gwax’s rumblings

I have just discovered that there is, not only, a name for the combination of the interrogative point (question mark) and the exclamation point but also a typographical symbol. The Interrobang is this combination and can be represented as ‘?!’, ‘!?’ or ‘‽’. In the past, I have used ‘?!’ because I felt that it provided an appropriate representation of questioning and excited emphasis; I prefer the exclamation after as it is the question that is being emphasized, not the emphasis being questioned. Now, however, the single typographical character provides me the opportunity to concisely express, in writing, simultaneous inquiry and surprise.

Unfortunately, although available in unicode, many fonts do not have ‘‽’ and there is no easy character combination that will lead to it.

In the world of HTML, you can often get away with ‽

In spite of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, four Soviet states still exist today. Although none of the four states have obtained international recognition and have all been disavowed by Moscow, they are all de facto independent states.

Transnistria, a.k.a. Trans-Dniester or Pridnestrovie, exists within the international recognized borders of Moldova. Transnistria currently exists in a state of civil war with the rest of Moldova and is bordered by the Dniester River on the west and the Ukraine on the east.

Nagorno-Karabakh exists in the South Caucasus region of Azerbaijan. Unlike Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh has been participating in peace talks with both Azerbaijan and Armenia, never having escalated into open warfare.

The final two Soviet states, Abkhazia and South Ossetia exist within the borders of Georgia. There has been open warfare between Georgia and both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

I want to share with you a term that my good friend Riad–whom you might also know as Weebles–recently chimerized out of the various holidays that pop up around this time of year. The term is Chrishanukkwanzaastice and I am of the opinion that it deserves a place with those other hallowed holidays (Hanukkah, Crimbo, Kwanzaa, Festivus, Solstice, Christmas, Saturnalia and the like). Anyway, I wanted to share the new holiday with you and thank Weebles for his truly enlightened skills of derivation.

Merry Chrishanukkwanzaastice to all!

A long while ago, I read about the concept of a caffeine nap and then promptly didn’t give it another thought. Today, however, I revisited the topic inadvertently. Finding myself rather tired from last night’s minimal quantity of sleep, I was waiting from about 1:30 for my 2:30 class and falling asleep. I had, in my possession, a mostly full bottle of Vault Zero, and by 2:00 my ability to keep my eyes open had approached nil. Thinking that I might as well try to take a 15-20 minute power nap, I vaguely recalled what I had read long ago and decided that I might as well pound the remainder of my beverage before my nap. Surprisingly, I found the caffeine nap to be dramatically more effective than any other 15-20 minute nap that I’ve ever taken. I may just have to consider the option of caffeine naps more seriously in the future.

Muckrunner and tortfeasor are currently my two favorite words (though one isn’t really a word). Tortfeasor is a genuine and real word, muckrunner is a compound word derived from a misinterpretation of a homophone. So as to allow you to enjoy your expanded vocabularies, I present, without further ado, the definition and derivation of tortfeasor and muckrunner (respectively):

Tortfeasor : One who has committed a tort. For those that don’t know, a tort is a civil wrong that is not a breach of contract or, in other words, those things that people sue each other for all the time. Thus, a tortfeasor is someone who has wronged someone else in a non-breach of contract sort of way. Mostly though, it just sounds really neat.

Muckrunner : Derived from the term running amok, which is sometimes written running amuck. Running amok is to act in a violent, murderous frenzy and can be considered roughly synonymous with going postal or killing spree. Based on running amuck sounding an awful lot like running a muck, I figured that one who runs a muck might be a muckrunner and thus the derivation is obtained. When, however, one drops the original meaning of running amok, a muckrunner can become a totally different thing entirely. Imagine, if you will, a man driving an old rusty pickup truck filled to the brim with some indescribable muck; now, further imagine this man driving down old dirt roads in a breakneck, Dukes of Hazzard style much like the prohibition era smugglers. Although muckrunner is an improper derivation of running amok, I find it to be a wonderfully amusing construct.

Avast, me hearties! In case ye land lubbers have forgot, today, September 19th, be International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Enjoy yer day, drink plenty o’ grog and get ye some good wenching while it still be today. Yarrrgh!

If you are using a Mozilla based browser (such as Firefox), check out The Book of Mozilla. If not using a Mozilla based browser, don’t bother (though you might consider getting Firefox because it’s a fantastic browser).

In reading the Articles of Confederation for my Constitutional Law class, I came across an interesting little tidbit in Article XI, which reads as follows:

Article XI.Canada acceding to this confederation, and adjoining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this Union; but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States.

Basically the United States was explicitly saying that United States would accept Canada as a new state if Canada wanted to join the United States. This in and of itself is kind of cute but added to another thought experiment it becomes even more amusing. In my Constitutional Law class we have been discussing whether or not the Constitution was validly adopted based on the matter that the means in which it was adopted were in violation of the, then in effect, Articles of Confederation. If the Constitution were to have been illegally adopted then it would follow that the Articles of Confederation are still valid to this day. Between all these facts we have the situation that it could be argued, with some validity, that Canada has the right to join the United States to this day and that all Canada would need to do would be to say they wanted in.

It has come to my attention that the endangered Tree Octopus of the Pacific Northwest is suffering through even tougher times than it has in the past and I have decided to join the effort to preserve this unique species. Normally, I’m too lazy to bother being proactive in regards to the environment but things have gone too far with regards to the Tree Octopus. Admittedly, I’m quite a fan of cephalopods but nonetheless, we are doing a very poor job as dominant species here; we have a responsibility to the environment and we cannot allow such a unique and important creature to go extinct.

For more information on organized attempts to preserve the Pacific Northwest Tree Ocopus, see the official preservation site. For more general cephalopod information, I recommend this blog devoted to cephalopods.

01:02:03 04/05/06 has just passed by us here in EDT

I also got the chance to realize that all of my Linux computers were set to EST instead of EST5EDT (grumble, grumble).

The internet has provided me with proof that the Japanese are super-humans who are going to take over the world. Just look at how they fold shirts, peel potatoes and do everything else. Seriously, I watched the shirt folding video at least five times and was still left completely agog.

Anyone that’s driven between Carlisle and Chelmsford more than a few times should be well aware of Jesus Cat and I am happy to report that he still exists. I have driven the Chelmsford-Carlisle route a number of times recently but had not seen Jesus Cat, which had left me concerned that he had departed this world, but on a return trip from Chelmsford tonight, I spotted him; long live Jesus Cat.

For those that are unaware, Jesus Cat is a plush cat that has been crucified to a telephone pole. I consider Jesus Cat to be a staple of the Carlisle experience as he’s been there since before the first time I ever drove to Chelmsford (so at least 6 years).

I just fixed some problems with the code at work, mentioned so doing to someone I was intermittently chatting with on AIM and received a response along the lines of, “give yourself a cookie”. I was about to respond that I don’t have any cookies when someone walked into my cubicle and offered me a cookie; that folks, is synchronicity.

Way back in nineteen-aught-nine (1909)–ah those were the good old days–a Russian man by the name of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii developed a technique for taking color photographs with black and white film. The technique, which you can read more about at Damn Interesting involved taking three different photos using three different color filters; it’s a pretty clever technique and was pretty revolutionary for the time. Tzar Nicky (Nicholas II) liked the color photos and when Sergei proposed documenting the Russian Empire in color photos, Nicky hopped right on board with financial support. In 1948, the US LOC bought all of Sergei’s negatives from his heirs and in 1998 they used fancy digital imaging techniques to recompose the color images in fantastically high quality. The LOC has put a number of these restored images in an online gallery and more can be found at the Russian Record. Ah, good ol’ Mother Russia, she sure did some keen stuff back in the day (he he, Sputnik).

It turns out the US Navy has been training dolphins to help protect ships and kill terrorists. That the military has been doing this is news to me and I think it’s incredibly keen, albeit ethically questionable. On top of the keenness of trained dolphins, apparently some of the dolphins have been outfitted with toxic dart guns; how metal is that? Now, you might be asking where the lambs come into this whole thing, and to get into that we need to ask where the Navy’s been doing this research? Turns out the research was being done in good old Southern Louisiana. What with all that Hurricane Katrina stuff going on down there, there’s some concern that some of the armed dolphins might have escaped and might accidentally shoot unsuspecting divers and surfers. Escaped military dolphins with toxic dart guns; this is almost as good as “sharks with friggin’ laser beams on their heads”.

The joys of work have presented me the opportunity to discover the wonders of plastic. These are two photos of a plastic shipping air bag that I skewered with all the sharp writing implements I could find around the office. The bag managed to maintain its air pressure and ability to stay inflated even with all them pencils and that pen in it. I was quite surprised overall.

Last Tuesday my truck’s odometer read 33333 as it hit 133,333 miles (it has no hundred thousands digit) and I took a photo of it. Sure it probably wasn’t safe taking a photo of my dash while driving, but I’m ok and with 3 being my faorite number, it was worth the risk. I have included the photo for your pleasure, the thumbnail links to the full image. It would have been nice if I could have gotten 133,333.3, but there was too much glare and the photo didn’t come out. I’m pretty surprised at the quality my phone put out on this one and completely unsurprised that the photo 0.3 miles later didn’t turn out at all.

Also the post title is a Final Fantasy VII reference.

Avast, me hearties! Fer ye that do not know, today, September 19th, be International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Enjoy the day whilst ye can, fer she be but once per year. Yarrr!

That the United States, at one time, had an Emperor has recently come to my attention. I find it rather interesting that history books tend to neglect the reign of Emperor Norton I when recounting American History. The more I read about this man, the more exceptional he is, truly a great American and a patriot. I can honestly say, with great conviction that Emperor Norton I is one of my personal heroes.

It’s possible; think about it.

There are lots of reasons why a married couple might fail to conceive children: sterility, bad luck, bad genes, not knowing what sex is, you know, the usual.

Obligatory quote to draw the reader into following the link: ‘A clinic spokesman said: “When we asked them how often they had had sex, they looked blank, and said: “What do you mean?”.’

Those wacky Germans.

Sweet son of a monkey! I just realized that it’s April Fool’s Day. I have to do something.