In architecture and design, an affordance is a part of something that serves a function, like the handle on a cup or the notch in a dictionary where you put your thumb. In language we have affordances, too, such as words that indicate a place for...
In the movie Avatar, the characters battle over a rare and valuable mineral called unobtanium. A mechanical engineer says he had a hard time getting into the movie because in his world, the word unobtanium means something different. This is part of...
Who put the piping in the expression “piping hot”? This is part of a complete episode.
fertigation n.— «Professor Michael Delwiche, chairman of biological and cultural engineering at UC Davis, has experimented with wireless sensing systems that precisely apply water—sometimes mixed with chemical fertilizers in a process...
pipe-bursting n.— «However, the sanitary districts also used a process called “pipe-bursting,” Carmouche said. In that process, a line was threaded into the sewer. Once inside, he said, it expanded to become a new sewer pipe...
scareware n.— «Scareware is a term for applications that find fictitious malware on a user’s computer and then try to trick the user into purchasing unnecessary and fraudulent anti-malware software or services. Scareware relies on social...