kitone/subtitleeditor Updated 2025-07-16
Not to be confused with Subtitle Edit.
As of 0.54.0 this feels featureful, but extremely buggy or lacking UI obvious enhancements that would be simple to implement, and offer huge value:
It is hard to understand how that project reached this weird featureful but crappy state. Feels like they just gave push permission to a bunch of random people.
Kondo effect Updated 2025-07-16
If you adda bit of impurities to certain materials, at low temperatures of a few Kelvin their resistivity actually starts increasing if you go below a certain critical temperature.
Figure 1.
Kondo effect graph for gold with added impurities
. Source.
Planck's law Updated 2025-07-16
Used to explain the black-body radiation experiment.
The Quantum Story by Jim Baggott (2011) page 9 mentions that Planck apparently immediately recognized that Planck constant was a new fundamental physical constant, and could have potential applications in the definition of the system of units (TODO where was that published):
Planck wrote that the constants offered: 'the possibility of establishing units of length, mass, time and temperature which are independent of specific bodies or materials and which necessarily maintain their meaning for all time and for all civilizations, even those which are extraterrestrial and nonhuman, constants which therefore can be called "fundamental physical units of measurement".'
This was a visionary insight, and was finally realized in the 2019 redefinition of the SI base units.
Video 1.
Quantum Mechanics 2 - Photons by ViaScience (2012)
Source. Contains a good explanation of how discretization + energy increases with frequency explains the black-body radiation experiment curve: you need more and more energy for small wavelengths, each time higher above the average energy available.
Original playlist name: "PHYSICS 68 ADVANCED MECHANICS: LAGRANGIAN MECHANICS"
Author: Michel van Biezen.
High school classical mechanics material, no mention of the key continuous symmetry part.
But does have a few classic pendulum/pulley/spring worked out examples that would be really wise to get under your belt first.
Laplace transform Updated 2025-07-16
Video 1.
The Laplace Transform: A Generalized Fourier Transform by Steve Brunton (2020)
Source. Explains how the Laplace transform works for functions that do not go to zero on infinity, which is a requirement for the Fourier transform. No applications in that video yet unfortunately.
LaTeX Updated 2025-07-16
Revolutionary for its time, and a big part of Ciro's Enlightenment.
But too insane, and did not keep up with internet age, and so Ciro wants to kill it now.
Ruth Lawrence Updated 2025-07-16
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Lawrence
When Lawrence was five, her father gave up his job so that he could educate her at home.
At Oxford, her father continued to be actively involved in her education, accompanying her to all lectures and some tutorials. Lawrence completed her bachelor's degree in two years, instead of the normal three, and graduated in 1985 at the age of 13 with a starred first and special commendation.
www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3713768/Haunting-lesson-today-s-TV-child-geniuses-Ruth-Lawrence-Britain-s-famous-prodigy-tracked-father-drove-heard-troubling-tale.html
he had tried it once before - with an older daughter, Sarah, one of three children he had by a previous marriage.
That experiment ended after he separated from Sarah's increasingly concerned mother, Jutta. He soon found a woman more in tune with his radical ideas in his next spouse, Sylvia Greybourne
Saint Seiya Updated 2025-07-16
This was THE craze thing in Brazil before Pokemon, it was shown from 1994 to 1997. In particular the collectible action figures! It was possibly more popular in Brazil than e.g. in the US: www.quora.com/Why-was-Saint-Seiya-so-popular-in-Brazil
The thing as quite violent, rated for 14-year olds, but no one gave a fuck, 7 yo Ciro was happily watching it. We protect children too much.
That series also had quite a religious feel to it (as obviously suggested by the series English name itself). It must also have been a great motivator to getting young kids into astronomy!
Ciro's favorite character was definitely Andromeda Shun. He was smart and thoughtful, and had the coolest most complex weapon: his chain whips. He's also a bit effeminate, with his pink clothing and a gentle way. Perhaps that is the reason for adult Ciro's mild fascination with the Andromeda Galaxy.
The English name is horrendous... the Portuguese/French name is so much better: Knights of the Zodiac! Saying this in English just reminded Ciro Santilli of the Zodiac Killer. But nevermind.
Learning management system Updated 2025-07-16
A more specific type of E-learning website generally run by a specific organization.
A website, usually hosted by an university, that takes what is done in class, and pastes it online. It is already much more rational and efficient, and opens up the way for potential sharing outside of the institution (or by default paywalling as the University of Oxford did.
The fundametnal problem with VLEs is that they tend to not have enough incentives for students to contribute at all to the content. This is basically the major motivation behind OurBigBook.com.
Lebesgue integral Updated 2025-07-16
Ciro Santilli sometimes wonders how much someone can gain from learning this besides the beauty of mathematics, since we can hand-wave a Lebesgue integral on almost anything that is of practical use. The beauty is good reason enough though.
Leeuwenhoek microscope Updated 2025-07-16
Figure 1. Source. This is a microscope, I kid you not. TODO photo of what you can see with it.
Lenovo Updated 2025-07-16
Their websites a bit shitty, clearly a non cohesive amalgamation of several different groups.
E.g. you have to create several separate accounts, and different regions have completely different accounts and websites.
The Europe replacement part website for example is clearly made by a third party called flex.com/ and has Flex written all over it, and the header of the home page has a slightly broken but very obviously broken CSS. And you can't create an account without a VAT number... and they confirmed by email that they don't sell to non-corporate entities without a VAT number. What a bullshit!
Leo Szilard Updated 2025-07-16
Video 1.
Leo Szilard: The Genius Behind the Bomb
. Source. 1992. TODO an external link to the production? Producers credited at end: Helen Weiss and Alain Jehlen. As indicated at: archive.org/details/TheGeniusBehindtheBomb it was apparently produced by WGBH, public radio station from Boston.
Level: Asian Updated 2025-07-16
This is true. The level of competition in university entry exams in Asia in insane in the early 21st century compared to the West.
Planned obsolescence Updated 2025-07-16
The first time Ciro Santilli Googled this was when trying to repair his cell phone.
2019 cell phones are glued together with adhesive, which makes them impossible to repair them unless you have a heat gun, spend hours and hours learning and planning, and accept the risk of breaking the screen
If you take a phone less than 300 dollars to a repair shop in the first world, they will say: I've never repaired this crap, and likely for the price of the repair you should just buy a new one, and so to the trash goes the old one, polluting the planet, and in comes a new one, enriching the manufacturer further.
Pleistocene Updated 2025-07-16
Agriculture is not the official definition of the age. But it is good enough. Likely related to the official end of glaciations thing.
Sal Khan Updated 2025-07-16
Like Jimmy Wales, he used to work in finance and then quit. What is it with those successful e-learning people??

There are unlisted articles, also show them or only show them.