Recursive Prophet's definitions

mole puppet

A 'sock-puppet' on a message board that is not very active and remains low profile over many months. At a key moment on a debate, this 'mole' can be deployed to support the puppet master's argument without arousing any suspicion. They have a history that doesn't support any.

When Sidhe returned to the dirtybutrational.org website and was suddenly supported by other members, none of his detractors suspected any were a 'mole puppet.' He had established several way back, and used them sparingly to reply on various threads.

by Recursive Prophet August 30, 2011

Harrypothesis

A proposed scientific hypothesis that is more in the realm of Harry Potter than actual science.

Many considered the conjecture that the apparent wind created by the motion of a treadmill was the same as natural wind created by pressure gradients to be just another Harrypothesis.

by recursive prophet February 26, 2010

retrosexual

One who has reached an age where all sexual desire is reduced to memories.

Thinking of the girls he had known when young, the old man could still get momentarily horny. But he never had such feelings about women he didn't know and lust after in the past, and had no desire to reconnect with those he did, except in his memories of them; in the bloom of their youth.

He was a true retrosexual.

by Recursive Prophet January 4, 2008

pentamnemonic

A mnemonic system based on every 5th item to be recalled. It is quite useful for alert young minds, but can be misused by those in their dotage.

Surprised nobody caught this, but the example for pentamnemonic above explains my concern about seniors employing this technique. If your mouse requires a walker, you might make the same mistake and get it wrong.

I forgot Kaliningrad in the original example, which is a disconnected part of Russia, and inserted Estonia in it's place. Estonia is actually north of Latvia, which borders Lithuania. Its a small planet, and 70% is water. With only 193 countries there's no excuse for misplacing them. Sorry.

by Recursive Prophet January 4, 2008

cliq

A personal message(pm)support network of like minded users-cliqsters-at an online site or forum.

Creationists often came to the science sub-forums at RDF to try and derail the dialectic. When a cliqster finds one posting their sermons, he sends a 'batch' pm to all the others. It includes a link to 'click,' which takes them right to the current point of discussion on the flagged thread. They thereby maximize the visibility of their consensus viewpoint by presenting it on many different debates they might have missed without being part of the cliq.

by Recursive Prophet April 20, 2009

straw herring

When an argument is rebutted by saying it is both a 'red herring' and a 'straw man.' (Usually done at different times.) As the two fallacies are incongruent, this term itself will eventually be incorporated into informal logic as a fallacy.

My opponent's counter argument is a straw herring. First he claims my example is an irrelevant distraction from the topic, (red herring)then goes on to assert I created it using his words out of context so I could attack this erroneous extrapolation of his words and then declare victory. (straw man)

by Recursive Prophet January 17, 2009

arpie

1. Arpie is an initialization morphed into an acronym. (a retro or redux acronym?) Role Player=RP=arpie. Note the initialization is also contained within the homonym.

2. In complexity theory, RP ("randomized polynomial time") is the complexity class of problems for which a probabilistic Turing machine exists with these properties.

Arpie: Anonymous Role Player Inserting Epiphytics; or
algorithmic randomized polynomial interaction e (2.718282... in geek-speak)

Is that Arpie a Role Player or a Randomized Polynomial? (If the correct answer to the latter is YES, then it returns YES with probability at least ½ (otherwise, it returns NO)

by Recursive Prophet October 30, 2007