Holy fucking shit, Batman! How paranoid can you get?

[plutherus]

Almanacs? Watch out for people carrying freakin' almanacs??!

From here.

I'm not sure whether to laugh, scream, or cry...

Comments

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

So, the next time I fly, you think I should bring my my Farmer's Almanac, a detailed map of D.C., and my copy of The Poor Man's James Bond? Oh, and I can't forget my copy of the Holy Koran now, can I?

[amritarosa.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes..it's to foil the secret messages encoded by certain organizations within...."al-manac"...sounds fishy to me!!!

Now if I could just figure out what "manac" means.....

I think it actually is an Arabic word!

[plutherus.livejournal.com]

So, I looked it up:
According to The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (1976 edition), "Nakk" is defined as "selection, choice" (a similar word, "nukba" is a "selected piece, selected item, selected passage").
"ma-" is a common prefix, frequently denoting (among a dozen other uses) a place where something is or takes place, and, of course, "Al-" is a simply a definite article (i.e., "the"). So "Almanac" (or "Al-manakk") could be a place where you would find selected passages or bits of information from other places. Quite possibly the word actually has Arabic roots, so, yeah, it probably is something used by terrorists, along with Algebra, Algorithms, Alkali metals, and the star Aldebaran.

While I had the dictionary out, I checked a couple more things that might be of interest:
"gaur" means the bottom, or declivity, or depth and can also imply a depraved individual (so watch out for "Al-gaur", or "Al Gore"!)

And, for the C programmers:
"laak" is the act of guarding, or separating something to keep it safe. So malaak (or "malloc") would be something that performs that action. (This one is probably just a coincidence :-)

Re: I think it actually is an Arabic word!

[amritarosa.livejournal.com]

I'll try not to go about with Aldebaran in my pocket, then. Wouldn't want to get arrested.