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π Religious Views of Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton (4 January 1643 β 31 March 1727) was considered an insightful and erudite theologian by his Protestant contemporaries. He wrote many works that would now be classified as occult studies, and he wrote religious tracts that dealt with the literal interpretation of the Bible. He kept his heretical beliefs private.
Newton's conception of the physical world provided a model of the natural world that would reinforce stability and harmony in the civic world. Newton saw a monotheistic God as the masterful creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation. Although born into an Anglican family, and a devout but unorthodox Christian, by his thirties Newton held a Christian faith that, had it been made public, would not have been considered orthodox by mainstream Christians. Scholars now consider him a Nontrinitarian Arian.
He may have been influenced by Socinian christology.
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- "Religious Views of Isaac Newton" | 2022-02-11 | 13 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Silphium: Did Greek science die out because their elite discovered The Pill?
Silphium (also known as silphion, laserwort, or laser) was a plant that was used in classical antiquity as a seasoning, perfume, as an aphrodisiac, or as a medicine. It also was used as a contraceptive by ancient Greeks and Romans. It was the essential item of trade from the ancient North African city of Cyrene, and was so critical to the Cyrenian economy that most of their coins bore a picture of the plant. The valuable product was the plant's resin (laser, laserpicium, or lasarpicium).
Silphium was an important species in prehistory, as evidenced by the Egyptians and Knossos Minoans developing a specific glyph to represent the silphium plant. It was used widely by most ancient Mediterranean cultures; the Romans who mentioned the plant in poems or songs, considered it "worth its weight in denarii" (silver coins), or even gold. Legend said that it was a gift from the god Apollo.
The exact identity of silphium is unclear. It is commonly believed to be a now-extinct plant of the genus Ferula, perhaps a variety of "giant fennel". The still-extant plants Margotia gummifera and Ferula tingitana have been suggested as other possibilities. Another plant, asafoetida, was used as a cheaper substitute for silphium, and had similar enough qualities that Romans, including the geographer Strabo, used the same word to describe both.
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- "Silphium" | 2021-04-08 | 158 Upvotes 46 Comments
- "Silphium: Did Greek science die out because their elite discovered The Pill?" | 2007-08-15 | 10 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Iceland Spar
Iceland spar, formerly called Iceland crystal (Icelandic: silfurberg [ΛsΙͺlvΚrΛpΙrk], lit.β'silver-rock') and also called optical calcite, is a transparent variety of calcite, or crystallized calcium carbonate, originally brought from Iceland, and used in demonstrating the polarization of light.
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- "Iceland Spar" | 2024-11-22 | 29 Upvotes 4 Comments
π Manosphere
The manosphere is a varied collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism. Communities within the manosphere include men's rights activists (MRAs), incels (involuntary celibates), Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), pick-up artists (PUA), and fathers' rights groups. While the specifics of each group's beliefs sometimes conflict, they are generally united in the belief that society is biased against men due to the influence of feminism, and that feminists promote misandry (hatred of men). Acceptance of these ideas is described as "taking the red pill", a metaphor borrowed from the film The Matrix.
The manosphere overlaps with the far-right and alt-right communities. It has also been associated with online harassment and has been implicated in radicalizing men into misogynist beliefs and the glorification of violence against women. Some sources have associated manosphere-based radicalization with mass shootings motivated by misogyny. The manosphere received significant media coverage following the 2014 Isla Vista killings in California, the 2015 Umpqua Community College shooting in Oregon, and the 2018 Toronto van attack, as well as the online harassment campaign against women in the video game industry known as GamerGate.
Major figures within the movement include various social media influencers, including Andrew Tate, Amrou "Myron Gaines" Fudl, Adin Ross, Roosh V, Carl Benjamin and Jordan Peterson.
Discussed on
- "Manosphere" | 2025-06-01 | 12 Upvotes 1 Comments
π You Will
"You Will" was an AT&T marketing campaign that launched in 1993, consisting of commercials directed by David Fincher. Each ad presented a futuristic scenario beginning with "Have you everβ¦" and ending with "β¦you will. And the company that will bring it to you: AT&T."
The ads were narrated by Tom Selleck.
The creative team that created the ad campaign at N.W. Ayer & Partners were Copy Supervisor Gordon Hasse, Art Supervisor Nick Scordato and Producer Gaston Braun.
One of the first web banner ads ever sold was part of an AT&T campaign that ran on HotWired starting October 27, 1994, asking "Have you ever clicked your mouse right HERE? You Will".
In 2016, technology writer Timothy B. Lee commented that "overall, the ads were remarkably accurate in predicting the cutting-edge technologies of the coming decades. But the ads were mostly wrong about one thing: the company that brought these technologies to the world was not AT&T. At least not on its own. AT&T does provide some of the infrastructure on which the world's communications flow. But the gadgets and software that brought these futuristic capabilities to consumers were created by a new generation of Silicon Valley companies that mostly didn't exist when these ads were made."
The ads won a few different awards at the time, notably the first annual David Ogilvy Award for the most effective campaign supported by research, the 1994 PCIA (Personal Communications Industry Award), and two ADDY Awards.
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- "You Will" | 2025-06-04 | 20 Upvotes 6 Comments
π Zerah Colburn (Mental Calculator)
Zerah Colburn (September 1, 1804 β March 2, 1840) was a child prodigy of the 19th century who gained fame as a mental calculator.
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- "Zerah Colburn (Mental Calculator)" | 2020-04-02 | 25 Upvotes 4 Comments
π List of Important Publications in Computer Science
This is a list of important publications in computer science, organized by field.
Some reasons why a particular publication might be regarded as important:
- Topic creator β A publication that created a new topic
- Breakthrough β A publication that changed scientific knowledge significantly
- Influence β A publication which has significantly influenced the world or has had a massive impact on the teaching of computer science.
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- "List of important publications in computer science" | 2020-07-27 | 30 Upvotes 2 Comments
- "List of Important Publications in Computer Science" | 2011-08-14 | 58 Upvotes 6 Comments
π Confocal microscopy
Confocal microscopy, most frequently confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) or laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM), is an optical imaging technique for increasing optical resolution and contrast of a micrograph by means of using a spatial pinhole to block out-of-focus light in image formation. Capturing multiple two-dimensional images at different depths in a sample enables the reconstruction of three-dimensional structures (a process known as optical sectioning) within an object. This technique is used extensively in the scientific and industrial communities and typical applications are in life sciences, semiconductor inspection and materials science.
Light travels through the sample under a conventional microscope as far into the specimen as it can penetrate, while a confocal microscope only focuses a smaller beam of light at one narrow depth level at a time. The CLSM achieves a controlled and highly limited depth of field.
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- "Confocal microscopy" | 2024-01-22 | 44 Upvotes 19 Comments
π This Is the Boke of Cokery
This Is the Boke of Cokery, or The Boke of Cokery, is believed to be the first cookery book printed in English. The name of the author is unknown. It was printed and published by Richard Pynson in 1500. The book remained in print for many years in the 16th century, but was superseded and forgotten by the 18th. The only known surviving copy of the book is in the possession of the Marquess of Bath at Longleat House, Wiltshire.
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- "This Is the Boke of Cokery" | 2022-03-04 | 91 Upvotes 43 Comments
π United Biscuits Network
United Biscuits Network (UBN) was an internal radio station serving the factories of United Biscuits (UB) in Britain that operated from 1970 to 1979.
In 1970 the BBC had a monopoly on radio broadcasting in Britain, although there were a few offshore pirate radio broadcasters, such as Radio Caroline. At one time factories had sought to avoid unnecessary background sound, but during the Second World War psychologists found that light background music (muzak) increased productivity at times it was low, a trend that continued after the war. But as jobs became deskilled and ever more monotonous, muzak became less effective, and staff turnover increased. United Biscuits was affected by this trend; Hector Laing, the managing director in the 1960s, needed to reduce the costs of high staff turnover. Inspired by the success of the pirate stations, Laing hired suitable staff, bought state-of-the-art broadcasting equipment, and set up UBN at UB headquarters in Osterley, west London (later the headquarters of broadcaster Sky UK).
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- "United Biscuits Network" | 2024-02-21 | 57 Upvotes 15 Comments