question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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what do cows have in their body/diet that produces "magic" mushrooms from their waste? | It has literally nothing to do with cows. Cow poop is just fertilizer. Magic mushrooms are a species of mushroom. Only specific species of mushroom produce the chemicals known as psilocybin and psilocin. Which are responsible for the magic part of magic mushrooms. The cow poop has nothing to do with it, it just helps the mushrooms grow better because they like the nitrogen and other nutrients in cow poop.
Cow poop just happens to be a particularly powerful fertilizer due to the high concentration of nitrogen from the large quatities of grass they eat. | [
"Ruminant animals, particularly cows and sheep, contain bacteria in their gastrointestinal systems that help to break down plant material. Some of these microorganisms use the acetate from the plant material to produce methane, and because these bacteria live in the stomachs and intestines of ruminants, whenever th... |
cogito ergo sum | If you are able to question whether you physically exist, then you do. If you didn't really exist, you couldn't be able to question your existence. | [
"The phrase \"cogito, ergo sum\" is not used in Descartes's \"Meditations on First Philosophy\" but the term \"the \"cogito\"\" is used to refer to an argument from it. In the \"Meditations\", Descartes phrases the conclusion of the argument as \"that the proposition, \"I am, I exist,\" is necessarily true whenever... |
For hundreds of years, lands stretching from Algeria to Bengal were under the rule of Turks. If Turks dominated for so long, why are Turkic languages, outside of Central Asia, limited to Anatolia and Azerbaijan? | For most of history, Turkic languages were not looked upon as prestigious or worthwhile. Most (perhaps all, though there may be exceptions) of the states of Turkic origin in the eastern half of the Muslim world used Persian as the language of court and intellectual life, for instance the Mughals and Safavids. In the Ottoman Empire, Turkish only achieved prestige starting from the sixteenth century. The Arab lands which were under Ottoman rule received some degree of linguistic influence, with some words entering colloquial dialects.
But leaving all that aside, the main answer to your question is that Turkic rulers were not generally interested in culturally assimilating their subjects. There was no Ottoman effort, in the early modern period, to encourage common people to speak Turkish. Nor is there any particular reason why they should have done that.
Anatolia's adoption of the Turkish language was closely linked to its conversion to Islam - as the local population became Muslim, they joined the growing Muslim community which already existed there and learned its language, which was Turkish. Because the process of conversion was gradual, the converts assimilated rather than forming new communities with their local languages. | [
"Turks arrived from Central Asia and settled in the Anatolian basin in around the 11th century through the conquest of Seljuk Turks, mixing with the peoples of Anatolia. The region then began to transform from a predominately Greek Christian one to a Turkish Muslim society. Thereafter, the Ottoman Empire came to ru... |
how does reading help you write better? | It exposes you to new words, new turn of phrases, and expands your horizons. A good writer has to be a voracious reader. | [
"According to some writing theorists, reading for pleasure provides a more effective way of mastering the art of writing than does a formal study of writing, language, grammar, and vocabulary.\"Studies that sought to improve writing by providing reading experiences in place of grammar study or additional writing pr... |
how bad was body odor back in the day? roman times, ancient china, colonial americas, medieval europe, egypt, etc. if we truly could time travel, would the funky bo be a deal breaker for some ages? | [The Dirt on Clean](_URL_0_) addresses this question first and very simply. A great read. To summarize:
*Of course* there was body odor. But expectations for cleanliness were different (and have changed over the centuries, and are still changing). The most plausible explanation for the *stank* is that we simply don't notice unpleasant smells after prolonged exposure, the same way we don't really feel our clothing most of the time (until we think about it at least). Also, there were a lot of other competing smells--livestock, cooking food, fire, sewage--that made life in general a lot more nasally interesting.
If we walked outside and it was suddenly downtown Boston or London in, say, the summer of 1800, yeah, *we* would notice the stink with our modern, sensitive noses. You would stop noticing it after a week or so, and then you would only notice nuanced changes in aroma (like how your friends' houses all smell different).
Ashenberg has some amazing accounts of hygiene in her book, some of my favorites are the detailed bathing rituals of the Greeks (they bathed for hours every day and scraped their skin with strigils and oil and salt, and brushed their teeth with pine needles), Napoleon's (IIRC) preference for his lover not to bathe (because he liked the way she smelled...you know...down there), and the medieval/middle-ages "shower": changing one's undershirt and, optionally, gently patting the face with water (that's it). She found one account of a nobleman who didn't change his undershirt for a year, and when he did so, his skin came with it.
At the turn of the century (1900) a bath was maybe a once-every-two-weeks occurrence (maybe even once a month), and it then turned into a once a week occurrence (signaling a shift to indoor working environments). The once-a-week bath was seen by many as excessive (and IIRC, there was some social stigma associated with it). The fact that many people today shower once or twice a day is evidence of our economic prosperity and cultural "sophistication" (like the Greeks). Our further desire to hide and mask even the slightest personal odors demonstrates how sanitized our aromatic atmosphere really is. Even the *slightest* offenses stand out today.
| [
"For centuries, bathing was far from common in many parts of the world. Heavy colognes were used to mask body odor. Not until the late nineteenth century did chemists develop products that prevented the formation of body odors. Early antiperspirants included creams, solids, pads, dabbers, roll-ons, and powders. Tod... |
hydrogen peroxide for first aid. how does it work and what is the mechanism of action? | Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) decomposes into oxygen and water, creating highly reactive **free radical oxygen** species (Oxygen with an unpaired electron) in the process. These radicals oxidize organic compounds, effectively destroying cells. **Reactive Oxygen species**, compounds capable of forming Oxygen radicals, are a natural by-product of aerobic respiration, so our cells have enzymes to contain them. ROS's are used by the cells of the immune system as an antimicrobial defense: note that they use extremely small doses, as ROS damage can easily occur in host and pathogen cells alike.
As far as using it to clean wounds, **don't**. We now know that it doesn't selectively kill pathogens: it may damage human tissue as well, slowing the healing process and causing scars. Plus it has little to no demonstrated efficacy in reducing bacterial counts in the wound. It certainly *looks* like it's doing something, but that's mostly the H2O2 decomposing into O2 bubbles in H2O.
Edit- Proper care at home for cuts and scrapes: Use tweezers sterilized with alcohol to remove any debris. Use soap and water, or a saline solution, to flush the wound for 5-10 minutes. Apply petroleum jelly, cover with band-aid. Change the band-aid daily, while applying more jelly. Do not let it "air out", that's another medical myth that will slow healing and increase scarring. Keep it covered, keep it moist. And don't pick at the scab. If you are at all concerned about the size or location of a wound, it won't stop bleeding, or you start to notice pus during the healing process, see a doctor immediately. And get a tetanus booster every 5 years.
Don't pour rubbing alcohol into the wound, either. That's painful and counterproductive. | [
"Another origin of hydrogen peroxide is the degradation of adenosine monophosphate which yields hypoxanthine. Hypoxanthine is then oxidatively catabolized first to xanthine and then to uric acid, and the reaction is catalyzed by the enzyme xanthine oxidase:\n",
"In basic solution, hydrogen peroxide can reduce a v... |
why are things that humans make considered artificial, and not natural? for example, a beaver builds a dam, and its considered natural. humans make food with materials that they made from natural resources but it would be considered artificial. | This is because of their very definitions. Artificial does not mean fake, it means the item was something that was made by human skill. As opposed to natural which means something that was created by nature - Eg. created by something other than human skill.
This is a case of words having different interpreted meaning than the ones that are given to them. (Textbook definition vs Application of the word.) | [
"The beaver works as a keystone species in an ecosystem by creating wetlands that are used by many other species. Next to humans, no other extant animal appears to do more to shape its landscape. Beavers potentially even affect climate change.\n",
"Clive Dilnot goes further and clarifies that the artificial is by... |
Why can't human cells use anaerobic processes to create ATP when in an atmosphere of no oxygen? | The majority of ATP resulting from respiration is generated through a process called "oxidative phosphorylation" which involves using an electron transport chain to generate a gradient of hydrogen ions outside of the inner mitochondrial membrane and then allowing it to flow back in through a molecule of ATP synthase which is basically a molecular turning engine embedded right into the membrane. The ATP synthase "turbine" can't function without the gradient of ions, and the gradient of ions can't be created without the electron transport chain, and the electron transport chain can't function without an oxygen atom to serve as the final electron acceptor.
The best we can do in the absence of oxygen is lactic acid fermentation. Fermentation involves only the initial step of respiration, glycolysis, which produces four molecule of ATP but uses two in the process for a net production of only two molecules of ATP for every molecule of glucose consumed. Not very efficient when compared to aerobic respiration, which can produce up to 32 molecules of ATP for every molecule of glucose consumed. | [
"Aerobic metabolism is up to 15 times more efficient than anaerobic metabolism (which yields 2 molecules ATP per 1 molecule glucose). However some anaerobic organisms, such as methanogens are able to continue with anaerobic respiration, yielding more ATP by using other inorganic molecules (not oxygen) as final elec... |
for a human, when is the period of most rapid development in the brain? | Not counting *in utero* growth of the brain, yes, the brain develops most rapidly in the first 3 years of life.
Development doesn't mean growth in mass alone, however. It also means refining neural connections, which also means that some connections are lost in a process called [neural pruning](_URL_0_). This is necessary to prevent parts of the brain from cross-talking with parts of the brain that it shouldn't. For example, you wouldn't want your muscles to go into seizure upon one of your senses being stimulated, but this is a possible problem that can arise with improper neural pruning. | [
"WAVE cites the research finding that between birth and age 3 the synapses (or connections) in the infant brain multiply 20 fold, and develop 85% of the human brain (and that 95% of the brain is developed by age 4). This speed of development causes the brain to be acutely sensitive to environmental experience durin... |
Black holes. If they did not exist, could galaxies sustain themselves? | Nope. The black hole in the middle of the Milky Way (Sagittarius A\*) represents 0.04% of the mass of the galaxy, whereas the Sun (which the planets orbit) represents 99.8 - 99.9% the mass of the solar system.
So if Sag A\* were to vanish tomorrow, the Galaxy would remain together, and the orbits of the vast majority of stars within would remain the same. The only objects that would be significantly disturbed would be those very close to Sag A\*.
EDIT: Also, you mention "star frisbee." Note that the event horizon of a black hole is spherical, so insofar as we might perceive a black hole, it would be spherical (vaguely; relativistic effects like frame-dragging might change our perception to some extent). It would certainly not be disc-shaped. | [
"It is thought that supermassive black holes like these do not form immediately from the singular collapse of a cluster of stars. Instead they may begin life as smaller, stellar-sized black holes and grow larger by the accretion of matter, or even of other black holes.\n",
"They saw that the clouds of gas before ... |
Can a winter storm have an "eye"? | Yes. Both low and high pressure systems, in fact, can have well-defined centers of circulation around which winds swirl (in the Northern Hemisphere, counterclockwise for low pressure systems and clockwise for high, if I haven't totally lost my mind). This is not a peculiar feature of tropical cyclones (hurricanes).
And right now (01:17 UTC, 2014-02-17), if you check out the [Earth Wind Map](_URL_0_), you can actually see a *very* well-defined eye just to the west of Newfoundland at the center of the current winter storm that slammed the US this past week and is now moving out off Atlantic Canada.
EDIT: I should add that this feature of circulation is the reason for the term "Nor'easter". When you get a low pressure system that sits off the coast of New England and Atlantic Canada, the counter-clockwise circulation will mean that wind is blowing from the north-east to the south-west if you are sitting on the land to the west-northwest of the center of circulation. This wind picks up moisture over the Atlantic water and then dumps it as snow over the land, like a blizzard conveyor-belt.
EDIT 2: I've uploaded a screenshot from that wind map at _URL_1_ . | [
"For storms with a clear eye, detection of the eye is as simple as looking at pictures from a weather satellite. However, for storms with a filled eye, or an eye completely covered by the central dense overcast, other detection methods must be used. Observations from ships and Hurricane Hunters can pinpoint an eye ... |
how do they get fizzy drinks inside cans? | Have the can with the top not on, pour in fizzy drink, immediately seal it with the top. Very little space left inside the can to let the fizz escape from the liquid. The small amount that does pressurizes the can, ensuring more cannot escape. | [
"Canned drinks were factory-sealed and required a special opener tool in order to consume the contents. Cans were typically formed as cylinders, having a flat top and bottom. They required a can piercer, colloquially known as a \"church key\", that latched onto the top rim for leverage; lifting the handle would for... |
How come Glow in the Dark objects seem really bright, but don't illuminate the area around them that well? | The other answers are a bit too vague or incorrect. Answering this and the follow up question.
Just for information, the unit for the total "amount" of visible light emitted by a source per square meter is called a 'lux'. One lux is roughly one candle's light (per square foot).
According to [Wikipedia](_URL_1_), a moonless clear night will be around 0.0001 lux (very dark). A full moon is usually less than 1 lux. Now, family living rooms are about 50 lux. Offices go up to 500 lux. And full daylight (not staring at the sun, just the sky) goes up to a grand total of 25,000 lux.
Now consider again that value of 1 candle per square foot = 1 lumen. There are many glow in the dark compounds, and I'm sure they have different values. At least the ones I'm familiar with are not as bright as a candle. So this would mean they have a value of less than 1 lumen.
This is why they don't illuminate the area very well, it's because they actually are not very bright at all.
If you are interested more in why we can see such dark objects so well. [Rhodopsin](_URL_0_) is largely responsible for low-light vision.
Now, for the follow up question. They *do* glow in the light. The problem is, you're adding a fraction of a lumen to, as I stated before, 50/500/25000 lumens. It doesn't make enough of a difference for us to notice. | [
"Some examples of glow-in-the-dark materials do not glow by phosphorescence. For example, glow sticks glow due to a chemiluminescent process which is commonly mistaken for phosphorescence. In chemiluminescence, an excited state is created via a chemical reaction. The light emission tracks the kinetic progress of th... |
What the hell happened to me last night!? INCEPTION (for real) details inside... | Short answer: [sleep paralysis](_URL_0_). Your brain woke up from your dream, but your brain and muscles were still disconnected. This disconnection (termed atonia) is necessary to keep you from physically acting out your dream, but sometimes it can hang around a little too long. | [
"She tells the story that one night she was awoken by a hard blow to her body. The pain ran down her spinal column and she bent backwards in an arch. She felt an immense, warm caress massaging her entire body. She went back to sleep, but then experienced a second, even stronger, blow. She felt as if her heart had s... |
how does an external battery pack continue to charge my phone when bot my phone and the pack have the same level of charge. | Say you have a 2 liter bottle and a 20 oz bottle, although both may be at 50 percent capacity, the 2 liter still has more in it. | [
"The charging protocol (how much voltage or current for how long, and what to do when charging is complete, for instance) depends on the size and type of the battery being charged. Some battery types have high tolerance for overcharging (i.e., continued charging after the battery has been fully charged) and can be ... |
why do humans like/dislike different food if we're all hardwired to only want energy? | While our bodies (on a cellular level) view food as energy and nothing more, our brains view it as much more. The chemicals in, let's say a chocolate bar, come into contact with the receptors on your tongue and send a signal to your brain and your brain perceives the chocolate bar as tasty or yucky. Taste is just a perception though, so in the event of starvation our brain doesn't care if the food tastes good or bad it will still send a signal back telling you to eat the food. | [
"Eventually, compulsive overeaters continuously think about food. Food is the main thing on their minds; when deprived of it, the person may engage in actions similar to those of hard drug addicts, including an uncontrollable search for the substance, and in devious behaviour, such as stealing or lying.\n",
"Comm... |
Is a vaccine still effective if the person is already infected with the virus? | Yes - a good example is the [rabies post-exposure prophylaxis treatment](_URL_1_),which combines a vaccine with anti-rabies antibodies. Research has also shown that [vaccination in the early stages of chicken pox can resolve the infection](_URL_0_). | [
"Some people cannot be fully protected from vaccine-preventable diseases by direct vaccination. These are often people with weak immune systems, who are more likely to get seriously ill. Their risk of infection can be significantly reduced if those who are most likely to infect them get the appropriate vaccines.\n"... |
Are all particles in the electromagnetic spectrum photons? | The electromagnetic spectrum is simply the range of frequency of photons. | [
"Most particles have unique combinations of signals left in each detector sub-system, allowing different particles to be identified. For example, an electron is charged and interacts electromagnetically, so it is tracked by the tracker and then deposits all of its energy in the (electromagnetic) calorimeter. By con... |
how can an original gameboy that has been sitting in storage for 6 years still have a full battery charge, while my old cell phone's battery is dead after a couple months? | Phones use lithium batteries. Lithium batteries are terrible. AA batteries last 30+ years without being touched | [
"Nintendo claims the battery lasts a maximum of 10 hours under ideal conditions on a full four-hour charge. Battery life is affected by multiple factors including speaker volume, use of one or both screens, use of wireless connectivity, and use of backlight, which can be turned on or off in selected games such as \... |
Why did low-intensity conflict become the norm? | Part of this is a sort of history bias: it's a lot easier to talk about the battle of Cumae than it is to talk about That Time Those Guys Killed Some People And Took Off. And probably a historian bias, too. There's often a literal class war aspect when, say, your solidly upper middle class hoplites are being supported by a larger number of more irregular troops.
However, I would suggest that the reason is that it's effective. The development of it is discussed pretty deeply by Hammes [Sling and the Stone](_URL_0_), where he puts it in context of other developments in warfare, and "evolves," first in response to the previous solutions to the previous problems of war, then over time in each war. In the context it's shown up in the last century, the problem it's generally facing is how a much weaker conventional force can defeat a more powerful one, almost a response to the creation of the modern superpower, and one that's been pretty effective against it. Success begets repetition.
So while yes, you can find a lot of hit and run or other terror tactics throughout history (and maybe pre-history), it's an effective tactic against the sort of prior generation of war (according to Hames, more about the question of mobility and communication) and the world that form of war shaped. | [
"A low-intensity conflict (LIC) is a military conflict, usually localised, between two or more state or non-state groups which is below the intensity of conventional war. It involves the state's use of military forces applied selectively and with restraint to enforce compliance with its policies or objectives. The ... |
How does pH affect enzymes? | It will vary. For example, changes in pH can trigger denaturation of the protein; in other cases, though, there might be a deleterious effect on its function. Hydrolysis of peptide bonds without the aid of an enzyme is rather slow at neutral pH, although can be tremendously accelerated in very acidic or very basic conditions. | [
"BULLET::::- Effects of pH: Most enzymes are sensitive to pH and have specific ranges of activity. All have an optimum pH. The pH can stop enzyme activity by denaturating (altering) the three-dimensional shape of the enzyme by breaking ionic, and hydrogen bonds. Most enzymes function between a pH of 6 and 8; howeve... |
How do neurons know not to send the signal in the wrong direction? | So the way neurons propagate signals is through a chain of opening and closing of ion channels. The reason it doesn't typically go backwards is because the previously opened ion channels temporarily inactivate and prevent opening again for a brief period of time. | [
"In some areas of the brain, such as the hippocampus, neurons are arranged in such a way that they all receive synaptic inputs in the same area. Because these neurons are in the same orientation, the extracellular signals from the generation of action potentials don't cancel out, but rather add up to give a signal ... |
how is bill cosby just going around the country performing stand up? if 34 people accused someone of rape in any other profession, they would not be performing their normal job. | Because they are nothing more than accusations. If there is a point where there is law enforcement involvement, then his movements might be restricted. | [
"On October 16, 2014, at the Philadelphia club The Trocadero, Buress was recorded doing an extended routine about existing rape allegations against comedian Bill Cosby. Buress addressed Cosby's legacy of \"talk[ing] down\" to young black men about their style of dress and lifestyle. Buress criticized the actor's pu... |
How long did it take for knowledge of the "discovery" of America to make it to the Muslim world? Did any Muslim leaders send subsequent expeditions to the New World? | Though there weren't expeditions, the Muslim world still heavily influenced the New World. One of the chief ways that the Muslim world interacted with the American colonies was via piracy from the north coast of Africa (Morocco and the Ottoman regencies of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers). Documented attacks on New World ships from the colonies began in the first half of the 17th century. They escalated during this century with one attack by Algerians seizing fourteen ships and at least 390 English captives. 11 were residents of New England. British protection during the 18th century eased the attacks, but, of course, this protection was lost with US independence.
After independence, the US was outgunned by the navies of the `[barbary coast](_URL_0_)'. Because the early US was a confederacy it lacked a central government strong enough to muster the funds to create a navy for national defense. France was also of little help in spite of its treaty obligations. As a result, the Barbary States could choose between seizing American ships and extorting the US in exchange for safe passage. Being in debt from the revolution, the US could not easily afford either option.
Those gathered at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 were left with this threat looming over their heads as they debated creating a stronger national government. Fears of a tyrannical central government were balanced against fears of predation from abroad (amid a great many other factors, of course). Possibly influenced by *[The Algerine Spy in Pennsylvania](_URL_2_)*, a stronger, federal government was agreed to.
It was only in 1793 that Congress opened debate on a creating a navy (after George Washington's urging). Funds were set aside for six frigates in 1794. But these frigates were built slowly and by the late 1790s they had yet to set to sea. At the same time, the US was paying as much as 20 percent of its annual budget toward appeasing powers in North Africa.
The frigates were eventually launched. President Jefferson used them at one point to attack Tripoli, setting a precedent for presidential military action without a Congressional declaration of war. However, it was only during Madison's time as president in 1815 that the US was finally able to force a peace with the pirate states in North Africa. This came at great cost to the US but had the side benefit of advancing the US's international prestige. It is hard (for me) to imagine the 1823 Monroe Doctrine being taken seriously without the victory over the North African pirates.
My chief source for this post was [this text](_URL_1_).
edit: clarity | [
"The many voyages of discovery did not pay for themselves, and there was no funding for pure science in the Renaissance. Columbus had planned for Queen Isabella to set up trading posts with the cities of the Far East made famous by Marco Polo, but whose Silk Road and eastern maritime routes had been blockaded to he... |
It seems everybody has a gluten intolerance... Is this a legitimate issue? Or overblown? | I should start off by saying this is not my area of research. However, as a scientist and someone with known gluten problems (likely celiac disease, but thats a different story for a different subreddit), I spend a fair bit of time reading the primary literature about this topic. I'll try to keep my answer to what I know I understand about the topic, and stay away from some of the more nitty gritty that I can't back up nearly as well.
It is estimated that roughly 1% of the US population has celiac disease (an autoimmune reaction to the consumption of gluten). We can test for this through a blood test for certain antibodies, or through a biopsy of the small intestine. The problem in the US is that, until recently, our medical system as a whole was incredibly uneducated to celiac disease. The old statistic was that on average, from onset of symptoms to diagnosis a patient would average TEN YEARS. There have been a number of education campaigns in the last few years, so I'm sure that statistic has shortened a bit, but I'm not sure to what extent.
But there can be other problems with gluten beyond just celiac disease, namely four: gluten intolerance, gluten allergy, wheat intolerance and wheat allergy. The confounding factor is that clinically all five problems can present with exactly the same symptoms (though they don't always). Until recently though, not much work had been done to figure out if the intolerances are 'real', as in if they have actual biochemical problems in the body. The allergy issues we can easily figure out. Wheat intolerance can be explained away by FODMAP problems in some people. But gluten intolerance was a bit of mystery.
[This paper](_URL_0_) did a really good job walking through the initial tests to see if they could figure out the problem for those who claim 'gluten intolerance'. They took two sets of patients that had previously tested negative for celiac disease, but had known gluten problems. In a double blind test, one group got fed some extra gluten, and the other got gluten free control food (and how they snuck gluten in in a pretty cool way to make sure it was actually the gluten that was the problem, and not any other chemicals that might be in foods that normally contain gluten). The gluten eating group complained of not only more symptoms, but also significantly worse symptoms. And enough of them dropped out to actually mess up some of the statistical power of the experiment. The problem was that nothing the researchers tested for showed any changes. So something is going on, but they haven't been able to figure out what that problem exactly is, or what they can test for to find it.
Now, if you take that 1% of the population who definitely has celiac disease, some smaller portion who have the other four listed problems, add in the people who do actually for whatever reason feel better eating gluten free AND add in the people who just like to diagnose themselves with the hip disease of the month, and it's no surprise that you've seen an uptick in the number of people asking about gluten free foods.
That said, eating gluten free is perfectly healthy. I'd say I eat an incredibly more healthy diet in the 8.5 years that I've been gluten free than I did before. While challenging sometimes, I don't feel like my diet is limited at all. I can eat all the meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and so forth that my heart desires, so long as they are prepared in a gluten free manner (that's the part that is tricky). Gluten containing bread (and donuts, and bagels, and pizza) sure is tasty, but it is NOT required for a healthy diet. | [
"In some cases, people can significantly improve with a low FODMAPs diet in addition to gluten withdrawal and/or a GFD with a low content of preservatives and additives. Furthermore, associated to gluten sensitivity, NCGS people may often present IgE-mediated allergies to one or more foods and it is estimated that ... |
if someone 'objects' during a wedding ceremony, what happens next? | Everyone gasps at the shocking breach of decorum, and the objector is not invited to future weddings.
There is no legal consequence, and the priest/judge/rabbi has no requirement to listen to the disruptor. A wedding can proceed after any objection or other outburst, provided that the bride and groom and officiator still want the marriage to proceed. If one of them changes their mind as a result of the objection, obviously it is not going to happen that day. | [
"On the marriage day, the tradition is the \"marriage-by-capture\" ceremony in which the bride is forcibly removed from her hut and presented to her groom. During the ceremony, the bride has her head covered and is carried and then laid down in the hut while the groom is led to the hut and sits beside the door. The... |
How long after Hitler's suicide did the Allies know the cause of death? | The Russians found out pretty quickly what happened because they reached Berlin first. However, they ended up capturing most of the witnesses who were present in Hitler's bunker and kept the whole thing a secret (or ambiguous at the least).
At the time, the rest of the Allies had several theories about Hitler's whereabouts:
1. An official German announcement said the Hitler died May 1st while commanding his troops in battle.
2. Hitler had escaped to the south and was regrouping his remaining forces in Bavaria.
3. Hitler was killed/committed suicide while still in Berlin.
4. Hitler managed to fly out of Germany and was hiding somewhere in South America (this one wasn't widely accepted)
The Allied Command ended up commissioning several historians to find out what had happened. It took them several months to put together the basics, partially because Russia wasn't exactly cooperative. The historians were able to learn a lot more details about what transpired once they began using the sources (mainly diaries, telegraph communications, and witnesses) in Russia's possession. New information trickled in for 20 years or so as it was declassified. Apparently the Russians knew much more than what they originally let along. They found Hitler's body, moved it before the Americans reached Berlin and hid it in some unassuming Russian cemetery. Some years later, the KGB destroyed Hitler's remains.
Today, we know most of the important details surrounding Hitler's death, from the names and fates of everyone in the bunker, to the process of selecting Hitler's second-in-command as well as his marriage to Eva Braun.
There are a number of books written about the subject if you're interested in further reading. The book I used for this was written by one of the commissioned Allied historians:
The Last Days of Hitler by Hugh Trevor-Roper, 6th ed.
| [
"Hitler's death: On 30 April, as the Battle of Nuremberg and the Battle of Hamburg ended with American and British occupation, in addition to the Battle of Berlin raging above him with the Soviets surrounding the city, along with his escape route cut off by the Americans, realizing that all was lost and not wishing... |
why we should shut down things like computers and gaming consoles instead of just unplugging them. | Like you're five? The same reason you brake a bike to a stop before you hop off. | [
"To shut down or power off a computer is to remove power from a computer's main components in a controlled way. After a computer is shut down, main components such as CPUs, RAM modules and hard disk drives are powered down, although some internal components, such as an internal clock, may retain power.\n",
"In Mi... |
if we can use the rectum for effectively absorbing suppositories, how come we don't get blood poisoning from all the bacteria and waste minerals in our faeces? | Our digestive tract has a pretty strong barrier (lots of IgA antibodies that act like a web to trap) that prevents bacteria from crossing into the blood. Bacteria (or viruses) have to pass either between or through epithelial cells in order to enter the blood. There are numerous immune cells present to prevent this from happening. Drugs that are absorbed in the intestines are generally lipophilic (fat-loving) and can cross the fatty cell membranes of epithelial cells (think about "like dissolves like") and get into blood.
This is a gross oversimplification, if you want more detail just message me! | [
"The use of suppositories is a way to bypass partially the portal vein: the upper 1/3 of the rectum is drained into the portal vein while the lower 2/3 are drained into the internal iliac vein that goes directly in the inferior vena cava (thus bypassing the liver).\n",
"Whole bowel irrigation is also used in cert... |
Are there any theories of a correlation between massive volcanic eruptions and a reversal of earth's magnetic field? | No. The mantle is an insulating region and so the magnetic field does not interact with it. Further to this any changes in the fluid flow in the outer core will not propagate through the mantle for millions of years (as this is the timescale for mantle convection, 50 million years if I remember right). So IF there was a connection between a magnetic reversal and volcanic activity they would not occur at the same time but would have a phase lag.
It is however unlikely that the two are related. | [
"Studies of lava flows on Steens Mountain, Oregon, indicate that the magnetic field could have shifted at a rate of up to 6 degrees per day at some time in Earth's history, which significantly challenges the popular understanding of how the Earth's magnetic field works. This finding was later attributed to unusual ... |
on to catch a predator, what crime are those guys committing? | Lawyer here. The ~~current~~ former top comment regarding res ipsa loquitur in this thread is wrong. Going to copy/paste my response to it here as well, in hopes people see this and are not misled.
Res ipsa loquitur is a principle of tort law. This is not a concept used in criminal law; it is only used in determining civil liability. For example, if my car rolls down a hill into a building, I could be found liable because the fact that my car shifted out of park shows that I was negligent SOMEHOW. You don't need to pin exactly how - the facts speak for themselves. But tort law is not criminal law. These are separate and distinct areas. This is important to understand.
What these people are guilty of is the crime of solicitation. They believed that they were convincing a minor to have sex with them. Actively soliciting someone to commit a crime is a crime itself. Just like if I try and hire a hitman to kill someone. The very act of trying to hire the hitman is a crime - he doesn't have to kill anyone for me to be guilty.
**Edit to try and answer questions regarding entrapment:**
Entrapment laws vary by jurisdiction. I will use the Florida statute here, seeing as the show was filmed here at one point. In Florida, the two elements of entrapment are:
(1) A law enforcement officer, a person engaged in cooperation with a law enforcement officer, or a person acting as an agent of a law enforcement officer perpetrates an entrapment if, for the purpose of obtaining evidence of the commission of a crime, he or she induces or encourages and, as a direct result, causes another person to engage in conduct constituting such crime by employing methods of persuasion or inducement which create a substantial risk that such crime will be committed by a person **other than one who is ready to commit it.**
(2) A person prosecuted for a crime shall be acquitted if the person proves by a preponderance of the evidence that his or her criminal conduct occurred **as a result of an entrapment.** The issue of entrapment shall be tried by the trier of fact.
(Source: _URL_0_)
As far as I know, prosecutions resulting from To Catch a Predator rely on two things. First, the fact that the law enforcement officers were not the first people to INITIATE contact. Second, seeing as these men often are driving for hours to meet these kids for their sexual encounter, there is a lot of time to change their minds and go home (as opposed to if a cop walks up to you and asks you to buy drugs, which is a much faster decision with less thought behind it).
The bolded parts of the statute above are important here. Between the time for contemplation and the fact that contact was not first initiated by law enforcement, it becomes difficult for defendants to argue that they were not prepared to commit the crime in the first place, or that the entrapment was the sole reason that the crime was committed. That said, it is relatively murky and there are a lot of attorneys that would agree that the line was crossed, or that it was at least close to being crossed.
**TL;DR: Guilty of solicitation because actively soliciting a crime is a crime itself; not guilty of entrapment because of the way the statute is interpreted.**
Edit for clarity on which comment I meant.
Mandatory second edit to thank the kind soul that gave me gold. Much appreciated! | [
"\"To Catch a Predator\" was a special series of reports, hosted by Chris Hansen, featuring hidden camera sting operations that bust potential sex offenders who meet children over the internet with the intent of luring them to meet in person and engaging in illegal sexual activity. The stings are conducted in partn... |
Why were there no Nuremburg-type trials for Confederate leaders after the American Civil War? | In was Lincoln's expressed wish that such tribunals not be held. During the River Queen conference that Lincoln held in March 1865 (this was on the steamer 'River Queen'), he told Gen. Grant, Gen. Sherman, and Admr. Porter his intentions for handling the peace negotiations. Lincoln wanted to start the work of reconciliation and healing as soon as possible, and told his three commanders that all he really wanted was for the Confederates to lay down their arms, pledge allegiance to the Union, then be allowed to go home. He didn't want to prosecute the generals, and except for Jefferson Davis (who Lincoln hoped would escape to Mexico or another country), he seemed content to let the civic leadership slide. Lincoln thought that the quickest way towards a lasting peace was via an olive branch, and as soon as the states in rebellion agreed to return to the fold (and to do so acknowledging and respecting the 13th amendment), he wanted to welcome them. It's hard to know what he had intended for Reconstruction, or how he might have handled the troubles that erupted over voting rights, etc., but we do know from this River Queen conference that Lincoln absolutely did not want tribunals.
Grant and Sherman agreed, and both wrote later that they admired and respected Lincoln's decision. This makes sense, too, for as rough as Reconstruction and the ensuing years were as it concerns north vs. south tensions relating to the war, a harsh peace full of military trials and hangings would have likely been a disaster (the divisions in the country likely would have been much worse). Of course, this veers off into history what-if territory, but to answer OP's question: there were no trials because Lincoln said so (and the military leadership agreed). The Radical Republicans might have felt differently, but when Pres. Johnson took over, that ship sailed.
[Sources: Doris Kearns Goodwin, 'Team of Rivals'; Bruce Catton, 'A Stillness at Appomattox'; Jay Winik, 'April, 1865' U.S. Grant, 'Memoirs'] | [
"The prisoner exchange protocol broke down over the Confederacy's position on black prisoners-of-war. The Confederacy had passed a law stating that blacks captured in uniform would be tried as rebellious slave insurrectionists in civil courts—a capital offense with automatic sentence of death. In practice, USCT sol... |
If there were more/less than 24 hours in a day, would humans have adapted to need more/less sleep? | We can't say for sure because we still have such a rough idea of what sleep is actually for. We know there are harmful effects from sleep deprivation (there is a reason it is considered a form of torture) and all mammals have evolved to need sleep as far as we can tell. But the amount of sleep different animals require [varies quite a bit](_URL_0_). Horses sleep 3 hours a day, bats sleep 20 hours a day. We have no idea what drives the difference in sleep requirements for them, so we don't have a good theory to predict how human sleep requirements might change in a scenario where we evolved to cope with longer or shorter days. | [
"Human sleep needs vary by age and amongst individuals; sleep is considered to be adequate when there is no daytime sleepiness or dysfunction. Moreover, self-reported sleep duration is only moderately correlated with actual sleep time as measured by actigraphy, and those affected with sleep state misperception may ... |
Prior to their presidency, have any Presidents of the United States ever been cited, arrested, or gone to jail? | Washington, Jefferson and Adams were tried and convicted of treason in absentia by the British.
Andrew Jackson was imprisoned by the British during the revolutionary war. He also publicly killed a man in an illegal duel, though he was never charged.
While president, Grant was cited 3 times and then arrested in a 4th occasion for speeding.
Franklin Pierce was arrested while president for trampling an old lady with his horse.
Bush jr had a dui arrest prior to his presidency. | [
"William Henry West (September 1842 – September 6, 1915) was an American soldier and police officer in Washington, DC said to have arrested United States President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872. This is the only known record of a sitting US President being arrested.\n",
"The last time Congress arrested and detained a ... |
Do the the planets in the solar system have any effect on the planets near them (gravitational pull for example)? If any of the planets were destroyed somehow, would that have consequences for the rest of the solar system? | A little bit. Measurable but not with consequence for e.g. someone just looking into the sky. The [perihelion precession of Mercury](_URL_0_) is a famous test of general relativity, but 90% of it actually comes from the gravitational influence of other planets - the question was just where the remaining 10% come from.
Without Jupiter a few asteroids would lose their (now) stable orbits and could impact other planets over time. On the other hand: Some orbits would get more stable... | [
"The incremental effect of gravitational perturbations between the planets causes the inner Solar System as a whole to behave chaotically over long time periods. This does not significantly affect the stability of the Solar System over intervals of a few million years or less, but over billions of years the orbits ... |
What is the distance to the horizon from the ISS? | Using the minimum altitude of the ISS, 330 km AMSL, and the radius of the Earth, 6,371 km, it can be worked out with simple geometry. The distance using these variables is about **2230 km**. The upper limit on the distance is about **2570 km**, corresponding to an altitude of 435 km.
Edit: and as /u/DeskFlyer points out, he has some help of a really big telephoto zoom lens (Nikkor 600 mm) with a 2X teleconverter, for an effective focal length as high as 1200 mm. | [
"The range starts at the launch pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and John F. Kennedy Space Center and extends eastward over the Atlantic Ocean to 90 degrees East longitude in the Indian Ocean, where it meets the Western Range.\n",
"BULLET::::- Major Robert M. White (USAF) piloted a North American X-15 to ... |
Is there any plant in the world that can induce a miscarriage? | There certainly are plants that have been used as abortifacients. The real issue is balancing abortive intent with full-on toxicity and potential for harm to the pregnant woman. These are extremely difficult to study in a controlled fashion as well, seeing as most "wisdom" comes from cultural knowledge in the pre-pharmaceutical era, predating clinical trials, and are generally done under a veil of secrecy rather than recorded (whether successful or not). A modern plant-based clinical trial is unlikely too, given the importance of timing, concerns for maternal safety, effective dose (which is challenging to control in a plant, rather than pill due to inherent natural variation in biology), and the requirements for understanding mechanistic specificity of the "drug" before a trial will be approved.
I found [a retrospective study from a Poison Center in Montevideo which describes 86 cases of attempted abortion by plant/herbal infusions](_URL_2_), with 23 ending in abortion (26%); 15 of those attributable to the plant alone (17% of total). Obviously this is confounded by multiple factors including different plants, different fetal ages, and overall highly *not* recommended as many of these women suffered severe consequences (including multiple organ failure and death). But, I guess it does demonstrate that some plants will lead to miscarriage above chance.
There's also evidence for spontaneous abortion in non-human species after ingestion of certain plants, including [Ponderosa pine needles in cattle](_URL_1_), and [locoweed or broomweed ingestion in goats](_URL_0_), etc., but it's difficult to know if that applies to humans, and often these are low-grade poisoning leading to fetal loss as well (not a "neat" miscarriage induction). | [
"Miscarriage occurs in all animals that experience pregnancy, though in such contexts it is more commonly referred to as a \"spontaneous abortion\" (the two terms are synonymous). There are a variety of known risk factors in non-human animals. For example, in sheep, miscarriage may be caused by crowding through doo... |
Is how the bible is written now how books / text was written in that time? | Something that you should take into account is that the Bible contains many different forms of literature. Some of the Books contain prose narrative (Exodus or the Gospels for example) where others are poetry or songs (the Psalms) and therefore follow the style of those genres. Other books like Chronicles, Numbers, or Kings are probably analysitic style histories which are some mix of the formal history writing of the day with the editorial comments from the authors. Finally, the New Testament has a lot of letters from early church leaders explaining religious practice, doctrine etc. to followers. Examination of each part of the Bible can situate them in the context of the time in which they were written, which as a believer myself is something that many modern Christians too often forget but i digress. An example is the styles which the gospels are written in reflect the education and audience of the particular authors. (John, writing to Greeks, is clearly familiar with Platonic philosophy for example) In any case, the modern division into verse and chapter is something that is a product of the need for a reference system. Modern chapter decisions were made by cardinal Stephen Langton in 1205 and the division into verses was made in the mid 1500s. I hope this helps answer your question, or if iv missed the point let me know and I can give it another shot. | [
"The books that constitute the Hebrew Bible developed over roughly a millennium. The oldest texts seem to come from the eleventh or tenth centuries BCE, whilst most of the other texts are somewhat later. They are edited works, being collections of various sources intricately and carefully woven together.\n",
"The... |
A hypothetical question | Throwing a toaster into the ocean would short circuit the toaster, allowing current to flow from the hot wire to neutral or ground. Since electricity will travel along the path of least resistance, its unlikely that a person would be harmed by this. | [
"Hypotheticals are possible situations, statements or questions about something imaginary rather than something real. Hypotheticals deal with the concept of \"what if?\"'. Grammatically, the term is a noun formed from an adjective, and the word might be pluralized because it refers to the \"members\" of a \"class\"... |
What causes molecules/ atoms to be in constant motion? | Being above zero degrees kelvin. You can think of temperature as being an average of the kinetic energy of the molecules in a substance. As you probably already know, the more energy/heat you add to something the higher the temperature. If a molecule were lowered to zero degrees kelvin, theoretically, it would stop moving | [
"Since the motions of the atoms in a molecule are determined by quantum mechanics, one must define \"motion\" in a quantum mechanical way. The overall (external) quantum mechanical motions translation and rotation hardly change the geometry of the molecule. (To some extent rotation influences the geometry via Corio... |
i understand "heat" but what creates "coldness"? what makes up the cold waves that i feel when i put my hand near an ice block? | The temperature of the ice block affects the air around it.
It cools the air immediately around it, which makes it more dense, and thus heavier, and it falls to ground. When it does this, it displaces other air.
Meanwhile, more hot air has taken the place of the cold air, which becomes cold and falls.
This creates a very small current of air around the ice block in very small waves. | [
"According to the laws of thermodynamics, all particles of matter are in constant random motion as long as the temperature is above absolute zero. Thus the molecules and atoms which make up the human body are vibrating, colliding, and moving. This motion can be detected as temperature; higher temperatures, which re... |
why/how is a 24 mp full frame camera sensor better than a 26 mp aps-c camera sensor | A "full frame" sensor is the "full" size of a 35mm film frame while APS-C sensors are smaller, originally shrunk to make compact (film) cameras smaller.
Given that the pixel count of the sensors are almost the same, the individual sensor elements (think of them as pixels) themselves have to be bigger in the full frame sensor. This means that you get more light per pixel and thus increased sensitivity (less noise or better performance in low light).
There's no more distortion with cropped sensor cameras as /u/nokvok suggested; the lens projects a circular image on the back of the camera housing. If you put the same lens on a full frame and a cropped sensor camera, the smaller sensor simply sees a smaller portion (in the middle) of the projected image. In fact, you might see MORE distortion with the full frame camera because the edges of the projected image are usually where it shows up the most. | [
"For example, Sony Alpha SLT-A58 has 20.1 megapixels on an APS-C sensor having 6.2 MP/cm since a compact camera like Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX50V has 20.4 megapixels on an 1/2.3\" sensor having 70 MP/cm. The professional camera has a lower PPI than a compact camera, because it has larger photodiodes due to having far ... |
What would be different about our solar system and Earth if we were located in the Eagle nebula or somewhere similar? | > I know that a nebula is a cloud of dust and gas and some are star-forming regions. I was wondering if we could survive as a species in a star-forming nebula
With active star formation comes active star death. In these areas, supernovae and pulsars could be close by, and dust clouds could exist, blocking light rays from the parent star, as the solar system navigates through the nebula. It's bad enough that most planet orbits are unstable (~97%), but to have a potentially habitable planet in one of these regions would cut the chances of evolution being able to take hold. As of right now, the most crucial indicator for evolution would be the presence of water and cyanobacteria (which respire oxygen into the atmosphere).
Here on Earth, cyanobacteria took hold in the oceans and began producing a very oxygen-rich atmosphere (comparatively speaking, in reference to before cyanobacteria existed), creating banded-iron formations (as iron began to precipitate out of the oceans, depositing as banded layers of iron and iron oxides).
To go from Earth's formation to this stage, took roughly 2 billion years. Without ideal conditions, such as that likely experienced in an area with active star formation, this process may take longer, as nearby supernovae can occur, continuously (over geologic time) blasting the existing atmosphere away and baking the surface with whatever radiation that particular supernova emits.
As for the dust, there are some findings that suggest our solar system could move into one of the Milky Way's small dust bands, which could in-turn dim the Sun for a couple hundred thousand years. | [
"South of the Eagle Nebula on the border with Sagittarius is the eclipsing binary W Serpentis, whose primary is a white giant that is interacting with the secondary. The system has been found to contain an accretion disk, and was one of the first discovered Serpentids, which are eclipsing binaries containing except... |
What happens when opposite magnetic poles meet? | If you look at the magnetic force between the magnet and one of the iron filings, it will in general have a component in the radial direction, but it scales like 1/(distance)^(4). So it's very weak unless the dipoles are very close to each other. | [
"If a magnetic dipole is formed by taking a \"north pole\" and a \"south pole\", bringing them closer and closer together but keeping the product of magnetic pole-charge and distance constant, the limiting field is\n",
"If a magnetic dipole is formed by taking a \"north pole\" and a \"south pole\", bringing them ... |
Are there any easily-understood evidences for macroevolution that even the strongest detractors could understand? | One of the common and often purposefully repeated misconceptions you'll get is a differentiation between macro and micro evolution, there isn't a difference here except the length of time involved. The processes are exactly the same between a bacteria becoming drug resistant and the split between Humans and other primates. That deniers may say agree with micro-evolution under the guise of _variation_ but that macro (speciation) doesn't happen. Which is a safer thing to claim I'll admit because for a very long time it's been hard to directly show due to the time required. That said we [have seen speciation](_URL_0_) and so those people can now fuck right off. | [
"There are many problems of overdetermination. First, overdetermination is problematic in particular from the viewpoint of a standard counterfactual understanding of causation, according to which an event is the cause of another event if and only if the latter would not have occurred, had the former not occurred. I... |
why is there no warning light for when your headlights or breaklights are no longer functioning? | In some newer car models, if your indicator is clicking faster than usual, you have a bulb out. Not really an answer to your question but a small tip. | [
"In some instances the stoplight traffic detector will not change the light for small vehicles such as motorcycles, scooters and particularly bicycles, because the induction loop sensor fails to detect the small vehicle. A vehicle with sufficient mass of metal such as steel interacts with the sensor's magnetic fiel... |
what exactly is happening in your muscles as you get older and sudden vigorous activity makes you much more sore the following day, and the soreness lasts longer. | Muscles are tissues. They rip and get repaired. Your cells could only replicate so many times before the process becomes less effective. (Aging)
As for being sore, the lactic acid your muscles are not being cleared out fast enough as it used to. As you grow older, these processes to regenerate and to repair get slower.
| [
"Delayed onset muscle soreness is pain or discomfort that may be felt one to three days after exercising and generally subsides two to three days later. Once thought to be caused by lactic acid build-up, a more recent theory is that it is caused by tiny tears in the muscle fibers caused by eccentric contraction, or... |
the point of high fashion | Short answer ? It's art.
What's the point in making sculptures, or painting ? It's pretty, and it's a way to express yourself. Some express with clothes. | [
"Fashion may be used to promote a cause, such as to promote healthy behavior, to raise money for a cancer cure, or to raise money for local charities such as the Juvenile Protective Association or a children's hospice.\n",
"In the eyes of Simmel, fashion is a form of social relationship that allows those who wish... |
How historically accurate is the film 300? | In its essence, *300* is a retelling of Herodotos' account of the battle of Thermopylai (480 BC), meaning that its basic narrative is as historically accurate as we could hope for. However, there are at least 3 layers of historical inaccuracy piled on top of that, which makes the result ever so slightly less reliable.
The first layer is what scholars have long referred to as the "Spartan mirage". Much of what we think we know about the Spartans derives from later traditions glorifying their way of life and their achievements, and pigeonholing them as extreme examples of hard militaristic manliness and stoic heroism. A lot of that is notably absent from Herodotos, who does not seem to describe their society as being all that different from other Greek city-states. Modern scholars now recognise that a lot of what makes Sparta recognisably "Spartan" to us was first introduced at most a few generations before the Persian Wars, with supposedly ancestral elements continually being added all the way through the Classical period and after. Many other things we like to think of as typically Spartan never actually characterised their community at all. The Spartans who fought at Thermopylai would probably not recognise themselves in the half-naked, shouty testosterone engines of *300* (and they would presumably be even more alienated by the USMC-inspired habits that Frank Miller gave them in the graphic novel). They went into battle fully dressed, well groomed, untrained, and accompanied by their helot serfs.
While *300* retains some anecdotes lifted straight out of Herodotos (like the famous line about arrows blotting out the sun, and the point you noted about kicking emissaries into wells), a lot of other lines actually derive from later sources. Here's a familiar one:
> The allies said they had no wish to be dragged this way and that to destruction every year, they themselves so many, and the Lakedaimonians, whom they followed, so few. It was at this time, we are told, that Agesilaos, wishing to refute their argument from numbers, devised the following scheme. He ordered all the allies to sit down by themselves, and the Lakedaimonians apart by themselves. Then his herald called upon the potters to stand up first, and after them the smiths, next, the carpenters, and the builders, and so on through all the handicrafts. In response, almost all the allies rose up, but not a man of the Lakedaimonians; for they were forbidden to learn or practise a manual art. Then Agesilaos said with a laugh: "You see, men, how many more soldiers than you we are sending out."
-- Plutarch, *Life of Agesilaos* 26.4-5
The story features Agesilaos, not Leonidas; it is set more than a century after Thermopylai. Moreover, it is first recorded by Plutarch, over 600 years after Thermopylai. Note also the conspicuous absence of the boastful "arooh! arooh! arooh!" used in the movie; again, the Spartans were never anything like Marines.
Bits like the famous line about the shield ("come home with it or on it") and the line about dining in hell (actually Hades) are also from Plutarch, along with most of the opening narration about the Spartan upbringing.^1 Meanwhile, the line used in the movie about the Persian infantry ("those behind cried 'forward', and those before cried 'back!'") actually comes from a 19th century British poem about the legend of Horatius. The result of all this "inspiration" is a smattering of actual historical details about the Thermopylai campaign mixed together indiscriminately with accurate-but-anachronistic bits of later material, Spartan mythmaking about themselves, and modern mythmaking about Spartans (and others).
The second layer is the fact that it's a fantastical epic movie presented as the tall tale of the battle's sole survivor.^2 Zack Snyder obviously went overboard in presenting the enemy as a monstrous horde, with naphtha throwers, mutant concubines, deformed warriors, outsized war elephants, and war rhinos, all commanded by a nine-foot God King.^3 He also almost entirely left out the presence of nearly 7,000 other Greeks, who took turns defending the pass. He openly admitted to changing parts of the Greek and Persian equipment to suit what would look better on film. This is why the Greek shields are all-metal (rather than wood with a thin bronze covering), and why the shield's double grip is not accurately placed.
He also included an absolutely ludicrous representation of the hoplite phalanx, where men crouch and push and trample; the crouching is complete nonsense, the pushing is controversial, and the Spartans may not even have adopted the phalanx formation yet at this time. The wild loose melee that a lot of people ridicule is actually *more* like the combat Herodotos describes at Thermopylai:
> The Lakedaimonians fought memorably, showing themselves skilled fighters amidst unskilled on many occasions, as when they would turn their backs and feign flight. The barbarians would see them fleeing and give chase with shouting and noise, but when the Lakedaimonians were overtaken, they would turn to face the barbarians and overthrow innumerable Persians.
-- Hdt. 7.211.3
But of course, Snyder had to present a suitable spectacle, and so we even get a scene where Leonidas tells the deformed Ephialtes^4 he is not tall enough to fight in the movie's imaginary form of the phalanx that the Spartans didn't actually use at the time.
This is also why the Persian Immortals are represented as *actually immortal* ninja warriors who dual-wield short swords. None of this has anything to do with historical reality. The Immortals are described by Herodotos as prominent Persian men, armoured in scale cuirasses and carrying bows, spears and tower shields.
The third layer is the dark, troubling introduction of modern Western neoconservative ideology. Frank Miller warps the story of Thermopylai into a tale of the noble, strong, beautiful, rational, freedom-loving West standing firm against the dark, corrupt, weak, despotic, irrational, ugly East. That this has no bearing on ancient reality should go without saying. The Greeks were if anything by far the less developed civilisation; democracy was only a few decades old, and the Spartans would never adopt it; and in any case, the dichotomy between Greek freedom and Persian tyranny is a nonsense. The Persians allowed the Ionians to keep their democracies when they reconquered the area in 494 BC. They also served as a conduit to teach the Greeks most of what the ancient peoples of their empire knew about science and philosophy. Herodotos himself offers a far more balanced picture of the conflict, in which the Greeks are roundly accused of ruining themselves with their constant in-fighting, and in which the Persians are greatly admired for their achievements in logistics and engineering, as well as the wisdom of its rulers before Xerxes.
The result is deeply inaccurate in everything from the equipment used (what the hell *is* that sword Leonidas is wielding? It looks most like a [yataghan](_URL_0_)) to the morality of the story being told. It's more that there are a few almost-accidental glimmerings of the underlying true story than that there is an accurate version of history here with just some touches of aristic license.
*Notes*
1) In the movie, Leonidas is made to go through the *agoge* and the *krypteia*. Neither system is actually attested when Leonidas was a boy, c.530 BC; moreover, royal heirs were normally exempt from the Spartan upbringing, since there was no point in teaching a future king how to be an Equal. As it happens, however, Leonidas (and later Agesilaos II) *was* raised like a regular citizen, because he was only third in line to the throne when he was born.
2) Contrary to what the movie tells you, the survivor Aristodemos was not wounded but suffered an eye infection. He was not respected as the one who told the story, but disgraced and cast out as a coward for surviving where all the other Spartiates died. He went berserk at the battle of Plataia in 479 BC to redeem himself, charging at the enemy lines and getting himself killed. Even then, the Spartans refused to give him honours, saying that while he had proven he was not a coward, he had not acted with discipline like a proper Spartan should.
3) The Persians never deified their kings. I do not know why it was decided to refer to Xerxes as the God-King in *300*. He was known to the Greeks simply as "the king" or "the Great King" - it was clear from the context who was being indicated.
4) In the story, Ephialtes is the son of a Spartiate, but hidden by his parents because of his deformity. The notion of Spartan eugenics again derives from Plutarch; there is no hint of it in the Classical evidence (other than manipulation of Spartan "breeding" as outlined by Xenophon). Meanwhile, in Herodotos' account, Ephialtes was an inhabitant of the region of Thermopylai, not a Spartan at all.
Edit: fixed the note about Leonidas' upbringing upon being schooled by u/ZenosAss | [
"The director of \"300\", Zack Snyder, stated in an MTV interview that \"the events are 90 percent accurate. It's just in the visualization that it's crazy… I've shown this movie to world-class historians who have said it's amazing. They can't believe it's as accurate as it is.\" Nevertheless, he also said the film... |
how do radar and sonar work? | Think of spitting down a hole. The longer it takes to hear the splat the deeper the hole is. Sonar is an advanced use of this method, it sends out sound wave and waits to hear them "hit" something. Then it calculates how far the object is by how long it took to hear the sound. | [
"Radar is a radiolocation method used to locate and track aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, ships, vehicles, and also to map weather patterns and terrain. A radar set consists of a transmitter and receiver. The transmitter emits a narrow beam of radio waves which is swept around the surrounding space. When the beam s... |
how do snipers make kill shots over 2 miles away? hiw do they correct for all the variables that come into play with a shot that long? | An incredible amount of training, a shitload of experience, and not a small amount of luck, in some cases.
At that distance, there are so many variables to take into account that they make computer programs to help get the math right. If you look really closely at the movie *Shooter*, in the scene in the beginning where Mark Wahlberg shoots at a can of soup, he has such a computer next to him to help him aim.
If you really want to learn more about it, several military snipers have written books that speak on their training. *American Sniper*, of course, by Chris Kyle, but you can also read *Shooter* (no connection to the movie) by a Marine sniper named Jack Coughlin, or *The Red Circle* by Brandon Webb, who ran the Navy SEAL Sniper School when Chris Kyle and Marcus Luttrell went through. | [
"The modern method of long-distance sniping (shots over ) requires intense training and practice. A sniper must have the ability to accurately estimate the various factors that influence a bullet's trajectory and point of impact, such as the shooter's distance from the target, wind direction, wind speed, air densit... |
networking: what it is, how to do it, and how to use it. | Keep in mind that many, many people get their jobs or find out about job opportunities from friends, acquaintances and co-workers (rather than things like job postings). One of the goals of networking is to ensure that when someone hears about a job opportunity that might be good for you, they think of you and act upon that thought either by recommending you or letting you know about the job opening.
I'm a professional now working in Silicon Valley. I'd say that of the different jobs I've had in my career (around nine), two-thirds were ones I found out about because someone I knew told me.
Ideally, everyone on Earth should know what a great person you are, what your skills are, what your interests are, what your career goals are, etc. That's of course unrealistic. But the more people who know you, form a positive impression, understand what kinds of thinks you can do and like to do, etc. the better off you are.
It turns out, over time you'll meet and work with a lot of people. But most of them won't think of you when they hear about a job opportunity...it will have been too long ago for them to think of you, or they don't realize that you can now do that kind of stuff, etc.
So you want to make them remember you. You can do this by keeping in touch with them, and by helping them in a similar manner. Yep, it works both ways. In fact, one of the absolute **best** ways to make people think of you is to help by letting them know about new jobs or recommending them to hiring managers. They'll not only remember you, they'll feel at least slightly indebted to you, even if they don't get the job.
But even if you can't help other people find jobs, keep up with them. Send them occasional emails and ask how they are doing. With people you've worked closer with, get together once and a while for a meal or drinks, or call them on the phone and chat a bit. Even people you know slightly from a job you held years and years ago merit an occasional ping....how's the family, gee I'm sorry your team lost in the tournament, whatever. Make sure that they remember you. And if you see a chance to pass their name along for a job, or send them info about an opportunity, seize it. It's a nice thing to do, and it is an investment in your future.
Don't recommend people for jobs that you are sure they would suck at. And personally, I would not try to network with people that I think are jerks. I don't want people to associate me with a jerk, even if there's a possibility that they could help my career. I believe that the negatives outweigh the positives, but others might disagree.
I've focused on the job-finding aspect of networking, but it has lots of other uses too. I have a network of people I go to when I encounter a problem I don't easily know how to solve. Of course, they use me as a similar resource. And you can extend the concept of networking to your social life. The more people who know you and have a positive impression AND remember you, the better chance you have of being invited to parties, being introduced to potential partners, etc. And sometimes personal and professional networks bleed into one another. | [
"Networking is a socioeconomic business activity by which businesspeople and entrepreneurs meet to form business relationships and to recognize, create, or act upon business opportunities, share information and seek potential partners for ventures.\n",
"BULLET::::- Networking is a term that defines the transforma... |
What is the slowest recorded speed of sound? | The more loose the gas is, the slower the speed at which sound travels in it. What this means is that as the gas loosens, the speed will gradually decrease until the vibrations in the gas will cease to match our definition of sound (i.e. oscillations of pressure in matter sufficiently strong to be heard).
While this didn't directly answer your question, it does give you an idea of the lowest speed possibly recordable. | [
"The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elastic medium. At , the speed of sound in air is about , or a kilometre in or a mile in . It depends strongly on temperature, but also varies by several metres per second, depending on which gases exist in the m... |
why do preachers talk the way they do? | It likely comes from the days before microphones. Short sentences, projected voice, and this instilled a style of speaking which has continued due to the organic nature of it. | [
"Open-air preachers throughout history have often noted that preaching to large crowds often causes preachers to be abused in certain ways, typically by having objects thrown at them such as rotting vegetables or unsanitary liquids of many varieties.\n",
"A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on... |
why can't scientists send an empty, satellite controlled submarine with cameras into the bermuda triangle and discover it's mystery? also, how far are we from discovering it's secrets? | There is no mystery to the Bermuda Triangle. It has virtually average rates of ship disappearances and plane crashes as any other populated region. The idea that things magically vanish there is a myth. | [
"The vessel has been described as a \"spy submarine\" that could possibly be used to tap into or sever underwater telecommunications cables. Russia has released little information about it officially and there are few photographs of it; the clearest is believed to have been taken inadvertently during a \"Top Gear R... |
how do sheep herding dogs, know how to herd? | Instincts. A pack of wolves will know that a tight group is better to catch than a loose group. | [
"A sheepdog trial (also herding event, stock dog trial or simply dog trial) is a competitive dog sport in which herding dogs move sheep around a field, fences, gates, or enclosures as directed by their handlers. Such events are particularly associated with hill farming areas, where sheep range widely on largely unf... |
How do we know there's a Baryon asymmetry? | The only observed ways that matter is created is when an antimatter-matter pair of particles is created from energetic bosons. This process will never make more of one of the types of matter. Statistics has nothing to do with it in this process.
Since we know that there is more matter than antimatter, there must be some other process by which this apparent asymmetry came to be. Thus we have a baryon asymmetry problem.
An interesting note: ~~if you take the Dirac equation and you calculate the "probability" of finding a particle or an anti-particle, when you approach the non-relativistic limit, the "probability" of finding an anti-particle goes to zero.~~
Edit: My previous statement was a slight misinterpretation. In the non-relativistic limit of the Dirac Equation,one of the two component spinors ~~representing Antimatter~~ solutions is significantly smaller than the other spinor. That's the most technically correct statement. The derivation can be found in the quantum mechanics book by Bjorken and Drell.
Edit 2: upon further review, that problem above doesn't really have anything to do with the prevalence of antimatter. Although it is still an interesting problem none the less.
| [
"Charmed baryons are formed in high-energy particle collisions, such as those produced by particle accelerators. The general method to find them is to detect their decay products, identify what particles they are, and measure their momenta. If all the decay products are found and measured correctly, then the mass o... |
How were the modern provinces of South Africa chosen? | The [Commission on the Demarcation/Delimitation of States, Provinces and Regions collected a lot of information in 1993](_URL_0_) in its purview of trying to create viable, internally consistent, and functional governments. They collected a huge amount of information on who lived where, which cities were primate in certain locales, transport, GDP, and so forth. One was never going to escape the "Gauteng is wealthy as all get out" phenomenon but in terms of breaking up the Transvaal---which was honestly the single most notable development--it was important to rebuild the provinces in a way that would integrate the former homelands without a sense of losing voices or opportunity in a new South Africa. They solicited a lot of proposals, and received many more--some from very technical sources that just looked at metrics and didn't think about politics, and others from very self-interested groups including the various Volkstaat proponents who wanted to carve out a primarily Afrikaans demense and had the right to investigate this under the terms of the interim constitution. The Commission reported back as you can see the PDF (esp. map on p3), recommending nine primary divisions, which was largely followed. They would suggest lower-level regional and local authorities as well later on. There is a "Further Report" that is not there at Wits but may be available elsewhere.
I'll have to look more closely to see about any dissent from the recommendations of the Commission once the measure required approval. But the boundaries are quite close to what became written into law in the 1994 Constitution, under Schedule 1A.
[edit: I assume this is what you mean by "modern provinces," not the 1910 iteration, which is a lot easier but lengthier to discuss.]
| [
"This article lists the administrators of former South African provinces. It encompasses the period from 1910 to 1994, when South Africa was divided into four provinces: Cape Province, Natal Province, Orange Free State Province and Transvaal Province. Before the provinces were created, the area was divided into fou... |
in the us, how is flag burning legal when it's clearly stated against the law? | Flag burning is protected first amendment speech. The supreme court case Texas v Johnson stated that any laws prohibiting flag burning are unconstitutional. | [
"This proposed amendment was intended to give Congress the right to enact statutes criminalizing the burning or other desecration of the United States flag in a public protest. Proponents of legislation to proscribe flag burning argue that burning the flag is a very offensive gesture that deserves to be outlawed. O... |
how is it possible for someone to survive riding in the wheel well of a jet at 36,000 feet for several hours? | Like most of the stories going, he entered a staye of hibernation. This is possible. Ive heard stories of people being trapped underwater in subfreezing temps but what happens is the body keeps only the vitals alive. Ive heard of this with infants who fall into pools occasionally they survive with no damage. I wouldnt test this though. | [
"Such an accomplishment can be grueling and physically exhausting. It calls for a driver to race for over seven hours in two entirely different disciplines of racing cars. Along with a 430-mile airplane flight and severe time constraints, the driver has time for only a brief rest aboard the aircraft where they norm... |
How does a stomach bug function and what effect does the virus itself have on the human body? | Viruses need a host, but viruses also need to spread. Most digestive viruses only have a few days before they either kill you, or your immune system wipes out the virus. So they need to spend those few days engineering a way to get copies of themselves back outside of you.
In the case of the most common digestive viruses, like norovirus and rotavirus, "vomiting" is how the virus has evolved to get out. By the time you're vomiting, the virus has already become well-established in you, made billions of copies of itself, and is ready to spread its wings and fly.
Norovirus infections specifically will actually ensure that you have plenty of material to vomit out, by chemically signalling your enteric ("digestive") nervous system to [slow the passage of food from stomach to duodenum](_URL_1_). This causes a backlog of stomach contents and ensures more thorough delivery of the virus payload.
Once the stomach is loaded up with viruses and vomit material, norovirus or rotavirus infections [trick your enterochromatic cells](_URL_0_) (cells which communicate chemical information about the gut to the neurons in your gut and brain) into telling your nervous system that it's time to vomit. The vomiting then sends billions of new norovirus out into the wild.
So while vomiting is one of your body's defenses against poisoning, vomiting from gastrointestinal disease is often the virus *hijacking* your vomit reflex as a way to spread themselves to new hosts. (These viruses also use diarrhea to spread, but via an entirely different mechanism). | [
"Many stomach diseases are associated with infection. Historically, it was widely believed that the highly acidic environment of the stomach would keep the stomach immune from infection. However, a large number of studies have indicated that most cases of stomach ulcers, gastritis, and stomach cancer are caused by ... |
why are modern depictions of the future often dystopic, compared to the bright and positive predictions in the past? | Science Fiction is less of a prediction mechanism and more of a window into what people are currently thinking. In early sci-fi, the goal was to exploit a possible future where people became better as individuals and as a species. Currently, sci-fi represents a general pessimism about the human condition.
Not everything is that way of course, and there are a few upbeat stories about people in science fiction (see: the new Arrival movie). | [
"In the Presentism Section, Gilbert addresses the second major shortcoming of imagination which is that it is biased toward the present. People project their current circumstance and values onto the future, but the future is often different enough from the present as to make such projections misleading. One phenome... |
What are good books on the history of the exploration of the Antarctic? | So, while this not strictly a specific answer to your question, a good place to look for stuff like this (imo) is the [*Isis Bibliography of the History of Science*](_URL_0_), which has been made into a database for public use! Luckily for you, last year a anthology of scientific writing on the Antarctic was put together by Rebecca Priestley, *Dispatches from Continent Seven: An Anthology of Antarctic Science*, which can give you a perspective from the primary sources of Antarctic exploration 1774--2015. Just browsing the Bibliography, you can see there are books about the Antarctic as political geography, there's David Day's *Antarctica: A Biography*, and much more...
I offer the *Isis Bibliography*, a bibliography for historians of science, in no small part because there is a 2014 article by Vanessa Heggie, "Why Isn’t Exploration a Science?" (*Isis* 105:318--334) that (for me when I read it) challenged me to think about the nature of exploration as knowledge-making. Which may very well be a kind of esoteric historian's concern, but I think is also something worth considering for anyone who's interested in the nuts and bolts of exploration. In Haggie's essay, she talks about the 1911--1913 "Terra Nova" expedition in the Antarctic, which was one-part a Natural History exercise in collecting Penguin eggs and another-part an experiment in dietary science (they had packed their rations in such a fashion to allow them experiment with macro-nutrient requirements). So in a way, the whole work of organizing and conducting an expedition was a kind of natural experiment. More broadly, I think that the way that expeditions and voyages were conducted bore strongly on the kinds of knowledge produced. Which, simply speaking, means that the kinds of things you might be interested in about Antarctic exploration might be found in the work of historians of science. | [
"BULLET::::- Howgego, Raymond John. \"Encyclopedia of exploration, 1850 to 1940: The oceans, islands and polar regions; A comprehensive reference guide to the history and literature of exploration, travel and colonization in the oceans, the islands, New Zealand and the polar regions from 1850 to the early decades o... |
why does my device's light stay on for a second after i turn off the power? | Capacitors, they're an electrical component that effectively act like tiny batteries.
They're usually used to help "smooth" the electric current, so that if it dips for a bit the capacitor can discharge and help bridge the gap. | [
"To indicate that a power outage has occurred, some models of emergency lights can only be shut off manually after they have been activated, even if the main building power has come back on. The system will stay lit until the reset button on the side of the unit is pressed.\n",
"BULLET::::- Sometimes, the display... |
in this age of sophisticated online tracking and surveillance, how are criminals able to transfer money through multiple offshore accounts, and be able to withdraw it, without the trail being followed and their identity discovered? | Most often, by using an account of a business whose owners are secret, and/or in a country where banking privacy laws prohibit revealing who owns an account without a ton of paperwork.
Sometimes, by withdrawing the money in cash, on using it to buy something untraceable, like gold bars. | [
"When assets do go through the financial system, tracing from one account to the next will usually leave an audit trail that can be exploited by financial investigators. As stolen assets are often layered through several different accounts and corporate vehicles, investigators will often benefit from outside inform... |
Please recommend a book about the life in Nazi concentration camps, especially from psychological and sociological perspective | [Survivng Auschwitz](_URL_0_) should be close to what you are looking for. It is written as a memoir by a survivor and details much of his experience, day to day life, his thoughts, the culture of the camp, and the different mentalities of the prisoners.
[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich](_URL_1_) is set in the Soviet Gulags, but is of a very similar vein. | [
"According to Ruth Klueger this book offers a new direction in German literature, that of fiction by a second hand participant in the camps, whether Gulag or Internment or Concentration or Extermination.\n",
"In 1945 he wrote the book \"Men noen kom fra det\" to document his experiences in Nazi concentration camp... |
soap vs rest vs json and why one is better than the other. | OK, first of all they are three slightly different things.
REST describes a method for creating APIs or informational services. A RESTful API or service allows clients to make requests to it in the form "verb object" where "object" is a unique identifier for the thing the client wants action on. Each request is separate and distinct, with neither the client or the server remembering anything about previous requests.
For example, if you're working the desk at the library, and you were a RESTful service, I could come up to you and say "Get /book/id/2412415" and you'd know exactly which book I wanted. Then I could say "Store this book" (while handing you the book you just gave me) and you'd do it. But you would have no idea I just gave you back the book you gave me; you'd just see the book as a new thing. You wouldn't even know it was a book.
The best example of a RESTful service is the World Wide Web itself; indeed, the WWW is and was the prototype for REST. Every page you navigate is a request to a REST service, asking for pages, images and other resources. All web services are RESTful simply by virtue of being on the Web.
SOAP builds on REST by adding some measure of object-oriented smarts to it. SOAP lets you make requests to a web service and package up programmatic objects in the request and response, in a way that will make sure the objects come out the other side in an understandable fashion, no matter what programming language generated the request or response. So if you're working in PHP, and you need to communicate with a web service running C#, SOAP will help make sure your PHP $newBook of type Book, gets properly translated into a C# 'Book newBook' object. To do this, the server tells the client in advance what object types and methods it knows about, using WSDL. Armed with that information, the client can build its own replicas which it will use to interact with the SOAP service.
JSON is a way to serialize JavaScript objects. Typically, if you've got a web page and you want to use AJAX to interact with a web service, you'll use JSON to package your JS objects and send them to the server, and it will send JSON in reply, which your JavaScript app will unpack.
In summary, REST describes a way to build an information service, based on ideas prototyped by the World Wide Web. SOAP is a way for applications written in different languages to talk to each other over a RESTful API (ie. the web) and JSON is a way for your browser (running a JS app) to pack and unpack JS objects for use with a RESTful web service. | [
"Unlike SOAP-based Web services, there is no \"official\" standard for RESTful Web APIs. This is because REST is an architectural style, while SOAP is a protocol. REST is not a standard in itself, but RESTful implementations make use of standards, such as HTTP, URI, JSON, and XML. Many developers also describe thei... |
how are nielsen homes selected for nielsen ratings? if i watch a show and don't have a nielsen box, am i helping that show's ratings at all? | I was a Nielsen family for two years awhile back. There was a doohickey they hooked to my tv and TiVo. I had to press a button very 30ish minutes to prove I was really watching. Plus they paid me money every few months!
As I recall, my house was randomly selected. | [
"Unless otherwise, the main source of Nielsen ratings is the newspaper \"Pittsburgh Post-Gazette\". According to that main source, ratings of 1988-89 were based on 90.4 million households that have at least one television.\n",
"Unless otherwise, the main source of Nielsen ratings is the newspaper \"Pittsburgh Pos... |
I have read that the conflicts of the Hundred Years War put both England and France into very considerable debt, who paid for this? | So your question has several moving parts. Let me answer each one separately.
> How were these wars financed and how was this money used?
Where did the initial funds/resources come from?
These two questions are actually very interlinked, and you're actually asking an incredibly interesting question right now, so thank you for asking.
From the beginning of Christianity to the 11th century (abouts) there were incredible condemnations of usury, to the point where most interest and the payment of such interest was effectively banned. The main reason why the 11th century is highlighted is that European economic activity didn't really recover until this point (past the fall of the Roman Empire) to really support any sort of major lending activity, as an FYI. (Sylla, 68).
As such, people had to find extremely creative ways to get around the rules, and the fact that such bans had to be repeated again and again is pretty effective evidence that pawnshops and other such usurers were not uncommon in the early Medieval Ages, if not tolerated through things like Princely protection (Sylla, 70-71). We have also around the 10th to 13th Centuries an explosion of financial innovation, such as a return in deposit banking and the rise of banks as an institution. The earliest true "modern" banks - whether deposit, investment or the like - all date from about this period. Between the rise of the Italian banks (the first true one being established in 1157), the roaming groups of Italian Christians (usually the Lombrds, especially in the case of England and France) and Jews who served as bankers to all groups of people, and the rich (who were usually taxed excessively and then paid back in full later with interest as a consideration for such treatment, forming a type of psuedo-loan) there were multiple channels through which any ruler could effectively finance their wartime activities.
**Further introductory reading**
Sylla, Richard, *A History of Interest Rates* 4th Ed.
Kindleberger, Charles P. *A Financial History of Western Europe*
Moore, TK. *Credit Finance in the Middle Ages*
(Let me know if you want more history of finance stuff - I have lots, haha)
> How were they paid off in a system where many didn't even earn a wage in any modern sense?
Government borrowers, no matter what time or point in history you're talking about - including today - have several special powers that regular borrowers do not, which include of course the ability to tax their residents, to destroy institutions and raid their money, and finally the ability to change the exchange rate of their currency (this last one is considered a form of crisis or default through debasement). Finally, they have a unique ability to effectively *force* default, in a way where they could re-enter the markets (albeit with some trouble) not too long after (though this is not always the case). All of these, of course, include a whole slew of cost-benefit analyses, since any of these if done inappropriately would cause a huge uproar.
In fact, however, the financial burden on both countries were so great that it caused one of the first financial crises in (modern) banking history, when Edward III of England could no longer pay back his Florentine loans, triggering the first international debt crisis and one of the first modern bank runs. And whereas England was off triggering defaults both domestically and externally, France was debasing its currency left and right, with a handy dose of extraordinary instability in its economy, mostly due to these sorts of wars. The record was probably when they debased the silver content of their coins by 50% in 1303, lmao.
Finally, there was the ability to tax. While you're right - people didn't "earn", per se, as they do in the modern era - there are two main methods of taxation just in general: direct (that is, assessed on the people, with the "people" split between laity and clergy) and indirect (taxes on goods, services, etc.). Even at the direct level, however, it was mostly communal: people paid taxes as a group per settlement based on rates established by Parliament. For clergy, that was income generated from their office.
Finally, for indirect taxes, it was taxes on products - things like wool, sheep, etc. This was probably the more important of the two sources of taxable income, as most average peasants depended on the sale of products for their livelihood - wages were probably extremely uncommon (Wuetherick, 31), and it was during this similar period that merchant fairs, where large amounts of products were bought and sold, were at its peak. Especially with the rebalancing of exactly who was paying the debt burden, with the government coming up with creative ways of ensuring that some of it was also enforced on foreign merchants (especially through wool export bans or increased wool taxes).
**Further reading**
Wuetherick, Bradley *War, Economy, and Society: The Impact of the One Hundred Years War in Late Medieval England*
Reinhart, Carmen & Kenneth Rogoff *This Time is Different*
_URL_0_
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"Spain had nearly doubled her military spending during the war, from 454 million reales in 1778 to over 700 million in 1779. Spain more easily disposed of her debts unlike her French ally, partially due to the massive increase in silver mining in her American colonies; production increased approximately 600% in Mex... |
how do animals like ants and birds instinctually know how to build their dwellings/homes? | They have inherited the knowledge in their genes, but they learn through trial and error, at least that is what we assume. There's quite a lot we don't know about ourselves and nature, but that's why we keep studying.
They're really fascinating animals. We had a bird in our garden that made a square nest, for no reason, and then he did it again. He lived in our garden, it was quite the sight.
Something to read up on:
^_URL_1_
^_URL_3_ ^(yep ^it's ^the ^Daily ^Fail ^sorry)
^_URL_0_
^_URL_2_ | [
"Complex nests are built by many ant species, but other species are nomadic and do not build permanent structures. Ants may form subterranean nests or build them on trees. These nests may be found in the ground, under stones or logs, inside logs, hollow stems, or even acorns. The materials used for construction inc... |
how inheritances work and why people covet them so much? | How they work: Relatives leave you money in their will and when they die you inherit that money
Why they're coveted: Free money | [
"Hard inheritance states that characteristics of an organism's offspring (passed on through DNA) will not be affected by the actions that the parental organism performs during its lifetime. For example: a medieval blacksmith who uses only his right arm to forge steel will not sire a son with a stronger right arm th... |
Are there different "kinds" of mathematics/physics in the universe? | Values of constants are chosen arbitrarily. For example, one second has the length it has, because we consider it being a typical length in ordinary human-scale processes (for example the interval between heartbeats is about one second) or one meter is a "typical" length (you step at about one meter at a time or your typical height is at most two meters).
If you were to discover aliens that "operate" slower (maybe due to slower metabolism) and are physically larger, they would consider your standard of second too long and meter too short, but physical laws are (should be) scalable, so they should give the same predictions for natural behaviour.
p.s.: even on earth we have many systems of units, and yet you get the correct result whether you use imperial or metric units. | [
"Various fields of physics are crucial to studying the universe. Interdisciplinary studies involve the fields of quantum mechanics, particle physics, plasma physics, condensed matter physics, statistical mechanics, optics, and nuclear physics.\n",
"Physics covers a wide range of phenomena, from elementary particl... |
Are Hydrogen Bonds and Van der Waal's Forces related in anyway? If so, how? | I think the short answer would be: not really. Hydrogen bonds are a particular strong form of dipole-dipole intermolecular interactions. The only real relationship in that both VDWF and HB are intermolecular forces. | [
"Most generally, the hydrogen bond can be viewed as a metric-dependent electrostatic scalar field between two or more intermolecular bonds. This is slightly different from the intramolecular bound states of, for example, covalent or ionic bonds; however, hydrogen bonding is generally still a bound state phenomenon,... |
Do New York City's skyscrapers have any noticeable effects on the city's weather? | Cities affect the local climate. Generally, they are warmer due to materials (concrete, asphalt, etc.) and the lack of evapotranspiration due to lack of vegetation. They are generally less windy (because of tall buildings) and develop street canyons. Due to particulate matter, cities might receive less sunlight; however, particulate matter can serve as condensation nuclei, altering the development of clouds, fog, humidity, and precipitation.
You can search more about Urban Heat Island Effect, as well as albedo.
| [
"Skyscrapers, particularly those in New York, attracted considerable comment, much of it negative. On his return to New York, writer Henry James condemned the buildings in \"The American Scene\" as simply \"giants of the mere market\", \"mercenary monsters\" doomed to be torn down in turn as other, even larger, bui... |
how many vitamins do you really need to stay healthy? | Biochemically, a vitamin is a co-factor for an enzyme in a reaction somewhere in your body. That means they are not consumed by whatever chemical reaction they are helping with. That means you don't technically need a steady supply in your diet so long as you have stores somewhere in your body. The wrinkle in that is that some vitamins are more soluble in fats, and some in water. The fat soluble vitamins (A, E, D, K) are easy to store b/c they just hang out in places like fat cells or the liver. The water soluble vitamins (B1-Binfinity, C) are a bit trickier, since you tend to lose them in your urine.
Since you aren't consuming the vitamins when your body uses them, you only need to replace what you lose daily in your urine and feces. Your body has stores of extra vitamins that it will dip into when you run short in your diet, and replenishes when you get more that enough.
For exactly what amounts of each are recommended, you'd have to check out the USDA or FDA so see what the values are.
see the link: _URL_0_ | [
"As with the minerals discussed above, some vitamins are recognized as essential nutrients, necessary in the diet for good health. (Vitamin D is the exception: it can alternatively be synthesized in the skin, in the presence of UVB radiation.) Certain vitamin-like compounds that are recommended in the diet, such as... |
vacuums, not the machine, the actual process of a vacuum and is the vacuum of space a true vacuum? | A vacuum is simply an area where no 'stuff' (matter) is present. Certain parts of space are vacuums because there is nothing there. No stuff. No matter.
Things do not simply fly out into vacuums like a vacuum cleaner pulls things in. What is happening if you have seen things fly out into space (on a movie perhaps) is that the pressure is compromised and the air rapidly expands into the surroundings. So forcefully, it pulls you and anything else with it. This is because a vacuum has no air pressure by definition, and because of diffusion (things will move from high concentration to low) it is sucked out.
The end of the straw thing works because of the cohesive, and adhesive properties of water, along with the straw being so narrow.
Cohesion - The water molecules stick to each other.
Adhesion - The water molecules stick to the surroundings (to the straw).
By plugging one end, you are creating a 'near vacuum' (still has stuff in it, so isn't true vacuum), and because the water / soda sticks to itself and the sides, and no air pressure to push it out, it sticks.
Hope I helped you out. | [
"Vacuum is space devoid of matter. The word stems from the Latin adjective \"vacuus\" for \"vacant\" or \"void\". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often discuss ideal test results that would occur in a \"perfect\" vacuum, which they ... |
Are Coptic Christians in Egypt descended from Ancient Egyptians or Greco-Romans? Where do they come from? | I can't speak for their genetics, but the Coptic language is a direct descendant of Ancient Egyptian, albeit written in a Greek script. Since the Copts did not originate as an ethnoreligious group but rather morphed into one over time, it's most likely that the Coptic community is descended from early Christians of both ethnic Egyptian and ethnic Greek descent. The only major ancestral distinction between the majority of Egyptians and the Copts would be lesser degree of interbreeding with the Arabians who immigrated following the rise of Islam. | [
"Today, members of the non-Chalcedonian Coptic Orthodox Church constitute the majority of the Egyptian Christian population. Mainly through emigration and partly through European, American, and other missionary work and conversions, the Egyptian Christian community now also includes other Christian denominations su... |
when suicidal, how can we be determined to kill ourselves, but our body does everything it can to stop us? | We can perform many actions voluntarily. Suicide can lead to one overriding any mental barriers which would caused a fear of death in the person, that is, the reason behind the suicide may be so strong that it would not cause a person to feel danger while orchestrating or perpetuating the act itself.
The brain chemistry of a person attempting suicide is not very clear but low levels of [Brain-derived neurotrophic factor](_URL_1_), which functions for higher thinking, long-term memory and learning, have been observed as well as low levels of serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter [believed to be a contributor to happiness](_URL_0_) | [
"While the group was against suicide, they defined \"suicide\" in their own context to mean \"to turn against the Next Level when it is being offered\" and believed their \"human\" bodies were only vessels meant to help them on their journey. Suicide, therefore, would be \"not\" allowing their consciousness to leav... |
Hi, my name is jack, I'm 14 years old, and I love Baseball. I would like to know when a pitcher throws a baseball, how does it curve? | Hi Jack, a baseball can curve for a number of reasons.
For a knuckleball, the ball moves around as it approaches the catcher because it isn't spinning. Spinning helps stabilize the ball, and prevents small turbulent effects from affecting its flightpath. A non-spinning ball isn't perfectly spherical, so as the air comes off the face of the ball, it creates turbulence in the air, and causes the ball to move erratically. You can see an example of vortex shedding here:
_URL_0_
For something like a curve ball, the spin of the ball is what causes it to move in a certain direction. As the ball spins, one side goes in the same direction as the air passing the ball, and the other side goes in the opposite direction of the air passing the ball. The side that moves in the same direction accelerates the air slightly (imagine the surface being rough, and acting to push the air as it goes by). The side going in the opposite direction slows the air slightly. As air accelerates, the pressure drops, and as it slows, the pressure rises (this is how planes fly). The net result is that the ball gets pushed by this pressure difference. With a top spin, you'll see the ball dropping, and with a backspin, you'll see the ball rising (or at least not dropping as quickly). If you apply this to a side spin, it'll cause the ball to curve from left-to-right or right-to-left.
It's worth noting that fluid dynamics is super complicated, but that's a pretty simplified explanation.
EDIT: THANKS FOR THE GOLD! | [
"In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the pitcher is assigne... |
How did religion factor in to Genghis Khan's expansionism? | You might find [this](_URL_0_) thread an interesting read. It's a discussion on the religious tolerance of the Mongols. | [
"BULLET::::- Religion: Mongols were highly tolerant of most religions during the early Mongol Empire, and typically sponsored several at the same time. At the time of Genghis Khan in the 13th century, virtually every religion had found converts, from Buddhism to Christianity and Manicheanism to Islam. To avoid stri... |
why do cpus and gpus perform better when cool | There is no such thing as a zero resistance conductor outside of superconductors. Resistance means the electrons are slowed down as they move through the wire or component, almost like friction, and that generates heat. The more electricity you try to pass through a thing, the more heat is generated. At some point, the temperature will be above the failure point of the component and it will get damaged.
CPUs and GPUs have what is called a *clock speed*. Think of a string of binary code, that might be something like 0101100101. How does the computer know that it's two 1s or two 0s in a row? What if there are three, or four, or five 1s or 0s in a row? How does the computer know when one 1 stops and the next 1 begins? There is a clock that only ever goes 10101010... Each digit is a flip that drives the rest of the chip. The faster that clock goes, the faster everything else goes, too.
But making the clock go faster means pushing more electricity through the chip. If your clock speed is too high, you generate too much heat and your chip is damaged and stops working. Built into your computer are two limiters. One of them is a thermostat that will limit your clock speed when the computer gets too hot. This is called thermal throttling. The other is like a governor on your clock speed that the manufacturer says is the maximum safe clock speed. You can tell the computer to have a higher default clock speed above that preset maximum, but it may not be stable because it will spike the temperatures up faster than it can be reliably throttled down and cause problems.
If you keep your computer cooler with better cooling devices, like bigger, better heat sinks and fans, water cooling blocks, liquid nitrogen, or even liquid helium, you can increase the clock speed that your chip runs at without the chip overheating and becoming damaged or unstable. | [
"However, more recent studies by Google have shown that it's not the heat as much as it's the system utilization (which causes more heat because of inefficient design of CPU's and other IC's) that causes more errors. The cnet.com article cites a paper written by Bianca Schroeder (University of Toronto), Eduardo Pin... |
With today's anniversary of the fall of Saigon, I cant help but ask, what did the U.S. do wrong in Vietnam? | > Was the original premise of U.S. involvement wrong? Primarily that policy makers interpreted a civil war as theater of a wider anti-communist struggle.
Whether or not the original premise of U.S. involvement was wrong is a question which will give you a myriad of answers from historians. In fact, whether or not the US was just or wrong in involving themselves in Vietnam is such a contentious issue in the study of the Vietnam War that one scholar dubbed it "Historians at War" due to the in-fighting and sometimes very harsh words being said about those on the other side of the argument.
There is also an issue of hindsight. Most laymen today would deem it to be a mistake to have gotten involved in the Vietnam War, but it is not always wise to see it out of the perspective of 2015. Instead, it's far better to consider the conflict from the perspective of 1955, 1960 and 1965.
Take the civil war interpretation for example. Popularized through the Academy Award winning documentary *The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara*, in which McNamara, who served as US Secretary of Defense, says that:
"In the case of Vietnam, we didn't know them well enough to empathize. And there was total misunderstanding as a result. They believed that we had simply replaced the French as a colonial power, and we were seeking to subject South and North Vietnam to our colonial interests, which was absolutely absurd. And we, we saw Vietnam as an element of the Cold War. Not what they saw it as: a civil war."
Now, this is *his* interpretation of what happened and shouldn't be completely discounted. However, that does not mean it is entirely right either. McNamara is making very broad claims about the belief of *they* (they who? North Vietnamese? South Vietnamese? The government of North Vietnam? etc.). The North Vietnamese government most certainly saw the US involvement in South Vietnam as a imperialist enterprise and young North Vietnamese conscripts were imbued with the message that they were going to "free your southern brothers from the chains of the imperialists".
The Vietnam War (between '65 and '73) definitely had aspects of a civil war, pitting neighbors against neighbors and parents having to see their children being conscripted into both the ARVN and the VC. However, insurgencies often involve these common aspects and the line between the two can be blurry. It is worth to remember at this moment that we are not speaking about *a* Vietnam, but *two* Vietnam. It wasn't the case of, for example, the American Civil War where a rebellious part of the nation rose up against the government and open warfare occured within months; instead, two separate nations came to be formed from the ashes of French Vietnam run and supported by nations with different ideologies. The chain of events that follow could be interpreted as a civil war, depending on your own approach and interpretation, but also of the invasion of one nation by another. This is also a very debated question amongst scholars. It would be incorrect however to say that *they* all saw it as a civil war when that simply isn't true.
An interesting note is LBJ's official goals and motivations for getting involved in South Vietnam. [I've discussed it here previously.](_URL_1_)
> How did military strategists approach the conlict and what were the principal aspects of its failure (or not as the case may be)
Regarding this, [I have written a large post about it here.](_URL_0_) I am very happy to answer questions about this since this is actually my area of expertise.
> What lessons were learnt by the military and policy makers?
While I will leave the question about policy makers to someone else, I will tackle that of the military.
Those that already had a tradition in counterinsurgency, such as the Special Forces, continued with their doctrines and specializations, but these were not brought on to the rest of the armed forces. They saw it as a really bad memory that had to be suppressed. The US Army genuinely saw conventional warfare as their primary purpose. It was, perhaps, their *preferred* purpose in this case. Just to show you how cynical the US Army was about counterinsurgency, when Colonel Harry Summers published his *On Strategy: a Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War* to the loud acclaimed from Army leadership, he genuinely stated that the US Army's path to defeat in Vietnam was because they were *too focused on counterinsurgency*. Yes, I kid you not. This only enhanced the view that conventional doctrine was the way to go and the conflicts that the US Military had to face after the Vietnam War didn't tell them anything else: Grenada, Panama and the Gulf War where all proof that the chosen conventional strategy was the primary purpose. Regrettably, the US Military was to be proven wrong on this as they entered the 21st century and the conflicts which had defined our modern age. | [
"While the operation itself was a success, the images of the evacuation symbolized the wastefulness and ultimate futility of American involvement in Vietnam. President Ford later called it \"a sad and tragic period in America's history\" but argued that \"you couldn't help but be very proud of those pilots and othe... |
Why doesn't it rain in Mediterranean climates in the summer months around the world? | If you look at a map of [the Mediterranean climates around the world](_URL_0_), you'll see that they share a set of common features:
* They're all located around 30° latitude,
* They're all located on the east side of large oceans.
This is not a coincidence.
Uneven heating of the Earth's surface results in a [global atmospheric circulation](_URL_1_). Specifically, (a) it's warmer at the equator than the poles; (b) land heats up faster than water. Warm air rises. The net result is that air tends to rise up a lot in specific regions of the world, for instance near the equator in East Asia. In areas of rising air, air pressure is lower, and there is typically a lot of thunderstorm activity and rainfall.
What goes up must come down, and much of the air that rises along the equator tends to fall back down around 30° latitude. (Reason for this particular latitude is due to the influence of other players in the global circulation, but I won't get into the details of that.) Where the air falls, air pressure is higher, and the weather tends to be calm and sunny.
This circulation, known as the Hadley cell, manifests itself in a large ridge of high pressure in the subtropical latitudes, on the eastern side of oceans*. It is strongest in the summer and fall, when the air is most prone to rise in the equatorial regions. And so the Mediterranean climates dry out during those seasons.
\* The "eastern" part is because air that moves north in the Hadley circulation is deflected to the right by the Coriolis effect. Because land masses tend to warm more in the summer months, and thus have more rising air, the *opposite* coast receives much of the descending air downstream. | [
"A Mediterranean climate or dry summer climate is characterized by dry summers and mild, wet winters. The climate receives its name from the Mediterranean Basin, where this climate type is most common. Mediterranean climate zones are typically located along the western sides of continents, between roughly 30 and 45... |
In the new Kingdoms that emerged after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, when did the distinction between Barbarian and Roman disappear? | You might be interested by [this](_URL_0_) old post, which, though it is centered on Aquitaine, tries to address the same question for Gaul. I can (try to) answer follow-up questions if you have any. | [
"After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Germanic kingdoms, often referred to as \"barbarian kingdoms\" founded during its collapse continued to grow and prosper. Their beginnings, together with the end of the Western Roman Empire, mark the transition from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages. The practices of... |
"it's the amps which kill you not volts." but, wouldn't amps be always constant for given volt, as r=v/i. (where r of human body is same) | It depends on the power source. Some power sources limit the amount of current that can be drawn independently of the supplied voltage.
For example, many AC-DC adapters will limit the current output to a certain amperage like 1.0 A independent of what the voltage output is. Similarly, some circuit breakers are designed to trip after 15 amps whereas others will permit up to 30 amps of electrical flow. Another example is tasers which supply very high voltages (thousands of volts) but limit the current flow to a very low amperage so the electric shock is non-lethal. | [
"In electric power transmission and distribution, volt-ampere reactive (var) is a unit of measurement of reactive power. Reactive power exists in an AC circuit when the current and voltage are not in phase. The term \"var\" was proposed by the Romanian electrical engineer Constantin Budeanu and introduced in 1930 b... |
hockey lines and a coach's strategy on when to change. | The first line is generally the best and has the superstar players on it. In most cases there are four lines played in a game with the fourth line only being played sometimes.
Usually on the second line there is one good player and the rest are average. The third line has average players; they are basically out there to give the first and second lines a rest.
When there is a power play the superstars come out that are most likely to score. When the team has a penalty, the penalty kill unit comes out which are the best defensive players. These players need to block shots and take a lot of abuse so they normally don't have superstars on the penalty kill.
Fun fact: Brad Richards from my home town is earning 12 million a year and is playing on the third line; a very expensive third liner considering Sydney Crosby makes only 7.5 million and is Pittsburgh's superstar. | [
"The hockey stop allows the skater to change directions quickly, keeping up with play. It takes practice to effectively stop facing both ways, most skaters are stronger stopping one direction over another (i.e. stop right as opposed to left).\n",
"One of the most important strategies for a team is their \"foreche... |
what means if a song gets certified platinum by riaa? | It is an official recognition of the number of units sold.
It means the work has sold a million copies.
There is also gold which marks half a million sales and multi platinum which marks 2 million sales. | [
"From 2004 through July 2006, the certification level was 100,000 downloads for Gold and 200,000 for Platinum. When the RIAA changed the certification standards to match retail distribution in August 2006, all Platinum and Multi-Platinum awards for a digital release were withdrawn. Gold certifications, however, wer... |
Why does the warp of a CD not match its spin? | I'm guessing it's a frame rate effect.
The warp could well be of a high frequency vibration which is at a higher frequency than the frame rate of the camera.
They have in effect under-sampled the event. You need to have a frame rate of at least twice as high as the frequency you are trying to film. | [
"Irregularly shaped, non-rotationally-symmetric discs with an offset center of mass may also cause damaging vibration if played in computer CD drives, which can operate at a much higher rotational velocity than stand-alone audio CD players. Some irregularly shaped discs work with tray loading CD drives if they incl... |
why are all negative temperatures hotter than the planck temperature? | So here's the thing:
Temperature is caused by how much energy atoms have. Atoms like to move, but since they're so small you generally don't see it. The more they move the hotter they are.
If they reach a certain temperature they break atomic bonda and change phase. There are many phases of matter but the four ones you see the most are solids, liquids, gasses (you can see chlorine as a green gas) and plasma (stuff that lightning is made out of).
The higher the temperature, the closer to plasma the atoms are. The lower the temperature the closer to solids they are (generally).
So at colder temperatures, atoms vibrate less, which means it's possible for them to not vibrate at all. The tempreature at which all atoms stop vibrating is called Absolute Zero. On the Celsius scale this is about -273 dregrees and something like -459 degrees Farenheit.
There are, however many ways to measure temperature. One such way is Kelvin. An average day is around 300 degrees Kelvin (or 300K).
So what is 0K? 0K is Absolute Zero.
Now if you fail to comprehend how cold Absolute Zero is, here's an example.
It's literally colder than the average temperature of the Universe. It is literally impossible to get colder.
Therefore if there is a colder temperature it would break the laws of physics and nothing would really matter.
Am I interpreting your question wrong? | [
"Temperature is loosely interpreted as the average kinetic energy of the system's particles. The existence of negative temperature, let alone negative temperature representing \"hotter\" systems than positive temperature, would seem paradoxical in this interpretation. The paradox is resolved by considering the more... |
why do hotter things cool down quicker? | The molecules of the cooling surface transfer heat to the surrounding air molecules by colliding with them. When they collide, energy is transferred - the fast moving molecule (the hot one) slows down (e.g, it gets cooler); and the slow moving molecule (the cool one) speeds up (e.g, it gets hotter)
The greater the difference in their relative speeds, the more energy gets transferred when they collide, which in turn means the faster the cooling occurs.
If you want an analogy, I like to think of them like fast moving and slow moving billiard balls. | [
"Significant physical exertion in hot conditions can generate heat beyond the ability to cool, because, in addition to the heat, humidity of the environment may reduce the efficiency of the body's normal cooling mechanisms. Human heat-loss mechanisms are limited primarily to sweating (which dissipates heat by evapo... |
why do we need e-mails to register an account on another website | In case you forget your password, then they can send an activation code for you in case you request a password reset. Or to sell your information to a third party. | [
"The ability to associate Outlook.com accounts with mobile phones or other email addresses was initially advertised as an optional feature. However, an update in 2013 required many users to associate their accounts before the website would allow them to log in - a refusal which could be sidestepped by using an app,... |
why does tensing your legs help you reach orgasm? | Best ELI5 Answer from the previous thread -
An orgasm is, partly, an uncontrolled muscular spasm. By tensing up your legs, you're tensing up other things, and by other things, I mean your ass, since it's hard not to when you're tensing your thighs.
When you tense up your ass, you also tense up everything in the general pelvic area, including the muscles involved in the orgasm. In this way, you're helping those muscles reach the point of necessary release faster than they would on their own, leading to a quicker pay-off.
It also seems more intense because you're involving more of your muscles in the process, combined with the relaxation of everything once you finish. | [
"Orgasm, or sexual climax, is the sudden discharge of accumulated sexual tension during the sexual response cycle, resulting in rhythmic muscular contractions in the pelvic region characterized by an intense sensation of pleasure. Women commonly find it difficult to experience orgasms during vaginal intercourse. Ma... |
why do house lizards stay stationary for long periods of time? what's going through their head? | Reptiles are cold blooded which means they can't produce their own body heat. In turn, they rely on external heat sources like the sun or a rock heated by the sun, to keep up their body temp. If they start to get cold, they'll become more sluggish and begin looking for a place to warm up.
Like most wild animals, any physical activity costs energy and energy is produced from eating. Eating requires hunting which also requires energy. Naturally, most reptiles will remain somewhat stationary for good periods of time (in a safe spot) to preserve their energy until it's time to hunt and find food or whatever other business they may need to get done. Mainly though, it's just trying to balance between heating, exerting energy and eating. | [
"Slender glass lizards are diurnal, so they are quite often seen, but they can move fast (with a serpentine movement like that of a snake). If captured, a specimen may thrash vigorously, causing part of the tail to fall off in one or more pieces. While a potential predator is distracted by the wiggling tail, the li... |
What was the etiquette for riding horses in cities? | You may want to specify a bit more of what size of "city", and what era. Also what culture (japanese will differ quite a bit from nordic, probably). | [
"Prior to the appearance of the automobile, horses, walking and streetcars were the major modes of transportation within cities. Horses require a large amount of care, and were therefore kept in public facilities that were usually far from residences. The wealthy could afford to keep horses for private use, hence t... |
Does the salt put down on roads affect the salinity of surrounding water courses? | Yes it does. Here is a good explanation.
_URL_0_ | [
"Road salt ends up in fresh-water bodies and could harm aquatic plants and animals by disrupting their osmoregulation ability. The omnipresence of salt poses a problem in any coastal coating application, as trapped salts cause great problems in adhesion. Naval authorities and ship builders monitor the salt concentr... |
Carbon-dioxide is important for tree growth, but how much more important is it than the nutrients in the soil? | So, carbon dioxide is used to create glucose, which the plant uses as an energy source and to create starch, but just like you can't survive on glucose alone, neither can a plant. Plants need those nutrients to build structures that are made up of more than just carbon and oxygen, for example it needs Magnesium to make chlorophyl useful.
In short, every part of plant growth is as important as every other part of plant growth. | [
"Elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide affects plants in a variety of ways. Elevated CO increases crop yields and growth through an increase in photosynthetic rate, and it also decreases water loss as a result of stomatal closing The growth response is greatest in C plants, C plants ,are also enhanced but to a lesser... |
pharmaceutical terminology, purposes/functions, brand names etc. | Brand name drugs are drugs that are produced under a brand name given to the drug by the inventor. Lipitor, Valium, Xanax, etc. are examples of brand names.
When a drug first hits the market, it is protected by patents, so only the inventor can make it. After the patents run out, other manufacturers like Mylan, Aspen Pharma, or Apotex can start making the drug too, and since they don't have any research and development costs, they can typically sell for much cheaper. These are generic drugs (although they often have brand names too, for trade reasons).
In most countries, the pharmaceutical regulator (the FDA, in America) only allows the sale of generics if they are bioequivalent. That means that the active ingredient is the same, and must act the same way in the body, but the filler chemicals that make it a tablet can be different. These fillers are called excipients.
If you go to a pharmacy, the only reason you should get the brand name over a generic is if you are allergic or sensitive to the excipients. | [
"BULLET::::- Specialty Pharmaceuticals products include branded drugs as well as specialty generics and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Products include biologics, medicinal opioids, synthetic controlled substances, and acetominophen.\n",
"Drug nomenclature is the systematic naming of drugs, especially ... |
why do people's eyes get small/ squinty when they smoke weed? | Decreased blood pressure. In the eyes, a dilation of the ocular capillaries occurs, encouraging the blood flow through the eyes and effectively causing red eyes. | [
"Smoker's melanosis is seen with the naked eye as a brown to black pigmentation of the oral tissue i.e. the gums, cheeks or palate as well as in larynx. It is most often seen in the lower labial gingiva of tobacco users. Most easily it is found in Caucasians, due to their lack of a genetically caused melanin pigmen... |
If light is made of alternating electric and magnetic fields, why can neither and electric nor a magnetic field interact with light? | Electric and magnetic fields can only apply a force to charged particles, and as photons have no net charge, they will not be deflected by EM fields.
Electric fields and magnetic fields [obey the superposition principle](_URL_1_) and thus the fields DO add vectorally.
You can create light easier than this. Radio waves are made by oscillating electric charge up and down an [antenna](_URL_0_). This produces the radio wave, which is a form of light. | [
"Since light is an oscillation it is not affected by traveling through static electric or magnetic fields in a linear medium such as a vacuum. However, in nonlinear media, such as some crystals, interactions can occur between light and static electric and magnetic fields — these interactions include the Faraday eff... |
Misconceptions on Historical Warfare | I'm thinking your question will get more attention if you place it in a particular period. "Historical" is a big time period. ;-)
I'm curious about this as well, in particular how communication took place over large distances. I assume using flags and horns.
| [
"These beliefs did not become widely shared because they offered the only accurate interpretation of wartime events. In every respect, the war was much more complicated than they suggest. In recent years, historians have argued persuasively against almost every popular cliché of World War I. It has been pointed out... |
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