Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Fard

Fard (Arabic: الفرض‎) also farida (Arabic: الفريضة‎) is an Islamic term which denotes a religious duty. The word is also used in Persian, Turkish, and Urdu (spelled farz) in the same meaning.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

hamlet

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. The name comes from Anglo-Norman hamelet(t)e; Old French hamelet, the diminutive of OF hamel, itself derived of OF ham from Germanic heim or Anglo-Saxon hām > home.

Monday, March 29, 2010

siriometer

The siriometer is a rarely used astronomical measure equal to one million astronomical units, i.e., one million times the average distance between the Sun and Earth. This distance is equal to about 15.8 light-years, about twice the distance from Earth to the star Sirius.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Nibble

A measure of quantity of data or information, the "nibble" (sometimes spelled "nybble" or "nybl") is equal to 4 bits, or one half of the common 8-bit byte. The nibble is used to describe the amount of memory used to store a digit of a number stored in packed decimal format, or to represent a single hexadecimal digit.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

shake

In nuclear engineering and astrophysics contexts, the shake (as in "two shakes of a lamb's tail", an old colloquial expression) is used as a conveniently short period of time. 1 shake is defined as 10 nanoseconds.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Crankset


The crankset, or chainset, is the component of a bicycle drivetrain that converts the reciprocating motion of the rider's legs into rotational motion used to drive the chain, which in turn drives the rear wheel. It consists of one or more sprockets, also called chainrings or chainwheels attached to the cranks or arms to which the pedals attach. It is connected to the rider by the pedals, to the bicycle frame by the bottom bracket, and to the rear sprocket, cassette or freewheel via the chain.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Filigreed

Delicate and intricate ornamental work made from gold, silver, or other fine twisted wire.

source

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

nuraghe


The nuraghe (plural in Italian nuraghi, while in Sardinian nuraghes) is the main type of megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, dating back before 1000 BC. Today it has come to be the symbol of Sardinia and its distinctive culture.

The typical nuraghe is situated in a panoramic spot and has the shape of a truncated conical tower resembling a beehive. The structure has no foundations and stands only by virtue of the weight of its stones, which may weigh as much as several tons. Some nuraghes are more than 20 metres in height.

Today, there are more than 8,000 nuraghes still extant in Sardinia, although it has been estimated that they once numbered more than 30,000. Nuraghes are most prevalent in the northwest and south-central parts of the island

Monday, March 15, 2010

Broch


A Broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Their origin is a matter of some controversy: the theory that they were essentially defensive military structures is not accepted by many modern archaeologists, and the notion that they were farmhouses is ridiculed by some others. They were almost certainly originally roofed and although most stand alone in the landscape, some examples exist of brochs surrounded by clusters of smaller dwellings.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

adjuvant

In immunology, an adjuvant is an agent that may stimulate the immune system and increase the response to a vaccine, without having any specific antigenic effect in itself. The word “adjuvant” comes from the Latin word adjuvare, meaning to help or aid. "An immunologic adjuvant is defined as any substance that acts to accelerate, prolong, or enhance antigen-specific immune responses when used in combination with specific vaccine antigens."

Adjuvants have been called the dirty little secret of vaccines in the scientific community, because much about how adjuvants work is a mystery. Known adjuvants include oils, aluminum salts, and virosomes.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Miscibility


Miscibility is a term commonly used in chemistry that refers to the property of liquids to mix in all proportions, forming a homogeneous solution. In principle, the term applies also to other phases (solids and gases), but the main focus is on the solubility of one liquid in another. Water and ethanol, for example, are miscible since they mix in all proportions.

By contrast, substances are said to be immiscible if in any proportion, they do not form a solution. For example, diethyl ether is fairly soluble in water, but these two solvents are not miscible since they are not soluble in all proportions.

Friday, March 12, 2010

stressor

In chemistry, a stressor is something that either speeds up a reaction rate or keeps the reaction rate the same. Stressors include light, temperature and elevated sound levels. Stressors also include the phenomena of substance concentration (does not shift equilibrium), catalysis, substance surface area (speeds up the reaction rate), and the nature of the reactants.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

demo

A demo version or demo of a song (shortened from the word "demonstration") is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for musicians to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists. Musicians often use demos as quick sketches to share with bandmates or arrangers; in other cases a songwriter might make a demo to send to artists in hopes of having the song professionally recorded, or a music publisher may need a simple recording for publishing or copyright purposes.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Bock


Bock is a strong lager which has its origins in the Hanseatic town of Einbeck, Germany. The name is a corruption of the medieval German brewing town of Einbeck, but also means male deer or goat in German; the word is a cognate of the English "buck". The original Bocks were dark beers, brewed from high-colored malts. Modern Bocks can be dark, amber or pale in color. Bock was traditionally brewed for special occasions, often religious festivals such as Christmas, Easter or Lent.

Bocks have a long history of being brewed and consumed by Roman Catholic monks in Germany. During the spring religious season of Lent, monks were required to fast. High-gravity Bock beers are higher in food energy and nutrients than lighter lagers, thus providing sustenance during this period. Similar high-gravity Lenten beers of various styles were brewed by Monks in other lands as well (see Trappist beer).

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

cahier

A report, especially one concerning the policy or proceedings of a parliamentary group.

source

Monday, March 8, 2010

Enneagram

The Enneagram of Personality—usually known simply as the Enneagram —is a particular application of the Fourth Way enneagram figure. The Enneagram system describes nine distinct personality types and their interrelationships, mapped around an ancient symbol of perpetual motion. This is now the most well-known use of this particular enneagram figure.

In geometry, an enneagram is a nine-pointed geometric figure. The term derives from two ancient Greek words: ennea (nine) and gramma (something written).

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Etiology

Etiology (alternatively aetiology, aitiology) is the study of causation. The word is derived from the Greek αἰτιολογία, aitiologia, "giving a reason for" (αἰτία, aitia, "cause"; and -λογία, -logia).

The word is most commonly used in medical and philosophical theories, where it is used to refer to the study of why things occur, or even the reasons behind the way that things act, and is used in philosophy, physics, psychology, government, medicine, theology and biology in reference to the causes of various phenomena. An etiological myth is a myth intended to explain a name or create a mythic history for a place or family.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Mentalism

Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, use mental acuity, cold reading, warm reading, hot reading, principles of stage magic, and/or suggestion to present the illusion of mind reading, psychokinesis, extra-sensory perception, precognition, clairvoyance or mind control. Hypnosis is also included in this category.

Friday, March 5, 2010

transom


In architecture, a transom is the term given to a transverse beam or bar in a frame, or to the crosspiece separating a door or the like from a window or fanlight above it. Transom is also the customary U.S. word used for a transom light, the window over this crosspiece.[1] In England, the transom above a door is usually referred to as a fanlight, and occasionally as an "overlight", or by the French word "vasistas". The word "fanlight" derives from the fan-like shape of early transoms, which became a traditional part of the Georgian style. "Vasistas" sounds similar to the German phrase "was ist das?" ("what is that?"); hence folk etymology ascribes its origin to a visiting German's reaction to seeing a transom during a trip to France.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Kulbit


The "Kulbitinscy" (or simply, "Kulbit") is an aerial maneuver developed by Russian pilots, in which the aircraft performs an incredibly tight diametered loop, often not much wider than the length of the aircraft itself. It is an example of post-stall maneuvering, a type of supermaneuverability. Like most post-stall maneuvers, it demonstrates pitch control outside of the normal flight envelope wherein pitch control is made possible by having aerodynamic flow over the aircraft's elevators or stabilators.

The Kulbit drastically decelerates the aircraft and could theoretically be used to cause a pursuing aircraft to overshoot its target. The maneuver is closely related to the famous "Pugachev's Cobra" maneuver, but the Kulbit completes the loop that the Cobra almost immediately cuts off.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

bootlegger



A bootleg turn is a radical driving maneuver intended to reverse the direction of travel of a forward-moving automobile by 180 degrees in a minimum amount of time while staying within the width of a two-lane road. This maneuver is also known as a smuggler's turn, powerslide or simply a bootlegger.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Supercruise



Supercruise is sustained supersonic flight of an aircraft with a useful cargo, passenger, or weapons load performed efficiently and without the use of afterburners.

Due to its combination of decades long scheduled service and length of time spent at supersonic speeds, the main user of supercruise has been Concorde, with more time spent in supercruise flight than all of the other aircraft put together.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Asses

The as (plural asses) was a bronze, and later copper, coin used during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire, named after the homonymous weight unit (12 unciae = ounces), but not immune to weight depreciation.

lordosis

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