* Illustration: Ice Cream For Free * Sound blast n. A supersize sound bite, blasted over the Internet by a tech-savvy politician. Barack Obama's campaign speeches, uploaded onto YouTube and viewed by millions, have defined the form. The average sound bite is 10.3 seconds; a typical sound blast is 10 minutes or more.
Frolleague n. A work colleague friended on a social networking site and thus granted access to personal information, from blog entries to stag party pics, that may be perceived as less than professional—or even (if the frolleague happens to be a frupervisor) grounds for dismissal.
Ocean deserts n. pl. Desolate zones in the world's seas. These regions are expanding with global warming, which has dampened the circulation of marine nutrients and lowered the concentration of oxygen to such an extent that some 20 percent of Earth's oceans are now moribund.
Twiller n. A thriller composed and published entirely on Twitter. At 140 characters per installment, these works of serial fiction are the microblogger's answer to the cell phone novel, a popular genre in text-happy Japan.
— Jonathon Keats jargon@wired.com
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