Fearman's definitions
Mealy-mouthed attempt at getting people to avoid superficial expressions of bigotry, which ends up debasing the language without dealing with the stupidity underlying most hates and fears. Merely ends up giving the bigots one more thing to snarl at and, yes, it really can impose a tyranny of its own. Many examples of allegedly common politically correct speech are urban myths ... which we could still have done without.
Some (real and imaginary) examples of political correctness:
You're not black (in the USA), you're African-American.
(As Whoopi Goldberg once commented, and I may be paraphrasing, "My ancestors didn't come through generations of the slave trade and the Civil Rights movement to end up hyphenated.")
You're not crippled, you're differently abled.
You're not a member of the Undead, you are biometrically challenged.
You're not an android, you are an artificial person.
You're not black (in the USA), you're African-American.
(As Whoopi Goldberg once commented, and I may be paraphrasing, "My ancestors didn't come through generations of the slave trade and the Civil Rights movement to end up hyphenated.")
You're not crippled, you're differently abled.
You're not a member of the Undead, you are biometrically challenged.
You're not an android, you are an artificial person.
by Fearman August 19, 2007
Get the Political correctness mug."Doctor" Gillian McKeith, known for her interest in the alleged medical value of feces in particular and the excremental nature of the woman and her advice in general. Much given, under the pretext of caring for people's health, to tearing them to bits on British TV for failing to live up to the the ideals of either mainstream medicine or, when that fails, those of Prince Charles. Possibly an indirect reference to the unrelated SF drama "Doctor Who".
by Fearman July 31, 2007
Get the Dr. Poo mug.Violent explosion of a star. The star is destroyed, with a remnant forming a neutron star (pulsar) or black hole (collapsar) depending on the residual mass.
There are generally two forms of supernova. One results at the end of the life of a star with at least about eight solar masses, which in a series of progressively shorter-lived and less efficient thermonuclear reactions generates ever heavier chemical elements in layers about the core. Effectively this is a star that lives fast and dies young. When each step in the process chokes up the core with nuclear "ash", contractions follow under gravity, driving up temperatures until they are sufficient to synthesise the next heavy element from this waste product. When the core fills with iron, the end point is reached; it takes more energy to fuse iron into anything heavier than the fusion reaction produces. At this point the star collapses, driving temperatures into perhaps twelve figures Kelvin and triggering an explosion that blows most of the star to smithereens.
A second type occurs in close orbiting binary systems where one star A, being more massive, evolves more quickly to the red giant phase and develops a thin outer envelope and a core rich in carbon. Its companion B skims off the outer layer, grows in mass and itself evolves to the red giant stage. At this point the carbon-rich star A begins reclaiming the hydrogen; when the gas accreting onto it drives its mass over 1.4 solar masses a huge nuclear reaction ensues and A blows itself apart.
Supernova explosions can briefly outshine the combined output of all the stars in at least a modest galaxy. They are also responsible for seeding the Universe with the heavy chemical elements of which the Earth and our very bodies are made.
There are generally two forms of supernova. One results at the end of the life of a star with at least about eight solar masses, which in a series of progressively shorter-lived and less efficient thermonuclear reactions generates ever heavier chemical elements in layers about the core. Effectively this is a star that lives fast and dies young. When each step in the process chokes up the core with nuclear "ash", contractions follow under gravity, driving up temperatures until they are sufficient to synthesise the next heavy element from this waste product. When the core fills with iron, the end point is reached; it takes more energy to fuse iron into anything heavier than the fusion reaction produces. At this point the star collapses, driving temperatures into perhaps twelve figures Kelvin and triggering an explosion that blows most of the star to smithereens.
A second type occurs in close orbiting binary systems where one star A, being more massive, evolves more quickly to the red giant phase and develops a thin outer envelope and a core rich in carbon. Its companion B skims off the outer layer, grows in mass and itself evolves to the red giant stage. At this point the carbon-rich star A begins reclaiming the hydrogen; when the gas accreting onto it drives its mass over 1.4 solar masses a huge nuclear reaction ensues and A blows itself apart.
Supernova explosions can briefly outshine the combined output of all the stars in at least a modest galaxy. They are also responsible for seeding the Universe with the heavy chemical elements of which the Earth and our very bodies are made.
by Fearman December 3, 2007
Get the Supernova mug.by Fearman May 24, 2008
Get the hypocrisy mug.1. A prostitute, specifically a term used in the United States to describe a woman who sells her sex on the streets or roads as opposed to a higher-class call girl, brothel worker or one man's mistress.
2. A traditional sailing vessel most often associated with Galway Bay, Ireland. Typically with a broad, stout timber hull and red or occasionally black sails. Used to transport turf (peat), hay, livestock and other goods along the coast and out to the Aran and other islands. Connection to the first definition of hooker is hazy at best.
2. A traditional sailing vessel most often associated with Galway Bay, Ireland. Typically with a broad, stout timber hull and red or occasionally black sails. Used to transport turf (peat), hay, livestock and other goods along the coast and out to the Aran and other islands. Connection to the first definition of hooker is hazy at best.
You can pick up a hooker for fifty bucks on the way out of town.
The Galway Hookers used to run a race between Galway port and Kinvara.
The Galway Hookers used to run a race between Galway port and Kinvara.
by Fearman January 11, 2008
Get the hooker mug.Bleeding heart college age lefty who thinks they are working to defeat the whole terrible System with a capital(ist) S because there is a big red poster of Che Guevara (printed no doubt on a massive press somewhere like Columbus, Ohio) in their bedroom. Swears eternal enmity to anyone from NASA to Monsanto, has probably played their part in uprooting at least one field of allegedly GM sugar beet and has no doubt pleaded in public that we have no right to be in space until the last African baby is fed (and if that had been arranged there would surely be something else). Of course you just know that in ten years' time, if not sooner, the Che Guevara radical will have an office job for the Coca-Cola Company in Shanghai and drive an SUV.
She's 18 and she's all Che Guevara radical, but just wait until she graduates from Uni and the poster will come down.
by Fearman April 18, 2008
Get the Che Guevara radical mug.by Fearman December 3, 2007
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