Grinning Cat's definitions
"Infernal Revenue Service", how many Americans feel about the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. federal tax collection agency.
Legend has it that IRS employees scrutinize handwritten envelopes containing tax returns, and any addressed to the "Infernal" Revenue Service are flagged for audits.
by Grinning Cat April 18, 2008
Get the IRS mug."The turnout for the election wasn't even 40% of eligible voters. The winner got a slight majority of that, so four out of five people DIDN'T vote for him. So from that he concludes he has a popular 'mandate'?!"
by Grinning Cat January 5, 2009
Get the election mug.A term that, while an attempt to be inclusive of various winter holidays and "festivals of light", also displays ignorance that Ramadan has no connection with the seasons of the solar year. Ramadan (a month of major religious observances within the Islamic lunar calendar) moves backwards through the solar calendar about eleven days every year.
In some years Ramadan gains visibility as it is coincidentally observed near the winter "holiday season", but it actually keeps cycling through the seasons.
In some years Ramadan gains visibility as it is coincidentally observed near the winter "holiday season", but it actually keeps cycling through the seasons.
In 2010 Ramadan spanned parts of August and September.
In 2011 Ramadan will fall approximately between August 1 and August 29 or 30.
This demonstrates that "Christmahannukwanzadan" illogically groups Ramadan with winter holidays.
In 2011 Ramadan will fall approximately between August 1 and August 29 or 30.
This demonstrates that "Christmahannukwanzadan" illogically groups Ramadan with winter holidays.
by Grinning Cat December 27, 2010
Get the Christmahannukwanzadan mug.A punctuation mark often erroneously used to indicate "Beware of oncoming S!" as in "Apple's 3 for $2."
Mo Viele speculates on the origin of apostrophe abuse at her blog "fontidious":
the apostrophic epidemic
I often wonder who patient zero was.
I imagine that some lowly shopkeeper went out to paint “Bananas $3” on his sign, and was stricken with an uncontrollable urge to add an apostrophe. And soon his banana was the proud owner of $3. Not to be outdone, his rival down the street advertised “Banana’s 2 Dollar’s.” Then someone from the town full of affluent bananas went on a trip, carrying the contagion with him. “Train’s Departing Every 5 Minute’s.”
The pandemic had begun.
the apostrophic epidemic
I often wonder who patient zero was.
I imagine that some lowly shopkeeper went out to paint “Bananas $3” on his sign, and was stricken with an uncontrollable urge to add an apostrophe. And soon his banana was the proud owner of $3. Not to be outdone, his rival down the street advertised “Banana’s 2 Dollar’s.” Then someone from the town full of affluent bananas went on a trip, carrying the contagion with him. “Train’s Departing Every 5 Minute’s.”
The pandemic had begun.
by Grinning Cat April 6, 2015
Get the apostrophe mug.Another name for "RAS syndrome" (short for Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome) -- redundantly using a word in connection with an acronym or initialism that already contains the word. "ATM machine" is an example: the phrase literally refers to an "Automatic Teller Machine machine".
Enter your PIN number when the ATM machine prompts for it on the LCD display.
(That sentence contains several anticronyms.)
(That sentence contains several anticronyms.)
by Grinning Cat January 6, 2015
Get the anticronym mug.A device that records the choices of voters in an election. It can take several forms:
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1. (Becoming less and less common in the U.S.)
A mechanical device, where the voter flips small levers next to the candidates' names to indicate their choices, then pulls a big lever to record the votes. Very difficult to tamper with.
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2. (Very common in the U.S.)
A direct-recording electronic (DRE) machine. May print vote totals on paper, but there is no way for a voter to verify that his/her votes were accurately recorded.
Unlike mechanical voting machines, DRE machines are EXTREMELY VULNERABLE TO FRAUD. In addition to outright tampering with the records, malware can be used to steal a percentage of votes, reassigning them to the rigged candidate. The purported verification mechanisms -- logs, audit trails, "snapshots" of individual voters' choices -- can be manipulated to leave no evidence, corresponding perfectly to the rigged results.
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3. (The way to use technology for elections we can have confidence in)
An electronic machine that lets the voter make choices (preventing overvotes and highlighting undervotes), then PRINTS AN ACTUAL FILLED-OUT PAPER BALLOT, which the voter can review and either discard (and start over) or cast.
THE PAPER BALLOT IS THE OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE VOTE. (Voters could also choose to fill in a blank ballot by hand.)
Ballots can be quickly counted by optical scanning technology. Importantly, ballots can be RECOUNTED, by hand if necessary.
Counts from the voting machines need not be trusted as anything more than quick estimates or "exit polls". This system makes it difficult to commit the large-scale fraud so easy to do invisibly with paperless DRE machines.
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1. (Becoming less and less common in the U.S.)
A mechanical device, where the voter flips small levers next to the candidates' names to indicate their choices, then pulls a big lever to record the votes. Very difficult to tamper with.
---
2. (Very common in the U.S.)
A direct-recording electronic (DRE) machine. May print vote totals on paper, but there is no way for a voter to verify that his/her votes were accurately recorded.
Unlike mechanical voting machines, DRE machines are EXTREMELY VULNERABLE TO FRAUD. In addition to outright tampering with the records, malware can be used to steal a percentage of votes, reassigning them to the rigged candidate. The purported verification mechanisms -- logs, audit trails, "snapshots" of individual voters' choices -- can be manipulated to leave no evidence, corresponding perfectly to the rigged results.
---
3. (The way to use technology for elections we can have confidence in)
An electronic machine that lets the voter make choices (preventing overvotes and highlighting undervotes), then PRINTS AN ACTUAL FILLED-OUT PAPER BALLOT, which the voter can review and either discard (and start over) or cast.
THE PAPER BALLOT IS THE OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE VOTE. (Voters could also choose to fill in a blank ballot by hand.)
Ballots can be quickly counted by optical scanning technology. Importantly, ballots can be RECOUNTED, by hand if necessary.
Counts from the voting machines need not be trusted as anything more than quick estimates or "exit polls". This system makes it difficult to commit the large-scale fraud so easy to do invisibly with paperless DRE machines.
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A number of Diebold electronic voting machines have been in the news, first for criminally incompetent software and database design, leaving vote records wide open to undetectable tampering, more recently for vulnerability to "computer virus" style malware that can spread from machine to machine through the data cards used to collect voting data.
Making such electronic voting machines widespread is the perfect way to lay the groundwork for large-scale, invisible voter fraud.
There's plenty of information on this on the Web. A good place to start: the Coalition for Voting Integrity, www.coalitionforvotingintegrity.org .
Making such electronic voting machines widespread is the perfect way to lay the groundwork for large-scale, invisible voter fraud.
There's plenty of information on this on the Web. A good place to start: the Coalition for Voting Integrity, www.coalitionforvotingintegrity.org .
by Grinning Cat April 18, 2008
Get the voting machine mug.The specific quality of the blur in out-of-focus areas of the picture; "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." Small highlights, especially, in the blurry areas of a photo can be rendered dramatically differently by different lenses (or "faux bokeh" photoshopping techniques).
Some examples of different types of bokeh are at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh
Some examples of different types of bokeh are at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh
by Grinning Cat March 6, 2010
Get the bokeh mug.