Thursday, December 31, 2009

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

spectrogram


A spectrogram is an image that shows how the spectral density of a signal varies with time. Also known as spectral waterfalls, sonograms, voiceprints, or voicegrams, spectrograms are used to identify phonetic sounds, to analyse the cries of animals, and in the fields of music, sonar/radar, speech processing, seismology, etc. The instrument that generates a spectrogram is called a spectrograph or sonograph.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

spectrograph


A spectrograph is an optical instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials. The variable measured is most often the light's intensity but could also, for instance, be the polarization state.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

keylogging


Keystroke logging (often called keylogging) is the practice of noting (or logging) the keys struck on a keyboard, typically in a covert manner so that the person using the keyboard is unaware that their actions are being monitored. There are numerous keylogging methods, ranging from hardware- and software-based to electromagnetic and acoustic analysis.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Astroturfing

Astroturfing is a word in American English describing formal political, advertising, or public relations campaigns seeking to create the impression of being spontaneous "grassroots" behavior, hence the reference to the artificial grass, AstroTurf.

The goal of such a campaign is to disguise the efforts of a political or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some political entity—a politician, political group, product, service or event. Astroturfers attempt to orchestrate the actions of apparently diverse and geographically distributed individuals, by both overt ("outreach", "awareness", etc.) and covert (disinformation) means. Astroturfing may be undertaken by an individual pushing a personal agenda or highly organized professional groups with financial backing from large corporations, non-profits, or activist organizations. Very often the efforts are conducted by political consultants who also specialize in opposition research.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Mithraism


The Mithraic Mysteries or Mysteries of Mithras (also Mithraism) was a mystery religion which became popular among the military in the Roman Empire, from the 1st to 4th centuries AD. It is best attested in the cities of Rome and Ostia and in the Roman provinces of Mauretania, Britain, and in the provinces along the Rhine and Danube frontier.

Christianity was similar to Mithraism in many respects; for instance the Ecclesiastical calendar retains numerous remnants of pre-Christian festivals, notably Christmas, which blends elements including both the feast of the Saturnalia and the birthday of Mithra. Evaluation of the relationship of early Christianity with Mithraism has traditionally been based on the polemical testimonies of the 2nd century Church fathers, such as Justin's accusations that the Mithraists were diabolically imitating the Christians. This led to a picture of rivalry between the two religions, which Ernest Renan set forth in his 1882 The Origins of Christianity by saying "if the growth of Christianity had been arrested by some mortal malady, the world would have been Mithraic," However, Renan's conclusions have been criticised by contemporary scholarship. Edwin M. Yamauchi comments on Renan's work which, "published nearly 150 years ago, has no value as a source. He [Renan] knew very little about Mithraism...” Little was actually known about Mithras in 1882.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Agar

Agar or agar agar is a gelatinous substance derived from seaweed. Historically and in a modern context, it is chiefly used as an ingredient in desserts throughout Japan, but in the past century has found extensive use as a solid substrate to contain culture medium for microbiological work. The gelling agent is an unbranched polysaccharide obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from the genera Gelidium and Gracilaria, or seaweed (Sphaerococcus euchema). Commercially it is derived primarily from Gelidium amansii.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

gaffer


In colloquial British English gaffer means a foreman, and is used as a synonym for "boss". In the UK the term is commonly used to refer to sports coaches (football, rugby, etc).

The term is also sometimes used colloquially to refer to an old man, an elderly rustic, and can be used as a prefix to the name (as in Gaffer Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings). The word is probably a shortening of "godfather", with "ga" from association with "grandfather". The female equivalent was "Gammer", which came to colloquially refer to an old lady or gossip.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

gaffer

A gaffer in the motion picture industry is the head of the electrical department, responsible for the execution (and sometimes the design) of the lighting plan for a production. The term was also used to describe men who adjusted lighting in English theatre and men who tended street lamps, after the "gaff" they used, a pole with a hook on its end.

Sometimes the gaffer is credited as Chief Lighting Technician (CLT).

Monday, December 21, 2009

anaphora

In rhetoric, an anaphora (Greek: ἀναφορά, "carrying back") is emphasizing words by repeating them at the beginnings of neighboring clauses. In contrast, an epistrophe (or epiphora) is repeating words at the clauses' ends. See also other figures of speech involving repetition.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

hyperforeignism

A hyperforeignism is a special type of hypercorrection resulting from an unsuccessful attempt to apply the reading rules of a foreign language to a loan word (for example, the application of the reading rules of one language to a word borrowed from another), or occasionally to a native English word believed to be a loan word. The result may be "absurd," reflecting "neither the reading rules of English nor those of the language from which the word in question comes."

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Friday, December 18, 2009

notarization

A notary public (or notary or public notary) is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business. A notary's main functions are to administer oaths and affirmations, take affidavits and statutory declarations, witness and authenticate the execution of certain classes of documents, take acknowledgements of deeds and other conveyances, protest notes and bills of exchange, provide notice of foreign drafts, prepare marine protests in cases of damage, provide exemplifications and notarial copies, and perform certain other official acts depending on the jurisdiction. Any such act is known as a notarization. The term notary public only refers to common-law notaries and should not be confused with civil-law notaries.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Beatification

Beatification (from Latin beatus, blessed, via Greek μακάριος, makarios) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic church of a dead person's accession to Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name (intercession of saints). Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process. A person who is beatified is given the title "Blessed".

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Botellón

Botellón is a custom that takes place mainly in the Spanish nightlife, which involves the gathering of a large number of young people mostly between the ages of 16 and 24 outdoors to drink beverages previously acquired in shops (usually supermarkets), to listen to music and talk. This is often done because of the high prices in bars and being underage for bars and clubs.

The word botellón is an augmentative of botella (bottle) so the literal translation would be "big bottle".

Botellón is also used to refer to a drinking pack consisting of an alcoholic drink bottle, soft drink and ice. It is also known as botelleo, botellona, or botelloneo.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

stillsuit


A stillsuit is a fictional body suit in Frank Herbert's Dune universe, first introduced in the 1965 novel Dune and appearing in every subsequent novel in the series. Stillsuits are worn by the native Fremen of the desert planet Arrakis to maintain their body moisture in the harsh environment. The Science of Dune (2008) analyzes Herbert's stillsuit and its feasibility in the real world as described.

Monday, December 14, 2009

coxswain


In a rowing crew, the coxswain (or simply the cox) is the member who sits in the stern (except in bowloaders) facing the bow, steers the boat, and coordinates the power and rhythm of the rowers.

fansite

fansite

  1. A website aimed at fans of something, such as a singer or football team.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Sabermetrics

Sabermetrics is the analysis of baseball through objective evidence, especially baseball statistics. The term is derived from the acronym SABR, which stands for the Society for American Baseball Research. It was coined by Bill James, who was among its first proponents and has long been its most prominent and public advocate.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Canonization

Canonization (or, canonisation) is the act by which a particular Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint and is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Turbodiesel


Turbodiesel refers to any diesel engine with a turbocharger. Turbocharging is the norm rather than the exception in modern car and truck diesel engines. As with any turbocharged engine, turbodiesels can offer higher specific power outputs, lower emissions levels, improved efficiency and higher refinement levels than their naturally aspirated counterparts.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

megabase

The following abbreviations are commonly used to describe the length of a DNA/RNA molecule:

  • bp = base pair(s)—one bp corresponds to circa 3.4 Å of length along the strand
  • kb (= kbp) = kilo base pairs = 1,000 bp
  • Mb = mega base pairs = 1,000,000 bp
  • Gb = giga base pairs = 1,000,000,000 bp

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Freewheel


In mechanical or automotive engineering, a freewheel or overrunning clutch is a device in a transmission that disengages the driveshaft from the driven shaft when the driven shaft rotates faster than the driveshaft. An overdrive is sometimes mistakenly called a freewheel, but is otherwise unrelated.

The condition of a driven shaft spinning faster than its driveshaft exists in most bicycles when the rider holds his or her feet still, no longer pushing the pedals. Without a freewheel the rear wheel would drive the pedals around.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Dulse

Palmaria palmata (L.) Kuntze, also called dulse, dillisk, dilsk or creathnach, is a red alga (Rhodophyta) previously referred to as Rhodymenia palmata (Linnaeus) Greville. It grows on the northern coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is a well-known snack food, and in Iceland, where it is known as söl, it has been an important source of fibre throughout the centuries.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

transclusion

In computer science, transclusion is the inclusion of part of a document into another document by reference.

For example, an article about a country might include a chart or a paragraph describing that country's agricultural exports from a different article about agriculture. Rather than copying the included data and storing it in two places, a transclusion embodies modular design, by allowing it to be stored only once (and perhaps corrected and updated if the link type supported that) and viewed in different contexts. The reference also serves to link both articles.

The term was coined by hypertext pioneer Ted Nelson in 1982.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Ferrocement

Ferrocement is a composite material which is used in building or sculpture with cement, sand, water and wire or mesh material—often called a thin shell in North America.

Ferrocement has great strength and economy. It is fireproof, earthquake safe and does not rust, rot or blow down in storms. It has a broad range of applications which include home building, creating sculptures, repair of existing artifacts and building boats and ships.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Gondwana


Gondwana (IPA: /ɡɒndˈwɑːnə/), originally Gondwanaland is the name given to a southern precursor-supercontinent (final ongoing joining occurred between ca. 570-510 Ma, joining East Gondwana to West Gondwana) and then as a remnant separated from Laurasia 180-200 million years ago during the breakup of the Pangaea supercontinent that existed about 500 to 200 Ma ago into two large segments. While the corresponding northern hemisphere continent Laurasia moved further north, the nearly equal in area Gondwana included most of the landmasses in today's southern hemisphere, including Antarctica, South America, Africa, Madagascar, Australia-New Guinea, and New Zealand, as well as Arabia and the Indian subcontinent, which have now moved into the Northern Hemisphere. The name is derived from the Gondwana region of central northern India (from Sanskrit gondavana "forest of Gond").

The adjective "Gondwanan" is in common use in biogeography when referring to patterns of distribution of living organisms, typically when the organisms are restricted to two or more of the now-discontinuous regions that were once part of Gondwana; e.g., the Proteaceae, a family of plants that is known only from Chile, South Africa, and Australia are considered to have a "Gondwanan distribution". This pattern is often considered to indicate an archaic, or relict lineage.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Campanology


Campanology (from late Latin campana, "bell"; and Greek -λογία, -logia) is the study of bells. It encompasses the physical realities of bells — how they are cast, tuned and sounded — as well as the various methods devised to perform bell-ringing.

It is common to collect together a set of tuned bells and treat the whole as one musical instrument. Such collections — such as a Flemish carillon, a Russian zvon, or a British "ring of bells" used for change ringing — have their own practices and challenges; and campanology is likewise the study of perfecting such instruments, composing music for them, and performing it.

In this sense, however, the word "campanology" is most often used in reference to relatively large bells, often hung in a tower. It is not usually applied to assemblages of smaller bells, such as a glockenspiel, a collection of tubular bells, or an Indonesian gamelan.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Combinatorics

Combinatorics is a branch of pure mathematics concerning the study of discrete (and usually finite) objects. Aspects of combinatorics include "counting" the objects satisfying certain criteria (enumerative combinatorics), deciding when the criteria can be met, and constructing and analyzing objects meeting the criteria (as in combinatorial designs and matroid theory), finding "largest", "smallest", or "optimal" objects (extremal combinatorics and combinatorial optimization), and finding algebraic structures these objects may have (algebraic combinatorics).

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

colocation

In computing, colocation refers to installing or running data or applications in a single process, store, computer or data center. Virtualization is an example of colocation where a host server provides a virtual hardware or software platform for running one or more instances of software on a (potentially different) platform. Web Hosting is an example of colocation where a host server provides a portal to content along with potentially thousands of other portals on the same equipment.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Populares

Populares ("favoring the people", singular popularis) were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite. The populares themselves, however, were also of senatorial rank and might be patricians or noble plebeians.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Tribune

Tribune (from the Latin: tribunus; Byzantine Greek form τριβούνος) was a title shared by 10 elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the exclusive right to propose legislation before it. Also, the tribune could summon the Senate and lay proposals before it. The tribune's power, however, was only in effect while he was within Rome. His ability to veto did not affect provincial governors, and his right to sacrosanctity and to help only extended to a mile outside the walls of Rome. In about 450 BC the number of tribunes was raised to ten.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Superinsulation


Superinsulation is an approach to building design, construction, and retrofitting. A superinsulated house is intended to be heated predominantly by intrinsic heat sources (waste heat generated by appliances and the body heat of the occupants) with very small amounts of backup heat. This has been demonstrated to work in very cold climates but requires close attention to construction details in addition to the insulation.

Friday, November 27, 2009

refrigerant

A refrigerant is a compound used in a heat cycle that undergoes a phase change from a gas to a liquid and back. The two main uses of refrigerants are refrigerators/freezers and air conditioners (cf. coolant). Since it was discovered in the 1980s that the most widely used refrigerants were major causes of ozone depletion, a worldwide phaseout of ozone-depleting refrigerants has been undertaken. These are being replaced with "ozone-friendly" refrigerants.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Mysophobia


Mysophobia is a term used to describe a pathological fear of contact with dirt, to avoid contamination and germs. Someone who has such a fear is often referred to as a mysophobe. The term was introduced by Dr. William Alexander Hammond in 1879 when describing a case of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) exhibited in repeatedly washing one's hands.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Patwa

Jamaican Patois, known locally as Patois (Patwa) or simply Jamaican, is an EnglishAfrican creole language spoken primarily in Jamaica and the Jamaican diaspora. It is not to be confused with Jamaican English nor with the Rastafarian use of English. The language developed in the 17th century, when slaves from West and Central Africa were exposed to, learned and nativized the vernacular and dialectal forms of English spoken by their masters: British English and Hiberno English.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Tender



A tender or coal-car is a special rail vehicle hauled by a steam locomotive containing the locomotive's fuel (wood, coal, or oil) and water. Steam locomotives consume large quantities of water compared to the quantity of fuel, so tenders are necessary to keep the locomotive running over long distances. A locomotive that pulls a tender is called a tender locomotive. Locomotives that do not have tenders and carry all their fuel and water on board the locomotive itself are called tank engines.

A brake tender is a heavy variant used primarily to provide greater braking efficiency.

Monday, November 23, 2009

karela


Momordica charantia is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown for edible fruit, which is among the most bitter of all vegetables. English names for the plant and its fruit include bitter melon or bitter gourd (translated from Chinese: 苦瓜; pinyin: kǔguā), and karela from the Indian name of the vegetable.

The herbaceous, tendril-bearing vine grows to 5 m. It bears simple, alternate leaves 4-12 cm across, with 3-7 deeply separated lobes. Each plant bears separate yellow male and female flowers.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Extrusion

Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A material is pushed or drawn through a die of the desired cross-section. The two main advantages of this process over other manufacturing processes is its ability to create very complex cross-sections and work materials that are brittle, because the material only encounters compressive and shear stresses. It also forms finished parts with an excellent surface finish.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Aniridia


Aniridia is a rare congenital condition characterized by the underdevelopment of the eye's iris. This usually occurs in both eyes. It is associated with poor development of the retina at the back of the eye preventing normal vision development. Aniridia does not cause lack of vision.

Friday, November 20, 2009

myriahedron

A myriahedron is a polyhedron with a very large number of faces (technically 10000).

Thursday, November 19, 2009

plethysmograph

A plethysmograph is an instrument for measuring changes in volume within an organ or whole body (usually resulting from fluctuations in the amount of blood or air it contains).

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Outrigger


An outrigger is a part of a boat's rigging which is rigid and extends beyond the side or gunwale of a boat.

In an outrigger canoe or bangka and in sailboats such as the proa, an outrigger is a thin, long, solid, hull used to stabilise an inherently unstable main hull. The outrigger is positioned rigidly and parallel to the main hull so that the main hull is less likely to capsize. If only one outrigger is used on a vessel, its weight reduces the tendency to capsize in one direction and its buoyancy reduces the tendency in the other direction.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

badunkadunk

The posterior of the female anatomy when concerning the homosapien species. In which the diameter of the said posterior is not to exceed 50 inches but not to go below 40 inches. Equally as important the owner of the badunkadunk must possess a waist line no larger than 2/3 the diameter of the badunkadunk.

Monday, November 16, 2009

plotz

plotz: to collapse or faint, as from surprise, excitement, or exhaustion.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Friday, November 13, 2009

Infarction

In medicine, an infarction results in the death of a macroscopic area of tissue in an organ due to loss of adequate blood supply. This dead tissue is then known as necrotic. The supplying arteries may be blocked by an obstruction (e.g. a blood clot or fatty cholesterol deposit), may be mechanically compressed, or ruptured by trauma.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Capsize

Capsize: "The common definition for capsized refers to when a boat or ship is tipped over until disabled."

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Agastya


Agastya (अगस्त्य in devanagari, pronounced /ə gəs tyə/) was a Vedic sage or rishi. Agastya and his clan are also credited[who?] to have "authored" many mantras of the Rig Veda, the earliest and most revered Hindu scripture, in the sense of first having the mantras revealed in his mind by the Supreme Brahman. Agastya is also the author of Agastya Samhita[ref: Dharma Bharathi]. In some reckonings, Agastya is the greatest of the Seven Sages or Saptarshis. The word is also written as Agasti. A-ga means a mountain, Asti, thrower. Also a name of Lord Shiva. Agastya the Rishi, was born of both Gods, Mitra and Varuna, from Urvashi. Agastya is also the Indian astronomical name of the star of Canopus, is said to be the 'cleanser of waters', since its rising coincides with the calming of the waters of the Indian Ocean. Another reference is in the Mahabharata in Sauptikaparva as the teacher of Guru Drona, who gave Drona, the greatest of weapons, Brahmastra (used by both Arjuna and Ashwatthama at the end of the war).

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Phagocyte

Phagocytes (from the Greek words phagein, meaning 'to eat or devour', and kutos, meaning 'hollow vessel') are cells that are found in the blood, bone marrow and other tissues of vertebrates. Phagocytes ingest pathogenic and infectious agents in the body. Like all cells involved in the immune system, they originate in the bone marrow. Phagocytes derive from a group of stem cells in the bone marrow called myeloid progenitor cells. Phagocytes are the basis of defense in the innate immune system; these cells ingest pathogens and often take part in antigen presentation. The types of phagocytes include neutrophils, macrophages, and monocytes. Dendritic cells also participate in phagocytosis and presentation of antigens to other cells that are important in the immune response.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Crimp

The American term shanghaied refers to the practice of conscripting men as sailors by coercive techniques such as trickery, intimidation, or violence. Those engaged in this form of kidnapping were known as crimps.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

droplift

"droplifting" is a term coined by Richard Holland of Turntable Trainwreck to describe a unique form of record distribution - the reverse of shoplifting. It involves dropping a disc of your music in the racks of a record store without knowledge of the store's owner or staff. This is a tactic which has been used by Richard to promote releases from his previous project (The Institute for Sonic Ponderance), and we suspect it is something that many different independent musicians have tried at some point to get their work out to the public.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Hacktivismo

Hacktivismo is an offshoot of CULT OF THE DEAD COW (cDc), whose beliefs include access to information as a basic human right. It was founded in 1999.

The group's beliefs are described fully in The Hacktivismo Declaration, which seeks to apply the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to the Internet. Oxblood Ruffin, the director of Hacktivismo, has argued forcefully against definitions of hacktivism that include web defacements or denial-of-service attacks. Hacktivismo has also authored its own software license agreement, the Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement (HESSLA). The HESSLA is an open source license that prohibits use or modification that would violate human rights or introduce features that spy on the user. (This prohibition illustrates the difference between open source licenses and free software licenses.)

Impeller

An impeller is a rotor inside a tube or conduit to increase the pressure and flow of a fluid.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Auger


An auger is a device for moving material or liquid (see Archimedes' screw) by means of a rotating helical flighting. The material is moved along the axis of rotation. For some uses the helical 'flighting' is enclosed in a tube, for other uses the flighting is not encased. An integral part of a drill, the auger of the drill bit uses this mechanism to remove shavings from the hole being drilled.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

aethrioscope

aethrioscope: A device for measuring temperature variations due to different atmospheric conditions, such as cloud or clear skies.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Abmahnung

Abmahnung (a written warning in German) is the formal request by one person to another person to forthwith stop a certain behaviour.

If this formal request is made by an attorney, then it is a cease-and-desist letter (but not a cease-and-desist order, which is called einstweilige Verfügung in German law). It is used much more between private parties than a consent decree is in the United States, since German law permits attorneys to file suit to bring an end to an observed wrong done to a third party, whereas in the United States, parties must have standing to sue (i.e. only the wronged party can sue).

Thought shower

Thought shower: A method of problem solving in which members of a group contribute ideas spontaneously. Coined in the early 2000s, supposedly as a politically correct version of brainstorm, which could be offensive to people with cerebral disorders.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Sprog


sprog:
once disparaging term for a child, now often used affectionately. (Chiefly British)

Monday, November 2, 2009

Neoproterozoic

The Neoproterozoic Era is the unit of geologic time from 1,000 to 542 +/- 0.3 million years ago. The terminal Era of the formal Proterozoic Eon (or the informal "Precambrian"), it is further subdivided into the Tonian, Cryogenian, and Ediacaran Periods. The most severe glaciation known in the geologic record occurred during the Cryogenian, when ice sheets reached the equator and formed a possible "Snowball Earth"; and the earliest fossils of multicellular life are found in the Ediacaran, including the earliest animals.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

bağlama


The bağlama is a stringed musical instrument shared by various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Central Asia. It is sometimes referred to as the saz (from the Persian language ساز‎, meaning a kit or set). According to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "the terms 'bağlama' and 'saz' are used somewhat interchangeably in Turkey."

Friday, October 30, 2009

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Friday, October 23, 2009

Japhetic


Japhetic is a term that refers to the supposed descendants of Japheth, one of the three sons of Noah in the Bible. It corresponds to Semitic (descendants of Shem) and Hamitic (descendants of Ham). Variations of the term include Japhetite and Japhethitic.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Monday, October 19, 2009

aeneid


The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC (29–19 BC) that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is written in dactylic hexameter. The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas' wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.

Cotswold

Cotswold: A style of traditional Morris dancing originating from the Cotswolds area of England.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Ch'orti'

Ch'orti'
  1. A branch of the Maya people native to southeastern Guatemala and western Honduras.
  2. The Mayan language spoken by these people

Friday, October 16, 2009

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Botticelli


Botticelli is a guessing game which requires the players to have a good knowledge of biographical details of famous people. The game has several variants, but the common theme is that one person or team thinks of a famous person, reveals their initial letter, and then answers yes/no questions to allow other players to guess the identity.

The game takes its name from the famous person having to be at least as famous as Sandro Botticelli, who is also the answer to the archetypal question, "Did you paint a picture of Venus rising?", referring to his painting The Birth of Venus.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

quone

quone: Medical term. When a patient gets difficult you have to quone them.

brickbat

Brickbat
  1. A piece of brick used as a weapon, especially if thrown, or placed in something like a sock and used as a club.
  2. A criticism or uncomplimentary remark hurled at artwork or other recipient.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Polemics


Polemics (pronounced /pəˈlɛmɪks/, /poʊ-/) is the practice of disputing or controverting religious, philosophical, political, or scientific matters. As such, a polemic text on a topic is often written specifically to dispute or refute a position or theory that is widely viewed to be beyond reproach.

The antonym of a polemic source is an apologia.

Polemic journalism was common in continental Europe when libel laws weren't stringent. The Research Support Libraries Programme "Pamphlet and polemic: pamphlets as a guide to the controversies of the 17th-19th centuries", co-managed by the University of St. Andrews, the University of Aberdeen, and University of Wales Lampeter, collected and placed thousands of pamphlets on-line as a study of polemic rhetoric of that era. There are other meanings of the word as well. Polemic is also a branch of theology, pertaining to the history or conduct of ecclesiastical controversy.

The word is derived from the Greek word polemikos (πολεμικως), which means "warlike", "hostile". Plato uses a character named Polemarchus in his dialogue Republic as a vehicle to drive forward an ethical debate

Sunday, October 11, 2009

dragée


A dragée (pronounced [dræˈʒeɪ] dra-ZHAY, from Greek tragêmata "sweets, treats") is a form of confectionery that can be used for decorative or symbolic purposes in addition to consumption.

A classic, popular version of dragée are whole almonds coated with a sugar shell in various colors. Called mulabbas in Arabic, confetti in Italian and Jordan almonds or sugared almonds in English, these confections have a long history, and are traditionally associated with weddings and special celebrations. Throwing or handing out these candies at such occasions (hence the name for the multi-colored paper confetti which usually now replaces them) dates back centuries, and is meant to ensure prosperity, fertility, happiness, and good luck.

lordosis

  Lordosis is historically defined as an abnormal inward curvature of the lumbar spine.