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How did black soldiers react to a propaganda against their own country in the Korean war? | There a few defections (by few I mean very very few) by African Amerians during the Korea War. One example is that of Corporal Clarence Adams, who was captured by Chinese forces. Instead of being repatriated to the US at the end of the war, declared that he wanted to stay in China because of the racial discrimination (including Jim Crow) he faced in the US. He ended up working for Chinese foreign press and did propaganda broadcasts for Communist forces during the Vietnam War, telling black soldiers to defect. He eventually returned to the US during the cultural revolution and was dishonorably discharged. | [
"Following the violence, Japanese propaganda officials incorporated the event into its materials that encouraged black soldiers not to fight for the United States. They distributed a flyer titled \"Fight Between Two Races\". The Axis Powers publicized the riot as a sign of Western decline. Racial segregation in the... |
the reason behind reddits ui | The idea of earning something is a trend right now. Without exp and character progression, modern FPS games just wouldn't be played by people. Not because they are bad games, but because it feels like there's no point in playing if you're not getting anything at all out of it. Karma works the same way. Knowing that you can get upvoted, reaching the front page, gaining popularity and raising your karma score motivates people to participate in discussions. Hell, why would I bother to answer you? You're a stranger, I won't be affected by your knowledge so why should I care? I should care because if I behave like this, people will be more likely to upvote me. | [
"The new user interface (UI), officially known as \"Fluent User Interface\", has been implemented in the core Microsoft Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and in the item inspector used to create or edit individual items in Outlook. These applications have been selected for the UI overhaul becaus... |
to receive a subpoena, does the deliverer have to say, "you've been served"? | States have differing standards for serving subpoenas. In New York, you have to say those magic words or have a witness. In Florida the county sheriff's office serves subpoenas so their word tends to be enough. In California they are reviewing the system after they found one process server was throwing the subpoenas out and lying about serving them. So it's really up to the state. | [
"A \"subpoena\" commands a person to appear. It is used to compel the testimony of a witness in a trial. Usually, it can be issued by a judge or by the lawyer representing the plaintiff or the defendant in a civil trial or by the prosecutor or the defense attorney in a criminal proceeding. In many jurisdictions, it... |
During the 15th and 16th century, when Britain, Spain, French, Portugal and the Dutch were colonizing or invading other countries, what were the Germans doing? | > But, what were the Germans doing?
Germans in 15th and 16th century were *somewhat* unified in Holy Roman Empire (which as one of my professors likes to say, "wasn't holy, wasn't Roman and was hardly Empire"). It doesn't mean that they haven't got any influence in Europe - after unification in 1871 Germany began taking interest in colonialism and we need to remember about Austro-Hungary (which was ruled by German Habsburgs and was until 1867 dominated politically by Germans). German economical influence was also seen in Europe - many Balkan nations had in late XIX and early XXth century great German influence.
> Why haven't I heard any country with some major German or Russian influence?
Central Asian countries, Ukraine, Belarus are examples of major Russian influence. Russians were active in Central Asia and today Eastern Europe - these are not well known regions to outsiders (sorry if I offended anybody!) but these regions have a great Russian influence, dating from middle ages (Eastern Europe) or early modern period (central Asia).
About Germans - Namibia as far as I know has some German influence, but I am not sure how strong. Also, we can say (it depends on your political views and interpretation of history) that Poland is from 1945 a country with great German influence (but not dominant!) - a lot of modern Poland territory was German (German population dominated in today Western Poland) for a long time and majority of these lands had German majority (not Wielkopolska, Pomorze without Gdańsk, parts of Górny Śląsk - they had a lot of Poles in comparison to Pomorze Zachodnie, today's Lubuskie and Dolny Śląsk).
| [
"Based on archaeological evidence, it seems German colonization of the region started in the middle of the 12th century during the reign of King Géza II of Hungary. The German colonists from this region are attested in documents as early as 1192 when \"terra Bozza\" is mentioned as being settled by Germans (\"Theut... |
why hasn't the people's salary gone up? | There's two things a company does with the money it makes.
First, it pays its expenses. These include the cost of the raw material that the company buys from other companies (or the cost to harvest those raw materials), buildings and other assets, advertising, corporate taxes... and people. This last bit is where the wages come in.
The rest is profit, and goes into the pockets of the people that own the company, whether they are privately owned and go to an individual's pocket, or publically owned and go to shareholders as dividends.
The more money that goes into the expenses first category, the less money that goes to the owners as profits. Since the owners tell the company what to do, they're not going to freely give away all of their share to the expenses side if they're in it for the money. So most will want to keep a higher proportion of money than what goes into increases to wages and salaries, and so those don't climb as fast as the economy changes. | [
"According to an October 2014 report by the Pew Research Center, real wages have been flat or falling for the last five decades for most U.S. workers, regardless of job growth. Bloomberg reported in July 2018 that real GDP per capita has grown substantially since the Great Recession, but real compensation per hour,... |
Is it possible to magnetize any material regardless of its composition, even if it is only for a small fraction of a nanosecond? | Short answer: Yes as long as that material has unpaired electrons
Longer answer:
So everything has some sort of magnetic behavior; i.e. all types of materials will interact with a magnetic, the question is how.
For ferromagnetic materials there are unpaired electrons. The spins of those electrons are aligned permanently (at a given temperature) in a particular direction. Ferromagnetic materials will interact with other permanent magnets by either repelling or attracting them (depending on how they are aligned with each other).
For paramagnetic materials, there are unpaired electrons. The spins of these electrons are not aligned in a permanent direction. The spins of a paramagnetic material will align with those of a permanent magnet, but as soon as it is removed they will become disordered again.
For diamagnetic materials, all electrons are paired and in each pair the spins of the electrons are opposite to each other (they can't be the same because of the Pauli Exclusion Principle). Diamagnet materials will repel permanent magnet, (but this effect is very weak comparatively). This is very simplified and there are other categories of magnetic behavior, but these are the big three.
But really what you are asking when you say "magnetize" you intend as "make ferromagnetic." Any paramagnetic material will become ferromagnetic when cooled in the presence of a magnetic field to a low enough temperature (the Curie temperature). This works because at some point there is not sufficient thermal energy for the spins to become disordered, even when the external magnetic field is removed. | [
"Materials that are not permanent magnets usually satisfy the relation M = \"χH in SI, where \"χ\" is the (dimensionless) magnetic susceptibility. Most non-magnetic materials have a relatively small \"χ\" (on the order of a millionth), but soft magnets can have \"χ\" on the order of hundreds or thousands. For mater... |
Why does Hirohito seem to get a free pass among most historians when it comes to war crimes? | What "every time a thread arises on this board" are you referring to? I just ran a site:_URL_3_ search for "hirohito." Nearly all the viable top results ask some version of "Did/Why did Hirohito basically get off the hook for committing war crimes?"
**The ones I skimmed with viable answers cite multiple historians who straight-up implicate American and Japanese strategic interests involved in Hirohito's treatment.**
[This answer](_URL_2_) by /u/restricteddata even shows up with the preview blurb on the Google results page:
> The choice to allow Hirohito to remain was made by General MacArthur, who oversaw the Occupation. For MacArthur, keeping Hirohito in place, but making him essentially a figurehead, allowed him to keep a firm had on the existing Japanese bureaucracy and mandarin classes.
and if you're looking for a historian who is an expert on the specific topic, restricteddata writes, "The book to read on this period is John Dower, *Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II*."
Or at the top of the Google results page (native reddit search is terrible, but turns up similar results):
[This answer](_URL_4_) by /u/TheWinStore draws on Eiji Takamae, *Inside GHQ: The Allied Occupation of Japan and its Legacy*, which has likewise been called "the best overview of the allied occupation of Japan yet written" (Hans Baerwald, 2004).
Two other comments in the same thread (one of which would not be permissible as a top-level response under today's rule, LOL) cite Moore and Robinson, *Partners for Democracy: Crafting the New Japanese State Under MacArthur*; and Dower, *Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II*, to exactly the same end:
US strategic interests directed why and how they manipulated the emperor's position before and after the war to maneuver towards surrender and then have an easier time controlling a defeated Japan.
[This answer](_URL_5_), [this answer](_URL_0_) (not within today's AH rules, but I found it easily with Google still), and [this answer](_URL_1_) likewise cite multiple historians to the same effect.
And [this answer](_URL_6_) by /u/kieslowskifan goes into depth on the strengths and weaknesses of Bix's "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan", **a book that--cautions and all--won a Pulitzer Prize for arguing what you're claiming no historians do.** | [
"Some historians believe Emperor Hirohito was directly responsible for the atrocities committed by the imperial forces in the Second Sino-Japanese War and in World War II. They feel that he, and some members of the imperial family such as his brother Prince Chichibu, his cousins Prince Takeda and Prince Fushimi, an... |
with the earth being about 70% oceans, and 97% off all water being saltwater, how does natural freshwater exist? | Salt does not evaporate.
Water in the ocean evaporates turning into its gaseous form and going into the sky. There it cools and collects into clouds as it returns to its liquid form. Eventually the droplets get heavy enough to fall as rain. When this happens over land that water is fresh water.
As it flows over the land on its way to the sea it will dissolve extremely minute amounts of salts from the soil. This is not a high enough concentration of salt for the water to be considered salt water at this point, but over millions of years these minute amounts of salt will be concentrated in the ocean, and thus we have salt water. | [
"The remainder of the Earth's water constitutes the planet's \"fresh water\" resource. Typically, fresh water is defined as water with a salinity of \"less than 1 percent that of the oceans\" - i.e. below around 0.35‰. Water with a salinity between this level and 1‰ is typically referred to as \"marginal water\" be... |
How can we see the structures of molecules (eg. enzymes etc.)? | Related: [Single-molecule CO tip used in Atomic Force Microscopy](_URL_1_).
I'm not sure how many molecules we've imaged with this, but in the above link, benzene is imaged at a resolution high enough to see individual atoms and bonds.
[On this page](_URL_0_), they image some viral activity (the video they reference is [now here](_URL_2_)). | [
"Biomolecular structure is the intricate folded, three-dimensional shape that is formed by a molecule of protein, DNA, or RNA, and that is important to its function. The structure of these molecules may be considered at any of several length scales ranging from the level of individual atoms to the relationships amo... |
why can't the body restore it's nerve cells when a disembodied body part is reattached? it's the same genetic coding as it was before the dismemberment, so why can you be able to move it, but not feel/feel pain with it. | Neuronal damsge can occur in the central nervous system or peripheral nervous system. Cns-damage unfortunately is irreversible because we sinoly dont have stem-neuron-cells in the cns that could differeniate into entirely new neurons. The pns has some kind of regeneration option, but whether the nerve gets repaired or not, depends on to what point the degeneration of neuronal tissue occured, and if an actual nerval connection is build through reconnecting the fibers. I can tell you so much to the first aspect, thst once a nerve is cut into two pieces, the part that is still attached to the cell body (in our case the part that actually is attached to the human body) also receives retrograde degenerstivr damage. If that damage reaches the cell body, where the dna lies, rebuilding thst nerve is never possible. There might also be trouble in reinnervating the right spot making you loose your sensoric afferents.
Gonna add: there are in fact cases where after limb reattachment the pain part of the sensory nerves where retreived. | [
"If the force creating the nerve damage is removed in a timely fashion, the axon may regenerate, leading to recovery. Electrically, the nerve shows rapid and complete degeneration, with loss of voluntary motor units. Regeneration of the motor end plates will occur, as long as the endoneural tubules are intact.\n",
... |
what is the difference between a men's mid range price haircut and an expensive mens hair cut? | Korean guy here with very thick/straight hair. If I go to a typical chain for a $10 haircut, the barbers just treat my hair like any other guy's hair. They usually don't have much experience with cutting and styling hair like mine (or they don't care because it's cheap), so it's usually just 'buzz-buzz-snip, ok you're done.' My haircut ends up looking very unprofessional, like my mom did it in the bathroom or something. Not cool.
If I go to a decent place for a more expensive haircut ($50 plus tip), they know how to cut my hair, the way my hair will fall naturally, how the volume needs to be handled, my constant battle with frizz, and so on. I go to a Korean-owned-and-operated barber shop and the younger guys there know exactly what I'm going for when I describe the look I want and how to achieve it. And they show me how to style it myself at home, what products I need, and stuff like that. Very helpful.
I've never paid more than that for a haircut, so I don't know what the difference is between a $75 cut and a $200 cut. But I imagine more of the same idea, plus more amenities, high-end professional-quality products, and stuff like that. | [
"In the early 2010s, men's 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s haircuts have undergone a revival, with many British professionals aged 18–30 wearing businessman's haircuts with side partings, quiffs or slicked back hair. The undercut has been a particularly ubiquitous trend since the early part of the decade, seeing popularity... |
why people are so opposed to default internet porn filters | Mainly because I dont trust the people running the filter.
At home, the library or school can all filter their own internet. And no, a filter will always block pages its not supposed to. | [
"Internet service providers (ISPs) that block material containing pornography, or controversial religious, political, or news-related content en route are often utilized by parents who do not permit their children to access content not conforming to their personal beliefs. Content filtering software can, however, a... |
What have the Romans ever done for us? Does the public image of social advantage hold true for occupied regions? | The Babylonian Talmud (I'm trying to find a more exact citation since it's an enormous text) has a narrative very similar to that of Monty Python where "What have the Romans ever done for us". Essentially, they explain how various positive things the Romans brought were simply there to better oppress the Jews, rather than to benefit Judea. Some of the things they mention are include the roads, bathing, and public order.
edit: Found it! It's Shabbat 33b (edit: translations are my own):
> רבי יהודה ורבי יוסי ורבי שמעון ויתיב יהודה בן גרים גבייהו פתח ר' יהודה ואמר כמה נאים מעשיהן של אומה זו תקנו שווקים תקנו גשרים תקנו מרחצאות ר' יוסי שתק נענה רשב"י ואמר כל מה שתקנו לא תקנו אלא לצורך עצמן תקנו שווקין להושיב בהן זונות מרחצאות לעדן בהן עצמן גשרים ליטול מהן מכס הלך
> Rabbi Yehudah, Rabbi Yosi, and Rabbi Shimon were sitting, with Yehudah the son of converts nearby. Rabbi Yehudah states, "How nice are the acts of this nation [i.e. the Romans]! They made streets, made bridges, made bathhouses." Rabbi Yosi was silent. Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai answered and said, "Nothing that that they made was for any purpose except for their own needs. They made roads to be places for prostitutes, bathhouses for their own relaxation, bridges, to set up tolls".
The aftermath is that Yehudah the son of converts reports them to the authorities, and R' Shimon is sentenced to death, R' Yosi is exiled, and R' Yehudah gets a reward for saying nice things about the Romans.
The reference to government setting up public order is from the Mishnah Pirkei Avot 3:2, which says:
> רבי חנניה סגן הכוהנים אומר הוי מתפלל בשלומה של מלכות שאלמלא מוראה איש את ריעהו חיים בלעו.
> Rabbi Chanania assistant to the priests says: "Pray for the well-being of the kingdom, for if it weren't for fear of it, men would swallow their fellows alive".
edit2 for grammar in the translation, accuracy, and to add the original text for the first one.
There's a very similar narrative in Tractate Avodah Zarah 2, which is much more complex and lengthy. It speaks of a future interaction in the end times, where God asks nations what they've done. The Romans say pretty much the same stuff as R' Yehudah in Shabbat, with God having roughly the same response as R' Shimon. It also includes the Persians. Here's the relevant passage in Hebrew/Aramaic, with my translation of certain sections below. I've ommitted tangential arguments about the order of the various nations and most biblical prooftexts in my translation.
> דרש ר' חנינא בר פפא ואיתימא ר' שמלאי לעתיד לבא מביא הקדוש ברוך הוא ס"ת [ומניחו] בחיקו ואומר למי שעסק בה יבא ויטול שכרו מיד מתקבצין ובאין < עובדי כוכבים > {כל האומות} בערבוביא שנאמר (ישעיהו מג) כל הגוים נקבצו יחדו [וגו'] אמר להם הקדוש ברוך הוא אל תכנסו לפני בערבוביא אלא תכנס כל אומה ואומה וסופריה שנאמר (ישעיהו מג) ויאספו לאומים ואין לאום אלא מלכות שנאמר (בראשית כה) ולאום מלאום יאמץ ומי איכא ערבוביא קמי הקב"ה אלא כי היכי דלא ליערבבו אינהו [בהדי הדדי] דלישמעו מאי דאמר להו [מיד] נכנסה לפניו מלכות רומי תחלה מ"ט משום דחשיבא ומנלן דחשיבא דכתי' (דנייאל ז) ותאכל כל ארעא ותדושינה ותדוקינה אמר רבי יוחנן זו רומי חייבת שטבעה יצא בכל העולם ומנא לן דמאן דחשיב עייל ברישא כדרב חסדא דאמר רב חסדא מלך וצבור מלך נכנס תחלה לדין שנאמר (מלכים א ח) לעשות משפט עבדו ומשפט עמו ישראל [וגו'] וטעמא מאי איבעית אימא לאו אורח ארעא למיתב מלכא מאבראי ואיבעית אימא מקמי דליפוש חרון אף
> אמר להם הקב"ה במאי עסקתם אומרים לפניו רבש"ע הרבה שווקים תקנינו הרבה מרחצאות עשינו הרבה כסף וזהב הרבינו וכולם לא עשינו אלא בשביל ישראל כדי שיתעסקו בתורה אמר להם הקב"ה שוטים שבעולם כל מה שעשיתם לצורך עצמכם עשיתם תקנתם שווקים להושיב בהן זונות מרחצאות לעדן בהן עצמכם כסף וזהב שלי הוא שנאמר (חגיי ב) לי הכסף ולי הזהב נאם ה' צבאות כלום יש בכם מגיד זאת [שנאמר מי בכם יגיד זאת] ואין זאת אלא תורה שנאמר (דברים ד) וזאת התורה אשר שם משה מיד יצאו בפחי נפש
> יצאת מלכות רומי ונכנסה מלכות פרס אחריה מ"ט דהא חשיבא בתרה ומנלן דכתיב (דנייאל ז) וארו חיוא אחרי תנינא דמיא לדוב ותני רב יוסף אלו פרסיים שאוכלין ושותין כדוב ומסורבלין [בשר] כדוב ומגדלין שער כדוב ואין להם מנוחה כדוב אמר להם הקב"ה במאי עסקתם אומרים לפניו רבש"ע הרבה גשרים גשרנו הרבה כרכים כבשנו הרבה מלחמות עשינו וכולם לא עשינו אלא בשביל ישראל כדי שיתעסקו בתורה אמר להם הקב"ה כל מה שעשיתם לצורך עצמכם עשיתם תקנתם גשרים ליטול מהם מכס כרכים לעשות בהם אנגריא מלחמות אני עשיתי שנאמר (שמות טו) ה' איש מלחמה כלום יש בכם מגיד זאת שנאמר (ישעיהו מג) מי בכם יגיד זאת ואין זאת אלא תורה שנאמר וזאת התורה אשר שם משה מיד יצאו מלפניו בפחי נפש וכי מאחר דחזית מלכות פרס למלכות רומי דלא מהניא ולא מידי מאי טעמא עיילא אמרי אינהו סתרי בית המקדש ואנן בנינן
> R' Hananiah bar Papa (but some say R' Simlai) expounded on a verse: In the future to come, God will put a Torah scroll in his lap and say: "he who has involved himself with this come and receive their reward". At once, all the nations/the worshipers of stars [there is manuscript difference here. the former is probably more accurate, and the latter is probably the result of censorship] in confusion...[God has the nations come up one-by-one, with Romans first]
> God will say to them [the Romans]: "with what have you been involved?". They say "Master of the Universe, we have established many roads, made many bathhouses, and amassed much gold and silver. All this was for no purpose but so that Israel could be involved in study of Torah.. He said, "Fools among nations! All you did was for your own needs. Roads you established to have there prostitutes, and bathhouses to relax yourselves. Regarding the gold and silver, "the silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of Hosts" (Haggai 2)...
> They [the Romans] will leave right away with crushed spirit. They will leave and the Persians will enter...God will say to them [the Persians]: "with what have you been involved?". They will say "Master of the Universe, we have bridged many bridges, captured many cities, and fought many wars. All this was for no purpose but so that Israel could be involved in study of Torah." God will say, "All that you did was for your own needs. You established bridges to impose tolls, you have captured cities to get forced labor. The wars I did, as it is written "The Lord is a man of war" (Exodus 15)...They will leave right away with crushed spirit...
yet another edit: **tl;dr Jewish texts specifically mention the Romans' bathhouses and infrastructure. They still didn't like them.**
A comment below mentions the earlier Greek influence. Jewish sources tend to conflate these two, since from their perspective they were very similar. The Eastern sections of the Roman Empire were heavily Greek in character. On their end, it was the same cultural influence but under a different name. The transition point would probably be the era of Jewish independence during the Hasmonean period, but Hellenization occurred pretty much unabated then, too, despite the Hasmonean War. Greek Hellenization transitioned pretty smoothly into Roman Hellenization. | [
"Other scenes have the freedom fighters wasting time in debate, with one of the debated items being that they should not waste their time debating so much. There is also a famous scene in which Reg gives a revolutionary speech asking, \"What have the Romans ever done for us?\" at which point the listeners outline a... |
how does backtracing a phonecall really work? | There are three ways.
The first way is not too far away from what you see in the movies. When calling certain numbers (such as 999), the phone companies have a legal obligation to send the phone number to the receiver - even if its set as blocked. If they need to get your address (for example, you dial 999 and then dont speak as the smoke of a fire has overcome you) the operator can request the phone company to instantly release the name and address of the account holder. They now have the address and can send out the emergency services to you. Therefore, if you call 999 as a joke or whatever, you can expect a knock on the door from a police officer.
The second way of doing it is much more boring and never features on the TV. This is the case for trying to find the location of someone calling some other random number (eg, kidnapper calling victims home from a mobile phone). The person being called needs to contact the police, therefore its after the event. The police then need to go to a judge to get a warrant to force the phone company to give up the logs of that call. They will then hand over to the police (often a week+ after the event) what the dialling number was, what cell phone tower it was connected from (giving an approximation of where it was made to a few miles accuracy) and what the billing information is for the account holder (which will be blank if its a pay as you go number). The police then have to backtrack and investigate that rough area. If they are lucky, the phone logs will show its connection strength to multiple cell towers - if so, they can use triangulation to home in from a few miles accuracy to tens of meters. It takes weeks or months in reality.
There is another take on this. Which is someone has been kidnapped for example and the police know that the criminal is calling the victims home phone. If they know in advance, they can get the warrant from the judge in advance to have it so that as soon as the person calls, the number is shown up on caller ID even if its blocked... the phone companies basically register the number the same way as they do 999. In this scenario, as soon as it rings, the police contact the phone company instantly and get the source info. But again, if its a pay as you go phone with no account holder, they can only narrow it down to a few miles unless the logs show signal strength to multiple towers and they can triangulate in more detail.
Then we have the final way which is the illegal way but as Mr Snowdons leaks clearly told us, we know this is going on. This is more akin to James Bond / 24. They get the number in one of the above ways, and then use their spyware installed onto the phone to get the exact GPS co-ordinates and can then go back through their logs of all calls for that number to work out instantly who the phone is used to call and use that intelligence to pinpoint them. But that is totally illegal as it bypasses the judge and warrant stage. It would only be allowed (officially at least) in cases of extreme and immediate threats to national security.
| [
"BULLET::::- If the system being called back to uses greylisting the callback may return no useful information until the greylisting time has expired. Greylisting works by returning a \"temporary failure\" (a 4xx response code) when it sees an unfamiliar MAIL FROM/RCPT TO pair of email addresses. A greylisting syst... |
could a country legalize murder? | You couldn't legalize murder in a pedantic sense, because murder is by definition an illegal act.
But you could "legalize" killing people, and most countries already do in some sense. It is legal to kill people in self defense or the defense of others. It's legal to kill people during war. It's legal to kill people as penalty or breaking the laws.
So the question is, can a country make the definition of legal killing so wide as to effectively make everything an excuse to kill someone... And the answer is yes. | [
"Daniel Reisner, who headed the International Legal Division of the Israeli Military Advocate General's Office from 1994 to 2005, has stated that although targeted killing is illegal under previous understanding of international law, \"If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it. The whole of inte... |
Were there any "Slingshots" or slingshot like weapons during ancient, roman or medieval times? How widespread and effective was its use? | You need something elastic to store the energy, to make a slingshot function. That vulcanized-rubber strap is rather recent. The ancient elastic things would be twisted rope or hair- like the [onager](_URL_0_). But those both have a lot of internal friction, that takes away a lot of the energy- and also lose a lot of their spring when they get wet.
So, the best elastic possibilities for storing and releasing energy for projectile throwing were bow-like things, of wood, horn, or steel. Gravity, however, seems to have worked the best for this. Gravity would be used in a trebuchet- a lever with a big counterweight on it, or a lever with a bunch of idle soldiers hauling down on it. | [
"While early slingshots were most associated with young vandals, they were also capable hunting arms in the hands of a skilled user. Firing projectiles, such as lead musket balls, buckshot, steel ball bearings, air gun pellets, or small nails, slingshot was capable of taking game such as quail, pheasant, rabbit, do... |
What would happen if you put your finger in a venus fly trap? | It will close. I have done this myself.
But unless you have less strength than a housefly, you will pull your finger out. | [
"BULLET::::- The mathematics of nature – L. Mahadevan and colleagues discovered how the Venus flytrap snaps up its prey in a mere tenth of a second by actively shifting the curved shape of its mouth-like leaves.\n",
"The fatally toxic blue-lined octopus (\"Hapalochlaena fasciata\"), the most common of the blue-ri... |
Would the Byzantine army of AD 1114 have been more or less organised than the Roman army AD 114? How much had the structure of the Roman military changed in that 1000 years? | Note: This first paragraph does not directly address your question, but gives important information for the second part that addresses it.
Basically, the Roman army changed in a couple ways throughout those years such as through tactics, weapons and styles of fighting. First of all, with those thousand years come experience. From the Persians to the Goths, the Byzantines acquired knowledge of how to combat almost any kind of opponent they faced, as written down in *Tactica* by Emperor Leo VI (895–908). We know that by the time of Basil II, weapons of longer reach than the Gladius (short sword) were standard in the army to counter the longer reaches of some Barbarian weapons, the Kontarion Spear and Spathion Longsword were both adopted to make up for the short reach of the Gladius. Also, from fighting against the Sassanid Persians, the Byzantines had learned that rather than having their foot soldiers be destroyed by horse archer arrows at a distance or be smashed by heavily armored, mounted horsemen called Cataphracts, they would adopt these ideas and integrate them into their army, making it a less infantry focused fighting force.
Now, this sounds unrelated to the question, but alllow me to get to my point, because
what I have said is important to the context of what Ill add next. Basically, all these changes and advancements indicated how much versatile this fighting force was and how it adapted. In order to allow for such widespread adaptations of new tactics in a standard army of the time, there must be adequate communication, chains of command and succession of that change of command as well as a centralized authority (the Emperor). All this the Byzantine army had. I would argue it was *more* organized than the old Roman Legions because of that final point: Loyalty to the Emperor and his successors. In the old empire many emperors, such as Galba, Vespasion and Septimun Severus, among others, came to power because of the support of either their legions winning a civil war or being appointed by the Praetorian Guard (the secret service of the Roman Empire) after the previous Emperor was deposed... by the Praetorian Guard. In short, from 114 AD to 1114 AD, the Roman Empire may have shrunk in size, but with that it became *much* more centralized and bureaucratic.
Edit: After being, understandably, called out for the part about me actually answering your question being a bit short, I'll add some more. Another way the military changed was in religion. The much more centralized Orthodox Christianity meant there was much more religious unity in the ranks rather than the many warrior cults and syncretic religions that persisted in prior the the Christianization of the empire. Also, now their commander in chief was not only their head of state, but also the head of their religion. This is from *Caesaropapism* (Caesar over Pope) where the Emperor was the highest power in the empire, unlike in say the catholic Holy Roman Empire, where technically the Pope was the highest power. This affected the army by making many of its allies reasons for fighting alongside them their religion rather than their power or wealth. This is most famously seen in the First Crusade, when Western Catholics conquered Jerusalem (supposedly) in the defense of Eastern Christendom when it was beset by the Seljuk Turks.
Sources:
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 31 (2007)
Dennis, George T. (1985), Three Byzantine Military Treatises, Washington DC
Dennis, George T. (1997), "The Byzantines in Battle", in Tsiknakis, K
| [
"The Byzantine army or Eastern Roman army was the primary military body of the Byzantine armed forces, serving alongside the Byzantine navy. A direct continuation of the Roman army, the Eastern Roman army maintained a similar level of discipline, strategic prowess and organization. It was among the most effective a... |
why drill instructor in the army never stop screaming at recruit in the army? | > What's the point of screaming at people like that?
It is intended to rattle the recruits mentally, making them feel like they are incapable and useless. The idea is to break their self-esteem and then the group will be given tasks where the support of the entire unit is necessary to succeed. To drive the point home they will often employ collective punishment so every recruit has an interest in making sure their peers succeed.
All this has the goal of making the resulting soldiers psychologically dependent upon the military and their comrades. By creating this bond through surviving abuse it puts the soldiers in a better position to be confident in the support of their peers during combat, and for those peers to run into danger in the support of their comrades.
Such a technique makes great soldiers. It also arguably seriously messes people up when they get out of the military because in essence they have been psychologically abused to foster a bond with the military culture. Ex-military basically have a version of battered woman syndrome and need to relearn individuality and self-confidence outside of the military. | [
"Recruits are made to march in a formation where every person is moving the same way at the same time causes a sense of unity. It makes the recruits feel less like an individual and more like they are a part of a group. They sing in cadence to boost morale and to make the group feel important. The drill sergeants a... |
The philosophy of Viking raiders | FYI, /u/isndasnu gave us links to an amazing 3-part lecture series in this thread. Archaeologist [Neil Price](_URL_1_) talks about the "viking mind":
[How did the Norse treat people with dwarfism?](_URL_0_) | [
"Sagas of the Viking Age often mention berserkers. These fabled Viking warriors are said to have spiritual magical powers from the god of war Odin that allowed them to become impervious to injuries on the battlefield. While these stories are exaggerated, the term \"berserks\" is rooted in truths about Viking warrio... |
how do brine pools form? | Brine pools and brine springs occur if ground water gets into contact with an underground rock salt deposit, and then surfaces somewhere else like a regular spring. | [
"A brine pool is a large area of brine on the ocean basin. These pools are bodies of water that have a salinity three to eight times greater than the surrounding ocean. For deep-sea brine pools, the source of the salt is the dissolution of large salt deposits through salt tectonics. The brine often contains high co... |
How aware was Martin Luther of Jan Hus and the Hussites? | He was very much aware of Hus and the Hussites, and Bohemia was at his time mostly Hussite, until the Thirty Years War. During the Leipzig Disputation with Johann Eck in July 1519, Eck asked whether Luther agreed with Hus- this was a fairly standard line of attack, since Hus was widely known and recognised as having been a heretic. Though he denied being a Hussite himself, Luther said that many of Hus’s teachings were “plainly Christian and evangelical”, and he should no have been executed.
After the debate he read Hus’s works and received encouragement from Hussite leaders. Plenty of later Protestants (most famously in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs) would claim the Hussites as proto-Protestants.
Sources-
These are both general sources but they should be sufficient for an answer on this sub I hope.
MacCulloch, Diarmaid, 2004, “Reformation: Europe’s House Divided”, Penguin Books
Eire, Carlos, 2016, “Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650”, Yale University Press. | [
"Jan Hus was a key contributor to Protestantism, whose teachings had a strong influence on the states of Europe and on Martin Luther. The Hussite Wars resulted in the Basel Compacts which allowed for a reformed church in the Kingdom of Bohemia—almost a century before such developments would take place in the Luther... |
Since the gram is a unit of mass and the pound is a unit of weight, how would one determine the mass of an object (in grams) independent of gravity? | Force = Mass*Acceleration
The only way to measure an unknown mass is either to measure the acceleration that is produced when you apply a known force, or to measure the force exerted by that object under a known acceleration (this is essentially what you are doing when you weigh yourself on a scale).
Weight is by definition the force of an object under gravitational acceleration. | [
"Although the size of an object may be reflected in its mass or its weight, each of these is a different concept. In scientific contexts, mass refers loosely to the amount of \"matter\" in an object (though \"matter\" may be difficult to define), whereas weight refers to the force experienced by an object due to gr... |
how do governments determine the dollar amount of a fine? | Most likely, your neighborhood set a schedule of fines years ago and increased them all by a set percentage to try and somewhat keep up with inflation. | [
"The table to the right shows the equivalent amount of goods that, in a particular year, could be purchased with $1. The table shows that from 1774 through 2012 the U.S. dollar has lost about 97.0% of its buying power.\n",
"The government fixed the value of the Canadian dollar against the pound sterling ($4.43 bu... |
Is it a coincidence that the two most important former Axis countries, Germany and Japan, now have one of the strongest economies in the world? If not, what is the reason that despite their losses in WWII, they managed to create a robust economy? | The fact that Japan and Germany were the major parties in WWII, means that they were powerful industrial nations, with large and educated populace. Even though WWII devastated Japan and Germany more than most other Great Powers such as USA, UK or even France, they still had a decent platform to build their nation up again.
One shouldn't also forget that after the war, both Germany and Japan stayed strongly within the American sphere of influence. USA was interested in helping to build up Europe and Japan to stop the spread of communism. Japan also benefitted from the Korean war, where it was the major supplier of UN forces, giving a boost to Japanese economy.
Both Germany and Japan have been at peace after WWII, have had stable economic policies and been members of international trade. They were strong nations before the WWII and they are still today. | [
"After the Second World War, the economies of both nations experienced rapid recoveries; bilateral relations, now focused on economic issues, were soon re-established. Today, Japan and Germany are, respectively, the third and fourth largest economies in the world, and benefit greatly from many kinds of political, c... |
why do livestreams always have a small delay but group calls (on skype for example) don't | Well, for starters, a video game stream is sending the data to sometimes *hundreds* of viewers (or more), whereas you're just sending data directly to your Skype contacts.
In addition, the Skype video is likely nowhere near as high quality as the video game stream.
Also, there often *is* a delay - a slight one - when you're using Skype. You just don't really notice it since it's maybe half a second tops.
There are streaming sites out there that do have a much shorter delay than many of the mainstream streaming sites, too. | [
"The signal delay can be as much as 900 milliseconds or more, which makes most satellite-based Internet service unusable and unstable for applications requiring real-time user input, such as online games or remote surgery. The functionality of live interactive access to a distant computer can also be subject to the... |
what's the deal with idaho's northern border / montana's western border? | According to the awesome book "How the States Got Their Shapes"
> The separation between Idaho and Montana begins where the Continental Divide intersects the 111th meridian. It then follows the Continental Divide to the point where it intersects the Bitterroot Mountains. Here the crests of the Bitterroot Mountains becomes the boundary up to the Clark Fork River, where a straight line due north completes the border.
| [
"Idaho borders six U.S. states and one Canadian province. The states of Washington and Oregon are to the west, Nevada and Utah are to the south, and Montana and Wyoming are to the east. Idaho also shares a short border with the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north.\n",
"Idaho () is a state in the no... |
I want to translate a proverb into Egyptian hieroglyphics. | You could try one of the translation subs, e.g. /r/translator, /r/translation. Or post your phrase here; it's possible that someone might be able to help you. | [
"Medew Netcher (or Mdw Ntr, 'God Speech') is an ancient Egyptian writing system. It contains Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called hieroglyphics. In Neoplatonism, especially during the Renaissance, a \"hieroglyph\" was an artistic repres... |
how is a red giant formed? | A star has two forces that always balance: the outward pressure from the fusion reactions in the core, which makes the star want to expand, and the force of gravity, which makes the star want to collapse.
When a star gets old and has mostly run out of hydrogen fuel in its core, it goes through a process where it suddenly collapses (because the fuel ran out and gravity started to win), but that creates a *very* high temperature which ignites hydrogen fusion outside of the core.
To quote Wikipedia: "The outer layers of the star then expand greatly, beginning the red-giant phase of the star's life. Due to the expansion of the outer layers of the star, the energy produced in the core of the star is spread over a much larger surface area, resulting in a lower surface temperature and a shift in the star's visible light output towards the red – hence red giant, even though the color usually is orange." | [
"A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.3–8 solar masses ()) in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius large and the surface temperature around or lower. The appearance of the red giant is from yellow-orange to red, inc... |
why do certain turns on the road have signs instructing how fast you should go while others do not? | The geometry of the road determines the speed you can travel on it. An old country dirt road that’s been paved is going to have sharper turns, and be more irregularly contoured than a newer road, that has contoured/banked turns and longer, smoother approaches into those turns.
The smoother, more engineered road can be driven at higher speeds than the irregular one.
And in some cases those specified speed limits may be to help with a bad spot that wasn’t accounted for in the past. If the traffic engineers figured out that there are lots of incidents there, the lower speed limit may be to reduce incidents. | [
"If speed signs are not present, the system does not function. This is a particular problem when exiting a side road onto a main road, as the vehicle may not pass a speed sign for some distance. There can also be a problem taking a vehicle from a Miles Per Hour (MPH) country to a KiloMetres per Hour (KMH) one and v... |
What causes the brain to latch onto certain skills? In other words, why is it possible some people were "born with" certain talents? | It's hard to say precisely in most cases because things are so complicated, but in a nutshell the brain is really no different than other body parts in this respect. The human genome contains around 20,000 genes, each of which codes for a protein, each of which could be present to varying degrees in various parts of the body, and all of those interact in complex ways with each other and the other biochemicals in your body. The combinatorial possibilities, and the complexities of interactions, are mind-boggling when you think of what's going on in only a single cell, and then there are trillions of cells in the human body (about 100 billion of which are neurons).
So the genetic component of ability at particular complex behavior is likely to be very complex, involving a number of subtle variations in a bunch of different genes. And it's important to keep in mind that each gene/protein/biochemical does not do only one thing; they could play different roles in other parts of the body, and affect functions there too. (An example I like to use is serotonin -- people think of it mostly in regard to the brain because of the association with depression, but actually the majority of the body's serotonin is contained in the digestive system regulating intestinal movements.)
There are genes that are associated with certain abilities like language -- for example, [FOXP2](_URL_0_). People with mutations in the FOXP2 gene have language impairments, which suggests it is important in the human ability of speech, but of course it doesn't act alone -- you couldn't just inject a human FOXP2 gene into the canine genome and get talking dogs.
You should think of genes like small mechanical components of a large machine. In a sense, what a screw does is very simple -- it holds two things together. But now think about what would happen if there were variations in the construction of the screw that affected every screw in the machine the same way -- maybe they could all be a bit thicker, or longer, or made from a material with a very low melting point, etc. If the machine is large and complex, and the things the screws are connecting together are not always the same everywhere, each variation might have different downstream effects in different parts of the machine -- some beneficial, some not, some making no difference. And of course it would all depend on the millions of other potential variations in how all the other machine parts are constructed.
So the TL; DR is that in a sense the genetic variations in the brain are just like the genetic variations in other parts of the body that make you tall, or have nice cheekbones, or have weirdly small hands, or whatever. But all of those characteristics are the result of incredibly complex interactions that are difficult to describe succinctly (or even study in the first place, for the same reason). | [
"Intelligence alone is not enough for the development of genius but the pathways and neural connections for divergent thinking are also necessary. Thus the home must encourage creativity. The parents of gifted children tend to supply enriching environments with intellectually and culturally stimulating materials th... |
why is a moment of silence seen as a sign of respect? | The idea is you're taking a moment out of your day to stop and remember those who are no longer around, potentially the impact they have had on your day to day life, and sacrifices made. I assume this is in relation the armistice day or something but I know people who do this on the anniversary of family members passing.
| [
"A moment of silence (sometimes referred to as a minute's silence or a one-minute silence) is a period of silent contemplation, prayer, reflection, or meditation. Similar to flying a flag at half-mast, a moment of silence is often a gesture of respect, particularly in mourning for those who have died recently or as... |
How fast do neural signals travel in my body? | The speed of a neural signal (more properly: *the speed of propagation of an action potential*) depends largely upon two things: (1) the diameter of the axon (thicker = faster) and (2) whether the axon is myelinated or not (yes = faster). There's a range of propagation speeds in the nervous system that reflect the makeup of the axons carrying the signal. Slowest signals propagate about walking speed; fastest are about the speed of a commercial jet on take-off.
You specifically ask about somatosensation, which is roughly midrange as far as propagation speed (motor commands are fastest; pain is slowest). Short answer: a few tens of milliseconds from finger press to brain (assuming "destination" = "brain"). | [
"BULLET::::- Assuming the travel distance is equivalent, neural signals can be transmitted much more quickly (in the range of milliseconds) than can hormonal signals (in the range of seconds, minutes, or hours). Neural signals can be sent at speeds up to 100 meters per second.\n",
"The rate of information process... |
To what extent was the Finnish military in WWII complicit in Nazi war crimes? Do historians believe that Finnish involvement and complicity was motivated by resistance to USSR and communism? | There were certainly people in Finland that were sympathetic to the Nazi cause, and as is very often the case, things were not all that black and white as the simplified versions of history would have us believe.
Finland was a de facto military ally of Germany during the Continuation War, from 1941 to 1944. (The Finnish historical debate has for decades revolved around whether Finland was an ally or co-belligerent, but this is largely a matter of semantics and barely disguised political infighting.) Particularly during the early years of that alliance, when German victory seemed only a matter of time, the political situation gave boost to pro-German and pro-Nazi (which were not always the same thing) elements within the society and the armed forces.
One result of that euphoria were that Finnish government, albeit somewhat half-heartedly, attempted for a while to transform the visions of "Greater Finland" into a reality. In 1941, Finnish forces had retaken the lands lost during the Winter War, and in addition advanced somewhat to what had been Russian Karelia before the wars. These advances had military reasons as well, as they greatly shortened the front lines, but dreams of "liberating Karelia" were a factor as well.
The radicals in Finland, very often at least influenced by Nazi ideals if not outright Nazi sympathizers, viewed the Russians as undesirables and Russian-influenced Eastern Karelians (close relations to Finns, but never before subjects to Finnish state) as needing "civilization." This would've meant, and for a brief period did mean, things like forbidding Orthodox religion in favor of Lutheranism, changing the language towards "standard" Finnish, banning Russian entirely, and so forth.
Probably the most odious result of these policies was that significant numbers of "unreliable" East Karelians and Russians in particular in the occupied areas were uprooted and transported to internment camps. Mortality rates were in some cases very high, and not only because entire Finland suffered from severe food shortages during 1942. While conditions did improve once knowledge about the camps became more widespread within the administration and particularly once it became clear in about 1943 that Germany wasn't going to win, there is no denying that the occupation policy did result to needless deaths of at least hundreds and likely thousands. However, there was no policy of extermination, instead more of a wilful negligence and incompetence at worst - even though individual violations against the laws of war such as shootings of surrendering Russians most certainly happened.
In addition to these crimes, the Finnish secret police Valpo was thoroughly sympathetic to Germans. Its chief Arno Anthoni, a bona fide Nazi operating with the knowledge of the Minister of Interior at the time but in secret from the rest of the government, organized a deportation of Jewish refugees in Finland as well as the attachment of Finnish officers (as interrogators) to German Einsatzkommando Finnland operating in Lapland. During the Continuation War, Lapland was the responsibility of German troops. However, the Northern wilderness defeated the German army and its advance was stymied. This prevented the EK Finnland from carrying out a similar extermination policy as other EKs elsewhere did, but it nevertheless killed probably thousands of Soviet POWs, both communists and Jews. The most recent research is that Finnish officials, particularly Valpo, handed out at least hundreds of POWs the Finns had caught to the Germans in full knowledge of their likely fate; however, this was kept secret during the war and afterwards. Most of the military staff most likely weren't aware of this, but it seems likely they wouldn't have minded much either.
It is still unknown whether and to what extent the Finnish government was really aware of what Valpo and other Nazi sympathizers were doing. Radical right-wing political movements had been essentially defeated in Finland in 1930s, and Finland remained a parliamentary democracy with staunchly anti-Nazi Social Democrats in many key positions. Finnish Jews were not discriminated against (well, not more so than in other democracies at the time), they served in the army just like everyone else, and even had field synagogues - at least in one instance, within earshot of German troops. It is well known that once the refugee deportations became public knowledge (newspapers reported it widely, despite wartime censorship), the Cabinet (except the Minister of Interior of course) was outraged and two key ministers even threatened to resign. This would've likely collapsed the government and precipitated new elections in the middle of the war. This did not happen, but Valpo's deportation plans were immediately stopped, unfortunately not before at least eight (and most probably more, perhaps up to 50) refugees and POWs had been handed over to the Germans. Of the best-documented eight, all but one perished in German concentration camps.
On the other hand, Finland's policy, crimes, mistakes and all, needs to be seen in the context. Recent research also strongly suggests that in 1940, Finland was left with very few good options. Its army had been decimated and supplies of military material from elsewhere than Germany were cut off. It had tried to establish a defensive pact with Sweden, only to be rebuffed by Soviet Union (whose acceptance was a requirement for the Swedes). During 1940, Soviet Union made a series of increasingly threatening moves against Finland, including the annexation of the Baltic states (which had accepted the ultimatum that Finland refused before the Winter War), shootdown over international waters of a Finnish civil airliner, and heavy troop concentrations along the Finnish border, which very nearly triggered a Finnish mobilization during summer 1940. Reportedly, in August 1940 the Soviet foreign minister Molotov asked Hitler for a free hand to deal with Finland in accordance to Molotov-Ribbentrop pact; while Soviet intent cannot be definitely established at least as long as the Kremlin keeps its archives closed, the circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that another invasion was in the works.
Aside from armaments, Finland was also dependent upon Germany on basic food supplies and fertilizers, without which there would have been mass starvation. Furthermore, all alternatives to Germany were cut off after German conquest of Denmark and Norway. So what your grandmother said about Finland being caught against a rock and a hard place has very much truth to it - even though the idea that Finland just happened to find itself as a co-belligerent of the Germans (the so-called "driftwood" theory) is these days thoroughly discredited. Once Finnish government decided to lean on the Germans, Finnish officers participated in the planning of Operation Barbarossa, and Finland's re-entry to the war in late June 1941 (a few days after Barbarossa began) was basically a done deal in about March of that year.
Even then, the general mood in Finland was very suspicious about both the Germans and the Soviets. The latter were certainly hated and feared more, particularly after the Winter War, but Finnish Nazis were a *very* distinct minority with practically no popular support. (A right-wing Nazi sympathetic "Patriotic People's Front" had more support, though - about the same as the then-proscribed Communist Party.) The government and the military in particular had a strong legacy of pro-German sentiments, but not nearly all of them were any fans of the Nazi regime. The key Social Democratic politicians in several leadership positions, as well as other moderates, were very much against both Nazis and Communists, and they knew full well what their probable fate would be if either extreme took power. (Ironically, it was the leader of the Social Democratic party, Väinö Tanner, who the Soviets stated was the most responsible for dragging Finland to the war.)
So a somewhat accurate conclusion might be that while pro-Nazi sentiments and pro-Nazi individuals (as well as pro-German ones) did exist and influence Finnish society and decision-making, particularly during 1941 and 1942, as a whole the Finnish society or the government was not sympathetic to the Nazi cause. Nevertheless, Finland did fight alongside Nazi Germany.
As for war crimes committed by the Finnish military, in addition to above-mentioned occupation policies and cooperation in handing over POWs (albeit mostly on orders from Valpo), there is clear evidence of sporadic shootings of surrendering Soviet soldiers or prisoners of war (56 individuals were in fact convicted, both during the war and after, although many more escaped unpunished), good reasons to believe in occasional civilian killings by long range patrols (in cases where a civilian stumbled upon a patrol that had to keep its existence secret) and almost-certainty of various instances of mistaken identities, such as a possible destruction of a Soviet military hospital during a long-range raid. Overall, the current research suggests that the Finnish army fought cleaner than most, but perhaps not as cleanly as the British or U.S. armies - although, given what we know from the Pacific for instance, this might be debatable, and in any case crimes made by others do not absolve anyone from any responsibility.
EDIT: minor corrections. | [
"By the autumn of 1941, the Finnish military leadership started to doubt Germany's capability to finish the war quickly. The Finnish Defence Forces suffered relatively severe losses during their advance, and, overall, German victory became uncertain as German troops were halted near Moscow. German troops in norther... |
How does the gut microbiome recover after a very strong antibiotic course? | This is in fact a problem.
The gut microbiome will usually slowly grow back, as you normally keep ingesting all kinds of bacteria which normally a part of it. But after strong antibiotic therapy it can happen that the composition of the microbiome changes in undesired ways. This can lead to chronic conditions, including food intolerances and certain types of colitis.
In bad cases, it might require a [fecal transplant](_URL_0_) to restore the microbiome. | [
"In addition to surviving within the gut of an organism, \"L.Brevis\" can also act to inhibit the pathogenic effects of certain gut pathogens and can also proliferate in the presence of additional bacteria. Some strains are resistant to certain antibiotics, specifically erythromycin and clindamycin. This antibiotic... |
Is there a reason Blackbeard named his ship Queen Anne's Revenge? | Likely a reflection on that period's monarch situation in 1717-1718. Queen Anne is referring to the British Queen that preceded the King ruling at that time, George I. Anne was the last Stuart House ruler on the British throne. After her death, the rule of the British throne went to the House of Hanover. Not everyone was satisfied with a king coming from central Europe to rule Britain. Others still wanted the descendants of James II to be on the throne (see the Jacobites). Pirates had a tendency to show sympathy to the Jacobite cause.
If you want to know more about pirates and Jacobites - see Fox, E. T. “Jacobitism and the ‘Golden Age’ of Piracy, 1715-1725.” *International Journal of Maritime History* 22, no. 2 (December 2010): 277–303. | [
"Queen Anne's Revenge was an early-18th-century ship, most famously used as a flagship by the pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach or Edward Thatch). Although the date and place of the ship's construction are uncertain, it was believed she was built for merchant service in Bristol in 1710 and named \"Concord\", later ca... |
Why did Victoria succeed instead of Ernst August? | Short answer: Victoria inherited the throne because succession law in the UK preferred the children of older sons to younger sons. Male children had priority, but female children would inherit in the absence of any surviving male siblings. This doesn't trump male-preference primogeniture; it is how male-preference primogeniture works. The male preference governs the choice between siblings: a younger brother inherits before his older sister, but in either case the child of an older brother inherits before a younger brother.
(As background, the reason Ernest Augustus inherited the Kingdom of Hanover is because Hanover used the Salic law, which was established under Clovis, the King of the Franks, around the turn of the sixth century. This includes the key phrase "But of Salic land no portion of the inheritance shall come to a woman: but the whole inheritance of the land shall come to the male sex." This is not to say that all of the Salic law was still in effect in 1837, but that this particular tenet still governed succession in Hanover.)
The UK's law preferred Victoria, a woman born of an older brother (Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, who was himself never king because he died before his older brothers) to any surviving younger brother. The reason is that British succession law was what is called male-preference primogeniture succession. (That law has sinced changed, in 2015.) By this law, the right to inherit was passed down through oldest male children to their children. Younger brothers would inherit over older sisters, but in the absence of a son the daughter would inherit before her father's younger brothers or their children. This meant that the heir apparent of the reigning monarch was:
the monarch's oldest son,
if he was dead, then the oldest living son of the oldest son,
if the monarch's oldest son didn't have a living son, the oldest son's oldest daughter,
if the oldest son died and had no surviving children, the next-oldest son,
if he was dead, the oldest son of the next-oldest son,
if there wasn't one the oldest daughter of the next-oldest son,
and next in line was the third-oldest son,
etc.
I left out grandchildren, but they follow the same rule: you trace down descent through the oldest male child before going on to the next-oldest for succession. I feel like this answers your question, but if you're curious, you can read a little more about the actual case of Victoria, below. :)
In the case of the children and grandchildren of George III, the succession would have passed to Charlotte, Princess of Wales, the only legitimate child of the Prince Regent, later George IV. After his death, she would have become queen, even with George's younger brothers surviving. The House of Hanover in the early 19th century was kind of a mess, but Charlotte's kindness and gentleness was seen as a ray of hope after her insane grandfather and famously gluttonous, wasteful, and lecherous father. Her father wanted Charlotte to marry William the Prince of Orange, but Charlotte hated him and refused (she wrote in a latter that, if she were forced into the marriage, she wouldn't leave England to stay with him: "Therefore the P of O *must visit his frogs solo*". I love this detail so much I had to include it). She was in love with a dashing young Prussian whose identity is unclear. Unfortunately, the match wasn't to be, and Charlotte married Prince Leopold, later King of Belgium. When Charlotte became pregnant, the kingdom celebrated. The royal line seemed assured. The Prince Regent had one heir, but she was a good one and loved by the people, and she was about to have a family of her own. Then, tragedy struck. Charlotte had been weakened throughout her pregnancy by bad medical care. After a long and painful labor, she delivered a stillborn child and died shortly after. What had been a cause of joy plunged the country into mourning. Her stillborn child was a son. This was in 1817.
At this point, George III's sons scrambled to have legitimate children, since suddenly one of them or their child would inherit. (Out of fairness, I should say that unlike his older brothers Ernest Augustus was already married and, it seems, actually faithful to his wife. The others had to either get married quick or try to patch up their marriages.) The oldest to have a legitimate child would ensure the new line. Let's take a look at the field. Of the children of George III, at this point in 1817 there was, starting with the oldest:
*George, the Prince Regent, born 1762, who had no surviving children after Charlotte's tragic death. He became George IV after his father's death in 1820 and died in 1830.
*Prince Frederick, born 1763, married but estranged from his wife and with no children. He would have succeeded his brother had he outlived him, but died in 1827.
*Prince William, born 1765, married but with no legitimate children. He had scads of illegitimate children, but those don't count. Succeeded as William IV in 1830 after the death of George IV his brother. Died 1837.
*Charlotte, Princess Royal (not to be confused with Charlotte, Princess of Wales), born 1766, died 1827, and had no surviving children. In order for her to inherit the throne, every single one of her brothers and their children (and any grandchildren) would have had to have died.
*Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, born 1767. As the oldest son of George III to have a surviving child after 1817, he won the race, so to speak. He had a daughter named Alexandrina Victoria, born 1819. Had he had any sons, the oldest son would have inherited the throne. Edward would have succeeded to the throne had he outlived his older brothers, but he died in 1820.
At this point, since an older brother's claim passes to his children before his younger brothers, the younger brothers no longer count. Sorry, chaps. Should have been born sooner.
George (later George V of Hanover), son of Ernest Augustus (the next-oldest son of George III, born 1771), was born three days after Alexandrina Victoria. If she hadn't been born or had died before 1837, Ernest Augustus would have come to the throne of both the UK and Hanover, and after his death the UK would have had a George V rather sooner than they actually did. There were rumors that her uncles tried to have Alexandrina Victoria assassinated before she could take the throne, but whether or not that's true, she lived.
Thus, if you're still with me, we arrive in 1837. Alexandrina Victoria is now (barely) 18 years old. Her father has been dead since 1820, and her father's last remaining older brother William has just died. As I'm sure you all have already guessed, as her father's older brothers have no surviving legitimate children at this point and her own father is dead, she becomes Queen Victoria. | [
"Victoria and Ernst proved incompatible. Victoria despaired of her husband's lack of affection towards her, while Ernst devoted much of his attention to their daughter, whom he adored. Elisabeth, who physically resembled her mother, preferred the company of her father to Victoria. Ernst and Victoria both enjoyed en... |
Did Roman soldiers have to go through "boot camp" after enlisting? Was it similar to boot camp in the American military today? | /u/celebreth gave a really good answer around a year ago that might be of some interest:
_URL_0_ | [
"At the end of a day's march, the Romans would typically establish a strong field camp called a castra, complete with palisade and a deep ditch, providing a basis for supply storage, troop marshalling and defence. Streets were laid out, units designated to take specific places, and guards posted at carefully design... |
how do google and gis products know the elevation of a certain point? | It's hard for me to explain it in English, I'll still give it a shot. When taking data with an aerial system (let's say airborne laser scanning), the sensor has a GNSS sensor which also gives you a height value (so it gets it from satellites). When recording the measurement, most systems can determine the distance of the measures object.
With aerial photogrammetry you need a bit of mathematics/physics to get a three dimensional point out of two slightly different pictures of the same object. If you have the coordinate of your aerial system or camera, you can determine the coordinates of the point you like to know. | [
"GPS measurements give earth-centered coordinates, usually displayed as height above the reference ellipsoid, which cannot be related accurately to orthometric height above the geoid without accurate gravity data for that location. In the US, NGS has undertaken the GRAV-D ten-year program to obtain such data with a... |
how does plasma get under a blister? | The fluid under the blister isn't plasma, but a fluid called serum. It leaks in from neighboring tissues as a reaction to injured skin.
Blood blisters form when subdermal tissues and blood vessels are damaged without piercing the skin. | [
"The main source of plasma within the LAPD is produced via discharge from the barium oxide (BaO) coated cathode, which emits electrons via thermionic emission. The cathode is located near the end of the LAPD and is made from a thin nickel sheet, uniformly heated to roughly 900°C. The circuit is closed by a molybden... |
Every object that have mass has a gravitational field? | Yes. Every object with mass or energy has a gravitational field. | [
"In classical mechanics, a gravitational field is a physical quantity. A gravitational field can be defined using Newton's law of universal gravitation. Determined in this way, the gravitational field around a single particle of mass is a vector field consisting at every point of a vector pointing directly towards ... |
Why does 0!=1? | N! = The number of ways to permute N things.
Every set of things has a permutation in common: The permutation that does nothing. I can permute {a,b,c} into {a,b,c}, we've done nothing to it, but it counts as a permutation.
The same is true if you have a set of nothing. If you start with zero things then there is exactly one way to permute it and that is to do nothing.
Also, you can deduce it from the identity (N+1)! = (N+1)(N!). Say I know that 4! is 24, but I don't know what 3! is. I can use this identity to figure it out: 4! = (4)(3!) or 24=4(3!) then solving for 3! gives 24/4=6=3!. Let's have N=0 in this. The right hand side of (N+1)!=(N+1)(N!) is then equal to 1!=1. The left hand side is (1)(0!). Equating these, I see that 0! is some number that satisfies 1= (1)(0!), or 0!=1. | [
"0 (zero) is both a number and the numerical digit used to represent that number in numerals. The number 0 fulfills a central role in mathematics as the additive identity of the integers, real numbers, and many other algebraic structures. As a digit, 0 is used as a placeholder in place value systems. Names for the ... |
what does isis gain by destroying ancient statutes and burning ancient books? | ISIS, like many other Sunni Islamic terrorist groups (HAMAS, Taliban, Al Qaeda, etc...) subscribes to the Wahabbist school of Islam. They believe they are commanded to destroy idols, and will destroy anything they believe meets that criteria, even if it is an Islamic heritage site (such as ISIS's destruction of the Tomb of Jonah, who Muslims acknowledged as a prophet). Another example would be the Taliban's destruction of the [Buddhas of Bamiyan](_URL_2_). When the Wahhabists seized control of Mecca in the early 1800s, they even [attempted to destroy](_URL_1_) the tomb of Mohammed. If you want to really understand why ISIS does what it does, I can't recommend the Atlantic's "[What ISIS Really Wants](_URL_0_)" article enough. | [
"ISIL has burned or stolen collections of books and papers from the various locations including the Central Library of Mosul (which they rigged with explosives and burned down), the library at the University of Mosul, a Sunni Muslim library, a 265-year-old Latin Church and Monastery of the Dominican Fathers, and th... |
How much Aspirin is life-threatening? | Around 1g/L of plasma, or about 50-100 mg/kg of body weight. In a 50 kg (110 lb) person, this would mean 2.5-5g in a short time (each pill is 300 mg, so 10-15 pills). This causes acute overdose, with about a 2% fatality rate.
Also, I think that lovely thread is likely fake (or more accurately, the note was not written by a medical professional).
| [
"For people who have already had a heart attack or stroke, taking aspirin daily for two years prevented 1 in 50 from having a cardiovascular problem (heart attack, stroke, or death), but also caused non-fatal bleeding problems to occur in 1 of 400 people. Low dose aspirin appears useful for people less than 70kg wh... |
When the Greeks rose up against the Ottoman Empire, why did they embrace their Hellene identity over their Roman one? When, roughly, did this shift occur? | A lot of it was the result of foreign influence from Western Europe. The British intervention in Greece had a desire to restore the home of the philosophers who founded Western Civilization. They extrapolated the history of Ottoman-occupied Greece to the Classical Age. This was in many ways a result of the virulent neo-classicism present in late 18th to early 19th century Europe, which sought to emulate old, Republican Rome and not Imperial Rome. In this mindset, Greece was considered the land of thinkers and philosophers, and not the place where the Roman Empire survived for an additional thousand years.
Initially, Greeks actually sought to restore the Roman Empire, as exemplified by early independence organizations like the Filiki Eteria. Additionally, Constantine XI was used as a sort of martyr figure by revolutionaries, who sought to restore continuity between their efforts and Rome Indeed, some vestiges of later Rome are entirely visible in the Greek Kingdom, one need only look to the unofficial numbering of their Constantines (XII and XIII). Furthermore, the Megali Idea, although adopting many Panhellenic ideals, was in many ways a Roman idea, with its main objective being the retaking of Constantinople as its capital, not Athens. Upon the birth of the first, Greek-born prince (later king), the people supposedly demanded he be called Constantine XII, as he would be destined to retake Constantinople. Eventually, they settled on officially calling him Constantine I. Still, many actually believed him to be the reappearance of Constantine XI Palaeologus, who never died and was merely waiting to be reawakened.
EDIT: I must make a distinction between the popular narrative and the political history of Constantine I's reign. The Megali Idea was actually propagated by radical Greek nationalists and republicans who sent the king into exile. | [
"As a result of Phanariote and ecclesiastical administration, the Greeks expanded their influence in the 18th-century empire while retaining their Greek Orthodox faith and Hellenism. This had not always been the case in the Ottoman realm. During the 16th century, the South Slavs—the most prominent in imperial affai... |
why do we want to spend our day at home being lazy but then feel like we wasted the day or depressed about it? | I don't think this applies to everyone. I love lazy days where I do absolutely nothing but drink coffee and play Xbox. I feel very refreshed at the end of one and not have a single regret. | [
"BULLET::::- No one must be idle and lazy in the face of so many evils and dangers, while those in the other camp strive to destroy the very basis of Catholic religion and Christian worship. Let it never come to pass, that \"the children of this world are wiser, than the children of light\" (Luke xvi. 8); let it ne... |
Do humans have high natural miscarriage rates among animals? If so, why? | The fact that humans are bipedal means that the legs attach at the bottom of the pelvis whereas in four legged animals the hind legs attach more lateral to the pelvis making a wider opening.
Bipedal-ism comes with an evolutionary cost: a complicated and expensive child birth. The reason this has persisted is because by virtue of being bipedal, we freed up our hands to make and use tools which catalyzed the long evolutionary reaction that would eventually allow us to develop cognitive ability to deal with such a complicated childbirth as well as aid us in our survival in the changing environment -- making bipedal-ism a net positive in our attempts at survival.
As has been mentioned, this is why humans are born so premature compared to other mammals and even primates. If the fetus stayed inside any longer, it would grow too large and inflexible to make it through the birth canal.
TL;DR: It is bipedal-ism that makes human childbirth so complicated, but the trait carries enough positives to make it persist among us. | [
"Miscarriage occurs in all animals that experience pregnancy, though in such contexts it is more commonly referred to as a \"spontaneous abortion\" (the two terms are synonymous). There are a variety of known risk factors in non-human animals. For example, in sheep, miscarriage may be caused by crowding through doo... |
why do people delete highly successful posts and comments? | There isn't really a general explanation for when individuals delete their own posts. You'll probably want to survey /r/askreddit to find out from the people who do it.
But it's likely that highly upvoted posts that look deleted to you were actually removed by a moderator for breaking some rule. I'm a mod here (in ELI5) and it's not that uncommon to remove a highly upvoted post which broke the rules. This isn't as common in subs with more lax rules (like /r/askreddit, or /r/pics, or /r/funny).
In either case whether removed or actually deleted, the person who posted it still gets karma for it. | [
"While monitoring social media it can be beneficial for a company to respond to as many posts as possible. Not all comments will be positive ones, but it is good for the customers to know they are being heard. It is also important to keep in mind to avoid deleting any unfavorable content from a social media page yo... |
How did people got access to fresh and drinkable water one thousand years ago? And why people living in deserts start drinking hot tea? | I can answer the second part of your question. Hot beverages will cool you down more than an equal amount of cold beverage in a hot dry environment such as s desert.
The reason is that drinks are ingested internally and enter the gastrointestinal tract, where they raise the core body temperature. We are FAR more sensitive to changes in core temperature than to surface temperature, and the body responds by increased sweating. In a hot, dry environment sweat quickly evaporates and cools you down.
This cooling effect is much stronger than the heat added by the hot tea. This is because while a gram of hot tea that is 50 degrees hotter than body temperature will only add 50 calories of heat to the body, a gram of sweat evaporating off your skin will take away 586 calories of heat from your body. This is because of the high latent heat of vaporization of water.
The same mechanism also works with spicy foods. Capsaicin directly stimulates the heat receptor, causing people to sweat, which cools them down. This is one reason why tea and spices are so popular in hot climates like India. | [
"The lack of readily available potable water was a constant problem. The high mineral content of the local water made it useless for all but laundry and other cleaning. Even gardening was unsuccessful. Throughout the history of the community, drinking water was imported, first by mule and wagon, and eventually by r... |
why do people say that not paying off a credit card in full is better? | First off, *it is absolutely better to pay your credit card off in full*. If you can, you need to do it; if you can't, you need to make some changes in your spending habits so that you can. Carrying a balance on your card is a Bad Thing.
The problem is that there's this thing called your "credit score". Having a high credit score makes a lot of things a lot easier, and having a low one makes them a lot harder. But your credit score is computed by three private companies, and they don't publicly explain *how* they come up with the score. So there's a lot of wild guessing about how they do it. Sometimes the guesses are stupid. | [
"People are more likely to spend more and get into debt when they use credit cards vs. cash for buying products and services. This is primarily because of the transparency effect and consumer's \"pain of paying.\" The transparency effect refers to the fact that the further you are from cash (as in a credit card or ... |
Isn't it a State's constitutional(US) right to secede from the Union? Why was the South then not permitted to? | That is incorrect. Nowhere in the Constitution does it state that a state can secede from the Union, so when the North invaded the South, they saw it as simply an enforcement of the Constitution.
Whether the states are allowed to do things not specified in the Constitution if the federal government doesn't want them to is another question entirely, made much more complicated by the fact that two sections of the constitution (Article 1 Section 8 Number 18 and the Tenth Amendment) say pretty much exactly the opposite on the topic. A1S18C8 (sometimes called the "necessary and proper" clause) gives Congress the power to make all legislation "necessary and proper for carrying into Execution" the powers previously enumerated in the Constitution, implying that the federal government holds sovereignty over the states. Meanwhile, Amendment 10 states "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," implying that sovereignty is held by the states rather than by the federal government.
The clash between the will of the states and the will of the federal government is an ongoing theme (even before secession was spoken of, the topic of nullification brought up this issue, if you're interested in reading more) throughout American history, and it's reoccurring again with the healthcare debate.
tl;dr: States don't have the explicit right to secede, but some people believe that that shouldn't have stopped them. | [
"The South argued that just as each state had decided to join the Union, a state had the right to secede—leave the Union—at any time. Northerners (including President Buchanan) rejected that notion as opposed to the will of the Founding Fathers, who said they were setting up a perpetual union. Historian James McPhe... |
we can totally forget something and then remember it in an instant upon hearing a keyword/seeing something related to it. does this mean that we essentially have everythi̇ng stored in our brain, and we just cant pull it out without a reminder? | How exactly memory is stored in the brain is a fairly complex and vastly unknown process. There exists a hierarchy of information processing that will determine whether something is stored in short-memory, long-memory, working memory, that basically represents the amount of time you spend actively thinking about something and the quality of that thinking (contextualization). Contextualization can be conceptual (like the example you just gave water -- > sea) or emotional (emotions tip the scales towards never forgetting, like that time you got heart-broken or such (looking at you, Linzy)).
How this translates into the physical realm is still debated. It implies neuron changes in different places that are strengthed the more you try to memorize something. Basically, think of it as walking through a patch of grass. The more you walk through it, the less grass there will be, eventually forming a path. The clarity of the path is how much you will be able to remember something.
Now, following this metaphor, memorizing a list is like walking through different patches of grass one or two times. It might not be clear at first what paths you just tried to create, but if someone says "hey, don't these look like footprints?", you might make a connection (through a contextualizing clue).
Does your brain remember all 30 words? It might, tenuously, for a limited period of time, until the grass grows over it again.
I don't know if this helps. Also, I'm a bit rusty with my neurobiology, so if someone with a more modern understanding comes along, please be gentle. | [
"The main theory, the \"motivated forgetting theory\", suggests that people forget things because they either do not want to remember them or for another particular reason. Painful and disturbing memories are made unconscious and very difficult to retrieve, but still remain in storage. Retrieval Suppression is one ... |
What were the American Founding Fathers views on Universal Suffrage? | Generally the overwhelming majority was against universal white male sufferage with a few exceptions at the founding. Starting in 1807 movements began at the state level to bring wider white male sufferage to the population. By 1852 this had been essentially achieved in all states but South Carolina. Howver what I find interesting, and what most historians ignore is the founders opinions on these new state constitutions to which they often partook. I haven't examined most of the state conventions in depth but several of the North Eastern state foudning fathers expressed support for wider sufferage at their state constituonal conventions. The three big name founders who attended a state constituional convention were Madison,Marshall, and Monroe to the Virginia state constitution in 1829. Monroe was elected President of the convention, reflecting his continung high popularity among Americans. Intially both Madison and Monroe remained in favor of tying voting to a certain amount of property, Monroe fearing that without tying voting to property it "it would be like a ship tossing around in a storm". When western Virginians threatened to secedde if the Tidewater aristocracy didn't agree to more demands, Monroe opted to adopt a more progressive position on sufferage in an attempt to compromise.
Albert Gallatain also eventually endorsed white male sufferage, although some might not consider him a founder.
Apoligies for typos on phone.
Double edit: the founders did not want a democracy as they understood it, they wanted a Republic. Although within many of their lifetimes states would switch to having electors elected by popular vote rather then the state legislature. Of course the term founding father has a wide number of definitions, the broader the definition the more people you can find for broader sufferage( such as Thomas Paine) | [
"The woman's suffrage movement had its genesis in the abolitionist movement, but by the dawn of the twentieth century, Susan B. Anthony's goal of universal suffrage was eclipsed by a near-universal racism in America. While earlier suffragists had believed the two issues could be linked, the passage of the 14th and ... |
Where did Voyager's enormous speed (relative to us) come from? | [Gravity Assist](_URL_0_)
[Video of Voyager Gravity Assist](_URL_1_) | [
"During the 1990s, \"Voyager 1\" overtook the slower deep-space probes Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 to become the most distant human-made object from Earth, a record that it will keep for the foreseeable future. The \"New Horizons\" probe, which had a higher launch velocity than \"Voyager 1\", is traveling more slowly... |
Why did the views of Al-Ghazali have such influence? Why was he so successful in destroying Arabic science? | The argument that Al-Ghazali caused the downfall of science in the Middle East has been getting around lately (also thanks to the talk given by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, possibly your inspiration for the question?), but is generally viewed unfavourably by historians. It has been discussed here a few times, notably [here](_URL_1_) and [here](_URL_0_). | [
"Al-Ghazali was commonly accused by Orientalist scholars of causing a decline in scientific advancement in Islam because of his refutation of the new philosophies of his time. He believed he saw danger in the statements made by philosophers that suggested that God was not all-knowing or even non-existent, which str... |
how exactly does the us school system works? how is it possible that students are leaving school with huge debts? | High school students are told that they MUST get a four year degree in order to be successful. So they apply to colleges they can't afford and are then told "hey its no big deal, you can get a student loan for the cost" so they sign the papers and BAM. just like that they are in debt to their eyeballs before their life begins. | [
"As with most other types of debt, student debt defaults after a given period of non-response to requests by the school or the lender for information, payment or negotiation. At that point, the debt is turned over to a Student Loan Guarantor or a collection agency.\n",
"The lent amount, often referred to as a \"s... |
what is unique enough about eyes to make them work like fingerprints when using retinal scans? | Its just the pattern in your retina. It is, however, a common misconception that these are unique to you. It's pretty likely that there are other people with the same fingerprint or retina. So to answer your question, there is nothing about either that is inherently unique, but there are so maby possible variations that *most* people have different patterns than one another | [
"Retinal scanning is a different, ocular-based biometric technology that uses the unique patterns on a person's retina blood vessels and is often confused with iris recognition. Iris recognition uses video camera technology with subtle near infrared illumination to acquire images of the detail-rich, intricate struc... |
Why is the electric field inside a conductor 0? | Note that this is only necessarily true in electrostatics.
The reason it’s true for static fields is that any free charge within the conductor will collect on the surface of the conductor. The charge density in the interior of the conductor is zero, then using Gauss’ law, you can show that the electric field must also be zero everywhere in the interior of the conductor. | [
"where formula_2 is the electric field, \"e\" is the elementary charge (1.6×10 coulomb), and \"p\" is the hole density (number per unit volume). The electric field make holes drift along the field direction, and for diffusion holes move in the direction of decreasing concentration, so for holes a negative current r... |
why do we wake up with morning face? | When you're up and about and walking around, your heart has to work against gravity to pump blood up into your face. But when you have been laying horizontal in a bed for 8 or so hours it gives blood the opportunity to "pool" or "settle" in your face, resulting in puffiness. You'll get a more extreme example of this if you hang upside down for an extended period of time. | [
"I will get up each morning as the sun rise; at night, I shall sleep late. (Or just: \"In the morning I will get up early; at night I will sleep late.\" See.) When I realize that time is passing me by and cannot be turned back, and that I am getting older year by year, I will especially treasure the present moment.... |
Are there any ancient texts that have yet to be translated due to a lack of translators? | There are many unpublished ancient texts. For example, the University of Pennsylvania excavated at Nippur back in the late 1800s, and the university's archaeology museum holds about 5000 tablets from the Kassite period. More were found in the excavations done by the Oriental Institute of Chicago, which ran from about 1950 to around 1990. All told, about 12,000 tablets from the Kassite period have been found, about 80% of which have yet to be published. These are mostly official archives, especially texts relating to the governor's activities.
Estimates of the number of unpublished Sumerian tablets vary, but BDTNS, the database of texts from the Ur III period, contains over 10,000 unpublished tablets, and many more in museum collections remain untouched. The Persian capital of Persepolis yielded an archive of over 20,000 tablets written in Elamite, about 10% of which have been published. Like the Ur III texts, these are almost all brief economic documents (receipts for the exchange of goods).
There are unpublished Hittite texts too, though not nearly so many. The vast majority of our textual information comes from the capital of Hattuša, which yielded about 30,000 tablets and tablet fragments, all of which have been published. Considerably smaller archives (about a couple hundred tablets all told) were found at other sites like Maşat Höyük and Kuşaklı and published promptly. A large and important archive of ~4000 Hittite and Hurrian tablets was found at Ortaköy in the early 1990s, however, almost none of which have been published.
Finally, there is an enormous amount of unpublished Greek papyri. Peter van Minnen has estimated that the number of unpublished Greek papyri and ostraca is somewhere between 1 and 1.5 million, which will keep papyrologists busy for centuries ("The Future of Papyrology" in *The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology*).
Few people have the funding or flexibility of schedule that allows them to do nothing but publish large amounts of texts. Most scholars publish texts primarily as part of larger projects (e.g. publishing land grants from a site for a dissertation about land use). A complicating factor is that very few people specialize in the Kassite period or Elamite history. That is also the case with the Old Assyrian period, which has about a dozen specialists working on publishing over 20,000 tablets.
A lack of translators is not really an issue; there are plenty of people who can read Akkadian, Hittite, Egyptian, and Greek, most of whom are not actively engaged in publishing new texts. The bigger issue is getting permission to publish texts. The publishing rights of cuneiform tablet collections have been divided between scholars, who fiercely defend their right to publish that material. The Old Assyrian archives, for example, have been divided up between members of a publication project, with each scholar tackling the dossier of a particular Assyrian merchant. Moreover, many museums prefer to have their texts published by scholars from their country and are loath to rely on foreign scholars. Excavations like the Ortaköy project typically have epigraphers who publish all of their texts. In short, museums are highly unlikely to grant access and publishing rights to someone without a PhD (or working on one).
There is, however, a difference between **publishing** a text and **translating** a text. Many ancient texts are published only in handcopy or, at best, handcopy and transliteration. That is perfectly sufficient for scholars' purposes, most of whom can easily scan through relevant texts for the information they need. For the general public or specialists outside the field (e.g. classicists and biblical scholars who increasingly dabble in ancient Near Eastern studies), however, translations are quite useful. There are translations online - the [Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature](_URL_2_), for example - as well as book series like [Writings from the Ancient World](_URL_1_), but many, many texts are published but untranslated.
Projects like the [Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative](_URL_0_) welcome transliterations and translations, so that is a way amateur philologists can contribute in a meaningful way. An example of a CDLI volunteer:
> R. Firth is an autodidact in cuneiform studies who came to the field via a circuitous route from Cambridge and Durham degrees in mathematics and physics, to work in the UK’s nuclear power industry, as a research associate at the University of Bristol, then happening upon Assyriology through his collaboration with Copenhagen University’s Center for Textile Research and his own interest in ancient textile technologies—initially those recorded in Linear B tablets, then in records of 3rd millennium Mesopotamia. In 2010, Madeleine Fitzgerald and I began fielding his corrections of CLDI files via the feedback links we offer with each artifact web page, and we received submissions, for review and publication in the CDLI online journals, of several articles, of which eight have appeared thus far.
| [
"There can be no one definitive English translation of the decree, not only because modern understanding of the ancient languages continues to develop, but also because of the minor differences between the three original texts. Older translations by E. A. Wallis Budge (1904, 1913) and Edwyn R. Bevan (1927) are easi... |
Why did the wealth disparity between the richest 1 percent and the 99 percent go down in the early 20th century in the West? | There is more recent work on this than you're citing -- see in particular Thomas Piketty's recent book "Capital in the 21st Century" \[2013\]. It isn't without its flaws and controversies, but Piketty does a good job pulling together a lot of data and making it usable.
The explanation for the decline in inequality in the first half of the 20th century is: two world wars and the Great Depression, which destroyed substantial amounts of physical and financial capital. People who had more capital, lost more . . . those who had little or none, lost less. Hence inequality declined. Many scholars have made similar observations, that war and other disasters like plague are the most consistent historical forces that reduce inequality.
For an examination of these data on the long time scale, see Walter Scheidel's recent work:
"The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century" Princeton University Press:2018 | [
"The unequal distribution of wealth remained high during this period. From 1860 to 1900, the wealthiest 2% of American households owned more than a third of the nation's wealth, while the top 10% owned roughly three quarters of it. The bottom 40% had no wealth at all. In terms of property, the wealthiest 1% owned 5... |
What was the first country to offer government assistance to poor citizens (like welfare)? | The first modern welfare state is commonly understood to be Germany, which developed *Staatssozialismus* under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in the late 19th century. In 1881 the Reichstag approved Bismarck's proposed welfare legislation, introducing health insurance, disability insurance, worker's compensation, and a pension system.
Interestingly, Bismarck introduced this program in large part to combat the popularity of socialism among the working class. This explains Bismarck's reversal from his opposition to such policies earlier in his career: a staunch anti-socialist, he feared that social inequities would lead to a collapse of the system already in place and allow socialist ideas to flourish.
I am using *Bismarck* by AJP Taylor as a source, though the [US Social Security Administration](_URL_0_) has a neat little write-up. | [
"During this period, any assistance received was rarely paid back. Outside municipalities and communities saw to providing funds for their own native sons and daughters who had fallen on hard times, generally being informed that if they failed to comply, they would have to take in their poor themselves! Under the \... |
Music Historians, was there an event that became the reason we use flats vs. sharps and vice versa in some cases, if so what was it, if not how do these come to be the norm? | This is really a music theory answer and not a music history answer. Walking through the circle of fifths from C, the note you listed first in each comparison appears in the key signature before its counterpart. Eb is the the key of Bb (two fifths away from C) whereas D# doesn't appear until the key of E (four fifths from C), for example. It's just a matter of commonality and convenience in writing. | [
"When sharps or flats are used with key signatures, they may have a slightly different meaning, especially in 17th-century music. A sharp might be used to cancel a flat in the key signature, or vice versa, instead of a natural sign.\n",
"This effort resulted in a sound that was phonetically uneven, and an action ... |
Why were people in Great Britain so repressed during the Victorian era? | First of all, what do you mean by repressed?
Second, as compared to whom?
Third, repressed with respect to what? | [
"In Britain, however, as disease continually killed off poorer members of society, their positions in society were taken over by the sons of the wealthy. In that way, according to Clark, less violent, more literate and more hard-working behaviour - middle-class values - were spread culturally and biologically throu... |
the federalist party | There was a new Federalist party founded after Donald Trump's election. It appears to be a paleoconservative party, which appears to exist ideologically between the Republican Party and the Libertarian Party. They haven't existed long enough to have a detailed set of policies, but here's a quote from their [web site](_URL_0_):
> While the whole Constitution must be defended and used as our touchstone, we tend to put emphasis on the First [freedom of speech, assembly, religion], Second [right to keep & bear arms], and Tenth Amendments [powers not given to the federal government are reserved to the states]. They are the three areas that are most often under attack from the big government overreach that plagues Washington DC. | [
"The term \"Federalist Party\" originated around 1792–93 and refers to a somewhat different coalition of supporters of the Constitution in 1787–88 as well as entirely new elements, and even a few former opponents of the Constitution (such as Patrick Henry). Madison largely wrote the Constitution and was thus a Fede... |
Did any known rulers actually use Machiavelli's "The Prince" as a guide, or at least draw influence from it? | Heya guys, just a friendly note from your favourite Princ- er, mods here. Please remember when commenting on this post to ensure that your post adheres to both the [rules](_URL_0_) and the [standards](_URL_1_) of the subreddit. This includes the self-examination, which I'll cross-post here.
If you're choosing to answer a question in /r/AskHistorians, there are three questions you should ask yourself first in turn:
- **Do I, personally, actually know a lot about the subject at hand?**
- **Am I essentially certain that what I know about it is true?**
- **Am I prepared to go into real detail about this?**
Furthermore, please make sure that your post actually *answers the question.* If you preface your post with "IIRC" or "as it says on the Wikipedia page," you should reconsider submitting it. Thanks much! | [
"Due to the treatise's controversial analysis on politics, the Catholic Church banned \"The Prince\", putting it on the \"Index Librorum Prohibitorum\". Humanists also viewed the book negatively, including Erasmus of Rotterdam. As a treatise, its primary intellectual contribution to the history of political thought... |
Why did it take (West) Germany so long to recognize Oder-Neiße as the final eastern border of a reunited Germany? | > "The Oder-Neisse, Eastern provinces - they're gone! They don't exist anymore"- Konrad Adenauer in conversation with Willy Brandt, 1953.
Although on the surface, the importance of the Oder-Neiße within West German political discourse looks like a revanchist sentiment, in reality its importance within FRG politics is relatively prosaic. Although there were some revanchists within the FRG, the FRG's political mainstream adapted the position that Oder-Neiße area was under temporary control due to reasons of domestic and international politics.
At the core of the Adenauer generations opposition to the Oder-Neiße line was the issue of sovereignty. Even as it became increasingly clear that Germany was to be partitioned, the main goal of FRG politicians was a return to normalcy and assert that Germany was a fully-functioning sovereign nation. Adenauer's basic position, which was reflective of both SPD and FDP's opinion, was that Germany's final borders needed to be decided by an all-German government in negotiation with the deciding parties. The charter generation of the FRG asserted that it was that all-German government. The FRG's Basic Law asserted that it applied to the whole of Germany including the Eastern zones and territory now controlled by the USSR and Poland. Far from being quixotic, the FRG politicians knew that the Oder-Neiße revision was unachievable as exemplified by the above Adenauer quote, the Oder-Neiße issue possessed something of a *Realpolitik* character. Keeping the issue alive was one way for the FRG to assert that it was the true political inheritor of Germany by counter-intuitively asserting that Germany was incomplete. Heinrich von Bretano, the FRG's Foreign Minister would say in 1956:
> I have stated very plainly. . . [that] there is no German Federal Government, either today or tomorrow, which can recognize the Oder-Neisse Line as the frontier. Firstly, it will not do so because it is not entitled to do so. It is not entitled to dispose of German territory. Secondly, it will not do so because it is not entitled to do so towards the people, the German people, who have lived there for centuries.
The latter half of the von Bretano quote exemplifies another aspect of the Oder-Neiße issue: its importance to electoral politics. A sizable portion of the expellees ended up in the FRG and they became an important voting bloc in the FRG. In the early decades of the FRG, most of the mainstream political parties sought to court this voting bloc and keeping the issue alive was one of tactics used to court them. The expellees also created various special interest groups and organizations that kept the issue alive during the 1960s and 1970s as it became more apparent that the borders were fixed. Although some of these expellees were revanchist, most of them recognized that this territory was gone. Tours of the lost East organized by these groups in the 1960s and 70s often underscored the permanence of this loss. Demshuk's recent study of these groups persuasively argues that as new immigrants to the FRG, the amount of attention paid to the *Heimat* of the East was a mechanism to cope with their internal migrant status by creating a "*Heimat* of memory" to assert their German identity and heritage in the FRG.
Thus the Oder-Neiße line became something that the mainstream FRG dropped both politically and culturally with reunification. The Western Allies were relatively patient with this issue as well. After all, the rationale used by Adenauer gave the West a moral high-ground during the Cold War; after all, the central position of the FRG was only a freely-elected government could decide this issue and the Poles could not decide their border as well. Their chief concern was that the more intransigent the FRG was on this issue, the more propaganda value the USSR would derive from it. Thus they took the middle position that the Oder-Neiße line had been decided and any calls otherwise were dead-letters, but needed to be finalized by a formal negotiation with all parties involved. There was some variation in this stance; JFK floated the idea of using the Oder-Neiße issue as a bargaining chip over Berlin and the British Foreign Office under Macmillan saw a more conciliatory approach as a strategy to decouple Poland from the Warsaw Pact. However, all the mainstream political actors recognized revision of the line was a dead issue and acted accordingly: to instrumentalize it for their own ends.
*Sources*
Demshuk, Andrew. *The Lost German East: Forced Migration and the Politics of Memory, 1945-1970*. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Hughes, R. Gerald. "Unfinished Business from Potsdam: Britain, West Germany, and the Oder-Neisse Line, 1945–1962." *The International History Review* 27, no. 2 (2005): 259-294.
Liulevicius, Vejas G. *The German Myth of the East: 1800 to the Present*. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. | [
"The post-war border between Germany and Poland along the Oder–Neisse line was formally recognized by East Germany in 1950, by the Treaty of Zgorzelec, under pressure from Stalin. In 1952, recognition of the Oder–Neisse line as a permanent boundary was one of Stalin's conditions for the Soviet Union to agree to a r... |
why do throwing knives always land on the bladed side and never on the handle? | They don't; you have to practice to be able to do that.
Throwing knives are very well-balanced, which makes it *easier* to control them, but it's still a skill that has to be mastered. | [
"With the much more intricate no spin throwing techniques, the throwing motion is made as linear as possible, the knife's rotation being slowed down even more by an index finger on the spine during release. Thrown no spin, knives will make no revolution or only a quarter spin before reaching the target (point first... |
Link between stress and cancer? | When you get stressed it results in cortisol being released into your bloodstream. Cortisol interacts with various immune cell types within the body to reduce their effective activity. Therefore stress can prevent the immune system fighting a cancer. This is my scientific plausible theory and I think there are various research sources which back up the idea that cortisol dysregulation and high blood concentrations of cortisol can increase the chances of developing cancer. | [
"Diagnosis and treatment of cancer is known to influence psychological well-being to a significant degree. Rates of psychological distress are elevated for most individuals who have been diagnosed with cancer when compared to population norms. Common psychological reactions to cancer are mood and anxiety-related co... |
how do the subway sub toasters work | They are convection/radiation ovens that hit with both a blast of superheated air and heat from radiant elements. 700 to 1000 degrees will toast the shit out of some bread. | [
"The Subway is the only WEDway people mover built by the Walt Disney Company outside of a Disney property. It uses much of the mechanical technology used by the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover, an attraction in the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland. The design permits the trains to make tight corners that are... |
If men have XY and women have XX what would happen if scientists created a YY human or if it is impossible, why? | During Metaphase I of meiosis, the sperm or unfertilized egg can incorrectly separate the duplicated chromosomes and have additional copies of sex chromosomes in one egg or sperm, and then no copies in another egg or sperm. Most of the time it causes a spontaneous abortion (miscarriage), or the sperm/egg will not continue with fertilization (undergo apoptosis), but rarely the fertilization will occur with a defective gene count, and fertilized fetus will be viable. Here's a brief but not all-encompassing list of the conditions:
XY male, normal (included as a reference)
XX female, normal (included as a reference)
X0 Turner Syndrome:
Affected persons are phenotypically female, but smaller and may or may not undergo sexual maturation; even at sexual maturity sterility is common. Cognitive ability and other capabilities usually are normal, but some mental impairment is possible.
XYY: Double Y karyotype, usually taller than normal, may have slight cognitive impairment, but are otherwise normal, sterility is common. Behavior, mood, and criminal tendencies are not higher than others in the population.
XXY: Klinefelter syndrome, pheontypically male, usually tall, but do not undergo sexual maturity, however may have large breasts, nearly always sterile. Also usually have mild-moderate cognitive impairment.
XXXY: Normally not viable, but in extremely rare cases when an individual survives pregnancy they are similar to Kilnefelter syndrome.
XXX: Trisomy X, phenotypically female, symptoms vary from completely normal to moderate behavioral and cognitive dysfunction.
XY (Female): Defective SRY gene, so genetically male but a defective SRY gene in fetal development blocks development of the testes (and male physical features). Otherwise normal.
YY: Not viable, the X chromosome is required. If an ovum were to somehow still survive the mitotic [meiotic] checkpoints and be present for fertilization, the fetus would abort spontaneously.
Source: < cough cough sneeze > dusted off my old genetics textbook | [
"There are exceptions, however. Among humans, some men have two Xs and a Y (\"XXY\", see Klinefelter syndrome), or one X and two Ys (see XYY syndrome), and some women have three Xs or a single X instead of a double X (\"X0\", see Turner syndrome). There are other exceptions in which SRY is damaged (leading to an XY... |
the average bullet travels at 1700mph. so if you were to travel at 1700mph and simultaneously fire a bullet. what would happen? | If you were to fire it forward, from the point of view of someone stood on the ground, the bullet would be now be travelling at 3400MPH.
If you were to fire it backwards, the speed would cancel out and to someone stationary the bullet would drop harmlessly to the ground like a stone.
**EDIT** [Relevant Mythbusters experiment](_URL_0_)
| [
"Depending on the rifle, bullets typically travel between 800 and 1000 m/s (2600 and 3400 feet per second) at the moment they leave the rifle's barrel. The bullet slows down considerably due to friction with the air over a distance. The distance a bullet will travel is determined by its shape, weight, launch veloci... |
what makes ricin such a potent poison, and what makes it untreatable? | Ricin is a plant agent that gets into mammal cells and interferes with construction of some proteins. Alas, your cells need those proteins to work correctly, and the ricin causes the cells it gets into to die. Then it gets into the neighbor cells, etc. Too many cells die, and you die.
There is no antidote. Ricin has been known for a long time, and many folks have tried to find one. Alas, none have been found. The "treatments" mostly involve removing any ricin from the body that hasn't been absorbed and keeping the person alive as long as possible in hopes that the body's cleanup processes can clear the ricin out. If too much has been absorbed into cells over too large a part of the body, then the person ultimately dies. | [
"Ricin is several orders of magnitude less toxic than botulinum or tetanus toxin, but the latter are harder to come by. Compared to botulinum or anthrax as biological weapons or chemical weapons, the quantity of ricin required to achieve LD over a large geographic area is significantly more than an agent such as an... |
why does my music stop when i open my microwave? | The remaining microwave still resonating from the oven sends a weak pulse that sends the speakers into a sleep-like state to preserve their functionality. If they didn't turn off, they would stop working after repeated abuse. | [
"A safety issue is that the cooking time given on the packaging does not apply to all microwave ovens. Setting the timer and coming back later, after the timer's alarm has sounded, could result in the popcorn being burnt and smoking badly. Microwave popcorn makers suggest that the person cooking the popcorn stay ne... |
Why do our hands and other extremities shake? | There are too many possible causes to answer succinctly.
One common cause of shaking (that itself has any of a number of causes) is a combination of "too-strong" impulse strength to stabilizing muscles (over-correction, even very minor over-correction) and the inherent delay of neuron message transmission to extremities causing longer feedback loops (delayed commands).
Both can be extremely minor effects that result in 'shaking' of extremities.
But it's really just too broad of a question to answer accurately. There is plenty of "intentional" shaking that the body does for various reasons (eg: the shaking one does when cold). There is also a variety of disorders that can cause shaking for different reasons ranging from brain problems (damage, communication issues) to muscular problems, and any number of other causes. | [
"Tremor is an unintentional, somewhat rhythmic, muscle movement involving to-and-fro movements (oscillations) of one or more parts of the body. It is the most common of all involuntary movements and can affect the hands, arms, head, face, vocal cords, trunk, and legs. \n",
"A tremor is an involuntary, somewhat rh... |
Can someone explain the Bell Test Experiments? | > At the moment, my understanding is that, Bell performed an experiment to test if entangled elements were determined to look a certain way since the entaglement, and not a probability.
That would be a test for simple entanglement; the actual experiment Bell proposed is more complicated and does involve probabilities crucially.
> My question is, WHAT did he try to prove? That the spin-down/up was determined before the observation, (which is wrong?)
The goal of a Bell test experiment is to demonstrate whether or not nature is better described by either quantum mechanics, or a different theory involving unspecified local hidden variables (such as a classical theory where the outcome is sensitive to some variables that are not controlled for in the experiment). Quantum mechanics makes predictions that are different from the predictions that can be produced by a generic theory of local hidden variables.
Every Bell test performed to date (there have been dozens now) shows that nature matches the quantum mechanical prediction, essentially ruling out the possibility that a theory of local hidden variables can explain everything QM can.
> I have a hard time an explanation of the experiment, as a layman.
The topic of the experiment is pretty complicated but I'll do my best.
So ... as you already know, when two particles are entangled, some of their properties will be measured to have correlated values: for example, two electrons with spins entangled along a certain axis would be measured to be spin-up and spin-down respectively, 100% of the time.
Now ... the axis that spin is measured along is important. Spin can be correlated along only one axis at a time. So if you entangle two electrons' spins along the x axis, then measure ~~the spins along the y axis~~ one spin along the x axis and the other along the y axis, you will not see this 100% correlation anymore -- in fact you would see 0% correlation, where there would be equal probability of getting any combination of spins.
Now ... if you were to measure ~~spins~~ one of the spins along a combined axis ... say along the diagonal x=y axis ... you would get some correlation but not full correlation (for our example, 50% of the pairs would be correlated and 50% would not be correlated).
As it turns out, local hidden variable theories (LHV) make a different prediction for the degree of correlation when measuring along an angle than quantum mechanics (QM) does. LHV theories predict a linear amount of correlation as the angle varies from 90 degrees to 0 degrees. But QM predicts that the correlation varies as a sine wave and not a straight line. [Link](_URL_0_).
So by carefully measuring the amount of correlation at every angle, we can determine which curve matches nature, and it turns out that nature follows the sine curve predicted by QM.
Hope that helps!
Edits: Poor phrasing that unintentionally made an incorrect point; thanks to /u/Strilanc for correcting! | [
"Over the past thirty or so years, a great number of Bell test experiments have been conducted. The experiments are commonly interpreted to rule out local hidden variable theories, and recently an experiment has been performed that is not subject to either the locality loophole or the detection loophole (Hensen et ... |
Are the two electrons in the Helium atom in the same energy state? | The single-particle orbitals that come from solving the TISE for non-interacting electrons in the nuclear mean-field potential do not accurately describe the ground state of the helium atom. The actual many-body state of the atom can be written as a linear combination of single-particle configurations. Since the angular momentum of the electron cloud is 0, this linear combination only includes configurations with total J = 0.
The ground state will be dominated by the configuration where both electrons are occupying the lowest hydrogenic orbitals, but you can in principle have admixtures of 2-particle/2-hole (2p2h) states, where both electrons are promoted to a higher single-particle orbital (the same one, so that they couple to J = 0). | [
"In a normal helium atom two electrons are found in the 1s orbital. However, if sufficient energy is added, one electron can be elevated to a higher energy level. This high energy electron can become a valence electron, and the electron that remains in the 1s orbital is a core electron. Two excited helium atoms can... |
why do countries import things they already have or can produce? | It's called comparative advantage. Let say a wealthy couple, one is a doctor and the other is a lawyer. They could clean their own house, mow their own lawn, cook every meal, etc. They hire a nanny instead. They choose to not do these things because they are busy working and their time will be better spent at work as they make far more money working than saving money from not hiring the nanny. The nanny on the other hand wouldn't be a good lawyer or a good doctor, but she's good at cleaning houses. By hiring the nanny the nanny would earn some money while the wealthy couple get to make more money, so everybody gets something they want. We import things because we have the technology to make more advanced things like airplanes or software and we let countries who can't make airplanes or software to make what they can make. | [
"Manufactured goods are the exports most commonly used to achieve export-led growth. However, many times these industries are competing against industrialized countries' industries, which often have better technology, better educated workers, and more capital to start with. Therefore, this strategy must be well tho... |
What is actually happening when you get dizzy from say spinning in a chair? Is there a quick way to nullify these effects? | Med student here.
When you spin, the liquor in the semicircular canals begin moving after a certain delay because of their specific density. Even when you have already stopped spinning, the liquor is still moving/spinning. This causes the dizziness because the information which come from your eyes and muscles (that you are actually NOT moving/spinning anymore) do not match with the information which come from your N. vestibulocochlearis (the VIII cranial nerve a.k.a. auditory vestibular nerve; responsible for transmitting sound and equilibrium/balance). This leads to a misinformation according to your brain. Your brain is like: "lol wtf is going on". Nausea can result from that.
I though don't know whether there's a way to stop the dizziness instantly. I don't think that it exists. | [
"The most common general symptom of having the spins is described by its name: the feeling that one has the uncontrollable sense of spinning, although one is not in motion, which is one of the main reasons an intoxicated person may vomit. The person has this feeling due to impairments in vision and equilibrioceptio... |
In fantasy books, bandits seem to be a very common occurrence. So far that merchants often hire mercenaries to protect caravans. Was that really a problem in medieval Europe and if yes who were the bandits and how big were the groups? | In Anglo-Saxon England, the bounty for killing an outlaw was the same as for killing a wolf. By the late Middle Ages, this had evolved into the legal principle of *wolfesheed*: the outlaw *was* a wolf, able to be hunted and killed exactly like a wolf, legally and by any means. England wasn't the only place that so closely equated wolves with criminals: in the Norse sagas, murderers are *Ulfr* or wear wolf cloaks.
Although it is fairly common for cultures to equate criminals with dangerous animals, the link in medieval Europe between bandits and a type of animal particularly known for attacking travelers and traveling in packs is both strong and specific. Travel in the Middle Ages was dangerous business, and it wasn't just a case of humans versus animals and environment.
Overland medieval travelers faced several varieties of human threat. First--you might have noticed that university diplomas grant the holder *the rights and privileges* associated with the degree. Well, those rights and privileges [originated in the Middle Ages](_URL_0_), and the very first one--from twelfth century Germany, even before universities existed as such--was safe conduct for students and teachers traveling between schools or between home and school. The retinue of a lord whose land they were passing through, or a band from a city, had a very very nonzero chance of kidnapping travelers for ransom--whether they could come up with the money on their own, or whether a messenger had to be sent back to their family. (The struggle to reign in robber knights and lords is an important part of the medieval political narrative--it was
a slow and very hard-fought process). Timothy Reuter posits that noble/aristocratic robbers (including those more or less employed by them) were actually the primary danger in the Middle Ages versus "career bandits."
It wasn't just people and their ransom that roadside robbers would be after. When attacking merchants' caravans, wine was a popular theft item--also copper, iron, cloth, basically anything that could be sold. Remember, in many or most cases, we're dealing with people well integrated into the socio-economic fabric of medieval society. This would in many cases continue to apply to the next grouping I'll discuss.
There were also robbers and kidnappers from lower social classes who *acted like* they were legitimate groups or armies. In general, this type of banditry would rise out of a broader conflict or war, like a massive heterodox movement/suppression. The best example here is probably the *bratczycy* or "brothers" in fifteenth-century Hungary. They seem to have the veneer of--and claimed to be--Hussite armies but in reality were pretty much gangs of bandits. The wartime context of groups like these is key. Medieval banditry--murder, plunder, robbery, arson, rape--looked pretty much like what the average soldier did during war. More to the point, what the average soldier was expected to do and what was societally *accepted* as "what soldiers did." While making little difference to travelers, the attempt for a group to portray themselves as legitimate soldiers at war could matter for their own legal circumstances if caught.
And then, of course, there were indeed archetypal bandit gangs of vagabonds--maybe already outlaws where such a status existed. Feodor Glowaty's family/gang at the end of the 15C Poland lasted longer than most (about three years), so it's a good example of the sort of "career bandit" life as opposed to a one-time robbery or a landed robber-knight. Glowaty's group, which had about twenty members at its height, became most infamous for a massive robbery of the Rozgonyi estate, including making off with a large number of horses. They also engaged in attacks on merchant caravans and locals moving between village to village. And most famously, in 1493, they held an entire town for ransom as punishment for capturing and executing two of their members. Well, they tried to, at least. It's pretty clear the town didn't pay.
It's tempting to say that over the course of the Middle Ages, the proportion of aristocrat/servant-robbers declined and the proportion of vagabond and/or outlaw and/or desperate robbers increased. Civic criminal records show that many thieves operated on a bare survival level rather than bigger heists, and it seems reasonable that their counterparts outside the town walls might have been in similarly desperate circumstances. The agonizing long-term reigning in of wayward lords, on the other hand, operated at different speeds and scales in different parts of Europe. And as the case of soldiers/claimed soldiers demonstrates, it's not a matter of "noble OR outlaw," but a sliding scale that likes to tip up and down at different times.
As far as protection, the most important thing to remember is that attack was by no means a guarantee. Travel increased exponentially over the course of the Middle Ages--both local and long distance. In other words--most of the time, it was successful, and that most of the time was enough to be worth the risk. That said, there were a couple of basic ways travelers could protect themselves. The first is probably the most obvious: travel in groups. When Ibn Battuta crossed North Africa on his way to Mecca, he was basically told, "Nope, you're waiting until the caravan goes this year, full stop."
It's also evident that travelers, perhaps especially merchant groups with valuable cargo, were often armed. Even at the sporadic times and places where weapon-carrying was regulated in medieval Europe, exceptions were frequently made for travelers.
Escorts are a trickier business to suss out of the sources. There are a few references to a ruler decreeing a soldier would accompany caravans between towns (especially in Italy), but in practice, this seems to have worked out symbolically far more than actually--almost a means of insurance, if cargo was stolen the merchant might be reimbursed for part of it. Italian bankers paid handsomely for military protection of their largest transports, especially if straight-up currency was involved.
Disguise was another popular method of attempted protection. By the late Middle Ages, pilgrims in medieval Europe had a distinctively coded style of dress. It might sound silly, but in fact, there are comparably few reports in sources of pilgrims being attacked--and a *whole lot* of complaining about not-pilgrims using pilgrim attire to conduct espionage, moneymaking business, or simply avoid payment of tolls at bridges and towns.
And, indeed, the final method of protection wasn't really protection at all. Jewish and Christian sources alike debate whether it is moral to just go ahead and buy back your stolen merchandise from the thieves.
Overall, highway banditry was indeed a problem in the Middle Ages, particularly in the more lucrative high-traffic areas between nearby towns or around a city. The most risk, indeed, was carried not by long-distance travelers but by everyday business. And while *homicides and robberies* flare up in legal sources, a lot of bandit activity would basically have consisted of bribes or "paying for safe passage, wink wink." Scholars have also suggested that roadside crime increased over the course of the Middle Ages--laws against banditry become more common proportionally; inns and hostels spring up on the roadside to accommodate/protect travelers overnight. But this only makes sense. More people traveling more often and with more money--and more to the point, more reasons to have money. | [
"Bandits’ technique involved the martial skills to use various weapons, ranging from bows and arrows to swords. Another important skill was horsemanship, especially in the Northern Capital Region, where mounted banditry concentrated. As shown above, a large number of bandits were actually garrison soldiers and had ... |
in the world of facebook, twitter, wikipedia, google and various new websites, what makes reddit ao successful. | Unlike other websites, reddit have its own algorithm which makes it better and better everyday.
For example, reddit is maintained and controlled by users just like you. You can create your own community (subreddit) and make it viral by increasing the content in it. Make sure the content is good and relevant to what your subreddit is meant for. You are the one create rules for your community since you made it (make sure its good with reddit’s FAQ). Also, you can invite friends or active redditors, which you think good for your subreddit, to help you with moderating. They can also help you with adding content to the subreddit, check new section and remove spam links, design subreddit (CSS edit) etc.
Spamming is not allowed and almost not possible. Active moderators in each subreddit check their subreddit new section every 5 minutes or hourly and that makes sure the spam gets in will get removed. Also, subreddit moderators now have bots that helps to prevent spammers and domains that get posted regular to their subreddit.
There are a lot more interesting things which makes reddit uniqu | [
"Large organizations that use Python include Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo!, CERN, NASA, Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, Spotify and some smaller entities like ILM and ITA. The social news networking site Reddit is written entirely in Python.\n",
"Reddit launched its redesigned website in 2018, with its first major visua... |
what are features of the wc-130 as opposed to other planes that makes them better suited to fly directly through hurricanes? | It's not that it's better suited to fly though hurricanes, it,s just that it can sample the air and collect different data about weather. A C-130 could go through hurricanes juts like a WC-130, but without the sensors it would be useless. | [
"The Lockheed WC-130 is a high-wing, medium-range aircraft used for weather reconnaissance missions by the United States Air Force. The aircraft is a modified version of the C-130 Hercules transport configured with specialized weather instrumentation including a dropsonde deployment/receiver system and crewed by a ... |
How accurate were the decors and costumes in 'The other Boleyn girl' (2008) ? | I have no knowledge of decors, so I can't answer that part.
Their headdress and silhouette were done remarkably well. Especially that not many costume makers make [the Gable headress](_URL_0_). (Worn by [Catherine of Aragon here](_URL_2_)).
However the [dress Anne wore for her execution](_URL_3_) is entirely inaccurate. When She was executed, most sources mention either a gray or black gown, a mantle (capelet) of ermine, and a gable hood (okay they at least gave her the gabled hood and ermine). The Spanish Chronicle adds that Anne wore a red damask skirt (probably petticoat). Eric Ives' *The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn* and Alison Weir's *The Lady in the Tower* both listed the various sources for Anne’s execution.
The movie's poster made [Natalie Portman's entire breast silhouette visible](_URL_5_), even though [16th century stays](_URL_4_) would be long and stiff that the entire torso would be in a smooth cone. (Fortunately that's just the poster, [it wasn't like that in the movie](_URL_6_), although she still should have worn [chemise under the dress like this](_URL_1_)).
(Just a personal anecdote: I guess they really want to show Mary and Anne are similar yet different, but the matching dress in different colors for every scene thing is a little too...much.) | [
"The painting's depiction of preparation for a fancy dress party would have been familiar to Etty's generally wealthy audience. In both London and the English provincial cities, such balls and parties had become extremely fashionable by the 1830s. Though conservative in comparison to some costumes worn at contempor... |
the deep web, onion routing , and tor | ^(For the short version, skip to the section "So in summation")
First of all, onion routing is the method that is used by Tor, which is a program. It's named that because it has *layers*. Like an onion. And an ogre.
So how does it work? Let's say I want to access the website that's located at this server. My computer connects to another computer in the Tor network, which connects to another, and so on. Eventually, one of them will connect to the server, which can send back information using this pattern. However, none of the computers in the Tor network know who is getting what. The computer that you connect to isn't the same as the one that connected to the server, so it's very anonymous.
Another key feature is that the path of nodes used differs each time. The first time I visit a site, it might connect to computer B, then computer A, then computer J before connecting to the server. The next time, it might connect to computer F, then computer B, then computer L before getting the server. As a result, not only do none of the computers know who is viewing what, but the computers used change from time to time (about every ten minutes).
So why use Tor and onion routing? Simply because it's very, very anonymous. All the connections are encrypted and it would be nearly impossible to trace a user. It is, however, much slower than regular browsing, since we have to connect to all these computers in series. More on how Tor works [here](_URL_6_).
As for the deep web, that's mostly unrelated. The deep web refers to sites that aren't accessible via search engines. Since you couldn't find it via, say, Google normally, the site is as good as hidden from the eyes of normal people. This could mean that it's simply not linked to. Search engines follow links. If nothing links to a site, it as good as doesn't exist. There's also sites that instruct search engines specifically to not index them. Search engines have to follow a text file called "robots.txt", which tells what can and can't be indexed.
However, much of the deep web is perfectly safe. Things like your facebook page might be hidden from search engines if you're underage or specified you didn't want it indexed. Likewise, most websites have deep web sections that are meant for administration, and thus not accessible by regular users. The dangerous part of the deep web, particularly child pornography, makes up an extreme minority. The term sounds worse than it is. However, there is, of course, a very dangerous minority. Several examples are mentioned in [this article](_URL_3_). These sites use Tor as a [hidden service](_URL_8_), meaning they are a server connected to a Tor network, allowing them the same anonymity. Instead of hiding a user, the Tor network is now hiding a server.
###So in summation
* **Onion routing**: Using multiple computers to create a chain before accessing the desired server. As a result, no individual computer knows who you are and what you want. This makes it great for anonymity.
* **Tor**: A project that created a network of computers for use as nodes in onion routing. Anyone can set up their computer to become a Tor node.
* **Deep web**: The part of the web that can't be found by search engines. Mostly harmless, but there is a minority with sites ranging from contract hitmen to child pornography. The malicious sites sometimes use Tor networks to hide their server location.
---
###Using Tor
I'd actually recommend everyone download the Tor browser. For the most part, the average person would rarely need the program, and you definitely don't want to browse with Tor normally. It's slow, slow, slow. However, if you *ever* need anonymity for some reason, the Tor browser is secure and easy to use. Just download this program and open the executable. That's it. There's nothing to configure. It's just a modified Firefox browser. You can download it for all the major operating systems [here](_URL_1_).
So what's different about the browser besides the fact it uses Tor? Well, there's three specific addons installed. NoScript (which allows you to disable JavaScript), TorButton (which just does some security improvements and makes it easy to change your identity), and HTTPS Everywhere (which makes the browser use secure connections when available and you should actually use this on every browser). They recommend you don't add any other addons, but I say go ahead and throw adblock into the mix, especially since ads slow you down on what is already a slow connection.
Anyway, you should note that you shouldn't open files you download on Tor unless you're certain they're safe. This is because if the file makes a connection to the internet, it will do so through a regular connection, thus revealing your real IP. For most files, it's perfectly safe, such as opening a regular JPG file, but still tread cautiously.
Need even MORE security? In steps [Tails](_URL_7_). It's a Debian-based linux operating system that connects solely to the Tor network. You can run it entirely on a USB stick without installing anything. Keep it on a flash drive and boot that when using a computer you don't trust. Not only are you protected from things like keyloggers on the computer, but your internet browsing it unknown to others. Tails is specifically geared towards anonymity, so it doesn't even use the hard drives for temporary storage. It also encrypts the files that you may store on the flash drive, so no worries about someone else looking at your stuff.
Finally, on the mobile front is [Orbot](_URL_4_), a Tor browser for Android. Unfortunately, iOS users don't have an alternative. They could use [TorVPN](_URL_2_) as just a standard VPN server, although it's not free, and let's be honest, you could just get a regular VPN server that would be much faster and usable for things like downloading torrents. There's the [Covert browser](_URL_5_), but it's also not free and seems poorly rated.
I suppose, of course, it's worth a mention of VPN. VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a server that we connect to as an inbetween, like Tor nodes do. So we connect to that VPN in an encrypted connection and that VPN connects to the desired server. So it works like Tor, but isn't layered. They're still very secure, however you'd generally pay for it. It's easier to set up your connections to all use that VPN, however. One particular advantage of a VPN is that you could access content as though you were browsing from the location of the server. For example, I'm Canadian, so I can't normally get Hulu. If I use an American VPN, I can access Hulu because as far as Hulu can tell, I'm just a computer in the US.
However, not all VPNs are anonymous. TorrentFreak made a nice [list](_URL_0_) of VPN providers that don't keep information on you.
While you'd have to pay to use an anonymous VPN, it'd be faster than Tor, could be used to make it appear you're in a specific country, and can be applied to all connections. To elaborate on the last point, your connection would use the VPN when doing something like using uTorrent. You're not just limited to the Tor Browser. There's still a latency issue, since you have to connect to this inbetween, but it's much faster than Tor, since there's only one node between you and the desired server and the VPN usually has very fast speeds compared to Tor nodes.
**So to sum that part up, Tor is great because it's free and easy, not to mention sites can use it to stay hidden. When you need more versatile anonymity, a VPN comes in handy.**
^(Edit: Updated link to anonymous VPNs, courtesy of /u/dancing_sysadmin) | [
"Onion Routing was originally developed by the U.S. Naval Research Lab and was intended to anonymize web traffic. The system created a path to any TCP/IP server by creating a pathway of onion routers. Once a pathway has been established, all information that is sent through it is anonymously delivered. When the use... |
Is it possible for the body to retrieve water from urine after it has been filtered by the kidney? | The cells that line the urinary tract are impermeable. This is important otherwise you'd risk urine leaking back into your body. As a result, they are also impermeable to water. So, to answer your question, the body cannot retrieve water from stored urine. | [
"Avian kidneys do not send urine to a bladder. Instead it is sent via the ureters to the cloaca to be deposited into the lower intestine. The epithelium of the lower intestine absorbs a large amount of sodium chloride, and water follows osmotically to be reabsorbed into the blood stream. This final step insures a c... |
It's said the Nazis were not prepared with appropriate clothing and supplies for the Russian winter. How did the German High Command have such an operational failure? Were there not long term plans to occupy Russia and did they not realize they would need winter equipment then? | Many members of the German high command, and more importantly Hitler himself, believed that they would have captured most of western Russia (the most populated and economically important area), including Moscow and Leningrad by the end of the summer of 1941, and then the occupation could be figured out. This never happened, for a variety of reasons:
* The Germans already had a shortage of resources, and the start of the campaign was delayed over a month because of the need for additional troops in the Balkans.
* German high command believed that the *Heer* was invincible and would crush the Soviets with almost no effort. This was due to the success against France (which was seen as the leading European land military power leading up to WWII), and the fact that in the Winter War the Russians had massive trouble dealing with the tiny nation of Finland.
* Stalin and soviet command had learnt from the Winter War, and they were much more prepared than German intelligence knew. The red army was able to call up many more reserve troops than estimated, in a much quicker period of time.
* There was a diversion of troops southwards (to target kiev) before key Russian cities had been captured. It is likely that if Moscow had fallen (along with key soviet government institutions), the organizational capacity of the Russians would have been broken, which never happened. | [
"During World War II, the Wehrmacht lacked necessary supplies, such as winter uniforms, due to the many delays in the German army's movements. At the same time, Hitler's plans for Operation Barbarossa actually miscarried before the onset of severe winter weather: he was so confident of a quick victory that he did n... |
what the hell happened to mtv? | Reality television is what people were wanting so the network did what any smart business does, they gave the consumer what they wanted. Business is all about the money, and there was just more money and viewers available through reality television and such instead of music videos.
If I want to watch a music video nowadays I will go to Youtube. However, I do remember when MTV was all about music videos, and I am sad that it has changed so drastically. The same is true for stations like The History Channel and Discovery Channel. | [
"MTV News: Unfiltered is an American television series created by Steven Rosenbaum which aired on MTV in the 1990s. The half-hour show features footage of real events provided by viewers, and later selected and edited by the show's producers. The videos show controversial events in the viewers' community that were ... |
How does Shor's algorithm work? (when implemented by a quantum computer and traditional computer respectfully) | Scott Aaronson wrote a high-level overview of Shor's algorithm, suitable for laymen, about a decade ago: _URL_0_
Granted, the article does appear on the first page of Google results for "Shor's algorithm", so you may have already read it. If so, is there anything in particular that you want more detail of, or anything that you don't understand? | [
"Shor's algorithm is a quantum computer algorithm for integer factorization. Informally, it solves the following problem: Given an integer formula_1, find its prime factors. It was invented in 1994 by the American mathematician Peter Shor.\n",
"A quantum computer operates on its qubits using quantum gates and mea... |
How does modern biology and/or anthropology reject racism? | Depending on whom you ask, the term "race" is either a rough proxy for some physical and genetic features or an essentially useless social construct. In general in biology and anthropology we wholly reject the idea of race unless it is in discussion racism as it pertains to our social-cultural way of defining ourselves (i.e. A discussion on the implications of Apartheid).
It's true that there are some physical and genetic markers that are smoking guns of ancestry. A skilled anthropologist can probably tell you whether a skeleton is from someone of Asian, European, or African descent just by looking at the femurs. There are also some genetic markers you can use to pinpoint, with pretty high accuracy, where a person's ancestors are from.
However, for a variety of reasons the term isn't highly regarded in biology, and when the classic "race" descriptors show up in anthropology or human population genetics, they're not understood to be rigidly delineated biological categories. Meaning that the differences between populations are not black and white but a grey-scale continuum. Part of this is also due to some population genetic work in the '70s by R.C. Lewontin, which demonstrated that there is more variation with populations then between populations.
So biologists would say that there are populations of humans, who for a short time were or are somewhat isolated. But because of our large population, and our ability to travel and intermingle (have sex) barriers to gene flow are almost non-exsistant. And even if there are barriers they do not occur over a long enough period of time to truly isolate one population for another. This is because of our long generation time ~25 years, that any gene flow, even just one person migrating, is enough to offset any genetic drift that may cause speciation.
Basically what I am saying is that too many people from any given population are mating with too many other people of different populations so that distinct populations of the human species are not moving in different selective directions. We have no indication morphologically, or physically, or sexually that different populations of the human species are spectating.
The most compelling evidence is that **social conceptions and groupings of races vary over time, involving folk taxonomies that define essential types of individuals based on perceived traits.** In that we cannot even decide how to categorize humans by race because, as it has been stated before we do not fit into neat little boxes... rather we lie on a continuum. You may try to define a population, but these shift and vary through time and are only really applicable in short-term analysis. As transportation improves the barriers between populations are breaking down, making traits or behaviours that were once exclusive to an relatively isolated population no longer the case.
In short, "race" isn't really considered a useful term in biology. The "race" terms you know are socially constructed groupings that happen to have some loose analogues on the genetic and physiological level, but they're not on the level of what might be considered true "subspecies".
Subspecies are a subjective matter, and usually a set of criteria need to be met, such as two populations of a species living in two different areas where gene flow between them is very very low, or becoming non-exsistant. Or that it is obvious that sexual and behavioural barriers to reproduction are being produced. Or that hybrids between the two subspecies are have less-vigour and are dying/ not suited to their environment. None of the human populations meet these criteria, we all can freely interbreed, and we do so at fairly high rates.
TL;DR: Biologists and Anthropologists do not use races to classify humans. Rather we use populations, which are a group of interbreeding individuals.
**On Skin Colour**
As population of humans migrated out of Africa and spread out over the globe they encountered:
1: Different environmental pressures: Different [skin colours](_URL_0_) have different advantages and are naturally selected. In places (equatorial regions) where people are exposed to higher concentrations of UV rays, dark skin, which contains more melanin, acts as a natural sun block. This is advantageous and so it is selected for. However, in places where UV exposure is limited (either seasonally/pole regions), having lighter skin becomes advantageous. You don't need as much melanin and less melanin allows you to produce more vitamin D.
"About 70,000–100,000 years ago some modern humans began to migrate away from the tropics to the north where they were exposed to less intense sunlight, possibly in part due to the need for greater use of clothing to protect against the colder climate. Under these conditions there was less photodestruction of folate and so the evolutionary pressure stopping lighter-skinned gene variants from surviving was reduced. In addition, lighter skin is able to generate more vitamin D than darker skin so it would have represented a health benefit in reduced sunlight if there were limited sources of vitamin D. Hence the leading hypothesis for the evolution of human skin color proposes that:
* From ~1.2 million years ago to less than 100,000 years ago, the ancestors of all people alive were dark-skinned Africans.
* As populations began to migrate, the evolutionary constraint keeping skin dark decreased proportionally to the distance North a population migrated, resulting in a range of skin tones within northern populations.
* At some point, northern populations experienced positive selection for lighter skin due to the increased production of vitamin D from sunlight and the genes for darker skin disappeared from these populations.
The genetic mutations leading to light skin, though different among East Asians and Europeans, suggest the two groups experienced a similar selective pressure due to settlement in northern latitudes." - From the article on skin colour.
2: Different cultural pressures: Physical features like height, weight, eye colour, hair colour, facial features, skin colour etc. can be selected for or against because of sexual selection. If you think someone is attractive you are more likely to mate with them, produce offspring and then pass on those "attractive" traits. What is attractive? Well that changes through time and across cultures - what is sexy one day is ugly the next. So these traits will fluctuate over time, but perhaps are better conserved within certain populations. Overtime, populations drift apart and mating within populations is higher then mating between populations - and the traits become either more pronounced and/or more prevalent. The same applies for behaviours as well, they also can be sexually selected for.
TL;DR Skin colour has to do with survival advantage not intelligence
| [
"Critics assert that evolutionary psychology has trouble developing research that can distinguish between environmental and cultural explanation and adaptive evolutionary explanations. Some studies have been criticized for their tendency to attribute to evolutionary processes elements of human cognition that may be... |
what is this "common core" thing in gaming everybody is suddenly talking about? | [Common Core](_URL_0_) is an education initiative (in the US) that makes math very hard to understand for old people. It is very different from the memorization and long hand techniques we were taught. However, it actually makes complex maths like algebra and calculus very easy to understand.
So if anyone uses Common core as an insult you can ignore the comment as curmudgeonly foolishness.
With respects to poorly designed and single solution puzzles, it doesn't really apply. Someone probably went "Common core is confusing and they make you learn it a specific way, therefore these are common core puzzles". | [
"NZ gamer said \"It's not the most amazing thing ever by any stretch of the imagination but if you like the idea of a suped-up Snake, with a bunch of modes, and don't want to lower yourself to lugging a dated mobile phone around with you, it's hard to beat.\"\n",
"148apps wrote \"This puzzle game combines Tetris ... |
are terms like republican/conservative/right-winger & democrat/liberal/left-winger interchangeable, or are there implied subtle differences in meaning? | Republican/Democrat very specifically refers to a member of one of those political parties. Conservative and liberal are adjectives referring to a generalized set of political beliefs. Right/Left Wing is an enhancer used to suggest more extreme version of conservativism and liberalism (a right wing conservative is more conservative than a normal conservative). There's also a centrist, which means someone has very moderate political beliefs (a centrist liberal is more conservative than a normal liberal, much more conservative than a left-wing liberal). | [
"The terms left-wing and right-wing are widely used in the United States, but as on the global level there is no firm consensus about their meaning. The only aspect that is generally agreed upon is that they are the defining opposites of the United States political spectrum. Left and right in the U.S. are generally... |
what is the origin of the irrational number "e", and what significance does it have in the mathematical world? | Ooh! I know this one!
I had to figure it out myself, because it seems that every math teacher either doesn't know it, or forgets to mention it.
e is special, because it is the only number n such that every point on the graph of n^x has an equal value for slope and y coordinate. That is to say, if you have a function e^x, the rate of increase of that function equals the function itself. If e^a is 5, then the derivative of e^x at x=a is also 5. | [
"The number \"e\" was introduced by Jacob Bernoulli in 1683. More than half a century later, Euler, who had been a student of Jacob's younger brother Johann, proved that \"e\" is irrational; that is, that it cannot be expressed as the quotient of two integers.\n",
"The discovery that formula_5 is irrational is cr... |
why do ford and chevrolet have subsidary companies (lincoln and gmc) that produce pretty much the same vehicles? | In the early days of the automotive industry, there were a great deal of competing manufacturers. Over time, some merged, some were bought out, and some bankrupted, until the Big 3 (Ford, Chrysler, GM) were all that were left. Lincoln was originally an independent marque (bought out in 1922), as was Dodge (1928)
At the same time, the manufacturers were using a different-brand strategy to segregate the market. The Ford Motor Company (FMC, to differentiate the company from the marque) created Mercury to have a line of mid-level cars between their Ford brand and Lincoln. This allowed FMC to tap into a market which wanted a more upscale car but couldn't afford top of the line. Chrysler did the same thing with their Plymouth brand.
General Motors started out as a holding company for car brands, first with Buick and Durant; Oldsmobile, Cadillac. Rapid (forerunner of the GM truck line) and Oakland (later Pontiac) were all independent automakers at one point.
Car buyers didn't want the most basic, cheapest model of car. GM was the first to realize the market had room for variety. The differentiation of GM brands began in the early 1900s and was well underway by 1920; the FMC didn't buy Lincoln until 1922.
From Wikipedia: "At one time each of GM's automotive divisions in the United States was targeted to a specific market segment, and, despite some shared components, each distinguished itself from its stablemates with unique styling and technology. The shared components and common corporate management created substantial economies of scale, while the distinctions between the divisions created (in the words of GM President Sloan) a 'ladder of success.'"
In short, sharing parts made it economical to keep a stable of several marques, each different enough to be aimed at a different segment of the market.
PS: Chevrolet is a GM subsidiary; General Motors is the name of the company. | [
"The two largest manufacturers at the time, Ford Motor Company and General Motors (GM), both of the United States, were focused on expanding globally, with General Motors either acquiring or partnering with local automobile manufacturers, such as Opel of Germany, Vauxhall of England and Holden of Australia, while F... |
ancient dog breeds | Shiba Inu's are actually the breed that is closest genetically to wolves. In terms of how they determine what is "ancient", it is all down to known records of pedigree. Shiba Inu lines, for example, can be traced back nearly 2000 years.
If you consider the new "Designer Breeds" like the Labradoodle, mix of Labrador and Poodle, their records will only stretch a few years as we have only just recognized it as it's own breed. This is where the label "ancient" comes from.
Most common dog breeds, Sheppard's, Malamute's etc have had their gene pool watered down by smaller, more manageable breeds to make them easier to train and own. A Malamute from 500 years ago would look, behave and react much differently than the Malamute's of today, and in some cases, may have a completely different name entirely.
If you are asking by what criteria they determine if a breed is ancient or not, I wouldn't know the exact figures. | [
"Ancient breed of dogs was a term once used for a group of dog breeds by the American Kennel Club, but no longer. These breeds were referred to as \"ancient breeds\", as opposed to modern breeds because historically it was believed that they had origins dating back over 500 years. In 2004, a study looked at the mic... |
Was the tea party a gathering of drunken lunatic frat boys and was it really about rum? | The only thing that leads credence to the second contention that it was all about rum, was that [the Sugar Act of 1764](_URL_0_) placed a tax on sugar and molasses and cut into the profit margins of rum production. The separate [Tea Act of 1773](_URL_1_) and related [Townsend Act](_URL_2_) is the more likely reason to throw tea into the harbor. Imagine being told you have to pay a tax on a soda, and the being told that you can only buy Shasta brand and huh, look at that, they don't have to pay any taxes getting their tea here. The Boston Tea Party was simply a group of protesters destroying tea and with it, the tax revenue that they felt they shouldn't need to pay.
Cool side story, the tea destroyed wasn't in bags (commercially available in 1904) nor was it in loose leaf form (which takes up a lot of room. It was in [This form](_URL_3_) | [
"His drinking was curtailed when, attending a wedding reception which became entangled with another wedding party being held at the same hotel, he was shocked to find himself seeing two brides. He swore off the booze, and was fortunate to find an appetising and stimulating teetotal beverage, by the name of Absinthe... |
where do christians and other religions believe god came from? | Think of playing the Sims. You are the Sims' god. You created them, watch over them, guide them, and occasionally delete the ladder in the pool while they're swimming. *To them* you've always existed. There isn't a frame of reference in their worldview in which you were not present. It doesn't really matter what you were doing before time (for them) started.
From the Christian world-view,for as long as "time" has existed, God has existed. He created "time." | [
"In Christian theology, God is the eternal being who created and preserves the world. Christians believe God to be both transcendent and immanent (involved in the world). Early Christian views of God were expressed in the Pauline Epistles and the early creeds, which proclaimed one God and the divinity of Jesus.\n",... |
when you are nervous why your leg starts bouncing uncontrollably. | When you get nervous, your body releases adrenaline. This provides a lot of extra energy. If you are just sitting there, bouncing your leg is an easy way to expel some of that energy.
Could also just be something that is unique to you that attempts to take your mind off of whatever is making you nervous. | [
"Electrical sensors (EMG) inserted into affected muscle groups, while painful, can provide a definitive diagnosis by showing pulsating nerve signals being transmitted to the muscles even when they are at rest. The brain appears to signal portions of fibers within the affected muscle groups at a firing speed of abou... |
how does a spacecraft use thrusters to move through essentially nothing? if they blast, and there’s nothing (aka, atmosphere) around them to get traction, how does it propel itself forward? and how does it steer? | No air is required. Newton's 3rd law of motion says that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.
When a rocket shoots fuel out one end, this propels the rocket itself in the opposite direction. Atmosphere is not required for this to function.
Steering is done thru thrusters on the sides of the spacecraft that can nudge the nose or tail in a specified direction. | [
"Field-reversed configuration devices have been considered for spacecraft propulsion. By angling the walls of the device outward, the plasmoid can be accelerated in the axial direction and out of the device, generating thrust.\n",
"They work by equipping the spacecraft with an electric motor attached to a flywhee... |
we use redshifting to determine expansion rate of the universe, but how can we know expansion rate if we only have a snapshot of a "moment" (our 100 years of space observation)? | Ok, so, here's the deal:
Starting in 1919, there was a guy working at Mount Wilson observatory in California named Edwin Hubble. You might recognize his name from a certain orbital telescope, but he has a list of discoveries to his credit about as long as my forearm. He's considered one of the most inportant astronomers in history.
Anyway, in 1924, Hubble was looking at a faint, fuzzy patch of light in the constellation Andromeda that was then called the Andromeda Nebula , and another in Triangulum, when he noticed something interesting: some of the dots of light in these nebulae were chamgimg in brightness in exactly the same way as a type of stars called Cepheid Variables do.
What was significant about this is that the way a Cepheid Variable changes in brigjtness is dorectly related to how much light it puts out: timr how long it takes to go from maximum to minimum and back to maximum, do a straightforward calculation, and BAM! you know how bright the star really is. Compare that to how bright it looks, and with an even simpler calculation that any high school algebra student can perform, you know how far away the star is.
Well, Hubnle found out that the stars were unbelievably far away; the one in Andromeda, for instance, was two and a half million light years away, and the one in triangulum was even further out. He very quickly realized thst these fuzzy patches of light were whole galaxies in their own right, millions of light years away. He went on to calculate distances to 24 galaxies in total.
Ok, so, we have distances. What about redshift?
Well, Hubble got that one, too. In 1929. hubble took these 24 galaxies and looked at their spectra. When he had another "Huh, that's funny..." moment: the further away a galaxy was, the more its light was shifted toward the red end of the spectrum, and in a simple linear relationship (except for the very closest one, Andromeda, which is blueshifted).
Ok, so, what does that mean? Well, it meand thst all those galaxies (except Andromeda) were moving aeay from Earth, and the farther away they are, the faster they're receeding (except Andromeda).
The implication is thst, when you look at long distances, the space between galaxies os expanding. The more space there is between galaxies, the faster that expansion makes them move.
The sole exception is Andromeda. It's actualky moving *toward* the Milky Way, because it's close enough that the mutual pull of the two galaxies moves them togethet faster than expanding space is trying to carry them apart. | [
"The first measurement of the expansion of space came with Hubble's realization of the velocity vs. redshift relation. Most recently, by comparing the apparent brightness of distant standard candles to the redshift of their host galaxies, the expansion rate of the universe has been measured to be H = . This means t... |
non-mendelian inheritance | In Mendelian inheritance we are looking at the most simple version of genetics. You have yellow, green, wrinkled, or smooth seeds, tall and short plants, and little to no intermediates. This is how the units (alleles) of heredity were discovered.
Now look at the height of a group of young men. You have about 30 of them. 2 will be around 5 foot 4 inches or shorter. 2 will be around 6 foot 5 inches or taller. The rest will be intermediates that generally form a shape called a bell curve (or a standard distribution). There will be more in the middle and fewer at the ends. This is an example of polygenic inheritance (inherited by more than one gene). Isn't it great that biology words are self explanatory sometimes! Let's just say there are 4 genes that control height A,B,C,D. The tallest man had ABCD, the shortest had abcd. The rest were a mix, for example AbCd or ABcd, so they will display a height somewhere between the tallest and shortest man.
Two more good examples of a non Mendelian inheritance would be incomplete dominance and codominance. Incomplete dominance is when two traits, lets say A and B are both expressed. So if A is red and B is white, you will have a pink flower. In codominance, both traits are expressed, so if you A is red and B is white, you would end up with a white and red spotted flower. Another good example of codominance is the ABO blood groups. You can express A, AB, B, or O. Since O is basically nonfunctional you cannot express AO or BO, it just shows about the same trait as A or B.
If you see a trait that displays a pattern that is not easily defined by a punnet square, it is likely polygenic. If it displays blending, it is incomplete dominance. If you both traits expressed, it is likely codominance.
**Edit:** To clarify for anyone unfamiliar with punett squares and genetics, small letters generally represent mutated alleles that are non functional. For the example of the men above, the height represented by all small letters shows a man with mostly non functional genes for extreme height, whereas the tallest man has completely functional genes for height. For the ABO blood group, O is the nonfunctional antigen receptor, whereas A and B are functional, so only A and B can be expressed. | [
"Non-Mendelian inheritance is any pattern of inheritance in which traits do not segregate in accordance with Mendel's laws. These laws describe the inheritance of traits linked to single genes on chromosomes in the nucleus. In Mendelian inheritance, each parent contributes one of two possible alleles for a trait. I... |
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