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π Elixir Sulfanilamide
Elixir sulfanilamide was an improperly prepared sulfonamide antibiotic that caused mass poisoning in the United States in 1937. It is believed to have killed more than 100 people. The public outcry caused by this incident and other similar disasters led to the passing of the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which significantly increased the Food and Drug Administration's powers to regulate drugs.
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- "Elixir Sulfanilamide" | 2022-09-29 | 68 Upvotes 70 Comments
π Exploding Cucumber
Cyclanthera brachystachya, the exploding cucumber (but not to be confused with Ecballium elaterium), in the cucurbit or gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), is a herbaceous vine usually grown for its curiosity value, but the fruit is also edible.
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- "Exploding Cucumber" | 2025-08-13 | 17 Upvotes 12 Comments
π Operation Snow White
Operation Snow White was a criminal conspiracy by the Church of Scientology during the 1970s to purge unfavorable records about Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. This project included a series of infiltrations into and thefts from 136 government agencies, foreign embassies and consulates, as well as private organizations critical of Scientology, carried out by Church members in more than 30 countries. It was one of the largest infiltrations of the United States government in history, with up to 5,000 covert agents. This operation also exposed the Scientology plot "Operation Freakout", because Operation Snow White was the case that initiated the U.S. government's investigation of the Church.
Under this program, Scientology operatives committed infiltration, wiretapping, and theft of documents in government offices, most notably those of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Eleven highly placed Church executives, including Mary Sue Hubbard (third wife of founder L. Ron Hubbard and second-in-command of the organization), pleaded guilty and were convicted in federal court of obstructing justice, burglary of government offices, and theft of documents and government property. The case was United States v. Mary Sue Hubbard et al., 493 F.Supp. 209 (D.D.C. 1979).
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- "Operation Snow White" | 2023-12-27 | 224 Upvotes 72 Comments
π Rabbit-proof fence
The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia, formerly known as the Rabbit Proof Fence, the State Vermin Fence, and the Emu Fence, is a pest-exclusion fence constructed between 1901 and 1907 to keep rabbits and other agricultural pests, from the east, out of Western Australian pastoral areas.
There are three fences in Western Australia: the original No. 1 Fence crosses the state from north to south, No. 2 Fence is smaller and further west, and No. 3 Fence is smaller still and runs eastβwest. The fences took six years to build. When completed in 1907, the rabbit-proof fence (including all three fences) stretched 2,023 miles (3,256Β km). The cost to build the fences at the time was about Β£168 per mile ($250/km).
When it was completed in 1907, the 1,139-mile (1,833Β km) No. 1 Fence was the longest unbroken fence in the world.
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- "Rabbit-proof fence" | 2014-06-06 | 49 Upvotes 36 Comments
π Today Is Norwegian Constitution Day
Norwegian Constitution Day is the national day of Norway and is an official public holiday observed on May 17 each year. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to simply as syttende mai (lit. "seventeenth May"), Nasjonaldagen (The National Day) or Grunnlovsdagen (The Constitution Day), although the latter is less frequent.
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- "Today Is Norwegian Constitution Day" | 2017-05-17 | 19 Upvotes 1 Comments
π A list of April Fools' Day RFCs
A Request for Comments (RFC), in the context of Internet governance, is a type of publication from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Society (ISOC), usually describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems.
Almost every April Fools' Day (1 April) since 1989, the Internet RFC Editor has published one or more humorous Request for Comments (RFC) documents, following in the path blazed by the June 1973 RFC 527 called ARPAWOCKY, a parody of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem "Jabberwocky". The following list also includes humorous RFCs published on other dates.
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- "April Fools Day Request for Comments" | 2024-04-01 | 16 Upvotes 2 Comments
- "UTF-9 and UTF-18" | 2015-02-05 | 109 Upvotes 11 Comments
- "A list of April Fools' Day RFCs" | 2010-03-31 | 17 Upvotes 2 Comments
π Shakespeare (programming language)
The Shakespeare Programming Language (SPL) is an esoteric programming language designed by Jon Γ slund and Karl HasselstrΓΆm. Like the Chef programming language, it is designed to make programs appear to be something other than programs; in this case, Shakespearean plays.
A character list in the beginning of the program declares a number of stacks, naturally with names like "Romeo" and "Juliet". These characters enter into dialogue with each other in which they manipulate each other's topmost values, push and pop each other, and do I/O. The characters can also ask each other questions which behave as conditional statements. On the whole, the programming model is very similar to assembly language but much more verbose.
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- "Shakespeare (programming language)" | 2012-12-12 | 34 Upvotes 10 Comments
- "Shakespeare programming language" | 2011-10-29 | 36 Upvotes 8 Comments
π Compute Express Link
Compute Express Link (CXL) is an open standard for high-speed central processing unit (CPU)-to-device and CPU-to-memory connections, designed for high performance data center computers. CXL is built on the PCI Express (PCIe) physical and electrical interface and includes PCIe-based block input/output protocol (CXL.io) and new cache-coherent protocols for accessing system memory (CXL.cache) and device memory (CXL.mem).
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- "Compute Express Link" | 2022-07-20 | 25 Upvotes 4 Comments
π US Senate Candy Desk
The candy desk has been a tradition of the United States Senate since 1968, whereby a senator who sits at a particular desk near a busy entrance keeps a drawer full of candy for members of the body. The current occupant of the candy desk is Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey.
In 1965, California's George Murphy joined the Senate, and kept candy in his desk to offer his colleagues, and for himself, though eating is not allowed on the Senate floor. When he left the Senate after a six-year term, other Republican senators maintained the custom. The nascent tradition did not become publicly known until the mid-1980s, when Washington Senator Slade Gorton disclosed it in announcing that he would be sitting at the candy desk.
Senators who have maintained the candy desk tradition include John McCain, Harrison Schmitt, and Rick Santorum, who stocked it with confectionery from his home state of Pennsylvania, including from the Hershey Chocolate Company. After Santorum left the Senate in 2007, the candy desk was maintained by a number of senators for a short time each, before Pennsylvania Senator Toomey began his stay in 2015.
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- "US Senate Candy Desk" | 2018-11-18 | 128 Upvotes 40 Comments
π Nacirema
Nacirema ("American" spelled backwards) is a term used in anthropology and sociology in relation to aspects of the behavior and society of citizens of the United States of America. The neologism attempts to create a deliberate sense of self-distancing in order that American anthropologists might look at their own culture more objectively.
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- "Nacirema" | 2022-02-21 | 140 Upvotes 44 Comments