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🔗 Mathematics

In the mathematical fields of set theory and extremal combinatorics, a sunflower or ${\displaystyle \Delta }$-system is a collection of sets whose pairwise intersection is constant. This constant intersection is called the kernel of the sunflower.

The main research question arising in relation to sunflowers is: under what conditions does there exist a large sunflower (a sunflower with many sets) in a given collection of sets? The ${\displaystyle \Delta }$-lemma, sunflower lemma, and the Erdős-Rado sunflower conjecture give successively weaker conditions which would imply the existence of a large sunflower in a given collection, with the latter being one of the most famous open problems of extremal combinatorics.

🔗 Computing 🔗 Military history 🔗 Military history/North American military history 🔗 Military history/United States military history 🔗 Military history/Military science, technology, and theory 🔗 Military history/Cold War 🔗 Computing/Early computers

Whirlwind I was a Cold War-era vacuum tube computer developed by the MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory for the U.S. Navy. Operational in 1951, it was among the first digital electronic computers that operated in real-time for output, and the first that was not simply an electronic replacement of older mechanical systems.

It was one of the first computers to calculate in bit-parallel (rather than bit-serial), and was the first to use magnetic-core memory.

Its development led directly to the Whirlwind II design used as the basis for the United States Air Force SAGE air defense system, and indirectly to almost all business computers and minicomputers in the 1960s, particularly because of the mantra "short word length, speed, people."

🔗 Environment 🔗 Death 🔗 Agriculture 🔗 Mammals 🔗 Agriculture/Livestock

A Judas goat is a trained goat used in general animal herding. The Judas goat is trained to associate with sheep or cattle, leading them to a specific destination. In stockyards, a Judas goat will lead sheep to slaughter, while its own life is spared. Judas goats are also used to lead other animals to specific pens and onto trucks. They have fallen out of use in recent times, but can still be found in various smaller slaughterhouses in some parts of the world, as well as conservation projects.

Cattle herders may use a Judas steer to serve the same purpose as a Judas goat. The technique, and the term, originated from cattle drives in the United States in the 1800s.

The term is a reference to Judas Iscariot, an apostle of Jesus Christ who betrayed Jesus in the Bible.

🔗 Internet culture

Zalgo text, also known as cursed text due to the nature of its use, is digital text that has been modified with numerous combining characters, Unicode symbols used to add diacritics above or below letters, to appear frightening or glitchy.

Named for a 2004 Internet creepypasta story that ascribes it to the influence of an eldritch deity, Zalgo text has become a significant component of many Internet memes, particularly in the "surreal meme" culture. The formatting of Zalgo text also allows it to be used to halt or impair certain computer functions, whether intentionally or not.

🔗 Internet 🔗 Internet culture 🔗 Economics 🔗 Sociology

Enshittification, also known as platform decay, is a way to describe the pattern of decreasing quality of online platforms that act as two-sided markets. Enshittification can be seen as a form of rent-seeking. Examples of alleged enshittification have included Google Search, Amazon, Bandcamp, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter.

Theory of the Stationary Bandit — theory of the origin of the state, developed by American scholars Martin C. McGuire and Mansur Olson.

🔗 Fashion

The Great Male Renunciation (French: Grande Renonciation masculine) is the historical phenomenon at the end of the 18th century in which Western men stopped using bright colours, elaborate shapes and variety in their dress, which were left to women's clothing. Instead men concentrated on minute differences of cut, and the quality of the plain cloth.

Coined by the Anglo-German psychologist John Flügel in 1930, it is considered a major turning point in the history of clothing in which the men relinquished their claim to adornment and beauty. Flugel asserted that men "abandoned their claim to be considered beautiful" and "henceforth aimed at being only useful". The Great Renunciation encouraged the establishment of the suit's monopoly on male dress codes at the beginning of the 19th century.

🔗 Central America 🔗 Panama 🔗 Colombia

The Darién Gap (UK: , US: , Spanish: Tapón del Darién [taˈpon del daˈɾjen], lit. 'Darién plug') is a geographic region in the Isthmus of Darien or Isthmus of Panama connecting the American continents within Central America, consisting of a large watershed, forest, and mountains in Panama's Darién Province and the northern portion of Colombia's Chocó Department.

The "Gap" interrupts the Pan-American Highway. Some 106 km (66 mi) of this between Yaviza, Panama, and Turbo, Colombia, has never been built. Road-building in this area is both expensive and detrimental to the environment. Political consensus in favor of road construction collapsed after an initial attempt failed in the early 1970s, with a proposal in the early 1990s halted by environmental concerns. As of 2023, there was no active plan to build a road through the Gap, although there has been discussion of reestablishing a ferry service.

The geography of the Darién Gap on the Colombian side is dominated primarily by the river delta of the Atrato River, which creates a flat marshland at least 80 km (50 mi) wide. The Serranía del Baudó range extends along Colombia's Pacific coast and into Panama. The Panamanian side, in stark contrast, is a mountainous rainforest, with terrain reaching from 60 m (197 ft) in the valley floors to 1,845 m (6,053 ft) at the tallest peak (Cerro Tacarcuna, in the Serranía del Darién).

The Darién Gap is home to the Embera-Wounaan and Guna people and was also home to the Cueva people who became extinct by 1535, following the Spanish invasion of Panama. Travel is often conducted with pirogues. On the Panamanian side, La Palma, the area's cultural center, is the capital of the province. Other population centers include Yaviza and El Real. The Darién Gap had a reported population of 8,000 in 1995 among five tribes. Maize, cassava, plantains, and bananas are staple crops on local farms.

There is no road, not even a primitive one, across the Darién. One can bypass it by boat, and for some years there was an underused ferry service. The remaining option is to hike from Colombia to Panama by trail, which is possible but very strenuous and dangerous. Heavy rain and flash floods are frequent, law enforcement and medical support are non-existent, rapes and robberies are common, and a broken leg can be fatal, as there is no way to reach assistance. However, this route was taken by hundreds of thousands of migrants since the 2010s, primarily Haitians and Venezuelans, to reach the Mexico–United States border. By 2021, the number was more than 130,000. In 2022, there were 250,000, and by 2023, 360,000 had crossed the Gap.

🔗 United States 🔗 Espionage 🔗 Law Enforcement

LOVEINT is the practice of intelligence service employees making use of their extensive monitoring capabilities to spy on their love interest or spouse. The term was coined in resemblance to intelligence terminology such as SIGINT, COMINT or HUMINT.

🔗 Food and drink 🔗 Plants

Pepper X is a cultivar of Capsicum chili pepper bred by Ed Currie, creator of the Carolina Reaper. As of 2023, it is the world's hottest pepper.