Random Articles
Have a deep view into what people are curious about.
๐ Correction Girls
Correction girls was a term describing women who were forcibly shipped from France to its colonies in America as brides for its colonists during the early 18th century.
Discussed on
- "Correction Girls" | 2023-01-29 | 59 Upvotes 14 Comments
๐ Ubuntu Philosophy
Ubuntu (Zulu pronunciation:ย [รนษรบntสผรน]) is a Nguni Bantu term meaning "humanity." It is often translated as "I am because we are," or "humanity towards others," or in Xhosa, "umntu ngumntu ngabantu" but is often used in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity."
In Southern Africa, it has come to be used as a contested term for a kind of humanist philosophy, ethic, or ideology, also known as Ubuntuism propagated in the Africanisation (transition to majority rule) process of these countries during the 1980s and 1990s.
Since the transition to democracy in South Africa with the Nelson Mandela presidency in 1994, the term has become more widely known outside of Southern Africa, notably popularised to English-language readers through the ubuntu theology of Desmond Tutu. Tutu was the chairman of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and many have argued that ubuntu was a formative influence on the TRC.
Discussed on
- "Ubuntu Philosophy" | 2020-08-24 | 95 Upvotes 48 Comments
๐ The Abilene Paradox
In the Abilene paradox, a group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is counter to the preferences of many or all of the individuals in the group. It involves a common breakdown of group communication in which each member mistakenly believes that their own preferences are counter to the group's and, therefore, does not raise objections. A common phrase relating to the Abilene paradox is a desire not to "rock the boat". This differs from groupthink in that the Abilene paradox is characterized by an inability to manage agreement.
Discussed on
- "Abilene Paradox" | 2023-08-08 | 42 Upvotes 4 Comments
- "The Abilene Paradox" | 2018-11-22 | 11 Upvotes 6 Comments
๐ Oil Pipeline Pigs
In pipeline transportation, pigging is the practice of using devices known as pigs or scrapers to perform various maintenance operations. This is done without stopping the flow of the product in the pipeline. These devices are known as pigs because they scrape or clean just like a normal pig.
These operations include but are not limited to cleaning and inspecting the pipeline. This is accomplished by inserting the pig into a "pig launcher" (or "launching station")ย โ an oversized section in the pipeline, reducing to the normal diameter. The launching station is then closed and the pressure-driven flow of the product in the pipeline is used to push the pig along down the pipe until it reaches the receiving trapย โ the "pig catcher" (or "receiving station").
Discussed on
- "Pigging" | 2023-10-21 | 222 Upvotes 80 Comments
- "Oil Pipeline Pigs" | 2014-07-28 | 12 Upvotes 3 Comments
๐ Ligne Claire
Ligne claire (French for "clear line", pronouncedย [liษฒ klษส]; Dutch: klare lijn) is a style of drawing created and pioneered by Hergรฉ, the Belgian creator of The Adventures of Tintin. It uses clear strong lines sometimes of varied width and no hatching, while contrast is downplayed as well. Cast shadows are often illuminated, and the style often features strong colours and a combination of cartoonish characters against a realistic background. All these elements together can result in giving comics drawn this way a flat aspect. The name was coined by Joost Swarte in 1977.
Discussed on
- "Ligne Claire" | 2021-10-02 | 222 Upvotes 63 Comments
๐ NeWS โ Network Extensible Window System
NeWS (Network extensible Window System) is a discontinued windowing system developed by Sun Microsystems in the mid-1980s. Originally known as "SunDew", its primary authors were James Gosling and David S. H. Rosenthal. The NeWS interpreter was based on PostScript (as was the later Display PostScript, although the two projects were otherwise unrelated) extending it to allow interaction and multiple "contexts" to support windows. Like PostScript, NeWS could be used as a complete programming language, but unlike PostScript, NeWS could be used to make complete interactive programs with mouse support and a GUI.
Discussed on
- "NeWS โ Network Extensible Window System" | 2016-04-12 | 86 Upvotes 74 Comments
๐ Operation Freakout
Operation Freakout, also known as Operation PC Freakout, was a Church of Scientology covert plan intended to have the U.S. author and journalist Paulette Cooper imprisoned or committed to a psychiatric hospital. The plan, undertaken in 1976 following years of church-initiated lawsuits and covert harassment, was meant to eliminate the perceived threat that Cooper posed to the church and obtain revenge for her publication in 1971 of a highly critical book, The Scandal of Scientology. The Federal Bureau of Investigation discovered documentary evidence of the plot and the preceding campaign of harassment during an investigation into the Church of Scientology in 1977, eventually leading to the church compensating Cooper in an out-of-court settlement.
Discussed on
- "Operation Freakout" | 2023-12-27 | 14 Upvotes 1 Comments
๐ Stonehenge Archer
The Stonehenge Archer is the name given to a Bronze Age man whose body was discovered in the outer ditch of Stonehenge. Unlike most burials in the Stonehenge Landscape, his body was not in a barrow, although it did appear to have been deliberately and carefully buried in the ditch.
Examination of the skeleton indicated that the man was local to the area and aged about 30 when he died. Radiocarbon dating suggests that he died around 2300 BCE, making his death roughly contemporary with the Amesbury Archer and the Boscombe Bowmen buried 3 miles away in Amesbury.
He came to be known as an archer because of the stone wrist-guard and a number of flint arrowheads buried with him. In fact, several of the arrowheads' tips were located in the skeleton's bones, suggesting that the man had been killed by them.
His body was excavated in 1978 by Richard Atkinson and John G. Evans who had been re-examining an older trench in the ditch and bank of Stonehenge. His remains are now housed in the Salisbury Museum in Salisbury.
Discussed on
- "Stonehenge Archer" | 2024-07-01 | 30 Upvotes 13 Comments
๐ Li Wenliang
Li Wenliang (Chinese: ๆๆไบฎ; pinyin: Lว Wรฉnliร ng; 12 October 1986 โ 7 February 2020) was a Chinese ophthalmologist who worked as a physician at Wuhan Central Hospital. Li warned his colleagues in December 2019 about a possible outbreak of an illness that resembled severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), later acknowledged as COVID-19. He became a whistleblower when his warnings were later shared publicly. On 3 January 2020, Wuhan police summoned and admonished him for "making false comments on the Internet". Li returned to work, later contracted the virus from an infected patient (who had been originally treated for glaucoma) and died from the disease on 7 February 2020, at age 33. A subsequent Chinese official inquiry exonerated him and the Communist Party formally offered a "solemn apology" to his family and revoked its admonishment of him.
Discussed on
- "Li Wenliang" | 2020-02-11 | 350 Upvotes 206 Comments
๐ Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone
The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ or the Zone), also known as Free Capitol Hill, is a self-declared intentional community and commune of around 200 residents, covering about six city blocks in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The zone was established on June 8, 2020 after the East Precinct was abandoned by the Seattle Police Department.