The Anti-Zen Dictionary: September 2009

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Wave (from Google)

Wave: Google's new, real-time, open source communication platform app with email, IM and everything else you're using to communicate on the net...

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/SLAQO

FOM: Google invites users to join Wave and Google Wave.

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Gurning

Gurning: Not a new word - not one of ours. The antic(s) of face-distortion: for amusement &/or competition...

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/aMek4

FOM: Cumbria man is gurning world champ and Gurning.

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Badvertising or Negliminal

engineer_public_opinion image licensed under Creative Commons by martinhoward

Badvertising / Negliminal: The portmanteaus of bad with advertising and negative with subliminal. With reference to the greater effect of negative subliminal messages.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/4sFrmn

FOM: 'Bad' subliminal messages work and Key To Subliminal Messaging Is To Keep It Negative, Study Shows.

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Flu-Thru

Image licensed under Creative Commons by edans

Flu-Thru: The portmanteau of Influenza (or flew) and Drive-Thru. A more immediate approach to treating H1N1 at the local emergency or hospital.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/3u5Eqr

FOM: McTriage: Hospitals use swine flu drive-thrus

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11-47

11-47: The fortunate(?) portmanteau of Chapter 11 and AK-47. The bankrupting of any automatic weapons manufacturer.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/rXCZ5

FOM: AK-47 Manufacturer Faces Bankruptcy

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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

OpenRide

OpenRide: New term - new technology - not one of ours. A new open communication platform where you can instantly find a rideshare via your mobile phone.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/kv5JV

FOM: Find Local Rideshares Quickly Via Mobile Phone , OpenRide and Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS .

Contact:
Dr. Matthias Flügge
Fraunhofer FOKUS
+49 (0)30 3463 7135
matthias.fluegge@fokus.fraunhofer.de

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Twamp or Twurb

Twamp / Twurb: The portmanteau of clamp(down) or curb and Twitter. To shut down or curb the privelege and access to Twitter and/or other social websites.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/daYsX

FOM: Texas Tech Coach Clamps Down on Twitter and NBA Dumps Tweeting, Social Media During Games (from ESPN)

Updated/Revised: Thursday, October 1, 2009

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Plamp or Blamp

Plamp / Blamp: The portmanteau of (blood) plasma and lamp. A special lamp designed to illuminate upon the introduction of blood tissue to Luminol.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/134hbg

Reference: New Scientist Picture of the Day, 9/28/2009.

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Trichomonas saurischiae

T Rex image licensed under Creative Commons by Sebastian Bergmann

Trichomonas saurischiae: One proposed scientific name for the parasite thought to have killed off the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex. (Does the parasite connection strengthen the dinosaur-bird connection)?

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/ub3Kd

References: Mighty T. rex Killed by Lowly Parasite, Study Suggests and Trichomonas gallinae.

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Anchiornis huxleyi

Anchiornis huxleyi: A new dinosaur species - not our naming. A newly discovered, small, four-winged feathered dinosaur resembling a bird.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/NmOdw

FOM: China finds bird-like dinosaur with four wings and Anchiornis huxleyi.

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Craemation or Gremation

Cremation Gurunda Burning Bali image licensed under Creative Commons by amanderson2

Craemation / Gremation: The 'eco-friendly' portmanteau of cremation and faeces. The new 'green' use of animal waste as fuel for a cremation and ceremony. (Not the way I want to be dealt with after my demise, in a burning dung heap...).

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/lbeQ0

References: India's cow-dung 'eco-cremations' and Cremation.

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Psephurus gladius

Psephurus gladius: Not a new term. Scientific name for the Giant Chinese Paddlefish, which may be extinct by the time you read this.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/IWvFb

FOM: Giant fish 'verges on extinction' and Psephurus gladius.

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Monday, September 28, 2009

Geiger Storm

Geiger Storm: The unfortunate portmanteau of Geiger Counter and storm. An extension of the concept of Radioactive Dust Storm. A storm that releases radioactive material.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/36lyC9

FOM: Australia 'uranium' dust concerns, Australian Dust Storm 2009, Uranium 235 and Radioactive Dust Storm.

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Ashram Island

Ashram Island: The conversion of a tiny island into an Ashram...

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/CVNAA

FOM: Scottish island to become ashram and Little Cumbrae.

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Radioactive Dust Storm

The Apocalypse is Nigh image licensed under Creative Commons by Matthew Stewart

Radioactive Dust Storm: Not something you deal with everyday. With reference to the recent enormous Australian Dust storm 2009 which might have left U-235 (and other radioactive elements?...) in its swath... Yikes!!!

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/4uq8oy

References: Australia 'uranium' dust concerns and Australian Dust Storm 2009.

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Sunday, September 27, 2009

Badge of Chavez

Badge of Chavez: The portmanteau of Badge of Honor and Hugo Chavez. Most recent recipients: Family Guy and Seth MacFarlane.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/Lqk6n

FOM: Venezuela bans Family Guy cartoon

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Ψ-cam or psi-cam

Ψ-cam or psi-cam: The portmanteau of Ψ ('psi' = psychic...) and Camera. A CCTV that can help predict ASB.

FOM: Bus CCTV could predict assaults

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Anuran denticulatum

Anuran denticulatum: The portmanteau of the scientific (Order) name of frog and fang (from the Latin...). One proposed scientific name for the recently discovered fanged frog.

FOM: Climate risk to 'fanged' frog and Anuran.

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Vitreography

Image licensed under Creative Commons by Umair Moshin

Vitreography: The portmanteau of glass (from the Latin...) and 3D Lithography. The rather exciting development of "printing glass objects in 3D".

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/EOsBS

FOM: Lab Demonstrates 3-D Printing In Glass and Glass.

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Saturday, September 26, 2009

Homeless Doll

Homeless Doll: With reference to the rather controversial appearance of American Girl's new doll portraying a homeless girl: Gwen Thompson.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/cqOBo

FOM: Meet Gwen Thompson, the 'Homeless' American Girl.

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Homo torpedius or Homo grenadius

Homo torpedius / Homo grenadius: The very tragic and unfortunate portmanteaus of Homo sapiens and torpedo or grenade. (1) The shocking and disturbing new development in terrorism: the concealment of explosives inside the bodies of living suicide bombers. (2) A person with a bomb surgically embedded inside of them.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/2pQM8g

FOM: Fears over 'internal' terror bomb .

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Friday, September 25, 2009

Self-Regulation

Self-Regulation: Not a new term, but a somewhat new definition. Exhausted after a long day? Too tired to head to the gym? Listen to some music, schedule it in your datebook, do more planning see...

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/xXdJb

FOM: Exhausted? How to Get Your Willpower Back and Self-Regulation.

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Ψ-Coding

Ψ-Coding: The portmanteau of the Greek letter Ψ (psi - representing the word 'psychic') and number coding. The ability to determine the number you just looked at (or a number of dots...) via enhanced techniques.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/GmiXX

FOM: Cracking The Brain's Numerical Code: Researchers Can Tell What Number A Person Has Seen and: Evelyn Eger, Vincent Michel, Bertrand Thirion, Alexis Amadon, Stanislas Dehaene, and Andreas Kleinschmidt. Deciphering Cortical Number Coding from Human Brain Activity Patterns. Current Biology, 2009; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.08.047

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Phitter

Phitter: The very unfortunate portmanteau of PHI (Protected Health Information) and Twitter. Doctors are 'sharing' your protected personal health information via tweets.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/1QLht7

FOM: 'Tweeting' medics expose patients and HIPAA.

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Grunk

Grunk: The very unfortunate portmanteau of gel and drunk. To become intoxicated via the consumption of sanitizing gel or some other santizing product. (Blechh!!!).

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/10bD8A

FOM: Prisoner 'drunk on swine flu gel'.

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Shark Sanctuary

Shark Sanctuary: A new term, not one of ours. A visionary, very badly needed, world first in marine sanctuaries. Bravo Palau!

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/1ABRHb

FOM: Palau pioneers 'shark sanctuary' and Official Site of the Republic of Palau.

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Thursday, September 24, 2009

Food Corridor

Image licensed under Creative Commons by wetwebwork

Food Corridor: Note, this concept needs deeper investigation. Similar to a habitat corridor for animals. A food corridor is a similar approach meant to deliver foodstuffs and potable water to deprived societies - such as the coming famine in Kenya (2009).

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/2b3vNs

Upated/Revised Tuesday, September 29, 2009 and Sunday, October 11, 2009: Draining a Nation, Guatemala’s children languish from malnutrition and Mau Forest.

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Apebook

Image licensed under Creative Commons by mrflip

Apebook: The obvious portmanteau of Great Ape and Facebook. The start of the new 'Friend a Gorilla' project on Facebook.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/2J8Cm1

FOM: Fed up with your Facebook friends? Befriend a gorilla instead , Tweeting Ugandan gorillas make friends online and Gorilla.

Revised/Updated: Tuesday, September 29, 2009.

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Holushield

Holushield: The portmanteau of Holoshield and you. The extension of the Holoshield concept to create your own personal force field out of a 3D active, physical-force producing shield.

Bit.ly: http://bit.ly/RV3Sq

FOM: Supervolcano, The Nostradamus Effect (Episode 3) , Scientists create 3-D images you can touch and Holofeel or Holotouch.

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Lives of the Lexicographers

Samuel Johnson: (Updated: Monday, May 18, 2009). Recently checked out of our local library: Samuel Johnson - The Struggle by Jeffrey Meyers. The prolific Mr. Meyers outdoes himself right in the introduction and zaps us with a very intimate glimpse into the sex life of the great Samuel Johnson. Some very florid comments and great pathos by Samuel Johnson are reported almost right at the start. Well, he's still our hero. We're still wading through this 500+ page tome - but it is keeping our interest. Not for the 18 and under crowd - the language is a little too graphic and a little too suggestive, at times. But, we think it is worth the cover price ($ 35.00) of purchase if you are into Johnson or great biographies. However, we do suggest checking it out at your library or purchasing a second-hand copy. Caveat emptor - we offer no guarantees - it may not be worth your purposes! Of course, if you're into Johnson, biographies, literature, intellectualism or even pseudo-intellectualism (like us! - actually our senior editor has an IQ of 131, but we digress...) you don't need the hyperlinks. Our apologies. Also, we have not read Boswell's Life of Johnson! If you care to donate us a copy, please do and we'll review it here and credit your donation if you wish.

More: Sam began his academic career at Oxford. Unfortunately - in that time period - Oxford had an abysmal reputation for teaching. Even the great Edward Gibbon (possibly the greatest author of his day) left this institution after one year. Most students used tutors, but even these were inadequate at times.

Located: Boswell's Life of Johnson (Osgood edition) at Project Gutenberg (link here).

Religious/Mystical Inclinations: Was heavily influenced by the work A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, ( http://www.logos.com/ebooks/details/serious)
by William Law. (Sorry, no Guttenberg Project edition could be found here...).

Physical/Medical Indications: Due to his wild gesticulations and mannerisms, Sam may have suffered from Tourette Syndrome. Even so, though this repulsed most other folk, it seemed to make the author/playwright Frances Burney adore him all the more.
For an image of a bust of Sam Johnson, link here. For image of a statue of Sam, link here.
Johnson was well known for his physical prowess (for example, his horsemanship) and his physical power. Not one to take insults or sarcasms lightly, Johnson was reputed to have knocked over his adversaries or even to have delivered severe beatings upon them (if he felt they were deserving of it...)

Other women: Hester Thrale. He did have an extraordinary 18 year relationship with a married woman.

Quotable Johnson: "Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true". #35. From the Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.

Rating of this biography: Excellent. We believe the book deserves this rating (or any biography that causes this sensation) because we felt as though we had lived with the man himself.

Next biography: Ambrose Bierce, author of "The Devil's Dictionary".