Interesting words, issue ten

More words into the void. 

Nekonomics (ネコノミクス; nekonomikusu): a Japanese term describing the positive economic impact of cats. Cat cafes, cat islands, cat mascots, etc. The cat cafe runs on the principle of nekonomics. Nekonomics was at play when he chose to patronize the liquor store that has a cat. 

vestigial building: a neologism that I came up with. It is a more elegant term to describe vacant buildings, which still exist but are no longer used/occupied. The vestigial building was architecturally significant, though threatened with demolition and redevelopment. Ideally, vestigial buildings of architectural significance could be renovated or restored and adaptively reused. Vestigial buildings lined the main street of the ghost town. Economic decay in the area caused the number of vestigial buildings to increase as businesses closed. [example of a vestigial building I saw recently] Although it appeared to be a vestigial building, it was actually just the kenopsia of seeing an office building unoccupied on a weekend. [as you can tell from the number of example sentences, this is my favorite entry in today's post]

tritium radioluminescence: this phrase I read in a romance novel, of all places. I found the romance novel in a little free library. I don't typically read romance novels, but this one was actually pretty good. The phrase was describing a compass that had this feature, which allows the dial to be read in the dark. It is a different form of luminescence that is radioactive and does not require electricity or exposure to light. The amount of tritium used in things like watches or compasses is small enough that it is not harmful to humans. My watch does not have a tritium dial, though it does have an electroluminescent feature. 

lensatic: describing a type of compass that includes a magnifying lens for reading it. At some point I think one of these was in a household junk drawer, but I don't know what happened to it. It might be interesting if I could find it again, since I would like to have a compass available for use that does not require the use of GPS (primarily for reference when observing aircraft or celestial entities, not necessarily for navigation. It would be interesting to know how to navigate using the stars like people did in the olden days though).  

sphygmomanometer: an instrument that measures blood pressure. I don't really understand how blood pressure works and what exactly the numbers mean, but now I know the fancy name for the instrument that measures it. A hypochondriac might own a sphygmomanometer to check their blood pressure at home on a daily basis.

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