The Old New Thing

What’s this fascination with Germanic languages?

July 1, 2004 Jul 1, 2004 07/1/04

Raymond Chen

Some people wondered about my fascination with Germanic languages and asked why I didn't branch out to other language families. It's basically laziness. I grew up speaking English (and a little of the Holo dialect, most of which has by now vanished from disuse), then studied German in high school and college, and most recently added...

Fees disguised as taxes

June 30, 2004 Jun 30, 2004 06/30/04

Raymond Chen

It has become customary in the telecommunications industry to quote a low price and then add half as much to it in "fees". Regulatory Programs Fee. It sure sounds like a government tax. It isn't. There's been a new round of official-sounding line items on telephone bills, which are really just ways for telephone companies ...

Ringside seats at Fruit Fly Fight Club

June 28, 2004 Jun 28, 2004 06/28/04

Raymond Chen

The first rule of Fruit Fly Fight Club: Flies can't talk about Fruit Fly Fight Club. Because they can't talk at all. At least not to humans. Researchers at Harvard Medical School took a break from studying lobster fighting and shifted their focus to fruit fly fights, and even mutant fruit fly fights. (Via The Annals of ...

Hong Kong crocodile caught at last.

June 25, 2004 Jun 25, 2004 06/25/04

Raymond Chen

After over half a year of eluding experts, the Hong Kong crocodile was caught at last. What amused me was that the article said that the creature had eluded an expert crocodile hunter from Australia named... John Lever? (Curiously, in this article, he is given credit for capturing the croc.) Not the self-proclaimed Crocodile ...

At least it's easier than learning Finnish

June 24, 2004 Jun 24, 2004 06/24/04

Raymond Chen

Finnish Radio station YLE offers weekly news summaries in classical Latin. Because practically nobody outside Finland would understand the news in Finnish... In my random travels around the Internet, I stumbled across this article on the subject of teaching Finnish to foreigners: Finnish's status as an official EU language has ...

The only way you're going to wake up next to Claudia Schiffer

June 23, 2004 Jun 23, 2004 06/23/04

Raymond Chen

Dominic O'Brien, world speed-memorization champion, on his technique for memorizing over 18 decks of shuffled cards in an hour: "I remember things by personalising them," explains O'Brien, 43. "With playing cards, for instance, I memorise each one as a face. The queen of hearts I think of as Claudia Schiffer, the ace of clubs as Nick ...

When cafeteria pricing meets mathematics

June 22, 2004 Jun 22, 2004 06/22/04

Raymond Chen

Prices in the Microsoft cafeteria are often illogical. For example, a "special sandwich" costs $4.25. A piece of whole fruit costs $0.50. But a "special sandwich with a piece of whole fruit" costs $4.95. If you're not careful, the cashier will ring it up as a "special sandwich with a piece of whole fruit" instead of as a "special ...

Drug dealers have to pay taxes too.

June 21, 2004 Jun 21, 2004 06/21/04

Raymond Chen

In the state of Kansas, "The fact that dealing marijuana and controlled substances is illegal does not exempt it from taxation. Therefore drug dealers are required by law to purchase drug tax stamps...

Too late, Mr. Jenkins. You were an F7 back at question 2

June 18, 2004 Jun 18, 2004 06/18/04

Raymond Chen

The story of somebody who worked for a job screening service. Companies hired the service to do preliminary filtering of job applicants. The best part: When applicants mistake the screener for the receptionist. When I launched into the actual interview, it really pissed them off. They'd get furious that the freaking receptionist had...

Exploding frying pans

June 17, 2004 Jun 17, 2004 06/17/04

Raymond Chen

Last year there was a recall of exploding frying pans. For some reason I found this funny. "The pans can explode or separate when preheated, used on high heat or used for frying," the safety commission said in a statement. It explodes when you fry something in it. Apparently "frying stuff" was not in the test plan for the frying...