question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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Why do heavier patients need higher doses of medication? | It relates to body fat content and how lipophilic drugs are. Things like general anaesthetics and ethanol are highly lipophilic, and readily distribute into fat. This basically gives the drug a much larger volume to distribute into, thus the concentration of drug in the blood plasma/at it's target site will be lower, so a higher dose would be needed to reach therapeutic concentrations. Partitioning of drugs into fat can do some complicated things to the pharmacokinetics of drugs. As fat also has a relatively poor blood supply/rate of blood flow, it can take a while for drugs to distribute into fat (which can also lead to higher peak plasma concentrations of drug when a larger dose is used, but isn't yet distributed into fat), but fat later acts as a reservoir, maintaining the plasma concentration of a drug as it is being cleared from the body. This can contribute to effects such as the "anaesthetic hangover" after GA
Source: currently studying pharm on a veterinary medicine course | [
"Although some medications are best dosed by actual body weight (e.g., succinylcholine), most resuscitation medications are distributed in lean body mass (e.g., epinephrine, sodium bicarbonate, calcium, magnesium, etc.) so that IBW as accurately predicted by length, not the actual body weight, would appear preferab... |
a presidential pardon decades after death | Basically it's just to officially acknowledge that the person was innocent. It brings some justice to the family | [
"Approximately 20,000 pardons and commutations were issued by U.S. presidents in the 20th century alone. Pardons granted by presidents from George Washington until Grover Cleveland's first term (1885–1889) were handwritten by the president; thereafter, pardons were prepared for the president by administrative staff... |
Everything else equal, what effect does tire size have on a vehicle's gas mileage? | First things first it depends on what you mean by tire size. The standard for labeling size is tread footprint/sidewall height/rim size.
Changing any one of the measurements effect weight of the tire, which in turn effects gas mileage by allowing the same amount of power to pull less weight.
The measurement most likely to change weight is rim size, and composition.
So for example an alluminium alloy 15" rim will weigh less than a steel alloy 15", or an alluminium alloy 16".
When you increase the tread footprint you increase grip (example: Moving from a 225/50/15 to a 275/50/15) when you increase grip, you decrease mileage because you need more power to break traction, effectively causing more weight.
Sidewall size also has an effect on weight, but not as much.
One thing of note concerning sidewall size is the larger sidewall, the more room for fluctuation. The more fluctuation in the sidewall, the hotter it gets, which decreases stability, and traction.
Traction(grip) plays a surprising amount into fuel economy because the more traction you have, the higher the rolling resistance, which again means you need more power to move the tire than with a lower resistance.
As /u/datanaut said, your vehicle is geared specifically for the stock tire size, so changing sizes is equivocal to changing gearing.
If you don't know anything about gearing, its responsible for dictating speeds at certain RPM. so for example, my motorcycle travels 80mph at 6krpm, in 6th gear. Changing my sprockets would change my speed in respect to my RPM. A smaller gear(tire) will decrease speed at 6krpm in 6th gear, but will increase my rate of acceleration because there is less distance for the gear to travel to complete one cycle.
I hope this answers your question fully. | [
"The amount a tire meets the road is an equation between the weight of the car and the type (and size) of its tire. A 1000 kg car can depress a 185/65/15 tire more than a 215/45/15 tire longitudinally thus having better linear grip and better braking distance not to mention better aquaplaning performance, while the... |
when something breaks the sound barrier. what is the visible cone shaped thing behind it? | Are you talking about [this](_URL_0_)? If so, it's called a vapor cone or a shock collar. It's a cone of water vapor that can form when a plane flies at high speeds (transonic but not necessarily supersonic, although some airflow will be supersonic) through moist air. The area behind the shock wave has a low air pressure, and if the pressure drops below the dew point, water will condensate out. It's conical in shape because that's the shape of the shockwave itself.
& #x200B; | [
"The acoustical science of noise barrier design is based upon treating an airway or railway as a line source. The theory is based upon blockage of sound ray travel toward a particular receptor; however, diffraction of sound must be addressed. Sound waves bend (downward) when they pass an edge, such as the apex of a... |
how does oxygen reach the brain? | The red cells in your blood pick up oxygen in your lungs, then the heart pumps the blood around your body, including to the brain. | [
"The formation of oxygen radicals in the brain is achieved through the nitric oxide synthase (NOS) pathway. This reaction occurs as a response to an increase in the Ca concentration inside a brain cell. This interaction between the Ca and NOS results in the formation of the cofactor tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), which... |
what is mb/s and how is it related to mb/s | Mb/s is Megabits per second. MB/s is MegaBytes per second. A Byte is 8 bits, so MB/s is faster by a factor of 8x. | [
"The MBR originated in the PC XT. IBM PC-compatible computers are little-endian, which means the processor stores numeric values spanning two or more bytes in memory least significant byte first. The format of the MBR on media reflects this convention. Thus, the MBR signature will appear in a disk editor as the seq... |
How is it that if Earth exerts a force of gravity on you of 600N, then you also exert a force of gravity on Earth of 600N? | Could you elaborate on your question? That is, the question of "how is this fact a fact" is very difficult to answer with anything except "well... that's the fact." | [
"The force of gravity on Earth is the resultant (vector sum) of two forces: (a) The gravitational attraction in accordance with Newton's universal law of gravitation, and (b) the centrifugal force, which results from the choice of an earthbound, rotating frame of reference. The force of gravity is the weakest at th... |
Question regarding Wasps/stinging insects: How did the biology of a stinging insect evolve correctly to produce a formula that would effectively hurt or "sting" its victim? | Its a series of steps and adaptations. They evolve a more potent venom and a stronger stinger when its main prey or attacker devolps to have a natural resistance or thick exoskeleton. Its essentialy a very long process of one-uping the other species. Oh and mods can go ahead and delete this if they want im at work on my phone and dont have time to pull up sources this is just what i have been taught. | [
"Stinging insects produce a painful swelling of the skin, the severity of the lesion varying according to the location of the sting, the identity of the insect and the sensitivity of the subject. Many species of bees and wasps have two poison glands, one gland secreting a toxin in which formic acid is one recognize... |
Why did Christianity (Nestorianism) fail to create a significant and lasting Chinese Christian population, while Islam did? | I can't comment on Islam, but I can explain why Chinese christianity did not last to the modern day (of course, there are plenty of Christians now, but they only date back to European missionary activity).
First, about its origins. My source for the first part of this is a tablet in a museum in Xian (or rather, the internet translation of this: I couldn't actually read it, it's too decayed and in ancient Chinese, which I can't read anyway).
The tablet was written by Persian (Nestorian*) missionaries. It described the last 200 years of Chinese Christian activity, setting up churches, evangelising, etc. However, from what it said, they don't seem to have made a huge number of converts.
According to a Chinese Christians I've discussed this with, the mainstream view of Chinese Christian scholars** is that the early churches were "very Buddhistic". What this means is, they became more and more similar to Buddhist practices, and eventually faded away as a strongly defined entity. In a German museum, there is a piece of art of Tang-dynasty Christians celebrating palm Sunday; other than the palms, they do not seem very different from Buddhist worshippers.
A number of modern Chinese Christian leaders (read about the recent issues in Wenzhou and this will come up) have expressed reluctance to the Chinese governments aims of sinicising Christianity, because they believe that this could cause Christianity to lose any unique characteristics and thus fade away, as it did before.
Now, Nestorian Christianity returned to China in the Yuan dynasty, as it was the religion of certain Mongol tribes. However, it wasn't given government support, and being associated with foreign conquerers, again didn't make many converts. When the Mongols were expelled by the Ming, as with Tengrism, it was seen as a foreign Mongol religion, that should be expelled from China.
As I said, I don't know why Islam managed to create a strong community (I assume you are referring to Huizi; with the Uighers it's the same way it spread to central Asia generally, though the silk road), only why Christianity didn't.
I'd be curious if anyone knows the history of the Huizi?
*Bear in mind that the "Nestorian Church" probably wasn't actually Nestorian in doctrine, they just tolerated Nestorians while the European churches didn't.
**As I said, this is (I believe) the mainstream view of Chinese Christian scholars. I feel it's important to point out that it is used as a narrative of resisting the government; it's possible therefore that this view is unreliable. I don't know of any non-Christian, Chinese historians who study the history of Christianity in China, to compare it to. It seems like a reasonable hypothesis, but I feel I should point this out. | [
"It was also reported that competition with the Roman Catholic Church and Islam were also factors in causing Nestorian Christianity to disappear in China; the Roman Catholics also considered the Nestorians as heretical,\n",
"It was reported that competition with the Catholic Church and Islam were also factors in ... |
why are us troops being deployed to poland? | Because Russia. Like it or not, NATO is primarily the Club of Countries the US Promises To Protect. Its ludicrously massive military is what everyone wants on their side.
After Russia's adventures in the Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, there are suspicions within NATO that either Poland or the Baltics might suddenly find an [oppressed Russian minority](_URL_0_) within their borders, joined by "vacationing" Russian officers, and suddenly Russia's border will shift westwards. While Ukraine isn't NATO, those other states are, hence NATO (i.e. US) troops are pooling into there.
Russia of course denies ties to the rebels in Eastern Ukraine and claims that it's Crimea's democratic choice, while blaming the West for the "Nazi junta" in Ukraine and the thoughtless Kosovo precedent allowing such democratic choices. Hence Poland has nothing to fear... for now. | [
"Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia stand up against EurCon, which gradually deploys combat troops to their borders. France also negotiates with Russia to stop natural-gas shipments to Poland. The United States comes in to support Poland by sending an LNG tanker to Gdańsk; French covert operatives, however, b... |
Did civilizations like Rome and Greece participate in espionage? | Yes, quite extensively. Rose Mary Sheldon, professor of history at Virginia Military Institute, has written [a number of publications](_URL_8_) on Roman intelligence (broadly construed, and thus not always including what we would think of as espionage). [Here](_URL_10_)'s an article of hers that cites many examples, including:
* a list of conspirators delivered to Julius Caesar shortly before his death^1
* the use of disguise by Roman soldiers investigating the fearsome Ciminian Forest, under Etruscan control at the time ([cited in Livy](_URL_6_))
* Hannibal's extensive use of spies against Rome during the Punic Wars (for example at the [Battle of the Trebia](_URL_9_)\), and Scipio Africanus's eventual use of retaliatory espionage (for example at the [Battle of Utica](_URL_4_)\)^2
* the [frumentarii](_URL_7_) (domestic spies).
Sheldon argues that Rome had no state intelligence service because of the predominance of private intelligence networks employed by senators to carry out personal intrigues in the midst of complex senatorial politics; few records survive of these machinations. "Every Roman aristocrat had his private network of business associates, informers, clansmen, slaves, or agents (male or female) who could keep him informed on the latest happenings in the Senate or his own home," she writes.
[Here](_URL_3_) (PDF warning) is an article by Sheldon on the Byzantine intelligence service, and [here](_URL_0_) is the Google Books preview of her book *Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome.*
edit: formatting
----
^1 Curiously, her first example seems to have the least historical evidence, at least that I can find. I think she's confusing the Shakespeare character [Artemidorus](_URL_5_) with a real person? Nicolaus of Damascus's [account](_URL_1_) mentions that "[Caesar's] friends were alarmed at certain rumors and tried to stop him going to the Senate-house," but Brutus successfully dismissed these as "the idle gossip of stupid men."
^2 See also Terry Crowdy's *[The Enemy Within](_URL_2_)*, chapter 2. | [
"Following the Italian invasion of Greece in October 1940, Section D of British intelligence began recruiting Greeks for clandestine espionage and sabotage activity for the event that Greece might succumb to the Axis Powers in mind. Given its purpose, this activity was kept secret from the Greek government—the dict... |
how do people build programs inside of minecraft? | Early computers were basically a bunch of switches that were either ON or OFF. By arranging some amount of switches ON, you would store that information.
In MineCraft, you can build circuits using RedStone -- a powder which you can form lines of, that carry power from a RedStone Torch, or some form of trigger (pressure plate, switch, etc) for a certain distance, and can be used to trigger effects like pistons, doors, explosives, etc.
What people do to build a computer in MineCraft is, they have a bunch of switches which they can set either ON or OFF, like an early computer. A lot ([a LOT!!!](_URL_0_)) of RedStone goes through a bunch of Logic Gates (I'll explain those in the next comment for formatting) and ends up doing whatever the creator wants them to do, such as turning on a bunch of lights (like pixels on your computer screen) to make an image. | [
"The program is designed to assist a game master in managing table-top role-playing games such as \"Dungeons & Dragons\" and \"Tunnels & Trolls\". A user can enter material into the menu-driven program's tables, including random monster appearances, treasure tables, battle elements, and the creation of new monsters... |
Why were smaller penises desirable in classical civilisation? | You might enjoy /u/PapiriusCursor's answer to [Ancient Greek men thought the ideal male body possessed a small penis. Do we have any idea what Greek women thought?](_URL_0_). | [
"The ancient Greeks believed that small penises were ideal. Scholars believe that most ancient Greeks probably had roughly the same size penises as most other Europeans, but Greek artistic portrayals of handsome youths show them with inordinately small, uncircumcised penises with disproportionately large foreskins,... |
How devout were ancient people when it came to their religion(s)? | My reference point is pre-Christian, which has it's own problems, but can shed some light on your question. Ancient Greek religion is largely understood in the socio-cultural terms that /u/Fireproofspider has already referred to. "Belief" isn't a term that really enters the religious equation until Christian times. Also, there were no sacred texts, no clergy or any explicit ten commandment like prohibitions. So, it's a really good context in which to explore your question, it's the ultimate "practiced" religion. The question of whether the average Greek person believed in their mythology, like the labours of Hercules or Orpheus' trip to the underworld, is for the most part anachronistic. Individual cities had their own special gods and myths, but could also refer to the pantheon of gods to participate in the wider Hellenic community. These stories, and the ritual sacrifices and burials associated with them, were the language with which people engaged each other and with things beyond their control. Festivals were their weekends, sacrifices their BBQs, festival performances their cinemas and Dionysiac revels their frat parties. Religion was more ingrained in their lives than we can easily imagine.
This isn't to say that the same social dynamics (Homer vs. Ned) didn't exist. We have great sources from people like Plutarch and Theophrastus who give us each a characterisation of the overly superstitious man. This Ned like figure goes to the temple constantly and consults oracles as to what he should have for lunch, and the audience are clearly having a laugh at his expense. We've also got radicals like Plato who question the very existence of god. So we can imagine some kind of spectrum of religiosity, but the middle is very thick and the extremes are very thin.
So, my take on your questions is that the two aren't mutually exclusive (in this context at least). Maybe people did begrudge losing their best stuff in burial rites, but at the same time we can't extend that all the way to our modern cynicism. | [
"In terms of religion, the populace adopted the Roman pantheon, although the Celtic sungod, Belenus, had a large following. Jews practiced their ancestral religion and it was perhaps some of these Jews who became the first Christians. Meanwhile, soldiers brought the martial cult of Mithras.\n",
"There is, however... |
how is the videogame skyrim seemingly endless? | A small portion of the quests are procedurally generated. This means that there are is technically an infinite amount of meaningless fetch quests that reset every \~3-ish in-game days. Every gathering node is preset and finite, though, they just respawn. | [
"The game's screen consists of black and white pixel graphics and is presented in a manner similar to the \"virtual pet\" concept conceived by Bandai's Tamagotchi. To play in conjunction with \"Final Fantasy VIII\", the player must find Boko in the world of \"Final Fantasy VIII\". Once accomplished, the player rece... |
In terms of anatomy, why are some voices husky and some smooth? | If you mean husky as in rough (a long-term smoker's voice would be an extreme example of this), the answer is that there are asymmetries along the edges of the vocal cords. So when the vocal cords adduct, the mucosal wave that kind of vibrates between the cords is off and the sound comes out rougher. This kind of asymmetry could be caused by something like a little bit of swelling after a long night of talking in a loud place, by a benign pathology like a polyp or nodules, or by something like a tumor. I've heard from a colleague about one of her clients who is an actress--she spends a few minutes screaming each night before bed to keep her rough voice (not recommended).
If you mean husky as in breathy (think Marilyn Monroe's voice), the breathiness comes from the vocal cords not achieving full adduction during phonation. This can be physiological if there is some kind of structural or neurological deficit but this is something we also have the ability to control ourselves.
Source--I'm a speech pathologist | [
"In linguistics, creaky voice (sometimes called laryngealisation, pulse phonation, vocal fry, or glottal fry) is a special kind of phonation in which the arytenoid cartilages in the larynx are drawn together; as a result, the vocal folds are compressed rather tightly, becoming relatively slack and compact. They nor... |
why is a long one hour walk (4 miles) as tiring as a hard workout, but the walk burns far, far less calories? | Unless you're walking over rough terrain or up steep inclines a 4 mile walk should not be tiring on the level of a strenuous workout. In general your perceived exertion is a good guide for how fast you're burning calories | [
"Jogging may also be used as a warm up or cool down for runners, preceding or following a workout or race. It is often used by serious runners as a means of active recovery during interval training. For example, a runner who completes a fast 400 metre repetition at a sub-5-minute mile pace (3 minute km) may drop to... |
scars | They would and do exfoliate, eventually. The “lifespan” of a scar is dependent on how deep in the skin it is, and the size of the scar. As time passes, all or parts of the scar tissue will be pushed out. This is why some scars disappear over time, especially with proper skin care. However, if a scar is particularly deep, parts of it may take increasingly long amounts of time to ever reach the surface, and some parts never will. This is why some scars made fade in appearance, but will still be present even upon death. | [
"Hypertrophic scars occur when the body overproduces collagen, which causes the scar to be raised above the surrounding skin. Hypertrophic scars take the form of a red raised lump on the skin. They usually occur within 4 to 8 weeks following wound infection or wound closure with excess tension and/or other traumati... |
If gravity is the weakest fundamental force, how is it able to have a noticeable impact across such greater distances? | Because there is no anti gravity. The earth is made of a huge number of particles with different electric charges, but on average they all cancel out so that the earth as a whole has no net charge. Because of this the electrostatic attraction of the earth to other planets/stars is very small. In contrast, all the mass of the particles in the earth add up positively, so that the gravitational attraction of the earth is due to the sum of the effects of all is parts. If the planets were only made of positively charged particles, their electrostatic repulsion would be huge and totally swamp the effect of gravity. | [
"The effective range of the weak force is limited to subatomic distances, and is less than the diameter of a proton. It is one of the four known force-related fundamental interactions of nature, alongside the strong interaction, electromagnetism, and gravitation.\n",
"Gravity is the weakest of the four fundamenta... |
major differences between eastern orthodox and catholicism besides religious leader's authority? | Authority is the big one.
* Catholics mostly^1 use the Roman Rite liturgy; Orthodox groups tend to have their own liturgies.
* Catholics still say the Holy Spirit proceeds "from the Father and the Son"; Orthodox usually draw more subtle nuances and may say the Holy Spirit proceeds "from the Father through the Son".
* Local groups of Catholics and Orthodox have their own saints most likely to be venerated.
* There's a couple books in the Orthodox list of Bible books (canon) that aren't in the Catholic canon.
* Orthodox ordain married men to become priests; Catholics don't^1 .
^(1. There are "Eastern Rites", who are technically Catholic and not Orthodox, because they accept the authority of the pope... but the Eastern Rite Catholics otherwise "look" more Orthodox, with their own liturgies and ordaining married men and whatnot. They are Catholic but not "Roman Rite".) | [
"The Eastern Orthodox Church maintains the position that it is their communion which actually constitutes the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Eastern Orthodox Christians consider themselves the heirs of the first-millennium patriarchal structure that developed in the Eastern Church into the model of the ... |
why do so many law enforcers/military personnel support their governments during popular uprising? | Milgram's experiment:
_URL_0_ | [
"In violation of its constitutional mandate, it has overthrown elected governments overreaching its constitutional mandate protected by the Constitution to \"act in aid of civilian federal government when called upon to do so\", the army has been involved in enforcing martial law against the elected governments in ... |
Why can you lift a bigger weight after warming up? | Do we know that this is the case? Or is it that you can lift more weight **safely** after warmup? | [
"Weight lifting can effectively demonstrate the effects of post-activation potentiation. For example, if a person lifts a light weight, and then lifts a heavy weight, before lifting the light weight again, the light weight will be relatively easier to lift and feel lighter the second time it has been lifted. Becaus... |
Why are some groups of animals, like rodents, not sexually dimorphic? (or at least as obvious as other mammals) How have social systems pressured changes in sexual dimorphism? How are species that aren't sexually dimorphic able to differentiate sexes before encounters? | How are you defining "dimorphism"? Are you approaching it with human bias towards visible differences?
Remember that there are other important sensory and behavioral clues to look for. Smell, in particular during estrus, is quite powerful, as are certain innate behaviors associated with mating, such as becoming more accommodating to the approach of a stranger.
Also, consider that even in dimorphic species there are same-sex encounters that lead to partial (or more) mating behaviors, from courtship up to pair bonding. | [
"Sexual dimorphism occurs in many rodent species. In some rodents, males are larger than females, while in others the reverse is true. Male-bias sexual dimorphism is typical for ground squirrels, kangaroo rats, solitary mole rats and pocket gophers; it likely developed due to sexual selection and greater male-male ... |
free radicals, oxidative stress, and anti oxidants. | Oxygen is a corrosive gas. It literally steals electrons from other atoms (ie oxidizes them). Our body uses oxygen this way to forcefully pull electrons through several chemical reactions, such as breaking down digested carbohydrates into biochemical energy. This is why you breathe.
Unfortunately, oxygen doesn't care which atoms it steals electrons from. It may steal from a protein or chunk of DNA that causes the victim molecule to no longer function correctly. Worse, the victim molecule is now unstable - it wants to either gain an electron back, or it needs to lose a second electron to become stable again. So now the victim molecule has become the predator, looking to prey on yet another molecule, and this cycle of electron violence continues. Sooner or later, molecules will become so "broken" that they can't function... proteins can't do their job, DNA becomes corrupted, etc. Then the cell's functioning starts to break down. If you're lucky (and healthy), your body will recognize the disruption and safely dispose of the cell. If you're not lucky, the faltering cell may become cancerous.
Antioxidants are various chemicals that can neutralize this effect to some extent, thereby preventing damage.
| [
"Pro-oxidants are chemicals that induce oxidative stress, either by generating reactive oxygen species or by inhibiting antioxidant systems. The oxidative stress produced by these chemicals can damage cells and tissues, for example an overdose of the analgesic paracetamol (acetaminophen) can fatally damage the live... |
how do other websites use reddit's content without backlash? | It depends on what kind of content you are talking about.
First there is the question about what is and what isn't covered by copyright, and also who would own said copyright. Take something like memes. It could be argued that most memes do not reach the level of originality needed, and therefor is not covered by copyright.
In addition to that, it could be argued that the copyright actually belongs to the creator of the actual image (the producer of the movie, game or whatever it is taken from), and not the person who adds the text.
When it comes to content that definitely is copyrighted (such as original images and stories) it largely comes down to the very small risk they take. Most people will not ask Buzzfeed for example to take down content. The few times that someone do send copyright claims to these websites, they simply remove the infringing content and everything tend to be fine.
It's generally not worth it for a copyright holder to pursue any kind of compensation, due to it taking more time, money and effort then you would actually receive in compensation. | [
"Reddit (, stylized in its logo as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website. Registered members submit content to the site such as links, text posts, and images, which are then voted up or down by other members. Posts are organized by subject into user-created board... |
What would happen if you could get rid of the Higgs bosons in an object? | The Higgs boson does not give particles mass. There are not Higgs bosons inside ordinary matter.
The Higgs mechanism is associated with the default value that the Higgs field takes throughout space. The Higgs boson arises as a sort of deviation of the Higgs field from its default value.
| [
"To produce Higgs bosons, two beams of particles are accelerated to very high energies and allowed to collide within a particle detector. Occasionally, although rarely, a Higgs boson will be created fleetingly as part of the collision byproducts. Because the Higgs boson decays very quickly, particle detectors canno... |
why are steel surfaces relatively inhospitable to bacteria and other germs whereas stuff like acrylic are not? | I believe it has to do with the surface and how porous it is/isn't. Bacteria need tiny holes to hang out in (which also traps stuff they feed on), otherwise they get brushed away easily and there is less available 'food' for them. Also some metals give off ions that apparently kill bacteria. I know silver does, not sure about other metals. | [
"Materials research into superior antifouling surfaces for fluidized bed reactors suggest that low wettability plastics such as Polyvinyl chloride (\"PVC\"), high-density polyethylene and polymethylmethacrylate (\"plexiglas\") demonstrate a high correlation between their resistance to bacterial adhesion and their h... |
why does visible heat* have a shadow if it isn’t causing an absence of light? | When air gets hot, it changes the density so you have swirling patches of hotter & cooler air.
Air of different densities passes light differently, creating those shadows. | [
"In principle, we cannot directly see a difference in temperature, a different gas, or a shock wave in the transparent air. However, all these disturbances refract light rays, so they can cast shadows. The plume of hot air rising from a fire, for example, can be seen by way of its shadow cast upon a nearby surface ... |
why do car windows get a grid pattern on them | Whenever the glass is rapidly cooled during the tempering process there are these air jets that blow cool air on the glass. This creates distortions in the glass that are almost invisible, until you put on polarized glasses. Different automakers have different (patented) patterns or cooling methods to reduce this distortion. | [
"BULLET::::- The wheel window style refers to when architects started to putting glass within the oculi structure creating an actual window. This was due to when architects tried increasing the diameter of the oculi to let in more light, the problem of wind and rain became very apparent.\n",
"A stacking window ma... |
How does evolution increase biological complexity? | Your 'relatively simple' example is actually perhaps the most complex; the jump from single to multiple cell is probably the most significant. Hence why it took so long (something in the order of a couple of billion years). From there on it's just a case of structural specialisation.
Evolution is simply the expression of a small proportion of genetic mutations being favoured. We don't know the exact route for any of the above, as we don't have the vast majority of the intermediary species to analyse. It's like trying to know the precise movement of a person in a 24 hour period when all you have is a dozen photos taken at random intervals.
But to answer your question as broadly as possible, if you have a single cell, and a single cell which has a mutation which has developed an extra, tougher outer surface, the second cell is more likely to survive hostile environments, and also more complex than the first. Now follow through on tiny changes (most even less significant than that one) trillions of times, over several billion years and hey presto, you have a talking ape sat at a machine it built, leaving a message for a similar talking ape somewhere else on the planet. | [
"More generally, the growth of complexity may be driven by the co-evolution between an organism and the ecosystem of predators, prey and parasites to which it tries to stay adapted: as any of these become more complex in order to cope better with the diversity of threats offered by the ecosystem formed by the other... |
how does opening new lines of credit *help* your credit score? | It increases your cap making it easier to maintain a lower percentage use of your overall credit. Lower overall use increases your score. | [
"BULLET::::- Credit scores are already artificially modified; that is, it is a made-up system. There is no difference between adding an authorized user tradeline and opening a new account; they both affect your credit score.\n",
"Although all the four credit information companies have developed their individual c... |
can a communist economy work with a democratic system? | Ideally, all communist nations are democratic, since the idea is that everyone works towards a common goal and everyone is equal. Post- Stalin USSR and post- Mao China were/ are democratic, in that you can vote for the leader. There's only one party, however so this winds up being a choice between John Anderson and Anders Johnson.
Communism ultimately fails because the core idea is a group of people working their hardest for the betterment of all. This can work for a group of 20 people, but when you have 20 million (or even 20 thousand) that's just not going to happen. | [
"A communist economic system would be characterized by advanced productive technology that enables material abundance, which in turn would enable the free distribution of most or all economic output and the holding of the means of producing this output in common. In this respect communism is differentiated from soc... |
is there an easy explanation or visual for the organization of the us army? | Organisation of ranks? Organisations of armies, corps, divisions, battalions, etc? There's lots of things that fall under this question. | [
"A Corps area was a geographically-based organizational structure (military district) of the United States Army used to accomplish administrative, training and tactical tasks from 1920 to 1942. Each corps area included divisions of the Regular Army, Organized Reserve and National Guard of the United States. Develop... |
If I smell a strong scent while eating, does it influence how I taste the food? | You only have five basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Everything else is smell, which is why things taste bland when you're congested. | [
"Unlike smelling, which occurs upon inhalation, the sensing of flavors in the mouth occurs in the exhalation phase of breathing and is perceived differently by an individual. In other words, the smell of food is different depending on whether one is smelling it before or after it has entered one's mouth.\n",
"Aro... |
French (or Allied) perspective of WWI trenches | [*Under Fire*](_URL_0_) was a novel written by the Frenchman Henri Barbusse, and was actually published *during* the War, in 1916. *Under Fire* is technically not a memoir, but rather, is a work of fiction, with an unnamed narrator. However, it is pretty clearly influenced by Barbusse's time on the frontline. Barbusse's political biases (he was a Communist) also can shine through, but overall it is a rather short read that is definitely quite interesting. Regardless of how true the events in *Under Fire* actually are, the stories in it do lineup with accounts of the Great War that I've read from British and German sources and if nothing else the novel itself is worth reading because it is such an anomaly, being an anti-war novel published as the War was still going on. Basically, it shouldn't be taken as straight history, but it is of historical value. | [
"For much of the Great War, trench warfare was almost static, giving rise to the need for large scale maps for attack, defence and artillery use. Initially, British trench maps showed the German trench systems in detail, but only the British Front line. Later in the war, more of the British trenches were shown. The... |
Is there a part of the brain that controls the perception of time? | Great question, and the simple answer is that many different parts of the brain help you to perceive time... because time is crucially important for many types of behaviors we engage in.
One area of the brain, the [suprachiasmatic nucleus \(SCN\)](_URL_0_) affects circadian rhythms -- tracking day and night cycles. Other areas of the brain,[ like the cerebellum](_URL_2_), help time fine motor movements and may control timing on the order of seconds. The [basal ganglia](_URL_1_) (implicated in motion and some learning processes) and other areas of the cortex may also have some role in keeping time on different scales and relating to different processes.
Another interesting way of looking at this is how our perception of time is tied to memories, which would implicate the hippocampus and associated cortex. In some cases where people have profound amnesias, their sense of past, present, and future are severely distorted, but they still have the ability to time short-term processes correctly. So, when you think about the different scales of time from milliseconds to decades, there are different processes that rely on different kinds of timing and probably work together to form a coherent "flow" of time.
Anyhow, I'm sure I didn't answer your question... but I think there is no one single answer... just like I believe most people would agree there's no single part of the brain that controls our time perception. :)
| [
"Although the perception of time is not associated with a specific sensory system, psychologists and neuroscientists suggest that humans do have a system, or several complementary systems, governing the perception of time. Time perception is handled by a highly distributed system involving the cerebral cortex, cere... |
why do we not all adopt a race-nationality identification like african-american (ex. asian-australian)? | It's too broad. Under that you could say I'm a European-American, but to be honest I don't really see myself as European at all despite my ancestry. I just wish we didn't classify race at all and just went by nationality. If you are a US citizen, you are an American. If you are an Australian citizen, you are Australian, etc. | [
"According to the 2010 United States Census, 6.2% or 19,107,368 Americans chose to self-identify with the \"some other race\" category, the third most popular option. Also, 36.7% or 18,503,103 Hispanic/Latino Americans chose to identify as some other race as these Hispanic/Latinos may feel the U.S. Census does not ... |
why are hand dryers in public restrooms considered more hygienic than paper towels? having forced air blowing germs all over the place doesn't seem very hygienic at all. | It turns out that you are correct. Not only do they blow germs from outside the blower... What happens when someplace is dark, warm, and moist? Mold grows. So you're getting mold spores and waste from INSIDE the dryer on your hands, too.
_URL_0_
| [
"Research conducted in 2008 indicated that European consumers much prefer hand towels over hand dryers in public washrooms. 63% of respondents said paper towels were their preferred drying method, while just 28% preferred a hand dryer. Respondents overwhelmingly considered paper towels to offer faster hand drying t... |
the different divisions of the nervous system. | The Nervous System(NS) is composed of 2 major divisions which are:
(1) **The Central NS**; which is made up of the brain and the spinal cord. They are *both enclosed in bony structure* (skull and vertebra) because of their importance. They control either voluntarily or involuntarily almost all body functions and interpret all sensory inputs of the body. That includes moving a single muscle or telling the difference between red or blue. The difference between the 2 is that the brain commands and monitors while the spinal cord is a "brain tail" which clumps all of the tracts(big bundled nerves) for the rest of the nervous system to connect to.
The brain can be likened to a central computer in a modern house, which controls and monitors everything from a single area. While the spinal cord is the main cable in which most cords are connected to. In this house every gadget or security monitors are linked to a single computer.
(2)**The Peripheral NS**; this meanwhile *connects the rest of the body to the brain and spinal cord*. Unlike the CNS, they are made up mostly of **tracts of nerves** bundled together and so has no bony structure protecting it. They send signal both ways from the brain to an organ **or** from an sensory/organ up to the brain. This can be compared to the cables that connects all the gadgets, appliances, or monitors to the central computer of the house.
The nerves of the PNS has 2 types:
a. *the cranial nerves*, a nerve which connects the brain directly to an organ. An example would be the optic nerve, which sends visual signals directly to the brain. We all have 12 pairs of these. All our special senses (smell, hearing, taste) muscles of face are connected by cranial nerves.
b. *the spinal nerve*, long nerve which connects the muscles of our arms to the spinal cord which relays the signal to the brain. We have 31 pairs of these, a pair sprouting from the junction of two vertebra(spinal bone). The rest of our body is connected to the brain this way.
The PNS also has 2 major types of Autonomous(NS) or involuntary body control, they are:
1. Sympathetic NS; "fight or flight" response, responsible for taking over body functions during stressful situations. Makes your pupils bigger, to see better. Makes your heart pump faster, to cope with increase energy usage. Or slows digestion.
2. Parasympathetic NS; "rest and repair", does the complete opposite of sympathetic NS. Increases rate of digestion, slows heartrate etc.
| [
"The central nervous system consists of a brain and paired ventral nerve cords that connect to the brain and run along the length of the body. The brain is a ring of four ganglia, masses of nerve cells, positioned round the rhynchocoel near its front end – while the brains of most protostome invertebrates encircle ... |
How do mitochondria change their internal proton count to initiate electron chain transfer ? | By that, I assume you’re talking about the proton gradient? In which case the ions cross the complexes that are in the inner membrane, and move into the inter membrane space. Those ions of course come from the NADH that oxidate into NAD+ when the come in contact with the complexes, passing their electrons and their hydrogen ions into the complexes. | [
"Pumping protons out of the mitochondria creates a proton concentration difference across the membrane and generates an electrochemical gradient. This force drives protons back into the mitochondrion through the base of an enzyme called ATP synthase. The flow of protons makes the stalk subunit rotate, causing the a... |
why couldn't giant mirrors (like the entire industrialized world focusing on producing giant mirrors) eradicate global warming by reflecting the suns rays for a while? | How would you make those mirrors?
In some kind of industrial plant, right?
And to smelt all that glass you'll need some big natural gas burners.
And you'll burn a lot of it which will produce an extraordinary amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
When you're all done you'll have some great mirrors. But mirrors reflect light, not heat. In fact, those mirrors are going to get really hot because they are receiving all the radiation from the sun.
So, unfortunately, your solution compounds the problem. It would be far less difficult to simply conserve energy and reduce fossil fuel use. | [
"The use of space mirrors as an anti-global warming measure is a proposed technology for climate change mitigation by deflection of sunlight. It was one of a series of proposals for controlling global warming made to the United States government in 2001.\n",
"Using space mirrors as a space sunshade to reduce the ... |
How did powerful families come by their power in the first place? | I can't talk about the Rothschilds or the like, but I certainly can talk about [the Tudors](_URL_5_) and [the Plantagenets](_URL_1_) and the like.
Henry Tudor, who became King Henry VII of England, of the House of Tudor, was the victor of the [the Wars of the Roses](_URL_3_) between the House of Lancaster and the House of York, who both claimed to be legitimate heirs to the throne. He was *already* in a powerful family - he was just in one branch of it (Lancaster), and defeated the other branch (York). He then married a York woman, combining the two families, and ended the conflict that way.
And, the Houses of Lancaster and York were both descendants of the Plantagenets. And, the Plantagenets were just descendants of William the Conqueror, who defeated the King of England in 1066, and declared himself King.
But, even then, William was already in a powerful family - he was Duke of Normandy, which was a [noble role created by King Charles III of France](_URL_4_). And, the kings of France trace their power back to [the Merovingian kings](_URL_0_), who started out by [conquering some tribes around them](_URL_2_).
Most monarchs trace their origins of power back to an original warrior or chieftain who simply overpowered the people around him and took charge. They became leaders by force. All subsequent conflicts and transfers of power were traceable back to that original chief who took charge. There have been very few monarchs who didn't get their power either by conquest, or by being descended from (or *claiming* to be descended from) conquerors.
| [
"The family reached the height of its power in the 15th Century when facing off against the monarchy. They were able to set up a system of Mayordomazgos independent of the crown and based in the Castillo de Pedraja which belonged to the family. During this time, there were a great many power struggles going on in t... |
Sibling birth order: does it affect anything? | The only thing I know of is the potential link between fraternal birth order and male sexual orientation.
_URL_0_
> In several studies, the observation is that the more older brothers a man has, the greater the probability is that he will have a homosexual orientation.[1] It has sometimes been called the older brother effect. It has been estimated that 15% of the homosexual demographic is associated with fraternal birth order.
The article also cites some contrary evidence, so it seems the theory may be rather controversial. | [
"The social interaction that occurs as a result of birth order however is the most notable. Older siblings often become role models of behaviour, and younger siblings become learners and supervisees. Older siblings are at a developmental advantage both cognitively and socially. The role of birth order also depends ... |
what's going on in milwaukee ? | A young African American man was being pursued by the Police. He displayed and aimed a weapon at the Officer. He was promptly shot. He passed away. The community rioted since their perspective is that any shooting under any condition is unlawful. As it turns out the young man has a record and the gun was stolen.
That's the facts. But there are many more opinions to go with those facts. | [
"\"Milwaukee\" is a public artwork by Cleveland, Ohio artist George Mossman Greenamyer (b. 1939), located at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee; Golda Meir Library, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America.\n",
"The Milwaukee River is a river in the state of Wisconsin. It is about long. Once a locus of i... |
Maximum rotation of a pulsar | Speed of light is always a limit, but not here. Here, the limiting factor is the fact that at ~1500 rotations per second, gravitational radiation would release more energy than accretion could compensate. For an average 12km pulsar, that's less than half the speed of light, and even that's pushing it. | [
"Pulsars are rotating neutron stars that have a magnetic field. A narrow beam of electromagnetic radiation is emitted from the poles of rotating pulsars. If the beam sweeps past the direction of the Solar System then the pulsar will produce a periodic pulse that can be detected from the Earth. The energy radiated b... |
Are animals immune to poison ivy? | Humans are generally allergic to an oil in poison ivy called urushiol. Other animals are not affected, and many actually eat poison ivy. Sources: [1](_URL_1_), [2](_URL_0_) | [
"Birds are apparently immune to this poison. The plant is not palatable to animals and is avoided unless little else is available, or if it is in contaminated hay, but horses, sheep and cattle have been poisoned by eating fresh leaves or green fodder, and pigs have been poisoned by eating the roots.\n",
"Ethoprop... |
What rate would glaciers be growing or melting without human intervention? | Before I start, I'm no glaciologist, but I can address some of your points and maybe hope that someone more knowledgeable can come along and set me straight if I get anything wrong, and maybe add some sources...
It's important to realise that *all* glaciers are melting. Due to the huge pressures of the ice, temperature fluctuations and incoming liquid water (from runoff or rain or whatever), there will always be melt from a glacier. Obviously this melt can be increased, and higher temperatures will tend to do that, but the system is very complex.
What you're really asking about is glacial retreat. All glaciers accumulate mass and ablate mass (those are technical terms for gaining and losing), but 'want' to be in a state where the rate that these happen at is equivalent.
If accumulation rate > ablation rate, the glacier will advance.
If ablation rate > accumulation rate, the glacier will retreat.
You can see from this diagram _URL_0_ that *most* glaciers are currently retreating, but that some are actually advancing. This fact alone immediately suggests that the situation is not as simple as "temperatures are getting hotter therefore glaciers are retreating".
The rate of glacial retreat depends on a lot of factors, not just the temperature, but the *general trend* of global glacial retreat is used as evidence of increasing temperatures. However, the real drivers may not be that simple - clearly in some areas the rate of accumulation has increased (i.e. more snowfall). In fact, retreat can be caused either by an increase in ablation (i.e. increased temperatures) or a decrease in accumulation (i.e. lower snowfall (which of course might be caused by increased temperatures, but not necessarily)).
Your point about increased melting as the glacier retreats is not really valid - comparing it to a melting ice cube is not really a valid analogy. For a start, the ice cube's surface area to volume ratio quickly decreases as it melts, which will not really happen with a glacier. Also the bulk temperature of the ice cube will be increasing as a whole so that the internal temperature will be increasing even as the outside melts.
And yes, people are worried about glacier's melting, for several reasons. For one, they cover around 10% of the Earth's surface and have a strong albedo effect (though this is not necessarily true for all, e.g. icelandic glaciers which are often covered in volcanic ash) and therefore their loss would cause a temperature feedback effect. But there's also the more direct problems - glacial melt causing flash-floods, loss of drinking water, and many others. We had a talk recently by someone looking at glaciers in the Andes, and they're really worried there. But the loss is not necessarily inevitable. We don't understand how Ice Ages work (and the idea that we are 'due' an Ice Age is fairly regularly trotted out), what causes them or how they cycle, but it's also true that glacial retreat could be an entirely natural process. Evidence suggests that climate change is having an effect though. | [
"“Glacier mass-balances show consistent decreases over the last century in most regions of the world and retreat may be accelerating in many locations\" with an average loss of ten meters per year, nearly twice as fast as ten years ago. Glaciers currently cover ~10% of the Earth's surface, or ~15 million km² and ho... |
why is a p/e ratio called price to earnings and not just price to profit? | Profit can vary wildly from one reporting period to another. So many aspects of business can impact it both positively and negatively. In addition some things might lower profits during only one quarter, which if you only tracked profits might make it seem the company had begun performing poorly.
Earnings are simpler to track, much less subject to manipulation and a more consistent indicator of the direction of a company. | [
"The price-earnings ratio, also known as P/E ratio, P/E, or PER, is the ratio of a company's share (stock) price to the company's earnings per share. The ratio is used for valuing companies and to find out whether they are overvalued or undervalued. \n",
"The price to earnings ratio (P/E), or earnings multiple, i... |
how does the internet’s wayback machine work? | Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how previous projects that were similar worked. They have bots (automated software) that crawl the web looking at different webpages and archiving them. Every time it takes a snapshot of a webpage (usually including its source code and, if I remember right, copies of images as well), it stores it and you can view it later.
More trafficked websites will have visits from those boots quite a lot more often. | [
"The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web and other information on the Internet. It was launched in 2001 by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California, United States. \n",
"The use of the term \"Wayback Machine\" in the context of the Internet Archive h... |
what is "sequestration" in the context of current events? | Basically its been decided that the US has too much debt, were spending too much money. To fix the economy, many think that the US Government has to start paying off some of the debt that it has been racking up. There are two ways to do this, either increase the amount of money that it makes or cut money that it spends. Now there are many ways of making money, but the easiest is raising taxes. Many people dont like this because then they would loose more money from their paychecks (and as a person who is doing his taxes currently, even more once a year). Whichever party is currently in power, if they raised taxes a bunch, would not be in power again for a while come next election.
So that leaves spending. But what does the government cut? At every point in time somebody said "This program were paying for? Its super important for X,Y, and Z reasons. Plus it helps employ people who voted for me!". So its hard to cut some programs, and other programs (like Social Security) have become critical issues for some people. Imagine if you were 64, the minimum retirement age was 65 but then it went up to 72. That make you really mad right? So its hard to mess with that type of stuff.
Lastly there is a political reason that makes spending hard. See, Democrats like to have all these programs that help people from falling on bad times. But Republicans feel that people should fend for themselves, and shouldn't be the government's responsibility. So they want to cut all these social (welfare) programs that the Democrats like. BUT the Republicans want to spend money on defense, to make more tanks or whatever and they dont want the Democrats to cut that. So each side really wants to cut the thing that the other likes, but nobody is willing to cut a little out of both or come up with some other strategy.
So what happened last year was that the US's "credit card" hit it's limit (almost). We were about to run out of loaned cash, and Congress had to call up the debt company and ask for more. But some, like many Republicans, wanted to make a stink about it and demand that some money be cut from the budget. Then they would raise the cap. But for the above reasons, nobody could decide what to cut (even though the cap already went up) so it went into sudden death overtime. Basically a group of Republicans and Democrats made a deal and said "We are going to cut all this stuff, stuff that neither side wants cut, if nobody makes a better deal. Further, we are going to cut deeply and really trim down the budget." The idea was that the cuts would be so deep, and cut things that nobody wanted cut (and also raise taxes and a bunch of other stuff), that both sides would finally make a deal. The problem was, it was an election year so nobody did **SHIT** to fix the problem. It was funner to just complain about how it was a problem somebody needed to fix. So the deadline has come and gone and nobody agreed on a better plan, so now these cuts will be applied unless some 11th hour drama gets a new deal passed. | [
"The term \"budget sequestration\" was first used to describe a section of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Act of 1985 (GRHDRA). The hard caps were abandoned and replaced with a PAYGO system by the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990, which was in effect until 2002. Sequestration was later included as part of th... |
Did Alexander the Great really fight in every battle and siege he waged? | Alexander the Great by Philip Freeman is a good read. It's directed at laymen and thus is less dry than most strictly academic works. I can only answer for what Freeman's work says, so if he was wrong, I hope someone can post a correction.
1. Yes, according to the sources we have he fought in all the major engagements of his army during his famous campaign eastward.
2. It wasn't *common*, for example Darius (leader of Persian Empire) did not fight with his troops. However among smaller, more tribal states such as the Scythians, the leader would fight with the rest of the troops. According to Freeman Alexander's participation was often crucial to morale. Alexander's army won battles in which they were outnumbered by absurd margins (such as at Gaugamela), as well as won offensive sieges by force on cities that seemed basically unconquerable (Tyre and Gaza). Freeman says that Alexanders gusto and personal participation was what kept morale from breaking when his army stood up against immensely larger forces or extremely impressive/legendary fortresses. Overall though it's certain that it was seen as an act worthy of respect, honor, and greatness. The sources (likely) exaggerate some of the stories in an attempt to embellish Alexander, so it was certainly seen as a positive thing to have bravery and battle prowess in a leader, as opposed to someone like Darius who watched comfortably from the rear. There is something innate in people, especially soldiers, to want to follow the leader charging the enemy king instead of the helpless leader running away.
3. He was trained extensively in horsemanship and fighting, as well as general education, from a young age by his father Philip. His father had access to excellent teachers from the kingdom he had built around Macedon during his life and Alexander is said to have had a host of tutors, Aristotle among them. It's reasonable to assume that he would have been an excellent fighter, and surviving sources of course wouldn't say otherwise.
4. Don't know more about this than the average person.
5. Besides Freeman there are countless academic works. However I would recommend just reading A Life of Alexander by Plutarch, a prominent ancient source, or [this](_URL_0_) compilation of ancient sources.
| [
"The wars of Alexander the Great were fought by King Alexander III of Macedon (\"The Great\"), first against the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Darius III, and then against local chieftains and warlords as far east as Punjab, India. Due to the sheer scale of these wars, and the fact that Alexander was generally un... |
how is the criterion collection able to restore movies that are 50 plus years old to blu ray quality? | 35mm film still has more detail contained on it than any digital camera can capture. It captures far more texture and nuance, this is why some directors (Tarantino being a popular example) still use "real" film. This is comparable to the old records vs. digital format debate in audio recordings.
Celluloid film does have a tendency to break down and degrade over time, but it can be "remastered" and digitized, often to considerably better quality than it would have been originally (as seen through an analogue projector).
For example, I was watching reruns of the original Star Trek run on the BBC yesterday. These episodes never looked better! Not just the remastered "cgi," but every shot was crisper, cleaner, and better colored than I remember them being originally.
Edit: 32-35mm (I was a projectionist for Pete's sake, I should know this!) | [
"On November 1, 2011, the restored movie was released on Blu-ray, with lossless audio. Extras include a commentary on the Blu-ray disc production, plus a DVD with 95 minutes of extra songs and featurettes on the making of the movie.\n",
"A limited-edition DVD release additionally included a copy of the screenplay... |
Has there been any research into the origin of viruses that cause the cold? | Human Rhinoviruses are so different from any other kind of rhinovirus that it gets really difficult to work out which animals we got it from. The truth is, it probably evolved from human enteroviruses that live in the gut, and merely adapted itself to a new niche.
[Here is an article for you]( _URL_0_) | [
"One main motivation for the study of viruses is the fact that they cause many important infectious diseases, among them the common cold, influenza, rabies, measles, many forms of diarrhea, hepatitis, Dengue fever, yellow fever, polio, smallpox and AIDS. Herpes simplex causes cold sores and genital herpes and is un... |
how can a judge make a decision without letting his own beliefs and opinions interfere with his decision? | A judge is allowed to use the wisdom picked up from her life. There is no bar against it.
A judge is often called on to judge things like credibility--out of the two witnesses with conflicting testimony, which witness does the judge believe more? Usually, at the end of an evidentiary proceeding, the judge will give the reasoning for the decision (I found witness A's testimony more credible than witness B's testimony because . . . "). As long as the reasoning is not completely arbitrary or based off an improper or prejudicial belief (i.e. men should always get the children in a custody dispute), the decision will typically stand because the judge is in the best position to observe and decide on these things. | [
"Because every judge in the court is entitled to hand down a judgment, it is not uncommon for groups of judges to reach the same conclusion (i.e. whether to allow or dismiss the appeal) in materially different ways, for example if a panel of 9 judges heard a case with 4 judges dismissing the appeal, 3 finding for t... |
Why is there an EpiPen (and generic alternatives) shortage? | EpiPens are a medical device. Medical devices don't really have a "generic" regulatory option so any company that decides to sell a EpiPen knock-off needs to do all the testing over again except less testing for the drug.
Moreover, some companies decide to file patents around the device component, so you might not be legally able to make copies. This is what happened to all the asthma inhalers since as soon as the law went into effect banning CFCs in medical devices, Teva Medical filed a patent on propellants other than CFC's in inhalers so a $20 inhaler in the 90's is now $200+ for the same drug and same delivery mechanism.
*Edit: It looks like I forgot to respond directly to the OP's question. Being a medical device, you can't just build another manufacturing line and say everything is ok. You have to build the line, re-test the line to see if it still makes everything correctly at the extreme tolerances (process validations), and make sure your raw material suppliers don't change their materials on their side and still meet your increased capacity. What usually ends up happening in my industry (medical devices) on shortages are usually due to: (1) One of the key raw material suppliers cannot make enough of a component, (2) Your new or existing line fails process validations/in-process checks, (3) FDA/notified body audit findings triggering shutting down the line, or (4) A massive product recall that is currently in-progress.
With (3), I've seen the FDA at times try to negotiate with companies not trying to shut down a key product-line, but companies usually end up shutting the line down out of spite and have the physicians & patients file complaints to the FDA. I am personally unsure of which of the reasons are causing EpiPens to be in short supply, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is one of the above causes. | [
"Gottlieb pursued policies to address barriers to the approval of complex generic drugs, including generic, functionally equivalent alternatives to EpiPen. Under his leadership, in August 2018 the FDA approved the first generic competitor of EpiPen, and later, in January 2019, the agency approved a generic competit... |
why do we sometimes, out of the blue, have the urge to breath deeply? | When at long periods of rest your body can start to breath less and less l. After a time your brain goes fuck I need air and tells your lungs to reset themselve l. This can also be the cause of yawning sometimes (not the only cause thow) | [
"The urge to breathe in normal humans is mainly controlled by blood carbon dioxide concentration and the acidity that it causes. A rise in carbon dioxide concentration caused by the inability to inhale fresh gas will cause a strong reflex to breathe, accompanied by increasing distress as the level rises, culminatin... |
How did American politics move so far to the right? | I would say that a lot of it comes down to the First Red Scare. In the early 20th century, the Industrial Workers of the World (an anarcho-syndicalist revolutionary labor union) was growing large and the Socialist Party of Eugene Debs was getting around 7% in U.S. elections, with hundreds of mayors, state representatives, and a few congressmen. During the First Red Scare, during and following World War I, the IWW was repressed, and socialist and anarchist leaders like Eugene Debs and Ricardo Flores Magón (a Mexican anarchist revolutionary and IWW member who had been in exile in the U.S.) were imprisoned, where many would die. Thousands of striking workers would be repressed, with public justifications citing socialism, communism, and anarchism.
I know less about the Second Red Scare in the 1950s, but it's my understanding that there were a number of socialists and communists in the leadership of the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) that were purged. | [
"From the mid-1950s to the 1970s, the so-called \"populist protest phase\" emerged with sporadic electoral success. During this period, far-right parties drew to them charismatic leaders whose profound mistrust of the political establishment led to an \"us-versus-them\" mind set: \"us\" being the nation's citizenry... |
How exactly does fluticasone nasal spray work? | [From the package insert:](_URL_0_)
Fluticasone propionate is a synthetic trifluorinated corticosteroid with anti-inflammatory activity. Fluticasone propionate has been shown in vitro to exhibit a binding affinity for the human glucocorticoid receptor that is 18 times that of dexamethasone, almost twice that of beclomethasone-17- monopropionate (BMP), the active metabolite of beclomethasone dipropionate, and over 3 times that of budesonide. Data from the McKenzie vasoconstrictor assay in man are consistent with these results. The clinical significance of these findings is unknown.
The precise mechanism through which fluticasone propionate affects rhinitis symptoms is not known. Corticosteroids have been shown to have a wide range of effects on multiple cell types (e.g., mast cells, eosinophils, neutrophils, macrophages, lymphocytes) and mediators (e.g., histamine, eicosanoids, leukotrienes, cytokines) involved in inflammation. In 7 trials in adults, Fluticasone Propionate Nasal Spray has decreased nasal mucosal eosinophils in 66% of patients (35% for placebo) and basophils in 39% of patients (28% for placebo). The direct relationship of these findings to long-term symptom relief is not known.
| [
"Flunisolide nasal spray is absorbed into the circulatory system (blood). Corticosteroid nasal sprays may affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function in humans. After the desired clinical effect is obtained, the maintenance dose should be reduced to the smallest amount necessary to control symptoms, whi... |
If a human had to live on only one food (eating as much as necessary, but all the same thing), what would the best to live off? (Assume otherwise healthy adult). | I may be mistaken, but I read an article that said a human could live off baked potatoes and butter indefinitely as it provides all the necessary nutrients | [
"In the 21st century, an increasing number of adults in developed countries eat most or all of their meals alone. It is unclear whether people eating alone eat more, less, or the same amount of food compared to people eating in groups, partly because of differences in whether they are eating alone at home or eating... |
WW2 buffs, were there any instances of any bombers doing gunships runs like a AC-130 would? | The short answer to this is "No". There wasn't a comparable weapon - an aircraft designed for heavy, air-to-ground fire over long durations - to the AC-130 gunship during World War II. The AC-130's predecessor, the AC-47 "Spooky", or more popularly, "Puff the Magic Dragon", while using the C-47 as its platform - an aircraft available in WWII - was a product of the 1960s. *Now*, that said, the AC-47 was not born out of thin air, and does exist in a long line of ideas and prototypes that were in existence during World War II, and even before.
While putting a bunch of machine guns in a plane for strafing predated WWII - way back in the '20s the US Army's first designated 'Attack" aircraft, the A-2, carried 2 .30 cals and 4 more in the wings - bigger guns started rolling out during the conflict. The brainchild of Maj. Paul I. “Pappy” Gunn, testing of heavily armed B-25s with 8 .50 cals replacing in the nose, principally in the Pacific against Japanese shipping, proved to be quite successful. Further testing with even bigger guns resulted several interesting variants which were designed to bring massive amounts of firepower to bear during their strafing runs. The B-25G and B-25H included a number of .50 cal machine guns and a massive 75mm cannon which could tear into just about anything - mainly envisioned for ships, tanks, and fortifications - while the B-25J ditched the cannon to just rely on the firepower of the machine guns. With 8 in the nose, 4 'blisters' on the side, and the top turret facing forward with 2 more, even without a cannon, 14 .50s were nothing to laugh at, being the most 'forward firepower' of any Allied attack plane . The 'gunship' models still carried a conventional bomb-load of several thousand pounds for additional 'umph' (lacking the cannon, the 'J' could of course carry more than the 'G' and 'H'). Some would also see service with the Marines, designated the PBJ-1H.
Similarly, the A-26B was built to mount 6, 8, or even 10 .50 cals in the nose depending on the sub-model, and later modifications, some which only saw action in Vietnam, also allowed 8 rockets or 6 more .30 cals on the wing, or replacement of the .50s with 4 20mm cannons. A purpose built platform for the 75mm (and early drafts actually envisioned it as a bomber killer, not an attack aircraft), the XA-38 Grizzly, was also built mounting a 75mm cannon and 6 .50 cals. The first model rolled out in May, 1944, and performed well, but far too late for the war. The second prototype was built, but the war was already seen as nearing an end, and further, as it shared an engine with the B-29 which had priority, production was never ordered.
With that many guns though, in all cases the emphasis was on only a few overwhelming strafing runs. In the case of the cannon, the obvious slow rate of fire required a fairly stressful low, slow, and steady approach to line up a shot. As for the massive banks of machine guns, well, ammunition ain't light, and even with 400+ rounds per gun, it meant only a few seconds of actual firing. Depending on the mission too, guns might be stripped to allow more bomb load, which further illustrates that these were still, in the end, not quite the gunship you have in mind.
To be sure, all of these configurations were based on the idea that the planes would be performing CAS duties or shipping interdiction, coming in low for strafing runs of the target, not circling far up in the sky keeping fire pinpointed, but they do fit into the broader idea of gunship support. The US Army had toyed with the idea in the interwar years, even running a successful test in 1926 by 1LT Fred Nelson of side-firing machine guns on a DH-4, but nothing ever came out of that during peacetime. During the war, it wasn't really revisited, as there was really just one guy who was beating the drum for this, 1LT G.C. MacDonald, and he was mostly ignored. He submitted a proposal in 1942 for side-firing machine guns, and in 1945, upped the ante with a proposal for bazookas mounted on spotter planes, but was ignored. 'On the ground' modifications did result in a handful of C-47s being fitted with waist-mounted .50 cals to provide support in Burma but this was an entirely off-the limited addition that was not imitated elsewhere, nor even particularly known about.
As a Lt. Col. in 1961, MacDonald would again submit his proposal to a Tactical Air Command panel looking at solutions for defending the 'Strategic Hamlets' in Vietnam, but was ignored again. It was only a chance meeting that MacDonald had later that year with Ralph Flexman, an engineer with Bell doing active reserve duty who had also been pondering a similar idea, that would see the project gain wings, eventually resulting in the AC-47.
**Further Reading**
Development and Employment of Fixed-Wing Gunships 1962-1972 by Jack S. Ballard
American Attack Aircraft since 1926 by E.R. Johnson.
Beech Aircraft and their Predecessors by AJ Pelletier
Gunships: A Pictorial History of Spooky by Larry Davis
B-25 Mitchell Units of the MTO by Steve Pace
A-26 Invader Units of World War II by Jim Roeder
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Combat Air by Bill Gunston
PBJ Mitchell Units of the Pacific War by Jerry Scutts
Edit: Oh! I almost forgot one other thing to mention. Obviously, this is just the US. I'm familiar with several of the CAS aircraft they used in this mold, so that is what I focused on. *But* there is the Soviet Tupolev Tu-2Sh. I can't say much about it as, well, I don't have too much on it, but it is touched on briefly in "Twin-Engined Fighters Attack Aircraft and Bombers" by Yefiim Gordon and Tupolev Aircraft Since 1922 by Bill Gunston, which I'm drawing on here.
Basically, the Soviets made several test versions of this, but never went into production with any of them. One was not unlike the American planes above. A big 75mm gun in the nose for taking down big targets. A similar version, tried post-war, went a bit more varied with two 45mm cannons, two 37mm cannons, and the usual two 20mm cannons on the wings, plus a 12.7mm turret on top. A version with a 57mm cannon mounted from the bomb bay and the two 20mms also was tested. However, these were all, well, the *practical* tests. The original test was quite the monster, with 88 PPSh-41 submachine guns crammed into the fuselage, angled downwards to fire at infantry as it flew above them. Technically it worked but reloading in the air was such a problem that they didn't continue with the project. Even with the big 72-round drum magazine, it was just too short a firing window to be worth bothering, I guess, and they instead went with the more conventional tests above. Still though, it is possibly the closest thing to the Spooky or AC-130 built in World War II. | [
"Coming into service towards the end of the war, most the Type 3s were retained on the home islands as part of the bolstering of Japan's defenses against Allied air raids and against the perceived thread of Allied invasion. These guns were deployed to cover military targets around Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe and the Yawata ... |
When (or how) does a religion become mythology? | Technically speaking, every religion have mythology (a set of myths and stories), but in common use, the word *mythology* is typically used for the myths of religions which have no more active followers. So in short, Norse religion became mythology when the Norse became Christianized.
A living religion consists of much more that the myths and stories - it may have traditions, rituals, festivals, institutions, perhaps some kind of priesthood. But when a religion dies out, the rituals and institutions cease to exist. What remains is the mythology, at least if it was written down and preserved. | [
"Mythology is the main component of Religion. It refers to systems of concepts that are of high importance to a certain community, making statements concerning the supernatural or sacred. Religion is the broader term, besides mythological system, it includes ritual. A given mythology is almost always associated wit... |
what would have happened in china if you got pregnant with a second child? | You would pay a one time fine at the birth of your child (or when it was discovered) and you would pay extra taxes. | [
"In 2017, it was reported that an American woman who had agreed to act as a surrogate for a Chinese couple birthed two babies initially believed to be twins. Before the adoptive parents could return home to China, however, it was discovered that one of the babies was in fact the biological son of the surrogate. Doc... |
Did professional assassins exist in medieval Europe? If so, where would they be trained? How would one become an assassin? | In the sense of the blade-wielding master of espionage who could plow through a dozen guard single-handedly? No. That, unfortunately, is something that only exists in the realm of legends and [entertainment media](_URL_7_).
The word "assassin," as you might already know, entered into many European languages via the Crusades as a bastardization of the Arabic حشاشين (_hashishiyyin_), referring to a sect of Nizari Isma’ilis in present-day northern Iran who orchestrated a series of political assassinations in the 1100s. The name is supposed to be a derogatory term meaning “hashish-consumers,” deriving from the belief that Nizari _fida’is_ (devotees) were worked into a frenzy through the consumption of the drug. However, most scholars recognize that there is no proof of this. The story comes from Marco Polo’s writings, specifically a section entitled “Concerning the Old Man of the Mountain” (Book 1, Chapter 23), where he claimed he heard from some natives that an old man in Mulehet drugged his followers and secluded them in a garden to trick them into believing they could enter Paradise:
> He kept at his Court a number of the youths of the country, from 12 to 20 years of age, such as had a taste for soldiering, and to these he used to tell tales about Paradise, just as Mahommet had been wont to do, and they believed in him just as the Saracens believe in Mahommet. Then he would introduce them into his garden, some four, or six, or ten at a time, having first made them drink a certain potion which cast them into a deep sleep, and then causing them to be lifted and carried in. So when they awoke, they found themselves in the Garden.
There haven’t been any other sources to substantiate this. Historians even disagree on the etymology of the word _hashishiyyin_. [Farhad Daftary](_URL_4_), for example, claims that the word, though used pejoratively, had no true connection to the drug hashish. It was simply a derogatory word used by Nizaris for other Muslims that the Crusaders picked up in the Levant, and the assassin myths sprang up along with a number of rumors regarding secret practices of the Nizari Isma’ilis (10-11). The word picked up the connotation of professional killer around the mid-14th century. Dante, for example, spoke of "_Le perfido assassin_" in the _Inferno_. “Assassin” up to that point was exclusively associated with Muslims, and even after it was often [used in the plural](_URL_13_) by Orientalists.
**So to return to the original question** - whether there were types of trained killers, mythic or otherwise, in the medieval European context - it doesn’t seem likely. The most effective assassins are those who can get close to their targets without arousing suspicion and kill him/her with as little risk to themselves as possible. In other words, you didn’t need to be trained as sword-wielding acrobat with a devil-may-care attitude to be an effective assassin.
Instead of death by cold steel, **the most common method of assassination in medieval Europe by far was poisoning**. Poisons were cheap and relatively easy to obtain, and poisoning is a clever way to conceal assassination as an illness (most poisons wouldn’t cause you to drop dead on the spot - at least not if the perpetrator was doing it right). There were many herbal poisons readily available (e.g. [Nightshade](_URL_5_), [Water Hemlock](_URL_0_), [Laburnum](_URL_9_), or [Black Hellbore](_URL_1_)), but there were also more deadly chemicals such as [arsenic powder](_URL_14_). Deliberate poisoning of food was common enough in Europe that it was often widely believed to be the cause of many royal deaths, whether or not it was true. When King John of England died in 1216 of dysentery, for example, numerous rumors began almost immediately that he had been poisoned by a monk. There were many visual images of this poisoning that circulated for years to come, both in [prints](_URL_6_) and in [illuminated](_URL_11_) [manuscripts](_URL_10_). There were so many rumors about Lucrezia Borgia and her brother Cesare poisoning their enemies that they were said to own [rings with secret compartments](_URL_12_) used to casually slip poison unnoticed into glasses. There isn’t much evidence to link them directly to this, but it shows the extent to which the idea of assassination was linked to poison. And yes, some affluent individuals [did employ food-testers](_URL_8_) as a deterrent against this kind of risk.
Anyone who had extensive knowledge of poisons, then, might be considered a potential assassin (or at least able to aid a potential one). With the printing press, pharmacology manuals detailing poisons became more widely available; Magister Santes de Ardoynis’s _The Book of Venoms_ (1424) was probably the most popular. However, before then most major cities contained apothecary guilds comprising a large number of tradesmen knowledgeable in poisons. Apothecaries, of course, were not simply poison-sellers, but rather served as both pharmacist and general medical practitioner in the Middle Ages. In many ways, [apothecaries were a vital resource](_URL_2_) for medicine in medieval Europe. So this raises a question: why did apothecaries sell poisons at all? Well, in their view they didn’t. It was a long-standing belief in many parts of Europe that certain plant extracts which were poisonous in large doses were beneficial to one’s health in smaller doses. For example, Henbane - the poison Claudius uses to murder the former king in Shakespeare’s [_Hamlet_](_URL_3_) - was sometimes recommended in small doses as a sleeping agent or as a sedative for hysteria. The same items could be used as a form of pest control. Mix Aconite with animal fat and/or honey and you have an effective way to kill a wolf or a fox threatening your livestock.
All of these concoctions, then, had designated uses other than murdering human beings and were sold as medical remedies. But they could be used to commit murder in large doses. The trick was knowing what the right dose was to induce death without making it obvious that the victim had been poisoned.
**EDIT**: fixed a broken link and a typo.
| [
"The assassin first appeared in the \"Blackmoor\" supplement for the original \"Dungeons & Dragons\" game, as a thief sub-class. It had greater weapon options and more hit points than a thief, but fewer followers, and less skill in the thief special abilities. The class also had an ability to create a very convinci... |
why is saying hello to people socially so important ? | It isn't. But it's the most socially neutral equivalent of a greeting. Greetings or acknowledgement at first meets are important. If you don't acknowledge someone you are sending pretty much the opposite signal of a greeting, and depending on the person that can be a can of worms. There are tons other ways to greet someone through body language only (and more fancy ways through words), but what to use depends on your relationship to said person and social context. If you do not know which choice is appropriate saying "Hello" is your best option, and better than doing nothing. And that is why just saying hello is a good suggestion for everyone. | [
"When greeting people in a home, it is considered improper if the guest ignores anyone present. Guests are expected to acknowledge and greet every person at a social occasion, including children and babies.\n",
"BULLET::::- Guests are honoured delightfully and treated with love and respect. So, relatives, colleag... |
What percentage of the worlds land mass is used for the production of food? | 153,335,392,000 Hectares are used for food (arable & permanent crops)
1,300,346,805,000 Is the total land surface
Thats 11.79188439%
Source: [FAOSTAT](_URL_0_) | [
"The FAO concludes that nearly 30 percent of all available agricultural land in the world - 1.4 billion hectares - is used for produced but uneaten food. The global blue water footprint of food waste is 250 km, that is the amount of water that flows annually through the Volga or 3 times Lake Geneva.\n",
"Estimate... |
What are the most concerning potential shortages in natural resources? | > Helium? Lithium? Sand?
None of those are required for our survival. Compare this to the [loss of insect biomass](_URL_0_) or a [shortage of farmland](_URL_0_) due to climate change. Either of those things would mean that humanity will eventually run out of *food*. That means mass starvation and wars for whatever usable land remains. | [
"The overarching thesis on why there is no resource crisis is that as a particular resource becomes more scarce, its price rises. This price rise creates an incentive for people to discover more of the resource, ration and recycle it, and eventually, develop substitutes. The \"ultimate resource\" is not any particu... |
how does the binary options scam work? | After sifting through a few pages, it's just gambling, plain and simple. | [
"Binary options are often considered a form of gambling rather than investment because of their negative cumulative payout (the brokers have an edge over the investor) and because they are advertised as requiring little or no knowledge of the markets. Gordon Pape, writing in \"Forbes\".com in 2010, called binary op... |
Need help with advanced ceramics(?) | Manufacturing methods are pretty broad, depending on material. Many are made in similar, but more carefully controlled, ways to pottery: a slurry that is formed or cast, etc., and then fired, often under even higher temp and possibly under controlled atmosphere.
A more unique route, which is also worth looking into, would be for instance "precursor-derived ceramics" or "polymer-derived ceramics". Basically using small silicone-based molecules (silanes, siloxanes, etc. or polymers of them) that are sintered to produce ceramics.
As far as applications for advanced ceramics, there are many. High temperature refractories, corrosion resistant or heat resistant coatings... Those are for instance important for some types of power plants, including nuclear plants. Also used for aircraft sometimes as coatings for engine parts that see high temp, or famously on the underside of the space shuttle got heat abatement on reentry.
There are also low-friction ceramic parts, for instance in high-end bearings and moving parts like bicycle wheels.
There are also electronic applications of ceramics, such as piezoelectric systems, or ceramic superconductors (no longer as relevant as once was hoped, as they need to be super-cooled to conduct, though).
Optical applications exist as well, with a big focus these days on conductive transparent materials like indium tin oxide.
There's even more, but I hope this gives you a good start, good luck with your work! | [
"\"Glass-ceramics\" are polycrystalline ceramic materials prepared by the controlled crystallization of suitable glasses, normally silicates. Depending on the starting glass composition and the heat-treatment schedule adopted, glass-ceramics can be prepared with tailored thermal expansion characteristics. This make... |
Were there many historically significant battlefields in WWI and WWII? | There was quite a sizeable battle in Verdun in 1792.
A better example might be Metz where there was a big battle in both the Franco Prussian war and the second world war.
Besides that, it wouldn't be too hard to find battlefields in Belgium or northern France whereseveral battles could have taken places. | [
"Much of the battlefield, almost , was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Another area, embracing two sections of the battlefield that had been designated historical archaeological sites, was added to the original designation in 2006. The Civil War Trust (a division of the American Battlefi... |
There are obvious reasons behind human beauty (fertility, child raising) but why do we perceive non-human things (natural vistas, cute animals) as beautiful? | _URL_0_
Despite not being human, "cute" things still display neoteny, which as mammals we have a vested evolutionary interest in, given the importance we place on raising offspring.
One could "layman speculate" that this is exacerbated in humans, which care for their young much longer than other mammals, and human infants are relatively much more helpless and dependent during infancy.
The wikipedia article has research with corroborates all of that.
As someone with a degree in the humanities, I can "non-layman speculate" that a breathtaking vista in the Alps would be much less breathtaking if you were fighting for your survival in the harsh environment of the Alps for any extended period.
The urban alleyway is "trashy" and "run down" because it has elements which you associate with the negative connotations of "trashy" and "run down."
A better way to say this is that a large degree of our aesthetics are culturally conditioned, both in our language, and our ideology. An alleyway is "common" "dirty" and not of value. These are not things we associate with beauty. Thus, the alleyway is not beautiful.
But this is boarder-line linguistics and social psychology now, running into the territory of philosophy (yuck). | [
"In evolutionary aesthetics theory, there is evidence that perceptions of beauty are determined by natural selection and therefore Darwinian; that things, aspects of people and landscapes considered beautiful are typically found in situations likely to give enhanced survival of the perceiving human's genes.\n",
"... |
What was the Jazz scene in 1920s/30s Shanghai like? | Jazz at this time was *the* thing to do for nightlife, and Shanghai was the centre of jazz in China.
Jazz was introduced to the city through the foreign concessions in the 19-teens. The International Settlement and the French Concession both regularly had jazz musicians, often coming from the United States. The interest in jazz spread to the Chinese population shortly after. It survived well into the 1940s there. It stopped primarily as a result of being banned by the Communists around 1949.
Prior to that, big bands and jazz orchestras were quite common at the jazz cabarets throughout the foreign concessions. The reception among members of Chinese society was also generally positive toward the style. Shanghai in the 1920s was a place you went to experience something new, usually directly a result from the mix of cultures to be found there. Modernising and urbanising means adopting the latest trends, and Shanghai at this time was right in line with the trends found in bigger cities in the West.
These were also some of the few places that foreign residents of the concessions and native Chinese could actually co-mingle. They not only offered an outlet for the residents of the city, but were also a profitable front for the various gangs that managed much of the city at the time. One of the larger gangs, the [Green Gang](_URL_1_), even put together the first jazz band made entirely of Chinese musicians in 1934. Called the Breeze Dance Band, also translated as Clear Wind Jazz Band (清风舞乐队), it was originally pushed for by [Dù Yuèshēng 杜月笙](_URL_2_), one of the most prominent mobsters of the period, and led by [Lí Jǐnhuī 黎錦暉](_URL_0_). Lí became a hugely important person in 20th century Chinese music, and was an active proponent of the modern development of Chinese culture.
Additionally as part of the cabarets, gambling and prostitution adapted to the cabarets and it was not uncommon to find "dance hostesses", women who, for a price, would dance and drink with clients for the night. This obviously also resulted in prostitution, but not always.
Even government officials were in on the craze, and Chiang Kai Shek himself had a jazz orchestra playing at his wedding to Soong May-ling.
You can actually find a lot of archival footage of [jazz clubs](_URL_3_) if you dig around a bit.
If you're interested in the topic I highly recommend Andrew Field's work, below.
**References**
* Andrew Field's *Shanghai's Dancing World: Cabaret Culture and Urban Politics, 1919-1954*
* James Farrer & Andrew Field. *Shanghai Nightscapes: A Nocturnal Biography of a Global City*
**See also**
* This [audio interview](_URL_4_) with Andrew Field where he talks about some of the above/
---
Someone asked a similar question some months back. This answer is based largely on my answer from then.
also cc /u/origamitiger, because RemindMe won't work in /r/AskHistorians | [
"Shidaiqu reached peak popularity during 1940s. Famous jazz musicians from both the US and China played to packed dance halls. Chinese women singers grew in celebrity. Additionally, nightclubs such as the Paramount Dance Hall became a meeting point for businessmen from Western countries and China would meet. The we... |
why do rock bands often have a carpet on the stage? | Stages are very hard. The rugs provide a softer surface to stand on. There is usually an additional layer of padding under the rug as well. | [
"Some musicians use non-folding, professional stands for all of their rehearsals and gigs, even though this may require them to take more trips to load their gear into the hall. The reason some musicians choose to use non-folding stands is because they are more stable, even with heavy parts or scores, they are more... |
why can you hear the voices in the apartment above you so easily, but not the voices in the apartment below you? | Because sound travels through the solid medium ( the floor slab). On the floor above, people are directly in contact with the surface; while on the floor below, you're only depending on the noise traveling through air and noise traveling in air is divided into reflected, absorbed and transferred, major percentage of which, is reflected. | [
"BULLET::::- Lack of sound depth: any background noise (in the room, in the car) is flat and wrongly interpreted by the brain. The effect is similar to what happens when trying to hear someone speaking in a noisy crowd on a mono TV. The effect is also similar to talking on the phone to someone who is in a noisy env... |
if companies already know that most(if not all) people don't read terms of service, whats stopping them from hiding a hidden rule on page 500 of 3000 that makes you sign over all your possessions? | It would be considered an unconscionable term and thrown out in any reasonable court. | [
"The FTC has indicated through this case that while this fiction may be adequate to form a contract, it is not adequate to avoid deceptive practices. Unread agreements do not relieve companies of their duty not to deceive consumers by omitting material terms. The ruling suggests that companies have a duty to approp... |
What's the average age of a species? What non-human factors determine when a species ends? | > I remember reading that sharks as we know them today have remained unevolved for millions of years.
No living thing has remained unevolved for millions of years. Evolution is happening constantly, and it never stops happening.
What you really read was probably something like "sharks have looked pretty much the same for 400 million years". This does *not* mean they didn't evolve.
Anything that is alive is under constant selection pressure. Food and reproduction are not guaranteed, therefore it must constantly compete with members of its own species as well as other species for the resources available in its niche. In this competition, there are winners and losers, and only the winners get to pass on their traits to the next generation.
The fact that sharks *look* relatively unchanged simply means that their general body plan is very effective and efficient for their habitats and lifestyles. They retained that body plan not because selection pressure suddenly stopped, but because selection pressure *forced* them to retain that body plan, and any deviations arising from random mutations were culled.
This does not mean that they retained all their features - only some of them. Internally, sharks of today would be very different from those 400 million years ago. They would probably have significantly different biochemistries as well, since evolution also happens at the level of molecules. Just because sharks *as a group* have retained some similarity of form over hundreds of millions of years does not mean that any individual species of shark has lasted that long. In fact, I doubt that sharks are any more special than other large marine organisms in terms of the longevity of any given species.
According to [Wikipedia](_URL_0_), the average timespan of marine vertebrate species is about 4-5 million years. I would expect sharks to fall within that range too.
According to the same chart, mammals average about a million years. Pretty much everything falls within that range, from 1 million for mammals at the short end to 13 million for dinoflagelates at the long end.
To me, the key point would be the *mode* of extinction of the species. Did the species go extinct because it became too specialized for a niche, and then that niche was destroyed (perhaps by climate change, or an asteroid or whatever). Or was it outcompeted by a new species that evolved to occupy the same niche, or invaded its niche? Or perhaps it was neither, perhaps it was just a fast changing environment, and the species kept evolving (changing) to keep up with it, and over the course of a million years, those accumulated changes became so large as to justify calling it a new species?
The point is that there has to be some *reason* why a species goes extinct. Loss of habitat. Competition from another species. Some calamity that kills a lot of members of that species and reduces genetic diversity. Consequent diseases. Or simply small incremental changes over time that add up and it evolves into a different species. There is no clock running that says "pandas have lived long enough, now their time is up". | [
"The age of the species is subject to considerable debate. Some scientists argue that vertebrate species with small populations cannot persist for long, and estimate the age of the species to be 360 years. Recent genetic analyses indicate that this species may have first colonized the hole within the past 1,000 yea... |
why do people like jesse jackson and al sharpton march for white on black crime but not black on black crime? | From the first couple pages of Google results, here's Jesse Jackson and black on black crime in [1984](_URL_2_), [1994](_URL_0_), [2007](_URL_4_), and [2012](_URL_3_)
Here's Al Sharpton---my understanding the more "radical" and less generally respected of the two---in [2008](_URL_1_).
It's a simple fact of life that certain things take on more importance for certain groups and actors then for others. Sharpton and Jackson are primarily civil rights activists and, as such, are more concerned with events that have an element of direct racism, rather than any violence that effects the communities they represent. That doesn't mean they focus on those issues exclusively, naturally, but it shouldn't be a surprise that issues in that vein occupy most of their time. They are not the kings of the black community, nor are they just generally concerned with the community's well being. They are activists for a particular aspect of a particular cause---whether you agree with the cause, how they define it, or how they seek to advance it---and it makes sense that this would lead them to be more focused on issues tied to that cause.
I don't know enough to defend either person, especially Sharpton, but in addition to the more cynical answers already presented here, there's also the above, and the fact that what efforts they do take don't necessarily fit the media narrative, and so don't get reported as widely. | [
"White passed as white as a NAACP investigator, finding both more safety in hostile environments and gaining freer communication with whites in cases of violations of civil and human rights. He sometimes became involved in Klan groups in the South to expose those involved in lynchings and other murders. In the Litt... |
elon musk's/tesla's hyperloop... | Ooh, I understand it quite well :)
[pdf link](_URL_0_)
Multiple special vehicles ride through the tube. This tube, initially stretching from San Francisco to Los Angeles, has low air pressure so that the vehicles don't have to use so much power to go through it.
The vehicles have a big electric motor, a turbine and a battery. They use this to keep themselves at speed, but not to accelerate. To accelerate, [Linear induction motors](_URL_1_) are used. To decelerate, you can either hook up the turbine to a generator, slowing it and charging the battery, or use more Linear induction motors.
The vehicle has its battery pack in the back and a ~450hp electric motor in the front.
The tube will also be equipped with solar panels on its top, which will produce more power than the system needs.
The turbine not only sucks air in at the vehicle's front, but this air is pressed to the vehicle's bottom, giving it an air cushion.
I did not go through many of the Hyperloop's safety considerations. Maybe somebody else will...
TL;DR: Air cushioned vehicles go through a low pressure tube. They Accelerate, and maybe decelerate, using linear motors. | [
"\"Hyperloop\" is an alternative system that Elon Musk has championed. He has criticized the high-speed rail project as too expensive and not technologically advanced enough (trains that are—according to Musk—too slow). On August 12, 2013 he released a high-level alpha design for a Hyperloop transit system concept ... |
why is most of the juice available in the supermarket a mix with cranberry juice? | I also want to know this. I went to the store one day because I wanted juice that didn't taste like cranberry. So naturally I tried to find juice without cranberry in it. The only one I could find was cherry juice mixed with apple juice. Guess what. That mix tasted exactly like cranberry juice. | [
"For Canadian markets, cranberry juice is regulated as a processed product under fruit juices. Cranberry juice must be made from sound, clean, and ripe cranberries. One or more of the following dry sweetening ingredients may be added: sugar, invert sugar, and dextrose. According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agen... |
Where do Newtonian physics stop and Einsteins' physics start? Why are they not unified? | As a rule of thumb there are three relevant limits which tells you that Newtonian physics is no longer applicable.
1. If the ratio v/c (where v is the characteristic speed of your system and c is the speed of light) is no longer close to zero, you need special relativity.
2. If the ratio 2GM/c^(2)R (where M is the mass, G the gravitational constant and R the distance) is no longer close to zero, you need general relativity.
3. If the ratio h/pR (where p is the momentum, h the Planck constant and R the distance) is no longer close to zero, you need quantum mechanics.
Now what constitutes "no longer close to zero" depends on how accurate your measurement tools are. For example in the 19th century is was found that Mercury's precession was not correctly given by Newtonian mechanics. Using the mass of the Sun and distance from Mercury to the Sun gives a ratio of about 10^(-8) as being noticeable.
Edit: It's worth pointing out that from these more advanced theories, Newton's laws do "pop back out" when the appropriate limits are taken where we expect Newtonian physics to work. In that way, you can say that Newton isn't *wrong*, but more so incomplete. | [
"Einstein's theory was motivated by the assumption that every point in the universe can be treated as a 'center', and that correspondingly, physics must act the same in all reference frames. His simple and elegant theory shows that time is relative to an inertial frame. In an inertial frame, Newton's first law hold... |
Why was Scipio Africanus so disliked by his political peers? | Scipio's not exactly the only Roman aristocrat to be prosecuted following great service to the state. Actually, it's kind of common. The Roman aristocracy relied on the individual magistrate or promagistrate to get anything done, but was highly suspicious of the individual standing head-and-shoulders above his peers. The individual of unusual *dignitas* and *auctoritas* through his actions was expected to retire from public duties, or voluntarily accept an advisory role for the next generation. This of course did not happen in practice often, even in Scipio's lifetime. Scipio was the political enemy of Marcus Cato, who constantly opposed him at the end of his life, with his characteristic persistence. Part of this was because the nobility, suspicious as usual, did not look kindly on his enormous prestige. Scipio really did have extraordinary *dignitas* following Zama--there built up around him soon after the "Scipionic Legend," in which Scipio was said to have performed various miraculous deeds and to have been the son of a god (usually Jupiter). For example, Livy says that there was a story that Scipio was conceived when his mother was visited by a giant snake--Livy thinks the story is ridiculous, and points out that it was already being told of Alexander, but certainly that gives an idea of the sort of legend that was built up around Scipio within only a short time. Besides the rather unwelcome influence of the growing Scipionic Legend the senatorial class did in fact have some reason to feel insecure about Scipio. Scipio's later career was relatively unremarkable, but not really for want of trying. He held the censorship in 199 and was *princeps senatus* twice in 194 and 189, both somewhat expected of a consular, though Scipio wasn't exactly an ordinary consular. Scipio was, however, consul for a second time in 194, and lobbied for the right to command the war against Antiochus III, a motion which was knocked down in the senate. Scipio did not fight at Magnesia, but he volunteered against Antiochus as legate under his brother in 190. It's not hard to see why Scipio, the quite literally legendary victor over Hannibal and recent consul for the second time, might be suspected by the senatorial class of really being the one pulling the strings in the war, especially when it was Scipio who arranged the peace with Antiochus. Certainly the senatorial class was uncomfortable with the freedom with which Scipio threw his reputation around, and they were not totally unjustified, as Scipio's behavior was not very in character with the expectations of a member of the senatorial class. Following his return from the war against Antiochus Scipio (and his brother) were both attacked by Marcus Cato in the courts--clearly the conduct of this war, and the suspicions of misconduct during it, were the last straw, so to speak. | [
"The Scipiones were also famous for their interest in the Hellenistic way of life. Scipio Africanus was criticized by many in the Senate for his love of luxury and his Greek style of wearing the toga. Yet it was he and his friends who introduced the idea of formally educating women and children in Greek. They also ... |
Evolutionary, will we be fatter or thinner in the future? | How fat we get is more of a reaction to our environment rather than our evolution. A creature with a lot of food available will (assuming they eat it) get fat, while one that has to expend a lot of energy to get food will be lean.
From an environmental point of view, animals who are out in the wild often have a specific need to being fat or thin to have an advantage to pass on their genes. Seals for example are unlikely to be able to breed if they haven't got enough fat on them (meaning they die of heat loss in their arctic environment). Cheetas on the other hand would be unlikely to catch their prey if they got fat, so that keeps them lean.
Humans don't really have that aspect to their evolutionary chances to pass on their genes. Both fat and lean people are able to grow to an age where they are able to pass on their genes - if anything were to be included it would likely only be aesthetics, but that itself rarely results in children these days (as in casual sex with an attractive partner). | [
"The thrifty gene hypothesis postulates that, due to dietary scarcity during human evolution, people are prone to obesity. Their ability to take advantage of rare periods of abundance by storing energy as fat would be advantageous during times of varying food availability, and individuals with greater adipose reser... |
is the buddha still 'alive'? | There are different buddist schools. In Theravada buddhism, anyone that reaches nibanna is removed from circle of life and is never born again. | [
"A Buddha is a being who is fully awakened, and has fully comprehended the Four Noble Truths. In the Theravada tradition, while there is a list of acknowledged past Buddhas, the historical Buddha Sakyamuni is the only Buddha of our current era and is generally not seen as accessible or as existing in some higher pl... |
what was the fault in brazil's defense ? | their strategy of panicking and running around in a state of confusion, while bold, was ultimately spectacularly unsuccessful | [
"This tight system however involved a \"collapsing\" approach that while packing the Italian penalty area and denying the Brazilian forwards much space, left relatively large gaps in midfield. See \"Standing Off\" defensive discussion above. Brazil's superb skills exploited this weakness, showing especially that an... |
is the world really round\spherical (exactly 360 degrees)? | It's not *exactly* spherical. If it were, there would be no variations in terrain like mountains or valleys.
In fact the Earth is slightly shaped like an oval. But it's mostly spherical. | [
"Spherical coordinates are useful in analyzing systems that have some degree of symmetry about a point, such as volume integrals inside a sphere, the potential energy field surrounding a concentrated mass or charge, or global weather simulation in a planet's atmosphere. A sphere that has the Cartesian equation has ... |
special relativity says the mass of a moving body _url_0_ has the mass of the universe been increasing since the big bang? | I'm assuming you think the mass of the universe is increasing because of expansion. You can't talk about 'the universe' as an object, even taking into account relativity, because the universe is the thing that all the objects are in. The expansion of the universe is talking about the space itself expanding, so it doesn't really make sense to talk about the mass of the universe itself. While objects are moving away from each other due to expansion, it's because it's like the space itself is moving, not the objects.
(My first ELI5 answer, constructive criticism is welcome) | [
"Although some authors present relativistic mass as a \"fundamental\" concept of the theory, it has been argued that this is wrong as the fundamentals of the theory relate to space–time. There is disagreement over whether the concept is pedagogically useful. The notion of mass as a property of an object from Newton... |
What is the farthest direct parallax measurement of an object? | GAIA hasn't released parallax measures of distant stars yet, that's going to take some more time. While optical parallax has been limited to the nearest 100 pc or so, parallax from radio measures can go significantly further by using interferometry, where multiple radio telescopes across the globe are linked up to act as a single giant telescope, the Very Long Baseline Interferometer and the Event Horizon Telescope being the main examples (These use many of the same physical dishes).
On top of the positional accuracy from a telescope the size of the Earth, the position of a radio source is also uncertain by an amount inversely proportional to the signal to noise. I.e. the brighter the source is, the better you know the position. I know [microquasars such as V404 Cyg and GRS 1915+105 in our own galaxy have had their distances measured by trigonometric parallax to a distance of at least 8600 pc](_URL_0_) (almost 100x better than optical!), but I don't know what the actual "world record" is. Anything in our galaxy of sufficient radio brightness could have its distance measured by parallax, but past 10 kpc, the density of stars starts to dive precipitously.
So some objects as far as GAIA can go have already had their distances measured. GAIA scores not in going further, but doing it reliably for a great many ordinary stars. | [
"Parallax () is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight, and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby objects show a larger parallax than farther objects when observed from differ... |
do animals (especially those who mate for life) feel love like we do? | What happens when we die? Nobody can actually perceive the reality of a dead person just like nobody can perceive the reality of a swan. This question will only bring opinionated answers not factual ones. | [
"Humans are not the only species in the world that can feel love and its effects. Non-human animals can feel love as well, although it is less complex and less creative. Many animals feel emotions. When a dog wags its tail or licks its owner after being parted for a few hours, this is interpreted as happiness. When... |
the height of the average american male has risen roughly 3 inches in the past 200 years. is this an example of evolution, coincidence, or something else? | It is probably due to better nutrition. People are more likely to reach their genetic potential. | [
"Historians have used height to measure living standards during this time as average adult heights can point to a population's net nutrition - the amount of nutrition people grew up with as compared to biological stress which can cause lower heights in adulthood, stemming from things like food deprivation, hard wor... |
What was the impact of the First World War on eastern Europe | World War I had some pretty big consequences for Eastern Europe in all sectors of life, including the economy, culture, and politics. I'll focus on the most obvious consequence: the redrawing of borders in Eastern Europe. The dissolution of the of the Austro-Hungarian, German, and Russian Empires allowed the Allies to pursue a policy of self-determination for national minorities as laid out in [Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points](_URL_1_).
Here is a [map of Europe in 1914](_URL_3_).
And here is [Europe five years later](_URL_6_), after the war was concluded.
The three main treaties we're going to be looking at here are [Versailles](_URL_0_), [Saint-Germain-en-Laye](_URL_2_), and [Trianon](_URL_5_), which redrew the borders of [Germany](_URL_4_), [Austria, and Hungary](_URL_7_), respectively.
In the new map, we can see the emergence of several new nations, including: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and the Free City of Danzig. Additionally, we see a greatly enlarged Romania and a slightly smaller Bulgaria, whose path to the Aegean now firmly in the hands of Greece. This map is, however, a little bit misleading as it implies that the USSR at this time is firmly established, when in reality it was in the midst of the Russian Civil War (which is its own big can of worms). I'll try to give those countries a quick mention too. I think the easiest way to go about this is to examine each country really quickly, looking at where its territory came from and because of what treaties. Obviously people can go into more detail about specific countries; this is just a brief(ish) overview.
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania: Formed from territory of Russia and Germany
Russia formally pulled out of World War I under Bolshevik leadership with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in early 1918. Originally the Germans had planned to establish puppet governments under the control of Baltic Germans (who owned most of the land), but obviously Versailles halted those plans. With the retreat of most German forces from the region, the Bolsheviks moved in in an attempted to reassert their claim to the lands that they had so recently surrendered, and thus the Baltic states became a part of the Russian Civil War. In general, the nationalists of these countries sided with the Whites (anti-communist forces), through not without some issues. Eventually, the Bolsheviks came to realize that holding on to the region was simply too difficult, thanks in large part to Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian troops using supplies from the Western Allies.
Poland: Formed from territory of Germany, Russia, Austria, Hungary
Poland emerged from the war with territory from all the major empires. Like its counterparts in the Balkans, it too was drawn into the Russian Civil War, during which Poland allied with the Whites. After initial success in Ukraine, the Poles were eventually beaten back by the Soviets, all the way to Warsaw. Fortunately for Poland, the Red Army was decisively defeated at Warsaw in August of 1920. The Polish government also got into a squabble with Lithuania over Vilnius, which it held throughout the inter-war period. The question would not be settled until 1939 when the Soviets returned Vilnius to Lithuania after they invaded Poland. Germany's borders with Poland were set in Article 27 of Versailles. It should be noted that the creation of the “Polish Corridor” between Germany and East Prussia was one of the main problems the Nazis had with the treaty.
Czechoslovakia: Formed from territory of Austria, Hungary, and a little bit of Germany
The Czechs and Slovaks are two distinct ethnic groups, but after the Pittsburgh Agreement (yay, hometown!) leaders from both communities agreed on the formation of an independent Czechoslovakia from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Unlike the previous countries, Czechoslovakia was not involved in the Russian Civil War and its independence did not involve significant conflict beyond the First World War itself. Czechoslovakia was officially recognized with Saint-Germain.
Romania: Romania's loyalty to the Allies earned them a sizable chunk from Hungary, as a result of Trianon. This eventually led to problems due to ethnic Hungarians being stuck in Romania. Hungary swiped some of their old territory back during WW2, but that was eventually returned, and it remains that way today.
Yugoslavia: I'm unfortunately not all that well-versed in what went on in Yugoslavia at the time. I can tell you that it was the culmination of the efforts of the Pan-Slavic movement, and that it included former territories of Austria-Hungary and Serbia, but that's about it. It was a monarchy, with a Serbian king.
I just want to point out, that for all the crap Versailles gets for being harsh on the Germans, everyone seems to forget that Austria and Hungary were *gutted* by their treaties. Following WW1, both Austria and Hungary ceased to be major powers, and the industrial heartland of the empire, Bohemia, was now part of Czechoslovakia.
I'm sorry if I've forgotten anything, but I think I got most of the points.
Davies, Norman. *Europe: A History*. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Dziewanowski, M. K.. *Russia in the Twentieth Century*. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2003.
| [
"A major result of the First World War was the breakup of the Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires, as well as partial losses to the German Empire. A surge of ethnic nationalism created a series of new states in Eastern Europe, validated by the Versailles Treaty of 1919. Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia... |
how are we able to animate so much more realistically now than ten, fifteen, etc. years ago? | It's due to a combination of better software and better hardware.
As animation became more popular, newer and better methods were developed. For example, the way animators now move a person is through a inverse or forward kinematics rig. This basically lets the animator assign "bones" to different parts of a model, and have them all connected. So if the animator wants to move a hand, they just drag the hand, and the computer will automatically fill in all of the in between frames and automatically move the elbow and the shoulder and the arm to make it more realistic. Years ago before this was developed, an animator would have to move every joint individually, one frame at a time. Or earlier in 2d animation, draw every frame by hand.
Also, as computing technology developed, faster processors and graphics cards in computers allowed for more advancements in animation software. Trying to run modern animation software on an eight year old computer probably wouldn't work. | [
"Though animations can be created easily using Custom Animations provided in Microsoft PowerPoint, it may be much more tedious to complete a project in PowerPoint than in professional animation programs such as Adobe Flash due to the absence of key frames and tweening in the former.\n",
"The popularity of using a... |
What tactics did medieval European armies use when fighting horse archers? Did European armies ever employ horse archers? | The Byzantines used Horse Archers as well as Cataphracts. They adapted their armies to be very Calvary based due to their fighting with the Sassanids.
That said horses were very expensive to buy and maintain and horse archers were not all that effective in the heavily wooded German regions. Horse archers need a lot of room to maneuver to be effective, so they were usually beaten when their amazing mobility could be restricted.
Tactics to reduce the mobility of horses and horse archers at least in the early medieval period would have been trenches dug that would be covered by the dust created by an army. | [
"The Roman Empire and its military also had an extensive use of horse archers after their conflict with eastern armies that relied heavily on mounted archery in the 1st century BC. They had regiments such as the Equites Sagittarii, who acted as Rome's horse archers in combat. The Crusaders used conscripted cavalry ... |
Does raising acetylcholine increase or decrease dopamine? | Where? Acetylcholine is not generally just freely diffusing throughout the CSF, as there is a relatively large amount of chemicals that break it down diffuse in the CSF. Also it's not like you could just eat acetylcholine and get more at your synapses or something. | [
"Citicoline lowers increased glutamate concentrations and raises decreased ATP concentrations induced by ischemia. Citicoline also increases glutamate uptake by increasing expression of EAAT2, a glutamate transporter, in vitro in rat astrocytes. It is suggested that the neuroprotective effects of citicoline after a... |
Why does an aluminum pot turn dark grey if left on the stove for too long? | Oxidation, Al2O3 is grey. | [
"Capping can hide problems rather than fix them. Aluminum and vinyl are impermeable materials so the natural transfer of moisture through the wood trim will be trapped when it reaches the capping material. The quality of paint on some aluminum coil stock begins to chalk or fade in about five years so the claim of b... |
When did women first start outnumbering men as teachers? | Not OP, but to qualify the question:
At least in the United States, teachers at early "public" schools seem to have been mostly male. At the very least, this is how 19th century writers like Hawthorne depicted their 18th-century ancestors. By the mid-19th century the "schoolmarm" stereotype appears in contemporary fiction by authors like Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Yet my the late 20th century, there had developed a persistant sterotype that teaching, especially in primary schools, was a "feminine" profession.
How and why did this gendered understanding of teaching come to be in American cultural life? | [
"Men predominated as teachers until the early 19th century, but by the mid-19th century most teachers were women. Women could be teachers only if they were unmarried; as soon as they married, another teacher was hired. Women were paid half the salaries as men.\n",
"Women teachers in the National Union of Teachers... |
why is toronto the only canadian city with sports teams in the mlb and nba? | Other teams have been successful in Canada, but not in the long run. There's more money in the States. Montreal Expos in MLB and Vancouver Grizzlies in the NBA come to mind. Both teams were relocated to the States. | [
"Toronto, Ontario, is home to several professional, semi-professional, and university sports teams. It is notable among Canadian cities in sports for having several professional and semi-professional teams associated with United States leagues.\n",
"The city has a broad range of professional sport franchises, wit... |
what do boy/girl scout actually do? | Eagle Scout here.
At the first few levels, the Scout learns the basics of surviving in the woods, making fire, and getting skills in self-discipline and motivation. At First class, the Scout begins learning about leadership skills and what it takes to run a group of peers and get them to do things together.
Star is the step beyond first class, here, the Scout has shown his ability to lead a group for at least 6 months and has been in charge of some part of the troop. A good troop will be led entirely by Scouts 1st class and above with minimal input from adults whenever it's safe/legal to do so.
Life comes after Star. If a Star scout is a great scout, a Life Scout is a Scout for life. He know leadership and can lead others when necessary. He embodies the ways of scouting and cheerfully serves his troop, his nation, and his communities. He is also halfway to being an Eagle Scout.
The Eagle Scout is a Scout who has taken the lessons from the other (not lower, other) ranks of scouting and pulled them together. He embodies all that Scouting is intended to build in young men. He is one of the less than 5% who make the cut and excel in the program. His stature is not given by the troop like all other ranks, it is awarded at the Council level which is the largest scouting body within each state typically. He has completed over a dozen required merit badges and perhaps twice as many elective ones. For all intents and purposes, he has received a college degree in Scouting and leadership.
Merit badges are similar to courses or modules. Each one has a set of requirements for the Scout to show he has attempted and completed to the best of his ability (the merit of his work, not the quality earns the badge). There are numerous badges in a variety of disciplines that Scouts can attempt. Film, fishing, Hiking, camping, Art, Nuclear SCience, etc. Each one is different, but each lets the scout explore his interests.
There is also the Order of the Arrow (WWW, my brothers) which is an honor society for Scouts. It is fairly unique in that it is the only honor organization where non-members vote in members. Each Scout in the troop 1st class and above is eligible if he meets the requirements and is elected by the troop. The Order of the Arrow is a different topic though and not as widely known as the BSA, so I'll not digress further.
The camping aspect is generally only a portion of the time in the scouts. Perhaps 2-3 times a season a troop will go on a large trip. Patrols will typically go on a single night adventure once a month, and the entire troop will often go to camp for a week or more. The most lauded trip though is to Philmont Scout Ranch (Never got to go, want a son or Ventures daughter who will go with me).
Typically, a scout troop meets once a week in their chartered organization. The troop will have a program that varies widely but typically involves some sort of news/updates/reminders, perhaps a lesson for the SCouts working on a merit badge will occur, and their will be a game for the Scouts who aren't taking a badge or working on requirements. Typically though, everyone does something during the meeting. Early ranks are taught by later ranks (Life scouts teach tenderfoots how to tie a square-hitch, etc.) and the later ranks concentrate on getting stuff done with the adults or Eagles who are merit badge counselors.
All-in-all, it's a pretty hefty, fun program where the SCouts don't realize the life skills they are learning until they've left.
Tl;Dr: Learn life skills and self-improvement while trying not to burn down the woods or get ated by bears. | [
"Scouting's main purpose is to develop young members into independent and responsible adults. This is achieved using a training program with many outdoor recreation and practical activities, teamwork in small groups (patrol system), and by actively using the \"learning by doing\" method.\n",
"The role of the Scou... |
were anatomically modern humans from 200,000 years ago exactly the same as us, except without language and culture? | They were close enough that we could bump junk with them and produce viable offspring.
There would be some differences (200,000 years is enough for SOME drift) but they would be pretty similar to us. They would be on the short side, and have a lot of injuries and scars that we don't have... but fundamentally they are us. | [
"The discovery of some of the earliest evidence for the presence of anatomically modern humans found anywhere in Europe was reported in 2007 from the deepest levels of the Kostenki archaeological site near the Don River in Russia, which has been dated to at least 40,000 years ago. Arctic Russia was reached by 40,00... |
What were the long term effects of D-Day? | If you mean going beyond the war itself you end up with decades of US soldiers being stationed in mainland Europe. Without Operation Overlord (DDay actually means the day on which a campaign starts and was not the name for the invasion of Europe) it's possible that the Soviets would have overrun a lot more of Europe than they did.
So Overlord meant that the Cold War was more stable due to both spheres of influence having control over segments of Europe where neither appeared to have one up on the other to any large degree enough to make war worth it. | [
"Allied forces rehearsed their D-Day roles for months before the invasion. On 28 April 1944, in south Devon on the English coast, 749 U.S. soldiers and sailors were killed when German torpedo boats surprised one of these landing exercises, Exercise Tiger.\n",
"After D-Day deployed to Advanced Landing Grounds in F... |
why can’t the panama canal just dig a deep canal and remove the locks? | Oceans are in constant motion. This means that they surge up and down.
Because the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean aren't connected anywhere *but* the Panama Canal, you're channeling the entire difference in wave height at any given time through the canal.
Without the locks, that means you'd mostly get a fast running channel from the Pacific to the Atlantic... that reversed from time to time to run the other way. Navigating that channel would be an enormous effort.
Instead, they install locks to prevent the water from flowing unchecked from one end to the other. | [
"The Panama Canal locks () are a lock system that lifts a ship up to the main elevation of the Panama Canal and down again. The original canal had a total of six steps (three up, three down) for a ship's passage. The total length of the lock structures, including the approach walls, is over . The locks were one of ... |
as diseases like polio are eradicated why do we still need to vaccinate against them. | The main reason is that the diseases we vaccinate against have not been eradicated. For example, while the incidence of polio has reduced by 99% since we began vaccination programs, there are still about 50 confirmed cases per year. While extremely unlikely, there is still a small chance that someone can be infected. If I remember correctly, smallpox is the only disease that has been 100% successfully eradicated through vaccination, with no reported cases since 1980. Which is why kids are often no longer vaccinated against smallpox. | [
"Choosing not to vaccinate is largely to blame for the recent outbreak of measles. Parents choosing not to vaccinate prevents herd immunity, which is what patients who suffer with immunocompromising diseases rely on to protect them. To prevent the measles outbreak of 2019 from getting worse it is necessary for anti... |
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