2018年4月30日 星期一

mumbo-jumbo, non-invasive, non-destructive


Multispectral imaging is one of the many tools the British Library’s Conservation Science team use to non-invasively and non-destructively increase the body of knowledge on collection items for scholars, curators and conservators.

In 2016, multispectral imaging revealed a previously hidden figure in one of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. Find out how this discovery was (literally) brought to light: http://bit.ly/2vqs9Jv #BLTreasures



Just as the clergy in the Middle Ages spoke in Latin to give their words an air of authority, management theorists speak in mumbo-jumbo



mumbo jumbo


NOUN

mass nouninformal 
  • Language or ritual causing or intended to cause confusion or bewilderment.
    ‘a maze of legal mumbo jumbo’

Origin

Mid 18th century (as Mumbo Jumbo, denoting a supposed African idol): of unknown origin; the current sense dates from the late 19th century.

2018年4月25日 星期三

–ard, sloth, slothful, acedia, harp on, harpy, divebomb, indisputably, in perfect condition

Nearly 12,000 years ago, a human literally followed in the footsteps of a giant ground sloth.
Humans drove North American ground sloths to extinction around 11,000…
WASHINGTONPOST.COM
Acedia was perhaps the greatest threat of all.

And why early monks in the desert didn't want to fall asleep during the day.
ATLASOBSCURA.COM
Many have harped on the President's decision to attend the game.

President Obama’s ‘catastrophic’ decision to watch baseball after the Brussels attacks


“That would be like Franklin Roosevelt remaining at Warm Springs…
WASHINGTONPOST.COM|作者:NIRAJ CHOKSHI


From Instagram: A sloth holds on to the post of a traffic barrier on a highway in Quevedo, Ecuador on January 22nd 2016. Transit police officers patrolling the highway found the sloth after it had apparently tried to cross the street. The animal was returned to its natural habitat after a veterinarian found it to be in perfect condition
INSTAGRAM

The Economist on Instagram: “A sloth holds on to the post of a traffic barrier on a highway in...



Image for the news result
(CNN) One little sloth in Ecuador quickly became a phenomenon around the world.
Editorial
‘Beyond Debate’
The treatment of Jose Padilla was indisputably cruel and in breach of the minimum standard required for a person in American custody.


角雕

Monkey-eating eagle divebombs BBC filmmaker as he fits nest-cam

Cameraman swooped by 9kg bird with 13cm claws in quest for footage of world's most powerful eagle in Venezuelan rainforest


As the first people attempting to fit a camera in the nest of the world's most powerful eagle, the BBC filmmakers knew they were likely to be attacked. But nothing could have prepared cameraman James Aldred for the defensive swoop by a 9kg female harpy eagle that left him nearly unconscious, ripped through his neck protection and knocked out his helmet's communication equipment.

Fergus Beeley, eagle expert and the documentary's producer, said: "I'm amazed by the harpy eagle. These are incredibly intelligent creatures. To kill monkeys, they have to be as intelligent as them, to outwit and ambush them. And it's indisputably the world's most powerful eagle. It has wrists and feet as big as mine."
The harpy, he said, was even stronger than other powerful eagles such as the crowned eagle of Africa and the Phillipines eagle. As well as taking small prey such as sloths and other birds, the species is known to kill red howler monkeys and even the young of the small brocket deer.

Acedia comes from a combination of the negative prefix a- and the Greek noun kēdos, meaning "care, concern, or grief." (The Greek word akēdeia became acedia in Late Latin, and that spelling was retained in English.) Acedia initially referred specifically to the "deadly sin" of sloth.

Acedia | Definition of Acedia by Merriam-Webster

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acedia

–ard


or –art
suff.
One that habitually or excessively is in a specified condition or performs a specified action: drunkard.
[Middle English, from Old French, of Germanic origin.]

WordNet: sluggard
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1: an idle slothful person
Synonym: slug


樹獺 sloth哺乳綱貧齒總目披毛目樹獺亞目學名Folivora)動物的通稱,包括有樹獺科二趾樹獺科。https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloth

indisputable[in・dis・put・a・ble]

  • 発音記号[ìndispjúːtəbl]
[形]
1 議論の余地のない, 否定できない;明白な
indisputable evidence
動かぬ証拠.
2 疑いようもなく現実の[正当な].
in・dis・put・a・ble・ness
[名][U]議論の余地のないこと.
in・dis・put・a・bly
[副]明白に.




harp 

Pronunciation: /hɑːp/ 

NOUN

Image of harp
1A musical instrument consisting of a frame supporting agraduated series of parallel strings, played by pluckingwith the fingers. The modern orchestral harp has anupright frame, with pedals which enable the strings to beretuned to different keys.Example sentences
2another term for harmonica.Papa had been teaching him to play the blues harp
Short for mouth harp

3(also harp shell or harp snail)A marine mollusc which has a large vertically ribbed shell with a wide aperture, found chiefly in the Indo-Pacific.
  • Family Harpidae, class Gastropoda

VERB

[NO OBJECT]
1(harp on) Talk or write persistently and tediously on (a particular topic):I don’t want to harp on about the pastyou need to stop harping on her age
2archaic Play on a harp:among them harped the divine minstrel Demodocus




Origin

Old English hearpe, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch harp and German Harfe.

harpy
(här') pronunciation
n., pl., -pies.
  1. Greek Mythology. One of several loathsome, voracious monsters with the head and trunk of a woman and the tail, wings, and talons of a bird.
  2. harpy A predatory person.
  3. harpy A shrewish woman.


2018年4月17日 星期二

lackey, running dog, attack dog, bench, bias, backbencher, racial-bias education



Starbucks to close all company-owned stores on the afternoon of May 29 for racial-bias education day

CNBC.com


Dispatches From the Republican National Convention
Thursday, August 30, 2012, at 1:20 AM EDT
Paul Ryan was supposed to be the idea man. So far he’s pure attack dog.



Editorial: Their Bias Is Clear

The Virginia Legislature disgraced itself when it rejected the nomination of a widely respected prosecutor to be the first openly gay judge on the state bench.


Definitions of lackey
noun
a servant, especially a liveried footman or manservant.
This is a man who treats women like servants and men like lackeys .
synonyms: servantflunkyfootmanmanservantvaletstewardbutlerattendanthouseboydomesticscullion
verb
behave servilely to; wait upon as a lackey.
"he had lackeyed and flattered Walpole"


從"running dog ( n. 走狗) "說起

這running dog n. 走狗 -- A servile follower or lackey.
[Translation of Chinese (Mandarin) zǒu gǒu : zǒu, running + gǒu, dog.]
還是20世紀國共明爭暗鬥時期之詞。
-----
日文〔軽蔑〕 【政】卑屈な追随者, 陣笠政治家.

じんがさ ぢん― 0 3 【陣▼笠】
(1)昔、陣中で足軽・雑兵などの下級の武士が兜(かぶと)の代わりにかぶった笠。
(2)政党の幹部に追従し、自分の主義・主張をもたない議員。
「―連」
じんがさ 陣笠
a soldier's helmet.
・~連 《政党員・議員》backbenchers.
****
我昨天讀「牛津裝飾藝術事典」,知道running dog也是一種連續圖案之俗稱。今天找不到它,不過碰到類似的:

The other is his running dog pattern. The running dog pattern was used on the prototype boxes entered in the IPP Design contest, - like the box shown here.

http://www.cleverwood.com/kagen%E2%80%99s_decorated_box.htm


 bench
[名]
1 ベンチ, 長いす[腰掛け], 共同いす(▼背もたれの有無は無関係);(ボートの)こぎ手座(thwart)
a park bench
公園のベンチ.
2 (大工・機械工などの)作業台, 細工台(workbench);(研究室の)実験作業台(laboratory bench).
3 (温室などの)鉢台, 栽培床, 苗木箱.
4 畜犬品評会, ドッグショー;その陳列台.
5 ((米))ベンチ, 選手席;((集合的))交替要員, 補欠選手たち
on the bench
ベンチにいて;控え選手で
warm the bench
ベンチを温める, 控え選手になる[である].
6 ((the 〜))
(1) (役人, 特に裁判官の)席, 裁判所, 法廷.
(2) ((集合的))官職;裁判官[判事]の職;裁判官全体, 裁判官一同
on the bench
裁判官の職について, 審理中で
servesiton the bench
裁判官として裁く[仕事をする]
take a seat on the bench
裁判官席[の職]につく
the opinion of the bench
(列席)裁判官全体の意見
bench and bar
裁判官と弁護士
the Court of King'sQueen's] Bench
((英))王座[女王座]裁判所
be raised to the bench
裁判官[司教]に任命される.
7 ((英))((通例〜es))(議会の)議員席;((集合的))(議会の)議員たち.
8 《地理》ベンチ(berm):段丘を構成する棚状の平坦面.
9 《採鉱》(鉱石採掘のために作る)階段.
━━[動](他)
1 〈公園などに〉ベンチを備えつける.
2 〈人を〉ベンチに座らせる;((米))〈選手を〉ベンチに引っ込める.
3 〈人を〉判事の席[役職]につかせる.
4 〈犬などを〉品評会に出す.
━━(自)〈土壌が〉(自然の作用で)段丘を形成する.
[古英語benc. 原義は「机」の意もあった. △BANK3




 attack dog

Noun

attack dog (plural attack dogs)
  1. Any dog bred; trained or used for the purpose of attacking a target, either on command or on sight; trained either as a specialized form of police dog or a security force dog.
  2. A dog used in dogfighting; a bloodsport.
  3. A person who engages in rhetorical attacks on behalf of another.  [quotations ▼]

2018年4月12日 星期四

highfalutin, put paid to, give a reading, Live fire exercise/drill

China to carry out live-fire exercise in Taiwan Strait next week


Redmayne won an Oscar for playing Hawking in 2014’s The Theory of Eveyrthing.

The renowned physicist’s service was held at Great St. Mary’s Church in Cambridge on Saturday.
VANITYFAIR.COM


Julia Lovell, Tragedy of Liberation: A history of early Maoist China puts paid to any notion of a ‘golden age’, Financial Times, 30 August 2013.

The Greco-Latin “Erectile dysfunction” is hardly direct; the word penis is never mentioned, and dysfunction is pretty highfalutin for something that simply isn’t working as it should.

A short exposition of Kahn's approach to capturing and excluding light in order to enhance our experience of built form and space. Yes, like so much of architectural writing it is a bit high falutin' at times, but it's illuminating, too. 


Live fire exercise - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_fire_exercise

live-fire exercise or LFX is any military exercise in which a realistic scenario for the use of specific equipment is demonstrated. In the popular lexicon this is applied primarily to tests of weapons or weapon systems that are associated with the various branches of a nation's armed forces, although the term can be applied to ...


give a reading

to look at carefully so as to understand the meaning of (something written, printed, etc.): to read a book; to read music. 2. to utter aloud or render in speech (something written, printed, etc.):






put paid to




PHRASE

informal 
  • Stop abruptly; destroy.
    ‘Denmark's victory put paid to our hopes of qualifying’


Urban Dictionary: high falutin

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=high%20falutin

groundless assumption of a higher status or affectation than actually contained.

highfalutin - Wiktionary

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/highfalutin

Alternative forms[edit]. hifalutin, highfaluting, high falutin. Etymology[edit]. Alteration of high-fluting. In his book, The Adventure of English, Melvyn Bragg records that in a nascent America, when the well-to-do travelled by steamboat, said passengers were referred to as highfalutin due to the high fluted funnels on the boats.
English · ‎Adjective

Highfalutin | Definition of Highfalutin by Merriam-Webster

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/highfalutin

2 : expressed in or marked by the use of language that is elaborated or heightened by artificial or empty means : pompous. giving a highfalutin speech.