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๐ List of people who have petitioned for the right to be forgotten
Discussed on
- "List of people who have petitioned for the right to be forgotten" | 2014-08-07 | 18 Upvotes 7 Comments
๐ Zoopharmacognosy
Zoopharmacognosy is a behaviour in which non-human animals apparently self-medicate by selecting and ingesting or topically applying plants, soils, insects, and psychoactive drugs to prevent or reduce the harmful effects of pathogens and toxins. The term derives from Greek roots zoo ("animal"), pharmacon ("drug, medicine"), and gnosy ("knowing").
An example of zoopharmacognosy occurs when dogs eat grass to induce vomiting. However, the behaviour is more diverse than this. Animals ingest or apply non-foods such as clay, charcoal and even toxic plants and invertebrates, apparently to prevent parasitic infestation or poisoning.
Whether animals truly self-medicate remains a somewhat controversial subject because early evidence is mostly circumstantial or anecdotal, however, more recent examinations have adopted an experimental, hypothesis-driven approach.
The methods by which animals self-medicate vary, but can be classified according to function as prophylactic (preventative, before infection or poisoning) or therapeutic (after infection, to combat the pathogen or poisoning). The behaviour is believed to have widespread adaptive significance.
Discussed on
- "Zoopharmacognosy" | 2014-08-07 | 32 Upvotes 6 Comments
๐ Casimir Effect
In quantum field theory, the Casimir effect and the CasimirโPolder force are physical forces arising from a quantized field. They are named after the Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir who predicted them in 1948.
The Casimir effect can be understood by the idea that the presence of conducting metals and dielectrics alters the vacuum expectation value of the energy of the second quantized electromagnetic field. Since the value of this energy depends on the shapes and positions of the conductors and dielectrics, the Casimir effect manifests itself as a force between such objects.
Any medium supporting oscillations has an analogue of the Casimir effect. For example, beads on a string as well as plates submerged in turbulent water or gas illustrate the Casimir force.
In modern theoretical physics, the Casimir effect plays an important role in the chiral bag model of the nucleon; in applied physics it is significant in some aspects of emerging microtechnologies and nanotechnologies.
Discussed on
- "Casimir Effect" | 2014-08-03 | 29 Upvotes 2 Comments
๐ Saccadic masking
Saccadic masking, also known as (visual) saccadic suppression, is the phenomenon in visual perception where the brain selectively blocks visual processing during eye movements in such a way that neither the motion of the eye (and subsequent motion blur of the image) nor the gap in visual perception is noticeable to the viewer.
The phenomenon was first described by Erdmann and Dodge in 1898, when it was noticed during unrelated experiments that an observer could never see the motion of their own eyes. This can easily be duplicated by looking into a mirror, and looking from one eye to another. The eyes can never be observed in motion, yet an external observer clearly sees the motion of the eyes.
The phenomenon is often used to help explain a temporal illusion by the name of chronostasis, which momentarily occurs following a rapid eye-movement.
Discussed on
- "Saccadic masking" | 2014-08-03 | 10 Upvotes 1 Comments
๐ J002E3
J002E3 is the designation given to an object in space discovered on September 3, 2002, by amateur astronomer Bill Yeung. Initially thought to be an asteroid, it has since been tentatively identified as the S-IVB third stage of the Apollo 12 Saturn V rocket (designated S-IVB-507), based on spectrographic evidence consistent with the titanium dioxide in the paint used on the rockets. The stage was intended to be injected into a permanent heliocentric orbit in November 1969, but is now believed instead to have gone into an unstable high Earth orbit which left Earth's proximity in 1971 and again in June 2003, with an approximately 40-year cycle between heliocentric and geocentric orbit.
Discussed on
- "J002E3" | 2014-08-01 | 188 Upvotes 22 Comments
๐ A Russian scientist who was struck by a particle accelerator beam
Anatoli Petrovich Bugorski (Russian: ะะฝะฐัะพะปะธะน ะะตััะพะฒะธั ะัะณะพััะบะธะน), born 25 June 1942, is a Russian scientist.
Discussed on
- "A Russian scientist who was struck by a particle accelerator beam" | 2014-07-27 | 172 Upvotes 30 Comments
- "The Man Who Was Hit By A Proton Beam" | 2011-01-11 | 60 Upvotes 9 Comments
๐ ?
Discussed on
- "?" | 2014-07-25 | 57 Upvotes 33 Comments
- "Wikipedia page for each emoji" | 2013-09-10 | 19 Upvotes 2 Comments
๐ List of really, really stupid article ideas that you should not create
An article about or described by any of the following can be safely assumed to fit into the set of unnecessary articles:
- You, your family, or the organization you work for.
- Your band, which has only sold 47 copies of its one album. Even if you think it will sell 48. Or maybe 49! Or, if you get really lucky, you can pay off the record store owner so that he may buy one and your sales will have gone up to fifty!!! Keep dreamin', brotha.
- Your imaginary friend or your imaginary friends that don't even exist.
- The religion, language or even country that you made up with your friends in school one day.
- The street you live on, unless it is on a Monopoly board. But since it is highly unlikely that you live on a Monopoly game board, we suggest that you not even try.
- Any one of the 16 distinct regions in the Pokรฉmon video game series or lieking mudkipz, or hering dat someon lieks mudkipz. Remember, not everyone is a Pokรฉmon fanatic.
- A stunt or trick only you have ever attempted, probably unsuccessfully.
- Any movie you made yourself which has never been seen by more people at one time than can fit in your basement. Even if you have a really big basement.
- Individual songs that have never been released as a single nor seen radio play, unless they're twenty minutes long or have led to a phone number becoming unusable or even have questioned the essence of music itself.
- "(Anything) in popular culture." Anything at all.
- Likewise "Hysterical Realism in the Works of (insert neither hysterical nor realistic author here)".
- Your dormitory, university residence, or any suite therein.
- Stuff nobody but that guy who changes his Spock ears more often than his underpants cares about, or the equivalent thereto. For example, a song about a custom map of a video game, unless you are famous and the song managed to release as a single.
- Anything about which you cannot be buggered to write one complete sent
- Subjects that cannot be studied, or the knowledge of which amounts only to the fact that it pertains to another topic. A favourite line from a movie or catchy lyric, a potent phrase used in argument, juicy facts of interest to fans, a punch-line or zinger; these are all very interesting, but usually all that can be informatively written about topic "X" is: "X is a _______ found in _______."
- Just about everything listed on Wikipedia:Millionth topic pool.
- For that matter, Wikipedia:Millionth topic pool.
- Anything about your cat or dog and how cute it is (or your hamster, degu, or chinchilla).
- Exploding Whales, or indeed Exploding Wales, or even Exploding Wales. Or blowing up any other animals, for example, exploding mice, or even exploding Velociraptor, for that matter. Most things that implode are pretty much off the list too, with a few exceptions.
- Anything written under the influence of recreational substances or while tired and emotional.
- An article about another article, written after the use of aforementioned substances.
- A fork of an existing article for the sole purpose of adding some humor.
- The weather in London. Not even a redirect. (Wowee).
- Your guild in World of Warcraft or similar time wasters. Just because you have
no lifea personally fascinating hobby doesn't mean you get to tell the world about it. And don't write about this guy in your guild who wiped your raid, either. - Something you just saw on YouTube and, possibly, laughed at.
- Something you just put on YouTube.
- An article that haz badly grammar and/or speelling. Including, bad punctuation!!
- Any meme, no matter how popular or important.
- Anything you don't know the title of.
- Your wiki or blog. It's probably not internationally famous. If it is, well go ahead, but let's face it; your blog of cute cats is not internationally famous (three readers is not fame).
- Your new invention or research paper that will change the world. It will undoubtedly fail.
- Anything about your cat named Bubba or your dog named Max. No one cares. Trust us.
- Your nomination for the Noble (or even Nobel) Peace Prize.
- Anything about how you were abducted by aliens.
- An article on the dream you had last night. No matter how long you describe it, it will never be interesting: Even if dreaming that you were the inventor of the chalk board who had to overcome obstacles from the evil book binding lobbyists deeply moved you to tears upon waking up.
- An article on the person that knocked on your door while you was writing the article about your dream last night, causing you to forget about the dream (but Iโll be honest, I feel for you).
- An article about Wikpiedia, Wikipaedia, Wiokipedia, Wikipeedia, Wikipeadia, or any other Wikis that appear to be Wikipedia but aren't.
- An article about the media response to the Wikipedia article about the barely notable thing that shouldn't even have an article (recursivity has its limits, even here).
- The difference between Hoagy Carmichael and Stokely Carmichael.
- An entry promoting your hilarious web series about Wikipedia.
- Recreating this dumb list.
- Anything about hashtags. #IHateHashtags
- Anything about how fat you are or how much weight you're losing (trust us; no one cares).
- Headlight flashing โ I know, it's preposterous, even for Wikipedia. But when you're done laughing and/or crying, follow the link. It really exists.
- Assumptions about the conclusions of scientific publications that you have seen the titles of, but not read.
- Your self-published book.
- McGannahan Skjellyfetti.
- An article about your friend's latest selfie. Or, for that matter, selfie stick. They are banned in most places anyway.
- Lists of times at which commercial breaks occurred during a sporting event.
- Your personal opinions about your boyfriend or girlfriend.
- An article on discussing the differences between you and your close friends. It does not matter to most people in the world.
- An article about how Tyson Foods is run by a bunch of chicken fuckers because the main article is protected from vandalism by the legions of Internet trolls.
- Yet another list of Google doodles.
- A new sex position that you and your boys theory-crafted one night.
- Times Scooby-Doo has defied the laws of reality.
- A list of celebrity couples names for couples that you wish would get together but as of now haven't.
- Your stupid esoteric programming language you made up to 'test the boundaries of computer programming language design'.
- Any article related to odorous gas clouds, but particularly smelly farts.
- Your youtube channel, unless you have millions of fangirls.
- Your opinion and/or fascination about outer space, even if there are lots of unusual exoplanets out there. Yes, we know. They're weird. No need to tell us that.
- Your opinion on time traveling to have dinner with the members of Bone Symphony or Bone Thugs-n-Harmony or Boney M. or The Right Honourable Bonar Law
- The time you laughed about someone eating a red 5-pound gummy skull while wearing a jetpack while driving a limousine at 5 a.m. on a Tuesday in August 2018.
- An article that uses templates to perform math for no apparent reason besides your entertainment
- Your anus and how it had very good funny time with girl.
- The time you laughed at someone living in Fortnite (Chapter 1), even though I get that they were eaten by a Black hole. Oh well, they came back!
- Posting a video of yourself saying the n-word.
- Posting an image of yourself falling off the Burj Khalifa.
- Singing any Cardi B song.
- Posting 69 (nice) useless messages made by bored editors of Wikipedia.
- Your low-effort school play of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"
- A list of times you pinged @everyone on your Discord server.
Discussed on
- "List of really, really stupid article ideas that you should not create" | 2014-07-24 | 20 Upvotes 6 Comments
๐ Hacker News
Hacker News is a social news website focusing on computer science and entrepreneurship. It is run by Paul Graham's investment fund and startup incubator, Y Combinator. In general, content that can be submitted is defined as "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity".
Discussed on
- "Mobile Wikipedia looks more beautiful than desktop" | 2014-07-24 | 20 Upvotes 17 Comments
- "Wikipedia blackout notice now on all English Wiki articles." | 2012-01-17 | 61 Upvotes 33 Comments
- "Hacker News" | 2009-04-28 | 49 Upvotes 46 Comments
๐ You don't know ice. Neither do I, apparently
Ice is water frozen into a solid state. Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaque bluish-white color.
In the Solar System, ice is abundant and occurs naturally from as close to the Sun as Mercury to as far away as the Oort cloud objects. Beyond the Solar System, it occurs as interstellar ice. It is abundant on Earth's surfaceย โ particularly in the polar regions and above the snow lineย โ and, as a common form of precipitation and deposition, plays a key role in Earth's water cycle and climate. It falls as snowflakes and hail or occurs as frost, icicles or ice spikes.
Ice molecules can exhibit eighteen or more different phases (packing geometries) that depend on temperature and pressure. When water is cooled rapidly (quenching), up to three different types of amorphous ice can form depending on the history of its pressure and temperature. When cooled slowly correlated proton tunneling occurs below โ253.15ย ยฐC (20ย K, โ423.67ย ยฐF) giving rise to macroscopic quantum phenomena. Virtually all the ice on Earth's surface and in its atmosphere is of a hexagonal crystalline structure denoted as ice Ih (spoken as "ice one h") with minute traces of cubic ice denoted as ice Ic. The most common phase transition to ice Ih occurs when liquid water is cooled below 0ย ยฐC (273.15ย K, 32ย ยฐF) at standard atmospheric pressure. It may also be deposited directly by water vapor, as happens in the formation of frost. The transition from ice to water is melting and from ice directly to water vapor is sublimation.
Ice is used in a variety of ways, including cooling, winter sports and ice sculpture.
Discussed on
- "You don't know ice. Neither do I, apparently" | 2014-07-23 | 13 Upvotes 11 Comments