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BMD:
Ballistic Missile Defense systems were all but deployed in New Mexico this week when a middle school was terrorized by a student.
Someone called authorities Thursday after seeing a boy carrying something long and wrapped into Marshall Junior High.
The drama ended two hours later when the suspicious item was identified as a 30-inch burrito filled with steak, guacamole, lettuce, salsa and jalapenos and wrapped inside tin foil and a white T-shirt.
"I didn't know whether to laugh or cry," school Principal Diana Russell said.
State police, Clovis police and the Curry County Sheriff's Department arrived at the school shortly after 8:30 a.m. They searched the premises and determined there was no immediate danger.
It turns out the suspicious weapon was just a
Burrito of Mass Distraction.
In 2005,
Passover is celebrated April 24-May 1.
Passover is an eight-day religious celebration symbolizing the Jewish people's freedom from slavery and exile in Egypt in 1300 BCE. It is a celebration not just of a specific historical event, but of freedom itself. It is also a time of thanksgiving, spring renewal, and family and community solidarity.
Passover also is known as "Pesach," a Hebrew word pronounced "Pay-sock," which means "to pass over" or "to spare."
Annually, Passover starts at sundown on the 15th day of the first month of the Jewish lunar calendar,
Nissan.
Igor has finally penetrated the national defense security system and
tagged a player in the defense contracting industry. Soldier Vision came
to us for help with a rename. We recommended the name Primordial. We
think it is a force to be reckoned with, all a name can be, an army of
one. Why? Read all about it.
And for you name taxonomy junkies, here’s a fresh taxonomy of the names of defense contractors and defense industry companies. And before we get any more email, the long-awaited taxonomy of the names of salves, unguents and ointments will be out next week! Thanks for the reminder, Lucian.
Time to play another round of Name That Thing, the name game where we find something that needs both naming AND a federal investigation, and you try and name it! So put up your feet, grab a bottle of Chianti and a plate of fava beans, and puzzle over this job posting from Craigslist, in which the poster of this notice fails to divulge the name of the position to be filled. Or does s|he? Here it is in full:
Highly Motivated Creative “Tomboy” wanted ASAP
(petaluma)
Youngish female student type wanting to work and learn trades, arts, living and survival skills…must be drug free and nonsmoking. Ability to get up early and stay up late. Work and learn in a highly Artistic environment. Learn many skills and real world survival. Work Exchange for room and board with additional pay at $10 per hour…part time basis. Flexible situation. Must like animals, can be loner type, be able to handle physical activity and challenges, not afraid to get hands dirty. Can start immediately.
But what is the job? If you know or think you know the name of the position described above, leave a comment with the answer. Here’s a tip from the naming professionals: the key words appear to be “tomboy”, “loner type”, “survival skills” and “animals”.
If this job posting leaves you wanting to provide a tip of your own, the local FBI number for Petaluma, CA is (415) 553-7400.
If Cars Could Talk:
Everything you've always wanted to know about Techron® (but were afraid to ask)
and then some.
Hey parents, "Learn more about this ad-free, fun and educational website..." They must mean free ad.
Superbia, Invidia, Ira, Accidia, Avaritia, Gula and Luxuria might be company and product names from the lexicon of some naming and branding specialist in the
Vatican.
But no, these are the Latin names of the
seven deadly sins of Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony and Lust. The first letters of these words form the medieval Latin word
saligia, from which the verb saligiare (to commit a deadly sin) is taken.
These are sometimes called capital sins, or cardinal sins. But a cardinal sin is not to be confused with a mortal sin—or with Cardinal Sin, as in
Cardinal Sin to miss papal elections.
We also learned that
Cardinal Sin was considered
papabile.
Papabile (plural: Papabili) is an unofficial Italian term first coined by Vaticanologists and now used internationally in many languages to describe cardinals of whom it is thought likely or possible that they will be elected pope. A convenient English translation would be "popeable", "one worthy of the position of pope" or "possible (or likely) successor to the pope".
Cardinal Sin could have chosen the name Pope Saligia, if elected.
Oh, by the way, I'm "guest blogging" over with the lawyers again today if you want to read a serious post about
Cardinal Law and the Benefit of Clergy.
One book, two titles: It is called Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds in the USA and Port Out, Starboard Home everywhere else. This is the book’s description in the words of the author, Michael Quinion.
The cat’s pajamas, the bee’s knees, and the whole nine yards rolled into one, this true feast for word lovers skewers commonly accepted word-origin myths and etymological folk tales. Can it really be true that golf stands for “Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden”? Did the term computer bug really derive from an errant moth shorting out an early computer? Did the kangaroo really get its name through a misunderstanding between explorers and natives? The real story of the origin and evolution of a word or phrase is often much stranger than the commonly accepted one. The expressions that Michael Quinion reviews range throughout the English-speaking world, from cater-cornered to dinkum and from wet one’s whistle to happy as a clam. From the bawdy to the sublime, explanations and delightful asides truly prove that the proof is in the pudding. If you ever wondered about why we utter such oddities as raining cats and dogs, I could care less or twenty-three skidoo, this one’s for you. It’s a treasure trove of fiction and fact for anyone interested in language.
You can read a nice bit of it here, or go out to your favorite bookstore and read the whole thing there, or simply buy the book online.
To those of you living in or traveling to Eaton, Ohio, our deepest sympathies. Secondly, here is an important proposed road name change that may well affect you:
The Preble County Board of Commissioners approved on Monday to initiate a change of name for a portion of Carlton Road in Lanier Township.
A section of the road will bear the word “east” before the street name. The name change will help fire and rescue squads better respond to emergencies, the board said.
“People call it (East Carlton Road) anyway,” Commissioner Jane Marshall said.
A public hearing is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. (Ohio time) May 25 before the name change is approved.
We have no sympathy, however, for those citizens that blow-off the public hearing and then gripe about the new name ex post facto. If you want a say in which half of the road gets the “East” in front of it, clear your schedules.
The Guest is God; the cabs are god-awful.
The personal hygiene of Delhi’s taxi drivers is an unusual topic for ministerial-level discussion, but recently it has been central to a government debate over how to lure more tourists to India.
Convinced that the body odors of many of the capital’s drivers were far from inviting, the tourism minister, Renuka Chowdhury, has started an advertising campaign aimed at persuading those who work in the tourism sector to clean up their act.
According to an article in the Business section of the International Herald Tribune, the “guest is god” branding initiative is the domestic counterpart to an international campaign, called Incredible India, aimed at changing perceptions of India in the mind of the global traveler, and is inspired by a line from Hindu scripture, Atithi devo bhavah, or “our guests are our gods.”
We try really hard to write posts that will be enjoyable for our target audience to read. So, we were very interested to learn from the Juicy Studio readability tests that our writing meets the reading comprehension capabilities of the Wordlab readership.
Juicy Studio is an independent UK site, run by Gez Lemon. It’s an unfortunate surname, but explains why the site is Juicy. The mission of the site is to promote best practice for web developers, and programmers in a fast moving industry. Whether you’re a novice or a professional, there’s something for you.
You can run these tests against our website address to see for yourself how we score, but here’s the gist of it.
On the Gunning-Fog index, our writing makes sense to readers who are comfortable with Time or Newsweek. You don’t have to be capable of reading publications like the Wall Street Journal, the Times, or the Guardian, but if you’re more comfortable reading the Bible, TV Guide, and most popular novels, you might find Wordlab a bit of a challenge.
On the Flesch Reading Ease test, the result is an index number that rates the text on a 100-point scale. The higher the score, the easier it is to understand the document. Authors are encouraged to aim for a score of approximately 60 to 70. Wordlab scores a respectable 66.24.
The result of the Flesch-Kincaid grade level is a rough measure of how many years of schooling it would take someone to understand the content. Wordlab readers are expected to be nearing completion of grade seven, and doing well.
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