Interesting words: Kalopsia

The word: Kalopsia

Definition: From Wordnik: "The delusion of things being more beautiful than they are."

Origin: Kalopsia is Greek.

Why use it?  What a great word! One word to mean all this!

 

Example uses: "Love causes kalopsia".

Frequency: No mentions in Google ngram viewer.

Sources: I first heard of this word from my friend Dushka Zapaata.

Book review: Night Trade by Barry Eisler

Book: Night Trade

Author: Barry Eisler

Year published: 2018

Date finished: Jan 27, 2018

Genre:Thriller

Rating: 9/10

Review: This is the sequel to Livia Lone. As a child, Livia and her sister were sold by their parents in Thailand. They were victims of sex trafficking and were brutally treated. Now Livia is an adult. She's a police officer. She's an expert in martial arts. She's a great shot with a gun. And she wants revenge. In Night Trade, she gets some of it.  She also meets up with Dox, the sniper from the John Rain novels.

Tons of sex and violence, but well plotted and it keeps the pages turning as the plot deepens and twists and turns

About the Author: Barry Eisler is the author of many thriller novels and other books. He is also a lawyer and a former member of the CIA.

Sources:  Wikipedia

What are you reading? Jan 27, 2018

Here is what I am reading now.  Share what you are reading in comments.

• A New History of Western Philosophy by Anthony Kenny. This is a very good history of the subject, well written and clear.  Kenny follows an unusual strategy in that he takes two approaches: He first covers each era in a more-or-less chronological order, then he looks at the big topics of that era in a systematic way.  I am on p. 317.
• The Great Formal Machinery Works: Theories of Deduction and Computation at the Origins of the Digital Age by Jan van Plato.  An examination of formal logic and computation.  I am on p. 119.
• High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery that Challenges Everything you Know About Drugs and Society by Carl Hart. Why everything you know (or thought you knew) about illicit drugs is wrong. I am on p. 182. 
• I started Night Trade by Barry Eisler. I am on p. 155.
• Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson.  It's magnificent.  I am on p. 424.
• I started Wool by Hugh Howey. I am on p. 133.
• I am browsing through Best American Essays of 2017 by Leslie Jamison. 
• I started Adsense Secrets by Joel Comm to try to figure out how to make the ads on this blog better. I am 16% in.

Interesting words: Effulgence

The word:Effulgence

Definition: According to Dictionary.com, effulgence means:

a brilliant radiance; a shining forth.

There is an adjectival form: Effulgent. 

Origin: From Latin effulgentum "to shine".

Why use it?  Both the noun and the adjective are more specific than "shiny" or "shining" or "radiant".  Both shiny and radiant have other meanings, which effulgence does not.