Boars, Barrows and Gilts

I just came across the article, Genetic Correlation Between Boars, Barrows and Gilts for Various Carcass Traits, from the Journal of Animal Science.

1. "Boars, Barrows and Gilts" - it rolls off the tongue. What a lovely phrase.
2. Carcass traits. Ick.

Mirriam Webster defines "gilt" alternately as "superficial brilliance" and "a young female swine." Equally evocatively, it defines "barrow" as "a large mound of earth or stones over the remains of the dead: tumulus" or "a male hog castrated before sexual maturity."

JetBlue All-You-Can-Fly pass

There are publicized restrictions, but I figured there must be more of a catch. But: "No blackout dates apply to Pass travel, and Pass travel is not capacity controlled" (from their terms available here).

Good-bye, Clarifi

I wanted to see if I still needed the Griffin Clarifi, the iPhone case that allowed me to take good pictures of receipts with my iPhone 3G. The 3G S is said to have a shorter focal length. I included pictures with my Nikon D-70 as a reference standard.

Unique file IDs

I write code to generate graphics. When I have a graphic I like, I save the image I've generated. In order to know exactly what code created that image, I like to save the code with the same name. As I gradually improve the code, the names evolve, with an addition of a descriptive word or with a version number. This all requires a kind of foresight (to know what description will be useful to my future self) and systematicness that I don't want to spend the time on. For now I've contented myself with a script that generates a unique time-based ID that I paste onto the end of the file names for the graphic and the code. The script copies the ID to my clipboard (requires OSX). Now all I need is a quicksilver trigger, and I can be more brainless than usual.

the code:

echo `date "+%Y%m%d_%H%M%S"` | pbcopy ; echo `pbpaste`

E-mail closings

From a WaPo article linked at Lifehacker:

Favorite:
Love and Bacon (Spike Mendelsohn)

Occasionally fun:
Seacrest out
Off like a prom dress

Meh:
Warmly
XOXO (meh when i wouldn't XOXO in person)

Does "Cordially" ever mean anything other than "My hostility is only thinly veiled"?
(Ruth McCann, WaPo)

The terseness of these is appealing:
Navy and the Air Force: "V/R" ("Very respectfully")
Marines: "S/F" (Semper Fi)
Army Rangers: "RLTW" ("Rangers Lead the Way")

Sadly, my favorites are probably not fit for public consumption. For example, I'd love to regularly close communications with "I have the honor to remain your obedient servant" but I think it might just make things awkward. I'll be sticking with my stand-by, "Best," unless "Thanks" is relevant.