Speaking of Useless Knowledge

Somewhat tellingly, a post as well-researched as the following could only happen when I've spent more than half of the last 72 hours in a self-imposed exile, trying to study but only succeeding only in finding really creative ways to be unproductive. Things I have done instead: watched a lot of episodes of 30 Rock (Alec Baldwin is a god amongst men), explored a freakin' creepy basement, read Ender's Game (for the first time, actually... wow), and watched Pan's Labyrinth (also really good). Finally, yesterday I upgraded to the St. Elba equivilant on campus, the (gasp!) WiFi-less chapel. Sadly, shortly after I arrived and got set up, I realized I actually needed the internet for research, and returned with a sigh to my previously-posted-about nook in the library.

Anyway, in my endless trawling of the internet, I came across the following term: liberticide, which is a destroyer of liberty. Inspired by the slightly unlikely existence of this word, I went fishing for more words about killing, and came up with the following: Vulpicide, Dominicide, Vaticide, Vermicide, Uxoricide, Deicide, Tyrannicide, Lampricide, Giganticide. What do they mean? Take a guess if you're feeling adventurous, or just skip down to my amusingly annotated definitions below.

- Vulpicide: The killing of a fox by means other than hunting with hounds. (Why is this word needed? How AWESOME is it that this word exists?!)
- Dominicide: The act of killing a master.
- Vaticide: The killing of a prophet. (Wouldn't a great headline be: Vaticide at the Vatican?)
- Vermicide: A substance killing worms.
- Uxoricide - The killing of one's wife (Personally, I think this would make a great band name.)
- Deicide: The killing of a god. (Which is, actually, the name of a band.)
- Tyrannicide: The killing of tyrants. (And don't tell me you didn't think for one second it was about dinosaur murders. Don't lie like that.)
- Lampricide: A substance that kills lampreys. (Another misnomer. For one brief, glorious moment, I thought someone had come up with a word for killing lamps and forced it into the accepted vernacular.)
- Giganticide: The killing of a giant. (Hurray! Not a misnomer!)

On a final, triumphant note, I would like to say that I have finally fixed the damn Blogger clock! Muahaha! No longer shall our posts be on Pacific Time! Honestly, you readers have no idea how much this bothered Nathan and I.