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๐ Wanderwort
A Wanderwort (German: [หvandษหvษษt], 'wandering word', plural Wanderwรถrter; capitalized like all German nouns) is a word that has spread as a loanword among numerous languages and cultures, especially those that are far away from one another, usually in connection with trade. As such, Wanderwรถrter are a curiosity in historical linguistics and sociolinguistics within a wider study of language contact. At a sufficient time depth, it can be very difficult to establish in which language or language family it originated and in which it was borrowed.
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- "Wanderwort" | 2022-04-09 | 66 Upvotes 45 Comments
๐ Emmy Noether
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- "Emmy Noether" | 2022-04-08 | 18 Upvotes 1 Comments
- "Emmy Noether" | 2013-01-15 | 92 Upvotes 17 Comments
๐ Induced Demand Is Real
Induced demand โ related to latent demand and generated demand โ is the phenomenon that after supply increases, price declines and more of a good is consumed. This is entirely consistent with the economic theory of supply and demand; however, this idea has become important in the debate over the expansion of transportation systems, and is often used as an argument against increasing roadway traffic capacity as a cure for congestion. This phenomenon, more correctly called "induced traffic" or consumption of road capacity, may be a contributing factor to urban sprawl. City planner Jeff Speck has called induced demand "the great intellectual black hole in city planning, the one professional certainty that everyone thoughtful seems to acknowledge, yet almost no one is willing to act upon."
The inverse effect, or reduced demand, is also observed (see ยงย Reduced demand).
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- "Induced Demand Is Real" | 2022-04-07 | 31 Upvotes 60 Comments
๐ Palmer Notation
Palmer notation (sometimes called the "Military System" and named for 19th-century American dentist Dr. Corydon Palmer from Warren, Ohio) is a dental notation (tooth numbering system). Despite the adoption of the FDI World Dental Federation notation (ISO 3950) in most of the world and by the World Health Organization, the Palmer notation continued to be the overwhelmingly preferred method used by orthodontists, dental students and practitioners in the United Kingdom as of 1998.
The notation was originally termed the Zsigmondy system after Hungarian dentist Adolf Zsigmondy, who developed the idea in 1861 using a Zsigmondy cross to record quadrants of tooth positions. Adult teeth were numbered 1 to 8, and the child primary dentition (also called deciduous, milk or baby teeth) were depicted with a quadrant grid using Roman numerals I, II, III, IV, V to number the teeth from the midline. Palmer changed this to A, B, C, D, E, which made it less confusing and less prone to errors in interpretation.
The Palmer notation consists of a symbol (โโฟ โโพ) designating in which quadrant the tooth is found and a number indicating the position from the midline. Adult teeth are numbered 1 to 8, with deciduous (baby) teeth indicated by a letter A to E. Hence the left and right maxillary central incisor would have the same number, "1", but the right one would have the symbol "โ" underneath it, while the left one would have "โฟ".
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- "Palmer Notation" | 2022-04-07 | 22 Upvotes 4 Comments
๐ Massacre in Korea by Pablo Picasso
Massacre in Korea (French: Massacre en Corรฉe) is an expressionistic painting completed on 18 January 1951 by Pablo Picasso. It is Picasso's third anti-war painting and depicts a scene of a massacre of a group of naked women and children by a firing squad. It has been considered to be a condemnation of American intervention in the Korean War. The painting is exhibited in the Musรฉe Picasso in Paris.
๐ Three Vinegar Tasters
The Vinegar Tasters (ไธ้ ธๅ; 'three sours'; ๅ้็ฟ; 'vinegar tasting old-men'; ๅ้ๅ, ๅฐ้ๅพ) is a traditional subject in Chinese religious painting. The allegorical composition depicts the three founders of China's major religious and philosophical traditions: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. The theme in the painting has been interpreted as favoring Taoism and critical of the others.
The three men are dipping their fingers in a vat of vinegar and tasting it; one man reacts with a sour expression, one reacts with a bitter expression, and one reacts with a sweet expression. The three men are Confucius, Buddha, and Laozi, respectively. Each man's expression represents the predominant attitude of his philosophy: Confucianism saw life as sour, in need of rules to correct the degeneration of people; Buddhism saw life as bitter, dominated by pain and suffering due to desires; and Taoism saw life as fundamentally perfect in its natural state. Another interpretation of the painting is that, since the three men are gathered around one vat of vinegar, the "three teachings" are one.
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- "Vinegar Tasters" | 2022-04-05 | 11 Upvotes 2 Comments
๐ The Dead HandโSoviet semi-autonomous nuclear command and control system
Dead Hand (Russian: ะกะธััะตะผะฐ ยซะะตัะธะผะตััยป, Systema "Perimetr", lit. "Perimeter" System, with the GRAU Index 15E601, Cyrillic: 15ะญ601), also known as Perimeter, is a Cold War-era automatic nuclear weapons-control system (similar in concept to the American AN/DRC-8 Emergency Rocket Communications System) that was used by the Soviet Union. The system remains in use in the post-Soviet Russian Federation. An example of fail-deadly and mutual assured destruction deterrence, it can automatically initiate the launch of the Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) by sending a pre-entered highest-authority order from the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Strategic Missile Force Management to command posts and individual silos if a nuclear strike is detected by seismic, light, radioactivity, and pressure sensors even with the commanding elements fully destroyed. By most accounts, it is normally switched off and is supposed to be activated during times of crisis; however, it is said to remain fully functional and able to serve its purpose whenever it may be needed.
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- "The Dead HandโSoviet semi-autonomous nuclear command and control system" | 2022-04-04 | 73 Upvotes 90 Comments
๐ Bucha Massacre
In March 2022, a series of war crimes were committed by Russian occupation forces in the Ukrainian city of Bucha during the Battle of Bucha, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities said that more than 300 inhabitants of the town had been killed.
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- "Bucha Massacre" | 2022-04-04 | 57 Upvotes 61 Comments
๐ Molle
MOLLE (pronounced , similar in pronunciation to the name Molly) is an acronym for Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment. It is used to define the current generation of load-bearing equipment and backpacks used by a number of NATO armed forces, especially the British Army and the United States Army.
The system's modularity is derived from the use of Pouch Attachment Ladder System (PALS) webbing equipment as rows of heavy-duty nylon stitched onto the vest to allow for the attachment of various compatible pouches and accessories. This method of attachment has become a de facto standard for modular tactical gear, replacing the All-purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment (ALICE) system used in the earliest modular vest systems (which is still in use with many police forces).
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- "Molle" | 2022-04-03 | 12 Upvotes 2 Comments
๐ Big Mac Index Manipulation
The Big Mac Index is a price index published by The Economist as an informal way of measuring the purchasing power parity (PPP) between two currencies and provides a test of the extent to which market exchange rates result in goods costing the same in different countries. It "seeks to make exchange-rate theory a bit more digestible."
The index, created in 1986, takes its name from the Big Mac, a hamburger sold at McDonald's restaurants.
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- "Big Mac Index Manipulation" | 2022-04-03 | 20 Upvotes 2 Comments