Factoids
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Factoids
A factoid is either an invented or assumed statement presented as a fact, ''or'' a true but brief or trivial item of news or information. The term was coined in 1973 by American writer Norman Mailer to mean a piece of information that becomes accepted as a fact even though it is not actually true, or an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print. Dickson, Paul (April 30, 2014)"The origins of writerly words" ''Time''. Retrieved November 14, 2015. Since the term's invention in 1973, it has become used to describe a brief or trivial item of news or information. Usage The term was coined by American writer Norman Mailer in his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe. Mailer described factoids as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper", and formed the word by combining the word ''fact'' and the ending ''-oid'' to mean "similar but not the same". ''The Washington Times'' described Mailer's new word as referring to "something that looks l ...
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Steve Wright (DJ)
Stephen Richard Wright (born 26 August 1954) is an English radio personality and disc jockey, credited for introducing the zoo format on British radio, with its zany, multi-personality approach. He presented '' Steve Wright in the Afternoon'' for 12 years on BBC Radio 1 and 23 years on BBC Radio 2, two of the BBC's national radio stations, the latter being most popular station in the United Kingdom, ending on 30 September 2022. He continues to present his ''Sunday Love Songs'' weekend mid-morning show on Radio 2. On BBC Television Wright has hosted ''Home Truths'', ''The Steve Wright People Show'', ''Auntie's TV Favourites'', ''Top of the Pops'' and ''Top of the Pops 2, TOTP2''. Wright has won awards, including Best DJ of the Year as voted by the ''Daily Mirror'' Readers Poll and by ''Smash Hits'' in 1994. In 1998 he was awarded Television and Radio Industries Club, TRIC Personality of the Year for his radio programmes. Early life and career Born in Greenwich, South London, the ...
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Mur Chiński 2010 1
Mur may refer to: Places: * Mur (river) (or Mura), a river in central Europe * Mur, Switzerland, a commune in Vaud and Avenches * Mur (Novi Pazar), a large village in Serbia * Mur, part of the village of Murzasichle, Poland * Mur, Iran (other) Other uses: * Mur (cuneiform), a cuneiform sign * An abbreviation for muramic acid * mur, ISO 639-3 code for the Murle language, spoken in South Sudan * Mur Lafferty (born 1973), American podcaster and writer * Mona Mur, German singer born Sabine Bredy in 1960 MUR may refer to: * Mauritian rupee, by ISO 4217 currency code * Medicine use review, UK service * Melbourne University Regiment of the Australian Army Reserve * Michigan United Railways, US, 1906-1924 * ''Mouvements Unis de la Résistance'', a French Resistance group active from 1943 * M.U.R., a Lebanese resistance group in the 1990s * Criminal Investigation Department (Russian: МУР, Московский уголовный розыск) of the Moscow City Police * Artis ...
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Alexis Madrigal
Alexis Madrigal (born 1983/84) is an American journalist. He's currently the new co-host of KQED's Forum. In 2010, Madrigal began working for ''The Atlantic''. In 2014, he was promoted to deputy editor of TheAtlantic.com. He joined ''Fusion'' later in the year as part of a "big-name hiring spree" for the new media channel, "one of the hot-shot journalists on which Fusion is pinning its hopes." In March 2020, he started the COVID Tracking Project, a collaborative effort to track the spread of COVID-19 within the US, with Robinson Meyer and a team of volunteers. He has also written for ''Wired''. In 2014, he spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival alongside Tony Fadell as a member of a panel discussing "A New and Promising Energy Future". In 2017, he hosted an 8-part audio documentary on containerization called ''Containers''. He graduated from Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as H ...
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Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or falsifiability, unfalsifiable claims; reliance on confirmation bias rather than rigorous attempts at refutation; lack of openness to Peer review, evaluation by other experts; absence of systematic practices when developing Hypothesis, hypotheses; and continued adherence long after the pseudoscientific hypotheses have been experimentally discredited. The demarcation problem, demarcation between science and pseudoscience has scientific, philosophical, and political implications. Philosophers debate the nature of science and the general criteria for drawing the line between scientific theory, scientific theories and pseudoscientific beliefs, but there is general agreement on examples such as ancient astronauts, climate change denial, dowsing, evolution denial, ...
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Meme
A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices, that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures. In popular language, a meme may refer to an Internet meme, typically an image, that is remixed, copied, and circulated in a shared cultural experience online. Proponents theorize that memes are a viral phenomenon that may evolve by natural selection in a manner analogous to that of biological evolution. Memes do this through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance, each of which influences a meme's ...
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Just-so Story
In science and philosophy, a just-so story is an untestable narrative explanation for a cultural practice, a biological trait, or behavior of humans or other animals. The pejorative nature of the expression is an implicit criticism that reminds the listener of the essentially fictional and unprovable nature of such an explanation. Such tales are common in folklore genres like mythology (where they are known as ''etiological myths''see etiology). A less pejorative term is a pourquoi story, which has been used to describe usually more mythological or otherwise traditional examples of this genre, aimed at children. This phrase is a reference to Rudyard Kipling's 1902 ''Just So Stories'', containing fictional and deliberately fanciful tales for children, in which the stories pretend to explain animal characteristics, such as the origin of the spots on the leopard. It has been used to criticize evolutionary explanations of traits that have been proposed to be adaptations, particularly i ...
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Humanoid
A humanoid (; from English ''human'' and ''-oid'' "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. The earliest recorded use of the term, in 1870, referred to indigenous peoples in areas colonized by Europeans. By the 20th century, the term came to describe fossils which were morphologically similar, but not identical, to those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it is now considered rare. More generally, the term can refer to anything with distinctly human characteristics or adaptations, such as possessing opposable anterior forelimb- appendages (i.e. thumbs), visible spectrum-binocular vision (i.e. having two eyes), or biomechanic plantigrade-bipedalism (i.e. the ability to walk on heels and metatarsals in an upright position). Science fiction media frequently present sentient extraterrestrial lifeforms as humanoid as a byproduct of convergent evolution. In theoretical convergent evolu ...
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Groupthink
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Cohesiveness, or the desire for cohesiveness, in a group may produce a tendency among its members to agree at all costs. This causes the group to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation. Groupthink is a construct of social psychology, but has an extensive reach and influences literature in the fields of communication studies, political science, management, and organizational theory, as well as important aspects of deviant religious cult behaviour. Overview Groupthink is sometimes stated to occur (more broadly) within natural groups within the community, for example to explain the lifelong different mindsets of those with differing political views (such as "conservatism" and "liberalism" in the U.S. political context or the purported benefits ...
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Fake News
Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.Schlesinger, Robert (April 14, 2017)"Fake news in reality" '' U.S. News & World Report''. Although false news has always been spread throughout history, the term "fake news" was first used in the 1890s when sensational reports in newspapers were common."The real story of 'fake news': The term seems to have emerged around the end of the 19th century"
. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
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Communal Reinforcement
Communal reinforcement is a social phenomenon in which a concept or idea is repeatedly asserted in a community, regardless of whether sufficient empirical evidence has been presented to support it. Over time, the concept or idea is reinforced to become a strong belief in many people's minds, and may be regarded by the members of the community as fact. Often, the concept or idea may be further reinforced by publications in the mass media, books, or other means of communication. The phrase "millions of people can't all be wrong" is indicative of the common tendency to accept a communally reinforced idea without question, which often aids in the widespread acceptance of factoids. A very similar term to this term is community-reinforcement, which is a behavioral method to stop drug addiction. In addiction treatment The community-reinforcement approach (CRA) is a behaviourist alcoholism treatment approach that aims to achieve abstinence by eliminating positive reinforcement for drin ...
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Chuck Norris Facts
Chuck Norris facts are satirical factoids about American martial artist and actor Chuck Norris that have become an Internet phenomenon widespread in popular culture. These 'facts' are absurd hyperbolic claims about Norris's toughness, attitude, sophistication, and masculinity. Chuck Norris facts have spread internationally, making translations and spawning localized versions about country-specific advertisements and other Internet phenomena. Some facts allude to his use of roundhouse kicks for seemingly any task, his large amount of body hair with specific regard to his beard, and his role in the action television series ''Walker, Texas Ranger''. Background Chuck Norris facts originally appeared on the Internet in early 2005. Initially distributed in the Something Awful forums, the "facts" centered on Vin Diesel, in response to his film ''The Pacifier''. After a few months, forum members chose Chuck Norris to be the new subject. Conan O'Brien's Chuck Norris jokes on ''Late Night ...
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