notable inosculation

• 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 reinforce negative affect in others. The sad sadden.


• variance normalization (quantitative ethics n.): method for averaging over preferences / moral systems when making decisions under uncertainty! Cotton-Barratt has a formal result showing that this is the unique solution for certain intuitive fairness axioms.


• decapping (maker n.): removing the cosmetic plastic from a microchip to inspect (crack, alter) the actual circuitry.


• FILTH (HK n.): A British ex-pat in southern China. Someone living out the mean advice, "Failed in London, Try Hong Kong", either on their own steam or because their multinational wants them out of the way.
  


• to inosculate (Latinate v.): to grow together; to merge, particularly among plants. From Latin osculare, to kiss.


• transmedicalist (internet n.): person who holds that gender dysphoria is necessary to be transgender, or really transgender. That it's a biological condition, like being intersexed. See also truscum; the (mean) antonyms are transtrender or tucute, but a fairer one would be transubjectivist. So sad. (Overheard:

  I am a truscum who doesn't like most other truscums.

  )


• waiing (Thaiglish v.): Bowing with palms pressed together in the traditional Thai wai way.


• spiritual bypass (psychobabble n.): Avoiding problems in your life by going on a mystical tangent.


• to chiffre (French v.): to encipher.


• Filippov (Russian proper n.): Stalin's crypto handle.


• grainflow (geology n.): sand avalanche, or the fossil remains of one. Not to be confused with lethal flowing cereal grain.


• hydrogenic (quantum physics adj.): hydrogen-like; of a nucleus with a single electron. Useful as model particle in the early (and especially the pre-computer) quantum theory.


• self-energy (physics n.): component of a particle's energy due to interaction between it and the system it is part of; a thing's effect on itself. The human analogy is irresistible. Urge to pontificate rising.


• curtal (adj.): abridged; broken-off.


• commish (US v.): (Police) Commissioner. Used e.g. on Twitter.


• indicia (pompous legal n.): indicators, signs.


• tater (US n.): whisky noob; a moneyed philistine throwing money around to obtain an instant collection.


• Swiss cheese model (engineering n.): Good way of thinking about accidents which emphasises multiple causes and layers of defences.