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π Phone Cloning
Phone cloning is the copying of identity from one cellular device to another.
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- "Phone Cloning" | 2020-04-18 | 35 Upvotes 18 Comments
π Just Room Enough Island
Just Room Enough Island, also known as Hub Island, is an island located in the Thousand Islands chain, belonging to New York, United States. The island is known for being the smallest inhabited island, which appears to be around 3,300 square feet (310Β m2), or about one-thirteenth of an acre. Purchased by the Sizeland family in the 1950s, the island has a house, a tree, shrubs, and a small beach.
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- "Just Room Enough Island" | 2020-05-16 | 39 Upvotes 9 Comments
π The Angle of repose
The angle of repose, or critical angle of repose, of a granular material is the steepest angle of descent or dip relative to the horizontal plane to which a material can be piled without slumping. At this angle, the material on the slope face is on the verge of sliding. The angle of repose can range from 0Β° to 90Β°. The morphology of the material affects the angle of repose; smooth, rounded sand grains cannot be piled as steeply as can rough, interlocking sands. The angle of repose can also be affected by additions of solvents. If a small amount of water is able to bridge the gaps between particles, electrostatic attraction of the water to mineral surfaces will increase the angle of repose, and related quantities such as the soil strength.
When bulk granular materials are poured onto a horizontal surface, a conical pile will form. The internal angle between the surface of the pile and the horizontal surface is known as the angle of repose and is related to the density, surface area and shapes of the particles, and the coefficient of friction of the material. Material with a low angle of repose forms flatter piles than material with a high angle of repose.
The term has a related usage in mechanics, where it refers to the maximum angle at which an object can rest on an inclined plane without sliding down. This angle is equal to the arctangent of the coefficient of static friction ΞΌs between the surfaces.
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- "The Angle of repose" | 2008-09-29 | 16 Upvotes 5 Comments
π Citizenship in a Republic
Citizenship in a Republic is the title of a speech given by the former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on April 23, 1910.
One notable passage on page seven of the 35-page speech is referred to as "The Man in the Arena":
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Someone who is heavily involved in a situation that requires courage, skill, or tenacity (as opposed to someone sitting on the sidelines and watching), is sometimes referred to as "the man in the arena".
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- "Citizenship in a Republic" | 2013-02-27 | 21 Upvotes 14 Comments
π International Talk Like a Pirate Day
International Talk Like a Pirate Day is a parodic holiday created in 1995 by John Baur (Ol' Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy), of Albany, Oregon, U.S., who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. An observer of this holiday would greet friends not with "Hello, everyone!" but with "Ahoy, maties!" or "Ahoy, me hearties!" The holiday, and its observance, springs from a romanticized view of the Golden Age of Piracy.
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- "Today Is International Talk Like a Pirate Day" | 2023-09-19 | 21 Upvotes 7 Comments
- "International Talk Like a Pirate Day" | 2021-09-19 | 13 Upvotes 2 Comments
π List of algorithms requested on Wikipedia - if you know one, do your share
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- "List of algorithms requested on Wikipedia - if you know one, do your share" | 2009-01-30 | 34 Upvotes 6 Comments
π Pittsburgh Toilet
A Pittsburgh toilet, or Pittsburgh potty, is a common fixture in pre-World War II houses built in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States and surrounding region. It consists of an ordinary flush toilet installed in the basement, with no surrounding walls. Most of these toilets are paired with a crude basement shower apparatus and large sink, which often doubles as a laundry basin. Also, because western Pennsylvania is a steep topographical zone, many basements have their own entryway, allowing homeowners to enter from their yard or garage, cleanse themselves in their basement, and then ascend their basement stairs refreshed. Its primary function was to serve as a cleanup station for steel mill workers to clean themselves after returning from work. The toilet fixtures would also limit the harm of sewage backups in hilly Pittsburgh, providing a lower, flushable outlet than the main part of the house.
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- "Pittsburgh Toilet" | 2022-05-29 | 21 Upvotes 6 Comments
π WarGames was released today 40 years ago
WarGames is a 1983 American science fiction techno-thriller film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film, which stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy, follows David Lightman (Broderick), a young hacker who unwittingly accesses a United States military supercomputer programmed to simulate, predict and execute nuclear war against the Soviet Union.
WarGames was a critical and commercial success, grossing $125Β million worldwide against a $12Β million budget. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards.
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- "WarGames was released today 40 years ago" | 2023-06-03 | 53 Upvotes 14 Comments
π Chloropicrin
Chloropicrin, also known as PS and nitrochloroform, is a chemical compound currently used as a broad-spectrum antimicrobial, fungicide, herbicide, insecticide, and nematicide. It was used as a poison gas in World War I. Its chemical structural formula is Cl3CNO2.
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- "Chloropicrin" | 2023-08-08 | 11 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Shoelace formula
The shoelace formula or shoelace algorithm (also known as Gauss's area formula and the surveyor's formula) is a mathematical algorithm to determine the area of a simple polygon whose vertices are described by their Cartesian coordinates in the plane. The user cross-multiplies corresponding coordinates to find the area encompassing the polygon, and subtracts it from the surrounding polygon to find the area of the polygon within. It is called the shoelace formula because of the constant cross-multiplying for the coordinates making up the polygon, like tying shoelaces. It is also sometimes called the shoelace method. It has applications in surveying and forestry, among other areas.
The formula was described by Meister (1724β1788) in 1769 and by Gauss in 1795. It can be verified by dividing the polygon into triangles, and can be considered to be a special case of Green's theorem.
The area formula is derived by taking each edge AB, and calculating the area of triangle ABO with a vertex at the origin O, by taking the cross-product (which gives the area of a parallelogram) and dividing by 2. As one wraps around the polygon, these triangles with positive and negative area will overlap, and the areas between the origin and the polygon will be cancelled out and sum to 0, while only the area inside the reference triangle remains. This is why the formula is called the surveyor's formula, since the "surveyor" is at the origin; if going counterclockwise, positive area is added when going from left to right and negative area is added when going from right to left, from the perspective of the origin.
The area formula can also be applied to self-overlapping polygons since the meaning of area is still clear even though self-overlapping polygons are not generally simple. Furthermore, a self-overlapping polygon can have multiple "interpretations" but the Shoelace formula can be used to show that the polygon's area is the same regardless of the interpretation.
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- "Shoelace formula" | 2018-12-02 | 73 Upvotes 12 Comments
- "Shoelace Formula" | 2014-12-26 | 27 Upvotes 3 Comments