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π Burning Ship Fractal
The Burning Ship fractal, first described and created by Michael Michelitsch and Otto E. RΓΆssler in 1992, is generated by iterating the function:
in the complex plane which will either escape or remain bounded. The difference between this calculation and that for the Mandelbrot set is that the real and imaginary components are set to their respective absolute values before squaring at each iteration. The mapping is non-analytic because its real and imaginary parts do not obey the CauchyβRiemann equations.
Discussed on
- "Burning Ship Fractal" | 2016-09-26 | 252 Upvotes 65 Comments
π Bulgur (Cooking wheat like rice)
Bulgur (from Arabic: Ψ¨Ψ±ΨΊΩβ bourghoul, "groats") is a cereal food made from the cracked parboiled groats of several different wheat species, most often from durum wheat. It originates in Middle Eastern cuisine.
Discussed on
- "Bulgur (Cooking wheat like rice)" | 2019-08-28 | 13 Upvotes 5 Comments
π Tetration
In mathematics, tetration (or hyper-4) is an operation based on iterated, or repeated, exponentiation. It is the next hyperoperation after exponentiation, but before pentation. The word was coined by Reuben Louis Goodstein from tetra- (four) and iteration.
Under the definition as repeated exponentiation, the notation means , where n copies of a are iterated via exponentiation, right-to-left, I.e. the application of exponentiation times. n is called the "height" of the function, while a is called the "base," analogous to exponentiation. It would be read as "the nth tetration of a".
Tetration is also defined recursively as
- ,
allowing for attempts to extend tetration to non-natural numbers such as real and complex numbers.
The two inverses of tetration are called the super-root and the super-logarithm, analogous to the nth root and the logarithmic functions. None of the three functions are elementary.
Tetration is used for the notation of very large numbers.
Discussed on
- "Tetration" | 2010-05-02 | 28 Upvotes 11 Comments
π Malbolge β Esoteric Programming Language Designed to Be Almost Impossible to Use
Malbolge () is a public domain esoteric programming language invented by Ben Olmstead in 1998, named after the eighth circle of hell in Dante's Inferno, the Malebolge.
Malbolge was specifically designed to be almost impossible to use, via a counter-intuitive 'crazy operation', base-three arithmetic, and self-altering code. It builds on the difficulty of earlier, challenging esoteric languages (such as Brainfuck and Befunge), but takes this aspect to the extreme, playing on the entangled histories of computer science and encryption. Despite this design, it is possible (though very difficult) to write useful Malbolge programs.
Discussed on
- "Malbolge" | 2023-10-12 | 12 Upvotes 3 Comments
- "Malbolge (programming language)" | 2012-05-30 | 41 Upvotes 16 Comments
- "The peculiarity of Malbolge is that it was designed to be the worst possible programming language" | 2008-04-12 | 12 Upvotes 3 Comments
π Naturally-Occurring Nuclear Reactors
A fossil natural nuclear fission reactor is a uranium deposit where self-sustaining nuclear chain reactions have occurred. This can be examined by analysis of isotope ratios. The conditions under which a natural nuclear reactor could exist had been predicted in 1956 by Paul Kazuo Kuroda. The phenomenon was discovered in 1972 in Oklo, Gabon by French physicist Francis Perrin under conditions very similar to what was predicted.
Oklo is the only known location for this in the world and consists of 16 sites at which self-sustaining nuclear fission reactions are thought to have taken place approximately 1.7 billion years ago, and ran for a few hundred thousand years, averaging probably less than 100 kW of thermal power during that time.
Discussed on
- "Natural Nuclear Fission Reactor" | 2022-05-07 | 10 Upvotes 1 Comments
- "Natural Nuclear Fission Reactor" | 2020-10-10 | 49 Upvotes 8 Comments
- "Natural Nuclear Fission Reactor" | 2019-07-03 | 60 Upvotes 16 Comments
- "Natural nuclear fission reactor" | 2018-07-08 | 71 Upvotes 18 Comments
- "Natural nuclear fission reactor" | 2009-11-04 | 14 Upvotes 2 Comments
π M44 (Cyanide Device)
The M44 cyanide device (also called a cyanide gun or cyanide trap) is used for the killing of coyotes, feral dogs, and foxes. It is made from four parts: a capsule holder wrapped with cloth or other soft material, a small plastic capsule containing 0.88 grams of sodium cyanide, a spring-powered ejector, and a 5-7 inch stake. To install the trap, the stake is first driven down into the ground, and then the capsule is put in the holder, screwed onto the cocked ejector, and secured to the stake. The wrapped capsule holder is smeared with scented bait to attract coyotes and make them bite and pull on it. (The use of a bite-and-pull action makes the trap less likely to be set off by non-canine wildlife.) When the trap is triggered, the spring propels a dose of sodium cyanide into the animals's mouth, and the sodium cyanide combines with water in the mouth to produce poisonous cyanide gas. In addition to the cyanide, the capsule contains Day-Glo fluorescent particle marker (orange in capsules used by the Wildlife Services, and yellow in capsules prepared for other users).
Discussed on
- "M44 (Cyanide Device)" | 2019-08-09 | 70 Upvotes 22 Comments
π Pheasant Island belongs to Spain and France in alternating 6 months periods
Pheasant Island (French: Γle des Faisans/Γle de la ConfΓ©rence, Spanish: Isla de los Faisanes, Basque: Konpantzia) is an uninhabited river island in the Bidasoa river, located between France and Spain, whose administration alternates between both nations.
π Dial Box (Computer Peripheral)
A dial box is a computer peripheral for direct 3D manipulation e.g. to interactively input the rotation and torsion angles of a model displayed on a computer screen. Dial boxes were common input tools in the first years of interactive 3D graphics and they were available for Silicon Graphics (SGI) or Sun Microsystems and sold with their workstations. Currently they have been replaced by standard computer mouse interaction techniques.
Standard dial box has 8 dials mounted on a plate. The plate is set upright with the help of a stand and usually located next to the computer screen for convenient access. The connection to a computer is made via the serial port (RS-232).
One of the fields of application for dial boxes was molecular graphics.
Discussed on
- "Dial Box (Computer Peripheral)" | 2023-05-28 | 10 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Alt-Right Pipeline
The alt-right pipeline (also called the alt-right rabbit hole) is a conceptual model regarding internet radicalization toward the alt-right movement. It describes a phenomenon in which consuming provocative right-wing political content, such as antifeminist or anti-SJW ideas, gradually increases exposure to the alt-right or similar far-right politics. It posits that this interaction takes place due to the interconnected nature of political commentators and online communities, allowing members of one audience or community to discover more extreme groups. This process is most commonly associated with and has been documented on the video platform YouTube, is also largely faceted by the method in which algorithms on various social media platforms function through the process recommending content that is similar to what users engage with, but can quickly lead users down rabbit-holes.
Many political movements have been associated with the pipeline concept. The intellectual dark web, libertarianism, the men's rights movement, and the alt-lite movement have all been identified as possibly introducing audiences to alt-right ideas. BreadTube has similarly been identified as introducing audiences to far-left politics, though it has been less effective. Audiences that seek out and are willing to accept extreme content in this fashion typically consist of young men, commonly those that experience significant loneliness and seek belonging or meaning. In an attempt to find community and belonging, message boards that are often proliferated with hard right social commentary, such as 4chan and 8chan, have been well documented in their importance in the radicalization process.
The alt-right pipeline may be a contributing factor to domestic terrorism. Many social media platforms have acknowledged this path of radicalization and have taken measures to prevent it, including the removal of extremist figures and rules against hate speech and misinformation.
Discussed on
- "Alt-Right Pipeline" | 2023-04-23 | 32 Upvotes 50 Comments
π AlphaSmart
The AlphaSmart was a brand of portable, battery powered, word-processing keyboards manufactured by NEO Direct, Inc. (formerly Renaissance Learning, Inc, formerly AlphaSmart, Inc., formerly Intelligent Peripheral Devices, Inc.). Originally released in 1993, the first AlphaSmart models were intended for writing on-the-go and could be plugged into a computer to transfer saved written text. The units' portability and long battery life made them valuable to journalists, writers, and students. Later models expanded functionality by spell-checking, running applications, and accessing wireless printers.
The last model, Neo 2, was released in 2007, and production was discontinued by the company in late September 2013, although the company still offers support and software to existing users.
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- "AlphaSmart" | 2017-12-03 | 67 Upvotes 52 Comments