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What was US espionage like from the Revolutionary War period through the Civil War? What sort of information was targeted and how was it collected?
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In the intelligence community Nathan Hale is often called "America's first spy". He was captured by the British in 1776 and executed, famously stating "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
Hale's mission was to go behind the British lines and report on their movements.
This was the same for almost all human intelligence (HUMINT) gathering in those days. When battles were fought in formations the most valuable piece of information was at what point the formation would be weakest so that it can be penetrated/flanked/or used to flank. When the force was too large to fight, it allowed units to avoid engagement or retreat and re-engage under more favorable conditions.
More famous "spies" during the Civil War weren't actually conducting espionage as much as sabotage. The Great Locomotive Chase as an example, for which the first Medal of Honor was awarded. These men were executed as spies regardless.
Information of simple troop movements back in those days sounds useless with all the things the US intelligence community can do nowadays, but don't discredit its value.
General Beauregard of the Confederacy credits a spy from Virginia for the victory at First Manassas (First Bull Run). This spy was Bettie Duvall, and she rode from Washington to Fairfax to pass on those troop movements. Individual spies, same as scouts, could move much faster than entire units. However, scouts were uniformed and watched carefully. Spies were not uniformed and integrated themselves into local life. This was the advantage of a spy.
Mostly, the spies were just eyes. They went into an environment, kept an eye on things, and reported anything deemed valuable enough. None of this was centralized.
Allen Pinkerton made the first attempt at centralizing intelligence. He built a counterintelligence (CI) network in Washington to counter Confederate HUMINT. He built up his own HUMINT operation in Richmond to keep eyes and ears open. However, its effectiveness is questionable. Pinkerton's intel was often bad and cost a few battles by convincing the commanders not to attack a force they thought was stronger, but wasn't.
**TL;DR + Conclusion** - It was mostly a de-centralized network of eyes and ears in public. The targeted information was primarily troop movements, though other information like important infrastructure, routes, goals, and unit readiness were also valuable.
|
[
"American Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War was essentially monitored and sanctioned by the Continental Congress to provide military intelligence to the Continental Army to aid them in fighting the British during the American Revolutionary War. Congress created a Secret Committee for domestic intelligence, a Committee of Secret Correspondence for foreign intelligence, and a committee on spies, for tracking spies within the Patriot movement.\n",
"During the American Revolution, 1775–1783, American General George Washington developed a successful espionage system to detect British locations and plans. In 1778, he ordered Major Benjamin Tallmadge to form the Culper Ring to collect information about the British in New York. Washington was usually mindful of treachery, but he ignored incidents of disloyalty by Benedict Arnold, his most trusted general. Arnold tried to betray West Point to the British Army, but was discovered and barely managed to escape. The British intelligence system was weak—it completely missed the movement of the entire American and French armies from the Northeast to Yorktown, Virginia, where they captured the British invasion army in 1781 and won independence. Washington has been called \"Americas First Spymaster\".\n",
"Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring (2006) is a history book by Alexander Rose, based on the stories of four real-life childhood friends who formed the Culper spy ring that affected the course of the Revolutionary War. In an interview with the \"National Review\", Rose stated he used the website of the Library of Congress to research the letters by George Washington and those in the Culper Ring, as well as newspapers from the time period and various writings left by those involved.\n",
"On June 5, 1776, the Congress appointed John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Edward Rutledge, James Wilson, and Robert Livingston \"to consider what is proper to be done with persons giving intelligence to the enemy or supplying them with provisions.\" They were charged with revising the Articles of War in regard to espionage directed against the American forces. The problem was an urgent one: Dr. Benjamin Church, chief physician of the Continental Army, had already been seized and imprisoned as a British agent, but there was no civilian espionage act, and George Washington thought the existing military law did not provide punishment severe enough to afford a deterrent. On November 7, 1775, the death penalty was added for espionage to the Articles of War, but the clause was not applied retroactively, and Dr. Church escaped execution.\n",
"The most useful military intelligence of the American Civil War was probably provided to Union officers by slaves and smugglers. Intelligence provided by slaves and blacks were called black dispatches.\n",
"In \"Spies of Revolutionary Connecticut: From Benedict Arnold to Nathan Hale\", Baker's first book of 2014, he introduces readers to the role the state played in intelligence gathering during the American Revolution. From coded messages and invisible ink, to early submarines with the first exploding torpedoes, the book incorporates chapters on: Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, Edward Bancroft, David Bushnell, Enoch Crosby, Silas Deane, Nathan Hale, Thomas Knowlton, Ezra Lee and even The Culper Ring. Lesser-known spies are also included, such as Dr. Samuel Adams, James Aitken, Daniel Bissell, John Clark, William Heron, Solomon Jones, Nehemiah Marks, and Noah Phelps. With this release, Baker tops the 6,000 published book page plateau.\n",
"BULLET::::- Daigler, Kenneth A. \"Spies, Patriots, and Traitors: American Intelligence in the Revolutionary War\" 2014. . A comprehensive history of intelligence activities during the Revolutionary Era from the perspective of a career intelligence officer.\n"
] |
computer shellcode (shell code)
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If you're not a programmer, the only thing you can really do is make sure that you consistently update your software, especially when it says it's for security reasons.
If you are a programmer, you should be aware that one of the most common types of security vulnerability is a buffer overflow. What this means is that if your program is not properly checking the length of data inputted by the user, the user can write past the boundary you have allocated for that particular data and overwrite different parts of memory. This becomes an issue when the user overwrites the code segment of memory, which tells the computer which instructions to execute. If a malicious user overwrites this area of memory with his own instructions, they can be executed instead. Commonly, a user will overwrite it with "shell code," which is code designed to spawn a shell. A shell is basically the command line interface by which you can control your computer (cmd most closely resembles this in Windows).
|
[
"In hacking, a shellcode is a small piece of code used as the payload in the exploitation of a software vulnerability. It is called \"shellcode\" because it typically starts a command shell from which the attacker can control the compromised machine, but any piece of code that performs a similar task can be called shellcode. Because the function of a payload is not limited to merely spawning a shell, some have suggested that the name shellcode is insufficient. However, attempts at replacing the term have not gained wide acceptance.\n",
"Shellcode is used in the exploitation of code. It is like the hacker's own code that he wants to run when he gains control over a program. Usually a hacker will find an exploit in a programs code and be able to insert some of his own code (shellcode) where he found the exploit.\n",
"Most shellcode is written in machine code because of the low level at which the vulnerability being exploited gives an attacker access to the process. Shellcode is therefore often created to target one specific combination of processor, operating system and service pack, called a platform. For some exploits, due to the constraints put on the shellcode by the target process, a very specific shellcode must be created. However, it is not impossible for one shellcode to work for multiple exploits, service packs, operating systems and even processors. Such versatility is commonly achieved by creating multiple versions of the shellcode that target the various platforms and creating a header that branches to the correct version for the platform the code is running on. When executed, the code behaves differently for different platforms and executes the right part of the shellcode for the platform it is running on.\n",
"In computer security alphanumeric shellcode is a shellcode that consists of or assembles itself on execution into entirely alphanumeric ASCII or Unicode characters such as 0-9, A-Z and a-z. This type of encoding was created by hackers to hide working machine code inside what appears to be text. This can be useful to avoid detection of the code and to allow the code to pass through filters that scrub non-alphanumeric characters from strings (in part, such filters were a response to non-alphanumeric shellcode exploits). A similar type of encoding is called printable code and uses all printable characters (0-9, A-Z, a-z, !@#%^&*() etc...) It has been shown that it is possible to create shellcode that looks like normal text in English.\n",
"The most generic sense of the term \"shell\" means any program that users employ to type commands. A shell hides the details of the underlying operating system and manages the technical details of the operating system kernel interface, which is the lowest-level, or \"inner-most\" component of most operating systems.\n",
"The C shell is a command processor typically run in a text window, allowing the user to type commands. The C shell can also read commands from a file, called a script. Like all Unix shells, it supports filename wildcarding, piping, here documents, command substitution, variables and control structures for condition-testing and iteration. What differentiated the C shell from others, especially in the 1980s, were its interactive features and overall style. Its new features made it easier and faster to use. The overall style of the language looked more like C and was seen as more readable.\n",
"In computing, a shell is a user interface for access to an operating system's services. In general, operating system shells use either a command-line interface (CLI) or graphical user interface (GUI), depending on a computer's role and particular operation. It is named a shell because it is the outermost layer around the operating system kernel.\n"
] |
How does a king or queen end up with a epithet...such as Alfred the Great, Æthelred the Unready, Edward the Confessor, etc?
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A couple ways.
1. They give it to themselves. *Every* Joseon Korean King styled himself "the Great"
2. Others give it to them. Kings in Europe took their epithets personally and knew what they were in many cases. They all wanted a name like "the Bold", "the Good", "the Brave", or "the Great", or in rare cases "the Lionheart". Richard probably got a little woody when he heard the last one for the first time. It became standard practice for courtiers to assign such names and for even ordinary people to come up with ways to describe their King. Lots of them were neutral, like "Barbarossa" (Red Beard). Others, like "the Thunderbolt", referring to Bayezid of the Ottomans, were very accurate and referred to specific events, like Bayezid's racing his army between Europe and Asia.
3. The state officially assigned names to monarchs and minted them on coins. Islamic countries did this a lot, with every Ottoman Sultan styling himself "Gazi" or some positive epithet.
4. Historians and literati ascribe epithets after the reign of the monarch. No doubt very few would dare call Ethelred "the Unready" during his reign. That was an epithet made popular by later historians of England writing about their own country. The same case was for Timur the Lame, who in his day was called Timur the Great.
Usually it starts with courtiers or literati genuinely praising a King or coming up with a witty, ironic epithet like "the Confessor". Then, it either catches on with contemporaries at the time, or with later writers.
|
[
"In some contemporary as well as later sources, Ælfric (a common Old English name) is distinguished by his cognomen \"Cild\". Literally meaning \"child\", it is an Old English title borne by some Anglo-Saxon nobles and typically denotes a man of high rank. Ælfric appears to have been a wealthy landowner in Huntingdonshire, East Anglia, hence in the ealdormanry of Ælfhere's great rival Æthelwine.\n",
"Some epithets are known by the Latin term \"epitheton necessarium\" because they are required to distinguish the bearers, e.g. as an alternative to numbers after a prince's name—such as Richard the Lionheart (Richard I of England), or Charles the Fat alongside Charles the Bald. The same epithet can be used repeatedly joined to different names, e.g. Alexander the Great as well as Constantine the Great.\n",
"The term \"oþal\" (Old High German \"uodal\") is a formative element in some Germanic names, notably \"Ulrich\" and variants;, the stem \"aþal\" is more frequent, found in Gothic names such as Athalaric, Ataulf, etc. and in Old High German names such as \"Adalbert\", and\n",
"Alfred the Great was an Anglo-Saxon King, who ruled Wessex 871 – 899. His reign is usually regarded as the first in the lists of English monarchs. He has inspired many artistic and cultural works noticeably from the sixteenth century onwards, with a height in the Victorian Period.\n",
"Many epithets are religious in nature, usually focusing on the king as a \"provider\" (\"zānin\") for the gods in some capacity, provider here meaning that the king is fulfilling his duty of providing required nourishments for the deities and keeping their temples in good condition. Considering the boastful nature of Esarhaddon's titles, his epithet \"kanšu\" (\"submissive\") may seem strange, his title \"šarru šaḫtu\" (\"humble king\") likewise so, but these titles refer to humility and inferiority in regards to the gods, for which this was appropriate. The Assyrian king would never have acknowledged inferiority in the earthly sphere.\n",
"Alfred the Great (, , 'Elf-counsel' or 'Wise-elf'; between 847 and 849 – 26 October 899) was King of Wessex from 871 to and King of the Anglo-Saxons from to 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex. His father died when he was young and three of Alfred's brothers, Æthelbald, Æthelberht and Æthelred, reigned in turn.\n",
"\"The Proverbs of Alfred\" is a collection of sayings supposedly from King Alfred said to have been uttered at Seaford that were written in the mid-12th century in Middle English. It is likely to have been written by someone living in or originating from southern Sussex, probably from either Lewes Priory or Battle Abbey.\n"
] |
Why do English translations of WWII German always leave the words "Reich" and "Führer" in German?
|
These words have entered the consciousness of English-speakers (and speakers of other languages) as having a specific connection to a certain object. There are dozens of German leaders, there is only one Fuhrer. This is the same with, say, Czar or Chief.
Similarly, sometimes words get extra meanings that are lost in translating. A South American Caudillo isn't just a "war leader" or "head", but a Caudillo.
|
[
"The word \"Führer\" in the sense of \"guide\" remains common in German, and it is used in numerous compound words such as \"Oppositionsführer\" (Leader of the Opposition). However, because of its strong association with Hitler, the isolated word usually has negative connotations when used with the meaning of \"leader\", especially in political contexts. The word \"Führer\" has cognates in the Scandinavian languages, spelled \"fører\" in Danish and Norwegian which have the same meaning and use as the German word, but without necessarily having political connotations.\n",
"While the world associates the word \"Führer\" with Hitler, in German, the word is in everyday parlance as \"driver\", \"conductor\" or \"leader\". Early in his first book, Ende writes, \"Lokomotiven haben zwar keinen großen Verstand – deshalb brauchen sie ja auch immer einen Führer\". In English, the sentence has only its superficial meaning, \"Locomotives actually have no great understanding – which is why they always need a conductor\". Not so in German, where it has a double entendre.\n",
"BULLET::::- Führer (umlaut is usually dropped in English) – always used in English to denote Hitler or to connote a fascistic leader – never used, as is possible in German, simply and unironically to denote a (non-fascist) leader or guide (e.g. Bergführer: mountain guide, Stadtführer: city guide [book], Führerschein: driving licence, Geschäftsführer: managing director, Flugzeugführer: Pilot in command)\n",
"In Germany, the isolated word \"\"Führer\"\" is usually avoided in political contexts, due to its intimate connection with Nazi institutions and with Hitler personally. However, the term \"-führer\" is used in many compound words. Examples include \"Bergführer\" (mountain guide), \"Fremdenführer\" (tourist guide), \"Geschäftsführer\" (CEO or EO), \"Führerschein\" (driver's license), \"Führerstand\" or \"Führerhaus\" (driver's cab), \"Lok(omotiv)führer\" (train driver), \"Reiseführer\" (travel guide book), and \"Spielführer\" (team captain — also referred to as \"Mannschaftskapitän\").\n",
"\"Führer\" has been used as a military title (compare Latin Dux) in Germany since at least the 18th century. The usage of the term \"Führer\" in the context of a company-sized military subunit in the German Army referred to a commander lacking the qualifications for permanent command. For example, the commanding officer of a company was (and is) titled \"Kompaniechef\" (literally, Company Chief), but if he did not have the requisite rank or experience, or was only temporarily assigned to command, he was officially titled \"Kompanieführer\". Thus operational commands of various military echelons were typically referred to by their formation title followed by the title \"Führer\", in connection with mission-type tactics used by the German military forces. The term \"Führer\" was also used at lower levels, regardless of experience or rank; for example, a \"Gruppenführer\" was the leader of a squad of infantry (9 or 10 men).\n",
"German words relating to World War I and World War II found their way into the English language, words such as \"Blitzkrieg\", \"Führer\" and \"Lebensraum\"; food terms, such as \"bratwurst\", \"hamburger\" and \"frankfurter\"; words related to psychology and philosophy, such a \"gestalt\", \"Übermensch\", \"zeitgeist\" and \"realpolitik\". From German origin are also: \"wanderlust\", \"schadenfreude\", \"kaputt\", \"kindergarten\", \"autobahn\", \"rucksack\".\n",
"The slogan Nur für Deutsche (English: \"Only for Germans\") was during World War II, in many German-occupied countries, a racialist slogan indicating that certain establishments and transportation were reserved for Germans. Signs bearing the slogan were posted at entrances to parks, cafes, cinemas, theaters and other facilities.\n"
] |
how far ahead we are in achieving unified field theory ?
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Not very far unfortunately. Without going into the details (which I'd be crap at explaining anyway), string theory seems to be the most promising avenue. However, there seem to be virtually an infinite number of configurations of the math that leads to a consistent universe which makes it practically impossible to find the right equations that would give us the conditions for our universe. Without the math it's extremely hard to come up with experiments that would test the theory. There's also the problem of the theory being based on sizes near the Planck scale which are currently impossible for us to see. A few experiments or potential observations have been proposed which could provide evidence based on current or near future technology, but so far none have yielded any evidence.
There's also the problem that so far there is no experiment or observation proposed which could disprove the theory. For a scientific theory to even be considered a scientific theory, this is one of the most important features. (I.E. relativity could be disproved by there being no time dilation observed by clocks or observing something moving faster than light speed.) String theory so far has nothing like this after a couple of decades, and there has been debate about whether or not it should even be considered a scientific theory.
There are a couple of other possibilities being floated around, but so far they have yet to yield any results more promising than string theory.
|
[
"Presently, effective field theories are discussed in the context of the renormalization group (RG) where the process of \"integrating out\" short distance degrees of freedom is made systematic. Although this method is not sufficiently concrete to allow the actual construction of effective field theories, the gross understanding of their usefulness becomes clear through an RG analysis. This method also lends credence to the main technique of constructing effective field theories, through the analysis of symmetries. If there is a single mass scale M in the \"microscopic\" theory, then the effective field theory can be seen as an expansion in 1/M. The construction of an effective field theory accurate to some power of 1/M requires a new set of free parameters at each order of the expansion in 1/M. This technique is useful for scattering or other processes where the maximum momentum scale k satisfies the condition k/M≪1. Since effective field theories are not valid at small length scales, they need not be renormalizable. Indeed, the ever expanding number of parameters at each order in 1/M required for an effective field theory means that they are generally not renormalizable in the same sense as quantum electrodynamics which requires only the renormalization of two parameters.\n",
"Every attempt to establish a unified field theory must start, in my opinion, from a group of transformations which is no less general than that of the continuous transformations of the four coordinates. For we should hardly be successful in looking for the subsequent enlargement of the group for a theory based on a narrower group.\n",
"In physics, an effective field theory is a type of approximation, or effective theory, for an underlying physical theory, such as a quantum field theory or a statistical mechanics model. An effective field theory includes the appropriate degrees of freedom to describe physical phenomena occurring at a chosen length scale or energy scale, while ignoring substructure and degrees of freedom at shorter distances (or, equivalently, at higher energies). Intuitively, one averages over the behavior of the underlying theory at shorter length scales to derive what is hoped to be a simplified model at longer length scales. Effective field theories typically work best when there is a large separation between length scale of interest and the length scale of the underlying dynamics. Effective field theories have found use in particle physics, statistical mechanics, condensed matter physics, general relativity, and hydrodynamics. They simplify calculations, and allow treatment of dissipation and radiation effects.\n",
"Since the 19th century, some physicists, notably Albert Einstein, have attempted to develop a single theoretical framework that can account for all the fundamental forces of nature – a unified field theory. Classical unified field theories are attempts to create a unified field theory based on classical physics. In particular, unification of gravitation and electromagnetism was actively pursued by several physicists and mathematicians in the years between the two World Wars. This work spurred the purely mathematical development of differential geometry.\n",
"The early attempts at creating a unified field theory began with the Riemannian geometry of general relativity, and attempted to incorporate electromagnetic fields into a more general geometry, since ordinary Riemannian geometry seemed incapable of expressing the properties of the electromagnetic field. Einstein was not alone in his attempts to unify electromagnetism and gravity; a large number of mathematicians and physicists, including Hermann Weyl, Arthur Eddington, and Theodor Kaluza also attempted to develop approaches that could unify these interactions. These scientists pursued several avenues of generalization, including extending the foundations of geometry and adding an extra spatial dimension.\n",
"There are several ways of extending the representational framework for a unified field theory which have been considered by Einstein and other researchers. These extensions in general are based in two options. The first option is based in relaxing the conditions imposed on the original formulation, and the second is based in introducing other mathematical objects into the theory. An example of the first option is relaxing the restrictions to four-dimensional space-time by considering higher-dimensional representations. That is used in Kaluza-Klein Theory. For the second, the most prominent example arises from the concept of the affine connection that was introduced into the theory of general relativity mainly through the work of Tullio Levi-Civita and Hermann Weyl. \n",
"The next step was a reduction in number of fundamental interactions, envisaged by early 20th century physicists as the \"united field theory\". The first successful modern unified theory was the electroweak theory, developed by Abdus Salam, Steven Weinberg and, subsequently, Sheldon Glashow. This development culminated in the completion of the theory called the Standard Model in the 1970s, that included also the strong interaction, thus covering three fundamental forces. After the discovery, made at CERN, of the existence of neutral weak currents, mediated by the Z boson foreseen in the standard model, the physicists Salam, Glashow and Weinberg received the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics for their electroweak theory.\n"
] |
Were there ground public transportation options before the advent of the automobile and the locomotive?
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One of the best known ground public transport options was stage coaches, so-called because they regularly changed horses with each stretch between changes being called a "stage". In Australia the best known and remembered of these is "Cobb & Co" although there were many other companies running coaches.
_URL_0_
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[
"The proposed Liverpool and Manchester Railway was to be one of the earliest land-based public transport systems not using animal traction power. Before then, public railways had been horse-drawn, including the Lake Lock Rail Road (1796), Surrey Iron Railway (1801) and the Oystermouth Railway near Swansea (1807).\n",
"Railways became the dominant form of land transport from the mid-19th century. This situation persisted until the first half of the 20th century when motorised road transport (cars, buses and trucks) gradually began to take over from railways as the most important form of land transport.\n",
"Railways became the dominant form of land transport from the mid-19th century. This situation persisted until the first half of the 20th century when motorised road transport (cars, buses and trucks) gradually began to take over from railways as the most important form of land transport.\n",
"The system was largely built by 1910, but then trucks arrived to eat away the freight traffic, and automobiles (and later airplanes) to devour the passenger traffic. After 1940, the use of diesel electric locomotives made for much more efficient operations that needed fewer workers on the road and in repair shops.\n",
"From the mid-19th century onwards, horse-drawn trams or \"horsecars\" were used in cities around the world. In the late 1880s electrically powered street railways became technically feasible following the invention of a trolley pole system of collecting current by American inventor Frank J. Sprague who installed the first successful system at Richmond, Virginia. They became popular because roads were then poorly surfaced, and before the invention of the internal combustion engine and the advent of motor-buses, they were the only practical means of public transport around cities.\n",
"The system was largely built by 1910, but then trucks arrived to eat away the freight traffic and automobiles (and later airplanes) to devour the passenger traffic. The use of diesel electric locomotives (after 1940) made for much more efficient operations that needed fewer workers on the road and in repair shops.\n",
"By 1840, the development of steam-powered road vehicles had lost impetus and the heavy road tolls imposed by the Turnpike Acts had turned inventors away from steam power, except on rails. Hancock was forced to give up the struggle, and the way was left clear for the operators of horse-drawn buses.\n"
] |
how do generic brands work and why are they cheaper than their name brand cournterparts?
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Typically the main difference is the amount of marketing the company puts in. Large brands put in millions of dollars into marketing while off brand counterparts usually advertise not at all. Sometimes they may even made in the same place as brand name products but it comes down to the advertising costs.
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[
"Branded products carried include HARIBO in Germany, Knoppers in Belgium and France, Marmite and Branston Pickle in Great Britain; and Vegemite and Milo in Australia. This is usually very strongly branded items, that in the past they have had difficulty in creating a generic version of the product. In the United States, major brand-name products, such as Oscar Mayer bacon, sometimes are offered as a 'special purchase': name-brand items that Aldi has received at a special price from the vendor and can offer for a reduced price. Unlike most shops, Aldi does not accept manufacturers' coupons, although some US stores successfully experimented with store coupons (e.g. $10 off a $25 purchase).\n",
"2002–2012 By importing branded goods on the grey market, Multibrands purchases the products at the best price and then redistributes them at more competitive prices in the United Kingdom. By 2002, Multibrands is declared the largest parallel goods trader in the UK. In 2003, PZ Cussons objects to this practice of parallel trading and takes court action against Multibrands to stop them from importing and selling the Cussons brand of Imperial Leather soap at cheaper prices. Cussons wins the case and this way seizes 230,000 bars of soap from Multibrands premises. The ruling is later criticised by the consumers association who call for an end to the practice of price fixing by manufactures and suggest that EU markets should be opened up for fair and more competitive trade to end the Rip-Off Britain culture. \n",
"Some companies offer 'branded generics' in the UK market. However these are no longer common, and are not popular as their reimbursement price may be higher than the generic reimbursement price, costing the tax-payer more than a true generic.\n",
"They may be manufactured by less prominent companies or manufactured on the same production line as a 'named' brand. Generic brands are usually priced below those products sold by supermarkets under their \"own\" brand (frequently referred to as \"store brands\" or \"own brands\"). Generally they imitate these more expensive brands, competing on price. Generic brand products are often of equal quality as a branded product; however, the quality may change suddenly in either direction with no change in the packaging if the supplier for the product changes.\n",
"Due to the lack of promotion, generic brands are priced lower than branded products. They are preferred by customers for whom price or value-for-money is the priority. 57% of consumers agreed with the statement “Brand names are not better quality.” More recently, the figure inched up to 64%.\n",
"Multibranding strategy is when a company gives each product a distinct name. Multibranding is best used as an approach when each brand in intended for a different market segment. Multibranding is used in an assortment of ways with selected companies grouping their brands based on price-quality segments. Procter & Gamble (P&G), a multinational consumer goods company that offers over 100 brands, each suited for different consumer needs. For instance, Head & Shoulders that helps consumers relieve dandruff in the form of a shampoo, Oral-B which offers inter-dental products, Vicks which offers cough and cold products, and Downy which offers dryer sheets and fabric softeners. Other examples include Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Kellogg's, and Mars.\n",
"Generic products are generally more popular in recessionary times, when consumers' purchasing power is lower, putting them on the lookout for value-for-money products. Generic brands are more readily available for goods such as aluminum foil, CD/DVD, hand tools, paper products and small appliances.\n"
] |
what is a runny nose supposed to accomplish? it seems so counterproductive
|
Your "internal snot chutes" empty into the stomach. The snot, along with anything that happens to get stuck in it, gets destroyed by stomach acid. So sniffing it back in, and then down into your throat, is the entire point.
|
[
"Mucophagy, despite its benefits on one's immunity, comes with some health risks due to the potential physical aggravation resulting from the action of nose picking, and the germs on fingers and in mucus. Picking one's nose can cause upper airway irritation as well as other injuries including nasal septal perforation (a \"through-and-through defect\" of the cartilage separating the nostrils), and epistaxis (nosebleed). In a study by Andrade and Srihari, 25% of subjects were ailed by nose bleeds, 17% with nasal infections, and 2% with damage more serious than bleeding. W. Buzina studied the fungal diversity in nasal mucus in 2003. 104 samples were gathered with 331 identifiable strains of fungi and 9 different species per patient.\n",
"European (dry) snuff is intended to be shallowly \"sniffed\" (technically insufflated) into the nose, where nicotine is absorbed through the mucous membranes in the nostrils. Snuff is not deeply \"snorted\" (such as in the way cocaine is) because snuff shouldn't get past the nose, i.e. into sinuses, throat or lungs. Generally a small portion of dry snuff is either pinched in the fingers or laid out on the wrist of the user, from where it is sniffed.\n",
"When using toothpicks, it is good etiquette to cover one's mouth with the other hand. Blowing one's nose in public is considered rude, especially at a restaurant; cloth handkerchiefs should never be used for this purpose. Conversely, sniffling is considered acceptable, as an alternative to nose-blowing. When sneezing, it is polite to cover one's nose with a hand.\n",
"When using toothpicks, it is good etiquette to cover one's mouth with the other hand. Blowing one's nose in public is considered rude, especially at a restaurant; cloth handkerchiefs should never be used for this purpose. Conversely, sniffling is considered acceptable, as an alternative to nose-blowing. When sneezing, it is polite to cover one's nose with a hand.\n",
"In adults short term use of nasal decongestants may have a small benefit. Antihistamines may improve symptoms in the first day or two; however, there is no longer-term benefit and they have adverse effects such as drowsiness. Other decongestants such as pseudoephedrine appear effective in adults. Combined oral analgesics, antihistaminics and decongestants are generally effective for older children and adults. Ipratropium nasal spray may reduce the symptoms of a runny nose but has little effect on stuffiness. The safety and effectiveness of nasal decongestant use in children is unclear.\n",
"The nasalis is a sphincter-like muscle of the nose whose function is to compress the nasal cartilages. It is the muscle responsible for \"flaring\" of the nostrils. Some people can use it to close the nostrils to prevent entry of water when underwater.\n",
"Also called rhinorrhea, is a very common medical disorder that occurs when the nasal tissues are congested and the excess fluid runs either at the back of the throat or out of the nose. Post-nasal drip can be caused by the common cold, allergies to dust, smoking, or pet dander. Even spicy foods can sometimes cause post-nasal drip. Runny nose is not life-threatening but can be uncomfortable and socially unacceptable.\n"
] |
how can we know the size of the observable universe of we only just escaped the solar system?
|
_URL_0_
light travels fast, but not infinitely fast. a very short time after the big bang light was first able to travel in straight lines relatively unobstructed. we can only see as far away from our vantage point as the light gets to us.
so if the universe is 13 billion years old, you would only expect to be able to see a sphere around us with about a 13 billion light year radius. That is simple way to think about the observable universe.
but the universe is still expanding, so it is a little more larger and more complicated than that, too.
|
[
"If the observable universe encompasses the entire universe, we may be able to determine the structure of the entire universe by observation. However, if the observable universe is smaller than the entire universe, our observations will be limited to only a part of the whole, and we may not be able to determine its global geometry through measurement. From experiments, it is possible to construct different mathematical models of the global geometry of the entire universe all of which are consistent with current observational data and so it is currently unknown whether the observable universe is identical to the global universe or it is instead many orders of magnitude smaller than it. The universe may be small in some dimensions and not in others (analogous to the way a cuboid is longer in the dimension of length than it is in the dimensions of width and depth). To test whether a given mathematical model describes the universe accurately, scientists look for the model's novel implications—what are some phenomena in the universe that we have not yet observed, but that must exist if the model is correct—and they devise experiments to test whether those phenomena occur or not. For example, if the universe is a small closed loop, one would expect to see multiple images of an object in the sky, although not necessarily images of the same age.\n",
"Based on observations from the \"Hubble Space Telescope\", there are between 125 and 250 billion galaxies in the observable universe. It is estimated that at least ten percent of all Sun-like stars have a system of planets, i.e. there are stars with planets orbiting them in the observable universe. Even if it is assumed that only one out of a billion of these stars has planets supporting life, there would be some 6.25 billion life-supporting planetary systems in the observable universe.\n",
"The observable universe can be thought of as a sphere that extends outwards from any observation point for 46.5 billion light years, going farther back in time and more redshifted the more distant away one looks. Ideally, one can continue to look back all the way to the Big Bang; in practice, however, the farthest away one can look using light and other electromagnetic radiation is the cosmic microwave background (CMB), as anything past that was opaque. Experimental investigations show that the observable universe is very close to isotropic and homogeneous.\n",
"Cosmologists distinguish between the observable universe and the global universe. The observable universe consists of the part of the universe that can, in principle, be observed by light reaching Earth within the age of the universe. It encompasses a region of space that currently forms a ball centered at Earth of estimated radius . This does not mean the universe is 46.5 billion years old; instead the universe is measured to be 13.8 billion years old, but space itself has also expanded, causing the size of the observable universe to be larger than the distance traversible by light over the duration of its current age. Assuming an isotropic nature, the observable universe is similar for all contemporary vantage points.\n",
"Because we cannot observe space beyond the edge of the observable universe, it is unknown whether the size of the Universe in its totality is finite or infinite. Estimates for the total size of the universe, if finite, reach as high as formula_1 megaparsecs, implied by one resolution of the No-Boundary Proposal.\n",
"The observable universe is a spherical region of the universe comprising all matter that can be observed from Earth or its space-based telescopes and exploratory probes at the present time, because electromagnetic radiation from these objects has had time to reach the Solar System and Earth since the beginning of the cosmological expansion. There are at least 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. Assuming the universe is isotropic, the distance to the edge of the observable universe is roughly the same in every direction. That is, the observable universe has a spherical volume (a ball) centered on the observer. Every location in the universe has its own observable universe, which may or may not overlap with the one centered on Earth.\n",
"If the universe is finite but unbounded, it is also possible that the universe is \"smaller\" than the observable universe. In this case, what we take to be very distant galaxies may actually be duplicate images of nearby galaxies, formed by light that has circumnavigated the universe. It is difficult to test this hypothesis experimentally because different images of a galaxy would show different eras in its history, and consequently might appear quite different. Bielewicz et al. claim to establish a lower bound of 27.9 gigaparsecs (91 billion light-years) on the diameter of the last scattering surface (since this is only a lower bound, the paper leaves open the possibility that the whole universe is much larger, even infinite). This value is based on matching-circle analysis of the WMAP 7 year data. This approach has been disputed.\n"
] |
why in germany or the netherlands the youth unemployment rate is under 9% while in countries such as greece, spain and portugal the same rate ranges from a 40% to 60%?
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It is often a statistical illusion (but not always).
Employment is calculated as "number of people employed" divided by "ACTIVE population" which is the population looking for a job.
In order to have high figure of employment (ie a low for UNemployment), you can either have a high number of people employed AND/OR a LOW active population.
Unlike what most journalists say, an unemployment rate is not the percentage of youth NOT having a job, it is the percentage of youth IN THE ACTIVE POPULATION, not having a job. If almost no youth is in the active population, a high unemployment in that category is not a problem.
Countries have VASTLY different active population, especially for the youth.
If in country A 80% of the youth are full time students not looking for work, and 10% are having a full time job, and 10% are looking for one, you'll have youth unemployment rate of 50% (only 20% are in the labour force, 80% are not so those are not counted to calculate the unemployment).
If in country B you have 50% of the youth as full time students, 40% having a job, and 10% looking for one (ie same overall figure as country A), you'll have a youth unemployment rate of 20%.
But is the country B in a better situation? Are the youth of country B working because they can't afford to study (because studies are too expensive) or because they finished them early (less education than country A) or because they have a better job market?
One needs to ALSO look at the employement/total population ratio. In some countries, it is very high (ie every one works, regardless of age and sex). In others it is very low (only few categories work).
If you look at this data:
_URL_0_
You'll see for the 15-19 age bracket both sexes, VERY different Labour participation rates (ie the number of people actually in the labour force, having or looking for a job):
Germany 28.5% and Greece 8% 2012. So youth unemployement rate of let's say 10% in Germany means 2.85% of total youth are looking for a job. The same 2.85% would mean 35% unemployement in Greece because of its much lower active population.
If you look at the real figures you have for 2012 in
A. Employment/total population:
France (9.7%) Germany (25.8%) Greece (2.8%) USA (26.1%)
B. Labour force/population
France (14.4%) Germany (28.5%) Greece (8%) USA (34.4%)
C. Unemployment rate (A/B)
France (32.7%) Germany (9.2%) Greece (65.7%) USA (24%)
But what does C represents in matter of total population? This is what is important to really gauge the scale of the problem. The number of youth looking for a job/total youth population, ie the UNEMPLOYEMENT/POPULATION. For Greece, this means 65.7% (very high scary figure) but of ONLY 8% of the youth (super low)
Here is the result, ie the percentage of youth unemployed (ie looking for a job) of the total population of youth (and not only those in the active population).
France (4.7%) Germany (2.7%) Greece (5.2%) USA (8.3%)
So the unemployment of youth concerns a much bigger part of the youth population in the US than in Greece... even though its unemployment rate is many times smaller (24% vs 65.7%)...
|
[
"Due to the great recession in Europe, in 2009, only 15 per cent of males and 10 per cent of females between ages 16–19 in were employed full-time. The youth employment rate in the European Union reached an all-time low of 32.9 percent in the first half of 2011. Of the countries in the European Union Germany sticks outs with its low rate of 7.9%. Some critics argue that the decrease of the youth unemployment began even before the economic downturn, countries such as Greece and Spain.\n",
"The average numbers for European Union nations are similar to the US ones. Some European countries have been hit by recession very hard, for instance Spain's unemployment rate reached 18.7% (37% for youths) in May 2009 — the highest in the eurozone. In the UK, youths bore the brunt of unemployment during the recession.\n",
"In 2017 the youth unemployment rate in France was 22.3%, relatively high compared to the overall unemployment rate of 8.9%. France has one of the highest rates of youth unemployment among the EU countries, trialing behind Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal.\n",
"The above figure depicts the series of unemployment among individuals in the age group of 15 to 24 years (Dietrich & Möller, 2016). This reflects that the rate of youth unemployment increased to double (reaching 40 per cent from 20 per cent) from the years 2008 to 2013. This was highest across all counties of Europe, apart from Spain, Portugal, and Greece. The rate of unemployment across the older population did not increase or decrease in such a manner raising queries regarding if there was a recent enactment of the pension reform. If this was the case, several older employees would have been employed for a long time and this had a short-term influence on the unemployment faced by the youth population (Gebel & Giesecke, 2011). The above figure provides that there is a specifically high ratio of unemployment when compared between youths and adults in Italy. This particular fact clearly indicates that there are youth specific issues in the labour market of Italy. \n",
"Within the Eurozone, only Greece and Spain display higher rates of youth unemployment than Italy. Similarly to Spain, the percentage of people aged 15–24 excluded from the labour market saw a dramatic rise in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Between 2008 and 2014, youth unemployment rose by 21.5%. By that year, almost 43% of the young were excluded from the labour market in Italy. Furthermore, youth unemployment is unequally distributed throughout the country. In the third quarter of 2014, only 29.7% of the young were unemployed in the North. This number increases to an alarming 51.5% when looking at the South of Italy.\n",
"In addition to youth unemployment (namely those up to 25 years of age), Greece also faced severe graduate unemployment of those 25–29 years of age. In 1998, Greece had the highest level of unemployment of higher education graduates in the 25-29 year old age group. This was due to a lack of demand for highly educated personnel at the time. This trend of low employment among those with higher educational qualifications continues on today. As recently as 2009, \"one in three higher education graduates, two in three secondary graduates, and one in three compulsory education graduates have not found some form of stable employment.\" This lack of employment is thought to have contributed to the feelings of frustration among youth that eventually led to the 2008 Greek riots.\n",
"The EU seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.7% in September 2018. The euro area unemployment rate was 8.1%. Among the member states, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Czech Republic (2.3%), Germany and Poland (both 3.4%), and the highest in Spain (14.9%) and Greece (19.0 in July 2018).\n"
] |
Why is the way in which colonial powers took over North America viewed today as "stealing", when similar scenarios are often seen as "occupying" or "invading" and then largely forgotten?
|
Can you give some examples, please? That would help.
|
[
"Settler colonialism is the act of newcomers/colonizers coming into a place, claiming it as their own and taking great measures to disappear the Indigenous peoples who live their in order to take and exploit the land and resources that yield value. Additionally, settler colonialism is designed to seem inevitable and without origin. Imperialism uses stories and academia to make colonialism seem natural by “[superseding] the conditions of its operation,” \n",
"In places like the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada settler colonialism was carried out by the British. Foreign land viewed as attractive for settlement was declared as terra nullius or \"nobody's land\". The indigenous inhabitants were therefore denied any sovereignty or property rights in the eyes of the British. This justified invasion and the violent seizure of native land to create colonies populated by British settlers. Colonization like this usually caused a large decrease in the indigenous population from war, newly introduced diseases, massacre by colonists and attempts at forced assimilation. The settlers from Britain and Europe grew rapidly in number and created entirely new societies. The indigenous population became an oppressed minority in their own country. The gradual violent expansion of colonies into indigenous land could last for centuries, as it did in the Australian frontier wars and American Indian Wars.\n",
"The Stranger King theory argues against the theory that the centuries-long colonisation process was a non-stop process of indigenous resistance against aggressive military occupation. Notwithstanding the fact that the Stranger King's merchants, military, civil servants and missionaries had their own motives and agenda, the colonists achieved authority not just on the basis of military power, but also through political alliances, diplomatic collaboration and by providing a relatively impartial mechanism for arbitration. Colonial courts, rather than solely being instruments of oppression, also provided indigenous people with an access to justice, less subject to local bribery and patronage.\n",
"Exploitation colonialism is a form of colonisation where foreign citizens conquer a country in order to control and capitalize on its natural resources and indigenous population. Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson argue, \"institutions [established by colonials] did not introduce much protection for private property, nor did they provide checks and balances against government expropriation. In fact, the main purpose of the extractive state was to transfer as much of the resources of the colony to the colonizer, with the minimum amount of investment possible.\" Since these colonies were created with the intent to extract resources, colonial powers had no incentives to invest in institutions or infrastructure that did not support their immediate goals. Thus, Europeans established authoritarian regimes in these colonies, which had no limits on state power.\n",
"All European powers which colonized the Americas, including England, Portugal and the Netherlands, ill-treated indigenous peoples. Colonial powers have been also accused of genocide in Canada, the United States, and Australia. These issues have received greater scholarly attention and the historiographical evaluation of colonialism's effects is evolving. According to William B. Maltby, \"At least three generations of scholarship have produced a more balanced appreciation of Spanish conduct in both the Old World and the New, while the dismal records of other imperial powers have received a more objective appraisal.\"\n",
"From the perspective of history and the colonization of the Americas, all European powers that colonized the Americas, such as England, Portugal, the Netherlands and others, were guilty of the ill-treatment of indigenous peoples. Colonial powers have been also accused of genocide in Canada, the United States, and Australia. These issues have received greater scholarly attention over recent years and have led to and evolution in historiographical evaluations of the effects of colonialism. \"At least three generations of scholarship have produced a more balanced appreciation of Spanish conduct in both the Old World and the New, while the dismal records of other imperial powers have received a more objective appraisal.\"\n",
"During the British colonisation of Australia, land ownership was forcefully transferred from the various Indigenous populations to the colonists. Several military and paramilitary organisations such as the British Army, Native Police, Border Police and New South Wales Mounted Police were utilised by the British to eliminate any Aboriginal resistance to this acquisition of land. However, it was often the responsibility of the pioneering colonists themselves to take the initiative in enforcing land ownership transferral. Usually this was done violently through the use of firearms to intimidate or kill the native people. Some colonists though, chose an alternative approach, using poison concealed in consumables as a method of extirpating the original custodians of the land. The tainted consumables were either knowingly given out to groups of native people, or purposely left in accessible places where they were taken away and eaten collectively by the local clans. As a result, incidents of mass deaths of Aboriginal Australians due to these deliberate mass poisonings occurred throughout the continent.\n"
] |
why is it harder to find veins for injection on someone who's feeling nervous about it ?
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So, from a theoretical perspective:
Your body goes through something called sympathetic stimulus during stressful situations - it is colloquially called a "fight or flight" reaction. The body does several things with this, it reduces blood flow to your gut (don't need to be digesting things when running from a tiger), activates insulin (to get glucose into your muscles, where you are gonna need it to run from a tiger), dilated the pupils (so you can see the tiger better), increases blood flow to your heart, and increases heart rate (definitely need that with tigers around), and *decreases* peripheral blood flow (to prioritise the central organs, like your heart and lungs) by constricting your veins. Smaller tubes, less blood in them, more blood for your heart. This increases your blood pressure too.
From a practical perspective, the venous constriction is actually relatively small, certainly compared to other factors affecting how easy it is to get a needle in, like hydration.
Your nervous disposition also has an effect on the person putting the needle in. I am massively needle-phobic, and I really hate cannulating other needle-phobes, cos I know what they are going through, and it makes me feel under massive pressure to get the vein first time, which inevitably makes me miss.
|
[
"Disadvantages of injections include potential pain or discomfort for the patient and the requirement of trained staff using aseptic techniques for administration. However, in some cases, patients are taught to self-inject, such as SC injection of insulin in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. As the drug is delivered to the site of action extremely rapidly with IV injection, there is a risk of overdose if the dose has been calculated incorrectly, and there is an increased risk of side effects if the drug is administered too rapidly.\n",
"Intravenous injections involve needle insertion directly into the vein and the substance is directly delivered into the bloodstream. In medicine and drug use, this route of administration is the fastest way to get the desired effects since the medication moves immediately into blood circulation and to the rest of the body. This type of injection is the most common and often associated with drug use.\n",
"It is sometimes impossible for humane reasons to apply a drug to the skin and measure its absorption. Sarin, a nerve gas, can be absorbed through intact skin and be lethal at low concentrations. Thus if one needs to assess the risk of Sarin exposure one must take skin absorption and other routes into account but one cannot ethically test Sarin on human subjects; thus ways of modeling the risk from skin exposure of the agent have been found. \n",
"The preferred injection site is the crook of the elbow (i.e., the Median cubital vein), on the user's non-writing hand. Other users opt to use the Basilic vein; while it may be easier to \"hit\", caution must be exercised as two nerves run parallel to the vein, increasing the chance of nerve damage, as well as the chance of an arterial \"nick\".\n",
"Injection into the subcutaneous tissue is a route of administration used for drugs such as insulin: because it is highly vascular, the tissue absorbs drugs quickly. Subcutaneous injection is believed to be the most effective manner to administer some drugs, such as human growth hormones. Just as the subcutaneous tissue can store fat, it can also provide good storage space for drugs that need to be released gradually because there is limited blood flow. \"Skin popping\" is a slang term that includes this method of administration, and is usually used in association with recreational drugs.\n",
"Injections are most commonly used on patients having been exposed to hepatitis A or measles, or to make a kidney donor and a recipient compatible regardless of blood type or tissue match. Injections are also used to boost immunity in patients unable to produce gamma globulins naturally because of an immune deficiency, such as X-linked agammaglobulinemia and hyper IgM syndrome. Such injections are less common in modern medical practice than they were previously, and injections of gamma globulin previously recommended for travelers have largely been replaced by the use of hepatitis A vaccine.\n",
"Injection site reactions are allergic reactions that result in cutaneous necrosis that may occur at sites of medication injection, typically presenting in one of two forms, (1) those associated with intravenous infusion or (2) those related to intramuscular injection. Intra muscular injections may produce a syndrome called livedo dermatitis.\n"
] |
how come when i dream something relevant happens in real world?
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You dream many things per night and some of them are relevant. Or maybe they are not all that relevant, but can be interpreted in a strange way to make sense to you. Like in your example, it could have been your brother, your father, anyone calling, anyone on the TV etc. you just want it to fit, so it does.
This will be paired with the confirmation bias. You dream 99 nights without it fitting, after that, 1 dream seems to fit "perfectly" like your example and you remember this one but disregard the rest.
|
[
"Dreaming provides a springboard for those who question whether our own reality may be an illusion. The ability of the mind to be tricked into believing a mentally generated world is the \"real world\" means at least one variety of simulated reality is a common, even nightly event.\n",
"When asked whether the man's experiences had been a dream all along, Lynne responded: \"This is what I'd like to know, because it's baffled me since I wrote it, if he has actually gone [to the future], or if he's just thinking about it. ... It could be real, or it could be a dream... I'm not sure. I'd rather not say, because I don't know either. I'm supposed to, but I don't.\" Mathews writes: \"Like \"Eldorado\", \"Time\" contained a prologue and an epilogue ... Although there is hardly any plot to thread the various songs together, the theme remains largely intact ... they embellish, rather than engage.\" A recurring line that appears in the album's epilogue is: \"though you ride on the wheels of tomorrow, you still wander the fields of your sorrow\". Rockol's writer says that the protagonist revisits the place he once lived only to find that it has become unrecognisable (\"The Way Life's Meant to Be\"). Afterwards, he hopes that he may be able to return home with a time machine, \"but with all their great inventions and all their good intentions, here I stay\" (\"Rain Is Falling\"). Following his final attempt to return to the past, the protagonist is invited to \"hold on\" (\"Hold On Tight\").\n",
"According to surveys, it is common for people to feel their dreams are predicting subsequent life events. Psychologists have explained these experiences in terms of memory biases, namely a selective memory for accurate predictions and distorted memory so that dreams are retrospectively fitted onto life experiences. The multi-faceted nature of dreams makes it easy to find connections between dream content and real events. The term \"veridical dream\" has been used to indicate dreams that reveal or contain truths not yet known to the dreamer, whether future events or secrets.\n",
"With this video, we wanted to go completely into the dream world. A lot of my videos from 'Turn Up the Music' and other videos I'm doing now are in a dream state of believing what you want to believe. So that's what \"Fortune\" kinda encompasses. So it's basically dreaming and accomplishing your dreams. This video is me dreaming and being taken into this whole kind of maze. I keep waking up within a dream within a dream, almost on some \"Inception\" type ... but I don't want to bite that.\n",
"Creator Sean Oliver is quoted, \"The dream is still a mystery. People live their lives thinking that we understand it, but the truth is we don’t, we ignore it. If we can’t accurately comprehend the dream state then perhaps some of our assumptions about normal consciousness are misguided as well. I think we should all explore that.\"\n",
"While one dreams, one does not normally realize one is dreaming. On more rare occasions, the dream may be contained inside another dream with the very act of realizing that one is dreaming, itself, being only a dream that one is not aware of having. This has led philosophers to wonder whether it is possible for one ever to be certain, at any given point in time, that one is not in fact dreaming, or whether indeed it could be possible for one to remain in a perpetual dream state and never experience the reality of wakefulness at all.\n",
"A dream is something that comes into contact with the mind; an external event is something that impinges on the body. Hence our feelings by day and our dreams by night are the result of contacts made by mind or body. it follows that if we can concentrate the maid in abstraction, our feelings and our dreams will vanish of themselves. Those who rely on their waking perceptions will not argue about them. Those who put faith in dreams do not understand the processes of change in the external world. \"The pure men of old passed their waking existence in self-oblivion, and slept without dreams.\" How can this be dismissed as an empty phrase? \n"
] |
explain me stocks (what i should look for, what types are there).
|
Honestly, this is your best shot at learning about [stocks](_URL_2_)
There is no easy answer to any of the things you asked.
Stop spending money as if it grows on trees.
also here are some important links that you might want to take a look at
_URL_0_
_URL_3_
_URL_1_
|
[
"Traditionally, stocks are made from wood, generally a durable hardwood such as walnut. A growing option is the laminated wood stock, consisting of many thin layers of wood bonded together at high pressures with epoxy, resulting in a dense, stable composite.\n",
"Stocks are an external framework in a shipyard used to support construction of (usually) wooden ships. They are normally associated with a slipway to allow the ship to slide down into the water. In addition to supporting the ship itself, they are typically used to give access to the ship's bottom and sides.\n",
"Classification of large numbers of stocks into categories is widespread in financial markets. Traders classify assets as liquid securities such as stocks and bonds. They may also do the same with illiquid securities, such as real estate and venture capital. Stocks may be classified as domestic or international, small or large, growth or value, “old economy\" or “new economy\", cyclical or non-cyclical. Such groups of securities are often called “asset classes\" or “styles”. Portfolio allocation based on selection among styles rather than among individual securities is known as “style investing.\"\n",
"Stock is a flavored liquid preparation. It forms the basis of many dishes, particularly soups, stews and sauces. Making stocks involves simmering animal bones or meat, seafood, or vegetables in water or wine, adding mirepoix or other aromatics for more flavor.\n",
"The value of stocks is based on the present and future earnings of the organization. Otte divides stocks into several categories: ‘Meisteraktien’ (‘master stocks’: internationally renowned companies with global brands such as DaimlerChrysler, Coca-Cola, Siemens), ‘Kaufleuteaktien’ (‘trader stocks’: large corporations that are currently undervalued with a low price / earnings ratio; high earnings in spite of low market value), ‘Königsaktien’ (‘king stocks’: the world’s best mature large corporations and industry leaders that grow less quickly than revolutionary stocks), ‘Revolutionärsaktien’ (‘revolutionary stocks’: young growing companies with revolutionary, innovative ideas such as Google, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, etc.) and ‘Valueaktien’ (blue chips).\n",
"A stock market, equity market or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers (a loose network of economic transactions, not a physical facility or discrete entity) of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include \"securities\" listed on a public stock exchange, as well as stock that is only traded privately. Examples of the latter include shares of private companies which are sold to investors through equity crowdfunding platforms. Stock exchanges list shares of common equity as well as other security types, e.g. corporate bonds and convertible bonds.\n",
"A stock (or \"level variable\") in this broader sense is some entity that is accumulated over time by inflows and/or depleted by outflows. Stocks can only be changed via flows. Mathematically a stock can be seen as an accumulation or integration of flows over time – with outflows subtracting from the stock. Stocks typically have a certain value at each moment of time – e.g. the number of population at a certain moment.\n"
] |
how did people used to find their penpal, back in the day?
|
I found some in the back of a magazine called Stickers, for sticker collectors, back in the 80's. It was in the classified section where people could advertise that they wanted pen pals to write to them about the hobby.
|
[
"\"Penpal\" is told via a series of non-linear recollections by an anonymous narrator trying to make sense of mysterious events that happened to him during his childhood, the truth of which was kept from him by his mother all his life.\n",
"Penpal is a 2012 self-published horror/thriller novel and the debut novel of the American author Dathan Auerbach. The work was first published in paperback on July 11, 2012 through 1000Vultures and is based on a series of popular creepypasta stories that Auerbach posted to Reddit. The book follows the narrator as he finds himself the focus of an obsessed stalker who tracks him throughout his childhood.\n",
"Penpals have been popular since Esperanto's earliest days, as Esperanto was originally advertised as a language where you could \"send a letter with a message, short list of grammar rules and a dictionary to a complete stranger, and they'll be able to look up the words and write a coherent reply back\". Many people did indeed do this in order to recruit more Esperanto speakers.\n",
"The word \"handsel\" originates from old Saxon word which means “to deliver into the hand”. It refers to small tips and gifts of money given as a token of good luck, particularly at the beginning of something; the modern house-warming gift would be a good example. An 1825 glossary marks Handsel Monday as an occasion \"when it is customary to make children and servants a present\". On this day, tips of small gifts were expected by servants, as well as by the postman, the deliverers of newspapers, scavengers, and all persons who wait upon the house.\n",
"While the expansion of the Internet has reduced the number of traditional pen pals, pen pal clubs can nowadays be found on the Internet, in magazine columns, newspapers, and sometimes through clubs or special interest groups. Some people are looking for romantic interests, while others just want to find friends. It seems, on the internet, that the term \"pen pals\" defines those looking to correspond with others that live in a different place, where pen pals originated via postal mail correspondences and has evolved to mean something more. Pen pals also make and pass around friendship books, slams and crams. \n",
"The Pen-pals Project was a historic reenactment of the letter exchange between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud in 1932, discussing the possibility to \"\"free mankind from the menace of war\"\". In 2017, commemorating the 85th anniversary of the exchange, Geisler reproduced and send the letters from the same location and time of year. Supporters of the project on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter received copies of the letters or addressed copies to politicians.\n",
"The container known as the \"pen\" originated in Neolithic China in the Yangshao culture as an earthenware shallow dish with a foot. It was later one of the vessels manufactured in bronze for use in court ceremonies and religious rituals during the Shang dynasty and Zhou dynasty.\n"
] |
why do police always show up to places with their sirens on?
|
If police are doing something sneaky, like a sting, then they won't use a siren.
But the siren gets them through traffic, instructs the public to clear away, and can intimidate criminals (or potential criminals) to dissuade any further crimes. You might think twice about shooting a hostage if you know there are guys outside with guns drawn.
|
[
"A siren is a loud noise-making device. Civil defense sirens are mounted in fixed locations and used to warn of natural disasters or attacks. Sirens are used on emergency service vehicles such as ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks. There are two general types: pneumatic and electronic.\n",
"Sirens attached on appropriate rooftops of buildings can have a custom-made mini server box (which is white) beside the siren, and to the lower section of on-ground sirens, to eliminate remote control of them from the nearby fire stations turning them into sourcing sirens.\n",
"Some emergency vehicle operators occasionally turn off their sirens when on side streets or when there are no cars on the road so as not to disturb residents; however, there is seldom a mandate for responders to do so. The driver will then turn on the sirens before proceeding through intersections or when traveling on potentially dangerous stretches of road.\n",
"Fire sirens are often called \"fire whistles\", \"fire alarms\", or \"fire horns\". Although there is no standard signaling of fire sirens, some utilize codes to inform firefighters of the location of the fire. Civil defense sirens also used as fire sirens often can produce an alternating \"hi-lo\" signal (similar to emergency vehicles in many European countries) as the fire signal, or a slow wail (typically 3x) as to not confuse the public with the standard civil defense signals of alert (steady tone) and attack (fast wavering tone). Fire sirens are often tested once a day at noon and are also called \"noon sirens\" or \"noon whistles\".\n",
"A civil defense siren (also known as an air-raid siren or tornado siren) is a siren used to provide an emergency population warning to the general population of approaching danger. It is sounded again to indicate the danger has passed. Some sirens (especially within small towns) are also used to call the volunteer fire department when needed. Initially designed to warn city dwellers of air raids in World War II, they were later used to warn of nuclear attack and natural destructive weather patterns such as tornadoes. The generalized nature of the siren led to many of them being replaced with more specific warnings, such as the broadcast Emergency Alert System.\n",
"BULLET::::- Sirens - These can be fully electronic, electric, or manual, but are all designed to create changing sound patterns. These patterns vary by model of siren. Emergency drivers are often trained to use different siren tones in different conditions, to achieve maximum effectiveness through traffic. A long-standing problem for emergency services has been traffic being unable to determine the direction a siren is approaching from, and different tones have been developed on some electronic sirens to help combat this, such as the use of white or pink noise in between more conventional siren noises, which helps people to pinpoint their origin.\n",
"\"I was a cook at a place called McCarthy's Pub in Massachusetts. A bunch of police cars and ambulances went screaming by and the name popped in my head. Like, thinking about how people never really think what's 'on the receiving end of sirens,' because its such a common thing just to hear the sirens. Especially if you live in a city, it just becomes this commonplace thing, nobody thinks twice about it anymore. Even though there's so much awful stuff going on in the world, and horrible things that happen to people, it's kind of like 'out of sight, out of mind.' It's just kind of a sad thing. So it's kind of a commentary on that. It also works on a couple levels. It can be taken as the Greek mythology example with the Sirens that lure sailors in with their singing, so being on the receiving end of those sirens isn't a great thing. It works both ways.\"\n"
] |
why does "populism" have a negative connotation within democratic societies?
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Wiki has this definition:
> Populism is a doctrine that appeals to the interests and conceptions (such as hopes and fears) of the general population, especially when contrasting any new collective consciousness push against the prevailing status quo interests of any predominant political sector.
Basically it's demagogy. Pandering and appealing to emotional knee-jerk parts of people, and tending towards short-term satisfaction, as opposed to logical, rational, long-term and sustainable planning.
|
[
"Populism can serve as a democratic corrective by contributing to the mobilization of social groups who feel excluded from political decision making. It can also raise awareness among the socio-political elites of popular concerns in society, even if it makes the former uncomfortable. When some populists have taken power—most notable Chávez in Venezuela—they have enhanced the use of direct democracy through the regular application of referenda. For this reason, some democratic politicians have argued that they need to become more populist: René Cuperus of the Dutch Labour Party for instance called for social democracy to become \"more 'populist' in a leftist way\" in order to engage with voters who felt left behind by cultural and technological change.\n",
"A December 2018 report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change concluded that populist rule, whether left- or right-wing, leads to a significant risk of democratic backsliding. The authors examine the effect of populism on three major aspects of democracy: the quality of democracy in general, checks and balances on executive power and citizens' right to politically participate in a meaningful way. They conclude that populist governments are four times more likely to cause harm to democratic institutions than non-populist governments. Also, more than half of populist leaders have amended or rewritten the countries' constitution, frequently in a way that eroded checks and balances on executive power. Lastly, populists attack individual rights such as freedom of press, civil liberties and political rights.\n",
"Populist political movements portray themselves as the enemies of the established political class and outsiders from the main political class that no longer represents the people and are morally corrupt. Such movements have included the United Kingdom’s United Kingdom Independence Party, France's National Front, Austria's Freedom Party and Belgium's Vlaams Belang.\n",
"In popular discourse, \"populism\" is sometimes used in a negative sense in reference to politics which involves promoting extremely simple solutions to complex problems in a highly emotional manner. Mudde suggested that this definition \"seems to have instinctive value\" but was difficult to employ empirically because almost all political groups engage in sloganeering and because it can be difficult to differentiate an argument made emotionally from one made rationally. Mudde thought that this phenomenon was better termed \"demagogy\" rather than \"populism\". Another use of the term in popular discourse is to describe opportunistic policies designed to quickly please voters rather than deciding a more rational course of action. Examples of this would include a governing political party lowering taxes before an election or promising to provide things to the electorate which the state cannot afford to pay for. Mudde suggested that this phenomenon is better described as \"opportunism\" rather than \"populism\".\n",
"As the ideal of Popular democracy came out of prepositions of Populism (ex: popular rule in democracy is fairer than elitist parliaments; decisions by general referendums are fairer than decisions by limited groups like parliaments and governments), and as platforms of certain groups claiming to be popular democratic are very similar to those of various democratic and undemocratic populist movements, there is discussion on the relation between both political philosophies.\n",
"Mudde and Kaltwasser argued that \"populism is essentially democratic, but at odds with \"liberal\" democracy,\" since populism is based on putting into effect \"the will of the people\". It is therefore majoritarian in nature, and opposed to the safeguarding of minority rights, which is a defining feature of liberal democracy. Populism also undermines the tenets of liberal democracy by rejecting notions of pluralism and the idea that anything, including constitutional limits, should constrain the \"general will\" of \"the people\". In this, populist governance can lead to what the liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill described as the \"tyranny of the majority\". Populists tend to view democratic institutions as alienating, and in practice, populists operating in liberal democracies often criticised the independent institutions designed to protect the fundamental rights of minorities, particularly the judiciary and the media.\n",
"Because populist tradition ascertains the paramountcy of the \"people\" (instead of class) as a political subject, it suffices to say that, in the 21st century, the large numbers of voters living in extreme poverty in Latin America has remained a bastion of support for new populist candidates. By early 2008 governments with varying forms of populism and with some form of left leaning (albeit vague) social democratic or democratic socialist platform had come to dominate virtually all Latin American nations with the exceptions of Colombia, El Salvador and Mexico. This political shift includes both more developed nations such as Argentina's Front for Victory and Chile's Socialist Party, and smaller income countries like Bolívia with its Movement towards Socialism and Paraguay with the Patriotic Alliance for Change. Even in middle-income Mexico, a populist candidate like López Obrador, albeit defeated, nevertheless appeared as part of a strong neopopulist reaction. Nevertheless, populist candidates have been more successful in poorer Latin American countries such as Bolivia (under Morales), Ecuador (under Rafael Correa) and Nicaragua (under Daniel Ortega). By the use of broad grassroots movements populist groups have managed to gain power from better organized, funded and entrenched groups such as the Bolivian Nationalist Democratic Action and the Paraguayan Colorado Party. Some people see also parallels with the Work Party in Brazil, with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his successor Dilma Rousseff, that used the state controlled oil company Petrobras to illegally fund their party, big companies, and politicians, while at the same time used populism strategies to get good results on the polls and elections.\n"
] |
why do wifi routers need to be power cycled periodically? are there any that don't?
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Routers do NOT need to be reset periodically. If you set it up correctly and installed its firmware then you shouldn’t even be touching it for months or years. If you have an older modem then it could possibly be set on DoD and you’ll need to figure out how to make it a permanent connection.
|
[
"Each time a router receives a packet, it modifies the packet, decrementing the time to live (TTL). The router discards any packets received with a zero TTL value. This prevents packets from endlessly bouncing around the network in the event of routing errors. Routers are capable of managing hop counts, but other types of network devices (e.g. Ethernet hubs and bridges) are not.\n",
"TTEthernet provides the lowest possible latency in transferring data across such a network by using time domain control methods – each time triggered transfer is scheduled at a specific time, so that contention for shared resources is entirely controlled and thus the possibility of congestion is eliminated. The switches in the network enforce this timing to provide tolerance of faults in, and malicious actions on the part of, the other connected equipments. However, \"synchronized local clocks are the fundamental prerequisite for time-triggered communication\". This is because the sources of critical data will have to have the same view of time as the switch, in order that they can transmit at the correct time and the switch will see this as correct. This also requires that the sequence with which a critical transfer is scheduled has to be predictable to both source and switch. This, in turn, will limit the transmission schedule to a highly deterministic one, e.g. the cyclic executive.\n",
"Using this technology allows or enables the use of several links (from 2 up to 8) and combined them to create increased bandwidth and several fail-over paths. This produces server to switch or switch to switch connections that are up to 8 times faster. In the past redundant links were unused due to Spanning Tree’s loop protection.\n",
"A wireless repeater (also called wireless range extender) takes an existing signal from a wireless router or wireless access point and rebroadcasts it to create a second network. When two or more hosts have to be connected with one another over the IEEE 802.11 protocol and the distance is too long for a direct connection to be established, a wireless repeater is used to bridge the gap. It can be a specialized stand alone computer networking device. Also, some wireless network interface controllers (WNIC)s optionally support operating in such a mode. Those outside of the primary network will be able to connect through the new \"repeated\" network. However, as far as the original router or access point is concerned, only the repeater MAC is connected, making it necessary to enable safety features on the wireless repeater. Wireless repeaters are commonly used to improve signal range and strength within homes and small offices.\n",
"A repeater with multiple ports is known as an Ethernet hub. Repeaters work on the physical layer of the OSI model. Repeaters require a small amount of time to regenerate the signal. This can cause a propagation delay that affects network performance and may affect proper function. As a result, many network architectures limit the number of repeaters that can be used in a row, e.g., the Ethernet 5-4-3 rule.\n",
"By losing redundancy (a single processor per router) the node lost some availability with respect to TRAME previous versions. This was done due to economical reasons coming from the fact that the network was being extended to smaller substations where the cost constraints are more stringent. Dual homing could help in places with more stringent availability requirements.\n",
"The network switches use locally available information to determine the explicit allowable rates or relative rate (increase/decrease) for the source. The newly calculated rates are then being sent to the sources using resource management records (RM-cells). RM-cells are generated by the source and travel along the data path to the destination and sent back. ABR sets a minimum cell rate (MCR) and a peak cell rate (PCR). When transfers exceed the PCR, cells are dropped.\n"
] |
why do towels have a band without fuzz on each end?
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It is there so the towel does not fall apart over time. There are two reasons for using this stitch over the regular "fold-and-stitch" version:
* the fabric is very thick so it would give a very fat fold at the end which does not look appealing
* the frothing does not make it very easy to handle
* as there is no front and back, there is also no side that you could hide this ugly part, eg. in contrast to clothes where usually the seams are on the inside
|
[
"BULLET::::- A \"beach towel\" is usually a little bit larger than a bath towel. Although it is often used for drying off after being in the water, its chief purpose is to provide a surface on which to lie. They are also worn for privacy while changing clothes in a public area, and for wiping sand from the body or objects. Beach towels often have colorful patterns.\n",
"BULLET::::- A \"show towel\" is a bath or hand towel that has had trim—such as satin, lace or linen stitched onto it, or embroidery done on it—mainly to simply \"look nice\". They are used to add a decorative touch—usually to a bathroom—most commonly in the United States. They are generally not to be used to for drying, as regular washing ruins the added trim, and the towel buckles as well (because the towel usually shrinks differently than the trim).\n",
"In other sports, rally towels are rarely used. In the Major League Soccer (MLS), rally towels were never used because of the popularity of scarves. The rally towel made a rare appearance in the 2010 MLS Playoffs, when Real Salt Lake gave rally towels to fans during a semi-final match against FC Dallas. The towels did not help the team, as FC Dallas won in the aggregate and went all the way to the MLS Cup Final. They are used in minor leagues as well.\n",
"Unlike the rubber mat which is made to hold the record firmly in sync with the rotating platter, slipmats are designed to slip on the platter, allowing the DJ to manipulate a record on a turntable while the platter continues to rotate underneath. This is useful for holding a record still for slip-cueing, making minute adjustments during beatmatching and mixing and pulling the record back and forth for scratching. They are also very commonly used simply as decoration for when a record isn't on the turntable.\n",
"Designs range from the simple to the complex. Simple rings may lie flat on a surface, while others are ergonomically curved to fit more comfortably on the wearer. Some designs are horseshoe shaped with a closure. In cross section, the rings may vary from round to flattened oval, the latter offering more friction on the penis and are therefore less likely to slip. Many of the newer rings also have different accessories and projections.\n",
"As the Ottoman Empire grew, so did the use of the towel. Weavers were asked to embroider more elaborate designs, aided by their knowledge of carpet-weaving. By the 18th century, towels began to feature loops sticking up from the pile of the material. These looped towels became known as \"havly\"; over time, this word has changed to \"havlu\", the Turkish word for towel, and means ‘with loops’.\n",
"Since the Terrible Towel's debut, teams have used similar gimmicks, mainly using white towels (or towels with the team's colors) and giving them out to fans. The main time teams give rally towels is during league postseasons. Towels have gained much popularity as distractions to visiting players. Teams that use rally towels include the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots, and New York Jets, the NHL's Anaheim Ducks, Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, San Jose Sharks, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils and Dallas Stars, the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder, and the MLB's Detroit Tigers, San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets and the Washington Nationals.\n"
] |
If we know all the naturally occurring elements and how they combine, is there a finite number of compounds? Do we know them all? Have we synthesized all or most of them??
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It's quite likely we know all naturally occurring elements, as all the ones heavier than those we know are naturally occurring are quite short-lived, and AFAIK it's not believed any more stable elements exist (even if an 'island of stability' may exist higher up, but then they mean _relative_ stability - they'd still be short-lived).
There's a finite, but very large number of compounds. You can build very long polymer chains and very large crystals, although their size is theoretically limited by entropy (although practical limits are far smaller). No matter how strong they're bonded, it's a finite strength, and if you make the chain long enough, it'll statistically be likely to break _somewhere_.
We do not know all possible compounds. Not at all. Although many of the possible ones are just quite boring variations. If you add another amino acid to a protein, you may have a protein that's never been synthesized, but it's not going to differ much in its properties from the original, or other proteins. Not in the way that small compounds are distinct from each other.
However, there are even relatively small compounds we still don't know about, because it's not always easy to predict whether a molecule is stable or not (especially if it doesn't much resembles ones we know already), nor predict how stable it is if it exists. We're also discovering new states and properties of old and well-known elements, e.g. it was fairly recently discovered that stable compounds of Fe(VI) were existed, where it'd previously only been thought to exist as an intermediate in certain reactions, at most.
There are a number of 'theoreticals', compounds that are predicted to be stable, but which we don't know how to synthesize, often because they're high-energy compounds. One example is Td-N4, four nitrogen atoms should be able to form a (somewhat) stable tetrahedron, with each bonded to three others. Nobody has been able to produce it yet though.
|
[
"All elements with atomic numbers 1 through 94 occur naturally at least in trace quantities, but the following elements are often produced through synthesis. Technetium, promethium, astatine, neptunium, and plutonium were discovered through synthesis before being found in nature.\n",
"The elements from atomic numbers 1 (hydrogen) through 118 (oganesson) have been discovered or synthesized, completing seven full rows of the periodic table. The first 94 elements all occur naturally, though some are found only in trace amounts and a few were discovered in nature only after having first been synthesized. Elements 95 to 118 have only been synthesized in laboratories or nuclear reactors. The synthesis of elements having higher atomic numbers is currently being pursued: these elements would begin an eighth row, and theoretical work has been done to suggest possible candidates for this extension. Numerous synthetic radionuclides of naturally occurring elements have also been produced in laboratories.\n",
"Dalton hypothesised the structure of compounds can be represented in whole number ratios. So, one atom of element X combining with one atom of element Y is a binary compound. Furthermore, one atom of element X combining with two atoms of element Y or vice versa, is a ternary compound. Many of the first compounds listed in the \"New System of Chemical Philosophy\" correspond to modern views, although many others do not.\n",
"Wöhler and von Liebig had inadvertently discovered isomerism: the same number of atoms of the same elements \"combining in different ways\" to make \"different\" compounds. In time, this would explain how just 92 elements could make the vast array of compounds we know today.\n",
"Chemical elements may also be categorized by their origin on Earth, with the first 94 considered naturally occurring, while those with atomic numbers beyond 94 have only been produced artificially as the synthetic products of man-made nuclear reactions.\n",
"Element 118, oganesson, is the last element that has been synthesized. The next two elements, elements 119 and 120, should form an 8s series and be an alkali and alkaline earth metal respectively. Beyond element 120, the superactinide series is expected to begin, when the 8s electrons and the filling 8p, 7d, 6f, and 5g subshells determine the chemistry of these elements. Complete and accurate CCSD calculations are not available for elements beyond 122 because of the extreme complexity of the situation: the 5g, 6f, and 7d orbitals should have about the same energy level, and in the region of element 160, the 9s, 8p, and 9p orbitals should also be about equal in energy. This will cause the electron shells to mix so that the block concept no longer applies very well, and will also result in novel chemical properties that will make positioning these elements in a periodic table very difficult. For example, element 164 is expected to mix characteristics of the elements of group 10, 12, 14, and 18.\n",
"John Dalton studied and expanded upon this previous work and defended a new idea, later known as the law of multiple proportions: if the same two elements can be combined to form a number of different compounds, then the ratios of the masses of the two elements in their various compounds will be represented by small whole numbers. For example, Proust had studied tin oxides and found that there is one type of tin oxide that is 88.1% tin and 11.9% oxygen and another type that is 78.7% tin and 21.3% oxygen (these are tin(II) oxide and tin dioxide respectively). Dalton noted from these percentages that 100g of tin will combine either with 13.5g or 27g of oxygen; 13.5 and 27 form a ratio of 1:2. Dalton found several examples of such instances of integral multiple combining proportions, and asserted that the pattern was a general one. Most importantly, he noted that an atomic theory of matter could elegantly explain this law, as well as Proust's law of definite proportions. For example, in the case of Proust's tin oxides, one tin atom will combine with either one or two oxygen atoms to form either the first or the second oxide of tin.\n"
] |
Why do positron-electron pair not annihilate each other?
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To answer the question in the title: electrons and positrons do annihilate eachother.
To address the [different] question in the body of the post: the matter–antimatter asymmetry of the universe is an unsolved problem. Perhaps there are processes that violate lepton number or baryon number (key ingredients in generating the asymmetry), but we haven't observed anything like that yet.
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[
"The positron or antielectron is the antiparticle or the antimatter counterpart of the electron. When a low-energy positron collides with a low-energy electron, annihilation occurs, resulting in their conversion into the energy of two or more gamma ray photons (see electron–positron annihilation).\n",
"The positron or antielectron is the antiparticle or the antimatter counterpart of the electron. The positron has an electric charge of +1 \"e\", a spin of 1/2 (same as electron), and has the same mass as an electron. When a positron collides with an electron, annihilation occurs. If this collision occurs at low energies, it results in the production of two or more gamma ray photons.\n",
"When electrons and positrons collide, they annihilate each other, giving rise to two or more gamma ray photons. If the electron and positron have negligible momentum, a positronium atom can form before annihilation results in two or three gamma ray photons totalling 1.022 MeV. On the other hand, a high-energy photon can transform into an electron and a positron by a process called pair production, but only in the presence of a nearby charged particle, such as a nucleus.\n",
"When a positron is implanted into a solid it will quickly lose all its kinetic energy and annihilate with an electron. By this process two gamma quanta with each are created which are in the reference frame of the electron positron pair emitted in exactly anti-parallel directions. In the laboratory frame, however, there is a Doppler shift from and an angular deviation from collinearity. Although the full momentum information about the momentum of the electron is encoded in the annihilation radiation, due to technical limitations it cannot be fully recovered. Either one measures the Doppler broadening of the annihilation radiation (DBAR) or the angular correlation of the annihilation radiation (ACAR).\n",
"Normally, the positron quickly annihilates with another electron, producing two photons, and this process can be safely ignored at lower temperatures. But around 1 in 10 pair productions end with a weak interaction of the electron and positron, which replaces them with a neutrino and anti-neutrino pair. Since they move at virtually the speed of light and interact very weakly with matter, these neutrino particles usually escape the star without interacting, carrying away their mass-energy. This energy loss is comparable to the energy output from the carbon fusion.\n",
"A positron is ejected from the parent nucleus, and the daughter (Z−1) atom must shed an orbital electron to balance charge. The overall results is that the mass of two electrons are ejected from the atom (one for the positron and one for the electron), and the β decay is energetically possible only if the mass of the parent atom exceeds the mass of the daughter atom by at least two electron masses (1.02 MeV).\n",
"Electron–positron annihilation occurs when an electron () and a positron (, the electron's antiparticle) collide. At low energies, the result of the collision is the annihilation of the electron and positron, and the creation of gamma ray photons:\n"
] |
what are pilots checking during pre/post flight?
|
Not everything on the checklist will ground the plane, but some things can. For example, during flight a bird might have damaged a [pitot tube](_URL_0_). That wouldn't ground a plane by itself (unless *all* of them were damaged by a flock of birds), but you'd need to clean them out at the very least, and certify they were working properly before you could fly.
Other items on the checklist make sure that the plane is ready for flight. Is it snowing/cold outside? Turn on engine anti-ice. Are your outboard lights on (so other planes can see you)? Are your radios setup on the correct frequencies? Did you program the flight computer? etc.
As for post flight, that's mostly to do with shutting down the electrical systems and engines in a safe manner. When you're on the ground, you're generally connected to ground-based power. You still need to switch the plane over to actually use this power, and ensure that things like the APU are not generating power. You also don't want to drain your batteries. Also, no sense in trying to pressurize the cabin when the door is open. The checklists exist to make sure you turn all the knobs and dials you're supposed to turn because despite the automation, there is still a LOT of settings that can/should be tweaked on a plane.
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[
"In aviation, a preflight checklist is a list of tasks that should be performed by pilots and aircrew prior to takeoff. Its purpose is to improve flight safety by ensuring that no important tasks are forgotten. Failure to correctly conduct a preflight check using a checklist is a major contributing factor to aircraft accidents.\n",
"Flight/airline tracking, that is the use of flight trackers has been growing due to the obvious reason to know whether a flight has safely landed or whether everything goes according to the schedule so it is the time to go to the airport.\n",
"Faced with a lack of reliable basic flight instrument readings, constant contradictory warnings from the aircraft's flight computer (some of which were valid and some of which were not) and believing that they were at a safe altitude, the crew decided to begin descent for the approach to the airport. Since the flight was at night over water, no visual references were available to convey to the pilots their true altitude or to aid their descent. As a consequence of the pilots' inability to precisely monitor the aircraft's airspeed or vertical speed, they experienced multiple stalls, resulting in rapid loss of altitude with no corresponding change on the altimeter. While the altimeter indicated an altitude of approximately 9,700 feet, the aircraft's true altitude was much lower.\n",
"Leidos until early 2016 had another inflight position called Flight Watch, which was dedicated to updating weather for aircraft en route. Radio now performs that function. Enroute Flight Advisory Service (EFAS) or Flight Watch was designed to give pilots who are already airborne updates on weather during their current flight, and take pilots' reports or PIREPS, which they enter into the computer for transmission to the National Weather Service.\n",
"Flight tracking software is available for commercial operators to track their aircraft and monitor if they deviate from the agreed flight path, if so, a warning alarm is generated to alert to a potential problem. The type of software available also imports and reviews global weather and NOTAM information to monitor any emerging issues that could affect the flight.\n",
"Prior to each flight, flight attendants attend a safety briefing with the pilots and lead flight attendant. During this briefing, they go over safety and emergency checklists, the locations and amounts of emergency equipment and other features specific to that aircraft type. Boarding particulars are verified, such as special needs passengers, small children traveling as unaccompanied or VIPs. Weather conditions are discussed including anticipated turbulence. Prior to each flight a safety check is conducted to ensure all equipment such as life-vests, torches (flashlights) and firefighting equipment are on board, in the right quantity, and in proper condition. Any unserviceable or missing items must be reported and rectified prior to takeoff. They must monitor the cabin for any unusual smells or situations. They assist with the loading of carry-on baggage, checking for weight, size and dangerous goods. They make sure those sitting in emergency exit rows are willing and able to assist in an evacuation and move those who are not willing or able out of the row into another seat. They then must do a safety demonstration or monitor passengers as they watch a safety video. They then must \"secure the cabin\" ensuring tray tables are stowed, seats are in their upright positions, armrests down and carry-ons stowed correctly and seat belts are fastened prior to takeoff. All the service between boarding and take-off is called \"Pre Take off Service\".\n",
"Before each flight, a briefing was held, alerting the crewmembers to basic world events as well as safety criteria. At least 15 hours before takeoff, the crew would thoroughly pre-flight their aircraft. Inadvertently, this also increased efficiency in terms of maintenance and other pre-flight routines.\n"
] |
why does yawning temporarily make a headache go away?
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Headaches are mostly caused by misfiring nerves in your brain (migraines) or "heartbeat"/pressure headaches in the nerves/vessels/muscle that surround your brain.
Yawning causes a few things to happen in your body: it increases oxygen in your blood stream, increases blood flow around your jaw as you use the muscles (which is why you sometimes hear a "whooshing" as you stretch/yawn) and relieves pressure imbalances in your sinuses (when your ears pop). All three of these effects can impact headache pain.
The most significant "immediate" effects on your headache are pressure balancing and muscle stretching - especially for non-migraine headaches. Pressure in your sinuses can cause the sinus walls to trigger nearby nerves, making them to react in a throbbing pain that is relieved by a temporary release of pressure while yawning. The pain will, of course, come back when the pressure is unbalanced again
If your headache is caused by dehydration or a hangover, your brain has slightly shrunk and pulled away from your skull, alerting the nerves in a painful way (esp at your temples). By yawning, you are stretching the muscles in your jaw and temples, making nearby nerves fire a sense of "pleasure" that overrides the "pain" from dehydration - it's a very similar principal to rubbing an area near an injury to reduce the feeling of pain. Once you are no longer doing that, the pain returns. Yawning also stretches muscles that can be tight with painful tension (due to stress or exhaustion), and the temporary relax + stretch makes nerve firings associated with constricting your muscles go away.
Yawning during migraines is a little different because migraines are (to our current understanding) misfires of nerves within the brain itself. Yawing is usually a sign that a migraine is coming on, likely because the brain is reacting to random nerve firings the same way it reacts to exhaustion - by trying to get more oxygen. There is no real evidence that yawning lessens migraine pain in a physical way caused by an increase in oxygen, but the action may temporarily district you from your headache.
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[
"Still another hypothesis suggests yawns are caused by the same chemicals (neurotransmitters) in the brain that affect emotions, mood, appetite, and other phenomena. These chemicals include serotonin, dopamine, glutamic acid, and nitric oxide. As more (or fewer) of these compounds are activated in the brain, the frequency of yawning increases. Conversely, a greater presence in the brain of opioid neurotransmitters, such as endorphins, reduces the frequency of yawning. Individuals in opioid withdrawal exhibit a greatly increased frequency of yawning. Patients taking the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) Paxil (paroxetine HCl) or Celexa (citalopram) have been observed yawning more often. Excessive yawning is more common during the first three months of taking the SSRIs. Anecdotal reports by users of psilocybin mushrooms often describe a marked stimulation of yawning while inebriated, often associated with excess lacrimation (eyes producing tears) and nasal mucosal stimulation, especially while \"peaking\" (undergoing the most intense portion of the psilocybin experience). While opioids have been demonstrated to reduce this yawning and lacrimation provoked by psilocybin, it is not clear that the same pathways that induce yawning as a symptom of opioid abstinence in habituated users are the mode of action in yawning in mushroom users. While, even, opioid-dependent users of psilocybin on stable opioid therapy often report yawning and excess lacrimation while undergoing this entheogenic mushroom experience, there are no reports on mushrooms in the literature regarding habituated users experiencing other typical opioid withdrawal symptoms, such as cramping, physical pain, anxiety, gooseflesh, etc.\n",
"A similar hypothesis suggests yawning is used for regulation of body temperature. Similarly, Guttmann and Dopart (2011) found, that, when a subject wearing earplugs yawned, a breeze is heard, caused by the flux of the air moving between the subject's ear and the environment. Guttmann and Dopart determined that a yawn causes one of three possible situations to occur: the brain cools down due to an influx or outflux of oxygen, the pressure in the brain is reduced by an outflux of oxygen, or the pressure of the brain is increased by an influx of air caused by increased cranial space.\n",
"Yawning is commonly associated with imminent sleep, but it seems to be a measure to maintain arousal when sleepy and so prevents sleep rather than inducing it. Yawning may be a cue that the body is tired and ready for sleep, but deliberate attempts to yawn may have the opposite effect of sleep induction.\n",
"Yawning (\"oscitation\") most often occurs in adults immediately before and after sleep, during tedious activities and as a result of its contagious quality. It is commonly associated with tiredness, stress, sleepiness, or even boredom and hunger. In humans, yawning is often triggered by others yawning (e.g. seeing a person yawning, talking to someone on the phone who is yawning) and is a typical example of positive feedback. This \"contagious\" yawning has also been observed in chimpanzees, dogs, cats, and reptiles (including birds), and can occur across species. Approximately 20 psychological reasons for yawning have been proposed by scholars, but there is little agreement on the primacy of any one.\n",
"During a yawn, the tensor tympani muscle in the middle ear contracts, creating a rumbling noise from within the head. Yawning is sometimes accompanied, in humans and other animals, by an instinctive act of stretching several parts of the body, including arms, neck, shoulders and back.\n",
"Yawning is considered a non-respiratory gas movement. A non-respiratory gas movement is another process that moves air in and out of the lungs that don't include breathing. Yawning is a reflex that tends to disrupt the normal breathing rhythm and is believed to be contagious as well. The reason why we yawn is unknown, but some think we yawn as a way to regulate the body’s levels of O and CO. Studies done in a controlled environment with different levels of O and CO have disproved that hypothesis. Although there isn’t a concrete explanation as to why we yawn, others think people exhale as a cooling mechanism for our brains. Studies on animals have supported this idea and it is possible humans could be linked to it as well. What is known is that yawning does ventilate all the alveoli in the lungs.\n",
"One study states that yawning occurs when one's blood contains increased amounts of carbon dioxide and therefore becomes in need of the influx of oxygen (or expulsion of carbon dioxide) that a yawn can provide. Yawning may, in fact, reduce oxygen intake compared to normal respiration. However, neither providing more oxygen nor reducing carbon dioxide in air decreased yawning.\n"
] |
Is there a name for the feeling you get when you see something that makes you cringe?
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[Might not be what you're looking for exactly, but this site has a plethora of definitions that haven't been captured by words by an official dictionary yet. You might find a word that means that here](_URL_0_)
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[
"Observing video clips that displayed facial expression of feeling disgust activated the neural networks typical of direct experience of disgust. Similar results have been found in the case of touch. Watching movies that someone touched legs or faces activated the somatosensory cortex for direct feeling of the touch. A similar mirror system exists in perceiving pain. When people see other people feel pain, people feel pain not only affectively, but also sensorially.\n",
"One study has suggested that infrasound may cause feelings of awe or fear in humans. It has also been suggested that since it is not consciously perceived, it may make people feel vaguely that odd or supernatural events are taking place.\n",
"Anything can cause someone to feel squeamish. Some examples of common triggers are the sight of blood or other bodily fluids, witnessing a human endure pain, the sight of insects, strong smells, and general ideas such as war, hospitals, or death. While these are common triggers, there are no limits to what stimuli can cause this reaction as it is based on the subjective observations of the person experiencing it. The feeling can also be triggered by traumatic experiences from the past. People can feel squeamish while witnessing, thinking of, or speaking about any particularly unpleasant topic. Often squeamishness is associated with medical phobia, as some of the most common triggers include sites or experiences one may encounter during a medical emergency.\n",
"Also according to Rozelle, \"The sensation of what something feels like is used to describe everything from sensual pleasure to pain and torture. It's a wide range, and your readers have actually experienced only some of those feelings. So your job is to either make them recall exactly what it feels like when something occurs in your story or, if they haven't experienced it, what it would feel like if they did\" . Morrell describes a \"sensory surround\", which when \"coupled with drama tugs the reader into [the] story and forces him to keep reading.\" \n",
"This is a paradoxical experience in which the person has a strong feeling of the presence of another person, sometimes recognised, sometimes unrecognised, but without any apparently justifying sensory stimulus.\n",
"In \"Déjà pensé\", a completely new thought sounds familiar to the person and he feels as he has thought the same thing before at some time.This feeling can be caused by seizures which occur in certain parts of the temporal lobe and possibly other areas of the brain as well.\n",
"Support for this view is highlighted by the symptoms of Capgras delusion, where sufferers experience reduced facial recognition due to impairments in the connections from the inferotemporal cortex to the amygdala, which is responsible for emotions. The result is that a person no longer experiences the warm fuzzy feeling when presented with a familiar face. A person's 'glow' is lost through what is suggested as due to the lack of limbic activation.\n"
] |
How did Gen James Longstreet go from Lee's right-hand man to pro-Reconstruction Republican?
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In a word, Longstreet was a realist. He accepted that the South has lost, and was looking for the best way for her to bounce back. But while he wasn't alone in the former officer corps in his caution "to accept the terms that are now offered by the conquerors" following the implementation of Reconstruction in 1867, he was fairly unique in his advocacy for actual cooperation, which resulted in considerable vilification by Southern veterans and writers over the next few decades. Maybe if he had kept is views to himself it wouldn't have been so bad, but he put them in a letter that was published in a New Orleans newspaper. [I don't know if the entire text is available, but "Lee's Tarnish Lieutenant" has a fairly extensive quotation](_URL_0_). In short though, He was arguing that cooperation with Republicans was essential in order to best be able to mitigate the adverse effects of Reconstruction - "if whites won't do it, the thing will be done by the blacks" - and additionally that ensuring a Southern presence within the Republican party was essential to limiting the ability of the newly enfranchised African-Americans to have any real power with their vote.
As you can see, his views are still fairly offensive as far as our ideas of racial equality goes, but for a Southern audience, still smarting from defeat, and still *pretty* damn racist, he might as well have just waved a white flag. Most of them weren't willing to give even an inch, and of course, as the next few decades would bear out, the South was fairly effective in ensuring the failure of Reconstruction, and the continued subjugation of the African-American population under Jim Crow. It didn't matter to them that Longstreet firmly believed he was advocating in Southern interests, and for the continued marginalization of the Black population at that. The Republican Party was *the enemy*. It was everything that stood in opposition to white, Southern civilization. One of the most core aspects of the Southern views on their defeat was to ensure that their honor remained intact - defeated on the battlefield but not in spirit. Longstreet's path went against that, however much his long term view of the continuance of a white dominated South may still have aligned.
Longstreet perhaps could have defended himself, but he simply never really tried, at least in the early days. A few private letters exist which speak to his commitment to white supremacy, but he never made strong, public statements to that effect in order to clarify his position. It didn't help that within a few months, he was granted his Federal pardon, which would allow him to again run for office, and of course led to accusations of abandoning the Confederate cause out of sheer self-interest.
He then just keep digging that hole deeper, endorsing Grant for the presidency, and then accepting a Federal job in the Port of New Orleans. This just only continued to feed Southern attacks on his generalship and character, and soon enough, Longstreet was essentially the sole cause of Southern defeat, having been made the lynchpin of defeat at Gettysburg, and in turn Gettysburg the lynchpin of defeat in the war itself. It was essentially a vicious cycle, with each side acting and reacting to further entrench the other's position. When, in 1896, he published his memoir and dared speak an ill-word of General Lee in defense of himself, well, he might as well have taken a dump on Jesus Christ himself as far as Southern audiences were concerned. While he wasn't exactly at Sherman's level, Longstreet had very much come to be a villain of the 'Lost Cause' narrative as it was formed in the late 19th century.
James Longstreet and the Lost Cause by Jeffry D. Wert, in The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History, edited by Gary W. Gallagher & Alan T. Nolan
Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant by William G. Piston
|
[
"Longstreet was one of a small group of former Confederate generals, including James L. Alcorn and William Mahone, to join or ally with the nationally dominant Republican Party during the Reconstruction era. He endorsed Grant for president in the election of 1868, attended his inauguration ceremonies in Washington, D.C., and six days later was appointed by Grant as surveyor of customs in New Orleans. For these acts he lost favor with many white Southerners. His old friend Harvey Hill wrote to a newspaper: \"Our scalawag is the local leper of the community.\" Unlike Northerners who moved South and were sometimes referred to as \"Carpetbaggers,\" Hill wrote, Longstreet \"is a native, which is so much the worse.\"\n",
"Greeley's alliance with William H. Seward and Thurlow Weed led to him serving three months in the House of Representatives, where he angered many by investigating Congress in his newspaper. In 1854, he helped found and may have named the Republican Party. Republican newspapers across the nation regularly reprinted his editorials. During the Civil War, he mostly supported Lincoln, though he urged the president to commit to the end of slavery before he was willing to do so. After Lincoln's assassination, he supported the Radical Republicans in opposition to President Andrew Johnson. He broke with Republican President Ulysses Grant because of corruption and Greeley's sense that Reconstruction policies were no longer needed.\n",
"He enjoyed a successful post-war career working for the U.S. government as a diplomat, civil servant, and administrator. His conversion to the Republican Party and his cooperation with his old friend, President Ulysses S. Grant, as well as critical comments he wrote in his memoirs about General Lee's wartime performance, made him anathema to many of his former Confederate colleagues. His reputation in the South further suffered when he led African-American militia against the anti-Reconstruction White League at the Battle of Liberty Place in 1874. Authors of the Lost Cause movement focused on Longstreet's actions at Gettysburg as a primary reason for the Confederacy's loss of the war. Since the late 20th century, his reputation has undergone a slow reassessment. Many Civil War historians now consider him among the war's most gifted tactical commanders.\n",
"Longstreet's former subordinate Col. John S. Mosby defended his commander, and other former Confederates who joined the Republican Party were subjected to similar criticism, including Gen. William Mahone and Robert W. Flournoy. A \"reconstructed rebel\", Longstreet embraced equal rights for blacks, unification of the nation, and Reconstruction, After Longstreet died, his widow Helen Dortch Longstreet, privately published \"Lee and Longstreet at High Tide\" in his defense and stated that \"the South was seditiously taught to believe that the Federal Victory was wholly the fortuitous outcome of the culpable disobedience of General Longstreet.\"\n",
"The leader of the moderate Republicans, calling themselves \"True Republicans,\" was William Mahone (1826–1895), a railroad president and former Confederate general. He formed a coalition of white Scalawag Republicans, some blacks, and ex-Democrats who formed the Conservative Party. Mahone recommended that whites had to accept the results of the war, including civil rights and the vote for Freedmen. Mahone convinced the Conservative Party to drop its own candidate and endorse Gilbert C. Walker, Mahone's candidate for governor. In return, Mahone's people endorsed Conservatives for the legislative races. Mahone's plan worked, as the voters in 1869 elected Walker and defeated the proposed disfranchisement of ex-Confederates.\n",
"In general he was a moderate and a pragmatist. He kept the promise to withdraw the last federal troops from the South, as Democrats took control of the last three Republican states. A paragon of honesty, he sponsored civil service reform, where he challenged the patronage hungry Republican politicians. Though he failed to enact long-term reform, he helped generate public support for the eventual passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883. The Republican Party in the South grew steadily weaker as his efforts to support the civil rights of blacks in the South were largely stymied by Democrats in Congress. \n",
"Julius Caesar Chappelle (1852–1904) was among the earliest black Republican legislators in the United States, representing Boston and serving from 1883–1886. In 1890, Chappelle gave a political speech for the right of blacks to vote at an \"enthusiastic\" meeting at Boston's Faneuil Hall to support the federal elections bill. He was featured in a front page article in \"The New York Age\" newspaper covering his support of the Lodge bill. (The Republican Party had been founded by abolitionists and other slavery opponents called Free Soilers, explaining why black voters were overwhelmingly Republican in this era.)\n"
] |
hasidic judaism (or jewish mysticism)
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Alright, first of all, not all Chasidim (-im generally means plural people in Hebrew) are mystics, nor are all mystics Chasidim. But you will usually find more Chasidic Kabbalah scholars than you will Reform. (Anecdotal evidence: I knew a Chabadnik who started Reform and eventually became Chabad.)
Chasidim (and especially the Chabadim, one of the most popular form of Chasidic Judaism in the US) feel that besides devotion to G-D, one must study G-D's ways as well. The Chabad movement took it further and said that it wasn't enough to just give G-D and Judaism your heart; you had to give your mind and your wisdom as well. No mindless devotion to the Law for them! They believe in studying always the Talmud (thousands of years of commentary on the Torah, the first five books of the Bible) and don't think that just saying the prayers and keeping the commandments are good enough. One has to always be learning.
Rabbis in the Chabad (and also most Chasidic movements) are not priests or superiors, so much as they are a supervisor of sorts. (One thing that drew me back to my family's Judaism was the idea that one is expected to argue with the rabbi, as that is one of the best ways to learn. True, he'll usually win, but that's not the point.)
So -- Chasidic Jews are Orthodox Jews who devote themselves to a strict interpretation of the Law. Chabad also devote themselves to learning, to spreading wisdom, and to a general appreciation of life. If you're ever at a Jewish meal, and there's one guy with long hair, a long beard, and a glass of vodka in his hand, telling you that G-D commands all to make three *l'chayim* (toasts) in his honor, that's the Chabadnik.
(By the way, the 'ch' can be spelled or pronounced as 'H' and you won't be too wrong. But properly... pretend you have a hair in the back of your throat, and you're at dinner with your girlfriend's family, so you don't want to just cough it out in front of them. That gentle throat-clearing... THAT'S the Hebrew 'ch.')
EDIT to finish your question: A general view of the other branches of Judaism:
Orthodox: for all practical purposes, follows all the *mitzvot* or commandments. They keep all the dietary laws, they pray in separate rooms in the Synagogue (Men in one, Women in the other... it's supposed to keep your mind off the other sex), and do their best to live the way the Torah and the Talmud say Jews should live. Chasidic Jews are almost always Orthodox. The way they live and worship is generally the same since the Second Temple was destroyed in AD 70. (Of course, they use technology... except on the Sabbath. From sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, they will not drive, turn on (or off) any appliance, and do no work whatsoever. Most congregations have a "Shabbos Goy," a non-Jew who will turn things off, lock up the Synagogue, and other little tasks that have to be done.)
Reform: this movement does their best to blend in with the surrounding population. They may or may not keep all the dietary or cultural laws, but they still say the prayers and practice Judaism. For a long time, they were the only ones who had female rabbis, but this is slowly starting to change.
Conservative: this movement sprang up as an answer to Reform Judaism, and is roughly a happy medium between the two. Many conservative will make small changes to the cultural laws in order to better live in society. There are Conservative female rabbis, now, and women in the congregation are more engaged. You won't see one firing up the barbecue to cook up some pork ribs on Saturday morning, but they may be a little more lax on the laws (on a personal basis) than Orthodox.
EDIT #2: Meant to say that Chabad is *one of the* most popular forms of Chasidism in the US.
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[
"Thus, although there is an esoteric tradition in Judaism (Kabbalah), Rabbinic scholar Max Kadushin has characterized normative Judaism as \"normal mysticism\", because it involves everyday personal experiences of God through ways or modes that are common to all Jews. This is played out through the observance of the Halakha (Jewish law) and given verbal expression in the Birkat Ha-Mizvot, the short blessings that are spoken every time a positive commandment is to be fulfilled.\n",
"As one of the founding figures of Hasidic mysticism, Schneur Zalman and his approach in the Tanya are venerated by other Hasidic schools, although they tend to avoid its meditative methods. In Chabad, it is called \"the Written Torah of Hasidus\", with the many subsequent Chabad writings being relatively \"Oral Torah\" explanation. In it, Schneur Zalman brings the new interpretations of Jewish mysticism by the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism, into philosophical articulation and definition. This intellectual form synthesises Hasidic Divine Omnipresence and Jewish soulfulness with other historical components of Rabbinic literature, embodied in the Talmud, Medieval philosophy, Musar (ethical) literature and Lurianic Kabbalah. The Tanya has therefore been seen in Chabad as the defining Hasidic text, and a subsequent stage of Jewish mystical evolution.\n",
"Hasidic yeshivot study the mystical, spiritual works of Hasidic philosophy (\"Chassidus\"). This draws on the earlier esoteric theology of Kabbalah, but articulates it in terms of inner psychological awareness and personal analogies. This makes Jewish mysticism accessible and tangible, so that it inspires emotional dveikus (cleaving to God) and spiritual contribution to daily Jewish life. This serves some similar purposes to mussar, but through different means and with different contributions to intellectual and emotional life. Chabad yeshivot, for example, study the Tanya, the Likutei Torah, and the voluminous works of the Rebbes of Chabad for an hour and a half each morning, before prayers, and an hour and a half in the evening. Many Yeshivot in Israel belonging to the Religious Zionism study the writings of Rav Kook, who articulated a unique personal blend of mysticism, creative exegesis and philosophy.\n",
"In the common era, Judaism has had two main kinds of mysticism: Merkabah mysticism and Kabbalah. The former predated the latter, and was focused on visions, particularly those mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel. It gets its name from the Hebrew word meaning \"chariot\", a reference to Ezekiel's vision of a fiery chariot composed of heavenly beings.\n",
"Hasidic philosophy or Hasidism (), alternatively transliterated as Hasidut or Chassidus, consists of the teachings of the Hasidic movement, which are the teachings of the Hasidic rebbes, often in the form of commentary on the Torah (the Five books of Moses) and Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). Hasidism deals with a range of spiritual concepts such as God, the soul, and the Torah, dealing with esoteric matters but often making them understandable, applicable and finding practical expressions.\n",
"Jewish mysticism has influenced the thought of some major Jewish theologians in the 20th century, outside of Kabbalistic or Hasidic traditions. The first Chief Rabbi of Mandate Palestine, Abraham Isaac Kook was a mystical thinker who drew heavily on Kabbalistic notions through his own poetic terminology. His writings are concerned with fusing the false divisions between sacred and secular, rational and mystical, legal and imaginative. Students of Joseph B. Soloveitchik, figurehead of American Modern Orthodox Judaism have read the influence of Kabbalistic symbols in his philosophical works. Neo-Hasidism, rather than Kabbalah, shaped Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue and Abraham Joshua Heschel's Conservative Judaism. Lurianic symbols of Tzimtzum and Shevirah have informed Holocaust theologians.\n",
"Weiner's writings on Jewish mysticism help shape the Neo-Hasidic impulses among some American Jews. Rabbi Arthur Green, a leader in the Jewish Renewal movement and a proponent of Neo-Hasidism in general, was first exposed to Jewish mysticism by reading Weiner's \"Nine and a Half Mystics\".\n"
] |
How do sun rays affect clouds and their changes?
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Well, sun is the energy source in the formation of clouds. Actually, sun is the main energy source of all atmospheric movements. But I assume that wasn't your question (if it was, let me know.)
Once the clouds are formed, sun rays don't affect them **directly** because clouds are poor absorbers of short-wave radiation (which is the lenghtwave in which the sun emits). Most of the incoming solar radiation gets reflected back to the top of the atmosphere by clouds, and they also scatter the visible light in a way that makes clouds appear white, but they don't get heated or evaporated by direct solar radiation.
Hope it helps. Sorry for bad english :P
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[
"In addition to their direct effect by scattering and absorbing solar radiation, aerosols have indirect effects on the Earth's radiation budget. Sulfate aerosols act as cloud condensation nuclei and thus lead to clouds that have more and smaller cloud droplets. These clouds reflect solar radiation more efficiently than clouds with fewer and larger droplets, a phenomenon known as the \"Twomey effect\". This effect also causes droplets to be of more uniform size, which reduces growth of raindrops and makes the cloud more reflective to incoming sunlight, known as the \"Albrecht effect\". Indirect effects of aerosols are the largest uncertainty in radiative forcing.\n",
"Clouds greatly affect the transfer of radiation in the atmosphere. In the thermal spectral domain, water is a strong absorber (and thus emitter, according to Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation); hence clouds exchange thermal radiation between their bases and the underlying planetary surface (land or ocean) by absorbing and re-emitting this infrared radiation at the prevailing temperature – the lower the cloud base, the warmer the cloud particles and the higher the rate of emission. For a synthetic discussion of the impact of clouds (and in particular the role of cloud bases) on climate systems, see the IPCC Third Assessment Report, in particular chapter 7.2.\n",
"Ultraviolet radiation from the Sun breaks water molecules apart, reducing the amount of water available to form noctilucent clouds. The radiation is known to vary cyclically with the solar cycle and satellites have been tracking the decrease in brightness of the clouds with the increase of ultraviolet radiation for the last two solar cycles. It has been found that changes in the clouds follow changes in the intensity of ultraviolet rays by about a year, but the reason for this long lag is not yet known.\n",
"Clouds greatly affect the transfer of radiation in the atmosphere. In the solar spectral domain, cloud albedo is directly related to the nature, size and shape of cloud particles, which themselves are affected by the height of the cloud top. In the thermal domain, water is a strong absorber (and thus emitter, according to Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation). Hence clouds cool down from the top through infrared radiation at the prevailing temperature: the higher the cloud top, the cooler the particles and the lower the rate of emission. For a synthetic discussion of the impact of clouds (and in particular the role of cloud tops) on the climate system, see the IPCC Third Assessment Report, in particular chapter 7.2.\n",
"Most clouds are quite reflective, bouncing incoming solar radiation back into space. Increasing clouds' albedo would increase the portion of incoming solar radiation that is reflected, in turn cooling the planet. Clouds consist of water droplets, and clouds with smaller droplets are more reflective (because of the Twomey effect). Cloud condensation nuclei are necessary for water droplet formation. The central idea underlying marine cloud brightening is to add aerosols to atmospheric locations where clouds form. These would then act as cloud condensation nuclei, increasing the cloud albedo.\n",
"The cloud albedo increases with the total water content or depth of the cloud and with the solar zenith angle. The variation of albedo with zenith angle is most rapid when the sun is near the horizon, and least when the sun is overhead. Absorption of solar radiation by plane-parallel clouds decreases with increasing zenith angle because radiation that is reflected to space at the higher zenith angles penetrates less deeply into the cloud and is therefore less likely to be absorbed.\n",
"The Albrecht effect describes how cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), possibly from anthropogenic pollution, may increase cloud lifetime and hence increase the amount of solar radiation reflected from clouds. Because it does not directly interact with incoming or outgoing radiation, it has an indirect effect on climate.\n"
] |
Do wolves panic during thunderstorms the way domesticated dogs sometimes do?
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Dogs panicking during thunderstorms only primarily happens because they aren’t conditioned to the sound before formative development in the brain stops. Dog trainers can suggest playing different sounds—cars honking, trains, thunderstorms, alarms, etc.—while puppies are young so they get used to the sounds and don’t panic when they hear an unfamiliar sound. Since wolves are in the elements 100% of the time, I assume pups hear the sound of a thunderstorm before that brain development cuts off, and are normalized to it.
Not a zoologist or wolf expert—just have a puppy that I’ve done tons of research on so that he doesn’t panic during thunderstorms.
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[
"Wolves kill dogs on occasion, with some wolf populations relying on dogs as an important food source. In Croatia, wolves kill more dogs than sheep, and wolves in Russia appear to limit stray dog populations. Wolves may display unusually bold behavior when attacking dogs accompanied by people, sometimes ignoring nearby humans. Wolf attacks on dogs may occur both in house yards and in forests. Wolf attacks on hunting dogs are considered a major problem in Scandinavia and Wisconsin. The most frequently killed hunting breeds in Scandinavia are harriers, with older animals being most at risk, likely because they are less timid than younger animals, and react to the presence of wolves differently. Large hunting dogs such as Swedish elkhounds are more likely to survive wolf attacks because of their better ability to defend themselves.\n",
"Wolf attacks are more likely to happen when preceded by a long period of habituation, during which wolves gradually lose their fear of humans. This was apparent in cases involving habituated North American wolves in Algonquin Provincial Park, Vargas Island Provincial Park and Ice Bay, as well as 19th century cases involving escaped captive wolves in Sweden and Estonia.\n",
"Gray wolves howl to assemble the pack (usually before and after hunts), to pass on an alarm (particularly at a den site), to locate each other during a storm or unfamiliar territory and to communicate across great distances. Wolf howls can under certain conditions be heard over areas of up to . Wolf howls are generally indistinguishable from those of large dogs. Male wolves give voice through an octave, passing to a deep bass with a stress on \"\"O\"\", while females produce a modulated nasal baritone with stress on \"\"U\"\". Pups almost never howl, while yearling wolves produce howls ending in a series of dog-like yelps. Howling consists of a fundamental frequency that may lie between 150 and 780 Hz, and consists of up to 12 harmonically related overtones. The pitch usually remains constant or varies smoothly, and may change direction as many as four or five times. Howls used for calling pack mates to a kill are long, smooth sounds similar to the beginning of the cry of a great horned owl. When pursuing prey, they emit a higher pitched howl, vibrating on two notes. When closing in on their prey, they emit a combination of a short bark and a howl. When howling together, wolves harmonize rather than chorus on the same note, thus creating the illusion of there being more wolves than there actually are. Lone wolves typically avoid howling in areas where other packs are present. Wolves from different geographic locations may howl in different fashions: the howls of European wolves are much more protracted and melodious than those of North American wolves, whose howls are louder and have a stronger emphasis on the first syllable. The two are however mutually intelligible, as North American wolves have been recorded to respond to European-style howls made by biologists.\n",
"Wolves kill dogs wherever they are found together. One study reported that in Wisconsin in 1999 more compensation had been paid for losses due to wolves taking dogs than for wolves taking livestock. In Wisconsin wolves will often kill hunting dogs, possibly because the dogs are in the wolf's territory. A strategy has been reported in Russia where one wolf lures a dog into heavy brush where another wolf waits in ambush. In some instances, wolves have displayed an uncharacteristic fearlessness of humans and buildings when attacking dogs, to the extent that they have to be beaten off or killed. Although the numbers of dogs killed each year are relatively low, it induces a fear of wolves entering villages and farmyards to take dogs, and losses of dogs to wolves has led to demands for more liberal wolf hunting regulations.\n",
"Predatory attacks can occur at any time of the year, with a peak in the June–August period, when the chances of people entering forested areas (for livestock grazing or berry and mushroom picking) increase, though cases of non-rabid wolf attacks in winter have been recorded in Belarus, the Kirovsk and Irkutsk districts, in Karelia, and in Ukraine. Wolves with pups experience greater food stresses during this period.\n",
"Accounts as to how wolves react to being attacked by dogs vary, though John James Audubon wrote that young wolves generally show submissive behaviour, while older wolves fight savagely. As wolves are not as fast as smaller canids such as coyotes, they typically run to a low place and wait for the dogs to come over from the top and fight them. Theodore Roosevelt stressed the danger cornered wolves can pose to a pack of dogs in his \"Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches\":\n",
"On January 19, while Goodman was recovering from his injuries, two wolves were reported to have run after \"a little spaniel\" that was with him. The dog allegedly took comfort between Goodman's legs while he picked up a stick and threw it, managing to hit one of the wolves and drive them off. However, they soon returned. Goodman picked up a fence-post, ready to utilize it while the wolves sat nearby, \"grinning at him a good while\" before finally departing on their own. This is thought to be one of the earliest recorded wolf attacks in North America.\n"
] |
why is the ph of water important for plants but not animals?
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My tomato plants that I'm growing hydroponically (i.e. in water) grow within a pH range of about 5.5-7.0
My fish grow in a range of about 6.5 - 7.0.
So I think pH of water is important for both plants and animals, and probably even more important for animals? But it probably depends a lot on which plants and which animals, are they're all likely to have different abilities to cope with different pH levels.
Which animals and plants were you talking about in your question?
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[
"Soil pH is considered a master variable in soils as it affects many chemical processes. It specifically affects plant nutrient availability by controlling the chemical forms of the different nutrients and influencing the chemical reactions they undergo. The optimum pH range for most plants is between 5.5 and 7.5; however, many plants have adapted to thrive at pH values outside this range.\n",
"Plants are known to be well-defined with respect to their pH tolerance, and only a small number of species thrive well under a broad range of acidity. Therefore the categorization acidophile/acidophobe is well-defined. Sometimes a complementary classification is used (calcicole/calcifuge, with calcicoles being \"lime-loving\" plants). In gardening, soil pH is a measure of acidity or alkalinity of soil, with pH=7 indicating the neutral soil. Therefore acydophobes would prefer pH above 7. Acid intolerance of plants may be mitigated by lime addition and by calcium and nitrogen fertilizers.\n",
"Plants recognize water in their environment in order to absorb it for metabolic purposes. The universally used molecules must be sensed and absorbed in order to be used by these organisms. In plants, water can be sensed and is mainly absorbed through the roots, chiefly through young fine roots as compared to mother roots or older fine roots as shown with maize in Varney and Canny’s research. The direction and rate of growth of these roots towards water are of interest because these affect the efficiency of water acquisition.\n",
"The pH is a chemical parameter that measures the acidity or basicity of the water and is commonly measured in situ. Distilled water has a pH of 7, where less than 7 is considered acid and greater than 7 is considered basic. In most cases, low pH is due to organic overloading and low oxygen conditions in the water. This characteristic is strictly controlled because it has a direct effect on water ecosystems and sewer systems materials.\n",
"Plants share with animals the problems of obtaining water but, unlike in animals, the loss of water in plants is crucial to create a driving force to move nutrients from the soil to tissues. Certain plants have evolved methods of water conservation.\n",
"However, a plant may be intolerant of a particular pH in some soils as a result of a particular mechanism, and that mechanism may not apply in other soils. For example, a soil low in molybdenum may not be suitable for soybean plants at pH 5.5, but soils with sufficient molybdenum allow optimal growth at that pH. Similarly, some calcifuges (plants intolerant of high-pH soils) can tolerate calcareous soils if sufficient phosphorus is supplied. Another confounding factor is that different varieties of the same species often have different suitable soil pH ranges. Plant breeders can use this to breed varieties that can tolerate conditions that are otherwise considered unsuitable for that species – examples are projects to breed aluminium-tolerant and manganese-tolerant varieties of cereal crops for food production in strongly acidic soils.\n",
"These plants follow the same nocturnal acid accumulation and daytime deacidification as terrestrial CAM species. However, the reason for CAM in aquatic plants is not due to a lack of available water, but a limited supply of . is limited due to slow diffusion in water, 10000x slower than in air. The problem is especially acute under acid pH, where the only inorganic carbon species present is , with no available bicarbonate or carbonate supply.\n"
] |
why do tomato based foods stain tupperware?
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Tomatoes contain a compound called lycopene that reflects light strongly in the red portion of the visible spectrum. The lycopene binds to the plastic in the container causing it to take on a reddish tint.
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[
"Lycopene is the pigment in tomato-containing sauces, turning plastic cookware orange, and is insoluble in water. It can be dissolved only in organic solvents and oils. Because of its nonpolarity, lycopene in food preparations will stain any sufficiently porous material, including most plastics. To remove this staining, the plastics can be soaked in a solution containing a small amount of household bleach.\n",
"The sliced tomatoes may be dipped in a liquid before the cornmeal is added. This liquid is usually buttermilk or beaten egg; egg results in a slightly firmer texture than buttermilk. Liquids are used because cornmeal does not readily stick to tomato slices. Adding the liquid helps the cornmeal stay in place during the cooking process. It also results in the coating on the tomato becoming thicker and less crunchy when compared to tomatoes cooked without a liquid wash.\n",
"Tomato pomace is an inexpensive by-product of tomato manufacturing. Effectively, it is what is left over after processing tomatoes for juice, ketchup, soup, etc. It is sometimes used in pet and livestock food manufacturing as a source of dietary fiber, as well as B vitamins, Lycopene and (to a lesser extent) vitamin A. As the primary component of tomato pomace is the tomato skin, it has the potential for higher amounts of pesticide residues than tomatoes themselves. As tomato pomace tends to be about 75% water, the cost of shipping tends to be very high (due to weight). In California, where 95% of the processing tomatoes in the United States are grown, most of the pomace goes to dairies and is added to cattle feed. In the Midwest, the majority ends up in landfills.\n",
"Tomato purée can be used in soups, stews, sauces, or any other dish where the tomato flavor is desired, but not the texture. It is less often used by professional chefs, who find it to have an overly cooked flavor compared to other forms of canned tomatoes. This is sometimes a non-issue, as in long-cooked dishes, but in quick sauces such as a marinara sauce it is undesirable.\n",
"Some, such as the California Poison Control System, have claimed that tomatoes and tomato leaves contain solanine. However, Mendel Friedman of the United States Department of Agriculture contradicts this claim, stating that tomatine, a relatively benign alkaloid, is the tomato alkaloid while solanine is found in potatoes. Food science writer Harold McGee has found scant evidence for tomato toxicity in the medical and veterinary literature.\n",
"After being sorted, washed and chopped up, they proceed into large steel vats for preservation/precooking and also to destroy any bacteria that could be harmful to the rest of the processing period as well as for the consumer after production. The juice will be extracted out by a juice extraction system. The outer skin, seed, stem, and fiber of fruits would be separated from the liquid in a process known as pulping. Once separated, the juice and the pulp from the tomato get filtered and processed into ketchup. A smoother ketchup consistency is achieved through more filtering and screenings, weeding out any excess pulp.\n",
"Cleaning vegetables and plastics is controversial, since vegetables can be contaminated by soap and rinse aid from previous cycles, and some plastics which contain BPA or phthalates can emit them in the heat of a dishwasher.. Greasy tools and parts are not recommended, since the grease can clog the dishwasher.\n"
] |
dust
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Dust is made of a collection of things: dead skin, dust mites, dust mite feces, pollen, smoke, soil, hair, and other materials. Dust particles are very small and light so they get blown around easily in the air. They spread out to fill a room top-to-bottom like a [cloud in a bottle](_URL_0_) but for your whole house.
Some of the dust settles onto surfaces. Some surfaces, like doorknobs, you constantly touch which wipes the dust off the surface, before it builds up to a point where you can see it. If it's a surface that rarely gets disturbed, like the top of your television, it keeps building up until you grab a washcloth and wipe it down.
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[
"Dust is made of fine particles of solid matter. On Earth, it generally consists of particles in the atmosphere that come from various sources such as soil, dust lifted by wind (an aeolian process), volcanic eruptions, and pollution. Dust in homes, offices, and other human environments contains small amounts of plant pollen, human and animal hairs, textile fibers, paper fibers, minerals from outdoor soil, human skin cells, burnt meteorite particles, and many other materials which may be found in the local environment.\n",
"In \"Northern Lights\", Lord Asriel reveals the origins of the term \"Dust\" to be from a passage from the slightly alternative version of the Bible in Lyra's world: \"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return\" (). Dust was previously known (in Lyra Belacqua's universe) as 'Rusakov particles' named after their discoverer, Boris Mikhailovitch Rusakov. Rusakov discovers a field permeating the universe enabling consciousness; before the discovery of Dust, its existence is predicted, as \"\"the existence of a Rusakov field implies the existence of a related particle\"\".\n",
"\"Dust\" is a drug, smuggled from system to system in ways common to high-value/low-weight-and-bulk contraband. It trades at high prices and margins on the black markets, and is as hotly pursued by law enforcers in the way opiates are today. Implications are that if one is caught in possession or dealing, the penalties are quite harsh. Many black market operators refuse to deal dust because of the risks posed by law enforcement.\n",
"\"Dust\" is a song recorded by American country music group the Eli Young Band. It was released on February 3, 2014 as the second single from their fifth studio album, \"10,000 Towns\". The song was written by Jon Jones, James Young, Kyle Jacobs and Josh Osborne.\n",
"Dust can contain a number of materials including skin, mold and inorganic fragments like silica or sulfur. It is important to keep collections free of dust whenever possible because it can become bound to a surface over time, making it that significantly more difficult to remove. Dust is hygroscopic, meaning it is able to attract and hold water molecules creating an ideal climate for mold spores to grow and cause biological damage. This hygroscopic trait can also prompt chemical reactions on a surface, especially upon metals. Inorganic dust particles may have tough sharp edges which can cause a number of types of damage from tearing fibers to abrading softer surfaces if not properly removed. Wiping a clean cloth over a surface dusty with these inorganic particles may result in irreversible abrasions.\n",
"Dust in the atmosphere is produced by saltation and sandblasting of sand-sized grains, and it is transported through the troposphere. This airborne dust is considered an aerosol and once in the atmosphere, it can produce strong local radiative forcing. Saharan dust in particular can be transported and deposited as far as the Caribbean and the Amazon basin, and may affect air temperatures, cause ocean cooling, and alter rainfall amounts.\n",
"The dust is believed to have originated from far-western New South Wales and north-east South Australia. This includes an area known as the 'Corner Country', a dry, remote area of far-western New South Wales. In South Australia the dust may also have come from Lake Eyre Basin or the Woomera area, the latter raising concerns that it was radioactive and dangerous since the area contains the Olympic Dam uranium mine.\n"
] |
Before the arrival of the Magyars, who lived in Hungary?
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The Iazyges were a nomadic Sarmatian tribe located in around where Romania, Ukraine, and Hungary meet today. They were a constant thorn in the side of the Roman Empire from the 1st Century BCE. They constantly resisted assimiliation and were among the last of the Dacian peoples to be quelled. In the late 1st Century CE, they crossed the Danube into Roman Pannonia and defeated Legio XXI Rapax (who were disbanded afterwards). It was only when Trajan took control of the Empire (and the war in Dacia) where the Iazyges were conquered. In fact, future emperor Hadrian was the one that forced them to submit. They were reduced to a client state of the Roman Empire after this (107 CE).
EDIT: Professor pronounced them (ee-uh-zee-gees)
|
[
"Hungarians have had a thousand year old, and still living tradition about the Asian origins of Magyars. This tradition was preserved in medieval chronicles (such as Gesta Hungarorum and Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum) as early as the 13th century. This tradition served as starting point for the scientific research of the ethnogenesis of Hungarian people, which began in the 18th century, in Hungary and abroad. Sándor Kőrösi Csoma (the writer of the first Tibetan-English dictionary) traveled to Asia in the strong belief that he could find the kindred of Magyars in Turkestan, amongst the Uyghurs.\n",
"The earliest record of the Magyars (or Hungarians) is connected to their alliance with the Bulgars against a group of Byzantine prisoners who were planning to cross the Lower Danube in an attempt to return to their homeland around 837 AD. They dwelled in the steppes north and northwest of the Black Sea. A group of rebellious subjects of the Khazar Khaganate, known as Kabars, joined them, \n",
"The Magyars (or Hungarians) dwelled in the Pontic steppes when they first appeared in the written sources in the mid-9th century. Muslim merchants described them as wealthy nomadic warriors, but they also noticed that the Magyars had extensive arable lands. Masses of Magyars crossed the Carpathian Mountains after the Pechenegs invaded their lands in 894 or 895. They settled in the lowlands along the Middle Danube, annihilated Moravia and defeated the Bavarians in the 900s. Slovak historians write, at least three Hungarian noble kindreds were descended from Moravian aristocrats. Historians who say that the Vlachs (or Romanians) were already present in the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th century propose that the Vlach \"knezes\" (or chieftains) also survived the Hungarian Conquest. Neither of the two continuity theories is universally accepted.\n",
"The Hungarians are thought to have originated in an ancient Finno-Ugric population that originally inhabited the forested area between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains. At the time of the Magyar migration in the 10th century, the present-day Hungary was inhabited by Slavs, numbering about 200,000, who were either assimilated or enslaved by the Magyars.\n",
"The Magyars conquered much of Central Europe at the end of the 9th century. According to Gesta Hungarorum, the Vlach voivode Gelou ruled Transylvania before the Hungarians arrived. The Kingdom of Hungary established partial control over Transylvania in 1003, when king Stephen I, according to legend, defeated the prince named \"Gyula\". Some historians assert Transylvania was settled by Hungarians in several stages between the 10th and 13th centuries, while others claim that it was already settled, since the earliest Hungarian artifacts found in the region are dated to the first half of the 10th century.\n",
"The first recorded invasion of the Magyars (or Hungarians) from the Pontic steppes to Central Europe occurred in 861. The Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin started around 894. The contemporaneous Regino of Prüm recorded that the Magyars \"attacked the lands of the Carinthians, Moravians and Bulgars\" shortly after their arrival. The first extant Hungarian chronicle, the \"Gesta Hungarorum\", which was written centuries after the events, contains a more detailed narration of the Hungarian Conquest. The chronicle wrote of one Duke Glad, who had come \"from the castle of Vidin\" in Bulgaria and ruled Banat at the time of the arrival of the Hungarians. Glad's army was \"supported by Cumans, Bulgarians and Vlachs\", according to the same source. Historians debate whether Glad was a historical figure, or the unknown author of the \"Gesta Hungarorum\" invented him and his duchy to be able to write of the Magyars' heroic deeds during the conquest of their new homeland.\n",
"Hungarian prehistory () spans the period of history of the Hungarian people, or Magyars, which started with the separation of the Hungarian language from other Finno-Ugric or Ugric languages around , and ended with the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around . Based on the earliest records of the Magyars in Byzantine, Western European, and Hungarian chronicles, scholars considered them for centuries to have been the descendants of the ancient Scythians and Huns. This historiographical tradition disappeared from mainstream history after the realization of similarities between the Hungarian language and the Uralic languages in the late . Thereafter, linguistics became the principal source of the study of the Hungarians' ethnogenesis. In addition, chronicles written between the , the results of archaeological research and folklore analogies provide information on the Magyars' early history.\n"
] |
Does the total volume of precipitation in the sky vary? If so, by how much?
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Unsure what you are asking. Are you asking if the amount of water vapor varies? If so, it clearly does because humidity varies widely over the Earth.
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[
"Precipitation is distributed fairly evenly over all months of the year, and mostly originates from a westerly airflow. There is significant variation in precipitation with altitude. For example, Chamonix has an elevation of approximately and receives around of annual precipitation, whilst the Col du Midi, which is at above sea level, receives significantly more, totalling . However, at an even higher altitude (near to the summit of Mont Blanc) precipitation is considerably less, with only around recorded, despite the latter measurements being taken at a height of .\n",
"The overall mean precipitation is determined by balance between the evaporation of water from the oceans and surface water sources and the condensation of the atmospheric water vapor in the form of rain. The net evaporation should equal the net precipitation, and the δD value for the mean isotopic composition of global precipitation is around −22‰ (global average). The Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP) investigates and monitors the isotopic composition of precipitation at various sites all over the world. The mean precipitation can be estimated by the equation, δH = 8.17(±0.07) δO + 11.27(±0.65)‰ VSMOW. (Rozanski et al., 1993) This equation is the slightly modified version from the general 'Global Meteoric Water Line (GMWL)' equation, δH = 8.13δO + 10.8, which provides the average relationship between δH and δO of natural terrestrial waters.\n",
"A typical raindrop is about 2 mm in diameter, a typical cloud droplet is on the order of 0.02 mm, and a typical cloud condensation nucleus (aerosol) is on the order of 0.0001 mm or 0.1 µm or greater in diameter. The number of cloud condensation nuclei in the air can be measured and ranges between around 100 to 1000 per cubic centimetre. The total mass of CCNs injected into the atmosphere has been estimated at 2x10 kg over a year's time.\n",
"The raindrop size distribution (\"DSD\"), or granulometry of rain, is the distribution of the number of raindrops according to their diameter (D). Three processes account for the formation of drops: the accumulation of small drops on large drops and collisions between sizes. According to the time spent in the cloud, the vertical movement in it and the ambient temperature, the drops that have a very varied history and a distribution of diameters from a few micrometers to a few millimeters.\n",
"Rainfall rate equal to or greater than per hour is a cloudburst. However, different definitions are used, e.g. the Swedish weather service SMHI defines the corresponding Swedish term \"skyfall\" as 1 mm/min for short bursts and 50 mm/h for longer rainfalls. The associated convective cloud can extend up to a height of above the ground.\n",
"With little precipitation of about 300 to 350 mm per year, the region has between 120 and 150 days in the year where the sky is totally clear. April and October are the months with the most precipitation, there being frequent heavy downpours in a single day.\n",
"Precipitation is also correlated to elevation, with higher precipitation normally occurring at higher elevations and lower precipitation in the valleys. The mean annual precipitation of Henderson County is 56.2 inches, with a mean range of 45.04 to 78.03 inches. March has the highest mean precipitation of 5.1 inches, with a mean range of 3.9 to 6.7 inches. The lowest precipitation occurs in October, with a mean value of 3.9 inches and a mean range of 2.8 to 5.8 inches.\n"
] |
Before photo ID's how did people prove their identity? How would you get a check cashed?
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More of a legal history perspective, but contracts historically were based on trust. Basically you could cash a check because you said you were the person on the account. You would only need to prove your identity if there was something wrong with the transaction (someone else claimed it, the check was returned, etc.).
If in court you needed to prove your identity, you would have to do so by a preponderance of the evidence, which is to say that you would prove that it is more likely than not that you are who you say you are. You would use whatever you had at this point, family bible, a deed, a birth certificate if you had one, etc.
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[
"For financial transactions, ID cards and passports are almost always accepted as proof of identity. Due to possible forgery, driver's licenses are sometimes refused. For transactions by cheque involving a larger sum, two different ID documents are frequently requested by merchants.\n",
"Photographic identification appeared in 1876 but it did not become widely used until the early 20th century when photographs became part of passports and other ID documents such as driver's licenses, all of which came to be referred to as \"photo IDs\". Both Australia and Great Britain, for example, introduced the requirement for a photographic passport in 1915 after the so-called Lody spy scandal.\n",
"Photo identification or photo ID is an identity document that includes a photograph of the holder, usually only their face. The most commonly accepted forms of photo ID are those issued by government authorities, such as driver's licenses, identity cards and passports, but special-purpose photo IDs may be also produced, such as internal security or access control cards.\n",
"The method of signing one's name was captured with stylus and overlay starting in 1990. The strokes, speed, relative min, relative max, acceleration and pressure is used to uniquely identify and confirm identity. Banks were first offered this technology, but were content to collect from the FDIC for any bank fraud and did not want to inconvenience customers..\n",
"In the 1980s, many companies and even some individuals began using fax machines for high-priority or time-sensitive delivery of documents. Although the original signature on the original document was on paper, the image of the signature and its transmission was electronic.\n",
"Until the mid-1990s, the identification card was considered the only legally reliable document for many actions such as voting or opening a bank account. Since then, the new Israeli driver's licenses which include photos and extra personal information are now considered equally reliable for most of these transactions. In other situations any government-issued photo ID, such as a passport or a military ID, may suffice.\n",
"Authorities saw the need of checking identity of people in certain situations, to make sure which personal identity number the person in front of them had. For example, handling payment for sick leave, driver's licence tests or police arrests. For this usually the identity documents accepted by the banks were allowed, because there was no law regarding identity documents and how they were issued.\n"
] |
Why is Australia so hot even though it is so far south of the equator?
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Australia isn't that far south - depending on whether you're talking Darwin or Tasmania, you're roughly looking at the same latitudes as northern hemisphere locales such as Syria, Iraq, Spain and Mexico - all fairly warm in their own right.
Australia's also affected by a strong warm-water current, the Eastern Australia Current (or "E.A.C. of *Finding Nemo* fame). This is like the analog of the northern Atlantic's Gulf Stream, shunting warm equatorial Pacific water directly down Oz's eastern shore. So just as the Gulf Stream keeps the British Isles several degrees warmer than they would otherwise be (there are even a few palms in southern Ireland), the E.A.C. warms up that part of Australia that most Aussies call home.
Finally, it's notably, remarkably, lacking in mid-continent bodies of water that might ameliorate inland temperatures.
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[
"Australia's tropical/subtropical location and cold waters off the western coast make most of western Australia a hot desert with aridity, a marked feature of the greater part of the continent. These cold waters produce little moisture needed on the mainland. A 2005 study by Australian and American researchers investigated the desertification of the interior, and suggested that one explanation was related to human settlers who arrived about 50,000 years ago. Regular burning by these settlers could have prevented monsoons from reaching interior Australia. The outback covers 70 percent of the continent.\n",
"Australia's tropical/subtropical location and cold waters off the western coast make most of Western Australia a hot desert with aridity a marked feature of a greater part of the continent. These cold waters produce precious little moisture needed on the mainland. A 2005 study by Australian and American researchers investigated the desertification of the interior, and suggested that one explanation was related to human settlers who arrived about 50,000 years ago.\n",
"Australia's climate is governed mostly by its size and by the hot, sinking air of the subtropical high pressure belt. This moves north and south with the seasons. The climate is variable, with frequent droughts lasting several seasons, thought to be caused in part by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. Australia has a wide variety of climates due to its large geographical size. The largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid. Only the south-east and south-west corners have a temperate climate and moderately fertile soil. The northern part of the country has a tropical climate, varying between tropical rainforests, grasslands and desert.\n",
"The tropical savannah zone of Northern Australia is warm to hot all year. Summers are hot in most of the country with average January maximum temperatures exceeding 30 °C over most of the mainland, except for high elevations. Winters are warm in the north and cool in the south, with nightly frosts common in inland areas south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Only at the highly elevated areas do wintertime temperatures approach those found in much of Europe or North America, especially the southern parts.\n",
"The Australian landmass's climate is mostly desert or semi-arid, with the southern coastal corners having a temperate climate, such as oceanic and humid subtropical climate in the east coast and Mediterranean climate in the west. The northern parts of the country have a tropical climate. Snow falls frequently on the highlands near the east coast, in the states of Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and in the Australian Capital Territory. Temperatures in Australia have ranged from above to well below . Nonetheless, minimum temperatures are moderated. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation is associated with seasonal abnormality in many areas in the world. Australia is one of the continents most affected and experiences extensive droughts alongside considerable wet periods.\n",
"Climate change in Australia has been a critical issue since the beginning of the 21st century. In 2013, the CSIRO released a report stating that Australia is becoming hotter, and that it will experience more extreme heat and longer fire seasons because of climate change. In 2014, the Bureau of Meteorology released a report on the state of Australia's climate that highlighted several key points, including the significant increase in Australia's temperatures (particularly night-time temperatures) and the increasing frequency of bush fires, droughts and floods, which have all been linked to climate change.\n",
"According to the Bureau of Meteorology's 2011 Australian Climate Statement, Australia had lower than average temperatures in 2011 as a consequence of a La Niña weather pattern; however, \"the country's 10-year average continues to demonstrate the rising trend in temperatures, with 2002–2011 likely to rank in the top two warmest 10-year periods on record for Australia, at above the long-term average\". Furthermore, 2014 was Australia's third warmest year since national temperature observations commenced in 1910.\n"
] |
why is murder always the most severely punishable crime?
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Imagine a society where there are only two capital crimes: murder and robbery. For the sake of argument let us say any crime with a surviving victim has a 75% chance of being "solved" and any crime with a dead victim has a 45% chance of being "solved."
If you murder someone, there is a 45% chance you will be caught, tried, and then executed.
If you rob someone and then leave them alive, there is a 75% chance you will be caught, tried, and then executed.
If you rob someone and then murder them, there is a 45% chance you will be caught, tried and then executed.
See how murder just changed you chances of execution from 75% to 45%? That is exactly what a lawful society should avoid. You never want to make murder attractive for a criminal. You want, if possible, to maximize the chance the victim lives and the criminal is brought to justice.
Your punishments should be tiered to reflect this. You want the criminal to think "Killing this person isn't worth the smaller risk of much greater punishment."
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[
"Most societies consider murder to be an extremely serious crime, and thus believe that the person charged should receive harsh punishments for the purposes of retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, or incapacitation. In most countries, a person convicted of murder generally faces a long-term prison sentence, possibly a life sentence; and in a few, the death penalty may be imposed.\n",
"Murder laws worldwide vary a great deal, but a murder involving torture will generally attract a harsher penalty than a murder alone. Legal mechanisms of penalty enhancement vary between jurisdictions. In the laws of Italy, Germany, Norway, and many parts of the United States, there are two or more \"degrees\" of murder, with wording such as: \"\"...inflicting torture upon the victim prior to the victim's death\"\" typically used to rule that the highest degree should apply. In other jurisdictions, it may be that even if there was just one crime of murder, the sentencing practices and guidelines are such that the aggravating circumstance of any torture will nevertheless allow for a harsher than normal penalty.\n",
"Murder is the most serious crime that can be charged following a homicide. In many jurisdictions, homicide may be punished by life in prison or even capital punishment. Although categories of murder can vary by jurisdiction, murder charges fall under two broad categories:\n",
"Murder, as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent (or malice aforethought), and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide (such as manslaughter). As the loss of a human being inflicts an enormous amount of grief for individuals close to the victim, as well as the fact that the commission of a murder permanently deprives the victim of their existence, most societies have considered it a very serious crime deserving of the harshest punishment available. Typically a convicted murder suspect is given a life sentence or even the death penalty for such an act. A person who commits murder is called a murderer, and the penalties, as outlined below, vary from state to state.\n",
"In the United States, the law regarding murder varies by jurisdiction. In most U.S. jurisdictions there is a hierarchy of acts, known collectively as homicide, of which first degree murder and felony murder are the most serious, followed by second degree murder, followed by voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter which are not as serious, and ending finally in justifiable homicide, which is not a crime at all. However, because there are at least 52 relevant jurisdictions, each with its own criminal code, this is a considerable simplification.\n",
"In the United States and Canada, these murders are referred to as first-degree or aggravated murders. Murder, under English criminal law, always carries a mandatory life sentence, but is not classified into degrees. Penalties for murder committed under aggravating circumstances are often higher, under English law, than the 15-year minimum non-parole period that otherwise serves as a starting point for a murder committed by an adult.\n",
"\"One who murders because the prohibition to kill is meaningless to him, and he is especially cruel, and so too when murderers and evil people proliferate, they [the courts] would [should?] judge [capital punishment] to repair the issue [and] to prevent murder – for this [action of the court] saves the state.\"\n"
] |
airplane formations
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Different formations serve different purposes. Some just look good for display, and some are designed to maximize the aircraft's effectiveness in combat.
Especially in the pre-missile-and-radar days it was important for combat aircraft to fly in mutually supporting formations. Bombers flew in tight box formations to maximize the effect of their defensive guns. Fighters generally flew in 2-ship elements. You attack, your wingman watches your back. Other elements of the formation would stay high, to watch for enemy fighters, etc.
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[
"Several variants of the formation are seen. The formation most commonly used in the United States is based on the “finger-four” aircraft combat formation composed of two pairs of aircraft. The aircraft fly in a V-shape with the flight leader at the point and his wingman on his left. The second element leader and his wingman fly to his right. The formation flies over the ceremony low enough to be clearly seen and the second element leader abruptly pulls up out of the formation while the rest of the formation continues in level flight until all aircraft are out of sight.\n",
"\"Flight formation aerobatics\" are flown by teams of up to sixteen aircraft, although most teams fly between four and ten aircraft. Some are state funded to reflect pride in the armed forces while others are commercially sponsored. Coloured smoke trails may be emitted to emphasise the patterns flown and/or the colours of a national flag. Usually each team will use aircraft similar to one another finished in a special and dramatic colour scheme, thus emphasising their entertainment function.\n",
"Teams often fly V-formations (otherwise known as echelon formation)— they will not fly directly behind another aircraft because of danger from wake vortices or engine exhaust. Aircraft will always fly slightly below the aircraft in front, if they have to follow in line (the \"trail formation\").\n",
"BULLET::::- The Italian \"Corpo Aeronautico Militare\" (\"Military Aviation Corps\") holds experimental maneuvers in Friuli, Italy, to test the ability of military aircraft to coordinate troop movements on the ground by informing ground commanders of the movements of friendly and enemy ground forces. The experiment is less successful than hoped because of communication difficulties.\n",
"In Angola and Mozambique, Volunteer Air Formations (FAV, \"Formações Aéreas Voluntárias\") units were formed, composed of civilian volunteer pilots who assisted the Air Force in several missions, mostly transport and reconnaissance, using both civilian and military light aircraft.\n",
"The term originated in combat aviation in various international military aviation communities shortly before and after the advent of fighter jets. Pilots flying in formation, especially when in combat training or in actual aerial combat, refer to the pilot immediately next to them (traditionally on their right, sometimes on either side) as their \"wingman\" (i.e. the man on their wing). In actual aerial combat pilots are often trained to attack and defend in pairs watching out for each other, thereby making the term even more clearly demonstrated. The term is also very commonly used in combat aviation on longer range aviation patrols which are often carried out by only two fighter planes, sometimes manned by only two pilots depending on the type of aircraft. On these two plane patrols (Air Force) or \"watches\" (Naval Aviators flying protective patterns around surface vessels on timed intervals) referring to the pilot that an aviator is teamed with on patrol as their \"wingman\" is very common.\n",
"The troop aircraft formations were widely scattered due to a combination of low clouds, poor visibility and enemy anti-aircraft fire. This caused highly scattered drops and units were widely dispersed across the battlefront. The ensuing action bore little resemblance to their briefing, but because the soldiers were well prepared, the regiment and the division accomplished its multiple missions, but none of them as rehearsed. The success was credited to the initiative, stamina, and daring of individual parachutists, who decided how best to accomplish some part of the overall mission. The capture of a key causeway from Utah Beach at Pouppeville by a scratch force of about 100 officers and men, formed around a nucleus from the 3rd Battalion (division reserve) of the 501st, was typical. Members of this ad hoc force included both General Maxwell Taylor and Assistant Division Commander Gerald Higgins. General Taylor later quipped that, \"Never were so few led by so many.\"\n"
] |
Are there any well written/ researched historical books specifically about the America atomic dread and how it influenced culture and art?
|
Indeed, there are!
My favorite, for its breath and scope, is Spencer Weart's _Nuclear Fear: A History of Images_ (1988). There is a revised/updated edition out recently as well, though I prefer the original. It covers public attitudes (in a number of countries) about radioactivity and nuclear energy from the 19th century through the 1980s. It is very well written and one of my favorite academic books.
The other big book on this, though its time period and geographical focus is much narrower, is Paul Boyer, _By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age_ (1985/1994).
There are other books on this subject as well, though I think most historians would list these at the very top.
|
[
"\"The Atomic Cafe\" was released at the height of nostalgia and cynicism in America. By 1982, Americans lost much of their faith in their government following the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, and the seemingly never-ending arms race with the Soviet Union. \"The Atomic Cafe\" reflects and reinforces this idea as it exposes how the atomic bomb's dangers were downplayed and how the government used films to shape public opinion.\n",
"Tonn reminds us that both the narrated time and the moment of the Novel's first appearance were periods of transition. The United States in the decades of the 1960s and 70's underwent a series of deep societal changes which some scholars deem as apocalyptic to U.S. society as the detonation of the Atomic bomb was to the New Mexican peoples in 1945. Berger(2000:388),cited in Keyword:Apocalypse, outlines two additional areas of post war apocalyptic representation after (1) nuclear war, and (2) the Holocaust. They are (3) apocalypses of liberation (feminist, African American, postcolonial) and (4) what is loosely called \"postmodernity\".\n",
"The novel postulates that the War Department's interest in \"Astounding Science Fiction Magazine\", because of the publication of fictional stories postulating nuclear research programs similar to the historical Manhattan Project, prompted Russian spies to early knowledge of the US nuclear weapons program, eventually leading to the sinking of the \"Indianapolis\" because of the possibility it was carrying one of the early atomic bombs to use against Japan.\n",
"American comic books have always carried patriotic tones, especially during the cold war—perhaps the most notable example is the character Captain America. 9/11 shifted the political climate and with it re-centered the public's attention on Muslims. Perhaps the most mainstream example of the influence 9/11 had on comic books is Iron Man, who was previously an anti-communist crusader; his canon was rewritten in comics after 9/11 and in the widely popular 2008 film Iron Man. In the film billionaire Tony Stark learns his weapons were sold without his knowledge to various terrorist groups after he was kidnapped and tortured in Afghanistan.\n",
"Paul Brians' \"\" (1987) is a study that examines atomic war in short stories, novels, and films between 1895 and 1984. Since this measure of destruction was no longer imaginary, some of these new works, such as Nevil Shute's \"On the Beach\" (1957), which was subsequently twice adapted for film (in 1959 and 2000), Mordecai Roshwald's \"Level 7\" (1959), Pat Frank's \"Alas, Babylon\" (1959), and Robert McCammon's \"Swan Song\" (1987), shun the imaginary science and technology that are the identifying traits of general science fiction. Others include more fantastic elements, such as mutants, alien invaders, or exotic future weapons such as James Axler's \"Deathlands\" (1986).\n",
"Thackara explored the making of the first atomic bomb in his first published novel, \"America's Children\". A lightly fictionalised biography of Robert Oppenheimer, it was purchased in 1984 by Chatto and Windus. The commercial success of \"The Book of Kings\" caused \"America's Children\" to be republished in Britain after 19 years, and for it to be published in the US for the first time in 2002. In one of the book's first reviews, \"The Economist\" praised the \"trenchant novel\"...for \"depicting the drama of Oppenheimer torn between lust for scientific achievement and horror of prospective success.\"\n",
"In 2002 he published his first full-length book, \"Survival City: Adventures Among the Ruins of Atomic America\". \"H-Net Reviews\" said of the book, \"Survival City offers an insightful exploration of the ruins of atomic America that demands attention in our current moment. In the poignant aftermath of September 11 the futility of Cold War architecture suggested throughout the book takes on new resonance.\"\n"
] |
How did Jefferson Davis get out of treason charges?
|
The short answer is there are a variety of reasons. This actually goes into law a little bit so I will be in uncharted territory.
So Davis was indicted for treason. But when he went before the judge his team argued that due to the 14th Amendment he was already punished for insurrection against the US, as under the 14th Amendment anyone who takes an oath of public office and commits an insurrection can no longer hold public office.
However the chief justice gave him an interesting argument. As Davis was president of another nation, he wasn't technically a citizen and couldn't be tried for treason for that reason.
In the end, Andrew Johnson pardoned him and all ex-confederates anyways, so any outcome would have been moot due to this.
|
[
"Davis was indicted for treason but never tried; he was released from prison on bail in May 1867. The amnesty of December 25, 1868, by President Johnson eliminated any possibility of Jefferson Davis (or anyone else associated with the Confederacy) standing trial for treason.\n",
"Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe, by the Hampton Roads harbor of tidewater Virginia, until his release on bail on May 13, 1867. During his confinement, the United States federal government prepared to bring him to trial for treason and for complicity in the assassination of United States President Abraham Lincoln. He could not be tried in the Commonwealth of Virginia until the Federal court was reestablished there, but by the time the U.S. Circuit Court judges were prepared in May 1867, the U.S. Federal government decided the outcome of a trial before a local jury of citizens was far too uncertain and dropped the prosecution proceedings. In November 1868, Davis was brought to trial under a new indictment, but the Federal lower court judges disagreed and the case was referred up to the Supreme Court. 17th President Andrew Johnson issued a general amnesty in December 1868 and the Supreme Court entered a nolle prosequi, thus freeing Davis.\n",
"BULLET::::- Jefferson Davis – President of the Confederate States of America, was arrested and accused of treason in 1865. Charges were brought in 1868 but was absolved of any guilt for participation in the Civil War by President Andrew Johnson's Fourth Amnesty Proclamation on Christmas Day of that year. Posthumously pardoned.\n",
"In this position, in May 1866, Underwood presided over the grand jury that indicted Confederate president Jefferson Davis for treason, and later denied him bail because he was in the custody of military authorities. Later, however, Underwood allowed Davis's Northern supporters to post a $100,000 bond, and released him from custody in May 1867 (after delivering a long and vituperative speech). Underwood also presided over a grand jury in Norfolk that indicted Confederate General Robert E. Lee on June 7, 1865, but General Ulysses Grant and other federal government officials ignored the indictment as contrary to the surrender terms at Appomattox Courthouse. Salmon P. Chase, who by that time had become Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, reportedly worried that after Underwood had testified before Congress (the Joint Committee on Reconstruction) about being able to pack a jury, he was incapable of conducting politically sensitive trials of the former Confederate leaders. Other government officials apparently concurred, and failed to press the prosecutions.\n",
"During the American Civil War, treason trials were held in Indianapolis against Copperheads for conspiring with the Confederacy against the United States. After the war the question was whether the United States government would make indictments for treason against leaders of the Confederate States of America, as many people demanded. Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, was indicted and held in prison for two years. The indictment was dropped in 1869 when the political scene had changed and it was possible he would be acquitted by a jury in Virginia. When accepting Lee's surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, at Appomattox, in April 1865, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant assured all Confederate soldiers and officers a blanket amnesty, provided they returned to their homes and refrained from any further acts of hostility, and subsequently other Union generals issued similar terms of amnesty when accepting Confederate surrenders. All Confederate officials received a blanket amnesty issued by President Andrew Johnson as he left office in 1869.\n",
"The corruption case against then Louisiana Representative William J. Jefferson in the United States started on a suspicion of bribery. The FBI raided his Congressional offices in May 2006. He was re-elected to his seat in the fall. On June 4, 2007, a federal grand jury indicted Jefferson on sixteen charges related to corruption. Jefferson was defeated by Republican Joseph Cao on December 6, 2008, and was the most senior Democratic incumbent to lose re-election that year. In 2009 he was tried in the US District Court in Virginia on corruption charges. On August 5, 2009, he was found guilty of 11 of the 16 corruption counts. Jefferson was sentenced to 13 years on November 13, 2009, the longest sentence ever given to a representative for bribery or any charge.\n",
"In 1865 Clifford was chosen to act as one of the special counsels prosecuting former Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis was to be prosecuted for treason, but for a variety of reasons the charges were eventually dropped after four years of political and legal wrangling. Clifford contributed to a debate in 1866 over the difficulty of prosecuting Davis in Virginia, noting that without essentially packing the jury, a failed prosecution would result in the awkward outcome of a Virginia jury in some sense overturning the outcome of the war. He resigned from these duties in July 1866.\n"
] |
why does light only penetrate 1000 meters of the ocean and not the entire ocean?
|
No one seems to be answering your question with photons:
Think about light from the sun as a hail of lots of photons.
Each photon travels until it hits something. Some things can “bounce” photons off them, some things just suck in the photon.
Lots of photons from the sun make it through the air and start travelling into the water. But seawater has stuff floating in it that absorbs photons. For each metre of water, some photons will hit something, and some will make it through without hitting anything.
If you look for photons 300 metres deep in the sea, you will only find the very lucky photons who made it through 300 metres of water without hitting anything, and hardly any photons are that lucky.
Edit: I just thought of a good analogy – it’s like a crazy guy spraying a machine gun around in a forest. Bullets stop when they hit a tree, but some bullets can go quite far before they hit a tree. If you can get a mile away from the crazy machine gun guy, your chances of getting hit go down to practically zero.
Edit 2: please stop accusing me of being an American.
|
[
"The amount of light that penetrates the sea depends on the angle of the sun, the weather conditions and the turbidity of the water. Much light gets reflected at the surface, and red light gets absorbed in the top few metres. Yellow and green light reach greater depths, and blue and violet light may penetrate as deep as . There is insufficient light for photosynthesis and plant growth beyond a depth of about .\n",
"Oceanographers have divided the ocean into zones based on how far light reaches. All of the light zones can be found in the oceanic zone. The epipelagic zone is the one closest to the surface and is the best lit. It extends to 100 meters and contains both phytoplankton and zooplankton that can support larger organisms like marine mammals and some types of fish. Past 100 meters, not enough light penetrates the water to support life, and no plant life exists.\n",
"With increasing depth underwater, sunlight is absorbed, and the amount of visible light diminishes. Because absorption is greater for long wavelengths (red end of the visible spectrum) than for short wavelengths (blue end of the visible spectrum), the colour spectrum is rapidly altered with increasing depth. White objects at the surface appear bluish underwater, and red objects appear dark, even black. Although light penetration will be less if water is turbid, in the very clear water of the open ocean less than 25% of the surface light reaches a depth of 10 m (33 feet). At 100 m (330 ft) the light present from the sun is normally about 0.5% of that at the surface.\n",
"54% of the ocean lies in the bathypelagic (aphotic) zone into which no light penetrates. This is also called the midnight zone and the deep ocean. Due to the complete lack of sunlight, photosynthesis cannot occur and the only light source is bioluminescence. Water pressure is very intense and the temperatures are near freezing (range ).\n",
"Most of the marine resources are invisible when traveling on the surface. Underwater vision is very limited in the ocean. Light penetrates the ocean until about in the sunlight (euphotic) zone. After that sunlight and visibility decreases rapidly in the twilight (dysphotic) zone. The water can also be murky. At a depth of there is perpetual darkness in the midnight (aphotic) zone. So other methods must be used for humans to see in the ocean. Eventually you'll reach the seabed \n",
"Being just above the ocean floor, the demersal zone is variable in depth and can be part of the photic zone where light can penetrate and photosynthetic organisms grow, or the aphotic zone, which begins between depths of roughly and extends to the ocean depths, where no light penetrates.\n",
"The epipelagic zone (0–200m) is the area where light penetrates the water and photosynthesis occurs. This is also known as the photic zone. Because this typically extends only a few hundred meters below the water, the deep sea, about 90% of the ocean volume, is in darkness. The deep sea is also an extremely hostile environment, with temperatures that rarely exceed 3 °C (37.4 °F) and fall as low as −1.8 °C (28.76 °F) (with the exception of hydrothermal vent ecosystems that can exceed 350 °C, or 662 °F), low oxygen levels, and pressures between 20 and 1,000 atmospheres (between 2 and 100 megapascals).\n"
] |
If you have an addiction, and suddenly get amnesia, will you know what you crave, even if you can't remember it consciously?
|
Amnesia, to my knowledge, only affects conscious memory, so you will still have the cravings but you most likely will not remember what you are craving.
|
[
"Drug-induced amnesia is the idea of selectively losing or inhibiting the creation of memories using drugs. Amnesia can be used as a treatment for patients who have experienced psychological trauma or for medical procedures where full anesthesia is not an option. Drug-induced amnesia is also a side-effect of other drugs like alcohol and rohypnol.\n",
"Delirium, a mental confusion and emotional disruption, is caused by the sudden change in the brain. Thinking, remembering, sleeping, and paying attention can become difficult during alcohol withdrawal, after surgery, or with dementia. Dementia, a decline in mental ability, can be severe or not, and can interfere with daily life and cause memory loss in most instances. Amnestic pertains to amnesia and is the impairment in ability to learn or recall new information, or recall previously learned information. Although similar, it is not coupled with dementia or delirium.\n",
"In the case of drug-induced amnesia, it may be short-lived and patients can recover from it. In the other case, which has been studied extensively since the early 1970s, patients often have permanent damage, although some recovery is possible, depending on the nature of the pathophysiology. Usually, some capacity for learning remains, although it may be very elementary. In cases of pure anterograde amnesia, patients have recollections of events prior to the injury, but cannot recall day-to-day information or new facts presented to them after the injury occurred.\n",
"Psychogenic amnesia is not part of Freud's theoretical framework. The memories still exist buried deeply in the mind, but could be resurfaced at any time on their own or from being exposed to a trigger in the person's surroundings. Psychogenic amnesia is generally found in cases where there is a profound and surprising forgetting of chunks of one's personal life, whereas motivated forgetting includes more day-to-day examples in which people forget unpleasant memories in a way that would not call for clinical evaluation.\n",
"People experiencing psychogenic amnesia have impaired episodic memory, instances of wandering and traveling, and acceptance of a new identity as a result of inaccessible memories pertaining to their previous identity.\n",
"While amnesia can be induced very easily, there is the other side of the spectrum: remembering \"everything\". Take Solomon Shereshevsky, who was sent to neurologist Aleksandr Luria by someone at a meeting after noticing Shereshevsky was not taking notes but could repeat everything he had said from that morning verbatim. He could remember things for years.\n",
"The atypical clinical syndrome of the memory disorder (as opposed to organic amnesia) is that a person with psychogenic amnesia is profoundly unable to remember personal information about themselves; there is a lack of conscious self-knowledge which affects even simple self-knowledge, such as who they are. Psychogenic amnesia is distinguished from organic amnesia in that it is supposed to result from a nonorganic cause; no structural brain damage or brain lesion should be evident but some form of psychological stress should precipitate the amnesia, however psychogenic amnesia as a memory disorder is controversial.\n"
] |
doing x in your life decreases/increases your risk of getting y cancer by z%. how do they determine the percent risk?
|
They look at a sample of the population, made up of varying groups within that sample, and they look at their habits and the outcomes.
If they notice that some men are not getting cancer while others are, or some men are being hospitalized for similar reasons while others aren't, they then look at the similarities between the men are try to find a cause.
Once they have that cause, they try and look at why it might be the case.
For cigarettes they know that people who smoke and inhaling cancerous chemicals, and that's why their risk of cancer is increased.
For (I'm assuming coffee) drinkers, it might be because the caffeine is A) giving their heart a boost and a little work out by beating faster and therefore minorly improving cardio B) caffeine is a diuretic and therefore may flush stuff out of the body
They then run more tests to conclusively prove these theories and then release the information.
|
[
"For example, when studying risk factors of cancer, the cancer process may have been triggered long before actual diagnosis of cancer, and that therefore any exposure to risk factors in the \"lag\" time between may be unimportant.\n",
"The ICPR 65 model follows the same approach, and estimates the relative lifelong risk probability of radon-induced cancer death to 1.23 × 10 per Bq/(m·year). This relative risk is a global indicator; the risk estimation is independent of sex, age, or smoking habit. Thus, if a smoker's chances of dying of lung cancer are 10 times that of a nonsmoker's, the relative risks for a given radon exposure will be the same according to that model, meaning that the absolute risk of a radon-generated cancer for a smoker is (implicitly) tenfold that of a nonsmoker.\n",
"A large follow up study (3119 patients; average follow up 24 years) has found significant variation in the cancer rates depending on the mutation involved. Up to the age of 75 years the risks of colorectal cancer, endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer, upper gastrointestinal (gastric, duodenal, bile duct or pancreatic), urinary tract cancers, prostate cancer and brain tumours were as follows: for MLH1 mutations the risk was - 46%, 43%, 10%, 21%, 8%, 17% and 1% respectively: for MSH2 mutations the risks were 57%, 17%, 10%, 25%, 32%, and 5% respectively: for MSH6 mutations the risks were 15%, 46%, 13%, 7%, 11%, 18% and 1% respectively.\n",
"Several meta-analyses have found no increased risk of cancer, and some meta-analyses have found a reduced risk. Specifically, statins may reduce the risk of esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, and possibly prostate cancer. They appear to have no effect on the risk of lung cancer, kidney cancer, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, or bladder cancer.\n",
"In clinical studies, as well as in some other settings, the parameter of greatest interest is often the relative risk rather than the odds ratio. The relative risk is best estimated using a population sample, but if the rare disease assumption holds, the odds ratio is a good approximation to the relative risk — the odds is \"p\" / (1 − \"p\"), so when \"p\" moves towards zero, 1 − \"p\" moves towards 1, meaning that the odds approaches the risk, and the odds ratio approaches the relative risk. When the rare disease assumption does not hold, the odds ratio can overestimate the relative risk.\n",
"Between 2013 and 2015, mortality rates appear to have stabilized. It has been suggested that declines in mortality rates in certain jurisdictions reflect the benefit of PSA screening,[3] but others have noted that these observations may be explained by independent phenomena such as improved treatments. The estimated lifetime risk of a prostate cancer diagnosis is about 14.0%, and the lifetime risk of dying from this disease is 2.6%. Cancer statistics from the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) indicated that between 2005 and 2011, the proportion of disease diagnosed at a locoregional stage was 93% for whites and 92% for African Americans; the proportion of disease diagnosed at a late stage was 4% for whites and 5% for African Americans. An autopsy study of white and Asian men also found an increase in occult prostate cancer with age, reaching nearly 60% in men older than 80 years. More than 50% of cancers in Asian men and 25% of cancers in white men had a Gleason score of 7 or greater, suggesting that Gleason score may be an imprecise indicator of clinically insignificant prostate cancer.\n",
"Cancer slope factors (CSF) are used to estimate the risk of cancer associated with exposure to a carcinogenic or potentially carcinogenic substance. A slope factor is an upper bound, approximating a 95% confidence limit, on the increased cancer risk from a lifetime exposure to an agent by ingestion or inhalation. This estimate, usually expressed in units of proportion (of a population) affected per mg of substance/kg body weight-day, is generally reserved for use in the low-dose region of the dose-response relationship, that is, for exposures corresponding to risks less than 1 in 100. Slope factors are also referred to as cancer potency factors (PF).\n"
] |
baby boomers and the animosity towards them
|
Copy-Pasta of my comment from [this thread](_URL_0_).
> When the US had crushing debt after WWII, the top marginal tax rate was raised to over 90%(!!!). Our debt was far worse than today and the WWII generation was not willing to pass that debt on to their children. This WWII debt was paid off relatively quickly and responsibly.
>
> The boomer generation is very often criticized because they have been hesitant to take similar action in the public sphere. The Cold War again caused national debt to skyrocket, but instead of raising taxes, they lowered them and let the debt balloon. Instead of reforming programs that are on shaky ground, they insist the government not touch them.
>
> To many, they just seem awfully close to violating the Boy Scout Rule, not leaving the country better than they found it. The 60s-70s were no utopia, don't get me wrong, but people see problems they definitely could have solved or at least contained which they did not.
Their stewardship of the country has left a lot to be desired in many peoples' eyes.
|
[
"Baby Boomers, born approximately between 1946 and 1964 were brought up in a healthy post war economy and saw the world revolving around them as the largest generation of the century. Their lifestyle is to live for work and they often expect the same level of dedication and work ethics from the next generations. They are said to prefer face to face communication, are interactive team players and attain personal fulfilment from work. Baby Boomers are often branded workaholics leaving little to no work-life balance which has inevitably led to a breakdown in family values which has influenced the next generation. They are said to be loyal to their organisations, enjoy the notion of lifetime employment and prefer to be valued or needed as opposed to rewarded with recognition or money. An article by Emma Simon in the \"Daily Telegraph\" describes them as the 'post war generation' who have enjoyed an \"unbroken run of good-luck\".\n",
"This population is sometimes referred to as Generation Jones, and less commonly as Tweeners. These cuspers were not as financially successful as older Baby Boomers. They experienced a recession like many Generation Xers but had a much more difficult time finding jobs than Generation X did. While they learned to be IT-savvy, they didn't have computers until after high school but were some of the first to purchase them for their homes. They were among some of the first to take an interest in video games. They get along well with Baby Boomers, but share different values. While they are comfortable in office environments, they are more relaxed at home. They're less interested in advancing their careers than Baby Boomers and more interested in quality of life.\n",
"The introspection of the baby boomers and their focus on self-fulfillment has been examined in a serious light in pop culture. Films such as \"An Unmarried Woman\" (1978), \"Kramer vs. Kramer\" (1979), \"Ordinary People\" (1980) and \"The Big Chill\" (1983) brought the inner struggles of baby boomers to a wide audience. The self-absorbed side of 1970s life was given a sharp and sometimes poignant satirization in \"Manhattan\" (1979). More acerbic lampooning came in \"Shampoo\" (1975) and \"Private Benjamin\" (1980). The Me generation has also been satirized in retrospect, as the generation called \"Generation X\" reached adulthood, for example, in \"Parenthood\" (1989). \"Forrest Gump\" (1994) summed up the decade with Gump's cross-country jogging quest for meaning during the 1970s, complete with a tracksuit, which was worn as much as a fashion statement as an athletic necessity during the era.\n",
"Critic Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat wrote, \"Here's a nice little movie about the baby boom generation...Novelist John Sayles wrote, directed, and edited this movie. It is a labor of love. We watch these laidback individuals share their stories and reminisce about the past...But these baby boomers can't handle tension; the rift between Jeff and Maura sends tremors through the weekend. And although they put up a front of having a good time, one senses that things haven't turned out well for them — either in terms of meaningful relationships or in terms of personal fulfillment. \"Return of the Secaucus Seven\" leaves one with a rueful feeling about this generation.\"\n",
"Boomsday, a 2007 novel by Christopher Buckley, is a political satire about the rivalry between squandering Baby Boomers and younger generations of Americans who do not want to pay high taxes for their elders' retirement.\n",
"More generally, however, the term is used as a catch-all phrase for those individuals of the baby boomer generation in the United States who subscribed to the values of the American counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s. The term is often interchangeable with hippie, although the latter term is sometimes used as an oath of derision.\n",
"As the children of the baby boomers advance from below, the Gen-Xers, usually with middle management jobs, feel threatened and trapped in a job that is going nowhere and might be given away to the next younger candidate.\n"
] |
Do bent space-time and gravitons both cause objects in space to attract one another?
|
They are different descriptions of the same thing. Changes in the gravitational field propagate as gravitational radiation, and quanta of gravitational radiation are called gravitons. The classical limit of a spin-2 massless (graviton) quantum field theory is general relativity.
|
[
"This is because gravitation is an attractive force, but if there is an underdense region it apparently acts as a gravitational repeller, based on the concept that there may be less attraction in the direction of the underdensity, and the greater attraction due to the higher density in other directions acts to pull objects away from the underdensity; in other words, the apparent repulsion is not an active force, but due simply to the lack of a force counteracting the attraction.\n",
"In Einstein's theory of general relativity, gravitation is an attribute of curved spacetime instead of being due to a force propagated between bodies. In Einstein's theory, masses distort spacetime in their vicinity, and other particles move in trajectories determined by the geometry of spacetime. The gravitational force is a fictitious force. There is no gravitational acceleration, in that the proper acceleration and hence four-acceleration of objects in free fall are zero. Rather than undergoing an acceleration, objects in free fall travel along straight lines (geodesics) on the curved spacetime.\n",
"These objections were explained by Einstein's theory of general relativity, in which gravitation is an attribute of curved spacetime instead of being due to a force propagated between bodies. In Einstein's theory, energy and momentum distort spacetime in their vicinity, and other particles move in trajectories determined by the geometry of spacetime. This allowed a description of the motions of light and mass that was consistent with all available observations. In general relativity, the gravitational force is a fictitious force due to the curvature of spacetime, because the gravitational acceleration of a body in free fall is due to its world line being a geodesic of spacetime.\n",
"BULLET::::- The Coriolis effect gives an apparent force that acts on objects that move relative to a rotating reference frame. This apparent force acts at right angles to the motion and the rotation axis and tends to curve the motion in the opposite sense to the habitat's spin. If an astronaut inside a rotating artificial gravity environment moves towards or away from the axis of rotation, he or she will feel a force pushing him or her towards or away from the direction of spin. These forces act on the inner ear and can cause dizziness, nausea and disorientation. Lengthening the period of rotation (slower spin rate) reduces the Coriolis force and its effects. It is generally believed that at 2 rpm or less, no adverse effects from the Coriolis forces will occur, although humans have been shown to adapt to rates as high as 23 rpm. It is not yet known whether very long exposures to high levels of Coriolis forces can increase the likelihood of becoming accustomed. The nausea-inducing effects of Coriolis forces can also be mitigated by restraining movement of the head.\n",
"Gravitation was the first interaction to be described mathematically. In ancient times, Aristotle hypothesized that objects of different masses fall at different rates. During the Scientific Revolution, Galileo Galilei experimentally determined that this hypothesis was wrong under certain circumstances — neglecting the friction due to air resistance, and buoyancy forces if an atmosphere is present (e.g. the case of a dropped air-filled balloon vs a water-filled balloon) all objects accelerate toward the Earth at the same rate. Isaac Newton's law of Universal Gravitation (1687) was a good approximation of the behaviour of gravitation. Our present-day understanding of gravitation stems from Einstein's General Theory of Relativity of 1915, a more accurate (especially for cosmological masses and distances) description of gravitation in terms of the geometry of spacetime.\n",
"Of the four fundamental interactions, gravitation is the dominant at astronomical length scales. Gravity's effects are cumulative; by contrast, the effects of positive and negative charges tend to cancel one another, making electromagnetism relatively insignificant on astronomical length scales. The remaining two interactions, the weak and strong nuclear forces, decline very rapidly with distance; their effects are confined mainly to sub-atomic length scales.\n",
"In any analysis of spacetime, evidence of gravitation requires that one observe the relative accelerations of \"two\" bodies or two separated particles. In Fig. 5‑1, two separated particles, free-falling in the gravitational field of the Earth, exhibit tidal accelerations due to local inhomogeneities in the gravitational field such that each particle follows a different path through spacetime. The tidal accelerations that these particles exhibit with respect to each other do not require forces for their explanation. Rather, Einstein described them in terms of the geometry of spacetime, i.e. the curvature of spacetime. These tidal accelerations are strictly local. It is the cumulative total effect of many local manifestations of curvature that result in the \"appearance\" of a gravitational force acting at a long range from Earth.\n"
] |
what is the purpose of the black paint under the eyes?
|
It reduces glare (reflection off your upper cheekbones) from the sun/lights and makes it so that you do not have to squint as much. Besides being used in many sports, it is also used by hunters and military/ warring peoples. As for historical context, it's been done for a very long time because it's copied from nature - many non-human animals like cheetahs and gazelles naturally have the useful glare-reducing darkness under their eyes.
|
[
"The two main forms of eye makeup were grepond eye paint and black kohl. The green eye paint was made of malachite, a copper carbonate pigment, and the black kohl was made from galena, a dark grey ore. Crushed charcoal was also used in this process. Mesdemet or Kohl was used for lining the eyes and were revealed to bring along potent health benefits in the form of protection from disease, bugs and sun rays.\n",
"BULLET::::- Pigment - This is the part of the paint that is seen by the eye. The pigment gives the paint opacity and color. The pigments of all paints contain a white base composed of titanium dioxide (TiO) or zinc oxide (ZnO). Dyes are added to the pigment to attain the desired color.\n",
"Grease or stick shadow is applied to the eyelids and blended out toward the eyebrow bone before powder is applied; dry eye shadow is used alone or to intensify and touch up the color underneath. Dark eye shadow or grease deepens the eye sockets, creating a skull-like effect. Shades of brown and gray are best for individuals with fair complexions. Individuals with brown complexions use lighter shadows such as toast, mushroom or soft yellows.\n",
"Painting the human body in black is also employed in low-key photography using non-toxic dyes or pigments in order to darken and enhance as much as possible the colour of the subjects photographed, and to achieve the desired effects. In order to achieve the effect of reflection of light that creates a white contour of the painted body, as well as a high contrast between black and white, various dyes mixed with body creams are used. These usually include henna, tempera or acrylic paint. Liquid latex, which is composed of natural latex and dyes, is also used with caution to avoid stopping the skin to breathe.\n",
"Black kohl, which was used to mark eyes, was obtained from galena. Eye shadow was made from crushed malachite. Red, which was applied to lips, came from ochre. These products were mixed with animal fat to make them compact and to preserve them. They wore galena or crushed malachite not just to enhance beauty, but because they believed it kept dust and dirt from getting into their eyes. For this reason, both men and women wore it.\n",
"One of the earliest known instances of a player wearing eye black is baseball legend Babe Ruth, who, in or around the 1930s, used the grease in an attempt to reduce sun glare. According to Paul Lukas of \"ESPN.com\", eye black caught on with American football player Andy Farkas. He also states that the original eye black was made from the ashes of burned cork.\n",
"Black light paint or black light fluorescent paint is luminous paint that glows under a black light. It is based on pigments that respond to light in the ultraviolet segment of the electromagnetic spectrum. The paint may or may not be colorful under ordinary light. Black light paint should not be confused with phosphorescent (glow-in-the-dark) or daylight fluorescent paint.\n"
] |
Why can an inner ear infection cause temporary taste loss?
|
Oh so this is SUPER cool. Sorry, probably not for you, but I'm a huge dork.
There's a nerve called the chorda tympani which passes through the middle ear, and I'm making an assumption here that you actually had a middle ear infection, as they are far more common. It is one of three nerves that carry taste sensation from the tongue to the brain, and my bet is that irritation of this nerve leads to temporary taste loss.
Source: ~~Medical student. But I haven't brushed up on my anatomy in a while. This is, of course, not medical advice.~~ Good 'ol [Netter's Anatomy Atlas](_URL_0_)
|
[
"Lesions to the olfactory nerve can occur because of \"blunt trauma\", such as coup-contrecoup damage, meningitis, and tumors of the frontal lobe of the brain. These injuries often lead to a reduced ability to taste and smell. Lesions of the olfactory nerve do not lead to a reduced ability to sense pain from the nasal epithelium. This is because pain from the nasal epithelium is not carried to the central nervous system by the olfactory nerve - it is carried to the central nervous system by the trigeminal nerve.\n",
"Dysgeusia, or an alteration in taste perception, is common, especially for those who are receiving concomitant radiation therapy to the neck and mouth area. \"Taste blindness\", or an altered sense of taste, is a temporary condition that occurs because of effects on taste buds that are mostly located in the tongue. Sometimes, only partial recovery of taste occurs. Common complaints are of food tasting too sweet or too bitter or of a continuous metallic taste.\n",
"Local damage and inflammation that interferes with the taste buds or local nervous system, such as that stemming from radiation therapy, glossitis, tobacco use, or the wearing of dentures, can also cause ageusia. Other known causes include loss of taste sensitivity from aging (causing a difficulty detecting salty or bitter taste), anxiety disorder, cancer, renal failure and liver failure.\n",
"Many affected individuals experience hearing loss and show symptoms of otitis media which demonstrates variable responsiveness to the insertion of myringotomy tubes or grommets. Some patients have a poor sense of smell, which is believed to accompany high mucus production in the sinuses (although others report normal - or even acute - sensitivity to smell and taste). Clinical progression of the disease is variable, with lung transplantation required in severe cases. Susceptibility to infections can be drastically reduced by an early diagnosis. Treatment with various chest physiotherapy techniques has been observed to reduce the incidence of lung infection and to slow the progression of bronchiectasis dramatically. Aggressive treatment of sinus disease beginning at an early age is believed to slow long-term sinus damage (although this has not yet been adequately documented). Aggressive measures to enhance clearance of mucus, prevent respiratory infections, and treat bacterial superinfections have been observed to slow lung-disease progression. Although the true incidence of the disease is unknown, it is estimated to be 1 in 32,000, although the actual incidence may be as high as 1 in 15,000.\n",
"Sinus infections can also cause middle ear problems due to the congestion of the nasal passages. This can be demonstrated by dizziness, \"a pressurized or heavy head\", or vibrating sensations in the head. Post-nasal drip is also a symptom of chronic rhinosinusitis.\n",
"Although rare, mouth infections may also spread through the nasal and facial veins that drain into a reservoir of deoxygenated blood called the cavernous sinus. Once the infection has spread to the cavernous sinus, it can compress important nerves (cranial nerves III, IV, V1, V2, and VI) within this space and obstruct venous drainage from the upper face. The main symptoms are swelling and pain of both eyes, fever, changes in vision, and headaches. On exam, redness and decreased range of motion of the eyes are present in about 90% of cases. Treatment includes antibiotics and antithrombotics to treat the infection and blood clot. This is a serious complication that leads to death or serious morbidity if not diagnosed within the first week of symptoms.\n",
"Another cause includes being more sensitive than average to bitter tastes, which may be associated with a significant history of middle ear infection or an increased perception of bitter foods, known as a supertaster.\n"
] |
Is an insect that lives for 1 hour much faster evolving than humans who reproduce every 657 000 hours? (30 years)
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My brain is foggy, but there were many studies that get done on fruit flies for mutations because of their quick life span and how many offspring each can create.
EDIT: Here is an example that goes into more details than I could ever remember: _URL_0_
To quote the article for the lazy:
"Since the early 1900s, multiplied millions of fruit fly generations have been bred in laboratories across the globe. Scientists performing these experiments have introduced fruit flies to various levels of radiation and countless other factors designed to produce mutations. Sherwin noted that over 3,000 different mutations have been documented in the fruit fly gene pool (n.d.). These mutations have caused such physical characteristics as eyeless flies, flies with different colored eyes, flies with legs growing from their heads, extra pairs of wings, various colored bodies, wingless flies, flies with unusually large wings, flies with useless wings, flies with twisted wings, etc. The list could go on for hundreds of pages."
|
[
"The mite has been recorded at a speed of 322 body lengths per second (). This is far in excess of the previous record holder, the Australian tiger beetle \"Cicindela eburneola\", the fastest insect in the world relative to body size, which has been recorded at or 171 body lengths per second. The cheetah, the fastest land animal, which has been clocked at a peak of , scores at only 16 body lengths per second.\n",
"Molecular evidence strongly suggests that several species of the stick insect genus \"Timema\" have used only asexual (parthenogenetic) reproduction for millions of years, the longest period known for any insect.\n",
"Unlike most insects, the adults continue to moult after reaching adulthood, and typically mate once at each instar. Archaeognaths may have a total lifespan of up to four years, longer than most larger insects.\n",
"Five of the twenty-one species of \"Timema\" are parthenogenetic, including two species that have not engaged in sexual reproduction for one million years, the longest known asexual period for any insect.\n",
"Most insects have a high reproductive rate. With a short generation time, they evolve faster and can adjust to environmental changes more rapidly than other slower breeding animals. Although there are many forms of reproductive organs in insects, there remains a basic design and function for each reproductive part. These individual parts may vary in shape (gonads), position (accessory gland attachment), and number (testicular and ovarian glands), with different insect groups.\n",
"The length of the life cycle depends on environmental factors mostly temperature and host status. It may take about 1 month to complete the life cycle. The nematodes also have a very high reproductive rate.\n",
"According to Tanja Schwander of Simon Fraser University, \"\"Timema\" are indeed the oldest insects for which there is good evidence that they have been asexual for long periods of time.\" She heads a team of researchers who found that five \"Timema\" species (\"T. douglasi\", \"T. monikense\", \"T. shepardi\", \"T. tahoe\" and \"T. genevievae\") have used only asexual reproduction for more than 500,000 years, with \"T. tahoe\" and \"T. genevievae\" reproducing asexually for over one million years.\n"
] |
how are people able to salvage data that has been deleted?
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Data isn't actually deleted when you hit "delete". When you hit "delete", you're telling the Operating System that it is OK to overwrite the area the data is taking up. If you delete something by mistake, and you don't write anything to the disk, the data is still there, and you can recover the data.
|
[
"Recovery experts do not always need to have physical access to the damaged hardware. When the lost data can be recovered by software techniques, they can often perform the recovery using remote access software over the Internet, LAN or other connection to the physical location of the damaged media. The process is essentially no different from what the end user could perform by themselves.\n",
"SALVAGEDATA works with a wide range of businesses and individual consumers to help them recover lost data from damaged hard drives and other digital devices. Damaged hardware can be dropped off or shipped free of charge to any of the company’s 30+ locations for evaluation and recovery review. The company also offers remote evaluations and recovery review services over the Internet in cases where media is logically, but not physically damaged.\n",
"When data is deleted from storage devices, the references to the data are removed from the directory structure. The space can then be used, or overwritten, with data from other files or computer functions. The deleted data itself is not immediately removed from the physical drive and often exists as a number of disconnected fragments. This data, so long as it is not overwritten, can be recovered.\n",
"When a file is deleted, only the entry in the file system metadata is removed, while the actual data is still on the disk. After a format and even a repartitioning it might be that most of raw data is untouched and can be recovered using file carving.\n",
"Recovering data from physically damaged hardware can involve multiple techniques. Some damage can be repaired by replacing parts in the hard disk. This alone may make the disk usable, but there may still be logical damage. A specialized disk-imaging procedure is used to recover every readable bit from the surface. Once this image is acquired and saved on a reliable medium, the image can be safely analyzed for logical damage and will possibly allow much of the original file system to be reconstructed.\n",
"Ma.gnolia's Recovery Tools allowed users to recover some data from web caches and from other feeds. However, since the tools rely on external sources to reconstruct users' data, they were limited in how much data they could restore.\n",
"On June 15, 2007 a system administrator's script accidentally misidentified and deleted \"good data\" along with the \"dead data\" of some 3.5 million former user accounts and files. It took until October 2007 to complete a partial restore of the data (much of it being irretrievably lost).\n"
] |
After WW2, Hirohito was allowed to remain as a symbolic head, Why?
|
/u/restricteddata previously answered [Why was Emperor Hirohito allowed to keep the throne after Japan's unconditional surrender in WWII?](_URL_1_)
/u/vinco_et_praevaleo previously answered [How did Emperor Hirohito escape trial and death following the Second World War?](_URL_0_)
EDIT: fixed typo
|
[
"After Japan's defeat in World War II, there were suggestions to legislate the \"hinomaru\" and \"Kimigayo\" as the official symbols of Japan. However, a law to establish the \"hinomaru\" and \"Kimigayo\" as official in 1974 failed in the Diet, due to the opposition of the Japan Teachers Union that insists they have a connection with Japanese militarism. It was suggested that both the \"hinomaru\" and \"Kimigayo\" should be made official after a school principal in Hiroshima committed suicide over a dispute regarding the use of the flag and anthem in a school ceremony.\n",
"The view promoted by both the Japanese Imperial Palace and the American occupation forces immediately after World War II portrayed Emperor Hirohito as a powerless figurehead behaving strictly according to protocol while remaining at a distance from the decision-making processes. This view was endorsed by Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita in a speech on the day of Hirohito's death in which Takeshita asserted that the war \"had broken out against [Hirohito's] wishes.\" Takeshita's statement provoked outrage in nations in East Asia and Commonwealth nations such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. According to historian Fujiwara, \"The thesis that the Emperor, as an organ of responsibility, could not reverse cabinet decision is a myth fabricated after the war.\"\n",
"The late emperor's funeral, like the man it honored, was dogged by bitter memories of the past. Many Allied veterans of World War II regarded Hirohito as a war criminal and called upon their countries to boycott the funeral. Nevertheless, of the 166 nations invited to send representatives, all but three accepted. Some Japanese, including a small Christian community, constitutional scholars and opposition politicians, denounced the pomp at the funeral as a return to past exaltation of the emperor and contended that the inclusion of Shinto rites violated Japan's post-war separation of church and state. Some groups, opposed to the Japanese monarchy, also staged small protests.\n",
"It is unclear whether this declaration was voluntary or coerced by the Allied powers who occupied Japan. Because the life and fate of Emperor Hirohito was in jeopardy until the 1947 Constitution which formalized a symbolic role as the head of state of Japan. This rescript was not voluntarily written or made by Emperor Hirohito. This rescript is said to have been drafted by Reginald Horace Blyth and Harold Gould Henderson, who also contributed to the popularisation of Zen and the poetic form of haiku outside Japan.\n",
"For the rest of his life, Hirohito was an active figure in Japanese life and performed many of the duties commonly associated with a constitutional head of state. He and his family maintained a strong public presence, often holding public walkabouts and making public appearances on special events and ceremonies. He also played an important role in rebuilding Japan's diplomatic image, traveling abroad to meet with many foreign leaders, including Queen Elizabeth II (1971) and President Gerald Ford (1975).\n",
"This issue first surfaced when Emperor Hirohito refused to visit the shrine from 1978 until his death in 1989. According to a memorandum released in 2006 kept by Imperial Household Agency Grand Steward Tomohiko Tomita, Hirohito stated that the reason he stopped visiting the shrine was because of the decision to enshrine class A war criminals.\n",
"On 15 August 1985, the fortieth anniversary of Japan's surrender; Yasuhiro and his Cabinet visited the Yasukuni Shrine in full mourning dress. This had great symbolic significance as he visited the shrine in his official capacity and demonstrated that the Japanese government was reasserting its respect for the spirits of the ancestors killed in battle, including those who died in World War II. This was a controversial move and was criticised by the Chinese Communist Party newspaper, \"People's Daily\". It was also attacked by opponents at home for violating the Constitution's separation of religion and state. Yasuhiro defended his actions by saying, \"The true defence of Japan ... becomes possible only through the combination of liberty-loving peoples who are equal to each other ... The manner is desired to be based on self-determination of the race\". He also said, \"It is considered progressive to criticise pre-war Japan for its faults and defects, but I firmly oppose such a notion. A nation is still a nation whether it wins or loses a war\".\n"
] |
why do some batteries puff up?
|
A swollen battery is the result of progressive degradation of the chemicals that generate power. The reaction that pushes electrons through the circuit can't work the way they were designed to, and part of that failure involves *outgassing,* or the creation of gases and vapors where they're not intended. This swells the battery casing, and might cause a breach and leak of the battery's contents.
|
[
"If the battery is over-filled with water and electrolyte, thermal expansion can force some of the liquid out of the battery vents onto the top of the battery. This solution can then react with the lead and other metals in the battery connector and cause corrosion.\n",
"Voltage depression is caused by repeated over-charging of a battery, which causes the formation of small crystals of electrolyte on the plates. These can clog the plates, increasing resistance and lowering the voltage of some individual cells in the battery. This causes the battery as a whole to seem to discharge rapidly as those individual cells discharge quickly and the voltage of the battery as a whole suddenly falls. This effect is very common, as consumer trickle chargers typically overcharge.\n",
"Starting batteries are of lighter weight than deep cycle batteries of the same size, because the thinner and lighter cell plates do not extend all the way to the bottom of the battery case. This allows loose disintegrated material to fall off the plates and collect at the bottom of the cell, prolonging the service life of the battery. If this loose debris rises enough it may touch the bottom of the plates and cause failure of a cell, resulting in loss of battery voltage and capacity.\n",
"Periodic overcharging creates gaseous reaction products at the plate, causing convection currents which mix the electrolyte and resolve the stratification. Mechanical stirring of the electrolyte would have the same effect. Batteries in moving vehicles are also subject to sloshing and splashing in the cells, as the vehicle accelerates, brakes, and turns.\n",
"A further source of controversy is that the Batteroo Boost will shorten battery life in devices that undergo only intermittent use, because the Batteriser is always drawing power to boost the voltage, even when the device is idle.\n",
"Disk batteries, also called button cells, are often mistakenly ingested, particularly by children and the elderly. They may be mistaken for a medication pill because of their size and shape, or they may be swallowed after being held in the mouth while the battery is being changed. Battery ingestion can cause medical problems including blocked airway, vomiting, irritability, persistent drooling, and rash (due to nickel metal allergy).\n",
"The reason for leaks is that as batteries discharge — either through usage or gradual self-discharge — the chemistry of the cells changes and some hydrogen gas is generated. This out-gassing increases pressure in the battery. Eventually, the excess pressure either ruptures the insulating seals at the end of the battery, or the outer metal canister, or both. In addition, as the battery ages, its steel outer canister may gradually corrode or rust, which can further contribute to containment failure.\n"
] |
Is there a certain configuration for a wifi router's antennas to give better reception?
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You want to set up antennas perpendicular to the direction of motion of the signal. So, if you're in the room next door, you would want the antenna to be vertical. If your router was in the basement and you wanted signal directly above it on the roof, you would want the antenna to be perfectly horizontal.
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[
"Fixed wireless services typically use a directional radio antenna on each end of the signal (e.g., on each building). These antennas are generally larger than those seen in Wi-Fi setups and are designed for outdoor use. Several types of radio antennas are available that accommodate various weather conditions, signal distances and bandwidths. They are usually selected to make the beam as narrow as possible and thus focus transmit power to their destination, increasing reliability and reducing the chance of eavesdropping or data injection. The links are usually arranged as a point-to-point setup to permit the use of these antennas. This also permits the link to have better speed and or better reach for the same amount of power.\n",
"By using directional antennas on a base station, each pointing in different directions, it is possible to sectorise the base station so that several different cells are served from the same location. Typically these directional antennas have a beamwidth of 65 to 85 degrees. This increases the traffic capacity of the base station (each frequency can carry eight voice channels) whilst not greatly increasing the interference caused to neighboring cells (in any given direction, only a small number of frequencies are being broadcast). Typically two antennas are used per sector, at spacing of ten or more wavelengths apart. This allows the operator to overcome the effects of fading due to physical phenomena such as multipath reception. Some amplification of the received signal as it leaves the antenna is often used to preserve the balance between uplink and downlink signal.\n",
"On wireless routers with detachable antennas, it is possible to improve range by fitting upgraded antennas which have higher gain in particular directions. Outdoor ranges can be improved to many kilometers through the use of high gain directional antennas at the router and remote device(s).\n",
"Specially shaped directional antennas can increase the range of a Wi-Fi transmission without a drastic increase in transmission power. High gain antenna may be of many designs, but all allow transmitting a narrow signal beam over greater distance than a non-directional antenna, often nulling out nearby interference sources. Such \"WokFi\" techniques typically yield gains more than 10 dB over the bare system; enough for line of sight (LOS) ranges of several kilometers and improvements in marginal locations.\n",
"Another common usage is in Wi-Fi networking gear and cordless telephones to compensate for multipath interference. The base station will switch reception to one of two antennas depending on which is currently receiving a stronger signal. For best results, the antennas are usually placed one wavelength apart. For microwave bands, where the wavelengths are under 100 cm, this can often be done with two antennas attached to the same hardware. For lower frequencies and longer wavelengths, the antennas must be several meters apart, making it much less reasonable.\n",
"In RoF systems, wireless signals are transported in optical form between a central station and a set of base stations before being radiated through the air. Each base station is adapted to communicate over a radio link with at least one user's mobile station located within the radio range of said base station. The advantage is that the equipment for WiFi, 5G and other protocols can be centralized in one place, with remote antennas attached via fiber optic serving all protocols. It greatly reduces the equipment and maintenance cost of the network.\n",
"Because the radio waves travel in narrow beams confined to a line-of-sight path from one antenna to the other, they don't interfere with other microwave equipment, so nearby microwave links can use the same frequencies (see Frequency reuse). Antennas must be highly directional (high gain); these antennas are installed in elevated locations such as large radio towers in order to be able to transmit across long distances. Typical types of antenna used in radio relay link installations are parabolic antennas, dielectric lens, and horn-reflector antennas, which have a diameter of up to 4 meters. Highly directive antennas permit an economical use of the available frequency spectrum, despite long transmission distances.\n"
] |
How does sound pass though objects, but light (mostly) cant?
|
Sound waves are a series of uncompressed and compressed molecules. When you slam your book on your table, the molecules of the book pushes the table surface molecules down, which gets them pretty close to the next set of molecules. The first group then retracts since they don't want to be so close to the other molecules, and the same goes for the second set of molecules, except they push further down. This continues until the energy dies out, or when it reaches the other side of the table, except the molecules being pushed are air molecules, which will also continue until the energy is lost. This *is* a sound wave, so it's not the fact that sound waves are traveling through an object, it's that the sound wave is manifested *in* the object(s).
|
[
"However, if the object has a diameter greater than the acoustic wavelength, a 'sound shadow' is cast behind the object where the sound is inaudible. (Note: some sound may be propagated through the object depending on material).\n",
"The mechanical vibrations that can be interpreted as sound can travel through all forms of matter: gases, liquids, solids, and plasmas. The matter that supports the sound is called the medium. Sound cannot travel through a vacuum.\n",
"BULLET::::- Sound wave diffraction is the bending of sound waves, as the sound travels around edges of geometric objects. This produces the effect of being able to hear even when the source is blocked by a solid object. The sound waves bend appreciably around the solid object.\n",
"In the case of sound waves travelling near the Earth's surface, the waves are diffracted or bent as they traverse by a geometric edge, such as a wall or building. This phenomenon leads to a very important practical effect: that we can hear \"around corners\". Because of the frequencies involved considerable amount of the sound energy (on the order of ten percent) actually travels into this would be sound \"shadow zone\". Visible light exhibits a similar effect, but, due to its much shorter wavelength, only a minute amount of light energy travels around a corner.\n",
"Sound propagates in the channel by refraction of sound, which makes sound travel near the depth of slowest speed. If a sound wave propagates away from this horizontal channel, the part of the wave furthest from the channel axis travels faster, so the wave turns back toward the channel axis. As a result, the sound waves trace a path that oscillates across the SOFAR channel axis. This principle is similar to long distance transmission of light in an optical fibre.\n",
"When sound waves pass through any physical substance the pressure of the waves causes the particles of the substance to move. The sound specific impedance is the ratio between the sound pressure and the particle velocity it produces.\n",
"A particle passing through a material at a velocity greater than that at which light can travel through the material emits light. This is similar to the production of a sonic boom when an airplane is traveling through the air faster than sound waves can move through the air. The direction this light is emitted is on a cone with angle θ about the direction in which the particle is moving, with cos(θ) = (c = the vacuum speed of light, n = the refractive index of the medium, and v is the speed of the particle). The angle of the cone θ thus is a direct measure of the particle's speed. The Frank–Tamm formula = sinθ gives the number of photons produced.\n"
] |
how does the 20 questions electronic game work?
|
First, come up with a bunch of yes/no questions that would be good for a 20 questions game.
Second, collect a bunch of objects, and answer some or most of these questions for each object.
Now, you have a good database of objects and an associated list of the yes/no answers for each object.
When it comes time to ask a question, have the computer look through the list and find a question that has roughly half of the objects with a yes and half with a no. When the player answers, your list of objects is now half as small. If some of your objects didn't have an answer for that question, keep those too. Now, look at your remaining objects, and repeat the process, always picking a question that splits the objects into about half yes and half no. After 20 questions, halving each time, you will have sorted through about 1,000,000 possible answers. The questions might not always seem to make sense, but to the computer, this is the most efficient way to find your item.
At this point you have a working system, but it takes a long time to get this data. If you are smart, you can make your game even better the longer it gets played
Now, have a bunch of people play the game. LOTS of people. Keep track of their answers as you go. Put it on [A WEBSITE](_URL_0_) so you can get answers from thousands of people. If they have an object you couldn't guess, add it to the list, and save the answers you got, or update the answers you already have. If you get lucky and narrow the answer down before all 20 questions are used up, look at some of the other questions for that object you don't have answers for and ask those so you always get more data. This is why if you play the online version it might seem like it's on the right track and suddenly ask if your potato "wears a cape". It already knows the answer is "potato" ; it's just collecting more info about potatoes to make it even smarter. You could even ask the player if there is a particular question they should have asked and if so add that to the list of possible questions for next time. If people sometimes answer differently for the same question, keep track of the percent yes vs no and take that into account when asking your questions (i.e. If "are potatoes healthy" gets 50/50 yes or no, don't eliminate that answer right away if you ask that question.
Last, grab your latest version of the database, put it in the toy, and done.
|
[
"The abstract mathematical version of the game where some answers may be wrong is sometimes called Ulam's game or the Rényi–Ulam game. The game suggests that the information (as measured by Shannon's entropy statistic) required to identify an arbitrary object is at most 20 bits. The game is often used as an example when teaching people about information theory. Mathematically, if each question is structured to eliminate half the objects, 20 questions will allow the questioner to distinguish between 2 or 1,048,576 objects. Accordingly, the most effective strategy for Twenty Questions is to ask questions that will split the field of remaining possibilities roughly in half each time. The process is analogous to a binary search algorithm in computer science or successive approximation ADC in analog-to-digital signal conversion.\n",
"Included is a minigame which uses a \"twenty questions\" algorithm (similar to what would eventually be used in 20Q). The game comes preprogrammed with a set of guesses, but after losing it asks the player for criteria that would have led it to a correct guess, and then records that information into a text file. Because of this, the game is able to (theoretically) \"learn\" how to become so good as to beat the player every time.\n",
"All players first figure out a possible solution in their minds. Once a player has found a solution, he/she announces it. A solution can involve one to three Meeples, each of which can have up to ten moves. After this, an hourglass is flipped, and the rest of the players have this time to figure out a shorter solution. After the hourglass has run out, the solutions are tried out, from shortest to longest.\n",
"A round of the game begins with players taking turns drawing cards and selecting a Category (or a Class on certain cards). Five Categories are selected this way. Next, players draw five letter tiles in turn, and the timer is started. Before the timer runs out, players must write down at most one entry for each category/beginning-letter pair (thus, a maximum of 25 answers). Five rounds make up a complete game, with scoring based on the number of valid answers given.\n",
"Questions is a game that is played by participants maintaining a dialogue of asking questions back and forth for as long as possible, without making any declarative statements. Play begins when the first player serves by asking a question (often \"Would you like to play questions?\"). The second player must respond to the question with another question (e.g. \"How do you play that?\"). Each player must quickly continue the conversation by using only questions. Hesitation, statements, or non sequiturs are not allowed, and cause players to foul. The game is usually played by two players, although multiplayer variants exist.\n",
"The general goal of the games is to create a series of Rube Goldberg devices: arrange a given collection of objects in a needlessly complex fashion so as to perform some simple task (e.g., \"put the ball into a box\" or \"start a mixer & turn on a fan\"). Available objects ranged from simple ropes and pulleys to electrical generators, bowling balls, and even cats and mice to humans, most of which had specific interactions with or reactions to other objects (for example, mice will run towards nearby cheese). The levels usually have some fixed objects that cannot be moved by the player, and so the only way to solve the puzzle is carefully arrange the given objects around the fixed items. There is also a \"freeform\" option that allows the user to \"play\" with all the objects with no set goal or to also build their own puzzles with goals for other players to attempt to solve.\n",
"The \"mid-game\" phase lasts from the beginning of the game up until there are nine or fewer tiles left in the bag. The program uses a rapid algorithm to find all possible plays from the given rack, and then part of the program called the \"kibitzer\" uses simple heuristics to sort them into rough order of quality. The most promising moves are then evaluated by \"simming\", in which the program simulates the random drawing of tiles, plays forward a set number of plays, and compares the points spread of the moves' outcomes. By simulating thousands of random drawings, the program can give a very accurate quantitative evaluation of the different plays. (While a Monte Carlo search, Maven does not use Monte Carlo tree search because it evaluates game trees only 2-ply deep, rather than playing out to the end of the game, and does not reallocate rollouts to more promising branches for deeper exploration; in reinforcement learning terminology, the Maven search strategy might be considered \"truncated Monte Carlo simulation\". A true MCTS strategy is unnecessary because the endgame can be solved. The shallow search is because the Maven author argues that, due to the fast turnover of letters in one's bag, it is typically not useful to look more than 2-ply deep, because if one instead looked, e.g. 4-ply, the variance of rewards will be larger and the simulations will take several times longer, while only helping in a few exotic situations: \"We maintain that if it requires an extreme situation like CACIQUE to see the value of a four-ply simulation then they are not worth doing.\" As the board value can be evaluated with very high accuracy in Scrabble, unlike games such as Go, deeper simulations are unlikely to change the initial evaluation.)\n"
] |
Why was the Avro Arrow destroyed?
|
During the late 50’s the threat perceived to radiate from the soviets was changing.
It is argued that the Canadian Government was operating in an information vacuum with regards to this threat.
As a reaction to the detonation of the Soviet Hydrogen Bomb in 1953 NORAD was under development, a system that should provide early warning for the US when Russian Bomber approached the Continent, and would coordinate the responsive measures. In order to push the warning line forward units would have to be stationed on Canadian soil.
This came into play around the same time a new government came into power in Canada, that of Diefenbaker. A discussion broke out whether or not the Norad agreement would mean that Canada was giving up it’s sovereignty, as Canadian units would fall under American control. In the end the Canadians perceived the Russians to be a greater thread and agreed to NORAD.
Coincidental with the development of NORAD was the development of the Avro CF-105 Interceptor. Many people around Diefenbaker noted that he was not open to take advice on defence. Thus the government at first ignored some important views by not taking advice from a group of military advisors that upheld the view that the perceived Bomber Threat was quickly turning into an IBCM threat.
The main thought with regards to air power at the time was an offensive one: Namely that it was important to strike first. From WWII the notion survived that of a large bomber force only a small number of bombers would be shot down. In the case of these bombers carrying an nuclear load even a handful of survivers could have a devastating effect. To quote prof J.I. Jackson:
“the real air defence is the thermonuclear retaliatory or counter force, supported by the radar warning system that will allow it to take off before it can be destroyed on the ground. The defensive interceptor and electronic weapons are no longer the teeth of the air defence system, but rather comprise a subsidiary arm of the warning net, and have the same purpose in this as civil defence and defence against missile bearing submarines in helping to dissipate the casualties of the attack.” (1)
To repudiate the claim that Canada was bullied into stopping the program. Recent declassification of documents (around 2011) shows that in fact the US was interested in absorbing the biggest part of the costs of procuring the CF-105 for both the RCAF and the RAF air defence squadrons. The tragedy is that this information never reached the Canadian decision makers. The US was not interested in the CF-105 for use in the USAF, mainly as a result of the F-108 that they had on the drawing board.
“. While the confused decision-making structure, dislike of committees, and seeming mistrust of senior military leadership were inescapable features of Diefenbaker’s personality, there is evidence that he was failed by those entrusted with ensuring needed information was pushed forward. In this case, information that told of a potential US commitment to assist in the acquisition of larger numbers of CF-105s to meet NORAD requirements and answer an enduring threat to the continent did not reach Diefenbaker.” (2)
The CF-105 was cancelled on the prevailing thought that now existed with the Canadian decision makers: Namely that the bomber threat was waning, and that IBCM’s now were the main threat. This proved to be erroneous as the bombers of the USSR still were a threat, at least until the late 1960’s In addition the critical information on the US’s willingness to purchase a number of CF-105’s for the RCAF never reached Diefenbaker. Thus the decision was made based on economics: Do we buy aircraft to defend against a threat we think is waning, or do we participate in NORAD and stationing of the BOMARC missille system, which is cheaper than the number of CF-105’s we need? They decided for the latter. If Diefenbaker had the relevant information available to him it is quite likely that the decision would have been different.
**Sources**
(1) Brad W. Gladman, Continental Air Defence: Threat Perception and Response, (2012) p 14.
_URL_1_
Ibid, p 37.
Norad at 40, historical overview
_URL_0_
|
[
"After Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) lost his fortune, the Arrow-Car became too expensive to keep. Various wrecks of the cars became highly prized among collectors of super-memorabilia, such as the Arrow-Car once destroyed during a fight between Green Arrow, Arsenal, and Solomon Grundy. When a fully functional Arrow-Car went on the auction block for sale, criminal elements bought it and wanted to use it for their own purposes. For instance the criminal Scavenger claimed it for his weapon collection, but Batman bought it on Green Arrow's behalf. However, once it broke down on the way back to Star City after picking it up, Green Arrow decided to destroy it after all, using the same detonator he used the first time, but this time knowing it would work since he had had it fixed by Superman.\n",
"The Arrow's cancellation was announced on 20 February 1959. The day became known as \"Black Friday\" in the Canadian aviation industry. Diefenbaker claimed the decision was based on \"a thorough examination\" of threats and defensive measures, and the cost of defensive systems. More specifically, the cost would have needed to be amortized over hundreds of manufactured models. At the time the trend was \"away from conventional bombers\" that the Avro Arrow could intercept and \"towards atmospheric weapons like intercontinental ballistic missiles\", according to Global News. As a result, the foreign demand for the Avro Arrow had declined substantially. Canada's alternative to the Arrow was to purchase some American McDonnell F-101 Voodoo interceptors and Bomarc B missiles.\n",
"BULLET::::- The Arrowheads (Richard Organ, Ron Page, Don Watson, Les Wilkinson). \"Avro Arrow: the story of the Avro Arrow from its evolution to its extinction\", Erin, Ontario, Canada: Boston Mills Press 1980 (revised edition 2004). .\n",
"BULLET::::- Page, Ron, Richard Organ, Don Watson and Les Wilkinson (The \"Arrowheads\"). \"Avro Arrow: The Story of the Avro Arrow from its Evolution to its Extinction.\" Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1979, reprinted Stoddart, 2004. .\n",
"BULLET::::- Page, Ron, Richard Organ, Don Watson and Les Wilkinson (the \"Arrowheads\"). \"Avro Arrow: The Story of the Avro Arrow from its Evolution to its Extinction.\" Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1979, reprinted Stoddart, 2004. .\n",
"BULLET::::- Page, Ron, Richard Organ, Don Watson and Les Wilkinson (\"The Arrowheads\"). \"Avro Arrow: The Story of the Avro Arrow from its Evolution to its Extinction\". Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1979, reprinted Stoddart, 2004. .\n",
"On 20 February 1959, Prime Minister of Canada John Diefenbaker abruptly halted the development of the Arrow (and its Iroquois engines) before the scheduled project review to evaluate the program could be held. Canada tried to sell the Arrow to the US and Britain, but no agreements were concluded. Two months later, the assembly line, tooling, plans and existing airframes and engines were ordered to be destroyed. The cancellation was the topic of considerable political controversy at the time, and the subsequent destruction of the aircraft in production remains a topic for debate among historians and industry pundits. \"This action effectively put Avro out of business and its highly skilled engineering and production personnel scattered...\"\n"
] |
Has there been a time in Western culture when muscular men were not considered sexy/attractive?
|
> The cultural standards by which a woman's weight and shape have determined her sexiness have changed dramatically over time in Western/European societies. For example large, curvy "rubenesque" women were deemed sexy for much of the 17th and 18th centuries whereas today, thinness is praised > curves.
Your premise is really a pretty bold claim and mostly seems like a simplistic misinterpretation of art, it has been addressed here many times, for example here _URL_0_ by u/chocolatepot , who also, if briefly, addresses male beauty.
In any case, one should really differentiate between various "considerations" of "sexy/attractive":
Is a depiction meant to be idealistic or maybe just realistic, is it about some general expectations from the opposite sex, or rather *self*-image, or artistic ideas, or tastes of particular artists (what's their sex? sexual orientation? status?), or just detached symbolism, or idea(l)s of particular groups... All of those are related yet ultimately very different questions requiring their own kinds of sources.
Just consider how you'd evaluate what modern bodybuilding vs regular fashion magazines vs pornography vs various movie genres vs what men/women expect vs what they fantasize about vs what they tend to end up with (don't) say about beauty ideals...
|
[
"\"Strongman\" is often incorrectly used to describe a person who does weightlifting or bodybuilding. Due to the circus and entertainment background, nineteenth-century bodybuilders were expected to mingle with the crowd during intermission and perform strength feats like card tearing, nail bending, etc. to demonstrate strength as well as symmetry and size. Also, many strongmen sold photos of themselves nude or near-nude, flexing and posing. Although, what they considered the epitome of male beauty was different from modern ideals – particularly the very low emphasis on chest size, and great emphasis on oblique size, and symmetry as evidenced by photos of Eugen Sandow.\n",
"Men's bodies portrayed in magazines marketed to men are more muscular than the men's bodies portrayed in magazines marketed to women. From this, some have concluded that men perceive a more muscular male body to be ideal, as distinct from a woman's ideal male, which is less muscular than what men perceive to be ideal. This is due to the within-gender prestige granted by increased muscularity and within-gender competition for increased muscularity. Men perceive the attractiveness of their own musculature by how closely their bodies resemble the \"muscle man.\" This \"muscle man\" ideal is characterized by large muscular arms, especially biceps, a large muscular chest that tapers to their waist and broad shoulders. Among Australian university students, the male body composition found to be most attractive (12.16 kg fat, 63.27 kg muscle) was in line with the composition that was perceived as healthiest, and was well within the healthy range.\n",
"Some research has suggested this relationship between muscle and masculinity may begin early in life, as boys' action figures are often depicted as super-muscular, often beyond the actual limits of human physiology. The connection between masculinity and muscle is however a cultural trend traced as far back as the Classical antiquity and linked to the war performance and its peaceful substitutes, the athletic events. In addition, men with lower, more feminine, Waist–hip ratio (WHR) feel less comfortable and self-report lower body esteem and self-efficacy than men with higher, more masculine, WHRs.\n",
"Men's body image is a topic of increasing interest in both academic articles and in the popular press. Current research indicates many men wish to become more muscular than they currently perceive themselves to be, often desiring up to 26 pounds of additional muscle mass. According to the study, western men desire muscle mass over that of Asian men by as much as 30 pounds. The desire for additional muscle has been linked to many men's concepts about masculinity. A variety of research has indicated a relationship between men's endorsement of traditionally masculine ideas and characteristics, and their desire for additional muscle.\n",
"As Western media emphasize physical attractiveness, some marketing campaigns now exploit male body-image insecurities. Over the past 20 years, the number of men's-fitness magazines and of partially-undressed, well-muscled men in advertisements have increased. Such media provoke bodily comparisons and pressure individuals to conform, yet increase the gap between men's perceptions of their own muscularity versus their desired muscularity. In college-aged men, a strong predictor of a muscularity quest is internalization of the idealized male bodies depicted in media.\n",
"Monte Saldo was one of the few men who have enhanced a reputation made on the stage as a strongman by feats performed away from its atmosphere of glamour and make-believe. The first man in the world to 'swing' over his own bodyweight with one hand, and one of the most successful trainers of strong men ever known...\"\n",
"Monte Saldo was one of the few men who have enhanced a reputation made on the stage as a strongman by feats performed away from its atmosphere of glamour and make-believe. The first man in the world to 'swing' over his own bodyweight with one hand, and one of the most successful trainers of strong men ever known...\"\n"
] |
how is chewing bones good for dogs teeth, and can it benefit humans?
|
Their teeth are specifically designed to crush softer bones like ribs and vertebrae unlike our teeth. When dogs eat lots of softer foods like commercial dog food their teeth can't get tartar build up on it just like our teeth; gnawing on bones will help scrape the build up off.
|
[
"While the media often portrays domestic dogs chewing bones, this is slightly misleading. Dogs chew bones only to eat any residual meat and bone marrow left on them, so it is not truly a form of osteophagy. Most modern toy \"bones\" for dogs are actually rawhide, which is simply dried animal skin, as animal bones are actually dangerous for dogs to chew.\n",
"The term \"bones\" can include animal bones as well as manufactured bones such as Nylabones and dental bones. Animal bones offer a lot of chewing potential but the true nutritional benefits are derived from the soft tissues attached to the bone such as meat, cartilage, fat and connective tissue ... not from the bones themselves. There are dangers associated with animal bones, including broken teeth and possible ingestion of large fragments of bone which can cause serious injury or death. It is important to supervise dogs when they are chewing bones and make sure to remove the bone when it is reduced to a size that could possibly be swallowed. Make sure dogs have plenty of fresh water. \n",
"This breed requires expert veterinary attention in areas such as birthing and dental care. Dental care is a must for these small dogs, whose jaw size makes for weaker teeth. Although daily brushing provides the best preventive measure, feeding a dental diet or using dental chews for dogs is an effective approach pet owners can take to help prevent and control accumulation of plaque and tartar to avoid consequences of severe periodontal disease. The best physical characteristics of dog food to contribute to cleaning a dog's teeth would be food that is large and dense, so more time is spent chewing, which leads to the surface of the teeth being cleaned.\n",
"In dogs, the teeth are less likely than humans to form dental cavities because of the very high pH of dog saliva, which prevents enamel from demineralizing. Sometimes called cuspids, these teeth are shaped like points (cusps) and are used for tearing and grasping food\n",
"Including bone in raw diets is commonly practiced, as it is a good source of both calcium and phosphorus. Feeding raw bone can have some adverse effects on a dog's health if fed in whole form. Whole bones in the diet increase the risk of dental fractures, intestinal obstructions, gastroenteritis, and intestinal perforations. Feeding ground bones instead of whole bones reduces the risk of these adverse effects.\n",
"Preventative action is required to prevent the continuous accumulation of plaque, tartar, and calculus, and to reduce the long term risk of dental diseases. Although a dental diet is formulated to reduce plaque and/or tartar and plays an important role in oral care and hygiene, it is not the only method that can be used to care for a dog’s teeth. Daily dental dog chews and teeth brushing will scrape away plaque before it forms into tartar. Regular dental check-ups by a veterinarian will assess the health of the mouth and jaw, and advise whether dental cleanings are required. These are all necessary and crucial steps to maintain oral health, and contribute to the overall health of a dog.\n",
"Dogs are less likely than humans to have tooth decay due to the high pH of dog saliva, which prevents an acidic environment from forming and the subsequent demineralization of enamel which would occur. In the event that tooth decay does occur (usually from trauma), dogs can receive dental fillings just as humans do. Similar to human teeth, the enamel of dogs is vulnerable to tetracycline staining. Consequently, this risk must be accounted for when tetracycline antibiotic therapy is administered to young dogs. Enamel hypoplasia may also occur in dogs.\n"
] |
how do audio recordings that are stored in binary code on devices get re-converted to the sound that comes out of my phone’s speakers?
|
It is covered thanks to a device called a DAC (digital to analogue converter).
When audio is traveling in a speaker wire, it is just an electrical impulse - it has a voltage and a frequency based on what the sound is. That voltage and frequency is then amplified (by an amplifier) and pushed to a speaker cone, which vibrates at that specific amplitude and frequency to make sound waves in the air.
A DAC is able to take the bianary data and create impulses in the speaker wire at that specific voltage and frequency, which then travels down the wire.
|
[
"In digital recording, audio signals picked up by a microphone or other transducer or video signals picked up by a camera or similar device are converted into a stream of discrete numbers, representing the changes over time in air pressure for audio, and chroma and luminance values for video, then recorded to a storage device. To play back a digital sound recording, the numbers are retrieved and converted back into their original analog waveforms so that they can be heard through a loudspeaker. To play back a digital video recording, the numbers are retrieved and converted back into their original analog waveforms so that they can be viewed on a video monitor, television or other display.\n",
"In a digital audio system, an analog electrical signal representing the sound is converted with an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) into a digital signal, typically using pulse-code modulation. This digital signal can then be recorded, edited, modified, and copied using computers, audio playback machines, and other digital tools. When the sound engineer wishes to listen to the recording on headphones or loudspeakers (or when a consumer wishes to listen to a digital sound file), a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) performs the reverse process, converting a digital signal back into an analog signal, which is then sent through an audio power amplifier and ultimately to a loudspeaker.\n",
"There are many benefits to using digital recording over analog recording because “numbers are more easily manipulated than are grooves on a record or magnetized particles on a tape”. Because numerical coding represents the sound waves perfectly, the sound can be played back without background noise.\n",
"Most modern audio signals are stored in digital form (for example MP3s and CDs) and, in order to be heard through speakers, they must be converted into an analog signal. DACs are therefore found in CD players, digital music players, and PC sound cards.\n",
"Digital lines cannot be recorded unless the call recording system can capture and decode the proprietary digital signalling, which some modern systems can. Sometimes a method is supplied with a digital private branch exchange (PBX) that can process the proprietary signal (usually a conversion box) before being channeled to a computer for recording. Alternatively a hardware adapter can be used on a telephone handset as the digital signal is converted at that point to analogue.\n",
"In the 1990s, digital audio systems were introduced and began to prevail. In some of them the sound recording is again recorded on a separate disk, as in Vitaphone; others use a digital, optical sound track on the film itself. Digital processes can now achieve reliable and perfect synchronization.\n",
"Digital audio systems may include compression, storage, processing, and transmission components. Conversion to a digital format allows convenient manipulation, storage, transmission, and retrieval of an audio signal. Unlike analog audio, in which making copies of a recording results in generation loss and degradation of signal quality, digital audio allows an infinite number of copies to be made without any degradation of signal quality.\n"
] |
[Meta] Book List Meta Thread
|
General question (as in every sources thread): What about non-English language sources? Yay/Nay? Only for country specific topics? ...?
|
[
"OttoBib.com is a website with a free tool to generate an alphabetized bibliography of books from a list of International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) with output in MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, BibTeX and Wikipedia format. Each query also generates a \"temporary\" permalink (self-destructs in about one month) which can be used to recall the bibliography without reentering the ISBN data. The site is a metasearch engine, integrating data from several sources, including the U.S. Library of Congress API, the Amazon.com database of books, and ISBNdb.com. OttoBib accepts ISBNs with either 10 or 13 digits.\n",
"BULLET::::- BookBuffet is a website directed toward book groups and avid readers with literary news, book reviews, author podcasts, technology tips, and vetted resource links. Members register their group to use a set of tools where they can maintain a joint calendar, communicate, and keep track of books their group has read as well as rate books and share reviews. Book group moderators (people who lead book groups) can keep track of all their various client groups, communicate, and share information in chat forums. There is also a \"find a group\" feature for people looking to join an existing group. Founded by Paula Shackleton.\n",
"Much of the book consists of example programs with annotations and explanatory text, and it generally describes how to modify an example to serve new purposes. One early example program reads through a directory of MP3 files and lists the header information, such as artist, album, etc. Other topics covered include object oriented programming, documentation, unit testing, and accessing and parsing HTML and XML.\n",
"The book contains many instances of recursion and self-reference, where objects and ideas speak about or refer back to themselves. One is Quining, a term Hofstadter invented in homage to Willard Van Orman Quine, referring to programs that only produce their own source code. Another is the presence of a fictional author in the index, Egbert B. Gebstadter, a man with initials E, G, and B and a surname that partially matches Hofstadter. A phonograph dubbed \"Record Player X\" destroys itself by playing a record titled \"I Cannot Be Played on Record Player X\" (an analogy to Gödel's incompleteness theorems), an examination of canon form in music, and a discussion of Escher's lithograph of two hands drawing each other. To describe such self-referencing objects, Hofstadter coins the term \"strange loop\"—a concept he examines in more depth in his follow-up book \"I Am a Strange Loop\". To escape many of the logical contradictions brought about by these self-referencing objects, Hofstadter discusses Zen koans. He attempts to show readers how to perceive reality outside their own experience and embrace such paradoxical questions by rejecting the premise—a strategy also called \"unasking\".\n",
"The Perl Cookbook, , is a book containing solutions to common short tasks in Perl. Each chapter covers a particular topic area (\"Strings\", \"Ties, Objects, and Classes\", \"CGI\") and is divided into around a dozen \"recipes\" each on a particular problem (\"Reversing A String By Word Or Character\", \"Accessing Overridden Methods\", \"Managing Cookies\"). Each recipe has four parts: \"Problem\", \"Solution\", \"Discussion\", and \"See Also\".\n",
"Book Drum is a wiki that assembles and publishes companion profiles of fiction and non-fiction books. Each profile consists of page-by-page illustrated reading notes called “bookmarks”, summary, review, author’s biography, glossary, setting description and map. Contributors can upload images and embed maps, videos, links and related texts to illustrate and explain a book. Most contributors are readers, but some profiles have been created by the books’ own authors, and others by school classes. Some of the most popular profiles include \"War and Peace\", \"The Reader\" and \"Dracula\".\n",
"BookLikes is a \"social cataloging\" website founded in June 2011 by Dawid Piaskowski, a software engineer, e-business analyst and entrepreneur, and Joanna Grzelak-Piaskowska, a linguist and literary scholar. The website allows individuals to freely search BookLikes' database of books and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs. They can also create their own groups of book suggestions and discussions.\n"
] |
Is it possible to make 3D contact lenses similar to 3D glasses given out at Movie Screenings?
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I think it's a great idea, and I see no reason it shouldn't be doable. Indeed, polarized contact lenses have already been [patented](_URL_0_). And whereas linearly polarized contact lenses to reduce glare like polarized sunglasses would be impractical (since the effect depends on the orientation of the lens), 3D movies use circular polarization, so the rotational orientation of each lens wouldn't matter. And I bet having the polarizer cover the eye's entire field of vision would produce a much more comfortable effect than looking through awkward glasses.
All of Balthanos's critiques are pretty easily dealt with, too: Let people buy these things on their own (so the burden of idiocy is on the consumer, not the theater); and if leaving polarizing eyewear on during the day were a safety hazard, polarized sunglasses probably wouldn't be a thing.
|
[
"This allows the observer to view the 3D subject from different angles as they move their head, simulating the real-world depth cue of shifting parallax. It also reduces or eliminates the complication of pseudoscopic viewing zones typical of \"no glasses\" 3D displays that use only two images, making it possible for several randomly located observers to all see the subject in correct 3D at the same time.\n",
"In 2011, Green created \"2-D\" glasses, which allow one to watch 3-D movies in 2-D. The glasses were originally created for those who experience discomfort watching 3-D movies (such as Green's wife) and consist of either two right or two left lenses from a pair of regular 3-D glasses.\n",
"3D film is a system of presenting film images so that they appear to the viewer to be three-dimensional. Visitors usually borrow or keep special glasses to wear while watching the movie. Depending on the system used, these are typically polarized glasses. Three-dimensional movies use two images channeled, respectively, to the right and left eyes to simulate depth by using 3-D glasses with red and blue lenses (anaglyph), polarized (linear and circular), and other techniques. 3-D glasses deliver the proper image to the proper eye and make the image appear to \"pop-out\" at the viewer and even follow the viewer when he/she moves so viewers relatively see the same image.\n",
"In a theater showing a 3D film, viewers wearing polarized, stereoscopic glasses follow in the footsteps of a young man with presbyopia. Stage-by-stage, he experiences the vision produced by single-vision and bifocal lenses, and then that of standard progressive lenses, and ultimately Varilux lenses.\n",
"Unlike with monovision surgery where it is generally advised to perform a \"monovision contact lens trial\", Laser Blended Vision screening does not incorporate this as it would automatically exclude many suitable candidates from having the procedure. This is because a much larger proportion of people are suitable for Laser Blended Vision (95%) than monovision (59-67%).\n",
"Patients treated using Laser Blended Vision, have an increased depth of field compared to traditional monovision. With use of contact lens monovision there is a diminishing effect on distance vision, depth of field and contrast sensitivity (neural subtraction) which is not seen with Laser Blended Vision; in fact Laser Blended Vision has been shown to provide better distance vision binocularly than with the dominant distance eye alone (neural summation). According to a comprehensive review of the medical literature conducted by Dr. BJ Evans, only 59-67% of patients are tolerant to mono vision, compared to the tolerance to Laser Blended Vision in more than 95% of patients screened and treated.\n",
"In late 2005, Steven Spielberg told the press he was involved in patenting a 3D cinema system that does not need glasses, and which is based on plasma screens. A computer splits each film-frame, and then projects the two split images onto the screen at differing angles, to be picked up by tiny angled ridges on the screen.\n"
] |
how can a 60hz monitor have a response time of 5ms when 1/60hz = 16.7 ms?
|
The response time is usually the time it takes a pixel to change from black to white, or some predetermined gray to another gray value to estimate the average real usage. This will determine the amount of time it takes the average pixel to change to the updated value after a new frame is received by the monitor; the shorter the response time, the quicker the screen updates. If the response time is as long as a frame update interval, the screen never finishes updating, and you get a blurry mess when you are watching video or playing games; the shorter response time helps eliminate this effect.
|
[
"A Slow measurement (yellow line) will take approximately 5 seconds (attack time) to reach 80 dB and around 6 seconds (decay time) to drop back down to 50 dB. S is appropriate when measuring a signal that fluctuates a lot. \n",
"BULLET::::- Response time is the time a pixel in a monitor takes to go from active (white) to inactive (black) and back to active (white) again, measured in milliseconds. Lower numbers mean faster transitions and therefore fewer visible image artifacts.\n",
"On smaller CRT monitors (up to about ), few people notice any discomfort between 60–72 Hz. On larger CRT monitors ( or larger), most people experience mild discomfort unless the refresh is set to 72 Hz or higher. A rate of 100 Hz is comfortable at almost any size. However, this does not apply to LCD monitors. The closest equivalent to a refresh rate on an LCD monitor is its frame rate, which is often locked at 60 fps. But this is rarely a problem, because the only part of an LCD monitor that could produce CRT-like flicker—its backlight — typically operates at around a minimum of 200 Hz.\n",
"BULLET::::- The 5 ms second ticks are 6 cycles of rather than 5 cycles of 1,000 Hz. The 800 ms minute beep is also 1,200 Hz. (Like WWV, this is omitted during minutes 29 and 59, and changed to 1,500 Hz at the top of each hour.)\n",
"Response time is the amount of time a pixel in a display takes to change. It is measured in milliseconds (ms). Lower numbers mean faster transitions and therefore fewer visible image artifacts. Display monitors with long response times would create display motion blur around moving objects, making them unacceptable for rapidly moving images. Response times are usually measured from grey-to-grey transitions, based on a VESA industry standard from the 10% to the 90% points in the pixel response curve. \n",
"The baseline FHR is determined by approximating the mean FHR rounded to increments of 5 beats per minute (bpm) during a 10-minute window, excluding accelerations and decelerations and periods of marked FHR variability (greater than 25 bpm). There must be at least 2 minutes of identifiable baseline segments (not necessarily contiguous) in any 10-minute window, or the baseline for that period is indeterminate. In such cases, it may be necessary to refer to the previous 10-minute window for determination of the baseline. Abnormal baseline is termed \"bradycardia\" when the baseline FHR is less than 110 bpm; it is termed \"tachycardia\" when the baseline FHR is greater than 160 bpm.\n",
"BULLET::::- In the format \"hhmm\", using 15 minute increments up to one hour, using 30 minute increments up to six hours, and using hourly increments beyond six hours. Weekly and monthly tests sometimes have a 12-hour or greater purge time to assure users have an ample opportunity to verify reception of the test event messages; however; 15 minutes is more common, especially on NOAA Weather Radio's tests.\n"
] |
what is the root cause of what appears to be unequal treatment of minorities by police?
|
From my point of view as a late 20s black male. The root cause is cultural conditioning, and that is something that will never go away which is why I strongly believe it's a problem that will never be solved. Now if you don't know what I mean by cultural conditioning, everything from kids movies, TV shows, commercials, what you hear on the news etc has an impact on the way you think. It's so deeply engrained in our society that it's impossible to break. Caucasians automatically think, whether they are racist or not that African Americans are more violent. African Americans feel from a very young age that the world is against them, you hear it a lot in rap songs on TV shows etc, so the mind state is completely different. I was taught at a very young age that it isn't a fair playing field and it would be something that I will have to live with the rest of my life. Now luckily I am semi successful, and have a family of my own and a son, I find myself passing on those same teachings to him. Fair or unfair, it doesn't matter, some people call it white privilege and I don't necessarily see it as that. To me it's more so of a black disadvantage.
|
[
"Research suggests that police practices, such as racial profiling, over-policing in areas populated by minorities and in-group bias may result in disproportionately high numbers of racial minorities among crime suspects. Research also suggests that there may be possible discrimination by the judicial system, which contributes to a higher number of convictions for racial minorities. \n",
"Research suggests that police practices, such as racial profiling, over-policing in areas populated by minorities and in-group bias may result in disproportionately high numbers of racial minorities among crime suspects. Research also suggests that there may be possible discrimination by the judicial system, which contributes to a higher number of convictions for racial minorities. \n",
"Racial inequalities is a major factor that has contributed to forming an anti-police sentiment. As such, the history of law enforcement's employment of coercive measures that have led to instances of police brutality involving underprivileged communities is paramount to our \"understanding of the substantial race gap\" between the two social groups. Thus, members of minority groups in disadvantaged neighborhoods that are heavily policed typically consider police in a pessimistic light due to an absence of trust, another aspect that can influence an anti-police stance. This distrust has paved the way for the questioning of police legitimacy as it threatens public “compliance and cooperation”. Furthermore, fear has also become a contributing factor that is particularly common with disadvantaged social groups due to the knowledge that “the law is not on their side”. Despite race being a driving aspect, the domineering nature of the police pertaining to the restriction of youth freedom has also perpetuated anti-police sentiments among young people.\n",
"Research suggests that police practices, such as racial profiling, over-policing in areas populated by minorities and in-group bias may result in disproportionately high numbers of racial minorities among crime suspects.\n",
"Research suggests that police practices, such as racial profiling, over-policing in areas populated by minorities and in-group bias may result in disproportionately high numbers of racial minorities among crime suspects in Sweden, Italy, and England and Wales. Research also suggests that there may be possible discrimination by the judicial system, which contributes to a higher number of convictions for racial minorities in Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Denmark and France.\n",
"Research suggests that police practices, such as racial profiling, over-policing in areas populated by minorities and in-group bias may result in disproportionately high numbers of immigrants among crime suspects. Research also suggests that there may be possible discrimination by the judicial system, which contributes to a higher number of convictions for immigrants.\n",
"Research suggests that police practices, such as racial profiling, over-policing in areas populated by minorities and in-group bias may result in disproportionately high numbers of racial minorities among crime suspects. Research also suggests that there may be possible discrimination by the judicial system, which contributes to a higher number of convictions for racial minorities. A 2012 study found that \"(i) juries formed from all-white jury pools convict black defendants significantly (16 percentage points) more often than white defendants, and (ii) this gap in conviction rates is entirely eliminated when the jury pool includes at least one black member.\" Research has found evidence of in-group bias, where \"black (white) juveniles who are randomly assigned to black (white) judges are more likely to get incarcerated (as opposed to being placed on probation), and they receive longer sentences.\" In-group bias has also been observed when it comes to traffic citations, as black and white cops are more likely to cite out-groups.\n"
] |
do animals get sick from licking another of the same animal it's wounds/blood?
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Whenever an animal hunts other animals and eats meat, they're eating some of their blood. Their stomachs just pulverize everything. Same for if they were to lick another of the same species. Same for humans, too, pretty much. Something like a blood transfusion would probably cause problems, though, because it bypasses the stomach. And humans can get problems from having too much iron, not sure if carnivores experience anything similar.
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[
"Wound licking is an instinctive response in humans and many other animals to lick an injury. Dogs, cats, small rodents, horses, and primates all lick wounds. Saliva contains tissue factor which promotes the blood clotting mechanism. The enzyme lysozyme is found in many tissues and is known to attack the cell walls of many gram-positive bacteria, aiding in defense against infection. Tears are also beneficial to wounds due to the lysozyme enzyme. However, there are also infection risks due to bacteria in the human mouth.\n",
"Wound licking is also important in other animals. Removal of the salivary glands of mice and rats slows wound healing, and communal licking of wounds among rodents accelerates wound healing. Communal licking is common in several primate species. In macaques, hair surrounding a wound and any dirt is removed, and the wound is licked, healing without infection.\n",
"As with the licking of wounds by people, wound licking by animals carries a risk of infection. Allowing pet cats to lick open wounds can cause cellulitis and sepsis due to bacterial infections. Licking of open wounds by dogs could transmit rabies if the dog is infected with rabies, although this is said by the CDC to be rare. Dog saliva has been reported to complicate the healing of ulcers. Another issue is the possibility of an allergy to proteins in the saliva of pets, such as Fel d 1 in cat allergy and Can f 1 in dog allergy. Cases of serious infection following the licking of wounds by pets include:\n",
"Wound licking is beneficial but too much licking can be harmful. An Elizabethan collar may be used on pet animals to prevent them from biting an injury or excessively licking it, which can cause a lick granuloma. These lesions are often infected by pathogenic bacteria such as \"Staphylococcus intermedius\". Horses that lick wounds may become infected by a stomach parasite, \"Habronema\", a type of nematode worm. The rabies virus may be transmitted between animals, such as the kudu antelopes by wound licking of wounds with residual infectious saliva.\n",
"In humans, \"P. multocida\" is the most common cause of wound infections after dog or cat bites. The infection usually shows as soft tissue inflammation within 24 hours. High leukocyte and neutrophil counts are typically observed, leading to an inflammatory reaction at the infection site (generally a diffuse, localized cellulitis). It can also infect other locales, such as the respiratory tract, and is known to cause regional lymphadenopathy (swelling of the lymph nodes). In more serious cases, a bacteremia can result, causing an osteomyelitis or endocarditis. The bacteria may also cross the blood–brain barrier and cause meningitis.\n",
"There are potential health hazards in wound licking due to infection risk, especially in immunocompromised patients. Human saliva contains a wide variety of bacteria that are harmless in the mouth, but that may cause significant infection if introduced into a wound. A notable case was a diabetic man who licked his bleeding thumb following a minor bicycle accident, and subsequently had to have the thumb amputated after it became infected with \"Eikenella corrodens\" from his saliva. The practice of metzitzah during circumcision is controversial as it can transmit the herpes virus to the infant.\n",
"Lick granuloma is a form of self-trauma and skin disorder in which most commonly dogs, but also cats, continuously lick a small area of their body until it becomes raw and inflamed. The most common areas affected are the lower (distal) portions of their legs, such as the carpus (wrist), or sometimes another part of their body such as the base of their tail.\n"
] |
why can't a human be frozen while still alive, and jumpstart and come back to life when they thaw out (like avatar)?
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Someone with more knowledge can come by with more info, but the primary reason is that our cells cannot withstand the ice crystals that form when they are frozen. When our cells freeze they rupture and die. If all of our cells freeze, they all die.
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[
"Ma Dong-chan (Ji Chang-wook) and Go Mi-ran (Won Jin-ah) are both frozen during an experiment. They wake up 20 years later instead of 24 hours later and must keep their body temperature above 30°C in order to survive.\n",
"Centuries, or possibly millennia, later, his frozen body is found by researchers who thaw him out and dub him 'Iceman'. Under the pretense of helping him, the scientists are investigating his ability to survive in the world outside of their enclosed environment (which has become uninhabitable by humans while he was hibernating). They are also interested in further increasing their longevity. They create numerous artificial beings based on his DNA for further study, including subject #63 whom he names \"Mutsumi\". A sympathetic researcher allows Iceman to escape along with numerous subjects including subject #3510, whom Iceman had previously named Mikoto. They have a child together, but are both eventually recaptured. Having reproduced, Mikoto is of particular interest to the scientists, who dissect her. On learning of this, Iceman goes berserk, and his abilities as Witsarunemitea awaken (he turns the scientists into near immortal amoeba-like entities, fulfilling their wish for longevity). Realizing what he is doing, he asks Mutsumi to destroy him; but she is unsuccessful. Instead, she manages to seal him, but he is separated into two entities: Hakuoro, possessing his good side and his human form; and a formless evil side that must possess a host body to act physically. However, the seal cannot hold indefinitely and the two halves periodically break free. In the current timeline, Hakuoro awakens with no memories, and the darker side possesses the Onkamiyamukai scholar, Dii.\n",
"Falling out into the frozen tundra, the Animorphs find themselves freezing to death. They morph wolves, but they need energy to keep going. At night - since none of them can sleep - Ax tells the chilling tale of the new aliens, the Venber, a species from the Andalite moon Venbea, that was wiped out centuries ago by a race known as \"The Five\", melting them for computer semiconductors. Not only that, but the Yeerks have cloned them by cross-breeding them with humans, giving them their new humanoid shape. Then they find a polar bear had just killed and partially consumed a seal. The Animorphs eat the remains. Much to their surprise, not even Cassie has any scruples. They also find two seal pups - the pups of the seal they'd just eaten. Regretfully, they acquire the pups and leave them to their fate.\n",
"Freeze avoidant: These species are able to prevent their body fluids from freezing altogether. Generally, the AFP function may be overcome at extremely cold temperatures, leading to rapid ice growth and death.\n",
"Freeze tolerance, in which organisms survive the winter by freezing solid and ceasing life functions, is known in a few vertebrates: five species of frogs (\"Rana sylvatica\", \"Pseudacris triseriata\", \"Hyla crucifer\", \"Hyla versicolor\", \"Hyla chrysoscelis\"), one of salamanders (\"Hynobius keyserlingi\"), one of snakes (\"Thamnophis sirtalis\") and three of turtles (\"Chrysemys picta\", \"Terrapene carolina\", \"Terrapene ornata\"). Snapping turtles \"Chelydra serpentina\" and wall lizards \"Podarcis muralis\" also survive nominal freezing but it has not been established to be adaptive for overwintering. In the case of \"Rana sylvatica\" one cryopreservant is ordinary glucose, which increases in concentration by approximately 19 mmol/l when the frogs are cooled slowly.\n",
"BULLET::::- Cryonics – A field of products, techniques, and beliefs supporting the idea that freezing the clinically dead, at very low temperatures (typically below −196 degrees Celsius) will enable future revival or re-substantiation. These beliefs often hinge on the existence of advanced human or alien societies, in the distant future, who will possess as-of-yet unknown technology for the stabilization of dying cells. There is no evidence a human being can be revived after such freezing, and no solid scientific evidence suggests that reanimation will be possible in the future.\n",
"While freezing is sometimes said to be a humane way to kill certain arthropods, others dispute this. According to \"AVMA Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals,\" freezing is \"not considered to be humane\" when not preceded by another form of anesthesia. The British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) Terrestrial Invertebrate Working Group (TIWG) reports on a survey conducted by Mark Bushell of BIAZA institutions. He found that refrigeration and freezing were the most common methods \"of euthanasia of invertebrates although research has suggested that this is probably one of the least ethical options.\" That said, freezing is a worst-case method if chemical or instantaneous physical destruction is not possible.\n"
] |
What did Stalin do the first week of Barbarossa?
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Stalin chose to let secretary of State Molotov announce the German invasion to the citizens of the USSR. According to Molotov's own words: "[Stalin] didn't want to be the first to speak. He needed a clear picture. He couldn't respond like an automaton to everything. He was a human being after all." During the first couple of days Stalin was simply swamped in work, formulating a military answer to the situation at the front which was quite disastrous.
After a couple of days though, Stalin seems to have suffered some sort of mental breakdown. After a meeting with, amongst others, NKVD-chief Beria and Molotov in Stalin's dacha he supposedly uttered these words: "Everything's lost. I give up. Lenin left us a proletarian state and now we've been caught with our pants down and let the whole thing go to shit." After that meeting Stalin remained in his dacha and went incommunicado. According to Molotov 'Stalin shut himself away from everybody, was receiving nobody and wasn't answering the phone'.
Because conducting a war without the leader of the country in office is quite difficult seven members of the Politburo decided to go check on Stalin themselves. They found him 'thinner, haggard, gloomy'. He asked the Politburo-members if he would still be able to lead the country to victory. They responded favourably and Stalin was appointed head of the State Defence Committee. The next day Stalin returned to Moscow and on July 3rd he held his first radio speech since the German invasion.
So did Stalin really have a breakdown? According to Simon Sebag Montefiore's Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar (the main source for this answer) the breakdown 'was real enough: he was depressed and exhausted'. But Montefiore also points to quotes from Molotov and Politburo-member Anastas Mikoyan who said it was also 'for effect'. Stalin used his breakdown to see if he still had the trust of the Politburo.
EDIT Request for the downvoters: if you don't like my answer, please do give an alternative or point me towards the mistakes in my answer.
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[
"Skorzeny took part in the invasion of the Soviet Union with the SS Division Das Reich and subsequently fought in several battles on the Eastern Front. In October 1941, he was in charge of a \"technical section\" of the German forces during the Battle of Moscow. His mission was to seize important buildings of the Communist Party, including the NKVD headquarters at Lubyanka, and the central telegraph office and other high priority facilities, before they could be destroyed. He was also ordered to capture the sluices of the Moscow-Volga Canal because Hitler wanted to turn Moscow into a huge artificial lake by opening them. The missions were canceled as the German forces failed to capture the Soviet capital.\n",
"Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa in 1941 rapidly overrunning Soviet front-line forces. The Academy's staff was evacuated to Sverdlovsk in the Urals. Tokaty returned to Moscow during the Battle of Moscow. He later flew in bombing raids over Stalingrad using American bombers delivered through lend-lease.\n",
"Bagramyan was instrumental in the planning of two Soviet counter-offensives against the Germans, including the major push made by Soviet forces in December during the Battle of Moscow, and for this was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General. In the same month, he was made the chief of staff of a military operations group that would oversee three Army Groups: the Southern, the Southwestern and Bryansk Fronts. In March 1942, he went along with Khrushchev and Timoshenko to Moscow to present the plans of a new counter-offensive in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv to Stalin. Stalin, impressed with his plan, approved the operation and on April 8, promoted Bagramyan as Chief of Staff of the Southwestern Front. On 12 May 1942, armies of the Southwestern Front attacked Kharkiv but the launch of the offensive came at an inopportune moment since they were attacking from the Barvenkovo Salient, a region that German forces were near closing.\n",
"After the defeat of the Romanian Army around Stalingrad and the successful encirclement of the German Sixth Army, Stalin started a counter-offensive nicknamed \"Operation Little Saturn\" in order to enlarge the area controlled by the Soviet Army in eastern Ukraine until Kharkov and Rostov.\n",
"During Operation Barbarossa the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Budyonny was commander-in-chief of the Soviet forces in Ukraine that were disastrously defeated, resulting in 1.5 million Soviet personnel killed or taken prisoner. He received the blame for many of Stalin's military strategic errors, but was retained in the Soviet high command because of his political connections and popularity.\n",
"During first days of Operation Barbarossa his command, Soviet Western Front suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Białystok-Minsk, during the first days of the invasion, Pavlov was relieved of his command on 1 July 1941, arrested and accused of criminal incompetence and treason. He was the only arrested commander of any Soviet front during Operation Barbarossa.\n",
"Chief of the OKH, General Franz Halder, Fedor von Bock, the commander of Army Group Center, and almost all the German generals involved in Operation Barbarossa argued vehemently in favor of continuing the all-out drive toward Moscow. Besides the psychological importance of capturing the Soviet capital, the generals pointed out that Moscow was a major center of arms production, the center of the Soviet communications system and an important transport hub. Intelligence reports indicated that the bulk of the Red Army was deployed near Moscow under Semyon Timoshenko for the defense of the capital. Panzer commander Heinz Guderian was sent to Hitler by Bock and Halder to argue their case for continuing the assault against Moscow, but Hitler issued an order through Guderian (bypassing Bock and Halder) to send Army Group Center's tanks to the north and south, temporarily halting the drive to Moscow. Convinced by Hitler's argument, Guderian returned to his commanding officers as a convert to the Führer's plan, which earned him their disdain.\n"
] |
how do radio stations broadcast album art?
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Radio stations have extra radio bandwidth that they don't need for the audio alone. They can use this bandwidth to send additional data to your radio such as the station name, song title, artist, or I guess the album art. It's essentially sending data over a wireless internet connection, point-to-point from the station to your radio. This is not an efficient connection though due to the distance and interference, so its uses are limited.
You usually need a radio capable of receiving this kind of data (and a station properly equipped) otherwise your radio doesn't know how to interpret this data and display it for you. It would just think it was noise and ignore that part of the signal. This system is also heavily regulated in how it can be used.
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[
"The artist who works in radio art is not necessarily a trained DJ, programmer, producer, or engineer, but one who uses sound to make art. The radio medium can be used in ways which are different from what it was intended for. In that sense, the way the message is transmitted and received by an audience is as important as the message itself. \"As an aural art form it reaffirms that it's not just what we say, but the way we say it.\" In Victoria Fenner's words, \"Radio art is art which is specifically composed for the medium of radio and is uniquely suited to be transmitted via the airwaves.\" \n",
"An art radio is a radio station that would dedicate every second of its transmission time to radio art. Although this kind of project can seem utopian in the traditional state of radio, there are few lasting experiences in the underground or community side such as London's ResonanceFM which intend to make radio with art and promote the \"art of listening\".\n",
"Usually each member radio station commissions an artist from their local artistic community and gives him/her carte blanche for producing a show. In that sense, Radia uses radio as a gallery for sound art pieces.\n",
"Artists use (i.e. radio transmission, airwaves...) to communicate artistic compositions for interpretation – exposing their audience to alternate means to experiencing their art through sound verses visualization. Radio Art contributes to new media art - a digitally driven art movement growing in response to the informative technological revolution we live in. “From the artist's point of view radio is an environment to be entered into and acted upon, a site for various cultural voices to meet, converse, and merge in. These artists cross disciplines, raid all genres and recontextualize them into hybrids.” \n",
"Radio art projects can be collaborative including various professional sources, unifying an audio broadcast with science, experimentation, geography, entertainment, etc.\" Some have approached radio as an architectural space to be constructed sonically and linguistically; or as the site of an event, an arena, or stage. Some used it as a gathering place, or a conduit, a means to create community. Other artists have employed the media landscape itself as the narrative, while others looked into the body as the site and the source; the voicebox, the larynx become medium and metaphor.\" \n",
"Transmission Arts, also sometimes known as Radio art, are defined \"as a multiplicity of practices and media working with the idea of transmission or the physical properties of the Electromagnetic spectrum (radio). Transmission works often manifest themselves in participatory live art or time-based art, and include, but are not limited to, sound, video, light, installation, and performance.\" \n",
"Radio announcers are often known as disc jockeys (DJs). While some read from scripts, others completely ad-lib. These DJs’ tasks consist of on-air interviewing, taking/responding to listener requests, running contests, and making remarks about various subjects like the weather, traffic, sports, and other news. Most radio announcers announce the artists and titles of songs, but don’t necessarily choose what song airs on the radio. Many stations have a management teams who select the songs ahead of time. Today radio stations have DJs update the station’s website with music, guest interviews, show schedules, and photos.\n"
] |
What determines what wavelength of light is reflected from object?
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The transmission/reflection spectrum of a material is a function of the [electronic structure](_URL_1_) of the molecules composing it. You can imagine an electron as a charge on a harmonic potential; the electric field in passing light excites the electron into an oscillatory motion. When the frequency of the excitory field is much slower or much faster than the electron, it doesn't move much and transmits most of the light. Near resonance, it absorbs more of the light, and just above resonance frequency, it reflects most. The overall reflection spectrum will have features of all of the atoms and molecules in the material; for example, you can see the contributions of various gases to the [atmospheric transmission spectrum](_URL_0_). If you want a more quantitative treatment of this, MIT opencourseware has [some good slides](_URL_2_) on the topic.
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[
"Apart from the transmitted light there is also a reflected part. The reflection angle is equal to the incidence angle, and the amount of light that is reflected is determined by the reflectivity of the surface. The reflectivity can be calculated from the refractive index and the incidence angle with the Fresnel equations, which for normal incidence reduces to\n",
"If wavelength is smaller than the textured size, the reflection reduction can be explained with the help of the geometric optics approximation: rays should be reflected many times before they are sent back toward the source. In this case the reflection can be calculated using ray tracing.\n",
"Wavelengths vary to suit the target: from about 10 micrometers (infrared) to approximately 250 nm (UV). Typically, light is reflected via backscattering, as opposed to pure reflection one might find with a mirror. Different types of scattering are used for different lidar applications: most commonly Rayleigh scattering, Mie scattering, Raman scattering, and fluorescence. Suitable combinations of wavelengths can allow for remote mapping of atmospheric contents by identifying wavelength-dependent changes in the intensity of the returned signal.\n",
"where α is the albedo of the object. Thus, highly reflective objects tend to reflect mostly unpolarized light, and dimly reflective objects tend to reflect polarized light. The law is only valid for large phase angles (angles between the incident light and the reflected light).\n",
"Total internal reflection describes the fact that radiation (e.g. visible light) can, at certain angles, be totally reflected from an interface between two media of different indices of refraction (see Snell's law). Total internal reflection occurs when the first medium has a larger refractive index than the second medium, for example, light that starts in water and bounces off the water-to-air interface.\n",
"The absorbance of an object quantifies how much of the incident light is absorbed by it (instead of being reflected or refracted). This may be related to other properties of the object through the Beer–Lambert law.\n",
"When light is propagating in a material and strikes an interface with a material of lower index of refraction, some of the light is reflected. If the angle of incidence is greater than the critical angle, total internal reflection occurs: all of the light is reflected. The critical angle can be shown to be given by\n"
] |
the us is known as the "no vacation nation", the only developed nation without mandatory pto.
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"Because why should I pay someone not to work?" That's what it amounts to basically, you can always find someone for the same job that will work for less pay or less benefits.
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[
"According to the U.S. Travel Association, Americans collectively did not use 662 million vacation days in 2016. More than half of all working people in the United States forfeited paid time off at the end of the year. Two-thirds of people still do work while they are on vacation.\n",
"In all twenty-five European Union countries, voters \"punish\" politicians who try to shrink vacations. \"Even the twenty-two days Estonians, Lithuanians, Poles and Slovenians count as their own is much more generous than the leave allotted to U.S. workers.\" According to a report by the Families and Work Institute, the average vacation time that Americans took each year averaged 14.6 days.\n",
"Working holidays in Australia is a program that enables eligible young people aged between 18 and 30 years to visit Australia and to supplement their travel funds through incidental employment. Forms of working holiday visas (today, Work and Holiday (subclass 462) and Working Holiday (subclass 417)) have existed since January 1975, designed to \"promote international understanding by enabling young people to experience the culture of another country.\"\n",
"The United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation and is one of just a few countries in the world without paid family leave as a legal right, with the others being Papua New Guinea, Suriname and Liberia. While federal law does not require sick leave, it is a common benefit for government workers and full-time employees at corporations. 74% of full-time American workers get paid sick leave, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, although only 24% of part-time workers get the same benefits. In 2009, the United States had the third-highest workforce productivity per person in the world, behind Luxembourg and Norway. It was fourth in productivity per hour, behind those two countries and the Netherlands.\n",
"American workers are legally not entitled to any paid holidays. However, most employers will give the 10 days off of national holidays. This is one of the lowest paid holidays total in the world. Brazil has a total of 41 paid days off and Australia has 38 days off.\n",
"People in the United States work among the longest hours per week in the industrialized world, and have the least annual leave. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 article 24 states: \"Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.\" However, there is no general federal or state legislation requiring paid annual leave. Title 5 of the United States Code §6103 specifies ten public holidays for federal government employees, and provides that holidays will be paid. Many states do the same, however, no state law requires private sector employers to provide paid holidays. Many private employers follow the norms of federal and state government, but the right to annual leave, if any, will depend upon collective agreements and individual employment contracts. State law proposals have been made to introduce paid annual leave. A 2014 Washington Bill from United States House of Representatives member Gael Tarleton would have required a minimum of 3 weeks of paid holidays each year to employees in businesses of over 20 staff, after 3 years work. Under the International Labour Organization Holidays with Pay Convention 1970 three weeks is the bare minimum. The Bill did not receive enough votes. By contrast, employees in all European Union countries have the right to at least 4 weeks (i.e. 28 days) of paid annual leave each year. Furthermore, there is no federal or state law on limits to the length of the working week. Instead, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 §207 creates a financial disincentive to longer working hours. Under the heading \"Maximum hours\", §207 states that time and a half pay must be given to employees working more than 40 hours in a week. It does not, however, set an actual limit, and there are at least 30 exceptions for categories of employee which do not receive overtime pay. Shorter working time was one of the labor movement's original demands. From the first decades of the 20th century, collective bargaining produced the practice of having, and the word for, a two-day \"weekend\". State legislation to limit working time was, however, suppressed by the US Supreme Court in \"Lochner v New York\". The New York State Legislature had passed the Bakeshop Act of 1895, which limited work in bakeries to 10 hours a day or 60 hours a week, to improve health, safety and people's living conditions. After being prosecuted for making his staff work longer in his Utica, Mr Lochner claimed that the law violated the Fourteenth Amendment on \"due process\". Despite the dissent of four judges, a majority of five judges held that the law was unconstitutional. The whole \"Lochner\" era of jurisprudence was reversed by the US Supreme Court in 1937, but experimentation to improve working time rights, and \"work-life balance\" has not yet recovered.\n",
"Most countries around the world have labour laws that mandate employers give a certain number of paid time-off days per year to workers. Canada requires at least two weeks (and at least three weeks for most workers in Saskatchewan); in the European Union the countries can set freely the minimum, but it has to be at least equivalent to 4 working weeks. Full-time employment in Australia requires twenty annual leave days a year. US law does not require employers to grant any vacation or holidays, and about 25 per cent of all employees receive no paid vacation time or paid holidays.\n"
] |
Mathematically speaking, if a given game of Sudoku, in its initial state, has only one possible outcome, will it always solvable without having to resort to guessing a cell's value?
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Sure, if it has a unique solution, it's "solvable" by giving that unique solution. Whether it's solvable by some particular algorithm is going to be very dependent on the details of that algorithm.
|
[
"For a standard formula_57 Sudoku this results in a probability of formula_58 for a unique solution. An analog calculation is done for all cardinality combinations. In the end the distribution of output cardinalities are summed up from the results. Note that the order of the input cardinality is interchangeable. The calculation of non-decreasing constraint combinations is therewith sufficient.\n",
"Consider Sudoku, a game where the player is given a partially filled-in grid of numbers and attempts to complete the grid following certain rules. Given an incomplete Sudoku grid, of any size, is there at least one legal solution? Any proposed solution is easily verified, and the time to check a solution grows slowly (polynomially) as the grid gets bigger. However, all known algorithms for finding solutions take, for difficult examples, time that grows exponentially as the grid gets bigger. So, Sudoku is in NP (quickly checkable) but does not seem to be in P (quickly solvable). Thousands of other problems seem similar, in that they are fast to check but slow to solve. Researchers have shown that many of the problems in NP have the extra property that a fast solution to any one of them could be used to build a quick solution to any other problem in NP, a property called NP-completeness. Decades of searching have not yielded a fast solution to any of these problems, so most scientists suspect that none of these problems can be solved quickly. This, however, has never been proven.\n",
"As for the \"most\" clues possible in a Sudoku while still \"not\" rendering a unique solution, it is four short of a full grid (77). If two instances of two numbers each are missing and the cells they are to occupy are the corners of an orthogonal rectangle, and exactly two of these cells are within one region, there are two ways the last digits can be added (two solutions).\n",
"Example 2 shows a two-stage repeated game with a unique Nash equilibrium. Because there is only one equilibrium here, there is no mechanism for either player to threaten punishment or promise reward in the game’s second round. As such, the only strategy that can be supported as a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium is that of playing the game’s unique Nash equilibrium strategy (D, N) every round. In this case, that means playing (D, N) each stage for two stages (n=2), but it would be true for any finite number of stages \"n\". To interpret: this result means that the very presence of a known, finite time horizon sabotages cooperation in every single round of the game. Cooperation in iterated games is only possible when the number of rounds is infinite or unknown.\n",
"Solutions may be reached through a sequence of proposed alternatives, and when the actors find the ultimate solution acceptable, the proposed solutions may be said to be convergent. Roszkowska and Burns (2002) showed that not every game has a common solution, and that divergent proposals may arise. This may result in a no equilibrium being found, and stems from dropping the assumption for the existence of a Nash equilibrium that the game be finite or that the game have complete information. Another possibility is the existence of a rule which allows a dictator to force an equilibrium. The rules which make up the norms of the game are one way of resolving the problem of choosing between multiple equilibria, such as those arising in the so-called folk theorem.\n",
"More precisely, solving Sudoku is an exact hitting set problem, which is equivalent to an exact cover problem, when viewed as a problem to select possibilities such that each constraint set contains (i.e., is hit by) exactly one selected possibility.\n",
"Tsikogiannopoulos (2012) presented a different way to do these calculations. Of course, it is by definition correct to assign equal probabilities to the events that the other envelope contains double or half that amount in envelope A. So the \"switching argument\" is correct up to step 6. Given that the player's envelope contains the amount A, he differentiates the actual situation in two different games: The first game would be played with the amounts (A, 2A) and the second game with the amounts (A/2, A). Only one of them is actually played but we don't know which one. These two games need to be treated differently. If the player wants to compute his/her expected return (profit or loss) in case of exchange, he/she should weigh the return derived from each game by the average amount in the two envelopes in that particular game. In the first case the profit would be A with an average amount of 3A/2, whereas in the second case the loss would be A/2 with an average amount of 3A/4. So the formula of the expected return in case of exchange, seen as a proportion of the total amount in the two envelopes, is:\n"
] |
How can I find a certain persons coat of arms from the 1000s?
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You almost certainly won't find it at all. Formal heraldry, in which each individual possesses a unique, identifying coat of arms based on symbols inherited from the father and mother, did not develop until the 13th century. It's likely that 11th century Normans decorated their shields, but this would have been cosmetic rather than heraldic in nature.
|
[
"The coat of arms first appeared on a seal dating from 1652 AD and later in the coat of arms collection of Arnsberg of 1700 AD. It was officially authorized on October 26, 1911 with Enkhausen's patron saint St. Laurentius holding the shield.\n",
"The earliest known coat of arms was recorded in 1724 by Sir John Higgins Bt of Montoge with Sir James Terry, Athlone Herald in the Court of James II at St. Germaine. Sir John Higgins's branch of the family moved to Limerick after they lost their lands at Monteige in Sligo and eventually relocated in France and later in Spain where John Higgins was knighted and became personal physician to the King of Spain.\n",
"The coat of arms is based on the coat of arms of the counts of the Mark, showing a chequered red-white bar on a yellow shield. The oldest version of the coat of arms is known from a wood carving in the city church dated from the 16th century; it showed Saint Mary on top of the coat of arms of the Mark. Later the Mary picture was moved inside the shield. It was officially granted on November 25, 1912.\n",
"The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 7 August 1987. The arms show a gold-colored winged arrow pointing down on a red background. The arms are based on the legend that in 1022, King Olaf II of Norway (Saint Olaf) shot an arrow and where the arrow hit the ground, he built the church.\n",
"The coat of arms was granted in 1570 by Robert Cooke, Clarencieux King of Arms, at the request of the Master, Archbishop Matthew Parker. It was by this that Parker introduced into the college the symbol of the mythical pelican with the body of a swan and the head of an eagle. It was believed in the Middle Ages that a pelican lived in a tree and laid three eggs; ant that after they hatched the pelican quarrels with the. and inadvertently kills them, while the mother pelican pecked at her own breast, spilling her blood on them and restoring them to life. This became a potent symbol for Christ feeding his followers spiritually with his body and blood. It was often associated with the Corpus Christi cult during the Middle Ages but not with the Cambridge guild until the granting of the arms in the 16th Century.\n",
"The earliest mention of the Coat of arms is July 27, 1791 when attributed to Theodore of Rosko-Bogdanowiczowi by Leopold II., He was a merchant living in Szionda rewarded for his supply of the Austrian army. He came from a family of lesser nobility descended from an ancestor was Deoda (Leopold) Bogdanovich.\n",
"The coat-of-arms is from modern times. It was granted on 30 November 1984. The arms show a golden spur on a red background. A spur like this was found in the area that dated back to the Viking Age. It is one of the largest golden items that was ever found in Norway and was thus chosen as a symbol on the arms.\n"
] |
What happened to all the Aquatic Dinosaurs?
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First off, the obligatory "Giant marine reptiles were not technically dinosaurs" (some were actually pretty closely related to certain lizard groups, others were in completely different groups, none were dinosaurs proper)
Second: These marine reptiles tended to be large, active top predators. Life is always a bit more precarious for top predators. Blot out the sun for a few years and you'd see phytoplankton populations crash, leading to a crash in small fish. This would decrease populations of the larger fish that top predators eat. Lacking food, many would starve. And top predators usually have pretty low populations because their food supply is limited even during the best of times, and each individual needs to eat a lot. Fewer individuals mean lower chance of survival.
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[
" Nonavian dinosaurs have been found in the Niobrara Chalk despite it being located hundreds of miles out to sea at the time. The most reasonable theory is that the carcasses drifted out to sea. It is unlikely that the bodies were carried out by outgoing tides along the shorelines where they died, but rather it is more probable that the dinosaurs were carried offshore by floodwaters during a storm. In the shallow waters the bodies would have begun to decompose and bacteria within the carcass would have produced gasses that would have accumulated in the gut, thereby making the body buoyant. Next, the prevailing winds and currents would have carried it out to sea, where it would eventually settle to the bottom and be buried in sediment.\n",
" Nonavian dinosaurs have been found in the Niobrara Chalk despite it being located hundreds of miles out to sea at the time. The most reasonable theory is that the carcasses drifted out to sea. It is unlikely that the bodies were carried out by outgoing tides along the shorelines where they died, but rather it is more probable that the dinosaurs were carried offshore by floodwaters during a storm. In the shallow waters the bodies would have begun to decompose and bacteria within the carcass would have produced gasses that would have accumulated in the gut, thereby making the body buoyant. Next, the prevailing winds and currents would have carried it out to sea, where it would eventually settle to the bottom and be buried in sediment.\n",
"After the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event wiped out all of the non-avian dinosaurs (birds are generally regarded as the surviving dinosaurs) and several mammalian groups, placental and marsupial mammals diversified into many new forms and ecological niches throughout the Paleogene and Neogene eras. Some reached enormous sizes and almost as wide a variation as the dinosaurs once did. Nevertheless, mammalian megafauna never quite reached the skyscraper heights of some sauropods.\n",
"As the Mesozoic progressed, the Protosuchia gave rise to more typically crocodile-like forms. While dinosaurs were the dominant animals on land, the crocodiles flourished in rivers, swamps, and the oceans, with far greater diversity than they have today. With the end Cretaceous extinction, the dinosaurs became extinct, with the exception of the birds, while the crocodilians continued with little change. Today, the crocodiles, alligators, and gharials are the surviving representatives of this lineage.\n",
"Following the Permian-Triassic extinction event (also colloquially known as The Great Dying), the decline and disappearance of eugeneodonts and giant nautiloids left an environmental niche empty that many marine reptiles began to fill. \"Guizhouichthyosaurus\" was one of the largest marine vertebrates of the time, whose only predators composed of large macro-predatory Ichthyosaurs (that of which preferred to hunt smaller ichthyosaurs). The rise of the shelled cephalopods (ammonites that survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event, along with the appearance of belemnites) gave ichthyosaurs an abundant food supply with little competition. \"Guizhouichthyosaurus\" and other ichthyosaurs began to adapt to hunting these cephalopods through larger eyes, and thick bodies, to handle the pressures of diving deep to hunt for their prey.\n",
"Dinosaurs became entrapped in the cohesive and adhesive mud as they drank and hunted near the floodpond. The preserved fauna consists of almost all dinosaurs with the majority being carnivorous dinosaurs including \"Allosaurus\" (material from at least 44 individuals make up almost 67% of all remains), \"Torvosaurus\" (1), \"Ceratosaurus\" (1), \"Stokesosaurus\" (2), \"Marshosaurus\" (2), and possibly an \"Ornitholestes\". Herbivorous dinosaurs include \"Camarasaurus\" (5), \"Haplocanthosaurus\" (1), \"Barosaurus\" (1), \"Amphicoelias\" (1), \"Mongolosaurus\" (1), an unidentified sauropod, \"Camptosaurus\" (5), \"Stegosaurus\" (4), a possible ankylosaur (1), and an unidentified ornithopod. Non-dinosaurian fauna include a crocodile (\"Goniopholis\"), 2 turtles (\"Glyptops\"), 4 genera of gastropoda (snails), and 4 genera of charophyte.\n",
"The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which occurred approximately 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period, caused the extinction of all dinosaur groups except for the neornithine birds. Some other diapsid groups, such as crocodilians, sebecosuchians, turtles, lizards, snakes, sphenodontians, and choristoderans, also survived the event.\n"
] |
when i’m driving, the wind can blow my car all over the road. when i’m parked, the wind can’t move my car one inch. why?
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But it does move your car. If you're driving down the road and a gust of wind hits the side of your car it's going to push it off to the side until you correct it. That's because your car is already in motion but it's shifted slightly to the side during that motion. However while it's parked that same gust of wind will cause it to rock back and forth a bit. The only difference is that it doesn't feel as extreme because you're not in motion.
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[
"However, this system causes \"wind up\" in the transmission (inter-component stress) as all the wheels are forced to rotate at the same speed, which during cornering is impossible. This led to rapid wear and breakage of the bevel gear boxes if the vehicle was used on firm surfaces, such as tarmac or concrete – in off-road conditions, the natural 'slip' of a loose surface, such as mud or gravel reduced wind up. This problem is of special concern for modern-day Stalwart owners – to get a vehicle to a show either requires moving it by low-loader or driving it on the road, risking damage to the transmission. Alternatively, the front and rear driveshafts can be removed, eliminating wind up at the expense of off-road capability.\n",
"Flying socks, as indicated by a windsock on red triangle or yellow diamond signs, indicate locations where a strong side wind may cause the trajectory of the moving vehicle to change drastically, perhaps even \"flying\" across lanes, causing an accident.\n",
"The intersection of Pennsylvania Route 177 and Pleasant View Road near the borough is said to allow an automobile in neutral to drift uphill. According to legend, this effect is caused by the ghosts of children once killed in a bus accident, who push the car uphill to prevent similar occurrences. However, the phenomenon is caused by a gravity hill optical illusion.\n",
"Most land vehicles use wheels and therefore rolling for displacement. Slip should be kept to a minimum (approximating pure rolling), otherwise loss of control and an accident may result. This may happen when the road is covered in snow, sand, or oil, when taking a turn at high speed or attempting to brake or accelerate suddenly.\n",
"BULLET::::- Strong winds have blown over certain vehicles. Therefore, some vehicles are banned when the wind speed exceeds . Level 6 wind restrictions with hurricane-force winds (at least , i.e. approaching the wind speed of a Category 1 hurricane, which is at least ), and other inclement weather conditions ban all traffic.\n",
"Air temperature variations close to the surface can give rise to other optical phenomena, such as mirages and Fata Morgana. Most commonly, air heated by a hot road on a sunny day deflects light approaching at a shallow angle towards a viewer. This makes the road appear reflecting, giving an illusion of water covering the road.\n",
"Richard Blackburn wrote in an article in Sydney Morning Herald that van den Acker 'still has some of the sketches' of cars 'he penned as a five-year-old, with smoke bellowing from exhausts and cartoon-like lines depicting the wind. He keeps them because they \"capture the emotion of motion\". In layman's terms that means creating forms and surfaces that look as if they're moving when they're standing still.'\n"
] |
why do the us elections need donations? what for? what would happen if that was not allowed?
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Funding for the various candidates does not come from the Government in the US save for a very small pool of funds used to get things started. So the money that the candidates use has to either come from their own personal savings, come from party coffers, or come from donations made directly to them for the campaign.
The parties also do not charge dues from their members as is common in many European countries. So all money that the parties have is from donations made to the party, or unused funds from candidates as they full out of the race.
The money that is collected is spent on the campaign. You have the costs of paying workers in every state to spread word of your campaign and your stances, paying pollsters to collect data, paying campaign managers and policy advisers, paying for ad time on TV and in other media, travel costs to go do speeches and to attend debates, renting locations for various events, etc. Money that is not spent can be used to reimburse any personal money spent, donated to charity, or sent to the party general fund.
If donations were not allowed the richest person would win elections because they would be able to buy the most ads and get their platform known to more people.
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[
"Another method allows the candidates to raise funds from private donors, but provides matching funds for the first chunk of donations. For instance, the government might \"match\" the first $250 of every donation. This would effectively make small donations more valuable to a campaign, potentially leading them to put more effort into pursuing such donations, which are believed to have less of a corrupting effect than larger gifts and enhance the power of less-wealthy individuals. Such a system is currently in place in the U.S. presidential primaries. As of February 2008, there were fears that this system provided a safety net for losers in these races, as shown by loan taken out by John McCain's campaign that used the promise of matching funds as collateral. However, in February 2009 the Federal Election Commission found no violation of the law because McCain permissibly withdrew from the Matching Payment Program and thus was released from his obligations. It also found no reason to believe that a violation occurred as a result of the Committee’s reporting of McCain’s loan. The Commission closed the files.\n",
"One of the most important aspects of the major American political campaign is the ability to raise large sums of money, especially early on in the race. Political insiders and donors often judge candidates based on their ability to raise money. Not raising enough money early on can lead to problems later as donors are not willing to give funds to candidates they perceive to be losing, a perception based on their poor fundraising performance.\n",
"A 2016 experimental study in the \"American Journal of Political Science\" found that politicians made themselves more available for meetings with individuals when they believed that the individuals had donated to their campaign. A 2011 study found that \"even after controlling for past contracts and other factors, companies that contributed more money to federal candidates subsequently received more contracts.\" A 2016 study in the \"Journal of Politics\" found that industries overseen by committees decreased their contributions to congresspeople who recently departed from the committees and that they immediately increase their contributions to new members of the committees, which is \"evidence that corporations and business PACs use donations to acquire immediate access and favor—suggesting they at least anticipate that the donations will influence policy.\" Research by University of Chicago political scientist Anthony Fowler and Northwestern University political scientists Haritz Garro and Jörg L. Spenkuch found no evidence that corporations that donated to a candidate received any monetary benefits from the candidate winning election.\n",
"A small number of states and cities have started to use broader programs for public financing of campaigns. One method, which its supporters call Clean Money, Clean Elections, gives each candidate who chooses to participate a fixed amount of money. To qualify for this subsidy, the candidates must collect a specified number of signatures and small (usually $5) contributions. The candidates are not allowed to accept outside donations or to use their own personal money if they receive this public funding. Candidates who choose to raise money privately rather than accept the government subsidy are subject to significant administrative burdens and legal restrictions, with the result that most candidates accept the subsidy. This procedure has been in place in races for all statewide and legislative offices in Arizona and Maine since 2000, where a majority of officials were elected without spending any private contributions on their campaigns. Connecticut passed a Clean Elections law in 2005, along with the cities of Portland, Oregon and Albuquerque, New Mexico.\n",
"In politics, the law of some countries may prohibit or restrict the extent to which politicians may accept gifts or donations of large sums of money, especially from business or lobby groups (see campaign finance). Donations of money or property to qualifying charitable organizations are also usually tax deductible. Because this reduces the state's tax income, calls have been raised that the state (and the public in general) should pay more attention towards ensuring that charities actually use this 'tax money' in suitable ways.\n",
"Fundraising plays a large role in getting a candidate elected to public office. Without money, a candidate may have little chance of achieving their goal. In the 2004 general elections, 95% of House races and 91% of senate races were won by the candidates who spent the most on their campaigns. Attempts to limit the influence of money on American political campaigns dates back to the 1860s. Recently, Congress passed legislation requiring candidates to disclose sources of campaign contributions, how the campaign money is spent, and regulated use of \"soft money\" contributions.\n",
"Successful participation, especially in federal elections, requires large amounts of money, especially for television advertising. This money is very difficult to raise by appeals to a mass base, although in the 2008 election, candidates from both parties had success with raising money from citizens over the Internet, as had Howard Dean with his Internet appeals. Both parties generally depend on wealthy donors and organizations—traditionally the Democrats depended on donations from organized labor while the Republicans relied on business donations. This dependency on donors is controversial, and has led to laws limiting spending on political campaigns being enacted (see campaign finance reform). Opponents of campaign finance laws cite the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, and challenge campaign finance laws because they attempt to circumvent the people's constitutionally guaranteed rights. Even when laws are upheld, the complication of compliance with the First Amendment requires careful and cautious drafting of legislation, leading to laws that are still fairly limited in scope, especially in comparison to those of other countries such as the United Kingdom, France or Canada.\n"
] |
Why are 6- (and sometimes 5-) membered rings far more prevalent in chemical compounds than rings with 4 or 3 members?
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3 and 4 membered rings have high energy bond angles that are strained and unstable. 5 and 6 membered rings allow the bond angles to relax and that allows the compound to be more stable and energetically favorable.
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[
"A molecule containing one or more rings is called a cyclic compound, and a molecule containing two or more rings (either in the same or different ring systems) is termed a polycyclic compound. A molecule containing no rings is called an acyclic or open-chain compound.\n",
"Five-membered carbon rings are ubiquitous structural motifs in natural products. In contrast to the larger, fully \"consonant\" cyclohexane scaffold cyclopentanes and their derivatives are \"dissonant\" according to the Lapworth-Evans model of alternating polarities. The dissonance in polarity clearly limits the ways by which cyclopentanes can be disconnected which becomes evident in the decreased number of general methods available for making five-membered rings versus the corresponding six-membered rings. Especially the fact that there is no Diels-Alder-equivalent for the synthesis of five-membered rings has been bothering synthetic chemists for many decades. Consequentially, after the vinylcyclopropane rearrangement was discovered around 1960 it didn't take long for the synthetic community to realize the potential inherent to form cyclopentenes by means of the vinylcyclopropane rearrangement. As the vinylcyclopropane rearrangement progressed as a methodology and the reaction conditions improved during the 1970s, first total syntheses making use of the vinylcycopropane rearrangement started to appear around 1980. Key figures to apply this reaction in total synthesis were Barry M. Trost, Elias J. Corey, Thomas Hudlicky, Leo A. Paquette,\n",
"Chemists have long known of rings containing carbon, e.g. benzene, pyridine, and cyclohexane. Related cyclic compounds lacking in carbon have also been studied. Hexachlorophosphazene is one such inorganic ring. Other well known inorganic rings include borazine, SN, and the cyclic siloxanes.\n",
"Molecules with rings have additional sigma bonds, such as benzene rings, which have 6 C−C sigma bonds within the ring for 6 carbon atoms. The anthracene molecule, CH, has three rings so that the rule gives the number of sigma bonds as 24 + 3 − 1 = 26. In this case there are 16 C−C sigma bonds and 10 C−H bonds.\n",
"5-membered and 6-membered chelate rings give the most stable complexes. 4-membered rings are subject to internal strain because of the small inter-bond angle is the ring. The chelate effect is also reduced with 7- and 8- membered rings, because the larger rings are less rigid, so less entropy is lost in forming them.\n",
"Due to the steric stability of five- and six-membered rings, these structures will preferentially be formed. 1,6 diesters will form five-membered cyclic β-keto esters, while 1,7 diesters will form six-membered β-keto esters.\n",
"Tricyclic (three-ring) structures can be found in many different drugs, and for medicinal chemists allows restrictions for the conformational mobility of two phenyl rings attached to a common carbon or hetero (non-carbon) atom. Small molecular changes, such as substituents or ring flexibility can cause changes in the pharmacological and physiochemical properties of a drug. The mechanism of action for the phenoxyphenylpropyamines can be explained by the critical role of the type and position of the ring substitution. The unsubstituted molecule is a weak SSRI. A compound highly potent and selective for blocking norepinephrine reuptake, a SNRI, results from 2-substitutions into the phenoxy ring.\n"
] |
If it was possible to look at from close, what would the ignition of a star look like ?
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It wouldn't be easily perceivable. Externally, it's actually a gradual process. Most people don't appreciate that stars begin their lives hot even before fusion starts. This is due to the energy of gravitational contraction. When you compress something to make it smaller you heat it up, and a proto-star is very highly compressed (through gravity) compared to the light-year sized nebula that spawned it. All of that energy that used to be in the form of gravitational potential energy is now in the form of heat.
As the star contracts the surface will stay at around the same temperature though the core will get hotter until fusion kicks in. Afterward the star will heat up a bit and contraction will halt as an equilibrium between fusion energy production and heat output becomes balanced. Interestingly, stars generally become better behaved and large explosive outbursts become less common as fusion kicks on. This is because in the early stages the primary mode of heat transport is convection (due to the high opacity of the plasma), which isn't very efficient and leads to large variations in temperature on the star (which can cause violent flares, mass ejections, and contributes to a very strong stellar wind). As the interior of the star heats up, radiative energy transport becomes more prominent and the star becomes differentiated into layers of material that are all at very close to the same temperature at a given radius from the core.
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[
"BULLET::::- In the region of the constellation \"Perseus\", a star not visible to the naked eye, and 1,533 light years distant from Earth, explodes in a nova. The light from the star, now called GK Persei, will first be seen on Earth on February 21, 1901\n",
"A star with ≲ M ≲ explodes because of the energy consumption arising from an electron-positron pair-production instability during the static O-burning stage, and is referred to as a pair-instability supernova (PISN). Theoretical estimates of early chemical enrichment predict that the metallicity produced by the PISN explosions of a first generation of very massive stars matches the Fe abundance of SDSS J0018-0939. They also predict that stars formed from gas enriched by PISN are quite rare; only one star among 500 stars. Although about 500 stars in the metallicity range –3 [Fe/H]–2 have been observed to date with high-resolution spectroscopy, SDSS J0018-0939 is unique in its observed abundance pattern. No other similar object has been found yet.\n",
"Observations of the exploded star through the Hubble telescope have shown that, despite the original belief that the remnants were expanding in a uniform manner, there are high velocity outlying eject knots moving with transverse velocities of 5,500−14,500 km/s with the highest speeds occurring in two nearly opposing jets. When the view of the expanding star uses colors to differentiate materials of different chemical compositions, it shows that similar materials often remain gathered together in the remnants of the explosion.\n",
"The star was originally charted by the Romanian-American astronomer Nicholas Sanduleak in 1970, but remained just a number in a catalogue until identified as the star that exploded in the first naked eye supernova since the invention of the telescope.\n",
"This newly discovered object may offer insight into a star's early stages of formation, when large masses of gas and dust are falling into a newly forming binary star - called a pulsed accretion model. This object emits a burst of light at regular intervals of 25.34 days, possibly caused by repeated close approaches between the two component stars which are gravitationally linked in an eccentric orbit - the flashes may be the result of large amounts of matter falling into the growing protostars. Since the stars are obscured by the dense disk and envelope of dust surrounding them, direct observation is difficult. This process of star birth has been witnessed in its later stages, but has to date not been seen in such a young system, nor with such intensity and regularity. These new stars are thought to be only a few hundred thousand years old.\n",
"Observations have failed to note signs of accretion leading up to Type Ia supernovae, and this is now thought to be because the star is first loaded up to above the Chandrasekhar limit while also being spun up to a very high rate by the same process. Once the accretion stops the star gradually slows until the spin is no longer enough to prevent the explosion.\n",
"Stars can be used in aerial shells, Roman candles, star mines, and certain bottle rockets. When used in aerial shells, the stars may sometimes be required to be \"primed\" with an ignition coating, consisting of a pyrotechnic mixture with an ignition temperature lower than that of the star. This is usually done if the star composition does not ignite easily.\n"
] |
How did attacking a city generally work in the 11th/12th-ish centuries?
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I will assume that you mean Europe, and specifically Western Europe.
A walled city was a very tough nut to crack for any attacking force. A walled city would have the local militia, and quite likely at least a small garrison of professional soldiers under the employ of the liege.
Now, an army needed to have overwhelming force if they were to attack a fortified city. Sun Tzu states that a three to one advantage is needed, but even that wasn't always enough. At the [Siege of Rhodes](_URL_0_), the Knights Hospitaller, numbering only about 3,500 knights and soldiers, held off 20,000 soldiers, including 3,000 janissaries of the Ottoman Empire.
Obviously, the quality of the attacking and defending forces means a lot in a situation where one is actually going in in that fashion. Such a means, however, usually wasn't the case. Sending your men at the walls with ladders, rams, and towers was usually only done when the city HAD to be taken, usually because reinforcements were coming to help the defenders, or other such situations.
Typically, it would turn into a siege. Simply put, during a siege, the attackers were trying to wait out the defenders. If possible, entrances to the city would be blocked off, your own forces would entrench (protecting them from the defenders as well as possible reinforcements), and you would starve out the defenders.
This was not always easy. Sometimes the attacking force could not block all points of supply, such as if the city were on the coast, had several gates, or the attacking force was small. Cities could hold out for months of years in this fashion. Many cities had their own sources of water such as wells within the walls for just such a situation. There were usually supplies inside for at least a short siege. Things could get pretty dire, however, with people eating horses and mules, and sometimes even people.
This isn't to say the situation was great for the attackers. Dysentery was very common with besiegers, and the risk of disease decimating an attacker was huge. In pre-modern armies, disease killed more soldiers than anything else by a huge margin.
Attackers, as stated, also had to worry about reinforcements coming to aid the defenders. Often, besiegers would build a fortress around the city, made of wood or other materials, to protect themselves from defenders sallying forth or attempts to break the siege.
And, of course, the attackers had to worry about supply as well. During the First Crusade, the crusaders ran so low on supplies that they would cut meat from dead soldiers and horses and eat it.
If the defenders surrendered early, they might expect some mercy (ie not be killed in the streets). If they tried to fight it out, there was typically no mercy. Either way, looting was very common, and soldiers generally expected to supplement whatever pay they were given with this looting of cities.
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[
"Scholars had thought that invaders attacked the city in the 7th or 8th century, sacking and burning it. More recent evidence, however, seems to indicate that the burning was limited to the structures and dwellings associated primarily with the ruling class. Some think this suggests that the burning was from an internal uprising. They say the invasion theory is flawed, because early archaeological work on the city was focused exclusively on the palaces and temples, places used by the upper classes. Because all of these sites showed burning, archaeologists concluded that the whole city was burned. Instead, it is now known that the destruction was centered on major civic structures along the Avenue of the Dead. The sculptures inside palatial structures, such as Xalla, were shattered. No traces of foreign invasion are visible at the site.\n",
"In the 16th and 17th centuries, the city was attacked several times. In 1585 and 1589, during an unsuccessful attack by the English counter-Armada, Francis Drake raided the city and temporarily occupied it, burning many buildings. Several decades later a Turkish fleet tried to attack the city. As a result, the city's walls were built in 1656 in the reign of Philip IV of Spain. They are still partially preserved.\n",
"All of the city's churches, cathedrals, and other monuments were heavily damaged or destroyed. The city center, which mostly dated from medieval times, was totally destroyed in a firestorm in which 5,000 people perished.\n",
"BULLET::::- In 439 AD Genseric, the king of the Vandals (East Germanic tribes) and his followers invaded the city and used the port as a base for invasions into other parts of the Western Roman Empire: the city of Rome and the islands of Sardinia, Malta, Corsica and Sicily. The town appears on the medieval Peutinger Map.\n",
"During the 3rd century AD, the region was attacked several times by Franks, Alamanni and pirates. At the same time, the local economy collapsed and many farming estates were abandoned. To face the invasions, many towns and cities were fortified, like Nantes, Rennes and Vannes.\n",
"The Ayyubid period ended with waves of destruction of the city. Its fortifications were destroyed first, and later most of the buildings, as part of a deliberate scorched earth policy intended to prevent all future crusades from gaining a foothold in the city and region.\n",
"The earliest record of a city on this site is the Roman town of Alaunia in 909. That city was at the bottom of the hill, but was destroyed by invading barbarians in the 10th century. The residents moved the city to the top of the hill and built a castle for defense. The castle was destroyed during the Wars of Religion but the city itself survived.\n"
] |
basic bonsai tree care.
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Bonsai are trees that are deliberately grown in a way to dwarf them, and are often sculpted into specific shapes. So you start with the standard "give it the right amount of water, food, pot space and light" that applies to almost all houseplants.
But the species, age and size of the bonsai all make a huge difference in how much of each it should be given when, and how it should be pruned.
So to avoid posting a book, it's probably best you go to bonsai care-related sites like this one: _URL_0_
and look up the specifics.
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[
"Bonsai is the art of growing trees in small containers. Bonsai uses techniques such as pruning, root reduction, and shaping branches and roots to produce small trees that mimic full-sized mature trees. Bonsai is not intended for production of food, but instead mainly for contemplation by viewers, like most fine art.\n",
"The Japanese loanword \"bonsai\" has become an umbrella term in English, attached to many forms of potted or other plants, and also on occasion to other living and non-living things. According to Stephen Orr in \"The New York Times\", \"the term should be reserved for plants that are grown in shallow containers following the precise tenets of bonsai pruning and training, resulting in an artful miniature replica of a full-grown tree in nature.\" In the most restrictive sense, \"bonsai\" refers to miniaturized, container-grown trees adhering to Japanese tradition and principles.\n",
"The shea tree is a traditional African food plant. It has been claimed to have potential to improve nutrition, boost food supply in the \"annual hungry season\", foster rural development, and support sustainable landcare.\n",
"The purposes of bonsai are primarily contemplation for the viewer, and the pleasant exercise of effort and ingenuity for the grower. By contrast with other plant cultivation practices, bonsai is not intended for production of food or for medicine. Instead, bonsai practice focuses on long-term cultivation and shaping of one or more small trees growing in a container.\n",
"The term \"bonsai\" is generally used in English as an umbrella term for all miniature trees in containers or pots. In this article \"bonsai\" should be understood to include any container-grown tree that is regularly styled or shaped, not just one being maintained in the Japanese bonsai tradition.\n",
"The purposes of bonsai are primarily contemplation (for the viewer) and the pleasant exercise of effort and ingenuity (for the grower). Bonsai practice focuses on long-term cultivation and shaping of one or more small trees growing in a container, beginning with a cutting, seedling, or small tree of a species suitable for bonsai development. Bonsai can be created from nearly any perennial woody-stemmed tree or shrub species that produces true branches and can be cultivated to remain small through pot confinement with crown and root pruning. Some species are popular as bonsai material because they have characteristics, such as small leaves or needles, that make them appropriate for the compact visual scope of bonsai and a miniature deciduous forest can even be created using such species as Japanese maple, Japanese zelkova or hornbeam.\n",
"Note that bonsai and similar practices like \"penjing\", \"hòn non bộ\", and \"saikei\" all involve the long-term cultivation of small trees in containers. The term \"bonsai\" is generally used in English as an umbrella term for all miniature trees in containers or pots. In this article \"bonsai\" should be understood to include any container-grown tree that is raised indoors and regularly styled or shaped, not just one being maintained in the Japanese bonsai tradition.\n"
] |
gold trading and how it's used to "back" currency and the like
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Gold was money, used in trade, made into coins or bullion, sometimes by governments, most often by gold specialists.
Currency is a substitute for the real money (though not only gold was used as money). Currency was usually a paper substitute for real money that were called "Bank Notes." Ideally, for every one unit of currency, there should be an equal amount of actual money secured somewhere, usually a bank's vault.
Instead of trading the gold itself, because it was a heavy metal and could be a target of robbery, people would leave the gold in the vault and trade the paper notes (that could be kept in pocket, even in large denominations) that represented a claim to the gold in the vault.
The USA started with BOTH a gold and silver money system. An ounce of silver was $1. An ounce of gold was $20. These were denominations set by law. About 1873 the government stopped allowing people to bring silver to the mint to make silver coins. So, essentially gold was the only public money, and all Bank Issued Currency (and all currency is bank issued, with one exception during the civil war era) was denominated by dollars, but "backed" by the appropriate proportion of gold money.
That means, theoretically, anyone should be able to take the piece of paper they got from trading to the bank that issued the paper, and get gold. FDR outlawed Americans from doing that in 1933 (and confiscated peoples gold money), and Nixon outlawed foreigners doing in in 1971 (which was only partly allowed after WWII though the "Bretton Woods" agreement.)
The reality was, of course, far more paper currency was made than ounces and tons of gold to back it up. Which is ultimately why a "gold standard" usually becomes a fraud.
|
[
"A return to the gold standard was considered by the US Gold Commission back in 1982, but found only minority support. In 2001 Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad proposed a new currency that would be used initially for international trade among Muslim nations, using a Modern Islamic gold dinar, defined as 4.25 grams of pure (24-carat) gold. Mahathir claimed it would be a stable unit of account and a political symbol of unity between Islamic nations. This would purportedly reduce dependence on the US dollar and establish a non-debt-backed currency in accord with Sharia law that prohibited the charging of interest. However, this proposal has not been taken up, and the global monetary system continues to rely on the US dollar as the main trading and reserve currency.\n",
"Because the central bank must always be prepared to give out gold in exchange for coin and currency upon demand, it must maintain gold reserves. Thus, this system ensures that the exchange rate between currencies remains fixed.\n",
"Gold has been used throughout history as money and has been a relative standard for currency equivalents specific to economic regions or countries, until recent times. Many European countries implemented gold standards in the latter part of the 19th century until these were temporarily suspended in the financial crises involving World War I. After World War II, the Bretton Woods system pegged the United States dollar to gold at a rate of US$35 per troy ounce. The system existed until the 1971 Nixon Shock, when the US unilaterally suspended the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold and made the transition to a fiat currency system. The last major currency to be divorced from gold was the Swiss Franc in 2000.\n",
"Under the gold standard, a country’s government declares that it will exchange its currency for a certain weight in gold. In a pure gold standard, a country’s government declares that it will freely exchange currency for actual gold at the designated exchange rate. This \"rule of exchange” allows anyone to enter the central bank and exchange coins or currency for pure gold or vice versa. The gold standard works on the assumption that there are no restrictions on capital movements or export of gold by private citizens across countries.\n",
"After World War II gold was replaced by a system of nominally convertible currencies related by fixed exchange rates following the Bretton Woods system. Gold standards and the direct convertibility of currencies to gold have been abandoned by world governments, led in 1971 by the United States' refusal to redeem its dollars in gold. Fiat currency now fills most monetary roles. Switzerland was the last country to tie its currency to gold; it backed 40% of its value until the Swiss joined the International Monetary Fund in 1999.\n",
"Gold trading was significant for the U.S.'s foreign trade, but the majority of trading on the Exchange was speculative. Historian John Steele Gordon notes that \"hundreds of pure speculators\" traded at Gilpin's, but that \"respectable merchants who needed gold for business purposes or to hedge against fluctuations in the price of greenbacks\" also traded there. Business historian Robert Sobel has called the gold exchange \"the most informal and certainly the wildest market in American history\" because of its wild profit and loss swings, its high rate of bankruptcy and frequent occurrences of \"short-changing, adulteration, and late delivery\" of gold. After a series of robberies of gold, brokers at the exchange set up a system of private certificates which could be drawn upon deposits at the Bank of New York. As a result of the arrangement, the Bank of New York became the second-largest holder of gold in the nation, after the U.S. federal government. In 1865, however, Edward \"E. B.\" Ketchum of Ketchum, Son & Co. forged more than $1.5 million certificates and then fled; this and other such episodes prompted the establishment of a Gold Exchange Bank, with daily account reserve statements and other anti-fraud measures.\n",
"BULLET::::- The gold standard provides fixed international exchange rates between participating countries and thus reduces uncertainty in international trade. Historically, imbalances between price levels were offset by a balance-of-payment adjustment mechanism called the \"price–specie flow mechanism\". Gold used to pay for imports reduces the money supply of importing nations, causing deflation, which makes them more competitive, while the importation of gold by net exporters serves to increase their money supply, causing inflation, making them less competitive.\n"
] |
why does the speed of a car seem slower when i'm inside it rather than outside?
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Relativity!!!
when you are in a car you are in car's frame (in other words you are moving with speed of car) and when you look from window all objects have a speed equals to object's speed minus car's speed (vector addition) which slows down everything which seems to you like car is moving slow
|
[
"which says that the instantaneous speed of the user is proportional to the width of the tunnel. This makes intuitive sense if we consider the analogous task of driving a car down a road: the wider the road, the faster we can drive and still stay on the road, even if there are curves in the road.\n",
"The more cars there are on the road, the more pollution is emitted into the air. This is because motor vehicles are one of the main sources of pollution in the world. On the other hand, there is an inverse relationship between the moving speed of traffic and air pollution. The slower the traffic moves, the more pollution is emitted into the air. This is due to the fact that cars burn the most fuel when accelerating to get up to speed. More gas is used up whenever there is an on and off pressing on the gas and break pedals during traffic jams.\n",
"\"The engine is by no means silent. Exhaust and tappet noise with a continuous if subdued howl of pinions all merge with other unidentifiable sounds but there is no suggestion these noises may not be maintained so long as the driver wishes with unflagging regularity for hour after hour. The seat puts the driver up high and its easy to underestimate road speed. It is one thing to go fast in a straight line but quite another to cover a distance at high average speed. This car has truly amazing roadholding, it is high and narrow yet it passes through roundabouts almost as if there were none there. It is the designer's perfect balance of the whole chassis which makes this phenomenon possible.\"\n",
"For example, a car moving at a constant 20 kilometres per hour in a circular path has a constant speed, but does not have a constant velocity because its direction changes. Hence, the car is considered to be undergoing an acceleration.\n",
"More specifically, \"Road & Track\" have defined the fastback as \"A closed body style, usually a coupe but sometimes a sedan, with a roof sloped gradually in an unbroken line from the windshield to the rear edge of the car. A fastback naturally lends itself to a hatchback configuration and many have it, but not all hatchbacks are fastbacks and vice versa.\"\n",
"When a vehicle and all its contents, including passengers and luggage are travelling at speed, they have inertia / momentum, which means that they will continue forward with that direction and speed (Newton's first law of motion). In the event of a sudden deceleration of a rigid framed vehicle due to impact, unrestrained vehicle contents will continue forwards at their previous speed due to inertia, and impact the vehicle interior, with a force equivalent to many times their normal weight due to gravity. The purpose of crumple zones is to slow down the collision and to absorb energy to reduce the difference in speeds between the vehicle and its occupants.\n",
"So, the Nagel–Schreckenberg model includes the effect of cars getting in each other's way and so slowing each other down. The average velocity at this density is a little over 1, while at low density it is a little less than the maximum velocity of 5. It also shows that this is a collective phenomenon in which cars bunch up into traffic jams. When jamming occurs the distribution of cars along the road becomes highly non-uniform.\n"
] |
how does the body correctly sort food and fluid (especially when you eat and drink together)?
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> When it gets down your food pipes* how does the stomach and bladder get their individual shares of what’s been consumed??
The sorting happens in the intestines. It makes intuitive sense that the solids you eat become poop and the liquids you drink become pee, but that isn't actually true!
Everything you swallow goes to your stomach, where it all gets mixed and broken down into a soup-like consistency. Then it goes to the intestines. Your intestines absorb the water out of it (including water that used to be in solid food), and absorb the nutrients. What's left over at the end of all this absorbing is poop. Poop also contains a lot of old, dead cells from the intestinal walls, and bacteria.
All the water and nutrients that got absorbed will flow around in your bloodstream, going where they need to go. Once this is done, the extra water is filtered out by the kidneys, because a lot of the waste products we need to pee out (like urea) have to be dissolved in water.
|
[
"Water and saliva enter through the rumen to form a liquid pool. Liquid will ultimately escape from the reticulorumen from absorption through the wall, or through passing through the reticulo-omosal orifice, as digesta does. However, since liquid cannot be trapped in the mat as digesta can, liquid passes through the rumen much more quickly than digesta does. Liquid often acts as a carrier for very small digesta particles, such that the dynamics of small particles is similar to that of liquid.\n",
"When a liquid enters a human mouth, the swallowing process is completed by peristalsis which delivers the liquid to the stomach; much of the activity is abetted by gravity. The liquid may be poured from the hands or drinkware may be used as vessels. Drinking can also be performed by acts of inhalation, typically when imbibing hot liquids or drinking from a spoon. Infants employ a method of suction wherein the lips are pressed tight around a source, as in breastfeeding: a combination of breath and tongue movement creates a vacuum which draws in liquid. \n",
"The human body and even its individual body fluids may be conceptually divided into various fluid compartments, which, although not literally anatomic compartments, do represent a real division in terms of how portions of the body's water, solutes, and suspended elements are segregated. The two main fluid compartments are the intracellular and extracellular compartments. The intracellular compartment is the space within the organism's cells; it is separated from the extracellular compartment by cell membranes.\n",
"When sieved from the water, food is swallowed and travels through the esophagus where it enters a three-chambered-stomach. The first compartment is known as the fore-stomach; this is where food gets ground up into an acidic liquid, which is then squirted into the main stomach. Like in humans, the food is mixed with hydrochloric acid and protein-digesting enzymes. Then, the partly digested food is moved into the third stomach, where it meets fat-digesting enzymes, and is then mixed with an alkaline liquid to neutralize the acid from the fore-stomach to prevent damage to the intestinal tract. Their intestinal tract is highly adapted to absorb the most nutrients from food; the walls are folded and contain copious blood vessels, allowing for a greater surface area over which digested food and water can be absorbed. Baleen whales get the water they need from their food; however, the salt content of most of their prey (invertebrates) are similar to that of seawater, whereas the salt content of a whale's blood is considerably lower (three times lower) than that of seawater. The whale kidney is adapted to excreting excess salt; however, while producing urine more concentrated than seawater, it wastes a lot of water which must be replaced.\n",
"In the food sector, moving or transporting fluids is achieved with the aid of pump technology. Colloquially, this is known as filling or portioning. Various different types of pumps are used, depending on the type of filling products to be moved. Vacuum fillers with vane cell feed systems and vacuum feeding are commonly used for viscous products. The products are transported with the aid of a hopper with a feeding device, a vane cell feed system under a vacuum and appropriate volume expulsion in the pump housing. This is basically a volumetric feed principle, which means that a certain weight is defined via a volume. In addition to the vane cell feed systems, also known as rotary vane pumps, there are also screw feed systems with feed augers, toothed wheel feed systems and evacuated lifting cylinders. With all these systems, transportation is achieved via volume expulsion under a vacuum.\n",
"Fluid can leave the body in many ways. Fluid can enter the body as preformed water, ingested food and drink and to a lesser extent as metabolic water which is produced as a by-product of aerobic respiration (cellular respiration) and dehydration synthesis.\n",
"There are also enzymes (enterocyte digestive enzyme) on the surface for digestion. Villus capillaries collect amino acids and simple sugars taken up by the villi into the blood stream. Villus lacteals (lymph capillary) collect absorbed chylomicrons, which are lipoproteins composed of triglycerides, cholesterol and amphipathic proteins, and are taken to the rest of the body through the lymph fluid.\n"
] |
Why were there fewer African American soldiers in Vietnam than in other American-waged wars?
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It does seem unusually low. Where did you get that statistic? [This site](_URL_0_) claims (my emphasis):
> The Vietnam War saw the *highest proportion* of blacks ever to serve in an American war. During the height of the U.S. involvement, 1965-69, blacks, who formed 11 percent of the American population, made up 12.6 percent of the soldiers in Vietnam... the percentage of black combat fatalities in that period was a staggering 14.9 percent.
Source: *The Oxford Companion to American Military History*. 1999.
|
[
"The Vietnam War saw many great accomplishments by many African Americans, including twenty who received the Medal of Honor for their actions. African Americans were over-represented in hazardous duty and combat roles during the conflict, and suffered disproportionately higher casualty rates. Civil-rights leaders protested this disparity during the early years of the war, prompting reforms that were implemented in 1967–68 resulting in the casualty rate dropping to slightly higher than their percentage of the total population.\n",
"When black G.I.s returned home from the Vietnam War, they were denied the money promised to them to support their education and help them buy homes. While only 9.5% of soldiers serving in Vietnam were black, they comprised nearly 20% of front line troops, and 25% or more of airborne divisions. Black servicemen were twice as likely to re-enlist in the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force and three times as likely to re-enlist in the Army as their white counterparts, not for any sense of adventure, but because they found the monetary rewards to be promising and they were treated as equals or near equals.\n",
"The Vietnam War is often regarded as a low point in the Army's record due to the extensive use of drafted enlisted personnel versus mobilization of Army Reserve and Army National Guard personnel, the unpopularity of the war with the American public, and frustrating restrictions placed on the Army by U.S. political leaders (i.e., no invasion of communist-held North Vietnam). While American forces had been stationed in the Republic of Vietnam since 1959, in intelligence and advisory/training roles, they did not deploy in large numbers until 1965, after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. American forces effectively established and maintained control of the \"traditional\" battlefield, however they struggled to counter the guerrilla hit and run tactics of the communist Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army. On a tactical level, American soldiers (and the U.S. military as a whole) did not lose a sizable battle. For instance in the Tet Offensive in 1968, the U.S. Army turned a large scale attack by communist forces into a massive defeat of the Viet Cong on the battlefield (though at the time the offensive sapped the political will of the American public) which permanently weakened the guerrilla force. Thereafter, most large scale engagements were fought with the regular North Vietnamese Army. In 1973 domestic political opposition to the war finally forced a U.S. withdrawal. In 1975, Vietnam was unified under a communist government.\n",
"In 1965, both the United States and North Vietnam rapidly increased the numbers of their soldiers in South Vietnam. Communist forces totaled 221,000 including an estimated 105 Viet Cong and 55 PAVN battalions. American soldiers in Vietnam totaled 175,000 by the end of the year, and the South Vietnamese army numbered more than 600,000. Commanding General William Westmoreland rejected the use of the U.S. army to pacify rural areas, instead utilizing U.S. superiority in mobility and firepower to find and combat Viet Cong and PAVN units. Intensification of the conflict caused many peasants and rural dwellers to flee to the cities for safety. The number of internal refugees increased from about 500,000 in 1964 to one million in 1966. By December 1966, South Vietnam could only claim—optimistically in the U.S.'s view—to control 4,700 of the country's 12,000 hamlets and 10 of its 16 million people\n",
"African Americans pushed for equal participation in US military service in the first part of the 20th century and especially during World War II. Finally, President Harry S. Truman signed legislation to integrate the US military in 1948. However, Selective Service System deferments, military assignments, and especially the recruits accepted through Project 100,000 resulted in a greater representation of blacks in combat in the Vietnam War in the second half of the 1960s. African Americans represented 11% of the US population but 12.6% of troops sent to Vietnam. Cleveland Sellers said that the drafting of poor black men into war was \"a plan to commit calculated genocide\". Former SNCC chairman Stokely Carmichael, black congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and SNCC member Rap Brown agreed. In October 1969, King's widow Coretta Scott King spoke at an anti-war protest held at the primarily black Morgan State College in Baltimore. Campus leaders published a statement against what they termed \"black genocide\" in Vietnam, blaming President Richard Nixon in the US as well as President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and Vice President Nguyễn Cao Kỳ from South Vietnam.\n",
"Blacks suffered disproportionately high casualty rates in Vietnam. In 1965 alone they comprised 14.1% of total combat deaths, when they only comprised approximately 11% of the total U.S. population in the same year. With the draft increasing due to the troop buildup in South Vietnam, the military significantly lowered its admission standards. In October 1966, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara initiated Project 100,000 which further lowered military standards for 100,000 additional draftees per year. McNamara claimed this program would provide valuable training, skills and opportunity to America's poor – a promise that was never carried out. Many black men who had previously been ineligible could now be drafted, along with many poor and racially intolerant white men from the southern states. This led to increased racial tension in the military. \n",
"In actual numbers, African-American soldiers eventually comprised 10% of the entire Union Army (United States Army). Losses among African Americans were high, in the last year and a half and from all reported casualties, approximately 20% of all African Americans enrolled in the military lost their lives during the Civil War. Notably, their mortality rate was significantly higher than white soldiers:\n"
] |
why are germs so difficult to wash off, and yet so easy to spread?
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Because even a tiny bit that gets off or that remains can then apread to cover the whole surface in a relatively small timeframe, since when bacteria multiplies, its population size basically just straight up doubles.
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[
"Poorly maintained scrubbers have the potential to spread disease-causing bacteria. The problem is a result of inadequate cleaning. For example, the cause of a 2005 outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Norway was just a few infected scrubbers. The outbreak caused 10 deaths and more than 50 cases of infection.\n",
"Disposal of items from the contaminated area can reduce the population of bed bugs and unhatched eggs. Removal of items such as mattresses, box springs, couches etc. is costly and usually insufficient to eradicate infestation because of eggs and adults hiding in surrounding areas. If the entire infestation is not eliminated prior to bringing new or cleaned personal and household items back into a home, these items will likely become infested and require additional treatment.\n",
"Exclusion of the disease where it is not present is the only effective means of control. If an area does become infected, all of the infected plants must be eliminated, which is why strong sanitation practices must be used to reduce the spread of disease.\n",
"Seeds are known to be able harbor the pathogen, but successful sanitation measures have been described. Infected seed immersed in water at 60 °C showed no sign of bacterial survival while the seed showed no reduction in germination potential. Furthermore, the sanitation of tools and big machinery are crucial to avoid the infection of healthy plants through mechanical inoculation.\n",
"Because scarified seeds tend to germinate more often and in less time than unaltered seeds, scarification finds use not just in industry but on the small scale. In home gardens, for example, the seeds of plants which are otherwise difficult to grow from seed may be made viable through scarification. The thawing and freezing of water, fire and smoke and chemical reactions in nature are what allow seeds to germinate but we can speed the process up by using the various methods described thus far. The common objective is opening the testa and allow air and water into the seed. In horticulture, scarification is often used to facilitate the controlled and uniform germination of seed lots.\n",
"The main cause of schistomiasis is the dumping of human waste into water supplies. Hygienic disposal of waste would be sufficient to eliminate the disease. Water for drinking bathing should be boiled in endemic regions. Infested water should be avoided. However, agricultural activities such as fishing and rice cultivation involve long contact with water, making avoidance impractical. Systematic eradication of snails is an effective method.\n",
"Several cultural management methods can be effective in avoiding disease caused by \"Pythium aphanidermatum\". The pathogen thrives in a moist environment, so it is important to prevent an excessive amount of moisture from building up in the plant media Irrigation that is too frequent and usage of soil that has poor drainage are common mistakes that result in inoculation. In addition, poor ventilation and insufficient exposure to sunlight can cause the plants themselves to accumulate moisture, potentially spreading disease. Sanitation of the soil using chemical treatment and minimizing the amount of plant debris in which the pathogen can survive is also an effective cultural practice.\n"
] |
why can some people only twist their tongues in one direction?
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I can't twist my tongue at all. I just tried.
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[
"All the children have multicolored tongues; Antonucci said that the idea came after he saw his son and his friends with different-colored tongues because of eating different candy while he was working on a storyboard. The characters went through a number of \"walking cycles,\" a process used to determine how each character should walk or run, turn around, blink, etc. before the crew came up with the final product.\n",
"All the children have multicolored tongues; Antonucci said that the idea came after he saw his son and his friends with different-colored tongues because of eating different candy while he was working on a storyboard. The characters went through a number of \"walking cycles\", a process used to determine how each character should walk or run, turn around, blink, etc. before the crew came up with the final product.\n",
"Many tongue-twisters use a combination of alliteration and rhyme. They have two or more sequences of sounds that require repositioning the tongue between syllables, then the same sounds are repeated in a different sequence. An example of this is the song Betty Botter ():\n",
"This doubling of tongues evokes negative associations with serpents, which have forked tongues, a metaphoric reference to dishonest human beings. The expression 'forked tongues' is an ancient one and is found in the Bible (Nordenfalk 1975, n. 15).\n",
"Some tongue-twisters take the form of words or short phrases which become tongue-twisters when repeated rapidly (the game is often expressed in the form \"Say this phrase three (or five, or ten, \"etc.\") times as fast as you can!\"). Some examples include:\n",
"Tongue-twisters may rely on rapid alternation between similar but distinct phonemes (e.g., \"s\" and \"sh\" ), combining two different alternation patterns, familiar constructs in loanwords, or other features of a spoken language in order to be difficult to articulate. For example, the following sentence was claimed as \"the most difficult of common English-language tongue-twisters\" by William Poundstone.\n",
"Tip of the tongue experiences occur in people regardless of gender. The tip of the tongue phenomenon is known to occur in young adulthood, middle age, and older adulthood. Tip of the tongue experiences in childhood have not been studied. Education level is not thought to be a factor in the experience of tip of the tongue states. Monolinguals, bilinguals, and multilinguals all experience tip of the tongue states, although with varying frequencies (see Effects of bilingualism).\n"
] |
Is there any facts to back up the claim that before the Vikings came, North American Indians had a homogeneous culture that covered a large portion of the Continent but due to foreign diseases brought along by the Vikings most of them died out?
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You're kind of mixing up two different claims. And it's a little difficult to disentangle them in a short answer. You might start with the popular questions page topics about [Native Americans and European Diseases](_URL_0_).
|
[
"New studies shed light on the founding population of indigenous Americans, suggesting that their ancestry traced to both east Asian and western Eurasians who migrated to North America directly from Siberia. A 2013 study in the journal Nature reported that DNA found in the 24,000-year-old remains of a young boy in Mal’ta Siberia suggest that up to one-third of the indigenous Americans may have ancestry that can be traced back to western Eurasians, who may have \"had a more north-easterly distribution 24,000 years ago than commonly thought\" Professor Kelly Graf said that \"Our findings are significant at two levels. First, it shows that Upper Paleolithic Siberians came from a cosmopolitan population of early modern humans that spread out of Africa to Europe and Central and South Asia. Second, Paleoindian skeletons with phenotypic traits atypical of modern-day Native Americans can be explained as having a direct historical connection to Upper Paleolithic Siberia.\" A route through Beringia is seen as more likely than the Solutrean hypothesis.\n",
"While there was little regular contact between the Americas and the Old World the Norse Vikings explored and even colonized Greenland and Canada as early as 1000. None of these settlements survived past Medieval Times. Outside of Scandinavia knowledge of the discovery of the Americas was interpreted as a remote island or the North Pole.\n",
"The first inhabitants of North America are generally hypothesized to have migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 14,000 years ago. The Paleo-Indian archeological sites at Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are two of the oldest sites of human habitation in Canada. The characteristics of Canadian indigenous societies included permanent settlements, agriculture, complex societal hierarchies, and trading networks. Some of these cultures had collapsed by the time European explorers arrived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries and have only been discovered through archeological investigations.\n",
"Many Native American tribes experienced great depopulation, averaging 25–50 percent of the tribes' members lost to disease. Additionally, smaller tribes neared extinction after facing a severely destructive spread of disease. The significant toll that this took is expounded upon in the article Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas. A specific example was Cortes' invasion of Mexico. Before his arrival, the Mexican population is estimated to have been around 25 to 30 million. Fifty years later, the Mexican population was reduced to 3 million, mainly by infectious disease. This shows the main effect of the arrival of Europeans in the new world. With no natural immunity against these pathogens, Native Americans died in huge numbers. Yale historian David Brion Davis describes this as \"the greatest genocide in the history of man. Yet it's increasingly clear that most of the carnage had nothing to do with European barbarism. The worst of the suffering was caused not by swords or guns but by germs.\" By 1700, less than five thousand Native Americans remained in the southeastern coastal region. In Florida alone, there were seven hundred thousand Native Americans in 1520, but by 1700 the number was around 2000.\n",
"The first interaction between Europeans and Native Americans was made by the Norsemen. A number of surviving Norse sagas provide information regarding The Maritimes and its indigenous people. The Norse attempted to settle in North America about 500 years before Columbus.\n",
"Studies of the mitochondrial DNA of First Nations/Native Americans published in 2007 suggest that the people of the New World may have diverged genetically from Siberians as early as 20,000 years ago, far earlier than the standard theory suggests. According to one alternative theory, the Pacific coast of North America may have been free of ice, allowing the first peoples in North America to come down this route prior to the formation of the ice-free corridor in the continental interior. No evidence has yet been found to support this hypothesis except that genetic analysis of coastal marine life indicates diverse fauna persisting in refugia throughout the Pleistocene ice ages along the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia; these refugia include common food sources of coastal aboriginal peoples, suggesting that a migration along the coastline was feasible at the time. Some early sites on the coast, for example Namu, British Columbia, exhibit maritime focus on foods from an early point with substantial cultural continuity.\n",
"BULLET::::- 1000: Norsemen are the first Europeans to discover America. The first American-born European child is Snorri Thorfinnsson. Norsemen are the first Europeans to have a hostile confrontation with the Native Americans. These Viking explorers are likely to have used America as a source of vital goods, such as timber, to sustain the colonies of Iceland and Greenland for centuries. The colony at L'Anse aux Meadows in Canada and the Maine Penny in the United States are the most reliable proof of Norse presence in America.\n"
] |
Can we tell the exact moment a subject begins to fall asleep by looking at the brain activity? Or is it a more gradual process?
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The clear definition of sleep onset is not yet clear (mainly because people can report being awake, even though there are clear behavioral changes that can indicate the presence of sleep). There are various measures that can be used however to measure sleep onset.
- EMG (electromyogram) shows a gradual decrease in muscle tone as sleep approaches.
- EOG (electrooculogram) shows slow possibly asynchronous eye movements.
- EEG (electroencephalogram) will show different 'types' brainwaves that depend on different sleep stage
Generally it is thought that EEG changes to stage 1 sleep, accompanied by slow eye movements identifies the transition to sleep. So to answer your first question, it is possible to quite reliably measure the onset of sleep. Not within the millisecond but generally within a couple of seconds. To answer your second question, in what part of the brain are the most changes observed is a harder question. An EEG measures mainly cortical activity and based on this activity can make inferences about what sleep stage someone is in. However, the brain areas that are responsible for initiating and maintaining sleep are subcortical areas (areas in and near the brainstem and midbrain) and can not be measured using an EEG.
Various other measures have been used to discover which brain areas are involved in sleep (lesion studies, MRI, ERP etc). The current view proposed by Saper is that the transition between wakefulness and sleep is governed by a 'flip-flop switch' between various arousal promoting neurotransmitter systems in the brainstem and midbrain involved in waking (such as noradrenalin, histamine, acetylcholine, serotonin, dopamine) and the ventrolateral preoptic area (VLPO) involved that uses the neurotransmitter GABA. Oxerin/hypocretin plays an important role in the interaction between these two systems through the flip-flop switch i mentioned earlier, a good overview of all this is given in this short video (_URL_0_).
Consciousness in the sense of being active and responsive (which relates to sleep and therefore to measures of arousal and attention) and consciousness in the general sense (which is way more complex and involves more things) are two different things. But looking at sleep definitely gives us an understanding of one part of what consciousness is.
Sources:
- Cascardon & Dement - Normal human sleep: an overview
- Saper - The neurobiology of sleep
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[
"Using powerful brain imaging methods and electrical recordings Blumenfeld recently found that normal conscious perception of visual stimuli is accompanied by a cascade of activity moving through the brain in less than one second. These pictures provide a new view of how the brain normally processes information to create a conscious experience.\n",
"The subject—for example, a rat or pigeon—is placed on a disk. When the subject shows signs of falling asleep, the disk begins to slowly rotate, at a few revolutions per minute. The subject must walk to keep pace with the disk, or it will be carried into a pool of water.\n",
"The sleep cycle is normally defined in stages. When an individual first begins to sleep, stage 1 is entered, marked by the presence of some theta activity, which indicates that the firing of neurons in the neocortex is becoming more synchronized, as well as alpha wave activity (smooth electrical activity of 8–12 Hz recorded from the brain, generally associated with a state of relaxation). This stage is a transition between sleep and wakefulness. An individual's eyelids will from time to time slowly open and close and their eyes will roll upward and downward. Before one reaches sound sleep, stage 2 is entered. The EEG during this phase is normally irregular, but contains periods of theta activity, sleep spindles, and K complexes. Sleep spindles are short bursts of waves of 12–14 Hz that occur between two and five times a minute during states 1-4 of sleep. They appear to play a role in memory consolidation, and increased number of sleep spindles are correlated with increased scores on tests of intelligence. K complexes are sudden, sharp waveforms, which, unlike sleep spindles, are usually found only during stage 2 of sleep. They spontaneously occur at the rate of approximately one per minute, but often can be triggered by unexpected noises. It has been found that K complexes consist of isolated periods of inhibition. They appear to be the precursor of delta waves, also known as slow wave sleep, which appear during the deepest levels of sleep. Both these stages are classified as non-REM sleep.\n",
"He made the discovery after hours spent studying the eyelids of sleeping subjects. While the phenomenon was in the beginning more interesting for a fellow of PhD student Aserinsky, William Charles Dement, both Aserinsky and their PhD adviser, Nathaniel Kleitman, went on to demonstrate that this \"rapid-eye movement\" was correlated with dreaming and a general increase in brain activity. Aserinsky and Kleitman pioneered procedures that have now been used with thousands of volunteers using the electroencephalograph. Because of these discoveries, Aserinsky and Kleitman are generally considered the founders of modern sleep research.\n",
"While asleep, I had an unusual experience. There was a red screen formed by flowing blood, as it were. I was observing it. Suddenly a hand began to write on the screen. I became all attention. That hand wrote a number of elliptic integrals. They stuck to my mind. As soon as I woke up, I committed them to writing.\n",
"Understanding the activity of different parts of the brain during sleep can give a clue to the functions of sleep. It has been observed that mental activity is present during all stages of sleep, though from different regions in the brain. So, contrary to popular understanding, the brain never completely shuts down during sleep. Also, sleep intensity of a particular region is homeostatically related to the corresponding amount of activity before sleeping. The use of imaging modalities like PET and fMRI, combined with EEG recordings, gives a clue to which brain regions participate in creating the characteristic wave signals and what their functions might be.\n",
"The vestibular apparatus also detects spatial orientation with respect to visual input. A similar sensation of falling can be induced when the eyes detect rapid apparent motion with respect to the environment. This system enables people to keep their balance by signalling when a physical correction is necessary. Some medical conditions, known as balance disorders, also induce the sensation of falling. In the early stages of sleep, a falling sensation may be perceived in connection with a hypnic jerk, sometimes awaking the sleeper abruptly.\n"
] |
why is the "peace sign/victory sign" with two fingers used with positive connotation, if it was first used by winston churchill, a british man, and the "v-sign" is an offensive hand gesture there?
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Sorry I only have time for a small part of an answer, but take a careful look at the position of the palms when people make these signs: v-sign with palm out means "victory" or "peace", v-sign with palm in means "the finger" in the UK and its relatives.
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[
"By July 1941, the emblematic use of the letter V had spread through occupied Europe. On 19 July, Prime Minister Winston Churchill referred approvingly to the V for Victory campaign in a speech, from which point he started using the V hand sign. Early on he sometimes gestured palm in (sometimes with a cigar between the fingers). Later in the war, he used palm out. After aides explained to the aristocratic Churchill what the palm in gesture meant to other classes, he made sure to use the appropriate sign. Yet the \"double-entendre\" of the gesture might have contributed to its popularity, \"for a simple twist of hand would have presented the dorsal side in a mocking snub to the common enemy\". Other allied leaders used the sign as well.\n",
"For a time in the UK, \"a Harvey (Smith)\" became a way of describing the insulting version of the V sign, much as \"the word of Cambronne\" is used in France, or \"the Trudeau salute\" is used to describe the one-fingered salute in Canada. This happened because, in 1971, show-jumper Harvey Smith was disqualified for making a televised V sign to the judges after winning the British Show Jumping Derby at Hickstead. His win was reinstated two days later. Harvey Smith pleaded that he was using a Victory sign, a defence also used by other figures in the public eye. \n",
"When displayed with the palm inward toward the signer, it has been an offensive gesture in some Commonwealth nations since at least 1900. The more widespread use as a victory sign (\"V for Victory\"), with the back of the hand toward the signer ( in Unicode), was introduced in January 1941 as part of a campaign by the Allies of World War II. During the Vietnam War, in the 1960s, the \"V sign\" was widely adopted by the counterculture as a symbol of peace. Shortly thereafter, it also became a non-symbolic gesture used in photographs, especially in East Asia. \n",
"BULLET::::- V sign or Victory hand is made by raising the index and middle fingers and separating them to form a V, usually with the palm facing outwards. This sign began to be used during World War II to indicate \"V for Victory\". In the 1960s, the hippie-movement began to use the V-sign to mean \"peace\", especially in the United States. It is also used in most coastal east Asian nations, in either orientation, as an indication of cuteness when being photographed. Examples are China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.\n",
"In the 1950s the \"peace sign\", as it is known today, was designed by Gerald Holtom as the logo for the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), a group at the forefront of the peace movement in the UK, and adopted by anti-war and counterculture activists in the US and elsewhere. The symbol is a super-imposition of the semaphore signals for the letters \"N\" and \"D\", taken to stand for \"nuclear disarmament\", while simultaneously acting as a reference to Goya's \"The Third of May 1808\" (1814) (aka \"Peasant Before the Firing Squad\").\n",
"In a radio broadcast on 14 January 1941, de Laveleye asked all Belgians to use the letter \"V\" as a rallying sign, being the first letter of \"victoire\" (victory) in French and of \"vrijheid\" (freedom) in Dutch. This was the beginning of the \"V campaign\" which saw \"V\" graffities on the walls of Belgium and later all of Europe and introduced the use of the \"V sign\" for victory and freedom. Winston Churchill adopted the sign soon afterwards, though he sometimes got it the wrong way around by displaying the back of his hand, a gesture that is widely used in Great Britain as a lewd and vulgar insult (it means \"fuck off\").\n",
"The V sign ( in Unicode) is a hand gesture, palm outwards, with the index and middle fingers open and all others closed. It had been used to represent victory during the Second World War. During the 1960s in the USA, activists against the Vietnam War and in subsequent anti-war protests adopted the gesture as a sign of peace.\n"
] |
Why was the Ashanti "Sika 'dwa" translated as "Golden Stool", not called the "Golden Throne"?
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Slightly unrelated: stools were also given as grave goods in some Bronze Age burial mounds and Iron Age graves in Denmark and Germany, also regarded as symbols of power but still called 'stool' in the literature. Similarly, in the Caribbean chiefs also had special stools.
I am unaware of the semantics behind the distinction between a stool and a throne, and I guess that a throne could be either a chair or a stool, as your dictionary quotations show. Still, you must agree that these portable seats are quite different from, for example, [Charlemagne's throne](_URL_0_).
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[
"The Golden Stool represents the Ashanti symbol of unity which is believed to possess the sunsum (soul) of the Ashanti people. In Ashanti legend, (the Golden Stool; Sika 'Dwa in the Ashanti language) of the Ashanti people—descended from heaven in a cloud of white dust and landed in the lap of the first Ashanti Emperor Asantehene Osei Tutu I in the late 1600s and was introduced onto the Ashanti flag by the Ashanti Emperor Asantehene Prempeh II of Ashanti in taking the oath of the Ashanti absolute monarchy office Manhyia Palace upon the restoration of the Ashanti kingdom nation on 1 January 1935. The national flag of Ashanti was created by emperor Asantehene Nana Prempeh II (r. 1931 – 1970).\n",
"The Golden Stool (Ashanti-; full title, Sika Dwa Kofi \"the Golden Stool born on a Friday\") is the royal and divine throne of kings of the Ashanti people and the ultimate symbol of power in Asante. According to legend, Okomfo Anokye, High Priest and one of the two chief founders of the Asante Confederacy, caused the stool to descend from the sky and land on the lap of the first Asante king, Osei Tutu. HubSuch seats were traditionally symbolic of a chieftain's leadership, but the Golden Stool is believed to house the spirit of the Asante nation—living, dead and yet to be born.\n",
"In 1900, a request that the Ashanti people turn over the \"golden stool\" – the very symbol of Ashanti absolute monarchy governance to the Ashanti people. The Kingdom of Ashanti gave no resistance and became semi-autonomous members of the British Empire. The Ashanti did later rebel against the British to fight the War of the Golden Stool (also known as the Yaa Asantewaa War) in 1900-01. In the end, the British were victorious; they exiled Asantewaa and other Asante leaders to the Seychelles to join Asante King Prempeh I. In January 1902, Britain finally designated Asanteman as a protectorate. Asanteman was restored to independence on 31 January 1935.\n",
"The Golden Stool is a curved seat 46 cm high with a platform 61 cm wide and 30 cm deep. Its entire surface is inlaid with gold, and hung with bells to warn the king of impending danger. It has not been seen by many and only the king, queen, true prince Ofosu Sefa Boakye, and trusted advisers know the hiding place. Replicas have been produced for the chiefs and at their funerals are ceremonially blackened with animal blood, a symbol of their power for generations. The stool is one of the main focal points of the Asante today because it still shows succession and power.\n",
"The introduction of the Golden Stool (\"Sika dwa\") was a means of centralization under Osei Tutu. According to legend, a meeting of all the clan heads of each of the Ashanti settlements was called just prior to declaring independence from Denkyira. In this meeting the Golden Stool was commanded down from the heavens by Okomfo Anokye, chief-priest or sage advisor to Asantehene Osei Tutu I and floated down from the heavens into the lap of Osei Tutu I. Okomfo Anokye declared the stool to be symbolic of the new Asante Union (\"the Ashanti Kingdom\"), and allegiance was sworn to the stool and to Osei Tutu as the Asantehene. The newly declared Ashanti union subsequently waged war against and defeated Denkyira. The stool remains sacred to the Ashanti as it is believed to contain the \"Sunsum\" — spirit or soul of the Ashanti people.\n",
"Sandalwood is mentioned in various \"suttas\" of the Pāli Canon. In some Buddhist traditions, sandalwood is considered to be of the \"padma\" (lotus) group and attributed to Amitabha Buddha. Sandalwood scent is believed by some to transform one's desires and maintain a person's alertness while in meditation. It is also one of the most popular scents used when offering incense to the Buddha and the guru.\n",
"The origin of the name of the Dang is uncertain. In common parlance the word 'dang' means a hilly village. There is another connotation of the word 'dang' which means bamboo (a place of bamboo). The name is also associated with Hindu mythology. It is related to the Dandakaranya of the Ramayana. It is said that during the exile, Rama passed through this area on his way to Nasik.\n"
] |
when hearing a very loud noise, that blowing sound/feeling in your ears
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Sound is vibrations in the air. Loud sounds = stronger vibrations. If the sound is loud enough, you can feel the vibrations in your ear.
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[
"Another example is watching someone blow up a balloon beyond its normal capacity. This is often an unsettling, even disturbing thing for a person with ligyrophobia to observe, as he or she anticipates a loud sound when the balloon pops. When balloons pop, two types of reactions are heavy breathing and panic attacks. The sufferer becomes anxious to get away from the source of the loud sound and may get headaches.\n",
"Exposure to loud noises, either in a single traumatic experience or over time, can damage the auditory system and result in hearing loss and sometimes tinnitus as well. Traumatic noise exposure can happen at work (e.g. loud machinery), at play (e.g. loud sporting events, concerts, recreational activities), and/or by accident (e.g. a backfiring engine.) Noise induced hearing loss is sometimes unilateral and typically causes patients to lose hearing around the frequency of the triggering sound trauma.\n",
"Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is hearing impairment resulting from exposure to loud sound. People may have a loss of perception of a narrow range of frequencies or impaired perception of sound including sensitivity to sound or ringing in the ears. When exposure to hazards such as noise occur at work and is associated with hearing loss, it is referred to as occupational hearing loss.\n",
"Exposure to noise can cause vibrations able to cause permanent damage to the ear. Both the volume of the noise and the duration of exposure can influence the likelihood of damage. Sound is measured in units called decibels, which is a logarithmic scale of sound levels that corresponds to the level of loudness that an individual's ear would perceive. Because it is a logarithmic scale, even small incremental increases in decibels correlate to large increases in loudness, and an increase in the risk of hearing loss.\n",
"In a letter to Theo in May 1889 he explains the sounds that travel through the quiet-seeming halls, \"There is someone here who has been shouting and talking like me all the time for a fortnight. He thinks he hears voices and words in the echoes of the corridors, probably because the auditory nerve is diseased and over-sensitive, and in my case it was both sight and hearing at the same time, which is usual at the onset of epilepsy, according to what Dr. Félix Rey said one day.\"\n",
"The human ear picks up sounds made by the human body as well, including the sounds of blood flowing and muscles acting. These sounds are normally discarded by the brain; however, they become more obvious when louder external sounds are filtered out. This occlusion effect occurs with seashells, cups, or hands held over one's ears, and also with circumaural headphones, whose cups form a seal around the ear, raising the acoustic impedance to external sounds.\n",
"Another cause of noise is due to the exocytosis of neurotransmitters from the synaptic terminals that provide input to a given neuron. This occurrence happens in the background while a cell is at resting membrane potential. Since it is happening in the background, the release is not due to a signal, but is random. This unpredictability adds to the synaptic noise level.\n"
] |
Did Libraries face the same issues as Digital Media currently experiences?
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Copyright law is quite recent.
You probably ought to ask u/caffarelli about this matter, as it is her specialism.
I published a brief case note on this issue late 2011, however, translated roughly:
"It was not until 1837 that Prussia and the German Bund introduced copyright law. Prior to this, authors needed to ensure sufficient compensation with their first publication run because, as soon as the text was available 'in the wild', no legal remedies were available against (in today's parlance) so called 'pirates', i.e. other publishing houses. It was this - from today's perspective - ironic situation that Immanuel Kant drew attention to in 1785 in his essay, 'On the Illegality of Book Republishing' with the following remarks:
'The volume which the publisher allowed to be printed is a work of the author (opus) and belongs to the publisher after it has been printed or acquired in the form of its manuscript entirely, in order to do anything with it, as he desires, and which can be done in his own name; since this is the requirement of having a complete right to an item, i.e. ownership. The use, however, which he makes of it in a way not different from another [...] is a transaction (opera)[...].' (Kant in Berlinische Monatszeitschrift 5 (1785), p. 403 et seq.)
Insofar as this, Kant distinguishes between the item (res) and transaction (opera). Fichte concretizes this idea: 'We could make two differentiations with respect to a book: the bodily aspect thereof, the printed paper, and the intellectual content.' Fichte, however, does not see a violation of ownership in the perpetuation of use of intellectual property without a license but, rather, a transaction without assigned agency [in Common Law: agency of necessity]: 'And how is the book republisher to be treated? He is taking possession - not of the property of the publisher, not of his intellectual content, not of his thoughts - but rather of the usufruct of the property. He is acting in the name of the publisher without having been given agency to this effect, without having reached a consensual transaction with him, and is seizing the benefits which arise from this representative position[...].' (Fichte in Berlinische Monatszeitschrift 5 (1793), p. 443 et seq.)
It is indeed the case that in ius commune as in today's valid German law the transfer of ownership of an item requires its physical transfer (ius commune: traditio), and for this reason Kant and Fichte consider it to be physically impossible to transfer ownership of the intellectual contents of an item. For this reason they speak exclusively of an usufruct and not - as in today's common and incorrect parlance - of 'theft' or 'piracy', but rather of agency of necessity. Viewed historically the polemicisation of the 'copyright' debate is clearly evident."
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[
"In the 21st century, there has been increasing use of the Internet to gather and retrieve data. The shift to digital libraries has greatly impacted the way people use physical libraries. Between 2002 and 2004, the average American academic library saw the overall number of transactions decline approximately 2.2%. Libraries are trying to keep up with the digital world and the new generation of students that are used to having information just one click away. For example, the University of California Library System saw a 54% decline in circulation between 1991 and 2001 of 8,377,000 books to 3,832,000.\n",
"As of 2004, U.S. library usage was experiencing growth in spite of predictions to the contrary at that time. Instead, the impact of technology on libraries has been mixed. While usage of some library services, such as reference assistance, has declined, there has been a well-documented increase in the usage of public libraries in the U.S. and Canada over the last decade. Most libraries have added services such as public computers, free Wi-Fi, and digital materials such as web sites and e-books, leading to higher overall usage of the library. Counties and cities also continue to invest in library infrastructure. , library construction and renovation has remained steady. According to a 2013 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 54 percent of Americans ages 16 and older have used a public library in some way in the past 12 months. A similar poll of Britons, conducted in 2010, stated that 67 percent had visited a library within the last year. Public libraries remain very popular among all users, and , younger patrons read and use the library at the same rate as older ones. Over 94 percent of Americans say that \"having a public library improves the quality of life in a community.\"\n",
"Following the advent of the Digital Revolution, libraries began incorporating electronic information resources into their collections and services. The inclusion of these resources was driven by the core values of library science, as expressed by Raganathan's five laws of library science, especially the belief that electronic technologies made access to information more direct, convenient, and timely. By the end of 1990s, however, it became clear that the techniques used by librarians to manage physical resources did not transfer well to the electronic medium. In January 2000, the Digital Library Federation (DLF) conducted an informal survey aimed at identifying the major challenges facing research libraries regarding their use of information technologies. The survey revealed that digital collection development was considered the greatest source of anxiety and uncertainty among librarians, and that knowledge regarding the handling of electronic resources was rarely shared outside individual libraries. As a result, the Digital Library Federation created the Collection Practices Initiative and commissioned three reports with the goal of documenting effective practices in electronic resource management.\n",
"The emergence of the hybrid library has put a new emphasis on copyright issues for many libraries. The complicated and changing copyright laws in both the United States and the European Union have made it a challenge for many libraries to make sure their patrons are using the digital items lawfully.\n",
"The preservation of digital content has become a major challenge for libraries and archives whose mission is to preserve the intellectual and cultural heritage of the nation. In 1998 the Library of Congress began to develop a digital strategy with a group of senior managers who were charged with assessing the roles and responsibilities of the Library in the digital age. This oversight group was headed by the Associate Librarian for Strategic Initiatives, the Associate Librarian for Library Services, and the Register of Copyrights. This group held several planning meetings to assess the current state of digital archiving and preservation.\n",
"In future writings, however, Munn seemed to look beyond the historical limitations of the library system into a present and future rapidly changing due to technological innovations. In a 1954 essay, he acknowledged that \"the large library must have some staff members whose expertness in personnel management, public relations, audio-visual materials and equipment, adult education, and the public school curriculum is far more important than absorption in purely cultural interests.\" In addition to his revised views on the training and role of librarians, the essay brought into question the role of books and libraries themselves in the lives of the changing public. Indeed, if the following passage were altered to reflect 21st century technology terminology, Munn would seem to be speaking directly to today's librarians:\n",
"An article written in 2005 by the editors of \"Reference & User Services Quarterly\" calls the library the greatest force for the democratization of knowledge or information. It continues to say that public libraries in particular are inextricably linked with the history and evolution of the United States, but school library media centers, college and university libraries, and special libraries have all also been influential in their support for democracy. Libraries play an essential role in the democratization of knowledge and information by providing communities with the resources and tools to find information free of charge. Democratic access to knowledge has also been co-opted to mean providing information in a variety of formats, which essentially means electronic and digital formats for use by library patrons. Public libraries help further the democratization of information by guaranteeing freedom of access to information, by providing an unbiased variety of information sources and access to government services, as well as the promotion of democracy and an active citizenship. Dan Cohen, the founding executive director of the Digital Public Library of America, writes that the democratic access to knowledge is a profound idea that requires constant tending and revitalization. In 2004, a World Social Forum and International workshop was held entitled \"Democratization of Information: Focus on Libraries\". The focus of the forum was to bring awareness to the social, technological, and financial challenges facing libraries dealing with the democratization of information. Social challenges included globalization and the digital divide, technological challenges included information sources, and financial challenges constituted shrinking budgets and manpower. Longtime Free Library of Philadelphia director Elliot Shelkrot said that “Democracy depends on an informed population. And where can people get all the information they need? —At the Library.” \n"
] |
what and how are hot jupiters formed, and what does this mean about the creation of our own solar system?
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Hot Jupiters are basically gas giants that orbit very close to it's star. Usually at half earth distance or closer (less than 0.5 AU), usually towards the closer end. As a result they get very hot, to the point of glowing from the heat.
The top theory about how they form is that they form at normal gas giant distance (Jupiter range, ~5 AU or more) and make their way inwards by slurping up the rocks and gasses closer to the star, causing it to gain mass and lose kinetic energy. Another theory is that the gravity of other planets or asteroids change it's orbit over time and bring it closer to the star.
For out solar system it doesn't mean anything special, only that we don't have a hot jupiter planet.
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[
"There are two general schools of thought regarding the origin of hot Jupiters: formation at a distance followed by inward migration and in-situ formation at the distances at which they're currently observed. The prevalent view is formation via orbital migration.\n",
"Although Jupiter would need to be about 75 times as massive to fuse hydrogen and become a star, the smallest red dwarf is only about 30 percent larger in radius than Jupiter. Despite this, Jupiter still radiates more heat than it receives from the Sun; the amount of heat produced inside it is similar to the total solar radiation it receives. This additional heat is generated by the Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism through contraction. This process causes Jupiter to shrink by about 2 cm each year. When it was first formed, Jupiter was much hotter and was about twice its current diameter.\n",
"In the migration hypothesis, a hot Jupiter forms beyond the frost line, from rock, ice, and gases via the core accretion method of planetary formation. The planet then migrates inwards to the star where it eventually forms a stable orbit. The planet may have migrated inward smoothly via type II orbital migration. Or it may have migrated more suddenly due to gravitational scattering onto eccentric orbits during an encounter with another massive planet, followed by the circularization and shrinking of the orbits due to tidal interactions with the star. A hot Jupiter's orbit could also have been altered via the Kozai mechanism, causing an exchange of inclination for eccentricity resulting in a high eccentricity low perihelion orbit, in combination with tidal friction. This requires a massive body—another planet or a stellar companion—on a more distant and inclined orbit; approximately 50% of hot Jupiters have distant Jupiter-mass or larger companions, which can leave the hot Jupiter with an orbit inclined relative to the star's rotation.\n",
"Hot Jupiters have been observed to have a larger radius than expected. This could be caused by the interaction between the stellar wind and the planet's magnetosphere creating an electric current through the planet that heats it up causing it to expand. The more magnetically active a star is the greater the stellar wind and the larger the electric current leading to more heating and expansion of the planet. This theory matches the observation that stellar activity is correlated with inflated planetary radii.\n",
"The hot-Jupiters and warm-Jupiters are thought to have migrated to their current orbits during or following their formation. A number of possible mechanisms for this migration have been proposed. Type I or Type II migration could smoothly decrease the semimajor axis of the planet's orbit resulting in a warm- or hot-Jupiter. Gravitational scattering by other planets onto eccentric orbits with a perihelion near the star followed by the circularization of its orbit due to tidal interactions with the star can leave a planet on a close orbit. If a massive companion planet or star on an inclined orbit was present an exchange of inclination for eccentricity via the Kozai mechanism raising eccentricities and lowering perihelion followed by circularization can also result in a close orbit. Many of the Jupiter-sized planets have eccentric orbits which may indicate that gravitational encounters occurred between the planets, although migration while in resonance can also excite eccentricities. The in situ growth of hot Jupiters from closely orbiting super Earths has also been proposed. The cores in this hypothesis could have formed locally or at a greater distance and migrated close to the star.\n",
"Although overall the shape of Jupiter's magnetosphere resembles that of the Earth's, closer to the planet its structure is very different. Jupiter's volcanically active moon Io is a strong source of plasma in its own right, and loads Jupiter's magnetosphere with as much as 1,000 kg of new material every second. Strong volcanic eruptions on Io emit huge amounts of sulfur dioxide, a major part of which is dissociated into atoms and ionized by electron impacts and, to a lesser extent, solar ultraviolet radiation, producing ions of sulfur and oxygen. Further electron impacts produce higher charge state, resulting in a plasma of S, O, S, O and S. These ions either escape from the satellite's atmosphere or are produced from neutral atoms and molecules which have escaped from the satellite. They form the \"Io plasma torus\": a thick and relatively cool ring of plasma encircling Jupiter, located near Io's orbit. The plasma temperature within the torus is 10–100 eV (100,000–1,000,000 K), which is much lower than that of the particles in the radiation belts—10 keV (100 million K). The plasma in the torus is forced into co-rotation with Jupiter, meaning both share the same period of rotation. The Io torus fundamentally alters the dynamics of the Jovian magnetosphere.\n",
"Even when taking surface heating from the star into account, many transiting hot Jupiters have a larger radius than expected. This could be caused by the interaction between atmospheric winds and the planet's magnetosphere creating an electric current through the planet that heats it up, causing it to expand. The hotter the planet, the greater the atmospheric ionization, and thus the greater the magnitude of the interaction and the larger the electric current, leading to more heating and expansion of the planet. This theory matches the observation that planetary temperature is correlated with inflated planetary radii.\n"
] |
the difference between a fee antivirus software like avg, and a paid antivirus software like norton 360?
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Computer science major here so I know a bit about this stuff, I could drag this out but to try to explain simply, a number like 98% of viruses are just evolutions if precious viruses. All antivirus softwares look for these base differences. Free antivirus software finds these and eliminates. When you start getting paid software, their goal is to now try to up sell you from "starter" to premium. So paid programs like Nortan are notoriously hated for trying to be over protective blocking programs even trying to access the internet. Go for s free program like AVG, windows security essentials, or malware bytes I promise that if your computer ever gets Fubared to the point these can't fix it, not even Nortan can.
Tldr Why pay when free programs will do it without pissing you off
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[
"AVG provides \"AVG AntiVirus Free\" for Windows, \"AVG AntiVirus for Mac\" for macOS, and \"AVG AntiVirus for Android\" for Android devices. All are freemium products: They are free to download, install, update and use, but for technical support, a premium plan must be purchased.\n",
"John Dunn of \"PCWorld\", who analyzed the report, noted that the tendency to use free AV software is something new: \"After all, free antivirus suites have been around for years but have tended to be seen as the poor relations to paid software.\" He named Microsoft Security Essentials as an influence on PC users to adopt free AV software.\n",
"The free version of AVC is ad-supported. While it does not appear to contain malware, the Windows installer does default to include potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) such as virus scanners and/or toolbars. However, the user can avoid installing these PUPs by selecting the Customize Install option and not accepting installation of the optional, recommended software.\n",
"Anti-tamper software is used in many types of software products including: embedded systems, financial applications, software for mobile devices, network-appliance systems, anti-cheating in games, military, license management software, and digital rights management (DRM) systems. Some general-purpose packages have been developed which can wrap existing code with minimal programing effort; for example the SecuROM and similar kits used in the gaming industry, though they have the downside that semi-generic attacking tools also exist to counter them. Malicious software itself can and has been observed using anti-tampering techniques, for example the Mariposa botnet.\n",
"Examples of Microsoft Windows anti virus and anti-malware software include the optional Microsoft Security Essentials (for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7) for real-time protection, the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (now included with Windows (Security) Updates on \"Patch Tuesday\", the second Tuesday of each month), and Windows Defender (an optional download in the case of Windows XP). Additionally, several capable antivirus software programs are available for free download from the Internet (usually restricted to non-commercial use). Some such free programs are almost as good as commercial\n",
"Examples of Microsoft Windows antivirus and anti-malware software include the optional Microsoft Security Essentials (for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7) for real-time protection, the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (now included with Windows (Security) Updates on \"Patch Tuesday\", the second Tuesday of each month), and Windows Defender (an optional download in the case of Windows XP, incorporating MSE functionality in the case of Windows 8 and later). Additionally, several capable antivirus software programs are available for free download from the Internet (usually restricted to non-commercial use). Tests found some free programs to be competitive with commercial ones. Microsoft's System File Checker can be used to check for and repair corrupted system files.\n",
"Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV) is a free software, cross-platform and open-source antivirus software toolkit able to detect many types of malicious software, including viruses. One of its main uses is on mail servers as a server-side email virus scanner. The application was developed for Unix and has third party versions available for AIX, BSD, HP-UX, Linux, macOS, OpenVMS, OSF (Tru64) and Solaris. As of version 0.97.5, ClamAV builds and runs on Microsoft Windows. Both ClamAV and its updates are made available free of charge.\n"
] |
why peanuts without shells are way cheaper than peanuts with shells if it takes labor to shell them?
|
My fiance worked in a peanut shelling plant for years and it basically boils down to them wanting to get equal profits from shelled vs. unshelled.
Once the peanuts are shelled, they're graded and sold for different prices. There's splits, jumbos, mediums, #1s, etc. I forget all the names, but there's a few more. Even the hulls and 1416s (aka the smallest bits that fall through the sorting screens) can be sold for things like livestock feed and some other random things.
So basically, if they break the peanuts up and grade them, they can potentially make a lot more money sending them off to different places. If they get sold whole, then they have to set a price that will somewhat match up with what they would be worth sorted and graded.
To add, peanut shelling plants really aren't that different from the plants that sort whole peanuts. They all go through similar sorting machines to grade them by size/weight/color/etc. The main difference is that a shelling plant has to send the nuts through the sheller bars (which is what shells them). So there's really not that much more labor involved between the two.
NOTE: This is a very rough transcript of how my fiance explained it to me, as I asked him about it before. Also a friendly note that if you ate anything from Mars that included peanuts in the past few years, he probably touched them.
|
[
"Because of lack of commercial availability of moriche palm nuts, shelled unsalted peanuts have been used as a staple in the diet of captive birds. They must not be fed commercial bird seed, especially fatty seed like Sunflower.\n",
"Crushed shells are added as a calcareous supplement to the diet of laying poultry. Oyster shell and cockle shell are often used for this purpose and are obtained as a by-product from other industries.\n",
"The major limiting factor for growing peanuts has always been the time- and labor-intensive process of hand-shelling peanuts, a job usually relegated to women and children. Overcoming this technical obstacle has been a goal of agricultural research for some years. When Dr. T. Williams, Senior Research Scientist at University of Georgia and an expert on all 15,000 cultivars of peanuts, was first approached by Jock Brandis, the project's engineer, he stated that an affordable peanut sheller is considered the \"holy grail of sustainable development\". \n",
"Because they are relatively inexpensive, peanuts are typically a major ingredient in mixed nuts, although they are viewed as less fancy than other nuts; often \"deluxe mixed nuts\" are advertised as containing no peanuts. \"Alrifai\", a brand in the Middle East, Identifies the expensive nuts as kernels. In 2006, a batch of \"deluxe\" mixed nuts was recalled because peanuts had crept into the mix. The move was not to save face: peanuts are the ingredient of mixed nuts most commonly associated with life-threatening food allergies.\n",
"The universal nut sheller has been less than successful in Ghana. First hand accounts relate almost universal breakage. Users can mitigate this breakage by pouring the nuts through initially at very broad settings and only later at finer settings, this practice does not eliminate the breakage and destroys the efficiency aspect. Groundnut shelling tends to be a social activity everyone engages in during their down time and there is rarely a need for a peanut sheller.\n",
"Peanuts have a variety of industrial end uses. Paint, varnish, lubricating oil, leather dressings, furniture polish, insecticides, and nitroglycerin are made from peanut oil. Soap is made from saponified oil, and many cosmetics contain peanut oil and its derivatives. The protein portion is used in the manufacture of some textile fibers. Peanut shells are used in the manufacture of plastic, wallboard, abrasives, fuel, cellulose (used in rayon and paper), and mucilage (glue).\n",
"Peanuts grow well in southern Mali and adjacent regions of the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal; peanuts are similar in both agricultural and culinary qualities to the Bambara groundnut native to the region, and West Africans have adopted the crop as a staple. Peanut sauce, prepared with onions, garlic, peanut butter/paste, and vegetables such as carrots, cabbage, and cauliflower, can be vegetarian (the peanuts supplying ample protein) or prepared with meat, usually chicken.\n"
] |
Why is it that all macroscopic organisms (that I know of, anyway) are left-right symmetric?
|
Generally, locomotion requires two equal sides to be most efficient. On land, feet come in pairs, so do wings in the air, and fins in the water, and most things that want to move right also want to go left. So when you find things that don't move, you start to see more variety like in trees and other plants.
Yes there are non symmetric animals. Starfish, sea anemone, and many other radially symmetric creatures are examples. I guess they are still right left symmetric, but they are radially symmetric first and bilaterally symmetric as a result. Also things like sponges don't really have a body plan the way you are thinking of yet are still animals.
And there are fiddler crabs which have one arm way bigger than the other in males.
Oh and on the inside, we aren't very symmetric at all. Heart is on the left, liver on the right and so on. So we only have symmetry when we need it.
|
[
"Left-right asymmetry (LR asymmetry) refers to differences in structure (symmetry breaking) across the mediolateral (left and right) plane in animals. This plane is defined with respect to the anteroposterior and dorsoventral axes and is perpendicular to both. Because the left-right plane is not strictly an axis (as it is not established through a morphogen gradient), to create asymmetry, the left and right sides need to be patterned separately.\n",
"Political scientists have frequently noted that a single left–right axis is too simplistic and insufficient for describing the existing variation in political beliefs and included other axes. Though the descriptive words at polar opposites may vary, the axes of popular biaxial spectra are usually split between economic issues (on a left–right dimension) and socio-cultural issues (on a authority–liberty dimension).\n",
"The degree of asymmetry between right and left hemispheres is a point of interest to most paleoneurobiologists because it could be linked to handedness or language development of the specimen. Asymmetries occur due to hemispherical specialization and are observed in both a qualitative and quantitative manner. The unevenness of the hemispheres, known as a petalia, is characterized by a lobe that is wider and/or protruding beyond the contralateral lobe. For example, a right-handed person typically has larger left occipital lobe and right frontal lobes than the contralateral lobes. Petalias also occur due to specialization in the communication centers of the frontal cortex of the brain in modern humans. Petalias in the occipital lobe are easier to detect than those in the frontal lobe. Certain asymmetries have been documented on \"Homo erectus\" specimens such as the \"Homo redolfensis\" specimen from 1.8 million years ago that resemble the same asymmetries from modern humans. Some gorillas have shown strong petalias, but they are not found in combination with other petalias as is almost always the case in humans. Scientists use the presence of petalias to show sophistication, but they are not a definitive indicator of evolution toward a more human brain.\n",
"Various species exhibit left-right asymmetric differentiation of habenular neurons. In many fishes and amphibians, the habenula on one side is significantly larger and better organized into distinct nuclei in the dorsal diencephalon than its smaller pair. The sidedness of such differentiation (whether the left or the right is more developed) varies with the species. In humans, however, both habenulae are symmetrically small and poorly developed.\n",
"The bilaterians are animals that have right and left sides at some point in their life histories. This implies that they have top and bottom surfaces and, importantly, distinct front and back ends. All known bilaterian animals are triploblastic, and all known triploblastic animals are bilaterian. Living echinoderms (sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, etc.) 'look' radially symmetrical (like wheels) rather than bilaterian, but their larvae exhibit bilateral symmetry and some of the earliest echinoderms may have been bilaterally symmetrical. Porifera and Cnidaria are radially symmetrical, not bilaterian, and not triploblastic.\n",
"Human anatomy is asymmetric with the heart located on the left side and the liver on the right. Left-right asymmetry (biology) is a feature common to all vertebrates and even paired-symmetric organs such as lungs display asymmetries in the number of lobes. Evidence that nodal signaling is responsible for left-right specification comes from genetic analysis of organisms deficient in left-right specification. These genetic studies led to identification of mutations in components in the nodal signaling pathway such as ActRIIB, Criptic, and FoxH1 in mouse. These studies found that the left-right symmetry is created as a result of nodal antagonist expression on the right side of the embryo which is balanced by nodal upregulating itself on the other half of the embryo. The result is a nodal gradient that is high on the ventral side of the embryo and, through antagonist action, declines as a gradient to the midline. Studies on the nodal signaling pathway and its downstream targets such as PITX2 in other animals have shown it may also control left-right asymmetric patterning in sea squirt, amphioxus, sea urchin and mollusc lineages. \n",
"In organisms with a changeable shape, such as amoeboid organisms, most directional terms are meaningless, since the shape of the organism is not constant and no distinct axes are fixed. Similarly, in spherically symmetrical organisms, there is nothing to distinguish one line through the centre of the organism from any other. An indefinite number of triads of mutually perpendicular axes could be defined, but any such choice of axes would be useless, as nothing would distinguish a chosen triad from any others. In such organisms, only terms such as \"superficial\" and \"deep\", or sometimes \"proximal\" and \"distal\", are usefully descriptive.\n"
] |
what's going on with the fcc? six months ago all i saw were how corrupt the fcc is. over the past month though i've seen a lot of positive articles about the fcc shifting towards public opinion. what's really going on?
|
The FCC has a long history of holding "hearings" and "information sessions" about decisions and then deciding based on what the incumbent telecoms want. Basically the process of public consultation was a farce to cover for a decision that already been made.
When they announced the stuff about net neutrality and that there would be public consultations almost everyone who knew about this stuff rolled their eyes so far back that they passed out.
Then something strange happened. After the elections in November, Obama waded in and went against what the telecoms wanted. This shocked basically everyone. Most people thought that the FCC chairman would just do what he wanted anyway. (While the FCC chairman is appointed by the president he does not work "for" the president as the FCC is designed to be independent).
So after Obama's proclamation most people were still skeptical. however, over the past few months each bit of information points to the FCC ruling against the telecoms. This shocks people because it so rarely happens.
Now, I stop shot of saying that this is all happening because of Obama. Wheeler (the FCC chairman) is a former telecom lobbyist and everyone basically assumed he was in the pocket of the telecoms. It's possible that everything would have happened this way regardless of what Obama said. It's possible that Wheeler is a stand up guy who's actually going to do his job... possible.
|
[
"Congress gave the FCC vast powers to regulate and de-regulate all digital markets when it passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed by digital signature of President Clinton in the Library of Congress in February 1996. The FCC then essentially re-wrote the regulatory landscape for wireless and wireline communication. Not everything predicted actually occurred, in Hundt's view, but all knew that somehow the communications sector was responsible in large part for the great boom in the American economy and stock market that marked the Clinton Administration's two terms.\n",
"Throughout most of its history, the FCC has been a relatively invisible part of the U.S. government, known mostly to industry stakeholders, lobbyists, and officials. With the general public not knowing its practices and responsibilities, this has given a tremendous advantage to those knowledgeable of the FCC's practices and organized enough to influence them. Jeff Chester, the executive director of Center for Digital Democracy, \"The FCC has long been the second home to a legion of (lawyers and lobbyists) ... whose occupation is convincing the staff and commissioners to approve policies that benefit a particular company or industry.\"\n",
"Over many years the traditional limitations on cross media ownership controlled by the FCC started to weaken. More media outlets grew in number and major companies, started to consolidate newspaper and television ownership. In the 1980s and early 1990s there was general pressure to reduce government regulation and increase market forces.There was also growing pressure to have the FCC use bandwidth and the licensing of radio, television and other devices as a source of revenue for the people of the United States. In 1993, the U.S. Congress authorized the FCC to grant licenses to auction bandwidth. The potential monetization of this limited resource by large corporations made it extremely valuable. To be able to compete for bandwidth brought even more pressure for large corporations to try to consolidate. It was obvious that both technology and market forces were changing rapidly. Subsequently, the U.S. Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This required the FCC to review their ownership rules every four years.\n",
"The FCC issued sweeping changes through the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This included major changes to the guidelines that determined who would be eligible for ownership of media outlets. The restrictions of cross ownership were greatly relaxed, which made it even more difficult for minorities to financially compete with the growing conglomerates who were amassing media outlets. The FCC determined \"that the existing rules were no longer in the public interest, repealed them, and replaced them with a single set of Cross-Media Limits using a methodological tool called the 'Diversity Index'.\" This decision was based on treating media ownership like many business entities in a market situation where the government only has an interest to keep a competitive and free market. This would be presuming that all voices represented an equal possible strength, as in a business situation where each producer of a similar commodity has an equal chance of success and all will serve the market equally. Therefore, the FCC evaluated market concentration using a highly modified Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, which is used by the U.S. Department of Justice to evaluate proposed mergers and acquisitions to prevent monopolies. However, the FCC added their \"\" to allow for the obvious inability of the Herfindahl-Hirschman to truly measure market concentration. This ruling was challenged in court, and the resulting judgement, \"Prometheus Radio Project v. Federal Communication Commission: United States of America\", found that the FCC was in violation of Congressional mandate and had failed to \"consider proposals to promote minority broadcast ownership that the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council had submitted.\" Overall, the court found that the FCC had failed to justify their changes in cross-media ownership and the new rules were not implemented. The court stated that, \" we must hold unlawful and set aside agency findings, and conclusions that are arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion, or not in accordance with law...[or] unsupported by substantial evidence.\"\n",
"Upon becoming FCC chairman in April 2017, Ajit Pai proposed to repeal the policies and issued a NPRM soliciting comments from the public on the issue. The FCC received over 20 million comments this time around. While this process was underway, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman made public that his office was investigating a substantial amount of fraudulent activity relating to the comments on this rulemaking and that the FCC has been resistant to assisting him in his investigation. The FCC wishes to restore order to the internet because they think the internet needs to stay safe. According to the FCC, they have three parts to they wish to use as a framework for they need Consumer Protection, Transparency and Removal of Unneeded regulations. They believe that internet providers were unfair and deceiving customers in this practice.\n",
"There is evidence that the FCC continues to be influenced by the corporate media lobby. The strong, direct relationships that have developed over the years between regulators and corporate media lobbyists, is essential to greater influence. It goes much deeper than the idea that the lobby has simply been around for a while. Members of the FCC have traditionally had strong connections to industry. As the job of an FCC commissioner or staffer is often highly technical, and specific knowledge of the dynamics of the telecommunications and media industries must be known, commissioners are often plucked out of high-paying jobs in the industry. History has shown, due to the fact that FCC Commissioners are appointed only to five-year terms, that there is a revolving door between the Commission and industry.\n",
"When it emerged in 2006 that AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon may have broken U.S. laws by aiding the National Security Agency in possible illegal wiretapping of its customers, Congressional representatives called for an FCC investigation into whether or not those companies broke the law. The FCC declined to investigate, however, claiming that it could not investigate due to the classified nature of the program– a move that provoked the criticism of members of Congress.\n"
] |
why sms messages cannot come in bold/italic/underlined, etc
|
Technically, they can.
But the support for such formatting has to be widespread and unified between phone hardware manufacturers for it to be useful, which is obviously not the case now.
Also, the SMS protocol has been designed with a limited message length in mind, adding the formatting would make the message even shorter.
|
[
"The characteristics of the display were fairly restrictive. The text display contained only two lines of six characters each, making the use of text messaging (SMS) and data services less practical than on standard LCD displays. The display used a fixed 'digital clock' style font, with no functionality for changing between upper case and lower case text. All SMSs sent by the F3 were received entirely in lower case, and each character of any SMS received by the F3 is displayed in whichever case made the most sense using the font. Also, the non-alphabetic characters were severely limited due to this display, as the phone could only provide support for the following characters:\n",
"The mobile version of Messages on iOS used on iPhone and iPad also supports SMS and MMS due to replacing the older text messaging Text app since iOS 3. Users can tell the difference between a message via SMS and one sent over iMessage as the bubbles will appear either green (SMS) or blue (iMessage).\n",
"Text messages can be sent from a personal computer to mobile devices via an SMS gateway or Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) gateway, using most popular email client programs, such as Outlook, Thunderbird, and so on. The messages must be sent in ASCII \"text-only\" mode. If they are sent in HTML mode, or using non-ASCII characters, they will most likely appear as nonsense on the recipient's mobile telephone.\n",
"Most SMS messages have done away with capitalization. Use of capitalizations on the first word of a message may in fact, not be intentional, and may likely be due to the default capitalization setting of devices.\n",
"Features of early mobile phone messaging encouraged users to use abbreviations. Text entry was difficult, requiring multiple key presses on a small keypad to generate each letter, and messages were generally limited to 160 characters. Additionally, SMS language made text messages quicker to compose.\n",
"Some versions of the Nokia 5210 firmware, particularly the Arabic models, contains a bug with the Arabic language text, that occurs when user tries to type SMS, the space between words in Arabic becomes a small rectangular symbol instead of a space.\n",
"In Messages, the user's sent communication is aligned to the right, with replies from other people on the left. A user can see if the other iMessage user is typing a message. A pale gray ellipsis appears in the text bubble of the other user when a reply is started. It is also possible to start a conversation on one iOS device and continue it on another. On iPhones, green buttons and text bubbles indicate SMS-based communication; on all iOS devices, blue buttons and text bubbles indicate iMessage communication.\n"
] |
How did illiterate conquistadors transact business with the Spanish crown?
|
Illiteracy is a spectrum, not an absolute. More importantly, conquistadors were usually members of the 'middling' class, including artisans, craftsmen, and professionals (like lawyers and scribes). Most conquistadors probably could read some and at least write their names. Even if they couldn't there would have been a scribe on the expedition in their professional capacity or as just another member. Conquest expeditions were business ventures as much as they were military ones. The members of the company had shares in the enterprise and had contributed varying amounts. Bookkeepers and scribes were essential to the basic running of the expedition.
As to the general question of accommodating an illiterate population, yes, there were professional scribes and official notaries that were paid to write for others. When it came to petitioning the crown, Spanish law recognized the importance of protecting the poor and destitute. Consequently, the legal system had its own bureaucrats tasked with representing the poor and any legal matters they might have or petitions to the bureaucracy/crown (sometimes called the abogado de pobres, procurador de pobres, defensor de pobres). In the Americas, a special position was created just for indigenous petitioners/litigants (procurador de indios). If one qualified for the service, the fees for producing and submitting documents were waived as were the legal/notarial fees.
For some more on these issues see
*Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest*
*The First Letter From New Spain*
*The Men of Cajamarca*
*Justice by Insurance: The General Indian Court of Colonial Mexico and the Legal Aides of the Half-real*
*Law and the Transformation of Aztec Culture, 1500-1700*
*Empire of Law and Indian Justice in Colonial Mexico*
|
[
"By 1528, Spanish colonial power had been established in the Chiapas Highlands, and \"encomienda\" rights were being issued to individual \"conquistadores\". Spanish dominion extended from the upper drainage of the Grijalva, across Comitán and Teopisca to the Ocosingo valley. The north and northwest were incorporated into the Villa de Espíritu Santo district, that included Chʼol Maya territory around Tila. In the early years of conquest, \"encomienda\" rights effectively meant rights to pillage and round up slaves, usually in the form of a group of mounted \"conquistadores\" launching a lightning slave raid upon an unsuspecting population centre. Prisoners would be branded as slaves, and were sold in exchange for weapons, supplies, and horses.\n",
"licenciado Diego Pérez de la Torre, born in Almendralejo, Spain (c. 14821538), was a Spanish conquistador, colonial administrator, royal attorney for the Court of Castile, and second Governor of the Kingdom of Nueva Galicia, following the removal of Nuño de Guzmán.\n",
"The Spanish crown at first controlled the local governments indirectly, but centralized procedures as the time went on. At first, Viceroy Francisco de Toledo confirmed the rights of local nobles and guaranteed them local autonomy. But the crown eventually came to employ Spanish officials, \"corregidores de indios\", to collect tribute and taxes from the Indians. \"Corregidores de indios\" also imported goods and forced the Indians to buy them, a widely abused practice that proved to be an enormous source of wealth for these officials but caused much resentment among the Indian population.\n",
"The asiento was the license issued by the Spanish crown, by which a set of merchants received the monopoly on a trade route or product. They were included in some peace treaties. An example of it was the payment of a fee, granting legal permission to sell a fixed number of enslaved Africans in the Spanish colonies. They were usually sold to foreigners, mainly Portuguese. They were also considered a tangible asset, comparable to tax farming, and a source of profit for the Spanish crown. The original impetus to import enslaved Africans was to relieve the indigenous inhabitants of the colonies from the labor demands of the Spanish colonists. Dutch merchants became involved in the slave trade. In 1713, the British were awarded the right to the asiento in the Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession. The British government passed its rights to the South Sea Company. The British \"asiento\" ended with the 1750 Treaty of Madrid between Great Britain and Spain.\n",
"After having consolidated his power over the flourishing Yakan enclave, Don Pedro Cuevas, sent emissaries to the Spanish authorities in Isabela and Zamboanga. For his services as the Last Conquistador of the Spanish Empire, he was eventually pardoned by Gov. Gen. Fernando Primo de Rivera in 1884, and, having formalized his position as leader of the Lamitan District of Basilan island, was finally and officially installed as such in 1886.\n",
"For over 256 years, the Spanish East Indies were governed by a governor-captain general, and an audiencia. All economic matters of the Philippines were managed by the Viceroyalty of New Spain, located in Mexico. Because the eastward route was more widely used for military purposes, in addition to commerce that included the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, most government correspondence went through Mexico, rather than directly to Spain (with the exception of a short period at the end of the 18th century).\n",
"Most Spanish settlers came to the Indies as permanent residents, established families and businesses, and sought advancement in the colonial system, such as membership of cabildos, so that they were in the hands of local, American-born (\"crillo\") elites. During the Bourbon era, even when the crown systematically appointed peninsular-born Spaniards to royal posts rather than American-born, the cabildos remained in the hands of local elites.\n"
] |
why does nasa go to such extreme measures to remove bacteria before traveling in space?
|
Imagine that NASA comes out and announce that they have found bacterial life on Mars and launches the world into a religious hysteria... Only to find out months later that "oops, it was actually just Earth bacteria that hitchhiked over there!"...
Or... imagine that we send a rover to Mars without sterilizing it. And there happens to be bacterial life on Mars... or at least, there used to be... before our stowaways killed it all off.
We want to discover life on other planets, not take it there accidentally and either a) think we found it new life b) destroy what life was actually there.
|
[
"There are over one hundred strains of bacteria and fungi that have been identified from manned space missions. These microorganisms survive and propagate in space. Much effort is being made to ensure that the risks from exposure to the microbes are significantly reduced. Spacecraft are sterilized as good control practice by flushing with antimicrobial agents such as ethylene oxide and methyl chloride, and astronauts are quarantined for several days prior to a mission. However, these measures only reduce the microbe populations rather than eliminate them. Microgravity may increase the virulence of specific microbes. It is therefore important that the mechanisms responsible for this problem are studied and the appropriate controls are implemented to ensure that astronauts, in particular, those that are immunocompromised, are not affected.\n",
"Because of the potential for microbes to cause infection in the astronauts and to be able to degrade various components that may be vital for the functioning of the spacecraft, it is important that the risks are assessed and, where appropriate, manage the levels of microbial growth controlled by the use of good astronautical hygiene. For example, by frequently sampling the space-cabin air and surfaces to detect early signs of a rise in microbial contamination, keeping surfaces clean by the use of disinfected clothes, by ensuring that all equipment is well maintained in particular the life support systems and by regular vacuuming of the spacecraft to remove dust etc. It is likely that during the first manned missions to Mars that the risks from microbial contamination could be underestimated unless the principles of good astronautical hygiene practice are applied. Further research in this field is therefore needed so that the risks of exposure can be evaluated and the necessary measures to mitigate microbial growth are developed.\n",
"On 19 May 2014, scientists announced that numerous microbes, like \"Tersicoccus phoenicis\", may be resistant to methods usually used in spacecraft assembly clean rooms. It's not currently known if such resistant microbes could have withstood space travel and are present on the \"Curiosity\" rover now on the planet Mars.\n",
"On May 19, 2014, scientists announced that numerous microbes, like \"Tersicoccus phoenicis\", may be resistant to methods usually used in spacecraft assembly clean rooms. It's not currently known if such resistant microbes could have withstood space travel and are present on the \"Curiosity\" rover now on Mars.\n",
"BULLET::::- NASA established an Office of Life Sciences to work on exobiology, based on Dr. Joshua Lederberg's ideas that space vehicles should be sterilized before and after their missions in order to prevent the possibility of contamination of outer space or of the Earth by microbes.\n",
"BULLET::::- Scientists announce that numerous microbes, like \"Tersicoccus phoenicis\", may be resistant to methods usually used in spacecraft assembly clean rooms, and as a consequence, may have unintentionally contaminated spacecraft. However, it's not currently known if such resistant microbes could have withstood space travel and are present on the \"Curiosity\" rover now on the planet Mars.\n",
"Spore-forming bacteria are of particular concern in the context of planetary protection because their tough endospores may withstand certain sterilization procedures as well as the harsh environments of outer space or planetary surfaces. To test their hardiness on a hypothetical mission to Mars, spores of \"Bacillus subtilis\" 168 and \"Bacillus pumilus\" SAFR-032 were exposed for 1.5 years to selected parameters of space. It was clearly shown that solar extraterrestrial UV radiation (λ ≥110 nm) as well as the Martian UV spectrum (λ ≥200 nm) was the most deleterious factor applied; in some samples only a few survivors were recovered from spores exposed in monolayers. Spores in multilayers survived better by several orders of magnitude. All other environmental parameters encountered did little harm to the spores, which showed about 50% survival or more. The data demonstrate the high chance of survival of spores on a Mars mission, if protected against solar irradiation. These results will have implications for planetary protection considerations.\n"
] |
How did societies without any "currency" survive and do business?
|
* [Has any society in the last 1000 years ever successfully operated as a "cashless" society?](_URL_1_)
* ["The Inca as a nonmarket economy: Supply on command versus supply and demand" by Darrell La Lone](_URL_0_)
|
[
"When the great empires in Rome and India collapsed, the resulting checkerboard of small kingdoms and republics saw the gradual decline in standing armies and cities. This included the creation of hierarchical caste systems, the retreat of gold and silver to the temples and the abolition of slavery. Although hard currency was no longer used in everyday life, its use as a unit of account and credit continued in medieval Europe. Graeber insists that people in the Middle Ages in Europe continued to use the concept of money, even though they no longer had the physical symbols. This contradicts the popular claims of economists that the Middle Ages saw the economy \"revert to barter\". During the Middle Ages more sophisticated financial instruments appeared. These included promissory notes and paper money (in China, where the empire managed to survive the collapse observed elsewhere), letters of credit, and cheques (in the Islamic world).\n",
"Meanwhile, local governments issued their own currency chaotically, so that the nation's money supply expanded by 2.5 times between 1859 and 1869, leading to crumbling money values and soaring prices. The system was replaced by a new one after the conclusion of the Boshin War, and with the onset of the Meiji government in 1868.\n",
"Although central banks today are generally associated with fiat money, the 19th and early 20th centuries central banks in most of Europe and Japan developed under the international gold standard. Free banking or currency boards were common at this time. Problems with collapses of banks during downturns, however, led to wider support for central banks in those nations which did not as yet possess them, most notably in Australia.\n",
"But for most of the history of human civilization, money was not actually universally used, partly because the prevailing systems of property rights and cultural custom did not allow many goods to be sold for money, and partly because many products were distributed and traded without using money. Also, several different \"currencies\" were often used side by side. Marx himself believed that nomadic peoples were the first to develop the money-form of value (in the sense of a universal equivalent in trade) because all their possessions were mobile, and because they were regularly in contact with different communities, which encouraged the exchange of products.\n",
"\"With the opening of exchange between farmers, artisans, and merchants, there came into use money of tortoise shells, cowrie shells, gold, coins (), knives (), spades () This has been so from remote antiquity.\"\n",
"Currency trading and exchange first occurred in ancient times. Money-changers (people helping others to change money and also taking a commission or charging a fee) were living in the Holy Land in the times of the Talmudic writings (\"Biblical times\"). These people (sometimes called \"kollybistẻs\") used city stalls, and at feast times the Temple's Court of the Gentiles instead. Money-changers were also the silversmiths and/or goldsmiths of more recent ancient times.\n",
"Regulation of businesses existed in the ancient early Egyptian, Indian, Greek, and Roman civilizations. Standardized weights and measures existed to an extent in the ancient world, and gold may have operated to some degree as an international currency. In China, a national currency system existed and paper currency was invented. Sophisticated law existed in Ancient Rome. In the European Early Middle Ages, law and standardization declined with the Roman Empire, but regulation existed in the form of norms, customs, and privileges; this regulation was aided by the unified Christian identity and a sense of honor in regard to contracts.\n"
] |
why are interest rates so low for me if i deposit money, but so high for students who lend it?
|
Because you're a very small fry and the bank makes almost no money on your deposit. And you want *services*, like ATM fee forgiveness, customer service, cash back credit cards, and just putting up with your smell is going to cost you half a percent!
People with very large accounts can get 'OK' interest rates on a deposit - up to 4% for multi-millionaires who decide to keep millions in cash on hand. Because multi-millions makes a lot more for the bank than small fry's do and they don't require much more in the way of *services*.
And students get juicy bank anal lovin' because they are risks. The *real* risk is just about zero because the government buys the loans, but they like to pretend students are a big risk to lend money to. So they jack up the rate to pay for the students who can't ever find good jobs, sell the loans off to the government to eliminate the risk, and laugh all the way to the bank, only they are the bank, so they are just enjoying a hearty laugh at how they forced you to work through the motherhood years and now you're a haggard old crone and can't afford a 3rd mortgage to coax one of your rotten eggs into becoming a baby.
|
[
"Higher interest rates reduce the economy’s money supply because fewer people seek loans. When banks make loans, the loan proceeds are generally deposited in bank accounts that are part of the money supply. Therefore, when a person pays back a loan and no other loans are made to replace it, the amount of bank deposits and hence the money supply decrease. For example, in the early 1980s, when the federal funds rate exceeded 15 percent, the quantity of Federal Reserve dollars fell 8.1 percent, from US$8.6 trillion down to $7.9 trillion.\n",
"Lower interest rates may also help banks \"earn their way out\" of financial difficulties, because banks can borrow at very low interest rates from depositors and lend at higher rates for mortgages or credit cards. In other words, the \"spread\" between bank borrowing costs and revenues from lending increases. For example, a large U.S. bank reported in February 2009 that its average cost to borrow from depositors was 0.91%, with a net interest margin (spread) of 4.83%. Profits help banks build back equity or capital lost during the crisis.\n",
"The interest rates on hard money loans are typically higher than the rates charged for traditional business loans. The interest rates could range from 10% to 18%. Despite this, such loan options are popular among real estate investors for their fast approvals, higher flexibility, less tedious documentation procedures and, at times, the only option for securing funds.\n",
"This situation should show that the interest rate has two effects on banks' expected return. On the one hand, higher interest rates imply that, for a given loan, the repayment (if it does take place) will be higher, and this increases bank profits; this is the direct effect. On the other hand, and crucially for credit rationing, a higher interest rate might mean that the safe types are not anymore willing to accept the loans, and drop out of the market; this is the adverse selection effect.\n",
"Federal student loan interest rates are established by Congress and listed in § 20 U.S.C. § 1087E(b). Because the interest rates are established by Congress, interest rates are a political decision. In 2010, the federal student loan program ran a multibillion-dollar \"negative subsidy\", or profit, for the federal government. Loans to graduate and professional students are especially profitable because of high interest rates and low default rates. Usually, the net flow of the default rate on student loans are strongly related to the nontraditional issuer and the flowing price of the tangible assets, unlike buildings or land. However, in contrast to the positive correlation with the borrower, a change in the price normally leads to negative influence on default rate. These two aspects have been used to explain the Great Recession of student loan default, which had grown to nearly thirty percent.\n",
"Unsubsidized federal student loans are also guaranteed by the U.S. Government, but the government, while controlling (setting) the interest rate, does not pay interest for the student; rather, the interest accrues during college. Nearly all students are eligible for these loans regardless of financial need (on need, see Expected Family Contribution). Those who borrow $10,000 during college owe $10,000 plus interest upon graduation. For example, those who borrowed $10,000 and had $2,000 accrue in interest owe $12,000. Interest begins accruing on the $12,000, i.e., there is interest on the interest. The accrued interest is \"capitalized\" into the loan amount, and the borrower begins making payments on the accumulated total. Students can pay the interest while still in college, but few do so.\n",
"Charging interest equal to inflation preserves the lender's purchasing power, but does not compensate for the time value of money in real terms. The lender may prefer to invest in another product rather than consume. The return they might obtain from competing investments is a factor in determining the interest rate they demand.\n"
] |
how does a car tire maintain the same psi measurement weather or not it is on the car?
|
Disregarding changes due to temperature for the moment:
While you're right that the weight of the car influences the pressure, it only causes an increase in pressure in proportion to how much the weight of the car deforms the tire and causes a reduction in the volume of the tire.
Think about it like it's a balloon. A balloon that's just sitting there, with no weight on it, has whatever the static pressure is. Placing a book on that balloon will cause it to first get flat, and then burst because the pressure inside the balloon grows too high.
It really has to do with how much the tire's volume is reduced.
See [Boyle's Law](_URL_0_)
|
[
"There are simple hand-held tire-pressure gauges which can be temporarily attached to the valve stem to check a tire's interior air pressure. This measurement of tire inflation pressure should be made at least once a month. Accurate readings can only be obtained when the tires are 'cold' - that is at least three hours after the vehicle has been driven or driven less than 1/2 mile since cold - tire pressures will not then be higher because of operating heat. The recommended inflation pressure is found in the owner's manual and on the vehicle's tire placard. Because of slow air leaks, changes in the weather and ambient temperature or other conditions, tire pressure will occasionally have to be corrected via the valve stem with compressed air which is often available at service stations.\n",
"Since tires are rated for specific loads at certain pressure, it is important to keep the pressure of the tire at the optimal amount. Tires are rated for their optimal pressure when cold, meaning before the tire has been driven on for the day and allowed to heat up, which ultimately changes the internal pressure of the tire due to the expansion of gases. The precision of a typical mechanical gauge as shown is ±. Higher precision gauges with ± uncertainty can also be obtained.\n",
"The circumference of the tire can be modeled as a series of very small spring elements whose spring constants vary according to manufacturing conditions. These spring elements are compressed as they enter the road contact area, and recover as they exit the footprint. Variation in the spring constants in both radial and lateral directions cause variations in the compressive and restorative forces as the tire rotates. Given a perfect tire, running on a perfectly smooth roadway, the force exerted between the car and the tire will be constant. However, a normally manufactured tire running on a perfectly smooth roadway will exert a varying force into the vehicle that will repeat every rotation of the tire. This variation is the source of various ride disturbances. Both tire and car makers seek to reduce such disturbances in order to improve the dynamic performance of the vehicle.\n",
"The pressure rating of tires is usually stamped somewhere on the sidewall. This may be in psi (pounds per square inch) or bar. The pressure rating could be indicated as \"Maximum Pressure,\" or \"Inflate to . . . \" and will usually give a range (for example, 90-120 psi, or 35-60 psi). Inflating to the lower number in the pressure range will increase traction and make the ride more comfortable. Inflating to the higher number will make the ride more efficient and will decrease the chances of getting a flat tire but a firmer ride must be expected.\n",
"Production car tires typically develop this maximum lateral force, or cornering force, at a slip angle of 6-10 degrees, although this angle increases as the vertical load on the tire increases. Formula 1 car tires may reach a peak sideforce at 3 degrees \n",
"Tires are modeled in much detail. The game keeps track of 3 temperatures for each tire, reflecting temperatures at the center, inner, and outer edges. Numerous variables can influence tire temperatures. For example, an underinflated tire will tend to heat more at the edges rather than the center. An incorrect camber setting can cause one edge to heat more than the other. Temperatures are also influenced by many other factors such as weight distribution, toe-in, driver behavior, and the cornering characteristics of the race track. Tires in the game perform optimally at elevated temperatures, but if they heat excessively this effect is lost. The player can view current tire temperatures using an in-game keyboard command.\n",
"Direct TPMS employ pressure sensors on each wheel, either internal or external. The sensors physically measure the tire pressure in each tire and report it to the vehicle's instrument cluster or a corresponding monitor. Some units also measure and alert temperatures of the tire as well. These systems can identify under-inflation in any combination, be it one tire or all, simultaneously. Although the systems vary in transmitting options, many TPMS products (both OEM and aftermarket) can display real time tire pressures at each location monitored whether the vehicle is moving or parked. There are many different solutions, but all of them have to face the problems of exposure to hostile environments. The majority are powered by batteries which limit their useful life. Some sensors utilise a wireless power system similar to that used in RFID tag reading which solves the problem of limited battery life by electromagnetic induction. This also increases the frequency of data transmission up to 40 Hz and reduces the sensor weight which can be important in motorsport applications. If the sensors are mounted on the outside of the wheel, as are some aftermarket systems, they are subject to mechanical damage, aggressive fluids, as well as theft. When mounted on the inside of the rim, they are no longer easily accessible for battery change and the RF link must overcome the attenuating effects of the tire which increases the energy need.\n"
] |
what is the purpose of using gpa instead of a percent average?
|
GPA is an easier way for people to tell at a glance, what grades you got more often at school:
4 is A
3 is B
2 is C
1 is D
and anything lower than that, you fail at life.
|
[
"The GPI indicator is based on the concept of sustainable income, presented by economist John Hicks (1948). The sustainable income is the amount a person or an economy can consume during one period without decreasing his or her consumption during the next period. In the same manner, GPI depicts the state of welfare in the society by taking into account the ability to maintain welfare on at least the same level in the future.\n",
"The GPI is an alternative to GDP as a measure of economic growth that is generally designed to incorporate environmental and social factors that are not traditionally included. While much of the focus is typically placed on environmental costs, most GPI measurements explicitly include additions for the value of household work and parenting.\n",
"In some countries, all grades from all current classes are averaged to create a grade point average (GPA) for the marking period. The GPA is calculated by taking the number of grade points a student earned in a given period of time of middle school through high school. GPAs are also calculated for undergraduate and graduate students in most universities. The GPA can be used by potential employers or educational institutions to assess and compare applicants. A cumulative grade point average (CGPA) is a calculation of a student's total earned points divided by the possible number of points. This grading system calculates the average for all of his or her complete education career. Grade point averages can be unweighted (where all classes with the same number of credits have equal influence on the GPA) or weighted (where some classes are given more influence than others)..\n",
"Genuine progress indicator (GPI) is a metric that has been suggested to replace, or supplement, gross domestic product (GDP) . The GPI is designed to take fuller account of the well-being of a nation, only a part of which pertains to the size of the nation's economy, by incorporating environmental and social factors which are not measured by GDP. For instance, some models of GPI decrease in value when the poverty rate increases. The GPI separates the concept of societal progress from economic growth.\n",
"GPI is an attempt to measure whether the environmental impact and social costs of economic production and consumption in a country are negative or positive factors in overall health and well-being. By accounting for the costs borne by the society as a whole to repair or control pollution and poverty, GPI balances GDP spending against external costs. GPI advocates claim that it can more reliably measure economic progress, as it distinguishes between the overall \"shift in the 'value basis' of a product, adding its ecological impacts into the equation\". Comparatively speaking, the relationship between GDP and GPI is analogous to the relationship between the gross profit of a company and the net profit; the net profit is the gross profit minus the costs incurred, while the GPI is the GDP (value of all goods and services produced) minus the environmental and social costs. Accordingly, the GPI will be zero if the financial costs of poverty and pollution equal the financial gains in production of goods and services, all other factors being constant.\n",
"During college, the GPA is calculated as a weighted average of grade and course hours and have a bigger importance than in the high school as it determines priority in receiving scholarships, for example.\n",
"The 10-point GPA is categorized as follows: 10–9.1 (O ( out of standing ) or A+) – Best, 9–8.1 (A) – Excellent, 8–7.1 (B+) – exceptionally good, 7–6.1 (B) – very good, 6–5.1 (C+) – good, 5–4.1 (C) – average, 4–3.1 (D+) – fair, 3.1–2 (D) – Pass, 2–0 (E+–E) – fail. A GPA of over 7 is generally considered to be an indication of a strong grasp of all subjects.\n"
] |
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