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π Simon Oxley, famous tech logo designer, has died
Simon Oxley (1969 β April 2026) was a British freelance graphic designer and illustrator who was most famous for designing the original bird logo for Twitter, the Octocat logo for GitHub, the puffer fish for Bitly, and Sammy the Shark for DigitalOcean. Operating predominantly under the studio pseudonym Idokungfoo, Oxley became a pioneer in the microstock economy and played a seminal role in establishing the friendly, mascot-driven aesthetic of the Web 2.0 era.
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- "Simon Oxley, famous tech logo designer, has died" | 2026-04-15 | 25 Upvotes 1 Comments
π I know that I know nothing
"I know that I know nothing" is a saying derived from Plato's account of the Greek philosopher Socrates. Socrates himself was never recorded as having said this phrase, and scholars generally agree that Socrates only ever asserted that he believed that he knew nothing, having never claimed that he knew that he knew nothing. It is also sometimes called the Socratic paradox, although this name is often instead used to refer to other seemingly paradoxical claims made by Socrates in Plato's dialogues (most notably, Socratic intellectualism and the Socratic fallacy).
This saying is also connected or conflated with the answer to a question Socrates (according to Xenophon) or Chaerephon (according to Plato) is said to have posed to the Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, in which the oracle stated something to the effect of "Socrates is the wisest person in Athens." Socrates, believing the oracle but also completely convinced that he knew nothing, was said to have concluded that nobody knew anything, and that he was only wiser than others because he was the only person who recognized his own ignorance.
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- "I know that I know nothing" | 2022-03-15 | 11 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Phugoid
In aviation, a phugoid or fugoid ( ) is an aircraft motion in which the vehicle pitches up and climbs, and then pitches down and descends, accompanied by speeding up and slowing down as it goes "downhill" and "uphill". This is one of the basic flight dynamics modes of an aircraft (others include short period, roll subsidence, dutch roll, and spiral divergence).
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- "Phugoid" | 2024-12-25 | 43 Upvotes 22 Comments
π Solar storm of 1859
The solar storm of 1859 (also known as the Carrington Event) was a powerful geomagnetic storm during solar cycle 10 (1855β1867). A solar coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetosphere and induced the largest geomagnetic storm on record, September 1β2, 1859. The associated "white light flare" in the solar photosphere was observed and recorded by British astronomers Richard C. Carrington (1826β1875) and Richard Hodgson (1804β1872). The storm caused strong auroral displays and wrought havoc with telegraph systems. The now-standard unique IAU identifier for this flare is SOL1859-09-01.
A solar storm of this magnitude occurring today would cause widespread electrical disruptions, blackouts and damage due to extended outages of the electrical grid. The solar storm of 2012 was of similar magnitude, but it passed Earth's orbit without striking the planet, missing by nine days.
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- "Solar Storm of 1859" | 2020-05-04 | 148 Upvotes 84 Comments
- "Solar storm of 1859" | 2018-11-04 | 109 Upvotes 45 Comments
π National Popular Vote Interstate Compact
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among a group of U.S. states and the District of Columbia to award all their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the overall popular vote in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The compact is designed to ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide is elected president, and it would come into effect only when it would guarantee that outcome. As of MarchΒ 2020, it has been adopted by fifteen states and the District of Columbia. Together, they have 196 electoral votes, which is 36% of the Electoral College and 73% of the 270 votes needed to give the compact legal force. Certain legal questions, however, may affect implementation of the compact.
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- "National Popular Vote Interstate Compact" | 2024-08-12 | 38 Upvotes 63 Comments
- "National Popular Vote Interstate Compact" | 2016-11-10 | 19 Upvotes 7 Comments
π The Myth of Mental Illness
The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct is a 1961 book by the psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, in which the author criticizes psychiatry and argues against the concept of mental illness. It received much publicity, and has become a classic, well known as an argument that "mentally ill" is a label which psychiatrists have used against people "disabled by living" rather than truly having a disease.
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- "The Myth of Mental Illness" | 2021-10-28 | 14 Upvotes 4 Comments
π List of military tactics
This page contains a list of military tactics.
The meaning of the phrase is context sensitive, and has varied over time, like the difference between "strategy" and "tactics".
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- "List of military tactics" | 2019-08-23 | 123 Upvotes 81 Comments
π Barbie Liberation Organization
The Barbie Liberation Organization or BLO, sponsored by RTMark, were a group of artists and activists involved in culture jamming. They gained notoriety in 1993 after switching voice boxes in talking G.I. Joes and Barbie dolls. The BLO performed "surgery" on a reported 300β500 dolls from retail and returned them to shelves, an action they refer to as shopgiving. Thus, Teen Talk Barbie dolls would say phrases such as "Vengeance is mine", while G.I. Joe dolls would say phrases such as "The beach is the place for summer!"
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- "Barbie Liberation Organization" | 2022-12-17 | 17 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Senet: board game from predynastic and ancient Egypt
Senet (or senat) is a board game from ancient Egypt, whose original rules are the subject of conjecture. The oldest hieroglyph resembling a senet game dates to around 3100 BC. The full name of the game in Egyptian is thought to have been zn.t n.t αΈ₯Λb, meaning the "game of passing".
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- "Senet" | 2021-07-19 | 293 Upvotes 119 Comments
- "Senet: board game from predynastic and ancient Egypt" | 2016-02-14 | 33 Upvotes 5 Comments
π Kakistocracy
A kakistocracy [kΓ¦kΙͺ'stΙkrΙsi] is a system of government that is run by the worst, least qualified, and/or most unscrupulous citizens. The word was coined as early as the seventeenth century, but gained significant use in the first decades of the 20th century to criticize populist governments emerging in different democracies around the world.
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- "Kakistocracy" | 2025-01-29 | 15 Upvotes 5 Comments
- "Kakistocracy" | 2020-04-10 | 28 Upvotes 12 Comments