Random Articles (Page 232)
Have a deep view into what people are curious about.
๐ Chicago Principles
The Chicago principles are a set of guiding principles intended to demonstrate a commitment to freedom of speech and freedom of expression on college campuses in the United States. Initially adopted by the University of Chicago following a report issued by a designated Committee on Freedom of Expression in 2014 (โณReport of the Committee on Freedom of Expressionโณ), they came to be known as the โChicago principlesโ, as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) led a campaign to encourage other universities across the country sign up to the principles or model their own based on similar goals.
Since 2014, a number of other universities have committed to the principles, including Princeton, Purdue, and Washington University in St. Louis. As of August 2020, FIRE reported that 76 U.S. colleges and universities had "adopted or endorsed the Chicago Statement or a substantially similar statement."
Discussed on
- "Chicago Principles" | 2021-12-17 | 14 Upvotes 9 Comments
๐ Great horse manure crisis of 1894
The great horse manure crisis of 1894 refers to the idea that the greatest obstacle to urban development at the turn of the century was the difficulty of removing horse manure from the streets. More broadly, it is an analogy for supposedly insuperable extrapolated problems being rendered moot by the introduction of new technologies. The phrase originates from a 2004 article by Stephen Davies entitled "The Great Horse-Manure Crisis of 1894".
The supposed problem of excessive horse-manure collecting in the streets was solved by the proliferation of cars, buses and electrified trams which replaced horses as the means of transportation in big cities. The term great horse manure crisis of 1894 is often used to denote a problem which seems to be impossible to solve because it is being looked at from the wrong direction.
The name refers to a supposed 1894 publication in The Times, which said "In 50 years, every street in London will be buried under nine feet of manure". The reasoning was that more horses are needed to remove the manure, and these horses produce more manure. An urban planning conference in 1898 supposedly broke up before its scheduled end due to a failure to find an answer to this problem. No such statement in the Times, nor conference result, is known, but in 1893 London there was a complaint that horse manure, formerly an economic good that could be sold, had become a disposal problem, an economic bad.
The supposed crisis has since taken on life as a useful analogy.
Discussed on
- "The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894: predictions of 9 feet of manure in cities" | 2025-10-14 | 30 Upvotes 55 Comments
- "Great horse manure crisis of 1894" | 2023-12-16 | 14 Upvotes 5 Comments
๐ Non-compete clause
In contract law, a non-compete clause (often NCC), or covenant not to compete (CNC), is a clause under which one party (usually an employee) agrees not to enter into or start a similar profession or trade in competition against another party (usually the employer). Some courts refer to these as "restrictive covenants". As a contract provision, a CNC is bound by traditional contract requirements including the consideration doctrine.
The use of such clauses is premised on the possibility that upon their termination or resignation, an employee might begin working for a competitor or start a business, and gain competitive advantage by exploiting confidential information about their former employer's operations or trade secrets, or sensitive information such as customer/client lists, business practices, upcoming products, and marketing plans.
However, an over-broad CNC may prevent an employee from working elsewhere at all. English common law originally held any such constraint to be unenforceable under the public policy doctrine. Contemporary case law permits exceptions, but generally will only enforce CNCs to the extent necessary to protect the employer. Most jurisdictions in which such contracts have been examined by the courts have deemed CNCs to be legally binding so long as the clause contains reasonable limitations as to the geographical area and time period in which an employee of a company may not compete.
The extent to which non-compete clauses are legally allowed varies per jurisdiction. For example, the state of California in the United States invalidates non-compete-clauses for all but equity stakeholders in the sale of business interests.
Discussed on
- "Non-compete clause" | 2019-06-27 | 32 Upvotes 6 Comments
๐ Cyclecar
A cyclecar was a type of small, lightweight and inexpensive car manufactured in Europe and the United States between 1910 and the early 1920s. The purpose of cyclecars was to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle and the car.
The demise of cyclecars was due to larger cars โ such as the Citroรซn Type C, Austin 7 and Morris Cowley โ becoming more affordable. Small, inexpensive vehicles reappeared after World War II, and were known as microcars.
Discussed on
- "Cyclecar" | 2020-03-14 | 24 Upvotes 14 Comments
๐ Rule of Three (Computer Programming)
Rule of three ("Three strikes and you refactor") is a code refactoring rule of thumb to decide when similar pieces of code should be refactored to avoid duplication. It states that two instances of similar code don't require refactoring, but when similar code is used three times, it should be extracted into a new procedure. The rule was popularised by Martin Fowler in Refactoring and attributed to Don Roberts.
Duplication is considered a bad practice in programming because it makes the code harder to maintain. When the rule encoded in a replicated piece of code changes, whoever maintains the code will have to change it in all places correctly.
However, choosing an appropriate design to avoid duplication might benefit from more examples to see patterns in. Attempting premature refactoring risks selecting a wrong abstraction, which can result in worse code as new requirements emerge and will eventually need to be refactored again.
The rule implies that the cost of maintenance certainly outweighs the cost of refactoring and potential bad design when there are three copies, and may or may not if there are only two copies.
Discussed on
- "Rule of Three" | 2023-08-30 | 19 Upvotes 22 Comments
- "Rule of Three (Computer Programming)" | 2020-02-02 | 20 Upvotes 10 Comments
๐ RTX2010 radiation-hardened microprocessor
The RTX2010 manufactured by Intersil is a radiation hardened stack machine microprocessor which has been used in numerous spacecraft.
Discussed on
- "RTX2010 โย Radiation-hardened stack machine microprocessor" | 2014-11-15 | 156 Upvotes 60 Comments
- "RTX2010 radiation-hardened microprocessor" | 2014-11-14 | 11 Upvotes 5 Comments
๐ PayPal Mafia
The "PayPal Mafia" is a group of former PayPal employees and founders who have since founded and developed additional technology companies such as Tesla Motors, LinkedIn, Palantir Technologies, SpaceX, YouTube, Yelp, and Yammer. Most of the members attended Stanford University or University of Illinois at UrbanaโChampaign at some point in their studies.
Discussed on
- "PayPal Mafia" | 2021-09-04 | 110 Upvotes 53 Comments
- "PayPal Mafia" | 2014-01-31 | 162 Upvotes 63 Comments
๐ Lincos language
Lincos (an abbreviation of the Latin phrase lingua cosmica) is a constructed language first described in 1960 by Dr. Hans Freudenthal in his book Lincos: Design of a Language for Cosmic Intercourse, Part 1. It is a language designed to be understandable by any possible intelligent extraterrestrial life form, for use in interstellar radio transmissions. Freudenthal considered that such a language should be easily understood by beings not acquainted with any Earthling syntax or language. Lincos was designed to be capable of encapsulating "the whole bulk of our knowledge."
Discussed on
- "Lincos language" | 2020-07-20 | 80 Upvotes 32 Comments
๐ Wolf Warrior Diplomacy
Wolf warrior diplomacy (Chinese: ๆ็ผๅคไบค; pinyin: Zhร nlรกng Wร ijiฤo) describes an aggressive style of coercive diplomacy adopted by Chinese diplomats in the 21st century under Chinese leader Xi Jinping's administration. The term was coined from the Chinese action film, Wolf Warrior 2. This approach is in contrast to prior Chinese diplomatic practices of Deng Xiaoping, which had emphasized the avoidance of controversy and the use of cooperative rhetoric. Wolf warrior diplomacy is confrontational and combative, with its proponents loudly denouncing any criticism of China on social media and in interviews. As an attempt to gain "discourse power" in international politics, wolf warrior diplomacy forms one part of a new foreign policy strategy called Xi Jinping's "Major Country Diplomacy" (Chinese: ๅคงๅฝๅคไบค; pinyin: Dร guรณ Wร ijiฤo) which has legitimized a more active role for China on the world stage, including engaging in an open ideological struggle with the West.
Although the phrase "wolf warrior diplomacy" was popularized as a description of this diplomatic approach during the COVID-19 pandemic, the appearance of wolf warrior-style diplomats had begun a few years prior. Chinese leader and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping's foreign policy writ large, perceived anti-China hostility from the West among Chinese government officials, and shifts within the Chinese diplomatic bureaucracy have been cited as factors leading to its emergence.
๐ A supernova star that erupted continuously for about 1,000 days
iPTF14hls is an unusual supernova star that erupted continuously for about 1,000 days beginning in September 2014 before becoming a remnant nebula. It had previously erupted in 1954. None of the theories nor proposed hypotheses fully explain all the aspects of the object.
Discussed on
- "A supernova star that erupted continuously for about 1,000 days" | 2022-10-08 | 73 Upvotes 10 Comments