A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

septentrional  (sep-TEN-tree-uh-nuhl)  adjective:  Northern.

From Latin septentriones, literally the seven ploughing oxen, a name for the seven stars of the Great Bear constellation that appears in the northern sky.  From Latin septem (seven) + triones (ploughing oxen).  Earliest documented use: around 1400.

hebdomad  (HEB-duh-mad)   noun:  1.  A group of seven.  2.  A period of seven days; a week.

From Latin hebdomas, from Greek hepta (seven).  Earliest documented use:  1545.
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From:  Bruce Flinn  Subject:  septentrional
As an old navigator, I enjoy studying ancient charts and atlases, and the words septentrional and meridional are familiar terms for North and South, respectively.  Septentrional, refers to the seven stars of what is known, in North America, as the Big Dipper.  The Big Dipper is also known as Ursa Major, Latin for Great Bear.  The Greek word for bear is arktos (adjective: arktikos) from which we get Arctic.  The opposite of arktikos would be anti-arktikos, or Antarctic.  The word meridian comes from Latin meridies -- the middle of the day.  The middle of the day is determined by watching the sun rise from the east.  When it reaches its highest point, just before it begins to set, that is midday or local noon.  Most of the navigators and astronomers viewed this moment by looking south, since they were viewing the sun form the northern hemisphere.
From:  Fran Robertson  Subject:  septentrional
In the explanation, the 'Great Bear constellation' is mentioned.  Ursa Major is the Great Bear constellation, the Big Dipper (the seven stars) is not a constellation of itself, it is an asterism, which is a portion of a constellation, known by another name.  For instance, the 'Milk Dipper' is an asterism in the constellation Sagittarius.
From:  Tim Juchter  Subject:  Hebdomad / Hebdomadar
Def: 1.  A group of seven.  2.   A period of seven days; a week.
This word finally illuminated one I've wondered about for years:  the administrative position at Scottish universities called the hebdomadar.  Turns out that was originally a position held for seven days.

From:  Rudy Rosenberg Sr  Subject:  hebdomad

When I was a young boy in Belgium, I would devour weekly Hebdomadaires magazines, one named HEBDO, that appeared strangely enough on a weekly basis.  It took until today for me to realize the power of seven and for that, I thank you.
From:  James Sanders   Subject:  hebdomad
Oxford University was governed from 1854 to 2000 by Hebdomadal Council, so named because it met strictly only once a week.

Dec. 7, 2012  You might not expect a mind-bending vortex to emerge from an old quilt.  But about 100 years ago, a housewife armed with a needle and some red and white scraps of cloth crafted a unique pattern that doubles as a brain trick.  Recently discovered at a quilt show in New York City by Eric Altschuler from the University of Dentistry & Medicine of New Jersey in Newark, the patchwork appears to be made up of spirals that descend into a 3D vortex in the middle.  But in fact the red and white rectangles in the pattern are arranged in concentric circles that decrease in size and thickness as they approach the center.  To study the effect, Altschuler and his students have now recreated the pattern using software.  By producing a version where the circles don't get thinner (see video), the team found that the image still seems to spiral but no longer looks three-dimensional.  When viewed in peripheral vision, the spirals are initially visible but quickly vanish.  The contrasting red and white colours also affect the illusion of depth.  When a green hue that's just as bright as the red is substituted for the white, the spirals become flat.  But if the red is dimmer than the green, or vice versa, the vortex returns.  This shows that without contrast, depth cues are lost.  According to Altschuler, the phenomenon is a result of the gestalt effect, whereby we tend to visually group a collection of features into a larger shape.  In this case, our brain creates the smoothest path between diagonal red blocks, which therefore appear to be connected, creating the illusion of curved arms.  The effect is especially pronounced when looking at the smaller blocks near the centre:  larger pieces further out are more likely to be perceived as distinct objects.  Altschuler recently presented his findings at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.  The maker and origin of the quilt are still a mystery but the butterfly designs in the corners suggest it was made between 1890 and 1910.  See image at:  http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2012/12/friday-illusion-100-year-old-quilt-reveals-3d-vortex.html

New rules now allow the little-known National Counterterrorism Center to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to suspect them.  Through Freedom of Information Act requests and interviews with officials at numerous agencies, The Wall Street Journal has reconstructed the internal clash over the rules, which one Homeland Security official described as a “sea change in the way that the government interacts with the general public.”  http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/12/13/the-am-roundup-a-government-dragnet-challenging-right-to-work-more/

The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) was established by Presidential Executive Order in August 2004, and codified by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA). NCTC implements a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission:  “Breaking the older mold of national government organizations, this NCTC should be a center for joint operational planning and joint intelligence, staffed by personnel from the various agencies.”  http://www.dni.gov/index.php/about/organization/national-counterterrorism-center-who-we-are

Executive Orders of George W. Bush  http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/orders/

Definitions of dreidel

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
n.  A toy similar to a spinning top used in games of chance played by children and adults at Hanukkah.
GNU Webster's 1913
n.  a toy shaped somewhat like a top, but having four flat sides, each marked with one of the Hebrew letters nun, gimel, he, or shin.  It is spun like a top, and the letter showing when it stops spinning determines the outcome of a game of chance.
n.  a game of chance played with a dreidel, most commonly by children at Hannukah.
Etymologies
Yiddish dreydl, from dreyen, to turn, from Middle High German dræjen, from Old High German drāen.  http://www.wordnik.com/words/dreidel

GNU is a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix!", chosen because GNU's design is Unix-like, but differs from Unix by being free software and containing no Unix code.   The plan for the GNU operating system was publicly announced on September 27, 1983, on the net.unix-wizards and net.usoft newsgroups by Richard Stallman.  The logo for GNU is a gnu head.  The well-known drawing was originally done by Etienne Suvasa.  A bolder and simpler version designed by Aurelio Heckert is now preferred.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU