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.

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 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.

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.

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.

What, at least for me and Andrew, makes literally interesting is how frequently it is misused. As Andrew mentioned in his email, not a day goes by that you don’t find someone using literally instead of figuratively.

Litterally is an adverb. It means actually, without exaggeration, word-for-word or in a literal sense. But it is so often used as though it means virtually. As in “Bruce Springsteen literally brought the house down with his encore.” Of course the house was still standing after Bruce’s encore so it didn’t literally come down.

Accroding to the American Heritage Dictionary this common misuse dates back at least a hundred years. Which begs the question how many years does a word have to be misused before it takes on the new meaning? Well according to Merriam-Webster literally has already taken on this misused meaning. A meaning that is quite nearly opposite the truer, more historical meaning.

Another reason I had been hesitant to cover literally in a podcast is because David Cross does a very hilarious bit on the word literally.

While piracy on the high seas is still a real threat to mariners the high times (1550 to 1750) of piracy are long gone. What we have left is some fun myths, affectations, and the classic flag- the Jolly Roger.

Yes that is right, flags have names. The classic skull and cross bones pirate the is known as the Jolly Roger. The name is probably an English corruption of the French joli rouge, which means pretty red. Before the infamous Jolly Roger, pirates would signal their intentions by raising a red flag.

Today you can get your hands on a Jolly Roger, a Blackbeard or a Walter Kennedy pirate flag at 826Velencia.org. 826Valencia.org is a pirates supply shop in San Francisco, kind of. In truth it is front for a writing center established by David Eggers to help students, ages 8–18, to develop their writing skills. Egger’s found this location, 826 Valencia, and decided it would be a great location for a tutoring center. But alas the zoning was for retail only. So Eggers opened a pirate supply shop in the front and the writing center in the back. Surprisingly the pirate show now almost completely funds for the writing center. In fact the pirates shop is so incredible David Byrne dryly remarked 826 Valencia is “Definitely one of the top five pirate stores I have been to recently.”

So if you want a pirate flag 826 Valencia is the the best place to shop. Plus your purchase will help the writing center.

The article is about a recent Microsoft case related to patent law. Cringley uses spoliation, to describe damaged evidence. Spoliation is a noun with two closely related definitions. One, the act of plundering or injuring beyond repair. Two, the state of having been injured or plundered.

I recently had a request for more example suggestions. So here is a Cringley’s sentence. “Microsoft’s immediate motivation to settle was the spoliation hearing that could have exposed the company to older cases being re-opened based on the possibility that Microsoft had deliberately destroyed evidence.” The hearing Cringley is talking about is a hearing to determine if Microsoft destroyed evidence.

A docent is a person who lead tours through museums or art galleries. Merriam-Webster also lists a docent as a university lecturer or teacher.

The word is derived from the Latin docere, meaning to teach.

The word synaesthetic is spelled s-y-n-a-e-s-t-h-e-t-i-c and s-y-n-e-s-t-h-e-t-i-c. The first spelling, the one with the a is the British/English style. Synaesthetic is an adjective that describes an experience that involves more than one of the five senses. More specifically it describes an experience when one type of stimulation causes the sensation of another sense.

An example of an synesthetic experience is seeing music in addition to hearing the music. This is the most typical synesthetic sensation but the word describes any experience that involves multiple senses provoke by a single sense stimulus.

A synesthetic description uses words normally associate with one sense to describe an different sense. For example “Her house smells like the color blue.” A visual description. blue, is used to describe a smell.

The Mind Hacks post is about a synesthetic musician who can taste music. She relates specific tastes to specific musical tones.

You can read more about synaesthesia at Univeristy College London Psycology site- . What is Synaesthesia? There they also invite you to tell them about your synaesthesia.

UPDATE (06/14/05): Psyblog has a post about new findings in synaesthesia.