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.

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censorsplit

When a moderator on a discussion forum splits off a batch of replies to another thread for purposes primarily related to censoring viewpoints they disagree with by removing them from the larger, ongoing debate and marginalizing their impact.

While the site was owned by well known skeptic educational foundation, staff were apparently instructed to use a 'divide and conquer' strategy in dealing with any dissent. Arguments critical of policy were often split to new threads for being 'off topic,' thus diluting both their continuity and traction. It was a subtle form of censorship one wag dubbed as the 'censorsplit strategy.'

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cyber-strand

A topic thread on an internet discussion forum that has morphed onto many different sites for various reasons.

A popular thread featuring a physics brain teaser tended to start heated discussions and got in trouble with mods. Those active on it moved en mass to another site and started it over again there. Now its moved to still other sites and there are so many of these 'threads' they've literally become a cyber-strand.

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pentamnemonic

A mnemonic based on every 5th item to be remembered, using one's fingers as a kind of abacus. You put up one finger for each one as you go along. When you reach the fifth finger, that becomes the first letter of the mnemonic. This device works well when the number of entities to be recalled is too large for conventional mnemonics to easily accommodate.

Example: Nlnci Sjgai is one possible pentamnemonic for all the countries with some coastline on the continent of Eurasia. If you start with the western-most point-Portugal-and go clockwise around the coast, your first 'bookmark country' is Netherlands, and you end with Italy. (Just add on Monaco, the 51st country) Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, NETHERLANDS: Germany, Denmark, Poland, Estonia, LITHUANIA. When your little finger gets extended, you must always arrive on a country that begins with one of the consecutive letters in Nlnci Sjgai, or you forgot a country.

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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.

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cliqster

Someone who participates in an online cliq to help advance certain viewpoints shared by the others in the group.

By sending links to discussions of common interest in batch personal messages at various forums, cliqsters insure their ideas are well represented in the various debates relevant to their collective interests.

OMG! Jason was just suspended for a week for calling JJ a racist, which he admits he in fact is!! Act NOW on behalf of our fellow cliqster. Send a pm to all the moderators protesting this unjust action taken against one of the forums most constructive posters.

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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)

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