linoleum, flax, cougar sex, thin the herds

All I could hear was the clicks of my own heels o the linoleum.


On Fate of Wild Horses, Stars and Indians Spar

By FERNANDA SANTOS

Free-roaming horses are at the center of a passionate dispute playing out across the West about whether federal authorities should sanction their slaughter to thin the herds.

linoleum
(lĭ-nō'lē-əm)
n.
A durable, washable material made in sheets by pressing a mixture of heated linseed oil, rosin, powdered cork, and pigments onto a burlap or canvas backing. Linoleum is used as a covering especially for floors.

[Originally a trademark.] 19世紀末 拉丁 linum "flax" / oleum "oil"

• [linóuliəm]

[名][U]リノリウム：床仕上げ材の一種.

［ラテン語linum（亜麻）＋oleum（油）. もと商標］

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/linoleum#ixzz1X2bJTV6j

Linoleum from around the 1950s

Linoleum (informally abbreviated to lino) is a floor covering made from renewable materials such as solidified linseed oil (linoxyn), pine rosin, ground cork dust, wood flour, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a burlap or canvas backing; pigments are often added to the materials.
The finest linoleum floors, known as 'inlaid', are extremely durable; they were made by joining and inlaying solid pieces of linoleum. Cheaper patterned linoleums came in different grades or gauges, and were printed with thinner layers which were more prone to wear and tear. Good quality linoleum is sufficiently flexible to be used in buildings in which more rigid material (such as ceramic tile) would crack.

Frederic Cirou / Es Photography / Corbis

 

 

 

1. The Science of Cougar Sex: Why Older Women Lust

By John Cloud

A new article suggests that women are more sexually active in their middle years. The evolutionary explanation for 'cougars'

cou·gar (kū'gər)
A large, solid fawn-colored cat that resembles a short-legged maneless lion. Called also puma, mountain lion, Panthera concolor (syn. Felis concolor).

n. Chiefly Western U.S.
See mountain lion.

[French couguar, alteration (influenced by jaguar, jaguar) of Portuguese çuçuarana, from Tupi suasuarana : suasú, deer + rana, like (from its color).]