32 definitions by Grinning Cat

picardize

To change the ending of a minor-key piece of music to a major key, adding a Picardy third (tierce de Picardie).

One can loosely refer to music that already has a Picardy third ending as "self-picardizing". Some examples include the "Little" Fugue in G Minor by J.S. Bach, "And I Love Her" by The Beatles, "Roundabout" by Yes, and N.I.B. by Black Sabbath.

"The last chord here is D minor. Do you really want to picardize it, using D major instead?"
"Yes, Number One, make it so."

#music #cadence #minor #major #improvisation #alteration #change #picardy #picardy third #tierce de picardie #tierce de picardy #major ending #minor key #picard

by Grinning Cat February 04, 2012

A congresswoman or congressman: an elected official who serves in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the United States Congress. "Congresscritters" can also, loosely, include U.S. Senators. The term is gender-neutral, and also attempts to remove these elected representatives from their pedestals.

"Writing to your congresscritters about an issue may seem pointless, but when enough people -- you and your friends and their friends and THEIR friends -- make their voices heard, the congresscritters will realize that their chances of reelection ARE affected by doing the right thing."

by Grinning Cat October 22, 2007

noise-to-signal ratio

The proportion of irrelevant, off-topic, inflammatory, nonsensical, spammy, screaming, content-free, trolling, or otherwise useless statements to actual useful, worthwhile communication.

From the informal sense of signal to noise ratio, but inverted to emphasize the "noise".

"That discussion board used to be a great place to talk about politics, but now the noise-to-signal ratio is through the roof!"

"Typically, a demagogue actually benefits from nonsensical, contradictory and inflammatory statements and agendas. Ironically, the higher the noise-to-signal ratio, the more effective they become since any useful information would actually rein them in."
(adapted from Raul and JonG)

#noise to signal ratio #signal to noise ratio #spam #trolling #inflammatory #incendiary #off-topic #irrelevant #demagoguery #lies #nonsense #bullshit

by Grinning Cat October 10, 2012

Getting down on one knee, curling one's wrist to one's chin, and looking up, mimicking the pose of Auguste Rodin's classic sculpture "The Thinker".

(Created by Dave Silverman, reported by Staks Rosch, "Thinkering: The atheist answer to Tebowing", Dec. 30, 2011, examiner.com)

In response to the fundamentalist craze of Tebowing, American Atheists President Dave Silverman has come up with an atheist version called "Thinkering."
Someone commented that the pose looked too similar to Tebowing, to which Silverman responded: "That's the point. The difference is we don't bow our heads in blind submission, rather we consider and conclude for ourselves."

#thinking #tebowing #craze #freethought #freethinkers #atheism #atheists #independent

by Grinning Cat February 04, 2012

ain't

am not, are not, is not; have not, has not; do not, does not, did not.

"Ain't" ain't a word 'cause "ain't" ain't in the dictionary.

#isn't #aren't #amn't #haven't #hasn't

by Grinning Cat January 07, 2013

bokeh

The specific quality of the blur in out-of-focus areas of the picture; "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." Small highlights, especially, in the blurry areas of a photo can be rendered dramatically differently by different lenses (or "faux bokeh" photoshopping techniques).

Some examples of different types of bokeh are at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

The bokeh produced by a mirror lens renders out-of-focus points of light as little rings! Cool!

#photography #focus #blurry #depth of field #highlights #points #points of light #light #shape

by Grinning Cat March 06, 2010

A slip, mistake, or unintentional move, followed through with confidence and panache as if it were intended all along. Cats are masters of this: a cat might leap and miss, then calmly look at you as if to say "Yeah, I meant to do that."

"What's the band doing? That's weird... and interesting!"
"I've never heard them play it that way before; maybe it's a feline maneuver."
"Think they'll do it that way on the CD?"

by Grinning Cat December 14, 2007