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A mountweazel, as everyone knows, is a
fake word definition inserted in a
dictionary as a copyright trap - i.e. to
detect when another dictionary publisher
steals word definitions from the
dictionary you've written. All
dictionaries contain mountweazels.
This idea is for a comprehensive
dictionary of mountweazels from all
other dictionaries. It will, of course,
contain a few real words - i.e
non-mountweazel entries, to guard
against plagiarism.
mountweazel
https://en.wikipedi...ki/Fictitious_entry [hippo, May 18 2017, last modified Oct 04 2021]
Real Mountain Weasel
https://www.peakbag...peak.aspx?pid=66942 Well, Weasel Butte, Oregon. [Frankx, Oct 10 2021]
[link]
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(+) ...and a map of fake towns. |
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Interesting story; they do the same with maps, inserting a fake town or two to be able to prove plagiarism, and in one map a town called Agloe was added to map of the New York area. |
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Sometime later the makers of the map bearing the fake town sued another map maker for inserting it in their map, but it turns out that someone during that time had built a gas station and an Agloe general store based on the original map designation and so for a short time there was an Agloe New York that only existed because of the fake name. |
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Ooh, I like that [2 fries] - deterministic mapping! |
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Nature imitating art - very philosophical. |
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The OS maps of the UK used to ( in the 1960's and 70's) show AWRE Aldermaston as just a patch of mixed woodland. Presumably this was intended to stop the USSR finding out where it was, although the helpful black-and-red on white road signs put up by Berkshire County Council were (and are) a bit of a giveaway at ground level. |
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No doubt the chaps at the MoD didn't consider that some wandering Soviet citizen might just get off a train at Thatcham and simply ask the nearest taxi driver ... |
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On the plus side, it did manage to baffle visiting Americans, but that's a bit like challenging a penguin to a bicycle race. |
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Is it possible that a map could be produced which lacks any reference to the existance of Swindon ? |
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Many maps are almost entirely devoid of reference to
Swindon - e.g. I have a map of Vermont which doesn't
mention it once. |
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Treasure it, and guard it with your life ... |
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Now, a map of Wiltshire which doesn't mention Swindon - that would be beyond price. |
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I like this very, very a lot. |
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I support this idea most bostiferously. |
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My late father, when he worked in market research, used to
include mountweasel products in questionnaires, so that he
could weed out respondents who were not answering in
good faith. (This was worth checking, since he was paying
the respondents for their responses - though, admittedly,
not very much). |
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I no longer have the data - but, if I did, and if the data
volumes had been much larger than they actually were,
then I could draw conclusions about what would be
appropriate names for future products that would, then,
exist. (See [2 fries]' remark above about Agloe). |
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Now that the whole activity has moved online, this is
probably being done. |
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To really circle the square, wouldn't it be great if some map included a place called Mount Weazel? [+] |
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No, Wessex just south of Little Hogwallop, the traditional
festivals they were named for,
held on adjacent days so people could
attend both, were still being held up until the 1940s. |
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Around which time
Hogwallops festival fell from favour, people didn't think it
was funny
enough, the Mount Weazel festival persisted for
another
twenty years & is still remembered to this day by
entertainers putting ferrets down their trousers, it not
being
as easy to come by real weasels as it was, but the
performance is but a pale shadow of the original event. |
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Ah, there is a mountain named Weasel. [link]
Weasel Butte, Oregon - depending on your
definition of mountain. More of a hill really. |
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