h a l f b a k e r y"Bun is such a sad word, is it not?" -- Watt, "Waiting for Godot"
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How does the number of half baked ideas submitted this month compare to the rest of the year?
Which year had the worst ideas?
Which day of the week produces the most contraversial ideas?
Popularity of ideas containing the word "pirate" compared to those containing the word "weapon"
Also
if you link the statistics to the geographical area of the user's IP address you could get the following stats:
Which country is most generous in giving out buns?
Which country is responsible for the worst ideas?
Which country is most active in half bakery?
Which country is responsible for submitting the most ideas with the word "squeezable" in them?
etc ...
meta_3a_20statistics
[xaviergisz, May 13 2006]
Statistaholics unite
Halfbakery_20Metric_20System
[normzone, May 13 2006]
Halfbakers' Locations
Halfbakers_27_20Homes
Little baker embassies across the world. [hidden truths, May 13 2006]
A Sisyphean Task
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus
In case you didn't know, or, like me, forgot. [Canuck, May 13 2006]
Word of the day: Ozymandian.
http://maverickphil...ts/1133457889.shtml
Not in the OED yet. [jutta, May 13 2006]
Google Trends
http://www.google.c...=0&geo=all&date=all
[jutta, May 13 2006]
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Annotation:
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I'd like to be able to print out all the closed
letters like the "o" s, "B"s, "q"s etc, so that
I can colour them in. Each one should be
numbered and dated - Camera cuts to
Jutta enthusiastically rushing to keyboard
to organise in a fever of anticipation........ |
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There are probably easier ways to find out the country of bakers (see link). |
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[xenzag] you want to print out *just* the enclosed letters? In the order they were written, or alphabetically? |
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ZT - let's have both versions then decide
which one looks better once it's coloured
in - and throw in all the zeros for good
measure. |
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We should print them out on a continuous strip of paper, and then get a team of Mongolian throat-singers to read it out (they can sing on the in-breath and the out-breath) in order to let us know *exactly* what futility sounds like. |
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Actually, it's more than futility. What's the word that means; Something completely pointless, yet which requires a massive amount of effort (the pointlessness of the task being entirely obvious at the outset) but which is undertaken anyway, resulting in a beautiful and monumental gesture of <whatever word this definition is a definition of>. Is there a word for that? |
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zt, would the term *Sisyphean* apply? (see link) |
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Hm, not quite, Canuck. Sisyphean implies futility in the sense of the task itself being undone; zen_tom is looking for futility in the sense of ultimate meaninglessness. More like that "look upon my works, ye mortals, and despair" guy. Wossname. Ozymandias! Ozymandian? |
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Getting closer - I love that poem - and it is related, in that it's showing the ultimate futility (and hence meaningless) of physical strivings - whereas, I'm looking for the opposite thing - where ultimate meaning can be created by knowingly engaging in a futile and entirely meaningless task - almost anti-Ozymandian - could that be our word? Antiozymandian! |
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Sisyphean is close too, except that Sisyphus is encouraged to perform the task (I forget, but if he completes the task, doesn't he escape the underworld?) Whatever the compulsion, it has some meaning to him. If he were to try to push the boulder up the hill, for no reason at all, knowing it were impossible, but continuing regardless - or rather *because* it's impossible, then that might be getting closer. Like a Don Quixote who deep down, knows that the windmills are just windmills, but still tilts at them anyway. The resulting emotion is bittersweet, whereas the Ozymandian and Sisyphean notions are more tragic. |
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I have two printer icons on my desktop -
the one that outputs in colour is labelled
Ozymandarin - because although its works
be mighty, I always gaze upon their orange
bias in despair - (bad colour profiles that
my feeble computer skills have so far
failed to correct) |
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Sisyphus - is that when your sister gets
into a needless panic? |
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//Something completely pointless, yet which requires a massive amount of effort (the pointlessness of the task being entirely obvious at the outset) but which is undertaken anyway, resulting in a beautiful and monumental gesture of <whatever word this definition is a definition of>. Is there a word for that?//
H a l f b a k e r y. |
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the place where people use words like //Sisyphean// |
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and futility <mental note to look one of them up in the morning> |
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Still trying to figure out what that word might be - the closest I've got to is 'knowingly Quixotic' but that's one word too many. |
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We've got a range of words that describe the approach one takes when faced with an impossible task -
Sisyphean - using blind determination, the task is attempted, over and over again, faith and grit and human endeavour, pitted against the futility of the impossible. Sisyphus isn't aware that he will never be free - he still believes that he can complete the task if he just tries hard enough.
Ozymandian - a proud proclamation of one's strength, power and ability to overcome some great obstacle, that remains long after the fact to prove not only your inglorious failure, but which also underlines the ultimate futility of all human endeavours.
Quixotic - a faith and naive idealism that causes a person to believe, against all odds, that the impossible can be achieved. It is an ultimately futile, if noble delusion. |
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What we want is something to describe the drive, or situation where someone knows they are walking directly into a doomed situation, or impossible task, but puts their all into it anyway - both knowing that all is futile, and all efforts will come to nought, but doing it anyway. Sort of Charge of the Light Brigadesque, only more so. |
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C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas le beurre. |
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Assuming, zen_tom, that such a word as you seek does not exist within the realm of "legitimate" English, then you are as Tantalus. Close, but never a cigar. |
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