Tem42's New Writeups

Bunker fuel (thing)

2010-02-05T04:54:39Z

Bunker fuel is technically any fuel that is used by a ship, and therefore stored in a port's bunker tanks. However, 'bunker fuel' is usually used to refer to the poorest of combustible petroleum, only one step up from asphalt (bitumen). Depending on context it may also be referred to as heavy oil, resid, blended fuel oil, or furnace oil; however, in some cases these terms might also be applied to other types of petroleum products. The most appropriate name is probably #6 oil or Bunker C (#6 oil mixed with some #2 oil), although these labels are rarely used outside of the fuel and shipping industries. The press has firmly landed on the term 'bunker fuel', and thus so have I.

Bunker fuel is not actually an inefficient fuel, as far as energy produced goes. It has a slightly higher combustion efficiency than does natural gas, although it has its fair share of downsides: in order to be used effectively it needs to be preheated to reduce viscosity, have…

macabre (idea)

2010-02-01T14:55:28Z

Macabre is an adjective used to refer to something gruesome and horrifying, especially something related to death and dying. It can be pronounced as 'muh-kah-bruh', 'muh-kahb-ber', or 'muh-kahb'.

It comes from the Old French danse Macabré, meaning 'the dance of death'. This in turn is probably a translation of the Latin Chorea Machabæorum, meaning "dance of the Maccabees". The Maccabees were leaders of the Jewish revolt against the Seleucids. The Apocrypha describes the martyrdom of the Maccabees in gruesome detail, but does not speak of dancing. The connection between the Maccabees and dancing remains a minor linguistic mystery, but it is speculated that early plays may have depicted the martyrdom of the Maccabees through dance. On the other hand, it is possible that the Latin Chorea Machabæorum wasn't actually the source of our word macabre, in which case the word is a major linguistic mystery.

Petty larceny (idea)

2010-02-01T00:40:44Z

These days most of the English speaking world does not use the term larceny. The UK, for example, uses the legal term 'theft' to cover what was once considered larceny. America, as always, is the black sheep, and we still have the crime of larceny. We have made one change in terminology; the masses have determined that the spelling should be changed from the original 'petit larceny' to the cunningly drab 'petty larceny'. You can still find 'petit larceny' used in legal circles, but it is rarely used by the press or the common folk.

Larceny is defined as the picking up ('caption') and taking away ('asportation') of property that does not belong to you. Larceny comes in two sorts, petty larceny and grand larceny. Exactly what counts as petty versus grand larceny is determined by the value of the stolen goods; in America the determination between petty and grand larceny is set by each individual state. It is common to set petty larcenies at thefts of goods valued at less…

thyroid cartilage (thing)

2010-01-31T05:34:31Z

The thyroid cartilage is the largest of the cartilages of the larynx. It is a large angled plate which forms the front of your windpipe. The Adam's apple is the notch at the top of the thyroid, called the thyroid notch (even if you are female, you still have a notch, and can still feel it; it's just not as visible).

Thyroid is Greek for 'shield-shaped', but it's not quite the shape that most of us picture shields as being. The thyroid cartilage is made of two plates (the thyroid lamina) set at an obtuse angle. It has two sets of horns on the outer edges; the superior cornu are a set of large horns sticking up from the top corners; the inferior cornu are a set of smaller horns sticking down from the bottom corners. An easy way to picture it is to take your two hands and hold them together side by side, palms facing you. Push your hands together, until the pinkies in the center are pushed back behind your ring fingers -- you just made the thyroid notch! Now you…

Thyroarytenoid (idea)

2010-01-31T03:02:44Z

The thyroarytenoid muscle is one of the intrinsic muscles, or by some accounts set of muscles, of the larynx. It has two main muscle bellies (the internus and the externus) and a number of fibers attaching to various parts of the larynx. It originates at the lamina of thyroid cartilage just below the thyroid notch; the externus belly inserts the muscular process of the arytenoid cartilage, and the internus belly attaches to the vocal process of the arytenoid cartilage. It is innervated by the recurrent laryngeal nerve, a branch of the Vagus nerve (CN X).

The primary functions of the thyroarytenoid are to tense and relax the vocal folds; the vocal folds run along side of and are attached to the thyroarytenoid, and along with the cricothyroid muscle (the thyrovocalis's antagonist) helps to fine-tune the tension in the vocal folds for glottal closure, phonation and…

Reinke's space (thing)

2010-01-30T22:44:54Z

Reinke's space is not a space at all. It is actually one of the five layers of the vocal folds. The layers, from surface to deep, are:

The epithelium

The superficial layer of the lamina propria AKA Reinke's Space

The intermediate layer of the lamina propria (elastic fibers)

The deep layer of the lamina propria (collagenous fibers)

The thyroarytenoid muscle.

Reinke's space is highly pliable, often described as "jelly-like". They are the most flexible of the layers of the vocal folds. In the cover-body model of the vocal folds Reinke's space and the epithelium are the cover. In the current understanding of the myoelastic-aerodynamic theory of phonation the cover, consisting primarily of Reinke's space, is one of the three bodies that interact to make the complex vocal qualities that make up the human voice. The cover,…