Pervertiplanes: A Forgotten Argot Of Aeronautical Engineering?

Even though the term dates back to the Cold War era 1960s American aeronautical engineering boom, does anyone still use the term “pervertiplane” these days? 

By: Ringo Bones

Any group of specialists has its own private lexicon and aeronautical engineers are surely no exception. The word “pervertiplane” could be defined as a corruption of the term “convertiplane” – which is a contraction of the term “convertible aircraft” – pertaining to aircraft constructed in such a way that their lifting and propulsion systems may be converted to permit efficient operation either for vertical take-off and hovering or for high-speed forward flight. Such craft are now more commonly termed as VTOL or vertical take-off and landing aircraft. 

Convertiplanes – at least their experimental prototypes – began life back in the beginning of the 1960s. Examples of which are the X-19 broad-bladed tilting rotor turboprop VTOL plane, the X-22 tilting ducted fan VTOL plane, which is probably the great-granddaddy  of the V-22 Osprey that got fielded back in 2007 and some jet-engine high-performance experimental VTOL fighter planes like the British-built Hawker P1127 cascade vane-nozzle turbojet VTOL that later became the USMC’s Hawker Siddeley Harrier / Harrier Jump Jet and the then West German EWR VJ-101C tilting engine turbojet VTOL interceptor. 

Convertible aircraft are sometimes called “convertiplanes”; however, one prominent aeronautical engineer – legend has it that it was Igor Sikorsky – has suggested the name “pervertiplanes” because so many of the machines, in his view, combine the worst features of the helicopter and the fixed-wing aircraft. The necessary provision of such structurally difficult features as tilting wings, tilting rotors, cascade-vane assemblies and the like which may be subjected to high gas temperatures and periodically fluctuating air loads, all at minimum structural weight, leads to the development of very complicated mechanical devices that in turn leads to a high probability of mechanical failure. 

By far, the most serious problem with convertible aircraft lies in its characteristics following engine failure at low altitude. Unlike fixed-wing aircraft, which can fly as a glider following engine failure or the helicopter, which can descend at a safe – but rapid – rate with its rotor being spun by the flow of air past it (a process called autorotation), the convertible aircraft commonly lacks wings large enough to descend slowly as a glider, or a rotor large enough to permit a safe autorotation descent. Worse yet, if power failure occurs during transition, it may not be possible to achieve either type of descent and the vehicle will fall like a rock. Looks like a convertible aircraft or convertiplane’s reputation as a “pervertiplane” seems apt.  

Bieberitis: Latest Entry In The American English Language Lexicon?

Ever wondered if this relatively recent entry in the American English language lexicon is due to everyone almost fed up with the antics of one Justin Bieber? 

By: Ringo Bones 

If you are already fed up with the antics of a certain former teen pop sensation named Justin Bieber and his pitiful attempts to be perceived by anyone to be a hardcore African-American hip-hop star replete with street-cred, then, cheer up because a relatively recent entry in the American English lexicon could warm up your heart. Or at least it may restore some of the lost Karmic harmony in the cosmos. 

According to one definition in the Urban Dictionary, “bieberitis” is a malignant condition affecting the intelligence portion of the brains of affected individuals – particularly female. Symptoms are child molestation, partying to awful music and creating horrendous renditions of Justin Bieber’s songs at the top of one’s lungs. Believed to be caused by the prepubescent voice of one Justin Bieber in which prolonged exposure could cause irreparable damage to brain cells. 

According to ones with first-hand experience of the disorder, bieberitis can be temporarily relieved by male singers who can vocalize at a lower pitch than Mariah Carey. Some even suggested listening to classic Barry White songs as a form of therapy. 

Macaca: An Americanized Racial Slur?

Even though its origins date back to the 2006 US Mid-Term Elections, is macaca an example of an “Americanized racial slur”?

By: Ringo Bones

To those still unfamiliar with this relatively young member of the American English lexicon, macaca became the American Dialectic Society’s Word of the Year back in 2006 when the then incumbent US Republican Party Senator George Allen used it during the 2006 US Mid-Term Elections while campaigning for his US Senate seat in Virginia when it was probably the first time ever used while caught on camera. Back then, most Americans where still unfamiliar with the term until continuous media coverage of the said video footage made everyone who closely followed the US Mid-term Elections alleged it to be a “racial slur”.

Even though Allen pleaded that he was unaware of its reported racial context, a Francophone equivalent of the word macaca – i.e. the word macaque that eventually used to name a genus of monkeys – were used by French colonizers in Africa during the Victorian era as a disparaging term to the black African natives. Relating to the Allen controversy, macaca was unsurprisingly named as the “most politically incorrect word” of 2006 by the Global Language Monitor.    

The video of US Republican Party senate incumbent George Allen nicknaming a young Indian-American man attending one of his rallies as “macaca” as Allen asked the young man to come up on stage before Allen referred to him as an example of the success results of the American Dream. Unbeknown to Senator Allen, the young Indian-American was an aide to senate rival US Democratic Party Senator Jim Webb named S.R. Siddarth whose full name is a far cry from ever closely resembling a homophone of the word macaca, thus highlighting the “institutionalized racism” of the conservatives populating the ranks of the US Republican Party.

Thanksgivingukkah: The Latest American Holiday?

Even though it only comes once in every 70,000 years, does Thanksgivingukkah truly qualify as a bona-fide American holiday? 

By: Ringo Bones

May be the fact that it only comes once in every 70,000 years that nobody in America, never mind elsewhere in the world, seems to really care if Thanksgivingukkah is a bona-fide holiday or not, it seems that everyone is just celebrating it in blissful ignorance.  Never mind Thanksgivingukkah becoming the latest addition of the American English lexicon. But indeed, it has an origin story that legitimizes its claim as a bona-fide American holiday. 

It may have been the fact that this 2013 Thanksgiving and the first day of the Jewish High Holiday Hanukkah both fell on the same day. The “Thanksgiving” part of Thanksgivingukkah may be over but there still are a few days of gift giving left for Hanukkah 2013. But unbeknown to most of us, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah could have a very justifiable reason to share a kinship with beyond a quirk of the Gregorian Calendar that we won’t be seeing another Thanksgiving and Hanukkah combo for another 70,000 years. 

Believe it or not, both Hanukkah and Thanksgiving are born out of a civil war. Hanukkah’s origins were the Macabbean Revolt of 167 to 160 BC which was for all intents and purposes a civil war that set the salient theme of Hanukkah. And despite its 17^th Century Puritan theme of the American Thanksgiving, it was during the American Civil War when the then US President Abraham Lincoln who proclaimed that the last Thursday of November be designated as Thanksgiving as a morale booster for his Union troops back in 1863. Even if Thanksgivingukkah is nothing more than a combination of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah just because a quirk in the Gregorian Calendar made them both fell on the last Thursday of November this 2013, we won’t be obliged to celebrate it for the next 69,000 years. 

Eastwooding: A New Word From The 2012 US Presidential Race?

Supposedly to mean someone talking to an empty chair and pretending someone is sitting there; is “Eastwooding” another new word born out of the 2012 US Presidential Race?

By: Ringo Bones

Like always, we can always count on the US Republican Party for over-the-top political statements hitherto unseen since the search for nonexistent WMDs in Saddam’s Iraq back in March 2003. With the Ronald Reagan 3-D Holography a no show during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida a few months ago, it was up to famed Hollywood actor and conservative stalwart Clint Eastwood to do a stunt supposedly to liven up a supposedly matter-of-fact GOP rally.

Sadly, not all people are familiar with improvisational acting or improv – a few that do only associate improv with Wayne Brady, who gained notoriety as the “whitest” African-American actor in America. Clint Eastwood supposedly castigating an empty chair as a stand in for the Democrat President Obama has left most of us a quizzical look of puzzlement. After parody postings of photos on various online social media sites supposedly mimicking Clint Eastwood’s practice of interrogating an empty chair, it probably took a few more weeks before the online community reached a consensus to call what Clint Eastwood did to that empty chair supposedly to stand in for President Obama during the GOP national convention in Tampa, Florida as “Eastwooding”. At least Romnesia won’t be so lonely as the latest word in the American English lexicon for 2012.   

Romnesia: Recently Uncovered GOP Mental Disorder?

For those old enough to remember the “Voodoo-economics” behind of Reaganomics, will there be a more serious mental disorder yet to destabilize the US Republican Party?

By: Ringo Bones

Would you believe that the ever-increasing partisan politics at the Beltway of Washington, D.C. has been slowly enriching the already colorful American English lexicon since former US President George W. Bush’s search for nonexistent WMDs in Iraq? Sadly, this is at the American taxpayers’ expense of an increasingly dysfunctional government about to careen into a Fiscal Cliff where The Lord white Anglo Saxon Protestant Jesus Christ can no longer perform Hail Mary Play miracles anymore. But has anyone already heard of “Romnesia”?

It could well be that the increasing partisan politics at the D.C. Beltway may well be the most prodigious source of new words – make that whimsical new words – for the burgeoning American English lexicon. I first heard it on the weekending October 20, 2012 on CNN that incumbent President Obama, while on the campaign trail of the 2012 US Presidential Election, describes his opponent former Governor Mitt Romney of having “Romnesia”, making President Obama the first one to coin the term. But what is Romnesia anyway and is it already an official part of the American English lexicon?     

When I checked it out on the Urban Dictionary website, it seems that there are a number of meanings vying for the official definition of the new word Romnesia. These are the following tentative definitions: 1) the act of forgetting a statement or belief that you had previously expressed the opposite point of view with regards to. 2) The ability of the very wealthy to forget the context in which they made their money. 3) Flowing with the wind... talk a different story to a different group of audience…Inspired by flip-flop Romney liar and 4) a condition affecting GOP members and supporters exemplified by contradicting statements and a perma-grin. It looks like Mitt Romney managed to upstage the late former US President Ronald Reagan by having a “political” term coined after him before being voted into the office of the US Presidency.

Santorum: Latest Word in the American English Lexicon?

Has America's partisan political fault-line finally created a new word that fittingly describes the ontological moniker?

By: Ringo Bones

Although the campaign to make it into a new word for inclusion in the American English lexicon can be traced as far back as 2003, does the word "Santorum" be a fitting description of the current fractious discourse in the present state of American politics? Well, the American taxpayer probably has the misfortune of having experienced first-hand of having "Santorum" being smeared at their faces since 2003 - such is the extent of the ideological fault-line of the partisan political discourse in today's America.

Thanks to the hard work of gay rights activist named Dan Savage, whenever you Google search the word Santorum, the search results - more often than not - shows a description / meaning of the word as a mixture of fecal matter and lube as a by-product of anal sex. But how come the US Republican Party's presidential hopeful for the 2012 US Presidential Elections got his name associated with such an unflattering description?

Back in 2003, then US Republican Party Senator Rick Santorum has never been shy about his prejudice and bigotry of gay people - often using the Holy Bible as a justification of his somewhat "homophobic" ideological stance. Thus inciting Dan Savage to start a campaign to associate the name of the homophobic Republican senator to mean a mixture of fecal matter and lube more often than not the resulting by-product of anal sex. Long story sort, now every time you Google search the word Santorum, a rather unflattering description shows up on top of the search results. Given that Adam and Jamie of the Mythbusters had recently collaborated with President Barack Obama on the Archimedes "Death Ray", if ever America has the misfortune of having Rick Santorum as the president, will Adam and Jamie be doing a "Santorum" special on Mythbusters?