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Was 'The Prince' by Niccolo Machiavelli actually read by monarchs or their heirs? | I don't know about reading and following it, but Foucault does mention in Security, Population, Territory, that The Prince apparently had more influence as a book that other writers of that time try to critique and the entire political thought and ruling was influenced by the thoughts based on criticising and being aga... | [
"\"Prince Niccolò\" was the novelist's great-great-grandfather, Niccolò Filangeri, 7th Prince of Cutò and Prince of Satriano, Duke of San Martino and della Fabbrica (1760-1839). The palace became known as the Palazzo Filangeri di Cutò after he inherited and restored it.\n",
"Due to the treatise's controversial an... |
what are gas giants and why can't we land in them? | Exactly what it says on the tin: they are giant balls of gas. We can't land on them because: they are giant balls of gas.
Even theoretical models that permit them to have a surface of some kind at the center, it would be under such conditions (temperatures, pressures) that no man-made craft could reach it and survive. | [
"A gas giant is a giant planet composed mainly of hydrogen and helium. Gas giants are sometimes known as failed stars because they contain the same basic elements as a star. Jupiter and Saturn are the gas giants of the Solar System. The term \"gas giant\" was originally synonymous with \"giant planet\", but in the ... |
Why were the nazis killing Jews at such a rate during the war, why not wait until after and channel all the money/time/effort into the fighting? | There are several things that need to be taken into account. The first being that the war the Germans fought from 1941 onward -- but in certain ways also present in the war against Poland in 1939 -- can not be separated from the Holocaust. From the German political leadership to the army leadership to the field command... | [
"The persecution of Jews reached its most destructive form in the policies of Nazi Germany, which made the destruction of the Jews a priority, culminating in the killing of approximately 6,000,000 Jews during the Holocaust from 1941 to 1945. Originally, the Nazis used death squads, the Einsatzgruppen, to conduct ma... |
Did Mao Zedong lead a lavish, opulent, and sexually promiscuous private life? | This is a great question and a great way to discuss how messy history can be. In theory, the answer should be the truth. He either did or didn't. But because of who Mao was and what he represented, there are multitudes of people who will swear that his life was lavish, opulent and sexually promiscuous while there ar... | [
"He first rose to prominence in 1964 for playing in the opera \"Sister Jiang\", earned critical acclaim, and he was personally interviewed by Chairman Mao Zedong. But two years later, in the Cultural Revolution, the song was labeled as \"poisonous weed\" and he was cast as a rightist.\n",
"Mao was not ready to be... |
how i can feel the presence of someone entering a room | Sound and air pressure would be my answer. Even if they're quiet, in a quiet room they disturb the static air mass and you can pick up on that. One of the cool things about being an animal. | [
"One waitress has said that she has heard footsteps, while working alone, in the attic. When she confronted someone, the answer was that no one was ever up there. No one wants to go downstairs for they feel a strange presence. As for Anthony, while upstairs and lying in his Queen Sized Bed, he felt someone on the o... |
What is the smallest number of cells in a multicellular organism found in nature? | [Myxozoans](_URL_0_) are the smallest members of the animal kingdom. They are parasites that live between the cells of larger animals like fish. The smallest never get above 10 µm, and are made of exactly seven cells. I haven't been able to find an animal with less than that. | [
"The size of cells has been found to vary based on the type of \"Tetraspora\" species and the type of climatic zone the species is found in. On average the diameter of species in the genus \"Tetraspora\" ranges from 6-13 μm, with the species in the tropics usually being the smallest (6-9 μm), followed by the temper... |
What does traditional Native American music actually sound like? | It really depends on which nation you're talking about, as they had different resources to make instruments with, different aesthetic preferences, and contact with different other nations. | [
"music that is used, created or performed by Indigenous peoples of North America, including Native Americans in the United States and Aboriginal peoples in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Mexico, and other North American countries—especially traditional tribal music, such as Pueblo music and Inuit music. In addition ... |
why do roads have unnecessary bends? | I think the premise is false - just because it seems unnecessary, it's highly unlikely anybody is going to build needlessly curvy roads.
Obvious factors would be geography (Sometimes cheaper to simply avoid a big rock formation than to go through it), land ownership (maybe they couldn't acquire the land, or again, it ... | [
"The highway traffic signs do not comply with international standards. The highway's curves are not built for banked turns, making turns more treacherous than necessary. According to exile-run news agencies \"The Irrawaddy\" and \"Mizzima\", such failures may result in numerous accidents in the curves. Similarly, t... |
Could "active light cancelling" exist? | Sounds difficult, natural light is incoherent - meaning that the peaks and troughs of all the waves aren’t aligned (out of phase). It is also not polarised - so those waves if you look at them end-on are misaligned. To ‘cancel out’ the light you’d need the same amount (and frequency) of light, polarised in the same pla... | [
"Another term we adopted to describe some of our problems was \"glitch.\" Literally, a glitch is a spike or change in voltage in an electrical circuit which takes place when the circuit suddenly has a new load put on it. You have probably noticed a dimming of lights in your home when you turn a switch or start the ... |
Was "The First American" Ben Franklin ever seriously considered for U.S. President? | When he came back to the US from France in 1785, he was very much hoping to retire from public duties. Instead, Pennsylvania made him President of the state, ( essentially the governor) and he served three terms, for three years, and complained of the work. Even if he had been willing, once he had seen the Constituti... | [
"William Franklin FRSE ( 1730 – November 1813) was an American-born attorney, soldier, politician, and colonial administrator. He was the acknowledged illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin, one of the most prominent of the Patriot leaders of the American Revolution and a Founding Father of the United States. The la... |
what ant decides when a colony is to be moved? | No one ant decides to move. Instead, when an ant thinks the colony needs to move, it goes out scouting for a new home. If it finds one it likes, it comes back to the nest, lays down a phermone trail, and brings another ant to check out the new nest. If _that_ ant likes it too, it will go back and also lay down a phe... | [
"An ant colony is the basic unit around which ants organize their lifecycle. Ant colonies are eusocial, and are very much like those found in other social Hymenoptera, though the various groups of these developed sociality independently through convergent evolution. The typical colony consists of one or more egg-la... |
why are bulletproof vests not reusable? | The easiest way I can explain this, is a kevlar vest is like a cube of jello? If you smack the jello and crush it, it will break apart, but absorb the shock, if you hit it again it's just a pile of mush so it will barely stop your hand, your hand being the bullet. | [
"Vests designed for bullets offer less protection against blows from sharp implements, such as knives, arrows or ice picks, or from bullets manufactured with hardened materials, e.g., those containing a steel core instead of lead. This is because the impact force of these objects stays concentrated in a relatively ... |
eil5: why are sunsets more colorful in winter? | OK, so it all depends on where you are on the earth. The sun's light is directed at an angle from -23 degree to +23 degrees throughout the year (in relation to the equator). This is because of our Earth's tilted axis. The winter solstice is when the sun is at its lowest point (in the northern hemisphere) and the summer... | [
"BULLET::::- 'Red Sunset' – The other very popular choice, this selection does well in heat due to its drought tolerance and has an upright habit. It has very attractive orange-red fall color and is also a rapid and vigorous grower.\n",
"Sunset colors are typically more brilliant than sunrise colors, because the ... |
In Medieval Western Europe did certain regions Develop unique sword fighting Styles? Like "this region favors techniques with lots of slashes" or "this region favors techniques with lots of thrusts"? | follow-up: I know that in The Princess Bride, all of the techniques mentioned in the sword fight between the Man in Black and Inigo Montoya are based on real, genuine medieval masters' techniques; were they really moves-and-countermoves designed to act off each other? | [
"Sword fencing and sword dances are still practiced in much of the Middle East. In countries like Oman the weapon is typically paired with a shield or sometimes a dagger, of which many varieties exist. In styles such as Turkish scimitar combat, the scabbard is also used as a parrying weapon. In modern Iran, traditi... |
how can some people stand in the cold in shorts and a t-shirt and be perfectly fine, when another person of equal size and body type, might be freezing and need tons of layers to stay warm? | Because different people adjust to these things differently.
I met an exchange student from Poland here in Belgium and he was just rocking some shorts and a t-shirt when all of us were wearing our jackets and all of that. What's cold for us wasn't exactly cold for him. Same principle applies the other way as well, whe... | [
"Everyone has the essential right to life, as confirmed under Article 3 of the UDHR. However, if people are not adequately clothed, they are far more exposed to the elements. Without warm clothing, a person may well die from hypothermia during a cold winter; clothing that is inappropriately warm, on the other hand,... |
why are acid attacks so prevalent in the middle east/asia? | Follow up: If you can get these chemicals in the US and other Western countries, why are these attacks not as common here as they are in the east? | [
"Additionally, anecdotal evidence for acid attacks exists in other regions of the world such as South America, Central and North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. However, South Asian countries maintain the highest incidence of acid attacks.\n",
"The use of acid as a weapon began to rise in many developi... |
Was Gerald Ford already considered a "lame duck" President when Nixon resigned or did he have the political capital to accomplish anything? | Not an answer, but a clarification for OP: "lame duck" refers to a politician's final months in office, after a successor has already been elected, or when term limits guarantee that they will not be able to run for re-election. Essentially, it means "everyone knows you're about to be replaced, so you don't have much p... | [
"At 11:00 a.m. on August 8, his last full day in office, Nixon informed Vice President Ford of his impending resignation. That evening, Nixon announced his intention to resign to the nation. The speech was delivered from the Oval Office and was carried live on radio and television. Nixon stated that he was resignin... |
the difference between polar and non-polar compounds | Think of the shape in terms of sports objects. Something like a baseball, soccer ball, tennis ball would all be non-polar. An American football would be polar. A simplified non-polar example is "balance," except not in a physical manner but with electrons.
For molecules, the polarity is the spreading out of electro... | [
"A polar molecule has a net dipole as a result of the opposing charges (i.e. having partial positive and partial negative charges) from polar bonds arranged asymmetrically. Water (HO) is an example of a polar molecule since it has a slight positive charge on one side and a slight negative charge on the other. The d... |
why can't i upload a gif as my profile picture or banner on facebook or twitter? | Because the format is not supported by the parameters set up by Facebook and Twitter. Also, HUGE GIF. | [
"Giphy partners with brands to host GIFs that can be shared as marketing promotions via social media channels. The company also created artist profiles on the website, which allow GIFs to be attributed to the artist(s) who created them.\n",
"A GIF image of video producer Drew Scanlon, nicknamed the \"Blinking Whi... |
Has there ever been a succession crisis wherein a monarch or noble died while their spouse was still pregnant with the prospective heir? | [Shapur II](_URL_0_) of the Sasanian Empire was crowned while still *in utero*. The crown was placed on his mothers belly. His older brothers were killed, blinded or imprisoned when his father died. The nobles and Shapur's mother ran the kingdom so there wasn't much of a succession crisis, though the older brothers pro... | [
"If the King were to die without a male Heir his wife not being pregnant, or if she were pregnant but the pregnancy was not to result in an Heir to the Throne, then the Crown would be retained by His Royal Highness Prince Al-Hassan Al-Rida who would become the origin of future successions to continue through His li... |
António de Oliveira Salazar was a Portugal's reactionary leader, when he came to power in 1932 why didn't he restore the monarchy which had been overthrown 1919? Also what were the relations between Salazar and Franco and the right wing regimes in some former Iberian colonies in Latin America? | So in Salazar's case, traditional and reactionary are contradictory. He was indeed profoundly conservative, but was for the most part far from advocating anything other than "stability and good order" (with him in charge, naturally) above anything else. Since Salazar's "right of rule" came from the formal support of th... | [
"Salazar's decision to stick with the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance allowed the Portuguese Island of Madeira to come to the aid of the Allies and in July 1940 around 2,500 evacuees from Gibraltar were shipped to Madeira. At the same time \"Life\" magazine, in a long article titled: \"Portugal: The War Has Made It Europ... |
Why did Hitler executed Jews with gas, ovens, shots, etc if they could work? Wouldn't be more efficient just make them work until they starve instead of spending resources with mass killings? | Hi! As this question pertains to basic, underlying facts of the Holocaust, I hope you can appreciate that it can be a fraught subject to deal with. While we want people to get the answers they are looking for, we also remain very conscious that threads of this nature can attract the very wrong kind of response. As such... | [
"This section describes the grim Nazi death camps and how they came to be. Originally Nazis would kill the Jews using traditional methods of hanging and shooting, but these were found to be too slow and inefficient. To fix this problem, they started using the gas chamber as their main method of murder. When they re... |
when venus fly traps eat, how does the animal die? - also what would happen to a finger in a venus fly trap? | Basically the Venus Fly Trap (VFT) seals up when something is inside of it, creating a pocket. It then fills that pocket with acidic digestive juices (essentially creating a stomach).
The acidic juices aren't strong enough to destroy chitin (the harder exoskeleton), but it is strong enough to deteriorate the connectiv... | [
"BULLET::::- These unwanted insects pollute the trap. Because they cannot escape the trap, they will, like the beetles, eventually die in it. Fragile insects such as moths and butterflies will live only for a short time in these traps, and after they die their bodies will quickly start rotting, and their intestines... |
how was such a massive structure like the hoover dam constructed so perfectly without modern technology and how were they able to hold the water back during the build? | The river was diverted by use of tunnels, there was no water to hold back. Once the dam was complete, the valley filled with water. You can read more on Wikipedia [Hoover Dam](_URL_0_) | [
"Building of the dam's main concrete structure started in July 1940 after the cable systems had been completed and the mixing plant came on line. Steel buckets capable of carrying of concrete, weighing 16 tonnes when full, traveled back and forth along the lines. For three years, thousands of men labored building t... |
How different will the night sky be in one galactic year (time it takes for the sun to orbit the Milky Way)? | The galactic year is about 225 to 250 million years (estimates vary). Over that time scale the proper motion of the stars would distort the constellations beyond recognition. [This site](_URL_0_) shows an example of the changes to the Big Dipper over just 100,000 years. There would also be some stars that fade out sinc... | [
"The galactic year, also known as a cosmic year, is the duration of time required for the Sun to orbit once around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Estimates of the length of one orbit range from 225 to 250 million terrestrial years. The Solar System is traveling at an average speed of 828,000 km/h (230 km/s) or... |
how does gold end up concentrated in a vein on earth, considering the contents originate from multiple separate supernovae? | So there are a *lot* of factors at play here so I'm skipping a fair bit. The current theory of how gold seams form is as follows:
Deep underground, a lot of minerals are fairly homogenously dissolved in groundwater and, because it's underground, this water is at extremely high pressure (3000 atmospheres). Earthquakes ... | [
"Gold is thought to have been produced in supernova nucleosynthesis, and from the collision of neutron stars, and to have been present in the dust from which the Solar System formed. Because the Earth was molten when it was formed, almost all of the gold present in the early Earth probably sank into the planetary c... |
why do we sometimes get that "empty" feeling after a show, game, book, etc? | Entertainment releases dopamine, serotonin, and probably other neurotrasmitters. When said entertainment is finished, you are actually experiencing a mild withdrawal.
My friend and I did an experiment in college where we turned off all forms of entertainment for a week, with the exception of non-fiction books and ches... | [
"In the West, feeling \"empty\" is often viewed as a negative condition. Psychologist Clive Hazell, for example, attributes feelings of emptiness to problematic family backgrounds with abusive relationships and mistreatment. He claims that some people who are facing a sense of emptiness try to resolve their painful... |
How has the changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and oxygen affect human evolution since our early ancestors came on the scene? | Not at all, directly, if you are talking about hominids and not older things. The O2 level has remained steady for the past few million years, and CO2 has not varied enough to have real physiological effects.
CO2 _has_ varied enough to effect temperature as part of feedback loops during the glacial cycles of the ice ... | [
"Earth's dynamic oxygenation evolution is recorded in ancient sediments from the Republic of Gabon from between about 2,150 and 2,080 million years ago. Responsible for these fluctuations in oxygenation were likely driven by the Lomagundi carbon isotope excursion.\n",
"Other studies about Earth’s atmospheric oxyg... |
What's the point in keeping smaller particle accelerators around after larger ones have been built? | Particle accelerators have many different uses. There are tens of thousands of them in the world, it would not make any sense to try to use one big one for every application. Also it’s not necessarily true that bigger is better. That happens to be true on the energy frontier of high energy physics, but there are other ... | [
"Large particle accelerators can replicate the conditions that prevailed after the early moments of the universe, resulting in confirmation and refinement of the details of the Big Bang model. However, these accelerators can only probe so far into high energy regimes. Consequently, the state of the universe in the ... |
does the way we respond as a society influence how
traumatic an event is for a person? | Unquestionably it does.
Social pressures drive how we view/judge ourselves. The need for group attachment is strong, hence the drive to "fit in" is strong. Failing in this (actual or perceived) can be highly traumatic because it triggers a fear of being cast out and left to fend for ones self, bereft of group protecti... | [
"Societal or mass trauma can occur in a number of settings and typically affects a large group or society such as school shoot-outs, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters. A counselor's primary concern when called to these types of crises is to assess people's awareness of resources. Individuals experiencing tra... |
how is it that all the hydrogen and helium (the lighter stuff) accumulated in the centre of our solar system, and all the heavier elements ended up circling around it? wouldn't the opposite make more sense? | Take away the air and everything falls at the same rate. So initially everything would be pulled to the centre of the solar system at the same rate. Since most of the mass of the solar system is hydrogen, it makes sense that most of the mass of the sun is hydrogen. Once fusion started the lighter elements would be bl... | [
"The atmospheric proportions of hydrogen and helium are close to the theoretical composition of the primordial solar nebula. Neon in the upper atmosphere only consists of 20 parts per million by mass, which is about a tenth as abundant as in the Sun. Helium is also depleted to about 80% of the Sun's helium composit... |
shouldn't eli5 be more about explaining concepts than answering questions? | Agreed. ELI5 is often treated as "AskReddit, except I don't want to have to think" | [
"This is of course an almost trivial observation, but it is important because it turns out that there is an effective theory which answers question 1.' and also an effective theory which answers question 1. provided the answer to 1.' is yes. Similarly for questions 2. and 2.' Notice also that we can phrase the ques... |
i remember old games in higher graphics than they actually were. | Well, a couple factors.
The first is the fact that you didn't have the new games of today to compare them with. Obviously if you took DOOM and put it up against Battlefield 4, then DOOM would look awful. But back in its prime, DOOM was the best of the best. Those *were* cutting edge graphics and that was a cutting ... | [
"The graphics were considered some of the best on the Nintendo 64 due to their rich textures, long drawing distance, and real-time shadow generation, but were criticised for their inconsistent frame rate during certain points in the game. Nevertheless, GameSpot noted that the action level of the game was normally l... |
What are some intuitive applications of eigenvalues/eigenvectors in engineering? | - Structural analysis. Eigenvectors tell you the shape of a vibration, and the corresponding eigenvalues tell you the relative strength of the vibration modes.
- Fluid mechanics. Eigenvectors tell you the direction of information propagation, and eigenvalues tell you the wave speeds.
- Control theory. Eigenvalues of ... | [
"Eigenvalues and eigenvectors feature prominently in the analysis of linear transformations. The prefix \"eigen-\" is adopted from the German word \"eigen\" for \"proper\", \"characteristic\". Originally utilized to study principal axes of the rotational motion of rigid bodies, eigenvalues and eigenvectors have a w... |
what is an ssh key and sftp and why are they important | SSH - Secure Shell
SSH is a method of remotely managing computers or electronic equipment such as routers and switches using a command line interface. All data sent using SSH is encrypted ensuring that data cannot be eavesdropped.
Prior to the development of SSH management for similar devices was (and still is to a d... | [
"SSH is a protocol allowing secure remote login to a computer on a network using public-key cryptography. SSH client programs (such as codice_1 from OpenSSH) typically run for the duration of a remote login session and are configured to look for the user's private key in a file in the user's home directory (e.g., c... |
How often did prehistoric man eat meat? | Asking about "prehistoric man" is difficult, because this encompasses a huge variety of situations and almost all of human history. However, I'll assume you are mainly talking about hunting and gathering societies most specifically when you say "prehistoric man" which I can answer somewhat.
Generally we know from mod... | [
"Paleontological evidence suggests that meat constituted a substantial proportion of the diet of the earliest humans. Early hunter-gatherers depended on the organized hunting of large animals such as bison and deer.\n",
"In February 2019, scientists reported evidence, based on isotope studies, that at least some ... |
what actually is a patent and why are companies allowed to sell products without them? | A patent is a legal right for a company to control their invention.
If you didn't invent it, you'll need permission from the patent holder, or to make your own version of it that doesn't infringe the patent. | [
"Patents essentially provide a temporary monopoly on a product to the first inventor or firm which comes up with the product. Patents vary in length but are designed to last long enough for the innovator to make a return on investment. The nature of patents makes them an incentive so long as the product being inven... |
what does a hospital do when there are too many emergency's at the same time? | triage.
people generally fall into 3 categories
1. Those who are likely to live, regardless of what care they receive;
2. Those who are likely to die, regardless of what care they receive;
3. Those for whom immediate care might make a positive difference in outcome.
you ignore #1 until the end. #2 you spend minim... | [
"Hospitals in some major Canadian cities, such as London, Ontario, have restructured their emergency services to share emergency treatment among several hospitals. One hospital may provide full emergency room care, while another sees patients who have broken limbs, minor injuries and yet another sees patients suffe... |
if i smack into a hot object, will the burn be worse than if i lightly touched it? | Burns are due to thermal energy transfer. Generally, this would be a function of the difference in temperature and time.
The burn would be a little deeper, as some compression would be expected due to the kinetics but I wouldn't expect to be substantially worse. If anything, you might expect the burn to be less severe... | [
"Solid objects that are hot can also cause contact burns, especially by children who intentionally touch things that they are unaware are too hot to touch. Such burns imprinted on the skin usually form a pattern that resembles the object. Sources of burns from solid objects include ashes and coal, irons, soldering ... |
if the earth rotates on its axis constantly, how are we able to see the same starts every night? | The short answer is you don't, but that's not due to the rotation, it's due to our orbit around the sun. Without accounting for stars to the north, think of it this way.
You are in a gym sitting on a office chair that spins. There is a white sheet in the middle of the gym, this represents the sun. As you go around the... | [
"In graphical terms, the Earth behaves like a spinning top, and tops tend to wobble as they spin. The spin of the Earth is its daily (diurnal) rotation. The spinning Earth slowly wobbles over a period slightly less than 26,000 years. From our perspective on Earth, the stars are ever so slightly 'moving' from west t... |
Rotational inertia | The quantity you're interested in is called the [moment of inertia](_URL_0_). It's a function of the mass and the square of the distance from the rotational axis to that mass. There's formulae on that Wikipedia page both for a point mass some distance from the axis (which is a decent model for the bolts here) and a dis... | [
"Another form of inertia is \"rotational inertia\" (→ moment of inertia), the property that a rotating rigid body maintains its state of uniform rotational motion. Its angular momentum is unchanged, unless an external torque is applied; this is also called conservation of angular momentum. Rotational inertia depend... |
saltwater aquariums are so delicate - so how do these animals survive in the wild? | There's a lot of ocean. It's hard to actually change the conditions because there's so much of it (pollution diffuses across the entirety of the ocean).
On the other hand... it also is a demonstration that ecosystems are actually quite fragile. And that's why we have exterminated so many species and pushed so many in... | [
"Glassfish have been kept in aquarium for many years, but have a reputation for being delicate and difficult to keep. This may be related to a persistent myth that these fish need brackish water. In the wild, they more commonly inhabit fresh water, and in captivity do well in slightly soft to moderately hard dGH 7–... |
Is it possible for entropy to reach zero? | The 3rd Law of Thermodynamics says a system cannot be brought to zero entropy in a finite number of finite steps (equivalently, can't be brought to a temperature of absolute zero in a finite number of finite steps). You can read more [here](_URL_0_). | [
"This is about as far as we can go using thermodynamics alone. Note that the above equation is flawed — as the temperature approaches zero, the entropy approaches negative infinity, in contradiction to the third law of thermodynamics. In the above \"ideal\" development, there is a critical point, not at absolute ze... |
what makes a beer belly how it is, round and hard? what makes it different from a normal stomach or a soft(fat) stomach? | If you stab your belly with a knife, first you will cut the skin, then subcutaneous fat, then your abdominal muscles, then visceral fat, then your organs.
That means if you press your belly and feel softness, you are pressing against your subcutaneous fat. Cutaneous means skin, and subcutaneous means below the skin. ... | [
"A peascod belly is a type of exaggeratedly padded stomach that was very popular in men's dress in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The term is thought to have come from \"peacock,\" or from the form of contemporary plate armour. Sometimes it was called a 'goose belly.'\n",
"The difference between the orig... |
why does toast bread keep all the cheese in while normal bread lets the cheese ooze out? | What is toast bread? As far as I know there is only bread. Once it's toasted then you have toast. Or are there specific breads that are meant for toasting and I missed the memo. | [
"The bread is kept in a rolled shape either by breaking the crust so that the slice does not spring back into a flattened shape or by skewering the bread with toothpicks. The outer side of the roll is occasionally coated thinly in butter before toasting to add to the flavour and give the toasted roll a more golden ... |
How exactly do underground rivers form? | I am guessing this post is based on the recent news about the Amazon so if we use that as a case study: the water in the river isn't held in the river because the river bed is impermeable to water, rather there is water below which extends down to a bedrock layer which IS impermeable (or nearly) to water.
In this cas... | [
"A subterranean river is a river that runs wholly or partly beneath the ground surface – one where the riverbed does not represent the surface of the Earth (rivers flowing in gorges are not classed as subterranean). It should also not be confused with an aquifer which may flow like a river but is contained within a... |
Why do you not the feel the gust of wind produced by a fan as one single stream of air? | It's probably something like this: You're getting a wave of air from each pass of a blade. There is also a vortex moving air from the front of the blade around the tip toward the back. So there would seem to be a lot of turbulence in the flow, and you won't feel it as one smooth jet.
Edit: I found a cool [propell... | [
"A misting fan is similar to a humidifier. A fan blows a fine mist of water into the air. If the air is not too humid, the water evaporates, absorbing heat from the air, allowing the misting fan to also work as an air cooler. A misting fan may be used outdoors, especially in a dry climate. It may also be used indoo... |
How can spectroscopy show the Sun is made of hydrogen when the Sun is a plasma | Hydrogen is barely ionized at all at 5000 K. Only around 10000 K does hydrogen become overwhelmingly ionized. The Sun's surface temperature is about 5777 K, and the outer layers of the atmosphere are even cooler, so there is plenty of hydrogen absorption in the solar spectrum. | [
"Throughout the universe, hydrogen is mostly found in the atomic and plasma states, with properties quite different from those of molecular hydrogen. As a plasma, hydrogen's electron and proton are not bound together, resulting in very high electrical conductivity and high emissivity (producing the light from the S... |
why is a dish cooked at home considered "healthier" than the same dish cooked at a restaurant? | It's not inherently healthier, but restaurants tend to do things slightly differently. They use tons of salt and butter or other fatty oils and sauces. It helps seasonings stick to the food better and tastes amazing, but does a number on its calorie count.
I used to work at a chain restaurant where, for a regular burg... | [
"\"Home-cooking\" may be associated with comfort food, and some commercially produced foods and restaurant meals are presented through advertising or packaging as having been \"home-cooked,\" regardless of their actual origin. This trend began in the 1920s and is attributed to people in urban areas of the U.S. want... |
I just looked at the sun with my eclipse glasses, and there are two black dots on the sun. What are those? | Those are called sunspots. They are areas of the sun's surface that are cooler than the rest of it. They're still very hot, just not hot enough for the light they're emitting to be enough to see through eclipse glasses. Basically, there are strong magnetic fields in those locations that are inhibiting the normal surfac... | [
"BULLET::::- An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line with the Earth, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the dark disk of the Moon.\n",
"In the painting, the actual sun is the yellow bal... |
Why are synthetic cannabinoids so much more toxic than cannabinoids found in cannabis? | That's a pretty broad statement. There are hundreds of compounds that bind to cannabinoid receptors. Many synthetic cannabinoids have a similar structure to THC and CBD etc, and metabolize similarly, so they have much the same side effects and safety as THC and CBD. Others have completely unrelated chemical structures,... | [
"Most synthetic cannabinoids are agonists of the cannabinoid receptors. They have been designed to be similar to THC, the natural cannabinoid with the strongest binding affinity to the CB receptor, which is linked to the psychoactive effects or \"high\" of marijuana. These synthetic analogs often have greater bindi... |
If I use an AC electric heater in a small enclosed area, the air would feel dryer. Where did the water go? | If you consider an enclosed volume, like a perfectly insulated room, then the water isn't going anywhere. It stays in the air. However, your heater obviously changes the temperature of said air. Here is where an important distinction comes into place: There are two (actually three) definitions of humidity. *Absolute* h... | [
"In heating mode, the outdoor coil is an evaporator, while the indoor is a condenser. The refrigerant flowing from the evaporator (outdoor coil) carries the thermal energy from outside air (or soil, or better still, moving water) indoors. Vapor temperature is augmented within the pump by compressing it. The indoor ... |
Can you create matter out of pure light? | _URL_0_
Photons can in principle collide with each other to produce particle-antiparticle pairs, although I think that this more commonly occurs when a photon impacts a massive particle. But yes, you are correct that on the quantum scale, mass and energy can readily transform into each other. | [
"Solid light is a hypothetical material, made of light in a solidified state. Theoretically, it is possible to make such a material, and there are claims this material was already made, including claims from MIT and Harvard.\n",
"Imperial College London physicists have discovered how to create matter from light -... |
If a neutron star lost mass could it reach a point when the gravity wasn't enough to keep the star in its neutron degenerate state? | Thought experiment time. We're off the edge of the map; here there be *wild*, **wild** speculation.
Let's imagine that there is a neutron star somewhere and one of two things happen:
1. It collides with a massive enough object whose relative velocity is a *substantial* fraction of *c*, causing at least some of the n... | [
"Hence, the gravitational force of a typical neutron star is huge. If an object were to fall from a height of one meter on a neutron star 12 kilometers in radius, it would reach the ground at around 1400 kilometers per second. However, even before impact, the tidal force would cause spaghettification, breaking any ... |
Could I go far enough underground to survive a wayward gamma ray burst? | No. This is because the gamma ray burst wouldn't ever directly affect you even if you were standing outside at the time.
The problem is that they would cause a chemical reaction in the upper atmosphere changing molecular nitrogen into nitrogen oxides, depleting the ozone layer and exposing the surface to solar and cos... | [
"Gamma ray bursts can have harmful or destructive effects on life. Considering the universe as a whole, the safest environments for life similar to that on Earth are the lowest density regions in the outskirts of large galaxies. Our knowledge of galaxy types and their distribution suggests that life as we know it c... |
My goal for this year is to really learn the ins and outs of American history. What are some comprehensive resources I should check out? | The Oxford Series of American history will cover many of the periods in question. | [
"The Center for History and New Media worked in partnership with the American Social History Project (ASHP) at the City University of New York, to develop an online resource directed at American History teachers, along with online resources about the French Revolution. More recent projects have focused on developin... |
How were dwarves of noble birth treated? | There is not much records of dwarfs in the nobility they were rumours that Matilda of Flanders was a dwarf at 4 foot 2 but I believe those are inaccurate, she was short though at around 5 foot. She ended up married to William the Conqueror so you could take that been short was no barrier to high class. However if you w... | [
"BULLET::::- Dwarves (Khazad): Short, stocky bearded folk, strong and hardy, able to endure pain, fatigue and suffering better than other races. Upon reaching maturity they appear old in a fashion that belies their hardiness. They often live in subterranean kingdoms, and have a great love of craftworks, especially ... |
Is it possible to accelerate to a set speed instantaniously? | Instantaneous acceleration requires infinite power. So no. | [
"The rate of change of velocity is called acceleration, and the rate of change of momentum is called force. To reach a given velocity, one can apply a small acceleration over a long period of time, or one can apply a large acceleration over a short time. Similarly, one can achieve a given impulse with a large force... |
If a disc was spun at 1 RPM, how large would this disc need to be in order for the edge of it to reach the speed of light? | The total circumference of the disc is 2 * pi * radius. At 1 RPM, a point on the edge travels 1/60th of the circumference per second.
So the required radius can be found by solving: ( 2 * pi * r ) / 60 = c
Or: r = 60 c / 2 pi or about 2.86 milion kilometers (8-9 times the distance between Earth and the Moon).
Of cou... | [
"A compact disc comprises a 120 mm aluminized disc coated with a clear plastic coating, with spiral track, approximately 5 km in length, which is optically scanned by a laser of wavelength ~0.8 μm, at a constant speed of ~1.25 m/s. For achieving this constant speed, rotation of the disc is varied from ~8 rev/s whil... |
why do some people develop tics that go away, but others' progress into tourette's syndrome? | Tics do not "progress into" Tourette's Syndrome. Rather, tics are a symptom that can have various causes. One possible cause is Tourette's Syndrome. | [
"Tourette syndrome (TS or simply Tourette's) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by multiple motor tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. These tics characteristically wax and wane, can be suppressed temporarily, and are typically preceded by an unwanted urge or sensati... |
Why is the Chinese front during WW2 rarely ever acknowledged or talked about? | I'll base my answer on the essay *The Sino-Japanese War in History* by Hans van de Ven, one of the leading Western historians on the Sino-Japanese conflict, and expand on the citations with a bit of a refutal of the point of view he describes. He begins:
> By the 1970s, a consensus view had emerged in Western studies... | [
"Prior to World War II, China faced a civil war between Mao Zedong's Communist party and Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist party; the nationalists appeared to be in the lead. However, once the Japanese invaded in 1937, the two parties were forced to form a temporary cease-fire in order to defend China. The nationalists... |
why is first (1st), second (2nd), third (3rd), but everything else is xth? | The numbers you are asking about are called ordinal numbers and we don’t know for sure why 1st, 2nd, and 3rd are different. Generally, the more often a word is used the more likely it is to be irregular, so that may explain some of it (think of the verbs that are irregular in a lot of languages – to be, to go, to have,... | [
"\"1-2-3\" (sometimes listed as \"1, 2, 3\") is a popular song by Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. The song was written by the band's drummer and lead songwriter Enrique \"Kiki\" Garcia along with Estefan and appears on the multi-platinum album \"Let It Loose\".\n",
"The group | x – u – | is known as a... |
the recent obamacare decision ruled by the supreme court, without bias. | There were 4 questions before the court:
1. Can the court hear these arguments before anyone is actually penalized for not having health insurance?
2. Is the Individual Mandate to buy health insurance constitutional?
3. If not, is the rest of the law constitutional without the mandate?
4. Unrelated, can government ... | [
"On December 14, 2018, O'Connor ruled that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional. O'Connor ruled that the individual mandate was unconstitutional by saying \"[the] Individual Mandate can no longer be fairly read as an exercise of Congress's Tax Power and is still impermissible under the Interstate Commerce C... |
Where can I find more information about the effects of the Japanese occupation(1910-1945) of Korea on Korean culture? | I think a broad but relevant introduction to the subject can be found in *Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea, 1910-1945*. Hope it's what you're looking for. | [
"The Japanese colonization of Korea has been mentioned as the \"case in point\" of \"cultural genocide\" by Yuji Ishida, an expert on genocide studies at the University of Tokyo. The colonial Japanese government put into practice the suppression of Korean culture and language in an \"attempt to root out all element... |
why is it that sometimes a car move forward the moment you release your brakes while on "drive" but sometimes it doesn't even when it's stopped at the same place? | It be like that sometimes. Best 5yo answer possible.
The adult version has to do with idle rpms, incline of hill, temperature of transmission, type of transmission, weight of cargo/passengers, etc. | [
"In brake-differential steering, power is applied to both sides through a differential and a brake is applied to one side or the other. The slowing of one side causes the other side to speed up, because of the differential, and so the vehicle maintains a constant speed. A subsequent disadvantage is that changes in ... |
What would happen if a hydrogen bomb was detonated at the bottom of the Kola Superdeep Borehole? | The detonation would create a spherical cavity, and then probably collapse since the deepest spot is apparently a mix of mud & rock.
What's that, you're asking about Russian history? I'm glad you asked! Relevant to your question, Soviet Russia buried and detonated nuclear bombs to successfully create 23 subter... | [
"Another scenario sees a buildup of potentially explosive hydrogen, but passive autocatalytic recombiners inside the containment are designed to prevent this. In Fukushima, the containments were filled with inert nitrogen, which prevented hydrogen from burning; the hydrogen leaked from the containment to the reacto... |
Will Mount Everest always be the tallest mountain? | No, eventually enough physical weathering will take place that it has worn down and plate tectonics will create newer mountain ranges that are higher given enough time. We are talking about long long periods of time here of course. Possibly millions of years. | [
"The height of Mount Everest was calculated to be exactly high, but was publicly declared to be in order to avoid the impression that an exact height of was nothing more than a rounded estimate. Waugh is therefore wittily credited with being \"\"the first person to put two feet on top of Mount Everest\"\".\n",
"M... |
why do some youtube videos show a small image of that point in the video when you hover over the progress bar and some don't? | Typically it's newer videos that haven't had time to finish being cached (prepared for quick reference) on Google's servers. After the video has finished processing completely, one of the benefits is being able to see that image. | [
"Sliders are also combined with progress bars in the playback of streaming media over a network connection (e.g., YouTube videos) in order to show the content buffering position versus the playback position. This is done by superimposing a colored shaded area (progress bar) on top of the slider, indicating whether ... |
Is DNA stable in a vacuum? | Under dehydrating conditions, DNA will turn into one of the three stable DNA forms, in this case, [A-DNA](_URL_0_). A-DNA is similar to the common form, B-DNA, as it is right-handed, but it is a little bit more compacted (scrunched) than B-DNA. The third form of DNA is Z-DNA, which is a left-handed helix. As for str... | [
"The problem of the vacuum was partially solved by the introduction of negative stains but even with negative stains biological samples are prone to structural collapse upon dehydration of the specimen. Embedding the samples in ice below the sublimation temperature was a possibility that was contemplated early on, ... |
Which modern-day country is the real cultural successor to the historical country of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania? | The somewhat glib answer to "real" cultural succession is a mixture of no one or it depends on how one interprets culture. Although the Commonwealth had a rich cultural legacy, fitting such early modern idioms into modern-day conceptions of national identity like Polish or Belorussian is a highly difficult task. "Ethni... | [
"The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that lasted from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and Austria. The state was founded by the Lithuanians, a polytheistic Baltic tribe from Aukštaitija.\n",
"The historical Grand Duchy of ... |
What are some works of art by political figures? | Benjamin Disraeli, two time PM of the UK, was a notable writer in his time, practically inventing the "political novel." While the bulk of his work was published before he took a position in the government, almost all of his work has a political edge to it, and he continued writing up until his death. His most famous w... | [
"The artist cites the work of John Heartfield, who was a pioneer in the use of art as a political weapon, as being a major influence. Stauffer also credits Alexander Calder with inspiring his own personal work ethic.\n",
"His political influence helped artists such as sculpture William Rudolf O'Donovan gain spons... |
why do people torrent movies and tv shows instead of streaming? streaming is instant and doesn't leave any incriminating files on your computer. | Torrents can be streamed as well. But what I believe you're asking is why people download torrents rather than stream. The main reason is that torrents are much higher quality, and have higher bandwidth than some file that someone put online.
Since a torrent can have hundreds of seeders, the download is much faster th... | [
"Downloading generally transfers entire files for local storage and later use, as contrasted with streaming, where the data is used nearly immediately, while the transmission is still in progress, and which may not be stored long-term. Websites that offer streaming media or media displayed in-browser, such as YouTu... |
if the constitution is supposed to be upheld at all times in government then why do politicians constantly get accused of doing things that are "unconstitutional" but are never penalized for it? | Because its rarely clear cut whether or not the things they are doing is unconstitutional. Its a matter of how you interpret it which is the supreme courts job. Someone would have to charge the politician with a crime and the supreme court eventually make a ruling.
Often times its just politicians doing stuff that end... | [
"However, governments do not just create laws. Governments also enforce the laws set forth in the document defining the government—in the Constitution. In the United States, the failure to seat duly elected representatives of the people following a proper election, or the failure to provide for such elections would... |
Why did Italian power and influence ebb after the Renaissance | First, the Italian City States were very different from one another. At
times Florence was doing great and at others Venice was. I bring this
up to illustrate that there was no "continuity" of greatness. The
Renaissance in the Italian peninsula is believed to have taken place
between the 14th and 16th centuries. Th... | [
"The Italian Renaissance peaked in the mid-16th century as foreign invasions plunged the region into the turmoil of the Italian Wars. However, the ideas and ideals of the Renaissance endured and even spread into the rest of Europe, setting off the Northern Renaissance, and the English Renaissance.\n",
"Another po... |
How do pigeons work? In a biomechanics sense. | The bobbing is thought to be a way to gain information on depth. A pigeon's eyes are located on the side of its head, so it is [unable to use stereo vision](_URL_2_) to gain information on depth.
By moving its head up and down, it makes uses of [parallax](_URL_1_). That is, the pigeon can compare pre- and post-bob i... | [
"The typical laboratory environment to study labor supply in pigeons is set up as follows. Pigeons are first deprived of food. Since the animals become hungry, food becomes highly desired. The pigeons are then placed in an operant conditioning chamber and through orienting and exploring the environment of the chamb... |
Microgravity is referred to as "free fall". Does that mean all the objects in the universe are falling toward something? | Microgravity is a misnomer for objects that are in orbit around the Earth. Gravity on the space station is approximately 90% as strong as it is on Earth. The reason the astronauts appear weightless is because they are in free-fall, just like when you go over a hill on a rollercoaster and are lifted out of the seat, t... | [
"What remains is a micro-g environment moving in free fall, i.e. there are no forces other than gravity acting on the people or objects in this environment. To prevent air drag making the free fall less perfect, objects and people can free-fall in a capsule that itself, while not necessarily in free fall, is accele... |
why do american houses have such thin walls? | If you are watching action movies it is just unrealistic. But it is fairly common in the US to have interior walls made of wooden framework with wood studs every so often (2x4 posts), covered with drywall. This is compressed gypsum and there is a layer on each side of the wall. Interior space within the wall is availab... | [
"These buildings typically included as steep roofs, small casement leaded glass windows (usually due to a scarcity of glass in the colonies), rich ornamentation (in the more expensive house only) and a massive central chimney. \n",
"Notably long and thin in comparison to an average home, the house has a \"floatin... |
how are global fast-food chains such as mcdonalds and kfc able to maintain the same taste and quality around the world? | McDonald’s tastes different depending on where you are. When I was in Germany the Big Mac was a bit different from the ones in the U.K. | [
"George Ritzer wrote about the McDonaldization of society and how fast food businesses spread throughout the United States and the rest of the world, attracting other places to adopt fast food culture. Ritzer describes other businesses such as The Body Shop, a British cosmetics company, that have copied McDonald's ... |
the apocalypse according to the bible | In addition to /u/ferlgatr's response and if you're interested, you can read the entire book of Revelation which discusses the end times [here](_URL_0_). There are multiple versions from which to choose, I have linked the Message, which is not necessarily as accurate as other versions, but is written in "today's langua... | [
"\"Apocalypse\" (ἀποκάλυψις) is a Greek word meaning \"revelation\", \"an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known and which could not be known apart from the unveiling\". As a genre, apocalyptic literature details the authors' visions of the end times as revealed by an angel or other heavenly messenge... |
Is there any proof of Nazi's suffering mental breakdown's | I don't know about breakdowns, but the psychological toll it exacted was noted. Himmler gave a speech to a group of SS men on Poznan, where he discussed the difficulty of performing mass killing:
> I also want to mention a very difficult subject before you here, completely openly. It should be discussed amongst us,... | [
"Terry Brink, a student of Alfred Adler, published an essay \"The case of Hitler\" (1975) in which he, similar to the above-mentioned authors, concluded that after a conscientious evaluation of all records there is not sufficient evidence that Hitler had a mental disorder. Many of Hitler's behaviors must be underst... |
why is open-mouth breathing often associated to lower intelligence? is there any biological or behavioral link between the two? | It's part of the "boorish brute" stereotype that's roughly as old as social classes are. Laborers who have to expend lots of energy throughout the day will end up panting heavily and loudly over the course of their work. More "refined" individuals accustomed to leisure are more likely to be able to placidly go about th... | [
"The adaptation from nasal to mouth breathing takes place when changes such as chronic middle ear infections, sinusitis, allergic rhinitis, upper airway infections, and sleep disturbances (e.g., snoring) take place. In addition, mouth breathing is often associated with a decrease in oxygen intake into the lungs. Mo... |
how does tinting a car's windows help keep it cooler inside during the summer, since dark objects absorb more of the sun's heat? | The heat is absorbed in the glass, making the glass hot. Fortunately, the glass is outside, where the air cools it. That's much better than making the upholstery hot, that's trapped in a sealed up car with no way to get out. | [
"Glass coated with a low-emissivity substance can reflect radiant infrared energy, encouraging radiant heat to remain on the same side of the glass from which it originated, while letting visible light pass. This often results in more efficient windows because radiant heat originating from indoors in winter is refl... |
why is evolution considered a theory and not a scientific law? | Google says:
> Evolution, and most of Biology, cannot be expressed in a concise mathematical equation, so it is referred to as a theory. A scientific law is not "better" or "more accurate" than a scientific theory. A law explains what will happen under certain circumstances, while a theory explains how it happens.
[... | [
"The argument that evolution is a theory, not a fact, has often been made against the exclusive teaching of evolution. The argument is related to a common misconception about the technical meaning of \"theory\" that is used by scientists. In common usage, \"theory\" often refers to conjectures, hypotheses, and unpr... |
What consumer products can I buy today that take advantage of the physical properties of graphene? | I am not aware of any such devices currently, though my field of expertise is only tangentially related to graphene.
This is likely because graphene is a *very*, *very* new material. As recently as 2008, the only reasonable way to get any was exfoliation, which isn't really suitable for any industrial process. To put ... | [
"GO, CH and CF: Although graphene is one of the most mechanically strong material having a wide range of extraordinary properties, practical device applications are limited by its metallic behavior and sensitivity to surface adsorbates. Efforts to synthesize chemically modified graphene composites with tailored ele... |
Light cannot escape the gravitational pull of a black hole. So where does the light go? | Fun fact: If you were orbiting a black hole, and say you were invincible,the gravitational pull of said hole would be so strong that light would orbit, enabling you the ability to look forward and see the back of your head. | [
"While light can still escape from the photon sphere, any light that crosses the photon sphere on an inbound trajectory will be captured by the black hole. Hence any light that reaches an outside observer from the photon sphere must have been emitted by objects between the photon sphere and the event horizon.\n",
... |
Why are some JFK assassination files still classified? | This submission has been removed because it violates our ['20-Year Rule'](_URL_1_). To discourage off-topic discussions of current events, questions, answers and all other comments must be confined to events that happened 20 years ago or more. For further explanation of this rule, feel free to consult [this Rules Round... | [
"BULLET::::- October 26 – Nearly 3,000 files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy are released, while President Trump orders others to be withheld, citing national security concerns. The documents were scheduled for release in a 1992 law.\n",
"JFK Declassified: Tracking Oswald is a History Ch... |
What is the earliest academic paper that can be cited? | I suppose that I could reference Euclid's [*Elements*](_URL_0_), which is 2300 years old. | [
"Academic papers include: \"A New Star\", Albertus Magnus Alumnae, 3 (2) :4-7, 1966, an English translation of Hans Judenkönig's \"Ain Schone Kunstliche Underweisung (1523),\" Lute Society Journal, Vol XIV, 1972, various editions of early music, and for the International Horn Society Journal (unpublished), \"Huntin... |
In 1945, When President Truman told Stalin of a "new bomb of unusual destructive force", why did Stalin react as if he was uninterested and not show any special interest in it? And how did he react when it was first used on Japan? | He already knew about the bomb by the time Truman told him about it. As for his reaction to us bombing Japan, he was upset and actually locked himself away out of being depressed that the Soviet Union didn't join the war against Japan. Not out of honor, but because FDR promised him lands lost in the Russo-Japanese War ... | [
"Truman had mentioned an unspecified \"powerful new weapon\" to Stalin during the conference. Towards the end of the conference, the United States gave Japan an ultimatum to surrender or meet \"prompt and utter destruction\", which did not mention the new bomb but promised that \"it was not intended to enslave Japa... |
Are there any other less heard of societies like Carthage? | The Indus Valley Civilisation is a very interesting and hardly known early society that is likely responsible for the "brahmin" caste (highest caste) in Indian society. | [
"Carthage was founded in 814 BC by Phoenician settlers from the city of Tyre, bringing with them the city-god Melqart. Ancient Carthage was an informal hegemony of Phoenician city-states throughout North Africa and modern Spain from 575 BC until 146 BC. It was more or less under the control of the city-state of Car... |
social security and what it implicates | Wow, this is a big topic.
In the US, Social Security was a program started by President Franklin Roosevelt in the midst of the Great Depression. The original idea was that the country should provide for those who could no longer provide for themselves after years of work. Everyone would pay into a fund, and then afte... | [
"The Constitution states that social security is an inalienable right of all people. Social security is governed by the principles of solidarity, obligation, universality, equity, efficiency, subsidiarity, adequacy, transparency and participation.\n",
"Social security is \"any government system that provides mone... |
what the scientific explanation as to why you are not supposed to put kitchen knives in a dishwasher? how is this any different than hand washing them? | The main reason is that your knife should only be wet for the minute or so it takes to clean it, then it should be dried. Having water sitting on there will make it rust and damage whatever finish it might have. Dishwashing tablets often have more salts in them compared to dish washing liquid which can eat away at meta... | [
"Hand dishwashing is generally performed in the absence of a dishwashing machine, when large \"hard-to-clean\" items are present, or through preference. Some dishwashing liquids can harm household silver, fine glassware, anything with gold leaf, disposable plastics, and any objects made of brass, bronze, cast iron,... |
"Basically, the Nazi party gained power because the Socialists and Communists attacked people on the streets" Can someone explain how accurate this claim from a forum post is? | Beneath the milquetoast paeans to stability and certainty, the linked post is pretty much rubbish. This statement in particular is especially problematic:
> Basically, the Nazi party gained power because the Socialists and Communists attacked people on the streets, and the Nazis turned it back on them, destroying th... | [
"The Social Democratic Party itself had adopted the position that both the Nazis and the communists posed an equal danger to liberal democracy, and social democrat leader Kurt Schumacher famously described the communists as \"red-painted Nazis\" in 1930; the social democrat-dominated Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold d... |
how will a self-driving car react when facing a choice: killing the driver or a pedestrian? | There wouldn't be that kind of decision baked into it, deciding which lives to kill. It would follow the standard programming for collision avoidance.
If it detected something heading toward it, it would brake, or steer into an available space to avoid the collision, or both.
Nothing is perfect. Humans do this al... | [
"As a general rule, drivers are expected to avoid a collision with another vehicle and pedestrians, regardless of whether or not the applicable rules of the road allow them to be where they happen to be.\n",
"BULLET::::4. If several vehicles arrive at the same time, a right-of-way conflict may arise wherein no dr... |
what happens if you're sent to jail for a crime you didn't commit and evidence that you're innocent pops up years after you get out of jail? | If it becomes known, then it's wiped from your record and you get reimbursed for the time spent in prison.
But that varies from state to state. | [
"If someone is found guilty of an attempt, they are sentenced under section 4(1) of the 1981 Act. This provides that anyone who attempts to commit an offence will be punished with the same period in prison as if they had succeeded; since theft carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison, for example, someone... |
how do gpg keys work and how are fingerprints verified? | Without getting too mathematical, your private and public key are generated in such a way that:
\- When you use your private key to encrype a message, only your public key can decrypt it.
\- When someone uses your public key to encrype a message, only your private key can decrypt it.
What is that good for? Well some... | [
"The passports issued since October 1, 2005 contain an RFID chip containing the passport's printed data in a digital format along with the photograph in a JPEG format along with a digital key to verify that the data contained is authentic and hasn't been tampered with. The data in the chip can only be accessed afte... |
why has the usa's money supply (m0) increased so much since 2008? | M0 is the measure of monetary reserves, which the Fed creates when it makes asset purchases. The increase is mostly due to it's large scale asset purchases, ie. quantitative easing.
Growth of M2, or broad money, has been much more subdued as shown [here](_URL_1_). Also the velocity of M2 - ie. the rate at which it... | [
"A 2012 International Monetary Fund study concluded that the U.S. financial sector has grown so large that it is slowing economic growth. New York University economist Thomas Philippon supported those findings, estimating that the U.S. spends $300 billion too much on financial services per year, and that the sector... |
Can a train pull more cars than it can push? | The main reasons for most locomotives pulling their cars (particularly heavy, long freight trains) is forward visibility and braking.
A freight train braking with the engine at the front will tend to compress together as each car pushes into the decelerating car in front of it. A freight train braking from the rear w... | [
"The description should not be confused with 'push-pull', which refers specifically to a train configuration (usually associated with passenger trains) in which the motive power is located at one end of the train only. In this latter configuration, the train is able to be operated from the 'non-powered' end by use ... |
How much of vision is filled in by the brain? | this is a complicated question. closest to your meaning, I think, is the issue of filling-in of surface color - the [Cornsweet illusion] (_URL_2_) is usually taken as one piece of evidence that the visual system uses boundary properties to infer properties of surfaces. the [watercolor illusion] (_URL_1_) is another exa... | [
"The eye has a nominal focal length of approximately 17mm, but it varies with accommodation. The nature of human binocular vision, which uses two lenses instead of a cyclopean one, and 'post-processing' by the cortex is very different to the process of making and rendering a photograph, video or film.\n",
"The in... |
why is this specific sound effect of children laughing and playing used over and over and over again in movies/tv shows? | Recording new sound effects is expensive, so to save money, sound designers pull unimportant / generic sound effects from an existing library of pre-recorded stuff. You're not supposed to notice it, but sometimes certain sound effects get so overused that they become a joke. The Wilhelm Scream is the most famous exampl... | [
"The cartoons also used Castle Thunder, a thunderclap sound effect that was commonly used in movies and television shows from the 1940s to the 1980s. Other common sounds such as Peeong (a frying pan hitting sound with a doppler effect) and Bilp were used regularly in all of its cartoons. Starting in the 1960s, othe... |
how people get caught not having a tv license?(uk) | They can't.
They say they can detect people without a licence, but it's bullshit. The only way they know is by knocking on your door and getting you to admit to it. And they have no legal right to enter your property unless you allow them.
There was a website knocking around a few years that, amongst other things, ... | [
"A television licence is required for any address at which there is a television set or device that is not exempt. The annual licence fee is €160. The licence is free to senior citizens (to anyone over the age of 70, some over 66), some social welfare recipients, and individuals who are blind.\n",
"Since it is no... |
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