question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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why people say a college degree now is worth a high school degree from x years in the past? | No, it has to do with how many people *have* college degrees.
I don't agree with the sentiment as a whole, but I can at least understand the logic of it.
A few decades ago, fewer people went to college. You could get a good job out of high school, so college wasn't as important. Since then, a lot of those high scho... | [
"In 2015, Statistics Canada reported that almost one-quarter of university graduates went back to school and completed another certificate, diploma or degree of equal or lesser value to their first degree. People with a degree in the humanities, or in physical and life sciences and technologies were the most likely... |
Why Australia, NZ, Canada, etc. decided to keep Queen as head of state? | Great response from u/VoilaVoilaWashington about Canada. I'll try to speak more about Australia.
As I understand it, India's experience with the British was caustic. The separation was relatively unfriendly, and things like the partition reflected the lack of understanding the British had. It thus made sense for India... | [
"In Australia the present Queen is generally assumed to be head of state, since the governor-general and the state governors are defined as her \"representatives\". However, since the governor-general performs almost all national regal functions, the governor-general has occasionally been referred to as head of sta... |
when your phone is ringing, why are the electronics around it buzzing? | I don't think that's what OP is asking. You can have a phone on silent, sitting next to other electronic devices, and you'll often hear very distinct electronic buzzing type noises from the other devices specifically when the cell phone is ringing. | [
"Some users have reported a strange hissing noise during heavy usage of the phone. \"CNET\" reports it as \"faint buzzes and hums coming from the backside\". \"The Daily Telegraph\" speculates that the iPhone 7's new A10 Fusion processor is the source of the noise, linking to tweets that compare the phone's hissing... |
why does the sunrise continue to get later after the shortest day? | In short: the length of the day isn't exactly 24 hours. It varies between 24 hours and 30 seconds, and 23 hours, 59 minutes and 30 seconds. However for convenience we always use the average of 24 hours. This means that if the sun rises at 8:00, then the next day it will rise around 24 hours and 30 seconds afterwards, i... | [
"Locations on the Equator experience the shortest sunrises and sunsets because the Sun's daily path is nearly perpendicular to the horizon for most of the year. The length of daylight (sunrise to sunset) is almost constant throughout the year; it is about 14 minutes longer than nighttime due to atmospheric refracti... |
marcus aurelius & niccolo machiavelli | Niccolo Machiavelli was an author; he wrote a book called "The Prince", which was written in the form of an instruction manual to a leader of the time. He was explaining about how politicians should manipulate, pay false praise to their superiors, exploit their inferiors, etc. etc. This is what "Machiavellian politics"... | [
" Niccolò Machiavelli met the Duke on a diplomatic mission in his function as Secretary of the Florentine Chancellery. Machiavelli was at Borgia's court from 7 October 1502 through 18 January 1503. During this time he wrote regular dispatches to his superiors in Florence, many of which have survived and are publish... |
how can you physically see things in a dream, colors and everything, even though your eyes are closed? | This is a commonly asked question here. Please see several previous postings among [these previous posts.](_URL_0_) If they don't entirely answer your question, you might create a new post with
a more specific question.
Try our handy Search function sometime. :-)
For best results in most cases, use 2 or 3 general, com... | [
"Objection: \"[W]e \"see\" things… at a distance from us, and which consequently do not exist in the mind….\" Answer: Distant things in a dream are actually in the mind. Also, we do not directly perceive distance while we are awake. We infer distance from a combination of sensations, such as sight and touch. Distan... |
What is the most isolated animal taxonomically? | The microscopic (about 0.1 millimeters long) animal species *Limnognathia maerski*, which was discovered living in warm springs on an island off the coast of Greenland in 1994, is the only known member of Micrognathozoa, a clade which has been described variously as a class, subphylum, or phylum. The almost equally tin... | [
"All animals are posited by biologists to have evolved from a flagellated eukaryote. Their closest known living relatives are the choanoflagellates – collared flagellates whose cell morphology is similar to the choanocyte cells of certain sponges.\n",
"There are 45,000 faunal species reported. mammal species numb... |
why are the bottom of our feet so tough yet so ticklish? | You got a lot of nerves on both your hands and feet, you use the ones on your hands to handle things and the ones in your feet to handle your balance, plus checking if you aren't walking over broken glass.
If you try it, its easy to notice that "ticklish" sensation on your hands, thing is, your hand is more used to th... | [
"The soles of the feet are extremely sensitive to touch due to a high concentration of nerve endings, with as many as 200,000 per sole. This makes them sensitive to surfaces that are walked on, ticklish and some people find them to be erogenous zones.\n",
"Because of the concentration of nerve endings in the sole... |
If one were to build a ladder into space, past the gravitational field of the earth, could you theoretically climb the ladder to escape the earth's gravity, without having to achieve escape velocity? | You do need to achieve escape velocity to escape the earth's gravity ... that is what [escape velocity](_URL_0_) actually means.
Note however (from the formula on the page linked above) that escape velocity is a function of the *distance from the center of gravity*. This means that as you climb higher and higher on yo... | [
"The ladder paradox (or barn-pole paradox) is a thought experiment in special relativity. It involves a ladder, parallel to the ground, travelling horizontally at relativistic speed (near the speed of light) and therefore undergoing a Lorentz length contraction. The ladder is imagined passing through the open front... |
why do some dogs never stop eating? | In the wild a wolf wouldn't have any idea when their next meal might be. So, overeating when there is an abundance of food will let that wolf build fat which will see it through during times when food is scarce. This instinct has continued on with domesticated dogs. | [
"Since as such dogs are spirits (and the \"older brother\" of man), Urapmin do not kill or eat them (unlike some neighboring tribes), nor do they let dogs breathe on their food. (This contrasts with humans—the Urapmin previously had no cannibalism taboo, but they can share food with them.) In fact, the taboo on eat... |
why does florida water taste weird? | One thing to consider is not all of Florida uses similar water. There is both well and municipal sources, depending on which you got, and how it was treated or can have various different properties such as taste and smell. And well water is usually treated at location, which means system and treatment can vary even bet... | [
"Florida Water is an American version of Eau de Cologne, or Cologne Water. It has the same citrus basis as Cologne Water, but shifts the emphasis to sweet orange (rather than the lemon and neroli of the original Cologne Water), and adds spicy notes including lavender and clove. The name refers to the fabled Fountai... |
How does a changing magnetic field induce a current? | If you consider electric and magnetic fields just as they are in maxwells equations, the question becomes more phillosophical. I am not aware of explanations for this in quantum mechanics but I do know how to explain it in terms of another mathematical approach.
Looking at this question from the perspective of relati... | [
"To understand the origin, consider a wire loop, placed in magnetic field. According to Faraday's law of induction, if the magnetic flux is changed through the loop, an emf will be induced in this. The magnetic flux may be changed by changing the area of the loop or by changing the magnetic field. Why a changing ma... |
what would actually happen if you were ejected from an airlock into outer space without a space suit on? | All the air would rush out of your lungs, and your ears would be very painful, if your Eustachian tubes were blocked at the time your eardrums would very likely burst.
Your digestive tract would begin to swell up due to trapped gases, and some gasses would begin to leak out of your esophageal sphincter and anus.
Any ... | [
"When space suits below a specific operating pressure are used from craft that are pressurized to normal atmospheric pressure (such as the Space Shuttle), this requires astronauts to \"pre-breathe\" (meaning pre-breathe pure oxygen for a period) before donning their suits and depressurizing in the air lock. This pr... |
Who was in charge of soviet nuclear launches during the cuban missile crisis? Did they disobey orders to launch at any time? | There were a number of officers with launch authority.
Many Soviet subs carried nuclear torpedoes as well as SLBMs; at one point during the crisis (accounts vary) a captain ordered his sub's torpedoes armed and fired at a US Navy ship that had been harrassing his submarine. His first officer persuaded him not to laun... | [
"On October 28, 1962, during the peak of Cuban Missile Crisis U.S. Strategic Forces were at Defense Condition Two or DEFCON 2. According to missile technicians who witnessed events, the four MACE B missile sites on Okinawa erroneously received coded launch orders to fire all of their 32 nuclear cruise missiles at t... |
how come i can smell my fart when i'm running? | Because you aren't running fast enough | [
"(I'm in the ox's tummy/ Where it doesn't snow or rain./ When the ox farts/ Patufet will get out). After a while they hear Patufet's little voice and his mother feeds the ox with herbs that make it fart faster.\n",
"Then he goes out for a walk. The flowers along the path from his home wither and fall as he passes... |
When and how was February 29th accepted internationally as leap day? | The ancient Romans originally had ten months, the forerunners of March - December. (this is the reason the later months have names which correspond to latin numbers two less than you would expect). Originally the season of Winter was outside the calendar, its days were undated, but eventually January and February we... | [
"The set leap day was introduced in Rome as a part of the Julian reform in the 1st century BC. As before, the intercalation was made after February 23. The day following the Terminalia (February 23) was doubled, forming the \"\"bis sextum\"\"—literally 'twice sixth', since February 24 was 'the sixth day before the ... |
- if the earth is a sphere, why is north america considered "the west?" | Back in the day, if you started from Europe, you see Asia to the east and an undefined amount of water to the west. When we found out there's actually several Americas there the West/East dichotomy had already been established.
And overall, USA is extremely similar with Europe in terms of culture. If the Chinese had f... | [
"The visible rotation of the night sky around the visible celestial pole provides a vivid metaphor of that direction corresponding to up. Thus the choice of the north as corresponding to up in the northern hemisphere, or of south in that role in the southern, is, prior to worldwide communication, anything but an ar... |
Why has nature been able to reclaim Chernobyl and Pripyat so well, but humans cannot safely live there? Has the life adapted? | Life hasn't adapted. There's more habitat for animals, but the animals there (that aren't miscarried) have a greater chance of mutation, cancers, cataracts:
*Møller et al. (2005) suggested that the reproductive success and annual survival rates of barn swallows are much lower in the Exclusion Zone; 28% of barn swallo... | [
"The loss of human population in Chernobyl, sometimes referred to as the exclusion zone, has dramatically improved the area in many ways, giving the radioactive impact a silver lining. Agriculture in the area has dissipated, and along with that went herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers. The absence of man's infl... |
why countries sell each other guns | You sell things to other people to make money. For example, the US sells fighter jets to Israel to make money, yet national security isn't threatened because Israel is 1) far away and 2) a friendly nation (to the US). If you have surplus weapons and equipment sitting around at cost, then selling it makes sense. | [
"Weapons are purchased from the USA, UK, France or a private arms dealer. (Each country sells weapons that it itself produces, except the private dealer, who is a South African providing access to Soviet weaponry.) Each source offers a different range of weapons with different prices and most countries will only of... |
What is this strange stuff growing on my lawn? | This is called [slime mold](_URL_0_), which is actually a protist (like algae), not a fungus.
[Here's a link to a GIS search for "slime mold grass"](_URL_1_).
It is not harmful to your lawn, as you can see by the healthy look of the plants upon which it's growing. | [
"It is often found in areas of high anthropogenic activity and disturbance. Primarily, it grows in the lawns of urban areas, cemeteries, forest edges, roadsides, and among discarded lawn clippings. On the Pacific coast, is considered a troublesome lawn weed.\n",
"It is native to the United States and southern Can... |
why are sprouted grains touted as being so much healthier than non-sprouted? | The stuff that is in the grain is basically nutrient storage for the plant, packed tightly in a format that doesn't easily start rotting. That makes it difficult to digest - which is the reason we have to cook them before getting any nutrients out of there.
Now when the plant starts sprouting, it converts all the star... | [
"Because grains are small, hard and dry, they can be stored, measured, and transported more readily than can other kinds of food crops such as fresh fruits, roots and tubers. The development of grain agriculture allowed excess food to be produced and stored easily which could have led to the creation of the first p... |
Why did the Irish not think of fishing, during the Great Famine? | The following is a quote from [The Irish Famine](_URL_0_) by Peter Grey (1995):
> ...the fisheries of Iraland, were undeveloped, and in Galway and Mayo the herring fishermen were too poor to buy salt with which to preserve a catch.
> ... A large part of the Irish coast, in the south-west, west and north-west is per... | [
"During the Famine, Ireland produced enough food, flax, and wool to feed and clothe double its nine million people. When Ireland had experienced a famine in 1782–83, ports were closed to keep Irish-grown food in Ireland to feed the Irish. Local food prices promptly dropped. Merchants lobbied against the export ban,... |
Did females entering the workforce cause a drop in wages due to a much larger supply of labourers? | Lets make this question more specific. After the U.S. entered world war II many females assumed jobs that were vacated by men who went to fight the war. This caused a surge in female employment. What happened to wages in the country when the men returned from the war? | [
"Inequality in wages was to be expected for women. In 1906, the government found that the average weekly factory wage for a woman ranged from 11s 3d to 18s 8d, whereas a man's average weekly wage was around 25s 9d. Employers stated they preferred to hire women, because they could be \"more easily induced to undergo... |
Within your area of expertise, do you feel that, in general, the course of history is inevitable? | One of the major challenges in the study of history is rejecting the inherent desire to place events into a narrative. Narratives are great when you want to get a story across, but they can make us perceive things as inevitable.
Specifically, and this comes up a lot when talking about the industrial revolution until ... | [
"BULLET::::- The main reason for studying history is not because we should assign praise or blame, or simply because it is interesting, but because we need to study past experience to understand the present and the future. History can be seen as a \"laboratory\", the lab-record of which shows how, under given condi... |
what is arp cache poisoning? | Every network device has a MAC address, it's just a number, and every network card is built with it's own unique number. When you connect to a network (like your home Network), your computer asks for an IP (an address on the internet). Unlike a MAC, IPs are made in such a way that you can narrow down where to send data... | [
"An ARP cache is a collection of Address Resolution Protocol entries (mostly dynamic) that are created when an IP address is resolved to a MAC address (so the computer can effectively communicate with the IP address). An ARP cache has the disadvantage of potentially being used by hackers and cyber attackers. An ARP... |
Is Joan of Arc an historical anomaly? Are there other examples of young women in roles of military leadership? | [Gustavus_Adolphus](_URL_0_) led the Swedish Army when he inherited the crown at age 16.
Edward, Prince of Wales (known as The Black Prince) commanded the English vanguard at Crecy, being 16 years old.
Alexander the Great led the left wing at the battle of Chaeronea aged 18 and was in overall command of the Macedonia... | [
"BULLET::::- A Woman as Leader of Men: Joan of Arc's Military Career (by Kelly DeVries). Kelly DeVries, author of \"Joan of Arc: A Military Leader\", addresses as his main concern the question as to why the French soldiers followed Joan? After a brief outline of Joan's military career, he argues that Joan, in contr... |
why does a scale give different readings when i'm standing, crouching, or on my tip-toes? | It has to do with the way your weight disperses across the internal plate that's connected to the scale. If you stand on a corner, it's going to affect the way your weight makes it to the sensor, if you crouch with your ass out, your center of gravity is off of center, and the same thing happens. That's why they have a... | [
"Because the index scale is linear (and not logarithmic, as is often the case when measuring things such as brightness or sound level), it is reasonable to assume that one hour of exposure at index 5 is approximately equivalent to a half-hour at index 10.\n",
"In music theory, the term scale degree refers to the ... |
why do school district have to pay for special aids for students who are deaf or with major disabilities? why not health insurance? | Why should a school pay for health insurance? That's a private decision up to parents and families. They make these videos as it falls within their realm of responsibility to educate children regardless of condition of learning. | [
"On the other hand, not all handicapped students are recommended to go to these schools. Students who are autistic or even hearing impaired are encouraged to attend the public schools because educators want a blended environment with no child being left out. Additionally, the students will receive realistic scenari... |
assuming they are not shot out if the sky. how long will satellites function without human interaction? what would make them fail? | Usually the limiting factor in sattelite missions is funding.
If the project stops being funded the sattelite is either deorbitted and burns up in the atmosphere or left dead in space.
If communications with the sattelite is severed then it will drift for a very long time. However due to different factors sattelites ... | [
"For testing purposes, satellites in low earth orbit have been destroyed by ballistic missiles launched from earth. Russia, the United States, China and India have demonstrated the ability to eliminate satellites. In 2007 the Chinese military shot down an aging weather satellite, followed by the US Navy shooting do... |
Resurrection is recorded in the Bible. Where did the idea originate? Is this the first recorded instance of someone (or something) rising from the dead? | I am not by any means a historian, but your question is more literary than historical, feel free to remove is any of this is viewed as questionable.
From a purely literary perspective, the theme is pretty much as old as we have recorded stories in writing or pictures. It has been largely linked to agricultural cycles... | [
"The writings in the New Testament do not contain any descriptions of the moment of resurrection itself, but rather two types of eyewitness descriptions: appearances of Jesus to various people, and accounts of seeing the tomb empty.\n",
"However, the moment of the Resurrection is not described as such in the Gosp... |
why does something just smelling/tasting bad make some people physically sick, even though they haven't consumed any of the item in question? | It is something called taste aversion.
Basically, you have smelled something similar to the bad smelling thing in your past and it has done some sort of harm to your body, and your brain makes a copy of that smell so that your brain knows "If we smell/taste this again, get it away immediately!".
| [
"In the care of paediatric patients, young children may be unwilling to take medication with an unpleasant taste or smell, or due to fear of the unfamiliar. In these cases, the medication is mixed with food or drink to make it more acceptable.\n",
"Smell disorders can result in the inability to detect environment... |
how are the bubbles when you spit formed? | I'm assuming this is referring to when you simply spit on the ground.
When you spit you are forcing saliva out of your mouth by mechanical (muscular) forces and also by forcing air out of your lungs. The gases you exhale when spitting do not all dissipate. Some of these gases may become "trapped" in the liquid saliva... | [
"The bubbles are formed by gases that are not removed in time during the manufacture or processing of the optical component. Since the pressure of the gas in each direction is evenly distributed, the shape of the bubble is usually spherical.\n",
"Bubble nucleation happens when the a volatile becomes saturated. Ac... |
Can anybody recommend a good/best biography of Chiang Kai-Shek? | The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-Shek and the Struggle for Modern China by Jay Taylor. Taylor breaks from the common rhetoric of Chiang being an inept dictator who mismanaged China until he was ejected from the Mainland by Mao, after which he ruled Taiwan for the rest of his life under the protection of America. Instead h... | [
"In \"The New Republic\", Columbia professor Andrew J. Nathan, reviewing the book along with Jay Taylor's \"The Generalissimo\", observed that Chiang Kai-shek and his wife had been eulogized during the Second Sino-Japanese War but also denounced as \"corrupt, venal, and weak.\" With these two biographies, he contin... |
liberalism vs socialism | Making an assumption you are from the US - apologies if that is not the case.
Liberalism everywhere apart from the US is the polar opposite of Socialism, it's what I think most people in the US would recognise as Libertarianism.
For some reason the US uses liberal as a bye-word for left wing. No idea why this has ha... | [
"Liberal socialism is a socialist [[political philosophy]] that includes [[Liberalism|liberal]] principles within it. Liberal socialism does not have the goal of abolishing [[capitalism]] with a [[socialist economy]], instead it supports a mixed economy that includes both [[public property|public]] and [[private pr... |
What does our solar system orbit? | It orbits the center of the Milky Way. [See here](_URL_0_). | [
"A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO, also called a heliosynchronous orbit) is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is an orbit arranged so that it precesses through one complete revolution e... |
how did "chinese" food in the u.s. get so standardized? | The Chinese Exclusion Act in the 1800s banned Chinese immigrants from doing pretty much any good jobs which drove Chinese Americans to slums. Chinese food was considered dirty and for poor people as a result. The act was repealed during WWII because China was considered an ally. As a result Chinese food didn't reall... | [
"Along the way, cooks adapted southern Chinese dishes such as chop suey and developed a style of Chinese food not found in China. Restaurants (along with Chinese laundries) provided an ethnic niche for small businesses at a time when the Chinese people were excluded from most jobs in the wage economy by ethnic disc... |
Can you tan from the moon? | Nope, sorry. The theory is there, but it doesn't work out in real life. The sun is about a half million times brighter than the moon, so you would have to be out for half a million nights to get the same amount of sun you can get in one day. Also, the moon isn't as good at reflecting UV rays, the ones that tan you, so ... | [
"The Man in the Moon refers to any of several pareidolic images of a human face, head or body that certain traditions recognize in the disc of the full moon. The images are composed of the dark areas of the lunar \"maria\", or \"seas\" and the lighter highlands of the lunar surface.\n",
"Sunless tanning products ... |
Chinese Imperialism | I am trying to determine what efforts you have made in the past century to stem the growth of power and influence of the Chinese. I cannot actually comment on this first question though, as it is far out of our rules for the subreddit.
The bonus question is another matter.
The borders of "China" and it's many neighb... | [
"The Han Chinese civilization influenced neighboring states Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand and other Asian countries. Although Han Chinese superiority had only been sporadically reinforced by displays of Chinese military power, their Sinocentric system treated these countries as vassals of the emperor of China,... |
how does applying to college work, with paying, scholarships, admittance, and etc. | Its a lot of paperwork, and it varies based on the school.
But the basics are these -
You apply to college by filling out an application. Many use the "Common App" or the "Universal App" but some schools have their own application they want you to use. In either case a quick trip to their website will direct you.
... | [
"Students apply to one or more colleges or universities by submitting an application which each college evaluates using its own criteria. The college then decides whether or not to extend an offer of admission (and possibly financial aid) to the student. The majority of colleges admit students to the college as a w... |
do people calmly wake up from comas? | I've been in a coma( 2 days) and so have a few of my family members, from what I've seen no, they usually jump up or make a loud gasp, in my case it was screaming. | [
"People may emerge from a coma with a combination of physical, intellectual, and psychological difficulties that need special attention. It is common for coma patients to awaken in a profound state of confusion and suffer from dysarthria, the inability to articulate any speech. Recovery usually occurs gradually. In... |
What was the advent of 'modern' military R & D? | The first documented instance (in Italy) when military engineering was specifically removed from the ad-hoc efforts of an officer or commander to the purview of a noncombatant specialist for a sustained period of time was in early 16th century Italy, when Leonardo Da Vinci was handed letters patent making him "General... | [
"From the founding of the Army through the early 1900s, the Army did not have an effective R&D program — production and procurement were emphasized and the R&D during this era was limited to product improvement. Prior to World War II, the Army’s R&D was controlled through the G-4 as a function of the supply arms an... |
[Geology] Can metals be minerals? | Yes. Minerals have five defining characteristics:
1. Naturally occurring
2. Stable at room temperature
3. Represented by a chemical formula
4. Usually abiogenic
5. Ordered atomic arrangement
Now, a metal meets those requirements. You seem to be talking about "native metals" (_URL_0_). These are usually rarer in natur... | [
"A mineral is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound that occurs naturally in pure form. Minerals are most commonly associated with rocks due to the presence of minerals within rocks. These rocks may consist of one type of mineral, or may be an aggregate of two or more different types of minerals, spacially s... |
what does it mean that a city was founded by someone ? | Generally a city is "founded" by whoever was in charge when it was decided there was going to be a city there. That can mean that Alexander the Great rolled up on some villages in a nice spot for a port and "founded" a city on top of them, or Peter the Great (lots of the Greats here) decided he wanted a new capital and... | [
"The city is precisely the place created by man. It is the affirmation of man taking his life into his own hands, independently of God; it is the expression of man's rebellion against God. God has placed man at the garden, a place adapted to him. But man refuses the life for which God has destined him, which is uns... |
Were Christains killed for their faith in the Colosseum? | I don't have much time but I will eventually elaborate on this. =P
Basically Christians we're being killed for not participating in the sacrifises all Romans must participate in. Ea. their personal "contracts" with their Gods. Not doing this was treason. The commentary with the sources will explain in a bit more detai... | [
"The Colosseum is generally regarded by Christians as a site of the martyrdom of large numbers of believers during the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, as evidenced by Church history and tradition. On the other hand, other scholars believe that the majority of martyrdoms may have occurred at other ven... |
how do christmas lights flash individual bulbs? | Many are done as an arangement of 3 strings. If you look closely you can see three wires on many strings or icicle lights. If you really look closely, there's never a need for the entire string to be off and a individual bulb lit. You can get away with controlling 33% of the string at a time for it to look random.
I... | [
"A twinkle bulb is a special type of light bulb which blinks on and off for decorative effect. They are most commonly used on Christmas lights and other string lights, but can also be used for other ornamental purposes like electric jack-o-lanterns for Halloween and replica traffic lights.\n",
"Thermal switches a... |
"The Umayyad Caliphate actively discouraged Islamic conversions because of the jizya tax" how true is this statement? | Quite true. It wasn't just because of the jizya either; Islam at the time of the Umayyads was not a cosmopolitan religion. It was supposed to be for the still-tribal Arabs--foreigners just wouldn't "get it".
However, even though it was discouraged, Islam still did spread chiefly among the Iranian peoples, most import... | [
"There are a number of historians who see the rule of the Umayyads as setting up the \"dhimmah\" to increase taxes from the \"dhimmis\" to benefit the Arab Muslim community financially and by discouraging conversion. Islam, during the Umayyad Caliphate, was initially associated with the ethnic identity of the Arab ... |
Was Middle/Late Bronze Age a time of societal and technological stasis in the Near East? | The Middle and Late Bronze Age spanned nearly a thousand years, and naturally there were quite a few changes during that time period. I wrote about many of these changes from an Egyptian perspective in [Ancient Egypt is often described as the longest continuous human civilization, and seems to have maintained a surpris... | [
"The Late Bronze Age collapse involved a Dark Age transition period in the Near East, Asia Minor, the Aegean region, North Africa, Caucasus, Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, a transition which historians believe was violent, sudden, and culturally disruptive. The... |
what is the point of image-based captchas if there are already lots of bots that can solve them? do ticket-reselling websites have some secret ocr/high performance photo recognition software that google doesn't? | Captchas don't need to be perfect to be useful. If robots are making 5 accounts an hour then it's not really the end of the world, if they are making 5 accounts a second then a service quickly can get overwelmed. A speed bump can be as useful as a stop sign. | [
"Static image-based CAPTCHAs are routinely used to prevent automated sign-ups to websites by using text or images of words disguised so that optical character recognition (OCR) software has trouble reading them. However, in common CAPTCHA systems, users often fail to correctly solve the CAPTCHA 7% - 25% of the time... |
how does comparable gpu's have completely different power needs? | More modern manufacturing process, using smaller transistors that leak less heat during operation, and improvements to the arrangement of those transistors that results in a more efficient architecture. | [
"Graphics processing units (GPU) have continued to increase in energy usage, while CPUs designers have recently focused on improving performance per watt. High performance GPUs may draw large amount of power and hence, intelligent techniques are required to manage GPU power consumption. Measures like 3DMark2006 sco... |
Did medieval knights fight with any particular style? | In fact they did. It varied from the region and weapon used but many knights and fighters were trained in a specific style. Unfortunately not too many records exist before the 1300's but after that they are many training manuals and records from many different countries. If you're looking for an over view of all styles... | [
"In peacetime, knights often demonstrated their martial skills in tournaments, which usually took place on the grounds of a castle. Knights can parade their armour and banner to the whole court as the tournament commenced. Medieval tournaments were made up of martial sports called \"hastiludes\", and were not only ... |
Relative value of Roman Currencies in Julius' Caesar's day? | Egypt would have used the Tetradrachm during this time period near the end of the Ptolemaic Empire. Rome would modify the Egyptian currency slightly but allow it's own form of currency since it was specially under the direct control of the Emperor.
A denarius was supposedly a single days wage (the Romans manipulated ... | [
"Before the time of Julius Caesar the \"aureus\" was struck infrequently, probably because gold was seen as a mark of un-Roman luxury. Caesar struck the coin more often, and standardized the weight at formula_1 of a Roman pound (about 8 grams). Augustus (r. 29 BC – 14 AD) tariffed the value of the \"sestertius\" as... |
if uranium has a half life of 4.5 billion years, why do uranium fuel rods used in nuclear reactors need to be replaced every six years? | Because half life is from natural decay, not fission. Inside a nuclear reactor, we're actively causing the fuel atoms to split at a much higher rate than decay would happen in nature.
Plus there's also a significant difference between natural decay and atomic fission. | [
"The plutonium-238 used in these RTGs has a half-life of 87.74 years, in contrast to the 24,110 year half-life of plutonium-239 used in nuclear weapons and reactors. A consequence of the shorter half-life is that plutonium-238 is about 275 times more radioactive than plutonium-239 (i.e. /g compared to /g). For inst... |
How do you increase tolernce to alcohol? | Consumption-induced alcohol tolerance can be divided into functional tolerance and metabolic tolerance. There are some other minor changes but these are probably the most important.
Functional tolerance is when your body (particularly the central nervous system) adapts to compensate for the increased alcohol concentra... | [
"The Low Level of Response Model proposes that individuals who are less sensitive to the effects of alcohol are at greater risk for developing alcohol use disorder. One explanation for this phenomenon is that the experiences of elevated intoxication constitutes a feedback mechanism, which prompts drinking cessation... |
why do racecars have to change tires so often? usually tires are good for much longer than a day. | Race car tires are quite different from the tires on your car and are experiencing a lot more stress
Racing tires are quite soft at temperature compared to a normal tire, the softer tires give more grip than harder ones and more grip means faster laptimes. Even your softest street tire is still going to be on the ord... | [
"Every year we change fewer wheels, because the wheels and tyres are getting better and better. We changed about 20 wheels today. Five years ago, it was much worse — we'd be choosing about a hundred. Tyres are becoming much better than before. So, yes, our job is easier — except that the race generally goes faster ... |
jpeg compression | Let's take an image that is 1000 by 1000 pixels. Each pixel requires some number of bytes of data to tell you what color it is. Now, that's a significant amount of data, so a compression algorithm tries to reduce the amount of data you need to store that picture.
I'm not sure if this is how JPEG specifically works, ... | [
"JPEG ( ) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptib... |
why do people lose weight during sleep? | You body is taking in oxygen, and breathing out oxygen plus hydrogen (water) and oxygen + carbon (carbon dioxide).
That is basically how *all* long term weight is lost, and over the course of 8 hours, it adds up. Also, you perspire while you sleep, and that contributes too.
In addition, bathroom scales are not ter... | [
"Lack of sleep has been strongly associated with weight gain in a variety of studies across all ages, though research suggests children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable. Sleep deprivation is believed to influence the brain's response to high-calorie food, making it more attractive, while also affecting t... |
the difference between men's and women's deodorant, aside from price | > and thirdly, does that drive the price difference at all
No. The price difference is almost entirely due to marketing. The main differences between mens and womens is the scent and the packaging. It's the packaging you're paying more for in womens deodorant. | [
"Eau de toilette () literally translated as toilet water (but more appropriately described as \"grooming water\") is a lightly scented cologne used as a skin freshener. It is also referred to as \"aromatic waters\" and has a high alcohol content. It is usually applied directly to the skin after bathing or shaving. ... |
Were any of the prominent writers and thinkers of Enlightenment Age-era Europe aware of Buddhism? And if so, what were their thoughts on Buddhism as a religion and/or school of philosophy? | Most of the historical work on the West’s encounter with Buddhism has focused on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and it is generally assumed that there was not a great deal of information in Europe about Buddhism before this. It is true that Buddhist texts in Sanskrit and Pāli were not widely studied in the Wes... | [
"When European Christians made more direct contact with Buddhism in the early 16th century, Jesuit missionaries to Asia such as St. Francis Xavier and Ippolito Desideri sent back detailed accounts of Buddhist doctrine and practices. Ippolito Desideri spent a long time in Tibet, learning the Tibetan language and Tib... |
How do amino acids from food enter cells and become proteins? | The family of proteins called solute carrier proteins comprise a very large number of proteins, that were identified early, but not quickly characterized. We know now that many of them serve the role of transporting various amino acids into cells.
you can read more in this review: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) | [
"Amino acids must first pass out of organelles and cells into blood circulation via amino acid transporters, since the amine and carboxylic acid groups are typically ionized. Degradation of an amino acid, occurring in the liver and kidneys, often involves deamination by moving its amino group to alpha-ketoglutarate... |
why don't word processors like ms word have extensive autocorrect like smartphone keyboards do? | Extensive autocorrect on smartphones exists because typing on them is hard for most people. When you have a full keyboard, and in a word processor for desktop you are expected to, it's more annoying than helpful for the program to make guesses about what you *meant*. | [
"Apple now allows third-party developers to make keyboard apps that users can replace the default iOS keyboard with. For added privacy, Apple added a settings toggle called \"Allow Full Access\", that optionally enables the keyboard to act outside its app sandbox, such as synchronizing keyboard data to the cloud, t... |
Have there been any cases of sterile kings using "other" methods for producing progeny? | > Would they adopt children to serve as heirs?
Indeed, this is the practice in Roman empire, when emperors lack legitimate child. Most famously this was practiced by the first four of Five Good Emperors:Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius. They chose their successor by adopting them. Marcus Aurelius, having hi... | [
"Some clones of \"D. magna\" that do not produce males reproduce by automictic parthenogenesis, in which two haploid cells produced by meiosis fuse to produce a female zygote without fertilisation. This tends to make the resulting daughters homozygous, which may be deleterious.\n",
"Proponents claim that human re... |
Are there any books regarding indigenous peoples of the extreme north? | Check out Yuri Slezkine,[ *Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North*](_URL_0_) | [
"Joseph Bruchac (born October 16, 1942) is a writer of books relating to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a particular focus on northeastern Native American and Anglo-American lives and folklore. He has published poetry, novels, and short stories. Bruchac is from Saratoga Springs, New York, and is of Ab... |
I'm hoping to make an in-depth timeline of events to help my research. To anyone who's done the same, do you have any software or method recommendations? | I can recommend the free website Time Graphics. My example timeline is actually only semi-historical, as I used it to plot events in ancient history against the ancient timeline of the show *Steven Universe*, but hopefully it will serve as a good example of what the website is capable of: _URL_0_
As you can see, you c... | [
"BULLET::::- Ender, Gabriela; E-Book (2005–2011) about the OpenSpace-Online Real-Time Methodology: Knowledge-sharing, problem solving, results-oriented group dialogs about topics that matter with extensive conference documentation in real-time. Download https://web.archive.org/web/20070103022920/http://www.openspac... |
how do venus flytraps digest? | They secrete digestive enzymes. Interestingly enough, the digestive action of venus fly traps seem to have come from defenses against insects that were co-opted into carnivory. Jasmonic acid, which is used in other plants to activate defense mechanisms, is used by the venus fly trap to activate digestion. | [
"The Venus flytrap is a carnivorous plant that catches its prey with a trapping structure formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves, which is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces. When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap prepares to close, snapping s... |
how does a new show get on tv? | Someone comes up with an idea and pitches it to a network.
If the network likes the idea they create a "pilot episode" so they can see if they still like it and show it to other people to see if they like it too.
If that goes well then the show is made and broadcast on TV. | [
"TV shows are organized in several ways: by show, by network, or by mood. Shows are accessible from the major networks including ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, as well as others including Comedy Central, Disney Channel, HBO, PBS, and the History Channel. TV shows available include current programming such as Flight of the... |
...why does flash seem to be universally hated? | It takes forever to load,
sometimes you need to install shit to make it work at all,
it takes control of your keyboard unless you click outside the flash box,
you can't search in it, I can't see it with my iPhone,
it belongs to a big corporation that forced it down our throats....
Shall I continue? | [
"The Flash is one of DC Comics' most popular characters and has been integral to the publisher's many reality-changing \"crisis\" storylines over the years. The original meeting of the Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick and Silver Age Flash Barry Allen in \"Flash of Two Worlds\" (1961) introduced the Multiverse storytell... |
I am a Soviet Army soldier fighting in 1980s Afghanistan. I have been captured by the mujahedeen. How will I be treated as a prisoner? | So the most infamous results of "treatment" were quite horrifying. Stories of death and mutilation abound, and certainly were the common image for the scared, 18 year old conscripts being sent to 'fulfill their international duty' of the fate that awaited them, but the Mujahideen was hardly a monolithic entity, and tre... | [
"Leonid Khabarov (; born May 8, 1947) is a former Soviet military officer whose battalion was the first Soviet Army unit to cross the border into the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan on December 25, 1979, serving as the \"de facto\" beginning of the decade-long Soviet–Afghan War. He received widespread media atte... |
Does writing helps us remember? | Check out levels of processing. _URL_0_
I don't remember the citation, but the idea is that writing something down (specifically, putting it in your own words instead of copying it) forces you to process the information more deeply and thus retrieve the information better. It's outside my area of expertise but I rem... | [
"The \"cognitive account\" suggests that memories are remembered best because they occur during a period of rapid change followed by a period of relative stability. There is an assumed memory advantage for the novel and distinct events that is followed by a period of stability. The novel events are subject to great... |
what does the recent increase in arctic ice say about global warming and climate change? | One year does not a trend make on a long term global temperature graph.
Therefore, this really says nothing at the moment. Come see me in a couple or 10 years. | [
"The Arctic is especially vulnerable to the effects of any climate change, as has become apparent with the reduction of sea ice in recent years. Climate models predict much greater warming in the Arctic than the global average, resulting in significant international attention to the region. In particular, there are... |
when we first started measuring temperature how did we decide how large a degree would be? was it merely and arbitrary figure that worked, or was there a specific reason behind it? | It's based on water. They froze some water and decided that would be 0, they boiled some and decided that would be 100. So it's arbitrary in the sense that 100 is an arbitrary number but that's what it's based on.
The temperature of boiling water will always be the same whether they decided to say it would be called 1... | [
"Attempts at standardized temperature measurement prior to the 17th century were crude at best. For instance in 170 AD, physician Claudius Galenus mixed equal portions of ice and boiling water to create a \"neutral\" temperature standard. The modern scientific field has its origins in the works by Florentine scient... |
How much blame could we actually give to Herbert Hoover for the Great Depression? | Hoover had, in my opinion, little to do with the actual ONSET of the Depression and merely suffered the wrath of the fact that people need to blame...someone. And you can blame the President, while you cannot blame faceless brokers at the NYSE.
An unregulated and unmonitored Stock Exchange, which had been doing...wha... | [
"The causes of the Great Depression remain a matter of debate, but Hoover viewed a lack of confidence in the financial system as the fundamental economic problem facing the nation. He sought to avoid direct federal intervention, believing that the best way to bolster the economy was through the strengthening of bus... |
Why were the Americans able to fly such large bombers over Nagasaki and Hiroshima? Where were the air defences? | USAAF B-29s started bombing Japan in 1944, from China in July and the Mariana Islands in November. Similar to the strategy employed against Germany, they first targeted the Japanese aircraft industry. Though early raids were not always accurate or successful they did force the dispersal of aircraft production, the late... | [
"Its primary mission during World War II was to train the aerial gunners who would defend bombers. In 1942 and 1943, most American fighter planes didn't have the range needed to keep up with the bombers. This would leave the bombers and their crews unprotected on lengthy flights over enemy territory. Sitting in tur... |
Why are the flags of the Mughal Empire of India and the Safavid Dynasty of Persia/Iran so similar? | With regards to Iran, you can find a great article about historical Persian flags on the [Encyclopaedia Iranica](_URL_0_) website. To summarize, the Lion and Sun symbol has a rather long history. Both the Sun and Golden Lion are symbols of kingship and royalty and were in use from ancient times, as reliefs carved into ... | [
"The Mughal Empire had a number of imperial flags and standards. The principal imperial standard of the Mughals was known as the \"alam\" ( ). It was primarily moss green. It displayed a lion and sun ( ) facing the hoist of the flag. The Mughals traced their use of the \"alam\" back to Timur.\n",
"The Mughal Empi... |
why hasn’t cancer been bred out of the gene pool by natural selection? | Because cancer isn't an inherited disease. Cancer isn't even one single disease. You can inherit genes that predispose you to types of cancers, but cancer is just random mutations in cells that make them grow out of control. They can happen in in any person at any time; sometimes in response to carcinogens or mutagens,... | [
"A number of authors have questioned the assumption that cancers result from sequential random mutations as oversimplistic, suggesting instead that cancer results from a failure of the body to inhibit an innate, programmed proliferative tendency. A related theory developed by astrobiologists suggests that cancer is... |
What did the understanding of the elements of the periodic table look like in the 1500s? | /u/billbillbilly nails it pretty well.
The modern atomic theory didn't exist until the early 19th century, and things like conservation of mass, etc until the 18th century.
So forget the periodic table. "elements" were the four elements that all matter was made of: earth, air, fire, and water, going back to aristotle... | [
"His book, \"Die modernen Theorien der Chemie\", which he began writing in Breslau in 1862 and which was published two years later, contained an early version of the periodic table containing 28 elements, classified elements into six families by their valence—for the first time, elements had been grouped according ... |
Does exercise reduce blood pressure by sweating out excess salt? | Not a very large role, I'm afraid. BP is regulated by multiple different salts (and a host of other factors). I suspect if you sweat just pure NaCl, you would decrease blood pressure, but it would be fatal since the sodium to potassium ratio must be preserved. Therefore you [sweat out a mixture of salts](_URL_0_), w... | [
"It is widely believed that excessive sweating due to strenuous exercise can lead to muscle cramps. Deficiency of sodium and other electrolytes may lead to contracted interstitial fluid compartments, which may exacerbate the muscle cramping. According to this theory, the increased blood plasma osmolality from sweat... |
the price of eggs have skyrocketed, but why hasn't the price of chicken gone up? | The chickens we eat are not the same chickens that lay the eggs we eat. Apples and oranges. | [
"In 2015, the national flock suffered due to the spread of bird flu, affecting birds in fourteen states, leading to layoffs. In a May 2015 report by the \"Associated Press\", it reported that 10% of egg laying chickens were dead or dying due to bird flu. Beginning in June 2015, rationing of eggs has begun, leading ... |
Is an invisible material physically possible ? | Yes, it is possible to a certain extent.
Scientists are currently working with "metamaterials" which are usually composed of metals and ceramics.
Scientists are making small things appear and disappear but for an invisibility cloak which is seen in Harry Potter - We are a long way from.
The Army are also developing... | [
"BULLET::::- \"So my flesh is not only the principle of the constitution of my objective body, it hides in it its invisible substance. Such is the strange condition of this object that we call a body : it doesn’t consist at all in the visible appearance to which we have always reduced it ; precisely in its reality ... |
what exactly happens when a music producer "masters" a song/album? | When most people hear the term 'mastering', they are think of the mixing process, aka balancing volumes and adding effects, etc. Mastering is actually a specialized subset of mixing that is a form of audio quality control or quality assurance. Only a relative handful of people and studios are capable of mastering, comp... | [
"A \"record producer\" or \"music producer\" has a very broad role in overseeing and managing the recording and production of a band or performer's music. A producer has many roles that may include, but are not limited to, gathering ideas for the project, composing the music for the project, selecting songs or sess... |
what makes ab+ plasma and platelets a universal donor? | AB+ is a good platelet donor because their platelets dont contain any antibodies towards the other blood types. They have the A, B and + on their red blood cells so they dont see any of those as foreign if a donated cell has one of those on it | [
"From 1979 to 1981 he was executive vice president of the Hyland Therapeutics division of Baxter Travenol in Glendale, California. In the United States, plasma donors were paid for their time as the time commitment for regular donors is over 200 hours per year. Standards for donating plasma are set by the U.S. Food... |
With recent generations being immunized against the chicken pox, how will the frequency of shingles cases be affected? | That would be the idea. It's all herpes zoster infections - shingles is just the recurrence of the same infection. When there are no new cases of chickenpox then, eventually, there would be no new cases of shingles. But it'll take a long time - all the people who have had chickenpox need to get old and die and all the ... | [
"During 2003 and the first half of 2004, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported eight deaths from varicella, six of whom were children or adolescents. These deaths and hospital admissions have substantially declined in the US due to vaccination, though the rate of shingles infection has in... |
what is an actual good strategy for taking those personality tests you find on job applications? what exactly are they looking for? | the more elaborate ones have a combination of questions that let them see if you're honest.
Not being able to sleep because of stress cannot be good in my view. Bad stress management.
It's like saying yes to the question "do you have psychological problems?".
The everything is possible one is trickier indeed, it d... | [
"Employers may also view personality tests as more accurate assessment of a candidate's behavioral characteristics versus an employment reference. But the problem with using personality tests as a hiring tool is the notion a person's job performance in one environment will carry over to another work environment. Ho... |
Can we measure dark energy? | That depends on what you mean by measure. For all practical intents and purposes, however, the answer is no. Dark energy is just the name we give a phenomenon about which we understand very little. So far, the only measurements we've made regarding dark energy is its relative abundance: we know it makes up ~75% of the ... | [
"Dark energy can be considered as a measurement of the cosmological constant. In scale relativity, dark energy would come from a potential energy manifested by the fractal geometry of the universe at large scales, in the same way as the Newtonian potential is a manifestation of its curved geometry in general relati... |
how does a program that is a 2mb download take up 30mb of space when installed? | It depends. There's really 3 scenarios:
1. It's a compressed installer that extracts itself as part of the installation
2. The installed runs a bunch of scripts that generate placeholder files
3. It's a stub installer that actually is just downloading additional files as part of the installer (See: [Java](_URL_0_) O... | [
"In theory, a standard 48K program may take about 5 minutes to load: 49,152 bytes × 8 = 393,216 bits; 393,216 bits / 1,365 baud ≈ 288 seconds = 4:48 minutes. In practice, however, such a program usually takes between 3–4 minutes to load (because of different number of 0s and 1s encoded using audio frequency shift k... |
how are home run distances in baseball calculated as soon as the ball lands? | They point a laser range finder at the spot it landed. | [
"From 1973 to 1979, fans could estimate the distance of home run balls, since there were several signs beyond the outfield wall giving the distance in feet from home plate, in addition to the nine markers within the field.\n",
"The baseball field dimensions had varied slightly over the years. In 1969, the distanc... |
Can someone explain Lupus to me? | Aeina has a great explanation, so I won't retread any ground. I'd just add that in Lupus it's specifically diagnosed by the presence of a antinuclear antibody (ANA), meaning there's an antibody targeting the nucleus, or part of the cell that contains DNA. While there are actually a few variations on this disease, and A... | [
"Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), also known simply as lupus, is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue in many parts of the body. Symptoms vary between people and may be mild to severe. Common symptoms include painful and swollen joints, fever, chest pain, hair... |
why the american constitution is still the same yet laws change | The Consitution has been changed 27 times (although the first 10 changes happened at the same time). These changes are called "Amendments." The procedure for passing an Amendment is described in the Constitution itself. The way to pass an Amendment is to have it approved by 2/3 of both branches of Congress (the grou... | [
"Each of the United States has its own governing Constitution. The States Constitutions are usually longer and written in much more detail than the U.S. Constitution. For example, the Alabama Constitution has more than 600 pages and the New Jersey Constitution of 1947 is three times longer than the U.S. Constitutio... |
why does society have "girl stuff" and "guy stuff" | > Is it more of a result of nature or nurture?
There is a lot to this subject, but I'm going to focus on this bit.
This question is generally bogus. Nature and nurture are both important aspects when understanding behavior. In this case, there are clearly biological differences between males and females and these d... | [
"Since the 1990s, \"It Girl\" or \"It-Girl\" has been used slightly differently, referring to a wealthy, normally unemployed, young woman who is pictured in tabloids going to many parties often in the company of other celebrities, receiving media coverage in spite of no real personal achievements or TV hosting / pr... |
sometimes police can enter a house saying they have a warrant, but do not need to produce it for proof to the people in the house? | Under the Federal Constitution there is no requirement to show the warrant. There is a standard of reasonableness with regard to the manner of execution of the search or arrest, and some decisions have cited the display of the warrant, but the Supreme Court has affirmatively held it is not a requirement.
Some states ... | [
"The Court reasoned that searches \"incident to arrest\" are limited to the area within the immediate control of the suspect. While police could reasonably search and seize evidence on or around the arrestee's person, police were prohibited from rummaging through the entire house without a search warrant. The Court... |
I am a merchant traveling along the Silk Road during the first century. What is life like for me and what kinds of things am I concerned about? | My suggestion to you is to read Susan Whitfields "Life Along the Silk Road", it is a historical fiction book, but it beautifully illustrates the trials that people faced along the Silk Road routes.
The Silk Road, as I'm sure you're aware was not just one long trail that stretched from East to West. There was just as m... | [
"In the late Middle Ages, transcontinental trade over the land routes of the Silk Road declined as sea trade increased. The Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the civilizations of China, India, Ancient Egypt, Persia, Arabia, and Ancient Rome. Though silk was certainly the major trade item from... |
why does my husband get an erection when he's tired? | Your body needs to tense a muscle to *prevent* an erection. When you're tired this muscle relaxes and you become erect. Same reason you get morning wood. | [
"Erections during sleep or when waking up are medically known as nocturnal penile tumescence and colloquially referred to as \"morning wood\". The penis can regularly get erect during sleep and men or boys often wake up with an erection. Once a boy reaches his teenage years, erections occur much more frequently due... |
Were there eunuchs in Pre-Columbian American civilizations? | I've researched this a little, in precisely the same thinking as you! It's a solid *sort of...* If you, fellow eunuchologist, mean as I think you do "other-gendered people occupying a distinct social role or roles with their gender made manifest through the act of literal castration" then no. Which is boring. But if yo... | [
"A small number of eunuchs were also acquired by the slave traders in the southern parts of Ethiopia. Mainly consisting of young children, they led the most privileged lives and commanded the highest prices in the Islamic global markets because of their rarity. They served in the harems of the affluent or guarded h... |
how do people "let go" and choose to die? | I would add an alternative explanation: the (inopportunely named, in this case...) survivorship bias.
For every person who died at just the right moment to create a memorable and touching story about how they "hung on" until the right time, there are quite possibly 99 other people who died far too early or much later... | [
"Killing others lead to short life if one becomes reborn in the human plane instead of the four lower States of Deprivation. By abandoning the very acts of killing and harming, one gets to be reborn in a heavenly world. Alternatively, one gets to be reborn in the human world being endowed with long life.\n",
"Dea... |
why are ncaa basketball rules so different from nba rules? | The NCAA wants to differentiate itself from the NBA to minimize the perception that the players in one billion dollar league are very well compensated while the players in the other are lucky to get a scholarship. | [
"The rules of basketball are the rules and regulations that govern the play, officiating, equipment and procedures of basketball. While many of the basic rules are uniform throughout the world, variations do exist. Most leagues or governing bodies in North America, the most important of which are the National Baske... |
Why does Tyrannosaurus rex have a second set of rib bones? | They're called gastral ribs. Last I read we're not entirely sure what purpose they served or if they had any purpose. That's all I really know about the subject a paleontologist can tell you more. | [
"Like many other fossils of \"Tyrannosaurus rex\", the skeleton of Stan shows many broken and healed bones. These include broken ribs and damages in the skull. One of the most prominent injuries are in the neck and the skull. A piece of bone is missing at the rear, and the skull also bears a hole 1 inch wide, proba... |
modern germany's outlook and regulations on naziism? | They do acknowledge naziism in school. Nazi paraphernalia is banned for collecting purposes, although museums can display it. Same goes for Mein Kampf, not allowed to be sold or distributed.
Source: My mother is German, told me about all this. | [
"From 1933 to 1945, the Nazi regime ruled Germany and controlled much of Europe. During this time, Nazi Germany shifted from the post-World War I society which characterized the Weimar Republic and introduced an ideology of \"biological racism\" into the country's legal and justicial systems. The shift from the tra... |
if gas pumps can accurately measure high speed flow, why do they always slow to a crawl at the end? | Think of it like filling a water bottle from a faucet. If you open the tap all the way and try to fill it you will have to stop when the water starts bubbling out of the top from the air trying to escape. The result is that you have a bottle that isn't actually full. Now if you start to close the tap and slow down the ... | [
"Large ports and valves can show high flow rates on a flow bench but the velocity can be lowered to the point that the gas dynamics of a real engine are ruined. Overly large ports also contribute to fuel fall out.\n",
"Pumping speed refers to the volume flow rate of a pump at its inlet, often measured in volume p... |
Why does it hurt when disinfectant is applied to wounds? | Disinfectants are not picky about the type of cells they kill.
[Alcohol](_URL_2_) dehydrates cells and denatures proteins. Proteins and cell walls have the shape they do partly from interaction with water and if you change the solvent everything dies. Antibiotics are an off switch for bacteria and disinfectants are nu... | [
"which is important for speeding the healing of chronic wounds. Some researchers have experimented with the use of tea tree oil, an antibacterial agent which also has anti-inflammatory effects. Disinfectants are contraindicated because they damage tissues and delay wound contraction. Further, they are rendered inef... |
we always hear that the military is "fighting to protect our rights." but who are they fighting and why do they want to take away our rights? | That statement is not meant to be taken literally. The implication is that if, *hypothetically,* someone were to bring us harm, the military would stop them.
By that logic, anyone who joins the military has signed up to (maybe, someday) die for our freedom. | [
"BULLET::::6. We believe that Black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like Black people, are being victimized by the White racist government of America. We will prote... |
what problems do modern mathematicians attempt to solve? | They're working on impossibly hard problems like:
- Is every even number the sum of two primes?
- Start with any natural number x. If it's even, go to x / 2. If it's odd got to 3x + 1. If you do this the cycle 1, 4, 2, 1... repeats forever. Are there any other cycles?
- ~~A Pythagorean triple is three natu... | [
"BULLET::::- Problem solving: the cultivation of mathematical ingenuity, creativity and heuristic thinking by setting students open-ended, unusual, and sometimes unsolved problems. The problems can range from simple word problems to problems from international mathematics competitions such as the International Math... |
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