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๐ Thought-Terminating Cliche
A thought-terminating clichรฉ (also known as a semantic stop-sign, a thought-stopper, bumper sticker logic, or clichรฉ thinking) is a form of loaded language, commonly used to quell cognitive dissonance. Depending on context in which a phrase (or clichรฉ) is used, it may actually be valid and not qualify as thought-terminating; it does qualify as such when its application intends to dismiss dissent or justify fallacious logic. Its only function is to stop an argument from proceeding further, in other words "end the debate with a cliche... not a point." The term was popularized by Robert Jay Lifton in his 1961 book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, who called the use of the clichรฉ, along with "loading the language", as "The language of Non-thought".
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- "Thought-Terminating Clichรฉ" | 2023-07-08 | 40 Upvotes 25 Comments
- "Thought-Terminating Clichรฉ" | 2021-08-20 | 138 Upvotes 138 Comments
- "Thought-Terminating Cliche" | 2020-06-14 | 18 Upvotes 10 Comments
๐ Prince Rupert's Drop
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- "Prince Rupert's Drop" | 2023-05-30 | 117 Upvotes 35 Comments
- "Prince Rupert's Drop" | 2013-04-15 | 42 Upvotes 13 Comments
๐ $100 Billion USD oops
The 2018 Samsung fat-finger error was a fat-finger error on April 8th 2018 in which an employee of Samsung Securities mistakenly distributed shares worth US$100,000,000,000 to employees. The company is the stock trading arm of the Samsung conglomerate and is engaged in financial services including securities and investment banking sectors primarily in Korea, China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Hong Kong.
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- "$100 Billion USD oops" | 2018-12-14 | 18 Upvotes 18 Comments
๐ Al-Jazari
Badฤซสฟ az-Zaman Abu l-สฟIzz ibn Ismฤสฟฤซl ibn ar-Razฤz al-Jazarฤซ (1136โ1206, Arabic: ุจุฏูุน ุงูุฒู ุงู ุฃูุจู ุงูููุนูุฒู ุฅุจููู ุฅุณูู ุงุนูููู ุฅุจููู ุงูุฑููุฒุงุฒ ุงูุฌุฒุฑูโ, IPA:ย [รฆldสรฆzรฆriห]) was a Muslim polymath: a scholar, inventor, mechanical engineer, artisan, artist and mathematician. He is best known for writing The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (Arabic: ูุชุงุจ ูู ู ุนุฑูุฉ ุงูุญูู ุงูููุฏุณูุฉโ, romanized:ย Kitab fi ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiya, lit.ย 'Book in knowledge of engineering tricks') in 1206, where he described 100 mechanical devices, some 80 of which are trick vessels of various kinds, along with instructions on how to construct them.
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- "Al-Jazari" | 2014-09-07 | 286 Upvotes 122 Comments
๐ Frankfurt kitchen
The Frankfurt kitchen was a milestone in domestic architecture, considered the forerunner of modern fitted kitchens, for it realised for the first time a kitchen built after a unified concept, designed to enable efficient work and to be built at low cost. It was designed in 1926 by Austrian architect Margarete Schรผtte-Lihotzky for architect Ernst May's social housing project New Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany. Some 10,000 units were built in the late 1920s in Frankfurt.
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- "Frankfurt kitchen" | 2018-09-18 | 75 Upvotes 12 Comments
๐ Controversies over the term Engineer
Regulation and licensure in engineering is established by various jurisdictions of the world to encourage public welfare, safety, well-being and other interests of the general public and to define the licensure process through which an engineer becomes authorized to practice engineering and/or provide engineering professional services to the public.
As with many other professions, the professional status and the actual practice of professional engineering is legally defined and protected by law in some jurisdictions. Additionally, some jurisdictions permit only licensed engineers (sometimes called registered engineers) to "practice engineering," which requires careful definition in order to resolve potential overlap or ambiguity with respect to certain other professions which may or may not be themselves regulated (e.g. "scientists," or "architects"). Relatedly, jurisdictions that license according to particular engineering discipline need to define those boundaries carefully as well so that practitioners understand what they are permitted to do.
In many cases, only a state or provincial licensed/registered engineer has the authority to take legal responsibility for engineering work or projects (typically via a seal or stamp on the relevant design documentation). Regulations may require that only a licensed or registered engineer can sign, seal or stamp technical documentation such as reports, plans, engineering drawings and calculations for study estimate or valuation or carry out design analysis, repair, servicing, maintenance or supervision of engineering work, process or project. In cases where public safety, property or welfare is concerned, it may be required that an engineer be licensed or registeredย โ though some jurisdictions have an "industrial exemption" that permits engineers to work internally for an organization without licensure so long as they are not making final decisions to release product to the public or offering engineering services directly to the public (e.g. consultant).
Expert witness or opinion in courts or before government committees or commissions can be provided by experts in the respective field, which is sometimes given by a registered or licensed engineer in some jurisdictions.
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- "Controversies over the term Engineer" | 2010-02-07 | 17 Upvotes 24 Comments
๐ Bouvier Affair
The Bouvier Affair was a number of international lawsuits that started in 2015, and subsequent events. The lawsuits allege that Swiss art shipper and dealer Yves Bouvier defrauded his clients by misrepresenting the original cost of art works and subsequently overcharging them. The affair has played out in courts in Monaco, Switzerland, France, the US, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The alleged victims are "high net worth individuals" in the UK, the US, Asia and Europe, most notably Monaco-based Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev.
As of Februaryย 2018, Bouvier was facing criminal charges in France, Monaco and also in Switzerland after the Geneva Prosecutor opened a new case there.
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- "Bouvier Affair" | 2022-07-11 | 34 Upvotes 13 Comments
๐ RSS was released 25 years ago today
RSS (RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many different websites in a single news aggregator, which constantly monitor sites for new content, removing the need for the user to manually check them. News aggregators (or "RSS readers") can be built into a browser, installed on a desktop computer, or installed on a mobile device.
Websites usually use RSS feeds to publish frequently updated information, such as blog entries, news headlines, episodes of audio and video series, or for distributing podcasts. An RSS document (called "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, and metadata, like publishing date and author's name. RSS formats are specified using a generic XML file.
Although RSS formats have evolved from as early as March 1999, it was between 2005 and 2006 when RSS gained widespread use, and the ("") icon was decided upon by several major web browsers. RSS feed data is presented to users using software called a news aggregator and the passing of content is called web syndication. Users subscribe to feeds either by entering a feed's URI into the reader or by clicking on the browser's feed icon. The RSS reader checks the user's feeds regularly for new information and can automatically download it, if that function is enabled.
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- "RSS was released 25 years ago today" | 2024-03-15 | 120 Upvotes 21 Comments
๐ Wolf Warrior Diplomacy
Wolf warrior diplomacy (Chinese: ๆ็ผๅคไบค; pinyin: Zhร nlรกng Wร ijiฤo) describes an aggressive style of coercive diplomacy adopted by Chinese diplomats in the 21st century under Chinese leader Xi Jinping's administration. The term was coined from the Chinese action film, Wolf Warrior 2. This approach is in contrast to prior Chinese diplomatic practices of Deng Xiaoping, which had emphasized the avoidance of controversy and the use of cooperative rhetoric. Wolf warrior diplomacy is confrontational and combative, with its proponents loudly denouncing any criticism of China on social media and in interviews. As an attempt to gain "discourse power" in international politics, wolf warrior diplomacy forms one part of a new foreign policy strategy called Xi Jinping's "Major Country Diplomacy" (Chinese: ๅคงๅฝๅคไบค; pinyin: Dร guรณ Wร ijiฤo) which has legitimized a more active role for China on the world stage, including engaging in an open ideological struggle with the West.
Although the phrase "wolf warrior diplomacy" was popularized as a description of this diplomatic approach during the COVID-19 pandemic, the appearance of wolf warrior-style diplomats had begun a few years prior. Chinese leader and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping's foreign policy writ large, perceived anti-China hostility from the West among Chinese government officials, and shifts within the Chinese diplomatic bureaucracy have been cited as factors leading to its emergence.
๐ Utility Fog
Utility fog (coined by Dr. John Storrs Hall in 1989) is a hypothetical collection of tiny robots that can replicate a physical structure. As such, it is a form of self-reconfiguring modular robotics.
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- "Utility Fog" | 2019-04-20 | 17 Upvotes 3 Comments