Updates

This is a list of content in this section that has been updated, along with the most recent updated annotation.

• 1976 Swine Flu Vaccine
• 4MAT
• 4WD vs AWD

  I saw this in a Facebook comment.

  The difference between 4wd and AWD is not whether you can turn it on or off. The r32 gtr, escort rs, and a few other legendary cars have 4wd that is always on, they are not AWD. The difference is that 4wd does not have a center differential, as in no bias between front and back, front tires and back tires get the same amount of power. AWD has a differential between front and back.

• (83)-FOR-TRUTH
• Abbatoir
• Abecedarium

  I found this in The Library:

  At any early stage, he began his abecedarium, an alphabetical list of the authors and titles of books in his collection.

  So, in this context, it seems to refer to a general alphabetical list of something.

• Abeyance
• Abide
• Abracadabra
• Abrogate

  In Team of Rivals, when discussing the Liberty Party:

  The abrogation of slavery was their primary goal.

• Absinthe
• Abyssinia

  I was reading an obituary for fashion designer Andre Leon Talley, and it said he faithfully attended the Abyssinia Baptist Church in Harlem. I went to their website, and found this in their history timeline:

  A group of African Americans (12 women and 4 men) who refused to accept segregated seating in the First Baptist Church of New York City formed The Abyssinian Baptist Church in lower Manhattan. The church name was inspired by the ancient name of Ethiopia, Abyssinia.

• ACAB
• Acme

  A week after writing this, I was on the interstate and saw a truck from “Acme Transport.” Honestly, I think this was the first time I have even seen this “in the wild.”

• Active Ingredient
• Actual
• AD
• Adept (noun)
• Aerodrome

  I was reading Faster and it used the word “autodrome” often to mean racetracks. I did some research on the “-drome” suffix, and I found this definition:

  large specially prepared place

  So, “aerodrome” and “autodrome” are “large, specially prepared places” for planes and cars. There’s also “hippodrome,” which is a horse arena (“hippos” is Greek for “horse”).

• Affordance
• Age of Exploration
• Agentic
• Aggro

  This was a word in the NY Times crossword. The clue was:

  Belligerent, in British slang

• Agitprop
• Aide-de-Camp
• Types of Aircraft Engines
• Airsoft
• Alacrity

  From Team of Rivals:

  Seward responded to Lincoln with alacrity. “I have cheerfully resumed the functions of this Department in obedience to your command…”

• Albion

  I found a 1985 book called “Albion’s Seed,” which details what happened to four distinct ethnic groups that migrated from the UK to the United States.

• Algonquin Round Table

  In the movie The Martian, a character comments on how long it’s going to take to send messages back and forth to Mars.

  32-minute round trip communications time, all he can do is yes/no questions and all we can do is point the camera. This won’t exactly be an Algonquin round table of snappy repartee.

• All Politics Is Local
• Alluvial Soil
• Amanuensus

  In The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, there is this inventory of a wealthy Roman citizen:

  …fifty-nine slaves, five notaries, two amanuenses, one scribe, and a book repairer, along with a cook and barber

  It was presented in the context of how important written records were to Romans, that wealthy people would have staff dedicated to reproducing them.

  Later in the same book:

  …a restless quarrelsome man who had in his youth been Petrarch’s secretary and amanuensis…

• Amara's Law
• Ambit

  From The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth:

  First on talk radio, then on cable television, and eventually online, conservatives built a media counter-establishment. In some respects, that was a welcome development, diversifying the information supply and widening the ambit of received opinion.

  Clearly, “ambit” in this case is a conceptual space, not a physical one.

• Ameliorate
• American Beauty
• The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• Anarchism

  I found this page, titled Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You!:

  At their very simplest, anarchist beliefs turn on to two elementary assumptions. The first is that human beings are, under ordinary circumstances, about as reasonable and decent as they are allowed to be, and can organize themselves and their communities without needing to be told how. The second is that power corrupts. Most of all, anarchism is just a matter of having the courage to take the simple principles of common decency that we all live by, and to follow them through to their logical conclusions.

  It’s a good read, but it seems wildly impractical to me. For anarchism to work, everyone would have to agree to be an anarchist, I feel like.

• Anathema
• Andalusia
• Anfractuous
• Anglo-Saxon
• Anise
• Anodyne

  In a NY Times article about Harvard University:

  Harvard’s decision to create task forces on antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus – usually the most anodyne of institutional responses…

  In this case, the word is used to mean something that is supposed to represent action, but is a fairly timid response in reality.

• Anointing With Oil

  While I was in London, I visited the Crown Jewels. One of the items on display was a “Coronation Spoon.” The card read:

  The anointing is the most sacred part of the coronation ceremony. Holy oil is poured from the Ampulla into the Coronation Spoon and used to anoint the monarch.

• Anomie
• Antebellum
• Antediluvian

  I found it twice in Conspiracies and Secret Societies. In a discussion of a supposedly ancient airship:

  A common theme is that certain men of genius in ancient Egypt and Persia were given access to the records of the advanced technologies of the antediluvian world.

  The book also mentioned a book published in 1882 by Ignatious L. Donnelly called Atlantis: The Antediluvian World.

• Anthropocene

  I’ve become aware that we are technically in the Holocene epoch of geologic time. The argument is whether or not we should end the Holocene and begin the Anthropocene.