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king solomon and his temple
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According to the Bible, Solomon was the son of King David, and the third ruler of the Kingdom of Israel. He is supposed to have been the one who commissioned the construction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which became the place of worship for what is now the Jewish religion. In the year 586 BCE, the Temple was destroyed by the Babylonian empire. Later on, a second Temple was built on the same spot (the spot currently occupied by the Dome of the Rock), which was renovated by King Herod, and then destroyed during the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. As an aside, both Temples were destroyed on the same date of the Hebrew calendar, which is coming up next Tuesday. Anyway, a lot of the conspiracy theories surrounding Solomon's Temple have to do with two groups. First, the Knights Templar, who, during the Crusades, set up their base on the site of the Temple. They went on to be the subject of approximately a metric fuckton of rumors, legends, and theories, including what they may have found on the Temple Mount. The second group is the Freemasons. Masons trace their traditions back to the artisans employed by Solomon to build the Temple, and they are very popular targets for conspiracy theories. To further complicate things, there is very little in the way of written extra-bibilical records of the time period in which Solomon would have lived (not to mention the fact that archaeologists are not in agreement as to when exactly that time period was) *and* the fact that the site of the two Temples is unavailable for excavation, and so much of the archaeological record has already been destroyed during construction and repair work on the two Muslim holy sites currently located there.
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[
"King Solomon is one of the central biblical figures in Jewish heritage that have lasting religious, national and political aspects. As the builder of the First Temple in Jerusalem and last ruler of the united Kingdom of Israel before its division into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah, Solomon is associated with the peak \"golden age\" of the independent Kingdom of Israel as well as a source of judicial and religious wisdom. According to Jewish tradition, King Solomon wrote three books of the Bible:\n",
"Solomon's Temple appears in \"Solomon and Sheba\" (1959) and in the novel \"King Solomon's Mines\" (1885). It also appears in the video game \"Assassin's Creed\" where the main character Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad deal with Robert de Sablé. It appears too on \"Assassin's Creed Unity\" (2014) where the Knight Templar Jacques de Molay is burned and died.\n",
"According to the Bible Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the Holy Temple (Hebrew: בֵּית־הַמִּקְדָּשׁ: Bet HaMikdash) in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount (also known as Mount Zion). Before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE. There is no archaeological evidence for the existence of Solomon's Temple, and no mention of it in the surviving contemporary extra-biblical literature.\n",
"BULLET::::- Solomon's Temple – the First Temple, was the main temple in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount (also known as Mount Zion), before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE.\n",
"There are many features in common with Solomon's Temple as described in the Book of Kings. The layout of Dara is similar to that of the Biblical temple, which was also of a long room plan with the three room configuration of a portico at the entrance followed by the main chamber with the shrine. The difference is in the antechamber, which is an add-on in the Ain Dara temple. The size of the Solomon temple was by while that of the Ain Dara is long by wide without side chambers. Other similarities include: location on a high raised site overlooking a city; erected on a raised platform, with a narrow portico and a roof supported on pillars flanked by reliefs on the walls, and carvings of similar motifs; and the raised podium. In brief, 33 of the architectural elements found in Ain Dara are tallied with 65 of the features mentioned in the Biblical description of Solomon's Temple.\n",
"Solomon's throne is said to have been a spectacle, seeing that it was one of the earliest mechanical devices built by man. Solomon also constructed great works for the purpose of securing a plentiful supply of water for the city, and the Millo (Septuagint, \"Acra\") for the defense of the city. However, excavations of Jerusalem have shown a distinct lack of monumental architecture from the era, and remains of neither the Temple nor Solomon's palace have been found.\n",
"Solomon's Temple is a central symbol of Freemasonry which holds that the first three Grand Masters were King Solomon, King Hiram I of Tyre, and Hiram Abiff—the craftsman/architect who built the temple. Masonic initiation rites include the reenactment of a scene set on the Temple Mount while it was under construction. Every Masonic Lodge, therefore, is symbolically the Temple for the duration of the degree and possesses ritual objects representing the architecture of the Temple. These may either be built into the hall or be portable. Among the most prominent are replicas of the pillars Boaz and Jachin through which every initiate has to pass.\n"
] |
with all of our technological advancements, why haven't we been able to recover the titanic yet?
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It is possible, but to what ends and who would finance it. It would be outrageously expensive and they would be bringing up nothing but nearly rotten metal. But it can be done, check this [link](_URL_0_)
*edit for spelling
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[
"Since its initial discovery, the wreck of \"Titanic\" has been revisited on numerous occasions by explorers, scientists, filmmakers, tourists and salvagers, who have recovered thousands of items from the debris field for conservation and public display. The ship's condition has deteriorated significantly over the years, particularly from accidental damage by submersibles but mostly because of an accelerating rate of growth of iron-eating bacteria on the hull. In 2006, it was estimated that within 50 years the hull and structure of \"Titanic\" would eventually collapse entirely, leaving only the more durable interior fittings of the ship intermingled with a pile of rust on the sea floor.\n",
"Almost immediately after \"Titanic\" sank on 15 April 1912, proposals were advanced to salvage her from her resting place in the North Atlantic Ocean, despite her exact location and condition being unknown. The families of several wealthy victims of the disaster – the Guggenheims, Astors, and Wideners – formed a consortium and contracted the Merritt and Chapman Derrick and Wrecking Company to raise \"Titanic\". The project was soon abandoned as impractical as the divers could not even reach a significant fraction of the necessary depth, where the pressure is over . The lack of submarine technology at the time as well as the outbreak of World War I also put off such a project. The company considered dropping dynamite on the wreck to dislodge bodies which would float to the surface, but finally gave up after oceanographers suggested that the extreme pressure would have compressed the bodies into gelatinous lumps. In fact, this was incorrect. Whale falls, a phenomenon not discovered until 1987—coincidentally, by the same submersible used for the first manned expedition to \"Titanic\" the year before—demonstrate that water-filled corpses, in this case cetaceans, can sink to the bottom essentially intact. The high pressure and cold temperature of the water would have prevented significant quantities of gas forming during decomposition, preventing the bodies of \"Titanic\" victims from rising back to the surface.\n",
"However, the sinking of the \"Titanic\" did not bring about the end of the IMM. Although theoretically powerful due to its continued influence with some of the top American, British, and German shipping companies, the overseeing company never managed to overcome its own financial problems, nor dominate the bulk of the North Atlantic shipping trade, and was therefore not as successful as expected. The company went into receivership in 1915 and was placed in the hands of Franklin, who managed to save it. In the late 1920s, he received grants from the government to American ships (built in the United States or flying the flag) and in 1926 it sold the White Star Line to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. for £7 million, of which £2.35 million was still unpaid when the Royal Mail Group, which was overleveraged and undercapitalized, collapsed in the early 1930s. In 1930, IMM possessed 30 vessels. There were 19 in 1933 and only 11 by 1935.\n",
"In 2006 the Replica \"Titanic\" project was scrapped due to high costs and a low amount of support for the project. The last \"Titanic\" survivor, Millvina Dean, had expressed her opposition to the project.\n",
"Analysis by Henrietta Mann and Bhavleen Kaur, both of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in conjunction with other scientists and researchers of the University of Seville in Spain, has determined that the wreck of \"Titanic\" will not exist by 2037 and that preservation of \"Titanic\" is impossible. \"Unfortunately, because Titanic is 2.3 miles down, it is very difficult or impossible to preserve. It is film which will preserve it for history now,\" says Mann. \"It has already lasted for 100 years, but eventually there will be nothing left but a rust stain on the bottom of the Atlantic... I think Titanic has maybe 15 or 20 years left. I don't think it will have too much longer than that.\" Other scientists have estimated that \"Titanic\" will last no longer than 14 years, as of 2017.\n",
"In 2006 the Replica \"Titanic\" project was scrapped due to high costs and a low amount of support for the project. The last \"Titanic\" survivor to pass away, Millvina Dean, had expressed her opposition to the project.\n",
"Many scientists, including Robert Ballard, are concerned that visits by tourists in submersibles and the recovery of artefacts are causing the wreck to decay faster. Underwater bacteria have been eating away at \"Titanic\"s steel and transformed it into rust since the ship sank, but because of the extra damage caused by visitors, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that \"the hull and structure of the ship may collapse to the ocean floor within the next 50 years.\" The promenade deck has deteriorated significantly in recent years, partly because of damage caused by submersibles landing on the ship. The mast has almost completely deteriorated and has been stripped of its bell and brass light. Other damage includes a gash on the bow section where block letters once spelled \"Titanic\", part of the brass telemotor which once held the ship's wooden wheel is now twisted and the crow's nest has completely deteriorated. The Canadian director James Cameron is responsible for some of the more significant damage during his expedition to the ship in 1995 to acquire footage for his film \"Titanic\" two years later. One of the MIR submersibles used on the expedition collided with the hull, damaging both and leaving fragments of the submersible's propeller shroud scattered around the superstructure. Captain Smith's quarters were heavily damaged by the collapse of the external bulkhead, which exposed the cabin's interior.\n"
] |
is it possible to convert ocean (salt) water into drinking water? or is there some inherent property preventing this?
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Yes it is possible. The inherent property that makes it difficult is salt.
There are two basic ways to convert it.
1) Distill the water by boiling it and catching the steam. This takes a massive amount of energy and cannot really be done at a high enough volume to supply a community with water.
2) Filter water. The filter plants are complex and hard to build so they are cost prohibitive, take years to build, and they do take a fair bit of energy to run, but several plants can provide water for a town or even a small city. Those however are not likely to be able to afford to pay for its construction or operation and the technology is not sufficient to provide for large cities yet.
The US, Australia, and a few other countries are putting significant effort in developing better technology that is cheaper and can filter higher volumes but that tech is years or decades out.
|
[
"Saltwater is desalinated to produce water suitable for human consumption or irrigation. One by-product of desalination is salt. Desalination is used on many seagoing ships and submarines. Most of the modern interest in desalination is focused on cost-effective provision of fresh water for human use. Along with recycled wastewater, it is one of the few rainfall-independent water sources.\n",
"BULLET::::- US and German scientists develop a simple and efficient new method for desalinating seawater, using a small electric field to separate salt from water without needing complex filter membranes.\n",
"Fresh water can be obtained from salt water by desalination. For example, Malta derives two thirds of its freshwater by desalination. A number of nuclear powered desalination plants exist; however, the high costs of desalination, especially for poor countries, makes the transport of large amounts of desalinated seawater to interiors of large countries impractical. The cost of desalination varies; Israel is now desalinating water for a cost of 53 cents per cubic meter, Singapore at 49 cents per cubic meter. In the United States, the cost is 81 cents per cubic meter ($3.06 for 1,000 gallons).\n",
"In the correct climate (one for which the ratio of evaporation to rainfall is suitably high) it is possible to use solar evaporation of sea water to produce salt. Brine is evaporated in a linked set of ponds until the solution is sufficiently concentrated by the final pond so that the salt crystallizes on the pond's floor.\n",
"Non-saline surface water uses is replenished by precipitation and by recruitment from ground-water. It is lost through evaporation, seepage into the ground where it becomes ground-water, used by plants for transpiration, extracted by mankind for agriculture, living, industry etc. or discharged to the sea where it becomes saline.\n",
"The Earth has a limited though renewable supply of fresh water, stored in aquifers, surface waters and the atmosphere. Oceans are a good source of usable water, but the amount of energy needed to convert saline water to potable water is prohibitive with conventional approaches, explaining why only a very small fraction of the world's water supply is derived from desalination. However, modern technologies, such as the Seawater Greenhouse, use solar energy to desalinate seawater for agriculture and drinking uses in an extremely cost-effective manner.\n",
"Salt is expensive to remove from water, and salt content is an important factor in water use (such as potability). Increases in salinity have been observed in lakes and rivers in the United States, due to common road salt and other salt de-icers in runoff.\n"
] |
Has there ever been an event similar to the Arab spring?
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Yes. One of the best examples of such a thing was the [European Revolutions of 1848](_URL_1_). This was a period of numerous revolutions which sprouted from nationalistic sentiment and agitation.
It largely spawned from the rapidly changing nature of society in the 1800s. Industrialisation was changing the role of the working class from n agrarian to manufacturing society, particularly in western European cities. This resulted in greater social collections of people within manufacturing districts. Technological advances that happened along side this promoted a popular press amongst the working masses, and allowed them to become increasingly politically aware. As Benedict Anderson (briefly) mentions in his work 'Imagined Communities', this happened at a time when socialist and nationalist goals were becoming far more prevalent, and being exchanged amongst the masses.
It has been argued (though contentiously, I might add) the feelings of the developing middle class largely fell in line with these nationalist goals that were being thrown around. I would argue that it was less that their interests were the same, and more that both working and middle classes were anti-aristocracy, especially after the experiences of [Enlightened Absolutism](_URL_0_) in the 1700s, and of course the overthrow of monarchical authority during the French Revolution.
The spark was provided in Italy, with a small scale revolt in Sicily. The real wave of revolutionary fervour was started by the 1848 French Revolution, with numerous other western nations riding the wave of revolutionary fervour, much as like happened with the Northern African and Arab countries in 2011. Revolution reached as far as Western Ukraine, and arguably reached a global scale in South America, though I again see this as a tenuous link to draw. Even the peace in Britain during this period was broken (albeit peacefully) by Chartist agitation, which resulted in mass rallies calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws, which effectively prohibited foreign trade of corn. Its original intention 30 years earlier was to help struggling farmers in a time of high wages and prices, but in a rapidly expanding and increasingly commercialised world, this became ineffective.
|
[
"The Arab Spring was a wave of uprisings and protests in North Africa and the Middle East. The first disturbances were in December 2010 in Tunisia. However, in March 2011, when the Arab Spring reached Syria, the Syrian Civil war broke out. This led to tensions with its northern neighbor of Turkey. The Turkish government, as a member of NATO, asked the alliance for help to protect its airspace from possible missile attacks from Syria, thus causing a possible wider war.\n",
"The Arab Spring is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010. To date, rulers have been forced from power in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen; civil uprisings have erupted in Bahrain and Syria; major protests have broken out in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Oman; and minor protests have occurred in Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Western Sahara. Clashes at the borders of Israel in May 2011, as well as protests by Arab minority in Iranian Khuzestan, have also been inspired by the regional Arab Spring.\n",
"In late 2010, the \"Arab Spring\" arose in response to unrest over economic stagnation but also in opposition to oppressive authoritarian regimes, first in Tunisia and spreading to Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain, and elsewhere. Regimes were toppled in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and partially in Yemen, and other countries saw riots, civil wars or insurgencies.\n",
"The Arab Spring was a wave of protests, uprisings and revolutions that erupted at the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011. Starting from the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid and spreading throughout the country, the Tunisian Revolution began in mid-December 2010 and was soon faced with government repression. On 14 January 2011, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia. Inspired by the events, the Egyptians organized similar protests on 25 January, which also swelled and spread all over the country. After several failed attempts to stop the movement, President Hosni Mubarak announced his resignation and transferred power to the army on 11 February. These events \"jolted the rest of the region\" and several other Arab countries were quick to follow suit.\n",
"The Arab Spring was a revolution of both peaceful and violent protests in 2011, with most of the action confined to Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Syria, and Bahrain. The protests were in response to mass citizen dissatisfaction of authoritative governments, as well as the lack of freedom of the press, information, and democratic values.\n",
"BULLET::::- the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, starting in Tunisia in December 2010, and resulting, in 2011, in the fall of rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. In some countries the movements were followed by war (e.g. Syrian Civil War and War in Yemen) or by a return to military rule, as in Egypt in 2013 following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011\n",
"The Arab Spring (Arabic: الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions that spread across North Africa and the Middle East in the early 2010s. It began in response to oppressive regimes and a low standard of living, starting with protests in Tunisia (Noueihed, 2011; Maleki, 2011). In the news, social media has been heralded as the driving force behind the swift spread of revolution throughout the world, as new protests appear in response to success stories shared from those taking place in other countries (see Howard, 2011). In many countries, the governments have also recognized the importance of social media for organizing and have shut down certain sites or blocked Internet service entirely, especially in the times preceding a major rally (see The Telegraph, 2011). Governments have also scrutinized or suppressed discussion in those forums through accusing content creators of unrelated crimes or shutting down communication on specific sites or groups, such as through Facebook (Solomon, 2011; Seyid, 2011).\n"
] |
why do people still vouch for supply-side economics?
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This is an answer I gave this in r/asksocialscience about a month ago _URL_0_
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[
"Supply-side economics is a school of macroeconomic thought that argues that overall economic well-being is maximized by lowering the barriers to producing goods and services (the \"Supply Side\" of the economy). By lowering such barriers, consumers are thought to benefit from a greater supply of goods and services at lower prices. Typical supply-side policy would advocate generally lower income tax and capital gains tax rates (to increase the supply of labor and capital), smaller government and a lower regulatory burden on enterprises (to lower costs). Although tax policy is often mentioned in relation to supply-side economics, supply-side economists are concerned with all impediments to the supply of goods and services and not just taxation.\n",
"Advocates of supply-side policies believe those policies can solve this by making the labour market more flexible. These include removing the minimum wage and reducing the power of unions. Supply-siders argue the reforms increase long-term growth by reducing labour costs. This increased supply of goods and services requires more workers, increasing employment. It is argued that supply-side policies, which include cutting taxes on businesses and reducing regulation, create jobs, reduce unemployment and decrease labour's share of national income. Other supply-side policies include education to make workers more attractive to employers.\n",
"Supply-side economics is a school of macroeconomic thought that argues that economic growth can be most effectively created by lowering barriers for people to produce (supply) goods and services, such as adjusting income tax and capital gains tax rates and by allowing greater flexibility by reducing regulation. Consumers will then benefit from a greater supply of goods and services at lower prices.\n",
"The theory of supply and demand usually assumes that markets are perfectly competitive. This implies that there are many buyers and sellers in the market and none of them have the capacity to significantly influence prices of goods and services. In many real-life transactions, the assumption fails because some individual buyers or sellers have the ability to influence prices. Quite often, a sophisticated analysis is required to understand the demand-supply equation of a good model. However, the theory works well in situations meeting these assumptions.\n",
"Supply-side economics is a macroeconomic theory arguing that economic growth can be most effectively created by lowering taxes and decreasing regulation, by which it is directly opposed to demand-side economics. According to supply-side economics, consumers will then benefit from a greater supply of goods and services at lower prices and employment will increase.\n",
"Supply-side economics developed during the 1970s in response to Keynesian economic policy and in particular the failure of demand management to stabilize Western economies during the stagflation of the 1970s in the wake of the oil crisis in 1973. It drew on a range of non-Keynesian economic thought, particularly Austrian School thinking on entrepreneurship and new classical macroeconomics. The intellectual roots of supply-side economics have also been traced back to various early economic thinkers such as Ibn Khaldun, Jonathan Swift, David Hume, Adam Smith and Alexander Hamilton. Typical policy recommendations of supply-side economics are lower marginal tax rates and less regulation. Maximum benefits from taxation policy are achieved by optimizing the marginal tax rates to spur growth, although it is a common misunderstanding that supply side economics is concerned only with taxation policy when it is about removing barriers to production more generally.\n",
"Because there is no new productive sector to emerge, the market system seeks to reinstate its new balance through new modes of doing business. Deglobalization is taking place, supply chains are turning into demand chains, large economies are focusing on their internal markets, outsourcing is followed by “backsourcing”, returning activities back to the countries and locations of their origin. The original slogan of “Think globally, act locally,” is being re-interpreted as exploiting global information and knowledge in local action, under local conditions and contexts.\n"
] |
Do satellites maintain the same velocity forever?
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I'm going to answer your question, but just because somebody will "correct" me if I don't touch on it first: in an elliptical orbit, the velocity does change, because the speed and direction of the satellite's motion is changing throughout the orbit. But of course I understand what you mean - whether an orbit loses energy, or whether it can keep on going on forever.
In practical terms, yes, orbits can and do lose energy. In particular, this happens in low Earth orbit, because there's still a very thin amount of atmosphere up there. This produces a weak drag force, which has to be countered. The International Space Station actually has to have little boosts now and again, or else it will start to slow down and fall to the Earth.
Satellites and the Earth are also not perfect spheres, and there are also other gravitating bodies in the solar system. These effects can produce mild torques on satellite orbits that can cause their orbits to precess. If things are aligned right, this can sometimes add up to quite a significant effect.
But even in an idealised universe where you can ignore all of those effects, the system will still radiate gravitational waves, which means that the system is *extremely* slowly losing energy, and the satellite could theoretically slow down and plummet to Earth. But in reality, for anything but the most massive objects, this is absurdly slow. Real satellites would be affected more by space gas or the Moon or Jupiter than by gravitational waves.
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[
"As the orbital period of a satellite increases, approaching the rotational period of the Earth (in other words, as its average orbital speed slows towards the rotational speed of the Earth), its sinusoidal ground track will become compressed longitudinally, meaning that the \"nodes\" (the points at which it crosses the equator) will become closer together, until at geosynchronous orbit they lie directly on top of each other. For orbital periods \"longer\" than the Earth's rotational period, an increase in orbital period corresponds to a longitudinal stretching out of the (apparent retrograde) ground track.\n",
"A satellite whose orbital period is an integer fraction of a day (e.g., 24 hours, 12 hours, 8 hours, etc.) will follow roughly the same ground track every day. This ground track is shifted east or west depending on the longitude of the ascending node, which can vary over time due to perturbations of the orbit. If the period of the satellite is slightly longer than an integer fraction of a day, the ground track will shift west over time; if it is slightly shorter, the ground track will shift east.\n",
"To achieve an orbit, a spacecraft must travel faster than a sub-orbital spaceflight. The energy required to reach Earth orbital velocity at an altitude of is about 36 MJ/kg, which is six times the energy needed merely to climb to the corresponding altitude. Spacecraft with a perigee below about are subject to drag from the Earth's atmosphere, which decreases the orbital altitude. The rate of orbital decay depends on the satellite's cross-sectional area and mass, as well as variations in the air density of the upper atmosphere. Below about , decay becomes more rapid with lifetimes measured in days. Once a satellite descends to , it has only hours before it vaporizes in the atmosphere. The escape velocity required to pull free of Earth's gravitational field altogether and move into interplanetary space is about .\n",
"Fast moving satellites can have a Doppler shift of dozens of kilohertz relative to a ground station. The speed, thus magnitude of Doppler effect, changes due to earth curvature. Dynamic Doppler compensation, where the frequency of a signal is changed progressively during transmission, is used so the satellite receives a constant frequency signal.\n",
"For example, a geostationary satellite completes one orbit per day above the equator, or 360 degrees per 24 hours, and has angular velocity \"ω\" = 360 / 24 = 15 degrees per hour, or 2π / 24 ≈ 0.26 radians per hour. If angle is measured in radians, the linear velocity is the radius times the angular velocity, formula_1. With orbital radius 42,000 km from the earth's center, the satellite's speed through space is thus \"v\" = 42,000 × 0.26 ≈ 11,000 km/hr. The angular velocity is positive since the satellite travels eastward with the Earth's rotation (counter-clockwise from above the north pole.)\n",
"Spacecraft with a perigee below about are subject to drag from the Earth's atmosphere, which decreases the orbital altitude. The rate of orbital decay depends on the satellite's cross-sectional area and mass, as well as variations in the air density of the upper atmosphere. Below about , decay becomes more rapid with lifetimes measured in days. Once a satellite descends to , it has only hours before it vaporizes in the atmosphere. The escape velocity required to pull free of Earth's gravitational field altogether and move into interplanetary space is about .\n",
"If one wants a satellite to fly over some given spot on Earth every day at the same hour, it can do between 7 and 16 orbits per day, as shown in the following table. (The table has been calculated assuming the periods given. The orbital period that should be used is actually slightly longer. For instance, a retrograde equatorial orbit that passes over the same spot after 24 hours has a true period about ≈ 1.0027 times longer than the time between overpasses. For non-equatorial orbits the factor is closer to 1.)\n"
] |
What is the trick to making a Rupert's drop?
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When I did it in my materials science lab as an undergrad we used a bunsen burner to melt glass stirring rods and let it drop into a bucket of ice water. How are you doing it?
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[
"Prince Rupert's drops are produced by dropping molten glass drops into cold water. The water rapidly cools and solidifies the glass from the outside inward. This thermal quenching may be described using a simplified model of a rapidly cooled sphere. Prince Rupert's drops have remained a scientific curiosity for nearly 400 years due to two unusual mechanical properties: when the tail is snipped, the drop disintegrates explosively into powder, whereas the bulbous head can withstand compressive forces of up to .\n",
"Prince Rupert's drops (also known as Dutch or Batavian tears) are toughened glass beads created by dripping molten glass into cold water, which causes it to solidify into a tadpole-shaped droplet with a long, thin tail. These droplets are characterized internally by very high residual stresses, which give rise to counter-intuitive properties, such as the ability to withstand a blow from a hammer or a bullet on the bulbous end without breaking, while exhibiting explosive disintegration if the tail end is even slightly damaged. In nature, similar structures are produced under certain conditions in volcanic lava and are known as Pele's tears.\n",
"The drop swindle was a confidence trick commonly used during the 19th and 20th centuries. Employing a variety of techniques the con usually consists of the \"dropper\", who purposely drops a wallet containing counterfeit money near a potential victim. As the victim goes to pick it up the \"dropper\" turns to pick it up at the same moment pretending to have found the wallet as well. Acting as if he is in a hurry the \"dropper\" offers to give the wallet to the victim in exchange for money while the victim can claim the reward from the owner. One of the leading practitioners of this confidence trick was \"Kid Dropper\" Nathan Kaplan, an early twentieth century gangster. \n",
"The French drop, also known as \"\"Le Tourniquet\"\", is a sleight of hand method used by magicians to vanish a small object such as a coin. It is one of the oldest methods of vanishing, however it is still effective when properly executed. Although the method is known as a vanish, it can also be used as a switch or transformation, giving rise to numerous possibilities.\n",
"Rupert's quest is to slay a dragon, proving his worth to the kingdom; however Rupert knows he has been sent to die. He stubbornly refuses to run away and proceeds with the undertaking. Rupert seeks out the notorious Night Witch who, upon finding out he is the grandson of her long dead lover provides him with a map to find a dragon. To get to his destination Rupert must pass through the Darkwood, an area in the forest where no light ever penetrates, where nothing lives except demons. Passing through the endless night Rupert is attacked by countless demons which appear to be hunting in packs though demons have never hunted in packs before.\n",
"A scholarly account of the early history of Prince Rupert's drops is given in the \"Notes and Records\" of the Royal Society of London. Most of the early scientific study of the drops was performed at the Royal Society.\n",
"Rupert has a number of magic ice pills which will revive his friends. He must find and give each of them an ice pill in order to set them back to their hometown Nutwood. However Jenny has set some traps for Rupert. Each time Rupert is hit by a toy he will lose one ice pill. If he is left with no pills he will freeze himself.\n"
] |
how do all these different fruit and plant seeds form?
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There wasn't an identifiable first apple or orange seed. They would have evolved from some preceding plant species slowly over time. So over thousands of generations the preceding plant becomes more and more like an apple or orange tree until eventually it matches what we would recognize as an apple or orange tree but there wasn't a single point where you could say one generation wasn't an apple or orange tree and the next was. Think of it like a person aging. Any given day they won't look any different than the day before but look at two pictures taken 20 years apart and you will see how they aged.
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[
"Many structures commonly referred to as \"seeds\" are actually dry fruits. Plants producing berries are called baccate. Sunflower seeds are sometimes sold commercially while still enclosed within the hard wall of the fruit, which must be split open to reach the seed. Different groups of plants have other modifications, the so-called stone fruits (such as the peach) have a hardened fruit layer (the endocarp) fused to and surrounding the actual seed. Nuts are the one-seeded, hard-shelled fruit of some plants with an indehiscent seed, such as an acorn or hazelnut.\n",
"The fruit is a capsule containing about 50 seeds, and each plant can produce many capsules. It is thought to be a ruderal species, producing many tiny seeds that spread about and sprout up in disturbed habitat in a weedlike manner. The seeds probably also persist for a long time in the soil seed bank.\n",
"These plants propagate only by seed. The seed heads mature in mid-summer, releasing their seeds. The fruit is a glabrous achene, 4–6 mm long and with 4-50 ribs. The pappus consists of many rows of simple, fine to minutely rough hairs, united in a circular base.\n",
"The fruit are woody, cup-shaped, barrel-shaped, or almost spherical capsules, often arranged in clusters along the stems. The seeds are sometimes retained in the fruit for many years, only opening when the plant, or part of it, dies or is heated in a bushfire. In tropical areas, seeds are released annually in the wet season.\n",
"Seeds are also found preserved individually and as groupings or masses of seeds ranging between and . One of the specimens has several hundred seeds grouped closely together and enclosed in a thick matrix, thought to be the preserved jelly like matrix that the seeds first dispersed from the fruit in. Other masses show lesser amounts of matrix, and the ones showing little to no matrix are less grouped together. The individual seeds range between long with an oval to barrel shape and an operculum at one end. Each seed has a distinct raphe ridge running vertically down it from the base to the slightly asymmetrical operculum. While most of the seed coat structure is not preserved enough to identify, the outer cell layer is distinct, showing small pentagon shaped cells with straight walls, a feature seen in fossil and living \"Nuphar\".\n",
"Mature fruits can project their 4 to 5 large seeds some distance into the surrounding area. The plant then disappears from the surface until the following spring. Seedlings grown from seed will take about ten years to produce their first flowers.\n",
"A multiple fruit is one formed from a cluster of flowers (called an \"inflorescence\"). Each flower produces a fruit, but these mature into a single mass. Examples are the pineapple, fig, mulberry, osage-orange, and breadfruit.\n"
] |
What significance did the shape of the bomb dropped in Nagasaki have?
|
The "active" part of the Nagasaki bomb was an immensely heavy egg-shaped collection of high explosives, uranium metal, a plutonium core, and a lot of complicated electronics. The casing was developed to hold all that together and keep it from rolling violently (which could damage the electronics) and more or less have predictable aerodynamic properties (it was not ideal, but it worked).
If you could see it in an X-ray it [would look like this](_URL_0_) — a very snug fit. (This is taken from a declassified manual regarding the electronics system maintenance of these kinds of bombs.) [This visualization](_URL_1_) gives you an indication of the different parts on display there.
It is entirely functional — there is not really any "aesthetics" or "symbolism" to it, just aerodynamics.
|
[
"The atomic bomb cloud over Nagasaki, Japan was described in \"The Times\" of London of 13 August 1945 as a \"huge mushroom of smoke and dust\". On 9 September 1945, \"The New York Times\" published an eyewitness account of the Nagasaki bombing, written by William L. Laurence, the official newspaper correspondent of the Manhattan Project, who accompanied one of the three aircraft that made the bombing run. He wrote of the bomb producing a \"pillar of purple fire\", out of the top of which came \"a giant mushroom that increased the height of the pillar to a total of 45,000 feet\".\n",
"Photographs of Nagasaki had already been printed September 1, 1945. Caption: \"Nagasaki Today - Japanese workers (foreground) carry away debris in a devastated area of atom-bombed Nagasaki. Smokestacks and a lone building stand in the background. This picture is from Domei, official Jap news agency.\" Transmission credit is to Associated Press Wirephoto.\n",
"For 12 months prior to the nuclear attack, Nagasaki had experienced five small-scale air attacks by an aggregate of 136 U.S. planes which dropped a total of 270 tons of high explosive, 53 tons of incendiary, and 20 tons of fragmentation bombs. Of these, a raid of August 1, 1945, was most effective, with a few of the bombs hitting the shipyards and dock areas in the southwest portion of the city, several hitting the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works, and six bombs landing at the Nagasaki Medical School and Hospital, with three direct hits on buildings there. While the damage from these few bombs was relatively small, it created considerable concern in Nagasaki and a number of people, principally school children, were evacuated to rural areas for safety, thus reducing the population in the city at the time of the atomic attack.\n",
"Assigned to the 393d Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group, it was used as a weather reconnaissance plane and flew to the city of Nagasaki, designated a \"tertiary target\", before the final bombing to determine if conditions were favorable for an attack. The aircraft also flew as a spare aircraft during the mission to bomb Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, but landed at Iwo Jima when the B-29 Bockscar was able to complete the mission.\n",
"On, August 10, 1944 Nagasaki had been bombed by B-29s \"launched from China against Nagasaki's urban area. The twenty-four attacking bombers unloaded 4 tons of fragmentation bombs and 77 tons of incendiaries on the primary. \n",
"On 15 September, as \"Van Valkenburgh\" steamed into Nagasaki harbor, every available vantage point topside was occupied by men silently taking in the incredible devastation wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on the city over a month before. During her week there, \"Van Valkenburgh\" stood by as Allied prisoners of war were taken on board the hospital ship which lay moored at the port's principal dock.\n",
"Along with RAF Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, he accompanied the American Team to Tinian Island from which the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions were flown. On 9 August 1945 he witnessed the bombing of Nagasaki. The US authorities had controversially stopped them seeing the Hiroshima detonation, but at the last minute Penney and Cheshire were granted permission to fly in the B-29 \"Big Stink\", one of the observation planes that accompanied the Nagasaki weapon delivery bomber \"Bockscar\". Due to the belated permission, \"Big Stink\" missed its rendezvous with the bomber at Nagasaki. They saw the Nagasaki detonation from the air at a distance. As the leading expert on the effects of nuclear weapons, Penney was a member of the team of scientists and military analysts who entered Hiroshima and Nagasaki following the Japanese surrender on 15 August 1945 to assess the effects of nuclear weapons.\n"
] |
how is that alcohol 70% is better than alcohol 90% as disinfectant ?
|
70% alcohol has 30% water, and that water is necessary for the alcohol to interact at all with the cells it’s killing.
It’s like cooking pancakes. You know how when your pan is really hot and you put in pancake batter, it cooks the outside really fast? And then you can flip it, but it does the same thing to the other side and the middle doesn’t cook very well? 90% alcohol is like that. It doesn’t penetrate well into cells or clumps of microbes because it just fries everything it touches on the outside. The 70% alcohol is like cooking on medium heat with a moderately hot pan. It contacts the outside, too, but the water helps it penetrate to cook the inside (denature proteins deeper) as well.
From _URL_2_
> The presence of water is a crucial factor in destroying or inhibiting the growth of pathogenic microorganisms with isopropyl alcohol. Water acts as a catalyst and plays a key role in denaturing the proteins of vegetative cell membranes. 70% IPA solutions penetrate the cell wall more completely which permeates the entire cell, coagulates all proteins, and therefore the microorganism dies. Extra water content slows evaporation, therefore increasing surface contact time and enhancing effectiveness. Isopropyl alcohol concentrations over 91% coagulate proteins instantly. Consequently, a protective layer is created which protects other proteins from further coagulation.
> Solutions > 91% IPA may kill some bacteria, but require longer contact times for disinfection, and enable spores to lie in a dormant state without being killed. A 50% isopropyl alcohol solution kills Staphylococcus Aureus in less than 10 seconds (pg. 238), yet a 90% solution with a contact time of over two hours is ineffective.
Edit: Because there’s been some confusion, I’d like to add two points. First, higher concentrations of alcohol solutions (specifically isopropyl) may still be superior as solvents, for use on things like electronics for cleaning, because water is generally bad for electronics. Second, what we’re talking about above you should think of as referring only to ethanol and isopropyl alcohol (which is not safe to consume). There are other alcohols but we’re just sticking to the ones commonly used.
Edit 2: Some people have questioned the source, which is good and part of science. The source offered a decent write-up of what numerous PhD mentors have taught me, and it’s consistent with the science. At the risk of making this too long, here’s what the CDC has to say, from _URL_0_
Adding water enhances effectiveness of isopropyl and ethyl alcohols:
> The most feasible explanation for the antimicrobial action of alcohol is denaturation of proteins. This mechanism is supported by the observation that absolute ethyl alcohol, a dehydrating agent, is less bactericidal than mixtures of alcohol and water because proteins are denatured more quickly in the presence of water
Isopropanol and ethanol effective bactericides
> The bactericidal activity of various concentrations of ethyl alcohol (ethanol) was examined against a variety of microorganisms in exposure periods ranging from 10 seconds to 1 hour 483. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was killed in 10 seconds by all concentrations of ethanol from 30% to 100% (v/v), and Serratia marcescens, E, coli and Salmonella typhosa were killed in 10 seconds by all concentrations of ethanol from 40% to 100%. The gram-positive organisms Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes were slightly more resistant, being killed in 10 seconds by ethyl alcohol concentrations of 60%–95%. Isopropyl alcohol (isopropanol) was slightly more bactericidal than ethyl alcohol for E. coli and S. aureus 489.
Kills viruses at these concentrations
> Ethyl alcohol, at concentrations of 60%–80%, is a potent virucidal agent inactivating all of the lipophilic viruses (e.g., herpes, vaccinia, and influenza virus) and many hydrophilic viruses (e.g., adenovirus, enterovirus, rhinovirus, and rotaviruses but not hepatitis A virus (HAV) 58 or poliovirus) 49.
Isopropanol similar to chlorhexidine
_URL_1_
|
[
"Alcohol and alcohol plus Quaternary ammonium cation based compounds comprise a class of proven surface sanitizers and disinfectants approved by the EPA and the Centers for Disease Control for use as a hospital grade disinfectant. Alcohols are most effective when combined with distilled water to facilitate diffusion through the cell membrane; 100% alcohol typically denatures only external membrane proteins. A mixture of 70% ethanol or isopropanol diluted in water is effective against a wide spectrum of bacteria, though higher concentrations are often needed to disinfect wet surfaces. Additionally, high-concentration mixtures (such as 80% ethanol + 5% isopropanol) are required to effectively inactivate lipid-enveloped viruses (such as HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C). \n",
"Side effects of alcohols include skin irritation. Care should be taken with electrocautery as ethanol is flammable. Types of alcohol used include ethanol, denatured ethanol, 1-propanol, and isopropyl alcohol. It is effective against a range of microorganisms though does not inactivate spores. Concentrations of 60 to 90% work best.\n",
"Alcohol has been used as an antiseptic as early as 1363 with evidence to support its use becoming available in the late 1800s. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system. The wholesale cost in the developing world is about US$1.80–9.50 per litre of 70% denatured ethanol. In the United Kingdom it costs the NHS about 3.90 GBP per liter of 99% denatured alcohol. Commercial formulations of alcohol based hand rub or with other agents such as chlorhexidine are available.\n",
"Besides alcohol, there are many other toxic substances in surrogate alcohol such as hydrogen peroxide, antiseptics, ketones, as well as alcohols other than ethanol (drinking alcohol) such as isopropanol and methanol. Methanol, and, to a far lesser extent isopropanol, is a poison. The effect of other chemicals on health has not been adequately studied, and so the health risks, while assumed, are unclear. However, observations in countries with high consumption of surrogate alcohols, such as Russia, indicate that the impurities in the consumed drink lead to high mortality rates.\n",
"However alcoholic drinks cannot be further purified to 0.00% alcohol by volume by distillation. In fact, most drinks labeled non-alcoholic contain 0.5% ABV as it is more profitable than distilling it to 0.05% ABV often found in products sold by companies specializing in non-alcoholic drinks.\n",
"Powdered alcohol would generally share the health risks that are associated with traditional liquid alcohol consumption, although there may be some differences in its effects related to differences in consumption potency, differences in characteristics for storage, concealability, and portability, lack of familiarity, and potentially novel delivery methods. Excessive consumption of alcohol can result in acute overdose, intoxication-related accidental injury, compromised judgment, and longer-term negative health consequences including liver disease, cancer, and physiologic dependence.\n",
"For health care settings like hospitals and clinics, optimum alcohol concentration to kill bacteria is 70% to 95%. Products with alcohol concentrations as low as 40% are available in American stores, according to researchers at East Tennessee State University.\n"
] |
Why is mathematics so applicable to all the phenomena we can observe and describe in the universe?
|
Why is painting so good at reproducing the way the universe looks? Because we invented painting in order to be good at reproducing the way the universe works. Why is math so good at describing the things we observe in the universe? Because we invented math to be good at describing the things that we observe in the universe.
Evolutionary it seems to be advantageous to create patterns. Patterns are things we see and then use to infer what will happen to things that we can't see. Patterns are not of the universe, but are created by us (see optical illusions for some clearly artificial patterns). At some time in the past, we needed to be able to communicate patterns between ourselves and so language was created. But as our patterns became more sophisticated, we needed a more exact way to communicate them, and numbers were invented. Since numbers were invented to communicate sophisticated patterns, they're really good at helping us create new patterns. Eventually, people enjoyed it so much that it evolved from being a language into being an art for it's own sake.
It is totally reasonable and expected that math would be effective in the physical sciences. We invented it to be really good at making patterns, so we shouldn't worship it or ascribe any nontrivial metaphysical properties to it when it does what it was created to do. Math is very sophisticated and most people who use it in practice, applied to the real world, are not trained in it's sophistication. They know enough to do their job. Because they haven't studied it in detail or at the level of abstraction it was meant to be at, they don't understand how it can be so good at finding patterns and some infer that it must be mystical. But, as has been seen many times in the past, a lack of understanding does not justify metaphysical conclusions.
Math doesn't explain everything, it's just that the things that can be explained by math are patterns and math does patterns really well.
It should be noted that this is philosophical question with no actual answer, this is my interpretation and arguments. I also have a bigger spiel about it, you can find more [here](_URL_0_).
|
[
"BULLET::::- Mathematics describes the real world: many areas of mathematics originated with attempts to describe and solve real world phenomena - from measuring farms (geometry) to falling apples (calculus) to gambling (probability). Mathematics is widely used in modern physics and engineering, and has been hugely successful in helping us to understand more about the universe around us from its largest scales (physical cosmology) to its smallest (quantum mechanics). Indeed, the very success of mathematics in this respect has been a source of puzzlement for some philosophers (see The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences by Eugene Wigner).\n",
"Like all formal sciences, mathematics is not concerned with the validity of theories based on observations in the empirical world, but rather, mathematics is occupied with the theoretical, abstract study of such topics as quantity, structure, space and change. Methods of the mathematical sciences are, however, applied in constructing and testing scientific models dealing with observable reality. Albert Einstein wrote, \"One reason why mathematics enjoys special esteem, above all other sciences, is that its laws are absolutely certain and indisputable, while those of other sciences are to some extent debatable and in constant danger of being overthrown by newly discovered facts.\"\n",
"Physics is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves. On the other hand, the study of meteorological weather patterns or human behavior is only of interest to humans themselves. The point is that having a perspective on the world is a psychological state. Therefore, the special sciences presuppose the existence of minds which can have these states. If one is to avoid ontological dualism, then the mind that \"has\" a perspective must be part of the physical reality to which it \"applies\" its perspective. If this is the case, then in order to perceive the physical world as psychological, the mind must have a perspective on the physical. This, in turn, presupposes the existence of mind.\n",
"Mathematics arises from many different kinds of problems. At first these were found in commerce, land measurement, architecture and later astronomy; today, all sciences suggest problems studied by mathematicians, and many problems arise within mathematics itself. For example, the physicist Richard Feynman invented the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics using a combination of mathematical reasoning and physical insight, and today's string theory, a still-developing scientific theory which attempts to unify the four fundamental forces of nature, continues to inspire new mathematics.\n",
"These mathematicians believe that the detailed and precise results of mathematics may be reasonably taken to be true without any dependence on the universe in which we live. For example, they would argue that the theory of the natural numbers is fundamentally valid, in a way that does not require any specific context. Some mathematicians have extrapolated this viewpoint that mathematical beauty is truth further, in some cases becoming mysticism.\n",
"Nevertheless, the connection between mathematics and reality (and so science to the extent it describes reality) remains obscure. Eugene Wigner's paper, \"The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences\", is a very well known account of the issue from a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. In fact, some observers (including some well known mathematicians such as Gregory Chaitin, and others such as Lakoff and Núñez) have suggested that mathematics is the result of practitioner bias and human limitation (including cultural ones), somewhat like the post-modernist view of science.\n",
"A different response, advocated by physicist Max Tegmark, is that physics is so successfully described by mathematics because the physical world \"is\" completely mathematical, isomorphic to a mathematical structure, and that we are simply uncovering this bit by bit. The same interpretation had been advanced some years previously by Peter Atkins. In this interpretation, the various approximations that constitute our current physics theories are successful because simple mathematical structures can provide good approximations of certain aspects of more complex mathematical structures. In other words, our successful theories are not mathematics approximating physics, but mathematics approximating mathematics.\n"
] |
please explain how the current wage gap in america works.
|
There is no wage gap. At least not in how you likely think.
The 75% number often thrown around for women is based on all jobs for women averaged and compared to all jobs for men averaged. That gives you false information. Men hold a larger percentage of the top paying jobs. This is often because they work more overtime, take fewer sick days, and do not take time off to have/raise children often. This means that they will get promotions more often because they have done more work. It is also due to the fact that women tend to gravitate toward lower paying jobs such as Nurse, teacher, and lots of jobs in the humanities.
|
[
"Wage gaps have been identified for many races within the United States; however, research has found that the size and causes of the wage gap differs by race. For instance, the median black male worker earns 74 percent as much as the median white male worker, while the median Hispanic male worker earns only 63 percent as much. To understand more fully and accurately the subject of the racial wage gap in the United States, it is useful to look at different races individually to understand the causes and outcomes that are unique to them.\n",
"A study of the US labor force in the 1990s suggested that gender differences in occupation, industry and union status explain an estimated 53% of the wage gap. A 2017 study in the \"American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics\" found that the growing importance of the services sector has played a role in reducing the gender gap in pay and hours. In 1998, adjusting for both differences in human capital and in industry, occupation, and unionism increases the size of American women's average earnings from 80% of American men's to 91%.\n",
"Any given raw wage gap can be dissected into an \"explained\" part, due to differences in characteristics such as education, hours worked, work experience, and occupation, and/or an \"unexplained\" part, which is typically attributed to discrimination, differences not controlled for, individual choices, or a greater value placed on fringe benefits. This may be further explained when America takes into account that men are more likely to negotiate for higher pay. According to a study by Carnegie Mellon, when negotiating pay, 83% of men negotiated for a higher wage compared to the 58% of women who asked for more. Researchers say that women who do request either a raise or a higher starting salary are more likely than men to be penalized for those actions. Cornell University economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn stated that while the overall size of the wage gap has decreased somewhat over time, the proportion of the gap that is unexplained by human capital variables is increasing.\n",
"Although minimum wage law has been applied in many states to increase wage growth, this has not been an effective solution to improve the growth due to the increasing living costs. Also, the unequal wage growth in the income distributions is identified as one of the major reasons of the weak wage growth in the United States. Despite a slight rise in real wage amongst low-income earners due to the minimum wage law, the wage growth is mostly contributed to the high income-earners. Since 2000, 3 per cent of wage growth identified in the lowest tenth of the income distribution compared to the 15.7 per cent in the top tenth. Other factors that contribute to the current sluggish weak wage growth include the decline of labor unions, poor educational attainment and lack of competitiveness in the labour market. The decline of labour unions and the emergence of big corporations made difficulties for workers to negotiate for a higher wage. This created a lower productivity growth causing the weak wage growth.\n",
"Finally, weak labor market policies since the 70’s and 80’s have failed to address the income inequalities that those who are employed at lower income levels have to face. Namely, the union movement began to shrink, decreasing the power for employees to negotiate employment terms, and the minimum wage was prevented from increasing alongside inflation.\n",
"Surveys of labor economists have found a sharp split on the minimum wage. Fuchs et al. (1998) polled labor economists at the top 40 research universities in the United States on a variety of questions in the summer of 1996. Their 65 respondents were nearly evenly divided when asked if the minimum wage should be increased. They argued that the different policy views were not related to views on whether raising the minimum wage would reduce teen employment (the median economist said there would be a reduction of 1%), but on value differences such as income redistribution. Daniel B. Klein and Stewart Dompe conclude, on the basis of previous surveys, \"the average level of support for the minimum wage is somewhat higher among labor economists than among AEA members.\"\n",
"With regards to the gender pay gap in the United States, International Labour Organization notes as of 2010 women in the United States earned about 81% of what their male counterparts did. While the gender pay gap has been narrowing since the passage of the Equal Pay Act, the convergence began to slow down in the 1990s. In addition, overall wage inequality has been increasing since the 1980s as middle-wage jobs are decreasing replaced by larger percentages of both high-paying and low-paying jobs, creating a highly polarized environment.\n"
] |
I heard that diamonds do not show up on x-rays. Is this true and if so, why?
|
All matter absorbs X-rays depending on the atomic density: the higher the density, and the heavier the element, the more X-rays are absorbed. Since carbon is about as lightweight an element as you can get, X-rays can pass through diamonds without being absorbed (meaning they "don't show up" in a conventional radiography).
|
[
"Most inclusions present in gem-quality diamonds do not affect the diamonds' performance or structural integrity and are not visible to the naked eyes. However, large clouds can affect a diamond's ability to transmit and scatter light. Large cracks close to or breaking the surface may reduce a diamond's resistance to fracture.\n",
"At the time of discovery, the diamond had a rhombic dodecahedral form with obtuse angles and twenty four facets. There was a deep depression in one of the facets, indicating that it had accommodated another octahedral crystal. A few black specks were also present, caused by titanic iron or volcanic sand.\n",
"Diamond crystals in a diamond can also be present in the form of long and thin needles. These may not be visible to the naked eye, unless the needle inclusion is of a noticeable color or has a noticeable presence. Some needle inclusions are also known to give diamonds a special look.\n",
"The most frequent color of fluorescence in diamonds is blue, but it occurs in many other colors. Fluorescence may be exhibited at both short-wave and long-wave UV. The strength of fluorescence also varies from slight to high. The value of a diamond may be affected by the presence and strength of fluorescence in a diamond. As a matter of personal taste, some people prefer a diamond with fluorescence. Although some may disagree, it is generally thought that fluorescence may influence perception of body color in a diamond and hence, its color grade.\n",
"Most red diamonds display fluorescence when placed under UV light. In the case of colorless diamonds, the presence of fluorescence is generally considered to lower a diamond's value. This is in fact completely arbitrary, as the blue glow may or may not appeal to a buyer, but it certainly has no bearing on the composition, durability or beauty of a diamond. However, it is a generally accepted notion in the diamond assessment world that the presence of fluorescence will lower a diamond's value. Just like with clarity, in the case of fancy color diamonds, this is not a detracting characteristic if it is present. If anything, its presence ensures the buyer that the diamond is genuine, as fluorescence is not recreated in lab grown diamonds. If a red diamond has fluorescence, it will not add or detract from its value or resale value in any way.\n",
"Although diamonds on Earth are rare, they are very common in space. In meteorites, about three percent of the carbon is in the form of nanodiamonds, having diameters of a few nanometers. Sufficiently small diamonds can form in the cold of space because their lower surface energy makes them more stable than graphite. The isotopic signatures of some nanodiamonds indicate they were formed outside the Solar System in stars.\n",
"As the name implies, these inclusions are minute crystals usually white in color present inside the diamond. These resemble a small point of light and are, by far, the most common of all flaws found in diamonds. Most pinpoint inclusions do not affect the clarity of a diamond and are not visible to the naked eye and are usually not indicated on the plotting diagrams of diamond reports. Comments such as \"pinpoints not shown\" may be listed in the comments section.\n"
] |
Did Napoleon and Wellington ever meet face-to-face?
|
No they never met face to face. Though they faced each across the battlefield at Waterloo Napoleon fled for Paris after his defeat and eventually surrendered to the British at Rochefort. At no time despite his captivity in British custody did he and Wellington ever meet face to face.
|
[
"Napoleon was losing and winning battles on the ground in 1813 and early 1814, but his western flank was weak, and Wellington's army had crossed Portugal and Spain, in April taken Toulouse on its way to Paris. Napoleon agreed to exile on the isle of Elba in April 1814, as its emperor. He slipped off the island about ten months later on 26 February 1815, landing on the coast of France a few days later. He was met by the Fifth Regiment of France south of Grenoble on 7 March 1815; they chose to join forces with him as he marched to Paris.\n",
"After the various subtractions of strength, Joseph had only 33,000 infantry, 9,000 cavalry, and 100 guns to face Wellington. Napoleon assured his brother Joseph that the British general was too cautious to take advantage of the situation, and in any case could only deploy 30,000 British and 20,000 Portuguese soldiers. In fact, Wellington was on the march with 52,000 British, 28,000 Portuguese, and 25,000 Spanish troops. The three-division right wing under Rowland Hill was ordered to advance northeast to Salamanca while the six-division left wing led by Thomas Graham crossed to the north bank of the Douro River inside Portugal.\n",
"On 26 February 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba and returned to France. He regained control of the country by May and faced a renewed alliance against him. Wellington left Vienna for what became known as the Waterloo Campaign. He arrived in the Netherlands to take command of the British-German army and their allied Dutch, all stationed alongside the Prussian forces of Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.\n",
"Upon learning that the Prussian army was able to support him, Wellington decided to offer battle on the Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment across the Brussels road. Here he withstood repeated attacks by the French throughout the afternoon of the 18th, aided by the progressively arriving Prussians. In the evening, Napoleon committed his last reserves, the senior battalions of the French Imperial Guard infantry. The desperate final attack of the Guard was narrowly beaten back. With the Prussians breaking through on the French right flank, Wellington's Anglo-allied army counter-attacked in the centre, and the French army was routed.\n",
"Attacked by three British ships as he was trying to break the blockade of Malta on 30 March 1800, with 200 sick and 1000 soldiers aboard, he surrendered early next day, after a defence of nearly eight hours, after disabling two of his opponents, and with half of his crew killed or wounded. He was exchanged in August 1800, and returned to France, where the First Consul personally gave him an honour sabre - a grant of the \"Arms of Honour\" which Napoleon had introduced as a decoration before instituting the Légion d'honneur - and appointed him as maritime prefect at Lorient.\n",
"When Napoleon returned in 1815, Major Percy served as ADC to the Duke of Wellington and was present at the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo. Having been the only one of Wellington's ADC to survive the Waterloo unscathed, he was assigned the task of carrying to London and the two French Imperial Eagles captured in the battle. Leaving immediately after the battle, he crossed the channel on board the sloop HMS Peruvian, having rowed some of the way. Arriving at Downing Street on 21 June at 10 PM he informed foreign secretary, Earl Bathurst about the victory, thereafter he delivered the dispatch and captured eagles to the Prince Regent at St James's Square. He was promoted to brevet Lieutenant Colonel as a reward for his service. He retired in 1821 and died in 1825.\n",
"Napoleon's forces fought two Coalition armies, commanded by the British Duke of Wellington and the Prussian Prince Blücher, at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815. Wellington's army withstood repeated attacks by the French and drove them from the field while the Prussians arrived in force and broke through Napoleon's right flank.\n"
] |
types of government and their pros/cons
|
To start, of the 6 examples you gave, three aren't types of government, two are basically the same thing, and one is more of a class of government. But I shall press on.
**Types of government**
* Anarchy [No government. Marxist communism falls here] Pros: The pros are mostly ideological, individualism taken to it's extreme.
Cons- Nothing preventing any crime, impossible to organize more than 20 people toward a common goal
* Direct Democracy [Each citizen votes directly on every issue] - Pros: Everyone gets a voice in the government, which keeps people happy. No leaders to screw over the common man for their own gain.
Cons: Wildly impractical on any relevant scale; people are stupid and might vote for stupid things, 51% of the population can vote to screw over the other 49% however they like.
* Republicanism [Citizens vote for representatives who then in turn vote on issues] - Pros: More conservative, unlikely to take any radical action, Career politicians can make nuances decisions, people can still hold their representatives accountable.
Cons: Career politicians get less accountable the longer they're in office, often unresponsive to change, politics becomes massively convoluted thus requiring career politicians
* Aristocracy/Oligarchy [Small group of people in charge of everything] - Pros: Politicians (Aristocrats) have deep personal interest in the land they rule over, politicians careers not in jeopardy over a single gaffe, politicians can focus on doing what they believe is best rather than what the people want, Politicians can be trained from birth for their job.
Cons: Unavoidable and unalterable class system, Aristocrats can do whatever they want to the lower classes, aristocrats generally don't care about the workers, inevitable and purposeful wealth inequality
* Dictatorship [One person in charge of everything] - Dictator deep personal interest in the land they rule over, dictator can focus on doing what they believe is best rather than what the people want, Dictator can be trained from birth for their job.
Cons: Unavoidable and unalterable class system, Dictator can do whatever he/she wants, dictators generally don't care about the workers, inevitable and purposeful wealth inequality, Generally unhappy people
* Fascism [Very poorly defined. Generally means industries/corporations control government. Nazism was a form of fascism] - Pros: Strong economies
Cons: Stratified class system, usually nationalistic, usually militaristic, usually a police state, usually a dictator
|
[
"A government trifecta is a type of government in which the same political party controls both the executive and legislative branch. The situation occurs in governance systems that follow the separation of powers model. Under said model, the state is divided into different branches. Each branch has separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility so that the powers of one branch are not in conflict with the powers associated with the others. The typical division creates an executive branch that executes and enforces the law as led by a head of state, typically a president; a legislative branch that enacts, amends, or repeals laws as led by a unicameral or bicameral legislature; and a judicial branch that interprets and applies the law as led by a supreme court.\n",
"Supporters of the system refer to democracies such as the United Kingdom and Canada which operate the same bicameral model with an appointed upper chamber and an elected lower chamber. However, the government which nominates citizens to the upper chamber is accountable to the members of the lower house, and therefore the British and Canadian electorates respectively. Further, while these upper chambers each hold a constitutional veto over legislation, it is heavily restricted by constitutional and political convention.\n",
"A hereditary dictatorship, or family dictatorship, in political science terms a personalistic regime, is a form of dictatorship that occurs in a nominally or formally republican or socialist regime, but operates in practice like an absolute monarchy or despotate, in that political power passes within the dictator's family. Thus, although the key leader is often called president or prime minister rather than a king or emperor, power is transmitted between members of the same family due to the overwhelming authority of the leader. Sometimes the leader has been declared president for life and uses this power to nominate one of his or her family as successor.\n",
"According to Title II, Article 4 the Government of the Republic is to be popular, representative, alternative and responsible, and shall exercise three distinct powers: namely, the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. Any two or more of these three powers shall never be united in one person or cooperation, nor the legislative power vested in one single individual. The Government of the Republic is a Responsible Government, a very important aspect of parliamentarianism where the executive branch is directly responsible to the legislative branch. This is further emphasized in Title V, Article 50 and Title VII, Article 56.\n",
"Government can be defined as the political means of creating and enforcing laws; typically via a bureaucratic hierarchy. Politics is the process by which decisions are made within groups; this process often involves conflict as well as compromise. Although the term is generally applied to behavior within governments, politics is also observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. Many different political systems exist, as do many different ways of understanding them, and many definitions overlap. Examples of governments include monarchy, Communist state, military dictatorship, theocracy, and liberal democracy, the last of which is considered dominant today. All of these issues have a direct relationship with economics.\n",
"Rule by a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. A common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of state is not a monarch. Montesquieu included both democracies, where all the people have a share in rule, and aristocracies or oligarchies, where only some of the people rule, as republican forms of government.\n",
"In a republican form of government, the head of state is elected and not a hereditary monarch. Thus, this word denotes a government where no one holds public power as proprietary right. As opposed to a monarchy, in which the head of state is appointed on a hereditary basis for life or at least until abdication, a democratic republic is an entity in which the head of state is elected, directly or indirectly, for a fixed tenure.\n"
] |
Is ADD a real thing? Is that disorder questionable? Why do so many laymen roll their eyes about ADD?
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Yes. It's probably overdiagnosed due to the difficulty of differentiating child behavioral problems (often related to family problems), childhood onset bipolar disorder, and ADHD, as well as a whole slew of other learning disorders like auditory processing problems. Exacerbated by the fact that it is often initially diagnosed and treated by primary care physicians instead of specialists, but it is a real thing.
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[
"Throughout human history, food, drinks, and behaviors have had a reputation for making sex more attainable and/or pleasurable. However, from a historical and scientific standpoint, the alleged results may have been mainly due to mere belief by their users that they would be effective (placebo effect). Likewise, many medicines are reported to \"affect\" libido in inconsistent or idiopathic ways: enhancing or diminishing overall sexual desire depending on the situation of the subject. For example, Bupropion (Wellbutrin) is known as an antidepressant that can counteract other co-prescribed antidepressants having libido-diminishing effects. However, because Wellbutrin only increases the libido in the special case that it is already impaired by related medications, it is not generally classed as an aphrodisiac.\n",
"Anismus could be thought of as the patient \"forgetting\" how to push correctly, i.e. straining against a contracted pelvic floor, instead of increasing abdominal cavity pressures and lowering pelvic cavity pressures. It may be that this scenario develops due to stress. For example, one study reported that anismus was strongly associated with sexual abuse in women. One paper stated that events such as pregnancy, childbirth, gynaecological descent or neurogenic disturbances of the brain-bowel axis could lead to a \"functional obstructed defecation syndrome\" (including anismus). Anismus may develop in persons with extrapyramidal motor disturbance due to Parkinson's disease. This represents a type of focal dystonia. Anismus may also occur with anorectal malformation, rectocele, rectal prolapse and rectal ulcer.\n",
"However, a substantial volume of research does support the prevailing view among experts, which is that monoamines do in fact play a role in various mental disorders (see also Biology of depression, and Causes of mental disorders).\n",
"Another criticism, for example, is that \"the meaningful benefits of experimental drugs for women's sexual difficulties are questionable, and the financial conflicts of interest of experts who endorse the notion of a highly prevalent medical condition are extensive.\"\n",
"Erectile dysfunction can occur due to both physiological and psychological reasons, most of which are amenable to treatment. Common physiological reasons include diabetes, kidney disease, chronic alcoholism, multiple sclerosis, atherosclerosis, vascular disease -including arterial insufficiency and venogenic erectile dysfunction-, and neurologic disease which collectively account for about 70 percent of ED cases. Some drugs used to treat other conditions, such as lithium and paroxetine, may cause erectile dysfunction.\n",
"Keirsey asserted that Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) was an altogether different matter, in that these children were inactive and paid no attention to the teacher's agenda, and that ADD was defined exclusively by stating what they do not do, and in no way defined their observable behavior. Thus, in his opinion, ADD was a misleading label assigned to children who ignored the teacher while bothering nobody, unlike the children who are actually disruptive. Keirsey referred to the practice of medicating children with ADD as \"The Great ADD Hoax\". His main claim was that children labeled ADHD or ADD, typically, have an SP, or Artisan temperament, meaning concrete in thought and speech/utilitarian in implementing goals.\n",
"In 1930, Howard went to a hospital in Temple complaining of a varicocele, gas in the stomach and an abnormally small penis. The working diagnosis at the time was sexual neurasthenia but the symptoms may instead point towards neurotic depressive disorder. The doctor concluded that \"We do not think there is anything wrong with Robert. We can find no varicocele of any consequence, and his organs are normally developed and he tests out good in every respect. His trouble, in our judgment, is due to his thinking there is something wrong. After he has dispelled this thought from his mind he will be in fine shape.\"\n"
] |
how can someone physically consume 74 hot dogs and what is the "aftermath" like?
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It’s a process of gradually eating more and more food to help expand your stomach. Also being able to chew and break up the food is important as well. Smaller pieces of food will pack inside a stomach a lot more efficiently. Having strong monster jaws helps a lot.
All competitive eaters purge after these competitions. That’s the aftermath, lots of puke.
Edit: most competitions don’t let you puke or make you hold it in for a certain amount of time. During training they will puke a lot.
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[
"BULLET::::- She had difficulty eating a hot dog in less than a minute when she first started training for her first contest, the 2003 Nathan's qualifier. After practicing, she was able to consume 18 hot dogs in 12 minutes.\n",
"On May 16, 2009, Janus became the third person in the history of the world to eat 50 or more hot dogs and buns in a Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, consuming exactly 50 in his qualifier in Hartford, Connecticut. In the finals on July 4, he ate 53 hot dogs.\n",
"In June 2012, Strahle consumed 25 hot dogs in 10 minutes at the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest qualifier in Cleveland, Ohio. Though Strahle lost to eating veteran Crazy Legs Conti, he was beaten by only a quarter of a hot dog.\n",
"He suffered a heart attack on the Fourth of July, 2012, after detouring from his semi-vegan ways to eat a hotdog. He still met a deadline, filing a column three days later, but observed, “Life is full of little ironies, some of which will kill you.”\n",
"On July 4, 2005 she ate 37 hot dogs in 12 minutes at Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, setting a then-record for American competitors (which was also the female record). On August 8, 2005, she consumed 35 bratwursts in 10 minutes, beating the previous 10-minute record of 19.5 bratwursts, although her record was beaten in 2006 by Takeru Kobayashi.\n",
"In 2000, she, along with fellow Japanese eaters Arai and Misao Fujita, entered an annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, where she became the first woman to do \"The Deuce\", eating more than 20 hot dogs with buns in 12 minutes. She finished at third place by eating 22 hot dogs, while Arai won the contest at 25, breaking the previous world record, and Fujita finished second at 24.\n",
"Her women's world record for hot dog eating was bested by Sonya Thomas, a Korean-born American. Ms. Akasaka remains one of three women to have eaten more than 20 hot dogs at Nathan's (Carlene LeFevre is the other).\n"
] |
why does ac´s have hot and cold mode, if it lets you select the temperature?
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When you select a temperature, you're not setting what temperature the air coming out of the AC is. The AC can only produce two temperatures of air: warm and cold.
The temperature setting is called a "setpoint". It's the temperature than the thermostat needs to move past before the AC turns on, and whether the AC turns on when moving above or below the temperature is determined by whether you select "heat" or "cool".
For example, you set the AC to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and set it to cool. If the temperature of the air near the thermostat raises above 70 degrees, the AC will start blowing cold air until the temperature falls back below 70 degrees, and then it will shut off.
If you set the AC to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and set it to *heat*, the AC will turn on if the temperature in the house falls *below* 70 degrees, and will blow warm air until the temperature rises back up to 70.
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[
"Inverters convert low frequency main AC power to higher frequency for use in induction heating. To do this, AC power is first rectified to provide DC power. The inverter then changes the DC power to high frequency AC power. Due to the reduction in the number of DC sources employed, the structure becomes more reliable and the output voltage has higher resolution due to an increase in the number of steps so that the reference sinusoidal voltage can be better achieved. This configuration has recently become very popular in AC power supply and adjustable speed drive applications. This new inverter can avoid extra clamping diodes or voltage balancing capacitors.\n",
"While the power supply (PSU) contains a fan with few exceptions, it is not to be used for case ventilation. The hotter the PSU's intake air is, the hotter the PSU gets. As the PSU temperature rises, the conductivity of its internal components decrease. Decreased conductivity means that the PSU will convert more of the input electric energy into thermal energy (heat). This cycle of increasing temperature and decreased efficiency continues until the PSU either overheats, or its cooling fan is spinning fast enough to keep the PSU adequately supplied with comparatively cool air. The PSU is mainly bottom-mounted in modern PCs, having its own dedicated intake and exhaust vents, preferably with a dust filter in its intake vent.\n",
"On some vehicles, a temperature sensing switch will apply manifold vacuum to the vacuum advance system when the engine is hot or cold, and ported vacuum at normal operating temperature. This is a version of emissions control; the ported vacuum allowed carburetor adjustments for a leaner idle mixture. At high engine temperature, the increased advance raised engine speed to allow the cooling system to operate more efficiently. At low temperature the advance allowed the enriched warm-up mixture to burn more completely, providing better cold-engine running.\n",
"The temperature difference between the two surfaces of the thermoelectric module(s) generates electricity using the Seebeck Effect. When hot exhaust from the engine passes through an exhaust ATEG, the charge carriers of the semiconductors within the generator diffuse from the hot-side heat exchanger to the cold-side exchanger. The build-up of charge carriers results in a net charge, producing an electrostatic potential while the heat transfer drives a current. With exhaust temperatures of 700 °C (≈1300 °F) or more, the temperature difference between exhaust gas on the hot side and coolant on the cold side is several hundred degrees. This temperature difference is capable of generating 500-750 W of electricity.\n",
"In commercial applications, the thermostat may not contain any clock mechanism. Instead, another means may be used to select between the \"hotter\" and \"colder\" settings. For example, if the thermostat uses pneumatic controls, a change in the air pressure supplied to the thermostat may select between the \"hotter\" and \"colder\" settings, and this air pressure is determined by a central regulator. With electronic controls, a specific signal may indicate whether to operate at the \"hotter\" or \"colder\" setting.\n",
"Thermoelectric coolers operate by the Peltier effect (which also goes by the more general name thermoelectric effect). The device has two sides, and when a DC electric current flows through the device, it brings heat from one side to the other, so that one side gets cooler while the other gets hotter. The \"hot\" side is attached to a heat sink so that it remains at ambient temperature, while the cool side goes below room temperature. In some applications, multiple coolers can be cascaded together for lower temperature.\n",
"The difference between Electrical Resistance Heating (ERH) and ET-DSP is heat transfer due to convection. Water injected around the ET-DSP electrodes is heated and flows radially toward the vacuum extraction wells heating the formation in the process. The difference between ERH and ET-DSP is shown in the governing equations.\n"
] |
why do manufacturers have english and metric nuts and bolts in the same system? isn't is cheaper to be consistent?
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This happens when an American company uses European suppliers or even is jointly owned along with a European sister company and they share parts.
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[
"A wide variety of nuts exists, from household hardware versions to specialized industry-specific designs that are engineered to meet various technical standards. Fasteners used in automotive, engineering, and industrial applications usually need to be tightened to a specific torque setting, using a torque wrench. Nuts are graded with strength ratings compatible with their respective bolts; for example, an ISO property class 10 nut will be able to support the bolt proof strength load of an ISO property class 10.9 bolt without stripping. Likewise, an SAE class 5 nut can support the proof load of an SAE class 5 bolt, and so on.\n",
"The federal government of the United States made an effort to formalize the difference between a bolt and a screw, because different tariffs apply to each. The document seems to have no significant effect on common usage and does not eliminate the ambiguous nature of the distinction between screws and bolts for some threaded fasteners. The document also reflects (although it probably did not originate) significant confusion of terminology usage that differs between the legal/statutory/regulatory community and the fastener industry. The legal/statutory/regulatory wording uses the terms \"coarse\" and \"fine\" to refer to the tightness of the tolerance range, referring basically to \"high-quality\" or \"low-quality\", but this is a poor choice of terms, because those terms in the fastener industry have a different meaning (referring to the steepness of the helix's lead).\n",
"Different types of railroad rolling stock have different couplers depending on the purpose and type of equipment being used and its intended destination. European rolling stock tend to use buffers and chain couplers while American rolling stock uses a Janney coupler or \"knuckle coupler\". These are incompatible with each other, but where some railroads have obtained older, less expensive used rolling stock from different countries or regions, instead of having to standardize on one form of coupler, it may be useful to be able to use either type of coupler on a piece of rolling stock without having to remove anything.\n",
"End mills are sold in both imperial and metric shank and cutting diameters. In the USA, metric is readily available, but it is only used in some machine shops and not others; in Canada, due to the country's proximity to the US, much the same is true. In Asia and Europe, metric diameters are standard.\n",
"Although devices which are pin-compatible share a common footprint, they are not necessarily electrically or thermally compatible. As a result, manufacturers often specify devices as being either \"pin-to-pin\" or \"drop-in\" compatible. Pin-compatible devices are generally produced to allow upgrading within a single product line, to allow end-of-life devices to be replaced with newer equivalents, or to compete with the equivalent products of other manufacturers.\n",
"American screws, bolts, and nuts were historically not fully interchangeable with their British counterparts, and therefore would not fit British equipment properly. This, in part, helped lead to the development of numerous United States Military Standards and specifications for the manufacturing of essentially any piece of equipment that is used for military or defense purposes, including fasteners. World War II was a significant factor in this change. \n",
"With the adoption of BSW by British railway lines, many of which had previously used their own standard both for threads and for bolt head and nut profiles, and improving manufacturing techniques, it came to dominate British manufacturing.\n"
] |
why do presidents wait until the very last week of their presidency to pardon convicted inmates, rather than doing it earlier on?
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Pardons are the most politically controversial thing a president can do. He's probably doing them for the right reason, but it would've made his re-election/presidency far more complicated if he'd done the pardons earlier.
Also, tradition.
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[
"Former U.S. President Bill Clinton was criticized for some of his pardons and acts of executive clemency. Pardoning or commuting sentences is a power granted by the U.S. Constitution to all sitting U.S. Presidents.\n",
"Until 2006, a life sentence could be pardoned only by the president. However, since the 1960s, presidents have regularly given pardons to practically all offenders after a period of 12–15 years. In 2006, the legislation was changed so that all life sentences are reviewed by an appellate court after they have been executed for 12 years. If the convict is still deemed a danger to society, his or her case will be reviewed every two years after this. Involuntary confinement to a psychiatric institution may also result, sometimes after the sentence is served. The involuntary treatment ends when the psychiatrist decides, or when a court decrees it no longer necessary in a periodical review.\n",
"Though pardons and reprieves have been challenged in the courts, and the power to grant them challenged by Congress, the Court has consistently declined to put limits on the president's discretion. The president can issue a full pardon, reversing a criminal conviction (along with its legal effects) as if it never happened. A pardon can be issued from the time an offense is committed, and can even be issued after the full sentence has been served. The president can issue a reprieve, commuting a criminal sentence, lessening its severity, its duration, or both while leaving a record of the conviction in place. Additionally, the president can make a pardon conditional, or vacate a conviction while leaving parts of the sentence in place, like the payment of fines or restitution.\n",
"Pardons granted by presidents from George Washington until Grover Cleveland's first term (1885–1889) were hand written by the president; thereafter, pardons were prepared for the president by administrative staff requiring only that the president sign them.\n",
"The power of pardon has effectively become the instrument to limit life imprisonment to 12 years or more, since successive Presidents have eventually given pardon to all felons. The President, however, retains the power to deny pardon. In autumn 2006, the regular paroling of convicts serving a life sentence power was transferred to the Helsinki Court of Appeals, and the peculiar arrangement, where the President exercises judicial power, ended. The presidential power of giving pardon is, however, retained. Its use has diminished under the current President, Sauli Niinistö, who exercises the power particularly sparingly.\n",
"Most pardons are issued as oversight of the judicial branch, especially in cases where the Federal Sentencing Guidelines are considered too severe. This power can check the legislative and judicial branches by altering punishment for crimes. Presidents can issue blanket amnesty to forgive entire groups of people. For example, President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty to Vietnam draft dodgers who had fled to Canada. Presidents can also issue temporary suspensions of prosecution or punishment in the form of respites. This power is most commonly used to delay federal sentences of execution.\n",
"Most pardons are issued as oversight of the judicial branch, especially in cases where the Federal Sentencing Guidelines are considered too severe. This power can check the legislative and judicial branches by altering punishment for crimes. Presidents can issue blanket amnesty to forgive entire groups of people. For example, President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty to Vietnam draft dodgers who had fled to Canada. Presidents can also issue temporary suspensions of prosecution or punishment in the form of respites. This power is most commonly used to delay federal sentences of execution.\n"
] |
Is there any documentation of the death of Jesus in Rome at the time of his crucifixion? Or was he considered a petty criminal?
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Supporters of the [mythical Jesus theory](_URL_0_) point out that we don't know of any non-biblical corroboration of his existence. We have a mention in currently known transcriptions of Flavius Josephus' history book, but there are very good reasons to think that those were added much later by a copist.
Keep in mind that most ancient texts have only survived through milleniums in a very limited number of copies, and even then, mostly as fragments, palimpsests, or quotations. In this case, it looks like all the modern copies are descendants of a single copy made by a monk in one monastery. Imagine that monk, a fervent believer, ... how could a text of that era not mention our Lord, Jesus Christ! Surely, it must have been a mistake ... well you get the idea.
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[
"The primary sources of details about Jesus are the Gospels. Roman records are spottier - there is no extant contemporary record of the execution of Jesus, for example, not that such a thing would be expected, and thus no details about what was done with the body afterward. As such, accounts of the days between Jesus's execution and the discovery of the empty tomb are almost exclusively based on the Gospel accounts and knowledge of society at the time, and it is difficult to say more than scenarios such as the stolen body hypothesis are \"plausible\" or \"unlikely,\" rather than \"proven\" or \"disproven\".\n",
"Referencing the famed Romano-Jewish historian Josephus, scholar William Lane Craig argues: \"Josephus tells of how he had three acquaintances who had been crucified removed from their crosses, but despite the best medical attention two of three died anyway (Life 75:420-21). The extent of Jesus' tortures was such that He could never have survived the crucifixion and entombment. The suggestion that a man so critically wounded then went on to appear to the disciples on various occasions in Jerusalem and Galilee is pure fantasy.\"\n",
"Virtually all reputable historians agree that Jesus was crucified by the Romans under the orders of Pontius Pilate. Nonetheless, the gospels' accounts of Jesus's crucifixion differ considerably and most secular historians agree that some of the details in the accounts have been altered to fit their authors' theological agendas. Ehrman states that the presence of Mary Magdalene and the other women at the cross is probably historical because Christians would have been unlikely to make up that the main witnesses to the crucifixion were women and also because their presence is independently attested in both the Synoptic Gospels and in the Gospel of John. Maurice Casey concurs that the presence of Mary Magdalene and the other women at the crucifixion of Jesus may be recorded as a historical fact. According to E. P. Sanders, the reason why the women watched the crucifixion even after the male disciples had fled may have been because they were less likely to be arrested, because they were braver than the men, or because of some combination thereof.\n",
"The earliest detailed accounts of the death of Jesus are contained in the four canonical gospels. There are other, more implicit references in the New Testament epistles. In the synoptic gospels, Jesus predicts his death in three separate places. All four Gospels conclude with an extended narrative of Jesus' arrest, initial trial at the Sanhedrin and final trial at Pilate's court, where Jesus is flogged, condemned to death, is led to the place of crucifixion initially carrying his cross before Roman soldiers induce Simon of Cyrene to carry it, and then Jesus is crucified, entombed, and resurrected from the dead. His death is described as a sacrifice in the Gospels and other books of the New Testament. In each Gospel these five events in the life of Jesus are treated with more intense detail than any other portion of that Gospel's narrative. Scholars note that the reader receives an almost hour-by-hour account of what is happening.\n",
"According to all four gospels, Jesus was brought to the \"Place of a Skull\" and crucified with two thieves, with the charge of claiming to be \"King of the Jews\", and the soldiers divided his clothes before he bowed his head and died. Following his death, Joseph of Arimathea requested the body from Pilate, which Joseph then placed in a new garden tomb.\n",
"Early in the second century another reference to the crucifixion of Jesus was made by Tacitus, generally considered one of the greatest Roman historians. Writing in \"The Annals\" (\"c.\" 116 AD), Tacitus described the persecution of Christians by Nero and stated () that Pilate ordered the execution of Jesus:\n",
"The New Testament records that Jesus' disciple Judas Iscariot, the Roman governor Pontius Pilate along with Roman forces and the leaders and people of Jerusalem were (to varying degrees) responsible for the death of Jesus.\n"
] |
why do blood drives collect all types of blood, instead of prioritizing o- and o+ donors?
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If there were an unlimited supply, it would make sense to prioritize the donors whose blood is the most compatible. But that's not the case; donations generally keep pace with the demand for blood but in the United States, there's not a large surplus. So it's more practical to collect and use blood of the same type when possible, and to save the most compatible blood for when no other match is available. Why turn away a willing and eligible blood donor?
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[
"In blood banking terminology, autologous blood donation refers to a blood donation marked for use by the donor, typically for a scheduled surgery. (Generally, the notion of \"donation\" does not refer to giving to oneself, though in this context it has become somewhat acceptably idiomatic.) They are commonly called \"Autos\" by blood bank personnel, and it is one major form of the more general concept of autotransfusion (the other being intraoperative blood salvage).\n",
"The first step in organising any blood drive is to contact the nearest blood bank or blood donation centre. A blood drive representative is assigned to help the person organising the drive. The representative assesses whether the organising company meets the requirements for the drive to proceed. The representative and organiser then plan the actual drive together, establishing mutual goals based on the size of the group and how many people are expected to donate.\n",
"Autologous blood is not routinely tested for infectious diseases markers such as HIV antibodies. In the United States, autologous blood is tested only if it is collected in one place and shipped to another.\n",
"As a result, some in the global medical community have moved from allogenic blood (blood collected from another person) towards autologous transfusion, in which patients receive their own blood. Another impetus for autologous transfusion is the position of Jehovah's Witnesses on blood transfusions. For religious reasons, Jehovah's Witnesses may choose not to accept any allogeneic transfusions from a volunteer's blood donation, but may accept the use of autologous blood salvaged during surgery to restore their blood volume and homeostasis during the course of an operation, although not autologous blood donated beforehand. It must be noted that each Jehovah's Witness patient must be individually counseled as to all the possible blood products that are available as they may choose to accept some and not others (ie, some may accept products containing plasma, but not those containing red blood cells; others may accept platelets, etc); it is an individual choice for each patient.\n",
"In April 2007, an international team of researchers announced in the journal \"Nature Biotechnology\" an inexpensive and efficient way to convert types A, B, and AB blood into type O. This is done by using glycosidase enzymes from specific bacteria to strip the blood group antigens from red blood cells. The removal of A and B antigens still does not address the problem of the Rh blood group antigen on the blood cells of Rh positive individuals, and so blood from Rh negative donors must be used. The sort of blood is named \"enzyme converted to O\" (ECO) blood. Patient trials will be conducted before the method can be relied on in live situations. One such Phase II trial was done on B-to-O blood in 2002.\n",
"Red blood cells may be given as part of a blood transfusion. Blood may be donated from another person, or stored by the recipient at an earlier date. Donated blood usually requires screening to ensure that donors do not contain risk factors for the presence of blood-borne diseases, or will not suffer themselves by giving blood. Blood is usually collected and tested for common or serious Blood-borne diseases including Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV. The blood type (A, B, AB, or O) or the blood product is identified. This relates to the presence of antigens on the cell's surface. After this process, the blood is stored, and within a short duration is used. Blood can be given as a whole product or the red blood cells separated as packed red blood cells.\n",
"Red blood cells are the limiting step for whole blood donations, and the frequency of donation varies widely depending on the type of donor and local policies. During whole blood donation, blood is drawn from the inner forearm venipuncture area from the right or left arm. The blood goes to the main collection bag located on the shaker which is next to the donor bed and this bag holds one pint of whole blood. After collection the blood bag along with three tubes of blood for testing and typing is sent to the laboratory. Here, the blood bag is separated into its different component parts in a centrifuge process (red cells, platelets, and plasma).\n"
] |
What was Hamiltonianism and what did it become between 1790-1850?
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Hamiltonanism was a political/economic belief in a Strong central government, encouragment of national industries and commercial economy and a distrust of the common man. The ideas of it still have no left us according to Michael Lind. It has been a persistent battle between Jeffersonian agriculturalists vs Hamiltonian commercialists. Its platform was carried by prominent politicans like Henry Clay in the 1830s and was somewhat carried out by the Presidency of John Quincy Adams.
_URL_0_
Michael Lind: *Land of Promise: An economic history of the United States*
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[
"Hamilton has been portrayed as the \"patron saint\" of the American School of economic philosophy that, according to one historian, dominated economic policy after 1861. He firmly supported government intervention in favor of business, after the manner of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, as early as the fall of 1781. Hamilton opposed the British ideas of free trade, which he believed skewed benefits to colonial and imperial powers, in favor of protectionism, which he believed would help develop the fledgling nation's emerging economy. Henry C. Carey was inspired by his writings. Hamilton influenced the ideas and work of the German Friedrich List. In Hamilton's view, a strong executive, linked to the support of the people, could become the linchpin of an administrative republic. The dominance of executive leadership in the formulation and carrying out of policy was essential to resist the deterioration of republican government. Ian Patrick Austin has explored the similarities between Hamiltonian recommendations and the development of Meiji Japan after 1860.\n",
"Stories were circulated that Hamilton had made two quips about God at the time of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. During the French Revolution, he displayed a utilitarian approach to using religion for political ends, such as by maligning Jefferson as \"the atheist,\" and insisting that Christianity and Jeffersonian democracy were incompatible. After 1801, Hamilton further asserted the truth of Christianity; he proposed a Christian Constitutional Society in 1802, to take hold of \"some strong feeling of the mind\" to elect \"\"fit\" men\" to office, and he wrote of \"Christian welfare societies\" for the poor. After being shot, Hamilton spoke of his belief in God's mercy.\n",
"Hamilton's next report was his \"Report on Manufactures\". Although he was requested by Congress on January 15, 1790, for a report for manufacturing that would expand the United States' independence, the report was not submitted until December 5, 1791. In the report, Hamilton quoted from \"Wealth of Nations\" and used the French physiocrats as an example for rejecting agrarianism and the physiocratic theory; respectively. Hamilton also refuted Smith's ideas of government noninterference, as it would have been detrimental for trade with other countries. Hamilton also thought of the United States being a primarily agrarian country would be at a disadvantage in dealing with Europe. In response to the agrarian detractors, Hamilton stated that the agriculturists' interest would be advanced by manufactures, and that agriculture was just as productive as manufacturing.\n",
"In 1906 Oliver published the biography \"Alexander Hamilton\", which used the example set by the federalists of the early United States to argue for a federal arrangement for the British Empire. The book came to the attention of Lord Alfred Milner and the members of \"Milner's Kindergarten,\" who were then engaged in the reconstruction of South Africa following the Boer War of 1899-1902. According to Leo Amery, a friend of the kindergarten, \"\"Alexander Hamilton\" became the Bible of the young men of Milner’s Kindergarten.\" In 1934 \"The Times\" asserted, \"The book had probably more influence than any other political book of the decade.\" Novelist John Buchan, another friend of the Kindergarten, believed that Oliver had \"a real and enduring influence on political thought.\"\n",
"Hamilton entered King's College (now Columbia) in New York City in the autumn of 1773 \"as a private student\", and officially matriculated in May 1774. His college roommate and lifelong friend Robert Troup spoke glowingly of Hamilton's clarity in concisely explaining the patriots' case against the British in what is credited as Hamilton's first public appearance, on July 6, 1774, at the Liberty Pole at King's College. Hamilton, Troup, and four other undergraduates formed an unnamed literary society that is regarded as a precursor of the Philolexian Society.\n",
"Hamilton's arguments are a response to anti-federalist arguments against the new constitution and the strong general government that it implied. The anti-federalists feared that the national government would weaken their individual states and that national debts would burden the country, and were particularly concerned with the executive branch, arguing that it would eventually become a monarchy or dictatorship. People questioned why Hamilton and the Federalists would propose a constitution that created an executive branch that seemed to have too much power. America was coming off the revolution where they fought England to gain independence from an oppressive government who they believed had too much power. People were concerned that this new executive branch would destroy the freedom that they just fought and died for. Another major fear was that the executive would have too much say in the Senate. They thought the executive would be controlling from behind the scenes and appointing whoever they wanted to Congress. Hamilton set out to prove that these fears were something not to worry about because the executive branch would be tightly regulated.\n",
"Hamilton's Report on a National Bank was a projection from the first Report on the Public Credit. Although Hamilton had been forming ideas of a national bank as early as 1779, he had gathered ideas in various ways over the past eleven years. These included theories from Adam Smith, extensive studies on the Bank of England, the blunders of the Bank of North America and his experience in establishing the Bank of New York. He also used American records from James Wilson, Pelatiah Webster, Gouverneur Morris, and from his assistant Treasury secretary Tench Coxe.\n"
] |
I've heard Islam and the Arab Caliphates were heavily influenced by Persian culture and traditions. Why is that and what are some examples?
|
I'll speak mainly within the purview of Al-Tabari's texts and the Abbasid Dynasty as that is within my.area of familiarity.
To understand why the Persians had such an influence on the Abbasids we can start at the placement of the new capital of the Caliphate in Baghdad. Given its close proximity near the former Sassanid capital, this hints that at least geographically, the Abbasids had grown to rely on Persian bureaucracy and governance as a model. Furthermore, some theorize (though Al-Tabari highly suggests this) that the Abbasid connection to Persian rule was a way to cement legitimacy beyond the immediate area. Notably we see a large sponsorship of scientific and literary works from the Abbasids that were not written or translated to not only Arabic, but also Persian. Similar to the Byzantines at the time who continued the tradition of writing and producing literature in Greek, its possible that much of the Persian influence that the Abbasids borrowed from were products of a teleological justification.
Literary continuity commentaries aside, quite a lot of works that comes from the Abbasid Caliphate ended up being written in Persian and Arabic and the large projects translation of Greek and Roman philosophical works resulted in both Arabic and Persian transcriptions. Perhaps more pertinently, the political rise of the Abbasids depended on cooperation of the Persians against the Umayyads and though there was political friction afterwards, the prevalence of Persian political figures and people within the Abbasid Caliphate resulted in a much more inclusive rule.
I'm fairly certain there are many aspects I've missed, so if anyone has any addons, feel free to add addendums.
|
[
"After the Muslim conquest of Persia, Middle Persian, the language of Sassanids, continued in wide use well into the second Islamic century (eighth century) as a medium of administration in the eastern lands of the Caliphate. Despite Arabization of public affairs, the peoples retained much of their pre-Islamic outlook and way of life, adjusted to fit the demands of the Islamic religion. \n",
"Additionally, by adopting Islam, the Central Asian Turks and Mongols adopted the Persian literary and high culture which had dominated Central Asia since the early days of Islamic influence. Persian literature was instrumental in the assimilation of the Timurid elite to the Perso-Islamic courtly culture.\n",
"As the Abbasid Caliphate began to weaken and local Islamic Iranian states emerged as the rulers of Iran and Central Asia, the Persian language continued its preeminent role in the region as the language of literature and government. The rulers of the eastern section of Iran and of Mawarannahr were Persians. Under the Samanids and the Buyids, the rich Perso-Islamic culture of Mawarannahr continued to flourish.\n",
"Despite brief Arab rule, Central Asia successfully retained much of its Iranian characteristic, remaining an important center of culture and trade for centuries after the adoption of the new religion. Mawarannahr continued to be an important political player in regional affairs, as it had been under various Persian dynasties. In fact, the Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled the Arab world for five centuries beginning in 750, was established thanks in great part to assistance from Central Asian supporters in their struggle against the then-ruling Umayyad Caliphate.\n",
"The Persian Empire in the Sasanian era was interrupted by the Arab conquest of Persia in 651 AD, establishing the even larger Islamic caliphate, and later by the Mongol invasion. The main religion of ancient Persia was the native Zoroastrianism, but after the seventh century, it was slowly replaced by Islam.\n",
"The Abbasids soon became caught in a three-way rivalry among Coptic Arabs, Indo-Persians, and immigrant Turks. In addition, the cost of running a large empire became too great. The Turks, Egyptians, and Arabs adhered to the Sunnite sect; the Persians, a great portion of the Turkic groups, and several of the princes in India were Shia. The political unity of Islam began to disintegrate. Under the influence of the Abbasid caliphs, independent dynasties appeared in the Muslim world and the caliphs recognized such dynasties as legitimately Muslim. The first was the Tahirid dynasty in Khorasan, which was founded during the caliph Al-Ma'mun's reign. Similar dynasties included the Saffarids, Samanids, Ghaznavids and Seljuqs. During this time, advancements were made in the areas of astronomy, poetry, philosophy, science, and mathematics.\n",
"As the Abbasid Caliphate began to weaken and local Islamic Iranian states emerged as the rulers of Iran and Central Asia, the Persian language continued its preeminent role in the region as the language of literature and government. The rulers of the eastern section of Iran and of Transoxiana were Persians. Under the Samanids and the Buyids, the rich Perso-Islamic culture of Transoxiana continued to flourish.\n"
] |
How did Japan end up calling itself by China's name for the country: "Land of the Rising Sun"?
|
No, "Ni-hon" (日本, sun origin, or sun root) was not China's original name for Japan. In the early Chinese dynastic histories, the Japanese islands and the people there were reffered to as "Wa" (倭), which means "land of the dwarves" or "land of the stunted rice plants". How the name changed, so to speak, is somewhat confusing.
The following is a passage from the New Tang History:
"In the first year of Hsien-heng [670] an embassy came to the court from Japan to offer congratulations upon the conquest of Koguryo. About this time, the Japanese who had studied Chinese came to dislike the name Wa and changed it to Nippon. According to the words of the Japanese envoy himself, that name was chosen because the country was so close to where the sun rises. Some say... that Nippon was a small country which had been subjugated by the Wa, and that the latter took over its name. As this envoy was not truthful, doubt still remains."
This passage raises some questions - who were the Wa, then? And who are these people who suddenly conquered a territory from the Wa? Nevermind that we're looking through the distorted lens of the Tang dynastic histories, with its Sinocentric perspective.
There's another interesting exchange between China (more specifically, the Sui) and the Japanese court at Yamato. The Japanese sent a diplomatic message to the Sui which read, "The Son of Heaven of the land where the sun rises sends this letter to the Son of Heaven of the land where the sun sets. [I] wish you well." Wang Zhenping argues that the Sui court accidentally accepted this message from Japan, inadvertently legitimizing Japan's claims of sovereignty and equality with the Sui emperor. This isn't covered in the Tang histories and seems relevant as well in the "approval" of Japan's new, less diminutive moniker.
|
[
"The flag of Japan and the rising sun had symbolic meaning since the early 7th century in the Asuka period (538–710 CE). The Japanese archipelago is east of the Asian mainland, and is thus where the sun \"rises\". In 607 CE, an official correspondence that began with \"from the Emperor of the rising sun\" was sent to Chinese Emperor Yang of Sui. Japan is often referred to as \"the land of the rising sun\". In the 12th-century work, \"The Tale of the Heike\", it was written that different samurai carried drawings of the sun on their fans.\n",
"Japan rejected the terms \"\" and its short form for four different reasons: (1) the term referring to China as \"the Middle Kingdom\" (a literal translation of \"\"/\"\") or \"the center of the world\" was deemed arrogant; (2) Western countries used \"China\"; (3) Shina was the common name in Japan for centuries; (4) Japan already has a Chūgoku region, in the west of its main island Honshu. The name \"Chūka Minkoku\" was officially adopted by Japan in 1930 but \"Shina\" was still commonly used by the Japanese throughout the 1930s and 1940s.\n",
"Japan – an island nation in East Asia, located in the Pacific Ocean. It lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean \"sun-origin\" (because it lies to the east of nearby countries), which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the \"Land of the Rising Sun\". Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku, which together comprise about ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area.\n",
"The title carried widespread influence across East Asia as the ancient Han Chinese imperial title, , \"Son of Heaven\", was later adopted by the Emperor of Japan during the Asuka period. Japan sent diplomatic missions to China, then ruled by the Sui dynasty, and formed cultural and commercial ties with China. Japan's Yamato state modeled its government after the Chinese Confucian imperial bureaucracy. A Japanese mission of 607 CE delivered a message from \"the Son of Heaven in the land where the sun rises ... to the Son of Heaven in the land where the sun sets.\" But the Japanese emperor's title was less contingent than that of his Chinese counterpart; there was no divine mandate that would punish Japan's emperor for failing to rule justly. The right to rule of the Japanese emperor, descended from the sun goddess Amaterasu, was absolute. Based on epitaphs dating to the 4th and 5th centuries in medieval Korea, the kingdom of Goguryeo had concepts of Son of Heaven (天帝之子) and independent \"tianxia\". The rulers of Goryeo used the titles of emperor and Son of Heaven and positioned Goryeo at the center of the \"Haedong\" \"East of the Sea\" \"tianxia\", which encompassed the historical domain of the \"\"Samhan\"\", another name for the Three Kingdoms of Korea.\n",
"Both \"Nippon\" and \"Nihon\" literally mean \"the sun's origin\", that is, where the sun originates, and are often translated as the \"Land of the Rising Sun\". This nomenclature comes from Imperial correspondence with the Chinese Sui Dynasty and refers to Japan's eastern position relative to China. Before \"Nihon\" came into official use, Japan was known as or . \"Wa\" was a name early China used to refer to an ethnic group living in Japan around the time of the Three Kingdoms Period.\n",
"In English, the modern official title of the country is simply \"Japan\", one of the few nation-states to have no \"long form\" name. The official Japanese-language name is \"Nippon-koku\" or \"Nihon-koku\" (), literally \"\"State of Japan\"\". From the Meiji Restoration until the end of World War II, the full title of Japan was the \"Empire of Greater Japan\" ( \"Dai Nippon Teikoku\"). A more poetic rendering of the name of Japan during this period was \"Empire of the Sun.\" The official name of the nation was changed after the adoption of the post-war constitution; the title \"State of Japan\" is sometimes used as a colloquial modern-day equivalent. As an adjective, the term \"Dai-Nippon\" remains popular with Japanese governmental, commercial, or social organizations whose reach extend beyond Japan's geographic borders (e.g., Dai Nippon Printing, Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, etc.).\n",
"The Japanese word for Japan is , which is pronounced \"Nihon\" or \"Nippon\" and literally means \"the origin of the sun\". The character means \"sun\" or \"day\"; means \"base\" or \"origin\". The compound therefore means \"origin of the sun\" and is the source of the popular Western epithet \"Land of the Rising Sun\". The red disc symbolizes the sun and the red lines are light rays shining from the rising sun.\n"
] |
why am i only bald on the top of my head and not the sides?
|
There's a lot of great articles online that go into the exact science behind it if you'd like to read up on it, but the basic version goes like this:
1) The hair on the top of your head is genetically slightly different to the hair on the sides of your head. The hair on the sides of your head are "closer" to pubic hair - this is also the reason male pattern baldness (MPB)doesn't generally occur in the armpits / genital region / back / chest etc.
2) The actual hair loss issue is when a hormone testosterone changes into another molecule dihydrotesterone (DHT) which "attacks" the hair follicles on the top of your head, causing them to gradually shrink then disappear.
Sidebar: Typically MPB is treated by two methods - orally taking a pill of finasteride (marketed as Propecia) which acts to "disable" the formation of DHT, combined with topically applied lotions of Minoxodil (marketed as Regaine or the like) which helps stop DHT from attacking the hair follicles directly.
Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor and you should definitely have a chat to your local GP if you're having issues with MPB - they can save you a fortune you would spend with any of those hair clinics!!
|
[
"The top of the head usually has two black elongated blotches that form a large dark open V marking, but without an apex. The arms of the V end on the neck. There is usually a dark stripe that runs from the corner of the eye to the angle of the mouth.\n",
"Plagiocephaly, also known as flat head syndrome, is a condition characterized by an asymmetrical distortion (flattening of one side) of the skull. It is characterized by a flat spot on the back or one side of the head caused by remaining in a supine position for prolonged periods.\n",
"The head is small and wider than long, with a generally triangular outline in dorsal view. The upper surface is thickened into a shield with a curved and raised profile and two elongated processes extend out and slightly forward from the rear of the head. The eyes are either reduced to such a degree that they are not visible, or are possibly lost all together, and no ocelli are visible. The clypeus is small and strongly curved, with the front margin that faces the inner sides of the mandibles covered in 25, long, peg-like setae. Each mandible is curved almost 90˚ with the bases covered by the edges of the clypeus lobes. On the mandible's ends are two teeth, a smaller sub-apical one and a larger apical one with a groove that likely matches the position of the opposite mandible placement when they are closed. The antennae are distinctly 11-segmented, with a curved scape that just reaches the rear margin of the head capsule when reclined.\n",
"BULLET::::5. The Bald Man (\"phalakros\") paradox:brA man with a full head of hair is obviously not bald. Now the removal of a single hair will not turn a non-bald man into a bald one. And yet it is obvious that a continuation of that process must eventually result in baldness.\n",
"Some men shave their heads, either as a fashion statement, because they find a shaved head preferable to the appearance of male pattern baldness, or in order to attain enhanced cooling of the skull – particularly for people suffering from hyperhidrosis. A much smaller number of Western women also shave their heads, often as a fashion or political statement.\n",
"The head is preferably refined, expressive and as light as possible; it is generally medium-sized with relatively deep jaws, and a straight or slightly concave profile. The ears are short and well-sculpted, with a darker tip than base. The eyes, sharp but with a sweet expression, are surrounded by black skin. The neck is preferred sufficiently long and without heaviness, well oriented on a strong base, but it is usually relatively short and wide. The chest is broad, the desired shoulder long and sloping. The body is stocky, the back often short and wide but sought-after in medium length. The hindquarters are large, the pasterns are short, legs solid and muscular with a hoof wall as strong as that of the Fjord, which should not be light coloured.\n",
"In human anatomy, the forehead is an area of the head bounded by three features, two of the skull and one of the scalp. The top of the forehead is marked by the hairline, the edge of the area where hair on the scalp grows. The bottom of the forehead is marked by the supraorbital ridge, the bone feature of the skull above the eyes. The two sides of the forehead are marked by the temporal ridge, a bone feature that links the supraorbital ridge to the coronal suture line and beyond.\n"
] |
What would happen if someone were to take a glass container out into space, close it, seal it, then take it back onto earth?
|
If the container was strong enough, you'd have a glass container with a vacuum inside. If not, the container would implode when it returned to normal atmospheric pressure. The pressure of the atmosphere outside would push the walls of the container in, and there'd be nothing inside to push back.
|
[
"Once on Earth, any volatile substance will be collected before the sealed containers are opened. The samples will be curated and analyzed at JAXA's Extraterrestrial Sample Curation Center, where international scientists can request a small portion of the samples.\n",
"Portholes on spacecraft must be made from glass that can survive rapid temperature changes, without suffering the cracking that can result from thermal shock. Those on the International Space Station were made from quartz glass mounted on titanium frames, covered with enamel. Of course, these are not designed to be opened. The windows also have shrouds or doors to protect them from micro-meteorites.\n",
"A sample-return mission would be designed to break the chain of contact between Mars and the exterior of the sample container, for instance, by sealing the returned container inside another larger container in the vacuum of space before it returns to Earth. In order to eliminate the risk of parachute failure, the capsule could fall at terminal velocity and the impact would be cushioned by the capsule's thermal protection system. The sample container would be designed to withstand the force of the impact.\n",
"We don't want to weaponise space but the building blocks should be in place. Because you may come to a time when you may need it. Today, I can say that all the building blocks (for an ASAT weapon) are in place. A little fine tuning may be required but we will do that electronically. We will not do a physical test (actual destruction of a satellite) because of the risk of space debris affecting other satellites.\"\n",
"General Cartwright stated that if the satellite came down in one piece that nearly one half of the spacecraft would survive re-entry, which would spread the toxic cloud of hydrazine gas roughly over the size of two football fields.\n",
"At 3 a.m. on April 5, 1994, Abigail Alling and Mark Van Thillo, members of the first crew, allegedly vandalized the project from outside, opening one double-airlock door and three single door emergency exits, leaving them open for about 15 minutes. Five panes of glass were also broken. Alling later told the Chicago Tribune that she \"considered the Biosphere to be in an emergency state... In no way was it sabotage. It was my responsibility.\" About 10% of the biosphere's air was exchanged with the outside during this time, according to systems analyst Donella Meadows, who received a communication from Alling saying that she and Van Thillo judged it their ethical duty to give those inside the choice of continuing with the drastically changed human experiment or leaving, as they didn't know what the crew had been told of the new situation. “On April 1, 1994, at approximately 10 AM ... limousines arrived on the biosphere site ... with two investment bankers hired by Mr. Bass ... They arrived with a temporary restraining order to take over direct control of the project ... With them were 6-8 police officers hired by the Bass organization ... They immediately changed locks on the offices ... All communication systems were changed (telephone and access codes), and [we] were prevented from receiving any data regarding safety, operations, and research of Biosphere 2.\" Alling emphasized several times in her letter that the “bankers” who suddenly took over “knew nothing technically or scientifically, and little about the biospherian crew.”\n",
"List of large reentering space debris is a list of man made objects reentering Earth's atmosphere by mass (see space debris). They are typically destroyed by reentry heating, but some components can survive. Most of these objects are relatively small; larger objects have survived but usually break up into smaller pieces during reentry.\n"
] |
What were relations between Pinochet's Chile and the military regime of Argentina like?
|
I don't know the specifics of this question and it was one that I would like to explore myself when I have a bit more free time. Both were brutal regimes and cooperated with each other (along with other nations of the Southern Cone) in Operation Condor, which was essentially a transnational repressive campaign against "subversives." For more on Operation Condor, see John Dinges *[The Condor Years](_URL_1_).* One specific incident was the assassination of General Carlos Prats, who was a Chilean general who went into exile after the coup and was later killed in a car bombing in Argentina. Another interesting chapter was the Malvinas/Falklands War. Pinochet was a big supporter and admirer of Margaret Thatcher and allowed British planes to refuel in Chile, which didn't sit well with Argentina. I don't know of one specific book that explains this deeper, but it is mentioned (I believe) in Mary Helen Spooner's *[The General's Slow Retreat](_URL_0_),* which I highly recommend! I really enjoyed it, Spooner is a journalist and also has another book called *Soldiers in a Narrow Land.* The latter explains the Pinochet regime, while the former is what happened after Pinochet was out of power through Michele Bachelet's first presidency. I hope this helped!
|
[
"Argentina and Chile were both ruled by military governments at the time of the negotiations. The Chilean and Argentine governments shared common interests: internal war against subversion, annihilating the opposition; external war against communism, remaining nonetheless part of the non-aligned movement; modernisation and liberalisation of the economy; a conservative approach towards social and class relations. By the end of 1977, the war against subversion and opposition was substantially over in both countries, as the Operation Condor had lost momentum and détente had improved East-West relations. The two countries maintained good economic relations.\n",
"Up to 1943, Chile and Argentina had declined to sever relations with the Axis powers, and the Chilean election was viewed by many as critical during World War II. A bitter disagreement sprung up between the president and its supporting Democratic Alliance. Initially, Ríos' government was committed to neutrality during the war, but the left-wing parties of his coalition were in favor of an immediate and total rupture with the Axis as well as for the recognition of the USSR, which they saw as their contribution to the world-struggle against fascism.\n",
"\"Americo-Chilean\"s played a role in international diplomacy between the two countries (see United States-Chile relations). The relationship turned tense during the Salvador Allende era (1970–73), in which the American CIA-backed bloody coup replaced him with general Augusto Pinochet to head a right-wing military regime (1973–89).\n",
"In 1978, amid direct negotiations attempting to settle the Beagle conflict, Chilean President Augusto Pinochet assured that Chile had no expansionist intentions, but that his government would \"defend the patrimony that belongs to it by right.\"\n",
"On 14 May 1974 Perón received Augusto Pinochet at the Morón Airbase. Pinochet was heading to meet Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay so the encounter at Argentina was technically a stop over. Pinochet and Perón are both reported to have felt uncomfortable during the meeting. Perón expressed his wishes to settle the Beagle conflict and Pinochet his concerns about Chilean exiles in Argentina near the frontier with Chile. Perón would have conceded on moving these exiles from the frontiers to eastern Argentina, but he warned \"Perón takes his time, but accomplishes\" (\"Perón tarda, pero cumple\"). Perón justified his meeting with Pinochet stating that it was important to keep good relations with Chile under all circumstances and with whoever might be in government.\n",
"The new junta quickly broke diplomatic relations with Cuba and North Korea, which had been established under the Allende government. Shortly after the junta came to power, several communist countries, including the Soviet Union, North Vietnam, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia, severed diplomatic relations with Chile however, Romania and the People's Republic of China both continued to maintain diplomatic relations with Chile. Pinochet has nurtured his relationship with China. The government broke diplomatic relations with Cambodia in January 1974 and renewed ties with South Korea in October 1973 and with South Vietnam in March 1974. Pinochet attended the funeral of General Francisco Franco, dictator of Spain from 1936–75, in late 1975.\n",
"The 11 September 1973 military coup in Chile overthrowing the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende was deeply distressing to Silvert, much of whose academic work concerned Chile. In 1974, he participated in the Commission on U.S.-Latin American Relations, chaired by U.S. Ambassador Sol M. Linowitz. The report advocated the normalization of U.S. relations with Cuba.\n"
] |
Communications (post, radio, red cross etc) between allies and axis during WW2?
|
For the general situation of post and parcels, from a [previous answer of mine](_URL_4_):
For signatories of the 1929 Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, [Article 77](_URL_6_) stated:
"At the commencement of hostilities, each of the belligerent Powers and the neutral Powers who have belligerents in their care, shall institute an official bureau to give information about the prisoners of war in their territory.
Each of the belligerent Powers shall inform its Information Bureau as soon as possible of all captures of prisoners effected by its armed forces, furnishing them with all particulars of identity at its disposal to enable the families concerned to be quickly notified, and stating the official addresses to which families may write to the prisoners."
The official bureau was the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, who worked in conjunction with a Protecting Power (for British prisoners the United States, until their declaration of war when Switzerland became the Protecting Power), various national organisations (the American Red Cross, Australian Red Cross, British Red Cross Society and Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, etc.), and government bodies who held e.g. next-of-kin information. Families would typically be informed by the military that their relatives were missing, then prisoners of war once that information was confirmed; the Red Cross would also contact the family with information on how to send letters and parcels. A Red Cross card, often pre-printed, might also be sent by the prisoners themselves shortly after capture where available, to let their family know they were alive and safe; the Germans used a bogus form (initially labelled "Red Cross", later changed to not specifically name the Red Cross but marked "Printed in Geneva"), telling prisoners that if they completed it then it would greatly speed up the process of contacting their family. It asked for much more information than the standard name, rank and serial number (e.g. names of units, objectives, comrades etc.), and once word filtered back Allied personnel were warned not to complete it.
Some idea of the scale of the undertaking can be seen in this [picture of records at the Central Prisoners of War Agency, Geneva](_URL_7_), from a University of Melbourne [blog post](_URL_3_) about their holding of Australian Red Cross cards relating to Missing, Wounded and Prisoner of War Enquiries.
There was no particular difference in sending packages to different branches of the services, but the circumstances were quite different between prisoners of Germany and those of Japan. There are some example online of family members who have published the various telegrams, letters etc. connected with a prisoner of war such as [Ken Fenton](_URL_2_), a Britsh airman held by Germany, and [Frank Larkin](_URL_5_), an Australian held by the Japanese. They both include Red Cross documents with guidance on how to send letters and parcels to prisoners. Guidance could also be found in Red Cross magazines that were published and sent to relatives of prisoners such as ["Prisoners of War Bulletin"](_URL_1_) in the US and "The Prisoner of War" in the UK, and the Great Britain Philatelic Society also has Post Office leaflets on communications with prisoners of war in [Europe](_URL_8_) and [Japan](_URL_0_).
*****
In terms of Bader’s leg, the British were notified by radio. The radio station at North Foreland received a clear text message stating that Bader had lost his right leg and requested a new one, and granted permission for a leg to be dropped with the day and time to be communicated by radio. The RAF felt that such an arrangement would be used as a public relations opportunity by the Germans, though, so did not arrange safe passage, but rather dropped a replacement leg as part of Circus 81, a standard bombing operation. Andy Saunders’ *Bader’s Last Flight* has details of the operation, including a reproduction of the original telegram to Fighter Command HQ from North Foreland.
|
[
"Early in World War II communications interoperability between Allied forces was poor. During March 1941 the first high-level proposals to formally structure combined operations between the United States and the United Kingdom were considered; these discussions were the genesis of the current Combined Communications Electronics Board (CCEB).\n",
"During the Second World War 1939-1945, the station experienced a heyday, when it was Scandinavia’s gateway to the outside world. Underwater communication cable connections had once again been quickly severed by nations at war and the radiotelegraphy transmissions were a link to the outside world. It continued to be used for naval transmissions until 1960.\n",
"During the early years of the 20th century industrial nations began building networks of powerful longwave transoceanic radiotelegraphy stations to communicate with other countries and keep in touch with their overseas colonies. These transmitted telegram traffic with Morse code at high speed using paper tape machines. During World War I long distance radio communication became a strategic technology; not only was it necessary to keep in contact with oversees armies and naval fleets, but a nation that didn't have radio could be isolated by an enemy cutting its submarine telegraph cables (as happened to Germany during both world wars).\n",
"During World War II, the Allies and Axis Powers both extensively used EW, or what Winston Churchill referred to as the \"Battle of the Beams\". Navigational radars had gained in use to vector bombers to their targets and back to their home base. The first application of EW in WWII was to defeat those navigational radars. Chaff was also introduced during WWII to confuse and defeat tracking radar systems.\n",
"BULLET::::- Transmission lines - Transmission lines are used to transfer the radio signals from one location to another. For example, a transmission line was used in Luftwaffe, Germany during WW II to send information from camps back to their base.\n",
"In World War I, the telegraph was recognised as being of crucial importance. Both sides tried to damage the international telegraph lines of the other. Post Office cable ships were involved in the action. Just a few hours after the declaration of war on 4 August 1914, CS \"Alert\" cut the German cables in the English Channel, almost completely isolating Germany from the rest of the world. In 1915, CS \"Monarch\" was sunk by a German mine off Folkstone.\n",
"At the start of World War II in September 1939, both the United Kingdom and Germany knew of each other's ongoing efforts in radio navigation and its countermeasures – the \"Battle of the beams\". Also, both nations were generally aware of, and intensely interested in, the other's developments in radio-based detection and tracking, and engaged in an active campaign of espionage and false leaks about their respective equipment. By the time of the Battle of Britain, both sides were deploying range and direction-finding units (radars) and control stations as part of integrated air defense capability. However, the German \"Funkmessgerät\" (radio measuring device) systems could not assist in an offensive role and was thus not supported by Adolf Hitler. Also, the \"Luftwaffe\" did not sufficiently appreciate the importance of British Range and Direction Finding (RDF) stations as part of RAF's air defense capability, contributing to their failure.\n"
] |
Why haven't we discovered prehistoric art as well rendered as some of today's modern art?
|
We have. "After [Chauvet](_URL_0_)" said Picasso, "all is decadence."
|
[
"The ability to study prehistoric art is dependent on surviving artifacts. Art created in mediums such as sand, bark, hides and textiles has not normally endured, while less-perishable materials, such as rock, stone, bone, ivory (and to a lesser extent wood), later pottery and metal, are more likely to be extant. Whether all these artifacts can be defined as works of art is contested between scholars. Alexander Marshack argued that the earliest, non-representational incisions on rock mark the beginnings of human art. More cautiously, Paul Mellars suggests that the relative rarity of these works means they cannot be seen as integral to early human society and evidence of an artistic culture.\n",
"Any aesthetic doctrines that guided the production and interpretation of prehistoric art are mostly unknown. An indirect concern with aesthetics can be inferred from ancient art in many early civilizations, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Greece, China, the Etruscans, Rome, India, the Celtic peoples, and the Maya, as each of them developed a unique and characteristic style in its art.\n",
"Ancient Maya art is renowned for its aesthetic beauty and narrative content. Of all the media in which Maya artists worked, their paintings on pottery are among the most impressive because of their technical and aesthetical sophistication. These complex pictoral scenes accompanied by hieroglyphic texts recount historic events of the Classic period and reveal the religious ideology upon which the Maya built a great civilization.\n",
"Many great traditions in art have a foundation in the art of one of the great ancient civilizations: Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, China, Ancient Greece, Rome, as well as Inca, Maya, and Olmec. Each of these centers of early civilization developed a unique and characteristic style in its art. Because of the size and duration of these civilizations, more of their art works have survived and more of their influence has been transmitted to other cultures and later times. Some also have provided the first records of how artists worked. For example, this period of Greek art saw a veneration of the human physical form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty, and anatomically correct proportions.\n",
"The origins of art have been a significant mystery, because art, as a form of communication, is largely a social construct. The core issue is that there can be no intention to represent an object or scene without first knowing that such a depiction is possible. Researchers have encountered great difficulty coming up with explanations of how prehistoric people first stumbled upon the idea of the possibility of representation. The archaeo-optical explanation is that images projected inside a dwelling space provided, according to Cambridge professor Nigel Spivey, “… a prototypical visual experience that triggers the concept of representation…” In addition, the images would be shared experiences, visible by everyone in the tent or structure at the same time. The group could thus collectively experience, discuss, verify, confirm, investigate, and interpret the images projected on the surfaces before them. It is the communal aspect of the images that makes the development of visual art socially feasible.\n",
"Some of these reproductions are \"so expertly produced that even knowledgeable Toledeans admit the difficulty of recognizing them as such.\" However, many shops still offer handcrafted damascened work following the tradition of ancient times, and it is possible to see artisans at work creating these painstaking and time-consuming works of art.\n",
"The art is very ancient, going back to the Indus Valley Civilization and beyond, and major traditions include cylinder seals and other small carvings in the Ancient Near East, which were also made in softer stones. Inlays of semi-precious stones were often used for decoration or highlights in sculptures of other materials, for example statues often had eyes inlaid with white shell and blue lapis lazuli or another stone.\n"
] |
What is the "ceiling" for perceivable video resolution?
|
Apple's marketing team makes the claim that the "Retina Display" for their new iPad has such a high pixel density that further improvements wouldn't result in a higher perceived resolution (at normal viewing distances).
However: "For raster graphics, Apple Inc asserts that a display of approximately 300 ppi at a distance of 12 inches (305 mm) from one's eye, or 57 arcseconds per pixel[9] is the maximum amount of detail that the human retina can perceive.[10] Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, however, stated that the resolution of the human retina is higher than claimed by Apple, working out to 477 ppi at 12 inches (305 mm) or 36 arcseconds per pixel.[11]"
_URL_0_
|
[
"Volumetric video is a video technique that captures a three-dimensional space, such as a location or performance. This type of videography acquires data that can be viewed on flat screens as well as using 3D Displays and VR goggles. Consumer-facing formats are numerous and the required motion capture techniques lean on computer graphics, photogrammetry, and other computation-based methods. The viewer generally experiences the result in a real-time engine and has direct input in exploring the generated volume.\n",
"Display resolution is the number of pixels of one row on a given screen. Before the year 2000 \"horizontal lines of resolution\" was the standard method of measurement for analog video. For example, a VHS VCR might be described as having 250 lines of resolution as measured across a circle circumscribed in the center of the screen (approximately 440 pixels edge-to-edge). With analog signals, the number of vertical lines and the frame rate are directly proportional to the bandwidth of the signal transmitted.\n",
"The visual part consisted of a two level multidisplay. The first part was a floor panel linking ninety-six 50\" plasma screens. It was suitable for 1:33 video which could be individually displayed by each monitor or as a synchronized 10 m x 9 m large screen. It was made of a horizontal row of 8 monitors and a vertical row of 12 monitors, which gave a 90m² floor screen and was the world's largest.\n",
"One other consideration is the very large amount of bandwidth required to feed imagery to a volumetric display. For example, a standard 24 bits per pixel, 1024×768 resolution, flat/2D display requires about 135 MB/s to be sent to the display hardware to sustain 60 frames per second, whereas a 24 bits per voxel, 1024×768×1024 (1024 \"pixel layers\" in the Z axis) volumetric display would need to send about three orders of magnitude more (135 GB/s) to the display hardware to sustain 60 volumes per second. As with regular 2D video, one could reduce the bandwidth needed by simply sending fewer volumes per second and letting the display hardware repeat frames in the interim, or by sending only enough data to affect those areas of the display that need to be updated, as is the case in modern lossy-compression video formats such as MPEG. Furthermore, a 3D volumetric display would require two to three orders of magnitude more CPU and/or GPU power beyond that necessary for 2D imagery of equivalent quality, due at least in part to the sheer amount of data that must be created and sent to the display hardware. However, if only the outer surface of the volume is visible, the number of voxels required would be of the same order as the number of pixels on a conventional display. This would only be the case if the voxels do not have \"alpha\" or transparency values.\n",
"The IAC Video Wall, located in the Frank Gehry-designed headquarters for IAC in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City, is one of the largest high-resolution video walls in the world, wide and high. The installation features the world’s largest high-resolution video wall, built by Prysm, using their proprietary Laser Phosphor Display (LPD) technology, a new display technology that uses low-power, solid–state lasers. The two walls will deliver more than 50 million pixels combined. The large-scale projection wall is visible from the West Side Highway/11th Avenue to tens of thousands of commuters each day, building brand awareness for IAC's online businesses.\n",
"The largest of the halls is named after the close running Taurus Mountains. It has a 2,400-seat capacity with telescopic platforms when used for conferences, and an exhibition area of 3,036 m². The hall is equipped with multi-purpose audio, lighting, and visual systems and a mobile simultaneous interpretation cabin. On the plasma screens in the hall, various graphical views and animations can be shown.\n",
"The limitations of composite video regarding horizontal resolution were also exploited on other systems. Adjacent pixel values got averaged horizontally, producing solid colors or generating transparency effects.\n"
] |
what is the tl;dr of terms and conditions that i always i agree to?
|
This is our stuff. You have to use our stuff the way we say. If our stuff breaks your stuff, it's not our fault. You can't give other people this stuff unless we say you can. That's the basics. There are some other nuances, but not many. I would highly recommend reading through one T & C all the way. Following that you can skim and look for anything fishy with relative ease.
|
[
"There is a distinction, then, between South African and English law, where terms and conditions are synonymous, and where they are used interchangeably. In South Africa, a condition is a very special type of contractual term, operating in a specific way; for example, ‘I will pay you R3,000 if you climb Table Mountain’.\n",
"Universal default is the term for a practice in the financial services industry in the United States for a particular lender to change the terms of a loan from the normal terms to the \"default\" terms (i.e. the terms and rates given to those who have missed payments on a loan) when that lender is informed that their customer has defaulted with another lender, even though the customer has not defaulted with the first lender.\n",
"The Standard Ethics Rating (SER) is a Solicited Sustainability Rating (SSR). It combines ‘solicited’, ‘standard’, and ‘independent’ characteristics. It is assigned upon a client’s request through a direct and regulated bilateral relationship. It is a rating that intends to deliver an evaluation of the level of compliance by companies and sovereign nations in the field of sustainability and corporate governance as indicated by documents and guidelines published by the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), The European Union (EU).\n",
"Implied terms in law refers to the practice of setting down default rules for contracts, when terms that contracting parties expressly choose run out, or setting down mandatory rules which operate to override terms that the parties may have themselves chosen. The purpose of implied terms is often to supplement a contractual agreement in the interest of making the deal effective for the purpose of business, to achieve fairness between the parties or to relieve hardship.\n",
"A term may be implied ‘in fact’ into a contract, to give full effect to the presumed intentions of the contracting parties. Terms implied in fact are terms that are ‘tailored’, and therefore unique, to the particular contract in question. Terms implied in fact are traditionally said to be based on the ‘presumed’ intentions of the parties concerned.\n",
"The classification of terms is fundamental in contract law as it affects the legal rights of a party in the event of a breach of contract. Innominate terms of contracts are one of the three categories of terms of contract, the others being warranties and conditions.\n",
"Terms may be implied due to the factual circumstances or conduct of the parties. In the case of \"BP Refinery (Westernport) Pty Ltd v Shire of Hastings\", the UK Privy Council, on appeal from Australia, proposed a five-stage test to determine situations where the facts of a case may imply terms. The classic tests have been the \"business efficacy test\" and the \"officious bystander test\". Under the \"business efficacy test\" first proposed in \"The Moorcock\" [1889], the minimum terms necessary to give business efficacy to the contract will be implied. Under the officious bystander test (named in \"Southern Foundries (1926) Ltd v Shirlaw\" [1940] but actually originating in \"Reigate v. Union Manufacturing Co (Ramsbottom) Ltd\" [1918]), a term can only be implied in fact if an \"officious bystander\" listening to the contract negotiations suggested that the term be included the parties would promptly agree. The difference between these tests is questionable.\n"
] |
Does Splenda have an effect on the teeth similar to other forms of dietary sugar?
|
Simply, no.
Dietary sugars are very dangerous simply because of their very high energy density, and persistence in the mouth (stickiness).
Bacteria metabolise these sugars into instant energy for themselves, but also secrete oligosaccharide chains (sugar molecules around 10 units long called *dextrans* units) in order to achieve a number of things:
1. Aid adhesion to the tooth surface for themselves
2. Store energy extraneously for other bacteria and itself to use when more sugar molecules are not readily available
3. Aid other bacteria to stick to the tooth surface, thickening the plaque layer
4. To create an oxygen-sparse "anaerobic zone" close to the tooth surface where more virulent strains can populate and breed
5. To create an isolated environment on the surface of the tooth that increases the acidity on the tooth surface, and protects the bacteria from salivary products that inhibit them (e.g. carbonate, antibodies, etc.)
Sucrose (refined sugar, a joined glucose/fructose disaccharide) is the most dangerous sugar we know of, simply because of its potential energy being even higher than the seperate units of fructose and glucose combined - the bond between the units is also energy available to the bacteria for harvest!
The molecules in sweeteners are far, far more difficult for bacteria to metabolise, and they cannot easily create these dextrans chains. Sweeteners are chemically distinct molecules! Usually aspartame is the main ingredient, which I believe is simply 2 amino acids joined together. Interestingly this binds to our "sweet" receptors about 1000 times stronger than sucrose does. Sucrose solution is surprisingly bitter! (Glucose syrup tastes *horrid*)
On an interesting aside, the sugar *xylitol* is literally glucose with one of the molecule combinations around a carbon atom flipped. Bacteria can't metabolise this at all! It inhibits bacterial growth because they *try* to metabolise it, and internalise it, but they can't! Amazing stuff. Chewing gum has loads of xylitol.
|
[
"Sugars are commonly associated with dental cavities. Other carbohydrates, especially cooked starches, e.g. crisps/potato chips, may also damage teeth, although to a lesser degree (and indirectly) since starch has to be converted to glucose by salivary amylase (an enzyme in the saliva) first. Sugars that are higher in the stickiness index, such as toffee, are likely to cause more damage to teeth than those that are lower in the stickiness index, such as certain forms of chocolate or most fruits.\n",
"Sucrose (table sugar) is most commonly associated with cavities. The amount of sugar consumed at any one time is less important than how often food and drinks that contain sugar are consumed. The more frequently sugars are consumed, the greater the time during which the tooth is exposed to low pH levels, at which point demineralisation occurs (below 5.5 for most people). It is important therefore to try to encourage infrequent consumption of food and drinks containing sugar so that teeth have a chance to be repaired by remineralisation and fluoride. Limiting sugar-containing foods and drinks to meal times is one way to reduce the incidence of cavities. Sugars from fruit and fruit juices, e.g., glucose, fructose, and maltose can also cause cavities.\n",
"Gliadins are highly hydrophobic proteins in wheat gluten. The antibodies are produced to interact with this protein. Therefore, a gluten-free diet may lead to normalisation of tooth development as circulating antibodies for enamel defect may decrease.\n",
"Frequency of sugar sweetened beverages results in dental caries, which are caused by Streptococcus bacteria. Dental caries is an infectious oral disease and is the breakdown of the teeth due to the bacteria in the mouth. It occurs when bacteria within the plaque metabolize the sugar, releasing various acids as waste compounds. As the acids are released, they form holes in the teeth which dissolve the enamel. The sugars, therefore provide a passageway for the activities of the oral bacteria, lowering salivary pH. The bacteria alone are not the sole cause of tooth decay, as it is the presence of these sugars that inhibit the production of acid.\n",
"Candy generally contains sugar, which is a key environmental factor in the formation of dental caries (cavities). Several types of bacteria commonly found in the mouth consume sugar, particularly \"Streptococcus mutans\". When these bacteria metabolize the sugar found in most candies, juice, or other sugary foods, they produce acids in the mouth that demineralize the tooth enamel and can lead to dental caries. Heavy or frequent consumption of high-sugar foods, especially lollipops, sugary cough drops, and other sugar-based candies that stay in the mouth for a long time, increases the risk of tooth decay. Candies that also contain enamel-dissolving acids, such as acid drops, increase the risk. Cleaning the teeth and mouth shortly after eating any type of sugary food, and allowing several hours to pass between eating such foods, reduces the risk and improves oral health.\n",
"Sugars and acids from candies, soft drinks, and fruit juices play a significant role in tooth decay, and consequently in enamel destruction. The mouth contains a great number and variety of bacteria, and when sucrose, the most common of sugars, coats the surface of the mouth, some intraoral bacteria interact with it and form lactic acid, which decreases the pH in the mouth. The critical pH for tooth enamel is generally accepted to be pH 5.5. When acids are present and the critical pH is reached, the hydroxyapatite crystals of enamel demineralize, allowing for greater bacterial invasion deeper into the tooth. The most important bacterium involved with tooth decay is \"Streptococcus mutans\", but the number and type of bacteria varies with the progress of tooth destruction.\n",
"All 6-carbon sugars and disaccharides based on 6-carbon sugars can be converted by dental plaque bacteria into acid that demineralizes teeth, but sucrose may be uniquely useful to \"Streptococcus sanguinis\" (formerly \"Streptococcus sanguis\") and \"Streptococcus mutans\". Sucrose is the only dietary sugar that can be converted to sticky glucans (dextran-like polysaccharides) by extracellular enzymes. These glucans allow the bacteria to adhere to the tooth surface and to build up thick layers of plaque. The anaerobic conditions deep in the plaque encourage the formation of acids, which leads to carious lesions. Thus, sucrose could enable \"S. mutans\", \"S. sanguinis\" and many other species of bacteria to adhere strongly and resist natural removal, e.g. by flow of saliva, although they are easily removed by brushing. The glucans and levans (fructose polysaccharides) produced by the plaque bacteria also act as a reserve food supply for the bacteria.\n"
] |
Can you harvest the spin energy of an object? Can objects be spun up in 0 gravity to serve as batteries?
|
What you're proposing is called a [flywheel](_URL_0_) and currently exists.
|
[
"To levitate the top, a plastic plate is placed on top of the magnetic base, and the top is spun on the plate at between 25-50 rotations per second (1500-3000 rpm). If too slow, the top falls over and slides off sideways; if too fast it does not orient itself to follow magnetic flux as it moves, and slides off. Since it can be difficult to spin the top fast enough by hand, Creative Gifts makes a battery-powered, hand held device to spin the top with an electric motor. Next, the plate is lifted by hand until, if conditions are right, the top rises above it to an equilibrium point. The top must also be weighted with washers of various sizes supplied in the kit. If too heavy it will not rise above the plate; if too light it flies off.\n",
"The kinetic energy of a rotating object depends on the mass of the object, the shape of the object, and the square of the speed of rotation. Therefore, compulsators tend to have very light rotors spinning very fast in order to store the most energy in the available mass, and because too much mass in the rotor causes problems with the magnitude of centripetal force required to prevent the rotor from flying apart.\n",
"Fictitious forces can be considered to do work, provided that they move an object on a trajectory that changes its energy from potential to kinetic. For example, consider a person in a rotating chair holding a weight in their outstretched hand. If they pull their hand inward toward their body, from the perspective of the rotating reference frame, they have done work against the centrifugal force. When the weight is let go, it spontaneously flies outward relative to the rotating reference frame, because the centrifugal force does work on the object, converting its potential energy into kinetic. From an inertial viewpoint, of course, the object flies away from them because it is suddenly allowed to move in a straight line. This illustrates that the work done, like the total potential and kinetic energy of an object, can be different in a non-inertial frame than an inertial one.\n",
"An object with some \"windmill\" asymmetry can therefore be subjected to minuscule torque forces that will tend to spin it up or down as well as make its axis of rotation precess. The YORP effect is zero for a rotating ellipsoid \"if\" there are no irregularities in surface temperature or albedo.\n",
"BULLET::::- Kinetic energy and angular momentum: Spinning up (or down) parts or all of the habitat requires energy, while angular momentum must be conserved. This would require a propulsion system and expendable propellant, or could be achieved without expending mass, by an electric motor and a counterweight, such as a reaction wheel or possibly another living area spinning in the opposite direction.\n",
"Any spinning satellite made of a conductive material will lose rotational momentum in Earth's magnetic field due to generation of eddy currents in its body and the corresponding braking force proportional to its spin rate. Aerodynamic friction losses can also play a part. This means that the magnetorquer will have to be continuously operated, and at a power level which is enough to counter the resistive forces present. This is not always possible within the energy constraints of the vessel.\n",
"If energy is dissipated while an object is rotating, this will cause the polhode motion about the axis of maximum inertia (also called the major principal axis) to damp out or stabilize, with the polhode path becoming a smaller and smaller ellipse or circle, closing in on the axis.\n"
] |
why do stop lights make you press the walk sign button?
|
If no-one needs to cross the road, it would be pointless to stop the traffic. By requiring pedestrians to press the button you can keep the traffic interruptions to a minimum and only when there is actually someone who needs to cross.
|
[
"In some states in the United States, at some busy intersections, buttons will make a beeping sound for blind people. When the light changes, a speaker built into the button will play a recording to notify blind people that it is safe to cross. When the signal flashes red, the recording will start to count down with the countdown timer.\n",
"In the UK, stop signs may be placed only at sites with severely restricted visibility, and each must be individually approved by the Secretary of State for Transport. Section 79 of the Highways Act 1980 enables the government to improve visibility at junctions, as by removing or shortening walls or hedges, in preference to placing a stop sign. The former UK practice of using \"Halt\" or \"Slow\" at Major Road Ahead signs was discontinued in 1965 at the recommendation of the Worboys Committee. Instead of replacing all the old \"Halt\" signs with the new Vienna Convention \"Stop\" sign, \"Give Way\" became the standard sign at UK priority junctions.\n",
"As at conventional signalized crossings, the pedestrian signals display flashing \"don't walk\" indications when typical pedestrians no longer have enough time to cross before the HAWK beacon releases cross traffic. At the same time as the flashing \"don't walk\" indication, the HAWK beacon displays an alternating flashing red indication to vehicular traffic (the equivalent of a stop sign). During this interval, vehicles on the roadway must stop, and may proceed after yielding to pedestrians in the crosswalk. When vehicle traffic is about to restart, the pedestrian signal goes to steady \"don't walk\". Then, the HAWK beacon goes dark and the pedestrian signal remains in \"don't walk\" mode until the signal is activated by another pedestrian.\n",
"Regardless of whether pictograms or words are used, the MUTCD defines a steady \"upraised hand\" or \"don't walk\" signal as an indication that a pedestrian cannot enter the street in that signal's direction, while a steady \"walking man\" or \"walk signal\" indicates that pedestrians can start crossing the street toward that signal. The upraised hand or \"don't walk\" signals begin to flash during the pedestrian clearance interval when the transition to \"don't walk\" is imminent. This normally occurs several seconds before the light turns yellow, usually going solid orange when the traffic light turns yellow or red; however, the display can be turned into a steady hand or \"don't walk\" sign while the vehicular light is yellow, or while the vehicular signal is still displaying a green light. In intersections with \"leading pedestrian intervals,\" the upraised hand or \"don't walk\" sign will continue flashing as the vehicular lights turn red and the other crossing(s) in the intersection display a walking man or \"walk\" sign. The vehicular traffic is then stopped in all directions for a short period of time before cross traffic is allowed to proceed. The 2009 MUTCD states that the flashing walking man or \"walk\" signals do not have meaning. The \"flashing walk\" indication was formerly used to delineate \"watch out for turning vehicles\" and is still in use in Washington, D.C.; however, as of the 2003 MUTCD, this was replaced by an optional \"animated eyes\" indication within the pedestrian signal display, which was placed in the MUTCD following a study that recommended the usage of the \"animated eyes\" signal.\n",
"On fully actuated signals, or semi-actuated traffic signals, pressing the button to cross a smaller side street will cause an \"instant walk signal\". In most states, drivers only have to wait until the pedestrian has finished crossing the half of the crosswalk that the driver is driving on, after which the driver may proceed. However, in some states (such as Utah), if the driver is in a school zone with the lights flashing, the driver must wait until the entire crosswalk is clear before he may proceed.\n",
"Stop signs are often used in North America to control conflicting traffic movements at intersections that are not busy enough to justify the installation of a traffic signal or roundabout. In the United States, the stop sign is not intended for use as a traffic calming device; it is intended to be installed mainly for safety and/or to assign right-of-way for a certain direction. Nevertheless, in the United States, Mexico and Canada, stop signs are commonly deployed as supposed safety measures in residential areas and near places where children play or walk (such as schoolyards), or that experience frequent automobile collisions, making extra precautions necessary. Stop signs may be erected on all intersecting roads, resulting in three- and four-way stops. However, studies have confirmed that stop signs do not offer measurable safety benefits over the Yield approach adopted in the countries listed above based on original European research dating back many decades.\n",
"Call buttons are installed at traffic lights with a dedicated pedestrian signal, and are used to bring up the pedestrian \"walk\" indication in locations where they function correctly. In the majority of locations where call buttons are installed, pushing the button does not light up the pedestrian walk sign immediately. One Portland State University researcher notes of call buttons in the US, \"Most [call] buttons don’t provide any feedback to the pedestrian that the traffic signal has received the input. It may appear at many locations that nothing happens.\" However, there are some locations where call buttons do provide confirmation feedback. At such locations, pedestrians are more likely to wait for the \"walk\" indications.\n"
] |
If evolution has emotionally rewarded beneficial actions, such as sex feeling good, why do I hate exercising?
|
You should keep in mind that our modern society is not at all a reflection of how humans have lived for the majority of our history.
|
[
"Such explanations do not imply that humans are always consciously calculating how to increase their inclusive fitness when they are doing altruistic acts. Instead, evolution has shaped psychological mechanisms, such as emotions, that promote altruistic behaviors.\n",
"One such phenomenon is known as biological altruism. This is a situation in which an organism appears to act in a way that benefits other organisms and is detrimental to itself. This is distinct from traditional notions of altruism because such actions are not conscious, but appear to be evolutionary adaptations to increase overall fitness. Examples can be found in species ranging from vampire bats that regurgitate blood they have obtained from a night's hunting and give it to group members who have failed to feed, to worker bees that care for the queen bee for their entire lives and never mate, to vervet monkeys that warn group members of a predator's approach, even when it endangers that individual's chance of survival. All of these actions increase the overall fitness of a group, but occur at a cost to the individual.\n",
"As to the first principle, humans may actually have been equipped with more powerful positive and negative sensations, compared to other mammals, due to our capacity for free will. That is, evolution might tend to add stronger incentives for behavior benefiting the genes in an individual with a powerful free will; as otherwise, the free will could easily result in maladaptive behavior.\n",
"Furthermore, the organism that benefited from that altruistic act and only acted on behalf of its own fitness would increase its own chance of survival and/or reproduction, thus increasing its chances of passing on its \"selfish\" traits.\n",
"Altruism in animals describes a range of behaviors performed by animals that may be to their own disadvantage but which benefit others. The costs and benefits are measured in terms of reproductive fitness, or expected number of offspring. So by behaving altruistically, an organism reduces the number of offspring it is likely to produce itself, but boosts the likelihood that other organisms are to produce offspring. There are other forms of altruism in nature other than risk-taking behavior, such as reciprocal altruism. This biological notion of altruism is not identical to the everyday human concept. For humans, an action would only be called 'altruistic' if it was done with the conscious intention of helping another. Yet in the biological sense there is no such requirement. Instead, until we can communicate directly with other species, an accurate theory to describe altruistic acts between species is Biological Market Theory.\n",
"In contrast to sociobiology and behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology emphasizes that organisms are \"adaptation executors\" rather than \"fitness maximizers.\" In other words, organisms have emotional, motivational and cognitive adaptations that generally increased inclusive fitness in the past but may not do so in the present. This distinction may explain some maladaptive behaviors that are the result of \"fitness lags\" between ancestral and modern environments. For example, our ancestrally developed desires for fat, sugar and salt often lead to health problems in modern environment where these are readily available in large quantities.\n",
"Evolutionary principles have predicted that the reward system is part of the proximate mechanism underlying the behavior. Because animals possess a brain reward system they are motivated to perform in different ways by desire and reinforced by pleasure. Animals establish security of food, shelter, social contact, and mating because proximate mechanism, if they do not seek these necessities they will not survive.\n"
] |
How did early humans deal with Neanderthals?
|
This question is better asked of /r/askanthropology since it is clearly pre-history. Emerging genetic [data](_URL_0_) indicates that there was some contact that involved the exchange of genetic information, but the nature (and relative enthusiasm) of that exchange is lost to a time before records. [Breaking news](_URL_1_) indicate that the exchange of genetic information between archaic species and our direct lineage goes back for some time. But you didn't get any of these insights here since this is restricted to historical periods. Go to /r/askanthropology.
|
[
"Neanderthals evolved from a branch of \"Homo heidelbergensis\" that migrated to Europe during the Middle Pleistocene. Neanderthal populations date back at least as far as 400,000 years ago in the Atapuerca Mountains, Spain. While lacking the robustness attributed to west European Neanderthal morphology, other populations did inhabit parts of eastern Europe and western Asia. Between 45,000–35,000 years ago, modern humans (\"Homo sapiens\") replaced all Neanderthal populations in Europe anatomically and genetically. This is evident in the transfer and combination of technology and culture.\n",
"This period is best known as the era during which the Neanderthals lived in Europe and the Near East (c. 300,000–28,000 years ago). Their technology is mainly the Mousterian, but Neanderthal physical characteristics have been found also in ambiguous association with the more recent Châtelperronian archeological culture in Western Europe and several local industries like the Szeletian in Eastern Europe/Eurasia. There is no evidence for Neanderthals in Africa, Australia or the Americas.\n",
"Neanderthals inhabited much of Europe and western Asia from as far back as 130,000 years ago. They existed in Europe as late as 30,000 years ago. They were eventually replaced by anatomically modern humans (AMH; sometimes known as Cro-Magnons), who began to appear in Europe circa 40,000 years ago. Given that the two hominid species likely coexisted in Europe, anthropologists have long wondered whether the two interacted. The question was resolved only in 2010, when it was established that Eurasian populations exhibit Neanderthal admixture, estimated at 1.5–2.1% on average. The question now became whether this admixture had taken place in Europe, or rather in the Levant, prior to AMH migration into Europe.\n",
"Eastern Neanderthals from the Altai show evidence of an introgression from modern humans not seen in western Neanderthals. This contribution to their genome derived from a modern human population that diverged from most other modern humans about 120 kya and expanded into Eurasia, but was later largely replaced by a second expansion of modern humans out of Africa after 75,000 years ago that gave rise to modern Eurasians, although 2% of the genome of New Guineans derives from this earlier dispersal. Kuhlwilm et al. argue that the admixture between this early modern human group, modern Eurasians, and Neanderthals took place in Southern Arabia or the Levant and that the introgressed Siberian Neanderthals had spread there from the Middle East.\n",
"Some authors have discussed the possibility that Neanderthal extinction was either precipitated or hastened by violent conflict with \"Homo sapiens\". Violence in early hunter-gatherer societies usually occurred as a result of resource competition following natural disasters. It is therefore plausible to suggest that violence, including primitive warfare, would have transpired between the two human species. The hypothesis that early humans violently replaced Neanderthals was first proposed by French palaeontologist Marcellin Boule (the first person to publish an analysis of a Neanderthal) in 1912. Several finds in both Homo-sapiens and Neanderthal bones indicate inter-species aggression from injuries (grooves in the bones themselves) that could only have come from spear or other projectile tips crafted with prevalent tool-making methods contemporary to the time.\n",
"In 2006, two anthropologists of the University of Arizona proposed an efficiency explanation for the demise of the Neanderthals. In an article titled \"What's a Mother to Do? The Division of Labor among Neanderthals and Modern Humans in Eurasia\", it was posited that Neanderthal division of labor between the sexes was less developed than Middle paleolithic \"Homo sapiens\". Both male and female Neanderthals participated in the single occupation of hunting big game, such as bison, deer, gazelles and wild horses. This hypothesis proposes that the Neanderthal's relative lack of labor division resulted in less efficient extraction of resources from the environment as compared to \"Homo sapiens\".\n",
"BULLET::::1. Neanderthals were a separate species from modern humans, and became extinct (because of climate change or interaction with modern humans) and were replaced by modern humans moving into their habitat between 45,000 and 40,000 years ago. Jared Diamond has suggested a scenario of violent conflict and displacement.\n"
] |
what credit rating actually is
|
The most important thing to remember about your credit rating is that it is **not** for your benefit. It is for the benefit of those you want to borrow money from.
Your credit rating is a conventient way for money lenders to know what kind of risk is associated with lending you money. Basically, how likely are you to pay back the debt you owe? That's why you can't build a good credit score by paying for things out of a bank account: you're not borrowing money, so they have no way to know how you'll handle that.
It's also important to know that your credit is not adjusted manually by someone looking at your actions. It's handled by a complex, mostly secret algorithm. It has nothing to do with what your intentions are or what they think your intentions are, it just has to do with what the actions you take are associated with statistically. That's why, for instance, checking your credit score lowers your score. Statistically, people who check their score do so because they are about to take out a big loan, to buy a car or a house, and they need to know how much they can afford. Taking out one loan means you're less likely to pay someone *else* back back you already owe money to the first person.
|
[
"A credit rating is an evaluation of the credit risk of a prospective debtor (an individual, a business, company or a government), predicting their ability to pay back the debt, and an implicit forecast of the likelihood of the debtor defaulting.\n",
"Credit ratings can address a corporation's financial instruments i.e. debt security such as a bond, but also the corporations itself. Ratings are assigned by credit rating agencies, the largest of which are Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch Ratings. They use letter designations such as A, B, C. Higher grades are intended to represent a lower probability of default.\n",
"The credit rating represents an evaluation of a credit rating agency of the qualitative and quantitative information for the prospective debtor, including information provided by the prospective debtor and other non-public information obtained by the credit rating agency's analysts.\n",
"The credit rating is a financial indicator to potential investors of debt securities such as bonds. These are assigned by credit rating agencies such as Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch to have letter designations (such as AAA, B, CC) which represent the quality of a bond. Moody's assigns bond credit ratings of Aaa, Aa, A, Baa, Ba, B, Caa, Ca, C, with WR and NR as withdrawn and not rated. Standard & Poor's and Fitch assign bond credit ratings of AAA, AA, A, BBB, BB, B, CCC, CC, C, D. Currently there are only two companies in the United States with an AAA credit rating: Microsoft and Johnson and Johnson.\n",
"A credit rating agency (CRA, also called a ratings service) is a company that assigns credit ratings, which rate a debtor's ability to pay back debt by making timely principal and interest payments and the likelihood of default. An agency may rate the creditworthiness of issuers of debt obligations, of debt instruments, and in some cases, of the servicers of the underlying debt, but not of individual consumers.\n",
"A credit rating agency attempts to describe the risk with a credit rating such as AAA. In North America, the five major agencies are Standard & Poor's, Moody's, Fitch Ratings, Dominion Bond Rating Service and A.M. Best. Bonds in other countries may be rated by US rating agencies or by local credit rating agencies. Rating scales vary; the most popular scale uses (in order of increasing risk) ratings of AAA, AA, A, BBB, BB, B, CCC, CC, C, with the additional rating D for debt already in arrears. Government bonds and bonds issued by government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) are often considered to be in a zero-risk category above AAA; and categories like AA and A may sometimes be split into finer subdivisions like \"AA−\" or \"AA+\".\n",
"Several credit rating agencies around the world have downgraded their credit ratings of the U.S. federal government, including Standard & Poor's (S&P) which reduced the country's rating from AAA (outstanding) to AA+ (excellent) on August 5, 2011.\n"
] |
Are measurements of an object's radioactivity affected by background levels in the environment?
|
> Are measurements of an object's radioactivity affected by background levels in the environment?
Sure, but this is the first thing you correct for. At work I measure the output of a radiation treatment device for cancer. The first thing I do is just take a measurement with the treatment device off, and measure the level of ambient radiation. Then when I do a measurement with the machine on, I subtract the background out of the measurement.
|
[
"The term \"radiophobia\" is also sometimes used in the arguments against proponents of the conservative LNT concept (Linear no-threshold response model for ionizing radiation) of radiation security proposed by the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) in 1949. The \"no-threshold\" position effectively assumes, from data extrapolated from the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that even negligible doses of radiation increase ones risk of cancer linearly as the exposure increases from a value of 0 up to high dose rates. The LNT model therefore suggests that radiation exposure from naturally occurring background radiation may be harmful. However, the biological and health effects of low doses of radiation remains a controversial issue.\n",
"BULLET::::- Environmental Radioactivity: A network of radioactivity monitors has been established to measure terrestrial radioactivity in environmental samples and in the air. The assessment of radioactivity due to Uranium and Thorium series, Potassium-40 along with total radioactivity will provide baseline information on the radiation environment.\n",
"Radiation monitoring involves the measurement of radiation dose or radionuclide contamination for reasons related to the assessment or control of exposure to ionizing radiation or radioactive substances, and the interpretation of the results. The ‘measurement’ of dose often means the measurement of a dose equivalent quantity as a proxy (i.e. substitute) for a dose quantity that cannot be measured directly. Also, sampling may be involved as a preliminary step to measurement of the content of radionuclides in environmental media. The methodological and technical details of the design and operation of monitoring programmes and systems for different radionuclides, environmental media and types of facility are given in IAEA Safety Guide RS–G-1.8 and in IAEA Safety Report No. 64.\n",
"Quantitative data on the effects of ionizing radiation on human health is relatively limited compared to other medical conditions because of the low number of cases to date, and because of the stochastic nature of some of the effects. Stochastic effects can only be measured through large epidemiological studies where enough data has been collected to remove confounding factors such as smoking habits and other lifestyle factors. The richest source of high-quality data comes from the study of Japanese atomic bomb survivors. In vitro and animal experiments are informative, but radioresistance varies greatly across species.\n",
"At the scientific level of the debate, the crucial question was whether the \"threshold theory\" was valid or whether, as Lewis insisted, the effects of radioactivity were \"linear with no threshold\", where every exposure to radiation had a long-term cumulative effect.\n",
"This article deals with radiation damage due to the effects of ionizing radiation on physical objects. Radiobiology is the study of the action of ionizing radiation on living things, including health effects of radiation in humans. \n",
"However, if no radiation source is specified as being of concern, then the total radiation dose measurement at a location is generally called the background radiation, and this is usually the case where an ambient dose rate is measured for environmental purposes.\n"
] |
A Song of Ice and Fire depicts medieval warfare as devastating the countryside, crop harvests, and peasant population with widespread abuses of non-combatants. Is this accurate of what warfare was really like during the War of Roses time period?
|
Yes, and for a much longer period than just the Wars of the Roses (ie. mid-to-late fifteenth-century). The encastellation of Europe in the eleventh- and twelfth-centuries made violent marches through enemy territory, known as [the chevauchée](_URL_3_), a highly popular and essential military tactic. The purpose of this form of warfare was to damage your opponent's financial income and their reputation - since one of the features of good lordship was the ability to protect and nothing demonstrated bad lordship like hiding in a castle while your land was ravaged. The treatment of non-combatants is [a central topic to the study of chivalry](_URL_0_) (side-note: Gillingham has several fantastic papers available through _URL_1_, I highly recommend taking advantage of this and his other freely available articles), often romantacised by the idyllic imagination that noble warriors would spare those not explicitly involved in the combat, has been comprehensively demonstrated as untrue, [see this post for more information](_URL_2_).
In this Martin is accurate, but this does not mean, of course, that all knights were bloody sadistic torturers (ie. they were not all Mountains that Ride or the Bloody Mummers) but that such actions were a widely accepted part of warfare and only condemned within certain moral contexts or because they might contravene accepted norms or desired (quasi-idealised) standards but usually not explicit legal structures.
However, even the standards of chivalric conduct have been noted as being thrown out the window during periods of civil conflict. As Philip de Commynes, writing about the Battle of Towton (1461), noted King Edward 'shouted to his men that they must spare the common soldiers and kill the lords, of which none or few escaped'. As demonstrated by the violence of the Anarchy of the mid twelfth-century; the Baronial Movements of the thirteenth-century; the deposing of Edward II in the fourteenth-century; and the Wars of the Roses in the fifteenth-century, it is clear that chivalric conduct often did not withstand the force of civil strife (and these examples just restricting us to England and Normandy).
Traditional non-combatants usually lacked even this thin veil of protection, and when the aim was to better yourself at the expense of your enemy (and doubly so when you knew you would be unlikely to keep hold of any territory you might ride through) it was a fairly vicious time to not have a set of walls to hide behind.
|
[
"\"Cry Havoc\" is a wargame with a medieval setting. Several scenarios are included in the game that set up a variety of combatants on each side, including peasants, sergeants, billmen, men-at-arms, knights and various other \"character\" classes. For example, in the scenario called \"Peasant Revolt\", 11 peasants, 19 yeoman and six pack mules are arrayed against 13 mounted and heavily armoured knights.\n",
"The wars of the 17th and 18th centuries wrought great destruction and losses to the population. In the Thirty Years' War, there was no great amount of fighting, but many times various armies marched through the area, plundering and destroying; one mill in Eßweiler fell victim to their destructive ways (it was restored in 1661). Between 1635 and 1638, the villagers also had the Plague to deal with, which had cropped up sporadically before this.\n",
"From 1709 to 1712, Bully was buffeted by the advances and retreats of armies fighting in the War of the Spanish Succession, a situation aggravated by an epidemic that killed 24 villagers. In 1796, a fire destroyed half the village, an event commemorated by the present-day \"Chemin brûlé.\"\n",
"Modern historians generally agree that the peasant war was an important event in Swiss history, and also in comparison to other popular revolts in late medieval Europe. Such revolts were rather common at the time and often were motivated by excessive taxation. The peasant war of 1653 stands out as a culminative end point in Switzerland for three reasons:\n",
"In 1564, Ronneby was the location of a bloody battle during the Northern Seven Years' War between the Swedish and the Danish armies during which the Swedes under King Erik XIV besieged the city, killed many inhabitants (Ronneby Bloodbath) and burnt it to the ground. Erik later reported that \"The Water was red from blood of the Danes.\" The number of victims was heavily exaggerated, for different propagandistic reasons, by both sides.\n",
"The tactics were replicated by England during the Hundred Years' War; fire became their chief weapon as they laid waste to the French countryside during lightning raids called chevauchées, in a form of economic warfare. One estimate records the destruction of over 2000 villages and castles during one raid in 1339.\n",
"During the religious wars of the 16th century, Ingelmunster became the victim of both warring parties. In August 1566, the Beeldenstormers passed by the village and pillaged and destroyed the church. The church was rebuilt with a tower in its center. In 1739, that tower would be torn down and a new one rebuilt in front of the church. The new tower remains standing to this day.\n"
] |
Were cannonballs considered "reusable" after being fired? or would they be deformed/ damaged after impacting a target.
|
**Occasionally, but typically under only specific circumstances.**
In the first centuries after the development of the cannon, stone shot was used in most cases. Stone is frangible; it tends to shatter upon impact, and even if a stone cannonball did not shatter, it was easily converted to peaceful use as building material. Both of these factors tended to work against the recovery and re-use of stone cannonballs. During [excavations at Edinburgh Castle between 1988 and 1991](_URL_1_) archaeologists discovered a handful of never-fired stone cannonballs and fragments from rounds that had clearly been used and shattered.
The use of iron shot began to take off in the 16th century and by the 17th century, they were almost ubiquitous. The issue here, as with stone, is that poor-quality iron (endemic in this period) is brittle and will shatter upon impact just as stone will. Given that cannon shot were designed to be destroyed, they were typically constructed of the cheapest iron possible, which increased the likelihood that they would fracture or deform.
Now, allow me to divert you into the question of **why** and **when** solid shot would be recovered. Solid cannon shot, whether iron or stone, tends to be *extraordinarily* heavy for its size and is difficult to handle because of its shape. You have to have a *reason* to go through the effort of recovering a particular solid shot. It is much easier to get new shot from your logistical train than to go through the effort of recovering shot. Large-scale shot recovery only makes sense if your own supplies are limited.
You might need a block and tackle setup to lift the shot. You'll need wagons and horses to carry the shot away. All this is expensive in both time and labor, which means you typically see shot recovery take place only where large concentrations of artillery have fought in a confined area. The effort of mustering a shot-recovery detail is offset by the ability to collect large amounts of shot.
Remember, too, that you have to cope with matching the shot's caliber ─ something not always easy if both sides in a battle aren't using compatible ammunition.
So to recap: In order for shot-recovery to be feasible, you need to have a shortage of ammunition that forces you to recover shot. You need to have the manpower to be able to recover the shot. You need to be fighting between approximately 1500 and 1870. You need to be at a place where large amounts of artillery were used in a confined area.
This checklist limits how often cannon shot was reused, but it did happen time and again. Stephen Bull, in his book *The Furie of the Ordnance* about artillery in the English civil wars, writes, "It is likely that the largest number (of 17th century cannon shot) were picked up and reused, or scrapped, within a relatively short period of the time they were fired or lost. Shot are recorded as having been removed from many of the major battlefields, notably Marston Moor and Naesby, over a very long period of time."
Mark Thomson's book, *Wellington's Engineers* about military engineering during the Peninsular War, references an account from Alexander Dickson: "the soldiers were offered a bounty for every roundshot they could recover for re-use and so as not to discourage them, even roundshot of calibres which were of no use were paid for."
During the Crimean War, when vast amounts of artillery were leveled against the Russian defenders along the Black Sea, the practice of round shot recovery [was captured on camera](_URL_0_), with the cannonballs in the ditch having been rolled down a hill by soldiers seeking to collect them.
Finally, during the American Civil War, the logistically-strapped Confederacy's quartermaster department [mined the Seven Days battlefields for almost a year afterward](_URL_2_), recovering supplies and spent cannon shot to be used in the war effort. At isolated places like Ship Island, in Texas, and elsewhere, Confederate artillerymen recovered Union-fired round shot in order to keep their guns fed.
The development of exploding shot and artillery shells brought an end to the era of recovering round shot. Even by the time of the American Civil War, round shot was on the way out of circulation.
|
[
"The cannon is destroyed by collision with balloons or their shots, but is replaced after a brief delay with no effect on the number of remaining lives. One life is lost whenever a balloon carries the King off the top of the screen; the game ends when all lives are lost.\n",
"The cannon is fired as planned, and the explosion causes huge damage in the immediate vicinity. However, the Earth's axis retains its tilt and position, and not the slightest tremor is felt in the rest of the world. Alcide, shortly before the cannon was fired, had discovered that J. T. Maston, while computing the size of the cannon, had made a calculation error — the first of his life. Indeed, he had accidentally erased three zeros from the blackboard when he was struck by lightning during a telephone call from Ms. Scorbitt. Because of that single mistake in the data, twelve zeros got omitted from the result. Because Maston's calculations were undoubtedly considered correct when they were discovered, this error was not discovered early enough. The cannon he designed was indeed far too small: a trillion of them would have had to be fired to achieve the intended effect.\n",
"BULLET::::4. Shot was not left exposed to the elements where it could rust. Such rust could lead to the ball not flying true or jamming in the barrel and exploding the gun. Indeed, gunners would attempt to remove as many imperfections as possible from the surfaces of balls.\n",
"When a cannon had to be abandoned such as in a retreat or surrender, the touch hole of the cannon would be plugged flush with an iron spike, disabling the cannon (at least until metal boring tools could be used to remove the plug). This was called \"spiking the cannon\".\n",
"More than 30 human cannonballs have died during the performance of this stunt. Among the latest was that which occurred in Kent, United Kingdom on April 25, 2011, where a human cannonball died as a result of the failure of the safety net. Landing is considered to be the most dangerous aspect of the act.\n",
"Solid cannonballs (\"shot\") did not need a fuse, but hollow munitions (\"shells\") filled with something such as gunpowder to fragment the ball, needed a fuse, either impact (percussion) or time. Percussion fuses with a spherical projectile presented a challenge because there was no way of ensuring that the impact mechanism contacted the target. Therefore, shells needed a time fuse that was ignited before or during firing and burned until the shell reached its target.\n",
"On December 6, 2011, while conducting an experiment on the effectiveness of various projectiles when fired out of a cannon, a \"MythBusters\" television crew sent a cannonball through the side of a house and into a minivan in a nearby Dublin, California neighborhood. The projectile had missed its intended target and instead soared , striking a house and leaving a hole, before striking the roof of another house and smashing through a window of a parked minivan.\n"
] |
What effect does the arctic summer sun have on plant life?
|
In theory, it would certainly help plants grow. In reality, though, it has very little effect, because the limiting factor of plants in the arctic is nutrient availability. The soil there has a layer of permafrost that prevents anything big and vascular from growing. It's why most plants in the arctic are low-growing shrubs and mosses
|
[
"Both fauna and flora are affected by the cold temperatures and the extreme light conditions. Activity is at a stand-still during the polar night, which lasts for many months. During the summer, months of midnight sun help accelerate the natural processes. The nature in the area is especially susceptible to global warming. Models show that the winter temperatures will increase more than the summer temperatures, resulting in more precipitation. Because the vegetation requires little rain and much wind, this may result in major changes.\n",
"The Arctic ocean has relatively abundant plant life. Nutrients from rivers along with mixing and upwelling from storms contribute mixed layer nutrients which are essential for Arctic phytoplankton development. During summer, nearly continuous solar insolation encourages phytoplankta blooms.\n",
"The Arctic Ocean has relatively little plant life except for phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are a crucial part of the ocean and there are massive amounts of them in the Arctic, where they feed on nutrients from rivers and the currents of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. During summer, the sun is out day and night, thus enabling the phytoplankton to photosynthesize for long periods of time and reproduce quickly. However, the reverse is true in winter when they struggle to get enough light to survive.\n",
"Plants that live under arctic conditions also have a need for xerophytic adaptations, since water is unavailable for uptake when the ground is frozen, such as the European resurrection plants \"Haberlea rhodopensis\" and \"Ramonda serbica\".\n",
"Polar and alpine ecosystems are assumed to be particularly vulnerable to climate change as their organisms dwell at temperatures just above the zero degree threshold for a very short summer growing season. Predicted changes in climate over the next 100 years are expected to be substantial in arctic and sub-arctic regions. Already there is evidence of upward shifts of plants in mountains and in arctic shrubs are predicted to increase substantially to warming \n",
"In the Arctic, the low tundra vegetation clothes a landscape of wide vistas, lit by the low-angle light characteristic of high latitudes. Much of the Arctic shows little impact from human activities, making it one of the few places on earth one can see intact ecosystems. Arctic plants are adapted to short, cold growing seasons. They have the ability to withstand extremely cold temperatures in the winter (winter hardiness), but what is even more important is the ability to be able to function in limiting summer conditions.\n",
"There is reason to think, however, that it is the lack of soil rather than climatic conditions that checks the upward extension of the alpine flora. Increased direct effect of solar radiation compensates for the cold of the nights, and in the few spots where plants have been found flowering up to a height of 3650 m (12,000 ft), nothing has indicated that the processes of vegetation were arrested by the severe cold which they must sometimes endure. The climate of the glacial region has often been compared to that of the polar regions, but they are very different. Here, intense solar radiation by day, which raises the surface when dry to a temperature approaching 27 °C (80 °F), alternates with severe frost by night. There, the Sun, which never sets is only able to send feeble rays that maintain a low temperature, rarely rising more than a few degrees above the freezing point. Hence the upper region of the Alps sustains a far more varied and brilliant vegetation.\n"
] |
How accurate are the common pronunciations of Biblical names (i.e. Daniel)? Are they dead on, or have the pronunciations evolved? Are the names even original?
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hi.. you might get something out of these related posts
* [Luke is short for Lucas. Why does the bible Luke only have the short form?](_URL_3_) - /u/vhcngh traces John, Jonathan, Luke, Mark and Matthew from English to Latin to Greek
* [Which came first, the name 'John' or 'Johnathan' (or similar spellings?) Were the Johns of biblical times simply called John or were they less famously named Johnathan? If John came first, how did it evolve to become the short version of Johnathan?](_URL_1_) - various respondents provide the original Hebrew names for John, Jonathan, Adam, Matthew and Paul
* [Was Jesus a common name when the biblical Jesus was alive?](_URL_0_) - lots of comments and links to other posts discussing the Hebrew name for Jesus
* [Biblical names like John,Paul,Gabriel or Peter have different pronunciations in other languages like Juan (John ,Spanish) or Paolo ( Paul, Italian). How were these names pronounced during biblical times?](_URL_2_) - very scanty information here, but a few more names are given
|
[
"Aramaic and Classical Syriac render the pronunciation of the same letters as ' ' and ' ' . The Aramaic Bibles and the Peshitta Syriac preserve these same spellings. Current scholarly consensus posits that the NT texts were translated from the Greek, but this theory is not supported directly at least by the name for Jesus, which is not a simple transliteration of the Greek form as would otherwise be expected, as Greek did not have an \"sh\" sound, and substituted ; and likewise lacked and therefore omitted the final \"‘ayin\" sound . Moreover, Eusebius (early fourth century) reports that Papius (early second century) reports that Jesus's disciple Matthew wrote a gospel \"in the Hebrew language\". (Note: Scholars typically argue the word \"Hebrew\" in the New Testament refers to Aramaic; however, others have attempted to refute this view.) The Aramaic of the Peshitta does not distinguish between \"Joshua\" and \"Jesus\", and the Lexicon of William Jennings gives the same form ' for both names. The Hebrew final letter ayin ' is equivalent to final in Classical Syriac and East Syriac and West Syriac. It can be argued that the Aramaic speakers who used this name had a continual connection to the Aramaic-speakers in communities founded by the apostles and other students of Jesus, thus independently preserved his historical name \"Yeshuuʕ\" and the Eastern dialectical \"Ishoʕ\". Those churches following the East Syriac Rite still preserve the name \"Ishoʕ\".\n",
"BULLET::::- Potts, Cyrus Alvin. Dictionary of Bible Proper Names: Every Proper Name in the Old and New Testaments Arranged in Alphabetical Order; Syllabified and Accented; Vowel Sounds Diacritically Marked; Definitions Given in Latin and English. The Abingdon Press: New York, 1922; p. 110.\n",
"Even so, many KJV Old Testament names were not entirely without New Testament Greek influence. This influence mostly reflected the vowels of names, leaving most of the consonants largely intact, only modestly filtered to consonants of contemporary English phonology. However, all KJV names followed the Greek convention of not distinguishing between soft and \"dāḡeš\" forms of ב \"bêṯ\". These habits resulted in multilingually fused Hebræo-Helleno-English names, such as Judah, Isaiah and Jeremiah. Additionally, a handful of names were adapted directly from Greek without even partial translations from Hebrew, including names such as Isaac, Moses and Jesse.\n",
"These Old Testament, Apocrypha and New Testament books of the Bible, with their commonly accepted names among the Protestant Churches, are given below. Note that \"1\", \"2\", or \"3\" as a leading numeral is normally pronounced in the United States as the ordinal number, thus \"First Samuel\" for \"1 Samuel\".\n",
"These elements include, but are not limited to, the use of the Hebrew names for all books, the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) ordering for the books of the Old Testament, both testaments being named their Hebrew names (\"Tanakh\" and \"Brit Cadasha\"). This approach also includes the New Testament being translated with the preference of spelling names (people, concepts and place names) in transliterated Hebrew rather than directly translated from Greek into English. Some Sacred Name Bibles such as the \"Hallelujah Scriptures\", conform to these elements and are therefore may be considered Messianic Bibles as well.\n",
"Although no early manuscripts of the New Testament contain these names, some rabbinical translations of Matthew did use the tetragrammaton in part of the Hebrew New Testament. Sidney Jellicoe in \"The Septuagint and Modern Study\" (Oxford, 1968) states that the name YHWH appeared in Greek Old Testament texts written for Jews by Jews, often in the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet to indicate that it was not to be pronounced, or in Aramaic, or using the four Greek letters \"PIPI\" (Π Ι Π Ι) that physically imitate the appearance of Hebrew יהוה, \"YHWH\"), and that \"Kyrios\" was a Christian introduction. Bible scholars and translators such as Eusebius and Jerome (translator of the \"Latin Vulgate\") consulted the Hexapla, but did not attempt to preserve sacred names in Semitic forms. Justin Martyr (second century) argued that YHWH is not a personal name, writing of the \"namelessness of God\".\n",
"Some translators of Sacred Name Bibles hold to the view that the New Testament, or significant portions of it, were originally written in a Semitic language, Hebrew or Aramaic, from which the Greek text is a translation. This view is colloquially known as \"Aramaic primacy\", and is also taken by some academics, such as Matthew Black. Therefore, translators of Sacred Name Bibles consider it appropriate to use Semitic names in their translations of the New Testament, which they regard as intended for use by all people, not just Jews. \n"
] |
What did escapees from East Germany have to go through upon arrival in West Germany?
|
I can answer the follow-up question: They were imprisoned according to paragraph 213 of the GDR criminal code.
|
[
"Their motives for escaping evolved over time. Those who fled in the years shortly after the Wall was built had experienced the formerly open border first-hand and often had relatives in the West or had traveled there. By contrast, later escapees had grown up with the closed border, desired greater freedom and were dissatisfied with conditions in East Germany. Their attempts to escape were often triggered by specific events such as a wish to avoid conscription, repression by the authorities or the refusal of a request to emigrate. Many escapees had previously clashed with the state authorities and had been imprisoned for political offenses, often related to earlier unsuccessful escape attempts.\n",
"Between 1961 and 1989 several thousand East German citizens emigrated by obtaining temporary exit visas and subsequently failing to return, or by engaging in dangerous attempts to cross the Berlin Wall, the Inner German border, or the borders of other Eastern Bloc countries. Those who fled across the fortified borders did so at considerable personal risk of injury or death (see: List of deaths at the Berlin Wall), with several hundred \"Republikflüchtlinge\" dying in accidents or by being shot by the GDR Border Troops, while some 75,000 were caught and imprisoned. West Germany allowed refugees from the Soviet sector of Berlin, the Soviet zone, or East Germany to apply to be accepted as \"Vertriebene\" (expellees) of the sub-group of Soviet Zone Refugees (\"Sowjetzonenflüchtlinge\") under the Federal Expellee Law (BVFG § 3), and thus receive support from the West German government. They had to have fled before 1 July 1990 in an attempt to rescue themselves from an emergency situation – especially one posing a threat to health, life, personal freedom, or freedom of conscience – created by the political conditions imposed by the regime in the territory from which they had escaped (BVFG § 3). The law did not apply to influential former supporters of the eastern political system or to offenders against legality and humanity during the period of Nazi rule or thereafter within East Berlin or East Germany, and finally it was applicable to any who had fought against the democracy in West Germany or West Berlin (BVFG § 3 (2)).\n",
"Escapees had various motives for attempting to flee East Germany. The vast majority had an essentially economic motive: they wished to improve their living conditions and opportunities in the West. Some fled for political reasons, but many were impelled to leave by specific social and political events. The imposition of collective agriculture and the crushing of the 1953 East German uprising prompted thousands to flee to the West, as did further coercive economic restructuring in 1960. Thousands of those who fled did so to escape the clearance of their villages along the border. By the 1980s, the number of escape attempts was rising again as East Germany's economy stagnated and living conditions deteriorated.\n",
"Between 1950 and 1988, around 4 million East Germans migrated to the West; 3.454 million left between 1950 and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. After the border was fortified and the Berlin Wall constructed, the number of illegal crossings fell dramatically and continued to fall as the defences were improved over the subsequent decades. However, escapees were never more than a small minority of the total number of emigrants from East Germany. During the 1980s, only about 1% of those who left East Germany did so by escaping across the border. Far more people left the country after being granted official permits, by fleeing through third countries or by being ransomed by the West German government.\n",
"In 1989 thousands of East German citizens, who had demanded the right to travel or emigrate to West Germany and had been allowed to do so, first arrived on western soil at Hof's railway station, having been placed on a special train and officially \"expelled\" by the East German government. Hof is located near the old Berlin-Munich autobahn, which was thought to be a possible invasion route by Warsaw Pact forces had the Cold War ever escalated into armed conflict (see Fulda Gap).\n",
"On 9 November 1989, following months of unrest, the travel restrictions placed upon East Germans were lifted. Tens of thousands of East Berliners heard the statement live on television and flooded the border checkpoints, demanding entry into West Berlin. Jannowitzbrücke, a former ghost station, was reopened two days later as an additional crossing point. Rosenthaler Platz and Bernauer Straße on the U8 soon followed suit, and by 1 July 1990, all border controls were removed. The ghost stations took three months to clean up the dirt, remove all the border guard posts/transport police areas, and complete interior refurbishment before the reopening on 1 July 1990.\n",
"A wave of refugees left East Germany for the West through Czechoslovakia, which was tolerated by the new Krenz government and in agreement with the Czechoslovak government. In order to ease the complications, the Krenz-led Politburo had decided on 9 November to allow East Germans to travel directly to West Berlin the next day. However the government spokesman misstated the news and stated that East Germans could leave for the West effective immediately. As rumors spread, before the regulations were to go effect, on the night of 9 November, tens of thousands of Eastern Berliners flooded Checkpoint Charlie and other checkpoints along the wall, crossing into West Berlin. The surprised and overwhelmed border guards made many hectic telephone calls to their superiors, but it became clear that there was no one among the East German authorities who would dare to take personal responsibility for issuing orders to use lethal force, so there was no way for the vastly outnumbered soldiers to hold back the huge crowd of East German citizens. Therefore, the border checkpoints were opened, although it is disputed who was the first to issue the order.\n"
] |
if life were such a probable event, we don’t have evidence of multiple origins?
|
There could have originally been many potential self-replicating molecules or molecular systems, but likely one type was better at replication than others and there was a molecular form of natural selection. It is thought that RNA preceded DNA, and that the first life was RNA-based. RNA is simpler and capable of storing genetic information just like DNA. However, we don't see any RNA based life (although there are some RNA viruses), probably because DNA is more stable, and was a better mechanism for encoding genetic information. All RNA based life would have gone extinct because it couldn't compete with DNA (or RNA could've formed symbiotic relationships with DNA, but cease to exist as its own life form).
We have no idea how many forms of life existed, we just know that the "LUCA" (last universal common ancestor) had a DNA structure resembling all current life. The LUCA however is in no way considered to be the first living thing... It's just the first living thing to produce a lineage that is not extinct.
|
[
"There is a single concestor of all surviving life forms and its evidence is that all that have ever been examined share the same genetic code and the genetic code is too complex to have been invented twice. There is no sign of other independent origins of life and if new ones arise, they would probably be eaten by bacteria. \n",
"From the relationships, it may be possible to constrain the date that lineages first appeared. For instance, if fossils of B or C date to X million years ago and the calculated \"family tree\" says A was an ancestor of B and C, then A must have evolved more than X million years ago.\n",
"BULLET::::- 1859: The belief that life forms can occur spontaneously (\"generatio spontanea\") was contradicted by Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) (although Francesco Redi had performed an experiment in 1668 that suggested the same conclusion).\n",
"With the development of the evolutionary paradigm of human origins, it has become widely recognized within the scientific community that at no point did there exist a single \"first man\" and a single \"first woman\" who constituted the first true humans and to whom all lineages of modern humans ultimately converge. If Adam and Eve ever existed as distinct historical persons, they were members of a much larger population of the same species. However, a common scientific explanation of human origins asserts that the population directly ancestral to all modern humans remained united as a single population by constant gene flow. Therefore, on the level of the entire human population, this explanation of human origin is classified as monogenism. All modern humans share the same origin from this single ancestral population.\n",
"This kind of severely co-dependent symbiosis can be seen frequently, such as in the relationship between clown fish and Riterri sea anemones. In these cases, it is extremely doubtful whether either species would survive very long if the other became extinct. However, the problem with this theory is that it is still not known how each organism's DNA could be incorporated into one single genome to constitute them as a single species. Although such symbiosis is theorized to have occurred (e.g., mitochondria and chloroplasts in animal and plant cells—endosymbiosis), it has happened only extremely rarely and, even then, the genomes of the endosymbionts have retained an element of distinction, separately replicating their DNA during mitosis of the host species. For instance, the two or three symbiotic organisms forming the composite lichen, although dependent on each other for survival, have to separately reproduce and then re-form to create one individual organism once more.\n",
"A mathematical, but non-genealogical study by mathematicians Joseph T. Chang, Douglas Rohde and Steve Olson calculated that the MRCA lived remarkably recently, possibly as recently as 300 BCE. This model took into account that people do not truly mate randomly, but that, particularly in the past, people almost always mated with people who lived nearby, and usually with people who lived in their own town or village. It would have been especially rare to mate with somebody who lived in another country. However, Chang et al found that a rare person who mates with a person far away will in time connect the worldwide family tree, and that no population is truly completely isolated. \n",
"Another potential problem is that if \"ten other independently inherited characters had been subject to selection of the same intensity as that for colour, only formula_1, or one in 1024, of the original genotype would have survived.\" The species would most likely have become extinct; but it might well survive ten other selective periods of comparable selectivity, if they happened in different centuries.\n"
] |
why are you required to wear specialized eyewear when welding, and in what way the light emitted differs from another light source?
|
The brightness of the arc form an arc welder is bright enough to cause damage to your retina if you looked directly at it. How it differs from other light sources, is intensity. Like the sun, the brightness is so intense that direct exposure will damage your vision. In fact, arc welders are brighter than the light from the sun entering your eye (of course it's travelling much shorter distance, and not through miles of atmosphere).
Exposure to the brightness of the weld area leads to a condition called arc eye in which ultraviolet light causes inflammation of the cornea and can burn the retinas of the eyes. Welding goggles and helmets with dark face plates—much darker than those in sunglasses or oxy-fuel goggles—are worn to prevent this exposure.
|
[
"Welders wear protective clothing, including light and thin leather gloves and protective long sleeve shirts with high collars, to avoid exposure to strong ultraviolet light. Due to the absence of smoke in GTAW, the electric arc light is not covered by fumes and particulate matter as in stick welding or shielded metal arc welding, and thus is a great deal brighter, subjecting operators to strong ultraviolet light. The welding arc has a different range and strength of UV light wavelengths from sunlight, but the welder is very close to the source and the light intensity is very strong. Potential arc light damage includes accidental flashes to the eye or arc eye and skin damage similar to strong sunburn. Operators wear opaque helmets with dark eye lenses and full head and neck coverage to prevent this exposure to UV light. Modern helmets often feature a liquid crystal-type face plate that self-darkens upon exposure to the bright light of the struck arc. Transparent welding curtains, made of a polyvinyl chloride plastic film, are often used to shield nearby workers and bystanders from exposure to the UV light from the electric arc.\n",
"Adequate ventilation is essential to remove metal fumes from welding operations, and personal protective equipment must be worn. Because the high temperatures during welding can often generate intense ultraviolet light, dark goggles or full face shields must be used to protect the eyes. Precautions must also be taken to avoid starting fires caused by stray sparks and hot welding debris.\n",
"Welding goggles provide a degree of eye protection while some forms of welding and cutting are being done. They are intended to protect the eyes not only from the heat and optical radiation produced by the welding, such as the intense ultraviolet light produced by an electric arc, but also from sparks or debris. A full facemask may be required for arc welding.\n",
"An arc source puts out visible light that may be harmful to human eyes. Therefore, optical filters on welding helmets must meet ANSI Z87:1 (a safety glasses specification) in order to protect human vision.\n",
"Proper protection such as welding goggles should be worn at all times, including to protect the eyes against glare and flying sparks. Special safety eyewear must be used—both to protect the welder and to provide a clear view through the yellow-orange flare given off by the incandescing flux. In the 1940s cobalt melters’ glasses were borrowed from steel foundries and were still available until the 1980s. However, the lack of protection from impact, ultra-violet, infrared and blue light caused severe eyestrain and eye damage. Didymium eyewear, developed for glassblowers in the 1960s, was also borrowed—until many complained of eye problems from excessive infrared, blue light, and insufficient shading. Today very good eye protection can be found designed especially for gas-welding aluminum that cuts the sodium orange flare completely and provides the necessary protection from ultraviolet, infrared, blue light and impact, according to ANSI Z87-1989 safety standards for a Special Purpose Lens.\n",
"Another important factor is the distance between the worker and the source of radiation. In the case of arc welding, infrared radiation decreases rapidly as a function of distance, so that farther than three feet away from where welding takes place, it does not pose an ocular hazard anymore but, ultraviolet radiation still does. This is why welders wear tinted glasses and surrounding workers only have to wear clear ones that filter UV.\n",
"Protective eyewear in the form of appropriately filtering optics can protect the eyes from the reflected or scattered laser light with a hazardous beam power, as well as from direct exposure to a laser beam. Eyewear must be selected for the specific type of laser, to block or attenuate in the appropriate wavelength range. For example, eyewear absorbing 532 nm typically has an orange appearance (although one should never rely solely on the lens color when selecting laser eye protection), transmitting wavelengths larger than 550 nm. Such eyewear would be useless as protection against a laser emitting at 800 nm. Furthermore, some lasers emit more than one wavelength of light, and this may be a particular problem with some less expensive frequency-doubled lasers, such as 532 nm \"green laser pointers\" which are commonly pumped by 808 nm infrared laser diodes, and also generate the fundamental 1064 nm laser beam which is used to produce the final 532 nm output. If the IR radiation is allowed into the beam, which happens in some green laser pointers, it will in general not be blocked by regular red or orange colored protective eyewear designed for pure green or already IR-filtered beam. Special YAG laser and dual-frequency eyewear is available for work with frequency-doubled YAG and other IR lasers which have a visible beam, but it is more expensive, and IR-pumped green laser products do not always specify whether such extra protection is needed.\n"
] |
how will the upcoming hospital pricing requirements help consumers?
|
It'll be helpful for a few different reasons.
First, it brings transparency to the process. You'll know *before* you get the bill what everything will cost.
Secondly, it will help to regulate healthcare costs. When Hospital A sees less business because Hospital B is 30% cheaper, Hospital A will have to adjust. That does raise the issue of corner cutting, but we'll see about that when it happens.
Transparency almost *always* helps the consumer.
|
[
"Recently, some insurance companies have announced their intention to begin disclosing provider pricing as a way to encourage cost reduction. Other services exist to assist physicians and their patients, such as Healthcare Out Of Pocket, Accuro Healthcare Solutions, with its CarePricer software. Similarly, medical tourists take advantage of price transparency on websites such as MEDIGO and Purchasing Health, which offer hospital price comparison and appointment booking services.\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",
"Proponents of health care reform believe that allowing comparable plans to compete for consumer business in one convenient location will drive prices down. Having a centralized location increases consumer knowledge of the market and allows for greater conformation to perfect competition. Each of these plans will also cap liabilities for consumers with out-of-pocket expenses at $6,350 for individuals and $12,700 for families.\n",
"Some insurers use reference pricing to reduce their provider costs. The insurer announces prices that it is willing to pay for specific surgical procedures, pharmaceuticals and other services. If the provider charges a higher price, the patient is responsible for the balance. One study estimated that about 40 percent of health care spending is for services for which patients could shop. Appropriate services include hip and knee replacement, colonoscopy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the spine, computerized tomography (CT) scan of the head or brain, nuclear stress test of the heart, and echocardiogram because they have relatively uniform protocols and are less likely to experience variation in quality.\n",
"“The government and private insurers are beginning to pay hospitals more for higher quality care–and the only way to measure quality, and then improve it, is with more information technology. Hospital spending on such gear is expected to climb to $30.5 billion next year, from $25.8 billion in 2004, according to researcher Dorenfest Group” (Mullaney and Weintraub, 2005).\n",
"A conceptually related institution is the for-profit HMO, which now comprises the predominant means of delivering medical services in the United States. Advocates of such institutions claim they are able to provide better care at lower cost due to higher efficiency. It is also said that, in the free market, hospitals have an incentive to do better due to competition.\n",
"However, several problems posts challenges to accessible and affordable hospital healthcare. To begin with, prices of medicine are set unreasonably high to make up for low service price. Doctors are also dissatisfied about their income. Secondly, great tension in patient-doctor relationships sometimes causes conflicts or even violence against doctors (yinao). Furthermore, patients are not distributed by seriousness among hospitals and lower health facilities, which leads to over-consumption of high-level medical resources in hospitals.\n"
] |
What is Einstein Tensor, and how it is implemented in Physics?
|
The Einstein tensor **G** is a tensor that quantifies the curvature of spacetime. It is a function of the metric tensor **g** and partial derivatives of the metric tensor and in fact the only tensor-function of **g** to be divergenceless. It appears on the left-hand side of the Einstein field equations
**G** \+ Λ**g** = 8**π**T,
where **G** = **R** \- 1/2**g**R. The above equation may be read as curvature + expansion = energy, mass, momentum.
I wouldn't say it had any special meaning and that more fundamental tensors such as **R** and scalars such as R are more useful to understand a spacetime's properties.
|
[
"Tensors are important in physics because they provide a concise mathematical framework for formulating and solving physics problems in areas such as mechanics (stress, elasticity, fluid mechanics, moment of inertia, ...), electrodynamics (electromagnetic tensor, Maxwell tensor, permittivity, magnetic susceptibility, ...), or general relativity (stress–energy tensor, curvature tensor, ... ) and others. In applications, it is common to study situations in which a different tensor can occur at each point of an object; for example the stress within an object may vary from one location to another. This leads to the concept of a tensor field. In some areas, tensor fields are so ubiquitous that they are simply called \"tensors\". \n",
"In mathematics, a tensor is an algebraic object related to a vector space and its dual space that can be defined in several different ways, often a scalar, tangent vector at a point, a cotangent vector (dual vector) at a point, or a multi-linear map from vector spaces to a resulting vector space. Euclidean vectors and scalars (which are often used in elementary physics and engineering applications where general relativity is irrelevant) are the simplest tensors. While tensors are defined independent of any basis, the literature on physics often refers to them by their components in a basis related to a particular coordinate system.\n",
"Following and , the concept of a tensor relies on a concept of a reference frame (or coordinate system), which may be fixed (relative to some background reference frame), but in general may be allowed to vary within some class of transformations of these coordinate systems.\n",
"In differential geometry, the Einstein tensor (named after Albert Einstein; also known as the trace-reversed Ricci tensor) is used to express the curvature of a pseudo-Riemannian manifold. In general relativity, it occurs in the Einstein field equations for gravitation that describe spacetime curvature in a manner consistent with energy and momentum conservation.\n",
"The intuitive motivation for the tensor product relies on the concept of tensors more generally. In particular, a tensor is an object which can be considered a special type of multilinear map, which takes in a certain number of vectors (its \"order\") and outputs a scalar. Such objects are useful in a number of areas of application, such as Riemannian geometry, famous for its use in Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity in modern physics, where the metric tensor is a fundamental concept: in particular, the metric tensor takes in two vectors, conceived of roughly as small arrows emanating from a specific point within a curved space, or manifold, and returns a \"local\" dot product of them relative to that particular point—an operation which encodes roughly the vectors' lengths as well as the angle between them. As the dot product is a scalar, the metric tensor is thus seen to deserve its name. There is one metric tensor at each point of the manifold, and variation in the metric tensor thus encodes how that distance and angle concepts, and so the laws of analytic geometry, vary throughout the manifold.\n",
"Einstein's equations are the centerpiece of general relativity. They provide a precise formulation of the relationship between spacetime geometry and the properties of matter, using the language of mathematics. More concretely, they are formulated using the concepts of Riemannian geometry, in which the geometric properties of a space (or a spacetime) are described by a quantity called a metric. The metric encodes the information needed to compute the fundamental geometric notions of distance and angle in a curved space (or spacetime).\n",
"In the 20th century, the subject came to be known as \"tensor analysis\", and achieved broader acceptance with the introduction of Einstein's theory of general relativity, around 1915. General relativity is formulated completely in the language of tensors. Einstein had learned about them, with great difficulty, from the geometer Marcel Grossmann. Levi-Civita then initiated a correspondence with Einstein to correct mistakes Einstein had made in his use of tensor analysis. The correspondence lasted 1915–17, and was characterized by mutual respect:\n"
] |
why does everybody know the phrase "the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell?"
|
It's simply a statement to remember what it does and people find it to be effective in teaching. Kinda like how Roy G Biv and Please excuse my dear aunt sally.
|
[
"Mitochondria are thought to be organelles that developed from endocytosed bacteria which learned to coexist inside our cells. These bacteria maintained their own DNA, the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which codes for components of the electron transport chain (ETC). The ETC is found in the inner mitochondrial membrane and functions to produce energy in the form of ATP molecules. The process is called oxidative phosphorylation, because ATP is produced from ADP in a series of redox reactions. Electrons are transferred through the ETC from NADH and FADH to oxygen, reducing oxygen to water.\n",
"Mitochondria are the \"power house\" of biological cells. It is thought that they were originally separate organisms, and a symbiotic relationship between them and early cellular life has evolved into their present position as cell organelles with no independent existence (see endosymbiotic theory).\n",
"Mitochondria are sometimes described as \"cellular power plants\" because they generate most of the cell's supply of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a source of chemical energy. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been regarded as unwanted by-products of oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria by the proponents of the free-radical theory of aging promoted by Denham Harman. The free-radical theory suggests that the use of compounds which inactivate ROS, such as antioxidants, would lead to a reduction of oxidative stress and thereby produce an increase in lifespan.\n",
"Biologists had long suspected that mitochondria originated from bacteria that had been incorporated as endosymbionts (\"living together inside\") of larger eukaryotic cells. It was Lynn Margulis who from 1967 on championed this theory, which has since become widely accepted. The most convincing evidence for this theory is the fact that mitochondria possess their own DNA and are equipped with genes and replication apparatus.\n",
"Mitochondria are organelles that synthesize ATP for the cell by metabolizing carbon-based macromolecules. The presence of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in mitochondria and proteins, derived from mtDNA, suggest that this organelle may have been a prokaryote prior to its integration into the proto-eukaryote. Mitochondria are regarded as organelles rather than endosymbionts because mitochondria and the host cells share some parts of their genome, undergo mitosis simultaneously, and provide each other means to produce energy. Endomembrane system and nuclear membrane were derived from the protomitochondria.\n",
"The word \"eidouranion\" derives from the Greek compound \"eid + ouranos\". The combining elements are \"eidos\", which means \"what is seen, shape, form\", and \"ouranos\", which was the name of the god of the heavens. Thus, the combined form means \"shaped like the heavens\" or \"formed like the heavens\".\n",
"There are two hypotheses about the origin of mitochondria: endosymbiotic and autogenous. The endosymbiotic hypothesis suggests that mitochondria were originally prokaryotic cells, capable of implementing oxidative mechanisms that were not possible for eukaryotic cells; they became endosymbionts living inside the eukaryote. In the autogenous hypothesis, mitochondria were born by splitting off a portion of DNA from the nucleus of the eukaryotic cell at the time of divergence with the prokaryotes; this DNA portion would have been enclosed by membranes, which could not be crossed by proteins. Since mitochondria have many features in common with bacteria, the endosymbiotic hypothesis is more widely accepted.\n"
] |
Is the sea level "flat" across the oceans? Or are there water "mountains"?
|
Sea level is generally split into "mass" and "steric" terms. Mass is the amount of water molecules, and geographical variations in mass are influenced by gravitational variations as others have said.
"Steric" is about the density that water molecules are packed together, and is further split into "halosteric" - more salt content increases density - and "thermosteric" - warmer water reduces density - terms. Generally speaking I think the deeper oceans below a few hundred meters are fairly well mixed so there is less influence on the base state height distribution than from mass and gravity. However, the upper few hundred meters have a close relationship with what's going on at the surface so variability there can cause fairly significant high frequency steric sea level variations.
For example, during a strong El Nino event the Western tropical Pacific cools sharply and sea level there drops by about 25cm over the course of a year while the Eastern tropical Pacific warms and sea level there rises by about 25cm.
|
[
"The highest mountains above sea level are also not those with peaks farthest from the centre of the Earth, because the figure of the Earth is not spherical. Sea level closer to the equator is several miles farther from the centre of the Earth. The summit of Chimborazo, Ecuador's tallest mountain, is usually considered to be the farthest point from the Earth's centre, although the southern summit of Peru's tallest mountain, Huascarán, is another contender. Both have elevations above sea level more than less than that of Everest.\n",
"The highest mountains above sea level are also not those with peaks farthest from the centre of the Earth, because the figure of the Earth is not spherical. Sea level closer to the equator is several kilometres farther from the centre of the Earth. The summit of Chimborazo, Ecuador's tallest mountain, is usually considered to be the farthest point from the Earth's centre, although the southern summit of Peru's tallest mountain, Huascarán, is another contender. Both have elevations above sea level more than 2 km less than that of Everest.\n",
"The oceans are far deeper than the continents are tall; examination of the Earth's hypsographic curve shows that the average elevation of Earth's landmasses is only , while the ocean's average depth is . Though this apparent discrepancy is great, for both land and sea, the respective extremes such as mountains and trenches are rare.\n",
"The Flat Earth appears to include temperate, sub-tropical, and tropical zones, including many deserts. Since \"polar\" regions would be impossible on a flat world, they are not mentioned in the series. There are many seas, but bodies of water large enough to be called \"oceans\" do not appear to be present.\n",
"The total surface area of Earth is about . Of this, 70.8%, or , is below sea level and covered by ocean water. Below the ocean's surface are much of the continental shelf, mountains, volcanoes, oceanic trenches, submarine canyons, oceanic plateaus, abyssal plains, and a globe-spanning mid-ocean ridge system. The remaining 29.2%, or , not covered by water has terrain that varies greatly from place to place and consists of mountains, deserts, plains, plateaus, and other landforms. Tectonics and erosion, volcanic eruptions, flooding, weathering, glaciation, the growth of coral reefs, and meteorite impacts are among the processes that constantly reshape the Earth's surface over geological time.\n",
"As mean sea level is physically realized by tide gauge bench marks on the coasts of different countries and continents, a number of slightly incompatible \"near-geoids\" will result, with differences of several decimetres to over one metre between them, due to the dynamic sea surface topography. These are referred to as \"vertical\" or \"height datums\".\n",
"An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a shallow sea that covers central areas of continents during periods of high sea level that result in marine transgressions. In modern times, continents stand high, eustatic sea levels are low, and there are few inland seas, the largest being Hudson Bay. Modern examples might also include the recently (less than 10,000 years ago) reflooded Persian Gulf, and the South China Sea that presently covers the Sunda Shelf.\n"
] |
When pollen reaches the stigma, how does it get to the ovules?
|
One of the most interesting details of plant biology is the fact that they have life cycles which involve [alternation of generations](_URL_4_). Unlike humans and most other animals, which are multicellular diploids for our entire lives (with the exception of an extremely brief unicellular bottleneck at fertilization), plants go through [multicellular diploid and haploid phases](_URL_0_). The haploid gametophyte phase produces gametes through mitosis, while the diploid sporophyte produces spores through meiosis. To make an analogy, is sort of like if humans gave birth to testes and ovaries that became self-sufficient entities rather than parts of our bodies, and then these went on to make new humans by themselves. In the earliest plants that colonized land, like mosses, the haploid gametophyte phase dominates the life cycle, with the [sporophyte depending on it](_URL_6_) for nutrients. Later plants like ferns developed separate [gametophytes](_URL_3_) and [sporophytes](_URL_7_ that are both more self-sufficient, and this became a general [trend towards increasing dominance of the diploid sporophyte](_URL_5_) stage in more derived groups of plants. Ultimately, this trend has reached a peak with angiosperms (flowering plants), in which the pollen produced in male flowers is actually a large number of extremely reduced and simplified gametophytes that are incapable of surviving on their own.
That probably seems like a lot of build-up before getting to your actual question, but it's an interesting topic and I wanted to provide some background. The point of everything I just explained is that pollen is *not* actually a plant's gametes (which would make it equivalent to sperm), but is in fact more accurately thought of as a multicellular (though very small) individual plant which *produces* gametes. So, just like any larger plant, pollen is capable of germinating and growing in a way that a single-celled gamete like sperm cannot, and this is exactly what it does upon reaching the stigma of a compatible plant of the same species. It grows a [pollen tube](_URL_1_) which travels down the stigma to the ovule and connects with it. Then, the pollen releases not one but *two* individual male gametes down this tube, in a process called [double fertilization](_URL_9_). One of the male gametes [fertilizes the female gamete](_URL_2_) to produce a diploid zygote that will grow into an embryo, while the other one merges with two additional haploid cells to make a *triploid* cell that develops into the endosperm. The endosperm is basically the equivalent of a yolk that sustains the embryo while it develops, and for many plants with edible seeds (e.g., cereal crops like corn, wheat, rice, etc.), this is actually the [main part that is consumed](_URL_8_).
|
[
"In seed plants, after pollination, a pollen grain germinates, and a pollen tube grows and penetrates the ovule through a tiny pore called a micropyle.The sperm are transferred from the pollen through the pollen tube to the ovule.\n",
"In angiosperms, after the pollen grain has landed on the stigma, it develops a pollen tube which grows down the style until it reaches an ovary. Sperm cells from the pollen grain then move along the pollen tube, enter an ovum cell through the micropyle and fertilise it, resulting in the production of a seed.\n",
"When placed on the stigma of a flowering plant, under favorable circumstances, a pollen grain puts forth a pollen tube, which grows down the tissue of the style to the ovary, and makes its way along the placenta, guided by projections or hairs, to the micropyle of an ovule. The nucleus of the tube cell has meanwhile passed into the tube, as does also the generative nucleus, which divides (if it hasn't already) to form two sperm cells. The sperm cells are carried to their destination in the tip of the pollen tube. Double-strand breaks in DNA that arise during pollen tube growth appear to be efficiently repaired in the generative cell that carries the male genomic information to be passed on to the next plant generation. However, the vegetative cell that is responsible for tube elongation appears to lack this DNA repair capability.\n",
"The stigma receives pollen and it is on the stigma that the pollen grain germinates. Often sticky, the stigma is adapted in various ways to catch and trap pollen with various hairs, flaps, or sculpturings. The pollen may be captured from the air (wind-borne pollen, anemophily), from visiting insects or other animals (biotic pollination), or in rare cases from surrounding water (hydrophily). Stigma can vary from long and slender to globe shaped to feathery.\n",
"The pollen is eventually released when the anther forms openings (dehisces). These may consist of longitudinal slits, pores, as in the heath family (Ericaceae), or by valves, as in the barberry family (Berberidaceae). In some plants, notably members of Orchidaceae and Asclepiadoideae, the pollen remains in masses called pollinia, which are adapted to attach to particular pollinating agents such as birds or insects. More commonly, mature pollen grains separate and are dispensed by wind or water, pollinating insects, birds or other pollination vectors.\n",
"The male reproductive organ of the flower, the stamen produces pollen. The opening of anthers makes pollen available for subsequent pollination (transfer of pollen grains to the pistil, the female reproductive organ). Each pollen grain contains a vegetative cell, and a generative cell that divides to form two sperm cells. Abiotic vectors such as wind, water, or biotic vectors such as animals carry out the pollen distribution. \n",
"Pollen is produced by the male flowers. The flowers predominantly cross pollinate via wind dispersal. Pollen then comes into contact with the ova (female part of the flower) to fertilse it. From this stage, if compatible, the fertilized flower will produce a drupe containing two fertile seeds within the flesh.\n"
] |
How does ice actually form from liquid water? Need a physics explanation!
|
Its not magic, its thermodynamics! Any system that is not in equilibrium will tend to minimize its total energy. Specifically, for crystallization, there are two steps.
Step 1: Density fluctuations in an unstable system lead to a nucleus. If these fluctuations result in a cluster of a critical size, then the nucleus grows. If the fluctuations result in a cluster that is smaller than the critical nucleus then the cluster shrinks. The critical size is dictated by the surface energy of the cluster, which acts to negate cluster formation, and the energetic gain by a the formation of a new phase. When these two effects are equal (the energetic cost by forming an interface=energetic gain by phase separation), the cluster is said to be of critical size. For clusters greater than this size, the energetic gain by phase separation (cluster growth) outweighs the energetic cost of forming an interface. For clusters smaller than the critical size, the energetic cost of forming an interface prohibits growth and the cluster shrinks.
Step 2: Growth. The nucleates grow by addition of water to one of the faces of the crystal.
Overall, the system's energy is minimized by the phase change. In these types of systems (unstable liquid phases) the crystalline structure is lowest energy state and thus favored.
|
[
"Water ice can form clathrate compounds, known as clathrate hydrates, with a variety of small molecules that can be embedded in its spacious crystal lattice. The most notable of these is methane clathrate, 4 , naturally found in large quantities on the ocean floor.\n",
"There are phenomena like supercooling, in which the water is cooled below its freezing point, but the water remains liquid, if there are too few defects to seed crystallization. One can therefore observe a delay until the water adjusts to the new, below-freezing temperature. Supercooled liquid water must become ice at minus 48 C (minus 55 F) not just because of the extreme cold, but because the molecular structure of water changes physically to form tetrahedron shapes, with each water molecule loosely bonded to four others. This suggests the structural change from liquid to \"intermediate ice\". The crystallization of ice from supercooled water is generally initiated by a process called nucleation. Because of the speed and size of nucleation, which occurs within nanoseconds and nanometers.\n",
"Within the Earth's atmosphere and surface, the liquid phase is the most common and is the form that is generally denoted by the word \"water\". The solid phase of water is known as ice and commonly takes the structure of hard, amalgamated crystals, such as ice cubes, or loosely accumulated granular crystals, like snow. Aside from common hexagonal crystalline ice, other crystalline and amorphous phases of ice are known. The gaseous phase of water is known as water vapor (or steam). Visible steam and clouds are formed from minute droplets of water suspended in the air.\n",
"The extreme pressure exerted by the ice allows for the formation of liquid water at low temperatures that would otherwise result in ice, while the ice sheet itself insulates liquid water from the cold above. The causes the formation of sub-glacial lakes, the largest being Lake Vostok in Antarctica.\n",
"Rime ice forms when supercooled water liquid droplets freeze onto surfaces. Meteorologists distinguish between three basic types of ice forming on vertical and horizontal surfaces by deposition of supercooled water droplets. There are also intermediate formations.\n",
"When the water surface begins to lose heat rapidly, the water becomes supercooled. Turbulence, caused by strong winds or flow from a river, will mix the supercooled water throughout its entire depth. The supercooled water will already be encouraging the formation of small ice crystals (frazil ice) and the crystals get taken to the bottom of the water body. Ice generally floats, but due to frazil ice's small size relative to current speeds, it has an ineffective buoyancy and can be carried to the bottom very easily.\n",
"The surface environment does not play a decisive role in the formation of ice and snow. The density fluctuations inside drops result in that the possible freezing regions cover the middle and the surface regions. The freezing from the surface or from within may be random. However, in the strange world of water, tiny amounts of liquid water theoretically still are present, even as temperatures go below minus 48 C (minus 55 F) and almost all the water has turned solid, either into crystalline ice or amorphous water. Below minus 48 C (minus 55 F), ice is crystallizing too fast for any property of the remaining liquid to be measured. The freezing speed directly influences the nucleation process and ice crystal size. A supercooled liquid will stay in a liquid state below the normal freezing point when it has little opportunity for nucleation; that is, if it is pure enough and has a smooth enough container. Once agitated it will rapidly become a solid.\n"
] |
Everything in space spins it seems, so how could an enormous cloud of spinning dust and gas ever condense to form a star?
|
You're right, some gas clouds don't collapse! But others clearly do, and *exactly* how that happens and why is a topic of much research. First off, though, the main thing preventing collapse is the cloud's *temperature*, not its spin, though that also is very important to the process. Whereas **viscosity** can serve to remove angular momentum by placing most of it in a fairly small portion of the material, the cloud has to either remove it's thermal energy (an aggregated microscopic version of kinetic energy) by radiation, which is quite slow, or bring together enough mass into a small enough space for the gravitational forces inward to become stronger than the thermal pressure outward (e.g. by turbulence). The amount of mass you need to concentrate to start this collapse happening is called the "[Jeans Mass](_URL_0_)". This is still something of an oversimplification, since the gas cloud can *also* be supported by magnetic fields lacing the gas and dust, but it's a close enough picture to get on with, and anyway the exact relative importance of turbulence vs magnetic support is not really settled (you can google "hierarchical" vs "competitive accretion" star formation if you feel like falling in a rabbit hole).
|
[
"When they are formed, neutron stars rotate in space. As they compress and shrink, this spinning speeds up because of the conservation of angular momentum—the same principle that causes a spinning skater to speed up when she pulls in her arms.\n",
"As noted above, a mass distribution will emit gravitational radiation only when there is spherically asymmetric motion among the masses. A spinning neutron star will generally emit no gravitational radiation because neutron stars are highly dense objects with a strong gravitational field that keeps them almost perfectly spherical. In some cases, however, there might be slight deformities on the surface called \"mountains\", which are bumps extending no more than 10 centimeters (4 inches) above the surface, that make the spinning spherically asymmetric. This gives the star a quadrupole moment that changes with time, and it will emit gravitational waves until the deformities are smoothed out.\n",
"In 1755, Immanuel Kant speculated that observed nebulae may in fact be regions of star and planet formation. In 1796, Laplace elaborated by arguing that the nebula collapsed into a star, and, as it did so, the remaining material gradually spun outward into a flat disc, which then formed the planets.\n",
"These stars gradually slow down over the eons, but those bodies that are still spinning rapidly may emit radiation that from Earth appears to blink on and off as the star spins, like the beam of light from a turning lighthouse. This \"pulsing\" appearance gives some neutron stars the name pulsars.\n",
"Stars are believed to form as the result of a collapse of a low-temperature cloud of gas and dust. As the cloud collapses, conservation of angular momentum causes any small net rotation of the cloud to increase, forcing the material into a rotating disk. At the dense center of this disk a protostar forms, which gains heat from the gravitational energy of the collapse.\n",
"Once formed, the stars within the nebula emit a stream of charged particles known as a stellar wind. Massive stars and young stars have much stronger stellar winds than the Sun. The wind forms shock waves or hydrodynamical instabilities when it encounters the gas in the nebula, which then shapes the gas clouds. The shock waves from stellar wind also play a large part in stellar formation by compacting the gas clouds, creating density inhomogeneities that lead to gravitational collapse of the cloud.\n",
"Simulations show that the density of dust falls off rapidly with increasing distance from the planet. Calculations conducted by Rappaport et al. show that the dust tail, in addition to absorbing light directly, may scatter some of the light which reaches it, contributing to a small apparent rise in stellar flux before the planet and its tail pass in front of the star, and a small apparent reduction in the stellar flux as the planet exits the plane of the stellar disk.\n"
] |
I recently read in my anatomy textbook that recent studies have found that there is no correlation between cholesterol in the diet and serum cholesterol levels. How did we get this wrong for so many years and what causes high serum cholesterol then?
|
How did we get this wrong? Time for a history lesson.
_URL_0_
You can look up more details about this. But in short, major sugar companies had funded research in order to move the blame for the rise of heart diseas from the correlated and increased sugar intake to the fat and cholesterol consumption, either by cherry picking data, or by publishing research focusing solely on the effect of fat intake and increased cholesterol levels and their relation with heart disease.
As for what causes high serum cholesterol levels, first. Plaque buildup. We don't know how plaque builds up in arteries but we have some clues that it is caused by inflamation of the arterial walls. (We don't know exactly what causes such inflamation. But the main risk indicators currently are high LDL levels, high blood pressure and increased waste products in the blood) Such inflamation that the body tries to contain by covering it with fat, cholesterol, fibrin, ane calcium.
The point here is cholesterol. Cholesterol isn't the cause but is merely the result. The body's natural response to contain the inflamation for a short enough notice so that the body is able to find the cause, in the case of continous inflamation the body then proceeds to cover plaque buildup with calcium. Which is why coronary calcium scans are the most reliable in detection of heart desease. Rather than cholesterol which can be in high levels due to an increased intake or due to increase in hormones or cell production.
|
[
"An early incarnation of the lipid hypothesis which focused on hypercholesterolemia lead to the suggestion that mortality from CHD might be reduced by controlling dietary input of cholesterol. Studies have demonstrated that increasing dietary cholesterol leads to an increase in both total cholesterol (TC) and LDL Cholesterol (LDL-C), however it also leads to increases in the level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), offsetting the effect of the increase in LDL-C. Epidemological studies which attempted to correlate dietary cholesterol with risk of mortality in CHD have produced mixed results.\n",
"Given that the function of cholesterol encompasses a very wide range, it is unlikely that the symptoms of SLOS are due to a single molecular mechanism. Some of the molecular effects are yet unknown, but could be extrapolated based on the role of cholesterol. In general, the negative effects are due to decreased levels of cholesterol and increased levels of cholesterol precursors-most notably, 7DHC. Although 7DHC is structurally similar to cholesterol, and could potentially act as a substitute, the effects of this are still being studied.\n",
"High levels of cholesterol, particularly low-density lipoprotein, are associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis and atheroma formation. The narrowing of blood vessels can cause reduced blood flow to the brain, heart, kidneys and other parts of the body. Cholesterol, though needed metabolically, is not essential in the diet, because the body's production increases as needed when dietary intake falls. The human body makes cholesterol in the liver, adapting the production according to its food intake, producing about 1 g of cholesterol each day or 80% of the needed total body cholesterol. The remaining 20% comes directly from food intake (in those who eat animal products).\n",
"Meta-analyses have found a significant relationship between saturated fat and serum cholesterol levels. High total cholesterol levels, which may be caused by many factors, are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. However, other indicators measuring cholesterol such as high total/HDL cholesterol ratio are more predictive than total serum cholesterol. In a study of myocardial infarction in 52 countries, the ApoB/ApoA1 (related to LDL and HDL, respectively) ratio was the strongest predictor of CVD among all risk factors. There are other pathways involving obesity, triglyceride levels, insulin sensitivity, endothelial function, and thrombogenicity, among others, that play a role in CVD, although it seems, in the absence of an adverse blood lipid profile, the other known risk factors have only a weak atherogenic effect. Different saturated fatty acids have differing effects on various lipid levels.\n",
"The location of cholesterol biosynthesis and inhibition of HMG-CoA is of significance, since most circulating cholesterol originates from internal production, rather than the diet. If the liver cannot produce more cholesterol, the cholesterol levels in the blood will decrease. Also, HMG-CoA-reductase inhibitors cause secondary up-regulation of hepatic LDL receptors, with increased LDL-cholesterol clearance and reduction of both total and LDL cholesterol in the serum.\n",
"The role of cholesterol in the development of cardiovascular disease was elucidated in the second half of the 20th century. This lipid hypothesis prompted attempts to reduce cardiovascular disease burden by lowering cholesterol. Treatment consisted mainly of dietary measures, such as a low-fat diet, and poorly tolerated medicines, such as clofibrate, cholestyramine, and nicotinic acid. Cholesterol researcher Daniel Steinberg writes that while the Coronary Primary Prevention Trial of 1984 demonstrated cholesterol lowering could significantly reduce the risk of heart attacks and angina, physicians, including cardiologists, remained largely unconvinced. Scientists in academic settings and the pharmaceutical industry began trying to develop a drug to reduce cholesterol more effectively. There were several potential targets, with 30 steps in the synthesis of cholesterol from acetyl-coenzyme A.\n",
"According to the lipid hypothesis, elevated levels of cholesterol in the blood lead to atherosclerosis which may increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. Since higher blood LDL – especially higher LDL concentrations and smaller LDL particle size – contributes to this process more than the cholesterol content of the HDL particles, LDL particles are often termed \"bad cholesterol\". High concentrations of functional HDL, which can remove cholesterol from cells and atheromas, offer protection and are commonly referred to as \"good cholesterol\". These balances are mostly genetically determined, but can be changed by body composition, medications, diet, and other factors. A 2007 study demonstrated that blood total cholesterol levels have an exponential effect on cardiovascular and total mortality, with the association more pronounced in younger subjects. Because cardiovascular disease is relatively rare in the younger population, the impact of high cholesterol on health is larger in older people.\n"
] |
This was posted in R/Conspiracy earlier. My BS meter went through the roof. Can AskScience provide some arguments for/against this please?
|
> Hair is an extension of the nervous system, it can be correctly seen as exteriorized nerves, a type of highly evolved \’feelers\’ or \’antennae\’ that transmit vast amounts of important information to the brainstem, the limbic system, and the neocortex.
This has enough grounding in truth to be good at confusing people. Hairs allow small motions to be detected easily. Things like insects crawling on your arm. But they don't directly transmit any information. Instead, the nerve cells at the base of the hair respond when the hair is physically moved.
> hair also emits energy, the electromagnetic energy emitted by the brain into the outer environment
This is just completely ridiculous.
> This has been seen in Kirlian photography
Kirlian photography involves applying a voltage to an object. So applying voltage to hair causes the resulting electrical discharge to expose a photographic plate? Nothing surprising or supernatural about that at all.
> When hair is cut, receiving and sending transmissions to and from the environment are greatly hampered.
What transmissions? What precise EM frequency do they use? What is the mechanism for their transmission and reception? These things can (and should, if they're serious about their claims) be measured.
|
[
"Roof's trial began on December 7, 2016; witnesses gave testimony describing the shooting in graphic detail. On December 15, 2016, Roof was found guilty of all 33 federal charges against him. For the sentencing phase of the federal trial, Roof dismissed his attorneys and insisted on representing himself. In a statement to the court at his sentencing hearing on January 4, 2017, Roof offered no apology or explanation, saying \"There's nothing wrong with me psychologically.\" At the hearing, prosecutors introduced into evidence a two-page excerpt from journal written by Roof from jail six weeks after his arrest, in which Roof composed a white supremacist manifesto, writing: \"I would like to make it crystal clear, I do not regret what I did. I am not sorry. I have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed.\"\n",
"According to information shared with the National Weather Service by Duane Stiegler with Dr. Ted Fujita's group from the University of Chicago, the initial point of damage occurred one mile south-southwest of Madkin Mountain on the Redstone Arsenal near the intersection of Fowler Road and Mills Road. Trees were downed and some roof gutters damaged. From eyewitness accounts of the wall cloud, circulating air may have reached the ground without a visible funnel.\n",
"During the 2011 Wisconsin protests, Kapanke reported that he had received death threats from his vote, and claimed that the windshield of his car had been vandalized, causing him to cancel public appearances. However, a police report had previously concluded that the damage was instead caused by a stray rock. Nevertheless, Kapanke persisted in publicly blaming it on protesters; according to PolitiFact, \"Kapanke allowed the myth of the smashed windshield to run wild and uncorrected for almost three weeks after he knew it was not true.\"\n",
"During the summer of 2008, Paul McCarthy's inflatable \"Complex Shit\", installed on the grounds of the Paul Klee Centre in Bern, Switzerland, took off in a wind, bringing down a power line, breaking a greenhouse window and a window at a children's home. This incident was widely reported internationally via news outlets in several languages with headlines like \"Huge turd catastrophe for museum\" and \"Up in the sky: is it a turd or a plane?\"\n",
"BULLET::::- Attack on SDLP councillor's office - In January 2002, SDLP councillor P. J. Bradley claimed members of ÓSF were responsible for an attack on his offices in Warrenpoint during which eleven windows were smashed and paint was poured over the building and in through the windows. Caitríona Ruane disputed Bradley's comments.\n",
"Michael later stated that Bonnen's Twitter post emerged from an earlier lawsuit by Bonnen that Horizon violated the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance, although Michael denied his suit was a strategic lawsuit against public participation. The exact cause of Bonnen's lawsuit was not discussed by Michael, but he acknowledged a leaky roof at the apartment complex caused by a contractor in March 2009. Court documents revealed that Bonnen originally sued Horizon for failing to pay interest on security deposits and failing to provide tenants with required porch safety disclosures.\n",
"In the end of the semester of 2014, a group of students put a picnic table on the roof. It is widely assumed the culprits Justin Hoelke, Jon Gerris, Jade Gartz and Ryan MacAdam put a stapler on the roof a few years prior. The only proof of this event is an obscure Instagram post by a r_moneys \n"
] |
why am i able to listen to any song i want on spotify for free as many times as i want but can only skip 5 songs on pandora
|
Because they're different companies that operate under different business models.
|
[
"The main feature of the site was for streaming full tracks without requiring registration. However as of 2011, users have to register for free to listen to a song, otherwise just a 30-second preview is provided. Registration is also required for advanced features such as making playlists, and purchasing music. Due to technical problems, however, a small minority of visitors are getting full tracks for nothing.\n",
"In April 2018, Spotify began to allow Free users to listen on-demand to whatever songs they want for an unlimited number of times, as long as the song is on one of the user's 15 personalized discovery playlists.\n",
"Google Play Music offers all users storage of up to 50,000 files for free. Users can listen to songs through the service's web player and mobile apps. The service scans the user's collection and matches the files to tracks in Google's catalog, which can then be streamed or downloaded in up to 320 kbit/s quality. Any files that are not matched are uploaded to Google's servers for streaming or re-download. Songs purchased through the Google Play Store do not count against the 50,000-song upload limit.\n",
"8tracks and other Internet radio sites, such as Pandora, allow users to explore a variety of songs and artists based on their musical preferences. Listeners are able to discover new artists and songs that they would have never encountered otherwise. Based on the users music interest, these Internet radio stations randomly select songs that are similar to the users' initial choice. Like Pandora, 8tracks's music license limits the number of songs that users can skip every hour.\n",
"Users with standard accounts can upload and listen to up to 50,000 songs from their personal libraries at no cost. A paid Google Play Music subscription entitles users to on-demand streaming of any song in the Google Play Music catalog, as well as access to YouTube Music Premium. Users in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom also have access to YouTube Premium. Users can purchase additional tracks for their library through the music store section of Google Play. In addition to offering music streaming for Internet-connected devices, the Google Play Music mobile apps allow music to be stored and listened to offline.\n",
"BULLET::::- in 2012, Google Play Music launched unlimited music streaming for a subscription price of $9.99 per month. Users can upload their own MP3s to the service and download them, but cannot download songs they have not uploaded themselves.\n",
"Pandora is another music streaming service that is available on the Internet. Pandora is one of the few music services that is free (no subscription required) to users. The user can select genres that are played back at random on Pandora's playlists.\n"
] |
how can nuclear launches be detected and identified?
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Between satellites and radar, it is pretty easy to track anything that flies like a rocket. Rocket exhaust is really hot, and infrared cameras in space can spot them launching. Once it is airborne, an ICBM flies up to the edge of space and then flies unpowered over to its target. During this phase, it is a large metal object sitting in the middle of a big empty area, and radar has no trouble spotting it. From here, we can extrapolate its target based on its current path, since its engine has turned off. It is difficult to figure out if the payload is nuclear or not, but usually if an ICBM is launched at anything other than a military base, it is probably going to be nuclear.
|
[
"There are many different ways to detect a nuclear detonation, these include seismic, hydroacoustic, and infrasound detection, air sampling, and satellites. Each have been used separately but at present the best results occur when data is used in tandem, since the energy caused by an explosion will transfer over to different mediums.\n",
"Another way of detecting a nuclear detonation is through air sampling; in nuclear explosions there are radioactive isotopes that get released into the air which can be collected by plane. Radionuclides include Americium-241, Iodine-131, caesium-137, krypton-85, strontium-90, plutonium - 239, tritium, and xenon. By sending planes over an area equipped with sensors they could reveal if there was a nuclear detonation but most air samples are taken at one of many radionuclide stations set throughout the world. Even underground detonations will eventually release radioactive gases most notably xenon to be detected. Although there are some flaws to this method; depending on where the explosion was air currents could move the gases or radionuclides in another direction. The process involves taking in air samples with a filter paper and the radioactive material is counted by a machine and analyzed by a computer. Which means if there is outside “noise” (other forms of radiation like some released from factories or nuclear plants) it can throw off the results.\n",
"The system's radar is referred to as EL/M-2084. It detects the rocket's launch and tracks its trajectory. The BMC calculates the impact point according to the reported data, and uses this information to determine whether the target constitutes a threat to a designated area. Only when that threat is determined, is an interceptor missile fired to destroy the incoming rocket before it reaches the predicted impact area.\n",
"The Advanced Vela satellites were additionally equipped with two non-imaging silicon photodiode sensors called \"bhangmeters\" which monitored light levels over sub-millisecond intervals. They could determine the location of a nuclear explosion to within about 3,000 miles. Atmospheric nuclear explosions produce a unique signature, often called a \"double-humped curve\": a short and intense flash lasting around 1 millisecond, followed by a second much more prolonged and less intense emission of light taking a fraction of a second to several seconds to build up. The effect occurs because the surface of the early fireball is quickly overtaken by the expanding atmospheric shock wave composed of ionised gas. Although it emits a considerable amount of light itself it is opaque and prevents the far brighter fireball from shining through. As the shock wave expands, it cools down becoming more transparent allowing the much hotter and brighter fireball to become visible again.\n",
"Other systems data, such as Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) and Missile Impact Location System (MILS), that were established by the United States and NATO to detect Soviet submarines and the locations where used missile test warheads splashed down, respectively, was searched in an effort to gain more knowledge on the possibility of a nuclear detonation in the region. This data was found not to have enough substantial evidence of a detonation of a nuclear weapon. United States Air Force surveillance aircraft flew 25 sorties over that area of the Indian Ocean from 22 September to 29 October 1979 to carry out atmospheric sampling. Studies of wind patterns confirmed that fall-out from an explosion in the southern Indian Ocean could have been carried from there to southwestern Australia. It was reported that low levels of iodine-131 (a short-half-life product of nuclear fission) were detected in sheep in the southeastern Australian States of Victoria and Tasmania soon after the event. Sheep in New Zealand showed no such trace. The Arecibo ionospheric observatory and radio telescope in Puerto Rico detected an anomalous ionospheric wave during the morning of 22 September 1979, which moved from the southeast to the northwest, an event that had not been observed previously.\n",
"At least two launches of \"Discoverers\" were used to test satellites for the Missile Defense Alarm System (MIDAS), an early missile-launch-detection program that used infrared cameras to detect the heat signature of rockets launching to orbit.\n",
"We can launch nuclear missiles not only over the North Pole, but in the opposite direction too. Global rockets can fly from the oceans or other directions where warning facilities cannot be installed. Given global missiles, the warning system has lost its importance. Global missiles cannot be spotted in time to prepare any measures against them. \n"
] |
why do my pubes itch after i shave them?
|
Because the ends of the hairs are sharper than they were before you shaved, the hair curls around and irritates your skin.
|
[
"BULLET::::- Sycosis vulgaris, Sycosis barbae or Barber's itch is a staphylococcus infection of the hair follicles in the bearded area of the face, usually the upper lip. Shaving aggravates the condition.\n",
"Another cause of irritation in women is post menopausal vaginitis. The decline in the female sex hormones leads to development of dryness and itching in the vagina. This is often accompanied by painful sexual intercourse. Cracks and tears often develop on outer aspects of the labia which becomes red from chronic scratching. Post menopausal vaginitis can be treated with short term use of vaginal estrogen pessary and use of a moisturizer.\n",
"Anal bleaching is the process of lightening the color of the skin around the anus. It is done for cosmetic purposes, to make the color of the anus more uniform with the surrounding area. Some treatments are applied in an office or salon by a cosmetic technician and others are sold as cream that can be applied at home. \n",
"A pubic piercing is a body piercing in the pubic area, on the mons pubis in females, or at the base of the penis in males. Healing times are at around 3–4 months. The rejection rate is around the same as well - that is, higher than most \"conventional\" (nose, ear, tongue) piercings, because it is a surface piercing. Some get this piercing because it can offer direct stimulation to the clitoris during intercourse. The placement is at the bottom of the pubic mound just above the penile shaft. Usually, the jewelry inserted is a custom-made surface bar, used to give the best chance of healing.\n",
"Many health-care professionals state that douching is dangerous, as it interferes with both the vagina's normal self-cleaning and with the natural bacterial culture of the vagina, and it might spread or introduce infections. Douching is implicated in a wide variety of dangers, including: adverse pregnancy outcomes including ectopic pregnancy, low birth weight, preterm labor, preterm birth, and chorioamnionitis; serious gynecologic outcomes, including increased risk of cervical cancer, pelvic inflammatory disease, endometritis, and increased risk for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV; it also predisposes women to develop bacterial vaginosis (BV), which is further associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes and increased risk of sexually transmitted infections. Due to this, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services strongly discourages douching, citing the risks of irritation, bacterial vaginosis, and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Frequent douching with water may result in an imbalance of the pH of the vagina, and thus may put women at risk for possible vaginal infections, especially yeast infections.\n",
"Pubic hair can be removed in a number of ways, such as waxing, shaving, sugaring, electrolysis, laser hair removal or with chemical depilatory creams. Waxing involves applying melted, usually hot, wax to the pubic hair that an individual would like to remove. The wax, which adheres to the hair as it hardens, is then covered with small strips of cloth. When the wax hardens sufficiently, the cloth is pulled off quickly, removing the hair from its roots as the wax is pulled away. Waxing can be performed on oneself privately using a home kit or by a cosmetologist at a salon or spa.\n",
"\"Tinea barbæ\" (also known as \"Barber's itch,\" \"Ringworm of the beard,\" and \"Tinea sycosis\") is a fungal infection of the hair. Tinea barbae is due to a dermatophytic infection around the bearded area of men. Generally, the infection occurs as a follicular inflammation, or as a cutaneous granulomatous lesion, i.e. a chronic inflammatory reaction. It is one of the causes of folliculitis. It is most common among agricultural workers, as the transmission is more common from animal-to-human than human-to-human. The most common causes are \"Trichophyton mentagrophytes\" and \"T. verrucosum\".\n"
] |
What did East Germany do well and West Germany do poorly?
|
Well, between 1968 and 1988, East German athletes won a total of 409 Olympic medals at the Summer Games and 110 at the Winter Games. West Germany won 204 Summer Games medals and 39 Winter Games medals. Twice the medal count, when West Germany had four times the population.
The answer that springs immediately to mind for many is doping, and the East Germans absolutely relied heavily on a [systematic doping regime for its athletes](_URL_0_). This was just part of the regime's focus on sport as a cost-effective way to gain prestige and cement a separate East German identity. (The entangled questions of East German acceptance of nudism and how all of this descends from Nazi ideas of the physical ideal, I'll leave to a specialist.) Physical fitness was a large part of the curriculum in East Germany, which started with compulsory (and heavily ideological) preschool. Students were regularly assessed for athletic potential, and promising children were pulled out of school at an early age for rigorous training. (Another question I'll leave for a specialist is the parallel between this and the other various Communist sports programs, as well as how this model has evolved in modern-day Russia and China.)
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[
"While official statistics painted a relatively rosy picture, the East German economy had eroded because of increased central planning, economic autarky, the use of coal over oil, investment concentration in a few selected technology-intensive areas and labor market regulation. As a result, a large productivity gap of nearly 50% per worker existed between East and West Germany. However, that gap does not measure the quality of design of goods or service such that the actual per capita rate may be as low as 14 to 20 per cent. Average gross monthly wages in East Germany were around 30% of those in West Germany, though after accounting for taxation the figures approached 60%.\n",
"The economic challenges facing East Germany were already formidable by 1960. The mandate Walter Ulbricht gave to the new Economic Commission was summed up in the mantra which the leader liked to repeat. East Germany should \"overtake without catching up\" (\"\"uberholden ohne einzuholen\"\"). East Germans must be able to eat more butter and meat than West Germans. One day they must be able to travel in faster cars and live in better apartments. This must be accomplished without having to copy \"capitalist production methods\". Erich Apel must make it happen, not \"someday ... never\", but by creating and following a plan. If it was a dream, it was a dream in which many comrades evidently believed. In July 1961 Apel was promoted to candidate membership of the politburo and secretaryship of the Central Committee. There were other appointments which combined to stress his importance in the wider government project. In 1960 he received a doctorate in return for a dissertation on the so-called East German Chemistry Programme.\n",
"From the late 1950s onwards, West Germany had one of the world's strongest economies. The East German economy also showed strong growth, but not as much as in West Germany, due to the bureaucratic system, emigration of working-age East Germans to West Germany and continued reparations to the USSR in terms of resources. Unemployment hit a record low of 0.7–0.8% in 1961–1966 and 1970–1971.\n",
"After reunification, the East German economy suffered significantly. Many East German factories were shut down due to inability to comply with West German pollution and safety standards, as well as inability to compete with West German factories. Because of this, a massive amount of West German economic aid was poured into East Germany to revitalize it. This stimulus was part-funded through a 7.5% tax on income, which led to a great deal of resentment toward the East Germans.\n",
"Also, Rapoport said that, despite its faults, East German society was superior with respect to its health system, social network, and education system to what she experienced in the Weimar Republic (Germany), United States, and currently in Germany. In particular, she praised the healthcare system of East Germany for guaranteeing everybody the same treatment, irrespective of social background or wealth. Rapoport claimed that even modern society can learn from East Germany and said that \"I'm nostalgic for certain aspects of the GDR. Even with the mistakes it (East Germany) was an important experiment\" and that East Germany was \"the best society I have seen.\" She contends that \"in the future, I think they will think about us (East Germany) quite differently from how they do now.\n",
"Germany invested over 2 trillion marks in the rehabilitation of the former East Germany helping it to transition to a market economy, and cleaning up the environmental degradation. By 2011 the results were mixed, with slow economic development in the East, in sharp contrast to the rapid economic growth in both west and southern Germany. Unemployment was much higher in the East, often over 15%. Economists Snower and Merkl (2006) suggests that the malaise was prolonged by all the social and economic help from the German government, pointing especially to bargaining by proxy, high unemployment benefits and welfare entitlements, and generous job security provisions.\n",
"East Germany had higher standards of living than other Eastern Bloc countries or the Soviet Union, and enjoyed favorable duty and tariff terms with the West German market. The East German economy was one of the largest and one of the most stable economies in the \"Second World\" until the revolutions of 1989.\n"
] |
Are swimming pools breeding chlorine-resistant organisms?
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If you think of microbial resistance in human terms, it makes more sense. If you send out a plague that kills a lot of people, some will survive and will likely be more resistant. The plague is a very specific, complicated way of killing an individual. Now if instead, you threw every human in lava, nobody would survive to develop resistance. Lava is simple and direct, and you can't have a "lava doesn't kill me" gene.
Think of antibiotics (specific, complicated, potentially survivable) as the plague, and the chlorine as lava (non-specific, simple, very difficult to survive).
|
[
"The pools are an oligotrophic environment with little available phosphate, leading one local bacterial species, \"Bacillus coahuilensis\", to acquire the genes necessary to partially replace its membrane phospholipids with sulfolipids through horizontal gene transfer.\n",
"\"Chlorella\" can create green and opaque water problems in aquaria. \"Chlorella\" can grow due to high nitrate and phosphate levels or by direct sunlight. Decreasing phosphate and nitrate by partial water change and moving the aquarium to shade can help alleviate the problem.\n",
"Swimming pools can be disinfected with a variety of chlorine-releasing compounds. The most basic of these compounds is molecular chlorine (Cl); however, its application is primarily in large commercial public swimming pools. Inorganic forms of chlorine-releasing compounds frequently used in residential and public swimming pools include sodium hypochlorite commonly known as liquid bleach or simply bleach, calcium hypochlorite and lithium hypochlorite. Chlorine residuals from Cl and inorganic chlorine-releasing compounds break down rapidly in sunlight. To extend their disinfectant usefulness and persistence in outdoor settings, swimming pools treated with one or more of the inorganic forms of chlorine-releasing compounds can be supplemented with cyanuric acid—a granular stabilizing agent capable of extending the active chlorine residual half-life (t) by four to sixfold. Chlorinated isocyanurates, a family of organic chlorine-releasing compounds, are stabilized to prevent UV degradation due to the presence of cyanurate as part of their chemical backbone.\n",
"While \"shocking\" pools to reduce the buildup of chloramines works with inorganic, ammonia-based chloramines, in two studies it was found ineffective with the organic chloramines present in all pool water e.g. with creatinine, an organic component in human sweat. Indeed, superchlorination produces free chlorine that reacts with organic contaminants to form a variety of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) which are hazardous to swimmer health e.g. one of the worst DBPs is the noxious and volatile trichloramine (NCl), well known for irritating the eyes nearby a pool. It has been pointed out that ozone is an excellent alternative, a much more effective oxidizer than chlorine shock.\n",
"Prevention of pink algae is the easiest way to deal with the problem. To ensure that pink algae does not grow in a pool, the owner must manually brush and clean all pool surfaces weekly, and regularly expose all pools surfaces to sunlight (pink algae thrives in a dark environment, particularly in areas with slow moving water). Regular doses of certain chemicals are also recommended in a preventative plan against pink algae.\n",
"The hardy red algae-eater \"Crossocheilus langei\" is commonly found in the aquarium trade and is one of the most popular and effective tank algae cleaners. They are active and fast swimmers that will school together if kept in a group, but some individuals may display aggression to their own kind or related fish. In general, the red algae-eater can be kept in most community tanks and is reportedly much less aggressive than similar fish such as the Chinese algae-eater or the red-tailed black shark.\n",
"It grows well in the cooler aquarium and is suitable for the beginner. It is easily propagated by cuttings. According to reports it secretes antibiotic substances which can help prevent blue-green algae. It grows best in a nutrient-rich, high light environment, but has shown an ability to outcompete other species when it is introduced.\n"
] |
morals and values
|
> Why do people feel the need to push their own values and morals onto other people?
Why do you?
If you see someone murdering someone else in front of you, surely you are going to stop him and tell him this is *wrong*. So, why are you trying to push your morals onto other people?
Yes, most often their morals are not welcomed and you wish they kept it for themselves. But this is the general logic as to WHY people feel the need to push their moral to other people. Because they truly believe that they are right and that they are helping.
|
[
"Values are the ideas and behaviors that shape ethical ideals. Personal values are things that are important to individuals that are shaped by one's specific upbringing, religious beliefs, cultural background, and personal experiences. Societal values are things that are comprehensively held by a broader number of people, like a community, that align closely to the society's culture and beliefs. Personal values are unique to individuals and thus are not an appropriate basis for professional ethics. Ethics can be defined as a system of moral values that distinguish rules for behavior based on an individual's or groups' ideas of what is good and bad. Police ethics are the rules for behavior that guide law enforcement officials based on what society deems as right and wrong. Ethics remain constant while definitions of right and wrong may change over time, yet what may be considered ethically right or wrong can be different than what is legally considered right and wrong. For police officials, ethical standards further include values such as integrity, courage and allegiance.\n",
"\"Moral ideals\", according to Gert, are objectives to lessen the amount of harm or evil in the world. These differ from moral rules, which are requirements that people avoid performing certain kinds of actions which produce harms to others. Morality encourages, but does not require, people to live up to moral ideals. Examples of moral ideals are the objectives of reducing the incidence of domestic violence or of breast cancer.\n",
"In the field of economic psychology, pride is conceptualized in a spectrum ranging from \"proper pride\", associated with genuine achievements, and \"false pride\", which can be maladaptive or even pathological. Lea et al. have examined the role of pride in various economic situations and claim that in all cases pride is involved because economic decisions are not taken in isolation from one another, but are linked together by the selfhood of the people who take them. Understood in this way, pride is an emotional state that works to ensure that people take financial decisions that are in their long-term interests, even when in the short term they would appear irrational.\n",
"The interest in morality spans many disciplines (e.g., philosophy, economics, biology, and political science) and specializations within psychology (e.g., social, cognitive, and cultural). In order to investigate how individuals understand morality, it is essential to consider their beliefs, emotions, attitudes, and behaviors that contribute to their moral understanding. Additionally, researchers in the field of moral development consider the role of peers and parents in facilitating moral development, the role of conscience and values, socialization and cultural influences, empathy and altruism, and positive development, in order to understand what factors impact morality of an individual more completely.\n",
"Values can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of actions or outcomes. As such, values reflect a person's sense of right and wrong or what \"ought\" to be. \"Equal rights for all\", \"Excellence deserves admiration\", and \"People should be treated with respect and dignity\" are representatives of values. Values tend to influence attitudes and behavior and these types include ethical/moral values, doctrinal/ideological (religious, political) values, social values, and aesthetic values. It is debated whether some values that are not clearly physiologically determined, such as altruism, are intrinsic, and whether some, such as acquisitiveness, should be classified as vices or virtues.\n",
"Moral development focuses on the emergence, change, and understanding of morality from infancy through adulthood. Morality develops across a lifetime and is influenced by an individual's experiences and their behavior when faced with moral issues through different periods' physical and cognitive development. In short, morality concerns an individual's growing sense of what is right and wrong; it is for this reason that young children have different moral judgement and character than that of a grown adult. Morality in itself is often a synonym for \"rightness\" or \"goodness\". It refers to a certain code of conduct that is derived from one's culture, religion or personal philosophy that guides one's actions, behaviors and thoughts.This term is related to psychology .There are other types of development such as social development , physical development and cognitive development \n",
"Ethics is mainly focused on moral goods rather than natural goods, while economics has a concern in what is economically good for the society but not an individual person and is also interested in natural goods. However, both moral and natural goods are equally relevant to goodness and value theory, which is more general in scope.\n"
] |
During the American War of Independence, what were the main religious differences between the Americans and the British?
|
This is a big question, I won't be able to do it justice, but here's a start. In short, yes, there are significant differences in religious life between England and the N. American colonies and these differences come into play during the Revolutionary War. To this day Queen Elizabeth II is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith whereas the United States famously affirms the First Amendment.
The main difference you need to appreciate is between the Church of England and dissenting Christians. If we go way back to Henry VIII's Reformation we can see that initially he didn't change theology from the Catholic beliefs, for instance in the 1530s transubstantiation is affirmed, but he replaced the primacy of the Pope with himself. Reformed theologies are spreading in England throughout the reign of Edward VI, then Mary's Catholic repression martyrs Protestants and confirms Protestant theology within Anglicanism. When Elizabeth becomes Queen she's confronted with the problem of reforming the Anglican church to fully establish its Protestant character, like Protestantism itself this is a matter of great controversy, and some conferences of scholars are called to produce what's known as the ["Elizabethan settlement."](_URL_0_) The settlement makes some Protestant liturgical reforms but claims for Anglicanism a magisterial/state authority similar to Catholicism. The Act of Uniformity and Book of Common Prayer are legally mandated, there's no freedom of conscience for someone who is more radically Protestant than the C of E.
And over the course of Elizabeth's reign the ranks of those radical Protestants are swelling! Called Puritans in England, these are people who refuse to attend the Anglican Church and who acknowledge no authority above the Scripture interpreted with aid of Grace. I've written some [big comments on Puritanism](_URL_1_) if you're interested.
Between 1600-1650 there is growing conflict between these dissenting Protestants and the Anglican Church, many emigrate to the New World in search of greater freedom to govern their religious affairs. It's important to note that these groups want to *govern*, they want not only freedom from persecution but the freedom to persecute! In the 1640s England has a Civil War between Parliament and King, Parliament being dominated completely by dissenters. Oliver Cromwell is himself a (relatively mild) religious independent.
So from the beginning of settlement the American colonies have significant religious diversity and this is one of the factors encouraging emigration. It varies regionally, but some areas are quite mixed, there's plenty of conflict. In 1689 there's even an anti-Catholic coup in Maryland.
Dissenters remain in Britain too, of course, but they are henceforth always a minority.
About Congregationalism more specifically. Some radical Protestant theologies are associated, fairly or unfairly, with specific political ideas. Cromwell's revolution had a religious character, they killed a King, and there's a persistent tradition of anti-authoritarianism in some of these groups. Quakers would be the best example. "Congregational" refers to a mode of Church government different from the CoE and implictly Calvinist. Indeed the historic Congregational churches were strongly Calvinist. In 1776 a British person would connote Congregationalism with anti-Monarchical ideas/sentiment, since the Revolutionary War was framed by loyalists as being about loyalty to a legitimate King you can imagine why a Congregational church would attract abuse.
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[
"Historians have debated the implications of the religious rivalries for the American Revolution. The struggle for religious toleration was played out during the American Revolution, as the Baptists, in alliance with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, worked successfully to disestablish the Anglican church. After the American victory in the war, the Anglican establishment sought to reintroduce state support for religion. This effort failed when non-Anglicans gave their support to Jefferson's \"Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom\", which eventually became law in 1786 as the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. With freedom of religion the new watchword, the Church of England was dis-established in Virginia. It was rebuilt as the Episcopal Church in the United States, with no connection to Britain.\n",
"When the United States entered the First World War, the most prominent religious groups were Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. The conflict served to unite these religions despite their differences and dissolve the idea the Jews and Catholics were inferior to Protestants.The loyalty to the same God and same country helped soldiers put aside their religious differences for the good of the war. Tense conditions still existed between these three religious but efforts were made to provide equal opportunities to each group. A committee called the Committee of Six represented the three faiths in the formation of new policy in the United States.\n",
"During the 18th century heyday of the First British Empire, Anglican and Methodist missionaries were active in the 13 American Colonies. The Methodists, led by George Whitefield, were the most successful and after the revolution and entirely distinct American Methodist denomination emerged that became the largest Protestant denomination in the new United States. A major problem for colonial officials was the demand of the Church of England to set up an American bishop; this was strongly opposed by most of the Americans and never happened. Increasingly colonial officials took a neutral position on religious matters, even in those colonies such as Virginia where the Church of England was officially established, but in practice controlled by laymen in the local vestries. After the Americans broke free, British officials decided to enhance the power and wealth of the Church of England in all the settler colonies, especially British North America (Canada).\n",
"Before the American Revolution, Anglican and Methodist missionaries were active in the 13 Colonies. The Methodists, led by George Whitefield, were the most successful according to Mark Noll. After the revolution an entirely distinct American Methodist denomination emerged that became the largest Protestant denomination in the new United States. As historians such as Carl Bridenbaugh have argued, a major problem for colonial officials was the demand of the Church of England to set up an American bishop; this was strongly opposed by most of the Americans. Increasingly colonial officials took a neutral position on religious matters, even in those colonies such as Virginia where the Church of England was officially established, but in practice controlled by laymen in the local vestries. After the Americans broke free, British officials decided to enhance the power and wealth of the Church of England in all the settler colonies, especially British North America (Canada).\n",
"Before the American Revolution, Anglican and Methodist missionaries were active in the 13 Colonies. The Methodists, led by George Whitefield, were the most successful and after the revolution and entirely distinct American Methodist denomination emerged that became the largest Protestant denomination in the new United States. A major problem for colonial officials was the demand of the Church of England to set up an American bishop; this was strongly opposed by most of the Americans had never happened. Increasingly colonial officials took a neutral position on religious matters, even in those colonies such as Virginia where the Church of England was officially established, but in practice controlled by laymen in the local vestries. After the Americans broke free, British officials decided to enhance the power and wealth of the Church of England in all the settler colonies, especially British North America (Canada).\n",
"From early colonial days, when some English and German settlers moved in search of religious freedom, America has been profoundly influenced by religion. That influence continues in American culture, social life, and politics. Several of the original Thirteen Colonies were established by settlers who wished to practice their own religion within a community of like-minded people: the Massachusetts Bay Colony was established by English Puritans (Congregationalists), Pennsylvania by British Quakers, Maryland by English Catholics, and Virginia by English Anglicans. Despite these, and as a result of intervening religious strife and preference in England the Plantation Act 1740 would set official policy for new immigrants coming to British America until the American Revolution.\n",
"In the decades after independence, many Americans including Calvinists (Presbyterians and Congregationalists), Methodists, and Baptists were swept up in Protestant religious revivals that would later become known as the Second Great Awakening. Presbyterians also helped to shape voluntary societies that encouraged educational, missionary, evangelical, and reforming work. As its influence grew, many non-Presbyterians feared that the PCUSA's informal influence over American life might effectively make it an established church.\n"
] |
what are the main differences between machines and robots?
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Robots are a kind of machine.
Generally when people speak of robots in a layman's colloquial sense, they mean the popular culture sort of humanoid, advanced AI machine.
There are lots of industries, though, that use machines that they call robots. It's usually because they have some sort of ability to make decisions/adjustments based on environmental input. So instead of just being a machine that makes the same movement over and over, or a machine controlled exclusively by a human's touch, it's an arm or something that can adjust to the location of whatever it has to pick up/move/assemble or whatever.
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[
"Robots can be classified by their specificity of purpose. A robot might be designed to perform one particular task extremely well, or a range of tasks less well. All robots by their nature can be re-programmed to behave differently, but some are limited by their physical form. For example, a factory robot arm can perform jobs such as cutting, welding, gluing, or acting as a fairground ride, while a pick-and-place robot can only populate printed circuit boards.\n",
"A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer— capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. Robots can be guided by an external control device or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be constructed on the lines of human form, but most robots are machines designed to perform a task with no regard to their aesthetics.\n",
"The word \"robot\" can refer to both physical robots and virtual software agents, but the latter are usually referred to as bots. There is no consensus on which machines qualify as robots but there is general agreement among experts, and the public, that robots tend to possess some or all of the following abilities and functions: accept electronic programming, process data or physical perceptions electronically, operate autonomously to some degree, move around, operate physical parts of itself or physical processes, sense and manipulate their environment, and exhibit intelligent behavior, especially behavior which mimics humans or other animals. Closely related to the concept of a \"robot\" is the field of Synthetic Biology, which studies entities whose nature is more comparable to beings than to machines.\n",
"Robotics is a branch of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science that deals with the design, construction, operation, and application of robots, as well as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing. These technologies deal with automated machines that can take the place of humans in dangerous environments or manufacturing processes, or resemble humans in appearance, behaviour, and or cognition. Many of today's robots are inspired by nature contributing to the field of bio-inspired robotics.\n",
"\"Robotics\" is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, and application of robots, as well as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing. These technologies deal with automated machines that can take the place of humans in dangerous environments or manufacturing processes, or resemble humans in appearance, behavior, and/or cognition. A good example of a robot that resembles humans is Sophia, a social humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics which was activated on April 19, 2015. Many of today's robots are inspired by nature contributing to the field of bio-inspired robotics.\n",
"Robots are artificial agents with capacities of perception and action in the physical world often referred by researchers as workspace. Their use has been generalized in factories but nowadays they tend to be found in the most technologically advanced societies in such critical domains as search and rescue, military battle, mine and bomb detection, scientific exploration, law enforcement, entertainment and hospital care.\n",
"Advanced industrial robots, also known as smart machines operate autonomously and can communicate directly with manufacturing systems. In some advanced manufacturing contexts, they can work with humans for co-assembly tasks. By evaluating sensory input and distinguishing between different product configurations, these machines are able to solve problems and make decisions independent of people. These robots are able to complete work beyond what they were initially programmed to do and have artificial intelligence that allows them to learn from experience. These machines have the flexibility to be reconfigured and re-purposed. This gives them the ability to respond rapidly to design changes and innovation, which is a competitive advantage over more traditional manufacturing processes. An area of concern surrounding advanced robotics is the safety and well-being of the human workers who interact with robotic systems. Traditionally, measures have been taken to segregate robots from the human workforce, but advances in robotic cognitive ability have opened up opportunities, such as cobots, for robots to work collaboratively with people.\n"
] |
What happens to electricity in space?
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Without a gas to super heat it will not look like a lightning bolt.
lightning is the result of a discharge of electrons from a high potential source, like a storm cloud, and a source of electrical ground (like the ground) when that voltage potential exceeds the beakdown voltage of the insulating material (air)
Without any material between source of voltage and source of ground the only way to have the same transfer is to eject an actual stream of electrons through the vacuum of space. I imagine with a large enough electron gun you could perform a similar transfer of current, but I doubt it would be visible.
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[
"Space has an abundance of light produced from the Sun. In Earth orbit, this amounts to 1400 watts of power per square meter. This energy can be used to produce electricity from solar cells or heat engine based power stations, process ores, provide light for plants to grow and to warm space colonies.\n",
"The process of collecting sunlight, converting it to electricity, and managing and distributing this electricity builds up excess heat that can damage spacecraft equipment. This heat must be eliminated for reliable operation of the space station in orbit. The ISS power system uses radiators to dissipate the heat away from the spacecraft. The radiators are shaded from sunlight and aligned toward the cold void of deep space.\n",
"The electrical system of the International Space Station is a critical resource for the International Space Station (ISS) because it allows the crew to live comfortably, to safely operate the station, and to perform scientific experiments. The ISS electrical system uses solar cells to directly convert sunlight to electricity. Large numbers of cells are assembled in arrays to produce high power levels. This method of harnessing solar power is called photovoltaics.\n",
"Space charges can also occur within dielectrics. For example, when gas near a high voltage electrode begins to undergo dielectric breakdown, electrical charges are injected into the region near the electrode, forming space charge regions in the surrounding gas. Space charges can also occur within solid or liquid dielectrics that are stressed by high electric fields. Trapped space charges within solid dielectrics are often a contributing factor leading to dielectric failure within high voltage power cables and capacitors.\n",
"Space contains regions with varying concentrations of charged particles such as the plasma sheet, and a static charge builds up as the spacecraft moves between these regions, or as the electrical potential varies within such a region.\n",
"Due to the extremely low humidity in extraterrestrial environments, very large static charges can accumulate, causing a major hazard for the complex electronics used in space exploration vehicles. Static electricity is thought to be a particular hazard for astronauts on planned missions to the Moon and Mars. Walking over the extremely dry terrain could cause them to accumulate a significant amount of charge; reaching out to open the airlock on their return could cause a large static discharge, potentially damaging sensitive electronics.\n",
"The second result demonstrated how energy can be made to go through space without any connecting wires. The wireless energy transmission effect involves the creation of an electric field between two metal plates, each being connected to one terminal of an induction coil’s secondary winding. A gas discharge tube was used as a means of detecting the presence of the transmitted energy. Some demonstrations involved lighting of two partially evacuated tubes in an alternating electrostatic field while held in the hand of the experimenter.\n"
] |
Would an object falling from infinity to the surface of the earth reach escape velocity before it makes impact?
|
Under standard assumptions (falling radially, no atmosphere, etc.), an object that falls from infinity reaches *exactly* escape velocity at the surface of Earth just before impact. Indeed, this is an equivalent definition of escape velocity.
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[
"The escape velocity from Earth is about at the surface. More generally, escape velocity is the speed at which the sum of an object's kinetic energy and its gravitational potential energy is equal to zero; an object which has achieved escape velocity is neither on the surface, nor in a closed orbit (of any radius). With escape velocity in a direction pointing away from the ground of a massive body, the object will move away from the body, slowing forever and approaching, but never reaching, zero speed. Once escape velocity is achieved, no further impulse need to be applied for it to continue in its escape. In other words, if given escape velocity, the object will move away from the other body, continually slowing, and will asymptotically approach zero speed as the object's distance approaches infinity, never to come back. Speeds higher than escape velocity have a positive speed at infinity. Note that the minimum escape velocity assumes that there is no friction (e.g., atmospheric drag), which would increase the required instantaneous velocity to escape the gravitational influence, and that there will be no future acceleration or deceleration (for example from thrust or gravity from other objects), which would change the required instantaneous velocity.\n",
"Assuming the standardized value for g and ignoring air resistance, this means that an object falling freely near the Earth's surface increases its velocity by 9.80665 m/s (32.1740 ft/s or 22 mph) for each second of its descent. Thus, an object starting from rest will attain a velocity of 9.80665 m/s (32.1740 ft/s) after one second, approximately 19.62 m/s (64.4 ft/s) after two seconds, and so on, adding 9.80665 m/s (32.1740 ft/s) to each resulting velocity. Also, again ignoring air resistance, any and all objects, when dropped from the same height, will hit the ground at the same time.\n",
"where \"G\" is the Gravitational constant and \"g\" is the Gravitational acceleration. The escape velocity from Earth's surface is about 11 200 m/s, and is irrespective of the direction of the object. This makes \"escape velocity\" somewhat of a misnomer, as the more correct term would be \"escape speed\": any object attaining a velocity of that magnitude, irrespective of atmosphere, will leave the vicinity of the base body as long as it doesn't intersect with something in its path.\n",
"BULLET::::- Escape velocity: as used here, the minimum velocity an object without propulsion needs to have to move away indefinitely from the Earth. An object at this velocity will enter a parabolic trajectory; above this velocity it will enter a hyperbolic trajectory.\n",
"The impact of a massive object, such as a spacecraft or even another near-Earth object, is another possible solution to a pending NEO impact. An object with a high mass close to the Earth could be sent out into a collision course with the asteroid, knocking it off course.\n",
"Even in the unlikely event that this object is headed for impact with the Earth, whether it is an asteroid or rocket body, it is so small that it would disintegrate in the atmosphere and not cause harm on the ground.\n",
"After a free fall from a height formula_1 followed by decceleration over a distance formula_2 during an impact, the shock on an object is formula_3 \"g\". For example, a stiff and compact object dropped from 1 m that impacts over a distance of 1 mm is subjected to a 1000 \"g\" deceleration.\n"
] |
How are city tram power-lines powered?
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"Keep the lines hot" is a misunderstanding
Power, in the electrical sense, is when current flows from a high voltage conductor to a low voltage conductor. Keeping them separated does not require any power. Air is a pretty good electrical insulator, so very little current flows from the power lines to the rails, and very little power is used. Only when the train is there, and is connecting the lines, does electricity get used (to turn the train motors). When there is no train, the power required to maintain a high voltage line that is insulated with air and glass/ceramic insulators (those ridged white or grey cylinders) is minimal.
It's the same way that all the pipes in your house are full of water, but no water is actually used until you turn on the sink, flush the toilet, etc.
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[
"Ground-level power supply, also known as surface current collection and Alimentation Par le Sol (APS, which literally means \"feeding via the ground\"), is a modern method of third-rail electrical pick-up for street trams instead of more common overhead lines, thus it is one of the methods that could allow construction of catenary-free light rail system. It was invented for the Bordeaux tramway (\"Tramway de Bordeaux\"), which was constructed from 2000 and opened in 2003. From 2011, the technology has been used as part of other systems around the world, with Reims Tramway, Rio de Janeiro VLT, Angers tramway and Dubai Tram all having adopted the technology.\n",
"By demand of the Municipality of Bordeaux (CUB), part of the system uses ground-level power supply (APS). There is no overhead wire, and electric power to the tram is supplied by a center rail with only the portion directly under the tram electrically live. This prevents electrocution of pedestrians and animals. See the adjacent photograph.\n",
"Overhead lines supply electricity to the vast majority of light rail systems. This avoids the danger of passengers stepping on an electrified third rail. The Docklands Light Railway uses an inverted third rail for its electrical power, which allows the electrified rail to be covered and the power drawn from the underside. Trams in Bordeaux, France, use a special third-rail configuration where the power is only switched on beneath the trams, making it safe on city streets. Several systems in Europe and a few recently opened systems in North America use diesel-powered trains.\n",
"Electric trams use various devices to collect power from overhead lines. The most common device found today is the pantograph, while some older systems use trolley poles or bow collectors. Ground-level power supply has become a recent innovation. Another new technology uses supercapacitors; when an insulator at a track switch cuts off power from the tram for a short distance along the line, the tram can use energy stored in a large capacitor to drive the tram past the gap in the power feed. A rather obsolete system for power supply is conduit current collection.\n",
"Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than main line and rapid transit trains. Today, most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph sliding on an overhead line; older systems may use a trolley pole or a bow collector. In some cases by a contact shoe on a third rail is used. If necessary, they may have dual power systems—electricity in city streets, and diesel in more rural environments. Occasionally, trams also carry freight.\n",
"Tram Power is a Merseyside-based manufacturer of tram vehicles. It built a single prototype, called the Citytram, which was tested on the Wirral Tramway and Blackpool Tramway from 2005 to 2007. The company is attempting to built a tram line in Preston, Lancashire.\n",
"Ground-level power supply is used, primarily for aesthetic reasons, as an alternative to overhead lines. It is different from the conduit current collection system (which was one of the first ways of supplying power to a tram system) as it involves burying a third and fourth rail in an underground conduit (‘vault’) between the running rails. Conduit current collection was used in historic tram systems in Washington, Manhattan, Paris, Berlin, Marseilles, Vienna, Budapest and London. It fell into disuse because overhead wires proved much less expensive and troublesome for street railways and because in Manhattan, Paris, Washington and West Berlin, all trams were replaced by buses for reasons unrelated to the power supply issue. In Prague on the Charles Bridge (Karlův most), a system invented by František Křižík was used, similar to today's APS.\n"
] |
solid state batteries, why are they the future?
|
The main reason is li-ion is unstable and highly flammable, there have been numerous cases of laptops and phones suffering near explosive combustion due to the li-ion battery.
There was even a cargo plan that was brought down by a fire in the hold due to li-ion batteries
|
[
"A solid-state battery is a battery technology that uses solid electrodes and a solid electrolyte, instead of the liquid or polymer gel electrolytes found in lithium-ion or lithium polymer batteries. Materials proposed for use as solid electrolytes in solid-state batteries include ceramics (e.g. oxides, sulfides, phosphates), and solid polymers. Solid-state batteries have found use in pacemakers, RFID and wearable devices. They are potentially safer, with higher energy densities, but at a much higher cost..\n",
"While no solid-state batteries have reached the market, multiple groups are researching this alternative. The notion is that solid-state designs are safer because they prevent dendrites from causing short circuits. They also have the potential to substantially increase energy density because their solid nature prevents dendrite formation and allows the use of pure metallic lithium anodes. They may have other benefits such as lower temperature operation.\n",
"A solid-state battery design is attractive for its safety, eliminating the chance of ignition from rupture. Current solid-state Li–air batteries use a lithium anode, a ceramic, glass, or glass-ceramic electrolyte, and a porous carbon cathode. The anode and cathode are typically separated from the electrolyte by polymer–ceramic composites that enhance charge transfer at the anode and electrochemically couple the cathode to the electrolyte. The polymer–ceramic composites reduce overall impedance. The main drawback of the solid-state battery design is the low conductivity of most glass-ceramic electrolytes. The ionic conductivity of current lithium fast ion conductors is lower than liquid electrolyte alternatives.\n",
"Development of thin solid state batteries allows for roll to roll type production of batteries to decrease production costs. Solid-state batteries can also afford increased energy density due to decrease in overall device weight, while the flexible nature allows for novel battery design and easier incorporation into electronics. Development is still required in cathode materials which will resist capacity reduction due to cycling.\n",
"Solid-state batteries are traditionally expensive to make and manufacturing processes are noted to be immune to economies of scale. It was estimated in 2012 that, based on then-current technology, a 20 Ah solid-state battery cell would cost US$100,000, and a high-range electric car would require 800 to 1,000 of such cells. Cost has impeded the adoption of solid-state batteries in other areas, such as smartphones.\n",
"In the late 1950s, efforts were made to develop a solid-state battery. The first solid-state batteries utilized a silver ion conducting electrolyte, had low energy density and cell voltages, and high internal resistance. A new class of solid-state electrolyte, developed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the 1990s, was later incorporated into certain thin film lithium-ion batteries.\n",
"In contrast to the all-solid state batteries, most lithium batteries employ liquid electrolytes, which pose safety issues due to their flammability. Many different solid electrolytes have been proposed to replace these hazardous liquid electrolytes. For most solid-state batteries, high interfacial resistance lowers the reversibility of the intercalation process, shortening the life cycle. These undesirable interfacial effects are less problematic for TiS. One all-solid-state lithium battery exhibited a power density of 1000 W/kg over 50 cycles with a maximum power density of 1500 W/kg. Additionally, the average capacity of the battery decreased by less than 10% over 50 cycles. Although titanium disulfide has high electrical conductivity, high energy density, and high power, its discharge voltage is relatively low compared to other lithium batteries where the cathodes have higher reduction potentials.\n"
] |
why can heavy menstrual bleeding sometimes contribute to anemia?
|
Having anemia means you don't have enough red blood cells to carry oxygen effectively. If you regularly bleed heavily, its a much harder burden on your body to replace the blood, which can lead to not having enough blood
|
[
"The most common cause of iron deficiency anemia in men and post-menopausal women is gastrointestinal bleeding. There are many sources of gastrointestinal tract bleeding including the stomach, esophagus, small intestine, and the large intestine(colon).Gastrointestinal bleeding can result from regular use of some groups of medication, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g. aspirin), as well as antiplatelets such as clopidogrel and anticoagulants such as warfarin; however, these are required in some patients, especially those with states causing a tendency to form blood clots. Colon cancer is another potential cause gastrointestinal bleeding, thus iron deficiency anemia. Typically colon cancer occurs in older individuals In addition, some bleeding disorders can cause gastrointestinal bleeding. Two examples of bleeding disorders are von Willebrand disease and polycythemia vera.\n",
"Menstrual bleeding is a common cause of iron deficiency anemia in women of child bearing age. Women with menorrhagia (heavy menstrual periods) are at risk of iron-deficiency anemia because they are at higher-than-normal risk of losing a larger amount blood during menstruation than is replaced in their diet. Most women lose about 40 mL of blood per cycle. Iron is lost with the blood. Some birth control methods, such as pills and IUDs, may decrease the amount of blood, therefore iron lost during a menstrual cycle. \n",
"The amount of iron lost in menstrual fluid is relatively small for most women. In one study, premenopausal women who exhibited symptoms of iron deficiency were given endoscopies. 86% of them actually had gastrointestinal disease and were at risk of being misdiagnosed simply because they were menstruating. Heavy menstrual bleeding, occurring monthly, can result in anemia.\n",
"A complete blood count may reveal anemia, which commonly is caused by blood loss leading to iron deficiency or by vitamin B deficiency, usually caused by ileal disease impairing vitamin B absorption. Rarely autoimmune hemolysis may occur. Ferritin levels help assess if iron deficiency is contributing to the anemia. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein help assess the degree of inflammation, which is important as ferritin can also be raised in inflammation. Serum iron, total iron binding capacity and transferrin saturation may be more easily interpreted in inflammation. Anemia of chronic disease results in a normocytic anemia.\n",
"BULLET::::- Heavy menstrual bleeding (40-60%), which is more common with in women with deeper adenomyosis. Blood loss may be significant enough to cause anemia, with associated symptoms of fatigue, dizziness, and moodiness.\n",
"Complications of heavy menstrual bleeding could also be the initial symptoms. Excessive bleeding can lead to anemia which presents as fatigue, shortness of breath, and weakness. Anemia can be diagnosed with a blood test.\n",
"BULLET::::- Iron deficiency anemia is due to insufficient dietary intake or absorption of iron to meet the body's needs. Infants, toddlers, and pregnant women have higher than average needs. Increased iron intake is also needed to offset blood losses due to digestive tract issues, frequent blood donations, or heavy menstrual periods. Iron is an essential part of hemoglobin, and low iron levels result in decreased incorporation of hemoglobin into red blood cells. In the United States, 12% of all women of childbearing age have iron deficiency, compared with only 2% of adult men. The incidence is as high as 20% among African American and Mexican American women. Studies have shown iron deficiency without anemia causes poor school performance and lower IQ in teenage girls, although this may be due to socioeconomic factors. Iron deficiency is the most prevalent deficiency state on a worldwide basis. It is sometimes the cause of abnormal fissuring of the angular (corner) sections of the lips (angular stomatitis).\n"
] |
how does the paint that changes color by temperature work?
|
Omg. I was at the science festival in sf last week and they were passing out rulers that did this... The kids passing them out had no idea how they work other than to say there are two layers of paint and the top layer becomes transparent with heat.
|
[
"Color-changing paints can also be made by adding halochrome compounds or other organic pigments. One patent cites use of these indicators for wall coating applications for light colored paints. When the paint is wet it is pink in color but upon drying it regains its original white color. As cited in patent, this property of the paint enabled two or more coats to be applied on a wall properly and evenly. The previous coats having dried would be white whereas the new wet coat would be distinctly pink. Ashland Inc. introduced foundry refractory coatings with similar principle in 2005 for use in foundries.\n",
"With the exception of bare, polished metals, the appearance of a surface to the eye is not a good guide to emissivities near room temperature. Thus white paint absorbs very little visible light. However, at an infrared wavelength of 10x10 metres, paint absorbs light very well, and has a high emissivity. Similarly, pure water absorbs very little visible light, but water is nonetheless a strong infrared absorber and has a correspondingly high emissivity.\n",
"The color of light (i.e., the spectral power distribution) reflected from illuminated surfaces coated in paint mixes, slurries of pigment particles, is not well approximated by a subtractive or additive mixing model. Color predictions that incorporate light scattering effects of pigment particles and paint layer thickness require approaches based on the Kubelka–Munk equations. Even such approaches cannot predict the color of paint mixtures precisely since small variances in particle size distribution, impurity concentrations etc. can be difficult to measure but impart perceptible effects on the way light is reflected from the paint. Artists typically rely on mixing experience and \"recipes\" to mix desired colors from a small initial set of primaries and do not use mathematical modelling.\n",
"As a solid (usually used in industrial and automotive applications), the paint is applied as a very fine powder, then baked at high temperature. This melts the powder and causes it to adhere to the surface. The reasons for doing this involve the chemistries of the paint, the surface itself, and perhaps even the chemistry of the substrate (the object being painted). This is called \"powder coating\" an object.\n",
"Light encountering a painted surface can either alter or break the chemical bonds of the pigment, causing the colors to bleach or change in a process known as photodegradation. Materials that resist this effect are said to be lightfast. The electromagnetic spectrum of the sun contains wavelengths from gamma waves to radio waves. The high energy of ultraviolet radiation in particular accelerates the fading of the dye.\n",
"The mixing of colored physical substances corresponds to subtractive color mixing, hence it corresponds to our intuition about mixing colors. To explain the mechanism, consider mixing red paint with yellow paint. The red paint is red because when the ambient light strikes it, the composition of the material is such that it absorbs all other colors in the visible spectrum except for red. The red light, not being absorbed, reflects off the paint and is what we see. This name mechanism describes the color of material objects – note that light is not a material object – and so applies to the yellow paint as well. Making recourse to the figure above demonstrating additive color mixing, one sees that yellow light is composed of an (additive) mixture of red and green light. When we mix the two paints, the resulting substance has red paint and yellow paint. The yellow paint absorbs all colors except for red and green. However, the red paint will absorb the green reflected by the yellow paint. The red paint can be said to subtract the green from the yellow paint. The resulting paint reflects only red light and so appears red to our eyes. Note however that this description is theoretical and that the mixing of pigments does not correspond to ideal subtractive color mixing because some light from the subtracted color is still being reflected by one component of the original paint. This results in a darker and desaturated color compared to the color that would be achieved with ideal filters.\n",
"Paint has four major components: pigments, binders, solvents, and additives. Pigments serve to give paint its color, texture, toughness, as well as determining if a paint is opaque or not. Common white pigments include titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. Binders are the film forming component of a paint as it dries and affects the durability, gloss, and flexibility of the coating. Polyurethanes, polyesters, and acrylics are all examples of common binders. The solvent is the medium in which all other components of the paint are dissolved and evaporates away as the paint dries and cures. The solvent also modifies the curing rate and viscosity of the paint in its liquid state. There are two types of paint: solvent-borne and water-borne paints. Solvent-borne paints use organic solvents as the primary vehicle carrying the solid components in a paint formulation, whereas water-borne paints use water as the continuous medium. The additives that are incorporated into paints are a wide range of things which impart important effects on the properties of the paint and the final coating. Common paint additives are catalysts, thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers, texturizers, biocides to fight bacterial growth, etc.\n"
] |
If the universe is expanding, are we able to see stars going backwards in time?
|
No. That would require light from later in the star's life to catch up to and pass the earlier light, which isn't possible.
|
[
"To determine if the expansion rate of the universe is speeding up or slowing down over time, cosmologists make use of the finite velocity of light. It takes billions of years for light from a distant galaxy to reach the Earth. Since the universe is expanding, the universe was smaller (galaxies were closer together) when light from distant galaxies was emitted. If the expansion rate of the universe is speeding up due to dark energy, then the size of the universe increases more rapidly with time than if the expansion were slowing down. Using supernovae, we cannot quite measure the size of the universe versus time. Instead we can measure the size of the universe (at the time the star exploded) and the distance to the supernova. With the distance to the exploding supernova in hand, astronomers can use the value of the speed of light along with the theory of General Relativity to determine how long it took the light to reach the Earth. This then tells them the age of the universe when the supernova exploded.\n",
"If the expansion of the universe continues and it stays in its present form, eventually all but the nearest galaxies will be carried away from us by the expansion of space at such a velocity that our observable universe will be limited to our own gravitationally bound local galactic cluster. In the very long term (after many trillions – thousands of billions – of years, cosmic time), the Stelliferous Era will end, as stars cease to be born and even the longest-lived stars gradually die. Beyond this, all objects in the universe will cool and (with the possible exception of protons) gradually decompose back to their constituent particles and then into subatomic particles and very low level photons and other fundamental particles, by a variety of possible processes.\n",
"Our understanding of the universe back to very early times suggests that there is a past horizon, though in practice our view is also limited by the opacity of the universe at early times. So our view cannot extend further backward in time, though the horizon recedes in space. If the expansion of the universe continues to accelerate, there is a future horizon as well.\n",
"The current accepted answer is that, although the universe is infinitely large, it is not infinitely old. It is thought to be about 13.8 billion years old, so we can only see objects as far away as the distance light can travel in 13.8 billion years. Light from stars farther away has not reached Earth, and cannot contribute to making the sky bright. Furthermore, as the universe is expanding, many stars are moving away from Earth. As they move, the wavelength of their light becomes longer, through the Doppler effect, and shifts toward red, or even becomes invisible. As a result of these two phenomena, there is not enough starlight to make space anything but black.\n",
"Current evidence suggests that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating, which means that the second derivative of the scale factor formula_23 is positive, or equivalently that the first derivative formula_24 is increasing over time. This also implies that any given galaxy recedes from us with increasing speed over time, i.e. for that galaxy formula_25 is increasing with time. In contrast, the Hubble parameter seems to be decreasing with time, meaning that if we were to look at some fixed distance d and watch a series of different galaxies pass that distance, later galaxies would pass that distance at a smaller velocity than earlier ones.\n",
"However, because the expansion of the universe is accelerating, it is projected that most galaxies will eventually cross a type of cosmological event horizon where any light they emit past that point will never be able to reach us at any time in the infinite future, because the light never reaches a point where its \"peculiar velocity\" towards us exceeds the expansion velocity away from us (these two notions of velocity are also discussed in Comoving and proper distances#Uses of the proper distance). The current distance to this cosmological event horizon is about 16 billion light-years, meaning that a signal from an event happening at present would eventually be able to reach us in the future if the event was less than 16 billion light-years away, but the signal would never reach us if the event was more than 16 billion light-years away.\n",
"In models of the expanding universe, the farther galaxies are from each other, the faster they drift apart. This receding is not due to motion \"through\" space, but rather to the expansion of space itself. For example, galaxies far away from Earth appear to be moving away from the Earth with a speed proportional to their distances. Beyond a boundary called the Hubble sphere, the rate at which their distance from Earth increases becomes greater than the speed of light.\n"
] |
why are cows so sacred in india that they cannot be slaughtered and beef cannot be eaten there
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It's part of Hindu culture, not Indian. Muslims eat beef.
You don't find cow temples or anything, people do not pray to cows nor are cows given a pimped out life.
It is simply considered bad to kill or harm a cow. It has a lot to do with them providing milk.
It's similar to how the USA treats bald eagles.
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[
"Due to the religious importance of cows in India and Nepal, there is a need to differentiate buffalo meat from beef. In countries like India, for religious reasons, a considerable part of the population does not eat beef (meat from cows). In a large number of the Indian states and in Nepal, slaughtering cattle is prohibited. Religious violence happens over cattle slaughter or even over suspected beef consumption.\n",
"Cattle slaughter, especially cow slaughter is a controversial topic in India because of the cattle's traditional status as an endeared and respected living being to some sects of Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists while being considered an acceptable source of meat by Muslims as well as adherents of some other Indian religions. More specifically, the cow's slaughter has been shunned because of a number of reasons such as being associated with god Krishna in Hinduism, cattle being respected as an integral part of rural livelihoods and an essential economic necessity. Cattle slaughter has also been opposed by various Indian religions because of the ethical principle of Ahimsa (non-violence) and the belief in the unity of all life.\n",
"As of January 2012, cow remains a divisive and controversial topic in India. Several states of India have passed laws to protect cows, while many states have no restrictions on the production and consumption of beef. Some groups oppose the butchering of cows, while other secular groups argue that what kind of meat one eats ought to be a matter of personal choice in a democracy. Madhya Pradesh enacted a law in January 2012, namely the Gau-Vansh Vadh Pratishedh (Sanshodhan) Act, which makes cow slaughter a serious offence. Gujarat, a western state of India, has the Animal Preservation Act, enacted in October 2011, that prohibits killing of cows along with buying, selling and transport of beef. In contrast, Odisha, Assam and Andhra Pradesh allow butchering of cattle with a fit-for-slaughter certificate. In the states of West Bengal and Kerala, consumption of beef is not deemed an offence. Contrary to stereotypes, a sizeable number of Hindus eat beef, and many argue that their scriptures, such as Vedic and Upanishadic texts do not prohibit its consumption. In southern Indian state Kerala, for instance, beef accounts for nearly half of all meat consumed by all communities, including Hindus. Sociologists theorise that the widespread consumption of cow meat in India is because it is a far cheaper source of animal protein for the poor than mutton or chicken, which retail at double the price. For these reasons, India's beef consumption post-independence in 1947 has witnessed a much faster growth than any other kind of meat; currently, India is one of the five largest producer and consumer of cattle livestock meat in the world. A beef ban has been made in Maharashtra and other states as of 2015. While states such as Madhya Pradesh are passing local laws to prevent cruelty to cows, other Indians are arguing \"If the real objective is to prevent cruelty to animals, then why single out the cow when hundreds of other animals are maltreated?\"\n",
"Most Indic religions do not appreciate killing cattle and eating beef. However, they do not consider the cow to be a god. Bovines have a sacred status in India especially the cow, from the idealization due to their provision of sustenance for families. Bovines are generally considered to be integral to the landscape. In Hinduism, the entire cosmic creation is considered to be sacred and are venerated like celestial bodies such as Sun, Moon to fig trees and rivers like Ganga, Saraswati, etc.\n",
"The Nuer people never eat cattle just because they want to. Cattle are very sacred to them, therefore when they do eat cattle they honor its ghost. They typically just eat the cattle that is up in age on dying because of sickness. But even if they do so, they all gather together performing rituals,dances or songs before and after they slaughter the cattle. Never do they just kill cattle for the fun of it. “Never do Nuer slaughter animals solely because the desire to eat meat. There is the danger of the ox’s spirit visiting a curse on any individual who would slaughter it without ritual intent, aiming only to use it for food. Any animal that dies of natural causes is eaten.” Many times it may not even just be cattle that they consume, it could be any animal they have scavenged upon that has died because of natural causes. There are a few other food sources that are available for the Nuer to consume. The Nuer diet primarily consists of fish and millet. “Their staple crop is millet.\" Millet is formally consumed as porridge or beer. The Nuer turn to this staple product in seasons of rainfall when they move their cattle up to higher ground. They might also turn to millet when the cattle are performing well enough to support their family.\n",
"Due to the multiple benefits from cattle, there are varying beliefs about cattle in societies and religions. In some regions, especially Nepal and most states of India, the slaughter of cattle is prohibited and their meat may be taboo.\n",
"In Hinduism, the cow is regarded as a symbol of \"ahimsa\" (non-violence), mother goddess and bringer of good fortune and wealth. For this reason, cows are revered in Hindu culture and feeding a cow is seen as an act of worship. This is why beef remains a taboo food in mainstream Hindu and Jain society.\n"
] |
What happens to blood cells if you invest them?
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Saliva or stomach acid would likely kill them. If blood cells aren't in a liquid with the same concentration as blood they will basically pop due to water entering the cell or shrivel up due to water leaving the cell. Absorbing whole cells would risk having bacteria enter the bloodstream too easily, so things are broken up in the stomach and absorbed by the cells lining the stomach and intestines before being transferred to the bloodstream. The fragments of the red blood cells might be recycled though, as well as any other minerals and nutrients in the blood.
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[
"The partial loss of or loss of function of any white blood cell type is a serious health matter and lymphopoiesis is absolutely necessary for life. Mature lymphocytes are a critical part of the immune system that (with the exception of memory B and T cells) have short lives measured in days or weeks and must be continuously generated throughout life by cell division and differentiation from cells such as common lymphoid progenitors (CLPs) in mice. Were this system to fail, the body would be largely undefended from infection.\n",
"Another serious result of inefficient blood flow is that cells do not receive adequate amounts of glucose. An immediate effect of low intracellular glucose is reduced ATP production in the cell. This effectively inactivates the Na-K pump, leading to the uptake of calcium ions by the cell. Continued influx of calcium serves to constitutively activate downstream effectors, including lipases, proteases, and endonucleases, whose actions eventually destroy the cell skeleton. Intracellular calcium concentrations are increased further due to the opening of glutamate-regulated ion channels. Ischemia causes anoxic cell depolarizations and it is this increase in membrane potential at the presynaptic cell that triggers the release of glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter.\n",
"Research published in 2012 demonstrated that repeated blood donation is effective in reducing blood pressure, blood glucose, HbA1c, low-density lipoprotein/high-density lipoprotein ratio, and heart rate in patients with metabolic syndrome.\n",
"Researchers have found that accumulation of white blood cells, especially macrophages, termed inflammation, in the walls of the arteries leads to the development of \"soft\" or vulnerable plaque, which when released aggressively promotes blood clotting.\n",
"B\"a\"P has an effect on the number of white blood cells, inhibiting some of them from differentiating into macrophages, the body’s first line of defense to fight infections. In 2016, the molecular mechanism was uncovered as damage to the macrophage membrane's lipid raft integrity by decreasing membrane cholesterol at 25%. This means less immunoreceptors CD32 (a member of the Fc family of immunoreceptors) could bind to IgG and turn the white blood cell into a macrophage. Therefore, macrophage membranes become susceptibile to bacterial infections.\n",
"HBB blockage over time leads to decreased beta-chain synthesis. The body's inability to construct new beta-chains leads to the underproduction of HbA. Reductions in HbA available overall to fill the red blood cells in turn leads to microcytic anemia. Microcytic anemia ultimately develops in respect to inadequate HBB protein for sufficient red blood cell functioning. Due to this factor, the patient may require blood transfusions to make up for the blockage in the beta-chains. \n",
"In patients prone to iron overload, blood donation prevents the accumulation of toxic quantities. Donating blood may reduce the risk of heart disease for men, but the link has not been firmly established and may be from selection bias because donors are screened for health problems.\n"
] |
why does the uk still have a -house of lords?
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Most people in the Lords will be former civil servants/ politicians or people with long careers in public service. The experience they can bring into scrutinising legislation can be invaluable.
However everything the Lords do can be overridden by the House of Commons so they have no real power, and a democratically elected second house could take away power from the commons or be more obstructionist, resulting in the kind of gridlock seen in the US congress
|
[
"The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom however it is an unelected chamber with all members to the House of Lords being appointed. As of August 2018, there are currently 793 members known as \"Peers\". The House of Lords no longer has the same powers as the House of Commons under the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 especially when it comes to blocking general legislation and the passing of financial legislation.\n",
"The House of Lords is a legislative chamber that is part of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Although they are part of the parliament, its members are referred to as peers, more formally as \"Lords of Parliament\", not MPs. Lords Temporal sit for life, Lords Spiritual while they occupy their ecclesiastical positions. Hereditary peers may no longer pass on a seat in the House of Lords to their heir automatically. The 92 who remain have been elected from among their own number, following the House of Lords Act 1999 and are the only elected members of the Lords.\n",
"The House of Lords was previously a largely hereditary aristocratic chamber, although including life peers, and Lords Spiritual. It is currently midway through extensive reforms, the most recent of these being enacted in the House of Lords Act 1999. The house consists of two very different types of member, the Lords Temporal and Lords Spiritual. Lords Temporal include appointed members (life peers with no hereditary right for their descendants to sit in the house) and ninety-two remaining hereditary peers, elected from among, and by, the holders of titles which previously gave a seat in the House of Lords. The Lords Spiritual represent the established Church of England and number twenty-six: the Five Ancient Sees (Canterbury, York, London, Winchester and Durham), and the 21 next-most senior bishops.\n",
"The House of Lords is composed of two major groups: the Lords Spiritual (who in modern times are the archbishops and some of the bishops of the Church of England) and the Lords Temporal (who are the peers who are members of the House of Lords). Although the basic distinction has existed since the origin of the House, the composition of both groups has changed over the centuries.\n",
"The House of Lords includes two different types of members: the Lords Spiritual, consisting of the most senior bishops of the Church of England, and the Lords Temporal, consisting mainly of life peers, appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister, and of 92 hereditary peers, sitting either by virtue of holding a royal office, or by being elected by their fellow hereditary peers. Prior to the opening of the Supreme Court in October 2009, the House of Lords also performed a judicial role through the Law Lords.\n",
"Along with a hereditary monarch, the House of Lords remains an historical curiosity in the UK constitution. Traditionally it represented the landed aristocracy, and political allies of the monarch or the government, and has only gradually and incompletely been reformed. Today, the House of Lords Act 1999 has abolished all but 92 hereditary peers, leaving most peers to be \"life peers\" appointed by the government under the Life Peerages Act 1958, law lords appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876, and Lords Spiritual who are senior clergy of the Church of England. Since 2005, senior judges can only sit and vote in the House of Lords after retirement. The government carries out appointment of most peers, but since 2000 has taken advice from a seven-person House of Lords Appointments Commission with representatives from the Labour, Conservatives and Liberal-Democrat parties. A peerage can always be disclaimed, and ex-peers may then run for Parliament. Since 2015, a peer may be suspended or expelled by the House. In practice the Parliament Act 1949 greatly reduced the House of Lords' power, as can only delay and cannot block legislation by one year, and cannot delay money bills at all. Nevertheless, several options for reform are debated. A House of Lords Reform Bill 2012 proposed to have 360 directly elected members, 90 appointed members, 12 bishops and an uncertain number of ministerial members. The elected Lords would have been elected by proportional representation for 15 year terms, through 10 regional constituencies on a single transferable vote system. However, the government withdrew support after backlash from Conservative backbenches. It has often been argued that if the Lords were elected by geographic constituencies and a party controlled both sides \"there would be little prospect of effective scrutiny or revision of government business.\" A second option, like in Swedish Riksdag, could simply be to abolish the House of Lords: this was in fact done during the English Civil War in 1649, but restored along with the monarchy in 1660. A third proposed option is to elect peers by work and professional groups, so that health care workers elect peers with special health knowledge, people in education elect a fixed number of education experts, legal professionals elect legal representatives, and so on. This is argued to be necessary to improve the quality of legislation.\n",
"The Parliament of the United Kingdom is bicameral, with an upper house, the House of Lords, and a lower house, the House of Commons. The House of Lords includes two different types of members: the Lords Spiritual (the senior bishops of the Church of England) and the Lords Temporal (members of the Peerage); its members are not elected by the population at large. The House of Commons is a democratically elected chamber. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster (commonly known as the \"Houses of Parliament\"), in the City of Westminster in London. By constitutional convention, all government ministers, including the Prime Minister, are members of the House of Commons or House of Lords.\n"
] |
What leads to different colors of marble?
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from the wiki
Pure white marble is the result of metamorphism of a very pure (silicate-poor) limestone or dolomite protolith. The characteristic swirls and veins of many colored marble varieties are usually due to various mineral impurities such as clay, silt, sand, iron oxides, or chert which were originally present as grains or layers in the limestone. Green coloration is often due to serpentine resulting from originally high magnesium limestone or dolostone with silica impurities. These various impurities have been mobilized and recrystallized by the intense pressure and heat of the metamorphism
I would think that the yellows and browns would also be caused by sulfur.
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[
"Pure white marble is the result of metamorphism of a very pure (silicate-poor) limestone or dolomite protolith. The characteristic swirls and veins of many colored marble varieties are usually due to various mineral impurities such as clay, silt, sand, iron oxides, or chert which were originally present as grains or layers in the limestone. Green coloration is often due to serpentine resulting from originally magnesium-rich limestone or dolomite with silica impurities. These various impurities have been mobilized and recrystallized by the intense pressure and heat of the metamorphism.\n",
"White marble has been prized for its use in sculptures since classical times. This preference has to do with its softness, which made it easier to carve, relative isotropy and homogeneity, and a relative resistance to shattering. Also, the low index of refraction of calcite allows light to penetrate several millimeters into the stone before being scattered out, resulting in the characteristic waxy look which gives \"life\" to marble sculptures of any kind, which is why many sculptors preferred and still prefer marble for sculpting.\n",
"The white, sometimes also greyish calcareous marbles are banded. They display a great variability in thickness. Their normal thickness of about 20 meters can increase in places up to 180 meters. These pronounced variations in thickness indicate a reefal origin of the marbles, most likely as bioherms.\n",
"Swedish green marble, or simply Swedish green, is a marble from quarries in Kolmården, in the north-eastern part of the province of Östergötland in Sweden. It is fine-grained, with a variable green colour and attractive veining, due to serpentines in the stone. It is considered one of the hardest marbles in the world.\n",
"Together with the two other marble towns, Borba and Vila Viçosa, Estremoz is internationally known for its fine to medium marble that occurs in several colours: white, cream, pink, grey or black and streaks with any combination of these colours. Especially the pink marble (Rosa Aurora and Estremoz Pink) is in high demand.\n",
"BULLET::::- Marble is a fine, easily worked stone, that comes in various colours, but mainly white. It has traditionally been used for carving statues, and for facing many Byzantine and buildings of the Italian Renaissance. The first and most admirable marble carvers and sculptors were the Greeks, namely Antenor (6th century BC), Phidias and Critias (5th century BC), Praxiteles (4th century BC) and others who used mainly the marble of Paros and Thassos islands, and the whitest and brightest of all (although not the finest), the Pentelikon marble. Their work was preceded by older sculptors from Mesopotamia and Egypt, but the Greeks were unmatched in plasticity and realistic (re)presentation, either of Gods (Apollo, Aphrodite, Hermes, Zeus, etc.), or humans (Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Phryne, etc.). The famous Acropolis of Athens is said to be constructed using the Pentelicon marble. The traditional home of the marble industry is the area around Carrara in Italy, from where a bright and fine, whitish marble is extracted in vast quantities.\n",
"Makrana marble has high percentage of calcium and is therefore resistant to water seepage. The water absorption of Makrana marble is said to be the lowest among all types in India, and the marble is claimed to contain 98 percent of calcium carbonate and only two percent of impurities. The different shades of Makrana marble are pure white, white with grey shades and white with pink shades, depending on the level of impurities. The close interlocking property of the marble makes it strong, hard and translucent. It is said to retain its shine and white color for a long period of time.\n"
] |
why is it illegal to share movies, music, etc; but completely legal to borrow books, movies, music, etc from the library?
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It is not illegal to share a movie or music on the original media. For example, you can legally loan or give your friend a DVD or CD that you bought from the store.
But it is illegal to copy that and give it away, just like it's illegal to photocopy a book and give that away.
|
[
"Some movies, e.g. \"Braindead\", are completely banned in Germany (mostly for glamorizing violence), as it is illegal even to sell them to adults. These movies are \"indiziert\" as well as \"beschlagnahmt\" (\"judicially confiscated\"). While selling these kinds of media is strictly prohibited, it is legal to buy or own such movies.\n",
"While the unauthorized copying - uploading - of complete copyrighted works such as books, movies, or software is illegal under the Act, the situation regarding music files is more complex, due to the Private Copying exemption.\n",
"In an article titled \"Download This Essay: A Defence of Stealing Ebooks\", Andrew Forcehimes argues that the way we think about copyrights is inconsistent, because every argument for (physical) public libraries is also an argument for illegally downloading ebooks and every argument against downloading ebooks would also be an argument against libraries. \n",
"Professor Jukka Kemppinen, an expert on copyright legislation, states that Pirate Cinema is a deliberate provocation, but that, despite it being illegal, there is no point in making a big issue out of it. Kemppinen states \"It is no more illegal than showing a legally rented DVD to residents of an apartment building after an afternoon of volunteer work.\"\n",
"Christian Barry believes that understanding illegal downloading as equivalent to common theft is problematic, because clear and morally relevant differences can be shown \"between stealing someone’s handbag and illegally downloading a television series\". On the other hand, he thinks consumers should try to respect intellectual property unless doing so imposes unreasonable cost on them.\n",
"\"There are websites that provide legal downloads. This is not one of them. This website has been permanently shut down by court order because it facilitates the illegal downloading of copyrighted motion pictures. The illegal downloading of motion pictures robs thousands of honest, hard-working people of their livelihood, and stifles creativity. Illegally downloading movies from sites such as these without proper authorization violates the law, is theft, and is not anonymous. Stealing movies leaves a trail. The only way not to get caught is to stop.\"\n",
"Important distinctions have been made about the legality of downloading versus uploading copyrighted material as well as \"musical works\" versus other copyrighted material. In general, the unauthorized copying or distribution of copyrighted material for profit is illegal under Canada's \"Copyright Act\"; however, the act also states under the section \"Copying for Private Use ... onto an audio recording medium for the private use of the person who makes the copy does not constitute an infringement of the copyright in the musical work, the performer’s performance or the sound recording.\". Furthermore, the Act contains a Private Copying exception that makes it legal to copy a sound recording onto an \"audio recording medium\" for the personal use of the person making the copy. This is supported by a levy on blank audio recording media, which is distributed to record labels and musicians.\n"
] |
How was Art Deco architecture viewed and judged when it was built?
|
Art Deco was very popular at the time, and influenced buildings around the world. It was associated with luxury and progress, and was widely embraced by all levels of society, while [contemporary modernist and expressionist architecture were more intellectual/elitist.](_URL_0_)
Rebuilding a town on a large scale offers unique possibilities for architecture, as Napier shows. An earlier example is the town of [Ålesund](_URL_2_) in Norway, destroyed by [fire in 1905](_URL_1_), was completely rebuild in Art Nouveau/Jugendstil. The town has an unusually consistent architecture, most of the buildings having been built between 1904 and 1907. It's been argue that it was a boon for the town and it has become a tourist attraction.
|
[
"Two distinct architectural styles are visible in the building: the late neo-classical period of Beaux-Arts, and Art Deco or \"Zigzag Moderne\". While the fenestration and ornamentation are strictly symmetrical, typical of Beaux-Arts design, the terracotta panels all contain Art Deco motifs. Following with Art Deco tradition, the architect drew heavy inspiration from a multitude of sources, including Mesoamerica, Greece, Rome, and Egypt.\n",
"After the exhibition of Art Deco architecture at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, London architects began to adopt the sleek new style with fervor. Art Deco became the dominant style for new construction in London through the late 1930s, which represented a forward-thinking and innovative new aesthetic in contrast to London's ubiquitous Victorian architecture. Major examples built during this period were media headquarters on Fleet Street, the Daily Telegraph building (1928) and the Daily Express Building (1932), in addition to the BBC Broadcasting House on Langham Place. The style lent itself particularly well to large industrial structures like Battersea Power Station (1934), the Hoover Building (1932-7), and the Carerras Cigarette Factory. Other outstanding examples of Art Deco can be seen in Ideal House in the City of London, and Senate House, the 19-story headquarters of the University of London in Bloomsbury and the tallest Art Deco building in London.\n",
"The buildings that would become described as Art Deco shared several elements. The setback laws resulted in three-dimensional, sculptural buildings, with long, uninterrupted columns of windows and decorated spandrels in between. New York's architects were at the forefront of using new materials, including synthetics like Bakelite and Nirosta, a corrosion-resistant alloy that made exterior metal on skyscrapers more feasible. Aluminum's declining price and lighter weight than steel led to it being a common choice for interior and exterior usage. Other common materials were brick and terra cotta in a variety of colors. Art Deco buildings in the city were also richly appointed inside and out with reliefs, mosaics, murals, and other art. Allegorical depictions—such as beehives of industry on the French Building, personifications of virtues at Rockefeller Center, or figures portraying industry and the arts at the International Magazine Building—were common decorative elements. Architect Ely Jacques Kahn commented in 1926 that his brethren were creating a new style with their buildings:\n",
"Art Deco architecture flourished in New York City during the 1920s and 1930s before largely disappearing after World War II. The style is found in government edifices, commercial projects, and residential buildings in all five boroughs. The architecture of the period was influenced not just by decorative arts influences from across the world, but also local zoning regulations. \n",
"It is considered the best example of Art Deco architecture in the city, where most commercial buildings predate the style's popularity in the 1930s. The two-story building has tilework designs suggesting Native American aesthetics. Other ornamental touches associated with Art Deco include, floral and patterned metalwork along the shop cornices, and polished green and black marble inside. There are also ribbed pilasters between the windows and a multicolored chevron pattern above and below the roof parapets.\n",
"The building design, by the architecture firm Speight and Hibbs of Clarksville, Tennessee, incorporates elements of the Art Deco and Art Moderne styles. The exterior of the building has the streamlined appearance that characterizes Art Moderne design, including extensive use of rounded edges and horizontal lines. Art Moderne elements are also present in the interior, along with Art Deco-style lighting and wall decor. Built in the Jim Crow era, the building design provided segregated facilities for African-American moviegoers, who used a separate entrance door to get to the theater balcony and to segregated bathrooms and a drinking fountain located in the stairwell.\n",
"Its architectural style is influenced by Streamline Moderne (also known as Streamlined Moderne or Art Moderne) architecture, a popular style of building of the 1930s. It is often erroneously referred to as a Bauhaus-style building.\n"
] |
why any person in front of a judge must take an oath regarding god ( "so help me god" ) irrelevant of religion
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Many venues give an option to make an [*affirmation*](_URL_0_) instead (that you will affirm that all of the statements you're making are the truth).
|
[
"Judges and magistrates on being sworn in, are required by various statutes to take two oaths: the oath of allegiance and the judicial oath, (collectively; the judicial oath). Judges of Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh religions can omit the words \"I swear by Almighty God\" and replace it with an acceptable alternative.\n",
"Courts as a witness and an expert in declared their oath, with a choice of a religious oath or a religion-neutral insurance. However, the European Court of Human Rights did not consider it acceptable that a person has to report on the administration of the oath of belief. Board's proposal for a religion-neutral insurance was adopted and entered into force in January 2016.\n",
"It is pertinent to emphasis here, that under common law, the only oath required is one 'calling Almighty God to witness that his testimony is true.' Such oath need not be in accordance with the doctrine or tenets of Christianity. It was sufficient if the witness believed in God and, swears in accordance with his religious belief. The purpose of such oaths had the effect of the witness renouncing the mercy and imprecates the vengeance of Heaven if he did not speak the truth. Such oath had the idea of binding the conscience of the witness, and presupposes a religious sanction if the witness told a lie on oath. Such a requirement has been displaced now, in that the solemnity of the occasion when an oath is administered by a witness in a judicial proceeding, no longer implies a religious sanction, but a legal sanction. This can be deduced from section 191 of the Criminal Code:\n",
"Many of those who take a religious oath do so largely as a matter of form (or) because they think they are more likely to be believed if they take the oath, the oath ‘is only too often regarded as a necessary formality and rattled off with little outward sign of sincerity or understanding of its implications…We therefore think the time has come for the oath in its present form to be abolished and replaced by a form of undertaking which is more meaningful, more generally acceptable and more likely to serve the cause of justice. All witnesses should be required to make same solemn affirmation so that there is no distinction in the respect that is accorded them.’\n",
"Some groups of Christians, such as the Religious Society of Friends and the Mennonites, object to the taking of both oaths and affirmations, basing their objections upon a commandment given in the Sermon on the Mount, and regard all promises to be witnessed by God.\n",
"The Tosefta reported that Jewish judicial proceedings adopted the oath that Abraham imposed in And Rav Judah said that Rav said that the judge adjures the witness with the oath stated in \"And I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven.\" Ravina explained that this accorded with the view of Rabbi Haninah bar Idi, who said that Jewish judicial proceedings require swearing by the Name of God. Rav Ashi replied that one might even say that it accorded with the view of the Rabbis, who said that a witness can be adjured with a Substitute for the Name of God. They concluded that the witness needs to hold something sacred in his hand, as Abraham's servant did when in he put his hand under Abraham's thigh and held Abraham's circumcision. Rava said that a judge who adjures by \"the Lord God of heaven\" without having the witness hold a sacred object errs and has to repeat the swearing correctly. Rav Papa said that a judge who adjures with tefillin errs and has to repeat the swearing. The law follows Rava, but not Rav Papa, as tefillin are considered sacred.\n",
"Currently the North Carolina General statute on oath taking (§11-2) states: (emphasis added) \"Judges and other persons who may be empowered to administer oaths, shall (except in the cases in this Chapter excepted) require the party to be sworn to lay his hand upon the Holy Scriptures, in token of his engagement to speak the truth and in further token that, if he should swerve from the truth, he may be justly deprived of all the blessings of the holy book and made liable to that vengeance which he has imprecated on his own head.\"\n"
] |
so veritasium explains in his video that trees gain their mass mainly from the air, better said from carbon dioxide. how exactly does it work?
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photosynthesis is extracts CO2 from the atmosphere along with water from the tree's roots. It uses energy from sunlight to split the molecules and recombine them to make sugar; the bulk of most plant's mass is cellulose which is a type of sugar.
|
[
"The principle of PyCCS is that the biomass (e.g. trees) removes CO from the atmosphere during its growth via photosynthesis. This biomass is then harvested and pyrolyzed (see below), with a portion of the carbon dioxide bound in the biomass being captured in the ground, after being reduced to carbon and viscous compounds (charcoal). The flammable gas mixture, which is the lightest fraction in pyrolysis, is collected and used as fuel; the carbon dioxide produced when combusting it is captured traditionally.\n",
"Photosynthesis systems function by measuring gas exchange of leaves. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is taken up by leaves in the process of photosynthesis, where is used to generate sugars in a molecular pathway known as the Calvin cycle. This draw-down of induces more atmospheric to diffuse through stomata into the air spaces of the leaf. While stoma are open, water vapor can easily diffuse out of plant tissues, a process known as transpiration. It is this exchange of and water vapor that is measured as a proxy of photosynthetic rate.\n",
"Solid biomass is an attractive fuel for addressing the concerns of the energy crisis and climate change, since the fuel is affordable, widely available, close to carbon neutral and thus climate-neutral in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2), since in the ideal case only the carbon dioxide which was drawn in during the tree’s growth and stored in the wood is released into the atmosphere again.\n",
"Fundamentally, the below-ground carbon accumulation works as a GHG mitigation tool because it removes CO2 from the above-ground CO2 circulation (the circulation from plant to atmosphere and back into plant.) The above-ground circulation is driven by photosynthesis and combustion – first, the miscanthus fields absorb CO2 and assimilates it as carbon in its tissue both above and below ground. When the above-ground carbon is harvested and burned, it is released back into the atmosphere, in the form of CO2. However, an equivalent amount of CO2 (and possibly more, if the biomass is expanding) is absorbed back by next season's growth, and the cycle repeats.\n",
"The process is assisted by vegetation (which includes tree litter such as twigs and branches), alae and mosses. The flow of the stream is slowed down and photosynthesis encourages the removal of the carbon dioxide. The vegetation and debris then become the area for tufa accumulation.\n",
"C plants capture carbon dioxide in their mesophyll cells (using an enzyme called phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase which catalyzes the combination of carbon dioxide with a compound called phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP)), forming oxaloacetate. This oxaloacetate is then converted to malate and is transported into the bundle sheath cells (site of carbon dioxide fixation by RuBisCO) where oxygen concentration is low to avoid photorespiration. Here, carbon dioxide is removed from the malate and combined with RuBP by RuBisCO in the usual way, and the Calvin Cycle proceeds as normal. The concentrations in the Bundle Sheath are approximately 10–20 fold higher than the concentration in the mesophyll cells.\n",
"Carbon dioxide is an end product of cellular respiration in organisms that obtain energy by breaking down sugars, fats and amino acids with oxygen as part of their metabolism. This includes all plants, algae and animals and aerobic fungi and bacteria. In vertebrates, the carbon dioxide travels in the blood from the body's tissues to the skin (e.g., amphibians) or the gills (e.g., fish), from where it dissolves in the water, or to the lungs from where it is exhaled. During active photosynthesis, plants can absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they release in respiration.\n"
] |
if singapore encourages learning standard mandarin and english over dialects, and taiwan encourages standard mandarin, why don't hong kong and macau continue to promote only cantonese?
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It's partly an issue of identity, nobody likes to feel like they're becoming obsolete.
Also re-education is very expensive and time consuming and would require infrastructure changes on many levels. think about it, it's not just teaching kids, it's teaching adults who could be spending their time doing more productive things. It would also mean changing road signs and reprinting millions of books whose earlier editions are now worthless. The effects are huge reaching.
There has to be a pretty huge incentive for a nation or a jurisdiction to change their languages and acceptance and integration would have to be pretty rewarding to be worth it.
Simplified characters are found often in places where trade and travel are common, however I know they exist elsewhere and i'm not sure why so can't help you there, would like to know though.
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[
"The use of Chinese varieties other than Mandarin in Singapore media is restricted by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA). The rationale given for the resistance towards nonstandard Chinese varieties was that their presence would hinder language learning of English and Mandarin. However, in order to cater to older Singaporeans who speak only non-standard Chinese varieties, videos, VCDs, DVDs, paid subscription radio services and paid TV channels are exempted from MICA's restrictions. Two free-to-air channels, Okto and Channel 8, are also allowed to show operas and arthouse movies with some non-standard variety content, respectively.\n",
"The government of Singapore has been promoting the use of Mandarin, the official form of Chinese in Singapore as well as mainland China and Taiwan, with its Speak Mandarin Campaign among the Chinese population. The use of other varieties of Chinese, like Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hainanese and Hakka, has been declining over the last two decades, although they are still being used especially by the older generations of the Chinese population.\n",
"The government of Singapore has been promoting the use of Mandarin, the official form of Chinese in Singapore as well as mainland China and Taiwan, with its Speak Mandarin Campaign among the Chinese population. The use of other Chinese varieties, like Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hainanese and Hakka, has been declining over the last two decades, although they are still being used especially by the older generations of the Chinese population.\n",
"Despite government efforts to promote Mandarin through the Speak Mandarin Campaign, the propagation of Mandarin and Chinese culture amongst Chinese Singaporeans continues to be a challenge because Mandarin faces stiff competition from the strong presence of English. However, this situation is not only limited to Mandarin, but also Malay and Tamil, where rising statistics show that English is progressively taking over as home language of Singaporeans.\n",
"In Singapore, the government has heavily promoted a \"Speak Mandarin Campaign\" since the late 1970s, with the use of other Chinese varieties in broadcast media being prohibited and their use in any context officially discouraged until recently. This has led to some resentment amongst the older generations, as Singapore's migrant Chinese community is made up almost entirely of people of south Chinese descent. Lee Kuan Yew, the initiator of the campaign, admitted that to most Chinese Singaporeans, Mandarin was a \"stepmother tongue\" rather than a true mother language. Nevertheless, he saw the need for a unified language among the Chinese community not biased in favor of any existing group.\n",
"In Singapore, Mandarin is the official variety of the Chinese language used by the government, which has a Speak Mandarin Campaign (SMC) seeking to actively promote the use of Mandarin at the expense of other Chinese varieties. Cantonese is spoken by a little over 15% of Chinese households in Singapore. Despite the government's active promotion of SMC, the Cantonese-speaking Chinese community has been relatively successful in preserving its language from Mandarin compared to other dialect groups.\n",
"In Singapore, the public usage of varieties other than Standard Mandarin is discouraged as in China. The Singaporean government has actively promoted the Speak Mandarin Campaign (SMC) since the 1980s and forbids non-cable broadcasting and Chinese language medium of instruction in non-Mandarin varieties. However, since the mid-1990s, there has been a relaxation in allowing non-Mandarin broadcasting via cable networks and a massive following of Hong Kong television dramas and pop culture, which are in Cantonese.\n"
] |
Is there any truth to the idea that inter racial breeding among humans decreases mutations? For example, is the offspring of a white and asian person more likely to be healthy than two whites or two asians?
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There is a concept called[ heterosis, or hybrid vigor](_URL_1_), which states that **on average** the offspring of genetically dissimilar parents would be "superior" to the offspring of genetically similar parents.
However, this effect is extremely small when considering the mixing of human races, because there is more[ genetic variation within a race than between races](_URL_0_). Humans differ from one another by about 1 in 1000 base pairs of DNA. Racial differences account for only about 10% of that variation.
|
[
"Another study cited by , and by , was study which found that adopted mixed-race children's has test scores identical to children with two black parents—receiving no apparent \"benefit\" from their white ancestry. Rushton and Jensen find admixture studies to have provided overall support for a genetic explanation though this view is not shared by , , , , nor by .\n",
"Since the offspring of a couple with some genetic differences will have a random combination of their genotypes, their appearance, that depends on a smaller number of elements from this gene pool, will also be of a random combination. As a result of the continuing process of intermixing, any sort of phenotype between those stereotypically European, African or Amerindian will show up, and even if many of the genes related to European-like features are recessive, they are likely to evenly manifest in the Brazilian population, just being more common in the regions where European immigration was greater.\n",
"Offspring of biologically related persons are subject to the possible effects of inbreeding, such as congenital birth defects. The chances of such disorders are increased when the biological parents are more closely related. This is because such pairings have a 25% probability of producing homozygous zygotes, resulting in offspring with two recessive alleles, which can produce disorders when these alleles are deleterious. Because most recessive alleles are rare in populations, it is unlikely that two unrelated marriage partners will both be carriers of the same deleterious allele; however, because close relatives share a large fraction of their alleles, the probability that any such deleterious allele is inherited from the common ancestor through both parents is increased dramatically. It should also be noted that for each homozygous recessive individual formed there is an equal chance of producing a homozygous dominant individual — one completely devoid of the harmful allele. Contrary to common belief, inbreeding does not in itself alter allele frequencies, but rather increases the relative proportion of homozygotes to heterozygotes; however, because the increased proportion of deleterious homozygotes exposes the allele to natural selection, in the long run its frequency decreases more rapidly in inbred populations. In the short term, incestuous reproduction is expected to increase the number of spontaneous abortions of zygotes, perinatal deaths, and postnatal offspring with birth defects. The advantages of inbreeding may be the result of a tendency to preserve the structures of alleles interacting at different loci that have been adapted together by a common selective history.\n",
"As an explicative term, hybridity became a useful tool in forming a fearful discourse of racial mixing that arose toward the end of the 18th century. Pseudo-scientific models of anatomy and craniometry were used to argue that Africans, Asians, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders were racially inferior to Europeans. The fear of miscegenation that followed responds to the concern that the offspring of racial interbreeding would result in the dilution of the European race. Hybrids were seen as an aberration, worse than the inferior races, a weak and diseased mutation. Hybridity as a concern for racial purity responds clearly to the zeitgeist of colonialism where, despite the backdrop of the humanitarian age of enlightenment, social hierarchy was beyond contention as was the position of Europeans at its summit. The social transformations that followed the ending of colonial mandates, rising immigration, and economic liberalization profoundly altered the use and understanding of the term hybridity.\n",
"Genetic females (46,XX karyotype) have two X chromosomes, thus have two \"AR\" genes. A mutation in one (but not both) results in a minimally affected, fertile, female carrier. Some carriers have been noted to have slightly reduced body hair, delayed puberty, and/or tall stature, presumably due to skewed X-inactivation. A female carrier will pass the affected \"AR\" gene to her children 50% of the time. If the affected child is a genetic female, she, too, will be a carrier. An affected 46,XY child will have AIS.\n",
"By examining the cognitive ability and school performance of both black and white children adopted into white families, the study intended to separate genetic factors from rearing conditions as causal influences in the gap. \"Trans racial adoption is the human analog of the cross-fostering design, commonly used in animal behavior genetics research... There is no question that adoption constitutes a massive intervention\" (Scarr & Weinberg, 1976, p. 726).\n",
"On the other hand, mating between individuals of genotypes which are too similar allows for the accumulation of harmful recessive alleles, which can decrease fitness. Such mating between genetically similar individuals is termed inbreeding which can result in the emergence of autosomal recessive disorders. Moreover, assortative mating for aggression in birds can lead to inadequate parental care. An alternate strategy can be disassortative mating, in which one individual is aggressive and guards the nest site while the other individual is more nurturing and fosters the young. This division of labor increases the chances of survival of the offspring. A classic example of this is in the case of the white-throated sparrow (\"Zonotrichia albicollis\"). This bird exhibits two color morphs – white striped and tan striped. In both genders, the white striped birds are more aggressive and territorial whereas tan striped birds are more engaged in providing parental care to their offspring. Therefore, disassortative mating in these birds allows for an efficient division of labor in terms of raising and protecting their offspring.\n"
] |
How much air speed does a modern fighter jet lose by firing a salvo of bullets at an enemy plane?
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You need to conserve momentum. Assuming an M61 Vulcan cannon firing 100g rounds at 1000 m/s and a burst of 1 second (~100 rounds), a half loaded F-22 Raptor (~25000kg) would lose 0.4 m/s. Even with some fudge factors for the accelerated air, you wouldn't lose more than 1 m/s.
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[
"BULLET::::- The XB-70 Valkyrie strategic bomber became the first vehicle to hold a sustained (more than half an hour) in excess of Mach 3. Literally moving faster than a speeding bullet, at three times the speed of sound, the six-engine jet aircraft was flown at its \"triplesonic\" speed of more than 2,000 miles per hour for 32 minutes by test pilot Al White of North American Aviation, and his co-pilot, USAF Colonel Joe Cotton. Friction from the air heated the outside of the aircraft to 620 degrees Fahrenheit. As the plane returned to Edwards Air Force Base in California, the two pilots discovered that the landing gear would not lower because of a short circuit; Colonel Cotton reportedly \"used a paper clip to short circuit an electrical terminal\" to lower the gear, sparing the crew from having \"to bail out and abandon the $500 million craft\".\n",
"Flying faster means that the aircraft passes through the range of a gun more rapidly, reducing the number of rounds a particular gun can fire at that aircraft. Flying at higher altitudes often has a similar effect, as it requires larger shells to reach those altitudes, and this typically results in slower firing rates for a variety of practical reasons. Aircraft using jet engines roughly double the speed and altitude over piston-powered designs, limiting the number of shells so greatly that the chance of hitting the bomber dropped almost to zero. As early as 1942, German flak commanders were keenly aware of the problem, and expecting to face jet bombers, they began a missile development program to supplant their guns.\n",
"Flying faster means that the aircraft passes through the range of a gun more rapidly, reducing the number of rounds a particular gun can fire at that aircraft. Flying at higher altitudes has a similar effect, as it requires larger shells to reach those altitudes, and this typically results in slower firing rates for a variety of practical reasons. Aircraft using jet engines basically double the speed and altitude of conventional designs, so limiting the number of shells that the chance of hitting the bomber essentially dropped to zero. As early as 1942, German flak commanders were keenly aware of the problem, and expecting to face jet bombers, they began a missile development program to supplant their guns.\n",
"The introduction of jet engines and the subsequent rough doubling of aircraft speeds greatly reduced the effectiveness of the SPAAG against attack aircraft. A typical SPAAG round might have a muzzle velocity on the order of and might take as long as two to three seconds to reach a target at its maximum range. An aircraft flying at is moving at a rate of about . This means the aircraft will have moved hundreds of meters during the flight time of the shells, greatly complicating the aiming problem to the point where close passes were essentially impossible to aim using manual gunsights. This speed also allowed the aircraft to rapidly fly out of range of the guns; even if the aircraft passes directly over the SPAAG, it would be within its firing radius for under 30 seconds.\n",
"By the mid-1930s, aircraft designers around the world perceived that increased attack speeds were imposing shorter firing times on fighter pilots. This implied less ammunition hitting the target and ensuring destruction. Instead of two rifle-calibre machine guns, six or eight were required; studies had shown that eight machine guns could deliver 256 rounds per second. The eight machine guns installed in the Spitfire and the Hurricane fired rifle-calibre rounds, which did not deliver enough damage to quickly knock out an opponent. Cannon, such as the French 20 mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404, which could fire explosive ammunition, offered more firepower and attention turned to aircraft designs which could carry four cannon. While the most agile fighter aircraft were generally small and light, their meagre fuel capacity limited their range and tended to restrict them to defensive and interception roles. The larger airframes and bigger fuel loads of twin-engined designs were favoured for long-range, offensive roles.\n",
"The advent of jet engines for fighters and bombers posed new problems for interceptors. With closing speeds of 1,500 ft/s (457 m/s) or more for a head-on interception, the time available for a fighter pilot to successfully target an enemy aircraft and inflict sufficient damage to bring it down was vanishingly small. Wartime experience had shown that .50 caliber (12.7 mm) machine guns were not powerful enough to reliably down a bomber, certainly not in a single volley, and heavy autocannon did not have the range or rate of fire to ensure a hit. Unguided rockets had been proven effective in ground-attack work during the war, and the \"Luftwaffe\" had shown that volleys of their \"Werfer-Granate 21\" rockets, first used by elements of the \"Luftwaffe's\" JG 1 and JG 11 fighter wings on July 29, 1943 against USAAF bombers attacking Kiel and Warnemünde, could be a potent air-to-air weapon. The summer and autumn of 1944 saw the adoption of the folding-fin R4M unguided rocket for use underneath the wings of the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter for bomber destroyer duties against the USAAF's Eighth Air Force heavy bombers.\n",
"The performance estimates of this aircraft were a cause for great unease in the \"Luftwaffe\". The B-29 had a maximum speed of around 560 km/h (348 mph), and would attack in a cruise at about 360 km/h (224 mph) at 8,000-10,000 m (26,247-32,810 ft), an altitude where no current \"Luftwaffe\" aircraft was effective, and for which the only effective Wehrmacht anti-aircraft gun was the rarely-deployed 12.8 cm FlaK 40, which could effectively fire to an altitude of .\n"
] |
is a mobius strip actually a 2-dimensional object, or is it a representation?
|
The confusion here comes from the confusion of "infinite length" with "no end". The Mobius strip does not have infinite length, any more than does a circle.
Mathematically speaking, the Mobius strip is a 2D manifold, which basically means if you zoom in enough it looks like a plane.
|
[
"The Möbius strip is a two-dimensional compact manifold (i.e. a surface) with boundary. It is a standard example of a surface that is not orientable. In fact, the Möbius strip is the epitome of the topological phenomenon of nonorientability. This is because two-dimensional shapes (surfaces) are the lowest-dimensional shapes for which nonorientability is possible and the Möbius strip is the only surface that is topologically a subspace of every nonorientable surface. As a result, any surface is nonorientable if and only if it contains a Möbius band as a subspace.\n",
"The edge, or boundary, of a Möbius strip is homeomorphic (topologically equivalent) to a circle. Under the usual embeddings of the strip in Euclidean space, as above, the boundary is not a true circle. However, it is possible to embed a Möbius strip in three dimensions so that the boundary is a perfect circle lying in some plane. For example, see Figures 307, 308, and 309 of \"Geometry and the imagination\".\n",
"The Möbius strip is a surface on which the distinction between clockwise and counterclockwise can be defined locally, but not globally. In general, a surface is said to be \"orientable\" if it does not contain a homeomorphic copy of the Möbius strip; intuitively, it has two distinct \"sides\". For example, the sphere and torus are orientable, while the real projective plane is not (because the real projective plane with one point removed is homeomorphic to the open Möbius strip).\n",
"If a smooth Möbius strip in three-space is a rectangular one – that is, created from identifying two opposite sides of a geometrical rectangle with bending but not stretching the surface – then such an embedding is known to be possible if the aspect ratio of the rectangle is greater than the square root of three. (Note the shorter sides of the rectangle are identified to obtain the Möbius strip.) For an aspect ratio less than or equal to the square root of three, however, a smooth embedding of a rectangular Möbius strip into three-space may be impossible.\n",
"One can view this as a tube or cylinder that wraps around, as in a torus, but its circular cross section flips over in four dimensions, presenting its \"backside\" as it reconnects, just as a Möbius strip cross section rotates before it reconnects. The 3D orthogonal projection of this is the pinched torus shown above. Just as a Möbius strip is a subset of a solid torus, the Möbius tube is a subset of a toroidally closed spherinder (solid spheritorus).\n",
"An example of a Möbius strip can be created by taking a paper strip and giving it a half-twist, and then joining the ends of the strip to form a loop. However, the Möbius strip is not a surface of only one exact size and shape, such as the half-twisted paper strip depicted in the illustration. Rather, mathematicians refer to the closed Möbius band as any surface that is homeomorphic to this strip. Its boundary is a simple closed curve, that is, homeomorphic to a circle. This allows for a very wide variety of geometric versions of the Möbius band as surfaces each having a definite size and shape. For example, any rectangle can be glued to itself (by identifying one edge with the opposite edge after a reversal of orientation) to make a Möbius band. Some of these can be smoothly modeled in Euclidean space, and others cannot.\n",
"The Möbius strip is also a standard example used to illustrate the mathematical concept of a fiber bundle. Specifically, it is a nontrivial bundle over the circle \"S\" with a fiber the unit interval, . Looking only at the edge of the Möbius strip gives a nontrivial two point (or Z) bundle over \"S\".\n"
] |
why hasn't the us signed the geneva convention?
|
It doesn't want to be held to international law.
|
[
"The Geneva Conventions are four related treaties adopted and continuously expanded from 1864 to 1949 that represent a legal basis and framework for the conduct of war under international law. Every single member state of the United Nations has currently ratified the conventions, which are universally accepted as customary international law, applicable to every situation of armed conflict in the world. However, the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions adopted in 1977 containing the most pertinent, detailed and comprehensive protections of international humanitarian law for persons and objects in modern warfare are still not ratified by a number of States continuously engaged in armed conflicts, namely the United States, Israel, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, and others. Accordingly, states retain different codes and values with regard to wartime conduct. Some signatories have routinely violated the Geneva Conventions in a way which either uses the ambiguities of law or political maneuvering to sidestep the laws' formalities and principles.\n",
"The Geneva Conventions of 1949 may be seen, therefore, as the result of a process which began in 1864. Today they have \"achieved universal participation with 194 parties\". This means that they apply to almost any international armed conflict. The Additional Protocols, however, have yet to achieve near-universal acceptance, since the United States and several other significant military powers (like Iran, Israel, India and Pakistan) are currently not parties to them.\n",
"The Geneva Conventions, of which there are four, are considered universal treaties in international law. They created the idea of International humanitarian law and codify customary international law regarding laws in wartime. By signing parties agreed to criminalise any breaches in their own domestic courts, U.S recognised this when they enacted their own War Crimes Act. However the declaration made by Bush in 2002 had the effect of 'exempting all alleged members of Al Qaeda from the protections of the Geneva conventions'.\n",
"Supervision of the implementation of the Geneva Accords was the responsibility of an international commission consisting of India, Canada, and Poland. The United States did not sign the Geneva Accords, which stated that the United States \"shall continue to seek to achieve unity through free elections supervised by the United Nations to insure that they are conducted fairly\". In July 1955, the prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam, Ngô Đình Diệm, announced that South Vietnam would not participate in elections to unify the country. He said that South Vietnam had not signed the Geneva Accords and was not bound by it.\n",
"The Geneva Conventions are the result of a process that developed in a number of stages between 1864 and 1949. It focused on the protection of civilians and those who can no longer fight in an armed conflict. As a result of World War II, all four conventions were revised, based on previous revisions and on some of the 1907 Hague Conventions, and readopted by the international community in 1949. Later conferences have added provisions prohibiting certain methods of warfare and addressing issues of civil wars.\n",
"In 1993, the United Nations Security Council adopted a report from the Secretary-General and a Commission of Experts which concluded that the Geneva Conventions had passed into the body of customary international law, thus making them binding on non-signatories to the Conventions whenever they engage in armed conflicts.\n",
"There are two additional protocols to the Geneva Convention: Protocol I (1977), relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts and Protocol II (1977), relating to the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts. These clarify and extend the definitions in some areas, but to date many countries, including the United States, have either not signed them or have not ratified them.\n"
] |
How accurate is the show How Booze Built America?
|
People certainly drank a lot, about three times as much as we do today and they tended to drink hard stuff while we mostly drink beer and wine( mid 19th century United States). I haven't seen the show, but it certainly sounds like an exaggeration.
|
[
"How Booze Built America is an American reality-documentary Miniseries starring Mike Rowe. The miniseries premiered on the Discovery Channel on September 19, 2012. In each episode, Rowe travels around the United States discussing how alcoholic beverages affected periods throughout American history.\n",
"The shows sparked heated debate, with many questioning whether Crockett was really deserving of the amount of attention that he was receiving. Letter writers also questioned the series' historical accuracy. Nevertheless, the shows proved very popular. They were combined into a feature-length movie in the summer of 1955, and Parker and his co-star Buddy Ebsen toured the United States, Europe, and Japan. By the end of 1955, Americans had purchased over $300 million worth of Davy Crockett merchandise ($2 billion by 2001).\n",
"The series examines the history of American cooking and foods. Each episode details the particular foods' origins, key innovators, history, and evolution into modern cuisine. The series is subtitled \"The Food That Built America\" due to its reverence for food's place in American history and its impact on culture. The show is known for its nostalgia and general quirkiness, often including facts such as \"Did you know Teddy Roosevelt took over 500 gallons of beer on an African safari?\"\n",
"In an interview in \"The Guardian\" (Feb 2019) Jo Brand cited Cornes as the funniest standup she's ever seen. \"Lee Cornes once did the same set in the first half and the second half of a show at the Comedy Store to see how pissed the audience were.\"\n",
"The show was produced for History Channel by Stephen David Entertainment, the production company behind the Emmy Award-winning miniseries \"The Men Who Built America\". A portion of the filming took place in and around Martinsburg, West Virginia in the United States during October and November 2013. The series was introduced by United States President Barack Obama in a pre-recorded message.\n",
"\"The Right Stuff\" takes a \"gritty, anti-nostalgic look at what would become America's first reality show as the obsessive original Mercury Seven astronauts and their families become instant celebrities in a competition that will either kill them or make them immortal. The one-hour drama will follow the protagonists from the Mojave Desert to the edges of space, with future seasons carrying through to humankind’s greatest achievement: the moon landing.\"\n",
"She appeared on the season finale of \"America's Got Talent\" (NBC) on October 1, 2008. She also appeared on \"Rude Tube\" on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom in November 2008. Among her most famous television appearances, she was on Comedy Central's \"The Man Show\", where she demonstrated her talent for crushing beer cans by slamming her breasts on top of them.\n"
] |
why is there a delay with connecting a bluetooth device to a different device?
|
When a device changes Bluetooth association like you describe, two things are happening. It's terminating the connection to the first device, and performing the handshaking protocols to connect to the new one. If it isn't actively connected to a different device, there's nothing to disconnect from.
|
[
"Because the Bluetooth system hops over 79 channels, the probability of interfering with another Bluetooth system is less than 1.5%. This allows several Bluetooth piconets to operate in the same area at the same time with minimal interference.\n",
"Bluetooth v2.1 – finalized in 2007 with consumer devices first appearing in 2009 – makes significant changes to Bluetooth's security, including pairing. See the pairing mechanisms section for more about these changes.\n",
"Many services offered over Bluetooth can expose private data or let a connecting party control the Bluetooth device. Security reasons make it necessary to recognize specific devices, and thus enable control over which devices can connect to a given Bluetooth device. At the same time, it is useful for Bluetooth devices to be able to establish a connection without user intervention (for example, as soon as in range).\n",
"The iOS 11 update was criticized for changing the way the buttons for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth work; more specifically, the toggles would disconnect devices from Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, while leaving the radios on. The Electronic Frontier Foundation stated that this change not only hurt battery life, but was also bad for security, describing the buttons as turning Wi-Fi and Bluetooth \"off-ish\" (greyed out, but not crossed out, as it would appear if switched off directly from the Settings app), as well as further criticizing the connections resuming at 5:00 am everyday.\n",
"“It seems very likely that bluetooth headsets reduce exposure to radiofrequency radiation, since instead of the full strength of the radiation coming from the cell phone tower to the antenna on your phone, there is only much shorter distance radiation from the phone to the headset. However, bluetooth headsets can still carry health risks if one wears the headset, turned on, all day, since the lower level of such radiation is cumulative.”\n",
"Any device with its Bluetooth connection turned on and set to \"discoverable\" (able to be found by other Bluetooth devices in range) may be susceptible to Bluejacking and possibly to Bluesnarfing if there is a vulnerability in the vendor's software. By turning off this feature, the potential victim can be safer from the possibility of being Bluesnarfed; although a device that is set to \"hidden\" may be Bluesnarfable by guessing the device's MAC address via a brute force attack. As with all brute force attacks, the main obstacle to this approach is the sheer number of possible MAC addresses. Bluetooth uses a 48-bit unique MAC Address, of which the first 24 bits are common to a manufacturer. The remaining 24 bits have approximately 16.8 million possible combinations, requiring an average of 8.4 million attempts to guess by brute force.\n",
"Most handsets have security measures built into their firmware that protects them from repeated attempts to guess the unlock code. After entering more than a certain number of incorrect codes the phone becomes \"frozen\". This is a state where the phone will display a security message that the phone needs service. Older phones could no longer be used at all at this point, however modern smartphones often keep working with the original SIM but require extra work to then unlock them correctly. In extreme situations physical access to internal hardware via in-circuit debugging may be utilised (for example, via JTAG headers on a circuit board). Such access may be required to modify initalization software used for booting.\n"
] |
How deep can insects live in the ground?
|
Not quite insects but nematodes have been found 3.6km underground.
[Nematoda from the terrestrial deep subsurface of South Africa](_URL_0_)
|
[
"Insects can fly and kite at very high altitude. In 2008, a colony of bumble bees was discovered on Mount Everest at more than above sea level, the highest known altitude for an insect. In subsequent tests some of the bees were still able to fly in a flight chamber which recreated the thinner air of .\n",
"Up to 90% of invertebrates in some lotic systems are insects. These species exhibit tremendous diversity and can be found occupying almost every available habitat, including the surfaces of stones, deep below the substratum in the hyporheic zone, adrift in the current, and in the surface film. \n",
"A large number of small animals, mainly arthropods (such as insects and spiders), are also carried upwards into the atmosphere by air currents and may be found floating several thousand feet up. Aphids, for example, are frequently found at high altitudes.\n",
"This aquatic insect is about 6 millimeters long. It does not fly. It lives in the Point of Rocks Springs at Ash Meadows, where it can be found in a few channels of flowing water measuring no more than 0.3 meters wide by 10 meters long. It was restricted to these trickles when the flowing spring water was channelized and impounded. Ten acres have been designated critical habitat for this insect.\n",
"Some of the common insects found at elevations above are orange paper wasps, honey bees, black flies, tarantula hawks, stink bugs, beetles, black ants, and monarch and swallowtail butterflies. Solifugids, wood spiders, garden spiders, black widow spiders and tarantulas can be found in the desert scrub and higher elevations.\n",
"\"Euophrys omnisuperstes\", a minute black jumping spider, has been found at elevations as high as , possibly making it the highest confirmed non-microscopic permanent resident on Earth. It lurks in crevices and may feed on frozen insects that have been blown there by the wind. There is a high likelihood of microscopic life at even higher altitudes.\n",
"Unlike the invertebrates groups mentioned so far, insects are usually terrestrial, and exchange gases across a moist surface in direct contact with the atmosphere, rather than in contact with surrounding water. The insect's exoskeleton is impermeable to gases, including water vapor, so they have a more specialised gas exchange system, requiring gases to be directly transported to the tissues via a complex network of tubes. This respiratory system is separated from their circulatory system. Gases enter and leave the body through openings called spiracles, located laterally along the thorax and abdomen. Similar to plants, insects are able to control the opening and closing of these spiracles, but instead of relying on turgor pressure, they rely on muscle contractions. These contractions result in an insect's abdomen being pumped in and out. The spiracles are connected to tubes called tracheae, which branch repeatedly and ramify into the insect's body. These branches terminate in specialised tracheole cells which provides a thin, moist surface for efficient gas exchange, directly with cells.\n"
] |
why are some colds way worse than others? if i have a bad cold and transfer it to someone else, is it guaranteed to be bad for him/her?
|
It depends on your immune response.
Inflammation, fever, coughing and runny nose are mostly caused by your immune system fighting the virus.
Depending on the effectiveness of the immune system it might be a single day of hell or a week of minor problems.
Not to mention that a "bad cold" is subjective.
|
[
"The common cold is the most common human disease and affects people all over the globe. Adults typically have two to three infections annually, and children may have six to ten colds a year (and up to twelve colds a year for school children). Rates of symptomatic infections increase in the elderly due to declining immunity.\n",
"Humans are sensitive to cold, see hypothermia. Snowblindness, norovirus, seasonal depression. Slipping on black ice and falling icicles are other health concerns associated with cold and snowy weather. In the Northern Hemisphere, it is not unusual for homeless people to die from hypothermia in the winter.\n",
"Well over 200 virus strains are implicated in causing the common cold, with rhinoviruses being the most common. They spread through the air during close contact with infected people or indirectly through contact with objects in the environment, followed by transfer to the mouth or nose. Risk factors include going to child care facilities, not sleeping well, and psychological stress. The symptoms are mostly due to the body's immune response to the infection rather than to tissue destruction by the viruses themselves. In contrast, those affected by influenza can show similar symptoms as people with a cold, but symptoms are usually more severe. Additionally, influenza is less likely to result in a runny nose.\n",
"Along with HCoV-229E, a species in the Alphacoronavirus genus, HCoV-OC43 are among the known viruses that cause the common cold. Both viruses can cause severe lower respiratory tract infections, including pneumonia in infants, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals such as those undergoing chemotherapy and those with HIV-AIDS.\n",
"The common cold, also known simply as a cold, is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract that primarily affects the nose. The throat, sinuses, and larynx may also be affected. Signs and symptoms may appear less than two days after exposure to the virus. These may include coughing, sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, headache, and fever. People usually recover in seven to ten days, but some symptoms may last up to three weeks. Occasionally those with other health problems may develop pneumonia.\n",
"Cold has numerous physiological and pathological effects on the human body, as well as on other organisms. Cold environments may promote certain psychological traits, as well as having direct effects on the ability to move. Shivering is one of the first physiological responses to cold. Extreme cold temperatures may lead to frostbite, sepsis, and hypothermia, which in turn may result in death.\n",
"People who are exposed to low temperatures for prolonged periods, such as winter sports enthusiasts, military personnel, and homeless individuals, are at greatest risk. Other risk factors include drinking alcohol, smoking, mental health problems, certain medications, and prior injuries due to cold. The underlying mechanism involves injury from ice crystals and blood clots in small blood vessels following thawing. Diagnosis is based on symptoms. Severity may be divided into superficial (1st and 2nd degree) or deep (3rd and 4th degree). A bone scan or MRI may help in determining the extent of injury.\n"
] |
After The Civil War, Did Some Ex-Confederates Just Leave the United States Entirely?
|
More can always be added, but /u/sowser wrote [this post](_URL_0_) in this sub about the Confederados who went to Brazil.
|
[
"In 1865 a substantial number of former Confederates fled to Mexico from the defeated Confederate States of America. They set up the New Virginia Colony. However, many of the ex-Confederates left the country once Emperor Maxmilian I was overthrown.\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Texas v. White\", The states that formed the Confederate States of America during the Civil War never actually left the Union because a state cannot unilaterally secede from the United States.\n",
"Following the end of the American Civil War, many former Confederates desired to flee the now-unified United States of America. This inclination was fueled by resentment towards their new \"oppressive\" leaders, along with a conviction that the economic and political conditions of the South would be slow to improve during the era of Reconstruction. For some, they chose to flee to another country in hopes of preserving their former way of life, including slavery, but as immigration was an expensive action, not all were able to participate. In addition to this, several Confederate leaders (including General Robert E. Lee) discouraged individuals from leaving the country. One popular destination for these displaced citizens was Brazil due to the fact slavery was still legal, resulting in up to 20,000 people immigrating from the South.\n",
"The Confederate States of America was an unrecognized country in North America, formed by secessionist slave-holding states, that existed from 1861 to 1865. In \"Texas v. White\" the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that rebellious states had never legally left the union. However, the states were ruled by military governments after the war, and by appointed governors during Reconstruction (1865–1877). Those governors are listed here.\n",
"In 1861, states located in the southern region of the United States, withdrew from the union after the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, out of fear that he would hurt the institution of slavery. These southern states formed the Confederate States of America.\n",
"Of the 34 U.S. states in February 1861, seven Southern slave states were declared by partisans to have seceded from the country, and a Confederate States of America was organized in rebellion against the U.S. Constitutional government. The Confederacy grew to control at least a majority of territory in eleven states, and it claimed the additional states of Kentucky and Missouri by assertions from native secessionists fleeing Union authority, but without territory or population therein; these states were given full representation in the Confederate Congress throughout the Civil War. The two remaining slave states, Delaware and Maryland, were invited to join the Confederacy, but nothing substantial developed due to intervention by federal troops.\n",
"BULLET::::- Confederate States of America—a former confederation in North America from 1861 to 1865, comprising eleven southern states that attempted to secede from the United States of America: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Their rebellion precipitated the American Civil War; upon its conclusion, the Confederate States were readmitted to representation in the United States Congress.\n"
] |
If speed depends of the spacial reference system chosen, wouldn't kinetic energy depends too? If so kinetic energy is defined by the object chosen by the observer?
|
Yes, kinetic energy depends on your reference frame.
|
[
"Correspondingly the kinetic energy of an object, and even the change in this energy due to a change in velocity, depends on the inertial frame of reference. The total kinetic energy of an isolated system also depends on the inertial frame of reference: it is the sum of the total kinetic energy in a center of momentum frame and the kinetic energy the total mass would have if it were concentrated in the center of mass. Due to the conservation of momentum the latter does not change with time, so changes with time of the total kinetic energy do not depend on the inertial frame of reference.\n",
"The speed, and thus the kinetic energy of a single object is frame-dependent (relative): it can take any non-negative value, by choosing a suitable inertial frame of reference. For example, a bullet passing an observer has kinetic energy in the reference frame of this observer. The same bullet is stationary to an observer moving with the same velocity as the bullet, and so has zero kinetic energy. By contrast, the total kinetic energy of a system of objects cannot be reduced to zero by a suitable choice of the inertial reference frame, unless all the objects have the same velocity. In any other case, the total kinetic energy has a non-zero minimum, as no inertial reference frame can be chosen in which all the objects are stationary. This minimum kinetic energy contributes to the system's invariant mass, which is independent of the reference frame.\n",
"In order to get an estimate of the critical speed, we use the fact that the condition for which this kinematic solution is valid corresponds to the case where there is no net energy exchange with the surroundings, so by considering the kinetic and potential energy of the system, we should be able to derive the critical speed.\n",
"It was argued against the conventionality of the one-way speed of light that this concept is closely related to dynamics, the laws of motion and inertial reference frames. Salmon described some variations of this argument using momentum conservation, from which it follows that two equal bodies at the same place which are equally accelerated in opposite directions, should move with the same one-way velocity. Similarly, Ohanian argued that inertial reference frames are defined so that Newton's laws of motion hold in first approximation. Therefore, since the laws of motion predict isotropic one-way speeds of moving bodies with equal acceleration, and because of the experiments demonstrating the equivalence between Einstein synchronization and slow clock-transport synchronization, it appears to be required and directly measured that the one-way speed of light is isotropic in inertial frames. Otherwise, both the concept of inertial reference frames and the laws of motion must be replaced by much more complicated ones involving anisotropic coordinates.\n",
"If a body's speed is a significant fraction of the speed of light, it is necessary to use relativistic mechanics to calculate its kinetic energy. In special relativity theory, the expression for linear momentum is modified.\n",
"II. The kinetic energy in the direction of motion of a dynamic system is only recovered if the system is stationary (e.g. a bridge structure), or the recoverable energy is negligible in comparison with the power required for motion (e.g. a low powered sensor).\n",
"Several mathematical descriptions of kinetic energy exist that describe it in the appropriate physical situation. For objects and processes in common human experience, the formula ½mv² given by Newtonian (classical) mechanics is suitable. However, if the speed of the object is comparable to the speed of light, relativistic effects become significant and the relativistic formula is used. If the object is on the atomic or sub-atomic scale, quantum mechanical effects are significant, and a quantum mechanical model must be employed.\n"
] |
Looking back at past early presidential elections, there were never any popular or county results for South Carolina, Why is this? How did they vote for president?
|
That's a good catch. I don't know offhand when it changed, but during the antebellum period a lot of political power was routed through the SC General Assembly. Eligible white male voters could vote for their state representatives, but the legislature would then choose the governor and other prominent state positions, US senators and representatives, and vote on the state's behalf for President.
What's fascinating is how this reflects upon South Carolina's (though the South was indeed diverse, SC wasn't singular in its beliefs either) interpretations of American notions of liberty and republican government. They were adamant in their support of these ideas but were also forced to reconcile them with their wider cultural beliefs which espoused the existence of naturally elite men (and they were men) who were uniquely suited to lead the rest of society. These men distinguished themselves through social, personal, and economic independence as demonstrated through ownership of land and slaves as well as absolute control of their business (plantation) and family lives. They achieved economic independence via prosperous plantations and demonstrated leadership through the control of dependents (wives, children, slaves). Theoretically any white man could enter this class but SC's commitment to this ideal also meant that state government was highly insular and restrictive. A small elite group kept a firm grip on nearly all state government affairs.
Readings:
Stephanie McCurry, *Masters of Small Worlds*
Drew Faust, *James Henry Hammond and the Old South*
|
[
"The 1852 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 2, 1852, as part of the 1852 United States presidential election. The state legislature chose nine representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.\n",
"The presidential election of 1988 was a very partisan election for South Carolina, with more than 99% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties, and only four candidates appearing on the ballot. As can be seen in several states across the country during this election, the large population centers in South Carolina voted Republican, but several counties near-by the large population centers voted Democratic, suggesting the influence of suburban populations. A good example of this effect, is with the city of Columbia's Richland County, which voted Republican, while its less-populated neighbor, Fairfield County, voted Democratic. This geographic trend is opposite of what you would expect to see with these parties, and once again may suggest an element of influence from (for example) the city of Columbia's suburban districts.\n",
"The 1832 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place between November 2 and December 5, 1832, as part of the 1832 United States presidential election. The state legislature chose 11 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.\n",
"The 1796 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place between November 4 and December 7, 1796, as part of the 1796 United States presidential election. The state legislature chose eight representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.\n",
"The 1856 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 4, 1856, as part of the 1856 United States presidential election. The state legislature chose nine representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.\n",
"The following table of United States presidential election results since 1900 illustrates that over the past six presidential elections, only three Northeastern states supported a Republican candidate (New Hampshire voted for George W. Bush in 2000; Pennsylvania and Maine's 2nd congressional district voted for Donald Trump in 2016). Bolded entries indicate that party's candidate also won the general election.\n",
"The 1860 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 6, 1860, as part of the 1860 United States presidential election. The state legislature chose eight representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president, which would be the last time the state would do so.\n"
] |
how are small cell services like boost so much cheaper than large ones like verizon?
|
The two biggest reasons are lower risk and no subsidized phones.
Risk - They don't maintain towers, just purchase bandwidth from from the big guys. Don't have to worry about building towers, don't have any actual assets (with the exception of some tech support and a billing department).
Subsidized phones - for whatever reason, in the american market consumers don't like to front the ~$600 cost of a phone up front (like pretty much the rest of the world does). So retailers decided to just cut off about 400 of that cost and tack on another 20/month to your plan, and force you into a two year contract (also notice that 20*24 /= 400).
My wife and I switched from verizon (probably around 150+ a month) to net10 (85 a month). Net10 runs on At & t and Tmobile, so it's not quite as good of service, but it's nearly half the cost. And I can use a nexus 5.
|
[
"This cut to the Lifeline program prevents other smaller companies known as resellers from \"buying network capacity from big telecom providers and then selling it back to low-income consumers at cheaper rates.\" This is problematic for the majority of Lifeline customers who rely on those cheaper rates.\n",
"Revenues from the company's high speed products have grown rapidly due to the rapid expansion of telecom backbone and content provider networks accommodating increased mobile traffic. Initial adoption of the company's 100G coherent products were in the Long Haul market sector, over the next several years it is expect that growth in 100G and beyond will be mainly driven by adoption of 100G coherent products in the much larger Metro market sector and the datacenter market for large web-scale data network market.\n",
"Consumers and small businesses benefit from greatly improved coverage and signal strength since they have a \"de facto\" base station inside their premises. As a result of being relatively close to the femtocell, the mobile phone (user equipment) expends significantly less power for communication with it, thus increasing battery life. They may also get better voice quality (via HD voice) depending on a number of factors such as operator/network support, customer contract/price plan, phone and operating system support. Some carriers may also offer more attractive tariffs, for example discounted calls from home.\n",
"The telecommunication industry is growing as the need for 4G and 5G networks flourishes. As a result of this growth there is a constant demand for cellular networks to increase their coverage. Therefore, more cellular towers are constructed and more leases are drawn up between the cellular provider and landowners, which can include municipalities and private landowners, such as homeowners.\n",
"Verizon Wireless introduced their LTE network with the capability for tiered services at the end of 2010. Because the company's 4G network is now available in cities across the United States, Verizon has the opportunity to charge premium prices for faster data delivery. Such data plans allow Verizon to charge under a tiered service platform, similar to many home wired Internet services.\n",
"In 2010 the company upgraded its 3G network in the country and launched its Mobile Money service. By 2012, its network grew with its fiber network that provided services with download speeds of up to 100 Mbit/s, HDTV, and its initial phase of its 4G LTE mobile broadband service. The company's consumer base has grown significantly in recent times, from 1.9 million subscribers in 2008 to 2.5 million in 2012 within Qatar. Its annual revenues increased by QAR 3.5 billion from 2012 to 2013 in a single quarter.\n",
"As of early 2011, Rogers, Aliant, and Telus' mobile Internet offerings are extraordinarily expensive for heavy users and tethering of personal computers is not necessarily included under these plans; the price per gigabyte of the Eastlink service is clearly superior to any of these offerings. However, the maximum speed is much less (1.5Mbit/s download versus up to 21Mbit/s) and more so when these cellular providers upgrade to dual-carrier (42Mbit/s) HSPA+. For those more concerned with speed and less with price, cellular options will be a superior rural networking choice; for those concerned with price, Eastlink's fixed wireless service, the expansion of Wi-Fi hotspots, and the use of 802.11u and 802.21 will continue to form a more reliable mesh especially in attracting tourists or in densely populated areas.\n"
] |
How is the double slit experiment with single particle done practically ?
|
You can make sensors sensitive to single electrons, shoot electrons with a low average rate and discard events where more than one electron came close together. In principle you could also make a source that can release individual electrons.
[Single-photon sources](_URL_0_) are a standard research tool. You create exactly two photons, the detection of one of them shows that there is a single other photon on the way to your experiment.
> How do they make thin enough slit?
It doesn't have to be that thin.
> How do they detect a photon without absorbing it, since it has to pursue its trajectory?
You absorb it in the detection - behind the double slit.
> How do they pump out matter so that the single-particle could propagate in void space?
With good vacuum pumps, where needed. You don't need it for the double slit experiment with light, as light doesn't interact often with air.
|
[
"In 2012, Stefano Frabboni and co-workers eventually performed the double-slit experiment with electrons and real slits, following the original scheme proposed by Feynman. They sent single electrons onto nanofabricated slits (about 100 nm wide) and, by collecting the transmitted electrons with a single-electron detector, they could show the build-up of a double-slit interference pattern.\n",
"A double-slit experiment was not performed with anything other than light until 1961, when Claus Jönsson of the University of Tübingen performed it with electron beams. In 1974, the Italian physicists Pier Giorgio Merli, Gian Franco Missiroli, and Giulio Pozzi repeated the experiment using single electrons and biprism (instead of slits), showing that each electron interferes with itself as predicted by quantum theory. In 2002, the single-electron version of the experiment was voted \"the most beautiful experiment\" by readers of \"Physics World.\"\n",
"The double slit experiment, like the other six idealized experiments (microscope, split beam, tilt-teeth, radiation pattern, one-photon polarization, and polarization of paired photons), imposes a choice between complementary modes of observation. In each experiment we have found a way to delay that choice of type of phenomenon to be looked for up to the very final stage of development of the phenomenon, and it depends on whichever type of detection device we then fix upon. That delay makes no difference in the experimental predictions. On this score everything we find was foreshadowed in that solitary and pregnant sentence of Bohr, \"...it...can make no difference, as regards observable effects obtainable by a definite experimental arrangement, whether our plans for constructing or handling the instruments are fixed beforehand or whether we prefer to postpone the completion of our planning until a later moment when the particle is already on its way from one instrument to another.\"\n",
"The double-slit experiment is an illustration of wave-particle duality. In it, a beam of particles (such as electrons) travels through a barrier that has two slits. If one puts a detector screen on the side beyond the barrier, the pattern of detected particles shows interference fringes characteristic of waves arriving at the screen from two sources (the two slits); however, the interference pattern is made up of individual dots corresponding to particles that had arrived on the screen. The system seems to exhibit the behaviour of both waves (interference patterns) and particles (dots on the screen).\n",
"The experiment can be done with entities much larger than electrons and photons, although it becomes more difficult as size increases. The largest entities for which the double-slit experiment has been performed were molecules that each comprised 810 atoms (whose total mass was over 10,000 atomic mass units).\n",
"In 2012, researchers at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln performed the double-slit experiment with electrons as described by Richard Feynman, using new instruments that allowed control of the transmission of the two slits and the monitoring of single-electron detection events. Electrons were fired by an electron gun and passed through one or two slits of 62 nm wide × 4 μm tall.\n",
"In modern physics, the double-slit experiment is a demonstration that light and matter can display characteristics of both classically defined waves and particles; moreover, it displays the fundamentally probabilistic nature of quantum mechanical phenomena. The experiment was first performed with light by Thomas Young in 1801. In 1927, Davisson and Germer demonstrated that electrons show the same behavior, which was later extended to atoms and molecules.\n"
] |
What practical purpose did the comfort women under Japanese occupation serve? Were there cases where the same purpose was fulfilled without resorting to comfort women in history?
|
To put it in a bit of perspective:
In ancient times, when armies went to war and conquered a city, poor discipline could lead to the army going on rampage and burning, looting, and raping their way through the conquered city. This was called a sack. While large-scale sacks mostly died out after the 1800s (for instance in the wake of the Sepoy Mutiny), it was still a major concern for the public images of many governments, not the least of which was the Japanese. The Japanese had already had their image tarnished in the First Sino-Japanese War, when Japanese troops massacred Chinese civilians after sieging Port Arthur.
To combat this, the administration had the "bright" idea of setting up government mandated prostitution for the troops. The idea was that by giving the troops a legal, government-controlled avenue to vent their sexual frustration, this would minimize their need to go around raping and killing innocent civilians. Meanwhile, the prostitutes would be able to earn money to pump back into the Japanese economy. Win-win, right?
The problem was that, as with most things run by the Japanese government at the time, the management of the comfort women program-not least due to the socially conservative views of the ruling government-was at an arms distance and more or less uncontrolled. A very small amount of actual volunteers for the program led to coercion, informal "selling" of daughters, and outright kidnapping and trafficking. In the conquered territories, Chinese and Korean women were often impressed into the service, or lied to, saying it was a factory that needed workers or the like. There were many more Chinese and Korean women serving as comfort women than Japanese women: this partly contributed to a Japanese comfort woman being more expensive than Chinese or Korean ones.
After the war ended, in preparation for the American occupation, the Japanese government, fearful of American soldiers running around raping Japanese women (especially their blue-blood, aristocratic daughters), organized a similar institution, the Recreation and Amusement Association, this time recruiting primarily poorer Japanese women with the promise of food, money, and shelter, as well as with Yakuza intimidation tactics and the aforementioned lying and kidnapping. This association was shut down within the year, but it should be noted that after the association was shut down, the number of rapes under Allied occupation increased significantly.
|
[
"The experiences of survivors of the comfort women program were largely ignored for decades in post-war Asia. The issue finally emerged into the public sphere during the 1980s, when a group of survivors in neighboring South Korea filed several lawsuits against the Japanese government. Documents were uncovered in 1991 which forced the Japanese government to issue an apology and \"remorse to all those, irrespective of place of origin, who suffered immeasurable pain and incurable psychological wounds\" to Korean comfort women.\n",
"According to the United States House of Representatives House Resolution 121, as many as 200,000 \"comfort women\" mostly from Korea and China, and some other countries such as the Philippines, Taiwan, Burma, the Dutch East Indies, Netherlands, and Australia were forced into sexual slavery during World War II to satisfy Japanese Imperial Army and Navy members. Many of these women — particularly the Dutch and Australian women — were also used for hard physical labour, forced to work arduous tasks in the fields and roads while on starvation rations. While apologies have been handed out by the Japanese government and government politicians, including the Asian Women's fund, which grants donated financial compensations to former comfort women, the Japanese government has also worked to downplay its use of comfort women in recent times, claiming that all compensations for its war conduct were resolved with post-war treaties such as the Treaty of San Francisco, and, for example, asking the mayor of Palisades Park, New Jersey to take down a memorial in memory of the women.\n",
"In 2012, the former mayor of Osaka and co-leader of the Japan Restoration Party, Tōru Hashimoto initially maintained that \"there is no evidence that people called comfort women were taken away by violence or threat by the [Japanese] military\". He later modified his position, asserting that they became comfort women \"against their will by any circumstances around them\", still justifying their role during World War II as \"necessary\", so that soldiers could \"have a rest\".\n",
"The term \"comfort women\" is a euphemism for the estimated 200,000, mostly Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese and Filipino women who were forced to serve as sex slaves in Japanese military brothels during World War II. In the Nanking Massacre, Japanese soldiers sexually assaulted female civilians who were trapped in the city of Nanjing when it fell to the Japanese on 13 December 1937.\n",
"Based on historical documents and the testimony of comfort women, including several cases of comfort women who fell in love with Japanese soldiers, a soldier who took care of a sick woman, or soldiers who helped comfort women to return their home country, Park asserts the existence of hidden comfort women who have been excluded from the mainstream narrative of comfort women, mainly consisting of \"Japanese military coerced Korean women\" and \"sex-slaves\". She describes a more complex relationship between the comfort women and soldiers.\n",
"Several cases filed by women forced to work as \"comfort women\" (women and girls forced into sexual slavery) during World War II were finalized during 2004. In February, the Tokyo High Court rejected an appeal by 7 Taiwanese former \"comfort women\", while in November the Supreme Court dismissed a damage suit filed in 1991 by 35 Korean wartime \"comfort women\". In December 2004 the Tokyo High Court dismissed an appeal by 4 Chinese former \"comfort women\", and the Supreme Court rejected a suit filed in 1993 by 46 Filipina wartime \"comfort women\".\n",
"Comfort women were women who were forced to work as prostitutes in brothels in Japanese-occupied countries during World War II. There is much controversy surrounding this subject. On one side, some groups in Japan claimed that prior to Japanese expansion, brothels always existed in the eastern and southeastern regions of Asia in order to service European and American sailors and merchant vessels. According to Bradley Martin (\"Under the loving care of the fatherly leader\"), an expert on Korean history, claims the majority of comfort women actually volunteered to work in the brothels, as employment in the occupied areas was very limited. On the other side, most nations in the world believe that the overwhelming majority of comfort women were young girls abducted from their homes and forced into prostitution by the Japanese government and Imperial Japanese Army as sexual slaves, and demand Japan to take responsibility and formally apologize and educate the next generation about such atrocity.\n"
] |
why are so many famous songs targeted at pre-teen girls?
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Preteen girls are a very important demographic. They are considered more responsible than boys the same age, and therefore generally have more spending money; but that conception of them is utterly wrong, because they impulse-buy at a greater rate than any other demographic.
**TL;DR** Pissing away Daddy's money like tomorrow will never come.
|
[
"An especially prevalent theme was adolescence. Since most of the girl groups were composed of young singers, often still in high school, songs mentioned parents in many cases. Adolescence was also a popular subject because of an emerging audience of young girls listening to and buying records. Adolescence was also reinforced by girl groups in cultivation of a youthful image, since \"an unprecedented instance of teenage girls occupying center stage of mainstream commercial culture\". An example of this youth branding might be Baby Spice from the Spice Girls. This was shown through flourishes like typically matching outfits for mid-century girl groups and youthful content in songs. Girl groups of the 1950s era would also give advice to other girls, or sing about the advice their mothers gave to them, which was a similarity to some male musical groups of the time (for example, the Miracles' \"Shop Around\").\n",
"Girl groups have a wide array of subject matter in their songs, depending on time and place and who was producing. Songs also had a penchant for reflecting the political and cultural climate around them. For instance, songs with abusive undertones were somewhat common during the 1950s–1970s. One notable example was the song \"He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)\" by the Crystals. During the \"golden age of girl groups\", lyrics were disparate, ranging from songs about mean dogs to underage pregnancy. However, common sentiments were also found in ideas like new love, pining after a crush or lover, and heartache. Some songs sounded upbeat or cheerful and sang about falling in love, whereas others took a decidedly more melancholic turn. Groups like The Shangri-Las, with the song \"I Can Never Go Home Anymore\" sang about the darker side of being in love.\n",
"Girl groups in earlier generations like the 1950s were perhaps more exploited (at least overtly) than more recent girl groups. In the 1990s through the present, with the prevalence of such groups as the Spice Girls, there has been a strong emphasis on women's independence and a sort of feminism. At the very least, the music is more assertive lyrically and relies less on innuendo. This more recent wave of girl groups is more sexually provocative as well, which makes sense within pop music within this time frame as well.\n",
"In 2001 artists like Aaron Carter, Swedish group A-Teens, girl groups 3LW, Play, Eden's Crush and Dream and boy bands O-Town, B2K, and Dream Street were teen pop artists and hits. Alternate \"looks\" for female teen pop stars include Hoku, and girl group No Secrets. In the UK, teen pop continued to surge with Ellie Campbell, Atomic Kitten and Billie Piper. In Latin America, successful singers and bands appealing to tweens and teens were Sandy & Junior, RBD and Rouge.\n",
"BULLET::::- Teenagers enter the mainstream pop music market in greater numbers, leading to the \"Billboard\" Top 100 measuring the \"preferences of a younger, more specialized segment of the population that it had before\".\n",
"In a way, at least in Shanghai, the highest class sing-song girls became the first modern celebrities. Their fame came to them, not because of their virtues and industry, rather because of their association with high culture and the latest fashion. Accordingly, they used that fame to continue stretching the confines placed by conservative culture in ways which popularized modern technology and the expression of feminine sexuality.\n",
"Girls gravitate towards \"music, clothes, make-up, television talent shows and celebrities\". As young children are more exposed to and drawn to music intended for older children and teens, companies are having to rethink how they develop and market their products. Girls also demonstrate a longer loyalty to characters in toys and games marketed towards them. A variety of global toy companies have marketed themselves to this aspect of girls' development, for example, the Hello Kitty brand, and the Disney Princess franchise. Boys have shown an interest in computer games at an ever-younger age in recent years.\n"
] |
when a plane banks left or right, why doesn't everyone's drinks fall off the trays. surely gravity is still in effect?
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Gravity is balanced by the (imaginary) centrifugal force.
Centrifugal force is a perception that, when you go around a corner, you're thrown to the outside of the corner. In fact, what's happening is your body just wants to go in a straight line, instead of around the corner, but from your position it seems like you're being pushed out of the corner.
When an aircraft turns left, it banks left, and gravity makes you want to move to the left of the aircraft. But centrifugal force makes you want to move to the right. These two forces balance out.
When a pilot flies a turn so that these forces are balanced, we call it a "balanced turn", and we describe the aircraft as "in balance". Pilots nearly always fly balanced turns, because they are more efficient than flying out of balance.
|
[
"There are many different designs for drink carriers, but they commonly include relatively deep indentations, holes, or compartments into which the cups are placed. This keeps the drinks from falling over during transport, and distinguishes drink carriers from cafeteria trays, though both may be used to carry both drinks and food.\n",
"An investigation by the Interstate Aviation Committee revealed that both pilots were intoxicated by alcohol and that the plane was \"far off course\". The final report identified as contributing factors a low level of crew discipline and inadequate supervision by the airline, the inaction by the crew following the altimeter alarm for low altitude, and the aircraft's lack of a ground proximity warning system.\n",
"At New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, several empty JetBlue airplanes were frozen to the parking stands at the gates and incoming flights could not access the stands as a result, while outgoing flights already taxiing were ordered to hold on the taxiway due to weather conditions. Many passengers in planes, either inbound or outbound, were held in the planes, eating peanuts and other snacks for as much as 10 hours before the decision was made to cancel the outgoing flights or a gate had opened for the inbound ones. Several airports including Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport, and John C. Munro International Airport in Hamilton were completely shut down for several hours. GO Train in Toronto and Amtrak train service from Boston was also disrupted. In Scranton, Pennsylvania the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain collapsed under the weight of the snow on February 15, 2007. Strong winds also accompanied the storm but damage was minimal, though a radio tower pole was toppled by winds in Ohio.\n",
"In the United States, passengers increasingly began to bring their own foods on board to avoid paying for buy on board. In the 2000s US Airways (now part of American Airlines) briefly charged for soft drinks, but then reversed course.\n",
"The most common cause of a passenger or crew member acting unruly is from intoxication. The availability of alcoholic beverages on airlines and at airports enables passengers to drink excessively before and during flights. Flight attendants have the ability to keep track of how many drinks are served to passengers while on board an aircraft, but have no way of knowing how many are consumed prior to boarding.\n",
"On September 22, 2015, Banks became involved in a confrontation with a fellow passenger and the flight crew while attempting to exit a Delta Air Lines flight that had just landed in Los Angeles. According to witnesses, Banks was attempting to squeeze past other passengers to disembark the plane more quickly, when a French man blocked her path. Banks reacted by spitting in the man's face, punching him, and clawing at his shirt. Subsequently, a flight attendant stepped in and demanded that Banks calm down. This resulted in Banks forcefully arguing with the flight attendant, in which she at one point called the Delta employee a \"fucking faggot\". On November 10, 2015, it was reported Banks was under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department following an altercation involving the rapper and a security guard at L.A. club Break Room 86. Later that year, Banks was arrested in New York after attacking a female security guard.\n",
"New Zealander Barry Small, a helicopter pilot and a survivor of the accident, lobbied for safer storage of duty-free alcohol and redesigns of crossbars on airline seats; he said that the storage of duty-free alcohol on Flight 801 contributed to spreading of the fire and the crossbars injured passengers to the point where they could not escape from the aircraft (Small himself was injured when he broke his leg on one of the crossbars during the crash, but was still able to escape the aircraft).\n"
] |
how does a massive government like china just deny that an event like the tiananmen square massacre didn't happen?
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China has a massive power called, “controlling education.” they disposed of all evidence that it happened and not put it in the education. just like what happened to the Tank Man incident. they also did it through propaganda.
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[
"The 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests were a series of pro-democracy demonstrations that were put down violently on June 4, 1989, by the Chinese government via the People's Liberation Army, resulting in estimated casualty of over 10,000 deaths and 40,000 injured, obtained via later declassified documents., whereas the government claimed official estimates of 0 - 200 civilian deaths. Western media referred to this crackdown as the \"Tiananmen Square Massacre\", and in Chinese media it was called the \"June Fourth Incident\".\n",
"The Tiananmen Incident took place on 5 April 1976, at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The incident occurred on the traditional day of mourning, the Qingming Festival, after the Nanjing Incident, and was triggered by the death of Premier Zhou Enlai earlier that year. Some people strongly disapproved of the removal of the displays of mourning, and began gathering in the Square to protest against the central authorities, then largely under the auspices of the Gang of Four, who ordered the Square to be cleared.\n",
"Some Chinese citizens deplored the incident at Tiananmen Square and believed that the massacre of peaceful protesters had been done with such brutal force to prevent any further protests by citizens. In the immediate aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests the Communist Party of China maintained its original condemnation of the student demonstrations (see April 26 Editorial) and characterized the crackdown as necessary to maintain stability. Government sources downplayed the violence against demonstrators on June 3 and 4, and portrayed the public as supportive of the crackdown. In the days after the protest, the CCP attempted to control access to information on the massacre, confiscating film from foreign journalists. Domestic journalists who had been sympathetic to the student movement were removed from their positions, and several foreign journalists were expelled from China. On June 6, State Council spokesman Yuan Mu held a press conference where he claimed that there had been 300 fatalities during the massacre, with no killings having occurred in Tiananmen Square itself. Yuan Mu portrayed the crackdown as a response to \"a counterrevolutionary rebellion in the early hours of the morning of June 3.\" In August 1989, the Chinese government released its complete, official account of the Tiananmen protests, \"The Truth About the Beijing Turmoil\". The narrative presented in \"The Truth About the Beijing Turmoil\" differs significantly from the accounts of student leaders and foreign journalists, many of which are banned in China. On the origins of the protest the book states:\n",
"In English, the terms Tiananmen Square Massacre, Tiananmen Square Protests or Tiananmen Square Crackdown are often used to describe the series of events. However, much of the violence in Beijing did not actually happen in Tiananmen, but outside the square along a stretch of Chang'an Avenue only a few miles long, and especially near the Muxidi area. The term also gives a misleading impression that demonstrations only happened in Beijing, when in fact they occurred in many cities throughout China.\n",
"The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, culminating in the June Fourth Massacre, were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in the People's Republic of China (PRC) between 15 April and 5 June 1989, a year in which many other socialist governments collapsed.\n",
"On 15 May 2007, then-party chairman Ma Lik provoked widespread condemnation within the local community when he claimed that \"there was not a massacre\" during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, as there was \"no intentional and indiscriminate shooting\". He said the popular belief of foreigners' \"rash claims\" that a massacre took place showed Hong Kong's lack of maturity. He said that Hong Kong showed, through this lack of patriotism and national identity, that it would thus \"not be ready for democracy until 2022\".\n",
"In the decades since the Tiananmen Square protests the CCP has attempted to prevent any remembrance of the protest movement and the subsequent crackdown. While the government initially tried to justify its suppression of the protest, releasing official statements and creating museum exhibits on the events of June 3–5, it now denies that such suppression ever occurred. In 2011, an opinion piece, \"Tiananmen Square a Myth\", was published in China Daily, the CCP's English-language newspaper. The article claims that, \"When eventually troops were sent in to clear the [Tiananmen] square, the demonstrations were already ending. But by this time the Western media were there in force, keen to grab any story they could.\" There is no mention of a counterrevolutionary rebellion, as earlier government accounts refer to. As Louisa Lim notes in her book, \"The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited\", many young Chinese know almost nothing of the Tiananmen Square protests. In an informal survey, Lim showed the iconic photo of Tank Man to 100 Chinese university students; only 15 correctly identified it as being an image of Tiananmen Square. Perry Link, a Chinese language and literature scholar, writes, \"The story of the massacre is banned from textbooks, the media, and all other public contexts.\" In 2014, Gu Yimin, a Chinese activist, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for attempting to hold a march on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. After filing a request to hold the march in 2013, he was charged with \"inciting subversion of state power.\" Activist groups such as the Tiananmen Mothers have faced intense government surveillance for their attempts to hold the CCP accountable for the losses of their family members.\n"
] |
What is the oldest event, figure, law, etc. that you can think of that still has some influence on society today?
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Law- the Code of Hammurabi (1772 BCE) is the earliest I can think of that has had consistent sway on law ever since. Essentially the notion of reciprocal (if in this case draconian) justice. If not that, Lycurgus' (Aprox. 780 BCE) mixed constitution of Sparta is essentially the system of American politics today.
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[
"The oldest known codified law is the Code of Hammurabi, dating back to about 1754 BC. The preface directly credits the laws to the code of hammurabi of Ur. In different parts of the world, law could be established by philosophers or religion. In the modern world, laws are typically created and enforced by governments. These codified laws may coexist with or contradict other forms of social control, such as religious proscriptions, professional rules and ethics, or the cultural mores and customs of a society.\n",
"The earliest recorded history is generally of the legendary kind. Before the 7th century it is deemed to have been governed by petty kingdoms. This period ended when Ingjald the Ill-Ruler allegedly had a number of local rulers arsoned around 640.\n",
"Controversy was very active in this area in parts of the 19th century, with some dormant periods also. A key date was the 1859 re-evaluation of archaeological evidence that had been published 12 years earlier by Boucher de Perthes. It was then widely accepted, as validating the suggestion that man was much older than previously been believed, for example than the 6,000 years implied by some traditional chronologies.\n",
"With reference to the Via Crucis in Seville, and especially with reference to the \"Templete\" (see below) for events of the 15th and 16th century, a great deal of historical caution is in order. Evidence is incomplete and sometimes contradictory. It is difficult to be confident of the continuity between entities with the same name mentioned centuries apart. The difficulties are compounded by the tendency of most sources to give only one version of events, even when the facts are in doubt.\n",
"The three-age system is the categorization of history into time periods divisible by three; for example: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age; although it also refers to other tripartite divisions of historic time periods. In history, archaeology and physical anthropology, the three-age system is a methodological concept adopted during the 19th century by which artifacts and events of late prehistory and early history could be ordered into a recognizable chronology. It was initially developed by C. J. Thomsen, director of the Royal Museum of Nordic Antiquities, Copenhagen, as a means to classify the museum’s collections according to whether the artifacts were made of stone, bronze, or iron.\n",
"The oldest antiquity may be the menhir of Bayo. In 1643, as a reward for services rendered at the siege of La Rochelle (1627-1628), King Louis XIV granted Sebastian de Ploeuc the right to hold four fairs a year and also a weekly market. In 1664, the de Ploeuc family sold its lands to the La Rivières, whose coat of arms can still be seen on the \"Moulien de la Corbière\". The Count de La Rivière was the ancestor of Lafayette, who sold his estates at Ploeuc to cover the expenses which fell on him as a result of the American War of Independence. This war also caused great harm to the local linen industry.\n",
"BULLET::::- Jeanne Calment (1875–1997, 122 years, 164 days): the oldest person in history whose age has been verified by modern documentation. This defines the modern human life span, which is set by the oldest documented individual who ever lived.\n"
] |
when movies make horses fall, is it real, and if not, then how do they do it?
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In the past, a device known as the "running W" was used to trip horses at a specific point, but it is now illegal. It is possible to train a horse to fall over on command in such a way that neither it not the rider are in much danger, and this method is used currently. As with any trick, teaching the horse to do this requires practice and the correct incentives. There may be other ways of getting a horse to fall over, but I'm not aware of them.
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[
"Said stuntman Joe Canutt: \"You can get great falls a lot of times out of horses, but when you're attacking the Alamo, for example, and you've got bombs and cannons going off ... some of them don't work at all. That mare [Coco] consistently got spectacular falls.\" But beyond doing the falling-horse stunt, Hoy said, \"Jack drove stagecoaches, he wrecked wagons, he could transfer from the horse to the train -- he could do anything pertaining to horse work.\" Coco died at age 33 and was buried on Williams' California ranch.\n",
"The film gained a measure of notoriety for a scene in which a horse falls to its death down a rocky slope toward the end of the film. This scene was one of many cited by the American Humane Association against Hollywood's abuse of animals, and led to the association's monitoring of filmmaking. However, according to Leonard Mosley's biography \"Zanuck: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's last Tycoon\", none of \"the horses [had] been injured. Under Zanuck's direction, a short distance down the cliff, on a conveniently broad platform, the unit roper had arranged a soft landing for the horses.\"\n",
"Rupert Frazer admitted that he was the first to jump off, landing safely, but bruised. Out of control, the horses turned to the right when confronted by a stone wall, causing the shooting brake to roll completely, catapulting the actors into a pile of scaffolding that had been stacked next to the wall. Robert Hardy stood up and realised to his amazement that he was unhurt. He looked across to see Edward Fox stand up, \"turn completely green and collapse in a heap\". He had broken five ribs and his shoulder-blade. He noticed that Paul Scofield was lying very still on the ground \"and I saw that his shin-bone was sticking out through his trousers\". As the film takes place in October during the partridge-shooting season, the filmmakers had to make a choice whether to delay filming for a year or re-cast. James Mason had just finished filming \"Doctor Fischer of Geneva\" for the BBC. The \"Shooting Party\" schedule was changed to allow him to take over the part of Sir Randolph Nettleby six weeks later. His broken leg also deprived Scofield of the part of O'Brien in \"Nineteen Eighty-Four,\" in which he was replaced by Richard Burton.\n",
"The producers initially considered using fake frogs for the scene where they fall from the sky, but the \"fake ones looked too bad and didn't hop away after command\", according to Carter. As such, real frogs were brought in and dropped on the actors from a short distance, with camera angles being employed to make it look like they were falling from much higher. Shooting the scene in which the snake goes down the stairs proved to be a challenge, as the creature kept falling onto the floor after slithering down the steps. Actor Dan Butler was terrified of the animal, and he was unable to talk while shooting the scene in the basement. However, Butler's ophidiophobia had an up-side: the show's art department did not need to apply fake sweat to his face.\n",
"Horse riding scenes were performed by the special stunt unit formed for the \"War and Peace\" film series. Although it did not perform any stunts in this film, one member of the unit died in an accident during filming. Some other accidents occurred due to poor overall discipline and security. For example, a cut is seen on Vereschagin's face when he fights on the ship. He received this cut in a drunken brawl the day before. Also, some props were stolen by local thieves one night. Security was improved after Motyl hired a local criminal leader for the role of a member of Abdullah's gang.\n",
"A horse was injured during the making of the movie and had to be put down. A government inquiry later found, contrary to allegations by the RSPCA, that the horse was put down in the most humane way possible under the circumstances.\n",
"The most common injury is falling from the horse, followed by being kicked, trampled and bitten. About 3 out of 4 injuries are due to falling, broadly defined. A broad definition of falling often includes being crushed and being thrown from the horse, but when reported separately each of these mechanisms may be more common than being kicked.\n"
] |
In an atom, can an electron ever collide/w or touch the nucleus of the atom it is apart of?
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Yeah, sometimes a proton captures on electron and causes a nuclear decay. It's called [electron capture](_URL_0_).
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[
"Often, as an electron precipitates, it is directed into the upper atmosphere where it may collide with neutral particles, thus depleting the electron's energy. If an electron makes it through the upper atmosphere, it will continue into the ionosphere. Groups of precipitated electrons can change the shape and conductivity of the ionosphere by colliding with atoms or molecules (usually oxygen or nitrogen based particles) in the region. When colliding with an atom, the electron strips the atom of its other electrons creating an ion. Collisions with the air molecules also release photons which provide a dim \"aurora\" effect. Because this occurs at such a high altitude, humans in aircraft are not affected by the radiation.\n",
"Consider an electron of charge \"-e\" and an atomic nucleus with charge \"+Ze\", where \"Z\" is the number of protons in the nucleus. According to the Bohr model, if the electron were to approach and bond with the atom, it would come to rest at a certain radius \"a\". The electrostatic potential \"V\" at distance \"a\" from the ionic nucleus, referenced to a point infinitely far away, is:\n",
"In any scenario, the majority of displaced atoms leave their lattice sites with energies no more than two or three times \"E\". Such an atom will collide with another atom approximately every mean interatomic distance traveled, losing half of its energy during the average collision. Assuming that an atom that has slowed down to a kinetic energy of 1 eV becomes trapped in an interstitial site, displaced atoms will typically be trapped no more than a few interatomic distances away from the vacancies they leave behind.\n",
"An electron can be \"bound\" to the nucleus of an atom by the attractive Coulomb force. A system of one or more electrons bound to a nucleus is called an atom. If the number of electrons is different from the nucleus' electrical charge, such an atom is called an ion. The wave-like behavior of a bound electron is described by a function called an atomic orbital. Each orbital has its own set of quantum numbers such as energy, angular momentum and projection of angular momentum, and only a discrete set of these orbitals exist around the nucleus. According to the Pauli exclusion principle each orbital can be occupied by up to two electrons, which must differ in their spin quantum number.\n",
"If one tries to predict the probability of collision with a classical model that treats the electron and atom as hard spheres, one finds that the probability of collision should be independent of the incident electron energy (see Kukolich). However, Ramsauer and Townsend observed that for slow-moving electrons in argon, krypton, or xenon, the probability of collision between the electrons and gas atoms obtains a minimum value for electrons with a certain amount of kinetic energy (about 1 electron volts for xenon gas). This is the Ramsauer–Townsend effect.\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",
"If the maximum atom or ion energies in a collision cascade are higher than the threshold displacement energy of the material (tens of eVs or more), the collisions can permanently displace atoms from their lattice sites and produce defects. The initial energetic atom can be, e.g., an ion from a particle accelerator, an atomic recoil produced by a passing high-energy neutron, electron or photon, or be produced when a radioactive nucleus decays and gives the atom a recoil energy.\n"
] |
direct x
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DirectX is the way that your game communicates with your graphics card. Microsoft takes requests from game developers and makes a list of features that game developers want, but can't do right now.
Microsoft then goes to AMD and NVIDIA, and says, "Hey, these are some things that game developers want to be able to do. We're going to expose these commands to those games, and here's what we're telling them to expect. You can build these commands into your graphics cards however you want, as long as you make them accessible to games in a particular way- and we'll call the group of these commands, brought together, DirectX.
Basically, if game developers had to write games at the level of the computer's base hardware, it'd take forever, and certain games would only work on certain graphics cards. DirectX is a layer in between. It lets games make specific, predetermined commands, and then uses a driver made by the graphics card's vendor to convert those into commands that the graphics card can understand.
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[
"Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay, DirectSound, and so forth. The name \"DirectX\" was coined as a shorthand term for all of these APIs (the \"X\" standing in for the particular API names) and soon became the name of the collection. When Microsoft later set out to develop a gaming console, the \"X\" was used as the basis of the name Xbox to indicate that the console was based on DirectX technology. The \"X\" initial has been carried forward in the naming of APIs designed for the Xbox such as XInput and the Cross-platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT), while the DirectX pattern has been continued for Windows APIs such as Direct2D and DirectWrite.\n",
"An X–Y plotter is a plotter that operates in two axes of motion (\"X\" and \"Y\") in order to draw continuous vector graphics. The term was used to differentiate it from standard plotters which had control only of the \"y\" axis, the \"x\" axis being continuously fed to provide a plot of some variable with time. Plotters differ from Inkjet and Laser printers in that a plotter draws a continuous line, much like a pen on paper, while inkjet and laser printers use a very fine matrix of dots to form images, such that while a line may appear continuous to the naked eye, it in fact is a discrete set of points. \n",
"DirectX Raytracing (DXR) is a feature of Microsoft's DirectX that allows for hardware real-time raytracing, a significant advancement in computer graphics first seen on the consumer level in GPUs such as the Nvidia GeForce 20 series announced in 2018. DXR is not released as part of a new version of DirectX but rather as a compatible extension to DirectX 12.\n",
"X.3 is an ITU-T standard indicating what functions are to be performed by a Packet Assembler/Disassembler (PAD) when connecting character-mode data terminal equipment (DTE), such as a computer terminal, to a packet switched network such as an X.25 network, and specifying the parameters that control this operation.\n",
"DirectX is a collection of game APIs. Direct3D is DirectX's 3D API. Direct3D is freely available from Microsoft, as are the rest of the DirectX APIs. Microsoft developed DirectX for game programmers and continues to add features to the API. The DirectX specification is not controlled by an open arbitration committee and Microsoft is free to add, remove or change features. Direct3D is not portable; it is designed specifically for Microsoft Windows and no other platform (though a form of Direct3D is used on Microsoft's Xbox, Windows Phone 7.5 smartphones and mobile devices which run the Pocket PC operating system).\n",
"Similar to previous \"Pokémon\" games, \"X\" and \"Y\" both follow a linear storyline whose main events occur in a fixed order. The protagonist of \"Pokémon X\" and \"Y\" is a child who had just moved to a small town called Vaniville Town with their mother. They soon befriend four trainers—Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, and their rival Calem or Serena,—all of whom were called to meet Professor Sycamore who is the leading professor in the Kalos Region in Lumiose City, the main city of Kalos. Receiving either Chespin, Fennekin, or Froakie as their starter Pokémon from Tierno, the player begins their adventure. Along the way, they learn of Pokémon Gyms and receive their first badge for defeating Viola, the Santalune City Gym Leader. Thereafter, they encounter Sina and Dexio, assistants of Sycamore, who brings them to the professor himself; however, once in Lumiose City they discover the area to be suffering from a partial power outage. Upon meeting Sycamore in Lumiose City, the player is informed of Mega Evolution and he requests they travel across Kalos and uncover the mysteries behind it. He provides them with one of the Kanto Region starter Pokémon and their respective Mega Stone. Before leaving Lumiose City, the player encounters an imposing man named Lysandre who desires a more beautiful world.\n",
"The artwork for \"X&Y\" was designed by graphic design duo Tappin Gofton, formed by Mark Tappin and Simon Gofton; Mark Tappin had previously worked for Coldplay on the \"Parachutes\" album cover and the covers of the singles therefrom. The image, which is visualized through a combination of colours and blocks, is a graphical representation of the Baudot code, an early form of telegraph communication using a series of ones and zeros to communicate. The code was developed by Frenchman Émile Baudot in the 1870s, and was a widely used method of terrestrial and telegraph communication.\n"
] |
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