Portal to the Universe

[iceman]

Nice new site, one of the cornerstone projects of IYA2009.

http://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/

Some good info there and will only get bigger and better.

[erick]

Thanks Mike - plenty to look at there.

Just one thing:-

" the one here is Meteor Crater in Arizona (click to embiggen)."

"embiggen"!!!!!!????????? :screwy:

[Chrissyo]

Heh, thats from a recent post from the Bad Astronomy blog? It's a reference to a joke from the Simpsons.

[erick]

Thanks Chris. Seems I'm a bit behind (around 13 years!) in my Simpsons!

I learn more every day - so how about that:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast

Embiggen and cromulent

The episode features two newly-coined words: embiggen and cromulent.[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast#cite_note-Oakley-1) The show runners asked the writers if they could come up with two words, which sounded like real words and these were what they came up with.[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast#cite_note-Collier-3) The Springfield (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_%28The_Simpsons%29) town motto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motto) is "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man." Schoolteacher Edna Krabappel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_Krabappel) comments that she never heard the word embiggens until she moved to Springfield. Miss Hoover, another teacher, replies, "I don’t know why; it’s a perfectly cromulent word." Later in the episode, while talking about Homer’s audition for the role of town crier, Principal Skinner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal_Skinner) states, "He's embiggened that role with his cromulent performance."
Embiggen—in the context it is used in the episode—is a verb that was coined by Dan Greaney (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Greaney) in 1996.[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast#cite_note-Oakley-1) The verb previously occurred in the 1884 publication Notes and Queries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notes_and_Queries): A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, Etc by C. A. Ward, in the sentence "but the people magnified them, to make great or embiggen, if we may invent an English parallel as ugly. After all, use is nearly everything."[8] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast#cite_note-7) The literal meaning of embiggen is to make something larger.[9] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast#cite_note-8) The word has made its way to common use and was included in Mark Peters Yada, Yada, Do'h!, 111 Television Words That Made the Leap From the Screen to Society.[10] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast#cite_note-9) Specifically, embiggen can also be found in string theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory). The first occurrence of the word was in the journal High Energy Physics in the section Gauge/gravity duality and meta-stable dynamical supersymmetry breaking, which was published on January 23, 2007.[11] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast#cite_note-10) Later it was used in the journal Nature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_%28journal%29). In the context of string theory it means to grow or expand.[12] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast#cite_note-11)
Cromulent is an adjective that was coined by David S. Cohen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_X._Cohen).[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast#cite_note-Oakley-1) Since it was coined, it has appeared in the Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webster%27s_Dictionary) of English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language).[13] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast#cite_note-cromulent-12) The etymology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology) of cromulent is inferred only from its usage, which indicates that it is a positive attribute. Webster's Dictionary defines it as meaning fine or acceptable.[13] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast#cite_note-cromulent-12)