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Category: grimoire

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Articles (61…)

7 Bridges of Königsberg

euler graph theory grimoire

*Mathematicians: taking all the fun out of an evening stroll in Königsberg since 1735.* Only five of the famous seven bridges of Königsberg remain today. There was a traditional puzzle, in the town of Königsberg, to try and walk around the town in such a way that you crossed ea…

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A Simple Puzzle

logic puzzle grimoire psyops

A group of Explorers are traversing a system of Caves when they find a Treasure. In accordance with an agreement that they signed before entering the cave, the Treasure must be divided fairly between them, in such a way that they are each satisfied that they will derive equivalen…

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Bring me a rock

games software grimoire

This is a game you can’t win. Here is how to play “Bring me a rock” Player 1: “Bring me a rock!” Player 2 finds a rock and brings it to player 1. Player 1: “No! Not *that* rock!” External Sources I don’t know the origin of this parable. I’ve found mentions quite a way back,…

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Bronze Orange Bug Stains

The "Bronze Orange Bug" is a large stink bug which is green when smaller, orange when juvenile, and dark brown when fully mature. At all stages of its development it is pure evil in concentrated form and must die a swift and painful death. It flourishes on citrus plants, particu…

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Caesar Cipher

caesar shift crypto grimoire

The simplest cipher (and one of the oldest) the Caesar shift is named after Julius Caesar. The month of July is named after Julius, and he also has his own salad, his own method of having been delivered as a baby (which makes no sense as his mother and the surgeons deserve credi…

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Cellular Automata

gol al ca grimoire

A cellular automata is a discrete mathematical model whereby a **grid** of cells is envisaged, where the next **state** of each cell is determined by a **set of rules** which use the current state of the cell and its **neighbors** as input. Each of the bolded words above can be …

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Characters in Fiction

writing fiction grimoire

Writing a book and struggling to make either a good book or powerful characters? I have original and useful ideas. Possibly wrong, but definitely helpful. What are characters for? In the book "How to Write a Damn Good Novel", James Frey says: Characters are to a novelist what…

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Chirality

geometry grimoire

Chirality, pronounced as if the "ch" is a "k"... where was I, chirality. Your nose is not chiral. Your hands are chiral. Each of your feet is chiral. But taken as a pair, they are no longer chiral. A donut is not chiral. A threaded screw is chiral. A water molecule is not chira…

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

philosophy psychology grimoire mental health

"Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" is the major school of thought for assisting with Mental Health and Fitness in the world today. It arose out of the work of Aaron T Beck and, in terms of ancient philosophy it has some connection to the Stoics. The block-buster mega hit New York T…

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Come Back, All Is Forgiven

custard album music apophenia grimoire

Analyzing a joke is like dissecting a frog, in the end they both die. —Woody Allen Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. —Martin Mull Against all good advice, I plan to dissect every lyric in Custard's 2015 album, "Come Back, All Is Forgiven". I don't intend t…

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Compound Bow

weapons grimoire

Imagine you are sent back in time, to Western Europe during the "Middle Ages". You might think: with my modern knowledge, I will be able to invent marvelous things that make me the most rich, wise and powerful person around! But what would you actually "invent"? Most things t…

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Conga Line Mathematics

stub math music dance emergence grimoire

Recently I was situated on a mezzanine floor overlooking a heaving dance party, and had the opportunity to witness the spontaneous formation, growth, and eventual breakdown of a conga-line. It was a fascinating structure to observe. I love a party as much as the next lover of par…

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Conway's Game of Life

ca gol al grimoire

The so-called 'Game of Life' (or simply 'Life' as it is known by aficionados) is not the popular board game from the 1980's, but rather a simple set of rules that gives rise to a lot of curious and fascinating behaviour. ↑ Not this one, this one! ↓ The Game of Life is 'played' …

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Curiosity

psychology grimoire

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. —Albert Einstein Benefits of Curiosity The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny…' —Isaac Asimov If some rich investor back in the day wa…

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Default Mode Network

stub psychology grimoire

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten. THE DEFAULT MODE NETWORK OF THE BRAIN is a bunch of highways you've built inside your brain, where traffic flows all the time, whether you're daydreaming or focused on a task. It is within thi…

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Dependency Graph For Knowledge

knowledge skill learning graph theory grimoire

*Because everyone has a theory about the broken state of education* Can the knowledge or skills in a field be broken down into discrete atoms of knowledge? If so, can we: - Learn those atoms of knowledge (or atoms of skill) - **Assess** our current knowledge/abilities with thos…

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Dialogue in fiction

stub writing grimoire

Dialogue is a conversation between two people. Jill: How are you Jack? Jack: I'm good, Jill and you? Jill: Not good Jack. Not good at all. Dialogue in fiction should be *indirect.* Dialogue often has to do two or three things at once. - It has to reveal facts. (This is calle…

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Digital Immortality

stub chatgpt al ai grimoire

I’ve heard people say that you must now update your "last will and testament" to state that the output you’ve left behind cannot be used to train a bot that impersonates you. But for me, that’s kind of a life goal! I’m fascinated with the idea that I can make a Leon-bot 🤖, and…

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Dilemma

logic ethics grimoire

Ethics Man Did What Had To Be Done —Darkside A dilemma (Di - Lemma, meaning "two" lemmas) is a choice between two lemmas. Which lemma do you prefer? This lemma or that lemma? To understand dilemma then, we have to understand "lemma." What precisely is a lemma? It's not quite …

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Emergence

Emergence a thing of one type leads to a thing of an entirely different type, when viewed at a different scale. a phenomenon whereby larger entities arise through interactions among smaller or simpler entities such that the larger entities exhibit properties the smaller/simpler…

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Esoteric Programming Concepts

esoterica programming grimoire

Nonsense is nonsense. But the study of nonsense? That is a science. —Saul Lieberman | _) _ \ __| _ \ __| _ \ __| | __| _` | __/ \__ \ ( | | __/ | | ( ( | \___| ____/ \___/ \__| \___| _| _| \___| \__,_| From ἐσωτερικός — esōterikós — "belonging to an inner circle".... —(B…

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Fan Theories

stub psyops writing grimoire

There's a long long tradition, dating back at least five years, of reimagining a movie to have a different premise, generally in which one or all characters are dead, imaginary, or linked in an unexpected way, possibly involving time-travel. "This amazing pixar fan theory" -- Pi…

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For a successful life

those that tremble as if they were mad grimoire

The floating world was originally a Buddhist idiom It saw all of human existence as a foamy illusion and a fraud to be outgrown. With typical irreverance the townspeople took the term embraced it transformed it and turned it into a glowing paean to the passing plea…

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Hyperapophenia

apophenia psyops grimoire

Nonsense is nonsense. But the study of nonsense? That is a science. —Saul Lieberman - Apophenia is when the human mind finds meaning in the meaningless. A specific well-known special case of apophenia is pareidolia: the seeing of human faces in things which do not contain human …

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Insomnia (and its cures)

malady psychology grimoire

From the Latin "somnis," sleep, and the Latin prefix "in," not, the word means an inability to sleep, specifically difficulty getting to sleep and difficulty staying asleep. Insomnia, and poor sleep patterns can bring down your entire life. Sleep deprivation is a terrible thing.…

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Interactive Text Ideas

stub text grimoire unfinished symphony

Text is brilliant. You should always bet on text. Text has tremendous power. But interactivity is good too. A Journey Through the History of Ideas (Successful or Discarded) in the Realm that intersects Text with Interactivity. Here is a series of *ideas* I find interesti…

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Invisible Hand

economics grimoire

The invisible hand is an imaginary force, invented (arguably 'discovered') by Adam Smith, to explain the way that markets, composed of selfish desires, can have non-selfish consequences. It is a classic case of "emergence", where a thing of one type leads to a thing of an entire…

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Istigkeit

recursion meta grimoire philosophy logic knowledge graph theory

The finger that points to the moon is not the moon — Old Mate Thich Nhat Hanh Istigkeit! I shout, with all my breath, ISTIGKEIT! But for all the world, all that is heard is a whisper. That notorious German word: Istigkeit ...translates, most literally, as "Isness" What "is" …

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Joke Genious

meta grimoire humor

The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow. —Famous Smart Alec, Samuel Clemens Analyzing a joke is like dissecting a frog, in the end they both die. —Woody Allen I used to believe that jokes stopped being funny when they were analyzed. But since becoming a father I…

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Knatoms

knowledge skill learning graph theory grimoire

Knatoms are KNowledge ATOMS. They are the indivisible units from which knowledge emerges. Knatoms combine into knowlecules. When enough knowlecules combine together, you have a **topic** ! Knatoms and Spaced-Repetition A single knatom may be expressed in multiple ways, and, …

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L-Space

stub writing grimoire n space

Libraries exist in a transdimensional manifold - take a wrong turn in the stacks and you may go from library A to library B - seamlessly crossing both space and time - turn down another corridor and you may wind up in 2B-space - a coextensive manifold that interweaves connects an…

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Making Prose Poetic

stub writing music grimoire

Writing can sing. Writing can soar. How do writers elevate their craft to carry you along with their words? I've never known, until I read this: This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen t…

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Natural Monopoly

stub economics grimoire

(These are just my half-baked thoughts. I am happy to adjust them in part or in whole, and to annotate them with links to relevant research etc.) In Economics (and econ. of capitalism) it is generally understood that Monopolies are Bad. Monopolies mean that a single player gets…

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Paracosm

stub literature grimoire

An inner world. See also - Pocket universe…

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Paradox

logic hilbert catch 22 philosophy grimoire

I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member. —Groucho Marx What is a paradox? That of course depends on what you mean by "is". Some paradoxes are statements that are self-contradictory. Some paradoxes are statements that are simultaneously true and untrue…

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Pigpen Cipher

crypto grimoire

Also known as: The Freemason's Cipher. A substitution cipher that has particularly distinctive looking characters. The encryption/decryption key can be quickly re-created by hand, once you know the basic idea. Give anyone twenty seconds with a pencil and paper, and they can r…

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Pocket Universe

literature grimoire

A small, self-contained universe; or a universe reached through a small opening — such as the cupboard in the lion the witch and the wardrobe. (Do not view source of this page.) See also - Paracosm…

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Protective Factors for Mental Health

mental health psychology health grimoire

I am not a professional at this, but I just wanted to list and discuss some well known protective factors for mental health. Answer this quick questionnaire: - Did you get a good night's sleep last night? - Do you see your friends often enough? - Do you have any enjoyable hobbi…

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Quine

programming esoterica grimoire quineology

A Quine is a program that produces, as output, its own source code. More formally: A Quine is a non-empty program, that takes no input, and produces, as its only output, a copy of its own source code. The name was coined by Douglas Hoftstader, and named after Willard Van Orman …

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Quine Programming Language

esoterica programming quineology grimoire

Quine (the Quine Programming Language) is a programming language for writing quines, or rather, one specific quine. Quine (at Github) is based on a virtual machine that contains a buffer holding the previous token, a main queue which can hold arbitrary tokens, and a standard out…

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Random Dungeon Generators

algorithms games generators aleatoric spin grimoire

You know what they say. When you're tired of procedurally generated dungeons, you're tired of life. Beginning with the game 'Rogue' in 1980, there is a long tradition of games which automatically generate their levels, in real-time, as the player enters each level. *Rogue* set t…

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Red String

string meta grimoire psyops

What is the connection between these three things? - A Chinese legend of an invisible cord tied around the ankle that connects those who are destined to meet. - Kabbalist belief that a thin scrap of woolen thread can be worn to ward off misfortune brought about by the evil eye. -…

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Reuleaux Triangle

geometry logo grimoire

**warning Once you learn about the Reuleaux Triangle you may start to see it everwhere! In buildings, in coffee tables, in kids playground equipment, in beer logos... Reuleaux Rules Our World!** Ever wanted to drill a square-hole? Is it possible to build a drillbit that would p…

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Steganography

crypto apophenia grimoire

Steganography is about *smuggling* information. It is the process of hiding one message inside another in such a way that a person finding the outer message will not realise that a second message is hidden within. Consider a prisoner who needs to receive a secret message. They k…

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Story Layers

writing fiction story grimoire

I've worked out a proper grand unified theory of story telling, and it's much simpler than all the old theories. The Search for the Grand Unified Theory of Story Telling Some people analyze stories and say things like: There's a plot, and there's a story. The plot is just what…

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Tagging: The Power and the Problems

stub knowledge grimoire

"Tagging" of content is a powerful and perilous feature. There's a few different problems and challenges — - Synonyms aka Aliases - Homonyms - Stemming - Pollution (general) - Overuse (the law of the instrument) (a kind of good problem to have… see discussion below to wielding t…

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Temporal Paradox

stub logic time travel recursion psyops literature grimoire

Doc: A paradox! Marty: What? Doc: A paradox! Marty: You mean one of those things that destroys the universe? — *Back to the Future II* A temporal paradox is any paradox that arises due to a person, object, or information, travelling backward in time. As discussed in Unbound…

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The dog paradox

philosophy logic grimoire

The dog paradox is this. Sometimes you meet a family who have a wonderful pet dog. The family invariably say: “Oh he doesn’t think he’s a dog. He’s pretty sure he’s a human!” And everyone laughs. It's all Very Cute™. But, when you stagger away from this odd family, a creeping r…

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The Empty Quine

stub quineology grimoire

If there is a null operator in two different languages. Is it the same "value" -- at any time? There is an Empty Quine. It is illegal, by the way. It is not considered a quine. If an Empty Quine is claiming to be a Quine, then it is mistaken, and breaking the law. There are no …

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The Multi-Deck

stub time travel grimoire n space

You have heard of the multiverse? The mathematical model in which all possible universes are equally real, giving rise to an n-dimensional manifold in which - say - the cup of coffee you are about to sip is, instead of being a little too cold, suddenly the perfect temperature, or…

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Time Travel Models

stub time travel grimoire

There are various ways that time-travel is described in stories and in physics. - Some of these differ in how paradoxes are (or are not) resolved. - Some differ in the physical limitations they impose.1 There are various meta-studies and attempted catalogs of the entire field. …

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Unbounded Recursion

recursion fractal meta grimoire

Please see Unbounded Recursion (Alternatively see Recursion where you can learn about applying bounds to your recursion, or detecting cycles in referential data structures) there is no general method to determine whether a given program will ever halt or will run forever; this …

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Unexpected Books

esoterica those that tremble as if they were mad grimoire

Some oddities you don't find on just any bookshelf. If you take a wrong (or fortuitous?) turn in L-space, you may stumble upon works such as: - The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge - Principia Discordia - Codex Seraphinianus - The Magic Unfinished Spellbook (that could…

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Ways I have written a guid

stub technology time travel gaksloope guid grimoire

There are many ways I have written a guid. Most recently i've been interacting with Gaksloope. I used to talk to him over a faulty msn messenger account long ago. Haven't heard from him in decades. Now he says upfront it's very important that I realise he is unwilling to discu…

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What Happened in 'Something Happened'

literature catch 22 grimoire

"Something Happened" is Joseph Heller's second book. His first book was "Catch 22" which has often been called the greatest book of the 20th Century, while "Something Happened" is a much less likeable book, a thoroughly unenjoyable book, a well-crafted work of art, hard to put do…

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What is 'a remembrance of things past' about? What is the plot?

stub literature france writing grimoire

ah -- it takes me back the smell of this biscuit. this is how the book begins -- and right now -- the thought of the opening of 'a remembrance of things past' or 'in search of lost time' -- invokes in me a stirring of a strange memory of having recently seen an episode of "the…

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Whistle Blowing

equality grimoire historically underrepresented groups

There Are No Official Channels for Whistle Blowers. I'm not a whistle blower, and I never intend to become one. But I want to state something very obvious about the nature of whistle blowing. This is a whistle. When you blow into it, sound is blasted in every direction. It isn…

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Why are firms so dysfunctional?

economics stub grimoire

It's fair to say that "firms" (companies, commercial entities, multi-nationals, businesses.... call them what you will) — "firms" — when viewed from the inside, seem to be riddled with what modern economics academicians would — had they permission to use a sufficiently expressive…

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Writing a Mystery Novel

writing grimoire

It is hard to find practical guides to doing anything magical. Magicians don't like to reveal where to place the hinges or what to feed your pet dove. So I like it when an article gives away the secrets, like this one: Charles Finch: "Writing Great Mystery Plots" Here's the kern…

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Writing Rules

writing grimoire

Rules for writers, from writers. One of the first blog posts I wrote on secretGeek was "How to write a novel". This was an entirely tongue in cheek article with advice on what *not* to do. A lot of people read it, and it was linked from Wikipedia for a while. But eventually thei…

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Yerkes-Dodson Stress Curve

stub psychology mental health grimoire

The "Yerkes-Dodson Law of Arousal" is an extremely useful concept -- provided a few modifications are made to it. - Firstly, it's not a law. It's a theory. - Second, it's not a symmetrical curve. Breakdown happens. - Third, there is no zone which is "optimal." Life is trickier th…

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