question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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Why does my voice tend to go higher around new company or in formal situations? | Higher pitched voices are often perceived as less threatening. So it is a way of reassuring new people you are not a threat. It could also be the excitement of meeting a new person being expressed as a higher pitch. | [
"Deep voice privilege, an idea in sociology and psychology, is the privilege that a man gains from having a deeper speaking voice. According to one study, there is a correlation between voice pitch, CEO salary, and size of firm that the CEO runs.\n",
"The ability and right to a voice is linked with feelings of re... |
Is it possible to cryogenically freeze an entire ovary to save the eggs for later? | I don't believe we've reached a point where we can 'revive' tissue after cryopreservation. In the case of gametes and embryos, special freezing media is required to protect them from cold shock and freezing damage. Cryoprotectants such as low density lipoproteins and glycerol stabilise the plasma membrane during chilling and replace intracellular fluid to prevent ice crystals forming within the cell. As the follicular fluid does not have these properties, I doubt the oocytes would survive being frozen within the ovary itself. | [
"Cryopreservation in humans with regards to infertility involves preservation of embryos, sperm, or oocytes via freezing. Conception, \"in vitro\", is attempted when the sperm is thawed and introduced to the 'fresh' eggs, the frozen eggs are thawed and sperm is placed with the eggs and together they are placed back... |
how do we know that pet euthanasia is truly painless? | First, I'm sorry to hear you're going through this. It's the absolute worst part of owning a pet.
To answer your question, though, pet euthanasia is essentially done with a large dose of anesthesia. Have you ever had surgery? It's the same process, but with an alternative end. The feeling you felt while being put under is the same feeling your pet will feel. No pain at all. They'll slowly drift away peacefully. | [
"People deal with their unwanted pets in many ways. Some people have the pet euthanized (also known as \"putting it down\" or \"putting it to sleep\"), although many veterinarians do not consider this to be an ethical use of their resources for young and healthy animals, while others argue that euthanasia is a more... |
Why not send a drone to Mars that can recharge with solar panels? | NASA is considering the possibility of a helicopter drone for a future Mars mission. You can read about this [from NASA](_URL_3_), as well as some articles on others sites, such as [this](http://www._URL_0_/28360-nasa-mars-helicopter-drone.html) (from _URL_0_) and [this](https://www._URL_1_/extreme/229937-nasa-testing-helicopter-drone-to-accompany-next-mars-rover) (from _URL_1_).
Though it's a different kind of thing, there is also consideration of a [glider](_URL_5_). | [
"Although spacecraft are protected by Whipple shields, solar panels, which are exposed to the Sun, wear from low-mass impacts. These produce a cloud of plasma which is an electrical risk to the panels.\n",
"Even at a destination, the SEP system can be configured to provide power to maintain the systems or prevent... |
Conspiracy people claim the Apollo Astronauts would have been killed by radiation outside of the protection of the Van Allen Belt. How much of this is pseudo science? | Well all of it. Apollo 11 that carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin was deliberately launched from the descending node of the geomagnetic plane specifically so that it would be almost completely out of reach of the Van Allen Belts by the time it was far enough away from the Earth to no longer be protected. The trajectory was carefully planned, is very well known, and you can verify this fact for yourself.
The Van Allen Belts aren't like a sphere of death that surrounds the planet.
edit: Also, the title of the post seems to insinuate that space everywhere is deadly radiant and the "Van Allen Belt" is something that protects from it. This is almost the opposite of the truth, the background radiation in space is not terribly harmful, it's the Van Allen Belts themselves that are a deadly concentration of radiation. | [
"Reliable projections for CNS risks from space radiation exposure cannot be made at this time due to a paucity of data on the subject. Existing animal and cellular data do suggest that space radiation can produce neurological and behavioral effects; therefore, it is possible that mission operations will be impacted... |
how does the body store water? | It gets absorbed and distributed throughout all your cells within your body. It's not really stored anywhere, but when your cells are at a nice hydrated state, any access water that enters your body will go to your bladder, which is why the more water you drink, the clearer, or more like water, your urine gets. | [
"Water is found both inside and outside the body’s cells. It forms part of the blood, helping to carry the blood cells around the body and keeping oxygen and important nutrients in solution so that they can be taken up by tissues such as glands, bone and muscle. Even the organs and muscles are mostly water.\n",
"... |
Why did Japan and South Korea turn into a democratic state with little corruption but other East Asian countries did not? | I don't think that the premise of this question (that Japan and South Korea have avoided corruption, unlike the rest of East Asia) really holds up. If you look at the Economist's [Democracy Index](_URL_0_), and Transparency International's [Corruption Perceptions Index](_URL_1_), you'll find that things are a little more complicated in that region.
You're right that South Korea and Japan are at the top of the DI in Asia. But Taiwan is up there with them, and other East and Southeast Asian countries, such as Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong are in the "flawed democracy" category as well (albeit at the lower end).
On the CPI, Singapore leads in East and Southeast Asia by a large margin, and is tied for the 3rd least-corrupt country in the world. Japan sits at number three in East/Southeast Asia, just behind Hong Kong. Taiwan is next, then South Korea, whose score of 57 puts it in the "middling" range, close to countries such as Rwanda and Costa Rica.
To address the question itself: When talking about the economies of these countries in the 20th century, economists like to refer to the "Japanese Economic Miracle" and the "Miracle of the Four Asian Tigers" (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong), essentially asking "How did these five impoverished countries, ravaged by World War II, create their highly-developed economies within a generation?" \*
Likely factors include: a high degree of state intervention in the economy, an emphasis on export-oriented policies, low taxes for foreign corporations, and early investment in infrastructure, technological innovation, and universal primary education. At the time, there were few limits to state power in any of these countries, so economic directives from the top could be implemented quickly and effectively. Some writers and politicians include a "cultural" factor into the mix, claiming that there is a certain set of "Asian values" such as hard work, stability, collective success, and respect toward authority. This same set of values was used to explain why these countries retained their authoritarian governments—until, of course, they didn't.
South Korea and Taiwan both experienced peaceful democratic revolutions in the 1980s, a development that many political scientists attribute to their newly-educated, aspirational, and globally-aware young populations who wanted a greater say in their futures (both revolutions were initiated by student groups). And in 1993, Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, which had ruled the country since the end of the American occupation, lost their parliamentary majority for the first time and peacefully ceded power to the opposition, a huge milestone in solidifying democratic institutions in any country. Hong Kong and Singapore made democratic and transparency reforms during this period but never transitioned into fully democratic states.
Answering why a country did become a democratic state is a lot easier than speculating on why one didn't, so I'm not going to touch on the remainder of East and Southeast Asia. Suffice to say there's a whole lot of variation across the continent, and each country has its unique set of advantages and challenges.
\* Scholars are finally beginning to reconsider using the term "miracle" when discussing these developments. Using the term "miracle" implies that the success of these countries could have only come from sheer luck or an act of God, which feels pretty condescending. | [
"However, the Joseon dynasty court which ruled Korea was well aware of the displacement of the traditional ruling classes of China as a result of the First and the Second Opium Wars, and maintained a strict policy of isolationism forbidding any of those they ruled to trade with the outside world to avoid a similar ... |
dual citizenship | Some countries allow dual citizenships but there are some countries which do not allow it. And then there are some countries which are very vague if they allow it or not.
> Are you responsible for both nation's laws?
As a citizen or non-citizen, you are always responsible for any country's laws. And ignorance is never accepted as an excuse.
> Do you pay two taxes?
For the most part, no. However, the one big exception to this rule is the USA. The USA demands that all USA citizens residing in the USA or abroad earning income, must file for their taxes.
It can get very complicated and expensive and for this reason many USA citizens living abroad have renounced their USA citizenship.
> Can you come and go as you please?
If you have the money, yes.
> Do you have to have two houses?
There is no requirement to own property.
| [
"Based on the U.S. Department of State regulation on dual citizenship (7 FAM 082), the Supreme Court of the United States has stated that dual citizenship is a \"status long recognized in the law\" and that \"a person may have and exercise rights of nationality in two countries and be subject to the responsibilitie... |
what is standard error and confidence interval? | Both answers so far have been laymen's guesses at what are specific terms.
Standard Error is an estimate, normally of the standard deviation from the mean of a population based on a sample. It's estimated by dividing the standard deviation of the sample by the square root of the sample size.
If you have a population of 100, and you sample 5 from the population, and you find the sample mean to be 3, you can simplisticly estimate that the mean of the population is 3. However, without considering the deviation from the sample mean, you can't begin to guess at how accurate your estimate is.
It is logical that if the five numbers in your sample are -102,100,3,-950,964, and the mean happens to be 3, then there's a good chance that the whole population also exhibits significant variation, and as a result, it is relatively unlikely that your mean is accurate.
However, if the five numbers are, 2, 4, 3, 3, 3 then it suggests that your estimate of 3 is probably fairly accurate.
In the first case, the Standard Deviation of our sample is very high (as an example 676.24). We can then calculate our Standard Error as 676.24/sqrt(5), which is about 302.42.
In the second case, our standard deviation is just 0.71, so we can calculate our standard error as 0.71/sqrt(5), which is about 0.32.
Note that this **isn't** an estimate of the population mean, it's an estimate of the accuracy of our sampling, and in particular, the standard deviation of the numbers produced by repeated sampling (ie: if we continued to sample repeatedly, then 302.42 is a good estimate of the standard deviation of the sample means).
In order to estimate the population mean, this is where we turn to confidence intervals. If we take our sample with the highest variation, then our estimates for the mean should range wildly, because the sample is not highly consistent. So let's say, we need to know estimate with 95% confidence what the mean will be. In this case, we'll need to provide a range.
Now, we know what the Standard Error of our sample is (676.24), and we know that our sample mean was 3. Now what we need to do is refer to a magic table of numbers to find a multiplier that gives 95% confidence. These numbers will vary based on the type of distribution, etc., but for a normal distribution, we can use a multiplier of 1.96. So now, we can work out the upper bound of our confidence, which will be our mean plus the standard error multiplied by our magic number 3 + 676.24 \* 1.96 = 1 328.43. We can use the same idea except with subtractions to estimate a lower bound: 3 - 676.24 \* 1.96 = -1 322.43. So we can say that we are 95% confident that the population mean is between -1 322.43 and 1 328.43. This is called a **confidence interval**.
With our less varied sample, we can be 95% confident that the mean falls between 2.46 and 3.54 (see below maths).
3 - 0.19 \* 1.96 = 2.46
3 + 0.19 \* 1.96 = 3.54
In short:
* **Standard Error** is an estimate of the accuracy of a specific statistical measure (most commonly the mean) based on the variation within a sample compared to the overall size of the population.
* A **Confidence Interval** is a range within which a mean can be expected to fall with a specific level of confidence, based on the estimated accuracy of a sample
The two things work very closely together to help statisticians estimate the mean of a population based on the mean and the variation within a sample. | [
"A very common error that arises from the construction of a confidence interval is the belief that the level of confidence such as formula_67 means 95% chance. This is incorrect. The level of confidence is based on a measure of certainty, not probability. Hence, the values of formula_68 fall between 0 and 1, exclus... |
physiologically speaking, how do falls from heights kill people? | Its not the fall that kills you, its the sudden deceleration at the end.
So your body is tough, but its not unbreakable. Hitting concrete at 120 miles per hour (roughly terminal velocity for a human I believe) is a lot of force.
So your bones are breaking into pieces which is going to wreck, rip and tear all sorts of things in your body.
Meanwhile your vital organs (which are being shredded by your now fragmented bones) are smashed into the ground or into the bones around them. This is not good for the organs and most of your insides would be pulp. This includes your brain which is not going to be in great shape having just smashed itself into your unyielding skull.
Then the impact (and bones again) will probably break a lot of blood vessels so internal/external bleeding is a nasty option as well.
End of the day, a whole lot of different stuff combines to just kill you. People have survived falls like this, but those are rare cases. | [
"According to the HSE “Falls from height are one of the biggest causes of workplace fatalities and major injuries. Common causes are falls from ladders and through fragile roofs. The purpose of WAHR is to prevent death and injury from a fall from height.\"\n",
"Falling from height in the workplace accounts for ne... |
how do microchips know time? | Crystal oscillators
[Wikipedia](_URL_1_)
> A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material to create an electrical signal with a very precise frequency. This frequency is commonly used to keep track of time (as in quartz wristwatches), to provide a stable clock signal for digital integrated circuits, and to stabilize frequencies for radio transmitters and receivers. The most common type of piezoelectric resonator used is the quartz crystal, so oscillator circuits designed around them became known as "crystal oscillators."
Hope that helps.
You were also asking about the flashing LED
The LED is wired up to another little chip, which again gets its clock from some kind of an crystal oscillator. But you dont need a new crystal for every chip.
It´s possible to divide the clock rate in half by using [JK latches](_URL_0_). (Linking fixed, thanks to droneprime) | [
"Time capture is the concept of making sense of time-related data based on timestamps generated by system software. Software that run on PCs and other digital devices rely on internal software clocks to generate timestamps. In turn, these timestamps serve as the basis for representing when an event has occurred (i.... |
Does light and sound truly travel in a wave-like manner as we draw it (sine wave), or is the pattern of travel misrepresented by our pictures of the sine wave and the actual travel motion something different? | No, they don't 'travel' in a sine wave. Rather, if you take a sound wave, and you measure the air pressure along its path, you'll notice that you will measure a sine wave in pressure.
Similarly, for light, if you measure the electric field along the path of light, you will measure a sine wave. | [
"For example, when a wave travels through an anisotropic medium, such as light waves through an asymmetric crystal or sound waves through a sedimentary rock, the wave vector may not point exactly in the direction of wave propagation.\n",
"Associated with propagation of a disturbance are several different velociti... |
what processes or treatments are performed upon meat to classify it as a carcinogen according to the who study? what can i look for on the nutrition facts label to determine whether it's relatively safe? | The most recent one (about processed or red meat like bacon, sausage, and steak) is actually a report based on over 800 independent studies they've aggregated the information on.
The methods vary, but the results show that consumption of those products leads to an increased cancer risk, thus they are "carcinogens". They do not cause cancer, they've merely shown a link between consumption and raised risk.
It's important to note, almost everything is a carcinogen. So many things, in fact, it's not worth worrying about. There is no labeling to indicate carcinogen status.
For instance: anything that is browned or burned, from toast to roasted garlic to a marshmallow, is carcinogenic. Sunlight is carcinogenic. Birth control pills, alcohol, vinyl chloride (used to make the white PVC pipes in your house), diesel exhaust, ginger, salted fish, wood dust, mineral oil, various dyes, nickle, breathing non-filtered air, and many other things are all in the same "Group 1" of carcinogens, along with many other things. | [
"There are concerns about a relationship between the consumption of meat, in particular processed and red meat, and increased cancer risk. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a specialized agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), classified processed meat (e.g., bacon, ham, hot dogs, sausa... |
How did walled cities deal with urban sprawl when walls were critical for city defense? | In the case of Rome, they would just build a new, larger wall around the city. It is important to note that city walls were huge undertakings that were extremely costly, so usually walls were only built when it was believed that the cost of not building a wall would exceed the cost of building one. By the time gunpowder was popular, city walls had generally ceased to be effective enough to merit the investment in their construction. | [
"In the wake of city growth and the ensuing change of defensive strategy, focusing more on the defense of forts around cities, many city walls were demolished. Also, the invention of gunpowder rendered walls less effective, as siege cannons could then be used to blast through walls, allowing armies to simply march ... |
Do people transitioning through HRT experience changes in muscle tone and physical ability? | I am unaware of any studies specifically about muscle tone in transgender people, if anyone knows about them I'd love to read up on them.
In terms of policy, the International Olympics Committee recognizes that hormone replacement therapy significantly alters an athlete's abilities. Transgender people who have been on HRT for at least two years and have had sex reassignment surgery are eligible to compete in sports as their recognized gender. | [
"The psychological changes are harder to define, since HRT is usually the first physical action that takes place when transitioning. This fact alone has a significant psychological impact, which is hard to distinguish from hormonally induced changes. Most trans men report an increase of energy and an increased sex ... |
is there really a difference between large tv screens and computer screens anymore? | Many TVs actually have post-processing in order to make their picture look better than similar competitors. This software causes slight input lag that may not be noticeable for some, but with PC gamers it can be noticeable.
| [
"Recently \"widescreen\" has spread from television to computing where both desktop and laptop computers are commonly equipped with widescreen displays. There are some complaints about distortions of movie picture ratio due to some DVD playback software not taking account of aspect ratios; but this may subside as t... |
Why does drinking whiskey help my throat when it is sore? | When you drink whiskey (and don't have a sore throat) it feels kind of hot and tingly, right? That happens because compounds in the whiskey (primarily alcohol and some tannins) are able to partially turn on the same neurons that normally sense heat and pain. It's a relatively weak effect, and short lived, but it happens.
So, neurons that transmit pain and heat information to the brain run in networks with other neurons that sense benign stimuli like touch and pressure, and these adjacent neurons influence the signalling of one-another. The overall neuron network has a limited information carrying capacity (since neurons can only conduct information at a limited rate, and have a period of time after firing during which they cannot fire again).
Think about a time when you've poked a finger, stubbed a toe, or banged you knee on a table. What did you do next? Probably started shaking your finger, walking around quickly (saying "ouch, ouch, ouch") on the toe, or rubbed your knee. Right? This is behavior that exploits the limited information carrying capacity of the pain network. You flood the neuron "pipe" with benign, non-pain, information and thus effectively block some of the pain signal from getting to the brain.
The whiskey on your sore throat has a similar effect. The neurons that sense warmth and one type of pain get stimulated by the whiskey, and temporarily block the other pain neurons from delivering their "my throat is sore" information to the brain. It also increases the latency period of the pain neurons for a while, meaning they are able to fire less often, and thus deliver less total pain signal to your brain. | [
"Home remedies for throat irritation include gargling with warm water twice a day, sipping honey and lemon mixture or sucking on medicated lozenges. If the cause is dry air, then one should humidify the home. Since smoke irritates the throat, stop smoking and avoid all fumes from chemicals, paints and volatile liqu... |
why is it hard to get a good picture of something that "glows in the dark?" | Your eyes are magnificent sensors, and cameras are not as good. Your eye has adaptive gain control, which allows you to see better in the dark by trading "frame rate" for sensitivity. To get the same effect in a camera, you need a longer exposure. If you have a nice camera and a tripod, you should be able to get great images. The camera on your cell phone just has too small a lens. You eye also slightly blooms glowing objects in a dark space, which the camera would not. | [
"Light direction is very important to the quality of a photoclinometric image. Light that comes from directly over the surface (behind the camera) makes it hard to distinguish the shadows. Multiple light sources are also a problem, since they destroy important shadows required for the algorithms to work properly.\n... |
What should I know about Arendt before reading her? The good and bad. | Here is a [haAretz article on what's controversial with her writings on Eichmann](_URL_1_). [That controversy was made into a film](_URL_0_).
For her writings on Totalitarianism she had no access to Russian language sources. She relies on the sayings out of date with what she is using them for not sourced and taken, as google reveals, from news papers, from Trotskist pamphlets etc.
In her «Reflections on Little Rock» she voiced opposition towards Black Suffrage in US America.
Her support for Heidegger was controversial because Heidegger would refuse to show remorse for what he had done in the Nazi regime. | [
"Dan Gardner argues that Ehrlich has been insufficiently forthright in acknowledging errors he made, while being intellectually dishonest or evasive in taking credit for things he claims he got \"right\". For example, he rarely acknowledges the mistakes he made in predicting material shortages, massive death tolls ... |
the relationship between the legislative, judicial and executive branches of the us government. | They're mutually independent branches of government that have (many) various, different responsibilities and, generally, have the capacity to limit the actions of one another. | [
"The executive branch is headed by the president and is formally independent of both the legislature and the judiciary. The cabinet serves as a set of advisers to the president. They include the vice president and heads of the executive departments. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of Congress, the S... |
what is a power over ethernet interface module | Some modern networking equipment can get power via the Ethernet cord along with network access. You see it in devices that may be hardwired with ethernet, but that would otherwise be difficult to get power to - like security cameras, access points and conference phones.
However, in order for Power over Ethernet (PoE) to work, you need a router that can do PoE. If you don't have a router that supports it, you can get a PoE Interface module that connects after the router and supplies the power. | [
"Power over Ethernet or PoE describes any of several standard or ad-hoc systems which pass electric power along with data on twisted pair Ethernet cabling. This allows a single cable to provide both data connection and electric power to devices such as wireless access points, IP cameras, and VoIP phones.\n",
"The... |
what happens to money lost due to depreciation? | The $5000 wasn't lost. The guy you bought the car from has it. | [
"Depreciation has been defined as the diminution in the utility or value of an asset. Depreciation is a non cash expense. It does not result in any cash outflow. Causes of depreciation are natural wear and tear.\n",
"Depreciation is applied to tangible assets when those assets have an anticipated lifespan of more... |
How was it like on Earth immediately after the impact that formed the moon? | I think the prevailing theory is that the impact was so energetic that within hours the entire surface of the planet was raised to somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 degrees Celsius, meaning that it was entirely molten rock and a great deal of vaporized rock as well. If there was liquid water on the Earth before the impact, it was certainly vaporized, so I guess that means sea levels would have risen, in so far as they were all up in the air somewhere.
I imagine that for a short while the Earth looked like a little, tiny star. Not even remotely as bright since the light would have been black body radiation from the molten rock, rather than light emitted from fusion reactions, but still, a cute, tiny little star.
Check this out: _URL_0_
Edit: FYI, the real jam starts right around 5:50 | [
"Samples brought back from the Apollo program showed that the Moon was composed of the same material as the mantle of the Earth. This surprising result was still unexplained in the early 1970s, when Cameron began work on an explanation of the Moon's origins. He theorized that the formation of the Moon was the resul... |
why were old movies like "gone with the wind" and "wizard of oz" in color when movies were still in black in white until the late 50s/early 60s | Technicolor was cumbersome and required expensive specialty cameras and lighting. It was at first only suitable for big-budget pictures, sort of like 3D today.
Also, many directors preferred black and white for stylistic reasons. This is even true today; look at Schindler's List.
Edit: Jesus, I get it. Schindler's List is over twenty years old. You're all very clever for pointing that out.
My point was that it was made in black and white for stylistic purposes even though color film was cheap and had long become the norm. | [
"Richard O'Brien originally intended for the film to be in black and white for the first 20 minutes and turning to color when Frank-N-Furter appeared, starting with red color on his lipstick and spreading color throughout the picture as the song continued—a direct allusion to \"The Wizard of Oz\". It was vetoed by ... |
Geologists: What forces caused these adjacent mountain formations to end up looking so different? | Looks like the darker mountains are cinder cones of volcanic origin. | [
"At the time of their deposition the rocks of the Northern Limestone Alps were located several hundred kilometres south of their present position. About 35 million years ago, tectonic forces, that are still active today, began to push these geological units northwards. At that time several kilometres of rock and se... |
why does the weather say 39 but "feels like 30" wouldnt it just be 30 outside? | Ambient temperature in a general area VS perceived temperature due to humidity and wind chill making it colder. | [
"It is the approximate southern border of the horse latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, meaning that much of the land area touching the 30th parallel is arid or semi-arid. If there is a source of wind from a body of water the area would more likely be subtropical.\n",
"It is in Earth's middle latitudes, between... |
Does rinsing or just running water over my hands without soap after using the bathroom do anything? | I dont think that rubbing your hands together will kill bacteria. They are too small to unfluence that way.
About the hot and cold water. You would need to put your hand in boiling water for an extended amount of time (hours) before it even remotely kills enough bacteria to be considered clean. And switching between hot and cold probably isnt gonna cut it either.
As already said the water makes it easier for bacteria to get loose from your hands. So that woulf only spread more.
Best case scenario: wash with water and soap and dry using a (papr) towel and not those blowers | [
"Washing hands with soap and water eliminates microorganisms from the skin and hands. This provides some protection against transmission of VHF and other diseases. This requires at least cake soap cut into small pieces, soap dishes with openings that allow water to drain away, running water or a bucket kept full wi... |
why does beer make you crave salty/fatty food? | Alcohol releases dopamine in your brain, when it starts to wear off you start looking for something else that will release dopamine.
Fat and salt are particular good for this (to do with evolution of humans.) | [
"Several colloquial terms used to refer to central obesity, and to people who have it, refer to beer drinking. However, there is little scientific evidence that beer drinkers are more prone to central obesity, despite its being known colloquially as \"beer belly\", \"beer gut\", or \"beer pot\". One of the few stud... |
how do usb plugs built in to outlets work with phones and other devices that use usb? don’t you need to convert ac to dc? | There is either a converter built into the wall before the usb. So it goes wires > converter > USB. Or the cube is used because the normal outlet uses the two prongs and not USB. | [
"Since the Universal Serial Bus specification provides for a five-volt power supply (with limited maximum power), it is possible to use a USB cable to connect a device to a power supply. Products based on this approach include chargers for cellular phones, portable digital audio players, and tablet computers. They ... |
how humid would air need to be for a human to breath their liquid requirements in a 24 hour period? | It couldn't happen. At 100 degrees F (38C) the partial pressure of water vapor at 100% relative humidity is 49mmHg and change. Humans exhale 47mmHg of water vapor. So at 100% humidity in a 100 degree environment that would effectively "stop" the water loss that comes from exhaling, but not add a huge amount of water back to the system. To increase the partial pressure further, you have to increase the temperature, but as you do so we'll start to lose volume from sweat which competes against the cause. To get to a point where we were in effect breathing in 2x as much water as we were exhaling, you'd have to have 100% humidty at around 122-123 degrees F (50-51C). At that temperature you have to worry not just about sweat loss but heat radiation, and at 100% RH you're looking at heat stroke and death becoming likely.
From a theoretical standpoint (assuming we don't die of heat stroke, and assuming that we don't start losing volume as sweat as temperature increases), there probably is a point where it can happen. Assuming that a normal alveolar ventilation is on the order of 6000L per day (12 breaths per minute, 350ml of alveolar ventilation per breath), you could then figure out how many grams of water you'd need in the air to offset the 2.5L of water an average person on an average day loses. But that math is getting beyond me, I just posted these values as a starting point for anyone who actually wants to work out the ideal gas law of it for a further answer. | [
"Even with quiet breathing, the inspiratory flow rate at the nares of an adult usually exceeds 12 liters a minute, and can exceed 30 liters a minute for someone with mild respiratory distress. Traditional oxygen therapy is limited to six liters a minute and does not begin to approach the inspiratory demand of an ad... |
laser thermometers. | The laser part is just to visually indicate where you are measuring, the actual temperature is read by a calibrated infra red sensor. Similar to on a remote control. | [
"Thermopile laser sensors (Fig 1) are used for measuring laser power from a few µW to several W (see section 2.4). The incoming radiation of the laser is converted into heat energy at the surface. This heat input produces a temperature gradient across the sensor. Making use of the thermoelectric effect a voltage is... |
Do waves move faster then light because of the sinusoidal path they take? | Light "waves" do not move sinusoidally. This is a convenient way of representing light's wave-like properties, but they don't actually slew ftom side to side like an old truck with a sloppy steering box. | [
"Waves that are sinusoidal in time but propagate through a medium whose properties vary with position (an \"inhomogeneous\" medium) may propagate at a velocity that varies with position, and as a result may not be sinusoidal in space. The figure at right shows an example. As the wave slows down, the wavelength gets... |
how does apple make more money than google / android? | Android isn't a company. Google doesn't completely own the phones that have their operating system in it, so they only get a portion of the profit from them. Apple owns the entire process. I also wouldn't be surprised if the profit on an individual phone was more for an iPhone than an android phone for a lot of reasons.
Android phones might be a bigger part of the phone market, but they share that profit with tons of people, apple doesn't have to really share their profit. | [
"Apple amassed 65% of all profits made by the eight largest worldwide smartphone manufacturers in quarter one of 2014, according to a report by Canaccord Genuity. In the first quarter of 2015, the company garnered 92% of all earnings.\n",
"Similar to the Android Market, Google shared in the revenue generated by a... |
What was Richard III's role in the end of The War of the Roses? | Is this related to your [High School English Assignment](_URL_0_) or a separate homework? | [
"The Wars of the Roses began the following year, with the First Battle of St Albans. Initially, Richard aimed only to purge his Lancastrian political opponents from positions of influence over the king. It was not until October 1460 that he claimed the throne for the House of York. In that year the Yorkists had cap... |
why is there such a significant price gap between canadian crude oil prices and us crude oil prices? | There isn't a price gap between the price of west texas crude this is what the stock market is looking at when saying the price of oil is xx per barrel.
The price gap is caused by a misnomer what you are calling canadian crude oil is not actual crude. It is bitumen. Now for Canada to ship it it needs to be diluted so that it flows better.
Bitumen is more costly to refine into petroleum products than crude oil. The current infrastructure in place for Canada to get this to market has minimal going to tide water (oceans) within Canada. This means that the only market that is purchasing the raw product from Canada is the u.s. and typically it's about 50 to 60 percent of the oil price.
Canada would get a better price per barrel if more markets are available to sell to. This is why there is an importance to pipelines to tide water. Environmental concerns are the push back to this. But what is not looked at or ignored is oil is going to tide water by rail already. Just not in any capacity to affect market prices. | [
"More recently, between 2011 and 2014 the price of crude oil was relatively stable, fluctuating around $US100 per barrel. It dropped sharply in late 2014 to below $US70 where it remained for most of 2015. In early 2016 it traded at a low of $US27. The price drop has been attributed to both oversupply and reduced de... |
who are you genetically closer to? | Your kids. As you said, kids are 50% "you". But your siblings are only 25% "you" in average.
It is true that they are made 50% your mum and 50% your dad as well. But consider that your dad's DNA is made of copy A and B of each chromosome, and your mum copy C and D. Then you could have got copy A from your dad and C from your mum, making you A-C for example. While your siblings could have got A-C (same as you), A-D, B-C, or B-D. Repeat this idea for all 23 pairs of chromosomes. So by probablity only in 25% of the cases you will have the same combination. | [
"Second, presuming a panmictic population, the vast majority of pairs of individuals exhibit a roughly average level of relatedness. For a given individual, the majority of others are not worth helping or harming. While it is easy to identify the few most closely related ones (see: kin recognition), it is hard to i... |
why does white meat chicken always taste dryer than dark meat chicken? | There's more fat in the dark meat. Fats and oils will keep the dark meat moist even when the water in the white meat has cooked off.
> [Dark meat contains 2.64 times more saturated fat than white meat, per gram of protein.](_URL_0_) | [
"In nutritional studies however, \"white meat\" includes poultry and fish, but excludes all mammal flesh, which is considered red meat. The United States Department of Agriculture classifies meats as red if the myoglobin level is higher than 65%. This categorization is controversial as some types of fish, such as t... |
somalia and what's happening there | Today 'Somalia' is basically a geographic expression, the country has had no central government since the 80s. The previous government did a lot of bad things in the north so when that government (Siad Barre) fell they were able to step away and run their own business. So the north is a pretty decent place. They have their own (unrecognized) government and their own (unrecognized) currency. You can even go there as a tourist and you'll be relatively safe.
The southern part of the country is a different story. When the Barre government collapsed there was no more governmental authority. Warlords and clan chiefs stepped into the void and spent about 15 years fighting one another in an anarchic free for all.
Eventually a group of Islamists called the Union of Islamic Courts was created to attempt to end the civil war and restore stability. While they were fighting to take over the south the U.S. gave millions of dollars worth of weapons to the warlords. The UIC won anyways, and for a little while they were doing some good. They were more moderate than the Taliban and while some of their punishments were barbaric they made progressing in restoring a semblance of order. They also got the airports and port running for the first time since things went
to shit.
Once the warlords were beaten there was a lot of concern about terrorists going to Somalia. So Ethiopia, whose military is largely a product of American money, went in (presumably with U.S. backing) and attempted to overthrow the UIC and install the U.N. backed provisional government. The provisional government has a lot of problems though, it's mostly made up of warlords and has no presence inside Somalia-- they have to hold their meetings in Kenya.
Ethiopia tried occupying Somalia for a little while but since they'd gotten rid of the UIC and didn't have the resources to stay that long they got out. The UIC of 2006 didn't really exist by this time, it had been splintered. The previous leadership tended to be older and more moderate, but after the Ethiopian intervention the Islamists who were left fighting were the youngest, fiercest, and most extreme. They call themselves al-Shabaab (meaning 'youth movement'.) While the UIC cared more about restoring law in Somalia than international terrorism, al-Shabaab is much more sympathetic to terrorists who want to carry out attacks abroad. They've provided a safe haven to some al-Qaeda guys and have carried out a few attacks of their own elsewhere in Africa. Kenya and Uganda have both been bombed by al-Shabaab, in retaliation for support they've given to the provisional government.
So Somalia is a complex place, with regions that look radically different from one another. The north will probably continue to do well and likely will be recognized as an independent state some day. There's no reason to be positive about the south though; that's only getting worse and worse. Especially since we've now got all kinds of drones flying around the place.
| [
"Since January 1991, Somalia has been in a [[Somali Civil War|state of civil war]], without a functioning central government that controls the entire country. The northwestern region of [[Somaliland]] unilaterally declared independence in May 1991, while the northeastern region of [[Puntland]] unilaterally declared... |
why almost no smartphone protective case has a cover for the camera glass? | A decent quality smartphone will have a hard protective layer (e.g. gorilla glass) over the lens so it doesn't get scratched. It will resist scratches pretty well.
On the other hand, smartphone cases are made of cheaper materials, usually some kind of plastic, and are much easier to scratch. So if you had a case over the lens, over time, there would be a bunch of scratches in front of the lens, all your pictures would come out blurry and terrible.
Also, even if the case is nice and clear with no scratches, it will tend to add distortion, extra glare, and so forth to your photos.
So bottom line is, they make a cut-out for the camera so your photos aren't potato quality. | [
"iFixit gave the phone a 2 out of 10 in terms of repairability, praising the solid construction which improved durability, but mentions that it is \"very difficult\" to open the device without damaging the glass camera cover due to the unibody design, and panned the difficulty in replacing the screen and the adhesi... |
How would Viking warbands choose their leader? | The leader was the person who most obviously had the qualities of leadership (I'll explain more at the end). Those qualities included:
*Good lineage. Was your father or father's father a great leader and an honorable person who paid their debts and was honest with their business? Did they come from a hospitable family that takes in travelers? Were they distinguished? Also there is a reason there is so much politics around the idea of marriage. Marriage during this period was a way of unifying families to create a stronger grouping, bring peace between the two, or a way for families to become a part of a dynasty. Since heterosexual unions came with the assumption of children, those children became the heirs to family lines that also tie to land rights. As such rulers were the ones that typically owned land or had legal precedence to land ownership (i.e. their land was taken from them and they have a "birth right" to fight for it back like King Harald Hadrada).
*Personal strength, bravery, honesty and masculinity which are all tied to personal honor. If you were not the strongest or bravest then why would I follow you into battle? Leaders including Kings were at the front lines leading the attack and showing an example to their men. Also since warband leaders were responsible for distributing the booty, if you are dishonest, how do I know I won't get my fair share? And of course masculinity which ties to strength and bravery but also ties to living in your role as a man. For instance, magic was believed to be the realm of women and while there were some men that practiced it they did so at the risk of being labeled ergi which means lacking in respectable masculine values. This could lead to your wife being allowed to divorce you as well as adversly effecting your reputation for future business opportunities. As such any remarks about ones manliness was taken seriously as it to the point of challenging them to a holmgang (a one-on-one duel) or straight up killing the person (you would be legally protected because if you didn't kill or challenge the person you were weak and thus embody the label of ergi) As such a person who was unquestionably manly and honest (which also tied to Norse masculine values) were usually candidates for leadership.
*Good hamingja (luck). Is there a sense of luck around the person or things have happened to them that shows that they have a bright future and their fate is aligned for greatness? There was a belief that luck was an entity that followed and favored certain people and it only made sense that you followed a lucky person so that they could reap from the trickle-down of luck and other wealth from that person. This is something that is hard to objectively describe but the Norse were all about talking about people's hamingja. For instance Leif Eriksson is also known as Leif the Lucky since he saved a handful of men from a ship wreck that led to news of lands further West (Vinland). Luck can also leave you and with that your support for leadership can leave you too.
Now saying the choice is obvious is very subjective to the social dynamics that went on during the time. To say a leader was always chosen a certain way is not the case because during this era in Norway, kings were killing each other left and right to claim the right to rule. What we can take out of this is that the connection between the leader and pertinent landed freemen (not all freemen had the same rights) was decided based on more personal ties (reciprocity of material and service) to that potential leader and if their peers believed the same thing too. You could become a local leader without the "royal/jarl" background and still aspire for greatness and those men were called Hersirs. Hersirs would lead a hundred (a unit of land area that is a county division) show their ability for leadership through their actions in battle which could lead to a Jarl or King bringing them into their Hird(I believe this term is primarily tied to the King of Norway) or personal retinue which can lead to more favors (jarls were replaced and replaced with loyal men), the ability to marry into the family and as such the ability to expand their powers further into the future themselves or through their kin.
The best example I have that you may be able to relate to is Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. He shows the virtues of bravery, strength and honesty that is tested in times of peril and which is known by many others around him which leads to stories that build up his reputation. He also comes from a distinguished line and royal ties that add to his credibility of being a ruler. By the end of the movie he is one of the big heroes that is instrumental in stopping Sauron from taking over mankind in Middle-Earth (no one can see or know about Frodo's ring mission as it's nature requires secrecy and thus none of the glory) that it was "rightfully" acknowledged and even pressured upon him that he was the best candidate for king Arnor and Gondor. What I mean: there wasn't an election but an organic "vote" and understanding based on the qualities of the person, that is pretty much how warband leaders were typically chosen. | [
"Paul Glader, associate professor of journalism at Berlin School of Creative Leadership, wrote about his experience of a Summer spent ruling a clan in \"Vikings: War of Clans\", summarising \"I enjoyed my Summer as a Viking chief. I learned that many of the principles of good leadership in real life apply in these ... |
does tire tread help when driving on wet surfaces? if so; how? | Tread refers specifically to the channels cut into the surface of a tire. The tread is designed to shed water displaced from under the road contacting surfaces of the tire, though the actual pattern isn't actually terribly important so long as certain key criteria are met, and is highly stylized.
An over-inflated tire has a significant impact on improving said displacement, as the bulging center can more easily press the water from the center out. I'm not advocating you over-inflate your tires - while it also reduces rolling resistance, increasing fuel economy, it also reduces traction, so you're more likely to lose control of your vehicle, especially at higher speeds, and it wears the center of your tire excessively, greatly reducing durability.
If you can't displace water fast enough, typically due to speed, lack of tread, or an under inflated tire having too much displacement, you'll hydroplane - the car will literally be floating. That's not driving, that's sailing.
Snow and ice tires are hard rubber with bold edges to dig into the snow and ice, and use *that* as the road surface. They make pretty bad rain tires because if it's warm enough to rain and not snow, you're still driving on hard rubber that doesn't really care all that much about gripping the road surface.
Tread is the gaps between the road contacting surfaces of the tire, and the less tire you have in contact with the road, the less friction. Tread actually reduces traction in ideal conditions by virtue of being "not tire", which is why performance tires for ideal conditions have little to no tread. Racing tires, aka "slicks" (which are anything but, depending on the compound, they can be as sticky as duct tape when *cold*) are illegal for road use because they are dangerous to drive on in the presence of any amount of moisture on the road. They have no means of displacing water but by casting a wake in front of the point of contact. I was in a Dodge Viper that nearly wiped out at 25 mph driving through a neighborhood because it rained, *two days prior*, because of the tires on it at the time.
So treads are a compromise in the design, and all season tires are the ultimate compromise. | [
"BULLET::::- \"Wet traction—\"Wet traction is the tire's traction, or grip, under wet conditions. Wet traction is improved by the tread design's ability to channel water out of the tire footprint and reduce hydroplaning. However, tires with a circular cross-section, such as those found on racing bicycles, when prop... |
why is that when i say "a university student" it sounds right but when i say "an university student" like it should be in english, it sounds completely wrong. | Someone posted something similar the other day on here, and it more has to do with pronunciation not lettering.
You use the singular designator "a," for words that follow don't have a vowel sound. You use "an" if it is a vowel sound. | [
"In the UK a university student is said to \"study\", to \"read\" or, informally, simply to \"do\" a subject. In the recent past the expression 'to read a subject' was more common at the older universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. In the US a student \"studies\" or \"majors in\" a subject (although \"concentra... |
why did adam sandler seemingly stop being funny some years ago? | I'd say that your sense of humor has changed, Adam Sandler's humor has always been childish/frat guy's humor | [
"Sandler has been referenced multiple times in various media, including in the TV shows \"The Simpsons\" in the episode \"Monty Can't Buy Me Love\", in \"Family Guy\" in the episode \"Stew-Roids\", and in \"South Park\" in the episode \"You're Getting Old\". He was also referenced in the video game \"\". The HBO se... |
what is with the weird "bubble in your throat" phenomenon? | I am pretty sure it's just some mucus messing with your vocal cords, as ,usually, coughing to clear your voice will get rid of it.The voice changes, usually gets a deeper pitch, because the air you are exiling is not just making the vocal cord vibrate, but also all the mucus covering them and all the temporary mucus membranes between them. | [
"Gargling (same root as 'gurgle') is the act of bubbling liquid in the mouth. It is also the washing of one's mouth and throat with a liquid that is kept in motion by breathing through it with a gurgling sound. Vibration caused by the muscles in the throat and back of the mouth cause the liquid to bubble and flurry... |
a fever. | Hi i am a doctor.
In response to an invading pathogen (bug) the body starts an inflammatory cascade (attacks the bug). Lots of chemicals are released (cytokines etc) these chemicals cause the brain to reset the normal body temperature to a higher value, say 40 degrees Celsius. This is believed to help the immune system fight the infection but has not been scientifically confirmed. Although the brain raises the set point the body has to actually heat up to this new set point so you may have a temperature of 39 but the brain says that it should be 40 so you feel cold (even though you are not) and start shivering in order to generate more heat. This is a fever and when you shiver its called "rigoring"
When you get a fever from heat stroke/exhaustion the brain doesn't raise the set point and as you heat up you actually feel hot this time, this is called hyperthermia (not a fever) | [
"A fever can be caused by many medical conditions ranging from non serious to life-threatening. This includes viral, bacterial and parasitic infections such as the common cold, urinary tract infections, meningitis, malaria and appendicitis among others. Non-infectious causes include vasculitis, deep vein thrombosis... |
the sudden outrage towards dr. oz | This doesn't explain why it's suddenly become such a big issue, but as for the outrage itself...
He uses (abuses) his status as a medical doctor (specifically, he seems to be an excellent heart surgeon) in order to make large piles of money by promoting bullshit alternative medicine to people who don't know any better.
There was a pretty funny montage on Youtube recently of all the times he has said on his show "I have this magic weight loss pill that will burn the fat right off you without you doing anything..." or some close variation, and then cuts to his recent congressional hearing, being asked "is there a magic weight loss pill?" and him trying to evade the question but finally answering "no." | [
"He is a proponent of alternative medicine, and has been criticized by physicians, government officials, and publications, including \"Popular Science\" and \"The New Yorker\", for giving non-scientific advice and promoting pseudoscience. In 2014 the British Medical Journal examined over 400 medical or health recom... |
Who is generally credited with being the first musician/band/musical act etc. to have branched beyond performance to merchandise their name as a brand? | Some professional signers of the baroque period and later had sweet merch, although I don't believe any of them profited from it directly through royalties or such, only indirectly through spreading their celebrity. It was a bit of a "thing" to have little enamel miniatures of your favorite singer and you could put them on your dress as a pin, on a chain as a necklace, or on the tops of your shoes (like decorative buckles). Luigi Marchesi and Farinelli are the only ones I know off the top of my head who got fangirls enough to merit shoe-toppers. [Here is an example of one of those enamel miniatures for Farinelli.](_URL_0_) There were also plaster busts of signers that were popular to collect, [here is one of an unknown man](_URL_1_), they were very fragile and very few survived, I don't know of any for opera singers that survived to today, but we have mentions of women collecting them for their favorite signers in satires and newspapers. There were also some direct musical appeals to celebrity from music publishers, like publishing "Favorite Songs of Sig. Farinelli" using singer's names and their famous arias, not sure if that would count.
But for who first deliberately cultivated such non-musical branding opportunities for their own direct commercial gain like "Pickles Nickels," not sure, but there's not really an equivalent in the 17th-19th centuries. The idea of "personality rights" wasn't really there yet. Some vague movement towards moral rights of artistry (like the right not to have your music ripped off and published at someone else's gain) but even that was very sketchy, and depended on where you were working in Europe. | [
"By 1982, musical performers played the Horse on a regular basis, with many performers being nationally known or critically renowned artists. Some now well known acts such as Suzanne Vega, Stanley Jordan, George Winston, Michelle Shocked, Tracy Chapman, Dar Williams, Northampton-area native Sonya Kitchell and comed... |
how come household incomes haven't gone up significantly in decades if more and more women have joined the labor force? | In part precisely because more and more women have entered the labor force. Labor supply went up faster than demand, so labor became cheaper. The other issue is that technically compensation has continued to increase. People tend to only look at wage and say that people get paid the same as three decades ago. That's not true though, because healthcare benefits are compensation too, but they've eaten up a larger share of compensation (hence the push to reduce healthcare costs with the ACA). | [
"However, as indicated by the charts below, household income has still increased significantly since the late 1970s and early 80s in real terms, partly due to higher individual median wages, and partly due to increased opportunities for women.\n",
"During the Great Recession, which spanned December 2007 to June 2... |
Will the GPS coordinates of a fixed point on land change due to Continental Drift? Also, why is 0 lattitude 0 longitude in the ocean instead of on land? | > Will the GPS coordinates of a fixed point on land change due to Continental Drift?
Yes, Very Very VERY slowly.. at most [2-6 inches a year](_URL_2_).
> Also, why is 0 latitude 0 Longitude in the ocean instead of on land?
Well the Earth is a sphere so 0 latitude is the equator. Runs right round the middle of the world in a North/South orientation
0 longitude is a bit different. The world power at the time of the definition of the prime meridian (0 longitude), Was England. They set 0 longitude as the line running right down the middle of the [Royal Observatory front door](_URL_1_).
Why 0,0 is out at sea.. well that's the way the World lines up when [divided into Graticules](_URL_0_) based on those standards.
| [
"If a global reference frame (such as WGS84, for example) is used, the longitude of a place on the surface will change from year to year. To minimize this change, when dealing just with points on a single plate, a different reference frame can be used, whose coordinates are fixed to a particular plate, such as \"NA... |
How do people in space (ex: living on the ISS) keep track of time? Do they adjust their sleep-wake schedules according to one master clock? | Pretty much. There is so much to do for astronauts whether it's science, maintenance, spacewalks etc. that their days are fairly choreographed and planned. Then they just block off time for sleeping each 24 hour period. One of the physiological issues with life on the ISS is there is a sunset/sunrise every 90 minutes and it can mess with your circadian rhythm and sleep cycles. | [
"Orbiting spacecraft typically experience many sunrises and sunsets in a 24-hour period, or in the case of Apollo program astronauts travelling to the moon, none. Thus it is not possible to calibrate time zones with respect to the sun, and still respect a 24-hour sleep/wake cycle. A common practice for space explor... |
Is it technically possible that somewhere in the Universe some of the fundamental constants are actually variable? | Is it possible in the sense that we can't conclusively rule it out? I guess I have to reluctantly say yes; that's the price of having empirical science.
Is it possible in the sense that there is *any* reason to believe it happens, or in the sense that it's consistent with our present observations? Absolutely not. | [
"In a more philosophical context, the conclusion that these quantities are constant raises the question of why they have the specific value they do in what appears to be a \"fine-tuned Universe\", while their being variable would mean that their known values are merely an accident of the current time at which we ha... |
who was jeffrey epstein? why is him committing suicide suspicious? what does him committing suicide mean? | Had a child sex slave trafficking ring with multiple elite billionaires involved but hasn’t given much info and was supposed to go to trial soon also was on suicide watch but somehow still committed “suicide” it’s suspicious because there’s a high chance it’s a coverup | [
"Epstein died of an overdose of Carbitral, a form of barbiturate or sleeping pill, in his locked bedroom on 27 August 1967. He was discovered after his butler had knocked on the door and then, hearing no response, asked the housekeeper to call the police. Epstein was found on a single bed, dressed in pyjamas, with ... |
if your body, very slowly, began to not get the oxygen it needs, which systems would shut down first? (and last) and why? | Im not aware of any published evidence on this so I will give my professional opinion.
Firstly it depends on why are not getting the oxygen it needs. The two main reasons are because of a lack of oxygen in the air (rare) or your lungs not oxygenating blood properly (common).
Not having enough oxygen in your blood (as measured by a blood test from your artery) is termed respiratory failure. There are two types, one is just not enough oxygen with low carbon dioxide caused by hyperventilating to try to get enough oxygen in. The second type is not enough oxygen AND too much carbon dioxide because the lungs are not moving air in and out efficiently enough.
If you're talking about lack of oxygen then that would typically show the first type of respiratory failure on the arterial blood test. We would still term it respiratory failure even though the lungs were working fine. Without any shadow of a doubt your brain would be the first thing to go. Most of your organs can survive a certain amount of hypoxia but you would go unconscious fairly rapidly. Your liver and kidneys would probably go next - the liver because it is the organ that carries out the most chemical reactions and needs oxygen for this and the kidneys because they require a lot of oxygenated blood flow to keep working.
If you removed the oxygen very very slowly (over days and weeks) then other mechanisms would kick in such as the blood production mechanisms to ensure there is more haemoglobin to mop up as much as possible of the scarce oxygen that you breathe in. This is why mountaineers have to spend time acclimatising and why people who live at high altitude in for example Chile have very high haemoglobin levels. If you kept removing the oxygen though, you'd eventually pass out.
After you'd passed out the liver and kidneys would begin to shut down next and then probably your heart. You wouldn't live long after you'd passed out. The brain is obviously the top priority. After this the body will just keep trying to get as much oxygen as it can until the heart stops.
Tl;dr: The brain.
Source: I am a doctor.
Edit: Grammar | [
"\"One of medicine's new frontiers: treating the dead\", recognizes that cells that have been without oxygen for more than five minutes die, not from lack of oxygen, but rather when their oxygen supply is resumed. Therefore, practitioners of this approach, e.g., at the Resuscitation Science institute at the Univers... |
how are synthetic materials (such as plastic) unnatural / toxic, if they are made from ingredients found on earth? | Naturally occuring chemicals can be used to make chemicals which do not occur in nature. Think of it like baking a cake. The main ingredients in cake (sugar, flour, oil, eggs) are all naturally occuring but you would never a cake in nature. It's similar with plastics. While the chemicals used in plastic manufacturing (most petroleum based) are naturally occuring, you can combine them in specific ways to make something which is not. | [
"Pure plastics have low toxicity due to their insolubility in water and because they are biochemically inert, due to a large molecular weight. Plastic products contain a variety of additives, some of which can be toxic. For example, plasticizers like adipates and phthalates are often added to brittle plastics like ... |
what do you do with your invention idea? | Write all plans, print it out and mail it to yourself, never opening it.
It's a poor man's copyright.
Other than that, I don't know. Hopefully someone else has more in-depth knowledge. | [
"Invention is often a creative process. An open and curious mind allows an inventor to see beyond what is known. Seeing a new possibility, connection or relationship can spark an invention. Inventive thinking frequently involves combining concepts or elements from different realms that would not normally be put tog... |
how do television ratings work? how long do i have to be tuned in to a channel for the rating to count? and what's the correlation between the rating number (i.e. 13.4) and the number of viewers? | Ratings are based off what are called Nielsen Ratings. The Nielsen Company employs a system where they select families of a certain demographic in every single area code and "hires" out these families to be what are known as The Nielsen Families.
How do they gather what shows they watch? Nielsen employs a box that connects to a family's DVR or cable box as well as connects to their TV so that they know exactly what shows the family is watching, when they watch it, how they watch it (recorded or live), and how often. All of this information gets transferred into the box and that's then transmitted to their data warehouse down in Texas.
There, millions upon millions of data is migrated, mined, and reported out to various companies who have bought media, and they receive a report around GRPs or Gross Rating Points. Gross Rating Points tell you the frequency (how often and length) and reach (# of Nielsen families). Each company has a set threshold that they wish to hit so that's how some shows get cancelled vs others.
Not everyone can impact ratings as this would require tons of data plus not everyone wants to have their viewing habits shared with companies. You cannot choose to become a Nielsen Family, you have to live in a certain area and hit a type of demographic (income, race, make up of the family, etc) for you to be selected by The Nielsen Company.
Ratings count by seconds so you can be on a channel for a brief moment for it to be counted. For example, if you're channel surfing, the box will record exactly what channels you accessed and for how long even if it was for a second or less. They can also tell if you've accessed the channel guide. They can also tell when you switched the tv over to gaming and play a game.
There's a high correlation between the two as the ratings take into account number of viewers (reach) and frequency of viewing (how many times viewed and length of time). | [
"Television rating point (TRP) for calculation purposes is a device attached to the TV set in a few thousand viewers, houses for judging purposes. These numbers are treated as a sample from the overall TV owners in different geographical and demographic sectors. Using a device a special code is telecasted during th... |
why are smartphones $500-700+ while laptops with the same or better specs are considerably less? | Designing electronics when you have no, or relaxed space constraints is **much** easier and therefore cheaper. Also, the specific parts, while maybe less powerful, are likely more efficient with regards to power (this is highly variable, of course). So even though your particular processor or whatnot is *slower,* it has a more complicated design to ensure better battery life and smaller physical size.
EDIT: A lot of people are nitpicking about the fact that margins are very high in devices like Samsungs phones and the iPhone line. Just because their *raw materials cost* is low, and the profit margin is high on the device, does not mean miniaturization is irrelevant. The reason they can charge those prices, is because miniaturization is **hard** and they've made new, successful, miniature devices. They are recouping their R & D costs. The market will push these prices down (as evidenced by Google's new phones) because the bulk of the R & D is done, and that cost isn't repeated. Companies learn from one another, which is in part some of the issues with patent laws but that's another story. | [
"As far as computers are concerned, off-the-shelf versions are usually newer and hence more powerful than proprietary POS terminals. Custom modifications are added as needed. Other products, like touchscreen tablets and laptops, are readily available in the market, and they are more portable than traditional POS te... |
how are these girls doing the math in their head so fast? | Do you notice how they're moving their hands around as the guy reads the numbers? That's because they're using a mental abacus. An abacus allows you to do fast calculations that would be very hard to do in your head. All they have to do is picture what the abacus would look like and they can read off the answer even without actually holding on to one. | [
"In the Team Competition section, each participating school sends in four selected student mathematicians per year level. The participants compete against other schools in the Christchurch Horncastle Arena. It's a speed competition and takes 30 minutes. There are 20 questions for each team to complete, the aim bein... |
why it hurts to look at the sky on a cloudy day | * ELI5 version: the sky is still very bright even when you're not looking at the sun, so it can still hurt your eyes.
* Super technical version: [Here is an AskScience question that has a very detailed answer](_URL_0_). | [
"When visibility is poor, as at night during rainstorms or fog, the eye tends to relax and focus on its best distance, technically known as \"empty field\" or \"dark focus\". This distance is usually just under one meter (one yard), but varies considerably among people. The tendency is aggravated by objects close t... |
li5: poker | In almost every form of poker, you make a five card hand. The hands ranked from best to worst (the notation should make sense if you're familiar with playing cards, Jc is the jack of clubs, Th is the ten of hearts, etc):
* Straight flush (same suit, 5 in a row, like 5h 6h 7h 8h 9h)
* Four of a kind (like 6c 6s 6d 6h 9c)
* Full house (three of one rank, two of another, like 8c 8s 8d 5h 5c)
* Flush (5 of one suit, like 3c 5c 9c Tc Qc)
* Straight (5 in a row, like 8c 9c Tc Jc Qc)
* Three of a kind (like 2c 2s 2d Jh Kh)
* Two pair (like 6s 6c Ts Th Ad)
* One pair (like 3d 3c 2h 5s 9c)
* High card (this means none of the above, like 2c 4c 7s Tc Qd is called "Queen high")
Some games give you more than 5 cards, some include a combination of cards just for you and what are called "community cards" which everyone can use in your hand. But in just about every game, you will be trying to make a 5 card hand.
The way betting works, is that it generally starts with the person left of the dealer. When the betting gets to you:
* If no one has bet yet this round, you may **check** (do nothing) or **bet** (put money into the pot that others will at least have to match to continue).
* If someone else has bet before you act, you may **fold** (give up the hand, you don't have to put any more money in), **call** (match the person's bet to stay in), or **raise** (in addition to matching the bet, you bet even more).
Some games have what are called "fixed limits." In every betting round, there is an amount you are allowed to bet. If the fixed limit for a round is $2, the first player may check or bet $2. If he bets $2, the next player may fold, call $2, or raise another $2 for a total of $4. In fixed limit, the bet in each round goes up in increments of the limit.
Other games are called "no limit." This means you may bet any or all of your chips at any time. Two exceptions: there is generally a minimum, and if someone has bet $x and you want to raise, you have to raise at least by another $x for a total of $2x.
Two important pieces of advice:
* Tell the people you're playing with that you are a newbie. It's a heck of a lot easier to get the hang of things by having things explained to you as it goes.
* Figure out how much money you are ok with losing before arriving. Under no circumstances should you let yourself lose more than that. | [
"Five-card draw (also known as a Cantrell draw) is a poker variant that is considered the simplest variant of poker, and is the basis for video poker. As a result, it is often the first variant learned by new players. It is commonly played in home games but rarely played in casino and tournament play. The variant i... |
how did humans discover music? or is there music among animals as well? | "Or is there music among animals as well?"
You - you've never heard of a bird? | [
"This natural history of music begins with Attenborough playing the piano. Searching for the origins of human music, he traces its connections to the musical sounds that other animals make: the beauty of the wolf's howl, the complexity of the bat's cry, the deep rumble of the elephant's signals, the acoustically so... |
Who was the first Ottoman Sultan to claim the title of Caliph, and how was he able to legitimize himself as such? | Selim I "the Grim," over the course of his brief reign 1512-1520, secured Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem, the three Islamic holy cities, and utterly demolished the Mamelukes of Egypt, who had been seen as the holders/protectors of the Holy Cities. Selim's conquests totally changed the character of the Ottoman holdings, which had previously been majority Christian and heavily European, into a truly Eastern Mediterranean empire with large Muslim populations in Syria and Egypt added. With the collapse of the Mamelukes, the possession of the holy cities, and the rivalry with the Shi'ite Safavids, proclaiming the Ottoman sultan the successor to the caliph tradition and the commander of the faithful etc. was just the natural next step.
In short, Selim became the first Ottoman caliph in 1517 after his dramatic conquest of all the Mameluke holdings (Egypt, the Levant, and the Hedjaz). | [
"The Ottoman Dynasty embodied the Ottoman Caliphate since the fourteenth century, starting with the reign of Murad I. The Ottoman Dynasty kept the title Caliph, power over all Muslims, as Mehmed's cousin Abdülmecid II took the title. The Ottoman Dynasty left as a political-religious successor to Muhammad and a lead... |
Why did Moscow become the capitol of the USSR even though Petrograd was the center of the revolution? | Firstly, one only has to look at a map of the positions of the soviet civil war/pre 1939. Petrograd was mere miles away from first the German occupied areas of Russia signed away by the bolsheviks, and then also threatened by the breakaway Baltic republics and Finland. Moscow, being in the centre of Bolshevik Russia was a much more defensible position
Secondly, Moscow and st Petersburg have had a sort of duelling cultural meaning in Russian culture. St Petersburg was the city of the tsars and represented, essentially, westernism. Moscow was the cultural heartland of Russia. In picking Moscow, the Bolshevik in part rejected the capitalist west to build a new society out of true Russia | [
"Following the success of the Russian Revolution of 1917, Vladimir Lenin, fearing possible foreign invasion, moved the capital from Saint Petersburg back to Moscow on March 12, 1918. The Kremlin once again became the seat of power and the political centre of the new state.\n",
"In 1918 Moscow became the country's... |
How much does an understanding of historical linguistics benefit study of the period? | Do you mean historical linguistics or knowing the languages? Historical linguistics is the study of how languages change over time, it's what's used to reconstruct things like Proto-Indo-European. It's not the same as knowing the languages, a historical linguist doesn't necessarily actually know the language that he's working on, although for obvious reasons it helps. It's also generally not all that helpful for history, although it can be useful for learning the languages (I don't personally think you can learn Greek without some basic idea of how the Greek language changed from prehistory to Attic, because otherwise you have to memorize the paradigms of literally every verb you encounter like a psycho). Knowing the languages, though, is of great use. I would argue that it's nearly impossible to study ancient history and classics without knowing Greek and Latin (although there are a *very* few number of scholars who actually don't). In more contemporary fields maybe it's not as important, I don't know--as a classicist I deal more or less exclusively with the texts themselves, so I would be forced to work from translation, which is very unsatisfactory for any detail or nuance and is not always possible, as some texts have never been translated. What's important in any historical field is being able to read the sources, whether that's direct material or scholarly material | [
"Historical linguistics provides the main basis for the theory, analysing the development and changes of languages, and establishing relations between the various Indo-European languages, including the time frame of their development. It also provides information about shared words, and the corresponding area of th... |
the concept of "hanging on" or "fighting" when you're dying from a disease like cancer | It's less from a medical standpoint and more a matter of will. Someone hanging on or fighting means they still want to live. Once someone decides they don't want to live anymore, or they give in to death, a survival part of the brain shuts down and the illness takes over. When someone "hangs on" or "fights to survive" they are still battling their illness mentally. While not everything can be overcome this way, if someone decides they just give up and want to die, it's hard to turn it around. You can't force someone to live who just gives up. | [
"Battle with cancer is a term used by the media when referring to people suffering from cancer. Those who have died are said to have \"lost their battle with cancer\", while the living are described as \"fighting cancer\". It has been argued that words such as \"battle\" and \"fight\" are inappropriate, as they sug... |
what's wrong with the word 'negro'? how is 'black' politically more correct than 'negro'? | Apparently words that have a neutral definition can become slurs if they are constantly used to describe someone we don't like. Negro, just as a word outside of any context, is completly neutral; it's the Spanish word for black. However, because it was previously used to name people that we oppresed, the word is now bad. Just like Chinaman or Jap. Chinaman is bad but Englishman is good, and Jap is bad but Brit is good. These words are bad because at some point in time, they were used negatively. If there was a big war, and the word "person" was used to describe the enemy in propaganda, you would not be allowed to call anyone a "person" afterwards. | [
"However, during the 1950s and 1960s, some black American leaders, notably Malcolm X, objected to the word \"Negro\" because they associated it with the long history of slavery, segregation, and discrimination that treated African Americans as second class citizens, or worse. Malcolm X preferred \"Black\" to \"Negr... |
Do the deaf need to wear hearing protection? | Depends why they're deaf. If it's a neurological thing, the physical ear being in good shape, it would make sense to try and preserve your ears in case of a medical advance that could restore your hearing. | [
"These are generally worn by people with a hearing loss who either prefer a more cosmetic appeal of their hearing aids by being attached to their glasses or where sound cannot be passed in the normal way, via a hearing aids, perhaps due to a blockage in the ear canal. pathway or if the client suffers from continual... |
what are 'short-links' such as _url_1_, _url_2_, and _url_0_ used for? | The goal is to make URL's smaller, which is beneficial if e.g. you have a comment section or tweet you want to send and there's a character limit. It may also just look better than a medium to long size url.
An exception is that some of those URL shorteners are also used maliciously by criminals to hide the original URL which may have looked less safe.
So, keep an eye out when clicking those url's. | [
"The shortest possible long-term URLs were generated by NanoURL from December 2009 until about 2011, associated with the top-level \".to\" (Tonga) domain, in the form , where represents a sequence of random numbers and letters.\n",
"The company uses HTTP 301 redirects for its links. The shortcuts are intended to ... |
Is there any historical inspiration or precedence behind the "Ludovico technique," or is it strictly a creation of Anthony Burgess and/or Stanley Kubrick for A Clockwork Orange? | What springs to mind when reading this is Ivan Pavlov and his theory of classical conditioning (for which he used dogs to illustrate this) among other learning theories.
**Now who was Ivan Pavlov?**
Ivan Pavlov was a Russian Behaviourist who in 1927 conducted an experiment which would (alongside *operant conditioning* essentially learning by trial and error) form a theory ("Classical/Pavlovian Conditionding" essentially learning by association) and mold part of our understanding on how we learn.
**What did this study entail?**
* Aim/Hypothesis: To demonstrate what animals learn by association.
* Method/Procedure: Pavlov placed food in front of dogs, when the food was being brought to the dogs they began salivating. Pavlov would ring a bell every time the dogs ate the food.
Even when there was no food given after the bell was rang, the dogs still salivated. They had *learnt* to salivate. Ordinarily when the dogs were given food they would salivate, Pavlov called this an *unconditioned response* to an *unconditioned stimulus* (food) as this happened naturally without experimentation.
After a few rings of the bell, the dog began to associate that sound with food, Pavlov called this a *conditioned response* as it had been learnt (and an association attached) over time. Thus the food now was a *conditioned stimulus*.
There is more to Pavlov's study (e.g. to do with how long the learning would last and the specific parameters needed or not needed to evoke the response) however that delves more into science than history (But I'm still willing to explain that if you wish).
However the "ludovico technique" involves inducing fear to emit a negative response so they feel adverse to doing that again. When thinking of that it makes me think of two other things:
* Watson & Rayner's "Little Albert" experiment.
* Aversion therapy & Phobias
**Watson, Rayner and Little Albert**
* Aim/Hypothesis: In 1920, Psychologist John B. Watson and his graduate student Rosaline Rayner already knew from studies in classical conditioning that fear to certain noises (e.g. a loud bang) was an *unconditioned response* in humans. What they wanted to find out was whether you could *condition* someone to fear a specific thing (e.g. furry toys or animals)
* Method/Procedure: Watson & Rayner tested their hypothesis by attempting to scare an 11 month old orphan known as "Little Albert". They presented Albert with a series of items (white rats, rabbits, dogs, furry & non-furry masks, a santa clause mask, cotton wool and burning paper), Albert showed no fear when he saw the items.
Albert was given the white rat which he happily played with. Upon playing with the rat, Watson & Rayner struck a metal bar frightening Albert. Watson & Rayner repeated this several times, upon the 7th time Albert was shown only the rat without the noise. Now Albert became increasingly distressed and began to cry.
W & R had turned a *neutral stimulus* (the rat) into a *conditioned stimulus* whilst also changing an *unconditioned response* (original fear of the loud bar) into a *conditioned* one (emotional fear). In later experiments W & R would *generalise* (this is one of the features Pavlov discovered) Albert's responses by showing him similar but different stimuli.
**What can we do to remove these *conditioned* responses (e.g. phobias)?**
Well W & R did try to *desensitize* Albert's conditioned responses but there wasn't time to do this. If one wanted treatment for their phobias, there are two main options:
* Flooding
* Systematic Desensitization
Flooding essentially does exactly what you'd think it floods the person (all at once) with stimuli that they fear in an attempt to shock them out of it. E.g. If you're scared of spiders they'd get you to be in a room full of spiders.
Systematic Desensitization is a little more thought out and methodical. In SD the person is gradually exposed to their fear (e.g. entering a state of relaxation, touching a picture of a spider, watching a video of a spider, touching a real spider, holding a real spider).
**Aversion Therapy**
This is similar to classical conditioning and works by getting the person to experience an extremely negative reaction when viewing unwanted stimuli. E.g. an alcoholic would be given an emetic (a drug to make them vomit), they would then be given alcohol and an emetic which would also cause vomiting but condition the person to associate alcohol with being sick.
Aversion therapy was the main form of therapy when people tried to convert people from homosexuality to heterosexuality.
Hopefully this helped :) You can view how Pavlov went about his experiment [here](_URL_1_) and view the footage from the Little Albert experiment [here](_URL_0_)
**Sources & Further Reading**
* Pavlov. I. P. (1927): "Conditioned Reflexes: An Investigation of the Physiological Activity of the Cerebral Cortex"
* Asratyan. E. A (1953): "I. P. Pavlov: His Life and Work"
* Watson. B. J & Rayner. R (1920): "Conditioned emotional reactions"
* Boswell. K et al (2009): "AQA GCSE Psychology"
* Billingham. M et al (2008): "AQA Psychology B AS: Student's Book"
| [
"BULLET::::- In the Anthony Burgess novel \"A Clockwork Orange\", later adapted into a film by Stanley Kubrick, the \"Ludovico Technique\" is a form of mind control that causes the subject, in this case the thug anti-hero Alex, to feel sickness and pain whenever he has a violent or anti-social impulse. This backfir... |
If a planet was orbiting a star, and that star were to go supernova, would the planet continue to orbit it? would there be a delay before it stops orbiting it? | In our current understanding of gravity (general relativity), gravity travels at the speed of light. If you're sitting at the exploding star, any orbiting object 5 light hours away will appear to continue as normal for 10 hours (5 for the effect to reach it, 5 more for that news to make it back to you). If you're sitting on the planet, it will seem to happen immediately, as the gravitational change arrives with the light. (Simultaneity depends on your reference frame in relativity).
The orbit WILL change, though, yes. This happens with binary stars as well as planets. Since the supernova is removing mass from the primary star, there's less gravitational pull on the orbiting object after it happens. But the object is still moving at the old orbital speed. The resulting "kick" that the binary companion has (be it a planet or a star) is called the ["Blaauw kick"](_URL_0_). Looking at the [virial theorem](_URL_1_), it becomes clear that if half the mass of the binary or more is lost in the supernova ejecta, the system won't remain bound. Think of it like spinning a sling around your head and then letting go. In this case, the planet/binary companion will go flying off at high speeds.
There's a bit of extra complication, though, in that supernovae aren't necessarily symmetrical. There's an extra "kick" from a bit more mass being ejected in one direction than another. Depending on how these kicks line up with what the velocity of the orbiting object is at the time of the supernova, it's possible that supernova losing less than half the binary mass results in an unbound system, or that one losing more than half the binary mass remains bound. How big these asymmetric kicks are and how common they are, and whether they apply to black holes as well as neutron stars, is still an active subject of research.
Even if the system remains bound, the orbit will end up being highly elliptical for a while even if it was circular to start with. The supernova gives it a strong push in one direction, mucking about with the symmetry. | [
"Planet Nine could have been captured from outside the Solar System during a close encounter between the Sun and another star. If a planet was in a distant orbit around this star, three-body interactions during the encounter could alter the planet's path, leaving it in a stable orbit around the Sun. A planet origin... |
Why did the KPD, SPD and Members of the Many Socialist and Communist Militias and Originations Not Offer Any Significant Resistance to the Nazis in 1933? With Not Even a Real Attempt at a General Strike like During the Kappputsch? | I have read many different takes on this question. A decent if incomplete explanation is that these forces were (a) demoralized and (b) split against each other.
(B) is the less complex explanation, so I'll briefly address this. To the KPD, the SPD was a "fascist" political party that had ruined the promise of the 1918 revolution. In 1932, the KPD joined the Nazis in a transit strike in Berlin. In other words, the KPD had no interest in maintaining democratic institutions. We can assume, also, that the Reichswehr would have moved with alacrity against any uprising on the part of the KPD or associated militias.
(a) Requires us to backtrack to the events of summer 1932. Franz von Papen is Chancellor. Eager to break the power of the SPD, he deposes the SPD government of Prussia by force. The Prussian state government was the last bastion of SPD power. Prussian Premier Otto Braun and Minister of the Interior Carl Severing, whose powers extended over Prussia's large and well-armed police force, would have been the ones in a position of sufficient authority to call a strike together. But contrast their position to that of Friedrich Ebert and Gustav Noske when these men called their strike in 1920. They were, respectively, President and Minister of Defense. They spoke with the authority of the nation in some sense, while those launching the coup were of the widely hated and discredited forces of monarchy and militarism. And while much of the military was on the fence in 1920, Reichswehr leader von Seect was, for instance, unwilling to take a positive move before an outcome was decided. In 1932, on the other hand, the Reichswehr stood with Minister of Defense Kurt von Schleicher. An outright strike could well have precipitated a violent reaction from the national government, and may indeed have reinforced their narrative of Communist/Socialist troublemaking requiring more authoritarian government. In sum - Unlike in 1920, Braun and Severing, and by extension the SPD, were in the position of illegitimacy. As Erich Eyck writes, "large numbers of Germans, many of them quite influential, were jubilant at the prospect of getting rid of the Socialists and, if possible, of the unions as well." Finally, if the SPD had poor prospects of launching such a strike in 1932 their prospects were even more grim in 1933, after months of electoral drubbing and the loss of almost every position of power they had once held.
Yet, if they had truly believed in the Republic, wasn't it worth a last ditch effort? Probably not. It is doubtful that the mass of workers could have been called to an effective strike. Not only had many millions of them defected to the KPD and NSDAP, but the unemployment rate would have made such a tactic ineffective. Eych observes: "For how could the trade unions call the workers from their posts when they knew that millions of unemployed were waiting the moment when these places might become vacant?"
A final point. I wrote [here] (_URL_0_) several weeks ago that Schleicher reached several labor union ministers and persuaded them that they would be granted positions of power in the new order, thus keeping them from launching a coup. I have to admit, I may have been seduced by good story-telling. While it's plausible, I haven't seen the evidence for it.
Cited:
Erich Eych, *History of the Weimar Republic, Vol. II*
John Wheeler-Bennett, *Nemesis of Power* | [
"Among circles of the workers' parties KPD and SPD there were different interpretations of the reasons for the rise of the Nazis and their electoral success. A portion of the Social Democrats blamed the devastating role of Communists in the final phase of the Weimar Republic. The Communist Party, in turn, insulted ... |
How were the letters written by Apostle Paul delivered? | First off, Saint Paul never knew Jesus. This is a very common misconception. He was not one of the original 12 apostles. He was a Jewish/Roman military man of the Roman Empire who at first persecuted Christians, then later converted, became a missionary and became arguably the key founder of Christianity. He was from Tarsus, Cilicia. He lived from 5-67 a.d.
Anyway, I'll try to answer the question as best I can, I'm no expert.
The Roman's postal system was incredibly sophisticated and advanced for the time period. It was very simple for one to send a letter almost anywhere in the empire as long as it had an address. Paul's letters were often addressed to cities he or other missionaries had started Christian followings in. Often they were written to answer theological questions that arose in these congregations from a lack of a central or canon Christian law. The beginning of Christianity saw much debate and disagreement with different interpretations of the different gospels and the reality/divinity of Jesus. The letters would often be sent from Paul to the known Christian leaders of specific towns. These letters were to be read aloud to the following of Christians during their time of worship and congregation together. During the infancy of the Church it was common for letters to be sent out, there were always questions that needed to be clarified by one who they believed had an authority on the matter. | [
"Most New Testament scholars believe Paul the Apostle wrote this letter from Corinth, although information appended to this work in many early manuscripts (e.g., Codices Alexandrinus, Mosquensis, and Angelicus) state that Paul wrote it in Athens after Timothy had returned from Macedonia with news of the state of th... |
Why did 1960s Communist China engage in so many territorial conflicts over tiniest bits of land with such major powers as India and as the USSR? | It wasn't necessarily "Mao" that was responsible for these actions. If anything, Zhou Enlai played a bigger part, having been China's foreign minister up until the 1960s.
Before we get to the Chola incident and the 1963 Sino-Pakistan agreement, you should understand that the Chola incident was a result of the Sino-Indian War of 1962. This was due to a border conflict between China and India. India was concerned about seeming weak due to territorial conflicts with Pakistan, while China was concerned that India was allying with the Soviets to surround China, as well as subverting Chinese rule in recently annexed Tibet. Indian Prime Minister Nehru instituted the Forward Policy, which authorized Indian troops to move into disputed regions held by Chinese troops. As they moved deeper into these regions, they came into conflict with PRC troops, eventually resulting in several firefights. The Chinese were incensed as they believed this was part of a plan to destabilize Tibet, so they elected to attack India to punish them. The resulting treaty resulted in a peace that more or less demarcates the current borders, although there were still border disputes for years after the war. As a result of this incident, China courted Pakistan as an ally against India, to help offset the Soviet Union's courting of India.
On a similar note, the Sino-Soviet split had already been in motion for a long time. China had significant territorial claims on Russia, who had signed one of the "unequal treaties" in the 1800s to claim Outer Manchuria, or Primorye, as well as the annexation of the area known as Tannu Tava in the West, as well as border incidents in Mongolia and Xinjiang. As a result, to satisfy Chinese revanchism, China attempted to negotiate with the Soviet Union to "revise" these treaties which the Soviet Union found to be unacceptable. As a result, Chinese troops attacked Russian forces in a series of border skirmishes over the island and various other territories.
Sources:
Maxwell, India's China War
Luthi, the Sino-Soviet Split | [
"Relations between the Soviet Union and Japan between the Communist takeover in 1917 and the collapse of Communism in 1991 tended to be hostile. Japan had sent troops to counter the Bolshevik presence in Russia's Far East during the Russian Civil War, and both countries had been in opposite camps during World War I... |
i have terrible vision, but sometimes if i blink hard enough, my vision goes crystal clear til i blink again. why? | As someone who's spent 4 years studying, researching and working clinically with eyeballs, here's my guess:
You're likely forcing your focusing system to focus through as much blur as it possibly can, assuming that while you "blink enough" you're concentrating your gaze, at a single object or direction. Both your cornea and your crystalline lens will change shape in order for you to be able to focus; younger people, especially kids, have a much greater dynamic range for focusing then do older folks, so if you're young, that's probably most of it. If you know you have terrible vision, meaning a high prescription in one and or both eyes, you definitely should not do this. In that case, you'll probably get headaches if you do it enough. Just use glasses. | [
"Blinking results in blurred and incomplete image of the fundus. It is imperative to instruct the patient not to blink when the fundus photo is taken.The patient may blink normally at any other time to prevent the excessive drying of the eye. A dry eye may also lead to a blurred fundus photo. When dry eye is suspec... |
to anybody who has used nesquik milkshake powder, why is it that the chocolate powder never mixes in with the milk fully, yet the banana powder does? | The primary ingredients in the banana powder are cane sugar and maltodextrin (which is a white powder made from flour starch and used as a food additive). Both are very soluble in water (or milk), so it dissolves easily.
The chocolate powder, the primary ingredients are cane sugar (dissolves easily) and cocoa powder. Cocoa powder is about 22% fat, which is insoluble (doesn't dissolve well in water or milk). So the bits that don't dissolve are the cocoa powder, due largely to the fat.
It will dissolve better using hot water, and vigorous stirring, but may not do it perfectly even then. | [
"Powdered milk is frequently used in the manufacture of infant formula, confectionery such as chocolate and caramel candy, and in recipes for baked goods where adding liquid milk would render the product too thin. Powdered milk is also widely used in various sweets such as the famous Indian milk balls known as gula... |
why does a scientific calculator show "0" as a result if i add 1 to a really high number and then substract said high number although it should show "1"? | Your calculator doesn't store all of the digits for 2^50, so the 1 at the very end gets removed from the memory. How many digits a calculator actually holds depends from calculator to calculator. | [
"Most calculators and many computer programs present very large and very small results in scientific notation, typically invoked by a key labelled (for \"exponent\"), (for \"enter exponent\"), , , , or depending on vendor and model. Because superscripted exponents like 10 cannot always be conveniently displayed, th... |
how does regenerative brakes work ? | Electrical induction.
You have probably made an electromagnet out of a coil of wire around a nail and a battery in school. Electricity flowing through a conductor will form a magnetic field around the conductor, and the reverse is true as well. A magnetic field moving around a conductor will cause an electrical current within it.
An electrical motor and an electrical generator are basically the same device, the difference being the input and the output. A generator takes the physical turning of magnets past wires to make electricity and a motor takes electricity moving through wires to make a magnetic field to turn the magnets.
Regenerative braking is using the momentum of a moving car to turn the magnets and create electricity. This slows the car down, and the most effective use of that captured electricity is to turn around and use it to accelerate the car again through the reverse process. | [
"Regenerative braking is an energy recovery mechanism which slows a vehicle or object by converting its kinetic energy into a form which can be either used immediately or stored until needed. In this mechanism, the electric motor uses the vehicle's momentum to recover energy that would be otherwise lost to the brak... |
why do some tv shows have a sign language interpreter on the screen? why can't they just use subtitles? | As far as the interpreter goes, though, some deaf people may prefer it because they're accessing information in their own language (one that is readily accessible)... English is usually the second language learned for deaf people, so that may be a secondary choice. | [
"There have also been a few local stations that have broadcast programming in American Sign Language, accompanied by English closed captioning. Prior to the development of closed captioning, it was not uncommon for some public television programs to incorporate ASL translations by an on-screen interpreter. An inter... |
"the core of the planet earth is made of iron and nickel": how scientists can determine that if no one has been in the core of the earth? | We have a pretty good idea about what's on the inside of the Earth, based on the geologist's equivalent of a CAT scan or an MRI -- earthquake data. When an earthquake happens, it sends waves bouncing around the inside of the planet. These waves change direction and speed based on the kinds of materials they pass through. Geologists can detect the movement of these waves by taking measurements at different locations all across the planet, and in so doing, build a picture of how the inside of the planet is constructed.
That's how we know that the interior of the Earth is separated into four layers, that the innermost is made of something solid, and that at least one of them is an actual liquid. From here, scientists can use other information to get an idea of what elements the interior is actually composed of.
Based on the estimated density of the solid inner core, we can guess that it's probably made of iron. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that iron appears to be exceedingly plentiful in the solar system. Given how plentiful it is, and given that we know it's a very dense element, and given what we know about how a dense metal like iron would behave in a still-molten Earth when it was forming, it makes sense that Iron is probably what our core is made of.
We can guess a few more things about how the inner and outer cores behave, based on the fact that the Earth has a magnetic field. We know that the inner core must be rotating, and that the outer core must be convecting, because without those two things, the Earth would not have a magnetic field. So the existence of some external factors can tell us a lot about the internal factors of our planet. | [
"Earth's core is believed to be mostly an alloy of iron and nickel. The density indicates that it also contains a significant amount of lighter elements. Elements such as hydrogen would be stable in the Earth's core, however the conditions at the formation of the core would not be suitable for its inclusion. Carbon... |
Iberian Peninsula in Medieval times | I'm so happy you asked this. I've been reading a book called Spain: [The Root and the Flower by John A. Crow](_URL_0_) that has been extremely interesting to me. I've really learned a lot and I'd highly suggest his work.
& #x200B;
In short, Iberia was fundamentally different from the rest of Europe because, during the time of the artistic and intellectual renaissance in Italy, Flanders, and the rest of Europe, the kingdom of Castille (the closest thing to "Spain" there was back then) was still busily reconquering the Iberian peninsula from the "Moorish invaders." I put that in quotes because by the time Spain reconquered Moorish cities like Seville, Granada, and Cadiz, the moors had been there for 600+ years, and had seriously better art, science, and math than the Spanish, who had spent the majority of the years 700-1400 in a constant state of conflict against the Moors. (okay- under some rulers, Moors, Jews, and Christians lived harmoniously, but for the most part of Spanish history, rulers used religion to unify the country and if you weren't Christian, you were taxed, tortured, and kicked out of the country once the Spanish Inquisition started.)
& #x200B;
The "re-birth" Spain experienced wasn't a rebirth of art and culture like that of Italy, but rather, a re-harnessing of the conquistador spirit that suddenly had no more Spanish land to conquer. In 1492, Isabelle of Castille banned the Jews and Moors thus unifying Spain under the Catholic cross. Simultaneously, Christopher Columbus "discovered" America, a land full of gold and natives to convert. The decision to invade for Spain was an obvious one. The Royals were most concerned with spreading their influence and increasing their wealth than creating art and re-discovering the human experience. They weren't exactly a country of romantics.
& #x200B;
However, I want to point out to you that during the golden age of Spain, (which will be defined by different times depending on who you ask, for these purposes, we'll say 1492-1650) there were several of the worlds first, and most significant dramatic written stories. I'm sure you've heard of Don Quijote by Miguel Cervantes, published in 1615 (often called the first novel), but that story was actually preceded by an even older written story called "La Celestina" was written in dramatic dialogue, however, never was intended to be performed or told, but rather, read.
& #x200B;
Also, you should check out El Greco and Diego Velazquez for paintings, they were both amazing artists who worked in the Spanish Courts.
& #x200B;
Source: Spain: [The Root and the Flower: An Interpretation of Spain and the Spanish People Third Edition](_URL_0_) by John A. Crow | [
"Much of the Iberian peninsula had been occupied by the Moors after 711, although the northernmost portion was divided between several Christian states. In the 11th century, and again in the thirteenth, the Christian kingdoms of the north gradually drove the Muslims from central and most of southern Iberia.\n",
"... |
Were the British involved in instigating the 19th century revolutions against Spain in Latin America? | Sorry for the long delay in getting to this, unfortunately it has been a hectic week. The British were definitely involved in the Latin American revolutions to a greater or lesser extent. It is worth noting that the British were fighting Napoleon during the early 19th century and had a giant army all ready to go and get involved in the Western hemisphere. Not only that, but following the American Revolution, the British adopted a trade policy that allowed them to trade with countries that they would not formally recognize. Furthermore, many of the leaders of the Revolutions were anglophiles who actively sought British aid and support. Simon Bolivar, of obvious fame, wanted the British to get involved and even suggested placing the newly free countries under the British wing, though not their direct control. Though it wasn't a revolution, the British pressure on King Joao was the direct cause of his declaring Brazil a sovereign kingdom, equal to Portugal and any other country, for that matter.
So that's the prelude, on the ground, The British Legion, which consisted of 800 soldiers on five ships, were sent to aid Bolivar in his revolution, those these were not official troops. Meaning that the government was not willing to officially endorse the Revolution, but were willing to help out of they could. Not all of those troops made it to Venezuela, and they were not particularly helpful, but they were sent.
After the Revolutions, the British were very big on nation building, sending tons of ships to trade with the new nations. especially British manufactured goods for the various export goods of Latin America. Whether or not this was a good thing has been a huge debate in Latin American history, since some, building on extraction theory, have said that is simply changed them from a de jure colony to a de facto colony, but nevertheless, they were welcomed at the time. For a while the British was the largest shipping country in the western hemisphere, outdoing even the United States.
Sources: John Chasteen, *Americanos*, Leon Fink, *Sweatshops at Sea* | [
"Multiple revolutions in Latin America allowed the region to break free of the mother country. Repeated attempts to regain control failed, as Spain had no help from European powers. Indeed, Britain and the United States worked against Spain, enforcing the Monroe Doctrine. British merchants and bankers took a domina... |
the event horizon of a black hole | Because any direction past the event horizon points inward. Space itself is warped so massively beyond the horizon that nothing can get out not only because the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light, but there is literally no direction that is "out". | [
"The event horizon of a black hole may be thought of as a surface moving outward at the local speed of light and is just on the edge between escaping and falling back. The event horizon of a white hole is a surface moving inward at the local speed of light and is just on the edge between being swept outward and suc... |
what does it mean when a wound gets "infected?" | It means that bacteria or fungus has set in the wound and has begun to grow off of the tissue in that area. | [
"The symptoms of an infection depends on the type of disease. Some signs of infection affect the whole body generally, such as fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss, fevers, night sweats, chills, aches and pains. Others are specific to individual body parts, such as skin rashes, coughing, or a runny nose.\n",
"I... |
do painkillers (advil, tylenol, etc) reduce pain in the specific area that is hurting or do they affect the whole body but you only notice it woking on the area that is in pain? | The pain killers you listed reduce inflammation in different ways so they would help calm down a throbbing injury where inflammatory response is strongest -- they act at the site of the pain. However, the effective anti-inflammation molecules are in your blood so its not like they can't affect more than one region. If you took Tylenol for a sore back and later stubbed your toe you wouldn't have to take more Tylenol for the new injury.
Pain killers like Vicodin act in the central nervous system and lower your emotional response to pain. These don't affect the inflamed area at all -- they just make your perception of pain less unpleasant. | [
"Oral and topical pain killers are effective to treat the pain caused by otitis media. Oral agents include ibuprofen, paracetamol (acetaminophen), and opiates. Evidence for the combination over single agents is lacking. Topical agents shown to be effective include antipyrine and benzocaine ear drops. Decongestants ... |
What benefits would the addition of a third eye bring? | Eyes (and cameras) are basically devices for taking in a bunch of light, and sorting it out by angle. If you see something in one eye, you know that it's somewhere along a ray starting at your eye and going out in a particular direction, but you don't know where along the ray it is.
Adding a second eye gives you another ray, starting in a different place, and pointing in a different direction. The intersection of these rays is a *unique* point in space; there's no more ambiguity.
The best way to improve depth perception (I'll be a bit more specific and define "improve depth perception" as "reduce the uncertainty in range") is to move the eyes further apart.
A third camera can improve estimated positions of points in 3D space just by providing an additional measurement, but I don't think this is much of a problem for animals. The main benefit of a third eye would be, as pointed out in *300*, having another spare. | [
"While the cornea contributes most of the eye's focusing power, its focus is fixed. Accommodation (the refocusing of light to better view near objects) is accomplished by changing the geometry of the lens. Medical terms related to the cornea often start with the prefix \"\"kerat-\"\" from the Greek word κέρας, \"ho... |
In WWI, did executions of soldiers suffering from PTSD or "shell shock" for the crime of desertion actually occur, and if so how common were they? | This is actually a very complex question for reasons that I’ll try to outline. Please note that I will be using “shell shock” and PTSD interchangeably and will approach the question largely from the British perspective.
Early in the war, physicians began to handle cases of psychological breakdown, paralysis, and disturbing, uncontrolled physical behavior among men who had been in combat. C.S. Myers was one of the first to coin the term “shell shock,” as doctors assumed that artillery fire and the like had had caused concussion-like damage and possibly physical legions somewhere in the brain. Other doctors saw the same thing, but Myers discovered that many men experiencing these symptoms hadn't been near artillery bombardments and so he tried to withdraw the term, but it stuck. The condition was called “soldier’s heart” in the American Civil War and “combat fatigue” in the Second World War, and now we call it PTSD. It’s not until 1980 that PTSD gets into the medical handbook as a legitimate syndrome, which means that doctors can treat it and that those who suffer from it can receive a pension.
* **Why was it so difficult to pin down a definition for “shell shock?”**
The medical profession of the time was conservative and relatively endogenous. Many of them thought that shell shock was a license for cowardice or a renunciation of “manliness,” which made it partly a problem of gender. It’s important to understand that although we usually think of PTSD as a psychological disability, it often manifests itself in physical ways. At the time, the conversion of mental symptoms to physical ones was called hysteria – a term reserved for women. This meant that men suffering from “hysteria” were transgressing Victorian gender norms, and we can see the stigma of this diagnosis clash with social conventions – only enlisted men were diagnosed with hysteria, while officers were diagnosed with “nervous breakdown.” The difference in diagnosis was paralleled by differences in treatment – treatment for enlisted men was largely punitive and coercive, while treatment for officers was based more on persuasion, sometimes through psychotherapy. Lest you think officers were in a better position, remember that the casualty rate for them was almost double that of enlisted men.
Diagnosis and treatment were further complicated by the difficulty in identifying who legitimately had a problem and who was just trying to get away from the front. For some physicians, the solution was to make treatments more painful than returning to the front. For example, electric shock therapy could be used on mutes to try and stimulate the tongue so that they would make noise. In Austria, future Nobel Prize winner Julius Wagner Jauregg was accused of torturing his patients because he used electroconvulsive shock treatment to discourage malingering. In general, the war tore up the Hippocratic Oath because doctors became servants of armies that needed men to return to the front as soon as possible. Thus, the principal aim of doctors was to heal the injured enough to send them back to the front. This meant that if a soldier had a physical wound in addition to psychological symptoms, doctors would often treat the wound and then send the soldier back. Treatments were thus largely coercive in nature – there’s a famous French story in which an army doctor told a soldier “Yes, you are going to get this.” The enlisted man responded, “No, I’m not.” “Yes you are, I’m your officer, I gave you an order.” The exchange continued back and forth until the doctor moved to put the electrodes on his forehead and the enlisted man knocked him out. The soldier was then court-martialed, found guilty, fined one franc, and dismissed from the army without a war pension. This is the sort of thing that contributed to desertion, especially from men who felt they had no way out.
As you can see, there were numerous problems with the medical profession’s approach to the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of shell shock. Consequently, we really don’t know how many suffered from it. The British Army recorded 80,000 cases, but this likely underestimates the actual number. Regardless, we can be sure that a significant number of those that went through artillery barrages and trench warfare experienced something like it at some point. While the number is significant, it’s important to remember that a minority of soldiers suffered shell shock, and consequently it does fit into the spectrum of individual refusal.
* **What about executions?**
In the late 90s there was a movement in England to apologize to those that refused to continue fighting in the war. There were 306 men that had been shot for cowardice or desertion and although the British government refused to make a formal apology, one of Tony Blair’s last acts as prime minister was to posthumously pardon them. The problem here should be obvious – it’s unclear how many were shell shocked and convicted of cowardice or desertion when they really were insane. There’s serious doubt as to how many men actually thought it through and decided that they couldn't fight anymore and were going to leave.
In the French case there was a terrible period at the beginning of the war when there were many summary executions. It’s a perfect example of what happened when officials and the professional army feared the effects that desertion might have on the rest of the men that had been mobilized at the start of the war. The French CiC, Joffre, felt that if offensives didn't proceed because people were “allowed to act as cowards,” the rest of the mobilized army, made up of millions of reservists, would be contaminated. The upshot was the summary executions of numerous soldiers. The French parliament set up a special tribunal in 1932 to reexamine many of the cases, and a number of those who had been executed were subsequently pardoned, some on grounds that they had originally been denied the right of appeal despite being citizens. There is an important distinction to make here – French soldiers had the vote and could appeal to their representatives for better legal treatment, while millions of British soldiers could not since they were subjects of the crown. By the end of the war, every capital sentence required the approval of the French president.
* **Why do we think PTSD began with “shell shock?"**
World War I was the first to really introduce mental illness to mass society. The notion of traumatic memory that was brought back home and reappeared in literature helped normalize mental illness in the absence of consensus by the medical profession as to what it was. Although PTSD existed long before the First World War, the circumstances of the war pushed hundreds of thousands of men beyond the limits of human endurance. They faced weapons that denied any chance for heroism or courage or even military skill because the artillery weapons that caused 60 percent of all casualties were miles away from the battlefield. The enthusiastic men that signed up in 1914 were loyal, patriotic, and genuinely believed that they were fighting to defend their homeland. While they consented to national defense, it’s not clear that they consented to fight an industrialized assembly-line murderous war that emerged after 1914. Unlike previous wars, there was no beginning, middle, and end. Trench warfare was seen as a prelude to a breakout, but those breakouts never really occurred. Many men withdrew from the reality of the war into their own minds, and in this sense shell shock can be seen as a mutiny against the war. PTSD has numerous symptoms, but among them is the sense that the war the soldier lived had escaped from human control. This is why many PTSD sufferers are constantly reliving the trauma – the horror of combat never goes away and time has no hold over it. There’s a wonderful autobiography by Robert Graves called Good-Bye to All That; it’s one of the most famous World War I memoirs. Of course, the great irony is that he can’t say good-bye to all that - his life is constantly affected by his war experience, even 10 years after the war ended. There are so many great World War I memoirs, but I’d highly recommend the following:
***The Secret Battle* by A.P. Herbert**
***The Case of Sergeant Grischa* by Arnold Zweig**
Both deal with executions and the perversion of military justice during the war. I believe the Secret Battle is available online for free. You can knock it out in an afternoon. There are some other books I’d recommend that deal with shell shock but I’m not at home at the moment and need to find them. I would recommend ***The Legacy of the Great War*** and ***Remembering War***. Both are by Jay Winter, who specializes in historical memory and World War I. This is definitely the longest post I’ve ever written, but I’ll leave you with one final note: I was lucky enough to study under Jay Winter back in 2011, and he told me that when he was teaching at Cambridge in the late 70s and early 80s, he travelled to Warwick hospital to study some of the records of patients that had been institutionalized there during the war for shell shock. When he went there, he discovered that there were still several men that had been kept in the asylum without treatment since the Great War. Once enthusiastic young men, psychologically crippled by the war, had spent the next 70 years constantly reliving their trauma, locked away from a society that didn't understand what was wrong with them. I can’t think of a more horrible fate. | [
"Generally, cowardice was punishable by execution during World War I, and those who were caught were often court-martialed and, in many cases, executed by firing squad. British men executed for cowardice were often not commemorated on war memorials, and their families often did not receive benefits and had to endur... |
difference of chinese dialects and written languages | **Spoken**
There are (I hate this word) actually many, many more dialects of Chinese than just Mandarin and Cantonese, although it's true that those are the two largest and most influential. Mandarin in particular enjoys a strong legal status as the official language of the People's Republic of China, including as the language of instruction in schools.
If you go anywhere in China, then it is likely that the local people where you live will have their own language, whether it is the language of the province, that area within the province, or even just a particular village. Some of these dialects are basically just Mandarin with an accent; others are completely mutually unintelligible with Mandarin.
Nevertheless, because of the strong legal status of Mandarin, with the notable exception of the elderly, the very poor, and those living in very far-flung regions (particularly areas of Tibet and Xinjiang, China's far northwestern province) virtually everyone can at a bare minimum understand Mandarin and (in my experience) definitely over 90% can speak it. If you're talking about young, educated people in an urban center then it's > 99%, although (not totally dissimilar to Britain) there's a certain preoccupation with accents and a rich and often self-deprecating humor that surrounds less-than-standard pronunciation. In general (including in Guangzhou) people will respond to you in whatever language you use to speak to them.
Comparing Mandarin and Cantonese specifically, the two are not really mutually intelligible. There is a limited amount of vocabulary that you might be able to guess at from one or the other and/or go "oh!" if it were explained to you, but overall the tones, vocab, and even to a certain extent grammar are different.
People in Guangdong are nevertheless quite proud of Cantonese, which also enjoys a degree of cachet as a commonly-used language in relatively wealthy and culturally influential Hong Kong and among overseas Chinese, many of whom have family origins in southeast China. Because of this there's also definitely a corresponding degree of language politics that takes place in China and particularly Hong Kong about the official statuses of the two languages that can occasionally become heated.
**Written**
Today in Chinese there are "simplified" characters and "traditional" characters. Simplified characters are used throughout the PRC, "traditional" characters mostly in Taiwan. The idea of simplifying the writing system goes back a long way, and the work to create the current set of simplified characters was (somewhat ironically) begun by the Chinese Nationalist Party who (after going through a lot of changes) eventually moved to Taiwan and stuck with traditional characters.
You can think of the two writing systems as basically being different fonts (albeit sometimes *very* different) in the sense that there's a one-to-one correspondence between the two sets. It's easy with software to transcribe the one into the other.
Either set of characters can be used to write almost all dialects of Chinese, although you will find the odd word in dialect for which there simply is no character, and this or that dialect might commonly use a character that is rare in other dialects.
There's a lot more to Chinese than that and the history of the language is pretty interesting, but that's a broad overview of the questions you were asking.
| [
"Chinese languages and dialects vary by not only pronunciation, but also, to a lesser extent, vocabulary and grammar. Modern written Chinese, which replaced Classical Chinese as the written standard as an indirect result of the May Fourth Movement of 1919, is not technically bound to any single variety; however, it... |
Rules Roundtable VI: No Historical "What-If?" Questions or Counterfactuals | What Ifs are *really* popular questions sometimes, but the thing is, with a little work most 'what if' questions can actually be turned into really good, really interesting questions that match the rules. It's all about the angle and perspective you have when asking the question. If you never need a bit of help phrasing things, let us know! | [
"Counterfactuals refer to things that are contrary to the actual situation. In English, counterfactuals can be expressed implicitly in \"if\"-clauses by using a tense form that normally refers to a time prior to the time actually semantically referred to in the \"if\"-clause. For example, \"If I knew that, I wouldn... |
Are all sperm Clones? It doesn't matter Which sperm got to the egg, i was going to be me no matter what correct? (contemplating the miracle of my existence) | No, they are not clones at all.
Each sperm represents a completely different shuffled assortment of your dad's genetic material.
Because of recombination, there are millions and millions of possible sperm and eggs that your parents can create.
IT IS NOT TRUE that your parents are giving you a set of fully intact chromosomes, as suggested by hobo & abbe ("Chromosome 1, 3, 9, 10, 20, etc. could be from your dad's dad, but the rest could be from your dad's mom") These answers are ignoring the process of recombination.
It is possible to sometimes share a chromosome with only one grandparent or the other, but the most likely outcome is that the child will inherit a recombined chromosome containing DNA from both the child's paternal grandfather and paternal grandmother (or maternal grandfather and maternal grandmother if we're talking about the egg rather than the sperm).
[Graph One](_URL_3_) All of this child's maternal chromosomes contain both grandparents' DNA -- she shares some of her DNA with her grandfather (segments shown in green) and some with her grandmother (not pictured but her DNA would fill in the grey gaps). For example, on chromosome 10, she shares roughly the first half of the chromosome with her grandfather, but then a recombination event took place and she shares the second half with her grandmother.
[Graph Two](_URL_1_) This child is a bit different, she does have several chromosomes that she shares only with one grandparent. She shares no DNA with her maternal grandmother (pictured in blue) on chromosomes 5, 15, 16, 18, and 22, meaning she inherited those chromosomes entirely from the maternal grandfather.
The places in the genome where these recombination events occur are not fixed (although it's true that [recombination does occur more often](_URL_2_) in certain spots). This is why there are sooooo many possible combinations of sperm that your dad can make -- [there are roughly 27.6 recombinations per paternal meoisis](_URL_0_) and the location/size etc. of these recombination events is highly variable from one gamete to another.
TL;DR Genetically, you really are a unique little snowflake. | [
"A human egg contains only one set of chromosomes (23) and is said to be haploid. Sperm also have only one set of 23 chromosomes and are therefore haploid. When an egg and sperm fuse at fertilization, the two sets of chromosomes come together to form a unique \"diploid\" individual with 46 chromosomes.\n",
"The b... |
Why do people seem to make mistakes more often when in front of people? | If you're longboarding and showing people (or not, I guess), it's likely that you start (subconsciously or not) focusing on doing it "properly" by thinking through the steps you take one by one, instead of focusing on the whole--which would be the same reason most sports coaches become worse at their sport when they start teaching.
That, or self-consciousness. | [
"Mistakes in conversation occur when participants in the conversation are operating with different implicit rules and expectations for the SPEAKING model. Mistakes often results from disagreements about inclusion of participants, mismatched ends, unexpected act sequences, keys or instrumentalities. In general mista... |
why isn't the night sky just one big light? | Two things:
1) Regardless of how big the universe is, light still takes time to get places. The universe is 13.77 billion years old, so light has only had 13.77 billion years to get here. Because the universe is expanding, we can see stuff from much farther away than that, but there's still a limit on how far away stars can be and still have had time for the light to get to us.
2) As the universe expands, it stretches light passing through it, causing the light to be redshifted, which means it lowers in wavelength. Visible light from the very edges of the visible universe can get redshifted out of the visible spectrum and into infrared or radio waves. That's why the Cosmic Microwave Background is, well, microwaves. It used to include a *lot* of visible light, but it's so old and it's been shifted so much that it's all microwaves, now. | [
"The term night sky refers to the sky as seen at night. The term is usually associated with skygazing and astronomy, with reference to views of celestial bodies such as stars, the Moon, and planets that become visible on a clear night after the Sun has set. Natural light sources in a night sky include moonlight, st... |
Why does northern Canada look so strange on Google Maps? | What you are seing here are features left by the passage of the last continental glaciation. Most of Canada was under 2-3 km of ice a mere 12 000 years ago. That ice sheet flowed, and then melted, leaving behind all kinds of features.
In this one, I note a prominent group of elongated hills trending NW-SE, probably [drumlins](_URL_2_) or perhaps some kind of [moraine](_URL_1_). There are a few N-S trending [eskers](_URL_0_) (essentially sand and gravel infilling of meltwater channels in the decaying glacier). | [
"Northerns are similar to westerns but are set in the frozen north of North America; that is, Canada or Alaska. Of the two, Canada was the most common setting, although many tropes could apply to both. Popular locations within Canada are the Yukon, the Barren Grounds, and area around Hudson Bay. Generic names used ... |
Why did the United States use images of Native Americans on its' coins during an era of Indian persecution? | **Tl;dr** It does seem counter-intuitive to honor Native Americans on coins while denying their humanity and the right to their own language, religion, culture and customs, but this simply didn't slow America down. Phil Deloria does a great job of showing how the *idea* of Native Americans has pretty much always been divorced from the realities of Native American life or U.S.-Indian policy. Indeed, as he puts it when writing of the early 19th century organization [The Improved Order of Red Men](_URL_0_), "They desired Indianness, not Indians." (The Wiki here notes that membership was restricted to whites until the 1970s.) It's the same type of appropriation of cultural motifs and generic imagery that /u/Brickie78 is referring to and still exists today in the form of many professional, collegiate, and high school athletic mascots.
As /u/ggarcimer15 suggests, read Vine Deloria (his most famous work being *Custer Died for Your Sins*) and his son Phil's *Playing Indian*. Phil especially goes into how Native Americans were a convenient "other" for Euro-Americans. They were variously portrayed as savage; noble; epitomes of freedom; enemies of the United States; threats to Christian civilization; or the last vestiges of a pre-modern society, tragically fading away under the superior technology and lifestyle of white Americans.
So how did Indian head coins come about? In the abstract, especially in the early days of the United States, Native Americans were symbols of freedom and liberty - think of early [personifications of Colombia](_URL_3_) or the U.S. Capitol's [Statue of Freedom](_URL_2_), with their vaguely Native American headdresses and attire, or more explicitly, the Boston Tea Party disguising themselves as Native Americans because of their popular association with freedom. As a perception that predates America, it was influential enough to survive the demonization of Native Americans during the 19th century "Indian Wars," and afterwards the idea of Indians as paragons of virility and ruggedness (compared to the effete, urbanized late 19th century American) came back in full force - this time frame also saw the rise of organizations like the [Camp Fire Girls](_URL_1_) and the Boy Scouts, which co-founder Ernest Thompson Seton explicitly linked to Native Americans: "Indian teachings in the fields of art, handicraft, woodcraft, agriculture, social life, health, and joy need no argument beyond presentation; they speak for themselves. The Red Man is the apostle of outdoor life, his example and precept are what young America needs today above any other teaching of which I have knowledge." Putting "his" face (the designer of the "Buffalo nickel" claimed not to have drawn a portrait, but a "type") on coinage was another way of using the image of Native Americans to reinforce the idea of American uniqueness and freedom, just like the "Mohawks" in Boston Harbor.
Also see Jared Farmer's *On Zion's Mount* for more on the late 19th/early 20th century obsession with the declining virility of the American male and how embracing certain aspects of Native American lifestyle (albeit a heavily idealized lifestyle) was seen as a remedy. | [
"The Library of Congress acquired these images as copyright deposits from about 1900 through 1930. The dates on them are dates of registration, not the dates when the photographs were taken. About two-thirds (1,608) of these images were not published in \"The North American Indian\" and therefore offer a different ... |
How would bread have been cut/served prior to the invention of the sandwich? | This isn't perhaps the cutting techniques you're looking for, but stale bread often used to be cut into a square shape and used as a plate, in what was called a 'trencher'. A 'good trencherman' would be one who ate a lot of food. These bits of bread would be given out as alms after a nobleman's meal if those eating didn't want them. | [
"The modern concept of a sandwich using slices of bread as found within the West can arguably be traced to 18th-century Europe. However, the use of some kind of bread or bread-like substance to lie under (or under \"and\" over) some other food, or used to scoop up and enclose or wrap some other type of food, long p... |
how has the economy managed to compensate for a majority of women entering the workforce in the past several decades, along with a rise in unmarried households - essentially doubling the demand for high paying jobs in a short period of time? | The economy hasn't doubled high-paying jobs. An interesting book on the subject is called "The Two-Income Trap" by Elizabeth Warren.
The simple answer is that women entering the workforce made quality housing more expensive and made it so unmarried mothers have almost no chance to move up in social classes - most unmarried mothers have low-paying jobs. In general terms, the highest paying jobs are held by men and women who are married, have college degrees, and they combine incomes. To move up in life you really need both incomes.
Our economy in the past fifty years has seen an explosion of low-paying service jobs like retail and customer service and an explosion in creative jobs like computer programming. There is very little in the middle. | [
"A prolonged period of unemployment can lead to what economists call the discouraged worker effect, where workers drop out of the labor supply. The wives of discouraged workers do not behave as secondary workers, altering their labor supply in response to their spouses' transitory bouts with unemployment, but rathe... |
what does the president of france do as co-prince of andorra? | The coprinses have, like most heads of state of modern monarchies, more of a ceremonial function than a political one. The don't even have the right to veto governmental decisions. They are also have representatives in place so the President of France will normally not directly concern Andorran affairs that often.
The real power lies with the parliament and their head of government, Antoni Martí. So not much difference there compared to other democracies. | [
"Official diplomatic relations between Andorra and France were established after the signing of a joint \"Treaty of Good Neighborhood, Friendship and Cooperation\" between Andorra, France and Spain; after Andorra adopted a new constitution establishing them as a parliamentary democracy. The President of France acts... |
What do most people not understand or realize about WWI? | The toll that it took on the British aristocracy in terms of casualties and the impact that had on the loosening of the class system in subsequent decades. In terms of proportion of aristocratic males killed it was a greater rate than the English Civil war of the 17th c. This changed the social fabric in unexpected ways, it ended dynasties, caused many women to have to marry 'below' them, eradicated many of the serving jobs, brought much land out of private ownership.
It was WWI that gutted the landed gentry that had existed since time immemorial, they had been in decline for centuries but WWI was a blow from which they would never recover, there are a few remnants today but nothing the like the pre-war generation. | [
"World War I had a lasting impact on social memory. It was seen by many in Britain as signalling the end of an era of stability stretching back to the Victorian period, and across Europe many regarded it as a watershed. Historian Samuel Hynes explained:\n",
"These beliefs did not become widely shared because they... |
Grover Cleveland met his wife when she was born and he was 27. He took care of her after her father died and married her when she turned 21. How was this relationship viewed by the public? | More input is always welcome; in the meantime, this exact question came up last month, and you may be interested in what u/WovenCoverlet and u/sunagainstgold [had to say on the topic](_URL_0_). | [
"Cleveland's fifth son, Grover Cleveland, became the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, the only president to serve non-consecutive terms. He was 16 years old at the time of his father's death and reputedly learned of the event from a boy hawking newspapers. Grover Cleveland spoke highly of his father in... |
how do criminal defendants end up with charges like "four counts of murder" when only two people are killed? | Sometimes it is hard to prove that an accused murderer had all the requirements of a crime. With 1st degree murder, the prosecution needs to prove everything in 2nd degree murder, PLUS the act/s were premeditated.
If the jury agreed that he was reacting, and not making specific plans, that would eliminate 1 st degree. If the jury found at any point the defendant was in fear, using self-defense of life, or local versions of 'stand your ground, and 'castle doctrine', they could nullify any of the murder charges.
Each States laws are a little different, some would call them 'included offenses'. In this case, if you prove murder 1, you have to also prove murder 2- even though the same act . Technically, that act could also be murder 3, manslaughter, and aggravated assault.
But our system only punishes the highest crime of the inclusive 'stack' - for each separate action.
The jury instructions are [here](_URL_0_). Thee jury was asked to determine if the facts met all 4possible crimes, jury says yes.
Unless there is something I missed that makes these 2crimes x2victims, the sentencing will only show a conviction and penalty for the most heinous criminal act.
If these other charges were not given to the jury now, they could not choose to convict, and the defendant might be protected under double jeopardy. Many times a criminal will be charged with lesser versions of the same crime, just to avoid letting them walk on a paperwork issue .
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"If a person committing a predicate felony directly contributed to the death of the victim then the person will be charged with murder in the first degree - felony murder which is a capital felony. The only two sentences available for that statute are life in prison and the death penalty. \n",
"A count of murder ... |
How far did the KGB infiltrate the American government? | As a follow-up, would the handling of foreign spies for the USSR generally be the responsibility of GRU, KGB, or a different agency? Or all three? | [
"Aldrich Ames, a CIA counterintelligence agent working in the SE Division, approached the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C. on April 16, 1985, and within a month received $50,000 from the KGB in exchange for espionage service. Meeting with Soviet official and go-between Sergey Dmitriyevich Chuvakhin on June 13, Am... |
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