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rathole [from the English idiom “down a rathole” for a waste of
money or time] A technical subject that is known to be able to absorb
infinite amounts of discussion time without more than an infinitesimal
probability of arrival at a conclusion or consensus. “That's a
rathole” (or just “Rathole!”) is considered a
pre-emptive bid to change the subject. The difference between ratholes and
religious issues is that a holy war cannot be
pre-empted in this way. Canonical examples are XML namespaces and
open-source licensing.
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