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π Wikiid: Can Wikipedia make a Wikipedia page notable enough to avoid deletion?
User:Diikiw/Wiikid, formerly Wikiid, is an article that was created on the web site Wikipedia in 2008. It is notable in its attempt to become the first Wikipedia page to gain notoriety solely for the fact that it was a page on Wikipedia; this was intended to spark a debate as to whether or not Wikipedia could be considered a source notable enough to allow a pageβs permanent entry on the site. It can be looked at both as metahumor and as a piece of postmodern art.
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- "Wikiid: Can Wikipedia make a Wikipedia page notable enough to avoid deletion?" | 2009-03-16 | 40 Upvotes 27 Comments
π Misirlou
"Misirlou" (Greek: ΞΞΉΟΞΉΟΞ»ΞΏΟ < Turkish: MΔ±sΔ±rlΔ± 'Egyptian' < Arabic: Ω Ψ΅Ψ± MiαΉ£r 'Egypt') is a folk song from the Eastern Mediterranean region. The original author of the song is not known, but Arabic, Greek, and Jewish musicians were playing it by the 1920s. The earliest known recording of the song is a 1927 Greek rebetiko/tsifteteli composition. There are also Arabic belly dancing, Albanian, Armenian, Serbian, Persian, Indian and Turkish versions of the song. This song was popular from the 1920s onwards in the Arab American, Armenian American and Greek American communities who settled in the United States.
The song was a hit in 1946 for Jan August, an American pianist and xylophonist nicknamed "the one-man piano duet". It gained worldwide popularity through Dick Dale's 1962 American surf rock version, originally titled "Miserlou", which popularized the song in Western popular culture; Dale's version was influenced by an earlier Arabic folk version played with an oud. Various versions have since been recorded, mostly based on Dale's version, including other surf and rock versions by bands such as the Beach Boys, the Ventures, and the Trashmen, as well as international orchestral easy listening (exotica) versions by musicians such as Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman. Dale's surf rock version was heard in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction.
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- "Misirlou" | 2024-03-16 | 12 Upvotes 1 Comments
π The Basque-Icelandic Pidgin
The BasqueβIcelandic pidgin was a Basque-based pidgin spoken in Iceland in the 17th century. It consisted of Basque, Germanic and Romance words.
Basque whale hunters who sailed to the Icelandic Westfjords used the pidgin as a means of rudimentary communication with locals. It might have developed in Westfjords, where manuscripts were written in the language, but since it had influences from many other European languages, it is more likely that it was created elsewhere and brought to Iceland by Basque sailors. Basque entries are mixed with words from Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish. The BasqueβIcelandic pidgin is thereby not a mixture between Basque and Icelandic, but between Basque and other languages. It was named from the fact that it was written down in Iceland and translated into Icelandic.
Only a few manuscripts have been found containing BasqueβIcelandic glossary, and knowledge about the pidgin is limited.
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- "BasqueβIcelandic Pidgin" | 2022-04-01 | 99 Upvotes 13 Comments
- "The Basque-Icelandic Pidgin" | 2020-11-16 | 153 Upvotes 48 Comments
π Queen Elizabeth II has died
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 β 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom from 6Β February 1952 until her death in 2022. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest of any British monarch and the second-longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country. At the time of her death, Elizabeth was queen of 14 other Commonwealth realms in addition to the UK.
Elizabeth was born in Mayfair, London, as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King GeorgeΒ VI and Queen Elizabeth). Her father acceded to the throne in 1936 upon the abdication of his brother, King EdwardΒ VIII, making Elizabeth the heir presumptive. She was educated privately at home and began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In November 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, and their marriage lasted 73 years until his death in April 2021. They had four children together: Charles III; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex.
When her father died in February 1952, Elizabethβthen 25 years oldβbecame queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (known today as Sri Lanka), as well as Head of the Commonwealth. Elizabeth reigned as a constitutional monarch through major political changes such as the Troubles in Northern Ireland, devolution in the United Kingdom, the decolonisation of Africa, and the United Kingdom's accession to the European Communities and withdrawal from the European Union. The number of her realms varied over time as territories have gained independence and some realms have become republics. Her many historic visits and meetings include state visits to China in 1986, Russia in 1994, the Republic of Ireland in 2011, and visits with five Popes.
Significant events include Elizabeth's coronation in 1953 and the celebrations of her Silver, Golden, Diamond, and Platinum Jubilees in 1977, 2002, 2012, and 2022, respectively. Elizabeth was the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch, and the second-longest verifiable reigning sovereign monarch in world history, only behind Louis XIV of France. She faced occasional republican sentiment and media criticism of her family, particularly after the breakdowns of her children's marriages, her annus horribilis in 1992, and the death of her former daughter-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997. However, support for the monarchy in the United Kingdom remained consistently high, as did her personal popularity. Elizabeth died on 8 September 2022 at Balmoral Castle, Aberdeenshire. She was succeeded by her eldest son, Charles III.
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- "Queen Elizabeth II has died" | 2022-09-08 | 11 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Padonkaffsky jargon
Padonkaffsky jargon (Russian: ΡΠ·ΡΠΊ ΠΏΠ°Π΄ΠΎΠ½ΠΊΠ°ΡΡ, yazyk padonkaff) or Olbanian (ΠΎΠ»Π±Π°Π½ΡΠΊΠΈΠΉ, olbanskiy) is a cant language developed by a subculture of Runet called padonki (Russian: ΠΏΠ°Π΄ΠΎΠ½ΠΊΠΈ). It started as an Internet slang language originally used in the Russian Internet community. It is comparable to the English-based Leet. Padonkaffsky jargon became so popular that the former President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev jokingly suggested that Olbanian be taught in schools.
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- "Padonkaffsky jargon" | 2015-01-17 | 36 Upvotes 4 Comments
π A list of April Fools' Day RFCs
A Request for Comments (RFC), in the context of Internet governance, is a type of publication from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Society (ISOC), usually describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems.
Almost every April Fools' Day (1 April) since 1989, the Internet RFC Editor has published one or more humorous Request for Comments (RFC) documents, following in the path blazed by the June 1973 RFC 527 called ARPAWOCKY, a parody of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem "Jabberwocky". The following list also includes humorous RFCs published on other dates.
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- "April Fools Day Request for Comments" | 2024-04-01 | 16 Upvotes 2 Comments
- "UTF-9 and UTF-18" | 2015-02-05 | 109 Upvotes 11 Comments
- "A list of April Fools' Day RFCs" | 2010-03-31 | 17 Upvotes 2 Comments
π Sonoluminescence
Sonoluminescence is the emission of short bursts of light from imploding bubbles in a liquid when excited by sound.
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- "Sonoluminescence" | 2024-06-17 | 15 Upvotes 3 Comments
- "Sonoluminescence" | 2021-06-27 | 81 Upvotes 20 Comments
π Spondylus
Spondylus is a genus of bivalve molluscs, the only genus in the family Spondylidae. They are known in English as spiny oysters or thorny oysters (though they are not, in fact, true oysters).
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- "Spondylus" | 2024-03-11 | 28 Upvotes 6 Comments
π Everything Bubble
The everything bubble refers to the correlated impact of monetary easing by the Federal Reserve (and followed by the ECB and the BOJ), on asset prices in most asset classes, namely equities, housing, bonds, many commodities, and even exotic assets such as cryptocurrencies and SPACs. The term is related to the Fed put, being the tools of direct and indirect quantative easing that the Fed used to execute the monetary easing, and to modern monetary theory, which advocates use of such tools, even in non-crisis periods, to create economic growth through asset price inflation. The term first came in use during the chair of Janet Yellen, but it is most associated with the subsequent chair of Jerome Powell, and the 2020β2021 period of the coronavirus pandemic.
The everything bubble was not only notable for the simultaneous extremes in valuations recorded in a wide range of asset classes and the high level of speculation in the market, but also that this was achieved in a period of recession, high unemployment, trade wars, and political turmoil β leading to a realization that it was uniquely a central bank creation, with concerns on the independence and integrity of market pricing, and on the Fed's impact on wealth inequality.
Bloomberg attributed Powell's maintenance of monetary stimulus into 2021 (the final year of his first term as Fed chair), in spite of warnings of unprecedented levels of market risk and speculation, to his fear of repeating the crash in Q4 2018 when he started quantitative tightening; thus extending the bubble.
High up on his [President Biden] list, and sooner rather than later, will be dealing with the consequences of the biggest financial bubble in U.S. history. Why the biggest? Because it encompasses not just stocks but pretty much every other financial asset too. And for that, you may thank the Federal Reserve.
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- "Everything Bubble" | 2021-02-23 | 28 Upvotes 5 Comments
- "Everything Bubble" | 2021-02-22 | 19 Upvotes 2 Comments
π Death of Gloria Ramirez
Gloria Ramirez (January 11, 1963 β February 19, 1994) was a woman from Riverside, California who was dubbed "the Toxic Lady" or "the Toxic Woman" by the media when several hospital workers became ill after exposure to her body and blood. She had been admitted to the emergency department while suffering from late-stage cervical cancer. While treating Ramirez, several hospital workers fainted and others experienced symptoms such as shortness of breath and muscle spasms. Five workers required hospitalization, one of whom remained in an intensive care unit for two weeks.
Shortly after arriving at the hospital, Ramirez died from complications related to cancer. The incident was initially considered to be a case of mass hysteria. An investigation by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory proposed that Ramirez had been self-administering dimethyl sulfoxide as a treatment for pain, which converted into dimethyl sulfate, an extremely poisonous and highly carcinogenic alkylating agent, via a series of chemical reactions in the emergency department. Although this theory has been endorsed by the Riverside Coroner's Office and published in the journal Forensic Science International, it is still a matter of debate in the scientific community.
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- "The unsolved death of Gloria Ramirez" | 2025-04-11 | 19 Upvotes 12 Comments