Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Legitimists


Legitimists are Royalists in France who believe that the King of France and Navarre must be chosen according to the simple application of the Salic Law. Called "Ultra-royalists" under the Bourbon Restoration, they are adherents of the elder branch of the Bourbon dynasty, overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. Distinguished historian René Rémond analyses the legitimists as one of the three main right-wing factions in France, which was principally characterized by their counterrevolutionary opinions (they rejected the 1789 French Revolution, the Republic and everything that went with it; thus, they progressively became a far-right movement, close to traditionalist Catholics). The other two right-wing factions are, according to Rémond, the Orleanists and the Bonapartists.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

yoke


A yoke is a wooden beam which is used between a pair of oxen to allow them to pull a load (oxen almost always work in pairs). It can be used to help plow fields. There are several types, used in different cultures, and for different types of oxen. A pair of oxen is also called a yoke of oxen, and yoke is also used as a verb: "to yoke a pair of oxen".

Monday, October 29, 2012

Candiru


Candiru (English and Portuguese) or candirú (Spanish), also known as cañero or toothpick fish, are a number of genera of parasitic freshwater catfish in the family Trichomycteridae; all are native to the Amazon River. Although some candiru species have been known to grow to a size of 16 inches (~41 cm) in length, others are considerably smaller. These smaller species are known for an alleged tendency to invade and parasitize the human urethra; however, despite ethnological reports dating back to the late 19th century, the first documented case of a candiru parasitizing a human did not occur until 1997.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Viscachas

File:Vizcacha in the Atacama.jpg
Viscachas or vizcachas are rodents of two genera (Lagidium and Lagostomus) in the family Chinchillidae. They are closely related to chinchillas, and look similar to rabbits. There are five extant species of viscacha.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Manumission

Manumission is the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves. In the United States before the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery, this often happened upon the death of the owner, under conditions in his will.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Phrygian cap


The Phrygian cap is a soft conical cap with the top pulled forward, associated in antiquity with the inhabitants of Phrygia, a region of central Anatolia. In the western provinces of the Roman Empire it came to signify freedom and the pursuit of liberty, perhaps through a confusion with the pileus, the manumitted slave's felt cap of ancient Rome. Accordingly, the Phrygian cap is sometimes called a liberty cap; in artistic representations it signifies freedom and the pursuit of liberty.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

gerotor

A gerotor is a positive displacement pumping unit. The name gerotor is derived from "Generated Rotor". A gerotor unit consists of an inner and outer rotor. The inner rotor has N teeth, and the outer rotor has N+1 teeth. The inner rotor is located off-center and both rotors rotate. The geometry of the two rotors partitions the volume between them into N different dynamically-changing volumes. During the assembly's rotation cycle, each of these volumes changes continuously, so any given volume first increases, and then decreases. An increase creates a vacuum. This vacuum creates suction, and hence, this part of the cycle is where the intake is located. As a volume decreases compression occurs. During this compression period, fluids can be pumped, or compressed (if they are gaseous fluids).

Gerotor pumps are generally designed using a trochoidal inner rotor and an outer rotor formed by a circle with intersecting circular arcs.

A gerotor can also function as a pistonless rotary engine. High pressure gas enters the intake area and pushes against the inner and outer rotors, causing both to rotate as the area between the inner and outer rotor increases. During the compression period, the exhaust is pumped out.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

vactrain


A vactrain (or vacuum tube train) is a proposed, as-yet-unbuilt design for future high-speed railroad transportation. This would entail building maglev lines through evacuated (air-less) or partly evacuated tubes or tunnels. Though the technology is currently being investigated for development of regional networks, advocates have suggested establishing vactrains for transcontinental routes to form a global network. The lack of air resistance could permit vactrains to use little power and to move at extremely high speeds, up to 4000–5000 mph (6400–8000 km/h), or 5–6 times the speed of sound at sea level and standard conditions, according to the Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering program "Transatlantic Tunnel".

Theoretically, vactrain tunnels could be built deep enough to pass under oceans, thus permitting very rapid intercontinental travel. Vactrains could also use gravity to assist their acceleration. If such trains went as fast as predicted, the trip between London and New York would take less than an hour, effectively supplanting aircraft as the world's fastest mode of public transportation.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Standards

Standards in the warez scene are defined by groups of people who have been involved in its activities for several years and have established connections to large groups. These people form a committee, which creates drafts for approval of the large groups. In organized warez distribution, all releases must follow these predefined standards to become accepted material. The standards committee usually cycles several drafts and finally decides which is best suited for the purpose, and then releases the draft for approval. Once the draft has been e-signed by several bigger groups, it becomes ratified and accepted as the current standard. There are separate standards for each category of releases.

The first part of a standards document usually defines the format properties for the material, like codec, bitrate, resolution, filetype and filesize. Creators of the standard usually do comprehensive testing to find optimal codecs and settings for sound and video to maximize image quality in the selected file size.

Monday, October 22, 2012

YAGNI

"You ain't gonna need it" (acronym: YAGNI) is the principle in extreme programming that programmers should not add functionality until it is necessary. Ron Jeffries writes, "Always implement things when you actually need them, never when you just foresee that you need them."

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Fillers

Fillers are parts of speech which are not generally recognized as purposeful or containing formal meaning, usually expressed as pauses such as uh, like and er, but also extending to repairs ("He was wearing a black—uh, I mean a blue, a blue shirt"), and articulation problems such as stuttering. Use is normally frowned upon in mass media such as news reports or films, but they occur regularly in everyday conversation, sometimes representing upwards of 20% of "words" in conversation. Fillers can also be used as a pause for thought ("I arrived at, um—3 o'clock").

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Metrication


Metrication refers to the introduction and use of the SI metric system, the international standard for physical measurements. This has involved a long process of independent and systematic conversions of countries from various local systems of weights and measures. Metrication began in France in the 1790s and spread widely during the following two centuries. The process is sometimes called metrification.

Friday, October 19, 2012

dead drop

A dead drop or dead letter box is a method of espionage tradecraft used to pass items between two individuals by using a secret location and thus does not require them to meet directly. Using a dead drop permits a Case Officer and his Agent to exchange objects and information while maintaining operational security. The method stands in contrast to the live drop, so called because two persons meet to exchange items or information.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Hydrography

Hydrography focuses on the measurement of the depth of (inland) waters and its variation over time and space as well as the description of the morphological characteristics of the marginal land. Those measurements and descriptions of navigable waters aid in the safe navigation of vessels.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is a term used in psychology, roughly corresponding to a person's belief in their own competence.

It has been defined as the belief that one is capable of performing in a certain manner to attain certain goals. Eduology focuses on factors that create a meaning for individuals. It is believed that our personalized ideas of self-efficacy affect our social interactions in almost every way. Understanding how to foster the development of self-efficacy is a vitally important goal for positive psychology because it can lead to living a more productive and happy life.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Cordite


Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom from 1889 to replace gunpowder as a military propellant. Like gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and consequently low brisance. These produce a subsonic deflagration wave rather than the supersonic detonation wave produced by brisants, or high explosives. The hot gases produced by burning gunpowder or cordite generate sufficient pressure to propel a bullet or shell to its target, but not enough to destroy the barrel of the firearm, or gun.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Salafi

A Salafi (Arabic: سلفي‎) is a follower of an Islamic movement that takes the Salaf of the patristic period of early Islam, as exemplary models. The word Salaf is an Arabic noun which translates to "predecessor", or "forefather" and who are collectively referred to as the "Salaf as-Saaleh", or Pious Predecessors, namely the first three Muslim generations: the Sahabah ("Companions"), the Tabi‘un ("Followers") and the Tabi‘ al-Tabi‘in ("Those after the Followers"). These three generations and their understanding of the texts and tenets of Islam are looked upon by Salafis as the Islamic orthodoxy.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

cantonment

A cantonment is a temporary or semi-permanent military or police quarters. The word cantonment is derived from the French word canton meaning corner or district (from which also the name of the Cantons of Switzerland is also derived) . In South Asia, the term cantonment also describes permanent military stations. Cantonments can be found in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Singapore, Ghana, Sri Lanka and Nepal. In United States military parlance, a cantonment is an essentially permanent residential (i.e. barracks) section of a fort or other military installation such as, for example, Fort Hood.

The term is often abbreviated to "cantt."

Saturday, October 13, 2012

bar


In musical notation, a bar (or measure) is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a time signature (such as 3/4).

The word bar is British English, while the word measure is American English, although musicians generally understand both usages. In American English, although the words bar and measure are often used interchangeably the correct use of the word 'bar' refers only to the vertical line itself, while the word 'measure' refers to the beats contained between bars. In international usage, it is equally correct to speak of bar numbers and measure numbers, e.g. ‘bars 9–16’ or ‘mm. 9–16’. Along the same lines, it is wise to reserve the abbreviated form ‘bb. 3–4’ etc. for beats only; bars should be referred to by name in full.

The first metrically complete measure within a piece of music is called ‘bar 1’ or ‘m. 1’. When the piece begins with an upbeat (an incomplete measure at the head of a piece of music), ‘bar 1’ or ‘m. 1’ is the following measure.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Purdah

Purdah or Pardaa (from Persian: پرده, meaning "curtain") is the practice of concealing women from men. According to one definition:

Purdah is a curtain which makes sharp separation between the world of man and that of a woman, between the community as a whole and the family which is its heart, between the street and the home, the public and the private, just as it sharply separates society and the individual.

This takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes, and the requirement for women to cover their bodies and conceal their form.

Purdah exists in various forms in the Islamic world.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Cadaverine

Cadaverine is a foul-smelling compound produced by protein hydrolysis during putrefaction of animal tissue. Cadaverine is a toxic diamine with the formula NH2(CH2)5NH2, which is similar to putrescine. Cadaverine is also known by the names 1,5-pentanediamine and pentamethylenediamine.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

purpure

In heraldry, purpure is a tincture, more or less the equivalent of the colour "purple", and is one of the five main or most usually used colours (as opposed to metals). It may be portrayed in engravings by a series of parallel lines at a 45 degree angle running from upper right to lower left from the point of view of an observer, or else indicated by using purp. as an abbreviation.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Zivildienst

Zivildienst (German, translated verbatim to "Civilian Service" although "compulsory paid community service" is more contextually equivalent) is the civilian branch of the national service systems in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It is a means for conscripted persons who are conscientious objectors to fulfill their national service, typically in the fields of social works (e.g. hospitals, retirement homes, emergency medical services) and, although rarely, environmental protection, agriculture, and public administration.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Nap-of-the-earth


Nap-of-the-earth (abbreviated NOE) is a type of very low-altitude flight course used by military aircraft to avoid enemy detection and attack in a high-threat environment.

During NOE flight, geographical features are used as cover, exploiting valleys and folds in the terrain by flying in, rather than over, them. This keeps below enemy radar coverage, avoiding "skylining". Other terms are also used, including "ground-hugging", "terrain masking", or "flying under the radar".

lordosis

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