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why by do we use exchange rates to represent value of currency (eg: strong vs weak dollar)? | If you never leave your own country, and never buy anything not 100% made in your country, then it matters not at all. However, this is pretty much impossible, as pieces and parts are sourced from all over the globe, usually based on where the cheapest to get resources are.
Example of how it matters:
Imagine I own a Canadian business. I make some chairs, and I buy some chairs, and then sell them to Canadians.
I make my chairs using Canadian materials, which I pay $100 CAD for, and then pay another $100 CAD to my workers to build it. I sell these chairs for $400 CAD to the Canadian public.
I also buy some chairs form the USA. These chairs cost $100 USD for materials, and $100 USD for labor. I can buy them for $200 USD, and then I can sell them in Canada. However, I can't just sell them for $400 CAD. I have to pay for them in USD. But all my sales of these chairs are in CAD! I have to then go to my bank, and say, "Please take the CADs, and pay this US company $200 in USD." The banks then need to figure out how much $200 USD is in CADs so they can pay the US company properly AND so I can price appropriately.
If the exchange rate is $1.50CAD to $1.00 USD, then I will need to have my bank take out $300 CAD to pay the US company. To keep my margins equal, I will need to charge $600 CAD for that US chair.
If the exchange rate is $0.50 CAD to $1.00 USD, then my bank only needs to pay the US company $100 CAD to cover the cost of the chair, and I can sell the US chairs for $200 CAD.
If you were a Canadian person shopping at my store, which would you buy? The $200 US chair, or the $400 Canadian chair? Alternatively, would you buy the $400 Canadian chair, or the $600 US chair? | [
"The real exchange rate is a more informative measure of the dollar's worth since it accounts for countries whose currencies experience differing rates of inflation from that of the United States. This is compensated for by adjusting the exchange rates in the formula using the consumer price index of the respective... |
Why does my bathroom mirror fog up but my phone screen doesn't? | The H2O in the air will condense on your mirror forming a fog, so it is passing from the gaseous to the liquid state, so it need to cool down. This is possible because your mirror is relatively cool and the H2O can form the fog, whereas due to the circuit and light in and on your phone screen, the phone is not cool enough to form a fog. | [
"Mirror lock-up is a feature that can be added to both the Kiev 88 and Kiev 60. This removes the small amount of motion blur that can be caused by the mirror hitting the top of the mirror box just before the shutter opens. (Other sources of motion-blur still remain however). It is most useful when the subject is gr... |
Why does water gather together? | Yay finally a question I can answer!
Water molecules want to bond together and form hydrogen bonds between each other. This causes them to exhibit surface tension. The water molecules at the surface of the liquid don't have as many other molecules to bind to. Therefore, the surface molecules create stronger bonds with each other. This is called surface tension. That is why water droplets are created - the surface molecules have a strong bond. Water molecules actually have the second highest surface tension, mercury has the highest. | [
"When water is in contact with solid particles (e.g., clay or sand particles within soil), adhesive intermolecular forces between the water and the solid can be large and important. The forces between the water molecules and the solid particles in combination with attraction among water molecules promote surface te... |
why do dogs suck at hide-and-seek when they have a super sensitive olfactory sense? | Remember that their noses are so sensitive that to them, the whole house is saturated with the smell of everything. Imagine trying to find one hidden bottle of perfume in the perfume department at macy's - it's just too much sensory input to be accurate in all those "smells" - (not saying you stink or anything . . . but to the dog, you probaby do . . . just kiddin') | [
"Some dogs are trained to silently locate booby traps and concealed enemies such as snipers. The dog's keen senses of smell and hearing would make them far more effective at detecting these dangers than humans. The best scout dogs are described as having a disposition intermediate to docile tracking dogs and aggres... |
Why does the force of gravity appear to have contradictory effects in the solar system? | Nobody has yet pointed out...the moon *does* orbit the sun. In fact, it has almost exactly the same orbit as Earth. However, it (and Earth) go in and out a bit due to their relative interaction.
Looking at the moon's orbit as a whole, in what sense could you say that it does not revolve around it directly, or that it is not captured? | [
"In addition to stepping in to re-form the solar system, Newton invoked God's active intervention to prevent the stars falling in on each other, and perhaps in preventing the amount of motion in the universe from decaying due to viscosity and friction. In private correspondence Newton sometimes hinted that the forc... |
i understand the first level (employer-employee) of direct deposits but how does it work between my bank and my employer? | I'm not 100% sure, but I'm fairly certain it is just a simple banking transfer.
Your company runs a "payroll application" most likely bought from a vendor like ADP. That application runs through all the information for each employee, pulls out the correct amounts of tax (as specified by your W-2 and the state you are in), then notifies the bank to transfer the funds from their account to yours. | [
"In banking, a direct deposit (or direct credit) is a deposit of money by a payer directly into a payee's bank account. Direct deposits are most commonly made by businesses in the payment of salaries and wages and for the payment of suppliers' accounts, but the facility can be used for payments for any purpose, suc... |
how does washing detergent work? | All soaps are surfactants. A surfactant is a molecule of which one end is attract to water (hydrophilic) and the other end doesn't like water (hydrophobic) but likes oils and dirt. Oils and dirt stick to the hydrophobic end and are washed away by water which attached to the hydrophobic end. | [
"In most household contexts, the term \"detergent\" by itself refers specifically to \"laundry detergent\" or \"dish detergent\", as opposed to \"hand soap\" or other types of cleaning agents. Detergents are commonly available as powders or concentrated solutions. Detergents, like soaps, work because they are amphi... |
how come the middle-eastern and asian civilizations got surpassed even though their knowledge and techniques were far superior to those of the western world? | Copied from googling.
China was centrally controlled by a leadership that made a deliberate choice to focus inward and turn it's back on the world and technology. So just as the Renaissance was waking up Europe, China was going to sleep. The Arabs were very advanced through much of what was in Europe the dark ages, but they were devastated by the Mongols and never truly recovered. The Turks were corrupt to a point where they were stagnant.
India was too divided. There were no true long-lasting nation-states. Most of the Empires had little to no coastal territory, and were primarily concerned with land expansion. The states that needed new territory, didn't have the resources. The states that did have the resources, had no interest.
The west on the other hand had a lot of both commercial and military competition, and an explosion of intellectual inquiry. There was no power suppressing progress. It has the right kind of society/culture that encourages its growth, so it is the way people think that makes them more advance.
Europe's (and the Iberian nations in particular) unique situation fed the Voyages of Discovery, and those voyages led to new economic prosperity, surpassing that gained during the crusades. At the same time, the Byzantine Empire had fallen, and many of its intellectuals and artists fled to Western Europe, in particular Italy. This led directly to the Renaissance. Basically, Europe got lucky.
| [
"Said said that the Western world sought to dominate the Eastern world for more than 2,000 years, since Classical antiquity (8th c. BC – AD 6th c.), the time of the play \"The Persians\" (472 BC), by Aeschylus, which celebrates a Greek victory (Battle of Salamis, 480 BC) against the Persians in the course of the Pe... |
Do internally ingested radionuclides tend to accumulate in certain tissues as opposed to others? | Yes, some radionuclides accumulate in certain tissue (based on their chemical properties), and the internal dose models account for this.
The ICRP internal exposure model is a compartment model, and they assume uniform distribution of a nuclide throughout a *compartment* (not the whole body).
The model calculates the transfer of a given nuclide between different compartments (e.g. upper respiratory system, deep lungs, blood, bone, GI, etc). This takes into account the tendencies of some nuclides to gather in certain parts of the body, as you mentioned. Then the dose is calculated by computing the contribution of a decay within a certain compartment to the rest of the body.
I'm not sure exactly which ICRP report this is contained in - I'm going off of Turner's *Atoms, Radiation, and Radiation Protection*, which cites ICRP Pubs. 23, 30, 60, 61, and 116. | [
"Radioresistance may be induced by exposure to small doses of ionizing radiation. Several studies have documented this effect in yeast, bacteria, protozoa, algae, plants, insects, as well as in \"in vitro\" mammalian and human cells and in animal models. Several cellular radioprotection mechanisms may be involved, ... |
Who are Slovenians and what's their history? | Not exactly.
The Slovenes are a Slavic-speaking ethnic group living primarily on the eastern region of the Dolomite Alps, historically known as the 'Julian Alps'.
Slavic-speakers probably began entering the region in the 7th century, but for almost 100 years did not likely impact the local culture. By the 9th century, however, the Julian Alpine people had become thoroughly Slavic.
The identity of these early Alpine Slavs is largely unknown, but by the 11th century had become culturally reoriented from western-Slavic linguistically and culturally, towards south-Slavic. By the 13th century these areas had become part of the Holy Roman Empire.
After being Germanized to a great degree, by the end of the 30 years' war, Slovene culture had fully reemerged as a distinct south-Slavic Alpine culture and language. | [
"The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( ), are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia, and also to Italy, Austria and Hungary in addition to having a diaspora throughout the world. Slovenes share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovene as their native language.\n",
"Slovene ( or... |
Why does semen begin thicker immediately after ejaculation and then later "dissolve" into a much thinner liquid? | Thankfully, Wikipedia has a crystal clear answer for this:
"During the process of ejaculation, sperm passes through the ejaculatory ducts and mixes with fluids from the seminal vesicles, the prostate, and the bulbourethral glands to form the semen. The seminal vesicles produce a yellowish viscous fluid rich in fructose and other substances that makes up about 70% of human semen. The prostatic secretion, influenced by dihydrotestosterone, is a whitish (sometimes clear), thin fluid containing proteolytic enzymes, citric acid, acid phosphatase and lipids. The bulbourethral glands secrete a clear secretion into the lumen of the urethra to lubricate it."
That should answer your consistency question.
With regard to the liquefaction:
"After ejaculation, the latter part of the ejaculated semen coagulates immediately, forming globules, while the earlier part of the ejaculate typically does not. After a period typically ranging from 15 – 30 minutes, Prostate-specific antigen present in the semen causes the decoagulation of the seminal coagulum. It is postulated that the initial clotting helps keep the semen in the vagina, while liquefaction frees the sperm to make their journey to the ova."
_URL_0_ | [
"Semen has an alkaline nature and the spermatozoa do not reach full motility (hypermotility) until they reach the vagina, where the alkaline pH is neutralized by acidic vaginal fluids. This gradual process takes 20–30 minutes. During this period, fibrinogen from the seminal vesicles forms a clot, securing and prote... |
what is the point in separating the armed forces into army, navy and air force when they all have their own foot soldiers, planes and ships? | In the US it's largely tradition, other countries may have other reasons like intentionally weakening their military to prevent coups.
There's also an argument that can be made that having separate branches with specializations allows them to be better at their jobs by focusing on a narrower set of missions rather than trying to do everything. | [
"An army aviation unit is an aviation-related unit of a nation's army, sometimes described as an air corps. These units are generally separate from a nation's dedicated air force, and usually comprise helicopters and light support fixed-wing aircraft. Prior to the establishment of separate national air forces, many... |
How were ancient generals educated in the art of war? | I don't know enough to give you an informed answer however I would recommend you narrow down your question to a specific country (or at least region) and include some sort of time period you're interested in.
You have a really interesting question, I just feel you should be a bit more specific. | [
"The profession of soldiering as part of a military is older than recorded history itself. Some of the most enduring images of classical antiquity portray the power and feats of its military leaders. The Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC was one of the defining points of Pharaoh Ramses II's reign, and his monuments comme... |
Is it realistic to say that nothing in the universe exists that is at a completely stopped state? | > Since the planets are all moving, and galaxies are all moving away from each other, that would mean that everything is in some sort of motion at all time?
Depends on your reference frame. All motion is relative. | [
"An easy example would be the statement ″the sun will rise tomorrow″. Although many reasons could be devised for which that statement could turn out to be false (the Earth could stop turning, aliens could destroy the Sun with their star-killer doomsday weapon, the universe might be a simulation and could be shut do... |
i understand 4th dimensional space. but what exactly is 5th dimensional space? does it exist outside time and space? | The universe, as far as we can tell, has 3 dimensions of space and 1 of time. If there were 4 dimensions of space instead, everything would be the same except there would be another independent direction to move in besides up/down, left/right, and forward/backward. That's all dimensions are: directions to move around in. There's no difference in principle between having 3 spatial dimensions and having 473 spatial dimensions. | [
"A five-dimensional space is a space with five dimensions. If interpreted physically, that is one more than the usual three spatial dimensions and the fourth dimension of time used in relativistic physics. It is an abstraction which occurs frequently in mathematics, where it is a legitimate construct. In physics an... |
Ancient Egypt | Not to discourage further comments, but take a look at the [Ancient Egypt section of the AskHistorians book list](_URL_0_). Some of those ought to provide good information for you.
I'll leave the question of "covering up" things to someone with more knowledge of the topic. | [
"Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in the place that is now the country Egypt. Ancient Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3100 BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology) with the political unifi... |
How did a Holy Roman Emperor differ from the kings of England or France? | The organization and hierarchy of the Empire were complicated to say the least. It wasn't a Kingdom in the true meaning of the word, like France or England for example. It had some republican characteristics, but it wasn't a republic either.
In the Empire, there were thousands of settlements: villages, towns, convents, monasteries and hundreds of additional places of worship. All these communities were linked by the imperial constitution, which bound them in a series of hierarchies, often with overlapping jurisdictions.
Basically, the Emperor was the superior lord over lesser authorities, bound by the chains of vassalage. Those lords who were immediately under the Emperor's jurisdiction (Reichsunmittelbar) ruler over fiefs (Reichslehen) given to them by the Emperor. The Reichslehen were generally composed of lesser holdings, like villages and towns. And on the other hand, the ecclesiastical lords, who had a very close relationship with the Emperor, considered themselves a separate collective within the Empire - the 'imperial church', or Reichskirche. However, a person holding one type of authority wasn't barred from owning another, so a lord of an imperial fief could also hold other land that would bind him in vassalage to one of his peers. In its entirety, the Empire was made up of around 310 fiefs and the rights to rule over them were most often acquired by inheritance and were held by the 50-60.000 noble families in the Empire. Most of these territorial nobles (Landadel), which possessed lesser rights and were subjects of the imperial lords.
By 1521, all the political subjects within the Empire were organized into three groups. The most senior were the electors - seven lord who held the exclusive right to vote in Imperial elections. Three electors (the Archbishoprics of Mainz, Trier and Cologne) were ecclesiastical, while the other four (Bohemia, Brandenburg, Saxony, and the Palatinate) were secular holdings.
The other fiefs fell into one of two types. 50 spiritual fiefs, and 33 lay fiefs. The lords who ruled over them were called princes, even though their actual titles could range from Landgrave to Duke. The lay fiefs could be transferred through inheritance or purchase, but both required the Emperor's approval. The rulers of ecclesiastical fiefs, on the other hand, were picked by commissions established by the Reichskirche, and were subjected to Papal approval.
The second group of fiefs, numbering around 220, were smaller still - they consisted of only a few thousand subjects ruled over by a count or prelate, who lacked a princely status. The Reichsritter - Barons and landed knights, were even smaller, and held 1.500 other fiefs.
There were also cities - communities who fell outside of lordly jurisdiction. There were 80 'free and imperial cities' within the Empire, with tens of thousands of citizens. Their size gave them considerable influence and ensured the mayors of the imperial cities a very close relationship with the Emperor, which guaranteed their sovereignty and preserved them from being incorporated into the neighboring principalities.
The Imperial Constitution dictated that the Emperor was overlord and sovereign, holding considerable power that he derived from his title rather than his fiefs. His prerogatives were left vague on purpose, so as not to limit the Emperor's 'holy, universal' pretensions. However, the need to deal with pressing problems forced the definition of the relationship between the Empire and his vassals.
The lords of note secured representation in the Reichstag, or imperial diet, and were recognized as imperial Estates, which gave them precedence over those who weren't. The Reichstag was basically a proto-Parliament, which embodied the principle of representation through the Emperor's obligation to consult with his noteworthy subjects on matters of state. But this is the Holy Roman Empire we're talking about, it *has* to be more complicated.
The consultations with the Reichstag took place in three separate colleges - the Elector's college, the cities' college and the princely college. Each college took a decision by a majority vote, but beforehand, every representative spoke in turn according to a strict order of precedence. After all three colleges had separately reached a decision, they consulted each other in pairs. Electors talking to princes and mayors, and so on. After this entire process was finished, the decision was presented to the Emperor as a recommendation, which he could accept or reject. Even though the Emperor didn't have to consult the Reichstag, it was a useful tool for testing public opinion and further proving imperial legitimacy. Though cumbersome, Emperors called the Reichstag into session fairly often, especially when it came to matters about the entirety of the Empire.
**TL;DR:** The Emperor was sovereign which delegated control to lesser lords who ruled overhundreds of holdings with separate and overlapping authorities, which sometimes banded in a type of proto-Parliament to decide on matters of state.
Source: Peter H. Wilson: The Thirty Years' War - Europe's Tragedy
PS: Even though my source is a book about the Thirty Years' War, it includes a huge preface about the political organization in the Empire.
Edit: Oh, and if this doesn't answer your question and you want a more precise answer, feel free to ask a follow-up question. | [
"While earlier Germanic and Italian monarchs had been crowned as Roman emperors, the actual Holy Roman Empire is usually considered to have begun with the crowning of the Saxon king Otto I. It was officially an elective position, though at times it ran in families, notably the four generations of the Salian dynasty... |
why does my phone's battery drain so much faster when it's hot? | Lithium-ion batteries perform well at elevated temperatures; however, prolonged exposure to heat reduces longevity. You've probably shortened your battery's life permanently through excessive exposure to heat. Time to get a new one. | [
"BULLET::::- Some users have complained that the battery drains too fast and the phone overheats. Aloysius Low from CNET Asia did not notice such a fast rate of battery drain on other smartphones even with the same usage pattern. The issue was fixed in the Portico update.\n",
"older phones tend to draw more batte... |
Road Salt and road longevity | Road salt increases the number of freeze/thaw cycles that you mentioned, which in turn causes faster deterioration. I would also think that the chloride ion in salt could cause corrosion in bridges reinforced with steel.
Edit: [Gotta have sources](_URL_0_). | [
"A salt road (also known as a salt route, salt way, saltway, or salt trading route) refers to any of the prehistoric and historical trade routes by which essential salt was transported to regions that lacked it.\n",
"The subject of salt roads reappears throughout the novel; the roads are the spiritual connection ... |
why are governments often referred to by their country's capital in news articles? | Because there are not enough government names. "The Prime Minister said ..." could be any of dozens of people. Using their given name sounds like they are just an opinionated person, it doesn't carry the prestige of their office. Name plus title takes too many letters for headlines or intro taglines.
It's a little easier in the US, because "The White House" is pretty unique, as is "Downing Street" or "the Kremlin" . But that doesn't generalize to everywhere. | [
"News media often use the name of a capital city as an alternative name for the country of which it is the capital or of the government that is seated there, as a form of metonymy. For example, \"relations between Washington and London\" refer to \"relations between the United States and the United Kingdom\".\n",
... |
Why does reading often trigger yawning? | Are you lying in bed? | [
"Yawning (\"oscitation\") most often occurs in adults immediately before and after sleep, during tedious activities and as a result of its contagious quality. It is commonly associated with tiredness, stress, sleepiness, or even boredom and hunger. In humans, yawning is often triggered by others yawning (e.g. seein... |
Why is there so little French influence except for names of places in the American Midwest unlike in Quebec? | France didn't establish many major trading posts or cities in the Midwest, so cultural influences didn't stay strongly tied to the land. Look at this map:
_URL_0_
There aren't any significant French settlements in the Midwest, but in the Louisiana area we see New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Mobile, and in the Quebec area we see Quebec City and Montreal. These population centers that were not only a place to expand French influence but also a place for French people to live (especially Huguenots) have maintained some amount of French influence and culture to this day. However, when forts were taken in the Midwest, the garrison was just replaced. That typically is not what happens when a city or town is taken; rather, the population becomes subjects or citizens of the new governing entity.
Also, I wouldn't say that place names are an insignificant influence. Those are some of the longest surviving testaments to a past culture or history, and I think they are wonderful in the way that they turn our attention to the history of the area.
Bonus fun fact: Grand Tetons means "big boobs," so that's a fun influence that remains to this day. | [
"The main difference between New Orleans and other Southern cities was its unique cultural heritage as a result of formerly having been a French and Spanish possession. Promoters emphasized this cultural legacy, in the form of its architecture, cuisine and traditions, to attract tourists to New Orleans.\n",
"In t... |
why haven't avocados been bred to have tiny pits? | You can't just "breed" things arbitrarily to have whatver quality you want. You have to find one that naturally mutated that feature, then breed that plant. For example, no one bred seeds out of grapes. They found a grape vine that mutated to grow no seeds, then they grafted that vine over and over until seedless grapes were widespread.
To get avocados with tiny pits, you'd have to find a plant that grows tiny pits, then breed that plant. Until we find that plant, we can't breed avocados with tiny pits. | [
"A stoneless avocado, marketed as a \"cocktail avocado,\" which does not contain a pit, is available on a limited basis. They are five to eight centimetres long; the whole fruit may be eaten, including the skin. It is produced from an unpollinated blossom in which the seed does not develop. Seedless avocados regula... |
is it better to put your computer on standby, hibernate or turn it off after every session? | It comes down to your preferences, that's why there's so all the different options. Your computer components will most likely never fail due to heat cycling or starting and stopping and save a hardware defect will be obsolete before their mechanical life expires.
Each successive step you asked just uses less power and takes longer to complete. Hibernation is great for laptops if you leave work open but it does make a lot of writes so keep frequent backups if you have a solid state drive because consumer-wise their longevity is the most untested of all computer hardware. I use sleep on all my systems since it's almost instant-on.
Depending on the age of your system and it's specs, here are some rough comparisons with a rough yearly electrical bill expense (@ 8.7c per Kilowatt Hour)
* On/idle 24 hours a day (screen off - don't use screen savers unless you like pretty pictures): 60-250 watts | $45-$190
* Sleep 24 hours a day (monitor off): 5 watts | $1.91-$3.81
* Hibernate: 1ish | less than a dollar a year | [
"While some PCs allow low power settings, there are many situations, especially in a networked environment, where processes running on the computer will prevent the low power settings from taking effect. This can have a dramatic effect on energy use that is invisible to the user. The monitor may have gone into stan... |
why do some playstation one game discs have a blue coloring while others are black? | Former Sony employee here. I worked in the Replication factories where PS1, PS2 and PS3 games were made.
PS1 games are constructed like CD's. One thick Polycarbonate wafer is injection molded with data on the label side. That side is metalized then a protective coating is spun over the metalization. Then the label applied.
PS2 games are constructed like DVD's. Two thinner wafers are injection molded with data on one side, then metalized and adhered to each other, data sides in. The label is applied on the "B" side wafer.
PS3 games are constructed like Blu-ray discs. One thin wafer is injection molded with data on one side then metalized. Additional layers are spun-coat then stamped and metalized on top, and a final protective layer is spun on the data side and the label is applied on that side as well. A protective hard coating is then applied to the read side.
The polycarbonate used in PS1 discs is just dyed a very, very dark blue that looks black. Since the wavelength of the laser diode in a CDROM drive is 780nm (near infrared), the signal isn't attenuated by the dye. It serves no purpose other than to look different from other discs. In fact, Sony piloted a program for music CD's that used the same resin and a novel printing method on the label side to simulate the appearance of a vinyl album. They played in normal CD players with no issues.
The polycarbonate used in PS2 discs was again just dyed blue, slightly less dark than the PS1. It again serves no purpose other than to differentiate the discs from PS1 and other discs. The wavelength of a DVD-ROM drive is 650nm (red) so again no signal interference occurs.
The copy protection method used in PS1 and PS2 discs do not rely on the dye; rumors to the contrary are false.
Since the PS3 uses Blu-ray technology, with a 405nm wavelength (violet) Sony couldn't dye the polycarbonate and instead left it clear.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk. | [
"BULLET::::- Black cartridges (Also known as class B or Dual Mode) are compatible with all Game Boy systems, excluding Game Boy Micro. Although the games on these cartridges are programmed in color, they can still be played in monochrome on Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Light and Super Game Boy (and its Japan... |
what did de blasio say to piss of the cops that they turned their back on him? | He said something mildly critical after the cops tackled and choked an unarmed fat black man to death for selling black market cigarettes. | [
"De Atley quoted a passage from the wiretaps which stated Navario said: \" \"it was 'fun to ... around with people,' that he gets 'to beat somebody's ... because they're drunk,' \"\". De Atley noted that the court papers did not include evidence Navario had beaten vulnerable members of the public for kicks.\n",
"... |
If I were to analyse the DNA of a newborn baby, and then wait 80 years before analysing that person's DNA once more, how genetically dissimilar might I expect the two samples to be? | Several things would be different:
- At the end of your DNA, there is a a series of repeated nucleotides called 'telomeres'. Telomeres basically just serve to protect the DNA that is actually important, since a little bit of the ends of your DNA are lost each time during replication. As you age, you have a smaller and smaller amount of telomeres.
- Epigenetics are also a factor. Not all of your DNA is in the 'On' position all the time. Several processes, like wrapping DNA around a histone proteins, or adding methyl groups to turn parts of DNA off. As you age and your body encounters different environments, your epigenome will change. This is why twins are a lot alike early in life, but begin to diverge as they grow older.
- Viral DNA can also get inserted into your DNA, become mutated and ineffective, and stay a part of your genome. I don't know how often this happens, but I know it does.
| [
"DNA profiling is also used in DNA paternity testing to determine if someone is the biological parent or grandparent of a child with the probability of parentage is typically 99.99% when the alleged parent is biologically related to the child. Normal DNA sequencing methods happen after birth, but there are new meth... |
how, when, and why did it seem everyone decided white was the go to color for toilets? | Toilets are generally ceramic, and ceramic is white unless it's dyed some other. Dyeing ceramic is expensive, so a non-white toilet will be more expensive and is therefore more likely to be found in homes than public bathrooms. | [
"Colored toilet paper in colors such as pink, lavender, light blue, light green, purple, green, and light yellow (so that one could choose a color of toilet paper that matched or complemented the color of one's bathroom) was commonly sold in the United States from the 1960s. Up until 2004, Scott was one of the last... |
what would happen if i soaked my body in a tub of vodka? | You would likely absorb enough to kill yourself. But before that happened, you would get drunk and sparkly clean. | [
"Pierre and Andrews then propped each of the victims into sitting positions and forced them to drink the liquid, telling them it was vodka laced with sleeping pills. Rather, it was liquid Drano, that immediately caused blisters on the victims' lips, and began burning their tongues and throats, and peeled away the f... |
what makes us emotionaly numb when we are depressed? | Emotional numbness is one of the key markers in the first step of diagnosing things like major depression, but also PTSD and depersonalization disorders and they sometimes have different causes.
With depression, it's often heavily influenced by the imbalance of chemicals in your body and brain like serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, and oxytocin to name a few. These levels become so low that you lose the pleasure and excitement reactions to things that usually make you happy and instead, you don't feel anything. That's why you're usually asked the 'have you lost interest in things that you usually enjoy doing' when being seen for mental health. There are a ton of ways to help yourself and get professional help to work through depression and treat it until you're symptom free, so don't give up.
In cases of PTSD and the like, it's more commonly a coping mechanism. The feelings from the associated trauma and its triggers are so intense that your brain decides that it's in its best interest to not address that feeling in order to survive. This isn't a bad thing! Often at the time the initial trauma occured, if your brain has triggered this kind of dissociation, it was a necessary coping mechanism to protect you and your mental health. If you are still experiencing symptoms of PTSD once the trauma is over, therapy is important to help teach your brain that it's okay to use other, more appropriate ways to deal with day to day emotions.
As for your question about how it comes back, that depends on the cause. You can certainly do some things yourself to try to jump start your happy chemicals, like doing light cardio every day for a few weeks, getting enough sunlight, taking a multivitamin- all things that are essential to helping you maintain a healthy cycle of production for these chemicals.
If you are still struggling after a few weeks of this OR experiencing worsening symptoms like panic attacks, severe lethargy, hostility, having suicidal thoughts, get in to see your doctor. Our brain and our genetic make up is entirely unique, so sometimes we will have trouble balancing our chemicals. To expound, because of that uniqueness, it will likely take a few or even more than a few different tries to find the right medication for you. Not only do they all act a little different, but there are many different classifications of these medications that specialize in specific chemicals and receptors in your brain, so an SSRI which mainly deals with serotonin reuptake will not perform the same function as an SNRI which mainly deals with norepinephrine reuptake, to only mention a few catergories. The most effective treatment in most cases is therapy and medication when needed.
Hope this helped. | [
"High or low expressed emotion makes the patient feel trapped, out of control and dependent upon others. The patient may feel like an outsider because of the excessive attention received. In bipolar patients relapse from manic to depressed can be triggered by a family member's comments. Expressed emotion affects ev... |
What is the best place to find primary documents about New France? | I'm not sure what kind of sources you're looking for, but you can start with books on whatever topic you're interested in and check their footnotes. One particularly good book I've read is Bonds of Alliance, by Brett Rushforth | [
"Other sources and background information is drawn from a range of French letters and articles from the era as well as historical documents. It refers often to the writings of French explorer Samuel de Champlain who was the first to explore New France and encounter the Huron people.\n",
"The site includes interac... |
why pug's tails curl. | I misread this as "why pig's tails curl"
While I'll be happy to find out about pugs' tails, now I'm going to wonder about why pig tails curl... | [
"The tail has been shown to contain fast and slow particles; the slow particles are on the side and the fast particles are encompassed in the center. The shape of the tail can be linked to the sun sending out fast solar winds near its poles and slow solar wind near its equator more recently. The clover-shaped tail ... |
why is it that the larger dominoes fall slower? | The bigger something is, the more inertia it has. That is to say, the harder it is to get it to stop doing one thing and start doing another.
In this case it would be stopping it from just sitting there and making it fall over. | [
"Besides playing games, another use of dominoes is the domino show, which involves standing them on end in long lines so that when the first tile is toppled, it topples the second, which topples the third, etc., resulting in all of the tiles falling. By analogy, the phenomenon of small events causing similar events... |
why does some cheese cost so much more than others when they all seem be made of milk & bacteria and are made the same way? | Many time and resource consuming factors can go into making a cheese, and ultimately the price of a cheese. For example, some cheeses are aged, meaning they must be stored and preserved and therefore cannot be produced as quickly, meaning a more expensive cheese in the supermarket. Some cheaper cheeses aren't even 100% cheese, and have filler added. | [
"Cheese is another product made from milk. Whole milk is reacted to form curds that can be compressed, processed and stored to form cheese. In countries where milk is legally allowed to be processed without pasteurization, a wide range of cheeses can be made using the bacteria found naturally in the milk. In most o... |
To what extent could the Cold War be attributed to the transition from Roosevelt to Truman? | This is one of those questions that has consumed historians pretty much since the Cold War began. This is a fierce historiographical debate on top of a complicated factual question, but I'll try and lay out the various positions.
Roosevelt is pretty famous for having been extremely controlling in his conduct of foreign policy; his own stated preference in overseeing the state department was to make sure that the left hand never knew what the right one was doing so that he would always be in supreme control. By 1944, many of his closest advisers such as Sumner Welles had been pushed out, which increasingly left him running the show even more. He's also frustratingly evasive even in the written record; FDR's response to memos might simply consist of a checkmark, from which we have to try and discern what he really wanted or how he stood on a given policy.
As you might know, Truman was a compromise pick for VP, and Roosevelt only met with him a handful of times before he died. Truman wants to try and sustain the foreign policy wishes of FDR, but doing so proves to be frustratingly difficult because he didn't actually have a concrete sense of what they were The people who were in ascendance around Roosevelt at that time such as Averell Harriman had been pushing for a hard-line against the Soviet Union, but Harriman had always ambivalent-at-best about the USSR.
Here's where it gets complicated, because to say how whether Truman bears responsibility for the Cold War, especially in this transition, rests on an extraordinarily sticky historiographical question that diplomatic historians are still debating to this day. The so-called "orthodox" historians who lay most of the blame on the Soviet Union for the Cold War naturally downplay this transition as a factor, and many suggest that Roosevelt was already pivoting away from the Soviet Union by 1944. John Lewis Gaddis (who is mostly on the orthodox side of this debate, especially later in life) in The Origins of the Cold War asserts that Roosevelt, who depended on Polish-Americans and Eastern European immigrants in his New Deal coalition was concerned about Soviet encroachment in Eastern Europe. Given that even the most generous interpretation of Stalin's behavior suggests he would only ever tolerate friendly, ideologically-aligned governments on his borders (if not Marxist puppet governments), Roosevelt would have grown more uncomfortable with Stalin given his behavior there and the domestic ramifications. Other historians make hay out of Roosevelt's increasingly infirm condition by 1945, pushing that his aides did too much of the negotiation at Yalta, leading to giveaways of territory that were unacceptable to many people, including Truman.
Then there are others like Frank Costigliola, whose book Roosevelt's Lost Alliances makes the case that the transition was at least a significant factor in the beginning of the Cold War. Costigliola argues that Roosevelt had brokered an accommodation with Stalin that simply assumed that the postwar world order would be formed out of spheres-of-influence, and that Stalin would frankly need an Eastern European zone after the twin traumas of the two world wars. He alleges that Roosevelt's advisers like Harriman failed to appreciate this, and to put it simplistically, had a number of hangups that led them to interpret Soviet behaviors in the worst possible way. Similarly, Truman's behavior was aggressive and direct in a way that Roosevelt's careful diplomacy never had been. So within just a few days of becoming president, Truman's berating the Soviet foreign minister about their failure to hold democratic elections in Poland. Truman openly says before Potsdam to an adviser that Stalin seems like the party bosses he knew in Missouri like Tom Pendergast, and that the best option was to be tough and direct with them. With somebody as hyperattuned to insult as Stalin, that was a poor combination.
Melvyn Leffler's A Preponderance of Power (or as we like to call it, A Preponderance of Pages) is a brilliant look at how U.S. foreign policy was informed in the postwar period by needing to match the Soviet Union, and he makes it pretty clear that Truman and others tended to see Soviet behavior in the worst possible light at any given moment. Some of that is this constant analogizing back to the Munich Compromise and the sense that that had been the opportunity to stop Hitler without all of the ensuing bloodshed, and so compromise or accommodation with Stalin now could lead to similar disaster.
So, this is in many ways an unsatisfying answer, but that's because we're still arguing about this in mostly congenial ways. Where do I stand personally as an academic? I'm more in the camp of Costigliola and Leffler, seeing American actors provoking Stalin at a moment when he was genuinely more interested in accommodation, however narrowly constructed it was (and it was, to be sure). Costigliola is particularly good at pointing out that we've always treated Soviet actors like they were irrational, and to be sure, they were. Stalin being irrational however doesn't make Truman, Churchill, or Harriman rational either, and you do see these repeated references in people's papers to Munich and connected lessons to appeasement and compromise. Those Munich analogies never really go away (I vividly remember them being made about the Second Iraq War), but they're very strong in this period because they emotionally resonate with people. Unfortunately, they're also very problematic because Hitler and Stalin were strikingly different people, down to ambitions and how to carry them out. Costigliola makes the case that yes, Stalin saw competition as inevitable with the capitalist bloc, but not necessarily violent or immediate. Stalin was cautious and fearful of his own weakness, while Hitler was all aggression and risk. That doesn't absolve Stalin of anything, but a narrative that holds him as solely responsible doesn't capture the full complexity of this, and some of that complexity should come back to Truman.
But those are other questions, and I don't want to bog you down in other issues. Hopefully some of this was enlightening. | [
"Truman's presidency was a turning point in foreign affairs, as the United States engaged in an internationalist foreign policy and renounced isolationism. During his first year in office, Truman approved the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and subsequently accepted the Surrender of Japan, which marked th... |
how do the algorithms work that convert audio to a faster speed without changing pitch? | Imagine you have a tape of someone playing a song on a piano. If you play the tape fast, the pitches are all higher, which you don't want.
But since you're a really excellent musician yourself, instead, you listen to the notes and write sheet music for the song, then you play it yourself on a piano at the faster speed, and the pitches are correct.
The way audio speed compression works is sort of a general purpose version of that. Any fragment of audio can be decomposed into a sum of many sine waves at different frequencies; you just have to do that, then produce a shorter fragment that has the same frequency composition. | [
"In higher performance audio synchronizers, the rate of delay change is allowed to be much faster, generally in the order of 25%, and the resulting pitch error is corrected with a pitch correction circuit. The pitch correction circuitry is frequently a proprietary design, due to the difficulty in performing correct... |
why do you see a normal picture after looking at a negative picture and then at a white background? | Your retina has light sensitive pigments. When light strikes them it causes a chemical reaction. The pigment is saying "I have been struck by a beam of light to which I am sensitive. I am bent out of shape." Its nerve sends the signal to the brain. I takes a while for the pigment to bend back into shape. During that time the retinal is less sensitive because the pigment is bent out of shape. But not all of the sensitive cells react to the same light. The image is sort of burnt into your retina for a brief moment. | [
"A negative photocopy inverts the colors of the document when creating a photocopy, resulting in letters that appear white on a black background instead of black on a white background. Negative photocopies of old or faded documents sometimes produce documents which have better focus and are easier to read and study... |
the casimir effect | I'm a grad student working with the Casimir force right now. I'll admit, my theoretical knowledge isn't complete, but I'll give the best explanation I can.
So at a really, really small level, light is popping into existence and then going right back into nothing. It's doing this all around you right now.
If you take two flat things, and move them very close together (like 1/10 of a human hair), only certain color light can come into existence between the flat objects. Other colors won't fit.
On the other side of the flat plates, the light can exist in a lot more colors. The difference in the colors possible make a different amount of energy between the plates as compared to outside the plates. This difference in energy shows up as the casimir effect.
To get a visual idea of what's happening, take two sheets of paper, hold them in front of your face, and blow in between them. The blowing makes the air pressure lower on the inside of the paper, and the paper should move towards each other. | [
"The Casimir effect can be understood by the idea that the presence of conducting metals and dielectrics alters the vacuum expectation value of the energy of the second quantized electromagnetic field. Since the value of this energy depends on the shapes and positions of the conductors and dielectrics, the Casimir ... |
Why was cannabis, a drug used for thousands of years in the Middle East, banned by Western nations in the 1800s even though they found little to no harmful effects? Was there an element of xenophobia? | There's always more to say on the subject, but [here's a previous thread](_URL_0_) with an answer from u/Roggenroll that may be helpful. Basically, it was almost entirely due to xenophobia, with very little consideration given to the drug's actual (non-exaggerated) effects. | [
"The Muslim nations of Turkey and Egypt were instrumental in banning opium, cocaine, and cannabis when the League of Nations committed to the 1925 International Convention relating to opium and other drugs (later the 1934 Dangerous Drugs Act). The primary goal was to ban opium and cocaine, but cannabis was added to... |
Is there any physical limit to the Periodic Table? Or could we theoretically just keep fusing elements together to make heavier ones? | > "My basic understanding is that heavier elements are typically made when 2+ lighter elements are fused together"
Absolutely right.
> "could we theoretically just keep fusing elements together to make heavier ones?"
No, not indefinitely.
What causes a nucleus to continue existing is its stability. There are certain shapes such as the 4 nucleons of Helium that are particularly stable, and a C12 nucleus can be thought of as being similar to three He nuclei fused together.
With very large atoms such as U 238, their nucleus tends to be unstable. As you get to larger and larger artificial elements that you see being added to the bottom right of the periodic table, then you will find that they are very unstable and some half a half life of seconds or less.
Making heavier and heavier atoms increases instability in an analogous way that piling building blocks to make a taller and taller tower would also increase instability. | [
"Although that formula gives the maximum in principle, in fact that maximum is only \"achieved\" (by known elements) for the first four shells (K, L, M, N). No known element has more than 32 electrons in any one shell. This is because the subshells are filled according to the Aufbau principle. The first elements to... |
AskHistorians Podcast 049 - Shaft Tombs of West Mexico | Because I am a very visual person and talking about some of these shaft tomb figures or the architecture isn't the same as actually seeing it, I've collected a bunch of links to different figure styles, photos of guachimontones and shaft tombs, as well as linking to what I think are important papers about the region and culture.
Beekman's AMA from last year - _URL_19_
Colima Dog vessel - _URL_17_
Colima dog vessel - _URL_25_
Joined couple - _URL_28_
Peter Furst's "shaman" - _URL_9_
Standing Warrior with pointy hat - _URL_29_
Ixtlan del Reio style - _URL_23_
Figure showing scarification - _URL_24_
Female figure with scarification - _URL_4_
Warrior figure - _URL_11_
Ballcourt model - _URL_6_, _URL_27_
House model - _URL_5_
Figure Seated in Palanquin - _URL_2_
Possible blood letting ritual - _URL_3_
Figure showing disease - _URL_12_
Olmec hacha (axe) found in Etzatlan, Jalisco - _URL_10_
Aerial view of Los Guachimontones - _URL_14_
Los Guachimontones before restoration - _URL_32_
Pictures I've taken of the Los Guachimontones site - _URL_7_
Simplified guachimonton model - _URL_34_
Unusual three house structure guachimonton model - _URL_31_
Model in a museum showing Circle 1 at Los Guachimontones - _URL_21_
A ground view of the site Mesa Alta and what it looks like on Google Earth - _URL_35_
El Arenal shaft tomb - _URL_8_
Bajareque/daub used to cover structures like how plaster was used in other parts of Mesoamerica - _URL_36_, _URL_13_, _URL_30_
Capacha distillation paper - _URL_15_
Mascota (Middle Formative) excavation report - _URL_33_
Capacha stirrup vessel - _URL_20_
Chichimec migration papers - _URL_16_, _URL_1_
Pole ceremony paper - _URL_18_
Corporate power system in Jalisco - _URL_22_
Rise of a statelike society chapter - _URL_26_
Recent Research in Western Mexican Archaeology paper - _URL_0_ | [
"The Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition or shaft tomb culture refers to a set of interlocked cultural traits found in the western Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit, and, to a lesser extent, Colima to the south, roughly dating to the period between 300 BCE and 400 CE, although there are disagreements on this end-d... |
why is there the colours in vertical stripes on when you put in an old vcr tape? | It is a color test that the consumer can use to adjust the color saturation on their television. It was produced by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and is refereed to as the SMPTE color bars | [
"Stereo audio applications use either black and red, grey and red or white and red RCA connectors; in all three cases, red denotes right. White or purple may also be replaced by black. Some older tape recorders, and equipment like receivers designed to connect to them, use a 5-pin DIN connector to connect left and ... |
How Did British People of the Early 18th Century View Americans? | Although Franklin wasn't a typical American, the way the Brits treated him in London is certainly worthy of mention. He went to London a few times, and while he loved the City life, there were always things that drew him back to America.
While he's most famous for getting excoriated in Parliament right before the Revolution, a quote from Lord Granville in 1757 is pretty telling as to what the Brits thought of Americans at that time, namely that they were already much less inclined to tow the line as far as royal commands go, even back then:
**"“You Americans,” Granville had declared to him, “have wrong Ideas of the Nature of your Constitution; you contend that the King’s Instructions to his Governors are not Laws, and think yourselves at Liberty to regard or disregard them at your own Discretion. But those Instructions are not like the Pocket Instructions given’ to a Minister going abroad, for regulating his Conduct in some trifling Point of Ceremony. They are first drawn up by Judges learned in the Laws; they are then considered, debated and perhaps ammended in Council, after which they are signed by the King. They are then so far as relates to you, the Law of the Land ; for THE KING IS THE LEGISLATOR OF THE COLONIES."** -[Source](_URL_0_) (which is an article well worth reading) | [
"Even before the American Revolution, Americans were well aware of how much they owed to their British background, and the British institutions had always contrasted favorably against their European counterparts; as early as 1823, Britain backed up the American Monroe Doctrine, and the two countries cooperated in n... |
How can receipt paper be able to leave a "pencil like mark" when you score it with your nail? | A lot of receipt printers use thermal paper, which show marks with heat. The heat from friction between your nail and the paper could be doing it. Try putting a lighter near the receipt sometime—if it’s using thermal paper, it will leave a mark from the heat. | [
"Pencils create marks by physical abrasion, leaving a trail of solid core material that adheres to a sheet of paper or other surface. They are distinct from pens, which dispense liquid or gel ink onto the marked surface.\n",
"A piece of matte board, a plastic \"card\", or a wad of cloth is often used to push the ... |
the movie primer (spoilers) | Everything after your #1 is pretty far off the mark.
They didn't make money from sports betting. They made money from the stock market. Every afternoon they checked the closing prices of different stocks and looked for one that gained a lot of value over the day, but that traded in very large volume. Then they waited in the box until it was that morning again, bought as many shares of that stock as they could get away with at the low opening price, then waited until the end of the day when the price was much higher to put in sell orders and take their profits.
They did this a few times — the movie doesn't say exactly how many times — and it got to the point where both Abe and Aaron had enough money that they could imagine never having to work again in their lives. Which got them thinking about what to do next. There's no point in continuing to work thirty-six-hour days to make money in the market, since they've got more money than they need already. So … what? What do they do now?
Aaron had the idea to use the boxes *just once* to pull off what basically amounted to a petty prank. See, Aaron had been in business with a guy who'd treated him badly, and he really wanted to just punch that guy in the mouth, just once. But he knew that would be a bad idea … but what if he could both do it *and not do it?* What if he could go find the guy and punch him, then use the box to relive that day and *not* punch him? Does time even *work* that way?
That's the central theme of the movie, incidentally. *Neither Abe nor Aaron have any idea how time works.* They built the box by *accident,* not on purpose. They didn't actually know what they were doing. They know the basics: Get in the box and you oscillate back and forth between two points in time, and you can choose which one to get out at. But they don't know *anything* else. The movie illustrates this with the mobile-phone thing. One day Aaron mistakenly keeps his mobile phone with him when they do their second trip through the day … meaning there are now *two* phones out there. When Aaron's wife calls his mobile, which phone rings? Both of them? Just the first one? Is what they're observing the second time through their day just a different perspective on what happened their first time through, or is it fundamentally different? *They don't know.* That's the point. They have no idea what they're doing.
But one night, Abe thinks of a clever way to test it out. He's awakened in the middle of the night by some kids setting off car alarms. He figures that they can do an experiment: Go do something, doesn't matter what really, just something they can check up on later. Then use the boxes to go back to before those kids set off the car alarm that woke Abe up in the first place, and prevent them from doing it. No car alarm means Abe doesn't wake up, which means they don't do the thing, which means they don't use the boxes, which means they don't prevent the kids from setting off the alarms, which means … what? *They don't know.* That's the point. The characters do not know what would happen. But they're smart and curious, so they decide to try it and see.
Only they never get to do their experiment, because they're interrupted by the sudden appearance of a guy named Granger who has *apparently* used a box himself. What box did he use? When did he use it? *Why* did he use it? The characters don't know, and neither do we.
But this situation freaks Abe out so much he decides to use his failsafe box. After he understood what the boxes could do but before he told Aaron about them, he built and started a secret box that only he knew about. He did this so he could, if he needed to, use that box at any time in the future, go back to before *any* of this stuff started, and … something. Change the events, maybe. Or maybe not, *he doesn't know,* but he figures it's worth at least having the option, just in case time works the way it does in sci-fi movies.
So when Granger shows up and Abe realizes that the boxes are no longer a secret, he decides to use the failsafe in an *attempt* — which he can't know will succeed, but hopes anyway because by this point he's scared and desperate — to go back and fix things.
Except when he gets back to the beginning, he finds Aaron's already there, waiting for him. Aaron found Abe's failsafe box much earlier, and used it himself. So Abe finds that not only does he not have everything under control, he doesn't even have the *option* of getting things under control any more. The genie's out of the bottle; Abe can't undo what he's done.
This legitimately freaks him the hell out. The shock of learning that Aaron had been at least a step ahead of him the whole time, combined with simple exhaustion — remember, these guys haven't exactly been sleeping regularly since they started messing with the boxes — basically knocks him on his butt for a while. The whole situation's become so complex, so incomprehensible, that he decides to just bail on it. That's when he and Aaron have their conversation (fight, almost) at the airport. Abe's terrified of time now, not because he understands it, but because he understands that *he doesn't understand it.* He doesn't know if anybody can understand it; the human mind wasn't meant to deal with concepts like that. So he just wants out. He wants it all to stop.
Aaron, on the other hand? Aaron's the arrogant one. He thinks he does understand time. Which is why he's the one who ends up, at the end of the film (which is not the end of the story, but rather the beginning of the story) off somewhere out in the world building a bigger box. A much bigger box.
Because Aaron's got *plans.* | [
"A spoiler is an element of a disseminated summary or description of any piece of fiction that reveals any plot elements which threaten to give away important details. Typically, the details of the conclusion of the plot, including the climax and ending, are especially regarded as spoiler material. It can also be u... |
What was the first, real city? | Because we are always unearthing new ancient findings, this answer changes over time. Currently, however, the city of Jiroft, uncovered in 2001 in modern day Iran, is currently considered by many the oldest city and the first civilization. It was a radical shift and the beginning of civilization. Prior to this, we believed the first cities to be in the Indus valley in India or in the Fertile Crescent in Iraq.
What was found in Jiroft is the earliest evidence we have of an organized society. Unfortunately, however, because it took archaeologists so long to unearth Jiroft, it suffered great damage at the hands of looters, which has left us in the dark as to how the city functioned and its culture. | [
"The origins of the city date back to the early Middle Ages. The earliest written reference to the town dates from 984, but a treasure of about 500 4th-century coins (discovered in 1884) indicates an even earlier settlement.\n",
"The city is first mentioned in Egyptian sources as a city conquered by Pharaoh Thutm... |
is there a good reason why we need to wear socks with shoes? | Reduce friction. Absorb sweat. Keep insides of shoes cleaner, fresher. Adjust fit of loose shoes.
I've searched tha seven seas fer an answer. Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:
1. [ELI5: why do we wear socks with closed shoes? ](_URL_0_) ^(_5 comments_)
1. [ELI5: Why does putting socks, which cover around 5% of my body, make me feel significantly warmer? ](_URL_1_) ^(_ > 100 comments_)
1. [Why do we wear socks? ](_URL_2_) ^(_8 comments_)
| [
"Modern variants of toe socks are designed primarily for either comfort or athletics. In 2004, a patent was filed with the Intellectual Property Office in the United Kingdom for a product called \"toe socks\"; however, their description differs: \"A half sock which covers the toes to provide comfort under footwear.... |
Was the moon landing ever (implicitly or explicitly) set as a "win condition" for the space race? | Modified from an [earlier answer of mine](_URL_0_)
As popular as the narrative of the "race to the moon" is in popular culture and discourse, both the Soviet and US leadership balked at the escalating costs and dubious rewards from manned spaceflight.
The Eisenhower administration was cool towards space exploration and behind closed doors, JFK was more skeptical than his public rhetoric suggested. JFK's space policy alternated between bellicosity over the Apollo program and a more measured response offering cooperation with the Soviets for a joint lunar mission. NASA had already received a report in 1963 from British astrophysicist Sir Bernard Lovell that the Soviets had no immediate plan for a lunar landing and although JFK brushed the Lovell report aside, his later [1963 UN speech](_URL_1_) floated the idea of an international lunar mission.
For their part, the Soviet leadership was initially nonplussed by Korolev's satellite program. Korolev's team had gotten approval from Malenkov for development of an artificial satellite in 1954, but the regime's leadership was hardly enthusiastic about the possibilities offered by space exploration. When Korolev and others involved broached the topic to Khrushchev when the latter toured the R-7 rocket facilities in February 1956, the Soviet premier was not terribly impressed by the potential of using the R-7 ICBM for peaceful purposes. In short, the Soviet leadership primarily saw rockets as military weapons first to the exclusion of other possibilities. Korolev and other scientists involved in the development of Sputnik had to constantly lobby their superiors by emphasizing the role satellites could play in defense and that the development of satellites would not hinder the development of missiles for the strategic rocket forces.
The US's soft commitment to launching a satellite and the successful launch of a Jupiter-C rocket in September 1956 convinced Korolev that the Soviet's satellite program was behind the US. The result was that the Soviets scaled back their ambitious satellite, Object D, into something much more simpler and lighter, the PS-1. As before, the design team had to sell the program to the Soviet leadership emphasizing the American threat. Korolev's letter to the Special Committee noted
> In September 1956, the U.S.A. attempted to launch a three-stage missile with a satellite from Patrick Base in the state of Florida which was kept secret, The Americans failed to launch the satellite ... and the payload flew about 3,000 miles or approximately 4,800 kilometers. This flight was then publicized in the press as a national record. They emphasized that U.S. rockets can fly higher and farther than all the rockets in the world, including Soviet rockets. From separate printed reports, it is known that the U.S. A. is preparing in the nearest months a new attempt to launch an artificial Earth satellite and is willing to pay any price to achieve this priority.
In reality, the US satellite program was pretty moribund and Korolev mistakenly believed the Jupiter-C launch was an attempt to launch a satellite. But the appeal that a successful US launch would publicly undercut the proclamations of Soviet military superiority and the simplified nature of the new satellite designs meant that Korolev's appeal for an accelerated satellite program was successful and the USSR Council of Ministers signed a decree in 15 February 1957 to launch a Soviet satellite.
The initial Soviet press reports on Sputnik's successful orbit were very low-key. The Soviet's news agency TASS's press release on PS-1 emphasized the boilerplate tropes that this development heralded the triumph of Soviet science without divulging much on the satellite's technical details. The article on the PS-1 in *Pravda* was not even the top headline for that day's news.
What changed this lukewarm Soviet attitude towards spaceflight was the US's public panic over Sputnik and the global reaction to this advance in Soviet science. Western press reports quickly filtered back to the Soviet leadership and they finally realized the immense propaganda value that space exploration held for the wider Cold War. The Soviet press suddenly started a massive publicity campaign further explaining this triumph and Khrushchev invited Korolev into a personal meeting to discuss the future of the Soviet space program. Eight days after Sputnik's launch, Korolev received authorization to launch a satellite coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of the October Revolution the following month. Sputnik-2, containing a biological element, the ill-fated pooch Laika, launched on 2 November 1957. The rushed nature of the design contributed to the failure of the capsule to protect Laika and the nature of her death was a state secret until 1999. Yet, the propaganda coup reaped by space exploration could not be denied, and portraits of the [Soviet space dogs](_URL_3_) became ubiquitous within the [Soviet Union and Eastern bloc](_URL_2_). Sending a man into orbit became the next logical step.
The manned Soviet program was in many respects an extension of their earlier satellite and space dog programs. The state would trumpet Soviet space triumphs after their completion and other aspects of the program were kept in relative secrecy. Dual-use or easily adapted technology remained the norm. The Vostok space capsule emerged out of the OD-2 program for a spy satellite and Soviet design teams often stressed the interchangeability of "biological" payloads like humans for those of a more military nature. Electronics components such as guidance and control devices for the space program had to pass through military procurement channels which had a layer of state security to them making innovation difficult. The first batch of Cosmonauts had a carefully groomed media profile and were to be the whole public face of the Soviet space program while the the rest of the effort was kept in relative secrecy. This allowed for sudden public relations coups, but also contributed to grumbling both among the engineers and Cosmonauts that they were pawns in a larger games both against the Americans and the entrenched bureaucracies of the Soviet system. But for all these problems, the Soviet space program's combination of pragmatic mixture of using proven technology and taking calculated risks ( the safety protocols for Cosmonauts were quite bad even by the frontier standards of the time) managed to accrue a steady stream of successes. | [
"On the way to the Moon landing, the two space programs compete for prestige in order to secure funding. Players gain prestige points through space exploration \"firsts\", which include historical milestone missions that improve lunar mission safety, but also ancillary achievements, such as the first Mars flyby (hi... |
What's up with the Hubble constant disparity and changing universe age (as 12.5b years)? | This is a really important question, but we don't really know what the reason is yet. The most we can say about it is that the disparity is between measurements of the Hubble constant in the *early* universe (from Planck measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background) and the relatively late universe (from supernovae) appears to be **real**, and not a statistical fluke. Further, the discrepancy is large enough now, that there's not an easy way to explain it while still staying within constraints from other kinds of data. A few years ago, [it looked like maybe some tweaks could get the job done](_URL_1_). After further refinements, [it looks like that's no longer the case](_URL_0_). (I recently went to a talk by Adam Riess where he showed an updated version of that first graphic and how none of the arrows from different changes now reached the confidence interval for the Hubble constant as derived by supernovae, but I can't seem to find a more recent version of that graphic online.) It's a bone fide puzzle. Something is clearly awry, and it's not yet clear exactly what it is. | [
"However, in the late 1970s to early 1990s, the age problem re-appeared: new estimates of the Hubble constant gave higher values, with Gerard de Vaucouleurs estimating values 90–100 (km/s)/Mpc, while Marc Aaronson and co-workers gave values around 80-90 (km/s)/Mpc. Sandage and Tammann continued to argue for values... |
what scientifically stops us from creating life? | By some definitions, we already have. We can create 100% artificial DNA, use it to replace the DNA in a single celled organism, and get a new, novel lifeform that uses that synthetic DNA.
What we can't do is create everything from scratch, we still need a natural organism to kick start it. The question is when does that become creating life? If I use one lifeform to create something completely new and difference, does that count? | [
"Research on how life might have emerged from non-living chemicals focuses on three possible starting points: self-replication, an organism's ability to produce offspring that are very similar to itself; metabolism, its ability to feed and repair itself; and external cell membranes, which allow food to enter and wa... |
how did people subsist on mostly grains in the past? iow, why did a failed wheat harvest cause a famine? | Grain-based foods like bread or rice are pretty much the most efficient calorie delivery mechanism available. Today we think about watching what we eat and trying not to get fat, but in those days the main concern was not starving to death. Bread was cheap, really cheap, and since the vast majority of the population lived in grinding poverty while doing lots of calorie-burning manual labor all day long it was the best thing for them to eat. Depending on where you lived you might be able to supplement your diet with vegetables or fish, but bread would be the main thing that filled your belly.
The word famine comes to us from the Latin *fames*, which means hunger. Anything from a flood to a drought to a disruption in transportation of grain could cause a famine, and it would mean that all the poor people who could barely afford to eat bread would have nothing. | [
"Bad weather in 1980, 1990, 1997 and 1998 significantly reduced maize harvests, but famines were avoided. In 1997 and 1998, famine was avoided by the release of government grain reserves and overseas maize purchases, whereas in 2001 and 2002, when harvests were not as bad as in 1997 or 1998, deficiencies in grain r... |
With the use of lightning rods, would it be possible to store/utilize the power of lightning? | Another issue is that lightning does not contain a ton of energy relative to how much energy we consume. The entire planet generated 22.6 TWh (8.2e19 J) of electricity in 2012. The average lightning bolt releases about 500 MJ of electricity, and there are roughly 1.4 billion lightning "events" per year. If we perfectly harnessed every single bolt, it would constitute less than 1% of our annual electricity consumption (~7e17 J). Now add in the huge engineering problems to be overcome, and you can see why it's not an avenue that many people are actively pursuing. | [
"A technology capable of harvesting lightning energy would need to be able to rapidly capture the high power involved in a lightning bolt. Several schemes have been proposed, but the ever-changing energy involved in each lightning bolt renders lightning power harvesting from ground-based rods impractical – too high... |
why does one get paranoid at times? in other words, are there receptors for paranoia in the body? | The endocrine system regulates your flight or fight response, releasing various chemicals that attach to your receptors and make you feel scared.
Paranoia is a reaction to fear, such as is anger.
If there is no immediate threat, your brain is going to rationalize your fear.
It's why we get pissed when someone pulls out in front of us, or laugh when we get a jumpscare. It's our brain rationalizing fear into something we can process consciously.
Boo!
You could have anxiety or something, but cannabis will also cause random paranoia even when you haven't smoked it in a while.
Good luck. | [
"Paranoia is a belief system heavily influenced by fear. This extreme fear mostly becomes so strong that it leads to delusion or irrationality. The paranoid thought usually consists of someone or something plotting against him or her. Paranoia can be caused by simple fears, exposure to/experience of trauma, etc. Th... |
Why was Romania the only Communist Country not to cut ties with Israel? | It seems hard to believe now, especially after Ceausescu clung by his fingernails to power while the rest of Eastern Europe turned away from Communism, but during the seventies and eighties he had a reputation as something of a pro-Western (or at least not stridently anti-Western) "reformer" who worked hard to cultivate ties with the United States, Britain and other non-Communist powers.
His own propaganda films made sure to show he and Elena hobnobbing with the likes of Richard Nixon and Pierre Trudeau, and riding in Queen Elizabeth's carriage. Meanwhile, Romania entered into seemingly lucrative business deals with Western nations, like building French Citroen automobiles under license and buying aircraft from Britain (and then trying to pay for them with strawberries). They even sent a team to the 1984 summer Olympics, defying the Soviet-led boycott.
I'm not so sure about his country's ties with Israel, buy they would appear to fit this pattern. | [
"During the Cold War, Romania was the only communist country not to break its diplomatic relations with Israel. Throughout the period of Communist rule, Romania allowed limited numbers of Jews to emigrate to Israel, in exchange for much-needed Israeli economic aid. By 1965, Israel was funding agricultural and indus... |
how is netflix cheaper than cable without ads while cable has them? shouldn't it be the other way around ? | Netflix is about the same price per month as a premium cable station like HBO or Showtime. So, I am not sure why you think it's substantially cheaper.
If you are comparing Netflix to cable service as a whole, remember that the cable bill includes getting the content to your house. Netflix doesn't cover that. | [
"With the advent of broadband Internet connections, multiple streaming providers have come onto the market in the last couple of years. The main providers are Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. Some of these providers such as Hulu advertise and charge a monthly fee. Other such as Netflix and Amazon charge users a monthly fe... |
why can't engineers remove the violent left/right movement and shakes of trains better? | The technology exists, but it's too expensive so most manufacturers don't bother because rail companies won't buy it. | [
"To combat this, the ARU launched a boycott on Pullman, where ARU would refuse to run trains with the cars. The extensive use of Pullman cars across the country further crippled the railroad industry and stymied rail traffic. The twenty-four Chicago railroads represented by the General Managers' Association rallied... |
What percentage of our urine is water? Why do we not hold/process more water and then simply pee thicker urine? | There's a few factors which come into play. Firstly, urine isn't simply useful as a means of getting rid of urea, you also get rid of a lot of other metabolic wastes through urine. Secondly, unless you've drunk a lot of water recently, your urine is already really quite concentrated (typical osmolality of 800mOsm/l and up to 1400mOsm/l, as opposed to the osmolarity of your blood ~300mOsm/l (Osmolality is basically how much non-water is in a solution, a higher numbers means more particles)).
In a simplistic view, when blood passes through the kidneys most small particles, and a lot of water, ends up in what are called nephrons (there are millions of these in each kidney). Along the nephron is what is termed the "loop of Henle", which is basically a hairpin shaped part of the nephron that goes in to the centre of the kidneys, and this is where a lot of the movement of salt and water occurs. (there's also a fair bit of ion movement in the proximal convoluted tubule but this isn't actively controlled as part of homeostasis, so we'll ignore it).
What happens in the loop of Henle is that on the descending limb as it goes towards the centre of the kidneys, water passes out of the tubule through aquaporin channels into surrounding cells, but Na+ is left behind in the solute. What this means is that the solute (urine) left in the tubule is getting more concentrated. Meanwhile on the ascending limb, water is unable to move out, but our bodies actively pump Na+ out of the tubule into the space between nephrons. What this means is that there is once again a concentration gradient so water can come out of the descending limb.
The net result of this pumping is that there is a potentially large concentration gradient for water, and we can produce urine with osmolalilties between 100 and 1400mOsm/l. The problem is that it takes a lot of energy to keep pumping sodium ions and it takes more and more energy as the gradient gets steeper, evolutionarily it just doesn't make sense for humans to produce more concentrated urine (as it is we reabsorb 99% of water). Animals like beavers have much shorter loops of Henle and hence produce more dilute urine, while desert rodents can produce much more concentrated urine, but it means devoting energy to filtration which they can't "spend" elsewhere.
TL:DR: Our urine is almost entirely water, and we don't reabsorb more water because it takes a lot of energy, and it doesn't make sense to do so (although we do reabsorb a fair bit more than a lot of other animals)
Edit: I should add, vasopressin/ADH is a hormone which is released if blood pressure falls too low (ie, not enough fluid), which triggers the release of more aquaporin channels, and hence more water is taken up - this is how concentration is controlled. | [
"About 91-96% of urine consists of water. Urine also contains an assortment of inorganic salts and organic compounds, including proteins, hormones, and a wide range of metabolites, varying by what is introduced into the body.\n",
"The total solids in urine are on average 59 g per person per day. Organic matter ma... |
Why is bleach so effective both at removing stains and at sanitizing? Is it the same chemical property that is responsible for both functions? | Yes.
Bleach is an oxidizing agent. When it reacts with coloured material in your clothes, it oxidizes it into a colourless form. When it reacts with molecules on the outer surface of bacterial and viral cells, it oxidizes them into non-functional and / or degraded forms, which kills the cells. | [
"The broad-spectrum effectiveness of most bleaches is due to their general chemical reactivity against organic compounds, rather than the selective inhibitory or toxic actions of antibiotics. They irreversibly denature or destroy many proteins, making them extremely versatile disinfectants.\n",
"A bleach solution... |
frost at above-freezing temperatures | You (or the weatherman) are measuring the temperature of the air. You should try taking the temperature of the car. | [
"Frost is rare but does occur on some winters, and temperatures within a few degrees of freezing occur every winter. The record low is -4.9 °C (23.1F), a surprisingly low value given the latitude, the vegetation and the low elevation of the area.\n",
"Ground frost refers to the various coverings of ice produced b... |
I’m trying to better understand Marcus Crassus’ portfolio. What does it mean to be an ancient billionaire? How did he spend his money, and where did his wealth go when he died? | Two authors estimate Crassus' wealth. According to Plutarch, he assessed his own property at 7,200 talents of gold. Pliny the Elder tells us that he possessed the equivalent of 200,000,000 sesterces. Attempts to calculate the modern equivalents of these amounts are [usually based on bullion value](_URL_0_), and so fail to take account of the greater purchasing power of money in antiquity. But it is clear that Crassus was the equivalent of a modern billionaire, and the wealthiest private citizen in the Late Republic.
The basis of Crassus' wealth was real estate. During Sulla's proscriptions, he snapped up the auctioned estates of executed men at artificially low prices - he was even rumored to have proscribed in Sulla's name a man whose estate he coveted (Plutarch, *Life of Crassus* 6.7). Later, he added to his holdings by buying tenements damaged or threatened by one of Rome's frequent fires. When notified of a fire, he or his agents would rush to the scene, and offer to buy the burning building and its neighbors at knock-down prices. When the distressed owner(s) agreed, he would send in his brigade of fire-fighting slaves, who would extinguish the blaze, and immediately begin reconstructing the building for fresh rentals.
Crassus' portfolio, however, was fairly diverse. According to Plutarch, besides owning "the greater part of Rome," Crassus possessed "numberless silver mines, and highly valuable tracts of land with the laborers upon them" (2.5). He also owned thousands of slaves, who (besides extinguishing fires and reconstructing buildings) served on his various properties as "readers, amanuenses, silversmiths, stewards, and table-servants," and so generated income by managing his estates and producing items for sale.
Crassus lent our money to friends and allies, albeit at extortionate interest rates. But like most elite Romans, he spent the bulk of his wealth on public display. Though noted for his personal frugality - unlike many of his wealthy contemporaries, he never built a lavish townhouse - he accumulated political capital by throwing public banquets. While consul, likewise, he distributed money, giving every Roman citizen enough to live on for three months (Plutarch, *Crassus* 2.2). He was also known for saying that "no man was rich, who could not maintain a legion upon his yearly income" (Pliny, *HN* 33.47) - and put his money where his mouth was during the expedition against Spartacus.
Upon his death in Parthia, the bulk of Crassus' property was presumably inherited by his son Marcus.
& #x200B;
& #x200B; | [
"Marcus Licinius Crassus (; c. 115 BC or 112 BC – 6 May 53 BC) was a Roman general and politician who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He is often called \"The richest man in Rome\".\n",
"The notoriously wealthy Marcus Crassus was around sixty-two when he embark... |
If solar cells were 100% efficient how much land mass would it take to support the world's current power production? How about the projected power production of 2050? | According to [Wikipedia](_URL_0_) the solar intensity on the Earth's surface is about 1400 W/m^2. According to [Wikipedia](_URL_1_) the amount of energy generated in 2012 was 22,668 TWh. Assuming that half of the world is getting 1400 W/m^2 of intensity and the other half is getting 0 you would need 177318.86 Km^2 of 100% efficient solar panels evenly distributed around the Earth. If you could make the solar panels move across the Earth and constantly stay in the sun you would only need half, although this would increase the energy consumption as they would consume energy as they moved. Someone else can do the one for 2050. | [
"In 2010, the International Energy Agency predicted that global solar PV capacity could reach 3,000 GW or 11% of projected global electricity generation by 2050—enough to generate 4,500 TWh of electricity. \n",
"In 2017 a study in Science estimated that by 2030 global PV installed capacities will be between 3,000... |
Are quantum mechanics interpretations falsifiable? | Overall they give the same predictions for the same obsevables. However, they arrive at the answer in slightly different ways. There are tests of locality and “hidden variables” that could hypothetically predict these, but by tests of Bell’s inequality, we know that if hidden variables exist, they must be nonlocal (ie have action at a distance larger than light could reach in the given time interval). | [
"Some of the historically relevant approaches to quantum mechanics have now themselves become \"minority interpretations\", or widely seen as obsolete. In this sense, there is a variety of reasons for why a specific approach may be considered marginal: because it is a very specialized sub-variant of a more widely k... |
how close are we to build engines capable of travelling at roughly the speed of light? | > How close are we to build engines capable of travelling at roughly the speed of light?
Not even remotely close.
> I often hear about how we some day will be able to travel at the speed of light.
If our current understanding of physics is correct we will never be able to travel at or faster than the speed of light. We may eventually be able to "trick" the universe into letting us pass between places faster than light, but we will never be able to traverse the distance between them at or above the speed of light.
> But how close are we exactly and what would have to happen in order to build this kind of engines/spaceships?
Right now our current technology doesn't make this a viable option. Right now we don't have a ship capable of reaching another planet, or even the moon.
The biggest problem with using our current technology to attempt relativistic speeds (this is below the speed of light, but still really fast), which is how fast we would need to travel if we want to travel between stars, is that you need to use fuel to accelerate, and keep using fuel the entire time. This means that as you need to carry **massive** amounts of fuel in order to go very fast, because that first fuel you use has to accelerate all the extra fuel you're carrying. As you use fuel this becomes more efficient - but I'm about to throw another wrench in the works - but you still need to carry enough fuel to *stop* you when you get to your destination.
Basically, by the time you're finished figuring out how much fuel you need, the amount of fuel you would need becomes unrealistically huge with our current technology. | [
"Although faster-than-light travel has been seriously considered by physicists such as Miguel Alcubierre, Tough speculates that the enormous amount of energy required to achieve such speeds under currently proposed mechanisms means that robotic probes traveling at conventional speeds will still have an advantage fo... |
why does tapping wood and tapping metal produce different sounds? | you know when you put a ruler on the edge of a table and push it down and let it go and it makes that woioioioinggggg sound? And if you vary the length of it off the table, the sound changes and the speed at which the end of the ruler goes up and back down changes? This is the natural frequency of the ruler when it is that length of the table and thus produces a certain sound.
Now certain materials also will have a natural frequency such as wooden or metal tables and that's why they make different sounds. They make different frequencies because they also will only take in set amounts of energies. | [
"Tapping is a guitar playing technique, where a string is fretted and set into vibration as part of a single motion of being pushed onto the fretboard, as opposed to the standard technique being fretted with one hand and picked with the other. It is similar to the technique of hammer-ons and pull-offs, but used in ... |
How did Gregorian chant develop? What musical traditions does it descend from? | This is a very difficult question to answer.
Asking about music before the so called Gregorian chant gets you to deal with oral traditions from many centuries ago (the earliest notations we have would be from the 9-10th century). Gregorian chant had to be REVIVED in the 20th century, after about 500 years of decay, and the earliest notations are already problematic enough. You are getting into pre-historical music, so to speak...
* Jewish liturgy
It might have not influenced musical elements directly (it used to be considered that there was a direct musical link, but I understand these days experts don't agree on this being the case). However, we can see influence in things like the setting of the Canonical hours (fixed prayers at regular periods), Amens, Alleluias...There are common characteristics that might link this liturgy, but don't really confirm it as a direct musical influence: lack of regular meter, responsorial and antiphonal performance, usage of conjunct motion, recitations, melismas, etc.
* Ancient Greek musical
The music theory of the Ancient Greeks passed to the Romans, and continued being influential. There was not much left of Ancient Greek music in terms of actual examples, and the ones we have are different from Gregorian Chant, so the influence was theoretical more than anything else.
* Byzantine chant
Byzantine chant could have been an influence. The theory they developed was probably to some extent an influence for Western music (but maybe after the establishment of the Gregorian repertoire).
* Other European chants
Gallican chant (the music of the rite from the Frankish lands) could have been an influence. To some extent the music from the Celtic and Mozarabic rites, too. Beneventan, Ambrosian and the Old Roman chants coexisted with the "Gregorian" one. I can't tell you to what extent they were influential.
Can't help you with anything more than that. This is dense, hardcore, problematic stuff... You really need a specialist for this. Try /r/musicology and /r/earlymusicalnotation, but I don't really know if anybody over there could help you with details.
Some books:
* [T. F. Kelly - Chant and its Origins](_URL_1_)
* [W. Apel - Gregorian chant](_URL_3_)
* [P. Wagner - Introduction to the Gregorian melodies](_URL_2_)
Please note that the last two are quite dated. Apel was (back in the 1950s) trying to get rid of lots of accumulated speculation (that Wagner is from the 1900s)... [The first one (from 2009) would be the best alternative](_URL_0_), I linked the other two because those are easy to find online.
| [
"Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, with later additions and redactions. Although popular legend credits Pope G... |
why does my hair stand up every which way when i wake up? | I can best explain this by having you pretend you've parted your hair. When you part your hair, you're training it to prefer to stay in one way or another. When you have short hair, or cowlicks as some people call them, you've slept on your hair so that it sticks up at an angle and you've trained it to stay that way. This is usually the result of sliding down your pillow throughout the night because pillows are terribly designed necessities. Water has a lot of wonderful abilities, including strong hydrogen bonds which make it love to stay with other water molecules and its ability to stick to anything that isn't engineered to have it slide off of. It likes to stay with itself, so when it sticks to your hair, it's also sticking to itself and the strength of the water's bonds with other molecules of itself is stronger than your hair's attempts to stay sticking up in a goofy way. | [
"Environment is a large factor which affects hair pulling. Sedentary activities such as being in a relaxed environment are conducive to hair pulling. A common example of a sedentary activity promoting hair pulling is lying in a bed while trying to rest or fall asleep. An extreme example of automatic trichotillomani... |
why does all mainstream virus protection software mcafee kasperky norton etc all take 1 hour+ yet malware bytes take 5 mins and actually find the problem? | This is because they have wildly different use cases.
First off, don't be fooled by terminology. Just because a software is called "Antivirus", it doesn't mean it will only protect you from viruses, which is only a subset of threats out there. This is just a traditional term for anti-malware solutions.
Traditional Antivirus software (like Symantec Endpoint Protection, Kaspersky Endpoint Security, McAfee Antivirus etc.) is used in trying to *protect* your system from malware infections. It will transparently scan everything that goes in and out of your computer for patterns that are known to come from malware. When doing a scan on your hard drive (not the realtime protection most solutions have), it will scan files for certain characteristics, which forces it to take a very thorough look at each individual file. This takes time. They also can prevent execution of malicious files that the user clicked on. Most solutions also have a so-called "heuristics" system that can analyze executable files at runtime, and make a decision based on things the program wants to do to the system. This helps protecting the system from unknown malware.
Solutions like Malwarebytes (or MBAM for short) work in a completely different way. They are *not designed to protect your system*. Rather, they help cleaning up infections that already hit you by comparing all your files against files that are known to be malicious, which is a very fast thing to do. They will not prevent the user starting a malware program nor will they do *anything* to program execution at runtime, even if the program is definitely malware. It will *only* help you if you are already infected, and will not stop you from infecting your machine again.
tl;dr/Real ELI5: Traditional Virus Protection software works more like a vaccine that can optionally try to find viruses that slipped through. Malwarebytes is like Antibiotics (except that only works for bacteria and fungi, but the analogy works fine), it treats stuff that already infected you but will not prevent further infections.
//edit: Source: Am an IT professional with specialization in information security, work for a partner of multiple antivirus software vendors.
//edit2: MBAM seems to have similar features to commercial AV products when using their Business products. This post is about the free edition everybody means when mentioning MBAM. | [
"Malware removal and blocking performed well, setting or meeting records in \"PC Magazine\" testing. It achieved a detection rate of 98%. The highest out of 12 tested antivirus products. The exception was blocking commercial keyloggers, where Norton made an above average score. File operations took 2 percent longer... |
the newest change in facebook privacy settings. do they actually use my info/pictures/messages? can they actually make my account public? | This might be what you're talking about, and may help you. I'm not sure without more detail though. _URL_0_ | [
"Most users are not aware that they can modify the privacy settings and unless they modify them, their information is open to the public. On Facebook privacy settings can be accessed via the drop down menu under account in the top right corner. There users can change who can view their profile and what information ... |
So you are a red blood cell of an average human. How long does it take to visit every part of the human body? | It'd depend on what you define as "every part". Your entire blood supply passes through the heart roughly once a minute, although where each cell goes is pure chance.
They "live" for about 120 days, which is more than enough time to reach every major organ and all the major vessels. But, every organ has different parts and sections, so every RBC gets to see the lungs, but there's no guarantee they get to see every lobe of the lungs (statistically they will), or get to every branch of the pulmonary arteries (it's possible), or every single alveoli (now you're pushing it).
Source- Tortora & Derrickson's "Principles of Anatomy & Physiology" | [
"In humans, mature red blood cells are flexible and oval biconcave disks. They lack a cell nucleus and most organelles, in order to accommodate maximum space for hemoglobin; they can be viewed as sacks of hemoglobin, with a plasma membrane as the sack. Approximately 2.4 million new erythrocytes are produced per sec... |
Can genes be partially-methylated? | Yes genes can be partially methylated, it's a sliding scale from 0-100% methylation and can be calculated several ways depending on what you're interested in. A single gene in a single cell will have many cytosines. While an individual cytosine is either methylated or not (ignoring for now that most genes have 2 copies), it's not required that *all* or *non* of the cytosines are methylated, 90% or 50% of the individual cytosines can be methylated. On the other hand, maybe you're only interested in a specific cytosine. In any given cell that cytosine is either methylated or not, but usually you're interested in more than a single cell and again, it's not required that *all* or *non* of the cells in a given tissue have the same methylation state at a given cytosine, so 90% of the cells could have that particular cytosine methylated or 50% could. Usually what you're really interested in is both of the above: the methylation of a bunch of cytosines (eg. all the cytosines in a particular gene's promoter) within a bunch of cells, and you can calculate an overall average percent methylation.
[This image shows the output from an experiment measuring DNA methylation using a technique called bisulfite sequencing](_URL_4_). Each row of circles is basically one cell, each column is a particular cytosine, if it's white it's unmethylated, if it's black it's methylated. You can clearly see that it's not an all or non phenomenon.
The relationship between DNA methylation (in a gene's promoter) and gene expression is generally that the more methylation the lower the expression, and vice versa. DNA methylation within the gene body usually doesn't affect gene expression (and may in fact be associated with higher expression, so the opposite of promoter methylation).
Regarding the androgen receptor gene specifically, [here's a paper that looked at *AR* promoter methylation in development](_URL_1_). In their supplemental figure 2 it shows percent methylation of several cytosines in the promoter and they range from about 20-55% methylated. Keep in mind that methylation is often cell-type specific so the measurements here only apply to the cell type they used.
If you're interested in looking at DNA methylation of the *AR* (or other) genes in more detail you can go to the [UCSC Genome Browser](_URL_3_) and in the human hg19 genome load the tracks "DNA Methylation by Reduced Representation Bisulfite Seq from ENCODE/HudsonAlpha" and "CpG Methylation by Methyl 450K Bead Arrays from ENCODE/HAIB", or you can try the [EpiGenome Browser](_URL_2_) which I've never really used but it looks like it has DNA methylation data, or if you really want to get into analysis you can go download some DNA methylation genome sequencing data from [ENCODE](_URL_0_) and analyze it.
*edited to add the bisulfite sequencing image* | [
"DNA methylation can result in long term downregulation of specific genes. Repression of functional proteins via asRNA induced DNA methylation has been found in several human disease. In a class of alpha-thalassemia, a type of blood disorder that has reduced level of hemoglobin leading to insufficient oxygen in the... |
How did the mycaneans (and their ancestors) know about lions? | Lions were fairly common in southeastern Europe as of the time of Herodotus. We are told that Xerxes encountered a few during his attempted invasion of Greece. They were driven extinct around 100 BC. It's believed that European lions were similar to the Asiatic lions present in the Middle East. | [
"The earliest fossils recognisable as from lions were excavated in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and date to between 1.4 and 1.2 million years ago. From East Africa, lions would spread throughout the continent and into the Holarctic and the Indian subcontinent with the expansions of open habitats.\n",
"Priscileo (\"A... |
why does heartburn at night cause nightmares and a racing heart? | I'm no Dr but I am a chronic sufferer of acid reflux, especially at night. I have never experienced this. It may be psychosomatic. I used to experience muscle spasms and stinging feelings in my back as a child and they were always accompanied by dreams of bee stings. I've experienced these feelings while awake and always assumed the dreams were my brain "making sense" of the information it was receiving. The brain likes to fill in blanks, even if it's wrong. | [
"The universal feature of night terrors is inconsolability, very similar to that of a panic attack. During night terror bouts, people are usually described as \"bolting upright\" with their eyes wide open and a look of fear and panic on their faces. They will often scream. Furthermore, they will usually sweat, exhi... |
Why is the the Fibonacci sequence shown in bubble chambers all the time? | If by bubble chambers you mean the [Fibonacci spiral](_URL_0_) then it's just an interesting mathematical play on the sequence. If you start with one square whose side we consider to be equal to 1 (the unit of measurement is irrelevant) and then proceed to attach sqares to the side of the shape in a Fibonacci sequence, by connecting the opposite corners of those squares you get a spiral which keeps stretching outwards proportional to the rate at which the Fibonacci sequence "spirals" out of proportion (pun intended).
The rule of thumb here is to create the new squares by lining up on a previously created side so that the sum of whatever sides makes up that side equals the next term in the Fibonacci sequence. However, do keep in mind that this is just a neat visual representation and not an actual strict thing which goes by that rule. For instance, there is no explicit reason as to why the size 5 square should go on top of it, other than the need to preserve the look of the spiral. Mathematically speaking, it could be argued that the size 5 square should be placed on the bottom as the term itself is created by the sum of the sequence's previous two members (2+3) and not due to the sum of 1+1+3 as the image might suggest.
[Here](_URL_1_), I've sketched out an idea about what it would truly mean to stick to that rule and to the Fibonacci sequence's principle. All in all - it's just a neat aesthetic thing, nothing too mathematical about it. | [
"The Fibonacci sequence appears in Indian mathematics in connection with Sanskrit prosody, as pointed out by Parmanand Singh in 1985. In the Sanskrit poetic tradition, there was interest in enumerating all patterns of long (L) syllables of 2 units duration, juxtaposed with short (S) syllables of 1 unit duration. Co... |
how do doctors/paramedics know what's wrong with a person if they're unconscious? | By examining the patient for the more common causes of being unconscious. Typically when in an accident it's not going to be totally unexpected that they took a bump to the head if they're unconscious and in most cases unconsciousness doesn't last very long. | [
"When an unconscious person enters a hospital, the hospital utilizes a series of diagnostic steps to identify the cause of unconsciousness. According to Young, the following steps should be taken when dealing with a patient possibly in a coma:\n",
"Other vital signs such as pulse, heart rate, blood pressure, and ... |
what is tommy john surgery, and why do so many baseball players have it? | Tommy John Surgery, known in medical practice as ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction, is a surgical graft procedure in which the ulnar collateral ligament in the medial elbow is replaced with a tendon from elsewhere in the body.
The patient's arm is opened up around the elbow. Holes to accommodate a new tendon are drilled in the ulna and humerus bones of the elbow. A harvested tendon (often the palmaris tendon)—from the forearm of the same or opposite elbow, below the knee (known as the patellar tendon), or from a cadaver—is then woven in a figure-eight pattern through the holes and anchored. The ulnar nerve is usually moved to prevent pain as scar tissue that forms can apply pressure to the nerve.
The UCL can become stretched, frayed, or torn through the repetitive stress of the throwing motion. The risk of injury to the throwing athlete's ulnar collateral ligament of elbow joint is thought to be extremely high as the amount of stress through this structure approaches its ultimate tensile strength during a hard throw. R.A. Dickey, however, became a very successful Major League Baseball pitcher despite having no UCL in his pitching arm. According to experts he should not be able to throw at all, let alone at a professional level.
While many authorities suggest that an individual's style of throwing or the type of pitches they throw are the most important determinant of their likelihood to sustain an injury, the results of a 2002 study suggest that the total number of pitches thrown is the greatest determinant. A 2002 study examined the throwing volume, pitch type, and throwing mechanics of 426 pitchers aged 9 to 14 for one year. Compared to pitchers who threw 200 or fewer pitches in a season, those who threw 201–400, 401–600, 601–800, and 800+ pitches faced an increased risk of 63%, 181%, 234%, and 161% respectively. The types of pitches thrown showed a smaller effect; throwing a slider was associated with an 86% increased chance of elbow injury, while throwing a curveball was associated with an increase in pain. There was only a weak correlation between throwing mechanics perceived as bad and injury-prone. Thus, although there is a large body of other evidence that suggests mistakes in throwing mechanics increase the likelihood of injury it seems that the greater risk lies in the volume of throwing in total. Research into the area of throwing injuries in young athletes has led to age-based recommendations for pitch limits for young athletes.
In younger athletes, for whom the growth plate (the medial epicondylar epiphysis) is still open, the force on the inside of the elbow during throwing is more likely to cause the elbow to fail at this point than at the ulnar collateral ligament. This injury is often termed "Little League elbow" and can be serious but does not require reconstructing the UCL.
In some cases baseball pitchers throw harder after the procedure than they did beforehand. As a result, orthopedic surgeons have reported that increasing numbers of parents are coming to them and asking them to perform the procedure on their un-injured sons in the hope that this will increase their performance. However, many people—including Dr. Frank Jobe, the doctor who invented the procedure—believe most post-surgical increases in performance are generally due to two factors. The first is pitchers' increased attention to conditioning. The second is that in many cases it can take several years for the UCL to deteriorate. Over these years the pitcher's velocity will gradually decrease. As a result, it is likely that the procedure simply allows the pitcher to throw at the velocity he could before his UCL started to degrade.
---source: Wikipedia | [
"For baseball players, full rehabilitation takes about one year for pitchers and about six months for position players. Players typically begin throwing about 16 weeks after surgery. Prior to his surgery, John had won 124 games. He won 164 after surgery, retiring in 1989 at age 46. Other pitchers to extend their ca... |
How strong a gravity could humans adapt to? | [Rats in a centrifuge](_URL_1_) develop denser bones and stronger muscles and are mostly fine at 2-3 g. They have [some difficulties getting pregnant](_URL_0_) though.
Humans are not rats though, and the differences might be very important. We are strangely built bipeds with our brains above our hearts and our weight balanced on fragile knee cartilage. Nobody has ever done long-term experiments on centrifuging human beings but they're going to come out either much stronger, dead, or afflicted by crippling knee and back problems. | [
"It is not yet known whether exposure to high gravity for short periods of time is as beneficial to health as continuous exposure to normal gravity. It is also not known how effective low levels of gravity would be at countering the adverse effects on health of weightlessness. Artificial gravity at 0.1\"g\" and a r... |
Protestant teaching under Luther's Two Kingdoms suggests that church and state should be separated. So why did the English monarch become the head of the Church of England? | Hey there! While I'm in no way an expert in this area, I was researching it recently and hope to provide even just a little insight!
From what I understand, a key element of the English Reformation is just that - it was an English Reformation, relatively separate from the German debates occurring contemporaneously. It's important to note that the reformation in England was kicked off primarily due to Henry VIII's decision to sunder the Church of England from the Catholic Church.
For the record, there were numerous debates, arguments and differences between the English Church and Rome for quite some time before this, but none led to a complete separation in the way that Henry's political concerns did.
Once Henry had separated from Rome, he essentially had under his control a small section of the Catholic Church. Since his intentions had been largely non-theological (as opposed to Luther) the Church of England retained much of its Catholic appearance, and still does to a large extent. Go to a high Anglican service, or even an Episcopalian church in the states and you will immediately see a lot of the similarities.
However one of the primary differences between the two was that Henry wanted control over his English Church. By pushing for the King's control over the Church, Henry and the various clerics who helped over the next couple centuries to mold this new Religious Body were following in the footsteps of even earlier theologians and scholars like John Wycliffe (known for helping create the Heretical sect the Lollards) and others. Wycliffes arguments were primarily based on the idea that the Church should hand over temporal control to political figures like the King - due in no small part to their overwhelming wealth in land and other capital. Wycliffe was disgusted by the widespread opulence and corruption of the Church that he saw at the time - much as Luther was concurrently. While Lutherans evolved away from the idea of Political control of the Church, they certainly pushed for the same ideas of combatting corruption and benefices.
In England, Thomas Cranmer and many others used these ideas, with heavy influence from the King, to craft a Church that sort of paved a third way - the famous 'via media' between staunch Catholics and rebellious Protestants. To this day the Church of England represents a middle ground between the various Protestant denominations and mainstream Catholicism. Their political background did lead to the King's control of the Church, like you mentioned. In the present day this control has been loosened however, and over time the Archbishop of Canterbury has assumed more of a leadership role.
SOURCES:
Dickens, A. G. (1989). *The English Reformation* (2nd ed.). London.
Heal, Felicity (2005). *Reformation in Britain and Ireland* Oxford University Press
Leiden, Brill (2006) *A Companion to John Wyclif. Late Medieval Theologian*
Picton, Hervé. (2015) *A Short History of the Church of England: From the Reformation to the Present Day.* Cambridge Scholars Publishing
| [
"From the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 to the end of the First World War and the collapse of the German Empire, some Protestant churches were state churches. Each (state or regional church) was the official church of one of the states of Germany, while the respective ruler was the church's formal head (e.g. the King o... |
why do us universities favor professors who are better at research than teaching? | Guess which one makes them more money, and gains better publicity, which brings more students.... and more money. | [
"Faculty members might also become better teachers due to their work on cutting-edge research. Colleges may also assess undergraduate research as part of departmental productivity. Taking part in undergraduate research can help faculty members in the long run because the students they work with can train future und... |
how can ed sheeran's song "thinking out loud" win song of the year at the grammys when it wasn't released in 2015? | [This thread](_URL_0_?) gives an explanation.
Hint: Searches often help. | [
"After a month of voting, on March 31, 2014, \"Billboard\" declared the song to be the winner of the 2014 Hot 100 March Madness and their favorite Top 5 single from the past year. It defeated songs like \"Holy Grail\" by Jay-Z & Justin Timberlake, \"Best Song Ever\" by One Direction, \"Applause\" by Lady Gaga, \"Ti... |
why do auctioneers still use "auction chants"? | 3 reasons:
1. because most auctions are small events that are fairly bare bone affairs. an auction company comes in, sells a bunch of stuff, gets a commission, and leaves. usually there isn't any extra room or time to deal with flashy items.
2. if the auctioneer has a ringman (or ringmen at larger auctions) its a way for the auctioneer to communicate the ringman about how far away a bidder is from the reserve price or other instructions. the auctioneer and ringman share alot of back and forth information in plain sight.
3. for a flashy sign to be effective, you have to be looking at it. you can usually hear the auctioneer chant for long distances. that way you are constantly hearing the rhythm no matter what you're doing or where your looking. keeping a constant, driving rhythm helps make people want to keep the action going, no one wants to be the guy that ruins all the excitement. | [
"Auction chant (also known as \"bid calling\", \"the auction cry\", \"the cattle rattle\", or simply \"auctioneering\") is a rhythmic repetition of numbers and \"filler words\" spoken by auctioneers in the process of conducting an auction. It is universal in North America, but much less common elsewhere. The chant ... |
if the middle east is seemingly so rich with oil, why is there so much poverty and civil unrest? | Because the governments of most Middle Eastern states are totalitarian and embezzle all that money away into Swiss bank accounts long before it ever reaches the people. In the case of Saudi Arabia and Iran they then use the money in those accounts to fund and export their particular flavor of insane fundamentalist religion and foment civil unrest in their neighbors. | [
"As many of the world's major oil producing countries are in the Middle East, the unrest has caused a rise in oil prices. The International Monetary Fund accordingly revised its forecast for 2011 oil prices to reflect a higher price, and also reported that food prices could also increase. Additionally, concerns abo... |
why does putting a band-aid on a minor wound cause it to hurt slightly less, even if it’s not open and bleeding? | It stops the skin stretching die to the numerous microtears in the skin created the resulting wound. You may not be able to see it but the skin becomes more stretchy and delicate as a result of this. By having a bandaid you keep the wound in place and stop friction and movement which are things which cause pain. | [
"The risk of injuring the ACL is very high for an athlete, as most professionals say it is worrying how common the injury is becoming. As there is no real way to stop an ACL injury from occurring, there can be ways to lower the risk. Once an athlete does an ACL injury it is extremely difficult to be able to come ba... |
Was the Carolingian Empire related to the Holy Roman Empire? | The Carolingian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire are directly related.
The Carolingian Empire was started by Charlemagne, who descendants then split his territories into several smaller kingdoms but predominantly West and East Francia. West Francia is the forerunner of what we call France, while East Francia was situated predominantly in what we now call Germany.
Over time, East Francia diverged from its supposed 'Francian' identity and its rulers became known as 'King of the Germans'. King Otto of Germany made an alliance with the Pope against King Berengar of Italy, who was hostile to Otto and the Papal States. In return for Otto's support, the Pope agreed to crown Otto as Emperor of the Romans to emphasize Otto's position as defender of Christendom and legitimize his desire to absorb Berengar's domains. This also drew a line to Charlemagne, who himself was crowned 'Emperor of the Romans', as a way of showing Papal support to Charlemagne while renouncing Byzantine influence in the region.
I believe Otto is generally considered to be the founder of the Holy Roman Empire, in terms of establishing the actual state (as much as you could call it a single state) and how it functioned. But as Otto was a successor to Charlemagne you could consider Charlemagne the 'spiritual' founder of the Holy Roman Empire.
So even though there is a distinction between the Carolingian and Holy Roman Empires, the latter is a direct evolution of (the Eastern part) of the former. | [
"The Carolingian Empire (800–888) was a large Frankish-dominated empire in western and central Europe during the early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the Lombards in Italy from 774. In 800, the Frankish king Charlemagne was crow... |
Any interesting or remarkable tales of WWII Italian fighting skill or courage? | There were many instances of not only stubbornly fought military actions, but also successful engagements by Italian forces in WW2. I should first establish the strong military tradition that surrounds the young Italian nation. When she was formed, there are several elite branches that serve different purposes, and Italy's geography is the key in explaining this otherwise overlooked phenomenon. The Italian Alpini are specially trained soldiers for mountain warfare. Comparable to German Gebirgsjaeger or the US 10th Mountain Division, they have a very unique history of traditionally defending Italy's northern border which is protected by the Swiss Alps. Italy is also a Peninsula, so the Mediterranean sea is the border and to secure it, a strong navy is needed. The years between WWI and WWII, Italy built up her navy at a very rapid rate and in the 1930's, she had gained the status of 4th largest navy in the world. To sum up Italy's achievements in WWII, I think a fair assessment would be, "performing well in desperation." Though they may not have always been the victors, the hard fought battles of many Italian forces deserve to be recognized.
Examining Italy's Navy (*La Regia Marina*) alone proves the bravery and sacrifice of many Italians during the war. Early in the war, the Italian navy faced a series of set backs. The British surprise [raid on Taranto harbor](_URL_0_) putting 3 battleships out of action, followed by the staggering defeat at the [Battle of Cape Matapan](_URL_1_) essentially gave the British naval superiority overnight. At such a disadvantage so early on, Italy began to experiment with less conventional methods of warfare. The *Xa Flotiglia MAS* was a special forces division of the Italian army. the expeditions of the submarine *Scire* and Junio Valerio Borghese conducted Frogmen raids on various British ports throughout the Mediterranean. The most successful raids were at Gibralter and Alexandria, in which these soldiers piloted torpedoes, completely submerged, and attached them to ships hulls with a timed fuse. The most notable damage they did was sink the *HMS York* and *Queen Elizabeth*, but they also destroyed hundreds of thousand tons of British shipping this way. The Frogmen of *Xa MAS* were the direct inspiration for the US navy seals. Also, the disadvantage at sea faced by the Italians obviously had detrimental affects on Italy's ability to ship supplies to the soldiers in Africa. Many accounts claim sailors surviving brutal attacks, and finding themselves facing more attacks on the very next mission. the Royal navy's naval superiority made it nearly impossible to protect Italian supply ships, even still, ~79% of Italian shipping was delivered which is a testament to the valiant effort put forth by Italian sailors. the book, *Italian Navy in World War II* by James Sadkovich provides exact figures:
"WAR MATERIAL TRANSPORTED FROM ITALY TO LIBYA SINCE JUNE 1940 TO JANUARY 1943 (expressed in tons):
Combustible oil: left:599,337 arrived:476,703 (80%)
Vehicles & spare parts: left: 275,310 arrived:243,633 (88%)
Fire-arms & munitions: left: 170,060 arrived: 149,462 (88%)
Other cargoes: left:1,200,673 arrived:1,060,157 (86%)
TOTAL left: 2,245,380 arrived: 1,929,955 (85.9%)
ITALIAN-GERMAN PEOPLE TRANSPORTED FROM ITALY TO LIBYA SINCE JUNE 1940 TO JANUARY 1943:
left: 206,402 arrived: 189,162 (91.6%)
WAR MATERIAL TRANSPORTED FROM ITALY TO TUNISIA SINCE NOVEMBER 1942 TO MAY 1943 (in tons):
Combustible oil: left: 132,522 arrived: 94,472 (71%)
Vehicles & spare parts: left: 73,870 arrived: 59,440 (80%)
Fire-arms & munitions: left: 92,149 arrived: 62,806 (68%)
Other cargoes: left: 127,628 arrived: 89,814 (70%)
TOTAL: left: 433,160 arrived: 306,532 (71%)
ITALIAN-GERMAN PEOPLE TRANSPORTED FROM ITALY TO TUNISIA SINCE NOVEMBER 1942 TO MAY 1943:
left: 77,741 arrived: 72,246 (93%)," (Sadkovich: 1994)
| [
"Raffaele Cadorna Jr. (12 September 1889 in Pallanza – 20 December 1973 in Rome) was an Italian general who fought during World War I and World War II. He is famous as one of the commanders of the Italian Resistance against German occupying forces in north Italy after 1943.\n",
"Shortly before the First World War... |
does stretching after a workout really do anything regarding muscle soreness the next day? | Absolutely. It releases lactic acid that builds up in your muscles during a workout, which in turn allows you to have a greater range of motion and be less sore.
When you exercise (and especially when you lift weights), you are tearing the fibers in your muscles and they are regrowing to be stronger. That is what strengthening your muscles *is*. Stretching is important for that.
And take it from someone (me, or anyone else) who runs 35 miles a week and lifts weights-- stretching makes you feel better the next day. This is a fact. If you don't stretch, you will be sore the next day. Anybody here who is sitting in their chair and citing an article they found on google that suggests otherwise and believes it does not exercise. | [
"Most practitioners agree that spasm, strain, or pain in any muscle can often be treated by regular stretching exercise of that muscle, no matter the cause of the pain. Stretching is recommended every two to three waking hours. Anterior and posterior movement of the hip joint capsule may help optimize the patient's... |
Why'd it take so long to beat the Confederacy? | This is a bit late, but it was sitting in my upvote folder, and now i have free time!
A lot of reasons, on the operational, strategic, and grand strategic levels. In the broadest sense, the rate of Union advance was limited by the size of the area they had to occupy, and it took time for the Union's greater industrial capacity to really tell. Furthermore, operational pauses were common in the winter months, and armies require extensive preparation for campaigning, so they weren't going to spend every day driving into the heart of the Confederacy.
Reconquering the Confederacy immediately in 1861 was probably not going to happen, because it was an area the size of continental Europe and the U.S. Regular Army was a laughably puny 16,000 men. Volunteers called up for the first battles had little in the way of training and nothing in the way of experience; as soon as 90 day volunteers could pull their weight in battle, their enlistments would expire.
As a result, both sides spent most of 1861 mobilizing and training their armies to meet the immense challenges they faced. Herein lies one of the reasons the war lasted past 1862; early in the year, the Union ran out of weapons to equip its men, and thus closed recruiting offices. At the same time, the Confederacy instituted the first conscription act in American history, giving them a temporary parity of numbers for the spring and summer of 1862.
Strategically, Lincoln made a serious mistake in relieving McClellan as general-in-chief in spring of 1862. McClellan's key virtue was not his dynamism as a stand-up, knock-down brawler, but his strategic planning and organizational ability. The U.S. had three main field armies for the 1862 spring offensive, and they had to work in tandem to get the most out of them. McClellan's plan for the spring offensive was quite good, but left as one of multiple army commanders, he was unable to see the whole thing through to execution. When Lincoln relieved McClellan as general-in-chief, he did not replace him with another general for months (and his choice then was sorely lacking), and tried to run the war himself. Removing one of your generals from his position of his greatest strength, and leaving him in one that spotlights his biggest weakness, and attempting to run a massive war effort with no military experience was a recipe for disaster.
Bringing things down to the operational level, 1862 saw Union mistakes and Confederate successes on the campaign trail that saved the Confederacy from immediate collapse. Thanks to Abraham Lincoln's micromanagement of McClellan's army and his paranoia over the security of Washington, Lee had an opening to mount a counteroffensive against the exposed right wing of McClellan's army. In the Seven Days Battles, Lee forced McClellan from the gates of Richmond, buying the Confederates breathing room; at the same time, Lincoln rejected McClellan's proposal to shift the campaign towards Petersburg. While McClellan remained on the York-James peninsula, most of his army was detached from his control and attached to John Pope's army. It was then smashed and chased into the fortifications of Washington itself, and Lee followed up with an invasion of Maryland. At the same time, Braxton Bragg relieved Union pressure in central Tennessee by attacking the U.S. Army of the Ohio's supply line up to Louisville Kentucky.
By the end of 1862, between Lee's great victories and the threat of emancipation, Southern will had solidified; they were going to fight this out until midnight. As the war unfolded, about 94% of Virginians fought, and they weren't even the most highly mobilized state in the Confederacy. The war did not end until all three of the main Confederate armies were soundly defeated. Pemberton's Army of Mississippi surrendered in 1863, Hood's Army of Tennessee was smashed outside of Nashville in December 1864, and Lee's army was surrounded during his retreat from Richmond in April of 1865.
Really, you have to look at the operational history of the major armies to understand why the Confederacy was not rapidly smashed; battles are near run things, and in no other sphere of human activity is so much room reserved for chance and circumstance.
Feel free to hit me with any follow up questions! | [
"The reaction in the Confederacy was more muted. There was little public celebration as the Southerners realized that despite their victory, the greater battles that would inevitably come would mean greater losses for their side as well. Once the euphoria of victory had worn off, Jefferson Davis called for 400,000 ... |
On the declining popularity of "virtue" | Alasdair MacIntyre's 'After Virtue' tackles exactly this question. I'm not sure to what extent he admissible in the sub as a source, seeing that he's a philosopher, and the book is one of philosophy, but he does employ a specifically historico-philosophical method. He outlines this point in the book, saying that his perspective is one both alien to analytic philosophy, due to it's reliance on a historical perspective to elucidate philosophical issues, and to a history proper, because he deploys normative philosophical arguments to which a traditional historian is probably allergic (I sau probably because I do not know the extent to which normative neutrality is the standard at the moment for historians, but I'm guessing you guys don't have large digressions on meta-ethics on your papers on 13th c. Saracen piratery for example!).
Anyways, MacIntyre sees the decline in virtue ethics as linked to the replacement of the Aristotelian natural framework, which had dominated European (and Islamic and Jewish) thought for the best part of 2,000 years. This is tied to Christianity as well because Aristotle was incorporated in the tradition through thinkers such as Aquinas.
Just to go back a bit, for MacIntyre virtue ethics is given it's first explicit formulation by Aristotle, who basically systematically expounds what virtue means in the context of 4th century Athens. The language of virtues had existed previously, and incorporated in, for example, Greek Epic poetry, but a theory of virtue not been explicitly formulated.
The tradition of the virtues, which undergoes some modifications in the context of Christianity, but still retains its force as a living tradition, starts to disappear with the arrival of modernity: that is to say the frameworks inaugurated by Newton, Descartes, Bacon and the like.
This doesn't happen all at once, but gradually as Aristotelianism is dismantled the virtue tradition is de-natured. There is still talk of virtues, but for MacIntyre by the 18th and 19th centuries you cannot speak of a living tradition of virtue ethics. This has to do with some philosophical matters that I won't go into in too much depth here, but will briefly summarise: for MacIntyre virtues must be embeded within certain practices (he gives some examples such as chess, of medicine), in which you can achieve excellence. They must form part of a tradition. And they must take place in the context of a life that is lived narritavely. By 19th century none of these conditions hold. And in practice we see the emergence of Kantian deontology, utilitarianism, Humean skepticism, and so on. Curiously, for MacIntyre Jane Austen is an exception of someone still advancing the tradition of genuine virtue ethics when it had largely been abandoned.
This is an incredibly brief sketch of a long and complicated argument that I have certainly not done justice to. You are best of just reading the book (you can find pdfs online). But if you have any questions, and if this does not get removed, I'm happy to try and answer them. | [
"Though the tradition receded into the background of European philosophical thought in these centuries, the term \"virtue\" remained current during this period, and in fact appears prominently in the tradition of classical republicanism or classical liberalism. This tradition was prominent in the intellectual life ... |
Why did the javelin, once prevalent in the ancient world, disappeared from the battlefield during the medieval era ? | First off- the javelin was actually used up into the 1800's by tribes in Africa. The Zulu were probably some of the best known warriors who used spears (including javelins) up until they were finally crushed by the British.
I THINK I see your point though - you're speaking of the Javelin losing popularity in Europe....unfortunately, it really didn't. There are records of skirmishers with javelins being used up until the invention of gunpowder, and even beyond, depending on how picky you are. One reason that the javelin actually remained as prevalent as it DID was because it was far easier to train a man to chuck a spear than it was to train him to shoot a bow with accuracy and/or *en masse.* Secondly, the spear was *by far the most popular weapon in ancient warfar.* It's easy to learn, pick up and use. Throwing spears? No problem. They can be used as a melee weapon if worst comes to worst, they can be used to shatter a shield wall, and they can be used REALLY well from cavalry (far easier than the bow) to chuck at enemies, whether the enemies were on horses or on foot. Some examples of this would be the [Almogavars](_URL_1_) as light infantry who kept a couple of throwing spears, the [Jinete](_URL_2_), which were light cavalry who used throwing spears, the [Vikings](_URL_0_) were well known for using spears to sow their initial chaos (They actually used spears more than axes or swords!), etc.
However, the reason that you don't see as MUCH of the idea of throwing spears (even though they were there the whole time), is because bowmen were there too, and the technology in bows had gotten really really good. Bows could shoot farther, you could carry a LOT more ammo, and it was a lot easier (Especially in the English eyes!) to train your peasants from birth so that you always had an archery corps. A personal theory of mine (Conjecture, but I have to put it in!) is that thousands of trained spearmen were also a lot more dangerous to the establishment than thousands of trained bowman ;)
**TL;DR:** It didn't. :) If you have any questions on it, I would be more than glad to answer!! | [
"Javelins were often used as an effective hunting weapon, the strap adding enough power to take down large game. Javelins were also used in the Ancient Olympics and other Panhellenic games. They were hurled in a certain direction and whoever hurled it the farthest, as long as it hit tip-first, won that game.\n",
... |
Old unidentified Japanese object | It’s nothing I or my (Japanese) family have seen before. It’s most likely to be part of something, eg a netsuke.
The Ikeda crest isn’t a big deal, I’m afraid, because that symbol is used just as a pretty symbol on clothes and accessories.
Is it wood with no space inside, right? | [
"Valuable Japanese historical documents are designated in the category . There are 62 items or sets of items in this category, ranging from letters and diaries to records. One National Treasure is a linen map, and another is an inscription on stone. However, all other objects in the category were created with a wri... |
do insects have the same sort of internal organs as us? | No, they do not. They have analogous systems, but they can vary wildly in function. For example, the respiratory system of most insects is trachea, not lungs; they do not have a pump that hauls air to and fro, they absorb oxygen by diffusion.
Only vertebrates have truly the same organs as us, because they evolved from the same ancestors as us. Frogs, snakes, birds, cats and dogs and humans all come from the same primitive ancient lungfish which already had familiar internal organs. The arthropods split much earlier, at the worm stage that had barely any organs at all, and evolved independently. | [
"Tympanal organs occur in just about any part of the insect: the thorax, the base of the wing, the abdomen, the legs, etc., depending on the group of insects. The structures are thought to have evolved independently many times. As a result, their position and structures are often used to help determine the taxonomy... |
how does flint, mi still not have clean water? | The mistake that led to Flint's toxic water was a water purification error that corrupted the actual *pipes* the water flows through. So the water itself can be perfectly clean, and on the way to your house, the pipes will leech toxic amounts of lead into it.
In order for Flint to repair its water problem, it has to replace all of the pipes in the city. This is really expensive and Flint doesn't have the money to do it. Most cities wouldn't have the money to do it, as they only budget for a certain percentage of pipes to be replaced and serviced every year.
The replacement cost has been estimated to be $60M and the project, to be fully completed, to take 15 years. There are about 29,000 pipes that need to be completed. They are focusing on the most at-risk homes first and several hundred have been completed.
| [
"BULLET::::- August 11 – MDEQ releases a letter stating that Flint has \"significant deficiencies\", which among other issues include source water, financial, distribution system, management and operations.\n",
"It is also effective for chronic diseases of stomach and duodenum. Flint water can reduce the sugar le... |
how does gene diversity develop if we all came from common ancestors? | Mutations. Genes change. Your genes aren't exactly duplicated from your parents. The differences are slight, but given many generations they really do build up. | [
"Phylogenies confer important historical processes that shape current distributions of genes and species. When two species become isolated from each other they retain some of the same ancestral alleles also known as allele sharing. Alleles can be shared because of lineage sorting and hybridization. Lineage sorting ... |
how does " save game " and "load / continue " work? | Short Explanation: The game runs a chunk of code which pulls a bunch of data currently stored in the computers RAM, (it's storage space for the memory it's currently dealing with) and records it to a hard drive for permanent storage.
Details: The reason it doesn't always act the same is that it doesn't always make sense to store ALL of the data the program is storing temporarily. For a huge game like GTA or CoD there are a TON of things being stored temporarily, the current amount of dust floating in the air, the trajectory of every bullet, the location, duration and volume of the currently playing sound effects, the size, amount and angle of all the bullet holes in every surface, the location of every dead body, the position of every dead body, the footprints in the sand, (and for GTA) the location, driver, condition, direction and angle of every vehicle everywhere, the current animation, position, and speech for every single pedestrian.
That's a TON of data, and that's why these games might be using multiple Gigabytes of your ram as you're playing them. So when you go to save the game picks a subset of that data and stores it. In GTA it'll save your progression, your weapons/ammo your health and your location, probably also the day/time and the stock market info. It'll also save cars parked in specific locations. That's a TINY amount of data in comparison, and so it's easy to save.
The problem is you can't easily save and re-load from anywhere because all of that extra data isn't stored. If you could quick-save in a car and quick-load back, the game would have to store gigabytes of storage and pull it back out fast if you wanted to be able to revert to just before that big jump or just after you swerved past that police car.
If you have a simple game there is much less data involved and so it's easy for the game to save everything and retrieve everything immediately, allowing you to revert back to a specific instant. This is also how emulators do save-states. The save state stores every bit of data in temporary memory, and then shoves it all back in when you load, continuing where you left off. | [
"Quick saving and quick loading allow the player to save or load the game with a single keystroke. These terms are used to differentiate between the traditional saving mechanism where the player is required to invoke a menu or dialog box, issue save the order, specify a title for the game being saved and, if applic... |
if you were to breathe in extremely humid air, for long periods of time, would you eventually ‘drown’? | You could potentially, if your lungs were colder than the ambient temperature, which would allow the water vapor to condense down back into a liquid form rapidly enough to prevent the lungs from expelling them through normal processes. It could also occur under different atmospheric pressures than are generally found on Earth. | [
"This can have an effect on respiration. In very warm air (35 °C) the proportion of water vapor is large enough to give rise to the stuffiness that can be experienced in humid jungle conditions or in poorly ventilated buildings.\n",
"Increased water intake may also help in acclimatization to replace the fluids lo... |
Considering how long humans have been in control of fire (somewhere between 120k and 400k years ago) do we have different/better burn response/recovery than other animals? | 100kya is an eye-blink for people who take 20 years to make a new generation. I think most of the problem was handled with software changes. | [
"The control of fire enabled important changes in human behavior, health, energy expenditure, and geographic expansion. As a result of \"domesticating\" fire as previously achieved with plants and animals, humans were able to modify their environments to their own benefit. This ability to manipulate their environme... |
why do millionaires only have a small percentage of their wealth in cash or liquid assets? | Cash and liquid assets don't make you any money. If you invest your wealth, it can make you more money, but it's not in a form that you can immediately spend.
I wouldn't have a million in cash on hand unless I had an immediate need to spend a million dollars on something. | [
"While millionaires constitute only a small percentage of the population, they hold substantial control over economic resources, with the most powerful and prominent individuals usually ranking among them. The total amount of money held by millionaires can equal the amount of money held by a far higher number of po... |
When did Medical Gloves become a common practice for all Pre-Hospital/Hospital workers? | No one quite knows who first introduced rubber gloves into surgery. Galvanized rubber and subsequently gloves were developed in the middle of the 19th century. In surgery, this was the time of Lister, Koch, and Pasteur (that is, the acceptable of sterilization, then germ theory). As such, by the 1870s in Europe (and by the 1890s in the US, where the surgical culture lagged in accepting sterilization and germ theory) it had become standard to spray carbolic acid throughout the operating theater. Carbolic acid sterilization was discovered actually even before germ theory was widely accepted, and it was sprayed everywhere -- including over the patient and into surgical wounds. This naturally was very toxic to surgeons' and assistants' hands, which is why rubber gloves started to be used. Again, it's unclear who was the first to do it. Rutgow in Archives of Surgery suggests it was a Dr. Thomas of NYC in 1878. While he may be the first American, certainly there were French and German surgeons using these gloves earlier in the 1870s to protect themselves and their staff from carbolic acid.
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But this is not how they became widespread (in the US). The story is quite famous. William Halsted of Hopkins (one of the most famous surgeons in US history, and notoriously a cocaine-then-morphine addict) introduced them pretty much accidentally. He used mercuric chloride rather than carbolic acid for sterilization. His scrub nurse developed a horrific dermatitis to the substance, and he devised a new type of rubber glove for her (he would later go on to marry her). However, he noticed that cases she was on had a lower infection rate, and subsequently had his entire team use rubber gloves. This was part of the so-called "Halsted technique" -- the use of rubber gloves (and also very long surgeries where he was able to do increasingly complex procedures), and it was a major piece of surgical culture that was exported from Hopkins to the rest of North America. At the same time, in Germany, Kronig had run experiments at the same time on animals showing the superiority of rubber gloves to washing hands.
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By roughly 1900, a vanguard of surgeons in the US and Canada were using rubber gloves in the OR; I honestly don't know as much about surgical literature in general, let alone what was happening in Europe. In any event, surgeons are generally quite resistant to change, and it wasn't until the 1920s that rubber (and then latex) gloves had become standard in the OR.
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Hope that answers your question! Here is a nice article about the Halsted's and has a photo of a preserved glove [_URL_1_](_URL_1_)
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Also, if you like medical history, I host a monthly podcast with the American College of Physician's called Bedside Rounds. You might like it! [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) or _URL_2_
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I'm also currently reading Bliss' biography of Osler -- fascinating look at Hopkins during this amazingly formative time in American medicine!
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EDIT: don't write reddit posts on phones | [
"Caroline Hampton Halsted (20 November 1861 – 27 November 1922) was a nurse who became the first to use medical gloves in the operating room, at the instigation of her spouse-to-be William Stewart Halsted.\n",
"He published an article in 1897 recommending surgeons use rubber gloves and boil them in water before w... |
why are retainers needed after braces? | It's because your gums are no longer as resilient as they were before. You move all your teeth by pushing and pulling them where you want them, the gums lose their strength slightly.
Imagine pouring concrete, you need a frame to pour it into, until it hardens, so it'll maintain shape on it's own. | [
"In order to prevent the teeth from moving back to their original position, retainers are worn once the treatment is complete. Retainers help in maintaining and stabilizing the position of teeth long enough to permit reorganization of the supporting structures after the active phase of orthodontic therapy. If the p... |
dreaming for people who were born blind. | I work for a state school forr the Blind. All of the students that have been blind from birth say that they just dream in sound. Same goes for the deaf community. They just dream in pictures and no sound. | [
"Jastrow found that people who had lost their eyesight after age six still were able to see in their dreams, and that people who had lost their eyesight before the age of five could not. This same difference in perception and age was true for people with partial vision loss. Jastrow concluded that sight was not inn... |
why is satanism commonly connected to occultism? | Theres a huge difference between the different types of satanism.
There's LeVeyan satanism which is the stuff you hear about a lot. The 11 rules are a part of that. [here](_URL_0_) is a lot more about them, they less literally worship satan and more base around the golden rule philosophy. LeVeyan satanism actually denies that a being like satan or god could exist.
The other type of satanism is literally worshipping satan, which is very closely linked to the occult and only really practiced by crazy people. | [
"Ivey notes that everything occult is considered evil from a fundamentalist Christian perspective, and \"the term \"Satanism\" is commonly understood in Christian societies to include a wide range of unconventional or occult beliefs and activities\". The SAPS website also listed 41 \"warning signs of possible destr... |
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