digi-cammies n.— «The miniseries even got right the mismatched Marine uniforms—the corps in 2003 was in the process of transitioning from the old desert camouflage uniform, which Marines shared with the rest of the military, to the new...
omega block n.— «Northern California has been sitting under what meteorologists commonly refer to as an “omega” block—so named because of its distinctive shape—which features troughs of low pressure both to the west and east of a large...
witness mark n.— «The laminations can be designed to accommodate flipping, or alternation as noted above, to average out asymmetries. The design should incorporate a “witness mark” so that the pattern of alternation is evident...
tuple n.— «A tuple is neither an exotic fungus nor an adults-only entertainment. Defined with misleading simplicity as “a series of typed values,” the tuple can be to distributed computing what a base pair is to a molecule of DNA: Tuples...
kaleidic adj.— «Shackle argued that we live in a “kaleidic society, interspersing its moments or intervals of order, assurance and beauty with sudden disintegration and a cascade into a new pattern.”» —“Nobody Expects the...
blood and thunder n.— «We hear about the horrors of fishnet burn, a fishscale pattern some skaters get when they fall down on the track while wearing fishnet stockings. I’ve also heard about a practice drill called “blood and...