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atomic superposition. | In response to OP's clarification:
I'm going to assume you're familiar with the classical model where the atom is modeled as a nucleus with protons and neutrons at the center, and electrons as small particles orbiting the nucleus.
Well, later on, we came up with quantum mechanics, and importantly, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. This principle stated that it is impossible to know both the position and momentum of an object. I'm not going into the maths because frankly, it is above my head as well. This may not seem intuitive, because the uncertainty levels associated with our macroscopic lives is negligible. However, for extremely tiny objects such as electrons, this uncertainty becomes pronounced.
This forced scientists to come up with a new model to integrate the Uncertainty Principle, as the electron is no longer a defined particle, for we could not know both its position and momentum with accuracy. To combat this, scientists came up with the Electron Density Function, which meant that electrons are no longer a defined particle. Rather, they are merely a probability cloud around the nucleus, and you have a certain probability of finding the electron at any given point around the nucleus using the density function. | [
"Superposition is the quantum phenomena wherein an entity can simultaneously exist in two states. The classic description is the though experiment of Schroedinger’s Cat. In this gedanken experiment, the cat can be both alive and dead until the state of the cat is actually observed. \n",
"Superposition works for v... |
Where does adaptation end, and evolution begin? | This actually is not an adaptation, but something called phenotypic plasticity. Adaptation is a process, not a trait. Adaptation is the gradual increase in frequency of a useful trait over many generations in response to environmental changes. In other words over many generations a trait becomes very common in the population because it is advantageous and thus is called an adaptation. In your case, the development of these physical changes in the astronauts happens at the individual level, without any genetic changes occurring. So it is a physical response to a new environment, called phenotypic plasticity.
Individuals do not pass on traits that they develop over their lifetime. For example, if you lost a limb due to an accident, your offspring would not have the same limb loss at birth. However, in this case, the astronauts already had this genetic ability to change physically to the environment. That would be passed to their offspring, but it wouldn't be an adaptation, because, presumably, everyone has this ability.
Adaptation is absolutely connected with evolution. As an environment changes, those individuals with the most useful characteristics will be selected via the process of natural selection. With new environments, previously neutral traits may become very advantageous, and will quickly increase in frequency in the population. Any change in the genetics in a population over time is evolution. So if certain traits increase in the population, and these traits are genetically encoded, then you have evolution. So adaptation and evolution really occur simultaneously. I hope that helps. | [
"Evolution – change in heritable traits of biological organisms over generations due to natural selection, mutation, gene flow, and genetic drift. Also known as descent with modification. Over time these evolutionary processes lead to formation of new species (speciation), changes within lineages (anagenesis), and ... |
If you become Paraplegic, would it make sense to amputate the limbs you have no feeling? | Why would you do that? Besides the risk of surgery, what if a repair treatment or assistive device is developed why would enable use of those limbs? | [
"People with amputations have reported phantom limbs. This serves as evidence that the brain is hard-wired to perceive body image, making it notable that sensory input and proprioceptive feedback are not essential in its formation. Losing an anatomical part through amputation sets a person up for complex perceptual... |
What would happen if the Earth's rotation was slowed by 1% due an unknown phenomenon? | So, lets talk about ways that this can happen. In order to change earths rotation speed, you have to do something to the system.
One possibility is changing the geometry of earth such that the [moment of inertia](_URL_0_) of earth changes in a way that it slows the rotation, but keeping rotational energy constant. In this case, you would have to make the equater stick out a lot more, which would be weird. And its not so stable, because gravity wants to pull it down and closer. There would be earthquakes and such forcing earth back into its near sphere shape.
An example of this is earthquakes that have happened so far (such as the one that hit Japan) changed earth's rotation by ~ 1.8 microseconds, which is 2*10^-9 %, to give you a sense of the scale of events that would have to happen to make this happen (though this sped up earths rotation, not decreased it)...
The next option, would be to increase the energy of rotation, but keep the same shape. To do this you would have to hit earth with something... If some meteor or something hit earth that had enough power to cause this, likely it would be catastrophic for life... And in terms of what would happen... more earth quakes, more restructuring, etc. Gravity will want to pull you back to close to a sphere, but it would now have to fight against more rotation, so it'll be a little (just a tad bit) more oblated of an oblate spheroid...
As a whole, even 1% of a change would likely end all life because all events I can imagine would be catastrophic. I guess if it happened over the course of a couple hundred thousand years, its possible that you could accumulate changes slowly and not really be that catastrophic, but not sure....
| [
"This scenario is unique because it doesn't happen overnight, but rather over a given period of time: The Earth revolves at 1,000 miles an hour, but is gradually slowing down, yet this slowing is too slow to be noticed on human timescales. But what if it significantly slowed and eventually stopped? (The reason for ... |
Books on Jewish American history | [How The Jews Invented Hollywood](_URL_0_) | [
"American Jewish History is an academic journal and the official publication of the American Jewish Historical Society. The journal was established in 1892 and focuses on all aspects of the history of Jews in the United States. The journal was formerly titled \"Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society... |
would two consenting minors having sex be considered rape? | Usually no, if they're of similar ages. What you're looking for are called "Romeo and Juliet laws", which are exceptions to statutory rape laws. | [
"In statutory rape, overt force or threat need not be present. The laws presume coercion, because a minor or mentally challenged adult is legally incapable of giving consent to the act. Statutory rape laws are based on the premise that until a person reaches a certain age, he or she is legally incapable of consenti... |
Does such a thing as a 3-D or Cubic matrix exist? | Yes, they're called Rank-3 tensors. An example is the [Levi-Civita tensor](_URL_0_). The highest-rank tensor I've seen is 6 dimensions, in a lecture about complex fluid dynamics. | [
"A \"hollow matrix\" may be a square matrix whose diagonal elements are all equal to zero. The most obvious example is the real skew-symmetric matrix. Other examples are the adjacency matrix of a finite simple graph; a distance matrix or Euclidean distance matrix.\n",
"In mathematics, a -matrix is a complex squar... |
How did San Francisco get the reputation as America's "gayest" city? | SF has a history of being very progressive on many fronts. As for the LGBT part I believe the most important factor that solidified SF as a community of LGBT acceptance was the election of Harvey Milk. Milk came to SF from NY during a time when many gay people were moving to the Castro district to set up a sanctuary community for gay people. (This is also why The Castro is seen as the epicenter of gay culture in SF). He wasn't the first gay man to be elected, but he was the first non-incumbent openly gay man to be elected in the US. This basically means he was the first person that Americans elected for office with the prior knowledge of him being gay. During his tenure as a board member of SF city supervisors, Milk passed some progressive gay rights legislation, leading to SF being a city known for their acceptance of gay people. Milk only served for 11 months before being assassinated along with Mayor Moscone of San Francisco. This tragedy solidified Milk as a martyr of gay rights not only for San Francisco, but for America as a whole. | [
"San Francisco has long had an LGBT-friendly history. It was home to the first lesbian-rights organization in the United States, Daughters of Bilitis; the first openly gay person to run for public office in the United States, José Sarria; the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, Harvey... |
why do musicians make those awkward facial expressions when they really get into the music? | I can't give much of a technical answer, but as an amateur musician I can say that certain passages/verses have a feel to it. Kind of like how scary movies elicit a frightened expression out of a person, or how those oddly satisfying videos draw out a blissful expression, the same goes for music. There are certain notes in a song that just makes you feel something, and your face reacts accordingly. Take [Steve Vai](_URL_0_) for example. There are times where he's wording out with his mouth the sounds that his guitar makes. It starts off all serene and calming, and when it suddenly dives into the distorted part of the song his actions and facial expressions suddenly become more aggressive.
tl;dr - Music evokes emotion, and one way that emotion is displayed is through facial expressions. | [
"People are also known to show outward manifestations of their emotional states while listening to music. Studies using facial electromyography (EMG) have found that people react with subliminal facial expressions when listening to expressive music. In addition, music provides a stimulus for expressive behavior in ... |
how does a major motion picture (such as batman vs. superman) have enough footage for an "epic" trailer, but have nearly a year left before release? | Depends on how the were shot and what the editing process is
In modern films it takes almost as long to edit and add the CGI as it does to shoot the film so somebody would storyboard the trailer and they would finish the footage needed for this first
| [
"More films were also being released simultaneously to [[IMAX]] cinema, the first was in 2002's Disney animation \"[[Treasure Planet]]\"; and the first live action was in 2003's \"[[The Matrix Revolutions]]\" and a re-release of \"[[The Matrix Reloaded]]\". Later in the decade, \"[[The Dark Knight (film)|The Dark K... |
how do companies like apple and qualcomm continue to produce faster and more powerful chips year after year? are engineers still making new discoveries in the industry or have we had this technology all along and are controlling the rate at which our technology improves? | Apple and Qualcomm depend on the chip foundries like Intel and TSMC. They have engineers and physicists trying their best to fit more and faster transistors on to chips ASAP, while keeping power usage manageable. Then you have CPU designers like Intel and AMD trying to make the best use of those transistors to achieve the best CPU performance per watt.
It takes time for advancements in etching transistors on silicon to make their way through to consumer products. At times, if one manufacturer has had a lead over its rivals, there have been suspicions that they were sitting on advances until the others caught up but this doesn't seem to have caused drastic slowing of progress. One problem is that it's now so expensive to be in the market that there are fewer and fewer competitors. | [
"From 1993 to 1994, there was a glut of chips and companies lost incentive to build new leading-edge factories. When the new generations came out, there were not enough factories to produce the new chips.\n",
"Although many companies grew and profited well from a fabless business model, new hurdles still had to b... |
My parents have always put batteries in the fridge, is there any scientific data that says they'll stay longer while in the fridge? | Zn-C batts keep better at lower temps, but: "Alkaline cells have long shelf storage life. After one year of storage at room temperature, cells will provide 93 to 96 percent of initial capacity. When stored for four years at 70°F (21°C), service of about 85 percent is still attainable. Storage at high temperatures and high humidity will accelerate degradation of chemical cells. At low temperature storage, the chemical activity is retarded and capacity is not greatly affected. Recommended storage conditions are 50°F (10°C) to 77°F (25°C) with no more than 65 percent relative humidity." Typical household refrigerator temps are 1.5°C - 3.5°C, significantly below recommended storage temp.
Quote is from a [Duracell Technical Bulletin](_URL_0_).
| [
"Battery life can be extended by storing the batteries at a low temperature, as in a refrigerator or freezer, which slows the side reactions. Such storage can extend the life of alkaline batteries by about 5%; rechargeable batteries can hold their charge much longer, depending upon type. To reach their maximum volt... |
why aren’t languages becoming more like each other? | Yes. In fact TV is doing away with various local dialects, especially in England.
Also England used to say “zed” for z but the prevalence of American kid tv shows has them simply saying “z” more often.
_URL_0_ | [
"However, languages differ from biological organisms in that they readily incorporate elements from other languages through the process of diffusion, as speakers of different languages come into contact. Humans also frequently speak more than one language, acquiring their first language or languages as children, or... |
how is nasa 100% sure microbes aren't attached to the rovers and similar probes? when 99.99% sure means we're possibly spreading our alien microbes to other worlds. | They aren't, and in fact, they're quite sure there _are_ microbes. They just get all of them they can. | [
"On 19 May 2014, scientists announced that numerous microbes, like \"Tersicoccus phoenicis\", may be resistant to methods usually used in spacecraft assembly clean rooms. It's not currently known if such resistant microbes could have withstood space travel and are present on the \"Curiosity\" rover now on the plane... |
if i boil a kettle does everything inside become sterile? if so how long does it stay sterile? | Actually sterilized? No. Boiling water and steam are damned effective at killing germs, but you generally need much higher temperatures than you'll achieve in a kettle to reach an effectiveness where you can call it sterile (99.9999999% of microbes killed). In particular, bacterial and fungal spores are generally tenacious little bastards and will survive. For medical sterilization, when steam is used, it's heated under pressure to a much higher temperature than is normally attainable, and objects are kept in for as long as 30 minutes.
As for how long it stays sterile? Until it isn't. Once your sterile tool touches something nonsterile, it's contaminated. | [
"In modern designs, once the water has reached boiling point, the kettle automatically deactivates, preventing the water from boiling away and damaging the heating element. A more upright design, the \"jug\"-style electrical kettle, can be more economical to use, since even one cup of water will keep the element co... |
If happiness and sadness are reactionary and fleeting emotions, since we generally return back to neutral baselines- depression is the pathological deviation towards staying sadness. Is there a pathological condition where a person will consistently stay happy? | There is some speculation that such a condition exists.
Bi-polar - I disorder is characterized by alternating between episodes of major depression (extreme sadness) and episodes of mania (extreme elation). Bi-polar - II is characterized the same way, but they experience smaller "hypomanic" rather than full blown manic episodes. The problem is that if you come into the hospital with mania, even without history of prior depression, people will get diagnosed with bi-polar disorder (I or II) and the assumption is made that a major depressive episode either has previously occurred but was undocumented, or that it will occur in future.
There is also chronic unhappiness (dysthymia). In this condition, people are sad enough to have their day feel more lethargic and a little lifeless, but they are still able to function day to day. This condition can lasts for years and years (2 years is the criteria for diagnosis).
On the contrary side, there is a condition called "hypomania". This is a less severe form of mania, and it doesn't require hospitalization. It is simply a mild "elation". However, it is very possible that a form of this condition exists in a chronic form. The speculation on whether this condition exists stems from this question:
If someone was chronically elated, but not enough so that they did brash things (e.g., spend all their money, have tonnes of sex with strangers, and have delusions of grandeur), but rather so that they were always pretty happy and pretty productive, how would this ever be picked up by medical health professionals? Their lives would not be impaired, but rather, enhanced.
**TL;DR** It is probable that there is a chronic condition characterized by persistent "hypomania", which is smaller in magnitude than full blown manic episodes. However, they would never come in for treatment, and they would not be picked up by mental health professionals.
| [
"The concept of the happiness set point (proposed by Sonja Lyubomirsky) can be applied in clinical psychology to help patients return to their hedonic set point when negative events happen. Determining when someone is mentally distant from their happiness set point and what events trigger those changes can be extre... |
why do hunters tend to kill game by aiming for the lungs or heart? wouldn't a head shot be quicker and more humane? | They aim for center mass because it's less likely to miss. | [
"Large-caliber ammunition is considered to be most effective in taking down large game effectively and humanely. Big-game hunting ethics require a clean, humane kill, and most hunters work diligently toward this end. Advances in ammunition and the guns to match have made longer-range kills of big game possible with... |
is it possible to have a minor stroke and not know it and not have any lasting health effects? | Yep. It's called a transient ischemic attack (TIA) and they often wont cause residual deficits, though the initial (transient) symptoms can mirror those of an actual stroke and can be quite concerning at first, or may be subclinical (i.e. undetectable). Having experienced a TIA does indicate increased risk of suffering a more significant stroke in the future, and appropriate precautions should be taken to make this less likely. | [
"The main risk factor for stroke is high blood pressure. Other risk factors include tobacco smoking, obesity, high blood cholesterol, diabetes mellitus, a previous TIA, and atrial fibrillation. An ischemic stroke is typically caused by blockage of a blood vessel, though there are also less common causes. A hemorrha... |
How exactly do appetite-suppressants work? | There is little evidence that caffeine is an effective appetite suppressant on its own. At least two recent studies have found no effect in a human sample. It is, nevertheless, possible some of the effects of caffeine (e.g. stimulation, anxiety) could indirectly lead to a decrease or increase in appetite.
Caffeine is theoretically useful for weight loss because it promotes [thermogenesis](_URL_3_). However, long term studies have found the use of caffeine alone to be an ineffective weight loss aid, possibly because of the development of tolerance.
Sources:
_URL_1_
_URL_0_
_URL_2_ | [
"Mechanisms controlling appetite are a potential target for weight loss drugs. Appetite control mechanisms seem to strongly counteract undereating, whereas they appear weak to control overeating. Early anorectics (appetite suppressants) were fenfluramine and phentermine. A more recent addition is sibutramine which ... |
Victor Davis Hanson and the question of the middle-class infantrymen | Thanks for the follow-up! I'm glad to see people are still reading my older posts :)
Before I get down to answering your question, there's one thing I'd like to clear up:
> I noticed that VDH says that this shift in warfare happened during or after Salamis (480BC) which would put it a few centuries after when you said the middle class was even a thing.
I just had a look at *Carnage and Culture* to make sure I got this right. What VDH actually argues in the book is that, after Salamis, the poor who manned the ships began agitating for greater influence in politics, starting Athens on the road to radical democracy. This entailed a shift *away from* the kind of warfare that VDH idealises. He repeatedly praises the notion of a state ruled by landowners, who had a personal stake in the defence of the territory. In his view, the inclusion of the landless poor in the democratic franchise meant that the interests of the "middling farmer" were no longer the exclusive focus of Athenian policy. They became more imperialist, more expansionist, and more naval. The "hoplite" outlook that had previously defined them was lost.
Generally, this analysis fits with his usual argument (expressed in numerous earlier publications) that the Greeks adopted "hoplite warfare" around 700 BC, when their city-states came to be dominated by a new class of small farmers who fought as hoplites. The methods of these "middling" hoplites remained unchanged until the Persian Wars introduced the Greeks to warfare on a larger scale. VDH usually holds that warfare nevertheless remained dominated by the "middling hoplite farmer" through most of the Classical period, at least outside the major imperialist city-states.
For this theory to work, there must be evidence of the rise of a new socio-economic "middle class" in the late 8th century BC. There must also be evidence of a dramatic shift in civic ideology around the same time, from the strict hierarchy and individual glory-seeking found in Homer to the egalitarianism and shared interests of citizen farmer-hoplites. When he is not busy describing the grim realities of hoplite combat, VDH mostly seeks to establish that such evidence indeed exists.^1 This brings me to your question.
& nbsp;
The main argument against the notion of an Archaic "middle class" was given by Hans van Wees.^2 He specifically attacked a lot of the evidence cited in support of the notion of an idealised "middle". Archaic poets' comments about wanting to belong to a "middle" are often about avoiding the violence between two sides in a civil war, if not simply versions of a general philosophical ideal that favoured moderation over extremes of any kind. The notion of a "middle" doesn't overlap in any way with a defined socio-economic group; at one point, Aristotle describes a leading Spartan general as a member of the "middle" on the grounds that he wasn't a king. For reasons like these, mentions of "the middle" in Greek sources can't simply be taken at face value. They don't mean what we might instinctively assume they mean.
So what evidence remains? The argument in favour of an Archaic middle class often hinges on the Solonic property classes. In the early 6th century, Solon introduced a system of property classes at Athens, which counted 4 tiers: those who owned land sufficient to produce 500 measures of barley a year, those who owned 300, those who owned 200, and those with even less (called *thetes*, labourers). The top 2 tiers were clearly the rich, but it's often argued that the 3rd level, the *zeugitai* or yoke-men, formed a middle class, and that this level should be identified with the hoplite class. However, both Hans van Wees and Lin Foxhall^3 have separately argued that a yield of 200 bushels of barley required so much land that every single man who fit into the 3rd level of Solon's property classes was, in effect, rich. Indeed, using an estimate of the crop yield per acre, Hans van Wees has also pointed out that it is impossible for the territory of Athens to accomodate anywhere near as many hoplites as it had in the 5th century if all of them are supposed to have met the property requirements for the *zeugitai*. In other words, Solon's reforms only subdivided the leisure class; many hoplites will not have owned enough land to count among the *zeugitai*; and the Solonic system actually *breaks up* rather than unites the broad "middle", by assigning some of them to the *zeugitai* (with significant political rights) while dismissing others as *thetes*.
Recently, Lin Foxhall has added another significant point to the discussion by looking at the archaeological evidence.^4 VDH claims that there was a notable shift in the early Archaic period from land being dominated by large landowners to an intensification of agriculture led by small independent farmers. This ought to be visible on the ground, either through major traces of occupation (farmsteads) or through the sort of traces found in surface survey archaeology (land use revealed by pot shards etc). However, it turns out that nowhere in Greece is this supposed shift to small farms and "middling" farmers visible before the end of the 6th century BC (that is, a few decades before the Persian invasion). Throughout the Archaic period, the land of most Greek states is largely unused, and activity is focused on small settlements and major farmsteads, suggesting a society dominated by a wealthy elite. Only from the 6th century onwards is there a growth of smaller farms and an expansion into marginal ground.
There are other arguments to be made, but I think the overall point should be clear: it cannot be shown that a Greek middle class existed in any form before the late 500s BC. Ideologically, this group, when it finally did emerge, was not united; it had no shared political motives and never acted as a political body or pressure group. Greek society remained fundamentally divided between the rich (who could afford a life of leisure) and the poor (who had to work to survive). Militarily, the "middling" group did not dominate a particular form of fighting, either; it shared its hoplite equipment with the very wealthy and with many of the less well-off too. Even in the shifting ideological context of egalitarian democracies of the Classical period, Greek societies remained dominated by the wealthy few, who tended to control access to political and military office, and whose means allowed them to stand out as horsemen in war and as benefactors to their city in peacetime.
& nbsp;
VDH's point about free men being superior to unfree men in war is extremely weak for other reasons, and it may be unwise to treat it casually. Suffice to say that we may question both the "freedom" of the Greeks and the "subjugation" of the Persians; that a society as utterly dependent on slave labour as Ancient Greece could scarcely claim to be a bastion of freedom; that the unusual freedom of Athenian adult male citizens seems to have come at the price of a particularly oppressive unfreedom for the city's slaves and women; that the very notion of "freedom" may not have developed as strongly as it did in Classical Greece if it hadn't become part of how the Greeks began to distinguish themselves from the Persians *after* the invasion of Xerxes; and so on and so forth. Generally, I believe *Carnage and Culture* was the point where VDH lost what standing he had in serious academic circles outside of Classics; his standing within Classics had by that point already suffered significantly from his consistent output of ideologically motivated distortions of the past.
---
1) See his 'Hoplite ideology in phalanx warfare, ancient and modern', in VDH (ed.) *Hoplites* (1991); *The Other Greeks* (1995); 'Hoplite battle as ancient Greek warfare: when, where, and why?', in H. van Wees (ed.) *War and Violence in Ancient Greece* (2000); 'The hoplite narrative', in D. Kagan/G.F. Viggiano, *Men of Bronze* (2013).
2) in 'The myth of the middle-class army', in T. Bekker-Nielsen/L. Hannestad (eds.), *War as a Cultural and Social Force: Essays on Warfare in Antiquity* (2001), and more recently in 'Farmers and hoplites: models of historical development', in Kagan/Viggiano, *Men of Bronze*
3) in 'A view from the top: evaluating the Solonian property classes', in L.G. Mitchell/P.J. Rhodes (eds.), *The Development of the Polis in Archaic Greece* (1997)
4) in 'Can we see the “hoplite revolution” on the ground? Archaeological landscapes, material culture, and social status in Early Greece', in Kagan/Viggiano (eds.), *Men of Bronze* | [
"Hanson was of Norwegian descent and had a brother, Alf, who also played for Liverpool as well as Chelsea. He served in the 53rd (Bolton) Field Regiment of the Royal Artillery during the Second World War.\n",
"Keeton played several good-standard matches during the Second World War, including appearing for a team ... |
time variations in different parts of the universe | Mainly parts of the universe that are close to really strong gravity sources -- near neutron stars, pulsars, or black holes.
As Einstein demonstrated, gravity bends space but also slows time. The closer you are to a source of gravity, the slower time passes -- in your frame of reference.
The reality of this theory was demonstrated when we put GPS satellites into space, then found out that, for them, time passed slower by milliseconds because they were a bit farther from a gravity source: Earth.
Normally, the effect is trivial -- you'll age billionths of a second more slowly per year in Death Valley than you will on the top of Mt. Everest. But sometimes it's not... get close to a neutron star and, if the gravity doesn't kill you (hint: it will) you'll find yourself aging much more slowly than you would on Earth. | [
"These nested levels (umwelts) represent qualitatively different temporalities, for both time and the perception of time have evolved. In one sense, time is physically different from what it was when the universe first came into being. As the universe continues to change, so too does time change. In the humanistic ... |
Is it a coincidence that the first four planets nearest to the sun are all much smaller then the four other planets? | No, it definitely isn't. The conventional explanation is as follows:
There are three main types of neutral materials in the universe, which (listed in decreasing order of abundance) are:
1. Gases (Hydrogen and Helium)
2. Ices (Water, Ammonia, Methane, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide)
3. Rocks and metals
Materials in category 1 are always gases, while materials in category 3 are always solids. But materials in category 2 are gases close to the Sun and solids farther away (note that we're referring to conditions of low pressure like those in space, where no materials are liquid).
Far from the Sun, solid cores of planets can get much larger because they can contain abundant ices rather than rare rocks and metals. They can even get large enough to capture Category 1 materials (gases) and get really big, like in the case of Jupiter and Saturn. So outer planets should be much larger than inner planets.
That's the conventional story, but things are more complicated due to the possibility of orbital migration. That's why we've seen hot Jupiters close to their stars. But if violent migration of this type doesn't happen, we expect that things will be like our Solar System, with big planets far out and small planets close in. | [
"The two planets are in a 4:3 resonance, meaning that every time the outer planet orbits the star three times, the inner planet orbits the star four times. The two planets are separated by only 0.35 AU (52 Gm). Because of the small separation between the two massive planets, the gravitational tugs between the two p... |
How popular was Uncle Tom's Cabin in the south? | Another question: Were there any contemporary reviews of the book published in Southern Newspapers that criticized it as a lie/slander?
I'm imagining something along the lines of how Pravda's review of Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago" had the title "A vile slanderer seeking to earn filthy capitalist lucre by besmirching the homeland that nurtured him". | [
"Even though \"Uncle Tom's Cabin\" was the best-selling novel of the 19th century, far more Americans of that time saw the story as a stage play or musical than read the book. Eric Lott, in his book \"Uncle Tomitudes: Racial Melodrama and Modes of Production\", estimates that at least three million people saw these... |
why is there such a demand in asia for rhino and elephant tusks? how did it start? | Traditional Chinese Medicine uses herbs and powders and other natural ingredients to cure various ailments. They believe it will cure things such as impotence or even cancer. So, there's high demand for these items. | [
"Asian elephants once roamed a large swath of China, but are now confined to the Xishuangbanna and Pu'er Prefectures of southern Yunnan. Xishuangbana means 12 elephants in the local Thai language. In recent years, Chinese demand for ivory has led to a sharp increase in elephant poaching around the world. Thanks to ... |
When designing Second World War era tanks how much consideration went into crew survival once the tank was hit? | Several pivotal design changes on the M4 Sherman tank were sparked by complaints about crew survivability, as well as general comfort for the crew.
[Wet ammunition stowage](_URL_4_) reduced the risk of flash ammunition fires after a Sherman was hit from around 80 percent to 5-10 percent and in theory gave crews a couple more seconds to abandon the tank.
Early 75 mm turrets lacked an escape hatch for the loader. This crew member had to exit through the commander's hatch after he and the gunner had disembarked. If the commander's hatch was blocked for some reason, he had to worm his way out of the turret and make his way out of the tank through the driver or assistant driver's hatches. In the case of a flash ammunition fire where the crew had only seconds to escape, this could be fatal. In October 1943, a new turret entered production that incorporated a loader's hatch. The [76 mm turret](_URL_2_) incorporated a loader's hatch from the beginning, however.
Initially, the driver's and assistant driver's hatches of the Sherman were particularly small, and men had to turn almost sideways and move awkwardly in order to get in or out of the tank. This also made the evacuation of wounded or unconscious men more complicated. The small hatches also did not initially have a lock, and many crew members suffered injuries from falling hatches. A combination hatch lock and equilibrator spring were devised and installed at the various factories throughout the spring of 1943, with an Ordnance Department document stating that "no tank without this item to be accepted after 4/15/43".
Meanwhile, a more fundamental redesign of the Sherman was taking place that incorporated larger hatches. In February 1943, dimensions for the new hatches were submitted, but they could not be incorporated into the current [56-degree angled "small hatch" glacis](_URL_3_) of the Sherman.
Chrysler had developed a [cast front upper hull section](_URL_1_) for the Sherman that sped up production, and this design was tested as a possible solution. Another design, submitted by Fisher, consisting of a [47-degree angled flat plate](_URL_3_), was found to be ballistically superior, and was selected for production starting in November 1943. After November 1943, all Sherman types incorporated this new large-hatch hull design. The new large hatches incorporated internal springs and locking mechanisms.
Initially, the turret basket of the 75 mm turret was surrounded by a perforated steel mesh that made escape and retrieval of ammunition from the sponsons difficult as it only had a single exit hole. If the turret was turned just right and the commander's hatch blocked, the loader and gunner could be trapped in the turret. In order to retrieve ammunition from the sponson racks, the turret often needed to be turned to allow the loader access to the ammunition, wasting vital seconds in combat. One good example is the story of tank commander Lieutenant Raymond E. Fleig. Faced with a Panther tank rumbling toward him in the Hürtgen Forest, he ordered his gunner to fire the round already in the chamber, not realizing it was high explosive. The round did no damage, but the frightened Panther crew abandoned their tank. The enemy crew soon re-entered their tank, and fired a round at Fleig's tank, which missed. Fleig ordered his gunner to traverse the turret so his loader could reach the armor-piercing ammunition stored in the sponsons. The first round miraculously sliced off part of the Panther's gun tube; three more rounds destroyed the enemy tank.
The mesh was mostly removed from tanks that had it as part of the preparation for the D-Day invasion, and new "large hatch" 75 mm and 76 mm Shermans "skeletonized" the turret basket and did not have the mesh to begin with.
Sources:
[Sherman Minutia Website](_URL_0_)
*A Dark and Bloody Ground: The Hürtgen Forest and the Roer River Dams 1944-45*, by Edward G. Miller
| [
"Tank crews who had read press reports depicting the new weapon driving through buildings and trees, and crossing wide rivers, were disappointed. Most World War I tanks could travel only at about a walking pace at best. Their steel armour could stop small arms fire and fragments from high-explosive artillery shells... |
Has a US President ever not been to one of the States at the time of his Presidency? | When Barack Obama recently visited South Dakota, it was widely reported that he is only fourth President to visit all 50 states. The other three [were](_URL_0_) Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. That means that Kennedy, Johnson, Ford, Carter and Reagan have not been to some states. But I don't remember if any of the articles said something about Presidents before there were 50 states. | [
"Four men have become President of the United States after serving as Governor of New York: Martin Van Buren, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and six were Vice President of the United States. Van Buren and Theodore Roosevelt held both offices. Two governors have been Chief Justice o... |
Why is the king James version of the Bible considered by a lot of churches to be the best version? | We tend to call this "King James Version Only"-ism. The [wikipedia](_URL_0_) page is reasonably well-written, if you want an overview.
At its heart it's a view of both the textual tradition of Greek and Hebrew texts that undergird the KJV, usually coupled with a view of the process of translation that led to the KJV's translation in the first place.
On the textual side, KJVO advocates usually view the 'Received Text' (Textus Receptus) which underlines the KJV as superior, faithful, and sometimes divinely protected from corruption. They view with disdain and rejection the discipline of modern textual criticism, and tend to favour simple majority of manuscripts, vs. genealogising and 'weighing' manuscripts.
On the process side, some believe that the KJV is an divinely authoritative translation for English and remains so for all time.
The best introduction to this issue is, in my view, the extensive work of Christian Apologist, James White. I suppose you might go around trying to find a secular take on this issue, but quite frankly secular scholars have rarely found the issue interesting enough to do some of the work White has.
There certainly are other translations, a great deal of them. As far as I know, while some argue that particular translations are 'best' on the market, there are not churches functioning in English that have similar views to KJVO in regards to another version. | [
"Some Christian fundamentalists believe that the King James Version is the only version of the Bible English speakers should use due to the conclusion that corruptions are present in the other translations. Some who follow this belief have formed a King James Only movement. Similarly some non-English speakers prefe... |
Does a brain have a gender? | "Sex" refers to the biological categories of male or female - this category relates to chromosomes and genitalia.
"Gender" refers to the social construct - the behaviors, traits, and characteristics assigned to the biological sexes.
What it means to be a man or a woman varies from culture to culture and from time period to time period. What it meant to be a man in 16th century Russia is dramatically different from what it means to be a 21st century U.S. American man.
I think the root of your question is whether or not men and women are "hardwired" differently.
No, not really.
Hormones may bias a person slightly toward one direction, but that bias is very small. A baby boy, experiencing a surge of testosterone (that tampers off during childhood, where boys and girls have nearly identical amounts of testosterone) might move around in his crib more and be somewhat more fussier, but those differences are not great, and a fussy baby boy does not mean a varsity football player in the future. To give you an idea of the degree of difference between men and women - there is far more variation between people of one gender than there is difference between the two groups. The differences between women are greater than the differences between men and women (and the differences between men are greater than the differences between men and women).
The differences between men and women are not as great as people think they are. Even staples of our cultural beliefs - that men are more aggressive and women are more emotional, can disappear, vary by culture, or ultimately don't exist.
Frodi, Macaulay, and Thome (1977) and Bettencourt and Miller (1996) did studies and found that, under laboratory conditions, gender differences in aggression shrank or disappeared completely under certain conditions. If women felt their aggression was justified, they became as aggressive as men. If they were provoked in various ways, they became as aggressive as men.
Depending on how aggression is defined, women are sometimes more aggressive than men (Archer, 2004; Richardson, 2005). People tend to think of aggression as physical violence, but psychologists have various definition. Relational aggression (social aggression) is applied to instances such as group exclusion, sulking, or giving someone the "silent treatment." Indirect aggression, is as it sounds - indirect attacks, such as mockery or putting the blame for something on someone else. One only needs to think about the "popular girls" back in grade school to see how young girls can be just as aggressive as boys when aggression is defined in these ways.
The second concept I want to touch on its emotionality. People think that women are more emotional - or even "overemotional" compared to boys. Research doesn't really support that, though. It is certainly true that women display their emotions more than men do, but those are social behaviors that follow cultural display rules, which dictate what emotions can and cannot be shown.
One study (McFarlane et al, 1977) measured the moods of men, women who were ovulating, and women who were not ovulating (taking oral contraceptives). They measured the moods of the participants by giving them electronic gadgets that would ping them throughout the day to rate their mood for 70 days.
A quote directly from a textbook of mine on this study:
> All participants experienced similar mood changes within a day as well as from day to day. Also, the men and women reported similar variability in mood during the 70 days of the study.
The above studies are just a few examples of ways in which gender differences we think are really, definitely real, no fooling, can shrink, disappear, or don't really exist.
It's also important to consider the culture that one is discussing. I think people have a tendency to think that what is true in their culture in this particular time is a universal truth. In reality, traits and values that we assign to and expect of men and women vary between culture and time period.
In the U.S., traits like pride and independence are associated with masculinity. We value "picking yourself up by your bootstraps. In collectivistic cultures (China and Taiwan), neither of these traits are valued in men or women. Utku Eskimos do not value or accept anger - it's an emotion that's considered shameful. Some research on tribes in New Guinea reveals that women in some tribes, such as the Vanatinai and the Tchambuli, are more aggressive than men (Lepowsky, 1994).
Now, there are *two* cognitive abilities that differ between men and women - mental rotation and verbal abilities. But even these differences aren't great. Gender accounts for less than 10% of the variance between men and women on mental rotation abilities, meaning that more than 90% of the difference between men and women is due to other factors- and this difference can shrink or disappear under various conditions, such as allowing participants to practice/experiment with the instruments of measure before the actual study. One study found that . . . "women's performance on a mental rotation task increased when they were reminded of their status at the selective, private school they attended (McGlone & Aronson, 2006). Women with a feminine role orientation do better on a spatial task when it's described as an empathy task instead of a spatial task (Massa et . al, 2005).
When it comes to verbal abilities, gender accounts for about 1% of the variance between men and women - meaning that 99% of the variance between a man's scores and a woman's scores is the result of other things. This difference also shrinks depending on certain factors, such as if the verbal task uses words or vocabulary that are male stereotypical (such as a list of hardware supplies).
It's also important to note the difference between statistical significance and clinical/practical significance. Men and women might differ statistically on, say, a verbal abilities test, but that doesn't mean that that difference has any practical, real-world implications. Nor does it mean that one can make any judgements about a person's abilities just by knowing their gender. There are many women who are far better at men on spatial performance - and there are many men who are far better than women on verbal tasks.
So what causes men and women to be different? If nature isn't the main player, than what is?
From the time a baby is born, people treat it differently depending on its gender. People apply pink to girls, blue to boys. People smile more at girls, make more eye contact with girls. A study by Condry and Condry (1976) had participants watch a video of a baby playing with a Jack in the Box, and the baby reacted. When participants were told the baby was a boy, they deduced that it was crying out of anger. When told it was a girl, they judged that it was crying out of sadness. Same video, same baby - the only thing different was whether parents thought the baby was a boy or a girl.
Another study, mentioned in the book "Pink Brain, Blue Brain" by Lise Eliot, talked about mothers' expectations about their children's abilities. The study had mothers try to calculate how steep of a ramp their baby was willing to crawl down, and then the baby attempted to crawl down it. Mothers were within one degree of accuracy when guessing how steep a boy would crawl down, but they underestimated daughters' abilities by a whopping 9 degrees.
Everything in our society is gendered, from the images on bathroom signs (stick figure in skirt = woman, stick figure without skirt = man), to our language (he/she/him/her). Even god, a sexless figure, is engendered as male. Even boys and girls in *coloring books* are engendered.
Someone, somewhere, did an analysis of coloring books and found that male characters were more common than female characters - and they were more likely to be in active or central roles. The female characters were in the background and relegated to "helping" roles. Television shows operate in the same way and characters are relegated to stereotypical tasks.
These are just the unconscious and environmental ways in which our society is gendered. This doesn't speak to the ways in which boys and girls are directly conditioned by family and community. When a boy is rough-housing and playing in the mud, people shrug and smile and go "Well, boys will be boys!" Girls that are quiet and shy are praised for being so. A little girl that plays with trucks may be affectionately called a "tomboy," but a boy who plays with dolls is scolded.
And when young male children need to be told that "boys don't cry," enough that it's a common phrase in our language . . . that's a clue that suppression of emotion in boys is not a product of nature.
Parts of the above post is a conglomeration of two older posts I wrote. They start [here](_URL_0_). | [
"According to Joel, the brain has no sex, and the differences between \"female\" and \"male\" brains, though they exist, are minor and unrelated to each other. She was the first to talk about correlation in the context of the brain: a particular area of the brain, such as a large amygdala, does not predict anything... |
Did Joseph Kennedy lobotomize his daughter, Rosemary Kennedy, to preserve the reputation of his family? | Short answer is yes. In his book, *An unfinished life*, Robert Dallek gives this explanation for the lobotomy.
''After years of effort that had produced small gains in her ability to deal with adult matters, Rosemary turned violent at the age of twenty-one, throwing tantrums and raging at caretakers who tried to control her. In response, Joe, without Rose's knowledge, arranged for Rosemary to have a prefrontal lobotomy, which contemporary medical understanding recommended as the best means for alleviating her agitation and promising a more placid life. The surgery, however proved to be a disaster, and Joe felt compelled to institutionalize Rosemary in a Wisconsin nunnery, where she would spend the rest of her life.
Part of the family's impulse in dealing with Rosemary as they did was to hide the truth about her condition. In the twenties and thirties, mental disabilities were seen as a mark of inferiority and an embarrassment best left undisclosed. Rosemary's difficulties were especially hard to bear for a family as preoccupied with its glowing image as the Kennedys. It was one thing for them to acknowledge limitations among themselves, but to give outsiders access to such information or put personal weaknesses on display was to open the family to possible ridicule or attack from people all too eager to knock down Kennedy claims of superiority. Hiding family problems, particularly medical concerns, later became a defense against jeopardizing election to public office.''
**SOURCE** : Robert Dallek, *An unfinished life : John F. Kennedy*, Back bay book, New York, 2003. p.72-73
I'd like to add that Dallek's book is a thoroughly written one and I trust his explanation. | [
"Kennedy was the only surviving male in the family after two outbreaks of cholera killed his father and brother. He started work at fourteen as a stevedore in the docks. Kennedy owned three saloons and a whisky import house, and eventually had major interests in coal and banking. He moved successfully into politics... |
How does the Brain know which nerve receptor is sending a message ? | The brain knows because the signal is conducted from the spot of sensation through a chain of neurons up to the brain, like dominoes. The more interesting part is something called "lateral inhibition", which causes a decrease in firing frequency for the neurons flanking a stimulated neuron. This helps us to localize the spot of stimulation, and assign magnitude to the level of stimulation. Ultimately, it's not a one-neuron-code that gets sent, then, the brain is also detecting changes in firing in other, local neurons.
Additionally, it's a little cruder of a sensing tool than I may have just made it sound. If you take two pencils, and press the tips equally onto your skin with decreasing distances between the tips, there will be a point where you can no longer say that you feel two tips touching you, your brain will tell you it's only one. This is a type of resolution called "two-point discrimination".
Lastly, there's a bizarre phenomenon called "referred pain", where you experience injury in one spot, but feel it in a totally different location on your body. A common example is left arm pain without heart pain during a heart attack, less common is shoulder pain during miscarriage/rupturing ovarian cysts. Although this hasn't been entirely explained, the probable explanation involves what spinal level the input synapses on, and what else normally signals there. The brain doesn't seem to distinguish well between very rare inputs, like strong heart pain, and a much more common input, like pain in your left arm, and assigns the pain sensation to the more common area of pain. | [
"In the brain, messages are passed from a nerve cell to another via a chemical synapse, a small gap between the cells. The presynaptic cell that sends the information releases neurotransmitters including serotonin into that gap. The neurotransmitters are then recognized by receptors on the surface of the recipient ... |
why are transgender issues suddenly all over the place? | Causes are fashion for many people. And transgender issues are currently the most fashionable. I say this as someone who fully believes that trans people deserve equality and freedom from persecution, but also as someone who recognises that people clearly bandwagon. | [
"Transgender people who are going through divorce, inheritance battles or custody disputes are vulnerable to legal challenges. This is because the validity of their marriages is often called into question due to inconsistent laws regulating transgender equality.\n",
"People's ignorance of and prejudice against LG... |
Why is it that we can recognize sarcasm in speech, but not through text? | According to older communication theory ([Ruesch & Bateson 1951](_URL_0_)), we recognize sarcasm through "metacommunicative" messages in other "channels". These include tone of voice, facial expressions, hand gestures, body postures, or an amalgamation of these. They function as "instructions" on how the message is to be interpreted. For example, if someone says "You're *sooo* smart." while rolling their eyes, we immediately understand that "so" shouldn't be drawled out and the speaker should be looking at you if it were an earnest expression.
While this kind of sarcasm involves the addition of some nonverbal component that cues sarcasm, there is also the opposite: [Deadpan](_URL_1_) is a type of delivery that works it's humor by not displaying the appropriate signals. This is what Aubrey Plaza does in Parks and Recreation - she uses expressions that *should* come with a distinct tone of voice or facial expression, but instead she's as inexpressive as possible, creating a kind of dissonance between how something is normally said and how she delivers it.
There are also textual attempts at metacommunication, such as the reversed question mark "⸮" and the sarcasm switch "/s" added at the end of a sarcastic statement to indicate that the statement is to be taken sarcastically. But since these aren't as pronounced as the tone of voice or facial expression, they can be ignored by inattentive readers and lead to confusion. | [
"In English, sarcasm is often telegraphed with kinesic/prosodic cues by speaking more slowly and with a lower pitch. Similarly, Dutch uses a lowered pitch; sometimes to such an extent that the expression is reduced to a mere mumble. But other research shows that there are many ways that real speakers signal sarcast... |
what is the painful tingly feeling in your feet when you jump down from something? | Typically when you jump, you adjust your feet unconsciously so that the force of landing is not applied only to your foot/ankle, but also parts of your legs. Sometimes when you take a wrong step or jump/fall in an unexpected way, you can land such that the force cannot be redistributed from your foot. This causes a larger force to be applied to your ankle and the resultant pain. | [
"A sensation of falling occurs when the labyrinth or \"vestibular apparatus\", a system of fluid-filled passages in the inner ear, detects changes in acceleration. This sensation can occur when a person begins to fall, which in terms of mechanics amounts to a sudden acceleration increase from zero to roughly 9.8 m/... |
What's making these ice pieces slowly move onto land like this? So bizarre I can't explain it...VIDEO inside. | This is a lake shore property. The ice is coming off the lake, moved by the wind. Imagine a *huge* sheet of ice, several square kilometers, and blow a strong, steady wind across it. The force from all the wind adds up and can be enough to push the entire ice sheet slowly, but steadily onto land. This results in what you see in the video here. | [
"Shelf ice is a floating mat of ice, but unlike a pond or a small lake that freezes over, the shelf is not a uniform sheet of ice. Created by the wind and waves, the shelf ice is a jumble of ice chunks, pushed onto each other. It is as if you took a pile of rubble and pushed up against a wall. The more you push, th... |
If alien beings have a sense of sight, is it unlikely that they can see the same wavelengths as us? | There are a couple of reasons why the spectrum we see in is convenient. One, is that the atmosphere is [fairly transparent at those frequencies](_URL_0_) meaning that much of the light of the sun makes it to the surface. This is called the [optical window](_URL_2_). Second, visible light frequencies are high enough that you can get great resolution with a reasonably small aperture. Third, they are [non-ionizing](_URL_1_) so we don't have to hide from them too much.
Infrared shares many of these properties, but would incur significant loss by a water-filled eye or lens.
This all doesn't mean that some other part of the spectrum could be used, only that our part represents a significant local optimum. | [
"An alien race almost exactly the same in appearance as humans, Miraluka differ in that they have no eyes or blank white sockets and cannot see through the focusing of light. Miraluka typically hide their lack of eyes by wearing a headband, a mask, or similar concealing headwear, because they are much less common t... |
What is the insignia on this cannon?? | a Cannon bearing a Crown symbol and the initials GR for Georgios Rex reference to the reigning monarch King George.
It's a British cannon, i think the actual fabric was in scotland. | [
"BULLET::::- Shield: The shield depicts three field cannons facing left and three cannonballs and forms part of the Coat of Arms granted to the Board of Ordnance in 1823. On all cap badges the cannon face to the left, with the exception of the first pattern NZAOC badge where the cannons face to the right.\n",
"Th... |
"pot odds," "pot equity," and the "independent chip model" in texas hold'em | * **Pot Odds** - How much you can win compared to how much it will cost you to win it.
* **Pot Equity** - The percentage of the pot you "own." You own an amount of the pot equal to your chance of winning it. (Disregarding Fold Equity).
* **ICM** - A far more advanced concept in tournament play. It's SUPPOSED to be the equivilent of Pot Equity except for a full tournament. Usually, however, people use the term to describe the idea that what might be best for acquiring CHIPS may not be the best for acquiring MONEY.
Pot Odds - Say I have AsTs and my opponent has JJ (assume you're psychic for the moment). Flop comes 9s 5h 2s. Your opponent shoves his last 900 into a pot of 2400 chips. You only have only a 46% chance to win this hand. Should you call? Even though your opponent has you beat, the answer is '**Yes!**' Even though you are going to lose more chips over half the time (54%), you're going to win 3300 chips when you do win. Lose 900 54% of the time versus winning 3300 46% of the time. That's profitable!
Pot Equity - In the above example my opponent's hand was the best hand. It was better than mine. I was beat. However it's ridiculous to say my hand was a loser. I had a very strong hand actually. I had a hand with high "Pot Equity." AsKs has the ability to win that hand a strong portion of the time. You could say that 1518 of that pot was "yours." This was the size of the pot times your odds of winning it.
ICM - The above are pretty beginner concepts. ICM is relatively advanced. Say the above happened at a poker tournament and the chip counts for remaining players are as follows:
* You: 3100
* Opponent: 2100
* Guy #1: 200
* Guy #2: 75
* Guy #3: 400
* Guy #4: 125
NOW, should you call? Well we've already established that Pot Odds say you should. You would win more chips in the long run. But poker isn't about winning chips, it's about winning MONEY! ICM might say **'No!'**
Payouts of a tournament are graduated with 1st paying the most on down to some arbitrary number. However you are currently in GREAT shape with over half the chips in play! Guys 1, 2, and 4 are likely going to go out *very* soon and take the lower payouts. Why risk 29% of your chips here? If you just wait around Guys 1-4 are likely going to go out and you will finish 1st or 2nd. Why take the risk of losing such a large amount of chips? Just fold.
**Edit:** Someone will probably inevitably come in and complain about my scenerio. Bite me, it's a lot harder to think up than it seems. :D | [
"A common variant called \"Mississippi Stud\" removes the betting round between fourth and fifth streets, making only four betting rounds. This game also deals the final card face up. This makes the game more closely resemble Texas Hold'em by having the same betting structure and same number of down and up cards.\n... |
what are the actual statistics on what muslims believe? | _URL_0_ This should do. | [
"The U.S. Census Bureau does not collect data on religious identification. Various institutions and organizations have given widely varying estimates about how many Muslims live in the U.S. Tom W. Smith, author of \"Estimating the Muslim Population in the United States\", said that of twenty estimates he reviewed d... |
what was europe trying to do by instigating the euro? | The answer is that Germany, which didn't really exist as a country until the 19th Century, is too big to fit within the confines of the European power structure. So in the 20th Century, there were two world wars about containing Germany and lots of folks died.
In order to bring Europe closer together and solve "the German problem" France and Germany began a long process of integration in the 1950's starting with Coal and Steel agreements and working from there.
Here are some links for further reading.
_URL_1_
_URL_0_
_URL_2_ | [
"European countries created the Euro to simplify trading between European Union countries. Adopting the Euro would remove currency risk and the cost of currency conversion, and provide a common monetary policy among members. Policy learning took places as more European countries learned that joining the Eurozone wo... |
what's the difference between emergency care and urgent care, and why is ec so much more expensive? | Emergency Care is part of a hospital and has the full resources of the hospital available to it. Urgent care is basically a doctor's office that is open around the clock. An emergency room will likely have surgeons that wait around just in case someone needs to go to surgery. They will have other specialists too. These specialists are really expensive and having them work odd hours requires you to pay them more.
Urgent care facilities are usually staffed by general practice doctors. Since they aren't specialists they don't generally command extraordinarily high wages. | [
"The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act requires virtually all hospitals to accept all patients, regardless of the ability to pay, for emergency room care. The act does not provide access to non-emergency room care for patients who cannot afford to pay for health care, nor does it provide the benefit ... |
how are the transistors in a cpu/micro-controller controlled? | Transistors just work because physics. A waterwheel does the same thing; it's not configured, it's simply made such that physics will force it to do what we want.
As /u/LondonPilot said you make the logic gates or other useful circuits by combining it all together into interesting setups. You can then in turn chain those together and make more and more complex circuits. | [
"The controller performs tasks, processes data and controls the functionality of other components in the sensor node. While the most common controller is a microcontroller, other alternatives that can be used as a controller are: a general purpose desktop microprocessor, digital signal processors, FPGAs and ASICs. ... |
If you move a wild bug far from its home but the same environment will it go back home or make a new life there? | It really depends on the insect.
Many insects, I believe including grasshoppers, typically do not have one nest or other type of "home" they can return to. Most insects also do not rely on being part of one society or group. They live where they happen to be at the moment, and if they can't find what they need in an area, they keep moving until they find it.
Other insects, notably the ants, wasps, and bees, are "central place foragers." They have a nest or hive or other "home" where they hang out, and if you displaced them they would fly up to [miles away](_URL_0_) to get home as long as they have memorized enough landmarks and directional cues (and they are very good at that.) Some of these insects are social, and have a strong drive to return to their own social group, which they are typically related to. | [
"Another notable insect resident of this ecoregion is the rain beetle (\"Pleocoma\" sp.) It spends up to several years living underground in a larval stage and emerges only during wet-season rains to mate.\n",
"Although Triatominae bugs feed on them, birds appear to be immune to infection and therefore are not co... |
There have been a dozen or so species in genus Homo; why did all but one sub-species disappear? | You've asked a good question, and the only real answer is that archaeologists and paleoanthropologists simply do not have enough data to fully support any hypotheses on the extinctions of pre-modern *Homo* species. Among the hypotheses that have been promoted are, of course, intraspecies violence, miscegenation, being out-competed by modern humans, and simply dying off due to failure to adapt to changing environmental conditions.
To my knowledge, no evidence exists of any intraspecies *Homo* violence, though this does not mean it did not occur.
Miscegenation, or interbreeding between different species and groups, certainly did happen between modern humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans. We don't know exactly to what extent, but likely not on the level of integrated cultures on a large scale. Enough, though, that most modern humans contain detectable quantities of Neanderthal and Denisovan genetic material. I believe Papua New Guineans have the most "non-modern" DNA at something like 7% Denisovan.
Competition between prehistoric humans and modern humans would need evidence of coexistence, which is rare. The times at which various ancient populations existed can be hard to define, and being out-competed would require coexistence for some length of time. As dates of late Neanderthal remains are refined, and new sites are discovered, more evidence should come to light.
It is, in my opinion, most likely that changing environmental conditions put pressure on prehistoric human species, and gradually reduced their genetic integrity and geographic diversity. It seems likely to me, though this is conjecture, that the arrival of modern humans did play a role in preventing a recovery of Neanderthal populations in Europe, though this assumes a lot in terms of time and relative population size.
All in all, we can't answer that question. We can come closest by looking at potential interactions between modern humans and prehistoric humans like Neanderthals, which included interbreeding, tool technology sharing, and possible cultural behavior transmission. As for more ancient interactions, say between *H. ergaster* and *H. habilis*, there's practically no data available.
As a last note, I don't know of any evidence suggesting *H. erectus* was alive in historic times. The remnant species *H. floresiensis*, the Indonesian "hobbit", was at one point thought to have survived to the end of the Pleistocene, or even later, but last I heard that date had been pushed back to something like 50 kya. | [
"The genus Homo, which contains many extinct species, are grouped into sub-genera. The sub genus Homo contains species which are derived from each other within one million to 800 thousand years. Both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals are grouped within the Sub genus Homo, because of their ability to interbreed without ... |
alcohol and painkillers | The metabolism of acetaminophen produces a toxic intermediate (NAPQI) that is usually rapidly eliminated.
However, if the breakdown pathway is overwhelmed, such as in an acetaminophen overdose or by ethanol, that intermediate may not be rapidly eliminated, possibly causing liver damage. | [
"A Painkiller is a rum cocktail trademarked by Pusser's Rum Ltd, their signature drink. It is often associated with Tiki establishments. The Painkiller is a blend of Pusser's rum with 4 parts pineapple juice, 1 part cream of coconut and 1 part orange juice, well shaken and served over the rocks with a generous amou... |
how do they make intricate objects with glass (and other things)? | They take glass components that are melted to something called working and softening temperatures. These allow the melt to be soft enough to mold with a rod and yet viscous enough to resist flowing much like honey just a lot slower moving. Things like a rose can be made by using pliars to physically pull pedals from a glass blob on the end of a rod. It is then dipped back into the melted batch to gain an extra layer to pull more petals. Once the rose pedals are made a stem is pulled from the melt extended and then the cooling pedals are attached to the stem. It then sits in something called a lehr to cool slowly.
Basically, most shapes are uniquely crafted layer by layer and is usually reheated multiple times over several hours to shape it appropriately. Glass blowing only adds to the complexity of it and doesnt allow for much time to reheat. | [
"This technique is related to the origin of glass as a substitute for gemstones. By borrowing techniques for stone and carved gems, artisans were able to produce a variety of small containers from blocks of raw glass or thick moulded blanks, including cameo glass in two or more colours, and cage cups (still thought... |
what happened that resulted in canada going into a recession. | The main reason for the recession is the current crash in oil prices. For Canada to get out of the recession oil prices need to hit $70 a barrel, that is the sweet spot for companies to start spending money on drilling again. | [
"The recession brought on in the United States by the collapse of the dot-com bubble beginning in 2000, hurt the Toronto Stock Exchange but has affected Canada only mildly. It is one of the few times Canada has avoided following the United States into a recession.\n",
"BULLET::::- 1990–1992 – A major recession hi... |
how is wifi not damaging me but other kinds of radiation are? | Plenty of kinds of radiation isn't damaging. For example, there's the megahertz-range radiation being blasted at high levels by giant towers all over the place- they send out a signal referred to as an "FM radio station".
There's also tons of smaller devices peppering you with high levels of terahertz-range radiation every day. In fact, you're so used to them that you might have trouble if we got rid of them all. We call them "lights".
Wi-Fi is right in between these two harmless types of radiation (with frequencies in the gigahertz range). It's just that for some reason people refer to Wi-Fi as "radiation" while referring to the other forms of radiated electromagnetic waves as "radio waves" or "light". Radiation is only a problem when the frequency is very high (higher than visible light), or when it's really intense (in which case it makes things hot). | [
"Radionuclides that find their way into the environment may cause harmful effects as radioactive contamination. They can also cause damage if they are excessively used during treatment or in other ways exposed to living beings, by radiation poisoning. Potential health damage from exposure to radionuclides depends o... |
How did apple pie become an icon of American culture, even inspiring the phrase 'as American as apple pie', when it's a popular pastry in several European countries. Especially when it's also an icon of Dutch culture, even appearing in a Dutch cookbook in 1514. | /r/AskFoodHistorians might be a good place to cross-post this | [
"Apple pie – New England was the first region to experience large-scale English colonization in the early 17th century, beginning in 1620, and it was dominated by East Anglian Calvinists, better known as the Puritans. Baking was a particular favorite of the New Englanders and was the origin of dishes seen today as ... |
What was life like in areas of France occupied by Germany in the First World War? | There wasn't actually that much of France under German occupation during the war. After the breakdown of the Schlieffen plan and the race to the sea, the front line more or less stabilised, although there would be shifts as various offensives took place. You can see on [this map](_URL_0_) that most of the occupied territory is on the Belgian border. This territory was mainly two thirds of the Department (a French administrative area) of Nord, which was home to roughly 1.176 million French citizens. Altogether, parts of ten Departments were occupied, with a total population of about 2 million. As many men had fled before the German advance or been mobilised into the army, a majority of the population was female.
Unfortunately for the French, this strip of land was one of the most heavily industrialised in the country, producing 60% of its iron, a quarter of its steel and up to 40% of its coal. This was very useful to the Germans, who had found themselves deprived of seaborne imports by the British blockade. Increasingly, raw materials and industrial machinery were taken to Germany to assist with the war effort. The entire area of occupied France was also close enough to the front lines that they fell under military, rather than civil, administration. There was widespread requistion of food, and civilians were increasingly forced to work for the occupiers, building fortifications and carrying out duties usually reserved for pioneer units. Those who refused to work voluntarily were forced to work in Civil-Worker Battalions, which were generally brutal, with poor rations. There were high mortality rates and the workers were interned in special camps. In summer 1916, 20,000 workers were deported to the Ardennes to work on the harvest, although this practice was stopped after widespread international protest.
In terms of administration, French authorities were mostly sidelined. Instead, the occupied zone was divided into various divisions called *Etappen*, under the control of an Inspector, with subdivisions under the control of the area Commandant. The army in the area at the time was responsible for providing administrators to oversee each Etappe, and when the armies were redeployed, so were their administrators. The subdivisions could vary in size, with the largest, such as the city of Lille, being administered by a high ranking officer and dozens of soldiers, whereas small villages could only have an NCO assigned to them. Each citizen was issued an identity card, and if they were found outside their Etappe then they could be faced with a fine or imprisonment. It was possible to obtain a pass from the area Commandant, but this was a difficult and complicated process, and the passes generally only lasted a few days. While a military necessity from the perspective of the Germans, this system led to increased frustration among the French population. The French police were left to deal with crimes against other French people, but the Germans had their own military and police force.
Correspondence with anyone outside the occupied zone was initially punishable by death, but the punishment soon decreased and there was in any case a thriving underground post network, often via neutral countries or the Red Cross. The German Army also produced a newspaper, called the Gazette des Ardennes, which provided reports on news from the front and extracts from British and French newspapers. As the French also had access to German language newspapers, it was important that the Gazette didn't appear as overt propaganda. As such, it was more or less factually trustworthy, but had a heavy pro-German perspective. It's difficult to tell exactly how popular it was. Whilst circulation reached 180,000 by January 1918, accounts by French citizens mention that much of the time it wasn't actually read. In an effort to counter this, the British and French airdropped newspapers and pamphlets over the occupied territories. There were also a few underground newspapers, and while owning a radio was illegal, those who had one hidden were able to listen to radio stations on the other side of the front line. The French also conversed openly with soldiers billeted in the area, allowing them to gain information in that way.
In terms of resistance, there was very little that the French could do to actively resist the occupiers. Those who refused to carry out work or were found guilty of carrying out resistance were conscripted into labour battalions. Underground newspapers and networks to help escaped prisoners were made very difficult by the tight grip of the German army, although they did exist. For example, in June 1915 a German sentry was shot by a Frenchman near Roubiax. However, several spies and saboteurs were shot by the German army in response. Many ordinary French people limited themselves to symbolic acts of resistance, such as refusing to shake hands with Germans, wearing the national colours and writing letters of protest. There is some evidence to show that letters of protest actually had a negative effect on the war effort, as area Commandants had to spend a lot of their time responding to the letters, and became increasingly irritated as a result of them. The French also refused to give the Germans lists of military age men and the civil authorities were generally obstructive towards the Germans, relying on legalistic interpretations of international law on what occupying armies were allowed to requisition. In response, the Germans would threaten the authorities with various fines or harsh punishments.
However, the close proximity in which the Germans and French lived and worked meant that contact and co-operation, if not collaboration, was commonplace. A number of French women had relationships and even children with German soldiers, and accounts of the occupation accuse a large number of both working and middle-class women of having sexual relationships with the occupiers. A report for British intelligence in 1918 listed 362 women who had relationships with Germans, ranging from prostitution to having children with them, and the number of women treated for sexually transmitted diseases rose sharply with the arrival of the Germans. Women who did not have relationships with Germans, but interacted with them socially, were often the subject of disapproval, and gossip could easily overstate the nature of their relationships. This disapproval was also extended to some men who were socially friendly with the Germans. A number of high ranking civil servants were accused of being too friendly with the Germans, although evidence that this was true is lacking. Angry mobs would occasionally form, such as in Lille where a woman was pelted with stones and called a whore by a crowd of almost 500 people. It took the German police firing above the crowd to disperse them. After the war there was little done to 'punish' those who had been seen to collaborate with the Germans, although some trials took place.
Sources:
Bernard Wilkin, 'Isolation, communication and propaganda inthe occupied territories of France, 1914–1918', *First World War Studies*, 7:3 (2016).
James E. Connolly, 'Mauvaise-conduite: complicity and respectability in the occupied Nord, 1914–1918', *First World War Studies*, 4:1 (2013)
James E. Connolly, 'Notable protests: respectable resistance in occupied northern France, 1914–18', *Historical Research* 88 (Nov 2015)
Jens Thiel, 'Between recruitment and forced labour: the radicalization of German labour policy in occupied Belgium and northern France', *First World War Studies*, 4:1 (2013)
If you're looking for a book about the occupation, then take a look at:
Helen McPhail, *The Long Silence: The Tragedy of Occupied France in World War I* (2014)
Let me know if you have any more questions! | [
"France was occupied by Nazi Germany from 22 June 1940 until early May 1945. An occupying power endeavours to normalise life as far as is possible since this optimises the maintenance of order and minimises the costs of occupation. The Germans decreed that life, including artistic life should resume as before (the ... |
what is another solution to shootings, outside of gun control? | 1) Obviously, we need to take a closer look at mental health issues (this also pertains to suicides, which make up 2/3rds of all gun deaths in the US). A big part of this would be lowering the stigmas associated with depression and related problems, and encouraging people to get help, in addition to getting actual funding.
2) Since no one else is saying it, I will; African American males between the ages of 16 and 35, representing about 3% of the overall population of the United States, are responsible for about *half* of its gun violence. We need to take a look in the mirror and realize that an enormous amount of crime is coming out of the "black community" in the United States. The fix to that ultimately is better jobs and education for inner-city communities. To fix the school issue, in particular, we have to start taking a closer look at how we actually fund schools, and take steps to equalize funding (currently the Feds actually try to do this, but those programs don't have nearly enough money to cover the difference). In addition, allegations of "systemic racism" by the police are likely true more often than not, but honestly I feel that this is a *symptom* that will clear itself up if a meaningful way to reduce violence is achieved. Less crime directly translates into a lower police presence.
This also applies (although to a lesser extent) to Hispanics within the US, who are murdered at twice the rate that Whites are (and is three times *lower* than the rate African Americans are).
3) In addition, I'd promote gun literacy; make it such that everyone knows how to handle and use a gun responsibly. Honestly, I'd include it as an extension of civics classes in high school. | [
"Sociologist James D. Wright suggests that to convince inner-city youths not to carry guns \"requires convincing them that they can survive in their neighborhood without being armed, that they can come and go in peace, that being unarmed will not cause them to be victimized, intimidated, or slain.\" Intervention pr... |
how can games companies sell unfinished games and in some cases games that are unplayable (activision)? | Simply answer, because consumers keep buying them.
Longer answer, due to the new and easier channels of distribution, mainly pre-order, digital downloads, etc. games can be bought way before any serious reviews by game critics or consumers alike have been established.
So by the time the problems of a game are known, the majority of sales have already been made. Coupled with promises of updates and fixes, many consumers stick around or even buy the game later when it's fixed.
This way game companies get both, the money from early buyers who purchase the game without knowing it's quality as well as patient gamers who wait until the game is fixed.
Since this behavior doesn't seem to damage the long-term reputation of the company it remains a viable business model. | [
"On November 29, 2007, GameTap announced that as of December 11, over 70 games would be removed from their catalog, many of them Electronic Arts or Interplay titles, likely due to expiration of the two-year licensing agreement with those companies.\n",
"Any video game company, notably independent video game devel... |
why do so many websites (mainly news sites) now have a "continue reading" button a few lines down the page? why not just show the whole article to begin with? | One large benefit to this is to measure if someone is actually engaging with your content on a page. When a person lands on your page, then leaves without interacting with anything, many analytics libraries will consider that a bounce, even if the user reads some or all of the content. However, if they click something, that's considered an action, and that graduates you to a non bounce visitor - you didn't just land on the page and navigate away, you expressed interest in the content. This lets you do content optimization - if you are getting a lot of non bounce visitors on certain pieces of content, you can promote that content more heavily, which in turn leads to more visitors to your site, as opposed to content that causes people to bounce which should be promoted less.
Other answers mention bandwidth conservation which may be a factor as well.
EDIT: Since a lot of comments are talking about ads I will amend my answer to address that as well. My answer alludes to the fact that with content optimization, if you can drive more people to your site, more ads are served which can increase ad revenue. There are a lot of payment models for ads, but generally, you might get paid a very small amount for an impression (which is just loading and showing an ad on your site), but you will get paid a lot more if someone actually clicks the ad and follows through to the content behind it (as such, the companies that are paying for the ads also pay per impression and per click, and clicks are much more expensive - there's a common metric called "cost per click" which measures how much you are paying for each click, so you can assess your return on investment).
With the 'continue reading' button, you could slap more ads below, but (and I'm speculating here) I'd expect if that 'continue reading' button was not there the ad would be there regardless. As such, I'm not certain it'd be a factor in generating more ad revenue, if you didn't have the 'continue reading', you'd get the impression and possible click as soon as the user viewed the ad (which would require one less click). The only counter argument to this I can think of is if ad serving companies require user interaction before you display more ads - but I don't know if that's true.
I also found this asked on stackexchange that had a few other good reasons as well: _URL_0_
EDIT 2: A number of people are citing a lot of extra reasons below that can all be valid as well. This is not the end-all-be-all answer, which is why I said "one large benefit" to talk about how this is one of many. There are a ton of different reasons to design your content to have this - my example is just the most common one I've seen, but world of web advertising is very complex, with ad providers imposing rules and rapid policy changes as sites try to optimize their ad revenue within those rules! This is a simple question with a myriad of complex possible answers - I just gave one :).
| [
"Singer found that the content which appears in online editions of newspapers mostly comes from content that appears in the print versions. However, editors were also very proud of the interactive tools on their websites that could not be in the paper. The goal of most editors was after all to inform the public. Fu... |
what is happening in bunkerville between the rancher cliven bundy and the feds? | Mexico lost territory in Western North America to the US during the Mexican American War, and so the land was transferred to the Federal Government. In effect, 80(ish)% of Nevada land is owned by the Feds. Ranchers can use this land to graze their cattle, but must pay a grazing fee in order to make use of it.
Bundy stopped paying his fees about 20 years ago, and has been in a long legal battle with the BLM (the Federal agency that manages all federally owned land in the US), all centered on his family's claim to the land. However, he has no claim that the courts will recognize. He continued grazing on BLM land, and so the BLM got fed up and are confiscating his cattle.
It is also important that the Feds recognize his ownership of his own ranch, but *not* the surrounding land that the BLM oversees. They're not forcing him off of his own land, but off of Federally owned land that he's been grazing his cattle on. | [
"In the spring of 2014, Bunkerville was the scene of the Bundy standoff, an armed confrontation between protesters and law enforcement over the non-payment of the grazing fees by Cliven Bundy, a local rancher.\n",
"Some time later, a large herd of cattle is found in one of the outside communities. MacAllister ord... |
During the late Medieval and Renaisance period, when Kings derived their right to rule from divine mandates, how did people view republics & elective monarchies? Were they seen as less legitimate than herditary monarchies? | For most of the medieval period, in Italy at least, republican governments could only guarantee an uneasy peace between dynasties, and at best institutionalized warfare. I have a very specific example of fighting consequential to Republican government [here](_URL_0_). However, other republics were seen as just as legitimate than monarchies; and at times even more so, as I described [here](_URL_1_). | [
"The Thirty Years' War and the subsequent Treaty of Westphalia heralded the birth of the sovereign states system. The Treaty endorsed states as territorially-based political units having sovereignty. As a result, the monarchs were able to exert domestic control by emasculating the feudal lords and to stop relying o... |
Is there dark antimatter? | One of the things we learn from the merger of special relativity and quantum mechanics is that each particle has a corresponding antiparticle.
However, for some particles (e.g., the Z^(0) and the photon), the antiparticle and the particle are the same, while for others (e.g., the electron or a quark), the particle and antiparticle are distinct from each other.
As of now, we don't know which of these two categories dark matter falls into.
| [
"In the unlikely event that dark stars have endured to the modern era, they could be detectable by their emissions of gamma rays, neutrinos, and antimatter and would be associated with clouds of cold molecular hydrogen gas that normally would not harbor such energetic particles.\n",
"A darker version of Energon c... |
why is e120 carmine (red dye made out of bugs) still being used instead of an artificial dye? | A dye is just a chemical that happens to be a certain color. In this case it is bright red. The chemical can often be produced in different ways but with different costs. It might be possible to make Carmine with organic chemistry but it would require a lot of expensive processes. Both in terms of time, resources and pollution. You might also be able to genetically engineer some bacteria or algae to make Carmine but that would cost a lot to develop and still not be as cheap as the bugs. And the bugs are not used directly either, they are chemically processed to clean them up before they are used. So in a sense it is already artificially produced. | [
"Because of public concerns about possible health risks associated with synthetic dyes, many companies have switched to using natural pigments such as carmine, made from crushing the tiny female cochineal insect. This insect, originating in Mexico and Central America, was used to make the brilliant scarlet dyes of ... |
why is chocolate milk cheaper than regular milk? | Milk is graded by quality at the dairy, similar to, for example, steaks' prime or triple A. High grade is used for direct consumption, other grades go through various processing according to the grade. A lower quality grade is less expensive as there is less market for it. Milk just below top grade is flavored with chocolate as it is very effective at masking other flavors. This is not to suggest that chocolate milk is unfit for consumption, just that there is something in it that either might induce an off flavor or would greatly reduce it's shelf life. Even lower grade milk is often used in production baked goods. About the lowest grade milk often goes to chemical processors for casein extraction used in plastics.
TL,DR: chocolate milk is cheaper because a cheaper lower grade of milk is used that is still OK to drink but the chocolate hides any off flavor. | [
"Some nutritionists have criticized chocolate milk for its high sugar content and its relationship to childhood obesity. In New York City, school food officials report that nearly 60 percent of the 100 million cartons served each year contain fat-free chocolate milk. Because chocolate milk can contain twice as much... |
why have basements come to be considered "scary" places, such as in horror movies? | Basements are underground, poorly lit (in general), cold (in general), damp places that you do not generally go into all the time. Each of those things adds to it being uncomfortable and disconcerting, which in turn makes it "scary". | [
"The Basement is not a traditional linear walk through haunted attraction, rather it is an interactive and immersive experience that involves the actors speaking to and touching guests. The Basement is designed to provide boundary pushing, intense, thrilling, and emotional experiences in a safe environment. Scenes ... |
how to read this chart on google finance | [Here](_URL_0_) I provided a decently long explanation including how to read a similar chart. Read through my second comment and see if it makes sense.
Note: given that the market has been active for a week, the numbers and prices may be slightly off for the IBM options.
Let me know if that answers your questions. | [
"Google launched a revamped version of their finance site on December 12, 2006, featuring a new homepage design which lets users see currency information, sector performance for the United States market and a listing of top market movers along with the relevant and important news of the day. A top movers section wa... |
how does a breathalyzer detect blood alcohol content by blowing into them? | When you have alcohol in your blood there will be some in your exhaled breath as well. The breathalyzer converts the ethanol in your breath into acetic acid and water. The byproduct of this reaction is a small amount of electricity. The breathalyzer measures how much electricity is produced and uses that to calculate how much alcohol was present in your breath. | [
"The oldest breath analyzer models pass breath through a solution of potassium dichromate, which oxidizes ethanol into acetic acid, changing color in the process. A monochromatic light beam is passed through this sample, and a detector records the change in intensity and, hence, the change in color, which is used t... |
Was it ever a common military tactic to aim for the horses instead of the riders in medieval combat? | Yes. Many people aimed for the horses instead of the riders.
Roman writer Vegetius wrote this in his text on Roman warfare:
> The armed chariots used in war by Antiochus and Mithridates at first terrified the Romans, but they afterwards made a jest of them. As a chariot of this sort does not always meet with plain and level ground, the least obstruction stops it. And if one of the horses be either killed or wounded, it falls into the enemy's hands. The Roman soldiers rendered them useless chiefly by the following contrivance: at the instant the engagement began, they strewed the field of battle with caltrops, and the horses that drew the chariots, running full speed on them, were infallibly destroyed. A caltrop is a device composed of four spikes or points arranged so that in whatever manner it is thrown on the ground, it rests on three and presents the fourth upright
Basically, the Romans would little the field with small spikes that would break the hooves of the horses. The horses would fall down when they stepped on them, the charioteers would fall out, and the Romans would kill them and take their chariots.
[Here](_URL_0_) we see a spike horse bit (the thing that goes in their mouth). These bits were fairly common, and they existed primarily to keep the enemy from grabbing the horse by the bit and pulling it down or out, thereby removing the rider's ability to control the horse. Here is a picture of just the [bit](_URL_1_).
Spear equipped infantry would almost always aim for the horse- it just makes more sense to do so. This is why horse armor existed- if it wasn't common or likely, people would not have spent marge sums of money to armor a horse.
Even in Xenophon's text, *On Horsemanship* (the first book on riding that we have, from about 400BC), talks about way to protect the horse from enemy attacks.
Anyway. Your question was more directly focused on the Middle Ages... yes. Medieval armies still used and carried caltrops. They also used spears, and would use spears against horses at pretty much any given opportunity.
Sometimes, like in the battle of Chaumont in 1098, apparently William II lost some 700 horses to archers who were told specifically to shoot for the horses.
So, yes, in Medieval combat, losing your horse to warfare was very common.
Now, sometimes it did make sense to only kill the rider to seize the horse, but taking horses as prizes usually was only a concern after the battle. During a battle, where your life was at risk, your priority would be to kill your attack and not to take a prize. | [
"The war horse was also seen in hastiludes – martial war games such as the joust, which began in the 11th century both as sport and to provide training for battle. Specialised destriers were bred for the purpose, although the expense of keeping, training, and outfitting them kept the majority of the population from... |
Along with rationing what strategies were used to address shortages of materials during wwI and wwII? | Germany heavily tried to synthesize rare materials with varying success. Stuff like rubber for example. | [
"In the summer of 1941, the British appealed to Americans to conserve food to provide more to go to Britain's fighting men in World War II. The Office of Price Administration warned Americans of potential gasoline, steel, aluminum, and electricity shortages. It believed that with factories converting to military pr... |
why are intelligence agencies allowed to break the law in foreign countries by spying on their citizens? | Black ops are, by definition, illegal. If they weren't, there'd be no need for them to be a secret.
Being a spook is basically being a criminal for the government. | [
"Espionage laws are also used to prosecute non-spies. In the United States, the Espionage Act of 1917 was used against socialist politician Eugene V. Debs (at that time the Act had much stricter guidelines and amongst other things banned speech against military recruiting). The law was later used to suppress public... |
Was there much tension between Dixiecrats and the rest of the Democratic party before the Southern Strategy, LBJ, Nixon, etc.? | There was a lot of tension between the Dixiecrats and the mainstream of the Democrat Party in the late 1940s. They walked out of the 1948 Democratic Party's National Convention and organized a third party. It is best known as the Dixiecrats today, but its official title was the States' Rights Democratic Party. Strom Thurmond was their presidential nominee and he won 39 electoral votes in the 1948 election, almost costing Harry Truman the election.
After 1948, the New Dealers and establishment members of the Democrat party scaled back their civil rights agenda in an attempt to mollify the Dixiecrats and prevent them from forming a more serious and long lasting third party. That changed after JFK and RFK began to show renewed interest in Civil Rights, after 1960.
Source:"1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year that Changed America" by David Pietrusza | [
"Democratic President Harry S. Truman's support of the civil rights movement, combined with the adoption of a civil rights plank in the 1948 Democratic platform, prompted many Southerners to walk out of the Democratic National Convention and form the Dixiecrat Party. This splinter party played a significant role in... |
why old phones had a rotating disk with holes in it, and you need to turn the disk to dial the numbers? | Old phones used pulse dialing and each digit was represented by a number of pulses. You would move the disc in one direction with your finger, and then when letting it go, a spring would move it back at the correct speed to create pulses. Each number position created 1 pulse. So if you moved the disc to 8 and let it go, it would pass 8 numbers creating 8 pulses. 0 was 10 pulses.
If you wanted, you could also create the pulses manually by pressing the hang up button quickly. | [
"Owing to the drive's non-use of the index hole, it was also possible to make \"flippy\" disks by inserting the diskette upside-down and formatting the other side, and it was commonplace and normal for commercial software to be distributed on such disks.\n",
"Two holes at the bottom left and right indicate whethe... |
upon reading about sandra bland, i have to ask: what civil rights do i have as a citizen when a cop pulls me over? (ex. cigarette) | You have the right to free speech. You have the right to be secure in your person and papers. You have the right to remain silent. These are given by the first, fourth, and fifth amendments to the constitution. In actuality you have a lot of rights beyond that, but it is going to depend on the jurisdiction you get pulled over in and how the courts apply the cop's responsibility to abridge your rights because of the probable cause. And how the courts apply those legal abridgments are dictated (ideally) by legislation drafted by your representatives. So be careful how you vote, it may ultimately determine if a cop is acquitted for shooting at you because of a lit cigarette.
2 notes:
1)A traffic stop is not a classroom. Nobody is going to learn anything. The cop won't learn to do things differently or not be a dick because you are able to rattle off case law and refuse to cooperate. That just makes him more upset because you are refusing to respect his authority (which he DOES have). Things go a lot smoother if you cooperate and sue the crap out of him later. Also, nobody gets shot.
2) Some cops are dicks to civilians as a defense. I would be too if my job REQUIRED me to go put my life on the line for strangers every day. However, MOST civilians are dicks to cops. So for every on person a cop is a dick to, he deals with a crapload more people being dicks to him. And he can't tell who is crazy enough to kill him over a traffic ticket.
TL;DR
Don't be a dick to people, exercise your rights in court instead of in traffic, and vote wisely (elections have consequences).
Edit: spelling | [
"Protest organizer Charles Wade said about civil rights groups, \"We've all said that this is a horrible thing that shouldn't have happened. I say time and time again that I'm against police violence, and I'm not against police officers in general. I have an issue with improper policing, police violence and police ... |
whats going on in south africa? why are foreigners being targetted and what economic issues is it experiencing? | First I must say. I am not a South African and not a expert at all but I think I can show some insight. If I am wrong, please correct me.
South Africa is a ''broken'' nation. There still are big differences between White, Coloured and Black. Not only in terms of wealth, but also education, language and culture.
Because of these differences they are still living mostly segegrated from eachother. Whites have there own middle class and upper clas neighbourhoods. There own schools, churches etc. etc.
And ofcourse Blacks are still pissed at Apartheid, a lot are mad because theire situation did not really became better after Apartheid. About 25% unemployement, black ghettos's etc. And if what I hear is true, in a lot of cases it is getting worse (I've heard stories about some black people missing the days of Apartheid, where they where second class citizens but atleast had more in terms of food and security. I don't know if these are true so take it with a grain of salt.).
On the other hand: some (or maybe a lot) of whites dislike seeing their culture/heritage being ripped from them (removing statues etc.) They feel discriminated by Afermative Action. They fear the loss of farmland (Farming culture is very big in white South African culture, they call themselves Boers, meaning Farmers in Dutch/Afrikaans).
So take all this history, and put it in the current situation. There is a lot of employment and poverty. Discrimination is still very common (from both sides). People are doing worse, power shutdown, crime is very high, South Africa is the rape capital of the world. Some parts are very unsafe, and a lot of parts that used to be safe are getting unsafer.
Combine this with (illegal) immigration from black people from other countries in South Africa who are willing to work for less and are considered (by some) businessowners as ''better/harder'' workers then the South African people. You have a recipe for extreme violance against these immigrants [They took our jobs](_URL_0_). Basicly South Africa is barrel of powder with a fuse already inside the barrel. I can combust in violance very quick.
Thinking averything was okey after Apertheid is saying everything went swimming for black people after the abolishing of slavery, or Eastern Europe was fine when communist Russia fell. There are a lot of open wounds that need a lot of time and work to heal.
I can't stress this enough. South Africa is a complicated country. I hope people with more knowledge then me can comment. If I am wrong please correct me.
| [
"In South Africa, there is a sentiment prevalent among a sizable portion of unemployed South Africans that immigrants and expatriates from other parts of Africa who reside in South Africa are responsible for the high unemployment rate that South Africa has. This sentiment sometimes results in such South Africans at... |
how both big mmo games & small online games are hosted | OK, there's a few levels:
1) Peer to peer: no central servers at all, except maybe one matching people up into games (not even that on some old games: having to connect via typing in the IP address of whoever was hosting was common on a lot of older games). Games are hosted on one of the players' computers. See lots of old games - if you ever had to mess around with port forwarding, this was why.
2) Community servers: Release both a server and a client version of the game. Let other people host your servers for you, however they damned well like.
3) Dedicated servers: You get a server (or if you're a big game, a whole bunch of servers) and host the games directly on that. | [
"Depending on the number of players and the system architecture, an MMORPG might actually be run on multiple separate servers, each representing an independent world, where players from one server cannot interact with those from another; \"World of Warcraft\" is a prominent example, with each separate server housin... |
Who lived in Britain before the Celts? | Although I'm not sure how far back you're looking, I'll start with the Bronze Age immigrants to Britain known as the Beaker People. Originally from Spain, these travelers ventured over in approximately 2500 BC, and flourished on the British Isles. They constructed elaborate gold and bronze jewelry, as well as detailed stone circles, the best known of which is Stonehenge. There were two waves of Celtic immigration to England. The first is popularly known as the Goidelic Migration, which occurred between 2000 and 1200. The next is known as the Brythonic migration, which most likely took place between 500 and 300
_URL_0_
| [
"The Celts (, see pronunciation of \"Celt\" for different usages) are an Indo-European ethnolinguistic group of Europe identified by their use of Celtic languages and cultural similarities. The history of pre-Celtic Europe and the exact relationship between ethnic, linguistic and cultural factors in the Celtic worl... |
How does human muscle fiber compare to that of other animals? | I don't know of any specific studies to point you to, but I do remember that one group of scientists had done this study among primates. Turns out a female orangutan (in heat)is pound for pound the strongest primate. They tested using a one-arm pull test. Humans max out at around 200 lbs.-maybe 400 pounds if your a mutant. Female orangutan in heat 1800lbs pulled/dragged with one arm!!
I also remember reading once that dolphin and whale's muscle strength is about the same as a human's - they just have so much more muscle mass that it gives them the power to jump above the water line. | [
"The muscles and nerves are much simpler than those of most other animals, although more specialised than in other cnidarians, such as corals. Cells in the outer layer (epidermis) and the inner layer (gastrodermis) have microfilaments that group into contractile fibers. These fibers are not true muscles because the... |
Why do sound waves not affect each other? | They do, in fact, interact with each other. In very much the same way that water does, actually.
A frequency (or pitch) of audio has a certain wavelength, or size. This is the distance it takes for the sound pressure in the air to complete a full cycle of compression and rarefaction. Square rooms often have what are known as 'room nodes'. When there are parallel surfaces for sound to bounce off, the audio wavelength that is equivalent to the distance between the two walls will be naturally amplified when the two waves come across each other.
This same method can be used for noise cancellation. A good set of noise cancellation headphones have a built in microphone that monitors the ambient sound of a room, and then plays back that same frequency in opposite polarity, and when the two waveforms combine, they cancel each other out. | [
"Acoustic waves are longitudinal waves that exhibit phenomena like diffraction, reflection and interference. Sound waves however don't have any polarization since they oscillate along the same direction as they move.\n",
"Interference is the addition of two or more waves that results in a new wave pattern. Interf... |
why are feral children often incapable of adapting to civilization? are they permanently learning impaired? | Areas of the brain that typically used for various social behaviours are pruned if inactive. This is why for instance if you don't learn to speak by age ~12 or so you will never really learn to speak.
We've evolved to have these traits in our brains but they only work if exercised in a community. | [
"Feral children lack the basic social skills that are normally learned in the process of enculturation. For example, they may be unable to learn to use a toilet, have trouble learning to walk upright after walking on fours all their lives, or display a complete lack of interest in the human activity around them. Th... |
the origin of species | Darwin published the Origin of Species in 1859. It was based on a series of simple observations that he made, as he was a naturalist (which, at the time, meant mostly that he went about studying nature and cataloging what he learned about it).
He noticed the following:
**OBSERVATIONS**
* Given enough time and no constraints, species will produce a potentially unlimited number of offspring. (This is intuitive; creatures make more creatures. 1,000 elephants, left to their own devices, will eventually become 10,000 elephants, and so on.)
- Resources are limited. (Food, water, shelter; these are finite).
**INFERENCE**:
- Competition for resources exists.
**OBSERVATIONS**:
- Individuals vary.
- Some proportion of this variation may be inherited.
**INFERENCES**:
- Individuals whose natural variation makes them more suited to the environment are more likely to survive.
- Individuals who survive are more likely to pass on their genes, including those genes that increased their likelihood of survival.
In this way, the environment creates pressure that favors certain traits, some of which are heritable.
**This set of observations and inferences helps to explain a great deal of what we observe in terms of the structure, function, and diversity of living systems**.
The *Origin of Species* is so long, in part, because Darwin recognized that his findings would be controversial; they provided for a model by which species could have originated without any divine involvement whatsoever. He held off on publishing for a while out of concern, and when he *did* publish, he wanted to make sure his ideas were *very* clearly laid out and *extremely* well supported.
---
Later, [Gregor Mendel's work](_URL_2_) would help us understand *precisely* how this heritable variation is passed on.
We now understand evolution to be **a change in allele frequences over time**, and one very important mechanism of evolution, as elucidated primarily by Darwin, is the process known as [natural selection.](_URL_0_)
Honorable mention: [Alfred Russell Wallace](_URL_1_), for coming up with pretty much the same idea as Darwin did at pretty much the same time.
---
If you have any more questions on evolution, feel free to ask away. | [
"All organisms on Earth are descended from a common ancestor or ancestral gene pool. Current species are a stage in the process of evolution, with their diversity the product of a long series of speciation and extinction events. The common descent of organisms was first deduced from four simple facts about organism... |
How common was casual sex throughout history? | Just ignore pretty much everything said in that thread. The idea that sex is a purely biological urge, and thus it occurs in the same frequency throughout time and space, is absurd. I can be sure of this because it [varies a great deal based on country today](_URL_0_). Sex is highly culturally specific, and I think the people in that thread don't realize just how much their reaction to it is influenced by their specific cultural surroundings.
Throughout history it is rather difficult to answer your question because it varies so much based on region, class, and time period. Looking at Ovid and Catullus, for example, we can see that sex certainly wasn't nonexistent in their lives, but looked at another way, the sexual relations they describe tend to be fairly personal. That is, they do not describe going to the local club, picking up a random girl, sleeping with her, and parting the next morning. Instead, there are fairly elaborate courtship rituals, with go betweens, wax tablets, secret messages, and the like. The big difference here, I would argue, is female freedom. For a pre-modern society Roman women were quite liberated, but that doesn't mean they could stay out all night and come home the next morning with nothing but an eye roll from their household. Of course, this applies to the upper class of the late Republican/early Imperial city of Rome. It would probably be very different for an innkeepers daughter in second century Autun, but in *what way* is impossible to know.
However, there is one other major factor: prostitution. The Romans didn't seem to think there was anything at all unseemly about going to a brothel, and prostitutes were a part of everyday life.
One other thing, because someone had to bring it up: **Roman orgies were NOT orgies**. They were lavish quasi-religious banquets involving elaborate food preparation, music, and dancing. Sex might be involved, but when might it not? | [
"The rise of hookups, a form of casual sex, has been described by evolutionary biologist Justin Garcia and others as a \"cultural revolution\" that had its beginnings in the 1920s. Historians D'Emilio and Freedman put the beginning of casual sex, including college hookups, further back in history, to the early 1800... |
[META] AskScience open house! | Thanks to all the mods as well, they help keep the discussions on topic and informative. With that said, I'm very satisfied with the subreddit. Here's to a goal of 1 million. | [
"Open House London is an event which promotes appreciation of architecture by the general public. It is a part of the organisation Open-City and is best known for its annual Open House Weekend which is a two-day event held on one weekend each September throughout London since 1992. The event forms a London version ... |
Have there been any conclusive studies done on sugar/calorie-free energy drinks? | I'm sure someone can go more in-depth on some of the ingredients but here's some information on two of them. Artificial sweeteners are always a topic for discussion. The linked drink uses acesulfame potassium and sucralose which according to [_URL_2_](_URL_4_) is not linked to increased cancer risks.
> Before approving these sweeteners, the FDA reviewed more than 100 safety studies that were conducted on each sweetener, including studies to assess cancer risk. The results of these studies showed no evidence that these sweeteners cause cancer or pose any other threat to human health.
Other [sources](_URL_0_) indicate that acesulfame potassium may have carcinogenic properties and needs to be studied more.
It was a little difficult to find but a [few](_URL_6_) [websites](_URL_7_) show that it contains about 135mg of caffeine per can which is about the same amount of caffeine contained in a normal 8oz cup of brewed coffee. While caffeine is a well understood compound, additional research is bringing more details to light. A good read is [Caffeine Jitters](_URL_3_) on _URL_5_.
More and more products are adding caffeine. Some energy drink brands don't list the caffeine content because it's a part of their 'energy blend formula'. Couple this with some people drinking multiple energy drinks each day in addition to sodas and other caffeine-infused drinks and you're easily spiking your daily caffeine levels. This has led to an increase in ER visits (from the Caffeine Jitters link above):
> According to a report released last month by the U.S. Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, the annual number of emergency room visits associated with energy drinks increased to 20,000 in 2011, a 36% boost from the previous year.
I can't quite go into detail about every ingredient in the blends. Information on Guarana is available [here](_URL_1_).
All in all the biggest risk in energy drinks is most likely going to come from consuming them too frequently. Especially when you take into consideration that each can is two servings on top of whatever other drinks you consume that day. The Caffeine Jitters article points out some situations in which caffeine consumption can amplify existing medical conditions. Sorry I couldn't give further information on the rest of the ingredients. Hopefully others can fill in on them. | [
"Some studies report evidence of causality between high consumption of refined sugar and hyperactivity. One review of low-quality studies of children consuming high amounts of energy drinks showed association with higher rates of unhealthy behaviors, including smoking and alcohol abuse, and with hyperactivity and i... |
dogs and cats cry; why don't they perform a similar function to a human's laugh? | Actually, research suggests that they do laugh but it is on frequencies that we can't hear or discern. I know I've had a few dogs that have been ticklish between their paws, or at least seem like they
_URL_0_ | [
"In the 1999 documentary \"Why Dogs Smile and Chimpanzees Cry\", he is shown to comment on the research of joy in rats: the tickling of domesticated rats made them produce a high-pitch sound which was hypothetically identified as laughter.\n",
"Canines have been hypothesized to share empathic-like responding towa... |
how is a blood clot not a death sentence? | It's a question of where the blood is going. A blood clot is typically not big enough to block the central passage through the atrium and ventricle. It's when the blood clot passes through these central passages and is pumped into the artery that supplies oxygen to the heart muscle and gets lodged there that a heart attack occurs, as the heart muscle itself is starved of oxygen and stares to die further down stream.
This is the case with embolic clots (clots that are moving in the blood). Static blood clots (atherosclorosis) that are casued by cholesterol and other junk building up on the wall of an artery are also a thing, but they have to reach about 80% - 90% occlusion before you really start to notice it and they typically fragment.
Blood 'thinners' inhibit coagulalation and stop the stuff that forms clots from sticking. | [
"Simultaneous death is a problem of inheritance which occurs when two people (sometimes referred to as commorientes) die at, or very near, the same time, and at least one of them is entitled to part or all of the other's estate on their death. This is usually the result of an un-natural death occurring from events ... |
Why do mammals give birth from their vaginas? | Mammals give birth through their vaginas because a vagina is, by definition, the tube leading from the uterus to the outside of the body, and that's the tube that has to be used.
Other vertebrates aren't any different, save that their vaginas open into a cloaca before going outside the body. In either case, whatever is coming out of the uterus (be it an egg or a life-born offspring) has to pass through the vagina because that's the only tube that leads out of the uterus. | [
"The vagina is a structure of animals in which the female is internally fertilized, rather than by traumatic insemination used by some invertebrates. The shape of the vagina varies among different animals. In placental mammals and marsupials, the vagina leads from the uterus to the exterior of the female body. Fema... |
free trade and fair trade. | They're two completely different things (I can see where it's confusing, though).
Free trade: trade between nations with very few or no restrictions at all.
Fair trade: a label given to certain products certifying that the people who made them (usually third-world farmers, etc.) were paid a fair price for the product and were not taken advantage of by predatory practices. | [
"Fair trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers – especially in the South. Developin... |
Who were the local law enforcers in Medieval Germany? | Law enforcement was mostly organized on a local level, in towns or small villages. In the villages mostly by the "owners" of that villages, the lower nobility or the owners of the farms.
The Lower Law (niedere Gerichtsbarkeit, don't know if the translation is correct), also called *Thing* or patrimonial Law, was enforced by the local officers. They were called *Schultheiß* or similar in the local dialects, like *Schulze*, *Schulte* or *Schultes*. Schulze is still one of the most common names in Germany. The polish Sołectwo is derived from the German term, the English equivalent is bailiff or mayor.
The were not allowed to torture, maim or kill someone. The could only sentence lighter punishments, like monetary punisment, pranger, scold's bridle and such.
The Schultheiß office later evolved and turned into what is a mayor in modern days. The term was used in Württemberg until 1930.
Herebord von Bismarck died in 1280 in Stendal and was a Schultheiß there. He is also the oldest known ancestor of Otto von Bismarck.
Here is a pic of a Schultheiß from the 16th century: _URL_0_
The *Blutgerichtsbarkeit* (ius gladiim, law of the blade) was a criminal court that could inflict bodily punishment. These officers were usually noble and called *Vogt*, *Voigt* or *Voight*, which is also still a common name in Germany. The term itself is derived from advocatus and the English equivalent is the reeve.
The Vogt was also responsible to organize the defense of the county and he had to lead the feudal levy/array.
Carolus Magnus installed a lot of *Vögte* in 802, who later (11th/12th century) evolved into heritable fief offices. The *Vögte* became *Grafen* (counts) and were now high nobility.
| [
"Germanic codes appeared over the 6th and 7th centuries to clearly delineate the law in force for Germanic privileged classes versus their Roman subjects and regulate those laws according to folk-right. Under feudal law, a number of private custumals were compiled, first under the Norman empire (\"Très ancien coutu... |
Can an adhesive stick to oxygen or other air molecules? | The problem I see with this is that gases don't have a "surface". I could certainly see gases dissolving and equilibrating in an adhesive, and possibly being physically absorbed to the surface of the adhesive (also at equilibrium). However, if you apply your adhesive to a gas, and then move the other surface away, you won't suddenly pull all the gases in your space along with it. | [
"Applicators of different adhesives are designed according to the adhesive being used and the size of the area to which the adhesive will be applied. The adhesive is applied to either one or both of the materials being bonded. The pieces are aligned and pressure is added to aid in adhesion and rid the bond of air b... |
Why and how do drugs get you "high"? | As far as we can tell, mostly by acting like existing neurotransmitters, or by releasing those neurotransmitters, or by causing a buildup of those neurotransmitters. | [
"It's about how people take drugs to connect to God or to a higher level of consciousness. I keep saying, 'Plugging into the matrix'. If you get high, you can do that, which is why a lot of people drop acid or do drugs, because they want to get closer to God. But there's going to be a short circuit, and that's the ... |
minecraft | You can kind of think of it as computerized legos.
Minecraft has two main forms of play: Survival and creative. Creative is the easiest to explain-- you have unlimited block materials of all sorts of colors and textures, as well as electrical components (Wire, levers, push blocks), interactive pieces (Doors, railroads), and transportation sets (Boats, railcars). You also have the ability to fly (As in, you can go wherever you want, place whatever you want). It's in this mode you see creations such as [a full 1-1 scale representation of Azeroth](_URL_2_), and all sorts of remakings of our favorite video games characters such as [Sonic](_URL_1_).
Survival is the exact same game, except you start out with nothing and everything you use, you have to mine or craft. I could delve into the mass, mass amount of things you can craft using the eleven or so simple, mineable materials, but I'll let [this](_URL_0_) do the talking for me. In survival, you also have life and hunger you have to worry about, as well as a slew of monsters. It's really hard to explain what Minecraft is *about* because there are SO many things you can do in it. My friends and I have a multiplayer server set to Survival, and we have this big great area where we build things and share materials, as well as go out on adventures to find monsters and Spawners (Think of them like... monster instances) and kill the spawners (Where the monsters come out of) to reap the loot from the cave. We have wheat farms and roller coasters, castles and underwater tunnels. It's just... fun. I guess the addictiveness comes into play with the fact that gathering materials in Survival takes a really long time. Not so long that you become annoyed and aggravated, but long enough that whenever you finish a build you can look at it and be really proud of yourself.
Yahtzee said it best-- "Minecraft is a good parent who knows that if it just gives you your golden cock and balls you will get bored of it. So it pays you five dollars a week to wash its car until you save up enough money to buy yourself the golden cock and balls and at the end of the trek you'll love it all the more." | [
"\"Minecraft\" is a 3D sandbox game that has no specific goals to accomplish, allowing players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game. However, there is an achievement system. Gameplay is in the first-person perspective by default, but players have the option for third-person perspective. The ga... |
During WW2, was there an Allied equivalent of doctors Josef Mengele or Shiro Ishii (of Japanese medical experimentation Unit 731?) | There was lots of human experimentation by the Americans during World War II, but most of it was much more consensual, less horrific. [Volunteer conscientious objectors were used for research on a starvation study at the University of Minnesota](_URL_0_), for example, as part of research funded by the Office for Scientific Research and Development.
The most problematic work though was in the area of nuclear technology. It was new, there were key safety questions to be asked, the whole thing was being massively expedited, and yet it was all kept secret to an unprecedented level. This meant that informed consent was not seen as an option.
So at several sites, coordinated by of the Manhattan Engineer District (the Manhattan Project) there were human radiation experiments that involved injecting terminally-ill patients with substances like plutonium, to see how it was excreted by their systems. It also involved passive monitoring of people working with plutonium, uranium, and polonium to see how their bodies were processing the toxic and radioactive metals. There were concerns, shared amongst people working on the project, that this work was in many ways unethical, because they did not have any intention of telling people if they had gotten too-large doses, especially in places where the workers in question did not have knowledge of what they were handling.
Separately, there is also the issue of testing a surface-burst nuclear weapon, knowing it will produce downwind fallout, in an area that had low population density but not zero population density. The scientists and security agents of course had no intention of telling the surrounding populace that they were being silently irradiated at low levels. The scientists were acutely aware of the possible dangers, and stationed MPs and scientists in nearby towns with Geiger counters, hoping for the best.
There were other issues of this nature, this bad mixture of secrecy with safety. The small "water boiler" reactor at Los Alamos, for example, vented radioactive gases into a canyon nearby, but its vent carried no warning labeling on it or restrictions — something that made the safety officers very uncomfortable.
Eileen Welsom's _The Plutonium Files_ talks about the plutonium injections, and the reports by the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, from the early 1990s, contain discussion of other WWII-era unreported exposures. Most of the exposures were pretty low, but it is still pretty unethical. The people who took over the atomic work in the mid-1940s explicitly talked about this as having violated the Nuremberg conventions, and kept it secret explicitly in order to avoid causing scandal.
All that being said, in my view this is pretty piddling compared to Mengele and Unit 731 — unethical, but it lacks the horror. And there is a "great good" being sought-after here; knowing how plutonium was excreted helped set safety standards, for example, for the thousands of workers who had to deal with it. It wasn't arbitrary, in the way many of Mengele's sadistic experiments were, trying to sew together twins and the like. But it was still unethical, still a dirty deal made under the cover of war, and this is not just the judgment of hindsight, but how many people who knew about it thought about it at the time. | [
"Little medicine was available to the internees from the Japanese: they provided small amounts of quinine and aspirins. Morris recounts how Yamamoto would quite often beat sick men until they fell down, especially if they approached him for drugs. Few Red Cross supplies were available and most medication was bought... |
Bounties and sniper combat during the Vietnam War | I think the fundamental question you need to ask yourself when considering the concept of bounties is the following: Was it actually a reality during the Vietnam War?
The truth of the matter is that there simply isn't much evidence supporting the existence of bounties beyond field reports and the testimonies of American soldiers. /u/Lich-Su [answered this question the best way possible a few months ago](_URL_0_) and the conclusion that Lich-Su reaches is one that I fully agree with. | [
"During the Vietnam War, the United States Army found that they desperately needed snipers. They were losing troops to enemy snipers and had no capability of retaliating in kind. Their major problem was that the classic training of a sniper in range estimation, ballistics, compensation for weather or climate variab... |
why do some people black out from high levels of g-forces while other don't? | Everyone will black out if exposed to sufficient G-forces. But pilots are (1) in peak physical condition, (2) trained in techniques for resisting the effects of G-forces, and (3) usually wearing flight suits with equipment designed to counteract the effects of G-forces. They work by putting pressure on the limbs, particularly the legs, in an attempt to keep blood from pooling down there. | [
"A G-suit is worn by aviators and astronauts who are subject to high levels of acceleration ('G'). It is designed to prevent a black-out and g-LOC (gravity-induced Loss Of Consciousness), due to the blood pooling in the lower part of the body when under G, thus depriving the brain of blood.\n",
"High-G training i... |
At r/TIL, there is a post trending with people in the comments section saying the FBI sent a letter telling Martin Luther King Jr. to kill himself and the FBI/CIA later killed him. Is this true? | While the letter is anonymous (in the sense that it's not signed and it's not on any letterhead), [a complete copy was found in J. Edgar Hoover's files](_URL_0_) and a congressional investigation verified that it was sourced from the FBI. Whether Hoover himself wrote it is apparently unclear, but he almost certainly knew about it, given where the unredacted letter was found. The phrasing of the letter does not directly call for King to commit suicide, but it ends saying in part, "King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is." King believed that it called for his suicide, and many others have agreed.
His death is a different story. Blaming an assassination or even an attempt on the US government has a long and storied history. Some of these are accurate (Castro was long a target of the CIA), some are not (evidence strongly ties JFK's death to Oswald), and some are in between (Salvador Allende almost certainly committed suicide in the midst of a coup that was probably backed by the CIA).
But the evidence that it was carried out by the US government is basically nonexistent, and those comments don't provide any evidence besides the equivalent of a knowing nod. King had a lot of enemies, including a large portion of the white population but also some in the black population who disagreed with his nonviolent ways. James Earl Ray was convicted for King's death based on reasonably strong evidence, but over the years, various claims have been made that King was killed by others for various reasons, mostly having to do with racism or anti-communism, carried out by the Mafia, the KKK, or some other loner at least as often as the government is claimed to be involved. To my knowledge, the claims are backed by little or no physical evidence and mostly involve people long dead who cannot confirm or deny the claims.
There's probably more doubt about James Earl Ray than there is about Oswald, but not a lot more. | [
"The FBI frequently investigated Martin Luther King, Jr. In the mid-1960s, King began publicly criticizing the Bureau for giving insufficient attention to the use of terrorism by white supremacists. Hoover responded by publicly calling King the most \"notorious liar\" in the United States. In his 1991 memoir, \"Was... |
How did the Mongols achieve crazy speed from their multiple horses? | There's a big difference between carrying a rider and following along unmounted; the steppe mares favored by the Mongols weigh in at about 600 lbs, so a 180 lb man with some basic provisions is going to be a third of their body weight. It's much more efficient to shift the weight between your string of horses; imagine going on a hike with four friends, but you need to carry a single 60 lb pack. Everyone's going to tire out over the day, but it'll be much faster for the person carrying the load, so it makes sense to share it among the group. | [
"The main drawback to Mongol horses was their lack of speed. They would lose short-distance races under equal conditions with larger horses from other regions. However, since most other armies carried much heavier armor, the Mongols could still outrun most enemy horsemen in battle. In addition, Mongolian horses wer... |
why do people criticize findings from data in saying "it's just correlative/correlation does not mean causation"? isn't everything we know about everything just from correlation? | So what you're saying is that, as we increase funding for NASA, we're dooming more and more people to die at their own hand by hanging?
_URL_0_
Simply put, variables are eliminated in a well-done study until causation is clear. It's not just that the people that got the drug got well; it's also that the people who did not get the drug were still sick; and that the study can be repeated with the same results. | [
"Much of scientific evidence is based upon a correlation of variables – they are observed to occur together. Scientists are careful to point out that correlation does not necessarily mean causation. The assumption that A causes B simply because A correlates with B is often not accepted as a legitimate form of argum... |
Why do temperatures fluctuate more when it is cold but stay more consistent when it is warm? | There's two main factors to this:
A) Humidity. In the winter, there's very low humidity (because it's cold and air holds less moisture the colder it gets)... so temperatures can rise and fall by a lot more than in the summer.
B) The temperature difference between the subarctic and subtropical air masses is much greater during the winter than the summer. Therefore, if the jet stream dips a bit south or north, you can have big temperature swings. | [
"Clearly, the temperature gradient may change substantially in time, as a result of diurnal or seasonal heating and cooling for instance. This most likely happens during an inversion. For instance, during the day the temperature at ground level may be cold while it's warmer up in the atmosphere. As the day shifts o... |
why house of cards politics won't work in real life. | Because in the show, Frank Underwood is some sort of super-persuasive Machiavellian. In real life, I doubt the president would even be able to convince his own party to go through with America Works. | [
"The \"house of cards\" problem largely arises from the utility theory basis of the model specification. Broadly, utility theory assumes that (1) users and suppliers have perfect information about the market; (2) they have deterministic functions (faced with the same options, they will always make the same choices)... |
why would people get coal in their stocking for being naughty? | In the days when most people heated their homes using open coal fires, a lump of coal was considered a completely commonplace and worthless item. It's the sort of thing that a very naughty person might receive from Santa, so that they can see he's been and decided they're not worthy of any decent gifts. | [
"Rolling coal is a form of conspicuous air pollution, for entertainment or for protest. Some drivers intentionally trigger coal rolling in the presence of hybrid vehicles (when it is nicknamed \"Prius repellent\") to cause their drivers to lose sight of the road and inhale harmful air pollution. Coal rolling may al... |
When did the Arabs become known as "Arabs?" | Arabs were first mentioned in both Biblical and Assyrian texts of the ninth to the fifth centuries BC where they appear as nomadic pastoralists inhabiting the Syrian desert. The fact that the name begins to be used by both cultures during the same period suggests that "Arab" was how these pastoralists designated themselves. What its original significance was we do not know, but it came to be synonymous with desert-dweller and a nomadic way of life in the texts of settled peoples.
Source: *Arabia and the Arabs. From the Bronze Age to the coming of Islam*, by Robert G. Hoyland. | [
"The most popular Arab account holds that the word \"Arab\" came from an eponymous father called Ya'rub who was supposedly the first to speak Arabic. Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani had another view; he states that Arabs were called \"Gharab\" (\"West\") by Mesopotamians because Bedouins originally resided to the ... |
When a nuclear bomb goes off underwater. Does it create a giant air bubble? | It creates a massive steam bubble, it doesn't last too long (not sure on actual time it is there for) but something interesting happens when the "bubble" is there. The gas makes the bubble expand until it reaches the maximum size it can as the pressure forcing the bubble to expand becomes weaker the water pressure causes the bubble to collapse on itself before expanding again (this can also result in a flash of light as the bubble collapses). This actually happens a few times, each time the "bubble" gets smaller in size until the energy is depleted. I will try to find a video explaining it as I may not have done a terribly good job of explaining it.
Edit: What I am talking about happens at the three min mark of this video: _URL_1_
Edit 2: a more in depth video of the bubble side of things, _URL_0_ starts explaining it at the 6 min mark.
I couldn't think of the word but the video reminded me, the bubble oscillates in the water. The size of the bubble would depend on the energy released by the explosion. | [
"Blast bubbles from deep nuclear explosions become mere hot water in about six seconds and leave no \"regular\" bubbles to float up to the surface. This is sooner than blast bubbles from conventional explosives.\n",
"When a nuclear bomb is exploded near ground level, the dense atmosphere interacts with many of th... |
Would a supercomputer (from a government, University, organisation like NASA, ...) be able to mine all the bitcoins at once? | No. For two main reasons.
First of all, Bitcoin mining started out using CPUs. They're in every computer and they can do pretty much any computational task reasonably effective, but they don't really excel in anything. Then people figured out that graphics cards (or specifically, GPUs) are very well suited to doing the same computation on different data. A GPU contains a large number of simple processors and can perform certain tasks extremely quickly, but is essentially useless for others. Originally, GPUs were made to be good at generating 3D graphics for games, but people figured out that other types of computations also work very well with the specific architecture of a GPU. One example is Bitcoin mining. The performance of a modest GPU is much higher than that of a high-end CPU, so miners switched over to using GPUs in large numbers (so much so that the preferred models were often sold out).
But, people reasoned that while GPUs are much more efficient, they're still somewhat general purpose chips. What if you'd design a chip purely for Bitcon mining. And this is what was done. Such a single-purpose chip is called an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) and ASIC-miners were again a big step up in efficiency. I have a small USB device that cost me about $20 and uses 5W in power that is as effective at mining as a midrange GPU at the time I bought it.
By now, the entire Bitcoin network uses these ASICs for mining. They're so efficient that if you would pile up the top 500 supercomputers in the world and put them all to work on Bitcoin mining, they wouldn't outperform the current stack of mining hardware. Because of this, some Bitcoin-supporters like to claim that the Bitcoin network is more powerful than all the supercomputers in the world combined. But this is a bit disingenuous, since supercomputers are rather versatile and suitable for a wide range of workloads, where a Bitcoin-miner does only 1 thing.
So, if someone with a single supercomputer would start mining Bitcoin, they wouldn't make dent in the network.
And now for the second reason, which is much more fundamental. Because you could imagine (even though it's not particularly realistic) that some organization would secretly create or buy a large stack of ASIC-miners and switch them all on all of the sudden. But even then they wouldn't be able to mine all the bitcoins at once.
Bitcoin-mining (and mining for pretty much every other cryptocurrency) revolves around an important parameters: The difficulty. This parameter determines how much computational power is needed, on average, to find a new block and therefore new bitcoins. In Bitcoin, this parameter is updated every 2016 blocks and this update is done by looking at the time it took to mine the previous batch of 2016 blocks and then set the difficulty parameter in such a way that if mining power remains the same, the next set of 2016 blocks will take 2 weeks (average of 10 minutes per block).
If the mining power on the network would suddenly jump by a large amount, the rate at which blocks are mined and bitcoins are created would temporarily spike up, but the next time a cycle of 2016 blocks has been completed, the difficulty would go up accordingly and the rate at which new blocks are mined would go down again. Depending on when in the 2016 block cycle the increase in mining power begins, it may take 2 cycles to properly adjust for it, but this takes a few weeks at most (and the greater the sudden increase is, the faster the cycle is completed, so the sooner the difficulty adjustment is).
So those are the two main reasons. First, the hardware being used is specifically designed and built for Bitcoin mining. Unless you have the same type of equipment, you won't be able to compete. Secondly, the protocol was designed to adjust to changes in the network mining power. A large increase will see a sudden speed up, but this'll get corrected relatively quickly. | [
"In June 2011, Symantec warned about the possibility that botnets could mine covertly for bitcoins. Malware used the parallel processing capabilities of GPUs built into many modern video cards. Although the average PC with an integrated graphics processor is virtually useless for bitcoin mining, tens of thousands o... |
What will happen to the planets that aren't destroyed when the sun supernovas? | [Here you go :3](_URL_0_) | [
"This is a relatively peaceful event, nothing akin to a supernova, which the Sun is too small to undergo as part of its evolution. Any observer present to witness this occurrence would see a massive increase in the speed of the solar wind, but not enough to destroy a planet completely. However, the star's loss of m... |
After Stalin died, were there any measures taken by the Soviet government to avoid someone amassing power on scale like his? | Although it is difficult to say whether there were distinct policies in place to prevent the future build-up of power in such a tyrannical fashion, the tone of the government definitely changed. Instead of the government of personality that had prevailed previously, the Soviet government was replaced by a troika of Georgy Malenkov, Lavrentiy Beria, and Vyacheslav Molotov. Between the three of them, they came to more consensus decisions with the Presidium and Supreme Soviet. This post-Stalin government would initiate a campaign of "peaceful coexistence" with the West, and cut back on repressive measures. One exeption was the East German Uprising of 1953 after which Beria was charged with treason for his brutal treatment of East German protestors. Eventually, Nikita Khruschev would become Soviet Premier. He initiated a series of "de-Stalinization" measures. These measures as he explained in his "secret speech." Khruschev "condemned Stalin for irrationally deporting entire nationality groups (e.g., the Karachay, Kalmyk, Chechen, Ingush, and Balkar peoples) from their homelands during the war and, after the war, for purging major political leaders in Leningrad (1948–50; see Leningrad Affair) and in Georgia (1952). He also censured Stalin for attempting to launch a new purge (Doctors’ Plot, 1953) shortly before his death and for his policy toward Yugoslavia, which had resulted in a severance of relations between that nation and the Soviet Union (1948)." None of this sat well with Molotov, a close friend of Stalin and his foreign minister, but Khruschev's words seemed to ring true for the rest of the Presidium. Subsequently, when Khruschev's domestic popularity waned, he would be removed from office peacefully and Leonid Brezhnev would become First Secretary of the Central Committee.
Sources:
Stalin's Wars by Geoffrey Roberts
Molotov Remembers by Felix Chuev and Vyacheslav Molotov
Encyclopedia Britannica for the exact quote above _URL_0_ | [
"As this process unfolded, Stalin consolidated near-absolute power by destroying the potential opposition. In 1936-38 about three quarters of a million Soviets were executed, and more than a million others were sentenced to lengthy terms in very harsh labour camps. Stalin's Great Terror ravaged the ranks of factory... |
If childbirth is one of the most painful experiences one can go through, how come it does not render the person unconscious as when having other forms of pain inflicted? | Apart from folklore and cultural bias, what evidence is there to suggest that childbirth is actually 'one of the most painful experiences one can go through'? | [
"There is also a distinction between trauma induced by recent situations and long-term trauma which may have been buried in the unconscious from past situations such as childhood abuse. Trauma is sometimes overcome through healing; in some cases this can be achieved by recreating or revisiting the origin of the tra... |
what does it mean for a language to be recursive? | An example in English:
I rode the bus which almost ran out of gas with my friend who has never been to Europe which is a continent.
With brackets inserted to show recursive structure:
I rode the bus [ which almost ran out of gas ] with my friend [ who has never been to Europe [ which is a continent. ] ]
The recursive parts can be removed and it's still a valid sentence. Each recursive part too is a complete thought. The sentence is just a compilation of the following:
I rode the bus with my friend.
The bus almost ran out of gas.
My friend has never been to Europe.
Europe is a continent.
We could go into further detail about continents etc. ad infinitum. A sentence can be composed of other sentences. This is what is meant by recursion in natural languages. Formal languages are similar. | [
"A recursive grammar is a grammar that contains production rules that are recursive. For example, a grammar for a context-free language is left-recursive if there exists a non-terminal symbol \"A\" that can be put through the production rules to produce a string with \"A\" as the leftmost symbol.\n",
"Recursion p... |
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