Sunday, December 30, 2012

frustum


In geometry, a frustum (plural: frusta or frustums) is the portion of a solid (normally a cone or pyramid) that lies between two parallel planes cutting it.

The term is commonly used in computer graphics to describe the three-dimensional region which is visible on the screen, the 'viewing frustum', which is formed by a clipped pyramid; in particular, frustum culling is a method of hidden surface determination.

In the aerospace industry, frustum is the common term for the fairing between two stages of a multistage rocket (such as the Saturn V), which is shaped like a truncated cone.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Big Science

Big Science is a term used by scientists and historians of science to describe a series of changes in science which occurred in industrial nations during and after World War II, as scientific progress increasingly came to rely on large-scale projects usually funded by national governments or groups of governments. Individual or small group efforts, or Small Science, is still relevant today as theoretical results by individual authors may have a significant impact, but very often the empirical verification requires experiments using constructions, such as the Large Hadron Collider costing between $5 and $10 billion.

Friday, December 28, 2012

inculcate


inculcate (third-person singular simple present inculcates, present participle inculcating, simple past and past participle inculcated)

  1. (transitive) To teach by repeated instruction.
  2. (transitive) To induce understanding or a particular sentiment in a person or persons.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Steganography

Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one, apart from the sender and intended recipient, suspects the existence of the message, a form of security through obscurity. The word steganography is of Greek origin and means "concealed writing" from the Greek words steganos (στεγανός) meaning "covered or protected", and graphei (γράφη) meaning "writing". The first recorded use of the term was in 1499 by Johannes Trithemius in his Steganographia, a treatise on cryptography and steganography disguised as a book on magic. Generally, messages will appear to be something else: images, articles, shopping lists, or some other covertext and, classically, the hidden message may be in invisible ink between the visible lines of a private letter.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

darknet

A darknet refers to any closed, private group of people communicating; however, since 2002, the term has evolved to more specifically refer to file sharing networks in general, whether that network is private or readily accessible to the public. The phrase "the darknet" is used to refer collectively to all covert communication networks.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Ason

Ason is a prestigious title (under the eight kabane system), initially conferred in the Nara period of the history of Japan, on princes who had been reduced to the commonalty.

Monday, December 24, 2012

auto-antonym

An auto-antonym (sometimes spelled autantonym), or contranym (originally spelled contronym), is a word with a homograph (a word of the same spelling) that is also an antonym (a word with the opposite meaning). Variant names include antagonym, Janus word (after the Roman god), enantiodrome, and self-antonym. It is a word with multiple meanings, one of which is defined as the reverse of one of its other meanings.

For example, the word "fast" can mean "moving quickly" as in "running fast," or it can mean "not moving" as in "stuck fast." To buckle can mean "to fasten" when used transitively or "to bend then break" intransitively. "To weather" can mean "to endure" (intransitive) or "to erode" (transitive). However such terms are just how one relates to the meaning of an object enduring or having endured weather, whether it is standing up against said weather unchanged, or being influenced negative by said weather, it is still either way being weathered and the additional valuation of its resultant meaning makes it an auto-anyonym only subjectively; when in actuality the word means simply how an object relates to the influence of weather for better or worse. That is an example of our perception adding meaning to the word where it may not initially imply such a meaning generally that would make it an auto-antonym. "Weedy" can mean "overgrown" ("The garden is weedy") or stunted ("The boy looks weedy"). "To overlook" can mean "to inspect" or "to fail to notice". "Strike", in baseball terms, can mean "to hit the ball" or "to miss the ball". This phenomenon is also called "enantionymy" or "antilogy."

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Benedictine


Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict around 529.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Gerrymandering


In the process of setting electoral districts, Gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected districts. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander; however, that word can also refer to the process.

Gerrymandering may be used to achieve desired electoral results for a particular party, or may be used to help or hinder a particular group of constituents, such as a political, racial, linguistic, religious or class group.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Scabies


Scabies, known colloquially as the seven-year itch, is a contagious skin infection that occurs among humans and other animals. It is caused by a tiny and usually not directly visible parasite, the mite Sarcoptes scabiei, which burrows under the host's skin, causing intense allergic itching. The infection in animals (caused by different but related mite species) is called sarcoptic mange.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Mutatis mutandis


Mutatis mutandis is a Latin phrase meaning "by changing those things which need to be changed" or more simply "the necessary changes having been made".

The phrase carries the connotation that the reader should pay attention to the corresponding differences between the current statement and a previous one, although they are analogous. This term is used frequently in economics, philosophy and in law, to parameterize a statement with a new term, or note the application of an implied, mutually understood set of changes. The phrase is also used in the study of counter-factuals, wherein the requisite change in the factual basis of the past is made and the resulting causalities are followed.

Monday, December 17, 2012

regicide

The broad definition of regicide (Latin regis "king" + cida "killer" or cidium "killing") is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after a trial.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Lunokhod


Lunokhod was a series of Soviet robotic lunar rovers designed to land on the Moon between 1969 and 1977. The 1969 Lunokhod 1A was destroyed during launch, the 1970 Lunokhod 1 and the 1973 Lunokhod 2 landed on the moon and the 1977 Lunokhod was never launched. The successful missions were in operation concurrently with the Zond and Luna series of Moon flyby, orbiter and landing missions. The Lunokhods were primarily designed to support the Soviet manned moon missions and to be used as automatic remote-controlled robots to explore the surface and return pictures. The Lunokhods were transported to the lunar surface by Luna spacecraft, which were launched by Proton rockets. The moon lander part of the Luna spacecraft for Lunokhods were similar to the ones for sample return missions. The Lunokhods were designed by Alexander Kemurdjian at NPO Lavochkin. Not until the 1997 Mars Pathfinder was another remote-controlled vehicle put on an extraterrestrial body. In 2010, nearly forty years after the 1971 loss of signal from Lunokhod 1, the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed its tracks and final location, and researchers, using a telescopic pulsed-laser rangefinder, detected the robot's retroreflector.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

cislunar

cislunar (not comparable)

  1. situated between the Earth and the Moon
  2. situated below the orbit of the Moon, or equivalent distance from the Earth

Friday, December 14, 2012

Chorizo


Chorizo is a term encompassing several types of pork sausage originating from the Iberian Peninsula.

Chorizo can be a fresh sausage, in which case it must be cooked before eating. In Europe it is more frequently a fermented cured smoked sausage, in which case it is usually sliced and eaten without cooking.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Saucier


A Saucier is a position in the classical brigade style kitchen, which is still used in large commercial kitchens such as some restaurants. It can be translated into English as sauce cook. This position prepares sauces, stews and hot hors d'œuvres and sautés food to order. Although it is the highest position of the station cooks, the saucier is still considered subordinate to the chef and the sous-chef.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Frenemy


"Frenemy" (alternately spelled "frienemy") is a portmanteau of "friend" and "enemy" that can refer to either an enemy disguised as a friend or to a partner who is simultaneously a competitor and rival. The term is used to describe personal, geopolitical, and commercial relationships both among individuals and groups or institutions. The word has appeared in print as early as 1953.

Monday, December 10, 2012

deckle

In manual papermaking, a deckle is a removable wooden frame or "fence" placed into a mould to keep the paper slurry within bounds and to control the size of the sheet produced. After the mold is dipped into a vat of paper slurry, excess water is drained off and the deckle is removed and the mold shaken or "couched" to set the fibers of the paper. Some of the paper slurry passes under the deckle and forms an irregular, thin edge. Paper with a feathered or soft edge is described as having a "deckled" edge, in contrast with a cut edge.

Machine-made paper may artificially have its edges produced to resemble a deckle edge. This is most commonly used for private presses or fancy stationery.

In film processing, deckles are die inserts that set the coating width of a slot die coater or the extrusion width of an extrusion die. They work by constraining the flow as the material exits the die. Since some materials have a tendency to neck in or spread out after leaving the die, deckle position may need to be compensated to achieve the target width.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Font hinting


Font hinting (also known as instructing) is the use of mathematical instructions to adjust the display of an outline font so that it lines up with a rasterized grid. At low screen resolutions, hinting is critical for producing a clear, legible text. It can be accompanied by antialiasing and (on liquid crystal displays) subpixel rendering for further clarity.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Figging


Figging is the practice of inserting a piece of ginger root into the anus, vagina or male urethra. Originally applied to horses as a form of deception as to the horse's condition, it now most commonly refers to a practice in BDSM.

Historically, this practice, also known as feaguing, or gingering was used to ginger up older horses in order to deceive the purchaser as to the age and condition of the horse, by having the animal hold its tail and head high and moving around nervously, characteristic of a younger horse.

The ginger, skinned and often carved into the shape of a butt plug, causes an intense burning sensation and discomfort to the subject. If the submissive tightens the muscles of the anus, the sensation becomes more intense. For this reason it is rumored to have been done to recalcitrant wives in the Victorian age to prevent them from clenching during a spanking.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Granuloma

Granuloma is a medical term for a roughly spherical mass of immune cells that forms when the immune system attempts to wall off substances that it perceives as foreign but is unable to eliminate. Such substances include infectious organisms such as bacteria and fungi as well as other materials such as keratin and suture fragments. A granuloma is therefore a special type of inflammation that can occur in a wide variety of diseases. The adjective granulomatous means characterized by granulomas.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Sannyasa

Sannyasa is the order of life of the renouncer within the Hindu scheme of āśramas, or life stages. It is considered the topmost and final stage of the ashram systems and is traditionally taken by men or women at or beyond the age of fifty years old or by young monks who wish to renounce worldly and materialistic pursuits and instead dedicate their entire life towards spiritual pursuits. In this phase of life, the person develops vairāgya, or a state of dispassion and detachment from material life. He renounces all worldly thoughts and desires, and spends the rest of his life in spiritual contemplation. One within the sannyasa order is known as a sannyasin (male) or sannyasini (female).

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

mudrā


A mudrā is a symbolic or ritual gesture in Hinduism and Buddhism. While some mudrās involve the entire body, most are performed with the hands and fingers. A mudrā is a spiritual gesture and an energetic seal of authenticity employed in the iconography and spiritual practice of Indian religions and traditions of Dharma and Taoism.

One hundred and eight mudras are used in regular Tantric rituals.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

ondes Martenot


The ondes Martenot, also known as the ondium Martenot, Martenot and ondes musicales, is an early electronic musical instrument invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot. The original design was similar in sound to the theremin. The sonic capabilities of the instrument were later expanded by the addition of timbral controls and switchable loudspeakers.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Epidemiology

Epidemiology is the study of health-event patterns in a society. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform evidence-based medicine for identifying risk factors for disease and determining optimal treatment approaches to clinical practice and for preventive medicine. In the study of communicable and non-communicable diseases, epidemiologists are involved in outbreak investigation to study design, data collection, statistical analysis, documentation of results and submission for publication. Epidemiologists rely on a number of other scientific disciplines such as biology (to better understand disease processes), biostatistics (the current raw information available) and social science disciplines (to better understand proximate and distal risk factors).

lordosis

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