Not Mentioned In Dispatches

"I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God." President George H. W. Bush

CARDIGAN - James Thomas Brudnell, 7th Earl of Cardigan (1797-1868), British cavalry officer.
FUCHSIA - Leonard Fuchs (1501-1566), German botanist.
POINSETTIA - Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779-1851), U. S. minister to Mexico
Taken from Some Names That Became Words: this list consists of widely-used words which are not obviously named for people.
Look here for a comprehensive listing of scientific units of measurement.

(via del.icio.us)

The CRM114 Discriminator - The Controllable Regex Mutilator - is a well-known/liked spam filter with multi-platform support.

The communication device in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film "Dr Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" is called CRM114.

BTW ... the character Lt. Lothar Zogg was played by Earl Ray Jones in his first acknowledged film.

In Japan, a ring tone promises women to give them a lift in the chest department.

Shukan Gendai, a counsellor who became famous for deprogramming brainwashed members of the AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult, believes that the correct ring tone can subliminally increase the breast measurements of anyone who listens to it. The tune has already had more than 100,000 hits at 300 yen a pop since Tomabechi put on a web site. Link

But does it work?

A 19-year-old model is quoted as saying that she listened to the tune for a week and her “87-centimeter bust grew to 89 centimeters! It was awesome!” In case you were wondering whether or not there’s a market, there were 10,000-plus downloads of the tune in the first week alone. Link

(Is anyone else wondering whether, if a woman had limited hearing in one ear and played this tune, she might become mammarily unbalanced? OK, you're right. It's just me.)

The following dilemma is tormenting petite anglaise, an English 30-something living in Paris : should she teach her daughter animal noises in English or in French? It is a tricky issue, although I'm sure the little girl will grow up to be bilingual and will converse with French and English-speaking animals alike without any problem.

This difference in onomatopoeias according to languages illustrates perfectly the fact that language shapes our understanding of the world. Same animals, same noises, but we hear them differently.

example: a dog in Francais is ouah! ouah! (wah! wah!) and in English is woof! woof!

Link with some examples

(from Naked Translations via del.icio.us)

An advertisement in a recent issue of 'New Scientist' states: "The Health Protection Agency is dedicated to protecting people's health."
From World Wide Words.

"what goes up must come down"

(taken from The Historical Development of the Meep)

btw ... "meeping" has two effects - it alerts the computer that the user is also confused so that it will do it's best to be helpful, and it allows the user to acknowldge that there is a problem.

"Don't use a big word where a diminutive one will suffice." Unknown

Tergiversation : (noun)
1: falsification by means of vague or ambiguous language [syn: equivocation]
2: the act of abandoning a party or cause [syn: apostasy]
Link

This site tracks whether famous people are still alive or whether they have passed away. Link

Steal some of these similes for your next speech

You know them, you love them...but you don't know ALL of them. Here are some great ways of talking about masturbation without actually saying masturbation. Some are funny. Some are strange. But hey, aside from performing the act itself, reading this list is about the most entertaining thing you'll do today.
Euphemisms for Male Masturbation

Truck maker Navistar will sell a giant pickup that dwarfs the Hummer and the F-350. The new CXT -- short for commercial extreme truck -- is built from the same platform as the heavy-truck maker's typical tow truck or cement mixer.

At 258 inches, or 21-1/2 feet long, the CXT is about 4-1/2 feet longer than the new Hummer H2 pickup, and about 2 inches longer than the F-350 Crew Cab. At 108 inches, or 9 feet, the CXT stands only a foot below a basketball rim and more than two feet above the Hummer or the F-350.
Link

People will sell anything on eBay!!

A book ("One Hundred Strokes Of The Brush Before Bed") about the lustful experiences of a 15-year-old Italian girl went on sale in Britain recently. Melissa Panarello's graphic story has sold 1.5million copies worldwide - knocking Harry Potter off the top of the best-seller list in her native Italy. Link

A woman walks into a Cocktail Bar. She says to the Barman, "I'll have a Double Entendre please." So he gives her one.

Proposed changes to Salt Lake City's aviation rules have left residents bemused. In a bid to be more 'professional' the department of airports has removed Santa Claus's exemption from minimum altitude rules. Link
(via del.icio.us)

Those who dedicate their professional lives to idleness should do so with discretion if they hope to keep their jobs. This is one useful message in Hello Laziness - The Art and the Importance of Doing the Least Possible at the Workplace, an anarchic anti-business bible published in France.

It is advice the author, Corinne Maier, a senior economist at Electricité de France, failed to follow. She faces a disciplinary hearing next month, accused of attempting to "rot the system from within".

The book, Bonjour Paresse (a nod to Françoise Sagan's 50s novel, Bonjour Tristesse or Hello Sadness), pledges to explain why it is in your interest to do the least work possible and will tell you how to damage the system from within "without appearing to do so".

Link

British teenager spoofs emergency-preparedness website, gets into trouble.

From spoof introduction

In an effort to worry the public and convince them to vote for us again next year, and because George Bush asked us to, this website includes the common sense advice found in the Preparing for Emergencies booklet, and information on what the government is doing to protect the country as a whole. (Hint: we're praying really, really hard.) National editions of the booklet will be available here when we can be arsed to get translators to put them into your crazy moon languages.

Link to UK Govt site

n. A self-taught person.
[From Greek autodidaktos, self-taught : auto-, auto- + didaktos, taught; see didactic.]
(via Gauteng Blog)