Neal Stephenson Out-Takes by MatthewsP

In Cryptonomicon, characters exchange secure messages by using a cipher enabled by a deck of playing cards. This Solitaire cipher created by cryptanalyst Bruce Schneier had *what code name* in the novel, derived from the Latin for "priest", and sometimes seen on Twitter as the handle for a prominent Argentinian.

Appearing in Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, this red-haired man is apparently ageless, possibly immortal, and his past occupations include physician and Catholic priest. *Name this character* (first or surname will do), whose first name is the same as a biblical patriarch, and whose surname Randy briefly confuses with a super-user account found in Linux and UNIX operating systems.

A minor character in Seveneves has the unusual surname "Taxlaw", derived from the fact that she has memorized the content of a particular encyclopedia volume. *What is her first name*, indicating the first article in that volume, and the method of communication she is expected to use to contact the "Pingers", human survivors whose community is underwater.

Orolo and Erasmas are scientists cloistered in a monastic community who discover an alien spaceship orbiting their planet. However, the scientists are expelled from their order for using a forbidden technology--a video camera--to record their observations. *What is the name of this 2008 Stephenson novel*, which takes its title from the ritual banishment Orolo and Erasmas suffer?

On the cover of the book referenced in Question 4, Stephenson's name obscures a curve which is an example of the "lemniscate of Bernoulli." This shape is generated by deviations in the position of the sun in the sky throughout the year from a fixed point on the earth's surface and at a fixed time of day. *What name* is given to this curve when it is generated by the position of the sun?

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In Stephenson's novel Zodiac, Sangamon Taylor regularly measures the level of PCB pollution in Boston Harbor. *What toxic class of chemical compounds does the abbreviation PCB stand for*?

In "In the Beginning...Was the Command Line", Stephenson likened this operating system to a "Batmobile", as opposed to the "station wagon" metaphor he used for Windows. *Name this OS*, which Apple nearly acquired to replace its old MacOS before turning to NeXT instead, and which was resurrected as the open source OS Haiku.

Stephenson wrote his first novel, "The Big U", while he was still a college student, and he modeled his fictional campus after the real-life Warren Towers dormitory. *What college* did Stephenson attend while writing this novel, which includes the Warren Towers dorm at 700 Commonwealth Avenue, and whose president at the time, John Silber, is the basis for fictional president Septimius Severus Krupp.

The main female character of The Baroque Cycle, she is a native of the fictional British protectorate of Qwghlm, who rose from being in a Turkish harem to becoming a duchess in France. *Name this character* who shares her name with a runaway slave in Uncle Tom's Cabin.

In Cryptonomicon, the present-day protagonist Randy is an officer of a company building a data haven in the fictional Sultanate of Kinakuta. *Name this company*, which also indicates a type of plant that grows on top of another plant, often using the other plant for support or structure, but is not parasitic, instead drawing its water and nutrients from the air, rain, or nearby debris.

The novel Seveneves contains numerous digressions about orbital mechanics, often citing one of five points at which a small body acted upon only by gravity can maintain a stable position relative to two larger bodies. *What name* is associated with these points, honoring the Italian mathematician who discovered the 4th and 5th points, and also known for his work in analytical mechanics, and succeeding Euler in heading the Berlin Academy.

In Reamde, Devin Skraelin, one of the authors for the MMPORG T'Rain, is usually referred to with a nickname referencing his massive weight loss after he started writing on a treadmill. *What is this nickname*, shared by the would-be conqueror of Eternia, who went by the name Keldor before being splashed in the face with a corrosive liquid.