June 28, 2010
Wolf ticket (or woof ticket) is a slang term meaning a verbal threat, criticism, or insult used to intimidate an opponent. The term originates from ‘woofing,’ meaning aimless talk, an onomatopoeic reference to the sound of dogs barking. The term is usually used as a part of the phrase ‘to sell wolf tickets,’ meaning to bluff or threaten someone in a boastful way, or ‘to buy wolf tickets,’ meaning to call the bluff or accept the implied challenge.
Professor Emeritus Herbert L. Foster noted in the first edition of his book ‘Ribbin’, Jivin’, and Playin’ the Dozens: The Unrecognized Dilemma of Inner City Schools’ that his students, in New York City Public School 613, about 1964, started using the expression ‘woof’ or ‘wolf’ ticket interchangeably. Since he was teaching graphic arts, his students, at first, printed wolf tickets. As Foster became more astute about his students’ street culture, he created the woof ticket that was used on the street and discussed further in his book.
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June 28, 2010
Slash fiction, or slashfic, is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on the depiction of romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters. While the term was originally restricted to stories in which male media characters were involved in an explicit adult relationship as a primary plot element, it is now often used to refer to any fan story containing a pairing between same-sex characters, although many fans distinguish the female-focused variety as a separate genre commonly referred to as ‘femslash.’
Posted in Language, Love, Sex |
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June 28, 2010
A kettlebell or girya is a cast iron weight looking somewhat like a cannonball with a handle. Sizes that range from 5 lbs to 175 lbs, but the traditional Russian kettlebell is usually one which weighs 1 Pood (roughly 35lbs). Unlike traditional dumbbells, the kettlebell’s center of mass is extended beyond the hand; this allows for swing movements not possible with traditional dumbbells. Because more muscle groups are utilized in the swinging and movement of a kettlebell than during the lifting of dumbbells a kettlebell workout is sometimes claimed to be more effective.
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June 28, 2010
A Kugel ball is a sculpture consisting of a large granite ball supported by a very thin film of water. Water flows beneath a very heavy, perfectly spherical rock from a spherical concave base with the exact same curvature. A Kugel ball can weigh thousands of pounds, but because the thin film of water lubricates it, the ball spins. The term Kugel ball originates from the German word kugel, which can mean ball, sphere or globe.
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June 28, 2010
Cymatics [sy-mat-iks] is the study of visible sound and vibration. Typically the surface of a plate, diaphragm, or membrane is vibrated, and patterns are made visible in a thin coating of particles, paste, or liquid. The apparatus employed can be simple, such as a Chladni Plate or advanced such as the CymaScope, a laboratory instrument that makes visible the inherent geometries within sound and music.
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June 25, 2010
Ayahuasca [ah-yuh-wah-skuh] is any of various psychoactive infusions or decoctions prepared from the Banisteriopsis spp. vine, usually mixed with the leaves of dimethyltryptamine (DMT)-containing species of shrubs.
The brew, first described academically in the early 1950s by Harvard ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes, who found it employed for divinatory and healing purposes by Amerindians of Amazonian Colombia, is known by a number of different names.
Posted in Drugs, World |
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June 25, 2010
Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles are a family of armored fighting vehicles designed to survive IED attacks and ambushes, which are replacing many High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs) in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no common MRAP vehicle design; there are several vendors, each with a competing entry.
Posted in Politics, Technology, War |
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June 25, 2010
Bill Brasky was the subject of a series of sketches on Saturday Night Live between 1996 and 1998. The sketches were written by cast member Will Ferrell and writer Adam McKay. The format of the sketches resembles the short-form improv game ‘Two Describe a Third.’ Three or four friends (known as the ‘Bill Brasky Buddies’) gather in a public place to drink Scotch, smoke cigars, and loudly reminisce about their mutual acquaintance Bill Brasky. While the friends refer to Brasky in both present and past tense on occasion, it appears that Brasky is still alive: some sketches end with Brasky’s appearance via a forced perspective shot that makes him look like a giant. One sketch, set at Brasky’s funeral, ends with Brasky breaking out of the coffin holding a glass of Scotch.
Most of the friends’ discussions focus on their admiration of Brasky’s superhuman accomplishments, usually focused on his huge size, virility, celebrity connections, amazing tolerance for drugs and alcohol, and reckless disregard for human life. The stories of Brasky’s life and seemingly legendary accomplishments are exaggerated to absurd levels in the American tradition of tall tales.
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June 24, 2010
Namahage is a Japanese ritual which is observed throughout Oga Peninsula, Akita Prefecture in northern Honshu, Japan. On New Year’s Eve, a group of young men dressed up as fierce demons or bogeymen, Namahage, visit each house in the village, shouting, ‘any misbehaving kids live here?’ They then scare children in the houses, telling them not to be lazy or cry, though little children often do burst into tears. Then the parents will assure the Namahage that there is no bad child in their house, and give food or traditional Japanese alcoholic beverages to the demons.
Posted in Philosophy, World |
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June 24, 2010
The English language makes a distinction between blue and green, but some languages do not. Of these, quite a number do not distinguish blue from black either. In languages that do not have separate terms for blue and green, one word applies to both (when the issue is discussed in linguistics, this cover term is sometimes called grue or bleen in English).
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June 24, 2010
The locality of Boron, California, produces a most unusual form of Ulexite. Gigantic hunks of this mineral are found in great amounts in the form of fibrous, compact veins. When polished, these specimens become the famous ‘Television Stone’ sold to amateur collectors. The optical effect exhibited by Television Stone is caused by each of its individual fibers acting as fiber-optic cables, transmitting light from one surface to the other. Since all the fibers are parallel and compacted together, any image at one surface is transmitted through each fiber to the other surface. Thus, any text or image at the bottom of a specimen appears as if it is on top.
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June 24, 2010
In disc golf or other disc-related sports, a hyzer [hahy-zer] is a throw which curves in the direction opposite of the arm used to throw. For a normal straight shot, you release the disc flat. To throw a hyzer, simply tilt the edge of the disc opposite your grip toward the ground. The more you tilt this edge toward the ground at release, the faster the disc will curve off in the hyzer direction. For an anhyzer, the edge is tilted up, and the disc curves in the same direction as the arm used to throw.
The terms are similar to hook and slice in golf. Hook shots curve in the direction opposite of the player’s handedness (i.e. right-handed players hook left), and slices do the opposite (i.e. right handed players slice right).
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