New Articles (Page 172)
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๐ Barbie's Careers
Since Barbie's introduction in 1959, the doll has been portrayed with many different careers. Different dolls are sold with sets of clothes and accessories that fit the career being portrayed. For example, the Lifeguard Barbie play set includes a Barbie, an outfit with shoes, a lifeguard chair, a dolphin, and a life preserver, while the Italian Teacher Barbie includes a Barbie, an outfit with shoes, flash cards, an Italian quiz, an easel, a notebook, a key chain, and a hairbrush. Each career is created to give children the option of exploring new careers and help them learn new things.
According to Mattel, Barbie has had over 200 inspirational careers, and more recently including more STEM fields.
๐ London Pneumatic Despatch Company
The London Pneumatic Despatch Company (also known as the London Pneumatic Dispatch Company) was formed on 30 June 1859, to design, build and operate an underground railway system for the carrying of mail, parcels and light freight between locations in London. The system was used between 1863 and 1874.
Discussed on
- "London Pneumatic Despatch Company" | 2020-10-21 | 45 Upvotes 20 Comments
๐ Piyama-Radu
Piyamaradu (also spelled Piyama-Radu, Piyama Radu, Piyamaradus, Piyamaraduลก) was a warlike personage whose name figures prominently in the Hittite archives of the middle and late 13th century BC in western Anatolia. His history is of particular interest because it appears to intertwine with that of the Trojan War. Some scholars assume that his name is cognate to that of King Priam of Troy.
๐ Cat Gap
The cat gap is a period in the fossil record of approximately 25 to 18.5 million years ago in which there are few fossils of cats or cat-like species found in North America. The cause of the "cat gap" is disputed, but may have been caused by changes in the climate (global cooling), changes in the habitat and environmental ecosystem, the increasingly hypercarnivorous trend of the cats (especially the nimravids), volcanic activity, evolutionary changes in dental morphology of the Canidae species present in North America, or a periodicity of extinctions called van der Hammen cycles.
Discussed on
- "The Cat Gap" | 2022-07-31 | 182 Upvotes 47 Comments
- "Cat Gap" | 2020-10-16 | 315 Upvotes 48 Comments
๐ South Atlantic Anomaly
The South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) is an area where Earth's inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to Earth's surface, dipping down to an altitude of 200 kilometres (120ย mi). This leads to an increased flux of energetic particles in this region and exposes orbiting satellites to higher-than-usual levels of radiation.
The effect is caused by the non-concentricity of Earth and its magnetic dipole. The SAA is the near-Earth region where Earth's magnetic field is weakest relative to an idealized Earth-centered dipole field.
Discussed on
- "South Atlantic Anomaly" | 2021-08-16 | 33 Upvotes 10 Comments
๐ Compassion Fatigue
Compassion fatigue is a condition characterized by emotional and physical exhaustion leading to a diminished ability to empathize or feel compassion for others, often described as the negative cost of caring. It is sometimes referred to as secondary traumatic stress (STS). According to the Professional Quality of Life Scale, burnout and secondary traumatic stress are two interwoven elements of compassion fatigue.
Compassion fatigue is considered to be the result of working directly with victims of disasters, trauma, or illness, especially in the health care industry. Individuals working in other helping professions are also at risk for experiencing compassion fatigue. These include child protection workers, veterinarians, teachers, social workers, palliative care workers, journalists, police officers, firefighters, animal welfare workers, public librarians, health unit coordinators, and Student Affairs professionals. Non-professionals, such as family members and other informal caregivers of people who have a chronic illness, may also experience compassion fatigue. The term was first coined in 1992 by Carla Joinson to describe the negative impact hospital nurses were experiencing as a result of their repeated, daily exposure to patient emergencies.
People who experience compassion fatigue may exhibit a variety of symptoms including lowered concentration, numbness or feelings of helplessness, irritability, lack of self-satisfaction, withdrawal, aches and pains, or work absenteeism.
Journalism analysts argue that news media have caused widespread compassion fatigue in society by saturating newspapers and news shows with decontextualized images and stories of tragedy and suffering. This has caused the public to become desensitized or resistant to helping people who are suffering.
๐ Menger Sponge
In mathematics, the Menger sponge (also known as the Menger cube, Menger universal curve, Sierpinski cube, or Sierpinski sponge) is a fractal curve. It is a three-dimensional generalization of the one-dimensional Cantor set and two-dimensional Sierpinski carpet. It was first described by Karl Menger in 1926, in his studies of the concept of topological dimension.
Discussed on
- "Menger Sponge" | 2020-10-05 | 27 Upvotes 12 Comments
๐ Synecdoche
A synecdoche ( sin-NEK-tษ-kee, from Greek ฯฯ ฮฝฮตฮบฮดฮฟฯฮฎ, synekdochฤ, 'simultaneous understanding') is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers to the whole of something or vice versa. A synecdoche is a class of metonymy, often by means of either mentioning a part for the whole or conversely the whole for one of its parts. Examples from common English expressions include "suits" (for "businessmen"), "boots" (for "soldiers") (pars pro toto), and "America" (for "the United States of America", totum pro parte).
The use of government buildings to refer to their occupants is metonymy and sometimes also synecdoche. "The Pentagon" for the United States Department of Defense can be considered synecdoche, as the building can be considered part of the department. Likewise, using "Number 10" to mean "the Office of the Prime Minister" (of the United Kingdom) is a synecdoche.
Discussed on
- "Synecdoche" | 2022-02-26 | 10 Upvotes 6 Comments
- "Synecdoche" | 2020-10-05 | 21 Upvotes 5 Comments
๐ Alcoa 50k ton forging press
The Alcoa 50,000 ton forging press is a heavy press operated at Howmet Aerospace's Cleveland Operations. It was built as part of the Heavy Press Program by the United States Air Force. It was manufactured by Mesta Machinery of West Homestead, Pennsylvania, and began operation on May 5, 1955.
Alcoa ran the plant from the time of its construction, and purchased it outright in 1982. In 2008, cracks were discovered in the press, which had to be shut down for safety reasons. Repairs, originally estimated at a cost of $68 million (equivalent to $81.04ย million in 2019), cost a total of $100 million, and were completed in early 2012.
Discussed on
- "Alcoa 50k ton forging press" | 2020-10-05 | 57 Upvotes 15 Comments
๐ Calisthenics
Calisthenics (American English) or callisthenics (British English) is a form of exercise consisting of a variety of movements that exercise large muscle groups (gross motor movements), such as running, standing, grasping, pushing, etc. These exercises are often performed rhythmically and with minimal equipment, as bodyweight exercises. They are intended to increase strength, fitness, and flexibility, through movements such as pulling, pushing, bending, jumping, or swinging, using one's body weight for resistance. Calisthenics can provide the benefits of muscular and aerobic conditioning, in addition to improving psychomotor skills such as balance, agility, and coordination.
Urban calisthenics is a form of street workout; calisthenics groups perform exercise routines in urban areas. Individuals and groups train to perform advanced calisthenics skills such as muscle-ups, levers, and various freestyle moves such as spins and flips.
Sports teams and military units often perform leader-directed group calisthenics as a form of synchronized physical training (often including a customized "call and response" routine) to increase group cohesion and discipline. Calisthenics is also popular as a component of physical education in primary and secondary schools over much of the globe.
In addition to general fitness, calisthenic exercises are often used as baseline physical evaluations for military organizations around the world. Two examples are the U.S. Army Physical Fitness Test and the U.S.M.C. Physical Fitness Test.
Discussed on
- "Calisthenics" | 2020-10-04 | 13 Upvotes 3 Comments