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How common was it for girls under the age of 15 to get married to men before recent times? | From the medieval period, the church said you could be betrothed before puberty, but you could not be married until both parties could assent to it, which coincided with puberty - generally assumed to be 12 for girls and 14 for boys. That was a minimum however, and there was a fair amount of commentary which said that you shouldn't get married at the earliest age possible as your 'seed' wasn't strong enough to create good quality babies.
The barbarian tribes tended to put marrying age around the 20s, so the concept of child marriages is not really a viable argument, at least in the mediaeval period.
Still, our records of the period are very poor, and it's the early modern period is when we tend to have the beginning of proper records that would tell us something about it, and even then, they were generally well over 13. | [
"married before the age of 15 years, and of these, 17% were married before they were 10 years old. Another survey, conducted in the state of Madhya Pradesh, found that 14% of girls were married between the ages of 10 and 14 years.\n",
"Women may legally marry at age 18 (or at age 15 with parental consent) and men... |
how can things like trees,weeds,grass, and so forth,be considered to be "alive", as well as know how to do what is required to keep themselves alive, such as absorb water and sunlight,when they don't have a brain to control their functions? | Sentience is not a classification for life. Growing, reproducing and the ability to react to the environment are. Organisms that exhibit these behaviors are considered alive. The cells in plants, for example, preform all the necessary functions without a central brain (as we know it) being necessary. | [
"According to such a theory, each one of us is potentially Mind at Large. But in so far as we are animals, our business is at all costs to survive. To make biological survival possible, Mind at Large has to be funneled through the reducing valve of the brain and nervous system. What comes out at the other end is a ... |
Were slaves in Haiti aware of the French Revolution, and perhaps influenced by it? | In terms of the Haitian Revolution, very much so at a senior level. In the case of other slave revolts, I am not particularly sure but I see no reason to dispute the claims of Geggus as described by /u/amplified_mess - after all, there were widespread rebellions well before the French revolution, so its impact does have limits.
In terms of the Haitian Revolution itself, however, the French Revolution was critical. I'm not sure how much of the revolution was actually inspired by the ideals of the French revolutionaries - I doubt, judging by what I have read, that slaves in Haiti needed any encouragement to seek out their own emancipation - but the French Revolution certainly weakened the Haitian colonial government to enable the Haitian Revolution to take place. Insofar as I can make out of a deeply complex moment, the French Revolutionaries initially issued proclamations freeing the slaves of Haiti. The Haitian colonial elites viewed these proclamations with horror, and through a series of political negotiations attempted to maintain slavery. The weakness of the institution of slavery, however, left slaves - especially the more educated and mobile slaves - with space in which to foment revolt. The language of the revolution also proved very useful, providing a vocabulary to discuss emancipation in terms used by the French government itself.
In terms of specific primary sources, I don't speak any French so I can't advise too precisely (if there are any, I imagine they'll be in Port-au-Prince or, possibly, Paris - if the former, they may not be easy to get hold of), but amongst the secondary literature, C.L.R. James's *Black Jacobins* is a great place to start, followed by perhaps a few of the more general texts on Caribbean history to round out the narrative. I found the essay on Haiti in *The Caribbean: A History of the Region and Its People* (Stephane Palmie and Francisco Scarano eds.) to be particularly well-written and concise, so I would very much recommend that. | [
"Other historians say the Haitian Revolution influenced slave rebellions in the US as well as in British colonies. The biggest slave revolt in US history was the 1811 German Coast Uprising in Louisiana. This slave rebellion was put down and the punishment the slaves received was so severe that no contemporary news ... |
What are the major cities that no longer exist or have decreased dramatically? | Antioch. Founded by Seleucus Nicator, it was the capital of Syria during Roman/Byzantine rule and one of the major centers of Christianity. Declined and virtually disappeared during the times of crusades. | [
"At the same time, the urban cores of these and nearly all other major cities in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan that did not annex new territory experienced the related phenomena of falling household size and, particularly in the U.S., \"white flight\", sustaining population losses. This trend has slo... |
what is a limited slip differential, or differential in general? and in what cases are certain types of differentials preferred/more beneficial over the others? | Not sure if this fits the rules of ELI5, but I think it fits the spirit. Here's the (quite long, nearly 10 minutes) video that *finally* gave me a good understanding of how differential gears actually work.
_URL_0_ | [
"The main advantage of a limited-slip differential is demonstrated by considering the case of a standard (or \"open\") differential in off-roading or snow situations where one wheel begins to slip. In such a case with a standard differential, the slipping or non-contacting wheel will receive the majority of the pow... |
the beef between tupac and biggie and the conspiracy surrounding their deaths | First off, I don't know if I'd tell a five year old about this, due to the content of 2Pac and Biggie's music (not really what five year olds should be listening to), and also because the saga has lots of violence. So I'm going to explain this as I would to an older audience, although I'll attach a LI5 explanation at the end.
But anyhow, you firstly have to know that there has been East and West coast scenes of hip hop, which had very different styles: East Coast was very happy-go-lucky (Will Smith, Slick Rick, etc.) when West Coast was a lot grittier (think: NWA, Ice-T, etc.), then East Coast adopted some of those gritty aspects (e.g. Wu Tang clan, Nas, etc.). Click on breakbeat in this [guide to music](_URL_0_), and you can see examples in the development of East and West Coast hip hop. So there had always been a rivalry between the two camps EDIT: I've received a large number of responses contesting that statement; I don't necessarily agree, but there is evidence that the East-West feud can be construed as largely an orchestrated affair for commercial purposes (which would make the 2Pac robbery in NY the absolute starting point of the feud, without any previous undertones).
Now, The Notorious B.I.G. was one of the most skilled and respected up-and-coming East Coast Rappers in the gritty gangsta rap scene, acclaimed for his 1994 release Ready to Die. 2Pac was similarly acclaimed within the West Coast, with far more albums under his belt, including the highly regarded Me Against the World.
They didn't hate each other at first, in fact [they were friends](_URL_9_). However, when 2Pac was in the lobby of a New York recording studio (Biggie was elsewhere in the studio at the time), he was robbed of his jewellery and shot five times. 2Pac blamed Biggie and Puff Daddy (aka P Diddy or Diddy) of ~~setting him up~~ being aware the robbery was going to happen and not acting on it, especially after Biggie released a song called "Who Shot Ya?" Now, Biggie claimed he wrote the song before the shooting, but it can be [interpreted as a diss track towards 2Pac](_URL_4_), which of course infuriated him.
The next chapter was in 1995, with Suge Knight, the highly controversial co-founder of Death Row Records (the label which published the music of Snoop Dogg, 2Pac, and co-founder Dr. Dre, among others). He said in an announcement that artists who sign to Death Row won't have to worry about having the executive producer tamper with the record and leave a heavy mark on it. This was an explicit attack on Puff Daddy, who is well known for ad libbing all over Biggie's tracks ([e.g.](_URL_3_) - listen to Big Poppa carefully, you can hear Puffy all over the track). One of Suge Knight's friends was also shot (not fatally), which he speculated was planned out by Puffy.
So, Suge Knight posted 2Pac's bail (he was incarcerated on a sexual assault charge), and 2Pac made a song called "[Hit 'Em Up](_URL_8_)," an extremely fiery diss track where he claims he had sex with Biggie's wife Faith Evans, and really insults him. I should add that at this time in hip hop, it was considered uncouth to explicitly diss someone like that, the norm was to indirectly attack them, so 2Pac was being extremely vicious when he recites the following at the end:
> Fuck Mobb Deep, fuck Biggie
> Fuck Bad Boy as a staff, record label and as a motherfucking crew
> And if you want to be down with Bad Boy, then fuck you too
> Chino XL: fuck you too
> All you motherfuckers, fuck you too
> All of y'all mother fuckers, fuck you, die slow, motherfucker
> My .44 make sure all your kids don't grow
So, the 2Pac-Biggie beef was in full throttle at this point, and East-West Coast relations were tense.
Then, in 1996, 2Pac was shot and killed. As far as I'm aware, the case is still unsolved. Immediately speculation was on Biggie, who vigorously denied any involvement.
Soon thereafter, in 1997, Biggie was himself killed. This murder was also unsolved, with conspiracies ranging from Suge Knight (being such a shady character, it's quite possible he arranged it) to countless other figures. On a side-note, [the killer](_URL_5_) seems to have been an inspiration in the creation of [Brother Mouzone of The Wire](_URL_2_).
The rapid death of two of hip hop's brightest stars shocked the hip hop world, and essentially killed the East-West feud. Although it was far from the last public hip hop rivalry (Jay-Z and Nas had a huge feud, 50 Cent and Game have had an ongoing thing, etc.), rappers haven't been willing to let the feuds escalate again, since the results of the Biggie-2Pac feud resonate so strongly. As exhibited by the 2Pac hologram, and their continued popularity, they remain very prominent hip hop figures.
I've heard countless conspiracy theories, but they all essentially stem from the murky nature of the feud (for instance, we still don't know who robbed 2Pac, or killed either of them, and Suge Knight's involvement fuels the theories).
EDIT: I was just thinking, and realized part of the reason their death mythos resonates so deeply. Biggie and 2Pac both recorded very grim last albums, which seemed to almost predict their deaths. Check 2Pac's [Hail Mary](_URL_6_), and Biggie's "[You're Nobody \(Til Somebody Kills You\)](_URL_7_)." Heck, Biggie's album was called ~~Ready to Die~~ EDIT: Life After Death, and the intro of the album is [him dying](_URL_1_).
**LI5:** There are two groups of friends who want to play with the lego in class. They are making fun of each other's lego buildings, especially the lego structures made by the more talented lego-builders in each group of friends. Then, one day they both come to continue building lego, when the structure of one boy, let's call him Billy, has been damaged. He immediately blames Chris, the most talented boy from the other group of friends, who he claims is jealous of him, despite them both getting along before.
The rivalry between the two groups continues to escalate, with a bully in Billy's group of friends named Simon continually making fun of Sean (from Chris' group of friends) and then Simon's friend gets beaten up by a bully, which he blames Sean for. Finally, one day, Billy's lego creations were discovered to be completely destroyed - no one knows who broke them. Billy goes crying home, and everyone is suspicious of Chris, despite him denying it. Then, a week later, Chris' lego is destroyed, leading him to go crying home. Both groups of friends agree that this rivalry is going too far, they love their lego structures after all, and the entire class agrees not to let rivalries between friend-groups get that bad ever again. | [
"Tupac Assassination: Conspiracy or Revenge is a documentary film about the unsolved murder of rapper Tupac Shakur produced by Frank Alexander, a Shakur bodyguard who was with the rapper at the time of the shooting, produced and directed by Richard Bond.\n",
"Tupac denied involvement with Stretch's murder, but co... |
when i force myself to see double vision, how am i doing it? and what is happening to cause it? | If you're not crossing your eyes, and seeing double that way, then you're probably just focusing far away. This is how you see /r/magiceye pictures! | [
"There are two main kinds of movement: conjugate movement (the eyes move in the same direction) and disjunctive (opposite directions). The former is typical when shifting gaze right or left, the latter is convergence of the two eyes on a near object. Disjunction can be performed voluntarily, but is usually triggere... |
why has tesla's work on 'free energy' never been fully explored or completed in the modern day? | Tesla never tried to produce "free energy". He wanted to realize wireless power transfer - but that still would have required a power source to run the system. The reason nobody ever put money on his idea was not just the risk of people tapping into it, but also that it's wasteful. Wireless energy transfer over big distance is inevitably going to cause losses, whereas conventional systems with power lines (to which his work contributed a great deal) can achieve great efficiency over long distances.
The entire concept of free energy is not pursued by power companies because it's simply not possible. The preservation of energy, along with the laws of thermodynamics, are not something that is easily challenged, simply because they are supported by a lot of hard evidence.
This of course doesn't stop a bunch of people from trying, but no physicist or engineer worth their salt will take them serious. | [
"In 1933 at age 77, Tesla told reporters at the event that, after 35 years of work, he was on the verge of producing proof of a new form of energy. He claimed it was a theory of energy that was \"violently opposed\" to Einsteinian physics, and could be tapped with an apparatus that would be cheap to run and last 50... |
When our epidermis grows with our size, does the number of nerve endings increase to maintain a constant density, or are they simply spaced further apart? | the number of sensory nerves innervating your skin is determined by the number of neuronal cell bodies in the dorsal root ganglia. During gestation this number increases through division (some die off) and reaches a stable number. Neurons are 'post-mitotic' and do not divid further. The neuronal cell bodies by then have extended their peripheral terminals out to the skin.
However, the branching of sensory nerve terminals in the target organs (e.g. skin) continues to be plastic throughout life. Thus you have the same number of nerves, but the branching or arborization of the terminal can adjust to your size. | [
"Cytoplasmic flows created through osmotic pressure gradients flow longitudinally along the fungal hyphae and crash into the end causing growth. It has been demonstrated that the greater pressure at the hyphal tip corresponds to faster growth rates. Longer hyphae have greater pressure differences along their length... |
If temperature is a measure of average kinetic energy, is a bottle of water speeding past me "warmer" than a bottle of water in my hand? | It has more energy, but it isn't really "warmer". The question abuses the definition of temperature. Temperature is about the molecular average kinetic energy, not the macroscopic energy.
(An analogy: It's like asking how fast can a fish swim, and then you put your fish tank into your car and drive down the road and talk about how fast your fish is "swimming" down the road.)
Temperature is a statistical average of small scale properties. The zillions of water molecules inside a stationary water bottle bottle wiggle with various kinds of kinetic energy, and the average kinetic energy of the wiggling molecules correlates very well with how much energy is stored in the water.
If you throw the water bottle very fast you definitely add energy, but normal people wouldn't call the added energy "temperature". The water as a whole is going fast, but the random wiggling of the water molecules hasn't gotten any more vigorous.
| [
"BULLET::::- Different heating and cooling loops must send the heated or cooled water in with as low a velocity as possible. (This necessarily entails heating and cooling loops having velocity controlled pumps and tube ports with the maximum feasible diameter.)\n",
"without referring to Frenkel, Fisher or Widom, ... |
on election night, how do they determine who has won a state after calculating only 1% of the state's votes? | Normally they won't call an election won with only 1% of precincts reporting. It's just an indicator.
Usually, it is known ahead of time how certain counties vote. They can extrapolate from that how the rest of an election goes, but they won't call an election until a higher % of precincts have reported their results. | [
"Following the national presidential election day in the first week of November, each state counts its popular votes pursuant to that state's laws to designate presidential electors. Almost all states allot all their electoral votes to the winning candidate in that state, no matter how marginal the candidate's win.... |
Does the placenta have the DNA of the mother or the baby? What about the umbilical cord? | The placenta is fetal tissue! Very, very early on in development the blastocyst implants in the endometrium of the womb. The outer layers of cells in of the blastocyst become the trophoblast that becomes the placenta, embedding deeper and interfacing with the blood supply of the mother. The foetus essentially builds it's own disposable organ to get what it needs from the mother and aid it its regulation as it develops. It's kinda freakin' cool.
Likewise, the umbilical cord is fetal tissue and isn't sourced from the mother. It's basically just arteries and a vein to connect the foetus to the placenta and, by extension, the mother. | [
"In placental mammals, the umbilical cord (also called the navel string, birth cord or funiculus umbilicalis) is a conduit between the developing embryo or fetus and the placenta. During prenatal development, the umbilical cord is physiologically and genetically part of the fetus and (in humans) normally contains t... |
How common was it for people in ancient civilizations to just travel for leisure? | Not to discourage any further answers, but you'll probably find these older posts helpful:
* [Did tourism exist within the Roman Empire? I assume that most of the lower class could not afford to go visit another city, but what about the richer population?](_URL_1_) by /u/bitparity
* [Do we know if ancient people (thinking the Classical Mediterranean world) "made up" things to attract tourists?](_URL_0_) by /u/XenophontheAthenian | [
"Travel outside a person's local area for leisure was largely confined to wealthy classes, who at times traveled to distant parts of the world, to see great buildings and works of art, learn new languages, experience new cultures, and to taste different cuisines. As early as Shulgi, however, kings praised themselve... |
why does everyone want sessions to resign? | The allegations are that he was contacting the Russian ambassador outside of his Senate Armed Services panel responsibilities prior to the election and then committed perjury by saying that he had no contact with the Russians during his Attorney General confirmation hearings. | [
"Although Sessions denied that he had acted improperly, he was pressured to resign in early July, with some suggesting that President Clinton was giving Sessions the chance to step down in a dignified manner. Sessions refused, saying that he had done nothing wrong, and insisted on staying in office until his succes... |
data breach: why are the companies themselves responsible and why does it still happen? | Usually with companies that get breached, there is some company-consumer assurance that their data will always be safe. So when it is breached, its like a breach in their trust.
It is also extremely difficult to find the hackers, they may be on the other side of the world. Thus, not being able to bring the suspect to justice, the company will be forced to take the blame themselves, to give the public closure and move on.
Hackers are just like bank robbers and buglers. also with the growing amount of people with the skills necessary for hacking ect. So, just with any other crime, it is likely that we may never see a complete end to Data breaches.
| [
"There is also a major backlash from the consumer if there is a data breach in a company that is supposed to be trusted to protect their private information. If an organization has any consumer info on file, they must by law (Red Flags Clarification act of 2010) have written information protection policies and proc... |
how does the show top gear get ahold of these impressive super cars and get away with basically anything when driving them on the public roads (drag racing, etc.) when the roads are clearly not closed for filming? | This depends on the car they are driving. Most of the cars are models they get from the manufacturers to increase publicity on their brand or model. Sometimes they get cars from owners who like their car to be on the show.
When they go out on the public road they make it look like the road isn't closed but it actually is. When they film say, Clarkson, driving a Maclaren on the public road, they use several cars to secure the road. one car films Clarkson, one car drives ahead and one drives behind the camera car to make a convoy.
When they drive desolated area's, they close of sections of the road to make sure there is no other traffic to endanger the hosts while driving. That's why they can drift and drive at high speed without concern for other cars.
The producers check the roads before driving to make sure it's safe to drive and warn any people around and sometimes even contact the local authorities to explain what they are doing. thus getting away with practically everything so they can make an awesome show!
| [
"Unlike normal episodes of \"Top Gear\", in which the challenges were related to the abilities of the vehicles reviewed, such as the Toyota Hilux in the \"\", producer Andy Wilman admitted that \"the narrative of the film is a bit more skewed towards the three guys.\"\n",
"The series is known for its extremely we... |
How have check marks come to represent 'right' while Xs represent 'wrong'? | There are quite a few theories floating around out there, but as it's not a universal standard and mainly contained within Western Europe and cultures influenced by Western Europe, I'm inclined to go with the tick / cross system being distributed by the Romans, especially given the amount of bureaucracy they bought to the world.
Common theories:
The Roman "Veritas" (truth) being the origin of the tick, cross is just a handy symbol / easy to make with a stylus / origin unknown.
The Greek "Nikas" (νικώ) for win and "Haneis" (Χάνεις) for lose.
I personally like the Greek theory as it accounts for the cross and the Romans did appropriate an awful lot from the Greeks. But that's 100% conjecture.
Be interesting to see if any of the real historians out there have access to Roman or Greek documentation :) | [
"The check mark is believed to have been created during the Roman Empire. \"V\" was used to shorten the word \"veritas\", meaning 'truth'. This was used to indicate yes, true, or confirmed on items in a list. Over time, the design of the mark started to change. As people started writing more quickly, the right side... |
who develops medicines for animals? | Pet care is a $5.5 BILLION dollar a year industry. So there is definitely money to be made from pet pharma. But the companies themselves are often "normal" pharma companies - Bayer, for example, makes Advantage flea products.
That doesn't even include the size of the pharma industry related to livestock and agriculture. | [
"Animals may also play a role, in particular in research. In traditional remedies, animals are extensively used as drugs. Many animals also medicate \"themselves\". Zoopharmacognosy is the study of how animals use plants, insects and other inorganic materials in self-medicatation. In an interview with the late Neil... |
How did Egypt become a client kingdom of Rome? | > So, when Caesar arrived in Egypt, he said that it was his job as Dictator of Rome to settle a royal dispute between Ptomely and Cleopatra on who sould be pharaoh. He even stationed himself at the Palace of Alexandria as a judge to hear the case made by both parts
That isn't right. Caesar at no point in the B.C. mentions his role as dictator, nor do the other sources. An invocation of Caesar's role as dictator would not have made very much sense: the Alexandrians were not a province, and therefore their affairs could not be ordered by a Roman magistrate except in his role as ambassador for the senate. It is in this capacity that Caesar interfered in Alexandrian politics. He specifically in the B.C. cites his role as *consul* (in 59, not in 47), not dictator, which would have made much more sense given that he also notes that the Alexandrians in killing Pompey and being unable to solve their succession crisis were potential threats to the Roman people. Moreover, Caesar notes that Alexandrian affairs had been made a concern of his personally already, since it was during his consulship that an SC, later ratified as a lex, had been passed binding the Alexandrians to the Romans as allies. No source mentions Caesar setting up court in the royal palace; this detail is not particularly believable. Indeed, none of the sources even mention Caesar entering the palace yet at this point, and the ones which describe his location in the city seem to suggest strongly that Caesar had never left the seashore. Plutarch mentions the story of Cleopatra taking a little boat to visit Caesar, Caesar says that he decided because of the fragility of the situation and the small size of his forces to remain within the area of the city that his troops controlled (the waterfront) until he could figure out what Achillas intended, and Appian speaks of fighting along the shore and of Caesar escaping at one point by swimming into the harbor. Only Cassius Dio, whose famed unreliability was the object of great (and often undue) scorn in the early twentieth century, says anything about Caesar's being in the palace. Dio says that Cleopatra snuck into the palace (also a rather unbelievable statement) to meet Caesar, who only then decided to bring the rival claimants to him to plead their cases. This doesn't make very much sense internally, since Dio then says that Caesar, who already possessed the palace, assaulted the palace (what?), and it doesn't work with the sequence of events that the other sources give.
I think you're somewhat misunderstanding the way the Romans of the Republic understood their relationships with other states. By any reasonable modern understanding the Ptolemies were clients of the Romans, and had been since the late third century. However, the Romans understood such matters in the way that Caesar describes: the Ptolemies had, in 59, become allies of the Romans, allowing them to resolve Alexandrian disputes in their own interest and according to the customs of the Alexandrians wherever possible. Similar agreements had been made earlier, but there was no permanent state of clientela that existed between the two great states. In a very real sense Caesar, as the consul who had been responsible for the most recent agreement, had a personal duty to see to it that it was respected, and being the commander on site he also was placed in a position to resolve a further agreement, since as he himself notes the agreement of 59 had been made with the last king, and technically the Alexandrians were not in a state of legal alliance anymore.
The Alexandrians had for some time been subordinate to the Romans in international affairs. In the late third century what Eckstein calls the "Ptolemaic collapse," begun by a serious of native rebellions and followed by the accession of a child king in Ptolemy V resulted in political chaos in Egypt. It was a major event for Polybius, such that he focuses nearly an entire book to it, instead of giving a broad view of Mediterranean events generally the way he usually does. By 201 warfare with the Seleucids added to the Ptolemies' woes, and Philip had begun advancing through Asia Minor, in Polybius' opinion to overthrow the Ptolemies entirely. The massive war brewing caused two traditional rivals, Pergamum and Rhodes, to conclude an alliance against Philip, and though they managed to hold out for a little while things eventually became too hot for them--in 201 the Pergamenes (friends of the Romans) and Rhodians (decidedly not) sent embassies to the Romans to ask for their aid or arbitration. Also in 201 the Athenians executed citizens of Acarnania, a Macedonian ally, and were met in response with an attack by the Macedonians. The Athenians revoked the tribes that they had long ago named after Antigonus and Demetrius, symbolically throwing off the yoke of Macedonian dominance, and appealed to the Ptolemies for aid. The Ptolemies had their hands full (Eckstein thinks they had already sent an embassy to the Romans by this point). The view from the Roman senate, which would have received these embassies, would therefore have been one of total chaos in the eastern Mediterranean. Four embassies, three of them from powerful Greek states and one from the Athenians in revolt, would have reached them within a single season, and Polybius describes the affair as confused and disordered--this was certainly the most chaotic the eastern Mediterranean had been since the death of Antigonus. The Romans, Eckstein has shown, learned (according to Polybius) of a pact between Philip and Antiochus during this time, and became worried about a total destabilization of the eastern Mediterranean. As a result, Roman attention was drawn to the region. Several decades of warfare by the Ptolemies resulted, in 170, in the deposition of Ptolemy VI, who had also succeeded as an infant, by Antiochus IV, and with Roman aid Ptolemy VI was eventually installed. In any case, the first few decades of the second century are marked by political chaos in and around Egypt, and by Roman intervention into this political shitstorm, particularly in keeping the Alexandrians propped up, such that by the first century the Ptolemies were bound closely to the Romans by a series of multi-generation treaties and friendships, and had long since stopped being able to maintain their aid without Roman power. Caesar's troops were not the first, even within his own lifetime, to interfere in Alexandrian affairs by force of arms. In 55 Gabinius, proconsul of Syria, marched into Alexandria to restore Ptolemy XII. His campaign was rejected by the senate, on the grounds that he had left his province illegally (plus while Gabinius was away Syria had been destabilized by a revolt of Alexander) to enter another independent kingdom, but the charge of maiestas failed. In particular Roman arbitration in the Ptolemid succession was a long tradition going back to the early second century, and by 47 it was almost expected that Roman arbitration would settle any succession dispute | [
"Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire in 30 BC, following the defeat of Marc Antony and Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII by Octavian (later Emperor Augustus) in the Battle of Actium. The Romans relied heavily on grain shipments from Egypt, and the Roman army, under the control of a prefect appointed by the Empe... |
what info can whatsapp use to provide targeted ads, if all my chats are encrypted? | I'm assuming this question stems forth from the recent publication that WhatsApp is going to share data with the Facebook network so that specific social network can use that information to provide targeted advertisements.
There are many ways this information can be used. But one of them that I find not too farfetched is the WhatsApp's ability to access your contactlist AND send its content back to a server to check if any of these contacts are WhatsApp users.
Using this data combined with Facebook's information (e.g. if your phone number is already identifiable with your facebook profile/or facebook cookies), Facebook can then expand on a network of people who are connected. Thus, if someone on your network is interested in some product, then perhaps you might be interested in it as well and Facebook will target an ad of that product to you. E.g. next time you log onto Facebook.
EDIT: One way the network is expanded is if your contact in WhatsApp is not your friend on Facebook. By using WhatsApp you can then be added into Facebook's network of connected people with that contact.
EDIT2: Regarding the Chat insight. Because of End-to-end encryption, Facebook likely won't use the content of the chatmessages to target ads. However, generated meta-data (e.g. people you oftenly communicate with) can play a factor in targeting ads. | [
"In order to identify targets for government hacking and surveillance, both the GCHQ and the NSA have used advertising cookies operated by Google, known as Pref, to \"pinpoint\" targets. According to documents leaked by Snowden, the Special Source Operations of the NSA has been sharing information containing \"logi... |
why isn't there a tl;dr law that would prevent things being secretly added to bills in congress? | Well, nothing is "secretly" added. There's no attempt to hide anything. But you are correct that unrelated riders are often put on them.
We allow this because it allow compromises to be made. For example, let's say you want to pass a particular measure that I'm opposed to. We might sit down and make an agreement: you'll put something else on the measure that I want, even though you disagree with it personally. The compromise goes to the floor, and we both vote for it to get the partial win, instead of risking the bill not passing at all.
The mechanism encourages compromise, which our political system desperately needs. However, because there are so many exceptions and exemptions to rules, and because we have to often clearly spell-out how a new measure will legally interact with previous measures, and because we have to explain how the enforcement of the new measure will be paid for, and because there are so many compromises to make, the bills can get quite lengthy.
There's really no way to "TL;DR" something like that. The media will spin a summary for general consumption, but lawmakers don't live off of summaries. They need at least some of the details.
Finally, even if the Congressperson doesn't have time to read every single bill, he has staff members that can go over the bill for him and give him the highlights relevant to his decision. For example, he may not need to immediately know the enforcement, funding mechanisms, legal interactions, etc., but they can give him the overview and explain the impacts related to his constituents or to matters that he believes are priorities. That's the detailed summary that he needs to be cognizant of.
Also, bills go through committees and subcommittees before they go up for a vote. His party's leadership is informed of what's being discussed in those groups, will form a position on the bill, and communicate that position and its justification to the members. Once again, they have an idea as to what the bill is going to involve and what the impacts are. | [
"The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) strongly opposed the bill, arguing that the bill \"undermines\" citizens' \"right to be informed\" by making it more difficult for \"citizens to find their government's regulations.\" According to AALL, a survey they conducted \"revealed that members of the public, ... |
why does a step up transformer cause lower currents? | Ohm's law applies when you shove electrons through something by applying voltage. A transformer isn't doing that. It's a coil of wire applying a magnetic field to another coil of wire. Now if that second coil is running at twice the voltage and twice the current, then we have magically created energy. That's why power must be conserved. One coil can only transfer as much energy as it has to the other. It's the same idea as pulleys or levers where one end of the machine has higher force and the other end travels further. | [
"The ideal transformer model assumes that all flux generated by the primary winding links all the turns of every winding, including itself. In practice, some flux traverses paths that take it outside the windings. Such flux is termed \"leakage flux\", and results in leakage inductance in series with the mutually co... |
Did the ancient Romans have any ideological or moral reasons for why they ran gruesome gladiatorial combat? Was it truly only for public pleasure or was there more to it? | The origin of Roman gladiatorial combat was probably [some form of ritual combat](_URL_1_), linked to funerals or religious festivals; the death of one (or both) of the combatants would then be a form of human sacrifice. The oldest *recorded* gladiator fight in Rome was in honor of the funder's dead father. (The Greeks, too, had [funeral games involving violent combat](_URL_2_), so we might want to see this as a general Mediterranean trend, possibly Indo-European - though this is sheer speculation.)
Origins aside, though, the public loved these sorts of games, so by the late Republic, gladiatorial combats were routinely funded by candidates for public office, and in the High Empire, gladiator fights - along with public executions, fights with wild beasts, and various other hideously creative spectacles - had evolved out of their original religious/festival context to become sheer popular (very popular!) entertainment, funded by Emperors to keep the *plebs* happy and loyal. Seneca deplored them:
> I turned in to the games one mid-day hoping for a little wit and humor there. I was bitterly disappointed. It was really mere butchery. The morning's show was merciful compared to it. Then men were thrown to lions and to bears: but at midday to the audience. There was no escape for them. The slayer was kept fighting until he could be slain. "Kill him! flog him! burn him alive" was the cry: "Why is he such a coward? Why won't he rush on the steel? Why does he fall so meekly? Why won't he die willingly?" Unhappy that I am, how have I deserved that I must look on such a scene as this? Do not, my Lucilius, attend the games, I pray you. Either you will be corrupted by the multitude, or, if you show disgust, be hated by them. So stay away...
and [many of our Roman sources](_URL_0_) were disgusted by the violence and waste and the popularity of low-born slave gladiators, and saw the games as nothing more than crass entertainment to curry the favor of the degenerate urban mob. | [
"Like many ancient cultures, concepts of ethics and morality, while sharing some commonalities with modern society, differed greatly in several important ways. Because ancient civilizations like Rome were under constant threat of attack from marauding tribes, their culture was necessarily militaristic with martial ... |
why when i scratch an itch, does my brain/body create another, often on a completely different part of my body. | Wish I knew. It's the same thing when I'm trying to go to sleep and I get an itch, right on the side of my body that I'm laying on. Can't ignore it, have to turn over and scratch. | [
"Itch (also known as pruritus) is a that causes the desire or reflex to scratch. Itch has resisted many attempts to be classified as any one type of sensory experience. Itch has many similarities to pain, and while both are unpleasant sensory experiences, their behavioral response patterns are different. Pain creat... |
Engine design question - why do standard car engines always come with cylinders in banks of 2, and never 3? | Because of first and second order vibrations, as well as ease of manufacturing. First order vibrations can be addresses in either a 4 cylinder or a 6 cylinder base engine. In simple terms the same amount of metal is going up or down at any one time. In a 4 cylinder engine this is done by each cylinder being separated by 90 deg, or in a 6 cylinder by 120 deg. A 6 cylinder engine also has no second order vibrations, meaning it does not need a balance shaft at all in a well designed engine. This is why nearly all large diesel engines are some form of a 6 cylinder base engine. A four cylinder engine generally needs a balancing shaft to reduce second order vibrations.
Now there are 3 cylinder engines, but these are not completely balanced for first order vibrations, so they need a complicated balance shaft. However because there are so many fewer parts than a 6 cylinder engine that is alright. However a 9 cylinder engine would make this much worse, and there would be no similar reduction in part numbers.
| [
"The inline-four engine is the most common four-cylinder configuration, whereas the straight-6 has largely given way to the V6 engine, which although not as naturally smooth-running is smaller in both length and height and easier to fit into the engine bay of smaller modern cars. Some manufacturers, including Acura... |
was there anyone prominent in classical times, in Greece or Rome, who believed there were other inhabited worlds in the universe? if "yes" how did other people take the idea? | Epicurus was a fairly prominent Greek philosopher (founder of the philosophical school of Epicureanism) of the 4th-3rd centuries BCE. The doxographer [Diogenes Laertius records a letter from Epicurus to Herodotus](_URL_0_), in which Epicurus says [Loeb translation]:
> Moreover, there is an infinite number of worlds, some like this world, others unlike it. For the atoms being infinite in number, as has just been proved, are borne ever further in their course. For the atoms out of which a world might arise, or by which a world might be formed, have not all been expended on one world or a finite number of worlds, whether like or unlike this one. Hence there will be nothing to hinder an infinity of worlds.
The idea of infinite worlds is a well-known Epicurean theory, also found in the Epicurean poet Lucretius (1st century BCE) in [his epic poem *De rerum natura* (*On the Nature of the Universe*)](_URL_1_) [Loeb translation]:
> Now since there is illimitable space empty in every direction, and since seeds [atoms] innumerable in number in the unfathomable universe are flying about in many ways driven in everlasting movement, it cannot by any means be thought likely that this is the only round earth and sky that has been made, that all those bodies of matter without do nothing: especially since this world was made by nature, and the seeds of things themselves of their own accord, knocking together by chance, clashed in all sorts of ways, heedless, without aim, without intention, until at length those combined which, suddenly thrown together, could become in each case the beginnings of mighty things, of earth and sea and sky and the generation of living creatures. Therefore again and again I say, you must confess that there are other assemblages of matter in other places, such as this is which the ether holds in greedy embrace
> Besides, when abundant matter is ready, when space is to hand, and no thing and no cause hinders, things must assuredly be done and completed. And if there is at this moment both so great store of seeds as all the time of living existence could not suffice to tell, and if the same power and the same nature abides, able to throw the seeds of things together in any place in the same way as they have been thrown together into this place, then you are bound to confess that there are other worlds in other regions and different races of men and generations of wild beasts.
It is also referred to briefly in Cicero's *De natura deorum* (*On the Nature of the Gods*), in the mouth of an Epicurean spokesman [Loeb translation]:
> For he [Epicurus] who taught us all the rest has also taught us that the world was made by nature, without needing an artificer to construct it, and that the act of creation, which according to you [Stoics] cannot be performed without divine skill, is so easy, that nature will create, is creating and has created worlds without number. You on the contrary cannot see how nature can achieve all this without the aid of some intelligence, and so, like the tragic poets, being unable to bring the plot of your drama to a *denoument*, you have recourse to a god; whose intervention you assuredly would not require if you would but contemplate the measureless and boundless extent of space that stretches in every direction, into which when the mind projects and propels itself, it journeys onward far and wide without ever sighting any margin or ultimate point where it can stop. Well, then, in this immensity of length and breadth and height there flits an infinite quantity of atoms innumerable, which though separated by void yet cohere together, and taking hold each of another form unions wherefrom are created those shapes and forms of things which you think cannot be created without the aid of bellows and anvils, and so have saddled us with an eternal master, whom day and night we are to fear; for who would not fear a prying busybody of a god, who foresees and thinks of and notices all things, and deems that everything is his concern?
Edit: typos | [
"In ancient Near Eastern cultures in general and in Mesopotamia in particular, humans had little to no access to the divine realm. Heaven and earth were separated by their very nature; humans could see and be affected by elements of the lower heaven, such as stars and storms, but ordinary mortals could not go to he... |
Would it theoritically be possible to isolate serotonin and dopamine, and create them in drug form, if this is possible what would the side effects be? | To answer part of your question:
While you can create dopamine, injecting it serves no purpose unless it can be directly administered to the desired area of the brain. This is because dopamine is incapable of passing through the blood brain barrier. However, we can work around this by giving people L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (otherwise known as L-DOPA), a precursor of dopamine and permeable across the blood brain barrier. Once across the blood brain barrier, the neurons in the brain could take L-DOPA and transform it into dopamine. As for side effects, this [wikipedia article](_URL_1_) does a pretty good job of highlighting them. So I guess the answer to your question would be both yes and no. Yes, we can increase levels of dopamine in the brain, but those increased levels do not do much good unless they can be concentrated in the reward centers of the brain (places like the [VTA](_URL_0_) that are involved in motivation, addiction, and intense emotions).
| [
"Findings implicate that abnormalities of serotonin function and the serotonergic system could be responsible for psychiatric disorders such as the spectrum of schizophrenia (gating) disorders and therefore, that serotonin agonist or antagonists might be useful in the treatment of e.g. schizophrenia. To investigate... |
why do babies in the womb not have allergic reactions to foods they will later develop allergies to (assuming the mother eats those foods during pregnancy) | Please note that I am by no means an expert on this subject. I will try to explain my understanding of it based on just what I remember from biology classes. If you would like to be 100% sure seek information from sombody like a midwife. (I also am no expert on the english language so please don't take my spelling and grammar too serious.)
A baby gets all it needs to live through the umbillical cord. That however isn't just a direct connection to the mothers stomach. The cord is connected to the placenta, which connects both blood circuits (The one of the mom and the one of the baby). There, oxygen and other substances get exchanged, not some kind of almost digested food soup. The baby doesn't have to digest anything and doesn't even get any substances it could have an allergic reaction to. | [
"A wide variety of foods can cause allergic reactions, but 90% of allergic responses to foods are caused by cow's milk, soy, eggs, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish. Other food allergies, affecting less than 1 person per 10,000 population, may be considered \"rare\". The use of hydrolysed milk baby for... |
If there were a radio station on the Far/dark side of the moon would we be able to detect it? | There is an aspect to this question that the others are missing: some of the radio waves will propagate from that radio station around the moon and to the earth without reflecting off another body.
[Huygens' principle](_URL_1_) tells us that waves can be treated as being continuously re-emitted by each point through which they travel. This is the cause of diffraction. [Radio waves will propagate around the curvature](_URL_0_) of the earth or the moon even without the ionosphere due to this. The longer the wavelength, the better it gets around the body.
So the answer is yes, if the frequency is low enough. | [
"The radio telescope would consist of a lander vehicle that would deploy dipoles across a 300-400 m area. The dipoles, which receive the cosmic radio signals, would be deployed either by a dispenser or by a team of small mobile robots. The South Polar location would ensure permanent sunlight and direct communicatio... |
- why does your nose burn when there is a foul or strong scent in the air? | When you smell it is because you are breathing in amounts of the actual chemical it is that you are smelling. For example: If something smells like bleach it is because you are breathing in particles of bleach and that is what your nose is recognizing.
& #x200B;
If your nose is also burning when you smell something it is because the chemical you are breathing in is causing this reaction - it is either acidic, caustic or just plain irritating. If whatever you are breathing is irritating your nose that it's also going to be doing the same to your airways and to your lungs. That burning sensation in your nose is an early warning system to let you know that your breathing in something potentially harmful so should probably leave the area.
It's often associated with a "foul" smell because through evolution we've developed the idea that things that can potentially harm us are unpleasant so we associate those smells with being negative. | [
"Inhaling the vapor causes symptoms that begin in the upper airway and expand to the lower airway. Increased concentrations cause worse symptoms. Mild inhalation exposure causes rhinorrhea (runny nose), sneezing, barking cough (a harsh cough that sounds somewhat like a dog barking), epistaxis (nosebleed), dyspnea (... |
why can you see the veins in your eye when the eye doctor shines a bright light into it? why do eye doctors even do that? | They do it to see the back of the inside of your eye through your pupil. They can determine whether you are at risk for glaucoma, among other things, this way.
Edit: the veins you see are on the front of the inside of your eye. You can see them because of the light reflected off the back. | [
"Advocates of eye vein verification note that one of the technology's strengths is the stability of the pattern of eye blood vessels; the patterns do not change with age, alcohol consumption, allergies, or redness. Eye veins are clear enough that they can be reliably imaged by the cameras on most smartphones. The t... |
why are high pop. density areas more left leaning? |
Small cities are essentially everyone feeling a sense of community by sharing the same religion, hobbies, and ideals. They view the government as an outsider trying to rule over them. When 95% the town is Religion X, nobody opposes things like bible verses in court houses.
However in a large city there are Christians, atheists, and multiple other religions. No single one takes the majority. So they believe that government should be separated from the church to respect everyone. That also means issues like LGBT are ones own personal business, while small towns see LGBT as someone trying to over throw the established Religious views of the town.
Large cities see homeless everywhere and average Joe people struggling. So it only makes sense for social programs to fix those issues. A small town never gets exposed to true economic issues that large cities see on a daily basis, just the government wanting more money.
TL-DR; A small city has everyone sharing a sense of community with the government being an outsider. Dense areas see unique personal struggles in which the government needs to help them out. | [
"The low population density (less than 30/km², or 78/mi²) is caused largely by the rural exodus and urbanisation of the 19th and 20th centuries. Some commentators prefer to speak of a \"low-density diagonal\" (\"diagonale des faibles densités\") and regard the term \"empty diagonal\" as both pejorative and exaggera... |
if a premiere is not supposed to happen till sunday, how can they show commercials with previews of these live events on wednesday? | The footage they show on commercials is from previous years. The "live from the red carpet" shows are filmed as the celebrities arrive for the awards, which can be an hour or more before the ceremony starts | [
"In the United States, on days when presidential elections take place, regularly scheduled prime-time programming is suspended so that networks can air up-to-the-minute coverage of the elections. Likewise, regularly scheduled daytime programs are suspended during coverage of presidential inaugurations. However, dur... |
when they bottle soda how do they stop it from bubbling over? | They add the carbon dioxide when the water/rest is already in the bottle. | [
"The conversion of dissolved carbon dioxide to gaseous carbon dioxide forms rapidly expanding gas bubbles in the soda, which pushes the beverage contents out of the container. Gases, in general, are more soluble in liquids at elevated pressures. Carbonated sodas contain elevated levels of carbon dioxide under press... |
Do particles at different temperatures experience time differently? Can we heat particles to near-relativistic speeds? | Well, 1 mph experiences less time dilation that 2 mph. So the answer to the first question is trivially yes. For the second part, you'd experience relativistic phenomena that converts an energetic particle into multiple particles before you started reaching too high of energies, but the dilation effects would increase to this point. | [
"In classical mechanics all particles can be thought of as having some energy made up of their potential energy and kinetic energy. Temperature, for example, arises from the intensity of random particle motion caused by kinetic energy (known as brownian motion). As temperature is reduced to absolute zero, it might ... |
Why don't we consider the Romans to be a cruel in the same light as other civilizations? | Seems like your perception might be a bit skewed by pop culture here! You have some truths here, but they're mixed up with misconceptions (If that makes sense), so I'll go down your list, then do a bit of chattering (cause I seem to like doing that bit ;) )
---
First off your points. They seem to all be centred around slavery (for context, the lack of slavery is a very modern thing - and even then, there are more slaves now than at any other time in human history) or Christianity, with the war bit thrown in (For modern context, the Romans were at war less than the United States has been.) So let's go down the points.
* They enslaved people for construction and mining / they enslaved [people] (women too!) to be gladiators.
**They did indeed! As did most other civilizations throughout history. To be fair, gladiatorial contests WERE especially sanguinary and brutal, and the life of a slave in the Roman mines sorta sucked. BUT, Roman slaves also (depending on their luck and pedigree) had the chance to buy their own freedom, as they were often paid (Most especially post-Republic.)**
* They were seemingly in a state of war constantly with other civilizations
**As I pointed out above, [the United States has been at war far more constantly than the Romans.](_URL_0_) While that may not be a waiver for their warlike nature, it's context - they're certainly not the only nation that's been warlike, or even the most brutal when they were. Certainly, Caesar's conquest of Gaul was considered one of the harshest of the ages, with an estimated 1 million killed in combat and another million enslaved. Compare that to the Mongols, who killed over a million people in ONE siege. While the Romans loved their wars (Their economy was sorta based around them), they weren't the most warlike OR brutal rulers the world has ever seen.
* Cruel methods of punishment:
**By who's standards? Today's standards, you must remember, are very modern. Secondly, people generally weren't nailed to a cross in a crucifixion - they were tied there and left to die (I'm not gonna get into Biblical debates :P). Some other punishments that I would consider on par with crucifixion (though it's DAMNED hard to really try that - I mean, think about it. Crucifixion lasted for DAYS, and was one of the simplest, cruelest ways to die that I can imagine.) would be perhaps [drawing and quartering](_URL_4_) which involved being dragged behind a horse to your place of execution (in front of massive crowds), hung until you were half dead, then being unmanned (either by crushing or by chopping off your bits), disemboweled (your guts would be pulled out, with great care to keep you alive, and they were generally burned in front of you), then finally beheaded and dismembered (or vice versa if they REALLY hated you), and your pieces would be sent to the corners of the realm. (That was a primarily English punishment - famous example is William Wallace. Braveheart censored a lot of it.) Or, you could die the [Death by a Thousand Cuts](_URL_6_), which was Chinese - it's exactly what it sounds like. Needless to say, cultures worldwide have examples of extreme cruelty. Also, pouring gold down people's throats were stories of what was done TO Romans, not BY them.**
* Christians dying in the arena:
**Christians weren't the only ones - and they were executed in this fashion because they (essentially) broke the law, despite the Romans really not caring too much about their religion. The Romans were legally supposed to pay obesquience of some sort to the Emperor, and the Christians refused - leading to their punishment (The sources make it sound almost exasperated.) The stories of Nero burning Christians for torchlight is *probably* an exaggeration. However, as per always, we're not sure on that front.**
They had plenty of other facets that you might consider cruel, such as [what they did to Carthage](_URL_3_), or (as I mentioned), Caesar's conquest of Gaul, or [the things that lead to Boudicca's uprising](_URL_2_), or [their handling of the Goths' crossing of the Danube that I explained here.](_URL_5_)
However, alongside their harshness (which...how can we truly rate them, with our modern context looking back? If you were living in that society, and were threatened at every turn, would you not do the same? Would you not respond to THEIR harshness with your own? It's impossible to say.), they WERE also one of the most influential societies in Western history. Many modern governments today are based on theirs, their architecture that *still stands today* is absolutely breathtaking, their empire, their power, and...I think most influential...their sheer RELATEABLENESS. We have so many surviving records from their time, we can really RELATE to them as people. Heck, if you look at [the graffiti from Pompeii](_URL_1_), it's the same thing that you would see today!
"O walls, you have held up so much tedious graffiti that I am amazed that you have not already collapsed in ruin."
"Auge loves Allotenus"
"Romula hung out here with Staphylus."
"Blondie has taught me to hate dark-haired girls. I shall hate them, if I can, but I wouldn’t mind loving them. Pompeian Venus Fisica wrote this."
See what I mean?
---
Finally, it really depends on who you ask concerning the Mongols and the Persians. If you ask most people (who aren't 300 :P ), they'll straight up tell you that the Persians were an awesome, extraordinarily cultured and open-minded society - /u/Daeres could give you REAMS of posts concerning that one. They practiced freedom of religion, were very ordered, and really weren't half bad to live under.
Concerning the Mongols, there are many historians who believe today that the impact they had was absolutely worth the millions that were butchered in their conquest. Again, that's all opinion (And mine is the other way, so I don't want to present their argument for fear that my own bias would show too much.), and each historian has their own ;)
---
To wrap it up: Could the Romans be cruel? Yes. But they were also people, just like you and me. They were a culture, and two thousand years ago, life in general was far harsher than it is today. | [
"Later Greek and Roman theologians and philosophers discussed the problem of evil in depth. Starting at least with Plato, philosophers tended to reject or de-emphasize literal interpretations of mythology in favor of a more pantheistic, natural theology based on reasoned arguments. In this framework, stories that s... |
Did the Red Army really use human-wave tactics in World War II? | Borrowing from the answer I provided last week for the [Eastern Front AMA](_URL_0_)
> It isn't *not* true, but it didn't happen like you see in Enemy at the Gates.
>
> There are three principle ways that human waves were utilized during the war.
>
> * In the very early months, the fight was exceptionally desperate and the Red Army often found themselves with no alternative, as they lacked heavy support, and in some cases even enough rifles. Massed charges happened, and there are even accounts of Soviet soldiers charging with their arms linked in solidarity (or to ensure no one chickens out if you are cynical) as they lacked rifles. Wasting trained soldiers on this makes little long term sense though, and it wasn't utilized in latter phases of the war.
>
> * The second, and more common use at least through Stalingrad, were the citizen levies (Narodnoe Opolcheniye). There weren't soldiers, but civilians pressed into service and thrown against the Germans to buy time. Some were armed, some weren't. In some cases they were forced at gun point. Most members of the Opolcheniye had no training, and survival rates were low, to say the least. those that did you be absorbed into the Red Army eventually. To quote from an instance outside Leningrad:
>
> > "Altogether over 135,000 Leningraders, factory workers as well as professors, had volunteered, or been forced to volunteer. They had no training, no medical assistance, no uniforms, no transport and no supply system. More than half lacked rifles, and yet they were still ordered into counter-attacks against panzer divisions. Most fled in terror of the tanks, against which they had no defence at all. This massive loss of life–perhaps some 70,000–was tragically futile, and it is far from certain that their sacrifice even delayed the Germans at all on the line of the River Luga."
>
> The scene in Enemy at the Gates is *possibly* inspired by the workers from the Barrikady Ordnance Factory, the Red October Steel Works and the Dzerzhinsky Tractor Factory, who were press-ganged and charged at the German troops on August 25th, 1942.
>
>
> * The final type we see is with the shtrafniki - soldiers put into punishment battalions. They were soldiers who had committed crimes, or political prisoners of the gulags, or kulaks, and other undesirable elements, who were atoning for their crimes (real or imagined) with service in the worst position in the army - in many cases the alternative was a death sentence anyways. Service would be for about three months, and if you survived, you would return to a normal unit. But survival wasn't easy. These units would be used for such wonderful roles as human mine-clearers, or in the parlance of your era - "Forlorn hopes". Some units would have 100 percent mortality rates, although the overall survival rate wasn't quite that high! Close to 500,000 soldiers would service in the Shtrafbat by war's end.
Hope that answers your question, but if anything needs clarifying, just ask. | [
"The basic tactical principles of the Red Army remained those used during World War I, primarily trench warfare, until the emergence of theoreticians such as Uborevich, Tukhachevsky and Triandafillov who transformed the tactical, operational and strategic conduct of war in Soviet military philosophy.\n",
"Develop... |
What was Hitlers policy towards Freemasons, and were any masons in his administration? | Hjalmar Schacht was the only freemason in the 1933 Nazi government. The Nazi's associated freemasonry with international conspiracies and denounced it in their propaganda. Freemasonry in Germany was targeted immediately after the Nazi's came to power in 1933 and became illegal in 1935, after most of the lodges had already dissolved themselves. | [
"Historically, complaints have been made that the Masons have secretly plotted to create a society based on the revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, fraternity, separation of church and state and (in Nazi Germany) a Jewish plot for religious tolerance. Similarly, some anti-Masons have claimed that Freemasonry... |
Recommend me a good book covering Europe in the period after the Roman Empire and before the turn of the millenium (1000AD) | Chris Wickham's *The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000* (2009) sounds like the book you are looking for. Wickham is an excellent historian and his breadth of knowledge really shines in this book, it's not often that you can find a medievalist just as comfortable talking about Anglo-Saxon England as the Abbasid caliphate! It was also written for the general public, so it's a very engaging read. In case you are interested in church history as well, Peter Brown's *The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000* (2003/2013) is a great introduction to that topic and covers the same time period. For books with a narrower chronological focus, I recommend Guy Halsall's *Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568* (2005) and Peter Sarris' *Empires of Faith: The Fall of Rome to the Rise of Islam, 500-700* (2011). Both are more detailed, but they are written by two experts in their respective fields, well worth a read if you want to know a bit more than Wickham's overview. Robin Fleming's *Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400 to 1070* (2010) is a wonderful and up-to-date survey of early English history, but does not approach it through a straightforward narrative, so it might be a bit harder to get into - I'm not sure what would be a good alternative though, so you might have to wait for someone else to recommend a book on early medieval England :) | [
"The library offers approximately 90,000 printed titles and 900,000 licensed online resources on the history of Europe from the mid-15th century. There is an emphasis on general European history and international history, as well as on church history and the history of theology since the period of Humanism and the ... |
why is the devil portrayed as he is? | From the Gauls. They had a horned god who was master of the hunt. When Christianity was absorbing paganism, he was turned into the adversary. | [
"Satan, also known as the Devil, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood. In Christianity and Islam, he is usually seen as either a fallen angel or a jinn, who used to possess great piety and beauty, but rebelled against God, who nevertheless allows him temporary power over... |
so what happened to greece after the media stopped caring about it? | If a crisis occurs and no major news outlets cover it, does it make any crisis? | [
"The crisis has laid bare the unsustainability of Greek media, and the dependence of media owners on state support in terms of tax breaks and public advertisement revenues, and reciprocating by publishing favourable stories, in a self-censorship mode. When public funds dried up, media went bankrupt, while the gover... |
why does mac & cheese thicken as it sits? | * evaporation
* mac still sucking up water
* fats in the cheese coagulating again | [
"In the United States, string cheese generally refers to snack-sized servings of low-moisture mozzarella. This form of string cheese is roughly cylindrical, about 6 inches (15 cm) long and less than 1 inch (2.54 cm) in diameter. The common term is a \"cheese stick\" which is cut and packaged, either individually or... |
What characteristics made Sparta an environment where women could be so much more powerful, confident and autonomous than in other states of the ancient world? | *CW: sexual violence, humiliation and oppression of women*
& nbsp;
**(1/2)**
There are many problems with the claims in this video. This is probably because it's based on the scholarship of Sarah Pomeroy (1975), who broke new ground by studying Ancient Greek women in their own right, but mostly did so in an excessively optimistic way that isn't very well supported by the sources. More recent work is more careful in its judgment of the position of Spartan citizen women. The main source for this answer is Ellen Millender's chapter on the subject in Anton Powell's *Companion to Sparta* (2018).
The critical point is that the supposedly liberated and empowered position of citizen women in Sparta is part of the so-called "Spartan mirage", the fictional version of Sparta imagined by outsiders in the centuries after Sparta had faded as a prominent state in the Greek world. In that sense the myth of the powerful Spartan woman is as little grounded in fact as the myth of the invincible Spartan warrior or the myth of a moneyless society that cared only about honour and valour in combat. This is not what Sparta *was* but what others *liked it to be*. All of these concepts make Sparta into the Other against which outsiders could contrast their own societies. But the way in which Sparta was sketched as different wasn't always the same. Where non-Spartans painted Sparta as the perfectly ordered society in order to push ideas about education and virtue, they painted Spartan women as free and licentious in order to warn others about the corruption that came with the notion of women's rights. They leered at the bodies of “thigh-flashing” Spartan girls and characterised them as promiscuous and unfaithful. They ascribed the downfall of their great society to the greed and political power of women.
To get at the truth about Spartan women, we need to try and get behind this moralistic agenda of our sources. The real question is not "What made Spartan women better off?" but rather "Were Spartan women really better off?"
First of all, of course, I should stress that I’m referring here to the very select group of Spartiate citizen women. Spartan society included many groups that were excluded from power, and while we know virtually nothing about the status of women in those groups, we can assume that they would be no better off than subordinate groups elsewhere in the Greek world. The freeborn but disenfranchised *perioikoi* likely upheld laws similar to those of other Greeks; the unfree helots were an enslaved labour force, and both men and women were subject to the outrageously violent whims of their Spartiate oppressors. When we speak of Spartan women being better off, we are talking only about those who were born as citizens, the children of citizen parents – at most a few thousand women, at the height of Spartan power, in a population of a few hundred thousand.
And even when we’re talking only about these women, in most ways the answer to our question is No. From what we can tell, where the married life of elite Spartan women was different from the lives of women elsewhere in the Greek world, it was actually worse. In Sparta as elsewhere, citizen women were primarily regarded as baby factories, whose primary duty as citizens was the production of more citizens. Women grew up under the control of a male guardian (their father or close male relative) who decided on their behalf to whom and when they would be married. They had no say in their choice of husband. After the wedding, their husband became their new guardian. They could not instigate divorce. But Spartan customs made this whole experience even more difficult. The [particularly traumatic Spartan marriage ceremony](_URL_0_) involved women having their heads shaved and being dressed as men, since their husband's sexual experience up to that point would have been exclusively with boys, and the idea of having sex with a woman might scare them. And the Spartan rule that younger men had to spend their days with their messmates meant that husbands and wives might not actually see each other in daylight until years into their marriage.
The linked answer above further discusses the wife-sharing practices that Spartans introduced, either to increase the number of babies or to concentrate inheritances; in each case, control of the woman's sexuality was entirely in the hands of men, with the woman having no freedom of choice and no ability to protest her guardian's decisions. In other words, women were not “permitted to have two husbands”, as you put it. Rather, two (or more) Spartan men were permitted the use of the reproductive capacity of one woman. There is really no way to spin this as a matter of female empowerment (though Xenophon tries, by claiming that women enjoy the opportunity to run two households at the same time). As far as we know, the practice was unique to Sparta.
It is true that the life of Spartan *girls* was different. Their unique upbringing prompted many comments from ancient authors on the fact that they “wore revealing clothes and often did sports naked in the presence of men”, as you say. But, first of all, these things applied only to girls preparing for the transition to womanhood. As far as we know, Spartan women stopped doing exercise once they got married, and were expected to live indoors like the wives of other Greeks. Secondly, they would only have been a *part* of the girls’ upbringing, the rest of which would have focused on learning to spin and weave and other things common to girls’ education in other Greek states. Thirdly and most importantly, we may wonder if the athletic exercises should be seen as a form of liberation or empowerment. After all, they were not optional, nor were they private. We can therefore interpret the practice in different ways. There is a world of difference between “girls were allowed to go out in public wearing little to nothing and do sports” and “young girls were forced to give evidence of the strength and beauty of their bodies by exercising naked while closely observed by teenage boys and adult men.”
We should never forget that the purpose of making girls exercise, as several sources attest, was eugenic. Spartans believed that strong and healthy women produced strong and healthy babies. In other words, girls did not exercise because it was fun, or because they wanted to; it was not a right they claimed for themselves but a duty that was imposed on them. They did it in order to meet the demands of the state, and they were constantly scrutinised and held to account for the extent to which they lived up to Spartan standards. Plutarch adds that their public performance was also intended to “encourage young men to desire marriage”, which is a really euphemistic way to phrase the way teenage boys typically react to the sight of lightly dressed or even naked teenage girls. It cannot be stressed enough, then, that girls’ sports at Sparta were not a matter of women doing what they wanted. They were part state-enforced eugenics and part striptease, and girls had no choice but to take part in it. The only perk was that they got to return the leering and vicious criticism of male bodies when the boys did their performative athletics in turn.
**(continued below)** | [
"In later Classical times, Sparta along with Athens, Thebes and Persia had been the main regional powers fighting for supremacy against each other. As a result of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta, a traditionally continental culture, became a naval power. At the peak of her power, she subdued many of the key Greek sta... |
During the American Civil War were the tactics used really as far behind the technology as stated in many documentaries? | The mass fire tactics used with muskets with ball shot were developed in part because of the relative inaccuracy of a single shot from the weapons. The development of the minie ball made each individual capable of hitting his target over 100 yards away. So you go from people shooting at masses of people and *hoping* that they might hit *something* to masses of people who all can hit within around 12 inches of what they are aiming at *every time.*
Before the minie ball each grouping of men was like a giant shotgun with each man shooting one of the balls in the hopes that enough would hit to cause some damage. Now each SOLDIER is capable of doing the damage that it might have taken up to 10 (maybe more depending on the range) soldiers to inflict.
I found the following article to be a decent synopsis of the minie ball's effect.
_URL_0_ | [
"The Civil War drove many innovations in military tactics. W. J. Hardee published the first revised infantry tactics for use with modern rifles in 1855. However, even these tactics proved ineffective in combat, as it involved massed volley fire, in which entire units (primarily regiments) would fire simultaneously.... |
does keeping my phone plugged in hurt the battery, and what is the best charging practice to keep my battery at maximum efficiency? | A lithium battery is happiest when it's cool and between 20% and 80% state of charge. So ideally you would slow-charge it to keep the temperature down, unplug it at 80% and plug it back in before it gets too low.
Leaving it plugged in isn't great because it means you're charging it to 100%, but it's not really any worse than charging it to 100% and then unplugging it. All phones will stop charging automatically once they reach 100%, whether it's plugged in or not. | [
"Which electrical practices, and so which charger, are best suited for use depending entirely on the type of battery. NiCd cells must be fully discharged occasionally, or else the battery loses capacity over time due to a phenomenon known as \"memory effect.\" Once a month (perhaps once every 30 charges) is sometim... |
Why did Musket and bayonet era troops (1600-1800+) Why bright colorful clothes? most notably the British redcoats? | [There are](_URL_0_) [several](_URL_2_) [answers about this](_URL_1_) [in the past](_URL_3_). I'd recommend going through them. If you have any other follow up questions, I'll be happy to answer but the simple answer is that they're like that to create a regimental unity and to show which side they're on. | [
"The iconic \"Redcoat\" of the British Empire was the staple unit in the British armies that created the largest empire in history. The British infantryman was equipped with the .75 calibre Land Pattern Musket, or Brown Bess. He was well trained by the standards of the time, training with live ammunition. A fully t... |
Why is Michigan one state and not two separate, smaller, states? | This was asked and answered last week: [Why is Michigan's Upper Peninsula part of Michigan and not part of Wisconsin (or even its own state)?](_URL_0_) | [
"Michigan is largely divided in the same way as many other U.S. states, but is distinct in its usage of charter townships. Michigan ranks 13th among the 50 states in terms of the number of local governmental entities.\n",
"The state of Michigan is largely divided in the same way as many other U.S. states, but is ... |
Did any non-European powers ever engage in colonialism or become an overseas power? | Yes, absolutely. Since I assume you're referring to the 'age of imperialism', the first and foremost example would be Japan.
Throughout the Tokugawa Shogunate, from 1600-the mid 1800s, Japan had been in relative self-imposed isolation. Large scale trade continued with other east-asian countries, most prominently Korea and China (though the latter was, from China's perspective, illegal). The only contact with Europeans was through a small, tightly monitored trade post in Nagasaki that was granted to the Dutch. The reason for all of this was, largely, to keep out Christianity, as well as to maintain control over the various semi-autonomous realms within Japan (the Tokugawa system is complicated, and deserves its own question) by preventing them from getting outside help.
However, despite the very small amount of Western contact, there was still some knowledge of the west. This came primarily in the form of scientific and medical knowledge maintained by a group of scholars who studied 'Rangaku', or 'Dutch Studies'. The main focuses lay in things like gunnery or science that could be practical for defense or other purposes.
Ultimately, Japan was coerced into opening more to Westerners over the course of roughly a decade and a half following the arrival of US Commodore Perry in 1853. Over the next fifteen years several ports were opened to western trade. The reaction to this in Japan, though, ultimately led to the downfall of the already declining Tokugawa system and the restoration of the Emperor as the center of power (again, this is a lot of history that could go into another question). The ensuing period is known as the Meiji Restoration, and though many of its initial sentiments were reactionary and anti-western, the leaders at the time realized that the best way to combat the west was to adopt its technology and, ultimately, a lot of its culture and institutions.
Japan began a rapid period of industrialization over the next few decades, overhauling its entire social and governmental structure.
During this era, imperialism and the acquisition of colonies was seen by many as the epitome of an advanced nation, and further it would allow Japan to project its power beyond its borders. The first full on act came with the First Sino-Japanese war from 1894-95 in which Japan stunned much of the world by soundly defeating Qing Dynasty China. The result of this was the acquisition of Taiwan (then called Formosa), along with some other territories, and further it moved Korea from the Chinese sphere of influence into the Japanese.
Another major indicator of Japan's rising power came during the Boxer Rebellion in China, an uprising against rising western control. Japan was included among the 'Eight-Nation Alliance' that put down the rebellion.
Japan's first war against a European power came in 1904 when the Russo-Japanese war broke out. The impetus for the conflict was, essentially, conflicting interests around Manchuria and Korea. Japan struck first and, by the end of the war, had soundly defeated Russia by annihilating both Russia's far east and Baltic fleets, and also winning a handful of costly land battles. The end result was a massive increase in Japan's prestige, as well as some territorial gains.
Five years later Japan formally annexed Korea and would hold it for the next 35 years until the end of World War II.
After World War I, where Japan had fought with the Allies in both conquering Germany's far east colonies and also in some minor Mediterranean actions, the Washington Naval Treaty set strict guidelines on the size of various navies. Under the treaty terms, Japan would have the third-highest number of battleships in the world, after only the US and Great Britain, and furthermore their fleet was concentrated in one ocean, unlike the two larger navies.
Japan's government ultimately became more militaristic and, in the 1930s, went to war with China, first conquering Manchuria and then continuing to push inward. This and other actions led the US to cut off oil exports to Japan, a major catalyst for Japan's greater involvement in the Second World War.
During WWII, Japan for a short time controlled not only most of the Pacific, but also a large chunk of China (including major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai), and a sizeable amount of Southeast Asia stretching through Burma (now Myanmar).
So yes, Japan was a perfect example of a non-European power. IF you're interested, I'd highly recommend *The Making of Modern Japan* by Ken Pyle, or, for an interesting read from one of the foremost Western oriented thinkers in early-modern Japan, the autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa (though it really only covers the late Tokugawa era and Japan's early push into Westernization). | [
"While the other European colonial powers, such as France, Britain and the Netherlands, gave up their colonial empires in the post-war years, both Spain and Portugal clung to their possessions around the globe. Portugal fought a costly colonial war in Africa and in 1961 saw its territory of Goa invaded by India. De... |
why is there cotton in various medication containers? | pills bad when wet, cotton absorbs water.
pills bad when broken, cotton absorbs shock. | [
"Cotton and cotton blends dominate the market. The most common blend being cotton and polyester. Cotton provides absorbency and a soft hand, while polyester adds durability and wrinkle resistance. Other common fibers used in the manufacturing of bed sheets include linen, silk, Modal and bamboo rayon, lyocell, and p... |
What culture was the first to create candy? How did that happen? | The practice of eating raw honey and honeycomb is so old it predates history, and possibly even humans in the sense of anatomically modern Homo sapiens. Does your definition of "candy" mean the sugar has to be cooked? | [
"Candy has its origins mainly in Ancient India. Between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, the Persians, followed by the Greeks, discovered the people in India and their \"reeds that produce honey without bees\". They adopted and then spread sugar and sugarcane agriculture. Sugarcane is indigenous to tropical South and... |
Why did the Allied Strategic Bombing campaigns of 1942-45 help break Axis civilian resolve while German “Blitz” of 1940 helped strengthen British civilian resolve? | Does this question assume facts not in evidence? | [
"The strategic bombing campaign against German industrial cities, military installations and a wide variety of other targets continued throughout World War Two and made a decisive contribution to Allied victory. Although the Royal Air Force suffered significant losses of both men and aircraft, the campaign severely... |
computer science and computer engineering. | Computer Engineering is generally associated with hardware - making better physical components that make the computer run.
Computer Science is generally associated with software.
However, there is some crossover. Knowing a little about CE may situationally help a software developer optimize their code. Likewise a hardware engineer needs some software to confirm that their new toy works as expected. | [
"Computer Engineering is a combination of elements of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, which deals with the design, and utilization of computers. The parent discipline of Computer Engineering is Electrical Engineering with which it shares considerable commonali... |
how do conjoined twins fit in the womb? | The womb can stretch a lot and unborn babies are very pliable. They can curl up into fairly small balls (newborns have soft bones). Also important to remember is that the vast majority of twin pregnancies (even non-conjoined ones) will not make it full term. The average length of a twin pregnancy is 36 weeks (vs 40 weeks for a normal pregnancy). Most likely these children were delivered by cesarean section even before that. | [
"Conjoined twins (or the once-commonly used term \"siamese\") are monozygotic twins whose bodies are joined together during pregnancy. This occurs when the zygote starts to split after day 12 following fertilization and fails to separate completely. This condition occurs in about 1 in 50,000 human pregnancies.\n",
... |
When does "simplifying" history for children in text books become falsifying history or misinformation? | It all depends on what you want to teach. What is your goal for the students to reach?
Quick example:
If I teach about Rome, I want them to see the class struggle, the legitimate grievances the peasants had, what the reforms were tried, and why they failed. But I have neither time nor the capacity for understanding on my students' side (this all is taught in 6th grade, to 12 year olds!), to differentiate extensively between the time of the Gracci and that of Sulla. It's simply not important enough if I'm teaching the basics of class struggle.
If I teach the Cold War, I only have time to include the Korea War and the Cuba Crisis, then Vietnam. I won't get into all the factors that lead to the US involvement into Vietnam, neither will I include the French colonial past. I won't teach intricacies of communist dogma, or the atrocities committed by the South Koreans. Again: No time, and it doesn't fit the goal.
Edit:
That being said, I don't ever teach things that are factually wrong, no matter how convenient they'd be. It's *not* Gracchus vs. Sulla, they just fought the same fight. But does every student need to know their exact (= time-accurate) opponents? No. | [
"Since the mid -50s it has become vogue to reread and reinterpret classic children’s books. As to what children’s books should accomplish trouble cultural observers. However, they agree that the narratives in children’s books must delete unequal social arrangements: and instead of identifying inequality, describe, ... |
How does a computer processor wear out? | Current flow causes heat. Heat causes expansion. Cooling allows contraction. Solid state components often fail when connections break down due to the constant cycling of expansion and contraction.
I'm not sure about the cpu die itself but the connections where the die meets the conductors will be made from different materials, and will expand at different rates, eventually leading to bad connections, dry joints and a failed CPU.
That's one way a cpu will experience wear and tear. | [
"A common problem amongst single processor G5s was that the plate of metal soldered to the Logic Board connecting all eight of the RAM slots would, over time, expand and contract in such a way that the computer could not boot properly, as it would not detect any RAM. The only way known to fix this problem is for so... |
how are booger formed and what makes them change colors? | You breathe in lots of dust during the day. You don't want dust in your lungs. The hairs in your nose and mucus capture the dust to prevent them from entering your lungs.
Boogers are just collections of dust and mucus. They change colors based on what kind of dust is in there. | [
"The wort is moved into a large tank known as a \"copper\" or kettle where it is boiled with hops and sometimes other ingredients such as herbs or sugars. This stage is where many chemical reactions take place, and where important decisions about the flavour, colour, and aroma of the beer are made. The boiling proc... |
What were stone age civilizations like? | So, Stone Age is a tricky term that a lot of archaeologists don't use anymore. Part of the reason is that a lot of public perception is that societies had a unilineal evolution or development that progressed through a Stone Age to a Bronze Age to an Iron Age and so on towards modern Western civilization. The implication being then that societies that didn't develop metalworking *didn't* develop. As you point out though, you have Mesoamerican cultures that developed many kinds of technologies we associate with more "advanced" societies, but not metalworking (besides gold and copper).
So the problem with a term like "Stone Age" is that there isn't one linear progression for societies to develop through. There isn't anything inherent to human societies that means a "Stone Age" is followed with a Bronze Age or Iron Age.
Modern archaeologists use terms like "Stone Age" or "Iron Age" as *descriptive* labels for different periods of time in the development of certain societies across the world. They are not universal labels that can be applied to every society. As you mention, for societies that never developed metalworking it doesn't make much sense to even talk about a "Stone Age" because there is no following "Bronze Age" or "Iron Age" to contrast with. For instance, in the American Southwest you would have a "Stone Age" that lasted from about 12,000 years ago up to 1540 and the discovery of Europeans by native people in the region. That is a "Stone Age" that lasts almost 14,000 years, which isn't really helpful for understanding the changes in the native societies of the US Southwest over that time. The entire reason archaeologists divide up time into "ages" is to help understand the changes society goes through. Certainly, societies in say New Mexico in 1540 look nothing like societies in the same area in 10,000BC, so we shouldn't use a single descriptor like "stone age" to describe all of that time, even if the tool technology never changed from the use of stone tools.
That said, for areas of the world were a "Stone Age" *is* a useful way of splitting up time (for instance, Mesopotamia where the terminology originated), archaeologists generally make a distinction between the Paleolithic ("old stone") and the Neolithic ("new stone"). The distinction between the two is based primarily on the kinds of stone tools being used and the way people fed themselves. The Paleolithic, in most places, more or less corresponds with the Pleistocene geologic epoch (the last series of glaciations, or "ice ages") from about 2.6million years ago up to 12,000 years ago. This more or less corresponds with the migration of *Homo sapiens* out of Africa and into the rest of the world, so you could argue that a Paleolithic extends further into the past in Africa alone.
Out of this time period we usually subdivide the Paleolithic into the Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic (Upper being the most recent). These subdivisions are usually based primarily on major climactic changes, but there are some attendant cultural changes. The important thing that characterizes all of these time periods is that societies live as small bands of hunter-gatherers producing stone tools primarily for hunting animals and processing their meat, bones, fat, and hides. So you get tools like spear points (and maybe arrowheads), scrapers (for processing hides), and a variety of stone blades.
The end of the Pleistocene (and so the end of the Paleolithic in most places) and the beginning of the Neolithic is primarily characterized by continued use of all the tools mentioned above, but also by the addition of groundstone tools. These tools are primarily grinding stones used to process wild grains like wheat or barley. At the same time we also see increasing sedentism. You don't necessarily have completely sedentary populations in early Neolithic societies, but you do have more evidence for more permanent structures. This increasing use of wild grains (and other plants) also presages the domestication of these plants and the beginnings of agriculture. The traits that usually characterize later Neolithic cultures are then the continued use of groundstone, but often also full commitment to agriculture for subsistence, fully sedentary villages, and importantly the invention of pottery.
If you have ever heard the term "Neolithic Revolution", that is referring to the invention and adoption of agriculture in the late Neolithic. You see this most strongly in the Levant (at sites like Jericho), but it matches the sequence more or less in other parts of the world. The important thing to remember is that the "Ages" system (including the Paleolithic and Neolithic) was developed to describe Fertile Crescent region (including the Levant, parts of Anatolia, and Mesopotamia). Because of that, it needs to be modified to fit the particular circumstances of other places that experienced similar developments. For instance, while we can talk about a "Neolithic" in the US Southwest (when groups started using groundstone tools, agriculture, and pottery), stone tools didn't stop being used in the US Southwest even up into the colonial period. Calling all of the period after about AD500 "Neolithic" is ignoring the major changes that happened to societies in the US Southwest, and so we have to come up with other ways of dividing time that are not based only only the kind of material tools are being made out of. The same is true of any other "Stone Age" societies. Compare this ["Neolithic" homestead](_URL_1_) from the US Southwest to [Pueblo Bonito](_URL_0_) in Chaco Canyon nearly a 1000 years later. Both are "Neolithic" if all we look at is the material used to make tools, but there are clear differences not captured by just looking at materials and tool technology.
To summarize: dividing up the development of societies into "ages" is only useful if those ages accurately describe changes in that society. For some societies, particularly in the Levant and surroundings (as well as Europe and China), a "Stone Age" (really the Paleolithic and Neolithic) is helpful to describe a change from using primarily stone to using primarily metals for making tools. In other areas of the world, metal was never adopted but significant social changes still occurred so we shouldn't use the same divisions of time to describe those societies. We should make the divisions of history match the development of each region or society rather than trying to shoehorn those societies into a single universal system of cultural evolution. | [
"In regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the Stone Age was followed directly by the Iron Age. The Middle East and southeastern Asian regions progressed past Stone Age technology around 6000 BCE. Europe, and the rest of Asia became post-Stone Age societies by about 4000 BCE. The proto-Inca cultures of South America c... |
why are there so many ladyboys in thailand? | Being a primarily Buddhist country, there is much less stigma attached to being gay or TG there. | [
"Similarly, in Thailand, \"kathoey\", or \"ladyboys,\" have been a feature of Thai society for many centuries, and Thai kings had male as well as female lovers. While \"kathoey\" may encompass simple effeminacy or transvestism, it most commonly is treated in Thai culture as a third gender. They are generally accept... |
being from canada, why do all these sports websites block me from watching a highlight from their website? | Content rights are generally owned on a country-by-country basis.
The owner of that highlight may only have authority to broadcast it in say Belarus, not in Angola. As such, since they are legally not allowed to show you the content since you live in Angola, they don't show it to you. There may be some company in Angola who has rights to it there, and you can go watch it from them.
This is just the way entertainment rights works. Yes you can buy worldwide rights too, but for many companies, this simply isn't an expense worth doing. If you're a company doing business in the UK, you're generally not interested in spending a whole ton of extra money on worldwide rights so that people in Cambodia can watch videos on your website | [
"Sportsnet shows two flagship national games per week, Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey, and Rogers Hometown Hockey on Sunday nights—which features segments hosted on-location by Ron MacLean from various Canadian cities as part of a nationwide tour. On Saturday nights, the Sportsnet channels, CBC, and Citytv broad... |
How liquid crystals rotate light's polarization? | No, they don't act as polarizers, they are what's called a birefringent material.
Linear polarization can be described as a linear combination of left and right circular polarizations, and the angle of linear polarization is given by the phases between the left and right circular polarizations.
Liquid crystals have different index of refractions for the two circular polarizations, causing a constant change of phase and therefore rotates the linear polarization. | [
"When the liquid crystal material is in its natural state, light passing through the first filter will be rotated (in terms of polarity) by the twisted molecule structure, which allows the light to pass through the second filter. When voltage is applied across the electrodes, the liquid crystal structure is untwist... |
Why do we teach more complex sciences earlier in life, and wait until around 11th-12th grade to start explaining physics. | Physics require understanding of calculus. Calculus requires a lot of prerequisite knowledge of math that takes years to learn. | [
"Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines and, through its inclusion of astronomy, perhaps \"the\" oldest. Over much of the past two millennia, physics, chemistry, biology, and certain branches of mathematics, were a part of natural philosophy, but during the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century these... |
how do scientists make money? | People that fund research: A Company looking to make a product, Universities, The Government in General, The Military in Specific, NASA in Specific, and people who donate to research funds. | [
"Private funding for research comes from philanthropists, crowd-funding, private companies, non-profit foundations, and professional organizations. Philanthropists and foundations have been known to pour millions of dollars into a wide variety of scientific investigations, including basic research discovery, diseas... |
Would a woman be allowed to become a blacksmith in Medieval Europe? | The Holkham Bible (British Library Add. MS 47682) from 14th century England isn't a "Bible" in the standard sense. It's more like a biblically-based storybook, combining prose and poetry narratives that weave apocryphal legends into bible stories. This sort of narrative or historiated Bible isn't unusual for the later Middle Ages, nor is its vernacular (in this case, Anglo-Norman/a variety of French) language. What sets the Holkham Bible apart is its cycle of illustrations depicting everyday life in contemporary England along with biblical story depictions plus some whimsical imagery.
The blacksmith? [Is female.](_URL_0_)
Women were *generally* prohibited from owning their own businesses by the late Middle Ages, although there were exceptions such as the all-female cloth-trade guilds of Rouen. However, there were certainly situations in which women worked in artisans' shops and could even own them. It's a fairly standard assumption that, if the husband/father of a family owned a shop, his family members would compromise some or most of his labor force. That would include wife and daughters. It was an important enough role for wives, in fact, that widows could sometimes inherit a shop directly from their deceased husband and own/operate it in their own right. | [
"Women were admitted to membership in the majority of the medieval craft guilds, but membership in a guild did not carry with it the right of being apprenticed, although it implied that a female member might share in all its benefits, pious and pecuniary, and in the event of her husband’s death (he being a master) ... |
i dont understand animals having multiple primary colours. what do they see? | Light is Radiation and there are different frequencies that correspond with different colors. Us humans have three distinct receptors in our eyes and are able to see a part of the radiation spectrum with them. Other animals have more types of receptors and see colors like infrared (a to us invisible frequency of the radiation) and ultraviolet (also invisible to us). Some animals can also distinct between slighter differencies in frequency so they see more distinct colors.
Imagine you only had two of these receptors. You would see less different colors. With more receptors there are more frequencies you can detect. | [
"Animals can also appear coloured due to structural colour, the result of coherent scattering perceived as iridescence. The structures themselves are colourless. Light typically passes through multiple layers and is reflected more than once. The multiple reflections compound one another and intensify the colours. S... |
How and why was what constitutes a deck of playing cards decided upon? | Hey there - while you're waiting for an answer for your question, here are some related topics that you might be interested in:
/u/AshkenazeeYankee discusses the traditional colors for playing cards: [Why are playing cards red and black?](_URL_1_)
/u/Vox_Imperatoris talks about the original games: [What games were playing cards developed for?](_URL_0_)
/u/Argos_the_Dog posts about the basis for the artistic designs on playing cards: [Where do the designs on cards come from?](_URL_2_) | [
"A deck of cards consists of any number of cards, generally of a uniform size and of rigid enough paper stock that they may be reused. Some may bear artwork, writing or other game-relevant content created during past games, with a reasonable stock of cards that are blank at the start of gameplay. Some time may be t... |
At the most fundamental level, what stops me from falling through the floor? | The electrons in your feet are repelled by the electrons in the floor. | [
"When the athlete drops down to the floor, the body experiences an impact upon landing. The higher the height of the step-off platform, the greater the impact force upon landing. This creates a shock to the body which the body responds to by undergoing a strong involuntary muscular contraction to prevent the body f... |
how do zambonis work? | Cooling tubes embedded in the concrete beneath the ice keep it at a temperature which is somewhat below zero. This is important, as it needs to keep the ice cold enough to freeze the additional water which is laid down during resurfacing. The machine first scrapes the ice to remove shavings and prevent weak spots with any entrained air being frozen into the surface. The ice shavings are scooped up into a holding tank in the machine. Then, fresh water is laid down, and spread via squeegee to ensure consistent and minimal thickness. | [
"Zambales (; ; ; ; ) is a province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region in the island of Luzon. Its capital is the Municipality of Iba which is strategically located in the middle of the province. Zambales borders Pangasinan to the north and northeast, Tarlac to the east,\n",
"The Zamboni is a s... |
Did the US really save UK's ass in WW2? | There's lots of different opinions on this and lots of valid reasoning for all conclusions. However, I will say that the one thing everybody should agree on is this: The US entry into WWII drastically shortened the war and saved an untold number of British and Commonwealth lives. And for that matter, the bravery and determined fighting of the British and Commonwealth soldiers and civilians saved an untold number of American lives; both in the war and from the eventual conflict that would have resulted had the Germans dominated much of the Western world.
In short, we were and are allies...united in common beliefs and causes. We won the war together, and together managed to keep the Western world largely at peace since then. That's what really matters. | [
"Britons' actual wartime diet was never as severe as in the Cambridge study because imports from America successfully avoided the U-boats, but rationing improved the health of British people; infant mortality declined and life expectancy rose, discounting deaths caused by hostilities. This was because it ensured th... |
How many atoms "thin" does a solid sheet have to be before it becomes transparent? | Depends on what the paper is made out of.
Glass can be rather thick and still be transparent. An equally thick piece of most metals would be opaque. However, a sufficiently thin piece of gold foil is mostly transparent and is used on astronaut helmets as a filter. | [
"Materials can be transparent. This is referred to as being \"dissolved\". Unlike real transparency, the result does not depend upon the thickness of the object. A value of 1.0 for \"d\" is the default and means fully opaque, as does a value of 0.0 for \"Tr\".\n",
"The act of applying a thin film to a surface is ... |
Could high blood pressure be treated by giving blood every week? | The blood pressure is not because you have too much blood in your system. You have the correct amount of blood :)
The problem is occlusion of the blood vessels. and so, yes, high BP is definitely a symptom of something else. | [
"In people who do not have a diagnosis of high blood pressure, drinking 2–3 liters of fluid a day and taking 10 grams of salt can improve symptoms, by maximizing the amount of fluid in the bloodstream. Another strategy is keeping the head of the bed slightly elevated. This reduces the return of fluid from the limbs... |
To what degree was Manifest Destiny religious in its origin? | The answer, in my view, is both *entirely yes* and *not really* at the same time. Here's why:
The United States of the nineteenth century was an overwhelmingly religious country. Even compared to today's US, which is much more religious than most of Europe, people *believed* during the nineteenth century. In particular, they believed that America was a moral exemplar to the rest of the world. The Puritan leader John Winthrop famously coined the description of America as "a city on a hill," meaning an example of a society that would model proper morality, which meant religion, for the rest of the world, much of which was mired in hopeless sin and depravity. Now, the America of 1845 (the year of the coining, or at least popularization, of the phrase "Manifest Destiny"), was very different in many ways from the America of 1620. The history of the development of the religion of the Puritans into the religious and philosophical movements of the early nineteenth century are interesting in their own right, but perhaps a bit extraneous. What matters is that Americans still saw themselves as the "city on the hill," the exemplar of virtue. This exemplary status was derived from God, and it required Americans to spread their own exemplary culture around the world, enlightening others to be the same as the perfect society they had created.
And yet, you could also say that this was not the case. For while Americans of the time were much more devout on a day-to-day basis than we are used to today, they were by and large not religious zealots in the same way that the Puritans were. The country also by the 1840s began to absorb large numbers of European Catholics via immigration from Ireland, Germany, and other countries, somewhat limiting the effects of Protestant dominance. Manifest Destiny was (is) an ideology, and ideologies have a slippery way of purporting to be about one thing, but rather being about something else. For one thing, many proponents of Manifest Destiny were Southern slaveholders, who sought to increase the number of slave (or slavery-friendly) states in order to ensure the continued survival of the "peculiar institution" in the face of mounting Northern censure. Some of these people--and others--were also motivated by a racist belief in the inferiority of Indian, Hispanic, and other non-Anglo peoples. They saw the triumph of the white race as natural and inevitable. Other supporters of Manifest Destiny, whatever their racial views, were naked capitalists, who sought to leverage the natural resources of the continent to their own personal advantage. They may or may not have been personally racist, but they were personally ready to expand the United States for financial gain.
To summarize: as an ideology, Manifest Destiny was undoubtedly descended from a religious ideal of a virtuous, exemplary society. But it was also flexible enough to accommodate supporters for whom religion was not a terribly important aspect of life, and who supported the expansion of the American state for other, mostly non-religious reasons.
Sources:
Weeks, William. *Building the Continental Empire*
May, Robert E. *Manifest Destiny's Underworld*
And finally, I recommend as I always do, Daniel Walker Howe's *What Hath God Wrought* as the premier synthetic account of American history before the Civil War. The chapters near the end of the book on westward expansion and the Mexican War, will present a useful summary. | [
"Manifest Destiny was the belief that American settlers were destined to expand across the continent. This concept was born out of \"A sense of mission to redeem the Old World by high example ... generated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven\". The phrase \"Manifest Destiny\" meant many d... |
Drink with lime in a solid copper mug, is there a chemical reaction that changes the flavor? | it's called a [Moscow Mule](_URL_0_).
Copper oxidizes over time, creating a layer of copper oxide in the cup. When copper oxide (a base) comes into contact with the citric acid (an acid) from the lime juice, the neutralization results in a salt. Now, whether this produces enough salt to be noticeable in the drink, I couldn't say. | [
"This compound is often improperly called (even in chemistry articles) copper carbonate, cupric carbonate, and similar names. The true (neutral) copper(II) carbonate CuCO is not known to occur naturally. It is decomposed by water or moisture from the air, and was synthesized only in 1973 by high temperature and ver... |
What happens to light and thermal energy? | Light won't disappear. If light is not absorbed it will travel forever. If it is absorbed it can be converted to thermal energy, warming the object up. There are other things that can happen when light is absorbed depending on the material absorbing the light.
Thermal energy can be converted into light e.g. a fire or lightbulb. When thermal energy dissipates it doesn't disappear either but is usually transferred to the surrounding environment. | [
"Heat is energy in transit that flows due to a temperature difference. Unlike heat transmitted by thermal conduction or thermal convection, thermal radiation can propagate through a vacuum. Thermal radiation is characterized by a particular spectrum of many wavelengths that are associated with emission from an obje... |
what authority permits the us national guard to be deployed overseas? | I would assume that this would fall under either voluntary order, or Presidential Reserve Call up. Which is basically a fancy way of saying, if the president and his team think a certain situation calls for federal aid he can send the guard. There generally isn't much of a problem getting enough volunteers to go on missions such as this one. I know in my unit, there have already been talks about individuals trying to get over there to help out.
I know that doesn't exactly answer your question, but I do know that when the national guard is needed we become federalized for our time overseas/on orders and aren't "technically" under the state. Drilling status is by state, deployments are federal. Hope that helps a little | [
"The Army National Guard as currently authorized and organized operates under Title 10 of the United States Code when under federal control, and Title 32 of the United States Code and applicable state laws when under state control. The Army National Guard may be called up for active duty by the state or territorial... |
Were puritan women permitted any rights? | One of the greatest debates between historians of the reformation is whether or not it was a was a positive movement for women. It's difficult to say whether it was entirely positive or negative, but I'd have to agree more with the side claiming that it was on the whole a positive movement for women. Protestants valued literacy, including women's, because they put a lot of stress on Bible reading. This was obviously a positive for women. Protestantism also stressed the idea of marriage as a companionate partnership, and urged men to treat their wives fairly and respectfully. In stressing the idea of freedom of conscience (i.e. that people were only accountable to God) a lot of women must have found a great deal of freedom. Many radical puritan women argued that this meant that they did not owe obedience to their husbands - although this usually meant that they didn't owe obedience to their husbands in light of their religious choices, there is still a lot of personal power behind this sentiment. As for married women owning property, in both America and England, this would not have been allowed until the 19th century.
[This](_URL_1_) book is a good overview of the subject. If you're interested in the radical puritan woman, chapters 6 and 7 of [this](_URL_0_) book should give a nice overview. Both should be available in any university library. | [
"During the English Civil War, the Puritans briefly passed a law that divested marriage of all sacrament, leaving it as a secular contract that could be broken. John Milton wrote four divorce tracts in 1643–1645 that argued for the legitimacy of divorce on grounds of spousal incompatibility. His ideas were ahead of... |
why are different types of alcohol (vodka, gin, whiskey, tequila, etc.) associated with different moods of intoxication (violent, mellow, happy, crazy, etc.)? | It's because of the situations in which you drink them.
Not a lot of people sit quietly at home and sip tequila while reading a nice book - that's more of a thing for wine or brandy, so we associate those with a quiet or a thoughtful drunk. We drink tequila at parties (or good tequila at a nice dinner or something) so we associate it with the more fun, happy drunk.
| [
"Excessive concentrations of some alcohols other than ethanol may cause off-flavors, sometimes described as \"spicy\", \"hot\", or \"solvent-like\". Some beverages, such as rum, whisky (especially Bourbon), incompletely rectified vodka (e.g. Siwucha), and traditional ales and ciders, are expected to have relatively... |
What does the interior of the ISS smell like | Apparently, [meat and metal.](_URL_0_) | [
"BULLET::::- Smell - The space station has a permanent odor described as the smell of gunpowder. Due to the zero gravity, the bodily fluids rise to the face and prevent the sinuses from drying up, which dulls the sense of smell.\n",
"The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station in low Earth orbit. Its... |
Curiosity on Support for Nixon during the Nixon Presidency | > Not only towards the time of his resignation, but as the investigation rolled on (I see it began in 1972; his resignation occurred in 1974.) did he still have many staunch supporters stating he was innocent?
Taken from an earlier answer:
Most Republicans stuck out with Nixon to the end. In August 1974, a week before his resignation, a Gallup poll found 57% of Americans supported impeaching and removing Nixon, while 31% opposed. Among Republicans, 59% said they do **not** think Nixon should be impeached and removed from office while 31% thought that he should. Despite plummeting approval ratings and economic problems on top of the scandal, around a third of the country stuck with the president through the entire Watergate scandal. | [
"Courage and Hesitation: Notes and Photographs of the Nixon Administration is a 1971 non-fiction book by Allen Drury. It is an inside look at U. S. President Richard Nixon and those closest to him midway through his first term in office, with photographs by Fred J. Maroon.\n",
"Also in 1955, while Nixon was servi... |
Can too much cardio be bad for your heart? And how do you know how much is too much? | Yes. A review conducted by the Mayo clinic has found that excessive exercise can actually cause patchy scarring in the heart. However, excessive exercise was defined as people who are marathon or ultramarathon runners, not your average Joe. They found that up to 60 minutes of vigorous physical activity per day can be helpful, but beyond that there were diminishing returns. This contrasts moderate physical activity, which seemed to never quite approach the benefits of even 20 minutes of vigorous activity (so 110 minutes of moderate physical activity was only equivalently beneficial to 20 minutes of vigorous activity, or basically there seems to be no upper limit to the benefits of moderate physical activity). Per the article:
> Running distances of about 1 to 20 miles per week, speeds of 6 to 7 miles per hour, and frequencies of 2 to 5 days per week were associated with lower all-cause mortality, whereas higher mileage, faster paces, and more frequent runs were not associated with better survival.7
But note that this, again, is really limited to a special subset of marathon and ultramarathon runners and is not entirely conclusive, as the results vary. In general, daily exercise is very good for you, but like any drug, there is an upper limit of benefit. From the article's conclusion:
> In some individuals, long-term excessive endurance ET (exercise training) may cause adverse structural and electrical cardiac remodeling, including fibrosis and stiffening of the atria, RV, and large arteries. This theoretically might provide a substrate for atrial and ventricular arrhythmias and increase CV risk. Further investigation is warranted to identify the exercise threshold for potential toxicity, screening for at-risk individuals, and ideal ET regimens for optimizing CV health. For now, on the basis of animal and human data, CV benefits of vigorous aerobic ET appear to accrue in a dose-dependent fashion up to about 1 hour daily, beyond which further exertion produces diminishing returns and may even cause adverse CV effects in some individuals.
Source:
* [James H. O’Keefe et al. Potential Adverse Cardiovascular Effects From Excessive Endurance Exercise. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Volume 87, Issue 6] (_URL_0_) | [
"Rates of adverse effects are based on a comparison versus placebo in people with heart failure. Most common side effects include dizziness (17% vs 9% ), low blood pressure (7% vs 2%), and diarrhea (5% vs 4%). Less common side effects include joint pain, fatigue, and back pain (all 3% vs 2%).\n",
"In many cases, ... |
oil price goes up, market crashes. oil price goes down, market crashes. wtf?? | Basically OPEC dropped the price of oil per barrel because they didn't want to lose money. They wanted to drive the price of oil so low that we have to stop fracing cause we wouldn't make any money. Certain countries need to sell oil for a certain amount per barrel otherwise they won't make any money. They can drill for oil cheaper than we can frac it.
TL:DR OPEC is a bunch of oil bullies that control the market to make boat loads of money. | [
"A commodity price bubble was created following the collapse in the housing bubble. The price of oil nearly tripled from $50 to $140 from early 2007 to 2008, before plunging as the financial crisis began to take hold in late 2008. Experts debate the causes, which include the flow of money from housing and other inv... |
how is it that in 10 years i’ve never seen an answer posted in here that a 5 yr old could understand or not become incredibly bored with inside of 5 seconds? | Read the sidebar.
> LI5 means friendly, simplified and layperson-accessible explanations - not responses aimed at literal five-year-olds.
That would be why. | [
"A woman, recounting a story about an old man who used to answer all her \"stupid questions\", explained \"Chica, if you ask a question it makes you look stupid for 5 minutes – but if you don't ask – you stay stupid for fifty years, so always ask questions in your life\".\n",
"The people that answer questions off... |
if energy is not created nor destroyed, what happens to the energy in batteries once a device uses it? | The energy changes form. While in the battery it is stored chemically. While the battery is being used, it is transferred to electrical energy, and when all of that done, the energy is dissipated as heat (the same reason why your laptop may be hot right now). That heat then disperses and its energy is no longer useful to us. That last step is called entropy: we can't get the energy back once it has dissipated as heat. But in all that time, no energy is destroyed. | [
"Energy is lost during the process of converting the electrical energy to mechanical energy. Approximately 90% of the energy from the battery is converted to mechanical energy, the losses being in the motor and drivetrain.\n",
"Batteries convert chemical energy directly to electrical energy. In many cases, the el... |
what does the denotations of flu viruses, like h1n1 or h7n9 indicate? | The two proteins on the surface of the virus, hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). The numbers are indices to identify the protein variations. | [
"Influenza A virus subtype H3N2 (A/H3N2) is a subtype of viruses that causes influenza (flu). H3N2 viruses can infect birds and mammals. In birds, humans, and pigs, the virus has mutated into many strains. In years in which H3N2 is the predominate strain, there are more hospitalizations.\n",
"Seasonal H3N2 flu is... |
how do we keep such good track all of the objects that are orbiting earth? | The laws of the universe are actually fairly simple. They get complex when it's a whole bunch of them mixing together - but space is perhaps one of the least "law-mixing" regions. Basically if you know the velocity of an object and the mass of the objects around it, you can *very* precisely predict its movement just using Newton's laws.
On earth, it gets weird due to things like the atmosphere. Obviously space doesn't have those, so space itself is sort of a "dumbed down" version of physics.
However, that doesn't mean it's objectively easy to do, it's just a lot more simple than one may expect.
EDIT: Also, an interesting sidenote is that Newton's laws can predict most orbits (planetary orbits and whatnot). However, Mercury's orbit was just *very slightly* off of what Newton's models predicted it should be. After a while, Mr. Einstein came along and wrote in a few conditions for Newton's laws and found that due to Mercury's proximity to the sun, space was warping. Newton's models didn't account for this. But Mercury was the *exception* and it was actually kind of weird that Newton's laws didn't work perfectly for it. | [
"Orbiting at an altitude of approximately ; orbital radius of approximately , each SV makes two complete orbits each sidereal day, repeating the same ground track each day. This was very helpful during development because even with only four satellites, correct alignment means all four are visible from one spot for... |
How large were the Greek Colonies in the Mediterranean? | They were some of the largest cities of the Greek world. Herodotus tells us that Cyrene (in modern Libya) could field 6000 hoplites in the mid-6th century BC, which means it would be outmatched only by the biggest communities of the Greek mainland. In the Classical period, Syracuse (in Sicily) was the second largest Greek city after Athens; by the later 4th century BC it may have been the largest altogether.
The main thing about Greek "colonisation" is that it was nothing like modern colonisation, where a wealthy and powerful centre extracts wealth from a relatively underdeveloped periphery. The Greeks simply founded new and autonomous communities overseas in areas that seemed fertile or strategically placed. There was no functional difference between these settlements and the city-states of the homeland. At most, there was a loose connection of patronage between a colony and its mother city (*metropolis*), meaning that each could rely on the other's support in war, but this was only invoked when it was expedient. | [
"Influential Greek colonies in the western Mediterranean – many of them in today's Italy — included Cyme, Rhegium (Rhegion) by Chalcis and Zankle (c. 8th century), Syracuse by Corinth/Tenea (c. 734 BC), Naxos by Chalcis (c. 734 BC), Massalia (the later Marseille, France, c. 598 BC) and Agathe (shortly after Massali... |
why is the nuremberg defense not considered valid? | The Nuremberg Defense refers to a legal strategy employed by many of the defendants at the Nuremberg war crimes trials seeking to convict Nazi perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Second World War. Many of those defendants claimed that they were not guilty of the charges against them as they were "only following orders."
Principle IV
This principle, one of many drawn up in the run up to the Nuremberg trials, states:
"The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."
Germans were not forced to be killers. Those who refused to participate were given other assignments or transferred. To this day no one has found an example of a German who was executed for refusing to take part in the killing of Jews or other civilians.
[Rational Wiki](_URL_3_)
[Wikipedia](_URL_2_)
[Historians](_URL_0_)
[Facing History](_URL_1_) | [
"However, US General Telford Taylor, who had served as Chief Counsel for the United States during the Nuremberg trials, employed the term \"Nuremberg defense\" in a different sense. He applied it not to the defense offered by the Nuremberg defendants but to a justification put forward by those who refused to take p... |
information theory | Information theory does not require a being. It does tell you what the being can (theoretically) do with the information, and whether (and how much) he can tell the information from noise. If you get caught up in philosophical questions, you'll probably just confuse the issue. Look at it this way: instead of wondering whether a ball is yellow when no one is looking at it, assume that it will be seen as yellow when someone sees it. Same for information. Does a signal no one hears have information content? Dunno, but I can tell you what the content would be when someone *does* hear it. Does that help?
| [
"Information theory studies the transmission, processing, extraction, and utilization of information. Abstractly, information can be thought of as the resolution of uncertainty. In the case of communication of information over a noisy channel, this abstract concept was made concrete in 1948 by Claude Shannon in his... |
How come only mammals have external ears? | Different types of species have different reasons. Such as snakes and some reptiles don't have them as to protect themselves from getting dirt and water in their ear. Birds on the other hand don't have them because they have small feathers that cover the ear hole to reduce noise generated from high winds.
_URL_0_ | [
"In mammals the cues for hearing are usually based on inter-aural intensity differences, which occur as a result of the diffraction of a progressive sound wave by the head and pinna. They could also be based on inter-aural time differences that are present because of the distance between their two ears. Moles have ... |
how does stephen hawking continually contribute to science despite his severe disability? | For the most part, he doesn't.
His scientific output has declined significantly since the 1980s, when he retained more control over his body. This actually isn't that unusual for even able bodied theoretical physicists, who tend to peak in their 20s and 30s.
Since then, he has been more of a science popularizer than a hard core researcher, and most of his work has been with co-authors to assist him. | [
"Some of his contributions in the scientific field include knowledge of the inner ear, motion sickness, disorientation, and biological effects of space flight. Other of Money’s interests include badminton, skiing, acrobatic flying, skydiving, fishing, and reading.\n",
"In the late 1960s, Hawking's physical abilit... |
I am a proud member of the Soviet Union, and I have answered the call to defend the Mother Land against the Facists in WWII. What is the extent of my training, and what is my fate? | Ah, the popular view of the Red Army; questions along these lines pop up every now and then.
You'll be most interested in u/Georgy_K_Zhukov's [answer on blocking detachments](_URL_1_), which also addresses several other matters along the way - namely, your question 2 and part of your question 3. The remainder of your question 3 is addressed in this [answer regarding 'human wave' attacks](_URL_2_), also by Zhukov, including his reply to a question beneath. For your question 1, u/kieslowskifan covers [training in this answer](_URL_0_). | [
"Until the war's end in 1945, the 1st Red Banner Army covered some of the long far eastern borders of the Soviet Union. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and the Soviet Far East Front attacked into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, as part of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, led by Marshal of the ... |
article 13 meme ban? | It just bans copyrighted imagery, so if someone draws/makes something/takes a photo then you can’t steal it to make a meme out of it. | [
"A popular internet meme, started in 2011 and based on the show, became widely popular on social media in early 2018. The meme consists of five panels depicting a dispute between Paul Sr. and his son Paul Jr. In the original scene, Paul Sr. shouts at Paul Jr. for being late to work and Paul Jr. shouts back, throws ... |
History questions about the medieval period | I think a good place to start for you would be Ian Mortimer's *The Time Traveller's Guide to Fourteenth-Century England* (or, if you prefer early modern, *The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England*--you might find that some of the issues you're asking about are more relevant later). It's a solid, well-sourced book but written with a light and very readable tone that provides a great overview of what it was like to live back then.
Greenwood Press also has a series of "Daily Life" books, some of which might be of interest--Daily Life in Medieval Europe, Daily Life during the Black Death, Daily Life in Chaucer's England are the major later medieval ones. There are also more specialized volumes dedicated to topics like sports & games.
Happy researching! | [
"The close of the medieval history is also variously fixed; some make it coincide with the rise of Humanism and the Renaissance in Italy, in the 14th century; with the Fall of Constantinople, in 1453; with the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492; or, again, with the great religious schism of the 16th century. ... |
how does color work and does it exist in the dark? | Color is something your brain generates, to represent various wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, the part of the spectrum we call visible light. It does this in response to those wavelengths falling upon receptor cells in your retina that are sensitive to those wavelengths.
Color does not exist 'outside' your brain, although those wavelengths of light do. However, as darkness is the absence of light, neither are present.
That being said, there can still be wavelengths of light we cannot see, like infrared, in a location that would appear to be dark to us. | [
"Color is the element of art that is produced when light, striking an object, is reflected back to the eye. There are three properties to color. The first is hue, which simply means the name we give to a color (red, yellow, blue, green, etc.). The second property is intensity, which refers to the vividness of the c... |
Does a map of North and/or South America pre-colonialism exist? | There are some old petroglyphs and other items you may find interesting here:
'Maps, mapmaking and use of maps by native North Americans'
_URL_0_ | [
"The Piri reis map was discovered in 1929 while Topkapi Palace, Constantinople, Turkey was being converted into a museum. It consists of a map drawn on gazelle skin, primarily detailing the western coast of Africa and the eastern coast of South America. The map is considered to have been drawn in 1572 by piri reis,... |
[Opinion]How has the American Civil War and Reconstruction affected the forming of the two modern political parties and modern American politics in general? | In my opinion, the modern condition of the two parties is a result of things much more recent - Nixon's Southern Strategy and the rise of Fox News. The Civil War and Reconstruction certainly played their part, see the Civil Rights Act, but in terms of meaningful effect I would still focus on more recent times. | [
"The Civil War and Reconstruction issues polarized the parties until the Compromise of 1877 finally ended the political warfare. War issues resonated for a quarter century, as Republicans waved the \"bloody shirt\" (of dead union soldiers), and Democrats warned against Black supremacy in the South and plutocracy in... |
how did the 9 month school/3 month break system develop and how come it's universal? | It has to do with buildings being hot and sweaty and poorly ventilated during the summer.
Completely an urban thing -- nothing to do with agriculture.
Edit: It may have started as an agricultural thing, but as soon as school schedules became synchronized (no more rural schoolhouses), that went out the window. It's also not universal, there are many places that do year-round school -- mostly overseas, but some in the US too.
Edit again: [Source](_URL_0_). | [
"As school systems grew throughout the United States they became more aligned with college and university schedules, which already observed a break during summer. Breaks became more frequent as well. Original schools observed New Year’s Day, Easter, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The duration of break... |
what would happen if everyone maxed out all of their credit cards at once? | I like this question, generally banks or lending institutions extend lines of credit, but use statistical algorithms to decide how much money to keep available, so it's possible Visa might run out of money, since this is an essentially impossible occurrence, for which they are not prepared. | [
"This second form of credit card hijacking was created by marketers who recognized that subscription based services generally have relatively low periodic billing amounts which will generally go unnoticed on any given credit card statement. So what happens is that long after the user loses interest in the subscript... |
how does the vocaloid software work? | In order to understand it, you first have to understand a bit about the difference between English and Japanese. English writing breaks everything down into letters (c+a+t = cat). Japanese breaks things down into the sounds (kuh+at = cat).
So, in Japanese they have this huge list of phonemes (that's the most basic unit of sound). By having singers sing each of those sounds at a bunch of different pitches and in different octaves, they can then put those sounds back together into singing.
That singing would be unbelievably disjointed, except for the "autotuning" of the voices. That smooths out differences in changes in pitch and key, to make it sound fluid. It's done with most modern real signers, too.
But, back to Vocaloid. Part of the appeal of Vocaloid for a lot of people is that the various voices that can be used have actually come to have a sort of "character." So, instead of simply having voice A, B, C, and D, they treat them as Andrew, Bethany, Cody, and Danielle.
That's about it. | [
"Vocaloid's technology is generally categorized into the concatenative synthesis in the frequency domain, which splices and processes the vocal fragments extracted from human singing voices, in the forms of time-frequency representation. The Vocaloid system can produce the realistic voices by adding vocal expressio... |
How and where does our brain store the "voices" of people/friends so that when we imagine them, we can hear them in our heads. | There may actually be one neuron in your brain that fires in response to a familiar voice. I heard someone found evidence of voice-activation of the "grandmother cell", but unfortunately I can't find a reference for it now. The [grandmother cell](_URL_0_) is a single neuron that fires in response to the face of a specific person (i.e. your grandmother). The idea is that one cell represents your recognition of that individual, whether you see their face, hear their voice, read their name, etc. This stuff is controversial and I don't know much about it. | [
"During a real-life conversation, sounds follow a complex journey before reaching the listener's ears for decoding by the brain. The human brain analyses the sounds and all their alterations to determine the source's position in the room. This enables the brain to know instantly who the speaker is, even without rec... |
What would be the first language of the Irish who arrived in the United States in the 19th century? What impact or relation did it have to their relation to society? | By far the majority of the Irish who arrived in the US in the 19th Century spoke only English, or were bilingual in English and Gaelic.
The 1861 census of Ireland (a few years after the large potato famine immigration, but the best data I could find, and unlikely to have been much different in 1846) found that only 2% of the Irish population spoke only Gaelic. By far the majority spoke only English, and most that spoke Gaelic also spoke English.
_URL_0_
As the Irish were one of the few immigrant groups arriving in the US in the 19th century already speaking English, this, of course gave them numerous advantages over immigrants who could not speak the language.
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"Irish people brought the language with them to North America as early as the 17th century (when it is first mentioned). In the 18th century it had many speakers in Pennsylvania. Immigration from Irish-speaking counties to America was strong throughout the 19th century, particularly after the Famine, and many manus... |
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