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Were there black KKK members? | Maybe. Take a look at this 1920s [application](_URL_0_)(warning, PDF) to join the order. Note question 9: "are you of the white race or of a colored race?" Keep in mind that these forms are for vetting members. However, the question is tantalizing when we realize that the 1920s Klan, which has received the most scholar... | [
"The White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (WKKKK) operated in the Southern District of Mississippi and elsewhere, and was a secret organization of adult white males who, among other things, targeted for violence African Americans they believed were involved in civil rights activity in order to intimidate and retaliate... |
how do sodas travel the country all carbonated but as soon as you get one alone and it shakes up, its flat?! | I would like to add that soda in its final form rarely if ever makes a cross-country trip. What happens with the big companies is they stir up the beverage base at their own place (this is JUST the flavorings and stuff), then ship *that* to the various regional bottling factories who then mix it with carbonated water, ... | [
"Home soda siphons can carbonate flat water through the use of a small disposable steel bulb containing carbon dioxide. The bulb is pressed into the valve assembly at the top of the siphon, the gas injected, then the bulb withdrawn. Soda water made in this way tends not to be as carbonated as commercial soda water ... |
irc | My favorite description of IRC has always been "Multiplayer Notepad" | [
"IRC was created by Jarkko Oikarinen in August 1988 to replace a program called MUT (MultiUser Talk) on a BBS called OuluBox at the University of Oulu in Finland, where he was working at the Department of Information Processing Science. Jarkko intended to extend the BBS software he administered, to allow news in th... |
AMA: Vikings | How far east did the Vikings go? I'm aware of the Volga Vikings and their visits to Baghdad but did they go further east? How accurate is Ibn Fadlan's description of the Ship Burial he described?
| [
"\"The Vikings\" is a British-based society of re-enactors, dedicated to the study and re-enactment of the culture of the Viking Age (790–1066) and the display of authentic Dark Ages living history and combat.\n",
"The Vikings - Vinland is an organization of Viking reenactors, consisting of 12 local member-groups... |
'weight cutting' in combat sports | Many combat sports are divided into weight classes. Being at the top of your weight class can give a slight advantage, so if you can lose a few pounds and drop into the next lower class you'll be at the top of that rather than the bottom of your original one. | [
"Fighters can cut weight for a \"day before\" fight weigh-in with modern conditioning and training methods and regain the same weight on \"day of\" the fight. The purpose of a catchweight is to compensate for the ability of bigger boxers to cut weight before a \"day before\" fight weigh-in and regain the weight to ... |
what is the point of the catcher in the rye? | There really isn't a point, if you want to know the truth. It's just this old crumby book that a whole bunch of phonies _say_ they like even though they don't really understand it for one second. You can always tell when someone's that kind of phoney 'cause they try to impress you with big talk about themes and points ... | [
"The name of Rye is believed to come from \"rie\", meaning a bank. Medieval maps show that Rye was originally located on a huge embayment of the English Channel called the Rye Camber, which provided a safe anchorage and harbour. Probably as early as Roman times, Rye was important as a place of shipment and storage ... |
how it is that we exert the same gravity on earth as earth exerts on us? | Your phrasing is a bit off. To be a bit precise, gravity attracts us and the Earth *to each other*.
The force of gravity between two objects is measured by three things: the mass (weight, for ease of reference) of the first object, the mass (weight) of the second, and the distance between their centres. That force **... | [
"The gravity of Earth, denoted by , is the net acceleration that is imparted to objects due to the combined effect of gravitation (from distribution of mass within Earth) and the centrifugal force (from the Earth's rotation).\n",
"The gravity of Earth is the acceleration that is imparted to objects due to the dis... |
Were people in Victorian times actually as weak health-wise as they are portrayed in novels from the time period? | I cannot speak to the actual, physical health of Victorians, but I did once write an answer on the related subject of why one shouldn't take representations of fainting in period fiction as just a reflection of what people were actually doing:
[How did fainting in the Victorian era become so gendered? What social conv... | [
"The status of the poor is one area in which huge changes occurred. A good illustration of the differences between life in the Georgian and Victorian eras are the writings of two of England's greatest authors, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Both writers held a fascination for people, society and the details of ev... |
Before Einstein, did nobody else consider there was a deep relationship between gravity and space time? | Depending on how you see it, there is also no deep relationship between gravity and spacetime in General Relativity. GR is originally just a generalization of Special Relativity, such that two reference frames relate to one another by Lorentz transformation when acceleration (which means force) is involved. This means,... | [
"In 1905, Einstein introduced special relativity (even though without using the techniques of the spacetime formalism) in its modern understanding as a theory of space and time. While his results are mathematically equivalent to those of Lorentz and Poincaré, it was Einstein who showed that the Lorentz transformati... |
What causes the scars on the ocean floor? | The long linear irregularities in your image look image look like what we call "artifacts", a direct result of the mapping techniques. Most of what we have for the vast ocean floor bathymetry is fairly low resolution, thus there is a lot of smoothing. When a ship makes a single pass through a poorly mapped area and g... | [
"A large number of injuries, up to 66%, are caused by collision with a surfboard (nose or fins). Fins can cause deep lacerations and cuts, as well as bruising. While these injuries can be minor, they can open the skin to infection from the sea; groups like Surfers Against Sewage campaign for cleaner waters to reduc... |
what is the difference between baking powder and baking soda? | The top comment is correct, but in case it's too technical:
Both baking powder and baking soda are used to create a rise in baked goods. The chemical reaction they cause makes bubbles that puff up the dough. Baking soda needs an acid added to the dough to make that reaction happen (like your grade school volcano). Bak... | [
"Many forms of baking powder contain sodium bicarbonate combined with calcium acid phosphate, sodium aluminium phosphate, or cream of tartar. Baking soda is alkaline; the acid used in baking powder avoids a metallic taste when the chemical change during baking creates sodium carbonate.\n",
"In cooking, baking sod... |
How do polarizing filters “know” the orientation of incoming photons? | It's hard to do better than this 60 Symbols video:
_URL_0_
It's not about "knowing" it's that if the incoming light is not perfectly polarized already then no matter what angle you choose it will have SOME component along that axis and that is the component that survives the filter, which is made of long conductive m... | [
"As shown in the figure, the analyzing filters are constructed of a quarter-wave plate (QWP) and a linearly polarized filter (LPF). The QWP always transforms circularly polarized light into linearly polarized light. However, the angle of polarization of the linearly polarized light produced by a QWP depends on the ... |
why are the refugees blocking the eurotunnel in callais not arrested/kicked out/processed/in france? surely they are illegally staying there too? is the french govn't just lazy or is there some technical reason? | They aren't exactly tolerated - the local police break up the camps and arrest people whenever the numbers start to rise significantly, as over this last summer. The current Mayor of Calais seems determined to see something done now that numbers are rising again, and has threatened to blockade the port if the UK doesn'... | [
"The Calais migrant crisis led to escalating tension between the UK and France in the summer of 2015. The UK blamed France for not doing enough to stop migrants from entering the tunnel or making attempts to scale fences built along the border. The British Prime Minister David Cameron released a statement saying th... |
Is there a reason that baldness in babies follows the same general pattern as Male Pattern Baldness? | I think you may have a flawed premise here. Babies generally don't follow male pattern baldness. If they have very thin hair, it is generally very uniform.
Maybe someone else can give you a better answer, but I haven't been able to find a single example of a male pattern baldness newborn for about an hour now. | [
"Although men grow hair faster than women, baldness is much more common in males than in females. The main cause for this is \"male pattern baldness\" or androgenic alopecia. Male pattern baldness is a condition where hair starts to get lost in a typical pattern of receding hairline and hair thinning on the crown, ... |
I read about children working underground in coal mines during the Industrial Revolution. Is that accurate? | Until 1842, children did work underground in substantial numbers.
[An accident at Huskar Colliery in Silkstone](_URL_1_), near Barnsley in 1838 clearly shows this. A stream overflowed into the ventilation drift after violent thunderstorms causing the death of 26 children; 11 girls aged from 8 to 16 and 15 boys betwee... | [
"Boys in the Pits: Child Labour in Coal Mines is a 2000 book by Robert McIntosh, published by McGill-Queen's University Press. The book is about child labour in Canada in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with special reference to the history of boys, aged 8 to 15, who worked in coal mines. These boys worked under... |
A question on Cosmic Radiation and Electromagnetic Shielding | While the earth's magnetic field does help with cosmic rays, you are forgetting the massive attenuation that occurs due to our atmosphere. | [
"This radiation originates from outside the solar system and consists of ionized charged atomic nuclei from hydrogen, helium and uranium. Due to its energy the galactic cosmic radiation is very penetrating. Thin to moderate shielding is effective in reducing the projected equivalent dose but as shield thickness inc... |
why can a light tap or flick or what have you on my testicles hurt pretty bad, but ball-slapping sex doesn't hurt at all? | Well, during ball slapping sex, things hurt less. Hormones, adrenaline, etc. For me at least, it's common for them to be a bit sore after. | [
"Loss of blood flow is one of the biggest risks in cock and ball torture (CBT), which can be seen with loss of color and edemas. Bondage in which the testicles are tied to something else is especially dangerous, increasing the risk of the testicles getting damaged through excessive tension or pulling.\n",
"Blue b... |
why we can't see a full circle rainbow? | Because of the physical properties of rain droplet, the light entering and leaving forms an angle of about 42^(o). That means a rainbow is going to be a ring "around" the sun at 180^o - 42^o = 138^(o), or 42^o from the point exactly opposite the sun. Since that point is below the horizon, the earth itself blocks the ... | [
"From above the earth such as in an aeroplane, it is sometimes possible to see a rainbow as a full circle. This phenomenon can be confused with the glory phenomenon, but a glory is usually much smaller, covering only 5–20°.\n",
"A rainbow is not located at a specific distance from the observer, but comes from an ... |
why do sites sometimes give an error, but if you refresh it a second after it works? | Here's an example.
Let's assume the Google server that I access is in California. I type something into a Google search bar, hit search, and it goes from here in New York State to the Google California Office in 13 milliseconds (0.013 seconds).
The server in California then has to look for what I put in, which takes ... | [
"Once an accessibility audit has been conducted, and accessibility errors have been identified, the errors will need to be remediated in order to ensure the site is compliant with accessibility errors. The traditional way of correcting an inaccessible site is to go back into the source code, reprogram the error, an... |
Reading about the WWII pacific theather. Why the huge difference in losses? | A fast deteriorating supply situation for the Japanese and the industrial might and adaptibility of the US happend. What followed was what always follows when ideology, honor culture and courage clashes with superior firepower.
Quite simply, the IJN didn't surrender when almost any other force would have. They fought... | [
"The Battle of Midway, in June 1942, brought Nagumo's near-perfect record to an end. The First Air Fleet lost four carriers during the turning point of the Pacific War, and the massive losses of carrier aircraft maintenance personnel would prove detrimental to the performance of the IJN in later engagements. The lo... |
why is it called the "secret service" when it isn't secret at all? how did they get that name officially? | In 1865, the "Secret Service Division" of the US Treasury Department was formed as a federal police agency devoted to investigating and preventing money counterfeiting, which was a huge problem at the time. In it's early years it ended up doing all kinds of law-enforcement and intelligence/counter-intelligence duties. ... | [
"The U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the president and the first family. As part of their protection, presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for ... |
if horse racing tips had any merits, why wouldn't the bookies adjust their odds to match? | Betting on horse races is fairly straight forward. If more people bet on a particular horse because they think it has a good chance to win, odds will adjust. The horses with low odds stay that way because few people will bet on them. The bookies do adjust the odds, in horse racing and pretty much any sporting event. | [
"Betting exchanges compete with the traditional bookmaker. They are generally able to offer punters better odds because of their much lower overheads but also give opportunities for arbitrage, the practice of taking advantage of a price differential between two or more markets. However, traditionally, arbitrage has... |
what is that carbon fiber pattern? why is it so appealing? | Carbon fibers have extreme tensile strength to weight ratio. This is good in that a light weight component can support a larger load. However, its strength is highly directional i.e. it is strong only in one direction. So the fibers are woven into a matrix like the pattern you see commonly. The pattern also varies by t... | [
"Carbon fiber is of interest due to its widespread use in composite materials. Provided there are closed loops of carbon within the composite structure, eddy currents can be induced in the material. Unidirectional carbon fiber composites can have poor susceptibility when fiber to fiber contact is limited.\n",
"Th... |
- water towers | Water towers make it so that, instead of pumping water *all* the time, you just have to pump water to the top of the tower. This means you can still get water when the power goes out, and that's very important in areas where the power is likely to go out. | [
"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. Wa... |
why do some foods taste just as good (or better) as leftovers the next day, when others are horrible? | It's hard to generalize it because it's different for each food. A lot of chemical processes happen constantly even after food is cooked, and it depends on it's chemical makeup, how it was cooked, how it was stored, and how it was reheated.
Firstly, reheating anything often ends up cooking it as well. Some foods care... | [
"Conditioned taste aversion is the only type of conditioning that only needs one exposure. It does not need to be the specific food or drinks that cause the taste. Conditioned taste aversion can also be attributed to extenuating circumstances. An example of this can be eating a rotten apple. Eating the apple then i... |
"Blacks" or "African-Americans"? | You might split the difference and go with Black Americans. No one is likely to get mad about that sort of thing in an undergrad paper so long as you're making a good faith effort. Also the general trend is to [capitalize the B in Black Americans](_URL_0_) these days, though that is a hot topic. | [
"African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the black racial groups of Africa. The term typically refers to descendants of enslaved black people who are from the United States.\n",
"Black and African America... |
does massage really work to get rid of the 'knots'? what are the knots and why do you sometimes feel worse after a deep tissue massage? | Actual scientific explanations of knots:
_URL_0_
_URL_1_
_URL_3_
and massage:
_URL_2_
**ELIF version-** "Knots" are caused by a damaging muscle/connective tissue combined with swelling/sensitivity from the following immune response. From the papers above, massage often doesn't work in controlled trials, massage ... | [
"BULLET::::- Friction massage is said to increase mobilization of adhesions between fascial layers, muscles, compartments and other soft tissues. They are thought to create an inflammatory response and instigate focus to injured areas. A 2012 systematic review found that no additional benefit was incurred from the ... |
why is the australian dollar so weak against the british pound? | No, the Aussie dollar is pretty strong against the pound, currently sitting at 55 pence.
It is always a mistake to compare currencies absolute values, as these are a result of history. The difference in this case is because Australia switched to decimal currency back in 1966, and with currency being more valuable back... | [
"The value of the Australian pound remained tied to the pound sterling. Inflation in Australia thus increased, less than in Britain, but more than in the United States. The case for a central bank was increased by the need for the government to cut spending after the war to reduce its debt. Commonwealth Bank Govern... |
Why does water that you carry feel heavier than water that you consumed? | When you drink it, the water is at the near center of your body, in your backpack it's not. There i more support at the center of your body so it feels lighter. Carrying it on your back also requires a posture that is harder to maintain and thus requires more energy and may exhaust your muscles more. | [
"The buoyancy force is equal to the weight of the body, in other words, the mass of the body is equal to the mass of the water displaced by the body. This adds an upward force to the body by the amount of surface area times the area displaced in order to create an equilibrium between the surface of the body and the... |
How certain are we of what year it is? Were there every any disagreements, like during the Dark Ages or afterwards, of the exact year? | Well, it's one thing to be off by a day or so, but by a year? That's a massive mistake for an entire population to make. But it wasn't until 525 AD that the AD numbering system began. And there are a couple discrepancies in figuring out when Jesus was born, to start counting. The gospels (for those who take them lit... | [
"Year 229 (CCXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Cassius (or, less frequently, year 982 \"Ab urbe condita\"). The denomination 229 for this year has been used since the early... |
meta plea to eli5 about the upcoming elections. | Also, can we have active moderation? ELI5 will have more and more questions of the "push-poll" variety as the election nears. It will become unusable if half of the posts are "ELI5 why Mitt Romney hates gay babies" and "ELI5 how President Obama can hold office if he's a secret Kenyan Nazi?" | [
"In 2003, the IOP launched the National Campaign for Political and Civic Engagement, working collaboratively with other schools and organizations across the country to engage young people. The IOP also conducts research and surveys into the political views of America's young voters. In addition, the Institute offer... |
why does it take minutes to take money from my bank account but days to put it back? | What takes minutes is the authorization for somebody to take money from your account, not the time for the money to actually be removed from yours and into theirs. However, once a transaction has been authorized, your bank will show your account as having that much less money, so it can seem like it is final to you (an... | [
"Once a current account has been opened with a new bank or building society, the Current Account Switch Service will transfer all the activity relating to the old account to the new one. That includes moving incoming and outgoing payments, and transferring the account balance, as well as closing the old account. An... |
what is "doping" in cycling and why is it illegal? | Doping in cycling typically refers to the use of any kind of performance enhancing drug. The actual term doping, I believe, comes from the term "blood doping" which means to artificially increase your red blood cell count. A lot of cyclists that have been caught cheating recently have been using something called EPO wh... | [
"\"The sport of road-race cycling (and it may not be the only one) is like an alcoholic, refusing to accept that it has a problem, as long as it drinks in secrecy. That fact was shamefully proved once again this week when the sport's governing body — the International Cycling Union (UCI) - forced the 1999 Tour to a... |
why have desktop app stores not gotten similar development as mobile app stores? | Developers don't like app stores. They take a 30% cut, restrict what your app can do, make you wait to get your app released, don't allow upgrade versions, etc. You don't get direct access to your customer, you can't get their email to try and sell them more crap.
On most mobile devices developers don't have any choi... | [
"Most companies have acknowledged the potential of Mobile Apps to increase the interaction between a company and its target customers. With the fast progress and growth of the smartphone market, high-quality Mobile app development is essential to obtain a strong position in a mobile app store.\n",
"The launch of ... |
How does a single membrane in an earphone generate multiple frequency sounds at the same time instant? (For example, high hats with vocals) | When a complex sound or mixture of sounds is heard, there is really only one wave that hits your ear. The waves of sound in the air are able to interfere both destructively and constructively, and the function of the final wave is the sum of those of all the individual waves. The result is not a series of waves traveli... | [
"If two sounds of two different frequencies are played at the same time, two separate sounds can often be heard rather than a combination tone. The ability to hear frequencies separately is known as \"frequency resolution\" or \"frequency selectivity\". When signals are perceived as a combination tone, they are sai... |
nowadays we are starting to use more paper products than plastic (straws , bags etc) will this his not create a problem in the future because paper is made out of trees ? | I think the idea is that we can farm trees, wood is a renewable resource. Also so long as this wood isn’t burnt and instead is turned into paper, it should in theory soak up CO2 from the atmosphere and leave us better off. | [
"A 2007 report into shopping bag alternatives noted that paper bags were less environmentally friendly than plastic bags due to a higher carbon footprint. Similarly, cotton bags were unsuitable due to the pesticides used and high volume of water needed to create them. The \"greenest\" option was using recycled plas... |
how can only one jet engine fly a twin engine airplane for hours after the other has shut down? | For large passenger jets, the aircraft is designed to be able to fly with one engine shut down (an “in-flight shutdown, or IFSD). That’s why they’re designed with at least two engines.
There’s a concept called ETOPS (Extended Twin Engine Operations, or, more humorously, “Engines Turn Or People Swim”) which means tha... | [
"Early American twinjet designs were limited by the FAA's 60-minute rule, whereby the flight path of twin-engine jetliners was restricted to within 60 minutes' flying time from a suitable airport, in case of engine failure. In 1964, this rule was lifted for trijet designs, as they had a greater safety margin.\n",
... |
It's generally understood that a good deal of dangerous animals have bright colors to act as a "warning" (poison dart frogs, coral snakes, etc.), but aren't most of their natural predators colorblind? Wouldn't this diminish the effectiveness of this defense mechanism? | Birds (which are common predators of insects and frogs) have some of the best vision and color detection of any animal. If they were colorblind we wouldn't have colorful birds (color helps them mate and show dominance), because the duller colored ones would be less likely to be eaten by predators, and thus color would... | [
"Poisonous species often use bright colouring to warn potential predators of their toxicity. These warning colours tend to be red or yellow combined with black, with the fire salamander (\"Salamandra salamandra\") being an example. Once a predator has sampled one of these, it is likely to remember the colouration n... |
the whole controversy around goldman sachs. | Read Griftopia. Sorry, it's not that simple. That's why it went on for so long. | [
"Goldman has been criticized in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–2008, where some alleged that it misled its investors and profited from the collapse of the mortgage market. That time in Goldman's history brought investigations from the United States Congress, the United States Department of Justice, a... |
What causes a gun barrel to rise when I shoot? If I hang upside-down and shoot, will the barrel "rise" away from the anchor point (i.e. my feet) or away from the source of gravity (i.e. the Earth)? What would happen if both are absent (i.e. in space)? Or is something else going on? | The bullet doesn't leave along the line that passes the center of the gravity for the gun. Because of this, the device will experience a torque from the gas that pushes back in the firing chamber, and it will attempt to begin rotating, which is what you should see in space. | [
"The pivoting part that supports the cylinder is called the crane; it is the weak point of swing-out cylinder designs. Using the method often portrayed in movies and television of flipping the cylinder open and closed with a flick of the wrist can in fact cause the crane to bend over time, throwing the cylinder out... |
what makes an expensive product so expensive? is it more related to the brand, or the materials? | It's really depends on the product. Some are expensive because of the brand, some are expensive because of msterials. But both and neither can apply.
The better question is what product are you refering to? | [
"Some luxury products have been claimed to be examples of Veblen goods, with a positive price elasticity of demand: for example, making a perfume more expensive can increase its perceived value as a luxury good to such an extent that sales can go up, rather than down.\n",
"This situation is derived by the desire ... |
Why did Britain/USA not just colonialize Saudi Arabia? | You've pretty much answered your own question. Invading and controlling countries was not the preferred method ot at least was losing favour. That doesnt mean that some control was entirely off the books (vis a vis Persia and the Brits), but that it wasnt the ideal way of gettings one way. It was clear that a pro-weste... | [
"The background of the Protectorate of South Arabia is part of an effort of the British Empire to protect the East India Route, the sea route between the Mediterranean Sea and India, in and through the southern coasts of Arabia. Already before the opening of the Suez Canal, industrial Britain with its rapidly expan... |
Have there been Nobel prizes awarded for theories that were later disproven? If so, how does the foundation respond? | Yep, there has been the prize of [Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger](_URL_0_) in 1926.
> The 1926 prize went to Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger, "for his discovery of the Spiroptera carcinoma", a microbial parasite which Fibiger claimed was the cause of cancer. This "finding" was discredited by other scientists shortly th... | [
"The Nobel Foundation was founded as a private organisation on 29 June 1900 specifically to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. It is based on Nobel's last will and testament. At the time Nobel's will led to much specticism and criticism and thus it was not until 26 April 1897 that his will ... |
Which part of China did Han people originate in? | The earliest that "ethnic Chinese" can be placed with certainty is the 13th century BC, when the Shang were writing divination records in what was clearly an ancestral form of the Chinese language. Shang materials have been found over a large part of north China but concentrated around Yinxu in Henan, identified as the... | [
"During the 4th–12th centuries, Han Chinese people from North China's Yellow River delta migrated and settled in the South of China. This gave rise to peoples including the Cantonese themselves, Hakkas and Hoklos, whose ancestors migrated from Henan and Shandong, to areas of southeastern coastal China such as Chaoz... |
Why does orbital velocity decrease with distance from the planet/sun, but velocity around a turntable increases with an increased radius. | It is because the two are not the same.
Your example of a coin on a turntable has constant angular velocity, regardless of distance from the center. In other words, no matter how far away it is, it makes one revolution in the same period of time. This is _forcibly_ imposed on the coin by the friction of the turntable.... | [
"However, as a planet grows more massive and its interaction with the disk becomes nonlinear, it may induce eccentric motion of the surrounding disk's gas, which in turn may excite the planet's orbital eccentricity. Low eccentricities are correlated with high multiplicity (number of planets in the system) based on ... |
When in the past did year abbreviations switch over (ex, '90s to 1890s vs 1990s)? | I'm not sure what question you're asking.
The 1890s will always be the "Gay Nineties", as per your link (or [The Mauve Decade](_URL_0_)), just as the 1920s will always be the "Roaring Twenties", and the 1960s will always be the "Swinging Sixties".
However, if you refer to the "nineties/'90s" *now*, most people will a... | [
"The first era name to be assigned was , celebrating the political and organizational changes which were to flow from the great of 645. Although the regular practice of proclaiming successive era names was interrupted in the late seventh century, it was permanently re-adopted in 701 during the reign of Emperor Monm... |
since space itself is stretching, does that mean that black holes could form more easily in the distant future? | It actually makes it harder for black holes to form because over time matter becomes more sparsely distributed. However, most black hole dynamics are on stellar and maybe galactic scales, which at this time aren't affected by the expansion of space. | [
"In the Star Trek universe, wormhole theory states that if a section in the fabric of spacetime joins together with another section of spacetime, a direct connection can be made between the two, allowing speedy travel between the two (normally unrelated) spacetime coordinates. Black holes are one such way of stretc... |
how do criminals get away when being interviewed in documentaries on national geographic and such? | The police cannot assume what is on "TV" is true. Neither should you. It could easily be staged or scripted. In order to become evidence, a man or woman would have to testify in court that everything on the video is true. That would make the film makers job very difficult in the future, so you can imagine they aren't ... | [
"True crime documentaries have been a growing medium in the last several decades. One of the most influential documentaries in this process was \"The Thin Blue Line\", directed by Errol Morris. This documentary, among others, feature reenactments, although other documentary filmmakers choose not to use them since t... |
how do communication waves travel in space, for example between the rover or apollo and nasa. don't waves need matter to travel? | Not Electro-Magnetic waves. Those can also travel as particles. Back in the day we did, in fact, thought that there must be a medium in space to allow light waves to travel through, called **aether**, but all attempts to detect it failed, because it doesn't exist.
Electromagnetic signals can act as both particles and ... | [
"Mechanical and electromagnetic waves may often seem to travel through space; but, while they can carry energy, momentum, and information through matter or empty space, they may do that without transferring any mass. In mathematics and electronics waves are studied as signals. On the other hand, some waves do not a... |
why is usb the standard and not thunderbolt? | USB has been around for over 15 years. Thunderbolt's been around for only a couple. Will Thunderbolt become the standard? Maybe. It's hard to see something replacing USB, though. Maybe it will become the standard for displays (although HDMI is quickly becoming a standard on the PC side for that), or maybe storage devic... | [
"Thunderbolt is the brand name of a hardware interface developed by Intel (in collaboration with Apple) that allows the connection of external peripherals to a computer. Thunderbolt 1 and 2 use the same connector as Mini DisplayPort (MDP), whereas Thunderbolt 3 re-uses the USB-C connector from USB. It was initially... |
car engine terms | > What does a (x)liter V(x)engine means?(The x are the numbers, for example 3 liter V8 engine)
The first is the capacity in liters of the cylinders of the engine. More liters = more air/fuel mixture and more power.
The V8 is the layout and number cylinders. The V indicates an engine with half of it's cylinders on ei... | [
"Engine: The word engine derives from \"ingenuity\" and originally referred to contrivances that may or may not be physical devices. See Merriam-Webster's definition of engine. A steam engine uses heat to boil water contained in a pressure vessel; the expanding steam drives a piston or a turbine. This principle can... |
Can aquatic mammals get Decompression Sickness (the Bends)? | Human free-divers can do the same.
The problem is different gas pressures in your breathing mix - for a SCUBA diver or someone working in a pressurized caisson, they inhale air at higher-than-atmospheric pressure, which causes the concentration of dissolved nitrogen in their blood to increase. When they move back t... | [
"Diving animals such as rats, minks and burrowing animals, are sensitive to low-oxygen atmospheres and (unlike humans) will avoid them, making purely hypoxic techniques possibly inhumane for them. For this reason, the use of inert gas (hypoxic) atmospheres (without CO) for euthanasia, is also species-specific.\n",
... |
in a time when drunk driving is so universally frowned up on and everyone is cracking down on duis, why is it that in some cities a business cannot be issued a liquor license if they don't have enough parking? | It's often that they need a certain amount of spots in order to host any event, or they lack the required number of specialized spots (handicapped, expectant mothers, etc.) Or they lack the ability to have overnight parking for people who wish to drive there, drink, and then come back the next day and pick up their car... | [
"A study of about 39,000 alcohol-related traffic accidents in Kentucky found that residents of dry counties are more likely to be involved in such crashes, possibly because they have to drive farther from their homes to consume alcohol, thus increasing impaired driving exposure. The study concludes that county-leve... |
what is syndication exclusivity? | Syndication is when a show starts airing on other networks. Sometimes they make contracts promising to exclusively air on only specific networks. | [
"Syndication exclusivity (also known as syndex) is a federal law implemented by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States that is designed to protect a local television station's rights to syndicated television programs by granting exclusive broadcast rights to the station for that program in... |
What are the chances that the Human race could evolve into two different species that couldn't reproduce with each other? | Some small population that had enough people to maintain itself would have to become isolated long enough from the rest of humanity that they would change enough to not be able to reproduce with us.
The chances are incredibly slim in our modern world, almost impossible. Given that even "isolated" tribes on islands in ... | [
"Population-dependent and reversible sex determination, found in animals such as the blue wrasse fish, have less potential for failure. In the blue wrasse, only one male is found in a given territory: larvae within the territory develop into females, and adult males will not enter the same territory. If a male dies... |
What is a good (modern) book on the Battle of Passchendaele? | These may be of some help:
- Your first stop should be John Terraine's *The Road to Passchendaele: the Flanders Offensive of 1917* (1977); while not "modern" in the strictest sense, Terraine is very much reliable on these matters and is one of the fathers of the "learning curve" school to begin with. He doesn't put up... | [
"The book has seven chapters, the first two cover the days prior to the battle, four chapters deal with the day and night of each of the two days of the battle, and the last one with the immediate aftermath of the \"hecatomb\". Historical notes are attached.\n",
"Coningsby is the author of a diary of the action o... |
How similar is present-day Judaism to the Judaism of the 1st and 2nd centuries? | This is not really a simple question to answer. There's no way to really define how similar things are over time. Additionally, the 1st-2nd centuries were a time of incredible amounts of change in the Jewish community, and neither ancient or modern Judaism are homogeneous.
The foundation texts that define modern Jew... | [
"The history of the Jews and Judaism can be divided into five periods: (1) ancient Israel before Judaism, from the beginnings to 586 BCE; (2) the beginning of Judaism in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE; (3) the formation of rabbinic Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE; (4) the age of rabbinic ... |
why does the math they teach in school keep changing and getting harder? | One could argue that 3+5=8 hasn't changed in, forever.
The pressure is to teach **more math** in the same amount of time. That means that more intensive techniques need to be used, and students must **work harder**. It's not the math that's different, it's how much math you need that's changed since your parents wer... | [
"Traditional mathematics focuses on teaching algorithms that will lead to the correct answer. Because of this focus on application of algorithms, the traditional math student must always use the specific method that is being taught. This kind of algorithmic dependence is de-emphasized in reform mathematics. Reforme... |
why no one appears to be talking about lockheed martin's recent claims to have a breakthrough in nuclear fusion technology. | Because they haven't made a breakthrough yet. They have a design that isn't even complete, let alone a working prototype.
| [
"When Lockheed Martin announced a \"major breakthrough\" in fusion power in October 2014, Lincoln described the process of nuclear fusion for the Australian Science Media Centre. He expressed some reservations about the alleged break-through, noting that achieving an energy output greater than the required energy i... |
what's the point of big research stations in antarctica? | I have a professor that goes to Antarctica yearly to study climate change, by examining Ice cores and sedimentary deposits. A lot of things can only be observed in Antarctica about paleoclimate (how the climate was in the past) because Antarctica is pretty untouched by man. | [
"A number of governments have set up permanent research stations in Antarctica and these bases are widely distributed. Unlike the drifting ice stations set up in the Arctic, the research stations of the Antarctic are constructed either on rock or on ice that is (for practical purposes) fixed in place.\n",
"The lo... |
why does anybody get any kind of insurance? aren't they statistically formulated to rip you off (after calculating probabilities of accidents etc).. | Insurance is designed to protect you from catastrophic loss. You *shouldn't* buy insurance for a TV or Playstation because losing them won't ruin your life. You *should* by insurance for your health, car or house because losing one of those could put you in a financial hole you can't recover from. Most people aren't... | [
"In the United States, economists and consumer advocates generally consider insurance to be worthwhile for low-probability, catastrophic losses, but not for high-probability, small losses. Because of this, consumers are advised to select high deductibles and to not insure losses which would not cause a disruption i... |
Biography recommendation(s) on the space/arms race during the cold war. | Von Braun is kind of overdone — you're not going to find anything too new or interesting. If it were me, I would seek out other, often-overlooked, plenty interesting figures. Theodore von Karman comes to mind. Qian Xuesen is also an interesting case (though not European...). There were Germans who were taken to the USS... | [
"During the Cold War, the magazine committed itself to presenting a balanced view of the physical and human geography of nations beyond the Iron Curtain. The magazine printed articles on Berlin, de-occupied Austria, the Soviet Union, and Communist China that deliberately downplayed politics to focus on culture. In ... |
what is the purpose of the extra gears in my automatic car? when (if ever?) should i use them? | If you're driving down a steep slope, shifting into first or second will hold you back so you don't have to ride your brakes all the way down. I recently drove over Sonora Pass, and there was a large section I had to take in first, and some of it I even had to take in second. | [
"The name Self-Changing Gears is sometimes confusing: the gearboxes are not fully automatic, \"selection\" of gear ratio remains a manual choice, but the gear-changing and any clutch control needed is automated. The gearboxes were used in conjunction with a fluid coupling so no clutch pedal was needed.\n",
"BULLE... |
What differences would we see in the world (technologically and otherwise) if it was proven that p = np? | I actually just started a research project about this and I've interviewed several people about this. An example of what could be solved include extremely accurate weather prediction. However, not every consequence would be beneficial; computer security relies on the fact that some problems are too complex to efficient... | [
"The question of whether P equals NP is one of the most important open questions in theoretical computer science because of the wide implications of a solution. If the answer is yes, many important problems can be shown to have more efficient solutions. These include various types of integer programming problems in... |
why did the dea strike a deal with the sinaloa cartel? | I live in Juárez México, you might have heard of if because at one point in the drug war it was considered the most dangerous city in the world. So I know a bit about this, there are a lot of factors but to summarize, the United States needs the drug trade, it means money , a lot of money, and México is the fastest rou... | [
"When Mexican President Felipe Calderón took office in December 2006, he announced a crackdown on cartels by the Mexican military to stem the increasing violence. After four years, the additional efforts had not slowed the flow of drugs or the killings tied to the drug war. Of the 53,000 arrests made as of 2010, on... |
When did Europeans start to refer to themselves as Europeans? | People identifying themselves as European? That's still rather a strange thing to do for anyone. Only a few people who are seriously supportive of the EU would do that. Most others would either identify mostly by their national identity or even by a regional identity, like Scottish, Catalan or Occitan.
And if one woul... | [
"Yolŋu had known about Europeans before the arrival of British in Australia through their contact with Macassan traders, which probably began around the sixteenth century. Their word for European, \"Balanda\", is derived from \"Hollander\" (Dutch person).\n",
"Historically, learned Europeans were often identified... |
It's often stated that the U.S. has been at war for most of it's history. How does this compare to other states, past and present? | So the question we really need to tackle is: What do you mean by "been at war"? The United States has not *legally* been at war since 1945, which means weve had nearly 70 years of uninterrupted peace since the end of World War Two. Infact, in its history the United States has only issued 5 declarations of war, so (agai... | [
"The history of armed conflicts involving the United States of America spans a period of more than four centuries. A period ranging from the early era of European colonization and the formation of the new national polity that is to become the United States, to its evolvement through technological and political uphe... |
what is redox chemistry and what is it used for? | Redox is a reaction that involves reduction and oxidation of molecules. Examples are electron transfers that happen in living organisms during respiration. | [
"Redox therapy is an experimental therapy that aims to effect an outcome by modifying the levels of pro-oxidant and antioxidant agents in cells. The term \"redox\" is a contraction of \"reduction-oxidation\". For cancer patients, the therapy is predicated on the idea that the redox state of cells may have an effect... |
why the bullshit of naming sequels with original titles? | Don't know the thinking in the game world, but I read the movie industry avoids numbering sequels because the audience thinks they have to have seen all the films in the series to get the new one, lowering the number of people who go to the sequel. Probably something similar applies for video games. | [
"Not all remakes use the same title as the previously released version; the 1966 film \"Walk, Don't Run\", for example, is a remake of the World War II comedy \"The More the Merrier\". This is particularly true for films that are remade from films produced in another language, such as: \"Point of No Return\" (from ... |
how do pearls form? | Here's a hint- It's the same material as their shell.
The sand is an irritant to the soft gooey creature, it can't reach to dislodge a grain of sand that is stuck, so it covers it in a layer of the same stuff the shell is made of. They get the minerals from their diet. Layer after layer it gets incrementally larger, j... | [
"Natural pearls are formed by nature, more or less by chance. On the other hand, cultured pearls are human creations formed by inserting a tissue graft from a donor mollusk, upon which a pearl sac forms, and the inner side precipitates calcium carbonate, in the form of nacre or \"mother-of-pearl\". \n",
"Pearls a... |
Why was property ownership a requirement for voting in early US history? | Hey, this can be traced to the English traditions and views on voting rights. Though, it has to be said, we have to make a distinction between three phases: pre-Revolutionary structures, the 13 states under the Articles of Confederation and Post-US Constitution in 1789.
& #x200B;
Pre-Revolutionary structures varied ... | [
"The Constitution did not originally define who was eligible to vote, allowing each state to decide this status. In the early history of the U.S., most states allowed only white male adult property owners to vote (about 6% of the population). By 1856 property ownership requirements were eliminated in all states, gi... |
Why do I sink faster in water than others? | Buoyancy in water is all about water displacement.
Generally the fatter you are the easier it is to float. If you are more muscular with very little fat then you will sink. This is why it takes a toll on you. You have to work to stay afloat where others can do little to no work for the same effect.
| [
"A human is unlikely to sink entirely into quicksand due to the higher density of the fluid (assuming the quicksand is on dry ground and not under water, but even if underwater, sinking is still improbable). Quicksand has a density of about 2 grams per milliliter, whereas the density of the human body is only about... |
why are gay pride and black pride encouraged while straight pride and white pride are considered as racist ? | I've always found 'pride' to be a shit word for this sort of thing. 'Not-shame' would be more accurate, but there's no good word for that.
Basically in the past and to a degree in the present homosexuals and black people in the United States, amongst other groups, have been subjected to prejudice against them for the... | [
"The Black Gay Pride movement is a movement within the United States for African American members of the LGBT community. Started in the 1990s, Black Gay Pride movements began as a way to provide black LGBT people an alternative to the largely white mainstream LGBT movement. The movement serves as a way for black LG... |
Are there any good books or sources to read up on the mid to late pueblo people of the mesa verde region? | Unfortunately, there aren't too many good and accessible sources on Mesa Verde meant for more general consumption (as opposed to very technical archaeological material).
If you are interested in Ancestral Puebloan archaeology generally (and not just Mesa Verde), then there are three good overviews of Pueblo archaeolo... | [
"Cordell's research focused on the pre-Columbian history of the Southwestern United States. She was particularly interested in the anthropology of the Pueblo Indians, their social organization, their migration and demography and their culture (especially ceramics). In the field of archaeobotany Cordell dealt with t... |
How did ancient archaeological sites like the Palace of Knossos and Troy (but not limited to) get buried? | Most ancient cities quite honestly get torn or burned down due to accidents, conquests, or natural disasters and are subsequently built over.
Tenochtitlan was the Aztec capital. The Aztecs had built and modelled their city over the ancient ruins of Teotihuacan. After the Spanish Conquest and the fall of the Aztec Emp... | [
"The site of the Greek colony and its necropolis have been periodically excavated since the 19th century; even though the site has suffered from erosion (and the tombs also from looting), the digs produced rich findings (archaic ceramics, inscriptions, etc.).\n",
"Among the first archaeological sites discovered i... |
why do leaves turn yellow and wither during fall? | During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees will rest, and live off the food they stored during the summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. They then slowly begin to become waste products of the tree and turn from... | [
"Leaves in temperate, boreal, and seasonally dry zones may be seasonally deciduous (falling off or dying for the inclement season). This mechanism to shed leaves is called abscission. When the leaf is shed, it leaves a leaf scar on the twig. In cold autumns, they sometimes change color, and turn yellow, bright-oran... |
why are americans saying special words for school years, like "sophomore"? | Cambridge!
In or before 1688, Cambridge University used a ranking system for students to help professors keep track of student progress: Fresh Man, Sophmore, Junior Sophister, Senior Sophister. These terms relate to the Greek "Sophos" meaning knowledge and were meant to reflect the amount of knowledge the student pos... | [
"Among high-school and college students in the United States, the words \"freshman\" (or the gender-neutral terms \"frosh\" or \"first year\", sometimes \"freshie\"), \"sophomore\", \"junior\" and \"senior\" refer to the first, second, third, and fourth years respectively. For first-year students, \"frosh\" and \"f... |
when drawing straws, are you more likely to get the short straw if you pick first, or after several people have already picked? | It does not matter. Say there is 5 straws. The first one to pick have a 20% chance of picking the shortest one. Now there is 4 straws so the next person have a 25% chance of picking the shortest one. However that is assuming the first person did not already pick the short straw. And there is an 80% chance that he did n... | [
"Straw is a soft, dry stalks containing small grains such as barley, oats, rice, rye, and wheat. Straw is easy to handle and available in most agricultural areas. When deciding to use straw, is imperative to make sure that the straw is not palatable. To do this, the seed must be checked to ensure it is not availabl... |
Is it possible to ever encounter plastic in nature that wasn't made by humans? | Not in the strictest sense, as most definitions I have seen for plastic specifically use the words synthetic or man-made. As such a non-manmade plastic is impossible.
However plastics are really just polymers, long chain molecules that are usually organic (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, maybe a few heavier elements). The... | [
"A 2004 study by Richard Thompson from the University of Plymouth, UK, found a great amount of microdebris on the beaches and waters in Europe, the Americas, Australia, Africa, and Antarctica. Thompson and his associates found that plastic pellets from both domestic and industrial sources were being broken down int... |
If you are on the moon, does Earth appear to go through phases? | Yes.
In fact, it will be the exact opposite of whatever phase the Moon is in as seen from Earth. So if it's a New Moon as seen from Earth, it will be a Full Earth as seen from the Moon; if the Moon is in a waxing crescent phase, Earth will be in a waning gibbous phase. | [
"The lunar phase or phase of the Moon is the shape of the directly sunlit portion of the Moon as viewed from Earth. The lunar phases gradually and cyclically change over the period of a synodic month (about 29.53 days), as the orbital positions of the Moon around Earth and of Earth around the Sun shift.\n",
"In w... |
Why were the soldiers after WW1 seemingly so much more traumatized than the soldiers after WW2? | I'd say it's a difference of depiction more than anything else. The fact that more armies and more soldiers fought in WWII than in WWI, the new weapons available, the extent of the destruction caused by the war, and the extent of the atrocities committed in WWII, the trauma of the second world war was probably of a muc... | [
"Soldiers (and other frontline personnel) returning home from World War I suffered greatly from the horrors of war that they had witnessed. Many returning veterans suffered from what was then known as shell shock; now known as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).\n",
"Veterans of World War I had little affectio... |
What mathematical structure represents a spin-3/2 field? | You might be interested in the [Rarita-Schwinger equation](_URL_0_). The field is represented by a spinor. | [
"Spin is a 2-to-1 cover, while in even dimension, is a 2-to-1 cover, and in odd dimension is a 1-to-1 cover; i.e., isomorphic to . These groups, , , and are Lie group forms of the compact special orthogonal Lie algebra, formula_39 – Spin is the simply connected form, while PSO is the centerless form, and SO is in g... |
double exposure | Originally, a double exposure is an accident where a camera does not advance the film to the next frame, and you take a second picture ontop of the first. This often results in a mess, but sometimes it makes an interesting effect.
Using digital cameras, the term 'double exposure' is somewhat misleading. New cameras ac... | [
"In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be identical to each other.\n",
"Double Exposures (A.K.A. Alibi Breaker) is... |
how do animals that come back from extinction overcome inbreeding problems | They don't. At least not in the short-term. In the short-term they're absolutely will be inbreeding related problems associated with that bottleneck.
In the long-term if the species does survive, it does so because the problematic genes that have been over-represented in the population are slowly culled out by natural... | [
"Inbreeding and genetic diversity loss often occur with endangered species populations because they have small and/or declining populations. Loss of genetic diversity lowers the ability of a population to deal with change in their environment and can make individuals within the community homogeneous. If this occurs... |
why is unrefined sugar more expensive than white
sugar? by the same token, why do whole grain
products like whole grain bread and brown rice
tend to be more expensive than their white, refined
counterparts? surely, refining should add extra
cost? | In a third world country unrefined food is cheaper than refined food. But in the western world they realized they can charge more by calling it "healthy". | [
"Brown and white granulated sugar are 97% to nearly 100% carbohydrates, respectively, with less than 2% water, and no dietary fiber, protein or fat (table). Brown sugar contains a moderate amount of iron (15% of the Reference Daily Intake in a 100 gram amount, see table), but a typical serving of 4 grams (one teasp... |
what is that bubbling creaking sound that my eyeballs make when i'm tired and i rub them? | Wen you rub your eyes from left to right and vice versa, especially over the joint of the two lids, you are causing air to get into and under your eye lids. This forms bubbles and makes squishy noises.
This seems to happen more if you are short sighted, because that means that your eyeball is not exactly spherical and... | [
"Periorbital puffiness, also known as puffy eyes, or swelling around the eyes, is the appearance of swelling in the tissues around the eyes, called the orbits. It is almost exclusively caused by fluid buildup around the eyes, or periorbital edema. Minor puffiness usually detectable below the eyes only is often call... |
How does the quantum tunneling effect limit development of micro processors and how do we overcome that? | When transistors get to a certain size, they can’t always hold electrons back, which can cause false signals and errors in computations. As far as I know, we can’t directly overcome tunneling, we can only work around it. | [
"Fundamental quantum mechanical concepts are central to this phenomenon, which makes quantum tunnelling one of the novel implications of quantum mechanics. Quantum tunneling is projected to create physical limits to the size of the transistors used in microprocessors, due to electrons being able to \"tunnel\" past ... |
Do the rate of calorie intake and weight gain have any relationship? | eating an extra 4k in a day would drastically alter hormones via increasing insulin and a variety of other hormones (thyroid hormone for example). these drastic hormone deviations shouldn't be seen if you only eat a couple hundred extra kcal per day.
i'm not quite sure, but I believe the drastic changes in hormone le... | [
"Weight gain has a latency period. The effect that eating has on weight gain can vary greatly depending on the following factors: energy (calorie) density of foods, exercise regimen, amount of water intake, amount of salt contained in the food, time of day eaten, age of individual, individual's country of origin, i... |
When listening to music with earbuds/headphones, how are the producers/artists able to make the music only play on one side? | This is called stereophonic sound, or simply stereo. It works by storing the music in 2 separate channels, one intended to be played by the speaker (or earbud) on the left side and one for the right side.
On the recording side, this effect is created by using specific microphone setups, for example two microphones pla... | [
"Conventional music recording is produced for stereo playback which makes use of only Left and Right playback for speakers and headphones. The implementation of Dummy Head allows the recording artist to make use of three dimensional sound reproduction. This is because through playback via headphones the listener pe... |
Wikipedia says that when Constantinople fell and the Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque, the mosiacs depicting Jesus were either covered or destroyed. Since Muslims believe in Jesus, why were these mosaics covered or destroyed? | Well the thing is, that during the first centuries of Hagia Sophia's history as a Mosque the mosaics were infact uncovered and were still prominently on display. When Cornelius Loos made his engravings of Constantinople around 1710, he documented the mosaics [pretty clearly](_URL_0_) (this example is particularily stri... | [
"The 9th- and 10th-century mosaics of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople are truly classical Byzantine artworks. The north and south tympana beneath the dome was decorated with figures of prophets, saints and patriarchs. Above the principal door from the narthex we can see an \"Emperor kneeling before Christ\" (lat... |
Why do certain materials in my dishwasher retain water so much longer than others? | Heat capacity.
Ceramic/Metallic objects can store a lot more heat during the long wash/rinse cycles than plastic objects can. During the drying cycle, that helps evaporate any water that remains on them, while the plastic objects cool off before the water evaporates. | [
"Absorption or desorption of water (or other solvents) can change the size of many common materials; many organic materials change size much more due to this effect than due to thermal expansion. Common plastics exposed to water can, in the long term, expand by many percent.\n",
"The heat inside the dishwasher dr... |
why shouldn't you clean your earwax? | Cleaning earwax is fine, cleaning too much is when their is an issue. As earwax protects your ears from excess sound, so too little earwax can result in damaged eardrums.
I normally just wrap a tissue round my little finger and clean my ear, this means that only some wax is cleaned as the finger is too big to go fully... | [
"Ear cleaning in general may also be ineffective when used by one with little experience or guidance. When done incorrectly, significant amounts of ear wax may be pushed deeper into the ear canal rather than removed. The lining of the ear is delicate and can be easily damaged. The ear is also self-cleaning and earw... |
why is there little to no border security between european nations. | There's an agreement between many European countries called the Schengen Agreement. This means they have all agreed to abolish border controls between their countries, and cooperate on maintaining border controls with countries outside of the Schengen Area. So for the purposes of border controls, it's as if they were a... | [
"European Union laws prohibit systematic customs checks at any border between two members of its Customs Union. So, there is permanent customs facility at the borders with these countries. However, France has borders with non members of this Union : Switzerland, Andorra, Brazil and Surinam. At these borders are loc... |
How did ancient/medieval wars lasting for dozens, hundred+ years work? | The Peloponnesian War lasted over two dozen years (431–404 BC). Think of it as being something akin to the Cold War (the modern one between USA and Russia) where it is mostly political maneuvering and proxy wars. However unlike the Cold War, direct and intense fighting between the two biggest warring states (Sparta and... | [
"The Hundred Years' War was a time of rapid military evolution. Weapons, tactics, army structure and the social meaning of war all changed, partly in response to the war's costs, partly through advancement in technology and partly through lessons that warfare taught. The feudal system was slowly disintegrating thro... |
Did the Communist party have any chance of success in the post WW1 world? | In hindsight, they probably did not have much of a chance of success. Electoral Communism had its high-water mark on the Continent as minor coalition partners to much-farther-right, distinctly-anti-Soviet labor and social democratic parties in proportional representation nations. (It never had more than one or two MP... | [
"The Communist Party and its allies played an important role in the United States labor movement, particularly in the 1930s and 1940s, but never succeeded, with rare exceptions, either in bringing the labor movement around to its agenda of fighting for socialism and full workers' control over industry, or in conver... |
Would deep-sea pressure have any effect on explosions? | Yes:
_URL_0_
During such an explosion, the hot gas bubble quickly collapses because:
The water pressure is enormous deeper than 2,000 feet.
The expansion reduces gas pressure, which decreases temperature.
Rayleigh–Taylor instability at the gas/water boundary causes "fingers" of water to extend into the bubble, incre... | [
"The blast caused by a sudden release of the gas pressure inside a diving cylinder makes them very dangerous if mismanaged. The greatest risk of explosion exists while filling, but cylinders have also been known to burst when overheated. The cause of failure can range from reduced wall thickness or deep pitting due... |
why soldiers are such a big deal in the us, while for europe for example it isn't such a big deal. | I don't know the answer and am braced for the downvotes but Americans seen to get very overenthused about a lot of things.
Halloween, Christmas, thanksgiving, soldiers. The world series of sports that only America plays etc. | [
"BULLET::::- The United States Army – Exhausted from all the heavy fighting across the world; it struggles to keep American superpower dominance in the world. The US Army has the power to balance out all types of combat and situations out in the field. The US Army has a brute force of veterans, as they can skill up... |
Did the Rome begin what we now understand to be civilisation? | So, "civilization" is a pretty terrible term. It seems to be ranking different people in a way where "civilized" is good and developed and "uncivilized" is bad and primitive. In addition, by selecting some traits as necessary traits for a "civilization" we exclude people who might suit the term in other ways. For in... | [
"Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern language, religion, society, technology, law, politics, government, warfare, art, literature, architecture and engineering. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called \"res publica\", the inspiration for modern repu... |
how i can circumvent internet censorship with proxy's and vpns. | [Tor](_URL_0_) is pretty good. They have a firefox plugin that gives you a button to enable or disable it. When you request a webpage through Tor, your request gets encrypted and sent to one of the Tor nodes out in the internet. That node sends it encrypted to another one, who then sends it encrypted to another one,... | [
"Some networks have an HTTP proxy which can be used to speed up web access when multiple users visit the same websites, and to get past blocking software while the owner is using the network of some institution that might block certain sites. Public proxies are often slow and unreliable and so it is worth the troub... |
During nuclear fission in uranium, what kind of radioactive rays are emitted? Alpha, Beta or Gamma? | All of them can result from a fission reaction.
After each fission reaction has occurred, the products may generally be in excited states, which can gamma decay to the ground state. Fission products tend to be neutron-rich, so they will usually beta decay one or more times to reach stability. Alpha emission from fiss... | [
"The total prompt gamma ray energy in a fission explosion is 3.5% of the yield, but in a 10 [[Nuclear weapon yield|kiloton]] detonation the triggering explosive around the bomb core absorbs about 85% of the prompt gamma rays, so the output is only about 0.5% of the yield. In the [[Nuclear fusion|thermonuclear]] Sta... |
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