Data

The word "data" has some controversy surrounding it. The controversial aspect is not its origin. In English, it is a mid 18th century word from Latin datum, meaning literally "something given,’" (neuter past participle of dare ‘meaning "give." "Data" is the Latin plural of "datum", and still may be used as a plural noun in this sense, but today "data" is most commonly used in the singular, as a mass noun, in the way that we use "information", "sand" or "rain."

There is some controversy on its pronunciation. Some people say day-tah and some sat dah-tah. But there is also disagreement about its usage.

Data is facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis.  But is data a singular, uncountable noun, or should it be treated as the plural of the now-rarely-used datum?

In most cases, even if the quantity of data is singular (one number, for example) we say "data" as opposed to datum.

Though I don't think I have ever used the word, "datum" is apparently used in some fields to mean "an item given". I found that "In cartography, geography, nuclear magnetic resonance and technical drawing it is often used to refer to a single specific reference datum from which distances to all other data are measured. Any measurement or result is a datum, though data point is now far more common."

The New York Times use "data" either in the singular or plural: "the survey data are still being analyzed" and "the first year for which data is available." The Associated Press style guide classifies data as a collective noun that takes the singular when treated as a unit but the plural when referring to individual items ("The data is sound.", and "The data have been carefully collected.").

We encounter data in many forms, including: in computer science, as an android in the Star Trek universe and a character in The Goonies and even as a non-governmental organization founded by Bono.

Seattle Baseball

Pitchers and catchers have been warming up since late February in warmer climes and the cry of "Play ball" is as sure as spring. In my continuing series of sports team names and specifically those for baseball teams, in this post I visit Seattle which has been the host city to a number of baseball teams.

The original Pacific Coast League minor league club in Seattle was initially called the Indians, as a reference to the Native American legacy of the area. That team was renamed the Seattle Rainiers. Though it obviously references Mount Rainier, it actually was named for the Rainier Brewing Company.

The Rainiers operated through 1968. At that time, the major leagues expanded and a new Rainiers ball club was formed and played from 1972–1976.


The Seattle Pilots AL expansion team in 1969 was named for the many marine activities in the Puget Sound area. The name references not airline pilots, but ship pilots who guide large ships into port. The Pilots' caps featured the "scrambled eggs" golden-leaf symbol of a ship's captain.

The team ran into financially troubled waters and and became the first major league club since the 1901 Milwaukee Brewers to switch cities after one year.

The Pilots moved to Milwaukee and became the new Milwaukee Brewers.

Ken Griffey Jr. Mariners #24 Hall of Fame shirt - via Amazon

The current Seattle baseball team is the Mariners who came about during another AL expansion in 1977. As with the Pilots, the name is a nod to fishing and other marine activities.

In a nod to the past, the Rainiers name has been used by the Seattle Mariners' Triple-A affiliate in nearby Tacoma since 1995.

Computer Virus

Hex dump of the Blaster worm, showing a message left for Microsoft CEO Bill Gates
by the worm's programmer http://nuevovirus.info/virus-blaster/, Public Domain, wikimedia.org

A computer virus is a malware program that, when executed, replicates by inserting copies of itself (possibly modified) into other computer programs, data files, or the boot sector of the hard drive. Like the biological viruses from which its name is taken, when this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be "infected."

This area of computer science has borrowed a good number of biological terms.

Viruses often perform some type of harmful activity on infected hosts, such as stealing hard disk space , corrupting data, spamming their contacts, logging their keystrokes, or even rendering the computer useless.

Not all viruses must be destructive or even be hidden. What makes a virus a virus is that it is self-replicating and installs itself without user consent.


Computer scientists have categorized two main kinds of digital viruses. “Zoo viruses” are those that have little chance of spreading. Like zoo animals, they are often collected and preserved.

Viruses that exist “in the wild” are much harder to control—some are shape-shifters that imitate more benign forms of code, while others are parasitic and invade computers, phone systems, and other networks.

Though we think of viruses as part of the more modern Internet age, in 1949 by John von Neumann gave lectures about the "automata" and  published the "Theory of self-reproducing automata"which described how a computer program could be designed to reproduce itself, and his design for a self-reproducing computer program is considered the world's first computer virus. He is at least the theoretical father of computer virology.

SMART cars

smart Fortwo cabriolet - CC BY-SA 3.0,

smart Automobile is a division of Daimler AG that manufactures and markets the smart Fortwo and smart Forfour. The official trademarked name is stylized as "smart", with all lowercase letters.

“Smart” sounds like a good name for cars that are meant to be small, smartly designed city cars. But it turns out that despite the lowercase letter, this name is an acroym.

The early development of the brand and styling was a venture of Swatch and Mercedes and thus the name reflects the idea of Swatch Mercedes ART.

The corporate branding uses lowercase logotype for the "smart" and a visual logo incorporating the letter "c" for "compact" and an arrow for "forward thinking".


By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use

xoxo hugs, kisses and SWAK

When and why did x's and o's become a symbol for hugs and kisses?

xoxo (generally lowercase letters) is a way to express love or good friendship at the end of a written letter - and now in email and SMS text messages.

Which letter represents which action? That is not actually clear, but the custom of placing "X" on envelopes, notes and at the bottom of letters to mean kisses dates back to the Middle Ages.

The symbol x is the letter taw in early Hebrew (and in Ezekiel, a mark set “upon the foreheads” of men) and chi in Greek. A Christian cross was used on medieval documents or letters to mean faith and honesty. It can still be seen on Medieval churches as a symbol of Christ and is why we sometimes see Christmas written as Xmas.

The Chi Rho is one of the earliest forms of christogram, and is formed by superimposing the first two (capital) letters chi and rho (ΧΡ) of the Greek word "ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ" = KRistos = Christ to produce the monogram.

It is said that the pronunciation of the letter "X" in Spanish, though generally transliterated as equis, sounds like a native Spanish speaker saying "a kiss" in English.

The x also became the signature of choice in the Middle Ages since most of the common people could not read or write. A literal kiss would be placed upon the cross of a letter by the signer as a display of their sworn oath. Documents sealed with an x embossed in wax or lead (letters, books, oaths of political and economic fealty between kings and their vassals)were "sealed with a kiss.”

Much later, the acronym SWAK became popular during World War I for soldiers to imprint on their letters home.

There is speculation that the use of o may be of a more modern American origin. When arriving in the United States, Jewish immigrants, most of whose first language was Yiddish, would use an 'O' to sign documents, rather than the Christian X as a sign of the cross. Immigration inspectors called anyone who signed with an “o” “a kikel [circle in Yiddish] or kikeleh [little circle], which was shortened to kike,” and eventually took on a derogatory meaning.


Still, the origin of O as a hug and the combining of X and O is debatable.

Some interpret X as the crossed arms of a hug and O as the puckered lips of a kiss. How about X representing the four lips of a kiss and O the four arms of a hug?

The Oxford English Dictionary states that X is "used to represent a kiss, esp. in the subscription to a letter."

Some sources say that, based on the pronunciation of the letters, X sounds like 'kiss' and O sounds like 'hold', as in 'I hold you'.