One of the characters invents 'Unit Headline Language' (UHL) with constructs like 'Strike Threat Probe Row'. A key feature of the language is that you can arrange the units in many different ways and it makes as much - indeed as little - sense.
"UHL, Goldwasser quickly realised, was an ideal answer to the problem of making a story run from day to day in an automated paper. Say, for example, that the randomiser turned up
* STRIKE THREAT
By adding one unit at random to the formula each day the story could go:
* STRIKE THREAT BID * STRIKE THREAT PROBE * STRIKE THREAT PLEA
And so on. Or the units could be added cumulatively:
* STRIKE THREAT PLEA * STRIKE THREAT PLEA PROBE * STRIKE THREAT PLEA PROBE MOVE * STRIKE THREAT PLEA PROBE MOVE SHOCK * STRIKE THREAT PLEA PROBE MOVE SHOCK HOPE * STRIKE THREAT PLEA PROBE MOVE SHOCK HOPE STORM
Or the units could be used entirely at random:
* LEAK ROW LOOMS * TEST ROW LEAK ..."