I have always been very interested in the death of meaning; that's why I joined the C standard committee. An example of semantic death is exemplified by the behaviour of cargo cults, who mimic the rituals of airfields (building towers, waving sticks, lighting fires, etc.) in the hope of eliciting deliveries of cargo. I have only lately become interested in the death of meaning in #thomasthetankengine. In the justly iconic cover painting of the original book, published in 1945, Thomas bursts out of a tunnel in an exciting image. His single headlamp is correctly illustrated to indicate a mineral freight train stopping at intermediate stations. Since then, first the makers of the television series, then countless illustrators who knew nothing about railways (and probably cared less) have slavishly copied that headcode without having the faintest idea what it means. Within a couple of generations, its meaning has died through ignorance and incuriosity. The lamp is now mere decoration, forever fixed in place.