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where does all the food go? | Poop, heat, and consumed useful energy. You basically take the nutrients, break them down, make energy molecules, release a lot of heat along the way. Then, use this energy to build things like proteins from things you got from food (amino acids). If you're not gaining weight despite eating insane amounts, you either have very high metabolism (genetic, hormonal, age related, aerobic sports, etc) or you have very bad absorption (genetic, some GI disorder, etc) or something is stealing your food (parasite, tapeworm, etc).
Edit: also, please note that the food that goes in is not even remotely similar to the one that leaves (poop). For some things it is but not most. You destroy its architecture, you squish everything into higher density (remove fluid and crush the organization). So if you really want to compare how much food is going out relative to in, you have to measure the mass not volume, and then measure water content because you absorb a lot of that (then water goes out in urine, sweat, breath, saliva, cum, or tears) | [
"Wherever food is harvested, manufactured or distributed there is a need for containers to enable the food to travel securely and in good condition to the shop, warehouse or distribution depot. For many foods, especially those in their own individual containers such as canned vegetables, the common container is the... |
if cellular radio waves are basically everywhere all the time, how do they not get blended with eachother? | They all have slightly different frequencies, which makes it easier to tell the difference.
Imagine you're trying to pull one thing out of a box while blindfolded. There are three items in the box. Those three things are all apples, but you're trying to get a Granny Smith. The different frequencies would be like taking those same three apples, and coating the Granny Smith in sandpaper.
Make sense? | [
"The increased capacity in a cellular network, compared with a network with a single transmitter, comes from the mobile communication switching system developed by Amos Joel of Bell Labs that permitted multiple callers in a given area to use the same frequency by switching calls to the nearest available cellular to... |
How does Antivirus software work? | While there are many different styles of viruses and attacks, a lot of antivirus software deployed relies on a currently known threats or vulnerabilities. It is hard to defend against an unknown vector of attack (I use virus here generically), but some basic attacks/detections are as follows:
**Size**
An easy way to detect if a file has been altered is the size of the file. Some viruses like to tack on their malicious code at the end of the file, and that is a dead giveaway when an antivirus scanner scans it. It compares the before and after sizes, and if there has been no modification by the user, it suspects some malicious activity.
**Pattern Matching**
Viruses often have a telltale signature that they use to infect your computer. It could be couple lines of assembly code that overwrite the stack pointer and then jump to a new line of code, it could be a certain series of commands that throw an error in a common application, or it could be using an unchecked overflow or memory leak to grab an exception thrown. Regardless, a lot of infectious software uses an reproducible exploit that is found on the target operating system or application, and those tell tale signs (because they have been spotted before) go into a huge database of known exploits and vulnerabilities. When your antivirus scans through it checks your programs for these malicious activities.
**Detecting Injections**
Since viruses like to use these known exploits, malware writers sometimes like to inject code into pre existing programs, like when you 'accidentally' installed that malicous program. These kinds of attacks typically inject code into dead regions of documents or files, and use a jump to go to the malicious code. To explain further, since blocks of memory are allocated to files, sometimes the very end of the memory block does not get used up, or in some cases, there are certain exploits within certain types of files that have legacy sections that are no longer used. This legacy section is a perfect spot to hide malicious code, since it does not increase the size of your program or file. An injection attack uses the initial startup code to 'jump' to the malicious code, and then 'jump' back, making it seem like nothing was ever wrong, and your program boots up perfectly. There are many many variations of this attack, but an antivirus program typically looks for those strange 'jumps' and code that looks like it doesnt belong in certain sections.
**Hashing**
Some antivirus programs analyze the programs/files byte for byte, and literally compute the sha-1 hash of the item it is detecting. It stores every single hash for everything on your system, and if the program has been modified it will not compute the same hash (that is the whole point of a hash, it changes drastically if only a tiny bit of the program/file changes). This detection is flawed, because if the virus discovers where all the hashes are stored or the algorithm used, it can overwrite the 'secure' hash with the malicious one and the antivirus will never know.
**Deeper Threats**
Whenever you start your computer, or plug an external device into it (hard drive, cd, usb, there are core drivers or 'code' that runs to setup the connections from your computer to the external device. Some viruses exploit this when the connection is being established, and could either execute arbitrary code (instead of the connection code) or can become a man in the middle, where everything acts fine but the virus is actually the one creating the connection, as well as inserting its own code where ever it feels like. Since these threats can work themselves deep within the operating system and core functions, these are extremely hard to detect. If the deeper OS calls are not compromised, like the antivirus calls to the OS, then these attacks can be detected. If the whole system is compromised, then the virus is embedded so deep that you some times have no choice but to wipe it and hopefully do a fresh install. If the code that starts up your operating system is compromised, you have even bigger problems because wiping will not get rid of it.
Hopefully this is in layman enough terms for anyone to understand, I didnt rely on any references so please leave a comment correcting me (I will probably be asleep). Hopefully I will wake up tomorrow morning and everyone will understand the basics of computer infections and detections.
EDIT: Thank you for reddit gold, and bestof! My life is now complete! | [
"Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, hence the name. However, with the proliferation of other kinds of malware, antivirus software started to provide protection from other computer threats. In particular, modern antivirus software can protect users from: malicious brow... |
how did we come to understand universal symbols for play, rewind, fast forward, and so on. what is the design of these symbols called? | [No one is really sure](_URL_0_), but the pause icon resembles the symbol for a break in electronic schematics, and the play symbol seems to imply forward motion. | [
"has a long history that goes back to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. The mathematician Louis François Antoine Arbogast was one of the first to manipulate these symbols independently of the function to which they were applied.\n",
"The main symbols date back to the 1960s, with the Pause symbol having reportedly been i... |
what is bicarbonate? | Bicarbonate is HCO3(-). It acts as a buffer keeping your blood within certain pH values.
It is formed when H2O and CO2 are combined in red bllod cells by carbonic anhydrase(an enzyme) to make carbonic acid, H2CO3. This carbonic acid quickly breaks down into H and HCO3. When it reaches the lungs the bicarbonate is separated back into H2O and CO2. | [
"The term \"bicarbonate\" was coined in 1814 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. The prefix \"bi\" in \"bicarbonate\" comes from an outdated naming system and is based on the observation that there is twice as much carbonate () per sodium ion in sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO) and other bicarbonates than in s... |
When did Sunzi's "The Art of War" become popular in the West? | It's a late 20th century phenomenon. The book was not translated into any European language until French in the late 18th century and wasn't completely translated into English until 1910 by Lionel Giles (as _Sun Tzu on the Art of War_). Machiavelli was certainly unaware of it. Also, the Chinese characters "兵法" are more literally "warfare" + "rules/method", so if anything it'd probably be more likely Machiavelli's work influenced the English title either directly or just by helping establish 'art of war' as an idiom in English.
Anyway, [here's a telling statistic, courtesy of Google books](_URL_1_) on the frequency of "Sun-Tzu" in English publications. There's a small peak during World War II, where an increased interest in military strategy would seem self-explanatory (not least since China was at war). Interest seems to die down after the war and then there's a dramatic rise starting in 1964 and continuing to present day. This would coincide with the 1963 publication of [Griffith](_URL_0_)'s translation, which is also the first one titled simply _The Art of War_. Griffith's translation included more biography and commentary, but it doesn't seem too speculative to imagine that Griffith's status as an American general and war veteran also helped it garner more attention.
| [
"West became known for his large scale history paintings, which use expressive figures, colours and compositional schemes to help the spectator to identify with the scene represented. West called this \"epic representation\". His 1778 work \"The Battle of the Boyne\" portrayed William of Orange's victory at the Bat... |
During WWII, what was Stalin's plans for if the Germany army captured Moscow? | In October 1941 the Soviets began seriously discussing the possibility of Moscow falling. Stalin decided that he was going to stay in the capital. It was feared that seeing Josef Stalin and the government flee would cause a massive panic among the cities massive population. There was also an idea of burning Moscow similar to what the Russians had done to Napoleon. But Stalin saw that when Moscow was burned in 1812 it was little more than a small town, the Moscow of 1941 was a vast, sprawling modern city.
Stalin also used this new boost of energy to begin taking control of the situation. The new stet defence committee began to make preparations for defending against the Germans, and on October 10th, stalin appointed Georgia Zhukov to defend the capital. Stalin said that there would be "no evacuation" and than he said that "We'll stay here until victory".
Even with Stalin's assurances some sectors of the city began to delve into panic and mass hysteria. However Zhukov got a handle on the situation and declared martial law. He had over a million men to defend the city. It was assumed that the Germans would try and encircle the city, so a massive amount of conscript troops were placed behind the city on the Volga river, Stalin as Zhukov both hoped this would stop the encircle men of the city.
In all likely hood had it looked like the Germans were going to take Moscow, the majority of the soviet government would have probably fled east and continued the fight. Stalin might have as well. But the prospects looked good for the soviets, they had a superior amount of men, equipment, and were equipped for winter fighting. Stalin had no reason to panic. | [
"Correctly calculating that Hitler would direct efforts to capture Moscow, Stalin concentrated his forces to defend the city, including numerous divisions transferred from Soviet eastern sectors after he determined that Japan would not attempt an attack in those areas. By December, Hitler's troops had advanced to w... |
If I were a sexually active gay man in early 19th century England that never actually broke the anti-sodomy laws how open could I be? | This question got me curious: what does it mean to be sexual active but not violate the anti-sodomy laws on the books? The following answer is not from a deep font of knowledge, but is merely what I have gathered through my own curiosity this evening.
Throughout the 19th century there were three acts that outlawed "buggery" and/or "sodomy": the Buggery Act of 1533, which was replaced by the Offenses Against the Person Act of 1828, which was replaced by the Offences against the Person Act of 1861.
None of them were particularly clear with what they were outlawing. The Offenses Against the Person Act of 1828 is the pithiest, so I'll quote the relevant section in full here:
> Sodomy.
> XV. And be it enacted, That every Person convicted of the abominable Crime of Buggery, committed either with Mankind or with any Animal, shall suffer Death as a Felon.
As you can see, the act does not define buggery or sodomy (neither of the other acts do, either), and all later works I've found seems to assume buggery and sodomy are to be treated as synonyms. In common law systems, the courts set binding precedents for what the law actually means in ambiguous cases.
In 1817, the case *Rex v. Jacobs* set out to exactly what sorts of "unnatural acts" are included under buggery/sodomy. I found the full decision quoted in a Montana Supreme Court decision, *State v. Dietz*, and I'll warn you, it's disturbing and the victim is a seven year old child. Here's the decision:
> Rex v. Samuel Jacobs.
> The prisoner forced open a child's mouth and put in his private parts, and proceeded to a completion of his lust. Held, that this did not constitute the offence of sodomy.
> The prisoner was tried and convicted before the Lord Chief Baron Richards, at the Warwick Lent assizes, in the [\*332] year 1817, upon an indictment for sodomy, \*556 committed on James Thompson (a boy of about seven years of age,) on the 8th of March, 1817.
> It was proved very satisfactorily, that the prisoner had prevailed upon the child to go with him from the market place in Nun-Eaton to a rick yard in a field near the town; that he forced the boy's mouth open with his fingers, and put his private parts into the boy's mouth, and emitted in his mouth.
> The question was whether this was sodomy.
> In Easter term, 1817, the judges met, and were of opinion that this did not constitute the offence of sodomy, and directed a pardon to be applied for.
What does this mean? That in the initial ruling, oral rape of a child was ruled sodomy in 1817 but this initial ruling was overruled upon appeal. The *Dietz* decision uses the term "per annum" a lot, and it seems from that understanding that in English Common Law in the 19th century, buggery and sodom both meant anal sex not oral sex. As some 19th century legal dictionaries (quoted in the *Dietz* opinion),
> At common law, sodomy, was committed only by penetration per annum; penetration per os did not constitute the crime.
And
> Sodomy consists of sexual connection with any brute animal, or in sexual connection, per anum, by a man, with any man or woman. The act committed in a child's mouth is not enough.
Some are slightly more demure and do not say where sodomy *is* committed, but where it isn't:
> To constitute this offense, the act must be in that part where sodomy is usually committed. The act in a child's mouth does not constitute the offense.
The *Dietz* opinion quotes a *lot* of these legal dictionaries (before moving onto medical dictionaries, which hold the same), all based on the *Rex v. Jacobs* opinion. You can read the full opinion [here](_URL_0_).
It's worth noting that this seems to be a reversal of the 18th-century standards, where oral sex does appear to be included in some sodomy convictions.
As a side note, U.S. law in the 19th century apparently largely followed the 1817 precedent, which is why I was able to find the full text of the option in *Dietz*. For example, when the Portland Vice Scandal of 1913 happened, the state of Oregon responded by clarifying the law and specifically including fellatio (*per os*) in the new law. Some other states also changed their laws regarding sodomy or created new laws (contributing to the delinquency of a minor, committing lewd and lascivious acts, etc.) which also covered oral sex.
In the U.K., this sort of amendment, broadening criminal homosexual acts beyond "buggery", happened slightly earlier, in 1885, when Labouchere Amendment to Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 was passed. That section reads:
> Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procures, or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with an other male person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and being convicted thereof, shall be liable at the discretion of the Court to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour.
Now, again, "gross indecency" is no more defined in statute than "buggery" or "sodomy" had been (definition would likely have been too yucky), but it was clearly meant to cover homosexual relations that fell short of legal sodomy *per anum*. This is ultimately the Act that Alan Turing, Oscar Wilde, and the men prosecuted from the Cleveland Street Raid were charged under.
Now, I only looked into this because I was surprised that homosexual oral sex wasn't covered by early 19th century anti-sodomy laws, but I can't find anything that indicates to me that oral sex, mutual masturbation, and other similar homosexual acts were explicitly illegal in England between 1817 and 1885. However, it is clear that they would put one in a marginalized, scandalizing community, and I think Wilde's case (among others) shows that to be convicted of such an offense (and probably even just accused) was to suffer tremendous social opprobrium not entirely tied up with mere matters of the law. Though his trial was after the 1885 making gross indecency illegal, and not requiring buggery, it gives I think a sense of the social climate that would have existed even before the change.
As you'll see below, gay men were frequent victims of blackmail, especially after 1885.
(Continued below with a discussion of the records we have from the Old Bailey Court in London) | [
"Homosexual acts between males were illegal in England and Wales until the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which implemented the recommendations of the Wolfenden report published a decade earlier. The fact that willing participants in consensual homosexual acts could be prosecuted made them vulnerable to entrapment, and ... |
what happens to prices/wages when a country implements euro as the currency? | See where the money and the people are going.
Say you run your country with your own currency. You get to set interest rates, and if your country slows down, you can lend money at a cheaper rate. The downside is that your currency may be cheap today and dear tomorrow, and people in other countries may not want to do business with you.
So you sign up to the Euro. Now this is not a peg, but a complete conversion of your old currency to the euro. You don't have the tools to change the value of your currency anymore - a euro costs a euro anywhere in the zone, and its value relative to the world's monies is set by the European Bank. Things that are cheap in your country now gets sold far and wide, whereas things that are expensive in your country gets replaced by imports.
But what if your country's economy slows down? Sorry, we're all in it together now, says Angela Merkel. If the whole of Europe were a real country, the rich part may help the poor part by transferring tax revenues until both get better in a new and stabler setting. But this is just the Eurozone, so you have to sit it out until your country recovers on its own. You can spend what you have in your piggy bank, but if you go bust nobody's going to want to take care of you. (Unless your tiny little country manage to sink the euro with it, that is. Then you become Greek.)
Now, on to the flow of people. After eurozone comes Schengen Zone, guaranteeing the flow of people. And people follow the money, and the mobile people in your country will go abroad. Foreign Europeans will want to come to your pristine country and do serious business as well, so there is an exchange of labourers for investors.
Any questions? | [
"Another effect of the common European currency is that differences in prices—in particular in price levels—should decrease because of the law of one price. Differences in prices can trigger arbitrage, i.e., speculative trade in a commodity across borders purely to exploit the price differential. Therefore, prices ... |
Why do war memorials in Britain commemorate World War I as 1914 to 1919 | World War I technically ended in 1919.
Germany signed an armistice with the Allies in November 1918 which marked only the end of actual fighting, but not the war itself. The war is considered still ongoing until the terms of surrender are formalized and signed. That occurred in 1919 during the Paris Peace Conference which resulted in the Treaty of Versailles. | [
"War memorials in England take a wide variety of forms and commemorate centuries of conflicts, though memorials to conflicts and the soldiers who fought in them—rather than exclusively commemorating victorious commanders—only started to be commonplace after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, which ended the Napoleonic... |
how can an animal eat its own kind with no side effects but human cannibalism causes brain damage? | It isn't the human flesh that causes brain damage, it is the risk of parasites/prions in the human flesh. Thoroughly cooked human flesh won't hurt you, but if it is under cooked or you eat infected brain matter (as with the cows who got mad-cow disease) then you are at risk.
Generally you only find cannibalism in less developed areas and so the risk is greater. | [
"Cannibalism may become apparent when direct competition for limited resources forces individuals to use other conspecific individuals as an additional resource to maintain their metabolic rates. Hunger drives individuals to increase their foraging rates, which in turn decreases their attack threshold and tolerance... |
What decides which plate subducts in ocean-ocean convergent plate boundaries? | For the ocean-ocean case, basically the age of the plates. Age is essentially a proxy for temperature/thickness. Imagine tracking a piece of oceanic crust from its formation point at a mid-ocean ridge. As it moves away from the ridge, it cools and thickens, increasing the aggregate density of the plate at that point (or distance from the ridge axis). Where two oceanic plates meet, the prediction would then be that the older (denser) plate will subduct.
For the second part of your question, yes, generally, continental crust is not subducted because it is too bouyant with respect to either the mantle or oceanic crust. It is important to remember that most continent-continent collisions are preceded by subduction of an oceanic plate beneath a continental margin and that the "collision" occurs when this ocean basin has been completely subducted. This is important because depending on the details (rates of subduction, size of the slab, nature of the continental crust, etc) the "pull force" can be enough to suck some amount of continental crust down. This is often referred to as "continental subduction" and is likely an important process for forming particularly weird bodies of rocks we see in mountain ranges called either "UHP" or "HP" terranes, which stand for either ultra high pressure or high pressure terranes, respectively. These are basically blocks of continental crust that were drug down quite deep, experienced a fair bit of metamorphism and then rather quickly made it back to the surface. That last bit, how they make it back to the surface, remains an interesting question in tectonics.
EDIT: Meant to add that if you have access to a library or can find a copy of it somewhere, "Cloos, M., 1993, Lithospheric buoyancy and collisional orogenesis: Subduction of oceanic plateaus, continental margins, island arcs, spreading ridges, and seamounts, Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 105, p. 715-737" is a classic treatment of this problem/question. | [
"BULLET::::2. \"Divergent boundaries (Constructive)\" occur where two plates slide apart from each other. At zones of ocean-to-ocean rifting, divergent boundaries form by seafloor spreading, allowing for the formation of new ocean basin. As the ocean plate splits, the ridge forms at the spreading center, the ocean ... |
why are people born with photographic memories? how does this impact psychological childhood development? | Photographic memory is a myth. Not a single case of it has even been found, so no one is born with it. Makes for great TV though.
There is such a thing as Eidetic memory, but only really found in children, disappears as they get older, and even this is often warped or flawed in some ways.
There is no such thing as perfect memory. A very few adults have unusual memories, but those usually come with some pretty severe mental problems in other areas instead. | [
"BULLET::::- There is no scientific evidence for the existence of \"photographic\" memory in adults (the ability to remember images with so high a precision as to mimic a camera), but some young children have eidetic memory. Many people have claimed to have a photographic memory, but those people have been shown to... |
Speed differences for loading content from Discs, Hard-Drives and Solid State Drives(SSD) | It might load quicker from an HDD/SDD.
I'm not sure about PS1 emulators but some emulators (sometimes only on some roms) need to slow down reading from HDDs to match the loading speed of the original drive as loading at a higher speed can throw off the game timing and cause glitchs or crashes.
This can even happen when not emulating, Apparently, there is at least 1 game on the PS3 that crashes when loading from HDD instead of from the disk drive due to the faster loading speed (of course to do this you need a hacked unit so that could be a factor)
| [
"In modern computers, hard disk drives (HDDs) or solid-state drives (SSDs) are usually used as secondary storage. The access time per byte for HDDs or SSDs is typically measured in milliseconds (one thousandth seconds), while the access time per byte for primary storage is measured in nanoseconds (one billionth sec... |
how were the first construction cranes built when there were no other cranes to reach or lift the heavy weights? | We've had simple cranes being built thousands of years in the past, so putting together a small crane isn't an insurmountable task. Besides, you don't necessarily need a crane to put together another crane, as long as you've got something like a ledge to work with, or even a pulley system mounted to a higher point, like a building. | [
"A crane for lifting heavy loads was developed by the Ancient Greeks in the late 6th century BC. The archaeological record shows that no later than c. 515 BC distinctive cuttings for both lifting tongs and lewis irons begin to appear on stone blocks of Greek temples. Since these holes point at the use of a lifting ... |
how it is determined that people who died while texting-and-driving were actually looking at their phone at the time of (or time leading to) impact? | If the deploying airbag embeds the phone into the drivers cranium, then that’s a good indicator too. | [
"A 2014 report from the National Safety Council, which compiles data on injuries and fatalities from 2013 and earlier, concluded that use of mobile phones caused 26% of U.S. car accidents. Just 5% of mobile phone-related accidents in the U.S. involved texting: \"The majority of the accidents involve drivers distrac... |
Did the ancient Arabs, such as the Qedarites, self-identify with the Biblical genealogy of the Arabs, i.e. Ishmaelites? | > Is there any evidence of the ancient Arabs calling themselves Ishmaelites?
The term *Ishmaelites* appears mostly in non-Arabic sources. While a genealogical link between the Arabs and Ishmael appears in numerous Arabic sources, Arabs nonetheless did not use that term (the Arabic equivalent of the term, *Ishmaelites*, is often used to refer to a specific group within Shi'ism).
> Genesis 16:12 has Ishmael described as 'a wild ass of a man' so I think that it would be unlikely that the Arabs would identify with the character.
We should not assume that any link between the Arabs and Ishmael was made to fit that description particularly. That's to say, when the Arabs were identified/self-identified as Ishmael's descendants, this identity was not necessarily made in light of the biblical view. This should especially be taken into account when approaching Arabic sources. For example, the Qur'anic account of Ishmael is very positive. Ishmael is portrayed as a patient, obedient and helpful son, an exemplar father-son relationship.
The earliest surviving source to link the Arabs with Ishmael is a second-century BCE work ascribed to Artapanus (of Alexandria). Speaking of the Arabs, he wrote:
> The kings of the Arabs were the descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abraham and the brother of Isaac.
The first Arabic source is the Qur'an. A passage from Q 22:78 reads (translation by M. Abdel Haleem):
> He has chosen you and placed no hardship in your religion, the faith of your forefather Abraham.
**EDIT**: I forgot to mention this: we should distinguish between two terms here, *Arabs* and *Arabians*. Arabs are Arabian, but Arabians are not necessarily Arab. The different groups of Arabia are called *Arabian*, among them one group is known as *Arabs*. A term used by the group itself. Arabic sources speak of the Arabs specifically as Ishmaelite, not the Arabian groups in general. For example, Ibn al-Kalbī (d. 819 CE) in his writings about genealogy links some Arabian groups to the biblical Joktan (Yaqṭān).
| [
"The oldest surviving indication of an Arab national identity is an inscription made in an archaic form of Arabic in 328 using the Nabataean alphabet, which refers to Imru' al-Qays ibn 'Amr as \"King of all the Arabs\". Herodotus refers to the Arabs in the Sinai, southern Palestine, and the frankincense region (Sou... |
how does my hair get tangled so quickly? | Entropy. There are more ways for your hair to be tangled, than untangled. | [
"The hair is divided at the back in two uniform strands, slicked and laid in opposite directions around the head. On one side of the head, usually in the temporal region, the two strands are individually tightened in the same direction. The two strands are then twisted, whereby the rotation of the two individual st... |
why do i look up and the right when i'm trying to remember something? | I look to the side, personally; I think looking in another direction helps you focus on something different quicker. | [
"Eye movement to the left or right for many people seems to indicate if a memory was recalled or constructed. Thus remembering an actual image (V) is associated more with up-left, whilst imagining one's dream home (V) tends (again not universally) to be more associated with up-right.\n",
"In situations where one'... |
It was common for upper-class European women prior to the contemporary era to occupy themselves with pursuits in music and art as a matter of enriching home-life. Do we know of any outstanding talents among them? | > there had to be some that were truly gifted?
Certainly.
**Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944)** was a composer and pianist. She was born into a very well doing family, a child prodigy who started composing at around 5 and started giving recitals at 8. She had formal musical instruction for a while, but was mostly self-taught, and became a professional musician for a few years. That is, until she married in 1885. She agreed to limit her performances and to donate the profits to some charities. Why? Because being a professional musician was not a proper thing for a married woman (as you mentioned, propriety and what not)... She almost exclusively focused on composition after that (something she could do while staying at home like a decent married woman). When her husband died, she went to give some concerts in Europe .
[Here's her piano concerto](_URL_4_). Not something you would imagine was composed, or played, by a rich stay at home wife.
**Fanny Hensel née Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1805-1847)** was also born into a prominent family. She, and her little brother Felix (yes, THE famous Felix Mendelssohn), received a musical education early on. She showed great ability, and contemporary musical super stars found her to be amazing. There had been women in her family who were active lovers and supporters of music, and some were also skilled players. Her father was not very supportive, and openly told her music could be her brother's profession, but for her it could only be a hobby. Felix thought publishing her music under her name would upset her womanly duties. She got married, and her husband was OK with having her music played at family concerts.
[Here's a trio by her](_URL_2_). I find it pretty damn good.
**Anna Amalia of Prussia (1723 – 1787)**. She was the daughter of Frederick William I of Prussia and sister of Frederick II, it's hard to get any posher than that. Her father mistreated her and was completely against any formal musical instruction for her. She only managed to seriously study after his death. Her teacher was J. P. Kirnberger, who was a student of J. S. Bach. She became known as a patron of music, and a serious composer. She preserved a lot of music by Bach, Handel, Telemann, and others. She knew what she was preserving, it was apparently not just a hobby and she was not just collecting old music.
[Here's a flute sonata](_URL_8_). A nice work in the style of her time.
**Maria Antonia Walpurgis Symphorosa (1724 – 1780)**. Her Serene Highness Maria Antonia, Princess of Bavaria, Duchess of Bavaria, was educated in the arts. She was a singer, harpsichordist and composer, also a patron of the arts with a refined taste. She studied under Porpora and Hasse (who were top notch musicians in their time). She composed a couple operas, writing both the music AND the libretto herself (not a very common thing to see).
[Here's an opera composed by her](_URL_5_). As Boromir would say, you don't just write an opera. It's a hell of a lot of work, and it's kind of a particular type of music. It doesn't matter if it ends being average, getting to compose "just another opera" is pretty solid evidence of musical skill.
> Do we know of any upper-class women who were favorably compared to notable professional artists or musicians?
**Maria Theresia von Paradis (1759 – 1824)**. She was the daughter of the Imperial Secretary of Commerce and Court Councilor to the Empress [Maria Theresa](_URL_7_). She lost her sight at an early age. In her teens, she was giving concerts, singing and playing the piano (and probably the organ). She apparently commissioned concert works by Salieri, Mozart and Haydn.
[Here's some music was composed by her](_URL_3_). Some times there is some confusion because there was this guy with a similar last name (Paradisi).
Bending a little the description you gave, we have **Barbara Strozzi (1619 – 1677)**. She was probably an illegitimate daughter of Giulio Strozzi (his family was rival of the Medici, those guys were very rich). She studied under Francesco Cavalli (very respected and influential opera composer). After the death of her husband, she supported herself investing some money and making money from her compositions. She was a prolific composer, and published plenty of music. It was expensive to publish music back then, people were not doing it just for fun... You would need to be either loaded or have good chances of success with your music, so I guess she can be compared to notable professionals. She also sang and played the lute pretty well.
[I love this recording](_URL_9_) of one of her songs.
**Marianne von Martinez (1744 – 1812)**. I don't know if she was very upper-class, but her family got a patent of nobility. She had the most amazing musical education and contacts!
Metastasio (the top Italian librettist) was a friend of the family, and saw great potential in the little girl. So she took her under his wing. He got Haydn to giver her piano/harpsichord lessons. See, Joseph Haydn (who became one of the top musicians of the German speaking part of the world) and Nicola Porpora (who became an opera god) were her neighbours. Porpora gave her singing lessons, while Haydn accompanied her! Once she started composing, she took lessons from Hasse (super famous and super prolific opera composer). She met Charles Burney (a musicologist from those days, who managed to meet many interesting people). Apparently Mozart would visit the Martines some times, and he would probably play music for four-hands with her. Her music was known in many cities, but she got no official position (because that would be complete nonesense for a woman of her class).
[Here's a harpsichord concerto](_URL_1_) by her.
Pardon the detour, but I guess I'll get to women born in less than super wealthy families.
**Francesca Caccini (1587 – 1641)** was the daughter of Giulio Caccini, one of the founders of opera itself. She was well educated (standard humanistic curriculum of the time: Latin, Greek, literature, maths) and also had musical training (which I guess would have been pretty solid, considering who her father was). She performed for kings and super wealthy people, and composed. She was working at courts with Jacopo Peri (another founder of opera). She was probably the first woman to compose an opera (apparently wrote quite a good number of them). She taught music to the Medici princesses.
[Here's an opera composed by her](_URL_0_).
**Clara Schumann née Wieck (1819 – 1896)** was one of the top pianists, male or female, of the 19th century. She had a very, VERY long concert career. About 60 years!
She was a child prodigy, and received a very solid music education. She married Robert Schumann, who became a very relevant pianist, composer, and critic of music (he studied with her father). Her husband spent quite some time in psychiatric hospitals, and he famously injured himself by using a stupid contraption to improve his piano technique (he was not able to be a concert pianist after that). She became the main source of income for the family. She and Robert had 8 children, so she would hire housekeepers and cooks to take care of the house while she was on concert tours. She apparently rescued her kids during a revolution in 1849. She also took care of some of her grandchildren when her daughter Julie died.
She stopped composing at a young age, not feeling very confident in her skills. In my opinion, ANYBODY who was in her social circle would feel very incompetent as a composer... She was married to Schumann and was a very good friend of Brahms. She met Schubert, Chopin, and Liszt. By the way, all of them considered her a top notch pianist, so I guess she was super incredibly amazing.
[Here's her piano concerto](_URL_6_). She was 16 when she composed it.
**Guilhermina Augusta Xavier de Medim Suggia Carteado Mena (1885 – 1950)**. She was a top notch cellist, and became internationally famous (and kind of opened the possibility for women to become concert cellists in the 20th century). See, playing the cello was NOT something women were meant to do. It was considered a manly instrument, and the way the instrument has to be played...
| [
"There was increased participation of women in music-making in the eighteenth century. It is known that French women undertook music instruction at a young age, under the guidance of a music master before marriage and family responsibilities intervened. Many women involved in music were noblewomen or were from fami... |
how do scientists determine how much water you need to drink? | IIRC, the "recommended amount" of water per day has no real health benefits. Maybe a myth, may be a misconception. | [
"From the data and observation, the best water for drinking is the water from a nearby river. However, further data must be collected over a longer period of time. Also, bacterial and microbial tests need to be completed.\n",
"An accurate method for determining the amount of water is the Karl Fischer titration, d... |
Why are there so many species of birds compared to other tetrapod vertebrates? | So this is neat because birds are also the phylogenetically youngest of the tetrapods. The big reason is that birds, by virtue of flying, opened up a mostly unexploited niche (habitat) space that they could fill without competition. They could then partition this new habitat leading to speciation (in a process very similar to the cichlids in lake Malawi).
Additionally, the ability to fly allowed them to colonize islands without large predators and to escape predation by simply being out of reach. This released selective pressure on camouflage and is in part why birds are some of the most colorful and ornate tetrapods. Color and plumage were then reinforced through sexual selection, again leading to speciation. | [
"Birds generally have lower EQ than mammals, but parrots and particularly the corvids show remarkable complex behaviour and high learning ability. Their brains are at the high end of the bird spectrum, but low compared to mammals. Bird cell size is on the other hand generally smaller than that of mammals, which may... |
Have humans always had to brush their teeth to avoid rotting? | The short answer is that no, brushing of the teeth wasn't necessary. Humans didn't live nearly as long until recently, and there was no reason to evolve more long-lasting teeth.
The long answer is that there is no selective pressure to produce teeth that last longer. Teeth don't usually start getting seriously rotten until our third decade of life or so. At this point, we're already well past sexual maturity and, in prior millenia, would have likely reproduced. Remember, unless a trait gives a reproductive advantage, there's no selection for it.
A related phenomenon is that humans and their ancestors didn't live nearly as long in the past. The set of teeth that we have is perfectly sufficient for a lifespan of 25 or 30 years. As we've dramatically expanded our lifespan, we've had to come up with ways to preserve the teeth we have (by brushing them), or replace them altogether (with dentures).
| [
"Dental decay is however easily prevented by reducing acid demineralisation caused by the remaining dental plaque left on teeth after brushing. Risk factors for tooth decay include physical, biological, environmental, behavioural, and lifestyle-related factors such as high numbers of cariogenic bacteria, inadequate... |
How did the Gauls manage to muster so many men during the Gallic War? | So I'm assuming you mean the Gallic Wars that occured during the Roman Republic involving Caesar's conquest.
The Romans did have better organization, but did not, many times have larger armies than the medieval world. The average legion was about 6,000 men, and a large Roman army composed maybe 3 of them at the most during a campaign. Caesar had four, Legio X, Legio VII, Legio VIII, and Legio IX Hispana. Of course take in replacements and auxilaries as well as guards for the logistics, you have about 50,000 participants, only about 24,000 would be capable of fighting in theory. The Gauls were a confederation, true, but this did not mean they couldn't summon large amounts of soldiers, especially in defense of their homeland. The idea that the Gallic people were barbarians is a myth as well. The Gallic people were very civilized, something that most Roman merchants who worked with them concurred with (although nowhere near the degree of the Romans, they would also tell you). They also had the ability to call on all the different tribes to help them out. So even though they didn't have the complex logistics to support a large field army in foreign lands, they definitely could field a large temporary army made mostly of militia and irregulars for a short amount of time and very close to home. Their food came from their own units, they did have some limited supply issues, but largely each unit could hold their own. Keep in mind as well, that the numbers that we hear of were largely those that Caesar himself estimated, and I'm sure that they were inflated to a large degree.
| [
"Though the Gallic tribes were just as strong as the Romans militarily, the internal division among the Gauls guaranteed an easy victory for Caesar. Vercingetorix's attempt in 52 BC to unite them against Roman invasion came too late. He proved an astute commander, defeating Caesar in several engagements, but Caesar... |
why do we have summer and winter time? wouldn't it be easier to shift the clock half an hour in one direction and leave it that way all year? | It started as a way to help farm families manage work and school time. It stuck because it saves many millions of dollars in energy each year. Reduces stress on the power grid and other benifits. Adjusting humans can be done, the sun just is so set in its ways. | [
"Winter time is the practice of shifting the clock back (compared to the standard time) during winter months, usually −1 hour. It is a form of daylight saving time which is the opposite compensation to the summer time (+1, +2). However, while summer time is widely applied, use of winter time has been and is very ra... |
Could planets survive the heat death of the universe? Or Would they degrade also. | If the planets are far enough from their stars when they die, so as not to get caught in a supernova or planetary nebula, the planets would be stable for arbitrarily long times. They'd get really cold though. | [
"If Earth is not destroyed by the expanding red giant Sun in 7.6 billion years, then on a time scale of 10 (10 quintillion) years the remaining planets in the Solar System will be ejected from the system by violent relaxation. If this does not occur to the Earth, the ultimate fate of the planet will be that it coll... |
why is it conservative media in the us usually stands against minorities in alleged police brutality cases? | I think you'd have to provide some specific evidence here. Most of the stuff I've seen is them pointing out in the Michael Brown case that the rest of the media was really quick to label him a blameless victim and pointing out all of the contrary evidence. | [
"Racial inequalities is a major factor that has contributed to forming an anti-police sentiment. As such, the history of law enforcement's employment of coercive measures that have led to instances of police brutality involving underprivileged communities is paramount to our \"understanding of the substantial race ... |
why we think pirates talk the way they do | _URL_0_
Number 6. | [
"Pirate has multiple meanings in sexual slang. Several of them emerged in the 20th century and play off the tradition that pirates took whatever they wanted, including sex, which was \"seen as a conquest.\"\n",
"As academics like Peter Leeson and Marcus Rediker argue, a pirate was more often than not someone from... |
what is math and why does it work? | One of the problems I see with a lot of the explanations here is that they are focused strictly on one type of mathematics. Mathematics is a large topic that encompasses many parts. As such I share the definition that I share with my students:
Borrowed from "The Language of Mathematics: Making The invisible Visible"
Mathematics is the science of patterns...
Arithmetic and number theory study patterns of number and counting.
Geometry studies patterns of shape.
Calculus allows us to handle patterns of motion.
Logic studies patterns of reasoning.
Probability theory deals with patterns of chance.
Topology studies patterns of closeness and position.
EDIT:
I feel it is necessary to address several of the comments and an edit is the best way to do so.
1. **Saying Math is the Science of Patterns is too broad.** Yes you would be correct in that statement. Except there was also context provided with that statement. Looking at each of the main topics gave examples of each of the types of patterns studied. Math does not study every single pattern that exists, just ones that relate to it.
2. **Math is no empirical to be considered a science.** I have one issue with this particular statement. If math is not empirical enough to be considered a science. How is it that we can use math to make other sciences empirical? Physics is a scientific field that is heavily influenced by mathematics. It uses it mathematical statements all the time as empirical evidence. Where the issue comes in, I believe is how math is empirical. In other fields of science, they use another field to give empirical evidence. Physics uses math, Chemistry uses math and physics, and so on and so on. In math to prove something, we use math. Which you would think creates this self-fulling prophecy but it really doesn't. TL/DR: If math isn't empirical neither is any other science as they are based on math.
3. **Math is Logic.** Ehhh. Yes and no. Yes, math uses a lot of logic to help prove numerous statements. If you look at one of the parts of the definition though it says, "Logic studies patterns of reasoning." Saying that math is logic only allows you to analyze a very small part of mathematics. Again, mathematics is a huge topic so we need to be careful when trying to define it. There is no perfect definition sadly and everyone will disagree on numerous points. Definitions of math is numbers, logic, or whatever else may have been said is extremely limiting though.
4. **Math is a language.** While I do disagree with this statement it is an interesting discussion to have. The way we see math used on a daily basis is in a base 10 system. The notation we are familiar with was created to shorten statements down to "equations." The notation we use was really just created to make creating multiple copies of books (back when everything was hand written) easier and to a degree when the printing press was invented. In the past, we would have said stuff like:
"When two numbers are added, their order is not important."
We would not write that as: a + b = b + a
If we want to talk about the patterns that exist outside of notation than I would agree with you that mathematics is a language.
5. Final statements. Understand that math is an enormously large topic. It is easy to be focused on one specific part of math because that is what we have been exposed to most. Few ever see the entirety of mathematics and truly understand it. I wish I was one of those lucky people but sadly, I am not.
I use this definition in my classes for the sheer fact that it hopefully allows my students to think beyond what they are exposed to on a regular basis. As a trial, I usually have them make their own definition before providing them this one. Typical answers usually include math is numbers, torture, or various other quips. Use this definition as not an end all be all, but a starting point. Let it open up your perception of mathematics beyond what you already know and explore other parts. Numbers and equations are such a small part of mathematics. | [
"Mathematics (from Greek μάθημα \"máthēma\", \"knowledge, study, learning\") includes the study of such topics as quantity (number theory), structure (algebra), space (geometry), and change (mathematical analysis). It has no generally accepted definition.\n",
"Mathematics is essential in the formation of hypothes... |
birth control statistics (nsfw) | The birth control failure rates you usually see quoted are derived by what's called the Pearl Index if you want to look up more details. The number people usually quote is roughly an estimate of the number of unintended pregnancies over 100 women-years of use of a particular method. So if it was 1% failure (99% effective) then if you took 100 women and had them all use the method for 1 year, then 1 of them would be expected to have an unintended pregnancy.
So it's important to note it isn't a "per-use" statistic. Although of course if you have more sex than the average person in their study you are obviously at higher risk, it doesn't mean you have 1% chance of getting pregnant each time you have sex. (Otherwise a person on 99% effective contraception, having sex each night would very likely be pregnant after a year.)
To work out how the statistics would be affected by someone having sex significantly more than the average you'd have to look at individual studies.
To answer your question "where does the failure rate come from?":
You obviously know about "Perfect-use" and "typical-use" rates, a perfect use rate is determined on a study where the rules of use are rigorously followed, whereas a typical-use study has people use the method as they would if they were left to their own devices. Now obviously there's still some room for error in the perfect-use camp, even if people are told to rigorously follow rules, they're only human. Some of this can be statistically accounted for, but other things account for part of the failure rate. Other factors to consider are manufacturing defects, condoms can be made with defects, pills can have imperfect manufacturing too, these factors contribute to the failure rates.
Sorry this answer has been some vague, but really the problem is these statistics are often very specific to the circumstances of the individual study, without looking at the details thats the best you can do.
**Edit:** One more thing, I always think a useful statistic is the "failure rate" of nothing. Its approximately 85%, so after a year of having sex without any protection, 15% of women still wont be pregnant. | [
"Among a sample of women using birth control methods of comparable theoretical effectiveness, success rates were related to IQ, with the percentages of high, medium and low IQ women having unwanted births during a three-year interval being 3%, 8% and 11%, respectively. Since the effectiveness of many methods of bir... |
how are secret formulas legal? | There are certain ingredients which are banned, and that can not be used in any capacity. Since the creation, importation, transportation, and use of these ingredients are strictly regulated, there is little fear that they are going to end up in consumer products, especially major ones that many people use.
So the government focuses on testing the product itself, rather than what's in it. Things like the [technical data sheet](_URL_0_) are compiled, determining the product's features and the risks associated with using it.
Same thing, Coca-Cola has to submit to quality controls, and they have to have their sugar and caloric content independently verified. But as for what's in it, they don't really care. | [
"A key use of formulas is in propositional logic and predicate logic such as first-order logic. In those contexts, a formula is a string of symbols φ for which it makes sense to ask \"is φ true?\", once any free variables in φ have been instantiated. In formal logic, proofs can be represented by sequences of formul... |
how does augmented reality graffiti work?? | Augmented reality is a catchall term for the use of computer graphics overlaid on our view of the real world. A live video stream can be edited to include artificial elements, or people might look through a clear screen that displays such things to the viewer. In practice this can be a symbol such as a QR code which a computer recognizes and then places a graphic over within the pictured scene.
This can be used to produce "augmented reality graffiti" because the artificial graphic can be made much larger than the QR code which triggers the overlay. A small mark on a storefront could trigger AR viewers to overlay a massive graffiti graphic which obscures the entire storefront for example. | [
"Augmented reality (AR) is a type of virtual reality technology that blends what the user sees in their real surroundings with digital content generated by computer software. The additional software-generated images with the virtual scene typically enhance how the real surroundings look in some way. AR systems laye... |
where did this "explain it like i'm 5" saying/concept originate? | _URL_0_
It's from the Office. | [
" has become assimilated into American English. In its regular use, it means an unusual or innovative idea or point, though the word is also commonly used in an ironic or humorous fashion, so as to imply that the statement in question is nothing new.\n",
"The \"[[Oxford English Dictionary]]\" (\"OED\") shows that... |
Does any plant grow fast enough to be able to see the plant grow? | As I understand it, if you were very very patient, yes you could perceive the growth of some of those bamboo. I don't know of any other plant that grows that fast. Some algae might be able to in the right conditions. | [
"The growth rate of plants is extremely variable. Some mosses grow less than 0.001 millimeters per hour (mm/h), while most trees grow 0.025-0.250 mm/h. Some climbing species, such as kudzu, which do not need to produce thick supportive tissue, may grow up to 12.5 mm/h.\n",
"Plants can grow as much as 50 percent f... |
The Homestead Act of 1862 | It referred to building a home, setting up the land for farming, adding additional irrigation, etc. | [
"On May 20, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. This gave adults of land if they filed paperwork and paid a small fee. The homesteader was required to build a 12x14 dwelling and farm the land for five years, or plant trees. \n",
"In 1862, the U.S. Congress passed the Homestead Act, which all... |
why is the crown victoria so popular within the police forces in north america? | The Crown Vic was a body on frame design. Where now most cars are a unibody design meaning the body is apart of the frame the Crown Vic's body is build separately from the frame. This allow police to do things like pit maneuvers reducing the risk of significant damage like bending the frame. It also allows for some damage to be done in there own shop for cheap compared to unibody would need a specialist. For example a fender is something that would like be damaged doing a pit maneuver. With a Crown Vic they are bolt on. It's the same reason why a lot of cab companies use them as well.
There are some significant disadvantaged like lack of crumple zones. This raises the risk of serious injury or death in a serious accident. | [
"As the Crown Victoria became increasingly ubiquitous within North America as a police vehicle, media from the late 1990s up to at least the mid-to-late-2010s began to follow suit and as a result the Crown Victoria has become a common set-piece in television, cinema, and video games with a North American focus. Thi... |
How does usb data transfer work/ what each wire inside a usb cable for? | The other two connections are [Data+ and Data-](_URL_0_). It's a differential signal.
Nobody is going to be able to answer all of that in a blog post. You are going to need to do a lot of research or take some classes in college. | [
"During USB communication, data is transmitted as packets. Initially, all packets are sent from the host via the root hub, and possibly more hubs, to devices. Some of those packets direct a device to send some packets in reply.\n",
"During USB communication, data is transmitted as packets. Initially, all packets ... |
how does adding spin to a bullet using rifling make the gun more accurate? | It is conservation of momentum, in this case rotational momentum. One of the major problems with early ammunition was that it tended to tumble unpredictably and this would interact with the drag of the air to move them off target. A rotating bullet though tends to want to keep rotating which means that changing where it is pointing is difficult; think trying to turn a gyroscope. Thus rotation keeps the bullet pointing in the direction of the barrel which stops tumbling, increasing accuracy. | [
"Despite differences in form, the common goal of rifling is to deliver the projectile accurately to the target. In addition to imparting the spin to the bullet, the barrel must hold the projectile securely and concentrically as it travels down the barrel. This requires that the rifling meet a number of tasks:\n",
... |
why do central banks use interest rates as the primary tool for adjusting the supply of money? | Because interest rates also let you adjust the supply of money 'down' too.
Central banks do have other ways to add money to the economy beyond interest rates. One of the most common is to buy/sell bonds. If the central bank buys bonds then they basically inject money into the banks, and the reduction in supply also will increase the price of the bonds that the banks still hold. This was how the whole "quantitative easing" thing that the US was doing worked. | [
"Central banks implement policy primarily through controlling short-term interest rates. The money supply then adapts to the changes in demand for reserves and credit caused by the interest rate change. The supply curve shifts to the right when financial intermediaries issue new substitutes for money, reacting to p... |
why isn't chicken meat marbled? | Actually if you have a corn fed chicken that us free range is has a small degree of marbling however because the fat is translucent and thin it nearly always acts like a baste for the bird (which is why many chickens when roasted tend to leech do much fat) | [
"Roast chicken is chicken prepared as food by roasting whether in a home kitchen, over a fire, or with a professional rotisserie (rotary spit). Generally, the chicken is roasted with its own fat and juices by circulating the meat during roasting, and therefore, are usually cooked exposed to fire or heat with some t... |
why can't digital clocks retain the time when unplugged/powered down if phones and computers can? | Digital clocks tend not to have backup batteries, though some do and can keep time across power outages. If more models with this feature were sold then perhaps manufacturers would make it more common. They don't so apparently it's not worth it for people to pay the extra cost.
If you look at computer motherboards you'll find a small battery that can powers the internal clock and some other functions for 5+ years. This is possible because the clock circuit is designed in the same low-power way as digital watches. Mains-powered clocks mostly use a different principle, based on syncing to the 50/60Hz mains power frequency, and it's not so easy to add a low-power battery backup. | [
"Most digital clocks use electronic mechanisms and LCD, LED, or VFD displays; many other display technologies are used as well (cathode ray tubes, nixie tubes, etc.). After a reset, battery change or power failure, these clocks without a backup battery or capacitor either start counting from 12:00, or stay at 12:00... |
why are we so scared to introduce life on other planets? | We're not SCARED to, we're trying to avoid wrecking science.
By bringing in foreign contaminants, you're essentially wrecking any sort of science experience concerning native life. You'll never be able to tell if some discovered earth-like microbe is truly native, or just somehow survived the trip from Earth.
So unless there's tremendous care to avoid contamination you'd never be able to absolutely verify whether there was life on Mars or elsewhere like in the oceans of Europa. Someone could always argue that it was just brought along from Earth. | [
"Most of the Solar System appears hostile to life as we know it. No extraterrestrial life has ever been discovered, but there are several locations outside Earth where microbial life could possibly exist, have existed, or thrive if introduced. If extraterrestrial life exists, it may be vulnerable to interplanetary ... |
who decided that the standards were 4:3 16:9 21:9 for aspect ratio? | It's because 4:3 is closest to our vision and is best to relay information, 21:9 was already the standard of cinema and is best to describe scenery. 16:9 is just the compromise between those two.
And for where those numbers came from, there's only 1 word: compromise. The artist, engineers, and the market all fought with eachother with their own aspect ratios. Those that survive are the ones we use today.
Example: there now exist mobile phones with 17:9 and 18:9 resolutions, due to how applications are layed out on the screen (vertical scrolling). Only time can tell if they survive and become the new standards. | [
"16:10 (8:5) is an aspect ratio mostly used for computer displays and tablet computers. The width of the display is 1.6 times its height. This ratio is close to the golden ratio \"formula_1\" which is approximately 1.618.\n",
"16:9 (1.7:1 = 4:3) is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2... |
why does air conditioner cooling use electricity? isn't there an efficient way to absorb thermal energy to produce electrical energy? | If you search for "air conditioner" on here you'll get some great explanations for how they work. I'd like, however, to address your second question.
> Isn't there an efficient way to absorb thermal energy to produce electrical energy?
The only way to create usable energy out of thermal energy is when you have a temperature *differential*. It doesn't matter if the air is 100 degrees if you don't have a place to transfer that thermal energy to. You have to have a place that you can dump the energy in order to harvest usable work out of the difference. This dump is often called a cold sink.
So, if you had hot air inside of a building and cold air outside you could create electricity by moving the heat from inside to the outside. But, at the end you'd eventually have the air inside and outside reach the same temperature and you can no longer create any work from the differential. | [
"Unlike residential air conditioners, most modern commercial air conditioning systems do not transfer heat directly into the exterior air. The thermodynamic efficiency of the overall system can be improved by utilizing evaporative cooling, where the temperature of the cooling water is lowered close to the wet-bulb ... |
Could sign language take root and persist in wild chimpanzees without continued human contact? | I was interested in this idea, and asked a primatologist who had studied chimp behavior about it. She seemed to think it was relatively unlikely. Apparently chimps very rarely sign at each other, and the chain of behavioral mimicking is kind of one sided and dependent on social status. They also apparently don't tend to learn signs from each other with any great frequency. Low status animals will follow the lead of high status ones, but if a low status animal has a good idea the rest of the troop will often not pick up on it. There's also an interesting anecdote of "wild" signing behavior that might be illustrative. The leader in a chimpanzee group will sometimes bang on trees to alert the group to where he is, and help keep them all together, and let everyone know when the group is about to halt or start moving. In one group, the leader worked out a more complex system of signalling based on this, which could indicate length of pauses, direction of movement, and that sort of thing. He used this for years, but after he died the next leader did not pick up the method.
So yeah, it seems like it would _probably_ fade away. Which is really too bad, as it would make a fascinating experiment if you could give a species proto-language and see how it changed their behavior and ecology. | [
"Chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans have used sign language, physical tokens, keyboards and touch screens to communicate with humans in numerous research studies. The research showed that they understood multiple signals and produced them to communicate with humans. There is some disagreement whether th... |
does darkness have a speed? | Darkness is the absence of light. Since a lack of something isn't, in and of itself, a thing it has no bounds on how fast it may move.
In some setups darkness moves at the speed of light. For example, if you consider a spotlight shining out into space and briefly flash it then you shoot a cylinder of light. The front of the cylinder approaches at the speed of light, then the rear approaches at the speed of light. Arguably the end of this cylinder is darkness, so we could say that darkness was, in this case, moving at the speed of light.
While that's the simplest setup it's not the only one. We could imagine a long corridor with a bunch of spotlights pointed down. At some point we could have these spotlights start turning off, one after another, going down the row. This causes a wave of darkness to move down the corridor at whatever speed we want. We could turn off lights 1 meter further down the corridor each second and the speed of dark would be 1 m/s, or we could turn them off 600,000 km further per second giving our darkness wave a speed of about twice the speed of light (note that for this setup we'd need to set things up with timers to allow for the speed of light signal delay, but that's an engineering problem, not a physics one).
Since darkness is just the absence of light it's just as meaningful to look at the wave of darkness moving down the hallway as it is to look at the wave of darkness in our first scenario. In both cases we follow a wave where on one side there's visible light and on the other there's not. It wouldn't be proper to use the corridor experiment to argue that the speed of light is whatever you want because light is a thing in and of itself. You can meaningfully track the motion of an individual photon while no such concept can exist for the lack of photons.
This notion is similar to a shocking observation some astronomers made at one point. They saw what appeared to be something moving at many times the speed of light which cast doubt on various models until they realized that it was the interference between two large debris clouds. While the debris was not traveling faster than the speed of light the boundary of intersection between the two fields was. A boundary isn't a physical thing so it's not bound by the speed of light. | [
"The expression \"speed of darkness\" had appeared in a 1999 book mixing physics and fiction, named The Science of Discworld, written by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen. In a 2011 interview on BBC Radio 1, frontman Dave King explained that the title track and album title was taken from a quote of Dino M... |
Does the photoelectric effect decay? | So it has been a while since I actually did this experiment, but nonetheless maybe I can shed some... light on the matter.. (haha). Ok, so in the photoelectric experiment we have a piece of metal attached to a source, and on the other side is another plate of metal. The point here, is that the whole system is powered by a source (battery or mains), and this is required since we need a potential difference to accelerate the ejected electron across the gap to register a current.
So you are right in saying that an electron is lost, but you must also realise that an electron is provided by the battery/source. So in this case the whole thing would balance out.
BUT maybe you could devise an experiment in which you had a metal in a vacuum that was just floating in mid air (so zero gravity) and it somehow stayed there in which somehow the electron, once ejected from the metal, was attracted to something even more positive than it. Over time you would have a metal that could not eject any more electrons at that frequency. I'm not sure if anyone has ever done this experiment. I am a physics noob and this is reddit so grain of salt. | [
"According to classical electromagnetic theory, the photoelectric effect can be attributed to the transfer of energy from the light to an electron. From this perspective, an alteration in the intensity of light would induce changes in the kinetic energy of the electrons emitted from the metal. Furthermore, accordin... |
I heard someone say recently that Rome destroyed themselves because of moral decay and fiscal irresponsibility. This didn't sound right to me, and I wanted to hear what /r/AskHistorians had to say about it. | That was Gibbon, or a fan of Gibbon?
We'll have to start by defining "the fall of Rome." 410 CE, when it was sacked? 476, when the last Roman emperor abdicated? 1453, with the fall of Constantinople? I know people that argue Rome never fell. Obviously there are as many different theories about the fall of Rome as there are possibilities of dating the fall.
Until I hear back, let's stick with 476, as that is the traditional date.
Probably the most influential work is Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity. Here is a [review](_URL_2_) by Tom Holland (I'm not a fan, but it's not behind a paywall). The argument basically runs such that Rome never "fell" but transitioned into something closer to a medieval state, with all kinds of innovations suitable for (their) modern time and basically trucked along. Part of this was incorporating bits of Germanic culture and absorbing an ethnically German but propagandistically (?) Roman, at least in a code-switching sort of way. I couldn't find the Theoderic coin I wanted to demonstrate this, but I found a description [here](_URL_1_):
> The Roman National Museum holds the only existing contemporary medallion depicting a portrait of Theodoric – a triple solidus whose inscription reads REX THEODERICVS PIVS PRINC(eps) I(nvictus) S(emper).
So Theoderic is mixing Imperial titles (pius princeps) with what are now Germanic titles (rex). I couldn't find an image, but if I remember correctly, he's wearing Germanic clothes. The article that gave me the legend says he's wearing a mustache.
The two recent collapse theories I know are Heather and Ward-Perkins. [Here is the BMCR](_URL_0_) review that treats both books.
Heather argues that for a while Rome had managed Germanic migrations fine, and so something changed to suddenly make them unmanageable. That was Attila. The Huns increased pressure on Germanic tribes to migrate to the point that they destroyed Rome's tax base and Rome's ability to cope.
Ward-Perkins has a similar theory, except it wasn't the Huns but the Vandals. Ward-Perkins focuses a lot on trade circulation, what kinds of things were being made where, when did long distance trade stop. I think its on his first page that he writes "stuff happened, bad stuff, lots of it." He also relies on the tax base, but in a little more thoughtful way than I remember Heather doing. My copies are boxed up unfortunately.
Ward-Perkins thinks the Roman Mediterranean economy operated fine through the Germanic invasions for the most part. Amphorae still get shipped, high-quality pots are still mass-produced, until the Vandals got North Africa in 429. That matters because Germans didn't have boats, couldn't attack Rome's last secure agricultural province. Once the Vandals had got a fleet, Roman economic activity plummeted. The quality of material items goes away. Life gets very bad.
There are tons of other theories, but I don't think anyone takes Christianity and moral decadence seriously anymore.
There is one more I'll give you. Huntington, "Climatic Change and Agricultural Exhaustion as Elements in the Fall of Rome" *The Quarterly Journal of Economics*, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Feb., 1917), pp. 173-208. Unfortunately you might need JStor access to get it.
This is the most AMAZING article I have ever read! I loved. I presented it in a graduate seminar and I think I laughed all the way through the presentation.
The general thesis is that Rome fell because of climate change. That's a remarkably modern position for someone writing in 1917, right? That's something you might hear at a conference today. So far I'm impressed.
AND he has science! He has evidence from dendrochronology that average temperatures in Italy increased both during the period of the end of the Republic, and again, after a cold spell, around the collapse of the Empire. He has a typology of theories of climate change:
> Four chief climatic hypotheses have held the field.
Their key words are (1) uniformity, (2) local changes,
(3) progressive world-wide change in one direction,
and (4) pulsatory oi irregular changes sometimes in one
direction and sometimes another.
He says he needs only a change of 2 degrees F to cause climactic change to bring down governments. Alright, sounds reasonable. I'm on board. Tell me about this dendrochronology.
What's that? It's not from Italy? It's from THE CALIFORNIA REDWOOD? Alright, you're supposing the climate of California and Italy were similar in the first millennia CE. Fine, they're roughly on the same parallel. But don't you think there's a difference between being confined in a bounded, fairly small sea, and being on the coast of the Pacific? Oh, there's an answer for that.
I think I'm going to have to plug in a big quote here.
> It has long been known
that many of the leaders both in ancient Rome and
Greece belonged to the fair Nordic race. [EDIT - I overlooked highlighting this passage] **Why else do
so many of the ancient painted statutes of the gods and
goddesses of Greece have red or yellow hair and blue
eyes? Not all the leaders, to be sure, were tall, fair
Nordics; for Socrates, the greatest mind of all, was short
and dark - a typical member of the Mediterranean
race. Yet the fair people from the north were sufficiently
aggressive and dominant to cause the favorite
divinities, Zeus, Apollo, Pallas, Diana, and others to
be represented as of that race.** [He means Greek gods are Nordic] The climate of both
Greece and Italy, however, is thought by many authorities
to be too sunny for the blond Nordics. It often
induces diseases of the skin and nerves, and in the long
run apparently lessens the rate of reproduction. Thus
in a climate like that of Italy, especially southern Italy,
the agressive Nordic part of the population tends to
diminish. This tendency would be less, however, under
the conditions which we suppose to have prevailed
three or four hundred years before Christ, and on the
other hand, would increase with the changes of climate
here described. When combined with the Roman prac-
tice of beinging in slaves from conquered countries, it
may have helped to bring about a gradual change in
racial type. The race which apparently provided the
majority of Rome's early leaders appears to have
declined in numbers, and the decline was presumably
hastened....
> On the basis of the actual achievements of thousands
of people under different conditions of climate, it is
possible to make a map showing the amount of energy
which different races would have in different parts of
the world on the basis of climate alone.' This map is
strikingly like a map of civilization. **The resemblance
of the two indicates that today the active and progressive
races, those that dominate the world, are all
located in climates which possess a highly stimulating
quality.** If we are right in thinking that the response
to climate is almost the same among all races, the
matter is highly significant in our interpretation of the
fall of Rome. As we have already seen, the climatic
changes which have apparently taken place in Italy
appear to have been characterized by a decline in the
variability of the weather from day to day, especially
in the spring and summer. This means that three or
four centuries B.C., Rome was blessed with a climate
whose mean temperature was as good as that of today,
and which at the same time was better than that of the
present, not only for agriculture, but in its stimulating
effect on human activity. It apparently possessed
the sparkle and tang which our own climate in the
northern United States possesses to so marked a degree.
> If this is so, the change which took place between 300
and 200 B.C. and still more the gradual change between
the time of Christ and the seventh century probably
had an appreciable effect upon the energy and ability
of the Roman people.
So, Rome collapsed because of the two conditions of a slave state and higher average temperatures drove out Rome's original Nordic population, or reduced them to the intellectual moral equivalents of Cubans and other marginalized groups? ("Strange as it may seem, the
negro or Cuban in the southern part of the United
States shows scarcely more adaptation to a hot
climate than does the white man, while the Finn and
Swede of the far north are weakened by low temperature
almost as much as is the negro.")? And that the climate of the northern USA is in the sweet spot that made Rome's Nordic population so effective? Ahahahahaha!
This is the most fantastic thing I've ever read! | [
"The poor state of Rome's infrastructure and public services, particularly garbage collection, have come under increasing scrutiny from tourists in recent years. The Guardian described the city as being in a \"...perennial state of disrepair, from its rubbish-strewn streets, potholes, scrappy parks and medieval bui... |
Did Heisenberg purposely handicap the development of the Atomic Bomb for Nazi Germany? | There is no real evidence of this, and Heisenberg himself never really claimed this. [See this previous thread for a thorough discussion](_URL_0_). Please feel free to ask any follow-up questions. | [
"The Farm Hall transcripts reveal that Heisenberg, along with other physicists interned at Farm Hall including Otto Hahn and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, were glad the Allies had won World War II. Heisenberg told scientists that he had never contemplated a bomb, only an atomic pile to produce energy. The morality... |
if any distance can be halved, at what point do you stop touching something? | You're never touching anything - you are just as close as possible to it. The sensation you feel is effectively the force of the atoms "pushing back" against your fingers (and your fingers' atoms "pushing back" against the atoms in whatever you are touching). Think of it a bit like how two magnets push against each other, but much much stronger. | [
"\"Let’s say a child stubbed his shin on the lawn mower and now doesn’t want to come nearer than one hundred feet from that lawn mower. You would make him do a Contact Assist with his shin and body at that point (one hundred feet from the same lawn mower), having him go through the motions of the accident. Graduall... |
Theoretical Question about subatomic particles. The thought came to me when pondering solar system formation... | This might be a lost cause, but here goes...
> We know matter is made up of atoms which are revolving around one another's subatomic forces.
Subatomic particles like electrons "orbit" protons and neutrons in some sense...
> Just like gravity is draws together dust in the vacuum of space. Some particles obey gravity and some do not.
All particles obey gravity.
> So we're thinking there's an even smaller particle which for some reason defines gravity.
What? Defines or defies?
> Wouldn't it be safe to assume there could be even smaller particles influenceing or constructing the basis quarks and all of those super-tiny particles?
No, but it's not impossible that there are more than 4 forces at really high energies.
> Or maybe the simple rotation of a super-tiny particles or even atoms could define if the particle has mass or not.
In some sense you're right...binding energy is mass. Up quarks are ~3MeV, down quarks are ~5MeV, but proton = 2 up + 1 down = 940MeV.
> In the same way a gyroscopic motion effects the weight of an object but not the mass.
I don't think this is true, but I might have missed something in mechanics (highly unlikely, as I teach it every other year or so).
> If we knew a type of radiation or some other method to affect something so small maybe we could test for this
I suppose... if we go so small (or equivalently very high in energy). However, what you're talking about is probably not achievable.
> So what am I missing which would disprove this? tell me askscience!
I *think* you're talking about a fifth force acting on a really small scale. In that case, it's just not testable and probably never will be. | [
"Improved understanding of the world of particles prompted physicists to make bold predictions, such as Dirac's positron in 1928 (founded on the Dirac Sea model) and Pauli's neutrino in 1930 (founded on conservation of energy and angular momentum in beta decay). Both were later confirmed.\n",
"Meanwhile, new theo... |
Based on probability and how the universe is ever expanding... | The universe is expanding but not infinite. There isn't more universe it just gets larger, space expands. The quantity of mass and energy is finite. | [
"universe will expand forever. Contrary to this he shows that if Ω is a number greater than 1 then the universe will eventually collapse into itself in a \"big crunch\", the opposite of the Big Bang. Ferris then shows, in a third possibility, that the universe is hanging in the balance in a \"critical density\" tha... |
how do contactless cards work? | They use radio waves. The cashier's terminal powers the card and the card emits a signal containing info connecting it to your account and the necessary security details to make sure it's genuine. It's basically a wireless version of chip cards. The time it takes to complete the purchase depends on hardware of the terminal, how bloated the software on the terminal is (bunch of graphics on the screen and whatnot), and the Internet connection (speed and ping) of the business.
Contactless cards use RFID, which receive power to work; NFC payments like Apple Pay supply their own power. This is why you don't have to charge your card. | [
"These are smart cards that communicate with the reader through radio transmission. The card must be close enough to the reader to perform necessary operations. Contactless cards are often used in areas where operations must be performed quickly, for example in public transport.\n",
"There are dual-interface card... |
why is it considered healthy to put oil on your salad, but not fry your food in it? | Oil consists of different kinds of fat. Saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. You can think of them as a chain. Saturated fats are strong, whole chains, while monounsaturated fat have a weak link (mono = one). Polyunsaturated fats have more weak links. When you heat up the oil (or leave them for too long on your shelf) those weak links gets damaged by heat and oxidation, like rust on a chain. This damage causes the fat to become really unhealthy and can cause problems like cancer, atherosclerosis and all kind of other nasty stuff. [More info](_URL_1_).
You should always pick a cold pressed (not heat damaged) virgin (non-chemically treated) oil. [Many oils are treated with chemicals, heated and bleached](_URL_0_) (seriously!), all very damaging to the oil. A rule of thumb: the thicker the fat, and the less refined, the better.
Edit: You could also look up the oils smokepoint as glycerol in oil is converted to acrolein when it starts to smoke and burn. That's one of the things in cigarettes that cause lung cancer.
Good fats: Macadamia and coconut are great. Olive oil if you don't heat it. | [
"Some studies have found that deep frying in olive and sunflower oils has been found to be less of a detriment to health and in some cases have positive effects on insulin levels. Oil can be reused a few times after original use after straining out solids. However, excessive use of the same oil can cause it to brea... |
what is going on in south korea right now? | **Pasting this, and modifying this from a comment /u/flyawaystupidkite made. Send him your love.**
It's a bit insane. So I'll try going step-by-step from memory how this all turned about.
1. A young high school girl fails to get into a prestigious university.
2. The girl's mother (Choi Soon-sil) uses her influence to pay the girl's way into prestigious university. They package it as the girl receiving a scholarship for her equestrian skills.
3. Girl doesn't do so well in school and later turns out she had a child during her high school years which was no-no for this school's policies.
4. Girl decides to take some time off but still demands her grades to be given to her as if she had completed her semester.
5. Professor says no. This incurs the wrath of the girl's mother who successfully convinces the professor to give her the grades.
6. This leads to a massive 80 day protest from students of that university for unfair treatment and etc.
7. This leads into investigation that eventually reveals the girl's mother had a personal relation with President Park.
────────
Oh shit it's about to get real funky now.
────────
1) The girl's mother turned out to be one of like 15 known children of a famous cult leader (Choi Tae-min). Each child was known to have extreme assets from estimated 10s of millions to upwards of billions.
EDIT: 1a) "The elder Choi reportedly enjoyed considerable influence over Ms Park as a young politician, prompting diplomats to refer to him in private as “Korea’s Rasputin.”
A newly released Wikileaks cable from the US embassy in Seoul described him as having “complete control over the body and soul of the president in her formative years. Both women are understood to have met decades ago and formed a close relationship when Ms Choi’s father allegedly helped the future president contact her late mother in the afterlife." Source: _URL_0_
2) President Park had a scandal in the past (that many dismissed as they deemed highly improbable and a likely attack from opposing political parties) that said apparently she had a child with this cult leader while she was in her teens.
────────
So how does this relate directly to the Korean people?
────────
1. As investigations ensued it turned out that the President Park had been exchanging emails regarding her speeches and other national policies and events with the girl's mother (Choi Soon-sil). Even going as far as asking her for edits and such.
2. Journalists, during the investigation, received a tablet from President Park? Girls mother? That for some reason contained all the exchange between them. This is thought to be an unfortunate mistake by them and a fortunate mistake for the Korean people to know the truth.
3. The investigative journalists are doing this via wikileak style and slowly releasing information. More and more information have been coming out each day.
4. Latest news is what you've guys read. It seems the relationship between President Park and the cult leader's daughter (girl's mother) have been more intimate and influential than people thought. Even going so far as President Park, after a hard day, going to their residence to sleep over and discuss the problems and getting advice and what not. All national secrets out on the table for the cult family.
EDIT: Choi, who is currently in Germany, says she is too ill to return to Seoul for questioning over the affair.
“I am suffering from a nervous breakdown and I have been diagnosed with heart issues,” she toldSegye Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper.
────────
It's still a developing story. Koreans are wondering why the President haven't stepped down yet. It's either that or impeachment and jail for her.
It's a sad day when people are saying Korea's best presidents so far were either the dictators or the ones who just didn't do any crazy shit while in office.
All this because of one spoiled ass girl dealing with a broken education system in Korea.
P. S. Be careful criticizing that spoiled ass girl. She's been threatening to kill everyone criticizing her over the internet :)
| [
"South Korea has undergone dramatic social, economic and political upheaval since the end of the Korean War in 1953. With these changes crime has increased in recent years and has become a major issue in South Korea. Most of the increase has come in the form of violence and illegal activities connected to organized... |
Do women with big breasts have bigger risk of breast cancer than women with small ones? | Interesting question.
Firstly, it is important to note that in non-pregnant women, differences in breast size are largely due to different amounts of adipose (fatty) and connective tissues. The size of the actual mammary glands and ductal systems do vary, but not greatly, between non-pregnant woman. It is from these parts of the breast that breast cancers can arise, and not from the fatty tissue. (Side note: cancers can arise from fatty tissues, such as liposarcomas, but these are generally not referred to as breast cancers, even if arising in the fatty tissue of the breast). Only when a woman becomes pregnant do the glands and ductal systems develop and proliferate, causing an increase in breast size.
Bearing this in mind, it would seem unlikely that an increase in breast size would cause an increase in cancer incidence. Indeed, the papers I could find on the subject (listed below) suggest there is no link between breast size and cancer rates, aside from a possible anti-carcinogenic effect of silicone implants.
Koch, AD, Nicolaia JPA, de Vriesb J. Breast cancer and the role of breast size as a contributory factor. Breast. 2004 Aug;13(4):272-5.
Tavani A, Pregnolato A, La Vecchia C, Negri E, Favero A, Franceschi S. Breast size and breast cancer risk. Eur J Cancer Prev. 1996 Oct;5(5):337-42. | [
"Extremely large breasts are a source of considerable attention. Some women try to hide or mask their breasts with special clothing, including minimizing bras. Women with this condition may be subject to psychological problems due to unwanted attention and/or harassment. Depression is common among sufferers.\n",
... |
Did the crocodile attacks during the 1945 battle of Ramree Island actually happen? | This is what I wrote the last time it was brought up:
The story never happened. It's complete fiction.
But Bernardito, wasn't it included in the Guinness Book of World Records? Doesn't Wikipedia confirm as true?
Here we get to the interesting part.
First, the truth: February 1945. It's the final stages of William Slim's brilliant Burma campaign and the British have trapped a Japanese force counting around a thousand men in the islands of Ramree. Instead of surrendering, the Japanese commander chose to take his men across an unblocked route through ten miles of mangrove swamps. Many were already in a bad state entering the swamp. Malaria was rampant. As one can imagine, swamps are not pleasant places. They are filled not only with deadly insects and snakes but are truly a nightmare to get through. Out of 900 troops that went into the swamp, 500 made it out.
The myth: The above story except that by the end 20 troops were captured by the British, the rest were all killed by saltwater crocodiles. This is a 'reported account' from this encounter: *"That night was the most horrible that any member of the ML crews ever experienced. The scattered rifle shots in the pitch black swamp punctured by the screams of wounded men crushed in the jaws of huge reptiles, and the blurred worrying sound of spinning crocodiles made a cacophony of hell that has rarely been duplicated on earth. At dawn the vultures arrived to clean up what the crocodiles had left... Of about 1,000 Japanese soldiers that entered the swamps of Ramree, only about twenty were left alive."*
Why is this a sensationalist myth?
The observer of this is according to most accounts a certain [Bruce Wright](_URL_0_) who for some reason was in this swamp where this is said to have taken place, sitting in a motor launch and witnessing this. Yet only Wright's *Wildlife Sketches Near and Far* exists as the single account for this to have happened.
There is no other single source that can verify this event to have happened and the actual survivors themselves that came out of the swamp is enough to disprove this myth. There is no mention of it in official British records and W.O.G. Potts did his own research into this with an incredibly detail investigation in which he interviewed a broad range of people which included Ramree islanders, survivors and soldiers. No one acknowledged that an incident like this had taken place.
Lastly, historian Frank McLynn has this to say in his book *The Burma Campaign*:
*Most of all, there is a single zoological problem. If 'thousands of crocodiles' were involved in the massacre, as in the urban (jungle) myth, how had these ravening monsters survived before and how were they to survive later? The ecosystem of a mangrove swamp, with a exiguous mammal life, simply would not have permitted the existence of so many saurians before the coming of the Japanese (animals are not exempt from the laws of overpopulation and starvation).*
The Wikipedia writer is overly critical about Frank McLynn in the article, for whatever reason that might be. While McLynn did indeed doubt the existence of Mr. Wright but as pointed out in the *Talk* section of the page in question, there is no evidence that the Wright who wrote the book which had the only account of the incident and the Wright which the Wikipedia page uses as a source (a dubious one at that) is the same person. Secondly, the Wikipedia page makes McLynn seem like someone making claims out of thin air which is ridiculous. He's using scholarly sources to back up his claim and is definitely not the only author doubting this story. (Just see Platt SG, Ko WK, Kalyar Myo M, Khaing LL, Rainwater T. *Man eating by estuarine crocodiles: the Ramree Island massacre revisited.* Herp Bull. 2001;75:15–18) | [
"The most deaths in a single crocodile attack incident may have occurred during the Battle of Ramree Island, on February 19, 1945, in what is now Myanmar. Nine hundred soldiers of an Imperial Japanese Army unit, in an attempt to retreat from the Royal Navy and rejoin a larger battalion of the Japanese infantry, cro... |
If Hexagons are the Most Efficient Way to Store Something in Two Dimensions, What is the Best For Three? | [This is the current best solution](_URL_0_) | [
"An efficient algorithm for the quadratic residuosity problem immediately implies efficient algorithms for other number theoretic problems, such as deciding whether a composite formula_2 of unknown factorization is the product of 2 or 3 primes.\n",
"Because hardware is geared towards large amounts of detail, rend... |
how can it be cheaper for a company to hire a contractor rather than new employees? | Employees have certain costs above and beyond a contractor. Even if you're paying less per hour, the total cost can be far more.
Contractors handle their own taxes, no need to pay an accountant or payroll company to do it for you.
Contractors are not eligible for company benefits. No 401k fees or contribution matching, no stock options, no insurance premiums, etc. (This is MAJOR).
Contractors are usually employed as needed. Just need 4 days of work? No problem, someone will be there in the morning and gone when you're done, just pay for the time they're there. Employees, on the other hand, need to be interviewed, trained, put through orientation, etc. Then, to fire them, there are all the processes involved, ERISA compliance with notifications, COBRA insurance continuation and administration, etc. It's wildly impractical for any sort of short term or "overflow" work.
As an aside, contractors often have their own training and equipment. For example, hiring a printer repair man makes no sense for most offices, and neither does having all the tools and parts to repair. Hiring a contractor to come in and fix machines as needed is a much better solution. | [
"A weakness in this method is that a company can simply hire outside firms to keep low wage employees off their payroll, while only having the top earning employees on the company's payroll, effectively bypassing the limits. However, the hiring of external employees will come at a higher total cost and will reduce ... |
why has there been a new 3d printer getting fully funded on kickstarter every month for the past 3 years? | There has yet to be a truly consumer friendly 3D printer on the market, they just need to much maintenance and calibration to remain useful. People keep coming along thinking they can solve this problem, but no one has so far. | [
"Marking the third anniversary of the initial Kickstarter launch, Kudo3D launched their new printer once again on Kickstarter. Dubbed the Bean, this compact 3D printer was created to solve the consumer's desire for a high resolution, low cost 3D printer. The Bean was able to reach their goal of $50,000 within 2 min... |
why aren't pico projectors a huge thing now, and why aren't they the number one feature in all smartphones? | because they suck and everyone still has a laptop or a tablet. So...if you ask me, until they work better AND the phone can replace a laptop/tablet then it's just wasted money. If you're sitting there with your laptop/table and your pico projector phone and you wanna watch something it's not a hard decision. They just aren't "there" yet on the scale that can get them into a phone. | [
"PIC devices are popular with both industrial developers and hobbyists due to their low cost, wide availability, large user base, extensive collection of application notes, availability of low cost or free development tools, serial programming, and re-programmable flash-memory capability.\n",
"Marques Brownlee al... |
why, when slowly opening a plastic soda bottle, does a little air come out when you crack it a little open, but then more comes out when you open more? | Your whole high school is in the gym for an assembly. The presentation comes to an end and everyone needs to leave all at once.
If you never open the doors, people will never leave.
If you open one door, how long will it take for everyone to leave?
If you open all the doors, how long will it take for everyone to leave?
Relate this to your problem. Basically, it doesn't matter how fast or slow you open the bottle, the air will equalize anyway. It's only a function of how fast it equalizes. | [
"A related technique, strawpedoing, is used for containers not easily punctured such as a glass bottles. A straw is inserted into the bottle and bent around the hole. When the bottle is tilted, the beverage quickly drains and is quickly consumed. The technique increases beverage delivery since the extra hole allows... |
If humans had evolved with easy access to food, how would body functions change? | > What I'm thinking of is how we can't grow back amputated limbs, or that cuts can take quite a while to heal. And I'm sure many helpful abilities humans might have had (maybe enhanced eyesight, for example) were chopped off due to expensive "maintenance work".
This assumes that regeneration is omitted only because of lack of enough energy. But it is also extremely likely that we can't regenerate limbs because we never had the reason to! Think about the number of reasons why you would have to regenerate limbs in nature? Lion bit it off? Not sure that when a lion was around to bite off your limb it actually left you to live your life anyways, so we would have ended up evolving techniques to avoid lions in the first place, rather than let them bite off our limb and then develop techniques to grow it back.. Sure its actually possible that regeneration is not conserved because of energy constraints, but I highly doubt it..
> But what if we had always had easy access to nutritious, calorie-rich food?
> In another way of asking the question, is it possible to engineer an organism that had superpower-like bodily functions at the expense of it needing lots of food?
I think we already have an example of an organism with superpower-like functions at the expense of needing lots of food: US. We eat a lot more than we should also because of the increased brain-size and processing power (I think)..
I mean we already eat too much food, and we eat it too often. We have obviously evolved already to a large extent to conditions of abundant food supply.
In nature though there are places where food supply is not a huge problem *per se*. A glaring example is the tropics and a glaring example of evolution not caring about food are the birds of paradise. They seriously don't bother anymore about better methods of getting food do they?
> EDIT: here's another one: could you create an organism that never slept, but instead ate tons of food to compensate?
From whatever sleep-research has shown (and what I made out of it), sleep appears to be a fundamental requirement in the way brains work in general (not just human brains) and hence this might not be all that likely.. | [
"Due to the variety of environments inhabited, physiologies of the humans and human ancestors alive during the Paleolithic over 2.8 million years, we can’t ascribe a single set diet to any species, regional or cultural group. Increasing amounts of animal protein is viewed by some scientists as essential to the evol... |
what is the culture around modifying cars and motorcycles to be louder? | Most of the times making a motorcycle louder can save a life. Loud pipes save lives when comes to two wheels. | [
"Custom and specials motorcycles are similar to the above but tend to be super sport type motorcycles, or at least high-performance based, using many special add-on parts, one-of-a-kind or limited series frames, racing wheels and parts or hand-made components to maximise performance. While modifying motorcycles is ... |
Is it possible to transmit data over something other than the electromagnetic spectrum? | Here's two alternatives (with terrible latency):
[FedEx](_URL_0_)
[IP over avian carrier](_URL_1_) | [
"Theoretically it appears possible to transport a complex electromagnetic image through a tiny subwavelength hole with diameter considerably smaller than the diameter of the image, without losing the subwavelength details.\n",
"There is wireless network that for data transmission uses visible light, and does not ... |
how do i upload a website? | You haven't mentioned your hosting solution, so I'm assuming you don't have one.
A domain name is just a pretty name that you use so that people don't have to remember an IP address. That's it. It does nothing else for you. (Well not for a simple website, anyway.)
Whatever Dreamweaver crapped out is the code. (By the way I heartily recommend building a website properly, tools like dreamweaver make websites that are really hard to maintain or modify and are generally total crap for Google or other search engines to understand and index.)
So what's missing? Well something to actually send the code to people's browser when they try to visit your website. A server.
What you need to do is find a hosting company, buy a package from them and use the control panel on the DNS provider you got the domain name from to set up an A record containing the IP address of the hosting server. (The hosting company will give you the IP somewhere.)
After that you'll probably need to SSH into the server, set up Apache, nginx or LigHTTPD and FTP, then use the FTP server to move the files into the root directory of the web server you set up.
If this is all flying over your head, as it probably is, you should secure the services of a web developer to help you. (And well your're at it probably ask them to do the website by hand.)
| [
"Drive-by downloads may happen when visiting a website, opening an e-mail attachment or clicking a link, or clicking on a deceptive pop-up window: by clicking on the window in the mistaken belief that, for example, an error report from the computer's operating system itself is being acknowledged or a seemingly inno... |
why does netflix produce original content? isn't it a risky endeavor? what are they gaining by trying to be a streaming service and a production studio? | It is potentially risky, but ultimately, when their core business is based on licensing agreements (which piss off a lot of people when stuff disappears due to licensing), if they can keep costs reasonable, having something in their control is meaningful, and it will likely always be available on the streaming service.
You could have said the same thing about HBO 25 years ago. At that point, I think standup comedy specials were the bulk of their original programming, and Netflix is very similar to HBO (they are a subscription service, and they likely get more per month per customer than HBO does). Then all of a sudden HBO becomes the go-to place for shows that aren't watered down by the FCC, and milquetoast boring shows to appeal to the broadest audience, and they win tons of awards. | [
"Netflix is committed to open source. Netflix both leverages and provides open source technology focused on providing the leading Internet television network. Their technology focuses on providing immersive experiences across all internet-connected screens. Netflix's deployment technology allows for continuous buil... |
How many photons are hitting my eye? | The first question is pretty hard to answer. 'Brightness' is not the only thing that matters. In fact, what humans usually describe as 'brightness' is just contrast (ie, we perceive something as bright because things around it are dark, not because it emits a lot of light.) So I will stick to something simple, a 60W incandescent lightbulb. Lets assume this lightbulb is the only source of light. Incandescent bulbs emit only about 10% of their light as visible light, most of that as red light.
All the light from the lightbulb cant possibly hit your eye. If you're about 5m away from it, and your eye is about 3cm across, and the room reflects no light (ie - the only light coming to your eye is directly from your lightbulb) then at this distance your single eye absorbs 0.0001068 Watts of photons!
Now we have another problem. How many photons are stopped by the eye tissue before reaching receptors? Seems to be around 90%. [1]
So 0.00001 Watts, or 1% of 1% of a single Watt, are reaching the receptors of your eye. But from personal experience, you know you can see a 60W bulb clearly from 5m away. Your eye must be extremely sensitive! Your own body emits 40-80W of light as infrared - if humans could see infrared, we would all be blinded by our own glows.
Red light as a wavelength of about 0.7 micrometers, or 700 nanometers. At this wavelength, each photon has 1.75 eV (electron-volts) of energy - or 2.8 * 10^-19 Joules. Now it is just as simple as dividing total energy by energy per photon to get total photons. The result, is 3.57*10^13 photons reach your eye every second.
As for the second question, it depends on what you mean by 'detect'. If you mean the receptors themselves detecting the light, then it is a remarkably low number - a rod will respond to a single photon. [1]
If you mean, you yourself perceiving a light source, I recall that question being asked on this subreddit before recently. I can't find it now, but the argument went something like this - the faintest things we can see are distant stars, and the individual calculated the light that must reach us from the dimmest star which can be seen with the naked eye. It was something around 10000 photons / sec (this is all from memory).
[1] _URL_0_ | [
"The researchers found that the emission of only 5-14 photons could elicit visual experience. However, only about half of these entered the retina, due to reflection (from the cornea), absorption, and other factors relating to transmittance of the ocular media. The researchers estimated that 5 to 14 of the estimate... |
How was news broken to the public that WWI was over? | Nobody really knew that the war was going to end on 11/11 except for the participants of the meeting. In fact, even the soldiers did not really know that the war had ended until the middle of the day or even later, depending on when the telegram reached them. Fighting was still continuing right up until the official cease fire and beyond, which happened six hours after the armistice was signed. On a side note, it is suggested that American soldier Henry Gunther was the last soldier to be killed during World War One (in [this](_URL_1_) article, for example), but the sources do differ and I personally believe different.
The armistice was signed at 6am on the morning of November 11th, so there was still time for the news to reach the morning newspapers, and so on many front pages the news did break to the world on 11/11. My favourite headline (or subheading really) for the end of the war was in the Daily Local News that simply says 'Put The Date Down Firmly - Write it November 11 1918' (which can be seen [here](_URL_0_)). It came to be that most people found out from the morning headlines or word of mouth. During the war, newspaper was a very big form of communicating the news (as obviously there were no TVs and radio was unreliable), so for many this was the first time they knew that the war was over. They may have had an idea that the war was coming to an end based on previous headlines, but they did not truly know the war had ended until that morning. | [
"In Britain, the first official news came from German wireless broadcasts. Ships began to arrive in port, their crews sending messages to friends and relatives both of their survival and the loss of some 6,000 others. The authorities considered suppressing the news, but it had already spread widely. Some crews comi... |
why does trying to read a scratched cd/dvd pretty much freeze up your computer? | Some things on a computer are never expected to take much time, so it sends the command to do it then just sits and waits for the result.
With a scratched CD/DVD the drive itself decides to try again over and over before giving up. The computer just sits there and waits. And waits. After a short timeout the drive gives up and moves on to the next sector of the disk. Unfortunately typical scratch damage affects tens or hundreds of sectors, so it all happens again, time after time and that short timeout gets multiplied up to much more.
The computer will have it's own timeout set after which it will give you a message about a problem reading the disk. This timeout is a balance between giving up too early and not managing to read an important disk that could have been recovered, and waiting too long and being really annoying.
A defensively written program can handle it much better and give up on bad sectors more quickly, but most people don't do that, or can't justify the extra time it takes even if they know how to. It's only really worth the added complexity for things like data recovery programs which need to get back all the 'easy' sectors first before going back and retrying the bad ones.
| [
"Since the CD-RW discs need to be blanked before recording data, writing too slowly or with too low energy on a high speed unblanked disc will cause the phase change layer to cool before blanking is achieved, preventing the data from being written.\n",
"Rewriteable media such as DVD-RW and CD-RW have fewer limita... |
why do professional field sports use cleats? | They do not actually increase injuries much because it is against the rules to kick or step on your opponent, thus meaning it rarely happens. But they do prevent a lot of injuries by reducing your chances of your feet slipping on the grass.
Your assumption of your foot being able to "just slide out" is true, but that causes more injuries instead of reducing them. | [
"Similar to soccer cleats, gridiron football shoewear have soles that consist of spikes called \"cleats\" purposefully designed for games on grass. Some cleats have removable cleats that can be screwed into specific holes. Cleat sizes are changed, depending on the conditions of the field (longer cleats provide bett... |
Are there any instances of Viking cowardice or surrender? | At Ridgeway near [Weymouth](_URL_0_) on the English Channel, archaeologists recently uncovered the bodies of about 50 vikings. That is, they found a pile of [47 skulls](_URL_2_) next to [52 skeletons](_URL_1_).
Some initial analysis has been done of trace elements in their bones, which show that they grew up in many different places, such as the Arctic and sub-Arctic areas of Scandinavia, northern Iceland, the Baltic States, Belarus and Russia. But by about three years before their deaths, they were all started eating a similar diet heavy in fish. In other words, this is a viking crew that was somehow captured and executed, probably late in the Viking Age around 1000.
Interestingly, there are few suggestions that these men fought or put up much resistance prior to their executions. There are no serious wounds that would suggest surrender in battle. These men were somehow captured without a fight.
The chop marks on the backs of the vertebrae and jaw bones show that these executions were messy. There's no suggestion that they were tied or otherwise bound, but some individuals did try to turn away from the blow, which only prolonged their suffering. Others took two or three poorly placed blows before the sword or axe finally severed their heads.
Whoever executed these vikings was proud of it, and they kept 3-5 heads as trophies. (There's some difficulty in getting an exact count of the jumbled bones.) This is reminiscent of the Norse practice of displaying skulls on city walls like at Dublin (human skulls found beneath the Viking Age ramparts) or on the outside farm walls as at Hofstađir, Iceland (these were cattle skulls).
The images of the Ridgeway burials are also eerily reminiscent of the bones stacked at [Repton](_URL_3_), which a viking army occupied in the winter of 873-874. Of course, there's little consensus as to weather the Repton burials were actually a reburial of bodies the vikings dug up when they occupied the monastery, whether they were dead members of the viking army, or whether they were people the vikings had executed. There's only been some isotope analysis, and the results were inconclusive and mixed.
So is this a viking crew that struggled without a fight and met a gruesome end? Almost certainly. But who executed them, when, and why? These questions are harder to answer ... but that's why I love studying archaeology! | [
"The two Viking bands later clash when their commanders seek to capture the young Danish Prince Canute, Askeladd's company succeeding but are forced by Thorkell's forces to take refuge for the winter in the frozen north of England near the Danish encampment at Gainsborough. Upon finding the effeminate Canute timid ... |
What caused the sudden change to shaved pussy in porn starting in the 1990s? | Hi,
Could you please resubmit this without the coarse language in the title? (Why did porn stars start shaving, or some such)
Thanks! | [
"The reason for the removal of pubic hair from women in pornography was a matter of \"technical considerations of cinematography\". Hair removal progressed to full removal. Because of the popularity of pornography, pubic hair shaving was mimicked by women.\n",
"Pornography actresses were the first to undergo the ... |
why does water seem to stick to glass? | [Adhesion.](_URL_0_) Water "seems" to stick to glass because it does.
> I don't seem to notice this when washing dishes at home though.
It certainly still does, but (a) possible you're looking at non-transparent dishes so you're not really noticing it, and (b) soap in the water will massively reduce the surface tension and reduce surface adhesion. | [
"Water itself is not a hazard to stable glass, but in the case of a piece with existing “glass disease,” it can accelerate problems associated with it such as weeping, and crizzling as mentioned above. Here, glass should not be kept in places where the threat of water exposure could occur, such as low to the ground... |
if the speed of sound is about 340m/s how can normal things make sound? | No you are confusing the speed of propagation of the sound wave with the speed of the thing moving back and forth to generate the sound.
While the thing moving back and forth doesn't have to move nearly as fast as the speed of sound, it does have to move much faster than you could say move your fingers. The highest frequency that a typical human can hear is 20kHz. To create that sound an object has to move back and forth 20,000 times a second. The lowest frequency we can hear is 20 Hz or 20 times a second. That's still much too fast for the average human to move their fingers.
So most of the sounds we create are by bumping or slapping objects and causes them to vibrate. Objects have a frequency that they tend to vibrate at based on their physical properties.
To finally answer your question, yes parts of your vocal cords are moving thousands of times a second to produce the sounds that come out of your mouth. | [
"For sound waves in air, the speed of sound is 343 m/s (at room temperature and atmospheric pressure). The wavelengths of sound frequencies audible to the human ear (20 Hz–20 kHz) are thus between approximately 17 m and 17 mm, respectively. Somewhat higher frequencies are used by bats so they can resolve targets sm... |
why do we not have international space program? | Yes, it it is typically more beneficial. That's why 20 nations have cooperated in the [European Space Agency](_URL_0_) for over 30 years now. | [
"Several countries now have space programs; from related technology ventures to full-fledged space programs with launch facilities. There are many scientific and commercial satellites in use today, with thousands of satellites in orbit, and several countries have plans to send humans into space. Some of the countri... |
Why did the Great War produce so many soldier-poets? Was it simply the number of public school educated young men faced with enforced trench-based stasis? Or are there other factors? | **Poetry and the War**
It should be noted, first, that the war produced an absurd number of poets at every level -- not just in the trenches. Catherine Reilly's groundbreaking *English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography* (1978), for example, lists some 2,225 English poets publishing work about the war while it was going on, and soldier-poets were far from the majority -- 1,808 of this number were civilians. A quarter of the aggregate number were women, too, which is another fact often overlooked; it was only with a strong feminist turn in First World War studies in the 1970s that these many excellent poets were finally given their due. Prior to that, it was often very difficult to find their work at all unless they were power-house figures like Jessie Pope or Mary Borden, and even then it could be difficult; Brian Gardner's *Up the Line to Death: The War Poets 1914-1918* (1964), for example, set a bold new direction for the canon of the war's poetry, but among its seventy-two included poets (many justly being rescued from obscurity) there isn't a single woman. Anyway, this is something of a sideline to our main subject -- sorry.
It was popularly felt from the very start, at least in Britain, that the war demanded an extensive poetic response. We'll get to why that was in a moment, but it would first be worth examining just what that response looked like. In August of 1914, for example, the *Times* of London received upwards of a hundred submitted poems *a day* from its readers, with around a thousand finally having been published by the time the year was out. Anthologies of war-related poetry began coming out at once, often for the support of various charitable endeavours (such as the relief of Belgian refugees), and patriotic poetry readings were a popular public entertainment for young and old again. Sales were excellent, too; Kipling's *Barrack-Room Ballads* (first published in 1892) sold 29,000 copies in 1915 alone, and by the war's end the complete poetical works of Rupert Brooke -- then the most celebrated martyr from among the soldier-poets -- had sold some 200,000 copies.
It may surprise you to hear it, but the consolidation of a coherent poetic response to the war at the highest levels was one of the first tasks of Britain's first-ever official War Propaganda Bureau, based at Wellington House in Buckingham Gate. The Bureau put out a call as soon as the war was declared soliciting the immediate involvement of the biggest names in English literature, and on September 2nd of 1914 those figures met in what must have been one of the largest such gatherings of establishment literary figures in history. Everyone was there, or at least sent a representative -- Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, Sir Owen Seaman, G.K. Chesterton, Sir Henry Newbolt, the poet laureate Robert Bridges, the far-future poet laureate John Masefield, and many others besides (to say nothing of major figures known now mainly for their prose, like H.G. Wells, J.M. Barrie or Arnold Bennett). I could go on about all of this forever, anyway; interested parties can read [my recent piece on the subject](_URL_2_) at Oxford's WWI centenary project, *Continuations and Beginnings*.
**Georgian Poetry and the Post-Victorian Cultural Milieu**
Now, you've asked why there were so many soldier-poets, and suggested the role of education in the matter. This is a good start, and helps explain some of the enormous popularity of the poetic genre on a broader level. The passage of the [Elementary Education Act of 1870](_URL_0_) had seen the establishment of rigorous new standards for education throughout the realm, and one of the consequences of this was a significant boom in mass literacy. By the time the war began the first children to be subjected to the standards of the act were well into their adulthood, and they had as much of an appetite for poetry as their predecessors did -- but with a far greater ability (especially among the poor) to purchase and consume it privately. It was a market that inspired strong competition between authors and publishers, and authors already known as major public figures for their poetical works became more celebrated yet. The production and consumption of poetry was something of a national pastime, and the war provided a much expanded venue for poetical work in styles and on subjects both new and old.
At the war's outset, something exciting had been happening in the world of English poetry -- the birth of what was called Georgian lyricism. The Georgian movement (if we may call it that) had been spearheaded by the influence of the editorial team of Edward Marsh and Harold Monro; it was comprised of a varied collection of young, dynamic poets producing modern works that were simultaneously deferential to many of standards of Victorian poetry and experimental in their subjects, moods and approaches. My somewhat glib summation of the Georgian experience is that it would be like seeing Walt Whitman and Robert Browning engage in a fist fight that ended with them making out. In any event, they were, I repeat, thoroughly modern -- but it is easy to forget this in light of the triumph of the Modernists, who have rather swept the field were that sort of name is concerned.
The reason the Georgian movement matters to what we're considering here is that it was home to a number of authors whose names are now far more familiar to us in connection with the war -- names like Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg and Robert Graves. The works of these authors appeared in Marsh and Monro's *Georgian Anthologies*, which first started appearing in 1912; Brooke was in from the start, and Sassoon, Rosenberg and Graves began to be included with the third volume in 1917 -- as much for their longstanding friendships with this entire literary circle as for the power of their works. Some of the most famous of the war poets, then, do not necessarily emanate strictly from the trenches, but rather fit into a large and pre-existing literary movement that was already increasingly popular.
This doesn't necessarily explain the popularity of *all* of the soldier-poets, and certainly does not explain their proliferation during the course of the war. I'd wager that few unpublished souls would have intently scanned the lines of the *Georgian Anthologies* while waiting out a barrage near Ypres and thought, "that could be *me*." So what was it?
**Competing Theories**
A number of theories have been proposed, and I don't know that any one of them offers a total explanation for the huge presence of this sort of poet on the war's literary scene. Certainly there's the huge appetite for poetry already described, and the attendant curiosity on the reading public's part about poetical works being produced by those experiencing new and titanic events. But this public literacy was not a solitary affair; this was the first national army in British history that was itself broadly literate even (mostly) down to the lowest ranks, and this offered a much larger scope for written reflection on the soldier's part than had previously been likely in the wars of ages past.
Certainly the possibility you mention in your question is a compelling one as well -- life in the trenches, as is often the case in modern war, could be described as long stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of appalling terror and danger, and this provided many soldiers with the sort of time necessary for poetic reflection and refinement while simultaneously confront them with the sort of experiences and images that could inspire the kind of response that has now become so famous.
Pursuant to this, it is popularly and often said that the soldier-poetry of the war is born of an intense need to express the inexpressible -- to cross the gap that existed between the home front and the firing line in a way that allowed communication between the two worlds, and for those still at home to receive a vivid and "truthful" impression of what was being seen, experienced and felt at the fighting front. The degree to which this information was otherwise prevented from reaching civilians by censors, propagandists and the like has been somewhat exaggerated in the intervening years, but it remains the case that many of the war's poets felt themselves to be in reaction to the glib emptiness of newspaper prose or the appalling vulgarity of patriotic music-hall expression. "All a poet can do today is warn," wrote Wilfred Owen in [his preface](_URL_1_) to an intended anthology of his poems -- it was never compiled, at least by him, as he was killed a few days before the war ended in November of 1918.
Whatever the cause of their popularity at the time, this question of perceived "honesty" has been a hugely important factor in the soldier-poets' persisting popularity. Ernest Hemingway, in an introduction to a collection of war writing in 1942, insisted that the work of the soldier-poets was essentially the only good and true work to come out of the war at all; "one reason for this," he continued, "is that poets are not arrested as quickly as prose writers would be if they wrote critically since the latter’s meaning, if they are good writers, is too uncomfortably clear." For Hemingway, the writer needed to be "of as great probity and honesty as a priest of God" -- while many of the war's soldier-poets were, many of the prose writers and patriotic poets of the war, in his estimation, were not. Whether this is actually the case (I would argue that it's a massive oversimplification), it's a perspective that remains common where popular comment on the poetry is concerned: there is propaganda on the one hand, and the unmediated experience of the war, as presented by the soldier-poets, on the other. It's what saw Virginia Woolf praise Sassoon's first volume of war poems in 1917 as being work which makes civilian readers say "'Yes, this is going on; and we are sitting here watching it,' with a new shock of surprise, with an uneasy desire to leave our place in the audience." It is work that inspires, but also convicts, in a way that so much of the war's patriotic home-front poetry now fails to do -- not, I would argue, because it was always incapable of so doing, but because we are now cut off from the concerns that motivated it in a way that we are not when it comes to the soldier-poets' dark lyrics of fear, pain, disappointment, and all-conquering irony.
**Final Thoughts and a TL;DR**
In closing, I'll note that the most popular anthology of soldier-poetry in English during the war was [E.B. Osborn's *The Muse in Arms*](_URL_3_) (1917); it included the work of over a hundred poets, of whom almost all were on active service when they wrote their works. It sold well, and contains many names (like Graves and Sassoon) who have now become famous. In Osborn's preface, however, he offers a start warning that serves, even at that early stage, as a fitting summation of all that I have said above:
> Of all the vast mass of civilian war-verse, very little indeed will survive; [. . .] it has nearly all been cast ere now into the waste-paper basket of oblivion. The making of verse memorials is perhaps the only task to which the non-combatant poet may address himself without fear of losing his sincerity...
This anxiety over sincerity has haunted the ongoing reception of the war's poetry ever since it first started to appear, and I don't see that ending anytime soon. It, as much as anything, accounts for some of the soldier-poets' popularity.
**TL;DR:** The war produced a lot of poetry full-stop, but the work of the soldier-poets is among the most popular that remains because of its lingering immediacy when compared to the patriotic homefront works that often focused on ideals and concerns that we find difficult now to share. The war's poetry was produced both in and by an atmosphere of greatly increased mass-literacy, and in a cultural atmosphere in which responding to major events with poetry was not only common but expected. | [
"There was also a notable group of war poets who wrote about their own experiences of war, which caught the public attention. Some died on active service, most famously Rupert Brooke, Isaac Rosenberg, and Wilfred Owen, while some, such as Siegfried Sassoon survived. Themes of the poems included the youth (or naivet... |
How does science define and/or account for the perception of 'luck'? | Human beings excel in identifying patterns to the extent that we often see patterns that are not actually there. | [
"Luck is the phenomenon that defines the experience of notably positive, negative, or improbable events. The naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events happen all the time in human lives, both due to random and non-random natural and artificial processes, and that even improbable events can ha... |
What are some weird fads of the 1900's that most people don't know about? | For a short period after the turn of the 20th Century, it became quite fashionable for wealthy New York City socialites to carry around "companion monkeys," which they would dress in outfits and keep in their [muff hand warmers](_URL_0_). Thousands of monkeys were brought into the city in the first decade of the 20th Century, and there are records of pet monkeys throwing flowerpots and setting houses on fire. A very [interesting article](_URL_1_) from The Sun notes that "to be able to talk monkey, just as people once talked horse or dog, is a mark of being up to date. To be able to take up a strange monkey, look him over and then calmly put him down and tell how old he is, where he came from, what are his habits and what his possibilities is a part of one's social education." Wow. That said, the trend was relatively short lived, fading into obscurity after 1910 as Pomeranian dogs became the newest "it" accessory. | [
"Toward the end of the 1950s, darker humour and more serious themes had begun to emerge, including satire and social commentary. \"Dr. Strangelove\" (1964) was a satirical comedy about Cold War paranoia, while \"The Apartment\" (1960), \"Alfie\" (1966) and \"The Graduate\" (1967) featured sexual themes in a way tha... |
how does the large hadron collider remain stable? | I *think* the collision experiments themselves release only tiny amounts of energy. No chain reactions like fusion or fission are possible. If the particles miss each other, it's just one radiated particle. Which are all around us anyway. That, and union welding. | [
"The Large Hadron Collider is very prone to multipacting due to the tight spacing (25 ns) of its proton bunches. During Run 1 (2010–2013) science operation mainly used beams with 50 ns spacing, while 25 ns beams were only employed for short tests in 2011 and 2012. In addition to using a ribbed beam screen designed ... |
What is the origin of the modern conception of a 'franchise' business model? | _URL_0_
It was none other than Colonel Harland Sanders who started the idea. In 1955 he was able to convince a friend of his in Utah to start selling fried chicken and fixings using his recipe and cooking the chickens in a pressure cooker. The link above is his autobiography and from the KFC website but I see no reason to disbelieve any of it. It's actually a really good read. Chapter nine is the part you will be most interested in. The original deal was Col. Sanders would receive a nickel for every chicken sold.
That went so well that Col. Sanders spent the next several years driving all over the USA and Canada making a similar deal with small time diner owners all over the country.
On another interesting note. It's through KFC that Dave Thomas, of Wendy's fame, got his start
A & E's show Biography did episodes about both Col. Sanders and Dave thomas. Both fascinating american businessmen. I can't look at You Tube where I am at, but you may be able to find those. | [
"BULLET::::- Franchises: A franchise is a system in which entrepreneurs purchase the rights to open and run a business from a larger corporation. Franchising in the United States is widespread and is a major economic powerhouse. One out of twelve retail businesses in the United States are franchised and 8 million p... |
What are some good databases for US newspapers? | I use _URL_0_ - the search feature is solid and it includes the Times. | [
"In 1992 NewsBank had difficulty providing its users with a method to search for information based upon a specific geographic position. Newspaper results were listed by subject matter first and then subsequently by location. At the time it indexed articles via microfiche from more than 400 media publications in the... |
Can someone explain to me if there will be new habitable areas as global warming and climate change progress? | It may make those areas more habitable in terms of temperature, but most of the land up there is permafrost, so you’d get massive amounts of erosion as the ice in the ground turns to water.
Plus, if all the permafrost up there thaws, were pretty much boned. Currently the CO2 and Methane released by the thawing permafrost is about 10% of what humans are emitting, and that’s only going to increase as the temperature rises. We could get a pretty nasty runaway effect that we might not be able to deal with. | [
"Yohe \"et al.\" (2007) assessed the literature on sustainability and climate change. With high confidence, they suggested that up to the year 2050, an effort to cap greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at 550 ppm would benefit developing countries significantly. This was judged to be especially the case when combined wi... |
many in the u.s. are concerned for the future. can a modern, world super power actually fall similar to rome? | I question your premise.
Anyway, the fall of rome was varied and slow. Yes there were actual conquests but a lot of it was gradual.
We probably don't have to worry about northern european hordes threatening us at the gate.
We probably do have to worry about a relative decline in power. But that wouldn't mean that the country fails or becomes undeveloped.
Spain used to be the most powerful nation in the world, then France, then the UK. Citizens in all three countries are doing pretty well today even if their respective states have lost a lot of power/influence.
| [
"The major world superpower in the series is known only as the Empire, and the text contains hints that this is actually the United States. Europe seems to be under this Empire's control. The world has been changed by global warming and other environmental influences; the most notable example is the ruin of Venice,... |
why are they cutting food stamps in the us? | Edit 2: Since some people need further explanation, I do not claim that the views below are my own, nor do I claim that they are the correct way of thinking. What follows is just my understanding of the arguments presented by those who wish to cut back on expansion of food stamps in the US.
The reasoning behind it is as follows and I will do my best to leave my bias out of it.
1. Food stamps are a drain on the countries resources. Doesn't matter how big or small the cost , we are paying for someone else's food.
2. This is seen by some as a government handout that has been and will continue to be abused by individuals to the point where they decide to not work, and just live off of the government assistance.
3. Even if the stamps were not abused, it is the opinion of some that we should not provide services like food stamps to people because not having it given to them will encourage them to work.
4. Some people are also of the opinion that using tax dollars to fund programs like food stamps takes away from workers who earned their wage and gives it to people who do not deserve it.
Those are the general ideas behind it, whether or not you agree with them is up to you.
EDIT: words | [
"A food stamp or SNAP challenge is a trend in the United States popularized by politicians, religious groups, community activists and food pantries, in which a family of means chooses to purchase food using only the monetary equivalent of what a family that size would receive in the US federal government Supplement... |
Is it possible that some human emotions and actions are influenced by viral, bacterial, or fungal infections? | Sure, google [toxoplasmosis.](_URL_0_) | [
"Though it is still a very undeveloped area of research, a number of scholars are demonstrating that manipulating emotions surrounding a persuasive message does affect that message's effectiveness. It has been shown, for example, that people tend to adjust their beliefs to fit their emotions, since feelings are tre... |
we see stories of people who lose half their brain and somehow survive. if you divide a human brain 50/50 are both halves equally viable to survive as a person given the right circumstances? | Uuhh... no. The brain is collosally complex organ that we understand less about then we do about any other part of ... almost anything. It can do a shitton of funky stuff and compensate for TONS of problems. but you might just as wel die as another might survive drom the same injuries. What or where the injury is seems to matter little to nothing.
Basicly the brain is magic and we just dont know fuck about it. | [
"Roger Sperry continued this line of research up until his death in 1994. Michael Gazzaniga still is researching the split-brain. Their findings have been rarely critiqued and disputed, however a popular belief that some people are more \"right-brained\" or \"left-brained\" has developed. In the mid 1980s Jarre Lev... |
how does the movie 'birdman' look like one continuous take? how did they do it? | It's easier to see the cuts once you know what you're looking for. Birdman wasn't filmed in one location: the stage and backstage portions, as well as the roof scenes, were on location at the St. James Theatre. Anything in the hallways and dressing rooms was in a different studio. So there's a cut any time a character leaves the dressing room/hallway areas. Same with any time there's a change in time (like the day to night time lapses).
The cuts that are easiest to see involve a black screen. It happens a lot when characters go up to the rooftop or out of the pub, where there's no light on the door so the screen goes black for a half-second. Another technique they used, going from the dressing rooms to backstage, was having an extra walk in front of the camera. Some of the less obvious ones have cuts when the camera is making a fast pan, like with the drummer while Riggan and Mike are walking outside the theatre. | [
"\"Birdman\" director Alejandro G. Iñárritu originally conceived the film as a comedy filmed in a single shot set in a theatre. The original choice behind the film's genre, which was subsequently re-adapted to concentrate on Riggan's final emotional tail spin, came from the director wanting to see a change in his a... |
What led up to the Tulsa Race Riots and how did it affect Tulsa in the next couple of decades after? | Howdy fellow Tulsan. Spent a day at Reconciliation Park the other day. I'm sorry that has taken me so long to chime in on, and I will say more later, but I just stumbled across this and I did not want to forget to tell you about it. Are you familiar with This Land Press? If not, I hope you do. [Any who, you might be interested in this.](_URL_0_) | [
"The Tulsa Race Riot (or the Greenwood Massacre) of 1921 took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents attacked black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has been called \"the single worst incident of racial violence in American history.\" The attack, carr... |
Regarding acne | A big part of acne is related to skin cell turnover- as skin cells die, they break free from their neighbors and fall off. If the bonds that hold them to their neighbors are too strong, they can't break free, they clump up and block pores, trapping bacteria inside. Anti-acne medications like salicylic acid are keratolytics- they break apart keratin, the fibrous material that glues cells to their neighbors, and allow skin cells to shed more easily. Similarly, mild abrasives/exfoliants work to increase cell shedding.
People also have different rates of oil production, and different skin pH, which make for more or less hospitable environments for bacteria (particularly propionibacterium acnes) to thrive. | [
"Acne medicamentosa is acne that is caused or aggravated by medication. Because acne is generally a disorder of the pilosebaceous units caused by hormones, the medications that trigger acne medicamentosa most frequently are hormone analogs. It is also often caused by corticosteroids; in this case, it is referred to... |
How does a water molecule interact with the glass it touches? | There are a number of different types of glass and the interaction is abit different for each of them.
However, for general silica glass, basically the surface is not perfectly smooth. It large imperfections on the scale of perhaps 1 nm for a high quality piece of glass (this can be reduced substantially with higher level processing, though).
The surface of the glass is generally terminated with Silicon - oxygen dangling bonds. The surface termination is random, and the silicon - oxygen bonding is polar. The oxygen is negativly charged, and the silicon is more positive. The water molecules will therefore be attracted to the surface because they are polar as well.
However, that's only half the story. Because in a liquid the water can adopt any conformation, it has a high entropy. For the water to touch the glass it must conform to the shape and charge of the glass (or try to), and therefore it will reduce its entropy. This is why water beads on glass.
It is possible to make glass hydrophillic, however. By exposing glass to something like an oxygen plasma, the exposed oxygen on the silica surface becomes terminated in OH groups. This gives a stronger charge because hydrogen can't hold onto its electrons as well as silicon can, so the oxygen becomes even more negative and the hydrogen is more positive than the silicon in this situation. This extra energy is enough to overcome the entropy decrease of surface interaction at room temperature, and the water spreads immediately on the glass. | [
"While some similar forces are at work here, it is different from capillary attraction, a process where glass or other solid substances attract water, but are not changed in the process (e.g., water molecules do not become suspended between the glass molecules).\n",
"1. Alkali ions (ex. Na and Ca) on the glass su... |
How prevalent were monopolies and cartels in shaping the American economy, ~1940-1990? | This is very difficult question to answer in that the definition of 'cartel' or 'monopoly' is at best flexible. For example, was the telephone company a monopoly? Did the various local telcos of the (rough) time make up a cartel in that they exercised exclusive control over a geographic area and charged very similar prices? Does the fact that the prices were (usually) set by some sort of state regulatory board affect the definition of 'cartel?'
Think also about very large industries, including steel. There were numerous steel manufacturers, but under the basic steel contract, workers were paid essentially the same wages and received essentially the same benefits regardless of where they worked. Factor in the few iron ore producers (mostly in NE Minnesota,) and you have a recipe for a cartel at both ends of the steel production process. Does the fact that the steel producers worked together to create these contracts make them a monopoly? A cartel? Something else?
If these definitions of 'cartel' or 'monopoly' hold, then it's quite clear that they have had an enormous impact on the US economy -- and that of the world as a whole. | [
"In the late 1800s and early 1900s, owners and managers worked to establish monopolies. When government challenged this in the 1910s through the use of antitrust law, firms had to have new business models that did not involve taking over entire markets. This led to the creation of oligopolies in many U.S. markets w... |
How did 'US' forces expect to succeed in the Bay of Pigs invasion | Much in the way that Castro had succeeded against similar odds years earlier. The Bay of Pigs was not the original target of the attack, but rather, Trinidad, Cuba, which is on the southern shore roughly in the middle of Cuba. The crucial geographical difference between the two is that the Trinidad Plan allowed for the rebel forces to escape into the Escambray Mountains, which had previously been used to great effect in conducting guerrilla campaigns, while the Bay of Pigs Plan allowed for the air support to be done without air refueling and thus keeping the US footprint lighter. Once the guerrilla fighters planted themselves on Cuban soil and secured a stable area, they were to create a temporary government and petition to the United States for assistance.
President Eisenhower originally had the CIA develop the plan and begin training the rebels, but the decision came to Kennedy whether to carry it out. This is where we get to your question - why did the US go through with the attack when the odds were not looking so great? The answer is political. When Kennedy was campaigning against Nixon, he accused Eisenhower of standing by during the Cuban revolution. He could not afford, politically, to scrap this plan, after making that an issue.
This is where we get into WHY the attack failed, or at least, what didn't help it. Kennedy wanted the footprint light. He and his administration ultimately rejected the Trinidad landing spot and went with the Bay of Pigs, but they also reduced the air sorties from 40 to 8. The Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, and others in the administration and military advisers began to think this was an ill advised plan, especially since Castro was proving to be quite popular. There was no way this invasion would succeed without US support, but Kennedy insisted that US deniability be made the top priority.
In short: because Kennedy made a choice and his administration and advisers did not voice their opposition to the plan, at least not in a significant manner.
Source: Combs, Jerald. *The History of American Foreign Policy from 1895*
Edit: I forgot a word in the book title... FOREIGN policy. ooops. | [
"The Bay of Pigs Invasion (known as \"La Batalla de Girón\", or \"Playa Girón\" in Cuba), was an unsuccessful attempt by a U.S.-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba and overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The plan was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F. Kennedy ... |
the main differences between baptist and pentecostal beliefs | There are several. Here's three of the big ones, by doctrine:
1. Baptists believe you're saved, then get baptised. Pentacostals believe baptism is a prerequisite for salvation.
2. Pentacostals believe glossolalia (speaking in tongues) is evidence of baptism, while Baptists do not.
3. Baptists believe that once you are saved, you're saved forever, while Pentacostals believe you can fall out of God's grace. | [
"Pentecostalism is an evangelical faith, emphasizing the reliability of the Bible and the need for the transformation of an individual's life through faith in Jesus. Like other evangelicals, Pentecostals generally adhere to the Bible's divine inspiration and inerrancy—the belief that the Bible, in the original manu... |
During WWII, did the army have units that collected damaged and lost equipment for refurbishment and reuse? | I've also wondered this, also if there was any stigma attached to using captured weapons. | [
"During the Second World War, the depot was destroyed in an air raid on 23 February 1945. The German army demolished the switches and water cranes on 11 April 1945. 95 percent of the damage had been repaired by the end of 1945.\n",
"During the Second World War, Army depots were built to the north and south of Tid... |
How likely is a message in a bottle actually being read by someone? | In most cases in some traditional small island in a large ocean, currents would wash the bottles away very easily; unless you fling the bottle directly into the incoming tide, it'll just be swept past the island and disappear. Chances are winds or other currents will sweep it far enough away it doesn't hit the island when the tide comes back in.
As for the odds of it landing somewhere, your best bet for estimating this is to look at the fate of a large fleet of rubber ducks lost into the Pacific in 1992 and subsequently used for the study of ocean currents. Many have washed up over the intervening years, in a number of odd places. _URL_0_ However, the overall recovery rates are still pretty low - just a couple of percent. So you'd want to unleash a lot of messages to have a reasonable chance of somebody finding one. Hope you brought a lot of bottles.
| [
"The term \"message in a bottle\" has been applied to techniques of communication that do not literally involve a bottle or a water-based method of conveyance, such as the Pioneer plaque (1972, 1973), the Voyager Golden Record (1977), and even radio-borne messages (see Cosmic Call, Teen Age Message, A Message from ... |
In vehicles, would it be more efficient to have more or less gears? | I actually just bought a car with a CVT (others have described it here). I can say that thing is stupid efficient!
Cruising through the city, the engine never gets above 2000RPM until you hit about 60 mph.
Slamming on the pedal causes the engine to immediately jump to sub-redline RPMs (6400rpm in my case) and launch you with no "gear hunting". So much fun and so efficient.
If I remember right, it's rated at 19 city and 28 highway. | [
"The advantages of this technology are potentially enormous. Well-coordinated fully automatic driving will be much more efficient, with reduction in traffic jams and road accidents, which cost trillions per year in the US alone. Efficiency will also reduce energy consumption and thus pollution and climate change.\n... |
why weed and hops smell almost the same | They are extremely closely related, both belonging to the family "cannabacae". They share a vast amount of their genetics with cannabis so the smell is similar. | [
"Hops are described as bine plants rather than vine because, unlike vines, they have stiff downward facing hairs that provide stability and allow them to climb. These shoots allow \"H. lupulus\" to grow anywhere from . Hops have fragrant, wind-pollinated flowers that attract butterflies.\n",
"Hops are the flowers... |
why doesn't my parents' dog recognize my face or voice when i call them on skype? | I have no facts or whatever to back this up, but dogs probably rely on smell a lot in individual identification. | [
"Users can now automatically upgrade existing phone calls to Skype video calls from within the phone call UI, which has also been revamped with larger buttons. In addition to a large photo of the contact, text with the user's name and phone number now appear at the top of the screen instead of directly above the di... |
How can Animals contract COVID19 but not spread it to us? | We don’t know if they can spread it to us yet, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be a major factor.
It’s not unusual for viruses to be able to infect off-target hosts but not transmit, or transmit very weakly, because the virus doesn’t shed in large quantities. That might be because the virus doesn’t replicate efficiently in the new host (for example, SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to infect dogs, but it’s barely detectable), or the virus may replicate well, but not in a location that lets it transmit (for example, if the virus only replicates deep in the lungs, it may not be exhaled as well as if it replicates in the upper airways). For example, mice can be infected with some strains of influenza, but they never transmit the virus.
That said, experimentally cats were able to transmit virus between each other. This involved prolonged exposure and didn’t seem efficient, but it’s not impossible ([Susceptibility of ferrets, cats, dogs, and different domestic animals to SARS-coronavirus-2](_URL_0_)). | [
"Coccidiosis is most commonly treated through the administration of coccidiostats, a group of medications that stop coccidia from reproducing. In dogs and cats, the most commonly administered coccidiostat is sulfa-based antibiotics. Once reproduction stops, the animal can usually recover on its own, a process that ... |
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