Why? It sounds incredibly pretentious. I think most people would appreciate Plain English [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_English

>>> collinear anatidae

> sounds incredibly pretentious. I think most people would appreciate Plain English [0].

I can't speak for most people, but I didn't know what it meant, learned it after reading it, and found it quite appropriately funny and witty. I also learned a new word. There was nothing I found pretentious about it.

I think a helpful and reasonably objective criterion in deciding this might be whether the use of the phrase was (1) necessary to send the correct message, (2) required to understand the received message, and (3) liable to send an incorrect message. If #1 = no and #2 = yes, or if #3 = yes, then you should probably avoid using it. In this case it's #1 = no and #2 = no and #3 = no, so it's fine.

Because it's a lovely application of rhyming slang.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang

How exactly is it rhyming with anything?

The number of such mazes is also on OEIS under A007341: http://oeis.org/A007341

It's a looped gif: http://kyle.bike/bike.gif

Thank you. :)

Once upon a time dialup was all some of us had, 24/7.

Somehow we coped.

One such system is Hashcash [0], there is an extension for Thunderbird [1] which uses it.

The only thing is that legitimate mass emails (think mailing lists) will be delayed as well, unless some sort of exception is added.

  [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashcash

  [1] http://pennypost.sourceforge.net/PennyPost

I think the standard solution for the mailing lists is the "subscription" email pays the hashcash, but has an automated way to whitelist the email upon receipt.

"For an even more useless, albeit fun Easter Egg, try querying for the CH record for whois.cloudflare against one of our name servers."

    $ dig ch whois.cloudflare @emma.ns.cloudflare.com
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "                                  IIIIIIIIIIIII                              "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "                               IIIII,,,,,,,,,IIIII                           "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "                             III?::::::::::::::::III    I                    "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "                            III:::::::::::::::::::::III I      I             "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "                           III~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~III II I I   I          "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "                         II?=======IIIIIIIIIII========III? ???I  I           "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "                 III    III+++++IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII++++++II????????   I        "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "              IIIIIIIIIIII????IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII????III?????? ??I         "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "             III,::~=++IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII???????? ?III     "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "            III:~=+IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII?IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII??????????        "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "            II==+IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII???IIIIIIIIII++++????????II    "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "            II??IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII????IIII~:~++????         "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "        IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII+=:,.IIIIIIIII?II        "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "       IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII??++++~~=+I~~::,IIII     "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "     IIII=====++IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII??????IIIIIIIII???+===~~::III   "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "   III======IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII???IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII?III++==~III  "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "  III===IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII?IIIII+++III "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    "  II==777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777I77777??II "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    " II=777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777III "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    " II$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$II "
    whois.cloudflare.    86400    CH    TXT    " IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII "

Previous discussions:

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5723235
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5567639
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4073162

(Fully) Homomorphic Encryption is necessary for this. One of the paper's authors (Craig Gentry) is also the creator of FHE. To quote the paper:

>Using indistinguishability obfuscator for NC^1 together with any (leveled) fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) scheme with decryption in NC^1 (e.g. [Gen09b, BV11, BGV12, Bra12, GSW13])

    Paper: http://eprint.iacr.org/2013/451.pdf

I have not read through the paper (yet, I plan to).

Very nice observation, and yes, natural numbers only. I believe it could be modified to allow for negative numbers.

There is no evidence that this is a Senator or anyone in a position of power. It is more likely that it is just a bored intern.

No one's claiming that it is a Senator, but then again, is this what my tax dollars are funding?

Yes, your tax dollars are funding this, but they are funding much worse. In terms of the useless: a friend ordered a $25,000 computer with 192 GB of RAM because he had a research grant for computer hardware that he had to use up. In terms of the horrifying: Extrajudicial murder of civilians.

I wasn't being serious; this was all likely just a prank anyway

Yes, in addition to all of the surveillance programs being discussed, as well as the salaries of the people who lied to Congress about it.

If it makes you feel any better, many (most?) Senate interns are unpaid.

Honestly, this is the most likely answer. I doubt it would be a Senator.

If only because that would actually require the Senator to be able to actually understand the technology to a degree necessary to make a Wikipedia edit.