Today, March 1st, 2006, the one millionth English article was published at Wikipedia by Ewan Macdonald.

From the Jordanhill Railway Station article:

The Jordanhill Railway Station is a suburban railway station in the Jordanhill area on the west side of Glasgow, Scotland. The station (code “JOR”), which is governed by Transport Scotland and managed by First ScotRail, lies on the Argyle Line and the North Clyde Line. It is located near the Jordanhill Campus of the University of Strathclyde and the Jordanhill School and sits atop Crow Road, an important western thoroughfare in Glasgow and the main route to the Clyde Tunnel. The station is five stops and eleven minutes journey time from Central Glasgow.

Congratulations! Wikipedia is clearly the most comprehensive English language encyclopedia. Putting questions about accuracy aside it is probably the deepest and widest research collection ever assembled in any language.

Wow. I am only back on the job one day an we already have a request. Voilà! It was suggested by Gary Lapointe. Who sent a nice welcome back message.

Voilà is a interjection like wow, ouch or eureka. It means look I have completed this or here it is. It calls attention to something new or just completed. As in, “You enclose the audio file in the RSS feed and Voilà… you have a podcast.” Sometimes the implication of voilà is this is the result of magic.

Since this is a actually a French word its etymology is just the translation from French- voi meaning “you see” and la meaning “there.” It can be spelled voila or voilà with an accent grave on the a.

I want to thank Gary for the suggestion. And if you want to see a beautiful MovableType layout check out his site at GarySaid.com

Today’s Podcast is back. Again I would like to apologize for the long hiatus.

Today’s word is Radura. It is a proper noun. The Radura is the international symbol indicating a food product has been irradiated. All irradiated products sold since 1986 must carry the Radura. The Radura is usually green and resembles a plant in circle. The top half of the circle is dashed.

The requirement is seen by consumer groups as a helpful warning to consumers concerned about irradiated foods. The food industry, on the other hand sees the labeling requirement as a barrier to bringing cheaper, safer foods to consumers. Both groups agree the Radura labeling requirement is the primary reason very few food products are irradiated.

I came across this word in Eric Schlosser’s eye-opening book Fast Food Nation. The book examines the history and the alarming current state of the fast food industry in North America. It is a very scary book. I will not be eating fast food for long time- hopefully ever.

An exciting side note, at least for me. Radura is th first entry I personally added to Wikipedia.

I am sorry for the dearth of podcasts last week. Work and life sometimes intrude on the joy of my avocation. But to make up for it I have two words today- dearth and avocation.

A dearth is a shortage or lack of something. Like a dearth of Today’s Podcast last week. It is a noun and it usually spelled D-E-A-R-T-H, but some older dictionaries list D-E-R-T-H as an acceptable spelling. It comes from the old english deore meaning precious or costly. It is related to dear.

An avocation, unlike a vocation, is an extra activity, a distraction or hobby. It is a noun derived from the latin avocatio, “a calling away.”

Fortunatley for all of us listeners there are many out there who hope to make podcasting their vocation. I think that will ensure there is no dearth of podcasts.

Last week I misused a common phrase I thought I understood. But fortunately David Dawson let me know I was confused. The phrase is, “beg the question.”

Foolishly, I took it to literally mean asks the question or raises the question. But this is not the case. To “beg the question” is to assume what still has to be proved. A statement that “begs the question” is one that based on a questionable assumption. For example the statement, “Fax machines will probably be full color by 2010,” begs the question will fax machine even be in use in 2010?

David, thanks for setting me straight on “begging the question.”

I you are interested in an 800+ word, in depth analysis of “beg the question” check out the Wikipedia entry.