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I'm going to jail tomorrow and I want to read the best nonfiction books about History. What do you suggest? | I'm sorry to hear that. Are you planning to buy your books on the outside or use the library system?
For the Civil War, I would start with either (or both) James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom and Shelby Foote's The Civil War. Those are two mainstays that you should be able to find relatively easily. If either of those piques your interest, I can make further recommendations based on what you're interested in. Battles and campaigns? Politics and diplomacy? Economics and organization?
In any case, feel free to PM me if you'd like to discuss it more. | [
"In 2017, James wrote the foreword for the U.K. edition of \"The Crime Book\", with American crime author Cathy Scott writing the foreword for the U.S. edition. The nonfiction book, a volume in the \"Big Ideas Simply Explained\" series, was released by Dorling Kindersley (Penguin Random House) in April 2017 in the ... |
why do horses let humans ride them? | Being rideable was an important part of the domestication process of horses. Early on (and even still), horses that tolerated carrying loads were kept and bred. Horses that did not tolerate loads were not worth their weight in feed, so they were not kept and bred.
Via similar methods, we've also selected for dogs that provide companionship and cats that don't claw your arm off when you touch them. | [
"Horses are herd animals, with a clear hierarchy of rank, led by a dominant individual, usually a mare. They are also social creatures that are able to form companionship attachments to their own species and to other animals, including humans. They communicate in various ways, including vocalizations such as nicker... |
what are nfl coaches writing during a game on the sidelines? | They're writing down exactly how hard they're going to cut you next season, *Kelvin Benjamin*. | [
"BULLET::::- How is the choice sent onto the field? In the NFL, a player is in radio contact with the sidelines for a defined interval before each play. The team can send a substitute player onto the field who knows the play the coaches want to run. Personnel on the sidelines can call plays using hand signals or pi... |
Why are things getting blue with the horizon? | It's the same reason that the sky is blue--Rayleigh scattering. This type of scattering only occurs for suspended particles of sufficiently small size (on the order of 10 microns or less in diameter). It preferentially scatters light with the smallest wavelength.
So basically, when you look off into the distance like that, there are many, many tiny particles in the atmosphere. There may not be more per unit volume than there are around you all the time, but from your vantage point they have a larger effect because the light has to pass through more of them. That scatters the blue (shortest wavelength) light preferentially, just like the particles in the sky do, and so you see a similar shade of blue. You might see this more on a particularly hazy day or in a more polluted area, because there will be more tiny scattering particles in the air. This effect is pretty apparent in the hills of Los Angeles, where smog is a big problem. | [
"Another phenomenon that occurs is Rayleigh scattering in the atmosphere along one's line of sight: the horizon is typically 4–5 km distant and the air (being just above sea level in the case of the ocean) is at its densest. This mechanism would add a blue tinge to any distant object (not just the sea) because blue... |
wine tasting | Good and bad are all a matter of opinion. The purpose of wine tasting is to figure out what YOU like, and what YOU find appealing. Price has little to do with weather or not a bottle is "good". Once you are able to recognize what is meant by those terms you will start to learn what you like. I don't care for oak-y wines, but I love a full bodies dry cab sav... some people are the exact opposite. A lot of times your local wine store will host free tastings and will explain these things with examples so you can start recognizing the different characteristics... You should check it out if you are interested!
Edit: a word | [
"The sensory analysis of the wines was undertaken by professional wine tasters in order to establish the intangible features of wines being tested, such as sweet, dry, bitter, and so on. Two public tastings took place, in which tasters were asked to engage in discussion and note the effect of salt on the wines, as ... |
Is an object colder if it's moving faster? | It turns out that temperature really only has meaning when you talk about a set of molecules or atoms. The most reasonable description, I suppose, for a molecule would be that the amount of energy in each vibration should be related to the molecule's temperature. At relativistic speeds, the molecule would appear to be vibrating more slowly. However, the energy of those vibrations wouldn't change (i.e. a photon of the same energy will still excite one), so the temperature shouldn't change. (I will defer to a physicist if one comes along.)
My personal knowledge of this topic is in the area of crossed molecular beams. Generally speaking (i.e. at non-relativistic speeds), you can definitely produce molecules moving very quickly that are nonetheless very cold. You might also be interested to know that scientists [pretty](_URL_1_) [frequently](_URL_0_) produce beams of molecules traveling at supersonic speeds that are also very cold (that is, they have a very narrow distribution of energies.) | [
"At high speeds through the air, the object's kinetic energy is converted to heat through compression and friction. At lower speed, the object will lose heat to the air through which it is passing, if the air is cooler. The combined temperature effect of heat from the air and from passage through it is called the s... |
how can developers of self driving cars ensure that there is no lag in the system? | The answer is a so-called Real Time Operating System, which guarantees to handle data within a certain time.
And about the crashing, the trick is to have a very small and good designed kernel and the rest of the stuff runs as an userland thread on top of the kernel: If a thread dies, it doesn't take out the whole computer, just one piece is not working. | [
"Self-driving cars are potentially beneficial to the environment. They can be programmed to navigate the most efficient route and reduce idle time, which could result in less fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The same could be said true for the heavy machinery used in the heavy industry. A... |
When did English change its method of counting numbers above twenty? | French does not follow this pattern. 22 is vingt-deux (twenty-two). This pattern is typical of Romance languages, for example Spanish 22 is viente dos and Italian is ventidue. Both Aldi following the "twenty two" pattern.
French is different for numbers 70 tp 99 but the spoken order persists, still with the same pattern with the larger number first. 77 is soixante-dix-sept (sixty-seventeen).
Where you've possibly been led astray is that 80 is specifically quatre-vingt or four-twenty. But numbers above 80 still follow the "twenty two" pattern, so 99 is quatre-vingt-dix-neuf (ie four-twenty-nineteen).
For our purposes we can ignore those higher numbers because it's the numbers 20 to 69 that are important. It was probably French influence which introduced the modern pattern of speech, but still slowly and with a long period of co-existence, and indeed with expressions in the older form still surviving.
It appears to have begun displacing the older "two and twenty" form around the 1500s, which is several hundred years after the Norman French conquest of England, suggesting a pretty slow march:
> A perhaps more signicant change in English is the ordering of expressions including both units and tens. Whereas German and Dutch and the older forms of the Germanic languages form such expressions with the units first and the tens second, as in *ein und zwanzig* in German, English has *twenty one* (*twenty and one* in earlier stages of the language).
> This change appears from OED citations to have begun around the 1500s and may be a result of the Romance inflence on English (mirroring for example the French *vingt et un*). This is a change which has not come easily and examples of the previous Germanic form still exist in English not only in such contexts as old nursery rhymes (*four and twenty blackbirds*) but in time expressions, at least in older speakers and some regional speakers of English (*five and twenty past*). Frisian follows Dutch and German in this which is not surprising if the Romance inuence on English is the reason behind the variance.
That's from *A lexical analysis of numeral expressions in Dutch, English* and German by Lynne Cahill and Gerald Gazdar. University of Sussex, 1997.
| [
"BULLET::::- Twenty () is used as a base number in the Welsh language, although in the latter part of the 20th century a decimal counting system has come to be preferred (particularly in the South), with the vigesimal system becoming 'traditional' and more popular in North Welsh. However the vigesimal system exclus... |
lag | What kind of lag? | [
"The Robertson Lag is an example of the systematic delay which the economy suffers from when conditions change and is named after the famous economist Dennis Robertson. This lag describes how a consumers change in income and wealth, a change in its consumption function, leads to a delayed change in its consumption.... |
Why is it so common for stroke victims to have a speech impairment? | There are a lot of areas of the cortex that contribute to normal speech, and many of the common types of stroke damage at least one of them.
Eg,
* In the vast majority of people, expressive language is in the left inferior frontal area and receptive language is in the left perisylvian temporal area. A stroke involving the middle cerebral artery (MCA) or the internal carotid artery on the left can damage both; branch lesions of the MCA can take out one or the other.
* Proper mouth, tongue, palatal, and laryngeal articulation require function of the face area of the motor cortex (posterior inferior frontal lobe, MCA territory) as well as multiple cranial nerve nuclei in the medulla (vertebral and posterior inferior cerebellar artery territory) and the cerebellum (vert/basilar, PICA, AICA, SCA territories).
* Smaller "lacunar" strokes of the internal capsule, basal ganglia, or thalamus can cause clumsy hand/dysarthria syndrome with slurred speech. These are usually caused by lesions of the small, perpendicularly-branched lenticulostriate vessels of the MCA or of the small arterial branches of the posterior cerebral artery (PCA).
* In addition, strokes affecting the right hemisphere can lead to situations where word production is maintained, but with loss of normal prosody of speech.
* Strokes of the anterior cerebral arteries damaging the prefrontal cortex can cause abulia and akinetic mutism, wherein a person has the physical ability to speak but has no will or desire to.
This is leaving out hemorrhagic strokes, which tend to affect the pons, putamen, cerebellum, and thalamus (all areas damage to which can affect speech), and venous strokes/sinus thromboses.
Facial nerve lesions, which are often "idiopathic" or at least of unknown etiology, are sometimes due to vascular lesions or vasculitis: hence, a kind of peripheral nerve stroke. Paresis of facial muscles cause by facial neuropathy (often called "Bell's palsy") can also affect speech production. | [
"A stroke is one of the leading causes of disability in the United States. Following a stroke, 40% of stroke patients are left with moderate functional impairment and 15% to 30% have a severe disability as a result of a stroke. A neurogenic cognitive-communicative disorder is one result of a stroke. Neuro- meaning ... |
Indo-european and Peppers ? How is Sanskrit connected to European languages and what is up with ancient Indian peppers ? | Yes, Sanskrit is part of the Indo-European language family, and yes, its speakers migrated there from the steppes of what is now Ukraine and Kazakhstan. However, Indo-Iranian moved into its modern range by way of Bactria, not the Caucasus. There are libraries of literature on Indo-European, and the idea that it is "false and disproven" is itself a myth perpetrated by Hindu nationalists. Indic languages are very clearly part of the Indo-European family--this is obvious to anyone with some basic acquaintance with Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, and has been known to scholars since the late 18th century. We also can be sure that Indo-European did not originate in India for a few reasons. First, India contains only one branch of Indo-European, while linguistic homelands generally contain or are proximate to several different branches. For example, Taiwan, the homeland of Austronesian, contains anywhere from 4 to 9 separate branches. Second, Indic languages (and this dates back as far as Sanskrit) contain features clearly derived from contact with Dravidian languages, like a distinction between dental stops (made with the tongue on the back of the teeth) and retroflex ones (where the tongue is curled back towards the hard palate) or a historic confusion of /l r/. Third, there's a pretty clear relationship between where language families show up geographically in the historic record and the features they share. [This map](_URL_0_) gives you a good picture of that. There's basically no linguistic evidence consonant with the idea.
I'll let someone who knows more about the Columbian Exchange tackle the question about peppers. | [
"The similarities between various European languages, Sanskrit and Persian were noted by Sir William Jones in his \"Third Anniversary Discourse\" to the Asiatic Society in 1786, after learning Sanskrit in India, concluding that all these languages originated from the same source. From his initial intuitions develop... |
Is it possible to determine the location at which a photo was taken based on the moon's position in the sky? | No, it won't tell you the location from which the photo was taken. What you'd actually need would be an image of the stars in the night sky, but even that would only narrow it down to a latitude, unless you knew the UTC time the photo was taken. | [
"Another method is to take two pictures of the Moon at exactly the same time from two locations on Earth and compare the positions of the Moon relative to the stars. Using the orientation of the Earth, those two position measurements, and the distance between the two locations on the Earth, the distance to the Moon... |
How historically accurate is the quote: "The war wasn’t only about abolishing fascism, but to conquer sales markets. We could have, if we had intended so, prevented this war from breaking out without doing one shot, but we didn’t want to."? | > verify the quote
There's zero evidence that this was ever said by Churchill, Truman, or anyone else involved in WWII. If one is to presume that the premise of the quote is accurate (that is to say, the war was fought by the allies to "conquer sales markets," why would they admit that after years of propaganda stating that the war was a war for freedom?
It's hard to source a negative, of course (aka, come up with a source saying that someone *didn't* say this particular line). The fact that there are no reputable sources that point towards Churchill or Truman actually uttering this line, however, should dispel its credibility.
> explain the context in which it was made, and
Presumably by some Neo-Nazi, though I can't say who first created this statement. It fits in well with the Nazi idea that the Germans were the target of an international Jewish financier conspiracy.
> also explain how historically true it was.
Completely false. It makes no sense - if Britain and France keen to "conquer" the sales market that was Germany, why would they follow a policy of appeasement throughout the 30s? Why wouldn't they have just conquered Germany in the 20s, when they were weak - say, just extend the [occupation of the Ruhr](_URL_0_) to the entirety of the German nation?
The notion of one nation conquering another for economic gain is not absurd. After all, economic exploitation is one of the key features of imperialism. To portray Nazi Germany as a victim of imperialism, however, is absurd. The British and French were highly reluctant to go to war with Germany, but ended up doing so to prevent Germany from establishing hegemony over Europe. They couldn't have just pulled some strings and prevented Hitler from invading Poland without firing "one shot."
Your skepticism is well justified, and the fact that the quote only appears on site that are apologetic to the Nazis or based on attention-grabbing headlines is telling. It's not history, it's fiction. | [
"\"Fascism is the concentrated expression of the general offensive undertaken by the world bourgeoisie against the proletariat... fascism [is] an expression of the decay and disintegration of the capitalist economy and as a symptom of the bourgeois state’s dissolution. We can combat fascism only if we grasp that it... |
What is the relationship between biological nucleus and chemical nucleus? | The dictionary definition of a nucleus is the central and most important part of an object. Both biologists and chemists decided to use this term (in reference to the general meaning), but they refer to entirely different things.
The atomic nucleus (as you stated) is the central part of an atom and is composed of protons and neutrons.
The cellular nucleus is an organelle in cells which contains most of the cell's DNA (whether you'd call it the most central/important can be debated, but it certainly is essential).
The cellular nucleus is composed of many atoms each of which have an atomic nucleus. | [
"The chemical and nuclear properties of the nucleus are determined by the number of protons, called the atomic number, and the number of neutrons, called the neutron number. The atomic mass number is the total number of nucleons. For example, carbon has atomic number 6, and its abundant carbon-12 isotope has 6 neut... |
why aren’t patients scrubbed down the same as doctors are? | Having had multiple surgeries I gotta tell you; any hospital worth its merit sends you home with surgical wash to use heavuly the night before and morning of surgery. (2 separate showers). This reduces the risk of infection by 30-40%. Then the surgery site is cleaned heavily and seperated by a sterile gown/ cover.
With the site being clean it's more about not introducing new bacteria. So the surgeon has to scrub. | [
"Physicians sometimes use screening as a placebo for patients who wish to have some kind of care. The physician may recommend screening to placate the patient's demand for fast recovery in times when the recommended action would be to do nothing except wait. Research suggests that patients are more satisfied with t... |
why do bugs like to buzz around people's heads, even when being constantly swatted at? | To answer the second half, bugs are generally not intelligent enough to recognize being swatted at is connected to what they are doing. They simply react on impulse to a swat by avoiding it best they can, then go right back to what they are doing.
So it's sort of like "Oh hey this tastes good"...."Something is coming my way I should move"...."Oh hey this tastes good". | [
"Just when Bugs is about to be captured, he distracts the man again by tricking him into thinking there is a \"frankincense\" monster behind him, just like in a good book he just read. When he looks behind, Bugs has leaped into position, making a hideous face. The frightened man leaps off the building with a scream... |
if there's a no knock raid on your house by police and you kill the raiders would you be innocent in court? | I wish I had a straight answer, but it really depends on what state he lives in. If the state has strong gun laws he is more likely to be exonerated on the charges brought up. If he is in a state with strict gun laws it will likely end in murder charges. There haven't been a lot of cases that I know of, but there was a case in TX where the man was being raided with a no knock over pot. The man shot at them thinking he was being robbed. He killed one sheriff deputy. They charged him with murder, but even in TX, the jury refused to indict him for murder. Silly price to pay for some pot.
_URL_0_ | [
"Multiple claims echoed in the gun press: that a proper investigation would have shown that Ballew was not a dangerous person, that such evidence as was presented against Ballew did not rise to the level of probable cause to justify a raid, that the proper way to execute a knock-service warrant specifying a day-tim... |
when computers crash why do you sometimes still hear the sound playing? this happens especially during in game crashes. | The sound card in your computer has a buffer that contains the sounds to be played(lets say 1 second worth of music). In a normal situation the game will refresh the buffer every second with the next second worth of music. Now if your game crashes the buffer does not get cleared and thus your sound card keeps playing the same sound that's still in the buffer.
Edit: To be sure, do you mean the repeating sound after a crash or just that the sound still works but the game doesn't? In the last case it could just be that the graphics code crashed but the sound playing code didn't. | [
"Crash to desktop bugs are considered particularly problematic for users. Since they frequently display no error message, it can be very difficult to track down the source of the problem, especially if the times they occur and the actions taking place right before the crash do not appear to have any pattern or comm... |
Water waves - transverse or longitudinal? | [Here](_URL_0_) is a .gif that shows the dual nature of water waves.
You can see that the black dots (which you can think of as water particles) move forward-backward as well as up-down. | [
"Transverse waves are contrasted with longitudinal waves, where the oscillations occur in the direction of the wave. The standard example of a longitudinal wave is a sound wave or \"pressure wave\" in gases, liquids, or solids, whose oscillations cause compression and expansion of the material through which the wav... |
on snl (and similar shows) how is the live audience's laughing timed with the camera cuts we're seeing at home, when they can see everything happening on stage? | There are several staging areas in studio 8H in Rockefeller center, most of the time the audience isn't straight on, meaning the soundstage isn't directly in front of them. So the only way they can watch many sketches is on the TV(s) mounted on the walls and rails.
Other times when the cut happens for the joke for the audience that is straight on they can still see the cut in the monitor. Even if they don't laugh 80% of the studio does and the effect is the same | [
"\"Nobody's Watching\" uses its laugh track in a non-standard way. It is only used in the scenes featuring the studio audience and the recording of the sitcom within the sitcom. As the studio audience are, in effect, extra cast members, there are instances where their laughter - or otherwise - does not relate to th... |
When we look back at ancient cultures we always try to estimate what year those people would have been in an area, doing a certain thing, etc. Would those people have known what year it was? | How are you defining year? Plenty of cultures used their own calendars to keep track of years, many of which we have coordinated with our own to determine dates. Care to elaborate? | [
"Among the ancient Greek historians and scholars, a common method of indicating the passage of years was based on the Olympic Games, first held in 776 BC. The Olympic Games provided the various independent city-states with a mutually recognizable system of dates. Olympiad dating was not used in everyday life. This ... |
why are there economic theories that differ so drastically? shouldn't there be more economic consensus if it's studied so much? | Economics is a social science. It isn't like biology, chemistry, etc where you can test something in a completely controlled environment. Since we can never control all of the variables, there will never be consensus among economists.
| [
"Economic theory faces the problem of constantly dealing with two contradictory concepts of information at the same time. If efficiency is the dominant aspect of analyses, it is likely that commodification is considered to be harmful. If incentive for creation is the dominant aspect of analyses, the protection of t... |
Why don't rising C02 levels get cancelled out by more global plant growth? | carbon dioxide isn't the factor limiting tree growth, so increasing its concentration shouldn't have a significant effect on growth rate | [
"Elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide affects plants in a variety of ways. Elevated CO increases crop yields and growth through an increase in photosynthetic rate, and it also decreases water loss as a result of stomatal closing The growth response is greatest in C plants, C plants ,are also enhanced but to a lesser... |
why does the sin wave not look circular? | Because you don't want a circle, you want to know it's respective cos or sin value of a point on the circle. So when you travel around the circle and map out the sinus values, you get the sinus wave.
See this animation to show you how every point on a circle mapped out creates the sinus wave.
_URL_0_ | [
"The sine wave is important in physics because it retains its wave shape when added to another sine wave of the same frequency and arbitrary phase and magnitude. It is the only periodic waveform that has this property. This property leads to its importance in Fourier analysis and makes it acoustically unique.\n",
... |
This Week's Theme: Oral Traditions | **[Previously](_URL_1_)**
**Current**: Oral Traditions
**Upcoming**: Substance Abuse
**In the hole**: Sovereignty
Remember to ask theme-related questions in [a new thread!](_URL_0_)! If your submission doesn't get automatically flaired, [send us a modmail](_URL_2_) with a link! | [
"The NAMM Oral History program is unique, unlike any other collection in the world. The heart of the collection is the depth of its narratives that cover innovative creations, the evolution of musical instruments, the ever-changing world of music retail, as well as our collective quest to improve music education ar... |
With a strong enough fan placed at a right angle to a speaker output would you hear anything from the speaker when the fan is blowing? | With a powerful enough fan you will "blow the sound away", albeit at some angle away from the speaker (not 90 degrees).
Let's change the scenario to a wind blowing directly at the speaker at 340 m/s (speed of sound). This is exactly the same as if the speaker were travelling through still air at the speed of sound, no? So the sound will not be able to travel forward from the speaker. Increase the speed further and the sound will only go backwards from the speaker. | [
"This unstable operation results from the development of pressure gradients in the opposite direction of the flow. Maximum pressure is observed at the discharge of the impeller blade and minimum pressure on the side opposite to the discharge side. When the impeller blades are not rotating these adverse pressure gra... |
board of directors vs. owners/shareholders | In the most simple ownership structures, the shareholders own the company and elect the board of directors. The board of directors then hire the CEO.
You're describing a scenario where a founder (person who started the company) has sold the company, in whole or in part, to other people/entities. Often that person is kept on as the CEO and sometimes is also elected to the board.
That person might have a large share of the company, but usually not an outright majority (think less than 51%).
In that case, they will for sure be influencal but if the majority of shareholders agree, they could be removed from the board and fired from the company itself. They'd still own part of it, but not be running it.
So, even if you have a large share of the company, if the majority doesn't agree with you you don't get your way. Your only option in those cases is to suck it up, or sell your shares.
Note that all kinds of much more complicated ownership arrangements can exist, usually where multiple share classes exist and only certain shares classes have voting rights - that allows the company to get money from the public markets without surrendering control, or to allow distribution of shares to employees without giving actual control to the employees etc...
Edit: Spelling | [
"The setup of a board of directors vary widely across organizations and may include provisions that are applicable to corporations, in which the \"shareholders\" are the members of the organization. A difference may be that the membership elects the officers of the organization, such as the president and the secret... |
In the U.S., why are many major cities governed by their own counties or parishes, yet surrounding suburbs tend to be comprised of many cities and towns under a common county or parish? | I'm assuming that you are not from the United States. First the federal government has no oversight into how the States organize their local entities. Second county organization has nothing to do with white flight as county organization occurred well before.
Each state is different in how it organizes villages, towns, cities and counties. This also reflects the state's unique history. For example we'll take my home state New York. New York has 57 counties excluding New York City, which just complicates matters. Each county and its boundaries are decided by the state legislature. Now cities, towns and villages separating from one county to join an adjoining one or form an entirely new one has happened. For example the towns cities and villages of the current Nassau County were apart of Queens County. Queens County became a part of New York City and those towns and villages who did not want to be a part of New York City were allowed by the state legislature to form Nassau. However, this had nothing to do with "white flight" at all since this occurred in the late 19th century. Indeed most county organization has occurred before white flight was a phenomena in the U.S. There are exceptions for example La Paz County in Arizona was formed out of the northern parts of Yuma County in 1983. However, it took time for this to happen mainly because there wasn't enough of a population in northern Yuma County to support a county government and afterwards Arizona made it much more difficult for counties to separate since then.
Anyway back to NY, each county can decide a method of governance whether it be a County Administrator, a County Legislature or a county charter. New York's counties were given delineated powers by the state legislature. Counties are municipal divisions that contain villages, towns and cities. Some county organization is historical, like in the lower Hudson Valley (their shapes, names etc). Counties cover large areas, Westchester County in lower NY cover 450 sq miles, Orange County cover 839 square miles, Essex County in upstate NY covers 1916 square miles. So as you see there is a big difference in county size. Mainly this has to do with population size but not always. Westchester is right above New York City with a population of just under a million while Essex has 39,000.
Towns cities villages can switch to another county. However, it is not easy to do. Since counties are merely administrative divisions it doesnt make much sense to switch. I'm not sure why there is some confusion as to why neighboring towns could be in two different counties things work differently in the U.S. and terminology is different. As I said county boundaries are historical, geographical, or are drawn to divide population administratively. There arent many instances where it matters if you are in one county or another. Like I said taxes, funding or maybe a certain law but otherwise there isn't much difference. If your town borders on Westchester County and you want to join Putnam County (which is right above) you would actually lose more than you gain. Westchester receives different funding from the state due to its high population and needs but it also doesn't mean a town can just decide to leave Putnam County and join Westchester. If a town or a group of people want to change something in their county they do it via the county government or state legislature.
Now New York City is a whole another monster. Due to its immense economic power and high population different rules apply to it. For example New York City contains 5 counties that we call also boroughs. New York County (Manhattan), Queens County, Kings County (Brooklyn) Richmond County (Staten Island), Bronx County. New York had for a long time been trying to combine the outlying areas which is another history lesson. New York is unique in that it incorporated Brooklyn (Brooklyn at the time was the third largest city in America), the towns and villages of Queens County, the towns and villages of the Bronx (which was a part of Westchester County, the Bronx was not a separate city when it combined with NYC but a collection of towns and villages), and the towns and villages of Staten Island in the late 1890's. However, New York City and its boroughs are not governed by a county government there are borough offices which influence policy, administer city services etc, but they do not govern.
I hope this helps and let me know if you need any further clarification! | [
"Within those entities are the large and small cities or towns, which may or may not be the county seat. Some of the world's larger cities culturally, if not officially, span several counties, and those crossing state or provincial boundaries have much in common culturally as well, but are rarely incorporated withi... |
What are the most genius political power plays in your period? | I honestly believe the first triumvirate between Caesar, Crassus, and Pompeius has to be one of the greatest political power plays of all time. The length of time they managed to keep it a secret, and then the way in which they revealed it was so theatrical it genuinely thrills me. Caesar had just made his first public blunder in the senate. The oligarchs rallied together against his agrarian reforms, then Caesar goes before the tribal assembly flanked by Crassus and Pompeius. One man was worth $180 billion dollars, the other was the (currently) greatest military leader and had the most loyal and trained legions at his command. Three men who should have had nothing in common but mutual enmity shook the republic to its core.
Just brilliant.
| [
"According to Erich Segal, reading the play as a genuine exploration of communism and female power is incorrect. It follows Aristophanes’ conflict structure of the republic in trouble, a solution suggested and that solution ultimately failing. Aristophanes’ plays mostly derive their narratives on absurd political a... |
Why is it useful to hyperventilate during childbirth? | One of the changes in maternal physiology during pregnancy is an increase in minute ventilation (hyperventilation). This occurs even before labor (evidenced by decreased PaCO2 =mild respiratory alkalosis).
Many times we (physicians, nurses) tell people to focus on their breathing. This is mainly a distraction to take their mind of something else (stressor,pain, etc.) Rarely is it necessary to remind someone to breathe (e.g., recovery room after anesthesia). | [
"Complications of emergency childbirth include the complications that occur during normal childbirth. Maternal complications include perineal tearing during delivery, excessive bleeding (postpartum hemorrhage), retained products of conception in the uterus, hypertension, and seizures.\n",
"An amniotic fluid embol... |
how is it that the taliban, removed from power in 2001, still able to fight and thrive against the afghan government and nato to this day? | The Taliban was effectively pushed out of Afghanistan in December 2001 during Operation Jawbreaker. CIA paramilitaries, backed up by northern militias with loose ties to the US from their guerrilla war against the Russians. They effectively moved into the tribal regions of Afghanistan and blended into their Pashtun supporters. They retook parts of Kandahar, Helmand and Paktika in mid 2002 as the US military focused on Iraq. When the Iraq war kicked off they capitalized and proceeded with a full resurgence, taking the majority of the southern territory in 2003. Their primary advantages were a US military focused on Saddam, control over and cultural connections to the local Pashtuns who were experiencing ethnic cleansing by vengeful northern groups. Insurgency is a tough war to fight. They are most likely coordinated from inside Pakistan. Their IED based fighting has caused a multitude of changes in basic US military tactics and their insurgency is not to be underestimated. They avoid direct action with the superior firepower of the coalition forces and try to push them into retreat toward belts of IEDs using sustained contact from 500-1000m, then they just disappear. The leadership was probably involved in the largely successful campaign against the Russians in the early 1980s.
EDIT: Forgot to mention Op JB also included 200-400 US Army Delta and other international special forces. | [
"The Taliban uprising took place after Afghanistan's invasion by Allied forces in 2001. As in the earlier wars against the British and Soviets, Afghan resistance to the NATO intervention took the traditional form of a Muslim \"holy war (Jihad) against the infidels\". As with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan 20 ye... |
why do we become out of breath? | Ok, so when you run, or do exercise, you can't breath enough oxygen for your cells to respire (produce energy) normally so you start to respire anaerobically (without oxygen) so that you provide enough energy to keep on running. Obviously there is a catch, and the catch is that you produce an acid as well. Acids are bad, so your body neutralises it, producing CO2, which goes into the bloodstream. Lots of CO2 is produced and so you need to get rid of it, as the CO2 lowers the acidity of the body (in large quantities) and then enzymes can't function and you die. Which sucks. So instead you breath heavily in order to get the CO2 out, which can take a while depending on how much you have exercised. | [
"Humans, like most mammals, breathe by \"negative pressure\" breathing: the rib cage expands and the diaphragm contracts, expanding the chest cavity. This causes the pressure in the chest cavity to decrease, and the lungs expand to fill the space. This, in turn, causes the pressure of the air inside the lungs to de... |
what prevents the cell from getting too large? | It's frankly poorly understood. It seems to be a network of several regulatory pathways tied to metabolic activity in combination with cell cycle control.
[Björklund, 2019](_URL_0_) has an overview on the current state of research. | [
"A postulated model for mammalian size control situates mass as the driving force of the cell cycle. A cell is unable to grow to an abnormally large size because at a certain cell size or cell mass, the S phase is initiated. The S phase starts the sequence of events leading to mitosis and cytokinesis. A cell is una... |
why do we take off our hats during the national anthem? | It supposedly stems from medieval times when knights would remove their helmets to show trust. But really, it's just tradition. Each generation is taught that taking their hat off is respectful. There's no good reason. We could just as easily say taking your wristwatch off is a sign of respect. | [
"Since 1998, federal law (viz., the United States Code ) states that during a rendition of the national anthem, when the flag is displayed, all present including those in uniform should stand at attention; Non-military service individuals should face the flag with the right hand over the heart; Members of the Armed... |
why do so many cultures use onions and garlic in their cuisine? | If you ever cook for a girl, just toss onion and garlic in a pan and the aroma alone will make her think you’re a bomb cook | [
"Because the wild onion is extinct and ancient records of using onions span western and eastern Asia, the geographic origin of the onion is uncertain, with likely domestication worldwide. Onions have been variously described as having originated in Iran, western Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.\n",
"This is ... |
In the film 'Inglorious Basterds' the French citizens under Nazi occupation are portrayed as more or less continuing their daily lives, just with Nazi soldiers everywhere. Is this accurate? | I get that Quentin Tarantino wasn't exactly setting out to make a documentary, I just found his portrayal of Nazi-occupied Paris as fairly regular French life with some Nazi officers overseeing things as taking some serious liberties. | [
"During the German occupation of France, the Vichy regime, which collaborated with the Nazi occupiers, had an ultra-conservative morality and started to use a whole range of laws against a youth that was restless and disenchanted. These young people expressed their resistance and nonconformity through aggressive da... |
how can personality traits be passed down genetically? | There is some debate on nature vs nurture for character traits we consider "genetic". Some times it is the cultural or socioeconomic background which makes it appear like a family has similar traits. Maybe the daughter was given a lot of scientific models or books as a youngster, or the parents pushed for or encouraged a science background in her education. It is hard to separate upbringing from genetics, but there is a possible scientific component.
Like you said, genes code for proteins. Proteins do more than just contribute visible traits which you can recognize as Mendelian (hair color, eye color, blood type). Some genes may differ in how often they are expressed, or read. This can lead to an over- or underproduction of things like hormones or neurotransmitters which have an effect on behavior and mood. For instance if high testosterone levels are correlated with aggression and if the mutation that overproduces testosterone is inheritable then the offspring may be predisposed to aggressive behaviors. | [
"Advances in molecular biology techniques and the species-wide genome project have made it possible to map out an individual's entire genome. Whether genetic or environmental factors are primarily responsible for an individual's personality has long been a topic of debate. Thanks to the advances being made in the f... |
negative product placement in movies / shows | Stevia isn't a brand. It's a sweetener derived from the leaves of the plant *Stevia rebaudiana.* So there's no one to pay for the namedrop. It'd be like saying that "Maple Syrup" is a brand name. | [
"Many argue that product placement is ethically questionable, because it manipulates people against their will. A contrary view is, even if product placement is only perceived unconsciously, it is still evaluated by our mind. It cannot make people act against their beliefs. Most people also appreciate the fact that... |
What's the evolutionary advantage of a circadian rhythm that doesn't match the Earth's rotation? | Things don't have to make sense. They're there because they haven't reduced fecundity.
Stuff happens because it can. Organisms are historical documents, not perfectly tuned machines. | [
"Circadian rhythms allow organisms to anticipate and prepare for precise and regular environmental changes. They thus enable organisms to better capitalize on environmental resources (e.g. light and food) compared to those that cannot predict such availability. It has therefore been suggested that circadian rhythms... |
Did the advent of cooking food correlate with an increased longer lifespan, and/or have an obvious impact on early human evolution? | My thought is that it definitely has an impact on human lifespan. The heat used to cook food kills many microorganisms present in the food that could possibly cause diseases in humans.
Also. Because cooking food breaks down the molecules in food to form simpler substances, this would also mean our bodies expend less energy to completely digest the food consumed and absorb nutrients from the food. As such, naturally, less food is required to provide enough energy for a human to function. | [
"Farming, which, the authors note, produces 10 to 100 times more calories per acre than foraging, carried this trend further. Over the period from 10,000 BC to AD 1, the world population increased about a hundredfold - estimates range from 40 to 170 times. An accelerated rate of evolution is a direct result of the ... |
Why did US coinage transition from generic symbols of liberty to presidents and people? | The 20th Century had three distinct eras of coin design. The first was the Golden Age marked by the work of famous sculptor August Saint-Gaudens gold issues but also included the coins made during the 1910s. The end of the Golden Age was marked by the Great Depression and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 1602, the government’s reacquisition of gold by making it illegal to own numismatically and historically insignificant coins. Both the coins OP mentioned the Peace Dollar and Walking Liberty were made during this Golden Age. However, about half of the redesigns are the next era, the Modern Era
**The (Saint-Gaudens) Golden Age:**
*The Era of Lady Liberty, Native Americans and Americana*
Many coins saw one design change; the change took place in the 1830s. When the first American coins were made artistic images were not a top concern. Then when artist were consulted during the 1830s Lady Liberty was placed on nearly every single coin. The nation had changed a lot but the coins have stayed the same and people were ready for something new. The Coinage Act of 1890 stated that any coin design, after being minted for 25 year, was eligible to be redesigned. This act was to encourage coins to be redesigned.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens won the competition to design the President Theodore Roosevelt's inauguration medal. Roosevelt very impressed by the submission charged with redesigning the American Gold coins, [$10](_URL_4_) and [$20 coin](_URL_9_). At this point all of these previous coins had circulated with the same design for at least 50 years. The bust of Lady Liberty was "antiquated ... and an embarrassment to aesthetes and to the U.S. Mint itself.” The design at the time was popular and America did not want to have living people on coins like the monarchs of England and France notably King George V and Napoleon III who had their image on every single coin.
Gold coins were used in important transactions, to be kept in banks, or as a collector’s item, the average person did not see or use them. Important Americana ideas were kept on coins, an Indian Head replaced Lady Liberty on the obverse and the eagle was repositioned on the reverse. Saint-Gaudens designs were heavily influenced by the popular art movements at the time, Beaux-Arts, Arts and Crafts Movement, Art Deco and largely by Art Noveau.
While President Roosevelt was redesigning coins, he hired Victor David Brenner in 1909 to commemorate Abraham Lincoln on the centennial of his birth, based on a design VDB had already made into a series of plaques and medals. The previous penny, the [Indian Head penny](_URL_14_) had first started circulating in 1859 but looks like was a new early twentieth century coin. The coin featured an Indian head, not Lady Liberty, on the obverse and a wreath wrapped around the words “one cent” on the reverse. [The \(uniquely right facing\) Abraham Lincoln](_URL_11_) that replaced the Indian Head on the obverse was the predecessor for the Presidents Jefferson, Roosevelt, Washington and Kennedy to appear on coins.
The [Buffalo \(or Indian Head\) Nickel](_URL_13_) was one of the first coins to replace a Lady Liberty design. The Indian Head is no stranger to American coins, appearing on the $10 gold coin and the aforementioned Indian Head Penny. The previous design was [Liberty Head Nickel](_URL_15_) that started circulating in 1883. The obverse of course, featured Lady Liberty’s head and the reverse featured the words “United States of America” and “Cents” wrapped around a wreath wrapped around a large “V” the Roman numeral five. The Buffalo nickel featured a composite of three major Indian chiefs. The buffalo is also purportedly a composite of buffalos but is commonly believed to be Black Diamond of the Bronx Zoo.
The [Mercury Dime](_URL_2_) replaced the French styled Liberty head [Barber Dime](_URL_6_) in 1916. The Barber dime, named after designer Chief Engraver of the United States Mint Charles Barber started circulating in 1891. The Barber Dime obverse featured Lady Liberty’s head while the reverse featured a laurel wreath wrapped around the words “one dime”. The Mercury Dime, mistakenly named after the Roman Messenger god in fact features the Roman god Liberty. As such it is rightly known as the Winged Liberty Head but the inaccuracy persists. The obverse features the goddess’s head with word “Liberty” and the reverse feature a fasces, a bundle of sticks, with an olive branch wrapped around it. This symbolizes war and peace preparedness after World War One.
The [Barber Quarter](_URL_16_) was also replaced in 1916 after being circulated just the 25 years needed before being able to be redesigned. The Barber Quarter featured the same obverse design, the same head as the Barber Dime. The reverse was quite different than that of the dime and patriotically featured the Great Seal of the United States and the words “United States of America” and “Quarter Dollar” on the reverse. The new [Standing Liberty](_URL_12_) design featured, as the name would suggest, Lady Liberty standing, looking off to the right on the obverse and a soaring eagle on the reverse.
The [Barber half dollar](_URL_5_), also minted during the same time as the previous two coins, featured the exact same design on the obverse and reverse as the Barber Quarter. The mint directors were especially eager to change the designs and make each denomination their own unique design. The half dollar, like the other Barber coinage kept Lady Liberty, only modernizing her style. The [Walking Liberty half dollar](_URL_0_) feature Lady Liberty beckoning, walking towards the sun while the reverse features an eagle that looks ready to flap off and leave his perch.
The dollar coin was reintroduced in 1921 with the [Peace Dollar](_URL_1_). Production of dollar coins stopped in 1904 after the long declining popularity of the coin and lack of use. Production resumed because of the increase use of coins for technology such as vending machines and slot machines. The coin was meant to commemorate the victory of World War One and compared to other coins was minted in much smaller numbers. The coin continued to be minted until 1935 until the dollar coin ceased to be produced again.
**The Modern Era:**
*The Age of Presidents and Politics*
The Modern Era started off in the Great Depression and went until largely unpopular Susan B. Anthony dollar. One by one every coin got redesigned, the next redesign becoming more popular than the last. It was during this time that America stopped fearing placing its political identity on the international stage. America would soon become the major military and economic power and American coinage would circulate more widely than ever before depicting the great men of a great country.
The first president to emerge on a coin in the modern era was George Washington. The [Washington Quarter design](_URL_7_) started circulating in 1932. Congress wanted George Washington on a coin for only 1932 to celebrate the bicentennial of his birth. However due to the popularity of the coin Washington remains on the quarter today.
After the Buffalo nickel design had been minted for the required 25 years a new design quickly replaced it in 1938, the nickel design still used today, the [Jefferson Nickel](_URL_8_). After a competition was held, a design featuring Thomas Jefferson on the obverse and his house, the landmark Monticello on the reverse was chosen as the winner.
After President Franklin Roosevelt’s death in 1945 Congress called for a replacement of the Mercury Dime with Roosevelt’s image. The Mercury dime had been circulating for 30 years at this time and was a stereotypical art style of the late 1910s and 1920s, making the coin due for a redesign. In 1946 the [Roosevelt dime](_URL_3_) started to circulate and despite some bogus Communist complaints against the design, it proved popular enough to continue circulating to today.
The [JFK half dollar](_URL_10_) has much the same story, JFK was assassinated and Congress immediately chose to honor him on a coin. The previous half dollar, which replaced the Walking Liberty half was the Franklin Half. Despite replacing a revered forefather, the Kennedy half was released to unprecedented public demand.
**TL;DR Lady Liberty had her day, now it is the Presidents turn.**
**Edit**: Added pictures
Sources:
The End of the Modern Era of United States Coins by Charles Morgan and Robert Walker
Change in the Air by Andy Smith
The coins of 1916 by David W. Lange
Transitional Pairs, Part 5 by David W. Lange | [
"Images of Liberty would remain a standard part of US coinage through the 19th century and into the early 20th. While European coins typically included a portrait of the reigning monarch, the idea of depicting a real, as opposed to an allegorical, figure was considered unacceptable in the republican United States. ... |
Does the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle mean that we've proved string theory and does that mean we now have the elusive "Theory of Everything"? | Short answer: no. The Higgs boson is predicted by the Standard Model (SM), and its confirmation just serves to strengthen that model. Since we know that SM can't be the whole story its predictions should fail at some point. The discovery of the Higgs boson merely tells us that we still haven't reached that point.
Edit: grammar | [
"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... |
how do people lose coordination while playing vr games? | Have you played it?
There's big difference between looking lifelike, and looking good enough to throw off your senses.
If it's good enough to make you believe it's moving, your mind is getting different signals from your equilibrium and balancing sensors (in your ears) and your eyes.
Think about it like motion sickness, even if you know you're moving in a car, your body still gets confused and you get sick.
The same thing is happening here. Your eyes are telling your brain you're in a moving cart, or falling down, and it responds and gets confused.
No matter how enlightened you think you are, or in touch with your body, when your eyes get deceived and they send the motion signals to your brain, there's nothing you can do about it. | [
"The overcoming of the condition known as dyslexia is also considered an improvement due to the continuous utilization of controllers for the video games. This continuous process helps to train the users to overcome their condition which impedes in their abilities of interpretation. The ability of hand-eye coordina... |
why is it so much easier to eat a spoonful of sugar than a spoonful of salt? | Humans are wired to find more sugar. A spoonful of sugar will not kill you. 10,000 years ago a spoonful of sugar would be hard to find, and a very nice energy boost to a person who generally had to still hunt for food. High energy, carbohydrate dense sources taste sweet and pleasant because 1) eating more of them is good in the short term and 2) it will not kill you, since carbs are an essential macronutrient needed in pretty large amounts every day. IIRC the recommended daily intake of carbs is like 270 grams, which isn't small.
Salt is also important. We have sodium taste receptors that tell us when something is salty. We need it to survive. No sodium, no life. However, it is much easier to overdose and die from too much salt because it's needed at a careful dose every day to maintain body function. You need it to feel, move, breathe, pretty much everything. A big ol' mouthful of salt is pretty close to your maximum intake for the day. As a result, we've evolved to the point where that tastes really dreadful, since eating too many of those will make your kidneys unable to process that sodium, and you'll die. Eating lots of salt in the short term is acutely bad and poisonous even, and you need far less salt than sugar to survive. A spoonful only of salt probably will not kill you, but it's not super far off. | [
"Fructose has higher water solubility than other sugars, as well as other sugar alcohols. Fructose is, therefore, difficult to crystallize from an aqueous solution. Sugar mixes containing fructose, such as candies, are softer than those containing other sugars because of the greater solubility of fructose.\n",
"B... |
What were the Origins of the Seljuk Dynasty? | I'll begin in what's known as the Islamic Golden Age under Haroon. Haroon, while leader of the Abbasid Caliphate, brought his empire to unprecedented heights, but "he may have undermined its strength by over-taxation, the unvarying disease of old empires."* After he died in 809, his son Mamoon was able to wrest control. It was Mamoon who formally founded the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, which contributed greatly to advancements in mathematics and astronomy. But Mamoon also allowed Khurasan to become autonomous. Because of this, when Mutasim took over after Mamoon, he could no longer rely on army recruits from Khurasan as his predecessors had done. So he brought in slave boys from Turkestan. These turks would end up becoming the bulk of the empire's military. To quote Glubb again, "the Turks were mostly heathen, did not even trouble to learn Arabic, and were hated by the public." Mutasim would also move the capital to Samarra, a move that angered the Arabs in his empire as it suggested a preference on Mutasim's part for the Turks.
After Mutasim died, his son took over. He would rule for six years and die, and the next Kahlif would be Mutawakkil. Mutawakkil chose to remain at Samarra surrounded by his Turkish guards. His son, the heir-apparent, lost his title after messing around with a Greek concubine, but a high-ranking Turkish slave talked Muntasir into having his father murdered. Muntasir was then named Khalif. And so begins the disintegration of Arab hegemony and the rise of a Turkish military order. We would see the capital returned to Baghdad in 892, but by this time "the Arab Empire had virtually ceased to exist." The glue had had help the empire together was claimed descendence from the Prophet, but the population soon realized the khalif was now a mere front, and that Turks were exercising the real power, and so provinces began to fall away. Mutahdid took over in 892, but by this time he was only able to collect taxes from a small area in central Iraq, and simply lacked the funds to maintain a sufficient mercenary army.
An event that illustrates the severity of the rift between Arabs and Turks was the Carmathian rebellion. The Carmathians arose out of the Arabian peninsula, and were Shiites, yes, but their motive for rebellion was most likely anger at foreign influence in the empire, notably Turkish militarism. The khalifate did not seek to reconcile with these Arabs but labeled them enemies. Due to Turkish and Persian influence, the khailfate held no respect for Arab tribes anymore.
Fast-forwarding, we see the khalifate become ,at one point, a puppet of the Shiite Dailamites. The Abbasid Empire was effectively no more. Baghdad devolved into chaos and there were multiple coups de'etat. The khalif in Baghdad would become a principally religious figure. We also see the Byzantine Empire becoming much stronger around this time.
Fast-fast-forwarding, the founder of the Seljuk Empire was Tughril Beg. He was a grandson of Seljuk, and before establishing his empire, he was a chief of the Ghuzz. The Ghuzz "were a tribe of primitive Turkmans, who grazed on the steppes north of the Aral sea." Apparently "Their principle occupation was war and their killing weapon was a short bow, which they used on horseback at full gallop." Tughril Beg was Muslim, despite the fact that most of his tribesman were not, and also, the khalifate in Baghdad had by this time regained some respect as a religious institution. The khalifate had no army, however, and Tughril Beg moved into the palaces, while the Ghuzz "scattered over the fertile valley of Iraq, plundering and killing, and carrying off all the young women."
Tughril Beg dies in 1063, childless, still illiterate, the founder of an empire. He was succeeded by Alp Arslan, an energetic ruler who loved knowledge and diligent administration.
*A Short History of the Arab Peoples, by Sir John Glubb
tl;dr: Arabs come to rely on Turks in their military. Turks seize influence, undermining credibility of the khalifate. The khalifate was the glue of the empire, and so the empire begins to disintegrate. This disintegration coincides with a height in Byzantine power, which only contributes to an already chaotic power struggle/vacuum. A weakened Baghdad eventually falls to a Sunni Turk. | [
"The Seljuks were a Turkic dynasty of Central Asian nomadic origins, who became the new rulers of the eastern Islamic world after defeating the Ghaznavids in the Battle of Dandanaqan, and the Buyid dynasty. Following these victories, the Seljuks established themselves as the new patrons of the Abbasid Caliphate and... |
Why is liquid oxygen magnetic? Are there any other gases that are magnetic when in liquid form? | The oxygen molecule has a magnetic moment because the two electrons in the two highest occupied molecular orbitals have parallel spin. Curie paramagnetism increases at lower temperatures and is quite noticeable at the boiling point. | [
"Oxygen, long known to be slightly magnetic in the gaseous state, is powerfully attracted in the liquid condition by a magnet, and the same is true, though to a less extent, of liquid air, owing to the proportion of liquid oxygen it contains. \n",
"Oxygen molecules have attracted attention because of the relation... |
Did the American military expect/plan for an attack from Mexico during world war 1? | Mexico was undergoing a multi-sided civil war, and they were in no position to fight a war against anyone outside their borders. As for the US military, the so-called "Punitive Expedition" saw about 5,000 US troops chase one of the combatants, Pancho Villa, around Mexico for a year with the intent to kill or capture him, which was not successful. | [
"On 9 March 1916, the Mexican rebel General Francisco \"Pancho\" Villa ordered nearly 500 Mexican revolutionaries to make a cross-border attack into the United States at New Mexico. The raid was in response to Woodrow Wilson's recognition and support of the Carranza regime. Commander of the Army 8th Brigade John J.... |
how come in zombie themed movies and tv shows the characters never refer to the zombies as zombies? | Because that would denote a previous knowledge of zombies, which one could presume to include knowledge of how to eliminate them as a threat. The scenario being depicted is more realistic if the unaffected do not have any knowledge about the threat. | [
"Zombie films feature creatures who are usually portrayed as either reanimated corpses or mindless human beings. Distinct subgenres have evolved, such as the zombie comedy, which may or may not retain a significant horror theme, and often crosses into black comedy. Examples include: \"White Zombie\", \"Night of the... |
if liquids turn to gas when heated, how is it that liquids like pancake mixture turn to solids when heated? | Short version.
You're heating the moisture out of the pancake mix, while also changing the chemical structure of the mix, which is what cooking is, changing the chemical structure in your food. When the moisture leaves, you're left with the changed solid and some moisture trapped inside. | [
"Similarly, liquids are often used in cooking for their better heat-transfer properties. In addition to better conductivity, because warmer fluids expand and rise while cooler areas contract and sink, liquids with low kinematic viscosity tend to transfer heat through convection at a fairly constant temperature, mak... |
the argentine economic crisis | I'll have a go.
An important concept in economics is the Impossible Trinity: free flow of goods/capital, control over interest rates, fixed exchange rates. Essentially, only 2 of these 3 are ever possible to maintain.
Argentina tried to maintain all three. Free flow of goods and capital and having control over your country's interest rates are very important for economic growth. Fixed exchange rates are typically used to help your exports grow.
Argentina had its currency fixed with the dollar. Prior to the crisis in Argentina, many similar regimes (trying to hold the impossible trinity, e.g. Thailand, Brazil, Russia) fell victim to the results of the impossible trinity, the fears that other such regions would fall victim became a self-fulfilling prophecy. The way governments maintain fixed exchange rates is to buy and sell in the foreign exchange markets. Global investors saw that Argentina was having to spend dangerously in order to maintain their exchange rates but knew the pressure for rate change would eventually cause the government to relent. In simple terms they put increasing pressure on the currency's relative value despite heavy intervention in the markets by the Argentine government. Eventually, the government realised it would go broke trying to fight the market and capitulated resulting in disaster. All of a sudden, the peso is worthless and anyone who had debt denominated in foreign currency could no longer pay up. E.g. you had $10m in debt, prior to the crisis this was equal to 20m pesos (figures are hypothetical). Now, all of a sudden, it will take you 2bn pesos to pay off that debt. You can see how default becomes the only option.
Inflation in Argentina at the time plays into this, as does the contagion effects of Brazil's crisis (i.e. a closely linked economy), but I think the currency situation and the idea of the impossible trinity are often overlooked.
Not an expert, I took a class about international finance and the currency crises of this period were discussed extensively. Open to criticisms, corrections and comments. | [
"The Argentine economic crisis culminated in the government defaulting on its debt and the devaluation of the Argentine peso at the end of 2001. APSA's market value declined from $390 million to as low as $40 million. The damage to PASA's finances inspired a shakeup of the company's management. In an interview with... |
Is it beneficial to try to avoid coughing when sick? | Coughing can help to remove sputum plugs and other irritants from the lungs. It most definitely has beneficial effects.
That said, an ineffective cough can be just as dangerous long term as it can hurt muscles and even lung tissue if continued for long periods. (this is very uncommon even among the extremely ill however)
In a typical cold, so long as you're not coughing all over people It's generally accepted to cough as needed.
Codeine is a cough suppressant, and as such is included in many cough formula's, and can be helpful before bedtime to allow one to rest more easily.
Gaufanesin(I probably spelled it wrong, I always do) is an expectorant, meaning it can actually irritate the body and create a cough, and is also in a number of cold formula's.
| [
"According to the American Academy of Pediatrics the use of cough medicine to relieve cough symptoms is supported by little evidence and thus not recommended for treating cough symptoms in children. There is tentative evidence that the use of honey is better than no treatment or diphenhydramine in decreasing coughi... |
/r/theredpill | It's basically a more militant version of /r/mensrights, who believe that men are an actively oppressed group, and that feminists/women are responsible. | [
"r/TheRedPill is a misogynistic subreddit which promotes male supremacy. It was profiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It has been associated with several right-wing movements and the alt-right because of its attacks on feminism and mockery of rape.\n",
"r/The_Schulz is a semi-serious subreddit created for ... |
How is asthma medication made? | There's various different classes of asthma medication - inhaled corticosteroids, beta agonists, leukotriene modifiers. That's why you can't find a direct source on how it is made. Also, compared to rocket fuel, we are getting into really complex chemistry here, so you need to know what to look for. But I fear it won't be easy to understand without a thorough grounding in organic chemistry.
Here is an overview on corticosteroids, for example: _URL_0_ | [
"An inhaler (puffer or pump) is a medical device used for delivering medication into the body via the lungs. It is mainly used in the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Zanamivir, used to treat influenza, must be administered via inhaler.\n",
"Medications are typically provided as mete... |
How did plants get by before the Angiosperm? | Just because a plant doesn't produce a flower doesn't mean they don't produce seeds.
[Gymnosperms](_URL_0_) are an ancient plant type (cycads, ginkgo, pine, etc.). Their seeds develop either on the surface of scales or leaves, often modified to form cones, or at the end of short stalks as in Ginkgo. We still have many extant species of gymnosperm around.
[Bryophytes](_URL_2_) are the oldest of all lineages of land plants and they produce neither seed nor flower. Instead they create enclosed reproductive structures (gametangia and sporangia) which are released for fertilization. You can sometimes find both male and female cells on one plant, depending on the species.
Finally, let's not forget [Pteridophytes](_URL_1_) which are our ferns, horsetails and club mosses. These very old plants reproduce and disperse via spores. Ferns first appear in the fossil record 360 million years ago so they've been doing their thing long before Angiosperms.
So as you can see there were plenty of ways plant reproduced before flowers came along and one of them was seed production. | [
"A geoxyle is a plant in which an enlarged, woody structure occurs beneath the surface of the ground. Such plants have developed independently in various plant lineages, mostly evolving in the Pliocene and subsequently diverging within the last two million years. In contrast to their close relatives, these plants h... |
what is it about potatoes that cause them to retain the heat of four suns as opposed to the other ingredients in the soup? | Potatoes are made of mainly water. Water has a very good ability to store heat.
You may be thinking "but suop's water too". Yes, but the soup has a quite high surface when in a dish making it possible to evapourate whick takes the same enery that water needs to heat up 83 °C. Yes, literally THAT much.
However, in the potatoe the water cant evaporate because it's sourrounded by the soup. Also, the water in the potatoe can't really "move" or mix with the water in the soup which is why they can't get rid of the heat as fast as the soup. | [
"Wrapping the potato in aluminium foil before cooking in a standard oven will help to retain moisture, while leaving it unwrapped will result in a crisp skin. When cooking over an open fire or in the coals of a barbecue, it may require wrapping in foil to prevent burning of the skin. A potato buried directly in coa... |
Is it possible for the wind to blow hard enough to change the direction of a photon? | **Short answer:** Nope.
**Long answer:** There was actually [a very good experiment done around 1900](_URL_1_) that tested whether the speed of light would change in moving medium - flowing water in particular. It was found that it didn't. This was a big deal, and it meant that something really peculiar was going on with the motion of light. This exact experiment was actually a big piece of Einstein's inspiration when developing the special theory of relativity.
Light will follow the same path whether or not the medium is moving, up to a small relativistic correction. However, in reality, moving fluids tend to also have funny pressure and temperature gradients, and that can change the index of refraction of the light, slightly warping the image that you're looking at. This is the source of stars twinkling, [road mirages](_URL_0_), among other familiar experiences with light. | [
"The breaking of rotation and boost invariance causes direction dependence in the theory as well as unconventional energy dependence that introduces novel effects, including Lorentz-violating neutrino oscillations and modifications to the dispersion relations of different particle species, which naturally could mak... |
My friend says, that during medieval times 90% of an army would consist of drafted peasants with no prior fighting experience and sub par equipment (like sharpened pieces of wood as an improvised spear) is this true? | A reply to /u/themantheycallsven
You may want to read /u/mi13 's answer here
_URL_0_? | [
"These saw themselves overpowered and were not able to contain the advance of the peasant troops. According to Jean Tarde, there was one soldier for each 100 peasants, and their military organisation owed itself to the fact that a good number of artisans, \"sons of good families\" (some historians, such as Mousnier... |
What causes voltage? | Voltage isn't the potential per unit charge. It's a potential difference between two points. Potential is potential *energy* per unit charge.
Essentially, it's the amount of potential the circuit has to accelerate a unit of change to a velocity such that the charge has a kinetic energy of qV. In the same way that gravitational potential is the amount of potential a grav. field (the Earth's, for example) has to accelerate a mass. | [
"Voltage spikes, also known as surges, may be created by a rapid buildup or decay of a magnetic field, which may induce energy into the associated circuit. However voltage spikes can also have more mundane causes such as a fault in a transformer or higher-voltage (primary circuit) power wires falling onto lower-vol... |
how come most people can't sing in tune, but crowds of people hit the right tones. | Most people *can* carry a tune. What they can't do is carry a tune loudly, that's one of the big things that separates professionals from shower virtuosos.
In a crowd, you don't have to sing loudly, and you are better able to keep in tune by listening to those around you. Also, if you are out of tune, enough people are in tune to compensate. | [
"Sometimes people who get the desire to call believe that it is enough to stand up on a platform, and sing the provided text to a square dance song, or call a pre-written sequence of patter. Difficult as even that can be for some, with some natural talent, a good ear for rhythm and timing, an engaging stage presenc... |
Do SSRIs actually work and why is there so much scaremongering about them? | These communities you speak of are peddling quackery. Selective Serotonin Re-Update Inhibitors do indeed function as described, but they are not intended to be used exclusively with the expectation that they will "cure" depression or anxiety. Any mental health professional worth their salt will use SSRIs in concert with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, in order to help the patient build a repertoire of coping mechanisms, as well as mindfulness to recognize when they are experiencing "miss-shoots" as a result of neurochemical imbalance.
Self-help communities are often lead by celebrity motivational speakers who intertwine religion or sports training into their talks as a means of appealing to target audiences and they are ultimately committing highly unethical practices by giving what is ultimately medical advice without having a medical license or degree.
For those people who claim that SSRIs never helped them, this is entirely believable, however. No two brains are exactly alike, and that is why there are so many different SSRIs-- the process involves finding which one actually works for you. They also have the unavoidable problem of losing efficacy over time as your brain adjusts to their chemical presence, so it can be a constant battle with a dysfunctional brain to keep it working the way it should be. That is why CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) is so important, because the principal of neuroplasticity allows you to actually "reprogram" your brain through behavioral change. The SSRIs just help that process along, or allow it to begin in the first place. | [
"SSRIs carry a relatively low risk due to the fact that they are not associated with much of a tolerance or dependence, and are difficult to overdose with. TCAs are similar to SSRIs in their many advantages, but come with more common side effects such as weight gain and cognitive disturbances. They are also easier ... |
why is the border between canada and the us so straight in comparison to the rest of the worlds borders? | [It's not. It's really not](_URL_0_)
It's actually incredibly jagged.
It only appears straight because of how small the angles are from space, and because on maps they go by where the border should be, not where it is.
The border is supposed to be on the 49^th parallel, but in reality there are a few flaws.
1 - They didn't have GPS back then, so they more or less sent a bunch of guys out with a compass and a map and told them to mark the land.
2 - There are lakes and such that couldn't be conveniently cut straight through. Such as one between Minnesota and Manitoba. Since maps were incomplete, many arrangements were things such as "Go from the northwest corner until it reaches the Mississippi River" except that the river stops short of the border, so a later round decided that it was just easier to cut off a chunk of the Canadian side for the USA.
3 - Vancouver Island would have been cut into two parts, seeing this though, the nations decided to let Canada have the island. Point Roberts isn't so lucky so now students have to go from USA into Canada and then back into the USA in the morning and then again in the afternoon to get to and from school. | [
"Canada–United States relations refers to the bilateral relations between the bordering countries of Canada and the United States. Relations between Canada and the United States historically have been extensive, given a shared border and ever-increasing close cultural, economical ties and similarities. The shared h... |
Should I listen to music while studying? | Studying with no music is theoretically the best way to study because the room you take your test in will likely also be silent. However, if you need some noise then music without singing is better than music with singing because the words from the singer can interfere with your ability to put into memory the words you are studying. | [
"Contemporary music pedagogies emphasize \"sound before sight\", or the idea that in order to develop an understanding of music and music notation, individuals must first become comfortable with listening to, singing, and performing tonal and rhythm patterns before reading and writing music. Modern studies by Luce ... |
The Black Death as the crucial factor that ended feudalism and began the Protestant Reformation - accurate? too simple? both? | It is too simplistic. No major world events can be boiled down to one cause. For example, World War I: The popular answer to "what caused it?" is the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. However, such an answers ignores other factors such as increased colonial aggression and the naval race.
For your question, saying that Black Death was the cause of the Reformation is entirely too reductionistic. It may have had an influence, but there are a variety of other factors which helped to cause the Reformation, such as indulgences and general corruption within the Roman Catholic Church. Basically, the Reformation was the result of approximately a century of build-up pre-Luther of discontent within the Church and had many contributing factors. | [
"A major factor contributing to the death of feudalism in most of Europe was the Black Death of 1347–1351 and subsequent epidemics which killed one-third or more of the people of Europe. In the aftermath of the Black Death, land was abundant and labor was scarce and the rigid relationships among farmers. the church... |
why do videos sound terrifyingly deeper when slowed down? | Higher pitched sounds are just sound waves vibrating really fast. So when you slow a video down you’re also slowing the sound down making the vibrations slower and the sound deeper. | [
"In video games the use or not of motion blur is somewhat controversial. Some gamers claim that the blur actually makes gaming worse since it does blur images, making more difficult to recognize objects, especially in fast-paced moments. This does become noticeable the lower the frame rate is. Improvements in the v... |
How does car wax work to protect the paint colour? | Well I can help with some parts of your question:
Waxing a car in the traditional sense puts a microscopic layer between the world and clearcoat/paint. Water/acids/etc eat away at that first before they get to work on the clearcoat. Should enough time go by the clear coat will get eaten away and then the color starts to go rather quick. (Clear coat failure)
UV rays are damaging to many things (skin/paint/color in fabric/etc) There are synthetic waxes with UV inhibitors in them that help take some of the punch of UV rays away. The color that's in car paint is in many ways the same as the color in a flag left out in the sun for years. It fades unless it's been treated with something special. I've never really heard of "wax" in general protecting from the sun, and by that I mean the 4 dollar bottle of turtle wax at walmart isn't going to keep your car safe from UV rays. As an example - when a the ZR1 variant of the C6 corvette was released, it had a clear coated carbon fiber roof, the clear coat had an additive mixed in to protect it from UV rays (so the carbon wouldn't yellow) This additive costs thousands of dollars per gallon.
_URL_0_
(references the special paint they use with UV blocking
On the more physical side of things (vs chemical) waxes help fill in all the microscopic valleys/bumps/etc in the clear coat, giving you that smooth feel and shine. | [
"Paint sealant works by filling into the pores and irregular surface of the body thereby creating a smooth finish on top. The way it helps is it denies a sticking surface to foreign substance and they come off the car easily without further damaging the car surface\n",
"BULLET::::- Automotive paint & other finish... |
why do you burn fat better at a lower heart rate than your cardio zone? | You don't. You burn a larger *percentage* of fat calories in that heart rate zone than in a higher zone. But, because you're burning more calories in total, you actually burn more fat calories in total at higher heart rates.
See _URL_0_ | [
"Phillips maintains that aerobic exercise is more effective for fat loss when done first thing in the morning, because it raises the metabolism for the remainder of the day, and because the body draws more heavily on its fat stores after fasting overnight.\n",
"There is a common misconception that spot exercise (... |
What were Catherine the Great favourite books from Voltaire? | Hi! This is a great question. My name is Lena and I work on Voltaire and his library. Here are some examples from their correspondence of Catherine's favourite works by Voltaire, by no means an exhaustive list (she specifically ordered that all of his published works be sent to St. Petersburg along with his private library after his death). One would have to do a bit more digging to see her letters specifically to other Russian nobles, but I would hazard a guess that she did not keep these works to herself :-) She also admired Montesquieu's Esprit des Lois and used it in drafting the Nakaz, Russia's reformed legal code (which she then sent to Voltaire for feedback).
* September 16 1763 CII writes to V: "By chance your works fell into my hands, I could not stop reading them, and I wouldn't want book that wasn't as well written, and from which so much could not be profited."
* June 1765: Looks like Essai sur les mœurs was a big one: "She \[CII in 3rd person\] has read this great book from one end to the other with much pleasure...She is persuaded that this book will prove her thoughts, it will be purified by fire, in Paris, which will give it an even greater shine."
* October 17 1771: Questions sur l'Encyclopedie, in particular the article on fanaticism, "which I read with the greatest satisfaction in the book of the Questions sur l'encyclopédie."
If you have a university subscription, I would recommend searching through their correspondence on [Electronic Enlightenment](_URL_0_). *Ecrasez l'infame*! | [
"Voltaire played an important role in promoting Catherine's image in Europe. He has been described as Catherine's \"most distinguished western partisan, her most enthusiastic devotee, and her most indefatigable and eloquent propagandist.\" In addition to singing her praises among his circles of friends, Voltaire wr... |
why third world countries are so cheaper in comparison with first world countries even for goods that both import/produce? | Labor and property values.
When you buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you aren't just paying for the coffee. You are paying for the people who made the coffee and for the rent and utilities on the building. Of that $4 you are paying, maybe $0.50 is for coffee, milk, and the cup. Around $3 is for labor and overhead, and the rest is profit.
In a developing country, they might pay $0.50 for labor and overhead, and be happy with half the profit, so your coffee only costs $1.25. | [
"By placing high tariffs on imports and other protectionist, inward-looking trade policies, the citizens of any given country, using a simple supply-and-demand rationale, will substitute the less-expensive good for the more expensive. The primary industry of importance would gather its resources, such as labor from... |
why do people gravitate towards hatefulness rather than kindness and love? | **Game Theory**
Someone who is kind or loving can be taken advantage of by someone. that person who takes advantage of them is not necessarily hateful, but possibly ignorant of their actions.
As this happens people realise that being kind and loving allows people to take advantage of them. So people start to put up basic defences to help prevent people taking advantage of them.
As this grows we find countries fighting other countries - in case those countries get too strong and decide to attack them. If two peasants strolled along a road coming from opposite sides and saw a sword in the middle. Both would see the sword, then see the other. Each one is likely to want to get hold of the sword before the other, just in case. A struggle may evolve and one may even kill the other one.
A kind and loving person who did not adhere to Game Theory, would leave the sword and walk past. And 99 out of 100 times they'd be safe. But the possibility is that someone drawn to desperation or glamoured by ignorance will take up that sword against them to rob them for food if they are starving or for money or something else if they're desperate or ignorant.
___
Want to know more?
Other examples are where 'green' companies who do not exploit cheap labour are inherently handicapped with higher costs to companies who do outsource. Examples like this mean that a company can do very bad things in the name of surviving against their competition which isn't directly hateful.
Another example is a bank robbery where a team of 10 may partake in separate jobs for the robbery like driver, safe cracker, gun man, communications etc. If the team were distrustful of eachother as they're all criminals they will naturally suspect the possibility of one or more of them trying to take all the money and killing the rest. A situation may develop where one person takes the money and another person refuses to let them hold the money, person A thinking person B wants to take the money for their own secret plan, person B thinking person A may have a plan. As you can imagine the criminals may kill each-other when they probably don't want to murder anyone just get their fair share.
___
TLDR - if you didn't understand my point or read the text that's fine.
* I'm basically saying that people need to be *defensive* when they do things with other people so they're not taken advantage of.
* Applying this type of thinking is called 'Game Theory' a lot of us do it all the time. It is not hateful in nature but can lead to actions one'd expect could arise from hate.
* [This video](_URL_0_) gives the **best example of an answer to OP**. The two people are probably happy to share the money but may chose to steal it out of mistrust of one another.
* It all stems from IGNORANCE of a person or situation. So arguably, ignorance is the core reason, game theory is the implication of that ignorance into actions. | [
"Apathy has been socially viewed as worse than things such as hate or anger. Not caring whatsoever, in the eyes of some, is even worse than having distaste for something. Author Leo Buscaglia is quoted as saying \"I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate-it's apathy. It's not giving a damn... |
Where did the Etruscans come from? | No one really knows, there are two main theories, either they developed in Italy, or they developed in Anatolia prior to coming to Italy. I generally subscribe to the latter as the Etruscan language is not Indo-European, as well as genetic evidence from several studies that show that that modern people from Tuscany have different genetics than other Italian people around them, and that they share a certain similarities with modern day Turks. This is all very speculative, as people have been moving around since far before written history and the genetic make-up of people changes throughout history because of migration, war or other social reasons. The best we can do is guess. | [
"The origins of the Etruscans are mostly lost in prehistory, although Greek historians as early as the 5th century BC repeatedly associated the Tyrrhenians (\"Turrhēnoi\"/Τυρρηνοί, \"Tursēnoi\"/Τυρσηνοί) with Pelasgians, which could both be broad descriptive terms. Strabo and the \"Homeric Hymn\" to Dionysus make m... |
How do squids propel themselves without using the tentacles? | Jets is the right term. Squids have a moveable opening in their mantle cavity which they can use to direct a jet of water to quickly propel themselves. They usually use the flaps on the side of their bodies for smaller movement. | [
"Adult squid have several distinguishing features. The mantle encloses the visceral mass of the squid, and has two fins, which are not the primary method of propulsion. Instead, the squid has a siphon, a muscle which takes in water from one side, and pushes it out the other side: jet propulsion. The squid has eight... |
_url_0_, inc. not paying income tax despite being legally considered a person. | You’re allow to deduct your losses on your tax return. 3 years retroactively and 20 years prospectively.
Amazon focused on growth for many years at the expense of profitability and is now using the tax loss carry forwards (Deferred tax assets) to offset their taxable income in profitable years.
Perfectly legal, all companies have this ability, it’s part of the tax code. Politically popular to point out that someone isn’t paying taxes while ignoring they losses they incurred for 1.5 decades. | [
"In the tax law of the United States the claim of right doctrine causes a taxpayer to recognize income if they receive the income even though they do not have a fixed right to the income. For the income to qualify as being received there must be a receipt of cash or property that ordinarily constitutes income rathe... |
In movies and TV shows, why does removing an object that has impaled a character often make them bleed more? | Not just in movies and TV, in real life too! An object stabbing into you will cut and rip tissue and blood vessels, causing injury. But as long as the object is in there, it’s effectively holding everything in place still. It’s like that experiment where you take a plastic zip bag full of water and shove a pencil through it. As long as the pencil is in there, it’s plugging the hole. Remove the pencil, and water starts to flow. Same thing happens in a body.
In real life, removal of the penetrating object should only be done once you reach a hospital and a medical professional can safely do it. Our gut reaction is “get this out of me!” But your chances of survival drop drastically if you remove the object and start bleeding uncontrollably. | [
"For example, in the Japanese and PAL Versions of \"No More Heroes\", blood splatter and gore is removed from the gameplay. Decapitation scenes are implied, but not shown. Scenes of missing body parts after having been cut off, are replaced with the same scene, but showing the body parts fully intact.\n",
"I've n... |
why is a larger digital camera sensor better than a smaller one? | When you have bigger pixel buckets, the buckets stay cooler and are more likely to absorb the light accurately.
Think of it like this, the more light that hits your pixel buckets, the more they heat up. If you imagine it like water, the more light that hits the sooner that water starts to boil and gets very bubbly. If you have small buckets then the water boils faster. When the water boils, it bounces up and down and isn't smooth. This is like your pixels not recording the correct color - noise. So if you have a bigger bucket of water the more it takes to make the water boil.
If you have a bigger sensor, and bigger buckets, the more likely you'll record the light more correctly and smoothly between the buckets. | [
"For low cost and small size, these cameras typically use image sensor formats with a diagonal between 6 and 11 mm, corresponding to a crop factor between 7 and 4. This gives them weaker low-light performance, greater depth of field, generally closer focusing ability, and smaller components than cameras using large... |
Would plants grow differently in an environment with less gravity? | [Here](_URL_0_) is an article reporting on an experiment on plant growth in weightlessness conducted on the Space Shuttle. There was a variety of impacts on plant growth -- for the stem, for roots, even for the pegs that bump out of germinated seeds. | [
"Plants grown inflight experience a microgravity environment, and plants grown on the surface of Mars experience approximately 1/3 the gravity that earth plants do. However, so long as plants are provided with directional light, those grown in low gravity environments still experienced normal growth. Normal growth ... |
During WW2, how was the traffic between Switzerland and other countries handled? | At the Évian Conference the Swiss stated that they can just be used for transit emigration. Fugitives were temporarily tolerated. Since the outbreak of war all foreigners required a visa to enter Swiss territory. Excluded from this were political refugees, but this status were not given to Jews. Illegal immigration were nontheless well known.
All in all the Swiss handled soldiers from other countries according to the Hague Conventions. Between 1939-1945 there were more than 100'000 army members interned (34'500 French, 24'400 Italians, 17'100 Poles, 7'200 Germans und Austrians, 5'800 Brits, 2'100 Yugoslavs, 1'600 Americans an 8'400 Sowjets + others) Only members of the SS troups were rejected by swiss authorities.
Interment camps were established in Büren an der Aare, Girenbad, Adliswil, Wauwilermoos and elsewhere. Others were held in disused hotels. Conditions were not the very best, especially some were overcrowded and not well planned.
Short news about american pilots being shot down over germany and landed in neutral switzerland. Don't know how biased this is. [CBSNews](_URL_2_)
I hope some historians with experience can elaborate in depth.
Sources (in german):
_URL_1_ (Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz: Internierungen)
_URL_0_ (HLS: 2. Weltkrieg - Flüchtlinge) | [
"From 1943 Switzerland stopped American and British aircraft, mainly bombers, overflying Switzerland during the Second World War. On numerous occasions during the war, Allied aircraft trespassed on Swiss airspace; mostly damaged Allied bombers returning from raids over Italy and Germany whose crews preferred intern... |
why hollywood releases movie that are so similar in plot and so close in time intervals.examples are this is the end and the worlds end; oblivion and after earth, etc... | One movie studio hears about the development of a film, and they produce a similar movie - usually on a faster timeline in order to match release dates. This not only potentially steals viewers from another movie (or shares them), it also capitalizes on interest that will be generated by either movie's advertisements. | [
"His films also typically end with a death, which is portrayed not as a tragedy, but as a happy moving on where the deceased looks down happily at the world below. \"Between Heaven and Earth\" ends with a birth, but it is similarly handled the passing of a character into a new world. This pattern is continued in \"... |
the naming conventions of sea vessels, hms, ss, rms etc. |
AHT Anchor Handling Tug
AHTS Anchor Handling Tug Supply vessel
CRV Coastal Research Vessel
C/F Car Ferry
CS Cable Ship
DB Derrick Barge
DEPV Diesel Electric Paddle Vessel
DLB Derrick Lay Barge
DCV Deepwater Construction Vessel
DSV Diving Support Vessel/ Deep Submergence Vehicle
DV Dead vessel[1]
ERRV Emergency Response Rescue Vessel[citation needed]
FPSO Floating Production, Storage and Offloading Vessel
FPV Free Piston Vessel
FPV Fishery Patrol Vessel
FV Fishing Vessel
GTS Gas Turbine Ship
HLV Heavy lift vessel
HSC High Speed Craft
HSF High Speed Ferry
HTV Heavy Transport Vessel
IRV International Research Vessel
ISV International Space Vehicle
LB Liftboat
LNG/C Liquefied natural gas carrier
LPG/C Liquefied petroleum gas carrier
MF Motor Ferry
MS (M/S) Motor Ship (interchangeable[citation needed] with MV)
MSV Multipurpose support/supply vessel
MSY Motor Sailing Yacht
MT Motor Tanker
MV (M/V) Motor Vessel (interchangeable[citation needed] with MS)
[citation needed]
MY Motor Yacht
nb Narrowboat
NRV NATO Research Vessel
NS Nuclear Ship
OSV Offshore Supply Vessel
PS Paddle Steamer
PSV Platform Supply Vessel
RV Research Vessel
RMS Royal Mail Ship or Royal Mail Steamer
SB Sailing Barge
SS (S/S) Steamship (with screw propellers, can be either coal- or oil-
fired)
SSCV Semi-Submersible Crane Vessel
SSV Sailing School Vessel, Submarine and Special Warfare Support
Vessel[2]
ST Steam Tug
STS Sail Training Ship
STV Sail Training Vessel or Steam Turbine Vessel
SV Sailing Vessel
SY Sailing Yacht or Steam Yacht
TEV Turbine Electric Vessel
TIV Turbine Installation Vessel
TS Training Ship
TSS Turbine Steam Ship or Twin Screw Steamer
TV Training vessel
there are also prefixes for certain countries (USS would be United States Ship, FS is French Ship, JDS is Japan Defense Ship, HMS is His/Her Majesty's Ship/Submarine, ect) | [
"Royal Navy ships in commission are prefixed since 1789 with Her Majesty's Ship (His Majesty's Ship), abbreviated to \"HMS\"; for example, . Submarines are styled HM Submarine, also abbreviated \"HMS\". Names are allocated to ships and submarines by a naming committee within the MOD and given by class, with the nam... |
how did joel olsteen end up with a net worth of $57 million, despite average preachor wages being around $50,000? | Predominantly through book sales. He's been investigated and was found to have crossed all the t's and dotted the i's. He's a dick but keeps clean books. | [
"On March 30, 2012, Luebke agreed to a four-year extension with the Padres worth a guaranteed $12 million that includes 2 club options for 2016 and 2017. He received a $500,000 bonus for the deal. He earned $0.5 million in 2012, $1 million in 2013, $3 million in 2014 and $5.25 million in 2015. His 2016 option was w... |
Does distance affect heat produced from light? | The amount of energy an object will receive per unit of time (power) from a light source certainly does change with distance but the size (and even sign) of the effect depends on the nature of the light source.
Lets start off with a normal point source like a light bulb. The light leaving the bulb at any given time expands outward at the same speed in *all* directions. You can visualize this as a spherical shells centered about and expanding from the light source. As you move further and further from the bulb these shell gets larger and larger, so for energy to be conserved the power per unit area has to continually decrease. The area of a sphere increases with its radius squared, so for the total energy to be held constant the power per unit area has to fall off like the distance from the light source squared. If an object was 30 units away from the source but now is 60 units away it is going to receive (30/60)^2 = 1/4 as much power.
The case of the laser is a bit more complicated because laser light is collimated and does not radiate evenly in all directions. The exact outcome would depend on how the light from that particular laser is focused. The fundamental laws of optics prevent any laser from being perfectly collimated so far from the laser the power per area will always fall off in a manner very close to the distance from the source squared. If you are close to the laser it may fall off much slower though or in some situations the power may actually temporarily increase as you move away from the source (if the laser beam is focused near your object).
Lastly, it should be noted that there are many factors that effect the temperature of an object. It would certainly not scale proportionally with the power received by a nearby light source, although receiving more power would certainly lead to a higher temperature measurement. | [
"BULLET::::- He consolidated and enhanced the results of Desains, Forbes, Knoblauch and others demonstrating that the principal properties of visible light can be reproduced for radiant heat – namely reflection, refraction, diffraction, polarisation, depolarisation, double refraction, and rotation in a magnetic fie... |
why do we go through so much security to get on an airplane but virtually none for any other mass transit? | Mostly not especially logical hysteria post 9/11 for things like taking off your shoes and not bringing liquids. But airplanes have always had more security because airplanes are more vulnerable to attack and hijacking (which is what people *used* to be afraid of before terroists slammed them into skyscrapers) since they're so hard to operate.
If I want to take over a plane, I can kill the pilot and copilot and then essentially everyone on the plane is fucked. Best case scenario, after I'm subdued, an untrained person does an emergency landing and *maybe* doesn't kill everyone.
If I want to take over a cruise ship - so what? If I kill the captain, the boat floats there quietly for a while before the coast guard comes. Even if I manage to try and sink the damn thing, life rafts and the immediate availability of rescue are much safer than maybe slamming into the ground at 200mph.
Same thing with trains - you can derail them, but you don't need to be on them to do that. Otherwise if the conductor dies or is incapacitated, you can generally stop the train just by pulling a lever and then everyone just gets off. | [
"Air transportation security in the United States is regulated by the TSA, an agency of the US Department of Homeland Security. Passengers must provide a valid federal or state-issued ID in order to be allowed onto a flight. A person must also go through a pat-down procedure or a body scan before boarding a flight ... |
(or like... hs): why does my stomach get upset when i'm stressed? | stress is a response left over from the era when it was very likely for a lion (or some guy who wants our food) to try to kill us with very little warning. so when you feel like a lion could pop out at any moment, you become stressed. when you are stressed, your body's long term functions (digestion, immune system, cell growth) start to shut down in favor of your short term functions (running fast, reaction time, breathing). so when a lion finally did jump at you, you could run away faster then if you were trying to digest your food at the same time.
however, that situation doesn't happen as much in america. instead of lions, we have things like morgages and shitty jobs. your body has the same stress reaction to these situations is it does to a lion, however, unlike a lion, these problems will remain for years at a time. so your body is in full stress mode 24/7, ready for it's fight-or-flight response, and feels like that is more important then digesting you hamburger, which will just sit there for much longer then it should. | [
"One explanation for the connection between inflammation and depression symptoms, is that depression is a disorder that stems from immune responses across the body. Due in large part to the systems that bring them about both involving the same pro-inflammatory cytokines, the suggestion is that strong or prolonged ... |
why are g-protein receptors the target for more than half of the drugs? | G-protein receptors are very common receptors that need to be activated in order to trigger a cascade of reactions within the cell. They are involved in a large amount of common processes that can often go wrong in people (e.g. inflammation, glucose homeostasis, etc.). This makes an obvious target for drugs because they stop these processes completely (because binding of G-protein receptors is often the first step) and they are easy to target because you just need a complementary molecule that can be transported in blood. | [
"G protein-coupled receptors comprise a large protein family of transmembrane receptors. They are found only in eukaryotes. The ligands which bind and activate these receptors include: photosensitive compounds, odors, pheromones, hormones, and neurotransmitters. These vary in size from small molecules to peptides a... |
Does flushing help or hinder a drought? | The problem with flushing is that you then fill your tank back up and use more water. If you live in an area with a drought, you should use less water, including flushing less regularly, taking shorter showers, turning off the water while brushing your teeth/washing you face, etc. | [
"Drought can cause plants to suffer from water stress and wilt. Adequate irrigation is required during prolonged hot, dry periods. Rather than shallow daily watering, during a drought water should be directed towards the roots, ensuring that the soil is thoroughly soaked two or three times a week. Mulches also help... |
why do people feel mentally clear when fasting? | When you're fasting, the brain gets energy from ketone bodies instead of sugar, and some people experience mental clarity that way. [Some people use a ketogenic diet for epilepsy relief](_URL_0_) and adding supplemental ketones to the diet of Navy divers [prevents seizures related to oxygen toxicity.](_URL_1_)
The ketogenic diet is essentially the Atkins diet- your metabolism runs on ketones whether you're burning your own fat or eating fat. It is a high fat diet, which causes weight loss because it suppresses hunger, so it is easy to keep total calorie intake low. | [
"The act of fasting represents the condition experienced by the needy, who although already hungry must also fast for Ramadan. Muslims fast by denying themselves food, water and all related sexual activity with their spouses, but people with chronic diseases or unhealthy conditions such as diabetes, and children ar... |
What is the best Frederick the Great biography? | Iron Kingdom by Christopher Clark is more the general history of Prussia in 800 pages, from the Hohenzollern family all the way to the post-WWII division of Germany. While not specifically about Frederick the Great, it includes lots of material about the man and his rule. Great citation material for projects about Germany.
_URL_0_ | [
"One of his most influential books is \"Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor\", first published in England in 1988 and reprinted many times in several Italian editions. Here he looks at an iconic figure from the Middle Ages from a new perspective, criticizing the views of the famous German historian Ernst Kantorowicz c... |
Song Dynasty China was said to be close to an industrial revolution. Was there anything "lost" during periods afterwards? Was the Song really more likely to industrialize than it's successors? | I would point you to the answers that others and I made in this [thread](_URL_0_) regarding Song state institutions, the role it played in the Song's tremendous economic growth, and how later dynasty's diverged from the Song model.
I would also add that the Song was birthed from a unique period of time in Chinese history - the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. After the Anshi Rebellion, the military governors (*fanzhen*) carved out semi-independent fiefdoms for themselves and deprived the central government of the land tax revenue. This forced the state to become more creative in its taxation policies and the state began to rely increasingly on indirect taxation. The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, during which China was divided into several competing states, accelerated this process. Much of the Song's policies and practices can be traced from this period in time. Interstate competition did not disappear with the rise of the Song, as it faced strong enemies to the north and west (Khitans, Jurchens, Tanguts), and this competition paved the way for innovations in finance, economic policy, and military technology. By contrast, the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties never faced strong adversaries and therefore lacked the need to innovate. | [
"During the Song Dynasty (960–1279), the country experienced a revolution in agriculture, water transport, finance, urbanization, science and technology, which made the Chinese economy the most advanced in the world from about 1100. Mastery of wet-field rice cultivation opened up the hitherto underdeveloped south o... |
Can complex life evolve on a moon? | The earth has lots of variation too; 24-hour day/night cycle, tilted axis causing seasonal changes, and the distance to the sun varies something like 5 million kilometers throughout the year. The reason why those changes aren't too bad for life, is because we have an atmosphere to help equalize the temperatures. With an atmosphere it takes longer to heat things up and longer to cool things down, and heat can spread around more evenly, so as long as there is at least *some* reasonable variations the atmosphere will stay within reasonable limits. If there is no atmosphere, then the difference between day and night is extreme. Variation is actually good for a climate: planets that are tidally locked to their star have one side that is extremely hot, and one side extremely cold. Moons can never tidally locked to the parent star!
And specifically:
Oscillating distance (orbit): That's a negligible effect. For example, Europa only oscillates between extremes of about 1.2 million kilometers. The eccentrically of the parent planet's orbit is a much larger effect, and remember that the earth's distance varies a bit more, and it doesn't effect climate much at all. Also, the orbit of Europa is only a few days, so any difference is averaged out decently anyway. Why? Because if you imagine a really long period of oscillation, you'll have long periods of time where its too hot or too cold (assuming the effect is even that great), shorter is better.
Eclipses: Just adds a bit more complexity to the day/night cycle, but with a slight bias towards more night. Interestingly, if the moon is tidally locked (which most of them are) then only half of the moon would observe the eclipses. The the frequent eclipses would make things a bit colder on average, but the extra variation wouldn't matter much. | [
"Lathe's research has led him to develop a theory that without the Moon, there would be no life on Earth. When life began, Earth orbited much more closely to the Moon than it does now, causing massive tides every few hours, which in turn caused rapid cycling of salinity levels on coastlines and may have driven the ... |
why do some artists choose not to upload their singles on youtube, even ones that are decades old? wouldn't they make lots of money from advertisement? | A lot of songs are not property of the artist themselves, who would probably love to be making money off their own work.. | [
"Due to file sharing via the Internet and changing consumer markets, the number of records an artist has sold is not necessarily indicative of how popular or important that artist is. There are Swedish hip hop acts who release records for what they know is going to be an economic loss, in hope of earning their mone... |
if i put a candle on fire and a bug and put them under a glass cup..when the fire depleates all the oxygen inside will the bug eventualy die suficating? | I flame needs approx 13% oxygen to sustain the flame, I have no idea what an insect needs to sustain life. | [
"Joseph Priestley, a chemist and minister, discovered that, when he isolated a volume of air under an inverted jar, and burned a candle in it (which gave off CO), the candle would burn out very quickly, much before it ran out of wax. He further discovered that a mouse could similarly \"injure\" air. He then showed ... |
how do bees track a missing queen? | Pheromones! The worker bees can smell their queen. They use chemical signals, especially wheb distressed. That queen is probably very scared and all the workers are trying to protect her because they can smell her fear. | [
"For those who don't know, the queen excluder is a series of parallel wires placed closely together in a bee hive. It sits between the lower brood boxes and the upper supers, the boxes where the honey is stored. It functions to keep the queen from laying eggs in the boxes that contain the honey in them. She's too b... |
why cans/tins of foods such as soup and fruit, as well as jars of food, are mainly cylindrical rather than other forms, such as cuboidal. | Canning involves changing the pressure on the inside of the vessel, and using a shape that has edges makes those points weak spots which could collapse, crack, or break. By being round, all the pressure on them is distributed equally around, like an archway in a stone wall. It's also one of the most efficient storage shapes that has little wasted space but is still able to bear weight when stacking. | [
"Cans come in a variety of shapes: two common ones are the \"soup tin\" and the \"tuna tin\". Walls are often stiffened with rib bulges, especially on larger cans, to help the can resist dents that can cause seams to split.\n",
"Most cans are right circular cylinders with identical and parallel round tops and bot... |
the difference between philology and linguistics. | There's definitely a (venn diagram style) overlap. Linguistics primarily questions the relation of signifier (sign/sound/the noise that comes out of your mouth when you say the word "tree"/the 4 letters T R E E next to each other on a page) and signified (the actual physical living tree that you can see and touch) and the way that meaning is created in this relationship between object and sign and how that meaning is conveyed to others. Also the way that signs/objects are arranged in relation to other signs/objects in a system called grammar. Linguistics could also be considered a branch of semiotics (which considers meaning with and without language {the way meaning is created by the arrangement of utensils beside a plate, for example}).
Philology incorporates linguistics but restricts itself to the study of written text, not oral communication. It also connotes the study both of older/classical texts and the history/development of language. Sort of as opposed to literary theory/criticism, which might consider the history of literature but not necessarily the history of language. Like I said, those are just connotations, not absolutes.
So linguistics is "broader" (more media {written, verbal}) than philology, but philology is "deeper" (history, translation). Again, there's a lot of overlap and I just made a whole lot of generalizations, so don't take that like it's written in stone. Although if it was written in stone, it would probably be a philologist, not a linguist, studying it. | [
"Philology is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics. Philology is more commonly defined as the study of literary texts as well as oral and written records, the establishment of their authenticity and th... |
what exactly happened to make julian assange and wikileaks go from loved to hated? | He didn't go from loved to hated. He was and remains incredibly divisive. People tend to have very polarised views and either love or hate him.
What he did, and continues to do, is release private (often classified) information from governments, corporations and organisations. He is variously viewed as a vigilante, a traitor, a whistleblower or a hero. Really, it depends on whom you ask.
| [
"On April 11, 2019 Assange was arrested after being taken from the Ecuadorian embassy. The U.S in the Justice Department believes that with the position at Wikileaks during the 2016 elections he had a key role in the Russian attack on the 2016 elections. During the same election had had released DNC staff flies as ... |
Is there any historical documents or autobiographies of what it was like being a king? | I immediately thought of the "political last wills" or "political testaments" that have been written by various rulers throughout the ages. Depending on the individual text they fluctuate between self-justification, political autobiography, philosophical musings about the nature of monarchical rule and recommendations/suggestions for their respective successors. Most of the examples I am familiar with hit all four of those to varying degrees. I'm haven't read yet any scholarship that tries to take a general look at those testaments as a genre, however, so I can't really comment on anything they might have in common. I'll quote short excerpts out of three early modern examples, however, which I feel show well what these documents' intentions were and what you can find in them.
*Meine Gedanken* (My Thoughts) by Duchess Anna Amalia of Saxony-Weimar and Eisenach, c. 1758. Anna Amalia was only eighteen years old when her husband's sudden death forced her to take the throne; she wrote the following shortly afterwards:
> *When I look back at my childhood, that springtime of my life, what do I see? An ever-recurring round of sacrifice made for others. I was not loved by my parents, who on every occasion kept me in the background, my brothers and sistes being always considered first. I was treated, in fact, like an outcast, and yet Thou, O my Creator, hast endowed me with a sensitive, loving heart, which suffered misery from this want of tenderness and pined for affection. I was starving for love, and I reveived the hard crust of mere duty. \[...\] Never did I pray with such devotion as I did in this my hour of need. I believe I might have become a saint. The situation was indeed peculiar. So young to be regent, to command, to rule, I, who all my life had been humiliated, depressed. I am afraid that after a little time I began to look upon my position with a certain amount of vanity. But a secret voice whispered: "Beware!" I heard it, and my better reason came to help. Truth and self-love struggled for the mastery, and the truth prevailed \[...\] I longed for success - for praise. I also felt the absolute need I had of a friend, in whom I could place entire confidence. IThere were several who sought to be my confidants or my advisers. Some tried flattery, others commended themselves by a show of sincerity, but in none could I detect the ring of true affection which is above all temptations. If a prince and the individual he selects as an intimate or confidant are both noble-minded, the sincerest affection may exist between them; and this is the only way to answer the question, "Can kings have true friends?"*
Archduchess Maria Theresia of Austria wrote her political testament at about the same time, but her situation was very different. She took office in 1740 after her father's death when she was 23 years old and almost immediately found herself embroiled in a series of devastating wars which directly threatend her realm's very existence. Eighteen years later she put some of her thoughts about that crisis to paper (translation is mine):
> *Out of motherly care and for the benefit of my posterity written Points of Instruction, which I divided in various chapters depending on their importance.*
>
> *The first chapter is to describe the domestic and foreign political state of the monarchy, as I found it to be when I began my rule.*
>
> *The second describes the abuses which gradually built up in this Austrian monarchy under the rule of my ancestors.*
>
> *The third chapter deals with the nine year long and burdensome war and why I decided to eventually bring it to an end.*
>
> *The fourth tells about the changes I effected at court and in my realm after said peace.*
>
> *The fifth shows the great benefit and use of those changes, as those are the only way to strengthen the monarchy and keep it for my successors.*
>
> *The sixth chapter describes the necessity to keep those changes in order to avert your own downfall, and what my successors should pay attention to to that end.*
>
> *The unexpected and sorrowful death of my father was that much more painful for me not only because I venerated and loved him as a father, but also because I saw myself as his lowest vassal and him as my lord and ruler and therefore felt twofold loss and pain. Back then I lacked the experience and knowledge to rule this large and widely spread realm, since my father had never thought to involve me in the domestic or foreign policy of his or at least inform me of it, and so I suddenly and all at once found myself bereft of money, troops and good counsel.*
\[She goes on to tell in great detail of how dependent she was on the counsel of the ministers she had inherited from her father, and how lacking she found it in many aspects, and then proceeds to the next chapters\]
> *Sixth Chapter*
>
> *\[...\] I can give my successors no other advise than to not let themselves be led into confusion, as many advisors are in fact led by their own interests. I myself would have been led astray while implementing aforementioned changes due to so many interjections and news if I hadn't taken great efforts to learn about and truly understand the affairs myself; for this reason I find it necessary to ask my successors to not change anything about the changes I implemented and instead protect and conserve them for the best of the monarchy and for its continuing existence. To that end they should especially pay attention to find honest and qualified people as well as teach young people so that those can learn about the affairs of state themselves and will be able to faithfully serve the prince and the people, and to do so well.*
And the last one is a short excerpt from the political testament of Maria Theresia's greatest enemy, King Frederick II of Prussia who was the first to invade her realm not even three months after she had taken the throne. Frederick wrote this testament in 1752 and again rewrote and extended it in 1768 (again my translation).
> *Every citizen's foremost duty is to serve his fatherland. I tried to fulfill this duty througout my life. As the person with the highest authority in the state I had the opportunity and the possibility to make myself useful for my fellow citizens. My love to them instills in me the wish to continue serving them even after my death. But I am not so arrogant as to think that I myself should be the only ideal my successors should try to emulate. I know, that death destroys man all as his plans, and that everything in the world is subject to change. With this political testament I only try to tell my experiences to those who follow me, akin to a captain who knows the stormy areas in the sea of politics. I shall detail the cliffs which are to be avoided, and the harbours where my successors can find safety. \[...\]*
>
> *Amongst all provinces in Europe there are none which would be a better fit for our state than Saxony, Polish Prussia and Swedish Pomerania, as all three would fill the gaps in our borders. \[...\] \[Polish Prussia\] separates Prussia from Pomerania and prevents us from protecting the former due to the difficulties provided by the river Weichsel there, as well as the possibility of Russian attacks via the Danzig harbour \[...\] I don't think that war would be the best way to add this province to our kingdom, and I tend to tell you the same what King Victor Amadeus of Sicily told Charles Emanuel: "My son, you have to eat Milan like an artichocke, leave by leave." Poland is an elective monarchy which always falls into disorder when its king dies. This is the time to benefit from that, and to win by virtue of our neutrality here a city, there a district, until it is swallowed in its entirety. Those lucky enough to bring that acquisition to its end will without doubt want to fortify Thorn, Elbing and Marienwerder as well as found smaller towns and places along the Weichsel, which shall thwart any attempts Russia makes against us. It is true that its regular troops needn't be feared, but its Kalmyks and Tartars are murderous and savage hordes which rampage through the lands and take entire peoples into captivity \[...\]*
I hope that helps a bit! Political testaments are certainly a fascinating source, but like everything else they need to be read carefully and between the lines and they are always to be seen both as an attempt of a monarch to control his or her public image even after death as well as direct advice intended for their successors so that they might continue what the author had begun. | [
"The first king who appears in multiple early sources is Bridei son of Maelchon, and kings from the later 6th century onwards may be considered historical as their deaths are generally reported in Irish sources.\n",
"Baile Chuind Chétchathaig (\"The Vision of Conn of the Hundred Battles\") is an Old Irish list of... |
the feeling of "touch" on a molecular level. | When you touch something the cell walls of your nerves are stretched (think pushing on a balloon). Protein complexes in the cell walls of your nerves are stretched as well. This stretching opens a channel down the middle of the protein and let's ions from outside the cell in. The change in voltage of the cell results in the nerve firing a signal which travels to your brain where something something processing something something consciousness. | [
"The sense of touch, or tactile perception, is what allows organisms to feel the world around them. The environment acts as an external stimulus, and tactile perception is the act of passively exploring the world to simply sense it. To make sense of the stimuli, an organism will undergo active exploration, or hapti... |
why does a small cloud form at the top of a newly-opened, cold soda bottle? | The rapid depressurization lowers the vapor pressure of that little volume of air in the top of the bottle, and the humidity in that air rapidly condenses into that little cloud. | [
"The conversion of dissolved carbon dioxide to gaseous carbon dioxide forms rapidly expanding gas bubbles in the soda, which pushes the beverage contents out of the container. Gases, in general, are more soluble in liquids at elevated pressures. Carbonated sodas contain elevated levels of carbon dioxide under press... |
how are gift cards validated and activated at checkout? are their serial numbers stored in a database and then marked as activated? how are they activated when their numbers haven’t been scratched off? | Point of sale system (POS) scans a barcode on the gift card. This barcode is specific to the gift card, and allows the card to be identified without the card number or pin.
The retailer accepts cash, the POS records a transaction on the retailers ledger. Then, the POS sends the transaction information to the gift card company, this activates the card.
Source: worked in retail.
| [
"Some card issuers also use activation-during-shopping (ADS), in which cardholders who are not registered with the scheme are offered the opportunity of signing up (or forced into signing up) during the purchase process. This will typically take them to a form in which they are expected to confirm their identity by... |
how to calculate mechanical advantage of a pulley system | ratio 500/10 = 50 , answer b
If they show a diagram the trick is to imagine the load raised by 1cm and follow how many cm of rope you could pull free as a result·
Simplest machines:
- inclined plane
- pulley
- lever (3 classes of lever)
| [
"Some mechanical linear actuators only pull, such as hoists, chain drive and belt drives. Others only push (such as a cam actuator). Pneumatic and hydraulic cylinders, or lead screws can be designed to generate force in both directions.\n",
"Pulleys were constructed of wood, iron, steel or a combination thereof. ... |
why are companies who get fined by the government fined for so little? | Because the fines are set, in part, by a combination of laws designed for older currency values, and also in part by lobbies in the industry pulling for smaller wrist-slaps. | [
"Companies that do not comply with the restrictive trade practices provisions of CCA may be fined by the Federal Court. There are three ways the maximum fine can be calculated. The maximum possible fine is the larger of A$10,000,000; or three times the value of the illegal benefit; or (if the value of the benefit c... |
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