maryw

maryw has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 6 lists, listed 796 words, written 862 comments, added 0 tags, and loved 31 words.

Comments by maryw

MaryW commented on the word vuja de

On a trip to London last month, I had at last the opportunity to read Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, the new book by our keynote speaker for the InsideNGO 2016 Annual Conference, Adam Grant. Early in the book, Grant discusses how as human beings our nature is to "rationalize the status quo as legitimate." He calls this the "default system" and highlights the many perils of taking the status quo for granted and never questioning the default assumptions we make.
To counter this, Grant suggests flipping the old idea of déjà vu where we encounter something new but feel like we have experienced it before to a new approach, vuja de. Vuja de, Grant writes, "is the reverse—we face something familiar, but we see it with a fresh perspective that enables us to gain new insight from old problems."
Tom Dente, From déjà vu to vuja de: The Importance of New Perspectives, Humentum blog (June 8, 2016)

February 5, 2018
MaryW commented on the word rosary

I hadn't seen the "rose garden" sense before, but there it is.
we were having photographs taken in the rosary outside Rosecliff Mansion
Bryan Garner, Nino and Me (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018), ch. 6

January 22, 2018
MaryW commented on the word phub

See phubbing.

January 21, 2018
MaryW commented on the word stealthing

an online sub-community of perpetrators has identified and dubbed the practice of nonconsensually removing condoms during sex "stealthing."
Alexandra Brodsky, "Rape-Adjacent": Imagining Legal Responses to Nonconsensual Condom Removal, 32 Col. J. Gender & L. 183, 184 (2017)

January 14, 2018
MaryW commented on the word antifa

When Nazis and white supremacists rally, the antifa are likely to show up, too.
“Antifa” is short for antifascists, though the name by no means includes everyone who opposes fascism. The antifa is a relatively small movement of the far left, with ties to anarchism. It arose in Europe’s punk scene in the 1980s to fight neo-Nazism.
The antifa says that because Nazism and white supremacy are violent, we must use any means necessary to stop them. This includes physical means, like what they did on my campus: forming a crowd to block ticket-holders from entering a venue to hear a right extremist speak.
The antifa’s tactics often backfire, just like those of Germany’s communist opposition to Nazism did in the 1920s. Confrontations escalate. Public opinion often blames the left no matter the circumstances.
Laurie Marhoefer, How Should We Protest Neo-Nazi? Lessons from German History, The Conversation (Aug. 21, 2017)

January 4, 2018
MaryW commented on the word anti-swatting

Swatting, which has a long history in the online gaming world, refers to the practice of making an emergency call about a fake situation often involving a killing or hostages, in the hopes of sending police to the address of an adversary or random person.
. . .
. . . Swatting has been used as a tactic to harass and intimidate people across the country and is typically done with digital tools that disguise the caller’s location.
. . .
Rep. Katherine Clark, a Massachusetts Democrat, introduced an anti-swatting bill in 2015 — then was herself the victim of swatting.
Eli Rosenberg & Herman Wong, A police officer fatally shot a man while responding to an emergency call now called a ‘swatting’ prank, Wash. Post, Dec. 30, 2017

December 30, 2017
MaryW commented on the word swatting

Swatting, which has a long history in the online gaming world, refers to the practice of making an emergency call about a fake situation often involving a killing or hostages, in the hopes of sending police to the address of an adversary or random person.
. . .
. . . Swatting has been used as a tactic to harass and intimidate people across the country and is typically done with digital tools that disguise the caller’s location.
. . .
Rep. Katherine Clark, a Massachusetts Democrat, introduced an anti-swatting bill in 2015 — then was herself the victim of swatting.
Eli Rosenberg & Herman Wong, A police officer fatally shot a man while responding to an emergency call now called a ‘swatting’ prank, Wash. Post, Dec. 30, 2017

December 30, 2017
MaryW commented on the word kratom

The menu offers coffee, black tea, beer, wine and pastries, but nearly everyone opts for a $5 mug of kratom (pronounced KRAY-dum).
A powder ground from the leaves of an indigenous Southeast Asian tree related to the coffee plant, kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) offers pain relief and mood enhancement, similar to prescription painkillers.
Advocates say the substance, which does not depress the respiratory system and therefore presents little to no overdose risk, could help reduce the nation’s reliance on highly addictive and often deadly prescription painkillers. Some addiction experts also argue the plant could be used as an alternative to methadone, buprenorphine and Vivitrol in medication-assisted therapy for opioid addiction.
Used for centuries to fight fatigue, pain and anxiety in Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea and Thailand, kratom was rarely taken in the United States until recently.
Christine Vestal, As Kratom Use Surges, Some States Enact Bans, Stateline (Dec. 4, 2017)

December 11, 2017
MaryW commented on the word dead-naming

. . . it caused "harm" to trans people, for example by "dead-naming" a trans woman, that is, referring to her by her former male name.
Making Sense of the Culture War over Transgender Identity, The Economist, Nov. 16, 2017

November 22, 2017
MaryW commented on the word trans-exclusionary radical feminist

A war of words has broken out between some transgender activists and women they call TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) about who should be let into women-only spaces, from domestic-violence refuges to women’s literary and sports competitions.
Making Sense of the Culture War over Transgender Identity, The Economist, Nov. 16, 2017

November 22, 2017
MaryW commented on the word TERF

A war of words has broken out between some transgender activists and women they call TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) about who should be let into women-only spaces, from domestic-violence refuges to women’s literary and sports competitions.
Making Sense of the Culture War over Transgender Identity, The Economist, Nov. 16, 2017

November 22, 2017
MaryW commented on the word ghost gun

A ghost gun is a firearm without serial numbers. The term is used by gun control advocates, gun rights advocates, law enforcement, and some in the firearm industry.1 2 3 4 By making the gun themselves, owners may legally bypass background checks and registration regulations.1 Some ghost guns become part of the illicit firearms trade.5 Under U.S. federal law, the creation and possession of ghost guns is permitted, but a license is required to manufacture firearms for sale or distribution.
Wikipedia
When Kevin Neal went on a deadly shooting rampage last week in California, he was armed with at least two semi-automatic rifles, known as "ghost guns," that he didn't buy in a store or from a gun dealer, authorities say.
"These arms are manufactured illegally, we believe, by him at his home," said Tehama County assistant sheriff Phil Johnston, during a news conference on Nov. 15.
. . .
Given Neal's criminal background, it was clearly illegal for him to possess these guns once they had been assembled.
Brian Mann, Do-It-Yourself 'Ghost Guns' Bypass Background Checks And Firearm Registration, NPR, Nov. 21, 2017

November 22, 2017
MaryW commented on the word consumer neuroscience

Our brains react to our world in milliseconds—faster than we’re consciously aware. And much of what drives our everyday decisions, including what we’ll watch, talk about and buy, are the emotional responses that traditional self-report methods alone can’t measure.
That’s where consumer neuroscience comes in, a field that Nielsen has been in for nearly 10 years. Through neuroscience, we help brands understand consumers’ non-conscious engagement and responses, which they can use to create stronger connections with their audiences.
We integrate best-in-class neuroscience technologies with traditional research methods, so that we, along with our clients, will learn faster, develop better testing protocols and deliver stronger results than anyone in the industry.
Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience

November 13, 2017
MaryW commented on the word dox

Remember Gamergate?
Or when the identity of that dentist who killed Cecil the Lion was posted?
Or that man who was wrongly identified as the Boston Marathon bomber?
These were all examples of how making someone’s personal, and sometimes private, information public on the internet led to intense harassment.
Today, each of the cases could easily be termed a form of doxxing — short for “dropping documents.” In the last few years, doxxing has increasingly been used as an online weapon to attack people. People’s “documents” — records of their addresses, relatives, finances — get posted online with the implicit or explicit invitation for others to shame or hector them.
Decca Muldowney, So What the Hell Is Doxxing?, ProPublica, Nov. 4, 2017. The article also uses "dox" and "doxed."

November 7, 2017
MaryW commented on the word doxxing

Remember Gamergate?
Or when the identity of that dentist who killed Cecil the Lion was posted?
Or that man who was wrongly identified as the Boston Marathon bomber?
These were all examples of how making someone’s personal, and sometimes private, information public on the internet led to intense harassment.
Today, each of the cases could easily be termed a form of doxxing — short for “dropping documents.” In the last few years, doxxing has increasingly been used as an online weapon to attack people. People’s “documents” — records of their addresses, relatives, finances — get posted online with the implicit or explicit invitation for others to shame or hector them.
Decca Muldowney, So What the Hell Is Doxxing?, ProPublica, Nov. 4, 2017. The article also uses "dox" and "doxed."

November 7, 2017
MaryW commented on the word tax morale

Tulane University economics professor James Alm researches tax compliance, tax evasion and an idea known as "tax morale."
"Tax morale is an attempt to measure one’s intrinsic motivation to pay taxes," he explained.
There’s a rate at which economists predict people would pay taxes based on the likelihood of getting caught and punished for not paying. In the U.S., more people pay more taxes and cheat less than what the “rational model” might suggest. Alm's research shows we have the highest tax morale of any developed country.
Adriene Hill, How Americans Really Feel About Taxes, Marketplace (Sept. 27, 2017)
Many researchers have suggested that the intrinsic motivation for individuals to pay taxes—what is sometimes termed their "tax morale"—differs across countries; that is, if taxpayer values are influenced by cultural norms, with different societal institutions acting as constraints and varying between different countries, then tax morale may be an important determinant of taxpayer compliance and other forms of behavior. However, isolating the reasons for these differences in tax morale is notoriously difficult.
James Alm & Benno Torgler, Culture Differences and Tax Morale in the United Statesand in Europe, CREMA Working Paper No. 2004-14 (July 9, 2004)

October 13, 2017
MaryW commented on the word jump-out

The term “jumpout” is slang in the D.C. area for infamous squads of armed police officers who conduct surprise “stop-and-frisk” maneuvers.
Alec Karakatsanis, Policing, Mass Imprisonment, and the Failure of American Lawyers, 128 Harv. L. Rev. F. 253 (2015) (citing icole Flatow, If You Thought Stop-And-Frisk Was Bad, You Should Know About Jump-Outs, ThinkProgress (Dec. 11, 2014, 11:00 AM), http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/12/10/3468340/jump-outs http://perma.cc/F374-VL8L'>http://perma.cc/F374-VL8L).

August 23, 2017
MaryW commented on the word jumpout

The term “jumpout” is slang in the D.C. area for infamous squads of armed police officers who conduct surprise “stop-and-frisk” maneuvers.
Alec Karakatsanis, Policing, Mass Imprisonment, and the Failure of American Lawyers, 128 Harv. L. Rev. F. 253 (2015) (citing icole Flatow, If You Thought Stop-And-Frisk Was Bad, You Should Know About Jump-Outs, ThinkProgress (Dec. 11, 2014, 11:00 AM), http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/12/10/3468340/jump-outs http://perma.cc/F374-VL8L'>http://perma.cc/F374-VL8L).

August 23, 2017
MaryW commented on the word dry code

Also, it’s important to consider that there are different types of coding in blockchain. Alber divided them into two categories: ‘wet code’ and ‘dry code’. Dry code, he said, comprises transferring a piece of intellectual property, like a novel, through the blockchain, and hashing it so only those with the appropriate decryption key could access it. All conditions regarding transfer can be expressed inside the blockchain, and ownership can be transferred without human involvement. On the other hand, wet code can be used for something like a lease hold, where someone might have to go in and apply, say, building conditions.
Ian Lopez, Where Blockchain Finds a Home in Law, Legaltech News, Aug. 18, 2017

August 23, 2017
MaryW commented on the word wet code

Also, it’s important to consider that there are different types of coding in blockchain. Alber divided them into two categories: ‘wet code’ and ‘dry code’. Dry code, he said, comprises transferring a piece of intellectual property, like a novel, through the blockchain, and hashing it so only those with the appropriate decryption key could access it. All conditions regarding transfer can be expressed inside the blockchain, and ownership can be transferred without human involvement. On the other hand, wet code can be used for something like a lease hold, where someone might have to go in and apply, say, building conditions.
Ian Lopez, Where Blockchain Finds a Home in Law, Legaltech News, Aug. 18, 2017

August 23, 2017
MaryW commented on the word SLH

The house was a sober living house or "sober home" — a kind of privately owned halfway house intended to integrate recovering drug and alcohol users back into community life and help them stay on the right path.
Peter Haden, 'Body Brokers' Get Kickbacks To Lure People With Addictions To Bad Rehab, All Things Considered, Aug. 15, 2017
Sober living houses (SLHs) are alcohol and drug free living environments for individuals attempting to abstain from alcohol and drugs. They are not licensed or funded by state or local governments and the residents themselves pay for costs.
Douglas L. Polcin et al., What Did We Learn from Our Study on Sober Living Houses and Where Do We Go from Here?, J. Psychoactive Drugs, Dec. 2010

August 17, 2017
MaryW commented on the word sober home

The house was a sober living house or "sober home" — a kind of privately owned halfway house intended to integrate recovering drug and alcohol users back into community life and help them stay on the right path.
Peter Haden, 'Body Brokers' Get Kickbacks To Lure People With Addictions To Bad Rehab, All Things Considered, Aug. 15, 2017
Sober living houses (SLHs) are alcohol and drug free living environments for individuals attempting to abstain from alcohol and drugs. They are not licensed or funded by state or local governments and the residents themselves pay for costs.
Douglas L. Polcin et al., What Did We Learn from Our Study on Sober Living Houses and Where Do We Go from Here?, J. Psychoactive Drugs, Dec. 2010

August 17, 2017
MaryW commented on the word sober living house

The house was a sober living house or "sober home" — a kind of privately owned halfway house intended to integrate recovering drug and alcohol users back into community life and help them stay on the right path.
Peter Haden, 'Body Brokers' Get Kickbacks To Lure People With Addictions To Bad Rehab, All Things Considered, Aug. 15, 2017
Sober living houses (SLHs) are alcohol and drug free living environments for individuals attempting to abstain from alcohol and drugs. They are not licensed or funded by state or local governments and the residents themselves pay for costs.
Douglas L. Polcin et al., What Did We Learn from Our Study on Sober Living Houses and Where Do We Go from Here?, J. Psychoactive Drugs, Dec. 2010

August 17, 2017
MaryW commented on the word sober house

The house was a sober living house or "sober home" — a kind of privately owned halfway house intended to integrate recovering drug and alcohol users back into community life and help them stay on the right path.
Peter Haden, 'Body Brokers' Get Kickbacks To Lure People With Addictions To Bad Rehab, All Things Considered, Aug. 15, 2017
Sober living houses (SLHs) are alcohol and drug free living environments for individuals attempting to abstain from alcohol and drugs. They are not licensed or funded by state or local governments and the residents themselves pay for costs.
Douglas L. Polcin et al., What Did We Learn from Our Study on Sober Living Houses and Where Do We Go from Here?, J. Psychoactive Drugs, Dec. 2010

August 17, 2017
MaryW commented on the word patient brokering

The first step for unscrupulous rehab centers: Recruiting clients who have good health insurance. That's created a whole new industry — something called patient brokering or "body brokering.
The corrupt owner of a drug treatment center might pay $500 per week in kickbacks to the operators of sober homes who send them clients with health insurance . . . ."
Delray Beach authorities say body brokers used to target recovering drug users hanging out on the patio of a local Starbucks. The coffee shop restricted access to the patio in 2015, after a meeting with the city officials and the police department.
Peter Haden, 'Body Brokers' Get Kickbacks To Lure People With Addictions To Bad Rehab, All Things Considered, Aug. 15, 2017

August 17, 2017
MaryW commented on the word body brokering

The first step for unscrupulous rehab centers: Recruiting clients who have good health insurance. That's created a whole new industry — something called patient brokering or "body brokering.
The corrupt owner of a drug treatment center might pay $500 per week in kickbacks to the operators of sober homes who send them clients with health insurance . . . ."
Delray Beach authorities say body brokers used to target recovering drug users hanging out on the patio of a local Starbucks. The coffee shop restricted access to the patio in 2015, after a meeting with the city officials and the police department.
Peter Haden, 'Body Brokers' Get Kickbacks To Lure People With Addictions To Bad Rehab, All Things Considered, Aug. 15, 2017

August 17, 2017
MaryW commented on the word body broker

The first step for unscrupulous rehab centers: Recruiting clients who have good health insurance. That's created a whole new industry — something called patient brokering or "body brokering.
The corrupt owner of a drug treatment center might pay $500 per week in kickbacks to the operators of sober homes who send them clients with health insurance . . . ."
Delray Beach authorities say body brokers used to target recovering drug users hanging out on the patio of a local Starbucks. The coffee shop restricted access to the patio in 2015, after a meeting with the city officials and the police department.
Peter Haden, 'Body Brokers' Get Kickbacks To Lure People With Addictions To Bad Rehab, All Things Considered, Aug. 15, 2017

August 17, 2017
MaryW commented on the word fire borrowing

Introduced by Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act would put an end to federal policy that amounts to throwing good money after bad. The bill, which is co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 16 representatives, targets the practice of “fire borrowing” in the suppression of wildfires.
In short, the approach forces federal agencies to redirect money from other areas — namely, forest management and fire prevention — when the cost of fighting fires exceeds expectations. This leaves less money for prevention, which exacerbates the fires in future years.
In Our View: Put Out 'Fire Borrowing', The Columbian, June 19, 2017
Fire borrowing is a budgetary practice that occurs when federal agencies divert funds from forest health and fire prevention programs to fight wildfires.
Western Governors Urge Congress: Make End to 'Fire Borrowing' Top Priority, Western Governors' Association, Nov. 15, 2016

August 8, 2017
MaryW commented on the word go through

Young adults living in poverty face high exposure to “go throughs”: lived experiences of structural disadvantage and trauma with lasting implications for educational, economic, and other life outcomes. They frequently “get through” these challenges without formal mental health supports, relying on community-based programs and peer networks to cope with their experiences.
Go Throughs to Get Through: Low Income Young Adults and Mental Health, CLASP (June 5, 2017)

August 8, 2017
MaryW commented on the word carbon dioxide cleaning

Yes, the most “delicate” way to spruce up century-old sculptures is to hit them with pellets of dry ice at supersonic speeds. That’s the badass science of fine art conservation for you. The formal name for the technique is “carbon dioxide cleaning,” and it actually has all kinds of applications: removing particles from electric circuits, cleaning telescope mirrors, preparing laboratory samples, manufacturing metal parts. But at the Freer, the objective was to scour away the protective wax layer that coats the Saint-Gaudens statues. This would allow conservators to clean and polish the bronze underneath before applying a fresh wax coating and placing the figures back on their
pedestals.
Sarah Kaplan, Museum uses micro explosions to save fine art from bird poop, Wash. Post, July 19, 2017

July 24, 2017
MaryW commented on the word angel family

Trump — a known germaphobe — is not a natural hugger. But every time he meets “angel moms,” whose children have been killed by illegal immigrants, they expect to receive an embrace from the president.
. . .
While Obama showcased Dreamers at State of the Union addresses, Trump invited angel families to sit in first lady Melania Trump’s box during his address to Congress in February.
Ashley Parker et al., Trump's Wall: What's Behind the President's Fixation on Immigration?, Wash. Post, July 19, 2017

July 24, 2017
MaryW commented on the word angel mom

Trump — a known germaphobe — is not a natural hugger. But every time he meets “angel moms,” whose children have been killed by illegal immigrants, they expect to receive an embrace from the president.
. . .
While Obama showcased Dreamers at State of the Union addresses, Trump invited angel families to sit in first lady Melania Trump’s box during his address to Congress in February.
Ashley Parker et al., Trump's Wall: What's Behind the President's Fixation on Immigration?, Wash. Post, July 19, 2017

July 24, 2017
MaryW commented on the word technical

Another noun sense:
At Hoover's request, (Attorney General) Brownell had asked congressional committee chairmen for new laws allowing wiretapping without a warrant. They had said no, time and again. Hoover had asked for the legal authorization for microphone surveillances—bugging, or "technicals," in Bureauspeak—but the lawmakers spurned the request.
Tim Weiner, Enemies: A History of the FBI (New York: Random House, 2012), p. 192

July 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word boondogglery

A condition characterized by rampant boondoggles.
The FBI's intelligence division chief, Al Belmont, told General Doolittle's investigative group
the CIA was shot through with "waste, inefficiency, and plain boondogglery."
Tim Weiner, Enemies: A History of the FBI (New York: Random House, 2012), p. 189

July 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word legend

Morris agreed to create a legend—a ghost job with false credentials—in Paramount's Berlin office. The legendlegend served as a deep cover for Vassili Zarubin, later chief of Soviet espionage in the United States during World War II.
Tim Weiner, Enemies: A History of the FBI (New York: Random House, 2012), p. 181

July 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word slacker

Attorney General Thomas Gregory
authorized the Bureau of Investigation to round up the "slackers"—men who had failed to register for the military draft—in the spring and summers of 1918.
Tim Weiner, Enemies: A History of the FBI (New York: Random House, 2012), p. 16

July 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word protomusics

Rhythm and meter are the engine driving virtually all music, and it is likely that they were the very first elements used by our ancestors to make protomusics, a tradition we still hear today in tribal drumming, and in the rituals of various preindustrial cultures. While I believe timbre is now at the center of our approciation of music, rhythm has held supreme power over listeners for much longer..
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 55

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word protomusic

Rhythm and meter are the engine driving virtually all music, and it is likely that they were the very first elements used by our ancestors to make protomusics, a tradition we still hear today in tribal drumming, and in the rituals of various preindustrial cultures. While I believe timbre is now at the center of our approciation of music, rhythm has held supreme power over listeners for much longer..
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 55

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word drawbar

The organ player typically has control over which of these supplementary pipes he wants to blow air through by pulling and pushing levers, or drawbars, that direct the flow of air. Knowing that clarinets have a lot of energy in the odd harmonics of the overtone series, a clever organ player could simulate the sound of a clarinet by manipulating drawbars in such a way as to recreate the overtone series of that instrument.
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 48

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word pianoness

When you hear a saxophone playing a tone with a fundamental frequency of 220 Hz, you are actually hearing many tones, not just one. The other tones you hear are integer multiples of the fundamental: 440, 660, . . . . These different tones—the overtones—have different intensities, and so we hear them as having different loudnesses for these tones is distinctive of the saxophone, and they are what give rise to its unique tonal color, its unique sound—its timbre. . . . Indeed, for each instrument, there exists a unique pattern of overtones. . . . Virtually all of the tonal variation we hear—the quality that gives a trumpet its trumpetiness and that gives a piano its pianoness—comes from the unique way in which the loudnesses of the overtones are distributed.
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 46

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word overtone

When you hear a saxophone playing a tone with a fundamental frequency of 220 Hz, you are actually hearing many tones, not just one. The other tones you hear are integer multiples of the fundamental: 440, 660, . . . . These different tones—the overtones—have different intensities, and so we hear them as having different loudnesses for these tones is distinctive of the saxophone, and they are what give rise to its unique tonal color, its unique sound—its timbre. . . . Indeed, for each instrument, there exists a unique pattern of overtones. . . . Virtually all of the tonal variation we hear—the quality that gives a trumpet its trumpetiness and that gives a piano its pianoness—comes from the unique way in which the loudnesses of the overtones are distributed.
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 46

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word trumpetiness

When you hear a saxophone playing a tone with a fundamental frequency of 220 Hz, you are actually hearing many tones, not just one. The other tones you hear are integer multiples of the fundamental: 440, 660, . . . . These different tones—the overtones—have different intensities, and so we hear them as having different loudnesses for these tones is distinctive of the saxophone, and they are what give rise to its unique tonal color, its unique sound—its timbre. . . . Indeed, for each instrument, there exists a unique pattern of overtones. . . . Virtually all of the tonal variation we hear—the quality that gives a trumpet its trumpetiness and that gives a piano its pianoness—comes from the unique way in which the loudnesses of the overtones are distributed.
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 46

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word declarative knowledge

If a musician is playing the white keys, how do I know if he is playing the A minor scale or the C major scale? The answer is that—entirely without our conscious awareness—our brains are keeping track of how many times particular notes are sounded, where they appear in terms of strong versus weak beats, and how long they last. A computational process in the brain makes an inference about the key we're in based on these properties. This is another example of something that most of us can do even without musical training, and what psychologist call declarative knowledge—the ability to talk about it . . . .
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 38

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word tonotopic map

The basilar membrane of the inner ear contains hair cells that are frequency selective, firing only in response to a certain band of frequencies. These are stretched out across the membrane from low frequencies to high; low-frequency sounds excite hair cells on one end of the basilar membrane, medium frequency sounds excite the hair cells in the middle, and high-frequency sounds excite them at the other end. . . . Because the different tones are spread out across the surface topography of the membrane, this is called a tonotopic map.
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 28

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word tonotopic

The basilar membrane of the inner ear contains hair cells that are frequency selective, firing only in response to a certain band of frequencies. These are stretched out across the membrane from low frequencies to high; low-frequency sounds excite hair cells on one end of the basilar membrane, medium frequency sounds excite the hair cells in the middle, and high-frequency sounds excite them at the other end. . . . Because the different tones are spread out across the surface topography of the membrane, this is called a tonotopic map.
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 28

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word basilar

The basilar membrane of the inner ear contains hair cells that are frequency selective, firing only in response to a certain band of frequencies. These are stretched out across the membrane from low frequencies to high; low-frequency sounds excite hair cells on one end of the basilar membrane, medium frequency sounds excite the hair cells in the middle, and high-frequency sounds excite them at the other end. . . . Because the different tones are spread out across the surface topography of the membrane, this is called a tonotopic map.
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 28

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word prosodic cue

The notion of relative pitch values is seen readily in the way that we speak. When you ask someone a question, your voice naturally rises in intonation at the end of the sentence, signaling that you are asking. . . . This is a convention in English (thought not in all languages—we have to learn it), and is known in linguistics as a prosodic cue.
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 27
Sing. pinna

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word pinnae

Sound waves impinge on the eardrums and pinnae (the fleshy parts of your ear), setting off a chain of mechanical and neurochemical events, the end product of which is an internal mental image we call pitch.
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 24
Sing. pinna

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word timbre

The official definition of the Acoustical Society of America is that timbre is everything about a sound that is not loudness or pitch. So much for scientific precision!
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 19

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word separable

Psychophysicists—scientists who study the ways that the brain interacts with the physical world—have shown that these attributes are separable. Each can be varied without altering the others, allowing the scientific study of one at a time.
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 17

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word psychophysicist

Psychophysicists—scientists who study the ways that the brain interacts with the physical world—have shown that these attributes are separable. Each can be varied without altering the others, allowing the scientific study of one at a time.
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 17

June 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word commuter

The term “commuter” includes anybody who has a job and doesn’t work at home.
Tim Henderson, In Most States, a Spike in 'Super Commuters', Stateline (Pew Charitable Trusts), June 5, 2017

June 12, 2017
MaryW commented on the word super commuter

The number of commuters who travel 90 minutes or more to get to work increased sharply between 2010 and 2015, a shift that traffic experts, real estate analysts and others attribute to skyrocketing housing costs and a reluctance to move, born of memories of the 2008 financial crisis.
In all but 10 states, the number of “super commuters” increased over the period, and in California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, North Dakota and Rhode Island, it grew by more than 40 percent, according to census data.
Tim Henderson, In Most States, a Spike in 'Super Commuters', Stateline (Pew Charitable Trusts), June 5, 2017

June 12, 2017
MaryW commented on the word exosuit

Harvard researchers have designed robots to address various medical applications, from helping hearts pump blood to fighting cancer. Now, they’re adding a new accomplishment to their list: improving mobility. Two research teams have tackled this challenge by designing a special type of robot called an exosuit: a soft, flexible robotic device that people can wear like another layer of clothing.
Alisha Ukani, These Bots Were Made for Walking, Harvard Magazine, June 8, 2017

June 9, 2017
MaryW commented on the word murder board

One associate referred to Comey’s preparation as a kind of “murder board” — a phrase used to describe a committee of questioners that hurls tough questions at someone as practice for a difficult oral examination.
Devlin Barrett et al., Comey prepared extensively for his conversations with Trump, Wash. Post, May 18, 2017

May 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word Romeo and Juliet law

Hoping to spare other young couples severe consequences like those, the Fosters pushed for a bill the Montana Legislature passed last month that would reduce the penalties for teens caught engaging in consensual sexual activity. The measure also would expand the age range covered by the state’s existing Romeo and Juliet law. Named for Shakespeare’s young lovers, the laws vary from state to state but typically provide legal protections or reduced penalties for teens close in age who engage in sexual activity.
Rebecca Beitsch, Shakespeare and Sexting: Reconsidering Penalties for Teen Sexual Activity, Pew Stateline, May 2, 2017

May 8, 2017
MaryW commented on the word weathering

"Many younger African-Americans in their 20s, 30s and 40s are living and dying with chronic conditions that we more typically see in the older population," Cunningham says. "There's still work to do."
That finding is consistent with previous reports that indicate some black Americans experience a phenomenon known as "weathering." That's when a person develops signs of premature aging and an earlier deterioration in health, the report notes.
Weathering can be caused by a variety of factors, including living in poverty, living in violent neighborhoods and encountering racism on a regular basis, Betancourt says.
"Racism and experiencing racism — thinking about your race every day — contributes to this weathering effect," he says. "You're in fight-or-flight mode. That has a real significant biological effect that contributes to premature aging."
Death Rate Among Black Americans Declines, Especially For Elderly People, All Things Considered (NPR), May 2, 2017

May 4, 2017
MaryW commented on the word pharmacovigilance

Pharmacovigilance is the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other medicine-related problem. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) coordinates the European Union (EU) pharmacovigilance system and operates services and processes to support pharmacovigilance in the EU.
European Medicines Agency Pharmacovigilance

April 26, 2017
MaryW commented on the word prepackaged plan of reorganization

In 2010, many major companies filed prepackaged or prearranged bankruptcies rather than conventional ones. A 2011 AlixPartners survey of bankruptcy professionals predicted that more than half of the large company filings over the coming year would be prepacks, and that prepackaged bankruptcy filings would continue in significant numbers in the ensuing years as well.1 For parties seeking to restructure a company quickly, a prepackaged plan of reorganization can be a powerful and effective tool that provides distinct advantages over both a conventional bankruptcy filing and an out-of-court restructuring. Most notably, a prepack may offer a company the fastest route to restructure through bankruptcy and obtain at least some (though not all) of the benefits potentially offered to companies in a conventional bankruptcy under title 11 of the U.S. Code (the Bankruptcy Code).
Unlike a conventional bankruptcy, in a prepack nearly all negotiation takes place out of the public eye and without the oversight of any bankruptcy court, the Office of the U.S. Trustee or a creditors' committee.
Paul Basta et al., A Practitioner's Guide to Pre-Packaged Bankruptcy: A Primer (American Bankruptcy Institute), p. 1

April 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word prearranged bankruptcy

In 2010, many major companies filed prepackaged or prearranged bankruptcies rather than conventional ones. A 2011 AlixPartners survey of bankruptcy professionals predicted that more than half of the large company filings over the coming year would be prepacks, and that prepackaged bankruptcy filings would continue in significant numbers in the ensuing years as well.1 For parties seeking to restructure a company quickly, a prepackaged plan of reorganization can be a powerful and effective tool that provides distinct advantages over both a conventional bankruptcy filing and an out-of-court restructuring. Most notably, a prepack may offer a company the fastest route to restructure through bankruptcy and obtain at least some (though not all) of the benefits potentially offered to companies in a conventional bankruptcy under title 11 of the U.S. Code (the Bankruptcy Code).
Unlike a conventional bankruptcy, in a prepack nearly all negotiation takes place out of the public eye and without the oversight of any bankruptcy court, the Office of the U.S. Trustee or a creditors' committee.
Paul Basta et al., A Practitioner's Guide to Pre-Packaged Bankruptcy: A Primer (American Bankruptcy Institute), p. 1

April 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word prepackaged bankruptcy

In 2010, many major companies filed prepackaged or prearranged bankruptcies rather than conventional ones. A 2011 AlixPartners survey of bankruptcy professionals predicted that more than half of the large company filings over the coming year would be prepacks, and that prepackaged bankruptcy filings would continue in significant numbers in the ensuing years as well.1 For parties seeking to restructure a company quickly, a prepackaged plan of reorganization can be a powerful and effective tool that provides distinct advantages over both a conventional bankruptcy filing and an out-of-court restructuring. Most notably, a prepack may offer a company the fastest route to restructure through bankruptcy and obtain at least some (though not all) of the benefits potentially offered to companies in a conventional bankruptcy under title 11 of the U.S. Code (the Bankruptcy Code).
Unlike a conventional bankruptcy, in a prepack nearly all negotiation takes place out of the public eye and without the oversight of any bankruptcy court, the Office of the U.S. Trustee or a creditors' committee.
Paul Basta et al., A Practitioner's Guide to Pre-Packaged Bankruptcy: A Primer (American Bankruptcy Institute), p. 1

April 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word prepack

In 2010, many major companies filed prepackaged or prearranged bankruptcies rather than conventional ones. A 2011 AlixPartners survey of bankruptcy professionals predicted that more than half of the large company filings over the coming year would be prepacks, and that prepackaged bankruptcy filings would continue in significant numbers in the ensuing years as well.1 For parties seeking to restructure a company quickly, a prepackaged plan of reorganization can be a powerful and effective tool that provides distinct advantages over both a conventional bankruptcy filing and an out-of-court restructuring. Most notably, a prepack may offer a company the fastest route to restructure through bankruptcy and obtain at least some (though not all) of the benefits potentially offered to companies in a conventional bankruptcy under title 11 of the U.S. Code (the Bankruptcy Code).
Unlike a conventional bankruptcy, in a prepack nearly all negotiation takes place out of the public eye and without the oversight of any bankruptcy court, the Office of the U.S. Trustee or a creditors' committee.
Paul Basta et al., A Practitioner's Guide to Pre-Packaged Bankruptcy: A Primer (American Bankruptcy Institute), p. 1

April 19, 2017
MaryW commented on the word lunch shaming

Every day in this country students come to school without a way to pay for lunch. Right now it's up to the school to decide what happens next.
Since new legislation out of New Mexico on so-called lunch shaming made headlines, we've heard a lot about how schools react.
Some provide kids an alternative lunch, like a cold cheese sandwich. Other schools sometimes will provide hot lunch, but require students do chores, have their hand stamped or wear a wristband showing they're behind in payment. And, some schools will deny students lunch all together.
Megan Kamerick, Schools Will Soon Have To Put In Writing If They 'Lunch Shame', All Things Considered, NPR, April 17, 2017

April 18, 2017
MaryW commented on the word spit guard

A spit hood, spit mask, mesh hood or spit guards is a restraint device aiming to prevent someone to spit at, or bite, someone or something.
Proponents, often including police unions and associations, say the spit hoods can help protect personnel from exposure to risk of serious infection like hepatitis and that in London, 59% of injecting drug users test positive for Hepatitis C.
The spit hoods have been criticised for breaching human rights guidelines and critics call the hoods primitive, cruel and degrading. Some British police chiefs privately expressed concerns that the hoods are reminiscent of hoods used at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. A decision by the Metropolitan Police Service in London to start using spit hoods was condemned by the human rights group Amnesty International, the civil rights group Liberty and the campaign group Inquest. Many major British police forces have chosen to outlaw spit hoods.
Spit hoods can be life threatening when someone is pushed to the ground. Half of those dying when restrained die from lack of oxygen, and any obstacle to breathing should be avoided.
Spit hood, Wikipedia (footnotes omitted)

April 17, 2017
MaryW commented on the word spithood

A spit hood, spit mask, mesh hood or spit guards is a restraint device aiming to prevent someone to spit at, or bite, someone or something.
Proponents, often including police unions and associations, say the spit hoods can help protect personnel from exposure to risk of serious infection like hepatitis and that in London, 59% of injecting drug users test positive for Hepatitis C.
The spit hoods have been criticised for breaching human rights guidelines and critics call the hoods primitive, cruel and degrading. Some British police chiefs privately expressed concerns that the hoods are reminiscent of hoods used at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. A decision by the Metropolitan Police Service in London to start using spit hoods was condemned by the human rights group Amnesty International, the civil rights group Liberty and the campaign group Inquest. Many major British police forces have chosen to outlaw spit hoods.
Spit hoods can be life threatening when someone is pushed to the ground. Half of those dying when restrained die from lack of oxygen, and any obstacle to breathing should be avoided.
Spit hood, Wikipedia (footnotes omitted)

April 17, 2017
MaryW commented on the word spit guards

A spit hood, spit mask, mesh hood or spit guards is a restraint device aiming to prevent someone to spit at, or bite, someone or something.
Proponents, often including police unions and associations, say the spit hoods can help protect personnel from exposure to risk of serious infection like hepatitis and that in London, 59% of injecting drug users test positive for Hepatitis C.
The spit hoods have been criticised for breaching human rights guidelines and critics call the hoods primitive, cruel and degrading. Some British police chiefs privately expressed concerns that the hoods are reminiscent of hoods used at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. A decision by the Metropolitan Police Service in London to start using spit hoods was condemned by the human rights group Amnesty International, the civil rights group Liberty and the campaign group Inquest. Many major British police forces have chosen to outlaw spit hoods.
Spit hoods can be life threatening when someone is pushed to the ground. Half of those dying when restrained die from lack of oxygen, and any obstacle to breathing should be avoided.
Spit hood, Wikipedia (footnotes omitted)

April 17, 2017
MaryW commented on the word mesh hood

A spit hood, spit mask, mesh hood or spit guards is a restraint device aiming to prevent someone to spit at, or bite, someone or something.
Proponents, often including police unions and associations, say the spit hoods can help protect personnel from exposure to risk of serious infection like hepatitis and that in London, 59% of injecting drug users test positive for Hepatitis C.
The spit hoods have been criticised for breaching human rights guidelines and critics call the hoods primitive, cruel and degrading. Some British police chiefs privately expressed concerns that the hoods are reminiscent of hoods used at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. A decision by the Metropolitan Police Service in London to start using spit hoods was condemned by the human rights group Amnesty International, the civil rights group Liberty and the campaign group Inquest. Many major British police forces have chosen to outlaw spit hoods.
Spit hoods can be life threatening when someone is pushed to the ground. Half of those dying when restrained die from lack of oxygen, and any obstacle to breathing should be avoided.
Spit hood, Wikipedia (footnotes omitted)

April 17, 2017
MaryW commented on the word spit mask

A spit hood,1 spit mask, mesh hood1 or spit guards1 is a restraint device aiming to prevent someone to spit at, or bite, someone or something.1
Proponents, often including police unions and associations, say the spit hoods can help protect personnel from exposure to risk of serious infection like hepatitis1 and that in London, 59% of injecting drug users test positive for Hepatitis C.2
The spit hoods have been criticised for breaching human rights guidelines and critics call the hoods primitive, cruel and degrading.1 Some British police chiefs privately expressed concerns that the hoods are reminiscent of hoods used at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.1 A decision by the Metropolitan Police Service in London to start using spit hoods was condemned by the human rights group Amnesty International, the civil rights group Liberty and the campaign group Inquest.1 Many major British police forces have chosen to outlaw spit hoods.1
Spit hoods can be life threatening when someone is pushed to the ground. Half of those dying when restrained die from lack of oxygen, and any obstacle to breathing should be avoided.3
Spit hood, Wikipedia (footnotes omitted)

April 17, 2017
MaryW commented on the word spit hood

A spit hood, spit mask, mesh hood or spit guards is a restraint device aiming to prevent someone to spit at, or bite, someone or something.
Proponents, often including police unions and associations, say the spit hoods can help protect personnel from exposure to risk of serious infection like hepatitis and that in London, 59% of injecting drug users test positive for Hepatitis C.
The spit hoods have been criticised for breaching human rights guidelines and critics call the hoods primitive, cruel and degrading.1 Some British police chiefs privately expressed concerns that the hoods are reminiscent of hoods used at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. A decision by the Metropolitan Police Service in London to start using spit hoods was condemned by the human rights group Amnesty International, the civil rights group Liberty and the campaign group Inquest. Many major British police forces have chosen to outlaw spit hoods.
Spit hoods can be life threatening when someone is pushed to the ground. Half of those dying when restrained die from lack of oxygen, and any obstacle to breathing should be avoided.
Spit hood, Wikipedia (footnotes omitted)

April 17, 2017
MaryW commented on the word parasitic rachipagus twin

Doctors say parasitic twins — asymmetric conjoined twins in which one depends on the other's bodily functions — are extremely rare. Even more uncommon are parasitic rachipagus twins, twins connected at the spine.
Lindsey Bever, A 10-month-old girl had a parasitic twin protruding from her back — until surgeons removed it, Wash. Post, March 25, 2017

March 28, 2017
MaryW commented on the word rachipagus twin

Doctors say parasitic twins — asymmetric conjoined twins in which one depends on the other's bodily functions — are extremely rare. Even more uncommon are parasitic rachipagus twins, twins connected at the spine.
Lindsey Bever, A 10-month-old girl had a parasitic twin protruding from her back — until surgeons removed it, Wash. Post, March 25, 2017

March 28, 2017
MaryW commented on the word parasitic twin

Doctors say parasitic twins — asymmetric conjoined twins in which one depends on the other's bodily functions — are extremely rare. Even more uncommon are parasitic rachipagus twins, twins connected at the spine.
Lindsey Bever, A 10-month-old girl had a parasitic twin protruding from her back — until surgeons removed it, Wash. Post, March 25, 2017

March 28, 2017
MaryW commented on the word dap

"When he saw me, it wasn’t a traditional handshake,” said Barrett, founder and CEO of the KLEO Community Family Life Center, which sits near the library site. “It was actually a dap, where we shook hands and patted on the back at the same time."
Wash. Post, March 26, 2017

March 26, 2017
MaryW commented on the word disconnected

Young adults hold immense potential as they transition from adolescence and dependence to adulthood and self-sufficiency. Unfortunately, young African Americans also struggle under the lack of economic opportunities. Disconnected youth are teenagers and young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 who lack a connection to either the education system or labor force. The rate of disconnected youth is highest among African-American youth at 21.6 percent. In nine metro areas, at least 25 percent of Black youth are disconnected from school and work. Disconnected youth not only face their own economic difficulties, but also pose an economic cost to taxpayers, with one estimate as high as $1.56 trillion for the lifetime of disconnected youth. It is worth noting that it is cheaper to prevent disconnection in the first place through quality preschool and K-12 education.
Congressional Black Caucus, We Have a Lot to Lose: Solutions to Advance Black Families bin the 21st Century (March 2017), pp. 42-43

March 25, 2017
MaryW commented on the word disconnected youth

Young adults hold immense potential as they transition from adolescence and dependence to adulthood and self-sufficiency. Unfortunately, young African Americans also struggle under the lack of economic opportunities. Disconnected youth are teenagers and young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 who lack a connection to either the education system or labor force. The rate of disconnected youth is highest among African-American youth at 21.6 percent. In nine metro areas, at least 25 percent of Black youth are disconnected from school and work. Disconnected youth not only face their own economic difficulties, but also pose an economic cost to taxpayers, with one estimate as high as $1.56 trillion for the lifetime of disconnected youth. It is worth noting that it is cheaper to prevent disconnection in the first place through quality preschool and K-12 education.
Congressional Black Caucus, We Have a Lot to Lose: Solutions to Advance Black Families bin the 21st Century (March 2017), pp. 42-43

March 25, 2017
MaryW commented on the word platform business

Uber, like so many other successful tech companies in 2017, is a “platform business,” one built around matchmaking between vendors and customers. If successful, a platform creates its own marketplace; if extremely successful, it ends up controlling something closer to an entire economy. This is intuitive in a case like eBay, which connects buyers and sellers. Airbnb, too, resembles an age-old form of commerce, connecting property owners with short-term lodgers. TaskRabbit and Fiverr connect contractors with people looking to hire them. Some of the largest platforms are less obviously transactional: Facebook and Google connect advertisers with users, users with one another, software developers with users. But while the transactions that happen on their platforms largely take a different form — taps, shares, ads served and scrolled past — the principles are essentially the same, as are the benefits. These businesses are asset- and employee-light, low on liability and high on upside. They aspire to monopoly, often unapologetically, and have been instrumental in rehabilitating the concept.
John Herrmann, Platform Companies Are Becoming More Powerful — but What Exactly Do They Want?, N.Y. Times Magazine, March 21, 2017

March 22, 2017
MaryW commented on the word platform company

Uber, like so many other successful tech companies in 2017, is a “platform business,” one built around matchmaking between vendors and customers. If successful, a platform creates its own marketplace; if extremely successful, it ends up controlling something closer to an entire economy. This is intuitive in a case like eBay, which connects buyers and sellers. Airbnb, too, resembles an age-old form of commerce, connecting property owners with short-term lodgers. TaskRabbit and Fiverr connect contractors with people looking to hire them. Some of the largest platforms are less obviously transactional: Facebook and Google connect advertisers with users, users with one another, software developers with users. But while the transactions that happen on their platforms largely take a different form — taps, shares, ads served and scrolled past — the principles are essentially the same, as are the benefits. These businesses are asset- and employee-light, low on liability and high on upside. They aspire to monopoly, often unapologetically, and have been instrumental in rehabilitating the concept.
John Herrmann, Platform Companies Are Becoming More Powerful — but What Exactly Do They Want?, N.Y. Times Magazine, March 21, 2017

March 22, 2017
MaryW commented on the word ethologist

As an ethologist (a scientist who studies animal behaviour), he's chosen to work with goats because they're neophilic. That is, when presented with a novel situation (like the specially constructed equipment he uses in various experiments), they're less inclined to just ignore the experiment and cower in the corner than, say, sheep. This curiosity makes them interesting from a cognitive point of view and easier to study.
Thomas Thwaites, GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2016), Kindle loc. 1126

March 6, 2017
MaryW commented on the word neophilic

As an ethologist (a scientist who studies animal behaviour), he's chosen to work with goats because they're neophilic. That is, when presented with a novel situation (like the specially constructed equipment he uses in various experiments), they're less inclined to just ignore the experiment and cower in the corner than, say, sheep. This curiosity makes them interesting from a cognitive point of view and easier to study.
Thomas Thwaites, GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2016), Kindle loc. 1126

March 6, 2017
MaryW commented on the word department chair

1. The director or chair of a department (including departmental-level programs) is responsible to the dean of a school or college for the educational and administrative affairs of the department. In administrative matters, the director or chair:
A. Is the representative, through the dean, of the President and also of the department faculty, and
B. Is responsible for observance of the policies of the University by the department.
2. The director or chair shall preside at the meetings of the department.
3. In accord with established procedures, . . . the director or chair:
A. Prepares and transmits to the dean the recommendations of the department, and any separate recommendations, upon matters of personnel and budget;
B. Evaluates the educational activities of the department, formulates plans for its future development, and transmits these evaluations and plans to the dean for appropriate action; and
C. Keeps the dean informed of all departmental matters of concern to the college or school.
. . .
Univ. of Washington Executive Order No. I (May 31, 1956; Feb. 21, 1978)

February 27, 2017
MaryW commented on the word granny dumping

Centuries ago, Japan created a word called ubasute. Translated as "granny dumping," it described the practice of poor citizens bringing their senile elders to mountaintops because they can no longer afford their care.
Today, amid Japan's widespread demographic and economic woes, ubasute is making a comeback.
Modern-day granny dumping doesn't involve hauling seniors up the sides of mountains, but driving them to hospitals or the offices of nearby charities and, essentially, giving them up for adoption.
Chris Weller, people who can't afford elder care are reviving a practice known as 'granny dumping', Business Insider, Jan. 30, 2017

February 7, 2017
MaryW commented on the word social safety net

“We've had the safety net programs a lot longer than we've had the term,” says Guian McKee, a historian at the University of Virginia.
McKee trawled through newspaper archives to see when the phrase “safety net” first started showing up to describe government social programs. The first reference he could find was in 1966, in a New York Times article about the New York Governor’s race. One of the candidates used the phrase to describe his approach to social spending, saying “public assistance will be envisaged as a safety net on the one hand, and as a transmission belt to productive employment on the other.”
Ironically, the candidate who said it was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., FDR’s son.
But the “safety net” still didn't really become a household term in the way we know it now, for another fifteen years.
February 18, 1981 to be exact, in President Ronald Reagan's first speech to Congress. He was in the midst of laying out big and controversial federal spending cuts he wanted to make,
* * *
“All those with true need can rest assured that the social safety net of programs they depend on are exempt from any cuts,” he said. Then he went on, “But government will not continue to subsidize individuals or business interests where real need cannot be demonstrated.”
And in those two sentences, Reagan popularized a vivid metaphor for government assistance, while at the same time redefining who deserved it.
Krissy Clark, How did the social safety net get its name?, Marketplace, April 2, 2013.

January 29, 2017
MaryW commented on the word safety net

“We've had the safety net programs a lot longer than we've had the term,” says Guian McKee, a historian at the University of Virginia.
McKee trawled through newspaper archives to see when the phrase “safety net” first started showing up to describe government social programs. The first reference he could find was in 1966, in a New York Times article about the New York Governor’s race. One of the candidates used the phrase to describe his approach to social spending, saying “public assistance will be envisaged as a safety net on the one hand, and as a transmission belt to productive employment on the other.”
Ironically, the candidate who said it was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., FDR’s son.
But the “safety net” still didn't really become a household term in the way we know it now, for another fifteen years.
February 18, 1981 to be exact, in President Ronald Reagan's first speech to Congress. He was in the midst of laying out big and controversial federal spending cuts he wanted to make,
* * *
“All those with true need can rest assured that the social safety net of programs they depend on are exempt from any cuts,” he said. Then he went on, “But government will not continue to subsidize individuals or business interests where real need cannot be demonstrated.”
And in those two sentences, Reagan popularized a vivid metaphor for government assistance, while at the same time redefining who deserved it.
Krissy Clark, How did the social safety net get its name?, Marketplace, April 2, 2013.

January 29, 2017
MaryW commented on the word funeral poverty

GoFundMe is filled with people desperately seeking money to bury their dead. In England, this is called funeral poverty and it’s agonizing.
Brooke Gladstone, "Busted" #4: When the Safety Net Doesn't Catch You, Jan. 17, 2017

January 29, 2017
MaryW commented on the word fake news

We’ve used this phrase so many times in the past two months that it’s almost lost meaning — partly because it can mean so many different things. Depending on who you talk to, “fake news" may refer to satirical news, hoaxes, news that’s clumsily framed or outright wrong, propaganda, lies destined for viral clicks and advertising dollars, politically motivated half-truths, and more.
Brooke Borel, Fact-Checking Won’t Save Us From Fake News, FiveThirtyEight, Jan. 4, 2017

January 6, 2017
MaryW commented on the word leximetrics

As a point of clarification, it should be noted that this article is about “leximetrics” and not “econometrics”. “Leximetrics” can be understood as every quantitative measurement of law. To be sure, the coding of shareholder rights can be the first part of an econometric study which seeks to find correlations between legal and economic data. Since this will, however, be part of a further study,6 this article analyses only the quantification of the law on shareholder protection in different countries.
Lele, Priya and Siems, Mathias M., Shareholder Protection: A Leximetric Approach. University of Cambridge, CBR Working Paper No 324. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=897479

January 5, 2017
MaryW commented on the word nukkad natak

Street Theatre or the Nukkad Natak, as it is locally known, is perhaps India’s most ancient form of entertainment. Since time immemorial, we’ve had motley crowds of people gathered around street performers at the street corner. Street theatre is perhaps the most effective way to combine live action before a live audience, and get instantaneous responses.
It is not without reason that the Nukkad Natak is used far and wide to spread awareness on social issues. For how else can conscious citizens voice matters to their friends?
Yet, the Nukkad Natak also offers avenues for wholesome entertainment. It combines group performances with live acting and hearty song-and-dance sequences.Little wonder then, that an enthralled audience often bursts into a round of applause right in the middle of the street!
Street Plays in India: An Introduction to the 'Nukkad Natak', Everybody Plays (July 28, 2012)
I looked this up after reading:
The Centre will be regularly uploading videos in the form of skits, plays and nukkad nataks to be performed by the students of the Institute of Law, Nirma University so that it could sensitize the audience and be understood by a larger audience and they may share and forward this as media for spreading awareness in the different sections of the society.
Nirma University Institute of Law, Centre for Law & Governance

December 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word dryathlon

On 26 January 1662, Samuel Pepys is thankful that he has kept his resolve with a seventeenth century dry January. If the old ones really are the best, why not follow in his footsteps and participate in a January dryathlon?
9 Literary New Year's Resolutions OUPblog, Dec. 29, 2016

December 29, 2016
MaryW commented on the word data security

See data integrity.

December 29, 2016
MaryW commented on the word data integrity

<b>Data integrity</b>/security is the quality or condition of being accurate, complete and valid, and not altered or destroyed in an unauthorized manner.
Boston College Internal Audit Dept., Data Integrity and Security page

December 29, 2016
MaryW commented on the word big data

Data Analysis is the process of systematically applying statistical and/or logical techniques to describe and illustrate, condense and recap, and evaluate data. According to Shamoo and Resnik (2003) various analytic procedures “provide a way of drawing inductive inferences from data and distinguishing the signal (the phenomenon of interest) from the noise (statistical fluctuations) present in the data”..
While data analysis in qualitative research can include statistical procedures, many times analysis becomes an ongoing iterative process where data is continuously collected and analyzed almost simultaneously. Indeed, researchers generally analyze for patterns in observations through the entire data collection phase (Savenye, Robinson, 2004). The form of the analysis is determined by the specific qualitative approach taken (field study, ethnography content analysis, oral history, biography, unobtrusive research) and the form of the data (field notes, documents, audiotape, videotape).
An essential component of ensuring data integrity is the accurate and appropriate analysis of research findings. Improper statistical analyses distort scientific findings, mislead casual readers (Shepard, 2002), and may negatively influence the public perception of research. Integrity issues are just as relevant to analysis of non-statistical data as well.
Northern Illinois University, Faculty Development & Instructional Design Center, Data Analysis

December 29, 2016
MaryW commented on the word big data

Big Data is an umbrella term for a variety of strategies and tactics that involve massive data sets, and technologies that make sense out of these mindboggling reams of data. The Big Data trend has impacted all industries, including the media industry, as new technologies are being developed to automate and simplify the process of data analysis, and as throngs of data analysts are being trained and hired to meet the demand for the analysis of these data.
Martha L. Stone, Big Data for Media (Nov. 2014) (Univ. of Oxford Reuters Inst. for the Study of Journalism)
See data journalism.

December 29, 2016
MaryW commented on the word data journalist

See data journalism.

December 29, 2016
MaryW commented on the word data driven journalism

See data journalism.

December 29, 2016
MaryW commented on the word data-driven journalism

See data journalism.

December 29, 2016
MaryW commented on the word data journalism

Journalism in the 21st century involves finding, collecting, analyzing and visualizing data for stories. The Journalism School offers foundational courses in data‐driven journalism as well as a two‐semester specialization in data journalism for students interested in advanced skills.
Columbia Journalism School, Data page

December 29, 2016
MaryW commented on the word data journalism

What is data journalism? I could answer, simply, that it is journalism done with data. But that doesn’t help much.
Both ‘data’ and ‘journalism’ are troublesome terms. Some people think of ‘data’ as any collection of numbers, most likely gathered on a spreadsheet. 20 years ago, that was pretty much the only sort of data that journalists dealt with. But we live in a digital world now, a world in which almost anything can be — and almost everything is — described with numbers.
. . .
What makes data journalism different to the rest of journalism? Perhaps it is the new possibilities that open up when you combine the traditional ‘nose for news’ and ability to tell a compelling story, with the sheer scale and range of digital information now available.
And those possibilities can come at any stage of the journalist’s process: using programming to automate the process of gathering and combining information from local government, police, and other civic sources . . . .
Or using software to find connections between hundreds of thousands of documents . . . .
Data journalism can help a journalist tell a complex story through engaging infographics. . . . .
Or it can help explain how a story relates to an individual . . . .
Data can be the source of data journalism, or it can be the tool with which the story is told — or it can be both. Like any source, it should be treated with scepticism; and like any tool, we should be conscious of how it can shape and restrict the stories that are created with it.
Paul Bradshaw,

December 29, 2016
MaryW commented on the word data journalism

Data journalism is not graphics and visualisations. It's about telling the story in the best way possible. Sometimes that will be a visualisation or a map . . . .
But sometimes it's a news story. Sometimes, just publishing the number is enough.
If data journalism is about anything, it's the flexibility to search for new ways of storytelling. And more and more reporters are realising that. Suddenly, we have company - and competition. So being a data journalist is no longer unusual.
It's just journalism.
Simon Rogers Data journalism at the Guardian: what is it and how do we do it? (July 28, 2011)

December 29, 2016
MaryW commented on the word institutional channel

In today's market, asset management services are distributed to US-based investors primarily through five principal distribution channels: direct, professional advice, retirement plan, supermarket platforms and institutional.
. . .
5. Institutional channel. The previous four channels are geared almost exclusively toward retail or mass affluent investors with less than US$10m in net investable assets. In contrast, the institutional channel includes businesses, such as the treasury department of a corporation as well as insurance companies,
endowments, private family offices, defined benefit pension plans, foundations and universities. The key driver to success in institutional distribution — apart from demonstrating proven performance results — is building solid relationships with the institutions’ designated investment consultants. Because they act as vigilant gate-keepers and decision-makers in allocating assets among different managers, it is essential to win their
hearts and minds.
Ernst & Young, Sea of Change on the Horizon: US Fund Distribution 2014 (2014), pp. 5, 8

December 28, 2016
MaryW commented on the word NTF

In today's market, asset management services are distributed to US-based investors primarily through five principal distribution channels: direct, professional advice, retirement plan, supermarket platforms and institutional.
. . .
4. Supermarket platform channel. The supermarket channel is made up of discount brokers that offer mutual funds from a large number of fund sponsors. This channel includes many no-advice discount brokers that operate almost exclusively online. The most important feature of a fund supermarket is its no-transaction-fee (NTF) program whereby an investor may purchase funds from a wide range of fund companies with no transaction fees. The NTF offerings from a discount broker often number in the thousands, providing an investor the convenience of purchasing no-load funds available from different manufacturers through a single, user-friendly platform. Although initially categorized as a low-margin, no-frills, bare-bones business model targeted at cost-conscious consumers, many of these supermarkets have beefed up
their client services by offering comprehensive investor education material; a wide selection of financial research; and sophisticated, yet user-friendly, online and mobile tech applications. While the asset manager must pay fees to the distributor for a fund to be listed on a platform, given that most of these platforms operate under a high-volume, low-cost model, the fees are usually lower than the revenue-sharing agreements prevalent in the professional advice channel. However, the old adage “you get what you pay for” applies
here: the product line from one manager will be thrown into a vast ocean of thousands of different products from dozens, if not hundreds, of other asset management firms — with no dedicated sales support.
Ernst & Young, Sea of Change on the Horizon: US Fund Distribution 2014 (2014), pp. 5, 7

December 28, 2016
MaryW commented on the word no-transaction-fee program

In today's market, asset management services are distributed to US-based investors primarily through five principal distribution channels: direct, professional advice, retirement plan, supermarket platforms and institutional.
. . .
4. Supermarket platform channel. The supermarket channel is made up of discount brokers that offer mutual funds from a large number of fund sponsors. This channel includes many no-advice discount brokers that operate almost exclusively online. The most important feature of a fund supermarket is its no-transaction-fee (NTF) program whereby an investor may purchase funds from a wide range of fund companies with no transaction fees. The NTF offerings from a discount broker often number in the thousands, providing an investor the convenience of purchasing no-load funds available from different manufacturers through a single, user-friendly platform. Although initially categorized as a low-margin, no-frills, bare-bones business model targeted at cost-conscious consumers, many of these supermarkets have beefed up
their client services by offering comprehensive investor education material; a wide selection of financial research; and sophisticated, yet user-friendly, online and mobile tech applications. While the asset manager must pay fees to the distributor for a fund to be listed on a platform, given that most of these platforms operate under a high-volume, low-cost model, the fees are usually lower than the revenue-sharing agreements prevalent in the professional advice channel. However, the old adage “you get what you pay for” applies
here: the product line from one manager will be thrown into a vast ocean of thousands of different products from dozens, if not hundreds, of other asset management firms — with no dedicated sales support.
Ernst & Young, Sea of Change on the Horizon: US Fund Distribution 2014 (2014), pp. 5, 7

December 28, 2016
MaryW commented on the word supermarket platform channel

In today's market, asset management services are distributed to US-based investors primarily through five principal distribution channels: direct, professional advice, retirement plan, supermarket platforms and institutional.
. . .
4. Supermarket platform channel. The supermarket channel is made up of discount brokers that offer mutual funds from a large number of fund sponsors. This channel includes many no-advice discount brokers that operate almost exclusively online. The most important feature of a fund supermarket is its no-transaction-fee (NTF) program whereby an investor may purchase funds from a wide range of fund companies with no transaction fees. The NTF offerings from a discount broker often number in the thousands, providing an investor the convenience of purchasing no-load funds available from different manufacturers through a single, user-friendly platform. Although initially categorized as a low-margin, no-frills, bare-bones business model targeted at cost-conscious consumers, many of these supermarkets have beefed up
their client services by offering comprehensive investor education material; a wide selection of financial research; and sophisticated, yet user-friendly, online and mobile tech applications. While the asset manager must pay fees to the distributor for a fund to be listed on a platform, given that most of these platforms operate under a high-volume, low-cost model, the fees are usually lower than the revenue-sharing agreements prevalent in the professional advice channel. However, the old adage “you get what you pay for” applies
here: the product line from one manager will be thrown into a vast ocean of thousands of different products from dozens, if not hundreds, of other asset management firms — with no dedicated sales support.
Ernst & Young, Sea of Change on the Horizon: US Fund Distribution 2014 (2014), pp. 5, 7

December 28, 2016
MaryW commented on the word supermarket channel

In today's market, asset management services are distributed to US-based investors primarily through five principal distribution channels: direct, professional advice, retirement plan, supermarket platforms and institutional.
. . .
4. Supermarket platform channel. The supermarket channel is made up of discount brokers that offer mutual funds from a large number of fund sponsors. This channel includes many no-advice discount brokers that operate almost exclusively online. The most important feature of a fund supermarket is its no-transaction-fee (NTF) program whereby an investor may purchase funds from a wide range of fund companies with no transaction fees. The NTF offerings from a discount broker often number in the thousands, providing an investor the convenience of purchasing no-load funds available from different manufacturers through a single, user-friendly platform. Although initially categorized as a low-margin, no-frills, bare-bones business model targeted at cost-conscious consumers, many of these supermarkets have beefed up
their client services by offering comprehensive investor education material; a wide selection of financial research; and sophisticated, yet user-friendly, online and mobile tech applications. While the asset manager must pay fees to the distributor for a fund to be listed on a platform, given that most of these platforms operate under a high-volume, low-cost model, the fees are usually lower than the revenue-sharing agreements prevalent in the professional advice channel. However, the old adage “you get what you pay for” applies
here: the product line from one manager will be thrown into a vast ocean of thousands of different products from dozens, if not hundreds, of other asset management firms — with no dedicated sales support.
Ernst & Young, Sea of Change on the Horizon: US Fund Distribution 2014 (2014), pp. 5, 7

December 28, 2016
MaryW commented on the word retirement plan channel

In today's market, asset management services are distributed to US-based investors primarily through five principal distribution channels: direct, professional advice, retirement plan, supermarket platforms and institutional.
. . .
3. Retirement plan channel. This is the largest channel and includes primarily corporate 401(k) retirement plans in which beneficiaries choose from a menu of investment product options. With the decline of defined benefit plans in the US, 72% of American households own funds distributed through employer-sponsored retirement plans. Employers sponsoring defined contribution plans rely upon third parties to administer the plans and provide investment options to employees. Third-party administrators (TPAs) effectively act as the outsourced client interface for the fund manager and handle a wide variety of administrative services. As with the case of most distribution channels, because the TPA acts as the interface between client and manufacturer, the manufacturer here is left with limited to zero direct client relationship and limited brand identity.
Ernst & Young, Sea of Change on the Horizon: US Fund Distribution 2014 (2014), pp. 5, 7

December 28, 2016
MaryW commented on the word professional advice channel

In today's market, asset management services are distributed to US-based investors primarily through five principal distribution channels: direct, professional advice, retirement plan, supermarket platforms and institutional.
. . .
2. Professional advice channel. In 2012 53% of households owning investment products purchased them through the professional investment advice channel. This includes a very
broad range of professionals operating under many different titles: financial advisors, private bankers, registered investment advisors, full-service brokers, independent financial planners, investment service representatives of banks and savings institutions, insurance agents and accountants. The most important feature of this channel is the provision of high value-added services to the end client, “high touch” personalization
and ongoing customized assistance that may include retirement planning, insurance, lending and liquidity solutions, such as secured loans and jumbo mortgages, and even succession planning and tax advice. Most distribution through this channel will require a revenue-sharing agreement where the manager pays a portion of their management fees to the distributor — fees that effectively reduce the manager’s bottom line. While this channel may be the costliest route for asset managers, given that managers usually have limited, if any,
direct client relationships, it is arguably the most viable channel for successful distribution, particularly for smaller firms that lack the resources to build a national sales network.
Ernst & Young, Sea of Change on the Horizon: US Fund Distribution 2014 (2014), pp. 5-6

December 28, 2016
MaryW commented on the word direct market channel

In today's market, asset management services are distributed to US-based investors primarily through five principal distribution channels: direct, professional advice, retirement plan, supermarket platforms and institutional.
1. Direct channel. This channel offers a direct commercial relationship between manufacturer and end client, representing full disintermediataion of the traditional distributor. . . . Fewer than 30% of households in the US that owned funds over the last decade owned funds purchased through the direct market channel.
Ernst & Young, Sea of Change on the Horizon: US Fund Distribution 2014 (2014), p. 5

December 28, 2016
MaryW commented on the word direct channel

In today's market, asset management services are distributed to US-based investors primarily through five principal distribution channels: direct, professional advice, retirement plan, supermarket platforms and institutional.
1. Direct channel. This channel offers a direct commercial relationship between manufacturer and end client, representing full disintermediataion of the traditional distributor. . . . Fewer than 30% of households in the US that owned funds over the last decade owned funds purchased through the direct market channel.
Ernst & Young, Sea of Change on the Horizon: US Fund Distribution 2014 (2014), p. 5

December 28, 2016
MaryW commented on the word distribution channel

In today's market, asset management services are distributed to US-based investors primarily through five principal distribution channels: direct, professional advice, retirement plan, supermarket platforms and institutional.
Ernst & Young, Sea of Change on the Horizon: US Fund Distribution 2014 (2014), p. 5

December 28, 2016
MaryW commented on the word misdiversify

And while I agree that one should own a mix of stocks and bonds, I fear many investors, particularly individuals, are being goaded to misdiversify, resulting in higher investment fees, mediocre performance and potentially more risk.
Kenneth G. Winans, 5 Big Mistakes Investors Make When They Diversify, Forbes (Feb. 5, 2015)

December 28, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Umbrella Partnership Real Estate Investment Trust

"UPREITs" (Umbrella Partnership Real Estate Investment Trusts) are a derivation of the basic REIT structure. They are essentially a combination of a REIT and a partnership. The joining of these two entities allows investors and property contributors not only to enjoy the advantages the basic REIT structure offers, but also to realize additional tax advantages not found in the basic REIT structure. Because of these added benefits, most REITs are now grouped with related partnerships and are organized as UPREITs.
Chadwick M. Cornell, Comment, REITs and UPREITs: Pushing the Corporate Law Envelope, 145 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1565, 1566 n.6 (1997)

December 28, 2016
MaryW commented on the word UPREIT

"UPREITs" (Umbrella Partnership Real Estate Investment Trusts) are a derivation of the basic REIT structure. They are essentially a combination of a REIT and a partnership. The joining of these two entities allows investors and property contributors not only to enjoy the advantages the basic REIT structure offers, but also to realize additional tax advantages not found in the basic REIT structure. Because of these added benefits, most REITs are now grouped with related partnerships and are organized as UPREITs.
Chadwick M. Cornell, Comment, REITs and UPREITs: Pushing the Corporate Law Envelope, 145 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1565, 1566 n.6 (1997)

December 28, 2016
MaryW commented on the word earthquake-induced soil liquefaction

Earthquake-induced soil liquefaction (liquefaction) is a leading cause of earthquake damage worldwide. Liquefaction is often described in the literature as the phenomena of seismic generation of excess porewater pressures and consequent softening of granular soils. Many regions in the United States have been witness to liquefaction and its consequences, not just those in the west that people associate with earthquake hazards.
National Academies Press, State of the Art and Practice in the Assessment of Earthquake-Induced Soil Liquefaction and Its Consequences (2016)

December 27, 2016
MaryW commented on the word liquefaction

Earthquake-induced soil liquefaction (liquefaction) is a leading cause of earthquake damage worldwide. Liquefaction is often described in the literature as the phenomena of seismic generation of excess porewater pressures and consequent softening of granular soils. Many regions in the United States have been witness to liquefaction and its consequences, not just those in the west that people associate with earthquake hazards.
National Academies Press, State of the Art and Practice in the Assessment of Earthquake-Induced Soil Liquefaction and Its Consequences (2016)

December 27, 2016
MaryW commented on the word somatic marker

Intuition is often called a "gut feeling." Sometimes we get a "vibe" when we sense a physical feeling of knowing . . . . The neuroscientist Antonio Damarion calls this the somatic marker: it indicates the way emotions affect reasoning in a rapid and often unconscious way.
Bruce M. Hood, The Science of Superstition: How the Developing Brain Creates Supernatural Beliefs (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), p. 26 (former title: SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable)

December 26, 2016
MaryW commented on the word thin slicing

Social psychologists have shown that, with the barest information, people can make judgments about others rapidly and effortlessly. And yet such fleeting impressions, or thin slicing, as it is known, can have a profound effect on our decisions. . . . Humans are exquisitely sensitive to judging others, even though we are often unable to say exactly what it is about them we are noticing.
Bruce M. Hood, The Science of Superstition: How the Developing Brain Creates Supernatural Beliefs (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), p. 25 (former title: SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable)

December 26, 2016
MaryW commented on the word social glue

In academic social psychology, "social glue" is the term to describe the mechanisms for the social connectedness of a group. Any behavior that causes members of a group to feel more connected can operate as social glue.
Bruce M. Hood, The Science of Superstition: How the Developing Brain Creates Supernatural Beliefs (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), p. 23 (former title: SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable)

December 26, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gonk

Every year when I monitor exams I see a number of intelligent young adults engaging in routines . . . or producing a multitude of lucky charms and "gonks" (soft toys) that they believe will improve their performance.
Bruce M. Hood, The Science of Superstition: How the Developing Brain Creates Supernatural Beliefs (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), p. 15 (former title: SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable)

December 26, 2016
MaryW commented on the word mind design

Mind design is the reason why certain ideas are obvious while others are obscure. By mind design I mean the organized way in which our brains are configured to understand and interpret the world. The brain, like very other part of the human body, has evolved over millions of years. . . . your brain has been designed in certain ways through the process of evolution. Most scientists agree that the brain has many specialized, built-in mechanisms that equip us to process the world of experience. These mechanisms are not learned or taught by others. They form the package of mental tools that each of us is equipped with as part of our mind design. But this design does not need a designer. . . . Natural selection is our designer.
Bruce M. Hood, The Science of Superstition: How the Developing Brain Creates Supernatural Beliefs (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), p. 9 (former title: SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable)

December 26, 2016
MaryW commented on the word supersense

Many highly educated and intelligent individuals experience a powerful sense that there are patterns, forces, energies, and entitities operating in the world that are denied by science because they go beyond the boundaries of natural phenomena we currently understand. More importantly, such experiences are not substantiated by a body of reliable evidence, which is why they are supernatural and unscientific. The inclination or sense that they may be real is our supersense.
Bruce M. Hood, The Science of Superstition: How the Developing Brain Creates Supernatural Beliefs (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), Prologue (former title: SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable)

December 26, 2016
MaryW commented on the word genome-wide association study

Perlegen was now in a position to design a DNA chip with several hundred thousand markers and begin to do genome-wide association studies (GWAS). These are essentially very dense case-control studies designed to find DNA markers important in disease. By typing the same set of markers in large numbers of cases and controls, it becomes a brute-force statistical matter of finding markers that pop up more frequently in sick people than in healthy ones. Those markers are very likely to be in or near genes that play a role in disease.
GWAS studies have since become ho-hum. But only a few years ago, they were the new new thing.
Misha Angrist, Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), ch. 4 (Kindle loc. 1046)

December 17, 2016
MaryW commented on the word GWAS

Perlegen was now in a position to design a DNA chip with several hundred thousand markers and begin to do genome-wide association studies (GWAS). These are essentially very dense case-control studies designed to find DNA markers important in disease. By typing the same set of markers in large numbers of cases and controls, it becomes a brute-force statistical matter of finding markers that pop up more frequently in sick people than in healthy ones. Those markers are very likely to be in or near genes that play a role in disease.
GWAS studies have since become ho-hum. But only a few years ago, they were the new new thing.
Misha Angrist, Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), ch. 4 (Kindle loc. 1046)

December 17, 2016
MaryW commented on the word snip

If your genome Is all 6 billion DNA base pairs (the function of most of which we don't understand), and your exome is the 20,000+ genes (about 60 million base pairs) that code for protein, then your variome is a smaller subset still: it is an assortment of markers more or less evenly spaced across the genome that tend to vary from person to person; some markers fall within genes, but most do not. By early 2010 researchers had identified nearly 13 million of these markers; . . . . These marker sets (called single nucleotide polymorphism, or SNPs—"snips") were thought to capture much of the variation in human DNA, although they represented no more than 0.05 percent of the entire genome.
Misha Angrist, Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), ch. 4 (Kindle loc. 1000)

December 17, 2016
MaryW commented on the word SNP

If your genome Is all 6 billion DNA base pairs (the function of most of which we don't understand), and your exome is the 20,000+ genes (about 60 million base pairs) that code for protein, then your variome is a smaller subset still: it is an assortment of markers more or less evenly spaced across the genome that tend to vary from person to person; some markers fall within genes, but most do not. By early 2010 researchers had identified nearly 13 million of these markers; . . . . These marker sets (called single nucleotide polymorphism, or SNPs—"snips") were thought to capture much of the variation in human DNA, although they represented no more than 0.05 percent of the entire genome.
Misha Angrist, Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), ch. 4 (Kindle loc. 1000)

December 17, 2016
MaryW commented on the word variome

If your genome Is all 6 billion DNA base pairs (the function of most of which we don't understand), and your exome is the 20,000+ genes (about 60 million base pairs) that code for protein, then your variome is a smaller subset still: it is an assortment of markers more or less evenly spaced across the genome that tend to vary from person to person; some markers fall within genes, but most do not. By early 2010 researchers had identified nearly 13 million of these markers; . . . . These marker sets (called single nucleotide polymorphism, or SNPs—"snips") were thought to capture much of the variation in human DNA, although they represented no more than 0.05 percent of the entire genome.
Misha Angrist, Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), ch. 4 (Kindle loc. 1000)

December 17, 2016
MaryW commented on the word aliquot

After all those years of graduate school and all those thousands of DNA samples I'd aliquotted into tiny polypropylene tubes, I might understand something about myself at the molecular level.
Misha Angrist, Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), ch. 3 (Kindle loc. 567)

December 17, 2016
MaryW commented on the word exome

In 2007 (George Church) told me he expected that soon his lab would be able to use the Polonator to sequence the entire human exome, that is, the protein-coding 1 percent of the human genome, for as little as a thousand dollars.
Misha Angrist, Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), ch. 2 (Kindle loc. 342)

December 17, 2016
MaryW commented on the word polony

Over the last few years, much of his lab's attention has been on polymerase colonies, or "polonies," a method that uses enzymes to amplify billions of short DNA fragments and stitch those together into a form that can be sequenced. Polony technology has since been licensed to several companies. . . . Church has teamed up with an engineering firm to make and sell a polony sequencer ("the Polonator") . . . .
Misha Angrist, Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), ch. 2 (Kindle loc. 334)

December 17, 2016
MaryW commented on the word karotype

The restrooms . . . are identified by the male and female karyotypes XY and XX chromosomes, respectively.
Misha Angrist, Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), ch. 2 (Kindle loc. 262)

December 17, 2016
MaryW commented on the word actionable

here was a genetic disease that was actually treatable or, as personal genomics partisans like to say, "actionable."
Misha Angrist, Here Is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), ch. 1 (Kindle loc. 121)

December 17, 2016
MaryW commented on the word hypercanonicity

In contrast, Jonathan Arac, a modem scholar and critic, characterizes the heightened praise given to the novel as hypercanonicity, meaning the book's lofty place in the canon reflects an exaggerated statement about its literary value. He states, "hypercanonization involved teaching students to appreciate Huckleberry Finn in ways that it had never been appreciated before."

Sharon E. Rush, Emotional Segregation: Huckleberry Finn in the Modern Classroom, 36 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 305, 341 (2003) (citing Jonathan Arac, Huckleberry Finn as Tool and Target: The Functions of Criticism in Our Time at 6 (1997))

November 23, 2016
MaryW commented on the word hypercanonization

<blockquote>In contrast, Jonathan Arac, a modem scholar and critic, characterizes the heightened praise given to the novel as <b>hypercanonicity</b>, meaning the book's lofty place in the canon reflects an exaggerated statement about its literary value. He states, "<b>hypercanonization</b> involved teaching students to appreciate Huckleberry Finn in ways that it had never been appreciated before."</blockquote>
Sharon E. Rush, Emotional Segregation: Huckleberry Finn in the Modern Classroom, 36 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 305, 341 (2003) (citing Jonathan Arac, Huckleberry Finn as Tool and Target: The Functions of Criticism in Our Time at 6 (1997))

November 23, 2016
MaryW commented on the word hypercanonize

In contrast, Jonathan Arac, a modem scholar and critic, characterizes the heightened praise given to the novel as hypercanonicity, meaning the book's lofty place in the canon reflects
an exaggerated statement about its literary value. He states, "hypercanonization involved teaching students to appreciate Huckleberry Finn in ways that it had never been appreciated before."
Sharon E. Rush, Emotional Segregation: Huckleberry Finn in the Modern Classroom, 36 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 305, 341 (2003) (citing Jonathan Arac, Huckleberry Finn as Tool and Target: The Functions of Criticism in Our Time</i> at 6 (1997))

November 23, 2016
MaryW commented on the word macropartisanship

Redistricting can have considerable electoral consequences because it undermines the incumbency advantage. Numerous voters are drawn into districts with a different incumbent seeking reelection. With regard to vote choice, these redrawn constituents rely more on their partisanship and prevailing political conditions because they lack familiarity with their new representative. Macropartisanship, the aggregate party identification of the electorate, is an excellent barometer of the political climate and hence the partisan direction guiding voters. Because redrawn constituents have at best a tenuous bond with their new incumbent, partisan tides have more influence on their vote choice.
Seth C. McKee, Political Conditions and the Electoral Effects of Redistricting, American Politics Research, vol. 40, p. 623 (abstract) (2013)

October 17, 2016
MaryW commented on the word genderlect

As a sociolinguist, I study the science of language in its social context. I began my lecture by describing the different ways that linguists subcategorize languages. Dialects, which most people are familiar with, are regional varieties of a language, like Texan or Midwestern English. But there are also ethnolects, associated with specific ethnic groups, like Chicano and Jewish English, and genderlects which refer to the distinctive ways that women and men talk.
An idiolect is not the language of idiots, but an idiosyncratic form of language that is unique to an individual. No two individuals—not even family members living under the same roof—speak the exact same language. We all pronounce words slightly differently, have different inflections in our voices, and choose different words to refer to the same thing.
Jennifer Sclafani, The Idolect of Donald Trump, Scientific American Mind blog, March 16, 2016

October 10, 2016
MaryW commented on the word ethnolect

As a sociolinguist, I study the science of language in its social context. I began my lecture by describing the different ways that linguists subcategorize languages. Dialects, which most people are familiar with, are regional varieties of a language, like Texan or Midwestern English. But there are also ethnolects, associated with specific ethnic groups, like Chicano and Jewish English, and genderlects which refer to the distinctive ways that women and men talk.
An idiolect is not the language of idiots, but an idiosyncratic form of language that is unique to an individual. No two individuals—not even family members living under the same roof—speak the exact same language. We all pronounce words slightly differently, have different inflections in our voices, and choose different words to refer to the same thing.
Jennifer Sclafani, The Idolect of Donald Trump, Scientific American Mind blog, March 16, 2016

October 10, 2016
MaryW commented on the word dialect

As a sociolinguist, I study the science of language in its social context. I began my lecture by describing the different ways that linguists subcategorize languages. Dialects, which most people are familiar with, are regional varieties of a language, like Texan or Midwestern English. But there are also ethnolects, associated with specific ethnic groups, like Chicano and Jewish English, and genderlects which refer to the distinctive ways that women and men talk.
An idiolect is not the language of idiots, but an idiosyncratic form of language that is unique to an individual. No two individuals—not even family members living under the same roof—speak the exact same language. We all pronounce words slightly differently, have different inflections in our voices, and choose different words to refer to the same thing.
Jennifer Sclafani, The Idolect of Donald Trump, Scientific American Mind blog, March 16, 2016

October 10, 2016
MaryW commented on the word idiolect

As a sociolinguist, I study the science of language in its social context. I began my lecture by describing the different ways that linguists subcategorize languages. Dialects, which most people are familiar with, are regional varieties of a language, like Texan or Midwestern English. But there are also ethnolects, associated with specific ethnic groups, like Chicano and Jewish English, and genderlects which refer to the distinctive ways that women and men talk.
An idiolect is not the language of idiots, but an idiosyncratic form of language that is unique to an individual. No two individuals—not even family members living under the same roof—speak the exact same language. We all pronounce words slightly differently, have different inflections in our voices, and choose different words to refer to the same thing.
Jennifer Sclafani, The Idolect of Donald Trump, Scientific American Mind blog, March 16, 2016

October 10, 2016
MaryW commented on the word autophagy

Yoshinori Ohsumi of the Tokyo Institute of Technology has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries about "autophagy" — a fundamental process cells use to degrade and recycle parts of themselves.
. . .
Ohsumi's work opened the path to understanding how cells adapt to starvation and respond to infection, according to statement from the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute.
Mutations in the genes that control autophagy can lead to a variety of conditions, including cancer, type 2 diabetes and neurological diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimers, according to the announcement.
Autophagy, a term that comes from Greek words for "self-eating," is a basic process cells need to function properly.
"Without autophagy, our cells won't survive," says Juleen Zierath, who chaired the committee that selected Ohsumi. "We need autophagy to ward off invading molecules, for example, to deal with very large proteins that might be long-lived or defective. But we also need autophagy for renewal."
...
Before Ohsumi's work, scientists knew there was a structure inside cells that was considered the equivalent of a "waste dump," Zierath says.
"What he showed was that it wasn't a waste dump. It was a recycling plant. This was a really sophisticated machinery that recycled damaged or long-lived proteins," Zierath says.
Japanese Biologist Wins Nobel Prize In Physiology Or Medicine, NPR Morning Edition, Oct. 3, 2016

October 4, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Penumbral Period

the weather events of this time have a very high degree of improbability. Indeed, it has even been proposed that this era be named the "catastrophozoic." (Others prefer such phrases as "the long emergency" and "the Penumbral Period.")
Amitav Ghosh, "Writing the Unimaginable," American Scholar, Autumn 2016, p. 52

October 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word long emergency

the weather events of this time have a very high degree of improbability. Indeed, it has even been proposed that this era be named the "catastrophozoic." (Others prefer such phrases as "the long emergency" and "the Penumbral Period.")
Amitav Ghosh, "Writing the Unimaginable," American Scholar, Autumn 2016, p. 52

October 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word catastrophozoic

the weather events of this time have a very high degree of improbability. Indeed, it has even been proposed that this era be named the "catastrophozoic." (Others prefer such phrases as "the long emergency" and "the Penumbral Period.")
Amitav Ghosh, "Writing the Unimaginable," American Scholar, Autumn 2016, p. 52

October 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word bookscape

Designer Niels Schrader was pleased that PostNL shared his idea of the book landscape. “In this design, the books are spread out horizontally, photographed from different angles. For example, there are photographs of books which are open, or with the front or back cover showing, or only the spine of the book. This creates a landscape of books if you view them from above. We now call that a bookscape,” says Schrader.
Year of the Book honoured with book landscape on postage stamps
, Koninklijke Bibliotek, Sept. 2, 2016

September 7, 2016
MaryW commented on the word tanguero

A musician who plays tango.
From context, in Carolina de Robertis, The Gods of Tango (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015)

September 4, 2016
MaryW commented on the word candombe

From a novel set (mostly) in Buenos Aires in 1913-1920:
Uncle Palo . . . played candombe—three drums of different sizes locking rhythms to form a complex throbbing whole . . . .
Carolina de Robertis, The Gods of Tango (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), p. 283

September 4, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gancho

From a novel set (mostly) in Buenos Aires in 1913-1920:
Their dancing was just as prim: their feet dutifully stepped back or to the side in response to the man's moves, but rarely attempted a gancho, rarely slid a calf between a man's legs—an unseemly act—and even when they did it was a quick and timid motion, obscured by floor-length skirts.
Carolina de Robertis, The Gods of Tango (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), p. 215

September 4, 2016
MaryW commented on the word bandoneon

From a novel set (mostly) in Buenos Aires in 1913-1920:
How much had changed since . . . those days when the tango was fresh and young and had a percussive drive and vibrancy, before it passed through the hands of hordes of immigrants, before it got slowed down by the bandoneón and the spirit of lament. The bandoneón, that boxy German instrument, accordion-like, made for voluptuous mourning.
Carolina de Robertis, The Gods of Tango (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), p. 116

September 4, 2016
MaryW commented on the word candombe

From a novel set (mostly) in Buenos Aires in 1913-1920:, this is a flashback to, probably late 19th century:
in Buenos Aires . . . music rapped and hummed on every corner . . . payadas, sung by pairs of country men who knew the life of gauchos and horses and lassos and dirt, who battled each other through song, . . .; habaneras, sparked by sailors freshly arrived from Cuba . . .; milongas, those fast joyful songs that could fill a filthy alley with dancers more quickly than honey could draw flies; and candombe, the music of black people whose ancestors had come in ships from Africa, shackled, enslaved, and who now lived among the immigrants, . . . with the most incredible music, . . . music played on drums built with cast-off barrels, whose rhythms interlocked to form a tight vast sound. There was no melody. In Europe it would have been called noise. But candombe had a potency that hit him in his belly, and in depths he hadn't known about.
Carolina de Robertis, The Gods of Tango (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), pp. 115-16

September 4, 2016
MaryW commented on the word milonga

From a novel set (mostly) in Buenos Aires in 1913-1920:, this is a flashback to, probably late 19th century:
in Buenos Aires . . . music rapped and hummed on every corner . . . payadas, sung by pairs of country men who knew the life of gauchos and horses and lassos and dirt, who battled each other through song, . . .; habaneras, sparked by sailors freshly arrived from Cuba . . .; milongas, those fast joyful songs that could fill a filthy alley with dancers more quickly than honey could draw flies; and candombe, the music of black people whose ancestors had come in ships from Africa, shackled, enslaved, and who now lived among the immigrants, . . . with the most incredible music, . . . music played on drums built with cast-off barrels, whose rhythms interlocked to form a tight vast sound. There was no melody. In Europe it would have been called noise. But candombe had a potency that hit him in his belly, and in depths he hadn't known about.
Carolina de Robertis, The Gods of Tango (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), pp. 115-16

September 4, 2016
MaryW commented on the word habanera

From a novel set (mostly) in Buenos Aires in 1913-1920:, this is a flashback to, probably late 19th century:
in Buenos Aires . . . music rapped and hummed on every corner . . . payadas, sung by pairs of country men who knew the life of gauchos and horses and lassos and dirt, who battled each other through song, . . .; habaneras, sparked by sailors freshly arrived from Cuba . . .; milongas, those fast joyful songs that could fill a filthy alley with dancers more quickly than honey could draw flies; and candombe, the music of black people whose ancestors had come in ships from Africa, shackled, enslaved, and who now lived among the immigrants, . . . with the most incredible music, . . . music played on drums built with cast-off barrels, whose rhythms interlocked to form a tight vast sound. There was no melody. In Europe it would have been called noise. But candombe had a potency that hit him in his belly, and in depths he hadn't known about.
Carolina de Robertis, The Gods of Tango (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), pp. 115-16

September 4, 2016
MaryW commented on the word payada

From a novel set (mostly) in Buenos Aires in 1913-1920:, this is a flashback to, probably late 19th century:
in Buenos Aires . . . music rapped and hummed on every corner . . . payadas, sung by pairs of country men who knew the life of gauchos and horses and lassos and dirt, who battled each other through song, . . .; habaneras, sparked by sailors freshly arrived from Cuba . . .; milongas, those fast joyful songs that could fill a filthy alley with dancers more quickly than honey could draw flies; and candombe, the music of black people whose ancestors had come in ships from Africa, shackled, enslaved, and who now lived among the immigrants, . . . with the most incredible music, . . . music played on drums built with cast-off barrels, whose rhythms interlocked to form a tight vast sound. There was no melody. In Europe it would have been called noise. But candombe had a potency that hit him in his belly, and in depths he hadn't known about.
Carolina de Robertis, The Gods of Tango (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), pp. 115-16

September 4, 2016
MaryW commented on the word conventillo

A tenement in Buenos Aires. From a novel set mostly in 1913-1918:
When he arrived, he'd planned to wait until he could afford an apartment of his own, however humble, to marry. Over time, he saw how absurd this notion was in a city that had swelled with so many immigrants seeking a chance at life that rents had soared and sharing a conventillo with one bathroom and one kitchen for sixty people or more had become a normal way of life.
Carolina de Robertis, The Gods of Tango (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), p. 62
In the conventillos—wich earned their name, she'd learned, from their cramped spare nature, like the convents that house nuns and monks—there was always the lang of water tubs, the drag of crates across scuffed tiles, the bristling dutet of a man fighting with his wife, the shout or squeal or hungrey moan of children, mothers' reproaches and lullabies and threats, . . .
Id., p. 81

September 4, 2016
MaryW commented on the word bryophyte

Earth's early plant biosphere consisted of simple bryophytes, such as moss, which are non-vascular -- meaning they do not have vein-like systems to conduct water and minerals around the plant.
Humble Moss Helped Create Our Oxygen-Rich Atmosphere, Science Daily, Aug. 15, 2016

August 19, 2016
MaryW commented on the word social ventilation

If going outside isn't enough to cool down, honeybees
will practice what Tom Seeley, professr of biology in the department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University, calls "social ventilation." The bees will stand at the entrance to the hive, line up, and beat their wings in synchrony to generate air velocities of more than 6 feet per second. "It's quite a breeze, you can put your hand in front of a hive and actually feel a draft," Seeley said.
Lynda V. Mapes, Keeping Their Cool, Seattle Times, July 29, 2016, p. B1

July 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gular fluttering

On a really hot day—like the mid-80s expected Friday—you'll see crows and other birds holding their mouths open. They are practicing what scientists call gular fluttering—panting.
Lynda V. Mapes, Keeping Their Cool, Seattle Times, July 29, 2016, p. B1

July 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word barking mad

Barking is Douchka's worst problem, but not her only one; in fact, it may not be going too far to describe the dog as barking mad. She's nervous and needy and can't be left alone, demanding Audry's constant attention . . . .
Mikita Brottman, The Great Grisby: Two Thousand Years of Exceptional Dogs (New York: HarperCollins), ch. 4.

July 26, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gytrash

In Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, the first sign of Mr. Rochester's presence is the sight of his faithful companion Pilot, a "great black and white long-haired dog" that Jane, encountering on a dark night, first mistakes for a Gytrash, "a lion-like creature with long hair and a huge head."
Mikita Brottman, The Great Grisby: Two Thousand Years of Exceptional Dogs (New York: HarperCollins), ch. 2.

July 26, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gene drive

Gene drives are systems of biased inheritance in which the ability of a genetic element to pass from a parent to its offspring through sexual reproduction is enhanced.
. . .
A gene drive that alters the female mosquito’s ability to become infected with the malaria parasite, or prevents the parasite development within the mosquito, could block malarial transmission without affecting mosquito populations.
National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, Gene Drives on the Horizon: Advancing Science, Navigating Uncertainty, and Aligning Research with Public Values (2016), pp. 1-2

July 12, 2016
MaryW commented on the word restavèk

The word restavèk comes from the Creole and French meaning “to stay with.” The term is given to children who come from poor, usually rural families that are sent to live and work as domestic servants in homes without any compensation.In principle, placement of a restavèk involves a parent turning over childrearing responsibility to another household in exchange for the child’s unpaid domestic service. The traditional expectation is that the “caretaker” household will cover the cost of sending the restavèk child to school. The term is widely used in Haiti and has a significant negative connotation, including that such children are dependent and servile. Many restavèk children are exploited and this has a lasting effect on their education, health, mental wellbeing and overall development.
Republic of Haiti, The Plight of Restavèk (Child Domestic Servants), Submission for the 112th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, Oct. 8 & 9, 2014.

July 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word restavek

See restavèk

July 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word restavek

See estavèk.

July 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word ethnoburb

The post-1965 wave of immigration gave birth to the modern-day "ethnoburb," a clever scholarly integration of the terms ethnic and suburb. Just east of Los Angeles lies Monterey Park, the quintessential example of the American ethnoburb. Hailed as America's "first suburban Chinatown," Monterey Park houses the largest concentration of Chinese Americans in the United States. Half of the residents are of Chinese descent—mainly Chinese (and Taiwanese) professionals and entrepreneurs who migrated after 1970 and upwardly mobile Chinese Americans eager to move out of a rapidly declining Chinatown.
Anthony Christian Ocampo, The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race (Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 2016), ch. 3.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word ethnic enclave

Neighborhoods have always played a pivotal role in how immigrants and their children adapt to life in the United States. . . . Unable to integrate into the mainstream middle sectors of American society, many found refuge in residential spaces that resembled their homelands, at least in terms of the cultural landscape. Within these ethnic enclaves, immigrants could form intimate connections, attend places of worship, and practice their cultural traditions with others from their home country, all the while slowly sharpening their English skills and learning American ways of life.
Anthony Christian Ocampo, The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race (Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 2016), ch. 3.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word pensionado

The colonial government also established scholarships for academically gifted Filipino men to pursue their college educations in the United States. These young scholars, who were better known as pensionados, studied everything from economics to politics to agriculture at American universities. In exchange for their free education, the United States required that these men return to the Philippines and serve as teachers, engineers and civil servants.
Anthony Christian Ocampo, The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race (Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 2016), ch. 2.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Thomasite

In an effort to "civilize" the Filipino people, the Americans established a public education system and made English the medium of instruction. Legions of American teachers, known as the Thomasites, were recruited by the US government to teach Filipino children American history, politics, and cultural traditions.
Anthony Christian Ocampo, The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race (Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 2016), ch. 2.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word pastor

Another sense: some sort of Mexican food.
Alicia joked she had enough evidence to "prove" that her friend Camille was "really Mexican." At Camille's family gatherings, she always noticed the food. "There was carne asada, there was pastor, there was flan. Some of them had different names, but they were pretty much the same," Alicia said.
Anthony Christian Ocampo, The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race (Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 2016), ch. 1.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Mexipino

Because the earliest waves of Filipino immigrants were overwhelmingly male, many ended up marrying Mexican women and forming "Mexipino" families and communities.
Anthony Christian Ocampo, The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race (Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 2016), ch. 1.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word panethnically

In Los Angeles, for instance, Latinos and Asian Americans now make up a collective majority. This book investigates how Filipinos understand their identity vis-à-vis these two fast-growing communities. In other words, I am interested in panethnic moments, or those times when Filipinos have felt a sense of collective identity with either Latinos or other Asians. That Filipinos share historical and cultural connections with both Latinos and Asians makes this an even more interesting puzzle to investigate.
Anthony Christian Ocampo, The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race (Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 2016), ch. 1.
Undoubtedly, the 1960s civil rights movement also reshaped how people came to value minority identities. . . . Ethnic groups that once considered themselves separate came together inside panethnic identities.
<i>Id.</i>

Filipinos' unwillingness to identify <b>panethnically</b> speaks volumes about their ambivalent relationship with Asian American identity.
Id., ch. 4.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word panethnic

<blockquote>In Los Angeles, for instance, Latinos and Asian Americans now make up a collective majority. This book investigates how Filipinos understand their identity vis-à-vis these two fast-growing communities. In other words, I am interested in panethnic moments, or those times when Filipinos have felt a sense of collective identity with either Latinos or other Asians. That Filipinos share historical and cultural connections with both Latinos nd Asians makes this an even more interesting puzzle to investigate.</blockquote>Anthony Christian Ocampo, The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race (Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 2016), ch. 1.

Undoubtedly, the 1960s civil rights movement also reshaped how people came to value minority identities. . . . Ethnic groups that once considered themselves separate came together inside panethnic identities.
<i>Id.</i>

Filipinos' unwillingness to identify <b>panethnically</b> speaks volumes about their ambivalent relationship with Asian American identity.
Id., ch. 4.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word panethnic moment

In Los Angeles, for instance, Latinos and Asian Americans now make up a collective majority. This book investigates how Filipinos understand their identity vis-à-vis these two fast-growing communities. In other words, I am interested in pandemic moments, or those times when Filipinos have felt a sense of collective identity with either Latinos or other Asians. That Filipinos share historical and cultural connections with both Latinos and Asians makes this an even more interesting puzzle to investigate.
Anthony Christian Ocampo, The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race (Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 2016), ch. 1.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Asian American

the term Asian American did not even exist until the late 1960s, when Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino activists coined the identity as an ideological strategy to advocate for their civil rights.
Anthony Christian Ocampo, The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race (Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 2016), ch. 1.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word green economy

For the first half-hour that Edna Molewa, the honorable minister of environmental affairs (South Africa), speaks, we hear words like "bioprospecting" but not words like "biodiversity." To bioprospect is to scout out "green gold," plants and animals of commercial value.
"We need to improve the infrastructure of our national parks, to facilitate bioprospecting" says the minister. This is in the spirit of the "green economy" and "job creation," important buzzwords in the country's "new sustainable economy." South Africa, one of the 17 megadiverse countries—those that together account for 70 percent of Earth's biodiversity—is just one of many nations with recent bioprospecting legislation.
Katarzyna Nowak, "Rhinos Under the Gun," American Scholar, Summer 2016, p. 6, at p. 9.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word megadiverse

For the first half-hour that Edna Molewa, the honorable minister of environmental affairs (South Africa), speaks, we hear words like "bioprospecting" but not words like "biodiversity." To bioprospect is to scout out "green gold," plants and animals of commercial value.
"We need to improve the infrastructure of our national parks, to facilitate bioprospecting" says the minister. This is in the spirit of the "green economy" and "job creation," important buzzwords in the country's "new sustainable economy." South Africa, one of the 17 megadiverse countries—those that together account for 70 percent of Earth's biodiversity—is just one of many nations with recent bioprospecting legislation.
Katarzyna Nowak, "Rhinos Under the Gun," American Scholar, Summer 2016, p. 6, at p. 9.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word bioprospecting

For the first half-hour that Edna Molewa, the honorable minister of environmental affairs (South Africa), speaks, we hear words like "bioprospecting" but not words like "biodiversity." To bioprospect is to scout out "green gold," plants and animals of commercial value.
"We need to improve the infrastructure of our national parks, to facilitate bioprospecting" says the minister. This is in the spirit of the "green economy" and "job creation," important buzzwords in the country's "new sustainable economy." South Africa, one of the 17 megadiverse countries—those that together account for 70 percent of Earth's biodiversity—is just one of many nations with recent bioprospecting legislation.
Katarzyna Nowak, "Rhinos Under the Gun," American Scholar, Summer 2016, p. 6, at p. 9.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word green gold

For the first half-hour that Edna Molewa, the honorable minister of environmental affairs (South Africa), speaks, we hear words like "bioprospecting" but not words like "biodiversity." To bioprospect is to scout out "green gold," plants and animals of commercial value.
"We need to improve the infrastructure of our national parks, to facilitate bioprospecting" says the minister. This is in the spirit of the "green economy" and "job creation," important buzzwords in the country's "new sustainable economy." South Africa, one of the 17 megadiverse countries—those that together account for 70 percent of Earth's biodiversity—is just one of many nations with recent bioprospecting legislation.
Katarzyna Nowak, "Rhinos Under the Gun," American Scholar, Summer 2016, p. 6, at p. 9.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word bioprospect

<blockquote>For the first half-hour that Edna Molewa, the honorable minister of environmental affairs (South Africa), speaks, we hear words like "<b>bioprospecting</b>" but not words like "biodiversity." To <b>bioprospect</b> is to scout out "<b>green gold</b>," plants and animals of commercial value.

"We need to improve the infrastructure of our national parks, to facilitate <b>bioprospecting</b>" says the minister. This is in the spirit of the "<b>green economy</b>" and "job creation," important buzzwords in the country's "new sustainable economy." South Africa, one of the 17 <b>megadiverse</b> countries—those that together account for 70 percent of Earth's biodiversity—is just one of many nations with recent <b>bioprospecting</b> legislation.</blockquote>Katarzyna Nowak, "Rhinos Under the Gun," American Scholar, Summer 2016, p. 6, at p. 9.

July 2, 2016
MaryW commented on the word CODEL

First, we considered official congressional travel. Taking fact-finding trips abroad as part of formal congressional delegations—known as CODELs—is one way to gather the information needed to make informed foreign policy decisions. Some CODELs are partisan (all members traveling together are of the same party), and others are bipartisan (the CODEL includes at least one Democrat and one Republican). If women prioritize accruing information in a more collegial, cooperative way, then they should take fewer partisan, and more bipartisan, trips than men. They don’t.
Jennifer L. Lawless & Sean M. Theriault, Off the softball field, Congresswomen are plenty partisan Brookings Fixgov blog, June 15, 2016.
I first heard the term in season 5 of the West Wing, when Donna Moss, Rep. Andy Wyatt, and Admiral Fitzwallace go on a CODEL to Gaza. I couldn't pick up what Josh was saying when he told Donna she'd be going—codell? codelle?

June 27, 2016
MaryW commented on the word mojo

The inmate says he was caught recently with two ounces of "mojo," or synthetic marijuana, which is the drug of choice at Winn.
Shane Bauer, My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard, Mother Jones, July/Aug. 2016

June 27, 2016
MaryW commented on the word scènes à faire

See scène à faire

June 24, 2016
MaryW commented on the word scène à faire

the motif has become, for me, “scenes a faire,” a copyright term of art for stock scenes or plot devices in plays or novels, but which I have adopted for standard devices used in composing music. These are not “building blocks” in the sense of notes and chords, but a more complex composing “design tool.”
Sean O'Connor, Why "Stairway to Heaven" Doesn't Infringe "Taurus" Copyright: analysis & demo of "scenes a faire"' motif common to both, The Means of Innovation, June 15, 2016
Scène à faire (French for "scene to be made" or "scene that must be done"; plural: scènes à faire) is a scene in a book or film which is almost obligatory for a genre of its type. In the U.S. it also refers to a principle in copyright law in which certain elements of a creative work are held to be not protected when they are mandated by or customary to the genre.
Scènes à faire, Wikipedia
I think the first use in a case is this:
It is not claimed that the choice of the church as a refuge in storm lends itself to the assertion of copyrightable originality. Houses of worship have been asylums since their very beginning. At one time, the legal privilege of sanctuary attached to churches. And he who entered one of them acquired immunity against the law.
The other small details, on which stress is laid, such as the playing of the piano, the prayer, the hunger motive, as it called, are inherent in the situation itself. They are what the French call "scènes à faire". Once having placed two persons in a church during a big storm, it was inevitable that incidents like these and others which are, necessarily, associated with such a situation should force themselves upon the writer in developing the theme. Courts have held repeatedly that such similarities and incidental details necessary to the environment or setting of an action are not the material of which copyrightable originality consists.
Cain v. Universal Pictures Co., 47 F. Supp. 1013 (S.D. Cal. 1942) (Yankwich, J.)

June 24, 2016
MaryW commented on the word scene a faire

the motif has become, for me, “scenes a faire,” a copyright term of art for stock scenes or plot devices in plays or novels, but which I have adopted for standard devices used in composing music. These are not “building blocks” in the sense of notes and chords, but a more complex composing “design tool.”
Sean O'Connor, Why "Stairway to Heaven" Doesn't Infringe "Taurus" Copyright: analysis & demo of "scenes a faire"' motif common to both, The Means of Innovation, June 15, 2016
Scène à faire (French for "scene to be made" or "scene that must be done"; plural: scènes à faire) is a scene in a book or film which is almost obligatory for a genre of its type. In the U.S. it also refers to a principle in copyright law in which certain elements of a creative work are held to be not protected when they are mandated by or customary to the genre.
Scènes à faire, Wikipedia
I think the first use in a case is this:
It is not claimed that the choice of the church as a refuge in storm lends itself to the assertion of copyrightable originality. Houses of worship have been asylums since their very beginning. At one time, the legal privilege of sanctuary attached to churches. And he who entered one of them acquired immunity against the law.
The other small details, on which stress is laid, such as the playing of the piano, the prayer, the hunger motive, as it called, are inherent in the situation itself. They are what the French call "scènes à faire". Once having placed two persons in a church during a big storm, it was inevitable that incidents like these and others which are, necessarily, associated with such a situation should force themselves upon the writer in developing the theme. Courts have held repeatedly that such similarities and incidental details necessary to the environment or setting of an action are not the material of which copyrightable originality consists.
Cain v. Universal Pictures Co., 47 F. Supp. 1013 (S.D. Cal. 1942) (Yankwich, J.)

June 24, 2016
MaryW commented on the word ullage

A neighbor asks to use your yard waste bin and promises, "I'll leave an ullage for you."

June 17, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Hispander

See Hispandering.

June 16, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Hispandering

Political pandering to Hispanic voters.

See Hispandering: Is It over Yet?, Latino USA, NPR, June 10, 2016:<blockquote>With both parties knowing who the presumptive nominees are, it might feel like the surge of pandering to Hispanics, or "Hispandering," has wound down. But has it?</blockquote>

I see scarequotes spotted this word seven months ago. Here it is again. Maybe this shows staying power.

June 16, 2016
MaryW commented on the word crowstepped

See corbie step.
the skyline of spires and crowstepped gables
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006), p. 142.
a fissure crowstepping its way down between the brickwork above the porch
Id., p. 326.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word crow step

See corbie step.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word outwith

The gym involved regular commitment, and outwith her job, she was crap at regular commitment.
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006), p. 106.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word hierophant

Gloria had put "Church of Scotland" on Graham's admission form just to annoy him if he lived. Now she rather regretted not putting "Jain Buddhist" or "druid," as it might have led to an interesting and informative discussion with whatever hierophant represented their religion in the Royal Infirmary.
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006), p. 104.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word yobbish

He was more of a magpie—jabbering, yobbish birds who stole from other birds' nests.
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006), p. 104.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word sheriff

Despite having lived in Scotland for four decades, Gloria found that the word "sheriff" did not immediately conjure up the Scottish judiciary. Instead she tended to see tin stars at high noon and Alan Wheatley as the evil Sheriff of Nottingham in the old children's television program Robin Hood.
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006), p. 104.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word matinee

descriptor for knitted baby clothes:
Beryl, Graham's mother, had been a knitter, producing endless matinee sets when Emily and Ewan were babies—hats, jackets, mittens, bootees, leggings—threaded with fiddly ribbons and full of holes for tiny fingers to get caught in.
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006), p. 101.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word matinee set

Knitted baby clothes:
Beryl, Graham's mother, had been a knitter, producing endless matinee sets when Emily and Ewan were babies—hats, jackets, mittens, bootees, leggings—threaded with fiddly ribbons and full of holes for tiny fingers to get caught in.
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006), p. 101.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word tricoteuse

Gloria regretted that she wasn't a knitter, she could be producing a useful garment while waiting for Graham to die. the tricoteuse of the ICU. Beryl, Graham's mother, had been a knitter, producing endless matinee sets when Emily and Ewan were babies—hats, jackets, mittens, bootees, leggings—threaded with fiddly ribbons and full of holes for tiny fingers to get caught in.
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006), p. 101.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word yomp

He passed a couple of their way back, retired middle-class types in Peter Storm jackets, binoculars slung around their necks, yomping briskly back to shore . . . .
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006), p. 94.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word dressed stone

In these senses of dress:
transitive v. To put a finish on (stone or wood, for example).
v. To prepare the surface of (a material; usually stone or lumber).
transitive v. To cut to proper dimensions, or give proper shape to, as to a tool by hammering; also, to smooth or finish.
v. put a finish on
The Castle seemed not so much a product of engineering as of organic growth, the dressed stone fused with the rough black basalt of the rock and its own bloody history.
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006), p. 64.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gbh

British crime: Grievous Bodily Harm.
Honda Man . . . was a nutter up for a rammy, and when he suddenly produced a baseballbat Jackson realized he must have had it with him when he got out of the car. Premeditated GBH, the ex-policeman in him was thinking.
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006), p. 40.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word rammy

From context, a fight, a scuffle.
Honda Man . . . was a nutter up for a rammy, and when he suddenly produced a baseballbat Jackson realized he must have had it with him when he got out of the car. Premeditated GBH, the ex-policeman in him was thinking.
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006), p. 40.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word hoaching

See hotch.
the place was crowded, "hoaching," his father would have said. Jackson's father was a miner, from Fife originally. . . .
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006), p. 38.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word game of statues

Statues, also called red light, green light (US) or grandmother's footsteps (UK), is a popular children's game, often played in Australia, Finland, Sweden, and the United States. How the game is played varies throughout different regions of the world.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statues_%28game%29">Statues (game)</a>, Wikipedia

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Chinese whisper

A Britishism for what Americans call the game of Telephone.
Gloria hadn't really seen what had happened. By the time the rumor of it had rippled down the spine of the queue, she suspected it had become a Chinese whisper
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006), p. 21.

June 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the list band-names--1

A community band in Seattle: The

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word cellophane

Good idea, bilby. I just came across "cling film" (actually "cling filmed") in a British novel. Of course I could tell it was what we call Saran(TM) Wrap, plastic wrap, or cling wrap, but I liked learning that the Brits call it cling film.

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word neuroprivacy

The study of the ethical, legal and social implications of neuroscience is being referred to “neuroethics.” Many types of brain research have, or will have, legal implications. However, this article will focus on the privacy concerns with respect to mental and cerebral functioning as delineated through brain imaging and other neurodiagnostic techniques—or what will be referred to here as “neuroprivacy.”
N.Y. City Bar Ass'n, Committee on Science and Law, Are Your Thoughts Your Own?: Neuroprivacy and the Legal Implications of Brain Imaging (June 2005).

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word brain fingerprinting

In 2005, The Committee on Science and Law considered possible legal implications of neural engineering. An emphasis was put on privacy implications of neural imaging, in particular on the use of neural imaging in non-medical research. The committee recognized neuromarketing, defined as the field of marketing research that studies consumers’ sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli and brain fingerprinting, defined as a technique that purports to determine the truth by detecting information stored in the brain, as emerging non-medical areas using neural imaging data.
Tamara Bonaci, Ryan Calo & Howard Jay Chizeck, App Stores for the Brain: Privacy & Security in Brain-Computer Interfaces, 2014 IEEE Int’l Symp. on Ethics in Sci., Tech. & Eng’rg at 1-7, reprinted in IEEE Tech. & Soc’y Mag., June 2015, at 32-39 (citing N.Y. City Bar Ass'n, Committee on Science and Law, Are Your Thoughts Your Own?: Neuroprivacy and the Legal Implications of Brain Imaging (June 2005)).

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word neuromarketing

In 2005, The Committee on Science and Law considered possible legal implications of neural engineering. An emphasis was put on privacy implications of neural imaging, in particular on the use of neural imaging in non-medical research. The committee recognized neuromarketing, defined as the field of marketing research that studies consumers’ sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli and brain fingerprinting, defined as a technique that purports to determine the truth by detecting information stored in the brain, as emerging non-medical areas using neural imaging data.
Tamara Bonaci, Ryan Calo & Howard Jay Chizeck, App Stores for the Brain: Privacy & Security in Brain-Computer Interfaces, 2014 IEEE Int’l Symp. on Ethics in Sci., Tech. & Eng’rg at 1-7, reprinted in IEEE Tech. & Soc’y Mag., June 2015, at 32-39 (citing N.Y. City Bar Ass'n, Committee on Science and Law, Are Your Thoughts Your Own?: Neuroprivacy and the Legal Implications of Brain Imaging (June 2005)).

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word neural engineering

In 2005, The Committee on Science and Law considered possible legal implications of neural engineering. An emphasis was put on privacy implications of neural imaging, in particular on the use of neural imaging in non-medical research. The committee recognized neuromarketing, defined as the field of marketing research that studies consumers’ sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli and brain fingerprinting, defined as a technique that purports to determine the truth by detecting information stored in the brain, as emerging non-medical areas using neural imaging data.
Tamara Bonaci, Ryan Calo & Howard Jay Chizeck, App Stores for the Brain: Privacy & Security in Brain-Computer Interfaces, 2014 IEEE Int’l Symp. on Ethics in Sci., Tech. & Eng’rg at 1-7, reprinted in IEEE Tech. & Soc’y Mag., June 2015, at 32-39 (citing N.Y. City Bar Ass'n, Committee on Science and Law, Are Your Thoughts Your Own?: Neuroprivacy and the Legal Implications of Brain Imaging (June 2005)).

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word neural imaging

In 2005, The Committee on Science and Law considered possible legal implications of neural engineering. An emphasis was put on privacy implications of neural imaging, in particular on the use of neural imaging in non-medical research. The committee recognized neuromarketing, defined as the field of marketing research that studies consumers’ sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli and brain fingerprinting, defined as a technique that purports to determine the truth by detecting information stored in the brain, as emerging non-medical areas using neural imaging data.
Tamara Bonaci, Ryan Calo & Howard Jay Chizeck, App Stores for the Brain: Privacy & Security in Brain-Computer Interfaces, 2014 IEEE Int’l Symp. on Ethics in Sci., Tech. & Eng’rg at 1-7, reprinted in IEEE Tech. & Soc’y Mag., June 2015, at 32-39 (citing N.Y. City Bar Ass'n, Committee on Science and Law, Are Your Thoughts Your Own?: Neuroprivacy and the Legal Implications of Brain Imaging (June 2005)).

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word neuroethics

In 2003, Jonsen introduced neuroethics as "a discipline that aligns the exploration and discovery of neurobiological knowledge with human value system".
Tamara Bonaci, Ryan Calo & Howard Jay Chizeck, App Stores for the Brain: Privacy & Security in Brain-Computer Interfaces, 2014 IEEE Int’l Symp. on Ethics in Sci., Tech. & Eng’rg at 1-7, reprinted in IEEE Tech. & Soc’y Mag., June 2015, at 32-39 (citing A.r. Jonsen, The Birth of Bioethics (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2003)).

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word brain malware

As BCI technology spreads further (towards becoming ubiquitous), it is easy to imagine more sophisticated "spying" applications being developed for nefarious purposes. Leveraging recent neuroscience results . . ., it may be possible to extract private informaiton about users' memories, prejudices, religious and political beliefs, as well as about their possible neurophysiological disorders. The extracted information could be used to manipulate or coerce users, or otherwise harm them. The impact of "brain malware" could be severe, in terms of privacy and other important values.
Tamara Bonaci, Ryan Calo & Howard Jay Chizeck, App Stores for the Brain: Privacy & Security in Brain-Computer Interfaces, 2014 IEEE Int’l Symp. on Ethics in Sci., Tech. & Eng’rg at 1-7, reprinted in IEEE Tech. & Soc’y Mag., June 2015, at 32-39.

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word XTech

Experiential Technology “XTech” is technology that directly improves the human experience.
XTech products combine digital technology with advances in neuroscience to improve human performance, including neurogaming applications. XTech products are impacting several $100B+ year industries including health, wellness, learning, training, sports and entertainment, creating massive new growth opportunities.

XTech is made possible because of the emergence of new digital technologies, including: digital reality systems - virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mix reality (MR), artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms, advanced robotics, and a wide variety of new sensor technologies. XTech companies are fusing these digital technologies with evolving neuroscience principals to achieve improvements in human performance in fundamentally new ways.
At XTech 2016, we will explore how XTech is creating entirely new markets such as digital therapeutics, validated neurowellness, accelerated learning and experiential entertainment. We are bringing together the leading entrepreneurs, investors and companies in all these new markets to show their XTech and share their journey on the road to success.
When we first coined the phrase “neurogaming” five years ago and put together a small San Francisco conference around the concept, “neurogaming” proved to be an effective meme for gathering a lot of like minded individuals coming from across a wide variety of professions and industries who were interested in leveraging neurosciences and new digital engagement technologies.
While neurogaming is still a very useful description for many applications, whether "therapeutic neurogaming", "wellness neurogaming", "educational neurogaming" or "entertainment neurogaming", it wasn’t capturing profound breadth of applications that are now emerging which are leveraging digital technology coupled with advances in neuroscience to positively impact the human experience.
. . .it was important to evolve the neurogaming meme into some that could be much larger and would attract a larger community.
This new meme is Experiential Technology, XTech, a phrase which we believe represents a whole new wave of technologies that will shape our world in very profound ways over the next decade.
Experience XTech, www.neurgamingconf.com (visited June 1, 2016).

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word experiential technology

Experiential Technology “XTech” is technology that directly improves the human experience.
XTech products combine digital technology with advances in neuroscience to improve human performance, including neurogaming applications. XTech products are impacting several $100B+ year industries including health, wellness, learning, training, sports and entertainment, creating massive new growth opportunities.

XTech is made possible because of the emergence of new digital technologies, including: digital reality systems - virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mix reality (MR), artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms, advanced robotics, and a wide variety of new sensor technologies. XTech companies are fusing these digital technologies with evolving neuroscience principals to achieve improvements in human performance in fundamentally new ways.
At XTech 2016, we will explore how XTech is creating entirely new markets such as digital therapeutics, validated neurowellness, accelerated learning and experiential entertainment. We are bringing together the leading entrepreneurs, investors and companies in all these new markets to show their XTech and share their journey on the road to success.
When we first coined the phrase “neurogaming” five years ago and put together a small San Francisco conference around the concept, “neurogaming” proved to be an effective meme for gathering a lot of like minded individuals coming from across a wide variety of professions and industries who were interested in leveraging neurosciences and new digital engagement technologies.
While neurogaming is still a very useful description for many applications, whether "therapeutic neurogaming", "wellness neurogaming", "educational neurogaming" or "entertainment neurogaming", it wasn’t capturing profound breadth of applications that are now emerging which are leveraging digital technology coupled with advances in neuroscience to positively impact the human experience.
. . .it was important to evolve the neurogaming meme into some that could be much larger and would attract a larger community.
This new meme is Experiential Technology, XTech, a phrase which we believe represents a whole new wave of technologies that will shape our world in very profound ways over the next decade.
Experience XTech, www.neurgamingconf.com (visited June 1, 2016).

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word entertainment neurogaming

When we first coined the phrase “neurogaming” five years ago and put together a small San Francisco conference around the concept, “neurogaming” proved to be an effective meme for gathering a lot of like minded individuals coming from across a wide variety of professions and industries who were interested in leveraging neurosciences and new digital engagement technologies.
While neurogaming is still a very useful description for many applications, whether "therapeutic neurogaming", "wellness neurogaming", "educational neurogaming" or "entertainment neurogaming", it wasn’t capturing profound breadth of applications that are now emerging which are leveraging digital technology coupled with advances in neuroscience to positively impact the human experience.
. . .it was important to evolve the neurogaming meme into some that could be much larger and would attract a larger community.
This new meme is Experiential Technology, XTech, a phrase which we believe represents a whole new wave of technologies that will shape our world in very profound ways over the next decade.
Experience XTech, www.neurgamingconf.com (visited June 1, 2016).

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word educational neurogaming

When we first coined the phrase “neurogaming” five years ago and put together a small San Francisco conference around the concept, “neurogaming” proved to be an effective meme for gathering a lot of like minded individuals coming from across a wide variety of professions and industries who were interested in leveraging neurosciences and new digital engagement technologies.
While neurogaming is still a very useful description for many applications, whether "therapeutic neurogaming", "wellness neurogaming", "educational neurogaming" or "entertainment neurogaming", it wasn’t capturing profound breadth of applications that are now emerging which are leveraging digital technology coupled with advances in neuroscience to positively impact the human experience.
. . .it was important to evolve the neurogaming meme into some that could be much larger and would attract a larger community.
This new meme is Experiential Technology, XTech, a phrase which we believe represents a whole new wave of technologies that will shape our world in very profound ways over the next decade.
Experience XTech, www.neurgamingconf.com (visited June 1, 2016).

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word wellness neurogaming

When we first coined the phrase “neurogaming” five years ago and put together a small San Francisco conference around the concept, “neurogaming” proved to be an effective meme for gathering a lot of like minded individuals coming from across a wide variety of professions and industries who were interested in leveraging neurosciences and new digital engagement technologies.
While neurogaming is still a very useful description for many applications, whether "therapeutic neurogaming", "wellness neurogaming", "educational neurogaming" or "entertainment neurogaming", it wasn’t capturing profound breadth of applications that are now emerging which are leveraging digital technology coupled with advances in neuroscience to positively impact the human experience.
. . .it was important to evolve the neurogaming meme into some that could be much larger and would attract a larger community.
This new meme is Experiential Technology, XTech, a phrase which we believe represents a whole new wave of technologies that will shape our world in very profound ways over the next decade.
Experience XTech, www.neurgamingconf.com (visited June 1, 2016).

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word therapeutic neurogaming

When we first coined the phrase “neurogaming” five years ago and put together a small San Francisco conference around the concept, “neurogaming” proved to be an effective meme for gathering a lot of like minded individuals coming from across a wide variety of professions and industries who were interested in leveraging neurosciences and new digital engagement technologies.
While neurogaming is still a very useful description for many applications, whether "therapeutic neurogaming", "wellness neurogaming", "educational neurogaming" or "entertainment neurogaming", it wasn’t capturing profound breadth of applications that are now emerging which are leveraging digital technology coupled with advances in neuroscience to positively impact the human experience.
. . .it was important to evolve the neurogaming meme into some that could be much larger and would attract a larger community.
This new meme is Experiential Technology, XTech, a phrase which we believe represents a whole new wave of technologies that will shape our world in very profound ways over the next decade.
Experience XTech, www.neurgamingconf.com (visited June 1, 2016).

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word neurogaming

When we first coined the phrase “neurogaming” five years ago and put together a small San Francisco conference around the concept, “neurogaming” proved to be an effective meme for gathering a lot of like minded individuals coming from across a wide variety of professions and industries who were interested in leveraging neurosciences and new digital engagement technologies.
While neurogaming is still a very useful description for many applications, whether "therapeutic neurogaming", "wellness neurogaming", "educational neurogaming" or "entertainment neurogaming", it wasn’t capturing profound breadth of applications that are now emerging which are leveraging digital technology coupled with advances in neuroscience to positively impact the human experience.
. . .it was important to evolve the neurogaming meme into some that could be much larger and would attract a larger community.
This new meme is Experiential Technology, XTech, a phrase which we believe represents a whole new wave of technologies that will shape our world in very profound ways over the next decade.
Experience XTech, www.neurgamingconf.com (visited June 1, 2016).

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word fichu

She wore a fluttering white garden party dress—it looked as though it were made of spun sugar—lace gloves, lace hat, lace parasol which she twirledcoquettishly, and a lace fichu which she kept dropping to be retrieved by the pimpled gallants of St. Boniface.
Patrick Dennis, Auntie Mame (New York: Broadway Books, 2001), p. 65 (orig. pub. 1955)

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word ormolu

But conversant as she was with the decorative arts of France, Auntie Mame's heart was more with the Bauhaus of Munich than with the rocaille and coquaille.
For a time, however, she was able to fight down her progressive impulses and string along with the staff at Elsie de Wolfe's, chirping prettily over dim ormolu wall sconces and inaccurate cupid clocks.
Patrick Dennis, Auntie Mame (New York: Broadway Books, 2001), p. 43 (orig. pub. 1955)

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word coquaille

But conversant as she was with the decorative arts of France, Auntie Mame's heart was more with the Bauhaus of Munich than with the rocaille and coquaille.
For a time, however, she was able to fight down her progressive impulses and string along with the staff at Elsie de Wolfe's, chirping prettily over dim ormolu wall sconces and inaccurate cupid clocks.
Patrick Dennis, Auntie Mame (New York: Broadway Books, 2001), p. 43 (orig. pub. 1955)

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word rocaille

But conversant as she was with the decorative arts of France, Auntie Mame's heart was more with the Bauhaus of Munich than with the rocaille and coquaille.

For a time, however, she was able to fight down her progressive impulses and string along with the staff at Elsie de Wolfe's, chirping prettily over dim ormolu wall sconces and inaccurate cupid clocks.

Patrick Dennis, Auntie Mame (New York: Broadway Books, 2001), p. 43 (orig. pub. 1955)

June 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word uncanny-valley response

My father made a passing reference to the uncanny-valley response—the human aversion to things that look almost but not quite like people. The uncanny-valley response is a hard thing to define, much less to test for. But if true, it explains why the faces of chimps so unsettle some of us.
Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons (Penguin Group): 2013), p. 102

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word ramphotheca

one of my most prized possessions was the skull of a woodcock, a probing bird, with enormous eye sockets and a distinctively pitted bill tip. These pits can be seen only after the leathery outer covering of the bill—the ramphotheca—has been removed.
Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), p. 83-84.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word bill-tip organ

The bill-tip organ was discovered by the French anatomist D. E. Goujon in 1869. . . . this organ consists of a series of pits in the upper and lower beak, full of touch-sensitive cells.
Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), p. 76.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word filoplume

There are three types of feather. The most abundant and obvious are the contour feathers: these include the long, strong wing and tail feathers, but also the short feathers that cover the body and rictal bristles around the mouth. The second type are fluffy, down feathers, lying out of sight under the contour feathers close to the body. Their role is to act primarily as insulation . . . . The third type of feather is much less familiar and you are likely only to have noticed them if you have ever plucked a bird like a chicken or a pigeon. Once all the contour and down feathers have been removed, what's left are the filoplumes, fine hair-like feathers sparsely dotted over the entire body surface and always rooted close to the base of a contour feather.
Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), p. 83-84.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word down feather

There are three types of feather. The most abundant and obvious are the contour feathers: these include the long, strong wing and tail feathers, but also the short feathers that cover the body and rictal bristles around the mouth. The second type are fluffy, down feathers, lying out of sight under the contour feathers close to the body. Their role is to act primarily as insulation . . . . The third type of feather is much less familiar and you are likely only to have noticed them if you have ever plucked a bird like a chicken or a pigeon. Once all the contour and down feathers have been removed, what's left are the filoplumes, fine hair-like feathers sparsely dotted over the entire body surface and always rooted close to the base of a contour feather.
Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), p. 83-84.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word rictal bristle

There are three types of feather. The most abundant and obvious are the contour feathers: these include the long, strong wing and tail feathers, but also the short feathers that cover the body and rictal bristles around the mouth. The second type are fluffy, down feathers, lying out of sight under the contour feathers close to the body. Their role is to act primarily as insulation . . . . The third type of feather is much less familiar and you are likely only to have noticed them if you have ever plucked a bird like a chicken or a pigeon. Once all the contour and down feathers have been removed, what's left are the filoplumes, fine hair-like feathers sparsely dotted over the entire body surface and always rooted close to the base of a contour feather.
Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), p. 83-84.

<blockquote>in a number of birds, most obviously nightjars, oilbirds and flycatchers, on the corners of the mouth is an array of stiff, hair-like bristles. These are modified contour feathers, called <b>rictal</b> (mouth) <b>bristles</b>, and the presence of a well-developed nerve supply at their base betrays their sensory function.</blockquote><i>Id.</i>, p. 85.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word contour feather

There are three types of feather. The most abundant and obvious are the contour feathers: these include the long, strong wing and tail feathers, but also the short feathers that cover the body and rictal bristles around the mouth. The second type are fluffy, down feathers, lying out of sight under the contour feathers close to the body. Their role is to act primarily as insulation . . . . The third type of feather is much less familiar and you are likely only to have noticed them if you have ever plucked a bird like a chicken or a pigeon. Once all the contour and down feathers have been removed, what's left are the filoplumes, fine hair-like feathers sparsely dotted over the entire body surface and always rooted close to the base of a contour feather.
Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), p. 83-84.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word allopreen

Ornithologists refer to one individual preening another as allopreening ('allo' meaning 'other'), to distinguish it from the more usual self-preening.
Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), p. 75

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Lombard effect

Increasing the volume of sounds uttered in a noisy environment is actually a reflex known as the <b>Lombard effect</b>, named after Etienne Lombard, a French ear, nose and throat specialist who discovered it in humans in the early 1900s. The Lombard effect is most obvious when somebody is talking to you when, for example, you have your iPod headphones on and in respnse you—unwittingly—increase the volume of your reply, and they say: 'No need to shout!'
Tim Birkhead, <i>Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird</i> (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), p. 59

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word dawn chorus

The ability to focus on one particular voice or song against a hubbub of background noise is known as the cocktail-party effect. This is a common problem for birds that live in a noisy world. Just think of the dawn chorus. In pristine habitats there may be as many as thirty different songbird species—with several individuals of each—singing at once, and the effect can be almost deafening. Each bird has to dinstinguish not only its own species, but also different individuals.
Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), p. 57

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word cocktail-party effect

The ability to focus on one particular voice or song against a hubbub of background noise is known as the cocktail-party effect. This is a common problem for birds that live in a noisy world. Just think of the dawn chorus. In pristine habitats there may be as many as thirty different songbird species—with several individuals of each—singing at once, and the effect can be almost deafening. Each bird has to dinstinguish not only its own species, but also different individuals.
Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), p. 57

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word lek

One of the most brilliantly coloured of South American birds (and there are many) is the Andean cock-of-the-rock. The male has the most intensely red body, a jet-black tail and outermost wing feathers, and unexpectedly silvery-white innermost wing feathers. So-named because it nests among rocks on cliff ledges, and because of its cocky Mohican-like crest, this pigeon-sized bird is a major draw to birdwatchers visiting Ecuador. The males display in groups, referred to as 'leks' . . . .
Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), pp. 19-20.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word cock-of-the-rock

One of the most brilliantly coloured of South American birds (and there are many) is the Andean cock-of-the-rock. The male has the most intensely red body, a jet-black tail and outermost wing feathers, and unexpectedly silvery-white innermost wing feathers. So-named because it nests among rocks on cliff ledges, and because of its cocky Mohican-like crest, this pigeon-sized bird is a major draw to birdwatchers visiting Ecuador. The males display in groups, referred to as 'leks' . . . .
Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), pp. 19-20.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Andean cock-of-the-rock

One of the most brilliantly coloured of South American birds (and there are many) is the Andean cock-of-the-rock. The male has the most intensely red body, a jet-black tail and outermost wing feathers, and unexpectedly silvery-white innermost wing feathers. So-named because it nests among rocks on cliff ledges, and because of its cocky Mohican-like crest, this pigeon-sized bird is a major draw to birdwatchers visiting Ecuador. The males display in groups, referred to as 'leks' . . . .
Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), pp. 19-20.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Umwelt

It all had something to do with <b>Umwelt</b>, a word I very much liked the sound of and repeated many times like a drumbeat until I was made to stop. I didn't care so much what Umwelt meant back then, but it turns out to refer to the specific way each particular organism experiences the world.
Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons (Penguin Group): 2013), p. 99.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word analeptic

My mother was often aggravated those days. It was something new for her, analeptic doses of righteous aggravation. She was rejuvenated by it.
Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons (Penguin Group): 2013), p. 6.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gite

we've been offered this gite in the Ardèche for a week . . ."
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 347.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word blether

Amelia had been behaving even more oddly than usual, blethering about Olivia . . . . Blethering. That was one of his father's words.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 324

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word naturist

A middle-aged man was climbing out of the river onto the bank—bollock-naked and skinny and tanned all over. A nudist? They called themselves naturalists now, didn't they?
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 288.
(Character misuses "naturalist" for "naturism.")

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word nudist

A middle-aged man was climbing out of the river onto the bank—bollock-naked and skinny and tanned all over. A nudist? They called themselves naturalists now, didn't they?
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 288.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word bollock-naked

A middle-aged man was climbing out of the river onto the bank—bollock-naked and skinny and tanned all over. A nudist? They called themselves naturalists now, didn't they?
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 288.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word manky

at that moment a particularly manky tom decided it needed to spray its territory and favored Quintus's leg as one of its outposts.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 284.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word nut

In the sense of "headbutt" (which shows up at least once in the definitions above):
Quintus was sporting a considerable plaster across a nose that looked damaged in just the way you would expect a nose to be damaged if you'd been nutted by someone who was trying to stop you from pistol-whipping them.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 282.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word tantivy

before he cold reply a cry like a huntsman's tantivy from the top end of the garden announced the arrival of Quintus Rain.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 281.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word oik

They drove past the village school and she could hear James making snorting noises. She'd heard him refer to the the village kids as "oiks" and she'd almost slapped him. She suspected his slow male brain had confused "oik" with "oink," which was why he always snorted when he came within breathing distance of the lower orders.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 224.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word extern

Sister Michael . . . was an "extern." There were six externs at the convent, negotiating with the outside world on behalf of the "interns"—the ones who never left, who spent their days, day after day, until they died, in prayer and contemplation.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 224.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word intern

Sister Michael . . . was an "extern." There were six externs at the convent, negotiating with the outside world on behalf of the "interns"—the ones who never left, who spent their days, day after day, until they died, in prayer and contemplation.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 224.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word leveret

Was (a long-missing three-year-old) enclosed somewhere, under a floor, in the earth? No more than a tiny pile of leveret-thin bones waiting to be found.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 164.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word hooray Henry

Still—and it was a close call—Jackson preferred the summer population to the yahs and hooray Henrys of term time. Was it just the envy of the underclass?
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 162.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word yah

Still—and it was a close call—Jackson preferred the summer population to the yahs and hooray Henrys of term time. Was it just the envy of the underclass?
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 162.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word jakies

All that wealth and privilege in the hands of a few while the streets were full of the dispossessed, the beggars, the jakies, the mad.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 162.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word jakey

All that wealth and privilege in the hands of a few while the streets were full of the dispossessed, the beggars, the jakies, the mad.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 162.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word crosspatch

"Don't be a crosspatch, Mr. Brodie. You're a much nicer person than you pretend to be, you know."
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 160.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word matinee coat

Caroline . . . had never been to an agricultural fair in her life and was charmed by everything. . . . the crocheted shawls and knitted matinee jackets . . .
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 145.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word misericord

She loved that word, "misericord," because it sounded so wretched and yet it wasn't. It meant tenderhearted, from the Latin for heart, "cor," from which you also get "core" and "cordial" but not "cardiac," which from via the Latin from the Greek for heart—"kardia" (although they mut surely be related at some ancient, ur-level.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 138.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word wall anchor

She was a lousy cook and didn't even possess a sewing basket, but she did all the DIY in their little box house. She said to him once that when women learned that wall anchors weren't the mysterious objects they though the were, they would rule the world.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 95.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word squaddie

Howell dated from Jackson's army days—they had started out as squaddies together.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 84.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word don

Binky was over ninety and was the widow of "a Peterhouse fellow," a philosophy don (despite living in Cambridge for fourteen years, Jackson still though of the mafia when he heard that word).
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 82.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word cling film

A dish of lasagna, neatly cling filmed, was sitting in the fridge, waiting to be heated up later . . . .
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 66.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Tennessee fainting goat

She thought they should get some chickens of their own and perhaps a goat to milk, because maybe something was missing—maybe it would just take one fat wyandotte to make the idyll possible. Or a Sicilian buttercup. Really, chickens had the prettiest names—the Brahma and the marsh daisy and the faverolles. . . . Or perhaps a goat—a LaMancha or a Bionda dell'Adamello. . . . Goats had ridiculous names—the West African dwarf and the Tennessee fainting goat.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 64.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word West African dwarf

She thought they should get some chickens of their own and perhaps a goat to milk, because maybe something was missing—maybe it would just take one fat wyandotte to make the idyll possible. Or a Sicilian buttercup. Really, chickens had the prettiest names—the Brahma and the marsh daisy and the faverolles. . . . Or perhaps a goat—a LaMancha or a Bionda dell'Adamello. . . . Goats had ridiculous names—the West African dwarf and the Tennessee fainting goat.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 64.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Bionda dell'Adamello

She thought they should get some chickens of their own and perhaps a goat to milk, because maybe something was missing—maybe it would just take one fat wyandotte to make the idyll possible. Or a Sicilian buttercup. Really, chickens had the prettiest names—the Brahma and the marsh daisy and the faverolles. . . . Or perhaps a goat—a LaMancha or a Bionda dell'Adamello. . . . Goats had ridiculous names—the West African dwarf and the Tennessee fainting goat.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 64.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word LaMancha

She thought they should get some chickens of their own and perhaps a goat to milk, because maybe something was missing—maybe it would just take one fat wyandotte to make the idyll possible. Or a Sicilian buttercup. Really, chickens had the prettiest names—the Brahma and the marsh daisy and the faverolles. . . . Or perhaps a goat—a LaMancha or a Bionda dell'Adamello. . . . Goats had ridiculous names—the West African dwarf and the Tennessee fainting goat.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 64.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word faverolle

She thought they should get some chickens of their own and perhaps a goat to milk, because maybe something was missing—maybe it would just take one fat wyandotte to make the idyll possible. Or a Sicilian buttercup. Really, chickens had the prettiest names—the Brahma and the marsh daisy and the faverolles. . . . Or perhaps a goat—a LaMancha or a Bionda dell'Adamello. . . . Goats had ridiculous names—the West African dwarf and the Tennessee fainting goat.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 64.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word marsh daisy

She thought they should get some chickens of their own and perhaps a goat to milk, because maybe something was missing—maybe it would just take one fat wyandotte to make the idyll possible. Or a Sicilian buttercup. Really, chickens had the prettiest names—the Brahma and the marsh daisy and the faverolles. . . . Or perhaps a goat—a LaMancha or a Bionda dell'Adamello. . . . Goats had ridiculous names—the West African dwarf and the Tennessee fainting goat.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 64.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Brahma

She thought they should get some chickens of their own and perhaps a goat to milk, because maybe something was missing—maybe it would just take one fat wyandotte to make the idyll possible. Or a Sicilian buttercup. Really, chickens had the prettiest names—the Brahma and the marsh daisy and the faverolles. . . . Or perhaps a goat—a LaMancha or a Bionda dell'Adamello. . . . Goats had ridiculous names—the West African dwarf and the Tennessee fainting goat.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 64.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Sicilian buttercup

She thought they should get some chickens of their own and perhaps a goat to milk, because maybe something was missing—maybe it would just take one fat wyandotte to make the idyll possible. Or a Sicilian buttercup. Really, chickens had the prettiest names—the Brahma and the marsh daisy and the faverolles. . . . Or perhaps a goat—a LaMancha or a Bionda dell'Adamello. . . . Goats had ridiculous names—the West African dwarf and the Tennessee fainting goat.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 64.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Wyandotte

She thought they should get some chickens of their own and perhaps a goat to milk, because maybe something was missing—maybe it would just take one fat wyandotte to make the idyll possible. Or a Sicilian buttercup. Really, chickens had the prettiest names—the Brahma and the marsh daisy and the faverolles. . . . Or perhaps a goat—a LaMancha or a Bionda dell'Adamello. . . . Goats had ridiculous names—the West African dwarf and the Tennessee fainting goat.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 64.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word wyandotte

She thought they should get some chickens of their own and perhaps a goat to milk, because maybe something was missing—maybe it would just take one fat wyandotte to make the idyll possible. Or a Sicilian buttercup. Really, chickens had the prettiest names—the Brahma and the marsh daisy and the faverolles. . . . Or perhaps a goat—a LaMancha or a Bionda dell'Adamello. . . . Goats had ridiculous names—the West African dwarf and the Tennessee fainting goat.
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (New York: Little Brown & Co., 2004), p. 64.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word interlock

Above a sign that read "My First Item 1955" was a small brass plate from Perth Amboy, New Jersey—a cover for an interlock, the mechanism that keeps the doors closed when an elevator is on the move. Carr and Wilk discussed an accident that Carr blamed on an interlock situation.
Nick Paumgarten, "Love of the Elevator," New Yorker, May 16, 2016, p. 36.

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word hot take

Patrick Carr, the founder of the Elevator Historical Society, and his associate director, Daniel Levinson Wilk, "advanced the hot take that it was another Otis, a Massachusetts inventor named Otis Tufts, who deserved more credit for the introduction of the elevator as a passenger conveyance" than Elisha Otis, the founder of the Otis Elevator Company.
Nick Paumgarten, "Love of the Elevator," New Yorker, May 16, 2016, p. 34

May 30, 2016
MaryW commented on the word accident

"accident" versus "crash"

See Matt Richtel,
It’s No Accident: Advocates Want to Speak of Car ‘Crashes’ Instead
, N.Y. Times, May 22, 2016.
“When you use the word ‘accident,’ it’s like, ‘God made it happen,’ ” Mark Rosekind, the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said at a driver safety conference this month at the Harvard School of Public Health.
. . .
Almost all crashes stem from driver behavior like drinking, distracted driving and other risky activity. About 6 percent are caused by vehicle malfunctions, weather and other factors.
. . .
Dr. Rosekind has added his voice to a growing chorus of advocates who say that the persistence of crashes . . . can be explained in part by widespread apathy toward the issue.
Changing semantics is meant to shake people, particularly policy makers, out of the implicit nobody’s-fault attitude that the word “accident” conveys, they said.
Id. Interesting historical note:
The word was introduced into the lexicon of manufacturing and other industries in the early 1900s, when companies were looking to protect themselves from the costs of caring for workers who were injured on the job, according to Peter Norton, a historian and associate professor at the University of Virginia's department of engineering.
. . .
When traffic deaths spiked in the 1920s, a consortium of auto-industry interests, including insurers, borrowed the word to shift the focus away from the cars themselves. "Automakers were very interested in blaming reckless drivers," Dr. Norton said.
But over time, he said, the word has come to exonerate the driver, too, with "accident" seeming like a lightning strike, beyond anyone's control."
Id.

See Drop the 'A' Word blog, The blog's tagline:

Not all crashes are "accidents". Crimes are not "accidents". It's not an "accident" when a person makes a decision to drive drunk, distracted, or in a negligent manner. Stop giving criminals a pass by calling it an "accident".
Id.

See Crash not Accident website.

May 25, 2016
MaryW commented on the word crash

"accident" versus "crash"

See Matt Richtel,
It’s No Accident: Advocates Want to Speak of Car ‘Crashes’ Instead
, N.Y. Times, May 22, 2016.
“When you use the word ‘accident,’ it’s like, ‘God made it happen,’ ” Mark Rosekind, the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said at a driver safety conference this month at the Harvard School of Public Health.
. . .
Almost all crashes stem from driver behavior like drinking, distracted driving and other risky activity. About 6 percent are caused by vehicle malfunctions, weather and other factors.
. . .
Dr. Rosekind has added his voice to a growing chorus of advocates who say that the persistence of crashes . . . can be explained in part by widespread apathy toward the issue.
Changing semantics is meant to shake people, particularly policy makers, out of the implicit nobody’s-fault attitude that the word “accident” conveys, they said.
Id. Interesting historical note:
The word was introduced into the lexicon of manufacturing and other industries in the early 1900s, when companies were looking to protect themselves from the costs of caring for workers who were injured on the job, according to Peter Norton, a historian and associate professor at the University of Virginia's department of engineering.
. . .
When traffic deaths spiked in the 1920s, a consortium of auto-industry interests, including insurers, borrowed the word to shift the focus away from the cars themselves. "Automakers were very interested in blaming reckless drivers," Dr. Norton said.
But over time, he said, the word has come to exonerate the driver, too, with "accident" seeming like a lightning strike, beyond anyone's control."
Id.

See Drop the 'A' Word blog, The blog's tagline:

Not all crashes are "accidents". Crimes are not "accidents". It's not an "accident" when a person makes a decision to drive drunk, distracted, or in a negligent manner. Stop giving criminals a pass by calling it an "accident".
Id.

See Crash not Accident website.

May 25, 2016
MaryW commented on the word terminal dehydration

Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics will publish a collection of
personal stories from individuals who have participated in VSED (voluntarily stopping eating and drinking) to hasten death. VSED is sometimes referred to as VRFF (voluntary refusal of food and fluid) or terminal dehydration.
Thaddeus Pope, call for papers for Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, fall 2015.

May 23, 2016
MaryW commented on the word VRFF

Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics will publish a collection of
personal stories from individuals who have participated in VSED (voluntarily stopping eating and drinking) to hasten death. VSED is sometimes referred to as VRFF (voluntary refusal of food and fluid) or terminal dehydration.
Thaddeus Pope, call for papers for Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, fall 2015.

May 23, 2016
MaryW commented on the word VSED

Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics will publish a collection of
personal stories from individuals who have participated in VSED (voluntarily stopping eating and drinking) to hasten death. VSED is sometimes referred to as VRFF (voluntary refusal of food and fluid) or terminal dehydration.
Thaddeus Pope, call for papers for Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, fall 2015.

May 23, 2016
MaryW commented on the word sung-through

To watch Hamilton is to experience a total work of art—a Gesamtkunstwerk, in which different forms are combined into a single unified whole. The production brings together a staggeringly wide array of musical styles, including hip-hop, ragtime, Broadway musical theatre, Jazz, and baroque harpsichord. The tableau unfolds dynamically . . .an ensemble of dancers surrounds the main characters with intricate, sharp choreography . . . . The costumes manage to be elegant and period appropriate while also avoiding caricature. . . .
But the most astonishing artistic weapon that Hamilton unleashes is the power—in both force and quantity—of its words.The two-and-a-half-hour show comprises 20,000 words, nearly all of them delivered in some form of song or rap. The show is "sung-through," a phrase whose new frequency among the general public is yet another consequence of Hamilton-mania.
Alison L. LaCroix, The Rooms Where It Happened, The New Rambler, May 23, 2016 (reviewing Hamilton: An American Musical, by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Hamilton: The Revolution, by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter)

May 23, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gesamtkunstwerk

To watch Hamilton is to experience a total work of art—a Gesamtkunstwerk, in which different forms are combined into a single unified whole. The production brings together a staggeringly wide array of musical styles, including hip-hop, ragtime, Broadway musical theatre, Jazz, and baroque harpsichord. The tableau unfolds dynamically . . .an ensemble of dancers surrounds the main characters with intricate, sharp choreography . . . . The costumes manage to be elegant and period appropriate while also avoiding caricature. . . .
But the most astonishing artistic weapon that Hamilton unleashes is the power—in both force and quantity—of its words.The two-and-a-half-hour show comprises 20,000 words, nearly all of them delivered in some form of song or rap. The show is "sung-through," a phrase whose new frequency among the general public is yet another consequence of Hamilton-mania.
Alison L. LaCroix, The Rooms Where It Happened, The New Rambler, May 23, 2016 (reviewing Hamilton: An American Musical, by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Hamilton: The Revolution, by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter)

May 23, 2016
MaryW commented on the word MAD

There are several treatment options for sleep apnea. One of the options is the oral appliance. Also called Jaw Advancing Device (JAD) or Mandibular Advancement Device (MAD), these sleep apnea mouth pieces are custom made by dentists using a plastic-like mold to form to the specific shape of the patients teeth and mouth. Not only do they work against sleep apnea, they are also effective to stop snoring.
Oral Appliance for Sleep Apnea Dental Device Therapy, American Sleep Association

May 18, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Mandibular Advancement Device

There are several treatment options for sleep apnea. One of the options is the oral appliance. Also called Jaw Advancing Device (JAD) or Mandibular Advancement Device (MAD), these sleep apnea mouth pieces are custom made by dentists using a plastic-like mold to form to the specific shape of the patients teeth and mouth. Not only do they work against sleep apnea, they are also effective to stop snoring.
Oral Appliance for Sleep Apnea Dental Device Therapy, American Sleep Association

May 18, 2016
MaryW commented on the word JAD

There are several treatment options for sleep apnea. One of the options is the oral appliance. Also called Jaw Advancing Device (JAD) or Mandibular Advancement Device (MAD), these sleep apnea mouth pieces are custom made by dentists using a plastic-like mold to form to the specific shape of the patients teeth and mouth. Not only do they work against sleep apnea, they are also effective to stop snoring.
Oral Appliance for Sleep Apnea Dental Device Therapy, American Sleep Association

May 18, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Jaw Advancing Device

There are several treatment options for sleep apnea. One of the options is the oral appliance. Also called Jaw Advancing Device (JAD) or Mandibular Advancement Device (MAD), these sleep apnea mouth pieces are custom made by dentists using a plastic-like mold to form to the specific shape of the patients teeth and mouth. Not only do they work against sleep apnea, they are also effective to stop snoring.
Oral Appliance for Sleep Apnea Dental Device Therapy, American Sleep Association

May 18, 2016
MaryW commented on the word oral appliance

There are several treatment options for sleep apnea. One of the options is the oral appliance. Also called Jaw Advancing Device (JAD) or Mandibular Advancement Device (MAD), these sleep apnea mouth pieces are custom made by dentists using a plastic-like mold to form to the specific shape of the patients teeth and mouth. Not only do they work against sleep apnea, they are also effective to stop snoring.
Oral Appliance for Sleep Apnea Dental Device Therapy, American Sleep Association

May 18, 2016
MaryW commented on the word bruxism

Bruxism is a finding during sleep that is characterized by clenching and grinding of the teeth. This can occur numerous times during a sleep session, and can cause sleep disruptions, as well as damage to the teeth. Bruxism most often occurs in the early stages of sleep before deep sleep.
Bruxism can also happen unintentionally during waking hours, often as the result of stress or anger, but this is usually noticed within a few seconds by the subject.
Bruxism, American Sleep Association

May 18, 2016
MaryW commented on the word literary warrant

Decisions to update a subject heading are based on many considerations, including "literary warrant:" the frequency with which a term is or is not used in print and other dynamic resources that, by their nature, change with and reflect current social structures and norms.
Letter from American Library Association and Association for Library Collections & Technical Services to U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Re: Request to Remove "Library of Congress Classification" Amendment from Legislative Branch Appropriations Legislation, April 28, 2016l, p. 2.

May 16, 2016
MaryW commented on the word restrictive cardiomyopathy

a physician accurately diagnosed the child with restrictive cardiomyopathy, a fatal condition in which the heart's left ventricle (lower chamber) fails to fill with sufficient blood to supply the patient with oxygen.
James B. Lieber, Killer Care: How Medical Error Became America's Third Largest Cause of Death, and What Can Be Done About It (New York: OR Books, 2015), ch. 1.

May 16, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Minnesota time-out

hospital studies show that wrong-site surgeries are entirely preventable with clear, reviewable communications, meaningful preoperative briefings involving the patient, agreed-upon incision site marking by the surgeon and a "time-out" held after the prepping and draping. Sometimes called a "Minnesota time-out" (because the Minnesota health department implemented it throughout the state's hospitals) it includes organized role-playing where all members of the team identify themselves and state what they will do during the procedure. Everyone, including nurses, is empowered to stop the surgery the moment he or she detects a problem rather than tearfully raising it after the sawing starts.
James B. Lieber, Killer Care: How Medical Error Became America's Third Largest Cause of Death, and What Can Be Done About It (New York: OR Books, 2015), ch. 1.

May 16, 2016
MaryW commented on the word body rights

In Unsafe at Any Speed, Nader tried to launch a new idea called "body rights," meaning that people should be secure against callous corporate policies leading to personal mayhem. The term has all but died; however, the concept suddenly seems reborn in certain corners of health care.
James B. Lieber, Killer Care: How Medical Error Became America's Third Largest Cause of Death, and What Can Be Done About It (New York: OR Books, 2015), Introduction.

May 16, 2016
MaryW commented on the word complications

Almost everyone knows someone who has emerged from a hospital with an infection, or has read an obituary noting that a person died from "complications"—often a code word for medical error.
James B. Lieber, Killer Care: How Medical Error Became America's Third Largest Cause of Death, and What Can Be Done About It (New York: OR Books, 2015), Introduction.

May 16, 2016
MaryW commented on the word karyotype

The geneticist who read the x-ray photomicrography of their chromosomes called a karyotype said that they were normal, healthy, and not at any greater risk than others. . . . Prior to this he had analyzed only karyotypes of drosophila (fruit flies), not humans.
James B. Lieber, Killer Care: How Medical Error Became America's Third Largest Cause of Death, and What Can Be Done About It (New York: OR Books, 2015), Introduction.

May 16, 2016
MaryW commented on the word photomicrography

The geneticist who read the x-ray photomicrography of their chromosomes called a karyotype said that they were normal, healthy, and not at any greater risk than others. . . . Prior to this he had analyzed only karyotypes of drosophila (fruit flies), not humans.
James B. Lieber, Killer Care: How Medical Error Became America's Third Largest Cause of Death, and What Can Be Done About It (New York: OR Books, 2015), Introduction.

May 16, 2016
MaryW commented on the word paper tree

Down by the lake, we pulled ourselves up the melaleuca "paper" tree, a twisting Tolkien-esque giant with a papery bark.
David Kushner, Alligator Candy: A Memoir (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016), ch. 14.

May 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word melaleuca

Down by the lake, we pulled ourselves up the melaleuca "paper" tree, a twisting Tolkien-esque giant with a papery bark.
David Kushner, Alligator Candy: A Memoir (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016), ch. 14.

May 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word anthro

Also: anthropologist.

Under his leadership as chairperson (the more egalitarian term he used instead of chairman), the department was receiving international attention for launching the first master's program in applied anthropology in the world. Applied anthropology took academics out of the ivory tower and into the field, exploring ways in which they could apply their training to practical problems, from urban planning to public health. The master's program, which would begin in 1974, kept very much in line with my dad's history of social activism; at the same time, it was considered heretical by those who thought that anthros—as my dad and his colleagues referred to themselves—should stay in the classroom.
David Kushner, Alligator Candy: A Memoir (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016), ch. 6.

(This was at the University of South Florida, in Tampa.)

May 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word applied anthropology

Under his leadership as chairperson (the more egalitarian term he used instead of chairman), the department was receiving international attention for launching the first master's program in applied anthropology in the world. Applied anthropology took academics out of the ivory tower and into the field, exploring ways in which they could apply their training to practical problems, from urban planning to public health. The master's program, which would begin in 1974, kept very much in line with my dad's history of social activism; at the same time, it was considered heretical by those who thought that anthros—as my dad and his colleagues referred to themselves—should stay in the classroom.
David Kushner, Alligator Candy: A Memoir (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016), ch. 6.

(This was at the University of South Florida, in Tampa.)

May 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word podocarpus

TThe backyard teemed with podocarpus trees, which had thin, pointy leaves and small sour purple berries. Neighbors tore down their trees to build swimming pools, but my parents told the bulldozer drivers to keep away from ours.
David Kushner, Alligator Candy: A Memoir (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016), ch. 5.

May 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word moshav

They moved into a small, bare concrete home with an outhouse and no hot water. It was in Mesilat Zion, a moshav—a cooperative agricultural community.
David Kushner, Alligator Candy: A Memoir (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016), ch. 2.

May 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word qadi

After a decade of wandering Mamma Haidara returned an educated man, and was named by the scholars of Bamba the town's qadi, the Islamic judicial authority responsible for mediating property disputes and presiding over marriages and divorces.
Joshua Hammer, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016), ch. 1.

May 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word Songhoy

Haidara spoke Songhoy, the language of Mali's Sorhai tribe, the dominant sedentary ethnic group along the northern bend of the Niger River, and in school he studied French, the language of Mali's former colonial masters. But he also taught himself to read Arabic fluently . . ..
Joshua Hammer, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016), ch. 1.

May 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word artiodactyl

About 10 million years after the meteor struck, the first hoofed mammals, or ungulates, appeared. One order of ungulates, called Perissodactyla, includes just a handful of living species, such as horses,hinoceroses, and tapirs. The other order, Artiodactyla, is much larer and includes pigs, cows, goats, sheep, camels, llamas, giraffes, deer, antelopes, camels, hippopotamuses, bison, and water buffalos. Both orders of ungulates might be called tiptoers. Their hooves are actually outsized toenails, and they walk like ballerinas en pointe. . . ."Perissodactyl" means "odd-toed": the foot's axis cuts through the center of the middle digit, and the animals walk either on three toes, like rhinos and tapirs, or just one, like horses, zebras, and donkeys. "Artiodactyl" means "even-toed": the first digit (the thumb or big toe) is absent, and the feet are symmetrical, with the axis running between the third and fourth digits . . . . they appear to have a single hoof split down the center, what the King James Bible describes as the "cloven foot."
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 1.

May 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word artiodactyla

About 10 million years after the meteor struck, the first hoofed mammals, or ungulates, appeared. One order of ungulates, called Perissodactyla, includes just a handful of living species, such as horses,hinoceroses, and tapirs. The other order, Artiodactyla, is much larer and includes pigs, cows, goats, sheep, camels, llamas, giraffes, deer, antelopes, camels, hippopotamuses, bison, and water buffalos. Both orders of ungulates might be called tiptoers. Their hooves are actually outsized toenails, and they walk like ballerinas en pointe. . . ."Perissodactyl" means "odd-toed": the foot's axis cuts through the center of the middle digit, and the animals walk either on three toes, like rhinos and tapirs, or just one, like horses, zebras, and donkeys. "Artiodactyl" means "even-toed": the first digit (the thumb or big toe) is absent, and the feet are symmetrical, with the axis running between the third and fourth digits . . . . they appear to have a single hoof split down the center, what the King James Bible describes as the "cloven foot."
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 1.

May 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word perissodactyl

About 10 million years after the meteor struck, the first hoofed mammals, or ungulates, appeared. One order of ungulates, called Perissodactyla, includes just a handful of living species, such as horses,hinoceroses, and tapirs. The other order, Artiodactyla, is much larer and includes pigs, cows, goats, sheep, camels, llamas, giraffes, deer, antelopes, camels, hippopotamuses, bison, and water buffalos. Both orders of ungulates might be called tiptoers. Their hooves are actually outsized toenails, and they walk like ballerinas en pointe. . . ."Perissodactyl" means "odd-toed": the foot's axis cuts through the center of the middle digit, and the animals walk either on three toes, like rhinos and tapirs, or just one, like horses, zebras, and donkeys. "Artiodactyl" means "even-toed": the first digit (the thumb or big toe) is absent, and the feet are symmetrical, with the axis running between the third and fourth digits . . . . they appear to have a single hoof split down the center, what the King James Bible describes as the "cloven foot."
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 1.

May 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word perissodactyla

About 10 million years after the meteor struck, the first hoofed mammals, or ungulates, appeared. One order of ungulates, called Perissodactyla, includes just a handful of living species, such as horses,hinoceroses, and tapirs. The other order, Artiodactyla, is much larer and includes pigs, cows, goats, sheep, camels, llamas, giraffes, deer, antelopes, camels, hippopotamuses, bison, and water buffalos. Both orders of ungulates might be called tiptoers. Their hooves are actually outsized toenails, and they walk like ballerinas en pointe. . . ."Perissodactyl" means "odd-toed": the foot's axis cuts through the center of the middle digit, and the animals walk either on three toes, like rhinos and tapirs, or just one, like horses, zebras, and donkeys. "Artiodactyl" means "even-toed": the first digit (the thumb or big toe) is absent, and the feet are symmetrical, with the axis running between the third and fourth digits . . . . they appear to have a single hoof split down the center, what the King James Bible describes as the "cloven foot."
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 1.

May 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word cucumber seed

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, hazel-splitters, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word piney woods rooter

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, hazel-splitters, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word elm peeler

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, hazel-splitters, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word stump sucker

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, hazel-splitters, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word rail-splitter

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, hazel-splitters, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word hazel-splitter

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, hazel-splitters, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word sapling-splitter

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, hazel-splitters, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word land pike

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, <b>hazel-splitters</b>, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word land shark

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, <b>hazel-splitters</b>, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word prairie shark

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, <b>hazel-splitters</b>, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word thistle-digger

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, <b>hazel-splitters</b>, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word rover

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, <b>hazel-spliters</b>, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word painter

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, <b>hazel-splitters</b>, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word razorback

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, <b>hazel-splitters</b>, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word woods pig

Woods pigs were called razorbacks, painters, rovers, thistle-diggers, prairie sharks, land sharks, land pikes, wind-splitters, <b>hazel-splitters</b>, sapling-splitters, rail-splitters, stump suckers, elm peelers, piney woods rooters, and—puzzlingly, but perhaps because they were so hard to get a grip on—cucumber seeds.
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.

May 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word sugar-sweetened beverage

Public health officials, researches, health advocates, and the public have become increasingly concerned about the over-consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs, including sugar-sweetened carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks, teas, fruit drinks, and others) because scientific research has determined that excessive consumption increases the risk of tooth decay, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Allyn L. Taylor & Michael F. Jacobsen, Carbonating the World: The Marketing and Health Impact of Sugar Drinks in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (Center for Science in the Public Interest, 2016)

May 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word SSB

Public health officials, researches, health advocates, and the public have become increasingly concerned about the over-consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs, including sugar-sweetened carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks, teas, fruit drinks, and others) because scientific research has determined that excessive consumption increases the risk of tooth decay, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Allyn L. Taylor & Michael F. Jacobsen, Carbonating the World: The Marketing and Health Impact of Sugar Drinks in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (Center for Science in the Public Interest, 2016)

May 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word globesity

Used as a section heading in Allyn L. Taylor & Michael F. Jacobsen, Carbonating the World: The Marketing and Health Impact of Sugar Drinks in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (Center for Science in the Public Interest, 2016), p. 2:
Obesity has become a global problem, rather than one unique to high-income countries. With the exception of some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, practically every country in the world faces daunting obesity rates.

May 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word lahar

Andrew Arbuckle
@AndrewArbuckle
There is literally nothing scarier than a pyroclastic flow or lahar....maybe a tsunami, but damn!

May 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word pyroclastic flow

Sometimes, a superhot avalanche of rock, ash, and steam races down the volcano's sides in what scientists call a pyroclastic flow, with speeds up to 300 miles per hour. With the volcano's vent once again opened by the blast, thick lava flows are able to pour more peacefully out of the crater decades, centuries, or millennia later.
Victoria Bruce, No Apparent Danger: The True Story of Volcanic Disaster at Galeras and Nevado Del Ruiz (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), ch. 2
The scientists were also worried about the possibility of a pyroclastic flow—an absolute death sentence that kills not from the heat but from inhalation of scalding hot ash. On the first breath, a person's lungs react with instant pneumonia and fill with fluid. With the second breath, the fluid and ash mix and create wet cement. By the time the person takes a third breath, thick, hot cement fills the lungs and windpipe, causing the victim to suffocate.
Id., ch. 7.

May 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word shield volcano

There are two main types of volcanoes: stratovolcanoes and shield volcanoes. Shield volcanoes, such as those found in Hawaii, consistently erupt liquid lava and form broad, sloping cones. Stratovolcanoes, like those of the Colombian Andes, are so named because of the way they grow; they are, literally, layered volcanoes. A stratovolcano will experience many types of eruptions during its lifetime. In its youth, lava will pour from the stratovolcano's vent and radiate to form a sturdy base. As the volcano grows into adolescence, its magma becomes thick with mineral silica and has the consistency of fresh epoxy. The lava pours from the crater down the volcano's flanks, building a steep-sided cone. Over thousands of years, the thick, sticky magma solidifies and clogs the volcano's throat, and the young mountain's temperament begins to change.
Victoria Bruce, No Apparent Danger: The True Story of Volcanic Disaster at Galeras and Nevado Del Ruiz (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), ch. 2

May 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word stratovolcano

There are two main types of volcanoes: stratovolcanoes and shield volcanoes. Shield volcanoes, such as those found in Hawaii, consistently erupt liquid lava and form broad, sloping cones. Stratovolcanoes, like those of the Colombian Andes, are so named because of the way they grow; they are, literally, layered volcanoes. A stratovolcano will experience many types of eruptions during its lifetime. In its youth, lava will pour from the stratovolcano's vent and radiate to form a sturdy base. As the volcano grows into adolescence, its magma becomes thick with mineral silica and has the consistency of fresh epoxy. The lava pours from the crater down the volcano's flanks, building a steep-sided cone. Over thousands of years, the thick, sticky magma solidifies and clogs the volcano's throat, and the young mountain's temperament begins to change.
Victoria Bruce, No Apparent Danger: The True Story of Volcanic Disaster at Galeras and Nevado Del Ruiz (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), ch. 2

May 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word thermocouple

I can't see from here, but Alfredo describes how they are taking the temperature of the superhot steam with long wires linked to a thermocouple. A thousand degrees Celsius? I don't believe it either. Sounds way too hot.
Victoria Bruce, No Apparent Danger: The True Story of Volcanic Disaster at Galeras and Nevado Del Ruiz (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), Prologue

May 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gravity instrument

Farther east along the ridge, Geoff Brown was fiddling with his gravity detector. Brown was a soft-spoken British geophysicist with long white hair and matching beard. He had brought with him an aluminum box the size of a car battery that he hoped could be used to track molten magma as it rose to the surface of a volcanic vent. The instrument detected infinitesimal changes in gravity, and because magma is lighter than solid rock, Brown was hoping to tell by testing the gravity field beneath Galeras if there was an eruption on the way . . .

Joining Brown in his work and watching him inspect his gravity box were two Colombians . . .

Geoff Brown sat his gravimeter on a makeshift stand, turned and twisted the dials, put his nose right up to the instrument, checked the readings, and took a few notes.
Victoria Bruce, No Apparent Danger: The True Story of Volcanic Disaster at Galeras and Nevado Del Ruiz (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), ch. 9
Geoff Brown was next. The British scientist was anxious to get more familiar with his new gravity instrument and be sure it was working properly—he had been out working the previous day collecting gravity data from the center of Pasto to the top of Galeras, and the numbers his device had recorded had seemed suspect.

"He told me that the gravity apparatus wasn't working. . . ."
Id., ch. 10.
("Gravimeter" is the term found in my New Oxford American Dictionary.)

May 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gravimeter

Farther east along the ridge, Geoff Brown was fiddling with his gravity detector. Brown was a soft-spoken British geophysicist with long white hair and matching beard. He had brought with him an aluminum box the size of a car battery that he hoped could be used to track molten magma as it rose to the surface of a volcanic vent. The instrument detected infinitesimal changes in gravity, and because magma is lighter than solid rock, Brown was hoping to tell by testing the gravity field beneath Galeras if there was an eruption on the way . . .

Joining Brown in his work and watching him inspect his gravity box were two Colombians . . .

Geoff Brown sat his gravimeter on a makeshift stand, turned and twisted the dials, put his nose right up to the instrument, checked the readings, and took a few notes.
Victoria Bruce, No Apparent Danger: The True Story of Volcanic Disaster at Galeras and Nevado Del Ruiz (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), ch. 9
Geoff Brown was next. The British scientist was anxious to get more familiar with his new gravity instrument and be sure it was working properly—he had been out working the previous day collecting gravity data from the center of Pasto to the top of Galeras, and the numbers his device had recorded had seemed suspect.

"He told me that the gravity apparatus wasn't working. . . ."
Id., ch. 10.

("Gravimeter" is the term found in my New Oxford American Dictionary.)

May 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gravity box

Farther east along the ridge, Geoff Brown was fiddling with his gravity detector. Brown was a soft-spoken British geophysicist with long white hair and matching beard. He had brought with him an aluminum box the size of a car battery that he hoped could be used to track molten magma as it rose to the surface of a volcanic vent. The instrument detected infinitesimal changes in gravity, and because magma is lighter than solid rock, Brown was hoping to tell by testing the gravity field beneath Galeras if there was an eruption on the way . . .

Joining Brown in his work and watching him inspect his gravity box were two Colombians . . .

Geoff Brown sat his gravimeter on a makeshift stand, turned and twisted the dials, put his nose right up to the instrument, checked the readings, and took a few notes.
Victoria Bruce, No Apparent Danger: The True Story of Volcanic Disaster at Galeras and Nevado Del Ruiz (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), ch. 9
Geoff Brown was next. The British scientist was anxious to get more familiar with his new gravity instrument and be sure it was working properly—he had been out working the previous day collecting gravity data from the center of Pasto to the top of Galeras, and the numbers his device had recorded had seemed suspect.

"He told me that the gravity apparatus wasn't working. . . ."
Id., ch. 10.
("Gravimeter" is the term found in my New Oxford American Dictionary.)

May 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gravity detector

Farther east along the ridge, Geoff Brown was fiddling with his gravity detector. Brown was a soft-spoken British geophysicist with long white hair and matching beard. He had brought with him an aluminum box the size of a car battery that he hoped could be used to track molten magma as it rose to the surface of a volcanic vent. The instrument detected infinitesimal changes in gravity, and because magma is lighter than solid rock, Brown was hoping to tell by testing the gravity field beneath Galeras if there was an eruption on the way . . .

Joining Brown in his work and watching him inspect his gravity box were two Colombians . . .

Geoff Brown sat his gravimeter on a makeshift stand, turned and twisted the dials, put his nose right up to the instrument, checked the readings, and took a few notes.
Victoria Bruce, No Apparent Danger: The True Story of Volcanic Disaster at Galeras and Nevado Del Ruiz (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), ch. 9
Geoff Brown was next. The British scientist was anxious to get more familiar with his new gravity instrument and be sure it was working properly—he had been out working the previous day collecting gravity data from the center of Pasto to the top of Galeras, and the numbers his device had recorded had seemed suspect.

. . .

"He told me that the gravity apparatus wasn't working. . . ."
Id., ch. 10.

("Gravimeter" is the term found in my New Oxford American Dictionary.)

May 1, 2016
MaryW commented on the word trickle-down consumption

Two economists from the Chicago Booth School of Business, Marianne Bertrand and Adair Morse, found that the trends might be related. They called their theory “trickle-down consumption”: “Households exposed to more spending by the rich self-report more financial duress,” they concluded. They even discovered a positive relationship between the income of the state’s richest households and the number of personal bankruptcies in that state. (It wasn’t just about rising home prices: Their finding was strong even after controlling for that.)
Instead, they found that conspicuous wealth was, well, contagious. When people see others living the high life, they try to buy it for themselves, even when they can’t afford it. Middle-class households in rich states shifted their spending from “non-rich goods”—gas, utilities, food at home—to “rich goods,” like clothing, jewelry, furniture, manicures, and exercise classes. If not for this shift, the non-rich would have saved an additional $800 a year in the late 2000s.
Derek Thompso "Why Don't Americans Save More Money?" The Atlantic, April 19, 2016.
See Marianne Bertrand & Adair Morse, Trickle-Down Consumption (working paper, 2012)

April 27, 2016
MaryW commented on the word freelancer economy

Much ink and many pixels have been spilled over the past few years about the rise of the gig economy, sharing economy, on-demand economy, 1099 economy, freelancer economy or whatever you prefer to call it. Some of the claims about its growth have been overstated, and I’ve written several columns trying to debunk them, or at least put them in context.
Justin Fox, The Gig Economy Is Powered by Old People, Bloomberg View, April 4, 2016.

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word 1099 economy

Much ink and many pixels have been spilled over the past few years about the rise of the gig economy, sharing economy, on-demand economy, 1099 economy, freelancer economy or whatever you prefer to call it. Some of the claims about its growth have been overstated, and I’ve written several columns trying to debunk them, or at least put them in context.
Justin Fox, The Gig Economy Is Powered by Old People, Bloomberg View, April 4, 2016.

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word 1099 economy

There are a lot of names for it: the "sharing economy," the "gig economy" and the "on-demand economy" seem to be the three most popular. But the most precise description of the new labor relationships being enabled by digital technology may actually be, in the U.S. at least, the "1099 economy."
The 1099-MISC is the form that businesses, nonprofits and government agencies have to fill out when they pay someone $600 or more a year in nonemployee compensation.
Justin Fox, The Rise of the 1099 Economy, Bloomberg View, Dec. 11, 2015.

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gig economy

There are a lot of names for it: the "sharing economy," the "gig economy" and the "on-demand economy" seem to be the three most popular. But the most precise description of the new labor relationships being enabled by digital technology may actually be, in the U.S. at least, the "1099 economy."
The 1099-MISC is the form that businesses, nonprofits and government agencies have to fill out when they pay someone $600 or more a year in nonemployee compensation.
Justin Fox, The Rise of the 1099 Economy, Bloomberg View, Dec. 11, 2015.

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word sharing economy

There are a lot of names for it: the "sharing economy," the "gig economy" and the "on-demand economy" seem to be the three most popular. But the most precise description of the new labor relationships being enabled by digital technology may actually be, in the U.S. at least, the "1099 economy."
The 1099-MISC is the form that businesses, nonprofits and government agencies have to fill out when they pay someone $600 or more a year in nonemployee compensation.
Justin Fox, The Rise of the 1099 Economy, Bloomberg View, Dec. 11, 2015.

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word on-demand economy

There are a lot of names for it: the "sharing economy," the "gig economy" and the "on-demand economy" seem to be the three most popular. But the most precise description of the new labor relationships being enabled by digital technology may actually be, in the U.S. at least, the "1099 economy."
The 1099-MISC is the form that businesses, nonprofits and government agencies have to fill out when they pay someone $600 or more a year in nonemployee compensation.
Justin Fox, The Rise of the 1099 Economy, Bloomberg View, Dec. 11, 2015.

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word on-demand economy

IN THE early 20th century Henry Ford combined moving assembly lines with mass labour to make building cars much cheaper and quicker—thus turning the automobile from a rich man’s toy into transport for the masses. Today a growing group of entrepreneurs is striving to do the same to services, bringing together computer power with freelance workers to supply luxuries that were once reserved for the wealthy. Uber provides chauffeurs. Handy supplies cleaners. SpoonRocket delivers restaurant meals to your door. Instacart keeps your fridge stocked. In San Francisco a young computer programmer can already live like a princess.
Yet this on-demand economy goes much wider than the occasional luxury. Click on Medicast’s app, and a doctor will be knocking on your door within two hours. Want a lawyer or a consultant? Axiom will supply the former, Eden McCallum the latter. Other companies offer prizes to freelances to solve R&D problems or to come up with advertising ideas. And a growing number of agencies are delivering freelances of all sorts, such as Freelancer.com and Elance-oDesk, which links up 9.3m workers for hire with 3.7m companies.
The on-demand economy is small, but it is growing quickly.
Workers on Tap, Economist, Jan. 3, 2015

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word collaborative consumption

LAST night 40,000 people rented accommodation from a service that offers 250,000 rooms in 30,000 cities in 192 countries. They chose their rooms and paid for everything online. But their beds were provided by private individuals, rather than a hotel chain. Hosts and guests were matched up by Airbnb, a firm based in San Francisco. Since its launch in 2008 more than 4m people have used it—2.5m of them in 2012 alone. It is the most prominent example of a huge new “sharing economy”, in which people rent beds, cars, boats and other assets directly from each other, co-ordinated via the internet.
The Rise of the Sharing Economy, Economist, March 9, 2013.
Such “collaborative consumption” is a good thing for several reasons. Owners make money from underused assets. . . . Renters, meanwhile, pay less than they would if they bought the item themselves, or turned to a traditional provider such as a hotel or car-hire firm. . . . And there are environmental benefits, too: renting a car when you need it, rather than owning one, means fewer cars are required and fewer resources must be devoted to making them.
Id.

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word sharing economy

LAST night 40,000 people rented accommodation from a service that offers 250,000 rooms in 30,000 cities in 192 countries. They chose their rooms and paid for everything online. But their beds were provided by private individuals, rather than a hotel chain. Hosts and guests were matched up by Airbnb, a firm based in San Francisco. Since its launch in 2008 more than 4m people have used it—2.5m of them in 2012 alone. It is the most prominent example of a huge new “sharing economy”, in which people rent beds, cars, boats and other assets directly from each other, co-ordinated via the internet.
The Rise of the Sharing Economy, Economist, March 9, 2013.
Such “collaborative consumption” is a good thing for several reasons. Owners make money from underused assets. . . . Renters, meanwhile, pay less than they would if they bought the item themselves, or turned to a traditional provider such as a hotel or car-hire firm. . . . And there are environmental benefits, too: renting a car when you need it, rather than owning one, means fewer cars are required and fewer resources must be devoted to making them.
Id.

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gig worker

Growing numbers of Americans no longer hold a regular “job” with a long-term connection to a particular business. Instead, they work “gigs” where they are employed on a particular task or for a defined time, with little more connection to their employer than a consumer has with a particular brand of chips. Borrowed from the music industry, the word “gig” has been applied to all sorts of flexible employment (otherwise referred to as “contingent labor,” “temp labor,” or the “precariat”). Some have praised the rise of the gig economy for freeing workers from the grip of employers’ “internal labor markets,” where career advancement is tied to a particular business instead of competitive bidding between employers. Rather than being driven by worker preferences, however, the rise of the gig economy comes from employers’ drive to lower costs, especially during business downturns. Gig workers experience greater insecurity than workers in traditional jobs and suffer from lack of access to established systems of social insurance.
Gerald Friedman, The Rise of the Gig Economy, Dollars & Sense, March/April 2014

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word precariat

Growing numbers of Americans no longer hold a regular “job” with a long-term connection to a particular business. Instead, they work “gigs” where they are employed on a particular task or for a defined time, with little more connection to their employer than a consumer has with a particular brand of chips. Borrowed from the music industry, the word “gig” has been applied to all sorts of flexible employment (otherwise referred to as “contingent labor,” “temp labor,” or the “precariat”). Some have praised the rise of the gig economy for freeing workers from the grip of employers’ “internal labor markets,” where career advancement is tied to a particular business instead of competitive bidding between employers. Rather than being driven by worker preferences, however, the rise of the gig economy comes from employers’ drive to lower costs, especially during business downturns. Gig workers experience greater insecurity than workers in traditional jobs and suffer from lack of access to established systems of social insurance.
Gerald Friedman, The Rise of the Gig Economy, Dollars & Sense, March/April 2014

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word temp labor

Growing numbers of Americans no longer hold a regular “job” with a long-term connection to a particular business. Instead, they work “gigs” where they are employed on a particular task or for a defined time, with little more connection to their employer than a consumer has with a particular brand of chips. Borrowed from the music industry, the word “gig” has been applied to all sorts of flexible employment (otherwise referred to as “contingent labor,” “temp labor,” or the “precariat”). Some have praised the rise of the gig economy for freeing workers from the grip of employers’ “internal labor markets,” where career advancement is tied to a particular business instead of competitive bidding between employers. Rather than being driven by worker preferences, however, the rise of the gig economy comes from employers’ drive to lower costs, especially during business downturns. Gig workers experience greater insecurity than workers in traditional jobs and suffer from lack of access to established systems of social insurance.
Gerald Friedman, The Rise of the Gig Economy, Dollars & Sense, March/April 2014

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word contingent labor

Growing numbers of Americans no longer hold a regular “job” with a long-term connection to a particular business. Instead, they work “gigs” where they are employed on a particular task or for a defined time, with little more connection to their employer than a consumer has with a particular brand of chips. Borrowed from the music industry, the word “gig” has been applied to all sorts of flexible employment (otherwise referred to as “contingent labor,” “temp labor,” or the “precariat”). Some have praised the rise of the gig economy for freeing workers from the grip of employers’ “internal labor markets,” where career advancement is tied to a particular business instead of competitive bidding between employers. Rather than being driven by worker preferences, however, the rise of the gig economy comes from employers’ drive to lower costs, especially during business downturns. Gig workers experience greater insecurity than workers in traditional jobs and suffer from lack of access to established systems of social insurance.
Gerald Friedman, The Rise of the Gig Economy, Dollars & Sense, March/April 2014

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gig

Growing numbers of Americans no longer hold a regular “job” with a long-term connection to a particular business. Instead, they work “gigs” where they are employed on a particular task or for a defined time, with little more connection to their employer than a consumer has with a particular brand of chips. Borrowed from the music industry, the word “gig” has been applied to all sorts of flexible employment (otherwise referred to as “contingent labor,” “temp labor,” or the “precariat”). Some have praised the rise of the gig economy for freeing workers from the grip of employers’ “internal labor markets,” where career advancement is tied to a particular business instead of competitive bidding between employers. Rather than being driven by worker preferences, however, the rise of the gig economy comes from employers’ drive to lower costs, especially during business downturns. Gig workers experience greater insecurity than workers in traditional jobs and suffer from lack of access to established systems of social insurance.
Gerald Friedman, The Rise of the Gig Economy, Dollars & Sense, March/April 2014

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gig economy

Growing numbers of Americans no longer hold a regular “job” with a long-term connection to a particular business. Instead, they work “gigs” where they are employed on a particular task or for a defined time, with little more connection to their employer than a consumer has with a particular brand of chips. Borrowed from the music industry, the word “gig” has been applied to all sorts of flexible employment (otherwise referred to as “contingent labor,” “temp labor,” or the “precariat”). Some have praised the rise of the gig economy for freeing workers from the grip of employers’ “internal labor markets,” where career advancement is tied to a particular business instead of competitive bidding between employers. Rather than being driven by worker preferences, however, the rise of the gig economy comes from employers’ drive to lower costs, especially during business downturns. Gig workers experience greater insecurity than workers in traditional jobs and suffer from lack of access to established systems of social insurance.
Gerald Friedman, The Rise of the Gig Economy, Dollars & Sense, March/April 2014

April 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word parachute research

Good point, bilby!

April 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word tolerance patent

Emperor Joseph II, who reigned from 1780 to 1790, thought of himself as a modern man, and a good one. . . . By his decree, "No man shall be compelled in future to profess the religion of the state." This "tolerance patent" meant that, after 150 years, Czechs were once again free to practice the Protestant and Christian Orthodox faiths. Joseph also endeavored to integrate Bohemia's Jewish community—at the time the largest in the world—by lifitn grestrictions on employment, eliminating special taxes, and requiring the use of German in education.
Madeleine Albright, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 (New York: HarperCollins, 2012), p. 43.

April 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word little churchill

During World War II, the BBC broadcast 15-minute radio programs from the Czechoslovak government in exile to Czechoslovakia.
To receive the signal, Czechs had to install in their radios a homemade device&mdashcalled a "little Churchill"—involving a bedspring and a toilet paper roll. The authorities required that every radio bear a sticker warning that the penalty for tuning in to a foreign station was death. . . . Accordingly, regular listeners were careful to hide the device and to retune their radio after signing off.
Madeleine Albright, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 (New York: HarperCollins, 2012), p. 234

April 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word hollowing out of government

The cop-social worker program has its fans. But it also has critics.
Rachel Fyall teaches public policy and governance at the Evans School at the University of Washington. She says this partnership between the Downtown Seattle Association and the police may help people, but it fits into a riskier, larger trend that started in the 1980s.
“We call it a lot of things: 'The contracting regime,' or 'the shadow of bureaucracy.' 'The hollowing out of government,'” Fyall says.
The problem is that a government that doesn’t do social work forgets how to do it. And by farming out social work to contractors, we create an industry devoted to social work – an industry that’s less transparent and less accountable than public employees would be.
Fyall says the key is to pay close attention to results of programs like this – and to hold non-profits accountable.
Joshua McNichols, Why Seattle Cops and Social Works Walk the Beat Together, KUOW.org, March 29, 2016

April 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word shadow of bureaucracy

The cop-social worker program has its fans. But it also has critics.
Rachel Fyall teaches public policy and governance at the Evans School at the University of Washington. She says this partnership between the Downtown Seattle Association and the police may help people, but it fits into a riskier, larger trend that started in the 1980s.
“We call it a lot of things: 'The contracting regime,' or 'the shadow of bureaucracy.' 'The hollowing out of government,'” Fyall says.
The problem is that a government that doesn’t do social work forgets how to do it. And by farming out social work to contractors, we create an industry devoted to social work – an industry that’s less transparent and less accountable than public employees would be.
Fyall says the key is to pay close attention to results of programs like this – and to hold non-profits accountable.
Joshua McNichols, Why Seattle Cops and Social Works Walk the Beat Together, KUOW.org, March 29, 2016

April 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the word contracting regime

The cop-social worker program has its fans. But it also has critics.
Rachel Fyall teaches public policy and governance at the Evans School at the University of Washington. She says this partnership between the Downtown Seattle Association and the police may help people, but it fits into a riskier, larger trend that started in the 1980s.
“We call it a lot of things: 'The contracting regime,' or 'the shadow of bureaucracy.' 'The hollowing out of government,'” Fyall says.
The problem is that a government that doesn’t do social work forgets how to do it. And by farming out social work to contractors, we create an industry devoted to social work – an industry that’s less transparent and less accountable than public employees would be.
Fyall says the key is to pay close attention to results of programs like this – and to hold non-profits accountable.
Joshua McNichols, Why Seattle Cops and Social Works Walk the Beat Together, KUOW.org, March 29, 2016

April 5, 2016
MaryW commented on the user MaryW

bilby, you must have been right on it. I edited out the extraneous stuff within a minute or so.
I've learned my lesson: don't try to do much here with my iPhone: it's too hard to proofread and edit.

April 4, 2016
MaryW commented on the word parachute researcher

See parachute research

April 4, 2016
MaryW commented on the word parachute research

Nurith Aizenman, Scientists Say It's Time To End 'Parachute Research', All Things Considered, NPR, April 2, 2016

Critics call them "parachute researchers": Scientists from wealthy nations who swoop in when a puzzling disease breaks out in a developing country. They collect specimens, then head straight back home to analyze them. They don't coordinate with people fighting the epidemic on the ground — don't even share their discoveries for months, if ever.

April 4, 2016
MaryW commented on the word sentinel event

Preventable adverse events — injuries due to medical errors — are a major cause of death among Americans. Although some progress has been made in reducing certain types of adverse events, overall rates of errors remain extremely high. Failures of communication, including miscommunication during handoffs of patient care from one resident to another, are a leading cause of errors; such miscommunications contribute to two of every three “sentinel events,” the most serious events reported to the Joint Commission. The omission of critical information and the transfer of erroneous information during handoffs are common. As resident work hours have been reduced, handoffs between residents have increased in frequency.
Amy J. Starmer et al.l, "Changes in Medical Errors after Implementation of a Handoff Program, New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 371, pp. 1803-12 (2014) (footnotes omitted).

March 23, 2016
MaryW commented on the word adverse event

Preventable adverse events — injuries due to medical errors — are a major cause of death among Americans. Although some progress has been made in reducing certain types of adverse events, overall rates of errors remain extremely high. Failures of communication, including miscommunication during handoffs of patient care from one resident to another, are a leading cause of errors; such miscommunications contribute to two of every three “sentinel events,” the most serious events reported to the Joint Commission. The omission of critical information and the transfer of erroneous information during handoffs are common. As resident work hours have been reduced, handoffs between residents have increased in frequency.
Amy J. Starmer et al.l, "Changes in Medical Errors after Implementation of a Handoff Program, New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 371, pp. 1803-12 (2014) (footnotes omitted).

March 23, 2016
MaryW commented on the word handoff

Preventable adverse events — injuries due to medical errors — are a major cause of death among Americans. Although some progress has been made in reducing certain types of adverse events, overall rates of errors remain extremely high. Failures of communication, including miscommunication during handoffs of patient care from one resident to another, are a leading cause of errors; such miscommunications contribute to two of every three “sentinel events,” the most serious events reported to the Joint Commission. The omission of critical information and the transfer of erroneous information during handoffs are common. As resident work hours have been reduced, handoffs between residents have increased in frequency.
Amy J. Starmer et al.l, "Changes in Medical Errors after Implementation of a Handoff Program, New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 371, pp. 1803-12 (2014) (footnotes omitted).

March 23, 2016
MaryW commented on the word handoff

See hand-ff.

March 23, 2016
MaryW commented on the word hand-off

Preventable adverse events — injuries due to medical errors — are a major cause of death among Americans. Although some progress has been made in reducing certain types of adverse events, overall rates of errors remain extremely high. Failures of communication, including miscommunication during handoffs of patient care from one resident to another, are a leading cause of errors; such miscommunications contribute to two of every three “sentinel events,” the most serious events reported to the Joint Commission. The omission of critical information and the transfer of erroneous information during handoffs are common. As resident work hours have been reduced, handoffs between residents have increased in frequency.
Amy J. Starmer et al.l, "Changes in Medical Errors after Implementation of a Handoff Program, New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 371, pp. 1803-12 (2014) (footnotes omitted).

March 23, 2016
MaryW commented on the word pit heap

A spoil tip (also called a spoil bank, boney pile, gob pile, bing, batch or pit heap) is a pile built of accumulated spoil – the overburden or other waste rock removed during coal and ore mining.

Gob Pile, Coal Ash Chronicles (emphasis added)

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word batch

A spoil tip (also called a spoil bank, boney pile, gob pile, bing, batch or pit heap) is a pile built of accumulated spoil – the overburden or other waste rock removed during coal and ore mining.

Gob Pile, Coal Ash Chronicles (emphasis added)

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word bing

A spoil tip (also called a spoil bank, boney pile, gob pile, bing, batch or pit heap) is a pile built of accumulated spoil – the overburden or other waste rock removed during coal and ore mining.

Gob Pile, Coal Ash Chronicles (emphasis added)

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word boney pile

A spoil tip (also called a spoil bank, boney pile, gob pile, bing, batch or pit heap) is a pile built of accumulated spoil – the overburden or other waste rock removed during coal and ore mining.

Gob Pile, Coal Ash Chronicles (emphasis added)

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word spoil bank

A spoil tip (also called a spoil bank, boney pile, gob pile, bing, batch or pit heap) is a pile built of accumulated spoil – the overburden or other waste rock removed during coal and ore mining.

Gob Pile, Coal Ash Chronicles (emphasis added)

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word spoil tip

A spoil tip (also called a spoil bank, boney pile, gob pile, bing, batch or pit heap) is a pile built of accumulated spoil – the overburden or other waste rock removed during coal and ore mining.

Gob Pile, Coal Ash Chronicles (emphasis added)

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word gob pile

A spoil tip (also called a spoil bank, boney pile, gob pile, bing, batch or pit heap) is a pile built of accumulated spoil – the overburden or other waste rock removed during coal and ore mining.

Gob Pile, Coal Ash Chronicles (emphasis added)

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word dilsynbit

In Canada, petroleum products have been extracted from "oil sands" or "tar sands." . . .
The oil sands yield bitumen, a highly viscous form of petroleum that is produced by surface mining or by in situ recovery. Surface mining is preferred for deposits within 75 m of the surface. In situ recovery, in which steam is injected to mobilize bitumen underground, is used for deeper deposits . . .
After separation from the host rock, bitumen is modified for transport. Commonly, it is combined with lower-density hydrocarbon mixtures (condensates, synthetic crude, or a mixture of both) to obtain a product with an acceptable viscosity and density for transport to refineries via pipeline. This engineered fluid is referred to as diluted bitumen. Common names refer to subtypes (e.g., dilbit, synbit, railbit, and dilsynbit) but, for simplicity, the term diluted bitumen as used in this report encompasses all bitumen blends that have been mixed with lighter products.
Comm. on the Effects of Diluted Bitumen on the Environment, Nat'l Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Spills of Diluted Bitumen from Pipelines: A Comparative Study of Environmental Fate, Effects, and Response (2016), pp. 11-12 (emphasis added).

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word railbit

In Canada, petroleum products have been extracted from "oil sands" or "tar sands." . . .
The oil sands yield bitumen, a highly viscous form of petroleum that is produced by surface mining or by in situ recovery. Surface mining is preferred for deposits within 75 m of the surface. In situ recovery, in which steam is injected to mobilize bitumen underground, is used for deeper deposits . . .
After separation from the host rock, bitumen is modified for transport. Commonly, it is combined with lower-density hydrocarbon mixtures (condensates, synthetic crude, or a mixture of both) to obtain a product with an acceptable viscosity and density for transport to refineries via pipeline. This engineered fluid is referred to as diluted bitumen. Common names refer to subtypes (e.g., dilbit, synbit, railbit, and dilsynbit) but, for simplicity, the term diluted bitumen as used in this report encompasses all bitumen blends that have been mixed with lighter products.
Comm. on the Effects of Diluted Bitumen on the Environment, Nat'l Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Spills of Diluted Bitumen from Pipelines: A Comparative Study of Environmental Fate, Effects, and Response (2016), pp. 11-12 (emphasis added).

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word synbit

In Canada, petroleum products have been extracted from "oil sands" or "tar sands." . . .
The oil sands yield bitumen, a highly viscous form of petroleum that is produced by surface mining or by in situ recovery. Surface mining is preferred for deposits within 75 m of the surface. In situ recovery, in which steam is injected to mobilize bitumen underground, is used for deeper deposits . . .
After separation from the host rock, bitumen is modified for transport. Commonly, it is combined with lower-density hydrocarbon mixtures (condensates, synthetic crude, or a mixture of both) to obtain a product with an acceptable viscosity and density for transport to refineries via pipeline. This engineered fluid is referred to as diluted bitumen. Common names refer to subtypes (e.g., dilbit, synbit, railbit, and dilsynbit) but, for simplicity, the term diluted bitumen as used in this report encompasses all bitumen blends that have been mixed with lighter products.
Comm. on the Effects of Diluted Bitumen on the Environment, Nat'l Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Spills of Diluted Bitumen from Pipelines: A Comparative Study of Environmental Fate, Effects, and Response (2016), pp. 11-12 (emphasis added).

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word dilbit

In Canada, petroleum products have been extracted from "oil sands" or "tar sands." . . .
The oil sands yield bitumen, a highly viscous form of petroleum that is produced by surface mining or by in situ recovery. Surface mining is preferred for deposits within 75 m of the surface. In situ recovery, in which steam is injected to mobilize bitumen underground, is used for deeper deposits . . .
After separation from the host rock, bitumen is modified for transport. Commonly, it is combined with lower-density hydrocarbon mixtures (condensates, synthetic crude, or a mixture of both) to obtain a product with an acceptable viscosity and density for transport to refineries via pipeline. This engineered fluid is referred to as diluted bitumen. Common names refer to subtypes (e.g., dilbit, synbit, railbit, and dilsynbit) but, for simplicity, the term diluted bitumen as used in this report encompasses all bitumen blends that have been mixed with lighter products.
Comm. on the Effects of Diluted Bitumen on the Environment, Nat'l Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Spills of Diluted Bitumen from Pipelines: A Comparative Study of Environmental Fate, Effects, and Response (2016), pp. 11-12 (emphasis added).

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word tar sands

In Canada, petroleum products have been extracted from "oil sands" or "tar sands." . . .
The oil sands yield bitumen, a highly viscous form of petroleum that is produced by surface mining or by in situ recovery. Surface mining is preferred for deposits within 75 m of the surface. In situ recovery, in which steam is injected to mobilize bitumen underground, is used for deeper deposits . . .
After separation from the host rock, bitumen is modified for transport. Commonly, it is combined with lower-density hydrocarbon mixtures (condensates, synthetic crude, or a mixture of both) to obtain a product with an acceptable viscosity and density for transport to refineries via pipeline. This engineered fluid is referred to as diluted bitumen. Common names refer to subtypes (e.g., dilbit, synbit, railbit, and dilsynbit) but, for simplicity, the term diluted bitumen as used in this report encompasses all bitumen blends that have been mixed with lighter products.
Comm. on the Effects of Diluted Bitumen on the Environment, Nat'l Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Spills of Diluted Bitumen from Pipelines: A Comparative Study of Environmental Fate, Effects, and Response (2016), pp. 11-12 (emphasis added).

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word oil sands

In Canada, petroleum products have been extracted from "oil sands" or "tar sands." . . .
The oil sands yield bitumen, a highly viscous form of petroleum that is produced by surface mining or by in situ recovery. Surface mining is preferred for deposits within 75 m of the surface. In situ recovery, in which steam is injected to mobilize bitumen underground, is used for deeper deposits . . .
After separation from the host rock, bitumen is modified for transport. Commonly, it is combined with lower-density hydrocarbon mixtures (condensates, synthetic crude, or a mixture of both) to obtain a product with an acceptable viscosity and density for transport to refineries via pipeline. This engineered fluid is referred to as diluted bitumen. Common names refer to subtypes (e.g., dilbit, synbit, railbit, and dilsynbit) but, for simplicity, the term diluted bitumen as used in this report encompasses all bitumen blends that have been mixed with lighter products.
Comm. on the Effects of Diluted Bitumen on the Environment, Nat'l Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Spills of Diluted Bitumen from Pipelines: A Comparative Study of Environmental Fate, Effects, and Response (2016), pp. 11-12 (emphasis added).

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word bitumen

In Canada, petroleum products have been extracted from "oil sands" or "tar sands." . . .
The oil sands yield bitumen, a highly viscous form of petroleum that is produced by surface mining or by in situ recovery. Surface mining is preferred for deposits within 75 m of the surface. In situ recovery, in which steam is injected to mobilize bitumen underground, is used for deeper deposits . . .
After separation from the host rock, bitumen is modified for transport. Commonly, it is combined with lower-density hydrocarbon mixtures (condensates, synthetic crude, or a mixture of both) to obtain a product with an acceptable viscosity and density for transport to refineries via pipeline. This engineered fluid is referred to as diluted bitumen. Common names refer to subtypes (e.g., dilbit, synbit, railbit, and dilsynbit) but, for simplicity, the term diluted bitumen as used in this report encompasses all bitumen blends that have been mixed with lighter products.
Comm. on the Effects of Diluted Bitumen on the Environment, Nat'l Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Spills of Diluted Bitumen from Pipelines: A Comparative Study of Environmental Fate, Effects, and Response (2016), pp. 11-12 (emphasis added).

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word diluted bitumen

In Canada, petroleum products have been extracted from "oil sands" or "tar sands." . . .
The oil sands yield bitumen, a highly viscous form of petroleum that is produced by surface mining or by in situ recovery. Surface mining is preferred for deposits within 75 m of the surface. In situ recovery, in which steam is injected to mobilize bitumen underground, is used for deeper deposits . . .
After separation from the host rock, bitumen is modified for transport. Commonly, it is combined with lower-density hydrocarbon mixtures (condensates, synthetic crude, or a mixture of both) to obtain a product with an acceptable viscosity and density for transport to refineries via pipeline. This engineered fluid is referred to as diluted bitumen. Common names refer to subtypes (e.g., dilbit, synbit, railbit, and dilsynbit) but, for simplicity, the term diluted bitumen as used in this report encompasses all bitumen blends that have been mixed with lighter products.
Comm. on the Effects of Diluted Bitumen on the Environment, Nat'l Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Spills of Diluted Bitumen from Pipelines: A Comparative Study of Environmental Fate, Effects, and Response (2016), pp. 11-12 (emphasis added).

March 15, 2016
MaryW commented on the word hospital pathology

Pathologists study the causes and effects of human disease and injury: all sorts of disease, all manner of injury, in every part of the human body. . . .
A forensic pathologist is a specialist in this branch of medicine who investigates sudden, unexpected, or violent deaths by visiting the scene, reviewing medical records, and performing an autopsy—all while collecting evidence that might be used in court. Like a clinical pathologist, she has to recognize what everything in the body looks like, but the forensic pathologist also has to understand how it all works. She has to know how all the things that go wrong with the body can kill you, and all the ways that trying to fix those things might also kill you. . . .
Forensic pathologists work for either a medical examiner's office or a coroner. The latter is an administrator or law enforcement official (often the sheriff) who investigates untimely deaths in his or her jurisdiction. The coroner hires doctors to perform autopsies, but these doctors usually don't play an active role in the investigation beyond their work in the morgue. A medical examiner is a physician trained specifically in death investigation and autopsy pathology, who performs both the prosection (Latin for "cutting apart") and all other aspects of the official inquiry. The ME is always a doctor and often trains other doctors as well, in a one-year fellowship program that follows four years of residence training in hospital pathology
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), pp. 13-14 (emphasis added).

March 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word prosection

Pathologists study the causes and effects of human disease and injury: all sorts of disease, all manner of injury, in every part of the human body. . . .
A forensic pathologist is a specialist in this branch of medicine who investigates sudden, unexpected, or violent deaths by visiting the scene, reviewing medical records, and performing an autopsy—all while collecting evidence that might be used in court. Like a clinical pathologist, she has to recognize what everything in the body looks like, but the forensic pathologist also has to understand how it all works. She has to know how all the things that go wrong with the body can kill you, and all the ways that trying to fix those things might also kill you. . . .
Forensic pathologists work for either a medical examiner's office or a coroner. The latter is an administrator or law enforcement official (often the sheriff) who investigates untimely deaths in his or her jurisdiction. The coroner hires doctors to perform autopsies, but these doctors usually don't play an active role in the investigation beyond their work in the morgue. A medical examiner is a physician trained specifically in death investigation and autopsy pathology, who performs both the prosection (Latin for "cutting apart") and all other aspects of the official inquiry. The ME is always a doctor and often trains other doctors as well, in a one-year fellowship program that follows four years of residence training in hospital pathology
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), pp. 13-14 (emphasis added).

March 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word autopsy pathology

Pathologists study the causes and effects of human disease and injury: all sorts of disease, all manner of injury, in every part of the human body. . . .
A forensic pathologist is a specialist in this branch of medicine who investigates sudden, unexpected, or violent deaths by visiting the scene, reviewing medical records, and performing an autopsy—all while collecting evidence that might be used in court. Like a clinical pathologist, she has to recognize what everything in the body looks like, but the forensic pathologist also has to understand how it all works. She has to know how all the things that go wrong with the body can kill you, and all the ways that trying to fix those things might also kill you. . . .
Forensic pathologists work for either a medical examiner's office or a coroner. The latter is an administrator or law enforcement official (often the sheriff) who investigates untimely deaths in his or her jurisdiction. The coroner hires doctors to perform autopsies, but these doctors usually don't play an active role in the investigation beyond their work in the morgue. A medical examiner is a physician trained specifically in death investigation and autopsy pathology, who performs both the prosection (Latin for "cutting apart") and all other aspects of the official inquiry. The ME is always a doctor and often trains other doctors as well, in a one-year fellowship program that follows four years of residence training in hospital pathology
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), pp. 13-14 (emphasis added).

March 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word ME

Pathologists study the causes and effects of human disease and injury: all sorts of disease, all manner of injury, in every part of the human body. . . .
A forensic pathologist is a specialist in this branch of medicine who investigates sudden, unexpected, or violent deaths by visiting the scene, reviewing medical records, and performing an autopsy—all while collecting evidence that might be used in court. Like a clinical pathologist, she has to recognize what everything in the body looks like, but the forensic pathologist also has to understand how it all works. She has to know how all the things that go wrong with the body can kill you, and all the ways that trying to fix those things might also kill you. . . .
Forensic pathologists work for either a medical examiner's office or a coroner. The latter is an administrator or law enforcement official (often the sheriff) who investigates untimely deaths in his or her jurisdiction. The coroner hires doctors to perform autopsies, but these doctors usually don't play an active role in the investigation beyond their work in the morgue. A medical examiner is a physician trained specifically in death investigation and autopsy pathology, who performs both the prosection (Latin for "cutting apart") and all other aspects of the official inquiry. The ME is always a doctor and often trains other doctors as well, in a one-year fellowship program that follows four years of residence training in hospital pathology
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), pp. 13-14 (emphasis added).

March 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word medical examiner

Pathologists study the causes and effects of human disease and injury: all sorts of disease, all manner of injury, in every part of the human body. . . .
A forensic pathologist is a specialist in this branch of medicine who investigates sudden, unexpected, or violent deaths by visiting the scene, reviewing medical records, and performing an autopsy—all while collecting evidence that might be used in court. Like a clinical pathologist, she has to recognize what everything in the body looks like, but the forensic pathologist also has to understand how it all works. She has to know how all the things that go wrong with the body can kill you, and all the ways that trying to fix those things might also kill you. . . .
Forensic pathologists work for either a medical examiner's office or a coroner. The latter is an administrator or law enforcement official (often the sheriff) who investigates untimely deaths in his or her jurisdiction. The coroner hires doctors to perform autopsies, but these doctors usually don't play an active role in the investigation beyond their work in the morgue. A medical examiner is a physician trained specifically in death investigation and autopsy pathology, who performs both the prosection (Latin for "cutting apart") and all other aspects of the official inquiry. The ME is always a doctor and often trains other doctors as well, in a one-year fellowship program that follows four years of residence training in hospital pathology
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), pp. 13-14 (emphasis added).

March 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word clinical pathologist

Pathologists study the causes and effects of human disease and injury: all sorts of disease, all manner of injury, in every part of the human body. . . .
A forensic pathologist is a specialist in this branch of medicine who investigates sudden, unexpected, or violent deaths by visiting the scene, reviewing medical records, and performing an autopsy—all while collecting evidence that might be used in court. Like a clinical pathologist, she has to recognize what everything in the body looks like, but the forensic pathologist also has to understand how it all works. She has to know how all the things that go wrong with the body can kill you, and all the ways that trying to fix those things might also kill you. . . .
Forensic pathologists work for either a medical examiner's office or a coroner. The latter is an administrator or law enforcement official (often the sheriff) who investigates untimely deaths in his or her jurisdiction. The coroner hires doctors to perform autopsies, but these doctors usually don't play an active role in the investigation beyond their work in the morgue. A medical examiner is a physician trained specifically in death investigation and autopsy pathology, who performs both the prosection (Latin for "cutting apart") and all other aspects of the official inquiry. The ME is always a doctor and often trains other doctors as well, in a one-year fellowship program that follows four years of residence training in hospital pathology
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), pp. 13-14 (emphasis added).

March 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word forensic pathologist

Pathologists study the causes and effects of human disease and injury: all sorts of disease, all manner of injury, in every part of the human body. . . .
A forensic pathologist is a specialist in this branch of medicine who investigates sudden, unexpected, or violent deaths by visiting the scene, reviewing medical records, and performing an autopsy—all while collecting evidence that might be used in court. Like a clinical pathologist, she has to recognize what everything in the body looks like, but the forensic pathologist also has to understand how it all works. She has to know how all the things that go wrong with the body can kill you, and all the ways that trying to fix those things might also kill you. . . .
Forensic pathologists work for either a medical examiner's office or a coroner. The latter is an administrator or law enforcement official (often the sheriff) who investigates untimely deaths in his or her jurisdiction. The coroner hires doctors to perform autopsies, but these doctors usually don't play an active role in the investigation beyond their work in the morgue. A medical examiner is a physician trained specifically in death investigation and autopsy pathology, who performs both the prosection (Latin for "cutting apart") and all other aspects of the official inquiry. The ME is always a doctor and often trains other doctors as well, in a one-year fellowship program that follows four years of residence training in hospital pathology
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), pp. 13-14 (emphasis added).

March 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word pathology

Pathologists study the causes and effects of human disease and injury: all sorts of disease, all manner of injury, in every part of the human body. . . .
A forensic pathologist is a specialist in this branch of medicine who investigates sudden, unexpected, or violent deaths by visiting the scene, reviewing medical records, and performing an autopsy—all while collecting evidence that might be used in court. Like a clinical pathologist, she has to recognize what everything in the body looks like, but the forensic pathologist also has to understand how it all works. She has to know how all the things that go wrong with the body can kill you, and all the ways that trying to fix those things might also kill you. . . .
Forensic pathologists work for either a medical examiner's office or a coroner. The latter is an administrator or law enforcement official (often the sheriff) who investigates untimely deaths in his or her jurisdiction. The coroner hires doctors to perform autopsies, but these doctors usually don't play an active role in the investigation beyond their work in the morgue. A medical examiner is a physician trained specifically in death investigation and autopsy pathology, who performs both the prosection (Latin for "cutting apart") and all other aspects of the official inquiry. The ME is always a doctor and often trains other doctors as well, in a one-year fellowship program that follows four years of residence training in hospital pathology
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), pp. 13-14 (emphasis added).

March 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word pathologist

Pathologists study the causes and effects of human disease and injury: all sorts of disease, all manner of injury, in every part of the human body. . . .
A forensic pathologist is a specialist in this branch of medicine who investigates sudden, unexpected, or violent deaths by visiting the scene, reviewing medical records, and performing an autopsy—all while collecting evidence that might be used in court. Like a clinical pathologist, she has to recognize what everything in the body looks like, but the forensic pathologist also has to understand how it all works. She has to know how all the things that go wrong with the body can kill you, and all the ways that trying to fix those things might also kill you. . . .
Forensic pathologists work for either a medical examiner's office or a coroner. The latter is an administrator or law enforcement official (often the sheriff) who investigates untimely deaths in his or her jurisdiction. The coroner hires doctors to perform autopsies, but these doctors usually don't play an active role in the investigation beyond their work in the morgue. A medical examiner is a physician trained specifically in death investigation and autopsy pathology, who performs both the prosection (Latin for "cutting apart") and all other aspects of the official inquiry. The ME is always a doctor and often trains other doctors as well, in a one-year fellowship program that follows four years of residence training in hospital pathology
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), pp. 13-14 (emphasis added).

March 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word hyperalimentation

Hyperal, short for hyperalimentation, is a type of intravenous nutritional supply that puts food energy directly into your bloodstream.
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 9 (emphasis added).

March 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word hyperal

Hyperal, short for hyperalimentation, is a type of intravenous nutritional supply that puts food energy directly into your bloodstream.
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 9 (emphasis added).

March 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word medicolegal investigator

I arived at this gruesome scene . . . with a team of MLIs, medicolegal investigators from the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner. . . . Medicolegal investigators are the medical examiner's first responders, going to the site of an untimely death, examining and documenting everything there, and transporting the body back to the city morgue for autopsy.
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 2 (emphasis added).

March 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word MLI

I arived at this gruesome scene . . . with a team of MLIs, medicolegal investigators from the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner. . . . Medicolegal investigators are the medical examiner's first responders, going to the site of an untimely death, examining and documenting everything there, and transporting the body back to the city morgue for autopsy.
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 2 (emphasis added).

March 9, 2016
MaryW commented on the word secretion

I also had to perform my first New York State Sexual Offense Evidence Collection Kit, commonly (and inaccurately) called the rape kit. . . . The rape kit is a set of tools for collecting trace evidence, DNA, and evidence of sexual activity, whether consensual or not. Combined with a physical exam finding of bruising or laceration, the presence of sexual evidence might indicate the sex was not consensual—but my job was only to gather this evidence, and the police or DA would decide whether they needed it to press a charge.
The rape kit consisted of a plastic bag with four cotton swabs and a bunch of small prelabeled envelopes, which fit inside one large envelope. The first swab was labeled to sample the vaginal vault, the second the anal area, and the third the oral cavity. The fourt swab was for "secretions." I didn't know what to do with it. . . . "Oh, that's for any suspeicious gunk you find anywhere else on the body," (a colleague) said. There was a fingernail clipper in the kit, and separate envelopes for the left and right fingernails—an assailant's DNA can be retrieved from under the victim's nails.
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 112 (emphasis added).

March 8, 2016
MaryW commented on the word vaginal vault

I also had to perform my first New York State Sexual Offense Evidence Collection Kit, commonly (and inaccurately) called the rape kit. . . . The rape kit is a set of tools for collecting trace evidence, DNA, and evidence of sexual activity, whether consensual or not. Combined with a physical exam finding of bruising or laceration, the presence of sexual evidence might indicate the sex was not consensual—but my job was only to gather this evidence, and the police or DA would decide whether they needed it to press a charge.
The rape kit consisted of a plastic bag with four cotton swabs and a bunch of small prelabeled envelopes, which fit inside one large envelope. The first swab was labeled to sample the vaginal vault, the second the anal area, and the third the oral cavity. The fourt swab was for "secretions." I didn't know what to do with it. . . . "Oh, that's for any suspeicious gunk you find anywhere else on the body," (a colleague) said. There was a fingernail clipper in the kit, and separate envelopes for the left and right fingernails—an assailant's DNA can be retrieved from under the victim's nails.
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 112 (emphasis added).

March 8, 2016
MaryW commented on the word rape kit

I also had to perform my first New York State Sexual Offense Evidence Collection Kit, commonly (and inaccurately) called the rape kit. . . . The rape kit is a set of tools for collecting trace evidence, DNA, and evidence of sexual activity, whether consensual or not. Combined with a physical exam finding of bruising or laceration, the presence of sexual evidence might indicate the sex was not consensual—but my job was only to gather this evidence, and the police or DA would decide whether they needed it to press a charge.
The rape kit consisted of a plastic bag with four cotton swabs and a bunch of small prelabeled envelopes, which fit inside one large envelope. The first swab was labeled to sample the vaginal vault, the second the anal area, and the third the oral cavity. The fourt swab was for "secretions." I didn't know what to do with it. . . . "Oh, that's for any suspeicious gunk you find anywhere else on the body," (a colleague) said. There was a fingernail clipper in the kit, and separate envelopes for the left and right fingernails—an assailant's DNA can be retrieved from under the victim's nails.
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 112 (emphasis added).

March 8, 2016
MaryW commented on the word distant-range wound

Guns leave distinct types of wounds at different ranges. A contact wound, with the gun touching or pressed into the skin, can sear a round scorch mark called a muzzle stamp. If the gun is near the target but not touching it, hot particulate debris leaves stippling, a confetti pattern of abrasions around the bullet hole. If the gun is fired from closer than six inches (a close-range wound) then there will also be soot around the wound. Anything more than six but fewer than thirty inches, with stippling but not soot, is called an intermediate-range wound. If a wound has none of these features—no soot and no stippling—then it's a distant-range bullet wound. Whether the gun was fired from thirty inches or thirty yards away, it will leave a neat hole and nothing else.
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 117 (emphasis added).

March 8, 2016
MaryW commented on the word intermediate-range wound

Guns leave distinct types of wounds at different ranges. A contact wound, with the gun touching or pressed into the skin, can sear a round scorch mark called a muzzle stamp. If the gun is near the target but not touching it, hot particulate debris leaves stippling, a confetti pattern of abrasions around the bullet hole. If the gun is fired from closer than six inches (a close-range wound) then there will also be soot around the wound. Anything more than six but fewer than thirty inches, with stippling but not soot, is called an intermediate-range wound. If a wound has none of these features—no soot and no stippling—then it's a distant-range bullet wound. Whether the gun was fired from thirty inches or thirty yards away, it will leave a neat hole and nothing else.
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 117 (emphasis added).

March 8, 2016
MaryW commented on the word close-range wound

Guns leave distinct types of wounds at different ranges. A contact wound, with the gun touching or pressed into the skin, can sear a round scorch mark called a muzzle stamp. If the gun is near the target but not touching it, hot particulate debris leaves stippling, a confetti pattern of abrasions around the bullet hole. If the gun is fired from closer than six inches (a close-range wound) then there will also be soot around the wound. Anything more than six but fewer than thirty inches, with stippling but not soot, is called an intermediate-range wound. If a wound has none of these features—no soot and no stippling—then it's a distant-range bullet wound. Whether the gun was fired from thirty inches or thirty yards away, it will leave a neat hole and nothing else.
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 117 (emphasis added).

March 8, 2016
MaryW commented on the word stipple

Guns leave distinct types of wounds at different ranges. A contact wound, with the gun touching or pressed into the skin, can sear a round scorch mark called a muzzle stamp. If the gun is near the target but not touching it, hot particulate debris leaves stippling, a confetti pattern of abrasions around the bullet hole. If the gun is fired from closer than six inches (a close-range wound) then there will also be soot around the wound. Anything more than six but fewer than thirty inches, with stippling but not soot, is called an intermediate-range wound. If a wound has none of these features—no soot and no stippling—then it's a distant-range bullet wound. Whether the gun was fired from thirty inches or thirty yards away, it will leave a neat hole and nothing else.
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 117 (emphasis added).

March 8, 2016
MaryW commented on the word stippling

Guns leave distinct types of wounds at different ranges. A contact wound, with the gun touching or pressed into the skin, can sear a round scorch mark called a muzzle stamp. If the gun is near the target but not touching it, hot particulate debris leaves stippling, a confetti pattern of abrasions around the bullet hole. If the gun is fired from closer than six inches (a close-range wound) then there will also be soot around the wound. Anything more than six but fewer than thirty inches, with stippling but not soot, is called an intermediate-range wound. If a wound has none of these features—no soot and no stippling—then it's a distant-range bullet wound. Whether the gun was fired from thirty inches or thirty yards away, it will leave a neat hole and nothing else.
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 117 (emphasis added).

March 8, 2016
MaryW commented on the word muzzle stamp

Guns leave distinct types of wounds at different ranges. A contact wound, with the gun touching or pressed into the skin, can sear a round scorch mark called a muzzle stamp. If the gun is near the target but not touching it, hot particulate debris leaves stippling, a confetti pattern of abrasions around the bullet hole. If the gun is fired from closer than six inches (a close-range wound) then there will also be soot around the wound. Anything more than six but fewer than thirty inches, with stippling but not soot, is called an intermediate-range wound. If a wound has none of these features—no soot and no stippling—then it's a distant-range bullet wound. Whether the gun was fired from thirty inches or thirty yards away, it will leave a neat hole and nothing else.
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 117 (emphasis added).

March 8, 2016
MaryW commented on the word contact wound

Guns leave distinct types of wounds at different ranges. A contact wound, with the gun touching or pressed into the skin, can sear a round scorch mark called a muzzle stamp. If the gun is near the target but not touching it, hot particulate debris leaves stippling, a confetti pattern of abrasions around the bullet hole. If the gun is fired from closer than six inches (a close-range wound) then there will also be soot around the wound. Anything more than six but fewer than thirty inches, with stippling but not soot, is called an intermediate-range wound. If a wound has none of these features—no soot and no stippling—then it's a distant-range bullet wound. Whether the gun was fired from thirty inches or thirty yards away, it will leave a neat hole and nothing else.
Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 117.

March 8, 2016
MaryW commented on the word rusted lettuce

He served me rusted lettuce without demur the first time he asked me for dinner, and thinks that the sell-by date on packaging is just part of the design, whereas I used to toss the refrigerator leftovers after he had left for work every day.
as we sat on a bench at the edge of the Seine and embraced with a long kiss we suddenly heard loud applause, only to discover that we had an enthusiastic audience on the decks of one of the Bateaux Mouches passing by.
Charles Rowan Beye, My Husband and My Wives: A Gay Man's Odyssey (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012), p. 252.
Is "rusted lettuce" lettuce wilted? rotten? discolored?

March 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word bateaux mouches

as we sat on a bench at the edge of the Seine and embraced with a long kiss we suddenly heard loud applause, only to discover that we had an enthusiastic audience on the decks of one of the Bateaux Mouches passing by.
Charles Rowan Beye, My Husband and My Wives: A Gay Man's Odyssey (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012), p. 250.
Bateaux Mouches (French pronunciation: bato ˈmuʃ) are open excursion boats that provide visitors to Paris, France, with a view of the city from along the river Seine.1
The term is a registered trademark of the Compagnie des Bateaux Mouches, the most widely known operator of the boats in Paris, founded by Jean Bruel (1917-2003);2 however, the phrase, because of the success of the company, is used generically to refer to all such boats operating on the river within the city. Bateaux Mouches translates literally as "fly boats" ("fly" meaning the insect); however, the name arose because they were originally manufactured in boatyards situated in the Mouche area of Lyon.
Bateau Mouches, Wikipedia.

March 6, 2016
MaryW commented on the word bateau mouche

as we sat on a bench at the edge of the Seine and embraced with a long kiss we suddenly heard loud applause, only to discover that we had an enthusiastic audience on the decks of one of the Bateaux Mouches passing by.
Charles Rowan Beye, My Husband and My Wives: A Gay Man's Odyssey (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012), p. 250.
Bateaux Mouches (French pronunciation: bato ˈmuʃ) are open excursion boats that provide visitors to Paris, France, with a view of the city from along the river Seine.1
The term is a registered trademark of the Compagnie des Bateaux Mouches, the most widely known operator of the boats in Paris, founded by Jean Bruel (1917-2003);2 however, the phrase, because of the success of the company, is used generically to refer to all such boats operating on the river within the city. Bateaux Mouches translates literally as "fly boats" ("fly" meaning the insect); however, the name arose because they were originally manufactured in boatyards situated in the Mouche area of Lyon.
Bateau Mouches, Wikipedia.

March 6, 2016

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Comments for maryw

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ruzuzu commented on the user MaryW

Your citations are inspiring. I’ve been lazy about using the blockquote HTML tag—but no more! Thank you for your precision and dedication.

November 23, 2018
bilby commented on the user MaryW

You have an unclosed italic bracket on sung-through which borks the formatting of everything that comes after it on the Community page and on your own comments feed.

May 23, 2016
bilby commented on the user MaryW

j/k, no probs about the glitchygloops. Everyone who's been here a while has borked something or another.

April 5, 2016
bilby commented on the user MaryW

Should have got a good phone.

April 5, 2016
ruzuzu commented on the user MaryW

I hear you about editing from a phone--but don't give up, MaryW! I enjoy your citations.

April 4, 2016
MaryW commented on the user MaryW

bilby, you must have been right on it. I edited out the extraneous stuff within a minute or so.
I've learned my lesson: don't try to do much here with my iPhone: it's too hard to proofread and edit.

April 4, 2016
bilby commented on the user MaryW

Please take care not to unncessarily include site menus in copy-pasted comments.

April 4, 2016
bilby commented on the user MaryW

In many cases "See citation on word" is also a good option.

February 29, 2016
bilby commented on the user MaryW

You have an unclosed italic HTML bracket on elytron.

December 27, 2015