Words - A closer look

All Categories >> Other

01/13/2007 10:44 am

Alex's Archive

Rate this Blog

Yours:

Total:

Rated 1 times.

It's not a daily habit of mine, but usually a couple times of week I do the Yahoo! daily crossword puzzle. The best part of doing online crosswords is that they give you options like "Letter Verify" which marks any incorrect letters you may have entered as well as "Reveal Letter" and "Reveal Word". So if you get stuck and don't have 5 hours to figure it out you can just "cheat" and go on. In the process I end up coming across words that I don't really know sometimes and if I'm intrigued enough I do a quick Google search on the word. If that word or the results of my search are in my mind interesting for one reason or another, I'm going to post them on this blog. If that sounds really boring to you, then just ignore this blog completely. It's quite possible the only reason I'm doing this anyway is because I slept almost 12 hours last night and I've only "eaten" coffee today so far.

	Alex - Who controls the past now controls the future 01/13/2007 @ 10:49:19 AM
Clue: Miner's find Answer: Lode Wikipedia: In geology a lode is the metalliferous ore that fills a fissure in a rock or a vein of ore deposited between layers of rock. (See also: Mother Lode) Wikipedia on Mother Lode: Mother Lode is a term associated with the mining of gold and refers to a principal vein or zone of veins of gold ore. The typical first finds that start a "gold rush" are in streambeds. Knowledgeable miners in the past followed the occurrence of gold in rivers upstream to discover its source in the bedrock. This source was the "mother" of the gold in the river and so was dubbed the "Mother Lode". The term is also used metaphorically to refer to the origin of something valuable. Me: I've heard and used the term "Mother Lode" before, but I would've spelled it "Load" and I had no idea where the phrase came from.		Rate this comment Yours: Total: Rated 1 times.

	Jon - 3375 Posts 01/13/2007 @ 03:32:05 PM
I love posts that are educational and the fact that it deals in words is just more to love. My only gripe is that you use Wikipedia which has lower standards than our site in my mind.		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.

	Jeremy - 9475 Posts 01/13/2007 @ 10:04:34 PM
I tried one of these and got about 5 words.		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.

	Micah - 584 Posts 01/15/2007 @ 08:25:08 AM
I'm tired of all the Wikipedia bashing in the world...No you shouldn't be using it to write your Master's thesis, but when you are arguing with friends about some asinine piece of knowledge like who was the 8th Roman emperor it's a pretty useful place.		Rate this comment Yours: Total: Rated 2 times.

	Jeremy - Pie Racist 01/15/2007 @ 09:02:57 AM
Agreed. Also we have 0 standards, so the only way to have worse standards would be to actively seek to have none.		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.

	Jeremy - As Seen On The Internet 01/15/2007 @ 09:18:19 AM
Also anytime I do a search if theres a Wiki article in the list about my question that's the first place I go. Sure anyone can update it, but anyone can fix it. Any "expert" can write an article on anything on any other website. If you're going to indite Wiki as a bad source you would have to say the internet in general is a dubious source. Which a lot of people do. I think things have changed now, but when we were in school during the beginning of the internet "boom" teachers would only let us have one internet source for reports.		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.

	Jeremy - I hate our freedoms 01/15/2007 @ 09:27:43 AM
Also Nutcan.com is linked as a source in two WIki articles. I don't know what that says about either site. Probably not good things.		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.

	Micah - Bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land. 01/15/2007 @ 03:33:43 PM
Whats even sweeter is that one of the references isn't even to anything that any of you wrote. Its to a comment from someone who was never heard from again		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.
Micah screwed with this at 01/15/2007 3:34:07 pm

	Jeremy - Super Chocolate Bear 01/15/2007 @ 03:40:42 PM
Yeah, I added the references though. It wasn't just idle spamming though. Both articles did have a piece of information previously not in it added from something that was on here.		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.

	Jon - 1 bajillion posts 01/15/2007 @ 09:02:44 PM
Wikipedia killed my dog. I will never reverse my stand on it. I agree it's a useful source, but ideally I like to use something else. If you can find a site that actually has some stake in getting something right I consider that a good thing. It may be a bit more work in some cases but I like to think it's worth it. No doubt, it's filled with tons of useful and accurate information, I just get leery of it being used as the first and/or only source for information. But it comes up right at the top of so many searches that it's become the go-to source. Despite all this, though, I don't have anti-wikipedia bumper stickers or anything but I do like to make jokes about it being all lies. I did use it a bit while doing my math homework, which probably helped me out some (if I used the true stuff), but I will never forgive it for ruining my Master's thesis. By the way, I realize that I might have implied that Wikipedia doesn't have a stake in getting things right. They do have a stake in general as a whole, but the average joe user doesn't necessarily have as big of a stake as say, the people in charge of writing an entry in something like encyclopedia britannica.		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.
Jon screwed with this at 01/15/2007 9:05:26 pm

	Scott - 6225 Posts 01/15/2007 @ 09:34:10 PM
I hear that they cut off your thumbs if you write something errant.		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.

	Scott - 6225 Posts 01/15/2007 @ 09:35:19 PM
Was my use of the word errant correct? Or was my use of the word errant errant?		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.

	Jeremy - 9475 Posts 01/15/2007 @ 09:36:55 PM
It might not be used erroneously but it doesn't "flow" very well for some reason.		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.

	Micah - Shaken not stirred gets you cold water with a dash of gin and dry vermouth 01/16/2007 @ 07:54:28 AM
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,69844-0.html There was a ton of uproar and response from EB about why this study was flawed, but its still sweet.		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.

	Alex - 3619 Posts 01/19/2007 @ 09:14:15 PM
Clue: Strait-laced sort Answer: bluenose Dictionary.com: a puritanical person; prude Me: That's a dumb word.		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.

	Jon - 3375 Posts 01/20/2007 @ 08:30:37 PM
He called me bluenose, I called him Tony Randall. It was a thing we had.		Rate this comment Yours: Total: Rated 1 times.

	Jeremy - 9475 Posts 01/20/2007 @ 09:42:23 PM
		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.

	Alex - I don't need to get steady I know just how I feel 04/10/2007 @ 11:57:07 PM
Well, I haven't been doing too many crosswords lately, but I just made up my very own word. creexotic It was inspired by the new starburst commercial.		Rate this comment Yours: Rated 0 times.
Alex edited this at 04/10/2007 11:58:58 pm