A pretty-much arbitrary system based on a standard letter size of 8.5 in x 11 in, with multiples and fractions thereof. It lacks the critical √2 aspect ratio, so pages designed for one size have the wrong proportions when scaled up or down.

International standard paper sizes (A4 etc.) in the U.S.

This user’s name is displayed in Arabic, although the characters in the URL are Latin.

I have two theories, applying not just to rhyme but to traditional verse forms in general (i.e., formal constraints like rhyme, meter, alliteration, etc.):

1. In prehistory—when all knowledge was transmitted orally—verse constraints acted as a sort of verbal checksum to prevent transmitted knowledge from getting corrupted accidentally. And the presence of verse patterns became a subliminal flag indicating that whatever was being sung or recited was important knowledge worth the extra effort of casting into verse.

2. It’s been found in many different contexts that humans are most drawn to information with a novelty-to-predictability ratio of about 20–25%: if it’s much less than that we get bored, and if it’s much more than that we get lost and/or dismiss it as gibberish. So adding a predictable element like a regular rhyme pattern gives the creator freedom to add more novel elements without losing the audience.

It reflects your image across the plane of the mirror. This isn’t physically possible with real-world objects, so your brain substitutes the closest real-world transformation that would approximate the same appearance—which is rotating bilaterally symmetric objects about their axis of symmetry. With a vertically-oriented human, that means turning around so your left is on the right and vice versa.

Et in Arcadia ego

Teeth are the part of the body most resistant to decomposition—that’s why they often use dental records to identify remains.

Blood Meridian (decades of false starts not withstanding).

Since all your examples are science fiction, you might be interested in science fiction studies—see in particular the list of societies and journals at the end of the article, which you can go to for studies of particular works.

If you vote me down, I shall become more famous than you can possibly imagine.

Wouldn’t Tocharian B be better?

With A you could read mostly Buddhist scriptures that already exist in other languages, but with B you could read more historically-relevant secular works.

These seemed like the obvious answers at first, but then I realized I don’t actually use either one on a regular basis (I walk to work and cook on an induction stove). So in my case it’s probably the lever.

Existing in a quantum superposition of living and dead states.

I get annoyed at people who wait at pedestrian crossings but never push the button.

Are they waiting for someone else to push it because it’s beneath them? Do they think it has cooties? Do they secretly not want to reach their destination? Do they think the buttons are fake, and traffic engineers are waiting to laugh at them on hidden cameras?

Is misconjugating verbs a symptom of dehydration?

When

• the expected return becomes negative, or
• the risk/return ratio moves away from the efficient frontier with no other motivating factor.

The most successful applications (e.g. translation, medical image processing) aren’t marketed as “AI”. That term seems to be mostly used for more controversial applications, when companies want to distance themselves from the potential output by pretending that their software tools have independent agency.

Does it need to be accessible via API (e.g. SQL) or just a spreadsheet-style web interface?

The right way to do it would be to outcross Golden Rice with local strains to transfer the beta carotene gene while preserving other traits that are already adapted to the local ecosystem, thereby maintaining biodiversity and allowing the rice to continue to coevolve with other local organisms. But that would threaten Monsanto’s patents.

What about the usage demographics within each country?

In underdeveloped/exploited countries, internet usage is more likely to be concentrated among the economic elites who formerly benefited from colonialism—so if increasing adoption in those countries just follows the pattern of other internet use, it could have the opposite effect from the one intended.