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religion of CHI


religion of CHI: n. /ki:/ [Case Western Reserve University] n.
   Yet another hackish parody religion (see also Church of the
   SubGenius, Discordianism).  In the mid-70s, the canonical
   "Introduction to Programming" courses at CWRU were taught in
   Algol, and student exercises were punched on cards and run on a
   Univac 1108 system using a homebrew operating system named CHI.
   The religion had no doctrines and but one ritual: whenever the
   worshipper noted that a digital clock read 11:08, he or she would
   recite the phrase "It is 11:08; ABS, ALPHABETIC, ARCSIN, ARCCOS,
   ARCTAN."  The last five words were the first five functions in the
   appropriate chapter of the Algol manual; note the special
   pronunciations /obz/ and /ark'sin/ rather than the more common
   /ahbz/ and /ark'si:n/.  Using an alarm clock to warn of 11:08's
   arrival was considered harmful.