Vini, vidi, vici
Thanks to doctor doctor, I have a meme to respond to. She gave me a V.
Valletta, Vaduz: Two awesome names for the capitals of two tiny countries -- Malta and Liechtenstein (not to be confused with the artist, who doesn't really do much for me). For whatever reason, the mnemonic I used to recall Valletta was that it sounded like Velveeta (a travesty against cheese made worse by actual Swiss origins and an numbingly catchy jingle from the 80's)
V-Day: My first association with V-Day was WWII. Operation Overlord. Omaha. Gold. Sword. Juno. Utah. Hedgerows. Patton. The whole shebang. After V-Day came VJ-Day (with appropriate stops at Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and other scenic views of the Pacific Theatre soon to be appropriate by Clint Eastwood).
V-Day, of course, is something entirely different: it's something whipped up by Eve Ensler in conjunction with the Vagina Monologues to create awareness about violence against women along with a sense of empowerment. As Valentine's Day has historically been a rather crass, commercial, embittering Singles Awareness Day for me, the idea of doing something meaningful and worthwhile in the social justice arena sounds like a nice idea. Of course, as a progressive idea in a less than progressive world, you sometimes get hilarious, saddening irony.
valance: Way back when (i.e. in high school, or over a decade ago!), I learned about valence electrons. These were the electrons that mediated bonding between atoms, as they were electrons in orbital shells that weren't completely filled. Carbon forms tons of molecules (the organic compounds we Earthlings love) since it has half its valence shell filled, meaning there's lot of space to join up with things. The noble gases are more accurately called "inert", because their valence shells are filled up, so they are less prone to bond with other atoms -- the atomic introverts, if you will.
These days valence means something else. At the LHC, we want to rev up the energy on our accelerating protons to create clouds of valence quarks. The Uncertainty Principle allows matter-anti-matter pairs to pop in and out around the protons. It's the interactions between the valence quarks that produce the Higgs and other fun particles we want to see.
valedictory: Along with Pomp and Circumstance, one of the things most associated with high school graduation is the speech by the valedictorian. For me, not being a latin scholar, this association led me to think that valedict- had something to do with having a high GPA (can you tell I wasn't the valedictorian?). It always bugged, though, that valedict- had something to do with "best" and salutat- had something to do with "second best" (cue Top Gun soundtrack), as I knew enough French to know that salutat- had something to do with greeting. Of course, this is because they have nothing do with those things. It all made sense when I read Donne. "Aha!" I said. "It all merely refers to opening and closing remarks! The Big Brain am winning again. I am the greetest!"
vaporetti: The abra of Dubai. The chalupas of Mexico City. The water taxi of NYC. If you're a major city on a body of water, chances are you have some sort of aquatic public conveyance. Bangkok, Stockhold, Amsterdam, Annecy. All these cities lay claim to being the Venice of their particular region due to the abundance of canals and waterways in these cities. On the Adriatic and slowly drowning therein, Venice stands as the arch-typal water city. As such, it makes sense that they have a highly developed aquatransit system, which they do. While gondolas are the classic image of transport in Venice, they are for tourists. Real Venetians (like Titian) use vaporetti to get around. They only service the big canals, but in a city as small as Venice, that's not a problem.
veldt: In my mind, veldt is indelibly linked to kraal and Alan Paton's "Cry, the Beloved Country", which is unsurprising, as it's where I first learned of this Afrikaans export to English. Apart from being a cool word in its own right (it's an elevated savannah in Southern Africa), it has immense use in Scrabble as a consonant dump or allowing for the quasi-obscure hook off veld -- words like this are great against online opponents who usually won't think of the hook or will challenge the word thinking it's a fake.
venial sin: As laid out by Pope Greg the Awesome and Dante, Luxuria, Gula, Avaritia, Acedia, Ira, Invidia, and Superbia are sins that damn you to Hell if committed. These are the Capital Vices or deadly sins. Complementing these most dire of transgressions are the venial sins, which for the low, low price of a few penances and intercessions by fellow Christians don't get you on a one-way ticket to Fire and Brimstone (no, you don't even get to pass Go or collect $200). So what constitutes a venial sin? Wikipedia to the rescue:
1. it does not concern a "grave matter",
2. it is not committed with full knowledge, or
3. it is not committed with both deliberate and complete consent.
And if for some reason you don't do your penance, you just have to work it off in Purgatory. Sweet! Or, if you're less scrupulous, you can just buy an indulgence -- this was one of Martin Luther's sticking points, which makes sense to me.
Vichyssoise: Like gazpacho, it is a cold soup, though made with leeks, onions, potatoes, and cream rather than bread, garlic, onions, salt, and vinegar. Invented by Ritz chef Louis Diat in 1917, it is inspired by a dish he had as a boy growing up near Vichy. As such, the name has nothing to do with quislings or Benedicts or Judases.
Vacherin: Unsurprising to Monty Python fans, Vacherin is made from cow's milk. It is a season cheese from the Jura region of France and Switzerland popular in fondues. In the pantheon of cheese, it is a newcomer to the AOC label, only gaining the appellation in 1981.
vacuum energy: This is one of the most awesome things in particle physics, I think. Conventional wisdom says that a vacuum is nothingness. To evacuate a chamber is to remove everything in it, everything. So you should be left with nothing, and as a result zero energy. But Heisenberg and his eponymous uncertainty principle dictate that pairs of particles can pop in and out of existence as long as they aren't too big and don't stay for too long. The best part about this is that it can be seen in the lab via the Casimir Effect whereby two plates in a vacuum have an attractive force between them arising from so-called vacuum fluctuations of matter-anti-matter pairs. Say it with me: Duuuuuddddddddde! These same fluctuations give rise to the vacuum energy: that is the minimum energy state of the vacuum, which is non-zero. This vacuum energy plays an important role in black hole evaporation and even the cosmological fate of the universe. I love it.
Valletta, Vaduz: Two awesome names for the capitals of two tiny countries -- Malta and Liechtenstein (not to be confused with the artist, who doesn't really do much for me). For whatever reason, the mnemonic I used to recall Valletta was that it sounded like Velveeta (a travesty against cheese made worse by actual Swiss origins and an numbingly catchy jingle from the 80's)
V-Day: My first association with V-Day was WWII. Operation Overlord. Omaha. Gold. Sword. Juno. Utah. Hedgerows. Patton. The whole shebang. After V-Day came VJ-Day (with appropriate stops at Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and other scenic views of the Pacific Theatre soon to be appropriate by Clint Eastwood).
V-Day, of course, is something entirely different: it's something whipped up by Eve Ensler in conjunction with the Vagina Monologues to create awareness about violence against women along with a sense of empowerment. As Valentine's Day has historically been a rather crass, commercial, embittering Singles Awareness Day for me, the idea of doing something meaningful and worthwhile in the social justice arena sounds like a nice idea. Of course, as a progressive idea in a less than progressive world, you sometimes get hilarious, saddening irony.
valance: Way back when (i.e. in high school, or over a decade ago!), I learned about valence electrons. These were the electrons that mediated bonding between atoms, as they were electrons in orbital shells that weren't completely filled. Carbon forms tons of molecules (the organic compounds we Earthlings love) since it has half its valence shell filled, meaning there's lot of space to join up with things. The noble gases are more accurately called "inert", because their valence shells are filled up, so they are less prone to bond with other atoms -- the atomic introverts, if you will.
These days valence means something else. At the LHC, we want to rev up the energy on our accelerating protons to create clouds of valence quarks. The Uncertainty Principle allows matter-anti-matter pairs to pop in and out around the protons. It's the interactions between the valence quarks that produce the Higgs and other fun particles we want to see.
valedictory: Along with Pomp and Circumstance, one of the things most associated with high school graduation is the speech by the valedictorian. For me, not being a latin scholar, this association led me to think that valedict- had something to do with having a high GPA (can you tell I wasn't the valedictorian?). It always bugged, though, that valedict- had something to do with "best" and salutat- had something to do with "second best" (cue Top Gun soundtrack), as I knew enough French to know that salutat- had something to do with greeting. Of course, this is because they have nothing do with those things. It all made sense when I read Donne. "Aha!" I said. "It all merely refers to opening and closing remarks! The Big Brain am winning again. I am the greetest!"
vaporetti: The abra of Dubai. The chalupas of Mexico City. The water taxi of NYC. If you're a major city on a body of water, chances are you have some sort of aquatic public conveyance. Bangkok, Stockhold, Amsterdam, Annecy. All these cities lay claim to being the Venice of their particular region due to the abundance of canals and waterways in these cities. On the Adriatic and slowly drowning therein, Venice stands as the arch-typal water city. As such, it makes sense that they have a highly developed aquatransit system, which they do. While gondolas are the classic image of transport in Venice, they are for tourists. Real Venetians (like Titian) use vaporetti to get around. They only service the big canals, but in a city as small as Venice, that's not a problem.
veldt: In my mind, veldt is indelibly linked to kraal and Alan Paton's "Cry, the Beloved Country", which is unsurprising, as it's where I first learned of this Afrikaans export to English. Apart from being a cool word in its own right (it's an elevated savannah in Southern Africa), it has immense use in Scrabble as a consonant dump or allowing for the quasi-obscure hook off veld -- words like this are great against online opponents who usually won't think of the hook or will challenge the word thinking it's a fake.
venial sin: As laid out by Pope Greg the Awesome and Dante, Luxuria, Gula, Avaritia, Acedia, Ira, Invidia, and Superbia are sins that damn you to Hell if committed. These are the Capital Vices or deadly sins. Complementing these most dire of transgressions are the venial sins, which for the low, low price of a few penances and intercessions by fellow Christians don't get you on a one-way ticket to Fire and Brimstone (no, you don't even get to pass Go or collect $200). So what constitutes a venial sin? Wikipedia to the rescue:
1. it does not concern a "grave matter",
2. it is not committed with full knowledge, or
3. it is not committed with both deliberate and complete consent.
And if for some reason you don't do your penance, you just have to work it off in Purgatory. Sweet! Or, if you're less scrupulous, you can just buy an indulgence -- this was one of Martin Luther's sticking points, which makes sense to me.
Vichyssoise: Like gazpacho, it is a cold soup, though made with leeks, onions, potatoes, and cream rather than bread, garlic, onions, salt, and vinegar. Invented by Ritz chef Louis Diat in 1917, it is inspired by a dish he had as a boy growing up near Vichy. As such, the name has nothing to do with quislings or Benedicts or Judases.
Vacherin: Unsurprising to Monty Python fans, Vacherin is made from cow's milk. It is a season cheese from the Jura region of France and Switzerland popular in fondues. In the pantheon of cheese, it is a newcomer to the AOC label, only gaining the appellation in 1981.
vacuum energy: This is one of the most awesome things in particle physics, I think. Conventional wisdom says that a vacuum is nothingness. To evacuate a chamber is to remove everything in it, everything. So you should be left with nothing, and as a result zero energy. But Heisenberg and his eponymous uncertainty principle dictate that pairs of particles can pop in and out of existence as long as they aren't too big and don't stay for too long. The best part about this is that it can be seen in the lab via the Casimir Effect whereby two plates in a vacuum have an attractive force between them arising from so-called vacuum fluctuations of matter-anti-matter pairs. Say it with me: Duuuuuddddddddde! These same fluctuations give rise to the vacuum energy: that is the minimum energy state of the vacuum, which is non-zero. This vacuum energy plays an important role in black hole evaporation and even the cosmological fate of the universe. I love it.