Everything is Interesting
Samizdat [sah-miz-daht] (Russian for ‘self-published’) was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader.
This grassroots practice to evade officially-imposed censorship was fraught with danger as harsh punishments were meted out to people caught possessing or copying censored materials.
Musopen is an online music library of copyright-free (public domain) music. Musopen’s mission is to record or obtain recordings that have no copyrights so that its visitors may listen, re-use, or in any way enjoy music, and ‘to set music free.’ In 2008, Musopen released newly-commissioned recordings of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas into the public domain.
In 2010, the site organized a fundraiser via Kickstarter to commission recordings of a larger repertoire. Musopen is a nonprofit charity, operating out of Palo Alto, California, created by Aaron Dunn in 2005.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a US copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization. It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures (commonly known as digital rights management or DRM) that control access to copyrighted works. It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself. In addition, the DMCA heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet.
Passed in 1998 by a unanimous vote in the United States Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton, the DMCA amended Title 17 of the United States Code to extend the reach of copyright, while limiting the liability of the providers of on-line services for copyright infringement by their users. The law is currently unsettled with regard to websites that contain links to infringing material; however, there have been a few lower-court decisions which have ruled against linking in some narrowly prescribed circumstances. One is when the owner of a website has already been issued an injunction against posting infringing material on their website and then links to the same material in an attempt to circumvent the injunction.
In typography, rivers, or rivers of white, are gaps appearing to run down a paragraph of text, due to a coincidental alignment of spaces. They can occur regardless of the spacing settings, but are most noticeable with wide inter-word spaces caused by full text justification or monospaced fonts.
Typographers try to minimize or eliminate the river effect. They can test for rivers by turning a proof sheet upside down (top to bottom) to examine the text. From this perspective, the eye is less likely to recognize words and the type can be viewed more readily as an overall pattern. Other related terms are ‘lakes’ and ‘holes,’ which refer to a cluster of adjacent or intertwined rivers that create a lighter area within a block of type.
String theory is the name for a number of mathematical models that want to find a common explanation for the four main forces that have so far been observed in nature. These forces are gravity, the electromagnetic force, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force, respectively. Classical physics says that the universe is made of small particles (points) which are basically static and unchanging. String theory says that the particle is a string/line (not a particle/point) that forms these four different forces by vibrating in different ways.
String Theory suggests that the universe is similar to a very big guitar. The strings upon the guitar are one dimensional and vibrate to take the form of all matter. String theory suggests that when these tiny loops move really, really fast back and forth in different and diverse ways, each of which is a different type of matter. These changes in oscillation can be hard to detect, as the strings are oscillating in at least 10 different dimensions.
The Theory of Everything (TOE) refers to the attempted unification of several major theories of physics.
The four basic forces of nature are gravity, the strong nuclear force, the nuclear weak force, and the electromagnetic force. The theory of general relativity explains gravity, and quantum mechanics explains the other three forces. Right now, no one theory that everyone accepts can explain all four forces. String theory is a theory that could become the ‘theory of everything.’
Kombu [kohm-boo], called dashima in Korean and haidai in Chinese, is the Japanse word for edible kelp widely eaten in East Asia. Most kombu is extensively cultivated on ropes in the seas of Japan and Korea.
Over 90 percent of Japanese kombu is cultivated, mostly in Hokkaidō, but also as far south as the Seto Inland Sea.
The Demon Core was the nickname given to a 6.2-kilogram (14 lb) subcritical mass of plutonium that accidentally went briefly critical in two separate accidents at the Los Alamos laboratory in 1945 and 1946. Both incidents resulted in the acute radiation poisoning and the subsequent death of a scientist.
After these incidents, the sphere of plutonium was referred to as the Demon Core. The core was used in an atomic bomb test in 1946, five weeks after the second fatal accident, and proved in practice to have a slightly increased yield over similar cores which had not been subjected to criticality excursions. Continue reading
The iBOT is a very stable and mobile powered wheelchair developed by Dean Kamen in a partnership between DEKA and Johnson and Johnson’s Independence Technology division. It is a medical technology, made to help people with severe mobility problems.
As of 2006 the iBOT retailed for approximately $26,100 and required a prescription in the U.S. As of 2009, it is no longer available for sale from Independence Technology, but support for existing units will be available until the end of 2013.
‘Paul is dead‘ is an urban legend suggesting that Paul McCartney of the English rock band The Beatles died in 1966 and was secretly replaced by a look-alike. In September 1969, American college students published articles claiming that clues to McCartney’s death could be found among the lyrics and artwork of The Beatles’ recordings.
Clue hunting proved infectious and within a few weeks had become an international phenomenon. Rumors declined after a contemporary interview with McCartney was published in Life magazine in November 1969. Popular culture continues to make occasional reference to the legend.
Voiced by Dave Willis, Carl Brutananadilewski is the only main character on ‘Aqua Teen Hunger Force’ who is a human. Carl wears blue sweatpants, a white tank top, flip flops, and a golden chain. Carl has a mustache and is overweight, balding, and has hair all over his body, even on the bottom of his feet.
Carl Brutananadilewski lives next door to Frylock, Meatwad, and Master Shake in a suburban neighborhood in New Jersey. Carl is quick tempered and sarcastic. He has a strong passion for sports, classic rock, and pornography which helps him with his favorite activity, masturbation. He generally dislikes Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad, and considers them freaks. Carl sometimes tolerates and welcomes them (rarely with a favorable outcome) possibly because of loneliness. He has a pool which they often use uninvited. His car and house are often destroyed, and he is often tortured and killed, usually as a result of something the Aqua Teens have done but occasionally by his own or others’ doing. Carl has a car he named ‘2Wycked,’ a Ford Probe which is based on Matt Maiellaro’s real life car, the creator of ATHF.
Stitch ‘n Bitch is a phrase that has been used to refer to social knitting groups. ‘Stitch ‘n Bitch’ is a name used by knitting groups that meet on a weekly or monthly basis at locations throughout the world. This use of the term originates as early as the Second World War.
Today’s Stitch ‘n Bitch clubs are generally casual groups of knitters who meet in public spaces such as bars or cafes for socializing and sharing knitting advice. These groups are free or small fee required memberships and open to the public, and are listed in a directory of worldwide knitting groups.
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