Sunday, May 30, 2010

Qigong

Qigong (or ch'i kung) refers to a wide variety of traditional cultivation practices that involve methods of accumulating, circulating, and working with qi, breathing or energy within the body. Qigong is practiced for health maintenance purposes, as a therapeutic intervention, as a medical profession, a spiritual path and/or component of Chinese martial arts.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Palladian


Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). The term "Palladian" normally refers to buildings in a style inspired by Palladio's own work; that which is recognised as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of Palladio's original concepts. Palladio's work was strongly based on the symmetry, perspective and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. From the 17th century Palladio's interpretation of this classical architecture was adapted as the style known as Palladianism. It continued to develop until the end of the 18th century.

Friday, May 28, 2010

acre-foot


An acre-foot is a unit of volume commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, and river flows.

It is defined by the volume of one acre of surface area to a depth of one foot. Since the area of one acre is defined as 66 by 660 feet (a chain by a furlong) then the volume of an acre-foot is exactly 43560 cubic feet. Alternatively, this is approximately 325,851.4 U.S. gallons or 271,328.0 imperial gallons or 1,233.5 kL (or m³).

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Anatolia


Anatolia (Turkish: Anadolu, Greek: Ανατολία, Anatolía) or Asia Minor is a region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is a geographic region bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Iranian plateau to the southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Aegean Sea to the west.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Batting

Batting (also known as wadding in the United Kingdom or filler) is a layer of insulation used in quilting between a top layer of patchwork and a bottom layer of backing material. Batting is usually made of cotton, polyester, and/or wool.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Gravettian


The Gravettian toolmaking culture was a specific archaeological industry of the European Upper Palaeolithic era prevalent before the last glacial epoch. It is named after the type site of La Gravette in the Dordogne region of France where it's characteristic tools were first found and studied. It dates from between 28,000 and 22,000 years ago and where found, succeeded the artifacts datable to the Aurignacian culture.

The diagnostic characteristic artifacts of the industry are small pointed restruck blade with a blunt but straight back, a carving tool known as a Noailles burin. (See to compare with similar purposed modern tool: burin)

Artistic achievements of the Gravettian cultural stage include the hundreds of Venus figurines, which are widely distributed in Europe. The industry had counterparts across central Europe and into Russia, as did the predecessor culture, which is also linked to similar figurines and carvings.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Twink


A twink is a player of World of Warcraft who, within the confines and restrictions that a game provides, attempts to maximize the effectiveness of his or her character in one or more categories.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Twink


Twink or twinkie is a gay slang term describing a young or young-looking gay man (usually in his late teens or early twenties) with a slender build, little or no body hair, and no facial hair. In some societies, the term chick or chicken is preferred. Twinkle-toes is a related term also used, usually in a derogatory manner, to imply a man is effeminate. The terms can be complimentary or pejorative. There is a backronym that states that twink stands for "teenaged, white, into no kink", although none of these criteria are either necessary or sufficient to be a twink.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

internegative

An internegative also referred to as Color reversal internegative, or CRI, is motion picture film duplication process designed by Kodak in the 1970s as a workaround for the existing processes of creating film duplicates. Originally intended for the faster pace of the television commercial industry, it began to see use in major motion pictures of the mid 1970s. It is the color counterpart to a fine grain positive, in which a low-contrast color image is used as the positive between an original camera negative and a duplicate negative.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Neckbeard

Neckbeard:
  1. (n) Facial hair that does not exist on the face, but instead on the neck. Almost never well groomed.
  2. (n) Derogatory term for slovenly nerdy people who have no sense of hygene or grooming. Often related to hobbies such as card gaming, video gaming, anime, et. al.
Pictured is director Stephen Soderberg.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

smurfing


Structuring, also known as smurfing in banking industry jargon, is the issue of transactions structured to avoid certain record keeping and reporting requirements mandated by law.

Monday, May 17, 2010

flâneur


The term flâneur comes from the French masculine noun flâneur—which has the basic meanings of "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", "loafer"—which itself comes from the French verb flâner, which means "to stroll". Charles Baudelaire developed a derived meaning of flâneur—that of "a person who walks the city in order to experience it". Because of the term's usage and theorization by Baudelaire and numerous thinkers in economic, cultural, literary and historical fields, the idea of the flâneur has accumulated significant meaning as a referent for understanding urban phenomena and modernity.

Cornelia Otis Skinner's flâneur

There is no English equivalent for the French word flâneur. Cassell's dictionary defines flâneur as a stroller, saunterer, drifter but none of these terms seems quite accurate. There is no English equivalent for the term, just as there is no Anglo-Saxon counterpart of that essentially Gallic individual, the deliberately aimless pedestrian, unencumbered by any obligation or sense of urgency, who, being French and therefore frugal, wastes nothing, including his time which he spends with the leisurely discrimination of a gourmet, savoring the multiple flavors of his city. (Cornelia Otis Skinner, Elegant Wits and Grand Horizontals, 1962, Houghton Mifflin, New York)

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Hamartia

Hamartia (Ancient Greek: ἁμαρτία) is a term developed by Aristotle in his work Poetics. The term can simply be seen as a character’s flaw or error. The word hamartia is rooted in the notion of missing the mark (hamartanein) and covers a broad spectrum that includes accident and mistake, as well as wrongdoing, error, or sin. In Nicomachean Ethics, hamartia is described by Aristotle as one of the three kinds of injuries that a person can commit against another person. Hamartia is an injury committed in ignorance (when the person affected or the results are not what the agent supposed they were).

Thursday, May 13, 2010

fixie



A fixie is a bicycle without the ability to coast. The sprocket is screwed directly on to the hub and there is no freewheel mechanism. A reverse-threaded lockring is usually fitted to prevent the sprocket from unscrewing.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Uniformitarianism

Uniformitarianism, in the philosophy of science, assumes that the natural processes that operated in the past are the same as those that can be observed operating in the present. Its methodology is frequently summarized as "the present is the key to the past," because it holds that all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world.



The concept of uniformity in geological processes can be traced back to the Persian geologist, Avicenna (Ibn Sina), in The Book of Healing, published in 1027. Modern uniformitarianism was formulated by Scottish naturalists in the late 18th century, starting with the work of the geologist, James Hutton, which was refined by John Playfair and popularised by Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology in 1830. The term uniformitarianism was coined by William Whewell, who also coined the term catastrophism for the idea that the Earth was shaped by a series of sudden, short-lived, violent events.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Matza



Matza (also Matzah, Matzoh, or Matsah) Hebrew: מַצָּה‎, in Ashkenazi matzo or matzoh, and, in Yiddish, matze) is a cracker-like flatbread made of white plain flour and water. The dough is pricked in several places and not allowed to rise before or during baking, thereby producing a hard, flat bread. It is similar in preparation to the Southwest Asian lavash and the Indian chapati.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Characterisation

Characterisation is the process of conveying information about characters in fiction or conversation. Characters are usually presented by description and through their actions, speech, and thoughts.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Apocrypha

Apocrypha (from the Greek word ἀπόκρυφα, meaning "those having been hidden away") are texts of uncertain authenticity, or writings where the authorship is questioned.

Friday, May 7, 2010

bouffant


A bouffant is a type of hairstyle characterized by hair piled high on the head and hanging down on the sides. It was a mainstream hairstyle in the mid-to-late 18th century in western Europe. It was thought to be created for Marie Antoinette, as she had relatively thin hair and wanted to create the illusion of having very full hair. In modern times, the bouffant was popular in Western culture in the 1960s, when it was created with the help of back-combing and large amounts of hair spray.

The word bouffant comes from Middle French, from present participle of bouffer: "to puff, puff out."

Thursday, May 6, 2010

jeofail


jeofail: A legal oversight in pleading, or the acknowledgment of a mistake or oversight.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Integralism

Integralism is a perspective according to which society is an organic unity. It defends social differentiation and hierarchy with co-operation between social classes, transcending conflict between social and economic groups. It advocates free unionism, corporatism, and organic political representation instead of ideological forms of representation.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Masculinism

Masculinism (also Masculism) is the advocacy of men's rights, and the adherence to or promotion of social theories and moral philosophies regarded as typical of males. The term masculinism was coined as the counterpart of feminism in the early 20th century. The shortened form masculism appears in the 1980s.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Anti-fascism


Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, organizations, governments and people. Another term for anti-fascism (or anti-fascists) is antifa. Most major resistance movements during World War II were anti-fascist. There are two broad positions within the anti-fascism movement: militant anti-fascism and liberal anti-fascism.

The term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism. It refers to individuals and groups that are dedicated to fighting fascism, and some anti-fascist groups include the word antifa in their name. During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the Soviet Union sponsored various anti-fascist groups, usually using the name antifa. Prisoners of war captured by the Soviets during the Eastern Front campaign of World War II were encouraged to undertake antifa training. In contemporary times, the term antifa is used almost exclusively by left-wing groups.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Fruitarian

Fruitarians (or fructarians) eat in principle only the fruit of plants. Some people consider themselves fruitarians even if their diet is not 100% fruit. Usually fruitarians who include foods other than fruit follow a vegan diet.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Exopedianism

Exopedianism is the philosophy of focusing on the encyclopedic side of Wikipedia (articles and related content) rather than the social and institutional side of the project. Users who practice the philosophy are called exopedians and fall on the opposite end of the spectrum from metapedians.

lordosis

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