Random Articles
Have a deep view into what people are curious about.
π Entity realism
Entity realism (also selective realism), sometimes equated with referential realism, is a philosophical position within the debate about scientific realism. It is a variation of realism (independently proposed by Stanford School philosophers Nancy Cartwright and Ian Hacking in 1983) that restricts warranted belief to only certain entities.
π List of oldest continuously inhabited cities
This is a list of present-day cities by the time period over which they have been continuously inhabited as a city. The age claims listed are generally disputed. Differences in opinion can result from different definitions of "city" as well as "continuous habitation" and historical evidence is often disputed. Caveats (and sources) to the validity of each claim are discussed in the "Notes" column.
Discussed on
- "List of oldest continuously inhabited cities" | 2020-04-22 | 323 Upvotes 214 Comments
π StanisΕaw Lem
StanisΕaw Herman Lem (Polish:Β [staΛΙ²iswaf ΛlΙm] (listen); 12 or 13 September 1921 β 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy, and satire. Lem's books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 45Β million copies. From the 1950s to 2000s, he published many books, both science fiction and philosophical/futurological. Worldwide, he is best known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times. In 1976, Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science fiction writer in the world. The total print of Lem's books is over 30 million copies.
Lem's works explore philosophical themes through speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of communication with and understanding of alien intelligence, despair about human limitations, and humanity's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books.
Translating his works is difficult due to passages with elaborate word formation, idiomatic wordplay, alien or robotic poetry, and puns.
Discussed on
- "StanisΕaw Lem" | 2019-11-04 | 82 Upvotes 27 Comments
π London Bridge (Lake Havasu)
London Bridge is a bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It was built in the 1830s and formerly spanned the River Thames in London, England. It was dismantled in 1967 and relocated to Arizona. The Arizona bridge is a reinforced concrete structure clad in the original masonry of the 1830s bridge, which was purchased by Robert P. McCulloch from the City of London. McCulloch had exterior granite blocks from the original bridge numbered and transported to America to construct the present bridge in Lake Havasu City, a planned community he established in 1964 on the shore of Lake Havasu. The bridge was completed in 1971 (along with a canal), and links an island in the Colorado River with the main part of Lake Havasu City.
Discussed on
- "London Bridge (Lake Havasu)" | 2015-05-26 | 43 Upvotes 20 Comments
π Ralf Brown's Interrupt List β a comprehensive CMOS settings, port addresses
Ralf Brown's Interrupt List (aka RBIL, x86 Interrupt List, MS-DOS Interrupt List or INTER) is a comprehensive list of interrupts, calls, hooks, interfaces, data structures, CMOS settings, memory and port addresses, as well as processor opcodes and special function registers for x86 machines from the 1981 IBM PC up to 2000, most of it still applying to IBM PC compatibles today.
Discussed on
- "Ralf Brown's Interrupt List β a comprehensive CMOS settings, port addresses" | 2023-03-06 | 136 Upvotes 65 Comments
π Covid-19 Vaccine Candidates
A COVID-19 vaccine is a hypothetical vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVIDβ19). Although no vaccine has completed clinical trials, there are multiple attempts in progress to develop such a vaccine. In February 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it did not expect a vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative virus, to become available in less than 18 months. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)Β β which is organizing a US$2 billion worldwide fund for rapid investment and development of vaccine candidatesΒ β indicated in April that a vaccine may be available under emergency use protocols in less than 12 months or by early 2021. On 4Β May 2020, the WHO organized a telethon to raise US$8 billion from forty countries to support rapid development of vaccines to prevent COVID-19 infections, also announcing deployment of an international "Solidarity trial" for simultaneous evaluation of several vaccine candidates reaching Phase II-III clinical trials.
By May, 159 vaccine candidates were in development, with five having been initiated in PhaseΒ IβII safety and efficacy studies in human subjects, and seven in PhaseΒ I trials.
Discussed on
- "Covid-19 Vaccine Candidates" | 2020-05-20 | 53 Upvotes 63 Comments
π Chorded keyboard
A keyset or chorded keyboard (also called a chorded keyset, chord keyboard or chording keyboard) is a computer input device that allows the user to enter characters or commands formed by pressing several keys together, like playing a "chord" on a piano. The large number of combinations available from a small number of keys allows text or commands to be entered with one hand, leaving the other hand free. A secondary advantage is that it can be built into a device (such as a pocket-sized computer or a bicycle handlebar) that is too small to contain a normal-sized keyboard.
A chorded keyboard minus the board, typically designed to be used while held in the hand, is called a keyer. Douglas Engelbart introduced the chorded keyset as a computer interface in 1968 at what is often called "The Mother of All Demos".
Discussed on
- "Chorded keyboard" | 2019-08-20 | 97 Upvotes 59 Comments
π Professor tells 1700 students to edit Wikipedia, 85% plagiarism rate
Discussed on
- "Professor tells 1700 students to edit Wikipedia, 85% plagiarism rate" | 2013-04-02 | 66 Upvotes 57 Comments
π National Raisin Reserve
The National Raisin Reserve was a raisin reserve of the United States. It was created after World War II by the government in order to control raisin prices. The reserve was run by the Raisin Administrative Committee. It was enforced by means of a "marketing order". In 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled the reserve unconstitutional and ended it.
Discussed on
- "National Raisin Reserve" | 2015-08-06 | 100 Upvotes 40 Comments