Streandering Meams

2005 has been declared the World Year of Physics, in honor of the seminal work done by Einstein in 1905 when he published four papers that together have no peer in terms of 20th century scientific impact.

Photoelectric effect
Brownian motion
Special relativity
Matter and energy equivalence

Einstein's theories are being explored and refined even up to today.

Everyone should know a little Einstein. Until the end of the month, you can get two lectures (free!) from The Teaching Company. I don't know how good these lectures are, but I've erred on the side of (free!) instructional videos.

All of these links came from a Slashdot thread on this subject. I had been meaning to do a small blog post on this for a while, but it is so much easier when other people get the good links for me!

[Another Oldie-but-Goodie from the private e-mailing era of late 2004. I've edited and updated it.]

Y'all might remember when I was a fan of Jesse's Word of the Day, later Maven's Word of the Day and I wasn't the only one.

Alas, the WotD site is no more. The former postings, however, can be found either in chronological order or lexicographical order. There is some consolation there, since working through just that word list will take a while.

Jesse Sheidlower does have a weak internet presence today at the site, Jesse's Word.

And every now and then he writes a popular piece on lexicography, e.g.,

Crying Wolof

The Breakfast Table

He's even risen to the stature of someone who has his wit remembered and attributed, e.g., Slang Quote

After reading his latest article, I thought that I would send off this round of links to my fellow travelers in trivia.

I believe that my wife (referred to henceforth as GenM) and I were privileged to be the first to see Whack Daddy create a new variant of the Tom Swifty joke, which I now christen the Darth Swifty joke. (Which will have to do until someone can come up with a funnier neologism.)

Of course, it involves a touchstone of contemporary cultural awareness: Star Wars.

Whack (sorry, I don't call him "Daddy") and I were ragging on Star Wars, in particular, the pathetic "beginning writers' creativity exercises" Lukas demonstrated in writing the episodes, when Whack recalled something he read from an essay critical of Star Wars: Sith Lord names seem to be created from taking a word that begins with the prefix "in-", dropping the prefix and using Darth as the title, e.g., Darth (in)Vader, Darth (in)Sidious.

When I next logged into my trusty GMail account, I was delighted to find the start of an e-mail thread (posted below with permission of Whack Daddy, GenM & myself):

Whack Daddy

Darth Sidious: Did you cut another appendage off in training AGAIN, Darth Ept?

Darth Sidious: Darth Continent, is that the 3rd pair of pants I've seen in you wearing today?

Darth Sidious: Quit mumbling, Darth Coherent.

Darth Sidious: You really need to add some color to your wardrobe, Darth Sipid. All that brown is positively unintimidating.

Darth Sidious: I find your lack of respect for your superiors disturbing, Darth Sulting.

Darth Sidious: I believe your popularity with the Rebels may ultimately by your undoing, Darth Spiring.

Darth Sidious: I could not turn your mother Leia or your father Luke, but you are more powerful than either, Darth Bred!

Darth Sidious: It's such a shame I couldn't turn your father, Darth Bred. I'd already penciled 'Darth Cestuous' in on my roster.

Darth Sidious: What the hell was I thinking when I took you on as an apprentice, Darth Agoddadavida?

Jared

Darth Sidious: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means, Darth Conceivable.

GenM

Darth Sidious: You are worthless in a fight, Darth Consequential.

And then Whack Daddy closed the circle with a two-fer: a Tom Swifty and a Crocker. Not only that, but it's also something worthy of Darth Nuendo or Darth Appropriate, depending on the company....

"You're positively glowing, Dart Candescent!" Darth Sidious said brightly.

"Yes - that female Sith, Darth Satiable, was quite a find!" Darth Candescent ejaculated.

As a further bonus, fun can be had with salutations and sign-offs, some being Darth Genius, Darth Stigator, Darth Defatigable, Darth Ept, and Darth Credible.

The "Darth" = "in-" observation is relatively old, and I've seen mentions of it going back to 2001. It didn't even make the top ten of 78 Reasons to Hate Star Wars Episode I. (But it did make the top 20 as #19.)

Be warned: This joke format is not consistent with the Star Wars universe--which is only fitting because the Star Wars universe isn't consistent with itself. Google for "inmaul" and you will see overly pedantic Star Wars types reject this line of wit because it doesn't explain "Darth Maul." Ha! Like Darth Maul can even be explained.

But that I found the wonderful link for the title of this post, I would have linked to this meta-joke in reference to the "Darth"-joke. But now I have, so I can rest....

May the farce be with hue,
--Darth Digo