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πŸ”— W54

πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Military history/North American military history πŸ”— Military history/United States military history πŸ”— Military history/Military science, technology, and theory πŸ”— Military history/Weaponry πŸ”— Military history/Cold War

The W54 (also known as the Mark 54 or B54) was a tactical nuclear warhead developed by the United States in the late 1950s. The weapon is notable for being the smallest nuclear weapon in both weight and yield to have entered US service. It was a compact implosion device containing plutonium-239 as its fissile material, and in its various versions and mods it had a yield of 10 to 1,000 tons of TNT (42 to 4,184 gigajoules).

The weapon had two distinct versions: a warhead used in the AIM-26 Falcon air-to-air missile and in the Davy Crockett recoilless gun, and another used in the Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM) system, along with several mods for each version. The two types are distinct in that much of the design between them was different, to the point that during the development of the SADM it was proposed that it be given its own unique mark designation.

A later development was the W72, which was a rebuilt W54 used with the AGM-62 Walleye guided bomb. The W72 was in service until 1979.

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  • "W54" | 2024-12-18 | 46 Upvotes 33 Comments

πŸ”— List of really, really stupid article ideas that you should not create

πŸ”— Department of Fun

An article about or described by any of the following can be safely assumed to fit into the set of unnecessary articles:

  1. You, your family, or the organization you work for.
  2. Your band, which has only sold 47 copies of its one album. Even if you think it will sell 48. Or maybe 49! Or, if you get really lucky, you can pay off the record store owner so that he may buy one and your sales will have gone up to fifty!!! Keep dreamin', brotha.
  3. Your imaginary friend or your imaginary friends that don't even exist.
  4. The religion, language or even country that you made up with your friends in school one day.
  5. The street you live on, unless it is on a Monopoly board. But since it is highly unlikely that you live on a Monopoly game board, we suggest that you not even try.
  6. Any one of the 16 distinct regions in the PokΓ©mon video game series or lieking mudkipz, or hering dat someon lieks mudkipz. Remember, not everyone is a PokΓ©mon fanatic.
  7. A stunt or trick only you have ever attempted, probably unsuccessfully.
  8. Any movie you made yourself which has never been seen by more people at one time than can fit in your basement. Even if you have a really big basement.
  9. Individual songs that have never been released as a single nor seen radio play, unless they're twenty minutes long or have led to a phone number becoming unusable or even have questioned the essence of music itself.
  10. "(Anything) in popular culture." Anything at all.
  11. Likewise "Hysterical Realism in the Works of (insert neither hysterical nor realistic author here)".
  12. Your dormitory, university residence, or any suite therein.
  13. Stuff nobody but that guy who changes his Spock ears more often than his underpants cares about, or the equivalent thereto. For example, a song about a custom map of a video game, unless you are famous and the song managed to release as a single.
  14. Anything about which you cannot be buggered to write one complete sent
  15. Subjects that cannot be studied, or the knowledge of which amounts only to the fact that it pertains to another topic. A favourite line from a movie or catchy lyric, a potent phrase used in argument, juicy facts of interest to fans, a punch-line or zinger; these are all very interesting, but usually all that can be informatively written about topic "X" is: "X is a _______ found in _______."
  16. Just about everything listed on Wikipedia:Millionth topic pool.
  17. For that matter, Wikipedia:Millionth topic pool.
  18. Anything about your cat or dog and how cute it is (or your hamster, degu, or chinchilla).
  19. Exploding Whales, or indeed Exploding Wales, or even Exploding Wales. Or blowing up any other animals, for example, exploding mice, or even exploding Velociraptor, for that matter. Most things that implode are pretty much off the list too, with a few exceptions.
  20. Anything written under the influence of recreational substances or while tired and emotional.
  21. An article about another article, written after the use of aforementioned substances.
  22. A fork of an existing article for the sole purpose of adding some humor.
  23. The weather in London. Not even a redirect. (Wowee).
  24. Your guild in World of Warcraft or similar time wasters. Just because you have no life a personally fascinating hobby doesn't mean you get to tell the world about it. And don't write about this guy in your guild who wiped your raid, either.
  25. Something you just saw on YouTube and, possibly, laughed at.
  26. Something you just put on YouTube.
  27. An article that haz badly grammar and/or speelling. Including, bad punctuation!!
  28. Any meme, no matter how popular or important.
  29. Anything you don't know the title of.
  30. Your wiki or blog. It's probably not internationally famous. If it is, well go ahead, but let's face it; your blog of cute cats is not internationally famous (three readers is not fame).
  31. Your new invention or research paper that will change the world. It will undoubtedly fail.
  32. Anything about your cat named Bubba or your dog named Max. No one cares. Trust us.
  33. Your nomination for the Noble (or even Nobel) Peace Prize.
  34. Anything about how you were abducted by aliens.
  35. An article on the dream you had last night. No matter how long you describe it, it will never be interesting: Even if dreaming that you were the inventor of the chalk board who had to overcome obstacles from the evil book binding lobbyists deeply moved you to tears upon waking up.
  36. An article on the person that knocked on your door while you was writing the article about your dream last night, causing you to forget about the dream (but I’ll be honest, I feel for you).
  37. An article about Wikpiedia, Wikipaedia, Wiokipedia, Wikipeedia, Wikipeadia, or any other Wikis that appear to be Wikipedia but aren't.
  38. An article about the media response to the Wikipedia article about the barely notable thing that shouldn't even have an article (recursivity has its limits, even here).
  39. The difference between Hoagy Carmichael and Stokely Carmichael.
  40. An entry promoting your hilarious web series about Wikipedia.
  41. Recreating this dumb list.
  42. Anything about hashtags. #IHateHashtags
  43. Anything about how fat you are or how much weight you're losing (trust us; no one cares).
  44. Headlight flashing – I know, it's preposterous, even for Wikipedia. But when you're done laughing and/or crying, follow the link. It really exists.
  45. Assumptions about the conclusions of scientific publications that you have seen the titles of, but not read.
  46. Your self-published book.
  47. McGannahan Skjellyfetti.
  48. An article about your friend's latest selfie. Or, for that matter, selfie stick. They are banned in most places anyway.
  49. Lists of times at which commercial breaks occurred during a sporting event.
  50. Your personal opinions about your boyfriend or girlfriend.
  51. An article on discussing the differences between you and your close friends. It does not matter to most people in the world.
  52. An article about how Tyson Foods is run by a bunch of chicken fuckers because the main article is protected from vandalism by the legions of Internet trolls.
  53. Yet another list of Google doodles.
  54. A new sex position that you and your boys theory-crafted one night.
  55. Times Scooby-Doo has defied the laws of reality.
  56. A list of celebrity couples names for couples that you wish would get together but as of now haven't.
  57. Your stupid esoteric programming language you made up to 'test the boundaries of computer programming language design'.
  58. Any article related to odorous gas clouds, but particularly smelly farts.
  59. Your youtube channel, unless you have millions of fangirls.
  60. Your opinion and/or fascination about outer space, even if there are lots of unusual exoplanets out there. Yes, we know. They're weird. No need to tell us that.
  61. Your opinion on time traveling to have dinner with the members of Bone Symphony or Bone Thugs-n-Harmony or Boney M. or The Right Honourable Bonar Law
  62. The time you laughed about someone eating a red 5-pound gummy skull while wearing a jetpack while driving a limousine at 5 a.m. on a Tuesday in August 2018.
  63. An article that uses templates to perform math for no apparent reason besides your entertainment
  64. Your anus and how it had very good funny time with girl.
  65. The time you laughed at someone living in Fortnite (Chapter 1), even though I get that they were eaten by a Black hole. Oh well, they came back!
  66. Posting a video of yourself saying the n-word.
  67. Posting an image of yourself falling off the Burj Khalifa.
  68. Singing any Cardi B song.
  69. Posting 69 (nice) useless messages made by bored editors of Wikipedia.
  70. Your low-effort school play of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"
  71. A list of times you pinged @everyone on your Discord server.

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πŸ”— Autostereogram

πŸ”— Psychology

An autostereogram is a single-image stereogram (SIS), designed to create the visual illusion of a three-dimensional (3D) scene from a two-dimensional image. In order to perceive 3D shapes in these autostereograms, one must overcome the normally automatic coordination between accommodation (focus) and horizontal vergence (angle of one's eyes). The illusion is one of depth perception and involves stereopsis: depth perception arising from the different perspective each eye has of a three-dimensional scene, called binocular parallax.

The simplest type of autostereogram consists of horizontally repeating patterns (often separate images) and is known as a wallpaper autostereogram. When viewed with proper convergence, the repeating patterns appear to float above or below the background. The well-known Magic Eye books feature another type of autostereogram called a random dot autostereogram. One such autostereogram is illustrated above right. In this type of autostereogram, every pixel in the image is computed from a pattern strip and a depth map. A hidden 3D scene emerges when the image is viewed with the correct convergence.

Autostereograms are similar to normal stereograms except they are viewed without a stereoscope. A stereoscope presents 2D images of the same object from slightly different angles to the left eye and the right eye, allowing us to reconstruct the original object via binocular disparity. When viewed with the proper vergence, an autostereogram does the same, the binocular disparity existing in adjacent parts of the repeating 2D patterns.

There are two ways an autostereogram can be viewed: wall-eyed and cross-eyed. Most autostereograms (including those in this article) are designed to be viewed in only one way, which is usually wall-eyed. Wall-eyed viewing requires that the two eyes adopt a relatively parallel angle, while cross-eyed viewing requires a relatively convergent angle. An image designed for wall-eyed viewing if viewed correctly will appear to pop out of the background, while if viewed cross-eyed it will instead appear as a cut-out behind the background and may be difficult to bring entirely into focus.

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πŸ”— 60% of medal of honor recipients are Irish or Irish-American

πŸ”— United States πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Military history/North American military history πŸ”— Military history/United States military history πŸ”— Lists πŸ”— Military history/World War I πŸ”— Military history/World War II πŸ”— Military history/American Civil War πŸ”— Project-independent assessment

The following is a list of Irish-American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who were awarded the American military's highest decorationΒ β€” the Medal of Honor. The Medal of Honor is bestowed "for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty, in actual combat against an armed enemy force." The medal is awarded by the President of the United States on behalf of the Congress.

Of the 3,464 Medals of Honor awarded as of September 17, 2009, an estimated 2,021 (58%) have been awarded to Irish-American recipients, more than twice the number awarded any other ethnic group; 257 Irish-born Americans have received the Medal of Honor which represents more than half of foreign-born MOH recipients. A monument to these Irish-born Medal of Honor recipients is located at Valley Forge's Medal of Honor Grove; erected by the Ancient Order of Hibernians. The first Irish American to receive the Medal was Michael Madden, who received it for his actions in the American Civil War (Note that the earliest action for which the Medal of Honor was awarded was to Irish American U.S. Army Assistant Surgeon Bernard J.D. Irwin for the engagement at Apache Pass, February 1861. The award was made three decades after the event and after Madden's award).

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πŸ”— VA-111 Shkval

πŸ”— Technology πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Military history/Military science, technology, and theory πŸ”— Military history/Weaponry πŸ”— Military history/Maritime warfare πŸ”— Military history/Russian, Soviet and CIS military history

The VA-111 Shkval (from Russian: шквал, squall) torpedo and its descendants are supercavitating torpedoes originally developed by the Soviet Union. They are capable of speeds in excess of 200 knots (370 km/h or 230 miles/h).

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πŸ”— I Can Eat Glass

πŸ”— Internet culture

I Can Eat Glass was a linguistic project documented on the early Web by then-Harvard student Ethan Mollick. The objective was to provide speakers with translations of the phrase "I can eat glass, it does not hurt me" from a wide variety of languages; the phrase was chosen because of its unorthodox nature. Mollick's original page disappeared in or about June 2004.

As Mollick explained, visitors to a foreign country have "an irresistible urge" to say something in that language, and whatever they say usually marks them as tourists immediately. Saying "I can eat glass, it does not hurt me", however, ensures that the speaker "will be viewed as an insane native, and treated with dignity and respect".

The project grew to considerable size since web surfers were invited to submit translations. The phrase was translated into over 150 languages, including some that are fictional or invented, as well as into code from various computer languages. It became an Internet meme.

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πŸ”— The moving sofa problem

πŸ”— Mathematics

The moving sofa problem or sofa problem is a two-dimensional idealisation of real-life furniture-moving problems and asks for the rigid two-dimensional shape of largest area A that can be maneuvered through an L-shaped planar region with legs of unit width. The area A thus obtained is referred to as the sofa constant. The exact value of the sofa constant is an open problem.

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πŸ”— Monkey Selfie Copyright Dispute

πŸ”— Law πŸ”— Indonesia πŸ”— Primates πŸ”— Animal rights πŸ”— Photography

The monkey selfie copyright dispute is a series of disputes about the copyright status of selfies taken by Celebes crested macaques using equipment belonging to the British nature photographer David Slater. The disputes involve Wikimedia Commons and the blog Techdirt, which have hosted the images following their publication in newspapers in July 2011 over Slater's objections that he holds the copyright, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), who have argued that the macaque should be assigned the copyright.

Slater has argued that he has a valid copyright claim, as he engineered the situation that resulted in the pictures by travelling to Indonesia, befriending a group of wild macaques, and setting up his camera equipment in such a way that a "selfie" picture might come about. The Wikimedia Foundation's 2014 refusal to remove the pictures from its Wikimedia Commons image library was based on the understanding that copyright is held by the creator, that a non-human creator (not being a legal person) cannot hold copyright, and that the images are thus in the public domain.

Slater stated in August 2014 that, as a result of the pictures being available on Wikipedia, he had lost at least GBΒ£10,000 (equivalent to about Β£11,000 in 2019) in income and his business as a wildlife photographer was being harmed. In December 2014, the United States Copyright Office stated that works created by a non-human, such as a photograph taken by a monkey, are not copyrightable. A number of legal experts in the US and UK have argued that Slater's role in the photographic process may have been sufficient to establish a valid copyright claim, though this decision would have to be made by a court.

In a separate dispute, PETA tried to use the monkey selfies to establish a legal precedent that animals should be declared copyright holders. Slater had published a book containing the photographs through self-publishing company Blurb, Inc. In September 2015, PETA filed a lawsuit against Slater and Blurb, requesting that the monkey be assigned the copyright and that PETA be appointed to administer proceeds from the photos for the endangered species' benefit. In dismissing PETA's case, the court ruled that a monkey cannot own copyright, under US law. PETA appealed, and in September 2017, both PETA and the photographer agreed to a settlement in which Slater would donate a portion of future revenues on the photographs to wildlife organizations. However, the court of appeals declined to dismiss the appeal and declined to vacate the lower court judgment. In April 2018, the appeals court affirmed that animals cannot legally hold copyrights and expressed concern that PETA's motivations had been to promote their own interests rather than to protect the legal rights of animals.

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πŸ”— Biophilic Design

πŸ”— Environment πŸ”— Architecture πŸ”— Civil engineering πŸ”— Industrial design

Biophilic design is a concept used within the building industry to increase occupant connectivity to the natural environment through the use of direct nature, indirect nature, and space and place conditions. Used at both the building and city-scale, it is argued that this idea has health, environmental, and economic benefits for building occupants and urban environments, with few drawbacks. Although its name was coined in recent history, indicators of biophilic design have been seen in architecture from as far back as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

πŸ”— Year Without a Summer

πŸ”— Volcanoes πŸ”— Meteorology

The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer (also the Poverty Year and Eighteen Hundred and Froze To Death) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4–0.7Β Β°C (0.72–1.26Β Β°F). This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere.

Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in April in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). This eruption was the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years (after the hypothesized eruption causing the extreme weather events of 535–536), and perhaps exacerbated by the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines.

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