Random Articles (Page 352)

Have a deep view into what people are curious about.

๐Ÿ”— Sonnet 5

๐Ÿ”— Poetry ๐Ÿ”— Shakespeare

Sonnet 5 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is a procreation sonnet within the Fair Youth sequence. Sonnet 5 is linked to Sonnet 6, which continues the theme of distillation.

Discussed on

๐Ÿ”— Soundies

๐Ÿ”— Film ๐Ÿ”— Film/Filmmaking

Soundies are three-minute American musical films, produced between 1940 and 1947, each displaying a song, dance, and/or band or orchestral number. Produced professionally on 35 mm black-and-white film, like theatrical motion pictures, they were printed on the more portable and economical 16 mm film.

The films were shown in a coin-operated "movie jukebox" named the Panoram, manufactured by the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago. Each Panoram housed a 16 mm RCA film projector, with eight Soundies films threaded in an endless-loop arrangement. A system of mirrors flashed the image from the lower half of the cabinet onto a front-facing screen in the top half. Each film cost 10 cents to play, with no choice of song; the patron saw whatever film was next in the queue. Panorams could be found in public amusement centers, nightclubs, taverns, restaurants, and factory lounges, and the films were changed weekly. The completed Soundies were generally made available within a few weeks of their filming, by the Soundies Distributing Corporation of America.

Several production companies filmed the Soundies shorts in New York City, Hollywood, and Chicago: James Roosevelt's Globe Productions (1940โ€“41), Cinemasters (1940โ€“41), Minoco Productions (owned by Mills Novelty, 1941โ€“43), RCM Productions (1941โ€“46), LOL Productions (1943), Glamourettes (1943), Filmcraft Productions (1943โ€“46), and Alexander Productions (1946) led by William D. Alexander). The performers recorded the music in advance, and mimed to the soundtrack during filming.

The movie-jukebox idea developed several imitations and variations of the technical design; the most successful of these imitators were the Techniprocess company (managed by Rudy Vallee) and the Featurettes company, which used original novelty songs and usually unknown talent (17-year-old Gwen Verdon appears in a couple of the Featurettes as "Gwen Verdun"). As Soundies quickly gained most of the market for jukebox films, the other companies disbanded, and some sold their films to the Soundies concern.

Discussed on

๐Ÿ”— Molyneux's problem

๐Ÿ”— Philosophy ๐Ÿ”— Philosophy/Philosophy of science ๐Ÿ”— Philosophy/Epistemology

Molyneux's problem is a thought experiment in philosophy concerning immediate recovery from blindness. It was first formulated by William Molyneux, and notably referred to in John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689). The problem can be stated in brief, "if a man born blind can feel the differences between shapes such as spheres and cubes, could he, if given the ability to see, distinguish those objects by sight alone, in reference to the tactile schemata he already possessed?"

Discussed on

๐Ÿ”— Randolph Bourne

๐Ÿ”— Biography ๐Ÿ”— New York (state) ๐Ÿ”— New York (state)/Columbia University

Randolph Silliman Bourne (; May 30, 1886 โ€“ December 22, 1918) was a progressive writer and intellectual born in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and a graduate of Columbia University. He is considered to be a spokesman for the young radicals living during World War I. His articles appeared in journals including The Seven Arts and The New Republic. Bourne is best known for his essays, especially his unfinished work "The State," discovered after he died. From this essay (which was published posthumously and included in Untimely Papers) comes the phrase "war is the health of the state" which laments the success of governments in arrogating authority and resources during conflicts.

Discussed on

๐Ÿ”— Trans-African Highway Network

๐Ÿ”— Africa ๐Ÿ”— Highways ๐Ÿ”— Highways/Road transport ๐Ÿ”— Highways/African Highways

The Trans-African Highway network comprises transcontinental road projects in Africa being developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Development Bank (ADB), and the African Union in conjunction with regional international communities. They aim to promote trade and alleviate poverty in Africa through highway infrastructure development and the management of road-based trade corridors. The total length of the nine highways in the network is 56,683ย km (35,221ย mi).

In some documents the highways are referred to as "Trans-African Corridors" or "Road Corridors" rather than highways. The name Trans-African Highway and its variants are not in wide common usage outside of planning and development circles, and as of 2014 one does not see them signposted as such or labelled on maps, except in Kenya and Uganda where the Mombasaโ€“Nairobiโ€“Kampalaโ€“Fort Portal section (or the Kampalaโ€“Kigali feeder road) of Trans-African Highway 8 is sometimes referred to as the "Trans-Africa Highway".

Discussed on

๐Ÿ”— Ludus Latrunculorum

๐Ÿ”— Classical Greece and Rome ๐Ÿ”— Board and table games

Ludus latrunculorum, latrunculi, or simply latrones (โ€œthe game of brigandsโ€, from latrunculus, diminutive of latro, mercenary or highwayman) was a two-player strategy board game played throughout the Roman Empire. It is said to resemble chess or draughts, but is generally accepted to be a game of military tactics. Because of the scarcity of sources, reconstruction of the game's rules and basic structure is difficult, and therefore there are multiple interpretations of the available evidence.

Discussed on

๐Ÿ”— Lisp (Book) (1989)

๐Ÿ”— Computer science ๐Ÿ”— Books

LISP is a university textbook on the Lisp programming language, written by Patrick Henry Winston and Berthold Klaus Paul Horn. It was first published in 1981, and the third edition of the book was released in 1989. The book is intended to introduce the Lisp programming language and its applications.

Discussed on

๐Ÿ”— 1700 Cascadia Earthquake

๐Ÿ”— United States ๐Ÿ”— California ๐Ÿ”— Disaster management ๐Ÿ”— Oregon ๐Ÿ”— Canada ๐Ÿ”— Anthropology ๐Ÿ”— Canada/British Columbia ๐Ÿ”— United States/Washington ๐Ÿ”— Canada/History of Canada ๐Ÿ”— Canada/Geography of Canada ๐Ÿ”— United States/U.S. history ๐Ÿ”— Cascadia ๐Ÿ”— Earthquakes ๐Ÿ”— Anthropology/Oral tradition

The 1700 Cascadia earthquake occurred along the Cascadia subduction zone on January 26, 1700 with an estimated moment magnitude of 8.7โ€“9.2. The megathrust earthquake involved the Juan de Fuca Plate from mid-Vancouver Island, south along the Pacific Northwest coast as far as northern California. The length of the fault rupture was about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), with an average slip of 20 meters (66ย ft).

The earthquake caused a tsunami which struck the west coast of North America and the coast of Japan.

Discussed on

๐Ÿ”— Pole of Inaccessibility

๐Ÿ”— Soviet Union ๐Ÿ”— Russia ๐Ÿ”— Geography ๐Ÿ”— Russia/science and education in Russia ๐Ÿ”— Russia/physical geography of Russia

In geography, a pole of inaccessibility is the farthest (or the most difficult to reach) location in a given landmass, sea, or other topographical feature, starting from a given boundary, relative to a given criterion. A geographical criterion of inaccessibility marks a location that is the most challenging to reach according to that criterion. Often it refers to the most distant point from the coastline, implying the farthest point into a landmass from the shore, or the farthest point into a body of water from the shore. In these cases, a pole of inaccessibility is the center of a maximally large circle that can be drawn within an area of interest only touching but not crossing a coastline. Where a coast is imprecisely defined, the pole will be similarly imprecise.

Discussed on