Random Articles (Page 2)
Have a deep view into what people are curious about.
๐ Dry Water
Dry water , an unusual form of "powdered liquid", is a waterโair emulsion in which tiny water droplets, each the size of a grain of sand, are surrounded by a sandy silica coating. Dry water actually consists of 95% liquid water, but the silica coating prevents the water droplets from combining and turning back into a bulk liquid. The result is a white powder that looks very similar to table salt. It is also more commonly known among researchers as empty water.
Discussed on
- "Dry Water" | 2018-09-11 | 543 Upvotes 180 Comments
- "Dry water" | 2016-08-26 | 13 Upvotes 1 Comments
๐ "Some German bombers landed at UK bases, believing they were back in Germany."
The Battle of the Beams was a period early in the Second World War when bombers of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) used a number of increasingly accurate systems of radio navigation for night bombing in the United Kingdom. British scientific intelligence at the Air Ministry fought back with a variety of their own increasingly effective means, involving jamming and distortion of the radio waves. The period ended when the Wehrmacht moved their forces to the East in May 1941, in preparation for the attack on the Soviet Union.
Discussed on
- ""Some German bombers landed at UK bases, believing they were back in Germany."" | 2010-08-16 | 99 Upvotes 17 Comments
๐ Half-Life of Knowledge
The half-life of knowledge or half-life of facts is the amount of time that has to elapse before half of the knowledge or facts in a particular area is superseded or shown to be untrue. These coined terms belong to the field of quantitative analysis of science known as scientometrics.
These ideas of half-life applied to different fields differ from the concept of half-life in physics in that there is no guarantee that the knowledge or facts in areas of study are declining exponentially. It is unclear that there is any way to establish what constitutes "knowledge" in a particular area, as opposed to mere opinion or theory.
An engineering degree went from having a half life of 35 years in ca. 1930 to about 10 years in 1960.
A Delphi Poll showed that the half life of psychology as measured in 2016 ranged from 3.3 to 19 years depending on the specialty, with an average of a little over 7 years.
It has also been used in Christian missiology to increase the effectiveness of their teachings.
๐ Windows Key
The Windows logo key (also known as Windows, win, start, logo, flag, OS, or super key) is a keyboard key which was originally introduced on Microsoft's Natural Keyboard in 1994. This key became a standard key on PC keyboards. In Windows, pressing the key brings up the start menu. Ctrl+Esc performs the same function, in case the keyboard lacks this key.
Discussed on
- "Windows Key" | 2023-11-18 | 17 Upvotes 6 Comments
๐ Wikipedia Is Down?
Discussed on
- "Wikipedia Is Down?" | 2022-03-08 | 12 Upvotes 8 Comments
๐ The Bielefeld Conspiracy
The Bielefeld conspiracy (German: Bielefeldverschwรถrung or Bielefeld-Verschwรถrung, pronounced [หbiหlษfษltfษษฬฏหสvรธหสสล]) is a satire of conspiracy theories that claims that the city of Bielefeld, Germany, does not exist, but is an illusion propagated by various forces. First posted on the German Usenet in 1994, the conspiracy has since been mentioned in the city's marketing, and referenced by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Discussed on
- "The Bielefeld Conspiracy" | 2018-08-12 | 22 Upvotes 13 Comments
๐ Arecibo message
The Arecibo message is a 1974 interstellar radio message carrying basic information about humanity and Earth sent to globular star cluster M13. It was meant as a demonstration of human technological achievement, rather than a real attempt to enter into a conversation with extraterrestrials.
The message was broadcast into space a single time via frequency modulated radio waves at a ceremony to mark the remodeling of the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico on 16 November 1974. The message was aimed at the current location of M13 some 25,000 light years away because M13 was a large and close collection of stars that was available in the sky at the time and place of the ceremony. The message forms the image shown here when translated into graphics, characters, and spaces.
Discussed on
- "Arecibo message" | 2018-05-09 | 73 Upvotes 46 Comments
๐ V-2 No. 13
The V-2 No. 13 was a modified V-2 rocket that became the first object to take a photograph of the Earth from outer space. Launched on 24 October 1946, at the White Sands Missile Range in White Sands, New Mexico, the rocket reached a maximum altitude of 65ย mi (105ย km).
Discussed on
- "V-2 No. 13" | 2024-04-12 | 34 Upvotes 9 Comments
๐ North American Phalanx
The North American Phalanx was a secular utopian socialist commune located in Colts Neck Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey. The community was the longest-lived of about 30 Fourierist Associations in the United States which emerged during a brief burst of popularity during the decade of the 1840s.
The North American Phalanx was established in September 1843 and included the active participation of writer Albert Brisbane and newspaper publisher Horace Greeley, two of the leading figures of the Fourierist movement. The Association was disbanded in January 1856, following a catastrophic fire which destroyed a number of the community's productive enterprises. At the time of its termination it was the last of about 30 Fourierist Associations established during the 1840s still in existence and thus was the longest-lived.
The main residential dwelling of the phalanx, a three-story wooden structure, stood vacant until it was itself destroyed by fire in November 1972.
Discussed on
- "North American Phalanx" | 2019-12-08 | 20 Upvotes 21 Comments
๐ Lipogram
A lipogram (from Ancient Greek: ฮปฮตฮนฯฮฟฮณฯฮฌฮผฮผฮฑฯฮฟฯ, leipogrรกmmatos, "leaving out a letter") is a kind of constrained writing or word game consisting of writing paragraphs or longer works in which a particular letter or group of letters is avoided. Extended Ancient Greek texts avoiding the letter sigma are the earliest examples of lipograms.
Writing a lipogram may be a trivial task when avoiding uncommon letters like Z, J, Q, or X, but it is much more challenging to avoid common letters like E, T, or A in the English language, as the author must omit many ordinary words. Grammatically meaningful and smooth-flowing lipograms can be difficult to compose. Identifying lipograms can also be problematic, as there is always the possibility that a given piece of writing in any language may be unintentionally lipogrammatic. For example, Poe's poem The Raven contains no Z, but there is no evidence that this was intentional.
A pangrammatic lipogram is a text that uses every letter of the alphabet except one. For example, "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" omits the letter S, which the usual pangram includes by using the word jumps.
Discussed on
- "Lipogram" | 2021-04-24 | 35 Upvotes 14 Comments