question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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How often did marriages made to stabilize political alliances actually succeed? Did they actually prevent future backstabbing? | Can you clarify about *when* and *where* you're asking? My assumption would be Medieval Europe, but if you could be clearer it would be appreciated. | [
"Divorce by either party severed the lawful family alliance that had been formed through the marriage; and remarriage might create an entirely new set of economically or politically useful alliances. Among the elite, husbands and wives might remarry several times. \n",
"Marriage restrictions that prohibited marry... |
why does trap rap music glorify gun violence? | > What is the rationale?
It sells records.
That's the only objective explanation, which is what ELI5 is for. If you want to complain about popular music, there are subs for that. | [
"Many critics feel that the album's lyrics glamorize gang violence. \"The Washington Post\" writer David Mills wrote: \"The hard-core street rappers defend their violent lyrics as a reflection of 'reality'. But for all the gunshots they mix into their music, rappers rarely try to dramatize that reality — a young ma... |
What was the German public's attitude towards "the Final Solution" in the years immediately following World War II? | The phrase "We didn't know" is used until today when you ask people who were alive during World War II. While that may be correct individually, it certainly isn't when you look at the german society of the time. Especially in the last months of the war people were directly confronted by death marches, by hundreds of corpses of Jews lying besides railroad tracks because the bodys were just thrown out of the wagons. And there are several sources of trains with everyday people passing Auschwitz (on their way to Krakow and so on) who stood up from their seats to watch the chimneys of Auschwitz-Birkenau with a feeling of anxious sensation.
After the war, as part of the denazification program, many Germans were forced to visit concentration camps or watch documentary films the Allies hat shot in the camps. There's this iconic image of captured soldiers in a cinema:
_URL_0_
Many, if not most, were shocked. In my interpretation, all of them were shocked because of the drastic imagery, some of what had happened and most because they now fully understood what had happened while they had done what they could to look away from it. Most Germans have in one way or the other made a profit of the persection of the Jews, by buying a company for a far too low price, by moving to this new, bigger apartment that was suddenly empty, by having one less competitor and so on. Not everyone of those who made a profit is guilty in a moral sense, but they all sure could have felt guilt.
The years after the war, however, were hard enough for Germans to survive because of hunger, cold and displacement. There wasn't much time to think about the Holocaust, there weren't definitive numbers of victims published. Many thought that the Allies exaggerated the atrocities to justify vile behaviour towards Germans and the occupation. Popular legends spread, such as the one that piles of dead bodies in the aforementioned movies weren't from Auschwitz, but from Dresden, which the Allies had bombed. This isn't strict Holocaust denial, but it is a root of it.
The twelve years of Goebbels' antisemitic propaganda hadn't just disappeared. Many people, wether they liked it or not, were deeply antisemitic. My mothers great-aunt once told her about being invited at a friend's friend's family in the early 1950s, having a nice dinner, having a lot of laughter and, when they said goodbye, discovering that those people she had dined with were Jews. Even though she liked them, she threw up as soon as she was out of the house.
There are some surveys, done by OMGUS, on german attitudes towards National Socialism. In August 1947, 55% said that National Socialism was a good idea that hadn't been executed well. 35% said it was a bad idea. Even in 1952, 37% of all western Germans said it would be better for Germany if there were no Jews in the country.
Many people tried to cope with that kind of guilt by just doing what they had done prior to 1945: looking away, agreeing to some kind of non-genocidal antisemitism, claiming amnesia or ignorance. | [
"The term \"Final Solution\" was a euphemism used by the Nazis to refer to their plan for the annihilation of the Jewish people. Historians have shown that the usual tendency of the German leadership was to be extremely guarded when discussing the Final Solution. Euphemisms were, in Mark Roseman's words, \"their no... |
What do we know about the bathroom habits of American Indians? | Generally they buried it. We often find coprolites (what archaeologists call poop) near or in trash middens and pits. It's actually one reason we like studying middens, because coprolites are a great way to analyze diet and certain types of disease in historical populations. I've even seen the poop content of middens used to estimate Hohokam populations in Phoenix.
With that being said, occasionally coprolites are found in less *respectful* places. That's the kind of crap archaeologists spend years arguing over. | [
"The tabò (TAH-boh) is the traditional Filipino hygiene tool primarily for cleansing, bathing, and cleaning the floor of the bathroom. The tabo could most commonly be found in the provinces though it is also widely used in the cities.\n",
"In Canadian English, public facilities are frequently called \"washrooms\"... |
On light and shadows | Honestly, I cannot answer your question accurately without actually seing the lights or experiencing it myself.
What I can say though, is that maybe the "no difference in illumination" that your eyes see is some saturation. And since it was a night, it makes more sense that your eyes could 'saturate' and not notice a difference.
Also, The reason that they make such a sharp circle, is that the head of the lamp probably has a casing around it with reflective material, just like headlights on a car. These can be parabolic mirrors of some kind, that work to "steer" light. You can imagine, all the light coming out of the bulb has 2 parts. Half that just spreads everywhere in a hemi-sphere, and another half that gets shaped and reflected back. | [
"A shadow is a dark (real image) area where light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object. It occupies all of the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette, or a reverse projection of the object blocking the light.\n... |
Was the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina a predictable event? | Looking backwards, it probably was predictable, but with hindsight almost anything is. Ethnic tensions were present, but they were seldom a key issue, until they became acute. As ethnic history of the area is as much a history of cooperation than conflict, or even more so, existing tensions as a predictor of ethnic cleansing really only works in hindsight. In late Yugoslav decades, ethnic relations were often a point of concern, but seldom were they perceived as a immediate and potentially dangerous issue. Outside Yugoslavia, an image of Yugoslavia as an successful multi-ethnic state (if not at the same time as of successful socialist one) was quite prominent, so analysts that predicted ethnic violence, if there were any, really came into their own only after the fact. Finally, it is worth noting that ethnic violence was more of a consequence of how Yugoslavia was falling apart, of nationalism that replaced socialism as an legitimation principle, than the cause of the break up.
With all that being said, and keeping in mind that predictions with hindsight are easily made, there were some clues to possible ethnic violence. War against "Turks" (Ottoman Empire) were an important common point of Yugoslav history, at least for two dominant nations, Serbs and Croats, more so for the first, but important for the second as well. "Turks" here is an important reference, because in most popular speech it was used as an ethnic marker, rather than political-imperial one of "Ottomans". Also, by common popular connections, "Turk" and "Turkish" were often identified with both muslim and Muslim. Within standard Yugoslav notation, lower-case muslim denoted a religious affiliation, while capital case denoted the people/nation (later named Bosniaks). Possible implication of that Turk-Muslim-Bosniak identification was that they were a foreign, introduced element and therefore also a prime target for cleansing. But again, it would be very difficult to make that argument for the danger of ethnic violence, before it actually occurred.
Another possible predictor would be an emerging ethno-nationalist legitimation principle, gradually ever more important during the 1980s. If ethnic majority would be an argument for new borders in the case of the break-up (replacing those set up in 1943, or rather 1945), than significantly mixed areas had the potential to become sites of ethnic cleansing. However, both predictions would first require a prediction of Yugoslav break-up, something that was not often considered. Than, it would require that borders were questioned, while if there even was any thought about the break-up, preservation of AVNOJ borders was mostly assumed. | [
"Ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina happened on a larger scale than in the RSK, and all the major ethnic groups became victims of ethnically motivated violence. The conflict produced a vast number of displaced persons. It is estimated that there were over a million refugees in areas of Bosnia and Herzegovin... |
what do college and nfl head coaches do? | Head coaches are the overall strategists. They are the main voice on the sideline and many even call plays.
Whilst the defensive co-ordinator and offensive co-ordinator are responsible for their own "side of the ball", the HC is responsible for the grand strategy, and personnel desicions.
He is also the team's official representative to the referees, with the ability to throw challenge flags. | [
"Coaches and game officials were supplied by the NFL. Head coaches in the game were assistant coaches with NFL teams who did not advance to the postseason; Jonathan Hayes of the Cincinnati Bengals for the East team, and Bobby Johnson of the Oakland Raiders for the West team.\n",
"Many of the teams are coached by ... |
could a woman take testosterone supplements while pregnant to increase the chances of the child being a boy? | No. Sex is not a hormonal issue, it's a genetic one. Your sex is determined based upon whether the sperm cell that fertilized your mother's egg had an X or a Y chromosome. No amount of testosterone will change that. | [
"Causes of stress during gestation, such as maternal malnutrition generally appear to increase fetal deaths particularly among males, resulting in a lower boy to girl ratio at birth. Also, higher incidence of Hepatitis B virus in populations is believed to increase the male to female sex ratio, while some unexplain... |
During the British Raj in India, which lasted around 89 years, how common was it that a Brit would marry an Indian? | Brits of what I would describe as Officer status tended to stop marrying Indians around the period from 1815-1825, ish. Before then it was very common, including Indian men marrying British women. Indeed, until the mid-Eighteenth century nearly all Brits in India who married would have married an Indian or an Anglo-Indian, or a "Portuguese", by which they meant somebody who was genuinely Portuguese, or who was an Indian Christian, who were mostly descendants of earlier Portuguese. By the 1820s more British women were coming to India, and there was also more chance of Brits being able to seriously consider the chance of coming home to Britain rather than dying in India. Consequently, marrying another Brit became both more possible and, possibly, more desirable. Certainly, by the 1830s Officer Class Brits were most unlikely to marry an Indian. Brits of lower status never stopped marrying Indians, or Anglo-Indians, right up to the end of British India.
_URL_0_ is pretty good on this area. | [
"By the mid-nineteenth century, there were around 40,000 British soldiers but fewer than 2000 British officials present in India. As British women began arriving to India in large numbers around the early-to-mid-nineteenth century, mostly as family members of British officers and soldiers, intermarriage with Indian... |
Was atheism a recognised way of thinking in the ancient world? | I would argue no, not in the modern sense. If I can paint with a broad brush for a moment, modern atheism is not the lack of belief, but rather the belief in rational explanation. To an ancient being without knowledge of the scientific method (and all that we found with it), a belief in something that explained the world would have been perfectly rational. So to be an atheist would require some explanation to understand how they were using the word.
However, there are fairly direct attestations. Socrates was supposedly put to death for something akin to the catholic concept of blasphemy—rejecting the athenian gods and worshiping his own. Now it seems that these charges were unfounded from Plato's account, but it's still clear from the resulting death sentence that public rejection of the beliefs of the surrounding people wasn't tolerated.
On the other hand, both Protagoras and Epicurus argued for a world view that centered around man—Protagoras argued directly against religion (and objective truth in general) and was exiled from Athens for similar charges to Socrates. Aristotle and Plato both recognized him as basically inventing relativism in a serious way, an ascription that has stayed with him today. Epicurus thought the way to direct your life was not to rely on powers outside yourself (for instance, the gods), but to seek happiness and pleasure and minimize pain—i.e. the modern roots of hedonism.
Both philosophers were well-recognized in the classical world, so yes, I think you can argue that secularism and rejection of religious dogma were very well recognized in the ancient world; However, as you can see from Socrates's and Protagoras's examples that it may not have been a popular form, leading to persecution if they feared it might "spread". | [
"Western atheism has its roots in pre-Socratic Greek philosophy, but atheism in the modern sense was nonexistent or extremely rare in ancient Greece. Pre-Socratic Atomists such as Democritus attempted to explain the world in a purely materialistic way and interpreted religion as a human reaction to natural phenomen... |
tesla vs. auto dealers | Its not really about Ford. Ford, Toyota, all the rest... they don't give a fuck what Tesla does. Hell Toyota OWNS 20% or so of Tesla. Their success is perfectly fine and the only thing the other big boys want is a slice of this new market Tesla is opening up.
Now the dealerships, they are a different story. They aren't owned by the car makers... they are independent. A while back the laws were written so that the big auto makers had to do business via these guys. Then it was to protect the consumer by not letting the auto-makers abuse their power... now, its because the dealerships make a lot of money.
20-30 years ago it wasn't possible to sell cars without a dealer. You needed locations, stock of cars, land, sales people. The dealerships provided that. Now though? Today, you can do all that shit from a computer. Tesla just needs a couple of cars around for test drives and then a computer to say "now order what you want and we'll get it to you".
The dealerships *are fucking terrified*. In one move Tesla is calling into question everything they exist for. If Tesla gets its way... how long before Ford or Toyota starts saying "you know... fuck you guys".
So they will fight it. The claim its to protect consumers, but I at least don't buy that. I think it comes down to money... and protecting a system that might be a remnant of a by-gone era. | [
"Tesla's strategy of direct customer sales and owning stores and service centers is different from the standard dealership model in the global vehicle marketplace. Tesla is the only automaker that sells cars directly to consumers; all others use independently-owned dealerships, although many provide online configur... |
how does extended release medicine work? | There are a variety of mechanisms used.
For many, it's just a coating that delays digestion or absorption. It might be done in layers, or if it's a capsule, the individual pellets inside the capsule might have different coatings or thicknesses of coatings.
Other medicines use an insoluble casing with a microscopic hole that limits how fast stomach acid can enter and the medication leave the casing. [Concerta](_URL_0_) for example uses a substance that absorbs water through a semi-permeable membrane, expands as a result, and forces the medication out. | [
"Sustained-release dosage forms are dosage forms designed to release (liberate) a drug at a predetermined rate in order to maintain a constant drug concentration for a specific period of time with minimum side effects. This can be achieved through a variety of formulations, including liposomes and drug-polymer conj... |
Low Earth Orbit question. | Conway-Prussing [1] derives formulas to compute the effect of generic perturbations on a spacecraft's [orbital elements](_URL_2_). In particular, it can be shown that the orbit's semimajor axis, a, obeys
\dot a=2a^3/2 \mu^-1/2 (1-e^2)^ -1/2 [R e sin(f)+T (1+e cos(f)]
where f is the true anomaly, R and T are the radial and tangential components of the perturbing acceleration respectively.
Similar formulas can be derived (it's just tedious geometry with some dynamics thrown in) for all orbital elements and also for perturbations in a reference frame aligned with the satellite's velocity.
Now, if the orbit is nearly circular, the eccentricity is nul (e=0) and atmospheric drag acts along the tangential direction (for noncircular orbits you'd have to use equations built in the satellite's velocity frame). Therefore
R=0
T=1/2 \rho C_d A v^2 /m
where rho is the atmospheric density (which depends on altitude), C_d is the satellite's drag coefficient (which loosely depends on Mach and Reynolds number but can be considered as constant), A is the sat's area, m is its mass and v is the velocity. We like to call \beta=(C_d A/m) the satellite's ballistic coefficient.
Now, for a nearly circular orbit
v=\sqrt{mu/a}
where mu=G*M is the Earth's [gravitational parameter](_URL_1_).
You therefore get
\dot a = - (\mu a)^1/2 \rho C_d A/m
You can now plug in an [atmospheric model](_URL_0_) giving you rho(h) and integrate numerically. Actually, to make things rigourous, you should also integrate equations for \dot e and \dot f, as they will be affected by perturbations to some extent (the perturbation may make the orbit noncircular). This method should, however, give you a surprisingly good ballpark estimate of the satellite's lifetime.
The greatest uncertanty lies in the atmospheric model: the atmospheric density profile is strongly influenced by solar activity (which roughly follows an 11-year cycle), latitude and season. This can introduce *huge* uncertanties in your calculations. Typically, if you want your s/c to survive 16 years, you stay above 800-1000 km, where atmospheric drag is not much of a concern.
[1] John E. Prussing, Bruce A. Conway (1993) Orbital Mechanics, Oxford University Press | [
"A high Earth orbit is a geocentric orbit with an altitude entirely above that of a geosynchronous orbit (). The orbital periods of such orbits are greater than 24 hours, therefore satellites in such orbits have an apparent retrograde motion – that is, even if they are in a prograde orbit (90° inclination ≥ 0°), t... |
emdrive. why does this violate newton's third law and how does it work? | Conventional rockets work on Newton's Third Law, or simplified: you can't push yourself forward without pushing something else back. When you jump in the air, you're pushing the Earth away with the same amount of force that's launching you into the air. But because the Earth is so many millions of times heavier than you, the amount it moves away from you is immeasurably small. A rocket pushes itself forward by pushing exhaust out from behind it. Each individual gas particle is small, but all of them moving together very quickly in the same general direction are enough to push the rocket the other direction.
the EMDrive supposedly works by generating a resonance of microwaves inside a conical chamber. Supposedly, and without getting into graduate-level physics, the resonance is stronger at one end of the cone because it's concentrated down, and the sum of the forces is a very very small but nonzero value. In effect, that would mean that they are producing force without expending exhaust mass.
It's important you know that the EMDrive almost certainly doesn't work. The force that was measured was extremely small, and it is far more likely that some other variable was generating a phantom force than that the engine is working as intended. | [
"The proposed theory for how the EmDrive works violates the conservation of momentum, which states any interaction cannot have a net force; a consequence of the conservation of momentum is Newton's third law, where for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The conservation of momentum is a symmetry ... |
what would happen if i ate nothing but cat/dog food for a month? | 10lb of kibbles and bits is a bit lean for a month. I could eat that much in a single sitting!
Seriously. You're an omnivore and there's enough carbs and protein to pull you through. Lost at sea for a month and your bigger concern will be water. Oh, and the tiger.
Dry cat and dog food are really just greazy-assed meat flavored breakfast cereal.
I'd be face down in a vat of capn crunch within minutes of getting off that boat. | [
"One of the reasons a cat may stop eating is separation anxiety and the emotional stress that results. Moving, gaining or losing housemates or pets, going on vacation, or prolonged boarding are all common situations that pet owners report just prior to the onset of the disease, but it may develop without these cond... |
Can fish live in space with no water? | what a fun question! lemme give it a stab!
I would say, it depends a bit on how the fish breathes. (and, this is operating under the assumption that said fish is hanging out on a space station, where there's no gravity, but there is oxygen!). A lot of fish breath via something called "ram ventilation" where they swim with their mouth open, and water flows in to the mouth and over the gills. so! our hypothetical space-fish has to be able to move forward relatively quickly in air. uh-oh, that might be tough. but ok, let's assume that works. then there's the issue of getting the air to flow over the gills at a good rate. here, we're faced with a fluid dynamics problem that we can simplify to something called the reynold's number: essentially, the ratio between the tendency for a fluid to stick together and the tendency for that fluid to keep moving. syrup, for example, is really viscous, and so has a really low reynolds number. air is not viscous, and has a higher reynolds number. water's somewhere in the middle. thanks to this property, water and air are going to move pretty differently over the gill slits (assuming a gill slit of 1 cm, the Re is about 11,000 in water, while it's about 700 in air!). so, flow over the gills is going to be much smoother in water than air. that's a problem if we want to maximize contact between the capillaries in the gills and the outside medium, to maximize oxygen exchange.
my caveat at the beginning was that it depends on how they breath, right? some fish use a 'buccal pump' method, where they'll take a big sachet of water in the mouth, close the mouth, and then squeeze that water over the gill slits and out. this method could help in these circumstances, because it increases the velocity of the medium flowing over the gills. and reynolds number also changes with velocity! so, the faster air is moving, the more likely it will stick together and maintain a smooth flow. so, hypothetically, a buccal pumping fish could pull this off - although I'd imagine the squeezing power required to get air moving at a good enough speed isn't possible, given that this breathing method evolved in water. | [
"Any other sea (or water) creatures which are not fish, therefore, are also haram (forbidden), whether they breathe oxygen from water through gills (such as prawns, shrimp, lobsters and crabs which are crustaceans) and especially if they breathe oxygen from air through lungs (such as sea turtles and sea snakes whic... |
What is the difference between NMR and MRI, and what exactly are they? | Same thing. People got scared of "nuclear magnetic resonance" so it was renamed to "magnetic resonance imaging". MRIs work by applying an extremely strong magnetic field to align the proton spins of hydrogen in the body, and then applying a radio signal which flips the protons. When the radio signal is turned off, the protons flip back to their previous state, and this flipping generates another radio signal that is measured by antennas in the scanner.
NMR can be used with nuclei besides hydrogen, such as [hyperpolarized carbon-13](_URL_0_), but hydrogen is part of water, fat, proteins, and other molecules found in soft tissue, so it's a good pick for making detailed images that have valuable information. | [
"Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves to generate images of the organs in the body. MRI does not involve X-rays... |
do airplanes have manual/automatic transmissions? how do they work without them (rpm speed/redlining)? | Airplanes do not have transmissions in the car sense; the fan/propeller just has one "gear". There may be a gearbox to match the core speed to the fan/propeller speed but you can't "shift" it. If you push the thrust lever all the way forward the engine will go to maximum thrust for the conditions (basically, redline itself). All modern large engines have full authority computers that will generally not let the engine hurt itself.
A modern jet engine has one control, the thrust lever (analogous to a gas pedal). The normal gauges are:
N1 or Pressure Ratio: funny units but basically measures how much thrust the engine is making.
N2/N3: engines have multiple rotors inside. They can have different speeds.
Exhaust Gas Temperature: what it sounds like
Oil pressure and temperature: self explanatory
Vibration: how off balance the engine is
Fuel flow: kg or lbs per hour
The engine has a very sophisticated computer that measures and records many more parameters but those are not normally shown to the flight crew. | [
"An autothrottle (automatic throttle, also known as autothrust, A/T) is a system that allows a pilot to control the power setting of an aircraft's engines by specifying a desired flight characteristic, rather than manually controlling the fuel flow. The autothrottle can greatly reduce the pilots' work load and help... |
Has the US Military ever contracted out their man power? | Smedley Butler claimed we used American military power at the behest of corporations in the Caribbean and Latin America. Others, like Stephen Kinzer in "Overthrow", claim that we've gone as far as to oust democratically elected governments solely to install or keep in power ones that are friendly with American business interests. Now none of these ever claim direct evidence to cash in exchange for services compared to say a PMC like Blackwater (Xe, Academi, etc).
EDIT: I mistakenly cited "War Is A Racket" as being about the Banana Wars when it was more focused on war profiteering in WWI. | [
"With fear of a war to come, the United States has instituted compulsory military service with one and half million men being drafted. Armament and munitions factories also receive contracts to produce the weapons of war, with warships, tanks and aircraft constantly rolling off production lines to meet the requirem... |
how quantitive easing works (lsap)? | Quantitative easing is a way for central banks to increase the money supply and make it easier for banks to lend money.
When governments need cash in the short term, they often sell bonds. Bonds are essentially IOUs where the government agrees to pay you back with a little bit of interest in the future if you give them cash up front.
Investors like to hold bonds because in the case of reliable governments, they're very reliable investments. If a bank is holding billions of dollars of bonds, it shows up as an asset on the balance sheet, but they can't really do anything with it since it's not liquid.
QE is the idea that the central bank will buy bonds on the open market. They essentially turn the illiquid asset (the bond) into a liquid asset (cash), which the banks can then use to lend other people money.
QE also keeps the interest rates low, because it's easier for banks to get liquid cash (they just have to sell bonds). If it's easy and cheap for banks to get cash, competition between banks forces interest rates down. Since the bottom limit of the cost of money is so low, interest lates in turn become lower. | [
"Quantitative easing (QE), also known as large-scale asset purchases, is a monetary policy whereby a central bank buys predetermined amounts of government bonds or other financial assets in order to inject liquidity directly into the economy. An unconventional form of monetary policy, it is usually used when inflat... |
How did the Austro-Hungarian military manage to organize such a linguistically diverse army? | The Army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was split into three parts; only one of which would be strongly linguistically diverse.
First you have the Imperial-Royal Landwehr drawn from German speaking regions, and then you have the Royal Hungarian Honved (usually just called the Honved), which was drawn from the Hungarian side (and also included Croatian units). These parts of the K.u.K army were relatively linguistically homogeneous.
Then we have Common Army which is everyone else. A-H had conscription form 1866 for a period of 2 years frontline (12 total).
German was the 'official' language of command and control, and the average solider learned 100 words of German to understand his officers. (only 28% of the population was Austro-German).
The regiments then had a 'regimental' language; the language the majority of the soldiers spoke. Officers had to learn this language.
Overall, this didn't exactly make for an easy time commanding troops. However the linguistics were less of a concern than the rampant nationalism that would plague the K.u.K armies at the end of the war.
Sources:
Osprey Men at Arms Vol The Austro Hungarian forces of WWI vols. 1 & 2, Jung, Peter
The First World War and the End of The Habsburg Monarchy, Rauchensteiner, M
| [
"The Austro-Hungarian Army (; ) was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army (\", \"Common Army\", recruited from all parts of the country), the Imperial Austrian Landwehr (recruited from Cisleithania), and the Royal Hungarian Honvéd (r... |
diamonds - cut, clarity, color & carats oh my | What do you mean what matters the most by cut?
I wouldn't buy online even from a reputable dealer myself, but it is safe as long as its a reputable dealer. I want to see exactly what I am getting when it comes to things like this. | [
"The luster of a diamond is described as 'adamantine', which simply means diamond-like. Reflections on a properly cut diamond's facets are undistorted, due to their flatness. The refractive index of diamond (as measured via sodium light, 589.3 nm) is 2.417. Because it is cubic in structure, diamond is also isotropi... |
what would happen if the us ran out of money? | > ELI5 isn't a guessing game; if you aren't confident in your explanation, please don't speculate.
yeah unanswerable question | [
"During severe financial crises, sometimes governments close banks. Depositors may be unable to withdraw their money for long periods, as was true in the United States in 1933 under the Emergency Banking Act. Withdrawals may be limited. Bank deposits may be involuntarily converted to government bonds or to a new cu... |
How similar were the kingdoms of Israel and Judah to their neighbors in the ancient Near East? | #Religion:
The religion in Ancient Israel and Judah could be called a forerunner to Judaism. The majority of the people were monotheistic, and followed God, whom they called Yahweh. The main language of Judah and Israel was ancient Hebrew.
Most early semites were polytheistic. For example the neighboring Kingdom of Moab was polytheistic, with the chief god known as Chemosh. The Book of Numbers states that the Moabites induced the Israelites to partake in their sacrifices. King Solomon even built a "high place" for Chemosh on the hill before Jerusalem. These nations all partook in similar religious activities, and, over time, their religions seemed to unify together.
#Politics:
Most of the neigbors of Israel and Judah had similar political systems, being monarchies. Some of these include the Kingdom of Moab, the Kingdom of Edom, the Kingdom of Ammon, and the Kingdom of Arab Damascus.
After Israel divided into two Kingdoms, Edom became a dependency of Judah. The King of Edom was most likely and Israelite that was appointed by Judah.
The Philistines are one of the major antagonists in the Bible, and seemed to be the greatest enemy of the Israelites. They seemed to be in a perpetual state of war with the Israelites, and the famous Bible story of David (Israelite) and Goliath (Philistine) shows the violence between them. In the Bible, God directed Moses in his exodus so that he would specifically divert the Philistines.
The Politics of the Philistines were different. Philistia was a Pentapolis comprising Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza. These cities were in a federation.
#Culture:
This is similar to religion, as in that time, religion and culture went hand in hand. Almost every country had their own form of religion. At that point, the cultures of Israel, Judah, and their neighbors were much more similar than they were after the next few centuries. The Edomites were eventually converted to Judaism when it became a more solidified religion. Before then, they most likely partook in the activities of the Canaanite religion.
Much of the information that supplies the facts that we know about the time period comes from the Bible.
Sources:
Fahlbusch, Erwin; Bromiley, Geoffrey William (2005). The Encyclopedia of Christianity, Volume 4:
_URL_0_
Ahituv, Shmuel. Echoes from the Past: Hebrew and Cognate Inscriptions from the Biblical Period. Jerusalem, Israel: Carta, 2008
Jeremiah Chapter 48
Tubbs, Jonathan (2006)"The Canaanites" | [
"The kingdoms of Israel and Judah were Iron Age Semitic nations spanning from Edom to Assyria. Today the modern State of Israel controls much of the former territory of the ancient Israelite/Judean kingdoms. According to the Deuteronomic history in the Bible, the polities of Israel and Judah originally split off fr... |
where did all these black people stereo types start from? (watermelon,grape whatever etc..) | They started from racist thought, the process of noticing something one person does and applying it to their entire race.
The human mind tends to do this. (It an example of categorical thinking.) There's a branch of mathematics called statistics that deals with measuring how valid categorical thought is.
One of the things you learn quite quickly in statistics is that the human mind does *not* do a very good job of measuring the validity of its own generalizations.
Try to understand the [Simpson Paradox](_URL_0_). Hurts, doesn't it? That's because statistically valid logic isn't intuitive.
And that's where stereotypes come from. | [
"Numerous artists have written and/or recorded their own versions of this African-American traditional song, including Jacques Wolfe, a Romanian immigrant, and Avery Robinson who popularized \"Water Boy\" as a jazz song in the 1920s. From 1949 onwards, many blues and folk artists have performed their own arrangemen... |
What do the units in some of the more abstract physical constants mean? Do they have physical meaning, or are defined that way to make the units cancel properly? | [One of the reasons for those seemingly abstract units is its convenience in checking.](_URL_0_) | [
"While there are several other physical constants, these three are given special consideration, because they can be used to define all Planck units and thus all physical quantities. The three constants are therefore used sometimes as a framework for philosophical study and as one of pedagogical patterns.\n",
"Non... |
Do bugs get sick like we do, like get a cold? | An insect can't get a cold like we do because they don't have a respiratory tract that's anything like ours....but they can get infections (get sick). Just about every organism on the planet can get sick, from bacteria to trees.
Insects can catch a whole range of bacteria, parasites, and viruses. We even hijack one of the viruses that tends to infect insects (Baculovirus) in the lab to get insect cells in culture to make stuff for us. | [
"The live bugs with their now empty stink glands are then boiled in water. Further sorting is done afterwards. Dead bugs which died before they could release all their chemicals can be distinguished from the 'clean' bugs by their blackened abdomens after boiling. These are also rejected. The remaining bugs are then... |
what is the interaction of a drug with a human & how is it different person to person & species to species? | Imagine a drug as a key. This key can only fit inside a certain lock. That lock is a receptor in your body. Then the drug (key) binds to the receptor (lock) the drug exerts its effects. From person to person there are subtle differences in the receptor that can make the drug work better or worse. When you change species the receptor can change greatly and as a result the key no longer fits in the lock. | [
"There are many causes of drug interactions. For example, one drug may alter the pharmacokinetics of another. Alternatively, drug interactions may result from competition for a single receptor or signaling pathway.\n",
"Oxcarbazepine, licarbazepine and many other common drugs influence each other through interact... |
exactly how does a bullet proof vest only last five years? | The Kevlar fibres in such vests are set with a 5 year "good for" life. After that the integrity of the vest is variable so setting that limit saves liability for manufacturers. | [
"Bulletproof vests work by dissipating the bullet's energy in another way; the vest's material, usually Aramid (Kevlar or Twaron), works by presenting a series of material layers which catch the bullet and spread its imparted force over a larger area, hopefully bringing the round to a stop before it can penetrate i... |
why, in old movies, do they make light fall across an actor's or an actress' eyes? | Have you noticed the "soft"***(3)*** lighting used in Star Trek TOS***(5)*** as well? (Examples [here](_URL_1_), [here](_URL_5_), and [here](_URL_4_)) It's all about intent to evoke certain responses. In this case, "beautiful" women were given the soft lighting to emphasize their inherent "softness". A shot like this was usually included when a female guest star was first introduced on camera, or was supposed to seem vulnerable.***(4)***
As for the bar across the eyes, it's a production technique designed to impress a sense of urgency and emotive intimacy on the viewer. Take a look at [this article](_URL_6_). The author writes "the movement of our eyes reflects our inner thoughts and emotions" and while that may or may not be true (as with nearly all claims like this, it is likely a partial truth) it was certainly a strong school of thought in the 60's. If indeed much of an actor's emoting can be perceived through the eyes, lighting them as such draws the viewers focus pretty dramatically and emphasizes the action on that part of the face.
Also, remember that at the time, viewing resolution was *extremely* limited, especially on black and white TVs. Star Trek was specifically produced with this in mind, and it was designed and lit for both color and black/white screens.
**Semi-Relevant Edit:** My absolute favorite ridiculous TOS lighting choice was in "The Enemy Within". The way they lit/shot "Evil" Kirk was fucking amazing. (Examples: [Here](_URL_3_) (the character's introduction btw - [he spins around on the transporter pad and it zooms in on his face](_URL_0_)) and [here](_URL_2_).)
**Edit 2** I also just noticed for the *first time* (I've probably seen that episode 15 times) that Shatner actually mugs directly into the camera *just* as it fades to black. I'm dying.
**Edit 3** Someone called me out on this not actually being soft lighting. I always just used that term to describe it because the faces look... well... soft. But yes, it's a camera filter. I guess soft lighting is an actual specific term that means something else.
**Edit 4** As a few people have noted, this effect was also used to hide blemishes and wrinkles in the skin.
**Edit 5** For some reason, OP removed their post description, but they specifically referenced having watched an episode of Star Trek TOS which is what prompted them to ask this question. That's why my reply talks about Star Trek so much. | [
"Jerry Lewis wrote in his 1971 book \"The Total Filmmaker\", “Some film-makers believe you should never have an actor look directly into the camera. They maintain it makes the audience uneasy, and interrupts the screen story. I think that is nonsense, and usually I have my actors, in a single, look direct into the ... |
How was king Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia able to have more than four wives? | I don't think he ever had more than four at once. | [
"In accordance with the customs of his people, Abdul Aziz headed a polygamous household comprising several wives and concubines. According to some sources, he had twenty-two consorts. Many of his marriages were contracted in order to cement alliances with other clans, during the period when the Saudi state was foun... |
could we use nuclear winter to counteract global warming? | No. Very simply, global warming is when there is so much stuff in the atmosphere that heat is trapped in. Nuclear winter is when there is even more stuff in the atmosphere and no heat can get in. In a really extreme case, global warming could become as bad as nuclear winter. | [
"Nuclear winter is the severe and prolonged global climatic cooling effect hypothesized to occur after widespread firestorms following a nuclear war. The hypothesis is based on the fact that such fires can inject soot into the stratosphere, where it can block some direct sunlight from reaching the surface of the Ea... |
how is it that the direction you cut steak makes a difference in how tender it is? | Somebody will explain it better. But, because muscles are a large bunch of fibers, cutting against the grain (across the fibers) results in short pieces, easily separated by your chewing. Cutting with the grain (think pulled pork or shredded chicken) yields large sections of long fibers. | [
"butchering. These are basic sections from which steaks and other subdivisions are cut. The term \"primal cut\" is quite different from \"prime cut\", used to characterize cuts considered to be of higher quality. Since the animal's legs and neck muscles do the most work, they are the toughest; the meat becomes more... |
Maned lions are ubiquitous in English iconography, heraldry and lore. Given that the last of the European lions died out in Greece around 100 BCE, this seems strange. Did lions take on a more mythical character than biological reality in medieval British minds? | Various European monarchs kept Menageries - think of them as a sort of personal zoo. English Kings kept their Menagerie at the Tower of London. There are accounts in the medieval period of Polar Bears, Elephants, and yes, even Lions - oh my!*
According to Linda Kaloff in **Looking at Animals in Human History**, there are records of King John paying wages to "Lion-keepers" as early as 1210 (pg. 66). In Ross Barnett et al. *Ancient DNA analysis indicates the first English lions originated from North Africa* there were two lion skulls found in the Tower of London's moat which were carbon dated to between c.1280-1385 for the first, and c. 1420-1480 for the second.
*The Polar Bear was a gift from King Haakon of Norway in 1252 (described as a "white bear.") An elephant was a gift from King Louis IX of France in 1255, and we have a notice of three lions as a gift from the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in 1235. | [
"In the Middle Ages, when lions became a major element in heraldry, few Europeans had any chance to see actual lions. The lions were for them nearly as much legendary animals as were dragons or gryffins, which also commonly appeared on coats of arms.\n",
"Earlier heraldic writers attributed the lions of England t... |
What does it mean to be "Western" | Is this a homework or essay question? If so, please flag it as such. | [
"The phrase \"the West\" is often spoken in reference to the Western world, which includes the European Union (also the EFTA countries), the Americas, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and (in part) South Africa.\n",
"The term \"\"Western world\"\" is sometimes interchangeably used with the term First World or devel... |
Some people claim that US Milk consumption was made purposely and the government faked its benefits. How true is this about milk? | Could you please clarify what you mean by "US Milk consumption was purposely made"?
Regarding the government faking its benefits, it's difficult to prove a negative and so I can't say that at no point has the US (or any other) government overstated the benefits of milk, but there is consensus in the medical community that the consumption of milk can provide health benefits -along with some drawbacks, as with anything. Since there's not some Secret Conspiracy behind this, I hope you don't mind me going after it from a modern medical perspective.
As far as some benefits of milk go, it contains a significant amount of calcium and protein per serving, and in the US is also often fortified with vitamin D. Calcium and Vitamin D are both important for strengthening bones (one of the most often cited benefits of milk) and preventing health concerns such as Osteoporosis. Vitamin D has also been linked to reduced risk of mental health disorders such as depression, particularly seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
Protein on the other hand is very important for muscle growth and is found in milk in a form that's very simple for the body to metabolize and use quickly. That combined with the sugars found in milk make it a good recovery drink option for many after exercise. This is the reason for the popularity of so many milk-based protein shakes ie. 'Muscle Milk' and others.
Sugars and Fats in milk are macronutrients that should also be mentioned, particularly from the angle that Milk is heavily marketed towards children in schools- and not only by well-intentioned doctors. Despite the bad rep, both sugars and fats are very important for human functioning and caloric content, but as I'm sure everyone knows, can also become too much of a good thing. For children, especially young children and infants, milk is a very important source of fat which is needed for neurological development and functioning. However, milk does have a high sugar content as well, and the habit drinking too much milk (especially flavored and additionally sweetened milk) on a regular basis can contribute eventually to childhood obesity and other health concerns down the line. It's rarely, if ever, an issue from milk alone, but it can be a contributing factor as a fairly sugary drink.
To note with all of these nutrients, however, is that they are good for you in limited amounts and excessive consumption does not provide additional benefit. There are some arguments that in western countries, particularly the US, a large portion of the population consumes more calcium or especially protein, than the body can use. Milk is of course not the only source of any of these nutrients either. All can be found in a wide variety of other foods and beverages, and for individuals who are lactose intolerant or should avoid the sugar or fat content in milks, it is recommended that they look elsewhere. The National Osteoporosis Foundation page I've linked below lists a variety of good alternative sources for Vitamin D and Calcium as well.
TLDR: Milk is not a government conspiracy any more than vaccines are. But like any other food or source of nutrients, you don't benefit from consuming excess amounts of it and there are always alternative options to meet your dietary needs.
Accessible Sources:
Penckofer S, Kouba J, Byrn M, Estwing Ferrans C. Vitamin D and depression: where is all the sunshine?. Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2010;31(6):385–393.
_URL_2_
National Osteoporosis Foundation:
_URL_1_
John A. Milner, Richard G. Allison, The Role of Dietary Fat in Child Nutrition and Development: Summary of an ASNS Workshop, The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 129, Issue 11, November 1999, Pages 2094–2105,
_URL_0_ | [
"The importance of milk in human culture is attested to by the numerous expressions embedded in our languages, for example, \"the milk of human kindness\", the expression \"there's no use crying over spilt milk\" (which means don't \"be unhappy about what cannot be undone\"), \"don't milk the ram\" (this means \"to... |
What would you see if a black hole passed between you and a large star? | The phenomenon is called gravitational lensing. Have a read up on it, then feel free to ask follow-up questions. | [
"A black star with a radius slightly greater than the predicted event horizon for an equivalent-mass black hole will appear very dark, because almost all light produced will be drawn back to the star, and any escaping light will be severely gravitationally redshifted. It will appear almost exactly like a black hole... |
Are there any examples of positive side-effects from radiation? | There is also deliberate exposure to radiation in order to [treat cancers](_URL_0_). | [
"Ionizing radiation has deterministic and stochastic effects on human health. Deterministic (acute tissue effect) events happen with certainty, with the resulting health conditions occurring in every individual who received the same high dose. Stochastic (cancer induction and genetic) events are inherently random, ... |
What is the difference between wild dogs and wolves? | Genetics, or more specifically their DNA. If dogs were left feral and didn't interbreed with wolves or coyotes but only other feral dogs, even many many generations later, their descendants would still be dogs. Their DNA would confirm it.
Same with coyotes and wolves. Even if 'tamed' (not meaning domesticated) and only bred with their own kind, they'd still remain wolves or coyotes.
That being said, there are now hybrids, either done deliberating or from feral dogs interbreeding with wolves or with coyotes. There are now wolf-coyote hybrids. The [Eastern coyote](_URL_0_) actually has both wolf and coyote parentage.
Wolves and dogs can interbreed but that's usually deliberate from a person interfering though it occurs with in the wild too. The thing is each species prefers to mate with its own kind. Both male coyotes and wolves share in raising pups. Male dogs don't. The genetics of the North American canid family can be complicated and not all are recognised as separate species. Some are labeled hybrids and some as subspecies. Since all are closely related and all have 78 chromosomes, the genus *Canis* can readily interbreed. | [
"Wolf hunting with dogs is a method of wolf hunting which relies on the use of hunting dogs. While any dog, especially a hound used for hunting wolves may be loosely termed a \"wolfhound\", several dog breeds have been specifically bred for the purpose, some of which, such as the Irish Wolfhound, have the word in t... |
Can microbes travel upstream in flowing water? | Peeing in the woods is unlikely result in infection, as there is an air gap.
However peeing while swimming/wading in a contaminated natural body of water is known to result in infections:
[_URL_0_](_URL_0_) | [
"Under certain conditions bacteria can colonise freshwaters occasionally making large rafts of filamentous mats known as \"sewage fungus\" – usually \"Sphaerotilus natans\". The presence of such organisms is almost always an indicator of extreme organic pollution and would be expected to be matched with low dissolv... |
How did the government of the Dutch Republic work? | I'm Dutch myself and i just made a exam about that subject so il answer you're question
First of the dutch republic was more like a federation, you had 8 normal provinces and 2 General provinces (which had slightly more autonomy)
Thats why the official name of the dutch republic was *vereenigde provincies der nederlanden* or United provinces of the netherlands.
You know what, here is a picture of what my schoolbook has to say, fully english, because bilangual schools are awesome _URL_0_
| [
"The confederal structure of the old Dutch Republic was permanently replaced by a unitary state. The 1798 constitution had a genuinely democratic character, though a coup d'état of 1801 put an authoritarian regime in power. Ministerial government was introduced for the first time in Dutch history and many of the cu... |
Is there any data to show/explain trends in food allergies? Wheat, Nut, and so on - has there been an increase in afflicted people? | [This](_URL_0_) is the study Got-Engineers is referring to. The researchers took a historical look at stored blood from military people, tested it for Celiac disease, and compared it to a cohort of current military people. They did see an unexplained significant increase over 50 years in the number of people who have/had celiac disease. To the best of my knowledge, we still don't know why this is. The article has been cited [112 times](_URL_1_), so perhaps a follow up exists in there.
As for actual food allergies, no one really knows. It could be better diagnosis. It could be something to do with the hygiene hypothesis. It's like a combination of factors.
EDIT: This is what the first link above should be: _URL_0_ | [
"For reasons not entirely understood, the diagnosis of food allergies has apparently become more common in Western nations recently. One possible explanation for this is the \"old friends\" hypothesis which suggests that non disease causing organisms, such as helminths, could protect against allergy. Therefore, red... |
why can't scientists create new "creatures" by mixing 2 dnas or something? | You mean a bat?
We're getting to the point where we can inject DNA from one organism into another. It is still in very early stages and *hugely* controversial. | [
"In 2011, New York University scientists have developed artificial structures that can self-replicate, a process that has the potential to yield new types of materials. They have demonstrated that it is possible to replicate not just molecules like cellular DNA or RNA, but discrete structures that could in principl... |
why are there so many bugs like mrsa and vre, but nothing is immune to plain old alcohol or bleach? | Killing things is easy. Killing only one thing without killing others is hard. | [
"There are concerns that the presence of MRSA in the environment may allow resistance to be transferred to other bacteria through phages (viruses that infect bacteria). The source of MRSA could come from hospital waste, farm sewage, and other waste water.\n",
"The rapid increase of VRE has made it difficult for p... |
city bonds used for building/investing in roads. | a bond is a piece of paper that promises the person who purchased it a certain amount of money in the future. If a city wants to build a road, but don't have the money right away, they issue bonds to raise money.
different investors (people who buy the bonds) have different preferences. Some want safe bonds that are almost certain to be paid back, but won't make alot of money on interest. Others want risky bonds that they might not get repaid for, but if they do get paid back make more money than safe bonds.
cities, companies, and countries all issue bonds to raise money. | [
"Municipal bonds are securities that are issued for the purpose of financing the infrastructure needs of the issuing municipality. The financed infrastructure needs vary greatly but can include schools, streets and highways, bridges, hospitals, public housing, sewer, water systems, power utilities, and various publ... |
gravitational waves | Gravitational waves are precisely what they sound like: a gravitational gradient. One of the predictions within Relativity is that gravity is a function of the fabric of space, and that it propagates at the speed of light.
As a result, when things are moving about, one would expect to find minor fluctuations in gravity. In this specific case, they detect this by determining a polarization bias in old light [the Cosmic Background Radiation, believed to be the residual energy from the Big Bang]: as space expands and shifts, in the same way that light interacts with gravity, the light within that space is also altered, shifted in the direction of the wave.
The Big Bang is basically the biggest gravitational event we can think of. It was literally everything in the universe moving outwards at the same time, something that will generally never happen again. As a result, it should give off some serious waves.
In this case, the scientists believe they have detected these primordial waves and they prove the incredibly rapid expansion of the universe in the opening few nanoseconds of time. This would be a substantial piece of evidence to the Big Bang theory and clarify one of the contentious points within it. | [
"Gravitational waves are ripples in the curvature of spacetime that propagate as waves at the speed of light, generated in certain gravitational interactions that propagate outward from their source. Gravitational-wave astronomy is an emerging branch of observational astronomy which aims to use gravitational waves ... |
why do screens look more pixelated in pictures than they do with the eyes? | assuming the picture was taken with a digital camera, it is recording the photo digitally (ie in pixels) which lowers the resolution (number of pixels per inch) | [
"Using an eyetracker, researchers have discovered a strong center-of-screen bias with a distribution of gaze points approximately peaking at the screen center. However, eye gazes rarely focus on the same location. Visual dispersion across the screen increases over time and particularly, after repeated exposure to t... |
When did concubines or harems fall out of favor? | Seconding /u/1Tw03Four here; which culture are you talking about? There's a lot of them that practised the use of harems and concubinage. | [
"During the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), the status of concubines improved. It became permissible to promote a concubine to wife, if the original wife had died and the concubine was the mother of the only surviving sons. Moreover, the prohibition against forcing a widow to remarry was extended to widowed concubines. D... |
does anyone want to explain the bohr model of hydrogen atom to me? | De Broglie, a physicist from France, ~~had just discovered~~ was about to discover (thanks /u/restricteddata) that particles can be described as waves. The wavelength of a particle is λ=h/p where p is the momentum and h the Plack constant.
Bohr proposed that electrons orbit the nucleus. But he furthermore proposed, that the matter wave of the electron around the nucleus had to be a standing wave. That means, the circumference of the orbit had to match the wavelength of the particle multiplied by a whole number like [this](_URL_0_). (Instead of the wavelength not matching up with its initial starting position after one orbit.)
However, this meant, that electrons could not orbit at any arbitrary distance from the nucleus. Rather only distances where this criterion was fulfilled are possible. This is the origin of the discrete Bohr radii and Bohr energy levels.
Since the nucleus attracts the electron, it takes energy to lift it into a higher radius. Thus, we can assign energy to each of the possible radii. The SI unit of energy is Joule, so you can describe any given possible orbit by its energy in Joules.
eV or electron Volts are just another unit for energy. 1 eV is equal to 1.60218*10^-19 Joules. It is sometimes more useful to use eV instead of Joules, simply because eV are much smaller units. And in particle physics we typically deal with tiny chunks of energy. | [
"The Bohr model explains the atomic spectrum of hydrogen (see hydrogen spectral series) as well as various other atoms and ions. It is not perfectly accurate, but is a remarkably good approximation in many cases, and historically played an important role in the development of quantum mechanics. The Bohr model posit... |
Is the 'framerate' of our eyes greater in our peripheral vision compared to the 'frame rate' of our eyes more towards the center of our field of view? | Learned about this in school:
There’s something called a Critical Flicker Frequency (CFF) which is the highest visible flicker rate when contrast is 100%. The CFF depends on both retinal location and target size. For small patches (~0.5 degrees) the CFF will decrease with increasing eccentricity (distance from the fovea). However, for larger patches CFF actually increases with increasing eccentricity to a maximum at 40 degrees away from the fovea. This could very explain the phenomenon you witnessed. The “frame rate” was higher than your CFF for fovea vision but lower than your CFF for peripheral vision. | [
"\"central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with the use of a correcting lens. An eye which has a limitation in the field of vision such that the widest diameter of the visual field subtends an angle no greater than 20 degrees should also be considered as having a central visual acuity of 20/200 or... |
blood pressure, the basics please? | To give you an idea of what the numbers are measuring:
There is always a certain amount of pressure in your bloodstream, just like a running water hose has pressure. But because your heart beats, that pressure is always fluctuating a little.
The first number in a blood pressure is called systolic pressure, that's the pressure in your circulation when your heart is pumping. That will always be the larger number.
The second number is called the diastolic pressure. That's the pressure in your bloodstream when your heart is relaxed, so it will be the lower number.
Your circulatory system is just like a water system. Your heart is the pump, your blood is the water, and your veins/arteries are the pipes.
If you can picture trying to water a garden, if the water pressure is really low, the water won't be able to reach the flowers. If the water pressure is on too high, you will damage the flowers, ripping up the soil and can break the plants.
It's exactly the same for the human body. If your blood pressure is too low, blood won't be able to get to where it is supposed to. Too high and you can cause damage to organs, particularly the kidneys, heart, and brain. | [
"Blood pressure generally refers to the arterial pressure in the systemic circulation. However, measurement of pressures in the venous system and the pulmonary vessels plays an important role in intensive care medicine but requires invasive measurement of pressure using a catheter.\n",
"Rate pressure product is a... |
when your stomach hurts, what physically is hurting inside of you and how is it doing the hurting? | And there are different types of pain: somatic, visceral, and neuropathic. Somatic is when you hurt your skin, muscles, or bones. Neuropathic is caused by damage to the nerves. When you have a stomach ache, that's visceral pain. Visceral pain is pain of the internal organs. (I know that's not quite explainlikeimfive, but I thought some people might find that interesting.)
As for what is physically hurting, it depends what's causing it. When someone says "my stomach hurts," that could mean a lot of things because there are a lot of organs in the abdomen. That's why the nurse and doctor will ask you a ton of questions. Where does it hurt? When did it start, what did you do right before, what did you eat, did you move in a funny way? They'll ask you to characterize the pain (aching, stabbing, burning, pressure). Along with more questions. And they'll look, listen, and feel around your whole abdomen. Then you might be sent for diagnostic imaging tests, because like I said, there are a lot of organs in there. All of these things are put together to give the healthcare team a picture of what's wrong with you.
Anyway, if the pain is caused by constipation or trapped gas, what you're feeling is pain in the intestines. The intestines are swelling with too much stuff inside one section (likely trapped behind a stubborn piece of stool), and working overtime to try to move all that stuff along. So it's like overstretching a balloon, while also overworking a muscle. That's pretty common and might be what you were feeling yesterday. From the sounds of it, the problem has passed. (Not to be alarmist, but a little constipation can turn into a big blockage for some people.)
There are TONS of other things that can cause abdominal pain. Some people get ulcers, where there's a wound in the wall of their digestive system being irritated by the contents of their digestive system. Some people will experience pain because of a mass in their abdomen, like a tumour, when it gets large enough to start pushing on the organs and structures around it. Some people will get infections like appendicitis or peritonitis, where the pain is caused by the inflammation of an organ or of the sac containing the organs. I could go on forever, but you get the point.
As always, if you're in a lot of pain, the pain doesn't go away, or you're really worried about it, go see a doctor.
And to help avoid constipation, people can drink more water and walk more!
Source: I'm a registered nurse, and I hope I didn't leave out anything important. | [
"This anomaly occurs because the pain nerves deep in the intestines do not localize well to an exact spot on the abdominal wall, unlike pain nerves in muscles. Pain from a stomach ulcer or gallstone can be interpreted by the brain as pain from the stomach, liver, gall bladder, duodenum, or first part of the small i... |
Does cold weather reduce crime rate? | well those countries also tend to have lighter skin... | [
"Cold-waves continue to be a problem in northern latitudes, where very low temperatures can be reached in a few hours and extend over long periods. Reductions in cold-deaths due to climate change are projected to be greater than increases in heat-related deaths in the UK.\n",
"The impacts of extreme events on the... |
how can a company like luxottica own such a large proportion of a market? | You just watched Adam Ruins Everything didn't you OP. Lol.
As someone who is wildly interested in cologne, and by extension mildly interested in fashion and accessories I found out about Luxotica a few years back. They basically make all of the frames for the fashion houses and designers of fashionable sunglasses and eye ware. This happened because all they make are frames, they are very good at it, can turn a profit, and they buy their competition.
They are effectively a monopoly like De Beers is with diamonds except that frames are not a natural resource and the only barrier to entry for a company that wants to make frames is start up costs. However the policies they enact that punish eye glass companies and competitors that go against Luxotica are clearly in antitrust violation. But it's not something people are up in arms about because they just don't know any better. It's not the cause du jour, plus they own a large eye care insurance company, which gets into medical insurance stuff where America turns a blind eye to abuse anyway, and they lobby aggressively to operate their business model without government oversite.
Their home of operations is Europe (Italy I think) and they have different laws there regarding anti competitive legislation.
People make buying decisions based on feelings rather than logic and companies take advantage of this with branding. They realized that humans don't so much care about choice as they do the illusion of choice so if they market their product as different brands, then people don't care that they all come from the same company.
This isn't unique to frames either. I play the drums and I recently found out that almost all of the drums being made all start out as shells from the same company called Keller. They make the shells and sell them to companies like Ludwig or Pearl who then paint them and add their branding, but they all start in the same factories.
In electronics this has been going on for years with brands like Sony, Pioneer, Optimus, Sanyo, Panasonic, etc all using other manufacturers to make some of their products and then re-branding them. In some cases an identical stereo receiver may be sold by 2 or more different brands like Optimus and Pioneer, just with different branding and badges.
The problem isn't so much that this is done, as it is that it's done without being open about it. People have a right to know what they are actually buying so they can make informed decisions. | [
"The company has said that the market is highly competitive, and that their frames account for ~10% of sales worldwide and ~20% in the United States. Euromonitor International estimated that Luxottica's market share was 14% worldwide, with the second-largest company in the industry, Essilor, holding a 13% market sh... |
how are slot machines both random (by rng) but still weighted and set to payout percentages? | You generate a random number between zero and one. If you want a 20% payout then you say if the random number is between .80 and 1 then the play wins, otherwise they lose. This is very simplified because winning and losing cone in many flavors on slot machines. | [
"Slot machines are typically programmed to pay out as winnings 82% to 98% of the money that is wagered by players. This is known as the \"theoretical payout percentage\" or RTP, \"return to player\". The minimum theoretical payout percentage varies among jurisdictions and is typically established by law or regulati... |
Before the widespread use of sunscreen, how likely were you to die of melanoma? | Sunscreen was invented in 1946, and I believe it became popular pretty quickly, sometime in the 1950's. This is right around the time that people started to become more comfortable in their bodies, and skin exposure outside of your home didn't have that "indecency taboo" that is still prevalent in some religions and parts of the world today. Prior to this, going to a beach was a much different scene than it is today. Everyone wore pants and long sleeve shirts, and hats too. The clothing effectively was the sunscreen. ( [here is an example of a 19th century beach, notice the clothing](_URL_0_) ) If you want to go back far enough to where clothing as we know it now wasn't as mainstream, although they still wore lots of clothing, (I am talking 18th century or eariler), the average life expectancy was short enough that most people died before melanoma would be a serious issue | [
"Prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun can lead to melanoma and other skin malignancies. Clear evidence establishes ultraviolet radiation, especially the non-ionizing medium wave UVB, as the cause of most non-melanoma skin cancers, which are the most common forms of cancer in the world. UV rays c... |
how is storage freed in computer hardware at a physical level? | When you delete, it just marks those memory cells as rewritable. It’s not truly deleted until something is saved into it. | [
"Data storage is another category of hardware that has traditionally been very energy disproportional. Although storage technologies are non-volatile, meaning that no power is required to retain data, the interface on the storage devices are typically powered up for access on demand. For example, in hard drives, al... |
How tolerant were the Ottomans really, and how did this translate into post-WWI Turkey? | That is an extremely broad question as the Empire spanned several hundred years under various rulers, some religious-conservatives, others not. Also remember that immediately following WWI Ataturk led what was left of the former Empire into an era of massive reforms across all areas of government and society, and founding Turkey as a Republic. Given the size of the Empire what do you mean by 'tolerant' and are you referring to tolerance in a moral societal sense or a governments, legal sense as they result in very different pictures. If you could specify what exactly you are asking it would be helpful. | [
"During World War I the Ottoman Empire sided with Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Bulgaria against the British Empire, France and the Russian Empire. In northern Mesopotamia, northern Syria and south east Turkey the Ottomans held the armed support of the Kurds, Turcomans, Circassians and some Arab groups, ... |
What do we know about the human diet before the advent of fire? | It's fine here, but you might try asking this in /r/AskAnthropology too. | [
"Until the development of agriculture approximately 10,000 years ago, \"Homo sapiens\" employed a hunter-gatherer method as their sole means of food collection. This involved combining stationary food sources (such as fruits, grains, tubers, and mushrooms, insect larvae and aquatic mollusks) with wild game, which m... |
if you have no sense of taste can you feel the heat/spiciness from something like a pepper? | Yes. Capsaicin (the chemical responsible for the spiciness of peppers), interacts with neurons, not taste receptor (although taste receptors are similar to very specialized neurons) so they would still feel the heat | [
"This particular sensation, called chemesthesis, is not a taste in the technical sense, because the sensation does not arise from taste buds, and a different set of nerve fibers carry it to the brain. Foods like chili peppers activate nerve fibers directly; the sensation interpreted as \"hot\" results from the stim... |
Why does mars only have 11% of Earth's Mass, despite being 50% the size? | [Mars](_URL_2_) has a mean density of 3.933 g/cm compared to 5.514 g/cm3 for [Earth](_URL_0_).
The radius of Mars at 2,106 mi is slightly over half of Earth's radius 3,959 mi. Thus the ratios of their volumes is 2106^3 / 3959^3 = [0.15](_URL_1_).
So since Mars is about 30% less dense than Earth and has 15% of the volume, it has about 11% of the mass. | [
"BULLET::::- Mars has a surface area that is 28.4% of Earth's, which is only slightly less than the amount of dry land on Earth (which is 29.2% of Earth's surface). Mars has half the radius of Earth and only one-tenth the mass. This means that it has a smaller volume (~15%) and lower average density than Earth.\n",... |
how do tower crane counterweights keep from falling out? | In the image you have linked you can clearly see the retaining bolts coming out of the sides, this stops them slipping through. | [
"Crane: The tower crane (see picture) is a modern form of balance crane that is fixed to the ground. A horizontal boom is balanced asymmetrically across the top of the tower. The long arm carries the lifting gear. The short arm is called the machinery arm; this holds the motors and electronics to operate the crane,... |
What were wages like for 19th century domestic servants in the U.K. and U.S.? | I can answer pretty well for the state of things in the UK.
> Were they able to save enough of their wages to provide for retirement?
Generally speaking, yes. Their wages were mostly terrible, but they would presumably move up in pay/position throughout their career. There were books written specifically for servants, one of the most popular being The Complete Servant by Sarah and Samuel Adams, that explicitly encourage retirement saving and even include tables of compound interest rates for planning purposes.
Also, while there was rarely a formal agreement, it was a common practice to make a modest provision for long term servants in one's will. This would amount to a pension/retirement income. This would not have applied to young maids and footmen, but governesses/nurses who stayed on to care for multiple children, butlers, housekeepers, stewards - yes.
> illness or injury
Temporary illness or injury in employees is something to be expected. If someone had to stay in bed for a few days, everyone else would just pick up the slack. If a doctor was necessary, this was provided at the employer's expense. Although we see a lot of cold indifference from masters to their servants portrayed in fiction, there was a good amount of literature/pamphlets/aphorisms promoting a healthy, happy household - of which servants were very much a part. Employers were perceived as being responsible for their servants' moral and physical well-being.
There were two ways to employ servants; year-to-year, or at will.
Year-to-year servants had a contract that could only be broken by mutual consent or with three months' notice on either side (or three months' pay in the case of an immediate dismissal). They could not be fired as a result of illness or injury, nor could their pay be withheld. The employer could give notice that he would not be renewing the contract at the end of the year, but the servant was entitled to his wages for the term of the contract, even if he couldn't physically work.
At-will hirings were more temporary/seasonal positions (like staff hired on while the family was in London for the summer) and only required one months' severance/notice to leave. These people were a lot more vulnerable, but their weekly wages tended to be a little higher on average.
> How would they find another job?
Via newspapers/magazines, or an employment agency, or by direct hire/reference. People would also absolutely poach good servants from one another. It was terrible form, and would ruin friendships, but it happened.
> Would a year of work pay for a year of not working?
It depends on the position held and how a person is willing to live while they're not working.
What we would consider a lower-middle-class income might be somewhere in the range of £50-100/year (ca. 1825). If you're a governess coming from a household in this income bracket (as many were), you'd probably earn ~£30/year, so obviously you wouldn't be able to afford what you're accustomed to on your own... but could you rent a room somewhere and buy food for £30/year? Probably, if you were very careful, and had almost no unexpected costs.
Understand though, that a governess is one of the highest paid positions in the house. She's arguably not a servant at all - more something in between.
Here's a sample list of salaries for comparison:
Butler - £52
Housekeeper - £25
Nurse - £21
Maid - £15
Footman - £24
Scullion - £10
The average unskilled laborer was making £10-20/year, while a skilled laborer made about twice that, which is still not much. These people managed to eek by with families even - though other family members would probably also work. It's not impossible, but it's a pretty meager existence.
| [
"During the later part of the 19th century, working conditions in the U.S. textile industry deteriorated. Immigrant textile workers coming from Yorkshire and Lancashire to New England found the mills poorly run, with the managers cheating on measurements of cuts of cloth and time worked, and arbitrarily cutting wag... |
How close are we to building an image of an organism based on DNA? | The short answer is very, very far. The reason for that is this: the sequences in your DNA are not a blueprint, they are a recipe. And (as ren5311 pointed out) the sequence information is not even the complete recipe, because there are epigenetic patterns that strongly affect how the organism develops.
Unlike (say) a recipe in in [The Joy of Cooking](_URL_0_), the DNA is not intended to be read by anybody -- it just happened that way, via natural selection. Imagine the worst [spaghetti code](_URL_1_) you've ever seen -- a piece of software that's a real [big ball of mud](_URL_2_), coded completely ad hoc with no thought toward architecture. Then consider what would happen to it if it was maintained by literally millions of clever novice coders over centuries -- people who took advantage of strange compiler bugs, race conditions in memory of the particular computer they happened to be using, and even bizarre trigonometric identities that happened to help (say) calculate particular date strings. Predicting the behavior of that nightmare program is comparably difficult to deciphering the simplest behaviors of the genetic code, which takes advantage of practically every sleazy chemical and combinatorial trick enabled by nature.
Even predicting the shape (and therefore functional form) of individual proteins that are coded for by particular genetic sequences is an extraordinarily hard problem. Predicting all their interactions enough to trace development of an organism, *a priori*, through its development to adulthood is many orders of magnitude harder than that. | [
"Although DNA is visible when observed with the electron microscope, the resolution of the image obtained is not high enough to allow for deciphering the sequence of the individual bases, \"i.e.\", DNA sequencing. However, upon differential labeling of the DNA bases with heavy atoms or metals, it is possible to bot... |
how do the sights of mortars (the weapon) work? | > how do the sights of mortars (the weapon) work?
They aren't exactly "sighted" in the same way as other weapons. They are a method of indirect fire so they are designed to fire at things which cannot be seen, making traditional "sights" impractical.
Instead mortars are targeted using calculations as to the mortar's location and the location of the intended target, then setting the direction and angle of the mortar tube according to calculations about the trajectory of a mortar round. What this means is that targeting is done with radioed instructions from a distant observer, along with references to a map and a table of range values. | [
"The mortar consists of a smooth-bored barrel with a breech and a breech-block frame, a frame with shock absorbers, mount with training and equilibrating mechanisms, a two-wheel traveling carriage with the suspension, a boom for changing from the firing to the traveling configuration, a baseplate and a towing bar w... |
why can mice be inbred? | Most animals have recessive genes that are damaging if you get two copies of the same one. However, if an animal is already inbred for many generations (like such a mouse) all the recessive genes have already been taken out of the gene pool ahead of time. Essentially, lab mice have been "bred" to be "inbred". | [
"The mice turned out to be an almost perfect solution for test subjects for mammalian genetic research. The fact that they had been bred by ‘rat fanciers’ for hundreds of years allowed for diverse populations of an animal while the public held far less sentiment for these rodents than they did for dogs and cats. Be... |
how do "convenience fees" work/how are they justified? | A business has to pay the credit card company in order to use their service. Convenience fees are their way of passing the cost on to you. | [
"A contingent fee or contingency fee (in the United States) or conditional fee (in England and Wales) is any fee for services provided where the fee is payable only if there is a favourable result. Although such a fee may be used in many fields, it is particularly well associated with legal practice. In the law, it... |
Why does the pitch change when you zip a zipper faster/slower | Imagine yourself the zipper has a few points it will produce a sound on whenever you cross it. Each time you cross one of these marks it'll produce one sound wave.
Thus the frequency will be determined by how many marks you cross each second. Higher speed means more marks crossed per second equals more sound waves per second (higher frequency) which means higher pitch. | [
"This double-mated surface is good at retaining both vacuum and pressure, but the fit must be very tight, to press the surfaces together firmly. Consequently, these zippers are typically very stiff when zipped shut and have minimal flex or stretch. They are hard to open and close because the zipper anvil must bend ... |
did we invent music or discover it? | This is the same debate between legal positivism and natural law. Or rather, legal realism vs formalism. It's been going on for a while but over the past century the running gag is that:
> we are all legal realists now
As we have come to accept that we as a society create things, and that they are not discovered in some platonic form (the idea of a thing vs. a thing right in front of you.)
_URL_1_
_URL_0_ | [
"Until the 19th century AD, European-written music histories began with mythological accounts of how musical instruments were invented. Such accounts included Jubal, descendant of Cain and \"father of all such as handle the harp and the organ\", Pan, inventor of the pan pipes, and Mercury, who is said to have made ... |
Question about medicinal half-lives: why don't medications accumulate in the body when taken regularly? | OK Let's do a little maths. It's probably better to do this with actual masses rather than %ge of dose.
For ease of calculation, let's say 1 dose is 100 grams. We'll use your 12 hour half life from the question, and assume the dosage is always taken regularly at the same time every day.
Dose 1: 100g > HL1: 50 g > HL2: 25 g
Dose 2: 125 g > HL1: 62.5 g > HL2: 31.25 g
Dose 3: 131.25 g > HL1: 65.625 g > HL2: 32.8125
Dose 4: 132.8125 g > HL1: 66.4 g > HL2: 33.2 g
Dose 5: 133.2 g > HL1: 66.6 g > HL2: 33.3 g
Dose 6: 133.3 g > HL1: 66.65 g > HL2: 33.32 g
Dose 7: 133.32 g > HL1: 66.66 g > HL2: 33.33 g
And so on.
As you can see. After only 7 doses, the total mass of medication in your system only adds up in the third decimal place. If you take it longer, the accumulation moves farther and farther right of the decimal place until you're at an essentially steady state.
This is important because drugs have a range in which their concentration works best. Dosages are generally tailored to keep the concentration of active ingredient within that range.
I didn't write down all the decimals but kept them in my calculations. You can continue if you wish. Simply follow the algorithm of dividing the dosage by 4, adding a new dose to what you've got left, divide by 4 again, and so on.
Exponential decay results in some slightly counter intuitive results.
As for the math [this pdf outlines the geometric series produced by regular dosage](_URL_0_)
| [
"The half-life of the drug refers to the drug's elimination from the bloodstream which can be caused by metabolism, urine, and other forms of excretion. If the active compound has a long half-life (over 6 hours), it is sustained on its own. If the active compound has a short half-life, it would require a large amou... |
what's the situation with the starbucks holiday cups | Mostly, it's a slow news day.
You see, the cups are red and green, and according to the media, that is not Christmassy enough for certain demented people who require graven images for their celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, Lamb of God. | [
"In November 2015, Starbucks introduced solid red seasonal cups, unlike previous seasonal iterations that were decorated with winter or Christmas-oriented imagery (such as reindeer and ornaments), but no overtly religious symbols. The cup design was discussed extensively on social media, with some citing it as anot... |
if it's bad luck to say "macbeth" in a theater, how do people perform macbeth? | The play itself is supposedly cursed. Saying the name is certainly better than staging it in that regard. If you are staging it you either say "The play" or just um... stop being superstitious. | [
"William Shakespeare's play \"Macbeth\" is said to be cursed, so actors avoid saying its name when in the theatre (the euphemism \"The Scottish Play\" is used instead). Actors also avoid even quoting the lines from \"Macbeth\" before performances, particularly the Witches' incantations. Outside a theatre and after ... |
Do video cameras capture other spectrums of light? Also, why or why not? | A camera is designed with a specific range of frequencies in mind. Since we see in the visible, most video cameras pick up that range (with a little into the near IR). Other cameras can be designed to pick up other frequencies such as far IR, or UV. | [
"By using either method of rapid internally stacked images, or very short exposure times, and using a TV monitor (for analog cameras) or a computer with readily available software (for USB cameras), video astronomy allows observers to see colour and detail that would not register to the eye. Because the image can b... |
greek mythology | There are twelve Olympian gods, who are generally considered the most powerful and important. They are nearly all related (yes, even the married ones).
* Zeus is the king of the gods. He throws lightning bolts and will screw anything that moves.
* Hera is Zeus' youngest sister and his queen. She is the goddess of family and is understandably very jealous. She spends most of her time getting revenge on the girls Zeus screwed.
* Poseidon is Hera and Zeus' brother and is the ruler of the sea. He's the one with the huge trident.
* Demeter is another sister and is the goddess of the harvest. Her daughter is Persephone.
* Athena, goddess of wisdom, is Zeus' daughter, but not Hera's. She was formed in Zeus' head and burst out fully formed. Patron of Athens.
* Ares is Zeus and Hera's son. He's the god of war and also a complete wimp. Very aggressive but not very courageous. He and Aphrodite have a thing.
* Aphrodite is the goddess of love. She's married to Hephaestus but fucks Ares on the side. She emerged from the sea rather than actually being born, although there are several stories about how that happened.
* Hephaestus is the god of smiths and craftsmen. He has a crippled leg and is very ugly but enormously strong and pretty chill. He's Zeus' son but not Hera's, and he's married to Aphrodite.
* Dionysus is the god of wine and partying. He is Zeus' son and the youngest of the Olympian gods.
* Apollo and Artemis are twins. Apollo is the god of light and music; Artemis is the goddess of the hunt and of unmarried girls and is famous for despising men (other than her twin) and remaining a virgin. Together they represent the sun and the moon.
* Hermes is the gods' messenger as well as the god of trickery, medicine, language, and travel. He carries a [caduceus](_URL_0_), wears winged sandals, and kicks ass.
There's also Hestia, goddess of the hearth and home, who is very humble and quiet and gave up her Olympian seat to Dionysus. And of course Hades, who rules the Underworld. He kidnapped Demeter's daughter Persephone and forced her to be his queen, although she only has to stay with him for six months of every year. Those six months are winter, and the six months when she can rejoin her mother are summer.
Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia are the children of two Titans (predecessors to the Olympian gods), Cronos and Rhea, who are in turn the children of Gaea (Mother Earth) and Uranos (the Sky).
You may also need to know that there are nine Muses who inspire all the various forms of art, but you probably won't be expected to know their names. Then there's Eros, Aphrodite's son and the god of love; the Fates, who plan out people's lives and decide when they die; and Pan, the god of nature (he's Hermes' son and has half the body of a goat).
Those are the basic characters, although there are an awful lot of stories that may be discussed in your class. If you know who all those people are, you'll understand what's happening in the stories even if you haven't heard them before. Hope this helps. Best of luck! I hope you'll enjoy your class, Greek mythology is awesome. | [
"Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece. Modern scholars refer to the myths and study them in a... |
why are some doors hollow? | Hollow doors are lighter, cheaper, and aren't meant for security. They are generally used for interior doors where security and insulation aren't required. | [
"One of the most frequently made hollow wood structures are hollow core doors. Hollow core doors are much lighter than solid wood doors, cheaper and are easier to install. However, sound travels more freely through them, which can be a problem if the house is noisy or the occupants desire a lot of privacy. Also, ho... |
globalization vs globalism | **Globalization** is a concept in business and economics where businesses, governments, and people operate at a global scale. It's an outgrowth of free market capitalism.
So think of an American restaurant in the early-20th century. An American farmer grows food, the restaurant hires American workers to make the American food, and they sit on furniture that was manufactured in the US. Everything was done in a single country. Countries like Germany, England, France, Italy, etc. all did the same thing.
Today, an American fast food restaurant can sell Italian food in India. American bulls are sold to Mexican farmers to sire cows which are sold to American beef processors who sell meat in Mexico. Chinese engineers move to America to design smartphones which are manufactured in China and sold in America. Japanese auto companies make cars with more American parts than American car companies.
The idea is that businesses operate on a global scale. Countries work together to produce goods and services instead. Workers move wherever there is need. Companies open up shops in lots of countries. People eat food from other countries that they've never visited before. American investors buy stock in foreign companies and foreign investors buy stock in American companies. People talk to people on the other side of the planet on the phone and on the internet all the time. It takes only a day to fly to the other side of the planet.
This leads to a lot more economic efficiency. It's resulted in billions of people leaving poverty. It's turned thousands of business people into billionaires. It's made formerly expensive goods available cheaply all around the world (the King of England once posed for a painting with a pineapple because it was a sign of outrageous wealth. Now anyone can buy a fresh one for cheap).
**Globalism** is a word used by populists to criticize **globalization.** There are a few other niche uses in academia, but this is what most people mean when they use this term. Globalization results in jobs being outsourced to other countries. It results in tastes and fashions from other countries replacing the traditions and cultures in your local country. It results in the people who adapt fastest becoming billionaires and the people who adapt slowly losing their jobs. Globalization makes things better in the long run for everyone, but it results in short term harm to some people. But short term in this sense can mean a few decades, which represents a big chunk of a human's life.
People used to marry people because their families knew each other. People used to hire people because they went to the same church. Now, merit is prized over all else. People marry the most attractive people they can find. They hire the hardest and smartest workers who work at the lowest price. This is good for some people and bad for others. It provides opportunities to people who were historically disadvantaged, but it also creates a sense of unease among people who know that their boss might find a better employee and they can get fired at any moment.
Globalization reduces the risk of war because if you have investments in multiple countries, it hurts you if they start fighting each other. But if there is a war, countries would have a harder time winning than if they were completely self-sufficient.
As a final point, some people simply dislike other races, religions, cultures, etc. They would much rather interact exclusively with people who share the same worldview as them. | [
"Globalization or globalisation is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. As a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, globalization is considered by some as a form of capitalist expansion which entails the integration of local and national economies into a globa... |
¿why does the spanish language incorporate two question marks at the beginning and end of their questions when writing? | In Spanish, as in English, the whole sentence is transformed by the fact it's a question--the meaning is different, and you use a different tone. (Consider the difference between "It belongs to him." and "It belongs to him?") A question mark at the start of the sentence is an extra clue in Spanish, while in English we're fond of words like "why" to signal the start of a question.
Punctuation, especially standardized punctuation, is relatively new as far as European languages go. Hence why different languages often have different ways of doing it. | [
"Spanish has the unusual feature of indicating the beginning of an interrogative or exclamatory sentence or phrase with inverted variants of the question mark and exclamation mark ( and ), respectively. Most languages that use the Latin alphabet (including Spanish) use question and exclamation marks at the end of s... |
can the brain function if some nonessential parts get removed?how? | Brains are elastic and their substance can be reallocated to different uses, to a point. Severe damage can be worked around. The internet is an analogue. If the US was removed from the internet due to a catastrophic event, traffic could route around it and the whole would continue in a functional but diminished capacity. | [
"Lashley also proposed that a portion of a functional area could carry out the role of the entire area, even when the rest of the area has been removed. He called this phenomenon equipotentiality. We know now that he was seeing evidence of plasticity in the brain. The brain has the spectacular ability for certain a... |
differences between hong kong and china. economic, political, cultural, etc.. | Hong Kong was ruled by the British for over 150 years, up until 1997. Because of that they have western style capitalism with free trade and little government control. | [
"Hong Kong is characterised as a hybrid of East and West. Traditional Chinese values emphasising family and education blend with Western ideals, including economic liberty and the rule of law. Although the vast majority of the population is ethnically Chinese, Hong Kong has developed a distinct identity. The territ... |
how does static cling work? | That is an honest to god mystery of the universe. Electrons get rubbed off on a surface through friction. This gives it a charge. This charge then electrostatically attracts other charges, causing ‘cling’. The how isn’t the mystery.
The mystery is why it can beat gravity (pull stuff up, or stick stuff on ceilings and stuff). And that is a very active physics problem. | [
"Static cling is the tendency for light objects to stick (cling) to other objects owing to static electricity. It is common in clothing, but occurs with other items, such as the tendency of dust to be attracted to, and stick to, plastic items.\n",
"In clothing, static cling occurs from static electricity. An elec... |
why are sportspeople more likely to get injured now compared to decades ago? | Higher speeds and more wear and tear are the two major reasons. Think of this for a young pitcher. Back in the day he'd pitch a couple months during high school and then either go to the minors or college. Now kids have their high school teams and travel teams that play year round. So they're burning through their arms 4 times faster before the games actually mean anything. | [
"Injuries due to the sport are seen as unfortunate, but inevitable, and one reviewer of the site and product said it would be more likely to lead to a trip to the hospital than a thrill, for people who aren't trained professionals.\n",
"Nearly two million people every year suffer sports-related injuries and recei... |
AskScience Announcements! | **QUESTION:** What should we do for very frequently asked questions? Like when the same question gets asked five times in a week, or twice in one day. Should we link to a recent one and delete, link and leave open, or do nothing special?
This is important because repeat questions piss panelists off and lead to them giving shittier answers as the questions gets more and more asked. | [
"A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated without charge, with the objective of raising awareness of, and changing public attitudes and behavior towards, a social issue. In the UK, they are generally called 'public information films' (PIFs); in Hong Kong, they are known a... |
how does pickling work | I believe because the vinegar makes the water solution too acidic for most bacteria to survive in. | [
"Pickling is the process of preserving or extending the lifespan of food by either anaerobic fermentation in brine or immersion in vinegar. In East Asia, vinaigrette (vegetable oil and vinegar) is also used as a pickling medium. The pickling procedure typically affects the food's texture, taste and flavor. The resu... |
why do bugs seem to fly in circles around one when out hiking, particularly around the head? | Generally, they are either attracted to the carbon dioxide you are exhaling or the body heat you are giving off. For flies, it's the CO2, mosquitoes seek body heat. And the head is usually the hottest part of your body, and it's usually exposed, especially in the type of weather that mosquitoes are an issue. | [
"Realizing that Bugs is on the hunter while walking, the hunter fires off a swarm of anthropomorphic birdshot bullets. In a madcap chase, the bullets chase Bugs into a series of holes, including a \"fake\" golf hole and the cave where the skunk is at. Bugs then lures the hunter into a log sitting on the edge of a c... |
why does getting something wet (like fabric) make it easier to squish into a smaller size? | Generally speaking, it makes the thing stick to itself.
Bread or fabric generally has a pattern to it, with holes that are held in place.
The water makes it so that the forces pushing the holes open are weaker than the forces holding them shut (once you have pushed them shut) via surface tension.
It may also (as is the case with bread) actually begin to break down the structural membranes, or at least render them soft.
The excess water is expelled when you squeez | [
"Though many materials can be used to make form-fitting garments, the thinner materials, such as synthetic fibers, are the most commonly used, because of the smooth line that can be produced as well as their extra strength when pulled tight. Some fabrics cling to the skin or do so when wet, giving a form-fitting ef... |
why doees my navel fill up with lint every day, and why is it always dark blue? | What color shirt do you wear? Or are your pants high waisted and jeans/blue? | [
"Navel lint (also known by names such as navel fluff, belly button lint, belly button fluff, and dip lint) is an accumulation of fluffy fibers in the navel cavity. Many people find that, at the beginning and end of the day, a small lump of fluff has appeared in the navel cavity. This lint is an accumulation of clot... |
Would humans grow taller if there was less or no gravity? | NO gravity is a tough question to approach.. A question that may be more easily considered, and in fact somewhat studied, is what if there is LESS gravity, rather than no gravity? A study done by Donelan & Kram in 1997 had people walk in gravity reducing harnesses, which essentially pulled them upward a bit, simulating “lower gravity” conditions. They found that mechanically, the body performed very similarly regardless of gravity levels. Which means that rather than fundamental locomotor changes, what would be changing are peak forces the body experiences.
Because the forces would be lower, I believe the bone would only grow to the strength necessary to counter the ground reaction forces. Bone is not a static part of the body but is constantly broken down and rebuilt in response to forces it encounters. Given the forces it encounters are lower, it would likely be a much more “brittle” structure (i.e., capable of withstanding lower peak forces). Astronauts undergo rigorous exercises in zero G to maintain bone density. So, assuming humans are otherwise the same, I don’t think they would be taller. I apologize that I’ve gotten a bit speculative here, I’d be interested to hear other ideas on this.
| [
"At the extreme end, being excessively tall can cause various medical problems, including cardiovascular problems, because of the increased load on the heart to supply the body with blood, and problems resulting from the increased time it takes the brain to communicate with the extremities. For example, Robert Wadl... |
if a doctor (hypothetically) were to transplant my testicles on to another man's genitals (still functioning) would those testicles continue to produce my sperm or begin to produce his? | They would hypothetically produce your sperm, but his immune system would attack the testes and the sperm they produce. | [
"Testicular sperm extraction (TESE) is the process of removing a small portion of tissue from the testicle under local anesthesia and extracting the few viable sperm cells present in that tissue for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). The testicular sperm extraction process is recommended to men who cannot pro... |
Are modern knights still expected to defend at wartime? | There are two types of Knighthood in the British honours system - Knights Chivalry and Knights bachelor - the entertainers who're knighted are Knights bachelor and they rank below Knights chivalry.
As for whether Knights Chivalry are expected to defend in war time, well,
there are certain senior orders which remain reserved as exclusive for members of the armed services, members of the civil service and members of the diplomatic core and of course those serving in the armed services are expected to fulfil that role as befits their rank. | [
"Knights were expected, above all, to fight bravely and to display military professionalism and courtesy. When knights were taken as prisoners of war, they were customarily held for ransom in somewhat comfortable surroundings. This same standard of conduct did not apply to non-knights (archers, peasants, foot-soldi... |
When brewing teas/coffees, is the water required to be at a certain temperature or just boiling | Things diffuse faster at a higher temperature, if that's what you're asking. The coffee or tea will leach into the water faster at a higher temperature. But since there are other processes involved (compounds that might oxidize for instance), the using highest possible extraction temperature isn't necessarily going to result in the (subjectively) best-tasting beverage.
| [
"The temperature of the water is very important for the final result. If freshly boiled water from a kettle is used, the water temperature is about 203 °F (95 °C) when it gets in contact with the coffee. The water from a thermo flask is usually cooler, but temperatures down to 176 °F (80 °C) still gives an acceptab... |
Is "quantum probability" the same as "real probability"? | This is actually exactly the right question in a certain sense. There IS actually a difference between classical and quantum probability.
Classically, events have a probability of happening that is a real number between 0 and 1. If we add together the probability of every possible event, we should get 1 ( there's a 100% chance that SOMETHING happens if we account for every outcome).
In quantum things are slightly more complicated. We have probability *amplitudes* rather than probability. So instead of an event having probability .5 it could be -.5 or .5i. These amplitudes are complex numbers meaning they can be part imaginary or negative. Rather than adding all the amplitudes to get 1, we add their magnitude squared to get 1. If you take the magnitude squared, you get back a classical probability. This is the probability of that event.
So if event A has amplitude .5i, then it has probability .25 ( the magnitude of .5i squared).
So you might think this was a pretty worthless addition. What does using amplitudes give us if we just convert back to probabilities? Well in quantum you only convert back to probabilities when there's a collapse. So up until that point, when things interact, we're adding together amplitudes NOT probabilities. And amplitudes can be negative. So in some situations (Google two slit interference for a specific example), you can get two events effectively canceling each other out because they had opposite amplitudes. At the end of the day you still get back to good old fashioned probability for your observable events. . It's what happens in between that can behave differently.
Rereading your question, you also seem to be asking if quantum is truly "random" as in: do the probabilities (of observable events, so after we squared our amplitudes. No complex numbers here) represent what we don't know but in *theory* could know about the system, or is it truly unknowable. As in is it like rolling a dice where we could predict the outcome with certainty if we knew all the angles and masses and velocities perfectly, or is it fundamentally unknowable.
The answer is up to (some) debate, but most physicists would say it's truly unknowable. Theories that say there's more info we just haven't found yet are called hidden variable theories. They aren't that popular because in order to accept a hidden variable theory we have to reject what is called locality (effectively the basis of Special Relativity)
Locality says that there's no way for me to do something here on Earth and have it instantly effect something on the moon. The result of any action has to travel at a finite speed (less than or equal to the speed of light).
Physicists really like locality. Without it, physical predictions become effectively impossible. Without it, we have to account for every other thing in the universe when we run an experiment. It's an assumption, but it's one we're reluctant to get rid of, and one that experiment has held up remarkably well.
Hidden variable theories that have locality are called local hidden variable theories. And local hidden variable theories are mathematically impossible by Bell's Inequality theorem (with a few other complicated assumptions). It's one of my favorite bits of physics because it took what we thought was a purely philosophical question and gave it a rigorous mathematical answer.
So to answer your question, most physicists would say it's a different type of probability (not just us not knowing things), but the question is technically open | [
"The analogy between quantum mechanics and probability is very strong, so that there are many mathematical links between them. In a statistical system in discrete time, t=1,2,3, described by a transition matrix for one time step formula_68, the probability to go between two points after a finite number of time step... |
why do cinemas use projectors on a huge wall instead of a huge screen? | To make a huge image, it's much cheaper to get a powerful projector than to build a high-resolution video screen that big. | [
"By using an odd number of screens, and a small space between them, a projector may be placed in each gap, projecting across the space to a screen. The screens and projectors are arranged above head level, and lean rails may be provided for viewers to hold or to lean against while standing and viewing the film.\n",... |
I keep a journal & these are interesting times. What should I put in the journal that would make it a useful "primary source" for future historians? | This is a really interesting question. The idea of intentionally engineering a "useful primary source" is in itself kind of difficult. First off, make sure that you write in your journal somewhere that you had that in mind when writing things down. One thing that always interests historians is the motives of the people who have written their sources and when you choose to write things down, you're making a selection of sorts about what gets passed down to the historian who ultimately finds and uses your journal. Letting them in on the plan, so to speak, will give them valuable information in itself.
The most important thing about journals as primary sources is that they are one of the few ways that historians have of getting information about what people were thinking and what their individual experiences were like. In this sense, I would try to avoid engineering a narrative so much as I would try to as honestly as possible write down what you are thinking about what is happening around you, how you feel about it, what kinds of conversations you have with friends and family, etc.
Another way of looking at it is this: In the future, historians will likely have access to archival and other material that gives them a great deal more insight into the politics of our present moment than we do currently. This is particularly true for those of us without any kind of insider knowledge about what's going on. However, all of those documents in the world aren't going to give the historian information about *what is was like* to live through this period. Chronicling the front page of the Washington Post isn't going to do historians much good either, because they're going to have that available to them. Of course, what you *think* about the front page of the Washington Post is something that is otherwise completely inaccessible to my future colleagues.
Don't try to be the historian yourself. Just try to approach writing your journal in a way that feels intellectually and emotionally honest. It's *you* that future historians are going to be interested in and your thoughts, ideas, opinions and reactions that are going to be quite literally only available to historians by what you've left behind for them.
What kinds of things historians of the future will be interested in when looking back at 2017 is hard to predict, as are the frameworks through which they will be doing so. What kinds of questions will they be asking? How will the huge amount of data available from social media influence the profession over the long term (assuming it is successfully preserved)? We'll have to let the historians of the future decide what sources make sense to them. If you try to engineer your journal to what you perceive as important now, you might leave things out that seem critical in the future. What you can do is give them your completely unique perspective that they'll be able to use however is appropriate after we're no longer around to see how. | [
"The journal consists of three parts: Part I is for articles based on original research, part II for historiographical articles, and part III, 'New Horizons', allows more essayist pieces, covering broader questions in current historiography, as well as scholarly dialogues, discussion pieces etc. The Review also all... |
why is "imposter syndrome" so prevalent now? | There's a lot of reasons, but I suspect social media is one of the main culprits. We are constantly being deluged with the "best" parts of other peoples lives (what they want us to see) and assuming that is their average. We know how bad our worst is, and so it brings down what our internal average is. So we think other people are doing better than they are, we are doing worse than we are, and are totally worried other people are going to realize how poorly we are doing.
So we double down on proving to others how well we are doing, and the more we do that, the more worried we are that they're going to find us out. Meanwhile, we're putting on our best face so the other poor sap sees how well we're doing, knows how poorly they are doing, and can't let anyone else see that, because then we'd realize how poorly they are doing. So they double down on proving... | [
"In more current research, impostor phenomenon is studied as a reaction to particular stimuli and events. It is a phenomenon (an experience) that occurs in an individual, not a mental disorder. Impostor phenomenon is not recognized in the DSM or ICD, although both of these classification systems recognize low self-... |
why are whole fat dairy products considered healthier than low/no fat products? | Two reasons. First, eating whole fat dairy is more filling and satisfying than eating no-fat versions, generally leading to fewer overall calories consumed for the rest of the day.
Second, no-fat dairy is, by consequence, a high-carbohydrate food filled with easily-digestible sugar. This makes it unbalanced and likely to lead to faster and higher insulin spikes in your blood...a generally unhealthy thing. | [
"Current research as of 2018 suggests higher-fat-content dairy products carry greater nutritional benefit, with neutral impact on cardiovascular disease from milk, and neutral to favorable impact from fermented dairy products.\n",
"Due to their physical characteristics, enzymatic interesterified fats have many fo... |
Were WW2 tanks as maneuverable as shown in Girls Und Panzer? | I watched (and enjoyed!) *Girls und Panzer*, and honestly, a lot of the tank antics struck me as not impossible.
For example, [modern tanks *can* do a passable drift](_URL_2_), or at least a sustained skid, on concrete. Give it snow and ice, and [all bets are off.](_URL_3_)
Italian tankettes were *tiny*, but they surely weren't as nimble as shown in the show. [Pretty nippy though, able to zip along at 25mph.](_URL_5_) Having said that, they still weighed in at 7000lbs. Can you roll one, then roll it back over? Maybe, but I wouldn't want to be in one when it rolled.
The scene with the Maus was hilarious, [using a Hetzer and a Type89 to immobilize it](_URL_1_). I question whether a Hetzer was low enough to do that to a Maus in real life, something like using a Corvette as a ramp for a Mustang... [the nose just doesn't dip low enough. ](_URL_0_)
As far as sloped surfaces go, [tanks are made for hills](_URL_4_). Some tanks are better at it than others, and the hill needs to not be muddy, but it's just part of the job.
The single tank disrupting the formation and the column rushing through the gap aren't impossible. Dumb on the part of the non-heroes, but not impossible. Remember, Team Pravda was overconfident, and Black Forest was described as being too regimented to deal with unique strategies. That's more character psychology than tank-related limitations, however.
Essentially, *Girls und Panzer* is a sports show. Sure, it's sports using tanks, but it is what it is. There's plenty of things in it that are realistic, but on the whole, it's fantasy. None of it is impossible; much of it is unlikely. | [
"In recent years, German historian Sönke Neitzel and American military historian Steven Zaloga, amongst others, have examined the combat performance of highly decorated German tank crews during the war. Zaloga argues that \"Panzer ace\" is a romanticisation of reality mixed with propaganda, as it is neither possibl... |
techies of reddit, what is actually happening when my phone/laptop freezes but music continues playing in the background? | The processes for the visual, be it the interface, or video, is glitching crashed, or many other things, while the process for audio is still going. | [
"The Music Player application stays in the background at all time (even when music is not being played). In the later firmware versions this application can be terminated, but doing so prevents the Music Edition remote control from working, until the application is started again by using the phone's keypad.\n",
"... |
Why doesn't dark matter collapse together to form black holes? | Ignoring any interactions, a cloud of gas of either normal or dark matter will not collapse so long as the gas has sufficient thermal energy (i.e. random motion of the particles) to maintain equilibrium with the gravitational potential energy of the cloud.
If a non-interacting cloud is too hot and/or not dense enough, it will simply disperse. If it is dense, cool, and massive enough it will undergo collapse.
With normal matter, the electromagnetic interaction helps collapse to occur, as heat energy is radiated away in the form of photons. This may cool a cloud of gas as it collapses. In this regard dark matter may be less prone to collapse than normal matter, as there may be no interaction which will produce a substantial amount of radiative cooling.
So as long as an effectively non-interacting cloud of dark matter is not overly dense, massive and/or cool, gravity will not overcome the gas pressure and it will not collapse. | [
"The properties of dark matter that allow it to collapse quickly without radiation pressure, also mean that it cannot \"lose\" energy by radiation either. Losing energy is necessary for particles to collapse into dense structures beyond a certain point. Therefore dark matter collapses into huge but diffuse filament... |
how would the gravity and environment of mars affect the people that colonized it? | There is almost no atmosphere on Mars (1% of Earth's Sea Level pressure). This means Humans who colonize Mars will either be indoors or in a pressure suit all the time. That's a key feature in the design of their air-tight structures and vehicles. | [
"Some of the main reasons for colonizing Mars include economic interests, long-term scientific research best carried out by humans as opposed to robotic probes, and sheer curiosity. Surface conditions and the presence of water on Mars make it arguably the most hospitable of the planets in the Solar System, other th... |
why if i multiply any random number with 9 the sum of that number is always 9? | Whatever integer is the base of your number system, the one before it will have this property in that number system. In other words, the largest digit of the number system has this property - in base ten that is 9.
For instance, in base eight:
1* 7 = 7
2 * 7 = 16 → 1 + 6 = 7
5 * 7 = 43 → 4 + 3 = 7
25*7 = 223 → 2 +2 + 3 = 7
4561237 * 7 = 41031131 → 4 + 1 + 3 + 1 +1 + 3 + 1 = 16 → 1 + 6 = 7 | [
"For example, assume that your random number source gives numbers from 0 to 99 (as was the case for Fisher and Yates' original tables), and that you wish to obtain an unbiased random number from 0 to 15. If you simply divide the numbers by 16 and take the remainder, you'll find that the numbers 0–3 occur about 17% ... |
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