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What is the history of the American lawyer's bar exam? | Not a historian, but as a law student I feel qualified to give some insight into the reasoning behind the exam.
First, passing the Bar shows you're familiar with your state's laws. As many know, states law vary quite widely depending on where you're at, so having an exam to prove you know the state's law where you want to practice is helpful. If I pass the NY state Bar, that shows nothing about what I know about California law. So seeing that I'm a member of a state's bar lets clients and judges know that I'm competent to give counsel and not overlook a unique aspect of that state's law.
Second, there *is* an ethics part of passing the Bar. It's not the Bar exam itself, but it's a separate ethics test. It's important to note that legal ethics and moral ethics are totally different. Legal ethics are an artificial construct created to ensure lawyers and judges act in ways that aren't perverse to the goals of a legal system. This is quite different from moral ethics which teach you to act in ways that aren't perverse to the goals of society. Do these two ethics intersect? Yes, at times. But it's important to recognize that they have distinctly different goals.
A lawyer's job is to provide the best counsel as possible, and to represent their clients interests. Lawyers are fiduciaries of their clients. So legal ethics put constraints on how lawyers can act that conflict with those interests. So if an accused murderer tells his lawyer that he did it, legal ethics say the lawyer cannot divulge that because it's not his job to decide if the law says his client is guilty. That's for a jury to determine. So allowing lawyers to circumvent that process goes against the core of our judicial system - it's the people of the community that were harmed by the suspect that get to decide guilt.
So when confronted with that situation, an ethical lawyer might say "Well you don't know if, according to the law, you're guilty of what you say you are guilty of, so let's put that aside." This way the lawyer not only protects the inherent decentralization of power within the judicial system, but also conforms to his fiduciary duties to his clients.
However, if the client said "I did it, and I plan on doing it again" *then* the lawyer would have an ethical duty to report the intent of his client to commit future crimes (but not the client's confession!). Here, the fiduciary duties take a backseat to the prevention of future harm simply due to social policy. Nothing can be done to prevent the crime that's already occurred, but things can be done to prevent that crime from being committed again by the same individual.
Some might see this as flawed, but it's extremely important to recognize that the judicial system is a careful balance of powers. If one side has weak representation, and the other side has very strong representation, then the adversarial scheme becomes totally one sided and injustice results. This is why we have laws compelling discovery - it's not fair to allow one side to have a surprise witness that the other side can't prepare for and defend against. It's harder to get to the truth when access to information is unequal, so legal ethics are constructed to maintain the balance.
Ultimately, someone could be a total scumbag in their personal life, but still be a fantastic advocate for their client. Legal ethics don't seek to remove these types of people from the pool of attorneys because one's personal moral compass doesn't necessarily mean they're a bad lawyer. It seems counterintuitive, but a hypothetical I always remind myself of is a cigarette company that sponsors a medical study on the health effects of cigarettes. Just because the study was funded by a cig company doesn't mean that the science behind the study is invalid. The same logic applies for "unethical" lawyers. And the opposite is true too. Just because someone is a pastor/priest doesn't mean they're necessarily a good person, even though everyone in the congregation may see them as such.
And finally, it's important to have a standardized system of lawyers. The ABA lets people know who is qualified to practice in the field, while also having a governing body that can set formal, binding regulations on how those in the field practice. Law is a licensed profession, just like doctors or taxi cab drivers. Would you like to see a doctor that hasn't passed his Boards? Or a cab driver who doesn't have a driver's license? Same goes for lawyers. So necessarily, there needs to be a centralized system of governance over the licensing requirements. Sure, in Lincoln's day, nobody passed a Bar and there were competent lawyers. But no one had to get a license to be a doctor back then either, and it's hard to argue that a formalized licensing system didn't help legitimize the medical field.
Hopefully that helps gives you some understanding of the reasons behind why the legal community views the ABA and Bar Exam as important, even though I can't give much insight into the historical creation of the system.
Edit: Fixed some words.
Edit 2: See the post by /u/EvilNalu below for some good clarifications. | [
"The first bar exam in what is now the United States was instituted by Delaware Colony in 1763, as an oral examination before a judge. The other American colonies soon followed suit. By the late 19th century, the examinations were administered by committees of attorneys, and they eventually changed from an oral exa... |
what happens in our brains that makes us "like" or prefer one thing over another? | I'm not a professional, but I have heard that whenever you like something, your body makes the hormones dopamine, seratonin, oxitocin, and endorphins. You don't necessarily crave food you like for the taste, for example, just the sensation that comes from it. You like what sends more "good" hormones, if you will, (that tend to be at fault for bad habits) throughout the body whether that's a song, food, sport, ect. I am not sure what the opposite of those are, but I imagine it works similarly. | [
"In addition, the sensation pleasure of \"liking\" can occur when opioids are released by nucleus accumbens. This helps someone evaluate the unfamiliar situation or environment and attach value to the novel object. These processes of both wanting and liking play a role in activating the reward system of the brain, ... |
hypnagogia | That's a popular question here. I hope you find these previous posts helpful.
- [Eli5 Sleep Paralysis and Why It Happens...?](_URL_0_)
- [Eli5 Sleep Paralysis...?](_URL_4_)
- [Eli5 Sleep Paralysis...?](_URL_3_)
- [Eli5 How Does Sleep Paralysis Work and Why Does...?](_URL_1_)
- [Eli5 Sleep Paralysis...?](_URL_2_)
- [Eli5 Sleep Paralysis...?](_URL_5_)
- [Eli5 Hypnagogia and What Causes It...?](_URL_6_)
| [
"Other terms for hypnagogia, in one or both senses, that have been proposed include \"presomnal\" or \"anthypnic sensations\", \"visions of half-sleep\", \"oneirogogic images\" and \"phantasmata\", \"the borderland of sleep\", \"praedormitium\", \"borderland state\", \"half-dream state\", \"pre-dream condition\", \... |
Why are there no true-color pictures of tiny things that are much (!) greater than visible light wavelengths? | Bacteria, microbes, single cells, and the like don't interact much with light. There just isn't much color to see oftentimes. We have to use other tricks to generate contrast that don't rely on scattering or absorption of light. But then it is possible to get pics of eukaryotic organisms.
But there *are* examples of microorganisms that are colored. We can see those just fine. Anything with chloroplasts is a good example of this. | [
"It is not possible to represent an image in true-color because there is no blue band (0.4 - 0.5 µm). However, it is possible to combine red, green and near IR in such way that the appearance of the displayed image resembles a visible colour photograph, i.e. vegetation in green, water in blue, soil in brown. This i... |
why does having something on your head (hat, headband, etc) worsen a headache? | To put it simply, headaches are generally skin deep. Pressure on nerves or blood vessels can make it feel worse. Common headache medicines work by reducing inflammation, which reduces that pressure in the inflamed tissue.
_URL_0_
> The brain itself is not sensitive to pain, because it lacks pain receptors. However, several areas of the head and neck do have pain receptors and can thus sense pain. These include the extracranial arteries, middle meningeal artery, large veins, venous sinuses, cranial and spinal nerves, head and neck muscles, the meninges, falx cerebri, parts of the brainstem, eyes, ears, teeth and lining of the mouth. Pial arteries, rather than pial veins are responsible for pain production.
> Headaches often result from traction to or irritation of the meninges and blood vessels. The nociceptors may be stimulated by head trauma or tumors and cause headaches. Blood vessel spasms, dilated blood vessels, inflammation or infection of meninges and muscular tension can also stimulate nociceptors and cause pain. Once stimulated, a nociceptor sends a message up the length of the nerve fiber to the nerve cells in the brain, signaling that a part of the body hurts. | [
"Headaches may be caused by problems elsewhere in the head or neck. Some of these are not harmful, such as cervicogenic headache (pain arising from the neck muscles). Medication overuse headache may occur in those using excessive painkillers for headaches, paradoxically causing worsening headaches.\n",
"External ... |
What were investigative procedures like for crimes committed in colonial America? If I were to have committed murder, how likely was I to get away with it provided I took even the most basic of precautions? | I can't say much about specifically colonial America, but I have done some reading in the Ratcliff Highway murders, which were somewhat contemporary, and give some insight into the methodology behind early criminal investigations.
The Ratcliff Highway murders involved two home invasions just outside London in december of 1811. Seven people were killed, and authorities eventually arrested a man named John Williams for the crime, who killed himself before he could be hanged.
The investigation into the murders relied on eyewitness testimony, wound analysis, and physical evidence.
Eyewitness testimony was used to create a basic timeline of events, such as when a boarder living with the Marrs came home to find the Marr family dead, accounts from various night watchmen, and other men who stayed at the boarding house that Williams stayed in. Among the evidence was the claim that Williams had come home late on the night of the second murder and would not let his roommate light a candle and that he was damp smelled of blood, and that the laundress of the boarding house had washed a shirt stained (lightly) with blood.
After the murder of the Marr family, investigators of the River Thames police force examined the scene and determined that a maul, or heavy hammer, had been used to batter the victims to death and the infant son's throat had been slashed open . The second set of murders, at the Williamson home, a crowbar and a sharp knife or razor had been used.
The maul they found at the first scene was chipped on one end and marked with the initials "JP," who was eventually identified as a John Peterson, a sailor who stayed at the same boarding house as John Williams, the Pear Tree. his trunk was in the house, and it was missing the maul. Police connected the two. The owner of the Pear tree even claimed that he had once borrowed the maul and was the one that had chipped it, positively connecting the murder weapon with John Peterson's trunk. Williams, already a suspect due to earlier witness testimony, also had access to the trunk and a bevy of other circumstantial evidence against him, was arrested but never brought to trial, as he killed himself.
You can see a lot of similarities in how this case was investigated and how modern police investigate crimes. Obviously in 1811 things like fingerprint comparison, DNA testing, and other more rigorously scientific processes were impossible, but there was the ability to basically account for ironclad facts. Connecting the maul as the murder weapon and tracking down its owner and tying all the physical evidence to witness testimony helped to make a pretty fair case against Williams.
The case was more or less strong, but largely circumstantial and modern analysis has attempted to debunk him as the perpetrator. That said, the investigation itself is pretty insightful into how pre-20th century criminal investigation was carried out.
Most of this info comes from PD James' *The Maul and the Pear Tree.* If you're interested in the case I would strongly urge you to track it down and read it - it was easily obtainable in my local library. Sorry I couldn't be more specific about Colonial America, but I hope this helped. | [
"The legal process of trials in colonial America was quite different from the modern one in many ways. After an alleged crime was reported, a magistrate, or judge, would consider the presented evidence and decide whether it was a true crime. If the magistrate decided that a crime was indeed committed the accused wa... |
Why is redwood naturally rot resistant? | Compounds known as "extractives" cause the wood to be resistant to pests and pathogens. Some of these compounds may be extracted with water; others are soluble in acetone, ethanol, or benzene, and (I suppose) others may be classified based on their ability to be extracted by other solvents as well.
[Google Scholar link to papers on extractives in sequoias.](_URL_1_)
Most seem to be [tannins.](_URL_0_)
As to "Why redwoods?" vs. any other trees- probably because some combination of genes and luck resulted in a fortuitous combination of type, quantity, and location (within the tree, within the cell) of compounds that results in a particularly good ability to fend off pests and pathogens- one that also continues well after the tree is felled. Perhaps at some point the species was challenged by a bug or a pathogen which naturally selected the trees that had the most potent suite of compounds. | [
"The fungus does not cause serious damage to junipers, but apple and pear trees can suffer serious loss of fruit production due to the effects of the fungus. Due to the economic impacts of the rusts in some areas where orchards are of commercial importance, some regions have attempted to ban the planting of and/or ... |
Is it possible to convert the co2 in mars (or similar planets) atmosphere into o2? | Yes, and in fact on the next Mars rover, [there will be an instrument that will convert CO2 into O2 in a technology demonstration in preparation for human exploration](_URL_0_).
The problem with plants on Mars would be the soil moreso than the atmosphere. The Phoenix mission I worked on did some experiments with the regolith to determine composition, pH, etc. and at first they thought it would be suitable for planting things, but the discovery of perchlorates has complicated that. | [
"Argox, or half-Argox/half-Nitrox is a possible Oxygen mixture for Human exploration of Mars due to the relative abundance of Argon in the Martian atmosphere. The Martian atmosphere is composed of approximately: 95% CO2, 1.9% Argon, 1.9% Nitrogen. While it is possible for humans to breathe pure oxygen, a pure oxyge... |
why is science so political? and why does it make you seem left leaning to other people when you don’t deny scientific discoveries? |
I [answered a similar question](_URL_2_) to this on ELI5 around two years ago (and got gilded for the answer!). The previous question was more specific to climate change, but it applies to the politicization of science in general as well. Here's what I wrote then:
> > Generally speaking, why are conservatives so opposed to the concept of climate change?
>
> A combination of corporate influence on public policy and a growing anti-science sentiment among American conservatives that is fueled (perhaps simultaneously intentionally and unintentionally) by religion, media, and access to the Internet. How we wound up with this mess took decades to coalesce.
>
> The corporate influence is the easiest to explain. Many large industries, including the energy industry, have traditionally viewed environmental regulation negatively, as additional regulation can create additional expense for industries, particularly in the short-term. This has put most large industries on the side of the Republican party which has traditionally been a proponent of smaller government and, thus, less regulation. So corporations that view additional regulation negatively throw their financial support behind Republican candidates that will vote against environmental regulation (and other types of regulation as well).
>
> The Republicans typically spin this as "More regulation = higher expenses for companies = less jobs," while ignoring that throughout history the shift to newer and better technologies leads to economic growth and better-paying, higher skilled jobs. I.e., yes, we may have fewer horse groomer and wheelwright jobs now than we had before we made the switch from horse & buggy to automobiles, but those losses were more than made up for by the millions of jobs in manufacturing that came with the switch. Likewise, we will lose, for example, coal miner jobs as we move away from carbon fuels, but we'll wind up with millions of new jobs in newer, greener industries.
>
> However, that's not much consolation to the coal mining communities of West Virginia and their elected representatives and the coal companies that support and lobby them, though. So those representatives vote against progress.
>
> That part is fairly simple and straightforward and has played itself out over and over in the history of American politics. Eventually, progress wins (mostly). Where it gets trickier is when religion and media get mixed into it.
>
> Science has always had it's religious detractors (just ask Galileo), but until the mid-20th century there wasn't a lot of *direct* conflict between religion and science in the American political theater (mostly because religion held sway). However, science really picked up steam in the 20th century and started having amazing positive impacts on people's daily lives, increasing its acceptance in society and, subsequently, knocking religious/scriptural explanations of how the world works back on its heels.
>
> This gave rise to a fundamentalist evangelical Christian movement in the US that has a strong anti-science bent, as much science contradicts scripture. It particularly took off in the late 70's and the 80's, but you can see elements of it back to the 50's and earlier. Organizations like The Moral Majority strengthened religious opposition on scientific and science-related issues like abortion, stem cell research, evolution, etc. to the point of things like preventing evolution from being taught in some school districts (or requiring that creationism be taught along with it). Since fundamentalist, evangelical Christians disproportionately identify as Republicans these issues became core components of the Republican platform.
>
> Concurrently with this, there was a growing backlash among conservatives against universities, as colleges and universities, particularly in the 1960's, were seen (not incorrectly) as having been a hotbed of liberalism that generated significant support for the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the opposition to the Vietnam war, and other liberal / Democratic issues. And where does science come from? Universities. So science gets branded with the scarlet letter of Liberalism by association. That adds to conservative distrust.
>
> And it's in the 70's and 80's where -- at least in my opinion -- stuff starts to really get murky. You have the corporate funders of Republican candidates pushing back against environmental regulations that limit their short-term profits. You have Christian fundamentalists pushing back against particular fields of science that contradict scripture. You have mainstream Republicans pushing back against liberalism in universities, and eventually, in primary and secondary school, which influences the Christian fundamentalists and spawns the home-schooling movement and the school vouchers movement (to use public money to send kids to private religious schools).
>
> **This all comes together in a weird mix of growing skepticism on the right about both science and education.** I think the corporate funders *picked up on this* and started backing candidates that expressed those skeptical, anti-science views because that landed them more Republican voters, hopefully more successful Republican candidates winning seats to get them (the corporations) more representation in government ... which then supports their anti-regulation desires.
>
> **So somewhere in that late-20th century political realm, religious skepticism about science got in bed with corporate anti-environmental-regulation interests and that anti-regulation, anti-science combo made a powerful mix for getting Republican candidates elected.**
>
> Then, in the next decade, the nineties, you introduce the expanded role of media -- particularly 24/7 cable news -- and the Internet into the mix. What this does is create echo chambers, so that the population that is voting for these anti-regulation, anti-science candidates can now get all of their information exclusively from sources (e.g. Fox News Channel and conservative websites) that support and reinforce the same anti-regulation, anti-science, pro-religion positions that they hold.
>
> That's how we wind up with a whole political party that not only regularly ignores science and logic, but goes through all sorts of mental gymnastics to come up with alternative explanations that, though having no basis in fact, can be piped through the echo chamber to strengthen their hold on their political base.
>
> If you [look at the data](_URL_1_), from the early 70's onward, except for a small bounce in the 80's under Reagan but *particularly* from the 1992 election onward, there has been a pretty continuous decline of trust in science among people who identify as conservative. (Source of that chart is [this article](_URL_0_).)
>
> I used to think that Republican candidates were just in the pocket of Big Business, and took anti-science stances to keep their corporate campaign donations rolling in. But increasingly I think the Republican candidates that are getting elected now came up and were educated in the political environment of the last 40 years that I described above and _**actually** don't believe in science_ at all ... or believe it's a liberal conspiracy ... or at the least are selective in what science they are willing to believe. That's *really* chilling.
>
> This is a troubling position for our country to be in. The one ray of hope that I see is that, in the long-term, corporations know that they have to invest in science to continue to grow and be relevant.
>
> [Even Exxon Mobile and ConocoPhillips, the two largest US oil & gas companies, urged Trump not to abandon the Paris Accord](_URL_3_). Of course, that may have just been a PR move, since they had nothing to lose at that point. But they *are* global companies and know that _they must make the shift to different energy sources **anyway**_ to continue to sell into the global economy.
>
> I expect that at some point in the next 5-10 years, the corporations that fund the Republicans will be well on their way to making the switch to greener energy policies to stay competitive in the global marketplace and will be driving the Republican candidates they fund *away* from those climate change-denial policies that they drove them *toward* for the last 30 years because the corporations are going to want those sweet, sweet government tax dollars to pay for their conversion to greener sources.
>
> That does not bode well for Republicans. Republicans benefited over the last 40-50 years from an anti-science alignment between corporate interests and the religious interests of their base. But that anti-science -- particularly climate science -- stances on the part of American corporations was inevitably destined to be temporary. As soon as the rest of the world -- *and the rest of the world's corporations* -- get on board with greener technologies, the corporations will toss the religious Conservatives to the curb quicker than you can say "quarterly earnings report." | [
"Because political science is essentially a study of human behaviour, in all aspects of politics, observations in controlled environments are often challenging to reproduce or duplicate, though experimental methods are increasingly common (see experimental political science). Citing this difficulty, former American... |
How does our body deals or tries to deal with toxic substances such various poisons and specifically heavy metals? | So phagocytes generally attack bacteria and parasites. Poisons and toxins filtered through the liver and then excreted through the kidneys (for the most part). However if it's a potent toxin like say, curare, which is a powerful muscle relaxant, it will essentially kill you before your liver can and circulatory system can deal with it.
When you talk about lethal dose the lethality of it is either causing liver failure because it's too much toxin for your liver to handle, or it is too effective at it's site of action. For example, digitalis is a drug used to strengthen heart contractions to treat congestive heart failure. The correct dose partially inhibits sodium/potassium pumps. Too much would completely inhibit them and you would die because your heart would stop beating.
Heavy metals usually aren't dealt with because our bodies don't really have a mechanism for them. Like mercury stays in your body pretty much forever.
There are a lot of generalizations in this explanation but it is accurate for a lot of toxins and drugs. Hope I answered you well enough | [
"Many substances regarded as poisons are toxic only indirectly, by toxication. An example is \"wood alcohol\" or methanol, which is not poisonous itself, but is chemically converted to toxic formaldehyde and formic acid in the liver. Many drug molecules are made toxic in the liver, and the genetic variability of ce... |
What motivated León Trotsky to choose Mexico as his place of asylum in 1928? | /u/Cozijo answered this question posited slightly differently (as in, why did the Mexican government offer Trotsky asylum and what was the history of Russian Socialist influence in Mexico) [here](_URL_0_) a couple of years ago. You might find their response informative. | [
"In 1936, Cárdenas allowed Russian exile Leon Trotsky to settle in Mexico, reportedly to counter accusations that Cárdenas was a Stalinist. Cárdenas was not as left-wing as Leon Trotsky and other socialists would wish, but Trotsky described his government as the only honest one in the world.\n",
"The Mexican pres... |
can 'they' be used as a singular, third party pronoun? | In English, like many other languages, there is no genderless singular pronoun (bedsides the rarely used "one") so male is used as the default. Recently it has been considered sexist to use 'he' when meaning genderless (by no means unfoundedly as there is a valid sexist based argument why male is default) so 'they' has been used in its stead. | [
", in addition to serving as the second-person plural pronoun, is also used as a singular in formal situations. Conversely, can be said to be limited to the informal singular, such as when speaking with a family member, a friend, or a child. This usage corresponds closely to the practice in other European languages... |
why are some roads tan, and others black? | You're correct as to what materials they're made of. Concrete roads are more durable, and tend to be used in high traffic areas where frequent repairs can't be done. Asphalt is much cheaper to install, so it's mostly used where concrete is not required. | [
"Some part of the road surface is cement-concrete and the remaining length of the road is black-topped. It serves the traffic needs of many sugar factories and jaggery manufacturers. This road passes through the factory area and therefore it is always crowded by bullock-carts and lorries. It is motorable throughout... |
how did western european countries end up colonizing the world, instead of some other civilization? | Short answer. Geography
Long answer. Go watch guns, germs & steel
The basic premise is that because of Europeans ability to grow a large variety of low effort high calorie foods in their temperate climate they gained an advantage over other civilizations | [
"European Colonialism, that was accompanied by Christian evangelism and often by violence, led to the suppression of indigenous religions in the territories conquered or usurped by the Europeans. The Spanish colonization of the Americas largely destroyed the Aztec and Inca civilization. However, Colonialism (and la... |
ups drivers not making left turns? | This article gives great insight on why it's done.
_URL_0_ | [
"Part of the delay at a typical high-volume right-hand drive intersection is to accommodate left-turns; through-traffic must wait for the traffic turning left because it crosses the path of the through traffic. The continuous flow intersection moves the left-turn conflict out of the intersection and synchronizes it... |
Saint Patrick. Who was he? Why is he celebrated to much - why does he have national holidays and parades around the world? | The evidence we have around St. Patrick's life is patchy, but he was a bishop in Ireland in the fifth century.
Hagiographies written after Patrick's death claim that Christ gave a vision of purgatory to St. Patrick, and the idea of a vision of purgatory became increasingly interesting to the medieval world as the idea of purgatory became more widely discussed in theological thought. A late twelfth century text by a monk from Huntindonshire, the *Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii* depicting a monk finding a cave that led to a vision of St. Patrick's purgatory became extremely popular, especially in its later versions (one translated into Anglo-French by Marie de France.) The popularity of stories of St. Patrick's purgatory explains some of St. Patrick's growing influence in the medieval world.
My personal favourite story of St. Patrick, though, comes from [Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend](_URL_0_), a thirteenth-century collection of saints lives that became a medieval best-seller. As the story goes, St. Patrick heard that a sheep had been stolen and, during a church service, Patrick asked the thief to come clean. When no one did, St. Patrick made the sheep cry out from the stomach of the man who had eaten it, thus revealing his thievery. | [
"Saint Patrick's Day is a Roman Catholic religious holiday that honors the saint, who introduced Christianity to Ireland in the early fifth century. It has developed in the United States as a celebration of all things Irish. With large ethnic Irish populations, Boston and New York City both claim the world's first ... |
how is putting files in the recycle bin any different from a regular folder? | It isn't. The recycle bin is just another folder. The operating system is going to associate meta data to that folder through some mechanic that when you "empty the trash", it implies this folder has its contents deleted. That's it. Nothing special. And your user interface has shortcuts, like if you hit Shift + Del, typically the file is deleted without going to the recycle bin. No computer is going to automagically delete the contents of the recycle bin unless you explicitly configure it to do so. This might be done by a network admin on a company or school computer, but this is not the behavior of a personal PC. If you're running out of disk space, the UI may suggest you empty it.
On Unix type systems there is a /tmp directory that is temporary, and you can't be sure that anything you put there will stay there. Again, the filesystem doesn't give a shit, it's just another folder, there has to be some higher level program that looks to it specifically and a standard protocol that dictates convention.
Typically on a Unix system, the tmp folder can be scheduled to be purged if the disk is running full, or the directory starts reaching a certain size, or it may get purged at shutdown or startup. The kind of data that goes here should typically be cached data where if it were gone, the data could be obtained another way, the /tmp data would just be an optimization. Other things that go in there are lock files, whose presence means some other file is in use, or some process is running. If the filesystem supports locking open files, then the program can open the file and forbid the drive from being unmounted or the file being read or written to by any other program. You can clear this folder and those open files would remain since they're still in use. Not all of this is a best practice anymore because some of what I mentioned has inherent flaws and new features of operating systems can make some of that old fashioned. | [
"The Recycle Bin has a setting to configure the amount of deleted files it can store. Free disk space allocated for this is not actually used until files are deleted from folders and stored in the Recycle Bin. In versions of Windows prior to Windows Vista, the default configuration of the Recycle Bin is a global se... |
what is a hung government? and why do some people think it's good for britain? | It's good because with no one party in charge, they don't get to run the country purely on *their* idea of what's best. They have to run it by the other party/parties and reach a compromise (if the other parties are tough enough to argue their case and stand up to the ones with the most majority). | [
"The term hung parliament is most often used of parliaments dominated by two major parties or coalitions. General elections in such systems usually result in one party having an absolute majority and thus quickly forming a new government. In most parliamentary systems, a hung parliament is considered exceptional an... |
Were shields in the Medieval era really painted with the heraldric symbol of a lord the soldier belonged to? | There is a practical reason to paint (wood) shields, which is to disguise the grain.
Because wood has a grain it is significantly stronger in one direction than another, and significantly more penetrable. It is much harder to chop/cut across the grain than to split with the grain. This means that a shield bearer has a vested interest in concealing the direction of the grain. Painting does it pretty effectively.
I can't speak about heraldic painting. | [
"The custom of painting symbols such as the heraldic shields of war was forged in the battlefields of Europe after the middle decades of the 12th century, due to a confluence of circumstances of different natures. One was the need to differentiate between allies and adversaries on the battlefield, partly due to fac... |
When a stroke or brain damage causes a person to have to re-learn language, how does the brain typically adapt? Do the damaged parts recover or do other parts of the brain take over, and how does this affect the relearning process? | [Here](_URL_0_) is a primary source that covers exactly this topic in a comprehensive manner. To answer your question broadly, the damaged areas heal as well as they can and healthy regions of the brain generally take over for regions that can’t be fixed.
To summarize some points from the link: a few days to weeks after the stroke or injury, inflammation is reduced and new synaptic pathways begin to form. If the neuron cell bodies in the damaged area are still intact, then their axons and dendrites will regrow and synaptic connections will reform. If not, other neurons will form connections around the damaged area (which often scars). Around two weeks after a stroke in the language center of the left hemisphere, heightened language activity is found in the right hemisphere - in other words, the right hemisphere partially takes over for the left hemisphere’s language functions as it heals. After roughly a year, the language function shifts mostly back to the left hemisphere. | [
"After a traumatic brain injury (TBI) or cerebrovascular accident (CVA), the brain undergoes several healing and re-organization processes, which may result in improved language function. This is referred to as spontaneous recovery. Spontaneous recovery is the natural recovery the brain makes without treatment, and... |
How would our brains function without our five senses? | I read about an experiment in Mikhail Veller's book (he provided a reference, but I won't be able to retrieve it from work).
He described an experiment where a physically and mentally healthy volunteer was put in a dark sound-proof room, wearing a special suit that hinders all touch feelings, and strapped on elastic bands in the air to minimize the feel of weight, position or gravity, with special paste used to block taste in the mouth feeling. Basically, it effectively shut down all senses. According to the study, within 8 hours, patients began showing signs of insanity. | [
"In other words, a brain is not necessary for thought and perception to take place. It follows that our five senses are not merely navigational devices. The differences between individual senses indicate that they emanate from different parts of an unexplored universe, the existence of which we do not even suspect.... |
what would have happened if the banks didn't get bailed out? | Well, put shortly, the US economy would have collapsed, as liquidity would have disappeared and loans would be non-existent. Other Western economies soon would have followed (assuming no bailouts anywhere) resulting in a collapse of the entire financial system.
Broken down more (I'll do a 'like you're 5' summary at the end):
US economy would continue to destabilize. Institution after institution would fail. With credit frozen, a vast majority of people wouldn't be able to afford necessities (I'm assuming there would be a run on the banks quite early, which would propagate the downward spiral). Business credit would also be frozen, stopping product movement and essentially rendering companies large and small helpless.
Alternatively, instead of bailing out banks, they could have offered mortgage assistance, making citizens deal with the toxic assets. On the other side, it would have preserved average family net worth in the long run. The government also could have acquired the toxic assets at face value, which would reduce taxpayer risk.
Like you're 5: You don't have money to buy pizza, so the pizza guy can't buy ingredients to make pizza. The ingredient man doesn't get paid because nobody makes pizza. No ingredients get made. The farmers don't have anyone to buy their food. Everyone except the farmer starves. | [
"After pleading guilty in a New York court to helping Americans evade their taxes, the bank announced that it would close permanently. It was the first non-American bank to plead guilty to tax evasion charges in the United States.\n",
"In 1998, the Bank ordered the liquidation of one of the country's banks due to... |
Was the Mongolian composite bow a better weapon than the English longbow? | Yes. I mean if by better you mean better ballistic performance, yes composite bows shoot faster, farther and harder because:
1. Composite bows have more reflex. That is, a longbow when unstrung is straight, a reflexed bow is bent forward in the opposite way. When a longbow is strung there's almost no tension in the string while a reflexed bow has already been bent and tensed quite a bit just to string it. In terms of shooting, this means longbows only accelerate arrows at the beginning of the shot and not so much near the end as the bow uncoils while a reflex packs a lot of energy throughout the bow.
2. Recurved limb tips improve smoothness at the end of the draw. At the end of your draw when the angle between the string and limbtip is significant, recurved tips maintain a more efficient lever point for the string keeps the rate at which the bow gains weight lower. This again means you're packing more energy just before your final draw length.
3. Horn/sinew are more flexible than longbows and means composite bows can be strained more by being pulled more. A higher draw length affects the energy storage of the bow as much as the draw weight does. While a longbow is typically shot at draw lengths of 28" (and expert archers in the past would draw to 30" next to the head), Asiatic draw lengths are typically much higher, about 32", past the head. Longbows can be made to draw longer but that requires making the limbs longer too (see next point).
4. Smaller and lighter limbs keeps the virtual mass of the bow low. When you shoot an arrow, you're accelerating the arrow's mass but the limbs have to get moving in order to pull the string which launches the arrow. This inertia of the bow is called its virtual mass. The heavier and bigger the limbs, the heavier its virtual mass, and less efficient the bow. More energy goes into getting the limbs moving and less energy goes into the arrow.
Points 1, 2, and 3 mean composite bows store more energy, point 4 means composite bows use that energy more efficiently. This is true at all load factors, composite bows will generally always out shoot a longbow (given the same draw weight), even with heavier arrows though people generally assume longbows are better at heavy arrow shooting. It's just that their low virtual mass means composite bows are exceptionally good at shooting light arrows fast and far.
What the longbow does have going for it is that they're easy to make, a good bowyer could turn one out in just a couple of hours and the only maintenance it would need for its lifetime would be some oiling to protect the wood from moisture.
Meanwhile a composite bow takes months to make, sometimes as long as a year depending on the climate because the components have to be glued and let dry completely before adjustments to tillering can be made. Even after it's finished the the bow has to be shot and heat tillered for about a year, before the bow starts to shoot consistently without the limbs warping and flipping front to back. If the climate is humid, the bow will have to be kept in a special heated box to be able to keep the sinew dry for shooting. You pay for the extra performance with a much higher initial cost and require constant caring for. | [
"The English longbow was a powerful medieval type of longbow (a tall bow for archery) about long used by the English and Welsh for hunting and as a weapon in medieval warfare. English use of longbows was effective against the French during the Hundred Years' War, particularly at the start of the war in the battles ... |
This might sound like a silly question, but would is it possible to fly through a rainbow? | No, a rainbow doesn't exist at a definite location like you are thinking. They are an optical phenomenon that always appear up at a specific angle (about 40 to 42 degrees) away from the line from the sun through your head. | [
"From above the earth such as in an aeroplane, it is sometimes possible to see a rainbow as a full circle. This phenomenon can be confused with the glory phenomenon, but a glory is usually much smaller, covering only 5–20°.\n",
"A rainbow is not located at a specific distance from the observer, but comes from an ... |
how computer languages like c and c+ are developed and how they work with the computer? | You're telling a person how to get somewhere. Technically, how to get there includes steps like this:
* Put your left foot forward.
* Shift weight forward and onto your left foot
* Put your right foot forward
* shift your weight forward and onto your right foot
* Repeat the first four steps 257 times.
* Pivot left.
* Turn head left.
* Look for cars.
* if there are no cars, turn head right
* Look for cars
* Turn head left again to double check
* if there are no cars, put left foot forward
* etc.
You can see how this would be extremely time consuming. Instead, you say:
* Walk to the next intersection.
* Turn left and cross
* etc.
Computer processors are built to understand **machine code** a way to tell a computer what to do in extremely small steps (like giving a person directions the first way).
When you create a programming language, you make rules for how to tell the computer what to do in a broader more natural way that is easier to write (like giving directions the second way).
Additionally, you make a program to translate your language into machine code. This program is called a **compiler**. | [
"The earliest programs for stored-program computers were entered in binary through the front panel switches of the computer. This first-generation programming language had no distinction between source code and machine code.\n",
"The difference in code density between various computer languages is so great that o... |
timeshares? something for rich people or something ? | Condos in places like ski resorts and vacation resorts are ridiculously expensive.
So, instead of buying a condo, you buy a small share of it, usually 1/26th or 1/52nd. This gives you the right to stay there 1 or 2 weeks per year.
While there's nothing wrong with that concept, the problem is the timeshare industry is rife with scam artists and sleazeball high-pressure sales tactics. It's almost never a good idea to get involved with it. | [
"Timeshares are generally treated as real property and can be resold to another party. However, timeshares do not appreciate in value, and therefore should not be considered a money-making investment. Additionally, as much as 50% or more (modest estimate) of the original purchase price of a timeshare from a develop... |
why do most of us have one common fear? | Instinct. Phobias like heights, scuttling insects, snakes are common because these were very common ways to be injured and killed in our past. Depictions of monsters and the supernatural all share common traits across the planet, like big sharp teeth and glowing (or rather reflective) eyes, because seeing these in the wild will quite probably be the last thing you ever see before you are mauled to death by a predator. The dark brings dangerous animals, and makes walking to the toilet treacherous. Colorful animals and plants are highly dangerous; their spots, stripes, and technicolour patterns say "stay away from me". Many people are made uncomfortable by clusters of small holes in mundane objects (the classical example is a lotus seed pod), because seeing this type of pattern in a piece of meat or on somebody's skin is a sign of decay or disease.
People who are afraid of the dark, siders, snakes, monsters, and people from other places are the ones that would survive in prehistory, because all of these natural phobias stem from survival instincts. We have these fears because our ancestors survived them. | [
"Although many fears are learned, the capacity to fear is part of human nature. Many studies have found that certain fears (e.g. animals, heights) are much more common than others (e.g. flowers, clouds). These fears are also easier to induce in the laboratory. This phenomenon is known as preparedness. Because early... |
how do diuretics work? | There's a hormone in your body called ADH, or anti-diuretic hormone. As you know, diuresis means "to pee". So an anti-diuretic hormone causes your body to pee less - specifically by making your pee less watery, but leaving all the bad stuff in there.
Some substances (like caffeine and alcohol) cause your body to produce less ADH. When there is less ADH in your blood, that's a signal telling your kidneys to leave more water in your pee, causing it to build up faster. This is why you may notice your pee being more clear after drinking these drinks. Your body isn't producing more urea (the main poison your urine is designed to get rid of), but it's just getting rid of more water in the process. (edit: see below, the urea isn't what colors your urine)
This is one reason why staying hydrated is important to prevent hangovers - even small imbalances in your body's water levels can cause your brain to shrink slightly and cause headaches.
Source: studying to take the MCAT next week. | [
"Diuretics, sometimes known as ‘water pills’, are drugs which draw excess fluid from the tissues of the body and convert it into urine. They are used for the swelling and bloating of premenstrual syndrome, for treating high blood pressure and, in older people, for heart failure caused by weakening of the heart’s pu... |
why aren't there nitinol motors? | So, there's three critical factors for what would make an engine good.
First, you have to consider durability, or reliability. The piston engine has been around for a century at this point because, while other engines might perform better, piston engines tend to be hearty bastards that can get 300,000 miles on a single engine when built properly. No rotary engine is ever getting that.
Second, you have scalability. While that piston engine has some good ability to scale- everything from a tiny leaf blower engine to an 18 wheeler's diesel engine all runs off the same basic design principal, while something like a cargo ship or a submarine is going to want a turbine engine.
Third, you have throttle. If I push my foot down on the accelerator, my car speeds up in relatively short fashion.
While you can have some flexibility with any of these three factors, when you have virtually no presence in one, then you hit a problem. A nitinol motor has no ability to throttle. It's on, or it's off. There's also questions about scalability. It's the same reason why you don't see a nuclear powered car. | [
"A microcontroller or stepper motor controller can be used to activate the drive transistors in the right order, and this ease of operation makes unipolar motors popular with hobbyists; they are probably the cheapest way to get precise angular movements.\n",
"Because of the higher performance density, brushless E... |
Question about the temperature inside | There's a delay because your house is storing heat in the floors, air, etc. You might try cooling your house with convection. If you have a two-story house and window fans, set them up to blow air in on the ground floor, and blow it out of the upper floor. Hot air rises, and the fan setup should encourage those natural convection currents. You could also try to shade the south-facing windows of your home. ([source1](_URL_1_))([source2](_URL_2_))
edit: This effect is sort of similar to [seasonal lag](_URL_0_). Where I live, the temperature peaks in August, despite the fact that the amount of solar radiation peaks in late June. | [
"Internal heat is the heat source from the interior of celestial objects, such as stars, brown dwarfs, planets, moons, dwarf planets, and (in the early history of the Solar System) even asteroids such as Vesta, resulting from contraction caused by gravity (the Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism), nuclear fusion, tidal heat... |
How far back in history do we see the use of patents? | Although actual patent laws which were actively enforced by the state are generally thought to have started with the Venetian Statute of 1474, much earlier precedents do exist. In 500 BC in the Greek city of Sybari, culinary innovators were able to patent their dishes for a whole year.
Some earlier uses in Western Europe included the letters patent issued by the English sovereign, which granted the recipient monopoly in the respective fields of commerce or science. One such letter was sent out in 1449 by Henry VI to John of Utynam, a Flemish man, for a 20 year monopoly for his invention. The first Italian patent was granted by Florence in 1421, where the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi patented his invention, which was a barge with primitive hoisting gear. | [
"From 1836 to 2011, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted a total of 7,861,317 patents relating to several well-known inventions appearing throughout the timeline below. Some examples of patented inventions between the years 1946 and 1991 include William Shockley's transistor (1947), Joh... |
Why is the relationship between time and light as it is, and why does it break classical space-time for anything to travel faster than it? | > Why is this assumption made? Why not let c vary and t be constant?
Because c doesn't vary, and time does. It's not an assumption, it's an observation. There is no situation in which you can observe anything moving faster than c. There are plenty of situations in which relativistic objects can be seen to experience time dilation. | [
"Time has historically been closely related with space, the two together merging into spacetime in Einstein's special relativity and general relativity. According to these theories, the concept of time depends on the spatial reference frame of the observer, and the human perception as well as the measurement by ins... |
What are the effects of Heavier then Earth Gravity on a human? | I found a few studies where they grew embryos of various animals in hypergravity:
_URL_3_
_URL_1_
_URL_2_
_URL_0_
They mostly look at microscopic properties, rather than the whole organism. | [
"BULLET::::- Effects of low gravity on the human body: All moons of the gas giants and all outer dwarf planets have a very low gravity, the highest being Io's gravity (0.183 g) which is less than 1/5 of the Earth's gravity. Since every space agency preferred to circulate in Low Earth orbit for more than 40 years ra... |
why do people "share" porn over social media like reddit or twitter? possible nsfw | I assume for the same reason people share movies, music and books with their friends. They found something they like and they want to enrich the lives of people they care about. | [
"Recently it has come to attention the potential dangers to teenagers or children, who may be unaware of the consequences, using their camera phones to make videos and images which are then shared amongst their friends (\"see\" sexting). Images initially meant to be shared between couples can now be spread around t... |
during hitler's rise to power, did people in germany debate whether or not he was fascist and anti-semitic or was it widely accepted? | Hitler and the Nazis were explicitly fascist- but fascism wasn't a byword for evil back then. It only became so because of its association with the Germans' crimes during the war and holocaust.
Hitler and other top Nazis were also openly anti-semitic. It was part of his public persona. There was some speculation about whether, or to what extent, it was all an act, to rile up racial resentment among the proles, but it wasn't a secret that they wanted the Jews gone. | [
"Hitler came to power in 1933 and over the following years he converted Germany into a one-party state under the control of his Nazi Party and governed by his personal dictatorship. He espoused the idea that modern Germans descended from the ancient Aryans, who he claimed—in contrast to established academic underst... |
Do pencil markings make your paper heavier? | Yes, since you're just rubbing small amounts of graphite onto your paper. The same goes for ink markings from pens or markers. You are adding matter, so you are increasing mass. However, since you're adding such a tiny amount, it would be difficult to measure without extremely precise equipment. | [
"Most pencil cores are made of graphite powder mixed with a clay binder. Graphite pencils (traditionally known as 'lead pencils') produce grey or black marks that are easily erased, but otherwise resistant to moisture, most chemicals, ultraviolet radiation and natural aging. Other types of pencil cores, such as tho... |
How long does it take for a population III star to form? | Hi there - your English is good!
We're not exactly sure how population III stars formed, but we expect it would be quite different to star formation in the present day, because the interstellar medium was much warmer, denser, and not yet ionised. It's generally expected that population III stars were more massive than stars today.
We do expect that population III stars started forming when the universe was only 100-200 million years old. The CMB was emitted when the universe was only 377,000 years old; long, long before stars started forming, so that's not a problem.
It's important to note, however, that HD140283 is *not* a population III star - it's a population **II** star. It contains heavy elements not produced by the big bang. HD140283 formed from the material given off by the first population III when they died.
However, very massive stars will live for only a few million years before they die. So if the first population III stars formed when the universe was only 150 million years old, then it's entirely possible that the first population II stars, like HD140283, formed when the universe was less than 200 million years old.
So in short, stars like HD140283 don't yet act as evidence against our current understanding of the age and evolution of the universe.
(PS: I'll point out that the error margin of 0.8 billion years on the age of HD140283 only accounts for *random* error in the measurements and calculations. If there is some sort of *systematic* error in the measurement, then the age of the star could be very different; given that measuring the ages of stars is very tricky, this is possible. However, unless our entire understanding of cosmology is flawed, it is unlikely there are significant systematic errors in our calculated age of the universe.) | [
"A star would take between 11.5 and 15 million years to reach the red supergiant stage, with more rapidly-rotating stars taking the longest. Rapidly-rotating stars take only 9.3 million years to reach the red supergiant stage, while stars with slow rotation take only 8.1 million years. These form the best estimates... |
what is the 'birds and the bees' story, and how is it meant to be an accurate, child-friendly explanation of sex? | It never really was an explanation.
The actual source of the phrase is unclear, smeo attribute to a Samuel Coleridge poem from 1825, others to a Cole Porter song from 1928. In both cases, birds and bees are evocative of springtime, which has long been associated with fertility.
Whatever the origin, the birds and the bees has become a joke about the awkwardness parents have explaining sex to their children, and not an explanation itself. It comes up in popular culture all the time, usually in a sitcom sort of setting. It is a trope that quickly and clearly sets up a funny situation for the audience.
The fact birds and bees are only tangentially related to sex is part of the joke...the uncomfortable parent is trying to tiptoe around the subject, and winds up making a terrible and confusing explanation that never makes sense. | [
"According to tradition, the birds and the bees is a metaphorical story sometimes told to children in an attempt to explain the mechanics and good consequences of sexual intercourse through reference to easily observed natural events. For instance, bees carry and deposit pollen into flowers, a visible and easy-to-e... |
Compromise of 1790 | Moving the Nation's capital to the South was an important strategic victory. IN the late 18th century news traveled slow, having the capital in the South meant that the Virginia heard news quickly, and allowed the political elite more time to respond. Another concern, one which we take for granted today, is that in the event of any civil war Virginia would be in a far better position to respond than the Northern states. For a time when it seemed that the Federalists might steal the election of 1800 from Thomas Jefferson, Pennsylvania and Virginia's governor ensured plans were in place to (arguably) ensure Jefferson won the election. | [
"The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–American War. It also set Texas's western and northern borders and included pr... |
yeast | Yeast is a fungus; it's a single-celled creature that evolved from amoebae like the rest of the fungi.
It is very much alive, just like any fungus. We culture yeast as opposed to mining it (which means if you set up a petri dish and yeast spores are around, they might settle and form a significant colony).
How yeast makes alcohol: like all organisms, yeast undergoes a chemical process called glycolysis, where glucose is broken down into a molecule called pyruvate. This produces usable energy for the yeast, but if there's no oxygen present (which would further break down the pyruvate), then the yeast has to ferment it in order to let the reaction continue (otherwise, it would use up the other reactant, something called NAD+).
In humans, fermentation produces lactic acid. In yeast, it produces alcohol. | [
"Nutritional yeast is produced by culturing a yeast in a nutrient medium for several days. The primary ingredient in the growth medium is glucose, often from either sugarcane or beet molasses. When the yeast is ready, it is deactivated with heat and then harvested, washed, dried and packaged. The species of yeast u... |
what is the biological difference between a queen ant and a regular "worker" ant? | The queen is capable of mating and laying eggs. That is about the only actions she does. The worker ants are infertile and vary in body type based on task in many colonies. Some colonies will have 4-5 different types of workers and 2-3 warrior ants. | [
"A queen ant can be distinguished from a worker ant by the relatively larger size of the thorax (which at this point contains the wing muscles of the queen), and the enlarged abdomen which contains eggs. Beware that certain species have large workers similar in size to a queen, if the possible queen you are looking... |
how does alexa work so quickly and accurately when it supposedly isn't listening-in at all times? | Funny you should ask this. My kid turned off Alexa’s mic(so now she can’t hear us) I asked her too do 3 things in a row with no response... she said, just so you know my mic is off.
She is always listening | [
"An audio typist is someone who specialises in typing text from an audio source which they listen to. The source, or original document is usually recorded onto microcassettes created by someone dictating into a Dictaphone. The audio typist will have learnt to touch type at a high speed which means they can look at ... |
Could it ever be possible to record somebodies dreams in audio or video format? | So this thread is full of non-responses and incorrect responses.
And nearly all of them are infuriating me.
What you're asking is analogous to "uploading/downloading" in the brain. The answer is no. We have had countless threads about this recently. Search terms:
* upload/uploading
* download/downloading
* singularity
* brains
First of all, we have no idea how brains work when people are awake and can tell us stuff during EEG, MEG, MRI, TMS, etc... We can't even imagine what it would take to "record" an awake set of functions and produce the output, so dreams are completely out of the question. | [
"Dreamscapes is a limited edition eight-CD set of rare Alphaville recordings, released in 1999. It features 124 tracks with a total playing time of around 9.5 hours. 43 of the songs had never been available before, and all of the remainder had been remixed. \n",
"The first release of the soundtrack was 1 CD and a... |
why does air travel (especially us airlines) have such a low rate of failure? | As elaborate as a car is, they're simple to drive, and pretty much any idiot can get a license and be on the road. Hence, you have millions of Americans driving at any given time of the day, many of which probably don't put a lot of effort into their driving skills. Thus, the high amount of negligence, road rage, and automobile accidents.
An airplane is a highly sophisticated and expensive vehicle -- not everyone can handle one, and to fly a plane requires an extreme amount of training and skill. Since the skies aren't nearly as jammed as the roads, there are fewer airplane incidents. Airplanes also have a crew of people keeping track of them during every move; chances are, when you're out driving a car, a team of car traffic control operators aren't monitoring your speed and warning you of road hazards.
TL;DR - airline pilots are smart and don't text while flying. | [
"However, others have argued that safety improvement in general aviation have been chiefly the result of a market shift away from owner-flown aircraft, towards professionally operated aircraft, and due to other changes, such as improving technology, advances in pilot education and training, and better operating met... |
Why did "Nationalist" China collapse in the face of "Communist" China so easily? | Chiang Kai-Shek was kidnapped in 1936 in what's known as the "Xi'an Incident". Essentially, in the face of a fierce Japanese offensive, Nationalist leaders were frustrated with Chiang's seeming obsession with eliminating the Communists. They felt that it was undermining the Nationalist effort to resist the Japanese, so several generals, including Zhang Xueliang, redirected Chiang's train, and forced him to sit down with the Communists to sign a truce and agree to unite against Japan.
In regards to why the Nationalists fell so easily to the Communists, there are a couple of factors:
1. Poor morale by the common Nationalist soldiers. Most of these soldiers were conscripts, and were both ill equipped and unmotivated to fight the Communists. They were fed starvation rations, and were sometimes chained in groups and forced to advance or be shot in the back. The result was mass defections from the Nationalists to the Communists. In 1946, there were roughly 4.3 million soldiers for the Nationalists and 1.2 million for the Communists. By 1949, the Nationalists had about 1.5 million soldiers and the Communists had over 4 million.
2. High morale among Communist soldiers and support. During the time of the Civil War, over 90% of China's population was rural, and the Communists had spent the last twenty years creating a positive image of themselves - in fact, Mao's focus on the peasantry driving the Communist Revolution in China was a major source of tension with the Soviet Union. Joseph Stilwell, an American general who served in China and Burma during WW2, noted that the Communists enjoyed enormous support and high morale; both the soldiers and the common people believed in their mission and leaders. Stilwell had a horrible relationship with Chiang, which undoubtedly resulted in his scathing critique of the Nationalists, but his account nonetheless indicates the popular support propelling the Communists.
3. Poor morale among the Nationalist leadership. Rampant corruption withered morale and the finances of the Nationalists, and by 1946 they were drowning in debts. Following a rapid series of CPC successes in Northern China in 1948-early 1949, Chiang quickly resigned and Li Zongren took power. However, the fractious GMD politics continued; against Li's wishes, Chiang moved the majority of the nation's gold and USD reserves to Taiwan in April 1949, which resulted in Li resigning.
These are some of the major reasons for the Communist victory. There are some others, but in my opinion, they are ancillary to the ones listed above. For example, the acquisition of Japanese weaponry in Manchuria is significant, but would have had a minimal impact on the war if the Nationalists were not hemoragghing soldiers.
Were there any key moments that could have changed the course of history? Well, if the Shanghai Massacre didn't drive Mao to the countryside, the Chinese Communists may have remained a relatively small political party confined to the urban areas. If Chiang had been allowed to continue his attacks on the Communists, he might have wiped them out, but his government seemed doomed to fall by that point. Essentially, China's situation was so critical during the early twentieth century that the Nationalist loss was almost inevitable. Rebalancing the scales in their favor would require altering the nature of Nationalist leadership and world events to a degree beyond a single event.
Sources:
*The Rise of Modern China*, Immanuel C. Y. Hsu. (1970)
*The Search for Modern China*, Jonathan Spence (1990)
*China: A New History*, John Fairbank (2006) | [
"Because of this incident, according to the Communist Party of China, the Nationalist Party of China was criticized for creating internal strife when the Chinese were supposed to be united against the Japanese; the Communist Party of China, on the other hand, was seen as heroes at the vanguard of the fight against ... |
how do our bodies convert the food we eat into feces? | Most of your feces *isn't* food you ate. Most of it is cells that have lived out their useful life span and died, and your body is expelling their remains. Most of these cells are red blood cells, which is what gives feces its characteristic color.
As for your digestion, basically what happens is that the food you eat goes into your stomach where it gets "mushed up" into a relatively uniform mass. From there it goes into your small intestine, where most of the nutrients in your food are absorbed by your body. What's left over passes into your large intestine, or your colon it's also called, where symbiotic bacteria break down things that your body couldn't digest directly. These fermentation products, as they're called, get absorbed by your colon, along with most of the water that's still in your no-longer-food-and-now-primarily-feces.
Then you … you know. Go number two. | [
"Human feces (or faeces in British English; ) are the solid or semisolid remains of the food that could not be digested or absorbed in the small intestine of humans, but has been rotted down by bacteria in the large intestine. It also contains bacteria and a relatively small amount of metabolic waste products such ... |
when our brains find something funny, why don't we just think it's funny. why do we often expel air through our noses, or laugh out loud?sometime to the point we can hardly breathe. | Humor is a really important social tool.
It's likely we wouldn't experience humor if it weren't communicated in some way. | [
"Bergson concludes as an immediate consequence of the previous chapter that « attitudes, gestures and movements of the human body are subject to laughter precisely in the way that body makes us think to a simple machine ». Humans tend to laugh when they see the effect of a machine within the human body. This is why... |
the amounts of elements formed during supernovaes | You are many order of magnitude off with the amounts of element formed in a supernovae.
20 tonnes of uranium is nothing. Just the crust of earth have 40 trillion tonnes of uranium and the crust of earth is 1% of the mass of earth. Humans mine around 60 000 tonnes of uranium per year.
& #x200B;
In a type II supernovae the star had a initial mass of between 8 and 50 times the mass of the sun and the white dwarf that is left behind have a max mass of 1.4 solar masses. So the mass ejected is 5-48 solar masses.
The sun have a mass of 2\*10\^27 tonnes that is 2 octillion tonnes or 2 billion billion billion tonne.
& #x200B;
If you look at [_URL_1_](_URL_0_) wit abundance of elements in the solar system most is hydrogen with 10\^10 compared to 10\^-2 of uranium.
So the the solar system is approximate 1/10\^12 uranium
If what is ejected from a super nova is similar to the composition of the solar system you would have
2\*10\^27\* 1/10\^12=2\*10\^15 tonnes ejected per solar mass of eject matter. That is 2 quadrillion tonnes or 2 million billion tonnes.
So a Type II supernova eject somewhere around 10 million billion of tonnes of uranium. So the numbers in the original post is 15 orders of magnitude off.
The answer might be a couple of magnitudes because I do not know if the abundance table is by number of atoms or by mass. If it is buy mass the amount is 200x more. | [
"During supernova nucleosynthesis, the \"r\"-process creates very neutron-rich heavy isotopes, which decay after the event to the first stable isotope, thereby creating the neutron-rich stable isotopes of all heavy elements. This neutron capture process occurs in high neutron density with high temperature condition... |
Why did King or Emperors use so many titles? | "Used" isn't quite the right word. What you're quoting up there is what's called the *long title*, an official collection of all the noble titles held by the person.
Francis II's long title would only be used for some official documents, by no means everyday use. Why the long list? Because all those titles were distinct claims directly held by the person of the monarch. For example the titles of "King of Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia and Lodomeria" were all different historic kingdoms and because of that Habsburg rulers had to have several crowning ceremonies.
The crown lands of Bohemia traditionally had a ceremony with the Crown of Saint Wenceslas in Prague, although in reality the heir became monarch as soon as the previous one was dead ([Le roi est mort, vive le roi!](_URL_0_!)). Hungary on the other hand required the actual ceremony with the Crown of Saint Stephen in order for the heir to become active ruler; the Hungarian crown as an entity also included the crown and lands of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia and Lodomeria.
The title of Archduke of Austria on the other hand is a hereditary title for the whole Habsburg dynasty even if they have just been born. Although I guess the title of Archduke of Austria was de-facto eradicated with Otto von Habsburg signing off any claims on Austria in 1961 so he was allowed back in the country.
> I mean if you're the King or the Queen, why do you need any more titles than that? You're already as high as it gets title wise?
The title is certainly nice, which is why it is at the start of the long title. Before the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire the Habsburg monarchs would even put the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary before their "main" title of Archduke of Austria. Still, a kingdom is just one type of land holding.
The Archduchy of Austria was never part of any kingdom. Similarly, Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria or Carintia-Carniola also were independent duchies at one point or another, although Styria and Carintia-Carniola had been under Habsburg possession almost as long as Austria proper. How else are you supposed to show what lands you have if not by having a full list of landed titles somewhere? | [
"The title is commonly seen as equivalent to that of Emperor, both titles outranking that of king in prestige, stemming from the medieval Byzantine Emperors who saw the \"Shahanshahs\" of the Sasanian Empire as their equals. The last reigning monarchs to use the title of \"Shahanshah\", those of the Pahlavi dynasty... |
What is the most dangerous part of car exhaust for the human body, the gases or particulate matter? | Carbon monoxide is the most dangerous component of exhaust. It has a binding affinity for hemoglobin something on the order 100x that of oxygen, so the CO molecules bind in your blood over O2 and you are unable to transport oxygen within your body. CO poisoning can become rapidly fatal if not corrected. | [
"Air pollution from fossil (and some biofuel) powered vehicles can occur wherever vehicles are used and are of particular concern in congested city street conditions and other low speed circumstances. Emissions include particulate emissions from diesel engines, NO, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide and va... |
why can you die from using methamphetamine and having anthesisa performed on you? | I'm an Anaesthetist.
You can summarise this into:
* **Effects of the methamphetamine itself.** The sympathetic effects of meth (esp increased Heart Rate and Blood Pressure) can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Also, sometimes people are anaesthetised for their own safety when going nuts on meth, and this means giving an anaesthetic in a less than ideal environment from a safety perspective.
* **Interactions between the amphetamine and anaesthetic agents.** A clear but outdated example would be Halothane (an inhaled anaesthetic) which sensitises the heart to catecholamines (meth increases catecholamine levels), causing abnormal heart rhythms. Meth increases synaptic (or active) catecholamines like noradrenaline, which causes interactions with other drugs which also act to increase synaptic catecholamines (including some blood pressure drugs used in anaesthesia, some analgesics like Tramadol, and antidepressants).
* **Difficulties with dosing anaesthetic agents in the context of meth use.** If you are acutely high on meth you need MORE anaesthesia to go to sleep. If you are a chronic meth user, but not currently high, you need LESS anaesthesia to go to sleep. This can be challenging for us to get our doses right.
Edit: simplified a few terms | [
"\"para\"-Methoxyamphetamine (PMA; \"Death\", \"Dr. Death\"), also known as 4-methoxyamphetamine (4-MA), is a designer drug of the amphetamine class with serotonergic effects. Unlike other similar drugs of this family, PMA does not produce stimulant, euphoriant, or entactogen effects, and behaves more like an antid... |
what's an easy way to describe gap insurance? | GAP insurance covers the difference between the actual cash value of a vehicle (what your insurance will pay if it is totaled) and the balance still owed on the financing (car loan, lease, etc.). GAP coverage is mainly used on new and used small vehicles (cars and trucks) and heavy trucks. Some financing companies and lease contracts require it.
So... you buy a $30k car and insure it properly and also get GAP coverage.
3 weeks later you get in an accident, totaling your car. Your insurance gives you $25k for the car (they don't cover the depreciation you ate driving it off the lot).
GAP insurance covers the remaining $5k so you don't have to come up with it out of pocket. | [
"GAP insurance covers the amount on a loan that is the difference between the amount owed and the amount covered by another insurance policy. Some GAP policies also cover the deductible. This coverage is marketed for low down payment loans, high interest rate loans and loans with 60 month or longer terms. GAP insur... |
why does a small private plane such a cessna cost so much more than the materials and labor? | Several reasons.
- The material are actually more expansive. For a car you can use normal steel, you don't need high end material unless you make a high end car. But you can't use that for a plane of it will be way too heavy, you need a material that can strong and light. That usually mean aluminium, fibreglass or even carbon fibre.
- Everything important in a plane need to have a very high reliability, easy maintenance and if possible be in double. Having problem with you car is annoying, having problems with your plane mean several death and a possible lawsuit for the manufacturer.
- Economy of scale. A car manufacturer will sold a lot more car than a plane manufacturer could. Not all expanses are proportional to the amount you make. It's not because you make 100 times more car than plane that you need 100 times more lawyers, factories, employees, etc. | [
"Leather seats are more costly than traditional cloth seats. Even so, several airlines, including low-cost carriers, choose leather not only to present a more \"luxurious\" product, but also because such seats are easier to clean and prevent spilt liquids from soaking through to the padding for reduced turnaround i... |
Are there many examples of sieges throughout the 20th century, which lasted for months or years like mediaeval sieges? | The Siege of Leningrad in WWII lasted 872 days, and was one of the most destructive sieges in history.
The Germans and the Finns besieged Leningrad. The Russians defended. The siege was rarely complete, as supplies (in small numbers) could still get in across Lake Ladoga most of the time.
Up to 1.5m Russian soldiers and civilians died in the siege. Famine and disease were the main killers. 1.4m civilians were managed to be evacuated. | [
"The Siege of Saïo or Battle of Saïo took place during the East African Campaign of World War II. Belgo-Congolese troops, British Commonwealth forces and local resistance fighters besieged the fort at the market town of Saïo in south-western Ethiopia in 1941. The siege lasted for several months, culminating in an A... |
how do comedians verify if their jokes are original? | They don't.
If you come up with it on your own and it just happens to be similar, thats not stealing a joke. Some comedians may try and vet that to hopefully not get accused but most people understand that happens.
You have to actually put in effort to end up with a joke that people cant easily see how youd just happen to both come up with it. | [
"Comics memorize their jokes through the use of on-stage practice/blocking. Some comedians employ a mnemonic device called the method of loci (memory palace technique) to remember their jokes. Some write their jokes over and over, while others have a set list in front of them; for professionals, this may be on cue ... |
how are non-organ, donated body parts prepared to be transplanted such as skin? | Skin *is* an organ.
Skin harvested from body donations is used for transplants, and in that case it is called a *cadaver skin transplant* or *allograft* to differentiate it from a transplant of one's own skin.
A device known as a *dermatome* is used to skin skin from the donor, the common one is basically a fancy wood planer but they also have electric ones.
Most skin grafts use thin layers of skin, with only a small amount of dermis, which leaves stuff liker fair follicles and sweat glands behind.
Full-thickness skin grafts take the whole skin, especially useful for reconstructing a face, and the recipient will need antirejection drugs just like any internal organ transplant. | [
"Transplanted tissue is accepted by immunocompetent recipient if it is functional in the absence of immunosuppressive drugs and without histologic signs of rejection. Host can accept another graft from the same donor but reject graft from different donor. \n",
"The implementations of organ harvesting and organ tr... |
Was the CSA doomed to be ruled by the most powerful states? | Well, this is all what-ifs and hypothetical, but I don't think that larger states like Virginia would begin to annex neighboring states for a few reasons.
1. Whereas the Holy Roman Empire was once comprised of hundreds of very very small states and kingdoms, the CSA was comprised of relatively large states. There wasn't really a state that was significantly small or insignificant. This makes the annexation of territory difficult.
2. The borders of the Southern states were pretty well defined. The borders between the Southern states weren't constantly changing like the borders between the German states were.
3. Finally, the Confederate government was more organized and powerful than the Holy Roman Empire. The Germanic states did not have anywhere near the cohesion that the Confederate states had. A lot of the time the German states would be fighting against one another, which would often result in territorial changes.
Of course, this is my personal opinion. | [
"During the entire war the notion that the CSA possessed a most efficient engine of war in its monopoly of cotton (the \"King Cotton\" idea) buoyed up the hopes of the Confederates. The government in Richmond strained every effort to induce the great powers of Europe to recognize the Confederacy as a nation (see Co... |
Was the Medici family actually corrupt? | _URL_0_
this post talks about how the medici grew in power and what they did to become that powerful
_URL_1_
this post is about the methods that the medici used to control the florentine government
both credits to /u/AlviseFalier
not sure about the papacy though | [
"Members of the family rose to some prominence in the early 14th century in the wool trade, especially with France and Spain. Despite the presence of some Medici in the city's government institutions, they were still far less notable than other outstanding families such as the Albizzi or the Strozzi. One Salvestro ... |
How does human space exploration stack up against robotic exploration? (Voting optional) | > Privacy Notice: We ask for an email only to ensure no one person can stuff the ballot box. The information you provide to this NASA Web site will be used only for its intended purpose.
Because asking for an email address is the best way to ensure no one person stuffs the ballot box... heh. | [
"Robotic exploration is proposed as an alternative to gain many of the same scientific advantages without the limited mission duration and high cost of life support and return transportation involved in manned missions. However, there are vast scientific domains that cannot be addressed with robots, especially biol... |
After divorcing or beheading 80% of his wives at that point, what did Henry VIII's last wife expect to happen to her? | I understand where you are coming from, but the question far oversimplifies the politics and reality facing Henry VIII during the early sixteenth century. Let's take a look at this one wife at a time.
Katherine of Aragon - This is obviously the most contentious, and is often oversimplified as Henry desiring to get rid of Katherine because she could not produce an heir. This view, while compelling in popular culture, doesn't hold up to historical scrutiny. The still standard biography of Henry is J. J. Scarisbrick's *Henry VIII*. In the book, Scarisbrick goes to great length to show the theological problem facing Henry over his marriage to Katherine. Katherine had been married to Henry's older brother Arthur for a few brief months. Scarisbrick maintains that Arthur and Katherine did not consummate their marriage, & another major biographer John Guy, (*Henry VIII*, 2014) does claim that the marriage was consummated. Which ever is actually true is not the important part. What does matter is that Henry believed that his inability to produce an heir was God's punishment for breaking divine law by marrying his brothers wife. Leviticus 18:16 and 20:21 are clear texts that forbid a man from marrying (or potentially having sex with) his brother's wife. There is a counter text in Deuteronomy (25:5) but Henry felt that the divine punishment of a lack of heir was indicative that the text of Leviticus was more important. Since Henry believed he was violating God's law, his annulment (not divorce) makes sense as his only real option.
Anne Boleyn - Boleyn is a more difficult case, because the accusations she faced seem political in nature, as charges of incest seem more like wild accusations as opposed to actual crimes. The best modern biographer of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives, argues that the charges again Boleyn were political, but masterminded by Thomas Cromwell (Ives, *Anne Boleyn* (1984) pp. 358-360). G. W. Bernard, in his response to Ives, argues that Anne Boleyn was actually an adulteress (Bernard, "The Fall of Anne Boleyn", *English Historical Review* 1991, pp. 584-610). While much of Bernard's account is fixated on proving the adultery, a more important aspect for our purposes to to see that whether or not Boleyn had committed incest or adultery, Henry believed she had. Both Ives and Bernard indicate that Henry & Cromwell went to great lengths to discover or prove the adultery, and once Henry was convinced that she had, Boleyn's case was hopeless. It makes sense for Henry to see adultery - with his advisers and trusted friends - as treasonable and worthy of an execution. Boleyn could be completely innocent, but to Henry's mind, along with the advisers unrelated to the Howard family & Cromwell, her adultery was proven and her execution inevitable.
Jane Seymour - Not much needs to be said here, as she was the most beloved of Henry's wives. She bore the future King Edward VI, and Henry was buried by her side upon his death. She died within a two weeks of giving birth to Edward (October 1537) and Henry deeply mourned her death (Loach, *Edward VI*; Scarisbrick, p. 497).
Anne of Cleves - Henry's marriage to Anne of Cleves was short lived, and technically annulled. Henry had only a portrait to see what she was like, and when he saw her for the first time, instantly found her plain and distasteful. Henry said of his first meeting with her that "I am ashamed that men have so praised her as they have done, and I like her not," (Scarisbrick, p. 370). The two married in January of 1540, and annulled due to the marriage being unconsummated in July (Kelly, *Matrimonial Trials of Henry VIII*, pp. 270-274). Anne actually lived out the remainder of her life in relative comfort in England. Though Henry is often charged with barbarity, it is worth noting that he maintained a friendship with Anne until his death, and the two exchanged letters casually for years (Warnicke, *Marrying of Anne of Cleves*, p. 252).
For Catherine Howard, the historian Henry Kelly explains how she was done in by her own indiscretions. She had been previously engaged to a Francis Dereham, and had had sex with him multiple times before her marriage to Henry. Kelly argues that she continued to do so after her marriage, which is why Henry's marriage to her was annulled and she was executed (Kelly, pp. 275-278). Scarisbrick agrees with this assessment, arguing that Catherine probably found her new husband repugnant and moody. Henry was, by this time, 50 years old and fat, as his portraits of the 1540s show, while Catherine Howard was about 18 and an item of desire among the men of the Tudor court (Scarisbrick, pp. 431-433). While Anne Boleyn was possibly innocent of any wrong doing, Catherine Howard without a doubt was an adulteress, though probably a young and naive one, unaware of the personal and political consequences.
So now we come to Henry's last wife, Katherine Parr. Luckily, Katherine Parr's writings and correspondence have now all been published by Janel Mueller (2011). About a week after her marriage to Henry, she wrote her brother how God had helped Henry select her, among any other woman. She continues with, it "is, as of reason it ought to be, the greatest joy and comfort that could happen to me in this world," (*Katherine Parr: Complete Works*, p. 46). This is a woman happy with the choice she has made. While Catherine Howard had expressed jealousy of Henry's treatment of Anne of Cleves, Katherine Parr never mentions her. In a letter Katherine Parr wrote to Henry while he was in France reads "the want of your presence, so much beloved and desired of me," (Parr, p. 63). Henry seems returns Parr's affections, and the two were known to discuss and even debate theology with one another (Scarisbrick, p. 479). When Katherine was charged with heresy (that she held Protestant sympathies is almost beyond doubt), Henry protected her and prevented her conviction and execution (Scarisbrick, pp. 479-481).
So, where does this leave us? Katherine Parr probably expected to be treated with some respect, and kept materially well during her marriage to Henry VIII. She personally took a role in helping educate Henry's three living children (Guy, *Children of Henry VIII*). Katherine was almost as beloved by Henry as Jane Seymour. While we look back on Henry's relationship with his wives as barbaric, it is worth looking at how Henry saw it. He thought he broke God's law with his first wife, and his second and fifth wives had betrayed him sexually and personally. His fourth wife may have had her marriage annulled and been exiled from the court, but overall she did well for herself, even gaining enough material wealth at the end of her life to send presents abroad to family members (Warnicke, *Marrying of Anne of Cleves*). Katherine herself did not see Henry as a danger, but as a companion and lover. She helped raise his children, was the first woman author to publish in English in 1545, and was allowed to pursue her exploration of early Protestant faith. Katherine Parr expected to be a Queen Regent of England, and in the end, that is what she was. | [
"She was married to Sir Thomas from 1511 until he was executed in 1535 after he was convicted of treason for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. Before his execution, while he was locked in the Tower of London, she was in charge of taking care of his affairs. The last years of her life were poor, due to the fam... |
Why do the Chinese hate the Dalai Lama so much? | So, to get to the bottom of this, we’ve got to go back… *waaaay* back… like all the way back to the Tang Dynasty in the mid-7th century far back… to get a wide enough viewpoint to really explain this.
Round about the year 604, Songtsän Gampo becomes the 33rd titular king/emperor of Tibet, called the *tsenpo*, but the first to unite the nomadic plateau-tribes into the Tibetan Empire (*Bod Chen Po*) centered around his sometimes-capital Lhasa. With surprising quickness (in 7th century terms, any way) in less than a century it becomes one of the Tang Chinese Empire’s chief threats, and is constantly harassing them from the west while other steppe peoples/angry border generals do a number on China’s northern border. By the last decade of the 8th century, its territory looks like [this](_URL_1_), and it along with the Uyghur Khanate has managed to cut off central China from its far western holdings and seal up the Silk Road once again. You can imagine that the Emperors of China were *not amused.*
Well, that situation stabilized for the rest of the Tang Dynasty, and much of the subsequent Song Dynasty of the 10-13th centuries, thanks to marriage alliances and the Tibetans succumbing to their own series of devastating civil wars… and that’s nice and all, but let’s flash forward.
Knock knock. It’s 1240 and the Mongols are at the door. And one of the (many, many) grandsons of Genghis Khan, Prince Godan, come a-calling and asks for a meeting with the Tibetan leader and Buddhist lama Sakya Pandita, giving the pretty standard-issue Mongol greeting of “bow down to us or we’ll kill everything you’ve ever loved” (and they’d showed that they really meant it by sacking a monastery and executing some 500 Buddhist monks). So Sakya thinks this whole “bowing” thing sounds like the better end of the stick and accepts. Tibet begins its life as a vassal state to the mighty Mongol Khanate, which some 30 years later fractures into sub-states like the Golden Horde, the Ilkhanate, and for our purposes the Chinese Yuan Dynasty under another of Genghis’ grandsons, Kublai Khan (AKA Emperor Shizu of Yuan, 元世祖帝) .
So, now Tibet’s officially a part of a Chinese Dynasty, albeit a conquest one. That middling little detail wouldn’t stop subsequent dynasties, like the Ming, and then the Qing from saying “no take-backs” to Tibet. At times submission was sent, and at other times the Tibetan response was somewhat less-than-satisfactory, ranging all the way from internal civil war to outright *de facto* independence. But at least in the eyes of the Chinese imperial governments, once in the empire, always in the empire.
So now we’re at the year 1391 (alt. 1543, when the title was actually first given), and it’s time for the Bodhisattva of Compassion to take corporeal form in the person of Gendun Drup, the first Dalai Lama. Incidentally, that title is a bit of a linguistic muddle – but hey it’s central Asia, so that’s to be expected. The “Dalai” comes from the Mongolic for “ocean/oceanic” – which often in such instances itself refers to the idea of “all the oceans/everything”, which “Lama” stems from the Tibetan word for “guru”, *blama*. So, “Universal Teacher”, if you will. From the mid-17th century until the mid-20th century this incarnation of the Bodhisattva will become the political and spiritual ruler of Tibet… and since it is an immortal entity merely sheathed in flesh, every time the old Dalai Lama “dies” Avalokiteśvara simply reincarnates into a body of its choosing to begin anew. That part will be problematic later.
In the early 17th century, the on-again-off-again relationship between China (now under the rule of the Aisin Gioro Jurchen/Manchus of the Great Qing Dynasty) and Tibet (now led by the 6th incarnation of the Dalai Lama), is solidified in the form of first a tribute payment by Tibet to the Manchus – the first recognition of Qing suzerainty over Tibet vs. their old pledge of servitude to the Mongols. Then in 1718, the Qing Army was dispatched to Tibet to – er’hem, - *assist* with the expulsion of an invading force of the Dzungar Khanate. This encountered some turbulence in the form of an extremely embarrassing defeat at the Battle of Salween River in 1718, but the Qing Kangxi Emperor simply re-raised a new force and stomped the Dzungar threat out in 1720. So now Tibet officially has acknowledged its vassaldom to the [Qing Empire](_URL_0_).
OK, fast forward to 1911 and the Qing Empire is dead, overthrown from within by the republican forces of the Xinhai Revolution. And there was much [queue cutting](_URL_2_) and rejoicing. But wait, now that the Chinese are back in control of China… what’s to happen to all those periphery areas and territories, like Tibet – who had pledged allegiance to the imperial order that the republican upstarts had just overthrown? So the Republic of China simply decided to maintain the exact same borders as the Qing, nevermind the question mark over whether those non-Chinese regions would extend their pledge of vassaldom to this new regime, rather than having it die with the old one. Suffice it to say, there is more than a little griping about this state of affairs. But at least for a while it doesn’t really matter all that much because the RoC is far too busy beating down regional warlords, and the fighting the Communist Party, and then fighting the Japanese, and then fighting the Communist Party again all the way until they find themselves booted off the mainland entirely in 1949 and forced across the sea to Taiwan. Meanwhile, Tibet has been functioning completely autonomously, and considers itself legally free of its pledge to the late Great Qing – once more a *de facto* independent and free nation from 1912-1951.
So now it’s Oct. 1st, 1949, and Mao proclaims the People’s Republic of China… and now there’s no more infighting and civil wars to worry about (just forced labor, mass starvations, and Five Year Plans). The PRC takes the Qing/RoC’s borders and just runs with it, saying in effect, “uh, yeah, these are all ours, too.” Tibet says "wait, but we pledged ourselves to the Qing Empire, which is no more" and then the PLA officers laughed and laughed at this silly joke as their Type 50 tanks rolled in...
The following year the PLA pushes its way into Tibet to reassert Chinese control and faces only sporadic resistance. The fourteenth (and current) Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government accepts the Seventeen Point Proposal in 1951 and is “peacefully reintegrated” into China. And for a few years, things seem hunky-dory from Beijing’s perspective. The Dalai Lama is named as the Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s National Congress. In 1955, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai both visit Lhasa and celebrate the Tibetan New Year with an nice [photo op](_URL_3_) with the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama (the 2nd in command).
But over in Lhasa, the Dalai Lama was growing more and more concerned over the ebbing away of his political and spiritual authority. In 1956, while on a trip to India to celebrate the Buddha’s birthday, he secretly asks India’s President Nehru for political asylum, which was rebuffed on the grounds that India had just signed a treaty with China promising mutual non-intervention in each other’s internal affairs. But that same year the CIA steps in on the heels of an outbreak of rebellion in the Kham region, and begins arming and training the rebels to effectively mount a guerrilla campaign against the CPC/PLA.
By 1959, the Tibetan guerrillas had been pushed back into the Tibetan heartlands by the PLA, and the Dalai Lama – on the hook for this whole thing – fled the country with assistance from the CIA. This time he was admitted to India where he set up the Tibetan Government in Exile.
_________________
**So long story short here:** the Chinese hate the 14th Dalai Lama because they view him as a traitor to the state, an insurrectionary, an oathbreaker, and a political firebrand who went around getting the UN to adopt 3 anti-Chinese, pro-Tibetan resolutions all before the PRC was granted representation in the body as of 1971.
_________________
**But wait! There’s more!**
Owing to the Dalai Lama’s ability to *never truly die if he doesn’t want to*, there is lingering tension/fears on both sides about what will happen when the 14th eventually kicks the bucket. His initial chosen successor was taken into Chinese custody almost immediately after he was named in 1995, and has not been seen since. The Chinese government then issued laws about reincarnation, stating that anyone planning to reincarnate must first receive government approval to do so, otherwise it’s an “illegal or invalid” reincarnation. Yeah, it goes off into cuckoo-land. Meanwhile, with the 11th Panchen Lama MIA, Beijing went ahead and named its own Panchen Lama – who is the “designated reincarnation” of the Dalai Lama – in 1996. #14 retaliated by... saying some things that I'll not get into.
| [
"According to Reuters the Dalai Lama said in March 2012 he does not encourage the protests, but he has praised the courage of those who had engaged in self-immolation and blamed the self-immolations on \"cultural genocide\" by the Chinese. Four months later the Dalai Lama made clear that he wishes to remain neutral... |
how does the human ear discern between a quiet noise and a distant noise? | A quiet noise from a nearby source will have more high frequency content than the same noise made much louder from far away. This is because air absorbs high frequency sound energy over distance but not low frequency to the same extent (think about how a plane sounds low and rumbly from far away, but when you are close, it sounds like all of the frequencies).
Additionally, nearby sounds will create stronger reflections off of surfaces close to you, creating a more full sound compared to distant sounds which will most likely consist of just one apparent location, or the reflections will be recognized as an echo, another indication that the sound is a large distance away.
If you are not near any other objects, the first effect will be the predominant way your ear/brain make the distinction. | [
"In a series of papers Wallach explored the ability of humans to locate sounds in the median plane – that is, to determine whether a sound comes from a source at the same elevation as the ears or from a source that is higher or lower, or even in back of the head. Binaural sound cues, including the phasing or time o... |
why do men need stimuli for an ejaculation? wouldn't it be better if you could do it actively like moving a muscle? | There needs to be a positive feeling associated with sex to make sure we do it. If it was like flexible your arm, then you would not go out and look for it. Its like working out. We know we should, but most don't. | [
"Many men attempt to treat themselves for premature ejaculation by trying to distract themselves, such as by trying to focus their attention away from the sexual stimulation. There is little evidence to indicate that it is effective and it tends to detract from the sexual fulfilment of both partners. Other self-tre... |
What were some of the factors that lead to the city of Atlanta to be settled and grow as large as it has? | Atlanta native here.
The simple answer is that there is no particular reason. Atlanta is just a spot on the map. The city was initially known as Terminus - as in, it was the end of the railroad line. The convergence of several major railroads made it a vital link for the Confederate armies in getting the resources of the deep south to the front in Virginia. This was why W.T. Sherman targeted the city and ripped apart its rail network.
After the War, the city reinvented itself as a symbol of the New South (the city crest still includes the Phoenix) and also became the new capitol of Georgia. People like Henry Grady, who founded the Atlanta Constitution, promoted the city as a place to do business and it became a regional center known for its relatively moderate racial politics and for having a thriving black middle class centered around the Sweet Auburn neighborhood. This wasn't always true, however. Atlanta experienced a race riot in the 1906 and the infamous lynching of Leo Frank happened in 1915 (in the suburb of Marietta).
By the end of World War II, Atlanta was a large city, but it wouldn't have been considered the regional capitol it is today anymore so than Birmingham in neighboring Alabama. However, in the 1950s, Hartsfield International Airport was opened and became a major transit hub and one of the world's largest airports, bringing huge amounts of business to the city. Also, while other southern cities often had violent approaches to the Civil Rights movement, Atlanta was pretty accommodating. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his lieutenants were all from the area and his organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was based on Auburn Avenue. Also, white Atlanta was often pro-civil rights like Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. and Constitution editor Ralph McGill. This all led to a willingness for more northern and international business interests to invest in the city. For example, both the NFL and MLB, which had often been hesitant to move into the deep south, put teams into the city in the mid-60s (the Falcons and Braves).
In the latter half of the 20th century, the city's suburbs boomed, buoyed by strong in-migration from northerners seeking cheap real estate, nice weather, and a good job market. The construction of four major interstates in the city (I-75, I-85, I-20, and I-285) also allowed the metro area to expand in all directions, with no real geographic boundaries to pen in the growth.
The inner city experienced disinvestment and population loss caused by the "white flight" phenomenon, although it has experienced an urban renaissance and gentrification since around the turn of the millennium.
In short, the answer is that Atlanta is a crossroads town, whether it be by rail, air, or highways and people are drawn by the business opportunities to be exploited. Also, the relatively cordial racial relations in the city have made the city a symbol of the "New South."
Sources: Atlanta and Its Environs, by Franklin Garrett. This is the largest (I think it's at 4 or 5 volumes now) history of the city.
Also, for more on Atlanta's complicated racial relations (which are way less rosy then I went into above) there's Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn by Gary Pomerantz. | [
"The city that would become Atlanta began as the endpoint of the Western and Atlantic Railroad (aptly named Terminus) in 1837. Atlanta grew quickly with the completion of The Georgia Railway in 1845 and the Macon & Western in 1846. The city was incorporated in 1847 and extended 1 mile in all directions from the zer... |
When did the NBA become considered a major league in America? | Well the important thing to remember about that game is that it turned into more of a farce than one of the "greatest and most celebrated games". Kinda like those [DIII schools that set scoring records by centering their offense on one player and play full-court press for the steal, and barring that allow uncontested baskets to get back on offense quicker.](_URL_0_)
But back to the point of the question, the NBA was not always the leading basketball league. It was a major sports league as throughout the 20th Century, baseball, football and basketball were the major sports (and the hockey fan in me wants to include hockey too, but I can't justify it). Just like the NFL was split between the National Football League and the American Football League before the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, so too was the NBA split in the 1960s when the American Basketball Association was founded in 1967. ~~Un~~ Just like the other scenario, the NBA was the established organization and the ABA was the up and comer. The ABA was able to attract key college talent and a few of the more exciting NBA players. The Boston Celtics were the dynasty of the 1960s in the NBA and UCLA was the dynasty of college basketball during that time. UCLA's top player was a 7'2" center then called Lew Alcindor, but now better known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. When he was being recruited professionally, a few sports writers mused that whichever league he chose would be the top league for the next decade. The NBA ended up winning the contest for Jabbar, but the ABA still carved itself a piece of the basketball pie.
But in the early 1960s, basketball was still gaining popularity. There were only 8 teams as of 1960. Across all leagues though, you'll see an increase in fandom and popularity whenever dynasties come into being. The Boston Celtics dynasty of the 1960s, winning 9 out of 10 championships in the decade, brought a wider fan base to the sport. Sensing public demand, the NBA started to relocate some of their teams to better markets and began new franchises. Ever wonder why the Los Angeles Lakers are called the "Lakers" despite the clear lack of lakes in LA? ^(totally unintentional tongue-twister there) They originated in Minneapolis, itself home to 20 lakes and in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. The price the NBA was asking for new expansion teams though was extremely high, which also played into the push for an alternative basketball league. It was only after the ABA's creation that the NBA rapidly expanded. The expansions brought the number of NBA teams up to 14 in 1968. The NBA's expansion strategy was not just one of opening up new basketball markets, but it was also an attempt to *close* the markets to the ABA. By 1974, the NBA grew again to 18 teams, adding teams in *such basketball mad cities as New Orleans*. /s
The ABA was able to thrive despite daunting odds because they were able to promote themselves as a different style of basketball. They added the three-point line to the court to add some more excitement and difficulty in shooting. Showmanship was the name of the game in the ABA and some of the rules were adapted to allow for that. The 3-point field goal was one of those. The slam-dunk was popularized in the ABA (not that it didn't exist before) and they included the contest in their all-star game in 1976. The ABA allowed for the drafting of college underclassmen, a shrewd strategy which was an attempt to kneecap NBA talent since the NBA didn't allow underclassmen to enter. They took their talent from places the NBA ignored. While NBA recruiting was focused on the urban centers of the Northeast and West Coast, the ABA noticed that there was a hotbed of raw talent in the South and Midwest which they capitalized on. They also had a longer shot clock which technically doesn't lead to an offensive-explosion, but it's not a perfect argument. The most distinctive feature of the ABA though was their patriotic red, white, and blue basketball they used instead of the orange one that is most common to us. While this style of play was very exciting and the league saw many new fans come out, they couldn't overcome the financial difficulties of trying to compete with the NBA, especially when they could not secure a lucrative television contract.
The two leagues merged in 1976 and the terms brought 4 ABA teams into the NBA (San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, and New York Nets) and the other ABA teams folded. This merger brought the number of teams in the NBA up to 22. The NBA also adopted the 3-point-field goal, the more dynamic style of play, and the slam dunk contest in the all-star game. Today's NBA looks more like the ABA than the NBA of the 1960s. This competition, merger, and massive expansion were critical to the explosion in popularity of the NBA. Of course, this was nothing compared to the Larry Bird, and later, Michael Jordan era, but that's another topic for another day. Same goes for the 1992 Olympic basketball dream team, consisting of tons of superstars (...and Christian Laettner). There's also much more that can be said about the legal aspects of the merger, comparing it to the WHA-NHL and the AFL-NFL ones, but I'm not much of a legal scholar outside of some constitutional knowledge.
EDIT: Fixed a silly mistake. | [
"BULLET::::- The Basketball Association of America was formed in New York City. The forerunner of the NBA, the BAA awarded 13 big-city franchises, of which three — the Boston Celtics, the New York Knicks and the Golden State Warriors (in 1946, the Philadelphia Warriors) — still exist. Other teams were in Chicago (S... |
how sound works? | Think of sound as a movement.
When you beat a drum, the drum-skin vibrates up and down; this causes the air surounding the drum skin to move up and down too.
This movement propogates through the air as a [pressure wave](_URL_0_), until it hits something. When this pressure wave hits your ear and ear drum, it causes your ear drum to start moving and vibrating at the same frequency that the drum-skin is vibrating.
This movement is then sensed and interpreted by your brain as a sound, hence you hear.
Sound can't propogate through space, as it's a vacuum (or at least near enough). With no air molecules to transmit the sound wave, there's no sound.
[See here for more info.](_URL_1_) | [
"Sound is an oscillating pressure wave. As the pressure oscillates up and down, an audio point source acts in turn as a fluid point source and then a fluid point sink. (Such an object does not exist physically, but is often a good simplified model for calculations.)\n",
"Sound is the perceptual result of mechanic... |
When a body is in motion, its mass increases relative to an observer at rest. Why? | First off, it doesn't. This is called relativistic mass, and it is a mis-understanding of relativity. What actually happens is that as objects approach the speed of light it's momentum increases faster than Newton's momentum equation, p = mv, would predict.
So, why does this happen? Well, why is always a hard question to answer, but here is what we can tell you. Einstein discovered that the speed of light is constant in all reference frames. That means that if you are running with a flashlight and turn it on, and I am at rest compared to you, you and I will both measure the speed of light to be 3E8 m/s. So, no matter how fast you are moving, in the same direction as the light is moving, you'll still measure that the light is moving at 3E8 m/s.
Just from this rule (which you can't say why this happens, but it is experimentally verified) you can show that their must be time dilation (time goes slower for people moving faster), length contraction (distances are measured shorter for people moving faster), and momentum increasing (like discussed earlier). | [
"The relativistic mass of a moving object is larger than the relativistic mass of an object that is not moving, because a moving object has extra kinetic energy. The \"rest mass\" of an object is defined as the mass of an object when it is at rest, so that the rest mass is always the same, independent of the motion... |
how come if milk is poured in to a pint glass, that when ever beer is poured into the same pint glass it will become flat? | That is a myth. Beer will always go flat once it is not under pressure (keg, bottle, or can) so it will go flat in any glass that it is poured into.
Now the kernel of truth that exists is that if you pour beer into an unwashed milk glass it will not form a good head. This is due to the fats from the milk preventing it from retaining surface tension. You will see a similar effect from any source of fats, so if you put a drop of grease from the food you eat it will do the same. But this loss of head is not the same as going flat. | [
"In the United States, a pint is . However, the typical conical \"pint\" glass holds 16 oz. to its rim. With a half inch of foam, the actual liquid fill is roughly 14 oz. In recent years, some restaurants replaced pint glasses with glasses, to which customers objected. In response to this, legislation in the state ... |
what optical property allows a projector to project a coherent image onto a surface while simply pointing an lcd screen at surface only produces a blurry image? | A projector has a series of lenses on the inside that focus the image. You can adjust these lenses to focus the image, where as a lcd screen is light scattering in any direction with no organization. | [
"BULLET::::- 3D display: By presenting a light field using technology that maps each sample to the appropriate ray in physical space, one obtains an autostereoscopic visual effect akin to viewing the original scene. Non-digital technologies for doing this include integral photography, parallax panoramagrams, and ho... |
how do companies like gj wentworth work? | When you win a lawsuit or settle it in your favor, the person you won the money from usually doesn't have to pay you all at once. Instead, there is a payment plan. When you agree to such a payment plan, instead of having a trial, this is called a "structured settlement."
JG Wentworth and similar companies buy your structured settlement from you. So, let's say that you won $10,000 in a lawsuit, and the other party has to pay you $1,000 per month for 10 months. A company like JG Wentworth might offer to pay you $7,000 right now, today. In exchange, they'll get the $1,000 per month for ten months. You get the money quicker, but they come out on top.
Hence: It's my money, and I want it now. | [
"The J.G. Wentworth Company is a diversified financial services company, focused on providing direct-to-consumer access to financing solutions through a variety of avenues, including mortgage lending and refinancing, structured settlement, annuities, lottery payment purchasing, home lending, prepaid cards, and acce... |
Does sharing drinks, eating things that were on the floor, etc actually improve the immune system? | In the sense that you increase the number of antigens your body encounters, and thus the number of different kinds of antibodies you produce, yes.
In the sense that you won't get sick or that you might not accidentally encounter some bacteria, virus or other pathogen that your immune system can't respond to fast enough / at all to prevent getting sick, no. | [
"The immune system is what keeps us healthy in spite of the many organisms and substances that can do us harm. In this issue, explore how our bodies are designed to prevent potentially harmful objects from getting inside, and what happens when bacteria, viruses, fungi or other foreign organisms or substances breach... |
Are there linking species between sexual and asexual reproduction? They just seem so discrete | Just speaking generally, there are species (I know of single cell organisms for sure) that can reproduce both sexually and asexually. If the organism gains a competitive advantage from sexual reproduction in a certain environment, then those organisms more prone to reproducing sexually would eventually out-compete and possibly diverge from those favoring asexual reproduction. | [
"Although many eukaryotes are able to reproduce sexually, as much as 20% of fungal species had been thought to reproduce exclusively by asexual means. However recent studies have revealed that sex occurs even in some of the supposedly asexual species. For example, sexual capability was recently shown for the fungus... |
Why is WW2 considered to be a major catalyst in the advancement of women in America when they had been a large part of the workforce since factories became mainstream? | There are two sides to this answer.
One side is that World War II did see (in America and elsewhere) an explosion of women a) performing jobs that had traditionally been coded masculine, such as laborers in factories making munitions and machinery, and b) joining the workforce when they likely would not have if their husbands had not been at war. From the rise of cotton mills in the early nineteenth century to the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in the early twentieth, the textile and garment industries depended on the underpaid labor of working-class women - standing at mechanical looms and spinning machines, sitting at sewing machines packed into a sweatshop, taking piecework home. The vast majority of domestic servants were female, from the basic maid-of-all-work to the average cook and parlor/chambermaid - male servants were paid a great deal more, and tended to be found in elite households that needed footmen to pass plates at fancy dinners, butlers to pour expensive champagne, and stablehands, grooms, and coachmen to deal with carriages (later, chauffeurs with cars). In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, women's participation in paying work exploded, with women coming to make up a larger portion of the workforce as they entered a wider variety of industrial jobs. In the early twentieth century, sales counters were frequently staffed with women; the new position of telephone switchboard operator was gendered feminine, and the older position of secretary became so.
(This caused, as you might guess, a tremendous amount of gender-related anxiety. Early in the century, when textile craftsmen were transitioning into factory work, they typically pushed back by excluding women from their trade unions, since female workers would be paid less and therefore threatened their wages, as well as their sense that they were doing "a man's job". Factory owners that largely employed women at the machinery would employ men as supervisors and office workers, positions that put them above the "unskilled" women and certainly gave them higher wages. Progressive middle class legislators addressing industrial workplace issues tended to take the view that the most important thing was to guarantee the working class man's ability to maintain his family - though they by no means managed to do so - rather than to protect all workers.)
During World War I and World War II, the loss of men from masculine-gendered industrial and office fields meant that there were openings that needed to be filled, openings that women weren't usually considered for if there were enough men to fill them. Most stereotypically, they picked up work in munitions factories, but they could be found everywhere - janitorial work, driving cars and ambulances, holding supervisory positions. Middle class women who had not been required to work outside the home were also entering the workforce in order to support their families when their husbands were at war, or did so in response to the frequent depiction of war work as a patriotic duty. These factors did make women's participation in the workforce during World War II (and I) somewhat revolutionary.
The other side is that the narrative of women's history is often drastically simplified in popular culture in order to provide a moral message about how and why "things got better". "Premodern times" are jumbled together in a mass of barbaric customs that saw all women treated as mindless chattel; then in the early modern period, individual proto-feminist intellectuals began to protest this treatment in writing, which progressed into real action in the nineteenth century. Women experienced freedom working during World War I, which made them happy and liberated and created the flapper. The same thing happened again during World War II, after which men tried to put women back in their place, which resulted in the second wave of feminism in the 1960s. There is a clear progression from worse to better, implying some level of natural improvement, and people and situations are filed into objectively good and bad boxes. The women on the side of progress are typically portrayed in fiction as radical pioneers, contrasted with conservative biddies and condescending old men. It's all very simple and black-and-white.
Once you begin to read about women's history, though, you see a beautiful and amazing complexity. (You can get some of this from [my past answers here](_URL_0_), but for [the real good stuff](_URL_1_) you want /u/sunagainstgold's.) A great deal of complexity comes out of looking at the differences in occupations and choices of upper, middle, and working class women in their own contexts rather than assuming a unified and modern set of desires and preferences and a middle class default perspective: what did these women actually want out of life, and how did they view various activities? A working class woman might see sewing as a necessary task to keep her family out of rags, while a middle class woman could practice it as a form of craft to make chair covers, cushions, etc. for her home, and an upper class woman might produce artwork with the best materials or completely leave it off, since she could buy things that had been made/embroidered by others. Women at all levels of society could view their occupations (whether paid jobs or domestic/family duties) as careers even though we do not now see them as desirable ones. More complexity comes from simply taking a deeper dive into the sources. Widows ran their late husbands' businesses, wives worked with their husbands as equal partners. Women with social power exercised it, even against men. They wrote books and studied history, science, the arts. Here and there, it is possible to say that "women's economic power declined as guild protections were enacted" or "it became more acceptable for women to participate in that field", but the straight line of progress gets extremely fuzzy! In order for the narrative to be kept clear, women's paid employment before World War II has to be downplayed and masculine-coded occupations have to be portrayed as objectively more appealing and empowering than feminine-coded ones. | [
"In the United States, World War I made space for women in the workforce, among other economical and social influences. Due to the rise in demand for production from Europe during the raging war, more women found themselves working outside the home.\n",
"During WWI (1914-1918), large numbers of women were recruit... |
how does live cd work? | Yes, AFAIK live system create in-memory file systems. _URL_0_
I don't think you can run those if the main memory is too small. | [
"A live CD (also live DVD, live disc, or live operating system) is a complete bootable computer installation including operating system which runs directly from a CD-ROM or similar storage device into a computer's memory, rather than loading from a hard disk drive. A Live CD allows users to run an operating system ... |
how does going to a malacious website help the people behind it spy on you and take your personal information? | They can look at your cookies, which are bits of info that search engines like Google use to find ads that suit you. Companies can look into these to find out things such as your age, gender, and use that to track you further. I'm not an expert, but I'm comfortably sure all of this is factual. There are definitely other ways malicous sites can gather info about you, so be safe with a VPN | [
"The methods employed to acquire this information include searching publicly available databases and social media websites (like Facebook), hacking, and social engineering. It is closely related to Internet vigilantism and hacktivism.\n",
"Web communities can be an easy and useful tool to access information. Howe... |
how gear ratios, long and short gears work. | A gear ratio in a car means that for every one rotation of the input, the output will rotate "x" amount of times.
A gear is basically a lever, but a bunch of little levers in a circle. That's how torque (turning force) is transmitted. The size of the input gear related to the output gear is what determines how much torque can be transmitted.
For example, if the engine is turning at 1000rpm and the rear wheels are also spinning at 1000rpm the gear ratio is 1:1 (this is usually around 4th gear in a car).
A gear ratio that has a second number larger than one, eg 1:3 (the output (wheels) spins once for every three turns of the input(engine)), (often first gear) means the wheels are spinning slower than the engine - the car is in a lower gear which will transmit a lot of torque from the engine to the road. This is for when the car is trying to speed up.
A gear ratio that has a second number less than one, eg 1:0.8, (often fifth gear)means that the wheels are turning faster than the engine - this is called "overdrive". There is very little torque going to the rear wheels in overdrive, however by this point the wheels are already spinning fast and have inertia - the high gear just delivers enough power to *keep* them spinning against friction. It's much easier to keep something moving than to get it moving.
Short gears mean that the ratios are relatively close throughout all the gears, which allows you to speed up quicker. Long gears means the ratios are farther apart, allowing you to have a higher top speed with a lower engine RPM. | [
"Different types of gears have different ratios of rotation of the motor and the wheel, and they include (3.5:1), (3:7:1), (4:1), (4.2:1), (5:1), and \"Special\" (ratio varies but are usually 6.4:1). The higher the ratio, the better the acceleration rate and torque; the lower the ratio, the better the maximum speed... |
which is more powerful the suck of a fan or the blow of a fan or are they the same? | Imagine a lot of people entering the Disneyland through the turnstiles. They are very uneducated people so they don't have the habit of queuing. Instead, they just congregate near the entrance as they move slowly through the turnstiles one by one. Once they're in, they immediate rush towards the attractions straight ahead.
This is a poor analogy because the mechanisms are reversed, but it roughly illustrates how air particles move around the fan. One key concept is that air particles are always pushing at each other. When fan blades spin, they "kick" air out the front. The air around the back, being push by the air further behind, are drawn into the fan from all directions much more slowly. Therefore you can feel the wind from the front, but hardly from the back.
I think the real question here is that, the blowing stream is fast but narrow, while the suction stream is weak but wide. All in all, which is stronger? The answer is the blowing stream, because the fan blades are adding energy into the air stream while they're spinning. | [
"BULLET::::- The fan produces a maximum pressure reduction of about 30,000 pascals = about 0.3 atmosphere or 4.5 pounds/square inch. Across a circular suction opening 9.8 inches diameter that would give an entry air speed of about 400 mph and a maximum suction power of about 340 pounds = about 3 hundredweight. It c... |
why are different kinds of disinfectants used in different situations? | This can be a big deal--there are often specific guidelines on how to clean for certain diseases and equipment. C diff infections are notoriously hard to kill, and require crazy amounts of cleaning in a patient's room to make sure it doesn't spread. Overall, it depends on quite a few things, including:
* The toxicity of the disinfectant (putting bleach on a cut is not a great idea)
* The type of pathogen you're concerned about--things like bacterial spores are very hard to kill, whereas larger viruses and "normal" bacteria are relatively easier.
* Cost and ease of use
For example, according to the CDC guidelines, alcohol solutions are okay to use to disinfect small surfaces like medication vials and external medical equipment like stethoscopes, but they are not effective enough to clean surgical materials.
If you're curious, you can read the CDC guidelines [here](_URL_0_) (warning...not a thrilling read) | [
"A perfect disinfectant would also offer complete and full microbiological sterilisation, without harming humans and useful form of life, be inexpensive, and noncorrosive. However, most disinfectants are also, by nature, potentially harmful (even toxic) to humans or animals. Most modern household disinfectants cont... |
how does a html5 video load instantly (even on a phone), never buffers, and has amazing quality, when the same video in a gif takes 30 seconds to load, stutters, and looks like shit, and a flash video buffers and pauses all the time, and why isn't everyone using html5? | Easy:
**GIFs** are basically a series of images strung together, created decades ago. They are really simple files. Long gifs are made up of quite a few hundred images that you have to load and as such you can imagine they are quite slow.
**Flash** basically plays a video file using it's own plugin. Video files are way better than Gifs because they were designed to actually show video and as such instead of huge amounts of individual images it basically sends a few and then a bunch of info regarding what happens in-between them. It's better than GIFs but unfortunately it has the added overheaded of having your browser load a plugin (Flash) and then the video itself.
**HTML5** is quite new and basically just loads and plays a video file, bypassing the whole loading a video into flash and loading the flash plugin part.
The problem with web development is that it's quite chaotic and there's quite a few different browsers that don't support every feature. Flash is fairly safe today but a lot of Browser programs don't allow HTML5 features such as video.
I could go into more detail as to why there's no buffering on HTML5 and such but this is ELI5 :) | [
"All videos on sevenload get saved in the Flash Video and H.264 formats (file extensions: .flv, .mp4). The videos can be replayed online as a stream in any web browser. To watch the videos in a web browser the Adobe Flash plug-ins must be installed. Videos can be uploaded up to a size of 1,5 GB in all current forma... |
After a nephrectomy, how does the body fill the empty space where the kidney was? | The kidney is retroperitoneal, which means it is under the peritoneal cavity. There is a small amount of blood which eventually gets resorbed. But apart from that the body doesn't do anything with the extra space. | [
"The mesoderm around the tubules becomes condensed to form the connective tissue of the kidney. The ureter opens at first into the hind-end of the Wolffian duct; after the sixth week it separates from the Wolffian duct, and opens independently into the part of the cloaca which ultimately becomes the urinary bladder... |
why do we most often focus on economic growth in absolute gdp terms instead of gdp per capita? | GDP isn't meant to be used as an employment statistic, you're absolutely right about that. It's supposed to measure a nation's ability to participate in a war through the creation of useful goods and services, and it's overall purchasing power to pursue new kinds of industrial technology. | [
"It has been argued that GDP per capita was much more stable and progressed at a much slower rate until the industrial revolution and the emergence of the modern capitalist economy, and that it has since increased rapidly in capitalist countries.\n",
"Although a high or rising level of GDP is often associated wit... |
during the therapy of a person, what's the goal of a psychologist? | Say you want to build a house. You have no idea how to build a house. So you go talk to an expert, an architect or an engineer, etc. and ask them for help. They don't know what you want, but they can help direct you define what you want or need and make sure you don't skip any important steps.
They don't "build a house" for you, they help you build your own house.
A psychologist does not have a goal, so much as they help you with your own goals. | [
"Counseling generally involves helping people with what might be considered \"normal\" or \"moderate\" psychological problems, such as the feelings of anxiety or sadness resulting from major life changes or events. As such, counseling psychologists often help people adjust to or cope with their environment or major... |
Were the Romans aware that an eclipse of the Sun was caused by the Moon blocking its light? | The Greeks reportedly knew how to predict them as far back as 585 BC. Herodotus gives an account in *The Histories*:
> ...just as the battle was growing warm, day was on a sudden changed into night. This event had been foretold by Thales, the Milesian, who forewarned the Ionians of it, fixing for it the very year in which it actually took place.
We also know that Claudius Ptolemy, a Roman citizen, had worked out how to predict both Solar and Lunar eclipses with a very clever and sophisticated model during the Second Century, detailed in his *Almagest*. It's not unreasonable to suggest that Augustine may have had knowledge of the works of Ptolemy, given that it had been so long since its publication.
*****
I had difficulty identifying anything about the Romans' beliefs surrounding solar eclipses, but there's a semi-famous account in Plutarch's *Parallel Lives* about a lunar eclipse on the night before the Battle of Pydna, almost 600 years before the birth of Augustine:
> When it was night, and, supper being over, all were turning to sleep and rest, on a sudden the moon, which was then at full and high in the heavens, grew dark, and by degrees losing her light, passed through various colors, and at length was totally eclipsed. The Romans, according to their custom, clattering brass pans and lifting up firebrands and torches into the air, invoked the return of her light; the Macedonians behaved far otherwise: terror and amazement seized their whole army, and a rumor crept by degrees into their camp that this eclipse portended even that of their king. Aemilius was no novice in these things, nor was ignorant of the nature of the seeming irregularities of eclipses, that **in a certain revolution of time, the moon in her course enters the shadow of the earth and is there obscured, till, passing the region of darkness, she is again enlightened by the Sun.**
So although at least some amongst the Romans certainly knew the cause of such events in that time, they nevertheless still took part in religious rituals intended to bring back the Moon's light. Even Aemilius subsequently took part in sacrifices (which Plutarch describes in detail), despite knowing that it was a natural occurrence. | [
"At the time of Thales' purported prediction it was not yet known that eclipses were caused by the Moon coming between the Earth and the Sun, a fact that would not be discovered until over a century later by either Anaxagoras or Empedocles.\n",
"When eclipses were not well understood, they were sometimes associat... |
Does cooling really account for 30% of all CO2 production by humanity? | Ask him to provide a source for that statistic next time you see him.
The number seems high, but not outside the realm of possibility considering [this](_URL_0_) site claims 40% of energy consumption is from buildings. He should be able to provide sources for his claim, or at least explain where he came up with the number and in my experience professors typically think more highly of the student who actively expresses interest in the topic at hand. | [
"350 parts per million is what scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO in our atmosphere. In May 2013, two independent teams of scientists measuring CO near the summit of Mauna Loa in Hawaii recorded that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atm... |
Are there any notable examples of history vindicating someone? Perhaps an action that was not popular but proved instrumental later? | Must resist username joke...
[Seward's Folly](_URL_0_) is probably the most obvious in terms of a standard high school history class. Not everyone thought buying Alaska for two cents an acre was a good idea. I'd say that he was vindicated.
In a similar vein, many people opposed the Louisiana Purchase. It was questioned whether Jefferson even had the Constitutional authority to make such a purchase.
A case could be made that Benedict Arnold was at least partially vindicated by at least having cause to join the British. | [
"In 1386, during the Battle of Sempach, a soldier from Stans, Arnold von Winkelried, is claimed to have thrown himself on the pikes of the Habsburg army which led the Swiss to victory. However it is doubtful whether he existed or died in the battle as the first mention of his selfless act appears over 150 years aft... |
Did the Russo-Finnish Winter War actually encourage Germany to attack Russia? | Hiya!
The short answer is yes, the appalling performance of the Red Army in the Winter War was absolutely influential in convincing Nazi Germany, and indeed other states, that the USSR would be incapable of defeating a German invasion. I've discussed this directly in [this](_URL_0_) post, as part of a wider discussion of the importance of the conflict. If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them - though I am about to go to bed so I'll probably only get to them tomorrow.
I hope this helps! | [
"In Operation Barbarossa in 1941, both Russian and German soldiers had to endure terrible conditions during the Russian winter. The German-Finnish joint offensive against Murmansk (Operation Silver Fox) in 1941 saw heavy fighting in the Arctic environment. Subsequently, the Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation conducted by t... |
Have there been many incidences of a country re-locating their government in the face of invasion? | Portugal moved their government to Brazil when Napoleon invaded, and this directly led to independence and the Empire of Brazil | [
"Once political boundaries and military lines have been breached, pacification of the region is the final, and arguably the most important, goal of the invading force. After the defeat of the regular military, or when one is lacking, continued opposition to an invasion often comes from civilian or paramilitary resi... |
Can Pauli's exclusion principle be violated? | No. There are a few steps along the logical progression that lead to Pauli's principle, and they're all more or less iron-clad.
First, if you have a wavefunction representing multiple identical particles, Ψ(x*_1_*,x*_2_*,...,x*_i_*,...,x*_j_*,...,x*_N_*), and you define the permutation operator P*_ij_* as an operator which switches particles i and j, then we have:
P*_ij_*Ψ(x*_1_*,x*_2_*,...,x*_i_*,...,x*_j_*,...,x*_N_*) = Ψ(x*_1_*,x*_2_*,...,x*_j_*,...,x*_i_*,...,x*_N_*).
Obviously applying this operator twice must give you back the same state, because if you switch two things then immediately switch them back, nothing has changed.
So P*_ij_*^(2) = 1 (the unit operator). This implies that the eigenvalues of the permutation operator are 1 and -1. Also note that this holds for arbitrary i and j, so you can switch any two of the identical particles in your system.
If the permutation operator commutes with the Hamiltonian (as it very often does), energy eigenstates are eigenfunctions of the permutation operator, so they must come with one of the eigenvalues (1 or -1). That means that they must either be totally symmetric under exchange of any two identical particles or totally antisymmetric under exchange of any two identical particles.
We define **bosons** to be particles which have permutation eigenvalue 1 (they are symmetric under exchange) and **fermions** to be particles which have permutation eigenvalue -1 (they are antisymmetric).
If we try to write a wavefunction for two identical fermions, one in state n and one in state m, we have to make sure it's antisymmetric under exchange, so we write:
Ψ(x*_1_*,x*_2_*) = Ψ*_n_*(x*_1_*)Ψ*_m_*(x*_2_*) - Ψ*_n_*(x*_2_*)Ψ*_m_*(x*_1_*), ignoring spin and normalization.
Clearly for n = m, the two terms on the right side are the same, so when subtracted they give zero.
This is Pauli exclusion. All it says is that no two fermions can occupy the same quantum state, and there aren't many ways to poke holes in the ideas that led up to this.
Perhaps the more interesting thing is how permutation symmetry relates to spin. If you study quantum gases of each of these kinds of particles (bosons and fermions), they have remarkably different and interesting properties, just based on the difference in permutation symmetry. The link between fermions/bosons and half-integer/integer spins comes from the [spin-statistics theorem](_URL_0_).
But anyway, no, Pauli exclusion can't be violated. | [
"The Pauli exclusion principle is the quantum mechanical principle which states that two or more identical fermions (particles with half-integer spin) cannot occupy the same quantum state within a quantum system simultaneously. This principle was formulated by Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli in 1925 for electrons... |
Judas's betrayal of Jesus and Roman law | I think you’ve misread some basic details in the Gospels. I recommend at least reading through Matthew 26-27 and John 18-19.
The accounts we have do not have Judas betraying Jesus in relation to Roman Law, but in relation to the political and religious dealings of the power-players in Jerusalem, namely the Pharisees and the Priestly groups and Sadducees. Judas arranges to lead the soldiers (probably not Roman soldiers, but armed temple guards) to intercept Jesus at a time when his arrest will not cause a commotion.
The kiss is a standard greeting but it is used to identiy and single out Jesus. While Jesus was teaching in public, not everyone would recognise him by sight. In a dimly lit garden setting, in which the possibility of a commotion might involve Jesus slipping away, the kiss might work to ‘mark’ their primary target.
As for the play between Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s, the way the narrative is constructed is designed to highlight that Judas feels remorse, and then kills himself, whereas Peter experiences repentance, and thus restoration. However you understand the historical underpinning, it is (also) a literary construct in which two responses to betraying Jesus end with radically different outcomes, which invites the reader to a figurative interpretation.
To circle around to your first question, no aspect of Roman Law requires Judas to betray Jesus. Rather, it appears to function in the early stages of Jesus arrest and trial in front of Judean authorities.
| [
"One suggestion has been that Judas expected Jesus to overthrow Roman rule of Judea. In this view, Judas is a disillusioned disciple betraying Jesus not so much because he loved money, but because he loved his country and thought Jesus had failed it. Another is that Jesus was causing unrest likely to increase tensi... |
why do i sometimes hear a really high-pitched noise in one of my ears then go deaf in that ear for a minute? | WebMD says you have Cancer. | [
"In a 2011 study, musicologists Michael Oehler and Christoph Reuter hypothesize that the unpleasantness of the sound is caused by acoustic resonance due to the shape of the human ear canal which amplifies certain frequencies, especially those in the range of 2000 to 4000 Hz (the median pitches mentioned above), at ... |
why is north korea generally not considered to be a monarchy? | Because it's not a monarchy, it's a single-party state.
Basically, the government consists of the Worker's Party of Korea, which is led by Jim Jong Un as the Secretary of the Worker's Party (and commander of the military).
| [
"Korean monarchy existed in Korea until the end of the Japanese occupation. After the independence and the installation of the Constitution that adopted republic system, the concept of nobility has been abolished, both formally and in practice. \n",
"North Korea is officially a secular state and the North Korean ... |
How did early computers display characters in languages where the letters are more complicated than English-type (and languages that use the same characters)? | I can say a bit about how it worked for Japanese in particular. For early computers there are actually two problems: one is that, like you say, there is not really enough pixels on the screen to display legible characters. Another problem is that early computers where mainly developed in English-speaking countries, so operating systems tended to assume that each letter can be stored as a number between 0 and 127 (in 7 bits), which obviously doesn't work if there are thousands of characters.
As you may know, Japanese actually has three different scripts: kanji (chinese characters, there are thousands of them), and hiragana and katakana. There are 50 letters in each of the hiragana and katakana scripts, and they represents sounds directly. Ordinary writing uses a mixture of all three. The letters look something like this: kanji 般若波羅蜜多心経 hiragana はんにゃはらみったしんぎょう katakana ホンニャハラミッタンギョウ.
So the earliest solution was to write all computer text using only the 50 katakana characters. These fit in the 128 set that most English-language computers allowed, and with some extra complexity they used an encoding that let's you switch into a katakana mode and a English-letter mode, so the computer can display both. You can see how this works in [JIS X 0201](_URL_2_), which was standardized in 1969.
Also, normally each katakana character is roughly square, but the font support for western computers are of course designed for rectangular letters (e.g. the fonts may be 8x14 pixels). This lead to "[half-width katakana](_URL_1_)", where each character is squished together to fit in a rectangular box of the same size as an English letter.
This system was in use well into the 1980s for small computers (e.g. check-out machines in supermarkets). And indeed, you can still often see half-width kana on your supermarket receipts.
Another example of resource constrained systems is home microcomputers, and in particular gaming consoles like the original 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System. Here the biggest problem was that memory was expensive, so they could not afford to draw kanji fonts and include them on the cartridge. So in this case, most game text was written either in hiragana or in English, with a few kanji sprinkled in. Of course, resolution was limited too, so only simple kanjis could be legibly written. [Here is a nice blogpost](_URL_0_) which discusses how things were done, with a bunch of examples and screenshots.
| [
"Many languages or language families not based on the Latin alphabet such as Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, or Hebrew have historically been represented on computers with different 8-bit extended ASCII encodings. Written East Asian languages, specifically Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, use far more characters than can be... |
the difference between headphones | Please for the mother of god, go to _URL_0_ and make a new post. Tell them what type of music you listen to and if you play games or not. Tell them if you like bass or not, or if you even have a preference. Explain the types of instruments that you like the sound of. Tell them your budget that you'd like to stay within. Tell them WHAT you're using to listen from. (ipod, computer, xbox, etc) Tell them if you want earbuds, ON-ear, around-ear, or whatnot. They'll hook you up.
Source: audiophile. I wasted a TON of money before I found out about the world of GOOD headphones. They don't even have to cost a lot. | [
"In the context of telecommunication, a headset is a combination of headphone and microphone. Headphones connect to a signal source such as an audio amplifier, radio, CD player, portable media player, mobile phone, video game console, or electronic musical instrument, either directly using a cord, or using wireless... |
Does having a fast metabolic rate cause your body to generate heat faster? | Your metabolic rate is the energy you use per unit time, and as we all know energy can come in different forms, including heat. Individuals that have a slower metabolism can feel a bit colder, although not too normal, it can occur as well as vise versa. Too add on, your metabolic rate can be broken down into several of categories, which include;
1. Basal metabolic rate: metabolism during sleep/deep-rest.
2. Thermic of food: calories used when digestion occurs.
3. Thermic of exercise: calories used during exercise.
4. Resting metabolic rate: Metablic rate during rest to keep you alive.
However, to answer your question, it isn't too common though, because of how vital it is for your body to maintain temperature. Your body has ways to regulate your internal temperature, and it is vital to stay alive and healthy. For example, When you exercise and many, many signals in your body occur, one specifically is the use of energy (ATP) which produces heat (muscle contraction). As a result our sympathetic pathway in our bodies kick in and we begin to sweat to cool down our body. This is just one way, there are many others.
& #x200B;
& #x200B; | [
"With regards to metabolism, a higher rate of thermoregulation means an increase in metabolic rate, and therefore a higher consumption of oxygen. Standard metabolic rate will alter as the ambient temperature alters.\n",
"Changes in body temperature – either hotter or cooler – increase the metabolic rate, thus bur... |
Why was Opeartion Barbarossa so sucessful at first and how did the soviets stop it later? | The initial success has a number of factors. For one, the Great Purge took out a huge proportion of the most senior staff- Marshalls, Corps commanders, admirals, etc. While not all were killed, and some were eventually "rehabilitated", this meant the initial defense against the strongest fascist push fell on an army in disarray, with commanders who were inexperienced and or terrified of taking any action without political approval.
Another issue was the border fortifications. The "Stalin line" was a huge system of forts and gun positions along the Western border as it stood before the molotov-ribbentrop pact. After the pact and the partition of Poland, the plan was to build a new system on the new border. The guns were mothballed, maintenance ceased, garrison troops and supplies were shuffled around, etc. But the invasion came in before the new fortifications were in any way ready. So instead of one or both defensive lines being ready, 0 were.
Third, logistics were a hot mess. The equipment of the red army was in a transition period, with a vast number of outdated tanks, small arms and cannons being phased out in favor of new ones. When the invasion came, units might find themselves with their old equipment, but no ammo or fuel because they were supposed to be replaced with the new stuff. Or they had hundreds of brand-new KV and T-34 tanks, but the shells for the main guns were still thousands of miles behind the front in a supply depot somewhere. There are numerous isolated incidents of these new tanks absolutely dunking on the fascists when they could be brought into action (_URL_0_), but this was a battle of millions, and the majority of the new tanks were idle or squandered.
As for why it failed.. Well. The short version is that the wehrmacht didn't have enough fuel, equipment, men, transportation or food for a multi-axis attack with supply chains that were thousands of miles long. It's nearly 2,000km from Berlin to Moscow. It'd be quite a feat to get a few million men there in peacetime. They didn't have the equipment because they didn't have the resources or the workers. They didn't have the soldiers because they'd already called everyone up. So when Nazi officials said it would be a short campaign and the soviets would collapse in a month or two, that was part hope, and part necessity. Because if anything *other* than a crushing victory before winter 1941 happened, Nazi Germany was doomed. They'd spent 8 years robbing Peter to pay Paul, meaning they lurched from one crisis to another. Hitler's plans from 1938 on were basically "step one- invade. Step 2-??? Step 3- everyone surrenders and the thousand-year-Reich prospers." Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for the rest of the world, the bill came due.
Sources:
"Russia's War: a history of the soviet effort", Richard Overy
"The Wages of Destruction", Adam Tooze | [
"Rosenberg viewed that the political goal of Operation Barbarossa was not merely the destruction of the Bolshevik regime, but the \"reversing of Russian dynamism\" towards the east (Siberia) and the freeing of the Reich of the \"eastern nightmare for centuries to come\" by eliminating the Russian state, regardless ... |
Who was the first monarch? | The oldest monarch almost certainly lived in ancient Mesopotamia or Egypt.
The oldest datable monarch that we can be certain existed historically is currently [Lugalzagesi of Umma](_URL_2_) (2341-2316 BCE) who was the first city-ruler of an ancient Sumerian city to rule as hegemon over all the others. Although "kings" before him tried to accomplish this, they failed to do so, and these previous rulers were essentially just the mayors of individual cities. Lugalzagesi was later captured by, the much more famous, [Sargon of Akkad]( _URL_0_) (2334-2279 BCE).
We know the names of many of these earlier "city-rulers" but as one moves further back in time they and their descriptions become increasingly mythological and absurd. In any case, the earliest such "city-rulers" may or may not have high priests of the city's patron deity, and the office probably corresponded with the rise of genuine cities in the mid-fourth millennium BCE (~3500). This was all in Mesopotamia.
Egypt probably had "monarchs" sooner than Mesopotamia because they mostly skipped the "city-ruler" phase and jumped into a territorial state faster. The problem with Egypt is that the dates for these early kings are really messed up. We're fairly confident that even the earliest kings existed, but trying to ascertain exactly when is most unpleasant. For your purposes, the first ruler of unified Egypt is the guy you want, but the problem is that we aren't sure who he is exactly. He has typically been thought to be Menes, but he could also be Narmer, (Hor-)Aha, or the Scorpion King. Whoever it is, he is buried in one of the monumental tombs at [Abydos](_URL_4_) and probably lived around 3000 BCE.
All of this ignores the long tradition in Egyptian and Mesopotamian (and Biblical!) literature that describes many individuals and kings said to have lived in the hoary mists of ultra antiquity, but most archaeological and accompanying research has revealed most of the early parts of these works to be entirely artificial, composed in much later periods, and often for transparently obvious political reasons.
Check out the [Sumerian King List](_URL_1_) and the [List of Pharaohs](_URL_3_) for many more named kings, but take the details with a grain of salt. For various reasons, Wikipedia is typically 25 years behind contemporary research into Ancient History.
| [
"The first four Monarchs of the Kingdom were Founding Fathers of the Kingdom. These are namely Kings Ndoli, Opuamakuba, Alagbariya (Founder of Bonny: 'Okoloamakoromabo') and Asimini. After these initial Four Kings, their direct-blood descendants ruled the Kingdom as Kings until the era of King Awusa (Halliday). It ... |
what would happen if we didn't remove the air bubble from syringes? | The main risk with leaving an air bubble in a syringe is inaccurate dosing. With the syringe partly full of air, the amount of liquid won't be accurate to the markings on the syringe.
Getting air into a vein isn't a significant hazard unless it's a huge amount - like a whole drip tube full or someone squeezes a drip bag in, including the large air bubble.
The air will circulate in the veins and reach the lungs where it will lodge and get removed in a few minutes. The lungs will filter out the air so it can't travel to the brain except where there is also a "hole in the heart". | [
"Unlike air purifiers, which filter or otherwise trap particles within an air circulator, air sanitizers have the ability to act on airborne microorganisms in open interior air space. A sneeze- or cough-generated pathogenic aerosol will take significant time to be treated by a circulating air purifier simply becaus... |
in the united states why is it legal for me to home brew beer but illegal for me to distill spirits? | Chances of adult soda go boom not very high. Chances adult spirits go boom much, much higher | [
"In the United States, it is illegal to distill beverage alcohol without a license. In some parts of the U.S., it is also illegal to sell a still without a license. However, all states allow unlicensed individuals to make their own beer, and some also allow unlicensed individuals to make their own wine (although ma... |
how did studios able to upgrade old mv to 4k on youtube (especially last christmas by wham)? | Actual 35mm has a expected resolution of approximately 4K so it's just a matter of doing a new transfer from the film to digital media. So there's really not a whole lot involved it's just a matter of scanning the film in at the higher resolution. | [
"In December 2016, an interview done by \"Rogue One\" director Gareth Edwards revealed that Lucasfilm had recently completed a 4K restoration of the film, but did not elaborate on whether the restored version was based on the 1977 original or a subsequent re-release.\n",
"In May 2018, it was announced that the Ya... |
what is going on with the hugo awards | This was asked previously at _URL_0_.
I thought the article relatively straightforward, but I was already familiar with the basic Hugo process. Perhaps if you started a new thread asking specifically about what in the article is confusing. Otherwise, between the previous thread and that article, I don't know what to make simpler. | [
"The Hugo Awards are presented every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine \"Amazing Stories\", and was once officially known as th... |
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