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π Blue Peacock
Blue Peacock, renamed from Blue Bunny and originally Brown Bunny, was a British tactical nuclear weapon project in the 1950s.
The project's goal was to store a number of ten-kiloton nuclear mines in Germany, to be placed on the North German Plain and, in the event of Soviet invasion from the east, detonated by wire or an eight-day timer to:
...Β not only destroy facilities and installations over a large area, butΒ ... deny occupation of the area to an enemy for an appreciable time due to contaminationΒ ...
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- "Blue Peacock" | 2019-09-23 | 56 Upvotes 8 Comments
π 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness
The eight-circuit model of consciousness is a hypothesis by Timothy Leary, and later expanded on by Robert Anton Wilson and Antero Alli, that "suggested eight periods [circuits] and twenty-four stages of neurological evolution". The eight circuits, or eight "brains" as referred by other authors, operate within the human nervous system, each corresponding to its own imprint and direct experience of reality. Leary and Alli include three stages for each circuit that details developmental points for each level of consciousness.
The first four circuits deal with life on Earth, and survival of the species. The last four circuits are post-terrestrial, and deal with the evolution of the species, altered states of consciousness, enlightenment, mystical experiences, psychedelic states of mind, and psychic abilities. The proposal suggests that these altered states of consciousness are recently realized, but not widely utilized. Leary describes the first four as "larval circuits", necessary for surviving and functioning in a terrestrial human society, and proposed that the post terrestrial circuits will be useful for future humans who, through a predetermined script, continue to act on their urge to migrate to outer space and live extra-terrestrially. Leary, Wilson, and Alli have written about the idea in depth, and have explored and attempted to define how each circuit operates, both in the lives of individual people and in societies and civilization.
The term "circuit" is equated to a metaphor of the brain being computer hardware, and the wiring of the brain as circuitry.
Leary uses the eight circuits along with recapitulation theory to explain the evolution of the human species, the personal development of an individual, and the biological evolution of all life.
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- "8-Circuit Model of Consciousness" | 2011-01-10 | 12 Upvotes 6 Comments
π Wikipedia: Sandbox
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- "Wikipedia: Sandbox" | 2026-01-30 | 93 Upvotes 37 Comments
π Deseret Alphabet
The Deseret alphabet ( (listen); Deseret: ππ―π π¨ππ―π» or ππ―ππ²ππ―π») is a phonemic English-language spelling reform developed between 1847 and 1854 by the board of regents of the University of Deseret under the leadership of Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). George D. Watt is reported to have been the most actively involved in the development of the script,:β159β as well as being its first serious user.:β12β
The Deseret alphabet was an outgrowth of the idealism and utopianism of Young and the early LDS Church. Young and the Mormon pioneers believed "all aspects of life" were in need of reform for the imminent millenniumand the Deseret alphabet was just one of many ways they sought to bring about a complete "transformation in society",:β142β in anticipation of the Second Coming of Jesus. Young wrote of the reform that "it would represent every sound used in the construction of any known language; and, in fact, a step and partial return to a pure language which has been promised unto us in the latter days," the Adamic language spoken before the Tower of Babel.
In public statements, Young claimed the alphabet would replace the traditional Latin alphabet with an alternative, more phonetically accurate alphabet for the English language. This would offer immigrants an opportunity to learn to read and write English, he said, the orthography of which is often less phonetically consistent than those of many other languages.:β65β66β Similar neographies have been attempted, the most well-known of which for English is the Shavian alphabet.
Young also prescribed the learning of Deseret to the school system, stating "It will be the means of introducing uniformity in our orthography, and the years that are now required to learn to read and spell can be devoted to other studies."
During the alphabet's heyday between 1854 and 1869, scriptural passages in newspapers, selected church records, a $5 gold coin, and occasional street signs and correspondence used the new letters. In 1868-9, after much difficulty creating suitable fonts, four books were printed: two school primers, the full Book of Mormon, and a portion of it titled the Book of Nephi.
Despite heavy and costly promotion by the early LDS Church, the alphabet never enjoyed prolonged widespread use and has been regarded by historians as a failure. However, in recent years, aided by digital typography, the Deseret Alphabet has been revived as a cultural heirloom.
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- "Deseret Alphabet" | 2023-05-01 | 140 Upvotes 71 Comments
π Category:Obsolete occupations
This is a category of jobs that have been rendered obsolete due to advances in technology and/or social conditions.
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- "Category:Obsolete occupations" | 2019-12-11 | 300 Upvotes 247 Comments
π Wikipedia deletes entry on PBWiki, the biggest hosted competitor with 550,000 wikis
PBworks (formerly PBwiki) is a commercial real-time collaborative editing (RTCE) system created by David Weekly, with Ramit Sethi and Nathan Schmidt, who joined shortly thereafter as co-founders. Based in San Mateo, California, United States, the company operates on a freemium basis, offering basic features free of charge and more advanced features for a fee.
PBworks' investors include Mohr Davidow Ventures and the Seraph Group, as well as angel investors Ron Conway and Chris Yeh.
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- "Wikipedia deletes entry on PBWiki, the biggest hosted competitor with 550,000 wikis" | 2008-09-18 | 15 Upvotes 16 Comments
π Uno β The βUnitβ for Dimensionless Quantities
In science and engineering, the parts-per notation is a set of pseudo-units to describe small values of miscellaneous dimensionless quantities, e.g. mole fraction or mass fraction. Since these fractions are quantity-per-quantity measures, they are pure numbers with no associated units of measurement. Commonly used are parts-per-million (ppm, 10β6), parts-per-billion (ppb, 10β9), parts-per-trillion (ppt, 10β12) and parts-per-quadrillion (ppq, 10β15). This notation is not part of the International System of Units (SI) system and its meaning is ambiguous.
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- "Uno β The βUnitβ for Dimensionless Quantities" | 2021-07-01 | 131 Upvotes 115 Comments
π The Victorian Internet
The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers is a 1998 book by Tom Standage. The book was first published in September 1998 through Walker & Company and discusses the development and uses of the electric telegraph during the second half of the 19th century and some of the similarities the telegraph shared with the Internet of the late 20th century.
The central thesis of the book argues that of these two technologies, it was the telegraph that was the more significant, since the ability to communicate globally at all in real-time was a qualitative shift, while according to Standage the change brought on by the modern Internet was merely a quantitative shift.
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- "The Victorian Internet" | 2025-02-27 | 14 Upvotes 2 Comments
π Cashew of Pirangi
The Cashew of Pirangi (Cajueiro de Pirangi), also called the world's largest cashew tree (maior cajueiro do mundo), is a cashew tree in Pirangi do Norte, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. In 1994, the tree entered the Guinness Book of Records. It covers an area between 7,300 square metres (1.8 acres) and 8,400 square metres (2.1 acres). Having the size of 70 normally sized cashew trees, it has a circumference of 500Β m (1,600Β ft). The vicinity of the World's Largest Cashew Tree in North Pirangi is also a main place for the sale of lace and embroidery in Rio Grande do Norte state.
The spread over a hectare of land was, unlike other trees, created by the tree's outward growth. When bent towards the ground (because of their weight), the branches tend to take new roots where they touch the ground. This may be seen in the images of the interior. It is now difficult to distinguish the initial trunk from the rest of the tree.
The tree is said to have been planted in 1888. However, based on its growth nature, "the tree is estimated to be more than a thousand years old." The tree produces over 60,000 fruits each year.
FlΓ‘vio Nogueira, Jr., the state secretary of tourism for PiauΓ, has claimed that the Cashew of Pirangi in PiauΓ is, in fact, the largest tree, covering an area of 8,800 square metres (2.2 acres). That tree was studied by a laboratory from the State University of PiauΓ.
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- "Cashew of Pirangi" | 2020-12-04 | 177 Upvotes 38 Comments
π Wikipedia: Size in volumes
This page displays the current size of a hypothetical print edition of the English Wikipedia (without images) in print volumes, per mathematical calculation.
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- "Wikipedia: Size in volumes" | 2013-08-20 | 112 Upvotes 41 Comments