Saturday, August 31, 2013

aurochs


The aurochs, the ancestor of domestic cattle, was a type of large wild cattle which inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but is now extinct; it survived in Europe until 1627.

Aurochs bulls are believed to have reached a height of 1.8 meters (5 feet 10 inches) at the withers, and the cows to have been about 1.5 meters (4 feet 11 inches), displaying considerable sexual dimorphism.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Olefin

Olefin fiber is a synthetic fiber made from a polyolefin, such as polypropylene or polyethylene. It is used in the manufacture of various textiles as well as clothing, upholstery, wallpaper, ropes, and vehicle interiors. Olefin's advantages are its strength, colourfastness and comfort, stain, mildew, abrasion and sunlight resistance, and good bulk and cover.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

expediate

expediate

1.
Common misconstruction of expedite.
2.
(rare, historical) To injure (a dog) by cutting away the pads of the forefeet, thereby preventing it from hunting.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Monday, August 26, 2013

Defendo

Defendo is a martial art and self defense system created in 1945 for law enforcement by Bill Underwood, a British-born Canadian. Underwood was originally the creator of Combato (in 1910) a "non-boxing or wrestling" unarmed combat system which he taught in Montreal, Quebec and Toronto, Ontario.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

thermocouple

A thermocouple is a device consisting of two different conductors (usually metal alloys) that produce a voltage proportional to a temperature difference between either end of the pair of conductors. Thermocouples are a widely used type of temperature sensor for measurement and control and can also be used to convert a heat gradient into electricity. They are inexpensive, interchangeable, are supplied with standard connectors, and can measure a wide range of temperatures. In contrast to most other methods of temperature measurement, thermocouples are self powered and require no external form of excitation. The main limitation with thermocouples is accuracy and system errors of less than one degree Celsius (C) can be difficult to achieve.

Affluenza

Affluenza, a portmanteau of affluence and influenza, is a term used by critics of consumerism. The book Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic defines it as "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more".
Proponents of the term consider that the prizing of endless increases in material wealth may lead to feelings of worthlessness and dissatisfaction rather than experiences of a 'better life', and that these symptoms may be usefully captured with the metaphor of a disease. They claim some or even many of those who become wealthy will find the economic success leaving them unfulfilled and hungry only for more wealth, finding that they are unable to get pleasure from the things they buy and that increasingly material things may come to dominate their time and thoughts to the detriment of personal relationships and to feelings of happiness.
A potential criticism of the idea of affluenza is that it presents subjective social critique as an objective, inevitable and debilitating illness.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

epiwafer

An epiwafer is a wafer of semiconducting material made by epitaxial growth (called epitaxy) for use in making microelectronic devices such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Two methods of growing the epitaxial layer on existing silicon or other wafers are currently used: metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).

These wafers are typically newer types of semiconductors such as gallium nitride (GaN), or some combination of the elements gallium, indium, aluminum, nitrogen, phosphorus or arsenic.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Retrograde motion

Retrograde motion is in the direction opposite to the movement of something else, and is the contrary of direct or prograde motion. This motion can refer to the orbit of one body about another body or about some other point, or to the rotation of a single body about its axis, or other orbital parameters such as precession or nutation of the axis. In reference to celestial systems, retrograde motion usually means motion which is contrary to the rotation of the primary, that is, the object which forms the system's hub. Due to tidal deceleration, bodies in retrograde orbit will slow down and eventually impact the central body.

File:Retrogradeorbit.gif

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Deuterium

Deuterium, also called heavy hydrogen, is one of two stable isotopes of hydrogen with a natural abundance in Earth's oceans of about one atom in 6,400 of hydrogen (~156.25 ppm). Deuterium accounts for approximately 0.0156% (or on a mass basis: 0.0312%) of all naturally occurring hydrogen in Earth's oceans, while the most common isotope (hydrogen-1 or protium) accounts for more than 99.98%. The abundance of deuterium changes slightly from one kind of natural water to another (see VSMOW).

The nucleus of deuterium, called a deuteron, contains one proton and one neutron, whereas the far more common hydrogen isotope, protium, has no neutron in the nucleus. The deuterium isotope's name is formed from the Greek deuteros meaning "second", to denote the two particles composing the nucleus.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Enfilade


Enfilade and defilade are concepts in military tactics used to describe a military formation's exposure to enemy fire. A formation or position is "in enfilade" if weapons fire can be directed along its longest axis. A unit or position is "in defilade" if it uses natural or artificial obstacles to shield or conceal itself from enfilade. The words come from French enfiler ("to put on a string or sling") and défiler ("to slip away or off").

Enfilade fire, a gunfire directed against an enfiladed formation or position, is also commonly known as "flanking fire". Raking fire is the equivalent term in naval warfare. Strafing, firing on targets from a flying platform, is often done with enfilade fire.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

apsis


An apsis (Greek ἁψίς, gen. ἁψῖδος), plural apsides, is the point of greatest or least distance of a body from one of the foci of its elliptical orbit. In modern celestial mechanics this focus is also the center of attraction, which is usually the center of mass of the system. Historically, in geocentric systems, apsides were measured from the center of the Earth.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Silent Football

Silent Football is a group game composed of three major elements: Football, the Quiet Game, and Parliamentary procedure, consisting mainly of the passing of an imaginary football. Silent Football requires little set up: only a quiet space with room enough for three or more players to form a circle, allowing each player to see all other players. Silent Football is commonly played at Unitarian Universalist rallies and cons.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

molly

molly

Abr. of 'molecular'.

Pure form of MDMA (ecstasy), usually a free powder or in capsules. Oftentimes MDMA is sold as molly. Should be white in color (when it's pure) but is more often beige or yellow-brown, and sometimes brown or rarely gray.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

ionosphere

The ionosphere is a part of the upper atmosphere, comprising portions of the mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere, distinguished because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere. It has practical importance because, among other functions, it influences radio propagation to distant places on the Earth.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Subsoil

Subsoil, or substrata, is the layer of soil under the topsoil on the surface of the ground. The subsoil may include substances such as clay and/or sand that has only been partially broken down by air, sunlight, water, wind etc., to produce true soil. Below the subsoil is the substratum, which can be residual bedrock, sediments, or aeolian deposits, largely unaffected by soil-forming factors active in the subsoil. It contains partially weathered particles. It is usually a lighter shade of brown or yellow. It contains the deeper roots of large plants, like trees, but otherwise not much lives here.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

laser bridge

A laser bridge is a network bridge that transmits data between two network segments via laser.

It is often used as an upmarket alternative to microwave links used in Fixed wireless situations and can provide much higher data rates than microwave links at a cost relatively similar. They are also harder to interfere with and eavesdrop.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Cubo-Futurism


Cubo-Futurism was the main school of painting and sculpture practiced by the Russian Futurists.

When Aristarkh Lentulov returned from Paris in 1913 and exhibited his works in Moscow, the Russian Futurist painters adopted the forms of Cubism and combined them with the Italian Futurists' representation of movement. Kazimir Malevich developed the style, which can be seen in his The Knife Grinder (signed 1912, painted 1913), though he later abandoned it for Suprematism.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Monégasque

Monégasque may refer to:

  • Monégasque dialect, the local Ligurian dialect of Monaco
  • Something of, from, or related to Monaco, a small sovereign city-state located in southwestern Europe
  • A person from Monaco, or of Monégasque descent

Monday, August 12, 2013

Fluorellestadite

Fluorellestadite is a rare nesosilicate of calcium, with sulfate and fluorine, with the chemical formula Ca10(SiO4)3(SO4)3F2.[1] It is a member of the apatite group, and forms a series with hydroxylellestadite.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

dulcet

dulcet adj
  1. Sweet, especially when describing voice or tones; melodious.
  2. Generally pleasing; agreeable.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

xenial

xenial adj
  1. Hospitable, especially to visiting strangers or foreigners.
  2. Of the relation between a host and guest.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

stygian

stygian adj
  1. Dark and gloomy.
  2. Infernal or hellish.
  3. Of, or relating to the river Styx.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Glauconite


Glauconite is an iron potassium phyllosilicate (mica group) mineral of characteristic green color with very low weathering resistance and very friable.

It crystallizes with a monoclinic geometry. Its name is derived from the Greek glaucos (γλαυκος) meaning 'gleaming' or 'silvery', to describe the appearance of the blue-green color, presumably relating to the sheen and blue-green color of the sea's surface. Its color ranges from olive green, black green to bluish green. In the Mohs scale it has hardness of 2. The relative specific gravity range is 2.4 - 2.95. It is normally found in dark green rounded pellets with the dimension of a sand grain size. It can be confused with chlorite (also of green color) or with some other clay minerals.

Friday, August 2, 2013

bushism


Bushisms are unconventional words, phrases, pronunciations, malapropisms, and semantic or linguistic errors that have occurred in the public speaking of former President of the United States George W. Bush and, much less notably, of his father, George H. W. Bush. The term has become part of popular folklore and is the basis of a number of websites and published books. It is often used to caricature the two presidents. Common characteristics include malapropisms, the creation of neologisms, spoonerisms, stunt words and grammatically incorrect subject-verb agreement.

  • "They misunderestimated me."
  • "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."
  • "There's an old saying in Tennessee—I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, 'Fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again.'"
  • "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."
  • "One of the things I’ve used on the Google is to pull up maps."
  • "We can have filters on Internets where public money is spent."

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Trappist

A Trappist beer is a beer brewed by or under control of Trappist monks. There are a total of 174 Trappist monasteries worldwide (as of April 2011); only seven (six in Belgium and one in the Netherlands) produce Trappist beer and are authorized to label their beers with the Authentic Trappist Product logo that indicates a compliance to the various rules of the International Trappist Association.

lordosis

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