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I open the windows and let the humid air in my room. Then I close the window, turn on the A/C, and the air becomes dry. Where did the moisture/humidity/water in the air go? | Your condenser drips water... same thing happens on cars when you see water droplets/mini puddles on the ground. Window units in highly populated cities in Asia (hong Kong) drip like its a small drizzle... | [
"The wooden screen with openable windows gives shade and protection from the hot summer sun, while allowing the cool air from the street to flow through. The designs of the latticework usually have smaller openings in the bottom part and larger openings in the higher parts, hence causing the draft to be fast above ... |
why does sweden have the highest number of rapes in europe, by a wide margin? | The difference can mostly be accounted for by differing legal definitions of rape. In many countries, 'rape' is defined in the context of forced sexual intercourse / penetration.
Under the Swedish penal code, the definition of rape is rather broad and it includes activities that don't involve intercourse/penetration a... | [
"Ever since the collation of crime statistics was initiated by the Council of Europe, Sweden has had the highest number of registered rape offences in Europe by a considerable extent. In 1996, Sweden registered almost three times the average number of rape offences registered in 35 European countries. However, this... |
what the heck does a county do? (u.s. civics) | US counties act like any other municipal (town or city) government. They run the county court system, provide utilities and services, and in most of the country have a Sheriff's Office that runs the jails and does law enforcement for the county.
A whole lot of the US is not part of an incorporated town or city, and in... | [
"County government is responsible for issues that include transportation, community and social services (e.g. homes for the aged, child care, social housing), libraries, planning, emergency management coordination and corporate-wide business such as finance and taxation policies, general corporate policy and labour... |
why is the water in some rivers almost turquoise in color while in other ones it's just transparent? | Dissolved solids.
Depending on what’s floating around in the water will affect its colour.
Algae and turbid mud will make a hazy brown/green river. Clear water is free from floating debris. Coloured water has something dissolved in it to make it that colour, eg iron, copper, and other elements. | [
"The intrinsic colour of liquid water may be demonstrated by looking at a white light source through a long pipe that is filled with purified water and closed at both ends with a transparent window. The light turquoise blue colour is caused by weak absorption in the red part of the visible spectrum.\n",
"Water pr... |
what would happen to matter if it were frozen down to 0 k? | All molecular movement would cease and the matter would become completely inert. But I'm not sure that this is currently possible to do with our level of technology. | [
"As the ice is made at -7°C, it can be stored in freezers below zero for prolonged storage. However, this means that the ice is cold enough to condense and freeze moisture from the air and also re-freeze its own melt-water, thus forming lumps if not used quickly during periods of storage at ambient temperature. It ... |
what mastering is, when music gets remastered. | So let's say we have an old recording of something. Like The Beatles (Sgt. Peppers was just remastered for example). In older music the recording methods were not near the levels of perfection that we currently have. Audio samples might have some interference that was undesirable and couldn't be entirely removed. T... | [
"Remaster (also digital remastering and digitally remastered) refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic.\n",
"Remastering is the process of making a new master for an album, film, or any other creation. It... |
how come i have to eject flash drives on my pcs but other devices dont care? (xbox, cameras, phones etc) | I can't speak for many specifics, but I can give you the general idea.
The memory used by flash drives is kinda slow and crappy. It's chosen to be cheap, not fast. When you try to store something on a flash drive, the computer might be sneaky and tell you "Ok, done!" before it's really done.
Really, it's still slow... | [
"Flash drives are used to carry applications that run on the host computer without requiring installation. While any standalone application can in principle be used this way, many programs store data, configuration information, etc. on the hard drive and registry of the host computer.\n",
"Flash drives implement ... |
Was fast food a quick take over or did it take decades for it to catch on? | Fast food as we know it today was really a product of the atomic age. McDonald's was the first to really brake out from the traditional mom and pop vibe which was a result of Ray Kroc and his success in franchising. By the time he took McDonald's public there was a string of copycats and America was hooked. Now if y... | [
"Some trace the modern history of fast food in the United States to 7 July 1912, with the opening of a fast food restaurant called the Automat in New York. The Automat was a cafeteria with its prepared foods behind small glass windows and coin-operated slots. Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart had already opened the fir... |
Have there ever been presidential candidates that were not on the ballots in every single state? What was the outcome? | Do you mean only successful candidates for president? There have been plenty of third party candidates that fail to get their name on the ballot in every state. | [
"In March 1952, Ellender stated the possibility of the House of Representatives electing the president in that year's general election and added that the possibility could arise from the entry of Georgia Senator Richard Russell, Jr. into the general election as a third party candidate and thereby see neither Presid... |
If we fired every single nucleur weapon we have on the planet into the sun simultaneously, would anything happen to the Sun at all? | Nope. There are about 10,000 nuclear weapons and if we assume each of them have a ten megaton yield, it's roughly equivalent to the energy that the sun puts out in a millionth of a second. And that's if they detonate, instead of just falling in and melting. | [
"BULLET::::- Astronomer C.T. Elvey announced from the Yerkes Observatory in Chicago that the Sun could explode any minute, and added, \"If the sun should explode, we would know of it in eight minutes and we would have 138 hours more to live. At that time the burning gases would reach the earth and we would be annih... |
How do rogue planets/nomad planets come into existence? | I know of two methods which can create Nomad planets, Orbital Resonance & Stray Blackholes.
**1) Orbital Resonance**
Keplar's third law links planetary orbital period to the size of the Orbit. So objects further out move at slower angular speeds, such as [this](_URL_1_).
Now if you have inner Planet A & Outer Pl... | [
"A rogue planet (also termed an interstellar planet, nomad planet, free-floating planet, unbound planet, orphan planet, wandering planet, starless planet, or sunless planet) is a planetary-mass object that orbits a galactic center directly. Such objects have been ejected from the planetary system in which they form... |
How does an IUC Paragaurd work? How does the copper wire prevent pregnancy? | Copper IUDs* (intrauterine device) essentially release small amounts of copper into the uterus, which causes a reaction from the uterus making it an unstable environment for sperm to survive in. It will also then prevent a fertilized egg from adhering to the uterine wall, leaving it to be flushed out. | [
"Intrauterine device (IUD) with copper also known as intrauterine coil, is a type of intrauterine device which contains copper. It is used for birth control and emergency contraception within five days of unprotected sex. It is one of the most effective forms of birth control with a one-year failure rate around 0.7... |
why do car batteries need water in them? | The chemical reaction that releases electrons in a car battery is:
> Pb(s) + HSO4^- (aq) → PbSO4(s) + H^+ (aq) + 2e^-
This uses sulfuric acid, which is extremely hygroscopic, ie. hard to separate from water. It's also dangerous when undiluted.
The chemical reaction that accepts electrons in a car battery:
> PbO2... | [
"Car batteries using lead-antimony plates require regular topping-up with pure water to replace water lost due to electrolysis and evaporation. By changing the alloying element to calcium, more recent designs have reduced the rate of water loss. Modern car batteries have reduced maintenance requirements, and may no... |
[Minorities]How continuous were the Maroons of North America before Emancipation? | You've really asked a tough one! Maroon colonies in South America and the Caribbean were more common and in many cases long-lasting, and as you've stated, Florida being a special case, the historical evidence for Maroon colonies in most places in North America is severely lacking. Most of what we do have comes from a s... | [
"The Maroons are a number of diverse peoples in the Caribbean, South America, North America and Central America, the descendants of escaped slaves. The Seminole music tradition of the United States is an example, as are numerous communities in Jamaica, Suriname and French Guiana.\n",
"The Maroons created their ow... |
When did many anglophones start mispronouncing the old thorn-letter “Y” as a vowel? | Can I ask a clarification question. Wouldn't examples of ye in the King James Bible or Shakespeare actually be uses of the mostly-obsolete second person pronoun "ye", pronounced /jiː/, and spelt with a letter Y, not a thorn? I thought the definite articles in them were spelt with "th". | [
"The letter thorn was used for writing Old English very early on, as was ð; unlike ð, thorn remained in common use through most of the Middle English period. Both letters were used for the phoneme , sometimes by the same scribe. This sound was regularly realised in Old English as the voiced fricative between voiced... |
Why did the romans use a cross to crucify | Impairment of respiratory movements, and thereby pulminary fuction, apparently. In short, more effective "death by torture".
Cilliers L.: Department of English and Classical Culture, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein (South Africa).
South Africa Medical Journal. 2003 Dec;93(12):938-41.
The history and path... | [
"Although the cross was used as a symbol by early Christians, the crucifix, i.e. depictions of the crucifixion scene, were rare prior to the 5th century; some engraved gems thought to be 2nd or 3rd century have survived, but the subject does not appear in the art of the Catacombs of Rome.\n",
"Before the Protesta... |
I was resistant to poison ivy as a kid. Could literally roll in the stuff and be fine. I haven't tested in a while because a friend said the same but also said they lost resistance around 35. What is the science behind this? | Reaction to poison ivy is the result of the oil [urushiol](_URL_1_) inducing a [type IV hypersensitivity reaction (delayed type hypersensitivity)](_URL_0_).
Some people are immune for the same reason some people have seasonal allergies and others don't, or why some people have sensitivity to nickel and others don't ... | [
"According to an article in the \"Iowa Orthopedic Journal\", Coley's toxins were opposed by the medical establishment despite his reports of good results, because his reports were not believed to be credible.\n",
"An \"American Journal of Emergency Medicine\" study of 22,793 cases reported to the American Associa... |
what prevents digital banks / payment solutions like paypal to create money by adding few zeros to someone's account. | Because when someone transfers that money to a bank account, you'll have to pay them.
See, by adding zeros, they aren't creating money -- they're creating more debt for themselves. | [
"As of January 2015, a class-action lawsuit against PayPal has been filed in Israel, claiming that they arbitrarily freeze accounts and hold funds for up to 180 days without paying interest and thereby directly profit from it. The lawsuit requests that PayPal be declared a monopoly and thus regulated accordingly.\n... |
How did the first European explorers find small, remote islands? Did they luckily stumble across them or was there more to it? Specifically, how did Cook discover the Hawaiian Islands? | I suppose you could say he was just lucky... though he did die indirectly because of it.
In the case of his third voyage, he was heading up to look for the Northwest passage after stopping off in Tahiti. On his way up to begin his survey, he encounter clues that there must be land nearby-- flotsam, birds, cloud for... | [
"There still is a debate whether the islands were or were not seen by some of the early European discoverers in the 16th century. Historians take note of the early navigational routes of European explorers in the Pacific. There is disagreement as to whether Spaniard Ruy López de Villalobos, who landed in several Ca... |
What is happening on a molecular level when a solid becomes saturated with water? | Adsorption and desorption rates become equal, so the system enters equilibrium. When water adsorbs to a surface, it is either chemically reacting with it (chemisorption) or just physically interacting with it by Van der Waals forces (physisorption). Adsorption is reversible, so it eventually comes into equilibrium with... | [
"Adding water to silica drops its melting point by around 800 °C due to the breaking of the structure by replacing Si–O–Si linkages with terminating Si–OH groups. Increasing water concentration results in the formation of hydrated [[silica gel]]s and [[colloid]]al silica dispersions. Many hydrates and [[silicic aci... |
Did Native Americans who lived in climates similar to Europe develop lighter skin? | Do Eskimos have any place in this discussion? | [
"Although the present distribution of human skin colours does not reflect this correlation due to the mass migration and movement of peoples across continents in the past, there are still indigenous peoples living in ancestral environment. Polar regions of the Northern Hemisphere receive little UV radiation and eve... |
considering millions of men have been sent to war (and their death) throughout the ages, how is it that the ratio of men to women in the world's population still about half? | The ratio of men to women will always correct to roughly 50% after a couple generations. This is because no matter what happens the sex of any given child is going to be a 50% chance. So in a situation that a women survives and her husband dies young, give it a couple decades and she will die too. Leaving only her chil... | [
"Savchenko analyzed the structure of the population in 1959 census giving a detailed breakout of the gap between women and men, he pointed out that in the draft age population born between 1889-1928 there were 18.43 million more women than men, in 1939 census the gap was 3.48 million, the balance of 15.0 million mo... |
am i left or right handed | For the purposes of most things, you are right handed.
Writing is the standard. However, you are very close to ambidextrous. You are probably part of the population that is born without an inherent preference and just "picked" over time. | [
"A left-handed individual may be known as a southpaw, particularly in a sports context. It is widely accepted that the term originated in the United States, in the game of baseball. Ballparks are often designed so that batters are facing east, so that the afternoon or evening sun does not shine in their eyes. This ... |
what exactly is in blood and how come some animals are able to survive without it? | Very, very few complex animals do not have circulation. Flatworms, nematodes, jellyfish, sea anemones, and corals are among the species that do not have a circulatory system and thus do not have blood. Their body cavity has no lining or fluid within it. They obtain nutrients and oxygen directly from the environment th... | [
"Animals without blood were divided into soft-shelled \"Malakostraka\" (crabs, lobsters, and shrimps); hard-shelled \"Ostrakoderma\" (gastropods and bivalves); soft-bodied \"Malakia\" (cephalopods); and divisible animals \"Entoma\" (insects, spiders, scorpions, ticks). Other animals without blood included fish lice... |
why does it get harder to breathe when running, even if i try to control my breaths? | Every cell in your body needs oxygen in order to properly function, and that includes organs like your heart and lungs.
As you run, you start burning reserve energy in not only your muscles but your heart and lungs too. As that energy is depleted, both your muscles and your heart and lungs will need oxygen to make mor... | [
"Breathing has other important functions. It provides a mechanism for speech, laughter and similar expressions of the emotions. It is also used for reflexes such as yawning, coughing and sneezing. Animals that cannot thermoregulate by perspiration, because they lack sufficient sweat glands, may lose heat by evapora... |
Why do bacteria not get crushed and die when objects millions if times their mass are placed on them? | This is a problem of perspective.
Is that super heavy item perfectly smooth on a cellular scale? Is the object the bacteria is on also perfectly smooth?
Think of it like steeping on a small bug, if the grooves in your shoe happen to land on the bug, it will appear to have survived the stomping. When in fact it wasn'... | [
"Bacterial cell surfaces may be damaged by the acceleration forces attained in centrifuges. Laboratory centrifuges routinely achieve 5000–15000g, a procedure which often kills a considerable portion of microbes, especially if they are in their exponential growth phase.\n",
"Dead organisms in nature are usually qu... |
i have a question about schizophrenia and alien hand syndrome. its a little long so see inside please | > So the idea behind alien hand syndrome is that one side of the brain is somewhat conscious and learns to just be along for the ride, but a brain injury or something happens and then that side gets some freedom.
Not quite. Alien hand syndrome happens when the two hemispheres of your brain become disconnected from e... | [
"Neuroimaging and pathological research shows that the frontal lobe (in the frontal variant) and corpus callosum (in the callosal variant) are the most common anatomical lesions responsible for the alien hand syndrome. These areas are closely linked in terms of motor planning and its final pathways.\n",
"Alien ha... |
how does the rendering process works in videos? | "Rendering" is just a name for the process of assembling a video in to its final form: all the edits, effects etc. are "written" out to a file in the way you specify in APP.
The rest of your question is about video resolutions, which is a different problem. The rule to remember is to start with the highest possible q... | [
"Rendering or image synthesis is the automatic process of generating a photorealistic or non-photorealistic image from a 2D or 3D model (or models in what collectively could be called a \"scene\" file) by means of computer programs. Also, the results of displaying such a model can be called a render. A scene file c... |
How do photons exist within an electro-magnetic field? | A good rule of thumb is that *light travels as a wave but interacts with matter as a particle*. This means that any interaction with matter - absorption and emission - must occur in discrete chunks of energy which we call photons. For all other cases, it's often simpler to think of light in terms of EM waves.
"Photo... | [
"In physics, a magnetic photon is a hypothetical particle. It is a mixture of even and odd C-parity states and, unlike the normal photon, does not couple to leptons. It is predicted by certain extensions of electromagnetism to include magnetic monopoles. There is no experimental evidence for the existence of this p... |
what are the dual "inner rail tracks"? | There are there in case of derailment to catch the wheels and stop or reduce the movement of the train sideways.
If you look at you images and the wheel closer to you would jump the track the wheel on the other side would hit the track in the middle and hopefully stop the sideways motion towards you. | [
"A single-track railway is a railway where trains traveling in both directions share the same track. Single track is usually found on lesser-used rail lines, often branch lines, where the level of traffic is not high enough to justify the cost of constructing a second track.\n",
"Gauntlet track or interlaced trac... |
how does cold weather cause my tires to lose air? | The air is still there... it is just taking up less space because the cold air has caused that air to 'shrink'. Your tire still has the same number of oxygen, CO2, nitrogen, water, etc molecules in it, they are just clumped closer together, which reduces the pressure in your tire. | [
"Tires can leak air for a variety of reasons. These include, but are not limited to: damage to the wheel itself, a damaged valve stem, a puncture in the tire (which can be hard to find if the puncturing object didn't embed itself in the tire) and improper installation of the tire, which could involve the bead of th... |
montessori method | Teaching complicated concepts in a hands-on method. Examples: using beads and blocks to explain how the number system works, using color association to help children remember continents, having kids use a spoon to move small items from one bowl to another to improve fine motor skills.
I went to a Montessori preschool... | [
"The Monte Carlo method encompasses any technique of statistical sampling employed to approximate solutions to quantitative problems. Essentially, the Monte Carlo method solves a problem by directly simulating the underlying (physical) process and then calculating the (average) result of the process. This very gene... |
israel and palestine, specifically why israel's "settlements" aren't called "colonies" | > Why are the Palestinians treated as a lesser people in the UN?
The short answer is because they are essentially a stateless people. It could in some ways be compared to Romani (Gypsies) who, as they have no country to be a part of the United *Nations* are also under represented.
The real question is why did Israe... | [
"Since 1967 Israel has imposed its control over the Palestinian territories in the manner of a colonizing power, under the guise of occupation. It has permanently seized the territories' most desirable parts—the holy sites in East Jerusalem, Hebron and Bethlehem and the fertile agricultural lands along the western ... |
Leif Erikson voyaged to America succesfully and went back,and the Viking race continued .Yet the continent was apparently forgotten till Columbus.What happened? | Okay, so first off, *víking* is a job, not an ethnicity. It would be like calling all Americans cowboys.
Secondly, while *Eíriks saga rauði* and *Grœnlendinga saga* were written ca. 1220-1275, the issue is that Iceland and Icelanders were (and still are) an incredibly small populace. There was little enough contact wi... | [
"While not the first to sight the North American continent, Leif Erikson became the first Viking to explore the land of Vinland (part of North America, probably near modern-day Newfoundland). Leif invited his father on the voyage, but according to legend, Erik fell off his horse on the way to the ship and took this... |
If a newborn baby was put in an environment with absolutely no encouragement or need to stand/walk on two feet, would it still instinctively learn to do it? | It is hard to say as experimenting with such a thing would be incredibly unethical. Humans do have a capacity to learn without encouragement and deriving new methods of locomotion from either experimenting or mimicking adults is not that hard to imagine.
One case that partially reflect ethics idea is Genie. She was l... | [
"From the moment children could walk, they were expected to fend for themselves. Aside from feeding, children were taught to act individually early on. Once a child was around one or two years old, they were carried around on the mother's back. Early in the child's life, mothers will, despite the well known risk of... |
the protesting in iran, what is it over? | *This is based on a limited amount of information on the subject and while it is based on reputable sources, I may have overlooked or missed some information. If you see something wrong or in need of an update, please reply and I will edit my post after confirming.*
The starting point seems to have been falling living... | [
"The 2018 Iranian university protests are a series of ongoing protests by Iranian university students in support of labour, and teacher strikes, as well as protesting against the current situation of the country. The protests started on 4 December 2018, ahead of university day on 7 December, which is usually marked... |
why does the same bottle of iced tea sometimes taste bitter and sometimes taste sweet? | Depends on how long the sweetener has been settling. Shake your drink every time before you take a swig and it should be consistent. | [
"BULLET::::- Iced tea (sweetened) is popular mainly in the southern United States where it is ubiquitous and available freshly made, in bottles and cans or at self-serve soda fountains. Sweet tea (also known as southern table wine) is brewed very strong with a large amount of sugar added while the tea is still hot.... |
how does a bot on this website scan all comments continuously for keywords to find relevant comments to reply to? | Using reddit's API. See this link: _URL_0_
It contains the latest comments (which you can see when you go to _URL_1_) in a format that is compact and easily parsable by a computer program. Each entry in this page contains the actual content of the comment and various metadata, including when the comment was posted, wh... | [
"In this system, keywords are used to describe the items and a user profile is built to indicate the type of item this user likes. In other words, these algorithms try to recommend items that are similar to those that a user liked in the past, or is examining in the present. It does not rely on a user sign-in mecha... |
how come we can see the sun for the first couple minutes after it rises without it being so bright? | Because of the Earths curvature (come at me flat-earthers), the sunlight goes through dozens of miles of atmosphere, being dispersed and reflected, when it's lower on the horizon vs when it's high up (only about 2 miles.)
& #x200B;
Edit: Graph giving a general idea of how this is works
[_URL_0_](_URL_0_) | [
"The Sun can sometimes appear as a green spot for a second or two as it is rising or setting: this is known as green flash. Roughly speaking, the red light from the Sun is blocked by Earth, the blue light is scattered by the atmosphere, and the green light is refracted by the atmosphere to the observer. A similar e... |
What were the post world war two plans for Germany? (like the Roosevelt plan) | In terms of radical plans, the major apparent plan was the 'Morgenthau Plan' of September 1944. This was a memorandum drafted by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr, and advocated complete demilitarisation of Germany, the partitioning of Germany into two states with the Ruhr to be an internationalised zone, and what... | [
"During 1944 Henry Morgenthau involved himself in U.S. foreign policy, together with his associate Harry White he formulated the Morgenthau Plan. For the sake of permanently eliminating German war potential the plan advocated amongst other things German territorial dismemberment, partitioning, and deindustrializati... |
How did the Allies view the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact? | Realistically it had been clear to both Britain and France that Germany was sizing up Poland, after Hitler reneged on his promise to not dismantle Czechoslovakia it was obvious to everyone who the next target was going to be. Knowing this the allies had issued strong statements of support for Poland before the Molotov-... | [
"BULLET::::- The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed not to attack each other and to remain neutral if attacked by a third power. Secret clauses in the pact divided up other countries into respective spheres of influence, including a partitioning of Poland.\n",
"The Moloto... |
What do we believe is history's first real fashion trend? | Your question is hard to answer:
> a feature of clothing that is at least partially ornamental
Technically, this could go far back in history - Sumerian reliefs and statuettes show fringe and dagging, for instance, and there are dyes and embellishments (beaded, embroidered, etc.) in many ancient cultures as well.
... | [
"20,000 Years of Fashion: The History of Costume and Personal Adornment is a dictionary of western fashion from ancient times up to the 1960s, edited by Francois Boucher and his longtime assistant Yvonne Deslandres.\n",
"The history of Western fashion is the story of the changing fashions in clothing for men and ... |
what is the reason for the statute of limitations ? | You have a right to a fair trial. If the government comes to you and states that 25 years ago you stole a TV because you still have that TV in your home, it is unlikely that you still have the receipt to prove that you purchased that TV.
At some point the ability to prove you did something or provide evidence that ... | [
"BULLET::::- The status of statutes of limitations is usually regarded as having public policy implications, particularly where foreign periods are either very long or very short. In extreme cases, the lex fori will be applied to protect the interests of vulnerable parties, e.g. the English court held in \"Jones v ... |
beer before liquor, never been sicker..... | it's really a myth that mixing alcohol makes you more drunk.
The thing is, if people are mixing drinks, it's very likely they are drinking more than they would usually. it's likely that is why the intoxication level is higher. | [
"\"It is said that more beer was lost (wasted) when the furnaces, coal mines and iron-ore undertakings were being worked, especially at the start of the month, and on pay Saturday Night, than is being drunk now.\" (Unknown Author. 'A Glance at the History of Llwydcoed' Translated by D Williams and D L Davies.)\n",
... |
Why was there no Scandinavian unification during the 1800 century similar to the Italian or German unifications? | There were strong scandinavist leanings after the danish lost Norway to Sweden and after Sweden lost Finland to Russia in the early 19th century. While certainly popular, the movement had little solid support from the upper echelons of Scancinavian society, and there was no obvious leader in the same way Prussia were f... | [
"The Swedish king also proposed a unification of Denmark, Norway and Sweden into a single united kingdom. The background for the proposal was the tumultuous events during the Napoleonic Wars in the beginning of the century. This war resulted in Finland (formerly the eastern third of Sweden) becoming the Russian Gra... |
what is this whole res thing | It's the Reddit Enhancement Suite, a browser extension that lets you customize how you view/interact with Reddit. It's great for filtering out specific kinds of posts. | [
"Decanter is an outdoor 1987 sculpture by Frank Stella, installed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden in the U.S. state of Texas. It is made of stainless steel, bronze, and carbon steel, and was purchased using monetary contributions from the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fu... |
How did food preservation techniques in the pre-Industrial era evolve? | The link by neobot is a great overview. With regard to Ancient Rome, the Romans used a variety of methods to preserve foods, particularly to ship from place to place. Common liquid ingredients that needed to be kept at a cool temperature (e.g. wine) were kept in [amphorae](_URL_0_) which could be partially buried to ke... | [
"Food preservation methods were basically the same as had been used since antiquity, and did not change much until the invention of canning in the early 19th century. The most common and simplest method was to expose foodstuffs to heat or wind to remove moisture, thereby prolonging the durability if not the flavor ... |
Was there severe tension between Greek settlers and Egyptians during the Ptolemaic Period? | You might like these older answers of mine on
[Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt: A veritable ancient apartheid?](_URL_1_)
[How much did Ptolemaic Egypt resemble modern colonialism? Is it in any way helpful to make this comparison?](_URL_3_)
[How accurate is the representation of Egypt in Assassins' Creed: Origins?](_URL_0_... | [
"The Ptolemaic kingdom was diverse in the people who settled and made Egypt their home at this time. During this period, Macedonian troops under Ptolemy I Soter were given land grants and brought their families encouraging tens of thousands of Greeks to settle the country making themselves the new ruling class. Nat... |
what happens at subatomic level when we touch things? shouldn't electrons repel from each other due to their negative charge? | Atoms never touch each other when things touch.
The atoms get pushed back (due to the nuclei having similar charge) and we sense this force as touch. | [
"Electrons can be exchanged between materials on contact; materials with weakly bound electrons tend to lose them while materials with sparsely filled outer shells tend to gain them. This is known as the triboelectric effect and results in one material becoming positively charged and the other negatively charged. T... |
why are there so many different citation manuals (e.g. mla, apa, chicago, etc.)? | I think this explains it well for a 5 year old: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) | [
"There are also several other citation manuals available to legal writers in wide usage in the United States. Virtually all large law firms maintain their own citation manual and several major publishers of legal texts (West, Lexis-Nexis, Hein, \"et al.\") maintain their own systems.\n",
"The database is searchab... |
Could careful administration of a heart rate increasing drugs have the same effect as cardio? | [Relevant](_URL_0_). Robert H. Lustig, critic of HFCS, speaking on the independent benefits of exercise beyond burning calories. | [
"In vivo however, extrinsic factors such as an increase in activity of the sympathetic nerves, and a decrease in vagal tone cause the heart to beat more frequently and more forcefully. This alters the cardiac function curve, shifting it upwards. This allows the heart to cope with the required cardiac output at a re... |
why do we use hours, minutes, seconds to measure time versus increments of a decimal system? | 100 has only two prime factors: 2 and 5. So it's divisible by 2, 4, 5, 10, 20, 25, or 50.
60 has three prime factors: 2, 3, and 5. So it's divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, or 30. So it's much easier to slice a 60-minute hour into convenient fractions than a 100-minute hour. | [
"The main advantage of a decimal time system is that, since the base used to divide the time is the same as the one used to represent it, the whole time representation can be handled as a single string. Therefore, it becomes simpler to interpret a timestamp and to perform conversions. For instance, 1:23:00 is 1 dec... |
what dimension does science say we exist in presently? how do scientist know? | We exist in 3 spatial dimensions and 1 time dimension.
We know this because we invented the language of math and physics that describes these dimensions.
The spatial dimensions are the x,y,z coordinates we use in any description of 3 dimensional location in space. For example, we can describe the position of a place... | [
"However, present-day material science is just a beginning; this material science knows little or nothing beyond this third dimension. It does, however, recognize to some degree the possibility of great macrocosms beyond this dimension, and at present, great efforts are being made to probe into this unknown. And he... |
virtual particles please. | Virtual particles are particles that *cannot* be measured but *must* exist. Take, for example, two electrons interacting with each other. Because they have the same charge, they will repel each other. How do they "know" they have the same charge? How do they "know" that there's another electron nearby repelling them? T... | [
"In physics, a virtual particle is a transient quantum fluctuation that exhibits some of the characteristics of an ordinary particle, while having its existence limited by the uncertainty principle. The concept of virtual particles arises in perturbation theory of quantum field theory where interactions between ord... |
Can someone explain to me what this guy means by "That whole light theory by Einstein is being proven wrong by science right now."? | Who knows? But my guess is that he read something about last year's much-reported story about the apparently-faster-than-light neutrinos measured at CERN.
If true, it'd mean something would be wrong with Einstein's theory of Special Relativity - at least as we understand it today. "Einstein was wrong!" makes for a go... | [
"Albert Einstein is supposed to have worked on his own emission theory before abandoning it in favor of his special theory of relativity. Many years later R.S. Shankland reports Einstein as saying that Ritz's theory had been \"very bad\" in places and that he himself had eventually discarded emission theory because... |
imaginary numbers and i (square root of -1) | Let's start with the number line, and say we have some number. What happens when you multiply that number by another one? You "stretch" away from 0 if the second number is bigger than 1 or less than -1, and you "squish" towards 0 if the second number is smaller than 1 and bigger than -1, right? You can also flip which ... | [
"Geometrically, imaginary numbers are found on the vertical axis of the complex number plane, allowing them to be presented perpendicular to the real axis. One way of viewing imaginary numbers is to consider a standard number line, positively increasing in magnitude to the right, and negatively increasing in magnit... |
If I have a really long pole, say 1 light year long, and I pull on one end of it, will the other end move immediately or will it take more than one year for it to move? | > This question has been on my mind for a while, sorry if it's been asked before.
[Have you looked at r/sciencefaqs](_URL_0_)? Or done a [search](_URL_1_)? | [
"However, the use of \"poles\" is also now widespread. Here, the line is fixed to the very tip of the rod, with no reel used: in order to retrieve the line, the pole itself is taken apart until the line can be swung to hand. Poles are often very long in order to increase the angler's range—up to 16 metres.\n",
"T... |
How did we find out all the steps of star creation? | Once you know the general composition of the stars themselves (can be deduced by looking at the light given off) and you have a general handle on the energies involved it all kind of falls together afterwards. You can calculate reaction rates and estimate the time a star will spend in each stage of it's life, and you ... | [
"Piazzi discovered Ceres. On 1 January 1801 Piazzi discovered a \"stellar object\" that moved against the background of stars. At first he thought it was a fixed star, but once he noticed that it moved, he became convinced it was a planet, or as he called it, \"a new star\".\n",
"BULLET::::- Astronomers report ev... |
why cannot there ever be a successful breeding between a human being and another animal? | Huge over simplification; when you make a baby, its DNA comes equally from the mom and the dad. The DNA is a big set of building instructions, and a playbook of how to react to situations. For humans, we get every odd page from Mom, and even pages from Dad. Most of the time, the instructions still make sense. Chimeras,... | [
"Some hybrids between similar species have been achieved by housing males of one species and females of the other together to limit the choice of mate. To create a \"natural\" macropod hybrid, young animals of one species have been transferred to the pouch of another so as to imprint into them the other species. In... |
Exactly how much more advantageous is it to "switch" in the Monty Hall Problem? | The probability of winning when switching is ⅔, while the probability of winning when not switching is ⅓. You could say you are twice as likely to win (100% increase) when switching. Since probabilities are bounded from above I tend to avoid that kind of language, even though it's correct in this case.
Edit: To others... | [
"When first presented with the Monty Hall problem, an overwhelming majority of people assume that each door has an equal probability and conclude that switching does not matter (Mueser and Granberg, 1999). Out of 228 subjects in one study, only 13% chose to switch (Granberg and Brown, 1995:713). In her book \"The P... |
how do they measure how much water travels through a a waterfall every minute/second? | Geometry. The wall of water is a rough rectangle the width of the opening, and the thickness of the water depth at the edge. Drop a knotmeter in and you get the third dimension - speed of the rectangle (distance per time). So, assume a waterfall 100x1 feet at the dropoff, doing 8 kts (almost 16 feet per second). So... | [
"In the case of water (ρ = 1 g/cc, μ = 1 g/m/s) flowing through a 12-inch (300 mm) Schedule-40 PVC pipe (ε = 0.0015 mm, \"D\" = 11.938 in.), a hydraulic slope \"S\" = 0.01 (1%) is reached at a flow rate \"Q\" = 157 lps (liters per second), or at a velocity \"V\" = 2.17 m/s (meters per second). \n",
"Streamflow is... |
what's the difference between a technologist and a technician? | Technician actually performs work/maintenance on machinery. A technologist studies said machines looking for ways to improve on it | [
"The term Technomancy can be descriptive of the skill of an engineer whose expertise allows him or her to diagnose mechanical problems by observing the machine behavior, in essence listening to the machine to let it tell him what is wrong.\n",
"Science technician is a profession involving working as a member of s... |
To plant scientists: What are the most efficient plants to put inside a home for producing the most oxygen and cleaning up the air? | Back in the ‘80’s NASA studied exactly what you’re asking.
You can find the quick chart here, or read the original study if you’d like.
_URL_0_
| [
"The use of living plants or other living biologicals to aid in the air and food supply if desired can have major impact on the design. An example of how engineering demands and operational goals can interact, is a reduced-pressure green house area. This would reduce the structural demands of maintain air pressure,... |
How hard was it for an Irish immigrant to become an American citizen? (I'm also interested in the experience of Italians and other immigrant groups) | At what point in time? | [
"Irish Americans make up approximately 5.3% of New York City's population, composing the second largest non-Hispanic white ethnic group. Irish Americans first came to America in colonial years (pre-1776), with immigration rising in the 1820s due to poor living conditions in Ireland. But the largest wave of Irish im... |
When did the Royal Navy get its first steel boat? | The first ironclad would be the [HMS Warrior](_URL_1_) in 1860.
As for all-steel, it would be the [Iris Class Ships](_URL_0_) in 1877.
| [
"A long-serving 19th-century British picket boat, carried on capital ships, was a model introduced in 1867 which saw wide service in World War I and even some limited service in World War II. The typical main armament during most of this boat's service life was a Hotchkiss 3–pounder, adopted by the Royal Navy in 18... |
why using the word "rape" is considered normalizing the issue while using the word "murder" is not. | I think part of the problem is that the crime of rape is very different from murder. The act of sex can be something consensual or considered rape, depending on who is involved. The act of murder is always murder and always a terrible thing. In this respect, it is hard to "normalize" murder in the same way that you ... | [
"The English word \"rape\" retains the Latin meaning in literary language, but the meaning is obscured by the more current meaning of \"sexual violation\". The word is akin to \"rapine\", \"rapture\", \"raptor\", \"rapacious\" and \"ravish\", and referred to the more general violations, such as looting, destruction... |
How does a small gust of wind measure eye pressure? | This is known as [ocular tonometry](_URL_0_). The basis of the measurement is something called the [Imbert-Fick "law"](_URL_1_) which basically says that when you have a spherical thin membrane filled with liquid, then the amount of pressure required to flatten a given area on the surface of the sphere can be related ... | [
"Instruments for measuring air pressure effects in wind tunnel studies of sails include pitot tubes, which measure air speed and manometers, which measure static pressures and atmospheric pressure (static pressure in undisturbed flow). Researchers plot pressure across the windward and leeward sides of test sails al... |
how does diabetes work on a cellular level? | Really rough and basic: imagine your cell has a lock on it. Insulin is the key to open that lock. Depending on whether you have Type 1 (little to no insulin production) or type 2 (insulin cannot recognize the key hole and thus can’t let the sugar (glucose) into the cell), the sugar builds up in your blood and causes da... | [
"Diabetes is a metabolic disorder where the body is unable to regulate levels of glucose in the blood either because of a lack of insulin in the body or the failure, by cells in the body, to respond properly to insulin. Each of these situations can be caused by persistently high elevations of blood glucose levels, ... |
can you get your pets sick, or vice versa? | You can definitely get your pets sick under at least one circumstance:
- If you have rabies, and you bite your pet. | [
"Pets can transmit a number of diseases. Dogs and cats are routinely vaccinated against rabies. Pets can also transmit ringworm and \"Giardia\", which are endemic in both non-human animal and human populations. Toxoplasmosis is a common infection of cats; in humans it is a mild disease although it can be dangerous ... |
How much lower were sea levels during the ice-age? | During the last glacial maximum ~19,000-23,000 years ago the ocean was between 120 and 140 meters (390-460 feet) below its current level.
_URL_0_
_URL_1_
| [
"During the most recent ice age (at its maximum about 20,000 years ago) the world's sea level was about 130 m lower than today, due to the large amount of sea water that had evaporated and been deposited as snow and ice, mostly in the Laurentide ice sheet. Most of this had melted by about 10,000 years ago.\n",
"A... |
how does saliva become "sticky" sometimes? | People aren't meant to inhale irritants. When we do our airways will increase mucosal output as part of our body's immune response. Mucous can be watery and thin or thicker. Thicker mucous is generally meant to trap any offending bacteria or foreign body to help us cough it up. | [
"Some organisms, especially \"Klebsiella\" and \"Enterobacter\", produce mucoid colonies which appear very moist and sticky. This phenomenon happens because the organism is producing a capsule, which is predominantly made from the lactose sugar in the agar.\n",
"\"Sticky Sticky\" is a song by South Korean girl gr... |
Do we know what the Vikings called the island of Britain? | Are you looking for the name used before the invasions or after, or just the "viking" word. In ancient Icelandic it was called Bretland but disclaimer: I'm not certain if that is the proper word the Vikings themselves used so wait for an expert to post on that.
After the Vikings established colonies the part of Eng... | [
"The Vikings were known as \"Ascomanni\" (\"ashmen\") by the Germans for the ash wood of their boats, \"Dubgail and Finngail\" ( \"dark and fair foreigners\") by the Irish, \"Lochlannach\" (\"lake person\") by the Gaels and \"Dene\" (\"Dane\") by the Anglo-Saxons.\n",
"Anglo-Saxons called the island \"Bradanreoli... |
why is tire pressure printed so tiny? | Because that's not the pressure you should be going by anyway. That's the absolute maximum that tire should ever see. Your car's door jamb should have a sticker that shows the proper pressure that's been calculated for the load your car will put on the tires. If you use the pressure molded into the tire you're virtuall... | [
"Air pressure within a tire forces its beads against the wheel rim and normally ensures that the tire and rim rotate as a single unit. In general automotive situations, a tire's air pressure is sufficient to withstand dislodging and rim-slip forces experienced during, respectively, hard cornering and acceleration (... |
I heard some people talking at the store and they said that gravity isn't really real. They said that instead, space is just curved. Please answer me this | Our modern understanding of gravity, derived from the theory of general relativity (GR), is that gravity is caused by the curvature of *space-time* (not space). This in no way means "gravity isn't really real": gravity exists just as well, but may be understood geometrically instead of just as a force. GR gives us a ve... | [
"For example, when a pen falls off a desk, that seems to be proof that gravity exists, because gravity made it fall. But what is \"gravity\"? In 1500, \"gravity\" was the pen's desire to go to the center of the earth; in 1700 \"gravity\" was a force that acted at a distance according to mathematical laws; in the 19... |
Why was Romania ordered to pull out of Hungary and denied any war reparations from the Entente after conquering Budapest in the Romanian-Hungarian war of 1919? | The seeming *volte-face* of the Entente had several origins. Firstly, the Bolshevik Revolution greatly scared the Allies and they feared that the Romania's incursions destabilized the region greatly. The advent of Bela Kun and the expansion of the Russian Civil War seemed to confirm these suspicions. Although by this p... | [
"In June 1940, after Romania was forced (as a consequence of Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) to settle a claim to the Soviet Union over Bessarabian and Bukovinian territories, Hungary attempted to regain Transylvania, which it had lost in World War I. Germany and Italy pressured both Hungary and Romania to resolve the sit... |
Did the Red Army have a "full-invasion" kind of reputation during WWII? If so, how did it earn it? | The Germans treated Soviet prisoners a bit like they treated jews and a huge pourcentage of Soviet prisoners ended up the same way : in death camps being worked and starved to death when they were not just shot down.
The Germans always pretended that the fact USSR never signed the Geneva convention meant they were not... | [
"The strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II were major military events carried out between 1941 and 1945 on the Eastern Front or in 1945 in the Far East during the Second World War. Such operations typically involved at least one Red Army Front - the largest functional unit of the Soviet armed forces.... |
Is there a delay if two people are listening to a radio station at different distances? | Yes, there is a small delay based on how far you are from the broadcast tower. | [
"Radio signals have a limitations due to distance and terrain. If two radios are far apart, or there is a mountain in the way, they will not be able to communicate. To alleviate this, radio repeaters are installed on mountaintops to repeat the signal from one radio to another, or group of others. This is a standard... |
How do keep seeing improvements in USB cables? | Most of the engineering in interconnect technologies isn't actually in the cables, but rather at the end point devices, the cable is simply engineered to operate to those specifications that the endpoints are specified to operate. Thumb drives are an example of a situation where in most cases no cable is used.
With th... | [
"Active cables play an important role in enterprise and storage applications due to the confined space and air-flow requirements in data centers and long reaches (up to 30 meters) required to make some of the rack-to-rack connections. Because active cables can facilitate thin cable gauges, a tighter bend radius res... |
Could the army of the Potomac(1865) have won a war against any of the major European power during the same time period | > For a very brief time after the civil war, the us had the largest navy in the world
If I could also address this point too as the other posts have linked to a few of the repeated treatments of the topic of the land forces.
Back to the point, even at its peak the USN was woefully under prepared to fight one of the... | [
"The Army of the Potomac fought in most of the Eastern Theater campaigns, primarily in (Eastern) Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. After the end of the war, it was disbanded on June 28, 1865, shortly following its participation in the Grand Review of the Armies.\n",
"An unsuccessful attempt of the Union Army ... |
can someone explain what the vote for the "upton bill" is about? | One thing the Affordable Care Act did was prohibit insurance companies from selling new policies that were not up to certain standards. This affected some people who had bought these policies after the original cut-off date.
One proposal, sponsored by Democrats, would let people who had those policies canceled keep th... | [
"Upton has been criticized by the conservative website Human Events for being liberal with regards to fiscal issues. He has been recognized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with the \"Spirit of Enterprise\" award for \"standing firmly against overreaching regulations and job-destroying mandates\". In 2019, during th... |
Are there any valid historical documentaries still being made? | I'd look at the credentials of people making documentaries before investing time in watching them.
Do contributors or presenters have advanced degrees in a relevant topic, do they have research outputs on those topics, are these publications reputable?
For example, there was a recent BBC series on the Plantagenets by... | [
"Jim Schembri wrote in \"The Age\" that \"historical documentaries are at their best when they illuminate a little known narrative rather than merely recite a famous one. Hopefully, it will only be a matter of time before some wily filmmakers seize on the potential to develop Jandamarra's story into a full-blown fe... |
At what point did China's population start booming into unprecedented levels and what caused it? | Sorry that I can't actually answer your question - my knowledge of Chinese history is insufficient for anything I say to be better than a guess at best - but China has nowhere near Three Billion People. It has approximately 1.35 billion people. For comparison, India, the second most populated country in the world has 1... | [
"The population of China doubled in size during the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries. This growth was made possible by expanded rice cultivation in central and southern Song, the use of early-ripening rice from south-east and southern Asia, and the production of widespread food surpluses. The Northern Song census recor... |
How much computing power would it take to simulate all the molecules and interactions in a human body? | There are about 10^14 atoms in a typical human cell, which is coincidentally about the same number as there are cells in a human body. So with around 10^28 atoms to simulate, you now would need to define at what level you were going to simulate each molecule and how rapidly you need to update that to get an accurate si... | [
"Computer models have been constructed to model human metabolism, to study plaque build-up and cardiovascular risk, and to evaluate toxicity of drugs, tasks for which animals are also used. In 2007, US researchers using the world's fastest computer at the time, BlueGene L, modeled half a mouse brain for just 10 sec... |
why is it, and why was it originally, seen as insulting for other people to have sex with your mother? why are 'your mom' jokes so insulting, yet little is said about 'your dad' jokes? | Traditionally, legacy was a very important thing. Your father gives you your name, your property, your occupation, and even your reputation (at least if you are a son, he does).
Knowing who your real father is (and conversely, a father knowomg who his real sons are) was a pretty serious affair, and is part of the rea... | [
"The jokes are considered offensive by some. A widely reported case is that of the London borough where, in 2010, a workshop leaflet called \"Cultural Awareness: General Problems\" advised against using them. The leaflet states that \"mother-in-law jokes, as well as offensively sexist in their own right, can also b... |
why would people want to buy bonds with short maturity dates when the return is lower than the average inflation rate? | Some accounts even have negative interest rates.
If you have a $1,000,000, what are you going to do with it? Ordinary bank accounts are only insured up to $250,000. If you buy real estate it's no longer easy to get if you need it fast, and can go down in value, and your paying property taxes. Put it in your mattress... | [
"The complexity increases for bonds issued for a long-term, where the average inflation rate over the term of the loan may be subject to a great deal of uncertainty. In response to this, many governments have issued real return bonds, also known as inflation-indexed bonds, in which the principal value and coupon ri... |
if there ia only one harvest season, how are most vegetables able to be sold year round? | It's grown in other areas that have different harvest seasons, and then shipped around the world to supermarkets.
You can buy pumpkins and watermelons year round, as well, but when it's not the local harvest season the price goes up beyond what you might want to pay. | [
"The plants are ready for harvest after a growing time of six years. Only the rhizomes are used. Collecting them occurs by digging the rhizome out with a garden fork or a small digging tool. This should be done in Fall after collecting the mature seeds.\n",
"Average yields of 6 tons/ha/year in fresh matter can be... |
how do radical muslims interpret the quran in such a way that they feel compelled to conduct extremist acts such as suicide bombings? is there a certain passage that is misinterpreted? | Sadly it's not a misinterpretation at all...it's laid out pretty clearly and people are simply following what it says. Downside is that it was written ~1400 years ago when it was completely accepted that murder was the proper punishment for all kinds of innocuous things, and practically everyone believed in some form o... | [
"Muslims believe that the present wording of the Quran corresponds to that revealed to Muhammad, and according to their interpretation of Quran , it is protected from corruption (\"Indeed, it is We who sent down the Quran and indeed, We will be its guardian.\"). Muslims consider the Quran to be a guide, a sign of t... |
if you owned land would the land underneath be still considered yours? | Generally, only up to a certain depth. Everything below that is what's known as "mineral rights".
It varies widely based on municipality and the history of the land but the majority of people do not own the mineral rights unless it was explicitly included in the sale of the property. | [
"Most property ownership in common law jurisdictions is fee simple. In the United States, the land is subject to eminent domain by federal, state and local government, and subject to the imposition of taxes by state and/or local governments, and there is thus no true allodial land. Some states within the U.S. (nota... |
How much pressure does water put on each inch of the item holding it? | it would depend entirely on the depth/amount of the water, pressure increases in water with one atmosphere (1 atm) every 10 meters. If this is a flood situation we're talking about though, the flow of water would also increase pressure and weight would be more important, 1 L of seawater has a mass of 1 Kg, so it depen... | [
"Small pressure vessels are normally tested using a water jacket test. The vessel is visually examined for defects and then placed in a container filled with water, and in which the change in volume of the vessel can be measured, usually by monitoring the water level in a calibrated tube. The vessel is then pressur... |
what is the difference between china's "devaluing currency" and america's "quantitative easing?" | Actually, neither one involves the literal printing of money. The Chinese have a fixed exchange rate and peg the Yuan to the US Dollar. With the devaluing, they moved the peg and now accept fewer dollars per yuan. This was done to make their goods cheaper in the U.S. with the hope that Americans will buy more stuff.
... | [
"During the week of 10 August 2015, against the background of a slowing Chinese economy and appreciation of the U.S. dollar, the People's Bank of China devalued the renminbi by about 5%. The devaluation was accomplished by pegging the official rate to closing market rates. A market-based \"representative\" exchange... |
what is the big deal with stradivarius violins, can't the just make an exact clone of it by analyzing it? | They're made of denser wood due to the "little ice age" which took place during their construction, and this supposedly gives them an unique sound.
In reality, the effect comes from their name. In double-blind tests they perform just as well (or worse) as your average violin. | [
"Stradivari's instruments are regarded as amongst the finest bowed stringed instruments ever created, are highly prized, and are still played by professionals today. Only one other maker, Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, commands a similar respect among violinists. However, neither blind listening tests nor acoustic ana... |
When groups of animals that use echolocation do so, how are they able to differentiate which sound was theirs? Can a dolphin that’s in the middle of a group pick up on the sound of another dolphin that’s on the outer edge of said group and know exactly what the other dolphin is seeing? | I actually can answer this specifically for moustached bats. I’m not sure if a similar mechanism exists for other animals that echolocate, so I can’t speak to dolphins or anything.
So as you probably know, bats hunt in huge swarms, so it’s important for a bat to be able to distinguish his own echolocation call from t... | [
"Because dolphins are generally associated in groups, communication is necessary. Signal masking is when other similar sounds (conspecific sounds) interfere with the original acoustic sound. In larger groups, individual whistle sounds are less prominent. Dolphins tend to travel in pods, upon which there are groups ... |
I'm interested in the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Can anyone give an overview and/or some good online sources to help me understand a little more? | The [AskHistorians Book List](_URL_0_) is often a good place to look to find sources. *King Leopold's Ghost* is listed there and should be up your alley. I haven't read it, but I've always heard that it's an excellent book. | [
"Congo – A Political Tragedy is a 2018 independent documentary story of the Democratic Republic of Congo's political history, written by Patrick Kabeya and Mina Malu. It chronicles the Congo Free State, The Belgian Congo as well as the key figures that played a role in its history such as Belgian King Leopold II, P... |
How did the convoy system protect shipping in the world wars? | This answer will focus on convoys in the Atlantic in both wars - the Japanese experience in the Pacific in WW2 diverged significantly. While convoys in both WW1 and WW2 appear similar, with destroyers and smaller ships escorting a large amount of merchant ships, they protected their charges in very different ways. In t... | [
"Over time, the use of defended convoys of merchant ships allowed the Allies to maintain shipping across the Atlantic, in spite of heavy loss. The Royal Navy had conducted convoys in the Napoleonic Wars and they had been used effectively to protect troopships in the current war, but the idea of using them to protec... |
why cant we just stop media outlets from covering terrorism? wouldn't that effectively make it pointless? | Freedom of the press.
If you prevent the media from reporting something, that opens room for abuse.
Police beating that man to death? Fits most definitions of terrorism.
That government crackdown on dissidents? Terrorism.
Invading another country? Terrorism. | [
"The mass media will, on occasion, censor organizations involved in terrorism (through self-restraint or regulation) to discourage further terrorism. This may encourage organizations to perform more extreme acts of terrorism to be shown in the mass media. Conversely James F. Pastor explains the significant relation... |
why isn't renting an apartment/house go under monopoly laws? | First of all, you seem to not understand quite what a "monopoly" is.
And secondly, you also seem to not understand the laws about monopolies.
So, let's start with the first point. A monopoly is when there is only one supplier of specific goods. A monopoly in the property market would be when there is only one landlor... | [
"Monopoly rent refers to those economic rents derived from monopolies, which can result from (1) denial of access to an asset or (2) the unique qualities of an asset. Examples of monopoly rent include: rents associated from legally enforced knowledge monopolies derived from intellectual property like patents or cop... |
the difference between feminism and women's rights. | Good luck finding two feminists that can agree on what feminism even means.
...and that's before you bring in the trolls & misogynists shitting all over the thread. | [
"Feminism is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes, even though many feminist movements and ideologies differ on exactly which claims and strategies are vital and justifiable to achieve equality.\n",
"Feminism is a range of social movements, political movements, and ideologies th... |
By the start of the American Civil War, how much money was invested into slavery? | I am sure someone has estimated the total value of slave property in the South in 1860 but I don't have that information at hand. The running estimate for Southern slaves just before the war numbers them at about 4 million. Also, a good rule of thumb for the price of the slave was usually about $1000. Of course there c... | [
"During the Civil War, 30,000 Mississippi soldiers, mostly white, died from wounds and disease, and many more were left crippled and wounded. Changes to the labor structure and an agricultural depression throughout the South caused severe losses in wealth. In 1860 assessed valuation of property in Mississippi had b... |
what caused the deepwater horizon catastrophe? | 1) BP Co man tried to be cheap & reduced the number of pipe centralizers by a significant number.
2) Halliburton was hired to pump cement to solidify the pipe. Head cementer noticed the discrepancy & noted it to the Co man. Insufficient centralizers can cause a poor cement job since the pipe bends & moves as ... | [
"On September 8, 2010, an internal report released by BP into the Deepwater Horizon explosion claimed that poor practices of Halliburton staff had contributed to the disaster. Investigations carried out by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling found that Halliburton was... |
Looking for a couple books! | For the Spain part you could be interested in Stanley Payne's *A History of Spain and Portugal*, which is handily available freely online as part of UCA's Library of Iberian Resources Online [here](_URL_1_) and [here](_URL_0_). It's a pretty good overall history of both of the countries. | [
"Several adventure gamebooks have been released in the Czech Republic and Russia. In Azerbaijan, Narmin Kamal's novel, \"Open It's Me\", offers the reader a choice to either read the book as a random collection of thirty-nine short stories about the same character, or as a single novel. A photo of the book's hero i... |
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