Informatics Educational Institutions & Programs
– Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
– Garnet in Steven Universe
– katyj98
– Cunningham's Law
Blessed are the doubtful, for they shall not be easily deceived.
– Pseudocanonical beatitude
This user previously used another account: MrHumanPersonGuy. |
en | This user is a native speaker of the English language. |
incl | This user is an inclusionist. |
This user can and will ask stupid questions if needed. |
This user likes to watch Battle for Dream Island |
#WC | This user is a cunning linguist who can help you distinguish what is proper English. |
This user is autistic. |
What I've learned from the Reference desk
- March 2021: In one episode of the Animaniacs reboot, Yakko says "Croik misseur! Croik misseur! Croiks of all kinds!". What does he mean by "croik misseur"?
- He may have been referring to a dish called croque monsieur.
- May 2021: Why is the Babylon allegory from the Book of Revelation called the 5-letter W word that rhymes with chore?
- That word is a translation of the Greek word πόρνη (pornē) which means prostitute. It was also a figure of speech for an idolatress, and in the context of Revelation, Babylon is used as an allegory for Rome, which was considered the chief seat of idolatry.
- August 2021: How far back has something along the lines of "better forgiveness than permission" been said?
- The phrase "It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission." was popularized by Grace Hopper, though it goes at least as far back as 1846 with an unclear reference to Francesco Barberini.
- January 2023: What does I like your cut g mean?
- Cut means haircut and g is short for gangster, though this particular phrase could be a variation of the older saying "I like the cut of your jib".
- April 2023: What's with the extremely long YouTube comments that start off with something like "I'm currently crying so hard right now"?
- Each comment of this sort may have have been the work of a bot or program.
- June 2023: My mouse sometimes treats one click as a double-click. As it turns out, my mouse button occasionally fails to hold for split-seconds unless I press down on it hard. Why does it act this way?[a]
- This is often caused by dirt getting in the way of the actuator. If it bothers you, you may as well buy a new mouse or, if you use Windows, try something called AutoHotkey.
- September 2023: What does chille tid mean?
- Chilletid is a Danish and Norwegian Bokmål word that roughly translates to "chilling time". It's also a play on the phrase "chill a tad".
- November 2023: What is this "I know what you want girl" song that is being used in videos of a certain type?
- "all i want is you" by Rebzyyx
Reading is fun
Favorite pages and sections (besides the ones on other lists)
- Air quality index
- Australian Classification Board
- Beaufort scale
- Chronology of computation of π
- Enhanced Fujita scale
- Entertainment Software Rating Board § Ratings
- DEFCON
- Detailed logarithmic timeline
- Generations of warfare
- Geologic time scale
- Graphical timeline from Big Bang to Heat Death
- Graphical timeline of the Big Bang
- Graphical timeline of the Stelliferous Era
- History of British film certificates
- History of video game consoles
- List of color palettes
- Mega-City One § History
- Motion Picture Association film rating system
- Motion picture content rating system
- NFPA 704
- Richter scale § Richter magnitudes
- Strauss–Howe generational theory
- Television content rating system
- Television news screen layout
- Territorial evolution of the United States
- Timeline of geopolitical changes (formerly a single article titled List of world map changes)
- Timeline of national flags
- Timeline of Star Trek
- Timeline of the far future
- Timeline of U.S. state and territory flags
- TV Parental Guidelines
- Video game content rating system
Obscure topics that seem interesting
- Angalo – Really huge giant in the folklore of the Philippines' Ilocos region.
- Asphodel Meadows – A place that a deceased soul goes to if they aren't evil enough for Tartarus yet not quite heroic enough for Elysium.
- Biringan – City reportedly situated on the Philippine island of Samar according to a local urban legend.
- Combined approval voting – Upvotes minus downvotes.
- Daemones Ceramici – Evil spirits that bothered potters.
- Edison's Conquest of Mars – Early knockoff of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds.
- Engkanto – Shapeshifting beings in the folklore of the Philippines that can turn into humans without philtrums.
- Florence meridian – Proposed Italian alternative to the prime meridian.
- Gigantomania – When civilizations feel like building large structures.
- L'esprit de l'escalier – Have you ever come up with a good idea that you wish you had thought of earlier because it's too late to act on it now?
- Les Xipéhuz – A 19th-century book about sentient shapeshifting crystals which has nothing to do with an animated TV show about sentient shapeshifting crystals.
- Micromégas – Earth is visited by space giants.
- MS Fnd in a Lbry – Civilization ends up producing more information than it can make room for.
- Neoplorgismanteau – A new play on words.
- Onfim – Even over the course of 800 years, students are still students.
- Parable of the broken window – When someone tries to break things in order to make money for repairs, that leaves customers with less money to spend on other things.
- Patufet – Catalan folk character said to be the size of a grain of rice.
- Republic of Letters – Correspondence between Enlightenment-era intellectuals.
- Sandmännchen – With over 22,000 episodes, this is the most prolific TV show by a long shot.
- The Consonants at Law - Sigma vs. Tau, in the Court of the Seven Vowels – The letter S sues the letter T.
- Titivillus – Demon that gathers gaffes and causes writers to make typos.
- Tokoloshe – Mythical creature blamed for killing people who slept on the ground before carbon monoxide from fire was identified as the true culprit.
- Ṭūbā – A tree so huge that it would take a camel 100 years to travel across its shadow.
- Walden Two – Book about a strange society that operates on the premise that behavior is shaped by the environment.
- Zhao Gao – Prefect who presented a quadruped to the emperor and sought to muzzle naysayers who openly disputed its equine status.
Wacky facts I've found
- Ganesha in world religions § In Thailand
- He is honoured with Motaka, sweets and fruit, when business is good, and he is made ridiculous by putting his picture or statue upside down, when business is down.
- Islam and magic § Iran
- In Iran in 2011, 25 advisers and aides of the then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei were arrested on charges of practising sorcery and black magic. According to "the top sorcerer among Iran's ruling elite" (top "according to associates clients and government officials"), Ahmadinejad met with him "at least twice" (Ahmadinejad denies the charges), and was just one among "dozens" of high Iranian government officials" who consult him on "matters of national security". The "top" sorcerer (claims to) regularly contact Jinn who "work for Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad, and for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency", and has had 'a long battle to infiltrate the Israeli jinn and find out what they know.'" The sorcerer also claimed that not only did jinn work for the US and Israel, but that some were being used by him "to infiltrate" Israeli and U.S. intelligence agencies.
- Maji Maji Rebellion § Uprising
- A spirit medium named Kinjikitile Ngwale, who practiced folk Islam that incorporated animist beliefs, claimed to be possessed by a snake spirit called Hongo. Ngwale began calling himself Bokero and developed a belief that the people of East Africa had been called upon to eliminate the Germans. German anthropologists recorded that he gave his followers war medicine that would turn German bullets into water. This "war medicine" was in fact water (maji in Kiswahili) mixed with castor oil and millet seeds. Empowered with this new liquid, Bokero's followers began what would become known as the Maji Maji Rebellion.
- ...
- German troops, armed with machine guns, departed from Mahenge to the Ngoni camp, which they attacked on 21 October. The Ngoni soldiers retreated, throwing away their bottles of war medicine and crying, "The maji is a lie!"
- A spirit medium named Kinjikitile Ngwale, who practiced folk Islam that incorporated animist beliefs, claimed to be possessed by a snake spirit called Hongo. Ngwale began calling himself Bokero and developed a belief that the people of East Africa had been called upon to eliminate the Germans. German anthropologists recorded that he gave his followers war medicine that would turn German bullets into water. This "war medicine" was in fact water (maji in Kiswahili) mixed with castor oil and millet seeds. Empowered with this new liquid, Bokero's followers began what would become known as the Maji Maji Rebellion.
- March on the Pentagon § Protest
- Not to be dissuaded, Abbie Hoffman vowed to levitate the Pentagon claiming he would attempt to use psychic energy to levitate the Pentagon until it would turn orange and begin to vibrate, at which time the war in Vietnam would end.
- Procrustes § Mythology
- There he had a bed, in which he invited every passer-by to spend the night, and where he set to work on them with his smith's hammer, to stretch them to fit. In later tellings, if the guest proved too tall, Procrustes would amputate the excess length; if the guest was too short Procrustes would stretch them until they died; nobody ever fit the bed exactly.
- Ryūjin § How the jellyfish lost its bones:
- One legend involving Ryūjin is the story about how the jellyfish lost its bones. According to this story, Ryūjin wanted to eat monkey's liver (in some versions of the story, to heal an incurable rash), and sent the jellyfish to get him a monkey. The monkey managed to sneak away from the jellyfish by telling him that he had put his liver in a jar in the forest and offered to go and get it. As the jellyfish came back and told Ryūjin what had happened, Ryūjin became so angry that he beat the jellyfish until its bones were crushed.
- The Nose (Gogol short story)
- "The Nose" is divided into three parts and tells the story of Collegiate Assessor ('Major') Kovalyov, who wakes up one morning without his nose. He later finds out that his nose has developed a life of its own, and has apparently surpassed him by attaining the rank of State Councillor.
- Unitary executive theory § King of Great Britain
- Invoking the king as an argument for expanded executive power was first made by the Supreme Court in Myers v. United States (1926), a decision delivered by Chief Justice William Howard Taft, a former president of the United States. Eric Nelson argued that some Founders wanted more checks on a president because unlike a hereditary monarch, their well-being was not as intrinsically tied to the nation.
- Ventriloquism § Origins
- The noises produced by the stomach were thought to be the voices of the unliving, who took up residence in the stomach of the ventriloquist. The ventriloquist would then interpret the sounds, as they were thought to be able to speak to the dead, as well as foretell the future.
- Footnote: This takes "my gut is telling me something" to another level.
Articles with ridiculously long titles
- Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds)
- Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphiokarabomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon
- The Modification and Instrumentation of a Famous Hornpipe as a Merry and Altogether Sincere Homage to Uncle Alfred
Even worse jokes and even more nonsense
Article titles with multiple meanings
- Batman's Hill: The place where Wayne Manor is situated. Apparently claimed by Captain John Lancey of the USS Enterprise.
- Cat-sìth: Jedi felines that are aligned with the dark side of the force.
- CP violation: Whoever is guilty of unleashing an unspeakable evil of this sort is no boy scout. They do things we can't even talk about.
- End SARS: A movement to eradicate another virus besides polio.
- Free streaming: The use of a video on demand service without having to pay for it.
- Inaccessible Island rail: A network of isolated train tracks on a remote island.
- Mafia Island: A small landmass that the mafia operates from.
- Marcius Turbo: A turbo-tastically fast garden snail who was
rangerprefect ofNewtopiathe Praetorian Guard as well as a close friendto Anne and Sashaand military advisor toKing Andreas. emperors Trajan and Hadrian - McDonald Chapel, Alabama: When Chick fil-A is closed, this is where Rev. Ronald McDonald gives his McSermons.
- Mesoamerican cosmovision: The counterpart to WandaVision.
- Lushootseed: Something pertaining to seed-shooting.
- Quintus Caecilius Redditus: Not to be confused with 4chanus or Discordus.
- Reverend Gadget: A bumbling cyborg pastor who is hired by Father Quimby to go on missions to prevent Dr. Claw from interfering with his church services. Crime never sleeps, not even on Sundays.
- Stop squark: Objects in motion
are closer than they appear. will stay in motion unless acted upon by a supersymmetric quark - The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782: A historical event portrayed in Captain Underpants and the Downward Demise of the Dastardly Duracells.
Article prose with multiple meanings I thought would be funny
- Air Force One photo op incident: Although the planes were engaged in a photo op and training exercise, the citizens of New York and New Jersey had not been informed in advance; some thought it could be the makings of a terrorist attack similar to the September 11 attacks. Some people ran out of buildings while others had extra buildings to spare. When all the buildings were used up, new ones had to be built to meet demand.
- Alliance Defending Freedom: In Sweden, a midwife, Ellinor Grimmark, sued the province of Jönköping for discrimination because she was refused employment when, citing "freedom of conscience", she refused to give morning-after pills, perform abortions, or put in copper IUDs. She lost both her hearing before the Discrimination Ombudsman, and at the Jönköping district court, prompting her to get a hearing aid and a sign language interpreter.
- Santa Claus: The Christmas issue of NOAA's Weather Bureau Topics with "Santa Claus" streaking across a weather radar screen, 1958
- I find it unbelievable that Santa would do such a thing, especially during the winter. Even if all the children are asleep, he should at least put some pants on before he gets on his sleigh, and definitely before going down any chimney. I know the baby Jesus is sometimes shown in his birthday suit, but that doesn't justify such naughty behavior. On the other hand, that would explain why Santa prefers to let kids see him at the mall rather than at their homes on the night before Christmas.
- Spurious wakeup:
In computing, a spurious wakeup occurs when a thread wakes up from waiting on a condition variable and finds that the condition is still unsatisfied. It is referred to as spurious because the thread has seemingly been awakened for no reason. Spurious wakeups usually happen because in between the time when the condition variable was signaled and when the awakened thread was finally able to run, another thread ran first and changed the condition again. In general, if multiple threads are awakened, the first one to run will find the condition satisfied, but the others may find the condition unsatisfied. In this way, there is a race condition between all the awakened threads. The first thread to run will win the race and find the condition satisfied, while the other threads will lose the race, and experience a spurious wakeup.
The problem of spurious wakeup can be exacerbated on multiprocessor systems. When several threads are waiting on a single condition variable, the system may decide to wake all threads up when it's signaled. The system treats everysignal( )
to wake one thread as abroadcast( )
to wake all of them, thus breaking any possibly expected 1:1 relationship between signals and wakeup. If ten threads are waiting, only one will win and the other nine will experience spurious wakeup.- If a thread fails to get the gold in a track and field competition, then it turns out to be a literal nightmare.
Unique jerryfoolery for April Fools
Sus
septunseptium
2023
At the Science reference desk, I asked for the abbreviation to the provisional name of a hypothetical element of atomic number 717 and got the answer I expected.
2024
In an effort to attempt to outdo myself, I started a joke RfC at the talk page for the lightbulb essay. However, a bunch of AfD ideas would come to me throughout the day, leading me to pretend to nominate these pages:
- Anyone who imagines the sun setting on the Empire is presumed to be a member of the rebel alliance and a traitor. In the event that the emperor starts training the constables to read minds and starts levying taxes on tinfoil and Faraday cage-like headgear, His Highnesty's subjects may have to learn to censor their mind's eye in order to avoid being caught.
- Objection I mean Keep: Articles aren't deleted because an editor declares them "exempt from inclusion" nor can anyone override consensus. This nomination is a blatant attempt at wikilawyering.
2025
- ^ When my mouse has this problem, I sometimes end up in an edit conflict with myself where it tells me that I'm trying to revert the edit I just made. On the other hand, this problem with holding clicks can be useful for grinding games (e.g. Cookie Clicker) where I would have to click the same thing over and over again, in which cases I would attempt to gently hold the button so I could effectively play a game more quietly.