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Zero stroke or cipher stroke was a term used to describe a mental disorder reportedly diagnosed by physicians in Germany under the Weimar Republic and which was caused by hyperinflation that occurred in the early 1920s. The disorder was primarily characterized by patients’ desire to write endless rows of zeros, which are also referred to as ciphers. (via Steven)

Quirkyalone is a neologism referring to someone who enjoys being single (but is not opposed to being in a relationship) and generally prefers to be alone rather than dating for the sake of being in a couple. (via sleevia)

Alien space bats (ASBs) is a neologism for plot devices used in alternate history to create a point of divergence that would otherwise be implausible. (via yeslikethemotorcycle)

Dead Serious is an organization in Fort Worth, Texas which offers $5,000 to any member that kills a criminal in self-defense. Membership is ten dollars. (via sleevia)

A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or maguffin) is “a plot element that catches the viewers’ attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction”.  The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are (at least initially) willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is. In fact, the specific nature of the MacGuffin may be ambiguous, undefined, generic, left open to interpretation or otherwise completely unimportant to the plot. Common examples are money, victory, glory, survival, a source of power, or a potential threat, or it may simply be something entirely unexplained. (via yeslikethemotorcycle)

“Behind the sofa” is a British pop culture phrase, used as a metaphor to describe the actions that a state of fear may drive a person to — e.g., a child hiding behind the sofa to avoid a frightening television programme. Although the phrase is sometimes employed in a serious context, its use is usually intended to be humorous and/or nostalgic, and to evoke a pleasant, safe fear in a domestic setting. (via shyestviolet)

Blissymbols or Blissymbolics were conceived of as an ideographic writing system consisting of several hundred basic symbols, each representing a concept, which can be composed together to generate new symbols that represent new concepts. Blissymbols differ from most of the world’s major writing systems in that the characters do not correspond at all to the sounds of any spoken language. In this it is like other similar constructed languages such as Zlango, Isotype, or Characteristica universalis. (via sleevia)

Bathroom singing, also known as singing in the bathroom, singing in the bath, or singing in the shower is a widespread phenomenon. Many people sing in the bathroom because the hard wall surfaces, often tiles or wooden panels, and lack of soft furnishings, create an aurally pleasing acoustic environment. The multiple reflections from walls enrich the sound of one’s voice. Small dimensions and hard surfaces of a typical bathroom produce various kinds of standing waves, reverberation and echoes, giving the voice “fullness and depth.” (via sleevia)

God Helmet refers to an experimental apparatus used in Neuroscience, primarily in the field of neurotheology. The apparatus, placed on the head of an experimental subject, generates weak fluctuating (i.e. “complex”) magnetic fields. These fields are approximately as strong as those generated by a land line telephone handset or an ordinary hair dryer, but far weaker than that of an ordinary fridge magnet. Many subjects have reported “mystical experiences and altered states” while wearing the God Helmet. (via sleevia)

Shift_JIS art is artwork created from characters within the Shift JIS character set, a superset of ASCII intended for Japanese usage. Naturally there are many similarities between Shift_JIS artwork and ASCII art. (via Brian Egan)