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X also known as the Festival of Lights or Festival
of Dedication, is an eight day holiday which may be in December, late
November, or, while very rare on occasion, early January (as was the
case for 2005–2006). The festival is observed by the kindling of
lights on each of the festival's eight nights, one on the first night,
two on the second night and so on.
The holiday was called X
meaning "dedication" because it marks the re-dedication of a certain
Temple after its desecration under Antiochus IV. Spiritually, X
commemorates the Miracle of the Oil. At the re-dedication of the
Temple following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid
Empire, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the
eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned
for eight days - which was the length of time it took to press,
prepare and consecrate new oil. What is X ?
X = Hanukkah
Y (means 'One Who Yawns') was a prominent Native
American leader of the Chiricahua Apache. He was a respected medicine
man and, later, an accomplished warrior who fought frequently with
Mexican troops. Mexican soldiers killed his first wife and three
children during a supposedly peaceful trading session in 1858, and as
a result, Y hated all Mexicans for the rest of his life. Mexicans gave
him the nickname of 'Y', either an allusion to Saint Jerome (whose
name the Spanish called while attacking or in the midst of violent
defeat) or a transcription of the Spanish attempt to pronounce his
name Goyaa. Y fought against numbers of both Mexican and US
troops and became famous for his daring exploits and numerous escapes
from capture.
At the last, these 38 men, women and children evaded 5000 U.S. troops
(one fourth of the army at the time) and the Mexican army for a year.
He finally surrendered in 1886. Later, Y becoming a celebrity he in
President Roosevelt’s 1905 inaugural parade. He died of pneumonia in
1909. Several movies have been made on Y’s life. In 1940, the night
before their first mass jump, U.S. paratroopers at Fort Benning saw a
film about Y, and began shouting his name during jumps, a trend which
has caught on elsewhere.
Y = Geronimo
The phrase Z has a number of metaphorical senses
that share the general feeling of something being a diversion or
distraction from the original objective.
The phrase may have originated from the practice of saving a hunted
fox by dragging a Z across its trail to cause the pursuing hounds to
lose the true scent and follow the false trail of odour instead. In
this context the Oxford English Dictionary records its first written
use occurring in 1686 "To draw a Z across the track". There also is a
nursery rhyme, 'The Man in the Wilderness', in which a man answers the
question of how many strawberries grew in the sea with 'As many as Z
grew in the wood'.
Most famously it is used in the practice of calling preliminary
investment prospectuses as a Z, warning investors that the documents
were not complete or final.
Z = Red Herring
A B is a character in an 1867 thought experiment
by A (last name), meant to raise questions about the possibility of
violating the second law of thermodynamics.
A imagines two containers, U and V, filled with the same gas at equal
temperatures, placed next to each other. A little B guards a trapdoor
between the two containers, observing the molecules on both sides.
When a faster-than-average molecule from U flies towards the trapdoor,
the B opens it, and the molecule will fly from U to V. Thus, the
average speed of the molecules in V will have increased, while the
molecules in U will have slowed down on average. However, since
average molecular speed corresponds to temperature, the temperature in
U will have decreased and in V will have increased; this is contrary
to the second law of thermodynamics.
Famous but inadequate responses :
1929 by Leo Szilard - a real-life A B would need to have some means of
measuring molecular speed, and that the act of acquiring information
would require an expenditure of energy.
1982 by Charles H. Bennett - the B will run out of information storage
space and erasing information is a thermodynamically irreversible
process that increases the entropy of a system
In pop culture A B is an enemy of Captain Baseball bat-boy in the game
Max Payne.
Maxwell's Demon
A = Maxwell
B = Demon
C D is a pejorative term for a small, often Latin
American or Caribbean country, which is politically unstable,
dependent on limited agriculture, and ruled by a small, wealthy and
corrupt clique.
Coined by O. Henry in reference to Honduras. D in his time was often a
euphemism for a dictatorship, while A implied an easy reliance on
basic agriculture and backwardness in the development of modern
industrial technology. Frequently the subject of mockery and humour,
and usually presided over by a dictatorial military junta that
exaggerates its own power and importance. In modern usage the term has
come to be used to describe a generally unstable or "backward"
dictatorial regime, especially one where elections are often
fraudulent and corruption is rife.
San Theodoros and Nuevo Rico are fictional C D's in Tintin comics that
display all the stereotypes one might expect of such countries.
Banana Republic
C = Banana
D = Republic
The E mark (an abbreviation) was constructed out
of two intersecting circles by Arthur Eisenmenger, the creator of the
Euro sign (€) and the European flag.
It is a mandatory marking on certain products, which is required if
they are placed on the market in the European Economic Area (EEA). By
affixing the E marking, the manufacturer, or its representative, or
the importer assures that the item meets all the essential
requirements of all applicable EU directives. Examples of European
Directives requiring E marking include toy safety, machinery,
low-voltage equipment, R&TTE, and EM compatibility. There are about 25
Directives requiring E marking.
What does E stand for ?
E = CE
European Conformity
The word F has been borrowed by many languages,
including English. As a slang it generally means legitimate,
acceptable, permissible, genuine or authentic in a broader sense.
It derives from the Hebrew practice of kashrut. The basic laws of
kashrut are in the Torah's Book of Leviticus, with their details set
down in the oral law (the Mishnah and the Talmud) and codified by the
Shulkha Arukh and others. Many varied reasons have been offered for
these laws, ranging from philosophical and ritualistic, to practical
and hygienic.
A circled U indicates that a product is certified by the Orthodox
Union (OU) to be F.
F = Kosher
Paul Hewson was born and brought up in Glasnevin,
Dublin. During his childhood and adolescence, he and his friends were
part of a surrealist street gang called Lypton Village, where one of
the rituals was nickname-giving. He had several names: first, he was
Steinvic von Huyseman, then just Huyseman then Houseman, then G Vox of
O'Connell Street, and finally just G.
G Vox is an alteration of G' Vox, a brand of hearing aid. The phrase
in Latin translates to good voice. G' Vox was the name of a hearing
aid shop they regularly passed on North Earl Street, just off
O'Connell Street, in Dublin. It is said he was nicknamed G Vox after
the shop by his friend Gavin Friday because he sang so loudly he
seemed to be singing for the deaf. Initially, G did not like his name.
However, when he learned it translated to good voice, he accepted
it.
G who ?
G = Bono
G' = Bona
H is an American newspaper heiress and occasional
actress. She is the granddaughter of publishing magnate William
Randolph Hearst.
In 1974, the 19-year-old H was kidnapped from her Berkeley apartment,
by an urban guerrilla group called the Symbionese Liberation Army
(SLA). When the attempt to swap H for jailed SLA members failed, the
SLA made ransom demands which resulted in the donation by the Hearst
family of $6 million worth of food to the poor of the Bay Area. After
the distribution of food, H was still not released.
Later that year, H was photographed wielding an assault rifle while
robbing the Sunset District branch of the Hibernia Bank in San
Francisco. Later communications from her were issued under the
pseudonym Tania and revealed that she was committed to the goals of
the SLA. She was arrested with other SLA members and sentenced to a
7-year term. Seen as a severe case of the Stockholm syndrome her
sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter. She was granted a
full pardon by President Bill Clinton on the final day of his
presidency.
H = Patty Hearst
Historically (roughly 1450-1600), I represents a
person who endeavors to 'develop his capacities as fully as possible'
both mentally and physically . It is a common term for the phenomena
also known as Homo universalis and Uomo universale, which in Latin and
Italian, respectively, translate as "universal person" or "universal
man".
The most common example to explain the use of the term I for this
phenomenon is Leon Battista Alberti, who was an Italian architect,
painter, poet, linguist, scientist, mathematician, musician,
architect, a skilled horseman and a general I.
I = Renaissance man
J is a secret society based at Yale University,
whose members include U.S. Presidents such as George W. Bush, George
H. W. Bush, and William Howard Taft along with Supreme Court Justices,
business leaders and U.S. Senators such as John F. Kerry. The society
was founded in 1832 by William Huntington Russell and Alphonso Taft.
The society was all male until 1992.
In 1918, three members including Prescott Bush, reportedly stole
Geronimo's skull, some bones and a prized silver bridle, and housed it
in the society's tomb-like headquarters on the Yale University campus,
and supposedly use it in rituals practiced by the group, one of which
is said to be kissing the skull of Geronimo as an initiation.
J pays obeisance to Eulogia, the goddess of eloquence, who took her
place in the pantheon upon the death of the orator Demosthenes, in 322
B.C. by using 322 in its symbol.
The fictional character Montgomery Burns on The Simpsons is a J-man
from the class of 1914.
J = Skull and Bones
In 1974, while bartending and substitute-teaching
at Interboro High School, K successfully tried out for the
Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League as a wide receiver. He
played for the team for two seasons until the league folded in 1975.
His performance with that team earned him a meeting with Coach Dick
Vermeil of the Philadelphia Eagles after general manager Jim Murray
got him an invitation to a private work-out held by Coach Vermeil. K
eventually made the team, thereby becoming, at age 30, the oldest
rookie in the history of the NFL to play without the benefit of
college football experience (other than kickers).
K was the inspiration for the 2006 movie Invincible.
K = Vince Papale
The first L was presented in 1949 at the Hollywood
Athletic Club. The name L was a feminization of L', the nickname used
for the image orthicon tubes that were common in early television
cameras. Shirley Dinsdale has the distinction of receiving the first
recipient of L. These are made by a private company with a
manufacturing site at the maximum security El Dorado Correctional
Facility, in El Dorado, Kansas.
It is a statuette of a winged woman holding an atom. The wings
represent the muse of art; the atom the electron of science. It was
created by television engineer Louis McManus, using his wife as a
model.
L = Emmy Awards
L' = Immy
William Willett along with his father ran Willett
Building Services. Between them they created a reputation for 'Willett
built' quality houses in choice parts of London and the south, notably
in Chelsea. He lived most of his life in Chislehurst, Kent, where, it
is said, after riding his horse in Petts Wood near his home early one
summer morning and noticing how many blinds were still down, the idea
for M first occurred to him. Although the invention of M is attributed
to N, who in 1784 mooted the idea in a light-hearted letter published
in the Journal of Paris.
As an aside, William Willet is the great-great-grandfather of Chris
Martin of Coldplay, who wrote a song named M' in the album "A Rush of
Blood to the Head", as an apparent dedication to Willet (according to
me).
M = Daylight Savings Time
N = Benjamin Franklin
M = Daylight
The term O derives from the French term O' for the
cry of a circus acrobat about to leap. The "Official History of the
NFL" book says that the term O was first used to describe what is now
known as the Hail Mary pass in football, but that eventually the term
became used in basketball. The NFL history book cites the origin of
the term to the comic strip caveman, O created by cartoonist V. T.
Hamlin in the early 1930s, because sportscasters believed those throws
looked like O in action. Hamlin picked up the term O' while serving in
the Army in France during WW I.
The O was first used and popularized during the early 1970s by NCSU to
take advantage of the 48-inch vertical leap of Wolfpack star David
Thompson. Because dunking was illegal in college basketball at that
time, upon catching the O pass, Thompson would simply drop the ball
through the hoop.
O = Alley Oop
O' = Allez-oop
A P is a very specific kind of short humorous
verse, typically with the following properties:
* biographical and usually whimsical, showing the subject from an
unusual point of view; but it is hardly ever satirical, abusive or
obscene
* Has four lines of irregular length (for comic effect)
* The first line consists solely (or almost solely) of a well-known
person's name.
The form was invented by and is named after Edmund P Bentley. As a
student, Bentley invented the P on Humphrey Davy (see below) during
his studies, and it was a great hit with his friends. The first use of
the word in print was in 1928. Bentley's friend, G. K. Chesterton, was
a practitioner of the P and one of the sources of its popularity. The
unbalanced and unpolished poetic meter and line length are a parody of
the limerick.
Sir Humphrey Davy
Abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.
Google Reader's
built with electrons and leptons, meters and liters.
We're off dealing with those particles
so we can bring you your articles.
P = Clerihew
Vin Mariani was a tonic created by Angelo Mariani,
a chemist. In 1863, Mariani started marketing a wine called Vin
Mariani which was made from Bordeaux wine treated with Q leaves. The
ethanol in the wine acted as a solvent and extracted the cocaine from
the Q leaves, altering the drink's effect. Mid-1800s was a different
time though and this tonic was endorsed by, amongst others, the Pope
himself.
This tonic was copied by John S. Pemberton in 1884, originally as a
Q-wine called Pemberton's French Wine Q. In 1885, when Atlanta and
Fulton County passed Prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by
developing Q R. The beverage was named Q R because originally, the
stimulant mixed in the beverage was Q leaves from South America. In
addition, the drink was flavored using R nuts, the beverage's source
of caffeine.
Coca Cola
Q = Coca
R = Cola
S is a common slang term for home-distilled
alcohol, especially in places where this production is illegal. The
name is derived from the fact that the S-ers would often work at night
to avoid arrest for producing illegal liquor, especially during
Prohibition. S is made by yeast fermenting any number of sugar sources
to produce ethanol and then separating the alcohol from the fermenting
mixture (the mash) through distillation using a still.
S is often portrayed in the media in a clay jug marked only with XXX.
Supposedly, the S-er would inscribe a single X on the jug each time
the mixture passed through a still. This image of a jug or bottle
marked XXX is used in comic strips and cartoons to depict an
intoxicating beverage.
S = Moonshine
The T is a region in Eurasia bordered on the south
by Turkey and Iran in Asia, on the west by the Black Sea, on the east
by the Caspian Sea, and on the north by Russia. T includes the T'
Mountains and surrounding lowlands.
The Biblical Mount Ararat where Noah's Ark is said to have landed is
regarded as the landmark of T. In Greek mythology, the T' was one of
the pillars supporting the world. Prometheus was chained there by
Zeus. The Roman poet Ovid placed T' in Scythia and depicted it as a
cold and stony mountain which was the abode of personified hunger
(ironically).
We know T in a different context, related to classification.
T = Caucasia
T' = Caucasus
U is a 15-year-old boy who lived with his Uncle
Garrow and cousin Roran. His mother, Selena, was Garrow's sister and
disappeared after delivering U to the care Garrow and his wife when he
was first born. U gained the appelation Shadeslayer, after killing
Durza.
Strengths
* Elf-like qualities, such as magical and physical strength, granted
in an Elven ceremony
* Skilled in swordmanship
* Call upon his magic easily
* Able to use magic using only a few words from the Ancient
Language
* Skilled archer
* Gifted hunter and woodsman.
Weaknesses
* Lacks emotional maturity.
* Often forgets things too easily.
* Underdeveloped emotions.
* Rushes into things brashly and it's often Saphira's common sense that keeps him on track.
* Immature lust for Arya.
U = Eragon
This song, an idea inspired by minimalist
composer Terry Riley, was originally to be created by pulling a person
from the audience and programming their vital statistics into a
synthesizer that would, in effect, translate that person into a
musical theme around which a song could be built.
Instead, they used the life information of Meher Baba, whose
philosophy had been a great personal and artistic influence on the
band's chief songwriter.
Which rock anthem ?
Baba O'Riley
V was one of the original Titans, one set of sons and daughters of Uranus and Gaia in Greek mythology. Traditionally associated with the moon, she was the grandmother of Apollo and Artemis. By Coeus she mothered Leto and Asteria. She received control of the Oracle at Delphi from Themis, according to a minority of sources.
V = Phoebe
W (改善, Japanese for "change for the
better" or "improvement", the English translation is "continuous
improvement" is an approach to productivity improvement originating in
applications of the work of American experts such as Frederick Winslow
Taylor, Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Walter Shewhart, and of the War
Department's Training Within Industry program by Japanese
manufacturers after World War II. The development of W went
hand-in-hand with that of quality control circles, but it was not
limited to quality assurance.
The goals of W include the elimination of waste, just-in-time
delivery, production load leveling of amount and types, standardized
work, paced moving lines, right-sized equipment, etc. A closer
definition of the Japanese usage of W is "to take it apart and put
back together in a better way."
W = Kaizen