question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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What is happening on a microscopic level when I burn my toast? | [The Maillard Reaction](_URL_0_) | [
"The naked eye detects particle sizes greater than 7 µm (micrometres). Visible particles emitted from a fire are referred to as smoke. Invisible particles are generally referred to as gas or fumes. This is best illustrated when toasting bread in a toaster. As the bread heats up, the products of combustion increase ... |
If I weigh X and add Y weight to my body during exercise, do I burn the same calories as a person who weights X+Y? | You will be burning slightly fewer calories. The reason for this is that all body mass needs to burn calories constantly to maintain normal life processes, but if you put on the vest, the vest would not need to burn calories. | [
"A permanent routine of exercise, eating healthily, and, during periods of being overweight, consuming the same number or fewer calories than used will prevent and help fight obesity. A single pound of fat yields approximately 3500 calories of energy (32 000 kJ energy per kilogram of fat), and weight loss is achiev... |
Why is it when I close one eye, the vision in my open one appears to have "Warm" colors, and the other appears to have "Cool" colors? | My photography expertise is usable here!
So see this. When you close an eyelid, the sunlight is filtering trough a blood lined flap of skin. This makes the "warm"(sub 4300kelvin" light look even warmer.
See, our eyes adjust the "white balance" of our surroundings. That's why when you walk into a room lit with compact fluorescent bulbs it all seems green but after a few minutes it looks pure white in the room. Our eyes adjust to the color balance and shift to where grey really actual looks grey with no tinge.
So seeing all this ultra warm light thru your closed eye makes your brain balance the light to with a lot of blue. The blue is apparent when you open your eye and look at a white object.
Your eye that was open, Is perfectly balanced. But when you compare, it seems very warm.
Sources: 5 years of photography and 17 years of staring at the sun. | [
"Warm colors (red, orange, and yellow) are signs of warmness and can increase the temperature in a confined area. These colors are associated with danger, threat, warning, and movement and the way they affect the brain they increase metabolism and heat in the body and put it on alert which from Iranian traditional ... |
Would someone please explain the whole "tiny curled up extra dimensions" thing? | Okay. So. Dimensions. What is a "dimension?" If you go by bad science-fiction B-movies, a "dimension" is a sort of parallel plane of existence, one that intersects but is distinct from our own.
This is absolute, unfettered nonsense, so go ahead and put it out of your mind for now.
What a "dimension" *actually* is is a way of describing the extent of a space. Given a space with *n* dimensions, you can uniquely identify any point in that space using no fewer than *n* numbers. These numbers are called *coordinates.* To identify a spot on a piece of paper, you need just two numbers; a piece of paper represents a two-dimensional surface. To identify a spot on the surface of the Earth, you also only need two numbers: latitude and longitude. So the surface of the Earth can be thought of as two-dimensional. But to uniquely identify a spot *near* the surface of the Earth, you need *three* numbers: latitude, longitude and altitude. So that space is *three-*dimensional.
The universe in which we exist is *four-*dimensional, because you need a minimum of four numbers to uniquely locate a point: three numbers for space, and *one number for time.*
Think of it as the difference between asking somebody to meet you at 313 West 63rd Street on the 9th floor, and asking somebody to meet you at 313 West 63rd Street on the 9th floor *at ten past noon.*
So that's what "dimension" means. The dimensionality of a space is the minimum number of coordinates needed to locate a point in that space.
We're going to change gears for a second now to talk about compact versus non-compact dimensions. I want you to imagine a cylinder, infinite in length but with a finite radius. Okay? Like a pencil, say, only infinitely long. The *surface* of that cylinder is two-dimensional: you only need two numbers to uniquely locate a point on that surface. But the two dimensions of the surface are not exactly the same. One of them is infinite — the dimension that runs along the axis of the cylinder. The other of them, though, is finite. If you go far enough in the circumferential dimension, you'll come back to where you started from.
The axial dimension of the surface of an infinite cylinder is non-compact; it just keeps going and going. The circumferential dimension is compact: eventually it wraps back around onto itself.
There are some speculative theories in physics that imagine that our universe has, in addition to the three dimensions of space and one of time that we all know and love, extra *compact* dimensions. These dimensions are imagined to be incredibly small in spatial extent; in fact, we know they *must* be, because everything we've ever observed in the universe (so far!) can be adequately explained if we assume these extra dimensions do not exist. If they were very large, the laws of physics we use to understand the universe would break down because we weren't taking everything into account. Because the laws of physics we currently use don't break down, we know that these extra dimensions, if they exist, must be extremely, extremely small. Much smaller than the diameter of a proton.
It's possible that, someday, we might observe a phenomenon that cannot be explained by the laws of physics currently at our disposal. It's possible that this phenomenon might only be explained by postulating that one or more extra compact spatial dimensions exist, and then finding ways to test that postulate.
But we're not there yet. Right now, physics works just fine if we assume that no extra compact spatial dimensions exist. | [
"The many-angled ones exist in a space with more dimensions than our own; hence, they appear to be \"many angled\". As a result, when they manifest in our universe they appear as disconnected floating body parts of some larger beast that is complete in the higher dimension (similar to how a three dimensional being ... |
What was going on in China that so many of them migrated to work for the railroads in the U.S.? | The Taiping Rebellion started in 1850. It was fairly bloody, even by Chinese standards. The effects of that rebellion also inspired others to rebel and there were associated problems with flooding and famine. _URL_0_ | [
"Starting with the California Gold Rush in the middle 19th century, the United States—particularly the West Coast states— enlisted large numbers of Chinese migrant laborers. Early Chinese immigrant worked as gold miners, and later on subsequent large labor projects, such as the building of the First Transcontinenta... |
what did it cost to go see an actual mozart opera? | I can't seem to find any really solid sources right now, and all my books are still at school (I'm home from college on break right now), but I have studied music history quite a bit, so I can at least give you an answer to your question, even though I can't really give you further places to look currently. I can also give you [this list](_URL_0_) which is pretty accurate despite being from wikipedia
Basically, Mozart had two separate audiences for his operas. Some operas were performed at palaces and sponsored by the archduke or other royalty. Such performances would have been free for the guests of the archduke, but would have been available only to royalty. Other performances took place at public opera houses, which were a new phenomenon at the time. These new public opera houses offered entertainment to the working class at relatively affordable prices- something akin to the price of a movie today.
Mozart's time is interesting because it is right around the time when music was transitioning from being sponsored by the aristocracy in Europe to being sponsored by the public. Mozart made most of his money through commissions by the aristocracy, as did all composers before him. He was one of the first composers to experiment with composing music for public consumption- that is, not by commission. He would work with public opera houses to put on performances which he would not be guaranteed to make any money from, because revenue was based on ticket sales, not a commission from a duke or some other noble figure.
I hope this begins to answer your question. Basically, if you were already rich, seeing Mozart's music didn't cost anything, because you would be invited to see it at a palace for free. If you were poor, it was about the cost of a movie ticket today, but it would be standing in a room for up to five hours. And no, it didn't include snacks (though I believe those could be purchased or brought to the theatre)
If you add any more specific questions as replies to my comment, I am happy to answer as quickly as I can. I will also work on finding some solid sources so you can verify. | [
"Although the opera greatly raised Mozart's standing with the public as a composer, it did not make him rich: he was paid a flat fee of 100 Imperial ducats (about 450 florins) for his work, and made no profits from the many subsequent performances.\n",
"The Imperial Italian opera company paid Mozart 450 florins f... |
why do ladybugs seem to appear inside every time the temperature drops? | These insects, among quite a few others are doing something called over wintering. I'm short, they are looking for shelter. Homes/buildings are about the best fit for that. So as the temp drops they look for these places to survive. You'll actually end up seeing activity change with temp, sometimes with recurrences!
This is actually a pretty big topic that gets complicated fast. Especially when it comes to helping prevent these pests.
I'm a certified pest control technician.
Edit: you living in a new house has nothing to do with it. You can caulk and seal holes to help reduce activity, and residual pesticide treatments in key areas before the first real good drop in temp can help. | [
"A newly hatched ladybug is bullied by group of flies and attempts to fly away, but the flies chase after it. The ladybug crashs and breaks off a wing. Unable to locate its family, the ladybug shelters in a tin for the night. The tin is full of sugar cubes, part of an abandoned picnic. In the morning, various bugs ... |
why are pretzels shaped like... well, pretzels? where did that shape originate from? | Can't remember specifics but something about nuns creating a shape that looked like children folding arms. | [
"A pretzel () () () is a type of baked bread product made from dough most commonly shaped into a twisted knot. The traditional pretzel shape is a distinctive symmetrical form, with the ends of a long strip of dough intertwined and then twisted back into itself in a certain way (a pretzel loop). In modern times, pre... |
why does software randomly not work or crash at times but is fine after a restart? | Computer programs ALWAYS have bugs, it's the nature of programming as software is usually so complicated with thousands upon thousands of lines of code, some situations weren't thought about or someone just made a mistake when making it. Little bugs often exist that cause programs to become unstable over time, and there isn't anything built into the software to detect that it's unstable and fix the problem on it's own. Restarting the program clears out everything and starts fresh, as it was before it got into that unstable state. As far as restarting your computer, everything on your computer is software, and is included in the above description including your operating system (windows, mac, linux) and your drivers which are software that lets your operating system talk to the hardware and accessories it's working with. | [
"Crash-only software also has benefits for end-users. All too often, applications do not save their data and settings while running, only at the end of their use. For example, word processors usually save settings when they are closed. A crash-only application is designed to save all changed user settings soon afte... |
how is it possible for light to not have reached us from parts of the universe yet? | The limit of Speed of Light only applies to particles moving through spacetime, it does not apply to spacetime itself. Two points in spacetime can be pushed apart by the expansion of the universe faster than the speed of light. The further any two points in spacetime are from each other, the faster they move apart based on the expansion of the universe, so for every point in the universe, there is horizon beyond which all points are moving away from it faster than the speed of light, and no light emitted from those points over the horizon will ever reach the former. | [
"Some parts of the universe are too far away for the light emitted since the Big Bang to have had enough time to reach Earth or its scientific space-based instruments, and so lie outside the observable universe. In the future, light from distant galaxies will have had more time to travel, so additional regions will... |
How do athletes seemingly tear their ACLs so easily during non-contact portions of their respective sports? | The others posting here have done a really good job of explaining so far, but I'll fill in with a little more information.
The ACL is most commonly torn when the knee bends backwards too far, or moves too far to the side. This is easily something you can do yourself, simply by turning sharply, stopping, any number of non-contact movements that create flexion at the knee can result in a torn ACL.
The [wiki](_URL_0_) here is actually surprisingly good in comparison to most orthopedic wiki's. | [
"One sports injury that is becoming prevalent in contact sports, particularly in the sport of American football, is called a \"stinger.\" An athlete can incur this injury in a collision that can cause cervical axial compression, flexion, or extension of nerve roots or terminal branches of the brachial plexus. In a ... |
Why did Mormonism succeed? | Yay, a question where I actually have some level of cursory expertise!
TL;DR at the end. Sorry for typos, didn't proof before submitting.
To begin understanding how Mormonism was allowed to flourish requires a brief understanding of the Protestant melting pot that was 19th-century America. Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism) was born into what was known as the "burned-over district" during the Second Great Awakening, a veritable hotbed of theological and religious development. Other notable religions cropping up from the same area are Seventh-Day Adventists, Disciples of Christ, Millerites, etc. {The Making of a Prophet, Vogel}
Campbellite theology was making its way into popular religious culture and influencing theological discussions with public debates with Campbellite leaders like Alexander and Barton Stone. Young Joseph Smith (1805-44) grew up likely attending local revival meetings.
For a boy of a family of 12 with a vagabond father and no sustainable income or regular education opportunities, you can imagine his eyes bulging as he saw the collection plates passed around these congregations after sermons. A relevant piece of Smith's personality should be noted here; Smith was a charismatic man. Charisma has its benefits and weaknesses. He was polarizing, non-committal, and had a malleable set of beliefs and convictions which could quickly adapt to setting and audience. One can see how such a personality would do well as a magnetic religious leader.
The set of factors which caused Smith to claim he had an ancient record of Native American Jews is a rabbit hole too deep to dive into with this question, but suffice it to say, eventually he claimed to have such a record written on Gold Plates, which he "translated" into The Book of Mormon. {Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, Quinn}
April 6, 1830, the first meeting of the Church of Christ was called in New York; "Joe Smith" had his own church of "Mormonites". Smith also had a bit of a sordid reputation in New York. Eventually, circumstances led to Smith fleeing the state and heading for greener pastures in Kirtland, Ohio. {Rough Stone Rolling, Bushman}
Upon his arrival to Kirtland, Smith teamed up with an ex-Campbellite preacher named Sidney Rigdon. Rigdon was a preacher with multiple congregations and hundreds of parishioners at the time. There were roughly 5-7 families who were adherents to Mormonism in New York, but once Rigdon converted, many of his followers were also baptized into Mormonism, which provided a much-needed lifeline to keeping the young religion alive.
A few notable converts were Newell K. Whitney, Isaac Morley, and John Johnson, quite wealthy people with significant land and business holdings in the area. Smith quickly provided leadership roles for these men to fulfill their need to "serve the Lord," which manifested by them donating large sums of money, as well as various business ventures, to the church. {No Man Knows My History, Brodie}
Concomitant with the rising of Mormonism in Ohio was a concerted effort to settle "on the border with the Lamanites" (Missouri). Missouri was still the wild frontier west in the 1830s and seized land from Native Americans was cheap. Mormonism established a foothold there and eventually the Missouri congregations outnumbered that back at HQ in Kirtland.
Various factors led to Smith's excommunication from the Kirtland congregation. He fled in the middle of the night to escape vigilante justice by his previous parishioners and made it to Missouri.
Missouri in 1838, for Smith, was a place where he could finally put his theocratic motivations into practice. He formed an extra-military group, known as the Danites, to insure the security of the various Mormon settlements, numbering roughly 6-8,000 ppl at the time. After escalating conflict between the Mormons and Missourians, the Mormons raided and pillaged a few nearby settlements and razed them to the ground. Missouri militias responded by massacring the Mormons at a grain mill (Haun's Mill Massacre). Outnumbered and surrounded by multiple state militias, Smith and the Mormons surrendered. They were "exterminated" from the state of Missouri and found refuge in Illinois on the banks of the Mississippi. {The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri, LeSueur}
Nauvoo, Illinois became the new Mormon stronghold. Smith had learned from mistakes in Ohio and Missouri, resulting in his cultivating relationships with prominent politicians in Illinois. The city of Nauvoo was granted their own private militia which eventually outnumbered the militia of nearly any state in the Union at the time.
Brigham Young rose to prominence here. He, and the other apostles, went on a proselytizing mission to Europe in 1839, selling promises of American prosperity to any Englander willing to listen. Young established an immigration fund with a privately chartered ship, costing each European person a mere 4 pounds to immigrate to the Mormon settlement on the Mississippi. This resulted in thousands of converts making their way to the states. {Nauvoo, Kingdom on the Mississppi, Flanders}
Mormonism was a force to be reckoned with.
At the height of his career, Smith ran for POTUS in 1844 and was assassinated while being held in a jail. Nauvoo was roughly 12-20,000 Mormons (estimates are all over the place and real numbers are really hard to nail down) at this time, the population of Chicago, the next largest city in Illinois, was ~7-9,000 but growing fast.
Smith's death incited a schism crisis. A handful of men claimed to have the rightful authority to be the next one-true prophet. Smith's oldest son was 11 at the time so it wasn't reasonable for him to be the next prophet quite yet (see history of RLDS for further information). {Origins of Power, Quinn}
Some themes to tease out before an overview of Utah Mormonism: 1) persecution, 2) uniqueness, 3) galvanization.
1) Persecution works like fertilizer. Too little and the followers don't have a common enemy, too much and the movement is snuffed out (Catholicism pre-1550). But, just the right amount of fertilizer and the movement will grow and flourish. Mormonism hit that perfect sweet spot.
2) Uniqueness, Mormonism was wacky. Search newspaper databases for articles on Mormonism 1833-45 and many bear a title invoking "Deluded Fanatics," "Gold Bible Mormonites," or something of a similar derisive nature. Smith's claim as not just a preacher, but a prophet, a "mouthpiece of God," made Mormonism really stand out beyond most congregations.
3) Galvanization. Mormonism continued to make media headlines and Smith, along with other leaders, was able to turn that press into a persecution narrative, citing suffering in 1838 Missouri as their real-world examples of how real that persecution really was. A common group with a common enemy lives and dies together.
Utah Mormonism presents an interesting set of factors which caused Mormonism to become what it is today. Brigham Young rose to prominence during the schism crisis and took his group of 6-7,000 Mormons to an area where the U.S. Government would stop bothering them, Mexico. Utah Territory was carved out as a result of the Compromise of 1850, and the new Mormon theocracy had a place to flourish.
Life in Utah wasn't great for the Mormons in the beginning. It was an unsettled badland ruled by people with different beliefs, cultures, and skin color than them. Best estimates put Native American population in the territory around 20,000 when the Mormons got there.
While this issue is much more nuanced than a reddit post will justify, the Mormon/Native conflicts (1849-70s) resulted in near extinction of Native American people in Utah. It was only in 1980 when Native populations in Utah reached their pre-Mormon level of ~20,000 ppl. During this growing phase of Utah Mormonism, the European immigration fund remained successful. From 1847-1860, tens of thousands of European converts made the trek across the plains and settled with the growing Mormon settlement. Thousands of white religious fanatics flooding in while conflicts with Native raged and resulted in repeated decimation of the native tribes. These Europeans interbred and created their own self-contained economy with bartering and proprietary money; everybody relied on their neighbor to survive. {Indian Depredations, Gottfriedson}
Brigham Young was king of Utah. He was first Governor of the territory, director of the Office of Indian Affairs, and prophet of the Church; a trifecta of religious and government authority all held by one of the wealthiest Americans living at the time. {Blood of the Prophets, Bagley}
Polygamy also factors into Utah Mormonism more than we can imagine. It created a source of conflict with the U.S. Government that increased the impact of the 3 factors previously discussed. That, coupled with the geographic isolation of Utah, created a system where Mormonism couldn't help but flourish. It was the only authority in a land with dwindling Native populations and European religious fanatics that was well above the critical mass required to grow. {Origins of Power, Quinn}
Eventually, the United States Government disincorporated the Church and seized all assets > $50,000 until the practice of polygamy was officially renounced by the religion. It was {Official Declaration 1} and Utah was granted statehood in 1896. It only continued to grow from that point forward.
TL;DR Mormonism was started by a wacky and charismatic guy. Due to a number of complex factors, it had just the right algorithm to flourish into a major religion and build multiple theocracies. Once it attained the crucial "critical mass" of followers, nothing could stop it from continuing to grow.
Cred: independent researcher and podcaster of Mormon history. | [
"Partly to counter this, Mormons put an even greater emphasis on family life, religious education, and missionary work, becoming more conservative in the process. As a result, Mormons today are probably less integrated with mainstream society than they were in the early 1960s.\n",
"Mormonism arose in the 1820s du... |
How do we know how many people died under Stalin and Mao? | We honestly don't know accurately, it's mostly educated guesses and deduction, some will be higher than reality and some will be lower than the true number. It's just like with most things in history, I will give an example, with The Battle of the Nile, we know how many British were involved, how many died and how many were wounded due to the quality of records. Whereas we have very little idea how many casualties the French suffered. So without adequate record keeping we have to try and piece it together although we will likely never know the true number.
EDIT: Battle of the Nile example | [
"The number of people killed under Mao's rule in the People's Republic of China has been estimated at 19.5 million by Wang Weizhi, 27 million by John Heidenrich, between 38 and 67 million by Kurt Glaser and Stephan Possony, between 32 and 59 million by Robert L. Walker, 50+ million by Steven Rosefielde, 65 million ... |
how to become a programmer when /r/learnprogramming goes over my head? [serious] | Just how far over your head are we talking? Do you have any sort of math background? Do you know what a computer is?
You might try to start with some sort of interactive tutorial like [Code Academy](_URL_0_) or a book that's meant to teach everything from the ground up. | [
"A programmer who needs to implement a specific algorithm, especially an unfamiliar one, will often start with a pseudocode description, and then \"translate\" that description into the target programming language and modify it to interact correctly with the rest of the program. Programmers may also start a project... |
How did Native Americans in Canada survive the massive snow dumps and -20/-30 degree weather? | 1. Could you please specify what era you're interested in? In 2006, 50.3% of people living in the Northwest Territories identified themselves as Aboriginal Canadians (First Nations, Metis, Inuit, or multiple/other Aboriginal identities), along with 20% of people in Yukon and 85% of people in Nunavut. Their methods of dealing with winter, and reasons for living where they do (or rather, in 1997) will obviously be quite different from 1957 or 1857 or 1657.
2. This is a little sideways, but: if you're interested in pre-colonial or early colonial era, I have an [earlier answer](_URL_1_) on how Jesuit missionaries in 17th century Quebec confronted winters. It talks a lot about what/how the Jesuits learned from the Montagnais nation (and in some cases, what the Montagnais knew and did that the Jesuits didn't or couldn't do).
I'll excerpt some of the relevant portions and add in more details:
~~
*The "Jesuit Relations" of the 17th and 18th centuries have a lot to say about the challenges and benefits faced by early European settlers--in this case, Jesuit missionaries--in the deep of winter in "these wretched lands." A theme that emerges, over and over, is that winter makes travel easier and being indoors harder.*
Fr. Paul le Jeune, arriving in Quebec in 1632, describes learning how to walk with snowshoes from the local Montagnais--he was so sure he was going to fall on his face at first, with every step he took--but he had grown quite skilled (though not as good as the Montagnais).
In 1640, Fr. Joseph Marie Chaumonot wrote back to Rome...[the Jesuits] probably used snowshoes as well--Chaumonot tells us that among the Hurons, snowshoe-making is very specifically the women's task. Le Jeune describes the Montagnais using their snowshoes to shovel, but I'm not sure whether the Jesuits adopted that practice. For transportation across unfrozen waterways, like the St. Lawrence River, the Montagnais would use their canoes as in summer. Over the snow, they pulled sleighs or sleds made of wood.
...[The Jesuits] weren't hunters, so while (writes Le Jeune enviously) the Montagnais were chowing down on moose, the Jesuits ate dried eel (which, yes, they had known to eat--and maybe were getting from?--Native women). Le Jeune writes that winter actually *aided* the Montagnais in catching eels:
> This work is done entirely by the women, who empty the fish, and wash them very carefully, opening them, not up the belly but up the back; then they hang them in the smoke, first having suspended them upon poles outside their huts to drain. They gash them in a number of places, in order that the smoke may dry them more easily. The quantity of eels which they catch in the season is incredible.
Winter was also the season for moose hunting (and hence, eating):
> On the 19th [of December], the snow being already very deep, they captured eight elks or moose. About that time one of them, named Nassitamirineou, and surnamed by the French Brehault, told them that he had dreamed that they must eat all of those Moose; and that he knew very well how to pray to God, who had told him that it was his will that they should eat all, and that they should give none of them away, if they wanted to capture others. [The Montagnais] believed him, and did not give a piece to the Frenchmen.
Father de Noue, another Jesuit, told Le Jeune his experiences of traveling with a group of (I think) Montagnais:
> The inns found on the way are the woods themselves, where at nightfall they stop to camp; each one unfastens his snowshoes, which are used as shovels in cleaning the snow from the place where they are going to sleep. The place cleaned is usually made in the form of a circle; a fire is made in the very middle of it, and all the guests seat themselves around it, having a wall of snow behind them, and the Sky for a roof.
> The wine of this inn is snow, melted in a little kettle which they carry with them, provided they do not wish to eat snow in lieu of drink. Their best dish is smoked eel. As they must carry their blankets with them for cover at night, they load themselves with as few other things as possible.
And modern practice to the contrary, drinking chocolate is actually a *Central* American tradition.
~~
The *Jesuit Relations* are available [for free online in English translation](_URL_0_)! I suggest opening a few volumes and searching for snow, ice, and related terms if you're further interested in this particular topic. | [
"Winters at the Hill 57 camp were incredibly harsh. While many Native American families survived during the summer by picking food, clothing, and firewood out of the town garbage dump, snow and ice precluded such scavenging during the winter. Many families turned to the county government during the winter, and rece... |
how do professional boxers have (decently) long careers if they're getting concussed everytime they fight? | _URL_0_
It is a problem in boxing, although today's boxers and trainers know more about it and boxers have adopted a much more defensive style (lots of clinching, few face-to-face brawls) that prevents them getting punched in the head as much. See any recent Klitschko fight or the Mayweather - Pacquiao fight to see this defensive style. | [
"Aspiring boxers undergo years of apprenticeship, toughening their fists against stone and other hard surfaces, until they are able to break coconuts and rocks with their bare hands. Any part of the body may be targeted, except the groin, but the prime targets are the head and chest. Techniques incorporate punches,... |
If the US government printed $15 trillion to pay off the debt, what would the rate of inflation become? | Looking around, there are various estimates online of the total circulating US money supply, [this](_URL_0_) source estimates about $3.5 trillion in bills and coins, which would indicate the inflation caused by adding $15 trillion to the money supply should be around 500%. That's definitely just an order-of-magnitude estimate, since inflation is affected by other factors besides just number of bills actually circulating, and estimates of the total money supply vary considerably, but I think 500% is a reasonable ballpark figure.
edit: from [wikipedia](_URL_1_), it appears that by broad measures of the money supply there are more like $10 trillion in circulation, which would give a slightly more reasonable inflation figure of about 150%. Still, as I said before these are just order-of-magnitude estimates, the actual observed inflation could be dramatically different. | [
"In April 1979, however, the United States may have technically defaulted on $122 million in Treasury bills, which was less than 1% of U.S. debt. The Treasury Department characterized it as a delay rather than as a default, but it did have consequences for short-term interest rates, which jumped 0.6%. Others view i... |
How much ocean water is moved worldwide each tidal cycle? | I doubt anyone can answer that for the case of the Earth as it is far too complicated. Tides on the Earth are subject to the topography of the ocean bed and so vary throughout the oceans.
I think even for a homogeneous fluid body this might not be a straightforward question either. You can evaluate the tidal force through the body quite simply but the response of the fluid is a lot more complex. If you let the fluid be convective then I know for a fact that no one can answer this question for an arbitrary plan/star. | [
"Long-Period tides are gravitational tides, typically with amplitudes of a few centimeters or less and periods longer than one day, generated by changes in the Earth's orientation relative to the Sun, Moon, and Jupiter. The distance between a reference point on the surface of the Earth relative to these objects can... |
what are the 165,000 new jobs the us economy says has been added in july and how are they created so quickly? | They are private-sector jobs.
However, some of them may have been spurred by the federal government's discretionary investments in the economy.
For example, let's say the Department of Transportation gave a hypothetical $1 million grant to build a bridge. The engineering plans for the bridge had already been approved by the city, and the city just needed this last piece of financing to actually afford to build it. A private company put in a competitive bid to actually build that bridge and its build was accepted because it offered to build it at the lowest cost. The private company then hired 1 engineer, 4 supervisors, and 20 construction workers to then build the bridge. That government investment created 25 private sector jobs.
A more detailed description of those jobs created this month is available on the Bureau of Labor Statistics or Department of Labor website (report here: _URL_1_). The report states the following:
"Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 162,000 in July, with gains in retail trade, food
services and drinking places, financial activities, and wholesale trade.
Retail trade added 47,000 jobs in July and has added 352,000 over the past 12 months. In July, job
growth occurred in general merchandise stores (+9,000), motor vehicle and parts dealers (+6,000),
building material and garden supply stores (+6,000), and health and personal care stores (+5,000).
Within leisure and hospitality, employment in food services and drinking places increased by 38,000
in July and by 381,000 over the year.
Financial activities employment increased by 15,000 in July, with a gain of 6,000 in securities,
commodity contracts, and investments. Over the year, financial activities has added 120,000 jobs.
Employment increased in wholesale trade (+14,000) in July. Over the past 12 months, this industry
has added 83,000 jobs.
Employment in professional and business services continued to trend up in July (+36,000). Within
the industry, job growth continued in management of companies and enterprises (+7,000) and in
management and technical consulting services (+7,000). Employment in temporary help services
changed little over the month.
Manufacturing employment was essentially unchanged in July and has changed little, on net, over
the past 12 months. Within the industry, employment in motor vehicles and parts rose by 9,000
in July.
Employment in health care was essentially unchanged over the month. Thus far in 2013, health
care has added an average of 16,000 jobs per month, compared with an average monthly increase
of 27,000 in 2012.
Employment in other major industries, including mining and logging, construction, transportation
and warehousing, and government, showed little change in July."
Also see: _URL_0_
Secretary of Labor Tom Perez issued the following statement about the July 2013 Employment Situation report:
“Today's report shows that our economy continues to improve, modestly but steadily. The unemployment rate inched downward to 7.4 percent, the 11th straight month under 8 percent and the lowest level in more than four and a half years, since December 2008. The private sector added 161,000 new jobs in July, marking the 41st straight month of private-sector job growth and a total of 7.3 million new private-sector jobs added over that time period." | [
"BULLET::::- January 4 – Government data reveals that the U.S. economy added 312,000 jobs in December, far ahead of predictions of 177,000, and that manufacturing ended 2018 with the most jobs added in one year since 1997.\n",
"BULLET::::- October 3 – The United States Department of Labor reports that in Septembe... |
How exactly did the Japanese worship their Emperor in the early 20th century/ww2? | To my knowledge the Emperor wasn't praised as a god via rituals as that would go against their religion to their many gods, it would have been seen as an insult.
In the early 20th century/WW2 era the Emporer was often thought to be a Demi-god or higher being, someone who has unquestionable reign over the entire nation. Many actions during the war and in Japanese society were said to be done in the name of the Emperor, be it kamikaze bombers or some form of societal advancement back in Japan.
To my knowledge in schools children tended to be thought that the Emporer was the ultimate ruler with an all seeing eye. However, do not quote me on this, I am just trying to remember back to my Japanese studies in school which was some time ago, but I hope this helps. I still encourage a qualified 20th century historian to give you a better answer. | [
"Like the rest of the country, the Japanese monarchy was changing too - but not in a way that made it resemble Western royalty. In the 1920s the Japanese were being taught that their emperor, living in a park in central Tokyo, was more than just a mere human being - he was called a living god. Children were educate... |
what do we measure in mhz when we are talking about cpus, does it have any moving parts like a hard-disk does? | A CPU is essentially made from switches. Tiny areas on a piece of silicon - a microchip - can be created such that they allow electricity to pass from one place to another when there is electricity supplied at a third point and not otherwise; or the inverse, they prevent electricity from passing through when there is electricity applied to the control point and not otherwise. These are then wired together by making areas of the chip conductive, or by just layering metal on top of the chip. All logic is built out of these. (Good things to Google for are pnp / npn junctions, logic gates, flip flop, half adder, ALU, VLSI if you want to read more about this stuff).
At this level, electricity isn't always "fully on" or "fully off". The switches take time to switch. When the inputs change, the output takes a while to settle down to a stable level. When a bunch of switches are wired together into a circuit, the whole thing takes time to settle down.
Human programmers working with the CPU need to be able to reason about its behaviour as a whole. It is easiest to reason about a system that, as a whole, goes from one well-documented stable state to another in response to some input and has no unpredictable behaviours.
For this purpose we introduce the idea of a clock: something that regularly pulses electricity.
We design all the various circuits such that, when a clock pulse starts and only then, they latch onto their inputs and all the switching starts; this means that as all the switching happens and all of the various outputs fluctuate before settling into the resulting states, we can ignore this fluctuation since the things the outputs are wired to won't look at them before the next clock pulse.
The closer together we space the clock pulses, the faster we can go from one state to another, and so the faster we can do work. But we have to wait at least as long between them as it takes for the part of the CPU that takes the longest to settle to a new state when something changes to do that.
This rate at which we decide to run the clock - the clock speed, the number of pulses per second, or Hertz - is the MHz (megahertz, million hertz, million pulses per second) figure you are asking about.
There are alternative ways of designing a CPU; e.g. "dual rail logic" allows each circuit that makes up the CPU to individually tell the things reading its outputs when its outputs are ready, so no overall clock is needed and each part can potentially run at its own speed.
This makes the system as a whole much more complex and harder to reason about, and so is rarely done. | [
"66 (more specifically 66.667) megahertz (MHz) is a common divisor for the front side bus (FSB) speed, overall central processing unit (CPU) speed, and base bus speed. On a Core 2 CPU, and a Core 2 motherboard, the FSB is 1066 MHz (~16 × 66 MHz), the memory speed is usually 666.67 MHz (~10 × 66 MHz), and the proces... |
How did Nazi Germany a regime born out of the ruins of World War 1 have so much access to a diverse pool of top notch academics by world war 2? ( Rocket scientists, Gunsmiths, Cytologists/ciphers, Tank and aircraft engineers) | It seems to me that you assume that if there is hunger and some political chaos that all the institutions stop functioning? Germany before WWI was one of the most advanced countries on the planet, they won the most Nobel prices in the sciences up to that point. WWI was 4 years and after it was over the scientists or institutions didn't just disappear.
They might have been destitute right after the war but they still had one of the biggest economies in the world plus the institutional memory and tradition in the sciences, engineering didn't vanish.
_URL_0_
I hosted the spreadsheet on my Google docs if that is easier:
_URL_1_
There GDP took hits in those years but they never got below France there level and overtook England in the inter war period. GDP is a flawed way to look at the economy but it's useful to illustrate my point that they weren't as destitute as you might have thought. | [
"Politicization of the German academia under the National Socialist regime had driven many physicists, engineers, and mathematicians out of Germany as early as 1933. Those of Jewish heritage who did not leave were quickly purged from German institutions, further thinning the ranks of academia. The politicization of... |
you know that feeling when you're drinking something, and there's like a pause almost i'm not sure how to put it, a throat-cramp of sorts when it's going down your throat? sorry if nobody knows what i'm talking about | Yes. It hurts. I think it's an air bubble so there's not room for the liquid and the bubble so it feels like a trying to swallow big lump. | [
"Presents as a sensation of food getting stuck (dysphagia) in the mid- or lower esophagus, atypical chest pain, or cough. People often state they must drink liquids to swallow solid food. This motility problem results from atrophy of the gastrointestinal tract wall smooth muscle. This change may occur with or witho... |
Why are bronze and brass not as common metals to make things as they used to be in antiquity? | we have harder metals to work that produce a better product in the end.
The main issue with bronze is that its a rather soft metal and doesn't keep its edge well. While early iron suffered similar issues (with less reparability) the moment you start getting cast and later wrought iron plus steel you have a might sharper metal that can be used in much more things. | [
"In the 3rd millennium BCE ancient foundry workers discovered by trial and error that bronze had distinct advantages over pure copper for making artistic statuary. Bronze stays liquid longer when filling a mold due to its lower melting point. Bronze is a superior metal than copper for sculpture casting because of i... |
How do snipers/spotters calculate where to shoot? | From my Army experience, not as a sniper, but with basic rifle marksmanship training, I can tell you what I have learned. First, you learn to his a target at 300 meters. At this distance, you can learn to adjust the sights so when you shoot at the center of the target, you will hit the center of the target. There are adjustments you can make to your rifle to ensure that the rifle is accurate to 800 meters. When you get beyond 800 meters, you need a more powerful rifle, and a longer range sight. The sniper will learn to adjust with the new rifle and sight, so again what he aims at the center of, he will hit the center of.
This will work under perfect conditions. When the sniper has to shoot from the top or the bottom of a hill, he will have to adjust for elevation. The spotter will usually give him an idea of what the elevation is. The sniper then adjusts the sights of his rifle. There are tools that the spotter can use to tell the sniper the difference in elevation. For example, there is a telescope looking sight that the spotter can look through that will show the elevation by turning it up or down.
Windage, or the direction and speed of the wind is generally estimated. The spotter has learned tricks to get an idea of how fast the wind is blowing and in what direction at every point out to the target. The sniper has been trained in how to adjust his aim based on the wind speed. If the wind is too strong, or is blowing unsteady, the spotter may call of the shot until the wind dies down.
Finally, at a long enough distance (like over a mile) the spotter takes into account the curvature of the earth. There are charts that are learned to assist the spotter in determining the proper point of aim based on the curvature.
So, basically, it comes down to learning how to shoot close targets well, then learning some tricks to be able to shoot at longer distances. | [
"Artillery spotters typically use their calibrated binoculars to walk fire onto a target. Here they know the approximate range to the target and so can read off the angle (+ quick calculation) to give the left/right corrections in meters.\n",
"When the trajectory of the bullet can be sensed, backtracking can be d... |
What's the correct response to this objection to special relativity? | Whoever wrote this is trying to discredit SR because they still hold onto the assumption of absolute time and don't understand that that assumption has to be abandoned. Let's take a look at this statement they make while talking about two clocks traveling at different speeds, they *completely* miss the point of SR.
> [...] perhaps each should be running slower than the other. To suggest that two clocks could both run slower than each other is a seeming absurdity that defies all logic; even within the difficult ideas that SR asks us to follow. It is the mathematical equivalent of saying: A > B and B > A; which is impossible.
This isn't an argument, it's an assertion. The conclusion makes them uncomfortable, so they reject it and justify it with some babble inequalities. Further down it gets worse:
> SR tells us that C and B must be recording time more slowly than A, and A should slow down by the same degree relative to C and B. It also tells us that C should be going slower than B, by a greater degree than relative to A, and likewise B should slowdown the same amount relative to C. Mathematically this is:
> A > B and B > A and C > A and A > C and C > > B and B > > C.
So according to SR, clocks C and B are both running slow *from the perspective of* A. Outside completely ignoring SR's math for some affinity for greater than and less than signs, they don't seem to understand then notion of a frame of reference. In this example, from A's point of view, the other clocks are slow. From B's point of view, C and A are slow--though not equally slow. This is *okay.* This is how physics works, we are simply going to disagree on the concept of time and length because these quantities are unique to us. Luckily, the discrepancy is accounted for exactly by using Lorentz boosts--the math that tells you how to change from one reference frame to another. Here's a *really* good video from SixtySymbols on the topic of SR's reference frames--I especially like the train part half way through which explicitly discusses the disagreements different frames will have:
_URL_0_
I won't bother with the "challenge" section, because it's just a retread of the same failings to understand SR as seen in the first paragraphs. | [
"Some criticized Special Relativity for various reasons, such as lack of empirical evidence, internal inconsistencies, rejection of mathematical physics \"per se\", or philosophical reasons. Although there still are critics of relativity outside the scientific mainstream, the overwhelming majority of scientists agr... |
how can energy companies guarantee a customer getting '100% green energy', when they also produce energy from fossil fuels? | Electricity isn't a physical object that's being piped around, so the idea of there being specific energy being produced in one place and then shipped around doesn't really work.
What the energy company is guaranteeing is that they'll supply, either by producing it themselves or buying it from another producer, enough energy from green sources that they could power all the people who signed up for green power without needing to use any other source. | [
"The Greens support the mass-rollout of renewable energy, with an aim of 100% renewable energy production by 2030, and phasing out the use of coal-fired power, as a means of driving investment and creating jobs. In 2019, the Greens pledged to create 180,000 new jobs in the renewable energy sector, including a renew... |
Do so-called "brain training" games really work? | I'm sure you'll get a lot of empirical articles here, and I encourage people to read them. However, here is the basic summation of what we know so far:
**"Brain training" activities improve performance on the specific activity you're training with. Most of those improvements, however, don't translate to improvements on other tasks, even when the tasks are somewhat similar, and they don't increase overall intelligence.**
The exception is research on something called the dual n-back task that does have some evidence that it can improve working memory skills (the ability to hold and manipulate information in the mind for a brief period of time) and may translate to other working memory tasks.
There is no evidence that any of these tasks increase intelligence, or can reliably prevent or reverse neurodegenerative illnesses like Alzheimer's disease. | [
"Cognitive skills can be enhanced through repetition of puzzles, memory games, spatial abilities and attention control. Most video games present opportunities to use these skills with the ability to try multiple times even after failure. Many of these skills can be translated to reality and problem solving. This al... |
How is laze formed by lava mixing with sea water? | The high-temperature steam produced by the lava entering the ocean hydrolizes the various salts present in seawater, primarily chloride salts. This results in hydrogen from the steam combining with chloride ions, producing significant quantities of hydrogen chloride. As the steam recondenses it picks up this HCl to form hydrochloric acid droplets. | [
"Pumice is created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano. The unusual foamy configuration of pumice happens because of simultaneous rapid cooling and rapid depressurization. The depressurization creates bubbles by lowering the solubility of gases (including water and CO) tha... |
from where did country music emerge? | Hank Williams Sr. | [
"Country music is a genre of American popular music that originated in Southern United States, in Atlanta, Georgia in the 1920s, and It takes its roots from the southeastern genre of American folk music and Western music. The origins of country music are the folk music of mostly white, working-class Americans, who ... |
Why does the Dutch government reside in The Hague if the capital is Amsterdam ? | In 1248 William II, count of Holland and King of Germany started building a hall that's today known as the Ridderzaal. His son Count Floris V finished the construction in 1280. This is where the history of the Hague begins.
In the 14th century the Hague became the administrative capital of the county of Holland.
In the 15th and 16th century the Netherlands were under Burgundian, Habsburg and Spanish rule. The Netherlands were divided into small 'states' run by nobles and burgeoisie. These small states gathered in Brussels to discuss matters in the realm with their King a few times. This council became more and more powerful and got a lot of privileges.
When the Dutch Republic seceded from Spain the states needed a new place to gather. At first this was the city of Middelburg in the county of Zeeland. When this location became unsave they relocated to the Hague. The reason was that it was a village of no significance. It didn't had any city rights which meant that it wasn't self governing and didn't had any representation on the council. Because of the fact that the village had no political power and was therefore neutral ground made the states decided to gather there.
This was also the time known in the Netherlands as 'the Golden Age'. The Netherlands was one of the most powerful nations and the biggest trade power. The center of all the trade was the city of Amsterdam. Amsterdam would always be the most important city of the Netherlands.
In 1815 when Napoleon was defeated the Kingdom of the Netherlands came to be. As Amsterdam was the most important city King William I decided that it would become the capital (it was already the de facto capital). Brussels and the Hague became the seats of the government like they used to be. After Belgium seceded in 1830 from the Kingdom the remaining seat of the goverment , the Hague, became the permanent seat of the government.
Sources:
* [_URL_1_ where someone took the time to write a summary of a piece that was posted on the site of the Dutch embassy in India.](_URL_4_)
* [_URL_5_ - de Ridderzaal.](_URL_0_)
* [A tour I had last week in the Hague.](_URL_3_)
* [Some bits from my own history knowledge (I'm Dutch)](_URL_2_).
Small note: I suck at English grammar | [
"The Hague is the seat of the Cabinet, the States General, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State of the Netherlands, but the city is not the constitutional capital of the Netherlands, which is Amsterdam. King Willem-Alexander lives in Huis ten Bosch and works at the Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, together wi... |
What exactly did the Jewish aristocracy do in Babylon? | As a corollary to OP's question:
What was the life of an average Jew in Babylon like? How were the classes divided? Were Jews well integrated into Babylonian society? | [
"Although most of the Jewish people during this period, especially the wealthy families, were to be found in Babylonia, the existence they led there, under the successive rulers of the Achaemenids, the Seleucids, the Parthians, and the Sassanians, was obscure and devoid of political influence. The poorest but most ... |
How true is the statement that the Soviet Union won the World War II in Europe? | There are two acceptable answers to this question. Militarily, the Soviet Union wins World War Two. They grind the Germans up, tie down major parts of the German army, and push gigantic distances (while taking serious casualties) to throw the Nazis back onto Berlin. The Russian steamroller tied down men, tanks, brilliant officers, and all the supplies of war which the Germans could have well used against the Allies. During the last winter months of Barbarossa alone, the German army uses all the equipment it had built up during the 1930s, especially in terms of tanks. After that, they are forced to live hand-to-mouth for the rest of the war.
However, your question asks about the economic side of the war. And for this, it is undeniable that the Allies (read: the United States) fueled the Russian economy, especially in non-war related materials (the Ruskies didnt like our weapons, especially tanks, and tried to build their own whenever possible). I dont have the book next to me (but I can dig it out if necissary), but the US gave the Soviets significant equipment, hundreds of train cars, dozens of engines, enough machines to run entire factories, boots, helmets, belts, pants, cans of food, cans, trucks (they used WW2 era Studebaker trucks, re-branded of course, into the 1970s). The US was economically critical to revving up this unstoppable war machine in the East which demolishes Nazi Germany. So in that way, one could argue that really the US does win WW2 because it fuels ever allied nation in this way, then equips its own army.
Here is the rub then. The Soviet Union needed the US's help. We allowed a significant amount of its male population to remain under arms, instead of farming or working to maintain the economy (make the little stuff that we gave them in great numbers). However, the Red Army could still fight the Germans, and fight them well. If we look at Operation Barbarossa in 1941, the Germans were stonewalled along most of the front. This was done largely without lend-lease. Further, Stalingrad was fought and won using Soviet equipment. While the logistical element was just coming online, I would argue that it didnt have much of an effect on the outcome of the first stages of the battle. It isnt until the encirclement period that this becomes more important.
With all this in mind, I would argue that the Soviets had more of a chance than we give them. They had manpower, the Nazi atrocities gave them motivation, and their own industry (such as it was) was largely saved and moved east of the Urals. This would have allowed them to grind the Nazis back out of Russia. The victory would not have been as complete, the Soviet Union would not have mobilized so completely, and its post-war position would have been far diffrent, but I think they had the capacity to win by themselves. This is not to cheapen the US's Lend-Lease, it was indeed critical for the Soviets, but I think they could have done it by themselves, and so I would argue that they really did win the war. | [
"By the end of 1943 the tide of the war in Europe had shifted, and there was no doubt either about the survival of the USSR or the ultimate outcome of the Second World War. With the Red Army moving inexorably westward, the possibility of a Communist Europe seemed within reach to the party faithful. Cooperation betw... |
Okay, so I don't know anything about physics, but this question has been on my mind. | What you're looking for is called [Gravitational Lensing](_URL_2_)... and nothing can go faster than the speed of light (without funky quantum mechanical [jibber](_URL_1_) [jabber](_URL_0_)). | [
"\"Physics\" (from ) is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.\n",
"“What I liked about physics is tha... |
why toddlers are happy one moment then screaming and crying the next moment | One theory I have heard is that basically *everything* is a new experience for them, and they don't yet routines in place for dealing with things that seem trivial to adults.
Me: I dropped my pen. Drat. I will pick it up and then resume writing.
Toddler: I dropped my toy. FUCK! WHAT DO I DO? IT'S ALL SO INTENSE! | [
"Happy that they are save, they start laughing and mocking each other. The principal tells the parents that they are not worried about what happened and are happy. Feeling ashamed, the parents leave the children alone. \n",
"Beginning at birth, newborns have the capacity to signal generalized distress in response... |
Why was being able to flank an opponents army so powerful pre-gunpowder? | More can always be said, but the following previous answers are quite excellent explanations.
u/Iphikrates offers a [comprehensive treatment on just this topic here](_URL_0_), and u/theshadowdawn has a [similar answer here](_URL_1_), with special reference to the Battle of Cannae. | [
"Until the invention of gunpowder-based weapons (and the resulting higher-velocity projectiles), the balance of power and logistics definitely favored the defender. With the invention of gunpowder, cannon and mortars and howitzers (in modern times), the traditional methods of defense became less effective against a... |
why do so many animals like deer, boars, and tapirs all have dapple camouflage only when they are babies? why do they lose it when they grow older? | I think I’ve heard that the camouflage babies have only really works if they’re sitting completely still, which is fine because their parents will bring them food. But when they move, those spots become sort of a bulls eye, and they can’t afford to sit still anymore. | [
"Camouflage is a powerful influence in a large number of mammals, as it helps to conceal individuals from predators or prey. In arctic and subarctic mammals such as the arctic fox (\"Alopex lagopus\"), collared lemming (\"Dicrostonyx groenlandicus\"), stoat (\"Mustela erminea\"), and snowshoe hare (\"Lepus american... |
why do loud noises (e.g gun shots) trigger car alarms? | (10+ years selling/installing car security)
The part of the alarm that does this is called the "shock sensor". It's a little device that detects a "shock" to the vehicle via vibration.
The most common is a "504D" made by DEI. Feel free to search the part number if you'd like to see what it looks like/how it's installed.
It's a security feature, not a regulation. It's uncommon with a factory security system but extremely common for aftermarket systems.
The point is, if someone was to hit your car (ex-gf takes a Louisville Slugger to both headlights for instance) the impact would create a vibration (shock) that is detected by this device and sets off the alarm.
The issue is, sound is just a vibration in air. Very loud and low-frequency sounds can also vibrate solids, like the metal body of your car. Thunder, gun shots, and motorcycles are commonly loud enough to set off these sensors (and I'm sure you've noticed, you can feel the vibration from these loud and low-frequency noises).
They do have a sensitivity adjustment, but there's a fine line between false-positives and false-negatives, and for safety sake, we generally err on the side of false-positives to limit the chances of a false negative. | [
"Frequently, false alarms occur because car alarm owners use high sensitivity settings. This may be the main reason why loud bass frequency sound (loud music, other cars or motorcycles with loud exhaust systems, thunderstorms, etc.) can set off car alarms. The second possible reason is that some parts of the alarm ... |
how do people "live" in an embassy for extended periods of time? i've never visited an embassy, are they like hotels or something or it just a very awkward situation? | It really depends on the countries involved and the situation. A lot of embassies are nothing more than office buildings with no living accommodations.
The U.S. Embassy in London is an office building and the U.S. amabssador lives in a huge mansion called Winfield House in Regents Park. Most of the staff are locals and live in the area surrounding the embassy.
On the other hand, the U.S. embassy in Iraq is a fortress where everyone lives in the compound. | [
"A temporary resident is a foreign national granted the right to stay in a country for a certain length of time (e.g. with a visa or ), without full citizenship. This may be for study, business, or other reasons.\n",
"Though travelling to and from countries is generally permitted (with some limitations), most gov... |
how do soldiers in modern armies accurately direct artillery fire? | I had to learn artillery fire when I was a scout in the Army. Back then we didn't have GPS and our range finders never worked.
Before you go out, you and your artillery-men you are likely to be working with on the radio are given specific maps. On these maps are pre-designated areas with codes, you could use anything for a code, a word or name.
As you are driving or marching, you figure out where on the map you are, usually by looking at ridges and buildings. If you then take your compass, and compare it to the map, the squares on the map show you how far you are to other buildings, or terrain (90% of the time, we would look for ridges).
The map is divided in squares that are predetermined widths, almost always in increments of 1000x1000 meters squared. So, basically 100 square football fields of area. The squares are labeled. On a perfect map, the top left square would be called 1,1, etc.
If you called in an artillery strike on 1,1 you would be giving the artillery man what is called 2 significant digits. Which means the round could hit ANYWHERE in that huge square.
From here you could simply make an educated guess, and start giving more digits, by subdividing that square by eyeball. So if you pretended the square was itself divided up into 4 little squares, you could call artillery into the top left corner by saying 11,11. This would tell the artillery to hit a 100 meter square instead of anywhere in the 1000 meter square. But it would hit the VERY top left corner of the map...if something was sort of near the center of the top left corner, you could be very far away.
Keep subdividing the square, or use the centimeter side of a ruler, and you can call in accurate six-digit coordinates, which is almost always where you should be starting with. So if I wanted to call for fire on someone dead center in the top left square of the map, I would tell the crew to fire at 150,150. Basically you treat every square like it could be divided into 1000 little pieces and try to figure out which piece you want to hit. Each square on the map that has a label should be thought of as having 10 little ticks on the top and left sides. Find the point on the map you want to hit and draw a line up, and see which tick it is near, then draw a line left. The two ticks it is near are your 4 digits. Decide whether you need to nudge the artillery a little in any direction, and use your guess as the 6 digits. 150,150 would be the top left square, 5 ticks right and 5 ticks down, exactly where the lines cross.
At this point, you could tell your mortars or artillery to mark this position with a name, for use later. Or you can call what is called "adjust fire".
When calling for adjust fire, the artillery will fire one round exactly where you indicated. When it hits, you start switching the way you call for fire. Instead of using squares on a grid, you can use the much simpler method of adjusting fire.
To adjust fire, you say Drop, Add, Left, or Right, followed by a number of meters.
If you say Drop 50, adjust fire, the artillery man will look at where you are on the map, and simply send the round 50 meters closer to where you are standing in a straight line.
When you have the first round on top of the target, you tell the artillery to Fire For Effect. At this point, all batteries will fire on the last adjusted fire.
Oh last part of your Q: How do you call for fire when you don't know where you are? We were trained to never not know where we were. When studying we were driven to 6 points on a 100 kilometer square map with blindfolds on and had a few minutes at each stop to give our 6 digit grid location to within I THINK 50 meters. You did this basically by looking at the sun and terrain around you and remembering turns the humvee had taken and feeling hills and valleys. I don't think any out of the 50 people in my troop failed the first try.
There are more advanced concepts like magnetic north vs polar north and lots of classroom and getting blindfolded and dumped in the forest, but it's mostly just instinct after a little while. | [
"Artillery gunners are taught how to use direct fire to engage a target such as mounted or dismounted troops attacking them. In such a case, however, the artillery crews are able to see what they are shooting at. With indirect fire, in normal artillery missions, the crews manning the guns cannot see their target di... |
What was the role of light infantry in Napoleonic era battles? | So, first I'll unpack a few things. What I will be talking about is mainly focused on the French Imperial Army, I don't know enough of the other army compositions to help but I am sure that we have the right people to help. Second, within the French army, there is a difference between light infantry and skirmishers and I'll go into that in a bit.
So, what makes light infantry? Generally light infantry was made of men between five feet and five four to five six. They were chosen for being nimble and intelligent, being able to conduct open order formations without getting confused (clearly they didn't think much of soldiers intellect). So light infantry (or *chasseurs a pied*) would be trained to fight in both a line formation and open order formation. From there, what they would do would vary from what was needed but more often than naught, they would fight in line formation.
Now, the real use of light infantry was to establish a foothold; ideally a French commander would send his light forward to make contact with the enemy and hold them there. From here, the regular line would march up and fight the now tired enemy while the light pulls back for a flanking attempt. So, the use of light is meant to stop the enemy and buy time to pull in more forces to defeat the enemy.
now, for skirmishing. As I mentioned, yes the light was trained in open order combat. They could skirmish if needed but often they would leave it to the *voltigeurs*, an elite company of sharp shooters. Before 1809, a French Line battalion would consist of did companies of about 120 men, one company of elite Grenadier (whom are the tallest and most skilled of the battalion), and a company of elite sharp shooters (the aforementioned *voltigeurs*). A light battalion would have the same composition, having chasseurs instead of standard line and carabiners instead of grenadiers. The *voltigeurs* would be the ones skirmishing until they would give way for the standard light infantry in line formation
There are specific skirmishing battalions, *trailleurs*, which would often be either elite infantry like the Trailleurs De la Jeune Garde but those are unique units. | [
"Light infantry sometimes carried lighter muskets than ordinary infantrymen while others carried rifles and wore rifle green uniforms. These became designated as \"rifle regiments\" in Britain and \"Jäger\" and \"Schützen\" (sharpshooter) regiments in German-speaking Europe. In France, during the Napoleonic Wars, l... |
why does so many people hate the baby boomer generation? | The current economic, political, and environmental climates were almost entirely influenced by members of that generation to where they are today.
The housing market, education costs, this team mentality for politics, climate, all are in pretty shitty shape for the next generation to deal with. Its also not super uncommon to hear complaints about how the younger generation is dealing with these issues, which is frustrating.
Not to mention the acute issue that few of them are retiring, which restricts job markets.
Personally I think its an unfair sweeping generalization, but its not untrue for a subset. | [
"This population is sometimes referred to as Generation Jones, and less commonly as Tweeners. These cuspers were not as financially successful as older Baby Boomers. They experienced a recession like many Generation Xers but had a much more difficult time finding jobs than Generation X did. While they learned to be... |
why does this paper shatter after being folded seven times with a hydraulic press? | Paper, when folded in half, effectively doubles its thickness. When folded six times in half, there is too much thickness and not enough surface area for anything to make an effective seventh fold.
However, the hydraulic press has enough force to fold it, but that puts extreme stress on the paper, which is eventually so much tension it breaks into pieces like glass.
The reason for this is most likely because when paper is folded, stress is put onto the cellulose within the paper which helps the crease hold its shape. After enough folds, there's so much potential energy in the paper that when the seventh fold is completed, it literally overflows with energy and shatters. | [
"The Hydraulic Press Channel (HPC) is a YouTube channel operated by Finnish factory owner Lauri Vuohensilta and his wife Anni. Launched in October 2015, the channel publishes videos of various objects being crushed in a hydraulic press. On 31 October 2015, the channel published a video of Vuohensilta unsuccessfully... |
why can i usually smoothly fast forward a digital video (netflix, hbo go, dvds, etc) but reverse playback is always a jerky mess? | Vidoes general are usually buffered forwards not backwards. Basically they assume that once youve seen it already it's unlikely that you will go back to see it again.
So if you do have to go back all the currently buffered data is tossed out and then you are basically starting fresh from that new point that you jumped to. If your going forward in the video though there's a chance that part of it is already buffered and can just be played immediately. | [
"Analogue VCRs provided fast-forward by simply playing the tape faster. The resulting loss of synchronization of the video was accepted because it was still possible to make out approximately what was happening in the video to find the desired playback point. Modern digital video systems such as DVR and Video on De... |
Why are things from the past so far underground? In millions of years when our skeletons are where the dinosaurs skeletons are now, where did the old ground go? Where did the new ground come from? | If you drop dead right now and left your body to nature, you won't end up underground like fossils. Scavengers will pull you apart and eat you, you will rot and the rains and ravages of time will remove all traces of you. Even if you were buried at a funeral, you won't become a fossil.
The conditions needed for you to become a fossil are very specific and thus rare. You need to die in a way that scavengers can't reach you, you'll be left alone, and you will be covered by silt or sediment before your bones decompose. This is easier on the bottom of the sea than on land, but sometimes there are places, such as a river delta where erosion and rains wash down the right amounts of the right kinds of silt, and the right kind of geology where the land is sinking so that the sedimentary system will continue for a long time, and a bunch of other factors.
As silt and sediment continues to build up above, and your layer continues to sink, the layers below get squeezed, and over ages become sedimentary rock.
If all the variables are perfect (extremely rare) your bones can mineralize as they degrade, leaving behind an impression of their shape, made out of a kind of rock that is different from the surrounding rock - a fossil.
Over more ages, geology might change (continental plates push into reach other, etc) and start pushing those layers of rock up, or sideways, or pushing up ocean floor, including layers of rock below it that once were the floor.
Basically, the rock above and below is sedimentary and was being formed when you wandered into it in such a way that your shape was cast like a mold. Then geological forces over eons can shift areas of the Earth's crust, including pushing up those layers of rock formed out of ancient sediments | [
"Guy Darrough, a paleontologist from St. Louis, Missouri currently working at the dig site, said it was \"pretty much a miracle\" that dinosaur bones were found in Missouri, because the state's soft soil has resulted in the deterioration of most prehistoric remains. However, some of the remains found have been dama... |
Following the death of Augustus, why didn't he wish full power to go back to the Senete? | *EDIT: While I love the period, I'm not an expert, so please read /u/LegalAction's counterpoints below.*
There is an overly idealised fantasy, portrayed in for example the film Gladiator though it is not limited to Hollywood, of the Roman Republic as this freedom-loving democratic nation. It was not.
The Roman Republic was an oligarchy of an elite group of super-rich families, which were constantly competing with each other for prestige and power.
Wanting to go back to the Republic would only make sense if you were one of the elite super-rich families who wasn't the Emperor. In which case though you're more likely to just try and become Emperor instead.
I asked a question about this to one of the experts here recently. [You can read the answer for yourself here.](_URL_1_) But the TL;DR is that for the majority of people all that changed was that it was now the Emperor instead of the Senate appointing their governors/high administrators. The systems below that remained the same, including various local republican systems.
In either case if a return to the Republic had happened it wouldn't have lasted. Augustus was actually not the first Roman to cease total power after winning a civil war, and neither was Caesar. For that you need to go back around 30 years to [Sulla](_URL_0_). Sulla actually tried to reform the republic so it would survive. But all that happened was that as soon as the generation after him came of age they fought their own civil war. | [
"Augustus' final goal was to figure out a method to ensure an orderly succession. Under Augustus' constitution, the Senate and the People of Rome held the supreme power, and all of his special powers were granted for either a fixed term, or for life. Therefore, Augustus could not transfer his powers to a successor ... |
in what sense have creditors been "pillaging" greece for the past five years? | Greeks feel that the austerity measures imposed on Greece by it's creditors, which are enforced because the lenders feel they will make the greek economy more competitive and a more attractive target for investment, aren't actually helpful. They see austerity more as a punishment for the greek people, or at best a poorly thought out and ineffective policy. Syriza, the far left party elected on an anti-austerity platform, has a strong incentive to describe Greece's treatment by its creditors as unfair or evil by using words like "pillaging" to gain leverage in negotiating conditions for further loans. | [
"It stands out in the history of sovereign defaults. Greek debt restructuring of 2012 achieved very large debt relief – with minimal financial disruption, using a combination of new legal techniques, exceptionally large cash incentives, and official sector pressure on key creditors. But it did so at a cost. The tim... |
Why were there so few violent border changes between the Christian Iberian kingdoms? | A reply to /u/HenkWaterlander ,
Maybe you can clarify what assertion you are questioning, because your wording is ambiguous. Are you suggesting that the Christian kingdoms of Iberia had very little among themselves *before* the Reconquesta? How do you determine "very little"?
Leon was united with Castile only after Ferdinand III of Castile invaded Leon following a succession dispute in 1230. This triggered insurrection by Leon loyalists.
Castile itself had a civil war in the 1360s over succession. Galicia was often disputed between Castile and Portugal, who were rivals all the way throughout most of the early modern era.
Due to its position, Navarre was often fought over and partitioned between rival powers. Following a civil war, Ferdinand II of Aragon, widow of Isabella of Castile, was able to obtain Papal support to invade Navarre and obtain kingship in 1513.
Speaking of Isabella, she became Queen of Castile only after overcoming invasion of Castile by Portugal due to succession crisis in the 1470s.
So, I'm not sure what assertion you are considering here. The list above isn't even nearly complete .... | [
"Ultimately, the Christian kingdoms in the north of the Iberian Peninsula overpowered the Muslim states to the south. In 1085, Alfonso VI captured Toledo, starting a gradual decline of Muslim power. With the fall of Córdoba in 1236, most of the south quickly fell under Christian rule and the Emirate of Granada beca... |
How are human skulls or other complex body structures posthumously extracted from a cadaver for use in museums or medical schools? | There are a combination of methods. One is maceration. Basically, it involves removing as much of the soft tissue as is practical, then allowing the rest to decompose under controlled conditions, often in temperature-controlled water, until the rest of the tissue is soft enough to be cleaned away. Another method can be used in combination with this. Dermestes beetles will eat flesh, but they prefer not to eat the bones, so they will clean a skeleton for you. Care has to be taken because they will move on to the bones if they exhaust the soft parts, but it saves humans a bit of work.
edit: a bit of clarification. | [
"Skulls Unlimited International, Inc. not only sources their specimens, they still also process the carcasses using the methods Jay perfected in his adolescence. This process begins with removing the majority of the soft tissue from the carcasses by hand. Then two methods are used to detail clean the skulls: dermes... |
how does the human body tend to itself when you havent eaten for days? what about havent drank? | There's a general rule of threes for your body's survival. 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water and 3 mins without air.
Without food, your body starts to consume its reserves. First to be consumed is the sugar reserve kept in your liver (about 500 grams). Then the body will try to breakdown the body's fat and muscle for energy and proteins necessary for your metabolism. But it can't break it down as fast as it needs it, thus eventually, you'll die
However your body doesn't have water reserves in the same amounts. Without regular intake, your body has only so much water and it will try to conserve it as much as possible, but without water your body can't get rid of toxic metabolic byproducts like ammonia. These toxins will build in the body and eventually cellular activity will cease without water in which to dilute nutrients and toxins for transport.
Edit: Grammar | [
"When the human body becomes dehydrated, it experiences thirst. This craving of fluids results in an instinctive need to drink. Thirst is regulated by the hypothalamus in response to subtle changes in the body's electrolyte levels, and also as a result of changes in the volume of blood circulating. The complete eli... |
if my car is on a steep downward incline and i put it into reverse gear, why does it roll backward up the hill even if i don't press the accelerator? | Because you put it in reverse gear. So long as the engine is producing enough power to move the car, and the clutch is capable of translating that much power without slipping, the car is going to move, otherwise the engine is just going to stall if it's not producing enough power. | [
"Pulling the car \"backward\" (hence the name) winds up an internal spiral spring; a flat spiral rather than a helical coil spring. When released, the car is propelled forward by the spring. When the spring has unwound and the car is moving, the motor is disengaged by a clutch or ratchet and the car then rolls free... |
please expain noam chomsky and his
views on the ideal type of governance li12 | I don't think Chomsky can be properly explained in the format of an ideal form of government (maybe he can, but it'd hurt the LI12-level of it all).
At the heart of Chomsky's political thought is the question of authority. Why does the government get to tell people what to do, and why should it be like this? He's said he'd place himself *in the tradition of* anarchists (the people who think there should be no government at all), that doesn't mean he's an anarchist himself, though. Mostly, what he believes is Libertarian Socialism. It basically means that the government should only be allowed to tell people what to do if there's a very good reason for it. These reasons, Chomsky thinks, should be questioned often. This puts limits on what, for example, cops should be allowed to do. Some people say that since cops try to fight crime, they should be allowed pretty much anything, but Chomsky would say that cops should only be allowed to do these things if they can give very good reasons that what they want to do will *actually* fight crime. So no arresting people for videotaping them, for example.
What makes him a Libertarian *Socialist* is that unlike classical Libertarians, he believes that things like "to make sure everybody gets as good an education as possible" and "to make sure we all get the best healthcare for as little money as possible" are good reasons for the government to do things (like tax people). | [
"In a 2011 interview with the Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard University, Parsi asserted that his thesis had \"been vindicated\" by recent events. \"I believe it is increasingly clear that efforts to divide the region between moderates vs radicals, democracies vs non-democracies etc is of little util... |
How, and why, do ants make new hills? | An "anthill" is just one extension of an ant hive that reaches the surface. The hills form when dirt is left by the entrance of the hills.
_URL_0_
Additionally, some species of ants have more than one queen per colony (polygyne), while others have one per colony (monogyne).
_URL_1_ | [
"Ant hill art is a growing collecting hobby. It involves pouring molten metal (typically non-toxic zinc or aluminum), plaster or cement down an ant colony mound acting as a mold and upon hardening, one excavates the resulting structure. In some cases, this involves a great deal of digging. The casts are often used ... |
In a _URL_0_ photoplasty, one of the facts stated that if you were a child in England in the middle ages you would have been sewn into your winter clothing until spring. Can anybody give information on this? Is it even true? | I can't say that it's never happened, but it seems unlikely that it was widespread. A quick review of a handful of texts doesn't show anything suggesting that this was typical. ("The Culture of Children in Medieval England", *Medieval Children*, *The Ties that Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England*, *Growing Up in Medieval London*)
And given beliefs about health and the body at the time, it seems unlikely. I'm more knowledgeable about the 18th and 19th century than I am about the medieval era on this point, but I'm relatively sure that both eras shared in the belief that the skin operated as kind of open system between the inside body and the outer world. Looking at the skin would have been an important part of recognizing, diagnosing, and treating disease. It would seem foolish, then, to sew someone into something that would prevent you from doing that. | [
"In the 19th century, photographs were often taken of the boy in his new trousers, typically with his father. He might also collect small gifts of money by going round the neighbourhood showing off his new clothes. Friends, of the mother as much as the boy, might gather to see his first appearance. A letter of 1679... |
How often did people in various time periods hear music? | Before the advent of recording, music was fairly rare, but depended on the situation (especially social class). I can comment briefly on America in 1910 and Germany post-1850.
In 19th century Germany, music would have been heard in church, where there was typically an organ, a choir, and possibly even a small orchestra or chamber ensemble. This was often the grandest scale of music that most people would hear. For the upper classes, this was the period where having a piano in the home, and amateur singing became a popular focus at parties. Case in point, Schubert wrote dozens (if not hundreds) of short songs (Leider) for voice and piano, and even began a tradition of gathering people in a private home to sing and play them. People still hold "Schubertiads" to this day.
This was also the period in which formal concerts arose. Before that, going to hear an orchestra was a social event, with lots of eating, drinking, and talking - and who knows how much actual listening to the music. But Liszt was the one who introduced the idea of sitting quietly for a concert, and by 1900, concert and opera halls were huge, and well-attended. Again - if you were rich, you could hear a lot of music!
I know less about folk, or lower-class music of this period. I would say that music was much less common, and depended on one or two people in a town having instruments - possibly fiddles, flutes, drums, that sort of thing. 200ish years before this, the bagpipe was the most popular folk instrument in much of Europe, but that was on a decline, and I'm not too sure what followed it. So there could be music at festivals and celebrations, and of course casual singing like in the tavern, but formal performances must have been rare.
1910 in America was a pretty interesting time for music. Church still featured choir and organ, and pianos were nearly ubiquitous in middle and upper class homes. While America was struggling to find their place in the classical music world, they were importing tons of music from Europe - Opera and orchestral performances were common, and the programs were full of things like Beethoven, Berlioz, and Bruckner. I believe 1910 (give or take a year) was when Mahler visited America.
Vaudeville was also in full swing at that time, and so finally common people were able to hear music on a fairly regular basis. Vaudeville performers sang and played instruments like piano, banjo, and mandolin - the last one was especially enjoying huge popularity.
Like in 19th c Germany, if you wanted music, you had to make it yourself most of the time. White people in the southern states were using fiddles, mandolins, banjos, dulcimers, to play music based on celtic roots - we call it "old time" music now, and it was to evolve into things like bluegrass and country and western. At the same time, African Americans were developing delta blues, ragtime, gospel, and "work songs." These would be performed at celebrations, or sung casually any time.
The big thing to remember is that recording was just starting to become a viable industry - while still a rarity in 1910, phonographs were about to explode, completely changing the way(and the frequency with which ) people could experience music.
TL:DR: In 1910 America and late-1800s Germany, if you wanted music, you had to make it yourself. How often that happened depended on how much money you had.
Performances have gotten more and more common as time has gone on. 1910 was actually a pretty great time to hear live music, even if you weren't filthy rich. | [
"In many cultures, there is less distinction between performing and listening to music, since virtually everyone is involved in some sort of musical activity, often communal. In industrialized countries, listening to music through a recorded form, such as sound recording or watching a music video, became more commo... |
why do i get impulses to do things that i would never ever act on? | The latest scientific thinking on this is that it's an evolutionary adaptation which actually makes you less likely to do dangerous stuff.
If a person has a tendency to imagine things like jumping off cliffs or attacking people, he/she will naturally imagine the negative consequences of the action, during the course of the fantasy.
This essentially forms a "negative plan" for that action. You look at the cliff and actually have the thought "I totally shouldn't jump off, because I'd die." This leads to even more survival-oriented thoughts, like "come to think of it, I could also slip accidentally. I should really just stay away from the cliff, unless it's really necessary for me to be near it."
In comparison, a person who didn't have the initial tendency to imagine the dangerous behavior might just continue hanging out by the cliff. Less fear of the potential danger = more interaction with danger, which translates into greater risk of death.
Also, the French phrase for the phenomenon is "L’appel du vide," which translates to "the call of the void."
And that is just awesome. | [
"An impulse is a wish or urge, particularly a sudden one. It can be considered as a normal and fundamental part of human thought processes, but also one that can become problematic, as in a condition like obsessive-compulsive disorder, borderline personality disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.\n... |
why is there a gust of air when you open a door to the subway station? | they keep the pressure higher in the station in order to help evacuate fumes etc from the platforms | [
"Airflow through a door depends on wind forces, temperature differences (convection), and pressure differences. Air doors work best when the pressure differential between the inside and outside of the building is as close to neutral as possible. Negative pressures, extreme temperature differences, elevators in clos... |
why are so many people with mental illnesses successful? | Some forms of mental illness can be defeated with effort (such as dyslexia). Other such as certain kinds of bi-polar or OCD can actually be beneficial in certain kinds of job as the manic periods or obsessive traits make them more efficient at said jobs. | [
"Mental health problems are common in the community, so members of the public are likely to have close contact with people affected. However, many people are not well informed about how to recognize mental health problems, how to provide support and what are the best treatments and services available. Furthermore, ... |
Can a brain completely deprived of sensory input perceive time? | You can, you'd just be really bad at it. See: Campbell, S. S. (1990). Circadian rhythms and human temporal experience. In R. A. Block (Ed.), Cognitive models of psychological time, (pp. 101-118). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
I think where you're going wrong is that memory is *not* dependent on external sensory input. Repeat a word over and over in your head and pretty soon, you have a new memory with no sensory input. | [
"One major goal of sensory neuroscience is to try to estimate the neuron's receptive field; that is, to try to determine which stimuli cause the neuron to fire in what ways. One common way to find the receptive field is to use linear regression to find which stimulus characteristics typically caused neurons to beco... |
how is it that light appears to travel at the speed of light relative to everything else if all of space-time is relative? | Because "all of space-time is relative" is not the full concept. In full, the Special Theory states (roughly) "all of space-time is relative except for the speed of light in a vacuum, which is always constant no matter what frame of reference you are using".
To make that concept work in the real world, strange things have to start happening, including the idea that objects appear smaller and time passes at a different rate when you travel very quickly indeed. And although it sounds crazy, it's been experimentally observed -- time really does pass at different rates (from the perspective of an observer) for objects travelling at different speeds. | [
"According to the equivalence principle of general relativity, the rules of special relativity are \"locally\" valid in small regions of spacetime that are approximately flat. In particular, light always travels locally at the speed \"c\"; in our diagram, this means, according to the convention of constructing spac... |
Did Roman occupation of areas end suddenly (England 410 AD) or did they slowly withdraw over many years or even decades? | England is a tricky case, because we don't have much in the way of written sources, and archaeology isn't as good for answering polical-administrative questions as it is other lines of inquiry.
What we know is that the last legions left Britain in 410 (probably - the sources for this are pretty sketchy, actually), probably to participate in one of the many civil wars that tore the western empire apart from the inside during the fifth century. After that, we have some tantalizingly sparse evidence thhat Britain stayed in communication with the rest of the Roman world, but the extent is difficult to say. It's quite possible that Britain considered itself to still be a part of the Roman empire for some time after the legions left (Guy Halsall raises the interesting suggestion that high-status art in Britain suddenly looks less Roman right around the 470s, as though the political events in Italy had some significance in britain even then). But we really can't say for sure if whoever filled the administrative gap left by the Roman army - probably the 'Saxon' federates in some regions (who were almost certainly, like other barbarian federate groups, multi-ethnic auxilary troops); perhaps surviving Roman elites, or members of local aristocracies (who would, by this point, have also been Roman, unless they chose to de-emphasize that part of their identity in favor of older local culture, or so ething new like the 'barbarian' cultures north of the Rhine).
Archaeologically, Roman architecture seems to be collapsing by the late fourth century (especially villas). This in itself doesn't meant that Romans disappeared from Britain (many of the abandoned villas weren't very old when they were left to collapse, and Britain had been part of Rome before they were built). But they do suggest that elite Roman culture in Britain was looking really different by the start of the fifth century. This change was relatively independent from the withdrawal of the legions (though it may have contributed to the feeling that they could be better used in civil wars elsewhere), and happened before the Saxon invasions (we have vague references to Saxon pirates attacking England in the fourth century, but it's not clear how much of an actual threat this was - or who exactly these Saxons were (since Romans loved to slap names onto babrbarians that the barbarians might not have used themselves).
Then Britain's economy collapses, for most of the fifth century. This collapse started much earlier (Roman industry in Britain was crumbling since the third century, and the movement of Roman administration away from Trier in the late fourth century seems to have further impoverished the province), and doesn't appear to be connected to barbarian invasions. Indeed, there's no archaeological evidence for an 'invasion' per se- just the normal movement of poor farmers through the fifth century that you always see happening. By the sixth century, when things are slowly romving toward recovery, Britain's material culture looks very different - people live in wooden buildings instead of stone, and elites are buried with weapons and jewelry with artistic styles that look very different from Roman precursors. The demography is a blend of locally born people and immigrants from both the east (Germany/Scandinavia) and west (Wales, perhaps even Ireland).
But this change was gradual, and similar changes were occurring throughout the Roman world. The crucial period for Britain is the fifth century, but the lack of textual sources, and the economic collapse and disappearance of so much of the types of material goods we use to establish chronologies and trace change, make it difficult to know how rapidly the island gave up on being Roman. Certainly by the sixth century, but in Western europe, that's kind of a given.
Many have suggested it was never very Roman to begin with, and that as soon as the legions left the Brittons shouted 'we're free!' The limited evidence available suggests something more complicated, but the precise shape of events is very murky.
Robin Fleming is working on this period currently. Her last book, Britain after Rome, is one of the best recent works on the period. Guy Halsall's Worlds of Arthur is also excellent, and explains the limits of the evidence for this period especially well.
- - -
Elsewhere in the Western empire, changes were slow. Clovis - the first orthodox Christian king of the Franks - also considered himself (our sources say) to be a Roman. Given what we know of ethnic identities in late antiquity, this dual identity is not a contradiction. The Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy seems to have been genuinely upset when Justinian suggested they weren't legitimate successors to Rome's legacy in the sixth century. Culturally, many aspects of Roman life continue in the west for centuries. Change on-the-ground was a drawn out process, which started in some ways as early as the third century, was stalled with an aggressive new Roman bureaucracy in the late third and fourth centuries, accelerated with rapid changes in the fifth century, and wasn't completed for a long time after that.
Britain's a special case, because it was always on the fringes, and the evidence is particularly sparse and difficult to interpret. | [
"Roman occupation was withdrawn to a line subsequently established as one of the \"limites\" (singular \"limes\") of the empire (i.e., a defensible frontier) by the construction of Hadrian's Wall. An attempt was made to push this line north to the River Clyde-River Forth area in 142 when the Antonine Wall was const... |
how is the design of the u.s. gov't "deliberately inefficient"? | The checks and balances system ensures that one person or one branch of government can't make quick, unilateral changes. For a law to be passed and take effect, all three branches have to be (more or less) in agreement. The fact that legislation can be difficult to pass, even if one party has a majority, makes some people think of government as inefficient.
Also, the Constitution, which sets all of the rules, was made incredibly hard to amend (2/3 of Congress, 3/4 of the states) to again prevent large changes from being made easily.
EDIT: If you want to read the Founding Fathers' opinions in their own words, read the [The Federalist Papers](_URL_1_). These were essays written by James Madison (primary writer of the Constitution), Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay that were meant to convince people to adopt the Constitution. In them, these three Founding Fathers laid out a lot of their ideas for how the country should be run.
In particular [Federalist #10](_URL_0_) by James Madison addresses your question almost exactly. In it, Madison talks about the need to prevent what he called factions from taking over the government and undermining democratic principles. | [
"Government agendas are created when problems are recognized that have viable solutions that will be politically correct to make at the time of decision making. Kingdon recognizes when these three aspects join together using the term \"policy window\". When a policy window is recognized and open, there is a potenti... |
How is it that it took until the mid 19th century for people to understand the negative correlation between keeping a wound clean, and that wound becoming infected? | This has more to do with differing definitions of "clean" than it does with people in the past being stupid. Dressings were expected to kept fresh. People spend a lot of time covered in dirt and grime, but manage not to get infected all the time. Why should the inside of the body be different than the out? Still, they would try to avoid visibly dirty conditions around wounds. The biggest exception to this was "laudable pus" which, at least in the 18th century, was thought to be a sign of the body healing itself.
The problem comes with sterilization. For us, something that is medically clean must have either been superheated or washed with an antiseptic chemical. The easy ability to do either of these things did not exist prior to the mid 19th century. Moreover, with no understanding of germ theory, there was no understood reason to do so. | [
"The history of wound care spans from prehistory to modern medicine. Wounds naturally heal by themselves, but hunter-gatherers would have noticed several factors and certain herbal remedies would speed up or assist the process, especially if it was grievous. In ancient history, this was followed by the realisation ... |
How tall was King Louis XVI of France? | The real height of Louis XVI is not known. However, his coronation " outfit " is between 1,90m and 1,93m.
The tallest King of France was François Ier which was described to be between 1,95m and 2,00m however, thanks to one of his armour, his height was 1,98m. | [
"Louis XVI of France (born Louis Auguste de France, also known as Louis Capet) (1754–1793) was King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, after which he was subsequently King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before his deposition and execution during the French Revolution.\n",
"Louis XVI (; 23 August 1754 –... |
why aren u.s isps only targeting netflix and not the likes of youtube or hulu? | Netflix is 30%+ (?) of traffic, they are a big player.
Also, YouTube at least is run by Google... who with Fiber is already suggesting that they won't take the ISPs shit. | [
"Because ISPs route the traffic of all of their customers, they are able to monitor web-browsing habits in a very detailed way allowing them to gain information about their customers' interests, which can be used by companies specializing in targeted advertising. At least 100,000 United States customers are tracked... |
if losing weight is just about burning more calories than you eat, why would avoiding carbohydrates help? | Yes! Finally something I can answer. I am sad at the amount of misinformation and incorrect things written below. This may get a touch long, but I'll do my best.
Losing weight is most certainly about calorie balance. If you burn more than you eat, you will lose weight. Where the weight comes from depends on a few other factors that aren't really relevant to the question.
Low-carbohydrate diets have been getting increasingly popular in the media and around the diet fringe. I think some reasons are good, and some are outright bullshit (I'm looking at you Gary Taubes, you fucking asshole). In my opinion, below is why low carbohydrate diets work well FOR SOME. I am using the caps qualifier because some people, no matter how "correctly" they follow the diet, never adapt to low carbohydrates. They feel mentally fuzzy, lethargic, etc. These side effects go away for most after your body makes an adaptation about 3 weeks into eating low carbs.
1.) When you remove and entire section of people's diet, they tend to eat less automatically. Think about this for a moment: if I told you not to eat any bread, pasta, rice, oatmeal, cereal, etc, then you would automatically decrease your caloric intake because there simply is a lot less types of foods to eat.
2.) Building on point 1, when people are given a lot less choices, they'll start adding in low calorie, high bulk vegetables. These people finally start getting necessary vitamins and minerals that they've long neglected. They feel full much sooner because of the bulk of the food and the fiber it contains. They start making better food choices regarding healthy fats (nuts, oils, etc). Fiber is extremely important and it makes you feel full by forming a "clot" in your stomach, slowing digestion.
3.) Protein is the most hunger-blunting nutrient. It's been observed time and time again in various scientific studies, and it's pretty clear at this point. More specifically, you will feel full much sooner eating lots of lean protein than an eu-caloric amount of rice. Also, protein has a nice effect of stabilizing blood sugar, which prevents crashes and sugar cravings. It also has the highest TEF of the three macronutrients (see below) A concrete example is that rice and chicken would be far less satiating than steak and broccoli. This brings me to the next point...
4.) On low-carbohydrate diets, fat content in the diet goes up. Starting at tag-along fats in the meat and cheese to explicit fat in oils, fat is a stable of a typical low-carbohydrate meal. Fat has this interesting thing in that it slows gastric emptying. At this point, most people are familiar with the GI scale, which is a measure of how fast carbohydrates are digested when eaten alone. The thing people leave out is that when you add fat to meals, the GI goes to the wayside because the fat keeps food in your stomach longer. Remember foods that stick to your ribs? That's where the expression comes from.
So in conclusion, a low(ered) carbohydrate diet works FOR SOME for the reasons above. The average (read:non-exercising) person doesn't burn many carbohydrates on a daily basis so there is less need for them. However, an athlete (think cyclist or weight trainer) is generally ill-advised to follow low carbohydrate diets because they need to replenish the carbs burned during training.
As a side note: If you search the national registry for weight loss, a few trends are common among people who have lost weight and kept it off: They exercise regularly, they keep some kind of tabs on their weight/fat, and they have some form of portion control. The majority of people have succeeded with low-fat, high carbohydrate diets in the long term but there have recently been a few who have succeeded with low carbs. Also, the majority of competitive bodybuilders, who are the leanest athletes of them all (at least for one day of the year), have gotten shredded on high-carb diets. So both low and high carb diets can and do work, as long as there is a deficit.
As a little bit of a bonus, this is how the energy balance equation goes:
Food = RMR + TEA + TEF + NEAT or Energy In = Energy Out
RMR = Resting Metabolic Rate. This is the amount of calories your body burns at rest, just maintaining itself. So if you were to lay in bed all day, you'd still burn this many calories. You can find fairly accurate estimate formulas online.
TEA = Thermic Effect of Activity. This is the amount of calories you burn in formal exercise.
TEF = Thermic Effect of Food. This is the amount of calories your body burns digesting food. Sort of paradoxically, it takes a portion of the calories you consume to digest food. Approximate values are: Protein: 25-30% of ingested calories. Carbohydrate: 10%. Fat: 3%.
NEAT: Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. This is the amount of calories your body burns through any movement that isn't formal exercise. Think of this as brushing your teeth, tapping your foot, etc. It actually can add up to a lot at the end of the day, especially for naturally lean people.
EDIT: To answer your follow up question regarding starving yourself; It really depends on starting body fat percentage. VERY Oobese individuals have been fasted up to a year (362 days, IIRC) with no ill effect. Very simplistically, if you have a lot of stored energy (fat), your body will use that before going for the reserve funds (protein, muscle). Another look into this is the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. [Wikipedia] (_URL_1_) it and read, it's very interesting. Basically, they took some war-objectors and (semi)starved them down to the lower limits of human body fat. Then, in the second phase, they refed them with different macronutrient profiles and calorie levels. The purpose of the experiment (conducted by Dr. Ancel Keys) was to learn how to refeed Jews in the concentration camps and warsaw ghettos.
EDIT 2: I learned most of everything I know from Lyle Mcdonald's [website] (_URL_0_). Almost every single question you have about fat loss, nutrition, muscle growth, etc is found at his site. | [
"In his early books such as \"Dr Atkins' New Diet Revolution\", Atkins made the controversial argument that the low-carbohydrate diet produces a metabolic advantage because \"burning fat takes more calories so you expend more calories\"; the Atkins diet was claimed to be \"a high calorie way to stay thin forever\".... |
Does the surface of our planet have areas that are more susceptible to meteor and comet impacts? (i.e. do certain regions get hit disproportionately compared to others? and if so, why?) Alternatively, do all regions have an equal chance of being struck? | I work in a department of meteoriticists and proposed this question to them, because a lot of the meteorites they study come from Antarctica.
So, I asked if there was a bias towards meteorites falling near the poles, or was it just because they're easier to find in Antarctica.
In theory there is a greater chance of a meteorite on the side of the Earth facing 'forwards' as we move through clouds of material that cause the meteor showers, but as the clouds are big and the Earth spins relatively fast so it might not make that much difference.
Ultimately, the sample size of where we find meteorites isn't big enough to work out if there's a trend in location. Given that a lot will just fall in the sea and that it's easier to find meteorites in deserts or snow/icefields, our statistics will always be skewed. | [
"Impact science also benefits from the delivery of meteorites. The Earth has been struck by large impacts in there past e.g. Chicxulub crater, and the materials left behind and the effect on the ground improves impact modeling predictions. The effects on Earth can also be used to understand similar patterns that ha... |
If heat rises, wouldn't turning on a ceiling fan raise the ambient temperature underneath? | Any kind of circulation will make you feel cooler.
The reason you sweat is to expel heat from your body. As it evaporates, it takes the heat with it. The problem is when it is too humid in your immediate vicinity and the sweat can't evaporate in a reasonable amount of time.
When the air in the room you are in is moving, there is a constant supply of fresh air moving past you, allowing the sweat from your body a constant chance to evaporate. | [
"Due to the rising warm air from convector heaters, warm air may accumulate at the ceiling of the room. Therefore, convector heaters are often paired with ceiling fans, especially in rooms with tall ceilings. In the winter, setting a fan to turn clockwise will allow for more air circulation and will keep heat from ... |
i saw two squirrels fighting in a tree, they fell off the branch and tumbled about 30 feet to the floor without seeming to break their fall when they landed. they then got up and ran off. how did they not sustain the kind of terrible injuries i would falling from that height? | An ant can survive a fall from any height. You could drop one out of an airplane, and it would survive the impact. The ant is fine because it is so light. It isn't the hitting the ground that kills you, it's your own mass that crushes you after hitting the ground.
The formula for force is: F = M * A . Force is equal to Mass times Acceleration. Mass is proportional to force. Increasing your mass increases the force that you will experience when landing. Decreasing your mass will decrease the force you experience.
When landing from a fall off of a tree, the squirrel is fine because he is experiencing a much smaller force than you would, because he has much less mass. | [
"As the squirrels march deeper into the forest, they encounter a bat, whom they soon discover is no more than a child. It is Vesper, who has secretly left his home to try to participate in the battle. The squirrels force him to march with them.\n",
"The squirrel is reading a newspaper, but he hears a sawing noise... |
Was there a large amount of fear in the 1930s that the Spanish Civil War would spill out into a larger regional or even global conflict? | Certainly.
This fear was such, that, early on, a non-intervention agreement was signed by many European countries in August of 1936, which created the aptly named Non-Intervention Committee. The most vocal parties for non-interventionism were the French and British. While Italy and Germany were on the committee, they openly flaunted the agreement and guidelines, sending volunteers, aircraft, tanks, and material to Franco's Falangists. The USSR was also on the committee, and it to, ignored the prescription of non-interventionism, sending military aid to the republicans.
Britain and France did, on the whole remain loyal to their pledge of non-interventionism, though France covertly donated planes and specialists to the Republicans.
So yes, the conflict was met with a fear of it spiraling into a wider war, and while on paper, the major European powers pledged non-interventionism, many of these broke it. | [
"The atrocities that had happened at the outset of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 were seen by both sides as a possible precedent for Colombia, causing both sides to fear it could happen in their country; this also spurred the credibility of the conspiracies and the rationale for violence. Catholics everywhere were ... |
how is a movie made for vhs and dvd converted to be a blu-ray? | Film - the original clear plastic stuff with thousands of pictures on it - is actually much higher resolution than DVD, BluRay or even 4K. Provided you have access to it, you can convert it to whatever digital resolution you want, by in effect taking a photo of each frame and running them together.
If you *don't* have access to the original, then you'll probably find you get a really poor quality disc. However - most films are archived and it's in the producer's interests to allow the best quality print. | [
"The film was released on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and movie download on August 9, 2011. The release is produced in three different physical packages: a four-disc combo pack (Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and \"Digital Copy\"); a two-disc Blu-ray combo pack (Blu-ray and DVD); and a single-disc DVD. The \"Digital Copy\... |
what in the world is half life 3? | Half-Life is a series of video games by Valve.
The first game came out in 1998, and was a huge success. The second game came out in 2004 (after being delayed for over a year) and was also a huge success.
After the seconds game, Valve decided to create new sequels as three "episodes" (which were more like expansion to the second game). The first episode, titled "Half-Life 2: Episode 1", came out in 2006, and the next episode came out in 2007. They were both also very successful. However, the third episode never saw the light of day, and fans are still expecting it or Half-Life 3. Since Valve are very hush-hush about this, fans try to look for anything that might hint on a new game being developed.
You can read more here: _URL_0_ | [
"Half-Life (stylized HλLF-LIFE) is a series of first-person shooter games developed and published by Valve. The major installments feature protagonist Gordon Freeman, a physicist who battles an alien invasion. \"Half-Life\" (1998) and \"Half-Life 2\" (2004) are full-length games, while \"\" (2006) and \"\" (2007) a... |
What role did slavery have in the industrial revolution, if any? | (1/2)
Well, you've inadvertently waded into what is probably the biggest ongoing debate in the historiography of slavery in North America right now! There is a huge debate raging at the moment regarding the exact role slavery has had to play in the development of modern capitalism, and the industrial revolution specifically. It's a debate that has been raging since at least 1944 with the development of what historians of slavery call the 'Williams thesis', named for Eric Williams and his book *Capitalism and Slavery*, in which he argued for an intrinsic link between the two. There is today a broad consensus that there is something of an essential relationship between the two and that slavery had a significant role to play in the industrial revolution and the development of capitalist economy; the debate largely focused on just how significant that role is, and whether or not it was definitive (in other words, was slavery a necessary prerequisite for industrialisation, or did it simply give it a helping hand?). For my part, I am unconvinced by the argument that there exists a definitive causal relationship between slavery and the industrial revolution - it has a role to play, absolutely, but I am not satisfied with the arguments that have been advanced to suggest it is the driving force behind western industrialisation.
The Williams thesis essentially holds that slavery's contribution to industrialisation is one of material investment. According to Williams, in the 17th and 18th centuries slavery in the New World provided the ingredients necessary for industrialisation. Extremely profitable farming operations allowed for the accumulation of vast wealth surpluses that provided the capital to finance the industrial revolution; the transatlantic slave trade created complex international markets, with ports and shipping lines that also carried goods and messaged, along which industrial supplies and consumer goods could later be ferried. As industrialisation gets underway in earnest, slavery begins to go into decline as it becomes apparent that industrial wage labour is more profitable and socially agreeable. It is, according to Williams, abolished in the 19th century as it becomes more profitable to 'proletarianise' slaves and turn them into sharecroppers or wage labourers, aided by improvements in agricultural efficiency made possible by the explosion in engineering creativity brought on by industrialisation. In this conceptualisation, slavery is essentially a feudalistic and pre-capitalist enterprise that is fundamentally incompatible with but necessary for the development of industrial capitalism.
Historians of slavery now widely recognise that the Williams thesis is fundamentally wrong in this regard. Slavery was not in decline in the 19th century - on the contrary, particularly in the United States, it has been shown to be a thriving and enormously profitable enterprise that did not appear to be dying out of its own accord. The picture in the British Caribbean is a little more complicated - there is still some disagreement over whether or not the region was in economic decline by the 19th century. Generally speaking, there is agreement that Britain's colonies were troubled but certainly not in any kind of terminal danger or decline that meant slavery would inevitably die out (and in some parts, like Barbados, slavery was very much a healthy, expanding institution). Nor are most historians convinced that it is a wholly pre-capitalist enterprise, either. Eugene Genovese took up that mantle most notably after Williams, and that argument has been thoroughly picked apart over the years (Walter Johnson's *Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market* is a solid critical response to the way in which Genovese has misinterpreted the historical record in this regard). I'm going to talk about this in more detail towards the end - and you'll see why I'm leaving it for the end - but suffice to say, New World slavery was not *incompatible* with capitalism.
So what about Williams' contention that slavery was a necessary prerequisite to industrialisation? Well, this is where the debate gets rather more heated and complicated. There are many historians today still arguing in favour of that component of the Williams thesis, and the most notable lately would probably be Edward Baptist in his book *The Half Never Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism*. Baptist alleges that the enormous profits being made from cotton and sugar helped to finance the industrial revolution in the United States and Britain, respectively.
What has also not been explained satisfactorily, in my view, is at what point slavery becomes uncoupled from the wider capitalist economy. Slavery is not, as I go into more detail later, a pre-capitalist phenomenon; it is not a relic carried over from some distant feudal past. It is thoroughly and wholly compatible with capitalist economic practices. Yet scholarly studies consistently fail to find that slavery was particularly and uniquely significant to the ongoing economic prosperity of the United States or Great Britain in the 19th century. The abolition of slavery gives rise to only a small economic shock in the United States, one which is perhaps also partly explained by the end of the Civil War dragging down growth as well - economic well-being recovers very quickly. Likewise, assessments of cotton's contribution to Gross Domestic Product (the value of everything the economy produces in a year) are modest. Baptist's claims in his book depend partly on the immense value of cotton to the US economy which other scholars have shown are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of economic theory: due to what is essentially an accounting error in how he tabulated the worth of cotton production in the 19th century, he has accidentally doubled it, whilst at the same time he miscalculates GDP in such a way that makes his estimates of cotton's contribution to the economy worthless (he excludes asset sales for instance but includes slave sales, even though slave sales are essentially asset sales in a slave economy). Though their 1974 work is rightfully deeply criticised, one of the more positive contributions Fogel and Engerman have made to the scholarship on slavery is demonstrating that the Southwest was just as wealthy as the Northeast in 1860 if you include wealth caught up in slaves (Gavin Wright has shown without slaves the North was 64% richer), only concentrated in the hands of a minority. It seems illogical that there should be such a huge dependency on that kind of wealth that somehow disappears to the point where slavery is abolished with a negligible impact on the wider economy.
Likewise, Baptist's thesis argues that cotton drove industrialisation in Britain, but he does a very bad job at proving it - and indeed, the advent of meaningful cotton mill operations in northern England significantly predates the explosion in cotton production in the Southern US, rather than being driven by it. It is also worth emphasising that Jamaica is particularly suited to growing cotton, and particularly to hand-picking cotton. To this day Jamaican cotton is worth four to five times Egyptian cotton. Yet we do not see any meaningful effort on the part of British planters to tap into this lucrative resource even in Jamaica, which was not a sugar monopoly colony; whilst this may simply reflect poor economic planning, it seems to be rather odd that if these planters were providing the finance and capital to drive industrialisation in northern England, that they would not be logically trying to also tap into the emerging market for cotton goods. Sugar remained king in the Caribbean, even though it was a much less stable market than cotton. And in any event, I would also stress that, although the Civil War in the United States did have an impact on the British economy, there is evidence that Britain was able to heavily supplement its shortfall in cotton imports from both India and Egypt. Britain's own abolition of slavery and the slave trade has been estimated to have cost just 2% of national income, suggesting it was far from the driver of economic growth. The profits from Britain’s colonies are just not enough to finance industry’s wholesale development and growth.
So what role did slavery play in the industrial revolution? Certainly, it *was* a source of finance, and the plantations of the South and the Caribbean did produce raw materials that helped to fuel industrialisation - though the advent that made this possible, the invention of the cotton gin, comes twenty to thirty years into industrialisation and coincides with the emergence of cotton mills. But the evidence for both the United States and Britain is that the vast majority of the wealth created by slavery remained trapped within the slave system, disappearing upon abolition. The end of slavery is devastating to the elite of both the South and the British Caribbean, wiping out vast quantities of wealth over night and bringing eventual ruin to many estates. Slave owners were, largely speaking, investing in more slaves rather than in industry - though some certainly did invest in industry (as did some slave traders who were not necessarily slave owners). And we know that in Britain, about half of all planters were not actually resident in the Caribbean and had other economic interests. But the evidence for slavery being the *driving* and *causal* factor behind industrialisation is, in my view, rather weak and the argument has yet to be made convincingly. There are too many inconsistencies and problems with the developments in the Williams thesis since 1944. It has a role to play but it is fundamentally wrong, in my view, to attribute industrialisation to slavery. It's just not that simple or straight-forward, and that argument rests on a very simplified, inaccurate view of economic development in the 18th and 19th centuries. | [
"Historians and economists have debated the economic effects of slavery for Great Britain and the North American colonies. Many analysts suggest that it allowed the formation of capital that financed the Industrial Revolution, although the evidence is inconclusive. Slave labour was integral to early settlement of t... |
I'm interested in military formations and how they actually work -- what made them effective against certain types of combat, etc. Any links or videos about this stuff? | This is too wide a topic to cover in a single post so let me deal with the one question you specifically asked. The hollow square (as a pike formation mostly) works well against cavalry for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the pike is a good weapon versus cavalry due to its reach. A pike formation on the other hand is normally vulnerable to flanking. Changing directions in a pike formation is messy business that requires coordination and skill. The hollow square doesn't really have a front and as such is not vulnerable to flanking. The hollow form also brings the advantage of quickly being able to reinforce a weak spot quickly as troops can move freely within the square. This was often used with a mobile force of ranged troops within the square, specifically the famous spanish square/tercio formation. A square is weaker versus a concentrated assult as much of its strenght is spread out as opposed to focused forward as is the case with a line formation.
In a more general context, military formations usually develope as a reaction to something else. A firm line is stronger than a brute force charge since every man protects the men next to him. The mobile cavalry can out-flank the line but not the square which in turn is vulnerable to a line formation or attack column. It's all a gigantic game of rocks, papers, scissors. | [
"close order formation combat, in which soldiers were held in very strict formations as to maximise their combat effectiveness. Formation combat was used as an alternative to mêlée combat, and required strict discipline in the ranks and competent officers. As long as their formations could be maintained, regular tr... |
why do all these food companies have non gmo-labels on their products? is it propaganda? | If it's not a modified organism then they're not lying. I could poop in your salad and certify it as non gmo | [
"Opponents claimed Prop 37 backers real intent was to ban GMOs via labeling schemes removing consumer choices, citing claims by proponents like Jeffrey M. Smith that labeling requirements in California would cause food companies to source only non-GMO foods to avoid having labels that consumers would perceive as wa... |
Why can't we use animal embryonic stem cells? | > presumably reducing the chance of rejection
one of the biggest reasons for why we would want to use stem cells is to *prevent* rejection. if i donate my kidney to some guy, he will have to take immusuppressor drugs *for the rest of his life*. and we are the same species! if he got a monkey's kidney, then it would be an even worse rejection. the same thing would happen to animal stem cells.
as a matter of fact, animal contamination in stem cells is a massive problem in research. at the moment, all of the NIH sanctioned human stem cell lines were just *grown* on a "rug" of mouse fibroblast cells (you have to do this, so that they stay stem cells). just the fact that they were *grown* on mouse cells is a large enough amount of contamination that we don't inject them into people.
so if human stem cells grown with animal cells are bad, then animal stem cells themselves are much, much worse. | [
"In mice, there is an additional option for genetic transfer that is not available in other animals. Embryonic stem cells provide a means to transfer new DNA into the germline. They also allow precise genetic modifications by gene targeting. Modified embryonic stem cells can be selected in vitro before the experime... |
What are some ways to test microbial evolution as an experiment? | You might be interested in Richard Lenski's long-term evolution of E. coli [experiment](_URL_0_). | [
"Experimental evolution studies are a means of testing evolutionary theory under carefully designed, reproducible experiments. Given enough time, space, and money, any organism could be used for experimental evolution studies. However, those with rapid generation times, high mutation rates, large population sizes, ... |
Did ancient cultures have any concept of the waxing and waning of the moon being caused by Earth casting a shadow? | Just as a point of clarification: the waxing and waning of the moon are not caused by the earth's shadow; it is a result of the moon rotating around the earth, and from our perspective, the full half of the moon that is illuminated by the sun appears in phases. The only instance of the earth's shadow affecting the illumination of the moon is at the time of a lunar eclipse, a relatively rare occurrence. | [
"The ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras (d. 428 BC) reasoned that the Sun and Moon were both giant spherical rocks, and that the latter reflected the light of the former. His non-religious view of the heavens was one cause for his imprisonment and eventual exile. In his little book \"On the Face in the Moon's Orb... |
how is it that marijuana is legal in some places in the us, but there are many people in jail for possession? if weed becomes legal in more places, what happens to those in jail for possession? | They will remain in jail, absent some executive clemency. Everyone is subject to the laws in place at the time; just because something becomes legal later doesn't mean you're innocent of committing a crime when it was criminal. | [
"Until the passage of the 2018 United States farm bill, under federal law, it was illegal to possess, use, buy, sell, or cultivate cannabis in all United States jurisdictions, since the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 classified marijuana as a Schedule I drug, claiming it has a high potential for abuse and has no... |
why is backwards video understandable while backwards audio is incomprehensible? | It is because in a video we can see the actions leading up and proceeding from that action, while audio, the sound is laid out in a very specific way. (English phonetics are very complicated) When a small thing is changed, it becomes nearly impossible to understand. | [
"A backward message in an audio recording is only fully apparent when the recording is played reversed. Some backward messages are produced by deliberate backmasking, while others are simply phonetic reversals resulting from random combinations of words. Backward messages may occur in various mediums, including mus... |
How did 0-60 become the standard by which a car's acceleration is judged? Why did 60mph become synonymous with "fast"? | Automotive journalist here.
Your question is intimately tied to the history of automotive magazines, and I’m not aware of a really good, academic history exploring that. I can tell you that the form itself dates back to the earliest days of motoring — Carl Benz filed his patent for the “vehicle powered by a gas engine” in 1886, and both the American publication The Horseless Age and the U.K.’s The AutoCar published their first issues in 1895.
But they were more industrial news for makers and sellers of cars than consumer opinion for many years. Prior to the development of the car review, automotive magazines experimented with being industry publications full of sales data and how-to repair guides, but the car review we know today was a post-world war II creation.
The father of the modern car review - a journalist’s opinion of the car based on their experience of driving it - was American Tom McCahill, and he’s widely credited within the industry as the first to publish 0-60 times.
He convinced Mechanix Illustrated to publish the first such article, where he reviewed his own personal 1946 Ford Coupe, which, he noted, got from a dead stop to 60 mph in about 23 seconds. He left us no notes on how he made this measurement. But he repeated the test in subsequent reviews.
Why did he pick 0-60 instead of, say, 0-50? Sad to say, no one seems to have recorded his answer.
I will note that it’s quite close to a 0-100 kph measurement, which would seem intuitively more logical. But I have no evidence that he even considered this. Models at the time were generally not sold on multiple continents, so it seems doubtful that it entered his mind.
Both his review format and his test caught on. By the middle 1950s, publications like Sports Cars Illustrated (today known as Car and Driver) and Motor Trend made it the heart of their content, and they all published 0-60 times.
It’s worth noting, however, that they didn’t all use a standard technique and haven’t stuck with the same technique all along. Innovations in drag racing particularly changed the numbers — beginning in the 1960s, drag strips used a light beam system to measure time — and in the U.S., enthusiast magazines rented time on these for testing. Because of the way they trigger, the machines allowed the car to roll about 1 foot before they began to measure. The technology has changed, but to keep their numbers consistent, many publications still test with “one foot of roll-out.”
This practice never caught on in Europe, where drag racing was never a significant phenomenon. Hence, American and European publications tend to use different methods that can produce different measurements. In a world where enthusiasts argue over every tenth of a second, that becomes a little humorous.
Hope that helps. I wish there were better sources to point you to, but to the best of my knowledge, the first good academic history of our field has yet to be attempted. | [
"A \"Road & Track\" road test recorded acceleration from 0–60 mph in 22.4 seconds, \"almost half of the VW’s 39.2.\" However the magazine noted that at , a common American cruising speed at the time, the Metropolitan was revving at 4300 rpm, which shortened engine life, whereas the Volkswagen could travel at the sa... |
What happened to ancient cities such as Sparta, Carthage and Troy? | All were destroyed; Troy before the Golden Age of Greece, Carthage by a victorious Rome around 150 BC, and Sparta was sacked by the Goths around 400 AD after centuries of empty autonomy as a curiosity within the Roman Empire.
Interestingly, it appears that the last few speakers of the Spartan dialect are dying out. After millennia, Tsakonian - a descendant of Doric Greek - is restricted to [only a few hundred speakers](_URL_0_).
The cultures of Troy and Carthage, on the other hand, have basically been entirely wiped out by history. | [
"None of the Mycenaean palaces of the Late Bronze Age survived (with the possible exception of the Cyclopean fortifications on the Acropolis of Athens), with destruction being heaviest at palaces and fortified sites. Thebes was one of the earliest examples of this having its palace sacked repeatedly between 1300 an... |
what is going on in missouri and at yale with super liberal student protests? | Yeah! So the faculty sent out an email telling the student body not to be super racist and wear offensive costumes on halloween. Then a professor responded to that email saying that it wasn't the school's responsibility to police students like that and they should make their own judgement and face the social consequences of wearing offensive costumes. The students took this response offensively as they thought freedom of speech should be regulated by the school. The professor did not agree. Basically the professor was trying to make a point about freedom of speech and it back-fired on him. | [
"In 2015, a series of protests at the University of Missouri related to race, workplace benefits, and leadership resulted in the resignations of the president of the University of Missouri System and the chancellor of the flagship Columbia campus. The moves came after a series of events that included a hunger strik... |
why does driving the same speed feel much faster when it's dark than when it's light | Your field of vision is much shorter at night (the length of your headlights), so things appear to move by you quickly. During the day you see things further down the horizon. | [
"BULLET::::- The loss of night vision because of the accommodation reflex of drivers' eyes is the greatest danger. As drivers emerge from an unlighted area into a pool of light from a street light their pupils quickly constrict to adjust to the brighter light, but as they leave the pool of light the dilation of the... |
If I put a flashlight in space, would it propel itself forward by "shooting out" light? | Yes, very slowly.
Light has momentum, even though it is massless, so if you shoot a beam of light in one direction, conservation of momentum will push you in the opposite direction.
A reasonably powerful LED flashlight will use about 1-3 Watt, lets say 3 W. The efficiency of a LED is somewhere between 25% and 40%, so for sake of ease of computation lets make that 33% and we get a net amount of light output of 1 W.
The ratio between the momentum and energy of light is 299,792,458 (Which is also the speed of light). So in 1 second, the flashlight produces 1 J worth of light, which is equal to 0.33 * 10^-8 kg m/s. If the flashlight is not too heavy, say 100 gram or 0.1 kg, that means that 1 second of light would propel the flashlight to a velocity of 10^-7 m/s. This assumes that all light is directed in straight line. The more cone-shaped the bundle of light is, the lower the momentum transfer is.
Leaving the light on for one day would propel the flashlight to about 0.009 m/s or almost 1 cm per second. Unfortunately, operating a 3 W LED for a day uses about 260 kJ of energy. Regular AA batteries have somewhere around 10 kJ of energy (depending on the type). And at a weight of 20-30 grams per battery, you can't carry put more than 2-3 in the device without violating our original assumption of a 100 gram device. | [
"In 1913, Georges Sagnac showed that if a beam of light is split and sent in two opposite directions around a closed path on a revolving platform with mirrors on its perimeter, and then the beams are recombined, they will exhibit interference effects. From this result Sagnac concluded that light propagates at a spe... |
how debt/credit card transactions work | It goes to a service called "Fedwire". Everyone has different banks, so the backbone is a service provided by the Fed that "clears" transactions.
You swipe your card and Target's bank infrastructure, say its Chase, needs your money from BoA. The data is sent about transaction to Fedwire over internet/phone lines when you swipe on the scanner since they need BoA to release your money. This is handled digitally through Fedwire, which is why it is known as an "Automated Clearing House". It simply allows the banks to interact digitally.
The idea of having this central structure, rather than each bank communicating each individual transaction to each other digitally is known as clearing. There are enormous amounts that cancel out. If Chase needs $150 from a BoA account, but other transactions are happening (other people swiping) that result in BoA needing $100 from Chase, BoA will only actually send $50 to Chase, the net amount. It is easier and cheaper to transfer the net amount rather than the total amounts twice (one transaction vs two).
EDIT: this is for debit | [
"In many countries, when a customer submits an application for credit from a bank, credit card company, or a store, their information is forwarded to a credit bureau. The credit bureau matches the name, address and other identifying information on the credit applicant with information retained by the bureau in its ... |
how does a smartphone compass app works if a magnet (in the speakers) are so close to them? | Because the magnets in the speakers don't need to be very strong and as such aren't going to impact the readings very much. For any impact they do have you can also calibrate the magnetic sensor to ignore it from the speakers as that will be constant and always on a single dimension where most smartphone compasses measure the magnetic field in all 3 spacial dimensions (meaning you will get an X, Y, and Z value) | [
"A magnetometer is built-in since the iPhone 3GS, which is used to measure the strength and direction of the magnetic field in the vicinity of the device. Sometimes certain devices or radio signals can interfere with the magnetometer requiring users to either move away from the interference or re-calibrate by movin... |
why is it that when we get hit or injured pretty bad we faint? what is it that makes our brain kinda shut down in that moment? | One reason is that basically the brain is floating in water inside our skulls and if the the blow is strong enough to push the brain with enough momentum to bounce on part of the skull to another and the brain gets short circuited.
Another reason is that a certain amount of pain and/stress is too much to handle and our hearts are beating too fast because its in fight/flight mode and our brain shuts off to prevent us from dying via heart attack. | [
"Fainting can be caused by excessive parasympathetic and vagal activity that slows the heart and decreases perfusion of the brain. The sympathetic irritant effect is exploited to counteract these vagal parasympathetic effects and thereby reverse the faint.\n",
"It can cause dizziness, lightheadedness, headache, b... |
How tall was Jesus Christ? |
There is no literary or other ancient evidence that directly bears on this question, so one is forced to speculate based on average heights of people in antiquity.
The only article I've ever seen address this is a 2002 issue of Popular Mechanics, which suggests that based on skeletal remains a 1st century Semitic male would be 5'1". You can read [the article here](_URL_0_). | [
"\"Jesus de Greatest\" is tall and weighs 40 tons. It stands barefoot with both arms outstretched, and was carved out of white marble. It was unveiled on January 1, 2016. Mass was held at St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Abajah with the presiding of the bishop of Orlu Catholic Diocese, Ret. Rev. Augustine Ukwuoma with... |
if modern computers are so extremely powerful, how can it take more than 30 hours to render one frame of cg in a movie? | Because 30 hours is the sweet spot. Frames took 30 hours to render 20 years ago, despite the lower computing power available at the time.
If it took more time it would be very annoying to work with, and if it took less time, we could do more in CG^[1], run a more accurate simulation, or build more complex shots without it becoming unworkable
Your question might be why does it takes 30 hours to render a frame when video games can do it in a fraction of a second. The answer is that to get results good enough to be composited seamlessly with reality requires very very precise (and thus compute intensive) light and physic simulations. Video games also do make many concessions to run fast (typically there is a hard limit to the number of lights or objects you can get on screen, and if a scene needs more it simply get replaced by a scene that fit these criteria).
**************************
[1] Doing stuff in CG can often be cheaper, and more flexible than doing stuff practically. | [
"The bulk of computer processing power for rendering the film was donated by the BSU Xseed, a 2.1 TFLOPS Apple Xserve G5-based supercomputing cluster at Bowie State University. It reportedly took 125 days to render, consuming up to 2.8GB of memory for each frame.\n",
"In July 2011, Lindelof said that the film wou... |
Spanish Gold Inflation. | What essentially happened was that the Spanish became importers as opposed to exporters. Spain was so wealthy, that they simply paid for all of the goods they required from other European nations including textiles, weapons, ships even. Spain would simply buy it since they had enough wealth to outsource any internal development. This eventually led to their downfall as well, because at the turn of the industrial revolution Spain was so far behind the rest of Europe in terms of industry that they lost a lot of their stature and prestige.
I wouldn't say it became worthless, because they were using it to purchase all of their needs and the rest of Europe was more than happy to provide those services for Spain, but it eventually did lead to stunting the advancement of the nation itself. However, I am not an export in economics, so it may have had a larger economic affect than I am aware of | [
"Generally it is thought that this high inflation was caused by the large influx of gold and silver from the Spanish treasure fleet from the New World, including Mexico, Peru, and the rest of the Spanish Empire.\n",
"The withdrawal of the Bank of Spain's gold reserves to Moscow has been pointed out to be one of t... |
why are teslas super fast off the line and yet at a certain point a non-electric super car will catch up to it? | It's pretty simple, they have instant full torque at any RPM (where most automatic cars are at ~4000RPM or 1500RPM-3000RPM if turbo boosted), however, they are not powerful motors, at least not as powerful as a Lambo, meaning their horsepower isn't enough, plus, Tesla's are damn heavy, over 1000lb heavier. | [
"In a May 2013 interview with All Things Digital, Musk said that to overcome the range limitations of electric cars, Tesla is expanding its network of supercharger stations, tripling the number on the East and West coasts of the U.S. that June, with plans for more expansion across North America, including Canada, t... |
What causes of death allow or rule out organ donation? | In order to be declared brain dead there are a number of preconditions that must be met. These can vary slightly in different jurisdictions, but essentially there has to be a known disease process that has resulted in extensive brain damage. The damage must have involved the most basic parts of the brain, the brain stem, so that even the most primitive reflexes; those that control breathing, swallowing, pupillary response to light, are no longer functioning.
For an injury to cause brain death it usually is something that is effecting only the brain so that the other organs still function, and has not killed the patient outright, such that they have been placed on life support in the interim.
Head trauma, and strokes are common, as they will often lead to delayed swelling of the whole brain which will eventually cut off the brain's blood supply. A similar thing happens in people who have been starved of oxygen for too long, which you might see in people who have had the heart restarted after a long period of CPR.
| [
"Another major debate around organ donation concerns with the definition of death. Because if the accepted definition if death is \"incorrect,\" removing a heart from a donor who was established dead under the \"wrong\" criteria is tantamount to murder. With life-support and cardiopulmonary resuscitative technology... |
How do elements inside cells interact and move to the right places? | Most of the processes in the cell occur by diffusion. Meaning a lot of what is happening is random chance, but since cells are small and much more compact than textbooks and animations show, these processes can occur rather quickly.
Enzymes (the do-ers of the cell) don't really "know" what they're doing. They just do what they do until they are told to shop. Usually it's caused by a feedback mechanism. I guess a decent analogy would be if you were an enzyme who's job was to paint squares, you would keep painting squares until you either you run out of paint or squares. You could also be tapped on the shoulder and told to go home for the night (inhibited).
You're asking a lot of questions that have a complex background that would take pages to explain each one. I would recommend browsing around [this youtube channel](_URL_0_) for a good visual break down of a lot of your questions and more! | [
"Solid areas contain fibrous tissue islands or epithelium that interconnect through strands and sheets. The epithelial cells tend to move the nucleus away from the basement membrane to the opposite pole of the cell. This process is called \"reverse polarization\". Two main histological patterns most often occur: \"... |
if there is a bee in a car and the car is travelling at 50mph, does the bee have to fly faster than 50mph to move from the backseat to the front seat? | > does the bee have to fly faster than 50mph to move from the backseat to the front seat?
No. The bee flies by pushing against the air around it, and all of the air in the car is moving along with the car.
It's much the same as the fact that, even though the earth is rotating from west to east at hundreds of miles per hour (actual speed depends on the latitude), you don't have to run faster than a speeding bullet to take a step from west to east, because the ground you're walking on is moving along with the earth. | [
"BULLET::::- When landing, the ground becomes closer and therefore appears to be moving faster. By keeping the apparent velocity of the ground constant, the bee reduces its own velocity in a continuous manner.\n",
"Although capable of limited flight, it spends most of its time on the ground, and can run at speeds... |
"the loudness war", and its effect on music | There are loud and quiet parts in music. Every media format (especially digital ones) has some limit of maximum sound level, so loudness of entire track is determined by it's loudest part.
Most of music producers try to make music louder than their competitors to get the advantage on the radio, etc (people tend to prefer louder track to quieter, all else being equal). But once loudest part of the track achieves the maximum level, the only way to make track louder is dynamic compression. It makes quiet parts louder while loud parts remain the same.
As this competition progresses, mainstream music tracks become more and more compressed. It makes the music lose its dynamics. There are no more "very quiet-quiet-medium-loud-very loud" dynamics, music becomes just "loud and very loud".
This makes music sound tedious. Instead of nice "tension and release" we have just one continuos tension which is tiresome to listen to. Drums lose all the "punch" and sometimes even "clipping" occurs. | [
"The loudness war (or loudness race) refers to the trend of increasing audio levels in recorded music which reduces audio fidelity and, according to many critics, listener enjoyment. Increasing loudness was first reported as early as the 1940s, with respect to mastering practices for 7\" singles. The maximum peak l... |
What is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall? | Over the largest scales galaxies seem to arrange themselves in a foam like structure with the material we can see sitting where the bubble walls would be. Here is a [picture](_URL_0_) of a universe simulation to give you an impression.
The Great Wall in this would be a particular dense area. Our viewpoint is outside of it so it appears as a wall from where we are looking. If we where inside it would probably appear to look like more galaxies around us. | [
"The central tumulus is built from smaller rocks, and is thought to have been constructed after the surrounding walls were constructed. Connecting to it are four main stone walls. The first wall, shaped like a semicircle, is 50m in diameter and 1.5m wide. That wall is connected to a second one, an almost complete c... |
can some please explain what a information system architecture is? | It's basically a diagram of how they want a system or process or *whatever* to work. It's hard to define because it's a pretty vague thing to start with that you can take in many different directions. I bet if your teammates drew you a picture of what they're talking about it would work a lot better than trying to define it with words. | [
"The Information Architecture is the \"what\" of information systems which defines and organizes all information needed to perform business operations and describes the relationships among this information. The Functional Architecture is the \"how\" of information systems which defines and organizes the business fu... |
why is it considered more professional to be clean shaven? | Primary answer: Beards are easier maintained shaven than left to grow. Not having it there in the first place is considered professional since it implies that the person in question takes hygiene seriously by being willing to groom themselves every day.
Ancillary answer: Western cultures prefer cleanly shaven men to rugged ones for the reason indicated above. However, in places such as West Asia and Scandanavia, having a very large or substantial beard shows maturity and how "strong" a man is (i.e. it shows strong hormonal growth in that person). They are also status symbols elsewhere, depending upon what culture you ask. | [
"Since the mid-twentieth century, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has encouraged men to be clean-shaven, particularly those that serve in ecclesiastical leadership positions. The church's encouragement of men's shaving has no theological basis, but stems from the general waning of facia... |
What happens to all the hair that is shaved off or cut, how does it decompose? | Hair is a source of nitrogen, and can be composted to make a fertilizer. I've thrown pet hair in the compost bins for years.
I suspect that it might also, in larger quantities, help soil drainage (though I very well could be wrong about this). | [
"Temporary hair removal may last from several hours to several weeks, depending on the method used. These procedures are purely cosmetic. Depilation methods, such as trimming, shaving, and depilatories, remove hair to the level of the skin and produce results that last several hours to several days. Epilation metho... |
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