question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
|---|---|---|
how countries like egypt and jordan can seek and destroy isis within days/hours after their countrymens' executions, and yet the us and other more powerful enemies of isis seem to have trouble locating them? | Most of the time we have no problems finding who we are looking for. the problem is how to deploy troops to go resolve the problem. in a lot of cases we find them in a "not so internationally friendly way" so we have to create a story to allow us to engage the mission or wait until we have a story or a reason to be in that area. talking to them in some instances isn't as easy as it would seem because they may have informants within the ranks. Source: Former 96B | [
"Egypt employs a \"shoot to stop\" policy against refugees attempting to continue to Israel. According to Human Rights Watch, over 50 refugees, including women and children, have been shot by Egyptian border guards since 2007.\n",
"BULLET::::- 16 February: Egypt retaliated against ISIL for the beheading of 21 Egy... |
In the movie Kingdom of Heaven, Saladin is depicted as having a chest full of ice in his tent in the middle of the desert. How would he have gotten ahold of ice and preserved it? | This has been asked a few times before:
like [here ](_URL_1_) with an answer by /u/Eireika
and [another one](_URL_0_) with a nested comment by /u/Valkine adding the the scene was probably a creative freedom, mixing a historical known ice gift from Saladin elsewhere into the movies setting.
tl;dr: ice could be harvested and transported isolated with hay and sawdust and stored in specialized buildings and pits but conditions of practicality and cost apply. | [
"The Boneless King captures Shimmer, Monkey, and Indigo. They manage to escape and attempt to retrieve Baldy's cauldron, in which Thorn's soul is now sealed. However the Boneless King turns the tables on them and traps them in a cavern beneath Egg Mountain where he was formerly imprisoned with the river poisoned an... |
How much autonomy did the Republics of the USSR have? | The Republics had varying degrees of autonomy. Never much. Citizens of the Republics had varying degrees of rights. Thus it was possible for the residents of some Republics to easily visit Moscow, while a citizen of Moscow might have trouble visiting the same Republic. | [
"The first Soviet republics were short-lived communist revolutionary governments that were established in what had been the Russian Empire after the October Revolution and under its influence. These states included some such as the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic which... |
why do we feel the urge to destroy things when we're angry? | Anger management therapist here. People usually get angry in response to feelings of vulnerability and disempowerment. Any situation where someone gets angry, they are also probably feeling something like hurt, insecure, disrespected, invalidated, betrayed, frustrated, threatened, the list goes on. Anger allows you to get some of that power back and direct those negative feelings outward on to someone/something else (e.g. destroying something). This often makes people feel better in the short term, even though there are typically long term consequences of acting aggressively. Also, when I say this can make people feel better, the anger and aggression is sometimes identified as relatively better than sitting with feelings of vulnerability and powerlessness. Emotions are subjective and there are tons of individual differences between people. This is a ELI5 thread.
Edit: Added a couple words to more explicitly address OP's question about destroying objects and to clarify the perceived benefits of aggression versus sitting with powerlessness.
| [
"Self-destructive behavior is formed by a repetitive bad habit that is ultimately caused by a preadolescent event that makes them act out in such ways. These past events act as barriers that causes one to feel insecure about a specific situation or event. When this happens, it causes their emotions to be sporadic a... |
Wednesday Week in History | Sept. 11 - Sept. 17 | On 11 September 1973, the Chilean coup d'état left democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende dead, a military junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet in power, and thousands of Allende supporters, including famed *nueva canción* singer Víctor Jara, rounded up, tortured, and murdered.
The coup was a long time in the coming, and was orchestrated by the Chilean right, the CIA, the U.S. Department of State, and various multinational corporations, including copper mining companies like Anaconda, Kennecott, and Cerro Grande, and, perhaps most significantly, the ITT Corporation, a communications giant. The ITT Corporation cut Henry Kissinger a blank check, to be used to destabilize Allende, though it's unknown how much Kissinger took from them.
Salvador Allende had stood for election several times before his victory in 1970, and was President of the Senate at the time of his election to the presidency. Allende headed the leftist *Unidad Popular* coalition. The two other political groups of note were the National Party and the Christian Democrats. Immediately after Allende's election, the CIA attempted a two-pronged plan to block him from assuming power. Phase I entailed bribing and threatening Chilean congressmen to get them to block Allende's election, while Phase II entailed CIA agents impersonating Department of Defense officials and threatening the Chilean military with a complete cutting-off of aid if they didn't violently stop Allende. Both plans failed, and Allende assumed office as planned.
Salvador Allende's presidency was characterized by the nationalization of key industries, the collectivization of factories directly by workers, the expansion of labor rights, and the building of programs meant to radically decrease poverty and inequality. It was also characterized by a series of economic crises, provoked by U.S. President Nixon's program of trying to make the Chilean economy "scream" and an opposition trucker strike (funded by the ITT Corporation and the CIA). As Allende ran into more and more roadblocks, workers began collectivizing factories themselves. As the military acted independently, it went around harassing and repressing these factory workers.
The serious economic crises were meant to disillusion the Chilean people with Salvador Allende and the UP. However, the 1973 parliamentary elections showed a marked increase for the UP, from Allende's 36.63% of the Presidential vote in 1970 (in a three-way race) to 43.7% of the vote in the Chamber of Deputies, to the 29.2% of the Christian Democrats and the 21.7% of the National Party. The UP, as a coalition, consisted of several parties, most significantly the Socialist Party and Communist Party, under Allende's banner. The U.S. Department of State saw this as critical, warning that the UP would likely win the next presidential election as well; evidence that Allende needed to be stopped immediately.
When the coup came, on 11 September 1973, the Chilean military began to shell the Presidential Palace. Allende was called upon to surrender, but he refused to do so. He ordered others to leave, and then gave his final speech, under fire, in which he remained defiant. His now famous ending, "Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers!" was the last the people would ever hear from their President. Allende was killed by a shot to the head in controversial circumstances. The official account (of the coup perpetrators) was that he shot himself in the head with an AK-47 he had been given by Fidel Castro. Many dispute this, saying that he was murdered, but the position of the current government of Chile is that he shot himself. In either case, he can be said to have been killed by the coup, I would say, as if he killed himself, it was only to avoid torture and murder at the hands of the military.
The coup enjoyed the support of the leaders of the National Party and the Christian Democrats, as well as their delegates and senators, though it was certainly not within any representative's electoral mandate to overthrow the democratically elected president. The coup, from its first moments, was accompanied by rounding up Allende supporters. Many were taken to the National Stadium, as well as other football stadiums and various military institutions, where they were imprisoned, beaten, tortured, and murdered in their thousands. Among these was Víctor Jara, Chile's most famous musician and noted Allende supporter, who sang for his fellow prisoners, even after his hands were broken, until he was tortured to death. What followed was a regime of complete repression of all socialists, communists, and other dissidents. Despite the initial support of the coup by the political elite, Pinochet dissolved the political parties and ruled as dictator.
Pinochet was eventually removed from office by national plebiscite, and a few years later ceased to be the head of the military. He took shelter in Britain, which protected him from international prosecution for crimes against humanity. While electoral democracy has returned to Chile, the scars certainly remain for many people, including PTSD for survivors of the torture and those who lived in fear of it every day for years. Much of the legacy of the coup remains unresolved, and the Chilean government prefers not to speak of it. The victory of the coup and dictatorship can be seen in the fact that the socialist movement in Chile was effectively destroyed, and remains smaller and in more disarray today, after so many years of repression.
**Suggested Reading**
* Harmer, Tanya. *Allende’s Chile & the Inter-American Cold War*. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
* Qureshi, Lubna. *Nixon, Kissinger, and Allende: U.S. Involvement in the 1973 Coup in Chile*. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2009.
* [National Security Archive - Documents](_URL_0_) (Hit "Latin America")
* [The Kissinger Cables](_URL_1_) (Search "Chile", "Allende", or "Pinochet") | [
"BULLET::::- August 12 – President Johnson signs Proclamation 3799, designating \"the period of November 5 through November 11, 1967, as American Education Week\" and calling \"upon the American people to celebrate the achievements of their educational system, and to dedicate themselves to making it still more resp... |
can someone explain aleph-null to me like i'm 5? | First some vocabulary: if you have a collection of things in it, we call the number of things the "cardinality" of the collection.
This is fine if you only have finitely many things; the cardinality is just whatever number you have. But what if you have an infinite number of things? It turns out that infinity isn't a really well defined idea; there are different "sizes" of infinity. The smallest of these, we call Aleph-null. What is it? It's the infinity that you can count. If you can take all of your infinite things and mark them "first, second, third" and so on, then we say you have "countably many" of them and that the cardinality of your set is Aleph-null. For a first example, the counting numbers themselves. For a second example, the *even* counting numbers; call 2 the first, 4 the second, and so on. If you continue numbering them this way then eventually every even counting number would be given a position. Thus, even though there are "more" counting numbers than even counting numbers (twice as many, the evens and the odds), they are both sets with cardinality Aleph-null; this is one of the very weird things about infinity—if you have an infinite number of something and take away some, even an infinite amount, you might still have an infinite number left over.
It turns out that some collections (like the collection of all real numbers, which includes things like pi and the square root of 2) are *bigger* than Aleph-null; if you assigned every counting number to one of them—said "this is the first, this is the second" and so on, so that given any counting number you could identify the number in that position—there would still be some that you missed. In fact, there would be more of them without numbers assigned to them than there were *with* numbers assigned to them. The set has cardinality *greater* than Aleph-null. | [
"In morphology, a null morpheme or zero morpheme is a morpheme that has no phonetic form. In simpler terms, a null morpheme is an \"invisible\" affix. It is a concept useful for analysis, by contrasting null morphemes with alternatives that do have some phonetic realization. The null morpheme is represented as eith... |
why are domestic power outlets in the united states 120v? is there any story behind that convention? | Basically, it's because old light bulbs sucked. America was quite a ways ahead of the rest of the world when it came to early electricity and was about to make good lightbulbs that ran at 120 volts. If it was upped to 240 (which is easier to transmit long distances), they would burn out pretty quickly.
By the time Europe got into building their electrical infrastructure, 240 volt bulbs were good enough that they could just use straight 240v. But by this time, America already had the standard of 120.
Sauce: _URL_0_
\* Japan is the only other country (edit: that I could think of at the time of original typing) that uses 120v electricity, but I don't know the story behind that. | [
"CERC and State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) are the two electricity regulators – one operating at the central level and the other at various state levels. CERC’s primary function was to regulate the tariffs of central generating stations as well as for all interstate generation, transmission and supply... |
When did Norman England no longer associate with the French monarchy? | So, basically, it depends on what you mean by "associate."
The Kingdom of England was never considered part of the Kingdom of France or subordinate to it. English kings and property owners were not bound to the king of France under any kind of "feudal" ties. The Anglo-Norman, Angevin, and Plantagenet kings of England, however, were also major landowners *within* the Kingdom of France. Obviously William the Conqueror was the duke of Normandy, but his descendants acquired a vast swathe of western France through inheritance and marriage, becoming also the dukes of Aquitaine and Gascony and the counts of Anjou, Maine, Nantes, and Poitiers. The English kings (theoretically) owed fealty to the French kings for their French lands, but in practice a state resembling the Cold War prevailed throughout much of the second half of the 12th centuries.
On the lower level, during the 11th-12th centuries, almost all major English landowners were of Norman, Breton, Flemish, or French origin and owned property on both sides of the channel. Because they were subjects of both kings, they theoretically owed loyalty and service to both kings; in practice, these great men were out for their own ends and were more than willing to manipulate, quarrel with, scheme against, and sell out their kings when the situation called for it.
The English kings lost most of their French possessions in the first two decades of the 13th century. Following the death of Richard I, the French invaded and seized Normandy and Aquitaine. Anglo-Norman lords were faced with a choice: abandon their French property and keep their English, or the opposite. At the conclusion of the war, the English crown was left only with Gascony and a bit of Poitou, and the permanent connection to Normandy was severed. However, the English aristocracy would continue to speak Anglo-Norman (a dialect of old French) for at least another century. | [
"After the Norman conquest in 1066, Anglo-Norman replaced English as the official language of England. However, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Plantagenet kings of England lost most of their possessions in France, began to consider England to be their primary domain, and turned to the English langu... |
Who was Mikhail Kalinin and how did he survive Stalin's purges as the Soviet head of state? | Mikhail Kalinin certainly was something of an odd-duck in the Stalinist state apparatus. Despite the massive cult of personality surrounding the General Secretary, Kalinin was nominally the head of the Soviet state. His Old Bolshevik background was also atypical by the late 1930s as some of the more prominent veterans of the RSDLP died during the Purges. But in this regard Kalinin was not alone; Kagonovich, Voroshilov, and Mikoyan were also Old Bolsheviks and survived the Purges. These men were a part of what the historians Stephen Wheatcraft and Sheila Fitzpatrick have termed "Team Stalin," a circle of Bolshevik veterans and managers that cut their teeth in the Lenin period and managed to ensconce themselves into Stalin's decision-making process. Rather than act as a tyrant, Stalin often preferred pushing a consensus among informal meetings in his offices and then delegating to his team to carry out the consensus he had forced. Although the Stalinist decision-making process was capricious and missteps could be fatal, it was not that much different from the type of collective leadership of the Lenin era where Lenin as the first among equals would bend decisions towards his own ends. Kalinin owed his survival both to the dynamics of Stalin's executive system and the role he played inside of it.
For the Team, Kalinin was a source of both stability and consensus-building among Stalin's servitors. Although Kalinin, like Voroshilov, had toyed with Bukharin's plan to oust Stalin as General Secretary in, both men backed out at the last minute. Since this abortive maneuverings in the mid-1920s, Kalinin became less active in internal political debates and his peasant-background meant he often dispensed folky wisdom in meetings rather than hard policy. Kalinin's own advanced age and sociability helped further endear him to members of the Team as a force that brought much needed social lubrication to a tense and informal situation. Kalinin emerged as something of a village peasant elder in these meetings, giving his assent (in practice meaningless in light of Stalin's power) that managed impart a homespun quality to these decisions.
But beyond the internal politics of the Team, Kalinin was also useful for the wider project of Soviet power. Not only did his titular head of the Soviet state deflect charges of an individualistic dictatorship, albeit imperfectly, but his age and peasant ways was a popular form of politics in the 1930s. After Stalin, Kalinin received the greatest volume of personal petitions from Soviet citizens. His persona as the "all-union peasant elder", carefully cultivated by both Kalinin and the Soviet state, meant that a good number of the peasantry saw him as a friendly voice in the corridors of Soviet power. This popularity was obviously of great utility for Stalin as it gave sanction to his various collectivization initiatives since the state's "first peasant" agreed with them. Additionally, Kalinin's role as the titular head of state allowed him to act in a ceremonial position for dignitaries in Moscow when Stalin was unable to meet with them His affability and age lent lent a degree of dignity to the Kremlin and Supreme Soviet, and masked the increasing cult of personality that Kalinin rubber-stamped.
This does not mean that Kalinin operated without any fear of Stalin in the 1930s. He had earned a public rebuke from the dictator during collectivization and the *Holodomor* for being too close to the peasantry in 1930. More dangerously, Beria had Kalinin's wife, Ekaterina Lorberg, arrested in the fall of 1938 on charges of anti-Soviet activity and received a 15 year Gulag sentence. Lorberg's arrest was likely a fishing expedition on Beria's part to gain ammunition against Kalinin, but Loberg had little in the way of a formal relationship with her husband. The couple had lived apart for years and whatever material Beria obtained remained in his files.
Kalinin remained as titular head of state through the Second World War. His age and eventual blindness further restricted his activities in this period, and it became obvious to many that he was nowhere near the levers of power. While he may have posed a threat to Stalin early on in the dictatorship, such a threat had rapidly decreased with Kalinin's own infirmities and level-headed recognition of Stalin's ascendancy. Other Old Bolsheviks like Bukharin were not so old as Kalinin and were thus were a threat that Stalin needed to eliminate or neutralize.
*Sources*
Fitzpatrick, Sheila. *On Stalin's Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics*. Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2015.
Getty, J. Arch, and Oleg V. Naumov. *The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939*. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1999.
Khlevniuk, O. V., and Nora Seligman Favorov. *Master of the house: Stalin and his inner circle*. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
Wheatcroft, Stephen G. "From Team-Stalin to degenerate tyranny." In *The Nature of Stalin’s Dictatorship*, pp. 79-107. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2004. | [
"As head of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Stalin consolidated near-absolute power in the 1930s with a Great Purge of the party that claimed to expel \"opportunists\" and \"counter-revolutionary infiltrators\". Those targeted by the purge were often expelled from ... |
Will the phytoestrogens in soy products make it more difficult for a male to gain muscle mass? | Soy and phytoestrogens won't lower testosterone, but they do disrupt estrogen receptor activity. Males have estrogen receptors too, not just women, and side effects of higher estrogen levels in males can include gynecomastia.
More information here: _URL_0_
TL;DR: avoiding soy due to phytoestrogens may be pragmatic, but not because it lowers testosterone, rather it's the effects on estrogen.
[edit] Just wanted to add that the effects of soy consumption are generally overblown. Only individuals who are predisposed to gynecomastia or other complications need to be concerned, and even then only at rather large soy intakes consistently over time. | [
"BULLET::::- Soy products decrease sperm quality due to the high content of a type of phytoestrogen called isoflavones. Theoretically, this exposure to high levels of phytoestrogen in men may alter the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. A few studies on animals have shown that such a hormonal effect may be signif... |
is the rothschilds networth an actual thing ? does this family actually control nearly all the wealth in the world? if not then why are they mentioned so much in online forums and blogs ? | They are rich, but the wealth has shrunk and divided with each other. No 1 member of the family owns it all anymore.
As for the hate they often are tied into the conspiracies like the Rockefellers or other wealthy families from the Industrial Revolution. From Illuminati, New World Order, to Reptilian Aliens, the tinfoil hat wearers have pointed to them. | [
"While the Rothschild family rose to the status of the wealthiest family of bankers in the 19th century, their wealth was distributed among a number of family members, preventing them from appearing among the wealthiest individuals. The richest among the Rothschilds was the head of its English branch—Nathan Mayer R... |
why is my laptop's time estimate of how much battery i have left always so incorrect? | 1. There isn't a way for your laptop to tell exactly how much power is left in the battery. It has to estimate it by measuring how much power the battery is outputting, but that's not always a nice neat line.
2. There isn't any way for your laptop to know how much demand you're going to put on it. A laptop that's playing a high-graphics online game is using much more power than a laptop playing solitaire, and will therefore have much lower battery life. | [
"The Surface Laptop is the 5th addition to Surface lineup, following the Surface Pro, Surface Hub, Surface Book, and the Surface Studio. Unlike the other products, the Surface Laptop is aimed toward students. Microsoft claims a 14.5-hour battery life when running Windows 10 S, but testing suggests that the battery ... |
When did Latin and Old French stop being mutually intelligible? | At the third Council of Tours, the priests were ordered to preach in vulgar Latin, as the common folk could no longer understand formal Latin. This was in 813 CE. While it may still have been Latin in name, this language would likely have been significantly different from the VL at the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Vulgar Latin, particularly in outlying regions of the former Roman Empire tended to be influenced by the local languages, as is usual. For instance, the formal Latin *equus* for horse was replaced by *caballus*, a word originating in the Gaulish tongue.
The other major factor that would have changed in the intervening centuries between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Council of Tours is pronunciation. Old French in particular was guilty of significant vowel breaking - where a monopthong is broken into a dipthong or further e.g. the Latin short /e/ in *mel*, became /ie/ *miel*, or honey. Of the original dozen or so vowel sounds found in Latin, all were changed.
Most significantly, vulgar Latin, and subsequently Old French placed more emphasis on stressed syllables, which tended to shift pronunciation and resulted in the now standard dropping of final letters when pronouncing French words. This shift lowered the morpheme:word ratio of OF/VL due to the end-conjugation of many Latin words. This meant that OF/VL relied significantly more on context that did formal Latin.
From all this we have a date of certainty (813 CE), but indications exist that the loss of mutual intelligibility could have occurred significantly earlier, as language undergoes speciation in much the same way that living organisms do, on a continuum.
EDIT: You might consider posting this same question over in /r/linguistics for a more in-depth response. | [
"Latin (which later developed into the brief-existent, little-known African Romance language) was the language of the Roman occupation; it became widely spoken in the coastal towns, and Augustine attests that in his day it was gaining ground over Punic. However, it gave way to Arabic and Berber after the Umayyads' ... |
shouldn't things like the "law of gravity" or the "laws of thermodynamics" correctly be called "theories" instead? | The scientific laws are generally just observations, not theories. The law of gravity doesnt explain gravity, it just describes it - whereas the theory of general relativity provides a model for how gravity works within the bounds of spacetime | [
"The term scientific theory is reserved for concepts that are widely accepted. A scientific law often refers to regularities that can be expressed by a mathematical statement. However, there is no consensus about the distinction between these terms. Every scientific concept must have an operational definition, howe... |
the difference between plasma and the ‘other’ states | Unlike gases, plasmas are made up of atoms in which some or all of the electrons have been stripped away, leaving positively charged nuclei, called ions, roam freely. | [
"Plasma is often called the \"fourth state of matter\" after solid, liquids and gases, despite plasma typically being an ionized gas. It is distinct from these and other lower-energy states of matter. Although it is closely related to the gas phase in that it also has no definite form or volume, it differs in a num... |
How long would it take a quantum computer (theoretically) to make as many computations as has been made in the entire history of computers? | Quantum computers aren't magical. They cannot perform arbitrary computations faster than classical computers can. They can solve *certain* problems faster (for example, [brute-force search](_URL_0_)). You might have gotten the wrong impression from pop science articles that claim that quantum computers somehow perform billions of simultaneous computations, etc., which is very misleading. | [
"In September 2012, Australian researchers at the University of New South Wales said the world's first quantum computer was just 5 to 10 years away, after announcing a global breakthrough enabling the manufacture of its memory building blocks. A research team led by Australian engineers created the first working qu... |
How were lances used before the invention of stirrups? | I'm not sure that your assumption is entirely correct (remember, the impact when hitting someone will come from in front): older books I've read, like Oman, tend to believe this, state that the development of the stirrup essentially lead to feudalism, and put a lot more significance on pictures like [this](_URL_0_) one from the Psalter of St Gall, with his stirrups and couched lance, than they probably deserve (for one thing, he's only transporting the lance). That idea is disputed now (and by the 'experimental archeology' types, fwtw) but I'll mainly just point out how pre-stirrup people depicted lance use (mostly visually, which of course has its problems, such as artists not usually being warriors). The most common pose by far is an overarm blow, which is also shown on the [Bayeux tapestry](_URL_9_) alongside couched lances. There's a certain amount of ambiguity in the tapestry, as it also shows spears being [thrown](_URL_8_), so it's not certain which is being represented, but there are [other](_URL_3_) works where the pose is clearly meant to depict an impact with the enemy. This pose is very old, and can be seen all the way back to [Assyrian](_URL_5_) art. The other common pose is underarm, with the hand at about the hip, as seen in the well-known [Alexander mosaic](_URL_2_) ([here](_URL_1_)'s a pot showing the same thing).
There was also a kind of very large lance used in antiquity, originating in the steppes before spreading to Persia, and then Europe. It was called the kontos by the Greeks ('oar' or 'barge-pole'), and it was used like one, two-handed, as seen in [this](_URL_4_) relief. This sounds rather precarious, however [Persian](_URL_7_) art [shows](_URL_10_) quite considerable impacts, which are backed up by written sources, such as Plutarch's [claim](_URL_6_) that the Parthian spear often had the impetus to pierce two men at once.
Finally, the (probably) 4th century novel 'Aethiopica' by Heliodorus describes the heavily armoured Persian cavalry attaching their lances directly to the horse, so that they only have to aim it, with the impact taken by their horse. Given that this is the only place this idea shows up, I don't find it particularly plausible. | [
"Stirrups were invented by steppe nomads in what is today Mongolia and northern China in the 4th century. They were introduced in Byzantium in the 6th century and in the Carolingian Empire in the 8th. They allowed a mounted knight to wield a sword and strike from a distance leading to a great advantage for mounted ... |
given the emphasis placed on the separation of the three pillars of the american government, how can the president grant pardons? is this not the executive messing with the judiciary? | If all that was said was "Congress makes laws; President enforces laws; Judges interpret laws," then maybe. But the President has the explicit power in the Constitution to pardon people. You might think that invades the province of the judiciary, but it's granted authority so no one has a real issue with it. | [
"Notwithstanding their executive power, the president cannot make treaties or appointments without the advice and consent of the Senate. Likewise, the president's pardon power is limited to offenses against the United States (federal crimes) and does not extend to impeachments or violations of state law. As treatie... |
what do large corporation do with billions of dollars in revenue after expenses? do they spend it all on assets or can they get a bank account like people? | All of the above. After paying out expenses. And stockholders fees. And bonuses to management. They will invest in research and development. Donate to causes, mainly for tax write-off. Funnel money into politics through lobbyists, for power and control. They will buy smaller business, and newer technology and inventions so they can do hold the patents and collect money on that. Invest in upgrading and expanding properties that they own. And invest in accounts that will earn them money, and while they search for new acquisitions. | [
"The majority of company's income comes from management fees, dividends and revenue from part sales of businesses. To this day assets after loans owned by the company both directly and through its affiliates, related or associated companies are valued at nearly 120 million euros.\n",
"The company has reported ann... |
how is it possible that isp's can see what your up to online? i thought https encrypted your traffic so it can't be read? | Sorta.
The ISP is your mailman. They need to get packages to where they need to go, Reddit for example is sending you a package containing this reply. You pay the mailman monthly for a rate at which they send packages from you and to you.
HTTPS encrypts the package’s contents, however the ISP’s responsibility is still to move the package from A to B, and therefore needs to know what these A and B are. Therefore the postage address cannot be encrypted, and your ISP can track who you are exchanging packages with, be it Reddit or YouTube or Netflix.
So your ISP can’t actually see what you are viewing on Reddit, YouTube, or Netflix, but they can see which sites you are accessing. | [
"An ISP cannot know the contents of properly-encrypted data passing between its consumers and the Internet. For encrypting web traffic, https has become the most popular and best-supported standard. Even if users encrypt the data, the ISP still knows the IP addresses of the sender and of the recipient. (However, se... |
why does anybody in this day and age like the royal family? what good have they managed? | This is going to be mostly an opinionated thread; but there are three possible explanations:
1) They aren't- Taking this from the "Ask British people" threads that pop up, attitudes from even the Brits range from 'they suck' to 'who cares'.
2) They're figureheads for a strong nation- A lot of people respect Heads of States: they're your nations public face for the world. The Queen may not have a whole lot of actual power but she represents a nation that was once arguably the strongest in the world.
And this next caveat is important: Britain has been replaced in the "Evil Empire" light by Russia and the U.S. Enough time has passed since they were the predominant superpower that people still respect them for their might but forget a lot of the bad they did in that span of time.
3) It's romantic- Not in a bad way; but a lot of us grow up on fantasy stories about Knights and Kings and Queens. A lot of movies even use England as backdrop for these stories so there's a positive correlation there.
Again, your mileage may vary in this thread and each individual person will have a different answer, but I hope that clears some things up. | [
"The Royal Households of the United Kingdom are the collective departments which support members of the British royal family. Many members of the Royal Family who undertake public duties have separate households. They vary considerably in size, from the large Royal Household which supports the Sovereign to the hous... |
what is happening in brazil, with all these big rallies taking place? | tldr, ex-President is involved in a giant corruption investigation and was just appointed the Chief of Staff by the current President in an attempt to shield him from prosecutions (in Brazil, ministers are to be judged by the Supreme Court, which comprise mostly of people picked by the acting party), thus the huge protests
Edit: fixed stuff in brackets | [
"Protests across Brazil have drawn millions to the streets in a wave of rolling fury that became the biggest demonstrations in decades. A young man was killed in Ribeirão Preto during the protest when a driver ploughed through a peaceful demonstration, also injuring 11 other people. President Dilma Rousseff address... |
How mixable are different types of plastic? Like PET and HDPE? | Some polymers have an affinity for each other and mix well. Polycarbonate, some styrene copolymers, and PET Mix well. This is driven by the chemical structure. Think that some are more polar, water like and others are less polar or oil like.
However most polymers by themselves are typically not mixable. When mixed they form a blend that has poor adhesion and thus poor strength. it only takes a small amount of incompatible polymer in a mixture to make the material useless. Which is why it is important to have clean recycle streams.
The outcome of a good mixture is to get desirable properties of both materials in a single material. For example high temp stiffness with rubber impact resistance.
To make them mixable the two polymers are typically reacted to together to form a copolymer that acts as a soap allowing them to mix. ABS ( LEGO plastic) is a mixture of polybutadiene (rubber) and Styrene-acrylonitrile copolymers. The rubber provides break resistance while the styrene copolymers provide stiffness.
Super tough nylon ( weed whacker string) is a mixture of nylon with ethylene-propylene rubbers that contain an acid group that reacts with the nylon’s amino group to form the copolymer.
There is a whole industry that tries to figure this out.
| [
"Some familiar household synthetic polymers include: Nylons in textiles and fabrics, Teflon in non-stick pans, Bakelite for electrical switches, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in pipes, etc. The common PET bottles are made of a synthetic polymer, polyethylene terephthalate. The plastic kits and covers are mostly made of ... |
what force is stronger than electromagnetism, if any, and what makes it stronger? | The nuclear strong force is the strongest of the four fundamental forces. This is the force that holds quarks together inside protons and neutrons, and protons and neutrons together inside atomic nuclei. However, it has an extremely small range, and drops off to almost non existent levels over only the distance of a single proton.
In terms of *why* it's stronger, there's no fundamental physical reason for this that we're aware of. The strengths of the four forces are just physical constants of this Universe, and could quite easily have been different. It's just the way the proverbial cookie crumbled in the case of our Universe. | [
"Even though electrostatically induced forces seem to be rather weak, some electrostatic forces such as the one between an electron and a proton, that together make up a hydrogen atom, is about 36 orders of magnitude stronger than the gravitational force acting between them.\n",
"BULLET::::- It is already known t... |
What would happen if the superheated material inside a fusion reactor was exposed? | Essentially the same as with any superheated material breaking out of containment. The reactor and surrounding structure might be damaged or destroyed. The amount of damage will depend on the size of the reactor and the materials used. Depending on the type of fusion taking place, there may be free neutrons flying around that can be a source of radioactivity, but these neutrons won't travel far.
Once the containment is breached, the fusion plasma will lose its energy and pressure extremely rapidly. And with temperature and pressure falling, the fusion reaction will stop. Unlike many fission reactors, a fusion reactor will not have a chain reaction taking place. | [
"Once the fuel elements of a reactor begin to melt, the fuel cladding has been breached, and the nuclear fuel (such as uranium, plutonium, or thorium) and fission products (such as caesium-137, krypton-85, or iodine-131) within the fuel elements can leach out into the coolant. Subsequent failures can permit these r... |
how can humans instinctively know what angles to launch something make it go the farthest? | They learn it. From age 0 on you throw stuff around and observe the physics of the world. That is why people who don't throw things (like balls) as a kid suck at throwing and aiming. So it is not an instinct, it is more of a skill. | [
"Target angle is the relative bearing of the observing station from the vehicle being observed. It may be used to compute point-of-aim for a fire-control problem when vehicle range and speed can be estimated from other information. Target angle may be best explained from the example of a submarine preparing to laun... |
What does the coronation of Charlemagne as Roman Emperor suggest about attitudes towards the Roman Empire at the time? | I partly answered your question [here](_URL_0_), although admittedly that answer focuses mostly on England in the period. Nonetheless, the answer isn't *radically* different in that early medieval political aspirations hinged on *Romanitas* less as an immediate continuation of Rome, but as a valid successor through the continuation of the facets of Rome which had been worthy of admiration.
It was well known that Rome had failed and there was no way for Charlemagne to claim that he was simply the *next* Roman Emperor, but there was tremendous prestige in resurrecting Rome, reforging the empire and being the *new* Roman Emperor. It's worth mentioning, of course, that Charlemagne crowning himself as Emperor was not taken well by the Byzantines, who had been maintaining the Roman Empire perfectly well all this time without him, thank you very much. | [
"Charlemagne was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, 800. The clergy and nobles attending the ceremony proclaimed Charlemagne as \"Augustus\". In support of Charlemagne's coronation, some argued that the Imperial position was actually vacant, deeming a woman unfit to be Emperor. However, Charlemagne m... |
if the cold temperatures of frozen food prevent them from going off, why do frozen foods not last forever? can bacteria suddenly survive at colder temperatures after a food has been frozen for a certain length of time? | Even though it is frozen that doesn't mean that the food is static. The food will slowly dehydrate and with that it loses its taste and becomes inedible. The cells in the food also get damaged after long period of being frozen, which cause it to lose flavour | [
"Food frozen at 0 °F and below is preserved indefinitely. However, the quality of the food will deteriorate if it is frozen over a lengthy period. The United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service publishes a chart showing the suggested freezer storage time for common foods.\n",
"Fre... |
how did iraq go from having the best army in the arab world, to being unable to maintain it's sovereignty? | You may have noticed George Bush lied to the American people to get the US involved in a stupid and un-winnable war with no exit strategy. As a result the most powerful army in the world destroyed the most powerful army in the Arab world. He left them with no resources and no ability to govern themselves and then we pulled out making them likely to be invaded and controlled by a terror state. Another amazing plan courtesy of incredibly stupid US foreign policy. | [
"After the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, Iraq decided to improve all aspects of its army. Iraqi General Ra'ad al-Hamdani stated that, in spite of careful analysis of the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, no clear progress in the Iraqi Army was achieved by the Ba'ath Party. In comparison to their Israeli counterparts, the Iraqi Army ... |
My understanding is that both Sodium and Chlorine by themselves are dangerous (explodes in water and is toxic, respectively). If that is true, why is dissolved sodium chloride (salt) perfectly safe? Why don't the dissolved ions have the same properties as sodium and chloride separately? | The form of chlorine which is dangers is [chlorine gas, (Cl2)](_URL_0_) which has very different properties from the [chloride ion. (Cl-)](_URL_1_)
| [
"While sodium hypochlorite is non-toxic, its corrosive properties, common availability, and reaction products make it a significant safety risk. In particular, mixing liquid bleach with other cleaning products, such as acids or ammonia, may produce toxic fumes.\n",
"A disadvantage of sodium is its chemical reacti... |
according to the bible, how did jesus's death save humanity? | ELI5:
Imagine you're in a courtroom, and you're guilty of a crime. You owe an exorbitant fine, and you can't pay it.
Then a man comes along and offers to pay it for you. This is the only man with enough money to pay that fine, and he pays it in your place, satisfying the legal requirement.
That's what Jesus did.
Every human who sins is guilty, and (according to the bible), deserves death. One of us cannot take on the death sentence for another, as we all have our own death sentence. In other words, I can't die for your sins because I have to die for mine.
Jesus is the only human who never sinned, being God in human flesh. Since He had no sin, he could take the place of others. He willingly was tortured and killed, and God placed our sins on Him. His physical death paid the 'fine' for us, freeing us from court and from everlasting death.
Jesus was a perfect scapegoat, without any spot or blemish, and by accepting him and respecting his wishes for what he did, we are saved by his payment.
TL;DR A perfect man died, so that he could pay for the sins of imperfect men. Read Romans 1-6 for the full explanation, as well as how to take advantage of the payment.
***
Edit: I am glad to see the interest, and thanks for the gold and the discussion! A lot of questions that people have are legitimate, and I'm glad to see that some other people helped out while I was sleeping. Since this is the very simple ELI5 version, I left a lot of the details and the whys out of my explanation.
Since the thread is locked, feel free to PM me or one of the others in this thread. I promise, I will respond with civility, and no question is a bad one.
Second edit: I've read the comments, and oh I wish I could respond! Circumcision, God's motives, justice, scapegoats, the possibility of being saved without Jesus, Spiritual death vs. Physical, etc. I'd be happy to answer any questions I can! And hopefully in as simple of terms as I can. | [
"Christians predominantly profess that through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, he restored humanity's communion with God with the blood of the New Covenant. His death on a cross is understood as a redemptive sacrifice: the source of humanity's salvation and the atonement for sin which had entered human histor... |
Why is spit bubbly like soap bubbles? | Saliva has a lot of proteins in it, proteins can increase surface tension and lead to stronger bubbles like the lipids in soap. | [
"Just as soap bubbles, with air inside and air outside, have negative buoyancy and tend to sink towards the ground, so antibubbles, with water inside and air outside have positive buoyancy and tend to rise towards the water surface. But again, just as soap bubbles can be filled with a lighter gas to give them posit... |
it just hit me that there are no longer any wild cows. how/when did this happen? | Cattle were domesticated from the wild aurochs. As time went on, the aurochs were hunted, saw their available habitat shrink greatly, and contracted diseases from domesticated cattle. The last one died in the 17th century. | [
"The loss of livestock was not discovered until spring, when many cattle carcasses were spread across the fields and washed down streams. The few remaining cattle were in poor health, emaciated and suffering from frostbite. This resulted in the cattle being sold for much less, in some cases leading to bankruptcy.\n... |
work, power, and energy (physics) and their differences | Work - When a **force** moves an **object**, **energy is transferred** and **work is done**. Work is measured in Joules. Whenever something moves, something else is providing some sort of **effort** to move it. The thing providing the effort needs some sort of **energy** (food, fuel, electricity etc.). It then does work by moving the object, and in doing so transfers the energy it receives as fuel into other forms. The formula for working out work is *work done = force x distance*.
Power - Power is the **rate** of doing work, i.e. how much per second. A powerful machine doesn't necessarily exert a strong force (it usually does though), a powerful machine is one which transfers a lot of energy in a short space of time. It is measured in Watts, which are 1 J/s. So, for example, if a bunch of hooligans drag a tractor tyre 5m over the ground in 10 seconds, and they pull with a force of 340 Newtons. You would do 340 x 5, or force x distance. This works out at them having done 1700J of **work**. Now, since it took them 10 seconds, we do1700/10, which gives 170 Watts, which is how much **power** they had.
Energy - energy can be defined as (according to Wikipedia) " the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems".
I hope this helps. Not quite ELI5, more like ELI15, sorry 'bout that. | [
"As a physical concept, power requires both a change in the physical system and a specified time in which the change occurs. This is distinct from the concept of work, which is only measured in terms of a net change in the state of the physical system. The same amount of work is done when carrying a load up a fligh... |
In light of the recent growth of sightings of Tasmanian Tigers and possibility of a species coming back from what we thought was extinction... Has this happened with any other species in the last ~500 years? | Black footed ferrets from the US and Canada were declared extinct in 1979 due to farmers poisoning prairie dogs, their food supply. Lo and behold, a farmer's dog brought home a dead one 2 years later and they became endangered instead! | [
"BULLET::::- Tasmanian tiger – Despite the widely held view that the thylacine (or Tasmanian tiger) became extinct during the 1930s, accounts of alleged sightings in eastern Victoria and parts of Tasmania have persisted to the present day.\n",
"The eastern quoll likely became extinct on mainland Australia due to ... |
Why galaxies have shape at all? (speed of light, correlation light scale, causality) | Changes must not be faster than the speed of light, but existing fields are not changes. Gravity for example is traveling at the speed of light. By your thought, the sun shouldn't be capable to pull on earth, because it is so far away. But actually, the gravitational field already exists and we are moving in it, so there is no contradiction.
If the sun's mass was to disappear all of a sudden, the information would then propagate through space at the speed of light and reach us about 8 minutes later. The earth would be shot into space, because there is no force holding us at our place.
And it is the same for light. Truely, information can only travel at the speed of light. But the thing is, we don't see things in realtime but i a distorted way because of that. That doesn't matter much though, because the actual change is so insignificant even over galactic scales that we can't really tell a difference.
The stars in our galaxy are moving at about 250 km/s. If you have two reference star at two opposite points of the milky way (100,000 ly diameter) their actual position would differ only about 3 lightyears from their seen position, or a tiny fraction of a degree not even visible to the unaided eye. The appearance is maintained by "too insignificant changes".
| [
"There are many galaxies visible in telescopes with red shift numbers of 1.4 or higher. All of these are currently traveling away from us at speeds greater than the speed of light. Because the Hubble parameter is decreasing with time, there can actually be cases where a galaxy that is receding from us faster than l... |
the difference between milk pasteurization in europe and america that lets european milk last so much longer and without refrigeration. | First off, let's understand why food or drink spoils. in our world, there are microscopic living things everywhere. We call them *microbes*. Bacteria and molds are the kind we're usually worried about when it comes to food, because they're usually what make it spoil. They eat the food and grow in it. We can't eat the food after that happens too much, because eating too much of those microbes will make us sick.
This is why we put food in the fridge. When it's colder, most microbes grow much more slowly. So it takes a lot longer for whatever microbes are in there to grow enough to make us sick.
Another way to make food last longer before it spoils is *pasteurization*. The way you pasteurize something is by heating it up to a certain temperature, keeping it at that temperature for a certain amount of time, and then cooling it back down. The idea here is that the heat kills off some of the microbes. Note that I didn't say it kills *all* of them -- this isn't the same thing as sterilization -- but it kills enough of them that it makes a difference.
And, by the way, remember that pasteurization doesn't matter as much after the food has been opened, because then other microbes get in it. That's why you can keep food in its container in the fridge for, say, three weeks, but then you have to finish it within one week after you open it.
Alright. Now, the thing is, there are different ways to pasteurize. You can use a higher temperature for less time, or a lower temperature for a longer time. Depending on how you do it, you can kill more or less of the microbes. The tradeoff is how much work it is to do it and how much it changes how the food tastes or looks, since heat changes proteins and vitamins and sugars and stuff.
Most milk in the United States is pasteurized using a technique called *high temperature short time pasteurization*, or HTST. The milk is held at about 160 degrees for about 30 seconds. This is pretty good -- after that, the milk will last a few weeks in a fridge before it starts to spoil.
In Europe, though, most milk is pasteurized using a technique called *ultra-high temperature pasteurization*, or UHT. It gets way hotter -- 280 degrees -- but it only keeps the milk that hot for just 2 seconds. UHT kills so many microbes that you can keep the milk unrefrigerated for many months.
The tradeoff is that the taste and smell and mouthfeel, and even the vitamin content, of UHT milk isn't quite as good as HTST milk. Neither is as good as fresh unpasteurized milk though.
And, of course, you could kill all the microbes by actually boiling the milk instead of just pasteurizing it, which would make it last a super-long time, but boiling changes milk's proteins so much that it could curdle. | [
"Developed countries adopted milk pasteurization to prevent such disease and loss of life, and as a result milk is now considered a safer food. A traditional form of pasteurization by scalding and straining of cream to increase the keeping qualities of butter was practiced in Great Britain in the 18th century and w... |
What's the hottest and coldest temperatures insects can survive in? | Because of their ability to withstand desiccation (removal of moisture) insects can recover from extreme temperature events. Including being submerged in liquid helium.
From a cursory look, it appears +/- 55 C is the general range of temperatures.
References/further reading: [Cold](_URL_1_) and [Hot](_URL_0_). | [
"A number of insects have temperature and humidity sensors and insects being small, cool more quickly than larger animals. Insects are generally considered cold-blooded or ectothermic, their body temperature rising and falling with the environment. However, flying insects raise their body temperature through the ac... |
why are local positions like coroner, surveyor, recorder, etc elected by the people, and why should the average person care about them? | The theory is that these people's findings have (or used to have) a direct impact on tax collection, so the people should have a say in who gets the job to prevent abuse of power.
> Electing a coroner is a holdover from British Common Law, where the coroner’s job was to determine how and when people had died in order to collect taxes.
[source](_URL_0_) | [
"Career civil servants (not temporary workers or politicians) are hired only externally on the basis of entrance examinations (). It usually consists of a written test; some posts may require physical tests (such as policemen), or oral tests (such as professors, judges, prosecutors and attorneys). The rank accordin... |
why cant we cure genetic diseases with genetic engineering? | That's like saying "why can't we solve engineering problems with engineering?"
It's one thing to spot and identify a problem, but a whole different thing to find ways to understand it, solve it, get the tools you need at the precision you need.
For all things medical you also need extensive studies to rule out (or reign in) side effects, find ways to make treatments somewhat affordable and easy to administer and so on.
Science / knowledge isn't the end of problem solving. It's the start. | [
"Genetic engineering could potentially fix severe genetic disorders in humans by replacing the defective gene with a functioning one. It is an important tool in research that allows the function of specific genes to be studied. Drugs, vaccines and other products have been harvested from organisms engineered to prod... |
why are emergency services' two way radio systems so fuzzy and unclear? shouldn't emergency services have crisp audio more than anyone else? | They use big long radio waves that can go through almost anything. That has the drawback that that frequency has a lot of minor interference and distortion on it. | [
"Police radio and other public safety services such as fire departments and ambulances are generally found in the VHF and UHF parts of the spectrum. Trunking systems are often used to make most efficient use of the limited number of frequencies available. \n",
"Emergency radios are generally designed to cover the... |
How were large, dangerous animals like bears hunted in the Middle Ages? | Unfortunately there isn't a lot of source material on bear hunting as a lot of our late medieval 'hunting manuals' were produced in England...when the bear had been long extinct. However, the very famous 14th c hunting manual by [Gaston Fébus](_URL_0_), the [*Livre de chasse*](_URL_3_), features a chapter on hunting bear. In fact, Gaston is said to have died of stroke while washing his hands of bear blood; this would be a classic example of how we can't take the words of medieval writers about aristocracy at face value - they are always burnishing the image of the subject. As the count of Foix Gaston would have hunted in the Pyrenees where bears have roamed even until recently (and there is in fact a protest by farmers now against the planned re-introduction of bears). I don't know if his book has been translated to English - I've only seen editions of the various manuscript images with summaries.
Generally speaking, large animals were harried by horseback riders and hounds and driven into places that could be controlled: pits and traps. Hunters were on horseback and on foot, using weapons at a distance: bows and spears. It seems aristocrats were less interested in demonstrating strength than an ability to outwit their prey, whether bear, stag or wolf.
If you want to write about medieval hunting, try to find these two books:
* [John Cummins, The Art of Medieval Hunting: The Hound and the Hawk (Castle Books, 2003)](_URL_2_)
* [Richard Almond, Medieval Hunting (The History Press, 2011)](_URL_1_)
| [
"Bear hunting is the act of hunting bears. Bears have been hunted since prehistoric times for their meat and fur. In modern times they have been favoured by big game hunters due to their size and ferocity. Bear hunting has a vast history throughout Europe and North America, and hunting practices have varied based o... |
why doesn't facial hair get greasy? | not as much oil secreted by the face as the top of the head | [
"Greasy hair is a hair condition which is common in humans, one of four main types of hair conditioning— normal, greasy, dry and greasy dry. It is primarily caused by build-up of the natural secretion from the sebaceous glands in the scalp and is characterised by the continuous development of natural grease on the ... |
why did ronda rousey look like a complete amateur tonight who had never stepped foot into an octagon? | She was not THAT great of a fighter, just a dominant one in a growing sport (Women's MMA). As it got bigger, the fighters got better. And she took a long break and had just not improved in the time. | [
"Ronda Rousey began the Women's Bantamweight bout aggressively. Holly Holm, with her boxing ability, and from her southpaw stance, tagged Rousey repeatedly with her left hand while controlling the distance. Rousey attempted several clinches through the round, including an attempted armbar, but none had a decisive o... |
hot weather the cause of higher violence rates? | Climate changes how people live, which affects decisions made and indirectly affects violence. I seriously doubt you will find any evidence that heat directly affects the mind. The research has long shown that it is a indirect relationship. I have never heard of a direct correlation with weather affecting the mind in my studies. Source: Masters in Human Relations (not claiming expert, just these type studies were read and written about during my studies) | [
"Heat waves are the most lethal type of weather phenomenon in the United States. Between 1992 and 2001, deaths from excessive heat in the United States numbered 2,190, compared with 880 deaths from floods and 150 from hurricanes. The average annual number of fatalities directly attributed to heat in the United Stat... |
Why is there an absolute reference for rotation? | The discussion about no preferred reference frames is in the context of special relativity, which only considers unaccelerated motion. A rotation is always an accelerated motion, i.e. you need a centripetal force to "bend" the path of an object. This force makes different reference frames different.
Note that you could still make the change of reference frame if you wanted to. People made quite accurate models with the sun revolving around the earth, they only became hugely complicated when all the other planets had to be taken into account as well.
Also note that our solar system is revolving at incredible speeds around the center of the Milky Way. We don't notice this in everyday life, because you can also picture this as that we are in a free fall in the gravitational potential of the Milky Way: Einstein's equivalence principle. | [
"A common situation in which noninertial reference frames are useful is when the reference frame is rotating. Because such rotational motion is non-inertial, due to the acceleration present in any rotational motion, a fictitious force can always be invoked by using a rotational frame of reference. Despite this comp... |
how was the stuxnet virus created, and why was it so successful? | There's a youtube video on this by an a channel called "The Hungry Beast" or something similar, try looking it up.
I'm in China atm and it's blocked for me, =/
_URL_0_ - Someone linked it in another thread | [
"\"Stuxnet\" is a computer worm discovered in June 2010 that is believed to have been created by the United States and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. It switched off safety devices, causing centrifuges to spin out of control. Stuxnet initially spreads via Microsoft Windows, and targets Siemens industri... |
why are ssds sold in 240 gb, 480 gb, etc. whereas hdds are sold in 250 gb, 500 gb, etc.? | tl;dr: Marketing, false advertising, GB as used by computer geek vs GB as used by rest of the world, and hidden reserve to make the drive run faster and have a safety buffer in case of failure. Also, lost track of what sub I was in and made this not very ELI5. Sorry.
Internal computer memory (RAM or Random Access Memory) is built and accessed in multiples and powers of two (binary). You still buy computer memory sticks in capacities like 512 MB or 2 GB. These aren't really "real" mega- and giga-bytes because in the old days computer people borrowed some metric terms like kilo that meant exactly 1000 and used them as a shorthand to refer to 1024. Even today, some operating systems and programs (and programmers) still use the "wrong" 1024 value when calculating both computer memory and storage.
When computer hard disk drives were invented, they weren't electronic structures built on powers of two, so the marketing people used the "correct" multiples of 1000 when talking about storage capacity (decimal). If nothing else, it makes the capacity look slightly bigger, and marketing always likes bigger. Marketing also really likes round numbers. So hard disk drives are advertised in terms like 250 GB or 2 TB.
Solid state drives are internally more structured like computer memory (built in binary) than mechanical hard disks (measured in decimal for convenience). A 240 GB SSD probably has a "raw" storage capacity more like 256x1024x1024x1024 bytes (and 8x that many bits). So why not call it 256 GB (using the old binary method) or even 275 GB (using the newer decimal method) SSD? Again, marketing people like round numbers. Also, the buying public (as opposed to just computer geeks) has figured out that hard drives never seem to have the full storage capacity that is advertised. With old mechanical disks, this was mostly due to the binary/decimal measuring difference. With SSDs, it's mostly due to something called over-provisioning. So, the marketing people pick a smaller round number that more or less reasonably reflects the actual usable space.
Over-provisioning is when some of the SSD storage capacity is marked as off limits right from the get go. Your 256 GB SSD has 16 GB set aside for future use, leaving 240. If the SSD internal control electronics notices that sector 18 (for example) is developing a fault, it will copy the information to a new sector in the 16 GB. Old sector 18 will be permanently disabled. The new sector 18 will be marked as in use. The SSD's total amount of storage, as reported to the end user, remains the same at 240. A 480 GB SSD is probably a 512 GB SSD with 32 GB of over-provisioning.
I just did a quick search on Amazon and I see 240 GB, 250 GB, 256 GB, and 275 GB SSDs from different manufacturers which I'm pretty sure all have the same amount of actual storage, so it's not like the marketing people are consistent.
edit: some numbers formatting | [
"Consumer flash storage devices typically are advertised with usable sizes expressed as a small integer power of two (2, 4, 8, etc.) and a designation of megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB); e.g., 512 MB, 8 GB. This includes SSDs marketed as hard drive replacements, in accordance with traditional hard drives, which us... |
why do girls do the "duck face?" | The ‘duck face’ started back when MySpace was still thriving, around the year of 2005. The face is also attributed to the ‘MySpace pics’ tren, which I think are now called ‘selfies’. Usually teenagers would set their profile picture to something they took in the bathroom mirror, or with their arm extended in front of them. The ‘duck face’ is similar to the ‘fish pout’ lip design that a lot of celebrities have, one of the more noted ones being [Angelina Jolie](_URL_0_). Girls thought this was cute, or cool, and tried to replicate it. Instead it usually comes off looking a little silly, as opposed to the cute/sexy effect they’re going for.
It’s basically the result of people trying to ‘fit in’ to trends. Not a lot of people realize that people like Angelina Jolie and Lindsay Lohan are made up to look the way they do. It became a thing because young women were trying to emulate something they thought was stylish, unaware of how the people they got it from actually made themselves look that way.
| [
"Duck face is a photographic pose, which is well known on profile pictures in social networks. Lips are pressed together as in a pout and often with simultaneously sucked in cheeks. The pose is most often seen as an attempt to appear alluring, but also as a self-deprecating, ironic gesture making fun of the pose. I... |
Do cardiac muscle cells die? | [We used to think of cardiomyocytes as nondividing and persistent cells](_URL_0_):
> For nearly a century, the general belief has been that the heart is a terminally differentiated post-mitotic organ in which the number of cardiomyocytes is established at birth with these cells persisting throughout the lifespan of the organ and organism. [...] Cardiomyocytes were deemed to live and function for nearly 100 years, or longer. Although unstated, the inevitable implication was that cardiomyocytes were judged to be immortal and to be killed only by pathologic processes occurring during the course of individuals’ lifespan.
But now that view is changing in light of new research:
> A recent study, based on retrospective [14C] birth dating of cardiac cells, has suggested that ~1% and ~0.45% replacement of myocytes occurs annually in the adult human heart at 25 and 75 years of age, respectively. [...] In contrast to the [14C] study in which only 12 pathologic hearts were examined, we have analyzed 74 normal human hearts from 19 to 104 years of age and documented that myocyte turnover in the female heart occurs at a rate of 10%, 14%, and 40% per year at 20, 60 and 100 years of age, respectively.85 Corresponding values in the male heart are 7%, 12%, and 32% per year, demonstrating that cardiomyogenesis involves a large and progressively increasing number of cells with aging. From 20 to 100 years of age, the myocyte compartment is replaced 15 times in women and 11 times in men.
TL;DR: Yes, cardiac muscle cells die, and get replaced by progenitor cells and cardiac stem cells. However, that replacement potential is limited, which is why cardiac disease such as myocardial infarctions have such severe consequences. | [
"After a myocardial infarction (MI), cardiac myocyte death can be triggered by necrosis, apoptosis, or autophagy, leading to thinning of the cardiac wall. The surviving cardiac myocytes either arrange in parallel or in series to each other, contributing to ventricular dilatation or ventricular hypertrophy, dependin... |
Movies always make out ancient warriors to be these huge guys with huge muscles that you'd have to get in gyms. Basically what I'm asking is, on average how buff or big were spartan warriors or a knight in the crusades? | They were indeed strong, but not with the sort of big bulky muscles Ahnold and his ilk have. Big muscles are developed through short movements such as lifting weights, which would have been seen as quite strange for a soldier of the past. Warriors had to be able to march for long distances bearing their combat load and then some, and still be able to fight at the end of the day. That sort of activity makes a body strong, but not with huge bulging muscles. Think of the difference between football and futbol players. The former can perform powerful actions, but typically over a shorter time span, while the latter can run around a field for 90 minutes straight. Both are powerful in their own right, but the wiry guy with the endurance is a closer somatotype to historical warriors.
The Greeks, since you mention the Spartans, have helpfully provided us with many examples of their warriors' body shape in the form of [statues](_URL_0_) and [muscle cuirasses](_URL_2_). As you can see in those examples, Grecian warriors were muscular, yet quite lean.
The Crusaders would have likely been primarily of the same body type, though I'm sure certain nobles and wealthy folk that were able to afford horses and didn't spend all of their free time fighting and training would be exceptions. Forensic analysis of medieval remains like [this poor chap here](_URL_3_) tells us that medieval knights were indeed quite strong. However, effigies like [these](_URL_1_), and there's hundreds more just like them, show us that the average knight was equally as lean as his ancient counterparts. | [
"As Robert Rushing defines it, peplum, \"in its most stereotypical form, [...] depicts muscle-bound heroes (professional bodybuilders, athletes, wrestlers, or brawny actors) in mythological antiquity, fighting fantastic monsters and saving scantily clad beauties. Rather than lavish epics set in the classical world,... |
what income groups does a sales tax impact more? | Sales tax influences the poor people more.
An item worth $100 is 10% month's salary of a person earning $1,000/month; it is 1% of someone earning $10,000.
Raising the price by $1 (however that is done, in this case a 1% sales tax), and the added cost is 1% of the former, but only 0.1% of the latter person.
An income tax of 1% otoh would cost both that 1% of their income; that is $1 for the former, and $10 for the latter. That is what is usually considered "taxed the same rate". | [
"The top 1 percent of income-earners accounted for 52 percent of the income gains from 2009 to 2015, where income is defined as market income excluding government transfers, while their share of total income has more than doubled from 9 percent in 1976 to 20 percent in 2011. According to a 2014 OECD report, 80% of ... |
Why were the Germans in WWII so much more scared to surrender to the Soviets? | They were taught, brainwashed, in to believing that the soviets were sub-human savages. Barbarians. They put out a lot of propaganda about Russian soldiers raping and pillaging and ignoring laws in order to improve the moral while fighting them.
But it worked so well that many of them genuinely believed it. Maybe they were right in some cases, too. They thought they'd be tortured and executed by the Soviets immediately. | [
"There were several reasons some Germans decided to end their lives in the last months of the war. First, by 1945, Nazi propaganda had created fear among some sections of the population about the impending military invasion of their country by the Soviets or Western Allies. Information films from the Reich Ministry... |
why can't people remember correct spellings of common words? | I type reasonably fast, frequently my misspellings are when I am thinking of the right word but I type a homonym or I start to type one word like pay and then swap what I want to say to use paid mid-word and just add the typical past tens suffix.
Edit: I've been a fast reader for several decades and read mostly from context so I'm terrible at proof reading. | [
"At the other extreme are languages such as English, where the pronunciations of many words simply have to be memorized as they do not correspond to the spelling in a consistent way. For English, this is partly because the Great Vowel Shift occurred after the orthography was established, and because English has acq... |
How do we know that physical constants such as G, C, etc. have not slowly change over time? | Because if they did it would have measureable effects that we can observe. We know, for example, that the gravitational constant varies by less than a few parts per trillion yearly. [link](_URL_0_) | [
"In 1937, Paul Dirac and others began investigating the consequences of natural constants changing with time. For example, Dirac proposed a change of only 5 parts in 10 per year of Newton's constant \"G\" to explain the relative weakness of the gravitational force compared to other fundamental forces. This has beco... |
why is a bullet so deadly? | The bullet moves very fast, and though it only leaves a small hole, the shockwave disrupts and destroys a lot of tissue.
Look at the various films where people shoot melons. These melons explode in all directions. Imagine flesh being subjected to those forces. | [
"BULLET::::- Is presumed to be toxic to humans because it falls within any one of the following categories when tested on laboratory animals (whenever possible, animal test data that has been reported in the chemical literature should be used):\n",
"The bullet design can produce deep wounds while failing to pass ... |
Did Arian Christians accuse "Orthodox" Christians of heresy? | In short, yes.
Remember, "Arian" is two sorts of label used to describe a number of groups in the fourth century. Firstly, it's a label used by Athanasius from the 360s onwards to describe a number of groups that he opposes, and to attempt to *taint* them through guilt by association with Arius, who had already been condemned. "Arians" by this measure did not consider themselves "Arian".
Secondly, it's a label used by later historians to name a number of these same groupings, but it's largely falling out of disfavour in recent years since it is problematic.
That said, groups that we call "Arian", considered themselves to be "orthodox" (though they did not necessarily use that word in the way that we do), and when they held sway they would bring ecclesiastical power to bear on 'orthodox' believers.
I'll give some links to translated creedal documents to illustrate. At the Council of Antioch in 341, mostly composed of non-Nicenes, they swore til they were blue in the face that they were not disciples of Arius. ([First Creed](_URL_2_)). They also describe their faith as in conformity to the "evangelical and apostolic tradition", which is the kind of language marker we mean by "orthodox" ([Second Creed](_URL_1_)).
[Sirmium 357](_URL_0_) very explicitly speaks *against* using the language of 'essence' to talk about the Father and Son, and is aimed squarely at rendering the Nicene creed and its adherents as unorthodox.
Coupled with these credal statements, councils dominated by non-Nicenes would regularly depose bishops of other theological persuasions, exiling them or otherwise punishing them. This explains, for instance, why Athanasius is continually deposed from Alexandria and goes into exile so often. His case is not isolated.
Remember, 'heresy' is, from a historical perspective, a post-factum description of the losing side. 'Heretics' didn't think they were heretical, but that they were right and the other guys were wrong.
| [
"Other allegations of heresy have emerged among conservative Christians, such as that White has denied the Trinity, partly as a result of a video shared by Christian author Erick Erickson that shows White assenting to the viewpoint that Jesus Christ was not the only son of God, in contravention of the Nicene Creed.... |
USSR Causing Ukrainian Genocide, Mao Responsible for Famine, and Stalin Creating Consideration Camps: Did Any of These Happen? | They aren't fabrications.
The Soviet Famine of 32-33 (what you refer to as the Ukrainian Genocide) was an actual famine caused by a massive drought throughout the major wheat production centers in the Ukraine and North Caucuses. The debate lies in whether or not the drought was deliberate or not and the extent to which the Soviet government knew about it/was slow to react. More modern evidence points to poor relations between the Party and the peasants, and a total hatch job by Soviet scientists on actually studying the soil conditions, as central to understanding why the drought occured. Calling it solely a Ukrainian genocide would mean ignoring the affected regions of the North Caucuses, and the general impact on the country as a whole as a result of having much less wheat output.
I know there is a book that some like to cite which claims the famine was made up by Nazi's and Harvard as anti-soviet propaganda, but that argument hold little to no water. As an aside, especially with soviet history, stay far away from one Grover Furr. He isn't an historian, he's a nut who cares more about trying to protect the image of Stalin than actual research.
Further reading: [jstor link to paper on party-peasant relations](_URL_1_)
[paper on soil conditions and harvest statistics during the famine years](_URL_2_)
The Chinese Famine that resulted from Mao's Great Leap Forward had similar issues. Local party members lied about how much grain the villages could produce and vastly over estimated the yields. This lead to grain requisition quotas that had devastating effects, as the higher members were unaware of how little was left after taking the amount of grain that was proportional to the amount that had been reported. This was coupled by a large drought. In short, people had less food due to faulty reporting, and not enough water to grow food even to just feed themselves.
Further reading: [Jstor paper on grain quotas and procurements](_URL_0_)
Stalin and the camps. I think you meant to say concentration camps, not consideration camps. I admittedly am not an authority on the GULAG system, but it has been covered here before. | [
"In 1932, under the rule of the USSR, Ukraine experienced one of its largest famines when between 2.4 and 7.5 million peasants died as a result of a state sponsored famine. It was termed the Holodomor, suggesting that it was a deliberate campaign of repression designed to eliminate resistance to collectivization. F... |
eau de toilette, eau de perfume, eau de cologne | The major distinction between the three is the concentration of the actual fragrance that is dissolved in alcohol.
Eau de toilette, toilet water, has anywhere from 5-15% concentration of the fragrance.
Eau de perfume has anywhere from 10 to 20%.
It's worth noting, that Parfum du Toilette and Eau du Parfum are usually used synonymously while Parfum du toilette and eau du toilette are distinct from each other.
Eau du cologne is kind of a special case. When someone says eau du cologne, they usually just mean a perfume with a concentration between 3 and 8%.
Perfume mist also has a concentration of 3-8%.
The the current distinction between eau du cologne and perfume mist is that cologne is, in English speaking countries, typically for men and perfume is typically for women.
Previously, in the.. Like.. 18th to 19th century, I think.. Eau du cologne specifically referred to perfume (with 3-8% concentration) that was a blend of citrus fruit notes that also happened to come from Cologne, Germany. Now, Classical Cologne is used to refer to this stuff.
All of these concentrations are lower than perfume extract, which is usually 15-40%.
Perfume extract is the stuff that comes in a tiny little bottle that costs like.. 150 dollars. Generally, it's worth the price because you don't use nearly as much to get a scent that's usually stronger while on your skin.
The previous concentrations, as far as my experience goes, all come in some sort of spray bottle. The only social rules that I'm aware of, specifically in English speaking countries - there could be different ones in other places, are:
1) perfume extract is not really acceptable as a gift to men.
2) don't put too much on. Less is more. You can get away with putting on more eau du cologne than you can eau du perfume, since the concentrations are different.
Disclaimer: as a previously avid cologne junkie, this is all information that I have been familiar with in the past, is probably still pretty close, and I think I've plagiarized most of it from the Wikipedia article on perfume. So.. Look there if you want to be sure. | [
"Eau de Cologne (; German: Kölnisch Wasser ; meaning \"Water from Cologne\"), or simply cologne, is a perfume originating from Cologne, Germany. Originally mixed by Johann Maria Farina (Giovanni Maria Farina) in 1709, it has since come to be a generic term for scented formulations in typical concentration of 2–5% a... |
How did marsupials spread from the Americas to Australia if they evolved way after South America separated from Gondwana? | This seems to be a difficult question to answer, in part because Antarctica is difficult to study: fossil records are scarce, as are geological samples. There were apparently many active volcanoes along the Antarctic peninsula during the late cretaceous and early tertiary times, which, combined with the discovery of a [marsupial fossil on Seymour Island](_URL_2_), makes it plausible that there was a connection from South America to Antarctica.
Keep in mind that the date for marsupial divergence is still fairly up in the air (I'm seeing numbers from [125 MYA](_URL_0_) to [65 MYA](_URL_1_)), and that their fossil records are fairly spotty. | [
"Marsupials reached Australia via Antarctica about 50 mya, shortly after Australia had split off. This suggests a single dispersion event of just one species, most likely a relative to South America's monito del monte (a microbiothere, the only New World australidelphian). This progenitor may have rafted across the... |
can somebody please explain two of the federalist papers to me, specifically #10 and #51? | Here's my breakdown of 10 Federalist, which I posted back in the spring, the last time this question was asked on ELI5. I'll get to 51 Federalist in a little while.
**The Situation:** The new constitution has just been written (mostly based on Madison's ideas), and now the states have to ratify it. Each of the Federalist essays is an attempt to work out, from the very basics of human nature up to high political theory, how the new Constitution will make everything better. When you read it, it sounds circuitous and vague, but the point is that the Constitution is great and should be adopted.
**Problem:** The new-born USA is the first really large Republic. The largest past model is Rome, which was tossed by the whims of plebian mob AND had entrenched hereditary aristocracy. All the city-state direct democracies depended on common, local identity of the citizens. Even in 1787, the USA was diverse. So how is this going to work?
**So what's a "Faction"?** Faction: a number of citizens who are united by some common impulse of passion or interest *adverse* to the rights of other citizens or to the overall interests of the community. Note Madison included in the definition a harmful aspect – not just an interest group, but one setting out to harm others, either out of malice or self-interest. *Examples:* Theocratic fundamentalists who want to oppress minority religions (anti-Catholic, anti-Quaker, anti-Jewish were all issues in 1787); state-patriots who want to hurt other states for their own gain; economic radicals -- there were no Socialists or Communists in 1787, but there were land reformers who wanted to redistribute property from the rich few who owned most of it (like Madison!).
**Madison's Blind Spot showing, #1:** Madison doesn't mention slavery, but it meets his definition of a majority faction -- the confluence of racism and self-interest against a minority.
**Madison's Approach:**
1- We could brainwash people to be uniform in their desires and political thinking. Oops, not really possible in 1787.
2- We could suppress liberties like free speech and voting rights. Bad idea.
So we're stuck with the *impulse* to form factions. But maybe we can keep factions from getting *power*. Republics make minority factions irrelevant -- they can't win. Note Madison didn't think about log-rolling or vote-trading in legislatures, because those ideas were invented after 1787.
So *Majority* factions are the real problem – tyranny of the majority. Madison is thinking of the trial of Socrates by the Athenians, the French Revolution under the Committee of Public Safety, etc.
**Federal government to the rescue:** It's harder for a faction to form in a big population spread across an entire continent. Differences should average out, so that in the Federal government, the state-level factions are powerless. The House will be elected frequently -- every two years -- so the representatives will have to actually go out and meet their voters. And the districts are (were in 1787, not anymore) small enough that it's a personal relationship, but not so small that local faction will win elections. And the Congressmen will all be together, away from their constituents for the sessions, so they won't have the mob breathing down their neck and forcing them to vote maliciously.
**Madison's Blind Spot showing, #2:** Madison is talking about elections like "the people" will get a voice. Elections in 1787 are by white male property owners only -- guys like Madison. The first Congress had one Representative for every 30,000 people, including slaves, women, and children, and non-voting white men. Maybe 5% could vote -- it's pretty easy for ~1000 rich white guys to find a common ground. Seriously: [South Carolina's first congressional election](_URL_0_) had 3 out of 5 districts with one candidate running unopposed, and only one district had more than 1000 votes cast. In democratic [Pennsylvania](_URL_3_), the top candidate got 8,707 votes. In all of [New York](_URL_2_) about 11,000 votes were cast to pick 5 congressmen. We're talking the size of [Athenian juries](_URL_1_) here -- not a lot of faction-diffusing diversity. | [
"Federalist No. 73 is an essay by the 18th-century American statesman Alexander Hamilton. It is the seventy-third of \"The Federalist Papers\", a collection of articles written to promote the ratification of the United States Constitution. It was published on March 21, 1788 under the pseudonym Publius, the name und... |
why fort knox has so much gold stored within it. | The US dollar, like most currencies, used to be based on gold. So the government had to have a lot of gold stuck in its vaults to back up its currency.
This isn't true anymore, but there's no good way to get rid of all that gold. If it were all dumped on the open market, the price would crash. | [
"The United States Bullion Depository, often known as Fort Knox, is a fortified vault building located next to the United States Army post of Fort Knox, Kentucky. It is operated by the United States Department of the Treasury. The vault is used to store a large portion of the United States' gold reserves as well as... |
why can't we identify someone if we can't see their eyes? | We can identify people without seeing their eyes just fine if we know them well. Haven't you ever recognized someone with their back turned or semi-profile if their hair has partially fallen over their face so you can't see their eyes? Or how about someone asleep? You can't see their eyes then. | [
"Face recognition can be used not just to identify an individual, but also to unearth other personal data associated with an individual – such as other photos featuring the individual, blog posts, social networking profiles, Internet behavior, travel patterns, etc. – all through facial features alone. Concerns have... |
when a company offers a direct listing for a new stock, how is the initial price point determined? | In the case of a direct listing, the original share holders put up their shares and determine the value themselves (no underwriters involved). It is much cheaper for the company but it is also considered extremely unsafe. There are no protections against the price swinging violently.
This can lead to your shares not being purchased; low demand = no value and your stock tanks.
Doing an IPO comes with the backing of security. In certain cases, where your product/offerings have an extremely solid future, or an already established market presence, you can do a direct listing and basically pop bottles because your product is the tits. | [
"To induce the shareholders of the target company to sell, the acquirer's offer price is usually at a premium over the current market price of the target company's shares. For example, if a target corporation's stock were trading at $10 per share, an acquirer might offer $11.50 per share to shareholders on the cond... |
Are there any people alive today that can trace their ancestry back to ancient history? | There are plenty of people/dynasties that claim they "descend from antiquity" but there are no 'Western' claims that are accepted by historians and genealogists.
There are a number of 'Eastern' claims that might one-day be accepted, the oldest of which is Kung Tsui-chang who claims to be the 79th-generation male descendant of Confucius (though, probably with some adoption involved).
The Japanese imperial family also has a reasonably strong claim, though their surviving records don't go back as far as their claim does. | [
"A 2013 study in \"Nature\" reported that DNA found in the 24,000-year-old remains of a young boy from the archaeological Mal'ta-Buret' culture suggest that up to one-third of the indigenous Americans may have ancestry that can be traced back to western Eurasians, who may have \"had a more north-easterly distributi... |
Why were the Mormons driven out west and why did they settle in Utah of all places? | The Mormons, especially their leader Joseph Smith, tended to run into legal problems wherever they landed. That makes a consistent narrative hard to compile.
Let's start in upstate New York. As a teen Smith engaged in the profession of using a peep stone to look for buried treasure. He and his band of treasure hunters would hire themselves out to various people to dig for treasure on their land. Smith's role was that of the seer who would tell them where to dig, placate the spirits protecting the treasure, and to offer the excuses when no treasure was found. He was (likely) convicted at least once basically for being a disreputable character during this period. Well, the word "conviction" is disputed. But he was taken to court, and paid a fine to the court. The records are spotty. Before leaving New York he escaped from jail at least once, and was brought up on charges related to fraud and sexual misconduct... both of these will reoccur.
It's around this time he claimed to have found the gold plates. He then published the Book of Mormon as a translation of those plates, and founded what would become the LDS Church. It didn't take long before he was forced to flee to Ohio. Ultimately his "persecution" in this period came from three quarters
1. His band of treasure seekers. They took him at his word that he had found gold, and they wanted their cut as had been previously agreed. He came to understandings with a couple of them. But the rest were left in the cold. They resented that and made multiple attempts to steal the gold plates.
3. His creditors. Smith in the period was a great borrower of money (and other things). He tended to be less good at returning what was lent. He was living and farming on borrowed land, planted with borrowed seed, using a borrowed magical peep stone, to translate his book, which was published with borrowed money. None of these (except the land) was ever returned. And the lenders were getting in some cases murderously impatient.
2. His family and neighbors. He had a rep as a disreputable character. He was known as a shiftless layabout always working on some get rich quick scheme. He was also known as a no-good rake who was "ruining" the local girls. Founding a church was a bridge to far for a lot of them. His father-in-law, the relatives of the Stowe girls, and others first tried to get him in court, and when he skated the charges they were gearing up for a good old fashioned lynching of one type or another. So he skipped town.
And... went to Kirtland Ohio. There he met up with a Campbelite preacher, Sydney Rigdon. They became best friends and Kirtland became the church headquarters. Shortly after Missouri became another center of the church, but we'll get to Missouri in a bit. In Ohio Smith started a lot of different projects including an anti-bank (a quasi-legal non-chartered pseudo-bank) after his attempt to charter a real bank was denied by the Ohio authorities. He didn't have enough assets. This was known as the Kirtland Safety Society. Using funds from the anti-bank, Smith and Rigdon engaged in land speculation using other church member's funds to buy and sell land... just in time for the Panic of 1837. This left many church members, and a lot of local non-members, destitute.
A bit before this time his wife found Smith having sex with their maid, Fanny Alger, in their barn. And other rumors of sexual misconduct also swirled. He was beginning to at least think about the doctrine of polygamy, even if he hadn't fully developed it yet. This apparently included some sort of inappropriate conduct with the teen girl Marinda Nancy Johnson and proposed to 12 year old Mary Rollins Lightner. He would later marry both girls. Between the financial problems and the accusations of sexual misconduct tensions rose between the core faithful members, those who split from the church, and their non-Mormon neighbors. Smith was even tarred and feathered, and almost castrated, by a mob led by Marinda Johnson's uncle and at least one brother. So Smith decided it was high time to move to Missouri. The state of Ohio would pursue him legally for the rest of his life, with him regularly dodging process servers and bounty hunters. He was eventually convicted in absentia for fraud. But he never repaid his fine, debts, or served his sentence.
So we move on to Missouri. This will overlap with the Ohio period for a while. The first Mormon settlers moved into the area in and around Jackson County. Smith had revealed that it was the site of the Garden of Eden, and more importantly would be the location of Jesus Christ's second coming. So the Mormons move in. This caused tension among the existing settlers who were largely slave owners from the South. The Mormons were largely vaguely abolitionist New Englanders. They also were largely buying land with questionable titles, usually on credit, or backed by the Kirtland Safety Society. They also formed a tight-knit community that tended to vote as a block. The Missourians formed their own counter community and voting blocks to counter. Pretty soon tensions boiled over. At one point Smith even raised an army in Ohio of several hundred men and marched to Missouri. A ceasefire agreement of a sort was declared delineating a separation between the Mormons and non-Mormons.
Throughout this period the church in Missouri was being run by members of the Whitmer Family. They considered themselves co-founders of the church. Son-in-Law Oliver Cowdrey was Second Elder of the church and had been the Scribe for the Book of Mormon. They were increasingly unhappy with Smith's increasingly hierarchical organization. They also disapproved of Smith's financial dealings, and his sexual misconduct (as they saw it) and had set themselves up as something of a counter movement within the church. When Smith fled to Missouri he quickly took control of the church there. The Whitmers, Cowdrey, and their supporters were excommunicated and driven from their homes. Rigdon even gave his infamous Salt Sermon declaring a "war of extermination" between the faithful and any who would oppose them.
Of course the only place the newly minted excommunicates could go would be to their non-Mormon neighbors. They appealed to the government and the general populous for aid. This ratcheted up tensions a great deal. That fall it spilled over into open violence in what was basically a riot over access to polling booths. The so called Battle of Gallatin was the starting point that saw both sides attacking the outlying settlements of Mormons and Missourians alike. And the Missouri-Mormon war was on. It even had a set piece battle, the Battle of Crooked River, between the militias. The end result was that the Mormon leadership was arrested as the instigators, and agreed that the Mormons would leave the state. Governor Boggs even signed an infamous order known as the Extermination Order to make sure to drive the Mormons from the state.
The rank and file members spent the winter of 1839-1840 moving to Quincy Illinois (later renamed Nauvoo). The leadership spent the winter in pretty horrid conditions in the ironically named Liberty Jail in Missouri. After a few changes of venue they escaped and followed their fellows to Illinois. From this point on Smith was also on the run from Missouri for treason and murder.
| [
"Utah's Black Hawk War had far-reaching and unforeseen outcomes for Mormons and Utes alike. After 1872 Mormons in Utah were able to expand settlements as immigrants swelled valley populations without the threat of Ute resistance. The chasing of Ute raiders through unexplored regions of Utah actually helped explore ... |
Why were Quakers banned from the Massachussetts Bay Colony in the mid-1600s? | Quakers were a persecuted group even back in the UK- they emphasized a more personal, direct relationship with God, unmediated by clergy, which was viewed as blasphemous and a threat to the established power of the Church of England. Because the monarch was the head of the church, denying one's allegiance to the church was akin to disloyalty to the state, and so 'nonconformists' like the Quakers were heavily proscribed.
Now, whereas 17th-century England was a state in which political and religious authority were heavily entwined, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was essentially a theocracy- although it was organized on republican lines, the franchise was limited to freemen, and one of the requirements for being a freeman was being a member of a Puritan church. This, too, was in the days when becoming a church member was a very serious business that involved an interrogation by the pastor to hunt down any hints of heterodoxy.
Because of the religious dominance of the government, the code of laws was heavily based off of Puritan beliefs. People could be prosecuted for crimes as various as playing dice or breaking the Sabbath (to say nothing of people executed for 'witchcraft'). Christmas and May Day were banned.
Back in England, the Quakers had been persecuted for their beliefs because blasphemy was seen as a threat to the social order. However, in the environment of Puritan New England, blasphemy was not just a religious injunction, but a civil offense. Simply by being within the colony and holding beliefs that were at odds with the established doctrine there, one was actively committing a crime, and it was on this basis that Quakers were banned.
They took no half measures, either. Any Quakers found on a ship coming into the colony were immediately imprisoned before being banished. There were a number of individuals who persisted in coming into the colony over a period of years in the middle of the 1600s, and four of them were eventually publicly hanged for their beliefs. This was seen as the last straw by the authorities in England, who revoked the ban on Quakers and, not long afterwards, ended the colony's de facto independence by sending over a royal governor to enforce the Crown's laws. | [
"Of all the New England colonies, Massachusetts was the most active in persecuting the Quakers, but the Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven colonies also shared in their persecution. When the first Quakers arrived in Boston in 1656 there were no laws yet enacted against them, but this quickly changed, and punishmen... |
how do torrent websites keep track of the seeds/peers of each torrent? | So a torrent has seeders (people who have the whole file and are actively sharing it) and leechers (typically people who download more than they upload). The collection of the seeders and leechers is called a swarm. Different torrent sites use a tracker to organise the swarm. The tracker is what detects the number of people seeding and leeching. So when you open a torrent your computer talks to the tracker and tells it which torrent you're after (downloading), or you tell it that you're ready to upload for someone (seeding). | [
"The algorithm applies to a scenario in which there is only one seed in the swarm. By permitting each downloader to download only specific parts of the files listed in a torrent, it equips peers to begin seeding sooner. Peers attached to a seed with super-seeding enabled therefore distribute pieces of the torrent f... |
Did the concept of zero exist in the Roman era? | The Romans didn't have a _number_ for zero. They definitely had the _concept_ though.
They just used the word "nulla" to mean nothing. Either you had something, or it wasn't worth counting.
Roman numerals are almost useless when doing math. Even simple addition and subtraction is clumsy and slow. I've heard it speculated (but don't have a source) that they did most calculations with abacus-like frames, where the numbers remained abstract, and then wrote down the result of their math in the traditional Roman numerals. That is, the numerals were for records, not arithmetic, making a numeral for "zero" even more useless. Why record the transaction if nothing happened?
In modern systems, zero can be an important placeholder (think "100") but practical, day-to-day situations involving a true zero are pretty rare and most of those cases can be covered with nulla or maybe "free."
As in all things, the Romans were also heavily influenced by Greek thinking and the Greeks liked to debate the
philosophical nature of zero ("how can anything truly be nothing?"), which again shows that everyone was aware of the concept, just not sure of its utility.
I've never heard anything about the Romans fearing pagan mathematical concepts. Until Constantine and Christianity, Romans wouldn't have even thought of other people as "pagans." Barbarians, certainly, but when you live in a polytheistic culture, pagan doesn't mean much.
P.S. If someone has an example of a Roman source working out a sum, I'd really like to see it. | [
"Neither the concept nor a symbol for zero existed in the system of Roman numerals. The Babylonian system of the BC era had used the idea of \"nothingness\" without considering it a number, and the Romans enumerated in much the same way. Wherever a modern zero would have been used, Bede and Dionysius Exiguus did us... |
Was there any actual proof of genocide in Srebrenica and Zepa? | Discovery and excavation of mass graves in the region has been [going on for years.]( _URL_0_) | [
"On 12 July 2010, at the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre, Dodik declared that he acknowledges the killings that happened on the site, but does not regard what happened at Srebrenica as genocide, differing from the conclusions of the ICTY and of the International Court of Justice. \"If a genocide happene... |
What does the wobble of the earth's axis have on the weather? | You are on the correct trail in researching Milankovitch cycles. The question of does it effect weather is really one of time-scales. The characteristic time scale of Axial precession (wobble) is 26,000 years so any effect on our 'weather' would be on similar time-scales. It is basically impossible for something which varies once every 26,000 years to effect weather which changes on a daily basis. Milankovitch cycles are relevant for climate-changes of 10,000s of years, but not weather. | [
"Retrograde motion, or retrogression, within the Earth's atmosphere is seen in weather systems whose motion is opposite the general direction of airflow, i.e. from east to west against the westerlies or from west to east through the trade wind easterlies.\n",
"Surface friction allows the atmosphere to 'pick up' a... |
why does mitch mcconnell have so much power? | He is the Senate Majority Leader.
& #x200B;
The political party that he belongs to, the Republicans, have the majority of the seats in the Senate. According to the Senate's rules (which they get to make up themselves), the majority party gets to vote to elect a leader. That leader is given the power to schedule bills for votes.
& #x200B;
The senate could vote to change those rules if they wanted, but they typically don't because whoever has the majority of the seats will also have the most votes against changing the rules. | [
"McConnell has gained a reputation as a skilled political strategist and tactician. However, this reputation dimmed after Republicans failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in 2017 during consolidated Republican control of government.\n",
"McConnell was elected to the Senate in 1984 and has been re-... |
Was Ludwig van Beethoven black? | My vote is for "this is bullshit."
Beethoven was well known in his life. After his death, he was pretty much considered the model of what the composer should be and his music became gospel. He was pretty much canonized in the 19th century, and his image is still VERY strong in the world of classical music. His music was used by the nazis for several reasons, it was still a symbol and they tried to use it for their agenda.
He was an extremely well respected musician, during and after his life people tried to be associated with him. As far as I can tell, this theory is just another example of somebody with an agenda.
Beethoven was apparently nicknamed The Spaniard as a boy. There is a case of description of him as an adult telling us he was "short in stature, broad in the shoulders, short neck, large head, round nose, dark brown complexion; he always bent forward slightly when he walked." He lived at this house people have called Das Schwarzspanierhaus (literally "house of the Black Spaniards," which I think arises comes from some association of this place with some Spanish friars who wore black robes).
That is what I know that is related to dark-coloured and Spanish. I don't know of solid evidence that could indicate he was black, a moor, or from Spain. The Beethoven Center at San José State University [agrees there is no evidence supporting this](_URL_1_).
Do you want to know about a black musician who lived in Europe during Beethoven's life? [Joseph Antonio Emidy (1775 – 1835)](_URL_0_).
There's no conspiracy here, this is something we would know for sure. The academic world would have no reason to force the idea of a "white" Beethoven, we would just not care now... Classical music made it to a hell of a lot of countries, we (non-Europeans) have assimilated it, it is no longer an exclusively European thing. We wouldn't care to find out he was a black transexual Mexican woman who was formerly a shaman and ended in Europe because of alien experiments. But you can be sure we would be VERY interested in evidence for such a discovery.
A lot has been discussed about Beethoven, probably more than about any other famous musician. I remember reading this theory that "he wasn't actually that good," that his fame was just the product of a bunch of situations...
What's next, "was Beethoven an alien with 2 brains"? (Like Bach)
| [
"Ludwig van (full title: \"Ludwig van: A report\"; German: \"Ludwig van: ein Bericht\") is a black-and-white German film by Mauricio Kagel. Filmed in 1969, it was first screened the following year. The work was commissioned by Westdeutscher Rundfunk for the bicentennial celebrations of the birth of Ludwig van Beeth... |
what is a good and simple analogy for the big freeze theory? | Imagine you put 1000 ants randomly onto a little patch of soil 1 foot square. They're close together, they can work together to achieve things, maybe they'll even establish a new colony. It's thriving with activity.
But now imagine you can magically grow that square foot of soil at an ever-expanding rate.
After an hour it's now 10ft square. The ants can still cross the distance and cooperate, it just takes them longer and uses more energy.
After two hours it's a mile square. Maybe some ants are still working together here and there but most just got separated by distance and are wandering around alone.
After three hours it's a thousand miles square. Now each ant is so far apart from it's neighbors that they'll likely never meet except in rare circumstances.
After four hours it's a million miles square. The possibility that any two ants will ever meet and be able to do work together is vanishingly small.
After five hours it's a hundred billion miles square. Each ant couldn't even cross the distance to the next ant if it walked for an entire lifetime.
After six hours, all the ants are dead. Each one ran out of energy and just lay down on their separate, lonely, vast islands of isolation and expired.
The whole scene is still. What was once thriving activity is now completely static and lifeless. | [
"The Big Freeze is a 1993 featurette-length film written and directed by Eric Sykes. The action centres on mishaps involving a father and son plumbing team attending to business in sub-zero temperatures at a retirement home in Finland. Like other Sykes directorial vehicles, the piece is a silent comedy with a star ... |
Hypothetical Exoplanet Analysis | Off the top of my head, the simplest example in that image of a mistake that I think would stand up is that it shows a star in the sky that is either very large or pretty close - and the brightness from it would certainly drown out the other stars in the black sky there.
Even the moon photos with their lack of atmosphere have the stars basically invisible as the brightness of the foreground totally overwhelms them.
Some of it seems plausible - the star is quite large or close, so it would be potentially possible to have some liquid water perhaps, the rocks and terrain, meh, why not.
It does look like the "camera" is sitting on a moon orbiting the gas giant. I could be wrong, but I think that if a gas giant was that close to a star, it would be quite warm indeed, which I think would then lead to a much faster moving atmosphere - meaning that the nice cloud bands wouldn't appear, but rather it would be more of a single color or smear at best, but I am happy to stand corrected if that is wrong. | [
"NICMOS observed the exoplanet XO-2b at star XO-2, and a spectroscopy result was obtained for this exoplanet in 2012. This uses the spectroscopic abilities of the instrument, and in astronomy spectroscopy during a planetary transit (an exoplanet passes in front of star from the perspective of Earth) is a way to stu... |
how do companies get away with badmouthing each other? | There is nothing illegal about using your competitor's name in an advertisement. But...you open yourself up to false advertisement claims (not to mention mounds of legal costs) when piss off a competitor. The use of the "compared to the leading brand" is often chosen to avoid hassle, but also because you don't want to give increased recognition to a competitor's brand. Typically only underdog brands engage in this strategy since it is perceived as risky for your brand (being a whiny bitch isn't always a good strategy).
Typically suits come up under false advertisement. The affected brand says that the advertisement is misleading or factually inaccurate (e.g. the add suggests that coke will make you get laid more than pepsi but no evidence exists to back that up). Companies make these false claims all the time and they _could be_ regarded as false advertising, but...if you're using a competitor's name you're just that much more likely to get called out on it.
It _was_ once illegal. it is no longer. still is in some countries.
| [
"This type occurs whereby a dominant firm using dominant position to exploit consumers without losing them through conduct like price increase and production limitation. There is no legal definition of ‘exploitative abuse’ under Article 102 but it can be taken as ‘any conduct that directly causes harm to the custom... |
How did the Russians manage the logistics of redeploying their Baltic fleet to the Far East in 1905? | Expanded [from an earlier answer of mine](_URL_0_)
The process of coaling was an arduous and backbreaking task in the early twentieth century. This was doubly true for the fleets commanded by Zinovy Rozhestvensky and Dmitry von Fölkersam which had to make a long journey to Asian waters. The journey was a logistical nightmare for a Russian navy that was largely designed to fight in European waters. The inexperience of the fleet, coupled with panic over Japanese sneak attack led to various scares during the travel that the fleet was under attack. But the Russians were able to take advantage of the emerging international maritime law that allowed belligerent warships to coal and take on water in neutral ports.
The Russian fleet mostly sought shelter in friendly French ports like Dakar, Madagascar, and Camn Ranh Bay. International maritime law allowed for belligerent warships to stay 24 hours in neutral ports for coaling, but the Franco-Russian alliance meant that the French officials often turned a blind eye to the Russians overstaying their limit, much to the chagrin of Japanese diplomats. The Russians also contracted out to private French and German civilian companies for colliers. In the latter case, the Hamburg-Amerika line's colliers further strained Anglo-German relations, and Chancellor von Bülow wanted the company to cancel the contract, but Kaiser Wilhelm II sided with Hamburg-Amerika as it fit into his conception of using German support for Russia as a wedge against the Franco-Russian alliance. In this instance, the French desire to keep the alliance alive and the German desire to undermine it actually both worked in the Russians' favor, making the fleet's voyage possible after the Dogger Bank incident alienated an already cold Britain.
Rear Admiral Fölkersam's newly-christened Third Pacific Squadron though had a slightly-shorter trip than the main force as it made the transit via the Canal. One rationale was that Fölkersam's ships were both lighter and unable to carry as much coal as the main battle line under Rozhestvenskii's flag. There was a fear that these smaller ships would hamper the already complicated logistics of the voyage. Moreover, there was also a fear that the heavily-laden battleline might also find itself aground in the narrow waters off Suez because the amount of coal taken aboard had increased their draft.
But it was more than just practical matters of logistics that underlay the division of the fleet. The same fears that inspired the Dogger Bank incident were still at play and there was a fear that the Japanese could have naval forces in the restricted waters of the Mediterranean. Fölkersam's ships were not only a tad more maneuverable, they were also expendable for the whole fleet. His ships were either older ones or auxiliaries.
The expendable nature of Third Pacific Squadron also reflected the fear that Britain could prevent the whole enterprise. Rozhestvensky was afraid that the British control over the Canal meant they could use whatever pretext to detain or even seize the battlefleet. The 1888 Convention of Constantinople sanctified the Canal as an international waterway and guaranteed rights of access. But the Convention also had provisions governing the transit of warships and ships of belligerent powers that limited their loiter times in the Canal or coaling at Canal ports. The British, as the *de facto* controlling power of the Canal, had the power to interpret the Convention's provisions. They had already done so during the Spanish-American War when they narrowly interpreted the Convention to minimize the time Spain's warships spent coaling and refitting while making a transit to the Philippines. The Dogger Bank incident certainly did not endear the Russian fleet to the British and there was a fear that the British could interpret the Convention against Russia's interests. Moreover, the Convention was still a relatively untested treaty and it was unclear from Rozhestvensky's perspective whether or not the British would abide by it or if the Egyptian government would alter the rules for coaling.
So even if Dogger Bank did not alter the Convention, the bad blood the incident created between Britain and Russia had the *potential* for British to use the Convention against Russia. This, coupled with the already severe logistical problems of the fleet, meant that sending Fölkersam's more expendable and lighter ships to transit the Canal was a calculated risk on the part of Rozhestvensky and one that paid off. The Third Pacific Squadron was able to rendezvous with its colliers and then link up with the main force after the Canal transit. The British did not unduly delay or pester Fölkersam's detachment and the transit showed Britain's commitment to the Convention. Unfortunately, the subsequent Japanese triumph at Tsushima negated the herculean effort that had gone into supplying the fleet for its transoceanic voyage. | [
"The Baltic Fleet took a prominent part in the Russo-Japanese War. After the defeat of earlier Siberian Military Flotilla vessels, in September 1904, a squadron under the command of Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky was sent on a famous high-speed dash around South Africa – stopping in French, German and Portuguese colo... |
why do cops use numbers like 10-4 to talk to each other instead of saying what’s actually happening? | Because there are multiple officers all trying to talk on the same frequency so it's good to be brief. Also in case someone is listening it isn't immediately obvious what's going on | [
"Ten-codes, officially known as ten signals, are brevity codes used to represent common phrases in voice communication, particularly by law enforcement and in Citizens Band (CB) radio transmissions. The police version of ten-codes is officially known as the APCO Project 14 Aural Brevity Code.\n",
"In the United S... |
why the new star wars movie still isn't rated this close to it's release date? | In this case I believe it is because they have not released the movie to critics so as to avoid leaking plot details. Current rumor is there is some big reveal regarding Luke they don't want to give away in advance. | [
"All six \"Star Wars\" films were released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on Blu-ray Disc on September 16, 2011 in three different editions, with \"A New Hope\" available in both a box set of the original trilogy and with all six films on \"Star Wars: The Complete Saga\", which includes nine discs and over ... |
What is "foaming at the mouth" and what exactly causes it? | Rabies causes, amongst other things "hydrophobia" which counter to what its name suggests isn't a literal fear of water but more an inability to swallow effectively. Many patients when afflicted by rabies experience laryngospasm, pharyngeal or diaphramatic spasms. The end result is the inability to effectively swallow even your own saliva leading to drooling, spitting, and as it progresses and you become increasingly dehydrated and decreasingly lucid, foam starts to form in your now thick saliva as you attempt to spit.
Source: work in healthcare, also _URL_0_ | [
"In cuisine, foam is a gelling or stabilizing agent in which air is suspended. Foams have been present in many forms over the history of cooking, such as whipped cream, meringue and mousse. In these cases, the incorporation of air or another gas creates a lighter texture and a different mouth feel. Foams add flavor... |
Are trees from different families examples of convergent evolution? Or do many families of plants come from a tree-like ancestor? | So I've heard of arboresence (or tree-ness) considered a convergent phenotype in George McGhee's book "Convergent Evolution: Limited forms most beautifu"l. In fact, he argues that arboresence has evolved independently in 9 plant lineages. One example is Ferns which evolved tree-ness in 3 groups throughout history (only one is group is still extant), each with different types of trunks!
The main reason touted for the convergence of this trait is functional constraint. It just turns out that 'growing upward' is rather important so many lineages will leverage their genetic or morphological resources to achieve that goal. This variety of mechanical mechanisms to realize the trait suggest that the tree form was likely independently selected upon numerous times.
To answer your question more specifically, it depends on the taxanomic level we're talking about. I think that trees in the Fabacea and Rosaceae might not really be convergence because they share a common tree form. However the tree form of Cycad palms compared to angiosperm trees would be an instance of convergence since they are truly independent and distinct.
Edit: Upon re-reading, I realize some of my language is very teleological. I don't want to ascribe any teleology to these evolutionary processes, I'm just speaking in rhetorical short hand. Please don't crucify me | [
"Genome-wide analysis of 11 clumps of \"P. trichocarpa\" trees reveals significant genetic differences between the roots and the leaves and branches of the same tree. The variation within a specimen is as much as found between unrelated trees. These results may be important in resolving debate in evolutionary biolo... |
What did Classic, Country Music stars like Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and the like, think of the Woodstock Music Festival? | In 1969, both Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash were both fairly unusually aligned with the American youth counterculture than the average country musician. Kris Kristofferson's 1970 debut album *Kristofferson* features the track 'Blame It On The Stones', which satirised bourgeois hypocrisy about the counterculture and its drug use:
> Mister Marvin middle class is really in a stew
> Wondering' what the younger generation's coming to
> And the taste of his martini doesn't please his bitter tongue
> Blame it on the Rolling Stones.
Kristofferson's tune 'Me And Bobby McGee' was also covered by San Francisco counterculture star Janis Joplin soon before her death in 1970, suggesting at least that his songwriting was attractive to the counterculture (especially after it had moved into a more folk/country mode after the success of The Band around 1968).
Johnny Cash, circa Woodstock, was probably most prominent as the host of *The Johnny Cash Show*, on the ABC network in the US, a variety show; he had relatively recently had some of his biggest success with the live albums recorded at Folsom Prison and then at San Quentin, and as such was perceived as somewhat sympathetic to the counterculture, if not a part of it. On this show, Johnny Cash featured a variety of music along the lines of folk and country, broadly defined, and this included Woodstock performers like Creedence Clearwater Revival, and folkies like Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger who had explicitly made anti-Vietnam statements (alongside more classic country artists like Merle Haggard and Marty Robbins, and more showbiz types like Pat Boone and Peggy Lee). The first show featured (counterculture icon) Bob Dylan dueting with Johnny Cash, and Johnny Cash at one point in the run of the show famously performed Kristofferson's 'Sunday Morning Coming Down', prominently not bowdlerising the word 'stoned' for the mainstream audience.
So both Cash and Kristofferson were very likely comfortable with Woodstock. They also both represent the more progressive side of country music, as both were definitely influences on the 'outlaw country' movement of the 1970s (Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, etc), which contrasted itself with the Nashville mainstream.
The Nashville mainstream was less enamoured of the hippies. In the month after Woodstock, Merle Haggard released the single 'Okie From Muskogee', which started with the lyrics:
> We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee
> We don't take our trips on LSD
> We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street
> We like livin' right, and bein' free
> We don't make a party out of lovin'
> We like holdin' hands and pitchin' woo
> We don't let our hair grow long and shaggy
> Like the hippies out in San Francisco do
> I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
> A place where even squares can have a ball
> We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
> And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all
This quickly became a number one on the Billboard country charts, which at that time was strongly based on radio airplay of the singles on country radio stations, suggesting the message of the song was one strongly approved of by country music gatekeepers and the Southern country audience (Haggard himself and his relation to the Nashville mainstream was more complex, as the song was originally meant as satire - or so he claimed later). Johnny Cash also had Haggard on his show playing the song.
Broadly speaking, in the 1968 election, several country music icons endorsed conservative politicians at some level. George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama who ran on a segregationist third-party platform in the 1968 election, won the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi in the hope of being able to negotiate with the eventual winner on implementing very racist policy. Wallace Tammy Wynette sang 'Stand By Your Man' at a George Wallace appearance (and which became an unofficial Wallace anthem) and Hank Snow ('I've Been Everywhere') went on tour with Wallace during his Presidential campaign. Roy Acuff, one of the biggest figures in Nashville, was a prominent supporter of Richard Nixon during the 1968 election. Nixon ran ads on Porter Waggoner's television show during the campaign, warning that a vote for Wallace was a vote for Hubert Humphrey, the (Northern, Establishment) Democratic candidate.
Wallace, in 1968, was fond of joking about long-haired hippies as they were protesting him, saying things like:
> That’s alright, that’s alright honey – that’s right sweetie-pie – oh, that’s a he. I thought you were a she
and
> You come up when I get through and I'll autograph your sandals for you. That is, if you got any on . . . You need a good haircut. That's all that's wrong with you. . . There are two four-letter words I bet you folks don't know: 'w-o-r-k' and 's-o-a-p.'
This is probably a fairly good representation of the attitudes towards the hippie counterculture that was epitomised by Woodstock, amongst the more conservative Nashville country music stars who might have been comfortable with endorsing a George Wallace (unlike Haggard or Cash). After all, in 1972, after Wallace had been seriously injured after being shot, a crowd of 7,000 gathered at 'Wallace's Woodstock' at the Old Plantation Music Park near Highland City in Florida (basically part of George Jones and Tammy Wynette's property) to hold a benefit for Wallace, which featured performances from Jones and Wynette, Ferlin Husky, Del Reeves, and George Wallace Jr. | [
"In 2005, Professor Louie & the Crowmatix were the first artists to have a live concert recording released by the New York State Museum. The CD is entitled “The Spirit of Woodstock”. It comprises fourteen songs including the music of Bob Dylan, The Band, Bruce Springsteen, The Crowmatix and more. The performance wa... |
if i were able to attain enough money to hire a team capable of sending me into space, and buy the spacecraft itself, would anyone be legally allowed to stop me? | Goodness no! In fact, you'd probably get a prize, if you were able to do something novel up there. We're actively encouraging civilian spaceflight through a number of initiatives, including SpaceX Prizes and general tax breaks for corporations even attempting it.
Mind you you'd have to schedule your launch past air traffic control. | [
"It's possible to equip your space shuttle with cargo, crew, and energy. Then you will launch, pilot, and land it on a carrier. While orbiting the Earth you will deploy and maintain satellites, or build and visit a space station.\n",
"Furthermore, if such services were unavailable by the end of 2010, NASA would'v... |
Regarding classical conditioning and using it to influence your sexual preferences.. | I'm no psychologist, but preferences for women's body types vary markedly by culture, and even over time within the same culture. That suggests that they aren't all hardwired at least, and that there is a fair amount of conditioning that goes into it, whether it's social reinforcement or whatever. There are probably limits to what conditioning can accomplish, though, as some of it is almost certainly hardwired. There's probably a point where your brain will just give up and say "I can't fap to this", so Bea Arthur fetishism might not be as likely to take hold. | [
"Some explanations invoke classical conditioning. In several experiments, men have been conditioned to show arousal to stimuli like boots, geometric shapes or penny jars by pairing these cues with conventional erotica. According to John Bancroft, conditioning alone cannot explain fetishism, because it does not resu... |
kobe was accused of rape — the victim was battered, he was charged with a felony, they settled after a civil case, he issued an apology — but no one seems to care. why? | I think people have generally accepted that Kobe was *likely* guilty of adultery and but that it was consensual sex and not rape. Rationale:
1.) Authorities chose not to pursue criminal charges of rape against him
2.) He publicly admitted to adultery but not rape
3.) Civil case against him for rape was settled out of court with neither side admitting guilt or innocence.
4.)(this is probably the biggest thing...) There was not a string of similar allegations from other women or similar shady behavior
I think most people are about 95% sure but there's just no way to know for certain at this point so people will always have doubts. | [
"The Kobe Bryant sexual assault case began in July 2003 when the news media reported that the sheriff's office in Eagle, Colorado, had arrested professional basketball player Kobe Bryant in connection with an investigation of a sexual assault complaint filed by a 19-year-old hotel employee. Bryant had checked into ... |
is the us going to war with iran? | You think the people in charge of our government have a cogent plan they're going to stick to? The Joint Chiefs of Staff probably know the answer to this as well as I do. But we do have some world-class warmongers making some high-level decisions right now | [
"Muravchik argued in the Washington Post that the United States should attack Iran, stating: \"Does this mean that our only option is war? Yes, although an air campaign targeting Iran's nuclear infrastructure would entail less need for boots on the ground than the war Obama is waging against the Islamic State, whic... |
The FDA says that "residual quantities of formaldehyde may be found in some current vaccines" How is that even remotely possible when formaldehyde is a gas? | Gases can be dissolved in liquids.
Formaldehyde exists in equilibrium with methylene glycol when dissolved in water. [The equilibrium constant at standard conditions is on the order of 10^3](_URL_0_), so most of it will become methylene glycol, but not all of it. | [
"In June 2011, the twelfth edition of the National Toxicology Program (NTP) Report on Carcinogens (RoC) changed the listing status of formaldehyde from \"reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen\" to \"known to be a human carcinogen.\" Concurrently, a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committee was convened... |
How does the majority of historians view Julius Caesar? A great leader or an evil one? | The issue with this question is that it is completely variant on a subjective viewpoint. Judging whether or not a person as famous as Caesar was "good" or "evil" is a truly impossible task, not only because of the differences in morality between the ancient era and the modern one, but also because of the different nuances of character that an individual has. Julius Caesar was undoubtedly a great man who left his mark on history. Whether or not "great" means "good" or "evil" is, again, up to individual interpretation.
Starting off that examination, I'll suggest you go ahead and read [this excellent introduction](_URL_1_) to *Life of a Colossus*. Honestly, I recommend you read the whole book, but for our purposes here, the introduction answers your question perfectly, and far better than I can, myself. To know more about Caesar as a person, read the entire book - it's the best biography I've found of the man, and gives an excellent accounting with a neutral viewpoint on the person himself.
The long story short is that Caesar was as amoral as anyone else has ever been. He wasn't good or evil; he was simultaneously neither and both. He did great things for Rome, for the poor, and when it benefited him. He also was in charge of the hugely destructive Gallic War, which was incredibly popular with the Roman people, who considered it a good thing. The modern eye would consider it less so, with a (probably exaggerated) total of one million people killed and another million enslaved. Again, whether or not the Gallic Wars made Caesar a "good person" or "bad person" is entirely subjective. For the Romans, he offered civil peace and a pretty good deal for the common people, even if the aristocrats couldn't stand him. To our modern view, he made himself an autocrat in all but name. While he wasn't emperor, he consolidated power and kept people he didn't like from getting anywhere; but his reforms were good ones, and some of them lasted for centuries, despite Caesar's extremely short rule.
He was ruthless in his own way, but he also offered clemency when it suited him. He offered friendship when he saw it to be beneficial, but he also offered enmity when that was more in his favour. So the answer to your question, I suppose, would be "both and neither." He was a person, and no person is black or white - we're all shades of grey.
[I actually examined a rather similar question to this one a bit ago](_URL_0_); I'll paste what I wrote then in the comments below :) | [
"Although Sextus Pompeius remained at large, after Munda there were no more conservative armies challenging Caesar's dominion. Upon his return to Rome, according to Plutarch, the \"triumph which he celebrated for this victory displeased the Romans beyond any thing. For he had not defeated foreign generals, or barba... |
How do bacteria get their energy? | [Metabolism](_URL_0_), like every other living creature.
The two common sources of energy are light and molecular bonds in food matter.
Different bacteria have evolved to capitalize on both sources.
The variations are fascinating.
Wood is a sugar molecule with lots of energy, but humans can't unlock it so we call it "fiber."
Termites can't digest it either, but they thrive on it because they harbor bacteria in their guts that CAN digest wood fiber and the bacteria's waste products feed the termite. | [
"Some species of bacteria obtain their energy by oxidizing various fuels while reducing arsenate to arsenite. Under oxidative environmental conditions some bacteria oxidize arsenite to arsenate as fuel for their metabolism. The enzymes involved are known as arsenate reductases (Arr).\n",
"In respiring bacteria un... |
Is it possible that scientific constants exist because of the way we define units? | Dimensionful constants, like the speed of light or Planck's constant, are indeed dependent on the units we choose, and we can set them to 1 in some appropriate unit system (this is commonly done, for example, in quantum field theory or in relativity). But dimensionless constants, like the fine-structure constant, have the same value no matter which units we choose, so these can't be eliminated by choosing a certain unit system. | [
"While there are several other physical constants, these three are given special consideration, because they can be used to define all Planck units and thus all physical quantities. The three constants are therefore used sometimes as a framework for philosophical study and as one of pedagogical patterns.\n",
"Usi... |
3 good questions about the derivatives of position. 1. can we perceive any besides velocity and acceleration?.... | > you go from velocity to acceleration by squaring the t in d/t
Well, given a function v(t), you differentiate with respect to time to get a(t). Ok, a perfectly valid function is v(t)=d/t with some constant d, which would mean a velocity that gradually approaches zero, but I doubt this is what you mean by d/t.
> Are humans aware of any of the derivatives beyond just velocity and acceleration? What do they feel like?
The derivative of acceleration is called [jerk](_URL_0_). So this, multiplied by the mass, is the rate of change of applied force. It's used in various engineering applications, as detailed in the article.
> In partial response to my own first question, I imagine that it would get very hard to distinguish between each derivative. So if there are some that we're not aware of, are THESE the "tiny dimensions" that I hear physicists talking about?
Not at all. The "tiny dimensions" are something else completely. With regards to the first part of your question, it's true for certain classes of functions that if you take loads and loads of derivatives you'll end up with zero in the end, but this is not true for all functions. For example, you can differentiate e^x as many times as you like and still get e^x.
> Are there any other forces that are equivalent to one of the derivatives, such as with gravity & amp; acceleration?
Yep, jerk.
| [
"If represents the position of an object at time , then the higher-order derivatives of have specific interpretations in physics. The first derivative of is the object's velocity. The second derivative of is the acceleration. The third derivative of is the jerk. And finally, the fourth derivative of is the jounce.\... |
what does cold/flu medicine do if you don't have a cold or flu? | The most commonly used decongestant is **guafenesin**. It increases the blood flow to your nose. Many opera singers use it daily to clear their sinuses. If you take too much you'll throw up, but it's not deadly.
**Guafenesin** is also an expectorant, but maybe your medicine uses **pseudoephedrine**. That will make your heart beat a little faster, almost like caffeine or something.
A lot of cough syrup contains **acetaminophen/paracetamol** (different names, same drug). It's Tylenol, a mild pain reliever, and will also destroy your liver if you take too much or drink with it.
**Dextromethorphan** is the cough suppresant, and there's no slightly about it, that stuff will *fuck* you up. But not nearly as badly as...
**Dyphenhydramine**. This is what Benadryl is, and it will make you go full retard for a day. You will lose the ability to form coherent sentences, talk to people that aren't there, and just generally be completely delirious (the drug is actually called a deliriant).
Source: I take cough syrup recreationally (unadvisable), and knowing what you're putting in your body is a necessity.
| [
"There is little evidence to support that Cold-fx is effective in the common cold. All trials have been done by the manufacturer and there has been poor data reporting. According to Health Canada's Natural Health Product Directorate records, the company claims that it may \"help reduce the frequency, severity and d... |
how can something like a cellphone or computer possibly have any effect on a plane during takeoff? | 800 megahertz communications can interfere with instrument landing systems as well as other navigation systems. | [
"\"The aircraft manufacturer's avionics representative advised that there was no likelihood that the operation of a computer, other electronic device or a cell phone would have affected the aircraft's flight instruments.\"\n",
"Initial analysis from David Learmount, a \"Flight International\" editor, was that \"T... |
How did the four Sunni Islamic school of thoughts settle to the current geography? Could this change in the future? | Mod mote to OP and potential respondents: just a reminder that this sub *does not permit speculation*, so discussion here will have to exclude the last question (re possible futures) . | [
"After its beginnings in the 8th century based on Hellenistic geography, Islamic geography was patronized by the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad. Various Islamic scholars contributed to its development, and the most notable include Al-Khwārizmī, Abū Zayd al-Balkhī (founder of the \"Balkhi school\"), and Abu Rayhan Birun... |
Were there Prisoner of War camps in the American Civil War? If so, what were they like? How were the prisoners treated? | It was bad in the South as the war dragged on. The North was very effective at limiting the South's ability to supply their troops and civilians. PoWs are pretty low on the list when you're rationing.
Andersonville, by far the most notorious Civil War prison, housed nearly 33,000 men at its peak—one of the largest "cities" of the Confederacy. Inmates crowded into 26.5 acres (11 hectares) of muddy land, constructing "shebangs," or primitive shelters, from whatever material they could find. Lacking sewer or sanitation facilities, camp inmates turned "Stockade Creek" into a massive, disease-ridden latrine. Summer rainstorms would flood the open sewer, spreading filth. Visitors approaching the camp for the first time often retched from the stench. The prison's oppressive conditions claimed 13,000 lives by the war's end.
That's not to say that the North was much better:
Prisons often engendered conditions more horrible than those on the battlefield. The Union's Fort Delaware was dubbed "The Fort Delaware Death Pen," while Elmira prison in New York saw nearly a 25 percent mortality rate. The South's infamous Camp Sumter, or Andersonville prison, claimed the lives of 29 percent of its inmates.
_URL_0_
It's a good article. | [
"In the early years of the Civil War, the north barracks were used to hold Confederate officers taken as prisoners of war pending transfer to other Union prisons such as Camp Johnson in Ohio, Fort Delaware or Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. Fort Columbus and Castle Williams also served as a temporary prisoner of war ... |
Are there any theories which try to explain where the very first matter, mass, or "stuff" came from? | Current cosmological/physics theories can trace the universe back rather accurately to about 10^(-12) seconds or so after the big bang. All of our theories before that are speculative to some degree or another, so we can't say anything definitive about the universe at those points (let alone make sense of "before the big bang"). | [
"All these theories imply that matter is a continuous substance. Two Greek philosophers, Leucippus (first half of the 5th century BC) and Democritus of Abdera (lived about 410 BC) came up with the notion that there were two real entities: atoms, which were small indivisible particles of matter, and the void, which ... |
what is stockholm’s syndrome and can children have it due to abusive parents? | Stockholm Syndrome is when a captive person grows an attachment to their captor. For example, it has been debated that dogs only love their owners because their owners feed and shelter them.
I think children can develop Stockholm Syndrome with/to abusive parents. Depending on their age, they probably do feel like prisoners. | [
"Stockholm syndrome is a \"contested illness\" due to doubt about the legitimacy of the condition. It has also come to describe the reactions of some abuse victims beyond the context of kidnappings or hostage-taking. Actions and attitudes similar to those suffering from Stockholm syndrome have also been found in vi... |
will the united states debt to china ever affect the us government in a negative way? | To China specifically? No. Owing money to China is no different from the US government owing money to me for money I've lent to it. The US government owes about $1.25 trillion to China and about $6.2 trillion to foreign sources overall. It doesn't really offer China any influence over the US.
Can debt overall effect the US government negatively if it takes out so much debt people lose faith in its ability to pay it back/defaults on a loan? Yeah, totally, because then people won't lend it money as cheaply anymore. | [
"A significant number of economists and analysts dismiss any and all concerns over foreign holdings of United States government debt denominated in U.S. Dollars, including China's holdings. Critics of the \"excessive\" amount of US debt held by China acknowledge that the \"biggest effect of a broad-scale dump of US... |
What were the consequences of Athens’ decisions, and how did their downfall effect Greece and ultimately leave it open for Phillip II to conquer. | There is a significant amount of time between the dissolution of the Delian League (404 BC) and the conquest of Greece by Philip II (338 BC). In fact, there was time enough for the Athenians to start a Second Delian League (probably in 378 BC) *and for that League to fall too* (after the Social War of 357-355 BC).
However, Athenian decisions certainly did play into Philip II's hand. Firstly, from 368 BC onward, the Athenians waged a costly war to recover the strategic city of Amphipolis in Thrace, which they had lost in 424 BC. They failed to take it, but antagonised the Macedonians in the process, and Philip eventually did conquer the town (and its mines and vast resouces of timber).
Secondly, the Athenian attempt to recover their power in the Aeagen was initially successful, but their continued campaigning against Amphipolis made their new allies feel used for the sake of Athens' interests, leading to the Social War I just mentioned. This war was extremely costly for Athens, and decisively ruined its chances of uniting the Aegean in a new Athenian empire.
Thirdly, Athens spent a great deal of resources trying to set up a pro-Athenian government on the island of Euboia, which brought it into conflict with the Thebans through most of the 340s BC. The Thebans themselves were already extremely weakened by the ongoing Third Sacred War (356-346 BC) against Phokis, in which Philip II became more and more involved after he conquered Thessaly.
All of these wars and alliances are very complex, but the main point is that only major states like Thebes and Athens had the strength to form an alliance capable of stopping Philip, and thanks to their constant warring no one trusted them to have the interests of Greece at heart. Meanwhile, Philip encroached on Central Greek affairs more and more, while also expanding into the Hellespont, which was a direct threat to Athenian interests. In the war that followed, Athens' only major ally was actually Thebes, but their joined army was defeated at Chaironeia in 338 BC, and Philip made the mainland Greek subject to Macedon. | [
"The Greek victories at Plataea and contemporaneous naval battle at Mycale had the result that never again would the Persian Empire launch an attack on mainland Greece. Afterwards, Persia pursued its policies by diplomacy, bribery and cajolement, playing one city state against another. But, by these victories, and ... |
Why do galaxies appear as consistent objects, given their sheer scale? | Hundreds of thousands of years is actually quite a short period of time in astronomy. Even very short-lived stars last for millions of years.
The distance to other galaxies is also much larger than their size. Andromeda, the closest large galaxy to us, is millions of light-years away. We can say many other objects that are *billions* of light-years away. On that scale, we definitely notice that closer galaxies are more evolved than more distant galaxies. But on the scale of an individual galaxy, a hundred thousand years is almost too small to notice. | [
"Current models also predict that the majority of mass in galaxies is made up of dark matter, a substance which is not directly observable, and might not interact through any means except gravity. This observation arises because galaxies could not have formed as they have, or rotate as they are seen to, unless they... |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.