português
WikipediaGreek fire
Greek fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire that was first developed c. 672. The Byzantines typically used it in naval battles to great effect, as it could continue burning while floating on water. It provided a technological advantage and was responsible for many key Byzantine military victories, most notably the salvation of Constantinople from two Arab sieges, thus securing the Empire's survival.
WikipediaToast Sandwich
It got to be a trifle dull towards the end but I think that could be down to my attempt to be moderately frugal with butter (a small concession to the fact that I'd already had a dinner this evening).
![I love being a physics dilettante. “By the time John von Neumann wrote his treatise Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik in 1932,[3] the phenomenon of 'wave function collapse' was accommodated into the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics by postulating that there were two processes of wave function change.”](/img/lead/history-and-context-wave-function-collapse.webp)
WikipediaHistory and context Wave function collapse
I love being a physics dilettante. “By the time John von Neumann wrote his treatise Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik in 1932,[3] the phenomenon of 'wave function collapse' was accommodated into the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics by postulating that there were two processes of wave function change.”
WikipediaKierkegaard's influence on Bohr
Now, this is a good guy: It is generally accepted that Bohr read the 19th century Danish Christian existentialist philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard. Richard Rhodes argues in The Making of the Atomic Bomb that Bohr was influenced by Kierkegaard via the philosopher Harald Høffding, who was strongly influenced by Kierkegaard.
WikipediaDiederik Stapel
Some level of healthy doubt is necessary even when talking about scientific results presented in prestigious publications... // Diederik Alexander Stapel (born 19 October 1966 in Oegstgeest) is a Dutch former professor of social psychology at Tilburg University and before that at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. In 2011 Tilburg University suspended Stapel for fabricating and manipulating data for his research publications. This scientific misconduct took place over a number of years and affected at least 55 publications.
WikipediaTeleology in biology
One of the worst hidden bias of modern science. // Teleology in biology is the use of the language of goal-directedness in accounts of evolutionary adaptation, which some biologists and philosophers of science find problematic. The term teleonomy has also been proposed.
WikipediaKin-dza-dza! (1986)
Yep, I have watched this, in its entirety, with no breaks. Congratulate me. // Kin-dza-dza! (Russian: Кин-дза-дза!, translit. Kin-dzah-dzah!) is a 1986 Soviet comedy-science fiction film released by the Mosfilm studio and directed by Georgiy Daneliya, with a story by Georgiy Daneliya and Revaz Gabriadze. The movie was filmed in color, consists of two parts and runs for 135 min...
WikipediaChinese translation theory
Oh, that's why Chinese stuff sounds so different than Tibetan, Sanskrit and Pali sources. Even though I completely understand their motivations--they require more than a just skillful translator, a similarly spiritually realized translator. Did they had lots of that or just turned dharma into Chinese thinking? Well, let's hope (and concede) not the latter. Translation is like chewing up rice and feeding it to people (嚼飯與人).
WikipediaInstrumental convergence
Instrumental convergence is the hypothetical tendency for most sufficiently intelligent agents to pursue certain instrumental goals such as self-preservation and resource acquisition.
WikipediaNicolas Jenson
Nicholas Jenson (c.1420 – 1480) was a French engraver, pioneer, printer and type designer who carried out most of his work in Venice, Italy. Jenson acted as Master of the French Royal Mint at Tours, and is credited with being the creator of one of the finest early Roman type faces. Nicholas Jenson has been something of an iconic figure among students of early printing since the nineteenth century when the aesthete William Morris praised the beauty and perfection of his roman font. Jenson is an important figure in the early history of printing and a pivotal force in the emergence of Venice as one of the first great centers of the printing press.
WikipediaDouble-negation translation
n proof theory, a discipline within mathematical logic, double-negation translation, sometimes called negative translation, is a general approach for embedding classical logic into intuitionistic logic, typically by translating formulas to formulas which are classically equivalent but intuitionistically inequivalent. Particular instances of double-negation translation include Glivenko's translation for propositional logic, and the Gödel–Gentzen translation and Kuroda's translation for first-order logic.
![In the United States, acting white is a pejorative term, usually applied to African Americans, which refers to a person's perceived betrayal of their culture by assuming the social expectations of white society.[1][2] Success in education in particular (depending on one's cultural background) can be seen as a form of “selling out” by being disloyal to one's culture.](/img/lead/acting-white.webp)
WikipediaActing white
In the United States, acting white is a pejorative term, usually applied to African Americans, which refers to a person's perceived betrayal of their culture by assuming the social expectations of white society.[1][2] Success in education in particular (depending on one's cultural background) can be seen as a form of “selling out” by being disloyal to one's culture.
WikipediaGeyi (Categorizing Concepts)
Geyi originated as a 3rd-century Chinese Buddhist method for explaining lists of Sanskrit terms from the Buddhist canon with comparable lists from Chinese classics; but many 20th-century scholars of Buddhism misconstrued geyi “matching concepts” as a supposed method of translating Sanskrit technical terminology with Chinese Daoist vocabulary (such as rendering Śūnyatā “emptiness” with Wu 無 “without”). This reputed geyi “matching concepts” or “matching meanings” definition is ubiquitous in modern reference works, including academic articles, textbooks on Buddhism, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and Web-based resources. Mair (2012:30) discovered that geyi was a “highly ephemeral and not-very-successful attempt on the part of a small number of Chinese teachers to cope with the flood of numbered lists of categories, ideas and so forth (of which Indian thinkers were so much enamoured) that came to China in the wake of Buddhism.”
![Sarah Baartman (also spelled Sara, sometimes in the diminutive form Saartje, and Bartman, Bartmann, or Baartmen, [sɑːrɐ bɑːrtman, sɑːrki]) (before 1790 – 29 December 1815), was the most well known of at least two Khoikhoi women who, due to their large buttocks, were exhibited as freak show attractions in 19th-century Europe under the name Hottentot Venus—](/img/lead/sarah-baartman.webp)
WikipediaSarah Baartman
Sarah Baartman (also spelled Sara, sometimes in the diminutive form Saartje, and Bartman, Bartmann, or Baartmen, [sɑːrɐ bɑːrtman, sɑːrki]) (before 1790 – 29 December 1815), was the most well known of at least two Khoikhoi women who, due to their large buttocks, were exhibited as freak show attractions in 19th-century Europe under the name Hottentot Venus—"Hottentot" was the then current name for the Khoi people, now considered an offensive term, and "Venus" referred to the Roman goddess of love.
WikipediaAporia
(Ancient Greek: ἀπορία:) denotes in philosophy a philosophical puzzle or state of puzzlement and in rhetoric a rhetorically useful expression of doubt.
WikipediaSavannah (Porn Star)
Shannon Michelle Wilsey (October 9, 1970 – July 11, 1994), commonly known by her stage name of Savannah, was an American pornographic performer, starring in more than 100 pornographic videos during her career. One of the most prominent adult-industry models of her time, she achieved notoriety within...
WikipediaPaige Compositor
The Paige Compositor was an invention developed by James W. Paige (1842–1917) between 1872 and 1888. It was designed to replace the human typesetter of a lead type-composed printing form with a mechanical arm. However, the machine was not nearly as precise as it should have been and never turned a profit because of its complexity and continual need for adjustment based upon trial and error.
WikipediaWasta
Wasta or wasata (Arabic: وَاسِطة wāsiṭah) is an Arabic word that loosely translates into nepotism, 'clout' or 'who you know'. It refers to using one’s connections and/or influence to get things done, including government transactions such as the quick renewal of a passport, waiving of traffic fines, and getting hired for or promoted in a job.
WikipediaWonderful World (Sam Cooke song)
...Craig Werner points that the first lines of the song may be understood as political: as a crossover song, it may be thought that Cooke informs its white listeners that if there is one thing to forget (or at least not to know a lot about) about african-americans is history (Slavery and Jim Crown American laws), and of course biology.
WikipediaThuggee
The country that gave us ahimsa also gave us thugs. // Thuggee or tuggee (Hindi: Nepali ठग्गी ṭhaggī; Urdu: ٹھگ; Sanskrit: sthaga; Marathi: ठक; Sindhi: ٺوڳي، ٺڳ; Kannada: ಠಕ್ಕ thakka) refers to the acts of Thugs, an organised gang of professional robbers and murderers.
WikipediaStendhal syndrome
A psychosomatic disorder that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to an experience of great personal significance, particularly viewing art.
WikipediaSpaghetti alla puttanesca
Spaghetti alla puttanesca (literally “spaghetti of the whore” in Italian) is a tangy, somewhat salty Italian pasta dish invented in the mid-20th century. The ingredients are typical of Southern Italian cuisine... In a 2005 article from Il Golfo—a daily newspaper serving the Italian islands of Ischia and Procida—Annarita Cuomo asserted that sugo alla puttanesca was invented in the 1950s by Sandro Petti, co-owner of Rancio Fellone, a famous Ischian restaurant and nightspot. According to Cuomo, Petti's moment of inspiration came when—near closing one evening—Petti found a group of customers sitting at one of his tables. He was low on ingredients and so told them he didn't have enough to make them a meal. They complained that it was late and they were hungry. “Facci una puttanata qualsiasi,” or “Make any kind of garbage,” they insisted. Petti had nothing more than four tomatoes, two olives and some capers—the basic ingredients for the sugo, “So I used them to make the sauce for the spaghetti,” Petti told Cuomo. Later, Petti included this dish on his menu as spaghetti alla puttanesca.
WikipediaTungsten
My favourite element: “Tungsten is the only metal from the third transition series that is known to occur in biomolecules, where it is used in a few species of bacteria. It is the heaviest element known to be used by any living organism. Tungsten interferes with molybdenum and copper metabolism, and is somewhat toxic to animal life.” Tungsten is a chemical element with symbol W and atomic number 74. The name tungsten comes from the former Swedish name for the tungstate mineral scheelite, from tung sten “heavy stone”.
WikipediaMind uploading in fiction
Mind uploading, whole brain emulation or substrate-independent minds is a use of a computer or another substrate as an emulated human brain, and the view of thoughts and memories as software information states. The term mind transfer also refers to a hypothetical transfer of a mind from one biological brain to another. Uploaded minds and societies of minds, often in simulated realities, are recurring themes in science fiction novels and films since 1950s.
WikipediaVALIS
Why use drugs? Mr. K. Dick has already provided all the fun and despair we could possibly wish for with his twisted narratives...
WikipediaJohn von Neumann Politics and social affairs
I have always tried to be a admirer of von Neumann. His science is absolutely brilliant--I would say way more than most popular scientists, such as Einstein. He and Turing made computers possible, and he contributed to so many fields it is mind boggling just to try to trace his influence. On the other hand he is such a pathetic complete prick when it comes to politics that it makes me wanna cry in despair. // Yet I always forget what a prick he is and always try to praise him a little bit. This is the most I can do. Feynman, who also worked at the Manhattan Project, is a much nicer and balanced human.
WikipediaPeriya Puranam
The Periya Puranam (Tamil: பெரிய புராணம்), that is, the great purana or epic, sometimes called Tiruttontarpuranam (“Tiru-Thondar-Puranam”, the Purana of the Holy Devotees), is a Tamil poetic account depicting the lives of the sixty-three Nayanars, the canonical poets of Tamil Shaivism. It was compiled during the 12th century by Sekkizhar. It provides evidence of trade with West Asia. The Periya Puranam is part of the corpus of Shaiva canonical works.
WikipediaPropaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes
Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (1965/1973) (French: Propagandes; original French edition: 1962) is a book on the subject of propaganda by French philosopher, theologian, legal scholar, and sociologist Jacques Ellul. This book appears to be the first attempt to study propaganda from a sociological approach as well as a psychological one. It presents a sophisticated taxonomy for propaganda, including such paired opposites as political–sociological, vertical–horizontal, rational–irrational, and agitation–integration. The book contains Ellul's theories about the nature of propaganda to adapt the individual to a society, to a living standard, and to an activity aiming to make the individual serve and conform.
WikipediaSchrödinger's Cat Trilogy
“The Tanstagi principle is meant to imply that the invisible hand of the free market applies to government as well. In other words, contrary to traditional ideas of laissez-faire capitalism, government interference in the free market is impossible, since governments are inextricably a part of the market as a whole. Thus, true laissez-faire conditions are impossible, since the government will always affect the market.”
WikipediaKitchen sink realism
Kitchen sink realism (or kitchen sink drama) is a term coined to describe a British cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose protagonists usually could be described as “angry young men” who were disillusioned with modern society. It used a style of social realism, which depicted the domestic situations of working class Britons, living in cramped rented accommodation and spending their off-hours drinking in grimy pubs, to explore controversial social and political issues ranging from abortion to homelessness. The harsh, realistic style contrasted sharply with the escapism of the previous generation's so-called “well-made plays”.
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