October 2010
24 posts
2 tags
QWERTY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY
Their adjustments included placing the “R” key in the place previously allotted to the full stop, thus enabling salesmen to impress customers by pecking out the brand name “TYPE WRITER” from one keyboard row.
Does not so much fall into the category of “Cool Topics of Conversation to Hit on Someone at a Bar With.” But, to...
3 tags
Cat Flap
The invention of the cat flap is attributed to Isaac Newton.
Quite a pedigree, that.
September 2010
32 posts
2 tags
5 tags
Predicament Bondage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicament_bondage
This type of bondage is used in BDSM and power exchange play. A form of edge play, it puts the subject between “a rock and a hard place” in having to choose or alternate between the two positions, each of which carry their own pain.
…or you might say, between a cock and a hard place. HEYOOOOOOOO! Ed. Note: Pic is not relevant,...
4 tags
Skynet (Terminator)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_(Terminator)#Origin_and_Nature
Shortly afterward it gained sentience and the panicking operators, realizing the extent of its abilities, attempted to shut it down. Skynet perceived the attempt to deactivate it as an attack and came to the conclusion that all of humanity would attempt to destroy it. To defend itself, it came to one conclusion: Humanity must be...
3 tags
North American Man/Boy Love Association
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAMBLA
NAMBLA publications include: NAMBLA Bulletin, a quarterly publication sent to dues-paying members. In 1996 co-founder David Thorstad complained that, “The Bulletin is turning into a semi-pornographic jerk-off mag for pedophiles.” Other members insisted that the group only had a minority who were pedophiles, with the majority being pederasts.
...
1 tag
Dash
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash
Not to be confused with Hyphen.
OH GOD HAVE I BEEN USING THEM INTERCHANGEABLY ALL THIS TIME???!!?!?!
2 tags
Holiday Road
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiday_Road
The song was featured in the 1983 film National Lampoon’s Vacation and was played during the opening titles. The song was also used in the sequels National Lampoon’s European Vacation and Vegas Vacation.
Remember that song? (Listen) Turns out it’s by Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. Good to know, just in case it randomly pops...
4 tags
Inuit (Cultural History: Suicide, Murder, and...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit#Suicide.2C_murder.2C_and_death
Because they are of extreme value as the repository of knowledge, there are cultural taboos against sacrificing elders.
Oh. I guess I should stop encouraging my mom to retire in Alaska.
2 tags
Tables of Vampire Traits
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tables_of_vampire_traits
Jesus. I… I have no words.
The amount of effort that went into this is staggering. And I thought I waste my time on the internet…
My hat’s off to you, good Sir/Madame wiki author!
And yes, Count Chocula made the cut.
Attractiveness: “Comical” [citation needed]
3 tags
Refried Beans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refried_beans Refried means… fried? I FEEL CHEATED
4 tags
Petard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petard
The word petard comes from the Middle French peter, to break wind…The word remains in modern usage in the phrase hoist with one’s own petard, which means ‘to be harmed by one’s own plan to harm someone else’ or ‘to fall into one’s own trap,’ literally implying that one could be lifted up (hoist, or blown upward)...
4 tags
Keni Styles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keni_Styles
That thing that everyone always says about Asian guys and their equipment? It’s a myth.
3 tags
Roman à clef
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_%C3%A0_clef
…a novel describing real life, behind a façade of fiction.
Oh, ok, so it’s a more pretentious way of saying “satire.” I got it. *Ed. Note: Pic is Unrelated
3 tags
Karate Belts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karate_belts
This article does not cite any references or sources.
Oh. So that’s why it reads like a second-grader wrote it. White belt in style!
2 tags
Clan of the Cave Bear (Plot Summary)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clan_of_the_Cave_Bear
Ever get a cocky message from someone on one of those dating websites who references something obscure in their profiles along the lines of “Extra points if you know what _____ is… without Googling it! ;)” and then you Google it because really, that’s obnoxious, and then you find out it’s a character in a...
3 tags
Après-ski
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apr%C3%A8s-ski
“In the French language though, ‘après-ski’ refers to the boots you’re wearing after skiing, like Moonboots. The term may be fashionable amongt [sic] foreigners but French speaking people will not understand “après-ski” any other way than boots.”
Don’t drop your monocle in your latte.
3 tags
General Tso's Chicken (Name and Origins)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Tso%27s_chicken
“Moreover, descendants of General Tso still living in Xiangyin, when interviewed, say that they have never heard of such a dish.”
That would be Zuo Zongtang, renowned Chinese statesman and general who helped crush the Christian Taiping Rebellion (~1860). He also failed his official court exams seven times as a teenager.
See,...
2 tags
Hail Mary Pass (Reactions)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hail_Mary_pass#Reactions
The ball wasn’t the only thing getting thrown on the field that day.
3 tags
Anaïs Nin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana%C3%AFs_Nin
“In 1947, at the age of 44, she met and began living with Rupert Pole (1919–2006), sixteen years her junior. On March 17, 1955, she married him at Quartzsite, Arizona, returning with Pole to live in California.[8] Guiler remained in New York City and was unaware of Nin’s second marriage until after her death in 1977.”
Pioneer of...
4 tags
Handjob
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handjob
Well, now we can all rest assured with the knowledge that it’s one word, not two.
Trust me, this is important.
6 tags
Sacheen Littlefeather
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacheen_Littlefeather
Today I’m making a pledge to not accept an Oscar until the gay Native Americans can get married, too.
3 tags
Walt Whitman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman
“In the body of the text he calls himself ‘Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos, disorderly, fleshly, and sensual, no sentimentalist, no stander above men or women or apart from them, no more modest than immodest.’”
“Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman ‘America’s poet… He is...
3 tags
Lard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lard
Blackberry User/American Citizen: “All right, I’m reading about lard now, I’m grossed out, late-night happy hour’s over, I’m drunk, but I can’t afford to throw down for more beer… what do we do?”
Android User/British Citizen: [silence]
BU/AC: “Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?”
AU/BC: “Oh sorry, I was...
Oops...
Apologies for some “technical difficulties” and the updates you’ve been seeing from me in the past hour… I’m rolling out another site but need to work a few kinks out first. Stay tuned, it’s a good one!
4 tags
Hyena Butter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyena_butter
Thank you, butter Wikipedia article, for leading me to this gem of knowledge. My life is more…complete…now. Yes. Complete.
Don’t get me wrong, though. Hyena butter is no laughing matter.
——
What’s going on here?
Follow the rabbit trail!
——
3 tags
Butter (Storage and Cooking)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter#Storage_and_cooking
Butter also has many non-culinary, traditional uses which are specific to certain cultures. For instance, in North America, applying butter to the handle of a door is a common prank on April Fools’ Day.
Well, the article points out that covering butter delays rancidity, which is hastened by exposure to light, air, and heat....
6 tags
Fortune Cookie (Origin)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_cookie#Origin
“There is a common joke involving fortune cookies that involves appending “between the sheets” or “in bed” to the end of the fortune, usually creating a sexual innuendo or other bizarre messages (e.g., “Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall [in bed]”).”
...
2 tags
Bock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bock
Android User/British Citizen: “A bock’s not a Belgian.”
Blackberry User/American Citizen: “Sigh. Next things you tell me will be fortune cookies aren’t Chinese and butter doesn’t need to be refrigerated.”
AU/BC: “They’re not, and it doesn’t.”
BU/AC *facepalm*
——
BU should be...
3 tags
Triple Bock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Bock
Blackberry User/American Citizen: [slurring] “I don’t hold my liquor ‘cause it never holds me back!”
Android User/British Citizen: “Clever girl.”
BU/AC: “That reminds me, I drank all the rest of the Sam Adams I had at home. Sadness. You might knock it, but it gets the job done.”
AU/BC: “The...
3 tags
Anglicanism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglicanism
Blackberry User/American Citizen: “Anglicanism…” [suddenly unsure] “…Church of England?”
Android User/British Citizen: “I dunno, never heard of it. In England we just called it C of E.”
BU/AC: “I swear I learned about it in Catholic school religion class.”
AU/BC: “Oh, you Irish people...