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π Ettore Majorana
Ettore Majorana (, Italian: [ΛΙttore majoΛraΛna]; born on 5 August 1906 β likely dying in or after 1959) was an Italian theoretical physicist who worked on neutrino masses. On 25Β March 1938, he disappeared under mysterious circumstances after purchasing a ticket to travel by ship from Naples to Palermo.
The Majorana equation and Majorana fermions are named after him. In 2006, the Majorana Prize was established in his memory.
Discussed on
- "Ettore Majorana" | 2024-08-03 | 16 Upvotes 7 Comments
π Ken Leishman
Kenneth Leishman (June 20, 1931 β December 14, 1979), also known as the Flying Bandit or the Gentleman Bandit was a Canadian criminal responsible for multiple robberies between 1957 and 1966. Leishman was the mastermind behind the largest gold theft in Canadian history. This record stood for over 50 years, until it was surpassed by the Toronto Pearson airport heist in 2023. After being caught and arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Leishman managed to escape twice, before being caught and serving the remainder of his various sentences.
In December 1979, while flying a Mercy Flight to Thunder Bay, Leishman's aircraft crashed about 40 miles (64Β km) north of Thunder Bay.
π Eric Roberts (Spy)
Eric Arthur Roberts (18 June 1907 β 17 or 18 December 1972) was an MI5 agent during the Second World War under the alias Jack King. By posing as a Gestapo agent and infiltrating fascist groups in the UK, Roberts was able to prevent secret information finding its way to Germany. Roberts continued to work for the security services after the war, particularly in Vienna, but it was a time of great anxiety in the services because of the suspicions surrounding double agents such as the Cambridge spy ring.
Roberts never felt completely accepted by MI5 because of his social background and a desk role did not suit him as well as his wartime role had. He is the subject of the biography Agent Jack (2018) by Robert Hutton, and his adventures were the inspiration for the novel Our Friends In Berlin by Anthony Quinn and for a major character in the novel Transcription by Kate Atkinson.
Discussed on
- "Eric Roberts (Spy)" | 2024-07-31 | 36 Upvotes 4 Comments
π Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage
Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage (ISBNΒ 0-06-103004-X) by Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, and Annette Lawrence Drew, published in 1998 by PublicAffairs, is a non-fiction book about U.S. Navy submarine operations during the Cold War. Several operations are described in the book, such as the use of USSΒ Parche to tap Soviet undersea communications cables and USSΒ Halibut to do the same in Operation Ivy Bells.
The book also contains an extensive list of collisions between Western and Soviet submarines and U.S. submarine awards.
Discussed on
- "Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage" | 2024-08-01 | 14 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Kentucky in Africa
Kentucky in Africa was a colony in present-day Montserrado County, Liberia, founded in 1828 and settled by American free people of color, many of them former slaves. A state affiliate of the American Colonization Society, the Kentucky State Colonization Society raised money to transport people of color from Kentuckyβfreeborn volunteers as well as enslaved individuals set free on the condition that they leave the United States for Liberia. The Kentucky society bought a 40-square-mile (100Β km2) site along the Saint Paul River (quite near the site of the present-day capital city of Monrovia) and named it Kentucky in Africa. Clay-Ashland. named after Henry Clay's Ashland Plantation, was the colony's primary settlement.
Notable residents of Kentucky in Africa include Alfred Francis Russell, the 10th President of Liberia, and William D. Coleman, the 13th President of Liberia, whose family settled in Clay-Ashland after emigrating from Fayette County, Kentucky.
Kentucky in Africa was annexed by Liberia in about 1847.
π Wikipedia Now with Dark Mode
A light-on-dark color scheme (dark mode, night mode) is available to Wikipedia's smartphone apps and website (for users using the default skins) since July 2024.
In addition to this there is a gadget on English Wikipedia, and various volunteer-written CSS files that allow customization for logged-in users.
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- "Wikipedia Now with Dark Mode" | 2024-07-27 | 11 Upvotes 2 Comments
π Stanhope (optical bijou)
A stanhope or stanho-scope is an optical device that enables the viewing of microphotographs without using a microscope. They were invented by RenΓ© Dagron in 1857. Dagron bypassed the need for an expensive microscope to view the microscopic photographs by attaching the microphotograph at the end of a modified Stanhope lens. He called the devices bijoux photo-microscopiques or microscopic photo-jewelry.
Discussed on
- "Stanhope (optical bijou)" | 2024-07-28 | 13 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Conservation-Induced Extinction
Conservation-induced extinction is where efforts to save endangered species lead to the extinction of other species. This mostly threatens the parasite and pathogen species that are highly host-specific to critically endangered hosts. When the last individuals of a host species are captured for the purpose of captive breeding and reintroduction programs, they typically undergo anti-parasitic treatments to increase survival and reproductive success. This practice may unintentionally result in the extinction of the species antagonistic to the target species, such as certain parasites. It has been proposed that the parasites should be reintroduced to the endangered population. A few cases of conservation-induced extinction have occurred in parasitic lice.
Discussed on
- "Conservation-Induced Extinction" | 2024-07-26 | 13 Upvotes 2 Comments
π Androgynous Peripheral Attach System
The terms Androgynous Peripheral Attach System (APAS), Androgynous Peripheral Assembly System (APAS) and Androgynous Peripheral Docking System (APDS) are used interchangeably to describe a Russian family of spacecraft docking mechanisms, and are also sometimes used as generic names for any docking system in that family. A system similar to APAS-89/95 is used by the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft.
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- "Androgynous Peripheral Attach System" | 2024-07-26 | 23 Upvotes 7 Comments
π Wikimedia community ratifies Movement Charter; Wikimedia Foundation vetoes it
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- "Wikimedia community ratifies Movement Charter; Wikimedia Foundation vetoes it" | 2024-07-23 | 38 Upvotes 10 Comments