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π Launch loop
A launch loop or Lofstrom loop is a proposed system for launching objects into orbit using a moving cable-like system situated inside a sheath attached to the Earth at two ends and suspended above the atmosphere in the middle. The design concept was published by Keith Lofstrom and describes an active structure maglev cable transport system that would be around 2,000Β km (1,240Β mi) long and maintained at an altitude of up to 80Β km (50Β mi). A launch loop would be held up at this altitude by the momentum of a belt that circulates around the structure. This circulation, in effect, transfers the weight of the structure onto a pair of magnetic bearings, one at each end, which support it.
Launch loops are intended to achieve non-rocket spacelaunch of vehicles weighing 5 metric tons by electromagnetically accelerating them so that they are projected into Earth orbit or even beyond. This would be achieved by the flat part of the cable which forms an acceleration track above the atmosphere.
The system is designed to be suitable for launching humans for space tourism, space exploration and space colonization, and provides a relatively low 3g acceleration.
Discussed on
- "Launch loop" | 2018-07-26 | 116 Upvotes 49 Comments
- "The Lofstrom Loop" | 2015-11-30 | 30 Upvotes 19 Comments
π Triple Fault
On the x86 computer architecture, a triple fault is a special kind of exception generated by the CPU when an exception occurs while the CPU is trying to invoke the double fault exception handler, which itself handles exceptions occurring while trying to invoke a regular exception handler.
x86 processors beginning with the 80286 will cause a shutdown cycle to occur when a triple fault is encountered. This typically causes the motherboard hardware to initiate a CPU reset, which, in turn, causes the whole computer to reboot.
Discussed on
- "Triple Fault" | 2023-01-11 | 12 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Anti-Intellectualism
Anti-intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, commonly expressed as deprecation of education and philosophy and the dismissal of art, literature, history, and science as impractical, politically motivated, and even contemptible human pursuits. Anti-intellectuals may present themselves and be perceived as champions of common folkβpopulists against political and academic elitismβand tend to see educated people as a status class that dominates political discourse and higher education while being detached from the concerns of ordinary people.
Totalitarian governments have, in the past, manipulated and applied anti-intellectualism to repress political dissent. During the Spanish Civil War (1936β1939) and the following dictatorship (1939β1975) of General Francisco Franco, the reactionary repression of the White Terror (1936β1945) was notably anti-intellectual, with most of the 200,000 civilians killed being the Spanish intelligentsia, the politically active teachers and academics, artists and writers of the deposed Second Spanish Republic (1931β1939). During the Cambodian genocide (1975β1979), the totalitarian regime of Cambodia led by Pol Pot nearly destroyed its entire educated population.
Discussed on
- "Anti-Intellectualism" | 2025-02-01 | 42 Upvotes 9 Comments
π Foldit
Foldit is an online puzzle video game about protein folding. It is part of an experimental research project developed by the University of Washington, Center for Game Science, in collaboration with the UW Department of Biochemistry. The objective of Foldit is to fold the structures of selected proteins as perfectly as possible, using tools provided in the game. The highest scoring solutions are analyzed by researchers, who determine whether or not there is a native structural configuration (native state) that can be applied to relevant proteins in the real world. Scientists can then use these solutions to target and eradicate diseases and create biological innovations. A 2010 paper in the science journal Nature credited Foldit's 57,000 players with providing useful results that matched or outperformed algorithmically computed solutions.
Discussed on
- "Foldit" | 2024-02-18 | 53 Upvotes 15 Comments
π London Beer Flood of 1814
The London Beer Flood was an accident at Meux & Co's Horse Shoe Brewery, London, on 17 October 1814. It took place when one of the 22-foot-tall (6.7Β m) wooden vats of fermenting porter burst. The pressure of the escaping liquid dislodged the valve of another vessel and destroyed several large barrels: between 128,000 and 323,000 imperial gallons (580,000β1,470,000 L; 154,000β388,000 US gal) of beer were released in total.
The resulting wave of porter destroyed the back wall of the brewery and swept into an area of slum dwellings known as the St Giles rookery. Eight people were killed, five of them mourners at the wake being held by an Irish family for a two-year-old boy. The coroner's inquest returned a verdict that the eight had lost their lives "casually, accidentally and by misfortune". The brewery was nearly bankrupted by the event; it avoided collapse after a rebate from HM Excise on the lost beer. The brewing industry gradually stopped using large wooden vats after the accident. The brewery moved in 1921, and the Dominion Theatre is now where the brewery used to stand. Meux & Co went into liquidation in 1961.
Discussed on
- "London Beer Flood of 1814" | 2021-12-24 | 91 Upvotes 24 Comments
π Neobuthus Factorio
Neobuthus factorio is a species of scorpion from the family Buthidae found in Somalia.
Discussed on
- "Neobuthus Factorio" | 2023-04-17 | 92 Upvotes 20 Comments
π Kintsugi
Kintsugi (ιηΆγ, "golden joinery"), also known as kintsukuroi (ιηΉγ, "golden repair"), is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, a method similar to the maki-e technique. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.
Discussed on
- "Kintsugi" | 2020-09-06 | 50 Upvotes 26 Comments
π Smoke point of cooking oils
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- "Smoke Point of Cooking Oils" | 2023-08-13 | 10 Upvotes 2 Comments
- "Smoke point of cooking oils" | 2019-09-08 | 125 Upvotes 167 Comments
π List of Topics Categorized as Pseudoscience
This is a list of topics that have, at one point or another in their history, been characterized as pseudoscience by academics or researchers. Detailed discussion of these topics may be found on their main pages. These characterizations were made in the context of educating the public about questionable or potentially fraudulent or dangerous claims and practicesβefforts to define the nature of science, or humorous parodies of poor scientific reasoning.
Criticism of pseudoscience, generally by the scientific community or skeptical organizations, involves critiques of the logical, methodological, or rhetorical bases of the topic in question. Though some of the listed topics continue to be investigated scientifically, others were only subject to scientific research in the past, and today are considered refuted but resurrected in a pseudoscientific fashion. Other ideas presented here are entirely non-scientific, but have in one way or another impinged on scientific domains or practices.
Many adherents or practitioners of the topics listed here dispute their characterization as pseudoscience. Each section here summarizes the alleged pseudoscientific aspects of that topic.
Discussed on
- "List of Topics Categorized as Pseudoscience" | 2019-07-12 | 14 Upvotes 8 Comments
- "List of topics characterized as pseudoscience" | 2019-01-24 | 11 Upvotes 2 Comments
π Bribery of Senior Wehrmacht Officers
From 1933 to the end of the Second World War, high-ranking officers of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany accepted vast bribes in the form of cash, estates, and tax exemptions in exchange for their loyalty to Nazism. Unlike bribery at lower ranks in the Wehrmacht, which was also widespread, these payments were regularized, technically legal and made with the full knowledge and consent of the leading Nazi figures.