Fleen.

September 3, 2013 8:55 PM

Fleen is among McSweeney's Eleven Lunchmeats I Have Invented. Fleen is a tool for doing stuff with the geometry generated by the kisrhombille tessellation. Fleen is a webcomic insider's webcomic blog about webcomics. Fleen is a sci-fi epic set 6.4 billion years in the future.
posted by Nomyte (25 comments total)

I also have Fleen in my pants. I heard there's a spray for that now.
posted by Samizdata at 9:34 PM on September 3, 2013

"Fleen" is also used as a form of the verb "flee" in Chaucer's "Dido, Queen of Carthage" in "The Legend of Good Women", as well as being a type of creature in the 1990's computer game "The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis".
posted by Stoatfarm at 9:38 PM on September 3, 2013 [3 favorites]

Fleen. It's a floor wax. It's a dessert topping. It's the ex-wife of the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And it makes julienne fries. Everybody needs a little Fleen.

And there are 7 definitions for Fleen in the Urban Dictionary, most of which you really don't want to see.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:39 PM on September 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

The spray is also fleen.

And seriously, yo, check out the Fleen tool. Because it's fucking awesome.
posted by boo_radley at 9:40 PM on September 3, 2013

Well I don't know about the other Fleen's (not keen on lunchmeat, semiregular dual tiling of the hyperbolic planes or comic sans storyboards) but the webcomic insider's webcomic blog about webcomics put me on to the webcomic Bad Machinery so I'm well pleased.
posted by unliteral at 9:41 PM on September 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

I don't want to derail the discussion, but Fleep is a really good comic.
posted by martinrebas at 9:44 PM on September 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

This post uses "fleen" so many times the word has lost all meaning.
posted by RobotHero at 9:47 PM on September 3, 2013 [10 favorites]

Bad Machinery is a spinoff of the older, longer-running Scary Go Round. Fleen is also the plural of "flea" in Middle English.
posted by Nomyte at 9:52 PM on September 3, 2013

"Fleen" is what the sock covered on the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:58 PM on September 3, 2013

It's the number between six and seven!

oh wait, that's bleen
posted by not_on_display at 10:03 PM on September 3, 2013

The tiling referred to by the software link corresponds to the affine G_2 root system. It's pretty sweet, and completely strange. There are four infinite classes of root system: A_n, B_n, C_n, and D_n. (Type A_n, for example, is useful for understanding permutations and invertible matrices. Important stuff! The other types are for special kinds of permutations and special kinds of matrices, like orthogonal matrices.) And then there are the exceptional types: E_6, E_7, E_8, F_4, and G_2. G_2 manages to be the only exceptional system we can draw: the number in the subscript tells you how many dimensions the root system is used for tiling. For example, affine A_2 gives the tiling of the plane by equilateral triangles, and affine A_3 gives the tiling of three-dimensional space by not-quite-regular tetrahedra. But in my work with G_2, it's tended to pop out things that you just don't see in other root systems.... funny little dude!
posted by kaibutsu at 10:06 PM on September 3, 2013 [5 favorites]

It's also a misspelling of a Swedish town.
posted by gkhan at 10:52 PM on September 3, 2013

Wasn't Whoopi Goldberg the spokeswoman for ill-fated online currency Fleen?
posted by chavenet at 11:31 PM on September 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

For some reason it has remained in my mind that Felix Unger went to the prom with Mildred Fleener. I never imagined I would have a use for this information. It also suggests to me that fleener might have been a trade of some kind, like carpenter, smith, wainwright or stoatwargler.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:04 AM on September 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

Suddenly I heard the most awful noise. It drilled into my ears with a familiarity which would have normally frozen me, except right now I was so hot.
“Fleen—Fleen—Fleen!”
I jumped up. So did Eloise Ann.
“Fleen—Fleen!”
Nearer, nearer. there in the doorway of the alcove was my wife in her gypsy dress. I would have said something but what was there to say?

—from My Wicked Wicked Ways, by Errol Fleen.
posted by misteraitch at 1:46 AM on September 4, 2013

If you wanna make this scene
you better have the Fleen.
Else we'll mop you up
like Mr. Clean.
(whispered through heavy reverbs) "Fleeeeeeennnn"

Thank you.
Operators are standing by.
posted by Goofyy at 2:02 AM on September 4, 2013

All is Fleen
Save for not-Fleen
Which We Frankly Do Not Wish to Talk About
Because, You Know, not-Fleen. Eugh.
posted by scruss at 2:27 AM on September 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

Fleen are the nemeses of the titular characters in the beloved math and logic game from my childhood "The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis."
posted by ocherdraco at 3:52 AM on September 4, 2013

Is Googlism still around? Because this FPP really, really reminds me of that.




…yup. Still around.
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:05 AM on September 4, 2013

See? Fleens! (They're the green ones.)
posted by ocherdraco at 4:15 AM on September 4, 2013

Sorry, guys, between this and the Listiclock post I have a horrible feeling that fleen is ubik. Been nice knowing y[static]
posted by ardgedee at 5:05 AM on September 4, 2013

it turns a sandwich into a banquet!
posted by aka burlap at 6:08 AM on September 4, 2013

I think I read somewhere that fleen is the number of epicycles needed to describe the motion of the Earth's Moon in a Europa-centric solar system.

Beware the Ides of getting lost in that Roswell-curio kisrhombille thing. Which looks designed by a medieval Arabic numerologist cabal to trap proto-Newtons. The light is green, the trap is clean!
posted by Twang at 8:47 AM on September 4, 2013

That geometry library kinda makes me wish I knew Java.
posted by PMdixon at 3:01 PM on September 4, 2013

Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Fleen)
posted by not_on_display at 8:34 AM on September 5, 2013