Term
Gentrifiers
Also drag queens, angry gang kids, graffiti artists and bewildered gentrifiers trying not to get killed while their real-estate investments matured. |
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Definition
| One who buys and renovates houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighborhoods, thus improving property values but often displacing low-income families and small businesses. |
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Term
Torque
There was no torque on that part, nothing to dislodge it in the course of normal operations. |
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Definition
| Something that produces or tends to produce torsion or rotation; the moment of a force or system of forces tending to cause rotation. |
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Term
Salmagundi
I called it the Salmagundi, which means anything made out of spare parts. |
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Definition
| Any mixture or miscellany. |
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Term
Squatter
The high school kids who broke it were Brazilian Linux hackers who lived in a *favela* -- a kind of squatter's slum. |
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Definition
| A person who settles on land or occupies property without title, right, or payment of rent. |
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Term
Siphon
ParanoidXbox loved that configuration: it could siphon off some of my neighbors' Internet connections and use them to get online through the gaming network. |
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Definition
| To convey, draw, or pass through or as if through a siphon. |
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Term
Fervently
I let my mom force a piece of toast and a banana into me, wishing fervently that my parents would let me drink coffee at home. |
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Definition
| Having or showing great warmth or intensity of spirit, feeling, enthusiasm, etc. |
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Term
Suffragists
Now, let's get back to the suffragists, shall we? |
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Definition
| An advocate of the grant or extension of political suffrage, especially to women. |
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Term
Augmented
The DHS had put FasTrak readers all over town -- when you drove past them, they logged the time and your ID number, building an ever-more perfect picture of who went where, when, in a database that was augmented by "speeding cameras," "red light cameras" and all the other license-plate cameras that had popped up like mushrooms. |
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Definition
| Made larger; enlarged in size, number, strength, or extent; increased. |
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Term
Paradox
It's called "the paradox of the false positive," and it's a doozy. |
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Definition
| A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth. |
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Term
Chaff
It even throws up a bunch of "chaff" communications that are supposed to disguise the fact that you're doing anything covert. |
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Definition
Worthless matter; refuse.
Military: Strips of metal foil dropped by an aircraft to confuse enemy radar by creating false blips. |
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Term
Requisition
The DHS got their budget requisition approved. |
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Definition
| A written request or order for something, such as supplies. |
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Term
Tarpaulins
Bringing along the tarpaulins and chemical glove-warmers was my idea. |
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Definition
| Protective coverings of canvas or other material waterproofed with tar, paint, or wax. |
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Term
Galvanized
That galvanized the Free Speech Movement. |
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Definition
| To startle into sudden activity; stimulate |
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Term
Yippies
The Yippies loved to say, 'Never trust anyone over 30.' |
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Definition
| A member of a group of radical, politically active hippies. |
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Term
Wiki
There's no way they organized this without email and wikis and mailing lists. |
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Definition
| A web site that allows anyone to add, delete, or revise content by using a web browser. |
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Term
Gulag
You're the first generation to grow up in Gulag America, and you know what your freedom is worth to the last goddamned cent! |
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Definition
| Any prison or detention camp, especially for political prisoners. |
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Term
Truncheons
No cops with truncheons, no gas. |
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Definition
| Clubs carried by police officers; billy club. |
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Term
Clandestine
Al-Jazeera reporters claim that these accounts were published on the so-called 'Xnet,' a clandestine network used by students and Al-Quaeda sympathizers in the Bay Area. |
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Definition
| Characterized by, done in, or executed with secrecy or concealment, especially for purposes of subversion or deception; private or surreptitious. |
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Term
Superseded
Other ways in which the Bill of Rights can be superseded? |
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Definition
| Set aside or caused to be set aside as void, useless, or obsolete, usually in favor of something mentioned; made obsolete. |
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Term
Libel
"National security," Charles said, not waiting for her to call on him again. "Libel. Obscenity. Corruption of minors. Child porn. Bomb-making recipes." |
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Definition
| Defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures; the act of crime of publishing it. |
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Term
Compunction
But of course he wouldn't have any compunctions about using it on me. |
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Definition
| A feeling of uneasiness or anxiety of the conscience caused by regret for doing wrong or causing pain; contrition; remorse. |
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Term
Perverse
I took a perverse satisfaction in the exhibits on soil liquefaction during big quakes. |
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Definition
| Willfully determined or disposed to go counter to what is expected or desired; contrary. |
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Term
Dissidents
Paranoid Linux is an operating system that assumes that its operator is under assault from the government (it was intended for use by Chinese and Syrian dissidents), and it does everything it can to keep your communications and documents a secret. |
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Definition
| Persons who differ in sentiment or opinion, especially from the majority; withhold assent; disagree. |
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Term
Adjunct
I can see how it would be a good adjunct; I could pitch this as the origin of the Xnet. |
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Definition
| Something added to another thing but not essential to it. |
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Term
Roshambo
You go running after someone through the woods, catch up with him, bare your teeth, and sit down to play a little roshambo. |
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Definition
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Term
Austere
In the tourist guides to San Francisco, they manage to photograph it so that it looks like Epcot Center, futuristic and austere. |
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Definition
| Severe in manner or appearance; uncompromising; strict; forbidding; rigorously self-disiplined and severely moral; ascetic; abstinent. |
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Term
Klaxon
We'd both run from that spot in the Tenderloin as the klaxon sounded behind us, and we'd both been picked up by the cops. |
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Definition
| A loud electric horn, formerly used on automobiles, trucks, etc.m and now often used as a warning signal. |
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Term
Sidled
I sidled up to one. |
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Definition
| HAving moved sideways or obliquely. |
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Term
Despots
I'd had the worst that they could throw at me, and I'd survived it, and I'd *beaten them*, beaten them for months, showed them up as chumps and despots. I'd *won*. |
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Definition
| Kings or other rulers with absolute, unlimited power; autocrats. |
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Term
Cacophony
Then it was cacophony, a thousand different shouting voices. |
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Definition
| Harsh discordance of sound; dissonance. |
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