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๐ Amygdala hijack
An amygdala hijack refers to a personal, emotional response that is immediate, overwhelming, and out of measure with the actual stimulus because it has triggered a much more significant emotional threat. The term was coined by Daniel Goleman in his 1996 book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.
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- "Amygdala hijack" | 2021-05-11 | 61 Upvotes 20 Comments
๐ Flashsort
Flashsort is a distribution sorting algorithm showing linear computational complexity for uniformly distributed data sets and relatively little additional memory requirement. The original work was published in 1998 by Karl-Dietrich Neubert.
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- "Flashsort" | 2020-02-09 | 141 Upvotes 31 Comments
๐ Lunar Lava Tube
Lunar lava tubes are lava tubes on the Moon formed during the eruption of basaltic lava flows. When the surface of a lava flow cools, it hardens and the lava can channel beneath the surface in a tube-shaped passage. Once the flow of lava diminishes, the tube may drain, forming a hollow void. Lunar lava tubes are formed on sloped surfaces that range in angle from 0.4ยฐ to 6.5ยฐ. These tubes may be as wide as 500 metres (1,600ย ft) before they become unstable against gravitational collapse. However, stable tubes may still be disrupted by seismic events or meteoroid bombardment.
The existence of a lava tube is sometimes revealed by the presence of a "skylight", a place in which the roof of the tube has collapsed, leaving a circular hole that can be observed by lunar orbiters.
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- "Lunar Lava Tube" | 2021-11-01 | 59 Upvotes 22 Comments
๐ Man versus Horse Marathon
The Man versus Horse Marathon is an annual race over 22 miles (35ย km), where runners compete against riders on horseback through a mix of road, trail and mountainous terrain. The race, which is a shorter distance than an official marathon road race, takes place in the Welsh town of Llanwrtyd Wells every June. There are other Man versus Horse races โ in Scotland based at Dores, near Loch Ness, in Central North Island, New Zealand and in Prescott, Arizona.
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- "Man versus Horse Marathon" | 2024-08-11 | 25 Upvotes 6 Comments
๐ Berry Paradox
The Berry paradox is a self-referential paradox arising from an expression like "The smallest positive integer not definable in under sixty letters" (a phrase with fifty-seven letters).
Bertrand Russell, the first to discuss the paradox in print, attributed it to G. G. Berry (1867โ1928), a junior librarian at Oxford's Bodleian Library. Russell called Berry "the only person in Oxford who understood mathematical logic". The paradox was called "Richard's paradox" by Jean-Yves Gerard".
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- "Berry Paradox" | 2022-08-19 | 27 Upvotes 4 Comments
๐ Wine-dark sea
The wine-dark sea is a traditional English translation of ฮฟแผถฮฝฮฟฯ ฯฯฮฝฯฮฟฯ (oรฎnops pรณntos, IPA: /รดiฬฏ.nops pรณn.tos/), from ฮฟแผถฮฝฮฟฯ (oรฎnos, โwineโ) + แฝฯ (รณps, โeye; faceโ). It is an epithet in Homer of uncertain meaning: a literal translation is "wine-face sea" (wine-faced, wine-eyed). It is attested five times in the Iliad and twelve times in the Odyssey, often to describe rough, stormy sea.
The only other use of oรฎnops in the works of Homer is for oxen (once in both his epic poems), where it seems to describe a reddish color, which has given rise to various speculations about what it could mean about either the state of Aegean Sea during antiquity or the color perception of Ancient Greeks.
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- "Wine-dark sea" | 2019-08-07 | 150 Upvotes 82 Comments
๐ Museum Fatigue
Museum fatigue is a state of physical or mental fatigue caused by the experience of exhibits in museums and similar cultural institutions. The collection of phenomena that characterize museum fatigue was first described in 1916, and has since received widespread attention in popular and scientific contexts.
The first known description of museum fatigue was made by Benjamin Ives Gilman in the January 1916 edition of The Scientific Monthly. Gilman mainly focused on the efforts of museum fatigue on how the viewing displays are placed. Gilman went on to say that the way the displays were presented caused museum fatigue. In other later studies, Edward Robinson in 1928 spoke more about museum fatigue, specifically of four museums that showed a lot of characteristics of museum fatigue because of how the displays were placed. Arthur Melton provided more proof for Robinson by observing visitors' interest in the displays decreased as the number of displays increased.
In a more recent study of the phenomenon, Falk, Koran, Direking, and Dreblow studied museum fatigue at the Florida Museum of Natural History in 1985. While observing visitors they noticed a pattern of high interest in anything in the museum for about 30 minutes and then a decrease in interest. In 1997โ1998, Beverly Serrell in her research determined that in less than 20 minutes people became apathetic towards the museum. Museum fatigue has also been applied in zoos to see if they had the same effect. In one study in 1986, Bitgood, Patterson, and Benefeld observed the reptile house of the Birmingham Zoo. While observing they noticed that the pattern was different from museum fatigue.
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- "Museum Fatigue" | 2024-07-16 | 51 Upvotes 21 Comments
๐ Scientism
Scientism is the promotion of science as the best or only objective means by which society should determine normative and epistemological values. The term scientism is generally used critically, implying a cosmetic application of science in unwarranted situations considered not amenable to application of the scientific method or similar scientific standards.
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- "Scientism" | 2024-07-31 | 10 Upvotes 16 Comments
- "Scientism" | 2012-09-20 | 19 Upvotes 19 Comments
๐ Paradox of Plenty
The resource curse, also known as the paradox of plenty or the poverty paradox, is the phenomenon of countries with an abundance of natural resources (such as fossil fuels and certain minerals) having less economic growth, less democracy, or worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources. There are many theories and much academic debate about the reasons for and exceptions to the adverse outcomes. Most experts believe the resource curse is not universal or inevitable but affects certain types of countries or regions under certain conditions.
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- "Paradox of Plenty" | 2024-04-15 | 14 Upvotes 12 Comments
๐ How big Wikipedia would be if published as as printed volumes
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- "How big Wikipedia would be if published as as printed volumes" | 2007-08-29 | 11 Upvotes 5 Comments