February 15, 2020
A message in a bottle is a form of communication in which a message is sealed in a container (typically a bottle) and released into a conveyance medium (typically a body of water).
Messages in bottles have been used to send distress messages, in crowdsourced scientific studies of ocean currents, as memorial tributes, to send deceased loved ones’ ashes on a final journey, to convey expedition reports, and to carry letters or reports from those believing themselves to be doomed. Invitations to prospective pen pals and letters to actual or imagined love interests have also been sent as messages in bottles. Continue reading →
Posted in Language, Science, World |
Leave a Comment »
February 14, 2020
A mudlark is someone who scavenges in river mud for items of value, a term used especially to describe those who scavenged this way in London during the late 18th and 19th centuries.
Mudlarks would search the muddy shores of the River Thames at low tide for anything that could be sold; and sometimes, when occasion arose, pilfering from river traffic. By at least the late 18th century people dwelling near the river could scrape a subsistence living this way. Continue reading →
Posted in Money, World |
Leave a Comment »
February 10, 2020
A gentleman thief, gentleman burglar, lady thief, or phantom thief is a stock character in fiction. A gentleman or lady thief usually has inherited wealth and is characterized by impeccable manners, charm, courteousness, and the avoidance of physical force or intimidation to steal.
As such, they steal not only to gain material wealth but also for the thrill of the act itself, which is often combined in fiction with correcting a moral wrong, selecting wealthy targets, or stealing only particular rare or challenging objects. Continue reading →
Posted in Art, Money |
Leave a Comment »
February 8, 2020
Ratfucking is an American slang term for political sabotage or dirty tricks. It was brought to public attention by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their non-fiction book ‘All the President’s Men’ (1974).
Woodward and Bernstein’s exposé reports that many staffers who had attended the University of Southern California (‘USC’)—such as Donald Segretti, White House aide Tim Elbourne, Ronald Louis Ziegler, H. R. Haldeman, and Dwight Chapin—had participated in the highly competitive student elections there. Continue reading →
Posted in Politics |
Leave a Comment »
February 6, 2020
Chuck Taylor (1901 – 1969) was an American basketball player and basketball shoe salesman/product marketer who is best known for his association with the Chuck Taylor All-Stars, which he helped to improve and promote.
Most American basketball players wore Chuck Taylor All Stars between the mid-1920s and the 1970s, and the All Star was the official shoe of the Olympics team from 1936 to 1968. Continue reading →
Posted in Games, Money |
1 Comment »
February 3, 2020
A soundwalk is a walk with a focus on listening to the environment. The term was first used by members of the World Soundscape Project under the leadership of composer R. Murray Schafer in Vancouver in the 1970s.
Hildegard Westerkamp, from the same group of artists, defines soundwalking as ‘… any excursion whose main purpose is listening to the environment. It is exposing our ears to every sound around us no matter where we are.’ Continue reading →
Posted in Art, Health, Science |
1 Comment »
February 2, 2020
DJing is the act of playing existing recorded music for a live audience. The modern DJ’s role as a performer who creates a seamless and extended mix of music for a dance party or club atmosphere evolved from radio personalities who introduced and played individual selections of recorded music on broadcast radio stations.
In 1935, American radio commentator Walter Winchell coined the term ‘disc jockey’ (the combination of disc, referring to disc-shaped phonograph records, and jockey, which is an operator of a machine) to describe radio announcer Martin Block, the first radio announcer to gain widespread fame for playing popular recorded music over the air. Continue reading →
Posted in Art, Technology, World |
Leave a Comment »
January 30, 2020
An all-you-can-eat restaurant (AYCE) is a type of restaurant in which a fixed price is charged for entry, after which diners may consume as much food as they wish. All-you-can-eat establishments are frequently buffets.
The all-you-can-eat buffet has been ascribed to Herbert ‘Herb’ Cobb McDonald, a Las Vegas publicity and entertainment manager who introduced the idea in 1946. Continue reading →
Posted in Food, Money |
Leave a Comment »
January 28, 2020
Saturn’s hexagon is a persisting hexagonal cloud pattern around the north pole of Saturn. The sides of the hexagon are about 9,000 miles long, which is more than the diameter of Earth. The hexagon is about 18,000 miles wide, may be 190 miles high, and may be a jet stream made of atmospheric gases moving at 200 mph.
It rotates with a period of 10h 39m 24s, the same period as Saturn’s radio emissions from its interior. The hexagon does not shift in longitude like other clouds in the visible atmosphere. Continue reading →
Posted in Science |
Leave a Comment »
January 25, 2020
Stand-up comedy is a comic style in which a comedian performs in front of a live audience, usually speaking directly to them. The performer is commonly known as a comic, stand-up comic, comedian, comedienne, stand-up comedian, or simply a stand-up.
Comedians give the illusion that they are dialoguing, but in actuality, they are monologuing a grouping of humorous stories, jokes and one-liners, typically called a ‘shtick,’ ‘routine,’ ‘act,’ or ‘set.’ Some stand-up comedians use props, music, or magic tricks to enhance their acts. Stand-up comedy is stated to be the ‘freest form of comedy writing’ that is regarded as a fictionalized ‘extension of’ the person performing. Continue reading →
Posted in Humor |
Leave a Comment »
January 21, 2020
Fuck, Marry, Kill is a social forced choice question and answer game in which one person poses three names of people known to the other, either of people known in their personal lives or of celebrities, and the other person then has to decide which of the three they would like to have sex with it, which one they would marry, and which one they would kill.
A 2009 ‘Wonkette’ piece suggested that the rules of the game included an understanding that the player can not have sex with the person they marry, and that the person they do choose to have sex with, they can only have sex with one time. The game has existed for decades, and has found its way into popular culture.
Posted in Games, Humor |
Leave a Comment »
January 18, 2020
NOBUS (‘nobody but us’) are security vulnerabilities which the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) believes that only it can exploit.
As such, the agency sometimes chooses to leave such vulnerabilities open, in order to exploit them against NSA’s targets. More broadly, it refers to the notion that some signals intelligence capabilities are so powerful or otherwise inaccessible that only the NSA will be able to deploy them, though recent analyses suggest that this advantage may be under stress. Continue reading →
Posted in Technology, War, World |
Leave a Comment »
The Daily Omnivore 