A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps

Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by mock-possum on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @03:28AM (#37059639)

My fun little factoid about criticality is: sometimes it just happens naturally, on earth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reacto...

> The natural nuclear reactor formed when a uranium-rich mineral deposit became inundated with groundwater, which could act as a moderator for the neutrons produced by nuclear fission. A chain reaction took place, producing heat that caused the groundwater to boil away; without a moderator that could slow the neutrons, however, the reaction slowed or stopped. The reactor thus had a negative void coefficient of reactivity, something employed as a safety mechanism in human-made light water reactors.

> After cooling of the mineral deposit, the water returned, and the reaction restarted, completing a full cycle every 3 hours. The fission reaction cycles continued for hundreds of thousands of years and ended when the ever-decreasing fissile materials, coupled with the build-up of neutron poisons, no longer could sustain a chain reaction.

What a wild story!

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by defrost on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @03:33AM (#37059671)

It was a different time then

    approximately 1.7 billion years ago, during the Statherian period of the Paleoproterozoic, and continued for a few hundred thousand years, probably averaging less than 100 kW of thermal power during that time.

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by danparsonson on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @05:29AM (#37060391)

At least we now know how early life kept their devices charged.

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by Terr_ on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @04:14AM (#37059939)

Interestingly, the -oid suffix usually refers to things that only resemble the thing, so an andr-oid is not really a man, a meteor-oid is not really a meteor, and fact-oid... might not really be a fact.

However the really amusing bit is that that everybody can agree--for different reasons--that:

> Here is a factoid: A factoid is a small fact.

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by danielbln on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @04:22AM (#37059985)

The correct word would be a factlet, but factoid has been defacto taken its place. The fluidity of language, I suppose.

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by Terr_ on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @04:25AM (#37059996)

I wonder if anyone's done studies to measure and quantify the "distance" of slang (in years or generations) before an older person feels instinctive linguistic revulsion...

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by marcosdumay on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @02:51PM (#37066927)

It's a continuous value, that is visibly different from zero almost immediately; children will experience it in a few contexts.

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by anyoneamous on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @05:28AM (#37060384)

But is the collective noun for fully-grown factlets "facti" or "factodes"?

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by selimthegrim on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @08:35AM (#37061709)

The octolets will get back to you.

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by bmacho on Thursday August 10, 2023 @06:02AM (#37074064)

I think I prefer factlet over factoid.

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by adrian_b on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @06:05AM (#37060584)

Yes, the -oid suffix is cognate with words like video and vision, referring to sight, so X-oid means something that looks like X.

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by selimthegrim on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @08:35AM (#37061714)

Schizoid?

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by HPsquared on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @11:34AM (#37064269)

"Resembling schizophrenia but less severe"... seems to fit.

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by cafard on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @06:36AM (#37060767)

My recollection from many years ago is that Norman Mailer coined "factoid" to refer that what looked like facts, were offered as facts, but weren't facts.

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by Linosaurus on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @10:08AM (#37062874)

Yes, both meanings exists in dictionaries.

Fortunately usage has consolidated. In my experience a factoid is generally intended to be true in (American?) English, but untrue in Swedish.

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by andrelaszlo on Thursday August 10, 2023 @04:58AM (#37073669)

Aha, thank you for explaining why the American use of the word bothers me! I guess it became a false friend?

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by taneq on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @10:04AM (#37062828)

The letter u is a void. ;)

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Re:A Critical Problem – This photo gives me the creeps by JadeNB on Wednesday August 09, 2023 @11:48AM (#37064465)

Similarly, 'factitious' sounds like it should be an antonym to 'fictitious', but it very much isn't. And 'factious' is another thing entirely.

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