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how do they get water up large skyscrapers
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with pumps! the pressure that is supplied by the water main available in most cities is usually only adequate to get water up around 6-8 stories. any building higher than that needs to supplement the water pressure in its system with pumps.
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[
"In particular, the problem of bringing and keeping water on the upper floors is an important constraint in the design of skyscrapers. Water is necessary for tenant use, air conditioning, equipment cooling, and basic firefighting through sprinklers (especially important since ground-based firefighting equipment usually cannot reach higher than a dozen floors or so). It is inefficient, and seldom feasible, for water pumps to send water directly to a height of several hundred meters, so intermediate pumps and water tanks are used. The pumps on each group of mechanical floors act as a relay to the next one up, while the tanks hold water in reserve for normal and emergency use. Usually the pumps have enough power to bypass a level if the pumps there have failed, and send water two levels up.\n",
"A variety of materials can be used to construct a typical water tower; steel and reinforced or prestressed concrete are most often used (with wood, fiberglass, or brick also in use), incorporating an interior coating to protect the water from any effects from the lining material. The reservoir in the tower may be spherical, cylindrical, or an ellipsoid, with a minimum height of approximately and a minimum of in diameter. A standard water tower typically has a height of approximately . \n",
"The water tower, significant in that it is constructed of poured concrete, stands at tall and roughly in diameter. The capacity tank is supported by a hollow supporting column which contains an unusual set of spiral windows and an internal staircase. The tower pumped and stored water from a reservoir built below it at the time of its construction, releasing the water via gravity on demand.\n",
"A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water supply system for the distribution of potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. In some places, the term standpipe is used interchangeably to refer to a water tower. Water towers often operate in conjunction with underground or surface service reservoirs, which store treated water close to where it will be used. Other types of water towers may only store raw (non-potable) water for fire protection or industrial purposes, and may not necessarily be connected to a public water supply.\n",
"The original water tower builders were barrel makers who expanded their craft to meet a modern need as buildings in the city grew taller in height. Even today, no sealant is used to hold the water in. The wooden walls of the water tower are held together with steel cables or straps, but water leaks through the gaps when first filled. As the water saturates the wood, it swells, the gaps close and become impermeable.\n",
"The water tower is built in reinforced concrete. It has a round foot print and pilasters at close intervals. The lower part of the structure has round windows in a helix arrangement. It has a diameter of 20 m and is 34 m tall.\n",
"The rooftop water towers store of water until it is needed in the building below. The upper portion of water is skimmed off the top for everyday use while the water in the bottom of the tower is held in reserve to fight fire. When the water drops below a certain level, a pressure switch, level switch or float valve will activate a pump or open a public water line to refill the water tower.\n"
] |
how did media control symbols become standard (play, pause, fast forward, etc.)? do other parts of the world use different symbols?
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_URL_0_
There is actually an international standard for all forms of icons.
I'm going off of personal knowledge here, so correct me if I'm wrong, but during the 80s when electronics started to become more widespread globally and production switched from the west to the east, many of the manufacturers understood they would need a standardized way of denoting controls on electronics. They held a convention to draft up a list of virtually any kind of control one would need as a symbol that could be understood. There like a huge book of hundreds of symbols.
TL;DR the symbols we used are arbitrary and standardized internationally.
EDIT:removed the extra "d".
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[
"In digital electronics, analogue electronics and entertainment, the user interface of media may include media controls or player controls, to enact and change or adjust the process of watching film or listening to audio. These widely known symbols can be found in a multitude of software products, exemplifying what is known as dominant design.\n",
"The main symbols date back to the 1960s, with the Pause symbol having reportedly been invented at Ampex during that decade for use on reel-to-reel audio recorder controls, due to the difficulty of translating the word \"pause\" into some languages used in foreign markets. The Pause symbol was designed as a variation on the existing square Stop symbol and was intended to evoke the concept of an interruption or \"stutter stop\".\n",
"In the 1980s, public broadcasters started to randomly show logos during programs to prevent video piracy, following the lead of Italian broadcasters RAI and Canale 5. After the first private stations emerged in 1984, permanently showing their logo most times, the public broadcasters soon followed.\n",
"The well-known on/off power symbol was the result of the logical evolution in user interface design. Originally, most early power controls consisted of switches that were toggled between two states demarcated by the words \"On\" and \"Off\". As technology became more ubiquitous, these English words were replaced with the universal symbols line \"|\" and circle \"o\" (typically without serifs) to bypass language barriers. This standard is still used on toggle power switches.\n",
"Following a review of national signage in 1921, a limited number of warning and hazard information plates also used symbols, rather than only text. Such symbols had been developed in continental Europe as early as 1909, but before this had been dismissed by the UK which favoured the use of text. The symbols were simple silhouettes which were easy to recognise at a distance. Some were unusual, such as 'SCHOOL' (and later 'CHILDREN') was depicted by the 'flaming torch of knowledge'. The government made increasing efforts to standardise road signs in the Road Traffic Act 1930 (RTA) and regulations of 1933, being finally consolidated with the publication of the 1934 \"Road Traffic Acts and Regulations\" handbook. These saw the end of non-standard permanent signs being erected by motoring clubs, such as the black and yellow vitreous enamel AA signs (although this did not include temporary direction signs). While the RSAC had ceased erecting signs, the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) had begun to do so to RTA specifications (save for the inclusion of the RAC badge) and was very active in this respect in the late-1930s.\n",
"Printing control characters were first used to control the physical mechanism of printers, the earliest output device. An early implementation of this idea was the out-of-band ASA carriage control characters. Later, control characters were integrated into the stream of data to be printed.\n",
"In recent years, there has been a proliferation of devices that use media symbols in order to represent the Run/Stop/Pause functions. Likewise, user interface programing pertaining to these functions has also been influenced by that of media players. For example, some washers and dryers with a common illuminated play/pause button are programmed so that when the appliance is off, the play/pause light stays off. When the device is running the light stays on, and when the washer/dryer is in a paused state, the button flashes. This type of programing is similar to that of earlier CD players, which are also set to flash in this manner in the pause state.\n"
] |
what does 'all property is theft' mean?
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It is a saying that implies that anything you can own involves the exploitation and/or abuse of someone or something that is not being compensated, and that you can't separate the property itself from it's origins... That you can't, for examply, own a pair of shoes without separating them from the fact that it likely used child workers to make them, or the rubber in them came from rubber trees planted on land taken generations ago from the indigenous people originally there.
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[
"In common usage, theft is the taking of another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting, library theft, and fraud (obtaining money under false pretenses). In some jurisdictions, theft is considered to be synonymous with larceny; in others, theft has replaced larceny. Someone who carries out an act of or makes a career of theft is known as a thief. The act of theft is also known by other terms such as stealing, thieving, and filching.\n",
"Theft is defined in section 134 of the \"Criminal Consolidation Act\" 1935 (SA) as being where a person deals with property dishonestly, without the owners consent and intending to deprive the owner of their property, or make a serious encroachment on the proprietary rights of the owner.\n",
"Theft is defined in the \"Crimes Act\" 1958 (Vic) as when a person \"dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it.\". The actus reus and mens rea are defined as follows:\n",
"Theft by finding occurs when someone chances upon an object which seems abandoned and takes possession of the object but fails to take steps to establish whether the object is genuinely abandoned and not merely lost or unattended. In some jurisdictions the crime is called \"larceny by finding\" or \"stealing by finding\".\n",
"Theft by finding occurs when someone chances upon an object which seems abandoned and takes possession of the object but fails to take steps to establish whether the object is genuinely abandoned and not merely lost or unattended. In some jurisdictions the crime is called \"larceny by finding\" or \"stealing by finding\". \n",
"Stolen goods: This term means property stolen anywhere, as long as the theft amounted to an offence where committed. It includes any proceeds of that property, including money for which it has been sold, and anything bought with those proceeds. However, property which has been returned to the original owner, or otherwise lawful custody, is no longer regarded as stolen, by section 24(3). This may create difficulties, as in Haughton v. Smith. It is not necessary that the property be \"stolen\" in a limited sense; section 24(4) of the Act specifically extends the scope to property obtained by fraud or blackmail. However, it is also implicit in the definition of offences such as burglary or robbery that handling may apply to the proceeds of these offences.\n",
"In the United States, if the owner of a property has renounced all property rights in the object, then the property is abandoned. Since theft is the unlawful taking of another person's property, an essential element of the \"actus reus\" of theft is absent.\n"
] |
why has the global temperature spiked so dramatically in the last 10-20 years even though that's the timespan we've become aware of global warming and started trying to combat it?
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Guess what happened before 20 years ago? Rampant pollution while being oblivious. "Just exhaust it, planet Earth will pick up the slack and balance out" was the mentality back then.
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[
"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in its first working group report that “most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations, contribute to climate change.\n",
"\"The New York Times\" reported that \"the leading international network of climate scientists has concluded for the first time that global warming is 'unequivocal' and that human activity is the main driver, 'very likely' causing most of the rise in temperatures since 1950\".\n",
"In the scientific literature, there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused primarily by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. With regard to the global warming controversy, the scientific mainstream puts neither doubt on the existence of global warming nor on its causes and effects.\n",
"In the scientific literature, there is an overwhelming consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view. Scientific discussion takes place in journal articles that are peer-reviewed, which scientists subject to assessment every couple of years in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports. The scientific consensus stated in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report is that it \"is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century\".\n",
"The anomalously high global temperature in 1998 due to El Niño resulted in a brief drop in subsequent years. However, a 2001 Hansen report in the journal \"Science\" states that global warming continues, and that the increasing temperatures should stimulate discussions on how to slow global warming. The temperature data was updated in 2006 to report that temperatures are now warmer than a century ago, and concluded that the recent global warming is a real climate change and not an artifact from the urban heat island effect. The regional variation of warming, with more warming in the higher latitudes, is further evidence of warming that is anthropogenic in origin.\n",
"The view that human activities are likely responsible for most of the observed increase in global mean temperature (\"global warming\") since the mid-20th century is an accurate reflection of current scientific thinking. Human-induced warming of the climate is expected to continue throughout the 21st century and beyond.\n",
"On 16 August Reuters said the \"panel will try to explain why global temperatures, while still increasing, have risen more slowly since about 1998 even though greenhouse gas concentrations have hit repeated record highs in that time\". \n"
] |
How do trees grow in such a way as to not fall over?
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I think it has more to do with the roots than with the branches. If trees had to balance their branches in order to stay upright, they would get blown over all the time.
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[
"Trees that grow adjacent to lakes or other natural forest edges, or in exposed situations such as hill sides, develop greater rooting strength through growth feedback with wind movement, i.e. 'adaptive' or 'acclimative' growth. If a tree does not experience much wind movement during the stem exclusion phase of stand succession, it is not likely to develop a resistance to wind. Thus, when a fully or partially developed stand is bisected by a new road or by a clearcut, the trees on the new edge are less supported by neighbouring trees than they were and may not be capable of withstanding the higher forces which they now experience.\n",
"An example of a small scale disturbance is a tree falling. This can cause soil movement, which redistributes any nutrients or organisms that were attached to the tree. The tree falling also opens up the canopy for light entrance, which can support the growth of other trees and plants.\n",
"The young plant grows straight upwards and has the form of a narrow cone with branches going out along the length of the trunk. However, as it gains in height, the lowest branches are shed, preventing vines from climbing. By maturity, the top branches form an imposing crown that stands out over all other native trees, dominating the forest canopy.\n",
"When the tree is about 1 to 1.5 metres in height, it is advisable to cut the roots on one side and lean the tree to the other (in the direction of the midday sun at about 30 to 45 degrees). This allows fruiting branches to grow all along the trunk rather than just at the top.\n",
"Depending upon climate and soil type the tree may grow to over in height, but it typically stands in height and the crown is round. The trunk is thick with corky bark. The branches are long and thick, typically drooping.\n",
"Individual trees growing on steep slopes tend to develop some buttressing that extends from the roots up into the base of the stem. This forms a sort of cushion that adheres to the rock and ensures a certain stability.\n",
"The branches droop as the tree grows, and will require pruning for vehicular or pedestrian clearance beneath them. The branches are breakage resistant. The trees require pruning to develop strong structure during young growth.\n"
] |
How did the idea of the atom advance beyond a theory? (other questions inside)
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Atomic theory came from chemistry, from the realization that there must be little indivisible bits of each element. (Actually atomic theory is often said to go back to antiquity and the Greeks, but that's a bit misleading, because until the 19th century it all amounted to little more than "I bet stuff has bits in.")
So the chemists did their thing for about a hundred years, and came to the conclusion that you can't ever have less than *this much* of any element, and in fact all stuff is made of integer multiples of these little indivisible bits.
*Subatomic* theory didn't come until about a hundred years later, with the discovery of the electron.
I'm not sure where you got the idea that different elements can have the same number of protons. That's the *opposite* of the truth. Elements are *distinguished* by the number of protons in their atoms. That's why the periodic table of the elements has one entry for each number of protons, starting at one — hydrogen — and counting up to 118 or whatever we're up to now.
The number of *neutrons* in an atom, for a given number of protons, distinguishes *isotopes.* Some isotopes are stable, and others are unstable and will decay into more and more stable forms over time. This is the source of radioactivity.
The number of *electrons* in an atom can change essentially any time, through a process called ionization. Chemistry is concerned almost entirely with the way the electrons in different atoms interact.
And no, quarks are not "the smaller version of atoms." They're in fact completely different. *Completely* different. Once you get past "here are some things that are too small to see," you're basically done comparing the atomic model to the quark model.
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[
"Atomism is a central part of today's relationship between thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Ancient thinkers such as Leucippus and Democritus, and later the Epicureans, by advancing atomism, laid the foundations for the later atomic theory. Until experimental proof of atoms was later provided in the 20th century, the atomic theory was driven largely by philosophical considerations and scientific intuition.\n",
"At the beginning of the 20th century science was progressing quickly and the inner workings of the atom were just beginning to be discovered. In 1900, Max Planck proposed the quantum theory, the idea that all energy moves in discrete amounts called quanta. In 1905, Albert Einstein published his theory of special relativity, which would be instrumental in the progression of physics and the understanding of the universe. Around 1927, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, collaborating with many other physicists, developed the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory, determining the probabilities of the movement of particles. These breakthroughs provided the model for the structure and workings of the atom and drove the revolution that would sweep up Nathan Rosen.\n",
"With the rise of scholasticism and the decline of the Roman Empire, the atomic theory was abandoned for many ages in favor of the various four element theories and later alchemical theories. The 17th century, however, saw a resurgence in the atomic theory primarily through the works of Gassendi, and Newton. Among other scientists of that time Gassendi deeply studied ancient history, wrote major works about Epicurus natural philosophy and was a persuasive propagandist of it. He reasoned that to account for the size and shape of atoms moving in a void could account for the properties of matter. Heat was due to small, round atoms; cold, to pyramidal atoms with sharp points, which accounted for the pricking sensation of severe cold; and solids were held together by interlacing hooks. Newton, though he acknowledged the various atom attachment theories in vogue at the time, i.e. \"hooked atoms\", \"glued atoms\" (bodies at rest), and the \"stick together by conspiring motions\" theory, rather believed, as famously stated in \"Query 31\" of his 1704 \"Opticks\", that particles attract one another by some force, which \"in immediate contact is extremely strong, at small distances performs the chemical operations, and reaches not far from particles with any sensible effect.\" \n",
"At around 450 BCE Democritus, a later Greek philosopher, developed an atomic theory that was similar to modern atomic theory. His mentor, Leucippus, is credited with this same theory. The hypothesis of Leucippus and Democritus held everything to be composed of atoms. But these \"atoms\", called \"atomos\", were indivisible, and indestructible. He presciently stated that between atoms lies empty space, and that atoms are constantly in motion. He was incorrect only in stating that atoms come in different sizes and shapes, and that each object had its own shaped and sized atom.\n",
"The theory of the atomists appears to be more nearly aligned with that of modern science than any other theory of antiquity. However, the similarity with modern concepts of science can be confusing when trying to understand where the hypothesis came from. Classical atomists could not have had an empirical basis for modern concepts of atoms and molecules.\n",
"One of the earliest steps towards \"atomic physics\" was the recognition that matter was composed of \"atoms\", in modern terms the basic unit of a chemical element. This theory was developed by John Dalton in the 18th century. At this stage, it wasn't clear what atoms were - although they could be described and classified by their observable properties in bulk; summarized by the developing periodic table, by John Newlands and Dmitri Mendeleyev around the mid to late 19th century.\n",
"Planetary models of atoms were not new, but Bohr's treatment was. Taking the 1912 paper by Darwin on the role of electrons in the interaction of alpha particles with a nucleus as his starting point, he advanced the theory of electrons travelling in orbits around the atom's nucleus, with the chemical properties of each element being largely determined by the number of electrons in the outer orbits of its atoms. He introduced the idea that an electron could drop from a higher-energy orbit to a lower one, in the process emitting a quantum of discrete energy. This became a basis for what is now known as the old quantum theory.\n"
] |
AskScience AMA Series: We're a group of paleontologists here to answer your paleontology questions! Ask us anything!
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In your field, what is the biggest unsolved mystery or unexplained fossil that you want answered?
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[
"The Paleontological Research Institution, or PRI, is a paleontological organization in Ithaca, New York with a mission including both research and education. PRI is affiliated with Cornell University, houses one of the largest fossil collections in North America, and publishes, among other things, the oldest journal of paleontology in the western hemisphere, \"Bulletins of American Paleontology\".\n",
"Bulletins of American Paleontology is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Paleontological Research Institution and issued biannually that features monographs and dissertations in the field of paleontology and other related subjects. Founded by Gilbert Harris in 1895, it is the oldest continuously-published paleontological periodical in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the oldest in the world.\n",
"The British Society of Periodontology exists to promote the art and science of periodontology. Their membership includes specialist practitioners, periodontists, general dentists, consultants and trainees in restorative dentistry, clinical academics, dental hygienists and therapists, specialist trainees in periodontology and many others.\n",
"The Department of Periodontology is a division of the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine Department of Oral Health and Diagnostic Sciences. It carries out research and offers training for pre-doctoral and postgraduate students.\n",
"Dr. Judith Schiebout is an American paleontologist, and is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Geology at Louisiana State University and Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at LSU Museum of Natural Science.\n",
"Dr. Bonnan runs and updates the Evolving Paleontologist Blog which blogs and posts on all topics related to vertebrate paleontology, functional morphology, evolutionary biology, and whatever else strikes his scientific interests.\n",
"Since 1999, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology has awarded the John J. Lanzendorf PaleoArt Prize for achievement in the field. The society says that paleoart \"is one of the most important vehicles for communicating discoveries and data among paleontologists, and is critical to promulgating vertebrate paleontology across disciplines and to lay audiences\". The SVP is also the site of the occasional/annual \"PaleoArt Poster Exhibit\", a juried poster show at the opening reception of the annual SVP meetings.\n"
] |
would hiv/aids cancel out leukemia?
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Not really, HIV is a virus, AIDS is a deficiency of CD4 white blood cells, and leukemia is a cancer causing elevated abnormal nonfunctioning white blood cells (there are more types than just CD4)
That about as ELI5 as I can get, there is alot more science behind it, between the progenitor cell lines and such.
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[
"The AIDS crisis was shadowed by constant politicization which magnified the struggles of HIV/AIDS patients, as well as heavily hindered research and the search for treatment and/or a cure. The HIV virus wasn't discovered to be the cause of AIDS until 1984, and the first treatment, AZT, was not approved until 1987. So there were long periods of time following the emergence of HIV/AIDS in which there was no treatment, and community organizations could only focus on symptom management and social activism to push for a cure. Once treatment was discovered and approved, it was sold for an extraordinary price. In 1989, AZT was the most expensive prescription drug in history. Very few patients could afford to be treated or remain on the treatment for the long-term plan that was necessary to sufficiently lower patient's viral loads.\n",
"Ultimately, HIV causes AIDS by depleting CD4 T cells. This weakens the immune system and allows opportunistic infections. T cells are essential to the immune response and without them, the body cannot fight infections or kill cancerous cells. The mechanism of CD4 T cell depletion differs in the acute and chronic phases. During the acute phase, HIV-induced cell lysis and killing of infected cells by CD8 T cells accounts for CD4 T cell depletion, although apoptosis may also be a factor. During the chronic phase, the consequences of generalized immune activation coupled with the gradual loss of the ability of the immune system to generate new T cells appear to account for the slow decline in CD4 T cell numbers.\n",
"When in July 1982, the first cases of AIDS appear in hemophiliacs receiving highly filtered blood samples, the scientific community realized that AIDS was most likely caused by a virus. Jacques Leibowitch noticed some intriguing similarities between AIDS and the pathology linked to HTLV (Human T Cell Leukemia Lymphoma Virus), the only known human retro-virus at that time. Both situations affect CD4 T helper lymphocyte cells. HTLV induces the massive proliferation of one or several clones and their cancerization, whereas the other virus, the HIV virus tends to eradicate these cells without apparent discrimination. Otherwise, these two pathological descriptions are present in both Africa and the Caribbean (see. A Strange Virus of Unknown Origin Jacques Leibowitch, Ballantine Books, New York, 1985, translated from Un Virus Etrange Venu d’Ailleurs, Grasset Paris 1984 ). Indeed, in both Paris and Brussels, doctors had seen cases of patients having lived or spent time in Francophone Africa or in Haiti who suffered from a disease with an undeniable resemblance to that arising at the time in the United States in \"immuno-deficient homosexuals\". Leibowitch, informed by the Franco-American literary author Gilles Barbedette of the announcement by Robert Gallo in Medical World News (1 August 1982) that an HTLV type retro-virus could be at the cause of AIDS, found in that most succinct brief the profile matching his CD4-tropic exotic viral suspect (in Grasset, Ballantine Books, workS cited). The retro-viral inspiration was thus consolidated and opened between Bethesda (Gallo) and Paris (Leibowitch et al.) from August 1982 onwards. \n",
"People with AIDS have an increased risk of developing various viral-induced cancers, including Kaposi's sarcoma, Burkitt's lymphoma, primary central nervous system lymphoma, and cervical cancer. Kaposi's sarcoma is the most common cancer occurring in 10 to 20% of people with HIV. The second most common cancer is lymphoma, which is the cause of death of nearly 16% of people with AIDS and is the initial sign of AIDS in 3 to 4%. Both these cancers are associated with human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8). Cervical cancer occurs more frequently in those with AIDS because of its association with human papillomavirus (HPV). Conjunctival cancer (of the layer that lines the inner part of eyelids and the white part of the eye) is also more common in those with HIV.\n",
"People living with HIV/AIDS will not only be unable to work, but will also require significant medical care. The forecast is that this will probably cause a collapse of babies and societies in countries with a significant AIDS population. In some heavily infected areas, the epidemic has left behind many orphans cared for by elderly grandparents.\n",
"Although there still is no cure for AIDS, it is preventable and treatable. The majority of new HIV infections could be prevented if current prevention programs were expanded. Prevention initiatives could arrest the spread of HIV and important treatment advances could sustain the hope of a longer and better life for people that live with HIV. This area urgently needs the implementation and advancement of programs and projects in order to: prevent the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS; prevent infection via breastfeeding and in children; break the links between HIV and other STI; provide voluntary testing and counseling; and reduce the health risks in infected persons as well as other approaches. \n",
"HIV does not directly cause cancer, but it is associated with a number of malignancies, especially Kaposi's sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, anal cancer and cervical cancer. Kaposi's sarcoma is caused by human herpesvirus 8. AIDS-related cases of anal cancer and cervical cancer are commonly caused by human papillomavirus. After HIV destroys the immune system, the body is no longer able to control these viruses, and the infections manifest as cancer. Certain other immune deficiency states (e.g. common variable immunodeficiency and IgA deficiency) are also associated with increased risk of malignancy.\n"
] |
Why were the Channel Islands not liberated soon after D-day?
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There was a plan to liberate them as early as 1943, called Operation Constellation. Drawn up by Lord Louis Mountbatten, based on aerial reconnaissance.
The problem was that, as it stood, the Channel Islands weren't actually much of a strategic advantage. Obviously if the Luftwaffe were to establish a bombing base there, that would change, but until 1945 the Germans hadn't made much of an advantage of the occupied islands. Really, the only purpose they had served for the Germans, was as a slight bloodied nose for the British.
Mountbatten observed that while the islands could be retaken by force, they were also heavily fortified, and it would require a fairly large landing force to retake these strategically unimportant islands.
The other consideration was the civilian population. They hadn't fared too badly under the Germans, there were no reports of abuses or reprisals, but attempting an invasion might put their lives at risk. Certainly their lives would be at risk if a battle broke out.*Mountbatten also noted that either aerial or naval bombardment would be necessary in order to break the islands defences, again at a potentially high civilian loss.
Mountbatten's plan was eventually rejected on the grounds that the cost would likely be far too high, and that the sensible option was to have them peacefully returned as part of Germany's unconditional surrender.
I'm afraid the only source I have for this is Lord Louis Mountbatten's biography, *"The Life and Times of Lord Mountbatten"*, John Terraine, 1968.
There is also a wikipedia entry for Operation Constellation, and most of it seems to back up what I've read in Mountbattens biography, for what it's worth:
_URL_0_
*Edit
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[
"Not knowing that on 15 June the British Army commanders had decided the Channel Islands were not defensible, the islanders were surprised to see the resident army units quickly depart on ships, with all of their equipment, the islands were being abandoned. The \"Channel Islands had been demilitarised and declared... 'an open town'...\", without telling anyone, until after the islands had been bombed on 28 June, as the British government did not want to invite the Germans to take the islands.\n",
"Seized by the Germans in 1940, the Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by the enemy during the Second World War. Not until after Germany's surrender were the islands liberated. \"Royal Ulsterman\" landed British troops on Jersey on 11 May 1945 and provided additional reinforcements on 18 May.\n",
"It was not all over after D-Day. The Germans continued to strafe and lay mines the remainder of the year. The Channel Islands were still held by the Germans which served as a military base from which to launch attacks. There still was a concern regarding enemy submarines.\n",
"Although plans had been drawn up and proposed in 1943 by Vice Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten for Operation Constellation, a military reconquest of the islands, these plans were never carried out. The Channel Islands were liberated after the German surrender.\n",
"However, as the Channel Islands lacked strategic significance, the Allies bypassed them when they invaded Normandy. As a result, the German garrisons stationed on the islands did not surrender until 9 May 1945—one day after Victory in Europe Day. The garrison on Alderney did not surrender until 16 May. Because most of the German garrisons surrendered peacefully, the Channel Islands are host to some of the best-preserved Atlantic Wall sites.\n",
"During June 1944, the Allied Forces launched the D-Day landings and the liberation of Normandy. They decided to bypass the Channel Islands due to their heavy fortifications. As a result, German supply lines for food and other supplies through France were completely severed. The islanders' food supplies were already dwindling, and this made matters considerably worse – the islanders and German forces alike were on the point of starvation.\n",
"An important military consequence of the occupation and fortification of the Channel Islands was the deployment of very large numbers of German troops and high usage of slave labour relative to the minor amount of military resources and strategic value they held. This became evident in July 1944, shortly after the D-Day landings and the subsequent St Lo breakout. As the Allies simply chose to bypass the Islands, and many of the arguably far more militarily-significant French coastal ports such as St Nazaire, Lorient, Brest, and St Malo as well, all of which Hitler had previously ordered to be defended and held at all costs and consequently all of which were all heavily garrisoned, this meant that well over 100,000 German troops which could otherwise have served to help to defend Occupied France (and subsequently Germany itself), at a time when Germans forces on the Western Front were suffering from a massive shortage of manpower, were tied down in positions which were essentially militarily useless. The German historian Joachim Ludewig estimates from his study of German archival records that in the middle of 1944 the Channel Islands occupation alone was responsible for over 30,000 such misdeployed troops. Around 500 Germans had died in the Channel Islands.\n"
] |
how did mining work back in the day? did people just picaxe long tunnels into the rock hoping they’ll find something useful?
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Yes and no. Depending on what's being mined.
Typically they'd find a vein and surface level evidence. (Think of gold washed down a creek, it comes from a vein somewhere)
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[
"The task of excavating the tunnels began on 25 May 1782, carried out entirely by hand. The miners broke up the limestone rock using a variety of methods, including gunpowder blasting, fire-setting (building a fire against the face of the rock to heat it, then quenching it with cold water to cause it to shatter), quicklime (used to fill boreholes which were then slaked with water, causing it to expand and so shattering the surrounding rock) and hammering in wooden wedges which were expanded by soaking them with water, again causing the rock to shatter. The fragments were then removed with crowbars and sledgehammers. Progress was slow, advancing at a rate of only about per year, but the tunnels thus excavated have proved extremely stable and are still readily accessible today.\n",
"Agricola described mining methods which are now obsolete, such as fire-setting, which involved building fires against hard rock faces. The hot rock was quenched with water, and the thermal shock weakened it enough for easy removal. It was a dangerous method when used underground, and was made redundant by explosives.\n",
"Another technique appearing towards the early 18th century, \"hagues et bourrages\", was both more economically and structurally sound. Instead of tunnelling into the exploitable mineral, miners would begin at a central point and extract stone progressively outwards; when they had mined to a point that left a wide area of the ceiling unsupported, they would erect a line of \"piliers à bras\", continue their extraction beyond that line, then return to build a second parallel line of stone columns. The space along both lines of columns was then transformed into walls with stone blocks, or \"hagues\", and the space between filled with packed rubble and other mineral detritus (or \"bourrage\"). This technique allowed much more of the targeted mineral to be extracted, and provided a support that could both settle and shift with the mine ceiling it supported.\n",
"Although underground mining technology had been available for many centuries, it is likely that the joint problems of the hardness of the granite rock and the preponderance of underground water together with the relatively easy pickings from near the surface made deep mining unviable until the late 18th century.\n",
"Early mining often involved digging a coyote hole, essentially sinking a hole into the ground, much like digging a well, and bringing up the dirt and rocks by hand or by a windlass, or tunneling into the side of the hill to follow the gold bearing gravel. Coyoteing and early tunneling were dangerous, since often the shaft was inadequately timbered, and cave-ins were not uncommon. A major one in Relief Hill in 1859 killed two miners and, coupled with a drought, caused the town to decline. By then, other mining camps were developing hydraulic mining, which involves blasting powerful streams of water against hillsides to dislodge gold.\n",
"Mining saw a brief resurgence as a military tactic during the First World War, when army engineers attempted to break the stalemate of trench warfare by tunneling under no man's land and laying large quantities of explosives beneath the enemy's trenches. As in siege warfare, tunnel warfare was possible due to the static nature of the fighting. \n",
"Early mining was done by hand and extracted salt rock crystals as a solid. To improve efficiency, fresh water would be pumped into a cavern. After several weeks of absorbing salt from the walls, the water was pumped out to a processing plant in Hallein.\n"
] |
how does someone go from being christian to jewish and vice-versa?
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Judaism discourages conversion (but encourages people once they've been accepted for conversion). So you'd first have to convince a Rabbi that you're serious about wanting to convert. Then you'd have to engage in study so that you know enough about what it means to be and live as a Jew (which will vary depending on denomination). When your Rabbi thinks you're ready, you'll appear before a Rabbinic Court, and convince them that you're ready. If they agree, then you can go through the ritual immersion (in a ritual bath called a *mikveh*) and, in the case of men, circumcision.
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[
"List of former Jews, or more accurately, people of Jewish ethnicity and adherents of Judaism who have converted to another (or no) religion. According to certain concepts of Jewish being (cf. who is a Jew?), a Jew who converts to another (or no) religion is still \"a Jew,\" by family and heritage alone, if not also by culture, and to a certain extent, belief (cf. monotheism).\n",
"According to the simplest definition used by most Jews for self-identification, a person is a Jew by birth, or becomes one through religious conversion. However, there are differences in interpretations when it comes to non-Orthodox Jewish denominations in the application of this definition, including\n",
"Rabbinical Judaism maintains that a Jew, whether by birth or conversion, is a Jew forever. Thus a Jew who claims to be an atheist or converts to another religion is still considered by traditional Judaism to be Jewish. According to some sources, the Reform movement has maintained that a Jew who has converted to another religion is no longer a Jew, and the Israeli Government has also taken that stance after Supreme Court cases and statutes. However, the Reform movement has indicated that this is not so cut and dried, and different situations call for consideration and differing actions. For example, Jews who have converted under duress may be permitted to return to Judaism \"without any action on their part but their desire to rejoin the Jewish community\" and \"A proselyte who has become an apostate remains, nevertheless, a Jew\".\n",
"Israel's Law of Return stipulates that a Jew is someone with a Jewish mother or someone who has converted to Judaism and is not a member of another religion. The Israeli Chief Rabbinate requires documents proving the Jewishness of one’s mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother when applying for marriage. The Office of the Chief Rabbi (OCR) has underlined the basic principle that a child is not recognised by the OCR and other bodies as Jewish unless his or her mother is Jewish, or they underwent a conversion recognized by the body.\n",
"All Jewish religious movements agree that a person may be a Jew either by birth or through conversion. According to \"halakha,\" a Jew by birth must be born to a Jewish mother. \"Halakha\" states that the acceptance of the principles and practices of Judaism does not make a person a Jew. However, those born Jewish do not lose that status because they cease to be observant Jews, even if they adopt the practices of another religion.\n",
"Jewish views on religious conversion due to intermarriage are largely in opposition to such marriage even if such marriages are tolerated. If a non-Jew wishes to become a Jew, in the sense that they practice Judaism and thus are accepted as a Jew, they are, depending on the Jewish religious tradition, typically welcome. On the other hand, if a Jew desires to leave Judaism, they are regarded as apostates or \"assimilators\" into a non-Jewish religion or culture. Non-Jewish cultures, tend to be regarded and portrayed as negative; being idolatrous, or rejecting of God (as Jews conceive God).\n",
"According to Rabbinic Judaism, a Jew is anyone who was either born of a Jewish mother or who converted to Judaism in accordance with Jewish Law. Reconstructionist Judaism and the larger denominations of worldwide Progressive Judaism (also known as Liberal or Reform Judaism) accept the child as Jewish if one of the parents is Jewish, if the parents raise the child with a Jewish identity, but not the smaller regional branches. All mainstream forms of Judaism today are open to sincere converts, although conversion has traditionally been discouraged since the time of the Talmud. The conversion process is evaluated by an authority, and the convert is examined on his or her sincerity and knowledge. Converts are called \"ben Abraham\" or \"bat Abraham\", (son or daughter of Abraham). Conversions have on occasion been overturned. In 2008, Israel's highest religious court invalidated the conversion of 40,000 Jews, mostly from Russian immigrant families, even though they had been approved by an Orthodox rabbi.\n"
] |
Can you recommend any sources (book or journal articles) that summarize issues related to Oral Tradition?
|
All sources - every bit of evidence about the past - requires source criticism to evaluate what flaws have insinuated themselves into the weave of information presented. The difference between a written primary source and recorded oral testimony that is not first hand can be summed up with the following:
Historians continually find that primary source documents about the past have flaws that need to be identified and isolated from the telling of an accurate history and perception of the past.
Historians (and folklorists) are often surprised to find that a historical legend includes information that is accurate and can be relied upon in the telling of history and perception of the past.
In other words, historical legends are sometimes surprisingly accurate and primary sources are sometimes surprisingly inaccurate. Well, OK, maybe we're actually not that surprised about either, but there is a core assumption that primary sources depict the past (but we find they are flawed) and that historical legends are inaccurate and inflated beyond use (but we sometimes find they are useful).
Of course folklorists don't often look to historical legends to understand the period described. Rather, they look at a historical legend to understand the people who told it - it is a different use of the source. But that aside, there has been ample analysis of historical legends and their surprising value in capturing the nature of past events.
Of particular use here is a collection of essays edited by Reimund Kvideland and Henning K. Sehmsdorf: Nordic Folklore (1989). This includes essays by Lauri Honko, who is one of the great modern theoreticians when it comes to the nature of legend. A particularly good essay for your question is a chapter by Brynjulf Alver, "Historical Legends and Historical Truth."
The bottom line is that oral tradition can be a surprising conveyor of accurate information about the past. As I began - all sources require source criticism. It is simply important to understand that written primary documents require a certain type of analysis while oral tradition requires another species of analysis. The filter for oral tradition must be more intense if it is to be used to understand an historical event, and without the anchor of written documents, it is difficult to use oral tradition, alone, to peer into a remote past.
|
[
"Oral Tradition is a peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1986 by John Miles Foley covering studies in oral tradition and related fields. As well as essays treating certifiably oral traditions, the journal presents investigations of the relationships between oral and written traditions, as well as brief accounts of important fieldwork, a symposium section (in which scholars may reply at some length to prior essays), review articles, occasional transcriptions and translations of oral texts, a digest of work in progress, and a regular column for notices of conferences and other matters of interest. \"Oral Tradition\" spans a number of academic fields and disciplines, including, folklore, cultural anthropology, social anthropology, ethnography, ethnomusicologylinguistics, classics, and comparative literature.\n",
"The methodology of oral tradition now conditions a large variety of studies, not only in folklore, literature and literacy, but in philosophy, communication theory, Semiotics, and including a very broad and continually expanding variety of languages and ethnic groups, and perhaps most conspicuously in biblical studies, in which Werner Kelber has been especially prominent. The annual bibliography is indexed by 100 areas, most of which are ethnolinguistic divisions.\n",
"BULLET::::- Archives, oral history and oral tradition, William W. Moss and Peter Mazikana, Part of a paper this chapter discusses the importance and processes of oral tradition and Oral history in general United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization\n",
"The study of oral tradition is distinct from the academic discipline of oral history, which is the recording of personal memories and histories of those who experienced historical eras or events. Oral tradition is also distinct from the study of orality defined as thought and its verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy (especially writing and print) are unfamiliar to most of the population. A folklore is a type of oral tradition, but knowledge other than folklore has been orally transmitted and thus preserved in human history.\n",
"In addition to providing the infrastructure for the comparatively new academic discipline of oral tradition by means of organizing conferences, producing the first bibliography, history and methodological guide and classroom textbook on the subject, his principal contributions involved the study of oral traditional performance in the field, and the application of those observations both to ancient texts and to the emerging secondary orality of the Internet.\n",
"From 1986 till the end of 2006, \"Oral Tradition\" was published by Slavica Publishers, with an additional online edition through Project MUSE from 2003 onward. However, both of these publication venues are subscription-based and for that reason they unavoidably excluded a substantial segment of the journal's potential readership, particularly non-western academics and institutions. To rectify this, beginning in September 2006, \"Oral Tradition\" is published open access by the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition. All journal articles from this point onward will be published exclusively online, but back print issues are now available online as well.\n",
"A narrower definition of oral tradition is sometimes appropriate. Sociologists might also emphasize a requirement that the material is held in common by a group of people, over several generations, and might distinguish oral tradition from testimony or oral history. In a general sense, \"oral tradition\" refers to the transmission of cultural material through vocal utterance, and was long held to be a key descriptor of folklore (a criterion no longer rigidly held by all folklorists). As an academic discipline, it refers both to a set of objects of study and a method by which they are studied—the method may be called variously \"oral traditional theory\", \"the theory of Oral-Formulaic Composition\" and the \"Parry-Lord theory\" (after two of its founders; see below) The study of oral tradition is distinct from the academic discipline of oral history, which is the recording of personal memories and histories of those who experienced historical eras or events. It is also distinct from the study of orality, which can be defined as thought and its verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy (especially writing and print) are unfamiliar to most of the population.\n"
] |
why is feet bone structure much more complex and composed of so many bones, while hands are much more simple?
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There are 27 bones in each hand. There are 26 bones in each foot. Can you please explain what you are talking about?
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[
"Because of the wide variety in body types, scaling and morphology of the distal limbs of terrestrial vertebrates, there exists a degree of controversy concerning the nature and organization of foot structures. One organizational approach to understanding foot structures makes distinctions regarding their regional anatomy. The foot structures are divided into segments from proximal to distal and are grouped according to similarity in shape, dimension and function. In this approach, the foot may be described in three segments: as the hindfoot, midfoot and forefoot.\n",
"The metatarsals are the bones that make up the main part of the foot in humans, and part of the leg in large animals or paw in smaller animals. The number of metatarsals are directly related to the mode of locomotion with many larger animals having their digits reduced to two (elk, cow, sheep) or one (horse). The metatarsal bones of feet and paws are tightly grouped compared to, most notably, the human hand where the thumb metacarpal diverges from the rest of the metacarpus.\n",
"The unique plantigrade alignment of the human foot results in a distal-limb structure that can adapt to a variety of conditions. The less mobile and more robust tarsal bones are shaped and aligned to accept and transmit large loads during the early phases of stance (initial contact and loading response phases of walking, and inadvertent heel strikes during running). The tarsals of the midfoot, which are smaller and shorter than the hindfoot tarsals, appear well oriented to transmit loads between the hindfoot and forefoot; this is necessary for load transfer and locking of the foot complex into a rigid lever for late stance phase. Conversely, the midfoot bones and joints also allow for the transmission of loads and inter-joint movement that unlocks the foot to create a loosely packed structure which renders the foot highly compliant over a variety of surfaces. In this configuration, the foot is able to absorb and damp the large loads encountered during heel strike and early weight acceptance. The forefoot, with its long metatarsal and relatively long phalanges, transmits loads during the end-of-stance phase that facilitate the push-off and transfer of forward momentum. The forefoot also serves as a lever to allow balance during standing and jumping. In addition, the arches of the foot that span the hindfoot, midfoot and forefoot play a critical role in the nature of transformation of the foot from a rigid lever to a flexible weight-accepting structure.\n",
"Hand and foot morphology is strikingly diverse in an otherwise morphologically uniform group. While just under half of these species contain webbing between their fingers and toes, the remaining species experience little to no webbing and undergo elongation of their fingers and toes throughout development. Ultimately, the variation of foot morphology within this genus is primarily due to natural selection. Derived characteristics correspond to arboreal vs. terrestrial salamanders.\n",
"The human foot has two longitudinal arches and a transverse arch maintained by the interlocking shapes of the foot bones, strong ligaments, and pulling muscles during activity. The slight mobility of these arches when weight is applied to and removed from the foot makes walking and running more economical in terms of energy. As can be examined in a footprint, the medial longitudinal arch curves above the ground. This arch stretches from the heel bone over the \"keystone\" ankle bone to the three medial metatarsals. In contrast, the lateral longitudinal arch is very low. With the cuboid serving as its keystone, it redistributes part of the weight to the calcaneus and the distal end of the fifth metatarsal. The two longitudinal arches serve as pillars for the transverse arch which run obliquely across the tarsometatarsal joints. Excessive strain on the tendons and ligaments of the feet can result in fallen arches or flat feet.\n",
"Comparative foot morphology involves comparing the form of distal limb structures of a variety of terrestrial vertebrates. Understanding the role that the foot plays for each type of organism must take account of the differences in body type, foot shape, arrangement of structures, loading conditions and other variables. However, similarities also exist among the feet of many different terrestrial vertebrates. The paw of the dog, the hoof of the horse, the \"manus\" (foot) and \"pes\" (foot) of the elephant, and the foot of the human all share some common features of structure, organization and function. Their foot structures function as the load-transmission platform which is essential to balance, standing and types of locomotion (such as walking, trotting, galloping and running).\n",
"In the human and the elephant, the column orientation of the foot complex is replaced in humans by a plantigrade orientation, and in elephants by a semi-plantigrade alignment of the hind limb foot structure. This difference in orientation in the foot bones and joints of humans and elephants helps them to adapt to variations in the terrain.\n"
] |
what exactly happens to my body when i get the flu.
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For most viruses, all the symptoms are your body's attempt to slow the progression of the virus while it searches for an antibody.
The virus is taking over cells and reprogramming them to produce more of itself. The only way to actually stop it is to produce the right antibody. I don't really know how that whole system works, but your body essentially produces millions of randomly shaped antibodies until the right one is made to stop the virus.
To explain some of the symptoms; a sore throat is acid being produced to kill off infected throat cells, this is a non-direct attack that kills healthy cells too. A fever raises the body temperature hopefully killing off or slowing weaker infected cells, chills make you seek warmth to crank your body temperature up even more, shivering produces more heat.
Vomiting speeds up the expulsion of dead cells. Your lymphatic system deposits them in your stomach, normally you would digest these and they would exit your body through stool and urine. But vomiting can get rid of a lot of stuff quickly, and it reduces strain on your kidneys that are also taking an increased load.
These responses are not perfectly utilized, over reaction of the immune system can make the symptoms way worse than they need to be. You vomit when there is nothing to vomit, and a high fever can kill you etc.
Some viruses directly cause side effects that are not an immune response.
It is a lot more complicated than this and I don't know what I am talking about really, there are a lot more systems and doo-dads doing complex things in your body.
|
[
"Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by an influenza virus. Symptoms can be mild to severe. The most common symptoms include: high fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pains, headache, coughing, sneezing, and feeling tired. These symptoms typically begin two days after exposure to the virus and most last less than a week. The cough, however, may last for more than two weeks. In children, there may be diarrhea and vomiting, but these are not common in adults. Diarrhea and vomiting occur more commonly in gastroenteritis, which is an unrelated disease and sometimes inaccurately referred to as \"stomach flu\" or the \"24-hour flu\". Complications of influenza may include viral pneumonia, secondary bacterial pneumonia, sinus infections, and worsening of previous health problems such as asthma or heart failure.\n",
"Typically, influenza is transmitted from infected mammals through the air by coughs or sneezes, creating aerosols containing the virus, and from infected birds through their droppings. Influenza can also be transmitted by saliva, nasal secretions, feces and blood. Healthy individuals can become infected if they breathe in a virus-laden aerosol directly, or if they touch their eyes, nose or mouth after touching any of the aforementioned bodily fluids (or surfaces contaminated with those fluids). Flu viruses can remain infectious for about one week at human body temperature, over 30 days at 0 °C (32 °F), and indefinitely at very low temperatures (such as lakes in northeast Siberia). Most influenza strains can be inactivated easily by disinfectants and detergents.\n",
"Human flu symptoms usually include fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, conjunctivitis and, in severe cases, severe breathing problems and pneumonia that may be fatal. The severity of the infection will depend in large part on the state of the infected person's immune system and if the victim has been exposed to the strain before, and is therefore partially immune. Recent follow up studies on the impact of statins on influenza virus replication show that pre-treatment of cells with atorvastatin suppresses virus growth in culture. \n",
"The American Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agrees that the \"spread of novel H1N1 virus is thought to occur in the same way that seasonal flu spreads. Flu viruses are spread mainly from person to person through coughing or sneezing by people with influenza.\" The CDC also says that a person may become infected if he or she touches something with flu viruses on it \"and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth.\"\n",
"Typically, influenza is transmitted from infected mammals through the air by coughs or sneezes, creating aerosols containing the virus, and from infected birds through their droppings. Influenza can also be transmitted by saliva, nasal secretions, feces and blood. Infections occur through contact with these bodily fluids or with contaminated surfaces. Out of a host, flu viruses can remain infectious for about one week at human body temperature, over 30 days at , and indefinitely at very low temperatures (such as lakes in northeast Siberia). They can be inactivated easily by disinfectants and detergents.\n",
"Common symptoms of the flu such as fever, headaches, and fatigue are the result of the huge amounts of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines (such as interferon or tumor necrosis factor) produced from influenza-infected cells. In contrast to the rhinovirus that causes the common cold, influenza does cause tissue damage, so symptoms are not entirely due to the inflammatory response. This massive immune response might produce a life-threatening cytokine storm. This effect has been proposed to be the cause of the unusual lethality of both the H5N1 avian influenza, and the 1918 pandemic strain. However, another possibility is that these large amounts of cytokines are just a result of the massive levels of viral replication produced by these strains, and the immune response does not itself contribute to the disease. Influenza appear to trigger programmed cell death (apoptosis).\n",
"Influenza is caused by the influenza virus, it is a contagious disease that spreads around the United States every winter, usually between October and May. Anyone can get the flu, but the risk is highest among children and each year thousands of people die from the flu and many more are hospitalized.\n"
] |
The M60 was the only machine gun authorized by the Army to be used on gun trucks in Vietnam. How did officers react when they saw gun trucks armed with M2s and miniguns?
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The officers were the ones leading the development of the Vietnam era gun trucks. Company, Battalion, and Group (Brigade equivalent) level transportation officers in Vietnam were heavily involved in these field modifications, and they also were the ones creating the doctrine to allow their units to use these gun trucks as effectively as possible. Not only that, many of them recorded their experiences to share and preserve the lessons learned and at least one Captain went through the effort to have a gun truck sent to the US Army Transportation Corps Museum to serve as an example for future generations. So this wasn't a dirty little secret the soldiers tried to keep to themselves, it was leadership pushing this as a reaction to the conditions in Vietnam (along with other tactics to protect convoys).
Now when they say "authorized", they're referring to what's listed on the official Army "TO & E" (Table of Organization and Equipment) for that type of unit.
A TO & E is a document that lays out the organization and weapons/vehicles/equipment for a given type of unit according to Army doctrine. Everything from how many soldiers they're supposed to have and how the unit is organized, to what type of weapons each individual soldier is assigned, to the types and numbers of vehicles used, what (if any) weapons are assigned to those vehicles, and so on. If something isn't on the TO & E, the Army isn't going to issue it to your unit, hence the backdoor deals to get added weapons in Vietnam.
While the Army didn't adopt the idea of the gun truck at a higher level (it was never added to the TO & E and mostly forgotten after Vietnam), I'm not aware of anyone getting in trouble for any of these field modifications in Vietnam. While it was not necessarily viewed by everyone as the ideal long term solution to convoy security, it was also not viewed as a problem that needed to be stamped out.
Richard Killblane, a historian for the US Army Transportation Corps (featured in the Smithsonian video you referenced) has written two papers on the history of US Army convoy security.
[Circle the Wagons: The History of US Army Convoy Security](_URL_0_)
[Convoy Ambush Case Studies](_URL_1_)
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[
"The M60 later served in the Vietnam War as a squad automatic weapon with many United States units. Every soldier in the rifle squad would carry an additional 200 linked rounds of ammunition for the M60, a spare barrel, or both. The up-gunned M113 armored personnel carrier ACAV added two M60 gunners beside the main .50 caliber machine gun, and the Patrol Boat, River had one in addition to two .50 cal mounts.\n",
"During the Vietnam War, the M60 received the nickname \"The Pig\" due to its bulky size. Vietnam's tropical climate harshly affected weapons, and the M60 was no exception. Its light weight led to it being easily damaged and critical parts like the bolt and operating rod wore out quickly. Even so, soldiers appreciated the gun's handling, mechanical simplicity, and effective operation from a variety of firing positions. United States Navy SEALs used M60s with shorter barrels and no front sights to reduce weight. Some SEALs had feed chutes from backpacks to have a belt of thousands of rounds ready to fire without needing to reload.\n",
"The M60 was a long-barreled, semi-automatic carbine model designed primarily for military training and police use. However, few of these were ever sold. Although mechanically near-identical to the submachine variants, the concept was borne out from H&R's ill-fated .30 carbine light rifle prototype that was trialed against the M1 carbine. The Marines used M60s for training, guard duty, and other non-combat roles. Some M60s were believed to have been issued to Marine officers at Guadalcanal. The remaining guns were passed on to State Guards and civilian law enforcement agencies. The M65 was developed as a sub-caliber training rifle version of the M60, produced only from 1944 to 1946. H&R later made updates to the M65 and sold them on the civilian market (and to the Marines in small numbers) as the MC-58 and M150/151/165 Leatherneck.\n",
"The M60 continued to be used in the 21st century by U.S. Navy SEALs. It was the main 7.62 mm machine gun by some U.S. special operations forces to the late 1990s. As of 2005, it is used by the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, and some reserve units. The M60 has largely been phased out.\n",
"The M60 AVLB and M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle were the only variants of the M60 series deployed to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The M728 was used in fire support, base security, counter ambush fire, direct assault of fortified positions, and limited reconnaissance by fire. The AVLB provided gap crossing capabilities when required to support armored forces. M60s were deployed at this time to West Germany during the Cold War to support US Army operations and participated in annual REFORGER exercises as well as Allied Forces Day parades in West Berlin until 1991. The M60 was also deployed to Korea to support US Forces Korea and participated in bi-annual Exercise Team Spirit maneuvers with South Korea notably with the US 2nd Infantry Division until 1991.\n",
"During the Vietnam War, some South Vietnamese army units and defense militia were armed with Thompson submachine guns, and a few of these weapons were used by reconnaissance units, advisors, and other American troops. It was later replaced by the M16. Not only did some U.S. soldiers have use of them in Vietnam, but they encountered them as well. The Viet Cong liked the weapon and used both captured models as well as manufacturing their own copies in small jungle workshops.\n",
"For example, the US Army and Marines now use the FN MAG (as the M240 machine gun), which is generally called the \"M240 medium machine gun\". It was originally adopted for vehicle mounting in the late 1970s, but its higher reliability resulted in the infantry adopting it for use over the M60 machine gun, despite it being several pounds heavier. They both have quick-detachable barrels, bipods in their light infantry model, tripod and pintle mount options for other models, and similar weight and size. The M60 was typically referred to either as a light machine gun or a general-purpose machine gun.\n"
] |
air conditioning
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[This](_URL_0_) is the basic cycle of the refrigeration cycle. There is a lot of thermodynamics but basically it works on the fact that the liquid inside the air conditioner has a low boiling point and can transfer thermal energy well/ as it it pumped through the cycle the liquid experiences phase changes and these changes cause a transfer in energy causing the heat from the outside to be taken out of the air and this cooler air blown out of the air conditioner
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[
"Air conditioning is the cooling and de-humidification of indoor air for thermal comfort. Using a system of coils as a solution to cool and remove moisture from muggy air in a printing plant that was wrinkling magazine pages, Willis Carrier invented and manufactured the world's first mechanical air conditioning unit in 1902. Carrier's invention – encompassing the first system to provide man-made control over temperature, humidity, ventilation and air quality, was first installed as a solution to the quality problems experienced at a Brooklyn printing plant, Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company. Air conditioning not only spawned a company and an industry, but also brought about profound economic, social and cultural changes.\n",
"BULLET::::- Air conditioning – (often referred to as 'AC, A/C, or air con) is the process of removing heat and moisture from the interior of an occupied space to improve the comfort of occupants. Air conditioning can be used in both domestic and commercial environments.\n",
"In the most general sense, air conditioning can refer to any form of technology that modifies the condition of air (heating, (de-) humidification, cooling, cleaning, ventilation, or air movement). In common usage, though, \"air conditioning\" refers to systems which cool air. In construction, a complete system of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning is referred to as HVAC.\n",
"Air conditioning (often referred to as AC, A/C, or air con) is the process of removing heat and moisture from the interior of an occupied space to improve the comfort of occupants. Air conditioning can be used in both domestic and commercial environments. This process is most commonly used to achieve a more comfortable interior environment, typically for humans and other animals; however, air conditioning is also used to cool and dehumidify rooms filled with heat-producing electronic devices, such as computer servers, power amplifiers, and to display and store some delicate products, such as artwork.\n",
"BULLET::::- Air conditioner – Air conditioning (often referred to as AC, A/C, or air con) is the process of removing heat and moisture from the interior of an occupied space, to improve the comfort of occupants. Air conditioning can be used in both domestic and commercial environments.\n",
"Willis Carrier's igloo in the 1939 New York World's Fair gave visitors a glimpse into the future of air conditioning, but before it became popular, World War II began. During the post-war economic boom of the 1950s, air conditioning began its tremendous growth in popularity. Today, air-conditioning and HVAC is a staple in many American homes. Ceiling fans and air conditioning are often used in conjunction; in summer, a ceiling fan allows the thermostat to be set several degrees higher; in winter, a fan can be set to a low speed on reverse direction to bring down stratified heat from the heating system.\n",
"Air conditioners often use a fan to distribute the conditioned air to an occupied space such as a building or a car to improve thermal comfort and indoor air quality. Electric refrigerant-based AC units range from small units that can cool a small bedroom, which can be carried by a single adult, to massive units installed on the roof of office towers that can cool an entire building. The cooling is typically achieved through a refrigeration cycle, but sometimes evaporation or free cooling is used. Air conditioning systems can also be made based on desiccants (chemicals which remove moisture from the air). Some AC systems reject or store heat in subterranean pipes.\n"
] |
is there such a thing as a material that is completely impermeable? For example, can some molecules get though a plastic baggy?
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Small molecules such as water may diffuse through most plastics, so even an airtight container is "porous" on a microscopic level. In any case, unless the bag is perfectly sealed by melting the plastic, chances are that the moisture can diffuse through small leaks at the sealing.
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[
"Lightweight plastic bags are also blown into trees and other plants and can be mistaken for food. Plastic bags break down by polymer degradation but not by biodegradation. As a result, any toxic additives they contain—including flame retardants, antimicrobials, and plasticizers—will be released into the environment. Many of those toxins directly affect the endocrine systems of organisms, which control almost every cell in the body.\n",
"“It is true that substances used to make plastics can leach into food,” says Edward Machuga, Ph.D., a consumer safety officer in the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “But as part of the approval process, the FDA considers the amount of a substance expected to migrate into food and the toxicological concerns about the particular chemical.” A couple of cases have caught media attention in recent years. One case is in regard to diethylhexyl adipate (DEHA). DEHA is a plasticizer, a substance added to some plastics in order to make them flexible. The public concerns about DEHA exposure while consuming food with plastic wraps. There are potentials of exposure to DEHA; however, the levels of the exposure are much lower than the no toxic effect levels in animal studies. Another case is in regard to the dioxins, labeled as “likely human carcinogen” by the Environmental Protection Agency. The public has been misled by the claims that plastics contain dioxins, while Machuga stated that no evidence that shows plastic containers or films contain dioxins was seen by the FDA. Overall the use of plastic wrap in the food industry does not pose danger to human health.\n",
"Michils showed in 1948 that these organic compounds are easily deformed and accordingly named them, \"plastic crystals\" (). Perfluorocyclohexan for example is plastic to such a degree that it will start to flow under its own weight. \n",
"In amorphous materials, the discussion of \"dislocations\" is inapplicable, since the entire material lacks long range order. These materials can still undergo plastic deformation. Since amorphous materials, like polymers, are not well-ordered, they contain a large amount of free volume, or wasted space. Pulling these materials in tension opens up these regions and can give materials a hazy appearance. This haziness is the result of \"crazing\", where fibrils are formed within the material in regions of high hydrostatic stress. The material may go from an ordered appearance to a \"crazy\" pattern of strain and stretch marks.\n",
"Pure plastics have low toxicity due to their insolubility in water and because they are biochemically inert, due to a large molecular weight. Plastic products contain a variety of additives, some of which can be toxic. For example, plasticizers like adipates and phthalates are often added to brittle plastics like polyvinyl chloride to make them pliable enough for use in food packaging, toys, and many other items. Traces of these compounds can leach out of the product. Owing to concerns over the effects of such leachates, the European Union has restricted the use of DEHP (di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate) and other phthalates in some applications, and the United States has limited the use of DEHP, DPB, BBP, DINP, DIDP, and DnOP in children's toys and child care articles with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Some compounds leaching from polystyrene food containers have been proposed to interfere with hormone functions and are suspected human carcinogens. Other chemicals of potential concern include alkylphenols.\n",
"Materials and surfaces can give off substances which serve as a food source for microorganisms such as bacteria, algae or fungi. Microorganisms could accumulate and multiply. However, plastics could not only represent a food source to microorganisms, materials and surfaces may also be altered by the products of metabolism generated by the microorganisms (e.g. discoloration). This may affect the service life of materials and enable microorganisms to gain uncontrolled access to critical areas.\n",
"As the plastic particles are primarily found in the pelagic layer of the ocean they experience high levels of Photodegradation, which causes the plastics to break down into ever smaller pieces. These pieces eventually become so small that even microorganisms can ingest and metabolize them converting these plastics into carbon dioxide. In some instances these microplastics absorb directly into a microorganisms' biomolecules. However, before reaching this state any number of organisms could potentially interact with these plastics. During their expedition in 2016-2017, Charles Moore and Algalita found that more than 35% of south Pacific Lanternfish had consumed plastic particles. When ingested by the fish the chemical compounds found in these plastics cannot be digested. This can effect Humans as the Lanternfish is a food source for both salmon and tuna. In their PNAS journal, Dr Van Sebille and his colleagues report data showing that in 1960 less than 5% of seabirds were found to have consumed waste material, while as of August 2015 that figure climbed to about 90%. It is predicted that by 2050, 99%of seabirds will have consumed such materials. Scientists studying the stomach contents of Laysan Albatross chicks report a 40% mortality rate before fledgling. When the stomach contents were analyzed following necropsies, they were found to contain plastic waste. Not only do plastic pellets used in manufacturing worldwide absorb toxic chemicals such as DDT and PCBs from the water, but can even leach chemicals such as biphenyl. It is estimated that up to 267 marine species are affected by plastic pollution.\n"
] |
why is it a mark of quality for a watch to be "swiss-made"? couldn't a swiss company make a crappy watch?
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Of course - but like much advertising it trades on beliefs and mystique rather than facts.
Switzerland does produce some truly amazing watches, but it doesn't have a monopoly on it.
Not sure whether they'd bother to produce really poor quality stuff these days simply because anything they could do badly the Far East could do just as badly but cheaper.
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[
"The legal standards for the use of \"Swiss made\" on a watch are a very minimum standard, and the Swissness of a watch is largely dependent on the brand and its reputation. The Swiss watch industry has not reached an agreement over the specific definition of Swiss made, as some companies favor stricter regulations and others prefer including lower-cost foreign components. The Swiss Federal Council modified the ordinance regulating the use of the \"Swiss\" name for watches in 1995. This revision was explained in a press release entitled \"On foreign parts for watches\".\n",
"It is not generally known that quite a few Swiss companies have watches assembled in China for export to North America, Asia and even Europe, where the brand name is more important than the “Swiss made” label. Such watches may consist of a Chinese case and a Chinese crystal, a Taiwan-made dial and metal bracelet and Japanese hands. If the movement is to be considered Swiss, 51% of its value must be Swiss and at least the last wheel must be added in Switzerland. Swiss watch brands without the “Swiss made” label are usually equipped with a Japanese movement. The “Swiss parts” label means that the movement is assembled in Asia using kits consisting at least partially of Swiss made components.\n",
"The most popular items by far to have the \"Swiss made\" labels are Swiss watches. Almost all Swiss watchmakers, with the notable exception of Breitling, label their watches prominently on the dial. By convention, the words are fully capitalized, positioned on the bottom of the face, split by the half-hour indicator if available, curved along the bottom edge as necessary. Watches made in other countries typically indicate their country of origin on the back of the watch, except for very few well-known high-end manufacturers.\n",
"Use of the Swiss made label for watches is covered by an ordinance of the Federal Council dated 29 December 1971. The Swiss standard is often pejoratively referred to as the 60% Rule. However, it has its basis in real life economics. Again, the law merely sets forth a minimum standard. The famous or infamous Swiss Made Ordinance has, for a number of years, been subject to many criticisms, particularly inside the industry, because it is considered too lax, but also in legal circles, where the view is that it no longer fully meets the legal mandate specified in the companion law on trademarks (SR 232.11).\n",
"Switzerland is a leading exporter of high-end watches and clocks. Swiss companies produce most of the world's high-end watches: in 2011 exports reached nearly 19.3 billion CHF, up 19.2% over the previous year. The watches go to Asia (55%), Europe (29%), Americas (14%), Africa and Oceania (both 1%).\n",
"A watch that says \"Swiss Quartz\" is considered to be a proper Swiss watch. However, it is often improperly used by foreign manufacturers to merely indicate that the quartz movement is of Swiss origin.\n",
"Currently the aforementioned Swiss legal standards permit watch brands or watchmakers to label watches Swiss made under certain legally defined circumstances. These standards have changed over time and were not always codified in the national law, so older watches which bear the mark Swiss made may not necessarily meet the current legal definition. On the other hand, they might well exceed the current legal definition of Swiss made. Indeed, the current law of the applicability of Swiss made was codified on December 23, 1971.\n"
] |
Is it possible for an astronomical body to have a molten core, without orbiting a star?
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Sure. If a planet forms and then gets ejected from its star system, there's no reason it couldn't have a molten core for a while. The Earth's core isn't molten because of the Sun, it's molten because of residual heat from planet formation plus radioactive heating from decay within the crust.
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[
"Solid planets up to thousands of Earth masses may be able to form around massive stars (B-type and O-type stars; 5–120 solar masses), where the protoplanetary disk would contain enough heavy elements. Also, these stars have high UV radiation and winds that could photoevaporate the gas in the disk, leaving just the heavy elements.\n",
"Solid planets up to thousands of Earth masses may be able to form around massive stars (B-type and O-type stars; 5–120 solar masses), where the protoplanetary disk would contain enough heavy elements. Also, these stars have high UV radiation and winds that could photoevaporate the gas in the disk, leaving just the heavy elements.\n",
"Simulations suggest that solid bodies can stably orbit Rhea near its equatorial plane over astronomical timescales. They may not be stable around Dione and Tethys because those moons are so much closer to Saturn, and therefore have much smaller Hill spheres, or around Titan because of drag from its dense atmosphere.\n",
"With a mass only 93 times that of Jupiter (), or .09 , AB Doradus C, a companion to AB Doradus A, is the smallest known star undergoing nuclear fusion in its core. For stars with similar metallicity to the Sun, the theoretical minimum mass the star can have, and still undergo fusion at the core, is estimated to be about 75 . When the metallicity is very low, however, a recent study of the faintest stars found that the minimum star size seems to be about 8.3% of the solar mass, or about 87 . Smaller bodies are called brown dwarfs, which occupy a poorly defined grey area between stars and gas giants.\n",
"With a mass only 93 times that of Jupiter (), or .09 , AB Doradus C, a companion to AB Doradus A, is the smallest known star undergoing nuclear fusion in its core. For stars with similar metallicity to the Sun, the theoretical minimum mass the star can have, and still undergo fusion at the core, is estimated to be about 75 . When the metallicity is very low, however, a recent study of the faintest stars found that the minimum star size seems to be about 8.3% of the solar mass, or about 87 . Smaller bodies are called brown dwarfs, which occupy a poorly defined grey area between stars and gas giants.\n",
"A planet in a close orbit would develop the shape of the Roche potential and is very likely to be molten due to tidal heating. A planet with a density of over five g/cm is stable at an orbital period longer than 4.7 hours. A planet in this kind of orbit may have a temperature of 560 K and could be detectable in infrared if it was large enough.\n",
"It is projected to be dominated by a rocky core, but the true mass is unknown. If the orbit is oriented such that we are viewing it at a nearly face-on angle, the planet may be significantly more massive than the lower limit. If so, it may have attracted a gas envelope like Uranus or Gliese 436 b.\n"
] |
if working out is just damaging and repairing muscle tissue, couldnt we just mechanically damage the tissue and recouperate saving time and energy?
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Finally something I might have insight on! First off, you can use electric pulses to build and repair damages tissue. I have had terrible knees for years, I started physical therapy at around 17. However, the cartilage damage was so bad in my knee, that I couldn't build the muscle in a healthy way to keep my knee in better traction. Long story short I had surgery. I am 22, and recovering. Because of the nerve and tissue damage I cannot build muscle in my leg through exercise alone. Instead, when I go to PT they hook me up to a machine that sends a small electric charge into my knee, making the muscles contract, nerves reactivate, and swelling in my knee go down. Because of this machine I am able to do my exercises after with little pain. So, regular exercise is needed to build muscle quickly and healthy, but you can use electric shock therapy to help your body out! It is really amazing.
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[
"Skeletal muscle is able to regenerate far better than cardiac muscle due to satellite cells, which are dormant in all healthy skeletal muscle tissue. There are three phases to the regeneration process. These phases include the inflammatory response, the activation, differentiation, and fusion of satellite cells, and the maturation and remodeling of newly formed myofibrils. This process begins with the necrosis of damaged muscle fibers, which in turn induces the inflammatory response. Macrophages induce phagocytosis of the cell debris. They will eventually secrete anti-inflammatory cytokines, which results in the termination of inflammation. These macrophages can also facilitate the proliferation and differentiation of satellite cells. The satellite cells re-enter the cell cycle to multiply. They then leave the cell cycle to self-renew or differentiate as myoblasts.\n",
"Mesenchymal stem cells in the body can be activated and mobilized if needed. However, the efficiency is low. For instance, damage to muscles heals very slowly but further study into mechanisms of MSC action may provide avenues for increasing their capacity for tissue repair.\n",
"Ripping is considered a slow and sometimes painful process due to diet and exercise. A body builder will have to sacrifice many of their pleasures in life, in addition to increasing their workout intensity. But the goals in which they wish to achieve are far from easy, and it is known that some body builders may use performance-enhancing drugs or anabolic steroids to assist them along the way. There are many types of performance enhancers that can help with the loss of fat and the maintenance of muscle tissue. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that any performance enhancers or steroids will have an effect unless the person taking them is taking part in exercise or a specific diet plan.\n",
"repairing the body. Without rest, continual strain is placed on the affected area that is injured, leading to increased inflammation, pain, and possible further injury. Rest is recommended during the initial 24–48 hours after an injury, but after that modified activities can be started. Additionally, some soft tissue injuries will take longer to heal without rest. There is also a risk of abnormal repair or chronic inflammation resulting from a failure to rest. In general, the period of rest should be long enough that the patient is able to use the affected limb with the majority of function restored and pain essentially gone. \n",
"The process of muscle regeneration involves considerable remodeling of extracellular matrix and, where extensive damage occurs, is incomplete. Fibroblasts within the muscle deposit scar tissue, which can impair muscle function, and is a significant part of the pathology of muscular dystrophies.\n",
"However, regeneration is still too slow for patient care to effectively rely on this mechanism of repair. Part of this inability to regenerate quickly from injury results from the relative avascular nature of cartilage as compared to other connective tissues of the human body.\n",
"The cutaneous manifestations of dermatomyositis may or may not improve with therapy in parallel with the improvement of the myositis. In some people, the weakness and rash resolve together. In others, the two are not linked, with one or the other being more challenging to control. Often, cutaneous disease persists after adequate control of the muscle disease.\n"
] |
Chemistry - A few questions about pH buffers.
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normally the range is roughly the pKa +/- 1. you can extend the range if you really need to, but i wouldn't recommend it. any more than that and it starts to lose effectiveness. to increase the capacity, use a higher concentration.
the way it works is that since the two "versions" of the molecule exist in equilibrium, when you add acid, the base absorbs the hydrogen ions and removes them from the system. the opposite if you add base: the "acid version" becomes protonated. the reason the entire system works is because there are so many more molecules of the weak acid/conjugate base than there are for the acids or bases that you add to the system.
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[
"Aqueous buffer solutions will react with strong acids or strong bases by absorbing excess hydrogen ions, or hydroxide ions, replacing the strong acids and bases with weak acids and weak bases. This has the effect of damping the effect of pH changes, or reducing the pH change that would otherwise have occurred. But buffers cannot correct abnormal pH levels in a solution, be that solution in a test tube or in the extracellular fluid. Buffers typically consist of a pair of compounds in solution, one of which is a weak acid and the other a weak base. The most abundant buffer in the ECF consists of a solution of carbonic acid (HCO), and the bicarbonate () salt of, usually, sodium (Na). Thus, when there is an excess of ions in the solution carbonic acid \"partially\" neutralizes them by forming HO and bicarbonate () ions. Similarly an excess of H ions is \"partially\" neutralized by the bicarbonate component of the buffer solution to form carbonic acid (HCO), which, because it is a weak acid, remains largely in the undissociated form, releasing far fewer H ions into the solution than the original strong acid would have done.\n",
"A buffer solution (more precisely, pH buffer or hydrogen ion buffer) is an aqueous solution consisting of a mixture of a weak acid and its conjugate base, or vice versa. Its pH changes very little when a small amount of strong acid or base is added to it. Buffer solutions are used as a means of keeping pH at a nearly constant value in a wide variety of chemical applications. In nature, there are many systems that use buffering for pH regulation. For example, the bicarbonate buffering system is used to regulate the pH of blood.\n",
"Buffer solutions also play a key role in analytical chemistry. They are used whenever there is a need to fix the pH of a solution at a particular value. Compared with an aqueous solution, the pH of a buffer solution is relatively insensitive to the addition of a small amount of strong acid or strong base. The buffer capacity of a simple buffer solution is largest when pH = p\"K\". In acid–base extraction, the efficiency of extraction of a compound into an organic phase, such as an ether, can be optimised by adjusting the pH of the aqueous phase using an appropriate buffer. At the optimum pH, the concentration of the electrically neutral species is maximised; such a species is more soluble in organic solvents having a low dielectric constant than it is in water. This technique is used for the purification of weak acids and bases.\n",
"One use of conjugate acids and bases lies in buffering systems, which include a buffer solution. In a buffer, a weak acid and its conjugate base (in the form of a salt), or a weak base and its conjugate acid, are used in order to limit the pH change during a titration process. Buffers have both organic and non-organic chemical applications. For example, besides buffers being used in lab processes, our blood acts as a buffer to maintain pH. The most important buffer in our bloodstream is the carbonic acid-bicarbonate buffer, which prevents drastic pH changes when is introduced. This functions as such:\n",
"For buffers in acid regions, the pH may be adjusted to a desired value by adding a strong acid such as hydrochloric acid to the particular buffering agent. For alkaline buffers, a strong base such as sodium hydroxide may be added. Alternatively, a buffer mixture can be made from a mixture of an acid and its conjugate base. For example, an acetate buffer can be made from a mixture of acetic acid and sodium acetate. Similarly an alkaline buffer can be made from a mixture of the base and its conjugate acid.\n",
"The isohydric principle has special relevance to in vivo biochemistry where multiple acid/ base pairs are in solution. The simplifying isohydric principle gives two important concepts. First, all of the buffers in a multiple-buffered system contribute to pH of the system. Secondly, the pH (at equilibrium) can be calculated from an individual buffer system regardless of other buffers present. That is, in vivo, knowing the PCO2 (weak acid) and the bicarbonate (conjugate base) and the pKa of that buffer system, the pH can be calculated regardless of the presence of other contributing buffers. The clinical relevance is that arterial blood gas often directly measures the CO2 levels and the pH, but the bicarbonate levels are then calculated from that information—without regard to other buffers present\n",
"A buffering agent is a weak acid or base used to maintain the acidity (pH) of a solution near a chosen value after the addition of another acid or base. That is, the function of a buffering agent is to prevent a rapid change in pH when acids or bases are added to the solution. Buffering agents have variable properties—some are more soluble than others; some are acidic while others are basic. As pH managers, they are important in many chemical applications, including agriculture, food processing, biochemistry, medicine and photography.\n"
] |
how do composers write music?
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It's all a grand formula called music theory. With Hans Zimmer and most other composers the steps go kind of like this: find a theme, build a central melody and build around the melody. Finding a theme is first step of the creative process and a theme can be deliberately sought after by a composer or it can just come to them. Hans Zimmer wrote the score to the Dark Knight because he was paid to write a Dark Knight soundtrack. Beethoven wrote his fifth symphony because he was contemplating his life after going near deaf. Think of this as the overall spirit or personality of the piece. The next step is developing a melody or motif, this step often includes most of the technical structuring of the piece. This can include time signature, playing directives, key signature and tempo. Think about the iconic Dark Knight theme and how it fits the theme of the movie itself. Or perhaps think about the easily recognizable opening of the Fifth Symphony (short short short long) that reappears throughout the piece. This step is probably the most important step in the composition process and is the heart of the piece. The last step is usually to develop a harmony and 'background'. This includes most of minor instrumentation, bass line and beat. This step is important and it's what separates a good composer from a great one, however it isn't as central to the piece as the first two steps.
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[
"Although a musical composition often uses musical notation and has a single author, this is not always the case. A work of music can have multiple composers, which often occurs in popular music when a band collaborates to write a song, or in musical theatre, when one person writes the melodies, a second person writes the lyrics, and a third person orchestrates the songs. In some styles of music, such as the blues, a composer/songwriter may create, perform and record new songs or pieces without ever writing them down in music notation. A piece of music can also be composed with words, images, or computer programs that explain or notate how the singer or musician should create musical sounds. Examples range from avant-garde music that uses graphic notation, to text compositions such as \"Aus den sieben Tagen\", to computer programs that select sounds for musical pieces. Music that makes heavy use of randomness and chance is called aleatoric music, and is associated with contemporary composers active in the 20th century, such as John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Witold Lutosławski. A more commonly known example of chance-based music is the sound of wind chimes jingling in a breeze.\n",
"Although a musical composition often uses musical notation and has a single author, this is not always the case. A work of music can have multiple composers, which often occurs in popular music when all of the members of a band collaborates to write a song, or in musical theatre, when one person writes the melodies, a second person writes the lyrics, and a third person orchestrates the songs. A piece of music can also be composed with words, images, or, since the 20th century, with computer programs that explain or notate how the singer or musician should create musical sounds. Examples range from 20th century avant-garde music that uses graphic notation, to text compositions such as Karlheinz Stockhausen's \"Aus den sieben Tagen\", to computer programs that select sounds for musical pieces. Music that makes heavy use of randomness and chance is called aleatoric music, and is associated with contemporary composers active in the 20th century, such as John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Witold Lutosławski. A more commonly known example of chance-based music is the sound of wind chimes jingling in a breeze. The study of composition has traditionally been dominated by examination of methods and practice of Western classical music, but the definition of composition is broad enough to include the creation of popular music and traditional music songs and instrumental pieces, and to include spontaneously improvised works like those of free jazz performers and African percussionists such as Ewe drummers.\n",
"Although a musical composition often has a single author, this is not always the case. A work of music can have multiple composers, which often occurs in popular music when a band collaborates to write a song, or in musical theatre, where the songs may be written by one person, the orchestration of the accompaniment parts and writing of the overture is done by an orchestrator, and the words may be written by a third person.\n",
"Musical composition, or simply composition, can refer to an original piece or work of music , either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece, or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called composers. Composers of primarily songs are usually called songwriters; with songs, the person who writes lyrics for a song is the lyricist. In many cultures, including Western classical music, the act of composing typically includes the creation of music notation, such as a sheet music \"score,\" which is then performed by the composer or by other instrumental musicians or singers. In popular music and traditional music, songwriting may involve the creation of a basic outline of the song, called the lead sheet, which sets out the melody, lyrics and chord progression. In classical music, orchestration (choosing the instruments of a large music ensemble such as an orchestra which will play the different parts of music, such as the melody, accompaniment, countermelody, bassline and so on) is typically done by the composer, but in musical theatre and in pop music, songwriters may hire an arranger to do the orchestration. In some cases, a pop or traditional songwriter may not use written notation at all, and instead compose the song in their mind and then play, sing and/or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable sound recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written or printed scores play in classical music.\n",
"Music manuscripts are handwritten sources of music. Generally speaking, they can be written on paper or parchment. If the manuscript contains the composer's handwriting it is called an autograph. Music manuscripts can contain musical notation as well as texts and images. There exists a wide variety of types from sketches and fragments, to compositional scores and presentation copies of musical works.\n",
"Composers also write songs on demand, telling a story told to him by an individual. The composer will then sing it and teach it to the \"rurubene\", making any needed changes. Composers also occasionally create songs of their own accord.\n",
"Once the music has been written, it must then be arranged or orchestrated in order for the ensemble to be able to perform it. The nature and level of orchestration varies from project to project and composer to composer, but in its basic form the orchestrator's job is to take the single-line music written by the composer and \"flesh it out\" into instrument-specific sheet music for each member of the orchestra to perform.\n"
] |
Did Sherman purposely let the Confederate garrison in Savannah escape?
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"Sherman, along with Federal forces in Hilton Head, could have prevented Hardee's escape. Sherman was aware that the Confederates were building a pontoon bridge to South Carolina, yet upon his departure for Hilton Head Island on December 19, he left orders for his army not to attack the Savannah works until he had returned. Sherman's subordinates clearly observed the Confederate evacuation on December 20 yet did nothing to interfere with it. Sherman's victory in Savannah was won through default, not brilliant tactical maneuver."
source: [National Park Service](_URL_0_)
The article also argues that he was somewhat nervous about his army being divided by a river, which may have stopped him from attacking earlier.
I have not heard of the theory you mention. Where might I find a discussion of it? There is no conceivable reason for Sherman to allow Hardee's men to escape.
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[
"Sherman's 1864 campaign against Atlanta, Georgia, was initially characterized by a series of flanking maneuvers against Johnston, each of which compelled the Confederate army to withdraw from heavily fortified positions with minimal casualties on either side. After two months and of such maneuvering, Sherman's path was blocked by imposing fortifications on Kennesaw Mountain, near Marietta, Georgia, and the Union general chose to change his tactics and ordered a large-scale frontal assault on June 27, 1864. Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson feinted against the northern end of Kennesaw Mountain, while his corps under Maj. Gen. John A. Logan assaulted Pigeon Hill on its southwest corner. At the same time, Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas launched strong attacks against Cheatham Hill at the center of the Confederate line. Both attacks were repulsed with heavy losses, but a demonstration by Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield achieved a strategic success by threatening the Confederate army's left flank, prompting yet another Confederate withdrawal toward Atlanta and the removal of General Johnston from command of the army.\n",
"Sherman was able to concentrate his army faster than Beauregard had anticipated and arrived at Columbia on the afternoon of February 16. The only Confederates defending the city were small detachments from Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler's cavalry corps, Maj. Gen. Matthew Butler's cavalry division, and Lt. Gen. Stephen D. Lee's corps from the Army of Tennessee. Heavily outnumbered, Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton ordered an evacuation of the city without a fight, although they destroyed all bridges over the Congaree and Saluda Rivers in an attempt to delay the Union forces. Sherman occupied Columbia the following day. Much of Columbia burned to the ground in a fire that has engendered controversy ever since: some say it started when the Confederates set fire to cotton bales in the city, others say that drunken Union soldiers were fanning the flames of vengeance, while a few witnesses claimed that some of the fires were by accident. James W. Loewen researched the topic for his book, \"Lies Across America\", and found that most likely, the cotton bale fires spread and caused most of the destruction. He did find that there were some fires started by Union soldiers, but the effects of these were minimal. Most likely, the Confederates' scorched earth policy was to blame for the burning of Columbia (in which not much of it burned). After the burning, Sherman was quoted as saying that he never gave the order to burn Columbia to the ground but he was not sorry that it happened.\n",
"Sherman's Savannah Campaign is more popularly known as the March to the Sea. He and Grant believed that the Civil War would end only if the Confederacy's strategic, economic, and psychological capacity for warfare were decisively broken. Sherman therefore applied the principles of scorched earth, ordering his troops to burn crops, kill livestock, consume supplies, and destroy civilian infrastructure along their path. This policy is one of the key tenets of a strategy of total war.\n",
"As Sherman's armies neared Savannah on December 10, following their lengthy march from Atlanta, his troops were in need of supplies. Just off the coast was Admiral John A. Dahlgren's fleet waiting with the needed supplies, as well as mail that had not been delivered to Sherman's men for six weeks during their march. However, Confederate fortifications around Savannah prevented Dahlgren from linking up with Sherman. As Sherman deployed his forces to invest Savannah, his cavalry reconnoitered Fort McAllister and other nearby fortifications, and determined that the lightly defended fort could be taken by a determined infantry attack. Sherman realized that if Fort McAllister was reduced, the Union Army would control the Ogeechee River, providing an avenue to the sea. Sherman ordered Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard's Army of the Tennessee to reduce the fort. Howard chose the division commanded by Brig. Gen. William B. Hazen to lead the attack.\n",
"Sherman's objective was to divide the Confederacy in two along a West to East path following its strategic rail lines. Sherman's Army would exchange its inland base of Atlanta for the more secure base (Savannah) on the Atlantic coast, which was controlled by the Union Navy. Disrupt the Southern economy by limiting access to vast food stores, manufacturing and destroying their rail and communication systems. Further it would demonstrate that Southern Army could not defend their heartland. The campaign would prevent reinforcing of Lee's troops defending Petersburg, Virginia, and the Confederate capital of Richmond. Sherman's Savannah campaign was considered a major Union success. Historians have stated that this was a major contribution to the overall Union victory in the war. The March was considered revolutionary, and in some ways unique, in the annals of modern warfare.\n",
"Sherman's plan was to bypass the minor Confederate troop concentrations at Augusta, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, and reach Goldsboro, North Carolina, by March 15. As with his Georgia operations, Sherman marched his armies in multiple directions simultaneously, confusing the scattered Confederate defenders as to his first true objective, which was the state capital of Columbia, South Carolina.\n",
"During the night of March 21 until the following dawn, Johnston withdrew his army across Mill Creek and burned the bridge behind him, leaving behind a cavalry detachment as a rearguard. The Union army failed to detect the Confederate retreat until it was over. Sherman did not pursue the Confederates, but continued his march to Goldsboro, where he joined the Union forces under Terry and Schofield. After resting and refitting his combined forces, Sherman planned to continue onward to Petersburg, Virginia. However, following Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, Johnston surrendered to Sherman at the Bennett Place, North Carolina on April 26.\n"
] |
Are there more planets or more stars?
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Based on what the Kepler space telescope has found, there are almost certainly more planets out there than stars.
Before Kepler it was hypothesized that few enough star systems had planets that there might be more stars than planets, but it turns out there are a lot more planets out there than expected. A few planets have even been found around Neutron stars which to this day has astronomers scratching their heads.
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[
"The table below contains information about the coordinates, spectral and physical properties, and number of confirmed planets. The two most important stellar properties are mass and metallicity because they determine how these planetary systems form. Systems with higher mass and metallicity tend to have more planets and more massive planets. However, although low metallicity stars tend to have fewer massive planets, particularly hot-Jupiters, they also tend to have a larger number of close in planets, orbiting at less than 1 AU.\n",
"Observations of exo-planets have shown that arrangements of planets similar to our Solar System are rare. Most planetary systems have super Earths, several times larger than Earth, close to their star, whereas our Solar System's inner region has only a few small rocky planets and none inside Mercury's orbit. Only 10% of stars have giant planets similar to Jupiter and Saturn, and those few rarely have stable nearly circular orbits distant from their star. Konstantin Batygin and colleagues argue that these features can be explained if, early in the history of the Solar System, Jupiter and Saturn drifted towards the Sun, sending showers of planetesimals towards the super-Earths which sent them spiralling into the Sun, and ferrying icy building blocks into the terrestrial region of the Solar System which provided the building blocks for the rocky planets. The two giant planets then drifted out again to their present position. However, in the view of Batygin and his colleagues: \"The concatenation of chance events required for this delicate choreography suggest that small, Earth-like rocky planets – and perhaps life itself – could be rare throughout the cosmos.\"\n",
"Three other systems have been found to have planets, most notably the Sun-like star HD 10180, which has seven planets, plus possibly an additional two for a total of nine—as of 2012 more than any other system to date, including the Solar System. Lying around from the Earth, it has an apparent magnitude of 7.33.\n",
"Since the concept was first presented in 1953, many stars have been confirmed to possess a CHZ planet, including some systems that consist of multiple CHZ planets. Most such planets, being super-Earths or gas giants, are more massive than Earth, because such planets are easier to detect. On November 4, 2013, astronomers reported, based on \"Kepler\" data, that there could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars and red dwarfs in the Milky Way. 11 billion of these may be orbiting Sun-like stars. Proxima Centauri b, located about 4.2 light-years (1.3 parsecs) from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus, is the nearest known exoplanet, and is orbiting in the habitable zone of its star. The CHZ is also of particular interest to the emerging field of habitability of natural satellites, because planetary-mass moons in the CHZ might outnumber planets.\n",
"Planets in binary star systems may be candidates for supporting extraterrestrial life. Habitability of binary star systems is determined by a large number of factors from a variety of sources. Typical estimates often suggest that 50% or more of all star systems are binary systems. This may be partly due to sample bias, as massive and bright stars tend to be in binaries and these are most easily observed and catalogued; a more precise analysis has suggested that the more common fainter stars are usually singular, and that up to two thirds of all stellar systems are therefore solitary.\n",
"Most of the stars below are solar-type, mainly in the spectral classes F, G, and K, because astronomers tend to look for planets around stars similar to the Sun. Others are giants, which have used up all the hydrogen in their cores. Finding planets around giant stars gives clues as to how planetary systems evolve and how the properties of planets change with the evolution of the stars.\n",
"Heller and Armstrong speculate that the number of superhabitable planets can far exceed that of Earth analogs: less massive stars in the main sequence are more abundant than the larger and brighter stars, so there are more orange dwarfs than solar analogues. It is estimated that about 9% of stars in the Milky Way are K-type stars.\n"
] |
if atoms have a positive nucleus with electrons that orbit it, why don’t they collapse into themselves?
|
There are many levels of understanding this.
In the simplest terms, one can think of the electrons as spinning around the nucleus in circles. In the same way as you feel pressed outwards on a carousel, the electrons don’t want to stay on circles but move outwards. This outwards force is cancelled by the attraction between the positive nuclei and negative electrons (opposite charges attract) so the electrons stay on their circular path. In fancy physicist terms, the electric attraction acts as the centripetal force to keep the electrons in their orbits but is not so strong as to make the electrons fall into the nucleus.
Look up the Rutherford model of the atom for more detail.
If we want to be a bit more advanced (don’t worry if you don’t understand everything from here on, this is starting to get into university level physics), there is one problem with that description. We know from other fancy physics that when a charged particle moves in a circle, it loses energy and slows down, which would mean that the electron falls into the nucleus after all! The way we solve this problem is by saying that there are a certain group of distances between electron and nucleus where the electrons don’t lose energy after all, and the electrons are only ever allowed to be at these distances (this doesn’t seem like a good answer but it works well with the experiments - and since this idea we have gained a much better although much more complicated understanding of why some distances are special).
These different distances have different energies, just as an object has a higher energy when we lift it up (which increases the distance between earth and the object). The electrons can jump between those distances (or ‘levels’ as physicists call them) and can emit or absorb light (they emit light when jumping down and need to absorb light when jumping up to higher energy levels - you can’t get more energy out of nothing). This is what happens in neon lights, the electrons in the atoms jump to levels with lower energies and we see the light they emit. Look up the Bohr model of the atom if you want more details or mathematics.
If we want to get even more technical, we need some more hardcore quantum mechanics. Basically, the electrons aren’t really like billard balls but more like a diffuse electron mist, or electron cloud. The reason we often think of them as Billard balls is that when this cloud is very bunched up it looks like a solid ball from far away and it is easier to think and calculate with this image (even if it isn’t technically correct). The shape of this cloud that forms the electron (also called the save function of the electron) is determined by a certain equation, the Schrödinger equation (in fact, all matter and not just electrons work like this!). If we calculate the form of this cloud, we find that only certain energies are possible, for which the cloud has different form. And the distance where most of the cloud is turns out to be the Special distance that is allowed for the electron (nice when things work out). And none of these forms have any cloud right at the nucleus. If this last explanation feels a bit like “the maths says so, so it’s true”, that’s because it is - quantum mechanics is really weird and often the only insight one can get is to do the calculations and see that something must be true.
|
[
"A classical electron orbiting a nucleus experiences acceleration and should radiate. Consequently, the electron loses energy and the electron should eventually spiral into the nucleus. Atoms, according to classical mechanics, are consequently unstable. This classical prediction is violated by the observation of stable electron orbits. The problem is resolved with a quantum mechanical description of atomic physics, initially provided by the Bohr model. Classical solutions to the stability of electron orbitals can be demonstrated using Non-radiation conditions and in accordance with known physical laws.\n",
"The electrons of an atom are attracted to the protons in an atomic nucleus by the electromagnetic force. The protons and neutrons in the nucleus are attracted to each other by the nuclear force. This force is usually stronger than the electromagnetic force that repels the positively charged protons from one another. Under certain circumstances, the repelling electromagnetic force becomes stronger than the nuclear force. In this case, the nucleus shatters and leaves behind different elements. This is a kind of nuclear decay. All electrons, nucleons, and nuclei alike are subatomic particles. The behavior of electrons in atoms is closer to a wave than a particle.\n",
"This is also evident from phenomena like electron capture. Theoretically, in orbital models of heavy atoms, the electron orbits partially inside the nucleus (it does not \"orbit\" in a strict sense, but has a non-vanishing probability of being located inside the nucleus).\n",
"By the dawn of the 20th century, evidence required a model of the atom with a diffuse cloud of negatively charged [[electron]]s surrounding a small, dense, positively charged [[Atomic nucleus|nucleus]]. These properties suggested a model in which electrons circle around the nucleus like planets orbiting a sun. However, it was also known that the atom in this model would be unstable: according to classical theory, orbiting electrons are undergoing centripetal acceleration, and should therefore give off electromagnetic radiation, the loss of energy also causing them to spiral toward the nucleus, colliding with it in a fraction of a second.\n",
"In 1913 Niels Bohr had proposed what is now called the Bohr model of the atom, but despite this it remained a mystery as to why electrons do not fall into their nuclei. According to classical ideas, the fact that an accelerating charge loses energy by radiating implied that an electron should spiral into the nucleus and that atoms should not be stable. This problem of classical mechanics was nicely summarized by James Hopwood Jeans in 1915: \"There would be a very real difficulty in supposing that the (force) law held down to the zero values of . For the forces between two charges at zero distance would be infinite; we should have charges of opposite sign continually rushing together and, when once together, no force would tend to shrink into nothing or to diminish indefinitely in size\" This resolution to this puzzle came in 1926 with Schrödinger's famous equation. This equation explained the new, non-classical, fact that as an electron moves close to a nucleus its kinetic energy necessarily increases in such a way that the minimum total energy (kinetic plus potential) occurs at some positive separation rather than at zero separation; in other words, that zero-point energy is essential for atomic stability.\n",
"Experiments by Ernest Rutherford in 1909 showed the structure of the atom to be a dense, positive nucleus with a tenuous negative charge cloud around it. This immediately raised questions about how such a system could be stable. Classical electromagnetism had shown that any accelerating charge radiates energy, as shown by the Larmor formula. If the electron is assumed to orbit in a perfect circle and radiates energy continuously, the electron would rapidly spiral into the nucleus with a fall time of:\n",
"An atom consists of a positively charged nucleus orbited by electrons. The nucleus consists of uncharged neutrons and positively charged protons. Electrons are negatively charged. In the early part of the twentieth century Ernest Rutherford suggested that the electrons orbited the dense central nucleus in a manner analogous to planets orbiting the sun. The centripetal force required to keep the electrons in orbit was provided by the Coulomb force of the protons in the nucleus acting upon the electrons; just like the gravitational force of the sun acting on a planet provides the centripetal force necessary to keep the planet in orbit.\n"
] |
Does cold have diminishing returns, e.g. does -40 degrees generally really feel that much colder than zero degrees?
|
I can tell you first hand from living in North Dakota that base temp is not the end all be all of feeling cold.
The air from these arctic high pressure systems that have had a strangle-hold on us this whole winter is typically very dry and *crisp* if that makes sense. It's a lot different than that damp, wet cold you get on the East Coast in winter.
This weekend it was sunny, calm, and -15F out. Today, it's snowy, windy, and 3F out, and it feels much colder today than it was this weekend even though the base temp was about 20 degrees colder over the weekend.
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[
"Temperatures rarely rise above 30 °C (86 °F). The average winter low is −10 degrees Celsius (14 °F) and temperatures rarely drop below −20 degrees Celsius (−4 °F) although strong winter winds can make it seem much colder.\n",
"Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic temperature scale. This corresponds to on the Celsius scale, on the Fahrenheit scale, and on the Rankine scale.\n",
"Cold-waves continue to be a problem in northern latitudes, where very low temperatures can be reached in a few hours and extend over long periods. Reductions in cold-deaths due to climate change are projected to be greater than increases in heat-related deaths in the UK.\n",
"Cold spells are associated with increased mortality rates in populations around the world. Both cold waves and heat waves cause deaths, though different groups of people may be susceptible to different weather events. In developed countries, more deaths occur during a heat wave than in a cold snap, though the mortality rate is higher in undeveloped regions of the world. Globally, more people die during hot weather than cold weather. Extreme winter cold often causes poorly insulated water pipelines and mains to freeze. Even some poorly protected indoor plumbing ruptures as water expands within them, causing much damage to property and costly insurance claims. Demand for electrical power and fuels rises dramatically during such times, even though the generation of electrical power may fail due to the freezing of water necessary for the generation of hydroelectricity. Some metals may become brittle at low temperatures. Motor vehicles may fail when antifreeze fails or motor oil gels, producing a failure of the transportation system. To be sure, such is more likely in places like Siberia and much of Canada that customarily get very cold weather.\n",
"The U.S. National Weather Service defines \"extreme cold\" as with winds less than . In these conditions, the unprotected skin of a healthy adult will develop frostbite in ten to twenty minutes. The Canadian standard includes lower temperatures.\n",
"A 2010 study concluded that under a worst-case scenario for global warming with temperatures higher than 2007, the wet-bulb temperature limit for humans could be exceeded around much of the world in future centuries. A 2015 study concluded that parts of the globe could become uninhabitable. An example of the threshold at which the human body is no longer able to cool itself and begins to overheat is a humidity level of 50% and a high heat of , as this would indicate a wet-bulb temperature of .\n",
"Temperatures on the southern part of the ice cap are almost always below zero in winter and can reach -20°C or -30°C. High winds and storms are common, and therefor wind-chill has to be taken into account as the wind can have a substantial effect on outdoor comfort, even when the ambient temperature is relatively high.\n"
] |
what makes rent so high in some areas for small apartments, and so low in others for relatively large apartments?
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It can be largely based on surrounding areas income but it’s mostly just location. Are you in close proximity to a large employer (like a medical center?), close enough that people wouldn’t *have* to drive? Then it’s gonna be higher, marketed towards medical employees. It’s based on a lot of factors, but for most apartments that aren’t really near any significant employer but are surrounded by general urban sprawl, just check the average income for the surrounding neighborhoods and such. If it’s high, probably in a ‘better’ part of town. Low, ‘worse’ part of town and the rent reflects it
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[
"Low-rise apartments sometimes offer more privacy and negotiability of rent and utilities than high-rise apartments, although they may have fewer amenities and less flexibility with leases. It is also easier to put out fires in low-rise buildings.\n",
"Price ceilings can create shortages and reduce quality when they are less than the equilibrium price. By capping the price of housing, rent control can increase demand and reduce available supply, causing a shortage. It is argued that rent control also reduces the quality of available housing, deters investment, and raises rents on tenants who are excluded from its protections (for example, in jurisdictions with vacancy decontrol, tenants who move or arrive later). When property owners are restricted in the rents they can charge, they are less willing to construct more housing (a form of capital strike). Since supply is low, landlords worry less about tenants leaving and have little incentive to maintain the property. For example, unless owners can reasonably expect that punitive action will be taken against them, they might let building maintenance deteriorate in order to mitigate the lower rental income. People moving into the city have difficulty finding housing because of the shortage created by rent control.\n",
"Public housing provides affordable homes for those on low incomes, with rents which are heavily subsidised, financed by financial activities such as rents and charges collected from car parks and shops within or near the estates. They may vary in scale, and are usually located in the remote or less accessible parts of the territory, but urban expansion has put some of them in the heart of the urban area. Although some units are destined exclusively for rental, some of the flats within each development are earmarked for sale at prices which are lower than for private developments.\n",
"After having made these decisions, the rent officer decides if the lowest figure is still much higher than most rents for properties in the neighbourhood with the right number of rooms. This might be because of the property is in the luxury end of the market, or because of the services or amenities provided. If it is much higher, the rent officer will decide a figure that is in keeping with the general level of rents.\n",
"Maintaining stable revenue throughout the lifetime is challenging for a non-profit. Often, affordable housing exists in weak housing markets and in neighborhoods characterized by high crime rates, vacant and abandoned properties and low rent prices. Housing in these markets is generally unattractive and thus difficult to rent, therefore buildings lose money due to high vacancy. Projects in poor markets can also experience high costs associated with increased screening of renters and preparation of units due to high tenant turnover. Also, affordable projects frequently rely on government subsidies to cover the portion of rent that low-income tenants cannot afford (usually the difference between 30% of tenant income and market rents); projects are exposed to risk of losing future cash flows if governments cut tenant assistance programs. Furthermore, inadequate property management can affect operating income through the ineffectiveness of collecting rents or managing costs.\n",
"Rent in basement apartments is usually much lower than it is in above-ground units, due to a number of deficiencies common to basement apartments. The apartments are usually cramped, and tend to be noisy, both from uninsulated building noises and from traffic on the adjacent street. They are also particularly vulnerable to burglary, especially those with windows at sidewalk level. In some instances, residential use of below-ground space is illegal, but is done anyway in order for the building owner to generate extra income.\n",
"High rents have not just affected those in the lower half of the income distribution; who have always been lifelong renters. In the era of the Keynes–Beveridge consensus those in the upper half of the income distribution would typically rent a home while saving for a deposit to get onto the property ladder. This is no longer possible; money which would have been used in saving for a deposit now goes on rent. The majority of new households formed in the UK can now expect to rent from a private landlord for life. This phenomenon has been called \"generation rent\" and there is much debate about the social consequences of this change. See inequality for further information.\n"
] |
why do bulbs (that glow white) become green and stays illuminated for a while?
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I assume you're talking about fluorescent bulbs. They work by having a gas inside which generates intense ultraviolet light when you pass an electric current through it.
The inside of the glass tubes is coated with phosphor, this is a range of chemicals which glow in different colours when they absorb energy, in this case the mix of phosphors has been chosen to generate white light when uv light pumps energy into it.
When you turn off the power the uv generation stops, but the phosphor still has enough energy to glow faintly. The phosphors that glow greenish are most efficient at using the stored energy to glow so they go on longer and the light glows pale green for a while.
|
[
"Incandescent light bulbs have been commonly used in holiday lights until recently. These lights produce a broad-spectrum white light, and are colored by coating the glass envelope with a translucent paint which acts as a color filter. Some early Japanese-made lamps used colored glass.\n",
"Film and TV productions typically use constant lighting in the studio and on location. Some types of bulbs cannot be electrically dimmed because of their design, and incandescent bulbs will progressively change in colour temperature, becoming more orange, as they are dimmed.\n",
"Bloom (sometimes referred to as light bloom or glow) is a computer graphics effect used in video games, demos, and high dynamic range rendering (HDRR) to reproduce an imaging artifact of real-world cameras. The effect produces fringes (or feathers) of light extending from the borders of bright areas in an image, contributing to the illusion of an extremely bright light overwhelming the camera or eye capturing the scene. It became widely used in video games after an article on the technique was published by the authors of Tron 2.0 in 2004.\n",
"Incandescent light bulbs use a tungsten filament heated to high temperature to produce visible light and, necessarily, even more infrared radiation. Round bulbs, often tinted red to reduce visible light, provide infrared radiant heat suitable for warming of people or animals, but the power density available is low. The development of quartz halogen linear lamps allowed much higher power density up to 200 watts/inch of lamp (8 w/mm), useful for industrial heating, drying and processing applications.\n",
"Traditionally, red lamps (or beacons) use incandescent filament bulbs. To improve the otherwise quite short lifespan, they are made with a ruggedised design and are run below normal operating power (under-running). A recent development has been the use of arrays of high-power red LEDs in place of incandescent bulbs, which has only been possible since the development of LEDs of sufficient brightness. LED-based lamps have a significantly longer lifespan than incandescent bulbs, thus reducing maintenance costs and increasing reliability. Several manufacturers have also developed medium-intensity white strobes based on LED technology to replace xenon. Xenon flashers, whilst more visually impressive, tend to require frequent replacement and so have become a less favoured option. With the advent of LEDs, white strobes are still somewhat desired.\n",
"Brighteners can be \"boosted\" by the addition of certain polyols, such as high molecular weight polyethylene glycol or polyvinyl alcohol. These additives increase the visible blue light emissions significantly. Brighteners can also be \"quenched\". Excess brightener will often cause a greening effect as emissions start to show above the blue region in the visible spectrum.\n",
"BULLET::::- Bulbs: LED rope lights feature bulbs that are available in different colours and the bulbs themselves generate the colours. In contrast, incandescent rope lights typically feature bulbs that come with a coloured filter that is applied around the bulb. Therefore, when an LED rope light is switched off, it appears colourless, while incandescent bulbs will still appear coloured.\n"
] |
can anyone explain if there is any actual valuable take-away from schrödinger's cat? or just an abstract thought experiment?
|
Firstly, the 'answer' to the Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment is not agreed upon. We simply don't have a universal answer to what actually happens. If you read the Wikipedia page, you get a short list of what the different interpretations on quantum mechanics say. It's not like actual physicists have one opinion and outsiders have another. Actual high level physics professors don't agree.
Okay. When quantum mechanics came around it was realized it said really absurd things about tiny particles. You couldn't know whether a particle was here or there. In fact, it's even worse. It seemed like the universe hadn't decided yet. When you actually looked directly at the particle, it suddenly seemed to be only at one place. Einstein was extremely upset and said that he may not know what God thinks, but God surely doesn't play dice with reality(he was talking metaphorically about God).
It's somewhat okay to accept these weird things about tiny particles. I mean, we can't really see them anyway. But what Schrödinger pointed out was that that's a mistake. He thought, what is true of the small must also be true of the large. And to illustrate this he came up with his cat experiment. If a particle's position can be at different places at the same time, why can't a cat be dead and alive at the same time? His experiment poses exactly that question. What is the physical mechanism that allows weirdness at the small scale, but not the large?
As I said, this is actually unresolved and there are a number of different possible answers. All of them really absurd.
_URL_0_
|
[
"A variant of the Schrödinger's cat experiment, known as the quantum suicide machine, has been proposed by cosmologist Max Tegmark. It examines the Schrödinger's cat experiment from the point of view of the cat, and argues that by using this approach, one may be able to distinguish between the Copenhagen interpretation and many-worlds.\n",
"However, since Schrödinger's time, other interpretations of the mathematics of quantum mechanics have been advanced by physicists, some of which regard the \"alive and dead\" cat superposition as quite real. Intended as a critique of the Copenhagen interpretation (the prevailing orthodoxy in 1935), the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment remains a defining touchstone for modern interpretations of quantum mechanics. Physicists often use the way each interpretation deals with Schrödinger's cat as a way of illustrating and comparing the particular features, strengths, and weaknesses of each interpretation.\n",
"Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment, usually described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, applied to everyday objects. The thought experiment presents a cat that might be alive or dead, depending on an earlier random event. In the course of developing this experiment, he coined the term \"Verschränkung\" (entanglement).\n",
"However, one of the main scientists associated with the Copenhagen interpretation, Niels Bohr, never had in mind the observer-induced collapse of the wave function, as he did not regard the wave function as physically real, but a statistical tool; thus, Schrödinger's cat did not pose any riddle to him. The cat would be either dead or alive long before the box is opened by a conscious observer. Analysis of an actual experiment found that measurement alone (for example by a Geiger counter) is sufficient to collapse a quantum wave function before there is any conscious observation of the measurement, although the validity of their design is disputed. The view that the \"observation\" is taken when a particle from the nucleus hits the detector can be developed into objective collapse theories. The thought experiment requires an \"unconscious observation\" by the detector in order for waveform collapse to occur. In contrast, the many worlds approach denies that collapse ever occurs.\n",
"Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment, sometimes described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. The scenario presents a hypothetical cat that may be simultaneously both alive and dead, a state known as a quantum superposition, as a result of being linked to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur. \n",
"BULLET::::- Schrödinger's cat, a thought experiment devised by Schrödinger that illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects\n",
"BULLET::::- Schrödinger's cat, a thought experiment devised by Schrödinger that illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects\n"
] |
Should the Chinese Emperors' mausoleums be excavated?
|
That's a very hard question to answer and honestly - I am
Not quite sure if I am qualified for it. Especially not for the imperial tombs in china.
What I can answer is what happens if things get done too fast, without a clear preservation plan and without a clear idea of what you want to achieve.
I am from Vienna and I studied art history there - and my dad was an archeologist at the Vienna city museum.
During his job he oversaw the excavation of Michaeler Platz (Michaeler square) if you have ever been in Vienna you can't really miss it since it's right in front of the Hofburg.
This is what it looks like : _URL_0_
So the square has quite an interesting history , with buildings from roman times , the Middle Ages and the old imperial theater being located there - and when a new subway line was built they excavated part of the square in the course of the construction.
They found some frescos on the medical buildings - the city wanted to have them displayed in Situ - my dad wanted to cover it up completely or at least transfer the Freskos to a safe spot.
Politically the city won - and the result is that the frescos are basically gone and the ruins are falling more and more into ruin every year since they are exposed to the weather year round.
And the can't really cover it up and keep it visible since this would destroy the sight of the Hofburg from
The Kohlmarkt which is a famous view of the Hofburg itself.
So basically even on a very small excavation, in a very rich city, preservation was not done as it should have been done and the buildings are falling apart more and more.
And I think that this is one of the lessons the Chinese learned from a lot of similar projects in Europe - that you need a perfect plan, a perfect idea of what to do and goals and to have the means (both in money and technology) to achieve those goals.
And as long as they are not 100% sure that they can conserve whatever they find in the tomb they won't dig it up - the risk is basically to high for them.
|
[
"The eighteen mausoleums of the Tang Dynasty emperors (唐十八陵) in the valley of the Wei River north of the Qin Mountains(秦岭). Most are natural hills shaped by man, and they are among the biggest Chinese mausoleums, such as Qianling (乾陵), joint tomb of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and of the Empress Wu Zetian. Some mausoleums feature a burial mound: \n",
"The Wanli Emperor died in 1620 and was buried in the Dingling Mausoleum among the Ming tombs on the outskirts of Beijing. His tomb is one of the biggest in the vicinity and one of only two that are open to the public. The tomb was excavated in 1956, and remains the only imperial tomb that had been excavated since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. In 1966, during the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards stormed the Dingling Mausoleum, and dragged the remains of the Wanli Emperor and his two empresses to the front of the tomb, where they were posthumously denounced and burned after photographs were taken of their skulls. Thousands of other artifacts were also destroyed.\n",
"The Eastern Qing tombs (; ) are an imperial mausoleum complex of the Qing dynasty located in Zunhua, northeast of Beijing. They are the largest, most complete, and best preserved extant mausoleum complex in China. Altogether, five emperors (Shunzhi, Kangxi, Qianlong, Xianfeng, and Tongzhi), 15 empresses, 136 imperial concubines, three princes, and two princesses of the Qing dynasty are buried here. Surrounded by Changrui Mountain, Jinxing Mountain, Huanghua Mountain, and Yingfei Daoyang Mountain, the tomb complex stretches over a total area of .\n",
"The temple served as a mausoleum for several emperors. Their tombs are grouped together in what are today known as the \"Seven Imperial Tombs\" at Ryōan-ji. The burial places of these emperors—Uda, Kazan, Ichijō, Go-Suzaku, Go-Reizei, Go-Sanjō, and Horikawa—would have been comparatively humble in the period after their deaths. These tombs reached their present state as a result of the 19th century restoration of imperial sepulchers (\"misasagi\") which were ordered by Emperor Meiji.\n",
"The Qianling Mausoleum () is a Tang dynasty (618–907) tomb site located in Qian County, Shaanxi province, China, and is northwest from Xi'an, formerly the Tang capital. Built by 684 (with additional construction until 706), the tombs of the mausoleum complex house the remains of various members of the House of Li, the imperial family of the Tang dynasty. This includes Emperor Gaozong (r. 649–83), as well as his wife, Wu Zetian, who usurped the Tang throne and became China's only reigning female emperor from 690–705. The mausoleum is renowned for its many Tang dynasty stone statues located above ground and the mural paintings adorning the subterranean walls of the tombs. Besides the main tumulus mound and underground tomb of Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian, there are 17 smaller attendant tombs or \"peizang mu\". Presently, only five of these attendant tombs have been excavated by archaeologists, three belonging to members of the imperial family, one to a chancellor, and the other to a general of the left guard. The Shaanxi Administration of Cultural Heritage declared in 2012 that no further excavations would take place for at least 50 years.\n",
"The Dingling () is a mausoleum in China where the Wanli emperor, together with his two empresses Wang Xijie and Dowager Xiaojing, was buried. Dingling is one of the thirteen imperial tombs at Ming tombs in Changping district 45 km north of central Beijing. Dingling is the only tomb of a Ming dynasty emperor that has been opened.\n",
"The Imperial Burial Palace (寢宮) or Back Palace (後殿) is high and covers about . It has three yurts with yellow silk roofs; the central yurt houses the coffins of Genghis Khan and one of his four wives and the side yurts house the coffins of his brothers. Genghis Khan's coffin is silver decorated with engraved roses and a golden lock; weapons allegedly used by Genghis lie around it. There are also two other coffins for another two of his consorts. The site's main altar lies in front of this yurt. The cenotaph and its placement are highly unusual in China, which usually follows Han principles like feng shui in the placement of tombs, employing mountains, rivers, and forests in the belief that this increases its spiritual power.\n"
] |
why is bed-wetting associated with serial killers?
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It is part of the Macdonald triad. The Macdonald triad proposes that three behaviours in youth (extended bedwetting, fire-starting, cruelty to animals) are indicative of later violent tendencies.
The thing is though, we aren't actually sure if the Macdonald triad is actually statistically a thing. Some studies say it is, some studies say it isn't, some studies say that those behaviours (among others) are linked to childhood neglect and abuse which puts a child more at risk of violent tendencies. The people who believe in this say that bed wetting longer than average can lead to feelings of shame and loss of control, which can then result in fire starting and animal cruelty (trying to regain that control), especially when they are punished by parents for this bed wetting. But like I said, there is a lot of debate if it is a thing at all.
|
[
"Confusional arousals have often been linked to sleep-related violence (self-injury or injury to the bed partner). The latter highlights important medical and legal issues when such behaviours are suspected and purported to have caused a criminal offense. The first documented case of homicide as a result of confusional arousal was reported in medieval times by the case of the Silesian woodcutter Bernard Schedmaizig. Sleep-related abnormal sexual behaviours (also called sexsomnia or sleep sex) are mainly classified as confusional arousals and more rarely associated to sleepwalking (also known as somnambulism). Even if sleep-related violence may occur during an episode of confusional arousal, it remains extremely rare and there are no specific predisposition to aggression during these episodes.\n",
"BULLET::::- Psychological issues (e.g., death in the family, sexual abuse, extreme bullying) are established as a cause of (a return to bedwetting), but are very rarely a cause of PNE-type bedwetting. Bedwetting can also be a symptom of a pediatric neuropsychological disorder called PANDAS.\n",
"The English term and concept of \"serial killer\" are commonly attributed to former FBI Special agent Robert Ressler who used the term \"serial homicide\" in 1974 in a lecture at Bramshill Police Academy in Britain. Author Ann Rule postulates in her book, \"Kiss Me, Kill Me\" (2004), that the English-language credit for coining the term goes to LAPD detective Pierce Brooks, who created the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) system in 1985.\n",
"A bedroom farce or sex farce is a type of light comedy, centered on the sexual pairings and recombinations of characters as they move through improbable plots and slamming doors. The bedroom farce is perhaps the most common form of farce.\n",
"A lot of sexual homicides are well planned due to extensive practice in form of sexual fantasies. The murders involve the infliction of a lot of pain and terror and this serves to satisfy the sadistic fantasy, albeit only temporarily. They start trying to replicate their fantasies more accurately with practice and will continue until they are caught as a fantasy can never be replicated with 100% accuracy.\n",
"The most critical component in the psychological development of a serial killer is violent fantasy, especially in the lust murderer. Fantasies accompany \"intrusive thoughts about killing someone that are associated with other distressing psychopathological processes\". Fantasies can never be completely fulfilled; sometimes the experience of killing can generate new fantasies of violence, creating a repetitive cycle. The purpose of fantasy is total control of the victim, whereas a sexual assault can be used as a vehicle for control. Sexual torture becomes a tool to degrade, humiliate, and subjugate the victim. Often the killer selects victims to stand as a proxy, resulting from childhood trauma. Fantasies may be fueled by pornography and facilitated by alcohol or other causes. Typically, fantasies involve one or several forms of paraphilia.\n",
"BULLET::::- Infection/disease Infections and disease are more strongly connected with and with daytime wetting. Less than 5% of all bedwetting cases are caused by infection or disease, the most common of which is a urinary tract infection.\n"
] |
when watching a screen, do our eyes focus purely on to the distance of the screen or the percieved depth of the picture?
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Purely on the screen. Same if you're looking at a photo: the depth isn't real and doesn't affect your focus.
|
[
"Focal length and diaphragm aperture affect the depth of field of a scene – that is, how much the background, mid-ground and foreground will be rendered in \"acceptable focus\" (only one exact plane of the image is in precise focus) on the film or video target. Depth of field (not to be confused with depth of focus) is determined by the aperture size and the focal distance. A large or deep depth of field is generated with a very small iris aperture and focusing on a point in the distance, whereas a shallow depth of field will be achieved with a large (open) iris aperture and focusing closer to the lens. Depth of field is also governed by the format size. If one considers the field of view and angle of view, the smaller the image is, the shorter the focal length should be, as to keep the same field of view. Then, the smaller the image is, the more depth of field is obtained, for the same field of view. Therefore, 70mm has less depth of field than 35mm for a given field of view, 16mm more than 35mm, and early video cameras, as well as most modern consumer level video cameras, even more depth of field than 16mm. \n",
"Close focus distance is the closest point that the binocular can focus on. This distance varies from about 0.5 m to 30 m, depending upon the design of the binoculars. If the close focus distance is short respect to the magnification, the binocular can be used also to see particulars not visible to the naked eye.\n",
"In this approach, two cameras with a known physical relationship (i.e. a common field of view the cameras can see, and how far apart their focal points sit in physical space) are correlated via software. By finding mappings of common pixel values, and calculating how far apart these common areas reside in pixel space, a rough depth map can be created. This is very similar to how the human brain uses stereoscopic information from the eyes to gain depth cue information, i.e. how far apart any given object in the scene is from the viewer.\n",
"where formula_2 is the distance to the screen, formula_3 is the resolution of the screen in pixels per unit length, and formula_4 is the aperture of a cone having the apex on focus, height formula_2, and the base in the eye lens —the optical correspondent to a cone inside the eye having the same base and the apex in the other focus, the fovea. That aperture, which can be measured by visual field tests, varies widely among different human subjects.\n",
"BULLET::::- Animated prints: Here the distance between different angles of view is \"medium\", so that while both eyes usually see the same picture, moving a little bit switches to the next picture in the series. Two or more sequential images are used, with only small differences between each image and the next. This can be used to create an image that moves (\"motion effect\"), or can create a \"zoom\" or \"morph\" effect, in which part of the image expands in size or changes shape as the angle of view changes. The movie poster of the film Species II, shown in this article, is an example of this technique.\n",
"The ideal optimum viewing distance is affected by the horizontal angle of the camera capturing the image. One concept of an ideal optimal viewing distance places the viewer where the horizontal angle subtended by the screen is the same as the horizontal angle captured by the camera. If this is the case, the angular relationships perceived by the viewer would be identical to those recorded by the camera. A mismatch in this regard is traditionally disregarded, but some rotating motions can make these distortions very noticeable as a pincushion effect. This is likely in 3d video games, so gamers are likely to adopt close viewing positions matched to a game's fixed field of view.\n",
"Focus is relative to spatial depth. Selective focus in photography is usually associated with depth of field. A pinhole camera generates an image of infinite relative focus, from a point just outside the camera opening out to infinity. Lenses focus more selectively so that, for objects near the lens, the distance between lens and sensor or film is increased and is shortened for more distant objects, to a point beyond which all is in focus. In telephoto lenses this point may be tens or hundreds of metres from the camera. Wide-angle lenses distinguish differences in depth only up to a short distance, beyond which all is in focus.\n"
] |
do my dogs think i'm just a big dog?
|
It's hard to say what dogs actually *think*, but there are some things we can infer from their behavior and from their body chemistry. We have recently come to understand that dogs' brains are capable of generating oxytocin in the same way ours are, and under the same circumstances. When you interact with other humans, when you hold hands or hug or put an arm around someone's shoulder, your brain generates the hormone oxytocin, and this hormone strengthens human relationships. It's been referred to as the love hormone, because it's the chemical that seems to be most responsible for feelings of love and affection.
The fun thing is that dogs' brains do this as well when we interact with them. When they're being loved-on, hugged, petted, etc., their brains also produce oxytocin. Our best guess is that dogs probably realize that we are not dogs. They know that we're not dogs. They probably don't have the means to comprehend what we actually are, but they know we aren't dogs. But through tens-of-thousands of years of selective breeding, they've still come to view us as vitally important to them. They absolutely see us as part of their "pack." The part of your dog that is still a wolf tracking through the wilds with its pack sees you as a part of that pack.
|
[
"Additionally, most people can tell from a bark whether a dog was alone or being approached by a stranger, playing or being aggressive, and able tell from a growl how big the dog is. This is thought to be evidence of human-dog coevolution.\n",
"\"A dog has no politics or religion, so you can tell people about him freely, and when you have finished you have talked to them about themselves,\" Trimble said. \"I can tell more about people from what they say about their dogs than from what they say about themselves.\"\n",
"Much about Dog remains unrevealed, due to the few appearances he has made. Dog is tall and powerfully built and demonstrates impressive tracking abilities, though it remains unrevealed precisely how he locates James and Rose. Dog also shows himself to be a formidable combatant during his fight with James. \n",
"There are many different types of behavioural issues that a dog can exhibit, including growling, snapping, barking, and invading human's space. A survey of 203 dog owners in Melbourne, Australia, found that the main behaviour problems reported by owners were overexcitement (63%) and jumping up on people (56%). Some problems are related to attachment while others are neurological, as seen below.\n",
"BULLET::::- While dogs are often portrayed as heroic, brave and strong they don't tend to be portrayed as intelligent that often, though there have been exceptions: Droopy, Snoopy, Dogbert, Brian Griffin, Gromit, Goliath, Mr. Peabody, Tekko Taks, Fokkie Flink, Top Dog\n",
"Basenjis often stand on their hind legs, somewhat like a meerkat, by themselves or leaning on something; this behavior is often observed when the dog is curious about something. Basenjis have a strong prey drive. According to the book \"The Intelligence of Dogs\", they are the second least trainable dog, when required to do human commands. Their real intelligence manifests, when they are required to actually \"think\".\n",
"The name Doga is a derivative of dog, a creature which is extremely brave. Dogs are also scary and are usually kept for protection. These elements of a dogs nature are fairly prominent in the character of Doga.\n"
] |
why do we only see fog when it is at a distance?
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Fog is a collection of tiny water droplets suspended in air at or just above ground-level. They are too small to see individually but they bend light never the less. As you get further away, there are so many droplets bending light that the objects further away from you can't be seen because the light from those objects isn't (entirely) traveling to your eyes.
|
[
"Fog shadows may look odd to viewers who are not used to seeing shadows in three dimensions. A thin fog is just dense enough to be illuminated by the light that passes through the gaps in a structure or in a tree. As a result, the path of an object's shadow through the fog becomes visible as a darkened volume. In a sense, these shadow lanes are the inverse of crepuscular rays caused by beams of light, but caused by the shadows of solid objects.\n",
"Visibility is generally very good, because of the proximity of industry to the coast, allowing breezes to disperse any smog. Mist and fog often occur, as well as coastal fog in the east, but it is generally not long-lasting. However, in winter, it can be slow to clear.\n",
"The presence of fog has often played a key role in historical events, such as strategic battles. One example is the Battle of Long Island (August 27, 1776), when American general George Washington and his command were able to evade imminent capture by the British Army, using fog to conceal their escape. Another example is D-Day (June 6, 1944) during World War II, when the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy, France during fog conditions. Both positive and negative results were reported from both sides during that battle, due to impaired visibility.\n",
"Cloud cover is often referred to as \"mist\" when encountered on mountains, whereas moisture suspended above a body of water or marsh area is usually called \"fog\". One difference between mist and fog is visibility. The phenomenon is called fog if the visibility is or less. In the U.K., the definition of fog is visibility less than (for driving purposes, UK Highway Code rule 226), while for pilots the distance is 1 km. Otherwise, it is known as mist.\n",
"The term \"fog\" is typically distinguished from the more generic term \"cloud\" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated locally (such as from a nearby body of water, like a lake or the ocean, or from nearby moist ground or marshes).\n",
"There are also occasional extended spells when fog and stratus (\"overcast\") do not clear all the way back to the coast for several days. These extended periods of cloudiness are usually a consequence of a weak area of low pressure above the marine layer which increases its depth, making it more difficult for surface heating to evaporate the clouds within it.\n",
"Sea smoke has a turbulent appearance and may form spiralling columns. It is usually not very high and lookouts on ships can usually see over it (but small boats may have very poor visibility) because the fog is confined to the layer of warm air above the sea. However, sea smoke columns 20–30 metres high have been observed. Because this type of fog requires very low air temperatures, it is uncommon in temperate climates, but is common in the Arctic and Antarctic.\n"
] |
At the time of the American Revolution, were there any other republics in the world?
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The Swiss Confederacy was a federation of states, named "cantons"; it was formed over time, starting in the middle ages, as different communities in the Alps developed a series of alliances.
It was a part of the Holy Roman Empire but it fought against the Habsburgs and did gain independence. That was formally recognized as an independent state by the europeans powers in 1648 at the Peace of Westphalia.
In Italy, the republics of Venice and of Genua were born as city states, mainly concerned with sea trade within the Mediterranean Sea.
Later, after the discovery of America and of the route to India around Africa, the Mediterranean become a bit of a backwater, and both cities expanded over land. Venice in particular did gain vast territories, expanding to the west nearly to Milan and controlling the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea (Dalmatia).
The were some other small republics in Italy, that based on the city state of Lucca and the tiny city state of San Marino (which is still existing today !). Also there were some city states that were nominally members of the Holy Roman Empire in Germany, but that in practice were mostly autonomous.
Keep in mind that those republics could all be defined as oligarchies: the power was concentrated in the hands of the members of a very small number of wealthy families, mostly very successful trading houses. Membership in the ruling councils was mainly by co-optation by the existing members, only extended to members of the families.
So nothing like the suffrage that was established in the United States, that was certainly not universal at the start but that was mush more effective and direct.
Also, many of those entities were destroyed by the revolutionary and napoleonic wars and the by the Congress of Vienna, with the exception of the Swiss confederacy. Venice was given to Austria, Lucca to the Duchy of Parma, Genua to the Kingdom of Savoy and Sardinia.
|
[
"Beginning the Age of Revolution, the American Revolution and the ensuing political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century saw the Thirteen Colonies of North America overthrow the governance of the Parliament of Great Britain, and then reject the British monarchy itself to become the sovereign United States of America. In this period the colonies first rejected the authority of the Parliament to govern them without representation, and formed self-governing independent states. The Second Continental Congress then joined together against the British to defend that self-governance in the armed conflict from 1775 to 1783 known as the American Revolutionary War (also called American War of Independence).\n",
"At first, during the French revolutionary wars these states were erected as republics (the so-called \"Républiques soeurs\", or \"sister republics\"). They were established in Italy (Cisalpine Republic in Northern Italy, Parthenopean Republic in Southern Italy), Greece (Septinsular Republic), Switzerland (Helvetic Republic and Rhodanic Republic), Belgium and the Netherlands (Batavian Republic).\n",
"Before the American Revolution (1775-1783), the British colonies in North America were protected from the Barbary pirates by British warships of the Royal Navy and treaties. During the Revolution, the Kingdom of France formed an alliance with the former British colonies in 1778, now the proclaimed independent \"United States of America\" and assumed the responsibility of providing protection of U.S. merchant ships in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic Ocean against the Barbary pirates by the French Navy. After the Revolutionary War ended and the new U.S.A. won its independence with the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1783), it had to face the threat of the Barbary pirates on its own. Two American ships were captured by Algerian pirates in July 1785 and the survivors forced into slavery, their ransom set at $60,000. A rumor that Benjamin Franklin, who was en route from France to Philadelphia about that time, had been captured by Barbary pirates, caused considerable upset in the U.S. With the disbanding of the former Continental Navy and the selling of its last warship by the Confederation Congress in 1785, now without a standing navy, much less a navy capable of projecting force across an ocean, the U.S. was forced to pay tribute monies and goods to the Barbary nations for the security of its ships and the freedom of its captured citizens. As Lieutenant and consul William Eaton informed newly appointed Secretary of State John Marshall in 1800, \"It is a maxim of the Barbary States, that 'The Christians who would be on good terms with them must fight well or pay well.'\"\n",
"BULLET::::- American Revolution – The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen Colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America.\n",
"Thirteen of Great Britain's colonies rebelled in the American Revolutionary War, beginning in 1775, primarily over representation, local laws and tax issues, and established the United States of America, which was recognised internationally with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on 3 September 1783.\n",
"The American Revolution was a colonial revolt which occurred between 1765 and 1783. The American Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) with the assistance of France, winning independence from Great Britain and establishing the United States of America.\n",
"In the example of the United States, the original 13 British colonies became independent states after the American Revolution, each having a republican form of government. These independent states initially formed a loose confederation called the United States and then later formed the current United States by ratifying the current U.S. Constitution, creating a union of sovereign states with the union or federal government also being a republic. Any state joining the union later was also required to be a republic.\n"
] |
What was Attila the Hun's full name?
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So far as we can tell, his name was Attila. As you've guessed, Huns did not use surnames or family names, and only a non-Hun would call him "the Hun."
Interesting trivia: *Attila* does not seem to be a Hunnish name but Gothic, like *Totila*. The Huns were not one tribe but a confederation of tribes including the Goths who did not flee them and the Sarmatian Alans. These tribes tended to adopt Hunnish culture, like cranial deformation and facial cicatrization. But it means that depictions of Attila as a Mongol might be quite a ways off: Goths were Germanic tribes, as in Ostrogoth and Visigoth (tribes that did flee the Huns).
Ingraham, *People's Names*.
|
[
"Attila (; fl. c. 406–453), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. He was also the leader of a tribal empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, and Alans among others, in Central and Eastern Europe.\n",
"Attila (also known as Attila the Hun in the UK) is a 2001 American television miniseries set during the waning days of the Western Roman Empire, in particular during the invasions of the Huns in Europe.\n",
"Attila himself is said to have claimed the titles \"Descendant of the Great Nimrod\", and \"King of the Huns, the Goths, the Danes, and the Medes\"—the last two peoples being mentioned to show the extent of his control over subject nations even on the peripheries of his domain.\n",
"Attila the Hun has had many depictions in popular culture. Many of these depictions either portray him as a great ruler or a ruthless conqueror. Attila has also appeared in numerous German and Norse epics, under the names Etzel and Atli, both with completely different personas. His sudden death remains a fascinating unsolved mystery.\n",
"Many scholars have argued that Attila derives from East Germanic origin; \"Attila\" is formed from the Gothic or Gepidic noun \"atta\", \"father\", by means of the diminutive suffix \"-ila\", meaning \"little father\". The Gothic etymology was first proposed by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the early 19th century. Maenchen-Helfen notes that this derivation of the name \"offers neither phonetic nor semantic difficulties\", and Gerhard Doerfer notes that the name is simply correct Gothic. The name has sometimes been interpreted as a Germanization of a name of Hunnic origin.\n",
"Flavius Aetius, a Roman general, is the only person who knows Attila since he was a hostage with the Huns for years. Aetius and his companion Prisco carry a message from the Roman emperor Valentinian III to the Hun's king Rua. After reaching their palace, Aetius learns that the king died, and that two brothers Bleda and Attila are now ruling the Hun kingdom. Bleda favours peace and tolerance, but Attila is at odds with him, and tensions develop. Yet Aetius knows to make an alliance between the Western Roman Empire and the Huns.\n",
"\"Totila\" was the \"nom de guerre\" of a man whose real name was Baduila, as can be seen from the coinage he issued. \"Totila\" is the name used by the Byzantine historian Procopius, who accompanied the Byzantine general Belisarius during the Gothic War, and whose chronicles are the main source of our information for Totila. According to Henry Bradley, 'Totila' and 'Baduila' are diminutives of 'Totabadws'. Born in Treviso, Totila was a relative of Theudis, king of the Visigoths. Elected king of the Ostrogoths in 541 after the assassination of his uncle Ildibad, having engineered the assassination of Ildibad's short-lived successor, his cousin Eraric, in 541. The official Byzantine position, adopted by Procopius and even by the Romanized Goth Jordanes, writing just before the conclusion of the Gothic Wars, was that Totila was a usurper: Jordanes' \"Getica\" (551) overlooks the then-recent successes of Totila.\n"
] |
what would happen to you if only your head was above water for a long, long time?
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Depends how long and what kind of water.
The skin is capable of passing stuff in and out of the body. If you're under water this presents a problem, if the water is pure enough the overall transfer will be water into the body and salts/minerals out of the body (bones and blood would have major issues). If the water is very salty the process reverses to drive up salt in the body effectively dehydrating you (this is why you can't drink seawater). If the water had just the right amount of all the necessary components then it's harder to say what will happen, I can't give you an answer there.
A vacuum would be less forgiving, lets assume a space-like vacuum.
Any moisture in your skin exposed to the vacuum would boil away, the skin would draw more moisture from the body and the process goes on until you're a dried out meat husk. Not to mention of course that your digestive tract is a hollow tube from end to end, if only your head was protected then everything would be sucked out the rear anyway. There's slightly more to it but the end doesn't get any better for you. The whole ordeal won't take long at all, only a few minutes at most.
Obviously less intense vacuums would be much less severe, but given enough time death would be the likely outcome. Our lungs are designed to work with equal pressure, if the outside of the chest is a vacuum then exhaling becomes more difficult, your chest will want to expand into the vacuum. While not as dramatic as in space your skin will still dehydrate faster than normal, this could make you bleed and, as air is required for clotting, it might not stop.
|
[
"BULLET::::- \"This Is Not the Life I Ordered: 50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down\", by Deborah Collins Stephens, Michealene Cristini Risley, Jackie Speier, and Jan Yanehiro, 2007,\n",
"Hypothermia from exposure to cold water is not as sudden as is often believed. A person who survives the initial minute of trauma (after falling into icy water), can survive for at least thirty minutes provided they don't drown. However, the ability to perform useful work (for example to save oneself) declines substantially after ten minutes (as the body protectively cuts off blood flow to \"non-essential\" muscles).\n",
"Later, the inner room is now waist high in water. Only Pike is standing in the cold water, pleading with everyone to do something otherwise he will drown. Hodges is floating in a tank, the rest of the platoon is crammed onto the bunks.\n",
"BULLET::::5. Water should be poured over the head three times so that it flows all over the body, ensuring that the roots of hairs and parts not easily reached by water such as the back of the knees are washed thoroughly.\n",
"According to the \"Mishnah\" (older part of the \"Talmud\"), it is said of Hillel the Elder that he saw a skull that was floating on top of the water and he said (to it): \"Since you drowned [others, others] drowned you. And in the end, those that drowned you will be drowned.\" From Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva it is stated in the \"Mishnah\": \"If we were on the \"Sanhedrin\", nobody would have ever been executed.\"\n",
"\"I was asked to dip into the water near the well. As soon as I did so, someone shouted 'shoot him'. Sensing imminent death I somehow untied my hand, removed blindfold around my eyes and started running in the waist deep water. I could hear one gunshot behind me but I kept running.\"\n",
"\"Of course there's a concern. If I said it wasn't in the back of my head, I'd be lying. You don't want to think something bad could happen from just drinking water\", said Dominic Covone, 37, a resident of about six years.\n"
] |
why are paddling pools blue etc instead of black to absorb the heat and keep warm?
|
Blue reminds people of the seas and oceans (or rather shallow water near the beach). Black would be creepy to many people (b/c it looks like deep water).
Absorbing heat can make the water too hot, and most pools are sold in areas with a lot of sun, and people want their pools to stay cool.
Lighter color makes it easier to see dirt, so you know when the pool is clean.
|
[
"Starting 9 August, the pool used for diving competitions began turning a green color instead of its natural blue, followed by the water polo pool the next day. Several athletes reported that it affected their performance, either by preventing them from seeing underwater or hurting their eyes (possibly because of increased chlorine to counteract the problem). The color change was officially reported as being caused by a lack of chemicals used for the water treatment process, which resulted in the pH level of the pool to change. The diving pool was closed on 12 August after it began producing a sulfuric smell and was suggested to be a cause of eye itchiness among some athletes who competed within it. A report said that a sanitation contractor had added the dechlorinating sterilizer hydrogen peroxide to water that was already chlorinated, neutralizing the sterilizing effect of chlorine.\n",
"On Tuesday August 9, the water of the diving well turned dark green, originally thought to be caused by the heat and lack of wind in the venue. However, at the time a CNN photographer took a picture, an adjacent pool in the same location was not green. Olympic officials later confirmed that the change in color was due to 160 litres of hydrogen peroxide having been mistakenly added to the pool during cleaning. \n",
"The pool was cool enough up until 1991 for dark orange-brown cyanobacteria to grow throughout the pool. When combined with the blue of the water, the pool appeared to be an exceptionally dark green to almost black, hence the name.\n",
"Some constituents of sea water can influence the shade of blue of the ocean. This is why it can look greener or bluer in different areas. Water in swimming pools (which may also contain various chemicals) with white-painted sides and bottom will appear as a turquoise blue.\n",
"The species prefers areas in sluggish backwaters, lakes, and ponds with gravel, sand, or bedrock bottoms. They also can be found in very muddy waters and are able to tolerate poor water conditions. Green sunfish tend to spend their time hiding around rocks, submerged logs, plants, and other things that provide cover.\n",
"\"Nantucket Reds\" were originally inspired by cotton trousers worn in Brittany. A characteristic of Reds is that they fade to a \"dusty rose\" as they age. Since their inception, the cotton canvas pants have been marketed as shorts. The distinctive salmon pink color has since been used on hats, shirts, sweaters and socks. Reds are worn predominantly by summer residents of Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Cape Cod in place of khakis or chinos.\n",
"Emerald Pool, a hot spring named for its emerald green color, is one of the main attractions at Black Sand Basin in Yellowstone National Park. Its temperature is 154.6 °F and its dimensions are 27x38 feet with a depth of 25 feet. The color is due to growth of yellow bacteria and algae. Cooling, the result of objects thrown into the pool and natural debris, has affected the growth of the bacteria and algae, making the pool appear orange and brown around the edges.\n"
] |
A few questions on Wave interference
|
Observing interference is a little harder to do in those situations. Things like headlights and music are made up of lots of waves with many different wavelengths so the interference pattern is very complicated and you won't notice it.
There are two ways you could observe wave interference at home:
1. Set up your speakers as far away from each other as you can and point them towards each other, a few meters would be good. Instead of music, play a continuous note of a single pitch through the speakers. You should be able to google something to play single pitch sounds. Then, if the distance between the speakers is a few multiples of the wavelength, say 1:3 or 1:4 (pick either but be as precise as possible!!), you should set up a nice standing wave pattern, ie. constructive interference that doesn't change with time. To observe it, start with your head at one speaker and move your head along a line towards the other speaker. If your speakers are good enough (decent computer speakers should be) and you have set up the distances precisely, then you should notice changes in volume along the path.
2. With a wide pan or bowl of water you could dip you fingers in and out quickly at two different spots to make ripples which will interfere as they cross over each other. Watch closely though!!
You'd need better equipment to observe this effect with light. But if you have a laser pointer you could maybe do it with the [double slit experiment](_URL_0_).
|
[
"In physics, interference is a phenomenon in which two waves superpose to form a resultant wave of greater, lower, or the same amplitude. Constructive and destructive interference result from the interaction of waves that are correlated or coherent with each other, either because they come from the same source or because they have the same or nearly the same frequency. Interference effects can be observed with all types of waves, for example, light, radio, acoustic, surface water waves, gravity waves, or matter waves. The resulting images or graphs are called interferograms.\n",
"The phenomenon of interference between waves is based on this idea. When two or more waves traverse the same space, the net amplitude at each point is the sum of the amplitudes of the individual waves. In some cases, such as in noise-cancelling headphones, the summed variation has a smaller amplitude than the component variations; this is called \"destructive interference\". In other cases, such as in a line array, the summed variation will have a bigger amplitude than any of the components individually; this is called \"constructive interference\".\n",
"Interference is the addition, in the mathematical sense, of wave functions. A single wave can interfere with itself, but this is still an addition of two waves (see Young's slits experiment). Constructive or destructive interferences are limit cases, and two waves always interfere, even if the result of the addition is complicated or not remarkable.\n",
"Constructive interference occurs when the phase difference between the waves is an even multiple of (180°) , whereas destructive interference occurs when the difference is an odd multiple of . If the difference between the phases is intermediate between these two extremes, then the magnitude of the displacement of the summed waves lies between the minimum and maximum values.\n",
" In physics, interference is the meeting of two correlated waves and either increasing or lowering the net amplitude, depending on whether it is constructive or destructive interference. If a crest of a wave meets a crest of another wave at the same point then the crests interfere constructively and the resultant crest wave amplitude is increased; forming a much more powerful wave than either of the beginning waves. Similarly two troughs make a trough of increased amplitude. If a crest of a wave meets a trough of another wave then they interfere destructively, and the overall amplitude is decreased; thus making a wave that is much smaller than either of the parent waves.\n",
"Constructive interference occurs when the waves are in phase, and destructive interference when they are half a cycle out of phase. Thus, an interference fringe pattern is produced, where the separation of the maxima is\n",
"Interference is the process by which two waves superimpose to form a resultant wave of greater or less amplitude. Interference usually refers to the interaction of waves that are correlated or coherent with each other. In constructive interference, the two waves are of the same phase interfere in a way such that the resultant amplitude will be equal to the sum of the individual amplitudes. As the light in an optical ring resonator completes multiple circuits around the ring component, it will interfere with the other light still in the loop. As such, assuming there are no losses in the system such as those due to absorption, evanescence, or imperfect coupling and the resonance condition is met, the intensity of the light emitted from a ring resonator will be equal to the intensity of the light fed into the system.\n"
] |
Why don't orbiting electrons radiate?
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It's not enough for you that they're in their lowest energy state? Clearly, they can't emit energy in the form of a photon and _gain_ energy doing so - that'd just blatantly violate of conservation of energy.
But fair enough then. If the electrons behave quantum mechanically (which you've accepted) and the field is behaving classically (which you're sort of implying), then it _still_ can't emit any radiation, even if the electrons have orbital angular momentum (not all bound states do though).
Because they're behaving quantum-mechanically, the electrons have no definite positions in space. You only have the electron probability-density (= charge density) around the atom. In the ground state and other energetic eigenstates, the state is _stationary_. The probabilities of where the electrons are likely to be doesn't change with time, so the charge density is stationary. There's no charge flux, no acceleration of the charges, nothing capable of emitting radiation.
|
[
"This model is even more approximate than the model of hydrogen, because it treats the electrons in each shell as non-interacting. But the repulsions of electrons are taken into account somewhat by the phenomenon of screening. The electrons in outer orbits do not only orbit the nucleus, but they also move around the inner electrons, so the effective charge Z that they feel is reduced by the number of the electrons in the inner orbit.\n",
"In this model, the orbits of the electrons were stable because when an electron moved away from the centre of the positively-charged sphere, it was subjected to a greater net positive inward force, because there was more positive charge inside its orbit (see Gauss's law). Electrons were free to rotate in rings which were further stabilized by interactions among the electrons, and spectroscopic measurements were meant to account for energy differences associated with different electron rings. Thomson attempted unsuccessfully to reshape his model to account for some of the major spectral lines experimentally known for several elements.\n",
"Electrons in an atom are sometimes described as \"orbiting\" its nucleus, following an early conjecture of Niels Bohr (this is the source of the term \"orbital\"). However, electrons don't actually orbit nuclei in any meaningful sense, and quantum mechanics are necessary for any useful understanding of the electron's real behavior. Solving the classical two-body problem for an electron orbiting an atomic nucleus is misleading and does not produce many useful insights.\n",
"In 1913 [[Niels Bohr]] proposed [[Bohr model|a new model of the atom]] that included quantized electron orbits: electrons still orbit the nucleus much as planets orbit around the sun, but they are permitted to inhabit only certain orbits, not to orbit at any distance. When an atom emitted (or absorbed) energy, the electron did not move in a continuous trajectory from one orbit around the nucleus to another, as might be expected classically. Instead, the electron would jump instantaneously from one orbit to another, giving off the emitted light in the form of a photon. The possible energies of photons given off by each element were determined by the differences in energy between the orbits, and so the emission spectrum for each element would contain a number of lines.\n",
"Electrons do not have definite orbits, or sharply defined ranges. Rather, their positions must be described as probability distributions that taper off gradually as one moves away from the nucleus, without a sharp cutoff. Moreover, in condensed matter and molecules, the electron clouds of the atoms usually overlap to some extent, and some of the electrons may roam over a large region encompassing two or more atoms.\n",
"BULLET::::1. The electron is able to revolve in certain stable orbits around the nucleus without radiating any energy contrary to what classical electromagnetism suggests. These stable orbits are called stationary orbits and are attained at certain discrete distances from the nucleus. The electron cannot have any other orbit in between the discrete ones.\n",
"This is also evident from phenomena like electron capture. Theoretically, in orbital models of heavy atoms, the electron orbits partially inside the nucleus (it does not \"orbit\" in a strict sense, but has a non-vanishing probability of being located inside the nucleus).\n"
] |
How does LIGO know that the gravitational waves they observed were from 2 black holes?
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The shape of the signal they detected -- how long it lasted, how its frequency changed, how its amplitude changed -- distinguished the event as a black hole merger, and even allowed determination of the masses of the two black holes.
There was a lot of modeling of various phenomena using general relativity to see what kinds of gravitational wave waveforms they'd produce, so that when there was a signal, the could recognize what kind of signal it was.
You can read a press release about the modeling of black hole mergers [here](_URL_0_).
|
[
"BULLET::::- Existence of gravitational waves (1916–2016): On 11 February 2016, the Advanced LIGO team announced that they had directly detected gravitational waves from a pair of black holes merging, which was also the first detection of a stellar binary black hole.\n",
"In 2015, the LIGO project was the first to directly observe gravitational waves using laser interferometers. The LIGO detectors observed gravitational waves from the merger of two stellar-mass black holes, matching predictions of general relativity. These observations demonstrated the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems, and were the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger. This finding has been characterized as revolutionary to science, because of the verification of our ability to use gravitational-wave astronomy to progress in our search and exploration of dark matter and the big bang.\n",
"On February 11, 2016, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration teams held a press conference to announce that they had directly detected gravitational waves from a pair of black holes merging, on Rosh Hashanah 2015, (Weber's yahrtzeit), using the Advanced LIGO detectors.\n",
"On 11 February 2016, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations announced the first observation of gravitational waves. The signal was named GW150914. The waveform showed up on 14 September 2015, within just two days of when the Advanced LIGO detectors started collecting data after their upgrade. It matched the predictions of general relativity for the inward spiral and merger of a pair of black holes and subsequent 'ringdown' of the resulting single black hole. The observations demonstrated the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems and the first observation of a binary black hole merger.\n",
"On 14 September 2015 the LIGO gravitational wave observatory made the first-ever successful direct observation of gravitational waves. The signal was consistent with theoretical predictions for the gravitational waves produced by the merger of two black holes: one with about 36 solar masses, and the other around 29 solar masses. This observation provides the most concrete evidence for the existence of black holes to date. For instance, the gravitational wave signal suggests that the separation of the two objects prior to the merger was just 350 km (or roughly 4 times the Schwarzschild radius corresponding to the inferred masses). The objects must therefore have been extremely compact, leaving black holes as the most plausible interpretation.\n",
"As of December 2018, LIGO has made eleven detections of gravitational waves, of which ten are from binary black hole mergers. The other event was the first detection of a collision of two neutron stars, on 17 August 2017 which simultaneously produced optical signals detectable by conventional telescopes. All eleven events were observed in data from the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO.\n",
"On 11 February 2016, the LIGO collaboration announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves, which also represented the first observation of a black hole merger. , eleven gravitational wave events have been observed that originated from ten merging black holes (along with one binary neutron star merger). On 10 April 2019, the first ever direct image of a black hole and its vicinity was published, following observations made by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2017 of the supermassive black hole in Messier 87's galactic centre.\n"
] |
does poison ivy really get worse each time? why?
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> "the memory of the last infection"
Your immune system has greater reactions to things it recognizes more quickly, and it recognizes things more quickly by being exposed to them in the past. I think this is why you can develop allergies to things like super powerful epoxy if it touches your skin too much.
Essentially, when your body recognizes a foreign and potentially dangerous substance, it produces antibodies that attach to that substance and serve as markers for other parts of the immune system to destroy things. After the threat is neutralized, your body continues to circulate antibodies for that substance, in case it shows up again. Then if you are exposed to that substance again, the immune reaction is even faster and more dramatic as a result, because there are already a lot of antibodies for the thing floating around.
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[
"Poison ivy is particularly sensitive to carbon dioxide levels, greatly benefiting from higher concentrations in the atmosphere. Higher carbon dioxide levels increase the rate of plant growth, and causes them to produce more unsaturated urushiol, which causes stronger reactions in humans. Poison ivy's growth and potency has already doubled since the 1960s, and it could double again once carbon dioxide levels reach 560 ppm.\n",
"BULLET::::- Poison ivy and poison oak are still harmful when the leaves have fallen off, as the toxic residue is persistent, and exposure to any parts of plants containing urushiol can cause a rash at any time of the year.\n",
"Recent reports show that accidental poisoning rates have steadily been increasing since the use of natural pyrethrins, prompting some countries to ban their use altogether. In the USA, the use of pyrethrum in home bug sprays (ie. RAID) was banned in 2012 shortly after cases of fatalities in children emerged, prompting an investigation by the FDA. \n",
"Poison Ivy's body produces pheromones that make people susceptible to mind control around her, especially men, although strong-minded people like Batman are usually capable of resisting. She specializes in hybrids and can create the most potent floral toxins in Gotham City, ranging from truth serums and love potions. Often these toxins are secreted from her lips and administered in her preferred way, a poisonous kiss, usually after professing false love or affection for her victim. They come in a number of varieties, from mind-controlling drugs to instantly fatal toxins.\n",
"\"Poison Ivy\" is a popular song by American songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was originally recorded by The Coasters in 1959. It went to #1 on the R&B chart, #7 on the \"Billboard\" Hot 100 chart, and #15 in the UK. This was their third top-ten hit of that year following \"Charlie Brown\" and \"Along Came Jones\".\n",
"The differences in toxicity in poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac are due to differences in the side chains of the chemicals in these plants. In general, poison ivy has a C side chain, poison oak has a C side chain and poison sumac has a C side chain.\n",
"These drugs are efficient for acute poisoning of arsenic, which refers to the instantaneous effects caused by arsenic poisoning. For example, headaches, vomiting or sweating are some of the common examples of an instantaneous effect. In comparison, chronic poisonous effects arise later on, and unexpectedly such as organ damage. Usually it is too late to prevent them once they appear. Therefore, action should be taken as soon as acute poisonous effects arise.\n"
] |
Why do some vaccines, such as Hep B or HPV, require multiple shots spread out over time?
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If you inject too much of weakened disease thingy's into your body at once, it can still overwhelm your immune system. You also need to keep your "database" up to date. Think of the immunity to the disease as something expirable. After a while of not using it, your system will toss it into the trash bin. It needs to be reactivated to stay effective. I think that's basically it.
|
[
"Research suggests that VLP vaccines against influenza virus could provide stronger and longer-lasting protection against flu viruses than conventional vaccines. Production can begin as soon as the virus strain is sequenced and can take as little as 12 weeks, compared to 9 months for traditional vaccines. In early clinical trials, VLP vaccines for influenza appeared to provide complete protection against both the Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 and the 1918 flu pandemic. Novavax and Medicago Inc. have run clinical trials of their VLP flu vaccines.\n",
"A vaccine probably would not be available in the initial stages of population infection. A vaccine cannot be developed to protect against a virus which does not exist yet. The avian flu virus H5N1 has the potential to mutate into a pandemic strain, but so do other types of flu virus. Once a potential virus is identified and a vaccine is approved, it normally takes five to six months before the vaccine becomes available.\n",
"In April 2019, following a large-scale ring-vaccination scheme in the DRC outbreak, preliminary results showed that the vaccine had been 97.5% effective at stopping Ebola transmission, relative to no vaccination.\n",
"During the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, vaccines only became available in large quantities after the peak of human infections. This was a learning experience for vaccination companies. Novartis Vaccine and Diagnostics, among other companies, developed a synthetic approach that very rapidly generates vaccine viruses from sequence data in order to be able to administer vaccinations early in the pandemic outbreak. Philip Dormatizer, the leader of viral vaccine research at Novartis, says they have \"developed a way of chemically synthesizing virus genomes and growing them in tissue culture cells\".\n",
"The two types of vaccines contain either inactivated \"Hepatovirus A\" or a live but attenuated virus. Both provide active immunity against a future infection. The vaccine protects against HAV in more than 95% of cases for longer than 25 years. In the US, the vaccine was first used in 1996 for children in high-risk areas, and in 1999 it was spread to areas with elevating levels of infection.\n",
"Many early vaccines used dead samples of FMDV to inoculate animals, but those early vaccines sometimes caused real outbreaks. In the 1970s, scientists discovered that a vaccine could be made using only a single key protein from the virus. The task was to produce enough quantities of the protein to be used in the vaccination. On June 18, 1981, the US government announced the creation of a vaccine targeted against FMD, the world's first genetically engineered vaccine.\n",
"Vaccinations exist for several biological BRD precursors, but the multitude of possible precursors complicates the process of choosing a vaccine regime. Additionally, vaccines are not completely effective in stopping the disease, but are merely helpful in mitigation. Many of the problems with vaccine effectiveness rest with improper use, such as failing to time vaccine doses appropriately, or not administering them before shipping.\n"
] |
why are services like uber and airbnb considered by some to be disruptive to the economy?
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Hotels and cab companies are regulated and taxed, they have to follow certain rules in order to keep their operating license. If I rent you my house for a short stay or pick you up and drive you around the government doesn't get any tax revenue from that and I'm not bound by the same licensing requirements. Because the hotels and cabs I'd be competing against do have to pay taxes and follow those regs I'm operating at an unfair advantage. Of course I can charge less than Yellow Cab, I don't have to pay for official inspections or cab medallions.
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[
"Uber, Airbnb, and other companies have had drastic effects on infrastructures such as road congestion and housing. Major cities such as San Francisco and New York City have arguably become more congested due to their use. According to transportation analyst Charles Komanoff, \"Uber-caused congestion has reduced traffic speeds in downtown Manhattan by around 8 percent\".\n",
"However, in a report published in January 2017, Carl Benedikt Frey found that while the introduction of Uber had not led to jobs being lost, but had caused a reduction in the incomes of incumbent taxi drivers of almost 10%. Frey found that the \"sharing economy\", and Uber in particular, has had substantial negative impacts on workers wages.\n",
"In \"Drivers of Disruption? Estimating the Uber Effect\", Frey found that while the introduction of Uber had not led to jobs being lost, but had caused a reduction in the incomes of incumbent taxi drivers of almost 10 percent. On Al Jazeera he called the TFL decision to restrict Uber in London a massive transfer of consumer surplus from millions of users to a few taxi drivers.\n",
"Uber is not an example of disruption because it did not originate in a low-end or new market footholds. One of the conditions for the business to be considered disruptive according to Clayton M. Christensen is that the business should originate on a) low-end or b) new-market footholds. Instead, Uber was launched in San Franscisco, a large urban city with an established taxi service and did not target low-end customers or created a new market (from the consumer perspective). In contrast, UberSELECT, an option that provides luxurious cars such as limousine at a discounted price, is an example of disruption innovation because it originates from low-end customers segment - customers who would not have entered the traditional luxurious market.\n",
"In 2015, in close collaboration with the Taxi Workers Alliance, NYCC launched a campaign to transform workplace in the access, or temporary work, recognizing that companies like Uber were shortchanging its low-income workforce. The campaign argues that the company evades payroll taxes by designating their workers as \"independent contractors\" even though Uber sets its own prices and rules for ride-sharing transactions, and that by finding a loophole around the National Labor Relations Act, they fail to give their workers basic labor protections, such as a minimum wage, overtime compensation, and unemployment compensation. One recent study showed that these drivers made as little as $2.89 per hour after Uber cut fares. The organization has also partnered with Amazon workers in their successful push for a $15/hour minimum wage. \n",
"Uberisation has, as of yet, taken place in a limited but growing amount of industries. For example, with the advent of Airbnb, the hospitality industry has been transformed to a large extent, estimated by industry analysts to have a total annual value, just in New York City, of over US $2.1 billion. While uberisation has been criticised as potentially catalysing a chaotic shift by undermining existing corporate models in the hospitality and taxi industries, existing companies in industries such as marketing can use the phenomenon to reduce expenses and provide more specialised services for customers.\n",
"Transportation infrastructure mirrors telecommunication facilities; by impeding transportation for individuals in a city or region, the economy will slightly degrade over time. Successful cyber-attacks can impact scheduling and accessibility, creating a disruption in the economic chain. Carrying methods will be impacted, making it hard for cargo to be sent from one place to another. In January 2003 during the \"slammer\" virus, Continental Airlines was forced to shut down flights due to computer problems. Cyberterrorists can target railroads by disrupting switches, target flight software to impede airplanes, and target road usage to impede more conventional transportation methods. In May 2015, a man, Chris Roberts, who was a cyberconsultant, revealed to the FBI that he had repeatedly, from 2011 to 2014, managed to hack into Boeing and Airbus flights' controls via the onboard entertainment system, allegedly, and had at least once ordered a flight to climb. The FBI, after detaining him in April 2015 in Syracuse, had interviewed him about the allegations.\n"
] |
What is the definition of a "Great Power" and what makes a country one?
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I was a history and international relations major as an undergrad, and here is where the two disciplines meet. The term "Great Power" comes from the Realist tradition in international relations. Without going too far down the rabbit hole of explaining what Realists believe, they essentially view international politics as a struggle for survival between nation-states and they see power rather than ideology as the key variable that leads nations into conflict (ideology may be an important reason why a war is worth fighting for the common man, but the conflicts are ultimately driven by competition for security between nations rather than conflicts over ideology.)
Realists like John Mearsheimer would define great powers generally as those which have a significant military capability (including latent capability) and an influence on affairs that extends beyond it's immediate region. Great powers can also extend their territorial influence beyond their defined borders in the absence of another power stopping them from doing so. There's not really a hard-and-fast way to differentiate great powers from lesser powers, but a nation that stands a realistic chance of defeating another great power in a war is generally going to be considered a great power.
The term was much more relevant in the absence of *superpowers*, which are essentially magnified great powers capable of projecting power over vast regions of the globe. *Great Powers* are much more important when there are powerful states with great military capabilities with no clear hegemon dominating a region. Historically, Western Europe has often been characterized by competition among Great Powers including Russia, England, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain. Certain of these countries have dropped off the list of Great Powers at different points as their ability to influence affairs beyond their boarders lessened and their military capabilities became weakened. Now, some people would characterize Germany, Japan, the UK, France, and Russia as Great Powers (although these are all arguable) but most IR Realists would say that the United States is the sole Superpower in the world, rendering Great Power status fairly useless.
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[
"A great power is a nation or state that, through its great economic, political and military strength, is able to exert power and influence not only over its own region of the world, but beyond to others.\n",
"BULLET::::- Great power: In historical mentions, the term \"great power\" refers to the states that have strong political, cultural and economical influence over nations around them and across the world.\n",
"A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power influence, which may cause middle or small powers to consider the great powers' opinions before taking actions of their own. International relations theorists have posited that great power status can be characterized into power capabilities, spatial aspects, and status dimensions.\n",
"Much effort in academic and popular writing is devoted to deciding which countries have the status of \"power\", and how this can be measured. If a country has \"power\" (as influence) in military, diplomatic, cultural, and economic spheres, it might be called a \"power\" (as status). There are several categories of power, and inclusion of a state in one category or another is fraught with difficulty and controversy. In his famous 1987 work, \"The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers,\" British-American historian Paul Kennedy charts the relative status of the various powers from AD 1500 to 2000. He does not begin the book with a theoretical definition of a \"great power\"; however he does list them, separately, for many different eras. Moreover, he uses different working definitions of a great power for different eras. For example:\n",
"Wight begins: \"Power politics is a colloquial phrase for international politics.\" He explains that states exploit power to achieve expansion and dominance; \"every dominant power aspires... to become a universal empire.\" For diplomatic reasons, \"dominant powers\" are euphemized as \"Great Powers ... who wish to monopolise (sic) the right to create international conflict\". Great Powers win and lose their status through violence, and are defined by their ability to wage war; they are decreasing in number, but those remaining are increasing in size.\n",
"Formal or informal acknowledgment of a nation's great power status has also been a criterion for being a great power. As political scientist George Modelski notes, \"The status of Great power is sometimes confused with the condition of being powerful. The office, as it is known, did in fact evolve from the role played by the great military states in earlier periods... But the Great power system institutionalizes the position of the powerful state in a web of rights and obligations.\"\n",
"Power tends to confuse itself with virtue and a great nation is particularly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of God's favor, conferring upon it a special responsibility for other nations—to make them richer and happier and wiser, to remake them, that is, in its own shining image. Power confuses itself with virtue and tends also to take itself for omnipotence. Once imbued with the idea of a mission, a great nation easily assumes that it has the means as well as the duty to do God's work.\n"
] |
Just how credible is the Abiotic Oil Theory vs. the organic algae/zoo-plankton theory?
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[This review from Resource Geology shoots it down pretty hard.](_URL_0_) Really, the most obvious criticism is that there haven't been any big oil discoveries that can be conclusively credited to this hypothesis.
This hypothesis might have been worth consideration back in the 1950s, when the Russians came up with it, but it doesn't mesh with what we now know about the world.
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[
"One of the main counter arguments to the abiotic theory is the existence of biomarkers in petroleum. These chemical compounds can be best explained as residues of biogenic organic matter. They have been found in all oil and gas accumulations tested so far and suggest that oil has a biological origin and is generated from kerogen by pyrolysis.\n",
"E. N. Harvey (1932) was among the first to propose how bioluminescence could have evolved. In this early paper, he suggested that proto-bioluminescence could have arisen from respiratory chain proteins that hold fluorescent groups. This hypothesis has since been disproven, but it did lead to considerable interest in the origins of the phenomenon. Today, the two prevailing hypotheses (both concerning marine bioluminescence) are the ones put forth by Seliger (1993) and Rees et al. (1998).\n",
"The abiogenic hypothesis regained some support in 2009 when researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm reported they believed they had proven that fossils from animals and plants are not necessary for crude oil and natural gas to be generated. In his 2014 publication \"Chemistry of the Climate System\", German chemist Detlev Moller documents sufficient reliable evidence to show that both processes can be shown to co-exist, that they're not mutually exclusive.\n",
"The wide-ranged biological purposes of bio-luminescence include but are not limited to attraction of mates, defense against predators, and warning signals. In the case of bioluminescent bacteria, bio-luminescence mainly serves as a form of dispersal. It has been hypothesized that enteric bacteria (bacteria that survive in the guts of other organisms) - especially those prevalent in the depths of the ocean - employ bio-luminescence as an effective form of distribution. After making their way into the digestive tracts of fish and other marine organisms and being excreted in fecal pellets, bioluminescent bacteria are able to utilize their bio-luminescent capabilities to lure in other organisms and prompt ingestion of these bacterial-containing fecal pellets. The bio-luminescence of bacteria thereby ensures their survival, persistence, and dispersal as they are able to enter and inhabit other organisms.\n",
"Ctenophores may balance marine ecosystems by preventing an over-abundance of copepods from eating all the phytoplankton (planktonic plants), which are the dominant marine producers of organic matter from non-organic ingredients.\n",
"Research into algae for the mass-production of oil focuses mainly on microalgae (organisms capable of photosynthesis that are less than 0.4 mm in diameter, including the diatoms and cyanobacteria) as opposed to macroalgae, such as seaweed. The preference for microalgae has come about due largely to their less complex structure, fast growth rates, and high oil-content (for some species). However, some research is being done into using seaweeds for biofuels, probably due to the high availability of this resource.\n",
"A chemical basis for the abiotic petroleum process is the serpentinization of peridotite, beginning with methanogenesis via hydrolysis of olivine into serpentine in the presence of carbon dioxide. Olivine, composed of Forsterite and Fayalite metamorphoses into serpentine, magnetite and silica by the following reactions, with silica from fayalite decomposition (reaction 1a) feeding into the forsterite reaction (1b).\n"
] |
what is happening when the body develops a cauliflower ear?
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The ear fills with blood and fluid that calicifies and hardens over time if it isn't drained and taken care of right away.
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[
"The most common cause of cauliflower ear is blunt trauma to the ear leading to a hematoma which, if left untreated, eventually heals to give the distinct appearance of cauliflower ear. The structure of the ear is supported by a cartilaginous scaffold consisting of the following distinct components: the helix, antihelix, concha, tragus, and antitragus. The skin that covers this cartilage is extremely thin with virtually no subcutaneous fat while also strongly attached to the perichondrium, which is richly vascularized to supply the avascular cartilage.\n",
"Cauliflower ear is an irreversible condition that occurs when the external portion of the ear is hit and develops a blood clot or other collection of fluid under the perichondrium. This separates the cartilage from the overlying perichondrium that supplies its nutrients, causing it to die and resulting in the formation of fibrous tissue in the overlying skin. As a result, the outer ear becomes permanently swollen and deformed, resembling a cauliflower.\n",
"Cauliflower ear is a blood clot that forms under the skin in the ear, causing there to be a large bump in the ear; the bump tends to be extremely hard. To develop cauliflower ear one must be hit in the ear many times or hit hard for it to form into a blood clot. When having cauliflower ear it is important to get the ear drained of liquid that has built up. Otherwise the ear will require surgery to return to normal shape and size. The best way to prevent cauliflower is to wear headgear. This will protect the ears from taking hard hits.\n",
"The components of the ear involved in cauliflower ear are the outer skin, the perichondrium, and the cartilage. The outer ear skin is tightly adherent to the perichondrium because there is almost no subcutaneous fat on the anterior of the ear. This leaves the perichondrium relatively exposed to damage from direct trauma and shear forces, created by a force pushing across the ear like a punch, and increasing the risk of hematoma formation. In an auricular hematoma, blood accumulates between the perichondrium and cartilage. The hematoma mechanically obstructs blood flow from the perichondrium to the avascular cartilage. This lack of perfusion puts the cartilage at risk for becoming necrotic and/or infected. If left untreated, disorganized fibrosis and cartilage formation will occur around the aforementioned cartilaginous components.\n",
"A 2005 study achieved successful regrowth of cochlea cells in guinea pigs. However, the regrowth of cochlear hair cells does not imply the restoration of hearing sensitivity, as the sensory cells may or may not make connections with neurons that carry the signals from hair cells to the brain. A 2008 study has shown that gene therapy targeting Atoh1 can cause hair cell growth and attract neuronal processes in embryonic mice. Some hope that a similar treatment will one day ameliorate hearing loss in humans.\n",
"Recessive, dominant, X-linked, or mitochondrial genetic mutations can affect the structure or metabolism of the inner ear. Some may be single point mutations, whereas others are due to chromosomal abnormalities. Some genetic causes give rise to a late onset hearing loss. Mitochondrial mutations can cause SNHL i.e. m.1555AG, which makes the individual sensitive to the ototoxic effects of aminoglycoside antibiotics.\n",
"An anecdotal medical approach is to install lidocaine liniment 3% or gel 2% into the ear canal. Somehow this creates a vagus nerve-triggering reflex through its extensions to the external ear and tympanus (ear drum). The effect can be immediate, and also have lasting effect after the lidocaine effect expires after about two hours.\n"
] |
Have there been any major Civil Rights movements in the US which ultimately failed totally and completely?
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Well, there's the modern pederasty movement. By pederasty I mean movements defending adult - adolescent sexual relationships, especially of the homosexual kind. It arose during the 60s and 70s, along with other parts of the sexual revolution and civil rights movement. NAMBLA (North American Man Boy Love Association) was founded in 1978 and describes itself as a political, educational and civil rights association whose goal is to end "the extreme oppression of men and boys in mutually consensual relationships". So they (the few members) describe themselves as being part of civil rights, but I don't know how much other civil rights would agree with that (I think not much, at least from what the statements I've read of gay civil rights associations, that try to dissociate their image as much as possible from them).
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[
"Most civil rights movements relied on the technique of civil resistance, using nonviolent methods to achieve their aims. In some countries, struggles for civil rights were accompanied, or followed, by civil unrest and even armed rebellion. While civil rights movements over the last sixty years have resulted in an extension of civil and political rights, the process was long and tenuous in many countries, and many of these movements did not achieve or fully achieve their objectives.\n",
"The civil rights movement marked an enormous change in American social, political, economic and civic life. It brought with it boycotts, sit-ins, nonviolent demonstrations and marches, court battles, bombings and other violence; prompted worldwide media coverage and intense public debate; forged enduring civic, economic and religious alliances; and disrupted and realigned the nation's two major political parties.\n",
"Movements for civil rights in the United States include noted legislation and organized efforts to abolish public and private acts of racial discrimination against African Americans and other disadvantaged groups between 1954 and 1968, particularly in the southern United States. It is sometimes referred to as the Second Reconstruction era, alluding to the unresolved issues of the Reconstruction Era (1863–77).\n",
"The civil rights movement (1896–1954) was a long, primarily nonviolent series of events to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans. The era has had a lasting impact on United States society, in its tactics, the increased social and legal acceptance of civil rights, and in its exposure of the prevalence and cost of racism.\n",
"Noted achievements of the Civil Rights Movement include the judicial victory in the \"Brown v. Board of Education\" case that nullified the legal article of \"separate but equal\" and made segregation legally impermissible, and the passages of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, . that banned discrimination in employment practices and public accommodations, passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that restored voting rights, and passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 that banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.\n",
"While the Civil Rights Movement was ongoing, several anti-integration groups founded to attempt to stop the racial desegregation and removals of discrimination which were beginning to occur. One such network of organizations was the White Citizens' Councils, which founded in 1954, after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling \"Brown v. Board of Education\", that same year, that stated state laws permitting white and black segregation were found to be unconstitutional. While the decision effectively overturned the \"Plessy v. Ferguson\" decision of 1896, which allowed states to segregate schools stating \"separate educational facilities are inherently unequal\", there was no true enforcement of this ruling in the south for many years. Blatant discrimination continued to take place for decades via Jim Crow laws, which had mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in the states of the former Confederate States of America, and continued to be enforced in many ways until 1965.\n",
"Civil rights movements are a worldwide series of political movements for equality before the law, that peaked in the 1960s. In many situations they have been characterized by nonviolent protests, or have taken the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change through nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations, they have been accompanied, or followed, by civil unrest and armed rebellion. The process has been long and tenuous in many countries, and many of these movements did not, or have yet to, fully achieve their goals, although the efforts of these movements have led to improvements in the legal rights of some previously oppressed groups of people, in some places.\n"
] |
if someone were pushed into a bottomless hole, what would be the first thing that killed them and how long would it take?
|
If they could theoretically fall forever, my guess would be dehydration would kill them eventually.
|
[
"I was entombed once for 6 long hours. It seemed like 6 years. There were no visible means of getting out either – we had just to wait. I was once right next to a cave-in when my fire boss was buried alive. As we were working and chatting a big stone twice as big as a trunk came tumbling down on my mate from overhead, doubling him like a jack-knife. It squeezed his face right down on the floor. God knows I wasn't strong enough to lift that rock alone, but by superhuman efforts I did. This gave him a chance to breathe and then I shouted. Some men 70 yards away heard me and came and got him out alive. A chap who worked beside me was killed along with 71 others at Udston, and all they could identify him with was his pin leg. I wasn't there that day.\n",
"BULLET::::- March 10, 1999 - A caver climbing the Incredible pit became tangled in multiple ropes and was stranded 140 feet off the cave floor underneath water falling into the pit. The incident resulted in fatality due to hypothermia.\n",
"On March 1, 1991, Indiana caver, Christopher Yeager, made a fatal mistake while rappelling the 23-meter drop in Chevé Cave. Eleven days after the accident, Yeager was buried in a passage near where he fell. On February 8, 1992, almost a year after his death, a team of Yeager’s caving friends used ropes and pulleys to pull his body to the surface which was returned to his family in Indiana.\n",
"The fourth and final event involves jumping into a tub filled with water from a highly elevated plank. But as Pooch leaps, the tub somehow moves, and therefore an official sends him back up. And when Pooch plunges again, everyone below moves away instead of breaking his fall. Pooch plummets into the ground, creating a deep hole as a result. Surprisingly, a Tibetan man from the hole picks up and places him back on the surface.\n",
"Holes can occur for a number of reasons, including natural processes and intentional actions by humans or animals. Holes in the ground that are made intentionally, such as holes made while searching for food, for replanting trees, or postholes made for securing an object, are usually made through the process of digging. Unintentional holes in an object are often a sign of damage. Potholes and sinkholes can damage human settlements.\n",
"The rescue team all agreed that there was no possibility of the men left below ground being alive. Two explosions, blackdamp (locally called choak-damp), fire and the lethal afterdamp made any rescue attempt impossible. The suggestion was made that the pit be stopped up to extinguish the fire. However, local recollections of three men who had survived for 40 days in a pit near Byker led to shouts of \"Murder\" and obstruction.\n",
"A Hole Lot of Trouble is a 1969 British short comedy film. Lasting only twenty-seven minutes, it charts the efforts of a group of workmen trying to dig a hole. It was written and directed by Francis Searle and starred Arthur Lowe, Victor Maddern and Bill Maynard. It became available on DVD in the UK in 2015.\n"
] |
Can one neuron within the human brain have several types of neurotransmitters that binds to it? For instance, can a neuron that usually allows binding by GABA neurotransmitters also allow binding from other types of neurotransmitters, such as NDMA, DA, 5-HT, etc?
|
Yes. Neurons can have, for instance, both excitatory and inhibitory inputs, mostly mediated through glutamate and GABA
|
[
"A neuron of a given kind (e.g. a thalamic cell) cannot be functionally replaced by one of another type (e.g. an inferior ollivary cell) even if their synaptic connectivity and the type of neurotransmitter outputs are identical. (The difference is that the intrinsic electrophysiological properties of thalamic cells are extraordinarily different from those of inferior olivary neurons).\n",
"There are literally hundreds of different types of synapses. In fact, there are over a hundred known neurotransmitters, and many of them have multiple types of receptors. Many synapses use more than one neurotransmitter—a common arrangement is for a synapse to use one fast-acting small-molecule neurotransmitter such as glutamate or GABA, along with one or more peptide neurotransmitters that play slower-acting modulatory roles. Molecular neuroscientists generally divide receptors into two broad groups: chemically gated ion channels and second messenger systems. When a chemically gated ion channel is activated, it forms a passage that allows specific types of ions to flow across the membrane. Depending on the type of ion, the effect on the target cell may be excitatory or inhibitory. When a second messenger system is activated, it starts a cascade of molecular interactions inside the target cell, which may ultimately produce a wide variety of complex effects, such as increasing or decreasing the sensitivity of the cell to stimuli, or even altering gene transcription.\n",
"Since many of the same neurotransmitters are found in the ENS as the brain, it follows that myenteric neurons can express receptors for both peptide and non-peptide (amines, amino acids, purines) neurotransmitters. Generally, expression of a receptor is limited to a subset of myenteric neurons, with probably the only exception being expression of nicotinic cholinergic receptors on all myenteric neurons. One receptor that has been targeted for therapeutic reasons has been the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) receptor. Activating this pre-synaptic receptor enhances cholinergic neurotransmission and can stimulate gastrointestinal motility.\n",
"According to a rule called Dale's principle, which has only a few known exceptions, a neuron releases the same neurotransmitters at all of its synapses. This does not mean, though, that a neuron exerts the same effect on all of its targets, because the effect of a synapse depends not on the neurotransmitter, but on the receptors that it activates. Because different targets can (and frequently do) use different types of receptors, it is possible for a neuron to have excitatory effects on one set of target cells, inhibitory effects on others, and complex modulatory effects on others still. Nevertheless, it happens that the two most widely used neurotransmitters, glutamate and GABA, each have largely consistent effects. Glutamate has several widely occurring types of receptors, but all of them are excitatory or modulatory. Similarly, GABA has several widely occurring receptor types, but all of them are inhibitory. Because of this consistency, glutamatergic cells are frequently referred to as \"excitatory neurons\", and GABAergic cells as \"inhibitory neurons\". Strictly speaking, this is an abuse of terminology—it is the receptors that are excitatory and inhibitory, not the neurons—but it is commonly seen even in scholarly publications.\n",
"A neuron made of two coupled oscillators, one having a fixed and the other having a tunable natural frequency, has been shown able to run logic gates such as XOR that conventional sigmoid neurons cannot. \n",
"There are two types of receptors that neurotransmitters interact with on a post-synaptic neuron. The first types of receptors are ligand-gated ion channels or LGICs. LGIC receptors are the fastest types of transduction from chemical signal to electrical signal. Once the neurotransmitter binds to the receptor, it will cause a conformational change that will allow ions to directly flow into the cell. The second types are known as G-protein-coupled receptors or GPCRs. These are much slower than LGICs due to an increase in the amount of biochemical reactions that must take place intracellularly. Once the neurotransmitter binds to the GPCR protein, it causes a cascade of intracellular interactions that can lead to many different types of changes in cellular biochemistry, physiology, and gene expression. Neurotransmitter/receptor interactions in the field of neuropharmacology are extremely important because many drugs that are developed today have to do with disrupting this binding process.\n",
"By the end of the 20th century, it became clear that the human brain operates with more than a dozen neurotransmitters and a large number of neuropeptides and hormones. The relationships between these different chemical systems are complex as some of them suppress and some of them induce each other's release during neuronal exchanges. This complexity of relationships devalues the old approach of assigning “inhibitory vs. excitatory” roles to neurotransmitters: the same neurotransmitters can be either inhibitory or excitatory depending on what system they interact with. It became clear that an impressive diversity of neurotransmitters and their receptors is necessary to meet a wide range of behavioural situations, but the links between temperament traits and specific neurotransmitters are still a matter of research. Several attempts were made to assign specific (single) neurotransmitters to specific (single) traits. For example, dopamine was proposed to be a neurotransmitter of the trait of Extraversion, noradrenaline was linked to anxiety, and serotonin was thought to be a neurotransmitter of an inhibition system. These assignments of neurotransmitter functions appeared to be an oversimplification when confronted by the evidence of much more diverse functionality. \n"
] |
how do google glasses work if i can't focus on anything within three inches of my eyes?
|
You can't focus on anything within three inches of your eyes because the lens in your eye can't accommodate (become stronger) well enough. You can only make the lens so strong and it turns out that the shortest focal point you can get with just your eyes is around that distance, so you can't focus on anything closer than that.
What Glass does is focus the light for you. A little projector projects light onto a prism (the glass thing) and the prism will actually focus the light onto your retina, so your eye lens doesn't have to accommodate.
[See this infographic.](_URL_0_)
|
[
"Google Glass is a brand of smart glasses—an optical head-mounted display designed in the shape of a pair of eyeglasses. It was developed by X (previously Google X) with the mission of producing a ubiquitous computer. Google Glass displayed information in a smartphone-like, hands-free format. Wearers communicated with the Internet via natural language voice commands.\n",
"Other than the touchpad, Google Glass can be controlled using just \"voice actions\". To activate Glass, wearers tilt their heads 30° upward (which can be altered for preference) or simply tap the touchpad, and say \"O.K., Glass.\" Once Glass is activated, wearers can say an action, such as \"Take a picture\", \"Record a video\", \"Hangout with [person/Google+ circle]\", \"Google 'What year was Wikipedia founded?'\", \"Give me directions to the Eiffel Tower\", and \"Send a message to John\" (many of these commands can be seen in a product video released in February 2013). For search results that are read back to the user, the voice response is relayed using bone conduction through a transducer that sits beside the ear, thereby rendering the sound almost inaudible to other people.\n",
"In June 2014, Google Glass' ability to acquire images of a patient's retina (\"Glass Fundoscopy\") was publicly demonstrated for the first time at the Wilmer Clinical Meeting at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine by Dr. Aaron Wang and Dr. Allen Eghrari. This technique was featured on the cover of the Journal for Mobile Technology in Medicine for January 2015. Doctors Phil Haslam and Sebastian Mafeld demonstrated the first application of Google Glass in the field of interventional radiology. They demonstrated how Google Glass could assist a liver biopsy and fistulaplasty, and the pair stated that Google Glass has the potential to improve patient safety, operator comfort, and procedure efficiency in the field of interventional radiology.\n",
"The Google Glass prototype resembled standard eyeglasses with the lens replaced by a head-up display. In mid-2011, Google engineered a prototype that weighed ; by 2013 they were lighter than the average pair of sunglasses.\n",
"At 8 mm and 16 mm, respectively, the lens is able to focus on an area and in width. Although the official close focus distance is , Scott Gietler reported that by using the spot-focus mode, rather than multiple focus points, he was able to achieve a minimum working distance (glass to subject).\n",
"In the event that a spectacle wearer cannot obtain the eye relief that they require, some cameras and microscopes allow prescription lenses to be fitted onto their eyepieces. In this way, the user can temporarily dispense with glasses in favor of the lens mounted on the optics. Although this method does not afford good incidental vision for the field around them, it might still be of use to some.\n",
"Current bifocals and progressive lenses are static, in that the user has to change their eye position to look through the portion of the lens with the focal power corresponding to the distance of the object. This usually means looking through the top of the lens for distant objects and down through the bottom of the lens for near objects. Adjustable focus eyeglasses have one focal length, but it is variable without having to change where one is looking.\n"
] |
the difference between functions, methods, objects, classes, and oop languages.
|
A *function* is a block of code which runs some commands and can be called on from elsewhere in the code.
example:
def function():
print "I do something."
# now we can call the function from other code, like this, and it will always print "I do something".
function()
A *class* represents an object. A thing. It can contain both *data* and *functions that operate on the data*.
A function which is attached to a class is called a *method*. It can only be called through the class.
So, for example:
class Car():
def __init__(self):
self.model = "Honda"
self.color = "red"
def drive(self, destination):
# do something
henry = Car()
henry.drive()
in this example, I have a "car" class with two attached methods. One of them, __init__, is something used by python to create the object. The other one, drive(), does something about driving.
then i created an *instance* of the car class, and called the method 'drive' on the instance.
So: function() is a 'function', meaning a block of code that can be called from elsewhere and run when it is called. 'Car' is a *class*, which is a collection of data and functions that operate on that data; the functions contained within a class are called 'methods'. So *drive* is a function contained within Car, meaning it is a method.
|
[
"Like Smalltalk, in Objective-C, class methods are simply methods called on the class object, hence a class's class methods must be defined as instance methods in its metaclass. Because different classes can have different sets of class methods, each class must have its own separate metaclass. Classes and metaclasses are always created as a pair: the runtime has functions codice_85 and codice_86 to create and register class-metaclass pairs, respectively.\n",
"In many object-oriented languages, classes are the main means of encapsulation and modularity; each class defines a namespace and controls which definitions are externally visible. Further, classes in many languages define an indivisible unit that must be used as a whole. For example, using a codice_23 concatenation function requires importing and compiling against all of codice_23.\n",
"Every class \"implements\" (or \"realizes\") an interface by providing structure and behavior. Structure consists of data and state, and behavior consists of code that specifies how methods are implemented. There is a distinction between the definition of an interface and the implementation of that interface; however, this line is blurred in many programming languages because class declarations both define and implement an interface. Some languages, however, provide features that separate interface and implementation. For example, an abstract class can define an interface without providing implementation.\n",
"Class-based languages, or, to be more precise, typed languages, where subclassing is the only way of subtyping, have been criticized for mixing up implementations and interfaces—the essential principle in object-oriented programming. The critics say one might create a bag class that stores a collection of objects, then extend it to make a new class called a set class where the duplication of objects is eliminated. Now, a function that takes an object of the bag class may expect that adding two objects increases the size of a bag by two, yet if one passes an object of a set class, then adding two objects may or may not increase the size of a bag by two. The problem arises precisely because subclassing implies subtyping even in the instances where the principle of subtyping, known as the Liskov substitution principle, does not hold. Barbara Liskov and Jeannette Wing formulated the principle succinctly in a 1994 paper as follows:\n",
"Computer programming languages having notions of either functions as the core module (see Functional programming) or functions as objects provide excellent examples of loosely coupled programming. Functional languages have patterns of Continuations, Closure, or generators. See Clojure and Lisp as examples of function programming languages. Object-oriented languages like Smalltalk and Ruby have code blocks, whereas Eiffel has agents. The basic idea is to objectify (encapsulate as an object) a function independent of any other enclosing concept (e.g. decoupling an object function from any direct knowledge of the enclosing object). See First-class function for further insight into functions as objects, which qualifies as one form of first-class function.\n",
"In computer science, a programming language is said to have first-class functions if it treats functions as first-class citizens. This means the language supports passing functions as arguments to other functions, returning them as the values from other functions, and assigning them to variables or storing them in data structures. Some programming language theorists require support for anonymous functions (function literals) as well. In languages with first-class functions, the names of functions do not have any special status; they are treated like ordinary variables with a function type. The term was coined by Christopher Strachey in the context of \"functions as first-class citizens\" in the mid-1960s.\n",
"In object-oriented programming, a class is an extensible program-code-template for creating objects, providing initial values for state (member variables) and implementations of behavior (member functions or methods). In many languages, the class name is used as the name for the class (the template itself). The name for the default constructor of the class (a subroutine that creates objects), and as the type of objects generated by instantiating the class; these distinct concepts are easily conflated.\n"
] |
What technological breakthroughs between 15th century to the 19th century were required for the creation of pistols and rifles?
|
Depending on the specific cutoff date you've got, I'd argue that smokeless gunpowder in 1886 is the single most important breakthrough. Smokeless powder paved the way for firearms as we know them today. Smokeless powder burns slightly differently than black powder (rapid burn rather than low explosive) and is significantly cleaner on firing. Although the immediate effect is apparent in the name - less smoke means it's easier to see on the battlefield - the more significant benefit was the significantly cleaner result of firing, meaning guns no longer had to be designed around regular cleaning after fewer than a hundred rounds. This in turn allowed bores and bullets to decrease in size (as the utility of large bores with respect to getting more shots between having to clean was gone) while velocities went up, allowing for flatter-shooting, longer-ranged weapons. Smokeless powder also proved far more conducive to autoloading systems thanks to higher pressures and cleaner burns, which made machineguns a truly viable weapon on the battlefield.
& #x200B;
Prior to that, percussion caps and brass drawing were very important steps. Percussion caps at first allowed for a quicker and more convenient way to prime a gun compared to a flint lock, but they ultimately provided the foundation for the primers in every modern cartridge. Meanwhile, brass drawing provided an effective and consistent means to contain cartridges that could be mass-produced. Unlike paper cartridges, they left no residue in the chamber after firing, and unlike rolled brass cartridges, they were sturdier and easier to produce.
|
[
"During World War I, the Austrians introduced the world's first machine pistol the Steyr Repetierpistole M1912/P16. The Germans also experimented with machine pistols, by converting various types of semi-automatic pistols to full-auto, leading to the development of the first practical submachine gun. During World War II, machine pistol development was more or less ignored as the major powers were focused on mass-producing submachine guns. After the war, machine pistols development was limited and only a handful of manufacturers would develop new designs, with varying degrees of success.\n",
"The first primitive firearms were invented about 1250 AD in China when the man-portable fire lance (a bamboo or metal tube that could shoot ignited gunpowder) was combined with projectiles such as scrap metal, broken porcelain, or darts/arrows.\n",
"In 1825 he designed the first of the large caliber, short barreled pistols that would lead to considerable wealth and fame for himself. Using the basic flintlock action in common usage at the time, the pistols were muzzle loading single shots, or in some cases, double barreled in an over-under manner.\n",
"The ancestor to the modern minigun was a hand cranked mechanical device invented in the 1860s by Richard Jordan Gatling. Gatling later replaced the hand-cranked mechanism of a rifle-caliber Gatling gun with an electric motor, a relatively new invention at the time. Even after Gatling slowed down the mechanism, the new electric-powered Gatling gun had a theoretical rate of fire of 3,000 rounds per minute, roughly three times the rate of a typical modern, single-barreled machine gun. Gatling's electric-powered design received U.S. Patent #502,185 on July 25, 1893. Despite Gatling's improvements, the Gatling gun fell into disuse after cheaper, lighter-weight, recoil and gas operated machine guns were invented; Gatling himself went bankrupt for a period.\n",
"The first successful machine-gun designs were developed in the mid-19th century. The key characteristic of modern machine guns, their relatively high rate of fire and more importantly mechanical loading, first appeared in the Model 1862 Gatling gun, which was adopted by the United States Navy. These weapons were still powered by hand; however, this changed with Hiram Maxim's idea of harnessing recoil energy to power reloading in his Maxim machine gun. Dr. Gatling also experimented with electric-motor-powered models; this externally powered machine reloading has seen use in modern weapons as well.\n",
"Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher produced the first successful design for a semi-automatic rifle in 1885, and by the early 20th century, many manufacturers had introduced semi-automatic shotguns, rifles and pistols. \n",
"In 1857, Smith and Wesson formed another Smith & Wesson company, this time to produce a pistol with interchangeable parts, a repeating action, a revolving magazine, metallic cartridges, and an open cylinder. They developed more firearms using their own patents along with patents and licenses bought from other gunsmiths.\n"
] |
What was the impact of the Albigensian Crusade on the centralization of France ?
|
Hi there - unfortunately we have had to remove your question, because [/r/AskHistorians isn't here to do your homework for you](_URL_0_). However, our rules DO permit people to ask for help with their homework, so long as they are seeking clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself.
If you have indeed asked a homework question, you should consider resubmitting a question more focused on finding resources and seeking clarification on confusing issues: tell us what you've researched so far, what resources you've consulted, and what you've learned, and we are more likely to approve your question. Please see this [Rules Roundtable](_URL_1_) thread for more information on what makes for the kind of homework question we'd approve. Additionally, if you're not sure where to start in terms of finding and understanding sources in general, we have a six-part series, "[Finding and Understanding Sources](_URL_2_)", which has a wealth of information that may be useful for finding and understanding information for your essay. Finally, other subreddits are likely to be more suitable for help with homework - try looking for help at /r/HomeworkHelp.
Alternatively, if you are not a student and are not doing homework, we have removed your question because it resembled a homework question. It may resemble a common essay question from a prominent history syllabus or may be worded in a broad, open-ended way that feels like the kind of essay question that a professor would set. Professors often word essay questions in order to provide the student with a platform to show how much they understand a topic, and these questions are typically broader and more interested in interpretations and delineating between historical theories than the average /r/AskHistorians question. If your non-homework question was incorrectly removed for this reason, we will be happy to approve your question if you **wait for 7 days** and then ask a less open-ended question on the same topic.
|
[
"As a result of the Albigensian Crusade, there were only a small number of French recruits for the Fifth and Sixth crusades. Strayer argues that the Albigensian Crusade increased the power of the French monarchy and made the papacy more dependent on it. This would eventually lead to the Avignon Papacy.\n",
"The Albigensian Crusade was launched in 1209 to eliminate the heretical Cathars of Occitania (the south of modern-day France). It was a decade-long struggle that had as much to do with the concerns of northern France to extend its control southwards as it did with heresy. In the end, both the Cathars and the independence of southern France were exterminated.\n",
"The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade (1209–1229) was a 20-year military campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, in southern France. The Crusade was primarily prosecuted by the French crown and it promptly took on a political flavour, resulting not only in a significant reduction in the number of practising Cathars, but also in a realignment of the County of Toulouse in Languedoc, bringing it into the sphere of the French crown and diminishing the distinct regional culture and high level of influence of the Counts of Barcelona.\n",
"The Albigensian Crusade had begun in 1209, ostensibly against the Cathar heretics of southern France and Languedoc in particular, though it soon became a contest between lords of northern France and those of Occitania in the south. The first phase from 1209 to 1215 was quite successful for the northern forces, but this was followed by a series of local rebellions from 1215 to 1225 that undid many of these earlier gains. There followed the seizure of Avignon and Languedoc.\n",
"The Albigensian Crusade was initiated by the Kingdom of France at the behest of Pope Innocent III. Its purpose was to squash the growing Cathar movement, which flourished mainly in the Languedoc region of southern France. The immediate cause was the killing of the papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau. The Crusaders set out in the summer of 1209. After several military victories, they were able to capture many towns without a fight before arriving at Minerve. After the fall of Carcassonne, papal legate Arnaud Amalric, who had led troops during the Massacre at Béziers, was replaced as commander of the Crusader force by Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, although Amalric continued to accompany the army.\n",
"The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade (1209–1229; , ) was a 20-year military campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, in southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crown and promptly took on a political flavour, resulting in not only a significant reduction in the number of practising Cathars, but also a realignment of the County of Toulouse in Languedoc, bringing it into the sphere of the French crown and diminishing the distinct regional culture and high level of influence of the Counts of Barcelona.\n",
"In the 13th century, the spiritual beliefs of the area were challenged by the See of Rome and the region became attached to the Kingdom of France following the Albigensian Crusade (1208–1229). This crusade aimed to put an end to what the Church considered the Cathar heresy, and enabled the Capetian dynasty to extend its influence south of the Loire. As part of this process, the former principalities of Trencavel (the Viscounty of Albi, Carcassona, Besièrs, Agde and Nimes) were integrated into the Royal French Domain in 1224. The Counts of Toulouse followed them in 1271. The remaining feudal enclaves were absorbed progressively up to the beginning of the 16th century; the County of Gévaudan in 1258, the County of Melgueil (Mauguiò) in 1293, the Lordship of Montpellier in 1349 and the Viscounts of Narbonne in 1507.\n"
] |
How do Historians recognize/rule out humor or sarcasm from historical texts?
|
To answer this, I'm going to first start with an example and work through why the historical account is contested. One of the most infamous cases of this is probably Caligula, the "depraved" Roman Emperor. In pop culture (e.g. things like the series *I, Claudius*) he's portrayed as a truly despicable human being. He murdered people for no reason, openly slept with married women, wasted money, claimed he was divine, and slept with his sisters (he eats his sister's fetus in *I, Claudius*...there are no historical accounts of that happening).
These stories are from a variety of stories. The main two who were contemporaries of Caligula were Philo of Alexandria (in his work *Flaccus* where he discusses Caligula's treatment of Jews...Caligula claimed to be a god and they refused to worship him) and Seneca the Younger (whose analysis of anger in *De Ira* is considered a thinly-veiled critique of Caligula...though he does not mention Caligula by name). They paint the picture of someone unstable and crazy (considering himself a god and punishing the Jews for not worshiping him) and unstable and full of rage (challenging the gods to fight and lashing out at all those around him).
The other two sources, and all of the "juicy" stuff that people remember come from Suetonius (in his work *De Vita Caesarum* - The Twelve Caesars) and Cassius Dio (in *Historia Romana*). These are where the accusations of incest, wasteful spending, and the desire to appoint his horse a consul of Rome. The important thing to note here is that Suetonius was born almost 30 years after Caligula died and Cassius Dio was born over *100* years after Caligula's death.
So, that leads us to our first clue: the truly "juicy" stories don't come from his contemporaries but from people who were born decades after Caligula's death. Suetonius' work is, essentially, a massive piece of hearsay. Interesting for sure, but ultimately problematic when compared with previous writings on Caligula. It's possible they had access to sources that have since been lost but this isn't the only reason to be skeptical.
The other major reason that these stories are suspect is that Caligula was...not well liked by some powerful people. The Senate in particular hated him. In the end, he was assassinated by members of his own Praetorian guard. These same people would have a vested interest in painting Caligula in the worst possible light and spread scandalous stories about him to make the assassination seem more "justified".
So, to sum up, there are a number of things historians look for. Consistency in accounts are particularly important. It's likely that Caligula did have a temper as both Philo and Seneca mention it. It's not likely that all of the salacious details from after his death are accurate. Contemporary accounts are also incredibly important as it's less likely the stories will be distorted over time (e.g. perhaps Caligula was not serious in his threat to make his horse a consul, it was a way to call his opponents in Rome incompetent, but that's not how it was told to Suetonius). Looking at the motivation of those writing/relaying the history is also quite important as a highly biased source is not as trustworthy.
edit: noticed a couple typos
edit2: I should also note, history is not as...clean as most schools before higher education tend to show. In many cases there is no one "truth", even for more recent events than Ancient Rome. This is where lively debate comes into play. Historians will get into - sometimes quite heated - debates about what truly happened as you will frequently have sources that either contradict each other or make outlandish claims. Historians try to create a plausible hypothesis for events based on their evidence and present their findings to the academic community.
|
[
"Though in the English language there is no standard accepted method to denote irony or sarcasm in written conversation, several forms of punctuation have been proposed. Among the oldest and frequently attested are the percontation point—furthered by Henry Denham in the 1580s—and the irony mark—furthered by Alcanter de Brahm in the 19th century. Both of these marks were represented visually by a ⸮ backwards question mark (unicode U+2E2E). Each of these punctuation marks are primarily used to indicate that a sentence should be understood as ironic, but not necessarily designate sarcasm that is not ironic. By contrast, more recent proposals, such as the snark mark, or the use of a following tilde are specifically intended to denote sarcasm rather than irony. A bracketed exclamation point or question mark as well as scare quotes are also sometimes used to express irony or ironic sarcasm.\n",
"No agreed-upon method for indicating irony in written text exists, though many ideas have been suggested. For instance, an irony punctuation mark was proposed in the 1580s, when Henry Denham introduced a rhetorical question mark or percontation point, which resembles a reversed question mark. This mark was also advocated by the French poet Marcel Bernhardt at the end of the 19th century, to indicate irony or sarcasm. French writer Hervé Bazin suggested another \"pointe d'ironie\": the Greek letter \"psi\" with a dot below it, while Tom Driberg recommended that ironic statements should be printed in italics that lean the other way from conventional italics.\n",
"Irony is often used in literature to produce a comic effect. This may also be combined with satire. For instance, an author may facetiously state something as a well-known fact and then demonstrate through the narrative that the fact is untrue.\n",
"The study of humour by social historians did not become popular until the early 1980s and the literature on this subject studying periods before the 20th century is relatively sparse. An exception is the frequently cited Rabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin, a Russian scholar considered by some to be the most important thinker of the 20th century. The work discusses the life and times of the writer and satirist François Rabelais with emphases on what the author considers to be the powerful role of humour in medieval and early times. Carnivals, Satire and the French folk custom of Charivari were discussed as mediums that allowed the lower classes to use humour to highlight unjust behaviour by the upper classes. These humorous protests were generally tolerated by the ruling authorities. Examples of the use of humour for political protest even from Classical times, such as the play Lysistrata by ancient Greek dramatist Aristophanes, have been described as \"Rabeleisan protest\".\n",
"Literary satire is usually written out of earlier satiric works, reprising previous conventions, commonplaces, stance, situations and tones of voice. Exaggeration is one of the most common satirical techniques. Contrarily diminution is also a satirical technique.\n",
"\"...I found irony and the further I found the further I went towards the end of the manuscript [Auringolla ratsastajat] also a great deal of grotesque. In fact, you seem to have control over quite a big arsenal of different sorts of parody and satire that enrich your story with just the right spices. You do have control over cultural historical code, terms and dealings in such an amount that in between also my own knowledge of the field was put to a tough test.\n",
"A feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm—\"in satire, irony is militant\"—but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing. This \"militant\" irony or sarcasm often professes to approve of (or at least accept as natural) the very things the satirist wishes to attack.\n"
] |
why does the box of my ps4 say it comes with 500 gb when it only comes with 407.2 gb?
|
GB can technically mean 2 different things. One is the computer definition. That works off binary and powers of 2. So, there are 8 bits in 1 byte. Then we start counting bytes by doubling 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 and 1024. 1024 bytes is a kilobyte (KB). If you do the same thing, counting KB, 1024 KB is a megabyte (MB). If you do the same thing, counting MB, 1024 MB is a gigabyte (GB) and so on to terabytes (TB), etc.
Now, in non-computer contexts, the prefixes kilo, mega, giga, tera all mean a thousand, a million and a billion. So, while computers themselves use the first system to count up space, the manufacturers can use the definition of "a billion bytes" for GB on the packaging without the FTC coming down on them for lying in their advertising.
The bigger the hard drives get, the bigger the difference between the 2 methods of calculation get.
And, because this went to court a couple of times a while back, you'll find that the packaging itself usually has fine print explaining this in legalese.
|
[
"CECH-4000B consoles (those with hard drives) weigh approximately , while the CECH-4000A weighs approximately . Both are roughly 25% smaller and about 20% lighter than the original PS3 Slim. This version has a sliding disc cover rather than the slot-loading drive found on previous PlayStation 3 consoles (Similar to the Sony BRAVIA KDL22PX300, which includes a built in PlayStation 2).\n",
"The unit is sold in many hard drive sizes, 20, 40, 60, & 80 GB and the AV4100 which is 100 GB in size. The actual size of the unit depends on the capacity, the AV420 (20 GB) was smaller than all of the other models and also has a smaller screen size.\n",
"For \"2.5″\" bays, actual dimensions are wide, between and high, and deep. However, most laptops have drive bays smaller than the 15 mm specification. 2.5″ hard drives may range from 7 mm to 15 mm in height, there are two sizes that appear to be prominent. 9.51 mm size drives are predominantly used by laptop manufacturers, however at present 2.5″ Velociraptor and some higher capacity drives (above 1 TB), are 15 mm in height. The greater height of the 15 mm drives allow more platters and therefore greater data capacities. Many laptop drive bays are designed to be removable trays in which the drives are mounted, to ease removal and replacement.\n",
"In September 2012 at the Tokyo Game Show, Sony announced that a new, slimmer PS3 redesign (CECH-4000) was due for release in late 2012 and that it would be available with either a 250 GB or 500 GB hard drive. Three versions of the \"Super Slim\" model were revealed: one with a 500 GB hard drive, a second with a 250 GB hard drive which is not available in PAL regions, and a third with a 12 GB flash storage that was available in PAL regions, and in Canada. The storage of 12 GB model is upgradable with an official standalone 250 GB hard drive. A vertical stand was also released for the model. In the United Kingdom, the 500 GB model was released on September 28, 2012; and the 12 GB model was released on October 12, 2012. In the United States, the PS3 Super Slim was first released as a bundled console. The 250 GB model was bundled with the \"Game of the Year\" edition of \"\" and released on September 25, 2012; and the 500 GB model was bundled with \"Assassin's Creed III\" and released on October 30, 2012. In Japan, the black colored Super Slim model was released on October 4, 2012; and the white colored Super Slim model was released on November 22, 2012. The Super Slim model is 20 percent smaller and 25 percent lighter than the Slim model and features a manual sliding disc cover instead of a motorized slot-loading disc cover of the Slim model. The white colored Super Slim model was released in the United States on January 27, 2013 as part of the \"Instant Game Collection Bundle\". The \"Garnet Red\" and \"Azurite Blue\" colored models were launched in Japan on February 28, 2013. The \"Garnet Red\" version was released in North America on March 12, 2013 as part of the \"\" bundle with 500 GB storage and contained \"God of War: Ascension\" as well as the \"God of War Saga\". The \"Azurite Blue\" model was released as a GameStop exclusive with 250GB storage.\n",
"Critics noted that about half of the internal storage on the S4's 16 GB model was taken up by its system software, using 1 GB more than the S III and leaving only 8.5 to 9.15 GB for the storage of other data, including downloaded apps (some of which cannot be moved to the SD card). Samsung initially stated that the space was required for the S4's new features, but following a report regarding the issue on the BBC series \"Watchdog\", Samsung stated that it would review the possibility of optimising the S4's operating system to use less local drive space in a future update. Storage optimizations were brought in an update first released in June 2013, which frees 80 MB of internal storage and restores the ability to move apps to the device's microSD card.\n",
"Initially, 250 GB hard drives were only available through third-party manufacturers or through the purchase of a special-edition Xbox 360 console bundle, but from 2010, it was being sold as a separate accessory in Japan, North America, and the UK. Currently, the 320 GB hard drive is only available as part of either limited/special edition Xbox 360 S bundles or as a separate purchase for Xbox 360 S consoles; it is not available for original Xbox 360 models. Of the total storage capacity, approximately 6 GB is reserved for system use; around 4 GB of that portion is reserved for game title caching and other hard drive-specific elements in games that support the hard drive and an additional 2 GB is reserved for use by the Xbox 360 backwards-compatibility software. This leaves users with approximately 14, 54, 114, 244, or 314 GB (displayed as 14, 52, 107, 228, or 292 GiB) of free space on the drive. Depending on the market, the hard drive comes preloaded with content, such as videos and Xbox Live Arcade games or demos.\n",
"On February 22, 2012, Barnes & Noble released the Nook Tablet 8 GB at US $199 to compete with the Kindle Fire. The differences from the 16 GB model are: 512 MB RAM and 8 GB of internal storage, of which 5 GB is available for user content and 1 GB is reserved for NOOK Store content. On August 12, 2012, Barnes & Noble lowered the price to $179. On November 4, 2012, the price was further reduced to US $159.\n"
] |
Why didn't the Germans bombard southern England with artillery?
|
They did, to an extent. The Germans had quite a bit of cross-channel artillery at Calais, which they used to fire on Kent for years. Economically though, it probably wasn't all that useful. The German guns and their barrels and ammunition probably cost more than the damage they did to anything on land. The firing rate of the German guns was often less than one round per hour, and obviously they didn't have any spotters to help them zero in on targets.
On the other hand, the cross-channel guns were highly useful for attacking British shipping passing through the straits of Dover. The Germans had radar there, and anything passing through the straits could expect to be fired upon.
|
[
"Artillery bombardments were to be co-ordinated with infantry attacks, with various types of artillery given suitable targets for the cumulative destruction of field defences and the killing of German infantry. Heavy artillery and mortars were to be used for the destruction of field fortifications, howitzers and light mortars for the destruction of trenches, machine-gun and observation posts; heavy guns and mortars to destroy fortified villages and concrete strong points. Longer-range guns were to engage German artillery with counter-battery fire, to deprive German infantry of artillery support during the attack, when French infantry were at their most vulnerable. Wire cutting was to be performed by field artillery, firing high explosive (HE) shells and supported by specialist wire-cutting sections of infantry, which would go out the night before an attack. During the attack, the field artillery would fire a linear barrage on trenches and the edges of woods and villages. Infantry tactics were to be based on reconnaissance, clear objectives, liaison with flanking units and the avoidance of disorganisation within attacking units. General attacks would need to be followed by the systematic capture of remaining defences for jumping-off positions in the next general attack.\n",
"The British method of attack by 1916 was to fire an intense bombardment on the German front trenches just before zero hour, then lift the bombardment to the next trench, then the next according to a timetable. Before the barrage lifted, infantry were to creep as close as possible to the bombardment, considered to be from the trench and to attack as soon as the shellfire lifted. The destructive effect of the bombardment was said by Haig and Rawlinson, to be such that nothing could live in the target area and that infantry would only have to occupy the ground,\n",
"In May 1917 the Germans began using heavy bombers against England using Gotha G.IV and later supplementing these with \"Riesenflugzeuge\" (\"giant aircraft\"), mostly from the Zeppelin-Staaken firm. The targets of these raids were industrial and port facilities and government buildings, but few of the bombs hit military targets, most falling on private property and killing civilians. Although the German strategic bombing campaign against Britain was the most extensive of the war, it was largely ineffective, in terms of actual damage done. Only 300 tons of bombs were dropped, resulting in material damage of £2,962,111 damage, 1,414 dead and 3,416 injured, these figures including those due to shrapnel from the anti-aircraft fire. In the autumn of 1917, however, over 300,000 Londoners had taken shelter from the bombing, and industrial production had fallen.\n",
"BULLET::::- The third German attempt to bomb England using airships failed when a lone naval Zeppelin encountered a gale over the North Sea and was blown out of control over Nieuwpoort, Belgium where Belgian antiaircraft gunners shot her down.\n",
"German strategic bombing during World War I struck Warsaw, Paris, London and other cities. Germany led the world in Zeppelins, and used these airships to make occasional bombing raids on military targets, London and other British cities, without great effect. Later in the war, Germany introduced long range strategic bombers. Damage was again minor but they forced the British air forces to maintain squadrons of fighters in England to defend against air attack, depriving the British Expeditionary Force of planes, equipment, and personnel badly needed on the Western front.\n",
"Germany was the first country to organize regular air attacks on enemy infrastructure with the Luftstreitkräfte. In World War I, it used its zeppelins (airships) to drop bombs on British cities. At that time, Britain did have aircraft, though her airships were less advanced than the zeppelins and were very rarely used for attacking; instead, they were usually used to spy on German U-boats (submarines).\n",
"Although the coastal towns of NE England were bombarded by the German Navy on 16 December 1914 (Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby) and by Zeppelins in January and June 1915, it became clear that a fullscale German invasion of Britain was unlikely, while the armies in the field required large numbers of engineers. The Fortress Engineer units therefore began organising field companies for overseas service.\n"
] |
What is chemically happening when pasta sauce stains tupperware?
|
Without having a source I would rather say that there is nothing happening on a chemical level
It is just the Carotine (rather the Lycopin) that makes tomatos red, that is stuck to the plastic.
Since Carotine is liposoluble, you should try to rub it out with oil (just normal cooking oil). I learned that this hould help.
|
[
"Lycopene is the pigment in tomato-containing sauces, turning plastic cookware orange, and is insoluble in water. It can be dissolved only in organic solvents and oils. Because of its nonpolarity, lycopene in food preparations will stain any sufficiently porous material, including most plastics. To remove this staining, the plastics can be soaked in a solution containing a small amount of household bleach.\n",
"The addition of alkaline materials to such dishes as pasta makes them feel slippery in the mouth and on the fingers; they also develop a yellow color and are more elastic than ordinary noodles. Various flours such as ordinary all-purpose white flour, bread flour, and semolina flour can be used, with somewhat varying results. \n",
"The resulting powder or paste is mixed with water, or more often broth, and simmered until it is pungent and very thick. It is most often prepared in a \"cazuela\" () or a thick heavy clay cauldron and stirred almost constantly to prevent burning. The thickness of the sauce has prompted some, such as Mexican-food authority Patricia Quintana, to claim it is too substantial to be called a sauce. However, like a sauce, it is always served over something and never eaten alone. \"Mole poblano\" is most traditionally served with turkey, but it and many others are also served with chicken, pork, or other meats (such as lamb).\n",
"Before the mixing process takes place, semolina particles are irregularly shaped and present in different sizes. Semolina particles become hydrated during mixing. The amount of water added to the semolina is determined based on the initial moisture content of the flour and the desired shape of the pasta. The desired moisture content of the dough is around 32% wet basis and will vary depending on the shape of pasta being produced.\n",
"Short pasta pieces fall on the shaker conveyor and powerful hot air is blown to them immediately after the extrusion. This reduces the moisture content by 5% and prevents the pieces from sticking and flattening. Shaker then carries the product through tiers with dry hot air and buckets collect the pasta and spread them on the upper tier of the multi-tier drying unit. This unit has four areas which periods of intense moisture extraction alternately followed by periods of rest occur at eight drying/stabilizing cycle in total. Process ends in cold air chamber for stabilizing.\n",
"The pasta is cooked in moderately salted boiling water. The guanciale is briefly fried in a pan in its own fat. A mixture of raw eggs (or yolks), grated Pecorino (or a mixture with Parmesan), and a good amount of ground black pepper is combined with the hot pasta either in the pasta pot or in a serving dish, but away from direct heat, to avoid curdling the egg. The fried guanciale is then added, and the mixture is tossed, creating a rich, creamy sauce with bits of meat spread throughout. Although various shapes of pasta can be used, the raw egg can only cook properly with a shape that has a sufficiently large ratio of surface area to volume, such as the long, thin types fettucine, linguine, or spaghetti.\n",
"Starch becomes soluble in water when heated. The granules swell and burst, the semi-crystalline structure is lost and the smaller amylose molecules start leaching out of the granule, forming a network that holds water and increasing the mixture's viscosity. This process is called starch gelatinization. During cooking, the starch becomes a paste and increases further in viscosity. During cooling or prolonged storage of the paste, the semi-crystalline structure partially recovers and the starch paste thickens, expelling water. This is mainly caused by retrogradation of the amylose. This process is responsible for the hardening of bread or staling, and for the water layer on top of a starch gel (syneresis).\n"
] |
Wouldn't a diver get serious hearing damage if he was to swim close to the pistol shrimp?
|
It's important to note that that 218 dB is at a distance of 4 cm, and is relative to 1 µPa. Now, first off, by convention the source level you quoted for a jet is equivalent to a measurement at a distance of 1 m. Taking that into account, the source level of the shrimp drops to 190 dB. Moreover, it's important to consider that dB is a relative scale of pressure. Sound Pressure Level and pressure are related through the reference pressure, by the equation P=Pref*10^SPL/20, where SPL is the sound pressure level in dB, and Pref is the standard underwater pressure reference of 1 µPa. Sound levels in air, on the other hand, are measured with respect to 20 µPa. If we make the appropriate conversion, we find that the appropriate sound pressure level should be 164 dB re 20 µPa @ 1 m.
That's still pretty high, right? Well, that's because we're talking about pressures. The thing that really matters is intensity, which is the amount of power per unit area of the wave. Well, since water and air have different acoustic impedances, even if the pressures are the same, the intensities will be different. If we take that effect into account, the level of the shrimp will be further reduced to SIL=128 dB re 10^-12 W/m^2. So, the shrimp is quieter than a jet engine, but still pretty loud.
To take this a step further, the sound generated by a jet is a consistent sound, while the sound of a pistol shrimp is a loud POP. What if we compared this sound to a similar loud POP, like a gun? From wikipedia, the M1 Garand Rifle has a source level of 168 dB at a distance of 1 m. 128 dB, in comparison, carries about 1/10000th of the energy. So, while it would be loud, it wouldn't be instant deafness.
So, despite the very large looking number of 200 dB for a pistol shrimp, the actual amount of sound they put out is not excessively dangerous to nearby swimmers.
*Edit: A colleague pointed out that the 128 dB is actually rather close to the sound level of a balloon popping, which [this Express Letter from the Acoustical Society of America by Patynen](_URL_0_) found to range from 120-138, depending on the size of the balloon. It should be noted that the way the pistol shrimp actually stun their prey is with the shockwave that is generated by the bubble cavitation. This shockwave only has a very short range.*
|
[
"BULLET::::- Stunning may be a fairly safe means of arrest on land, but underwater would likely make the diver lose his mouthpiece and drown (unless he has a fullface mask or some sorts of strapped-in mouthpiece), or lose control of depth with consequent barotrauma.\n",
"Divers, however, are far less vulnerable to damage by underwater explosion than common sense would dictate. Since the tissues of the body tend to transmit the shock waves with much the same characteristics as the water around, large distant shocks have little impact on divers. For this reason, the most effective \"depth charge\" for use against a diver is the common hand-grenade, tossed within a few feet of the diver. The resulting gas cavitation and shock-front-differential over the width of the body is effective in stunning or killing the diver.\n",
"Jacques-Yves Cousteau warned that earplugs are harmful to divers, especially scuba divers. Scuba divers breathe compressed air or other gas mixtures at a pressure matching the water pressure. This pressure is also inside the ear, but not between the eardrum and the earplug, so the pressure behind the eardrum will often burst the eardrum. Skin divers have less pressure inside the ears, but they also have only atmospheric pressure in the outer ear canal. The PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) advises in the \"Open Water Diver Manual\" that only vented earplugs designed for diving should be used in diving.\n",
"BULLET::::- Mace (spray) and pepper spray and teargas may make an unequipped surface swimmer drown, and are useless against a swimmer with a diving mask and breathing set whether he is in or out of the water.\n",
"BULLET::::- After prolonged swimming, a person prone to external otitis can dry the ears using a small battery-powered ear dryer, available at many retailers, especially shops catering to watersports enthusiasts. Alternatively, drops containing dilute acetic acid (vinegar diluted 3:1) or Burow's solution may be used. It is especially important NOT to instrument ears when the skin is saturated with water, as it is very susceptible to injury, which can lead to external otitis.\n",
"Most deep sea fish species suffer from the sudden pressure change when wound to the surface from great depths; these species cannot adjust their body's physiology quickly enough to follow the pressure change. The result is called \"barotrauma\". Fish with barotrauma will have their enormously swollen swim-bladder protruding from their mouth, bulging eyeballs, and often sustain other, more subtle but still very serious injuries. Upon release, fish with barotrauma will be unable to swim or dive due to the swollen swim-bladder. The common practice has been to deflate the swim bladder by pricking it with a thin sharp object before attempting to release the fish.\n",
"Since this is an underwater sport, surface spectators may be unaware of just how physical underwater hockey is. Although it is a limited-contact sport, there is a significant risk of injury. Many injuries are typical sports injuries such as sprains, torn muscles and light scratches. More major injuries might include deeper cuts, broken fingers, impacts to the head causing concussion or dental trauma, and there is also a minor risk of life-threatening injury from being struck on the head with the possibility of a major concussion or blackout underwater. There is an obvious risk of drowning if knocked unconscious underwater but the players are under observation by the referees during competition, and players in any case tend to be very aware of what their teammates are doing or not doing; in practice an unconscious or seriously injured player is likely to be noticed and assisted or rescued very promptly. Personal protective equipment is available to reduce injury risks and the published rules make items such as gloves, mouthguards and earguards mandatory. There is a risk of pulmonary capillary stress failure (Hemoptysis) in some players.\n"
] |
why my dog loves his collar so much?
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It probably feels odd to have it off. If he wears it all the time it would be like having a necklace on all the time, you'd notice when it wasn't there and feel a bit 'off'.
|
[
"William Harrison, in his description of England during 1586, describes the type as: “... Mastiff, tie dog, or band dog, so called because many of them are tied up in chains and strong bonds in the daytime, for doing hurt abroad, which is a huge dog, stubborn, uglier, eager, burthenouse of bodie, terrible and fearful to behold and often more fierce and fell than any Archadian or Corsican cur ...”\n",
"A dog collar is a piece of material put around the neck of a dog. A collar may be used for restraint, identification, fashion, or protection. Identification tags and medical information are often placed on dog collars. Collars are often used in conjunction with a leash for restraining a dog. A better alternative to a dog collar is a dog harness, as collars are purely around the neck, causing a dog restrained in a collar to have severe pressure put on its trachea when it pulls, and slip out easier if it is too loose, yet collars are still the more common form of directing dogs.\n",
"Upon arriving home, Billy opens his present. It is a dog collar, which he politely places round the Snowdog's neck. The Snowdog turns into a real live dog that matches the one that Billy asked for. They both bid the Snowman a fond farewell and retire for the night.\n",
"Patsy Adam-Smith suggests that the couplet on Bob's collar may not be unique. She notes that correspondence in an \"Adelaide paper\" recalled seeing an 18th-century book which described a dog working with a fire brigade. The picture notes a similar couplet, \"Stop me not but onward let me jog, for I am Bob, the London Firemans Dog.\"\n",
"A wolf collar is normally made out of metals such as iron. The length of the spikes can be quite long, but styles differ in different places. The dogs that normally wore the collars were ones used to protect livestock from attack by wolves. The purpose of the collar is to protect the dog wearing it when it has to fight the wolves. The collar base protects the dog's throat and carotid arteries, while the spikes are intended to deter bites to the neck or even injure wolves trying to do so. There are some tales that suggest that dogs were only given them after they had killed their first wolf; however, these are normally considered to be inaccurate.\n",
"A widely reported case in 2008 concerned a gothic couple, Dani Graves and his fiancée Tasha Maltby, who wears a dog collar and lead. A driver had refused them travel and made comments to them, allegedly saying \"We don't let freaks and dogs like you on.\"\n",
"The little dog symbolizes fidelity (fido), loyalty, or can be seen as an emblem of lust, signifying the couple's desire to have a child. Unlike the couple, he looks out to meet the gaze of the viewer. The dog could also be simply a lap dog, a gift from husband to wife. Many wealthy women in the court had lap dogs as companions. So, the dog could reflect the wealth of the couple and their position in courtly life.\n"
] |
When I was in the USA I noticed the First World War memorials were dedicated to soldiers who died in The Great War of 1917-18. Why is it not described as 1914-18?
|
This seems too obvious, but wouldn't it be because the United States only joined the war in 1917?
|
[
"The Second World War that broke out in 1939 consumed the attention of a new generation. Across most of the theatres of conflict, the participants attempted to respect the memorials to World War I. After the Second World War there was no equivalent mass construction of memorials to the war dead; instead, often local World War I memorials were adapted for use instead: additional names might be inscribed to the existing lists. In some cases, this resulted in memorials losing their exclusive focus on World War I. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, for example, was expanded in 1950s to include corpses from the Second World War and Korea War, broadening the memorial's remit to commemorate most modern wars. In other cases, such as the Australian War Memorial, begun in the inter-war years but only opened in 1941, an essentially new memorial was formed to honour the multiple conflicts.\n",
"Several events during the 1920s influenced the creation of this memorial to an Unknown of the American Revolution. One was the memorialization of soldiers who had died in World War I and remained unidentified. On the second anniversary of the signing of the treaty that ended World War I, Armistice Day 1920, memorials to unknown soldiers were dedicated in Great Britain and France. The United States dedicated its memorial to an unknown soldier of that war at Arlington National Cemetery on November 11, 1921. The sarcophagus-style monument that now sits atop the burial vault of the Tomb of the Unknowns was added in 1932.\n",
"A small number of memorializations were made during the war, mainly as ship and place names. After the war, Robert E. Lee said on several occasions that he was opposed to any monuments, as they would, in his opinion, \"keep open the sores of war\". Nevertheless, monuments and memorials continued to be dedicated shortly after the American Civil War. Many more monuments were dedicated in the years after 1890, when Congress established the first National Military Park at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, and by the turn of the twentieth century, five battlefields from the Civil War had been preserved: Chickamauga-Chattanooga,\n",
"Following World War I the Soldiers' Memorial Stone was erected in 1921 to commemorate those townfolk who had been killed. The names of those who fell in World War II and the Vietnam War were subsequently added.\n",
"Finally, 60 years after the end of the Second World War, a memorial is now in place by the new Bull Ring to commemorate the civilians who died during air raids, naming all those who were killed or gave up their lives protecting the city.\n",
"Two war memorials were erected in the town after World War I to commemorate the hundreds of men from the town who lost their lives in the conflict. The memorial park was opened in 1922 in honour of those killed in World War I.\n",
"The huge losses of the American Civil War saw the first really large group of sculptural war memorials, as well as many monuments for individuals. Among the most artistically outstanding is the Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the all-black 54th Regiment by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in Boston, with a second cast in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The even larger losses of World War I led even small communities in most nations involved to raise some form of memorial, introducing the widespread use of the form to Australia, Canada and New Zealand, the sudden increase in demand leading to a boom for sculptors of public art. Even more than in painting, the war brought a crisis in style, as much public opinion felt the traditional heroic styles inappropriate. One of the most successful British memorials is the starkly realist Royal Artillery Memorial in London, the masterpiece of Charles Sargeant Jagger, who had been wounded three times in the war and spent most of the next decade commemorating it. In the defeated nations of Germany and Austria controversy, which had a political aspect, was especially fierce, and a number of memorials considered excessively modern were removed by the Nazis, whose own memorials, such as the Tannenberg Memorial were removed after World War II. Other solutions were to make memorials more neutral, as in the repurposed Neue Wache in Berlin, since rededicated to different groups several times, and the dignified architectural forms of the Cenotaph in London (widely imitated) and the German Laboe Naval Memorial; tombs of the Unknown Warrior and eternal flames were other ways of avoiding controversy. Some, like the Canadian National War Memorial, and most French memorials, were content to update traditional styles.\n"
] |
Ionization Question - Ionization Energy
|
for electrons on atoms, the electrons are either bound or unbound depending on their total energy relative to the potential well ([a morse potential](_URL_0_)). if the electron in question has total energy less than the dissociation energy (the ionization energy), then the energy is quantized to discrete states (your E1, E2, E3, for example). as energy increases closer to the dissociation energy, the density of states (literally, the number of states per amount energy increased) increases dramatically, and there are many states near the dissociation energy. beyond the dissociation energy, the energy levels are so close together that they form a continuum of states, in which an electron can exist with any amount of energy. because of this, **a photon that can impart any amount of energy to make the total energy of the electron greater than the dissociation energy will lead to dissociation.**
|
[
"The ionization potential is the minimum amount of energy required to remove one electron from each atom in a mole of isolated, neutral and gaseous atom. The \"first ionization energy\" is the energy required to remove the first electron, and generally the \"nth ionization energy\" is the energy required to remove the atom's \"n\"th electron, after the (\"n\"−1) electrons before it has been removed. Trend-wise, ionization energy tends to increase while one progresses across a period because the greater number of protons (higher nuclear charge) attract the orbiting electrons more strongly, thereby increasing the energy required to remove one of the electrons. Ionization energy and ionization potentials are completely different. The potential is an intensive property and it is measured by \"volt\"; whereas the energy is an extensive property expressed by \"eV\" or \"kJ/mole\".\n",
"Above threshold ionization (ATI) is an extension of multi-photon ionization where even more photons are absorbed than actually would be necessary to ionize the atom. The excess energy gives the released electron higher kinetic energy than the usual case of just-above threshold ionization. More precisely, the system will have multiple peaks in its photoelectron spectrum which are separated by the photon energies, this indicates that the emitted electron has more kinetic energy than in the normal (lowest possible number of photons) ionization case. The electrons released from the target will have approximately an integer number of photon-energies more kinetic energy. In intensity regions between 10 W/cm and 10 W/cm, each of MPI, ATI, and barrier suppression ionization can occur simultaneously, each contributing to the overall ionization of the atoms involved.\n",
"The first ionization energy is the energy it takes to remove one electron from an atom, the second ionization energy is the energy it takes to remove a second electron from the atom, and so on. For a given atom, successive ionization energies increase with the degree of ionization. For magnesium as an example, the first ionization energy is 738 kJ/mol and the second is 1450 kJ/mol. Electrons in the closer orbitals experience greater forces of electrostatic attraction; thus, their removal requires increasingly more energy. Ionization energy becomes greater up and to the right of the periodic table.\n",
"Above-threshold ionization (ATI) is an extension of multi-photon ionization where even more photons are absorbed than actually would be necessary to ionize the atom. The excess energy gives the released electron higher kinetic energy than the usual case of just-above threshold ionization. More precisely, The system will have multiple peaks in its photoelectron spectrum which are separated by the photon energies, this indicates that the emitted electron has more kinetic energy than in the normal (lowest possible number of photons) ionization case. The electrons released from the target will have approximately an integer number of photon-energies more kinetic energy.\n",
"In physics and chemistry, ionization energy (American English spelling) or ionisation energy (British English spelling), denoted \"E\", is the minimum amount of energy required to remove the most loosely bound electron, the valence electron, of an isolated neutral gaseous atom or molecule. It is quantitatively expressed as \n",
"While the term ionization energy is largely used only for gas-phase atomic or molecular species, there are a number of analogous quantities that consider the amount of energy required to remove an electron from other physical systems.\n",
"Ionization energy is also a periodic trend within the periodic table organization. Moving left to right within a period, or upward within a group, the first ionization energy generally increases, with some exceptions such as aluminum and sulfur in the table above. As the nuclear charge of the nucleus increases across the period, the atomic radius decreases and the electron cloud becomes closer towards the nucleus.\n"
] |
why is china airlines from taiwan? why not call it taiwan airlines instead?
|
Because Taiwan's official name is the Republic of China (ROC).
Also, China Airlines was founded back when the Taiwanese government still considered itself the government of China (though exiled)
|
[
"As Republic of China (Taiwan)'s flag carrier, China Airlines has been affected by disputes over the political status of Republic of China (Taiwan), and under pressure from the Communist Party of China, was barred from flying into a number of countries maintaining diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (\"China\"). As a result, in the mid-1990s, China Airlines subsidiary Mandarin Airlines took over some of its Sydney and Vancouver international routes. Partly as a way to avoid the international controversy, in 1995 China Airlines unveiled its \"plum blossom\" logo, replacing the national flag, which had previously appeared on the tail fins (empennage), and the aircraft livery from the red-white-blue national colors on the fuselage of its aircraft. The plum blossom (\"Prunus mume\") is Taiwan's National Flower.\n",
"China Airlines is the official flag carrier airline of Taiwan. The Taiwanese government refers to its state as the Republic of China and considers itself to be the legitimate, non-Communist leadership-in-exile of all of China since the Communist overthrow in the mid-1950s. The name of the airline carries the message of the long-lasting and ongoing cultural and political conflict between Communist \"mainland\" China (PRC) and Taiwan, that the Republic of China is the \"true\" China and that the state commonly referred to as \"China\" is illegitimate and usurped control of the country from the rightful leadership. Similarly, the PRC counters this message by having named one of its largest international carriers \"Air China\" to reinforce the PRC's claim to be the legitimate of the \"two Chinas.\" The implicit conflict between the two states is likely lost on the majority of the general public outside the immediate region, such as the United States and Europe, but the strategic use of using advertising and targeting the international community through tourism is apparent on both sides.\n",
"China Airlines (CAL) () is the national carrier of Taiwan (officially the Republic of China, hence the \"China\" name), and one of its two major airlines along with EVA Air. It is headquartered in Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and operates over 1400 flights weekly (including 91 pure cargo flights) to 102 cities across Asia, Europe, North America and Oceania. Carrying over 19 million passengers and 5700 tons of cargo in 2017, the carrier was the 33rd and 10th largest airline in the world in terms of passenger revenue per kilometer (RPK) and freight RPK, respectively. China Airlines has three airline subsidiaries: China Airlines Cargo, a member of SkyTeam Cargo, operates a fleet of freighter aircraft and manages its parent airline's cargo-hold capacity; Mandarin Airlines operates flights to domestic and low-demand regional destinations; Tigerair Taiwan is a low-cost carrier established by China Airlines and Singaporean airline group Tigerair Holdings, but is now wholly owned by China Airlines Group.\n",
"Regular flights between Mainland China (PRC) and Taiwan (ROC) started in July 2009. Due to the political status of Taiwan, all Air China airframes that operate flights to and from Taiwan are required to cover the flag of the People's Republic of China on the fuselage, including a number of Airbus A320s, A330s, A340s, Boeing 777-200s, and Boeing 747-400BDSFs.\n",
"This was due to political sensitivities, as national airlines operating flights to the People's Republic of China were not permitted to fly to Taiwan. Similar arrangements were made by other airlines, such as Japan Airlines and Qantas.\n",
"The six mainland Chinese airlines originated in three cities in Mainland China: Beijing (Air China, Hainan Airlines), Shanghai (China Eastern Airlines), and Guangzhou (China Southern Airlines, Xiamen Airlines). All Air China's flight are operated by Shandong Airlines' aircraft to avoid Air China's livery which features the \"Five Star Red Flag\".\n",
"China Airlines is Republic of China's (Taiwan) largest airline, operating regular flights to over 90 destinations worldwide. China Airlines features full passenger and dedicated cargo operations to North America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. \n"
] |
Planets revlove in an ellipsoid trajectory around the sun - but what are the foci?
|
One of the foci is, strictly, the centre of mass of the system, rather than the centre of the Sun itself, but effectively the difference is minute. The other focus doesn't have any astronomical meaning.
|
[
"The heliocentric ecliptic system describes the planets' orbital movement around the Sun, and centers on the barycenter of the solar system (i.e. very close to the center of the Sun). The system is primarily used for computing the positions of planets and other solar system bodies, as well as defining their orbital elements.\n",
"In addition, the orbital ellipse itself precesses in space, in an irregular fashion, completing a full cycle every 112,000 years relative to the fixed stars. Apsidal precession occurs in the plane of the ecliptic and alters the orientation of the Earth's orbit relative to the ecliptic. This happens primarily as a result of interactions with Jupiter and Saturn. Smaller contributions are also made by the sun's oblateness and by the effects of general relativity that are well known for Mercury.\n",
"In addition to lunisolar precession, the actions of the other planets of the Solar System cause the whole ecliptic to rotate slowly around an axis which has an ecliptic longitude of about 174° measured on the instantaneous ecliptic. This so-called planetary precession shift amounts to a rotation of the ecliptic plane of 0.47 seconds of arc per year (more than a hundred times smaller than lunisolar precession). The sum of the two precessions is known as the general precession.\n",
"The orbits of planets around the Sun do not really follow an identical ellipse each time, but actually trace out a flower-petal shape because the major axis of each planet's elliptical orbit also precesses within its orbital plane, partly in response to perturbations in the form of the changing gravitational forces exerted by other planets. This is called perihelion precession or apsidal precession.\n",
"In both Hipparchian and Ptolemaic systems, the planets are assumed to move in a small circle called an \"epicycle\", which in turn moves along a larger circle called a \"deferent\". Both circles rotate clockwise and are roughly parallel to the plane of the Sun's orbit (ecliptic). Despite the fact that the system is considered geocentric, each planet's motion was not centered on the Earth but at a point slightly away from the Earth called the \"eccentric\". The orbits of planets in this system are similar to epitrochoids.\n",
"Periastron precession is the rotation of a planet's orbit within the orbital plane, i.e. the axes of the ellipse change direction. In the Solar System, perturbations from other planets are the main cause, but for close-in exoplanets the largest factor can be tidal forces between the star and planet. For close-in exoplanets, the general relativistic contribution to the precession is also significant and can be orders of magnitude larger than the same effect for Mercury. Some exoplanets have significantly eccentric orbits, which makes it easier to detect the precession. The effect of general relativity can be detectable in timescales of about 10 years or less.\n",
"The direction of precession is opposite the direction of revolution. For a typical prograde orbit around Earth (that is, in the direction of primary body's rotation), the longitude of the ascending node decreases, that is the node precesses westward. If the orbit is retrograde, this increases the longitude of the ascending node, that is the node precesses eastward. This nodal progression enables heliosynchronous orbits to maintain a nearly constant angle relative to the Sun.\n"
] |
how does tidal energy not break conservation of energy?
|
In short, the moon is constantly slowing the rotation of the earth. Eventually the moon and earth will always be facing each other.
|
[
"Tidal power, also called tidal energy, is a form of hydropower that converts the energy obtained from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity. The potential of tidal wave energy becomes higher in certain regions by local effects such as shelving, funnelling, reflection and resonance.\n",
"This type of energy does not produce waste that is harmful to the environment and does not require high maintenance. Unlike the solar and wind energy models, tidal energy is quite stable because the tide of the day can be accurately predicted. The disadvantage of this type of energy is that it requires a large amount of investment in equipment and construction and at the same time changes the natural conditions of a very large area. \n",
"Tidal Energy has an expensive initial cost which may be one of the reasons tidal energy is not a popular source of renewable energy. It is important to realize that the methods for generating electricity from tidal energy is a relatively new technology. It is projected that tidal power will be commercially profitable within 2020 with better technology and larger scales. Tidal Energy is however still very early in the research process and the ability to reduce the price of tidal energy can be an option. The cost effectiveness depends on each site tidal generators are being placed. To figure out the cost effectiveness they use the Gilbert ratio, which is the length of the barrage in metres to the annual energy production in kilowatt hours (1 kilowatt hour = 1 KWH = 1000 watts used for 1 hour).\n",
"Although not yet widely used, tidal energy has potential for future electricity generation. Tides are more predictable than the wind and the sun. Among sources of renewable energy, tidal energy has traditionally suffered from relatively high cost and limited availability of sites with sufficiently high tidal ranges or flow velocities, thus constricting its total availability. However, many recent technological developments and improvements, both in design (e.g. dynamic tidal power, tidal lagoons) and turbine technology (e.g. new axial turbines, cross flow turbines), indicate that the total availability of tidal power may be much higher than previously assumed, and that economic and environmental costs may be brought down to competitive levels.\n",
"Another physical limitation is the energy available in the tidal fluctuations of the oceans, which is about 0.6 EJ (exajoule). Note this is only a tiny fraction of the total rotational energy of the Earth. Without forcing, this energy would be dissipated (at a dissipation rate of 3.7 TW) in about four semi-diurnal tide periods. So, dissipation plays a significant role in the tidal dynamics of the oceans. Therefore, this limits the available tidal energy to around 0.8 TW (20% of the dissipation rate) in order not to disturb the tidal dynamics too much. \n",
"BULLET::::- Tidal power, also called tidal energy, is a form of hydropower that converts the energy of tides into useful forms of power - mainly electricity, dynamic tidal power, tidal lagoons, tidal barrages\n",
"Because the Earth's tides are ultimately due to gravitational interaction with the Moon and Sun and the Earth's rotation, tidal power is practically inexhaustible and classified as a renewable energy resource. Movement of tides causes a loss of mechanical energy in the Earth–Moon system: this is a result of pumping of water through natural restrictions around coastlines and consequent viscous dissipation at the seabed and in turbulence. This loss of energy has caused the rotation of the Earth to slow in the 4.5 billion years since its formation. During the last 620 million years the period of rotation of the earth (length of a day) has increased from 21.9 hours to 24 hours; in this period the Earth has lost 17% of its rotational energy. While tidal power will take additional energy from the system, the effect is negligible and would only be noticed over millions of years.\n"
] |
does putting "i do not own this song" on youtube videos actually prevent it from getting taken down from the record label?
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Nope! Some people think it's polite though, which is kind of strange, because the people are pretty much saying "Yes, I knowingly violated the copyright on your product, but at least I'm not claiming it's mine"
|
[
"Watson chose to remove the song from the iTunes Store, claiming the commission's advice was censorship. John Key commented that the song and its music video was, \"quite professionally done. It was anti-us but as a parody it was okay.\"\n",
"In August 2008, Judge Jeremy Fogel of the Northern District of California ruled in \"Lenz v. Universal Music Corp.\" that copyright holders cannot order a deletion of an online file without determining whether that posting reflected \"fair use\" of the copyrighted material. The case involved Stephanie Lenz, a writer and editor from Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, who made a home video of her thirteen-month-old son dancing to Prince's song Let's Go Crazy and posted the video on YouTube. Four months later, Universal Music, the owner of the copyright to the song, ordered YouTube to remove the video under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Lenz notified YouTube immediately that her video was within the scope of fair use, and she demanded that it be restored. YouTube complied after six weeks, rather than the two weeks required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Lenz then sued Universal Music in California for her legal costs, claiming the music company had acted in bad faith by ordering removal of a video that represented fair use of the song. On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a copyright owner must affirmatively consider whether the complained of conduct constituted fair use before sending a takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, rather than waiting for the alleged infringer to assert fair use. 801 F.3d 1126 (9th Cir. 2015). \"Even if, as Universal urges, fair use is classified as an 'affirmative defense,' we hold—for the purposes of the DMCA—fair use is uniquely situated in copyright law so as to be treated differently than traditional affirmative defenses. We conclude that because 17 U.S.C. § 107 created a type of non-infringing use, fair use is \"authorized by the law\" and a copyright holder must consider the existence of fair use before sending a takedown notification under § 512(c).\"\n",
"The song had not been intended for release and Jackson's record label Sony Music Entertainment gained the support of the late entertainer's estate and its lawyers in their endeavor to have the track removed from the Internet on the basis of copyright infringement. Some of their attempts at removal were successful, though individuals continued to upload the audio, one clip garnering 20,000 views within hours.\n",
"An independent test in 2009 uploaded multiple versions of the same song to YouTube, and concluded that while the system was \"surprisingly resilient\" in finding copyright violations in the audio tracks of videos, it was not infallible. The use of Content ID to remove material automatically has led to controversy in some cases, as the videos have not been checked by a human for fair use.\n",
"An aide to Rep. Smith said, \"This bill does not make it a felony for a person to post a video on YouTube of their children singing to a copyrighted song. The bill specifically targets websites dedicated to illegal or infringing activity. Sites that host user content—like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter—have nothing to be concerned about under this legislation.\"\n",
"If the process of clearing the rights to the song is prohibitively expensive for the home video distributor, or clearance is refused by the copyright holders of the original song, the affected song is either replaced with a similar one, or the footage containing the copyrighted song is edited out. In a few cases, television shows, with extensive use of copyrighted music whose cost of \"after-market\" licensing is high, are withheld from release on DVD; notable examples include \"The Wonder Years\", \"WKRP in Cincinnati\", \"Third Watch\" (beyond its first two seasons), and \"Cold Case\", some of which were eventually released after long delays. Sony Entertainment cancelled the planned October 2007 DVD release of \"Dark Skies\" for that reason, but it was eventually released on January 18, 2011 through Shout! Factory.\n",
"\"Don't Download This Song\" references several court cases related to the RIAA and copyright infringement of music. Among these are lawsuits against \"a grandma\" (presumably Gertrude Walton, who was sued for copyright infringement six months after dying) and a \"7-year-old girl\" (presumably a reference to Tanya Andersen's daughter sued at age 10 for alleged copyright infringements made at the age of 7), as well as Lars Ulrich's strong stance against copyright infringement of music in the days of Napster. The song also challenges the RIAA's claim that file sharing prevents the artists from profiting from their work, as the song argues that they are still very financially successful via their recording contracts: (\"Don't take away money from artists just like me/How else can I afford another solid-gold Humvee?\"). Mention is also made of Tommy Chong's time spent in prison.\n"
] |
what damage can be done if someone gets access to your wi-fi password?
|
There are definitely a few guides out there detailing how to beef up your network's security, check them out when you have a chance (on mobile, can't link any at the moment).
There are a few implications when someone has access to your network:
* If they're doing something bandwidth-heavy (gaming, streaming HD, etc.), it can slow down the connection for other devices on the network.
* If they're doing illegal things, you are the first person your ISP will come after or warn.
* There is software out there that allows people to "sniff" the traffic of other people on the same network that is being sent back and forth from the device to the network. They can't explicitly see what you're doing, but the software can glimpse at the data being sent back and forth and steal cookies, passwords, and other data being transferred.
ELI5 Version:
* You start taking a shower on the first floor, but only have lukewarm water because someone else in your house has been running the hot water in the shower on the second floor for the past hour.
* I stole something with your name on it, started beating people with it, and left the object with your name on it behind as the initial piece of evidence.
* You snuck into a dark closet with your friend, shut the door, and told them who your crush is. But before you came in, someone else snuck in, hid, and overhead you telling your friend who you have a crush on. They now have your sensitive information.
|
[
"On April 28th, 2017 the Tokyo District Court ruled that accessing a wireless LAN network without authorization is not a crime, even if the network is protected with a password. In a case brought before the court involved a man named Hiroshi Fujita, who was accused of accessing a neighbors wi-fi network without authorization and sending virus-infected emails, and then using that to steal internet banking information and send funds to his own bank account without authorization. Hiroshi was found guilty of most of what he was accused of and sentenced to 8 years in prison. Regarding the unauthorized access of wireless networks, prosecutors argued that wi-fi passwords fall under the category of \"secrets of wireless transmission\" (無線通信の秘密) and that therefore obtaining and using passwords without permission of the network operator would fall under the category of unauthorized use of wireless transmission secrets, which is prohibited by law. However, the court ruled that the defendant is not guilty, stating in their ruling that wi-fi passwords do not fall under that category and therefore the unauthorized obtainment of passwords and subsequent accessing of protected wireless networks is not a crime.\n",
"it also provides opportunities for misuse. In particular, as the Internet of Things spreads widely, cyber attacks are likely to become an increasingly physical (rather than simply virtual) threat. If a front door's lock is connected to the Internet, and can be locked/unlocked from a phone, then a criminal could enter the home at the press of a button from a stolen or hacked phone. People could stand to lose much more than their credit card numbers in a world controlled by IoT-enabled devices. Thieves have also used electronic means to circumvent non-Internet-connected hotel door locks.\n",
"Any unattended device can be vulnerable to a network evil maid attack. If the attacker knows the victim's device well enough, they can replace the victim's device with an identical model with a password-stealing mechanism. Thus, when the victim inputs their password, the attacker will instantly be notified of it and be able to access the stolen device's information.\n",
"Another security consideration is the ability of malicious software to spoof dialogs that look like legitimate security confirmation requests. If the user were to input credentials into a fake dialog, thinking the dialog was legitimate, the malicious software would then know the user's password. If the Secure Desktop or similar feature were disabled, the malicious software could use that password to gain higher privileges.\n",
"An attacker can try to eavesdrop on Wi-Fi communications to derive information (e.g. username, password). This type of attack is not unique to smartphones, but they are very vulnerable to these attacks because very often the Wi-Fi is the only means of communication they have to access the internet. The security of wireless networks (WLAN) is thus an important subject. Initially, wireless networks were secured by WEP keys. The weakness of WEP is a short encryption key which is the same for all connected clients. In addition, several reductions in the search space of the keys have been found by researchers. Now, most wireless networks are protected by the WPA security protocol.\n",
"An attacker can send a deauthentication frame at any time to a wireless access point, with a spoofed address for the victim. The protocol does not require any encryption for this frame, even when the session was established with Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) for data privacy, and the attacker only needs to know the victim's MAC address, which is available in the clear through wireless network sniffing.\n",
"Local Wi-Fi networks may be configured with varying levels of security enabled. Using a Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) password, the attacker running Firesheep must have the password, but once this has been achieved (a likely scenario if a coffee shop is asking all users for the same basic password) they are able to decrypt the cookies and continue their attack. In addition, the WEP protocol has been proven to have severe flaws which allow attackers to decrypt WEP traffic very quickly, even without the password. However, using Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA or WPA2) encryption offers individual user isolation, preventing the attacker from using Firesheep from decrypting cookies sent over the network even if the Firesheep user has logged into the network using the same password. An attacker would be able to manually retrieve and decrypt another user's data on a WPA-PSK connection, if the key is known and the attacker was present at the time of the handshake, or if they send a spoofed de-authenticate packet to the router, causing the user to re-authenticate and allow the attacker to capture the handshake. This attack would not work on WPA-Enterprise networks as there is no single password (the 'Pre Shared Key' in PSK).\n"
] |
why do politicians and the media never just call people liars?
|
Because that can be considered defamatory, leading the person to file, and win, a lawsuit against you. This will have the effect of making them look like a victim, and making you look like an asshole while paying them a bunch of money.
|
[
"The practice is not always referred to as a \"liars table,\" but that term appears across the United States, including Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Texas, and Ohio. The word \"liars\" refers to the idea that the men are lying or gossiping about local social or political happenings.\n",
"\"Showing some subjects up as liars is the very worst thing to do, because their determination not to lose face will only make them stick harder to the lie. For these it is necessary to provide loopholes by asking questions which let them correct their stories without any direct admission to lying\".\n",
"If \"there is no such thing as an honest politician\", this need not mean that all politicians are liars, but just that they are often not in a position to know or reveal the \"complete picture\" and thus express \"selected\" truths relevant to their actions, rather than all possible truths that could be told. In that sense, it is quite possible to be a \"principled\" politician – if that was not so, then (arguably) \"all\" politicians are opportunists. Yet if all politicians are opportunists—as many cynics believe—it becomes difficult to explain a politician's professional \"motivations\" . Namely, if their purpose is based \"only\" or \"primarily\" on self-interest—disregarding higher principles, which is the hallmark of opportunism—then politics is \"the least likely vocation\", since it requires that politicians serve a collective interest or cause bigger than themselves. They would then be better off in a line of business where they can just pursue their own interest to the full. If they are able to be politicians, they could easily do so. The question is then why they don't, if indeed only out to serve themselves.\n",
"Therefore, by manipulating a given piece of information as either included within the target or compared against, the same information can have different consequences for judgments. For example, thinking of a politician involved in a scandal (such as Eliot Spitzer) may make people believe that politicians in general are more corrupt because the corrupt exemplar is information that is included within the representation of \"politicians\". In short, people would be left thinking \"they are all like Spitzer\". Paradoxically, at the same time every individual politician that is rated may seem more honest, because for these judgments, the exemplar is used as the standard of comparison. In this case, people are left thinking \"he (or she) is not as bad as Spitzer\".\n",
"This does not mean that voters make poor and biased decisions: rather that in carrying out their everyday responsibilities (like working and taking care of a family), many people do not have the time to devote to researching every aspect of a candidate's policies. So many people find themselves making rational decisions meaning they let others who are more versed in the subject do the research and they form their opinion based on the evidence provided. They are being rationally ignorant not because they don't care but because they simply do not have the time.\n",
"In \"Lying\", neuroscientist Sam Harris argues that lying is negative for the liar and the person who's being lied to. To say lies is to deny others access to reality, and often we cannot anticipate how harmful lies can be. The ones we lie to may fail to solve problems they could have solved only on a basis of good information. To lie also harms oneself, makes the liar to distrust the person who's being lied to. Liars generally feel bad for it and sense a loss of sincerity, authenticity, integrity. Harris defends that honesty allows you to have deeper relationships, and to bring all dysfunction in one's life to the surface.\n",
"\"We Were Liars\" focuses on the theme of self-acceptance, family morals, and the possibly-deadly consequences of one's mistakes. It is centered on the wealthy, seemingly perfect Sinclair family, who spend every summer gathered on their private island. However, not every summer is the same—when something happens to Cadence during the summer of her fifteenth year, the four \"Liars\" (Cadence, Johnny, Gat and Mirren) re-emerge two years later to prompt Cadence to remember the incident.\n"
] |
string theory and m-theory
|
String theory: everything in the universe is connected by invisible strings and can be interacted with through the forces of nature.
I can't even imagine how someone would explain M theory to a five year old...
|
[
"In physics string theory is an attempt to describe general relativity and quantum mechanics with a single mathematical model. Although it is an attempt to model our universe it takes place in a space with more dimensions than the four of spacetime that we are familiar with. In particular a number of string theories take place in a ten-dimensional space, adding an extra six dimensions. These extra dimensions are required by the theory, but as they cannot be observed are thought to be quite different, perhaps compactified to form a six-dimensional space with a particular geometry too small to be observable.\n",
"String theory is a broad and varied subject that attempts to address a number of deep questions of fundamental physics. String theory has been applied to a variety of problems in black hole physics, early universe cosmology, nuclear physics, and condensed matter physics, and it has stimulated a number of major developments in pure mathematics. Because string theory potentially provides a unified description of gravity and particle physics, it is a candidate for a theory of everything, a self-contained mathematical model that describes all fundamental forces and forms of matter. Despite much work on these problems, it is not known to what extent string theory describes the real world or how much freedom the theory allows in the choice of its details. \n",
"Speaking at the string theory conference at the University of Southern California in 1995, Edward Witten of the Institute for Advanced Study suggested that the five different versions of string theory might be describing the same thing seen from different perspectives. He proposed a unifying theory called \"M-theory\", in which the \"M\" is not specifically defined but is generally understood to stand for \"membrane\". The words \"matrix\", \"master\", \"mother\", \"monster\", \"mystery\" and \"magic\" have also been claimed. M-theory brought all of the string theories together. It did this by asserting that strings are really one-dimensional slices of a two-dimensional membrane vibrating in 11-dimensional spacetime. Vibrations of higher-dimensional objects (as in three-dimensional vibrating blob or sphere or even more possible dimensions) are certainly a part of M-theory, but the basic theory of branes is still in progress. Higher-dimensional objects are much harder to mathematically calculate than a point in classical physics or a one-dimension string in string theory or two-dimensional membranes in M-theory.\n",
"String theory has been used to construct a variety of models of particle physics going beyond the standard model. Typically, such models are based on the idea of compactification. Starting with the ten- or eleven-dimensional spacetime of string or M-theory, physicists postulate a shape for the extra dimensions. By choosing this shape appropriately, they can construct models roughly similar to the standard model of particle physics, together with additional undiscovered particles. One popular way of deriving realistic physics from string theory is to start with the heterotic theory in ten dimensions and assume that the six extra dimensions of spacetime are shaped like a six-dimensional Calabi–Yau manifold. Such compactifications offer many ways of extracting realistic physics from string theory. Other similar methods can be used to construct realistic or semi-realistic models of our four-dimensional world based on M-theory.\n",
"String theory is a theoretical framework that attempts to reconcile gravity and quantum mechanics. In string theory, the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how strings propagate through space and interact with each other. In a given version of string theory, there is only one kind of string, which may look like a small loop or segment of ordinary string, and it can vibrate in different ways. On distance scales larger than the string scale, a string will look just like an ordinary particle, with its mass, charge, and other properties determined by the vibrational state of the string. In this way, all of the different elementary particles may be viewed as vibrating strings. One of the vibrational states of a string gives rise to the graviton, a quantum mechanical particle that carries gravitational force.\n",
"String theory is a model of physics where all \"particles\" that make up matter are composed of strings (measuring at the Planck length) that exist in an 11-dimensional (according to M-theory, the leading version) or 12-dimensional (according to F-theory) universe. These strings vibrate at different frequencies that determine mass, electric charge, color charge, and spin. A string can be open (a line) or closed in a loop (a one-dimensional sphere, like a circle). As a string moves through space it sweeps out something called a \"world sheet\". String theory predicts 1- to 10-branes (a 1-brane being a string and a 10-brane being a 10-dimensional object) that prevent tears in the \"fabric\" of space using the uncertainty principle (e.g., the electron orbiting a hydrogen atom has the probability, albeit small, that it could be anywhere else in the universe at any given moment).\n",
"In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. It describes how these strings propagate through space and interact with each other. On distance scales larger than the string scale, a string looks just like an ordinary particle, with its mass, charge, and other properties determined by the vibrational state of the string. In string theory, one of the many vibrational states of the string corresponds to the graviton, a quantum mechanical particle that carries gravitational force. Thus string theory is a theory of quantum gravity.\n"
] |
How brutal was the USSR to the people in Nazi territory when it helped beat the Third Reich in World War II?
|
Soldiers of Waffen SS when captured by frontline troops were shot on spot. If they got lucky and were captured by 'trophy company' or by MPs, they will be put in POW camps. Many survived - there's a book in preparation (in russian) with recent interviews of former POWs, many from Waffen SS. So, despite all supposed horrors of russian POW camps many are still alive.
In general, advancing russian soldiers didn't have much time to interact with local civilians. They were in hurry to end the war. In 2-3 days at most - all populated places were controlled by military police (*военная комендатура* - at a time), which was supported also by NKVD troops. There were strict orders from all Front Commanders in Germany proper to minimize interactions with local populace which stated that anybody found harming german civilians will be punished - up to death penalty for serious crimes.
Now, I'm not saying there were no instances of civilian abuse at hands of soviet soldiers, and I would say that amount of abuse was unexpectedly high for Stavka - that's why there was a special orders, specifically spelling out punishments and conduct guidelines.
Many incidents have happened in small window of lawlessness - when frontline troops moved away, but MP didn't moved in yet. And perpetrated by support troops, which did not have strong chain of command, while their senior CO being far away.
Here's one visual example of purported abuse I've came across recently (it doesn't involve murder or rape):
* Ever seen the photo of bike which is [pulled from hands of a woman by a russian soldier](_URL_5_)? Seems very clear what is going on here - a marauding soldier is taking away property of civilians.
* Now let's see the same photo, [published on The Life magazine cover](_URL_0_). Note the lines below photo: *A Russian soldier involved in a misunderstanding with a German woman in Berlin, over a bicycle he wished to buy from her.* Now it seems not as clear-cut as before.
* But here's [the original from the archive](_URL_1_). One more sentence added to the description: *After giving her money for the bike, the soldier assumes the deal has been struck. However the woman doesn't seem convinced.* Wow - now scene goes from dramatic to comic. Note also how image was cropped more and more.
Moving on to the favorite source about Soviet Army brutality - Beevor's book *"Battle of Berlin"*:
* anonymous account from a cog of Goebbels machine (talking about *"A Woman in Berlin"*) cannot be taken at face value without scrutiny. Sadly, Beevor did not scrutinize it properly. He just say "oh, she was OK, it's all must be true" - without any verification of details.
* another reason why I cannot seriously consider Beevor to be accurate: he never mentioned a practice of *sex for food* and never takes it into account in his calculations. Which is really strange, since it mentioned quite often in memoirs of russian soldiers.
Here's detailed criticism of Beevor - [What is the basis of Russian criticism of Antony Beevor's work?](_URL_3_)
**Sources**
1. [Nikolai Litvin - 800 Days on the Eastern Front: A Russian Soldier Remembers World War II](_URL_6_) . That's memoirs of a driver from support troops. Boring - you won't find glorious battles, but if you want to know day-to-day routine of soldiers - read it.
2. [From Stalingrad to Pillau: A Red Army Artillery Officer Remembers the Great Patriotic War](_URL_4_). Memoirs of jewish gun commander. Frontline troops. Very critical at times and does not hesitate to poke at observed issues.
3. [Sex for food - memoirs of Prussian women](_URL_2_). Unflattering and rather biased against soviet soldiers, but at least with some verifiable facts.
|
[
"In the early stages of World War II, both Nazi Germany and the USSR invaded and occupied the countries of Eastern Europe after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Germany then turned against and invaded the USSR: the battles of this Eastern Front were the largest in history. The USSR joined with the Allies and in conferences at Tehran and Yalta, the Allies agreed that Central and Eastern Europe would be in the \"Soviet sphere of political influence.\". The USSR fought the Germans to a standstill and finally began driving them back, reaching Berlin before the end of the war. Nazi ideology was violently anti-communist, and the Nazis brutally suppressed communist movements in the countries it occupied. Communists played a large part in the resistance to the Nazis in these countries. As the Soviets forced the Germans back, they assumed temporary control of these devastated areas.\n",
"By the end of World War II, most of Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union in particular, suffered vast destruction. The Soviet Union had suffered a staggering 27 million deaths, and the destruction of significant industry and infrastructure, both by the Nazi \"Wehrmacht\" and the Soviet Union itself in a \"scorched earth\" policy to keep it from falling in Nazi hands as they advanced over 1,000 miles to within 15 miles of Moscow. Thereafter, the Soviet Union physically transported and relocated east European industrial assets to the Soviet Union.\n",
"On 22 June 1941 Nazi Germany attacked the USSR. The Soviet Union had already been a part of World War II with its occupation of eastern Poland, its attack on Finland and its occupation of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. During the attack some ROVS, especially the Cossack \"émigré\" generals Pyotr Krasnov and Andrei Shkuro, asked Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels' permission to fight alongside Nazi Germany against Communist Russia. Goebbels welcomed this idea, and by 1942 Gen. Krasnov and Gen. Shkuro had mustered a Cossack force--mostly from Red Army POWs captured by the Wehrmacht--who would be under the command of Gen. Helmuth von Pannwitz.\n",
"World War II, known as \"the Great Patriotic War\" in the Soviet Union, devastated much of the USSR, with about one out of every three World War II deaths representing a citizen of the Soviet Union. After World War II, the Soviet Union's armies occupied Eastern Europe, where they established or supported Communist puppet governments. By 1949, the Cold War had started between the Western Bloc and the Eastern (Soviet) Bloc, with the Warsaw Pact (created 1955) pitched against NATO (created 1949) in Europe. After 1945, Stalin did not directly engage in any wars. He continued his totalitarian rule until his death in 1953.\n",
"Although the Soviet Union was victorious in World War II, the war resulted in around 26–27 million Soviet deaths (estimates vary) and had devastated the Soviet economy in the struggle. Some 1,710 towns and 70,000 settlements were destroyed. The occupied territories suffered from the ravages of German occupation and deportations of slave labor by Germany. Thirteen million Soviet citizens became victims of the repressive policies of Germany and its allies in occupied territories, where people died because of mass murders, famine, absence of elementary medical aid and slave labor. The Nazi Genocide of the Jews, carried out by German \"Einsatzgruppen\" along with local collaborators, resulted in almost complete annihilation of the Jewish population over the entire territory temporarily occupied by Germany and its allies. During the occupation, the Leningrad region lost around a quarter of its population, Soviet Belarus lost from a quarter to a third of its population, and 3.6 million Soviet prisoners of war (of 5.5 million) died in German camps.\n",
"Although the Soviet Union was victorious in World War II, the war resulted in around 26–27 million Soviet deaths (estimates vary) and had devastated the Soviet economy in the struggle. Some 1,710 towns and 70 thousand settlements were destroyed. The occupied territories suffered from the ravages of German occupation and deportations of slave labor in Germany. Thirteen million Soviet citizens became victims of a repressive policy of Germans and their allies in occupied territory, where they died because of mass murders, famine, absence of elementary medical aid and slave labor. The Nazi Genocide of the Jews carried by German \"Einsatzgruppen\", and \"Wehrmacht\" along with local collaborators resulted in almost complete annihilation of the Jewish population over the entire territory temporary occupied by Germany and its allies. During occupation, Russia's Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, region lost around a quarter of its population. 3.6 million Soviet prisoners of war (of 5.5 million) died in German camps. British historian Martin Gilbert used a similar approach in his \"Atlas of the Holocaust,\" but arrived at a number of 5.75 million Jewish victims, since he estimated higher numbers of Jews killed in Russia and other locations. Lucy S. Dawidowicz used pre-war census figures to estimate that 5.934 million Jews died. In October 1943, 600 Jewish and Russian prisoners attempted an escape at the Sobibór extermination camp. About 60 survived and joined the Belarusian partisans. In Eastern Europe, many Jews joined the ranks of the Soviet partisans: throughout the war, they faced antisemitism and discrimination from the Soviets and some Jewish partisans were killed, but over time, many of the Jewish partisan groups were absorbed into the command structure of the much larger Soviet partisan movement. Soviet partisans were not in a position to ensure protection to the Jews in the Holocaust. The fit Jews were usually welcomed by the partisans (sometimes only if they brought their own weapons); however women, children, and the elderly were mostly unwelcome. Eventually, however, separate Jewish groups, both guerrilla units and mixed family groups of refugees (like the Bielski partisans), were subordinated to the communist partisan leadership and considered as Soviet assets. Even as some assisted the Germans, a significant number of individuals in the territories under German control also helped Jews escape death (\"see Righteous Among the Nations\"). During World War II, Léon Poliakov established the Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation (1943) and after the war, he assisted Edgar Faure at the Nuremberg Trial. By 1944, the Germans had been pushed out of the Soviet Union onto the banks of the Vistula River, just east of Prussia. With Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov attacking from Prussia, and Marshal Konev slicing Germany in half from the south the fate of Nazi Germany was sealed. It is estimated that up to 1.4 million Jews fought in Allied armies; 40% of them in the Red Army. In total, at least 142 500 Soviet soldiers of Jewish nationality lost their lives fighting against the German invadors and their allies Salomon Smolianoff was selected for Operation Bernhard, transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1944, and eventually to the Ebensee site of the Mauthausen camp network, where he was liberated by the US Army on 6 May 1945. Without changing its official anti-Zionist stance, from late 1944 until 1948 Joseph Stalin had adopted a \"de facto\" pro-Zionist foreign policy, apparently believing that the new country would be socialist and would speed the decline of British influence in the Middle East.\n",
"In late 1941, following the Axis invasion of the western regions of the USSR, Soviet authorities forcibly removed almost 53,000 native Germans of Crimea eastwards to Siberia and Central Asia on entirely spurious allegations that they were spies for the Third Reich. Consequently, many died in transit, although later they could not be seriously blamed for Nazi crimes in the region.\n"
] |
Was Bohemia very bohemian?
|
hell yeah dude, it was pretty much all bohemians! ... with a bunch of germans thrown in
on a more serious note, these threads are probably what you are looking for:
_URL_0_
_URL_1_
|
[
"Bohemians were associated with unorthodox or anti-establishment political or social viewpoints, which often were expressed through free love, frugality, and—in some cases—simple living or voluntary poverty. A more economically privileged, wealthy, or even aristocratic bohemian circle is sometimes referred to as \"haute bohème\" (literally \"high Bohemia\").\n",
"An Australian-born poet, Louis Esson, was one of the first to label this melange a Bohemia. In 1916, he wrote a friend to say, \"We have deserted Greenwich Village and the haunts of the Bohemians and have landed near the centre of Broadway (between 65th and 66th streets). As a matter of fact, our present abode is much more Bohemian than Washington Square; at least it is New York's Bohemia. We have a big room in the Lincoln Square Arcade, with steam-heat, electric light, piano, bath, ice-box, elevator, etc.\" In October of that year, an article in the \"New York Times\" contrasted the downtown Bohemia in Greenwich Village with an unexpected Bohemia uptown that was both new and \"perhaps more democratic.\"\n",
"The term bohemianism emerged in France in the early 19th century when artists and creators began to concentrate in the lower-rent, lower class, Romani neighborhoods. \"Bohémien\" was a common term for the Romani people of France, who were mistakenly thought to have reached France in the 15th century via Bohemia (the western part of modern Czech Republic).\n",
"Bohemia, currently a part of the Czech Republic, became famous for its beautiful and colourful glass during the Renaissance. The history of Bohemian glass started with the abundant natural resources found in the countryside.\n",
"In modern use, the term \"Bohemian\" is applied to people who live unconventional, usually artistic, lives. The adherents of the \"Bloomsbury Group\", which formed around the Stephen sisters, Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf in the early 20th century, are among the best-known examples. The original \"Bohemians\" were travellers or refugees from central Europe (hence, the French \"bohémien\", for \"gypsy\").\n",
"A Bohemian () is a resident of Bohemia, a region of the Czech Republic or the former Kingdom of Bohemia, a region of the former Crown of Bohemia (lands of the Bohemian Crown). In English, the word \"Bohemian\" was used to denote the Czech people as well as the Czech language before the word \"Czech\" became prevalent in the early 20th century.\n",
"San Francisco journalist Bret Harte first wrote as \"The Bohemian\" in \"The Golden Era\" in 1861, with this persona taking part in many satirical doings, the lot published in his book \"Bohemian Papers\" in 1867. Harte wrote, \"Bohemia has never been located geographically, but any clear day when the sun is going down, if you mount Telegraph Hill, you shall see its pleasant valleys and cloud-capped hills glittering in the West...\"\n"
] |
why do most foods, drinks etc have to be refrigerated after one use? what happens to the contents after just one use?
|
In many cases, the contents have been pasteurized. So they're "clean" and "free" of bacteria sealed as they are. The second you open it, they become exposed to bacteria. Refrigeration slows the growth of bacteria.
|
[
"This can also be done by using reusable items such as thermoses for daily coffee or plastic containers for water and other cold beverages rather than disposable ones. If that option isn't available, it is best to properly recycle the disposable items after use. When one household recycles at least half of their household waste, they can save 1.2 tons of carbon dioxide annually.\n",
"One way to address this is to increase product longevity; either by extending a product’s first life or addressing issues of repair, reuse and recycling. Reusing products, and therefore extending the use of that item beyond the point where it is discarded by its first user is preferable to recycling or disposal, as this is the least energy intensive solution, although it is often overlooked.\n",
"People sometimes defrost frozen foods at room temperature because of time constraints or ignorance; such foods should be promptly consumed after cooking or discarded and never be refrozen or refrigerated since pathogens are not killed by the freezing process.\n",
"Because Oloroso Sherries have already been through years of oxidative aging, they can be safely stored for years before opening. Once opened, Oloroso will begin to slowly lose some of its aroma and flavor but can be kept, corked and refrigerated, for up to two months after opening. The older the Oloroso, the longer it will stay perfect for consumption, as much as 12 months.\n",
"Items deemed resellable are displayed for purchase in stores. Savers also has a recycling program and attempts to recycle any reusable items that cannot be sold at the stores, as well as any items that do not sell over a period of time to make room for fresh merchandise. Savers has buyers for its recyclables throughout the world and attempts to keep as much donated product out of the waste stream as possible.\n",
"The vegetables that need storage should be carefully considered, since not all produce can be stored together because some release ethylene, which can accelerate ripening or reduce postharvest quality. Like any device for storing food, the ECCs should be kept clean. The surface of the interior cooling space should be sponged off regularly.\n",
"Reusing current materials uses even less energy than recycling. Reusing is preferred to recycling because it eliminates the cost of transport to a recycling plant, sorting, re-manufacturing, distributing, and there are no wages needed to be paid to employees for doing these tasks. Reusable containers only have to be manufactured once for hundreds or thousands of uses (such as a water bottle used every day for years), and the energy cost between uses is approximately that of cleaning the container with soap and water, a negligible expense compared to sorting, melting down, and pouring the material into a mold again, for example. Reusing containers could, in theory, replace recyclable containers and one-use containers, if made out of a durable enough material. There are inconveniences that go along with reusing materials however. Some of these inconveniences include having to clean the containers between uses, carrying around full or empty containers, and they require a time commitment due to having to hold on to them instead of throwing them away.\n"
] |
how can people sell video game merch or art on etsy?
|
It’s not legal for sure, but they probably aren’t making enough to be on anyone’s radar. There is also the slim chance that they are doing really well for themselves and managed to get some sort of license.
_URL_0_
|
[
"Players can optionally purchase cosmetic color palettes and tools from the game's virtual store. They are purchased with ducks, a virtual currency that they get from other players or with microtransactions, which, once made, gives the player access to Drawception Gold. Which gives the ability to create Draw First games and award ducks to others as a way to reward helpful players.\n",
"artFido is an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell works of art worldwide. In addition to its auction-style listings, the website also includes ordinary fixed-price shopping.\n",
"GameTZ.com is an online trading community established in late 1996 which allows people to trade video games, books, music, movies, and other items through negotiating with other traders from countries worldwide. Once a trade is completed, a record is created on the site for future reference.\n",
"• The Art in Video Games - French inspiration: the exhibition opened on September 25, 2015. It showcases the work of artists from French video game studios, such as Ubisoft, Spiders, Arkane, Osome, and Swing Swing Submarine, presenting more than 800 artworks: drawings and preparatory sketches, watercolors, sculptures and digital paintings. Emmanuel Ethis, in his contribution to the Nouvel Observateur, says that \"a video game is indeed a Total Art, because if it is ludique by nature, it also carries the sovereign ambition of being recorded in a connotated History, rich in correspondences and references to all art forms that preceded it, that we discover thanks to Jean-Jacques Launier, curator of the exhibition dedicated to French inspiration in the Art in the video games.\"\n",
"PlayerAuctions is an online platform for players of massively multiplayer online games (MMO) to buy, sell and trade digital assets such as in-game currency, items, accounts, and power leveling services. The site is a neutral marketplace that supports player-to-player trading for popular MMOs such as \"RuneScape\", \"Old School RuneScape\", \"World of Warcraft\", \"CSGO\", \"PUBG\", \"Path of Exile\", \"League of Legends\" and over 400 other games.\n",
"While Fan Art is mostly used for drawn art, Game Art HQ also considers cosplay, sculptures and crafts as artworks relevant for the site. Additionally, there are interviews with Game Producers, Artists and Cosplay Models done from time to time. The website aims to promote art by video game companies as well as helping independent artists to get more exposure. While there are many Communities supporting and showing fan art, there are strong guidelines and quality standards on Game Art HQ.\n",
" is a game in which players aim to complete a 3D animated picture of a Nintendo video game by gathering its pieces. If a player encountered on StreetPass possesses any pieces the player does not have, the player can choose one of their pieces to add to their own. The player may also use Play Coins to buy random pieces for their existing panels, although it won't always be a new piece. After the December 2011 update, new puzzles became available which included four or eight pink squares in the center. Pink pieces are distributed to players via SpotPass and can only be gathered via StreetPass; they cannot be bought using Play Coins. Some puzzles have more pieces than others, making them harder to complete.\n"
] |
What are the ergonomic effects of sleeping without a pillow?
|
I think this was linked before when this topic came up. _URL_0_
|
[
"Orthopaedic pillows are regarded as therapeutic pillows based on claims that they can help relieve various conditions including sleep apnoea, snoring, insomnia, breathing difficulty, blood circulation problems, acid reflux, gastroesophageal reflux disease, lower back pain, sciatica pain, neck pain, whiplash, rotator cuff injury, amongst others.\n",
"Pillow fights are known to occur during children's sleepovers. Since pillows are usually soft, injuries rarely occur. The heft of a pillow can still knock a young person off balance, especially on a soft surface such as a bed, which is a common venue. In earlier eras, pillows would often break, shedding feathers throughout a room. Modern pillows tend to be stronger and are often filled with a solid block of artificial filling, so breakage occurs far less frequently.\n",
"Many times pillow fights occur during children's sleepovers. Since pillows are usually soft, injuries rarely occur. The heft of a pillow can still knock a young person off balance, especially on a soft surface such as a bed, which is a common venue. In earlier eras, pillows would often break, shedding feathers throughout a room. Modern pillows tend to be stronger and are often filled with a solid block of artificial filling, so breakage occurs far less frequently.\n",
"Certain herbs used in these type sachet \"sleep pillows\", like hops, have a soporific and a slight narcotic effect. These herb filled sachets are even called \"dreamtime pillows\". There are formulas using rosemary seeds to fill sachets and these are to be hung in a bedroom to promote sleep. The traditional method to treat insomnia with herb filled sachets of hops or lavender is to place them in, under or near your sleeping pillow. The \"dream pillow\" or \"sleep pillow\" sachet concept has been used for decades to help overcome sleeplessness. These \"sleep pillows\" have a therapeutic effect and hops as an ingredient to this type of sachet are considered best at inducing sleep. One type of \"sleep pillow\" sachet recipe by herb and flower author Penny Black calls for violets, rose petals, rosemary, tonka bean, vanilla bean, and a drop of lemon oil.\n",
"A pillow is a support of the body at rest for comfort, therapy, or decoration. Pillows are used by many species, including humans. Some types of pillows include throw pillows and decorative pillows. Pillows that aid sleeping are a form of bedding that supports the head and neck. Other types of pillows are designed to support the body when lying down or sitting. There are also pillows that consider human body shape for increased comfort during sleep. Decorative pillows used on beds, couches or chairs are sometimes referred to as cushions.\n",
"In a study conducted with depressed and healthy adults and were able to show that in healthy subjects, dreaming was a way to positively influence mood and cope with stress at night. Dreams of depressed persons, however, might deteriorate their mood further. This study's interesting results are limited in generalizability due to the small sample and the lack of reported dreams by depressed patients.\n",
"The earliest recorded use of the modern human device dates back to the civilizations of Mesopotamia around 7,000 BC. During this time, only the wealthy used pillows. The number of pillows symbolized status so the more pillows one owned the more affluence they held. Pillows have long been produced around the world in order to help solve the reoccurring problem of neck, back, and shoulder pain while sleeping. Besides for comfort, the pillow was also used for keeping bugs and insects out of people's hair, mouth, nose, and ears while sleeping.\n"
] |
why can websites appear to be down for me but be online for everyone else?
|
Unless a website has different servers for different people (very unlikely if it's within the same region) this should not happen ever. If you experience a website that is down and others don't, the problem is on your end and could be your internet connection.
|
[
"Along with proximity and time, physical appearance is another factor about the internet that is of no importance. Like previously mentioned in the anonymity paragraph, people are unable to see the physical characteristics of the person or persons that they are interacting with on the internet. This allows people to talk to others that they would normally not talk to if they had actually seen the person face to face. As a result, people are able to connect on a more meaningful level and are able to create closer relationships that are not just about physical attraction. This is also considered to be a very positive aspect about the internet.\n",
"An online reputation is the perception that one generates on the Internet based on their digital footprint. Digital footprints accumulate through all of the content shared, feedback provided and information that created online. Due to the fact that if someone has a bad online reputation, he can easily change his pseudonym, new accounts on sites such as eBay or Amazon are usually distrusted. If an individual or company wants to manage their online reputation, they will face many more difficulties. This is why a merchant on the web having a brick and mortar shop is usually more trusted.\n",
"For example, suppose there is a dating website where members scan the profiles of other members to see if they look interesting. For privacy reasons, this site hides everybody's real name and email. These are kept secret on the server. The only time a member's real name and email are in the browser is when the member is signed in, and they can't see anyone else's.\n",
"An online reputation is the perception that one generates on the Internet based on their digital footprint. Digital footprints accumulate through all of the content shared, feedback provided and information that is created online. Due to the fact that if someone has a bad online reputation, he can easily change his pseudonym, new accounts on sites such as eBay or Amazon are usually distrusted. If an individual or company wants to manage their online reputation, they will face many more difficulties.\n",
"Anonymity is a major feature that internet communication can provide. Not only are you not able to see the person's face that you are emailing and or communicating with, but they are also not able to see your face. This can be a very positive feature for those that are socially anxious and or have a social anxiety disorder because it eliminates the idea of being publicly humiliated and or embarrassed, which is something that most people who are socially anxious are very worried about. As a result, people with social anxiety are more inclined to open up, which allows them to get closer and form more relationships with others.\n",
"Various websites on the internet contain material that some deem offensive, distasteful or explicit, which may often be not of the user's liking. Such websites may include internet, shock sites, hate speech or otherwise inflammatory content. Such content may manifest in many ways, such as pop-up ads and unsuspecting links.\n",
"Many websites are targeted at audience with different languages and localized for different countries. This can cause a lot of duplicate content or near duplicate content, as well as targeting issues with users from search engines.\n"
] |
why is it that if you drop something electrical into a pool it affects the whole pool, but if you drop something electrical into the ocean, it dosent electrocute the whole ocean
|
The pool is ≠ the ocean, in any way.
The electrical thing you throw in the pool doesn't affect the whole pool either. Electricity is very, very good at finding the path of least resistance and following that. It's almost never through a human or a fish. Those metal drains and grounded lights are just a better path.
|
[
"Besides boats and dockside power hookups, several other potential causes exist. Lightning strikes over or near water have caused electric shock drownings. Faulty hydroelectric generators or damaged underwater power lines can cause leakage currents, potentially creating a hazard. In general, anything electrically active that comes in contact with water has the potential to create leakage currents and contribute to this type of safety hazard.\n",
"There is no visible warning to electrified water. Swimmers will be able to feel the electricity if the current is substantial. If the swimmers notice any unusual tingling feeling or symptoms of electrical shock, it is highly likely that stray currents exist and everyone needs to get out. Swimmers should always swim away from the suspected current source. In most cases this means swimming away from docks and boats and toward another safer portion of the shoreline.\n",
"Potential differences between pool water and railings, or shower facilities and grounded drain pipes are not uncommon as a result of neutral to earth voltages (NEV), and can be a major nuisance, but are usually not life-threatening. However, contact voltage resulting from damaged insulation on a current carrying conductor can be very dangerous, and can lead to shock or electrocution. Such a condition can arise spontaneously from mechanical, thermal, or chemical stress on insulation materials, or from unintentional damage from digging activity, freeze-frost seizing, corrosion and collapse of conduit, or even workmanship issues.\n",
"Electric shock drownings are most commonly caused by improper electrical connections on boats and docks. By law, all connections near water are required to have working ground fault circuit interruption technology, GFCI. These devices break the electrical circuit if any stray current fails to return to the source connection. If GFCI devices are missing or faulty, it is possible for current to leak into the water. If a system is leaking current into the water, appliances will likely function as normal without any indication of a problem. Correctly functioning GFCI and ELCI devices will instantaneously detect the problem and disconnect the power source. \n",
"When transmitting electric signals in aquatic environment, the physical and chemical nature of the surroundings can make big differences to signal transmission. Environmental factors that might impose influences include solute concentration, temperature, and background electrical noise (lightning or artificial facilities), etc.\n",
"The discussion above is in terms of charged droplets falling. The inductive charging effects occur while the water stream is continuous. This is because the flow and separation of charge occurs already when the streams of water approach the rings, so that when the water passes through the rings there is already net charge on the water. When drops form, some net charge is trapped on each drop as gravity pulls it toward the like-charged container.\n",
"This effect operates similarly to the patterns made by sunlight on the bottom of a pool, the difference is that the light is bent at the contact point with the water while the shock wave is distorted by density variations (e.g. due to temperature variations) in the atmosphere. Variations of wind can cause a similar effect. This will disperse the shock wave at some places and focus it at others. For powerful shock waves this can cause damage farther than expected; the shock wave energy density will decrease beyond expected values based on uniform geometry falloff for weak shock or acoustic waves, as expected at large distances).\n"
] |
how does the current "competitive healthcare market" benefit the patient?
|
The idea is that the insurance companies will compete with each other and this will cause lower prices for the patient. Sort of like the cell phone companies (Sprint, Verizon, AT & T, etc...). Unfortunately, this hasn't really happened, and I'm unsure if it ever will.
|
[
"Improving access, coverage and quality of health services depends on the ways services are organized and managed, and on the incentives influencing providers and users. In market-based health care systems, for example such as that in the United States, such services are usually paid for by the patient or through the patient's health insurance company. Other mechanisms include government-financed systems (such as the National Health Service in the United Kingdom). In many poorer countries, development aid, as well as funding through charities or volunteers, help support the delivery and financing of health care services among large segments of the population.\n",
"Free-market advocates claim that the health care system is \"dysfunctional\" because the system of third-party payments from insurers removes the patient as a major participant in the financial and medical choices that affect costs. The Cato Institute claims that because government intervention has expanded insurance availability through programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, this has exacerbated the problem. According to a study paid for by America's Health Insurance Plans (a Washington lobbyist for the health insurance industry) and carried out by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, increased utilization is the primary driver of rising health care costs in the U.S. The study cites numerous causes of increased utilization, including rising consumer demand, new treatments, more intensive diagnostic testing, lifestyle factors, the movement to broader-access plans, and higher-priced technologies. The study also mentions cost-shifting from government programs to private payers. Low reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid have increased cost-shifting pressures on hospitals and doctors, who charge higher rates for the same services to private payers, which eventually affects health insurance rates.\n",
"Multiple factors are driving healthcare providers to dramatically improve business processes and operations as the United States healthcare industry embarks on the necessary migration from a largely fee-for service, volume-based system to a fee-for-performance, value-based system. Prescriptive analytics is playing a key role to help improve the performance in a number of areas involving various stakeholders: payers, providers and pharmaceutical companies.\n",
"Primary healthcare results in better health outcomes, reduced health disparities and lower spending, including on avoidable emergency department visits and hospital care. With that being said, primary care physicians are an important component in ensuring that the healthcare system as a whole is sustainable. However, despite their importance to the healthcare system, the primary care position has suffered in terms of its prestige in part due to the differences in salary when compared to doctors that decide to specialize. In a 2010 national study of physician wages conducted by the UC Davis Health System found that specialists are paid as much as 52 percent more than primary care physicians, even though primary care physicians see far more patients.\n",
"Healthcare markets are known for a lack of price transparency, which affects the health care prices in the United States. Consumers are unable to make health care decisions based on cost due to a lack of free market, a system in which price transparency is essential. CDHPs cannot effectively decrease health care costs without the ability for consumers to compare prices prior to use.\n",
"Enthoven has argued that integrated delivery systems — networks of health care organizations under a parent holding company that provide a continuum of health care services — align incentives and resources better than most healthcare delivery systems, leading to improved medical care quality while controlling costs. \n",
"An integrated healthcare delivery system will give individuals the ability to better manage their health and access high quality clinical care. It will provide cost-effective healthcare, excellence in service and support strong clinical research.\n"
] |
How can Burning wood (carbon) generate UV radiation?
|
Do you expect a lot of UV for some reason?
The thermal emission will contain tiny amounts of UV. In principle chemical reactions can directly lead to UV emissions as well but I'm not aware of specific reactions that would occur in a wood fire.
|
[
"For instance, upon harvesting, wood (as a carbon-rich material) can be immediately burned or otherwise serve as a fuel, returning its carbon to the atmosphere, \"or\" it can be incorporated into construction or a range of other durable products, thus sequestering its carbon over years or even centuries.\n",
"The environmental impact of using wood as a fuel depends on how it is burnt. Higher temperatures result in more complete combustion and less noxious gases as a result of pyrolysis. Some may regard the burning of wood from a sustainable source as carbon-neutral. A tree, over the course of its lifetime, absorbs as much carbon (or carbon dioxide) as it releases when burnt.\n",
"The Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR, sometimes also noted fAPAR or fPAR) is the fraction of the incoming solar radiation in the Photosynthetically Active Radiation spectral region that is absorbed by a photosynthetic organism, typically describing the light absorption across an integrated plant canopy. This biophysical variable is directly related to the primary productivity of photosynthesis and some models use it to estimate the assimilation of carbon dioxide in vegetation.\n",
"Black carbon particles (a component of soot) originating from combustion processes have been known for some time to absorb sunlight and warm the atmosphere, and pollution controls have been put into place to reduce their emissions and their effects.\n",
"Black carbon is primarily released by high-temperature combustion and brown carbon is emitted mainly by biomass combustion. These two are the two most important light absorbing substances in the atmosphere. The climate and radiative transfer are highly impacted by the absorptive properties of these substances.\n",
"As fossil fuels, burning wood causes greenhouse effect gases. However, wood is a renewable source of energy. A sustainable heat system would be to use solar heat in the summer, and the minimum of wood in the winter, thanks to maximum insulation.\n",
"The incomplete combustion of fossil fuels (such as diesel) and wood releases black carbon into the air. Though black carbon, most of which is soot, is an extremely small component of air pollution at land surface levels, the phenomenon has a significant heating effect on the atmosphere at altitudes above two kilometers (6,562 ft). Also, it dims the surface of the ocean by absorbing solar radiation.\n"
] |
james holmes killed 12 people and injured 70, but is charged with 24 counts of first degree murder and 140 counts of attempted first degree murder. why does he has 2 charges for every murder/attempted murder he did?
|
From a ways down that page:
> For each person killed in the shooting, Holmes was charged with one count of murder with deliberation and one count of murder with extreme indifference.
|
[
"On July 16, after jury deliberations, Holmes was found guilty of twenty-four counts of first-degree murder, 140 counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of possessing illegal explosives, and a sentence enhancement of a crime of violence. The two murder convictions for each death were first-degree murder or attempted murder after deliberation, and first-degree murder or attempted murder with extreme indifference.\n",
"Holmes confessed to the shooting but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Arapahoe County prosecutors sought the death penalty for Holmes. The trial began on April 27, 2015. On July 16, he was convicted of 24 counts of first-degree murder, 140 counts of attempted first-degree murder, and one count of possessing explosives. On August 7, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. On August 26, he was given twelve life sentences, one for every person he killed; he also received 3,318 years for the attempted murders of those he wounded and for rigging his apartment with explosives.\n",
"On July 16, after deliberating for over twelve hours, the jurors found Holmes guilty on all twenty-four counts of first-degree murder, 140 counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of possessing explosives, and a sentence enhancement of a crime of violence. They began deciding his sentence on July 22. The court expected the sentencing phase to last for one month. Holmes declined to make an allocution statement. On July 23, the jury ruled that Holmes acted in a cruel manner, was lying in wait, and ambushed his victims during the shooting, which constitute as aggravating factors. However, the jurors decided that Holmes did not intend to kill children when he opened fire.\n",
"Thomas Roundtree, Ernest Bell and William Duncan were all found not guilty for the Capital Murder of Victor Arbuckle, however 1 week later they were found guilty of armed offences carrying sentences ranging from 6 to 10 years.\n",
"Holmes was found guilty of four counts of murder in the first degree and six counts of attempted murder and executed in May 1896 at the age of 34. His total number of victims has been estimated at around 200. However Erik Larson, who wrote extensively about Holmes in \"The Devil in the White City\" (2003), thought this was a gross exaggeration. Holmes himself confessed to 27 murders, unquestionably he killed nine times. \n",
"Holmes was arrested shortly after the shooting and was jailed without bail while awaiting trial. Following this, he was hospitalized after attempting suicide several times while in jail. Holmes entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, which was accepted. His trial began on April 27, 2015, and on August 24 he was sentenced to 12 consecutive life sentences plus 3,318 years without parole.\n",
"The five men charged, who later all pleaded guilty or were convicted of the murder, had over fifty prior convictions for offences including armed robbery, assault, larceny, car theft, breaking and entering, drug use, escaping lawful custody, receiving stolen goods and rape.\n"
] |
What is the current state of knowledge on the long-term effects of caffeine on productivity/well-being?
|
What do you mean by long-term effects on productivity and well-being? There are tons of studies on the long-term biological effects of chronic caffeine consumption. Some of them say caffeine can be good, others say caffeine can be bad. It depends on the area/system of the body, and it depends on the methodology/outcome measures used. Caffeine also has a lot of metabolites, and numerous factors (tobacco use, alcohol use, liver health, etc) make a big difference in the biproducts produced during caffeine metabolism.
As for long-term effects on productivity and well-being? Those are really broad terms and the answer really depends on what exactly you're asking. There are a host of studies showing that caffeine improves performance on certain tasks requiring working memory, selective and sustained attention, memory encoding, and processing speed (mostly cognitive abilities in the immediate moment). There are many other studies suggesting that caffeine could disrupt more long term memory consolidation and retrieval, and could have a negative impact on some language functions (namely, word retrieval).
The thing to remember is that caffeine is a nonselective adenosine antagonist. While it's half life is typically between 4-6 hours in a healthy adult (LOTS of other factors play into speed of metabolism, and this number can be much higher in some people), there are some studies suggesting the actual effect on cognitive alertness and attention may be much shorter, on the order of 15 minutes or so. This is why drugs that mimic the adenosine antagonistic properties of caffeine haven't been used in treating ADHD.
Hope this helps somewhat. If you clarify your question, perhaps I can provide more information.
|
[
"The effects of caffeine on short-term memory (STM) are controversial. Findings are inconsistent, as many effects of caffeine sometimes impair short-term and working memory, whereas the other studies indicate enhancing effects. Increasing our capacities of STM and working memory only seem to have beneficial impacts upon our daily lives. Increasing our memory capacities would result in retaining more information for extended periods of time and encoding information from STM to long-term memory. However, the research consensus indicates an inhibitory effect, reducing the capacity of our short-term memory and working memory.\n",
"Positive effects of caffeine on long-term memory have been shown in a study analyzing habitual caffeine intake of coffee or tea in addition to consuming other substances. Their effect on cognitive processes was observed by performing numerous cognitive tasks. Words were presented and delayed recall was measured. Increased delayed recall was demonstrated by individuals with moderate to high habitual caffeine intake (mean 710 mg/week) as more words were successfully recalled compared to those with low habitual caffeine intake (mean 178 mg/week). Therefore, improved performance in long-term memory was shown with increased habitual caffeine intake due to better storage or retrieval. A similar study assessing effects of caffeine on cognition and mood resulted in improved delayed recall with caffeine intake. A dose-response relationship was seen as individuals were able to recall more words after a period of time with increased caffeine. Improvement of long-term memory with caffeine intake was also seen in a study using rats and a water maze. In this study, completion of training sessions prior to performing numerous trials in finding a platform in the water maze was observed. Caffeine was consumed by the rats before and after the training sessions. There was no effect of caffeine consumption before the training sessions; however, a greater effect was seen at a low dosage immediately afterward. In other words, the rats were able to find the platform faster when caffeine was consumed after the training sessions rather than before. This implies that memory acquisition was not affected, while increases in memory retention were.\n",
"Caffeine has been shown to have positive, negative, and no effects on long-term memory. When studying the effects of this and any drug, potential ethical restraints on human study procedures may lead researchers to conduct studies involving animal subjects in addition to human subjects.\n",
"As previously stated, the most pronounced effect of caffeine on memory appears to be on middle-aged subjects (26-64). None of the studies provide reasoning for why this group would be most affected, but one could hypothesize that because of cognitive decline due to age, caffeine has a powerful effect on brain chemistry (although this would suggest the older the person, the stronger the effect of caffeine). Furthermore, this age group is most likely to be the largest consumer of caffeine. The main studies reporting this finding show that at low, acute doses of caffeine consumption, working memory only slightly affects those in this age group, while no effect is observed for younger or older subjects. The authors conclude that larger doses may be needed to produce results that are supported by previous literature, and this is an avenue for further research. Furthermore, it is argued that consumption of caffeine generally aids cognitive performance for this age group, as long one does not exceed the recommended dose of 300 mg per day.\n",
"A 2011 review found that increased caffeine intake was associated with a variation in two genes that increase the rate of caffeine catabolism. Subjects who had this mutation on both chromosomes consumed 40 mg more caffeine per day than others. This is presumably due to the need for a higher intake to achieve a comparable desired effect, not that the gene led to a disposition for greater incentive of habituation.\n",
"When consumed in moderation, caffeine can have many beneficial effects. However, over the course of several years, chronic caffeine consumption can produce various long-term health deficits in individuals, \"including permanent changes in brain excitability\". As previously stated, long-term effects are most often seen in adolescents who regularly consume excess amounts of caffeine. This can affect their neuroendocrine functions and increase the risk of anxiety-disorder development.\n",
"The caffeine content in the daily recommended dose of Dexatrim products ranges from 50–400 mg per day. There are a number of studies showing that caffeine has a short-term stimulatory effect on basal metabolic rate. However, in 1992, in a double-blind placebo controlled study, caffeine (at a dose of 200 mg daily) was found to be no more effective in promoting weight loss as compared to a placebo. Potential side effects of caffeine may include insomnia, anxiety, gastrointestinal discomfort, diarrhea, headaches and abnormal heart beat.\n"
] |
Was there a particular flag that the Union used during the American Civil War other than the traditional 34-star flag?
|
I assume you're asking was there a flag that didn't have stars representing the Confederate States? In that case, no, not officially. Even when West Virginia broke away from Virginia, the official flag gained a [35th star](_URL_1_) (which still included Virginia and all the other rebelling states). In the view of the US, you can't actually secede from the Union (there was a [Supreme Court Case](_URL_0_) affirming this). They viewed the Confederacy as a group of rebelling states rather than an actual nation. Creating a flag without those states could be seen as official acknowledgment that they were in fact their own country, which as you said, would be a little counter-intuitive on their part.
|
[
"The first official flag of the Confederate States of America – called the \"Stars and Bars\" – originally had seven stars, representing the first seven states that initially formed the Confederacy. As more states joined, more stars were added, until the total was 13 (two stars were added for the divided states of Kentucky and Missouri). During the First Battle of Bull Run, (First Manassas) it sometimes proved difficult to distinguish the Stars and Bars from the Union flag. To rectify the situation, a separate \"Battle Flag\" was designed for use by troops in the field. Also known as the \"Southern Cross\", many variations sprang from the original square configuration. Although it was never officially adopted by the Confederate government, the popularity of the Southern Cross among both soldiers and the civilian population was a primary reason why it was made the main color feature when a new national flag was adopted in 1863. This new standard – known as the \"Stainless Banner\" – consisted of a lengthened white field area with a Battle Flag canton. This flag too had its problems when used in military operations as, on a windless day, it could easily be mistaken for a flag of truce or surrender. Thus, in 1865, a modified version of the Stainless Banner was adopted. This final national flag of the Confederacy kept the Battle Flag canton, but shortened the white field and added a vertical red bar to the fly end.\n",
"As the American Civil War was approaching, a flag was initially proposed for the state. It was modeled after the first flag of the Confederate States, albeit with the seal in the canton in lieu of stars representing the states.\n",
"Designed by William Porcher Miles, the chairman of the Flag and Seal Committee of the Confederate Provisional Congress, the flag now generally known as the \"Confederate flag\" was initially proposed, and rejected, as the national flag in 1861. The design was instead adopted as a battle flag by the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV) under General Robert E. Lee.\n",
"In 1863, the Confederate States of America adopted a new flag that played on the popularity of the Confederate Battle Flag, using a pure white field with the Battle Flag displayed in a canton in a position equivalent to the stars on the Flag of the United States. The design lasted until March 1865, when concerns about its being mistaken for a flag of truce when the flag was not completely flying necessitated the addition of a broad red band on the fly edge.\n",
"During the solicitation for a second Confederate national flag, many different types of designs were proposed, nearly all based on the battle flag, which by 1863 had become well-known and popular among those living in the Confederacy. The Confederate Congress specified that the new design be a white field \"...with the union (now used as the battle flag) to be a square of two-thirds the width of the flag, having the ground red; thereupon a broad saltire of blue, bordered with white, and emblazoned with mullets or five-pointed stars, corresponding in number to that of the Confederate States.\"\n",
"The 1879 flag was introduced by Georgia state senator Herman H. Perry and was adopted to memorialize Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War. Perry was a former colonel in the Confederate army during the war, and he presumably based the design on the First National Flag of the Confederacy, commonly known as the Stars and Bars. Over the years the flag was changed by adding and altering a charge on the vertical blue band at the hoist. The original 1879 design featured a solid blue band with no additional emblems.\n",
"The second national flag was later adapted as a naval ensign, using a shorter 2:3 ratio than the 1:2 ratio adopted by the Confederate Congress for the national flag. This particular battle ensign was the only example taken around the world, finally becoming the last Confederate flag lowered in the Civil War; this happened aboard CSS \"Shenandoah\" in Liverpool, England on November 7, 1865.\n"
] |
If you were on a spaceship in the absolute black void of space, how could you measure your speed without any points of reference?
|
You couldn't, using only local measurement. That is the whole point of relativity - there is no difference in local physics based on how fast you are moving (no preferred frame of reference).
You could measure the *difference* in your speed by keeping track of your instantaneous acceleration and integrating that.
For external references, you could use Doppler shift of spectral lines in the distant stars.
|
[
"There's no way you can visualize the speed. There's nothing you can see to see how fast you're going. You have no depth perception. If you're in a car driving down the road and you close your eyes, you have no idea what your speed is. It's the same thing if you're free falling from space. There are no signposts. You know you are going very fast, but you don't feel it. You don't have a 614-mph wind blowing on you. I could only hear myself breathing in the helmet.\n",
"If a spaceship travels to a planet one light-year (as measured in the Earth's rest frame) away from Earth at high speed, the time taken to reach that planet could be less than one year as measured by the traveller's clock (although it will always be more than one year as measured by a clock on Earth). The value obtained by dividing the distance traveled, as determined in the Earth's frame, by the time taken, measured by the traveller's clock, is known as a proper speed or a proper velocity. There is no limit on the value of a proper speed as a proper speed does not represent a speed measured in a single inertial frame. A light signal that left the Earth at the same time as the traveller would always get to the destination before the traveller.\n",
"In 2004, Espen Gaarder Haug published a theory he titled \"SpaceTime-Finance\" in \"Wilmott\" magazine to show how a series of finance calculations had to be adjusted to avoid arbitrage when hypothetically traveling at very high velocities relative to other observers (traders). He illustrated how such necessary adjustments already could be measurable at the speed of the space shuttle, but also that such calculations and adjustments were of little or no practical relevance today since we all are moving at the nearly same speed relative to the enormous speed of light.\n",
"In particular, the physical experience of an observer who whizzes by a gravitating object (such as a star or a black hole) at nearly the speed of light can be modelled by an \"impulsive\" pp-wave spacetime called the Aichelburg–Sexl ultraboost.\n",
"BULLET::::- At the test track, teams had to drive one lap around the track while obeying three different speed limits. If they went 3 km/h over or under the limit, they would have to start again. The twist was that only the team member \"not\" driving would be able to see the speedometer.\n",
"The rear of the device had a separate rotating calculator, where if the ship's speed was set against the 60-minute guide mark, then the distance travelled at any time 0–60 minutes could be read off against the logarithmic time scale.\n",
"BULLET::::- Imagine you are watching a rocket take off nearby and measuring the distance it has traveled once each second. In the first couple of seconds your measurements may be accurate to the nearest centimeter, say. However, 5 minutes later as the rocket recedes into space, the accuracy of your measurements may only be good to 100 m, because of the increased distance, atmospheric distortion and a variety of other factors. The data you collect would exhibit heteroscedasticity.\n"
] |
how do different antibiotics target different parts of the body?
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The thing about antibiotics is that they only effect bacteria, which are very different from your cells (if you’re 16:bacteria are prokaryotes and your cells are eukaryotes). So as previous reply said, the antibiotics disperse throughout your body and attack the bacteria... all of them. Including the good ones in your gut. That’s why a common side effect of antibiotics is the runs (the poops, the scoots, diarrhea, etc)
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[
"Antibiotics are commonly classified based on their mechanism of action, chemical structure, or spectrum of activity. Most target bacterial functions or growth processes. Those that target the bacterial cell wall (penicillins and cephalosporins) or the cell membrane (polymyxins), or interfere with essential bacterial enzymes (rifamycins, lipiarmycins, quinolones, and sulfonamides) have bactericidal activities. Protein synthesis inhibitors (macrolides, lincosamides, and tetracyclines) are usually bacteriostatic (with the exception of bactericidal aminoglycosides). Further categorization is based on their target specificity. \"Narrow-spectrum\" antibiotics target specific types of bacteria, such as gram-negative or gram-positive, whereas broad-spectrum antibiotics affect a wide range of bacteria. Following a 40-year break in discovering new classes of antibacterial compounds, four new classes of antibiotics have been brought into clinical use in the late 2000s and early 2010s: cyclic lipopeptides (such as daptomycin), glycylcyclines (such as tigecycline), oxazolidinones (such as linezolid), and lipiarmycins (such as fidaxomicin).\n",
"BULLET::::- Antibiotics are usually administered intravenously, but they may also be infused directly into the peritoneum. The empiric choice of broad-spectrum antibiotics often consist of multiple drugs, and should be targeted against the most likely agents, depending on the cause of peritonitis (see above); once one or more agents grow in cultures isolated, therapy will be target against them.\n",
"The following is a list of antibiotics. The highest division is between antibiotics is bactericidal and bacteriostatic. Bactericidals kill bacteria directly, whereas bacteriostatics prevent them from dividing. However, these classifications are based on laboratory behavior. In practice, both can effectively treat a bacterial infection.\n",
"There are many different routes of administration for antibiotic treatment. Antibiotics are usually taken by mouth. In more severe cases, particularly deep-seated systemic infections, antibiotics can be given intravenously or by injection. Where the site of infection is easily accessed, antibiotics may be given topically in the form of eye drops onto the conjunctiva for conjunctivitis or ear drops for ear infections and acute cases of swimmer's ear. Topical use is also one of the treatment options for some skin conditions including acne and cellulitis. Advantages of topical application include achieving high and sustained concentration of antibiotic at the site of infection; reducing the potential for systemic absorption and toxicity, and total volumes of antibiotic required are reduced, thereby also reducing the risk of antibiotic misuse. Topical antibiotics applied over certain types of surgical wounds have been reported to reduce the risk of surgical site infections. However, there are certain general causes for concern with topical administration of antibiotics. Some systemic absorption of the antibiotic may occur; the quantity of antibiotic applied is difficult to accurately dose, and there is also the possibility of local hypersensitivity reactions or contact dermatitis occurring.\n",
"Bacterial infections may be treated with antibiotics, which are classified as bacteriocidal if they kill bacteria, or bacteriostatic if they just prevent bacterial growth. There are many types of antibiotics and each class inhibits a process that is different in the pathogen from that found in the host. An example of how antibiotics produce selective toxicity are chloramphenicol and puromycin, which inhibit the bacterial ribosome, but not the structurally different eukaryotic ribosome. Antibiotics are used both in treating human disease and in intensive farming to promote animal growth, where they may be contributing to the rapid development of antibiotic resistance in bacterial populations. Infections can be prevented by antiseptic measures such as sterilising the skin prior to piercing it with the needle of a syringe, and by proper care of indwelling catheters. Surgical and dental instruments are also sterilised to prevent contamination by bacteria. Disinfectants such as bleach are used to kill bacteria or other pathogens on surfaces to prevent contamination and further reduce the risk of infection.\n",
"Antibiotics are often not needed. If used they should target enteric organisms (e.g. Enterobacteriaceae), such as \"E. coli\" and \"Bacteroides\". This may consist of a broad spectrum antibiotic; such as piperacillin-tazobactam, ampicillin-sulbactam, ticarcillin-clavulanate (Timentin), a third generation cephalosporin (e.g.ceftriaxone) or a quinolone antibiotic (such as ciprofloxacin) and anaerobic bacteria coverage, such as metronidazole. For penicillin allergic people, aztreonam or a quinolone with metronidazole may be used.\n",
"Bacterial infections may be treated with antibiotics, which are classified as bacteriocidal if they kill bacteria or bacteriostatic if they just prevent bacterial growth. There are many types of antibiotics and each class inhibits a process that is different in the pathogen from that found in the host. For example, the antibiotics chloramphenicol and tetracyclin inhibit the bacterial ribosome but not the structurally different eukaryotic ribosome, so they exhibit selective toxicity. Antibiotics are used both in treating human disease and in intensive farming to promote animal growth. Both uses may be contributing to the rapid development of antibiotic resistance in bacterial populations. Phage therapy can also be used to treat certain bacterial infections.\n"
] |
Does a positive correlation exist between the length of a gestational period and the intelligence of the birthed animal?
|
Your comparison of a fish to an elephant is a little broad. But generally I would say no, the gestational period does not translate to inherent intelligence. The length of 'childhood' or child rearing may be a better indicator of intelligence. Certain animals have a long gestational period and hit the ground running (literally). Certain creatures are helpless when they are born and can only persist when taught proper environmental and cultural skills and behaviors.
I promise you, that if you investigate, you will see that species that child rear display more complex or 'intelligent' behaviors than those that don't. You can also expect, as a general trend, the longer that child-rearing period, the more complex the behaviors will be. Remember though, time does not scale evenly for all species.
|
[
"The time at which insemination occurs during the oestrus cycle has been found to affect the sex ratio of the offspring of humans, cattle, hamsters, and other mammals. Hormonal and pH conditions within the female reproductive tract vary with time, and this affects the sex ratio of the sperm that reach the egg.\n",
"Various other factors can come into play in determining the duration of gestation. For humans, male fetuses normally gestate several days longer than females and multiple pregnancies gestate for a shorter period. Ethnicity in humans is also a factor that may lengthen or shorten gestation. In dogs there is a positive correlation between a longer gestation time and a small litter size.\n",
"As of 2006 results from studies in humans had found conflicting evidence regarding the effect of prenatal exposure to hormones and psychosexual outcomes; Gooren noted in 2006 that studies in subprimate mammals are invalid measures of human sexual differentiation, as sex hormones follow a more \"on-off\" role in sex-typed behavior than is found in primates.\n",
"Nearly all mammals display sex-dimorphic reproductive and sexual behavior (e.g., lordosis and mounting in rodents). Much research has made it clear that prenatal and early postnatal androgens play a role in the differentiation of most mammalian brains. Experimental manipulation of androgen levels in utero or shortly after birth can alter adult reproductive behavior.\n",
"However, differences between species' physiology and gestation times mean findings in animals may not apply to humans. Mice, rats, and rabbits have shorter gestational times, so experimenters must continue giving drugs after they are born to more closely model human gestation; however this introduces more differences. Animals and humans metabolize drugs at different rates, and drugs that are highly teratogenic in animals may not be in humans and vice versa. Animals cannot be used to measure differences in abilities such as reasoning that are only found in humans. \n",
"Precopulatory mechanisms determine who father an offspring prior to sex. Male-male competition is the biggest precopulatory mechanism in mammals. Sexual dimorphism is a result of male-male competition that is easily seen in species.\n",
"The relationship between fertility and intelligence has been investigated in many demographic studies; there is no conclusive evidence of a positive or negative correlation between human intelligence and fertility rate.\n"
] |
" A small splinter group of the Muslim army crossed the Pyrenees and was defeated by Charles Martel near Tours in 732, a minor incident in this whole story and, in no way, the turning point in European history as it has sometimes been portrayed"
|
I think it depends largely on what perspective you are viewing this from, and I would love to hear a comment from a European medievalist on how this was viewed at the time in France or Europe, but I think the line you quoted is broadly in line with the thinking of historians of the Arab conquests.
That's largely because the broad conclusion is that the Islamic empire was incapable of expanding very far beyond its borders in 732 and that had the Arabs won at Tours it would not actually have changed the situation very much.
That sounds like a counterfactual but it has some good supporting evidence, namely:
1. In 750 the Ummayad dynasty was replaced as rulers of the Arab/Islamic empire in the Abbasid revolution. The internal violence of this revolution, within a matter of decades, led to some significant fracturing of the empire, especially at the periphery in North Africa and in Islamic Spain. The survivors of the Ummayad dynasty escaped the slaughter of the Abbasid Caliph al-Saffah and established their rule in an independent Islamic Spain, which would have been the logical jumping off point for any renewed expansion into Europe. In fact they proved incapable of doing so and as a peripheral kingdom of Islamdom they could not muster the kind of forces that were available to the Abbasids. And if the Abbasids wanted to expand in that direction (which they did not) they could only have done so by going through the Ummayads, not to mention the other independent dynasties that would pop up in North Africa.
2. Contrast the loss at Tours in 732 to the *victory* at Talas in 751. Despite crushing the Chinese army of the Song dynasty, the result of the battle was not massive civilizational change or Islamicization of China, rather it was the consolidation of Arab/Islamic control over their central Asian territories.
3. Given the above, and the eventual reconquista of Spain, it strains credulity that an Islamic conquest of France, let alone all of Western Europe, was ever possible.
I think the conclusion is that that Tours was important as a high water mark, but a high water mark *that was going to turn back somewhere or other*. If the Arabs had won at Tours, it's difficult to imagine them continuing their victories for much longer, and nearly impossible to imagine that they would somehow have wiped out European civilization or something (not that the Europeans were very civilized at this point, but that's a separate issue!)
|
[
"BULLET::::- The Battle of Tours in 732. The Muslim Moors marched into France meeting no foes, until encountering the Christian Frankish forces led by Charles Martel at Tours. Despite the Moorish advantage over the Franks militarily, they were defeated decisively by the Franks.\n",
"In 732 AD, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi and a large army of Muslim horsemen from Al-Andalus advanced deep into France, and were stopped at Tours by Charles Martel and his infantry igniting the Battle of Tours. The outcome was defeat for the Muslims, preventing France from Islamic conquest.\n",
"BULLET::::- 732: Battle of Tours. Near Poitiers, France, leader of the Franks Charles Martel and his men defeat a large army of Moors under the governor of Cordoba, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, who is killed during the battle. The Battle of Tours halts the advance of Islam into Western Europe and establishes a balance of power between Western Europe, Islam and the Byzantine Empire.\n",
"In 711 D.D.the Moslems under Tariq entered Spain from Africa and within a few years completed the conjugation of the country. They even pushed farther than the Pyrenees towards France. In 732 A.D. the Franks led by Charles Martel, defeated them at Tours, thus preventing the further expansion of Islam in Southern Europe.\n",
"on the road south from Naval to El Grado. The battle was a minor engagement of the ongoing \"Reconquista\" of Aragon, the process by which the riverine valleys of the southern slopes of the Pyrenees were gradually conquered and returned, after centuries of Muslim rule, to the control of Christian princes. The ruler of Aragon, who personally led his men in battle at Piedra Pisada, Sancho Ramírez, also ruled Kingdom of Navarre and was a major figure in the contemporary \"Reconquista\".\n",
"However, while moving through the Pyrenees on 15 August 778, the rearguard of the Frankish army, led by Roland was attacked by the Basque tribes in a confrontation that came to be known as the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. Roland was killed and the rearguard scattered. As a response to the attempted Frankish seizure of Zaragoza, the Córdoba Emir retook the city of Pamplona and its surrounding lands. In 781 two local Basque lords, \"Ibn Balask\" (\"son of Velasco\"), and \"Mothmin al-Akra\" (\"Jimeno \"the Strong\"\") were defeated and forced to submit. The next mention of Pamplona is in 799, when Mutarrif ibn Musa, thought to have been a governor of the city and a member of the muwallad Banu Qasi family, was killed there by a pro-Frankish faction.\n",
"Al-Hurr also turned his attention to the Aquitanians (referred in most Arabic chronicles as \"Franks\") across the Pyrenees. Sources suggest he was enticed by the treasure hoarded in the convents and churches, or maybe chasing refugees, or taking advantage of the civil war going on between the chief officers of the Merovingian court with the involvement of Odo the Great, duke of Aquitaine. None of al-Hurr's predecessors had attempted to cross the Pyrenees, and in 717, he attempted to do just that. He led a small expedition across the range into still Gothic Septimania, the first of which was likely to just reconnoiter the region. Several attempted raids later, all of which proved unsuccessful, al-Hurr was deposed by the caliph, who appointed Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani in 718 as his replacement. Al-Samh continued expeditions into present-day France, reaching as far as the Rhône, but would be killed in the Battle of Toulouse in 721.\n"
] |
If I urinated on an electrified fence, would it shock me?
|
If you can get close enough to produce a steady stream then yes, you would get shocked by the fence, because urine is electrically conductive, but you have to avoid 'fragmentation' of your urine.
[Here's](_URL_1_) a vid of a guy doing it, and [here's](_URL_0_) a Mythbusters vid of the same effect but using the 3rd rail instead of a fence. I know it's not a scientific paper or anything, but I hope it sufficiently demonstrates what's happening.
|
[
"There is no visible warning to electrified water. Swimmers will be able to feel the electricity if the current is substantial. If the swimmers notice any unusual tingling feeling or symptoms of electrical shock, it is highly likely that stray currents exist and everyone needs to get out. Swimmers should always swim away from the suspected current source. In most cases this means swimming away from docks and boats and toward another safer portion of the shoreline.\n",
"An \"underground fence\" is an electronic system to prevent pets from leaving a yard. A buried wire around the area to be used is energized with coded signals. A shock collar on the pet receives these signals. When the pet approaches the buried fence line, the collar makes a warning sound and then gives the pet a harmless electric shock. One popular brand claims more than three million installations. \n",
"Its disadvantages include the potential for the entire fence to be disabled due to a break in the conducting wire, shorting out if the conducting wire contacts any non-electrified component that may make up the rest of the fence, power failure, or forced disconnection due to the risk of fires starting by dry vegetation touching an electrified wire. Other disadvantages can be lack of visibility and the potential to shock an unsuspecting human passer-by who might accidentally touch or brush the fence.\n",
"Most modern fences emit pulses of high voltage at a given interval of time, and don't take into account whether there is an animal or person touching the conductive wires, except for the voltage multiplier based electric fence charger that stores high voltage potential and dumps its charges as soon as a conductive load (grounded animal/person) touches the wires.\n",
"An electric fence is a barrier that uses electric shocks to deter animals and people from crossing a boundary. The voltage of the shock may have effects ranging from discomfort to death. Most electric fences are used today for agricultural fencing and other forms of animal control, although they are frequently used to enhance the security of sensitive areas, such as military installations, prisons, and other security sensitive places; places exist where lethal voltages are used.\n",
"Unauthorized persons climbing on power pylons or electrical apparatus are also frequently the victims of electrocution. At very high transmission voltages even a close approach can be hazardous, since the high voltage may arc across a significant air gap.\n",
"Electric fences are barriers that uses electric shocks to deter animals or people from crossing a boundary. The voltage of the shock may have effects ranging from uncomfortable, to painful or even lethal. Most electric fencing is used today for agricultural fencing and other forms of animal control purposes, though it is frequently used to enhance security of restricted areas, and there exist places where lethal voltages are used.\n"
] |
how do we make extremely, extremely high frame-per-second cameras?
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The sensors in most cameras are perfectly capable of capturing at a higher frame rate than what they are normally being used for, but the challenge is getting the data and putting it somewhere fast enough. If your storage subsystem is too slow, you won't be able to ingest the flood of incoming data fast enough. Some of the fastest high-speed cameras have ridiculous amounts of RAM to initially capture the video, and then they take a minute or two to dump that to a slower hard drive or SSD afterwards.
Another issue with super extreme high speed cameras is light sensitivity of the pixels, as well as cooling of the sensor. When you get into the *really* high speed territory, the individual pixels in the sensor have less time to gather light before the next frame, so you have to use extremely bright external lighting, or even sunlight to get a usable video. The sensors that are capable of such fast frame rates require additional cooling which makes the cameras bulky and loud.
|
[
"In 2010 researchers built a camera exposing each frame for two trillionths of a second (picoseconds), for an effective frame rate of half a trillion fps (femto-photography). Modern high-speed cameras operate by converting the incident light (photons) into a stream of electrons which are then deflected onto a photoanode, back into photons, which can then be recorded onto either film or CCD.\n",
"Digital cameras use a 1-dimensional array sensor to take 1-pixel-wide sequential images of the finish line. Since only a single line of the CCD is read out at a time, the frame rates can be very high (up to 10,000 frames per second). Unlike a film based photo finish, there is no delay from developing the film, and the photo finish is available immediately. They may be triggered by a laser or photovoltaic means.\n",
"BULLET::::- The world’s fastest receive-only 2-D camera has been demonstrated, capturing up to 100 billion frames per second. It is hoped this new system will improve the understanding of very fast biological interactions and chemical processes.\n",
"A high-speed camera equipment (capable of producing 1000 frames a second) was used to shoot possibly the first known instance (in feature films) of following a bullet's trajectory with high-speed cameras.\n",
"The rear-facing camera has an 8-megapixel back-illuminated sensor with a maximum aperture of f/2, autofocus, an LED flash dubbed HTC Smart Flash with three levels of brightness (determined by distance from the subject), and a dedicated imaging chip. With a startup time of 0.7 seconds and 0.2 seconds per shot, it beats even the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in camera speed. The camera can record 1080p video at 24 frames per second and 10 megabit/s in h.264 with the baseline profile. It can take four photos per second while recording video. It also has slow motion video capture and playback (768 × 432 pixels). Shooting modes include High Dynamic Range (HDR) and panorama. \n",
"Cameras capable of high continuous shooting rates are much desired when the subjects are in motion, as in sports photography, or where the opportunities are brief. Rather than anticipate the action precisely, photographers can simply start shooting from right before they believe the action will occur, giving a high chance of at least one frame being acceptable. Most modern digital SLR cameras have continuous shooting rates of between 3 and 8 frames per second, although very high end cameras such as the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II are capable of 14 frames per second with full autofocus, or 16 frames per second when in mirror lock-up mode. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 is capable of recording 40 still images per second in burst mode, at a slightly reduced resolution. In March 2014, Nikon claims its Nikon 1 V3 mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera has the world's fastest burst mode of 20fps Auto Focus tracking and 60fps at the first shot autofocus, both in 18.4MP full resolution. The claim is among digital cameras with interchangeable lenses (including (its) DSLR).\n",
"Most modern digital camera backs use CCD or CMOS matrix sensors. The matrix sensor captures the entire image frame at once, instead of incrementing scanning the frame area through the prolonged exposure. For example, Phase One produces a 39 million pixel digital camera back with a 49.1 x 36.8 mm CCD in 2008. This CCD array is a little smaller than a frame of 120 film and much larger than a 35 mm frame (36 x 24 mm). In comparison, consumer digital cameras use arrays ranging from 36 x 24 mm (full frame on high end consumer DSLRs) to 1.28 x 0.96 mm (on camera phones) CMOS sensor.\n"
] |
why are most (not all) military personnel right wing and anti-obama/universal anything if they are part of a government run, universal healthcare providing, free almost everything military?
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The majority of America's military volunteers come from regions in the US that are majority conservative. That gives way to a majority conservative military. That being said, I've met plenty of liberals who served in the military, who are pro-gun, pro-gay, and anti-war.
|
[
"The American system is a mix of public and private insurance. The government provides insurance coverage for approximately 53 million elderly via Medicare, 62 million lower-income persons via Medicaid, and 15 million military veterans via the Veteran's Administration. About 178 million employed by companies receive subsidized health insurance through their employer, while 52 million other persons directly purchase insurance either via the subsidized marketplace exchanges developed as part of the Affordable Care Act or directly from insurers. The private sector delivers healthcare services, with the exception of the Veteran's Administration, where doctors are employed by the government.\n",
"The American system is a mix of public and private insurance. The government provides insurance coverage for approximately 53 million elderly via Medicare, 62 million lower-income persons via Medicaid, and 15 million military veterans via the Veteran's Administration. About 178 million employed by companies receive subsidized health insurance through their employer, while 52 million other persons directly purchase insurance either via the subsidized marketplace exchanges developed as part of the Affordable Care Act or directly from insurers. The private sector delivers healthcare services, with the exception of the Veteran's Administration, where doctors are employed by the government.\n",
"Military commissaries serve to provide discounted groceries and household goods to many members within the Department of Defense regardless of which country they are located in. Eligible patrons include active-duty personnel in all services, retirees of all services, Guard and Reserve personnel, and immediate family members of service personnel. Beyond providing members with discounted pricing, commissaries also provide employment for many family members of service personnel. This is especially significant in overseas locations where acquiring a job could prove difficult for U.S. citizens. \n",
"In the US, direct government funding of health care is limited to Medicare, Medicaid, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which cover eligible senior citizens, the very poor, disabled persons, and children. The federal government also runs the Veterans Administration, which provides care directly to retired or disabled veterans, their families, and survivors through medical centers and clinics.\n",
"Public programs provide the primary source of coverage for most seniors and also low-income children and families who meet certain eligibility requirements. The primary public programs are Medicare, a federal social insurance program for seniors (generally persons aged 65 and over) and certain disabled individuals; Medicaid, funded jointly by the federal government and states but administered at the state level, which covers certain very low income children and their families; and CHIP, also a federal-state partnership that serves certain children and families who do not qualify for Medicaid but who cannot afford private coverage. Other public programs include military health benefits provided through TRICARE and the Veterans Health Administration and benefits provided through the Indian Health Service. Some states have additional programs for low-income individuals. In 2011, approximately 60 percent of stays were billed to Medicare and Medicaid—up from 52 percent in 1997.\n",
"In the United States, the chief public health officer is the Surgeon General of the United States and many states have their own state surgeons general. Moreover, three of the U.S. military services have their own surgeon general, namely the Surgeon General of the United States Army, Surgeon General of the United States Navy, and Surgeon General of the United States Air Force.\n",
"The United States has a two-tier health system, but most of the population cannot gain access to the public provision tiers. Healthcare provided directly by the government is limited to military and veteran families and to certain Native American tribes. Certain cities and towns also provide free care directly but only to those who cannot afford to pay. Medicare, Medicaid, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program pay for health care obtained at private facilities but only for the elderly, disabled, and children in poor families. Since enacting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010, Medicaid has been substantially expanded, and federal subsidies are available for low- to middle-income individuals and families to purchase private health insurance.\n"
] |
Is there archaeological support for the stereotype of Roman infanticide as sex selection?
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I can't speak for Roman society generally, but I am familiar with one specific case of sex-selective infanticide from Tel Ashkelon, Israel. We excavated a Roman/Byzantine bathhouse in Grid 38, (you can read the publication report for free at _URL_2_, just download the massive PDF of volume 1 and you can find some descriptions of the "baby drain" on page 295, and the publication of the DNA analysis on page 537), and found literally hundreds of infant skeletons in a drain underneath the bathhouse. Why were hundreds of dead babies thrown into the drain of a bathhouse? Why were they nearly all male? (Answer, it may have also been an illegal brothel). I have sat on this drain to do paperwork many times, and am excellent friend with the person who oversaw the excavation of the infant remains. Part of the drain is actually still there, it being made of Roman concrete and all. [This](_URL_1_) is a picture of the drain as it was excavated. [This](_URL_0_) is a picture of it basically as it is today, taken by one of my colleagues. The drain is the concrete thing that all the people are standing on, they are standing on the same thing the guy is standing on in the other picture.
|
[
"Sex selection may be one of the contributing factors of infanticide. In the absence of sex-selective abortion, sex-selective infanticide can be deduced from very skewed birth statistics. The biologically normal sex ratio for humans at birth is approximately 105 males per 100 females; normal ratios hardly ranging beyond 102–108. When a society has an infant male to female ratio which is significantly higher or lower than the biological norm, and biased data can be ruled out, sex selection can usually be inferred.\n",
"Maternal infanticide differs from other varieties of infanticide in that the resource competition and sexual selection hypotheses (see other sections) must be rejected. Resource competition and sexual selection are ruled out because it is the mother that is performing the infanticide, not another female.\n",
"Female infanticide is the deliberate killing of newborn female children. In countries with a history of female infanticide, the modern practice of sex-selective abortion is often discussed as a closely related issue. Female infanticide is a major cause of concern in several nations such as China, India and Pakistan. It has been argued that the low status in which women are viewed in patriarchal societies creates a bias against females.\n",
"This form of infanticide represents a struggle between the sexes, where one sex exploits the other, much to the latter's disadvantage. It is usually the male who benefits from this behavior, though in cases where males play similar roles to females in parental care the victim and perpetrator may be reversed (see Bateman's principle for discussion of this asymmetry).\n",
"This hypothesis suggests the adaptive advantage for women who had hidden estrus would be a reduction in the possibility of infanticide by men, as they would be unable to reliably identify, and kill, their rivals' offspring. This hypothesis is supported by recent studies of wild Hanuman langurs, documenting concealed ovulation, and frequent matings with males outside their fertile ovulatory period. Heistermann et al. hypothesize that concealed ovulation is used by women to confuse paternity and thus reduce infanticide in primates. He explains that as ovulation is always concealed in women, men can only determine paternity (and thus decide on whether to kill the woman's child) probabilistically, based on his previous mating frequency with her, and so he would be unable to escape the possibility that the child might be his own, even if he were aware of promiscuous matings on the woman's part.\n",
"Evolutionary psychology has proposed several theories for different forms of infanticide. Infanticide by stepfathers, as well as child abuse in general by stepfathers, has been explained by spending resources on not genetically related children reducing reproductive success (See the Cinderella effect and Infanticide (zoology)). Infanticide is one of the few forms of violence more often done by women than men. Cross-cultural research has found that this is more likely to occur when the child has deformities or illnesses as well as when there are lacking resources due to factors such as poverty, other children requiring resources, and no male support. Such a child may have a low chance of reproductive success in which case it would decrease the mother's inclusive fitness, in particular since women generally have a greater parental investment than men, to spend resources on the child.\n",
"The occurrence of infanticide seems to vary within rodent species between parents. For example, male meadow voles and house mice can be classed as either 'infanticidal' or 'non-infanticidal' depending on their history with other litters they have sired, although studies have shown that females do not discriminate between these classes when choosing a mate. Furthermore, recent studies in rodents have shown that infanticide is influenced by various hormones such as: prolactin, corticosterone, and progesterone.\n"
] |
how do courts decide who to send to white collar prison?
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There's a point system that takes into account a number of things (age, gender, crime committed, whether the person is an escape risk, and whether they have violent tendencies). The more points the convict gets, the higher level of prison security they get.
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[
"According to human rights groups, black jails are a growing industry. The system includes so-called \"interceptors\" (截访者, literally \"inquiry-stopper\"), or \"black guards\", often sent by local or regional authorities, who abduct petitioners and hold them against their will or bundle them onto a bus to send them back to where they came from. Non-government sources have estimated the number of black jails in operation to be between 7 and 50. The facilities may be located in state-owned hotels, hostels, hospitals, psychiatric facilities, residential buildings, or government ministry buildings, among others.\n",
"Allegedly, local officials, with the tolerance of public security authorities, establish the black jails as a way to ensure that complainants are detained, punished, and sent home so that these officials will not suffer demerits under rules that impose bureaucratic penalties when there is a large flow of petitioners from their areas. Black jails are used to protect government officials at the county, municipal, and provincial levels from financial and career advancement penalties. Unpublished local government documents describe penalties levied against local officials who fail to take decisive action when petitioners from their geographical area seek legal redress in provincial capitals and Beijing. The operators of black jails allegedly receive from those local-level governments daily cash payments of 150 yuan (US$22) to 200 yuan (US$29) per person.\n",
"The three prisoners are ordered to stand in a straight line facing the front, with A in front and C at the back. They are told that there will be two black hats and three white hats. One hat is then put on each prisoner's head; each prisoner can only see the hats of the people in front of him and not on his own. The first prisoner that is able to announce the color of his hat correctly will be released. No communication between the prisoners is allowed.\n",
"The jailer seats three of the men into a line. B faces the wall, C faces B, and D faces C and B. The fourth man, A, is put behind a screen (or in a separate room). The jailer gives all four men party hats. He explains that there are two black hats and two white hats, that each prisoner is wearing one of the hats, and that each of the prisoners see only the hats in front of him but neither on himself nor behind him. The fourth man behind the screen can't see or be seen by any other prisoner. No communication among the prisoners is allowed.\n",
"The black jail is a U.S. military detention camp established in 2002 inside Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. Distinct from the main prison of the Bagram Internment Facility, the \"Black Jail\" is run by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and U.S. Special Operations Forces. There are numerous allegations of abuse associated with the prison, including beatings, sleep deprivation and forcing inmates into stress positions. U.S. authorities refuse to acknowledge the prison's existence. The facility consists of individual windowless concrete cells, each illuminated by a single light bulb glowing 24 hours a day. Its existence was first reported by journalist Anand Gopal and confirmed by many subsequent investigations.\n",
"Black jails have no official or legal status, differentiating them from detention centers, the criminal arrest process, or formal sentencing to jail or prison. They are in wide use in Beijing, in particular, and serve as holding locations for the many petitioners who travel to the central Office of Letters and Calls to petition.\n",
"In May 2010, the PRC authorities officially passed new regulations in an attempt to nullify evidence gathered through violence or intimidation in their official judicial procedures, and to reduce the level of torture administered to prisoners already in jails. Little is known, however, about whether or how procedures were modified in black jails, which are not officially part of the judicial system. The move came after a public outcry following the revelation that a farmer, convicted for murder based on his confession under torture, was in fact innocent. The case came to light only when his alleged victim was found alive, after the defendant had spent ten years in prison. International human rights groups gave the change a cautious welcome.\n"
] |
How have small speakers (cellphones, beats pill) improved in quality so much recently?
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Hoffman's iron law of speaker design/performance dictates that you can only pick 2 out of the following three things:
Small enclosure size, High efficiency, deep bass.
That means that in order to chase deep bass in a tiny enclosure, phone and mobile speaker makers have most likely sacrificed speaker electrical efficiency. Given the impressive gains in class D amplification efficiency and technology (which would offset the reduction of speaker/driver efficiency) over the last decade or so, this doesn't seem that implausible. The other side of the equation is that power handling and excursion of a small speaker must also improve, which can be overcome with good driver design, smart equalization, and materials science.
Now Hoffman's Iron Law is not hard cast - it's slightly malleable/ductile and can be stretched using several shortcuts such as passive radiators (which are functionally the same as vents/reflex, but have much smaller volume requirements), BMR and other high tech drivers, virtual bass and other DSP algorithms.
I would say that the biggest driver of everything going on here is simply consumer dollars - people want better sound from their mobile devices, and large manufacturers are now willing to spend good money in R & D and engineering talent trying to achieve differentiation (as opposed to side projects by independent speaker builders with limited resources).
Whatever the driver is, consumers are the beneficiary. I personally recommend the UE mini boom and the UE Boombox as my goto mobile bluetooth speakers - they have the hardest hitting bass in their respective classes.
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[
"Business magazine \"Bloomberg Businessweek\" suggests that caution is in order with regard to high-resolution audio: \"There is reason to be wary, given consumer electronics companies’ history of pushing advancements whose main virtue is to require everyone to buy new gadgets.\"\n",
"Most designs produce high quality sound, even though some audiophiles consider chip-based amplifiers to be inferior to their discrete counterparts. The chips have been designed to incorporate a number of desirable features, including excellent power supply rejection ratio, fast response, accurate bias current, over-temperature protection and short circuit protection.\n",
"Hirsch helped draft the Institute of High Fidelity standards that made it easier for consumers to compare audio equipment. Bob Ankosko, an editor-in-chief at \"Sound & Vision\", said \"Julian Hirsch was one of the most influential writers ever in consumer electronics.\"\n",
"With the new Pill+ however, reviewers show better favor to the sound quality of the speaker. The Verge has called it a \"refinement on the recognizable Beats Pill look\" instead of a \"radical redesign\". It also says that the new Pill+ is the best sounding speaker from the Pill lineup. Similarly, \"Wired\" magazine points out that the sound of the new speaker is \"much, much improved.\n",
"Vince valued excellence in products and found those that lasted functionally beyond its supposed designated lifespan, and continued to excel, were particularly endearing. And while he vowed that he would only develop superior, premium speakers, he adamantly wanted to provide this quality at affordable prices.\n",
"Their claimed unique sales proposition is that they augment the volume, or hearability, of a speaker or musician, but not the quality of the sound. They supposedly achieve this flat response through digital signal processing (DSP) so that profile changes introduced by loud speakers and other audio components are compensated for and thus eliminated.\n",
"Some audio quality enhancing features, such as Voice over LTE and HD Voice have appeared and are often available on newer smartphones. Sound quality can remain a problem due to the design of the phone, the quality of the cellular network and compression algorithms used in long distance calls. Audio quality can be improved using a VoIP application over WiFi. Cellphones have small speakers so that the user can use a speakerphone feature and talk to a person on the phone without holding it to their ear. The small speakers can also be used to listen to digital audio files of music or speech or watch videos with an audio component, without holding the phone close to the ear.\n"
] |
At what point and location did the English language split among the use of the article "the" before "hospital"?
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This is not a historical development, as such. Though nor is it usage which may be explained with a hard and fast rule, as there is some dialectal variation with respect to it.
What we are observing, essentially, is that English nouns require an article where they are countable, singular and concrete (“I found *a* quarter”, but not “I found quarter”) and do *not* require an article where they are abstract and uncountable (“the boy has spirit” is acceptable), or countable and plural (“the boy has legs” is acceptable).
But the prior category can give way to the latter in particular in cases where what is otherwise or previously a count noun is treated in an abstract fashion which construes it as uncountable. The extreme case of this is word such as “heaven” or “hell” which for conceptual reasons, cannot be enumerated in a given cultural context. One goes “to heaven” rather than “to the heaven”, as to qualify *which* heaven one is referring to, or how many, would be nonsensical (in a majority of English Christian contexts), making a countable use of the word impossible, and the interpretation of the word as uncountable the natural development. And indeed, in a less extreme case, when we say we go “to church”, we are implying our attending the uncountable abstraction of the church concept, rather than a specific edifice which is therefore countable. Though in this case, both approaches coexist, as they often do. Which nouns conventionally see this usage or these changes in countability is, however, as I say, subject to dialectal variation.
|
[
"The grammar of the word differs slightly depending on the dialect. In the United States, \"hospital\" usually requires an article; in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, the word normally is used without an article when it is the object of a preposition and when referring to a patient (\"in/to the hospital\" vs. \"in/to hospital\"); in Canada, both uses are found.\n",
"The trend toward using vernacular languages for medical writing began in the 12th century, and grew increasingly in the later Middle Ages. The many vernacular translations of the \"Trotula\" were therefore part of a general trend. The first known translation was into Hebrew, made somewhere in southern France in the late 12th century. The next translations, in the 13th century, were into Anglo-Norman and Old French. And in the 14th and 15th centuries, there are translations in Dutch, Middle English, French (again), German, Irish, and Italian. Most recently, a Catalan translation of one of the \"Trotula\" texts has been discovered in a 15th-century medical miscellany, held by the Biblioteca Riccardiana in Florence. This fragmentary translation of the \"De curis mulierum\" is here collated by the copyist (probably a surgeon making a copy for his own use) with a Latin version of the text, highlighting the differences.\n",
"of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Henry wrote in 1905 that \"It is the first edition of the first medical dictionary.\" By the time of Antonio Guaineri and Savonarola, this work was used alongside others by Oribasius, Isidore of Seville, Mondino dei Liuzzi, Serapion, and Pietro d'Abano. Then, as now, writers struggled with the terminology used in various translations from earlier Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic works. Later works by Jacques Desparts and Jacopo Berengario da Carpi continued building on the \"Synonyma\".\n",
"The first authoritative and full-featured English dictionary, the \"Dictionary of the English Language\", was published by Samuel Johnson in 1755. To a high degree, the dictionary standardized both English spelling and word usage. Meanwhile, grammar texts by Lowth, Murray, Priestly, and others attempted to prescribe standard usage even further.\n",
"Hospitals in medieval Scotland can be dated back to the 12th century. From c. 1144 to about 1650 many hospitals, bedehouses and \"Maisons Dieu\" were built in Scotland. There are many terms that apply to, or describe a \"Hospital\". The origin of the English term, \"Hospital\", is probably from the French or Latin. English and European terms for Hospital appear to have a common root. \"Hospital\" - from the Latin – \"a place of rest for guests\". Other terms are recognized. Almshouse; Bede House; Chantry ; God's House ; Infirmary ; Spital ; Domus hopitalis Sancti Spiritus (Lat) ; Gasthuis (Ger) ; Godshuis (Dut) ; Hôpital (Fr) ; Hôtel-Dieu (Fr) ; Krankenhaus(Ger) ; Maison Dieu (Fr) ; Ospedale (It) ; Sjukhus(Swe) ; Xenodochium(Gk). Records provide evidence of more than 180 Hospitals in Scotland. The term \"spit(t)al\" or \"temple/ templar\" may also indicate land endowed by churches or monasteries as well as sites associated with the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitallers. Many hospitals were in the north east of Scotland in the cities of Dundee, Old Aberdeen and Aberdeen and across Aberdeenshire.\n",
"Doctor is an academic title that originates from the Latin word of the same spelling and meaning. The word is originally an agentive noun of the Latin verb \"\" 'to teach'. It has been used as an academic title in Europe since the 13th century, when the first Doctorates were awarded at the University of Bologna and the University of Paris. Having become established in European universities, this usage spread around the world. Contracted \"Dr\" or \"Dr.\", it is used as a designation for a person who has obtained a Doctorate (e.g. PhD). In many parts of the world it is also used by medical practitioners, regardless of whether or not they hold a doctoral-level degree.\n",
"In 1598 an Italian–English dictionary by John Florio was published. It was the first English dictionary to use quotations (\"illustrations\") to give meaning to the word; in none of these dictionaries so far were there any actual definitions of words. This was to change, to a small extent, in schoolmaster Robert Cawdrey's \"Table Alphabeticall\", published in 1604. Though it contained only 2,449 words, and no word beginning with the letters \"W\", \"X\", or \"Y\", this was the first monolingual English dictionary.\n"
] |
Did the reforms of the Gracchi Brothers actually influence Rome?
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TL:DR Yes, absolutely. At least in aristocratic memory.
Who is Jeremy Corbin?
First of all, the Gracchi were one step in a line of "trouble-making" tribunes. Lily Ross-Taylor wrote an important article "The Forerunners of the Gracchi," in *JRS* 52 (1962) if you can get it. She challenged the traditional narrative that the Tribunes had been subverted by the Senate and shows there were basically always Tribunes who used the powers of the Tribune to subvert Senatorial control. So they weren't all that strange; and about a generation later you get M. Livius Drusus, who was REALLY radical (and perhaps a direct consequence of the Gracchi's activities, but more on that later).
All the sources report that Tiberius was concerned about the gr owing urban poor and the collection of land among a few very wealthy land holders. Rosenstein at OSU (*Rome at War* I think is the title of the book) has fairly recently (10 years ago?) challenged this narrative - his argument is that there was no dearth of small farmers; they just didn't want to enlist in the army anymore, but since the question is about the Gracchi's influence, let's stick to the narrative the Romans told themselves. The aristocrats were gathering up huge tracks of land owned by the state meant to be rented in amounts no larger than 500 jugera/citizen (don't ask me to translate that into acres- I am not up to math at the moment and I have no idea anyway). According to Plutarch, Ti.'s plan was to seize public land illegally held and redistribute that land to the urban poor. The poor would have land, the state would have soldiers, and everything would be great.
This required a survey though, to find out who held too much land and to redistribute it in the appropriate amounts to the right people. To this end Ti. passed a law to form a commission of three to conduct the survey etc. after some politicking, but the Senate refused to fund the commission. At this point Attalus, king of Pergamon, died and willed his state and fortune to Rome. Ti. proposed a law to use this money to fund the commission, and after more politicking, got himself lynched by a mob of angry senators. However, the land commission went ahead with a new commissioner.
Gaius, Ti.'s little brother, was a member of the land comcimission, and in adjudicating the redistribution of land managed accidentally to redistribute land that was not Roman public land, but both properly held private land and land belonging to the Allies (this is from Appian, *BC* 1). The Allies, not being Roman citizens, could not represent themselves in court, and got Scipio Aemilianus to represent them, But he died under mysterious circumstances in 129 BCE. Gaius also ended up getting himself assassinated for politicking shenanigans.
The land problem was left open for about 30 years after C.'s death. Rome's relationship with the Allies turned increasingly sour. in 91 the Tribune M. Livius Drusus tried to pass a law granting the Allies citizenship, and ended up stabbed to death on his front porch. The Allies snapped and fought a very nasty war against Rome which Rome very nearly lost, and only ended when Rome extended (or imposed - the question is still up for debate) the citizenship to (or on) the Allies. That war left Sulla in command of an army, as Consul elect, and directly set up his conflict with Marius for the Pontus command, which in turn led to Sulla's dictatorship and set the pattern for Roman politics until Augustus.
So, yeah, the Gracchi influenced Roman politics. They were not original in using their position to mess with the Senate, but they took it further and forced the Senate further than anyone else, and demonstrated the power the people had to oppose the Senate when organized properly. This proto-communist stuff I'm not so sure about; they didn't seem, to my eyes at least, to have an ideological commitment to social equality, but instead sought to address specific problems (lack of solders, urban poor) and, according to their enemies, use those that benefited from these reforms to further their own careers.
This is the story that all the surviving sources give us, from Cicero to Cassius Dio. Much of this has or is being questioned by modern scholars. [EDIT: a sentence dropped out before my coffee this morning: You don't have to believe the revisionists.] Not everyone believes Rosenstein, for instance. But as far as what Romans themselves thought, yes, the Gracchi did have significant influence on the course of Roman history.
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[
"The emergence of new forces of urban factions, rural voters, and others, engaging in continued conflict with each other for their own interests, meant that the problem of effective governance awaited resolution. The reforms of the Gracchi had come to an end by violence; and this provided a brutal precedent that would be followed by many future rulers of Rome.\n",
"Henri Pirenne continued this idea with the \"Pirenne Thesis\", published in the 1920s, which remains influential to this day. It holds that even after the barbarian invasions, the Roman way of doing things did not immediately change; barbarians came to Rome not to destroy it, but to take part in its benefits, and thus they tried to preserve the Roman way of life. The Pirenne Thesis regards the rise of the Frankish realm in Europe as a continuation of the Roman Empire, and thus validates the crowning of Charlemagne as the first Holy Roman Emperor as a successor of the Roman Emperors. According to Pirenne, the real break in Roman history occurred in the 7th and 8th centuries as a result of Arab expansion. Islamic conquest of the area of today's south-eastern Turkey, Syria, Palestine, North Africa, Spain and Portugal ruptured economic ties to western Europe, cutting the region off from trade and turning it into a stagnant backwater, with wealth flowing out in the form of raw resources and nothing coming back. This began a steady decline and impoverishment so that by the time of Charlemagne western Europe had become almost entirely agrarian at a subsistence level, with no long-distance trade. Pirenne's view on the continuity of the Roman Empire before and after the Germanic invasion has been supported by recent historians such as François Masai, Karl Ferdinand Werner, and Peter Brown.\n",
"Italians who were interested in theology gravitated towards Paris. Those who remained were typically attracted by the study of Roman law. This furthered the later establishment of the medieval universities of Bologna, Padua, Vicenza, Naples, Salerno, Modena and Parma. These helped to spread culture, and prepared the ground in which the new vernacular literature developed. Classical traditions did not disappear, and affection for the memory of Rome, a preoccupation with politics, and a preference for practice over theory combined to influence the development of Italian literature.\n",
"After the final collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and ascension of the various Barbarian kingdoms, the old Roman mores were then either superseded by or synthesized with the traditions of the Germanic elite and subsequent feudal values.\n",
"The Renaissance idea that the classical Roman virtues had been lost under medievalism was especially powerful in European politics of the 18th and 19th centuries. Reverence for Roman republicanism was strong among the Founding Fathers of the United States and the Latin American revolutionaries; the Americans described their new government as a \"republic\" (from \"res publica\") and gave it a \"Senate\" and a \"President\" (another Latin term), rather than make use of available English terms like \"commonwealth\" or \"parliament\".\n",
"The Bevilacqua dynasty governed parts of northern Italy between the 10th and 12th centuries. Their rise to prominence began in 962 when Otto I the Great, the first Holy Roman Emperor, appointed Antonio Bevilacqua as Governor of Lazise. The family remained loyal to the Emperors until they later allied themselves with Matilda of Tuscany; they were granted a Principality at Bevilacqua in 1059, and acquired other territories in the areas of Verona and Ferrara. During the 12th-century conflicts between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, the Bevilacqua led the victorious Ghibellines of Verona. They later supported the Canossa family of the Lombard League against Frederick Barbarossa, and in recognition received the church of San Salvaro in Verona.\n",
"The election of Marcian in 450 resulted in large changes to eastern imperial policy: The eunuch and \"spatharios\" (guard of the imperial chambers) Chrysaphius, who had exercised much influence over the young Theodosius, was killed by either murder or execution; and Marcian took a much tougher stance against the Huns and a more direct role in ecclesiastical affairs. For these reasons, some historians consider him the strongest, or at least most independent, Eastern Roman emperor, although the fact that both Pulcheria and Flavius Zeno were opposed to Chrysaphius' influence, may have influenced Marcian's actions.\n"
] |
How was the iconography of the Confederacy reframed into something that's treated as honorable/worthy of obsession?
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Civil War memory is something I write a lot about, so I'd point you to [this older answer of mine](_URL_0_) which focuses more on the evolution of Confederate statuary than the Lost Cause itself, but I think does speak well to your question, although I'm of course happy to do my best with any follow-ups you may have.
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[
"Beginning in 2015 and accelerating in 2017, a national controversy grew over the prominent positions of monuments and memorials to the Confederacy in many public spaces across the United States, and particularly in the American South. In this context, the statues of Confederate notables along the university's South Mall that Coppini had designed for the Littlefield Fountain attracted increased public criticism.\n",
"Beginning in 2015 and accelerating in 2017, a national controversy grew over the prominent positions of monuments and memorials to the Confederacy in many public spaces across the United States, and particularly in the American South. In this context, the statues of Confederate notables along the university's South Mall that Coppini had designed for the Littlefield Fountain attracted increased public criticism.\n",
"Beginning in 2015 and accelerating in 2017, a national controversy grew over the prominent positions of monuments and memorials to the Confederacy in many public spaces across the United States, and particularly in the American South. In this context, the statues of Confederate notables along the university's South Mall that Coppini had designed for the Littlefield Fountain attracted increased public criticism.\n",
"Beginning in 2015 and accelerating in 2017, a national controversy grew over the prominent positions of monuments and memorials to the Confederacy in many public spaces across the United States, and particularly in the American South. In this context, the statues of Confederate notables along the university's South Mall that Coppini had designed for the Littlefield Fountain attracted increased public criticism.\n",
"Beginning in 2015 and accelerating in 2017, a national controversy grew over the prominent positions of monuments and memorials to the Confederacy in many public spaces across the United States, and particularly in the American South. In this context, the statues of Confederate notables along the university's South Mall that Coppini had designed for the Littlefield Fountain attracted increased public criticism.\n",
"Beginning in 2015 and accelerating in 2017, a national controversy grew over the prominent positions of monuments and memorials to the Confederacy in many public spaces across the United States, and particularly in the American South. In this context, the statues of Confederate notables along the university's South Mall that Coppini had designed for the Littlefield Fountain attracted increased public criticism.\n",
"Beginning in 2015 and accelerating in 2017, a national controversy grew over the prominent positions of monuments and memorials to the Confederacy in many public spaces across the United States, and particularly in the American South. In this context, the statues of Confederate notables along the university's South Mall that Coppini had designed for the Littlefield Fountain attracted increased public criticism, as did a dedication inscribed on a wall along the west edge of the fountain complex, which honored the Confederate cause along with American participation in World War I.\n"
] |
What happens to the body when your cortisol levels are constantly too high?
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This is a really broad question, since excessive cortisol in the human body can have a lot of implications. I'll just talk about one of them.
One area of your brain that has a lot of cortisol receptors is the hippocampus. There is some evidence that excess cortisol can cause the hippocampus to be damaged in various ways. Individuals with excess cortisol have been show to have smaller hippocampi, suggesting that certain cells called pyramidal cells in the hippocampus likely atrophy due to cortisol activity. Another idea is that cortisol in the hippocampus suppresses neurogenesis, or the formation of new neurons. Both of these are likely causes of depression, and SSRIs both work to reverse these effects of excess cortisol in the hippocampus.
Extremely high cortisol in a short time can also impair memory. This is why individuals often can't remember times where they're extremely emotional.
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[
"Elevated levels of total cortisol can also be due to estrogen found in oral contraceptive pills that contain a mixture of estrogen and progesterone, leading to Pseudo-Cushing's syndrome. Estrogen can cause an increase of cortisol-binding globulin and thereby cause the total cortisol level to be elevated. However, the total free cortisol, which is the active hormone in the body, as measured by a 24-hour urine collection for urinary free cortisol, is normal.\n",
"Increased levels of catecholamines and cortisol can cause a hypermetabolic state that can last for years. This is associated with increased cardiac output, metabolism, a fast heart rate, and poor immune function.\n",
"Another study found that physical stress caused increased cortisol:DHEAS (dehydroepianodrosterone sulphate) molar ratios which may contribute to reduced immunity, especially in the elderly for whom cortisol:DHEAS ratios are already increased. This is because DHEAS levels decrease with age while cortisol levels do not. This high ratio was found to suppress the activity of neutrophils and raise susceptibility for infection.\n",
"In more specific studies looking at the link between cortisol levels and psychological phenomena, it has been found that chronic stressors such as life-threatening situations (example: diseases), depression, and social or economic hardship correlate with significantly higher cortisol levels. In situations where a subject undergoes induced anxiety, high cortisol levels correspond with experiencing more physiological symptoms of nervousness, such as increased heart rate, sweating, and skin conductance. Additionally, a negative correlation was discovered between baseline levels of cortisol and aggression. Salivary cortisol levels can thus provide insight into a number of other psychological processes.\n",
"Stress can cause high levels of the following hormones: norepinephrine, leptin, NPY, nitrite, ACTH and adrenomedullin. Elevated levels of adenosine, adrenaline, cortisol and dopamine in the blood can produce fatigue, depression, behavior changes, heart disease, weight problems, diabetes, and skin diseases. It also decreases the immune response, which can lead to heartburn and stomach ulcers.\n",
"Normal cortisol level can be explained by the strong negative feedback mechanism of cortisol on hypothalamus-pituitary axis system. That is, in the beginning, 17,20-lyase deficiency will block synthesis of sex steroid hormones, forcing the pathways to produce more cortisol. However, the initial excess of cortisol is rapidly corrected by negative feedback mechanism—high cortisol decreases secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) from zona fasciculata of adrenal gland. Thus, there is no mineralocorticoid overproduction. Also, there is no adrenal hyperplasia.\n",
"Cortisol is a stress hormone secreted by the adrenal gland, which makes up part of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. It is typically released at periods of high stress designed to help the individual cope with stressful situations. Cortisol secretion results in increased heart rate and blood pressure and the temporary shut down of metabolic processes such as digestion, reproduction, growth, and immunity as a means of conserving energy for the stress response. Chronic release of cortisol over extended periods of time caused by long-term high stress can result in: \n"
] |
how do electromagnetic pulses (emp) destroy electronics and is it possible to deploy it in bombs for warfare?
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it is basically a very strong signal that is capable of frying weaker systems. It can be used for warfare, but its use is some what limited by the fact that military hardware is tough and most known systems are not big enough or thorough enough to take down civilians areas with any effectiveness. Either would take a nuclear sized blast to get anywhere, and by that point your already nuking them.
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[
"An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a burst of electromagnetic radiation. Nuclear explosions create a pulse of electromagnetic radiation called a nuclear EMP or NEMP. Such EMP interference is known to be generally disruptive or damaging to electronic equipment. If a single nuclear weapon \"designed to emit EMP were detonated 250 to 300 miles up over the middle of the country it would disable the electronics in the entire United States.\"\n",
"The pulse is powerful enough to cause moderately long metal objects (such as cables) to act as antennas and generate high voltages due to interactions with the electromagnetic pulse. These voltages can destroy unshielded electronics. There are no known biological effects of EMP. The ionized air also disrupts radio traffic that would normally bounce off the ionosphere.\n",
"Nuclear and large conventional explosions produce radio frequency energy. The characteristics of the EMP will vary with altitude and burst size. EMP-like effects are not always from open-air or space explosions; there has been work with controlled explosions for generating electrical pulse to drive lasers and railguns.\n",
"During the Iraq War, electromagnetic weapons, including high power microwaves, were used by the U.S. military to disrupt and destroy Iraqi electronic systems and may have been used for crowd control. Types and magnitudes of exposure to electromagnetic fields are unknown.\n",
"In the case of electromagnetic side-channel attacks, attackers are often looking at electromagnetic radiation emitted by computing devices, which are made up of circuits. Electronic circuits consist of semiconducting materials upon which billions of transistors are placed. When a computer performs computations, such as encryption, electricity running through the transistors create a magnetic field and electromagnetic waves are emitted.\n",
"During the Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test in 1962, an unexpected effect was produced which is called a nuclear electromagnetic pulse. This is an intense flash of electromagnetic energy produced by a rain of high energy electrons which in turn are produced by a nuclear bomb's gamma rays. This flash of energy can permanently destroy or disrupt electronic equipment if insufficiently shielded. It has been proposed to use this effect to disable an enemy's military and civilian infrastructure as an adjunct to other nuclear or conventional military operations against that enemy. Because the effect is produced by high altitude nuclear detonations, it can produce damage to electronics over a wide, even continental, geographical area.\n",
"An energetic EMP can temporarily upset or permanently damage electronic equipment by generating high voltage and high current surges; semiconductor components are particularly at risk. The effects of damage can range from imperceptible to the eye, to devices literally blowing apart. Cables, even if short, can act as antennas to transmit pulse energy to equipment.\n"
] |
why do headphones sound tinny until you put them on?
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Bass waves travel the least amount of distance, while higher pitched waves will reach your ears. Your ears are best at picking up and discerning those higher pitched sounds because they are most like the sounds you would normally be hearing. All of this considering the headphone speakers are very small and produce a relatively small decibel level.
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[
"The outer shells of in-ear headphones are made up of a variety of materials, such as plastic, aluminum, ceramic and other metal alloys. Because in-ear headphones engage the ear canal, they can be prone to sliding out, and they block out much environmental noise. Lack of sound from the environment can be a problem when sound is a necessary cue for safety or other reasons, as when walking, driving, or riding near or in vehicular traffic.\n",
"Supra-aural headphones or on-ear headphones have pads that press against the ears, rather than around them. They were commonly bundled with personal stereos during the 1980s. This type of headphone generally tends to be smaller and lighter than circumaural headphones, resulting in less attenuation of outside noise. Supra-aural headphones can also lead to discomfort due to the pressure on the ear as compared to circumaural headphones that sit around the ear. Comfort may vary due to the earcup material.\n",
"Active noise-cancelling headphones use a microphone, amplifier, and speaker to pick up, amplify, and play ambient noise in phase-reversed form; this to some extent cancels out unwanted noise from the environment without affecting the desired sound source, which is not picked up and reversed by the microphone. They require a power source, usually a battery, to drive their circuitry. Active noise cancelling headphones can attenuate ambient noise by 20 dB or more, but the active circuitry is mainly effective on constant sounds and at lower frequencies, rather than sharp sounds and voices. Some noise cancelling headphones are designed mainly to reduce low-frequency engine and travel noise in aircraft, trains, and automobiles, and are less effective in environments with other types of noise.\n",
"This model also suffers from a whine on the headphone and microphone jacks that are located on the left of the unit. This is because of shared space with the leftmost fan, and the spinning of said fan causes interference. There is no known fix than to otherwise use a USB, FireWire/1394 or PCMCIA-based audio device or card for sound output.\n",
"Open-back headphones have the back of the earcups open. This leaks more sound out of the headphone and also lets more ambient sounds into the headphone, but gives a more natural or speaker-like sound, due to including sounds from the environment.\n",
"Electrostatic and piezoelectric noise can also become an issue in exotic headphone systems, if the headphones have a relatively high input impedance compared to traditional speakers which have a nominal impedance of 8 Ohms. This is where a careful choice of insulating materials can make a difference. This type of noise is often perceived as snap, crackle and pop when mechanically manipulating or handling the headphone cord. It is often hard to tell, without actual measurements if the source of this noise is electronic or mechanical in nature.\n",
"These early headphones used moving iron drivers, with either single-ended or balanced armatures. The common single-ended type used voice coils wound around the poles of a permanent magnet, which were positioned close to a flexible steel diaphragm. The audio current through the coils varied the magnetic field of the magnet, exerting a varying force on the diaphragm, causing it to vibrate, creating sound waves. The requirement for high sensitivity meant that no damping was used, so the frequency response of the diaphragm had large peaks due to resonance, resulting in poor sound quality. These early models lacked padding, and were often uncomfortable to wear for long periods. Their impedance varied; headphones used in telegraph and telephone work had an impedance of 75 ohms. Those used with early wireless radio had more turns of finer wire to increase sensitivity. Impedance of 1000 to 2000 ohms was common, which suited both crystal sets and triode receivers. Some very sensitive headphones, such as those manufactured by Brandes around 1919, were commonly used for early radio work.\n"
] |
Were Serbs exceptionally effective in the war against Austria during WWI?
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Serbia's army had experience from the [Balkan Wars](_URL_0_), unlike the Austrians who were quite green. Austrian troops were better equipped, but had far less patriotism due to the fact that most of them weren't Austrian, but Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, etc. The Serbians also could match the Austrians in terms of numbers, since the bulk of Austria's army was engaged with Russia for most of the war. The land itself isn't exactly a bunch of flat open plains, and favored the defender. All-in-all, it isn't a surprise that Serbia performed how they did.
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[
"The Serbs beat back an Austro-Hungarian invasion in August, at the Battle of Cer. It marked the first Allied victory over the Central Powers in World War I. Potiorek was humiliated by the defeat and was determined to resume the assault against the Serbs. He was given permission in September to launch another invasion of Serbia provided that he \"[did not] risk anything that might lead to a further fiasco.\" Under pressure from the Russians to launch their own offensive and keep as many Austro-Hungarian troops as possible away from the Eastern Front, the Serbs invaded Bosnia in September with the help of Chetnik irregulars but were repulsed after a month of fighting in what came to be known as the Battle of the Drina. Bojović was wounded during the battle and was replaced by Živojin Mišić as commander of the Serbian 1st Army.\n",
"In late 1915, however, German generals were given control and invaded Serbia with Austrian and Bulgarian forces. The Serbian army hastily retreated west but only 70,000 made it through, and Serbia became an occupied land. Disease was rampant, but the Austrians were pragmatic and paid well for food supplies, so conditions were not harsh. Instead Austria tried to depoliticize Serbia, to minimize violence, and to integrate the country into the Empire. Nevertheless, Serbian nationalism remained defiant and many young men slipped out to help rebuild the Serbian army in exile.\n",
"The exact role played by Serbian officials in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is still debated but despite complying with most of their demands, Austria-Hungary invaded on 28 July 1914. While Serbia successfully repulsed the Austro-Hungarian army in 1914, it was exhausted by the two Balkan Wars and unable to replace its losses of men and equipment. In 1915, Bulgaria joined the Central Powers and by the end of the year, a combined Bulgar-Austrian-German army occupied most of Serbia. Between 1914–1918, Serbia suffered the greatest proportional losses of any combatant, with over 25% of all those mobilised becoming casualties; including civilians and deaths from disease, over 1.2 million died, nearly 30% of the entire population.\n",
"Austria-Hungary viewed the irredentist movements of South Slavs, as promoted by Serbia, to be a threat to the unity of the nation. Following the assassination, Austria sought to inflict a military blow on Serbia to demonstrate strength and so Serbia would be more cautious about supporting Yugoslav nationalism. However, it was wary of the reaction of the Russian Empire, who were a major supporter of Serbia, so sought a guarantee from its ally Germany that it would support Austria in any conflict. Germany guaranteed its support, but urged Austria to attack quickly, while world sympathy for the murdered heir was high, in order to localize the war and avoid drawing in Russia. Some German leaders believed that growing Russian economic power would change the balance of power between the two nations, that a war was inevitable, and that Germany would be better off if a war happened soon. However, rather than a quick attack with available military forces, Austrian leaders deliberated into mid-July before deciding that it would give Serbia a harsh ultimatum on 23 July and would not attack without a full mobilisation of its army that could not be accomplished before 25 July 1914.\n",
"Austria invaded and fought the Serbian army at the Battle of Cer and Battle of Kolubara beginning on 12 August. Over the next two weeks, Austrian attacks were thrown back with heavy losses, which marked the first major Allied victories of the war and dashed Austro-Hungarian hopes of a swift victory. As a result, Austria had to keep sizeable forces on the Serbian front, weakening its efforts against Russia. Serbia's defeat of the Austro-Hungarian invasion of 1914 has been called one of the major upset victories of the twentieth century. The campaign saw the very first use of medical evacuation by the Serbian army in autumn of 1915 and anti-aircraft warfare in the spring of 1915 after an Austrian plane was shot down with ground-to-air fire.\n",
"The Balkan Wars strained the German/Austro-Hungarian alliance. The attitude of the German government to Austrian requests of support against Serbia was initially both divided and inconsistent. After the German Imperial War Council of 8 December 1912, it was clear that Germany was not ready to support Austria-Hungary in a war against Serbia and her likely allies.\n",
"The 28 June 1914 assassination of Austro-Hungarian heir presumptive Archduke Franz Ferdinand precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia. The conflict quickly attracted the involvement of all major European countries, pitting the Central Powers against the Entente coalition and starting World War I. After the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers (November 1914), the decisive factor in the Balkans became the attitude of Bulgaria. Bulgaria occupied a strategically important position on the Serbian flank and its intervention on either side of the belligerents would be decisive. Bulgaria and Serbia had fought each continuously in the previous thirty years: following the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885 hostilities continued in the form of an undeclared war during the Macedonian Struggle. The area of north-western Macedonia then belonging to the Ottoman Empire became the arena of the ethnic violence between the ethnic Serb population represented by the Serbian Chetnik Organization and ethnic Bulgarians from the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). IMRO also engaged in hostilities with ethnic Greeks and their supporters in the rest of Macedonia.\n"
] |
the d & d alignment system, particularly the distinction between "neutral good/evil" and "chaotic good/evil."
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It helps to just view the alignments one axis at a time -- lawful, neutral, chaotic; good, neutral evil.
Lawful means you will follow certain rules.
Chaotic means everything is random -- rules are made to be broken.
Neutral is somewhere in between these two; really, most people you meet with in real life would fall in the neutral spectum.
Good means you put others above yourself.
Evil means you willingly harm others, either for your own good or because you have been told to.
Neutral will generally not kill innocents, but certainly will not sacrifice themselves for others.
Neutral good would be someone who puts others above themselves, but isn't following a set pattern to it -- not helping others because their god said to, just because they want to. Neutral evil would be similar -- not killing just for the heck of it, but not killing just to obey a higher order.
Chaotic good is a character who is out for the greater good, but feels "the man" gets in the way, so (s)he will buck the rules constantly. Chaotic evil is one of those who just wants to watch the world burn.
Check the [Wikipedia](_URL_0_) page; it gives a pretty good overview of each of the nine types.
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[
"\"D&D\" 4th Edition, released in 2008, reduced the number of alignments to five: lawful good, good, evil, chaotic evil, and unaligned. In that edition, \"good\" replaced neutral good and did not encompass chaotic good; \"evil\" replaced neutral evil and did not encompass lawful evil; \"unaligned\" replaced true neutral and did not encompass lawful neutral and chaotic neutral.\n",
"Alignment is slightly more muddied than in other official settings. Evil beings of traditionally good races and good beings of traditionally evil races are encouraged; but alignment definition remains true to D&D standards, with good and evil retaining their meanings. However, the situation often arises in the campaign world that oppositely aligned characters will side with each other briefly if a threat looms over all, and also both good and evil characters will infiltrate each other's organizations for purposes of espionage.\n",
"The conflict of good versus evil is a common motif in \"D&D\" and other fantasy fiction. Although player characters can adventure for personal gain rather than from altruistic motives, it is generally assumed that the player characters will be opposed to evil and will tend to fight evil creatures.\n",
"The \"D&D\" alignment system is occasionally referenced as a system of moral classification in other contexts. \"Salon\" television critic Heather Havrilesky, while reviewing the HBO television series \"True Blood\", analyzed the program's characters in terms of \"D&D\" alignments and identified protagonist Sookie Stackhouse as chaotic good, her vampire boyfriend Bill Compton as lawful neutral, Eric Northman as lawful evil, and Lafayette Reynolds as chaotic neutral. In \"Hostiles and Calamities\", the 11th episode of season 7 of \"The Walking Dead\" television series, the character Eugene Porter makes a reference to the \"D&D\" alignment system when describing himself as \"...not good. I’m not lawful, neutral, or chaotic.\" The alignment chart Internet meme humorously categorizes various items in a three-by-three grid.\n",
"When the rules for Third Edition \"D&D\" were updated to version 3.5, the grimlock again appeared in the first \"Monster Manual\" source book, but its description, abilities and illustration were reprinted verbatim from Third Edition, with the only exception being that their Alignment was changed from \"Always neutral evil\" to \"Often neutral evil\".\n",
"\"AD&D 2nd Edition\", released in 1988, retained the two-axis system. In that edition, a character who performs too many actions outside their alignment can find their alignment changed, and is penalized by losing experience points, making it harder to reach the next level. \"D&D\" 3rd Edition, released in 2000, kept the same alignment system.\n",
"The 1977 release of the \"Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set\" introduced a second axis of good, implying altruism and respect for life, vs evil, implying selfishness and no respect for life. As with the law-vs-chaos axis, a neutral position exists between the extremes. Characters and creatures could be lawful and evil at the same time (such as a tyrant), or chaotic but good (such as Robin Hood).\n"
] |
why can my dog eat shit and be fine, but not grapes or chocolate?
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Because dog shit doesn't contain a compound (Theobromine) that is toxic to dogs. It *may* contain pathogens that make them sick, though.
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[
"Dogs have around 1,700 taste buds compared to humans with around 9,000. The sweet taste buds in dogs respond to a chemical called furaneol which is found in many fruits and in tomatoes. It appears that dogs do like this flavor and it probably evolved because in a natural environment dogs frequently supplement their diet of small animals with whatever fruits happen to be available. Because of dogs' dislike of bitter tastes, various sprays, and gels have been designed to keep dogs from chewing on furniture or other objects. Dogs also have taste buds that are tuned for water, which is something they share with other carnivores but is not found in humans. This taste sense is found at the tip of the dog's tongue, which is the part of the tongue that he curls to lap water. This area responds to water at all times, but when the dog has eaten salty or sugary foods the sensitivity to the taste of water increases. It is proposed that this ability to taste water evolved as a way for the body to keep internal fluids in balance after the animal has eaten things that will either result in more urine being passed or will require more water to adequately process. It certainly appears that when these special water taste buds are active, dogs seem to get an extra pleasure out of drinking water, and will drink copious amounts of it.\n",
"While chocolate contains the chemical compound theobromine in levels that are toxic to some mammals, carob contains none, and it also has no caffeine, so it is sometimes used to make chocolate-like treats for dogs. Carob pod meal is also used as an energy-rich feed for livestock, particularly for ruminants, though its high tannin content may limit this use.\n",
"The consumption of grapes and raisins presents a potential health threat to dogs. Their toxicity to dogs can cause the animal to develop acute renal failure (the sudden development of kidney failure) with anuria (a lack of urine production) and may be fatal.\n",
"BULLET::::- Chocolate is a common cause of poisoning in dogs. The toxic principles in chocolate are theobromine and caffeine. Baker's Chocolate is the most dangerous form since it contains higher concentrations of these drugs, followed by semi-sweet, dark, and then milk chocolate. Signs include vomiting, diarrhea, tremors, difficulty walking, seizures, and heart problems.\n",
"Grapes and raisins can cause acute kidney failure in dogs (see also grape and raisin toxicity in dogs). The exact mechanism is unknown, nor is there any means to determine the susceptibility of an individual dog. While as little as one raisin can be toxic to a susceptible dog, some other dogs have eaten as much as a pound of grapes or raisins at a time without ill effects. The affected dog usually vomits a few hours after consumption and begins showing signs of kidney failure three to five days later. A mycotoxin is suspected to be involved, but one has not been found in grapes or raisins ingested by affected dogs. The reason some dogs develop kidney failure following ingestion of grapes and raisins is not known. The most common pathological finding is proximal renal tubular necrosis.\n",
"The consumption of grapes and raisins presents a potential health threat to dogs. Their toxicity to dogs can cause the animal to develop acute kidney injury (the sudden development of kidney failure) with anuria (a lack of urine production). The phenomenon was first identified by the Animal Poison Control Center (APCC), run by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Approximately 140 cases were seen by the APCC in the one year from April 2003 to April 2004, with 50 developing symptoms and seven dying.\n",
"A typical dog will normally experience great intestinal distress after eating less than of dark chocolate, but will not necessarily experience bradycardia or tachycardia unless it eats at least a half a kilogram (1.1 lb) of milk chocolate. Dark chocolate has 2 to 5 times more theobromine and thus is more dangerous to dogs. According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, approximately 1.3 grams of baker's chocolate per kilogram of a dog's body weight (0.02 oz/lb) is sufficient to cause symptoms of toxicity. For example, a typical baker's chocolate bar would be enough to bring about symptoms in a dog. Of course, baking chocolate is rarely consumed directly due to its unpleasant taste, but other dark chocolates' canine toxicities may be extrapolated based on this figure. Given access, dogs frequently consume chocolate at toxic levels because they like the taste of chocolate products and are capable of finding and eating quantities much larger than typical human servings. There are reports that mulch made from cacao bean shells is dangerous to dogs and livestock.\n"
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