Q.
Which one has primacy in English:
"vermilion" or "vermillion" (as a color)?
See answer plus a graphic at http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/21895/vermilion-or-vermillion The
word vermilion came from the Old French word vermeillon,
which was derived from vermeil,
from the Latin vermiculus,
the diminutive of the Latin word vermis,
or worm. It has the same origin as the
English word vermin. The name
originated because it had a similar color to the natural red dye made from an
insect, the Kermes
vermilio, which was widely used in Europe. The first recorded use of vermilion as a color name in
English was in 1289. The term cinnabar
was used interchangeably with vermilion until the 17th century, when vermilion
became the more common name. By the late
18th century 'cinnabar' applied to the unground natural mineral only. Vermilion is a dense, opaque pigment with a
clear, brilliant hue. The
pigment was originally made by grinding a powder of cinnabar, the
ore which contains mercury. The chemical formula of the pigment is HgS (mercury(II)
sulfide); like most mercury compounds it is toxic. See many graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermilion
Is there such a thing as a photographic memory? And if so, can it be learned? by Alan Searleman
In the scientific literature, the term
eidetic imagery comes closest to what is popularly called photographic
memory. The most common way to identify
eidetikers (as people with eidetic imagery are often called) is by the Picture
Elicitation Method. In it, an unfamiliar
picture is placed on an easel and a person carefully scans the entire
scene. After 30 seconds have elapsed,
the picture is removed from view, and the person is asked to continue to look
at the easel and to report anything that they can observe. People possessing eidetic imagery will
confidently claim to still "see" the picture. In addition, they can scan it and examine
different parts of it just as if the picture were still physically
present. Consequently, one of the
hallmarks of eidetic imagery is that eidetikers use the present tense when
answering questions about the missing picture, and they can report in
extraordinary detail what it contained.
You might expect that an individual who claims to still see a picture
after it has been removed would be able to have a perfect memory of the
original picture. After all, a perfect
memory is what is usually implied by the commonly used phrase
"photographic memory." As it turns out, however, the accuracy of many
eidetic images is far from perfect. In
fact, besides often being sketchy on some details, it is not unusual for
eidetikers to alter visual details and even to invent some that were never in
the original. This suggests that eidetic images are certainly not photographic
in nature but instead are reconstructed from memory and can be influenced like
other memories (both visual and nonvisual) by cognitive biases and
expectations. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-such-a-thing-as/
An eponym is a person (real or fictitious) from whom something is said to
take its name. The word is back-formed
from "eponymous", from the Greek "eponymos" meaning
"giving name". A few
examples: Achilles, Greek mythological character – Achilles' heel, Achilles tendon; Adam,
Biblical character – Adam's apple, adamite; Cincinnatus,
Roman politician – Cincinnati, Ohio (indirectly);
and Moses Cleaveland –
the city of Cleveland, Ohio. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponyms_(A%E2%80%93K)#C
The ball peen hammer is a kind of peening hammer that has 2 ends. 1 end is shaped like an ordinary hammerhead
while the other is ball shaped. It has a
handle that is like that of a regular hammer and the material can vary, which
includes wood, metal or fiberglass. This
kind of hammer is also called a machinist’s or engineer’s hammer. The head of the ball peen hammer is usually
harder than that of a claw hammer so it is highly unlikely that it will break
or chip on contact. If you want to set
rivets in metal by hand, your best choice of tool for the job should be the
ball peen hammer. Riveting entails the
use of a soft metal nail that is driven through a hole drilled in metal sheets
or boards. Rivets are the usual means of
joining 2 metal sheets together aside from welding, and you can make a great
permanent joint if you will be able to do the task right. The process will require cutting the unused
material on one side and then peening the shaft of the nail that is jutting out
on the opposite side. Striking it with a
ball peen hammer will form a mushroom shape at the end of the nail, effectively
fastening the 2 metal sheets together.
Prefixes are
key morphemes in English vocabulary that begin words. The prefix super- and its variant sur-
mean “over.” We all know
that the DC Comics hero Superman is the hero who stands “over” all other men in
power. Speaking of superstars, the football game that
stands “over” all other football games is, you got it, the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl features the superior
teams from the AFC and theNFC divisions facing off against each
other, that is, the two teams that stood “over” all the rest during the
football season. School systems love to
have members of management who stand “over” all others, such as superintendents,
who are in charge of entire school systems.
They supervise, or watch “over” the
schools in their respective districts. A
variant of the prefix super-, which also means “above,” is
the morpheme sur-. For instance, a surname
is that name which is “over” a family and thereby identifies it, or the
family’s last name. The surface
of something is etymologically the face that lies “over” what it’s
covering. When you surpass
everyone else’s SAT scores
at your school, you pass “over” them all, thus getting the highest score. One who takes a survey
of people wants to look “over” what they think.
And have you ever been hit with a surcharge on your cell phone bill,
those sneaky little charges that go “over” what you are supposed to pay? http://www.membean.com/wrotds/super-over
Lake Baikal,
in eastern Siberia, is the deepest lake in the world with a maximum depth of
1,632m. It is also the world’s largest
volume of fresh water: 23,000 cubic
km. One-fifth of all the fresh water in
the world is located Lake Baikal. Baikal
is also the world’s most ancient freshwater lake, it originated 20-25 million
years ago. It is 636 km long, 79 km
wide. There are 27 islands in Lake
Baikal, most of them uninhabited.
Baikal's coastline measures 2100 kilometers (around 1300 miles). More than 300 streams and rivers flow into
Lake Baikal, but there is just one outlet, the Angara. http://lakebaikal.org/lake-baikal-facts/
Find
frugal in other languages and link to other terms at http://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-meaning-of/german-word-einfach.html
English poetry employs five basic rhythms of
varying stressed (/) and unstressed (x) syllables. The meters are iambs, trochees, spondees,
anapests and dactyls. Each unit of
rhythm is called a "foot" of poetry.
Find easy-to-understand examples at http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/meter.html
August
11, 2016 The 'Chork' is a combination of both a pair of chopsticks and a
fork ** Follows success of Spork--a spoon/fork mash-up popularized by KFC **
Chorck has plastic chopsticks at one end and a three-prong fork at other **
Panda Express announced they will introduce the new utensil soon. Read more and
see pictures at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3735561/Move-spork-s-new-utensil-town-Panda-Express-introduce-chopsticks-fork-hybrid-chork.html
August 12, 2016 America's
Olympic medalists must pay state and federal taxes on the prize money they
get for winning. The U.S. Olympic
Committee awards $25,000 for gold medals, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for
bronze. That's not all. Olympians also have to pay tax on the value of
the medals themselves. Gold and silver
medals are made mostly of silver, while bronze medals are composed of mostly
copper. Rio's medals are among the
largest and heaviest ever and contain about 500 grams of either silver or
copper. The value of a gold medal is
about $564; silver is worth about $305. Bronze
is worth a negligible amount so it's not taxed.
The U.S. is one of the only countries that doesn't provide government
funding to its Olympians. Proposed federal legislation would make "the value of any
medal or prize money" awarded during the Olympics or Paralympics exempt
from income taxes. The bill was passed
by the Senate last month and is being considered by the House. It would apply
to earnings from January 1, 2016 to January 1, 2021. Ahiza Garcia
http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/12/news/olympians-gold-medals-taxes-us/index.html?iid=ob_article_footer
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1517
August 24, 2016 On this date in
1682, William Penn received
the area that is now the state of Delaware, and
adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania. On this date in 1891, Thomas
Edison patented the motion
picture camera. Word of the Day: hilum noun (1) The eye of a bean or other seed; the mark or scar at the point of attachment of an ovule or seed to its base or support. (2) The nucleus of a starch grain. (3) A depression or fissure through which ducts, nerves, or blood
vessels enter and leave a gland or organ; a porta.
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