inanition
MW10 says that inanition is (among other definitions) "the exhausted condition that results from lack of food and water." Useful word! Seems like the adjective form should be "inane" (as...
burka, hijab, niqab, chadri, etc
Nice post from last month at HotCoffeeMississippi about various names for Islam forms of modest dress, including all the ones in the title of this entry. The BBC provides a...
terroir
According to Wikipedia, "terroir" is "the special characteristics that geography bestow[s] upon particular varieties" of wine, coffee, and tea, based on "the assumption that the land [where] the grapes [or...
Typeface: Face recognition and generative type
Video demo of a nifty project called Typeface 2 by Mary Huang. It analyzes the user's face and generates letters of a typeface based on things like the user opening...
EDNOS
EDNOS turns out to be an acronym for Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. Which isn't at all unusual in itself, but I'm kind of amused by the idea that someone...
quango
Turns out that quango, also spelled qango, is an acronym for "quasi non-governmental organization" or "quasi-autonomous NGO." Looks like the term is fairly common in the UK and elsewhere, but...
Happy National Grammar Day!
It's National Grammar Day! Apparently created by the folks who brought us the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG). The National Grammar Day site initially looked annoyingly prescriptivist...
Punny names
An assortment of real-life British punny names, with more in the comments following the article. Including a couple that are so British I didn't get them. It took me a...
Best spam subject lines of late
As noted in my main blog, I've been clearing out my spam mailbox lately. Here are some of my favorite subject lines from spam messages I've seen recently. I'm especially...
Inadvertent smiley
Just saw this in a blog entry at alternet: One of the lawyers handling the case for the defendants (that is, defending the constitutionality of Prop. sent us a note...