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πŸ”— Conservation-Induced Extinction

πŸ”— Extinction πŸ”— Evolutionary biology πŸ”— Ecology

Conservation-induced extinction is where efforts to save endangered species lead to the extinction of other species. This mostly threatens the parasite and pathogen species that are highly host-specific to critically endangered hosts. When the last individuals of a host species are captured for the purpose of captive breeding and reintroduction programs, they typically undergo anti-parasitic treatments to increase survival and reproductive success. This practice may unintentionally result in the extinction of the species antagonistic to the target species, such as certain parasites. It has been proposed that the parasites should be reintroduced to the endangered population. A few cases of conservation-induced extinction have occurred in parasitic lice.

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πŸ”— Androgynous Peripheral Attach System

πŸ”— Russia πŸ”— Russia/technology and engineering in Russia πŸ”— Spaceflight πŸ”— Spaceflight/space stations working group

The terms Androgynous Peripheral Attach System (APAS), Androgynous Peripheral Assembly System (APAS) and Androgynous Peripheral Docking System (APDS) are used interchangeably to describe a Russian family of spacecraft docking mechanisms, and are also sometimes used as generic names for any docking system in that family. A system similar to APAS-89/95 is used by the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft.

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πŸ”— Heat pipe – 250x faster heat transfer than copper

πŸ”— Energy πŸ”— Engineering

A heat pipe is a heat-transfer device that employs phase transition to transfer heat between two solid interfaces.

At the hot interface of a heat pipe, a volatile liquid in contact with a thermally conductive solid surface turns into a vapor by absorbing heat from that surface. The vapor then travels along the heat pipe to the cold interface and condenses back into a liquid, releasing the latent heat. The liquid then returns to the hot interface through capillary action, centrifugal force, or gravity and the cycle repeats.

Due to the very high heat transfer coefficients for boiling and condensation, heat pipes are highly effective thermal conductors. The effective thermal conductivity varies with heat pipe length and can approach 100Β kW/(mβ‹…K) for long heat pipes, in comparison with approximately 0.4Β kW/(mβ‹…K) for copper.

Modern CPU heat pipes are typically made of copper and use water as the working fluid. They are common in many consumer electronics like desktops, laptops, tablets, and high-end smartphones.

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πŸ”— Mitochondrial Eve

πŸ”— Biology πŸ”— Women's History πŸ”— Anthropology πŸ”— Human Genetic History πŸ”— Molecular Biology πŸ”— Molecular Biology/Molecular and Cell Biology πŸ”— Molecular Biology/Genetics

In human genetics, the Mitochondrial Eve (more technically known as the Mitochondrial-Most Recent Common Ancestor, shortened to mt-Eve or mt-MRCA) is the matrilineal most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of all living humans. In other words, she is defined as the most recent woman from whom all living humans descend in an unbroken line purely through their mothers and through the mothers of those mothers, back until all lines converge on one woman.

In terms of mitochondrial haplogroups, the mt-MRCA is situated at the divergence of macro-haplogroup L into L0 and L1–6. As of 2013, estimates on the age of this split ranged at around 155,000 years ago, consistent with a date later than the speciation of Homo sapiens but earlier than the recent out-of-Africa dispersal.

The male analog to the "Mitochondrial Eve" is the "Y-chromosomal Adam" (or Y-MRCA), the individual from whom all living humans are patrilineally descended. As the identity of both matrilineal and patrilineal MRCAs is dependent on genealogical history (pedigree collapse), they need not have lived at the same time. As of 2015, estimates of the age of the Y-MRCA range around 200,000 to 300,000 years ago, roughly consistent with the emergence of anatomically modern humans.

The name "Mitochondrial Eve" alludes to the biblical Eve, which has led to repeated misrepresentations or misconceptions in journalistic accounts on the topic. Popular science presentations of the topic usually point out such possible misconceptions by emphasizing the fact that the position of mt-MRCA is neither fixed in time (as the position of mt-MRCA moves forward in time as mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages become extinct), nor does it refer to a "first woman", nor the only living female of her time, nor the first member of a "new species".

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πŸ”— A Physical instance of recursion, from 1936

πŸ”— Gloucestershire

Bourton-on-the-Water model village is a scale model village in the grounds of the Old New Inn in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, England. One of the first model villages in the country, it was started in 1936 and completed in 1940. The model represents the core of Bourton-on-the-Water as it appeared in 1936 in 1:9 scale. The model village contains around 100 buildings. It is open to the public and includes exhibitions of other models on smaller scales.

The Bourton-on-the-Water model village was one of the first to be built in England, being completed between 1936 and 1940. Possibly the only earlier example is the Bekonscot model village in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, which is the oldest in the world, being begun in 1929, though not finished until the later 20th century. Bourton-on-the-Water was a fledgling tourist destination in the early 20th century and the landlord of the New Inn, Mr C A Morris, decided to build the model village to attract motorists to his public house. Morris had originally intended to convert the pub's vegetable garden into a village green with a stream with a waterfall and scale replicas of the arch bridges in the village. He soon decided to instead construct a 1:9 scale model of the entire village.

Morris and his wife carefully measured each building in the village and commissioned eight local craftsmen to construct scale replicas of around 100 structures. The craftsmen were construction workers rather than model makers so the methods used were scaled down versions of those used to construct real buildings. The walls are made from ashlars of local limestone, carefully cut to minimise joints and engraved to depict smaller courses of stone. The roofs are covered with slates of Cotswold stone from the Huntsman's Quarry located 3 miles (4.8Β km) from the village. The drystone walls are real and have cock and hen or flatstone copings to correspond with the real walls in the village. Two of the buildings have full interiors, visible through perspex panels in their walls: the Church of England parish church of St Lawrence and the village's Baptist chapel. The church has intricate tracery windows and the windows on the models are glazed with real glass. The model village includes examples of 17th- to 19th-century Cotswold architecture. A recording of hymns being sung is played from the village's churches. The roads include model benches and post boxes. Miniature shrubs, including some bonsai trees planted in the 1930s, and pruned real trees represent the trees and bushes of the full-size village and alpine plants the flowers.

The model village covers the core of the historic village stretching from the Old Mill (now home to the Cotswold Motoring Museum) to the New Inn (which is now known as the Old New Inn). This includes High Street, Station Road, Moore Road, Victoria Street and Sherborne Street. The only building not shown in its correct relative position is St Lawrence's church, which would otherwise fall outside of the area covered. A running stream stands in for the River Windrush.

The model village includes a scale model of the model village (which would be at 1:81 scale). This model, in turn, contains a scale model of the model of the model village; being at 1:729 scale this measures around 1 foot (30Β cm) in width. This model also contains a scale model (in paint only) of the model of the model of the model village (which would be at 1:6561 scale).

The model village opened to the public on 13 May 1937, as part of the celebrations for the coronation of George VI. The model village was the first tourist attraction in Bourton-on-the-Water; the village has since become one of the main tourist destinations in the Cotswolds. Construction of the models continued until 1940. No significant changes to the architecture have been made since, so the model village preserves Bourton-on-the-Water as it was in 1936, except that shop logos and window displays are updated to reflect changing occupants.

The Morris family maintained and operated the site until 1999 when the model village and the Old New Inn were sold to Julian and Vicki Atherton. In 2004 they purchased a collection of 30 miniature scenes that had been on display in a shop in the village; these form a separate exhibition. The model village became a grade II listed building on 22 March 2013, receiving the same protection as the early 18th-century Old New Inn, which was listed in 1983. In 2014 the Athertons bought a collection of seven 1:32 scale model buildings. These had been built by John Constable in Somerset, part funded by philanthropist Sir Paul Getty. They included a representation of Willy Lott's Cottage, the building depicted in John Constable's The Hay Wain. The collection, out of scale with the model village, were opened as a separate exhibition at the site. In 2016 when renovations were made to the roof of the St Lawrence's Church model, a penny dated 1937 was recovered, which is believed to indicate the date of its construction.

During the Athertons' ownership the village attracted around 100,000 visitors per year and was open every day except Christmas Day. The buildings remain outdoors all year round, while some model villages close in the winter when the models are put into storage. The Athertons employed a full time stone mason to repair damage caused by frost as well as three other employees to repaint the models and maintain the trees and bushes.

In April 2018 the Old New Inn and model village were put up for sale as the Athertons retired. The pub and model village were purchased by Andrew and Julie Lund-Yates, who had lived in Bourton-on-the-Water for 25 years.

  • Droste effect known in art as an example of mise en abyme
  • Official website

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πŸ”— New York, Ukraine

πŸ”— Ukraine πŸ”— Cities

New York or Niu-York is a rural settlement in Toretsk urban hromada, Bakhmut Raion, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. It is located 37.9 kilometres (23.5Β mi) north-northeast from the centre of the city of Donetsk. From 1951 to 2021, the settlement was named Novhorodske.

New York is administratively designated to Toretsk urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine with its center in the city of Toretsk, that is located about 10 kilometres (6.2Β mi) north of New York. Population: 9,735 (2022 estimate).

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πŸ”— 2024 CrowdStrike incident: The largest IT outage in history

πŸ”— Internet πŸ”— Computing πŸ”— Disaster management πŸ”— Computer Security πŸ”— Computer Security/Computing πŸ”— Computing/Software πŸ”— Computing/Computer Security πŸ”— Microsoft πŸ”— Current events πŸ”— Microsoft/Microsoft Windows

On 19 July 2024, a faulty update to security software produced by CrowdStrike, an American cybersecurity company, caused innumerable computers and virtual machines running Microsoft Windows to crash. Businesses and governments around the globe were affected by what one expert called the "largest IT outage in history".

Among the industries that were disrupted were airlines, airports, banks, hotels, hospitals, stock markets, and broadcasting; governmental services such as emergency numbers and websites were also affected. The error was discovered and a fix was made on the same day, but the outage continued to delay airline flights, cause problems in processing electronic payments, and disrupt emergency services.

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πŸ”— SKI Combinator Calculus

πŸ”— Mathematics

The SKI combinator calculus is a combinatory logic system and a computational system. It can be thought of as a computer programming language, though it is not convenient for writing software. Instead, it is important in the mathematical theory of algorithms because it is an extremely simple Turing complete language. It can be likened to a reduced version of the untyped lambda calculus. It was introduced by Moses SchΓΆnfinkel and Haskell Curry.

All operations in lambda calculus can be encoded via abstraction elimination into the SKI calculus as binary trees whose leaves are one of the three symbols S, K, and I (called combinators).

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πŸ”— Axiomatic by Greg Egan

πŸ”— Novels πŸ”— Novels/Science fiction πŸ”— Novels/Short story

Axiomatic (ISBNΒ 0-7528-1650-0) is a 1995 collection of short science fiction stories by Greg Egan. The stories all delve into different aspects of self and identity.

The Guardian described it as "Wonderful mind-expanding stuff, and well-written too."

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