Wikituesday

"Zoroastrianism /ˌzɒroʊˈæstriənɪzəm/ (or Mazdaism) is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster (also known as Zarathustra, in Avestan) and was formerly among the world's largest religions.[1] It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran. In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil originates from Him. Thus, in Zoroastrianism good and evil have distinct sources, with evil (druj) trying to destroy the creation of Mazda (asha), and good trying to sustain it. Mazda is not immanent in the world, and His creation is represented by the Amesha Spentas and the host of other Yazatas, through whom the works of God are evident to humanity, and through whom worship of Mazda is ultimately directed. The most important texts of the religion are those of the Avesta, of which a significant portion has been lost, and mostly only the liturgies of which have survived. The lost portions are known of only through references and brief quotations in the later works, primarily from the 9th to 11th centuries." - Kelli H. from Bookmarklet

Dear Kelli, Thank you for your interest in my culture and country. This is such a great post :)** - mina_sydney

"Book burning (also biblioclasm or libricide) is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned or shredded. Book burning is usually carried out in public, and is generally motivated by moral, religious, or political objections to the material." - klemo from Bookmarklet

aktualno, indeed. - asjaba

"Diffie–Hellman establishes a shared secret that can be used for secret communications by exchanging data over a public network. The following diagram illustrates the general idea of the key exchange" - Goran Zec from Bookmarklet

"...an Austrian-born French tailor, inventor and parachuting pioneer, now sometimes referred to as the Flying Tailor, who is remembered for his accidental death by jumping from the Eiffel Tower while testing a wearable parachute of his own design." - Goran Zec from Bookmarklet

"The "original affluent society" is a theory postulating that hunter-gatherers were the original affluent society. This theory was first articulated by Marshall Sahlins at a symposium entitled "Man the Hunter" held in Chicago in 1966. The significance of the theory stems from its role in shifting anthropological thought away from seeing hunter-gatherer societies as primitive, to seeing them as practitioners of a refined mode of subsistence. At the time of the symposium new research by anthropologists, such as Richard B. Lee’s work on the !Kung of southern Africa, was challenging popular notions that hunter-gatherer societies were always near the brink of starvation and continuously engaged in a struggle for survival.[1] Sahlins gathered the data from these studies and used it to support a comprehensive argument that states that hunter-gatherers did not suffer from deprivation, but instead lived in a society in which "all the people’s wants are easily satisfied."[2]" - Eivind from Bookmarklet

"But then, it was not until culture neared the height of its material achievements that it erected a shrine to the Unattainable: Infinite Needs." ~Marshal Sahlins, "The Original Affluent Society." - Eivind

"The Ussher chronology is a 17th-century chronology of the history of the world formulated from a literal reading of the Bible by James Ussher, the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, which is a county in Northern Ireland. The chronology is sometimes associated with young Earth creationism, which holds that the universe was created only a few millennia ago by God as described in the first two chapters of the Biblical book of Genesis." - Eivind from Bookmarklet

(: - Eivind

"Pareidolia ( /pærɨˈdoʊliə/ parr-i-doh-lee-ə) is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon or the Moon rabbit, and hearing hidden messages on records played in reverse. The word comes from the Greek para- – "beside", "with", or "alongside"—meaning, in this context, something faulty or wrong (as in paraphasia, disordered speech) and eidōlon – "image"; the diminutive of eidos – "image", "form", "shape". Pareidolia is a type of apophenia." - Kelli H. from Bookmarklet

Every tile, random pattern, EVERYTHING - turns into horses, wolves, faces. Can't help myself. - WoH: Minding her Steves

"A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages. Such establishments came into prominence in the United States during the period known as Prohibition (1920–1933, longer in some states). During this time, the sale, manufacture, and transportation (bootlegging) of alcoholic beverages was illegal throughout the United States." - Kelli H. from Bookmarklet

"The term "speakeasy" might have originated in Pennsylvania in 1888, when the Brooks High-License Act raised the state's fee for a saloon license from $50 to $500. The number of licensed bars promptly plummeted, but some bars continued to operate illegally. Kate Hester had run a saloon for years in McKeesport, just outside of Pittsburgh. She refused to pay the new license fee and wanted... more... - Kelli H.

"In many rural towns, small speakeasies and blind pigs were operated by local business owners as a way of making extra money. These family secrets were often kept even after Prohibition ended. For example, in 2007 secret underground rooms thought to have been a speakeasy were found by renovators on the grounds of the Cyber Cafe West in Binghamton, New York.[5] The locations of... more... - Kelli H.

"Operation Paperclip was the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) program used to recruit the scientists of Nazi Germany for employment by the United States in the aftermath of World War II (1939–45). It was conducted by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA), and in the context of the burgeoning Soviet–American Cold War (1945–91); one purpose of Operation Paperclip was to deny German scientific knowledge and expertise to the USSR and the UK." - Occam's Toilet Brush from Bookmarklet

"Jenkem is a purportedly hallucinogenic inhalant created from fermented human waste.[1] In the mid-1990s, it was reported to be a popular street drug among Zambian street children.[2][3][4][5]" - Occam's Toilet Brush from Bookmarklet

"Numen ("an influence perceptible by mind but not by senses", pl. numina) is a Latin term for a potential, guiding the course of events in a particular place or in the whole world, used in Roman philosophical and religious thought. The many names for Italic gods may obscure this sense of a numinous presence in all the seemingly mundane actions of the natural world." - Eivind from Bookmarklet

"The word numen is also used by sociologists to refer to the idea of magical power residing in an object, particularly when writing about ideas in the western tradition. When used in this sense, numen is nearly synonymous with mana. However, some authors reserve use of mana for ideas about magic from Polynesia and southeast Asia." - Eivind

"Dancing mania (also known as dancing plague, choreomania, St John's Dance and, historically, St. Vitus' Dance) was a social phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. It involved groups of people, sometimes thousands at a time, who danced uncontrollably and bizarrely. They would also scream, shout, and sing, and claim to have visions or hallucinations. The mania affected men, women, and children, who danced until they collapsed from exhaustion. One of the first major outbreaks was in Aachen, Germany, in 1374, and it quickly spread throughout Europe; one particularly notable outbreak occurred in Strasbourg in 1518. Affecting thousands of people across several centuries, dancing mania was not a one-off event, and was well documented in contemporary reports. It was nevertheless poorly understood, and remedies were based on guesswork. Generally, musicians accompanied dancers, to help ward off the mania, but this tactic sometimes backfired... more... - Eivind from Bookmarklet

Indeed :) - Eivind from Android

"In Roman mythology, Cloacina (Latin, cloaca: "sewer" or "drain") was the goddess who presided over the Cloaca Maxima ("Great Drain"), the main trunk of the system of sewers in Rome. She was originally derived from Etruscan mythology. The Cloaca Maxima said to be begun by one of Rome's Etruscan kings, Tarquinius Priscus, and finished by another, Tarquinius Superbus." - Eivind from Bookmarklet

The plight of the small gods, g :) - Eivind from Android

"Mourning sickness is a collective emotional condition of "recreational grieving" by individuals at the death of murder victims or celebrities.[1] Such celebrity deaths may be linked to hyper-attentive, intrusive and voyeuristic media coverage, which has been dubbed grief porn." - Eivind from Bookmarklet

Bravo. - Cyber Wanderlust

""The Great Moon Hoax" refers to a series of six articles that were published in the New York Sun beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and even civilization on the Moon. The discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel, perhaps the best-known astronomer of his time. [...] The articles described fantastic animals on the Moon, including bison, goats, unicorns, bipedal tail-less beavers and bat-like winged humanoids ("Vespertilio-homo") who built temples. There were trees and oceans and beaches. These discoveries were supposedly made with "an immense telescope of an entirely new principle"." - Eivind from Bookmarklet

My pleasure, Esther :) - Eivind

"The Herxheimer reaction occurs when large quantities of toxins are released into the body as bacteria (typically spirochetes) die during antibiotic treatment. The same can be true for candida die-off when toxins from the dying candida are released. Typically the death of these bacteria and the associated release of endotoxins occurs faster than the body can remove the toxins. It is manifested by fever, chills, headache, myalgia (muscle pain), and exacerbation of skin lesions. The intensity of the reaction reflects the intensity of inflammation present." - Goran Zec from Bookmarklet

taj link bi volio da ga popraviš - miroslav

toliko o zarobljavanju divljih životinja. - Cyber Wanderlust

"Alkaline hydrolysis is a process for the disposal of human remains, which is claimed by its creators to be much more ecologically favorable than cremation. The process is being marketed worldwide as an alternative to the traditional options of burial or cremation." - miroslav from Bookmarklet

On March 27, 1999, Fabio was involved in an accident in Busch Gardens Williamsburg, located in James City County, Virginia. Fabio rode in the first car of Apollo's Chariot, a roller coaster, during its maiden ride. During the rapid descent on the 210-foot drop after the lift hill, a goose collided with Fabio, leaving his nose covered in blood. He received a one-inch cut on his nose. No one else on the roller coaster was hurt. The goose was later found dead on the ground under the roller coaster with a broken neck. - dubravka

fabio sa reklame za "i can't believe it's not butter" - Occam's Toilet Brush

So long A.W. - miroslav from Bookmarklet

"The Jimmy Carter rabbit incident, dubbed the "killer rabbit" attack by the media, involved a Swamp Rabbit that caught press imagination after swimming toward then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter's fishing boat on April 20, 1979." - miroslav from Bookmarklet

"The story "President Attacked by Rabbit" was carried across the front page of The Washington Post, though the White House's refusal to release the photograph resulted in the newspaper using a cartoon parody of the Jaws poster labeled "PAWS" as its illustration. The White House still refused to release the photograph of the incident to the media until it turned up during the Reagan administration and the story saw a revival." - miroslav

Ahaha! Možda je to bio robo-rabbit? - Cyber Wanderlust

"Zugzwang (German for "compulsion to move", pronounced [ˈtsuːktsvaŋ]) is a term usually used in chess which also applies to various other games. The term finds its formal definition in combinatorial game theory, and it describes a situation where one player is put at a disadvantage because he has to make a move when he would prefer to pass and make no move. The fact that the player must make a move means that his position will be significantly weaker than the hypothetical one in which it was his opponent's turn to move." - Nikola from Bookmarklet

"Betteridge's Law of Headlines is an adage that states, "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no' "." - Occam's Toilet Brush from Bookmarklet

"Einstellung is the creation of a mechanized state of mind. Often called a problem solving set, Einstellung refers to a person's predisposition to solve a given problem in a specific manner even though there are "better" or more appropriate methods of solving the problem. The Einstellung effect is the negative effect of previous experience when solving new problems." - Occam's Toilet Brush from Bookmarklet

"Rat kings are phenomena said to arise when a number of rats become intertwined at their tails, which become stuck together with blood, dirt, ice, excrement or simply knotted. The animals reputedly grow together while joined at the tails." - miroslav from Bookmarklet

"Cello scrotum is a hoax medical condition originally published as a brief case report in the British Medical Journal in 1974.[1][2][3] As its name suggests, it was purportedly an affliction of the scrotum affecting male players of the cello." - Eivind from Bookmarklet

"Cameltoe is a slang term that refers to the outline of a human female's labia majora, as seen through tightly fitting clothes. [...] Cameltoe commonly occurs as a result of wearing tight fitting clothes, such as jeans, shorts, hotpants, or swimwear. Due to a combination of anatomical factors and the snugness of the fabric, the crotch and pudendal cleft may take on a resemblance to the forefoot of a camel." - Goran Zec from Bookmarklet

i was curious as to whether the photo was real, and asked a friend from azerbaijan, who sent me some links about it...apparently people were rather upset and felt like the people of azerbaijan were being teased and not shown respect...though it is beyond me how they found a connection between this name/sign and the pub owners' intentions to offend a nation! - grizabella

Taman, popis je ove godine. Samo, ja bih da se svi izjasnimo ko Cyborgs. - Cyber Wanderlust

"The Hyphen War (in Czech, Pomlčková válka; in Slovak, Pomlčková vojna—literally "Dash War") was the tongue-in-cheek name given to the conflict over what to call Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Communist government." - Nikola from Bookmarklet

Reminded me of The War of Jenkins' Ear :) - Eivind