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π The mysterious broadcast interruption of 1977
The Southern Television broadcast interruption was a broadcast signal intrusion that occurred on 26 November 1977 in parts of southern England in the United Kingdom. The audio of a Southern Television broadcast was replaced by a voice claiming to represent the 'Ashtar Galactic Command', delivering a message instructing humanity to abandon its weapons so it could participate in a 'future awakening' and 'achieve a higher state of evolution'. After six minutes, the broadcast returned to its scheduled programme.
Subsequent investigations showed that the Hannington transmitter of the Independent Broadcasting Authority had rebroadcast the signal from a small but nearby unauthorised transmitter, instead of the intended source at Rowridge transmitting station. The hoaxer was never identified.
The event prompted hundreds of telephone calls from concerned members of the public, and was widely reported in British and American newspapers. These are sometimes contradictory, including differing accounts of the name used by the speaker and the wording of their message.
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- "The mysterious broadcast interruption of 1977" | 2021-11-12 | 16 Upvotes 6 Comments
π Grue and Bleen: New riddle of induction
Grue and bleen are examples of logical predicates coined by Nelson Goodman in Fact, Fiction, and Forecast to illustrate the "new riddle of induction" β a successor to Hume's original problem. These predicates are unusual because their application is time-dependent; many have tried to solve the new riddle on those terms, but Hilary Putnam and others have argued such time-dependency depends on the language adopted, and in some languages it is equally true for natural-sounding predicates such as "green." For Goodman they illustrate the problem of projectible predicates and ultimately, which empirical generalizations are law-like and which are not. Goodman's construction and use of grue and bleen illustrates how philosophers use simple examples in conceptual analysis.
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- "Grue and Bleen: New riddle of induction" | 2018-08-12 | 49 Upvotes 52 Comments
π Interton Video Computer 4000
The Interton Video Computer 4000 (officially abbreviated as Interton VC 4000) is an 8-bit ROM cartridge-based second-generation home video game console that was released in Germany, England, France, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands and Australia in 1978 by German hearing aid manufacturer Interton. The console is quite obscure outside Germany, but many software-compatible systems can be found in numerous European countries (see versions of the 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System). The console is the successor of the Interton Video 3001 and was sold for 298DM and discontinued in 1983.
It is unknown if Interton designed and produced the Interton VCΒ 4000 within their own rights, or if they were sold the rights to design and produce it. This is because many other foreign brands have produced "clones" of this system in the preceding years.
The Interton VC 4000's power comes from a Signetics 2650 CPU (which is the same as an Arcadia 2001) and a Signetics 2636 gaming video controller. Both controllers contain a 12-button keypad, two fire buttons, and a joystick. Inside the systems control panel, there are four different buttons: the ON/OFF switch, RESET, SELECT, and START.
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- "Interton Video Computer 4000" | 2025-12-21 | 18 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Twin Films
Twin films are films with the same or similar plots produced and released at the same time by two different film studios. The phenomenon can result from two or more production companies investing in similar scripts at the same time, resulting in a race to distribute the films to audiences. Some attribute twin films to industrial espionage, the movement of staff between studios, or that the same screenplays are sent to several film studios before being accepted. Another possible explanation is if the films deal with topical issues, such as volcanic eruptions, reality television, terrorist attacks, or significant anniversaries, resulting in multiple discovery of the concept.
While twin films are often big budget films, a mockbuster can be made with a low budget, with similar titles, aesthetics, or theme as blockbuster films. Mockbusters are usually given more limited release and marketing, intending to take advantage of the public interest in the topic driven by the major film.
Producer Bingham Ray recalls a conversation where the screenwriter of the 2006 Truman Capote biopic Infamous phoned to announce that his script had been finished. Ray said "I know, I've got it on my desk!" before realizing that he actually had the screenplay to Capote, a biopic by a different writer.
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- "Twin Films" | 2022-12-30 | 10 Upvotes 2 Comments
π BΓ©lΓ‘dy's Anomaly
In computer storage, BΓ©lΓ‘dy's anomaly is the phenomenon in which increasing the number of page frames results in an increase in the number of page faults for certain memory access patterns. This phenomenon is commonly experienced when using the first-in first-out (FIFO) page replacement algorithm. In FIFO, the page fault may or may not increase as the page frames increase, but in Optimal and stack-based algorithms like LRU, as the page frames increase the page fault decreases. LΓ‘szlΓ³ BΓ©lΓ‘dy demonstrated this in 1969.
In common computer memory management, information is loaded in specific-sized chunks. Each chunk is referred to as a page. Main memory can hold only a limited number of pages at a time. It requires a frame for each page it can load. A page fault occurs when a page is not found, and might need to be loaded from disk into memory.
When a page fault occurs and all frames are in use, one must be cleared to make room for the new page. A simple algorithm is FIFO: whichever page has been in the frames the longest is the one that is cleared. Until BΓ©lΓ‘dy's anomaly was demonstrated, it was believed that an increase in the number of page frames would always result in the same number of or fewer page faults.
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- "BΓ©lΓ‘dy's Anomaly" | 2021-01-14 | 66 Upvotes 3 Comments
π Tacit Knowledge
Tacit knowledge or implicit knowledge is knowledge that is difficult to extract or articulateβas opposed to conceptualized, formalized, codified, or explicit knowledgeβand is therefore more difficult to convey to others through verbalization or writing. Examples of this include individual wisdom, experience, insight, motor skill, and intuition. An example of "explicit" information that can be recorded, conveyed, and understood by the recipient is the knowledge that London is in the United Kingdom. Speaking a language, riding a bicycle, kneading dough, playing an instrument, or designing and operating sophisticated machinery, on the other hand, all require a variety of knowledge that is difficult or impossible to transfer to other people and is not always known "explicitly", even by skilled practitioners.
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- "Tacit Knowledge" | 2026-07-13 | 22 Upvotes 5 Comments
π Induction of regular languages
In computational learning theory, induction of regular languages refers to the task of learning a formal description (e.g. grammar) of a regular language from a given set of example strings. Although Mark E. Gold has shown that not every regular language can be learned this way (see language identification in the limit), approaches have been investigated for a variety of subclasses. They are sketched in this article. For learning of more general grammars, see Grammar induction.
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- "Induction of regular languages" | 2018-11-24 | 44 Upvotes 3 Comments
π Fundamental Attribution Error
In social psychology, fundamental attribution error (FAE), also known as correspondence bias or attribution effect, is the tendency for people to under-emphasize situational explanations for an individual's observed behavior while over-emphasizing dispositional and personality-based explanations for their behavior. This effect has been described as "the tendency to believe that what people do reflects who they are".
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- "Fundamental Attribution Error" | 2013-05-06 | 41 Upvotes 12 Comments
- "Fundamental attribution error" | 2010-02-06 | 30 Upvotes 15 Comments
π St. Petersburg paradox
The St. Petersburg paradox or St. Petersburg lottery is a paradox related to probability and decision theory in economics. It is based on a particular (theoretical) lottery game that leads to a random variable with infinite expected value (i.e., infinite expected payoff) but nevertheless seems to be worth only a very small amount to the participants. The St. Petersburg paradox is a situation where a naive decision criterion which takes only the expected value into account predicts a course of action that presumably no actual person would be willing to take. Several resolutions are possible.
The paradox takes its name from its resolution by Daniel Bernoulli, one-time resident of the eponymous Russian city, who published his arguments in the Commentaries of the Imperial Academy of Science of Saint Petersburg (Bernoulli 1738). However, the problem was invented by Daniel's cousin, Nicolas Bernoulli, who first stated it in a letter to Pierre Raymond de Montmort on September 9, 1713 (de Montmort 1713).
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- "St. Petersburg paradox" | 2015-09-04 | 144 Upvotes 74 Comments
- "St. Petersburg paradox" | 2013-08-27 | 12 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Soviet version of the Space Shuttle
Buran (Russian: ΠΡΡΠ°ΜΠ½, IPA:Β [bΚΛran], meaning "Snowstorm" or "Blizzard"; GRAU index serial number: "11F35 K1") was the first spaceplane to be produced as part of the Soviet/Russian Buran programme. It is, depending on the source, also known as "OK-1K1", "Orbiter K1", "OK 1.01" or "Shuttle 1.01". Besides describing the first operational Soviet/Russian shuttle orbiter, "Buran" was also the designation for the entire Soviet/Russian spaceplane project and its orbiters, which were known as "Buran-class spaceplanes".
OK-1K1 completed one uncrewed spaceflight in 1988, and was destroyed in 2002 when the hangar it was stored in collapsed. The Buran-class orbiters used the expendable Energia rocket, a class of super heavy-lift launch vehicle.
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- "Soviet version of the Space Shuttle" | 2011-01-27 | 33 Upvotes 28 Comments