The Quest for the Best Word Ever

The Quest for the Best Word Ever The Quest for the Best Word Ever The Quest for the Best Word Ever By Mark Nichol Last year, an advertising executive named Ted McCagg embarked on a whimsical endeavor: Using a bracketing schematic like that employed to record the outcome of athletic tournaments in which, in each iteration, the number of selections displayed is reduced by half according to some criterion, until only one choice remains McCagg subjectively selected the best word ever. McCagg’s Final Four?: diphthong (two vowel sounds in one syllable), gherkin (a type of cucumber, or the vine from which it grows) hornswoggle (a hoax, or to hoax), and kerfuffle (a disturbance). Is there any practical use for this exercise? I see it as an entertaining vocabulary-building activity: Brainstorm any number of interesting words, whether you know their meaning or not. Subject them to match-ups, two words at a time, and select the one you favor on whatever merits definition, euphony, or some ineffable quality (I like euphony and ineffable). Repeat until you have a winner, then resolve to learn the word’s meaning if you don’t know it already, and use it in your writing. There are no losers in this game: The runner-up simply takes its place in line, followed by the favored term in the duel between the no. 3 and no. 4 seeds and then by the runner-up in that contest. Try to use each new front-runner as it is identified. Organize a tournament with a circle of friends (in real life or online), a writing group, or a class. Make submissions anonymous, match them up randomly, and have the participants vote on their favorite word in each pair, which then advances to a run-off with another favored word. Perhaps this activity seems silly. After all, maybe the writing you’re paid for is about finance or technology, or you produce marketing content. However, I doubt you work in a kerfuffle-free milieu, and hornswoggling may occur betimes (I like milieu and betimes), but you can apply your best-word-ever efforts to specific jargon and vocabulary. Oh, and McCagg’s best word ever? Diphthong. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Handy Expressions About HandsProved vs. ProvenWord Count and Book Length

Many Types of Drop-In Fuels

Many Types of Drop-In Fuels These days, it’s hard to find an organic material that isn’t being positioned as the next great alternative energy source. Rising to the top of the list are biofuels known as so-called â€Å"drop in† fuels – those renewable sources that can be used without major investment in infrastructure in the U.S. where storage and distribution has long catered to petroleum. That current investment in infrastructure isn’t small potatoes. There is about $7 billion in pipeline expenditures alone each and every year. Defining Drop-in Fuels What defines a drop-in fuel? The alternative fuels industry itself isn’t exactly clear, with some defining it broadly to mean any renewable fuel making use of at least some of the costly existing petroleum infrastructure. Others have taken a more narrowed approach. One of the most popular definitions is that drop-in fuels are those renewable fuels which can be blended with petroleum products, such as gasoline, and utilized in the current infrastructure of pumps, pipelines and other existing equipment.    Under such a definition, a biofuel would require some percentage of gasoline blender , derived from unique gasoline stocks, to form the fuel’s base. Examples of drop-in fuels defined in this way include the terpenes, butanol and isoprene, among other. Often, the technology is applied to diesel fuel, forming a biodiesel, rather than to gasoline. There are even some next-generation biofuels proponents who are developing mixtures of chemicals to form a biofuel without the gasoline or diesel base. Algae Most Common Drop-in Fuel With well over 50 companies investing in the development of algae as a biofuel, the little green plant reigns supreme among drop-in fuels. Yet, despite this general interest, most biofuels experts agree that at least another decade of research and technological breakthroughs will be necessary before this drop-in fuel is deemed commercially viable. That’s a long- and costly- trail ahead. As with most drop-in fuels, the challenges come in moving the technology from the lab to full-scale commercial production. An additional challenge with algae specifically has been the wide variance among algae and the extensive processing necessary. Butanol Also Sees Growth But algae isn’t the only show in town. Last year, a leading biobutanol company, Gevo, announced plans to acquire ethanol facilities in the Midwest and convert them to commercial production of the drop-in fuel isobutanol, also known as isobutyl alcohol.    The move was seen by industry players as a step forward in the development of butanol as an alternative drop-in fuel, with the company hoping to begin isobutanol production by 2012. Although able to make use of existing infrastructure, unlike algae, there is some concern over potential safety threats. Vapors can travel long distances and collect in low-lying areas to form an explosion hazard. However, its proponents are quick to point out the biofuel’s many fuel and chemical applications make it an attractive venture. Big player DuPont has also tested the waters of biobutanol as a drop-in fuel and plans to likewise rely on existing under-utilized ethanol capacity and conventional feedstocks as it gets its operations off the ground. The investment to retrofit existing ethanol facilities is more economical than building new structures and require only minor changes to the fermentation and distillation processes. Broadening Portfolios DuPont says it plans to follow a multi-step approach to drop-in fuel development, first focusing on n-butyl alcohol and conventional feedstocks before moving on to other drop-in fuels like isobutanol as well as non-feed crops, such as cellulosic feedstocks.    Yet another company, ButylFuel, LLC, has gone on record as having said it has now developed fermentation-derived biobutanol at a cost that is competitive with petroleum products. Its drop-in fuel can be blended at a variety of percentages with gasoline or diesel fuels. How competitive? The company claims it can produce its drop-in fuel from corn for about $1.20 per gallon. Like algae players who are benefiting not only from algae as a drop-in fuel, but from the many byproducts as well, research and development in other drop-in fuels sectors are looking at diverse portfolios of products, causing some to characterize this next generation of alternative fuels as a means to produce hydrocarbon blend stock that can have a multitude of applications.