Random Articles (Page 87)
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π Blohm and Voss BV 141
The Blohm & Voss BV 141 was a World War II German tactical reconnaissance aircraft. It is notable for its uncommon structural asymmetry. Although the Blohm & Voss BV 141 performed well, it was never ordered into full-scale production, for reasons that included the unavailability of the preferred engine and competition from another tactical reconnaissance aircraft, the Focke-Wulf Fw 189.
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- "Blohm and Voss BV 141" | 2020-04-12 | 27 Upvotes 5 Comments
π Biology and political orientation
A number of studies have found that biology can be linked with political orientation. This means that biology is a possible factor in political orientation but may also mean that the ideology a person identifies with changes a person's ability to perform certain tasks. Many of the studies linking biology to politics remain controversial and unreplicated, although the overall body of evidence is growing.
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- "Biology and political orientation" | 2020-04-27 | 17 Upvotes 4 Comments
π List of Generation Z Slang
This is a list of slang used by Generation Z (Gen Z), generally those born between the late 1990s and the late 2000s in the Western world.
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- "List of Generation Z Slang" | 2024-03-03 | 43 Upvotes 44 Comments
π Great Vowel Shift
The Great Vowel Shift was a series of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between 1400 and 1700, beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through this vowel shift, the pronunciation of all Middle English long vowels was changed. Some consonant sounds changed as well, particularly those that became silent; the term Great Vowel Shift is sometimes used to include these consonant changes.
English spelling began to become standardized in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the Great Vowel Shift is the major reason English spellings now often considerably deviate from how they represent pronunciations. The Great Vowel Shift was first studied by Otto Jespersen (1860β1943), a Danish linguist and Anglicist, who coined the term.
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- "Great Vowel Shift" | 2021-04-14 | 259 Upvotes 268 Comments
- "Great Vowel Shift" | 2018-04-06 | 129 Upvotes 117 Comments
π List of Epidemics
This article is a list of deaths caused by an infectious disease. Widespread non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer are not included.
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- "List of Epidemics" | 2020-01-26 | 78 Upvotes 38 Comments
π Hydraulic Empire
A hydraulic empire, also known as a hydraulic despotism, hydraulic society, hydraulic civilization, or water monopoly empire, is a social or government structure which maintains power and control through exclusive control over access to water. It arises through the need for flood control and irrigation, which requires central coordination and a specialized bureaucracy.
Often associated with these terms and concepts is the notion of a water dynasty. This body is a political structure which is commonly characterized by a system of hierarchy and control often based on class or caste. Power, both over resources (food, water, energy) and a means of enforcement such as the military, is vital for the maintenance of control.
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- "Hydraulic Empire" | 2021-08-26 | 11 Upvotes 2 Comments
π Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel
Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel (colloquial: Infinite Hotel Paradox or Hilbert's Hotel) is a thought experiment which illustrates a counterintuitive property of infinite sets. It is demonstrated that a fully occupied hotel with infinitely many rooms may still accommodate additional guests, even infinitely many of them, and this process may be repeated infinitely often. The idea was introduced by David Hilbert in a 1924 lecture "Γber das Unendliche", reprinted in (Hilbert 2013, p.730), and was popularized through George Gamow's 1947 book One Two Three... Infinity.
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- "Hilbert's Paradox of the Grand Hotel" | 2021-06-12 | 60 Upvotes 105 Comments
- "Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel" | 2015-10-21 | 26 Upvotes 27 Comments
- "Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel" | 2009-06-13 | 14 Upvotes 37 Comments
π Iron law of prohibition
The iron law of prohibition is a term coined by Richard Cowan in 1986 which posits that as law enforcement becomes more intense, the potency of prohibited substances increases. Cowan put it this way: "the harder the enforcement, the harder the drugs."
This law is an application of the AlchianβAllen effect; Libertarian judge James P. Gray calls the law the "cardinal rule of prohibition", and notes that is a powerful argument for the legalization of drugs. It is based on the premise that when drugs or alcohol are prohibited, they will be produced in black markets in more concentrated and powerful forms, because these more potent forms offer better efficiency in the business modelβthey take up less space in storage, less weight in transportation, and they sell for more money. Economist Mark Thornton writes that the iron law of prohibition undermines the argument in favor of prohibition, because the higher potency forms are less safe for the consumer.
Discussed on
- "Iron law of prohibition" | 2017-03-12 | 143 Upvotes 74 Comments
π Sand Theft
Sand theft or unauthorised or illegal sand mining leads to a widely unknown global example of natural and non-renewable resource depletion problem comparable in extent to global water scarcity. Beach theft is illegal removal of large quantities of sand from a beach leading to full or partial disappearance of the beach.
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- "Sand Theft" | 2019-12-11 | 171 Upvotes 92 Comments
π Circular Reporting
Circular reporting, or false confirmation, is a situation in source criticism where a piece of information appears to come from multiple independent sources, but in reality comes from only one source. In many cases, the problem happens mistakenly through sloppy reporting or intelligence-gathering. However, the situation can also be intentionally contrived by the source or reporter as a way of reinforcing the widespread belief in its information.
This problem occurs in a variety of fields, including intelligence gathering, journalism, and scholarly research. It is of particular concern in military intelligence because the original source has a higher likelihood of wanting to pass on misinformation, and because the chain of reporting is more prone to being obscured. It is also a problem in journalism and the development of conspiracy theories, in which the primary goal of a source spreading unlikely or hard-to-believe information is to make it appear to be widely known.
The case of the 2002 Niger uranium forgeries was a classic instance of circular reporting by intelligence agencies.
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- "Circular Reporting" | 2022-10-25 | 10 Upvotes 3 Comments