Scarlet day is the term used in the University of Cambridge to designate those days on which doctors are required to wear the festal form of academic dress. It is so called because of the scarlet elements in the gowns and hoods of the festal full dress worn by doctors as opposed to the everyday black gowns. On these days, …

Pink noise, also known as 1/f noise, is a sound that has equal energy in all octaves. It primarily consists of low frequency sounds. Due to practical constraints, pink noise can be produced only over a certain range of frequencies and occurs naturally. Astronauts listening to electromagnetic radiation in outer space have noted it being emitted from certain stars. In …

Neurolaw is a new discipline that studies the effect of neuroscientific evidence on law and legal cases. It also sets standards as to how nueroscience should be used in relation to the legal system. It is believed that neurolaw could play a more decisive role in cases involving rape and murder, where detection of the truth becomes imperative. Proponents of …

An extremely short literary work, no more than 25 words, that hints at a longer, more complex story. An extremely short story is called hint fiction as all it does is give a reader a hint. It does not provide any concrete background, setting or character, and instead leaves the blanks for the reader to fill in. Often, the biggest …

First Information Report (FIR) is a written document prepared by the police when they receive information about the commission of a cognizable offence. It is a report of information that reaches the police first in point of time and that is why it is called the First Information Report. It is generally a complaint lodged with the police by the …

It is an education reform movement in which traditional methods of teaching are set aside for a self-study approach, involving online technology – through virtual classrooms, downloadable tools and free learning material – as the favoured mode for education People taking to edupunk believe in a do-it-yourself approach and many are driven to this sort of low-cost, even free education, …

This theory says the universe will one day stop expanding. Then, as gravity pulls on matter, the universe will begin to contract, falling inward until it has collapsed into a super hot, super-dense singularity. The universe is like a giant souffle. It starts out small, expands as it heats up, and eventually, as the souffle cools, begins to collapse. Big …

Baggravation is a combination of the words “bag” and “aggravation”, and is a term used to describe the annoyance one feels at the airport when one’s bags have not arrived at the baggage carousel but everyone else’s has. It is that typical feeling, when it seems like your bags are always the last to arrive.

The word ‘Bafana’ is a Zulu word, plural for ‘umfaan’, meaning boy. There is also a movie about Mandela in jail called “Goodbye Bafana”. Bafana Bafana is the national football team of South Africa and is controlled by the South African Football Association, which will be hosting the 19th FIFA World Cup in June 2010. Bafana Bafana, meaning Boys Boys, …

An abnormal and persistent fear of spiders. Sufferers of arachnophobia experience undue anxiety even though they realize that the risk of encountering a spider and being harmed by it is small or non-existent. This phobia was exploited in a 1990 movie “Arachnophobia”. The word is derived from the Greek ‘arachne’ (spider) and ‘phobos’ (fear) after the mythical Arachne, a maiden …