Definitions by Fearman
floozie in the jacuzzi
Sculpture of Anna Livia formerly located midway up O'Connell Street, Dublin, Ireland, consisting of a very long, flowing, stylised female figure in a fountain (Anna Livia being a personification of the River Liffey and by association the city of Dublin). Removed to make way for the O'Connell Street Spike, better known as the Stiletto in the Ghetto, in the year 2002.
floozie in the jacuzzi by Fearman December 10, 2007
stiletto in the ghetto
Popular expression in Dublin, Ireland for the piece of commemorative art set up to mark the passing of the second millennium CE: a steel spike approximately 400 feet high, rising out of a traffic island in the centre of the dual thoroughfare of O'Connell Street on the north bank of the Liffey. It is circular in cross section, ten feet across at the base and decorated near street level with wavy frosted/reflective shapes, tapering to about ten inches at the tip, lit with a ring of red lights halfway up and a stream of white ones at the top. It takes the place of a removed statue of the figure of Anna Livia (female symbol of the River Liffey) in a fountain, previously known as the "floozie in the jacuzzi." The Spike is also known as the Spike on the Dike and/or the Stiffey on the Liffey. It is popularly supposed to be a monument to the street's night-time heroin addicts, although an alternative explanation would be that it is a symbolic memo spike for Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Aherne's hotel bills. In case anyone tries flying a jetliner into it a la 9/11, it is purely a metal spike, not an inhabited building; there isn't even a public elevator and observation deck like there is on the Eiffel Tower, or anything. Still, in a certain summer evening light it can have a certain surreal charm.
The stiletto in the ghetto isn't bad, but I think the crane they used to haul it up looked waaay better.
stiletto in the ghetto by Fearman December 10, 2007
Supernova
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.
killing kittens
killing kittens by Fearman November 28, 2007