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π Tinkerbell Effect
The Tinkerbell effect is an American English expression describing things that are thought to exist only because people believe in them. The effect is named after Tinker Bell, the fairy in the play Peter Pan, who is revived from near death by the belief of the audience.
Another form is called the Reverse Tinkerbell effect, a term coined by David Post in 2003. It stipulates that the more you believe in something the more likely it is to vanish. For example, as more people believe that driving is safe, more people will drive carelessly, in turn making driving less safe.
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- "Tinkerbell Effect" | 2020-03-08 | 16 Upvotes 6 Comments
π Longest-lasting incandescent light bulbs
This is a list of the longest-lasting incandescent light bulbs.
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- "Longest-lasting incandescent light bulbs" | 2023-08-04 | 85 Upvotes 93 Comments
π Banana equivalent dose
Banana equivalent dose (BED) is an informal measurement of ionizing radiation exposure, intended as a general educational example to compare a dose of radioactivity to the dose one is exposed to by eating one average-sized banana. Bananas contain naturally occurring radioactive isotopes, particularly potassium-40 (40K), one of several naturally-occurring isotopes of potassium. One BED is often correlated to 10β7 sievert (0.1 ΞΌSv); however, in practice, this dose is not cumulative, as the principal radioactive component is excreted to maintain metabolic equilibrium. The BED is only meant to inform the public about the existence of very low levels of natural radioactivity within a natural food and is not a formally adopted dose measurement.
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- "Banana Equivalent Dose" | 2023-05-02 | 84 Upvotes 62 Comments
- "Banana equivalent dose" | 2010-06-14 | 470 Upvotes 84 Comments
π Microsoft Works
Microsoft Works is a discontinued productivity software suite developed by Microsoft and sold from 1987 to 2009. Its core functionality included a word processor, a spreadsheet and a database management system. Later versions had a calendar application and a dictionary while older releases included a terminal emulator. Works was available as a standalone program, and as part of a namesake home productivity suite. Because of its low cost ($40 retail, or as low as $2 OEM), companies frequently pre-installed Works on their low-cost machines. Works was smaller, less expensive, and had fewer features than Microsoft Office and other major office suites available at the time.
Mainstream support for the final standalone and suite release ended on October 9, 2012 and January 8, 2013, respectively.
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- "Microsoft Works" | 2023-09-03 | 31 Upvotes 18 Comments
π Why less competent may rate their own ability higher than more competent
In the field of psychology, the DunningβKruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is. It is related to the cognitive bias of illusory superiority and comes from the inability of people to recognize their lack of ability. Without the self-awareness of metacognition, people cannot objectively evaluate their competence or incompetence.
As described by social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, the cognitive bias of illusory superiority results from an internal illusion in people of low ability and from an external misperception in people of high ability; that is, "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others."
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- "DunningβKruger Effect" | 2023-06-28 | 13 Upvotes 3 Comments
- "Why less competent may rate their own ability higher than more competent" | 2010-04-22 | 44 Upvotes 18 Comments
- "Dunning-Kruger effect" | 2010-01-19 | 33 Upvotes 11 Comments
π The man who did not have a conversation in over 50 years
AndrΓ‘s Toma (5 December 1925 β 30 March 2004) was a Hungarian soldier taken prisoner by the Red Army in 1945, then discovered living in a Russian psychiatric hospital in 2000. He was probably the last prisoner of war from the Second World War to be repatriated.
Because Toma never learned Russian and nobody at the hospital spoke Hungarian, he had apparently not had a single conversation in over 50 years, a situation of great interest for the fields of psychiatry and psycholinguistics.
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- "The man who did not have a conversation in over 50 years" | 2023-09-30 | 213 Upvotes 61 Comments
π First Council of Nicaea
The First Council of Nicaea ( ny-SEE-Ι; Ancient Greek: Ξ£ΟΞ½ΞΏΞ΄ΞΏΟ ΟαΏΟ ΞΞΉΞΊΞ±Ξ―Ξ±Ο, romanized:Β SΓ½nodos tΓͺs NikaΓas) was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now Δ°znik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I. The Council of Nicaea met from May until the end of July 325.
This ecumenical council was the first of many efforts to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all Christendom. Hosius of Corduba may have presided over its deliberations. Its main accomplishments were settlement of the Christological issue of the divine nature of God the Son and his relationship to God the Father, the construction of the first part of the Nicene Creed, mandating uniform observance of the date of Easter, and promulgation of early canon law.
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- "First Council of Nicaea" | 2024-03-31 | 32 Upvotes 51 Comments
π List of Emerging Technologies
Emerging technologies are those technical innovations that represent progressive innovations within a field for competitive advantage.
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- "List of Emerging Technologies" | 2021-04-16 | 162 Upvotes 44 Comments
- "List of Emerging Technologies" | 2019-03-10 | 160 Upvotes 15 Comments
- "List of emerging technologies" | 2012-05-17 | 78 Upvotes 41 Comments
π Sinosphere
The Sinosphere, also known as the East Asian cultural sphere, or the Sinic world, encompasses multiple countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia that historically were heavily influenced by Chinese culture, norms and traditions. According to academic consensus, the Sinosphere comprises four entities: Greater China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Other definitions may include Mongolia and Singapore, largely due to limited historical Chinese influences or increasing modern-day Chinese diaspora. The Sinosphere is not to be confused with Sinophone, which indicates countries where a Chinese-speaking population is dominant.
Imperial China was a major regional power in Eastern Asia and had exerted influence on tributary states and neighboring states, among which were Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. These interactions brought ideological and cultural influences rooted in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. During classical history, the four cultures shared a common imperial system under respective emperors. Chinese inventions influenced, and were in turn influenced by, innovations of the other cultures in governance, philosophy, science, and the arts. Written Classical Chinese became the regional lingua franca for literary and scientific exchange, and Chinese characters (Hanzi) became locally adapted in Japan as Kanji, Korea as Hanja, and Vietnam as chα»― HΓ‘n.
In late classical history, the literary importance of classical Chinese diminished as Japan, Korea, and Vietnam each adopted their own literary device. Japan developed the Katakana and Hiragana scripts, Korea created Hangul, and Vietnam developed chα»― NΓ΄m (which is now rarely used; the modern Vietnamese alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet). Classical literature written in Chinese characters nonetheless remains an important legacy of Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese cultures. In the 21st century, ideological and cultural influences of Confucianism and Buddhism remain visible in high culture and social doctrines.
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- "Sinosphere" | 2023-10-26 | 12 Upvotes 4 Comments
π Shakespeare (programming language)
The Shakespeare Programming Language (SPL) is an esoteric programming language designed by Jon Γ slund and Karl HasselstrΓΆm. Like the Chef programming language, it is designed to make programs appear to be something other than programs; in this case, Shakespearean plays.
A character list in the beginning of the program declares a number of stacks, naturally with names like "Romeo" and "Juliet". These characters enter into dialogue with each other in which they manipulate each other's topmost values, push and pop each other, and do I/O. The characters can also ask each other questions which behave as conditional statements. On the whole, the programming model is very similar to assembly language but much more verbose.
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- "Shakespeare (programming language)" | 2012-12-12 | 34 Upvotes 10 Comments
- "Shakespeare programming language" | 2011-10-29 | 36 Upvotes 8 Comments