Random Articles (Page 96)
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π Unschooling
Unschooling is an informal learning that advocates learner-chosen activities as a primary means for learning. Unschooling students learn through their natural life experiences including play, household responsibilities, personal interests and curiosity, internships and work experience, travel, books, elective classes, family, mentors, and social interaction. Unschooling encourages exploration of activities initiated by the children themselves, believing that the more personal learning is, the more meaningful, well-understood and therefore useful it is to the child. While courses may occasionally be taken, unschooling questions the usefulness of standard curricula, conventional grading methods, and other features of traditional schooling in the education of each unique child.
The term "unschooling" was coined in the 1970s and used by educator John Holt, widely regarded as the father of unschooling. While unschooling is often considered a subset of homeschooling and homeschooling has been subject to widespread public debate, little media attention has been given to unschooling in particular.
Critics of unschooling see it as an extreme educational philosophy, with concerns that unschooled children will lack the social skills, structure, and motivation of their schooled peers, while proponents of unschooling say exactly the opposite is true: that self-directed education in a natural environment better equips a child to handle the "real world."
Discussed on
- "Unschooling" | 2020-07-13 | 12 Upvotes 6 Comments
π Ken Allen
Ken Allen (February 13, 1971 β December 1, 2000) was a Bornean orangutan at the San Diego Zoo. He became one of the most popular animals in the history of the zoo because of his many successful escapes from his enclosures. He was nicknamed "the hairy Houdini".
Ken Allen was born in captivity at the San Diego Zoo in 1971. During the 1980s, Ken Allen gained worldwide attention for a series of three escapes from his enclosure, which had been thought to be escape-proof. During some of his escapes, his female companions would join him. Ken Allen's ability to outwit his keepers, as well as his docile demeanor during his escapes, resulted in fame. He had his own fan club, and was the subject of T-shirts and bumper stickers (most reading "Free Ken Allen"). A song, The Ballad of Ken Allen, was written about him.
Ken Allen developed prostate cancer and was euthanized on December 1, 2000. He was 29 years old.
Discussed on
- "Ken Allen" | 2020-02-28 | 141 Upvotes 12 Comments
π Russian Cross
The Russian Cross is the name of a demographic trend that occurred in Russia and many other countries of the former Warsaw Pact. In Russia, starting in 1988, birth rates among native Russians (as well as most other ethnic groups of the European part of the former Soviet Union) were declining, while from 1991 the death rates started climbing.
In 1992, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births, and continued to do so to a greater or lesser degree until 2013. When this trend is plotted on a line graph starting from the mid-1980s, the lines cross at 1992, hence the name.
Discussed on
- "Russian Cross" | 2021-08-02 | 11 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Amplituhedron
An amplituhedron is a geometric structure introduced in 2013 by Nima Arkani-Hamed and Jaroslav Trnka. It enables simplified calculation of particle interactions in some quantum field theories. In planar N = 4 supersymmetric YangβMills theory, also equivalent to the perturbative topological B model string theory in twistor space, an amplituhedron is defined as a mathematical space known as the positive Grassmannian.
Amplituhedron theory challenges the notion that spacetime locality and unitarity are necessary components of a model of particle interactions. Instead, they are treated as properties that emerge from an underlying phenomenon.
The connection between the amplituhedron and scattering amplitudes is at present a conjecture that has passed many non-trivial checks, including an understanding of how locality and unitarity arise as consequences of positivity. Research has been led by Nima Arkani-Hamed. Edward Witten described the work as "very unexpected" and said that "it is difficult to guess what will happen or what the lessons will turn out to be".
Discussed on
- "Amplituhedron" | 2019-02-25 | 55 Upvotes 10 Comments
π Sturddlefish
The sturddlefish is a hybrid of the American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) and the Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii), accidentally created by researchers in 2019 and announced in 2020. Obtaining living hybrids through breeding individuals from different families is unusual, especially given that the two species' last common ancestor lived 184Β million years ago. The hybrids were created accidentally during attempts to induce gynogenesis, a type of parthenogenic reproduction where a sperm cell must be present to trigger embryogenesis but does not genetically contribute to the offspring. Hundreds of hybrid fish were created, of which about two-thirds survived over one month, and about 100 survived for one year. As of July 2020, all living hybrid fish are living in captivity at the research lab in Hungary. There are no further plans to create new sturddlefish.
Discussed on
- "Sturddlefish" | 2023-06-23 | 71 Upvotes 27 Comments
π Umuganda
Umuganda is a national holiday in Rwanda taking place on the last Saturday of every month for mandatory nationwide community service from 08:00 to 11:00. Participation in Umuganda is required by law; failure to participate can result in a fine.
The program was most recently re-established under President Paul Kagame in 2009, having resulted in a notable improvement in the cleanliness of Rwanda. Also, there are other informal Umuganda day activities that occur in the middle of the month. These activities are initiated by either society or the government.
Discussed on
- "Umuganda" | 2026-07-16 | 52 Upvotes 6 Comments
π Moin
Moin, moi or mojn is a Low German, Frisian, High German (moin [moin] or Moin, [Moin]), Danish (mojn) and Kashubian (mΓ²jn) greeting from East Frisia, Southern Schleswig (including North Frisia and Flensburg), Bremen, Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the eastern and northern Netherlands, Southern Jutland in Denmark and parts of Kashubia.
It means "hello" and, in some places, "goodbye" as well.
Discussed on
- "Moin" | 2020-08-17 | 19 Upvotes 10 Comments
π Traveling Wave Reactor
A traveling-wave reactor (TWR) is a proposed type of nuclear fission reactor that can convert fertile material into usable fuel through nuclear transmutation, in tandem with the burnup of fissile material. TWRs differ from other kinds of fast-neutron and breeder reactors in their ability to use fuel efficiently without uranium enrichment or reprocessing, instead directly using depleted uranium, natural uranium, thorium, spent fuel removed from light water reactors, or some combination of these materials. The concept is still in the development stage and no TWRs have ever been built.
The name refers to the fact that fission remains confined to a boundary zone in the reactor core that slowly advances over time. TWRs could theoretically run self-sustained for decades without refueling or removing spent fuel.
Discussed on
- "Traveling Wave Reactor" | 2019-10-05 | 76 Upvotes 66 Comments
π Two Generals' Problem
In computing, the Two Generals' Problem is a thought experiment meant to illustrate the pitfalls and design challenges of attempting to coordinate an action by communicating over an unreliable link. In the experiment, two generals are only able to communicate with one another by sending a messenger through enemy territory. The experiment asks how they might reach an agreement on the time to launch an attack, while knowing that any messenger they send could be captured.
It is related to the more general Byzantine Generals Problem and appears often in introductory classes about computer networking (particularly with regard to the Transmission Control Protocol, where it shows that TCP can't guarantee state consistency between endpoints and why this is the case), though it applies to any type of two-party communication where failures of communication are possible. A key concept in epistemic logic, this problem highlights the importance of common knowledge. Some authors also refer to this as the Two Generals' Paradox, the Two Armies Problem, or the Coordinated Attack Problem. The Two Generals' Problem was the first computer communication problem to be proved to be unsolvable. An important consequence of this proof is that generalizations like the Byzantine Generals problem are also unsolvable in the face of arbitrary communication failures, thus providing a base of realistic expectations for any distributed consistency protocols.
Discussed on
- "Two Generals' Problem" | 2014-03-09 | 97 Upvotes 28 Comments
- "The Two Generals' Problem (wikipedia)" | 2010-06-25 | 34 Upvotes 19 Comments
π Exotic Atom
An exotic atom is an otherwise normal atom in which one or more sub-atomic particles have been replaced by other particles of the same charge. For example, electrons may be replaced by other negatively charged particles such as muons (muonic atoms) or pions (pionic atoms). Because these substitute particles are usually unstable, exotic atoms typically have very short lifetimes and all currently observed atoms cannot persist under normal conditions.
Discussed on
- "Exotic Atom" | 2019-03-10 | 39 Upvotes 12 Comments