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๐ Sรคkkijรคrven polkka
Sรคkkijรคrven polkka ("the Sรคkkijรคrvi polka"), also called the "Karelian-Finnish Polka," is a well-known folk tune from Finland, very popular with Finnish accordionists. It was especially popularized by Viljo "Vili" Vesterinen (1907โ1961). The tune was first recorded in Sรคkkijรคrvi (now Kondratyevo in the Leningrad Oblast, Russia), and the lyrics sometimes sung with the tune state that while Sรคkkijรคrvi itself might have been lost (ceded to the Soviet Union in 1940), the Finns at least still had the polka.
Discussed on
- "Sรคkkijรคrven polkka" | 2020-05-05 | 172 Upvotes 56 Comments
๐ Iloveyou
ILOVEYOU, sometimes referred to as Love Bug or Love Letter for you, is a computer worm that infected over ten million Windows personal computers on and after 4 May 2000 when it started spreading as an email message with the subject line "ILOVEYOU" and the attachment "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt.vbs". The latter file extension ('vbs', a type of interpreted file) was most often hidden by default on Windows computers of the time (as it is an extension for a file type that is known by Windows), leading unwitting users to think it was a normal text file. Opening the attachment activates the Visual Basic script. The worm inflicts damage on the local machine, overwriting random types of files (including Office files, image files, and audio files; however after overwriting MP3 files the virus hides the file), and sends a copy of itself to all addresses in the Windows Address Book used by Microsoft Outlook. This made it spread much faster than any other previous email worm.
Discussed on
- "Iloveyou" | 2020-05-05 | 51 Upvotes 14 Comments
๐ Lake Agassiz
Lake Agassiz was a very large glacial lake in central North America. Fed by glacial meltwater at the end of the last glacial period, its area was larger than all of the modern Great Lakes combined though its mean depth was not as great as that of many major lakes today.
First postulated in 1823 by William H. Keating, it was named by Warren Upham in 1879 after Louis Agassiz, when Upham recognized that the lake was formed by glacial action.
Discussed on
- "Lake Agassiz" | 2020-05-05 | 53 Upvotes 21 Comments
๐ Streisand Effect
The Streisand effect is a social phenomenon that occurs when an attempt to hide, remove, or censor information has the unintended consequence of further publicizing that information, often via the Internet. It is named after American entertainer Barbra Streisand, whose attempt to suppress photographs of her residence in Malibu, California inadvertently drew further attention to it in 2003.
Attempts to suppress information are often made through cease-and-desist letters, but instead of being suppressed, the information receives extensive publicity, as well as media extensions such as videos and spoof songs, which can be mirrored on the Internet or distributed on file-sharing networks.
The Streisand effect is an example of psychological reactance, wherein once people are aware that some information is being kept from them, they are significantly more motivated to access and spread that information.
Discussed on
- "Streisand Effect" | 2020-05-04 | 21 Upvotes 4 Comments
๐ Solar storm of 1859
The solar storm of 1859 (also known as the Carrington Event) was a powerful geomagnetic storm during solar cycle 10 (1855โ1867). A solar coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetosphere and induced the largest geomagnetic storm on record, September 1โ2, 1859. The associated "white light flare" in the solar photosphere was observed and recorded by British astronomers Richard C. Carrington (1826โ1875) and Richard Hodgson (1804โ1872). The storm caused strong auroral displays and wrought havoc with telegraph systems. The now-standard unique IAU identifier for this flare is SOL1859-09-01.
A solar storm of this magnitude occurring today would cause widespread electrical disruptions, blackouts and damage due to extended outages of the electrical grid. The solar storm of 2012 was of similar magnitude, but it passed Earth's orbit without striking the planet, missing by nine days.
Discussed on
- "Solar Storm of 1859" | 2020-05-04 | 148 Upvotes 84 Comments
- "Solar storm of 1859" | 2018-11-04 | 109 Upvotes 45 Comments
๐ Cafe Mediterraneum
Caffรจ Mediterraneum, often referred to as Caffรจ Med or simply the Med, was a cafรฉ located on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California, US, near the University of California, Berkeley. The Med was a landmark of Telegraph Avenue history, "listed for years in European guidebooks as 'the gathering place for 1960s radicals who created People's Park'" and as of 2009 described in Fodor's guidebook as "a relic of 1960s-era cafรฉ culture". It was located at 2475 Telegraph Avenue, between Dwight Way and Haste Street.
Discussed on
- "Cafe Mediterraneum" | 2020-05-04 | 21 Upvotes 8 Comments
๐ Dining Cryptographers Problem
In cryptography, the dining cryptographers problem studies how to perform a secure multi-party computation of the boolean-OR function. David Chaum first proposed this problem in the early 1980s and used it as an illustrative example to show that it was possible to send anonymous messages with unconditional sender and recipient untraceability. Anonymous communication networks based on this problem are often referred to as DC-nets (where DC stands for "dining cryptographers").
Despite the word dining, the dining cryptographers problem is unrelated to the dining philosophers problem.
Discussed on
- "Dining Cryptographers Problem" | 2020-05-03 | 89 Upvotes 9 Comments
๐ Behavioral Immune System
The behavioral immune system is a phrase coined by the psychological scientist Mark Schaller to refer to a suite of psychological mechanisms that allow individual organisms to detect the potential presence of disease-causing parasites in their immediate environment, and to engage in behaviors that prevent contact with those objects and individuals.
These mechanisms include sensory processes through which cues connoting the presence of parasitic infections are perceived (e.g., the smell of a foul odor, the sight of pox or pustules), as well as stimulusโresponse systems through which these sensory cues trigger a cascade of aversive affective, cognitive, and behavioral reactions (e.g., arousal of disgust, automatic activation of cognitions that connote the threat of disease, behavioral avoidance).
The existence of a behavioral immune system has been documented across many animal species, including humans. It is theorized that the mechanisms that comprise the behavioral immune system evolved as a crude first line of defense against disease-causing pathogens.
Discussed on
- "Behavioral Immune System" | 2020-05-02 | 67 Upvotes 16 Comments
๐ Joy (Programming Language)
The Joy programming language in computer science is a purely functional programming language that was produced by Manfred von Thun of La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. Joy is based on composition of functions rather than lambda calculus. It has turned out to have many similarities to Forth, due not to design but to a sort of parallel evolution and convergence. It was also inspired by the function-level programming style of John Backus's FP.
Discussed on
- "Joy (Programming Language)" | 2020-05-02 | 98 Upvotes 42 Comments
๐ Guthrie's One Trial Theory
Edwin Ray Guthrie (; January 9, 1886 in Lincoln, Nebraska โ April 23, 1959 in Seattle, Washington) was a behavioral psychologist. He first worked as a mathematics teacher, and philosopher, but switched to psychology when he was 33. He spent most of his career at the University of Washington, where he became full professor and then emeritus professor in psychology.
Guthrie is best known for his theory that all learning was based on a stimulusโresponse association. This was variously described as one trial theory, non-reinforcement, and contiguity learning. The theory was:
- "A combination of stimuli which has accompanied a movement will on its recurrence tend to be followed by that movement".
One word that his coworkers and students used to describe Guthrie and his theories was "simple", and perhaps he did prefer to use simple terms to illustrate complex ideas. However, "It is undoubtedly true that many reviews of Guthrie in the literature have mistaken incompleteness for simplicity".
His simple nature carried into his teachings where he took great pride in working with and teaching students.
Discussed on
- "Guthrie's One Trial Theory" | 2020-05-02 | 11 Upvotes 2 Comments