question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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how come you can see through smoke so easily & it's basically transparent, yet it casts such a dark shadow? | Rather like an uncaring wife's lies, isn't it? | [
"Fog shadows may look odd to viewers who are not used to seeing shadows in three dimensions. A thin fog is just dense enough to be illuminated by the light that passes through the gaps in a structure or in a tree. As a result, the path of an object's shadow through the fog becomes visible as a darkened volume. In a... |
why is it considered okay for auto companies to basically turn the dash of a car into a touch screen tablet but it's illegal (in most places) for a person to use their phone while driving? | That's a good question. There are some differences, of course. A touchscreen navigation system doesn't let you send texts. The one I have in my car blanks out certain buttons when the car begins to move. For example, when the car is in motion, you cannot enter a navigation query. Nor can you dial a phone number manually (so don't make a phone call where you might have to dial "1" for english!), but you can choose one of your speed dial numbers. You can choose a playlist, and choose a song on the playlist--this is no more distracting, really, than fiddling with an ordinary car radio. And the navigation system is designed to accept voice commands after pressing a button on the steering wheel. Not to mention the navigation system's screen is in the dashboard, right below the windshield, so your eyes are not as far from the road as they would be whilst looking down at a cell phone. | [
"BULLET::::- – As of January 1, 2017, it is illegal to hold and use an electronic device while driving. Using a mobile device at a stop light is considered a distraction and leads to a ticket. In addition, a Global Positioning System (GPS) device should not be the center of the dash board. Using a cell phone as a G... |
How are submarines always balanced? | Submariner here; there are an equal amount of ballast tanks on both the port and starboard side of the submarine, usually found more forward and aft of the ship, these are carefully weighed and monitored on a regular basis, and depending on the weight of each individual tank, the ship has different trims and lists. Hope that answered your question. | [
"The large size of these boats did negatively affect both surfaced and underwater maneuverability when compared to smaller submarines. There was no practical fix for this due to the limitations of the installed hydraulic systems that were used to move the rudder. Although a point of concern, the turning radius was ... |
Why arent steering wheels in the middle of vehicles??? | Passenger space, putting the driver's seat off-center lets you add a rear view mirror (and prior to that being a thing, the ability to look over your shoulder- placing the driver in the middle gave them a rather bad blind spot right behind them) which has a better view of what's immediately behind the car. You also have to consider that, traditionally, the engine *must* be placed in the center of the car, given that it's the heaviest thing *in* the car. There isn't a lot of good ways to have the steering column fit *around* that without putting the engine on a mount *behind* the car, which can add cost and complexity.
Then again, some of the first cars where rather *out there*:
_URL_0_
_URL_1_
_URL_2_
_URL_3_
| [
"Four-wheel steering has begun to be used on road cars (Some WW II reconnaissance vehicles had it). It relieves the effect of angular inertia by starting the whole car moving before it rotates toward the desired direction. It can also be used, in the other direction, to reduce the turning radius. Some cars will do ... |
Did black politicians elected to office during Reconstruction attempt to stop disenfranchisement efforts? | While there were a significant number of black politicians elected during the Reconstruction period, they really never had a chance of stopping the wave of sentiment in favor of Jim Crow and other "separate but equal" legislation. In addition, despite blacks accounting for 40-70% of a state's population in the south, that same ratio didn't carry over to local, state, and federal representation.
By the time Jim Crow Laws were actually implemented towards the tail end of Reconstruction and beyond, southern Democrats had become so entrenched that it was pretty much an unstoppable force.
Ironically, it was two white politicians (Sumner and Ben Butler),that helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1875 in a last-ditch effort to prevent these types of laws from being implemented. However, the Supreme Court ruled most of this law unconstitutional in 1883, and rest is history.
| [
"Politics during the Reconstruction proved to be quite difficult. During the first elections, the voter registration board only allowed supporters of African American suffrage to vote. In 1872, Edmund J. Davis, then governor of Texas, ordered Henry Ervay, then mayor of Dallas, to be removed from office. He refused ... |
why is the spotify "shuffle" feature still after all this time not random? | Since you haven't actually said what the problem with Spotify's shuffle feature it this is a hard question to answer specifically, so I'll answer for shuffling in general.
Short answer: Random gives bad results when shuffling songs.
Long answer: Shuffle isn't supposed to be random. Back in the day a shuffle is supposed to generate a random ordering for a given list of songs, so over the short term this means you won't hear a song shortly after it was already played, and over long term this guarantees that every song will get played an equal amount of time.
With the advent of the huge playlists people are getting shuffling has become a lot more complicated. Lets say you have three artists, if you get the same artist 4 times in a row then the human instinct is to feel that isn't 'random' but in actuality it's fairly likely to happen on long length scales. What a good 'shuffle' really means is that you get a playlist that appears random while maintaining 'diversity' (i.e. avoiding streaks of artists). This generally requires an algorithmic approach where different kinds of randomness are introduced at different times. | [
"Shuffle play is a mode of music playback in which songs are played in a randomized order that is decided upon for all tracks at once. It is commonly found on CD players, digital audio players and media player software. Shuffle playback prevents repeated tracks, which makes it distinct from random playback, in whic... |
why does lemon juice "cook" fish when making ceviche? | It doesn't actually cook the fish. The acid just denatures the proteins in fish meat in a similar process to cooking. It won't, for instance, kill pathogens in the fish. | [
"Lemon juice is used to make lemonade, soft drinks, and cocktails. It is used in marinades for fish, where its acid neutralizes amines in fish by converting them into nonvolatile ammonium salts. In meat, the acid partially hydrolyzes tough collagen fibers, tenderizing the meat, but the low pH denatures the proteins... |
when you get up too quick and get dizzy | Let me know, this happens to me as well. Are you tall? I'm 6' 4, I always thought that could be a part of it | [
"Other signs and symptoms vary. Accompanying dehydration can produce nausea, vomiting, headaches, and low blood pressure and the latter can lead to fainting or dizziness, especially if the standing position is assumed quickly.\n",
"A loss of blood pressure may partially explain the reported incidence of dizziness... |
why is it called rule 34? | Since time immemorial (i.e. at least the early ’90s), there have been various lists of “rules of the internet”. Different lists contained different rules in different orders. A witty observation could be phrased as a new “rule of the internet”. The number “34” is arbitrary; the idea that there is a single authoritative list, of which a given rule is the thirty-fourth, is part of the joke.
Several people have mentioned lists created on 4chan. One older list is as follows:
1. There is no cabal. (That is, there is no shadowy organization running everything on the internet. This was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, because there *was* an actual “[cabal](_URL_0_)” reorganizing major parts of the internet)
2. The internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. (Corollary: “information wants to be free”)
3. To every opinion there is an equally loud and opposite opinion. (Corollary: “In cyberspace, everyone can hear you scream.”)
4. “Godwin's law”: As a conversation goes on, the probability that one participant will compare another to Hitler approaches one. (Traditionally, once this happens, the conversation is over and the one who made the comparison is considered to have lost.) | [
"According to researchers Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam, \"Today, Rule 34 thrives as sacred lore on blogs, YouTube videos, Twitter feeds and social networking sites. It's frequently used as a verb, as in 'I Rule 34'ed Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell on the judging table'.\" They propose the reason why the maxim resonated wi... |
why did i lose 5.6 lbs of water after i went to the bathroom? | What are you weighing yourself with that is so accurate? | [
"Weight loss effects of water have been subject to some scientific research. Drinking water prior to each meal may help in appetite suppression. Consumption of 500 mL (approximately 17 fl oz) of water 30 minutes before meals has been correlated with modest weight loss (1–2 kg) in obese men and women over a period o... |
how are the football turf logos personalized & changed each game? | Most stadiums do not ever change their logos. The team (professional, school, etc) own the field and the logo of that team is on it.
Some artificial turfs have the ability to replace the logo section of the turf. It is expensive but can happen.
For real grass fields they will let the grass grow then when they cut the grass and "erase the logo" they paint the new logo in stead of the old. | [
"Beginning with the 2006 NFL season, the scoring banner was upgraded again. This time, real-time scores from around the league were included as a permanent fixture on the extreme right side of the bar, while the banner's coloring changed to the colors of the team currently in possession of the ball (this coloring s... |
Can water from a dehumidifier be used for non-scientific applications that require distilled water ? | Well, i dunno what kind of basement you have, but generally there is some nasty stuff lookin for a moist spit to grow. Your dehumidifier is an ideal place for that. I wouldnt drink the water in my dehumidifier. | [
"Dehumidifiers are used in industrial climatic chambers, to reduce relative humidity and the dew point in many industrial applications from waste and fresh water treatment plants to indoor grow rooms where the control of moisture is essential.\n",
"A dehumidifier is an electrical appliance which reduces and maint... |
why does chocolate melt faster if it's been refrigerated? | Chocolate requires tempering, which is a processes that takes very specific high and low temperatures.
When the chocolate has been melted it ruins this tempering.
The tempering process evens out the fatty acids and ensures a uniform crystallisation. When this is consistent it requires more energy (heat) to disrupt it. | [
"Chocolate is very sensitive to temperature and humidity. Ideal storage temperatures are between , with a relative humidity of less than 50%. If refrigerated or frozen without containment, chocolate can absorb enough moisture to cause a whitish discoloration, the result of fat or sugar crystals rising to the surfac... |
Why do humans 'enjoy' the musical notes that we do? | The intervals we enjoy are generally fairly simple ratios of frequencies.
For example, an octave (C to C) is doubling the frequency. A "perfect fifth" (C to G) is multiplying by 3/2. A "perfect fourth" (C to F) is multiplying by 4/3.
As for the notes in between, these actually differ between cultures, so it is somewhat learned.
----
Some extra points: in our Western "equal temperament" scale, we don't use exact ratios. Our scale is based on the twelfth root of 2. So a perfect fifth is actually 2^7/12 = 1.49830708, instead of the "perfect" value of 1.5.
Also, I'm not entirely sure *why* simple ratios sound "good", but I think it's something like because they interfere to produce more notes with nice ratios. Or something. | [
"\"Most people like music because it gives them certain emotions such as joy, grief, sadness, and image of nature, a subject for daydreams or – still better – oblivion from “everyday life”. They want a drug – dope -…. Music would not be worth much if it were reduced to such an end. When people have learned to love ... |
If Humans were seperated on several continents, why are we not differently adapted? | We are different. African people for instance have a much higher rate of sickle cell anemia because if you have 50% sickle cell and 50% reg red cells you are immune to malaria, as well as many other blood born bacteria that are common in Africa. Similarly British people are really pale because there is not as much sun light so they need to absorb more vitamin D from the limited sun exposure. | [
"Humans may have an evolved set of psychological adaptations that predispose them to be more cooperative than otherwise would be expected with members of their tribal in-group, and, more nasty to members of tribal out groups. These adaptations may have been a consequence of tribal warfare. Humans may also have pred... |
sleep walking and talking | Two things can occur, first is the body doesn't shut down response mechanisms when you sleep and your response functions continue functioning while you are asleep, when you sleep the brain doesn't normally send signals to the rest of the body so you don't injure yourself by flailing or kicking in your sleep, and you rarely verbalize anything. Sleep walking and talking are often caused when the brain doesn't shut down this activity, so you end up in an unconscious state of action, which can lead to injuries.
The second thing that is very common is you actually are conscious but your not in a complete state of consciousness memory wise, and thus do not remember the actions of the previous night, the same thing happens when a person get's completely drunk, they are conscious but their memory function is shut down. | [
"Somniloquy or sleep-talking is a parasomnia that refers to talking aloud while asleep. It can be quite loud, ranging from simple mumbling sounds to loud shouts and long, frequently inarticulate speeches, and can occur many times during a sleep cycle. As with sleepwalking and night terrors, sleeptalking usually occ... |
what vitamins and supplements i should take and why | Flintstones vitamins.
1 chewable tablet per day, unless you are significantly over/under the average weight for a five year old, in which case your parents should consult your pediatrician on your behalf.
*spelling | [
"It may be taken as a dietary supplement, as it is a source of vitamin C, B vitamins, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, potassium (475 mg), calcium, phosphorus, sulphur, iron, copper, zinc, magnesium and lactic acid.\n",
"Vitamin C dietary supplements are available as tablets, capsules, drink mix packets, in multi-vitamin/mi... |
Which plant is the most effective at converting CO2 to Oxygen? | [Photosynthetic efficiency](_URL_0_) is the proper term for this and it's actually measured as sunlight to biomass. The reason is because the same amount of CO2 + (other stuff^1 ) = O2 + (other stuff^1 ), so efficient is always 1-to-1 ratio if you measure CO2 to O2 conversion.
In any case, the most efficient plant is sugar cane at around 7%. However, plants are put to same by algae have efficiency rations of up to 30%.
^1 I know "other stuff" this is not very scientifically accurate but I'm trying to simplify things. | [
"BULLET::::6. Like plants, autotrophic microorganisms are capable to grow on CO. Some of them, such as bacteria with the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway or the reductive TCA can fix CO2 between 2-3, up to 10 times more efficiently than plants when also considering the effects of photoinhibition.\n",
"Many photosynthetic o... |
why don't cigarette packs in the us have gruesome pictures of lung cancer on them like in other countries? | Because tobacco companies have far more leverage over politicians in the United States than they do in other countries. | [
"In the United States, lung cancer incidence and mortality rates are particularly high among African American men. Lung cancer tends to be most common in developed countries, particularly in North America and Europe, and less common in developing countries, particularly in Africa and South America. Over 85% of all ... |
how do information leaks happen? | That all depends on which "flavor" of leak you're talking about.
There's the Edward Snowden type of leak where someone deliberately shares private and confidential information with the public because they felt the public needed to know. Conscious intent and action.
Some leaks aren't intentional at all like the Podesta emails, and are obtained through illicit means like hacking/stealing/espionage. Malicious intent and action.
Then there's the flat incompetent/accidental types of leaks like when the boss left the company's failing budget and list of people to get laid off next month on the printer for a bit too long. Genuine accident.
There are also tactical leaks used by politicians. You can spot these whenever the reporter is citing "a Senior White House Official" in their report. This lets the White House "react" to this new national issue and put public pressure on political opponents without looking like the bad guys.
Wall Street types will also use this to manipulate prices. Day traders are constantly watching company financial reports, and the pros are often looking for insider tips from big companies so they can make their plays ahead of the public. These leaks are often traders calling college buddies that work for Apple's Engineering department looking for key tips like "the next Iphone has a 2hr battery life" so they can sell before it tanks.
In all cases, reporters that get the first leaks are often personal or professional friends that have developed a trusting relationship with the leaker, who is trusting that they leak it appropriately, on their schedule, and for maximum impact. Politicians for example, may give a leak to a story, but ask the reporter to sit on it for a couple of days to avoid suspicion. Should the reporter jump to publish early, it fucks the politician and virtually guarantees the end of secret sources for that reporter. | [
"Information leakage happens whenever a system that is designed to be closed to an eavesdropper reveals some information to unauthorized parties nonetheless. For example, when designing an encrypted instant messaging network, a network engineer without the capacity to crack encryption codes could see when messages ... |
why is rand paul filibustering the patriot act and how does filibustering help? | The patriot act is a surveillance act that allows the NSA to spy on Americans to catch terrorism. Obviously, people are offended by the invasion of privacy.
Now, filibustering is giving an incredibly long speech to cause the bill to run out of time to be passed. Senators are allowed to keep speaking for as long as they want, on anything they can think of, so long as they *keep speaking* and *don't sit down*. A senator can delay something nearly indefinitely so long as he doesn't sit or move from his spot.
And yes, it works. It's also annoying as hell if you actually support the bill being opposed. But in my opinion, Rand Paul is doing a good thing. | [
"The filibuster is an obstructionary tactic used to defeat bills and motions by prolonging debate indefinitely. A filibuster may entail, but does not actually require, long speeches, dilatory motions, and an extensive series of proposed amendments. The longest filibuster speech in the history of the Senate was deli... |
A book about Hypatia of Alexandria | You're indeed in the right place. Fear not!
I'm not sure if there is a recent comprehensive academic study of Hypatia of Alexandria out there, but [here's](_URL_3_) a very long list of books either on her life or incorporating her into the history of mathematics.
I would caution, however, that a lot of the stuff written about her life recently has been skewed to fit the antiquated [Conflict Thesis](_URL_0_). There have been publications - some inspired by the [recent and largely fictionalized film](_URL_1_) about Hypatia - that depict her as a martyr for "science," "reason," or whatever else people want to attach to her. Avoid [books like this](_URL_2_), which have a clear ideological bias. | [
"Sotion of Alexandria (, \"gen\".: Σωτίωνος; fl. c. 200 – 170 BC) was a Greek doxographer and biographer, and an important source for Diogenes Laërtius. None of his works survive; they are known only indirectly. His principal work, the Διαδοχή or Διαδοχαί (the \"Successions\"), was one of the first history books to... |
How many watts does the human body run on? | Well, they say that the recommended daily intake of calories is 2200k. This is for an average woman, I believe, so me as a big, active guy probably need more like 3000kcal. The conversion rate from kcal to kilo Joule is 4.2. Over the course of 24h, that means that my body needs, on average, a supply of 4.2\*3000 kJ /(24\*3600 s) = 145 Watts. This is roughly as much as two regular light bulbs need. | [
"Human powered direct current generators are commercially available, and have been the project of some DIY enthusiasts. Typically operated by means of pedal power, a converted bicycle trainer, or a foot pump, such generators can be practically used to charge batteries, and in some cases are designed with an integra... |
why the tv sometimes turns off or turns on by itself. | There are plenty of possible culprits:
* Some prankster is sending remote control commands to the TV turning it off and on
* The remote control is malfunctioning
* The timer built into the TV is turning it on and off
* The TV is picking up radio signals causing it to misbehave, are there any HAMs in the area?
* The mains power is unstable
* The components connected to the TV are causing it to misbehave
* The TV is overheating and shutting itself off to prevent damage
Note what circumstances cause the issues, and troubleshoot. Take the TV by itself to a different room on a different electrical circuit, and temporarily cover the remote control sensor with opaque tape like electrical tape. See if they still misbehave. | [
"Many televisions and monitors automatically degauss their picture tube when switched on, before an image is displayed. The high current surge that takes place during this automatic degauss is the cause of an audible \"thunk\" or loud hum, which can be heard (and felt) when televisions and CRT computer monitors are... |
How would galactic internet work? | You can't.
The only way to rapidly communicate over distances that long is to somehow overcome the limitation of the speed of light. But that is firmly in the realm of science fiction.
A regular internet request from Proxima Centauri (and whatever orbits that star) will take more than 8 years. 4 years for the request to reach Earth and 4 years for the reply to get back to P.C. You can cut that in half for some services by preemptively sending data from Earth. For example news reports or emails could be sent without anyone on the other side having requested them and they're kept in cache on P.C. until needed. But this would be limited to anything that has been picked beforehand to be preloaded. Anything else would still take the full 8 years.
Space-internet is already an issue within our own solar system. The Moon is doable, signals would take about a second to propagate from the Moon to Earth or backwards, so 2 seconds for roundtrips. You could still do realtime voice and video chat provided there is enough bandwidth.
Mars, on the other hand, is a different story. The distance between Earth and Mars varies depending on where both planets are in their orbit around the Sun. But at its closest, a signal from Mars to Earth (or vice versa) would need a bit more than 2 minutes. On average, it's more than 10 minutes. At maximum distance, a reload of r/askscience would take more than 40 minutes. With those delays, using the internet on Earth is definitely possible, but the way the users browses the web will be quite different as he has to be far more direct in loading the content he wants.
Clearly, in this case, there is much to gain from a smart caching system where the Mars ISP holds copies of all the recently requested webpages and content, as well as preemptively loads links on pages that are requested by the user (bandwidth permitting). It would also be configured, along with the transmitting station on Earth, to preemptively transmit things like emails, social media updates for accounts of colonists, etc...
So internet on Mars that is connected to Earth is still doable, with some large tweaks. But anything beyond that will become rapidly less usable. And interstellar communication with reasonable latency is out of the question until we make one of the many sci-fi tricks become reality. | [
"The first Internet link into low earth orbit was established on January 22, 2010 when astronaut T. J. Creamer posted the first unassisted update to his Twitter account from the International Space Station, marking the extension of the Internet into space. (Astronauts at the ISS had used email and Twitter before, b... |
why we don't we use nitrogen for capital punishment? | Nitrogen doesn't kill people as quickly and flawlessly as lethal injection, and comes with some major safety issues which would tend to make it undesirable. Of course if someone is exposed to a pure nitrogen atmosphere indefinitely they will surely die, but how long exactly will that take? 10 minutes? 15 to be really sure they aren't just severely brain damaged? 20 minutes of the witnesses staring at an unconscious body which may or may not be a corpse? It is much easier to inject something that will surely kill them rather than keep administering something until they are dead. It avoids the whole "Oops, they woke back up, kill them again," problem.
Gasses also have the safety issue of being dangerous to handle. What if your gas canisters start to leak, or the mask leaks and fills up the execution chamber? What about the observers, are they at risk to your gas hazard? It is much easier and less hazardous to simply avoid getting an IV drug in your arm and you don't really need guards to have special training. | [
"Nitrogen asphyxiation has been suggested by a number of lawmakers and other advocates as a more humane way to carry out capital punishment. In April 2015, the Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed a bill authorizing nitrogen asphyxiation as an alternative execution method in cases where the state's preferred method... |
Was Marx racist? | The problem really is the time period, as there wasn't a concept of "racism" in the 19th century. [(Oxford dictionary cites "racialism" as the first use in the early 1900s.)](_URL_1_) Basically, from what I've read, Marx uses the word "nigger" as a descriptive term, and there is little concept for a kind of supremacy of whites over blacks. He often supports black people while using the word, so this is clearly not damning evidence of a racist Karl Marx.
> Mr Johnson’s policy is less and less to my liking, too. Nigger-hatred is coming out more and more violently, and he is relinquishing all his power vis-à-vis the old lords in the South. If this should continue, all the old secessionist scoundrels will be in Congress in Washington in 6 months time. Without coloured suffrage nothing can be done, and Johnson is leaving it up to the defeated, the ex-slaveowners, to decide on that. It is absurd. Nevertheless, one must still reckon on things turning out differently from what these barons imagined. After all, the majority of them have been completely ruined and will be glad to sell land to immigrants and speculators from the North. The latter will arrive soon enough and make a good number of changes. I think the mean whites will gradually die out. Nothing more will become of this race; those who are left after 2 generations will merge with the immigrants to make a completely different race.
> The niggers will probably turn into small squatters as in Jamaica. Thus ultimately the oligarchy will go to pot after all, but the process could be accomplished immediately at one fell swoop, whereas it is now being drawn out.
Source: _URL_0_
As far as I understand it, many who campaigned for black rights in the 19th century, including Lincoln, did not desire full equality between the races. Accusing someone of racism from the 19th century is anachronistic, and it is better to evaluate someone by their actions and ideas towards black people at the time, rather to take a modern perspective.
| [
"Weyl's 1979 book \"Karl Marx - Racist\" contains a summary and critique of Marx's views on race and the role of Jews in modern capitalism, and a discussion of later refutations of Marx's economic views. At the same time, Weyl himself supported white minority-rule regimes in southern Africa against \"communist terr... |
With regards to the SCC aliens meme, what do you see if you're 65 million light years away from Earth, but are travelling towards it at a very high speed? | Yes. The light would also: _URL_0_ | [
"BULLET::::- In the \"Stargate SG-1\" episode \"Sight Unseen\", an alien device is accidentally activated that allows members of SG-1 to see, but not interact with, strange insect-like creatures who inhabit a dimension parallel to our own. Though originally confined to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, the phenomenon ... |
why does light from the sun make the sky look blue, but light from the moon does not? | It does make the sky look blue, but our blue photoreceptors aren't sensitive to low light levels, so we can't see it. If you take a long exposure at night, the sky will look blue. | [
"In locations with little light pollution, the moonlit night sky is also blue, because moonlight is reflected sunlight, with a slightly lower color temperature due to the brownish color of the moon. The moonlit sky is not perceived as blue, however, because at low light levels human vision comes mainly from rod cel... |
why would large successful companies that are not in need of money sell shares of their company? | You have to separate an offering from normal trading. Normal trading is where people (not the company) who own stock trade it on the private market. This has nothing to do with the company who's stock it is, though some of the private individuals selling might be employed by said company.
Offerings are when the company puts more shares up for sale by either creating them or by selling off shares they hold in reserve. There are many reasons for this, such as a need for capital, a feeling that the liquidity isn't high enough or the issuing of new stock grants/options to employees. | [
"This is a disadvantage to companies and the market at large because it allows profit to be made without any successful business practice being conducted. The ethics of firms are compromised in the interest of increasing share value.\n",
"When a company wants to raise money for long-term investment, one of its fi... |
if the big 3 religions and their denominations all worship the same god, how can there be so much violence and disagreement between them (and even within them between denominations)? considering that they have the biggest part in common (the deity), can't they agree to disagree on other stuff? | The Abrahamic religions only worship the same god insofar as they all believe in the Old Testament, but they have drastically different views on what was divinely revealed after that. The Christians believe Jesus came down and was the son of God and thus that God is a trinity and that you need to worship Jesus, while the Muslims believe that Jesus was just a prophet and actually Muhammad was the final prophet and you need to follow him, and that God is not a trinity, which is to say that they don't really have the same idea of God. And the Jews don't believe any of that is legitimate. Aside from this they all have substantially different religious practices, hierarchies, and attitudes toward evangelism.
Because each religion takes its own doctrines so seriously, they all view each other as false religions, and also have internal fighting over specific doctrines. To top it off, they have a long history of fighting over the same lands, especially in the Middle East and Europe, and thus tend to see each other as enemy factions. | [
"Wherever people of different religions live in close proximity to each other, religious sectarianism can often be found in varying forms and degrees. In some areas, religious sectarians (for example Protestant and Catholic Christians) exist peacefully side-by-side for the most part, although these differences have... |
What happens to a currency when physical tender is destroyed while in circulation? | Different countries (central banks) have different ways of handling this. In most countries they have rules and regulations on how to deal with this issue. Some just write off an estimate of what is in circulation.
I'd suggest that you simply contact the central bank that represents your market and ask them. They do answer to public inquiries.
Here is a little info on the controlled form of introduction of money the the destruction in the US, conducted by the FED: _URL_1_ and what happens to the currency deemed to poor to re-use: _URL_0_
If there is a knowledge of how much money that got destroyed and what batch they simply remove those notes from the system and print new ones.
Edit: An interesting fact is that all US currency is legal tender regardless of when it was issued. So if you find an really old dollar bill somewhere you can still get the face value of it. But if you find a really old bill I'd personally check if it is rare and worth more than its face value :) | [
"A fiat-money currency greatly loses its value should the issuing government or central bank either lose the ability to, or refuse to, further guarantee its value. The usual consequence is hyperinflation. Some examples where this has occurred are the Zimbabwean dollar, China in 1945 and the mark in the Weimar Repub... |
[Mathematics] If I roll a six-sided die 6 times, what is the probably that it will land on a particular face at least one time? | the trick is to flip the problem...instead of thinking "what is the probability it will land on this face" instead think, what is the probability it WON'T land on some face.
so, what is the probability of NOT landing on some face (we'll say...2) for a single roll....obviously it's 5/6...because 5 out of 6 times, it will land on some other face
so given that, what is the probability it WON'T land on that face 6 times in a row?
(5/6)^6
because the probability of two independent events A and B occurring is A*B, so we end up multipleying 5/6 by itself 6 times, once for each roll
so we have the probability of it NOT landing on that face for 6 rolls, the the probability of it landing on that face is just 1-(5/6)^6
since the probabilities of ALL outcomes must add up to 1, and the only two possibilities are 1) the face doesn't come up, or 2) the face comes up at least once, then we just subtract the probability of the face not coming up from one.....so 1-(5/6)^6, or about 66%
66% | [
"The player then rolls a 6-sided die. The numbers 1-4 correspond to the 4 pages of cards sleeves and the pages are turned to the corresponding number. A 5 or 6 result means that the page is not changed.\n",
"The players take turns rolling a six-sided die and then moving the matching cube. If the matching cube is ... |
how does a high profile trial such as george zimmerman's affect the personal lives of the jurors? | In some cases, their lives really are put on complete hold. They can be 'sequestered' by the judge, which basically puts them on lock-down, sometimes in a local hotel, to keep them away from ANY media coverage about the case, so as to remain as impartial as possible. For these big, high profile cases, it can be very taxing.
Employers, I believe (at least in some/most states?) are required by law to grant you time off for jury duty. All you can tell your employer is that you have jury duty and will be out for an indeterminate amount of time. You're not allowed to tell anyone which case you're sitting on, as they could have an interest in swaying your decision (plus it's dangerous to be exposed in high profile cases where one party has good...connections) | [
"The first important paper on the findings of the CJP so far documents that jurors do not rely on expert testimony to evaluate the defendant's dangerousness but are influenced by expert testimony regarding the defendant's mental illness and mental instability. Jurors accept that mental health professionals have exp... |
At any given moment in time, are there a finite number of planets in the universe? | Let me just try and address this more abstract part of your question, regarding "counting up" the planets:
> I understand that the universe is infinite (sort of) and ever-expanding, but if we could magically freeze time and use GoogleGalaxy (tm) to fly around the universe, wouldn't we able to establish a finite number of planets that existed for that precise moment in time?
> Maybe the problem stems from my inability to truly understand the concept of infinity.
It sounds as though you think that, even if the universe is infinite, if we could somehow freeze time, then we'd be able to "count up" all the planets. Let me know if that's (in)correct.
If so, let's imagine something simpler instead: a checkerboard that extends infinitely in all directions, and let's try and count all the squares. If we kind of work our way outward in a kind of spiral, we won't miss any of the squares, and given a particular square, it will be counted after some finite amount of time. (there are, of course, other patterns we could use to count the squares).
BUT! There's no finite time after which we will have counted **all** the squares. The planets (if the universe is infinite and homogeneous) are pretty much the same way - we have to spend some time finding the next planet to count, but freezing time still doesn't help the duration of the overall count - it still takes an infinite amount of time to count them all up.
Aside: this idea is what mathematicians call "countably infinite". There are infinitely many things, but at least there's some way to enumerate ("count") them. Common examples are the integers, and (perhaps surprisingly) the set off all fractions (specifically, numbers of the form p/q where both p and q are integers).
There are still "greater" infinities, for instance there are so many real numbers that one cannot even come up with a method for enumerating them; we say the real numbers are "uncountably infinite". | [
"Two months later, Harvard University astronomy professor Harlow Shapley speculated on the number of inhabited planets in the universe, saying \"The universe has 10 million, million, million suns (10 followed by 18 zeros) similar to our own. One in a million has planets around it. Only one in a million million has ... |
if the earth's rotation is 23 hours and 56 minutes long per cycle, how come we do not see days where the clock says it is nighttime or vice versa during the year? | The Earth moves roughly one degree per day around its orbit, so the Earth has to rotate 361 degrees for the same point on the surface to be pointing at the Sun again. That extra degree(ish) takes the extra 4 minutes. | [
"Earth makes one rotation around its axis in a sidereal day; during that time it moves a short distance (about 1°) along its orbit around the Sun. So after a sidereal day has passed, Earth still needs to rotate slightly more before the Sun reaches local noon according to solar time. A mean solar day is, therefore, ... |
Was there ever any domestic opposition to imperialism in Europe? | Actually, New Zealand is an almost perfect example of this. Australia had been set up as a penal colony in 1787 when the "First Fleet" arrived, and much persecution of native Aborigines followed. At this time Britain had recently lost the American Colonies, and though there had been a lot of domestic support for the American revolution, the feeling was still very much that colonies fared better under British influence. By the 1830's however attitudes began to change. Britain abolished slavery, repealed many oppressive laws designed to keep Catholics down, and the idea of Humanism was beginning to establish itself in London. The topic of New Zealand cropped up a lot in parliamentary debates, many Radical members (Forerunners of the Liberal Party) thought something out to be done to protect Maori interests and sovereignty.
New Zealand, by 1835, was essentially a lawless land where merchant ships often traded muskets or alcohol with local Maori for women and land. So in 1835 New Zealand was declared independent from Australia (previously it had been under the jurisdiction of the government of New South Wales) and formed a colony in it's own right. People debate the reasons for this, but it's generally accepted this was a measure to reduce lawlessness and protect Maori from getting swindled. Certainly the first two governors, Hobson and Fitzroy, did a lot of work in protecting Maori interests as well as preventing tribes from warring and the French attempting to establish a colony on the South Island.
In 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the British Crown and many Maori chiefs (Though certainly not all, and controversy surrounds the Maori translations of the English text). One of the main clauses of the treaty was that Maori would only be allowed to sell land to the Crown and any and all previous land deals were considered void. Prior to this and for a long time after Maori chiefs travelled to London, held audiences with British Royalty, and were basically treated as 19th century celebrities. | [
"Walter Rodney, in his 1972 classic How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, proposes the idea that imperialism is a phase of capitalism \"in which Western European capitalist countries, the US, and Japan established political, economic, military and cultural hegemony over other parts of the world which were initially at ... |
How close is the measurement of horsepower to the power output of an actual horse? | [Stevenson and Wassersug](_URL_0_) state that the peak power output for a horse could reach 15hp, but that this was not sustainable (much like you could push a car uphill for a short amount of time, but doing it all day would be rather difficult). They then cite contemporary publications from the 19th/early 20th century, which recommend work equalling about 1hp for healthy working horses, implying that a horse could manage a horsepower on a regular basis without trouble. | [
"BULLET::::- \"Nominal horse power\"– nhp is the typical way that traction engines are rated. However, it has long been accepted that nominal horse power greatly understates the actual power of the engine. There are many ways to estimate the actual horse power but none of them gives an accurate answer, for example,... |
do all muslims follow sharia law or is it more comparable to all christians following the 10 commandments. | First, Sharia law is more like a set of rules and guidelines derived from multiple sources. It is less like the ten commandments and more like the Talmud or the collected decisions of the Catholic Church.
Second, individual Muslims interpret and abide by the rules to different measures and degrees, just as is the case for Christians, Jews, and members of other faiths. So there isn't really a general answer for how "muslims" treat these rules, and within Islamic communities people will differ.
Third, to illustrate that, not all of your list of bullets reflect clear aspects of sharia. The discussion on the [wiki page for FGM](_URL_0_) for instance, points out that even though many schools of Islamic thought view FGM as permissible or even required, not all do and that the specific Hadith cited is viewed by scholars as weakly supported. Likewise Taqiyya isn't really a part of Islamic law, but a component of Islamic ethics/theology about when it is acceptable to lie to defend one's faith. There are parallel discussions in Christianity and Judaism, as well as secular systems of ethics. (Even the most orthodox jew, for instance, is permitted to break an ethical rule to save someone's life, even very important ones like keeping Kosher or eating on a fast day. It's not required, but it's allowed.) | [
"Muslims believe \"sharia\" is God's law, but they differ as to what exactly it entails. Modernists, traditionalists and fundamentalists all hold different views of sharia, as do adherents to different schools of Islamic thought and scholarship. Different countries, societies and cultures have varying interpretatio... |
Do birds ping? | Sounds like contact calls to me! Though I am unsure if a species specific call has been studied or described for caiques in particular, I know for a fact that many other parrot species (parakeets, budgies, amazons) use contact calls regularly to maintain their pairs or groups. In fact, on a recent trip to Nicaragua my lab and I collected data on contact call dialects in wild Yellow-naped amazons. With this species at least, birds in different areas show structural variations in contact calls which functionally serve the same purpose. So I can imagine that if your birds are using a contact call (that they didn't learn from their wild brethren), it might be a particular variant for your home flock. A home dialect of sorts. :) | [
"Their most distinctive behaviour is the beating and whistling sound their wings make when they take off. This is most likely to draw the attention of predators to birds on the wing, and away from any birds remaining on the ground, and as an alarm call to other pigeons. When the birds land, their tails tilt upwards... |
what exactly does it mean when one country 'recognises' another country? conversely, what does it mean when one country refuses to recognise another country? | Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:
1. [ELI5: What does it mean when one country refuses to acknowledge the existence of another country? ](_URL_0_) ^(_8 comments_)
1. [ELI5: How does international recognition of a country differ (e.g. South Sudan, Kosovo)? ](_URL_1_) ^(_8 comments_)
| [
"Saying that a country \"does not recognize\" multiple citizenship is a confusing and ambiguous term. Often, it is simply a restatement of the Master Nationality Rule, whereby a country treats a person who is a citizen of both that country and another in the same way as one who is a citizen only of the country. In ... |
How many different types of visible light are there? | There are an infinite number of frequencies of light. By themselves they don't group into colors, they're just a frequency (wavelength). We perceive colors because of the nature of our eyes. We have receptors that are differentially sensitives. Most people have three different types, corresponding to the three different primary colors. Colorblind people have fewer. Some women have four types and presumably see colors based on four primaries rather than three. | [
"Light is electromagnetic radiation within a certain portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The word usually refers to visible light, which is the visible spectrum that is visible to the human eye and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400... |
When, and why, did the US close its borders to Mexico. | Around Reagan's presidency, drug trafficking was popular. Pablo Escobar and the rest of the Medellín cartel were bringing 15 tons of cocaine to America a day. Many of their trade routes went through the Mexican-American border. This was a big factor to having heavy control over the border during Reagan's War on Drugs.
But even in the past we see that the border has been in constant dispute. The annexation of Texas led to the Mexican-American War, which ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) where America also gained New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Then the U.S. bought Tucson and Sierra Vista in the Gadsden Purchase in 1854 to build a railway. America gained a lot of land and it's kinda been America's mission to keep it for ourselves, away from the Confederate States during the Civil War, the French, and the Mexicans. | [
"On 12 January 1828, in Mexico City, Poinsett signed the first treaty between the United States and Mexico, the Treaty of Limits, a treaty that recognized the U.S.-Mexico border established by the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty between Spain and the U.S.\n",
"BULLET::::2. Mexico severed diplomatic relations with the U.S.... |
why california hasn't embraced desalinization to deal with the water shortage? | It does if you're dying if thirst, but not if you just need people to not waste water on their silly lawns and 30 minute showers. | [
"In response to water shortages in the state, some water districts are looking to desalination as a way to provide water for residents. Supporters view seawater desalination as a safer water source, since it draws its water from the ocean and thus, is not affected by periods of drought like other sources of water a... |
Why isn't cloud seeding more common? | For the most part, we don't know if it works. Would it have rained or snowed without the seeding? Who knows? While research is ongoing, seeding has been used for well over half a decade now, with no conclusively convincing evidence of its effectiveness. Weather is pretty complex, and it's really hard to determine if seeding contributes significantly enough to well... be statistically significant. | [
"Cloud seeding is a common technique to enhance precipitation. Cloud seeding entails spraying small particles, such as silver iodide, onto clouds to affect their development, usually with the goal of increasing precipitation. Cloud seeding only works to the extent that there is already water vapor present in the ai... |
why is increasing your heart rate through physical activity good and for anxiety reasons bad? | The main reason is that it's better to have relaxed artery walls. Increasing heart rate through physical activity causes arteries to relax. In anxiety, it causes them to constrict. | [
"Lifestyle factors including: stress management, stress reduction, relaxation, exercise, sleep hygiene, caffeine, and alcohol can influence the persistence of anxiety. Stress is a factor that can trigger anxiety. Therefore, keeping stress levels low through stress management, stress reduction, and relaxation may be... |
if every household collected rainwater, would it hurt the environment? how does this work? | It depends on how they were going about doing it.
If everyone covered all their lands with plastic tarps and took all the rain water than less of it would be flowing into streams and lakes.
But this would require extreme amounts of collection.
A more likely scenario is that all those collection of standing fresh water will breed mosquitoes, potentially spreading mosquito borne diseases faster. | [
"While rainwater itself is a clean source of water, often better than groundwater or water from rivers or lakes, the process of collection and storage often leaves the water polluted and non-potable. Rainwater harvested from roofs can contain human, animal and bird feces, mosses and lichens, windblown dust, particu... |
What is the effect of air pressure on melting point of water? | If you look at the [phase diagram of water](_URL_0_) you can see that the melting point decreases weakly as pressure is increased, reaching a minimum of about -20 C at extremely high pressure. [Here](_URL_1_) is a zoomed in version but I don't trust the scale. | [
"Physicist Lei Xu and coworkers at the University of Chicago discovered that the splash due to the impact of a small drop of ethanol onto a dry solid surface could be suppressed by reducing the pressure below a specific threshold. For drops of diameter 3.4 mm falling through air, this pressure was about 20 kilopasc... |
why was "smells like teen spirit" considered such a revolutionary song? and what's so special about kurt cobain? | Nirvana gets a lot of the credit for starting the "grunge" movement. What makes smells like teen spirit so different is it's grunge sound and lyrical content. This was the first mainstream song to sort of glorify angsty, awkward teenagers and give them a coherent voice. It probably rings less with you because so much music has been heavily influenced by it. As far as his legacy is concerned, as one of the pillars of grunge music he has had a major impact on the last 20 or so years of rock music, most specifically alt/college rock. | [
"In the wake of Nirvana's success, Michael Azerrad wrote in a 1992 \"Rolling Stone\" article: \"'Smells Like Teen Spirit' is an anthem for (or is it against?) the 'Why Ask Why?' generation. Just don't call Cobain a spokesman for a generation.\" Nevertheless, the music press awarded the song an \"anthem-of-a-generat... |
i've heard that roads tend to be safer without speed limits. why does the us still have them? | Because roads *are* safer with speed limits. There are many scientists who work in road safety, and they would be in 99% agreement over this. The European and Scandanavian countries that have the lowest fatality rates in the world also have the lowest speed limits (UK, Netherlands, Sweden). | [
"BULLET::::- A 1998 report in the \"Wall Street Journal\" titled \"Highways are safe at any speed\", stating when speed limits are set artificially low, tailgating, weaving and speed variance (the problem of some cars traveling significantly faster than others) make roads less safe.\n",
"Worldwide, road traffic i... |
If the universe is infinite in all directions, does that mean no matter where you move you will always be in the exact center? | If the universe is infinitely big (which is the go-to assumption nowadays, and at least somewhat supported by evidence, but it has not been proven yet), then there is no center. Talking about the center of the entire universe becomes pretty meaningless.
You will always appear to be in the center of your observable universe. This is true regardless of whether the universe is infinite or not. | [
"Simplicio now gives the greatest argument against the annual motion of the Earth that if it moves then it can no longer be the center of the zodiac, the world. Aristotle gives proofs that the universe is finite bounded and spherical. Salvatius points out that these disappear if he denies him the assumption that it... |
if reddit only has user-driven content with highly upvoted posts receiving the most attention, why does it have mods removing posts and banned websites? | Reddit is not a democracy. Each subreddit is run by the mods according to their wishes. If a mod team thinks that links to certain sites are harming the discussion in their subreddit somehow (false information, biased source, etc.) then they ban it because they think it will make the sub better. The democratic part comes back in though because if you don't like the mods of a certain subreddit, you can always make your own. | [
"In accordance with the site's policies on free speech, Reddit's admins say that they do not ban communities solely for featuring controversial content. Reddit's general manager Erik Martin noted that \"having to stomach occasional troll [sub]reddits like r/picsofdeadkids or morally questionable [sub]reddits like r... |
cars with a "sport mode" button and what exactly goes on inside them when you press it. | It's highly dependent on the car, but what can happen may include:
* If your car has a dynamic suspension, the shock absorbers may become more ridged, or the car may be lowered
* Your power steering may be adjusted to be more responsive, or shut off (it typically shuts off at higher speeds anyway)
* The engine mapping might change to produce more power
* Traction control may adjust the threshold and parameters it engages to allow for more aggressive power transfer at the risk of some slip
* Automatic or semi-automatic transmissions may adjust their shift points to act at much higher RPM
* Certain features may be enabled, like launch control, if you have it
EDIT:
Your engine may "work better", but fuel economy goes right out the window.
Your engine undergoes a shit ton of design and instrumented testing during it's development. They use these special test "cells" that control every possible operating parameter, and they run these engines through the gambit, essentially every possible speed, load, and environmental and atmospheric condition, at $10k/hr, to develop the "map", if you can imagine - essentially a gigantic table of all the operating parameters for the engine.
Based on what the car's sensors are telling it, the computer will select the ideal operating parameters in the map. These maps are conservative, for fuel economy, emissions, and engine reliability.
Normally, when driving, you're doing so under "closed-loop", where sensors provide feedback and the map selection is adjusted, as I had suggested above. Under the right conditions, such as under load or demand (such as going full throttle), the map switches to "open-loop", where the computer basically disregards the sensors and selects a mapping that produces power at the expense of all else.
There's also a shorter term "learning" (used, very, very loosely) system that will make adjustments beyond the map. So if your engine develops a misfire, or a hot spot, or you used some shitty fuel, or you bolted on a turbocharger without tuning the engine for it, this system can mitigate all these things.
So this is the system that changes when you go into sport mode. You're using a different part of the map and the operating parameters are adjusted differently for performance, sacrificing all else, which is why you turn it on when you're going to use it, and turn it off when you're not. Never just run in sport mode just because, as it puts unnecessary wear on the engine, running at higher RPM for no reason, and wastes fuel.
As I said, this map from the factory is conservative, and meant to work under all conditions, appropriate for mass production and a world wide market. A tuner can adjust this map to gain performance, fuel economy, and emissions, by making it specific to your region. They can, it doesn't mean they will - because the manufacturer spent $10k/hr to develop their map, and any Joe in their garage and with a hand unit from Autozone can call themselves a tuner. If you were ever to do this, do your research and find a reputable tuner that actually knows what the fuck they're doing. | [
"Controls are simple, with the A and B buttons controlling the player's gas and brakes respectively. The R and L buttons shift the car up or down a gear in manual control, and the D-Pad controls the car's steering. The game requires the player to master the powerslide technique to skid around corners and to reduce ... |
According to the BBC, the average life expectancy for an Allied pilot in 1915 was just 11 days; how were they able to recruit pilots? Was it understood just how hazardous a posting it was? What major technical advances (if any) were made through the course of the war to make it safer? | Was that 11 days on which combat occurred or 11 days in a row? I ask because I once read something like the average life expectancy of American bomber crews in combat in WWII Europe was something like 35 seconds, but this was because of the strict definition of what constituted “combat” and the funny ways averages sometimes behave in certain datasets. | [
"In April 1917, during a brief period of German aerial supremacy a British pilot's average life expectancy was 93 flying hours, or about three weeks of active service. More than 50,000 airmen from both sides died during the war.\n",
"Reconnaissance flying, like all kinds, was a hazardous business. In April 1917, ... |
If your skin temperature is lower than usual and you stick your hand/foot in hot water, does it do actual damage? | Sensory or neural adaptation is a change in time in responsiveness to a constant stimulus, for example, what your clothes feel like on your skin. When your feet are cold, the neurons that transmit a feeling of warmth are not firing. When you submerge them in warm water, these warm-sensing neurons begin firing rapidly signaling heat, but you're also signaling a rapid temperature change. Because of the rapidity with which your body was sensing the rise in temperature, nociceptors, or receptors that signal pain, became activated, warning you that something may be potentially wrong.
Unless you are actually using boiling water, there is likely no damage being caused. | [
"Fluid loss also can occur from the skin. In a hot and dry climate, skin fluid losses can be as high as 1 to 2 liters/hour. Patients with a skin barrier interrupted by burns or other skin lesions also can experience large fluid losses that lead to hypovolemic shock. \n",
"Other risk factors include perspiring hea... |
How common were fighting churchmen in Medieval Europe? | In Spring 1218, an Oeselian army, a pagan people of the Baltic, marched upon the Christian settlements in Metsepole, a region in Latvia. A parish priest, Godfrey, mounted his horse and rode to the surrounding villages, summoning help from the German bishop of Riga. The next day, the Christians faced the pagans in battle:
"There were only seven of the servants of the German bishop and the eighth was the priest Godfrey, who belted on his weapons for war and put on his breastplate, like a giant, desiring to save his sheep from the jaws of the wolves. They rushed valiantly upon the Oeselians from behind, killing some of them most bravely."
This account is taken from the chronicle of Henry of Livonia, himself a parish priest. Clerical armsbearing certainly did happen though it is difficult to state exactly how common it was. Canon law had repeatedly condemned clerical violence in the eleventh century. From 1049 to 1079 twelve church councils or synods, seven under the direct auspices of the papacy, forbade clerical armsbearing in some form, suggesting it was relatively common, or at least the church thought it was. However, by the late medieval period this opposition had shifted. The advent of the crusades, military orders like the Knights Templar, and new developments in just war theory all contributed to more lax rules on clerical violence as did the conclusion that by natural law priests had the right to defend themselves. A late fourteenth century canon lawyer in Bologna, Giovanni da Legnano, assessed a series of instances to decide when it was acceptable in canon law for priests to fight and kill. These scenarios included:
* When attacked whilst baptising a dying child
Answer: yes, but only if the child will survive the time it takes to kill your attacker. Otherwise you need to baptise them whilst you're being murdered.
* Killing someone in self-defence whilst celebrating mass and then continuing with the ceremony?
Answer: Yes, but only if you are in mortal danger and there was no other way to defend yourself and continue the mass.
After the eleventh century clerical violence was no longer repeatedly condemned as it had been. Of the seven ecumenical councils from 1123 to 1311, five did not mention the matter at all. When armsbearing was condemned, it often seemed contradictory, as at the council of Vienne in 1311-2. The same council ordered that Benedictines could not bear arms in their abbey precinct without the permission of their abbot, suggesting that they could bear arms outside. In 1289, Nicholas IV allowed the Franciscans to carry weapons 'in defence of the Roman Church, the Christian faith, or their country, or with the permission of their ministers'.
Senior clergy were sometimes freed from restrictions on armsbearing. The Carolingians tacitly exempted bishops and abbots from the definition of 'clericus', allowing them to serve militarily. The 1050 council of Coyanza ruled that priests and deacons in the Castillian diocese of Oviedo, were barred from 'arms of war'. Bishops were not mentioned, possibly deliberately as such senior ecclesiastics could often be found serving as royal commanders. For example, Anthony Bek, bishop of Durham, was with Edward I when he put down a Welsh uprising in 1295, participated in the English invasion of Scotland in 1296, and fought at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298. In 1300 he besieged and stormed his own cathedral of Durham following a dispute with the prior over the right of visitation. An anonymous poem of the event recounts that:
"From boyhood Bishop Anthony
Had learned to fight most readily,
And in violence trusted more
Than in the texts of canon law"
But such violence was not universally condemned. The Pope made Bek patriarch of Jerusalem in 1306. When he died in 1311 Bek was buried in the same cathedral he stormed and whose monks he attacked. He became the first bishop of Durham since St Cuthbert to be buried there.
It is likely that frontier areas like Livonia and the Crusader States were where clerical violence was most common and perhaps the most tolerated. In 1119 Bernard, patriarch of Antioch, defended the city with a force of 'armed clergy and knights' until Baldwin II of Jerusalem arrived with a relieving force. In January 1120 a church council at Nablus, held by Baldwin II and the patriarch of Jerusalem, allowed clergy to bear arms for defence.
Henry of Livonia's chronicle has several instances suggesting that priests in the Baltic had to be prepared to fight at short notice. The passage above states that Godfrey's weapons and breastplate are 'his', suggesting that this parish priest had his own weaponry and armour. Henry also appears to have approved of Godfrey's actions. 'like a giant, desiring to save his sheep from the jaws of the wolves' are references to passages from Maccabees and elsewhere in the Bible.
Another passage describes an attack by the pagan Kurs on Riga:
"The citizens, the Brothers of the Militia [the Sword Brethren], and the ballistarii, few though they were, together with the clerics and the women, all had recourse to arms"
Henry even mentions an anecdote featuring himself ready to fight. He and his fellow priests were interrupted whilst baptising a man called Kyriawan:
"While we were on the point of annointing him with the holy oil, a great clamour arose and a rushing of our army through all the streets and everyone ran to arms, crying that a great host of pagans was coming against us. We immediately put down the holy chrism and the other holy articles, therefore, and hurried to the ministry of shields and swords."
Sources:
James A. Brundage, *The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia* (Chichester, 2003).
Lawrence Duggan, *Armsbearing and the Clergy in the History and Canon Law of Western Christianity* (Woodbridge, 2013).
T. E. Holland and F. W. Kelsey (eds), *Tractatus de bello, de represaliis et de duello* (Oxford, 1917). | [
"Popular revolts in late-medieval Europe and civil wars between nobles within countries such as the Wars of the Roses were common—with France fighting internally nine times—and there were international conflicts between kings such as France and England in the Hundred Years' War. The unity of the Roman Catholic Chur... |
Why is it that gravity slingshots work? Don't the violate conservation of energy? | No scientist here, but I'm pretty sure that the conservation of energy is true with planets as well. The amount Neptune slowed down is probably like 0.0000000000000000001% but that was enough to propel voyager further. | [
"In orbital mechanics and aerospace engineering, a gravitational slingshot, gravity assist maneuver, or swing-by is the use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the path and speed of a spacecraft, typically to save propellant and reduce e... |
who, or what, is citizens united, and why have they all of a sudden been in the news so much lately? | Citizens United refers to a court decision *Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission*.
Citizens United was making a movie that was critical of Hillary Clinton and wanted to advertise it before the 2008 democratic national convention. Before the ruling, it would have been illegal to do so within 80 days of an election and within 30 days of a primary.
The Supreme Court ruled that preventing a group of people (Citizens United) from expressing their opinions during an 80 day window or 30 day window was a violation of free speech.
The decision *does not* have anything to do with whether or not money is speech or corporations are people.
I know this isn't ELI5 friendly. | [
"Citizens United is known for its support of conservatives in politics. The group produced a television advertisement that reveals several legislative actions taken by John McCain, which aired on Fox News Channel. On October 2, 2006, in reaction to revelations of a cover-up of inappropriate communications between R... |
how do monarch butterflies migrate through multiple generations, considering that one of them can only make it part of the way? | Genetically learned traits. Basically they've been doing it so long it's become ingrained in their core. They even fly around an obsticle (can't remeber if it was a mountain or lake) that's not even there any more! A million (or whatever) years ago this feature of the Earth went away, but the butterflies still circle where it once was. | [
"Monarch butterflies are especially noted for their lengthy annual migration. In North America they make massive southward migrations starting in August until the first frost. A northward migration takes place in the spring. The monarch is the only butterfly that migrates both north and south as the birds do on a r... |
in factory shows like how it's made, who plans those assembly machines that know how to perfectly do everything? | It's usually a mechanical engineer who designs the actual machine, or an engineer in the field of what it will be making. Very complex processes are researched by engineers with a master's degree or a PhD at a university or private research company. Once they show that whatever it is they're making can be profitable, they usually sell the technology to a company who has its engineers make it faster and cheaper.
As far as the assembly line, plant layout, and human-machine interfaces, it's usually an industrial engineer. If it's a chemical plant with reaction chambers, pressure tanks, and chemical flow, it's usually a chemical engineer. Of course, being one type of engineer doesn't stop you from knowing all the things. | [
"In \"Star Trek\" a replicator is a machine that can create (and recycle) things. Replicators were originally seen to simply synthesize meals on demand, but in later series much larger non-food items appear. The technical aspects of replicated vice \"real\" things is sometimes a plot element.\n",
"Inside the Fact... |
when a study says "n=979", what is the significance of the n? | Usually it's the amount of people that are being subjects in the study.
If you're talking about the r/science article on teens and young adults and solitude, the n=979 means that 979 teens and young adults were looked at in the study. | [
"\"N\" is the Avogadro constant (the ratio of the number of particles, \"N\", which is unitless, to the amount of substance, \"n\", in units of moles), and \"e\" is the elementary charge or the magnitude of the charge of an electron. This relation holds because the amount of charge of a mole of electrons is equal t... |
why does our brain tune out sound that we’re constantly exposed to? | That's what our brains are designed to do. If a constant sensory input is eventually regarded as something to be ignored, your brain will do just that.
For some people, this mechanism doesn't work properly. In some cases of autism and schizophrenia for example, their brains have a hard time ignoring excess sensory input so they become very overwhelmed and over-excited. | [
"Misophonia's mechanism is not known, but it appears that, like hyperacusis, it may be caused by a dysfunction of the central auditory system in the brain and not of the ears. The perceived origin and context of the sound appears to be essential to trigger a reaction.\n",
"Auditory processing disorder is when a p... |
why is tomato sauce (ketchup) so ubiquitous? what is it about the flavour of tomatoes in particular that makes it so universally used with such a range of other foods? | I don't think it's the flavour of tomatoes per se (because ketchup *doesn't* taste like tomato) so much as the availability and relative cheapness of ketchup's key ingredients that makes it so common. It's easy to produce in large quantities, it's inexpensive, and it has a long shelf life.
You might also be able to sell the idea that the bright colour appeals to children, so they "like" it and parents decide to put it on anything their child refuses to eat in order to get them to choke it down. That's what my parents did, after all. | [
"Prior to Heinz (and his fellow innovators), commercial tomato ketchups of that time were watery and thin, in part due to the use of unripe tomatoes, which were low in pectin. They had less vinegar than modern ketchups; by pickling ripe tomatoes, the need for benzoate was eliminated without spoilage or degradation ... |
how does money get printed and why isn't the technology used to do it commercialized? | If you want to be blunt, money printing technology IS commercialised. There are only a handful of companies around the world who manufacture the machinery for the production process, but they ARE companies. Selling to all the government customers who need their products.
But, you know. One of the reasons that they are still in business is that they flat out refuse to sell their products if you can't provide proof that you indeed are a government entity who is actually authorised to produce money for a country's central bank.
If you boil it down, every time there is new, fancy production abilities that roll out to government customers, counterfeiters start to look at and analyse the new bills in an attempt to copy the manufacturing process close enough that it's difficult to tell the bills apart.
Which means that every few years, the official manufacturers have to come up with a new, fancy anti-counterfeit measure. And every few years, the circulated money has to start being replaced with bills that are a hint more difficult to copy than last years money.
Occasionally, it comes to the point where you just can't keep the old ones in circulation any longer because they are too easy to copy; Every 10-15 years or so, central banks tend to issue bulletins where they declare that a certain bill design is going to have it's value nulled and voided. | [
"Print-on-demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents) are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints of single or small quantities. While other industries established the build to order business model, \"print-on-demand\" could only deve... |
why are so many bombs that are dropped from planes duds? | No, we look for stable explosives. These things get shipped and stored (and reshipped, re-stored) possibly being handled dozens or hundreds of times before use or disposal.
If just dropping things made them explode, we would have lost at least one of the Carolinas to dropped nukes. Nuclear weapons are triggered using more conventional explosives.
Since we are trying to make the accidental rate zero, it works out pretty well that so few weapons turn out to be 'duds'. | [
"In military parlance an aircraft-dropped 'dibber bomb' is an anti-runway penetration bomb which destroys runways by first penetrating below the tarmac before exploding, cratering, and displacing the surface, making repairs difficult and time consuming, during which conventional airplanes can neither land nor takeo... |
In the middle ages, was romantic love between spouses encouraged or considered profane? | "Middle ages" covers a huge amount of time; could you be more specific? Also, where? | [
"Since at the time some marriages among nobility had little to do with modern perspectives of what constitutes love, courtly love was also a way for nobles to express the love not found in their marriage. \"Lovers\" in the context of courtly love need not refer to sex, but rather to the act of loving. These \"lover... |
How were the relative abundances of chemical isotopes discovered (without sampling every atom on earth)? | Statistical Sampling. Take a bunch of randomly selected lumps of earth and see what they contain. The error between measured values and the true values will decease in proportion to the square root of the number of samples taken. This is the same reason that voter surveys don't have to ask every voter to come up with a reliable result. | [
"The relative abundances of different isotopes are then used to describe the chemical fractionation of different isotopes, travel in different reservoirs of non-radiogenic isotopes, and age or origins of solar system objects by the presence of radiogenic daughter isotopes.\n",
"The tabulated atomic masses of elem... |
how do air conditioners work? is the working of a window ac different from a split ac? | Both work in the same way, although a split system is obviously more aesthetic and flexible (although also more difficult to install).
The basic concept is simple. When you compress a gas it gets hotter, when you decompress it it gets colder: this is doubly true if it transitions to liquid when compressed (gas does this: water can boil at low enough pressure at room temp). You might have experienced this with deodorant, the liquid decompresses into gas and it's cold on the skin, near the end of the can it starts to feel almost warm (actually just room temp but you expect cold).
An A/C just works by cycling a refrigerant fluid (generally one with a boiling point near room temperature so it responds a lot to pressure changes) around. On one side it's compressed, then ran through a radiator to cool it. This is the hot side. On the other side it's decompressed, then ran through a radiator to warm it, this is the cold side.
Thus an A/C is a heat pump that can move heat from A to B. The cold side faces inwards, with fans blowing air over the cold "radiator" to cool the air. The outward side has fans to keep the warm side radiator as close to ambient temperature as possible, to keep efficiency up.
In the States normally to cool a room by removing heat. In New Zealand lots of people get general purpose heat pumps that can cool the room in summer, but also pump in heat efficiently in the Winter (heat pump efficiency is dependent on the difference in temperature, NZ has quite mild winters so it's much more efficient that just using an electric heater). | [
"Air conditioners often use a fan to distribute the conditioned air to an occupied space such as a building or a car to improve thermal comfort and indoor air quality. Electric refrigerant-based AC units range from small units that can cool a small bedroom, which can be carried by a single adult, to massive units i... |
how is a qubit in a quantum computer physically represented? | Well, first off, voltage actually *can* be analog. It is simply less efficient to do that. You can have 1 volt, 2 volts, or 1.26947298 volts. In quantum computers, the quibit is stored in a quantum state of a particle. I'll use photons as an example because I actually understand them: Photons can be polarized. Their polarity is basically a direction. If we choose two directions and say they represent 1 and 0, then anything between these two is a little bit of both. If it is closer to 1, then it is a higher percentage 1. The bit is represented by the polarity of the photon. | [
"In a quantum computer, the fundamental unit of information (called a quantum bit or qubit), is not binary but rather more quaternary in nature. This qubit property arises as a direct consequence of its adherence to the laws of quantum mechanics, which differ radically from the laws of classical physics. A qubit ca... |
game of thrones plot. | The show is complex, which is why it's hard to understand. Most of the difficulty comes from backstory, names and the relevancy of the various side-stories. I tried to organize it with this in mind.
**Spoiler Warning:**
This post is nothing but one big **spoiler**, but there are **no spoilers** from the books that go beyond the most recently-aired episode (currently S03E02).
**Prior to the TV series:**
The Mad King (Aerys II - a Targaryen) killed Ned's father and older brother. Among other grievances, Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon went to war against the Mad King. They win and Robert becomes King. Ned returns to Lordship over his northern town of Winterfell, now ruled by the new king. King Robert marries Cersei of the very wealthy Lannister family.
**First Episode:**
The Hand of The King ("Jon") ends up dead and King Robert fears for his life. He demands that Ned becomes the new hand of the king.
**Ned Stark, Lord of Winterfell, Hand of the King:**
Ned learns that Jon was murdered and begins to dig into why and who, and starts uncovering secrets about the Lannisters, discovering that Robert's supposed son, Joffrey, is actually the inbred bastard child of Queen Cersei and her brother Ser Jamie. Ned didn't know why, but his son, Bran, was previously pushed out of a window because he saw Jamie and Cersei having sex.
Now hand of the king, Ned's excessive probing, honor and transparency is ultimately seen as a liability to everyone who is keeping secrets. King Robert, possibly drunk/drugged by another Lannister, is fatally wounded in a hunting accident and declares Ned the new king until Joffrey comes of age.
Those who felt threatened by Ned conspired against him before the secret about Joffrey did much damage, possibly because of the financial sway that the Lannisters hold (Cersei, Jamie and Joffrey are all really Lannisters). This resulted in Joffrey becoming king, who chooses to kill Ned. Both of Ned's daughters are still in the city, presumably being held captive, although Arya secretly escapes and heads north.
**Robb Stark, Son of Ned Stark, heir to Winterfell:**
Allies of Ned's family in the north are very upset about Ned's children - the attack on Bran, the daughters being held captive. Ned's oldest son, Robb, rallies the allies and heads south to war. This was such a successful rally that the northerners decided Robb should be the new king of the north. Robb and his army of northerners are primarily fighting the Lannister army as they make their way toward the king.
**Theon Greyjoy, Prisoner of war, Adopted by Ned Stark:**
Theon was taken and raised by Ned Stark when Theon's father as a consequence to the Greyjoy rebellion. He was began fighting with Robb Stark (essentially as an adopted brother), but when given the opportunity to impress his father, Theon decides to attack Robb's home, Winterfell. He succeeds, but then things go badly - Robb's allies surround Winterfell. The Greyjoys with Theon burn Winterfell down and escape. Theon is captured and tortured (but not much else is known as of the latest TV episode)
**Stannis and Renly:**
Meanwhile, the oldest of Robert Baratheon's younger brothers, Stannis, who is overseas, decides he is the rightful heir to the throne. He allies with a witch (essentially) and prepares people and boats for war. His younger brother, Renly, who is closer to the capital, assumes Stannis is not fit or present to be king, and rallies a small army as well. He refuses to cooperate with his brother, and the witch helps Stannis kill Renly.
**Tyrion Lannister:**
The dwarf (Tyrion Lannister) is wrongly accused of attempting to murder Bran. He escapes, meets with his father, and is told to act as the hand to the new King Joffrey. Tyrion plays the game significantly better than Ned - keeps secrets to himself, cleverly figures out who he can trust, and successfully defends the city against Stannis' ships. Tyrion's father arrives with his army somewhat too late, takes credit for the defense, and brushes Tyrion off.
**Daenerys, Khalesi Queen of the Horse Lords and Mother Of Dragons:**
Parallel with the entire story, the daughter of the Mad King Aerys Targaryen II, Daenerys, is married to a primitive warlord (Khal Drogo) by her asshole brother (Viserys), supposedly in exchange for Drogo's army. Viserys butts-heads with Drogo, and Drogo kills him by pouring melted gold on his head. No thanks to Daenerys' abundant trust, Drogo is (put simply) killed by a witch of a village he raided, and Drogo's warriors leave. Daenerys is left with very few followers, but she figures out how to hatch dragon eggs. She ends up with some fairly useless baby dragons.
The dragon mother, Daenerys, spends a lot of time (ie - wandering in the desert) trying to find people and ships to help her get her father's throne, without much success. She eventually steals gold from a man who tried to cheat her, and uses that to buy an army and ships.
**Jon Snow, Ned's bastard of Winterfell, Member of The Night's Watch:**
Also parallel with the story, Jon Snow, the bastard son of Ned Stark, decides to defend the enormous ice-wall to the north of the known land, against a speculative unknown... giants, zombies and other magical themes are seen and suggested. Winter is not predictable in this world, but it is anticipated that this winter will bring a huge invasion of who-knows-what from the icy north. Jon Snow, with other rangers from the wall, head north. Jon gets caught by some native people with another ranger. This ranger exchanges his life for Jon's chance to gain the trust of these natives ("wildlings"). Numerous zombie-like creatures are amassing. The natives plan to march south and beyond the large ice wall, mostly to escape the zombie army.
**Side-Stories:**
Ned's daughter **Arya** is a tomboy and is traveling with Robert Baratheon's bastard son, **Gendry**, a blacksmith, toward Winterfell or the wall. Arya is somewhat trained in swordplay.
**Sansa** is Ned's other daughter. She was to be married to Joffrey, but after the accusations of Ned's treason, Cersei and Joffrey opt to keep her in the capital (due to the war with her brother Robb).
Joffrey instead chooses to marry **Margaery Tyrell**. Margaery is interested in the power of being queen, and joining the Tyrell house is strategic. (Not sure if the bastard King Joffrey thinks he's joining Tyrell and Lannister, or Tyrell and Baratheon... haha). Margaery Tyrell happens to be the sister of Renly's gay lover, but with Renly dead, this doesn't matter much anymore. She was to be wed to Renly before he died.
Tyrion falls in love with **Shae** and brings her to the capital, but tries to hide her identity/relationship by having her act as Sansa's bedmaid.
**Sandor Clegane, The Hound** (whose face is scarred from a fire) is sick of Joffrey, and after fire starts being used during the war with Stannis, he leaves the capital. Clegane is has a very hardened demeanor, but has a soft spot for Ned's oldest daughter Sansa.
tl;dr: Many people want to become king: the defeated king's children, the defeating king's brothers, and the northerners who are upset about the newest king's treatment of the Stark family.
Edit: Thanks for all the comments. I've addressed your corrections so far as I've seen it accurate and relevant.
Edit: Named the sections. Added a section on Theon. | [
"\"Game of Thrones\" is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. The series is based on George R. R. Martin's series of fantasy novels, \"A Song of Ice and Fire\". The series takes place on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, and chronicles the power struggle... |
What Are The Long Term (Next 100 years) Implications For The Higgs Boson Discovery? | _URL_0_
You'll see that the question of future implication has been asked many times there as well.
The problem with trying to predict future implication is that there are too many unknowns. If you ask about the implications of quantum mechanics 80 years ago, it is not immediately obvious that tunnelling electron microscopes and MRIs will become mainstream instruments. | [
"An initial focus of research was to investigate the possible existence of the Higgs boson, a key part of the Standard Model of physics which is predicted by theory but had not yet been observed before due to its high mass and elusive nature. CERN scientists estimated that, if the Standard Model were correct, the L... |
why is evolution banned in some schools? | Okay, so there are a sub-group of Christians called "Fundamentalists". They believe that the Bible is *literally* true. And Genesis says that the Earth was created in 6 days, along with humans and all the animals. They were literally created, in six days.
But Evolution specifically says that animals (and since humans are animals) change and evolve over time from other animals. Humans too would logically have developed from some sort of lower form of animal.
This directly contradicts the *literal* interpretation of Biblical creation, since evolution takes far longer than the 6 days + ~6000 years of human civilization.
So thats the basic idea. In some areas of America, Fundamentalists are extremely politically powerful, so they want to keep kids from learning about "dangerous" beliefs. | [
"BULLET::::- 2004 - On January 30, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter released a statement condemning the suggestion that the word \"evolution\" be banned from textbooks used in schools in the state of Georgia.\n",
"An objection is often made in the teaching of evolution that evolution is controversial or content... |
Will we ever be able to reach The Core of the Earth? | It is impossible.
Why?
No material can survive the temperatures at the center of the Earth. Even the strongest therotical chemical bond degrades at about 4000 degrees C. Tungsten melts at 3400 degrees C.
This means that even a craft build out of the strongest materials physically possible will melt before it reaches the outer core.
The other option is ablative armor. It is armor designed to sacrificially melt away and protect the lower layers. The problem is that you would need a craft that either makes the down and up trip very very quickly... or is kilometers thick at the start, and returns as a stick. | [
"A novel method of exploring the uppermost few hundred kilometres of the Earth was proposed in 2005, consisting of a small, dense, heat-generating probe which melts its way down through the crust and mantle while its position and progress are tracked by acoustic signals generated in the rocks. The probe consists of... |
Is Soviet-style command economy really a bad economic model or is the disparity a result of western sanctions? | Back in the 1920s the effectiveness of socialism (in the sense of a planned economy - "collective ownership of the means of production") was a topic of live debate, with Ludwig von Mises and later Frederick Hayek arguing that a command economy couldn't work out what goods and services needed to be produced due to the knowledge problem - planners wouldn't know what opportunity costs producers faced, or what end consumers wanted.
To illustrate, say there's a big fire at an aluminium plant, and thus total aluminium output falls. Under a market economy prices rise. So every aluminium user starts looking for ways to reduce their aluminium use. Perhaps it's easy to convert to using wood for window frames instead of aluminium, while aluminium is very useful in food and drink containers. Under a market economy, the higher prices would lead the substitution to mostly be made by window frames, not food. (I have no idea about the relative value of the two uses in actuality, the point of von Mises' argument is that I don't need to know.)
Against that, Oskar Lange and others argued that a central planning board could bring production in line with that of a market system by 'trial and error'. I don't have the quote to hand but I recall once Hayek noting in a book I was reading that the socialist economists had gone from arguing that socialism could beat market outcomes to arguing that socialism could equal them.
From the free-market side, however, Bryan Caplan has pointed out that history hasn't proved it was the calculation problem that made socialism (remember I'm defining it as a centrally planned economy) impossible, after all the USSR and Eastern Europe did function for several decades under communism, and socialism has a number of other problems (eg motivation).
So the topic isn't finally settled, but there are theoretical reasons to think that a centrally planned economy has fundamental problems.
As for the importance of Western sanctions, when I hear this argument I always wonder what the proponents mean by it. If trade is so important that Western sanctions wrecked a country's economy, doesn't that imply that trade with Western countries is pretty vital for growth?
Sources:
Moss, Laurence, The Economics of Ludwig von Mises: Toward a Critical Reappraisal, [Chapter 5, Ludwig von Mises and Economic Calculation Under Socialism](_URL_0_ 5) by Murray N. Rothbard, 1976
Murray N. Rothbard
[Len Brewster on "Towards a new Socialism? by W. Paul Cockshott and Allin F. Cottrell, Nottingham, U.K.: Spokesman Books, 1993", Review Essay] (_URL_2_), The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Vol.7, No.1 (Spring 2004): 65-77. (Note this has a succinct summary of the calculation debate.)
Bryan Caplan, [Why I Am Not an Austrian Economist](_URL_1_) | [
"Aaron Friedberg of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation has also noted that authoritarian capitalist nations have utilised an exploitation of the Western world, the reshaping of the international order and exclusion of international actors in an attempt to establish their systems of governance. He has also stated that un... |
Did the Nazis ever seriously consider invading Ireland? | I don't think so. Because the German Navy suffered such heavy losses to the Royal Navy in the Invasion of Norway in mid 1940, the Nazis never again had the power to contest the Allies at sea. To somewhat circumvent this, the Blitz was meant to gain air superiority over a potential invasion of England over the English Channel. Operation Sea Lion, however, was postponed on September 15, 1940 when the Luftwaffe incurred a particularly heavy defeat at the hands of the Royal Air Force. By October, Operation Sea Lion was called off completely by Hitler. So as to a potential invasion of Ireland, The Luftwaffe could not support any potential sea landing because it would be outside of their range and the Nazis also did not have a Navy that could contest the Royal Navy. One of the United Kingdom's greatest strengths in World War II turned out to be its island nation that the Wehrmacht could not take advantage of.
Zeiler, Thomas. "Annihilation A Global Military History of World War II". Oxford University Press, 2011. | [
"Discussions over the possible German invasion of Ireland had been ongoing in Britain since the beginning of 1939. In June 1940, Britain's political and military establishment had witnessed the seemingly invincible German Blitzkrieg which led to the defeat of Poland, the Low Countries, and France, and the retreat o... |
how is baldness determined by our mothers? | It's a concept called sex-linkage. Females have two X sex chromosomes (so are known as homogametic) and males have and X and a Y sex chromosome. The Y chromosome has fewer genes than the X so some genes are only present on the X chromosome. Since women lack a Y chromosome all males get their Y chromosome from their fathers, and therefore the X from their mothers, and as the gene for baldness is only on the X chromosome in all males the gene for baldness comes from the maternal side of the family. | [
"Balding's well-documented aristocratic lineage on her mother's side can be seen in records that TheGenealogist has identified in research. Researchers found Balding's maternal line reveals that she is the great-granddaughter of Sir Malcolm Bullock whose sexuality was investigated in her episode of the \"Who Do You... |
Why did Pope Alexander II give approval to William's conquer of England | He didnt hate Harold, was probably barely aware of him. Simplistically put however there had been an ongoing dispute over who was Pope, Alexander II or Honorius II. The former elected by the Church, the latter elected by the German court of Henry IV, via his mother as he was still a kid. The Sicilian Normans, once in disagreement with the Papacy, were now aligned and supportive of Alexander II. Its therefore no surprise that when the Norman Normans turned up wanting a favour that the Pope would agree. Firstly because it kept the Sicilian Normans onside and secondly because it 'proved' that he was the Pope with Authority, unlike that other Pope. Additionally when you only hear one side of the story you may be more inclined to believe it.
Theres no primary source I've come across that will say 'and so Pope Alexander II, who hated the Anglesaxon King...', as its more inferred by surrounding issues and events. However this is a start.
_URL_0_ | [
"William of Poitiers states that William obtained Pope Alexander II's consent for the invasion, signified by a papal banner, along with diplomatic support from other European rulers. Although Alexander did give papal approval to the conquest after it succeeded, no other source claims papal support before the invasi... |
How do we track our own stealth aircraft? | It's a transponder, the signal is encrypted. The transponder uses spread spectrum communications so it is difficult to see the signal if you do not know what your looking for.
Spread spectrum signals use many parts of the spectrum and low power so the signal appears as background noise.
| [
"However, as stealth technology grows, so does anti-stealth technology. Multiple transmitter radars such as those from bistatic radars and low-frequency radars are said to have the capabilities to detect stealth aircraft. Advanced forms of thermographic cameras such as those that incorporate QWIPs would be able to ... |
Why is China considered the oldest continuous country when thorough it's history it's been shattered and conquered? | Because the Roman Empire wasn't just taken over wholesale by one barbarian tribe - then it probably wouldn't have been considered to have fallen completely. Instead, it splintered and the government and culture gradually faded away and ceased to exist. China, from the Qin dynasty to the end of the Qing, always had a more or less consistent culture among its people, a consistent (written) language, a consistent form of bureaucracy, and at least among the citizens, a consistent national identity. Outsiders conquer and replace the Chinese government, but they get assimilated into Chinese culture rapidly. As for Roman culture? When the Visigoths and the Vandals and whatnot came in, it splintered and basically ceased to be. They didn't keep a consistent cultural identity with Rome, instead brought in new institutions and new traditions that's inconsistent with Roman traditions. Latin also became a dead language. The Mongols as well as the Manchus and Jurchens and whoever else took over "China" quickly reverted into using Chinese bureaucracy, the Chinese language, the Chinese system of everything, and more importantly, considered themselves as a direct successive dynasty to the last Chinese dynasty.
| [
"According to Jacques, China's history as a nation-state only dates back to around 120 years, perhaps with the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, paving the way for the Republic of China (1912–1949) and then the People's Republic of China. However China's history as a civilization is much longer, with many Chine... |
why do tv shows now divide themselves into yearly "half seasons" instead of yearly seasons? | Fall spring is divided into two because usually there is more holiday programming, and in the case of the US football heads into the playoffs, which decreases viewership of competing shows. And by splitting it into two, they can potentially create more viewers through reruns between and hold onto viewers through cliff hangers. Or alternatively, if a show is failing, a half season is less expensive than a full one. | [
"A full season is sometimes split into two separate units with a hiatus around the end of the calendar year, such as the first season of \"Jericho\" on CBS. When this split occurs, the last half of the episodes sometimes are referred to with the letter B as in \"The last nine episodes (of \"The Sopranos\") will be ... |
why aren't foreign words originating from non-latin alphabets (e.g. yarmulke) spelled more phonetically? | The major reason for this is that many languages contain sounds that don't exist in English, and cannot be represented with the English alphabet. So the typical solution is to decide "these characters mean this sound, and these other characters mean this other sound", even when doing so isn't strictly phonetic to how English is normally pronounced.
However, your example is kind of a poor one for this, because "yarmulke" **is** spelled phonetically. In Hebrew, you pronounce the 'r' and 'l' sounds. We just tend to pronounce it wrong in English. | [
"Additionally, in languages for which the Latin alphabet has been adapted only recently, has been used for various sounds, in some cases inspired by European usage, but in others, for consonants uncommon in Europe. For these no Latin letter stands out as an obvious choice, and since most of the various European pro... |
In the early 1900's ,Were there any religious or cultural resistance towards the use of flying machines such as Bi planes? | There was no widespread "flying is evil! down with planes!" movement in the early 1900s... but by then, humans had been flying for [more than 100 years](_URL_0_).
The airplane had to have shown up in a few sermons in the first decades of the 20th century, but was generally treated more like a novelty - not so many hymns as funny songs like ["Come Josephine in my Flying Machine"](_URL_2_).
Perhaps it helped that the Wright Brothers' [father was bishop in the United Brethren](_URL_1_).... | [
"The aircraft has been popular with flying schools — especially from the pre-World War II existence of the Civilian Pilot Training Program using them in the United States — and remains so with private individuals, into the 21st century.\n",
"After the Wright brothers first flight the opportunity of flight raced a... |
where do nuns(roman chatolic) outfits originate from (design)? | since most religious habits were patterned on the garb for either unmarried women or widows in their own cultures, I imagine only religious orders that began in Middle Eastern countries have (or had) habits patterned on typical female garb in those countries, and what may still be traditional in those societies that are not westernized, whether Muslim or Christian. Orders that began in western Europe would have had their original habits based on whatever the modest, unostentatious garb for widows or virgins was at that time and place, and I don't know that those "fashions" were based on middle Eastern patterns. | [
"The traditional dress for women in religious communities consists of a tunic, which is tied around the waist with a cloth or leather belt. Over the tunic some nuns wear a scapular which is a garment of long wide piece of woolen cloth worn over the shoulders with an opening for the head. Some wear a white wimple an... |
Why do they elevate bruised areas of the body to decrease blood flow? Why isn't the opposite more beneficial? | Elevating an injured limb is not to decrease blood flow. It's to decrease pooling and swelling.
Recall that blood is pumped outward to your limbs in pressurized arteries, but it returns in veins, which aren't under much pressure and have less motive force to move the blood along.
If the injured limb is allowed to hang downward, then gravity works against the flow of blood in the veins, slowing down the flow. More blood stays in the veins and capillaries, increasing swelling and pain.
By elevating the limb we can make gravity work for us instead of against us. Pressure in the arteries easily pushes the blood uphill, and then gravity helps it drain back through the veins. There's no chance for it to pool in place and cause swelling, and because there's less resistance, the total blood flow may be greater. | [
"Compression aims to reduce the edematous swelling that results from the inflammatory process. Although some swelling is inevitable, too much swelling results in significant loss of function, excessive pain and eventual slowing of blood flow through vessel restriction.\n",
"Angiogenesis may be a target for combat... |
who are some of the contenders in the 2016 u.s. presidential election that have a strong foothold in the door? how well do they reflect the values of their party? | Super, super early, but some of the strong possiblities:
Hillary Clinton will almost certainly run in 2016. She did very well as Secretary of State, but a possible issue will be Benghazi. That's one of the reasons the GOP has been stretching out what seems to be a non issue for so long. She'll have strong challengers of course, but as of right now it's hers to lose.
Some other possibilities (sorry, not much to add to these guys as the Democrat is much less wide open than the GOP race):
Elizabeth Warren
Martin O'Malley
Mark Warner
For the GOP:
Marco Rubio will have a big following and has all but stated he's going to run. As a Hispanic, he represents a major growing part of the electorate who the GOP has been awful with recently. They know that they need to stop the bleeding in this community, and Rubio is generally liked. One issue is that a lot of Hispanics don't necessarily identify as well with the Cuban diaspora in the US.
Chris Christie may run, but he has some issues in his own party. Insanely enough, a lot of people were pissed that he wasn't critical of President Obama's handling of Sandy, and instead gratefully accepted federal assistance in the aftermath. A lot of more moderate Republicans and Independents probably gained a lot of respect for him, as it was a great case of governance over politics (which in time, might turn out to be a greater political boon than if he had just been petty and insulted President Obama).
Jeb Bush could be an interesting candidate as well. His last name is going to be an issue, though not nearly what it was in 2008 or 2012. Bush bashing is no longer in vogue, and Jeb sems like a capable and intelligent governor (much more so than his bro).
Rand Paul will also likely run, and will do better than his father ever did. He's young and charismatic. He's had some really *REALLY* bad gaffes, though, and it's unlikely he'll win much of anything. His supporters will be the loudest and most obnoxious. | [
"During the U.S. presidential election of 2016 he was the only Arizona Republican to have held high office who endorsed the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton. Regarding the two presidential candidates, he wrote, \"Hillary Clinton is one of the most qualified nominees to ever run for president. Donald Trump is t... |
can kings and queens be removed from power due to deteriorative illnesses of the brain and such? | That fully depends on the country and the rules that they have set up for succession. Virtually all have the ability for voluntary abdication which would be used for severe illness or anything that rendered them incapable of fulfilling their duty. Most would also have some method of forced abdication if they were not coherent enough to voluntarily step down, or if they were refused to do so. But there are a few that historically required death for the monarch to change. | [
"She was deposed twice, each time by her own husband, forcing her to stand up against him and quite possibly her own courtiers who conspired against her. She successfully deposed three Kings; her brother and two husbands. Despite successfully managing to assassinate three Kings, it is impressive how she managed to ... |
How does the melt rate change based on the mass of ice and the temperature of the surrounding air? | There are definitely equations that can describe what is going on! Heat and mass transfer are an important part of physics and engineering.
In order to melt, the ice must be raised to its melting point temperature, then given enough energy to melt into liquid. This energy needs to come from somewhere. Heat moves from hotter to colder places, so the warm air will give energy to the ice (and water) until they are the same temperature.
There are some complications in calculating all this, however. For example, if the air is stagnant then it will get colder as it gives up energy, which means transfer to the sculpture will slow down. If the air is moving, we also have to think about how fast it's going and if it's removing some of the water as vapour too.
There are many more and less detailed ways of describing what's going on, but in the very simplest terms, the bigger the temperature difference between the air and the ice, the faster energy will transfer. The lower the ice temperature is below its melting point, the more energy needs to be added to make it warm up and melt. | [
"Estimates on future contribution to sea level rise from Greenland range from , for the year 2100. The contribution of the Greenland ice sheet on sea level over the next couple of centuries can be very high due to a self-reinforcing cycle (a so-called positive feedback). After an initial period of melting, the heig... |
fps in film | The reason why 29.97 FPS has historically been such a common frame-rate in North America is quite complicated.
Firstly, the reason why ~30 FPS has been the North American standard for TV (compared to the 25 FPS standard used in Europe) has to do with the electrical power system.
Back in the old days, TV's relied on counting the power cycle oscillations (from the AC electrical outlet) as a timing device to trigger the refresh of the display. In North America, power systems used 60 Hz cycles, but filming and distributing TV at 60 FPS at that time just wasn't feasible (too costly/complicated), so they opted for half of that (30 FPS) to be the standard. TV sets would then display one frame for every two power cycles counted.
This was all fine until color TV came around. Engineers discovered a problem. The carrier signal used to carry color information in the TV broadcasts was interacting with the carrier signal used to carry audio information. This resulted in huge distortions in the video quality that had to be remedied. The fix was to slow down the frame-rate by a very small amount to bring the two signals out of phase of each other so they would no longer cause interference. | [
"FP is a cubic-grain black-and-white film from Ilford Photo with a long history. It originated as Fine grain Panchromatic roll film in 1935. Like its faster partner product, HP film, it has gone through a number of versions since then, with the latest being FP4 plus (FP4+ for short).\n",
"Upon its theatrical rele... |
Is it possible to create diamond like crystals from other elements? | Yes. Diamond has a structure called [FCC(face centered cubic)](_URL_1_) with two atoms in the base. That means for each "spot" in an fcc, there are two atoms - one on the spot and one shifted along the diagonal of the unit cell (1/4, 1/4, 1/4).
To answer your question: Yes. [To quote wikipedia:](_URL_0_)
> While the first known example was diamond, other elements in group 14 also adopt this structure, including α-tin, the semiconductors silicon and germanium, and silicon/germanium alloys in any proportion.
EDIT: Accidentally a word. | [
"Solid foreign crystals are commonly present in diamond. They are mostly minerals, such as olivine, garnets, ruby, and many others. These and other inclusions, such as internal fractures or \"feathers\", can compromise the structural integrity of a diamond. Cut diamonds that have been enhanced to improve their clar... |
After throwing out monarchy (and then dictators) in favor of the republic hundreds of years before, how did Roman contemporaries react to its fall and the institution of the empire? | I might be able to answer this one! Well at least give insight. But I'm no historian and merely an enthusiast of Roman history. If my answer is not within guidelines, please mod let me know!
**Short Answer**: Most of the Roman people actually didn't mind or even cared. Continuous blood shed from civil wars and numerous political upheaval exhausted Rome's citizens and they just wanted stability.
**Long Answer**:
The start of the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire arguably came from Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Sulla is considered to be one of Rome's greatest generals, having never been defeated in battle and even successfully attacked Rome.. twice! Sulla during the climax of his career (a little after 100 B.C. Note that Julius Caesar was a teenager around this point) had a dispute (understatement) with another well known Roman general, Gaius Marius. Long story short, Gaius Marius wanted command of the eastern armies that was legally given to Sulla by the Senate; Sulla gets backstabbed politically; Sulla becomes angry; Sulla uses his loyal Marius reformed army (ironically) to take back command and defeats Marius in battle.
Marius having been beaten, was exiled to Africa while Sulla finally returns his attention to the east. Though successful in his campaign, his absence allowed Marius to consolidate his power and returned to Rome. But again, in conclusion, Sulla attacks Rome a second time and becomes dictator. Sulla leaves his legacy for having set precedent of Caesar's march to Rome and to his dictatorship. Unlike Caesar, however, he actually gave up his power as dictator and retired to his villa until his death. Interesting man, that Sulla.
Anyway, that was the "First" and "Second" Civil War of that era.
Now in comes Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar, in 50 BC after having successfully subjugate Gaul, was ordered by Pompey to disband his army and return to Rome. Fearing that he'd be prosecuted after relinquishing his title as governor, he crossed the Rubicon river with his army and marched towards Rome causing yet again another Civil War. Caesar defeats Pompey and declares himself dictator. The senate wouldn't have any of that and so they decide to backstab him.. literally.
Another Civil War.
But this isn't about Antony and Octavian (Augustus) vs Brutus and Cassius just yet. This is actually Antony and Octavian duking it out before they formed the Second Triumvirate. Well they didn't go to war, but Octavian was recruiting Caesar's veteran soldiers to his side with some even defecting from Antony's forces. Antony did come to blows with the Roman Senate and was defeated in the Battle of Mutina.
What about Caesar's assassins? Well, Antony and Octavian (and Lepidus) finally reconciled and created the Second Triumvirate. With their combined forces, they went to war (Yep! Again!) against Brutus and Cassius (the leaders of the Liberators) and defeated them in the battles of Philippi. Julius Caesar was avenged and the Caesarian faction was the sole ruler of Rome.. Until everyone became power hungry.. again.
One more Civil War.
With Octavian ruling the West, Antony ruling the East, and Lepidus being an afterthought, Octavian and Antony co-ruled with a delicate alliance with one another. By 33 BC, despite Mark Antony being married to Octavian's sister, Octavia, Antony was having an affair with the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. Now this isn't much of a problem since it was just a political marriage and everyone and their mother cheated on their wife/husband, but after Antony's successful invasion of Armenia, he declared his and Cleopatra's son Alexander Helios the King of Armenia. In addition, he awarded the title of "Queen of Kings" to Cleopatra.
This was enough for Octavian to try to convince the Senate that Mark Antony was not looking at the best interest of Rome. And even more, Octavian found Mark Antony's will stating that his sons will inherit Roman conquered kingdoms and for Mark Antony's body to be buried in Alexandria. Now this is important because this was used as propaganda that Antony is no longer considering himself Roman.
The Roman Senate ended up declaring war on Cleopatra and Egypt. Mark Antony laid his loyalty to Egypt. In a similar fashion to Caesar's and Pompey's Civil War, Octavian (or really, Marcus Agrippa) defeats Mark Antony's Army in Greece and finally Antony and Cleopatra in Egypt, thus making Octavian the single ruler of Roman Republic.
Octavian, now known as Augustus, ruled while upholding republican traditions. He still gave the Senate power with acts like relinquishing his control of provinces and armies. But really, Augustus couldn't give up his authority for fear of another power struggle among generals. The "republic" was essentially Augustus' empire.
With Augustus however, over 100 years of political strife and civil wars had essentially ended. After 100 years of bloodshed and political instability, Augustus created an empire that achieved internal peace and prosperity known as the Pax Romana. So despite of them being proud of being a republic, peace is definitely better than endless war.
Source: *Caesar* by Adrian Goldsworthy; *Augustus* by Adrian Goldsworthy | [
"The overthrow of the Roman monarchy, a political revolution in ancient Rome, took place around 509 BC and resulted in the expulsion of the last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and the establishment of the Roman Republic.\n",
"In 509 BC the Roman monarchy was overthrown as a result of general resentment... |
why do the police follow me for a while before pulling me over? | They're looking up your plate to see if your car has any violations or if the registered owner has a warrant or had reported the car stolen. | [
"There have been cases where criminals have pulled over motorists while pretending to be driving unmarked police cars, a form of police impersonation. Some US police officers advise motorists that they do not have to pull over in a secluded location and instead can wait until they reach somewhere safer. In the UK, ... |
why do many people see policing and military as necessary things to support with their tax dollars, but see a more subsidized healthcare system as a form of communism? | Because everyone needs the police and the military. The rich and the upper middle class dont need subsidized health care and dont want to help fund it. | [
"Other factors of spending are largely political in the sense that politicians who can effectively argue for more spending get the most spending for their states. Some trends of spending as of 1999 are as follows: defense spending in the South and the national capital, non-defense discretionary spending between the... |
Why does the devil play the fiddle? Where did that idea come from? | Music's etherial power over the emotions has a long and storied history. Traceable as far back as the mythological story of Orpheus and the lyre that could hold the Gods in sway, or Pythagoras who could change the temperament of a raving man by playing songs in certain modes. The point is, music has a hold over our souls that we have long struggled to find an adequate explanation for. So, as we often do with phenomena that escape our explanatory power, we attribute that power to supernatural forces.
Music enchants, mysteriously so. This is a problem for many church fathers. St. Augustine (in the *Confessions,* see the excerpt translated in *Struck's Source Readings in Music History*) has a veritable crisis over music, wrestling with the fact that music at its best can give the word of God greater lustre, but at the same time that music incites pleasure, and pleasure is a sure path to weakness of spirit and, thence, sin. Music's place in the church was thus complicated, the subject of much debate, and ever-shifting. But to cut through this interesting and multifaceted history with the bluntest of machetes, music was fine so long as it amplified text and was therefore subservient to the word of God. Music for its own sake was not. Practically, this means that singing (and lightly accompanied singing) was good. But instrumental music existed to give *pleasure* and to incite revelry through practices like dance, and such things were no bueno.
Thus, music has a powerful effect on our souls that we have attributed to supernatural forces. Secondly, instrumental music, through its associations with pleasure and dance, were seen as temptuous and therefore sinful. The next step in our history is the personification of sin in the Devil, who is seen as an agent in the world actively impinging upon human existence. While Satan is of course a figure in the medeival church, he did not exercise a whole lot of power. The satan-as-master-villain view arises more as a fixture of protestant theology. Accompanying this growth in Satanic agency is the mounting fear of his alleged earthly conspirators: that is, witches.
And it is here, around the 16th century, that we begin to see the violin associated with demonic forces. It is precisely the violin's role as a dancing instrument that is at stake here, it starts to appear in artistic representations of witches sabbaths, like the [following](_URL_0_) from the *Compendium Maleficarum* (the 1626 edition). In its role as a dancing instrument, the Violin was in many ways the polar opposite of the human voice. Singing alone is capable of giving life to musical sound and words at the same time, and thus singing was easily interpretable as an *elevation* of speech toward the divine. But the violin glorified sound for it's own sake, it tempted its hearers to dance, and thus it became viewed as a way of conjuring Satan as sin personified.
The rise in witch panics over the 15th and 16th century likewise points to an emerging attitude that viewed apparently supernatural abilities as evidence of a pact between that individual and the devil. This in turn is the origin of the "deal with the devil" view of musical virtuosity, the lengthy history of associating dazzling musical talent with satanic origins. In truth, this attitude is not necessarily violin-specific, though the 19th century virtuoso Paganini is one of the most iconic examples of this myth, it was also attached to, say, guitarists like Robert Johnson. What is important is that the tongue-and-cheek accusation called out virtuosic *performers* (it wasn't typically applied to composers, unless they were also performers), and it called attention to a kind of "sinful" excess in the playing, something so excessive that it didn't seem humanly possible.
Lastly, and returning to the violin, one aspect of this instrument that is special is that it has deep connections to both high and low art. The violin, after all, is perhaps the most central instrument in the symphony orchestra, and it remained an important instrument for social dancing well into the 20th century. This is important because it means that the violin is one of the only instruments capable of carrying both aspects of the "satanic" legacy traced in this post: its "low culture" association with revelry and dance and its "high culture" association with seemingly otherworldly virtuosity.
I am less familiar with the history of actually representing the character Satan: ie, *Paradise Lost* or *Faust.* So I do not know precisely how the jump was made from "violin conjures Satan" and "violinists make pacts with Satan" to "violin is played by Satan." But hopefully this post has helped you understand why the association of violin with Satan makes sense within the European mythos! | [
"The Devil plays his fiddle first, to a contemporary rock music theme with the backing of demon musicians. When the Devil's performance ends, Johnny compliments him and takes his own turn, making reference to four songs. Two are traditional songs of Appalachia -- \"Fire on the Mountain\" (also the name of Daniels' ... |
why are streets and housing developments in residential areas across the us named so consistently and generically, often with no relation to geographic features? e.g., hillcrest, hillview, pinewood, oakwood, lakeview, fairview, etc.? does this happen in other countries? | The joke I heard is that streets and housing developments are named after whatever natural things were removed to make room for the streets and houses. | [
"Neighborhood names and boundaries vary in their formality some are well defined and long established, while others are more informal. Further names and boundaries have evolved over time due to development or changes in demographics. Woodward Avenue, a major a north-south thoroughfare, serves as a demarcation for n... |
Art History question: Was 'modeling' a profession or was there a modeling industry pre-19th century in the Middle, Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo eras? Were there famous, sought after models who commanded higher prices? Were there agents and managers? | *pauses*
This is actually a lot trickier than my initial "no". Mostly no. There were "allegorical" portraits. Elisabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen, commissioned a few of these. One was to showcase the plight and what she saw as inevitable triumph of her dispossessed children. Agnes Sorel, one of the earliest known mistress of the King of France, was painted as the Virgin Mary. Wedding paintings could also be allegorical.
Which in turn leads to Botticelli and the great debates of model attribution. Simonetta Vespucci is one of the more persistent names to be a model in both Primavera, which was probably commissioned for a wedding, and Birth of Venus. This is a bit doubtful, but we can blame Ruskin. (Ruskin was awful to his wife, I don't feel bad about this.)
But it also points to a massive problem- you can't always tell who a model is. Famous subjects are probably more likely to have a definite answer for this. Even then, it can be doubtful. Read any biography of Anne Boleyn, and they should include a lot of the very different paintings that "might" be her. Even the famous portrait is a later copy of an original.
But for the most part, artist's models were usually... not considered all that respectable. The hired models were usually sex workers of some kind, and are patchily known. Usually, better known subjects were women who were well off, had relationships with the artist, or mistresses of well off men. Even then, the attribution issue will haunt them. Emma Hamilton is probably something a bit closer to what you wanted- the subject of a number of portraits by George Romney, but he was commissioned to paint by her then-lover, so not quite. You need to get to the 19th century before you can start getting more information.
So it's less famous model than "I really like this person, so I'll paint her when I have a chance"/"I am paid to paint this person".
_URL_1_
Ettle, Ross Brooke. “THE VENUS DILEMMA: NOTES ON BOTTICELLI AND SIMONETTA CATTANEO VESPUCCI.” Source: Notes in the History of Art, vol. 27, no. 4, 2008, pp. 3–10. JSTOR, _URL_2_.
Daughters of the Winter Queen by Nancy Goldstone.
_URL_0_ | [
"During the 15th century portraiture became common, initially often formalised profile portraits but increasingly three-quarter face, bust-length portraits. Patrons of art works such as altarpieces and fresco cycles often were included in the scenes, a notable example being the inclusion of the Sassetti and Medici ... |
In terms of physique, would real gladiators have been more similar to Andy Whitfield of TV's 'Spartacus' or to Russell Crowe of the film 'Gladiator'? | _URL_0_
Apparently, they wouldn't have looked beefy at all.
> **New evidence indicates gladiators may not quite match Hollywood's interpretation.**
> The researchers expected gladiators would need a protein-rich diet to build muscle - however their analysis of the bones in fact suggested a vegetarian diet...
> Plants contain higher levels of the element strontium than animal tissues. So, people who consume more plants and less meat will build up measurably higher levels of strontium in their bones. Levels of strontium in the gladiators' bones were two times higher than the bones of contemporary Ephesians...
> This agrees with some historical reports of gladiators eating a diet of mainly barley, beans and dried fruit, says Grossschmidt.
> It would have given them a lot of strength, but may also have contributed to the tooth decay found in teeth in the cemetery and **potentially made the men fat.** However, a little extra weight could actually have had benefits in protecting vital organs from cutting blows during fights, argue the researchers.
Basically, gladiators would have had great muscle strength and exceptional muscular endurance. But they also would have had quite a bit of fat, caused by a diet that was really high in carbohydrates. | [
"Inspired by the success of \"Spartacus\", there were a number of Italian peplums that heavily emphasized the gladiatorial arena in their plots, with it becoming almost a peplum subgenre in itself; One group of supermen known as \"The Ten Gladiators\" appeared in a trilogy, all three films starring Dan Vadis in the... |
why do sirens sound like they do? why do they vary by country? | They are designed to get your attention - simple as that.
Why do they vary by country? Because there's more than one way of getting someone's attention! I know that here in the UK, they use a variety of sirens because they found that changing from one to another actually gets people's attention better than playing any single one continuously. You'll often hear emergency vehicles change their siren at crucial times, eg when they're just about to go through a red light. | [
"Today, signals are determined by state and local authorities and can vary from one region to another. The most common tones produced by sirens in the United States are \"alert\" (Steady) and \"attack\" (wail). Other tones include Westminster Chimes (commonly used for the testing of electronic sirens), Hi-Lo, Whoop... |
How long did it take for the relations between England and America to recover after the revolutionary war? And what were some significant milestones in that process? | On a government level, we signed the Jay Treaty during the Washington administration which gave favorable trade terms to the British.
Under John Quincy Adams, we drafted the Monroe doctrine (JQA doesn't get credit for it since he lost re-election soon after it was ratified) which told Europe to stay out of the western hemisphere. Since we really had no army or navy though, we couldn't enforce it. The British navy was the enforcer, less because they felt the need to back our tough words and more to keep their rivals from gorging and enriching themselves in any more new world colonies.
As far as reestablishing relations on a social level, where the hoople-heads weren't damning England in the streets, I don't know. | [
"During the 1760s and 1770s, relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain became increasingly strained, primarily because of resentment of the British Parliament's ability to tax American colonists without their consent. Disagreement turned to violence and in 1775 the American War of Independence began. The ... |
If two people, A and B, ate the same amount of food in terms of caloric intake and quantity but A exercised and B didn't, would both defecate the same amount of feces in terms of weight? | Someone please answer this man, I'm incredibly interested | [
"Based on extrapolation from studies done on animals, the maximum tolerable daily intake of coumestrol for human beings has been estimated at 22 μg per kg of body mass. This was calculated by extrapolating from the lowest level at which adverse effects were seen in animals. Although, due to the variability of the h... |
If there is a breach in a fusion reactor, what will happen? | If you remove a part of the wall but not the magnets the fusion reaction will heat the magnets until they stop being superconducting. The magnetic field breaks down, the reaction stops - essentially instantaneous, probably before you even managed to fully remove the wall segment.
The energy stored in the plasma at any given point in time is small - less than the energy in a hand grenade probably. Fusion reactors cannot explode or do anything else dangerous. | [
"Unlike nuclear fission, fusion requires extremely precise and controlled temperature, pressure and magnetic field parameters for any net energy to be produced. If a reactor suffers damage or loses even a small degree of required control, fusion reactions and heat generation would rapidly cease. Additionally, fusio... |
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