Ask PG/HN: What is the spiral thingy on the frontpage?

7 pointsmds1013 comments

I just noticed this on the frontpage today: http://imgur.com/apSQv It appears on Chrome 19 as well as Firefox 13 on Windows 7. What is this? Easter egg of some kind?

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That was a post that included some kind of character that doesn't render properly for some reason. I saw it there towards post #5, then later it was up past post #200, and with the misbehaving character removed. Looks like someone edited it who had admin magic or something.

It's a Thai character that stacks on top of consonants. It really doesn't have any meaning if stacked more than once. Chrome on Linux will show only one such character. Firefox on Linux will put them all on the same line with a sketch of a missing vowel.

GNU/Linux, Chrome 19: http://imgur.com/AUHvY GNU/Linux, Firefox 10: http://imgur.com/2Wstj

And just like that it's disappeared.

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