[Ads-l] UAP - unidentified aerial phenomena (or phenomenon)

Mon Apr 17 23:02:40 UTC 2023

"Source term refers to the magnitude and mix of the radionuclides 
released from the fuel, expressed as fractions of the fission product 
inventory in the fuel, as well as their physical and chemical form, and 
the timing of their release."

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part050/part050-0002.html

More generally (and  perhaps more comprehensibly):

"The release parameters (e.g. magnitude, rate, duration, orientation, 
temperature) that are the initial conditions for determining the 
consequences of the loss event for a hazardous material and/or energy 
release to the surroundings. For vapor dispersion modeling, it is the 
estimation, based on the release specification, of the actual cloud 
conditions of temperature, aerosol content, density, size, velocity and 
mass to be input into the dispersion model."

https://www.aiche.org/ccps/resources/glossary/process-safety-glossary/source-term

On 4/17/23 12:47, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> I may have reported this decades ago, but when my wife was editing
> scientific reports on nuclear waste, post-DeLillo, one official designator
> of an unintended release of potentially deadly radiation into the
> atmosphere was a "term source."
> 
> Life way surpassing art.  As usual.
> 
> JL
> 
> On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 2:03 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>> To be sure, an unidentified anomalous phenomenon is not necessarily an
>> airborne toxic event, but the latter would seem to be a prime subcase of
>> the former.
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 12:33 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Drifting past, IMO. "Toxic" means toxic, "anomalous" just means funny.
>>>
>>> JL
>>>
>>> On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 11:33 AM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> "Unidentified anomalous phenomenon" is drifting dangerously in the
>>>> direction of Don DeLillo's "airborne toxic event" ("White Noise",
>> 1985).
>>>>
>>>> LH
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 10:12 AM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> As mentioned in my Feb. 16, 2023 WSJ column (
>>> https://on.wsj.com/3Edux7t
>>>> ):
>>>>>
>>>>> "In the latest terminological twist, NASA has modified 'UAP' to stand
>>>> for a
>>>>> slightly different phrase: 'unidentified anomalous phenomena.'"
>>>>>
>>>>> Linking to:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>> https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-announces-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-study-team-members/
>>>>>
>>>>> Also mentioned in my Twitter thread:
>>>>>
>>>>> https://twitter.com/bgzimmer/status/1626924874504495104
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 7:36 AM Jonathan Lighter <
>>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
>>>>>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Now it means "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon":
>>>>>>
>>>>
>> https://www.foxnews.com/us/mosul-orb-us-silent-ufo-filmed-military-iraq
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This may have to do with the 2022 creation of the Pentagon’s
>>>> "All-domain
>>>>>> Anomaly Resolution Office," an expansion of the "Airborne Object
>>>>>> Identification and Management Group":
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>> https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3100053/dod-announces-the-establishment-of-the-all-domain-anomaly-resolution-office/
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There's the signpost up ahead....
>>>>>>
>>>>>> JL
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 12:23 PM Jonathan Lighter <
>>>>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> To judge from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's discussion with Jake
>> Tapper
>>>> on
>>>>>>> CNN's "State of the Union" today, there's a strong connotational
>>>>>> difference
>>>>>>> between "UAP" and "UFO."
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> "UFO" implies "might well be from outer space." "UAP" implies
>>> "might
>>>>> well
>>>>>>> be Russian or Chinese." Gillibrand cited 171 cases reviewed by
>> DoD
>>> in
>>>>> the
>>>>>>> past two years that have resisted specialist analysis.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> She referred to the need to know "what these aircraft are" and
>>>> whether
>>>>>>> we're being spied on "by our adversaries."
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Yet whether UFO or UAP, the "unidentified" remain unidentified.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> JL
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 4:39 PM Jonathan Lighter <
>>>>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Not in my existing thread. I must have trashed it somehow.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> JL
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 3:39 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Garson provided that cite info in the original thread in
>> October:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2022-October/162459.html
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Also included in my February Twitter thread (with a hat tip to
>>>>> Garson):
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> https://twitter.com/bgzimmer/status/1626924403622543362
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 3:31 PM Jonathan Lighter <
>>>>>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Update: the 1958 "UAP" is  from Avram Davidson's story, "The
>>>>> Grantha
>>>>>>>>>> Sighting," in the April, 1958, ish of _Fantasy and Science
>>>>> Fiction_,
>>>>>>>>> p. 58:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>> https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v014n04_1958-04_PDF/page/n47/mode/2up?q=sightings
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> JL
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On Sun, Oct 23, 2022 at 10:33 AM Jonathan Lighter <
>>>>>>>>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Thanks, Garson.  And many thanks for ID'ing the month and
>>> page.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> I was a saucer buff from 1965 to the late '70s and read
>> all I
>>>>> could
>>>>>>>>> find
>>>>>>>>>>> on the subject that wasn't totally screwball. I must
>> confess,
>>>>>> though,
>>>>>>>>>> that
>>>>>>>>>>> when the Navy used "UAP" when it released UFO footage in
>>> 2017,
>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>> acro
>>>>>>>>>>> seemed novel.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Of course, "aerial phenomenon" is a more objective
>>> description
>>>>> than
>>>>>>>>>>> "flying object."
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> In my day, the acronym was so rarely employed that it never
>>>> fully
>>>>>>>>>>> registered on me. Rereading some of the exx. above, I'm
>> sure
>>>> I'd
>>>>>> have
>>>>>>>>>>> thought it no more than a marginal eccentricity. It doesn't
>>>> seem
>>>>> to
>>>>>>>>>> appear,
>>>>>>>>>>> for example, in Ron Story's extensive _UFO Encyclopedia_
>>>> (1980).
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> It seems likely that Davidson (a prominent sf writer) was
>> the
>>>>>>>>> originator.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
> 
> 

-- 
James Eric Lawson

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org