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π The Church Rock Uranium Mill Spill
The Church Rock uranium mill spill occurred in the U.S. state of New Mexico on July 16, 1979, when United Nuclear Corporation's tailings disposal pond at its uranium mill in Church Rock breached its dam. The spill remains the largest release of radioactive material in U.S. history, having released more radioactivity than the Three Mile Island accident four months earlier.
The mill, which operated from June 1977 to May 1982, was located on privately owned land about 17 miles (27Β km) northeast of Gallup, New Mexico, and was bordered to the north and southwest by Navajo Nation Tribal Trust lands. The milling of uranium ore produced an acidic slurry of ground waste rock and fluid (tailings) that was pumped to the tailings disposal area. The breach released more than 1,100 short tons (1,000Β t) of solid radioactive mill waste and 94Β million US gallons (360,000Β m3) of acidic, radioactive tailings solution into the Puerco River through Pipeline Arroyo. An estimated 1.36 short tons (1.23Β t) of uranium and 46 curies of alpha contaminants traveled 80 miles (130Β km) downstream to Navajo County, Arizona, and onto the Navajo Nation. In addition to being radioactive and acidic, the spill contained toxic metals and sulfates. The spill contaminated groundwater and rendered the Puerco unusable to local residents, mostly Navajo peoples who used the river's water for drinking, irrigation, and livestock. They were not warned for days of the toxic dangers from the spill.
The governor of New Mexico, Bruce King, refused the Navajo Nation's request that the site be declared a federal disaster area, limiting aid to affected residents. The nuclear contamination event received less media coverage than that of Three Mile Island, possibly because it occurred in a very rural area not served by major media. The spill also happened in Native American country, among a community who reportedly did not have their concerns addressed by medical authorities.
In 2003, the Church Rock Chapter of the Navajo Nation began the Church Rock Uranium Monitoring Project to assess environmental impacts of abandoned uranium mines; it found significant radiation from both natural and mining sources in the area. As of 2016, the EPA National Priorities List included the Church Rock tailings storage site, where "groundwater migration is not under control".
Discussed on
- "The Church Rock Uranium Mill Spill" | 2026-04-28 | 113 Upvotes 6 Comments
π Auto Polo
Automobile polo or auto polo was a motorsport invented in the United States that featured rules and equipment similar to equestrian polo but using automobiles instead of horses. The sport was popular at fairs, exhibitions and sports venues across the United States and several areas in Europe from 1911 until the late 1920s; it was, however, dangerous and carried the risk of injury and death to the participants and spectators, and expensive damage to vehicles.
Discussed on
- "Auto Polo" | 2026-04-28 | 112 Upvotes 28 Comments
π HEALPix
HEALPix (sometimes written as Healpix), an acronym for Hierarchical Equal Area isoLatitude Pixelisation of a 2-sphere, is an algorithm for pixelisation of the 2-sphere and the associated class of map projections. The pixelisation algorithm was devised in 1997 by Krzysztof M. GΓ³rski at the Theoretical Astrophysics Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, and first published as a preprint in 1998.
Discussed on
- "HEALPix" | 2026-04-25 | 55 Upvotes 8 Comments
π The Digesting Duck: a 1739 automaton that appeared to eat, digest, and defecate
The Canard DigΓ©rateur, or Digesting Duck, was an automaton in the form of a duck, created by Jacques de Vaucanson and unveiled on 30 May 1764 in France. The mechanical duck appeared to have the ability to eat kernels of grain, and to metabolize and defecate them. While the duck did not actually have the ability to do thisβthe food was collected in one inner container, and the pre-stored feces were "produced" from a second, so that no actual digestion took placeβVaucanson hoped that a truly digesting automaton could one day be designed.
Voltaire wrote in 1769 that "Without the voice of le Maure and Vaucanson's duck, you would have nothing to remind you of the glory of France."
The duck is thought to have been destroyed in a fire at a private museum in 1879.
Discussed on
- "The Digesting Duck: a 1739 automaton that appeared to eat, digest, and defecate" | 2026-04-25 | 48 Upvotes 2 Comments
π Wikipedia's AI Policy
Artificial intelligence (AI) is used on a number of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects. This may be directly involved with creation of text content, or in support roles related to evaluating article quality, adding metadata, or generating images. As with any machine-generated content, care must be used when employing AI at scale or in applying it where the community consensus is to exercise more caution.
When exploring AI techniques and systems, the community consensus is to prefer human decisions over machine-generated outcomes until the implications are better understood.
Discussed on
- "Wikipedia's AI Policy" | 2026-04-24 | 16 Upvotes 3 Comments
π Paraloid B-72
Paraloid B-72 or B-72 is a thermoplastic resin that was created by Rohm and Haas for use as a surface coating and as a vehicle for flexographic ink. Subsequently, it has found popular use as an adhesive by conservator-restorers, specifically in the conservation and restoration of ceramic objects, glass objects, the preparation of fossils, the hardening of piano hammers, and can also be used for labeling museum objects.
Discussed on
- "Paraloid B-72" | 2026-04-22 | 286 Upvotes 64 Comments
π Clanker
"Clanker" is a derogatory term for robots and artificial intelligence (AI) software. The term has been used in Star Wars media, first appearing in the franchise's 2005 video game Star Wars: Republic Commando. By 2025, the term had become widely used to express hatred or distaste for machines ranging from delivery robots to large language models. This trend has been attributed to anxiety around the negative societal effects of AI.
Discussed on
- "Clanker" | 2026-04-20 | 10 Upvotes 4 Comments
π Cahokia
The Cahokia Mounds (also simply known as Cahokia) (11 MS 2) is the site of a Native American city (which existed c. 1050β1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from present-day St. Louis. The state archaeology park lies in south-western Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville. The park covers 2,200 acres (890Β ha), or about 3.5 square miles (9Β km2), and contains about 80 manmade mounds, but the ancient city was much larger. At its apex around 1100 CE, the city covered about 6 square miles (16Β km2), included about 120 earthworks in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and functions, and had a population of between 15,000 and 20,000 people.
Cahokia was the largest and most influential urban settlement of the Mississippian culture, which developed advanced societies across much of what is now the Central and the Southeastern United States, beginning around 1000 CE. Today, the Cahokia Mounds are considered to be the largest and most complex archaeological site north of the great pre-Columbian cities in Mexico.
The city's original name is unknown. The mounds were later named after the Cahokia tribe, a historic Illiniwek people living in the area when the first French explorers arrived in the 17th century. As this was centuries after Cahokia was abandoned by its original inhabitants, the Cahokia tribe was not necessarily descended from the earlier Mississippian-era people. Most likely, multiple indigenous ethnic groups settled in the Cahokia Mounds area during the time of the city's apex.
Cahokia Mounds is a National Historic Landmark and a designated site for state protection. It is also one of the 26 UNESCO World Heritage Sites within the United States. The largest pre-Columbian earthen construction in the Americas north of Mexico, the site is open to the public and administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Division and supported by the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society. In celebration of the 2018 Illinois state bicentennial, the Cahokia Mounds were selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois). It was recognized by USA Today Travel magazine, as one of the selections for 'Illinois 25 Must See Places'.
Discussed on
- "Cahokia" | 2026-04-20 | 24 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Wife Acceptance Factor
Wife acceptance factor, wife approval factor, or wife appeal factor (WAF) is an assessment of design elements that either increase or diminish the likelihood a wife will approve the purchase of expensive consumer electronics products such as high-fidelity loudspeakers, home theater systems and personal computers. Stylish, compact forms and appealing colors are commonly considered to have a high WAF. The term is a tongue-in-cheek play on electronics jargon such as "form factor" and "power factor" and derives from the idea that men are predisposed to appreciate gadgetry and performance criteria whereas women must be wooed by visual and aesthetic factors.
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- "Wife Acceptance Factor" | 2026-04-20 | 23 Upvotes 10 Comments
- "Wife Acceptance Factor" | 2012-11-16 | 14 Upvotes 4 Comments
π List of people imprisoned for editing Wikipedia
There are eight known cases of Wikipedia editors being imprisoned for contributing to Wikipedia. In the case of Bassel Khartabil, he was subsequently executed.