Thursday, October 7, 2010

Stravenue

A stravenue (portmanteau of street and avenue) is a type of road particular to Tucson, Arizona. The United States Postal Service officially supports the suffix STRA for stravenues. A Stravenue runs "diagonally between and intersects a Street and an Avenue."


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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Jamón ibérico

ham

Jamón ibérico, Iberico ham, also called pata negra, is a type of cured ham produced mostly in Spain and in some Portuguese regions, where it's called presunto ibérico. It is at least 75% black Iberian pig, also called the cerdo negro (black pig). According to Spain's Denominación de Origen rules on food products jamón ibérico may be made from cross-bred pigs as long as they are at least 75% ibérico.

Until recently, jamón ibérico was not available in the United States (a fact referenced in the movie Perdita Durango, where the ham of Jabugo is praised as "illegal, but delicious").

Prior to 2005, only pigs raised and slaughtered outside of Spain were allowed to be processed in Spain for export to the United States. In 2005 the first slaughterhouse in Spain, Embutidos y Jamones Fermín, S.L., was approved by the United States Department of Agriculture to produce ibérico ham products for export to the United States.

The first "jamones ibéricos" were released for sale in the United States in December 2007, with the bellota hams due to follow in July 2008. The basic jamón ibérico is priced upwards of $52 a pound, and the bellota is priced upwards of $96 a pound, making these hams some of the most expensive in the world.


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Thursday, July 8, 2010

SS Delphine (1921)



SS Delphine is a yacht commissioned by Horace Dodge, co-founder of Dodge Brothers. The yacht was launched on 2 April 1921, and spans 258 feet (79 m). Power comes from three Babcock and Wilcox boilers which power two 1,500 horsepower (1,100 kW) quadruple expansion engines. "Of all the large American-built steam yachts built between 1893 and 1930, the Delphine is the only one left in her original condition with her original steam engines still in service."[


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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Drones Club

The Drones Club is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a gentlemen's club in London. Many of his Jeeves and Blandings Castle stories feature the club or its members.

The name "Drones" has been used by several real-life clubs and restaurants.


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Thursday, May 20, 2010

Vexillology

Vexillology is the scholarly study of flags. The word is a synthesis of the Latin word vexillum, meaning "flag", and the suffix -logy, meaning "study of". The vexillum was a particular type of flag used by Roman legions during the classical era; its name is a diminutive form of the word vela meaning sail, and thus literally means "little sail". Unlike most modern flags, which are suspended from a pole or mast along a vertical side, the square vexillum was suspended from a horizontal crossbar along its top side, which was attached to a spear.


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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Hollywood Pins

Hollywood Pins was a company that operated in California from 1990 to 1995. The company's primary products were replica Starfleet insignia associated with the Star Trek science fiction franchise.


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Friday, January 29, 2010

Geneva drive

The Geneva drive or Maltese cross is a mechanism that translates a continuous rotation into an intermittent rotary motion. It is an intermittent gear where the drive wheel has a pin that reaches into a slot of the driven wheel and thereby advances it by one step. The drive wheel also has a raised circular blocking disc that locks the driven wheel in position between steps.

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Friday, January 22, 2010

Moloch

Moloch, Molech, Molekh, Molek, or Moloc, representing Semitic מולך m-l-k, (a root which occurs in various Hebrew and Arabic words related to kings) is either the name of a god or the name of a particular kind of sacrifice associated with fire. Moloch was historically affiliated with cultures throughout the Middle East, including the Ammonite, Hebrew, Canaanite, Phoenician and related cultures in North Africa and the Levant.

In modern English usage, "Moloch" can refer derivatively to any person or thing which demands or requires costly sacrifices.


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