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How did the public of other European nations and the US react to the attempts at a social revolution by woman (eg. Mujeres libres) during the Spanish Civil war? | This is a brilliant question (that was well worth asking twice!). Too brilliant, really, as it exposes a gap in historical literature. To my knowledge, while there is quite a bit that has been written on women, gender and the Spanish Civil War, little of it touches on how gender roles (and their subversion) was perceived outside of Spain. Equally, a lot of the expansive literature on foreign involvement in and perceptions of the conflict neglect gender as a category of analysis. If there's anyone reading this looking for a topic for their undergraduate dissertation or similar, examining gendered portrayals of the conflict overseas would be a really interesting topic. In any case, I'll do my best to sketch an overview from the material I'm aware of.
To begin with the organisation you mentioned, the anarchist-aligned *Mujeres Libres*, there's no doubt that this was probably the most important single women's organisation in Republican Spain during the civil war. They had expanded greatly during the war, from a small, Madrid-based organisation in early 1936 to having tens of thousands of members in branches across the Republican zone by mid-1938. They undertook all sorts of initiatives across Republican Spain, helping women transition into the workforce in factories and collectives. One of their most prominent achievements was setting up a system of day-care centres that would allow for communal care of children while their mothers worked in agriculture or industry. They were far from alone in undertaking such work – there were dozens, if not hundreds, of anti-fascist women’s organisations active in Republican Spain. Yet amid all these groups, *Mujeres Libres* was distinctive in viewing themselves not just as a mechanism to channel women’s support in service of government or political party, but in articulating its own message that women’s liberation was a necessary component of the social revolution that had accompanied the outbreak of civil war. In the words of Temma Kaplan, the organisation ‘was unique in that it was also concerned with the personal, ethical, and economic emancipation of Spanish women as well as with their wartime service.’
Their very distinctiveness in this regard is quite telling, and indicates the answer to part of your question – the Spanish Civil War saw relatively limited and incremental changes in the societal role of women, and there were few voices actively calling for more. While women entered the workforce and took on new roles, as might be expected given the extent of the Republican mobilisation for the war effort, attitudes towards women’s place in politics and public life did not shift nearly so far. Even anarchists were inclined to dismiss women, or, as one young member of *Mujeres Libres*, Sara Berenguer, was to discover, assumed that any women who wanted to talk about freedom meant that she was ‘freely sexually available to them’. Indeed, foreign observers were sometimes dismayed at the extent that Spanish women seemed to be excluded from the enduring patriarchal structures of left-wing politics. One British medical volunteer, Winifred Sandford, was astounded to hear that the only reason she was allowed to sit and converse with the men was because, as an Englishwoman, she had been ‘educated like a man.’ Another, Nan Green, was dismayed that traditional gender roles held firm on an anarchist commune she visited, with women seemingly accepting that they had no right to take part in discussion and maintained traditional gender roles such as only eating after then men had finished. Green, like Australian poet Mary Low, was concerned that Spanish women would be willing to accept far too little emancipation – ‘the little scraps which answered their first call.’ This in turn reflected a broader tendency in the Spanish Popular Front to moderate revolutionary demands in favour of anti-fascist unity – a revolution in women’s social roles, in other words, would need to wait until the war was won. It should also be noted that not all foreign observers were as critical as those quoted above – for some, the fact that Spanish women had responded so enthusiastically to the call to join in the war effort, despite the ingrained cultural attitudes towards women in public life, was proof of the both popular enthusiasm for the war effort and the Republic’s emancipatory credentials. Even then, however, discourse was often tightly limited – gender conventions were being altered but not overthrown, with the role of women redefined to include new duties but within a framework that would do less to offend bourgeois sensibilities.
So, while *Mujeres Libres* was not exactly ignored internationally – prominent American anarchist Emma Goldman, for instance, wrote for their periodical (which only accepted articles written by women) in December 1936 – they were something of an anomaly, and it’s unlikely that many observers overseas pointed to them (much less any other women’s organisation) as evidence of a radical female revolution in Spain. For overseas observers, a much more potent symbol of revolutionary femininity came from the early days of the war – the famed *milicianas*, immortalised in images and words in the immediate aftermath of the attempted coup. On the left, these portrayals helped galvanise support for the Republic, proof of the depth of resistance to fascism among the Spanish people. However, even in the most glowing portrayals there could be subtexts that diminished the *milicianas* as symbols of emancipation. Within Spain, they could be used as tools to mobilise men – the implication being that if women were willing to fight, their own masculinity was called into question if they did not. Moreover, their presence at the front was often softened. The British *Daily Herald*, for instance, showed one picture of a ‘Loyal Woman Soldier’ not carrying a rifle but repairing a male soldier’s tunic. This was perhaps a more honest portrayal of the *miliciana* reality – the communists, for instance, organised a women’s battalion for their Fifth Regiment, but relegated it to support work. This did not, of course, stop foreign fascination at such exotic practices – the *Times*, for instance, referred to it as the ‘Amazon battalion’. In other instances, even the determinedly neutral language of the *Times* conveyed a sense of unease at the breakdown of gender norms.
> Corps of milicianas \[militia-women\] have been organized, and women, armed and aggressive, take their place in the front line with men. All that womanhood traditionally stands for is rapidly disappearing. Women of the proletariat are not at all perturbed by the fact that in the region held by the government scarcely a church is open, scarcely a priest dares appear in public.
This was among the more measured portrayals of the *milicianas* from the right. The direct involvement of ‘Red’ women on the outbreak of the civil war was taken as proof of the ill-effects of emancipation on women, with lurid tales of the animalistic, fanatic and wanton behaviour gaining currency, particularly in the tabloid press. Such portrayals were heavily sexually charged; the women themselves of ‘loose morals’, if not actual prostitutes. Many of these stories are of dubious provenance, and they continued to be published long after the brief involvement of *milicianas*at the front. This can partly be explained by the shocking novelty of women’s intrusion into the masculine world of war, but also doubled as a way to condemn both Republican society and morality, as well as liberalising tendencies at home. In contrast, women under Nationalist rule were represented as ‘true’ Spanish women, virtuous, religious and dedicated to family, proof of the need for traditionalist rule in Spain (and a return to traditional values at home). While women were naturally mobilised to support the war effort in Nationalist Spain as well, care was taken to portray these roles as conforming to gendered expectations – maternal, comforting and supportive, knitting scarves and serving meals. Ironically, the Republic was trying to do much the same thing – as ever, perception was far more important than reality in the eyes of partisan foreign observers. | [
"In Latin America, the 19th century was a time of revolution with Nationalist movements and Independence Wars erupting throughout the Spanish colonies, many led by Simón Bolívar. Women were not simply spectators or support for men in the wars of Latin America, but took up arms, acted as spies and informants, organi... |
rain-sensing variable-periodicity windshield wipers - how? | It is a sensor in the windshield. It detects the amount of liquid and adjusts automatically.
I work for Mercedes and this question gets asked a lot haha. | [
"Rain sensors for automatic windscreen/windshield wipers have been implemented using the principle that total internal reflection will guide an infrared beam from a source to a detector if the outer surface of the windshield is dry, but any water drops on the surface will divert some of the light.\n",
"The most c... |
What would happen to Knights or Lords who were captured during battles during the Middle Ages? Were they ransomed off or were they executed? | This depended a lot on the time period and warring states.
Take, for example, the Battle of Flodden Fields in 1513. The Scots King, James IV, was killed on the field, as were the majority of the Scots nobility. Most of the Scots court was killed at Flodden, and it was England's greatest triumph over the Scots in a century. The nobility was decimated, and it took nearly a generation for their sons to replace them, and the court of Mary, Queen of Scots looked quite different from that of her grandfather and father, even though they were only thirty years separated.
Contrast this with the Battle of Lewes, in 1264. Henry III of England initially attacked from strength, but was defeated and was captured by his barons. As regicide was not considered acceptable at this point in history, the Barons never considered executing Henry, but forced him to sign over many of his powers to the leader of the Barons, Simon de Montfort, who was later referred to as an "uncrowned king."
Edward II and Edward V were both killed in prison, and Richard II was likely starved to death in prison as well, while Richard III was killed on the field of battle. However, since there was belief in the divine right of Kings, a defeated King was not killed outright by his opponents, at least during the medieval period - John and Henry III were both forced to relinquish some of their kingly powers when they were defeated in battle, but execution never crossed the mind of their captors.
Knights and nobles were similarly treated, but it was not unheard of for nobles to be killed on the field. Outright execution of nobles was, again, frowned upon - Piers Gaveston, one of Edward II's close advisors, was hunted down and killed by other nobles because they believed he earned too much of the King's patronage. This caused the King to fly into a rage, and it was not for some time that he came to an accord with the barons, even pardoning them for the crime. Executing nobility was not taken lightly. | [
"The rest of the captured knights and soldiers were sold into slavery, and one was reportedly bought in Damascus in exchange for some sandals. The high ranking Frankish barons captured were held for ransom.\n",
"In Europe during the Middle Ages, ransom became an important custom of chivalric warfare. An important... |
why can we drink great amounts of beer (or alcohol in general) within a short period of time but not water or any other non alcoholic beverage? | It's solely because you're interested in achieving the effect of drunkenness. If you put your mind to it, you could drink the same amount of water, soda, coffee, tea, or whatever beverage in the same amount of time.
The diuretic effect takes hold after the first hour or so, though, in which consuming alcohol will cause you to urinate frequently, thereby emptying your bladder so that you can consume more alcohol. Coffee does the same thing, though. | [
"Alcohol is the main active ingredient of wine, beer and distilled spirits. Drinking small quantities of alcohol (less than one drink in women and two in men per day) is associated with a decreased risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes mellitus, and early death. Drinking more than this amount, however, increases ... |
- the monsanto controversy | Worries about engineered foods aside, a lot of people have a huge problem with Monsanto's business model...
They use patent law to force farmers to buy seed from them every year. The farmers do not own the seeds that are created by the plants they are growing - Monsanto has the *patent* on the seed DNA. So they can't just buy seed one time and then create their own seeds from then on, as you might believe would be common sense. They even go so far as to sue farmers that *accidentally* grow Monsanto plants; from seeds blown over from a neighbor's field, for example. Monsanto charges a lot for the seed. They are definitely pushing the extremes of patent law to make as much money as possible.
Now, having said that, Monsanto invented some pretty cool seed. It creates its own pesticide, for example. So, by using it, you save money on spraying your crops. That's certainly worth something. People just disagree on how Monsanto should be compensated for what they've done. Obviously, a large corporation like Monsanto would like to squeeze as much money as possible from whoever they can. They aren't trying to work out a "fair deal" for what they've accomplished - they're just trying to maximize profit.
It's easy for people to envision a future (maybe not so distant) where corporations own the rights to everything we grow (through DNA patents) and charge a lot to farmers (and ultimately consumers) for licenses to grow crops.
| [
"In 2009, Monsanto came under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice, which began investigating whether the company's activities in the soybean markets were breaking anti-trust rules. In 2010, the Department of Justice created a website through which comments on \"Agriculture and Antitrust Enforcement Issues ... |
How accurately did medieval monks copy down Greek and Roman texts? | The idea *usually* was to accurately reproduce the text in front of them (which almost certainly wasn't the original), but all kinds of things could and did go wrong. Just as an experiment, try copying out something in whatever your native language is by hand and see if, working in a language you operate in on a daily basis, you can produce an error-free copy. The copyists of our texts had varying abilities with the languages and it shows in things like misspelling words several different ways and such.
Then there are reading errors. I don't know how much handwriting you have to read anymore, but again, making out someone else's handwriting can be a huge pain in the ass. We also have a tendency to want to fill in things we don't understand by inference from the things we do, so if a scribe misreads a word, he might try to construe the rest of the sentence in a way to make his original mistake make sense.
Then there are things like skipping lines, or repeating a line already copied, all the same kinds of reading mistakes we make every day. Pages get stuck together. Someone takes a break and loses their place. All of that will show up in the new manuscript.
Sometimes scribes realized there was a mistake in the text and tried to correct it, either by erasing bits, or writing in the "correct" reading (corrections aren't always right), or by sticking stuff in the margin. But they might also use the margin to include other info - a sort of cross reference. Now, a third scribe gets his hands on a manuscript with notes in the margin and has to decide if they are corrections that belong in the text, or if it's the cross reference sort of note, and whether it should be reproduced in the text itself or the margin. Or at all.
Modern editors of these texts try to sort out these errors and produce something like the earliest possible text we can - this is the field of [textual criticism](_URL_0_). We are pretty good at it (we can sometimes test our corrections against papyri, for instance), and in case we get things wrong, a good scholarly edition will have what's called an apparatus at the bottom of the page - a bit of notes that give important possible alternative readings. These are extremely brief notes in a sort of code; they are not for everyone to use. They scare me a bit. But they are there so a reader, if one wants, can evaluate the decisions the editor made in producing the text he or she produced.
There are places where some people suspect the text has been changed on purpose to suit an agenda. Bart Ehrman's book *Misquoting Jesus* looks at several of these kinds of changes. It is also a very accessible introduction to textual criticism generally. | [
"In the Middle Ages, monasteries conserved and copied ancient manuscripts in their scriptoria. A prospective monk first learned grammar, logic, and oratory. Later, he would take up mathematics, astronomy, and music. The students would use a stylus on wax. Later, when their handwriting improved, they would be given ... |
Does taking the placebo pills in the birth control pack increase the effectiveness of the Pill? | Hi There,
As you noted the purpose of the seven inactive pills is to keep you in the habit of taking the pills, keeping track of the medication, and to allow the female body to bleed(Withdrawal Bleeding-thought to be comforting, as a physical confirmation of not being pregnant.).
Of course, you can go with the non placebo version which would stop a female from bleeding every month.
Now to your main point regarding Placebo birth Control.
After searching several journals I could not find a definitive answer for you. I did however come across an article pertaining to a small study of Placebo Contraceptives.
"In 424 months there were 72 pregnancies, a Pearl index of 203.8 pregnancies per 100 couple-years. " Now comparing this to a Pearl Index of a contraceptive would be 0.3 - 4 which is quite a large difference. However, this is the only study I was able to find with a Placebo Contraceptive. So the information is limited.
_URL_0_
_URL_1_ | [
"The role of the placebo pills is two-fold: to allow the user to continue the routine of taking a pill every day and to simulate the average menstrual cycle. By continuing to take a pill everyday, users remain in the daily habit even during the week without hormones. Failure to take pills during the placebo week do... |
Why do certain materials retain heat better than others? For example: insulators, black vs. white clothing, leather seats in a car, etc. | Dark colors don't retain heat longer, they absorb light better. If something is being heated up by light (such as something out in the sun), then it will heat up more if it's dark, because dark colors absorb light, and light colors reflect light.
As for insulators, you're confusing two things: heat retention, and heat transport. An insulator doesn't "hold heat" by itself, heat just passes through it very slowly, so it can separate something hot from something cold. Something can be an insulator based on basic material properties, but is often an insulator because of small air pockets (foam insulation, fiberglass, wool...).
As for retaining heat, somethings stay hot longer than others due to [specific heat](_URL_0_). For example, gypsum has a higher specific heat than granite, so to cool gypsum 10 degrees takes more energy than cooling granite 10 degrees, for the same mass. Specific heats of solids are pretty similar, so differences in "heat retention" are usually due to mass. A cubic meter of water weighs more than a cubic meter of wood, so even though they have different specific heats, the water will stay hot longer. | [
"The amount of thermal insulation worn by a person has a substantial impact on thermal comfort, because it influences the heat loss and consequently the thermal balance. Layers of insulating clothing prevent heat loss and can either help keep a person warm or lead to overheating. Generally, the thicker the garment ... |
why are eyewitness testimonies used and taken so seriously in court if people’s memories have been proven to be bad? | I strongly encourage you to read transcripts of a court case to get a real feel for what an eye witness testimony looks like.
It's more than just asking a person that they saw Jim shoot Bob. Most often they will use multiple people to build context on the crime.
When people testify, the lawyers are often referring to pieces of evidence to jog their memory and they use the witness' testimony to validate the physical evidence. If a video is available the lawyers will play certain clips over and over while asking the witness about details that you can't see. They will also use it to poke holes in their testimony.
& #x200B;
To answer your question
> **eyewitness testimonies used**
Because a bloody knife is much more compelling if someone saw Jim holding it.
> **and taken so seriously in court if people’s memories have been proven to be bad?**
The reliability of eye witness testimony is only taken as serious as the person giving it. If Sweet old Betty who has nothing to do with the crime said she saw someone that looks like Jim jump the fence to Bob's yard that's a pretty compelling piece of evidence.
Most importantly of all, you never ask a witness a question you do not know the answer to. | [
"Witnesses can be subject to memory distortions that can alter their account of events. It is of particular interest that the memory of an eyewitness can become compromised by other information, such that an individual's memory becomes biased. This can increase eyewitnesses sensitivity to the misinformation effect.... |
why aren’t dominant traits always more common than recessive traits? | Dominant traits aren't preferentially passed along between generations, they just express more strongly if they are passed down.
If a dominant gene is rare, it may continue to be rare unless there's some selective pressure killing off animals without it. | [
"Dominance does not determine whether an allele is deleterious, neutral or advantageous. However, selection must operate on genes indirectly through phenotypes, and dominance affects the exposure of alleles in phenotypes, and hence the rate of change in allele frequencies under selection. Deleterious recessive alle... |
How much of the Earth's water is floating around in the atmosphere? | [Only about 0.001% of all the Earth's water is in the atmosphere](_URL_0_).
> If all of the water in the atmosphere rained down at once, it would only cover the globe to a depth of 2.5 centimeters, about 1 inch. | [
"The total mass of the Earth's hydrosphere is about 1.4 × 10 tonnes, which is about 0.023% of Earth's total mass. At any given time, about 20 × 10 tonnes of this is in the form of water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere (for practical purposes, 1 cubic meter of water weighs one tonne). Approximately 71% of Earth's su... |
the reason people choose seats so close when you're eating out? | At a restaurant, I believe it's because waiters have determine seating area. | [
"Seaters has a two part solution to the empty seat problem, which has been found to occur at virtually all sold-out events, at a rate of 2-10% vacant seats. Both parts involve aggregating demand for unused tickets in advance of an event, so tickets can be distributed easily when they become available, even at the l... |
why do low pitch sounds carry farther than high pitched ones? | Think of the sound like a runner, this runner only has so much energy.
Think of the sound wave like the ground that is being ran on.
A high pitched sound wave has lots of peaks and valleys close together so our poor runner is going up very steep, tall mountains and back down over and over.
A low pitch is more like long rolling hills with slow inclines and slow declines so the runner is using less energy. | [
"Pitch depends to a lesser degree on the sound pressure level (loudness, volume) of the tone, especially at frequencies below 1,000 Hz and above 2,000 Hz. The pitch of lower tones gets lower as sound pressure increases. For instance, a tone of 200 Hz that is very loud seems one semitone lower in pitch than if it is... |
What is the difference between planets and asteroids? | Planets are big enough that their own gravity causes them to be round (hydrostatic equilibrium). The biggest asteroid, Ceres, is big enough, and it's considered a dwarf planet (like Pluto is now) because it shares its orbit with lots of asteroids. | [
"Asteroids are minor planets, especially of the inner Solar System. Larger asteroids have also been called planetoids. These terms have historically been applied to any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not resemble a planet-like disc and was not observed to have characteristics of an active comet such ... |
why can't you download a program and/or game with its updates/patches already included? | Generally speaking, you can. It's not impossible for the game developers to host a version of the game with the patched content already applied, nor is it really particularly difficult. Though, not wanting to put in the extra effort may be partly responsible for why you might not often see fully patched game downloads.
More likely, however, is because if the base game is available with all the patches separate it allows people to bring the game to whatever version they desire, rather than being forced to use the most up to date version (unless they want to use online functionality basically every game will require syncing up with the latest version). | [
"Most modern operating systems and many stand-alone programs offer the capability to download and apply fixes automatically. Instead of creating this feature from scratch, the developer may choose to use a proprietary (like RTPatch) or open-source (like StableUpdate and JUpdater) package that provides the needed li... |
what does each coach do on a football team? | From the bottom up, there are first the position coaches. These guys (and girl in the NFL) handle things like how to make a tackle at the lower levels, and at higher levels how to adjust the way a player does his job to compensate for the skill players on the upcoming teams they will be playing. For example a high school Defensive End coach may be teaching his players to lower their heads and go for the waist to make a tackle, in the NFL they're doing things like analyzing how Calvin Johnson makes insane catches and designing techniques for their players to combat his talent.
Then there are the assistant coaches. These guys are more macro architecture of the game. Things like how to line up and where to watch, places where the team is weak and how to make them better or ensuring better communication between players on the field. They're also the ones who change the hand signals or audibles to make sure other teams don't catch onto the scheme. It could change week to week, and if the coordinator or coach calls a play in the game you'll see the assistant coaches shouting or flashing hand signals to the players.
The there are the coordinators. These are the ones drawing and changing the playbooks for the offense and defense. Their main job is to pay attention to what works and what doesnt, and how to draw up new means to combat another team's strengths while going after that team's weaknesses. They don't care about the signals or individual techniques until someone messes up and they tell their underlings to fix it.
Then there's the head coach. His first job is to assemble the team of other coaches that can work together to build a successful organization. He may not be drawing up plays or coaching a line, but he's finding the right people for the job who can fit his scheme for the whole season rather than week to week or game to game. He's the one watching game tapes with the coordinators and sitting down and deciding if the offensive and defensive schemes fit the overall scheme he sees. For example if the OC designs a bunch of plays that focus on quick, efficient offense and the defense does as well, that might be a conflict in the whole scheme because you would end up with the players dying halfway through the game. The HC's job is like a ceo, surround the organization with capable people, decide the direction to take and how it can all be balanced. Then in the game he has the final say on a play call or halftime adjustments. | [
"A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the \"manager\", as in association football and professional baseball. In other sports such ... |
In a random question of random number predictions (i.e. lottery drawing), is a set of consecutive numbers any less likely to occur than any other combination of numbers? | The set of possible outcomes in a choose k numbers from n possibilities lottery, is the set of subsets of size k from the set of n possibilities, i.e. n!/((n-k)!*k)!.
The set 1,2,3,4,5,6 is just as likely to be drawn as 12,32,33,40,49,52 for example.
However there are only a very small number of consecutive sets versus a much larger set of other combinations, so it will take a very long time before any real lottery will draw a set of consecutive numbers. | [
"In a random sequence of numbers, a number may be said to be cursed because it has come up less often in the past, and so it is thought that it will occur less often in the future. A number may be assumed to be blessed because it has occurred more often than others in the past, and so it is thought likely to come u... |
what are the things you see in the distance on the road on a sunny day that look like water? | Air currents make this shimmer, similar to a reflection of the sky on water, hence causing the illusion of wetness. Mirage is an optical phenomenon very common in sunny days. The sun light in the direction of the road gets refracted do to the temperature gradient (continuous change) of the layers of air. | [
"BULLET::::- Road markers or Cat's eyes – Almost exclusively blue, these are placed on one side or the other of the centre line of the road, to indicate on which side of the road the hydrant lies. They are visible for several hundred meters at night in heavy rain, further in clear conditions.\n",
"Air temperature... |
The evolution of the democrats/republicans | Maybe as a post script:
To clarify my perception of lincoln: Upon revision, he was actually a republican, which further muddies the idea of him being a democratic ideal (ie, freed the slaves, eloquent ((or *verbose*)) statesman.) | [
"The new constitution led to the gradual erosion of the Democratic majority. In 1854, the Republican Party was established and drew in many of the former Whigs. That year the General Assembly was split with no party attaining a majority. The Democrats held the largest number of seats, but the Whigs and Republicans ... |
What are the major challenges to Book of Mormon historicity? | Here are just a few of the reasons:
* It's riddled with [anachronisms](_URL_2_). This also includes life-altering technologies that were not known to the native people such as chariots or steel. (See the great documentary, Guns Germs and Steel for more on this point)
* It's plagued with [plagiarism of the King James Version of the Bible and other sources from the 17-1800s](_URL_6_). This includes copying translation errors accidentally introduced and italicized words added for clarity in the KJV translation.
* The English translation includes references which did not exist at the time the source was claimed to have been written (see the reference to [Satyr](_URL_1_))
* The claimed original record is unavailable for verification. The story being that it was taken back to heaven when the translation was finished.
* The story tells of [wars resulting in millions](_URL_4_) dead, which can not be sourced or confirmed.
* The story includes incorrect declarations of the customs at the time, such as the use of a [coined monetary system](_URL_0_) which represented various weights of crops, or use of steel/metal armor and weaponry during warfare.
* The origin story of [Native Americans being descended from Jews](_URL_3_), and having [once been white](_URL_5_), has been debunked so thoroughly that the religion changed the introduction to the book. Where it once said the small family of Jews were the principal ancestors of the native americans, it now says they are simply among the ancestors. (2005 change)
* Joseph Smith has proven that he is unable to translate ancient works, despite his claims to the contrary. [This example of a gross mistranslation is still in the LDS canon today](_URL_7_)
* The language it was supposedly translated from, reformed egyptian, does not exist. It especially does not exist on any south american ruin, tablet, parchment, or material.
IF the book were a legitimate record, I would not be able to point to any of the items linked above. I would not be able to show a 1700's myth being touted as absolute truth. And we would need to have seen a civilization prior to the spanish conquest with military might and technology to rival the European conquerors.
Furthermore, the claims such as DNA evidence or the latter translations would have been validated by scientific discovery and not disproved.
| [
"Discussion regarding the historicity of the Book of Mormon often focuses on archaeological issues, some of which relate to the large size and the long time span of the civilizations mentioned in the book. A contemporary Mormon view is that these civilizations rose and fell in Mesoamerica. Civilizations of their ma... |
how debt between countries works | Debt isn't between countries. Debt is held by investors who buy the debt in the form of bonds. So U.S. debt is held by whomever decides to invest in U.S Treasury bonds -- about 75% are held by Americans and American institutions. Other counties similarly sell bonds to fund their operations, selling their debt to investors domestic and foreign. | [
"Through a debt-for-nature swap, a debtor country reduces its total outstanding external debt. The debtor country is able to buy back part of its debt in more favorable terms and pay for conservation initiatives rather than debt service. This leads to higher international purchasing power for the debtor country. Al... |
what technologies did we not have a hundred years ago that allows all these surreal skyscrapers and other grand buildings that are being built today? | We had skyscrapers a hundred years ago.
For one, steel is a bit better. We also have some new designs with foundations, etc .
There's also more of a push to expand upwards now that horizontal space is occupied. It's more economical. | [
"The high-tech buildings make persistent use of glass curtain walls and steel structure. It is greatly indebted to modern architecture for this and influenced by Mies van der Rohe's high-rise buildings. Bruce Graham's Willis Tower demonstrates that with glass walls and skeleton pipe structure of steel, a very tall ... |
do dogs actually feel "guilt"? i see photos of dogs looking ashamed to eaten/destroyed something, but is it a genuine emotion on their behalf? | Mostly they react [as expected](_URL_0_) because they take cues from their owner:
> Horowitz was able to show that the human tendency to attribute a “guilty look” to a dog was not due to whether the dog was indeed guilty. Instead, people see ‘guilt’ in a dog’s body language when they believe the dog has done something it shouldn’t have – even if the dog is in fact completely innocent of any offense.
> During the study, owners were asked to leave the room after ordering their dogs not to eat a tasty treat. While the owner was away, Horowitz gave some of the dogs this forbidden treat before asking the owners back into the room. In some trials the owners were told that their dog had eaten the forbidden treat; in others, they were told their dog had behaved properly and left the treat alone. What the owners were told, however, often did not correlate with reality.
> Whether the dogs' demeanor included elements of the "guilty look" had little to do with whether the dogs had actually eaten the forbidden treat or not. Dogs looked most “guilty” if they were admonished by their owners for eating the treat. In fact, dogs that had been obedient and had not eaten the treat, but were scolded by their (misinformed) owners, looked more “guilty” than those that had, in fact, eaten the treat. Thus the dog’s guilty look is a response to the owner’s behavior, and not necessarily indicative of any appreciation of its own misdeeds. | [
"Since the dogs are a symbol of friendship and inviolable loyalty, when their owners die the dogs feel their death; many of these dogs stop eating and do not to separate themselves from their owners' graves. But, with Berganza's life story, the dichotomy of preconceived ideas of friendship and loyalty fade away; th... |
So what do you think about James Clavell's Asia cycle? | I haven't read the rest, but I have a rather low opinion of Shogun's historical accuracy. First and foremost, the events and characters are drawn from history, but not actually historical. That aside, he did a lot of research, got much of the material culture right, and the events themselves are plausible (many characters' stories are based on the lives of real people). However, I think he missed by a wide margin when it comes to historically accurate characterization of the people, culture and "feel" for the times. Much of it is pure orientalist fantasy (*of course* the white guy is well hung and *all* the Japanese ladies can't wait to see it. *Of course* the courtesans have special techniques to give men pleasure and are all too willing to share them with him. *Of course* he's too civilized to give into his base desires at first - in some ways, the outline of the story is the same white-man-irresistible-to-racialized-other-falls-in-love-and-saves-the-day-with-superior-know-how (guns in this case) BS you get in Avatar, disney's Pocahontas and all the rest).
In particular, I feel that he missed in his portrayal of samurai and their ideals of honor and death in bushido. While their are plenty of sources that will tell you all about the strict code of the warrior that samurai lived by, the truth of the matter is that none of those codes ever held real dominance, and were not even created and written down until a bunch of samurai were feeling dissatisfied with their positions as non-fighting, glorified pencil pushers under the Tokugawa. Even then, it wasn't codified or put forward as *THE* way of the samurai until the Meiji era (here's someone's [dissertation on the construction of Bushido in the Mieji era](_URL_2_)). To paraphrase that source, this idealized way of the warrior, although occasionally discussed historically, is largely a creation of later times, born out of cherry picking sources that supported a particular national identity that served state interests around the time of the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905). The historical sources don't really support that notion of warrior culture as being dominant during the times that people claim it came from.
He also missteps is in his depictions of the eta (a derogatory term - now called [burakumin](_URL_3_)) in that he conflates ritual pollution and outcaste status with abject poverty. In fact a number of Buraku communities were quite well off in the premodern era due to their monopoly on leather and other much needed animal goods (Burakumin "liberation" in the 1870s actually hurt Buraku communities in that it deprived them of their traditional monopolies and forced them into constant interaction with mainstream Japanese society, while doing little to end social stigma). In a similar vein, he largely misunderstands the buddhist/ shinto prohibition against meat. It only applied strictly to certain priests, and was practiced to some extent by the court. Fowl and game were a significant part of samurai diets, although there is a critical distinction in that they hunted for their meat rather than raising it as Europeans did.
While it's an engrossing story, in the end I feel that it is more of an Orientalist fantasy of what medieval Japan *could* have been like, rather than an accurate depiction.
**Edit**: If someone's looking for more evaluation of Shogun, here's an apparently free and legal pdf (hosted at _URL_1_) of an edited volume entitled [*Learning From Shōgun: Japanese History and Western Fantasy*](_URL_0_). For more evidence that I'm not just making up the white savior aspect of the story, allow me to share with you this (half joking but still problematic) quote from Clavell, drawn from that PDF:
> My forebears are all military, so I was brought up to be one of these people who ruled the empire. You know, two or three people used to go out and they used to rule the natives. And they used to dress in dinner jacket in the sweltering jungle. When the natives came and killed them, they said, “That’s a terribly bad show, old boy.” And then the British, wisely, would send a battleship and knock off the leader, and say, “Now, look, *please* behave yourselves, because we *really* are better than you, and we really know how to look after you better. (p.14, italics in original)
On the next page, the author continues with more quotes illustrating how Clavell's sense of the main character as a captive, along with his interpretation of Japanese culture came from his time spent in a WWII prison camp. Given the huge disparity in culture and social organization between the WWII Japanese Imperial Army and the samurai of more than 300 years before that, I think we can safely say that projecting those experiences back in time is not a good historical method for recreating a the culture of the times. | [
"The Millennial Asia is a refereed academic journal the provides a platform for discussion on multifaceted, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research on Asia, in order to understand its fast changing context as a growth pole of global economy. \n",
"The Centre on Asia and Globalisation (CAG) was establishe... |
how do forensic investigators find new forensic evidence years after the crime? | Because technology is ever increasing, allowing us to pull DNA off of things that we couldn't before and to detect and trace other things that we could before. It's not the evidence is new, it's just that technology lets us discover more from it. | [
"During the analysis phase an investigator recovers evidence material using a number of different methodologies and tools. In 2002, an article in the \"International Journal of Digital Evidence\" referred to this step as \"an in-depth systematic search of evidence related to the suspected crime.\" In 2006, forensic... |
What did boat drivers do after landing in Normandy? Did they stay on the boats, or they helped on the beachs? And what about boat gunners? Did they dismount the machinegun, or left it on the boat? | In general, small boats, i.e. higgins boats, backed off from the beach and returned to the ships they launched from in order to bring in subsequent assault waves. Landing craft were a valuable asset for logistical support in the days after the landing and were preserved when possible.
There are exceptions to this, of course. Some craft were stuck on the beach or holed by enemy fire and not seaworthy enough to return to the transport ships. I don't have any detailed information on the behavior of these crews.
There is at least one notable case of gunfire from larger landing craft being important:
> In breaking this deadlock during the next hour, naval intervention played an important part. At about 1030 two landing craft, LCT 30 and LCI(L) 44, steamed full ahead through the obstacles off the Colleville beaches, firing all weapons at enemy strong points guarding the Colleville draw. The craft continued to fire after beaching. Not only did their action prove that the obstacles could be breached by ramming, but their fire, though failing to neutralize German positions in the Colleville draw, had at least a heartening effect on the assault troops.
*(from US Army Historical Series: Cross-Channel Attack)*
An LCI would have 4x20mm cannon or similar and an LCT 2x20mm cannon, so their fire would have been slightly heavier than machine guns. Close in support from destroyers 5 inch guns was probably more effective than landing craft fire, since 5 inch guns could actually destroy some German fortifications, not just suppress them.
At any rate, while circumstances varied widely, naval personnel were supposed to stay with their ship and either fight or keep bringing in troops and supplies, not go ashore and try to perform as infantry when they were not equipped or trained to do so.
| [
"During the Normandy invasion of 6 June 1944, a 60-cutter flotilla of wooden 83-foot (25 m) Coast Guard cutters, nicknamed the \"Matchbox Fleet\", cruised off all five landing beaches as combat search-and-rescue boats, saving 400 Allied airmen and sailors. Division O-1, including the Coast Guard-crewed , landed the... |
Why did the Bolsheviks not recapture the Baltic states and Finland? | The short answer is that they did, or in case of Finland, tried to, in 1939.
I cannot speak with authority about the events in the Baltic states, but it should be noted that the Baltic states and Finland were all battlegrounds for revolution. Indigenous revolutionaries were to some extent aided by the Soviet government, and for instance in Finland, the result was a very bloody civil war between the Reds and the Whites. For the initial period, before Germany's defeat in the World War, the White forces were supported by Germany; after the Armistice, Britain in particular provided some support in its attempts to contain the Soviet revolution.
However, as far as I'm aware, the main reason why Bolsheviks did not immediately set out to recapture the Baltic states was simple exhaustion: on top of the losses Russia suffered in the World War, the Russian Civil War continued until 1922 (with minor skirmishes dragging on until 1923 and armed resistance until 1934). The droughts of 1920 and 1921, and the famine of 1921, further sapped the strength of the new Soviet regime, as did pandemics, general disruption, destruction of industry and infrastructure, and the flight of much of the educated class. Foreign adventures that could bring about another military intervention by the Western powers were unappealing at least, if not entirely impossible for years. | [
"After the Baltic states proclaimed independence following the signing of the Armistice, Bolshevik Russia invaded at the end of 1918. \"Izvestia\" said in its December 25, 1918, issue: \"Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are directly on the road from Russia to Western Europe and therefore a hindrance to our revolution... |
will there ever be a day we don't need isps anymore? i'm guessing the answer is "no", but why? | How long have telephone, power, water, gas, and etc... providers been around in most countries? That should give you an indication as to whether or not ISPs will be around for the extent of our lifetime. | [
"Consumers may switch to ISPs with better privacy protections. However this could be difficult for some as many Americans only have a choice of one or two broadband companies in their area according to federal statistics. Senator Ron Wyden states that thus their only choice may be between \"giving up their browsing... |
why don't some programs utilize multiple cores in a cpu if the resources are there to begin with? | It is a big step in programming, multithreading can be complicated depending on what kind of tasks the cores need to do.
Often times multithreading is overlooked because memory management can become a problem, if one core attempts to access something another core is working on it could crash the software. (Obviously that is a very general statement)
In my programming field (games) multithreading is sort of an enigma, because without a detailed programming flowchart it can be very, very difficult to plan ahead for multithreading integration. | [
"CPU migration via the in-kernel switcher (IKS) involves pairing up a 'big' core with a 'LITTLE' core, with possibly many identical pairs in one chip. Each pair operates as one so-termed \"virtual core\", and only one real core is (fully) powered up and running at a time. The 'big' core is used when the demand is h... |
how are cured meats made? what makes them edible? | Curing is a process that involves using salt(normally) to kill organisms living in or on the meat. Smoking technically counts as a cure, I believe, because compounds in wood smoke are hostile to microorganisms as well.
The basic idea is that by inundating the meat with antimicrobial substances, you prevent rotting, mold, parasites and the like from setting in. Thus the meat remains safe because beyond oxidization and dehydration the meat will largely remain the same over time, since no organisms will act on it. | [
"Cured meats have been specifically produced to be edible for a long time. The curing process was used for generations to preserve pork before the invention of refrigeration. During the curing process the meat is dried in salt, which helps to prevent the build-up of harmful organisms, and then is hung to be exposed... |
why is it an issue when a prisoner goes on a hunger strike? | Because it generates attention to his cause. People generally don't go on hunger strikes for frivolous things, so it's probably something relatively important, and will have support from the general public. And if the prisoner dies, it looks really bad for your institution to allow someone to die. | [
"A hunger strike is a deliberate refusal to eat. Hunger strikes are often used in prisons as a form of political protest. Like student strikes, a hunger strike aims to worsen the public image of the target.\n",
"In addition, the food was scarce and non-nutritious. As it was the general understanding of the prison... |
Since there wasn't much clean water, what exactly did people in Medieval times drink? What was that cliché bubbling mug of "Ale" the peasant folk drank that is always so deliciously depicted in movies and shows? | Hello! This has been covered before on this sub.[ Here](_URL_0_) is the relevant section from the FAQ.
[This post](_URL_1_) in particular from /u/idjet covers the topic quite well. To sum it up, the idea that clean water wasn't available in the Middle Ages and that people used beer or ale as a"substitute" for water is a myth. | [
"At times and places of poor public sanitation (such as Medieval Europe), the consumption of alcoholic drinks was a way of avoiding water-borne diseases such as cholera. Small beer and faux wine in particular, were used for this purpose. Although alcohol kills bacteria, its low concentration in these beverages woul... |
I know that the CIA and the AFL-CIO worked close together in order to destabilize the Guyanese government in the 1960s. Were similar tactics used in other Cold War conflicts in Central and South America? Did the CIA and the AFL-CIO both work together to spy on American citizens as well? | I don't know about other nations, but Tim Weiner's *Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA* mentions that the Kennedy Administration had CIA cash funneled through the American Institute for Free Labor Development for use in Brazil. Weiner characterizes the Institute as
> an arm of the AFL-CIO (British diplomats in the know called it the AFL-CIA.)
It wasn't the only channel for financing the Brazilian Right (Kennedy is on the tapes as describing the effort explicitly "against the Left".) but it was one of them. The plan was for $8 million to swing the elections and/or throw a coup, the latter of which happened in 1964, two years after Kennedy talked about it on his new (literally installed the prior weekend) taping system.
Weiner describes the CIA as backing regimes in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, and Venezuela in addition to Guyana as of the late Sixties. He doesn't, so far as I can tell from his index and hunting around just now, implicate the union in efforts outside Guyana and Brazil or in domestic affairs. | [
"Regarded as a \"stronghold of US imperial power in Asia,\" the Philippines capital, Manila, has been the main station or regional headquarters for the United States CIA since the late-1940s. Due to American Filipinos heavily influenced by American culture, the CIA was able to recruit people willing to provide crit... |
how come in 1st world countries the poor tend to be more obese, yet in 3rd world countries the the wealthy are likely to be obese? | because unhealthy over-processed foods are cheap and readily available. | [
"The economic impact of these rising rates and dual burdens of disease looks to be tremendous. Disability, decreased quality of life, greater use of health care facilities, and increased absenteeism are strong associated with obesity. With inadequate resources, poorly construed health systems, and a general lack of... |
why is the u.s. so obsessed with aiding the middle east? | Because of China and oil.
The US and Chinese will soon, if not already are, competing for limited petroleum (oil) resources to power their economies. The middle east is a massive and cheap source of this resource. If the US is in power in the Middle East, they can limit China's access to this all important, economy building resource. | [
"Under rapidly changing geopolitical circumstances, US policy in the Middle East was generally geared toward supporting Arab states' independence; aiding the development of oil-producing countries; preventing Soviet influence from gaining a foothold in Greece, Turkey, and Iran; and preventing an arms race and maint... |
what is character development? | I looked back in your history, you know something about DC, so think about Vibe from the Flash. He's changed so much from the early episodes. It's not just the powers he's acquired, it's the way Experience has shaped him as a person. And yet he's still recognizably the same character. Your main characters should do this. Minor characters, it's less important, but if the plot causes them to experience a life-changing event, like a significant injury or loss of a loved one, you can't have them just go on as before. | [
"The term character development is, in some contexts, used interchangeably with \"character advancement\" (in a sense similar to \"professional development\" or \"Human Development\"), whereas elsewhere \"character development\" refers instead to the player’s indirect characterization of the character through role-... |
why does everyone use the ad and bc years even if they don't follow christianity? | IIRC, Christians were very influential (and still are) when a standard dating system was established. As such, non-christians had to choose between using the standard AD/BC system or inventing their own non-standard system and causing a lot of confusion. Some people tried the latter, but eventually pretty much everybody gave in, and now the system is so normal that it would cause an awful lot of confusion and complaining if we tried to change. | [
"Terminology that is viewed by some as being more neutral and inclusive of non-Christian people is to call this the Current or Common Era (abbreviated as CE), with the preceding years referred to as Before the Common or Current Era (BCE). Astronomical year numbering and ISO 8601 avoid words or abbreviations related... |
During the winter, humans are known to track animals via their footprints in the snow, as we do not posses the same olfactory capabilities as say a wolf. Are there any other animals which have been observed tracking animals by means of visual cues? | A Norwegian study found that kestrels at least seem to be able to track the paths of small animals. [They preferentially hunt over the established vole trails.](_URL_0_). Which if I'm reading your question right is what you're asking, basically using 'historical' sensory data to track prey as opposed to direct sight and chase style hunting. | [
"During one winter in the late 19th century, villagers woke to find mysterious footprints in the fresh snow. It soon became apparent that these had not been made by any human as they were hoofprints made by a creature who walked on two legs and not four. Villagers followed these hoofprints and found that the creatu... |
Is it fair to say that America caused the global (1930s) Great Depression? Were other countries' economic systems as responsible? | I would say America as such is not to blame, but the global economic system at the time, coupled to the circulation of debt.
Debt circulation:
After the Versailles treaty Germany was bound to pay reparations to the victors (France and Great Britain mainly).
America loaned money to Germany, which they in turn used to pay the repairs, which France and Great Britain in turn used to pay their debts to America.
In addition the economies of the European countries lay in shambles post WWI. The US benefited from this initially, through the global food shortage, by increasing wheat production. After a while the European agriculture recovered and prices dropped dramatically, and farmers whom had loaned large sums to grow their business went under causing banks to collapse, next to other forms of 'bad' credit that was readily given out by these banks.
In short this collapsed the US economy, the largest in the world. Loans were called in, dragging the European countries down with the US.
Some say that had the victors been more realistic in their terms with regards to Germany, and possibly accepted pay in kind allowing Germany's economy to develop in stead of deliberately frustrating it, the crisis would not have been so deep, due to the lack of the debt circulation described above.
Others argue that the US, as the new leading global economy, didn't take enough responsibility with regards to giving out credit in their domestic economy to ensure economic stability.
I personally feel the crisis is the result of a combination of both, as supported by the way the US and allies dealt with the aftermath of WWII.
Sources:
- Palmer, a history of Europe in the modern world.
- McNeill & McNeill, The Human Web
*I'll ad the exact chapters later* | [
"The onset of the great depression in 1929 undoubtedly had an astronomical effect on the global economy during the latter years of the interwar period. American credit disappeared with the United States stock market crash in October 1929, severely hurting European businesses and causing a drastic rise in unemployme... |
if someone has amnesia and does something but doesn't remember doing it, would a lie detector be able to pick up that it's a lie? | Lie detectors don't detect lies. They detect reactions that can happen when you lie, like how much you sweat, your heart rate and so on.
So no. You can screw up a lie detector by meditating or having a cup of coffee. | [
"The researchers concluded that simply extracting the self-doubt before an event occurs helps eliminate the feelings of impostorism. It was recommended that the individuals struggling with this experience seek support from friends and family. Although impostor phenomenon is not a mental condition, it can still affe... |
Was Christianity responsible for our cultural aversion to nudity, or did it precede that? | What do you mean by “our”? America? Western Culture? Humanity? You can’t quite answer the question until you clarify who you are talking about. | [
"The primarily sexual meaning of the word \"sodomia\" for Christians did not evolve before the 6th century AD. Roman Emperor Justinian I, in his novels no. 77 (dating 538) and no. 141 (dating 559) amended to his Corpus iuris civilis, and declared that Sodom's sin had been specifically same-sex activities and desire... |
Why do your muscles feel "stiff" after (or when you're recovering) from a stab wound? | Probably a combination of the physical damage that has occurred to the muscle fibers interfering with the smooth contraction of the bundle along with the muscles' healing leading to anaerobic metabolism and the deposition of lactic acid. Just a guess...you get stabbed much? Because, this is an unusual question. | [
"Referred pain is created by ligamentous laxity around a joint, but is felt at some distance from the injury. (Pain will not only occur at the site of the injury and loose ligaments, but may also be referred to other parts of the body.) These painful points that refer pain elsewhere are called trigger points, and w... |
plane turbines | Turbine engine works by pulling in a lot of air, compressing it, burning it, and pushing it through a turbine to keep the other parts spinning. Then the air is ejected out the back. A turbofan is the huge fan on the front of a turbine that acts like a huge propeller that's in a casing if it were to fly off. Theoretically they're very simple devices, but damn they're complicated to actually build haha | [
"The turbine is a high speed, high precision air motor that rotates the bell cup at speeds ranging from 10,000rpm to 70,000rpm, depending on the cup diameter, atomization desired, and physical properties of the paint. Typical turbines for this application use an air bearing, where the spinning shaft is suspended in... |
are all public schools in the united states funded by property taxes? is this why there is a disparity depending on the neighborhood a school is located in? | Schools are funded from a variety of sources (including state, federal, and private funds) but, yes, a substantial part of their funding comes from local taxes (usually property taxes).
Is this unethical? I guess so, in a sense. But keep in mind that public schools are (in most cases) run by municipal governments. There's only so far they can reach when it comes to taxation. | [
"In the United States, schools are funded by local property taxes. Because of this, the more affluent a neighborhood, the higher the funding for that school district. Although this situation seems favorable, the problem emerges when the equation is reversed. In neighborhoods inhabited by predominantly working and l... |
how and/or why do derivatives and integrals work? | Calculus is the mathematics of change, and thus integrals and derivatives measure and formalize change.
A simplified explanation of derivatives can be constructed as such: Imagine you have a line with slope 3. Obviously, if you move 1 unit on that line, your should move 3 units up/down. However, imagine you don't have a line, but some function, say x^2. How much do you move up/down if you move 1 unit left/right? You can't tell, can you? The slope changes, so the question depends on where on the curve you start. There is a big difference moving from (1,1)- > (2,4) as opposed to moving from (3,9) - > (4,16).
A derivative says *"Ok, so what if we just move a tiny amount? how much do you move at that exact spot?"*
The derivative tells you that on x^2 moving left right at some point will cause you to follow the slope 2x..... at that point. move a tiny, tiny bit to the left at (3,9), and you'll move by a tiny fraction up and down in a similar way that you'd move on a line with slope 6.
An integral goes the exact opposite way. It comes along and says
"Ok, if we know how much we change our position up and down at each point, what function would cause us to move that way when we move a tiny bit left/right"?
So, if you know that you're changing 2x at every point, you argue that you'd be following the curve x^2 + C, because we've already seen that this is the case from our derivative case. Derivatives and Integrals are opposites. One cancels out the other. | [
"In finance, a derivative is a contract that \"derives\" its value from the performance of an underlying entity. This underlying entity can be an asset, index, or interest rate, and is often simply called the \"underlying\". Derivatives can be used for a number of purposes, including insuring against price movement... |
what's with the theory that before the big bang everything was compressed to the size of a ping pong ball? | Basically, there are many pieces of evidence where, if you play them backwards, they suggests that at some previous point in time everything in the universe (including the fabric of the universe itself, not just the mass in it), was in the same place. This evidence includes things like "red-shift," where we can see based on the way light moves that everything is still spreading out.
Think about it like watching a train go past you on the road. watching it go past suggests that it came from somewhere else before that along the track. If you watch it long enough, you can figure out its speed, and then figure out where it came from.
Sure, it's possible that the train moved at different speeds at some point---say in a curve or another station---but you can be confident it came from somewhere. Same here. Scientists that study the birth opf the universe spend a lot of time seeing whether the things they see today that suggest the universe all came from a single point actually would have held up in the past, whether the speed was the same, etc . . . So far, the theory is pretty robust. | [
"In the \"balloon model\" the flat sheet is replaced by a spherical balloon which is inflated from an initial size of zero (representing the big bang). A balloon has positive Gaussian curvature while observations suggest that the real universe is spatially flat, but this inconsistency can be eliminated by making th... |
why do wifi routers have multiple antennas? | Since WiFi has to operate in complicated environments, and the chances of signals reflecting off of surfaces before reaching a device is high, There's a real probability that for example, some of the signal could take a more direct route, some could take a less direct route, and they could arrive 1/2 a wavelength apart. this would make the signals destructively interfere and produce a signal dead spot (one reflection is positive as the other is negative, so they cancel). To fix this, having two antennae broadcast the same signal at 1/2 a wavelength apart means that the same set of reflections has to happen twice, which brings the probability of a signal 'dead zone' down. This is known as signal Diversity.
In more modern routers it can be used for 'beam forming' where the router and device can establish a frequency that produces the least destructive (or most constructive) interference, and the router can produce 2 out of phase signals that fit this profile best and cause constructive interference at the device.
Sorry this ELI5 got a bit technical | [
"Fixed wireless services typically use a directional radio antenna on each end of the signal (e.g., on each building). These antennas are generally larger than those seen in Wi-Fi setups and are designed for outdoor use. Several types of radio antennas are available that accommodate various weather conditions, sign... |
why does my microwave heat my chili unevenly? | Microwaves interact primarily with fats and water, so the more dense your intended meal is with those things the less the microwaves can penetrate into the center before being converted into vibrations(heat). Some foods will need to be heated slower or stirred until microwave technology is improved more. It is also imperative that your microwave has a functioning turntable and that your meal is centered on this to aid in the even heating. | [
"Uneven heating in microwaved food can be partly due to the uneven distribution of microwave energy inside the oven, and partly due to the different rates of energy absorption in different parts of the food. The first problem is reduced by a stirrer, a type of fan that reflects microwave energy to different parts o... |
Specific Holocaust denials - the elites were intact | First of all, [here is an older answer of mine](_URL_0_) dealing with direct, German-produced, undeniable evidence for the Holocaust and [here is the Monday Methods on Holocaust Denial](_URL_3_). Arguing with deniers is always a bit of a wasted effort I feel since it is my as well as other's experience that one hardly ever succeeds in convincing them. After all, when you do not even share a premise – that facts are facts – arguing indeed becomes like nailing a pudding to the wall.
Secondly, while there were no specific transports consisting only of artists, politicians and so forth, traditional social elites were as persecuted and experienced the same conditions and level of horrendous treatment as normal people did. While I'll get to a broader discussion of that in a second, one thing that is important here is the specific fate of the German-Jewish community. German Jews experienced a longer period of social ostracizing and state-persecution than other Jewish communities in Europe for they – obviously – lived longer under Nazi rule. At the same time, this also meant that they experienced persecution at a time when genocide was not yet the political goal of the Nazi regime.
From 1933 to about the start of the war (and ultimately ending altogether in 1941), the Nazis' preeminent policy was voluntary and forced emigration. Meaning that the goal of persecution measures and so forth was to encourage Jews to leave Germany by all measures available to them. While the Nazis created whole schemes that used money confiscated from rich German Jews to finance the emigration of poorer German Jews, the period of (forced) emigration was one during which German Jews with either financial or social standing had a somewhat easier time than their poor counter parts; especially when it came to other countries allowing them to immigrate. Scientists like Einstein or Sigmund Freud found more open arms and easier entrance into the US and Great Britain than a Jewish grocer or shoe maker.
I have described the evolution of the Holocaust and anti-Jewish policy in greater detail in [this answer](_URL_4_) but to sum it up quickly: The period between the start of the war and the decision to murder all of the Jews of Europe wholesale at the turn of the year 1941 to 1942 was characterized by a whole slew of plans of how to rid Europe of Jews – most famously the Madagascar Plan – that already carried genocidal overtones. It was also characterized by the increasing ghettoization of Jewish populations under Nazi control, most famously in Poland but also including the German Jewish population.
To this end, the Theresienstadt Ghetto/Concentration Camp came into existence. In order to avoid public protests – [I go into this more here](_URL_2_) – Theresienstadt was created as a Ghetto for Jewish-Germans of prominence and – also critically – Jewish-German veterans of the First World War. The Nazis frequently called it a "Ghetto for the prominent" and although conditions in Theresienstadt belied that fact, being as brutal and unrelenting as in other camps, many of the prisoners were what one can consider famous musicians, artists, politicians and so forth.
The reason I mention all this is because the history of Theresienstadt comes closest to what you are asking about, for all the prominence of the prisoners of the ghetto – which consisted of among others: Esther Adolphine, Sigmund Freud's sister; famous actor Eugen Burg; Robert Desnos, the French Surrealist poet; Alfred Flatow, German Olympic gymnast; Rudolf Karel, Czech composer; Emil Kolben, Czech industrialist; Clementine Krämer, writer and social worker; Georg Alexander Pick, Austrian mathematician; Mathilde Sussin, actress; and many more – were not spared from deportation. Starting already in 1942 and continuing until 1944 the German authorities deported over 46,750 Jews from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz, among them some of the most prominent prisoners of the camp. If even noteable and famous Germans, including veterans who had fought in WWI and were highly decorated in some cases were not save from deportation and death, no Jew in Europe would ever be.
And that was definitely the case. The Einsatzgruppen did not care very much about whom the shot anyways but where there remained a semblance of Jewish social organization – in form of the Jewish councils in the Ghettos – they were far from save either. I go further into this [here](_URL_1_) but where Ghettos were liquidated, meaning its inmates deported to a death camp and/or shot, nobody remained save and members of the Jewish councils were included in such measures.
Basically, in response to the claim you posted: Prominence did not save Jews from being killed by the Nazis. Such a claim has no basis. In fact cases, most prominent among them Theresienstadt as an institution itself, show quite the opposite. | [
"Scholarly response to Holocaust denial can be roughly divided into three categories. Some academics refuse to engage Holocaust deniers or their arguments at all, on grounds that doing so lends them unwarranted legitimacy. A second group of scholars, typified by the American historian Deborah Lipstadt, have tried t... |
Why do we use log when the exponent is a variable, but nth roots when its a constant? | It depends on the context, I guess. There is in general nothing wrong with using nth roots when the exponent is a variable. Here is a context where the two strategies are equivalent:
x = y^z solve for y
1) x^1/z = y (directly by taking the zth root of both sides)
2) ln(x) = z ln(y) (taking the log of both sides)
ln(x)*(1/z) = ln(y)
(e^ln(x))^(1/z) = y
x^(1/z) = y
| [
"Because base 10 logarithms were most useful for computations, engineers generally simply wrote \"log(\"x\")\" when they meant log(\"x\"). Mathematicians, on the other hand, wrote \"log(\"x\")\" when they meant log(\"x\") for the natural logarithm. Today, both notations are found. Since hand-held electronic calcula... |
how did we learn to enjoy singing? | This is actually a very interesting question. Because, as far as I know, it is part of an open question in aesthetics. Consider the book the neuroscience of creativity.
The evolutionary development of art and language, in general, may not have a good explanation (S. Pinker). While others think there may be some benefit. Neil Tyson talks about the benefit of awe and wonder, because it motivates us to invent. But language also means we can't eat and breathe at the same time, which may be a severe disadvantage. | [
"The incorporation of some music or singing training into general education from preschool to post secondary education is common in North America and Europe. Involvement in playing and singing music is thought to teach basic skills such as concentration, counting, listening, and cooperation while also promoting und... |
"You breath in a single atom of Julius Caesars final breath every breath you take." How far can this be extrapolated? | The extent of it depends on a thorough mixing of atoms, and is therefore limited by diffusion. Working out diffusion on a global scale is not easy at all, so it would become very difficult to pinpoint exactly where in the world at each point in history this holds for.
In terms of the question of other oxygen breathing species: If they required oxygen to breath as we do, It would have to mean that their planet had a sufficient mass to stop oxygen being able to exit the atmosphere, as we go here on earth. Therefore, the amount of oxygen being released by such a planet would be more or less nil. Added to this that the chance of even a single atom being able to travel from another solar system to ours make it so improbable that it is basically impossibile, even when you are playing with the number of atoms in a single atmosphere.
I got bored and decided to prove the idea of us breathing in Caesar's last breath, for anyone interested
Working with a breath being a full lung capacity (to maximise the amount of atoms Julius Caesar breathed) That gives us 6L of air to work with. Wolfram Aplha gives this as 7.65g. The mass of the Earth's atmosphere is usually given as 5.1*10^18 kg, so 5.1^10^21 g. Converting this to numbers of atoms gives 1.59*10^23 atoms in 1.06*10^44 atoms, so one atom in every 1.5*10^21 was part of Caesar's last breath. When we breath in, we take in about 500mL of air, or 1.33*10^22 atoms. That means that on average, we breath in 10 atoms that were a component of Julius Caesar's last lung capacity. | [
"BULLET::::- The breath of life, vital air, principle of life (usually plural in this sense, there being five such vital airs generally assumed, but three, six, seven, nine, and even ten are also spoken of)\n",
"Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports 67% approval for \"Breath\", based on six critics. \"Breath\... |
why do power sockets have polarized terminals? isn't ac power non-polarized? | They are polarized to prevent the hot wire from being swapped with the neutral. The neutral is bonded to ground so it is basically at zero volts. Some devices only have a switch or fuse in the hot line so they need polarization to maintain safety. Light bulb sockets need to have the threads connected to neutral for safety when changing bulbs. | [
"Where a \"neutral\" conductor exists in supply wiring, polarization of the plug can improve safety by preserving the distinction in the equipment. For example, appliances may ensure that switches interrupt the line side of the circuit, or can connect the shell of a screw-base lampholder to neutral to reduce electr... |
I’m watching a Netflix show on Julius Caesar and they are saying Caesar had one of his epilepsy episodes in front of the senate and that’s why he left Rome to invade Parthia. I read Caesa’rs biography and it never mentioned him having his seizure in front of the senate. Did that happen? | This does not sound very right at all; firstly, Caesar never invaded or (otherwise went to) Parthia. He was planning a campaign during the final months of his life, but he was assassinated in 15 March 44 BC, three days before his planned date of departure. The "historicity" of Caesar´s epilepsy is much debated and pretty much all the ancient sources give different stories and instances of his supposed fits of epilepsy. All the incidents are recorded from the period late in Caesar's life; late onset of epilepsy is possible, but very rare. Some historians even suggest that his epilepsy might have been a convenient "political illness": epilepsy (or, a large variety of symptoms that could be due to epilepsy or some other illnesses, e.g. brain tumour - the ancients did not have a very good grasp of the medical facts) was associated often with genius in antiquity, and the few reported instances relate to critical moments of e.g. military failure, so it is possible that Caesar feigned/lied about convenient fits of illness, or his admiring biographers explained away his less glorious moments with the illness.
The makers of the show might have gotten inspiration from some ancient sources. Appian (B Civ. 2.110) suggests that Caesar’s convulsions pestered him when he was not active and thus he was always looking for new challenges, and the planned Parthian invasion was therefore partly driven by his illness. This is, of course, just Appian´s own speculation. There is one, sort of, tradition of an instance of a public and again convinient fit of illness in the senate; Dio 44.8 reports that after the Civil War, Caesar failed to customarily stand up in the senate at the approach of consuls and praetors. In the senate, senators were supposed to always stand whenever someone of higher rank and seniority was standing; sitting while others are standing was a hugely important sign of status in Roman culture. So, Caesar's failure to stand was a refusal to acknowledge the seniority of the elected top Republican magistrates and a sign of monarchical hubris. His admirers have apparently explained this unacceptable behaviour with illness; Dio took Caesar to be suffering from diarrhoea, Plutarch in turn thought he was suffering from one of his fainting fits (i.e. perhaps epilepsy). It's pretty impossible to know what was the historical truth about this particular event in the Senate, both Dio and Plutarch are writing 150-200 years after the fact and there was already a very rich and complex and varied and twisted literary tradition about Caesar's life and legacy. But, neither of them link the event in anyway with the invasion of Parthia, and any link does not seem very plausible, not to mention we can't even know if there was any illness. | [
"In some medical literature, Caesarion is said to have suffered from epilepsy, a neurological condition apparently inherited from his father. This thesis has been disputed by paleopathologist Francesco M. Galassi and surgeon Hutan Ashrafian, who have argued that the first mention of potential epileptic attacks can ... |
why can tenured professors teach poorly and stay employed? | The whole point of tenure is so professors can concentrate on research.
The professors primary job isn't to teach, but to make advancements in his or her own field of study. Teaching is like a side gig for tenured professors. | [
"In North American universities and colleges, the tenure track has long been a defining feature of professorial employment, although it is less than universal. In North American universities, positions that carry tenure, or the opportunity to attain tenure, have grown more slowly than non-tenure-track positions, le... |
What is going on during a muscle cramp? More specifically, what is happening in this video of one occurring? (somewhat disturbing video) | ATP (energy) is actually needed in order to uncontract our muscles, what you are seeing is a muscle completely contracted/out of energy | [
"Prolonged muscular action causes sudden, powerful, and painful contractions of muscle groups, which is called \"tetany\". These episodes can cause fractures and muscle tears. Other symptoms include fever, headache, restlessness, irritability, feeding difficulties, breathing problems, burning sensation during urina... |
How were Soviet Factories Profitable? | It didn't work that way. The Soviet Union did not have a market economy with state owned enterprises. Its economy was a planned command economy which utilised the material balance planning system. You may read to last paragraph for tl;dr.
Briefly, the Soviet economy was administered by an agency called the State Planning Committee — **Гос**ударственный комитет по **план**ированию, or Госплан, for short. We'll use English, and call it Gosplan.
Every five years, Gosplan created a plan for the next five years (Five year plans), which was usually quite broad. It would have to decide if it wanted more capital goods (things that help you make other things) or consumer goods (stuff we buy to use). The prices available to the public were set at rates relative to incomes, and industry had to keep up to make enough stuff. This is the "planned" part.
Let's take a random, created example: Gosplan wants a factory to make 500 more cars per year. So they need 500 more engines, 2,000 more wheels, and so on. The factory is given the command to make 500 more cars. It will be supplied with all the things it needs from other factories like motor factories, leather for seats, and so on. Those factories do not choose what to do but are instead told what to do by government bureaus under the aegis of Gosplan. This is the command part, and Gosplan is the commander (mostly).
As you can imagine this is quite complicated. Everything must be worked out in terms of inputs. If you want 500 more cars, you need at least 500 more tonnes of metal. So on and so forth. Gosplan did have financial account sheets (I won't go into this here, but it was not same as our UN system of national accounts, Communists had slightly different one) but it also had to keep track of every type of produced thing. This is called material balance planning.
Factories weren't profitable, and were not intended to be. They didn't sell things at a higher cost than it took to make them, but instead produced goods in accordance with a larger output plan. They would go on working and the state would go on paying the workers, even if it wasn't efficient enough. But if they couldn't make enough stuff, there simply wouldn't be enough stuff in the shops for workers to buy. Gosplan didn't control the whole economy of USSR. There was always allowed a little bit of private activity. But basically, that's how the system functioned. No matter what, the state continued to pay workers in cash for goods whose price was not dependent upon their supply.
edit: soviets themselves used capital to output ratios (ie what did fixed plant produce relative to how much it cost) as a basic measure of what we might call "profitability." the return on investment ratio was important to communists. russian term is Фондоотдачa (fotdootdacha). | [
"During the period of Stalinism, the Soviet Union attempted to achieve economic growth through increased industrial production. In 1927–1928, the sum total of Soviet production of capital goods amounted to 6 billion rubles, but by 1932, annual production increased to 23.1 billion rubles. Factories and industrial en... |
in football (soccer), when a player gets hurt, sometimes you see medics spray something on the area that is hurt. what is that stuff and how does it help? | Lidocaine? Local anesthetic. | [
"One sports injury that is becoming prevalent in contact sports, particularly in the sport of American football, is called a \"stinger.\" An athlete can incur this injury in a collision that can cause cervical axial compression, flexion, or extension of nerve roots or terminal branches of the brachial plexus. In a ... |
brownian motion | Molecules in a fluid are always moving around. They bounce off of each other, and they bounce off of anything solid that they hit.
At any given moment, a solid object will have more molecules bouncing off of one side than the other. For something big like a person, the difference is insignificant, but for something tiny like a single-celled organism, you can actually have enough extra water molecules bouncing off of one side to give the object a perceptible shove. It all averages out in the long run, but if you look at a tiny thing in a drop of water with a microscope, you can see it vibrating as it gets bounced around by the random water molecules. | [
"In mathematics, Brownian motion is described by the Wiener process; a continuous-time stochastic process named in honor of Norbert Wiener. It is one of the best known Lévy processes (càdlàg stochastic processes with stationary independent increments) and occurs frequently in pure and applied mathematics, economics... |
Has a state ever been forced to "release nations" like in the game Europa Universalis 3? | Sure.
Duchy of Warsaw was created as a part of the Treaty of Tilsit following the Franco-Prussian war during the Napoleonic era.
In the 1870's, Bulgaria was created after a Russian-Turkish war.
| [
"\"Europa Universalis\" lets the player take control of one of seven European nations (others are available in different scenarios) from 1444 to 1821, expanding its power through military might, diplomacy, and colonial wealth. The game takes place on a map divided into 3,633 provinces, and proceeds in a pausable re... |
why can't some people develop rhythm or musical talent? | Anyone can learn, some people may have a more naturally disposition to music, but anyone who practices can learn music. I used to not be able to pick up songs by ear but after a while my ear developed. Listen to music and practice your instrument. | [
"A relationship between music and the strengthening of math, dance, reading, creative thinking and visual arts skills has also been reported in literature. (Winner, Hetland, Sanni, as reported in \"The Arts and Academic Achievement - What the Evidence Shows\", 2000) However recent findings by Dr. Levitin of McGill ... |
How does adding vinegar help coagulate poached eggs faster? | The acidity of the vinegar helps denature the proteins in the eggs, leading to coagulation. | [
"Tomato paste is a thick paste made by cooking tomatoes for several hours to reduce the water content, straining out the seeds and skins, and cooking the liquid again to reduce the base to a thick, rich concentrate. By contrast, tomato purée is a liquid with a consistency between crushed tomatoes and tomato paste t... |
Why is the average height of people with Downs Syndrome much shorter than that of someone without? | All symptoms of Down syndrome (DS) are caused by [inheritance of a third copy of chromosome 21](_URL_1_) in some or all of the individual's cells (or, rarely by two particular chromosomes becoming fused at a particular point).
When this happens, we have all the genes on chromosome 21 being expressed dysfunctionally, and interacting dysfunctionally. The interaction and combination of genes, gene-regulating regions, and the environment produces our 'phenotype' (how any given organism, humans included, will appear).
Now, when we have a genetic disorder caused by one gene, everything's relatively simple. But for DS, we have a whole extra chromosome. When the Human Genome Project was ongoing, they estimated it contained ["127 known genes, 98 predicted genes and 59 pseudogenes"](_URL_2_). That's a lot of different genes, which can cause a lot of different things.
It seems in the 90s there was a prevailing belief that a specific region of chromosome 21 was responsible for creating the DS phenotype. This is un-catchily named the "Down syndrome critical region". It seems later on there was some research suggesting this probably isn't the case, and that actually how much of chromosome 21 is repeated in an individual [will affect which symptoms of Down syndrome are more common.](_URL_0_)
Anyway, the general idea that it's hard to say what specifically causes the symptom of reduced height, since there are so many genetic factors to unpick. Individuals with DS are preventing from developing normally, and height factors into this.
& #x200B; | [
"Growth in height is slower, resulting in adults who tend to have short stature—the average height for men is 154 cm (5 ft 1 in) and for women is 142 cm (4 ft 8 in). Individuals with Down syndrome are at increased risk for obesity as they age. Growth charts have been developed specifically for children with Down sy... |
Have there ever been two people that are genetically the exact same? | In the birthday problem, the probability of at least one birthday match among *n* people, assuming birthdays are uniformly distributed among *d* days of the year is
> P(n,d) =1 - d! / [d^(n) (d-n)!]
Since *d* and *n* are integers, this expression is rather clunky to work with directly. There are several ways to find a smooth function of *n* and *d* that approximates P(n,d). One such approximation is
> P(n,d) ≈ 1 - exp( -n^(2)/(2d) )
where exp(x) means e^(x). Note that this approximation gives P(23, 365) ≈ 51.55%, which is very close to the true probability 50.7%. A more conservative approximation replaces *n^(2)* with *n(n-1)*, which would give P(23, 365) ≈ 50.0002%. So the solution to the classical birthday problem really is 23 people.
What you describe in terms of DNA is approximately equivalent to a birthday problem, with n = 10^(11) and d = 10^(10,000).
First, we can ignore the possibility of multiple births with subsets of identical twins. Their DNA is technically not exactly the same, but their DNA is certainly extremely highly correlated. For all intents and purposes of this problem, we can treat identical twins or triplets or quadruplets, etc. as a single effective person. Second, DNA of individuals is not drawn randomly from all possible DNA combinations since your DNA is correlated with that of your parents. Indeed, your DNA is correlated with all of your ancestors, descendants, siblings, etc. The full analysis obviously much more complicated if we want to include any of these correlations in the model.
The simplest possible model, however, is the consideration of, say, starting the human race from a finite initial population. Let's assume that the individuals in the initial population have DNA drawn randomly from all possible DNA combinations. Then you might ask what is the chance that any of these individuals have the same DNA. That is an exact birthday problem with n = size of initial population and d = 10^(10,000). Now if *x* is very small, then 1-e^(-x) ≈ x. Clearly, n^(2)/(2d) is small in our simple model. So the approximate probability that 2 people in the initial population have the same DNA is
> P ≈ n^(2)/(2d) ≈ 10^(-10,000)
So essentially 0.
The next part of the model can then ask questions like: "how many combinations of DNA are in the second generation?" Already the problem is much more complicated since you also have to answer questions about how many offspring each individual has and if individuals are allowed to have more than one mate. You might also want to assume there is always a 50-50 split of males and females. (Or maybe it's a bit easier to start with a model in which there are no sex chromosomes, and any two individuals can mate to produce an offspring.) Mixing of DNA then has to be modeled, but there are simple models that allow for an offspring's DNA to be a random 50-50 split of the parents' DNA, with some other model to account for random mutations.
The size of the initial population will have a strong effect on the diversity of the DNA in any given generation. (In fact, I believe that this is one of the reasons the genome of the Amish population has been studied extensively, since they reproduce only within their community. The current Amish population are all descendants from an initial population of about 250-300 people, as far as I know.) An expert in genetics or some related applied math field can likely shed more light on this problem. | [
"No two humans—not even monozygotic twins—are genetically identical. Genes and environment influence human biological variation in visible characteristics, physiology, disease susceptibility and mental abilities. The exact influence of genes and environment on certain traits is not well understood.\n",
"No two hu... |
where do humans lose (exert) most of their body heat? | All creatures exert heat. It's why you can use infrared to find creatures.
Humans COOL OFF in a way different to other animals. We sweat from every inch of skin, which then evaporates and cools us off. Compared to dogs, which just vent hot hair and suck in cool air from their mouths, and sweat from their paws. We evolved this way because it lets us run for ages, not terribly fast but never, ever stopping. | [
"The human body dissipates heat through perspiration and its evaporation. Heat convection, to the surrounding air, and thermal radiation are the primary modes of heat transport from the body. Under conditions of high humidity, the rate of evaporation of sweat from the skin decreases. Also, if the atmosphere is as w... |
why does soap become more watery when you reach the bottom of the dispenser? | Because your SO puts water in it to make sure you use every last bit before starting the next bottle. | [
"Sea, brackish and other waters that contain appreciable amount of sodium ions (Na) interfere with the normal behavior of soap because of common-ion effect. In the presence of excess Na, the solubility of soap salts is reduced, making the soap less effective.\n",
"With hard water, soap solutions form a white prec... |
why is it that as i grow older i find it harder to laugh at things, and don't laugh at certain things as much as i used to in the past? | Laughter and humor are thought of as an aborted defense mechanism: a situation where tension or surprises are found to be benign instead of a threat.
As you get older, you have greater experience, and it becomes harder to surprise you or to introduce false-tension into situations - you already know all of the knock-knock jokes, and one-liners are too predictable for you now.
You need to be more invested in the joke now in order to appreciate it, like when someone tells a long tale about kissing their sister, and you realize at the end that it's actually a Star Wars story - the humor comes from the surprise of the revelation, which requires your willing suspension of both disbelief AND prediction.
TL;DR - you know the jokes already. | [
"Laughter has proven beneficial effects on various other aspects of biochemistry. It has been shown to lead to reductions in stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine. When laughing the brain also releases endorphins that can relieve some physical pain. Laughter also boosts the number of antibody-producing c... |
Are prisoners of war counted as casualties? | Just to clarify, my understanding of the topic is that KIA/WIA are always counted as casualties, some militaries have counted those with battlefield illness (trench foot, etc.) as casualties, and POWs are typically categorized separately.
However, this is just my understanding gleaned from a layperson's reading of the literature, and not any sort of formal training. Hence why we're appealing to the good folk of /r/AskHistorians. | [
"BULLET::::- Military casualties include deaths of regular military forces from combat as well as non-combat causes. Partisan and resistance fighter deaths are included with military losses. The deaths of prisoners of war in captivity and personnel missing in action are also included with military deaths. Whenever ... |
Does Proxima Centauri have it's own solar system? If so what might it look like? | A point that bears repeating as we continue to discover more planets is that ours is the only "[solar system](_URL_0_)" since our star is Sol. Other systems are called "[star systems](_URL_2_)" or "[planetary systems](_URL_1_)". | [
"Proxima Centauri is a small, low-mass star located away from the Sun in the southern constellation of Centaurus. Its Latin name means the \"nearest [star] of Centaurus\". This object was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes and is the nearest-known star to the Sun. With a quiescent apparent magnitude of 11.13, it is... |
why are salaries at fast food places like mcdonald's so low, even though they're multi-billion dollar companies? | As long as they can find people willing to take the job for minimum wage, there's no reason to offer higher wages. In places where there's a shortage of workers willing to work for those wages, they have to pay more. | [
"Liberal think tank, the Roosevelt Institute, accuses some McDonald's restaurants of actually paying less than the minimum wage to entry positions due to 'rampant' wage theft. In South Korea, McDonald's pays part-time employees $5.50 an hour and is accused of paying less with arbitrary schedules adjustments and pay... |
lacanian psychoanalysis and its major concepts | What else is on your homework today? | [
"Jungian-based psychoanalysis is also deeply rooted in the ideas of liminality. The idea of a 'container' or 'vessel' as a key player in the ritual process of psychotherapy has been noted by many and Carl Jung's objective was to provide a space he called \"a temenos, a magic circle, a vessel, in which the transform... |
what is the maximum amount of calories that can be humanly burned in a day? | Calories are burned by cells. The more cells you have the more calories you can burn. Muscle cells burn the most calories (at least of cells you can have a lot of and work). So the bigger your muscles the more calories you can burn.
Ultramarathon runners burn up to 600 calories per hour and run for 24 hours with few breaks. So that is 14,400 calories. They cannot absorb that many calories from food in that time or even burn that many calories from fat, so they are burning their muscles.
Professional football players burn 800 calories per hour when training but they do not train for 24 hours straight. But going with 800 calories per hour that would be 19,200 in a day. | [
"Humans have a high capacity to expend energy for many hours during sustained exertion. For example, one individual cycling at a speed of through over 50 consecutive days expended a total of 1,145 MJ (273,850 kcal; 273,850 dieter calories) with an average power output of 182.5 W.\n",
"The total energy radiated in... |
why do car companies such as chevy or toyota dissolve their brands (saturn, pontiac, scion) but then keep making the cars under a new brand? how is this advantageous? (i.e. chevy captiva, toyota im, lexus ct200) | I can speak on behalf of the GM side. It is no Chevy that is split into different brands, but GM themselves.
GM (based on strictly USA / Canada) has Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, and Cadillac. When going overseas and into Europe, they have even more brands (Vauxhall, Opel, etc.)
I'll focus solely on the North America brands.
The different brands can be seen as different price breakpoints, no different than Wal-Mart clothes compared to Banana Republic. Pontiac was more of an entry level, lower priced cars. The Pontiac Sunfire, was the equivalent of the Chevrolet Cavalier. Between the two, they sell them with different options and price breakpoints.
The closest comparison to it with new cars would be the Chevrolet Suburban, GMC Yukon, and the Cadillac Escalade. All are essentially the same vehicle, just rebranded. Someone will want an Escalade as a status symbol, and will have the exact same features as someone with a GMC Yukon. | [
"As the U.S. entered into a recession, the Big Three automakers discontinued brand divisions as a cost-cutting measure. General Motors discontinued the Pontiac and Saturn models in 2010 (which was done earlier when the Oldsmobile brand disappeared in 2004), and Ford sold its Volvo division (which was previously a s... |
Does mass quantum tunnel out of black holes? | One derivation of Hawking radiation is by calculating the quantum tunneling from inside to outside the black hole. | [
"When a pair of virtual particles (such as an electron and positron) is created in the vicinity of the event horizon, random spatial positioning might result in one of them to appear on the exterior; this process is called quantum tunnelling. The gravitational potential of the black hole can then supply the energy ... |
why can't we just chew food for the taste and then spit it out to avoid the calories? | The reward pathways in our brain our wired in a way that certain things make us feel good. One of those things is pleasant taste, another is eating, and we can tell the difference.
We can enjoy food for its taste, but we don't get the positive feeling of *eating* until we actually swallow (and then we feel good when our stomach has something to digest).
Without swallowing, it's like only getting halfway to success, and as animals, we don't like that. | [
"A study found that unchewed meat and vegetables were not digested, while tallow, cheese, fish, eggs, and grains did not need to be chewed. Chewing stimulates saliva production and increases sensory perception of the food being eaten, controlling when the food is swallowed. Avoiding chewing, by choice or due to med... |
Has the US military (including any branch such as the Navy, Marines, Army, etc.) ever been used in a military style parade in the United States? | Well we can start with the obvious basic fact, that the military has been a participant in a vast number of parades not directly linked to an ongoing conflict, or recently ended one, and that includes the 4th of July.
It just usually takes the form of a ceremonial marching contingent, assorted bands, and maybe some mounted cavalry when time and location appropriate. Instances with more broad participation, with towed artillery, armor, support vehicles, and timed flyovers, etc are far less common, and typically very context dependent. Things like the 1946 WW2 Victory Parade in NYC, or the Gulf War parade, or IKE and JFK's inaugurations as the Cold War escalated are good examples here.
Nor is this a new trend, and has as much philosophical origins as practical. Remember the Founding and Framing generation were not generally big fans of standing armies, many could still remember Boston under British occupation before the Revolution, and of course the actual war itself. Even those that did support a regular force werent looking for a large one. Thus local militia units played a far larger role in public celebrations, reviews and parades, gun salutes and all that with the role still today carried on by many communities having local National Guard units in their own small parades for 4th of July and other holidays. So another aspect of military participation in public celebration but one reflective of the fact that for 150 years the US Army was relatively small, not concentrated near major urban centers, and institutionally not occupying the same respected central space it does today.
We should also draw a distinction with the Fleet Week celebrations around the nation annually, which were in essence semi organized celebrations that the Navy decided to officially support in an attempt to better shape their public image. As while a ship at a dock is less worrisome to the American sense of distrust of an motives of an overt military display, its also much easier to forget about and ignore. And again the modern iteration of FLeet Week, with the big ones in NYC, SF, and other cities only took off in the early 80's amidst renewed Cold War tension and the 600-ship Navy initiative. And a similar story with the air shows many bases host each year, a cool jet just doesnt hit the cultural sensitivity to an assertive military domestically that tanks rolling down main street in peacetime do.
So yes there has been at least military participation in many public celebrations including the 4th, going back to the early national history, but rarely anything more than a ceremonial contingent, and usually as just one of several organizations participating. With exceptions being very context heavy.
The Smithsonian did a nice article tracing the history of Presidential participation w/respect to the military in 4th of July celebrations recently, and it also has a few quotes with regards to the Gulf War parade. Showing that for that event too there was concern about its use not as a celebration of the American fighting men and women, but as a tool of political optics as President Bush geared up for a reelection campaign. _URL_0_ | [
"Military parades in the American capital are held quadrennially by servicemen of the United States Armed Forces during the Presidential inaugural parade. These are not considered to be regular military parades however, as the parading formations are actually not entirely composed of armed servicemen. The first kno... |
Did the Soviets ever suggest the US faked the moon landings? | No, in fact Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were widely know in the population and praised for their "exceptional achievement" by Soviet newspapers.
Though it should be noted that it received way less attention than any development Soviet in space program.
It was recognised but not detailed reported about, to not make it look like a Soviet defeat like it was portrayed in the west.
> Soviet Premier Alexsey Kosygin complimented U.S. on lunar landing and expressed interest in widening U.S.-U.S.S.R. space cooperation during July 21 Moscow discussion with former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, who was ending Soviet visit.
Sources:
Collection of Press releases from [Nasa](_URL_1_)
[Picture](_URL_0_) from the Pravda front page.
| [
"Moon landing conspiracy theories claim that some or all elements of the Apollo program and the associated Moon landings were hoaxes staged by NASA, possibly with the aid of other organizations. The most notable claim is that the six crewed landings (1969–72) were faked and that 12 Apollo astronauts did not actuall... |
Could our universe be contained by a much larger system that obeys different laws of physics? And if so, could they interact? | There are quite a few possibilities here, I'll summarize some of the more well-known ones. Note that all of this amounts to speculation, and none of it is proven, but it's not my speculation, but rather that of physicists working in these areas:
* First, just from a mathematical perspective, if our universe is embedded in some greater hyperdimensional space, the most likely scenario is that we could not affect that "external" space but it could affect us. To understand this, imagine the 2D world on a sheet of paper: a creature confined to the 2D surface of the paper can't do anything in the 3rd dimension, but we can poke our fingers through the paper and have a significant effect on their dimension. See [Flatland](_URL_4_) for more along these lines.
* The [Many Worlds Interpretation](_URL_3_) (MWI) of quantum mechanics basically says that every quantum event has every possible outcome, resulting in an infinite number of "parallel" universes. In this case, interaction might occur at the quantum level. Quantum computation pioneer David Deutsch, an MWI proponent, has posed the question of where quantum computations run, since they are able to explore far more possibilities than classical computations - his answer is that they must run in other universes. In that case our interactions with other universes might include receiving a bill from those universes for resource usage...
* String theory gives rise to the speculation that we may live in a [brane world](_URL_1_), in which our 3+1 dimensions are a subset of a more complex space. In that case, various kinds of interactions might occur between branes, such as collisions and leakage of forces across branes, although as in bullet #1 above we'd be unlikely to be able to do anything to affect things outside our brane.
* More generally, string theory also speculates that [extra dimensions](_URL_0_) may exist. One possible reason we don't experience them is that they may be "compact" - too small to detect. An interesting aspect of these hypotheses is that in principle, some versions of it could conceivably be testable.
* Some hypotheses about the Big Bang suggest that our observable universe is only a part of the universe that happened to undergo inflation, and thus grow exponentially larger than other parts of the universe. See e.g. [Eternal inflation](_URL_2_). In that case other uninflated regions of the universe would be inaccessible to us - too far away, and too small.
That's off the top of my head, I probably missed some...
| [
"Because of the fundamental nonsimultaneity of universal structuring, a single, simultaneous, static model of Universe is inherently both nonexistent and conceptually impossible as well as unnecessary. Ergo, Universe does not have a shape. Do not waste your time, as man has been doing for ages, trying to think of a... |
what does video shot with 70mm film look like in comparison tonother types of film and why would quentin tarantino want to use it? | Hateful 8 was shot in a system called [Ultra Panavision 70](_URL_1_), which was probably most famously also used for [Ben Hur](_URL_0_), if you want a point of comparison.
The main advantage of the format is that a 70mm film negative is [much](_URL_3_) larger than the more typical Super 35mm negative, or virtually any digital camera sensor available. That makes it unwieldy and expensive (which is why it's not used more), but it also means the format is capable of producing unusually high quality images.
Another factor is that, because Ultra Panavision 70 is a 40+ year old system that hasn't been under active development, the lenses available for it are similarly old designs, and while they may not be as technically perfect as more modern lenses, they lend a unique "character" to the images they produce, that he evidently finds desirable. As an example, some Panavision lenses are highly sought after because (in addition to being very nice lenses) they producing characteristic [blue flares](_URL_2_) (~20 seconds in), that are considered desirable by many directors/dp's. | [
"Cinematographer Janusz Kamiński shot the movie with high-speed film in Super 35 format to increase the overall grain, which Spielberg preferred to the then-emerging digital video format. The movie's camera work is very mobile, alternating between handheld and Steadicam shots, which are \"exaggerated by the use of ... |
why does a ship captain face prosecution for abandoning his or her sinking ship? | I thought he faced manslaughter charges for running the ship aground, which is different than abandoning the ship. I could be wrong though. | [
"In some cases the captain may choose to scuttle the ship and escape danger rather than die as it sinks. This choice is usually only available if the damage does not immediately imperil a vast portion of the ship's company and occupants. If a distress call was successful and the crew and occupants, the ship's cargo... |
electricity bills and how to keep them low? | 1. quit using air conditioning.
2. quit using your refrigerator.
3. live alone.
4. use a fan for cooling.
5. have gas water heater and heating.
Source: lived on my own for about 3 years. Electricity bill was about 6 dollars during that time for running a computer. (30ish total for garbage pickup as well) Gas bill came to about 60 I think.. might have been less during the summer. bout double + a little during winter
Basically, live like before electricity. | [
"There is strong basis for charging electricity consumption bill according to affordability of consumers (reasonable tariff for 300-500 units - this step will reduce electricity theft), incompetency of people because of resources can be noticed that even they had given no importance to a religious decree issued in ... |
why does the united states lack efficient public transportation? it's nearly impossible to go to places without renting a car. | It depends on where you are. In New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle, public transportation is a great way to get around. It's not viable for most of the country because the US is too spread out for public transit to be effective. Public transit is only effective if you can serve a lot of people with your bus stops. Japan has a population density of 873 people/mi^2. England has a population density of 1014 people/mi^2. The United States has a population density of 90 people/mi^2.
Our cities are spread out further too- the distance from Portland to San Francisco is about double the distance from Dublin to London. Things are better in the north east, so you do have viable transit between Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, but that doesn't really help people in Chicago or Memphis. | [
"As a result of the transportation systems in use, but not adequately meeting the needs of those who rely on them, they tend to generate low revenue. And with minimal revenue or funding the transportation systems are forced to decrease service and increase fares, which causes those in poverty to face more inequalit... |
why does the body randomly jolt? | Hi there ! These sound like hypnagogic jerks , a type of myoclonus. Myoclonus is a muscle reflex , which has lots of causes , but is most usually an involuntary benign spasm due to overexcitability of the areas of the brain that control movement or the ‘startle’ reflex (although nobody is really sure what exactly causes them !) . Hypnagogic jerks are these myoclonus things that happen when we’re tired or just falling off to sleep, so if you’re having this when you’re relaxing , on your phone etc. , it may be that you need to get some rest !
Whilst they are almost certainly benign, if you’re concerned, you could go to see a neurologist about this symptom, as there are some rare causes that are serious diseases.
I hope this helps !
Source : final year UK medical student xx | [
"Shock is the state of not enough blood flow to the tissues of the body as a result of problems with the circulatory system. Initial symptoms may include weakness, fast heart rate, fast breathing, sweating, anxiety, and increased thirst. This may be followed by confusion, unconsciousness, or cardiac arrest as compl... |
why do tatoos last for ever? | That isn't strictly true. Not all cells will be replaced by new cells. For instance, the neurons you're born with are the ones you're going to die with. The skin itself does replace itself very often, or at least the very top layer called the epidermis. The dermis, under the epidermis, is where tattoo ink goes. However, cells here don't get as frequently renewed. More importantly, cell renewal doesn't really affect tattoo ink.
Tattoo ink sits outsdie of cells, between them. Some white blood cells can come in and try to take it away, but the largest particles can't be broken down easily, so the ink remains. Or at least the majority of it (which is why touchups are needed). The ink can be broken down with a laser into smaller particles, allowing them to be taken away. This is how tattoo removal works | [
"Airbrushes can also be used to apply temporary airbrush tattoos. An artist sprays ink onto the skin through a stencil. Often, the resulting design mirrors the look of a permanent tattoo, without any pain or discomfort. In the past, TATs might only last a week, but now, the best inks can last up to two weeks or lon... |
Does the body adapt hearing based on the environment? | My understanding is that your little hairy listening things in your ear are kind of hiding during the storm like turning down the listing capabilities of your ears and your brain thinks everything is less loud than it is. When there is less loud noise they will come back out of hiding and you will hear everything as louder. Unless you constantly expose them to noise or never let them rest then they will take long periods of time to recover or they won’t at all. Your brain will turn up the intensity that it is trying to hear from a ear that is hiding from sound and you will be like me. Mr tinnitus. Ringing or heartbeats when it’s quiet sucks. | [
"King discovered that the mammalian brain contains a spatial map of the auditory world and showed that its development is shaped by sensory experience. His work has also demonstrated that the adult brain represents sound features in a remarkably flexible way, continually adjusting to variations in the statistical d... |
Alphonse Capone experts: Could information provided in a reddit AMA have helped Capone if it had ever surfaced years ago? | I looked into this.
The infamous trial against Al Capone which convicted him of tax evasion took place in 1931. The woman in question said that she was born in 1914. In this particular quote: ["First, I changed my baptismal certificate so that I could start working at the age of 12 after my father was killed by a streetcar."](_URL_0_) She mentioned that she started to work at age 12. That would put this around 1926, several years before the trial in question. The only major accusation that could have brought Al Capone to trial in 1926 is the killing of William H. McSwiggin, however there was not enough evidence for a trial.
It's an absolute tragedy to lose ones father at such a young age, and while I can't confirm the fact that a jury member from an Al Capone trial was involved, it doesn't seem likely. The woman in question would have been 16/17 around the time that the Al Capone trial was taking place and not 11/12 like she stated she was when she had to start working after her father died. | [
"Now the goal was to track down the bookkeepers to get them to testify that \"A\" and \"Al\" were references to Capone in the ledgers. For over three weeks Wilson evaluated handwriting from every single one of Capone's associates. He checked voter registers, bank deposits, bail bonds certificates, and other documen... |
Can a tidally locked planet have distinct lunar phases? | Yes, because lunar phases are caused by the moon orbiting orbiting the planet. You wouldn't have a day-night cycle in a tidally locked planet, but any moon will still have to be in orbit. Thus, the time between moonrise and moonrise in a specific location would take a month, during which the moon will show all phases (some of which hidden behind the planet). | [
"Being tidally locked to a giant planet or sub-brown dwarf would allow for more moderate climates on a moon than there would be if the moon were a similar-sized planet orbiting in locked rotation in the habitable zone of the star. This is especially true of red dwarf systems, where comparatively high gravitational ... |
how did insects evolve to resemble plant life? | Insects with mutations that cause them to look like plants are eaten less often than insects that aren't. This causes the plant-mimicing-insects to have more offspring that themselves look like plants, whereas the non-plant-looking-insects do not, because they were eaten by birds, and are now dead and therefore can't have kids.
Over time, the vast majority of the population is from the lineage of that original plant-mimicing-insect, and they all look remarkably like plants. | [
"The evolution of insects is closely related to the evolution of flowering plants. Insect adaptations include feeding on flowers and related structures, with some 20% of extant insects depending on flowers, nectar or pollen for their food source. This symbiotic relationship is even more paramount in evolution consi... |
why is a crash in house prices a bad thing? as a first time buyer, it would be a benefit to me if houses were cheaper, right? | It's a buyer's market now, so yes, if you have the money, it's a great time for you.
But, imagine that you had borrowed $100,000 for a house a few years ago. Now, the housing price has dropped, and your house is only worth $50,000, market price. You are paying off a $100,000 loan for an object worth $50,000. You see the problem? A lot of people were expecting the housing prices to stay level, if not rise. They lost money, on top of having to pay their loans. | [
"Banks offered 40-year mortgages and, more recently, 50-year mortgages. While some observers suggest that a soft landing will occur, others suggest that a crash in prices is probable. Lower home prices will allow low-income families and young people to enter the market; however, there is a strong perception that ho... |
if there’s no sound in space how do astronauts speak to mission control or each other? | TLDR: The have radios
Inside a space craft there's air so their is sound.
Outside the spacecraft they're in space suits that are filled with air so you can breath and so you can make sounds, and they have radios to communicate with the ship and ground. | [
"The default version of \"Orbiter\" has no sound, however a popular add-on called \"XRSound\" is available. It provides engine noises, ambient sounds in the cabin, radio chatter and other sounds including playlists. Options enable the user to maintain a realistic silence when the craft is viewed externally during s... |
Did the atomic bombs help end the war? I've always believed they did but current article claims they did not. | Kuznick is an advocate of what might be negatively called an extremely "revisionist" position on the atomic bombings. This argument is not a new one — the question of whether the atomic bombs ended the war or were necessary to end the war [has been debated since the 1940s](_URL_0_), but got more steam in the late and post Cold War. The basic argument is that Japan was already defeated, and that what ended the war was that the Soviet Union invaded Manchuria.
There are some versions of this argument that are more persuasive than others. Kuznick is what I would consider to be on the far "left" side of that particular stance (with the 'orthodox' "two bombs were necessary to end the war and they did" argument somewhere on the right end of things). I think most historians of this period are somewhat more in the center of things, what J. Samuel Walker calls [the "consensus" view](_URL_1_). This position recognizes the strongest and most persuasive parts of the "orthodox" and "revisionist" arguments but also tries to get around their shortcomings.
The "orthodox" argument ignores that in some ways the US did not exhaust its options in avoiding the use of the bomb, typically ignores the Soviet component, and generally warps the "decision" to use the bomb into an [overly simplistic binary choice](_URL_2_) ("bomb or invade," which pretty much locks you into "bomb"). (And the fact that the "orthodox" argument is itself a deliberate historical construction by several of the people who were involved in dropping the bomb, largely as a response to criticism, gets swept under the rug by people who advocate it.) The "revisionist" argument makes the US leaders far too prescient, ignores that one can have multiple motivations for things, and expresses far too much confidence on matters that are very hard to determine (like whether the Soviet invasion or the atomic bombings were more or less influential on the Japanese decision to surrender — they are hopelessly entangled as they happened near-simultaneously).
Anyway. Kuznick's approach isn't totally outside the bounds of good historical scholarship (Hasegawa's _Racing the Enemy_ makes the same argument), but he has a definite "slant" to how he reads things. That doesn't make him different from other historians. But I think you'd find most historians of the subject to be a little more moderated. He is correct, though, that the simple notions of the "orthodox" version — which is what most people know and are taught — are not considered accurate by most historians. The questions being asked — were the bombs necessary? did they cause the Japanese to surrender? — are not easy to answer. | [
"Even before the American pamphlets warning of the great power of atomic explosions, newspapers commenting on the atomic attacks reported that the bombs could not be taken lightly; \"The Nippon Times\" reported that it was clearly intended to kill many innocent people, to end the war quickly, and others proclaimed ... |
How much trade was there between the aboriginal people of Australia and surrounding areas (such as Indonesia or the Polynesians? | With Polynesia, none. But with Indonesia, the story is very different. Macassan traders and fishermen from Sulawesi had been sailing to Arnhem Land and the Kimberley since at least the 1700s, though there's disagreement over exactly how long they've been doing this. Rock art in Arnhem land depicting Macassan vessels has been dated to at least the 1660s and perhaps as early as the 1510s. Some old camping sites associated with Macassan, distinguished by the presence of taramind - a tree brought to Australia from Indonesia by such sailors - have been dated to between 1170 and 1520 (though there is some suspicion that the older dates represent a purely Aboriginal settlement phase at the site, predating the arrival of foreign traders). A 12th Century coin from Kilwa - the dominant Swahili port in East Africa - has been found on an island off the coast of Arnhem Land. Whether it got their as part of 12th Century trade routes across the Indian Ocean or whether it was brought much later by the Portuguese who pillaged the Swahili coast on their way to the East Indies is a matter of some debate. In the oral history of the Yolngu (the people of eastern Arnhem Land), the Djanggawul Ancestors encounter a people called the Baijini who came down from the north to fish for trepang and brought tamarind with them, but were said to pre-date the Macassans, so perhaps another group arrived from Indonesia before the Macassans did.
Historically, between 60-70 Macassan vessels, with crews of about 30 men each, arrived each year in Arnhem Land. They made camp along the shore and worked with the local Yolngu to harvest and process trepang - sea cucumbers - that were then sold to the Chinese. In exchange for their assistance and the right to use their land and waters, the Yolngu received goods from the Macassans: metal tools and weapons and cloth being the main items of traded. Many Yolngu joined the Macassan crews and sailed back and forth between Indonesia and Australia, and many Macassans married into Yolngu families.
Along the coast of the Kimberley, the story is a bit different, at least historically. There the Macassans might have overstayed their welcome or otherwise ran afoul of the *wunan* (also spelled *wurnan*) - the law that governs trade relations in the Kimberley. The oral history here indicates that the people of the Kimberley felt that they had been cheated out of their due by the Macassans. By the time Europeans showed up the Macassans had to fortify their seasonal camps and were subject to raids and thefts. | [
"Before European settlement of Australia, Makassan trepangers from southwest Sulawesi established trading contact with Indigenous communities in northern Australia as early as 1640. They constructed outdoor factories to process trepang, a type of sea cucumber prized by Chinese traders, but did not establish permane... |
What is the main difference between Cold, Hot and Warm dark matter? | This isn't the entire story, but the main difference is the mass. Massive particles (*e.g.*, the postulated WIMPS) would be moving very slowly (nonrelativistically), and are called "cold". At the other extreme are neutrinos, which are still moving near the speed of light, and are called "hot" (although there aren't enough of them to be the entirety of the dark matter). Particles with intermediate masses would have intermediate speeds. Hence "warm". | [
"Warm dark matter (WDM) is a hypothesized form of dark matter that has properties intermediate between those of hot dark matter and cold dark matter, causing structure formation to occur bottom-up from above their free-streaming scale, and top-down below their free streaming scale. The most common WDM candidates ar... |
What would a grocery store in the early 1900s look like as far as selection of meat goes? | Modern "grocery stores" are actually what you would call "super markets" where you can find a wide variety of durable goods, preserved foods, as well as fresh produce, meat, baked goods, etc. This is a historically fairly modern invention, dating back to around the mid 20th century.
Historically, there would be a variety of different vendors for various foods that one could find in a market, similar to today's "farmer's markets" in the US. Back then there were storefronts that sold foods but primarily they would have been long-lived dry goods like spices, tea, sugar. Things with high shelf-lives and also high prices relative to their size. Around the mid 19th century or so that started opening up as more ways of preserving foods started becoming common and as industrial food production started ramping up (with things like canned foods, prepared mixes, and so forth).
However, to answer your question, people would have gone to a butcher for meat in the early 1900s, or bought (or killed themselves) whole animals. Things like chickens, turkeys, geese, fish, etc. might be expected to be bought whole then cleaned and dressed at home by whomever was doing the cooking for the household. Things like cows or pigs one would typically have gone to a butcher to get cuts. And what was available would be highly variable depending on where one lived and what the regional traditions were.
Someone living in the French countryside would probably find a much different variety of cuts and products available at their local butcher than someone living in, say, New York City, or Chicago, or San Francisco, or St. Louis.
Also I should re-emphasize that butchering techniques and cuts depend on local culture and regional popularity. Different regions and cultures practice different butchering techniques (such as seam butchery versus, I guess you'd call it "bandsaw butchery") and have different favored cuts and preparations. For example, bacon in the US and Canada has long been different from bacon as it's known elsewhere (which tends to be either some type of back bacon, fatback, or peameal bacon). Different meat primals might be cut up in different ways and made up into different steaks/cuts or processed into different foods (sausage, hams, ribs, etc.) depending on local demand, traditions, etc. | [
"The store incorporated shopping baskets, self-service branded products, and checkouts at the front. Removing unnecessary clerks, creating elaborate aisle displays, and rearranging the store to force customers to view all of the merchandise in a continuous path, were just some of the characteristics of the early Pi... |
How effective/powerful was the military of the british empire late 18th century-ww1? | You are right.
Throughout this period, Britain had the most powerful and probably the 'best' navy in the world.
Britain was also the richest country in the world through most of this period, which certainly helped.
Through most of this period, Britain, being blessed by being an island nation, with no land borders to defend, did not have a particularly strong army.
There were only two times in the period when Britain's army could be possibly described as world class.
One was in the latter stages of the Napoleonic wars, when the British army that fought its way across Spain into France, and contributed strongly to the victory at Waterloo, was very good (though still not very large compared to some of the other armies of the time).
The second was in the latter stages of WWI, when Britain had a very large army which was perhaps the best in the world. | [
"The history of the British Army spans over three and a half centuries since its founding in 1660 and involves numerous European wars, colonial wars and world wars. From the late 17th century until the mid-20th century, the United Kingdom was the greatest economic and imperial power in the world, and although this ... |
why does a change in pressure not affect the equilibrium constant in chemistry? | The equilibrium constant is the product of chemical activities of the products of a reaction, divided by the product of chemical activities of the reactants.
The thing is, with gasses, the activity is usually considered to be that gas's partial pressure. So if pressure was also included into the equilibrium constant... it wouldn't be a constant any more.
As to why temperature affects the equilibrium constant but total pressure doesn't, well, temperature is how much molecules or atoms move around, and this directly affects them colliding with one another. This is what causes chemical reactions, so temperature will have a direct effect on how much two opposite chemical reactions balance each other.
However, pressure is just how much atoms of a gas press walls that surround the gas. This does not have a direct effect on reaction speed and therefore on equilibrium... unless one of the gasses is involved in the reaction, in which case it's the partial pressure that counts, as seen above. | [
"If the pressure is increased by the addition of an inert gas, then neither the composition at equilibrium nor the equilibrium constant are appreciably affected (because the partial pressures remain constant, assuming an ideal-gas behaviour of all gases involved). However, the composition at equilibrium will depend... |
How harmful is it to stop urinating mid-stream? | No, it actually builds muscle control and can be helpful later in life when let's say your bladder control isn't as good. | [
"There existed a practical alternative where a public urinal is stopped in order to wait for it to fill. Then a person would enter it and submerge his penis into the urine of previous users. This was alternatively called dipping.\n",
"Urininary urgency has been described as being similar to a fight-or-flight resp... |
what is a cashless society? | A society where you don't carry cash. You pay with debit cards, credit cards, or services like Apple pay. I guess you could even pay with checks, but that's not really a primary method in today's cashless societies. | [
"A cashless society describes an economic state whereby financial transactions are not conducted with money in the form of physical banknotes or coins, but rather through the transfer of digital information (usually an electronic representation of money) between the transacting parties. Cashless societies have exis... |
Has there ever existed a true "hidden/sunken treasure map"? Or has anyone stumbled upon such treasure? | Yes! While I'm not aware of treasure maps, sunken treasure can be and has been found. In fact, in St. Augustine, FL it is not uncommon to see pieces of such treasure for sale in antique shops...obvious treasure such as gold coins, jewelry, and the like, as well as ornate cannons, sextants, compasses, and more. Imagine, in hundreds of years of shipping, not every vessel survived the voyage, and in many cases they didn't have the technology required to recover their lost goods, so they were left to the seafloor for centuries.
One of my favorite tales I discovered is that of infamous pirate Captain William Kidd. In 1699 captain Kidd commandeered a ship from the East India company called the Quedagh Merchant: a 500 ton Armenian vessel loaded down with fabrics, silver, and gold. Well, after over 300 years it finally turned in 2007... In the Dominican Republic, off the coast of Catalina Island under a measly ten feet of water. What's more is that somehow no one had discovered it in all that time and it remained virtually untouched, although Kidd's men, who he had entrusted with it, apparently looted it and burned it at anchor.
Now, they are in the process of turning it into an on-site underwater museum. Although it is true much of the precious cargo was looted by the pirate crew, to find a 300 year-old vessel of historical significance that has been the mission of treasure hunters for just as long, loaded down with 26 cannons, is still a pretty amazing find, especially considering the location.
So what happened to Kidd? Although he felt he was acting within the bounds of his capacity as a privateer, the British Empire saw otherwise, and it was the Armenian owners of the Quedagh Merchant that supplied the key testimony leading to Kidd's execution for piracy and murder in 1701. He was hanged...twice. The first time, the rope broke, so they hung him again and had him gibbeted over the Thames river, where he would stay for three years as a reminder to how the Empire felt about its privateers overstepping their bounds.
Kind of makes you wonder what other sorts of things are right under everyone's noses?
Source material:
_URL_0_
_URL_1_
_URL_3_
_URL_2_ | [
"Over the years many people have claimed to have discovered maps and other clues that led to pirate treasure, or claim that historical maps are actually treasure maps. These claims are not supported by scholars.\n",
"A treasure map is a variation of a map to mark the location of buried treasure, a lost mine, a va... |
Do we have any indication that the classic "Lincoln voice" that's used in almost all modern depictions of him is at all accurate to how he sounded? | Quite the opposite, in fact - his contemporaries commented on his thin, reedy-sounding voice. [This website](_URL_0_) collects some quotes about it:
> Lincoln's voice was, when he first began speaking, shrill, squeaking, piping, unpleasant; his general look, his form, his pose, the color of his flesh, wrinkled and dry, his sensitiveness, and his momentary diffidence, everything seemed to be against him, but he soon recovered.
--William H. Herndon letter, July 19, 1887
Daniel Day-Lewis took a lot of flak for his portrayal of Lincoln with a high-pitched voice in *Lincoln*, but it was a lot more accurate than the deep, stentorian voice usually seen. | [
"Lincoln, let it be recorded, had a terrible singing voice. Sandburg wrote about the sixteenth United States president: \"His voice was tenor in pitch, and managed tunes in a reciting, singsong tone. A song titled 'Legacy' was a favorite with groups who heard him substitute his own words 'old gray' for the regular ... |
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