Random Articles (Page 4)
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๐ Eastgate Centre, Harare
The Eastgate Centre is a shopping centre and office block in central Harare, Zimbabwe whose architect is Mick Pearce. Designed to be ventilated and cooled by entirely natural means, it was probably the first building in the world to use natural cooling to this level of sophistication. It opened in 1996 on Robert Mugabe Avenue and Second Street, and provides 5,600 mยฒ of retail space, 26,000 mยฒ of office space and parking for 450 cars.
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- "Eastgate Centre, Harare" | 2019-07-13 | 201 Upvotes 61 Comments
๐ Eltanin Antenna
The Eltanin Antenna is an object photographed on the sea floor by the Antarctic oceanographic research ship USNS Eltanin in 1964, while photographing the sea bottom west of Cape Horn.
Due to its regular antenna-like structure and upright position on the seafloor at a depth of 3,904 metres (12,808ย ft), some proponents of fringe and UFO-related theories including Bruce Cathie have suggested that it might be an extraterrestrial artifact. Other authorities have suggested that the object photographed by the Eltanin was an unusual carnivorous sponge, Chondrocladia concrescens (formerly Cladorhiza concrescens).
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- "Eltanin Antenna" | 2023-11-10 | 99 Upvotes 21 Comments
๐ Kentucky in Africa
Kentucky in Africa was a colony in present-day Montserrado County, Liberia, founded in 1828 and settled by American free people of color, many of them former slaves. A state affiliate of the American Colonization Society, the Kentucky State Colonization Society raised money to transport people of color from Kentuckyโfreeborn volunteers as well as enslaved individuals set free on the condition that they leave the United States for Liberia. The Kentucky society bought a 40-square-mile (100ย km2) site along the Saint Paul River (quite near the site of the present-day capital city of Monrovia) and named it Kentucky in Africa. Clay-Ashland. named after Henry Clay's Ashland Plantation, was the colony's primary settlement.
Notable residents of Kentucky in Africa include Alfred Francis Russell, the 10th President of Liberia, and William D. Coleman, the 13th President of Liberia, whose family settled in Clay-Ashland after emigrating from Fayette County, Kentucky.
Kentucky in Africa was annexed by Liberia in about 1847.
๐ Gauge blocks, a system for producing precision lengths
Gauge blocks (also known as gage blocks, Johansson gauges, slip gauges, or Jo blocks) are a system for producing precision lengths. The individual gauge block is a metal or ceramic block that has been precision ground and lapped to a specific thickness. Gauge blocks come in sets of blocks with a range of standard lengths. In use, the blocks are stacked to make up a desired length.
An important feature of gauge blocks is that they can be joined together with very little dimensional uncertainty. The blocks are joined by a sliding process called wringing, which causes their ultra-flat surfaces to cling together. A small number of gauge blocks can be used to create accurate lengths within a wide range. By using 3 blocks at a time taken from a set of 30 blocks, one may create any of the 1000 lengths from 3.000 to 3.999ย mm in 0.001ย mm steps (or .3000 to .3999 inches in 0.0001ย inch steps). Gauge blocks were invented in 1896 by Swedish machinist Carl Edvard Johansson. They are used as a reference for the calibration of measuring equipment used in machine shops, such as micrometers, sine bars, calipers, and dial indicators (when used in an inspection role). Gauge blocks are the main means of length standardization used by industry.
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- "Gauge Block" | 2024-10-26 | 17 Upvotes 1 Comments
- "Gauge blocks, a system for producing precision lengths" | 2018-10-24 | 12 Upvotes 3 Comments
๐ The Alan Turing Year 2012
The Alan Turing Year, 2012, marked the celebration of the life and scientific influence of Alan Turing during the centenary of his birth on 23 June 1912. Turing had an important influence on computing, computer science, artificial intelligence, developmental biology, and the mathematical theory of computability and made important contributions to code-breaking during the Second World War. The Alan Turing Centenary Advisory committee (TCAC) was originally set up by Professor Barry Cooper
The international impact of Turing's work is reflected in the list of countries in which Alan Turing Year was celebrated, including: Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, U.K. and the U.S.A. 41+ countries were involved.
๐ Curse of the Colonel
The Curse of the Colonel (Japanese: ใซใผใใซใตใณใใผในใฎๅชใ, romanisation: Kฤneru Sandฤsu no Noroi) refers to a 1985 Japanese urban legend regarding a reputed curse placed on the Japanese Kansai-based Hanshin Tigers baseball team by the ghost of deceased KFC founder and mascot Colonel Sanders.
The curse was said to be placed on the team because of the Colonel's anger over treatment of one of his store-front statues, which was thrown into the Dลtonbori River by celebrating Hanshin fans before their team's victory in the 1985 Japan Championship Series. As is common with sports-related curses, the Curse of the Colonel was used to explain the team's subsequent 18-year losing streak. Some fans believed the team would never win another Japan Series until the statue had been recovered. They have appeared in the Japan Series three times since then, losing in 2003, 2005 and 2014.
Comparisons are often made between the Hanshin Tigers and the Boston Red Sox, who were said to be under the Curse of the Bambino until they won the World Series in 2004. The "Curse of the Colonel" has also been used as a bogeyman threat to those who would divulge the secret recipe of eleven herbs and spices that result in the unique taste of his chicken.
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- "Curse of the Colonel" | 2022-01-15 | 70 Upvotes 13 Comments
๐ Eiffel programming language
Eiffel is an object-oriented programming language designed by Bertrand Meyer (an object-orientation proponent and author of Object-Oriented Software Construction) and Eiffel Software. Meyer conceived the language in 1985 with the goal of increasing the reliability of commercial software development; the first version becoming available in 1986. In 2005, Eiffel became an ISO-standardized language.
The design of the language is closely connected with the Eiffel programming method. Both are based on a set of principles, including design by contract, commandโquery separation, the uniform-access principle, the single-choice principle, the openโclosed principle, and optionโoperand separation.
Many concepts initially introduced by Eiffel later found their way into Java, C#, and other languages. New language design ideas, particularly through the Ecma/ISO standardization process, continue to be incorporated into the Eiffel language.
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- "Eiffel programming language" | 2020-02-09 | 109 Upvotes 72 Comments
๐ Radio Yerevan Jokes
The Radio Yerevan jokes, also known as the Armenian Radio jokes, have been popular in the Soviet Union and other countries of the former Communist Eastern bloc since the second half of the 20th century. These jokes of the Q&A type pretended to come from the Question & Answer series of the Armenian Radio. A typical format of a joke was: "Radio Yerevan was asked," and "Radio Yerevan answered."
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- "Radio Yerevan Jokes" | 2022-05-28 | 38 Upvotes 4 Comments
๐ Sand Cat
The sand cat (Felis margarita), also known as the sand dune cat, is the only cat living chiefly in true deserts. This small cat is widely distributed in the deserts of North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Starting in 2002, it was listed as near threatened on the IUCN Red List because the population was considered fragmented and small with a declining trend. It was downlisted to least concern in 2016.
Owing to long hairs covering the soles of its feet, the sand cat is well adapted to the extremes of a desert environment and tolerant of extremely hot and cold temperatures. It inhabits both sandy and stony deserts, in areas far from water sources.
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- "Sand Cat" | 2015-12-02 | 47 Upvotes 15 Comments
๐ Baum-Welch Algorithm
In electrical engineering, statistical computing and bioinformatics, the BaumโWelch algorithm is a special case of the expectationโmaximization algorithm used to find the unknown parameters of a hidden Markov model (HMM). It makes use of the forward-backward algorithm to compute the statistics for the expectation step.