wikipedia

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to share interesting articles from Wikipedia

Please cite a passage from the article and don't just post a link

also, please do post links and not text or images

and finally , "getting rid of the m. from the URL would also be good"

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Desire path (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by merde to c/wikipedia
 
 

Trampling studies have consistently documented that impacts on soil and vegetation occur rapidly with initial use of desire paths. As few as 15 passages over a site can be enough to create a distinct trail, the existence of which then attracts further use. This finding contributed to the creation of the Leave No Trace education program, which instructs travelers in nature areas to either stay on designated trails or, when off trail, distribute their travel lines so as to not inadvertently create new trails in unsustainable locations.

Images of desire paths have been employed as a metaphor for anarchism, intuitive design, individual creativity, and the wisdom of crowds.

A desire path, also known as desire line in transportation planning, is an unplanned small trail formed by erosion caused by human or animal traffic. The path usually represents the shortest or the most easily navigated route between an origin and destination, and the width and severity of its surface erosion are often indicators of the traffic level it receives.

see also [email protected]

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Context collapse (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 2 days ago by merde to c/wikipedia
 
 

Context collapse or "the flattening of multiple audiences into a single context" is a term arising out of the study of human interaction on the internet, especially within social media. Context collapse "generally occurs when a surfeit of different audiences occupy the same space, and a piece of information intended for one audience finds its way to another" with that new audience's reaction being uncharitable and highly negative for failing to understand the original context.

after https://lemmy.zip/comment/19104831

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Paper shredder (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 2 days ago by merde to c/wikipedia
 
 

Adolf Ehinger's paper shredder, based on a hand-crank pasta maker, was the first to be manufactured in 1935 in Germany. Supposedly he created a shredding machine to shred his anti-Nazi leaflets to avoid the inquiries of the authorities.

Anti-burning laws also resulted in increased demand for paper shredding.

More recently, concerns about identity theft have driven increased personal use of paper shredders, with the US Federal Trade Commission recommending that individuals shred financial documents before disposal.

The difficulty of reconstruction can depend on the size and legibility of the text, whether the document is single- or double-sided, the size and shape of the shredded pieces, the orientation of the material when fed, how effectively the shredded material is further randomized afterwards, and whether other processes such as pulping and chemical decomposition are used.

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Shredder (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 2 days ago by merde to c/wikipedia
 
 

Kevin Eastman got the idea for the Shredder's armor from large trapezoidal cheese graters which he envisioned on a villainous character's arms. He then said, "Could you imagine a character with weapons on his arms like this?" Peter Laird suggested the name The Shredder.

In the original comic books from Mirage Comics, Oroku Saki had an elder brother by the name of Oroku Nagi, who had been killed by fellow ninja Hamato Yoshi (the owner of Splinter, the Turtles' mentor) in a feud over a woman named Tang Shen, resulting in Yoshi fleeing with Shen to the United States.

Angered by the death of his elder brother, Saki joined the Foot Clan and trained to be a ninja. He quickly became one of their deadliest warriors and rose up the ranks and was chosen to lead the Foot's American branch. Operating in New York under the name of The Shredder, Saki used the opportunity to avenge his brother by killing Yoshi and Shen.

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submitted 3 days ago by Cheradenine to c/wikipedia
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submitted 1 week ago by Cheradenine to c/wikipedia
 
 

If you have never read this before, it is quite an interesting read about a manuscript that still has not been deciphered.

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Tok Pisin (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 1 week ago by merde to c/wikipedia
 
 

The following Tok Pisin "names" for the piano were recorded by early 20th-century writers:

  • big fellow box spose whiteman fight him he cry too much (1902)
  • box belong cry ("screaming box") (1902) big fellow bokkes, suppose missis he fight him, he cry too much (1911)
  • bigfela bokis yu fait-im i krai (1921)
  • bikpela bokis bilong krai taim yu paitim na kikim em (1969)

Linguists observe that these circumlocutions are unstable ad hoc descriptions of an object, rather than set "words" or names. The situation is comparable to a Tok Pisin-English dictionary's definition of a Tok Pisin word with no English equivalent, such as milis being defined as "coconut milk made from shedding coconut meat in the water of a ripe nut"; nobody would suggest that this lengthy expression is the "English name" for this drink.

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No Place (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by merde to c/wikipedia
 
 

The origins of the village's unusual name are uncertain; however, theories include a shortening of "North Place", "Near Place" or "Nigh Place", or that the original houses of the village stood on a boundary between two parishes, neither of which would accept the village. It could also be a literary play on the word "Utopia", which comes from the Greek: οὐ ("not") and τόπος ("place") and translates as "no-place".

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Dole Air Race - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 1 week ago by Cheradenine to c/wikipedia
 
 

The Dole Air Race, also known as the Dole Derby, was an air race across the Pacific Ocean from Oakland, California, to Honolulu in the Territory of Hawaii held in August 1927 that resulted in several deaths.

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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Cheradenine to c/wikipedia
 
 

Married couple who were unintentionally abandoned in the Coral Sea on a diving trip to the Great Barrier Reef

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submitted 1 week ago by Cheradenine to c/wikipedia
 
 

Left school at 15 to fight the Austrians, shipwrecked off Spain, tried to assassinate Napoleon III, imprisoned on Devil's Island, escaped, fought in the American Civil War, survived the Battle of Little BigHorn

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Iron gall ink - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 1 week ago by Cheradenine to c/wikipedia
 
 

I knew about this previously, but I read the article after reading about the Voynich Manuscript . The source of the ink is Oak apples are caused by chemicals injected by the larva of certain kinds of gall wasp in the family Cynipidae

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Baking in ancient Rome (en.m.wikipedia.org)
submitted 1 week ago by merde to c/wikipedia
 
 

after a post on Historical Artefacts

The Romans had eaten porridge and baked bread for around six hundred years after the founding of Rome. In 171 BC, during the Third Macedonian War, the arrival of Greek bakers established the first professional bakers, known as the pistores, in Rome. It was in ancient Rome where bread and pastries first began to be mass produced.

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ELIZA effect (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/wikipedia
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Watermelon stereotype (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 2 weeks ago by merde to c/wikipedia
 
 

After the American Civil War, in several areas of the South, former slaves grew watermelon on their own land as a cash crop to sell. Thus, for African Americans, watermelons were a symbol of liberation and self-reliance. However, for many in the majority white culture, watermelons embodied and threatened a loss of dominance. Southern White resentment against African Americans led to a politically potent cultural caricature, using the watermelon to disparage African Americans as childish and unclean, among other negative attributes.

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Habeas corpus (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/wikipedia
 
 

Habeas corpus (/ˈheɪbiəs ˈkɔːrpəs/ ; from Medieval Latin, lit. 'you should have the body')[1] is a legal procedure by which a report can be made to a court alleging the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and requesting that the court order the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to bring the prisoner to court, to determine whether their detention is lawful.

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Avalon Ballroom (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/wikipedia
 
 

In 2002, after learning from psychedelic poster artist Stanley Mouse that the building was available, neo-hippie Steve Shirley (aka Morning Spring Rain) of the Hog Farm commune restored and re-opened the Avalon Ballroom 34 years after it had been closed.[19] Acts including George Clinton and P-FunkRobert HunterArlo Guthrie, and Spearhead performed at the reopened venue. All in all, the venue produced 70 plus concerts between 2002 and 2005.[19][20]

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Trypophobia (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by merde to c/wikipedia
 
 

The term trypophobia was coined by a nameless participant posting to an online forum in 2005. It has since become a common topic on social networking sites.

Trypophobia is an aversion to the sight of repetitive patterns or clusters of small holes or bumps.

Trypophobia is not recognized as a mental disorder and thus is not associated with a specific diagnosis in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). However, it may fall under the broad category of specific phobias when it involves excessive, persistent and possibly irrational fear, and is associated with significant distress or even impairment.

Whether trypophobia can be accurately defined as a specific phobia may depend on whether the person suffering responds mainly with fear or with disgust. Because phobias involve fear, a response to trypophobic imagery that is based mostly or solely on disgust renders its status as a specific phobia questionable.

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Name of Canada - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by Cheradenine to c/wikipedia
 
 

The most common alternative theory suggested that the name originated when Portuguese or Spanish explorers, having explored the northern part of the continent and unable to find gold and silver, wrote cá nada ('nothing here' in Portuguese), acá nada, aqui nada or el cabo de nada ('Cape Nothing' in Spanish) on that part of their maps.

I always thought it was Spanish for "place with moose"

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Quodlibeta (www.wikipedia.org)
submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/wikipedia
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submitted 3 weeks ago by merde to c/wikipedia
 
 

In 1793, Thomas Jefferson requested equipment from France that could be used to evaluate the metric system within the United States, Joseph Dombey returned from France with a standard kilogram. Before reaching the United States, Dombey's ship was blown off course by a storm and captured by pirates, and he died in captivity on Montserrat.

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The Convention on Road Signs and Signals, commonly known as the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, is a multilateral treaty to standardize the signing system for road traffic (road signs, traffic lights and road markings) in use internationally.

In the United States, signs are based on the US Federal Highway Administration's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Signs in the MUTCD are often more text-oriented, though some signs do use pictograms as well. Canada and Australia have road signs based substantially on the MUTCD. In South America, Ireland, several Asian countries (Cambodia, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia) and New Zealand, road signage is influenced by both the Vienna Convention and MUTCD. In Central America, road signs are heavily influenced by MUTCD and based on the Manual Centroamericano de Dispositivos Uniformes para el Control del Transito, a Central American Integration System (SICA) equivalent to the US MUTCD.

The convention has 71 state parties and 35 signatories (including acceding members) as of October 2022: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chile, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guyana, Holy See, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Madagascar, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Vietnam.

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