bXNewFolder

Use a hotkey to create a folder within Windows Explorer!

bxNewFolder adds a "New Folder" button to the toolbar of Windows Explorer. It also provides a hotkey (F12) to create a new folder within the Explorer quickly.
Get it! Enjoy it! It's free for use at home!

Go to source: BAxBEx software products - free downloads

Mortal Sins

Mortal sins are a bit more vague. They are voluntary acts "said, done or desired contrary to the eternal law, or a thought, word, or deed contrary to the eternal law." The key word there is "voluntary" because as this site puts it, mortal sins cannot be committed "accidentally." That's good news, but according to Wikipedia, mortal sins cannot be forgiven after the sinner dies. Depending on your particular system of beliefs, that may be cause to sign up for some volunteer work sooner rather than later.

http://www.saintaquinas.com/mortal_sin.html

Deadly Sins

Deadly sins are synonymous with cardinal sins and correspond with "certain aspects of human nature." They include the big seven -- pride, gluttony, lust, avarice, sloth, wrath, and envy (aka the horrible things Kevin Spacey's character did to his victims in the movie Seven). The seven deadly sins never appear as a list in the Bible, though some believe they can be found in the Gospel of Matthew. These sins are opposed by the seven virtues -- charity, meekness, zeal, generosity, moderation, chastity, and humility.

http://www.whitestonejournal.com/seven_deadly_sins/

He drew a deep breath. 'Well, I'm back,' he said.

The last line of The Lord of The Rings, by J R R Tolkein

StripMail

StripMail is a FREEWARE utility that:
Strips the characters ">" and "" from forwarded e-mails.
Formats the text into paragraphs, making it easier to read.
Changes the text's right margin, by indenting.
Can be used with any e-mail client.

Go to source: Stripmail Home Page

PureText

Have you ever copied some text from a web page or a document and then wanted to paste it as simple text into another application without getting all the formatting from the original source? PureText makes this simple by adding a new Windows hot-key (default is WINDOWS+V) that allows you to paste text to any application without formatting.

Go to source: PureText Home Page

GB Road Numbering

The system, which is still used now, consists of zones defined by arterial roads nominally starting in London (although the A6 always started outside the city), numbered clockwise from the A1 to the A6, and the A7, A8 and A9 numbered clockwise from Edinburgh. Roads in between take less important, longer numbers beginning with the zone number they are in. For example, the A20 is between the A2 and the A3. Roughly speaking, the shorter the number, the more important the road, so for example the A18 is more important than the A1077.

Go to source: Great Britain road numbering scheme - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Socrates on Yielding

“I will not yield to any man contrary to what is right, for fear of death, even if I should die at once for not yielding.”

--Socrates

Isograms

David Crystal's new book, By Hook or By Crook: A Journey In Search of English, contains a note on isogrammatic place names. An isogram is a word in which each letter appears only once. After a lot of searching, he came across Bricklehampton, a small village in Worcestershire. He writes, "Its 14 letters make it the longest such name in the [English] language. Maybe there's a place in the middle of Canada or Australia that beats Bricklehampton, but I haven't yet found it." Over to you ...

World Wide Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2007. All rights reserved. The Words Web site is at http://www.worldwidewords.org .

Siege Perilous

The legendary seat at King Arthur's Round Table reserved for the knight who would find the Holy Grail; it was fatal for anyone else to sit in it

Huxley on reading

To be well informed, one must read quickly a great number of merely instructive books. To be cultivated, one must read slowly and with a lingering appreciation the comparatively few books that have been written by men who lived, thought, and felt with style.

--Aldous Huxley, British novelist and essayist, quoted in _Speaking of Books_, edited by Rob Kaplan and Harold Rabinowitz

Schiehallion Measurements

The Reverend Neville Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal, came up with a plan to prove that Newton's Law of Gravity holds for matter on the Earth as well as in the heavens. For this he needed a symmetrical mountain - Schiehallion appeared to be perfect.

http://www.sillittopages.co.uk/schie/schie90.html

Beef Grades

Prime is the highest rating, then Choice, Select, and Standard.
Don't even ask about Canner grade.

http://www.ams.usda.gov/kidsweb/beefgrades.htm

Taskbar Shuffle

No hotkeys, no extra steps, just rearrange the buttons on your Windows taskbar by dragging and dropping them. Allows you to rearrange your system tray icons by dragging and dropping as well (but that does require a hotkey). Completely FREE.

Go to source: home of the nerd cave taskbar shuffle and more

Chiasmus

chiasmus (ky-AZ-mus) n .
a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases.

NEVER LET A FOOL KISS YOU
OR A KISS FOOL YOU
by Dr. Mardy Grothe

Go to source: What is Chiasmus

Six degrees of separation

Six degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. The theory was first proposed in 1929 by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy in a short story called "Chains."

In the 1950's, Ithiel de Sola Pool (MIT) and Manfred Kochen (IBM) set out to prove the theory mathematically. Although they were able to phrase the question (given a set N of people, what is the probability that each member of N is connected to another member via k_1, k_2, k_3...k_n links?), after twenty years they were still unable to solve the problem to their own satisfaction. In 1967, American sociologist Stanley Milgram devised a new way to test the theory, which he called "the small-world problem." He randomly selected people in the mid-West to send packages to a stranger located in Massachusetts. The senders knew the recipient's name, occupation, and general location. They were instructed to send the package to a person they knew on a first-name basis who they thought was most likely, out of all their friends, to know the target personally. That person would do the same, and so on, until the package was personally delivered to its target recipient.

Although the participants expected the chain to include at least a hundred intermediaries, it only took (on average) between five and seven intermediaries to get each package delivered. Milgram's findings were published in Psychology Today and inspired the phrase "six degrees of separation."

Go to source: What is six degrees of separation? - a definition from Whatis.com - see also: small world, small world problem

Innit

One final point: the strange 'innit?'-laden patois that chavs use amongst themselves is a slang derived from the argot of the polo field. For instance 'bird' is a reference to the way the polo shirt billows in the breeze, and thence to the shirt itself, and 'minger' (pronounced to rhyme with 'singer', not 'ginger' - ed) is a general expression of approval. Another amusing term is 'happy slap' which is the polo equivalent of a 'high five', albeit performed with polo sticks at full gallop. So, should you be confronted by a group of these youths, I recommend you open your conversation with 'Your bird's a minger, innit?' and then request a happy slap. If you do this then I am sure you will be assured of a warm welcome.

Go to source: Trout : Vulture : Chavs

Count the superfluous redundant pleonastic tautologies

My fellow countrymen, I speak to you as coequals, knowing you are deserving of the honest truth. And let me warn you in advance, my subject matter concerns a serious crisis caused by an event in my past history: the execution-style killing of a security guard on a delivery truck. At that particular point in time, I found myself in a deep depression, making mental errors which seemed as though they might threaten my future plans. I am not over-exaggerating. I needed a new beginning, so I decided to pay a social visit to a personal friend with whom I share the same mutual objectives and who is one of the most unique individuals I have ever personally met. The end result was an unexpected surprise. When I reiterated again to her the fact that I needed a fresh start, she said I was exactly right; and, as an added plus, she came up with a final solution that was absolutely perfect. Based on her past experience, she felt we needed to join together in a common bond for a combined total of twenty-four hours a day, in order to find some new initiatives. What a novel innovation! And, as an extra bonus, she presented me with the free gift of a tuna fish. Right away I noticed an immediate positive improvement. And although my recovery is not totally complete, the sum total is I feel much better now knowing I am not uniquely alone.
--From George Carlin's When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops

Hanlon's razor

Hanlon's razor is an adage which reads:
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”
Also worded as:
“Never assume malice when stupidity will suffice.”
Hanlon's Razor is a favorite of hackers and often shows up in sig blocks, fortune files, and the login banners of BBS systems and commercial networks.
Go to source: Hanlon's razor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Monty Hall Problem

This story is true, and comes from an American tv game show. Here is the situation. Finalists in a tv game show are invited up onto the stage, where there are three closed doors. The host explains that behind one of the doors is the star prize - a car. Behind each of the other two doors is just a goat. Obviously the contestant wants to win the car, but does not know which door conceals the car.
The host invites the contestant to choose one of the three doors. Let us suppose that our contestant chooses door number 3. Now, the host does not initially open the door chosen by the contestant. Instead he opens one of the other doors - let us say it is door number 1. The door that the host opens will always reveal a goat. Remember the host knows what is behind every door!
The contestant is now asked if they want to stick with their original choice, or if they want to change their mind, and choose the other remaining door that has not yet been opened. In this case number 2. The studio audience shout suggestions. What is the best strategy for the contestant? Does it make any difference whether they change their mind or stick with the original choice?
http://www.grand-illusions.com/monty2.htm

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same"

Attributed to Alphonse Karr (1808-1890), French journalist, novelist in Les Guêpes (Paris, Jan. 31, 1849).

Lord of the Rings Reading Order

The list below is sorted according to the default set of preferences, which should be a decent reading order for many people. (It's close to my own preferences, but with less emphasis on Tolkien's essays.) It also gives a default amount of information (it doesn't include information on how "canonical" each book is, for example). If you would like a list tailored to your own personal preferences, you can find the customization form at the bottom of the page.
http://tolkien.slimy.com/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/~steuard/booklist.pl

Lord of the Rings Timeline

A lot of people who read the Lord of the Rings for the first time not only get confused by the large amount of names and places but also of the many storylines and switches that occur during the book. In general the first book: The Fellowship of the Ring starts pretty much chronilogical and follows the actions of Frodo and the other Hobbits. A mayor turning point is the Council of Elrond where the Fellowship of the Ring is formed and the company sets out on its quest. The End of the First Book and the beginning of the Second Book concern the Breaking of the Fellowship and from that point the story gets more complicated as there are three major groups to follow. During the Second book and the Third book the story switches from group to group while often going back in time.We have created four Timelines that give a chronological summary of the major events that concern the main characters. Each character has his own coloured line that can be followed as the characters gather and disperse. The First Timeline follows the actions of some of the members of the Fellowship of the Ring from the moment that Gandalf visits Frodo in Hobbiton until the Council of Elrond.

Go to source: Lord of the Rings Time Line

The Prisoner

After 30 years of The Prisoner appreciation society - Six of One - waiting to learn if there will ever be a 'sequel', firm news is now appearing. The final Prisoner episode - Fall Out - ended the original series abruptly, back in 1967. Now, 4 decades on, there is to be a new series based on the old one, which had 17 hourly epsiodes. But the new production is a mini-series of 6 episodes, costing £1 million each. The sixties' stories had a budget of £75,000.
The satellite TV channel Sky One has unveiled plans for a new six-part “thrilling reinvention” of The Prisoner, as director of programmes Richard Woolfe describes the project, with Christopher Eccleston proposed for the lead role of Number Six. Woolfe adds that the mini-series will be a “sophisticated, high-concept drama to rival anything on the terrestrials and the best of the U.S. It's our biggest drama commission ever and every penny will be evident on screen. We want to capture the imagination of a new generation of viewers.”
Go to source: Prisoner-Remake - McGoohan - Eccleston - Six of One

The Equivalence Principle

The Equivalence Principle

May 18, 2007: Standing on the Moon in 1971, Apollo 15 astronaut Dave Scott held his hands out at shoulder height, a hammer in one hand and a feather in the other. And as the world looked on via live television, he let go.
It was an odd sight: the feather didn't drift to the ground, it plummeted, falling just as fast as the hammer. Without air resistance to slow the feather, the two objects hit moondust at the same instant.
"What do you know!" exclaimed Scott. "Mr. Galileo was right."
Scott was referring to a famous experiment of the 16th century. Depending on who tells the story, Galileo Galilei either dropped balls from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa or he rolled balls down slopes at home. Either way, the result was the same: Although the balls were made of different materials, they all reached bottom at the same time.
Today, this is known as "the equivalence principle." Gravity accelerates all objects equally regardless of their masses or the materials from which they are made. It's a cornerstone of modern physics.
But what if the equivalence principle (EP) is wrong?
Galileo's experiments were only accurate to about 1%, leaving room for doubt, and skeptical physicists have been "testing EP" ever since. The best modern limits, based on, e.g., laser ranging of the Moon to measure how fast it falls around Earth, show that EP holds within a few parts in a trillion (1012). This is fantastically accurate, yet the possibility remains that the equivalence principle could fail at some more subtle level.
"It's a possibility we must investigate," says physicist Clifford Will of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. "Discovering even the slightest difference in how gravity acts on objects of different materials would have enormous implications."
In fact, it could provide the first real evidence for string theory. String theory elegantly explains fundamental particles as different vibrations of infinitesimal strings, and in doing so solves many lingering problems of modern physics. But string theory is highly controversial, in part because most of its predictions are virtually impossible to verify with experiments. If it's not testable, it's not science.
Go to source: NASA - The Equivalence Principle

Benford's law

Benford's law, also called the first-digit law, states that in lists of numbers from many real-life sources of data, the leading digit is 1 almost one third of the time, and larger numbers occur as the leading digit with less and less frequency as they grow in magnitude, to the point that 9 is the first digit less than one time in twenty. This is based on the observation that real-world measurements are generally distributed logarithmically, thus the logarithm of a set of real-world measurements is generally distributed uniformly

link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford

"Ninety percent of everything is crud"

“Ninety percent of everything is crud”. Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, who once said, “Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud. That's because 90% of everything is crud.” Sturgeon himself called this “Sturgeon's Revelation”, and it first appeared in the March 1958 issue of Venture Science Fiction; he gave Sturgeon's Law as “Nothing is always absolutely so.” Oddly, when Sturgeon's Revelation is cited, the final word is almost invariably changed to ‘crap’. Compare Hanlon's Razor, Ninety-Ninety Rule. Though this maxim originated in SF fandom, most hackers recognize it and are all too aware of its truth.

From http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/S/Sturgeons-Law.html

Occam's razor

Occam's razor (sometimes spelled Ockham's razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory. The principle is often expressed in Latin as the lex parsimoniae ("law of parsimony" or "law of succinctness"):

entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem,

which translates to:

entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.

This is often paraphrased as "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one." In other words, when multiple competing theories are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selecting the theory that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest hypothetical entities. It is in this sense that Occam's razor is usually understood.

Originally a tenet of the reductionist philosophy of nominalism, it is more often taken today as a heuristic maxim that advises economy, parsimony, or simplicity in scientific theories.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_Razor

triskaidekaphobia

Word of the Day for Friday, July 13, 2007

triskaidekaphobia \tris-ky-dek-uh-FOH-bee-uh\, noun:

A morbid fear of the number 13 or the date Friday the 13th.

From Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Shibboleths of a "good education"

Some grammatical rules that have been used as shibboleths of a "good education" include

• no prepositions at the end of sentences (which often provokes the reply, apocryphally attributed to Churchill, that "this is the sort of pedantry up with which I will not put".)
• no verbless sentences (these are common in literature: Not so. Really?)
• use different from rather than different than (different than has been well established in literature for centuries; cf. different to)
• no initial ands or buts (in literature, and and but can even begin a paragraph: But suppose all this is rubbish? or, And so it turns out ...)
• use a possessive noun with a gerund: women's having the vote would be ... (actually, women having the vote is traditional usage)
• no use of themself or theirselves as pronouns to refer to singular nouns or persons: The teacher will introduce themself at the beginning of the lecture. (This usage is contentious, with supporters on both sides of the argument. This has developed as a gender-neutral alternative.)
• use of the subjunctive mood. The "correct" form is "If it were so..." rather than, "If it was..." and "Whether it were..." rather than "Whether it was..." While the subjunctive is frequently dropped, especially in colloquial English, it is still a widely used part of the language and an educated speaker will find fault in such examples as "would that it was so", rather than "would that it were so."
• between you and I (more properly between you and me; "me" is objective case, suited for use in a prepositional phrase. However, because "me" is often used for "I" in informal speech, and sometimes judged incorrect according to grammatical standards, speakers often resort to hypercorrection, producing this phrase, which is used as a negative shibboleth indicating a social climber. An interesting case because it is a shibboleth produced by trying to avoid another shibboleth.)

link: http://www.answers.com/topic/shibboleth

Schopenhauer / BLACK TOOLS by Hanspeter Schmid

The German philosopher Schopenhauer compiled the list of 38 tricks I have shown you in the six preceding issues of this Newsletter. Schopenhauer never published his list of tricks, although he possibly presented it in lectures at the University of Berlin in 1830. His way of explaining the tricks is rather outdated now so I took his list, combined it with some of my own philosophy, and recorded it in six Black Tools columns; I'll call them [1; March/April 1999] to [6; January/February 2000]. The seven articles available on this page appeared in the Newsletter of the IEEE Professional Communication Society in 1999 and 2000.

The Art of Misinterpretation
Salami Tactics
To Mock a Mockingbird
Making Conclusions
Common Nonsense
This May Work in Theory
End of the Debate

from http://www.schmid-werren.ch/blacktools/index.html

File Tagging in Windows

> By tagging I'm referring to multiple terms that describe or categorize a computer object. Is there such software/freeware?

Lifehacker. com recently featured a piece of freeware that did this but it didn't handle all file types.

In Win XP the property box of any file -- accessed via the right-click menu -- has a section where keywords can be added. I've tested this and discovered that Windows built-in search function will search on these keywords. However, one drawback to this approach is that you can't add keywords to files in bulk. Furthermore, on some files -- for reasons I can't fathom -- the keyword box is sometimes greyed out.

Another possible approach would be to simply use filenames that feature a string of keywords that you could search on. However, for various reasons, you might prefer not to do this and keep the original filename intact. No problem -- create a shortcut to the file and re-name this shortcut as a series of keywords (256 character limit). Save all such shortcuts in a central repository and only search this folder for specific keywords using Window's search function. You could even save this search and quickly call it up for future searches. It would probably help to develop a standardised system of keywords.

I've tested this system and what's nice about it is that the shortcuts automatically update when you move either the original file or shortcut around so you never lose track of the original file. I'm guessing though that this will only work as long as the shortcuts and respective files remain on the same drive, i. e. the system breaks down if you move a file to a different partition.

You could use freeware file re-naming utililies to re-name files in bulk with such a system. Use a freeware shortcut checker to periodically clean it out of shortcuts that point to files that no longer exist. Such a system would also work on any version of Windows.

Another optionn is to create a text file with the same name as your original file but with the .txt extension. You would load your keywords into this file and save it alongside the original file. When you do a keyword search, restrict it to text files. When you find the relevant text file(s), you'll know where the original file is and the name of it. The downside of this system though is that it requires more housekeeping to make sure that the two files always stay together. There is a piece of freeware that takes this approach, but its name escapes me right now.

Hopefully, these suggestions will get your creative juices flowing. . .

From alt. comp. freeware

Underground Kent

Underground Kent is a site dedicated to the many underground features that can be found not just in Kent but in other areas. They are mostly military fortifications that have been built over the last three centuries, but other features that included tunnels can also be found here. All sites are man made, or in the case of mines, heavily influenced by industrial usage. The aim is to provide a glimpse into the rarely seen and often ignored world that exists beneath our feet.
Here you will find information on tunnels in Dover, Medway, Sheppey, Thanet, Grain and Other Areas.

from http://www.undergroundkent.co.uk/

07/07/07: Is This Your Lucky Day?

By Heather Whipps, Special to LiveScience

Those superstitious types who freaked out last year when the calendar read 06/06/06 will have something to smile about on the 7th day of the 7th month, 2007.

Believing the triple appearance of the number 7 will bring luck, many people are planning important events for this first Saturday in July. Brides and grooms, especially, looking for a little extra dose of marital fortune, are flocking to the altar in droves on 07/07/07, according to wedding watchers.

If they only knew what the Chinese were thinking. (*)

The number seven is considered lucky due to its frequent and favorable appearance in the Bible, say historians.

"As the number of the days of God's first week, of the levels of heaven...of the numbers of angels and trumpets, etc., the number came in the last few centuries BCE to represent divine perfection," said David Frankfurter, professor of religious studies and history at the University of New Hampshire. "Something organized seven-fold meant that it corresponded to God's own arrangement."

link: http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/070626_lucky_seven.html

(*) ... many Chinese consider 7 a very unlucky number associated with death. Don’t tell the brides

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn;
Wire, briar, limber lock,
Three geese in a flock.

One flew east,
And one flew west,
And one flew over the cuckoo's nest.

From http://www.filmsite.org/onef.html

Deja Moo

… you're thinking of deja moo, which is the feeling that you've heard this bullshit before.

[ from uk.rec.houmour ]

Underground Edwardian shopping arcade in Keighley, West Yorkshire

I am aware that most of the recent additions to the Sub Brit web site have been military or cold war sites. Sub Brit does of course cover many other types of sites so the latest addition to the web site is something completely different.
During the renovation of the Royal Arcade in Keithley in 2003 an underground level of shops was discovered while clearing the basement area. This has already been featured in Subterranea but have now added it to the web site with a selection of recent pictures and some archive shots of the above ground arcade.
I hope it's of interest.

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/k/keighley_royal_arcade/index.shtml

[ from uk.rec.subterranea ]

Windows Photo Editors

Here's my really short list of highly recommended free downloadable windows photo editors ...

MY RECOMMENDATIONS (based mostly on this thread & some quick tests)
1. http://www.irfanview.com/ (use Irfanview as your primary viewer)
2. http://www.getpaint.net/ (use Paint.Net as your primary editor)
3. http://www.gimp.org/ (use The Gimp as your very functional editor)
4. http://www.artweaver.de (use Artweaver to create digital paintings)

[ from alt.comp.freeware ]

TV Guide Names the Top Cult Shows Ever

Three years ago, TV Guide dared to compile a list of the Top 25 Cult Shows Ever, a veritable who's who of programs that got people talking — and in many cases still had them talking long after the final episode aired. The litmus tests were many. These are the types of shows that make normal folk Romulan-fluent, series that inspire what can only be called worship. The faithful collect everything from action figures (and perhaps way too many of them) to yellowing scripts obtained by any means necessary. They attend conventions in fangs or blue skin or with Hurley's numbers tattooed in disturbing places.

Spurred on by the successful campaign to get Jericho plucked from the postapocalyptic ashes and returned to CBS' 2007-08 slate, TV Guide revisited that years-old countdown, asking ourselves such tough questions as: Is Lost too "big" to be considered cult? Did the big-screen Serenity help or hinder Firefly's under-the-radar cachet? And, of course, just how high does one Miss Veronica Mars get placed on the list at this nascent stage in her candidacy?

In pondering this list anew, we also shuffled around (and even excised) some previous favorites. Shows such as Forever Knight and My So-Called Life, though previously ranked among the top 25, we decided simply have not withstood the test of time, while Freaks and Geeks' legacy has only been confirmed by the success of Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen and most everyone who brushed up against that too-short-lived comedy.

Without further adieu (and reluctant to drop too many deserving names from the list), TV Guide presents the Top 30 Cult Shows Ever, a "best of" that is sure to ignite conversation and debate — both of which we encourage at this Top Cult Shows blog set up just for the occasion.

*Denotes newcomer to the list

30) Strangers with Candy (1999-2000)*
29) Absolutely Fabulous (1994-2003)
28) Stargate SG-1 (1997-2007)*
27) H.R. Pufnstuf (1969-1971)
26) Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1975-1978)
25) Firefly (2002-2003)*
24) Twin Peaks (1990-1991)
23) Dark Shadows (1966-1971)
22) Doctor Who (1963-present)
21) Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000)

20) The Avengers (1966-1969)
19) Quantum Leap (1989-1993)
18) Veronica Mars (2004-2007)*
17) Beauty and the Beast (1987-1990)
16) Babylon 5 (1994-1998)
15) Family Guy (1999-present)
14) Battlestar Galactica (2003-present)*
13) Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1989-1999)
12) Pee-Wee's Playhouse (1986-1991)
11) Jericho (2006-present)*

10) Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001)
9) Twilight Zone (1959-1964)
8) The Simpsons (1989-present)
7) The Prisoner (1967-1968)
6) Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-1974)
5) Lost (2004-present)*
4) Farscape (1999-2003)
3) Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)
2) The X-Files (1993-2002)
1) Star Trek (1966-1969)

link: http://www.tvguide.com/news/top-cult-shows/070629-01