergate, which was merely the name of a hotel-apartment-office complex--that's all.      People have never spoken of "6/6" or 7/4" or "12/7." We know them respectively as D-Day, when Allied Forces stormed the beach at Normandy, France; Independence Day; and the date of the attack at Pearl Harbor.      Calling the World Trade Center site "Ground Zero" labels it no more than a target and legitimates the sinister plan executed by the genocidal hijackers. Sounding like a name for a quickie mart, the euphemistic shorthand "9/11" is utterly disrespectful.      People contemplating a memorial at the World Trade Center site consider it hallowed ground. Our daily speech and writing ought to reflect the dignity the site deserves. SPOTLIGHT: EditPros clients in the news Separate gifts from winemaker and brewery to help fund new dairy research facility      Dairy food science will benefit as a result of the philanthropy of one of California's most renowned wine-producing families, as well as a gift from a leading brewer of beer.      Robert Mondavi, patriarch of the winery that bears his name, and his wife Margrit have contributed $25 million to the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Davis. Their gift will be used to establish a Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science.      The couple made an additional donation of $10 million to name the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, the campus's celebrated new performing arts facility, construction of which is nearing completion. The combined gift is the largest private contribution in the history of UC Davis.      The Robert Mondavi Institute will include an academic building incorporating classrooms, laboratories, offices and meeting rooms. The Mondavi donation will enable the campus to relocate the departments of viticulture and enology and food science and technology from aging buildings into a new state-of-the-art research and teaching facility. Construction costs for the building are expected to total about $55 million.      The Mondavi gift includes $5 million for construction of a new 16,000-square-foot food science laboratory. On July 31, the Anheuser-Busch Foundation announced its pledge of $5 million in matching funds to support construction of the laboratory. The UC Davis campus will conduct a fund-raising campaign for the additional $10 million needed to complete the laboratory building, which will be named the Anheuser-Busch Brewing and Food Science Laboratory.      A third building in the institute complex will be a 46,000-square-foot teaching and research winery. The academic building will be funded by $20 million from the Mondavi gift, $1.8 million in campus funds, and a hefty portion of state support. In November, California voters will be asked to approve a ballot measure that would commit $35 million in state funds to the project.      A faculty committee already has begun planning the organizational structure and academic missions of the Robert Mondavi Institute. The committee members are soliciting suggestions from food and wine industry members. Industry representatives working closely with campus academic departments include Joseph O'Donnell, executive director of the California Dairy Research Foundation (CDRF), an EditPros client. O'Donnell is a participant in the Department of Food Science and Technology's Industry Advisory Council (IAC).      "The new academic building will have research labs for food and wine science unsurpassed in the world. These facilities will enable dairy food science research in chemistry, microbiology, engineering, packaging and sensory areas that will meet the challenges of the future," said Professor John Krochta, who holds the Peter J. Shields Endowed Chair of Dairy Food Science in the university's Department of Food Science and Technology. "Also being planned is an advanced food processing facility with capability for enhancing our research in the functional properties and utilization of milk components. Although some limited University of California funding for the advanced food processing facility has been identified, we must rely mainly on funding from the private sector for building and equipping the facility." We proudly welcome the newest EditPros client FamiliesFirst Inc. Davis, Calif. (530) 753-0220 Web: http://www.familiesfirstinc.org FamiliesFirst Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping troubled families and children through support and treatment services. FamiliesFirst coordinates foster care and adoption services, offers counseling to parents, therapeutic treatment to behaviorally challenging children and teenagers, and shelter for children and teens who are unable to live with their families. The agency maintains a nursery that gives children up to the age of 5 a temporary safe haven during times of turmoil; it operates a school with a curriculum that combines academic rigor and therapeutic treatment to prepare students for re-entry into public schools; and it assists emancipating young adults to help them make the transition from foster care to independence. Established in 1974 in Davis, FamiliesFirst operates programs in 10 Northern and Central California cities. Net Notes: Captivating Internet resources Hieros Gamos Law and Legal Research Center http://www.hg.org/      Research U.S. and international laws, including those for specific areas of practice, at this law firm directory service. Content of the site is available in French, German, Italian and Spanish as well as English. You also can identify law firms, mediators and arbitrators, private investigators and expert legal consultants using this site, which is operated by HGE.org, Inc. in Houston, Texas. Pharma-Lexicon pharmaceutical acronyms http://www.pharma-Lexicon.com/      If you're ever baffled by acronyms and abbreviations used in medications, you want to know the manufacturer of a particular pharmaceutical product, or you want to know the generic equivalent of a brand-name medication, you'll find the answers at no charge on this Web site. It includes a database of 56,000 acronyms used in the fields of medicine, pharmacology, biotechnology, and the agrochemical industry. A search for the meaning of "PRN," for example, generated six definitions, including "as needed (pro re nata)." Information about medications includes descriptions, typical dosages, uses, potential side effects and warnings. Pharma-Lexicon is based in Hastings, East Sussex, in the United Kingdom. 100 Top Science Sites http://www.100topsciencesites.com/      Whether or not you're a science buff, you'll find this site useful. It lists links to museums, trade and consumer magazines, software developers, natural resources, and even merchants of novel gadgets and gifts. Some of the sites are excellent resources for teachers and students. From here you'll find links to "top 100" lists for other subjects as well, including business, education, finance, government, sports and travel. Our thanks to Diane Fischler for notifying us about this site, which is operated by 100.com of Athens, Ga. YOUR TURN: Ask the "grammar coach" or subscribe      We invite you to submit your questions to the "grammar coach," and we welcome you to subscribe to this monthly newsletter—which we'll send to your e-mail address at no charge. We respond to all "grammar coach" questions personally, but delays may occur because we must place top priority on assignments from our clients. We appreciate your patience and your interest.      You also can change your e-mail subscription address. 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