there  could  be  snakes  in  here

access abyss (global health n.): The gigantic difference in access to pain relief across the world: most of the world's opiates are consumed by the richest fraction of the population. Hundreds of millions die without any pain relief at all. A complete travesty, especially given how cheap they are. Intensification of "gap", the usual economics word for disparity. fictitious force (physics n.): A force which only arises when considering motion between a non-inertial frame and an inertial one. (e.g. the Earth's frame and the Sun's.) We say the sun goes round the earth, despite the licence to say either given by Galilean relativity, because saying the opposite produces four extra awkward forces in the equations. The argument goes through, ultimately, by Occam's razor, and by computational convenience. co-rumination (psychology n.): excessive discussion of one's problems and picking of scabs within friendships. Can make negativity reinfor...

geofence (tech n.): a virtual boundary that lets software respond when its device enters or leaves a particular area. e.g. disabling wi-fi, e.g. sending an alert. My engineering lecturer claimed that the DoD disabled his car with one of these. Stingray (policing n.): phone snooper; IMSI-catcher. Emulates a real phone tower to locate and identify nearby phones. In common use in large US cities. Moravec's paradox (AI n.): the surprising fact that abstract cognition has proved much easier to emulate in AI than has basic, instinctive visual and motor processing. Haut en bas. slamming (white-collar crime n./v.): taking control of a phone owner's account without permission. Done by actual companies, somehow. benefit of clergy (medieval n.): right to be tried by the Church instead of the magistrate; effectively, the right to not be executed for your crimes. Originally only granted to clerics, hence the name, but eventually to anyone who could read....

Half-Mourning (Victorian n.): The final stage of the Decent two-year grieving period, in which the widow is allowed to hear hats again and can start to work bland colours (grey, lilac, lavender) into her clothing. Game recognizes game (black proverb): Takes one to know one; great minds think alike. Self-aggrandising compliment. healthspan (n.): the length of time in which you are healthy. Healthspan is the proper target of medicine, but has been sidelined in favour of raw longevity for a century. bare stick (光棍) (Chinese n.): Single man. (Some suggest that this is a dick joke, but this is likely to be denied by locals.) Name of the annual Valentine's Day / orgy of consumerism, on November 11th (chosen because 11/11 has a lot of single 1s in it). exploitable (n.): a meme template with blank space for you to speak your branes in. manhwa (만화)(Korean n.): manga. brohoof (internet n.): A high-five between two broni...

twenny nug (channish n.): 20 (chicken) nuggets. skiff (US military n.): Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. Airgapped, maximal security computer installation. class-struggle face (阶级斗争脸) (Maoist n.): the fixed frown-grimace suitable for intimidating black elements . A risque joke at Mao's expense. I make this face at work when I don't want to be bothered. (I work in an open plan.) black money (Indian n.): Money from the black market, untaxed: perhaps trillions in total. twice exceptional (US pedagogy adj.): both disabled and gifted. (“ being gifted and being disabled are surprisingly similar: isolating, mystifying, petrifying. ”) nasheed (Arabic n.): religious song, canonically a'capella, but these days they add a bunch of overdubs and comps and stuff. Searching for them can get you put on A Watchlist. grand truth (ML n.): The underlying distribution; the population. I think it's probably a m...