vendingmachine has adopted no words, looked up 16189 words, created 63 lists, listed 3585 words, written 1384 comments, added 3 tags, and loved 353 words.
Comments for vendingmachine
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Your list of lists is peauetrie
February 2, 2018
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So sorry -- had to delete last comment as it was breaking the community page after I deleted the spammy comment. :-(
March 19, 2015
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Consider your scopes affected. De nada. As long as I was at it I effected 'em too!
March 19, 2015
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Nice detective work on 'on fleek'.
March 7, 2015
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Hey, hey! Checking in. Good to see 'zu get what's coming to her! :) I only occasionally visit these days. I'll try to bring it more into my crosscheck. Toodles for now.
February 23, 2015
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*press*
Ooh! Another delicious food pellet!
You're the bestest vending machine ever, vendingmachine!
February 22, 2015
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LDC - Liberal Democrat Conservative
A blend of all 3 major political parties in Canada.February 21, 2015
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LDC - longform digital crepuscule
February 21, 2015
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Ooh! A delicious food pellet! And two cents!!!
February 12, 2015
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I wonder what would happen if I were to press the "Save" button below this comment box.
February 12, 2015
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Ooh! Look! Delicious food pellets. Looks like you're my new bff, vendingmachine.
February 11, 2015
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I'm sure ruzuzu will be along any minute looking for food pellets.
February 11, 2015
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Do you have anything for two cents?
February 11, 2015
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You know, you're still my favourite vending machine.
February 11, 2015
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What's in the vending machine? The usual bile, or can we now get canned vitriol for a dollar?
February 10, 2015
Comments by vendingmachine
vendingmachine commented on the word splogs
Spam weblogs that steal content from other sites in order to appear legitimate. Also known as an adfarm.
July 13, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word fist-law
Good old fist-law, the code of brute force. See also club-law.
July 13, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word bilby
Among the list of Random Adoptions on Wordnik:
bilby was adopted by Royal Secret Society of Bilbies
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word 12 o'clock flasher
A person who is unwilling or unable to learn how to use all but the most basic functions of the electronic appliances he or she possesses.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word 90-minute bigot
Scottish. A football fan, esp of Rangers FC or Celtic FC, who exhibits religious bigotry at matches but does not consider him- or herself to be bigoted outside a football context.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word zeuglodont
Any of a group of extinct carnivorous whales known as Phocodontia or Zeuglodonta.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word zeroth
Denoting a term in a series that precedes the term otherwise regarded as the first term.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word zex
A tool for cutting roof slate.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word cock-a-leekie soup
Scottish. A soup made from a fowl boiled with leeks.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word scolopendrine
Pertaining to any centipede of the family Scolopendridae, including some large and poisonous species.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word smaragdine
Any green gemstone, such as the emerald.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word sourdeline
A type of bagpipe.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word tragelaphine
Of or relating to a tragelaph.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word vincristine
An alkaloid, C46H56N4O10·H2SO4, obtained from the leaves of a periwinkle (Vinca rosea) and used as a drug in the treatment of leukemia.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word vomerine
Pertaining to the thin flat bone forming part of the separation between the nasal passages in mammals.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word zibeline
A soft lustrous wool fabric with mohair, alpaca, or camel's hair.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word zygaenine
pertaining to a family of moths (Zygaenidae) including the foresters, burnet moths, and related moths most of which are bright-colored and day-flying.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word aedine
relating to mosquitoes of the genus Aedes
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the list animal-ine
Another great -ine list!
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the list animal-ines-cheat-sheet
crotaline: having a rattle or pertaining to a rattlesnake
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the list animal-ines-cheat-sheet
I intended to start a list like this one, but after finding your impressive and thorough list, I figured: why bother? Love it. I've added it to my list of favorite lists.
July 7, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word they are now very aware of my situation
Yes, they are aware... but they don't care.
June 28, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word circadian dysrhythmia
Jet lag.
June 25, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word Schwellenangst
Fear of crossing a threshold to embark on something new.
What's with the potential customer in the definition from Wiki?
June 5, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the list remarkable-wikipedia-categories
ru: the day you started contributing to wordnik was--and continues to be!-- pure awesomeness. I love the way you think. You should be on a remarkable list yourself: a list of remarkable people! ♥♥♥♥
June 4, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word pass
There are many words for pass in the English-speaking world. In the United States, pass is very common in the West, the word gap is common in the southern Appalachians, notch in parts of New England, and saddle in northern Idaho. Scotland has the Gaelic term bealach (anglicised "balloch"), while Wales has the similar bwlch. In the Lake District of north-west England, the term hause is often used, although the term pass is also common—one distinction is that a pass can refer to a route, as well as the highest part thereof, while a hause is simply the highest part, often flattened somewhat into a high-level plateau.--Wikipedia
June 1, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word shoutcaster
In video games, and particularly eSports, commentators are often called shoutcasters; this term is derived from the free plugin for <i>Winamp</i> called <i>SHOUTcast</i>, which enabled users to live-stream audio-only feeds across the Internet.
June 1, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word mumpfen
May 31, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word mimpfeln
See also mumpfen, to chew with a full mouth.
May 31, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word kainotophobia
Not to be confused with the fear of changing one's underwear.
May 26, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word mansplaining
Mansplaining (a blend of the word man and the informal form splaining of the verb explaining) means "(of a man) to comment on or explain something to a woman in a condescending, overconfident, and often inaccurate or oversimplified manner". Lily Rothman of "The Atlantic" defines it as "explaining without regard to the fact that the explainee knows more than the explainer, often done by a man to a woman". Author Rebecca Solnit ascribes the phenomenon to a combination of "overconfidence and cluelessness".
In its original use, mansplaining differed from other forms of condescension in that it is rooted in the sexist assumption that a man is likely to be more knowledgeable than a woman. However, it has come to be used more broadly, often applied when a man takes a condescending tone in an explanation to anyone, regardless of the age or gender of the intended recipients: a "man 'splaining" can be delivered to any audience. In 2010 it was named by the New York Times as one of its "Words of the Year".
A widespread phenomenon that "keeps women from speaking up and from being heard when they dare; that crushes young women into silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world. It trains us in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men's unsupported overconfidence.
May 15, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word Framingham score
To measure the women’s biological age, the researchers looked at the length of telomeres in their white blood cells. Telomeres are the dangly bits at the end of chromosomes that shorten every time a cell divides. Their length is considered a measure of cellular age.
Between three and five years later, 250 of the women came back so researchers could calculate their risk of developing heart disease in the next decade – known as their Framingham score. This takes account of risk factors such as cholesterol levels, blood pressure and body weight.
As expected, the team found that women with lower egg counts had higher Framingham scores, but they also had shorter telomeres. Previous studies have suggested that shorter telomeres are linked with heart disease, dementia and cancer, and also with a shorter lifespan. So women with fewer eggs may also be at higher risk of other age-related diseases, although epidemiological studies will be needed to bolster this link."
(The Framingham Risk Score is a gender-specific algorithm used to estimate the 10-year cardiovascular risk of an individual. The Framingham Risk Score was first developed based on data obtained from the Framingham Heart Study, to estimate the 10-year risk of developing coronary heart disease. In order to assess the 10-year cardiovascular disease risk, cerebrovascular events, peripheral artery disease and heart failure were subsequently added as disease outcomes for the 2008 Framingham Risk Score, on top of coronary heart disease.)
May 15, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word purple prose
subtitle: China's president-in-waiting turns to purple prose during populist speech aimed at top and bottom of Communist party
May 11, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word unicorpse
(Noun) A private technology company that was formerly valued at $1bn or more (slang, vulg)
Silicon Valley is nothing if not inventive, and that applies to language as much as product development. Three years ago, Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures, coined “unicorn” to capture the phenomenon of private technology companies achieving valuations of $1bn and more. She likened these desirable ventures to the mythical horned creature often represented in the shape of a horse.
More recently, in response to the declines in value of some unicorns, Ms Lee has concocted a less mythological variant: the “unicorpse”. It is one of a number of unicorn-related neologisms, including “My Little Pony” (a start-up worth $10m or more), the “Centaur” ($100m start-up) and the impressive “quinquagintacorn” (you work it out*).
--Financial TImes (article available for subscribers only)
April 29, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word spirit animal
The ancient concept of animal guides, particularly prominent in some indigenous, especially Native American, religions and cultures, was adopted in Pagan and Wiccan spirituality in the 1990s. In these contexts, spirit animals are meant literally, referring to spiritual guides or totems that take the form of animals.
April 25, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word tzitzit
No pronunciation available.
April 24, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word magnetotail
An odd-looking word.
April 23, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word bilby
Please do not kick or pound me if your pellets don't fall immediately. And don't press my buttons over and over. Be patient and you will receive your due reward.
April 16, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word chlamydia
"Australia's iconic koala has a problem that keeps boomeranging back.
Chlamydia, a type of sexually transmitted disease also found in humans, has hit wild koalas hard, with some wild populations seeing a 100 percent infection rate." --National Geographic, 14 April 2018
April 15, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word gestational carrier
Apparently, the new term for a surrogate. Also this combo: gestational carrier surrogacy.
April 14, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word autopsied
Likewise, necropsy is also necropsied. Most users seem to prefer the noun form. "The pathologist decided to forego a necropsy of the dead bilby on the side of the road."
April 13, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word schollard
A corruption, perhaps... but vulgar? Words have feelings, too. Down with word-shaming!
April 12, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word technosphere
Peter Haff coined the term technosphere (in 2014). He defines the technosphere as “the global, energy consuming techno-social system that is comprised of humans, technological artifacts, and technological systems, together with the links, protocols, and information that bind all these parts together.”
Basically, the technosphere is the vast, sprawling combination of humanity and its technology. Haff argues that in our thousands of years of harnessing technology – including the first technologies like stone tools, wheels and crops – the technology itself has basically begun to act practically independently, creating a new sphere (i.e., like the biosphere or atmosphere or lithosphere), but like nothing the planet has ever seen before.
“I would argue that domesticated animals and plants, as well as humans, are parts of the technosphere,” said Haff. “These are in effect manufactured by the technosphere for its own use on the basis of genetic blueprints appropriated from the biosphere.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/radical-conservation/2015/oct/20/the-four-horsemen-of-the-sixth-mass-extinction
April 2, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word blackbirding
Blackbirding has continued to the present day in developing countries. One example is the kidnapping and coercion at gunpoint of indigenous people in Central America to work as plantation laborers in the region, where they are exposed to heavy pesticide loads and do backbreaking work for very little pay.
April 1, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word blockade mutton
Dog meat has been eaten in every major German crisis at least since the time of Frederick the Great, and is commonly referred to as "blockade mutton."
--GERMANY: Dachshunds Are Tenderer, 25 November 1940. Time Magazine.
To a war menu which already included fish-fed poultry, decrepit horses, goats, and numerous zoo animals, Germany last week added those of its dogs which had not been killed by an earlier decree to save food. A new law, effective January 1, 1940, states that dogs, wolves, foxes, bears, badgers and wild hogs have been legalized as meat. After being inspected for trichina, their carcasses will be dressed, stamped and distributed to butchers for rationing to general consumers.
March 31, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word glowworms
bilby: Have you ever visited Hastings Caves south of Hobart, or Mole Creek Karst National Park west of Launceston? I read somewhere that these sites have colonies of glowworms to see.
March 30, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word cockalorum
1. A little man with an unduly high opinion of himself. 2. The game leapfrog.
"A cockalorum playing cockalorum."
March 28, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word chittering-bite
See also chittering-crust and chittering-piece.
March 28, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word naunt
Mine aunt?
March 26, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word Caspering
The newest addition to the modern dating lexicon. Named after the fictional child phantom, Casper, it’s a friendly alternative to ghosting. Instead of ignoring someone, you’re honest about how you feel, and let them down gently before disappearing from their lives.
March 26, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word sidebarring
Repeatedly checking one's phone and/or sending messages to others while on a date. Considered rude.
March 26, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word Marleying
A term that refers to the awkward situation in which an ex-partner gets in touch with their ex out of nowhere, such as at Christmas time.
March 26, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word shaveducking
A dating term that refers to someone worrying that they're only attracted to a man because of his beard.
March 26, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word breadcrumbing
A dating term that refers to leading someone on with no intention of getting serious.
March 26, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word thraward
Splendid, qms! Rocky and Bullwinkle Effect.
March 18, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word flavor pairing
If it will keep your ears from convulsing, see flavour pairing.
*insincere smirk*
March 14, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word flavor pairing
How about incorrect change and a swift kick?
March 14, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word collectanea
I had to resort to the pronunciation feature for this one.
March 14, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word flavor pairing
"...the idea that the more “aromatic” (i.e. smelly) organic compounds foods share, the better they will taste together."
"...dishes whose ingredients share few compounds in common can also taste delicious; a 2011 analysis of more than 50,000 recipes found that while cuisines from Western Europe and North America tended to use ingredients with shared compounds, ingredients from East Asian recipes tended not to."
--An Illustrated Guide to Matching Foods' Flavor Molecules, Wired, 6 March 2018,
https://www.wired.com/story/the-flavor-matrix/
March 13, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word intertwined names
"On July 3, 2006, Amanda gave birth to fraternal twin girls, and the ecstatic parents gave their daughters intertwined names: One would be Millie Marcia Madge Biggs, the other Marcia Millie Madge Biggs."
March 12, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word flogger
In Australia, the term "flogger" is sometimes used rather than "pom-pom". Floggers are very large, heavy pom-poms in the team's colors. They sometimes require more than one person to lift them, and they are waved about when a goal is scored.
Floggers are an important part of Australian rules football culture and cheer-squads.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Richmond_Cheer_Squad_Rd_21_2006_closeup.jpg
March 6, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word chase-flying
"This is the first time I've seen a willet chase-flying insects."
March 5, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word prognathous
See lantern-jawed
March 5, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word dingo kidneys
Those crazy, non-explicit Australians.
March 5, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word ptisan
Any word that starts with pt is already more interesting.
February 28, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word umpolished
Umpolished has been looked up 393 times. Logical assumption: Umpolished has been selected by RANDOM WORD 393 times.
February 27, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word curiologic
How rude!
February 27, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word neckbeard
Hmm. I've only encountered this word used pejoratively.
A scraggly growth of hair on a man's neck and chin, indicative of poor grooming.
"I can picture myself wearing these clothes a week from now, bits of food caught in my overgrown neckbeard and man bun."
February 25, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word taint
"In an interview with GQ magazine, the "Mummy" star said the alleged incident took place during HFPA luncheon at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2003. He alleged that former HFPA president, Philip Berk, came to shake his hand when he was leaving the crowded room. "His left hand reaches around, grabs my ass cheek, and one of his fingers touches me in the taint. And he starts moving it around," Fraser said, adding that in that moment he was overcome with panic and fear."I felt ill. I felt like a little kid. I felt like there was a ball in my throat. I thought I was going to cry," Fraser added."
February 23, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word rangle
I prefer to do my rangling and ranging in a regular manner.
February 23, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word knowledge debt
Information which is available and relevant to a decision or action, but which is undiscovered or ignored, bringing unnecessary risk to the decision or action.
February 22, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word Rafferty's rules
Australian and New Zealand slang:
no rules at all
February 22, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word leg-rope
If a leg-rope doesn't work, try an ear-rope.
February 22, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word pies
A certain frog makes up a simple word and it never goes away.
February 22, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word relationshit
Oh, my.
February 20, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word pies
I found a vintage stamp from India with NINE PIES inked across the stamp. Now I understand what it meant.
pies: A former monetary unit of India and Pakistan, equal to one-twelfth of an anna.
February 20, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word leg-rope
NZ, Australian
1(in surfing) a rope attached to a surfboard and tied to the surfer's ankle to prevent the board being washed away by the surf.
In order to relocate a pesky, trespassing bilby, a leg-rope expert was hired.
February 20, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word one-horse
Hence Petty
February 17, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word tsutsumu
What exactly is an appropriate manner?
February 17, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the list bits-and-pieces
You're a creative genius, madmouth.
February 2, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word deadname
COMMENT: she is nothing!. shes famous for a sex video and having lip injections and butt implants. Its too bad she breaths the same air as everyone else, such a waste. Well the whole clan is, from Bruce Jenner aka "caitlyn" to kylie and kendall Jenner. I know i should just skip over anything about them, but i had to see about her sending her haters stuff. I think its just for attention.
REPLY: There was literally no need to deadname Caitlyn in your little rant. If you don't like the Kardashians then don't click on the articles.
(I did not correct any of the punctuation, etc, even though it was tempting.)
Would someone please define deadname? I'm a bit confused. The Twitter feed is all over the place with examples, but none nail it.
February 2, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word coffin-ripe
At what point does one become coffin-overripe?
January 27, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word semantic typo
Forgot about this! Thanks for reintroducing it.
January 26, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word cluttering
In cluttering, the breakdowns in clarity that accompany a perceived rapid and/or irregular speech rate are often characterized by deletion and/or collapsing of syllables (e.g., "I wanwatevision") and/or omission of word endings (e.g., "Turn the televisoff"). The breakdowns in fluency are often characterized by more typical disfluencies (e.g., revisions, interjections) and/or pauses in places in sentences not expected grammatically, such as "I will go to the/store and buy apples".--http://www.asha.org/
January 26, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word nurse name
A well-known example of a nurse name (from a surname) is "Chips" (Professor Arthur Chipping from the 1969 film "Good-bye, Mr. Chips".)
Prior to Professor Chipping's marriage, however, and his subsequent personality change, his pupils called him "Ditchy," short for "dull as ditch-water."
Not sure if "Ditchy" is a "nurse name" since it isn't a term of endearment, but it is a nickname of sorts.
Ha, regarding your Great Aunt Lalla. My guess is that numerous "nurse names" found their origins via baby talk or a toddler's (temporary) fluency disorder.
See also sobriquet.
January 26, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word nurse name
A nurse name is a hypocorism, a diminutive form of a name. Hypocorisms include pet names or calling names, often a diminutive or augmentative form of a word or a given name when used as a nickname or term of endearment.
January 24, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word mock marking
"English teachers spent the bulk of year 10 teaching and marking coursework essays, and didn’t get on to doing mocks until year 11. I was really pleased when coursework was abolished as I felt it would free up so much more time for teachers to plan and teach, instead of mark and administer coursework. However, it does appear as though a lot of this gained time has now been replaced with equally time-consuming mock marking with mocks being introduced more and more in year 10. Many schools have three assessment points a year. If you were to do two mock papers three times a year in both year 10 and 11, then a teacher who taught one year 10 class and one year 11 class would spend 120 hours of the year marking GCSE mocks. That’s three normal working weeks, or nearly 10% of the contracted 1,265 annual hours of directed time."
What are the definitions for mocks and mock marking in the context above?
January 22, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word Target
The retail store Target is sometimes referred to as TAR-zhay. It's supposed to sound French, and thus high-class. This unofficial name change, initiated by customers, took place around the time Target began using some well-known designer(s) to spiffy up their low-priced wares. The term has been used by The New York Times.
January 22, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word glisten worm
Chaetoderma elegans is a species of glisten worm, a kind of shell-less, worm-like mollusk in the family Chaetodermidae. This species is found in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. --wikipedia
January 21, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word Cincinnati oysters
Here's an archived copy of Clapin's Americanisms, 1902:
https://archive.org/stream/cu31924104766328/cu31924104766328_djvu.txt
January 16, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word aporrhipsis
The meaning I found was along the lines of frantically removing one's clothes (such as one's pajamas) during a feverish delirium.
The Coxe meaning sounds like a disgruntled fashionista.
January 14, 2018
vendingmachine commented on the word Christmas book flood
An Icelandic tradition known as jólabókaflóð (Christmas book flood). Books are exchanged as Christmas Eve gifts and the rest of the night is spent reading and eating konfekt (filled chocolates) and sipping jólabland, an orange fizzy ale.
Iceland sells the greatest number of books per capita in the world – and most of them are sold in the weeks leading up to Christmas. The book catalog Bókatíðindi is published each November and lists every published book available during the Christmas season.
December 15, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word sheetcaking
Heal your feelings by eating sheetcake.
December 15, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word sheetcaking
Wordnik is mentioned in this article about sheetcaking.
"Sheetcaking: Seriously?" Chronicle of Higher Education.
"It has made its way into discussions on Wordnik and more than a dozen tweets, though as yet without a definition."
December 14, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word flydick
"Why them birds, bein' mostly nuts, is so nervous they can't read, nor work, nor do nothin' to ease the bugs that is bitin' their noodles. That's where this strongarm stuff comes in, and the flydicks knows it."
--Them Was The Good Old Days, W.L. Purcell, 1922.
November 1, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word purply
... a purple BLEE?
October 22, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word heel
In professional wrestling, a heel is a wrestler who is villainous or a "bad guy", who is booked (scripted) by the promotion to be in the position of being an antagonist. They are typically opposed by their polar opposites called faces (the heroic protagonist or "good guy" characters). In American wrestling, it was common for the faces to be American and the heels to be portrayed as foreign.
In order to gain heat (with boos and jeers from the audience), heels are often portrayed as behaving in an immoral manner by breaking rules or otherwise taking advantage of their opponents outside the bounds of the standards of the match. Others do not (or rarely) break rules, but instead exhibit unlikeable, appalling and deliberately offensive and demoralizing personality traits such as arrogance, cowardice or contempt for the audience. Many heels do both, cheating as well as behaving nastily. No matter the type of heel, the most important job is that of the antagonist role, as heels exist to provide a foil to the face wrestlers. If a given heel is cheered over the face, a promoter may opt to turn that heel to face or the other way around or to make the wrestler do something even more despicable to encourage heel heat.
August 31, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word quantum foam
"Armed with theoretical microscopes, quantum physicists keep on magnifying, gazing deeper and deeper into empty space until out of nothing, they suddenly see something. That something is a roiling collection of virtual particles, collectively called quantum foam.... According to quantum physicists, virtual particles exist briefly as fleeting fluctuations in the fabric of spacetime, like bubbles in beer foam." "Is Space Full of Quantum Foam?", LiveScience, 5 August 2017.
August 7, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word housekeeping gene
In molecular biology, housekeeping genes are typically constitutive genes that are required for the maintenance of basic cellular function and are expressed in all cells of an organism under normal and pathophysiological conditions.
August 3, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word scientific racism
"The scientific study of hereditary disease in Jewish populations was initially hindered by scientific racism, which is based on racial supremacism."
August 3, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word CASK
"Soon criminologists started to take killer nurses seriously. In 1995, British forensic chemist Alexander Forrest reviewed about 40 examples of the type and suggested that one or two new cases might be seen each year in the United States. He proposed calling these murders “CASKs,” for carer-associated serial killings, and noted that “the numbers of patients involved are not trivial.” --"The Killer Nurse", Slate, 2017 July 24. source
July 30, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word squaghetti
Another name for spaghetti squash. I found this word while looking at a recipe for spaghetti squash pizza crust.
July 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word eight
St Edmund's College Boat Club (SECBC) is the boat club for members of St Edmund's College, Cambridge, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
SECBC uses the Cambridge '99 RC boathouse for training and storing its boats. The club has two boats, 'Lily' a men's eight and 'Dotty' a women's eight.
June 19, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word ruby-topaz
I concur. Check out the hummingbird images!
June 18, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word █████
orange IS the new black, after all.
June 18, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word Book Book
Don't forget the free bookmark that comes with your Book Book book.
June 12, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word Book Book
Book Book is a rural community in the central east part of the Riverina. It is situated about 12 km (7 mi) north from Kyeamba and 15 km (9 mi) south from Ladysmith.
Book Book exists now only through a set of old tennis courts and the telephone exchange that sits just off the Tumbarumba road.
(Book Book is considered a New South Wales "ghost town")
The Book Book Public School was discontinued on 27 October 1989.
June 12, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the list food-that-shall-not-be-named
According to a common misconception, century eggs are or were once prepared by soaking eggs in horse urine. The myth may have arisen from the urine-like odor of ammonia and other amines produced by the chemical reaction used to make century eggs. However, this myth is unfounded as horse urine has a pH ranging from 7.5 to 7.9 and therefore would not work for this process.
In Thai and Lao, the common word for century egg translates to "horse urine egg", due to the distinctive urine-like odor of the delicacy. --Wikipedia
June 7, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word coywolves
Coywolves are not ‘shy wolves’—they are coyote-wolf hybrids (with some dog mixed in) and now number in the millions.
The hybrid, or Canis latrans var, is about 55 pounds heavier than pure coyotes, with longer legs, a larger jaw, smaller ears and a bushier tail. It is part eastern wolf, part wester wolf, western coyote and with some dog (large breeds like Doberman Pinschers and German Shepherds), reports The Economist. Coywolves today are on average a quarter wolf and a tenth dog.
June 4, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word luthier
The player of a lute is called a lutenist, lutanist or lutist, and a maker of lutes (or any similar string instrument, or violin family instruments) is referred to as a luthier.
May 25, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word conker
n. A snail-shell or a horse-chestnut used in a boys' game, in which the object is to break the snail-shell or horse-chestnut by striking it, with another.
Wow. So easy even boys are able to grasp the rules. Must be an easy game.
May 22, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word genuphobia
Genuphobia (from Latin word genu meaning "knee") is the fear of one's own knees or someone else's knees or the act of kneeling.
The phobia could be the result of a negative experience in a person’s life that was associated with knees. The discomfort at the sight of one's knees could be the result of the person’s parents or themselves wearing exclusively clothing that covered the knees growing up, therefore making the person unfamiliar with the sight of them. It could be the result of a traumatic injury that left a scar on the individual’s knee or on someone that they know.
Some people fear kneeling because it is a form of submission. Symptoms include but are not limited to becoming sick to the stomach, excessive sweating, dry mouth, and anxiety when presented with a situation including knees or kneeling. Sufferers fear the uncomfortable feeling they experience at the sight of knees or they fear the recollection of the injury and the pain associated with it.
May 13, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word bilbies
Bilbies are never out of work. Being cute is a full-time job.
May 12, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the list silly-silly-words
Many of these words border on "annoying".
May 8, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word Oddest Title of the Year
I tried listing the name of the actual prize; however, I kept getting a 404 whenever it came time to add a comment.
The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, originally known as the Diagram Group Prize for the Oddest Title at the Frankfurt Book Fair,1 commonly known as the Diagram Prize for short, is a humorous literary award that is given annually to a book with an unusual title.
Past winners:
--Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice
--The Madam as Entrepreneur: Career Management in House Prostitution
--The Joy of Chickens
--Last Chance at Love – Terminal Romances
--How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art
--The Joy of Sex: Pocket Edition
--Developments in Dairy Cow Breeding: New Opportunities to Widen the Use of Straw
--Living with Crazy Buttocks
--The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories
--Bombproof Your Horse
--Too Naked For the Nazis
May 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word Darwin Awards
The Darwin Awards are a tongue-in-cheek honor, originating in Usenet newsgroup discussions around 1985. They recognize individuals who have supposedly contributed to human evolution by selecting themselves out of the gene pool via death or sterilization by their own actions.
The project became more formalized with the creation of a website in 1993 and followed up by a series of books starting in 2000, authored by Wendy Northcutt. The criterion for the awards states, "In the spirit of Charles Darwin, the Darwin Awards commemorate individuals who protect our gene pool by making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives. Darwin Award winners eliminate themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner, thereby improving our species' chances of long-term survival."
Accidental self-sterilization also qualifies; however, the site notes: "Of necessity, the award is usually bestowed posthumously." The candidate is disqualified, though, if "innocent bystanders", who might have contributed positively to the gene pool, are killed in the process.
The Darwin Awards books state that an attempt is made to disallow known urban legends from the awards, but some older "winners" have been "grandfathered" to keep their awards. The Darwin Awards site does try to verify all submitted stories, but many similar sites, and the vast number of circulating "Darwin awards" emails, are largely fictional.
May 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word Pigasus Award
The Pigasus Award is the name of an annual tongue-in-cheek award presented by noted skeptic James Randi. The award seeks to expose parapsychological, paranormal or psychic frauds that Randi has noted over the previous year. Randi usually makes his announcements of the awards from the previous year on April 1 (April Fools Day).
May 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word Stella Awards
The Stella Awards are awards that were given between 2002 and 2007 to people who filed "outrageous and frivolous lawsuits". The awards were named after Stella Liebeck who, in 1992, ordered a cup of McDonald's coffee at a drive thru, put it in between her knees while sitting in the passenger seat of her grandson's stationary car, and attempted to remove the lid in order to add cream and sugar. The coffee, 180 to 190 °F (82 to 88 °C), spilled from the cup, causing third-degree burns to her thighs and genitals; after McDonald's refused to pay for her skin grafts, and rejected several attempts at mediation and settlement, Liebeck sued. The awards were an offshoot of the weekly news column This is True written by Colorado writer Randy Cassingham, which featured "wacky-yet-true" news stories.5 The awards were documented on a website and in a 2005 book, both known as The True Stella Awards. There are also a number of false Stella Awards circulating on the Internet.
In July 2012 Cassingham sent a mail to the True Stella Awards mailing list, announcing that after several abortive attempts to restart the list he came to the conclusion that he had said everything about the subject of frivolous lawsuits that he had intended to say, and so was shutting down the Stella Awards.
May 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word Golden Raspberry Awards
The Golden Raspberry Awards often shortened to Razzies and Razzie Awards, is an award in recognition of the worst in film. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film-industry veterans, John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, the annual Razzie Awards ceremony in Los Angeles precedes the corresponding Academy Awards ceremony by one day. The term raspberry in the name is used in its irreverent sense, as in "blowing a raspberry". The awards themselves are in the form of a "golf ball-sized raspberry" which sits atop a Super 8 mm film reel, the whole of which is spray-painted gold.
May 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word Bad Sex in Fiction Award
Literary Review is well known for its annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Each year since 1993, Literary Review has presented the annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award to the author who produces the worst description of a sex scene in a novel. The award itself is in the form of a "semi-abstract trophy representing sex in the 1950s", which depicts a naked woman draped over an open book. The award was originally established by Rhoda Koenig, a literary critic, and Auberon Waugh, then the magazine's editor.
The award is "to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it".
May 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word Bent Spoon Award
The Bent Spoon Award is an award given by Australian Skeptics, "presented to the perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudoscientific piffle". The award is named as allusion to the practice of spoon bending by supposed psychics.
Australian Skeptics facetiously describes the trophy as a piece of gopher wood supposedly from the Noah’s Ark, upon which is affixed a spoon that was rumored to have been used at the Last Supper. The spoon was bent by energies unknown to science and was gold-plated through an Atlantean process.1 Although established in 1982 and first awarded in 1983, only one copy of the trophy exists, as "anyone wishing to acquire the trophy must remove it from our keeping by paranormal means" and no winner has yet overcome this obstacle.
The winner should either be an Australian or have carried out their activities in Australia.
The New Zealand Skeptics have a similar Bent Spoon Award.
May 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word Ig Nobel Prizes
The Ig Nobel Prizes are parodies of the Nobel Prizes given out each autumn for 10 unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. They have been awarded since 1991, with the stated aim to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think". The awards can be veiled criticism or satire but are also used to point out that even absurd-sounding avenues of research can yield useful knowledge.
May 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word banana messenger
Banana messengers or fruit messengers were agents sent on US railroads to accompany shipments of bananas and other fruit. They were accorded special ticket rates, similar to those for railway employees and clergy, as late as the 1960s. The tickets were not honored on some premium trains. Reportedly, the reduced rate also applied to the return trip (sans bananas).
The name was also used to refer to some cabooses. Described in IC 9650-9956, these were steel underframe drover's cabooses built between 1897 and 1913, and reclassified as banana messengers sometime between 1955 and 1963. The last five were scrapped or sold between 1963 and 1971.
May 5, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word dégringoler
This is not the meaning I expected. I figured it had something to do with a gringo changing into something else, and the dégringoler was the one to facilitate that change.
verb intransitive dégringoler /degʀɛ̃gɔle/
=chuter faire une chute précipitée
to tumble , to fall
verb transitive―
=dévaler descendre très rapidement
to race down
Le voleur dégringole les étages de l'immeuble pour échapper aux policiers.
The thief is racing down the stairs in the building to escape from the police.
May 5, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word potvaliancy
courage or bravery occasioned by drunkenness; Dutch courage. — potvaliant , adj . See also potvalor, potvalency
May 3, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word Owenism
The social and political theories of Robert Owen, an early 19th-century British reformer whose emphasis upon cooperative education and living led to the founding of communal experiments, including the ill-fated community of New Harmony, Indiana, purchased from the Rappites. — Owenite , n.
May 3, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word arctophilist
What about chained bears?
May 3, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word tyrosemiophily
The collecting of Camembert cheese labels. Collecting cheese labels, in general, is laclabphily.
May 3, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word laclabphily
To specifically collect Camembert cheese labels is tyrosemiophily.
May 3, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word errinophily
The collecting of stamps other than postage stamps (green stamps, revenue/tax stamps).
May 3, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word brandophily
The collecting of cigar bands. Also known as cigrinophily.
May 3, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word argyrothecology
The collecting of money boxes, as those found in churches.
May 3, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the list and-the-last-first
Mollusque has addictive lists. Such a learned fellow, and with a nice sense of humor to boot. I still miss all the camaraderie from the days when Wordnik was Wordie. (I wasn't known as vendingmachine around here during the Wordie days.)
May 3, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word maledictive
"No need to dwell on the legendary beauty of the cornerpieces, the acme of art, wherein one can distinctly discern each of the four evangelists in turn presenting to each of the four masters his evangelical symbol, a bog oak sceptre, a North American puma (a far nobler king of beasts than the British article, be it said in passing), a Kerry calf and a golden eagle from Carrantuohill. The scenes depicted on the emunctory field, showing our ancient duns and raths and cromlechs and grianauns and seats of learning and maledictive stones, are as wonderfully beautiful and the pigments as delicate as when the Sligo illuminators gave free rein to their artistic fantasy long ago in the time of the Barmecides. Glendalough, the lovely lakes of Killarney, the ruins of Clonmacnois, Cong Abbey, Glen Inagh and the Twelve Pins, Ireland's Eye, the Green Hills of Tallaght, Croagh Patrick, the brewery of Messrs Arthur Guinness, Son and Company (Limited), Lough Neagh's banks, the vale of Ovoca, Isolde's tower, the Mapas obelisk, Sir Patrick Dun's hospital, Cape Clear, the glen of Aherlow, Lynch's castle, the Scotch house, Rathdown Union Workhouse at Loughlinstown, Tullamore jail, Castleconnel rapids, Kilballymacshonakill, the cross at Monasterboice, Jury's Hotel, S. Patrick's Purgatory, the Salmon Leap, Maynooth college refectory, Curley's hole, the three birthplaces of the first duke of Wellington, the rock of Cashel, the bog of Allen, the Henry Street Warehouse, Fingal's Cave—all these moving scenes are still there for us today rendered more beautiful still by the waters of sorrow which have passed over them and by the rich incrustations of time." --Ulysses, James Joyce
May 3, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the list aarne-thompson-classification-system-for-folktales
Thanks for running with this, ru. Finding out about the classification system was about all I could muster. This list idea would have languished without you.
May 2, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word lunar crater
Abetti is a lunar crater that has been completely submerged by mare lavas. It forms a 'ghost crater' in the surface, showing only a curved rise where the rim is located.
May 1, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word masks
Mexican wrestling is characterized by colorful masks, rapid sequences of holds and maneuvers, as well as "high-flying" maneuvers, some of which have been adopted in the United States. The wearing of masks has developed special significance, and matches are sometimes contested in which the loser must permanently remove his mask, which is a wager with a high degree of weight attached.
May 1, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word ampelography
..for Virginia-based vineyard consultant Lucie Morton, a world-renowned ampelographer, it’s still crucial to know how to distinguish vines the old-fashioned way: by sight and touch. It took Morton years to learn ampelography, a skill that few viticulturists in today’s high-tech world still work to master. “It’s like speaking a new language: practice makes perfect,” she says. “Ampelography is really hard, and it takes a trained eye. I would compare it to what a sommelier goes through in identifying wines blind. It takes interest, practice, focus. You build on your knowledge, just like you do with wine tasting, layering your experiences.”
April 30, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word copyfraud
Copyright law itself creates strong incentives for copyfraud. The Copyright Act provides for no civil penalty for falsely claiming ownership of public domain materials. There is also no remedy under the Act for individuals who wrongly refrain from legal copying or who make payment for permission to copy something they are in fact entitled to use for free. While falsely claiming copyright is technically a criminal offense under the Act, prosecutions are extremely rare. These circumstances have produced fraud on an untold scale, with millions of works in the public domain deemed copyrighted, and countless dollars paid out every year in licensing fees to make copies that could be made for free.
April 30, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word copyfraud
The term "copyfraud" was coined by Jason Mazzone, a Professor of Law at the University of Illinois. Because copyfraud carries little or no oversight by authorities and few legal consequences, it exists on a massive scale, with millions of works in the public domain falsely labeled as copyrighted. Payments are therefore unnecessarily made by businesses and individuals for licensing fees. Mazzone states that copyfraud stifles valid reproduction of free material, discourages innovation and undermines free speech rights. Other legal scholars have suggested public and private remedies, and a few cases have been brought involving copyfraud.
April 30, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the list cryptic
cryptic sexual dimorphism
April 30, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word eclipse plumage
Most ducks shed their body feathers twice each year. Nearly all drakes lose their bright plumage after mating, and for a few weeks resemble females. This hen-like appearance is called the eclipse plumage. The return to breeding coloration varies in species and individuals of each species.
April 30, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word aarne-thompson-uther classification system
A quantitative study, published by folklorist Sara Graça da Silva and anthropologist Jamshid J. Tehrani in 2016, tried to evaluate the time of emergence for the "Tales of Magic" (ATU 300–ATU 749), based on a phylogenetic model] They found four of them to belong to the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) stratum of magic tales, namely:
ATU 328 The Boy Steals Ogre's Treasure,
ATU 330 The Smith and the Devil (= KHM 81a),
ATU 402 The Animal Bride (= KHM 63 and 106), and
ATU 554 The Grateful Animals (= The White Snake, KHM 17, and The Queen Bee, KHM 62).
April 30, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word aarne-thompson-uther classification system
The Aarne–Thompson classification systems are indices used to classify folktales: the Aarne–Thompson Motif-Index (catalogued by alphabetical letters followed by numerals), the Aarne–Thompson Tale Type Index (cataloged by AT or AaTh numbers), and the Aarne–Thompson–Uther classification system (developed in 2004 and cataloged by ATU numbers). The indices are used in folkloristics to organize, classify, and analyze folklore narratives and are essential tools for folklorists because, as Alan Dundes explained in 1997 about the first two indices, "the identification of folk narratives through motif and/or tale type numbers has become an international sine qua non among bona fide folklorists"
April 30, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the list never-use--word
Not a single word but I never use:
"... at the end of the day ..."
April 22, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word hidden-treasures
What hidden treasures are waiting to be found in a beard? Food crumbs?
April 21, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word sorn
To obtain food, lodging, etc, from others by taking advantage of their generosity; to impose in order to obtain hospitality; sponge.
April 17, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word sprong
Spring has sprong. Or is it sprung? Both sound unspringlike.
April 17, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word wellcurb
A stone border at the top of a well.
April 17, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word fuscous
"The forewings are ochreous-white, strongly suffused with deep gray. The inner angle, veins, a longitudinal dash in the cell and a series of spots around the termen are all blackish fuscous. The hindwings are pale smoky gray."
April 17, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word termen
"The forewings are ochreous-white, strongly suffused with deep gray. The inner angle, veins, a longitudinal dash in the cell and a series of spots around the termen are all blackish fuscous. The hindwings are pale smoky gray."
April 17, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word ochreous
"The forewings are ochreous-white, strongly suffused with deep gray. The inner angle, veins, a longitudinal dash in the cell and a series of spots around the termen are all blackish fuscous. The hindwings are pale smoky gray."
April 17, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word inmyendo
a suppository or an enema
April 16, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word Wapasha II
Wapasha (II) (b.1768–1855) was the name of a Mdewakanton Dakota chief. He sided with the United States in the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War.
April 16, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the user voa4you
SPAM
April 15, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the user Trp19430
The only idiot here is the one making statements such as yours.
April 15, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word needle vending machine
To provide sterile needles for drug users?
April 14, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the list hail-size-descriptors
I create open lists because others invariably enrich those lists. Kindly add graupel, ru.
April 14, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the list words-ending-with--gator
@kalayzich. This is an open list. I welcome your additions. What's anal retentive about your suggestions? Thank you.
April 14, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the list hail-size-descriptors
.50 Marble, moth ball
.88 Nickel
1.00 Quarter
1.25 Half dollar
1.50 Walnut, ping pong
1.75 Golf ball
2.00 Hen egg
2.50 Tennis ball
2.75 Baseball
3.00 Tea cup
4.00 Softball
4.50 Grapefruit
I'm not sure what hail larger than a grapefruit is called. Maybe hail that size has never been reported.
April 14, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word subacute sclerosing panencephalitis
SSPE. A slow virus infection of the brain caused by a defective form of the measles virus that occurs many years after meales.
April 8, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word Urechis caupo
A free-living burrowing marine worm that lives in tidal mudflats.
April 8, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word trichinosis
A disease of muscle caused by a parasitic roundworm and transmitted by eating undercooked pork or bear meat.
April 8, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word acute respiratory distress syndrome
ARDS. A disorder of the lung tissue caused by infection, shock, burns, or other insults in which the capillaries become leaky and the air spaces fill with fluid. With ARDS, the lung tissue loses its watertight seal and becomes soggy; it can't absorb gases, even with 100 percent oxygen on a ventilator. Once a patient develops ARDS, it's usually the point of no return.
April 8, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word sparganosis
An invasive infection by a larval tapeworm, often of the eye, contracted by applying a poultice made of raw frog flesh.
April 8, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word earage
Only dogs? What about other animals... bilbies?
April 2, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word bilby magic
Can't make up stuff like this.
bilby magic.
March 31, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word carillonneur
See also carillonist.
March 28, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the list marbling
I love unusual and niche-y topic lists such as this. Jauks darbs, ruz!
March 22, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word brasero
a place where criminals and heretics are burned.
March 22, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word diribitory
place where pay is distributed to soldiers
March 22, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word lococession
the place where alms are deposited.
March 22, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word lavadero
the place for washing gold ore.
March 22, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word volery
A place where aircraft are repaired.
March 22, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word thutter
That's how I purr. When I'm really purring along, I'll release two urinal cakes for the price of one. Tasty!
March 22, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word constructor
People who make crossword puzzles are called constructors. All crossword puzzles used to be laid out by hand. Today many crossword puzzle constructors use computer software to assist in the puzzle layout. Crossword puzzles that end up in large newspapers or in syndication are controlled by an editor. Constructors submit their puzzles to a crossword editor and the editor decides which puzzles are selected (and for what day since crosswords raise in difficulty through the week).
March 20, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word rise and shine it's time to make the doughnuts
While you're waiting for ruzuzu, may I share a doughnut hole with you?
March 17, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word commensalism
mutualism vs commensalism vs parasitism
March 9, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word blanketflower
a plant of the genus Gaillardia.
March 8, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word mutualism
A parasite is no doubt altering bilby's dopaminergic neurotransmissions resulting in neuropsychiatric symptoms, including a change in predator vigilance. it's also entirely possible that parasites have affected bilby's sexual arousal pathways when he's exposed to muesli bars soaked in dingo urine.
March 7, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word parasitic manipulation
See mutualism. I'm not sure how an ant benefits from parasitic manipulation in the case of ant brain control (caused by a fungus).
March 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word mutualism
Big surprise that zombie ants originated from a comment by bilby. I'm guessing there is a specific parasite out there that is manipulating bilby's brain into performing erratic behaviors so he'll get the attention of a bilby-eating predator (the next intended host).
March 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word pig-swimming tourism
Wildlife tourism—which accounts for 20 to 40 percent of all tourism worldwide—is controversial, and can be harmful to animals. After being accused of promoting such attractions, TripAdvisor halted sales to them in 2016.
Many tourists can’t tell if the places they visit hurt wildlife, according to a 2015 ranking of wildlife attractions around the world. Every year, two to four million tourists pay for experiences that aren’t good for animal welfare or conservation.
According to that ranking, dolphin tourism and shark cage diving, both popular in the Bahamas, have negative impacts on wildlife.
But Bethune hopes that, if the proper changes are made, pig-swimming tourism will continue to thrive.
March 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word suicidal crickets
Hairworms have a perpetual challenge: They infect landlubbing insects like crickets, but the parasites must make their way to an aquatic habitat in order to reproduce.
Researchers at France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique figured out how they accomplish this feat. Hairworms produce mind-controlling chemicals that cause their cricket host to move toward light. Because water bodies reflect moonlight, this often sends crickets toward lakes and streams.
The crickets jump in and drown, and the hairworms emerge, ready to find their next victim.
March 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word fishy dance of death
The fluke Euhaplorchis californiensis begins its life in an ocean-dwelling horn snail, where it produces larvae that then seek their next host, a killifish.
Once it finds a fish, the parasite latches on to its gills and makes its way to the brain. But this isn't its final stop.
The fluke needs to get inside the gut of a water bird in order to reproduce. So inside the killifish's brain, the fluke releases chemicals that cause the fish to shimmy, jerk, and jump.
Jenny Shaw, then at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and colleagues found that the parasite decreases serotonin and increases dopamine levels in the fish's brain. The switch in this brain chemistry stimulates the fish to swim and behave more aggressively.
These moves attract the attention of birds, which may eat the fish—and the flukes. The flukes mate, and their eggs are released back into the water in the bird's droppings to be eaten by horn snails and start the cycle anew.
March 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word mind-controlling slime balls
As an adult, the lancet liver fluke—a type of flatworm—resides in the livers of grazing mammals such as cows.
Its eggs are excreted in the host's feces, which are then eaten by snails. After the eggs hatch inside the snail, the snail creates protective cysts around the parasites and coughs them up in balls of mucus.
These fluke-laden slime balls are then consumed by ants. When the flukes wiggle their way into an ant's brain, they cause the insect to climb to the tip of a blade of grass and sit motionless, where it's most likely to be eaten by a grazing mammal. That way, the liver fluke can complete its life cycle.
March 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word zombie cockroaches
Females of the Costa Rican wasp Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga lay their eggs on the abdomens of unlucky orb spiders called Plesiometa argyra.
When the female jewel wasp is ready to procreate, she finds a cockroach to serve as a living nursery for her young.
First, she injects a toxin into the roach that paralyzes its front legs. Then the wasp strikes again in the roach's head. Frederic Libersat of Ben-Gurion University in Israel and colleagues discovered that the venom targets a specific area of the brain responsible for initiating movement.
Stripped of its ability to move of its own free will, the cockroach can be grabbed by the antenna and guided to a burrow, where the wasp will lay her egg on the victim and entomb them together. (Read more about how zombie roaches lose free will because of wasp venom.)
The wasp larva slowly consumes the cockroach for several days before pupating in its abdomen, emerging as an adult about a month later.
March 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word web-slinging wasps
Females of the Costa Rican wasp Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga lay their eggs on the abdomens of unlucky orb spiders called Plesiometa argyra.
After living off its host for a few weeks, the wasp larva injects a chemical into the spider that makes it build a strange, new kind of web, unlike anything it's built before.
But this new web isn't for the spider: It's meant to support the cocoon that the wasp larva will build after finally killing and eating the spider.
March 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word parasitic manipulation
Normally a rat or mouse will keep to the shadows, thus avoiding cats. But when they are infected by toxoplasma the parasite completely changes their behavior. An infected mouse is attracted to the smell of cat urine and will move out into the open, displaying reckless behavior. The reason, of course, is the parasite wants the mouse to be eaten by a cat, so it can then infect its new host.
Humans also get infected by toxoplasma, though it is only really serious when a woman is pregnant as toxoplasma can damage the unborn child. But new research suggests that toxoplasma may influence us in more subtle ways.
We know, for example, that people who have antibodies to toxoplasma are more than twice as likely to be involved in a traffic accident. It could be that the parasite is making us, like rodents, behave in a more reckless fashion. Research also suggests it may slow down reaction times, with the intention of making us more vulnerable to large predators. Either way it is a chilling thought that parasites may be influencing how we behave in ways we do not yet begin to understand.
-How Parasites Manipulate Us, BBC News, 19 Feb 2014
March 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word attemptress
@bilby. You won me over when you mentioned the dwarf poinsettia leaves.
February 21, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the user hometurphindia
When performance of polishing of body is underway, is scent of lemon Pledge® used without flaw? I require utmost effective polish service with expediency and professional manner.
February 13, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word exobiont
--Lobster olfactory genomics, Integr Comp Biol (2006) 46 (6): 940-947.
--Lobster olfactory genomics, Integr Comp Biol (2006) 46 (6): 940-947.
February 6, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word unikernel
According to twitter, there's the term exokernel as well.
"I will definitely be watching unikernel and exokernel approaches closely in the next years, especially for security."
January 31, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word tone policing
An anti-debate appeal based on genetic fallacy, which attempts to detract from the validity of a statement by attacking the tone rather than the message.
In Bailey Poland's book, Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online, she suggests that tone policing is frequently aimed at women and derails or silences opponents lower on the "privilege ladder".
In changing their tactics to criticizing how the women spoke instead of what the women said, the men created an environment in which the outcome of a dispute was not decided on the merits of an argument but on whether the men chose to engage with the arguments in good faith.
— Bailey Poland, Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online, page 46
While anyone can engage in tone policing, it is frequently aimed at women as a way to prevent a woman from making a point in the discussion.
— Bailey Poland, Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online, page 47
January 31, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word blesseds
Beatified individuals or blesseds according to the Catholic Church.
January 19, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word unword
EVERY year the German Language Society selects a word of the year and an "unword", usually something somebody said but should not have done.
January 10, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word unwordable
Nice example:
"The real reality, the flickering of seen and unseen actualities, the moment under the moment, can't be put into words; the most that a writer can do--and this is only rarely achieved--is to write in such a way that the reader finds himself in a place where the unwordable happens off the page."
January 10, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word happy number
A happy number is a number defined by the following process: Starting with any positive integer, replace the number by the sum of the squares of its digits, and repeat the process until the number either equals 1 (where it will stay), or it loops endlessly in a cycle which does not include 1. Those numbers for which this process ends in 1 are happy numbers, while those that do not end in 1 are unhappy numbers (or sad numbers).
January 4, 2017
vendingmachine commented on the word hexahectaheptacontakaidigon
672-sided polygon. For a tutorial about naming polygons see NAMING POLYGONS.
December 31, 2016
vendingmachine commented on the word retroactive continuity
Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which new information is added to already established facts in the continuity of a fictional work.
December 30, 2016