Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Filmizing

Filmizing (a.k.a. Film look, Filmlook) is a generic and informal term referring to a process which makes video productions appear as if they were shot on film. This process is usually electronic, although filmizing can sometimes occur as an un-intentional by-product of some optical techniques such as telerecording.

Monday, August 30, 2010

toroid


In mathematics, a toroid is a doughnut-shaped object, such as an O-ring. Its annular shape is generated by revolving a geometrical figure around an axis external to that figure. When a rectangle is rotated around an axis parallel to one of its edges then a hollow cylinder (resembling a piece of straight pipe) is produced.

If the revolved figure is a circle, then the surface of such an object is known as a torus.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Roasting

Roasting is a metallurgical process involving gas-solids reactions at elevated temperatures. A common example is the process in which sulfide ores are converted to oxides, prior to smelting.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Dailies

Dailies, in filmmaking, is the term used to describe the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. They are so called because usually at the end of each day, that day's footage is developed, synched to sound, and printed on film in a batch (and/or telecined onto video tape or disk) for viewing the next day by the director and some members of the film crew. However, the term can be used to refer to any raw footage, regardless of when it is developed or printed.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Thaler


The Thaler (or Taler or Talir) was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in various currencies as the dollar or tolar. Etymologically, "Thaler" is an abbreviation of "Joachimsthaler", a coin type from the city of Joachimsthal in Bohemia, where some of the first such coins were minted in 1518. (Thal, pronounced 'tall', is German for "dale" or "dell"; they all mean "valley". Therefore a "thaler" is a person or a thing "from the valley".)

Thursday, August 26, 2010

demonym

A demonym, also referred to as a gentilic, is a name for a resident of a locality which is derived from the name of the particular locality. The word demonym comes from the Greek word for 'populace' (δῆμος demos) with the suffix for 'name' (-onym). In English, the demonym is often the same as the name of the people's native language: the people of Korea are called Korean, which is also the name of their language. National Geographic attributes the term to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson. It was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

farrier


A farrier is a specialist in equine hoof care, including the trimming and balancing of a horse's hoof and the placing of shoes to the horse's foot. A farrier couples a subset of the blacksmith's skills (fabricating, adapting, and adjusting metal shoes) with a subset of veterinary medicine (knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the lower limb) to address the care of the horse's feet.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Photostat

The Photostat machine, or Photostat, was an early projection photocopier created in the 1900s by the Photostat Corporation; "Photostat" - which was originally a trademark of the company - is also used to refer to the similar machines produced by the Rectigraph Company.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Friability

Friability means the ability to reduce a solid substance into smaller pieces with little effort.

Often, substances designated as being hazardous, such as asbestos or crystalline silica are referred to as being friable if they are present in such a state that it is possible for small particles to become dislodged, thus enabling them to become respirable (able to enter human lungs), posing a health hazard.

A friable substance is any substance that can be reduced to fibres or finer particles by the action of comparatively little pressure or friction on its mass, such as inadvertently brushing up against the substance. The term could also apply to any material that exhibits these properties.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

shiro

Japanese castles ( shiro) were fortresses composed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries, and came into their most well-known form in the 16th century. Like European castles, the castles of Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, such as ports, river crossings, or crossroads, and almost always incorporated the landscape into their defense.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Froguerock

'Le Froguerock' was the northern French music scene of the 1990s. Its sound was part punk, part experimental, part industrial, and part Krautrock (from whence it acquired its name). It was left-wing in outlook and through sound and attitude it was attempting to challenge the prevailing capitalist paradigm.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

motte-and-bailey

A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle. Many were built in Britain, Ireland and France in the 11th and 12th centuries, favoured as a relatively cheap but effective defensive fortification that could repel most small attacks .

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Euramerica

Euramerica (also known as Laurussia, the Old Red Continent or the Old Red Sandstone Continent) was a minor supercontinent created in the Devonian as the result of a collision between the Laurentian, Baltica and Avalonia cratons (Caledonian orogeny).

Euramerica became a part of the major supercontinent Pangaea in the Permian. In the Jurassic, when Pangaea rifted into two continents, Gondwana and Laurasia, Euramerica was a part of Laurasia. In the Cretaceous, Laurasia split into the continents of North America and Eurasia. The Laurentian craton became a part of North America, while Baltica became a part of Eurasia.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

fishwife

A fishwife or fish fag is a woman who sells fish. Such women were notoriously loud and foul-mouthed as in the proverb, To swear like a fishwife. One reason for their outspokenness is that their wares were highly perishable and so lost value if not sold quickly.

Monday, August 16, 2010

allip

In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game an allip is an undead creature, the spectral remains of someone driven to suicide by madness in life. They are found on any land, and underground, they are solitary, and carry nothing with them, despite having the intellect of a human.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

counterstereotype

A counterstereotype, reverse stereotype, or anti-stereotype is the reverse of a stereotype. Although counter-stereotypes arise in opposition to stereotypes, they may eventually become stereotypes themselves if they are too popular.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Tolkienology

Tolkienology is a term used by Tolkien fans to describe the study of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien treating Middle-earth as a real world, conducting research from an "in-universe" perspective. This differs from Tolkien studies in that it ignores the real-world history of composition by the author, and necessarily needs to assume an underlying internally consistent canon.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Scullion

A Scullion was the male counterpart to Scullery maid, a servant who performed menial kitchen jobs (washing, cleaning, etc.) in large households during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Xoloitzcuintli


The Mexican Hairless Dog is a rare, hairless breed of dog whose size varies greatly. It is also known as Xoloitzcuintli, Xoloitzcuintle (in English pronounced /ʃoʊloʊiːtskwiːntli/ show-low-eats-quint-lee), or Xolo for short, or Mexican Hairless.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010



Celeste
is a bluey-greenish colour. Bianchi bicycles are traditionally painted celeste, a turquoise also known as Bianchi green, although there are other colours. Contradictory myths say celeste is the colour of the Milan sky, the eye colour of a former queen of Italy for whom Edoardo Bianchi made a bicycle - the crowned eagle of the company logo is an adaptation of the former royal crest - and that it was a mixture of surplus military paint. The shade has changed over the years, sometimes more blue, then more green.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Wowser

Wowser around 1900 shifted to its present meaning: one whose sense of morality drives them to deprive others of their sinful pleasures, especially liquor. The term was particularly applied to members of temperance groups such as the antipodean branches of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Clear

In Dianetics and Scientology, Clear is stated to be a condition in which a person is free of the unwanted influence of engrams, unwanted emotions or painful traumas which are not readily available to the awareness of present time. A person in this condition, then referred to as a "Clear", would be a person cleared of those negative influences. Such a person is said to be "at cause over" (in control of) their "mental energy" (their thoughts), and able to think clearly even when faced with the very situation which in earlier times caused them grave difficulty.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Humanure

"Humanure" is a neologism designating human excrement (feces and urine) that is recycled via composting for agricultural or other purposes. The term was popularized by a 1994 book by Joseph Jenkins that advocates the use of this organic soil amendment.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Harijan

Harijan (son of God) was a term coined by Gandhi for Dalits, which is now considered patronizing. The term can also be attributed to Dalits of Pakistan called the haris, who are a group of mud-hut builders. Gandhi said it was wrong to call people 'untouchable'. He gave them a new name, 'Harijans', which means children of God.

Neo-Buddhist Dalits try to make 'Harijan' appear as a disgrace to all Dalits as it comes from a Hindu name. This term had already been used, in a different form, by the medieval philosopher Ramanuja who uplifted many backward caste people: as Thirukulattar, or People of Holy Clan. The term Harijan is considered bad and weak word by many of the 'lower' caste people of India, as the name implies that the section is weak and should be taken care of. They prefer the word 'Dalit' (meaning Oppressed) instead of harijan.

Recently there was a Dalit conference in Kerala which demanded the use of 'harijan' to be banned in media and political circles.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

bluestocking

A bluestocking is an educated, intellectual woman. Such women are stereotyped as being frumpy and the reference to blue stockings refers to the time when woolen worsted stockings were informal dress, as compared with formal, fashionable black silk stockings.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Swashbuckler

Swashbuckler or swasher is a term that developed in the 16th century to describe rough, noisy and boastful swordsmen. It is based on a fighting style using a side-sword with a buckler in the off-hand, which was filled with much "swashing and making a noise on the buckler".

Today the term "swashbuckler" has changed, and refers to both a type of fictitious character and to a fiction genre, especially in the world of film.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

deconvolution

In mathematics, deconvolution is an algorithm-based process used to reverse the effects of convolution on recorded data. The concept of deconvolution is widely used in the techniques of signal processing and image processing. Because these techniques are in turn widely used in many scientific and engineering disciplines, deconvolution finds many applications.

lordosis

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