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๐ Metcalf Sniper Attack
On April 16, 2013, a sophisticated assault was carried out on Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Metcalf Transmission Substation in Coyote, California, near the border of San Jose. The attack, in which gunmen fired on 17 electrical transformers, resulted in more than $15 million worth of equipment damage, but it had little impact on the station's electrical power supply.
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- "Metcalf Sniper Attack" | 2020-08-29 | 210 Upvotes 161 Comments
๐ Pankration
Pankration (; Greek: ฯฮฑฮณฮบฯฮฌฯฮนฮฟฮฝ) was a sporting event introduced into the Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC and was an empty-hand submission sport with scarcely any rules. The athletes used boxing and wrestling techniques, but also others, such as kicking and holds, locks and chokes on the ground. The term comes from the Greek ฯฮฑฮณฮบฯฮฌฯฮนฮฟฮฝ [paลkrรกtion], literally meaning "all of power" from ฯแพถฮฝ (pan) "all" and ฮบฯฮฌฯฮฟฯ (kratos) "strength, might, power".
It was known in ancient times for its ferocity and allowance of such tactics as knees to the head and eye gouging. One ancient account tells of a situation in which the judges were trying to determine the winner of a match. The difficulty lay in that fact that both men had died in the arena from their injuries, making it hard to determine a victor. Eventually, the judges decided the winner was the one who didn't have his eyes gouged out. Over time, however, maneuvers like eye gouging were discouraged to prevent such unpleasant incidents.
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- "Pankration" | 2015-04-09 | 16 Upvotes 18 Comments
๐ Jonbar Hinge
In science-fiction criticism, a Jonbar hinge or Jonbar point is the fictional concept of a crucial point of divergence between two outcomes, especially in time-travel stories. It is sometimes referred to as a Jon Bar hinge or change-point.
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- "Jonbar Hinge" | 2021-05-28 | 15 Upvotes 9 Comments
๐ Comparative Illusion
In linguistics, comparative illusions (CIs) or Escher sentences are certain comparative sentences which initially seem to be acceptable but upon closer reflection have no well-formed meaning. The typical example sentence used to typify this phenomenon is More people have been to Russia than I have. The effect has also been observed in other languages. Some studies have suggested that, at least in English, the effect is stronger for sentences whose predicate is repeatable. The effect has also been found to be stronger in some cases when there is a plural subject in the second clause.
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- "Comparative Illusion" | 2022-02-07 | 77 Upvotes 24 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.
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- "PayPal Mafia" | 2021-09-04 | 110 Upvotes 53 Comments
- "PayPal Mafia" | 2014-01-31 | 162 Upvotes 63 Comments
๐ The eastern coyote, a wild N. American canine with coyote-wolf and dog parentage
The eastern coyote (Canis latrans var.) is a wild North American canine of both coyote and wolf parentage. The hybridization likely first occurred in the Great Lakes region, as western coyotes moved east. It was first noticed during the early 1930s to the late 1940s, and likely originated in the aftermath of the extirpation of the gray wolf in southeastern Ontario, Labrador and Quebec, thus allowing coyotes to colonize the former wolf ranges and mix with the remnant wolf populations. This hybrid is smaller than the eastern wolf and holds smaller territories, but is larger and holds more extensive home ranges than the typical western coyote.
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- "The eastern coyote, a wild N. American canine with coyote-wolf and dog parentage" | 2018-02-25 | 47 Upvotes 11 Comments
๐ Great Ape Personhood
Great ape personhood is a movement to extend personhood and some legal protections to the non-human members of the Hominidae or great ape family: chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans.
Advocates include primatologists Jane Goodall and Dawn Prince-Hughes, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, philosophers Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer, and legal scholar Steven Wise.
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- "Great Ape Personhood" | 2019-07-30 | 26 Upvotes 4 Comments
๐ The Dead HandโSoviet semi-autonomous nuclear command and control system
Dead Hand (Russian: ะกะธััะตะผะฐ ยซะะตัะธะผะตััยป, Systema "Perimetr", lit. "Perimeter" System, with the GRAU Index 15E601, Cyrillic: 15ะญ601), also known as Perimeter, is a Cold War-era automatic nuclear weapons-control system (similar in concept to the American AN/DRC-8 Emergency Rocket Communications System) that was used by the Soviet Union. The system remains in use in the post-Soviet Russian Federation. An example of fail-deadly and mutual assured destruction deterrence, it can automatically initiate the launch of the Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) by sending a pre-entered highest-authority order from the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Strategic Missile Force Management to command posts and individual silos if a nuclear strike is detected by seismic, light, radioactivity, and pressure sensors even with the commanding elements fully destroyed. By most accounts, it is normally switched off and is supposed to be activated during times of crisis; however, it is said to remain fully functional and able to serve its purpose whenever it may be needed.
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- "The Dead HandโSoviet semi-autonomous nuclear command and control system" | 2022-04-04 | 73 Upvotes 90 Comments
๐ 20 years ago Far Cry was released
Far Cry is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed by Crytek and published by Ubisoft. It is the first installment in the Far Cry franchise. Set on a mysterious tropical archipelago, the game follows Jack Carver, a former American special operations forces operative, as he searches for journalist Valerie Constantine, who accompanied him to the islands but went missing after their boat was destroyed by mercenaries. As Jack explores the islands, he begins to discover the horrific genetic experiments being conducted on the local wildlife and must confront the mad scientist behind them.
The game was the first to use Crytek's CryEngine, and was designed as an open-ended first-person shooter, though it lacks most of the freedom its successors would offer to the player. While players can freely explore the game's world like in later Far Cry titles, they are most often discouraged from doing so due to the linear structure of missions and the lack of side content. Despite this, the gameplay formula established in Far Cryโplacing the player in a foreign environment occupied by enemy forces where they must use various weapons and tools, as well as their surroundings to overcome any threatโwould prove essential in defining the series' identity going forward.
Far Cry was released for Microsoft Windows in March 2004 to generally positive reviews, being praised for its visuals, gameplay mechanics, and the level of freedom given to players. The game was also a commercial success, selling over 730,000 units within four months of release and over 2.5 million units in its lifetime. The success of Far Cry led to a series of standalone sequels developed by Ubisoft, starting with Far Cry 2 in 2008. A remake of the game with a different storyline and new mechanics, Far Cry Instincts, was released for the Xbox in 2005, and for the Xbox 360 in 2006 as part of the Far Cry Instincts: Predator compilation. A loose film adaptation was released in 2008. The original version of Far Cry, updated with HD graphics, was re-released under the title Far Cry Classic for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2014.
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- "20 years ago Far Cry was released" | 2024-03-30 | 70 Upvotes 63 Comments
๐ Nebraska Furniture Mart
Nebraska Furniture Mart is the largest home furnishing store in North America selling furniture, flooring, appliances and electronics. NFM was founded in 1937 by Belarus-born Rose Blumkin, universally known as Mrs. B., in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Under the motto "sell cheap and tell the truth," she worked in the business until age 103. In 1983, Mrs. B. sold a majority interest to Berkshire Hathaway in a handshake deal with Warren Buffett.
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- "Nebraska Furniture Mart" | 2019-09-21 | 170 Upvotes 72 Comments