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economic darwinism. | > How can a social theory be applied to economics?
People are always looking for a way to justify not caring about their fellow man. If you can find a way to dress that justification up as science, even better. Social Darwinism was popular because it gave brutal people a justification to support policies that were b... | [
"or Darwinian metaphysics) refers to a variety of approaches that extend the theory of Darwinism beyond its original domain of biological evolution on Earth. Universal Darwinism aims to formulate a generalized version of the mechanisms of variation, selection and heredity proposed by Charles Darwin, so that they ca... |
on d-day why was the siege of omaha beach considered one of the largest undertakings in the history of war? was it thought to be a suicide mission? | Here are some of the numbers for only Omaha Beach:
**Allies:**
43,250 infantry
2 battleships
3 cruisers
12 destroyers
105 other ships
**Nazi:**
7,800 infantry
8 artillery bunkers
35 pillboxes
4 artillery pieces
6 mortar pits
18 anti-tank guns
45 rocket launcher sites
85 machine gun sites
6 tank turrets
And Omaha was... | [
"This force, code-named \"Bombardment Group A\", and commanded by Rear Admiral Morton Deyo, was a group of eighteen warships assigned to support the amphibious landings on Utah Beach on June 6, 1944 (\"D-Day\"); this was the opening day of Operation Overlord, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasi... |
how does a swab test detect traces of narcotics in luggage just from a small wipe down? | Because they are designed to show the chemicals found in drugs. They show up as certain colors for different chemicals found in different drugs (for some) if they show up on the swab: drugs are or have been inside or on the luggage. | [
"Routine detection of the smuggled packets is extremely difficult, and many cases come to light because a packet has ruptured or because of intestinal obstruction. Unruptured packets may sometimes be detected by rectal or vaginal examination, but the only reliable way is by X-ray of the abdomen. Hashish appears den... |
the debt ceiling and amendment 14 | I can ELI-High Schooler:
When you use a credit card to buy, say a TV, you swipe the card, and the computer checks to make sure you are not at your credit limit, or the most amount of debt you can have on that card. If you try and go over that limit, you will be denied and unable to buy the TV.
Now that's how debt and... | [
"BULLET::::- Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner implied that the debt ceiling may violate the Constitution; however George Madison, General Counsel to the US Treasury, wrote that \"Secretary Geithner has never argued that the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution allows the President to disregard the statutory debt li... |
why is it against the law to make false statements to the fbi but not against the law to lie to other law enforcement agencies in the us? | Cop here:
The FBI is federal law enforcement that operates under different rules than state or local law enforcement.
In my state, lying to a police officer can be considered a crime under certain conditions, like giving a fake name. In my state it's the same as resisting arrest, which is a catch-all charge for obst... | [
"In defense, the FBI put forth a claim that the redacted sections of the documents requested were withheld in accordance with FOIA regulations protecting the identity of informants who gave information regarding case details. However, O'Connor ruled that those who supplied information had no need to remain anonymou... |
when i open a file and see a bunch of crazy, meaningless (to me) symbols - what am i looking at? | If a file is meant and formatted to be something else than a simple text file, trying to interpret the bits and bytes as text will result in that. You can write simple programs in paint with that logic. A specific sequence of colored boxes can read "hello world" if you change the extension from ".png" to ".txt". | [
"This emphasises that the sign is merely a symbol for the class of object referred to. Hence, the lexical word or noun \"box\" evokes a range of possibility from cheap card to gold-encrusted container. The reader or audience may not be able to see the particular box referred to but will be aware of its likely form ... |
why do stickers easily come off on fabric but hard to peel off on metal or other surfaces also leaving behind a sticky residue and sometimes not even being able to peel it all off? | Fabric is a relatively "rough" surface, so the sticker is only sticking to the highest points on the fabric, so there's less surface contact. Take the same sticker and stick it to the sandy side of sandpaper, same thing. Or, find a very smooth piece of silk to stick the sticker too, it likely still stick better.
La... | [
"When recycling post-consumer paper, stickies are tacky substances contained in the paper pulp and process water systems of paper machines. Stickies have the potential to contaminate the components either within or around the equipment necessary in the Stages of Manufacturing that a Paper Mill follows in its Develo... |
how can in-n-out burger offer a double-double animal style for ~$3 but a big mac averages ~$5? | McD's spends vast amounts of cash on worldwide marketing, and on a much bigger menu. In-N-Out has a simple, streamlined menu and doesn't do big huge marketing campaigns. | [
"BULLET::::- Triple-Double Burger – A burger featuring three beef patties and two slices of cheese, served on the same 6 inch (15.2 cm) sesame seed roll as the McRib. It was originally marketed as the Superhero Burger to promote the release of the 1995 film \"Batman Forever\". It was also sold under the names of lo... |
How surprising was the American Civil War to the general population? What kind of rumors and speculation lead up to the secession of South Carolina, if any? | 1/2
Did anybody see the Civil War coming? The answer there that it depends what one means by "see the Civil War coming" and also what "the Civil War entails" in their minds when they do or don't see it. So let's open the box on Schroedinger's Antebellum American for the firm yes and firm no that are both correct.
Pre... | [
"The American Civil War began on April 12, one week before the riot. At the time, the slave states of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas had not yet seceded from the U.S. The status of Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky (later known as \"border states\"), remained unknown. When Fort Sumter fe... |
why can't we pronounce words and sentences backwards? | Take a very simple word, like "pa". How do you pronounce it?
1. First press your lips together so that no air can escape, and pull your tongue down. Build up pressure with your lungs.
2. Open your lips to release the pressure. Allow the first bit of air to escape in a little puff.
3. Start your vocal cords vibrating.
... | [
"Languages that cannot relativize directly on noun phrases low in the accessibility hierarchy can sometimes use alternative voices to \"raise\" the relevant noun phrase so that it can be relativized. The most common example is the use of applicative voices to relativize obliques, but in such languages as Chukchi an... |
why is it so easy to kill a virus with hand soap but so difficult to kill a virus once it has infected us internally? | Soap does not kill viruses, it binds with viruses and when you rinse the soap off your hands they go with the soap down the sink.
_URL_0_
Edited for the link to scishow video | [
"A comprehensive analysis in 2007 from the University of Michigan School of Public Health indicated that plain soaps are just as effective as consumer-grade antibacterial soaps with triclosan in preventing illness and removing bacteria from the hands.\n",
"If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based... |
Recommendations for a book on the history of the development of government? | Probably not exactly what you want, but French philosopher Michel Foucault dealt with this question a lot.
His main book on this question is Discipline and Punish, but I'd recommend you read his lectures from 1975-6 named Society Must Be Defended, from 1977-8 called Security, Territory, Population and 1978-9 Birth of ... | [
"development and the evolution of the University as both a national concept and an educational institution. It reconstructs the role of politicians in shaping higher education from the 1908 establishment of the Egyptian University to Anwar Sadat’s revolutionary expansion of the education system. The other dimension... |
Charlemagne is usually credited for forming the Holy Roman Empire and the beginnings of modern day France, but how come France never remained part of the Holy Roman Empire? | Hello, I talked a bit about the Holy Roman *Empires* [here](_URL_0_), with a bit more specificity to how the Ottonian Holy Roman Empire came to be used as a rallying cry for the Third Reich.
The short answer is that, although Charlemagne founded *a* Holy Roman Empire in 800, **The** Holy Roman Empire that lasted in Ge... | [
"In 800, the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned emperor and founded the Carolingian Empire, which was later divided in 843 among his heirs. Following the break up of the Frankish Realm, for 900 years, the history of Germany was intertwined with the history of the Holy Roman Empire, which subsequently emerged fro... |
How did Louis the German get his nickname? | Nothing. However he was the first king who ruled only over Germany (Rex Germaniae refers to the Roman name for the territory east of the Rhine). The French, Dutch, Belgians can all claim Charlemagne for themselves. He got his nickname in the 18th century | [
"His name is Germanic, composed of the elements \"hlod\" (\"fame\") and \"wig\" (\"combat\"), and is the origin of the later French given name \"Louis\", borne by 18 kings of France. In Dutch, the most closely related modern language to Frankish, the name is currently rendered as \"Lodewijk\", in Middle Dutch the f... |
what is the pressure i feel on my face when i'm sick and my nose is stuffy? | your sinus cavity is an open space that is now clogged. The pressure from an unadjusted atmospheric pressure and excess mucus is literally pressing to get out. | [
"Apart from headache, about 50% of patients experience neck pain or stiffness, nausea, and vomiting. Other symptoms include dizziness and vertigo, facial numbness or weakness, unusually blurry or double vision, neuralgia, fatigue, or a metallic taste in the mouth. Leaking CSF can sometimes be felt or observed as a ... |
My father was red-green colourblind. I am female. Does this mean half of my sons will be affected by the trait? | Your correct. Half of your sons will be red-green colourblind while half of your daughters will be carriers for red-green colourblindness.
Red-Green colourblindness is caused by a single mutation of a gene on the X-chromosome. The X-chromosome is interesting because men only have 1 X-chromosome (the other being a Y-ch... | [
"Haemophilia and red-green colour blindness are recessive, X-linked, pseudodominant genetic disorders, expressed mainly in human males because human females need to be homozygous (i.e., to have inherited the recessive allele from both parents) to show these traits.\n",
"The gene for red-green color blindness is t... |
how is the movie "airplane" only rated pg? | Mostly because PG-13 didn't exist until 1984, and Airplane came out in 1980.
But also because people were less sensitive and lazy. | [
"In the United States, the film was rated as \"PG\" by the Motion Picture Association of America for \"scary content and thematic elements\". It was rated \"12\" by the British Board of Film Classification in the United Kingdom.\n",
"In spite of the title, the film was given a PG rating because there was no front... |
what actually happens when you “tweek” your neck and it hurts to turn it in one direction? | This is a "neck spasm" - the muscles which move your neck involuntarily contract, and may remain tense and partially or fully contracted for several days.
Other spasms include foot/hand cramps, abdominal muscle cramps, and charlie horses. These don't tend to last as long as neck spasms.
This is very often your muscle... | [
"Neck stiffness, stiff neck and nuchal rigidity are terms often used interchangeably to describe the medical condition when one experiences discomfort or pain when trying to turn, move, or flex the neck. Possible causes include muscle strain or sprain, cervical spine disorders, meningitis, and subarachnoid hemorrha... |
why are there so many different types of police? | Because we have many different governments.
Regular police have jurisdiction in their cities. They respond to emergency calls in their cities.
Sheriffs have jurisdiction in their counties. They run the county jail system and they patrol the parts of the county that don't have a regular police force (some cities and t... | [
"Police forces include both preventive (uniformed) police and detectives. Terminology varies from country to country. Police functions include protecting life and property, enforcing criminal law, criminal investigations, regulating traffic, crowd control, and other public safety duties. Regardless of size, police ... |
how does the us credit rating that went down from a aaa to aa affect me, the average consumer? | Your dad is the head of the household. He's is real good on paying back people and makes a lot of money and is rather wealthy, so people trust lending him money. In the last couple of years, your dad did some irresponsible things and even threatened to not pay even though he can. Finally, one of the community leaders/e... | [
"Several credit rating agencies around the world have downgraded their credit ratings of the U.S. federal government, including Standard & Poor's (S&P) which reduced the country's rating from AAA (outstanding) to AA+ (excellent) on August 5, 2011.\n",
"BULLET::::- August 5, 2011: Standard & Poor's lowered the cre... |
What empirical evidence is there, which I can observe from the surface, that the earth is a sphere? Does it have to involve a large body of water? | Looking at the stars is good one, especially if you can compare observations with people who live further north or south. In the Northern Hemisphere, the stars appear to rotate around the North Star. The North Star gets further up as you go further north, and further down as you go further south until it drops below th... | [
"The sphere has the smallest surface area of all surfaces that enclose a given volume, and it encloses the largest volume among all closed surfaces with a given surface area. The sphere therefore appears in nature: for example, bubbles and small water drops are roughly spherical because the surface tension locally ... |
During WWII, the US DoD produced a film suggesting that the .30 calibre machine gun was a superior choice over the MG42, citing logistical and accuracy concerns. How right were they? Or was this wishful thinking by the Army? | Doctrinal differences aside, the video largely seems to ignore a lot of the selling points of the German weaponry and upsell the accuracy of American weapons (something dubious at best when you get into actual combat) while ignoring their faults.
& #x200B;
One thing to note first - you mention "heavy caliber" when ... | [
"By February 1943, US ordnance authorities published the first report on the MG 42, following testing of a captured gun. The quick barrel changing and belt feed systems were considered some of the best design features. The US Army wanted to be able to manufacture this general-purpose gun because it was technically ... |
what is the function of a world trade center? | The world Trade Center association exists to promote exchange between corporations and governments internationally. | [
"A World Trade Center (also World Trade Centre or WTC) is a building or complex of buildings established and effectively operated by the World Trade Centers Association (WTCA) as an instrument for trade expansion. The WTCA represents 317 members in 91 countries. Founded in 1970, it is an unofficial umbrella trade a... |
How large does an object have to be in order for it to have its own atmosphere? | That question doesn't really have a definitive answer, because it depends a lot on external factors. For example, the Moon doesn't have an appreciable atmosphere, nor does Mercury, yet Titan (Saturn's moon) which is only a bit bigger than the Moon and much smaller than Mercury, with surface gravity below that of the Mo... | [
"For simplicity and comparative purposes, the values are manually calculated assuming a sphericity of 1. The size of solid bodies does not include an object's atmosphere. For example, Titan looks bigger than Ganymede, but its solid body is smaller. For the giant planets, the \"radius\" is defined as the distance fr... |
why are some mammals more self sufficient at birth than others? | All mammals require some assistance from their mother, milk. It is true humans require, at minimum, 5 years to learn the basics of being able to live. Many mammals also have similar periods. Cats and dogs for example spend time with siblings and the mother. Our time is longer, partially because we live, even in ancient... | [
"The two strategies result in different brain sizes of the newborns compared to adults. Precocial animals' brains are large at birth relative to their body size, hence their ability to fend for themselves. However, as adults, their brains are not much bigger or more able. Altricial animals' brains are relatively sm... |
How did Ned Kelly learn to box? | Ned Kelly grew up on a farm in country Victoria, and left school [when he was 11, after his father died](_URL_0_). There were [eight children in his family](_URL_1_), of whom Ned was the oldest son (he had two older sisters). It is extremely unlikely that a widow raising eight children would send her oldest son, old en... | [
"When Jack in the Box went public in the early 1960s, Brinker sold his interest in the company and moved to Dallas with the intent to open a new business. His first endeavor was a coffee shop he named after himself, Brinks. The concept was to create a restaurant that catered to the 25- to 44-year-old demographic, a... |
why does our vision look black and white when it is dark and our eyes get adjusted? | In our eyes we have two different recepters called rods and cones. Cones help us see color and rods help us decern between light and dark. Cones are only useful if there is light, because color is a reflection of white light. Rods, on the other hand, are fantastic at making out shapes and figures when there is no light... | [
"An eye is essentially a darkened chamber with a small hole in front that allows light to enter. The lens, just behind the pupil’s aperture, is perfectly clear but appears black because the interior space behind it is dark. Rays of light pass through the lens, producing an upside-down image on the retina. The brain... |
How are we able to perform a body transplant when we can't repair spinal injuries? | _URL_0_
In real terms, we have no way of knowing if the spinal nerves will re-fuse and if signals will flow again. Present medical knowledge is that once there is a catastrophic cord injury and severance, then it is pretty much over from a neurological point of view.
The issue here is that the brain stem deals with ... | [
"Although the bone is a dynamic tissue that can self-heal upon minor injuries, it cannot regenerate after experiencing large defects such as bone tumor resections and severe nonunion fractures because it lacks the appropriate template. Currently, the standard treatment is autografting which involves obtaining the d... |
If a childless king died, and his wife was pregnant, would that child become the ruler when it was born? | In medieval Europe, so-called posthumous births counted towards inheritance of titles, including the throne...when people wanted them to count. That is to say: when sexism, the psychological/proto-nationalist importance of the ruling dynasty, the desire of the high nobility for stability and the benefits of centralizat... | [
"If the King were to die without a male Heir his wife not being pregnant, or if she were pregnant but the pregnancy was not to result in an Heir to the Throne, then the Crown would be retained by His Royal Highness Prince Al-Hassan Al-Rida who would become the origin of future successions to continue through His li... |
When I touch my left nipple I feel a sensation in my left leg. What is this? (serious question) | There seems to be some research on what is called Mitempfindungen or [referred itch](_URL_0_) which is characterized by scratching the skin on one part of the body and feeling a prick or tingle in a distant point.
The relationship of the points is described as ipsilateral (same side) and rostral (towards your head... | [
"The main symptom is usually pain or discomfort in the pelvic region, usually centered on the joint at the front of the pelvis (the pubic symphysis). Some sufferers report being able to hear and feel the pubic symphysis and/or sacroiliac, clicking or popping in and out as they walk or change position. Sufferers fre... |
is it true that if you learn another language it become much easier to learn another after that. | It depends on multiple factors
1) Your native language
2)The language you have learnt
3) The language you want to learn
4) Which language branch they are a part of
For example German is a Germanic language. French is a Romance language. Those languages have no close connection. So, if you learn French, German won't ... | [
"From his experience and observations Brown concluded that, contrary to the critical period hypothesis for second language acquisition, where adults have lost the ability that children have to learn languages to a native-like level without apparent effort, adults actually obstruct this ability when learning a new l... |
If we are all descended from the same homo sapiens which evolved in Africa, what happened to all the pre-human species which migrated out of Africa long before we did? | Some of those pre-humans (Neanderthals, Denisovans, and possibly Homo heidelbergensis) interbred with humans and are represented in our DNA. Those that didn't were either killed by humans or could no longer dominate an environment when humans were present and died out.
What caused Humans to spread across the globe? ... | [
"Within Africa, \"Homo sapiens\" dispersed around the time of its speciation, roughly 300,000 years ago. The recent African origin paradigm suggests that the anatomically modern humans outside of Africa descend from a population of \"Homo sapiens\" migrating from East Africa roughly 60-70,000 years ago and spreadin... |
why is it that babies like being rocked to sleep yet as we get older rocking can be uncomfortable such as on a boat? | The womb is a fluid-filled sac, and when a mother moves about the baby is very slightly rocked thanks to that fluid. The baby becomes used to this feeling before birth, so rocking helps to calm them afterward for a time.
Adult humans don't live in fluid-filled sacs. We're not used to being moved or rocked outside o... | [
"Many adults find rocking chairs soothing because of the gentle motion. Gentle rocking motion has been shown to provide faster onset of sleep than remaining stationary, mimicking the process of a parent rocking a child to sleep.\n",
"This may include repositioning the child's head throughout the day so that the r... |
Is light slowed down by the air's friction? | Light does travel slower in air than in free space, but this is caused by refraction, which acts very differently from friction. Friction is the result of the electromagnetic forces between the atoms on two surfaces near each other such that these forces oppose the direction of motion and cause kinetic energy to be tra... | [
"When light propagates through a material, it travels slower than the vacuum speed, . This is a change in the phase velocity of the light and is manifested in physical effects such as refraction. This reduction in speed is quantified by the ratio between and the phase velocity. This ratio is called the refractive i... |
the "texture" problem with in-vitro meat. | Meat derived from animals is not even *close* to just muscle. There's fat and connective tissue all combined and distributed in very complex ways, which we can't currently replicate without growing the entire animal. | [
"In 1990, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) approved the use of the technology for manufacturing finely textured meat. At the time of its approval, the FSIS called the remaining product \"meat\", although one FSIS microbiologist dissented, arguing it contained both muscle and connective tissue.\n... |
How does a turbojet reduce the intake's air velocity to subsonic speeds when aircraft it's powering is traveling at super sonic speeds? | > Why does the intake air speed have to be subsonic and how is it slowed?
The intake air has to be slowed to subsonic speeds because the combustion chamber is not designed for supersonic combustion. Supersonic combustion is a challenging problem technically, because by definition it is impossible for flame, fuel, an... | [
"Intake design was also a major issue. Normal jet engines can only ingest subsonic air, so for supersonic operation the air must be slowed down. Ramps or cones in the intake are used to create shock waves that slow the airflow before it reaches the engine. Doing so removes energy from the airflow, causing drag. The... |
why do some glues require you to apply onto both pieces and wait hours till dry before sticking them together? | Because they contain a solvent that allows the glue to be fluid and seep into the material you are trying to glue, to bind to it. But this solvent makes re glue not too sticky. It needs tk flash off. Once the solvent evaporates it becomes super sticky to it self. But less so other objects. So having both objects covere... | [
"The advantage of using glue as a binder is that the colours render as matte and opaque textures suited to austere or mournful images as opposed to the translucent appearance associated with oil. Many reds and blues bound in glue would have appeared with a brilliance and intensity difficult to achieve with oil. Unf... |
What is the closest we've come to realizing perpetual motion? | What's your definition of efficiency?
For example, if I dig a trench to divert a small part of the river into my ranch, is that considered an "efficient" machine? All it does is convert gravitational potential energy into kinetic energy towards the end goal of "having water in my ranch." Even if you factor in the init... | [
"As \"perpetual motion\" can exist only in isolated systems, and true isolated systems do not exist, there are not any real \"perpetual motion\" devices. However, there are concepts and technical drafts that propose \"perpetual motion\", but on closer analysis it is revealed that they actually \"consume\" some sort... |
Did urban people decorate their homes 2000 years ago or was it mostly practical? | This would have varied widely by class.
2000 years ago in ancient Rome, wealthy patrician families had urban villas which were carefully designed, built with the finest craftsmanship money could by, and filled with beautiful things. I'm not sure the specialized job of "interior decorator" existed, but there must have ... | [
"The origins of municipal housing lie in the dramatic urban population increase caused by the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. In the large cities of the period, many social commentators, such as Octavia Hill and Charles Booth reported on the squalor, sickness and immorality that arose. Henry Mayhew, visi... |
what would happen if someone could theoretically dig through the earth? would they eventually find themselves digging "up?" | "Dig" is a little bit generous for what would actually happen. The earth is only dirt for a relatively shallow distance, then it's solid rock followed by magma. You can't dig to the center of the earth any more than you could dig to the bottom of a pool (assuming that pool is filled with lava).
We can imagine diggi... | [
"There was nothing left to do but dig a hole in the ground. As it would have to be roofed over with our gum blankets, we could only dig it as long and as wide as they would permit, and in that hole the four of us had to harbor for the winter. We dug it about three feet deep, but could not make it long enough to all... |
If accelerating through a turn gives a car more traction, why doesn't decelerating work just as well? | > Common driving wisdom holds that you get more traction during a turn when you are accelerating. For many drivers, it's standard practice to decelerate before entering a turn, then accelerate once they are half way through (past the apex).
Drivers do not accelerate after the apex to gain traction, they do so becaus... | [
"When turning, any object is subject to a certain amount of centrifugal force, directed away from the center around which the object is moving. As speed increases, the amount of force applied to the object also increases. As a result, standard narrow vehicles with a narrow wheel base, can only take turns up to rela... |
How do the scientists of the LHC "capture" and contain the particles prior to acceleration? | The protons just come from a regular tank of hydrogen, that then gets ionized. [It actually looks really boring]( _URL_0_) | [
"This reconstruction of trajectory plus momentum allows projection to/through other detectors, which measure other important properties of the particle such as energy or particle type (Calorimeter, Cherenkov Detector). These reconstructed charged particles can be used to identify and reconstruct secondary decays, i... |
How do frogs avoid getting poisoned when they eat poisonous insects? | Let's flip it around.
How the hell can you eat chocolate and NOT die?? To dogs, eating enough of it can kill them straight out.
"In large enough amounts, chocolate and cocoa products can kill your dog. The toxic component of chocolate is theobromine. Humans easily metabolize theobromine, but dogs process it much mor... | [
"The poisonous frogs and birds themselves are perhaps the only creatures to be immune to this poison. Batrachotoxin attacks the sodium channels of nerve cells, but the frog has special sodium channels the poison cannot harm.\n",
"Since easily purchased foods are not rich in the alkaloids required to produce batra... |
beer and rate of consumption... | 2 a day would be healthier.
When you drink 14 at once, your body is going to struggle to deal with it at once, you're taxing your system a lot more.
While a couple a day, your liver can deal with that without a bunch of backlog, you're not going to be sick, not going to be dehydrated etc... | [
"In spite of the ideal of moderation, consumption of alcohol was often high. In the 16th century, alcohol beverage consumption reached 100 liters per person per year in Valladolid, Spain, and Polish peasants consumed up to three liters of beer per day. In Coventry, England, the average amount of beer and ale consum... |
why is my income taxed? | You, like all people in your country, enjoy goods and services provided by the government: police, firefighters, public roads and schools, the benefits of regulated commerce, safe air, food, and medicine, and military protection from adversaries, to name a few. To pay for these goods and services, the government collec... | [
"The subject of individual income tax is the real people. The meaning of income is the net amount of revenues derived by a person within a year. According to Income Tax Law, incomes may be listed such as:\n",
"Income Tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) that varies with respective income or... |
Does a larger person perceive time slower than a smaller person? | No. Why would they? The only thing I can guess prompting this question is that being bigger means they have more mass thus a larger gravitational field thus having time run more slowly for them.
If that is what is being supposed here then:
1) While it would be technically true the effect would be so incredibly tin... | [
"The person affected by Alice in Wonderland syndrome may also lose a sense of time, a problem similar to the lack of spatial perspective. Time seems to pass very slowly, akin to an LSD experience. The lack of time and space perspective also leads to a distorted sense of velocity. For example, one could be inching a... |
why do people still use high street estate agents? | It is reassuring to see an official business with an office so if anything goes wrong you know they will be there to go to in person and are unlikely to be able to suddenly vanish leaving you in a mess.
Most if not all, advertise houses online anyway and if they have the house you want or have most of the market in th... | [
"An estate agent is a person or business that arranges the selling, renting, or management of properties and other buildings. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a letting or management agent. Estate agents are mainly engaged in the marketing of property available for sale, and a solicitor or licen... |
why are people now saying bin laden is alive? | The latest news is that there's a guy saying "Hey, I looked into this, and bin Laden wasn't just discovered in that compound in Abbottabad (sp?)." Basically, he's claiming that bin Laden had been held captive there by the Pakistani government for years, until the US sent their force to go in and execute him. There wa... | [
"The death of Osama bin Laden gave rise to various conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and rumors. These include the ideas that bin Laden had been dead for years, or is still alive. Doubts about bin Laden's death were fueled by the U.S. military's supposed disposal of his body at sea, the decision to not release any photo... |
Can you fail a lie detector test for things you think about intensely but never have done? | Forgive me for ignoring the specific content of your question (since I don't really know much about lie detector technology.) It sounds like you feel guilty and ashamed about these thoughts you're having, and fear about other people realizing you think about those things.
> I’ve even thought about some very weird a... | [
"Langleben was inspired to test lie detection while he was at Stanford University studying the effects of a drug on children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). He found that these children have a more difficult time inhibiting the truth. He postulated that lying requires increased brain activity compared to tru... |
how did the british decide what intelligence from breaking enigma to act on and what to let go? | Well the good news about breaking Enigma is that they now would know everything that German intelligence knew. The Germans communicated with their troops and generals through the Enigma transmissions, therefore, if you had broken Enigma, and the Germans didn't know you had, they would continue using it as if no one was... | [
"Equipment designed for communications and the interception of those communications became critical. The Germans widely relied on the Enigma coding machine for encrypting communications. The British developed a new method for decoding Enigma benefiting from information given to Britain by the Polish Cipher Bureau, ... |
if plants have both male and female organs why can't they reproduce with themselves? | They can, but that's not good for genetic diversity. Natural selection has favored species that "seek out" other individuals to reproduce with. | [
"Plants with sex-determining chromosomes, like \"Silene,\" can develop uni-sexual reproductive structures because of the loss and gain of sex-determining genes. Mutations can cause female sterility, male sterility, or adverse combinations of genes that can lead to monoecy, gynodioecy, and dioecy.\n",
"Biologists ... |
Why did the MAC-10 submachinegun gain such pop culture prevalence in the 1970s and 80s despite being a complete commercial failure, and by most accounts "a trash heap". | The MAC-10's rise to prominence was something of a marketing coup in the early '80s. Although it had *some* success in the '70s, due to its cheap price, word of mouth for this "trash heap" as you call it, saw a quick decline in sales after initial interest. This turned around in the summer of 1980 though.
After the im... | [
"In the interwar period the \"Tommy Gun\" or \"Chicago Typewriter\" became notorious in the U.S. as a gangster's weapon; the image of pinstripe-suited James Cagney types wielding drum-magazine Thompsons caused some military planners to shun the weapon. However, the FBI and other U.S. police forces themselves showed... |
What conditions will kill cold/flu viruses? | Studies have shown that human influenza viruses generally can survive on surfaces between 2 and 8 hours.
_URL_0_ | [
"Well over 200 virus strains are implicated in causing the common cold, with rhinoviruses being the most common. They spread through the air during close contact with infected people or indirectly through contact with objects in the environment, followed by transfer to the mouth or nose. Risk factors include going ... |
Why does the stereotypical haunted house/mansion in media have a certain “look” - with a mansard roof, bay windows, a porch, etc? What’s the origin of this trope? | In the introduction to [The Literary Haunted House: Lovecraft, Matheson, King and the Horror in Between](_URL_2_), Rebecca Janicker sketches a history of the trope to British Gothic fiction at the end of the 18th century such as *The Castle of Otranto* (1764) and *The Old English Baron* (1778), although I'm not entirel... | [
"It is known in Málaga as ‘the haunted mansion’, not only for its ghostly appearance, but due to numerous reports of mysterious voices and strange sounds that have been reportedly heard there without explanation. It is among the best known ‘haunted’ buildings in Spain and is considered a sort of temple by followers... |
Why is it that Native Americans from the U.S. and Canada did not create large monuments/architecture such as the Central and South American natives did? | So, anytime we are talking about Native American tribes, the first question to ask is which region? The tribes were as varied as their environments, and some tribes did in fact construct large urban centers like those seen in Mesoamerica and South America. The easiest example of this would be the ancestral Puebloans, w... | [
"Catherwood, having made many trips to the Mediterranean between 1824 and 1832 to draw the monuments made by the Egyptians, Carthaginians, and Phoenicians, stated that the monuments in the Americas bear no architectural similarity to those in the Old World. Thus, they must have been made by the native people of the... |
Did the President of the United States, until the 1860s, ever have slaves work in the White House? | Zachary Taylor was the last president to have slaves working for him in the White House. | [
"At least five Princeton presidents who occupied the President's House between 1756 and 1822 owned enslaved people who lived and worked in the house. These presidents included Aaron Burr Sr., Jonathan Edwards, Samuel Finley, Samuel Stanhope Smith, and Ashbel Green. Enslaved people lived in the slave quarters on the... |
why is the current in a series circuit with multiple loads constant throughout the circuit? how do the electrons "know" to send less current in a circuit with more loads? | The battery doesn't know anything, the amount of current is determined by the load
If i put a 20 pound backpack on you and tell you to go for a run as fast as you can you'll make it in some certain speed
If i put an 80 pound backpack on you and tell you to go for a run as fast as you can you'll be going much slower
... | [
"where \"C\" is the capacitance between the conductors. For example, an inductor often acts as though it includes a parallel capacitor, because of its closely spaced windings. When a potential difference exists across the coil, wires lying adjacent to each other are at different potentials. They act like the plates... |
how do different eyesight problems differ to each other? i.e. long sighted, short sighted, astigmatism | To see, light has to hit our eye, and then reflect back onto the retina. This image is then sent to our brain and then comprehended.
If you are short-sighted, the eyeball is either curved wrong, or too long, and instead of hitting the retina directly, the light goes in front of the retina, causing you to not be able t... | [
"Astigmatism causes difficulties in seeing fine detail. Astigmatism can be often corrected by glasses with a lens that has different radii of curvature in different planes (a \"cylindrical\" lens), contact lenses, or refractive surgery.\n",
"Near-sightedness is due to the length of the eyeball being too long, far... |
What caused both Portugal and Spain to favor Amerigo Vespucci over Christopher Columbus? | We shouldn't look into these events like some kind of a competition between Columbus and Vespucci because it really wasn't. We should look at it like three separate things, intersecting at certain points: first is the career of Columbus and his fall from grace, second is the career of Amerigo Vespucci and final is the ... | [
"Vespucci's expeditions became known in Europe after two accounts attributed to him were published between 1502 and 1503. In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the new continent America after the feminine Latin version of Vespucci's first name. In an accompanying book, Waldseemüller p... |
Are solar systems moving towards or away from the center of a galaxy? More detailed question inside. | Our solar system actually isn't outside, [we're right in the meat of the galaxy.](_URL_1_)
But yes, solar systems can move all around within a galaxy. Because of the way mass is distributed in the galaxy, their orbits aren't necessarily nice circles, [but can weave closer and farther from the center](_URL_0_).
Fur... | [
"The Milky Way is rotating around its dense galactic center, thus the sun is moving in a circle within the galaxy's gravity. Away from the central bulge, or outer rim, the typical stellar velocity is between . All planets and their moons move with the sun. Thus, the solar system is moving.\n",
"The Sun orbits the... |
how do you not get food poisoning from perpetual stew? (a stew that boils constantly for days) | Because when you keep the stew boiling the temperature is too high for bacteria to grow, as well as killing the bacteria that was in the ingredients to start of with | [
"A perpetual stew, also known as hunter's pot or hunter's stew, is a pot into which whatever one can find is placed and cooked. The pot is never or rarely emptied all the way, and ingredients and liquid are replenished as necessary. The concept is often a common element in descriptions of medieval inns. Foods prepa... |
if u.s./cuba relations are poor enough to not allow tourism, why is the u.s. permitted to have guantanamo bay in cuba? | The US has had the naval base at Guantanamo Bay for many years, since before Castro came into power. The US has a lease for that land which is perpetual, and can be terminated only by mutual agreement or US abandonment of the base. So, basically, as long as we want it, we can stay there.
The current Cuban government d... | [
"Cuba and Puerto Rico have perennially competed for the top tourist destination in the Caribbean. Puerto Rico's tourism has been helped by poor U.S. relations with Cuba. In 2015, the U.S. reestablished diplomatic relations with Cuba and loosened the travel restrictions for Americans. This decision boosted Cuban tou... |
how is it legal for a car you own to be towed and held by a towing company if parked in a private parking lot? | > It's my vehicle, how can they charge me to get it back?
You were trespassing on private property. The towing company removed your trespassing vehicle at the request of the owner of the property. As the trespasser, you are responsible for any reasonable expenses incurred as a result of your trespass, and collatera... | [
"Many tow companies can store vehicles that have been wrecked or impounded by police agencies. In these circumstances, police agencies notify a contracted towing provider to secure the vehicle and tow it to a storage lot. The tow company will sometimes prevent access to the vehicle until the law states the owner ca... |
I just saw the Birth of a Nation for the first time. I have a lot of questions. | To preface what I am about to write: congrats! You picked one of the single most difficult films, ever. Good choice! For those who aren't sure why this film is so difficult, basically, it portrays the KKK as postbellum heros.
I would also like to add that for anyone curious, the film is [readily available] (_URL_8_... | [
"Birth of a Nation is a 1983 television play starring Jim Broadbent as teacher Geoff Figg. It was written by David Leland and directed by Mike Newell. It was originally broadcast on ITV on 19 June 1983 as the first in an untitled series of works by Leland (including \"Made in Britain\"), all loosely concerned with ... |
why do some foods seem to taste different when they're in different shapes? | It's a psychological effect, your brain sees it as a different shape and expects it to taste different. It can also be applied when you try to color foods differently. | [
"Different varieties have different flavors, textures, and shapes. Shapes can range from imprint areoles, flat areoles, slight bump or point areoles, full areoles, and combinations of these shapes. The flavor of the flesh ranges from mellow sweet to tangy or acidic sweet, with variable suggestions of pineapple, ban... |
why only one person gets knocked out with a head-to-head headbutt. | You get a concussion when your brain gets shaken up inside your skull. So, the cause of a concussion is less about a forceful blow to the skull, but rather a blow that rattles your head.
When you headbutt someone, your head is moving rapidly and firmly. When you make contact, your head still keeps moving forward fro... | [
"Head injuries can be caused by a large variety of reasons. All of these causes can be put into two categories used to classify head injuries; those that occur from impact (blows) and those that occur from shaking. Common causes of head injury due to impact are motor vehicle traffic collisions, home and occupationa... |
How did the Red Turban rebellion work, at a practical military level? | I'll try to answer the simpler questions.
& #x200B;
Yuan's military force was already weak before the big Red Turban rebellion broke. There were instance when the imperial force couldn't take down bandits (which is also term for all rebels), even appeased them with official titles. One famous example was Fang Guozh... | [
"The rebellion and coup have been described as \"fallout\" from the Arab Spring, as the success of the Tuareg rebellion where it had failed in previous efforts throughout the 20th century has been attributed largely to heavy weaponry carted out of Libya by Tuareg fighters on either side of the Libyan Civil War in 2... |
when an animal species reaches critically low numbers, and we enact a breeding/repopulating program, is there a chance that the animals makeup will be permanently changed through inbreeding? | When the population gets so low, the genetic diversity is *definitely* reduced—no chance about it. This makes the species more susceptible to problems in the future even if the population comes roaring back. They are more likely to all die from the same disease, for instance. The genes are so similar that it is less li... | [
"The reduced genetic diversity, for example due to a bottleneck will unavoidably increase inbreeding for the entire population. This may mean that a species may not be able to adapt to changes in environmental conditions. Each individual will have similar immune systems, as immune systems are genetically based. Whe... |
German marines in WW2, Did they fight? | There was a similar question yesterday on the same topic, with a [sourced answer](_URL_0_) provided by /u/ImmediateSupression. | [
"During World War I Marines served as a part of the American Expeditionary Force under General Pershing when America entered into the war on 6 April 1917. The Marine Corps had a deep pool of officers and NCOs with battle experience, and experienced a large expansion. During the war, the Marines, fighting on the Wes... |
Where would I be able to find information about a pre WW1 German regiment? I've tracked a number from a bayonet and been able to date it - but would like to know specifically about the (3rd Lower Silesian) Infantry. | Do you understand german? In this case [_URL_1_](_URL_0_) might be of interest for you, maybe also this book, especially Teil IV, Band 1:[_URL_2_](_URL_4_)
If not, a short overview:
It was founded 5.5.1860 as 10. kombiniertes Infanterie-Regiment (10. (prussian) combined Infantry Regiment) and was stationed in Breslau... | [
"The M1917 bayonet was used first during World War I by American soldiers on the Western Front. A sword bayonet design, the M1917 bayonet design was based on the British Pattern 1913 bayonet, itself derived from the Pattern 1907 bayonet, which incorporated a long 17-inch blade. While designed primarily for the M191... |
Why did the word "tea" to describe all sorts of infusions catch on in countries where the tea plant never did? | Tea's entomology originates in Chinese which has a vast history of pretty vague terms. This could be blamed on the [chinese written0 language being comprised of pictograms, ideograms, phono-semantic compounds and others.](_URL_0_) however whatever the cast is chinese has a slight etomological habit of grouping somethin... | [
"Tea was first introduced to Portuguese priests and merchants in China during the 16th century, at which time it was termed \"chá\". The earliest European reference to tea, written as \"Chiai\", came from \"Delle navigationi e viaggi\" written by a Venetian, Giambattista Ramusio, in 1545. The first recorded shipmen... |
why do people put monster stickers on their vehicles? | Because they think it's cool.
That's pretty much it. Same reason people get a sticky of Calvin pissing on a Ford to put on their Dodge. | [
"The two most common placards in general use on vehicles are disabled parking permits for personal automobiles, and hazardous materials (hazmats) warning signs for commercial vehicles. There are other types, such as the \"wide load\" signs used when mobile homes are transported by road.\n",
"A related sticker ser... |
does re-boiling water really change the taste? if so, why? | Yes, it is true that there is dissolved air in water that is removed by boiling (or just leaving water to sit in a cup or bottle). I don't know whether it affects the taste of tea (any more than other variables like water temp, steep time, or type of tea might), but flat water certainly feels different from water with ... | [
"A downside to reverse osmosis is that the removing of most minerals from water can have negative effects on its taste. Minerals are sometimes added to drinking water that was already filtered to improve its taste.\n",
"This finding ran contrary to much of the learning literature of the time in that the aversion ... |
What would someone see after vision was denied for decades? | Oliver Sacks discussed a case like 2 in one of his books: _URL_0_
In that case, while the man did experience some kind of vision, he didn't regain useful sight and the restoration was not ultimately any improvement in his quality of life. | [
"Recovery from blindness is the phenomenon of a blind person gaining the ability to see, usually as a result of medical treatment. As a thought experiment, the phenomenon is usually referred to as Molyneux's problem. The first published human case was reported in 1728 by the surgeon William Cheselden. Patients who ... |
Although difficult to reach by Land, the region of modern Yemen and Oman can be reached by sea. Given their position (access to the Indian ocean and further markets), why did no external empire seek to take the region? (Antiquity) | Oman (and Bahrain) were vassalized, if not 100% continuously, by the major Persian powers of antiquity. Other empires attempted it, but crossing the Arabian desert is no mean feat, while the Acmanaheids, Arsacids, and Sasanids could either just cross the sea or march a relatively short distance. But for anyone else, th... | [
"Oman is located in the southeastern quarter of the Arabian Peninsula and covers a total land area of . The land area is composed of varying topographic features: valleys and desert account for 82 percent of the land mass; mountain ranges, 15 percent; and the coastal plain, 3 percent. The sultanate is flanked by th... |
How did antebellum living conditions and treatment of slaves in rice-planting areas, like South Carolina, compare to those of cotton-planting regions, like Mississippi? | So, there are quite a few differences between the two, actually. Rice plantations on the coast of South Carolina were HUGE. Bigger than almost any cotton plantation around. Therefore, there was a larger concentration of slaves in the area. This made many white people nervous since the ratio of white-to-black inhabi... | [
"By 1830, eighty-five percent of inhabitants of rice plantations in the Low Country were slaves. When rice planters left the malarial low country for cities such as Charleston during the social season, up to 98 percent of the Low Country residents were slaves. This led to a preservation of West African customs whil... |
how can a computer be built specifically for a programming language? | Your question doesn't quite make sense. Are you referring to something specific?
What makes you think that a computer is built for a specific programming language? | [
"Very simple programs can be created using the NXT Intelligent Brick itself. In order to create larger, more complex programs, programming software on a PC is required. The standard programming software is NXT-G, which is included in the package. Third-party programming software is also available, some of which is ... |
tipping ettiquette | 2.50 for an 11.50 tab is plenty. They ultimately should be serving multiple customers and thats how they live with those tips. Now if you order a coffee or something and its a dollar I tend to just tip another dollar. I dont strictly follow the percentages when it gets below 10 bucks. I just tip a dollar or two. If you... | [
"A gratuity (also called a tip) is a sum of money customarily given by a client or customer to a service worker in addition to the basic price. Tipping is commonly given to certain service sector workers for a service performed, as opposed to money offered for a product or as part of a purchase price. Depending on ... |
Can satellites orbit in the opposite direction of earth's rotation? | Sure, it's called a [retrograde orbit](_URL_0_). It's just rarely used because it takes more energy to fight the earth's rotation to get a satellite into a retrograde orbit than it does to get a satellite into a prograde orbit. To put a satellite into a retrograde orbit, you have to first cancel out the rotation of the... | [
"It is generally thought that natural satellites should orbit in the same direction as the planet is rotating (known as prograde orbit). As such, the terminology regular moon is used for these orbit. However a retrograde orbit (the opposite direction to the planet) is also possible, the terminology irregular moon i... |
Can plant geographical origin be determined? As humans from Africa. | Theoretically, it is possible using genetics. I'm not sure if has been done, but plants have genetic variability just like humans. These genetic differences could be used to track geographic locations. You'd have to do a lot of sequencing to make it work however. | [
"A plant whose origin or selection is due primarily to intentional human activity is called a cultigen, and a cultivated crop species that has evolved from wild populations due to selective pressures from traditional farmers is called a landrace. Landraces, which can be the result of natural forces or domestication... |
why don't blood donor clinics take blood from certain people. | They want to make sure the blood is safe to donate. They look at statistics can come up with a risk assessment. Some people are naturally in higher risk categories than others.
For example, someone who has travelled to a malarial zone may have contracted malaria. They may even have malaria without knowing it. Therefo... | [
"Today in the developed world, most blood donors are unpaid volunteers who donate blood for a community supply. In some countries, established supplies are limited and donors usually give blood when family or friends need a transfusion (directed donation). Many donors donate as an act of charity, but in countries t... |
how weighted blankets help calm kids with autism, anxiety, adhd, etc? | The technical term for this is "deep pressure therapy" and it can also be provided by vests, service dogs, and other devices. It is helpful for adults with these issues as well. Pressure on the body stimulates the release of different brain chemicals (exactly which ones are relevant depends on the specific condition in... | [
"Blanket training is an allocated amount of time during the day where an infant or toddler is required to remain on a blanket or play mat for a limited period of time, with a few selected toys. Many of those doing it have voiced online that they start by doing five minutes a day and build up the intervals over time... |
how does the lego company decide which pieces should they include duplicates of in a set? | As a long time legoist, this seems to be almost exclusive to very small pieces and fairly random.
I've never seen a set be short, but duplicate or triplicate of *some* small pieces is basically guaranteed. Other equally small pieces are not duplicated, which suggests this is a packing error they simply live with rath... | [
"Lego pieces of all varieties constitute a universal system. Despite variation in the design and the purposes of individual pieces over the years, each piece remains compatible in some way with existing pieces. Lego bricks from 1958 still interlock with those made in the current time, and Lego sets for young childr... |
A question about genetics and notation | The [P-element](_URL_1_) is a transposon in drosophila, allowing for insertions to be made into the region, with the notation P{inserted element}. Your example seems to have two insert elements and the *white* allele.
Hover over each element to see the alt-text on what it does. This was the best way I could think of t... | [
"The notation varies due to the histories of certain mathematical fields and the different interpretations of point processes, and borrows notation from mathematical areas of study such as measure theory and set theory.\n",
"The notation when and are integers, or , or just is sometimes used to indicate the interv... |
what difference does the mix make on a music recording? | Well basically its taking all the different tracks that contain all the different things in the song (the guitar, the drums, and the singing, and the bass) and even other recording of the same song and remixing them. As in changing the levels of volume, swapping out one take of an instrument for another, and so on. So ... | [
"A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is a person responsible for combining (\"mixing\") the different sonic elements of a piece of recorded music (vocals, instruments, effects etc.) into a final version of a song (also known as \"final mix\" or \"mixdown\"). They mix the elements of a recorded piece together... |
why is voicemail technology still so terrible? | It does exist. The very first iPhone was the first phone to do this, which was in 2007, [Here is what it looked like back then.](_URL_1_) Here is what the [current version looks like.](_URL_0_)
If you don't have this feature, you probably don't have a good smartphone and/or a carrier which allows it. | [
"Voicemail's introduction enabled people to leave lengthy, secure and detailed messages in natural voice, working hand-in-hand with corporate phone systems. The adoption of voicemail in corporations improved the flow of communications and saved huge amounts of money. GE, one of the pioneer adopters of voicemail in ... |
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. What exactly is considered an "action" and "reaction"? | They are both forces. For instance, the Earth pulls on you with gravity, a force of magnitude F, in a direction toward the Earth's center. Newton's third law then says there must be some other force that has the same magnitude but acts in the opposite direction. Indeed, you pull on the Earth with a force of magnitude F... | [
"The use of the word reaction derives from Newton's third law, which essentially states that if a force, called \"action\", acts upon a body, then an equal and opposite force, called \"reaction\", must act upon another body. The force exerted by the ground is conventionally referred to as the reaction, although, si... |
Why water is polar and carbon dioxide is nonpolar? | In terms of [VSEPR theory](_URL_0_) (the simplest model), you can view this as stemming from the fact that the oxygen in water has two free electron pairs, which repel the pairs in the O-H bond. So they're occupying two corners of a tetrahedron, except not quite - since the repulsions aren't equal, the angle is smaller... | [
"Water is a very polar molecule, but alkanes and other hydrophobic molecules are more polarizable. Water with its permanent dipole is less likely to change shape due to an external electric field. Alkanes are the most polarizable molecules. Although alkenes and arenes are expected to have larger polarizability than... |
Do we know how many important rulers ( Kings and dukes) were actually killed by the black death? | Iancu de Hunedoara. Romanian ruler that allied with the Hungarian Empire (the wiki page may be full of crap, there is historical animosity between us and the Hungarians which leads to bad wiki pages on common subjects)
_URL_0_
He died of the plague which he contacted during a militari campaign south of the Danube, i... | [
"Militarily, the Black Death was a catastrophe. As lower and local noblemen were killed by the plague, the recruitment of officers and troop leaders was equally reduced. Having lost their economic base (reduced income of taxes etc.) and their economic guarantees from the King, local aristocrats could often not fulf... |
If a human was born in total isolation, how does it communicate when it becomes of age? | I have my BS in psychology, and we discussed this subject in one of my personality development classes. There have been a few cases in which children have been isolated (through abuse/neglect) and were consequently unable to learn any form of language in their early years. What these case studies showed is that humans ... | [
"They begin life as individuals, however, at the age of choosing, they become bonded to their other half, and grow together as a single, complete being, sharing their brains, vision, hearing, and speech.\n",
"BULLET::::- Almost half of people older than 75 have hearing loss (presbycusis) inhibiting spoken communi... |
How does the brain give rise to the sensation of visual movement of the world around you while you are dizzy? | It's essentially similar to the phenomenon of seeing a reverse-color afterimage after staring at a picture with bright colors. Many kinds of sensory neuron detect changes rather than the absolute level of a stimulus. They have difficulty dealing with a constant stimulus, and will tend to adapt to it, so that when the c... | [
"This is when the brain perceives peripheral motion, without sufficient other cues, as applying to itself. Consider the example of being in a car in lanes of traffic, when cars in the adjacent lane start creeping slowly forward. This can produce the perception of actually moving backwards, particularly if the wheel... |
protein synthesis? | I only have a couple minutes so I can help with the mRNA and tRNA, but then I have to leave. DNA has the instructions needed to make every single protein in your body. Proteins are used for almost every single thing that you and your body do. Here's the problem....DNA cannot leave the nucleus to give the tRNA the co... | [
"Protein synthesis occurs via a process called translation. During translation, genetic material called mRNA is read by ribosomes to generate a protein polypeptide chain. This process requires transfer RNA (tRNA) which serves as an adaptor by binding amino acids on one end and interacting with mRNA at the other end... |
Can turbulence destroy a passenger aircraft? | It's possible but, excepting wind shear, it's extremely unlikely. Planes are made to withstand the conditions they are used in and are much stronger and more durable than the squishy humans inside. You're more likely to die from being bounced around or having an overhead bin pop open and drop its contents on your head.... | [
"The rotor turbulence may be harmful for other small aircraft such as balloons, hang gliders and paragliders. It can even be a hazard for large aircraft; the phenomenon is believed responsible for many aviation accidents and incidents, including the in-flight breakup of BOAC Flight 911, a Boeing 707, near Mt. Fuji,... |
How frequently did auxiliaries feature in the Roman army? | The number per legion varied depending on the time period. The main requirement for being a legionnaire was being a Roman citizen. Since most of the Empire's population (85%-90%) were not citizens, but rather subjects, they could not be legionnaires but were auxiliaries. As you mentioned they were often cavalry because... | [
"Auxiliaries in the Roman army were recruited from provincial tribal groups who did not have Roman citizenship. As the Roman army of the Republican and early Empire periods was essentially based on the heavy infantry who made up the legions, it favored the recruitment of auxiliaries that excelled in supplementary r... |
What makes this recent SARS outbreak (Covid-19) so much more viral and deadly than the 2003 SARS outbreak? | The main reason is the COVID-19 virus spreads much more easily than the SARS virus did. That could be because it takes longer to get symptoms after being infected, it also could be because most people who get infected don’t get very sick (unlike w/SARS). Both things mean infected people can more easily pass the infecti... | [
"Panic was not only concentrated among the public. Mathematical epidemiologists originally estimated the virus would between infect between 30,000 and 10 million persons, within the first 120 days. Despite this estimate SARS has not emerged as a global pandemic. Instead, initial seeding of the virus was followed by... |
What is preventing tidal energy generation from being a ubiquitous source of energy for cities near the ocean? | They are working on it.
In NYC's East River, a third generation turbine is under development.
The first was destroyed by the current.
Pretty sure there is a project in Maine too.
I'm sure there are more, but it is in its infancy. | [
"Ocean and tidal currents can provide an indefinite supply of emission-free renewable energy. Since tidal and river currents exist everywhere in the world and are either constantly flowing or extremely predictable, converting the energy in these currents to electricity could provide a predictable, reliable and, in ... |
why are japanese commercials/ ads so bizarre? | [You mean to tell me the best way to sell coffee **isn't** with a substitute super-sayian-esque Tommy Lee Jones teacher?](_URL_0_) | [
"There are differences in advertising and marketing in Japan due to the high-context culture. In Japan advertising uses more colors, images, gestures and sounds with powerful meaning behind them. Dialogue is not a central part of the advertising. Every vocal and non-vocal expression is explored, because Japanese pe... |
There is an entire domain of bacteria that is separate from prokaryotes - Archaea. What makes Archaea different? Why did we need to treat them differently? | Archaea are prokaryotes (although this is almost certainly a polyphyletic term so we try to avoid it these days!) just not bacteria.
They differ from Eubacteria and Eukaryota in a bunch of key ways:
* Membrane chemistry: glycerol chirality (L-glycerol instead of D-glycerol of Euks and Bacs), ether linkage instead o... | [
"In 1977, Carl Woese proposed dividing prokaryotes into the Bacteria and Archaea (originally Eubacteria and Archaebacteria) because of the major differences in the structure and genetics between the two groups of organisms. Archaea were originally thought to be extremophiles, living only in inhospitable conditions ... |
The Napoleonic Wars as pertains to Russia | Not to discourage further discussion, but I discussed Russian war plans and the 1812 invasion itself in my comments [here](_URL_0_). The main thing I would add for context is that Napoleon invaded to enforce the Continental System; all states allied with France would cease trading with Great Britain. Russia had agree... | [
"During the Napoleonic Wars, the Anglo-Russian War (2 September 1807– 18 July 1812) was the phase of hostilities between the United Kingdom and Russia after the latter signed the Treaty of Tilsit that ended its war with France. Anglo-Russian hostilities were limited primarily to minor naval actions in the Baltic an... |
why does my blood pressure spike when i take my blood pressure? | This is called as some white cloak disorder or something similar. Had read it on the net. This happens to me every time my doc measures my BP.
The only remedy to this is to tell your doc that this happens before he measures your BP and while noting it down, the doc might normalise it. | [
"The fall in arterial blood pressure results from pericardial fluid accumulation increasing pressure on the outside of the heart that limits the maximum size the ventricles can stretch to. This limits diastolic expansion (filling) which results in a lower EDV (End Diastolic Volume) which reduces stroke volume, a ma... |
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