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Bielefeld Conspiracy
The Bielefeld conspiracy (German: or , ) is a satirical conspiracy theory that claims that the city of Bielefeld, Germany, does not exist,Archived aGhostarchiveand thWayback Machine but is an illusion propagated by various forces. First posted on the German Usenet in 1994, the conspiracy has since been mentioned in the city's marketing, and alluded to in a speech by former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Synopsis The story goes that the city of Bielefeld (population of 341,755 ) in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia does not actually exist. Rather, its existence is merely propagated by an entity known only as ("they" in German, always in block capitals), which has conspired with the authorities to create the illusion of the city's existence. The theory poses three questions: * Do you know anybody from Bielefeld? * Have you ever been to Bielefeld? * Do you know anybody who has ever been to Bielefeld? A majority are expected to answer ''no'' to all three queries. Anybody who c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bielefeld Verschwoerung
The Bielefeld conspiracy (German language, German: or , ) is a satire, satirical conspiracy theory that claims that the city of Bielefeld, Germany, does not exist,Archived aGhostarchiveand thWayback Machine but is an illusion propagated by various forces. First posted on the German Usenet in 1994, the conspiracy has since been mentioned in the city's marketing, and alluded to in a speech by former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Synopsis The story goes that the city of Bielefeld (population of 341,755 ) in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia does not actually exist. Rather, its existence is merely propagated by an entity known only as ("they" in German, always in block capitals), which has conspired with the authorities to create the illusion of the city's existence. The theory poses three questions: * Do you know anybody from Bielefeld? * Have you ever been to Bielefeld? * Do you know anybody who has ever been to Bielefeld? A majority are expected to answer ''no'' to all thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newsgroup
A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on the World Wide Web. Newsreader software is used to read the content of newsgroups. Before the adoption of the World Wide Web, Usenet newsgroups were among the most popular Internet services, and have retained their noncommercial nature in contrast to the increasingly ad-laden web. In recent years, this form of open discussion on the Internet has lost considerable ground to individually-operated browser-accessible forums and big media social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Communication is facilitated by the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) which allows connection to Usenet servers and data transfer over the internet. Similar to another early (yet still used) protocol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
April Fools' Day
April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may be revealed as such the following day. The custom of setting aside a day for playing harmless pranks upon one's neighbour has been relatively common in the world historically. Origins Although the origins of April Fools’ is unknown, there are many theories surrounding it. A disputed association between 1 April and foolishness is in Geoffrey Chaucer's '' The Canterbury Tales'' (1392). In the " Nun's Priest's Tale", a vain cock Chauntecleer is tricked by a fox on "Since March began thirty days and two," i.e. 32 days since March began, which is 1 April. However, it is not clear that Chaucer was referencing 1 April since the text of the "Nun's Priest's Tale" also states that the story takes place on the day when the sun is "in the sign ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
City Council
A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural council, village council, or board of aldermen. Australia Because of the differences in legislation between the states, the exact definition of a city council varies. However, it is generally only those local government areas which have been specifically granted city status (usually on a basis of population) that are entitled to refer to themselves as cities. The official title is "Corporation of the City of ______" or similar. Some of the urban areas of Australia are governed mostly by a single entity (see Brisbane and other Queensland cities), while others may be controlled by a multitude of much smaller city councils. Also, some significant urban areas can be under the jurisdiction of otherwise rural local governments. Periodic re-al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humor On The Internet
The history of humor on the Internet begins together with the Internet itself. Initially, the internet and its precursors, LANs and WANs, were used merely as another media to disseminate jokes and other kinds of humor, in addition to the traditional ones ("word of mouth", printed media, sound recording, radio, film, and TV).Limor Shifman"Humor in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Continuity and Change in Internet-Based Comic Texts" ''International Journal of Communication'', vol. 1, 2007, ''Quote'': " A content analysis of 400 humorous texts from eight salient humorous websites shows that the Internet functions both as a ‘carrier’ of old humor types such as jokes and cartoons and as a ‘generator’ of new humor types." In lockstep with the progress of electronic communication technologies, jokers took advantage of the ARPANET,Eric S. Raymond, ''The Art of UNIX Programming''p. 44 ''Quote'': "Software, ideas, slang, and a good deal of humor flowed over the experimental ARPANET ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Texas Press
The University of Texas Press (or UT Press) is a university press that is part of the University of Texas at Austin. Established in 1950, the Press publishes scholarly books and journals in several areas, including Latin American studies, Texana, anthropology, U.S. Latino studies, Native American studies, African American studies, film & media studies, classics and the ancient Near East, Middle East studies, natural history, art, and architecture. The Press also publishes trade books and journals relating to their major subject areas. Journals * ''Asian Music'' * '' Diálogo'' * '' Information & Culture'' * ''Journal of Cinema and Media Studies'' (formerly known as ''Cinema Journal'') * ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'' * '' Journal of Individual Psychology'' * ''Journal of Latin American Geography'' * ''Latin American Music Review'' * '' Studies in Latin American Popular Culture'' * ''Texas Studies in Literature and Language'' * ''The Textile Museum Journal'' * '' US La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Character Encoding
Character encoding is the process of assigning numbers to Graphics, graphical character (computing), characters, especially the written characters of Language, human language, allowing them to be Data storage, stored, Data communication, transmitted, and Computing, transformed using Digital electronics, digital computers. The numerical values that make up a character encoding are known as "code points" and collectively comprise a "code space", a "code page", or a "Character Map (Windows), character map". Early character codes associated with the optical or electrical Telegraphy, telegraph could only represent a subset of the characters used in written languages, sometimes restricted to Letter case, upper case letters, Numeral system, numerals and some punctuation only. The low cost of digital representation of data in modern computer systems allows more elaborate character codes (such as Unicode) which represent most of the characters used in many written languages. Character enc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Z-Netz
The Z-Netz was a German BBS network applying store and forward mechanisms to provide their users with e-mail and discussion groups. It can be compared to the U.S. based WWIV network or the international FidoNet. The technical base for the Z-Netz was the software "Zerberus". Initially the network was called "Zerberus Netz" or just "Zerberus". When other software applying the "ZConnect" data transfer method became available, the network was renamed to "Z-Netz" to reflect that. "Zerberus" was developed since 1984. It was later maintained by the "Zerberus GmbH", which was founded in 1992 and dissolved in 1999. Several Z-Netz operators maintained gateways into other networks, most notably the Usenet, and even forwarded Z-Netz e-mail to the Internet and vice versa. With internet access becoming easily available in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flame War
Flaming or roasting is the act of posting insults, often including profanity or other offensive language, on the internet. This term should not be confused with the term trolling, which is the act of someone going online, or in person, and causing discord. Flaming emerged from the anonymity that Internet forums provide cover for users to act more aggressively. Anonymity can lead to disinhibition, which results in the swearing, offensive, and hostile language characteristic of flaming. Lack of social cues, less accountability of face-to-face communications, textual mediation and deindividualization are also likely factors. Deliberate flaming is carried out by individuals known as flamers, which are specifically motivated to incite flaming. These users specialize in flaming and target specific aspects of a controversial conversation While these behaviors may be typical or expected in certain types of forums, they can have dramatic, adverse effects in others. Flame wars can have a las ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Die Welt
''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'', the ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' and the ''Frankfurter Rundschau''. The modern paper takes a self-described "liberal cosmopolitan" position in editing, but it is generally considered to be conservative."The World from Berlin" '''', 28 December 2009."Divided ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. German are widely known for having no federally mandated general speed limit for some classes of vehicles. However, limits are posted and enforced in areas that are urbanised, substandard, accident-prone, or under construction. On speed-unrestricted stretches, an advisory speed limit () of applies. While driving faster is not illegal as such in the absence of a speed limit, it can cause an increased liability in the case of a collision (which mandatory auto insurance has to cover); courts have ruled that an "ideal driver" who is exempt from absolute liability for "inevitable" tort under the law would not exceed . A 2017 report by the Federal Road Research Institute reported that in 2015, 70.4% of the Autobahn network had only the advis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consider it a religious movement, its adherents typically see it as spiritual or as unifying Mind-Body-Spirit, and rarely use the term ''New Age'' themselves. Scholars often call it the New Age movement, although others contest this term and suggest it is better seen as a ''milieu'' or ''zeitgeist''. As a form of Western esotericism, the New Age drew heavily upon esoteric traditions such as the occultism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including the work of Emanuel Swedenborg and Franz Mesmer, as well as Spiritualism, New Thought, and Theosophy. More immediately, it arose from mid-twentieth century influences such as the UFO religions of the 1950s, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the Human Potential Movement. Its exact origins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
