Extra Second of Time

Don't we all wish we had just a little more time? This New Year's Eve, we all get an extra second of time. According to Discovery News, the second will come between 6:59:59 and 7:00:00 pm EST, making 2008 the longest year since 1992 given the leap year. The earth is slowing down and timekeepers must adjust the official watches, giving my sister a longer birthday than anyone.

This news reminds me of one of my favorite comics by xkcd called Angular Momentum:

Revolving Doors

One eighth the amount of energy is lost by using rotating doors than conventional doors.

Source: Lance.

Discover the world

Been a while since you checked in with Togo? How about Chile? No worries, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) has your back. Their web program "Países" lays out current(ish) information on population, social indicators, economy, networks and environment all on a handy map. Can it get better? Oh yes, because this application is in English, Portuguese and Spanish. Woot.

Source: http://www.ibge.gov.br/paisesat/

Vitamin C

The human body doesn't produce its own vitamin C.

So take your chewables or eat some limes, you scurvy rouges!

Murder Board

Sounds scarier than it is. The murder board is a group of people questioning a person who is in preparation for an oral examination or a Senate confirmation hearing. The murder board should be as tough if not quite a bit tougher than the committee he is preparing to face.

Larry Tracy explains it pretty well in this article, which also happens to be an excert from his book The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations.

Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/

Swash!

My biggest regret in packing for school was leaving behind my vampire teeth. My second was neglecting to bring my Compact OED so I could give more detailed descriptions of lovely words like "swash."

After I do well on my Diplomacy midterm tomorrow, I'm going to go swashing down the street.

It is so fun to say:

Swash.      Truly onomatopoetic.

n.  1.
1. A splash of water or other liquid hitting a solid surface.
2. The sound of such a splash.
3. A narrow channel through which tides flow.
4. A bar over which waves wash freely.
5. Swagger or bluster.
6. A swaggering or blustering person.

v.   swashed, swash·ing, swash·es
intr.
1. To strike, move, or wash with a splashing sound.
2. To swagger.

tr.
1. To splash (a liquid).
2. To splash a liquid against.

"swash." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 10 Nov. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/swash>.

Iniquitous

Now when I first saw this word, I thought for sure it was related to ubiquitous, which is a fun Weighty Word. However, I was wrong in this assumption. Where ubiquitous comes from the Latin word ubīqu(e) meaning everywhere, iniquitous come to us from the Latin word inīqu(us) meaning uneven or unfair. So we see they will have vasty different meanings.

iniquitous: adj.   Characterized by iniquity; wicked.
ubiquitous: adj.   Being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time; omnipresent.

I came across this word researching sugar-based biofuels. "[Farmers] have not been paid what they were promised. Payments have been erratic and iniquitous, with some farmers getting full payment at old rates, while others not paid at all." 


"iniquitous." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 20 Oct. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/iniquitous>.

"ubiquitous." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 20 Oct. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ubiquitous>.