Kiss of Judas

Kiss of Judas: "According to the Synoptic Gospels, Judas identified Jesus to the soldiers by means of a kiss. This is the kiss of Judas, also known (especially in art) as the Betrayal of Christ, which occurs in the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper, and leads directly to the arrest of Jesus by the police force of the Sanhedrin (Kilgallen 271).

More broadly, a Judas kiss may refer to 'an act appearing to be an act of friendship, which is in fact harmful to the recipient.'"

India: Bhang

Bhang: "Bhang (Hindi: भाँग) is a preparation from the leaves and flowers (buds) of the female cannabis plant, consumed as a beverage in the Indian subcontinent."

Philosophy: Panopticism

Panopticism: "Panopticism is a social theory originally developed by French philosopher Michel Foucault in his book, Discipline and Punish.

Jeremy Bentham proposed the panopticon as a circular building with an observation tower in the centre of an open space surrounded by an outer wall. This wall would contain cells for occupants. This design would increase security by facilitating more effective surveillance. Residing within cells flooded with light, occupants would be readily distinguishable and visible to an official invisibly positioned in the central tower. Conversely, occupants would be invisible to each other, with concrete walls dividing their cells. Although usually associated with prisons, the panoptic style of architecture might be used in other institutions with surveillance needs, such as schools, factories, or hospitals.

In Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault builds on Bentham's conceptualization of the panopticon as he elaborates upon the function of disciplinary mechanisms in such a prison and illustrated the function of discipline as an apparatus of power. The ever-visible inmate, Foucault suggests, is always "the object of information, never a subject in communication". He adds that,

"He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection" (202-203)."

WotD: Ambigram

Ambigram: "An ambigram is a word, art form or other symbolic representation, whose elements retain meaning when viewed or interpreted from a different direction, perspective, or orientation."

WotD: Arete

Arete: "Arete (/ˈærətiː/; Greek: ἀρετή), in its basic sense, means "excellence of any kind".[1] The term may also mean "moral virtue".[1] In its earliest appearance in Greek, this notion of excellence was ultimately bound up with the notion of the fulfillment of purpose or function: the act of living up to one's full potential."

History: Towers of Bologna

Towers of Bologna - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Between the 12th and the 13th century, the number of towers in the city was very high, possibly up to 180. The reasons for the construction of so many towers are not clear. One hypothesis is that the richest families used them for offensive/defensive purposes during the period of the Investiture Controversy."

California Certified Air Cleaning Devices

California Certified Air Cleaning Devices: "To be certified, air cleaners must be tested for electrical safety and ozone emissions, and meet an ozone emission concentration limit of 0.050 parts per million."

Science: Mammalian diving reflex

Mammalian diving reflex: "The mammalian diving reflex is a reflex in mammals which optimizes respiration to allow staying underwater for extended periods of time. It is exhibited strongly in aquatic mammals (seals,[1] otters, dolphins, etc.), but exists in weaker versions in other mammals, including humans, including babies up to 12 months old (see Infant swimming)."

Psychology WotD: Anhedonia

Anhedonia: "In psychology and psychiatry, anhedonia (/ˌænhiˈdoʊniə/ an-hee-doh-nee-ə; Greek: ἀν- an-, "without" and ἡδονή hēdonē, "pleasure") is defined as the inability to experience pleasure from activities usually found enjoyable, e.g. exercise, hobbies, music, sexual activities or social interactions."

History: Sator Square

Sator Square: "The Sator Square (or Rotas Square) is a word square containing a Latin palindrome:

SATOR
AREPO
TENET
OPERA
ROTAS
The five words may be read top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top, left-to-right, or right-to-left."

English WotD: halcyon

halcyon:



Adjective



halcyon (comparative more halcyon, superlative most halcyon)

Pertaining to the halcyon or kingfisher

Calm, undisturbed, peaceful, serene.

Japanese: Miyabi

Miyabi: "Miyabi (雅) is one of the traditional Japanese aesthetic ideals, though not as prevalent as Iki or Wabi-sabi. In modern Japanese, the word is usually translated as "elegance," "refinement," or "courtliness" and sometimes refers to a "heart-breaker"."

Aarne–Thompson classification system

Aarne–Thompson classification system: "The Aarne–Thompson tale type index is a multivolume listing designed to help folklorists identify recurring plot patterns in the narrative structures of traditional folktales, so that folklorists can organize, classify, and analyze the folktales they research."

Japanese WotD: Tokonoma

Tokonoma: "Tokonoma (床の間 toko-no-ma[1]?), also referred to simply as toko,[2][3] is a Japanese term generally referring to a built-in recessed space in a Japanese style reception room, in which items for artistic appreciation are displayed. In English, tokonoma is usually called alcove."

Wine: Amarone

Amarone: "Amarone della Valpolicella, usually known as Amarone, is a typically rich Italian dry red wine made from the partially dried grapes of the Corvina (45% – 95%, of which up to 50% could be substituted with Corvinone), Rondinella (5% – 30%) and other approved red grape varieties (up to 25%)."

Anthropodermic bibliopegy

Anthropodermic bibliopegy: "Anthropodermic bibliopegy is the practice of binding books in human skin. Though extremely uncommon in modern times, the technique dates back to at least the 17th century. The practice is inextricably connected with the practice of tanning human skin, often done in certain circumstances after a corpse has been dissected."

Literature & Philosophy: Debate between bird and fish

Debate between bird and fish: "The Debate between bird and fish is a literature essay of the Sumerian language, on clay tablets from the mid to late 3rd millennium BC."

Augmented Reality Sandbox

Oliver Kreylos' Research and Development Homepage - Augmented Reality Sandbox:

Science: Kármán vortex street

Kármán vortex street: "In fluid dynamics, a Kármán vortex street (or a von Kármán vortex sheet) is a repeating pattern of swirling vortices caused by the unsteady separation of flow of a fluid around blunt bodies. It is named after the engineer and fluid dynamicist Theodore von Kármán,[1] and is responsible for such phenomena as the "singing" of suspended telephone or power lines, and the vibration of a car antenna at certain speeds."

Science: Avoirdupois

Avoirdupois: "The avoirdupois system is a system of weights (more properly, mass) based on a pound of 16 ounces. It is the everyday system of weight used in the United States and is still used to varying degrees in everyday life in the United Kingdom, Canada, and some other former British colonies despite the official adoption of the metric system."

WotD: Cryptid

Cryptid: "In cryptozoology and sometimes in cryptobotany, a cryptid (from the Greek κρύπτω, krypto, meaning "hide") is a creature or plant whose existence has been suggested but is not discovered or documented by the scientific community."

Science: Jenks natural breaks optimization

Jenks natural breaks optimization: "The Jenks optimization method, also called the Jenks natural breaks classification method, is a data classification method designed to determine the best arrangement of values into different classes. This is done by seeking to minimize each class’s average deviation from the class mean, while maximizing each class’s deviation from the means of the other groups. In other words, the method seeks to reduce the variance within classes and maximize the variance between classes."

PotD: Arete

Arete: "Arete (/ˈærətiː/; ἀρετή, in its basic sense, means "excellence of any kind".[1] The term may also mean "moral virtue".[1] In its earliest appearance in Greek, this notion of excellence was ultimately bound up with the notion of the fulfillment of purpose or function: the act of living up to one's full potential."

WotD: Semelparity and iteroparity

Semelparity and iteroparity: "Semelparity and iteroparity refer to the reproductive strategy of an organism. A species is considered semelparous if it is characterized by a single reproductive episode before death, and iteroparous if it is characterized by multiple reproductive cycles over the course of its lifetime. Some plant scientists use the parallel terms monocarpy and polycarpy."

Flehmen response

Flehmen response: "The flehmen response (/ˈfleɪmən/; German: [ˈfleːmən]), also called the flehmen position, flehmen reaction, flehming, or flehmening, is a behaviour whereby an animal curls back its upper lips exposing its front teeth, inhales with the nostrils usually closed and then often holds this position for several seconds."

Science: Holocene extinction

Holocene extinction: "The Holocene extinction, sometimes called the Sixth Extinction, is a name proposed to describe the extinction event of species that has occurred during the present Holocene epoch (since around 10,000 BC). The large number of extinctions span numerous families of plants and animals including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and arthropods. Although 875 extinctions occurring between 1500 and 2009 have been documented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the vast majority are undocumented. According to the species-area theory and based on upper-bound estimating, the present rate of extinction may be up to 140,000 species per year."

Science: Fata Morgana (mirage)

Fata Morgana (mirage): "A Fata Morgana is an unusual and complex form of superior mirage that is seen in a narrow band right above the horizon."

Places: Meteora

Meteora: "The Metéora (Greek: Μετέωρα, pronounced [mɛˈtɛoɾɐ], lit. "middle of the sky", "suspended in the air" or "in the heavens above" — etymologically related to "Meteorite") is one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece, second only to Mount Athos."

History: Yoshiko Kawashima

Yoshiko Kawashima: "Yoshiko Kawashima (川島 芳子 Kawashima Yoshiko?, 24 May 1907 – 25 March 1948) was a Manchu princess brought up in Japan, who served as a spy in the service of the Japanese Kwantung Army and Manchukuo during the Second World War."

Philosophy: Enlightened self-interest

Enlightened self-interest: "Enlightened self-interest is a philosophy in ethics which states that persons who act to further the interests of others (or the interests of the group or groups to which they belong), ultimately serve their own self-interest."

Things to do: Way of St. James

Way of St. James: The Way of St. James or St. James' Way is the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried.

Code of Hammurabi

Code of Hammurabi: "The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian law code, dating back to about 1772 BC. It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world."

Drake equation

Drake equation: "The Drake equation is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy."

Mapping: Cadastre

Cadastre: "A cadastre (also spelled cadaster), using a cadastral survey or cadastral map, is a comprehensive register of the metes-and-bounds real property of a country. A cadastre commonly includes details of the ownership, the tenure, the precise location (some include GPS coordinates), the dimensions (and area), the cultivations if rural, and the value of individual parcels of land."

PotD: Chinese room

Chinese room: "The Chinese room is a thought experiment presented by John Searle in order to challenge the claim that it is possible for a digital computer running a program to have a "mind" and "consciousness" in the same sense that people do, simply by virtue of running the right program."

WotD: Recusancy

Recusancy: In the history of England and Wales, recusancy was the state of those who refused to attend Anglican services. The individuals were known as "recusants".

Dunbar's number

Dunbar's number (Wikipedia)

"Dunbar's number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person."

"No precise value has been proposed for Dunbar's number. It has been proposed to lie between 100 and 230, with a commonly used value of 150."

Besame Mucho

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9same_Mucho

Semiotics

Semiotics: "Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of sign processes (semiosis), or signification and communication, signs and symbols, and is usually divided into three branches:
- Semantics: Relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their denotata
- Syntactics: Relations among signs in formal structures
- Pragmatics: Relation between signs and their effects on those (people) who use them"

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo "'Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.' is a grammatically correct sentence used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated constructs"

Uncanny valley

Uncanny valley: "The uncanny valley is a hypothesis in the field of robotics[1] and 3D computer animation, which holds that when human replicas look and act almost, but not perfectly, like actual human beings, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The "valley" in question is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot's human likeness."

Ogive

Ogive: "An ogive ('Oh-jive') is the roundly tapered end of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional object."

Golden ratio

Golden ratio

Book - The education of Karl Witte

The education of Karl Witte

French PotD - Mise en abyme

Mise en abyme

née

née

1. Born. Used to indicate the maiden name of a married woman.
2. Formerly known as.

Propolis

Propolis

"Propolis is a resinous mixture that honey bees collect from tree buds, sap flows, or other botanical sources."

Four Temperaments

Four Temperaments

"Four Temperaments is a theory of psychology that stems from the ancient medical concept of four humors, or 'humours' in UK English."

Syntactic sugar

Syntactic sugar

"In computer science, syntactic sugar in a language is syntax designed to make things easier to read or to express, while alternative ways of expressing them exist."

Jerboa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jerboa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The jerboa (from Arabic يربوع yarbū' or Hebrew יַרְבּוֹעַ yarbōa' ) form the bulk of the membership of the family Dipodidae. Jerboas are jumping desert rodents found throughout Asia and Northern Africa."

Levenshtein distance

Levenshtein distance

"In information theory and computer science, the Levenshtein distance is a metric for measuring the amount of difference between two sequences (i.e., the so called edit distance)."

Shimenawa

Shimenawa

"Shimenawa (標縄・注連縄・七五三縄?, , lit. 'enclosing rope') are lengths of braided rice straw rope used for ritual purification in the Shinto religion"

Cellular Potts model

Cellular Potts model

"The cellular Potts model is a lattice-based computational modeling method to simulate the collective behavior of cellular structures."

St. Petersburg paradox

St. Petersburg paradox

"In economics, the St. Petersburg paradox is a paradox related to probability theory and decision theory. It is based on a particular (theoretical) lottery game (sometimes called St. Petersburg Lottery) that leads to a random variable with infinite expected value, i.e. infinite expected payoff, but would nevertheless be considered to be worth only a very small amount of money."

De Morgan's laws

De Morgan's laws

"In formal logic, De Morgan's laws are rules relating the logical operators 'and' and 'or' in terms of each other via negation, namely:

NOT (P OR Q) = (NOT P) AND (NOT Q)
NOT (P AND Q) = (NOT P) OR (NOT Q)"

Star schema

Star schema

"The star schema (sometimes referenced as star join schema) is the simplest style of data warehouse schema."

Extended Backus–Naur Form

Extended Backus–Naur Form

"In computer science, Extended Backus–Naur Form (EBNF) is a metasyntax notation used to express context-free grammars: that is, a formal way to describe computer programming languages and other formal languages."

Anxiolytic

Anxiolytic

"An anxiolytic (or antianxiety agent) is a drug prescribed for the treatment of symptoms of anxiety."

High dynamic range imaging

High dynamic range imaging

"In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques."

Juzo Itami

Juzo Itami

"Juzo Itami (伊丹 十三 ,Itami Jūzō?, May 15, 1933 – December 20, 1997) was an actor and (later) a popular modern Japanese film director. Many critics came to regard him as Japan's greatest director since Akira Kurosawa. His 10 movies, all of which he wrote himself, are comic satires on elements of Japanese culture."

(Geometric) Distortion (optics)

Distortion (optics)

"In geometric optics and cathode ray tube (CRT) displays, distortion is a deviation from rectilinear projection, a projection in which straight lines in a scene remain straight in an image. It is a form of optical aberration."

Bernard d'Espagnat

Bernard d'Espagnat

"Bernard d'Espagnat (b. Fourmagnac, France, 1921) is a French theoretical physicist, philosopher of science, and author, best known for his work on the nature of reality."

Hardy's paradox

Hardy's paradox

"Hardy's paradox is a thought experiment in quantum mechanics devised by Lucien Hardy in which a particle and its antiparticle may interact without annihilating each other. The paradox arises in that this may only occur if the interaction is not observed and so it seemed that one might never be able to confirm this."

Nonlocality

Nonlocality

"In physics, nonlocality is a direct influence of one object on another distant object, in violation of the principle of locality."

defeasible

defeasible

adj. "capable of being annulled or terminated."

Synesthesia

Synesthesia

"Synesthesia (also spelled synæsthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiae or synaesthesiae)—from the Ancient Greek σύν (syn), 'together,' and αἴσθησις (aisthēsis), 'sensation' — is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway."

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia

"Onomatopoeia or onomatopœia, from the Greek ὀνοματοποιία (ὄνομα for 'name' and ποιέω for 'I make'), is one or more words that imitate or suggest the source of the sound they are describing."

Honne and tatemae

Honne and tatemae

"Honne (本音 ?) refers to a person's true feelings and desires. Tatemae (建前 ?), literally 'façade,' is the behaviour and opinions one displays in public."

Yunomi

Yunomi

"A yunomi (Japanese: 湯のみ) is a form of teacup, typically made from a ceramic material, being taller than wide, with a trimmed or turned foot. Unlike the more formal chawan tea bowl which is used during the Japanese tea ceremony, the yunomi is made for daily (or informal) tea drinking."

Bokeh

Bokeh

"Bokeh (derived from Japanese, a noun boke 暈け, meaning 'blurred or fuzzy') is a photographic term referring to the appearance of point of light sources in an out-of-focus area of an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field."

Defensive weapons of the Japanese samurai

Defensive weapons of the Japanese samurai

Eromenos

Eromenos

"In the pederastic tradition of Classical Athens, the eromenos (Greek ἐρώμενος, pl. ἐρώμενοι, "eromenoi") was an adolescent boy who was in a love relationship with an adult man, known as the erastes (ἐραστής)."

Hsin Hsin Ming

Hsin Hsing Ming
Hsin Hsin Ming - Verses on the Perfect Mind

"Xinxin Ming (alt. spellings: Xin Xin Ming or Xinxinming) (信心銘) (Wade-Giles: Hsin Hsin Ming; Japanese: Shinjinmei (or Shinjin no Mei)) a verse attributed to the Third Chinese Chan (Zen) Patriarch Jianzhi Sengcan 僧璨 (d. 606) (Wade-Giles: Chien-chih Seng-ts'an; Japanese: Kanchi Sosan), is one of the earliest Chinese Chan expressions of the Buddhist mind training practice."

Japanese Culture - Japanese aesthetics

Japanese aesthetics

Japanese Culture - Ensō

Ensō

"Ensō (円相) is a Japanese word meaning 'circle' and a concept strongly associated with Zen."

Japanese Cuisine - Kaiseki

Kaiseki

"Kaiseki (懐石 ?) or kaiseki ryōri (懐石料理 ?) is a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner analogous to Western haute cuisine."

Japanese Culture - Hitsuzendo

Hitsuzendo

"Hitsuzendo (筆禅道 ,hitsuzendō?), or the 'Art of the Brush', is a method of achieving Samādhi (Jap.: samaai) (unification of individual with the highest reality)."

Japanese Culture - Shodo (Japanese calligraphy)

Japanese calligraphy

"Japanese calligraphy (書道 ,shodō?) is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, used for writing the Japanese language."

Japanese Culture - Zazen

Zazen

"Zazen (坐禅; Chinese: zuò chán pinyin or tso-chan Wade-Giles) is at the heart of Zen Buddhist practice. The aim of zazen is just sitting, 'opening the hand of thought'."

Japanise Cuisine - Kaki (Persimmon)

Persimmon

"The Japanese Persimmon or kaki (柿) (Diospyros kaki), 'shizi' (柿子) in Chinese, is the most widely cultivated species."

'known to the ancient Greeks as "the fruit of the gods"'

English Language - Astringent

Astringent

"An astringent (also spelled adstringent) substance is a chemical that tends to shrink or constrict body tissues, usually locally after topical medicinal application."

Japanese Cuisine - Arare (food)

Arare (food)

"Arare (あられ "hailstones") is a type of bite-sized Japanese cracker made from glutinous rice and flavored with soy sauce."

Japan Photos - Geisha, Geiko, and Maiko

Flickr: maiko.gallery's Photostream

Japanese History - 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō

53 Stations of the Tōkaidō

"The 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō (東海道五十三次 ,Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsugi?) are the rest areas along the Tōkaidō, which was a coastal route that ran from Nihonbashi in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Sanjō Ōhashi in Kyoto."

Japanese Culture - Ateji

Ateji

"In modern Japanese, ateji (当て字, 宛字 or あてじ ?) are kanji used phonetically to represent native or borrowed words."

Japan (Asia) Photos

Okinawa Soba's Photostream

Japan Photos - Geiko, Geisha, and Maiko

Miegiku's Photostream

Japan Photos - Ochaya and Yakata of Kyoto

Ochaya and Yakata of Kyoto

Japanese History - Oiran, Tayu, and Kamuro

Oiran

"Among the oiran, the tayū (太夫 or 大夫 ?) was considered the highest rank of courtesan or prostitute, and were considered suitable for the daimyo."

Don't forget Kamuro! (ref?)

Science - Biocomplexity

Biocomplexity

"Biocomplexity is the study of complex structures and behaviors that arise from nonlinear interactions of active biological agents, which may range in scale from molecules to cells to organisms."

Japanese History - Mōri Motonari

Mōri Motonari

"He had three sons, Mōri Takamoto, Kikkawa Motoharu, and Kobayakawa Takakage, whom he encouraged to work together for the benefit of the Mōri clan. In one instance, he is said to have handed each of his sons an arrow and asked each snap it. After each snapped his arrow, Motonari produced three arrows and asked his sons to snap all three at once. When they were unable to do so (according to a legend still taught today), Motonari explained that one arrow could be broken easily, but three arrows held together could not."

Latin PotD - Alea iacta est

Alea iacta est

Latin WotD - Ad hoc

Ad hoc

Japanese WotD - Okiagari-koboshi

Okiagari-koboshi

WotD - Syncretism

Syncretism

French WotD - Mistral (wind)

Mistral (wind)

WotD - Transhumanism

Transhumanism

Latin WotD - Locum

Locum

Japanese WotD - Hikikomori

Hikikomori

WotD

Ouroboros