Summary

HandWiki is the world's largest wiki-style encyclopedia dedicated to science, technology and computing. It allows you to create and edit articles as long as you have external citations and login account. In addition, this is a content management environment that can be used for collaborative editing of original scholarly content, such as books, manuals, monographs and tutorials.

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Electrical Transcription
Electrical transcriptions are special phonograph recordings made exclusively for radio broadcasting, which were widely used during the 'Golden Age of Radio', wherein, they provided material—from station-identification jingles and commercials to full-length programs—for use by local stations, affiliates of one of the radio networks. Physically, electrical transcriptions look much like long-playing records that were popular for decades. They differ from consumer-oriented recordings, however, in that they were "distributed to radio stations for the purpose of broadcast, and not for sale to the public.... The ET had higher quality audio than was available on consumer records" largely because they had less surface noise than commercial recordings,
  • 3.0K
  • 01 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Duration
Duration (French: la durée) is a theory of time and consciousness posited by the France philosopher Henri Bergson. Bergson sought to improve upon inadequacies he perceived in the philosophy of Herbert Spencer, due, he believed, to Spencer's lack of comprehension of mechanics, which led Bergson to the conclusion that time eluded mathematics and science. Bergson became aware that the moment one attempted to measure a moment, it would be gone: one measures an immobile, complete line, whereas time is mobile and incomplete. For the individual, time may speed up or slow down, whereas, for science, it would remain the same. Hence Bergson decided to explore the inner life of man, which is a kind of duration, neither a unity nor a quantitative multiplicity. Duration is ineffable and can only be shown indirectly through images that can never reveal a complete picture. It can only be grasped through a simple intuition of the imagination. Bergson first introduced his notion of duration in his essay Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness. It is used as a defense of free will in a response to Immanuel Kant, who believed free will was only possible outside time and space.
  • 1.8K
  • 01 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Holarctic
The Holarctic is the name for the biogeographic realm that encompasses the majority of habitats found throughout the northern continents of the world, combining Wallace's Palearctic zoogeographical region, consisting of North Africa and all of Eurasia (with the exception of the southern Arabian Peninsula, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent), and the Nearctic zoogeographical region, consisting of North America, north of Mexico. These regions are further subdivided into a variety of ecoregions. Many ecosystems, and the animal and plant communities that depend on them, are found across multiple continents in large portions of this realm. The continuity of these ecosystems results from the shared glacial history of the realm. The floristic Boreal Kingdom corresponds to the Holarctic realm.
  • 1.2K
  • 01 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Chinese Swords
Historically, all Chinese swords are classified into two types, jian and dao. Jians are double-edged straight swords while daos are single-edged, and mostly curved from the Song dynasty forward. The jian has been translated at times as a long sword, and the dao a saber or a knife. Bronze jians appeared during the Western Zhou period and switched to wrought iron and steel during the late Warring States period. In modern times, the ceremonial commissioned officer's sword of the Chinese navy has been patterned after the traditional jian since 2008. Other than specialized weapons like the Divided Dao, Chinese swords are usually 70–110 cm (28–43 in) in length, although longer swords have been found on occasion. Outside of China, Chinese swords were also used in Japan from the third to the sixth century AD, but were replaced with Korean and native Japanese swords by the middle Heian era.
  • 17.6K
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Kodi
Kodi (formerly XBMC) is a free and open-source media player software application developed by the XBMC Foundation, a non-profit technology consortium. Kodi is available for multiple operating systems and hardware platforms, with a software 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It allows users to play and view most streaming media, such as videos, music, podcasts, and videos from the Internet, as well as all common digital media files from local and network storage media. It is a multi-platform home-theater PC (HTPC) application. Kodi is customizable: skins can change its appearance, and plug-ins allow users to access streaming media content via online services such as Amazon Prime Instant Video, Crackle, Pandora Internet Radio, Rhapsody, Spotify, and YouTube. The later versions also have a personal video-recorder (PVR) graphical front end for receiving live television with electronic program guide (EPG) and high-definition digital video recorder (DVR) support. The software was created in 2002 as an independently developed homebrew media player application named Xbox Media Player for the first-generation Xbox game console, changing its name in 2004 to Xbox Media Center (abbreviated as XBMC, which was adopted as the official name in 2008) and was later made available under the name XBMC as a native application for Android, Linux, BSD, macOS, iOS/tvOS, and Microsoft Windows-based operating systems. Because of its open source and cross-platform nature, with its core code written in C++, modified versions of Kodi-XBMC together with JeOS have been used as a software appliance suite or software framework in a variety of devices, including smart TVs, set-top boxes, digital signage, hotel television systems, network connected media players and embedded systems based on armhf platforms like Raspberry Pi. Derivative applications such as MediaPortal and Plex have been spun off from XBMC or Kodi, as well as just enough operating systems like LibreELEC. Kodi has attracted negative attention due to the availability of third-party plug-ins for the software that facilitate unauthorized access to copyrighted media content, as well as "fully loaded" digital media players that are pre-loaded with such add-ons; The XBMC Foundation has not endorsed any of these uses, and has taken steps to disassociate the Kodi project from these add-ons, including threatening legal action against those using its trademarks to promote them.
  • 3.3K
  • 10 Oct 2022
Topic Review
COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Media
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the usage of social media by the world's general population, celebrities, world leaders, and professionals. Social networking services have been used to spread information, and to find humour and distraction from the pandemic via Internet memes. Social media has seen a sharp increase in use during the pandemic, largely due to social distancing measures encouraged by many governments. Since many people are asked to remain home, they have turned to social media to maintain their relationships and to access entertainment to pass the time. Moreover, social distancing has forced lifestyle changes for many people, which can put a strain on mental health. Therefore, many online counselling services that use social media have surfaced and begun to rise in popularity, connecting mental health workers with those who need them.
  • 2.0K
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
European Hand Fans in the 18th Century
Hand fans first arrived in Europe in the 15th century from Asia and became popular in the 16th century. Several fan styles were common and a plethora of materials were used to create them. Subject matter varied greatly, from Biblical scenes to landscapes. Hand fans serve as a cooling mechanism, social instrument, and fashion accessory.
  • 2.2K
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
KiHa 80 Series
The KiHa 80 series (キハ80系) was a diesel multiple unit type that operated on express services from 1960 to 2002, under Japan National Railways and later under JR Hokkaido and JR Central. Two variants were initially built: the KiHa 81 series (キハ81系) to replace the then steam-operated Hatsukari services in 1960, and the KiHa 82 series (キハ82系) for other services from 1961 to 1967; the KiHa 81 series sets would receive the fourth Blue Ribbon Award for outstanding design from the Japan Railfan Club (ja). The idea for the KiHa 81 series train was formulated at the first meeting of the Asian Railways Conference that occurred in Tokyo in late 1958. At that time, all services operating on non-electrified lines used steam locomotives, one of these services being the Hatsukari. By early 1960, the new cars were scheduled to start service in December of that year. After a promotional film of the KiHa 81 series was shot between September 15–23, 1960, and a demonstration was given to the participants of the 1960 Asian Railways Conference on October 14, the sets began operating Hatsukari services as planned on December 10. In the late 1980s, three resort trains were built based on the series: two KiHa 84 series (キハ84系) trains (the Furano Express and Tomamu Sahoro Express) and one remodeled KiHa 82 train (the Resort Liner). The Furano Express would be reliveried from June to October 1987 as part of a promotion with All Nippon Airways, and win the 30th Blue Ribbon Award in the same year; the Tomamu Sahoro Express set would participate in a Shikoku event showcasing the trains of all JR Group companies in 1989. By the time of its retirement in 2002, it had been superseded by various multiple units such as the KiHa 183, KiHa 181, and 485 series. Most cars were scrapped by 2009, but some were preserved, including a KiHa 81 lead car at the Kyoto Railway Museum, and a KiHa 82 lead car on the Hakkōda Maru [ja].
  • 1.6K
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Road Policing Unit
A road policing unit (RPU) is the motorway and trunk-road police unit of a British police force. Most territorial police forces established traffic departments in the early 1950s, although the first was established by the Metropolitan Police Service in 1919, but it was with the opening of the M1 motorway in November 1959 that the need for the police to have a specialist department dedicated to policing the new roads was recognised. The 1960s saw the start of construction of new motorways, so the traffic departments grew. One of the first fatal accidents on the M1 occurred near Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire in December 1959.
  • 2.6K
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Reason
Reason is a digital audio workstation for creating and editing music and audio developed by Swedish software company Reason Studios (formerly known as Propellerhead Software). Reason emulates a rack of hardware synthesizers, samplers, signal processors, sequencers, and mixers, all of which can be freely interconnected in an arbitrary manner. Reason can be used either as a complete virtual music studio or as a set of virtual instruments to be used with other sequencing software in a fashion that mimics live performance.
  • 4.6K
  • 30 Sep 2022
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