Comments by ecbrenner

  • There are Ghirardelli ice cream shops? Oh, we so need one of those in my neighborhood!

    April 25, 2012

  • The act of heating then cooling chocolate to specific temperatures so that when the cooled chocolate becomes smooth with a glossy sheen to it.

    July 8, 2010

  • Dark chocolate contains 35% to 82% chocolate liquor, by weight.

    July 8, 2010

  • Milk chocolate contains 30%-49% cacao, or 10% chocolate liquor and 12% milk solids by weight.

    July 8, 2010

  • Bittersweet chocolate contains 70%-100% cacao.

    July 8, 2010

  • Semisweet chocolate has 50%-69% cacao content (or 15% chocolate liquor by weight).

    July 8, 2010

  • Can also be used to indicate a blend of different cacao beans.

    July 8, 2010

  • To coat or cover candies with chocolate in a special machine.

    July 8, 2010

  • Ruzuzu, that's great! I'd never seen it before. Now I'll mark it for future reference. I wonder who would be considered "the respectable" in this day and age?

    June 30, 2010

  • a basket with a handle that holds a tampered puck of coffee grounds, used on semi-automatic espresso machines

    June 29, 2010

  • espresso with a tiny amount of milk

    June 29, 2010

  • espresso and hot water

    June 29, 2010

  • the darkest style of roasting coffee beans, producing a coffee that is extremely bold and smoky-tasting

    June 29, 2010

  • a style of dark-roasting coffee beans that produces a coffee that is sweeter and less acidic than espresso and other dark roast

    June 29, 2010

  • A grinder that uses abrasive surfaces to grind hard foods, such as coffee beans.

    June 29, 2010

  • In the power industry, independent system operator.

    May 21, 2010

  • In the power industry, flue gas desulphurization

    May 21, 2010

  • In the power industry, wave energy converter.

    May 21, 2010

  • In the power industry, Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator.

    May 21, 2010

  • In the power industry, load-serving entity.

    May 21, 2010

  • In the power industry, integrated solar combined cycle.

    May 21, 2010

  • In the power industry, distributed generation.

    May 21, 2010

  • "n. 1. A consumer who is an amateur in a particular field, but who is knowledgeable enough to require equipment that has some professional features ("professional" + "consumer"). 2. A person who helps to design or customize the products they purchase ("producer" + "consumer"). 3. A person who creates goods for their own use and also possibly to sell ("producing" + "consumer"). 4. A person who takes steps to correct difficulties with consumer companies or markets and to anticipate future problems ("proactive" + "consumer")." --Word Spy

    April 26, 2010

  • "n. A repetitive stress injury characterized by swelling and pain at the base of the thumb and caused by prolonged use of the thumb while operating a BlackBerry or other personal digital assistant." --Word Spy

    April 26, 2010

  • "n. An online record of a person's daily activities, either via direct video feed or via aggregating the person's online content such as blog posts, social network updates, and online photos." --Word Spy

    April 26, 2010

  • "Any link that is so compelling ("Click here to win a free iPhone") that you just have to click on it. In some cases, a linkbait is nefarious, taking you to Web site that infects your computer with a virus or displays inappropriate images" --"Mesofacts, Memes and More: 25 New Tech Words You Need to Know"

    April 26, 2010

  • "n. An error made while using the thumbs to type, particularly on a mobile device keypad. Blend of thumb and typo." --Word Spy

    April 26, 2010

  • Most common meter in poetry and most like speech. It contains five ("penta") iambs per line.

    April 12, 2010

  • That's where I grabbed it from, yes. Maybe he's Southern? It sounds like it when I try to pronounce it.

    March 29, 2010

  • "(his.TAYR.i.cul ree.uh.liz.um) n. A literary genre characterized by exceptional length, frenetic action, offbeat characters, and long digressions on topics secondary to the story. (Cf. magical realism.)" --Word Spy

    March 22, 2010

  • "n. A literary genre that uses potty humor and off-color jokes to appeal to young children." --Word Spy

    March 22, 2010

  • "n. A literary genre where each work takes as its central theme a social, cultural, or political issue." --Word Spy

    March 22, 2010

  • "n. A literary genre that features books written by men and focusing on young, male characters, particularly those who are selfish, insensitive, and afraid of commitment. Also: lad literature." --Word Spy

    March 22, 2010

  • "(tart NWAHR) n. Mystery or crime novels in which the main character is a woman who is tough, independent, and sexy." --Word Spy

    March 22, 2010

  • "(KAY.mart REE.uh.liz.um) n. A literary genre characterized by a spare, terse style that features struggling, working-class characters in sterile, bleak environments." --Word Spy

    March 22, 2010

  • "n. A literary genre that features books written by men and focusing on young male protagonists who engage in drunkenness, promiscuity, and loutish behavior. Blend of fraternity and satire." --Word Spy

    March 22, 2010

  • "n. A literary genre that features books written by women and focusing on young, quirky, female protagonists. Also: chick-lit." --Word Spy

    March 22, 2010

  • "n. A memoir or novel that focuses on extreme personal trauma and abuse. Also: misery-lit, mis lit, misery literature, misery memoir" --Word Spy

    March 22, 2010

  • A legal term for poaching; a system for doing so.

    March 22, 2010

  • Certified emission reduction

    March 2, 2010

  • Also: clean development mechanism

    March 2, 2010

  • Abbreviation: FIT

    March 2, 2010

  • robot operating system. Open source software that provides "a common platform so developers can smoothly swap apps." --"Jargon Watch," Wired (17.12), 32

    February 22, 2010

  • "relating to a very specific and often small community or geographical area" --MacMillan Dictionary

    February 20, 2010

  • "Now, researchers and engineers are pulling graphics out of your television screen or computer display and integrating them into real-world environments. This new technology, called augmented reality, blurs the line between what's real and what's computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel and smell...Augmented reality adds graphics, sounds, haptic feedback and smell to the natural world as it exists. " --Kevin Bonser, "How Augmented Reality Works"

    February 20, 2010

  • A Web site on which companies post problems, offering a prize for the person or company that solves the problem.

    "Today, these companies are pioneers among thousands of businesses that participate in what we call "ideagoras"—places where millions of ideas and solutions change hands in something akin to an eBay for innovation." --Dan Tapscott, "Ideagora, a Marketplace for Minds"

    February 5, 2010

  • "1. a volunteer doing tedious computer work for scientific research, usually in shortwork sessions. For an example, see http://clickworkers.arc.nasa.gov/top.

    (more generally) a worker who manages information with the aid of a computer, typically without being especially knowledgeable about or interested in computing." --AllBusiness

    February 5, 2010

  • A task only a human can accomplish, such as recognizing a performer on a music CD or categorizing products. HIT. Amazon.com offers Mechanical Turk, a system for assigning and completing HITs.

    February 5, 2010

  • "Refers to content on a Web site that is either interactive, such as Internet polls or opt-in features, or dynamic, such as animated GIFs, stock tickers, weather maps, JavaScript applications, embedded objects, streaming video and audio or ActiveX applications. Streaming video and audio rely on browser plug-ins, such as RealPlayer, to display active content." --Webopedia

    February 3, 2010

  • "A temporary loss of inhibition while online" --Word Spy

    January 29, 2010

  • "Marked by an effect of comic or grotesque imitation or exaggeration usually with the intent of mocking or making ridiculous : derisively imitative " --Merriam-Webster Unabridged

    January 29, 2010

  • humor that involves "adult" content: foul language, sexual remarks, scatalogical remarks, etc.

    January 29, 2010

  • "The ability to criticise someone and have them laugh about it; ... Cutting sarcasm cleverly masked as a lighthearted joke; the epitome of Oscar Wilde" --Urban Dictionary

    January 29, 2010

  • "An automated phone call that plays a recorded message." --Word Spy

    January 29, 2010

  • "The strong and irrational fear that in the near future the earth will be destroyed by some cosmic event." --Word Spy

    January 29, 2010

  • "Ineffective green technology, particular equipment added on to an existing building that does little to reduce the building's use of natural resources." --Word Spy

    January 29, 2010

  • "an agglomerate of impersonal monetary factors specifically considered as the basis for human relations" --Merrriam-Webster Unabridged

    January 26, 2010

  • When people duck your e-mails, never returning them.

    "NOT too long ago, a magazine in Manhattan invited me, by e-mail, to interview for a job. After meeting with me, the managing editor and the director of human resources asked me to take home the standard editing test and return it ASAP. I dutifully obliged.

    "And then I waited. One day. Two days. A week. A month. Two months. Three … well, you get the picture.

    "Not only was there no word on whether I would be offered the job — nobody at the magazine even bothered to e-mail me to say that my completed test had been received!" --Neil Hirschfeld, "Complaint Box: The E-Snub"

    January 25, 2010

  • tramp, highwayman (obsolete)

    January 25, 2010

  • What businesses get when they spend so much time on social media for marketing but don't know how it is (or isn't) increasing sales.

    January 25, 2010

  • Fear of writing

    January 20, 2010

  • "When you come back to school or work from your vacation and you can't remember what you did before your vacation." --Urban Dictionary

    January 6, 2010

  • Not in communication.

    December 15, 2009

  • My grandmother would say this all the time. Now I'm not so sure which meaning she was using.

    "Frick and Frack has become an English slang term used in two ways. One is to refer to two people so closely associated as to be indistinguishable; the other way is as a term of derision for any two people, on par with calling one person a Bozo or three people Stooges." --Wikipedia

    December 15, 2009

  • "A drilling rig used offshore whose platform is a barge from which legs are lowered to the bottom when over the drill site and which is raised above the water and supported on the legs to conduct drilling operations" --Merriam-Webster Unabridged

    December 1, 2009

  • A moment of inspiration or epiphany.

    "A phrase that describes 'flashes of understanding,' which has been the subject of a curious copyright battle." --Ben Schott, "Aha Moment"

    November 25, 2009

  • A process for burying cables into the seabed using high-powered jets of water. The cables for the Cape Wind project are slated to be laid in this manner.

    November 25, 2009

  • Also, a quote pulled out of the text and graphically enhanced to draw the reader's attention to it. A call-out.

    November 13, 2009

  • Also, a quote pulled out of the text and graphically enhanced to draw the reader's attention to it. A pull quote.

    November 13, 2009

  • Also, a line of text above a headline intended to generate interest in the ensuing story.

    November 13, 2009

  • "bearing eggs or modified for the purpose of bearing them" --Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary

    November 8, 2009

  • "1. Sometimes known as a partial spinoff, a carve out occurs when a parent company sells a minority (usually 20% or less) stake in a subsidiary for an IPO or rights offering.

    "2. Where an established brick-and-mortar company hooks up with venture investors and a new management team to launch an Internet spinoff...

    "In most cases the parent company will spinoff the remaining interests to existing shareholders at a later date when the stock price is much higher." --Investopedia

    November 6, 2009

  • Giles Corey utter these words during the Salem Witch Trials. Accused of being a warlock, Corey was arrested on April 18, 1692. At that time, a person could not be tried unless he entered a plea of "guilty" or "not guilty." When Corey refused to plea, he was tortured by the authorities, who laid a heavy board on top of him and placed large stones on the board. Every time they asked for a plea, Corey simply said, "More weight." Eventually Corey was crushed to death. Visitors to the Witch City can see Corey's grave marker, and the Witch Trials Memorial, in Salem Cemetery.

    October 30, 2009

  • The realm of status updates on the Web through different platforms and networking sites.

    October 30, 2009

  • mussitation.

    October 29, 2009

  • Ha! Very clever, gangerh.

    October 28, 2009

  • "A computer program that retrieves documents or files or data from a database or from a computer network (especially from the internet))" --WordNet

    October 28, 2009

  • Microsoft's marketing term for "search engine." Don't fall for it. Bing is a search engine.

    October 28, 2009

  • "The global conflict predicted if the US adopts carbon caps and imposes protectionist tariffs on goods from nations with less-stringent environmental regulations." --Wired Magazine (p. 47, Sept. 2009)

    October 28, 2009

  • "The average man, at least in England and America, has such rudimentary tastes in victualry that he doesn’t know good food from bad. He will eat anything set before him by a cook that he likes. The true way to fetch him is with drinks. A single bottle of drinkable wine will fill more men with the passion of love than ten sides of beef or a ton of potatoes. Even a Seidel of beer, deftly applied, is enough to mellow the hardest bachelor. If women really knew their business, they would have abandoned cooking centuries ago, and devoted themselves to brewing, distilling, and bartending." -- H.L. Mencken, via Wordnik

    October 26, 2009

  • Also, a computer user's graphic representation, often a picture, cartoon, or logo.

    October 21, 2009

  • "A culture in which many people write about or display — and other people to take pleasure in reading or watching — the minutiae of their daily lives." --Word Spy

    October 20, 2009

  • "A profound transformation." --WordNet

    October 20, 2009

  • "The area around the center of mass of a bat, racket, or head of a club that is the most effective part with which to hit a ball." --Merriam-Webster Unabridged

    "A place, often numerical as opposed to physical, where a combination of factors suggest a particularly suitable solution." --Wikipedia

    October 20, 2009

  • standard offer power purchase agreement

    October 19, 2009

  • urban enterprise zones

    October 19, 2009

  • "A type of solar thermal energy collector." --Wikipedia

    October 19, 2009

  • solar renewable energy certificate

    October 19, 2009

  • kilovolt

    October 19, 2009

  • Investor-owned utility

    October 19, 2009

  • independent power producer

    October 19, 2009

  • "to even out, to equalize a source" --Urban Dictionary

    Because, you know, "level" just wasn't good enough.

    October 19, 2009

  • Photovoltaic

    October 19, 2009

  • "Meanwhile, in the jargon of town planners the word pepperpotting has been coined to refer to the practice of sprinkling social housing among areas of private housing, so that lower earners are not herded together in large estates." --Ian Brookes, "A different kettle of fish"

    October 8, 2009

  • "A person who uses technology, particularly wireless networking, to work without requiring an office or other fixed address." --Word Spy

    October 8, 2009

  • "Of a person, prone to stabbing or making a series of short slashing or poking motions; of a thing, able to prod, pierce, or cut. Also in figurative uses." --Double-Tongued Dictionary

    September 25, 2009

  • "A bankruptcy resolved in a short time." --Double-Tongued Dictionary

    September 25, 2009

  • "In computer science, canonicalization (abbreviated c14n, where 14 represents the number of letters between the C and the N) is a process for converting data that has more than one possible representation into a "standard" canonical representation. This can be done to compare different representations for equivalence, to count the number of distinct data structures, to improve the efficiency of various algorithms by eliminating repeated calculations, or to make it possible to impose a meaningful sorting order." --Wikipedia

    September 22, 2009

  • "State of mind usually caused by boredom or a annoying situation that doesn't really causes any heavy emotional reactions." --Urban Dictionary

    September 22, 2009

  • "Also called a hyperlink trick, an obfuscated URL is a type of attack where the real URL that a user is directed to is obfuscated — or concealed — to encourage the user to click-through to the spoof Web site. For example, the attacker may use a cleverly misspelled domain name (e.g. PayPals.com instead of PayPal.com), or hide the actual URL in friendly text, such as "click here to verify your account now". Obfuscated URLs are commonly used in phishing attacks and other spam e-mails." --Webopedia

    September 21, 2009

  • In computer software: "Loupe is a utility that displays a magnified view of whatever is beneath the mouse cursor, much like a jeweler or printer loupe. A loupe can be found in products like Adobe Acrobat, or it is available as a stand-alone desktop utility. The term is derived from a loupe magnifying glass, which is usually found to have a magnification of 10X" --Webopedia

    September 21, 2009

  • "A website where headlines are collected, usually manually, by the website owner. Examples of this sort of website are the Drudge Report, The Political Simpleton and the Huffington Post. There are also websites like Google News, where aggregation is entirely automatic, using algorithms which carry out contextual analysis and group similar stories together." --Wikipedia

    September 18, 2009

  • Made for AdSense.

    "Some scraper sites are created for monetizing the site using advertising programs. In such case, they are called Made for AdSense sites or MFA...This is also a derogatory term used to refer to websites that have no redeeming value except to get web visitors to the website for the sole purpose of clicking on advertisements." --Wikipedia

    September 17, 2009

  • "Web scraping (or Web harvesting, Web data extraction) is a computer software technique of extracting information from websites. Usually, such software programs simulate human exploration of the Web by either implementing low-level Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), or embedding certain full-fledged Web browsers, such as the Internet Explorer (IE) and the Mozilla Web browser." --Webopedia

    September 17, 2009

  • "A website that copies all of its content from other websites using web scraping." --Wikipedia

    September 17, 2009

  • In the energy industry, environmental portfolio standard

    September 12, 2009

  • In environmental science, Environmental Impact Assessment

    September 12, 2009

  • interest during construction

    September 12, 2009

  • "The state in which the borrower obtains some of the project financing, usually progressively according to construction expenditures plus IDC." --Campbell R. Harvey's Hypertextual Finance Glossary

    September 12, 2009

  • "The time when the documentation has been executed and conditions precedent have been satisfied or waived. Drawdowns are now permissible." --Campbell R. Harvey's Hypertextual Finance Glossary

    September 12, 2009

  • gigawatt hour

    September 12, 2009

  • megawatt hour

    September 12, 2009

  • terrawatt hour

    September 12, 2009

  • Also called cap and trade.

    September 11, 2009

  • "An administrative approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants." --Wikipedia

    Also called emissions trading.

    September 11, 2009

  • "This colloquialism denotes a storm that brings high winds and rain or snow to the upper Atlantic Coast. The storm is so named because although the cyclonic storm itself moves northeasterly up the coast, the inland winds on its west side blow from out of the northeast.

    "While the folksy pronunciation might evoke images of a Yankee seafarer in some, the contracted term is neither authentic nor accurate. New Englanders tend to drop their 'r' sounds and are more likely to pronounce 'northeaster' as /naw-THEES-tuh/. As Boston Globe wordsmith Jan Freeman noted, 'The facts, however, have not slowed the advance of "nor'easter." Even in print, where it's probably less common than in speech, it has practically routed "northeaster" in the past quarter-century or so. . . . It would take a mighty wind, at this point, to blow "nor'easter" back into oblivion.'" --Garner's Modern American Usage

    And this New Englander finds herself pronouncing it /naw-EES-tuh/.

    September 9, 2009

  • I love this word. I can almost hear the wheel moving.

    September 9, 2009

  • "Deemed by many as the 'Lion of the Senate,' Ted Kennedy was considered one of the most effective legislators of the past few decades, especially in his ability to cross party lines to get legislation passed." --Ed Hornick, "Ted Kennedy, 'Lion of the Senate,' helped shape American politics," CNN

    August 26, 2009

  • "Nickname for the middle class desire to maintain pre-recessionary appearances at any cost." --Schott's Vocab

    I love this one; I know far too many Hyacinth Buckets who aren't as funny in real life.

    August 25, 2009

  • MicroHoo: "Slang term adapted by the media to describe the Yahoo and Microsoft search partnership." --Webopedia

    August 19, 2009

  • "The capability to detect and record where you and other people are located, and to use the information to enhance the desktop using an Internet-connected computer or device. Geolocation information can be obtained in a number of ways including data bout a user's IP address, MAC address, RFID, Wi-Fi connection location, or GPS coordinates." --Webopedia

    August 19, 2009

  • "A slang phrase used to describe flawed Google search engine results. " --Webopedia

    August 19, 2009

  • "Twishing is a combination of Twitter and phishing, uses the growing popularity of the microblogging service Twitter.com in an attempt to steal your identity." --Webopedia

    August 19, 2009

  • "The name of a popular wireless networking technology that uses radio waves to provide wireless high-speed Internet and network connections....A trademarked term meaning IEEE 802.11x." --Webopedia

    August 19, 2009

  • Also: Italian for sandwiches made from small bread rolls, often filled with meats and cheeses (singular: panino). In the US, it is often used in the singular sense for one of these sandwiches.

    August 13, 2009

  • A vacation from Friday to Monday or time off the day before and after a holiday.

    "Last week was memorable for me. I actually heeded a suggestion to take more than just a wraparound vacation. You know, the type of break we all take nowadays, fitting a Friday and Monday around a weekend or holiday and considering it a meaningful getaway." --James Hering, "Chasing the White Rabbit"

    July 30, 2009

  • A men-only vacation.

    July 30, 2009

  • Yup, that's what I think of, too. And it's a much better program than HR's RIF.

    July 28, 2009

  • "A trap set to detect, deflect, or in some manner counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems. Generally it consists of a computer, data, or a network site that appears to be part of a network but which is actually isolated, (un)protected, and monitored, and which seems to contain information or a resource that would be of value to attackers." --Wikipedia

    July 28, 2009

  • "A block of text that is appended to the end of an e-mail message you send. Generally, a signature is used to provide the recipient with your name, e-mail address, business contact information, or Web site URL. Some people, however, will use a signature to sign off their e-mail message with a closing statement, funny quote or other message. A signature file, or sig as it is often called, can easily be created in most e-mail clients. You will have the option to always attach the signature to all outgoing e-mails, or add the signature in specific outgoing e-mails." --Webopedia

    July 24, 2009

  • "On the Twitter Web site "following" someone means you will see their tweets (Twitter updates) in your personal timeline. Twitter lets you see who you follow and also who is following you. Followers are people who receive other people's Twitter updates." --Webopedia

    July 24, 2009

  • "Found on blogs it is a list of links to other blogs and Web sites that the blog author commonly references or is affiliated with. Blogrolls help blog authors to establish and build upon a their blogger community. In Web 1.0 terminology, a blogroll would be the equivalent of a list of hyperlinks on a personal Web page." --Webopedia

    July 24, 2009

  • This is one of my favorite replacements for the f-word. Why I have no idea. It's not harsh, nor is its meaning related. Go figure.

    July 23, 2009

  • reduction in workforce

    July 23, 2009

  • "A minor third is a musical interval of three semitones. It is the smaller of two commonly occurring musical intervals compounded of two steps of the diatonic scale. The prefix 'minor' identifies it as being the smaller of the two (by one semitone); its larger counterpart being a major third. The minor third is abbreviated as m3 and its inversion is the major sixth." --Wikipedia

    July 21, 2009

  • "A major third is one of two commonly occurring musical intervals that span three diatonic scale degrees, the other being the minor third. It is denoted 'major' because it is the larger of the two: the major third is a leap of four semitones, the minor third three. The major third is abbreviated M3; its inversion is the minor sixth." --Wikipedia

    July 21, 2009

  • digital out of home (ads)

    July 9, 2009

  • I can't hear this word anymore without thinking of a scene from "Coupling" in which Jeff tries to pick up a girl and when he finds she doesn't speak English, he takes the opportunity to say some of his favorite words, "gusset" being among them.

    July 8, 2009

  • cost per sale

    July 6, 2009

  • cost per lead

    July 6, 2009

  • "In Web advertising, the click rate is the number of clicks on an ad on an HTML page as a percentage of the number of times that the ad was downloaded with a page. Thus, the click rate on a particular page with an ad would be 10% if one in ten people who downloaded the page clicked on the ad." --WhatIs.com

    July 6, 2009

  • In digital marketing: "In Web advertising, a click is an instance of a user pressing down (clicking) on a mouse button in an ad space. The term clickthrough is also sometimes used." --WhatIs.com

    July 6, 2009

  • "A synonym for view, as in ad view. Online publishers offer and their customers buy advertising measured in terms of ad views or impressions. Since a single Web page can contain multiple ads (depending on its design), a site usually registers more ad views per unit of time than Web pages per unit of time. ( Hits is the term for any requested file, including each of a page's images. Although hits are of interest for traffic measurement purposes, they have no significance for advertisers.)

    Page or ad impressions are logged in a log that is maintained by the site server. Programs like Web Trends read the log, abstract meaning from it, and generate a report about site usage. Other programs, such as Central Ad, can keep track of all ad impressions that have been sent and how many of these were clicked on by users." --Whatis.com

    July 6, 2009

  • Online, a short video ad that runs after the video the user requested to see.

    July 6, 2009

  • Online, a short video ad that runs before the video the user requested to see.

    July 6, 2009

  • In digital advertising: run of network

    July 6, 2009

  • run of site

    July 6, 2009

  • Marketing return on investment

    July 6, 2009

  • In the finance industry: "A risk-oriented method of establishing a two-sided position. Rather than entering into a simultaneous transaction to establish the position (a spread, for example), the trader first executes one side of the position, hoping to execute the other side at a later time and a better price. The risk materializes from the fact that a better price may never be available, and a worse price must eventually be accepted." --CBOE Dictionary

    July 6, 2009

  • "A body of law or a specific principle of law that is held to be derived from nature and binding upon human society in the absence of or in addition to positive law.

    "While natural law, based on a notion of timeless order, does not receive as much credence as it did formerly, it was an important influence on the enumeration of natural rights by Thomas Jefferson and others." --Lawyers.com

    July 1, 2009

  • "A cousin who is the child either of one's mother's sister or of one's father's brother." --Dictionary.com

    July 1, 2009

  • "Direct digital marketing is digital marketing method that is addressable—meaning you can identify the recipient of the marketing message being distributed. Traditional direct marketing is achieved using a customer's postal address and sending physical paper mail, such as a flyer or brochure. With the evolution of direct marketing to direct digital marketing, addressability comes in a variety of digital forms including an e-mail address, a Web browser cookie, or a mobile phone number." --Webopedia

    June 26, 2009

  • average order value

    June 26, 2009

  • "The term used by online marketers to describe the efforts of a company to keep their customer or client from defecting to the competition." --Webopedia

    June 26, 2009

  • "In marketing terms it refers to a piece of marketing material, such as an e-mail newsletter, that goes beyond the original recipient. A pass along is 'passed along' to a second person by the recipient." --Webopedia

    June 26, 2009

  • It's from issue 17.04 on p. 24.

    June 26, 2009

  • According to Dictionary.com, it also means "a fancy; a whim" and "in the plural: lowness of spirits -- often with 'the'."

    June 23, 2009

  • "1. A buffet meal featuring a varied number of dishes.

    2. A varied collection" --"American Heritage Dictionary"

    June 19, 2009

  • Odd. I clicked on the link and it brought me to the entry page.

    June 18, 2009

  • "a fearsome mixture." --WordNet Search

    June 17, 2009

  • "In e-mail marketing, the churn is the percentage of your subscriber list e-mail addresses that unsubscribe or bounce over a set length of time." --Webopedia

    Though I like fearraigh's definition better.

    June 13, 2009

  • Actually, "A/B split" (Wordie doesn't like slashes, I guess).

    "In e-mail marketing, A/B split is a marketing test method where an e-mail subscriber list is split into two groups; every other name in the list is sent one e-mail message and vise versa. The open and response rates to each message are tracked." --Webopedia

    June 13, 2009

  • "In e-mail marketing, the acquisition cost or cost of acquisition is the actual cost of generating one single lead, new subscriber or customer. The acquisition cost is usually determined by dividing the total cost of a single e-mail marketing campaign by the number of leads, subscribers or customers." --Webopedia

    June 13, 2009

  • "In e-mail marketing, the open rate is the number of list subscribers who opened the e-mail message. The open rate is a percentage of the total number of e-mails sent." --Webopedia

    June 13, 2009

  • "A popular musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American pop and rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of musical devices such as strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements, and prominent guitar riffs. Instrumental solos are usually kept to a minimum, and blues elements are largely downplayed. Recordings tend to display production values that lean toward compression and a forceful drum beat. Instruments usually include one or more electric guitars, an electric bass guitar, a drum kit, and sometimes electric keyboards or synthesizers." --Wikipedia

    June 12, 2009

  • "Microcopy is small yet powerful copy. It’s fast, light, and deadly. It’s a short sentence, a phrase, a few words. A single word. It’s the small copy that has the biggest impact. Don’t judge it on its size…judge it on its effectiveness." --Joshua Porter

    June 9, 2009

  • original equipment manufacturer

    June 9, 2009

  • Also: Renewable Obligation Certificates

    June 9, 2009

  • As an abbreviation: Renewable Energy Systems

    June 9, 2009

  • Also: renewable energy plan

    June 9, 2009

  • "An imaginary argument of no substance advanced in order to be easily confuted or an imaginary adversary advancing such an argument." --Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary

    June 9, 2009

  • a trace, a little bit

    June 6, 2009

  • "The action of organizations, businesses and individuals taking action to remove as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as each put in to it. The overall goal of carbon neutrality is to achieve a zero carbon footprint. For example, a business may plant trees in different places around the world to offset the electricity the business uses. This practice is often called carbon offset or offsetting." --Webopedia

    June 6, 2009

  • "Increase, as with activity or production." --InvestorWords.com

    June 6, 2009

  • According to "The Phrase Finder":

    1. to excite or enliven

    2. to drink, particularly gin

    June 6, 2009

  • In environmental science, "any manner of particularly large-scale wind, swirling vortex and ocean currents. Gyres are caused by the Coriolis effect; planetary vorticity along with horizontal and vertical friction, which determine the circulation patterns from the wind curl (torque)." --Wikipedia

    June 4, 2009

  • "The idea of creating incentives to reduce demand for electricity to ease the load at peak times or alleviate the need to build more generation plants. In theory, these negawatts can be aggregated and an arbitrage market could be created to trade these." --Wikipedia

    June 4, 2009

  • Diamond dealers in the Antwerp Diamond District. -- Wired (17.04)

    "A diamantaire (French origin) is sometimes referred to as a 'gem-quality diamond manufacturer or producer', 'master diamond cutter' and a 'graduate gemologist (who specializes in diamonds).'

    "Such individuals demonstrate considerable expertise in different types of gemstones, particularly when it comes to increasing the value and quality of a rough or raw diamond.

    "They are highly-skilled craftsmen or artisans who are responsible for cutting, polishing and transforming a rough diamond into a finished gemstone ready for setting.

    "Members of diamond dealing families who have established themselves in the upper echelons of the world diamond industry hierarchy are also often referred to as diamantaires as well." -- Wikipedia

    June 4, 2009

  • "Link bait is any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites. Matt Cutts defines link bait as anything "interesting enough to catch people's attention."7 Link bait can be an extremely powerful form of marketing as it is viral in nature." --Wikipedia

    May 29, 2009

  • "A linkback is a method for Web authors to obtain notifications when other authors link to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to their articles." --Wikipedia

    May 29, 2009

  • "Content inflation is the continuing trend of exponential growth of content on the internet. Whether this content is YouTube videos, social networking sites, independent games or blogs; the trend is undeniable." --Tech Progression

    Ironically, Tech Progression isn't contributing to content inflation, having lasted just one post. One can only wonder if this is a good thing or not.

    May 26, 2009

  • "Jargon that refers to the quality of a Web site's link power, as in page rank, number of link votes, etc. - that are obtained from backlinks. This expression was coined by SEO consultant Greg Boser, for example "I need to get some more link juice for my latest site." --NetLingo

    May 26, 2009

  • "A microsite, also known as a minisite or weblet, is an Internet web design term referring to an individual web page or cluster of pages which are meant to function as an auxiliary supplement to a primary website. The microsite's main landing page most likely has its own domain name or subdomain.

    They are typically used to add a specialized group of information either editorial or commercial. Such sites may be linked in to a main site or not or taken completely off a site's server when the site is used for a temporary purpose. The main distinction of a microsite versus its parent site is its purpose and specific cohesiveness as compared to the microsite's broader overall parent website.

    Microsites used for editorial purposes may be a page or group of pages that, for example, might contain information about a holiday, an event or similar item which gives more detailed information than a site's general content area may provide. A community organization may have its main site with all of the organization's basic information, but creates a separate, temporary microsite to inform about a particular activity, event or similar." --Wikipedia

    May 26, 2009

  • "In online marketing a landing page, sometimes known as a lead capture page, is the page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link. The page will usually display content that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link, and that is optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines." --Wikipedia

    May 26, 2009

  • "The process of exchanging reciprocal links with Web sites in order to increase search engine optimization. The idea behind link farming is to increase the number of sites that link to yours because search engines such as Google rank sites according to, among other things, the quality and quantity of sites that link to yours. In theory, the more sites that link to yours, the higher your ranking in the search engine results will be because the more links indicate a higher level of popularity among users of the Internet. However, search engines such as Google consider link farming as a form of spam and have been implementing procedures to banish sites that participate in link farming, so the term link farming has garnered negative connotations across the Internet." --Webopedia

    "Bad links can also be found in link farms...If your site has attracted link farmers' attention, get it removed from these communities. About 70 percent of link farm Webmasters will remove your site with a simple email request. The other 30 percent usually respond to a saber-rattling message from your attorney. If revenge is what you seek, report the link farm as spam to the search engines -- after links to your site have been removed." --P.J. Fusco, "Meta Tags and Link Deficiency Confusion"

    May 26, 2009

  • Also scareware, rogue security software, smitfraud.

    "Malware...designed specifically to damage or disrupt your computer system. In this case, not only is the software going to disrupt your system, it's going to try and trick you into making an unsecure credit card purchase." --Webopedia

    May 22, 2009

  • "A destructive program that masquerades as a benign application. Unlike viruses, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves but they can be just as destructive. One of the most insidious types of Trojan horse is a program that claims to rid your computer of viruses but instead introduces viruses onto your computer." --Webopedia

    May 22, 2009

  • "Short for malicious software, software designed specifically to damage or disrupt a system, such as a virus or a Trojan horse." --Webopedia

    May 22, 2009

  • "a nautical command to stop or cease" --Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary

    May 21, 2009

  • "To maul thoroughly." --Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary

    May 21, 2009

  • "Facebook employees who remove inappropriate images from the social networking site." --Schott's Vocab

    May 19, 2009

  • "Power usage effectiveness...a calculation used to determine energy efficiency measurements. PUE is calculated by measuring the ratio of total energy consumption -— the combination of servers plus the cooling to 'useful' energy consumption (just servers)." --Webopedia

    May 16, 2009

  • "The practice of recycling computers, computer components and other electronics through reusing or donating them until the end of their lifecycle. E-cycling encourages people to reduce, reuse and recycle rather than dispose of these items prematurely when upgrading to newer products. At the end of the electronics' life, people are then encouraged to dispose of the item at an electronics recycler to keep the electronics out of landfills and reduce the amount of electronic waste." --Webopedia

    May 16, 2009

  • treatable, curable

    May 15, 2009

  • mebibyte

    May 14, 2009

  • "A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of 'compressor-decompressor' or, most commonly, 'coder-decoder'." --Wikipedia

    May 14, 2009

  • personally identifiable information

    May 13, 2009

  • In marketing: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

    May 7, 2009

  • "In a pyramid scheme, every 'investor' lures a new batch of suckers for a cut of all the future entry fees." --"How to Run a Scam," Wired (17.04, 30)

    May 1, 2009

  • Yikes! Slip of the keyboard, though I do like gangerh's definition. :-)

    May 1, 2009

  • "A multilevel-marketing scam has 'reps' sell some product but entices them with commissions on sales of those they, in turn, recruit." --"How to Run a Scam," Wired (17.04, 30)

    April 30, 2009

  • "In a pyramid scheme, every 'investor' lures a new batch of suckers for a cut of all the future entry fees." --"How to Run a Scam," Wired (17.04, 30)

    April 30, 2009

  • "The Ponzi scheme uses cash from new investors to pay dividends to old investors, so it looks like profits are soaring." "How to Run a Scam," Wired (17.04, 30)

    April 30, 2009

  • "Stir welding plunges a rapidly rotating pin about the size of a pencil into the joint between two panels with more than 5,000 pounds of force per square inch; the friction makes the alloy pliable, and the rotation forces grains of metal to mingle behind the pin as it crawls up the joint." --"Rocket Builder," Wired (17.04, 26)

    April 30, 2009

  • "A televangelist for Islam." ----"Jargon Watch," Wired (17.04, 24)

    April 30, 2009

  • "Pet name for the newly discovered Gromia sphaerica." --"Jargon Watch," Wired (17.04, 24)

    April 30, 2009

  • zero-interest rate policy. Banks will charge each other 0% to 1% to borrow reserves.

    April 28, 2009

  • "A type of hermaphrodite which has both male and female organs at the same time and is able to produce both sperm and eggs at the same time. Such an organism is also able to fertilize its eggs with its own sperm (self-fertilization)." --Biology Online

    April 27, 2009

  • "The state that turtles enter when they are suddenly exposed to very cold water (< 10 °C). They become lethargic and begin to float on the surface of the water. In this state, they are susceptible to predators, accidental boat strikes, and even death if water temperatures continue to drop." --seaturtle.org

    April 27, 2009

  • In the energy industry: liquefied natural gas

    April 24, 2009

  • liquefied petroleum gas

    April 23, 2009

  • "The maximum rated output of a generator under specific conditions designated by the manufacturer. Generator nameplate capacity is usually indicated in units of kilovolt-amperes (kVA) and in kilowatts (kW) on a nameplate physically attached to the generator." --Energy Glossary

    April 23, 2009

  • "A hole made by boring." --Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary

    April 21, 2009

  • One of "the six largest, non-state-owned energy companies, as seen in popular financial mediums around the world. Trading under various names around the world, they are considered to be:

    • ExxonMobil (XOM)
    • Royal Dutch Shell (RDS)
    • BP (BP)
    • Chevron Corporation (CVX)
    • ConocoPhillips (COP)
    • Total S.A. (TOT)" --Wikipedia

    April 20, 2009

  • I think it's like staring at the carnage after an accident. We're compelled to look.

    April 17, 2009

  • interactive marketing unit

    April 16, 2009

  • "a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defenses, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in the light of experience from World War I, and in the run-up to World War II. Generally the term describes either the entire system or just the defenses facing Germany, while the Alpine Line is used for the Franco-Italian defenses." --Wikipedia

    April 16, 2009

  • power purchase agreement

    April 15, 2009

  • operating expense

    April 15, 2009

  • capital expenditure

    April 15, 2009

  • A heavy-duty tool for enlarging the bore hole significantly beyond the bit diameter.

    April 15, 2009

  • "of or having to do with substances, as methane or water, within the earth's crust that are forced upward by geologic pressures." --YourDictionary.com

    April 15, 2009

  • "Captures the by-product heat for domestic or industrial heating purposes, either very close to the plant, or—especially in Scandinavia and eastern Europe—as hot water for district heating with temperatures ranging from approximately 80 to 130 °C. This is also called decentralized energy." --Wikipedia

    April 15, 2009

  • "the amount of physical matter dissolved in water." --SCP Science

    April 15, 2009

  • Adjustment made to a withdrawal's value on a guaranteed-interest account when withdrawal is made before account's term is completed.

    April 14, 2009

  • In finances, excess interest adjustment. When you cash in an account, the bank/provider may adjust the interest rate from what was offered at sign-up to what is offered on the product now. This is not done on all account types.

    April 14, 2009

  • A charge for withdrawals in certain account types.

    April 14, 2009

  • required minimum distribution

    April 14, 2009

  • A feature that automatically adjust portfolios to account holder's predetermined allocation percentages.

    April 14, 2009

  • In finances, individual retirement account

    April 14, 2009

  • An optional account feature that allows for the contact's guaranteed withdrawal balance to increase to a higher guaranteed minimum balance value on a specific date.

    April 14, 2009

  • Guaranteed annual withdrawal amount. The maximum the account owner can withdraw in a year.

    April 14, 2009

  • Value used to determine whether the guaranteed annual withdrawal amount percentage would increase upon step up.

    April 14, 2009

  • The amount of money an account (life insurance, annuity, etc.) will pay to beneficiary upon death of the account owner.

    April 14, 2009

  • Sum of the contract variable and fixed portfolios.

    April 14, 2009

  • "1 a : to heat (a liquid) above the boiling point without converting into vapor b : to heat (a vapor not in contact with its own liquid) so as to cause to remain free from suspended liquid droplets ." --Merriam-Webster Unabridged

    April 14, 2009

  • geothermal power plant

    April 14, 2009

  • enhanced geothermal systems

    April 14, 2009

  • Love it! I see it all the time.

    April 14, 2009

  • "to form cavities or bubbles." --Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary

    April 14, 2009

  • #

    "Hashtags are a pretty simple concept that really enhance the Twitter experience. They enable easy categorization of tweets for effective future searching. That means that if for example, you are tweeting about the iPhone, you simply insert a # before the word iPhone. Anyone who then searches hashtags.org or Twitter search, for the #iPhone term, will come up with your tweet as well as all tweets on the subject." --hizfuld, "Ten Things you Must Know before Using Twitter"

    April 14, 2009

  • On Twitter: retweet. A post (tweet) by one Twitter user repeated by another. Also, the action of reposting someone's tweet.

    April 14, 2009

  • On Twitter: direct message. A message between you and the recipient. Also, to send a direct message to a Twitter follower.

    April 14, 2009

  • Media you don't have to pay for; earned (or no-cost) media.

    "Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson set the tone during his keynote on earned media, or 'media you earn and you don't buy. Paid media and earned media go hand-in-hand. Marketers are buying media when they could earn it, and earn it much less expensively.'"--Rebecca Lieb, "Is Online Advertising Ending?"

    See also entry at Word Spy.

    April 14, 2009

  • What a great image: a dusty museum of un-words. Cavernous halls filled with dust and broken, empty words. Should we cry for those words that never had a chance, their parents too consumed by love of money and sales to properly care for their children, their words? Should we banish them forever to dark corners? Hmm... maybe the speakers should be banished...

    April 9, 2009

  • Thanks, yarb. They are drilled into my head every day with the editing I do for my employer. We can only hope some of them die a sudden, horrible death -- and soon!

    April 8, 2009

  • In business: close of business (day).

    April 8, 2009

  • End of day

    April 8, 2009

  • When a company's divisions work independently of each other, especially when they should be working in unison, the divisions are siloed.

    "Different divisions of the company may work sufficiently or independently of each other. If divisions are siloed, there maybe little collaborative work between them." --Corporate Dictionary

    April 8, 2009

  • "Baseload (also base load, or baseload demand) is the minimum amount of power that a utility or distribution company must make available to its customers, or the amount of power required to meet minimum demands based on reasonable expectations of customer requirements. Baseload values typically vary from hour to hour in most commercial and industrial areas." --Wikipedia

    April 7, 2009

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