Slut

Slut is a term for a woman or girl who is considered to have loose sexual morals or who is sexually promiscuous. It is generally used as an insult, sexual slur or offensive term of disparagement (slut shaming). It originally meant "a dirty, slovenly woman", and is only rarely used to refer to men, generally requiring clarification by use of the terms male slut or man whore.

The first recorded use of the word was in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. He says, "Why is thy lord so sluttish, I thee pray, And is of power better clothes to bey." He is referring to the man's untidy appearance. The word has also been used to refer to dust bunnies, which were called "slut bunnies". There have been attempts to reclaim the word for girls and women, and some individuals embrace the title as a source of pride.

Etymology, common usages and synonyms

The common denotative meanings are a sexually promiscuous woman, or "an immoral or dissolute woman; prostitute." These definitions identify a slut as a person of low character—a person who lacks the ability or chooses not to exercise a power of discernment to order their affairs, similar to terms used for men, such as a cad, rake, womanizer, stud, player, male slut or man whore. The adjective slutty carries a similar connotation, but can be applied both to people and to clothing and accessories, such as Halloween costumes. The lack of a comparably popular term for men highlights the double standard in societal expectations between males and females.

Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—is a region of the United States of America. The South does not exactly match the geographic south, but is predominantly located in the southeastern corner; Arizona and New Mexico, which are geographically in the southern part of the country, are rarely considered part of the Southern United States, while West Virginia, which separated from Virginia in 1863, commonly is. Some scholars have proposed definitions of the South that do not coincide neatly with state boundaries. While the states of Delaware and Maryland, as well as the District of Columbia permitted slavery prior to the start of the Civil War, they remained with the Union. Since then, they became more culturally, economically, and politically aligned with the industrial Northern states, and are often identified as part of the Mid-Atlantic and/or Northeast by many residents, businesses, public institutions, and private organizations. However, the United States Census Bureau puts them in the South.

South (Martian crater)

South Crater is an impact crater in the Mare Australe quadrangle of Mars, located at 77.1°S latitude and 338.0°W longitude. It is 107.1  km in diameter and was named after Sir James South, and the name was approved in 1973 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN).

Very close to the crater there is what has been named "Swiss cheese" features. Swiss cheese features (SCFs) are pits so named because they look like the holes in Swiss cheese. They were first seen in 2000 using Mars Orbiter Camera imagery. They are usually a few hundred meters across and 8 metres deep, with a flat base and steep sides. They tend to have similar bean-like shapes with a cusp pointing towards the south pole. The angle of the sun probably contributes to their roundness. Near the Martian summer solstice, the sun can remain continuously just above the horizon; as a result the walls of a round depression will receive more intense sunlight, and sublimate much more rapidly than the floor. The walls sublimate and recede, while the floor remains the same. As the seasonal frost disappears, the pit walls appear to darken considerably relative to the surrounding terrain. The SCFs have been observed to grow in size, year by year, at an average rate of 1 to 3 meters, suggesting that they are formed in a thin layer (8m) of carbon dioxide ice lying on top of water ice.

Wings (magazine)

Wings (ウィングス, Uingusu) is a shōjo manga magazine published by Shinshokan. The magazine is aimed at a female audience in the 16- to 20-year-old age range and tend to be action- or fantasy-oriented stories. Wings previously had a number of special editions such as Shinshokan South, or simply South, Phantom Club, Huckleberry, Un Poco, and Wings: Story. Currently, only Un Poco, and Wings: Story are still being published.

Manga artists and series featured in Wings

MASON (Java)

MASON is a multi-agent simulation environment developed in Java.

Development

MASON is developed at George Mason University's Evolutionary Computation Laboratory in conjunction with the GMU Center for Social Complexity. First released in 2003, the environment continues to be maintained and kept up to date. The name, as well as referring to the parent institution, derives from the acronym Multi-Agent Simulator Of Neighborhoods (or Networks).

MASON development started within the Java.net environment, then moved to Google Code and is now at GitHub.

Whilst MASON is less extensive than other similar libraries it is designed with simplicity and execution speed as a priority.

Applets

Applets developed using MASON include Craig Reynolds' Boids algorithm, Balls and Bands, a simulation of Hooke's Law, an L-system generator, Conway's Game of Life, Sugarscape and autonomous multi-robot systems.

MASON may be used with the Eclipse Integrated development environment.

See also

USS Mason (DDG-87)

USS Mason (DDG-87) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the United States Navy.

Homeported in Norfolk, Virginia, USS Mason is the 37th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and the ninth of the Flight IIA variant. She was commissioned in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in April 2003. Her first captain was Commander David Gale.

This is the third ship with the name USS Mason. The first Mason (DD-191), in service from 1920 to 1941, was named for John Young Mason, well known for his service as the Secretary of the Navy for two American Presidents. The second Mason (DE-529) was named for Ensign Newton Henry Mason, a Naval Aviator who was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. This ship is named for the crew of the second Mason (DE-529) as this was the first ship in the US Navy with this distinction of a predominantly black crew.

Ship history

USS Mason conducted her maiden deployment with the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in late 2004. Mason returned home after six months on 18 April 2005.

Mason (given name)

Mason is a traditionally masculine given name, although recently the name has been used for either sex. Its origin is from the occupational surname Mason, which means "one who works with stone".

The popularity of the given name has risen in recent years, becoming the second most popular boy's name in the United States in 2011.

List of people with the given name Mason

Academics

Art

Film and television