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๐Ÿ”— System D

๐Ÿ”— France

System D is a manner of responding to challenges that requires one to have the ability to think quickly, to adapt, and to improvise when getting a job done. The term gained wider popularity in the United States after appearing in the 2006 publication of Anthony Bourdain's The Nasty Bits. Bourdain references finding the term in Nicolas Freeling's memoir, The Kitchen, about Freeling's years as a Grand Hotel cook in France.

The term derives from the French term "Systรจme D". The letter D refers to any one of the French nouns "dรฉbrouille", dรฉbrouillardise or dรฉmerde (French slang). The verbs se dรฉbrouiller and se dรฉmerder mean to make do, to manage, especially in an adverse situation. Basically, it refers to one's ability and need to be resourceful.

In Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell described the term "dรฉbrouillard" as something the lowest-level kitchen workers, the plongeurs, wanted to be called, as people who would get the job done, no matter what.

In recent literature on the informal economy, System D is the growing share of the world's economy which makes up the underground economy, which as of 2011 has a projected GDP of $10 trillion. The informal economy is usually considered as one part of a dual economy. The concept of dual economy is where the economy is divided into two parts - the formal and the informal. The formal economy refers to all economic activities that operate within the official legal framework and are regulated by the government. In common parlance, it is understood as enterprises and citizens who pay taxes on all generated incomes. The reason, Neuwirth refers to this kind of an economy as a DIY economy or system D is because of the self reliance of the members within this sector. Due to lack of documentation, such as citizenship proof, tax id number, identity or address proof, people working in this sector are usually left with no way to seek support from their governments. This means that they are unable to access formal institutions which require documentation, and forces them to be self-reliant.

This is not to be confused with Autarky or Self Reliant Economies. Economists define self-sufficiency or self-reliance as the state of not requiring any aid, support, interaction or trade with the outside world. It is generally believed that a fully self-dependent economy or autarky is not possible in today's world.

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๐Ÿ”— United States National Radio Quiet Zone

๐Ÿ”— United States ๐Ÿ”— United States Public Policy ๐Ÿ”— Virginia ๐Ÿ”— United States/West Virginia

The National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) is a large area of land in the United States designated as a radio quiet zone, in which radio transmissions are heavily restricted by law to facilitate scientific research and the gathering of military intelligence. Roughly half of the zone is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of west-central Virginia while the other half is the Allegheny Mountains of east-central West Virginia; a small part of the zone is in the southernmost tip of the Maryland panhandle.

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๐Ÿ”— Lamest Edit Wars

๐Ÿ”— Department of Fun


Occasionally, even experienced Wikipedians lose their heads and devote every waking moment to edit warring over the most trivial thing, wasting time debating topics of no practical value, or wrestling over questions whose answers hold no practical consequence. This page documents our lamest examples. It isn't comprehensive or authoritative, but it serves as a showcase of situations where people lose sight of the big picture and obsessively expend huge amounts of energy fighting over something that, in the end, isn't really so important.

Edit warring is believed by some to be important, possibly due to the historical regularity and frequency of the occurrence of these wars. A careful and scholarly study of available archeological evidence has even suggested that edit wars may have recurred on a regular basis going back all the way to the beginning of recorded history, even before the advent of proper writing circa 2001 C.E. (see Wikipedia). In some earlier instances of edit warring, dating back from before the good old days, participants would simply utilize their swords and fight a battle, or later, their guns and fight a duel.

In modern times, physical combat has been outlawed and replaced by the careful inciting of personal attacks, strategic 3RR templating and canvassing, timely notices on WP:AN/I, and (in some cases) marking the changes as a minor edit. Truly, the revolutionary Wikipedia outlook has changed the way things get done. It has changed them from actually getting done to never getting done. On the other hand, nobody gets dispatched (so far!).

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๐Ÿ”— I never realized how useful netcat is

๐Ÿ”— Computing ๐Ÿ”— Computing/Software ๐Ÿ”— Computing/Free and open-source software

netcat (often abbreviated to nc) is a computer networking utility for reading from and writing to network connections using TCP or UDP. The command is designed to be a dependable back-end that can be used directly or easily driven by other programs and scripts. At the same time, it is a feature-rich network debugging and investigation tool, since it can produce almost any kind of connection its user could need and has a number of built-in capabilities.

Its list of features includes port scanning, transferring files, and port listening, and it can be used as a backdoor.

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๐Ÿ”— Alcohol Powder

๐Ÿ”— Food and drink ๐Ÿ”— Chemistry

Alcohol powder or powdered alcohol or dry alcohol is a product generally made using micro-encapsulation. When reconstituted with water, alcohol (specifically ethanol) in powder form becomes an alcoholic drink. In March 2015 four product labels for specific powdered alcohol products were approved by the United States Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) which opened the doors for legal product sales. However, as of 4 January 2016, the product is not yet available for sale and legalization remains controversial due to public-health and other concerns. Researchers have expressed concern that, should the product go into production, increases in alcohol misuse, abuse, and associated physical harm to its consumers could occur above what has been historically associated with liquid alcohol alone.

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๐Ÿ”— Primer (film)

๐Ÿ”— United States ๐Ÿ”— Film ๐Ÿ”— Film/American cinema ๐Ÿ”— Science Fiction ๐Ÿ”— United States/Texas

Primer is a 2004 American science fiction film about the accidental discovery of time travel. The film was written, directed, produced, edited and scored by Shane Carruth, who also stars with David Sullivan.

Primer is of note for its extremely low budget, experimental plot structure, philosophical implications, and complex technical dialogue, which Carruth, a college graduate with a degree in mathematics and a former engineer, chose not to simplify for the sake of the audience. The film collected the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, before securing a limited release in the United States, and has since gained a cult following.

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๐Ÿ”— Matrioshka Brain

๐Ÿ”— Technology ๐Ÿ”— Architecture

A Matrioshka brain is a hypothetical megastructure of immense computational capacity powered by a Dyson sphere. It was proposed in 1997 by Robert J. Bradbury (1956โ€“2011). It is an example of a Class B stellar engine, employing the entire energy output of a star to drive computer systems. This concept derives its name from the nesting Russian Matryoshka dolls. The concept was deployed by Bradbury in the anthology Year Million: Science at the Far Edge of Knowledge.

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๐Ÿ”— Bell Labs Holmdel Complex

๐Ÿ”— Architecture ๐Ÿ”— New Jersey ๐Ÿ”— National Register of Historic Places

The Bell Labs Holmdel Complex, in Holmdel Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, functioned for 44 years as a research and development facility, initially for the Bell System and later Bell Labs. The centerpiece of the campus is an Eero Saarinenโ€“designed structure that served as the home to over 6,000 engineers and researchers. This modernist building, dubbed "The Biggest Mirror Ever" by Architectural Forum due to its mirror box exterior, was the site of a Nobel Prize discovery, the laser cooling work of Steven Chu.

Restructuring of the company's research efforts reduced the use of the Holmdel Complex, and in 2006 the building was put up for sale. The building has undergone renovations into a multi-purpose living and working space, dubbed Bell Works by its redevelopers. Since 2013 it has been operated by Somerset Development, who redeveloped the building into a mixed-use office for high-tech startup companies. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. A number of movies, television programs, and commercials have been filmed at Bell Works, including Severance, The Crowded Room, and Law & Order: Organized Crime.

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๐Ÿ”— Wife Acceptance Factor

๐Ÿ”— Psychology ๐Ÿ”— Gender Studies

Wife acceptance factor, wife approval factor, or wife appeal factor (WAF) is an assessment of design elements that either increase or diminish the likelihood a wife will approve the purchase of expensive consumer electronics products such as high-fidelity loudspeakers, home theater systems and personal computers. Stylish, compact forms and appealing colors are commonly considered to have a high WAF. The term is a tongue-in-cheek play on electronics jargon such as "form factor" and "power factor" and derives from the idea that men are predisposed to appreciate gadgetry and performance criteria whereas women must be wooed by visual and aesthetic factors.

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๐Ÿ”— Ishikawa diagram

๐Ÿ”— Business ๐Ÿ”— Engineering

Ishikawa diagrams (also called fishbone diagrams, herringbone diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams, or Fishikawa) are causal diagrams created by Kaoru Ishikawa that show the causes of a specific event.

Common uses of the Ishikawa diagram are product design and quality defect prevention to identify potential factors causing an overall effect. Each cause or reason for imperfection is a source of variation. Causes are usually grouped into major categories to identify and classify these sources of variation.

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