December 2010
16 posts
Verizon on today’s FCC vote:
There is no doubt that the policies put in place by the Clinton Administration and the Bush Administration to jumpstart innovation and the spread of broadband worked. As a result, America’s broadband and Internet marketplace is intensely competitive and an engine of economic growth, job creation and multibillion-dollar investment. Today’s decision, however,...
Free Idea: Reputation-based Banning
In any publicly-accessible forum, spam and trolling are a huge issue, consuming most administrator-hours and requiring a larger staff than would otherwise be required to run a large site. In comparison, sites that charge for admission, and sites that cannot be joined without an invitation have close to no administration overhead beyond maintaining the code, servers, and resetting forgotten...
“My point being, I’m saying God doesn’t exist. I’m not saying faith doesn’t...”
– Ricky Gervais via h3h
Word of the day:
tat 1 |tat| |tøt| |tat| verb ( tat•ted |tødəd|, tat•ting |tødɪŋ|) [ trans. ] make (a decorative mat or edging) by tying knots in thread and using a small shuttle to form lace. ORIGIN late 19th cent.: back-formation from tatting .
via my mother again, the crossword champion.
Word of the day:
an•ti•ma•cas•sar |ˌantēməˈkasər| |ˌˈøn(t)iməˌkøsər| |ˌˈøn(t)əməˌkøsər| |ˈantɪməˌkasə| noun chiefly historical a piece of cloth put over the back of a chair to protect it from grease and dirt or as an ornament. ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from anti- + Macassar .
via my mother, to the disbelief of the rest of us…
Word of the day:
shil•le•lagh | sh əˈlālē| |ʃəˌleɪli| |ʃɪˌleɪlə| |-li| noun a thick stick of blackthorn or oak used in Ireland, typically as a weapon. ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from the name of the town Shillelagh, in County Wicklow, Ireland.
via Paulymer, who was reminded of Beyond Zork by hurdy-gurdy
Word of the day:
hur•dy-gur•dy |ˈhərdē ˌgərdē| |ˌˈhərdi ˌˈgərdi| |ˌhəːdɪˈgəːdi| noun ( pl. -dies) a musical instrument with a droning sound played by turning a handle, which is typically attached to a rosined wheel sounding a series of drone strings, with keys worked by the left hand. • informal a barrel organ. ORIGIN mid 18th cent.: probably imitative of the sound of the instrument.
via darth_mall
Words of the day:
ben•thos |ˈbenˌθäs| |ˌbɛnˈθɑs| |ˌbɛnθɒs| noun Ecology the flora and fauna found on the bottom, or in the bottom sediments, of a sea, lake, or other body of water. DERIVATIVES ben•thic |-θik| |ˌbɛnθɪk| adjective ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from Greek, ‘depth of the sea.’
lim•nol•o•gy |limˈnäləjē| |lɪmˌnɑlədʒi| |lɪmˌnɒlədʒi| noun the study of the biological, chemical, and physical features of...
WatchMilami went in for photorefractive keratectomy today and I got to watch the operation armed with my still camera.
the robocam used for targeting by the eye laser software also records the whole thing to DVD, here for your pleasure.
local anesthetic is applied at the beginning of the operation, and the epithelium is dissolved/removed/wiped with a substance swabbed onto the eye. the eye is...
