Subfloptimal (n): pertaining to a point so insignificant, that the time lost in debate outweighs the potential benefit/cost of any outcome in consideration.

Suppose you’re about to drive to a concert with some friends. Friend A suggests a shortcut. Friend B suggests a different shortcut. Letting friends A and B argue about their shortcuts for five minutes is subfloptimal, because while one shortcut may indeed be better than the other, the time spent arguing is going to slow you down more than just choosing a path and going.

This comes up a lot in software projects. Someone will suggest we rename all our floobs and, instead, call them zorts. You might think “hey, there are good reasons we called them floobs” but if you can tolerate “zorts” without worrying much, the distinction is subfloptimal. It’s easier to just make the change than to argue about it, as long as you’re not one of those people who finds it offensive to call something a zort.

In which case you can go zort yourself.

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Can you read people's thoughts just by looking at them?

Fascinating.

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Anyone who wants to win an election should read Lakoff. Unless you're a Republican, in which case he probably doesn't have much to teach you (and you'll hate his politics).

What is peculiar to California is Arnold and the culture of the movies. But the same mechanism lay behind the Republican victories in the 2002 election— and in elections around the country since the days of Ronald Reagan— but especially in the last decade when Republicans have mastered the art form of activating the strict father image in the minds of voters. Arnie's popularity has the same source as Bush's popularity with the Nascar dads: identification with strict father values and stereotypes. Moreover, Davis' inability to communicate strong progressive values is hardly unique to him. Democrats nationwide have a similar inability to effectively and strongly communicate their values and evoke powerful progressive stereotypes.

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Linguist George Lakoff gives a good rundown of the mass psychology that makes Arnold so shockingly electable. Chris Lydon attempts to offer blogs as a possible way out, but Lakoff stays focused on his (rather convincing) explanations of the success of conservatives' language and the failure of liberals'.

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Check out the definition of a crucial StrongBad term in this user-edited slang dictionary. Of course, they also have some traditional words that you can already find in the OED.

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Collaborative kinda-multi-lingual dictionary.