question
stringlengths 3
300
| answer
stringlengths 9
2.77k
| context
sequencelengths 7
7
|
|---|---|---|
what causes a rolled up piece of paper to act like a spring and what other materials want to naturally return to a flat sheet when rolled | > Are there other elastic materials similar to these that would want to snap back to a flat sheet?
Sure. They're everywhere. Metal, plastic, wood, rubber, and on and on. Pretty much any common solid material will snap back to its resting arrangement when you let go, provided you don't stress it too far. Think of a paper clip: you can bend it a little bit, and it will snap back to its normal shape and clamp onto your paper. But if you bend it too far, you bend it permanently, and you won't be able to get it back to normal. You get the same effect with those cheap plastic Bic pens, or with creasing a sheet of paper.
Snapping back after stretching is known as [elastic deformation](_URL_0_). Permanent deformation after bending too far is its opposite, *plastic deformation*. The stress level where a material switches from elastic to plastic is known as the [yield strength](_URL_1_). | [
"A paper roll is threaded between two hard rollers, usually made from steel. One or both of the steel rollers has a linen pattern engraved on it. As the nip pressure between the two hard rollers increases, the pattern from the engraved roller(s) is pressed into the paper. The end result is a pattern that looks like a linen table cloth or linen dress.\n",
"Most paper folders push paper into the machine by use of a friction wheel; this grabs paper using friction. Friction-feed paper folders do not work well with glossy paper as the friction wheel slips on the paper's surface. Pneumatic paper folders are preferable for folding glossy paper.\n",
"Paper is manufactured by forming pulp fibers into a mat on an open mesh screen (a deckle), and then drying and pressing this mat into paper. Large areas of inkjet color, such as in graphics and photographs, soak the paper fibers with so much moisture that they swell and return to their original shape before pressing, resulting in a wavy buckling of the paper surface.\n",
"Paper contrasts with papyrus in that the plant material is broken down through maceration or disintegration before the paper is pressed. This produces a much more even surface, and no natural weak direction in the material which falls apart over time.\n",
"In the past, for paper, sheets were worked on with a polished hammer or pressed between polished metal sheets in a press. With the continuously operating paper machine it became part of the process of rolling the paper (in this case also called web paper). The pressure between the rollers, the \"nip pressure\", can be reduced by heating the rolls or moistening the paper surface. This helps to keep the bulk and the stiffness of the web paper which is beneficial for its later use.\n",
"In a buckle folder, the paper is first passed through 2 spinning rollers, which feed the paper into a pair of guide plates that redirect the paper at a slight angle, bending the paper. At the far end of the guide plates is a \"paper stop\". As the rollers continue to spin, the paper continues to slide in between the guides until it hits the paper stop, then, having nowhere else to go, buckles at the interface between the rollers and the angled guides. As the rollers continue to spin, the buckle increases, until it is eventually caught by a pair of \"nip\" rollers, which pull the buckle in and compresses and flattens it into a neat crease.\n",
"Buckle folders work by feeding the paper at high speeds until it can move no further; the reaction of the paper is to buckle. High friction rollers then grip the paper and push it through, folding the paper, which is squeezed between the rollers, in the process. Attached rubber provides the rollers with the required grip. The front edge of the paper is then finally placed into a \"pocket\"—a result of the rollers pressing together with the aid of a spring.\n"
] |
Wednesday AMA: I am Mr_Bimmler, ask me anything regarding WWII Weapons or Vehicles. | I have a question regarding the general reliability of military ground vehicles in WWII. How often would a German Tiger tank or an American Sherman need to be serviced? Could a Jeep travel thousands of miles with nothing more than filling it up with gas? Who would perform the actual maintenance if something were to fail in the field? It seems like you would need some pretty heavy duty equipment to repair a tank especially if the repair was somewhat serious. Thank you. | [
"Sonderkraftfahrzeug (abbreviated Sd.Kfz., German for \"special purpose vehicle\" or \"special ordnance vehicle\") was the ordnance inventory designation used by Nazi Germany during World War II for military vehicles; for example \"Sd.Kfz.\" 101 for the Panzer I.\n",
"BULLET::::- Captured German WW2 vehicles - A PDF file presenting the German vehicles based on captured and modified foreign equipment (10.5 cm leFH 18(Sf) auf Geschützwagen, Marder I, Panzerjäger I, Marder III, Grille, Munitionspanzer 38(t)) still existing in the world\n",
"BULLET::::- Captured German WW2 vehicles - A PDF file presenting the German vehicles based on captured and modified foreign equipment (10.5 cm leFH 18(Sf) auf Geschützwagen, Marder I, Panzerjäger I, Marder III, Grille, Munitionspanzer 38(t)) still existing in the world\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Mid-War Monsters\", this covers various experimental armoured fighting vehicles of World War Two, including the M6 Heavy Tank, the Boarhound Armoured Car, the Sturer Emil Self Propelled Anti-tank Gun, and the KV-5 Heavy Tank.\n",
"This is a list of combat vehicles of World War I, including conceptual, experimental, prototype, training and production vehicles. The vehicles in this list were either used in combat, produced or designed during the First World War.\n",
"Over 20 World War II era firearms can be used including the M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, .30-cal, Bren LMG, FG 42, Thompson, Lee–Enfield, American Bazooka, British PIAT and German Panzerschreck. Crewable vehicles include the King Tiger, Jagdpanther, Sherman, Cromwell, M10 Wolverine and Kübelwagen.\n",
"The M19 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage (MGMC) was a World War II United States Army self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon on the M24 light tank chassis. It was equipped with two Bofors guns. It was produced by Cadillac and Massey-Ferguson of Canada near the end of 1944.\n"
] |
why is cyberbullying a problem? | > Basically my question is this, if you're being bullied over social networking (or even through your phone) why continue to participate?
You don't have to participate directly for it to affect you. Even if you ignore the bully, if other people in your social group are still paying attention to them, it will eventually make its way back to you. Worse, you've also left yourself in a position where you can no long directly defend yourself from any accusations.
Further, it's much easier to "cyber-stalk" (ugh, I hate phrases like that) someone. For instance, someone can set up lots of email addresses to keep harassing you even if you've blocked known addresses. They can get cohorts to continue to harass you over social media, and blocking the number of people needed to not see the harassment could leave you socially ostracized.
All of this seems to stem from young teens being in a mental place where peer acceptance is of primary importance, and absolutely *anything* will stir up drama among friends. | [
"Cyberbullying \"involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others.\" -Bill Belsey\n",
"'Cyberbullying' is the use of technology to bully a person, or threatening an individual online. Cyberbullying has become more common nowadays because of all the technology that children have access to. The most common apps that teenagers use to cyberbully are Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. Cyberbullying has become harder to stop because parents and teachers are unaware of when and where it is happening. Online bullying has become a bigger problem and 33% of all youth has been a victim of cyberbullying. Teens will say awful things to one another online and what they do not realize is that once it is said and published online it will not go away. Home used to be a safe place for teens but now a child is still within reach of becoming a victim of cyberbullying- whether it is through YouTube, Ask.fm, or a text message.\n",
"Cyberbullying is the use of electronic means such as instant messaging, social media, e-mail and other forms of online communication with the intent to abuse, intimidate, or overpower an individual or group. In a 2012 study of over 11,925 students in the United States, it was indicated that 23% of adolescents reported being a victim of cyber bullying, 30% of which reported experiencing suicidal behavior.\n",
"Cyberbullying is the act of trying to make another person feel embarrassed, intimidated, or bad about themselves through the internet. Online disinhibition plays a role in the act of cyberbullying. Anonymity usually leads to meaner comments towards others (cyberbullying) but it alone doesn't cause cyberbullying. Asynchronous communication allows the bully to say what they have to say and then log out like nothing happened, having to face no consequence outside of the internet. Empathy deficit is what allows the bully to post the messages in the first place, the victim is reduced to a name on a computer screen.\n",
"Cyberbullying is the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature. This form of bullying can easily go undetected because of lack of parental/authoritative supervision. Because bullies can pose as someone else, it is the most anonymous form of bullying. Cyberbullying includes, but is not limited to, abuse using email, instant messaging, text messaging, websites, social networking sites, etc.\n",
"Cyberstalking is a form of online harassment in which the perpetrator uses electronic communications to stalk a victim. This is considered more dangerous than other forms of cyberbullying because it generally involves a credible threat to the victim's safety. Cyberstalkers may send repeated messages intended to threaten or harass. They may encourage others to do the same, either explicitly or by impersonating their victim and asking others to contact them.\n",
"Cyberbullying is a communication phenomenon in which a bully utilizes electronic media in order to harass peers. Adolescents favor texting or computer-mediated communication as an alternative to the more directly combative face-to-face interactions because it takes advantage of evading imposed social norms such as \"school rules\", which are likely to be especially repressive of aggression involving females. Online bullying has a lot in common with bullying in school: Both behaviors include harassment, humiliation, teasing and aggression. Cyberbullying presents unique challenges in the sense that the perpetrator can attempt to be anonymous, and attacks can happen at any time of day or night.\n"
] |
Why does snow accumulate in stripes? (Pic) | It is because of wind. It works like sand dunes. You start with an even accumulation, then wind blows in one direction. Imperfections in the ground surface cause some flakes to stick, and others stick to them, until all of the snow is in drifts. | [
"In the natural environment, slush forms when ice or snow melts. This often mixes with dirt and other materials, resulting in a gray or muddy brown color. Often, solid ice or snow can block the drainage of fluid water from slushy areas, so slush often goes through multiple freeze/thaw cycles before completely disappearing.\n",
"Chlamydomonas nivalis is a unicellular red-coloured photosynthetic green alga that is found in the snowfields of the alps and polar regions all over the world. They are one of the main algae responsible for causing the phenomenon of watermelon snow, where patches of snow appear red or pink and emit a ripe watermelon odour upon disturbance. The first account of microbial communities that form red snow was made by Aristotle. Researchers have been active in studying this organism for over 100 years.\n",
"Although the ice is clear, scattering of light by the crystal facets and hollows/imperfections mean that the crystals often appear white in color due to diffuse reflection of the whole spectrum of light by the small ice particles. The shape of the snowflake is determined broadly by the temperature and humidity at which it is formed. Rarely, at a temperature of around , snowflakes can form in threefold symmetry—triangular snowflakes. The most common snow particles are visibly irregular, although near-perfect snowflakes may be more common in pictures because they are more visually appealing. No two snowflakes are alike, as they grow at different rates and in different patterns depending on the changing temperature and humidity within the atmosphere through which they fall on their way to the ground. The METAR code for snow is SN, while snow showers are coded SHSN.\n",
"Although ice by itself is clear, snow usually appears white in color due to diffuse reflection of the whole spectrum of light by the scattering of light by the small crystal facets of the snowflakes of which it is comprised.\n",
"Snow patches often start in sheltered places where both thermal and orographical conditions are favourable for the conservation of snow such as small existing depressions, gullies or other concave patterns. The main process that creates these accumulations is called nivation. It is a complex of processes that includes freeze–thaw action (weathering by the alternate freezing and melting of ice), mass movement (the downhill movement of substances under gravity), and erosion by meltwater which is the main agent of the surroundings' influence. \n",
"Watermelon snow, also called snow algae, pink snow, red snow, or blood snow, is a phenomenon caused by \"Chlamydomonas nivalis\", a species of green algae containing a secondary red carotenoid pigment (astaxanthin) in addition to chlorophyll. Unlike most species of fresh-water algae, it is cryophilic (cold-loving) and thrives in freezing water.\n",
"Snowflakes have a wide range of shapes, even as they fall; among these are: six-sided star-like dendrites, hexagonal needles, platelets and icy pellets. Once snow accumulates on the ground, the flakes immediately begin to undergo transformation (called \"metamorphosis\"), owing to temperature changes, sublimation, and mechanical action. Temperature changes may be from the ambient temperature, solar radiation, rainwater, wind, or the temperature of the material beneath the snow layer. Mechanical action includes wind and compaction. Over time, bulk snow tends to consolidate—its crystals become truncated from breaking apart or losing mass with sublimation directly from solid to gas and with freeze-thaw, causing them to combine as coarse and granular ice crystals. Colbeck reports that fresh, cold, and man-made snow all interact more directly with the base of a ski and increase friction, indicating the use of harder waxes. Conversely, older, warmer, and denser snows present lower friction, in part due to increased grain size, which better promotes a water film and a smoother surface of the snow crystals for which softer waxes are indicated.\n"
] |
how does soaking a piece of clothing in milk remove red wine stains? | You're extracting the compounds In wine by using density extraction. Milk is more dense than the wine compounds so it ends up pulling up the less dense components. Source: I'm a Biochemistry student | [
"The popular belief that carbonated water is a good remover of clothing stains, particularly those of red wine, is based on hearsay and anecdotal evidence. The dissolved gas in water acts as a temporary surfactant. There is no underlying chemical reason why carbonated water would be superior to plain water in stain removal.\n",
"The popular belief that carbonated water is a good remover of clothing stains, particularly those of red wine, is based on hearsay and anecdotal evidence. The dissolved gas in water acts as a temporary surfactant. There is no underlying chemical reason why carbonated water would be superior to plain water in stain removal.\n",
"To wash, the emulsion is poured into a dish and the solvents are evaporated until the collodion becomes gelatinous. It is then washed with water, followed by a washing in alcohol. After washing, it is redissolved in a mixture of ether and alcohol and is then ready for use.\n",
"Red wines sometimes undergo fining, which is designed to clarify the wine and sometimes to correct faults such as excess tannin. Fining agents include egg white and gelatin. Some red wines, particularly those designed for early drinking, are cold stabilized so as to prevent the precipitation of unsightly tartrate crystals in the bottle.\n",
"BULLET::::- A solution of dishwashing liquid and water may be used to remove coffee, tea, olive oil, soda and fruit juice stains from fabrics. One dishwashing liquid brand has been used to remove stains from white or lightly-colored cloth napkins.\n",
"Most white wines are processed without destemming or crushing and are transferred from picking bins directly to the press. This is to avoid any extraction of tannin from either the skins or grapeseeds, as well as maintaining proper juice flow through a matrix of grape clusters rather than loose berries. In some circumstances winemakers choose to crush white grapes for a short period of skin contact, usually for three to 24 hours. This serves to extract flavor and tannin from the skins (the tannin being extracted to encourage protein precipitation without excessive Bentonite addition) as well as potassium ions, which participate in bitartrate precipitation (cream of tartar). It also results in an increase in the pH of the juice which may be desirable for overly acidic grapes. This was a practice more common in the 1970s than today, though still practiced by some Sauvignon blanc and Chardonnay producers in California.\n",
"Alternatively, the milk can be dried by drum drying. Milk is applied as a thin film to the surface of a heated drum, and the dried milk solids are then scraped off. However, powdered milk made this way tends to have a cooked flavour, due to caramelization caused by greater heat exposure.\n"
] |
Monday Mysteries | Ancient Ruins | One particularly bizarre (to our eyes) archaeological feature are the mosaics found in Olmec cities like *La Venta*. [Here's an example](_URL_0_). These large patterns are made from serpentine (a kind of green stone considered to be a precious mineral by Mesoamericans). The weird thing about them is that they were buried immediately after construction. To us, this seems incredibly bizarre given how valuable serpentine was to Mesoamerican cultures. It would be like paving a large plaza in silver and then immediately covering it with cement.
These days archaeologists often say these mosaics are "ritual features." Which is a fancy way of saying that we have no idea what they were for. Most likely, they weren't meant to be seen by mortals. It was probably enough that the Olmec priests *knew* the mosaic was there so that they could invoke it in some kind of religious ritual. But what exactly this ritual was and why it needed a massive hidden mosaic face made of pure serpentine is completely unknown to us. | [
"Ancient Ruins and Archaeology is a 1964 science book by L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp, one of their most popular works. It was first published by Doubleday and has been reprinted numerous times by other publishers. Paperback editions since 1972 have generally reverted to the title Citadels of Mystery, which was the de Camps' original working title. Translations into French, German and Portuguese have also appeared. Portions of the work had previously appeared as articles in the magazines \"Astounding Science Fiction\", \"Fate\", \"Frontiers\", \"Natural History Magazine\", \"Other Worlds Science Stories\", \"Science Fiction Quarterly\", and \"Travel\".\n",
"The ruins of an ancient city, whose name and history long forgotten, lie on the shores of Yath opposite from Baharna. These ruins are shunned, most likely because of the nocturnal bloodsucking creatures, known as wamps, that dwell there.\n",
"Orville Prescott, writing for the same paper, states \"[a] livelier introduction to these ruins and mysteries could not be found.\" \"The de Camps as a team write with the same breezy zest that has added flavor to Mr. de Camp's many earlier books. / All 12 chapters in \"Ancient Ruins and Archaeology\" are informative and entertaining. And many of them are unusual because of the scornful relish with which the de Camps demolish the absurd theories, fantastic fantasies and crackpot prophecies of cultists and hoaxers.\" He finds them \"expert in condensing archaeological, anthropological and historical facts. And they have the good sense to admit frequently that much of what we would like to know is still unknown.\" He questions the relevance of the chapters debunking the legends of Atlantis and King Arthur but feels the book's chief trouble is that \"[s]o much has been written recently about the pyramids, Troy and Mycenae that anyone attracted by this book has probably read other capable accounts of them.\" He concludes nonetheless that \"[a]nyone who has never read about these matters should find [the book] briskly entertaining.\"\n",
"The remains of the ancient city are of little interest as ruins, but indicate the existence of a considerable town; among them are the vestiges of an amphitheatre, a theatre, and thermae, all of them located outside the gates of the modern city. About 3km from the city, at the foot of Monte Morrone, are some ruins of reticulated masonry, traditionally believed to be Ovid's villa. Today, they are more properly identified as the sanctuary of \"Hercules Curinus\". Nearby is the \"Badia Morronese\", a large (c. 119 × 140 m) religious complex located near Pope Celestine V's hermitage. It was founded by Celestine as a chapel in 1241, and was enlarged and later made into a convent.\n",
"The remains of the ancient city are of little interest as ruins, but indicate the existence of a considerable town; among them are the vestiges of an amphitheatre, a theatre, and thermae, all of them located outside the gates of the modern city. About 3 km from the city, at the foot of Monte Morrone, are some ruins of reticulated masonry, traditionally believed to be Ovid's villa. Today, they are more properly identified as the sanctuary of \"Hercules Curinus\". Nearby is the \"Badia Morronese\", a large (c. 119 × 140 m) religious complex located near Pope Celestine V's hermitage. It was founded by Celestine as a chapel in 1241, and was enlarged and later made into a convent.\n",
"In the North of the town, at the cliff of the mountain, lie many mysterious caves which have been deserted for hundreds of years. It is believed that deep within the caves are ancient artifacts, like pottery and old ruins dating back to the Romans and the Phoenicians. No-one has ever explored these caves because of their remote location; however the ruins are believed to exist, because over 7000 years ago ancient civilizations inhabited the Levant area (including Lebanon) so that discovery wouldn’t be a surprise. About ten years ago, people from the town were doing excavation work to build a house, when they found a cave, with two old jars inside.\n",
"The work is a guide to a dozen of the more famous ruins from civilizations of ancient times throughout the world, the speculations surrounding their fates, and modern fantasy literature inspired by them. The surveyed sites include Tartessos, the Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge, Troy, Ma'rib, Zimbabwe, Tintagel, Angkor, the Mayan city of Tikal, the Inca city of Machu Picchu, Nan Matol, and the Moai of Rapa Nui.\n"
] |
how are my headphones playing a "ghost station"? | A nearby AM radio station is being picked up and rectified by the TV.
A simple AM receiver can be made with a junction of two dissimilar metals or a metal needle point on a crystal. I suspect the electronics in the TV are performing the rectification and the headphone cable is the antenna. | [
"Another ghost is that of Stan Andrews. He is often heard wheezing around the backstage corridors at night, checking on his ushers. Also, a boy's choir is said to haunt the auditorium. The choir played their last song at the St. James during World War II before sailing off on tour. Their ship was never seen again and workers at the theatre often hear their music in the stands. However, when they investigate the sound, it moves to a separate part of the seats.\n",
"When asked, the receptionist tells them the source of the sound from the neighboring room is a ghost. The manager says it is not a ghost, but a thief. Frightened at their gestures, Sudheer and Rani try to get out of the resort, but the manager, receptionist, and servant (Brahmaji) hold them captive and keep Rani in room 9 - the same room as the one with the ghost. However, Sudheer and Rani manage to escape from them but are trapped in the same building. The three men at the resort are actually kidnappers working for a don Munna Bhai. They have kidnapped a businessman Narayana Murthy (Brahmanandam) and locked him up in room number 9. To solve the kidnap mystery, cops Shiva (Lakshmi Manchu) and Richard (Sunil) arrive at the resort feigning to convey the message that Munna has been arrested. What ensues now is a game of hide and seek as Sudheer, Rani and Narayana are now on the run. Finally, a cop-on-duty (Prakash Raj) arrives to arrest \"The Mutha\", later revealing himself to be Munna.\n",
"On June 5, 2018, Cudi's manager Dennis Cummings announced a listening party for \"Kids See Ghosts\" in Los Angeles via Twitter, which was to be conducted a day prior to release. The live stream of the album's listening party was intended to take place through the WAV app at 11 pm EST, but after a series of unexplained delays and much fan frustration, the live stream did not start until 1:50 am EST on June 8. It was unknown whether the live stream being delayed was because of a technical issue or Kids See Ghosts showing up late. The listening party was held by a bonfire at a secret location in Southern California, with Kids See Ghosts showcasing their merchandise at the party. Attendees of the listening party included the Kardashian-Jenner clan, Quentin Miller of American hip hop duo WDNG Crshrs, American rapper and singer Desiigner, and Trinidadian-American rapper Trinidad James. No music videos were released for \"Kids See Ghosts\" or \"Ye\". Kids See Ghosts made their live debut at the 2018 Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, performing for 45 minutes inside a rectangular glass box that was floating above the stage. The duo delivered a full performance of \"Kids See Ghosts\", performing the tracks in the order they were released on the album, and also performed a number of past collaborations, including \"Welcome to Heartbreak\" and \"Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1\". West forgot several lyrics from his verses on \"Reborn\" and \"Cudi Montage\". Kids See Ghosts performed live together at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, with the duo beginning their performance with the album's opener \"Feel the Love\". They also delivered performances of \"Reborn\", \"Freeee (Ghost Town, Pt. 2)\", \"Ghost Town\" and \"Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1\" at the festival. On April 12, Canadian-Australian musician Nicole Millar performed an altered cover version of \"Reborn\" with an entourage of instrumentalists and back up singers as part of triple j's weekly segment Like a Version.\n",
"On the right-hand side of the phone there are three keys - two for controlling volume (when in audio mode), skipping through tracks in the Media Player and zooming in and out when in camera mode after the photograph has been taken. The included handsfree headset is also required to listen to the radio since it functions as the antenna.\n",
"BULLET::::- Ghostbusters—Scott invites listeners who have been \"ghosted\" to get in touch, and share their experience. Scott or Chris will then attempt to contact the \"ghost\" (person who ghosted the listener) and obtain an explanation for their sudden disappearance. Often, ghosts are unwilling to appear on-air although some offer explanations.\n",
"The music video to \"Somebody's Watching Me\" (which uses the radio edit instead of the album version) underscores the song's paranoid tone with a haunted house-inspired theme, including imagery of floating heads, ravens, graveyards, and shower scenes referencing \"Psycho\".\n",
"In the professional audio sector, headphones are used in live situations by disc jockeys with a DJ mixer, and sound engineers for monitoring signal sources. In radio studios, DJs use a pair of headphones when talking to the microphone while the speakers are turned off to eliminate acoustic feedback while monitoring their own voice. In studio recordings, musicians and singers use headphones to play or sing along to a backing track or band. In military applications, audio signals of many varieties are monitored using headphones.\n"
] |
when using my smartphone camera why is video darker than photos for a given light level? | Exposure time.
When you take a still-shot, the camera can pause to take in a large amount of light - after all, nobody is moving around much (hopefully) and there's no rush to get another shot in within the next few ms.
When you're taking a video, however, the camera has at most 30 ms to take in light for each frame. So if the light level is low, it can't wait longer for more light, and it has to export what it's gotten so far and start taking in light for the next frame. | [
"The camera on the iPhone 5 reportedly shows purple haze when the light source is just out of frame, although Consumer Reports said it \"is no more prone to purple hazing on photos shot into a bright light source than its predecessor or than several Android phones with fine cameras...\"\n",
"There is a flash on the Behold's camera but it is only useful when taking photos at a closer range (around three feet). As for the video application, users were dissatisfied with the quality of the footage taken because the highest quality of the videos could only be 320 X 240. Users felt that there were very few options for the video application and that the sound the videos produced were very low and users had to listen very closely to hear the sound. Mostly, this 5.0 pixel camera phone works just as well as a normal camera.\n",
"There are various options and filters available when taking photos or recording video. In addition to the \"Normal\" mode, there is a \"Low-Light\" option, which is useful when taking photos and recording video in dark lighting conditions. Other options include manual controls such as the color type (normal, black and white, sepia, negative or solarize), sharpness, contrast and brightness. Real-time photo filters are also available including \"Sparkle\", which adds moving stars to the photo, \"Dream\", which adds a dream-like bright light to the photo, \"Pinhole\", which lightens the center of the screen and darkens the edges and \"Mystery\", which adds a random finish to the photo. There is also a special mode called \"Merge\", which takes a photo of the user facing the inner camera and merges the photo from someone facing the outer cameras.\n",
"BULLET::::- LC shutter glasses are shutting out light half of the time; moreover, they are slightly dark even when letting light through, because they are polarized. This gives an effect similar to watching TV with sunglasses on, which causes a darker picture to be perceived by the viewer. However, this effect can produce a higher perceived display contrast when paired with LCDs because of the reduction in backlight bleed. Since the glasses also darken the background, contrast is enhanced when using a brighter image.\n",
"With the rapid growth of handheld phones with integrated digital cameras (and fast shutters) the phone's camera video will often reveal alternating frames of the public and secret images. This effectively breaks the privacy capability of the system.\n",
"Another challenge for bluescreen or greenscreen is proper camera exposure. Underexposing or overexposing a colored backdrop can lead to poor saturation levels. In the case of video cameras, underexposed images can contain high amounts of noise, as well. The background must be bright enough to allow the camera to create a bright and saturated image.\n",
"The one megapixel camera offers a resolution of 1152x864 pixels, video (QCIF). The night mode on the camera allows you to still take photos in dim light. There is an attached flash with the camera but mainly consists of a light that turns on while the photo is being taken offering help only for targets that are close. There is a small reflective surface next to the lens that acts as a mirror when taking self-photos.\n"
] |
what happens to the human body that makes it feel like cold isn't cold? | Your body can't actually sense temperature. It feels heat being absorbed or lost. So when you are losing heat your body tells you that your surroundings are cold. The more heat you lose the more you perceive your surroundings as being cold. Also, the greater the temperature differential between two things, the faster heat flows from one to the other.
You are asking about how you can feel cold in a cold temperature but then ok in that same temperature later (when you have adjusted).
This is the same thing as getting into a cold swimming pool: freezing at first but fine after you've been in it for a while. Your body adjusts by constricting blood flow in the extremities, so your skin is colder than your insides. When your skin was hotter there was a greater heat loss and you perceived it to be colder. When your skin was colder there was a smaller heat loss and your body tells you that means your surroundings are warmer (when it's really that your skin is colder). | [
"Cold has numerous physiological and pathological effects on the human body, as well as on other organisms. Cold environments may promote certain psychological traits, as well as having direct effects on the ability to move. Shivering is one of the first physiological responses to cold. Extreme cold temperatures may lead to frostbite, sepsis, and hypothermia, which in turn may result in death.\n",
"In hypothermia, body temperature drops below that required for normal metabolism and bodily functions. In humans, this is usually due to excessive exposure to cold air or water, but it can be deliberately induced as a medical treatment. Symptoms usually appear when the body's core temperature drops by below normal temperature.\n",
"The common cold, also known simply as a cold, is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract that primarily affects the nose. The throat, sinuses, and larynx may also be affected. Signs and symptoms may appear less than two days after exposure to the virus. These may include coughing, sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, headache, and fever. People usually recover in seven to ten days, but some symptoms may last up to three weeks. Occasionally those with other health problems may develop pneumonia.\n",
"One explanation for the effect is a cold-induced malfunction of the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that regulates body temperature. Another explanation is that the muscles contracting peripheral blood vessels become exhausted (known as a loss of vasomotor tone) and relax, leading to a sudden surge of blood (and heat) to the extremities, causing the person to feel overheated.\n",
"ColD is a PLP-dependent enzyme responsible for the removal of the C-3' hydroxyl group during the biosynthesis of GDP-colitose. It is a product of the \"Wbdk\" or \"ColD\" genes in \"Escherichia coli\" O55 or \"Salmonella enterica\", respectively, and is commonly referred to as ColD.\n",
"The last part of the body to become cold is the top of the head (posterior fontanelle). In Buddhist teaching, souls who enter the Pure Land leave the body through the fontanelle at the top of the skull. Hence, this part of the body stays warmer longer than the rest of the body. The \"Verses on the Structure of the Eight Consciousnesses\" (), reads: \"to birth in saints the last body temperature in top of head, to deva in eyes, to human in heart, to hungry ghosts in belly, to animals in knee cap, to the hells-realm in sole of feet.\" See also: \"phowa\".\n",
"The human body has two methods of thermogenesis, which produces heat to raise the core body temperature. The first is shivering, which occurs in an unclothed person when the ambient air temperature is under 25 °C (77 °F). It is limited by the amount of glycogen available in the body. The second is non-shivering, which occurs in brown adipose tissue.\n"
] |
music equalization (as it pertains to mixing)- what's the deal? | Boosting = making a certain range of sound frequencies louder
Cutting = making a certain range of sound frequencies quieter
I'll post sample pictures in a bit.
EDIT: Here is an [example](_URL_0_).
So for me, I make hip-hop beats. When I'm making beats from sampling + chopping, I always cut the low / bass frequencies off of my samples for two reasons
1. I use other samples for bass, in which I boost the low / bass frequencies and cut out every other frequency
2. Like you said, without EQing while having multiple sources of sounds, it will sound cluttered. In my experience, when two or three of your sound sources have low frequencies which are too loud, it gives a crappy sound.
When I use synth leads, I commonly cut / lower some of the higher frequencies to make it blend better. But I pretty much cut the bass out of every track / synth / sample except for one track, which I used exclusively for bass.
Of course, with EQing, just experiment what works best for you. That's how I've learned and developed my own methods of blending different samples and basses. | [
"Equalization is used in a reciprocal manner in certain communication channels and recording technologies. The original music is passed through a particular filter to alter its frequency balance, followed by the channel or recording process. At the end of the channel or when the recording is played, a complementary filter is inserted which precisely compensates for the original filter and recovers the original waveform. For instance, FM broadcast uses a pre-emphasis filter to boost the high frequencies before transmission, and every receiver includes a matching de-emphasis filter to restore it. The white noise that is introduced by the radio is then also de-emphasized at the higher frequencies (where it is most noticeable) along with the pre-emphasized program, making the noise less audible. Tape recorders used the same trick to reduce \"tape hiss\" while maintaining fidelity. On the other hand, in the production of vinyl records, a filter is used to reduce the amplitude of low frequencies which otherwise produce large amplitudes on the tracks of a record. Then the groove can take up less physical space, fitting more music on the record. The preamp attached to the phono cartridge has a complementary filter boosting those low frequencies following the standard RIAA equalization curve.\n",
"Equalization is commonly used to increase the 'depth' of a mix, creating the impression that some sounds in a mono or stereo mix are farther or closer than others, relatively. Equalization is also commonly used to give tracks with similar frequency components complementary spectral contours, known as mirrored equalization. Select components of parts which would otherwise compete, such as bass guitar and kick drum, are boosted in one part and cut in the other, and vice versa, so that they both stand out.\n",
"Mixed music is music combining acoustic instruments and fixed-media electronics (e.g \"concrete\" sounds, sound-file playback etc) or more generally, music which combines acoustic-instrumental and electronic sounds sources (to the exclusion of electrically amplified instruments, such as the electric guitar and electronic instruments such as the theremin, electronic organs & keyboards, etc); mixed music is therefore a subcategory of electronic music. While this term could be applied to many genres, the term \"mixed music\" generally refers to contemporary classical music repertoire and is therefore distinct from live electronic music.\n",
"In sound recording and reproduction, equalization is the process commonly used to alter the frequency response of an audio system using linear filters. Most hi-fi equipment uses relatively simple filters to make bass and treble adjustments. Graphic and parametric equalizers have much more flexibility in tailoring the frequency content of an audio signal. Since equalizers \"adjust the amplitude of audio signals at particular frequencies,\" they are, \"in other words, frequency-specific volume knobs.\"\n",
"To set up the equalization for a concert or other performance in a venue, a short burst of white or pink noise is sent through the PA system and monitored from various points in the venue so that the engineer can tell if the acoustics of the building naturally boost or cut any frequencies. The engineer can then adjust the overall equalization to ensure a balanced mix.\n",
"In sound recording, equalization is used to improve an instrument's sound or make certain instruments and sounds more prominent. For example, a recording engineer may use an equalizer to make some high-pitches in a vocal part louder while making low-pitches in a drum part quieter.\n",
"Music can be described and represented in many different ways including sheet music, symbolic representations, and audio recordings. For each of these representations, there may exist different versions that correspond to the same musical work. The general goal of music alignment (sometimes also referred to as music synchronization) is to automatically link the various data streams, thus interrelating the multiple information sets related to a given musical work. More precisely, music alignment is taken to mean a procedure which, for a given position in one representation of a piece of music, determines the corresponding position within another representation. In the figure on the right, such an alignment is visualized by the red bidirectional arrows. Such synchronization results form the basis for novel interfaces that allow users to access, search, and browse musical content in a convenient way.\n"
] |
A balloon filled with helium goes in the opposite direction of earth's gravity. Not only does it overcome the force, but it also travels up. What would happen to a balloon in deep space? Would the helium stay put or would the balloon split and the helium go in all directions? | It is not fighting gravity. It is just lighter than the air around it. The air is pushing it up, much like air bubbles rise in water.
Space is a vacuum, so it depends on it's initial course. If the helium escaped Earth's atmosphere it would not keep 'rising'. Earth's gravity would still pull it.
But in a zero G vacuum it would travel (or be stationary) until something else acted upon it. | [
"Fully inflated, a balloon of this size would contain just over of helium. Helium's lift capacity at sea level and 0 °C is 1.113 kg/m (0.07 lbs/ft) and decreases at higher altitudes and at higher temperatures. The volume of helium in the balloon has been estimated as being able to lift a total load, including the balloon material and the structure beneath it, of at sea level and at .\n",
"The balloon is usually filled with hydrogen due to lower cost, though helium can also be used. The ascent rate can be controlled by the amount of gas with which the balloon is filled. Weather balloons may reach altitudes of 40 km (25 miles) or more, limited by diminishing pressures causing the balloon to expand to such a degree (typically by a 100:1 factor) that it disintegrates. In this instance the instrument package is usually lost. Above that altitude sounding rockets are used, and for even higher altitudes satellites are used.\n",
"A common helium-filled toy balloon is something familiar to many. When such a balloon is fully filled with helium, it has buoyancy—a force that opposes gravity. When a toy balloon becomes partially deflated, it often becomes neutrally buoyant and can float about the house a meter or two off the floor. In such a state, there are moments when the balloon is neither rising nor falling and—in the sense that a scale placed under it has no force applied to it—is, in a sense perfectly weightless (actually as noted below, weight has merely been redistributed along the Earth's surface so it cannot be measured). Though the rubber comprising the balloon has a mass of only a few grams, which might be almost unnoticeable, the rubber still retains all its mass when inflated.\n",
"Since the volume of the balloon is more constrained, so is the volume of air displaced by it. In accordance with the Principle of Archimedes, the upwards force on the balloon is equal to the weight of the displaced ambient gas. But the weight of the atmospheric gas is reduced as the balloon rises, because its density diminishes with increasing altitude. So the force pushing the balloon upwards diminishes with altitude and at some particular altitude, the upwards force will equal the weight of the balloon. As a result, the balloon will be stable in a finite equilibrium altitude range for long periods.\n",
"The balloons are zero pressure difference balloons, and are vented at the bottom. They are only partially inflated when launched, and as they rise up, the lower atmospheric pressure causes them to fully inflate.\n",
"Balloons can be incorporated to keep systems up without wind, but balloons leak slowly and have to be resupplied with lifting gas, possibly patched as well. Very large, sun-heated balloons may solve the helium or hydrogen leakage problems.\n",
"A balloon is a bag filled with a gas with a lower density than the surrounding air to provide buoyancy. The gas may be hot air, hydrogen or helium. The use of buoyant gases is unknown in the natural world.\n"
] |
how do fossils of an action or event get made? | That's not a "stone" type of [fossil](_URL_3_) but insects trapped in amber which is a [fossil resin ](_URL_2_).
The insects got trapped in the [resin](_URL_0_) from a tree and that kept them intact over the ages when it turned into amber.
[_URL_4_ article on the find](_URL_1_). | [
"Over geological time since, the rock was pushed so deep that heat and pressure hardened it much, before it came again to the surface. As a result, a common way to look for fossils in it was to break each lump with a sledgehammer, and after each blow to examine all new broken surfaces for cross-sections of bone. Any pieces that showed bone were sent to the laboratory to extract the bone by careful preparation.\n",
"As soon as the slab bearing the fossil is worked free from the rock, it is submerged in water to stop it from cracking. This involves packing it in plastic and sometimes wet newspaper. While in the wet state, it is cleaned up and all preparation needed for the transfer conducted.\n",
"Fossils must be cleaned before they are able to be revived. The player uses either a hammer or a chisel, each with different strengths and weaknesses, in a cleaning minigame using the DS touchscreen to remove the surrounding rock.The minigame has a ninety-second time limit as well as a meter to show how much the fossil is damaged. Two new types of fossil rock are added from the previous game. Giant fossil rocks contain all four fossils for a particular vivosaur in one complete skeleton. The other are odd fossil rocks which have two sides, allowing the player to flip between them while cleaning.\n",
"As the major piece of rock containing the fossil was being lifted out, it broke under its own weight into several pieces. Museum staff salvaged the specimen by wrapping and stabilizing the pieces in plaster, after which they were able to successfully transport them to the Royal Tyrell Museum. There, technician Mark Mitchell spent five years removing the adhering rock and preparing the fossil for study, which was sponsored by the National Geographic Society. The species \"B. markmitchelli\" was named for him in recognition of his skilled work. The specimen was put on public exhibit on May 12, 2017, as part of the Royal Tyrrell Museum's \"Grounds for Discovery\" exhibition, along with other specimens discovered via industrial activity.\n",
"A piece of a dinosaur fossil is surrounded by eggs, and you must shoot matching eggs to break the piece free and add it to a collection of completed fossils. There are 15 fossils, each having three fragments, for a total of 45 levels in this mode. Like Endless Puzzle, if the eggs and fossil piece reach the bottom of the screen, Mama Bronto will crush the screen and the game is over.\n",
"Fossils tend to be very fragile and are generally not extracted entirely from the surrounding rock (the matrix) in the field. Cloth, cotton, small boxes and aluminum foil are frequently used to protect fossils being transported. Occasionally, large fragile specimens may need to be protected and supported using a jacket of plaster before their removal from the rock. If a fossil is to be left in situ, a cast may be produced, using plaster of paris or latex. Whilst not preserving every detail, such a cast is inexpensive, easier to transport, causes less damage to the environment, and leaves the fossil in place for others to enjoy. Fossilized tracks are frequently documented with casts. Subtle fossils which are preserved solely as impressions in sandy layers, such as the Ediacaran fossils, are also usually documented by means of a cast, which shows detail more clearly than the rock itself.\n",
"Part Three of \"Fossils\" is entitled \"And What Remains.\" It is the most traditional narrative of the three parts of the film, and tells the story about a couple who slowly drift apart as they become absorbed into each of their life's passions, one being a botanist and the other being a painter. This part consists of the last three songs on the \"Fossils\" album: \"Let it be Gone,\" the title song \"Fossils,\" and \"Didn't Know Love.\" Wildman loosely based \"And What Remains\" on her own relationship, she being the artist and her partner a scientist. She also had the pleasure of working with worms for the first time on the set of the film.\n"
] |
After we get a cut, I read that our blood vessels have to grow back at the site of the wound. Do the blood vessels always grow back in the same pattern as before, or can they grow back in a different way? | When you cut your finger your body tries to fill the wound with a mixture of totally random capillaries and collagen-rich fibrous tissue. Later, most of the capillaries will die back and the wound will contract and turn white. [Vastly more on this here](_URL_0_) starting with the angiogenesis section.
You can grow larger vessels too. A developing fetus or [a tumor](_URL_2_) will demand huge amounts of oxygen, and your body will attempt to deliver it. Sometimes [angiogenesis just goes berserk](_URL_1_) for little to no reason and starts trying to grow out of your body in a weird little red mass.
Generally speaking, your body merely tries to roughly glue you back together in the hopes that you will survive long enough to reproduce. Precision repairs are not a skill mammals have. | [
"Because the walls of the blood vessels are firmly attached to the fibrous tissue of the superficial fascial layer, cut ends of vessels here do not readily retract; even a small scalp wound may bleed profusely.\n",
"It has been hypothesized that, during both wound healing of normal tissues and tumor development, the action of heparan sulfate-degrading enzymes activates bFGF, thus mediating the formation of new blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis.\n",
"Each method involves carefully cutting and sealing off smaller blood vessels that branch off the main vessel conduit prior to removal from the body. This practice does not harm the remaining blood vessel network, which heals and maintains sufficient blood flow to the extremities, allowing the patient to return to normal function without noticeable effects.\n",
"During the maturation phase of wound healing, unnecessary vessels formed in granulation tissue are removed by apoptosis, and type III collagen is largely replaced by type I. Collagen which was originally disorganized is cross-linked and aligned along tension lines. This phase can last a year or longer. Ultimately a scar made of collagen, containing a small number of fibroblasts is left.\n",
"When a normal wound heals, the body produces new collagen fibres at a rate which balances the breakdown of old collagen. Hypertrophic scars are red and thick and may be itchy or painful. They do not extend beyond the boundary of the original wound, but may continue to thicken for up to six months. They usually improve over one or two years, but may cause distress due to their appearance or the intensity of the itching; they can also restrict movement if they are located close to a joint.\n",
"The natural process of healing a fracture starts when the injured bone and surrounding tissues bleed, forming a fracture hematoma. The blood coagulates to form a blood clot situated between the broken fragments. Within a few days, blood vessels grow into the jelly-like matrix of the blood clot. The new blood vessels bring phagocytes to the area, which gradually removes the non-viable material. The blood vessels also bring fibroblasts in the walls of the vessels and these multiply and produce collagen fibres. In this way, the blood clot is replaced by a matrix of collagen. Collagen's rubbery consistency allows bone fragments to move only a small amount unless severe or persistent force is applied.\n",
"The chance of further bleeding reduces as healing progresses, and is unlikely after 24 hours. If bleeding occurs beyond 8 –12 hours, it is referred as post-extraction bleeding. The blood clot is covered by epithelial cells which proliferate from the gingival mucosa of socket margins, taking about 10 days to fully cover the defect. In the clot, neutrophils and macrophages are involved as an inflammatory response takes place. The proliferative and synthesizing phase next occurs, characterized by proliferation of osteogenic cells from the adjacent bone marrow in the alveolar bone. Bone formation starts after about 10 days from when the tooth was extracted. After 10–12 weeks, the outline of the socket is no longer apparent on an X-ray image. Bone remodeling as the alveolus adapts to the edentulous state occurs in the longer term as the alveolar process slowly resorbs. In maxillary posterior teeth, the degree of pneumatization of the maxillary sinus may also increase as the antral floor remodels.\n"
] |
why does metal heat up so much when crushed under a hydraulic press? | Almost every metal is made up of crystals - ordered arrangements of atoms. Some metals are made of very small crystals, some are made of large crystals, and some very special metal parts can be made of a single crystal. These crystals aren't perfect - they have little atom-sized holes in them, and atoms stuck where they aren't supposed to be.
When you permanently change the shape of a piece of metal, the way it actually changes shape at an atomic level is that the holes and the misplaced atoms are forced to move around. A huge number of these holes and misplaced atoms moving around makes up the change in shape you see. But just like almost everything else, when you move these holes around, they are opposed by friction. Most of the work you put into changing the shape of the metal doesn't actually change its shape - instead, it's used to move against friction, and is wasted. That work gets converted into heat. | [
"In this process molten metal is poured in the mold and allowed to solidify while the mold is rotating. Metal is poured into the center of the mold at its axis of rotation. Due to centrifugal force the liquid metal is thrown out towards the periphery.\n",
"Metallic yielding dampers, as the name implies, yield in order to absorb the earthquake's energy. This type of damper absorbs a large amount of energy however they must be replaced after an earthquake and may prevent the building from settling back to its original position.\n",
"If steam curing is applied to the concrete, the heat in the curing process causes the plastic to expand while the concrete is relatively fresh and weak. After reaching the maximum curing temperature and volume expansion of the plastic, the temperature is held at this level until the concrete reaches the desired strength. After curing, the subsequent lower temperatures cause the plastic to contract, and a gap remains at the interface between the plastic and concrete.\n",
"BULLET::::- Rapid heating (or cooling) may cause uneven thermal expansion putting too much mechanical stress on the surface and cause it to fracture. Fracturing is a concern when people new to laboratory become impatient and heat glassware, especially the larger pieces, too fast. Heating of glassware should be slowed using an insulating material, such as metal foil or wool, or specialized equipment such as heated baths, heating mantles or laboratory grade hot plates to avoid fracturing.\n",
"This technique is more metal efficient than traditional pouring because less material solidifies in the gating system. Gravity pouring only has a 15 to 50% metal yield compared to 60 to 95% for counter-gravity pouring. There is also less turbulence, so the gating system can be simplified since it does not have to control turbulence. The metal is drawn from below the top of the pool, so the metal is free from dross and slag (which are lower density (lighter) and float to the top of the pool). The pressure differential helps the metal flow into every intricacy of the mold. Finally, lower temperatures can be used, which improves the grain structure.\n",
"Unlike hot working, cold working causes the crystal grains and inclusions to distort following the flow of the metal; which may cause work hardening and anisotropic material properties. Work hardening makes the metal harder, stiffer, and stronger, but less plastic, and may cause cracks of the piece.\n",
"When liquid metal is subjected to high pressure, as during die casting, liquid metal may be forced through the oxide film. This phenomenon is able to partially bond the two facing oxide surfaces, thus reducing the severity of the defect.\n"
] |
french politics and law | Please be more specific? Political parties or how politics work? All the laws would be challenging... do you have something in mind? | [
"French law is divided into two principal areas: private law and public law. Private law includes, in particular, civil law and criminal law. Public law includes, in particular, administrative law and constitutional law. However, in practical terms, French law comprises three principal areas of law: civil law, criminal law, and administrative law. Criminal laws can only address the future and not the past (criminal \"ex post facto\" laws are prohibited). While administrative law is often a subcategory of civil law in many countries, it is completely separated in France and each body of law is headed by a specific supreme court: ordinary courts (which handle criminal and civil litigation) are headed by the Court of Cassation and administrative courts are headed by the Council of State.\n",
"The politics of France take place with the framework of a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the French Fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an \"indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic\". The constitution provides for a separation of powers and proclaims France's \"attachment to the Rights of Man and the principles of national sovereignty as defined by the Declaration of 1789.\"\n",
"French law provides for a separate judicial branch with an independent judiciary which does not answer to or is directly controlled by the other two branches of government. France has a civil law legal system, the basis of which is codified law; however, case law plays a significant role in the determination of the courts. The most distinctive feature of the French judicial system is that it is divided into judicial and administrative streams.\n",
"France is a representative democracy. Public officials in the legislative and executive branches are either elected by the citizens (directly or indirectly) or appointed by elected officials. Referendums may also be called to consult the French citizenry directly on a particular question, especially one which concerns amendment to the Constitution.\n",
"The French Parliament, as a legislative body, should not be confused with the various parlements of the Ancien Régime in France, which were courts of justice and tribunals with certain political functions varying from province to province and as to whether the local law was written and Roman, or customary common law.\n",
"In academic terms, French law can be divided into two main categories: private law (\"droit privé\") and public law (\"droit public\"). This differs from the traditional common law concepts in which the main distinction is between criminal law and civil law.\n",
"France’s criminal legal system derived from Roman law is typically characterized by the European continent. It is not only a feudal system in the Middle Age, but also a representative of the civil law system. France is committed to the judicial system which was gradually established after the Revolution of French in the late 18th century. It is a significant system to safeguard bourgeois dictatorship and capitalist ownership. From beginning of the 19th century to nowadays, Napoleon codified a series of significant rules and established the common court system, administrative court system as well as independent judicial system which formed a unified modern judicial system.\n"
] |
who started 'high-5s' and are they universal? | [Check out this Radio Lab podcast](_URL_0_), where they ask and attempt to answer this very question. Unfortunately, I can't find a transcript, but they refer to an ESPN article called [History of the high five](_URL_1_) which might also be interesting. | [
"High 5 was founded in 1993, as a collaboration between staff of the American Symphony Orchestra (Eugene Carr and Kathleen Drohan), the New York Times (Jeanne Shanley and Sharon Yakata), and Ticketmaster (Marla Hoicowitz and Connie Fitzgerald). In 1995, High 5 appointed its first full-time executive director, Ada Ciniglio, and was incorporated as a non-profit organization. In the late 1990s, it founded the Take 5 program, in which an adult can take five teenagers to a performance, the adult's ticket being free. In 2006, High 5 sold its 105,000 tickets.\n",
"Fives is a small sport played by groups and enthusiasts numbering perhaps 4,000 active adult players in the United Kingdom and there are a number of Old Boys' and university clubs which tend to be concentrated around the South East. There are of course many other clubs around the country including Midlands clubs such as bedford, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Rugby, Repton and Shrewsbury.\n",
"High Five is a collaborative effort to create a national identity for Columbus, Ohio, by linking the five most distinct districts along five miles of historic High Street including the University District, the Arena District, The Short North, Downtown, and German Village. The High Five includes over 150 restaurants, 200 shops, 40 art galleries and 50 event venues, and extends north to Arcadia Street and south to Thurman Avenue. It is one of the only locations in the nation in which such a distinct variety of neighborhoods can be found in such a close vicinity.\n",
"This story regarding the origin of the high five can be found in the written news as early as September 1982 and is featured in the ESPN \"30 for 30\" film \"The High Five\" directed by Michael Jacobs. After retiring from baseball, Burke, who was one of the first openly gay professional athletes, used the high five with other gay residents of the Castro district of San Francisco, where for many it became a symbol of gay pride and identification.\n",
"There are many origin stories of the high five, but the two most documented candidates are Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke of the Los Angeles Dodgers professional baseball team on October 2, 1977, and Wiley Brown and Derek Smith of the Louisville Cardinals men's college basketball team during the 1978–1979 season.\n",
"Five (stylised as 5ive) are a British boy band from London consisting of members Sean Conlon, Ritchie Neville, and Scott Robinson. They were formed in 1997 by the same team that managed the Spice Girls before they launched their career. The group were mostly known as a five-piece, consisting of Robinson, Neville, Conlon, Abz Love and Jason \"J\" Brown. Five enjoyed remarkable success worldwide, particularly in their native United Kingdom, as well as most of the rest of Europe and Asia. \n",
"Highlights High Five is a younger children's counterpart to \"Highlights\", first published with the January 2007 issue. This children's magazine is for preschoolers ages two through six. The goal of High Five is to help children develop and to give parent and child a fun and meaningful activity to do together each month. Every issue is 40 pages and includes poems and stories, crafts, easy recipes, games, puzzles and other activities that encourage children to be lifelong learners.\n"
] |
To what extent did resistance groups in WWII fight each other? | I am familiar in detail only with Yugoslav resistance groups. The two main resistance groups, Chetniks and communist partisans waged a civil war parallel with the war against occupying and quisling forces. Far from just occasional skirmishes this civil war in many ways determined the strategy of both, to the extent that Chetniks mostly turned collaborators as early as 1942 and almost completely by 1943 and stopped really being the resistance group. Partisans, while not turning to collaboration considered Chetniks their main rival for post-war power and acted accordingly. | [
"Resistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation to propaganda to hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. In many countries, resistance movements were sometimes also referred to as The Underground.\n",
"It is customary to distinguish the various organisations of the French Resistance between movements and networks. A resistance group or network was an organization created for a specific military purpose (intelligence, sabotage, helping prisoners of war escape and preventing shot-down pilots from falling into the hands of the Germans). In contrast, the main goal of a resistance movement was to educate and organize the population.\n",
"\"The Resistance\" never existed as a unified entity, instead resistance was constituted into several separate Resistance organisations. The war did not unify the country any more than it had been previously, although more people became conscious of their national identity, and several collective victories, such as the strike of 1942 and the failed referendum of 1941 proved that cooperation was possible. The Resistance was above all a regional phenomenon: each organisation had its geographical base, and none operated across the whole country.\n",
"There were also resistance movements fighting against the Allied invaders. In Italian East Africa, after the Italian forces were defeated during the East African Campaign, some Italians participated in a guerrilla war against the British (1941–1943). The German Nazi resistance movement (\"Werwolf\") never amounted to much. The \"Forest Brothers\" of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania included many fighters who operated against the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States into the 1960s. During or after the war, similar anti-Soviet resistance rose up in places like Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Chechnya. While the Japanese were famous for \"fighting to the last man\", Japanese holdouts tended to be individually motivated and there is little indication that there was any organized Japanese resistance after the war.\n",
"The resistance was never a single group; numerous groups evolved divided by political affiliation, geography or specialisation. The danger of infiltration posed by German informants meant that some groups were extremely small and localised, and although nationwide groups did exist, they were split along political and ideological lines. They ranged from the far left, such as the Communist or Socialist , to the far-right, such as the monarchist and the , which had been created by members of the pre-war Fascist movement. Some, such as , had no obvious political affiliation, but specialised in particular types of resistance activity and recruited only from very specific demographics.\n",
"After World War II thousands of resistance fighters (including former members of the pre-World War II Aizsargi and 19th Latvian Waffen SS division) participated in unsuccessful guerrilla warfare against the Soviet regime. Most of the armed resistance was suppressed by 1952.\n",
"Two major Résistance groups adopted the name during the German occupation of France during the Second World War. The first to be established was the \"Franc-Tireur\" group founded in Lyon in 1940. The second was the (FTP, Partisan irregular riflemen), which were established as the military branch of the French Communist Party (PCF). They only became active in the resistance after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.\n"
] |
What differences, if any, were there between Soviet and Western (American, British, French) tactics in countering Blitzkrieg tactics in WW2? | Follow up. Was Blitzkrieg even a real German doctrine in WW2? | [
"During the 1930s, the resurgence of the German military in the era of the \"Third Reich\" saw German innovations in the tactical arena. The methodology used by the Germans in the Second World War was named \"\"Blitzkrieg\"\". There is a common misconception that \"Blitzkrieg\", which is not accepted as a coherent military doctrine, was similar to Soviet deep operations. The only similarities of the two doctrines were an emphasis on mobile warfare and offensive posture. While the two similarities differentiate the doctrines from French and British doctrine at the time, the two were considerably different. While \"Blitzkrieg\" emphasized the importance of a single strike on a \"Schwerpunkt\" (focal point) as a means of rapidly defeating an enemy, Deep Battle emphasized the need for multiple breakthrough points and reserves to exploit the breach quickly. The difference in doctrine can be explained by the strategic circumstances for the USSR and Germany at the time. Germany had a smaller population but a better trained army whereas the Soviet Union had a larger population but a more poorly trained army. As a result, the \"Blitzkrieg\" emphasized narrow front attacks where quality could be decisive, while Deep Battle emphasized wider front attacks where quantity could be used effectively.\n",
"Perhaps the most controversial aspect of strategy in World War I was the difference among the British between the \"Western\" viewpoint (held by Field Marshal Haig) and the \"Eastern\"; the former being that all effort should be directed against the German Army, the latter that more useful work could be done by attacking Germany's allies. The term \"Knocking away the props\" was used, perhaps as an unfortunate consequence of the fact that all of Germany's allies lay south of (i.e. 'beneath') her on the map. Apologists and defenders of the Western viewpoint make the valid point that Germany's allies were more than once rescued from disaster or rendered capable of holding their own or making substantial gains by the provision of German troops, arms or military advisers, whereas those allies did not at any time provide a similar function for Germany. That is, it was Germany which was the prop, and her allies (particularly Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary) did not suffer significant reverses until Germany's ability to come to their aid was grossly impaired.\n",
"BULLET::::- Blitzkrieg – lightning war; quick army invasions aided by tanks and airplanes. A form of attack generally associated with the German armed forces during the Second World War. \"Blitzkrieg\" tactics were particularly effective in the early German campaigns against Poland, France, and the Soviet Union.\n",
"The Pakfront was a defensive military tactic developed by the German forces on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. It was named after the phonetic pronunciation of the acronym nomenclature for German towed anti-tank guns, PaK (\"PanzerabwehrKanone\", \"tank defense cannon\"). The Soviets soon copied the tactic, and used it to great effect at the Battle of Kursk in July 1943.\n",
"The tactic was found to be extremely effective, and soon the Soviets had copied it, often using multiple \"pakfront\"s in co-operation with minefields, anti-tank ditches, and other obstacles to channel the enemy armour into their fields of fire. The size and efficiency of such defenses directly proportional to the amount of time granted with one report commenting it not uncommon of the Red Army to lay 30,000 mines in a sector within two or three days. Since the 1930s Soviet doctrine had been to employ large numbers of anti-tank guns in areas but the German tactic enabled them to better exploit their numbers as well as Russian expertise in camouflage. A German tank commander commenting that minefields and pakfronts could not be detected until the trap was sprung. Mines protecting pakfronts were particularly effective due to German lack of specialized mine clearing vehicles.\n",
"In the early battles of Second World War, German forces had gained notoriety for the rapid and successful invasions of Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, and the Soviet Union, in 1939–41. Although the early-war Panzer II, III, and IV were clearly inferior to some of their French and Soviet counterparts, this blitzkrieg (‘lightning warfare’) was made possible by several factors: the German military experience in World War I, their excellent training, integrated communications, coordinated use of airpower, and, perhaps most famously, by the combined-arms employment of integrated infantry and armoured forces, the panzer divisions of the Germany Army and Waffen-SS.\n",
"German encirclement and annihilation tactics in the Second World War, with their rapid advances by extremely well equipped infantry (better than even their British and French counterparts) and fast motorized forces (heavy losses suffered by Panzer divisions were one of the reasons, the Germans created, what became known after World War II was over, as blitzkrieg tactics) and long range air attacks, ensured that the COP region apparently failed to provide a secure haven for Polish industry. The idea of the safe triangle came from the thinking of the Polish military strategists during World War I and the Polish—Russian War in 1919-1920. This idea was upgraded during the late 1930s and many of the factories crucial to the war effort got distributed across the country. Moreover, the PZL.37 Łoś, a medium bomber, factory was successfully moved and reassembled in the easternmost Poland that fell to the Soviet advance after September 17, 1939.\n"
] |
why do turtles grow as large as their tanks? | It's not totally true. Turtles will grow as big as their genetics and nutrition and other factors let them. Turtles actually have their growth stunted in an unhealthy way by being in an environment too small, not due to the physical environment alone, but also by the nutrients available in said environment. The physical environment will cause stress that will contribute to lack of growth.
Source: _URL_0_
| [
"The shape of the shell gives helpful clues about how a turtle lives. Most tortoises have a large, dome-shaped shell that makes it difficult for predators to crush the shell between their jaws. One of the few exceptions is the African pancake tortoise, which has a flat, flexible shell that allows it to hide in rock crevices. Most aquatic turtles have flat, streamlined shells, which aid in swimming and diving. American snapping turtles and musk turtles have small, cross-shaped plastrons that give them more efficient leg movement for walking along the bottom of ponds and streams. Another exception is the Belawan Turtle (Cirebon, West Java), which has sunken-back soft-shell.\n",
"The evolution of the turtle's shell is unique because of how the carapace represents transformed vertebrae and ribs. While other tetrapods have their scapula, or shoulder blades, found outside of the ribcage, the scapula for turtles is found inside the ribcage. The shells of other tetrapods, such as armadillos, are not linked directly to the vertebral column or rib cage allowing the ribs to move freely with the surrounding intercostal muscle. However, analysis of the transitional fossil, \"Eunotosaurus africanus\" shows that early ancestors of turtles lost that intercostal muscle usually found between the ribs.\n",
"In those shelled molluscs that have indeterminate growth, the shell grows steadily over the lifetime of the mollusc by the addition of calcium carbonate to the leading edge or opening. Thus the shell gradually becomes longer and wider, in an increasing spiral shape, to better accommodate the growing animal inside. The shell thickens as it grows, so that it stays proportionately strong for its size.\n",
"Due to its small size, the common musk turtle generally makes a better choice for a pet turtle than other commonly available species, such as the red-eared slider (\"Trachemys scripta elegans\"). Throughout its range, wild-caught specimens are commonly available, but the species is also frequently captive-bred specifically for the pet trade. (In the United States, USDA regulations ban the sale of turtles under four inches long as pets. This technically excludes most musk turtles, as most specimens found are smaller than 4 inches.) It readily accepts a diet of commercially available turtle pellets, algae wafers, and various insects, such as crickets, snails, mealworms, bloodworms, earthworms. A varied diet is essential to a captive turtle's health and it is important to note that it should not be fed with turtle pellets only. A captive turtle being fed a high protein diet may develop vitamin A and E deficiencies. Supplemental calcium in the form of commercial powders or a cuttle bone is also a must. Aquatic plants (water lettuce, duckweed, etc.) can also be provided, as some musk turtles prefer more vegetables in their diet than others. Though less sensitive to limited access to UV lighting, common musk turtles require ultraviolet (UVA and UVB) lighting as most other turtle species do for proper captive care. As a bottom dweller, the common musk turtle is rarely seen basking, but a basking area should still be provided.\n",
"Turtles are notable for their protective shells. They have an inflexible trunk encased in a horny carapace above and a plastron below. These are formed from bony plates embedded in the dermis which are overlain by horny ones and are partially fused with the ribs and spine. The neck is long and flexible and the head and the legs can be drawn back inside the shell. Turtles are vegetarians and the typical reptile teeth have been replaced by sharp, horny plates. In aquatic species, the front legs are modified into flippers.\n",
"Amphibious turtles normally have limbs similar to those of tortoises, except that the feet are webbed and often have long claws. These turtles swim using all four feet in a way similar to the dog paddle, with the feet on the left and right side of the body alternately providing thrust. Large turtles tend to swim less than smaller ones, and the very big species, such as alligator snapping turtles, hardly swim at all, preferring to walk along the bottom of the river or lake. As well as webbed feet, turtles have very long claws, used to help them clamber onto riverbanks and floating logs upon which they bask. Male turtles tend to have particularly long claws, and these appear to be used to stimulate the female while mating. While most turtles have webbed feet, some, such as the pig-nosed turtle, have true flippers, with the digits being fused into paddles and the claws being relatively small. These species swim in the same way as sea turtles do (see below).\n",
"Their shells had ornate ribs whose function is unknown, although some scientists have speculated that these ribs helped strengthen the animals' shells to allow them to live at greater depths where the water pressure is higher. An adult had a shell diameter of approximately .\n"
] |
how can countries be banned from the u.s. based solely on their religious majority? | > How is this possible with rights guaranteed by the first amendment?
Rights laid out in the US constitution only apply to US citizens, or people on US soil. If you're a foreign national in another country, the US doesn't have to give you any rights; that's the job of the country you're currently in.
> Does the majority of America agree with this sentiment?
Probably not the majority, but a sizable segment of the population. The 9/11 attacks, followed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, further followed by ISIS/ISIL have solidified in the minds of lots of people that "Muslims are terrorists". | [
"Religion in the United States has a high adherence level compared to other developed countries, as well as a diversity in beliefs. The First Amendment to the country's Constitution prevents the Federal government from making any \"law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof\". The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted this as preventing the government from having any authority in religion. A majority of Americans report that religion plays a \"very important\" role in their lives, a proportion unusual among developed countries, although similar to the other nations of the Americas. Many faiths have flourished in the United States, including both later imports spanning the country's multicultural immigrant heritage, as well as those founded within the country; these have led the United States to become the most religiously diverse country in the world.\n",
"The United States formally considers religious freedom in its foreign relations. The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 established the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom which investigates the records of over 200 other nations with respect to religious freedom, and makes recommendations to submit nations with egregious records to ongoing scrutiny and possible economic sanctions. Many human rights organizations have urged the United States to be still more vigorous in imposing sanctions on countries that do not permit or tolerate religious freedom.\n",
"Whereas the United States has traditionally rejected the concept of a government denying individuals the right to practice their religion, and as a result, has benefited from a rich variety of religious heritages in this country;\n",
"The status of religious freedom in North America varies from country to country. States can differ based on whether or not they guarantee equal treatment under law for followers of different religions, whether they establish a state religion (and the legal implications that this has for both practitioners and non-practitioners), the extent to which religious organizations operating within the country are policed, and the extent to which religious law is used as a basis for the country's legal code.\n",
"There were no reports that the practice of any faith was prohibited; however, the Government does not officially recognize all religious groups. Some religious groups, while allowed to meet and practice their faith, faced societal and official discrimination. In addition, not all Christian denominations have applied for or been accorded legal recognition.\n",
"Virtually every country in Europe legally establishes the freedom of religion for people living in the country, and most also have anti-discrimination laws that specifically highlight religious freedom. However, enforcement of these laws is not always consistent, and several countries routinely fail to implement these laws at a local level. A few countries in Europe continue to have state religions, particularly those with constitutional monarchies. \n",
"Every country in North America includes provisions for the freedom of religion or freedom of conscience in its constitution. Several countries also have formally outlawed discrimination on religious grounds, and according to US State Department reports many countries in the region have no outstanding issues regarding breaches of religious freedom due to government intervention or societal pressure. Seven countries have blasphemy laws which have been part of their legal codes since the British colonial era, but which are not currently enforced. Rastafarians face discrimination and obstacles to religious practice in many countries in the region, often due in part to countries outlawing cannabis, which is used in Rastafarian religious rituals. Roman Catholicism is the state religion of a few countries in North America, and a couple more provide preferential treatment to the Catholic Church despite not officially establishing it as a state religion.\n"
] |
Would a planet-sized ball of liquid water in space have a solid core of "hot ice" the same way Earth's inner core is solid? | At high pressures water will form a solid at any temperature. Wikipedia has a rather detailed phase diagram for water:
_URL_0_
Of course the specifics will vary; it'd be very unlikely for a planet to form exclusively from water, so getting a water-only core becomes difficult. | [
"Solid nitrogen has several properties relevant to its formation of rocks in the outer Solar System. Even at the low temperatures of solid nitrogen it is fairly volatile and can sublime to form an atmosphere, or condense back into nitrogen frost. At 58 K the ultimate compressive strength is 0.24 MPa. Strength increases as temperature lowers becoming 0.54 MPa at 40.6 K. Elastic modulus varies from 161 to 225 MPa over the same range. Compared to other materials, solid nitrogen loses cohesion at low pressures and flows in the form of glaciers when amassed. Yet its density is higher than that of water ice, so the forces of buoyancy will naturally transport blocks of water ice towards the surface. This effect has been most clearly observed on Pluto (by the \"New Horizons\" space probe in 2015), where water ice makes up a major part of the surface layers as icebergs on top of nitrogen ice.\n",
"The planet may have a rocky surface and an atmosphere providing similar insulation to Earth's, according to a study published in mid-2017. However, the same study also states that the planet could be primarily water-based with a thick ice surface; as of yet, its exact structure is unknown. K2-18b is within the habitable zone of its star and could have oceans of liquid water on its surface.\n",
"The smallest solid objects can have water. At Earth, falling particles returned by high-altitude planes and balloons show water contents. In the outer Solar System, atmospheres show water spectra where water should have been depleted. The atmospheres of giant planets and Titan are replenished by infall from an external source. Micrometeorites and interplanetary dust particles contain , some CO, and possibly CO.\n",
"It is theorized that the ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune hold a layer of superionic water. But there are also studies that suggest that other elements present inside the interiors of these planets, particularly carbon, may prevent the formation of superionic water.\n",
"Models of heat retention and heating via radioactive decay in smaller icy Solar System bodies suggest that Rhea, Titania, Oberon, Triton, Pluto, Eris, Sedna, and Orcus may have oceans underneath solid icy crusts approximately 100 km thick. Of particular interest in these cases is the fact that the models indicate that the liquid layers are in direct contact with the rocky core, which allows efficient mixing of minerals and salts into the water. This is in contrast with the oceans that may be inside larger icy satellites like Ganymede, Callisto, or Titan, where layers of high-pressure phases of ice are thought to underlie the liquid water layer.\n",
"Models of heat retention and heating via radioactive decay in smaller icy Solar System bodies suggest that Rhea, Titania, Oberon, Triton, Pluto, Eris, Sedna, and Orcus may have oceans underneath solid icy crusts approximately 100 km thick. Of particular interest in these cases is the fact that the models indicate that the liquid layers are in direct contact with the rocky core, which allows efficient mixing of minerals and salts into the water. This is in contrast with the oceans that may be inside larger icy satellites like Ganymede, Callisto, or Titan, where layers of high-pressure phases of ice are thought to underlie the liquid water layer.\n",
"The objects of the inner Solar System are composed mostly of rock, the collective name for compounds with high melting points, such as silicates, iron or nickel, that remained solid under almost all conditions in the protoplanetary nebula. Jupiter and Saturn are composed mainly of gases, the astronomical term for materials with extremely low melting points and high vapour pressure, such as hydrogen, helium, and neon, which were always in the gaseous phase in the nebula. Ices, like water, methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide, have melting points up to a few hundred kelvins. They can be found as ices, liquids, or gases in various places in the Solar System, whereas in the nebula they were either in the solid or gaseous phase. Icy substances comprise the majority of the satellites of the giant planets, as well as most of Uranus and Neptune (the so-called \"ice giants\") and the numerous small objects that lie beyond Neptune's orbit. Together, gases and ices are referred to as \"volatiles\".\n"
] |
why has stop snitchin' remained so popular in low-income us populations? | People in low income situation usually have short term goals as opposed to long term goals. And in many low income areas criminal populations hold more power then government. | [
"Both in the United Kingdom and United States, they came out of social concerns about cities, poverty, immigration, and vagrancy following industrialization, as well as from a shift in society's attitude from retribution, punishing the miscreant to reforming.\n",
"Jenny, as outbreaks of measles, mumps and whooping cough continue to appear in the U.S.—most the result of parents refusing to vaccinate their children because of the scare stories passed around by anti-vaxxers like you—it's just too late to play cute with the things you've said. You are either floridly, loudly, uninformedly antivaccine or you are the most grievously misunderstood celebrity of the modern era. Science almost always prefers the simple answer, because that's the one that's usually correct. Your quote trail is far too long—and you have been far too wrong—for the truth not to be obvious.\n",
"In 1991 and 1992, federal courts overturned New York and California state laws that made aggressive panhandling illegal. It was observed that \"Groups and individuals all over the United States engage in highly public fundraising for all sorts of causes and charities.\"\n",
"On August 1, 2011, Quanell X pleaded with the residents of inner city neighborhoods to stop the \"No Snitching\" policy that institutes a bias of those who provide information to police after a series of crimes and murders have plagued the Third Ward area in recent weeks. He said, \"The no-snitch policy does not work when you have having our elders and our women and our children live like hostages.\"\n",
"In 1996 the US Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which increased the regulation of fund raising that might benefit alleged terrorists and made it easier to bar or deport those with suspected terrorist affiliations. It also passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act allowing deportation of immigrants for minor offenses, even those committed decades ago, and even if individuals had American spouses and/or children. It also allowed secret classified evidence and denial of bond for those under threat of deportation. ADC began campaigns to contest these laws and even dilute or overturn them through legal action. One lawsuit by Arabs claiming they were targeted for deportation because of affiliations with an unpopular political group, in violation of their First and Fifth Amendment, reached the Supreme Court, in \"Reno v. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee\" . While the ruling cast doubt on the role of secret evidence, many observers interpreted it as restricting First Amendment rights of all non-citizens, including legal immigrants.\n",
"Fact-checkers note that, on a large scale or in the long run, there is no reason to believe that DACA recipients have a major deleterious effect on American workers' employment chances; to the contrary, some economists say that DACA benefits the overall U.S. economy. Economists have warned that ending DACA could adversely affect the U.S. economy, and that \"most economists see immigration generally as an \"economic boon\".\" Almost all economists reject Jeff Sessions' claim that DACA \"denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same jobs to go to illegal aliens.\" Sessions' claim is rooted in what economists call the \"lump of labor fallacy\" (i.e., the idea that there is a limit to amount of work force available in any economy).\n",
"Online services claim that their use decreases the failure rate of the snipe, because they have more reliable servers and a faster Internet connection with a less variation in latency, allowing the bid to more reliably be placed close to the deadline.\n"
] |
what is insomnia and why can't our brains shut off when we're excessively tired | Insomnia can be caused by many things, but one of the most common causes of insomnia is a non-functioning ability to produce the chemical that makes us begin to fall asleep.
Our brain (neurotypically) naturally makes all of the chemicals we need on a given day to function. One of them, melatonin, is produced in low light conditions when the body is laying down or comfortable, and it triggers the sleepiness that lulls us to sleep. For whatever reason (and there are many), some people's brains don't make enough of this chemical naturally to fall asleep easily.
Some causes of malfunctioning melatonin production include PTSD, rewiring what your brain expects "low lighting" conditions to look like by watching bright screens in the dark, as a symptom of other disorders like anxiety and depression, as a symptom of taking medications, from not getting enough exercise, and so on. | [
"BULLET::::- Insomnia cannot be blamed for all the deficits the patient is experiencing in his daytime life (not all problems will go away once the patient is able to sleep), this is important to know, because it takes some of the unrealistic expectations off sleep.\n",
"People with insomnia tend to excessively worry about getting enough sleep and the consequences of not getting enough sleep. These people use safety behaviors in an attempt to reduce their excessive anxiety. However, the use of safety behaviors serves to increase anxiety and reduce the chances that the affected person will disconfirm these anxiety-provoking thoughts. A common safety behavior used by affected people is attempting to control the anxiety-provoking thoughts by distracting themselves with other thoughts. The affected person may also cancel appointments and decide not to work because the person believes that he or she will not function properly. The affected person may take naps to compensate for the lack of sleep.\n",
"Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, irritability, and a depressed mood. It may result in an increased risk of motor vehicle collisions, as well as problems focusing and learning. Insomnia can be short term, lasting for days or weeks, or long term, lasting more than a month \n",
"Insomnia is a general term for difficulty falling asleep and/or staying asleep. Insomnia is the most common sleep problem, with many adults reporting occasional insomnia, and 10–15% reporting a chronic condition. Insomnia can have many different causes, including psychological stress, a poor sleep environment, an inconsistent sleep schedule, or excessive mental or physical stimulation in the hours before bedtime. Insomnia is often treated through behavioral changes like keeping a regular sleep schedule, avoiding stimulating or stressful activities before bedtime, and cutting down on stimulants such as caffeine. The sleep environment may be improved by installing heavy drapes to shut out all sunlight, and keeping computers, televisions and work materials out of the sleeping area.\n",
"Many people with narcolepsy also suffer from insomnia for extended periods of time. The excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy often become severe enough to cause serious problems in a person's social, personal, and professional life. Normally, when an individual is awake, brain waves show a regular rhythm. When a person first falls asleep, the brain waves become slower and less regular, which is called non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. After about an hour and a half of NREM sleep, the brain waves begin to show a more active pattern again, called REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep), when most remembered dreaming occurs. Associated with the EEG-observed waves during REM sleep, muscle atonia is present called REM atonia.\n",
"Rebound insomnia is insomnia that occurs following discontinuation of sedative substances taken to relieve primary insomnia. Regular use of these substances can cause a person to become dependent on its effects in order to fall asleep. Therefore, when a person has stopped taking the medication and is 'rebounding' from its effects, he or she may experience insomnia as a symptom of withdrawal. Occasionally, this insomnia may be worse than the insomnia the drug was intended to treat.\n",
"Some cases of insomnia are not really insomnia in the traditional sense, because people experiencing sleep state misperception often sleep for a normal amount of time. The problem is that, despite sleeping for multiple hours each night and typically not experiencing significant daytime sleepiness or other symptoms of sleep loss, they do not feel like they have slept very much, if at all. Because their perception of their sleep is incomplete, they incorrectly believe it takes them an abnormally long time to fall asleep, and they underestimate how long they remain asleep.\n"
] |
What set the precedent for the "campy" style of early superhero pop culture? As opposed to the gritty/realistic style we see today. | can you clarify the timelines you are thinking about? The really campy stuff doesn't start until the 60s after the pushback from the book "seduction of the innocent," (where criticism of superhero books was included along with other violent comic books) sparking a moral panic and the comics code. As a result of the code we see for example the classic campy Adam West Batman of the "silver age" (which was significantly less dark than some of the early "golden age" Batmen") before the gritty turn in the "bronze age".
My hunch is your mental model starts in the silver age which would be a mistake since the campy superheros were a reaction to earlier comics. | [
"Antecedents of the superhero archetype include such folkloric heroes as Robin Hood, who adventured in distinctive clothing, Penny dreadfuls, shilling shockers, dime novels, radio programs, and other popular fiction of the late 19th and early 20th centuries featured mysterious, swashbuckling heroes with distinct costumes, unusual abilities and altruistic missions. The character of Spring Heeled Jack, who first emerged as an urban legend of the early 19th century, was re-conceived as a masked and costumed adventurer during the 1890s. The 1903 play \"The Scarlet Pimpernel\" and its spinoffs further popularized the idea of a masked avenger and the superhero trope of a secret identity; such characters as the Green Hornet and the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, would follow. Likewise, the science-fiction heroes John Carter of Mars,Buck Rogers, and Flash Gordon, with their futuristic weapons and gadgets; Tarzan, with his high degree of athleticism and strength, and his ability to communicate with animals; Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian and the biologically modified Hugo Danner of the novel \"Gladiator,\" were heroes with unusual abilities who fought sometimes larger-than-life foes. The word \"superhero\" itself dates to at least 1917.\n",
"Legends of the Superheroes is an umbrella title for two 60-minute live-action television specials produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that aired on NBC on January 18 and 25, 1979. The series was loosely based on Hanna-Barbera's \"Super Friends\" animated series, then airing on Saturday mornings on ABC; but served as a reunion of sorts for the 1960s' \"Batman\" TV series, as it brings back together three of its stars reprising their respective roles. The specials were produced like standard variety shows of the time: on videotape and with a laugh track.\n",
"Peck also notes a love the comics of the era. He notes that his favorite superheroes of the period were Black Panther, Iron Fist, and Power Man, all of whom, he notes, were products of that era. Despite that, \"Cool\" \"doesn't have much in common with any of those books, and it has zero superheroes in it. It's closer to Taxi Driver by way of Elmore Leonard.\"\n",
"Original superhero characters emerged in other, more comedy oriented films such as the French political satire film \"Mr. Freedom\" (1969) and the American B movies \"Rat Pfink a Boo Boo\" (1966) and \"The Wild World of Batwoman\" (1966).\n",
"Confessions of a Superhero is a 2007 documentary film directed by Matthew Ogens about costumed superheroes on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The film focuses in particular on Christopher Dennis, Jennifer Wenger, Joseph McQueen, and Maxwell Allen, who dress as Superman, Wonder Woman, The Hulk, and Batman, respectively.\n",
"The mid-1960s brought a boom in superhero cartoon series, some adapted from comic books, (\"Superman\", \"Aquaman\", \"Spider-Man\", \"The Fantastic Four\"), and others original (\"Space Ghost\", \"The Herculoids\", \"Birdman and the Galaxy Trio\", etc.) Also included were parodies of the superhero genre (\"Underdog\", \"The Super Six\", and \"George of the Jungle\", among others.) Another development was the popular music-based cartoon, featuring both real-life groups (\"The Beatles\", \"The Jackson 5ive\", and \"The Osmonds\") as well as anonymous studio musicians (\"The Archies\", \"Josie and the Pussycats\"). Live-action series continued to some extent with Sid and Marty Krofft's \"H.R. Pufnstuf\" and \"Sigmund and the Sea Monsters\", Hanna-Barbera's \"The Banana Splits\", Stan Burns and Mike Marmer's \"Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp\", ABC's \"Curiosity Shop\" (produced by Chuck Jones), Don Kirshner's widely popular \"The Monkees\", and the British-made slapstick comedy \"Here Come the Double Deckers\".\n",
"Originally inspired by American comic strips and comic books left behind by American GIs, the medium steadily diverged, and by the 1950s, drew more inspiration from other forms of Filipino literature such as \"komedya\", as well as Philippine mythology. Many komiks were evidently inspired by specific American comics, such as \"Kulafu\" and \"Og\" (Tarzan), \"Darna\" (Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman), and \"D. I. Trece\" (Dick Tracy). The predominance of superheroes has continued into the modern day. However, other characters such as Dyesebel draw more from traditional folklore.\n"
] |
Can bacteria survive in a freezing enviroment? | [Psychrophiles](_URL_0_) thrive at very low temperatures. Such as wiki states, temps as low as -20C. They're part of extremophiles which cover all 'extreme' environments from high heat, to acidity, and metals. | [
"Three species of bacteria, \"Carnobacterium pleistocenium\", as well as \"Chryseobacterium greenlandensis\" and \"Herminiimonas glaciei\", have reportedly been revived after surviving for thousands of years frozen in ice.\n",
"Three species of bacteria, \"Carnobacterium pleistocenium\", \"Chryseobacterium greenlandensis\", and \"Herminiimonas glaciei\", have reportedly been revived after surviving for thousands of years frozen in ice.\n",
"P. infectans and P.sinerae have been able to survive extreme conditions due to the resilience of sporangium in the host cells which can protect the zoospores, alongside the protection of the host cyst. The Parvilucifera sporangium has been found to be able to survive cold temperatures for many months (Lepelletier et al. 2013).\n",
"Bacteria and fungi can be kept short-term (months to about a year, depending) refrigerated, however, cell division and metabolism is not completely arrested and thus is not an optimal option for long-term storage (years) or to preserve cultures genetically or phenotypically, as cell divisions can lead to mutations or sub-culturing can cause phenotypic changes. A preferred option, species-dependent, is cryopreservation. Nematode worms are the only multicellular eukaryotes that have been shown to survive cryopreservation. \n",
"Microplasma that is sustained near room temperature can destroy bacteria, viruses, and fungi deposited on the surfaces of surgical instruments and medical devices. Researchers discovered that bacteria cannot survive in the harsh environment created by microplasmas. They consist of chemically reactive species such as hydroxyl (OH) and atomic oxygen (O) that can kill harmful bacteria through oxidation. Oxidation of the lipids and proteins that compose a cell’s membrane can lead to the breakdown of the membrane and deactivate the bacteria.\n",
"Other studies have suggested the potential for life to survive using deliquescing salts. These, similarly to the lichens, use the humidity of the atmosphere. If the mixture of salts is right, the organisms may obtain liquid water at times of high atmospheric humidity, with salts capture enough to be capable of supporting life.\n",
"An interesting feature peculiar to some of the \"Yersinia\" bacteria is the ability to not only survive, but also to actively proliferate at temperatures as low as 1–4 °C (e.g., on cut salads and other food products in a refrigerator). \"Yersinia\" bacteria are relatively quickly inactivated by oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide and potassium permanganate solutions.\n"
] |
Does hair growth add weight? | You would get heavier as you consumed food. Hair, in this analogy, can be seen like sweat. The only difference is that it's an excretion you retain, instead of one that evaporates. | [
"Scalp hair grows, on average, at a rate of about 1.25 centimeters per month, and shampoos or vitamins have not been shown to noticeably change this rate. Hair growth rate also depends upon what phase in the cycle of hair growth one is actually in; there are three phases. The speed of hair growth varies based upon genetics, gender, age, hormones, and may be reduced by nutrient deficiency (i.e., anorexia, anemia, zinc deficiency) and hormonal fluctuations (i.e., menopause, polycystic ovaries, thyroid disease).\n",
"Body hair, or androgenic hair, is the terminal hair that develops on the human body during and after puberty. It is differentiated from the head hair and less visible vellus hair, which is much finer and lighter in color. The growth of androgenic hair is related to the level of androgens (often referred to as male hormones) and the density of androgen receptors in the dermal papillae. Both must reach a threshold for the proliferation of hair follicle cells.\n",
"Transgenic studies have shown that growth and dormancy of hair follicles are related to the activity of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) at the dermal papillae, which is affected by DHT. Androgens are important in male sexual development around birth and at puberty. They regulate sebaceous glands, apocrine hair growth, and libido. With increasing age, androgens stimulate hair growth on the face, but can suppress it at the temples and scalp vertex, a condition that has been referred to as the 'androgen paradox'.\n",
"Hair follicles are to varying degrees sensitive to androgen, primarily testosterone and its derivatives, particularly dihydrotestosterone, with different areas on the body having different sensitivity. As androgen levels increase, the rate of hair growth and the weight of the hairs increase. Genetic factors determine both individual levels of androgen and the hair follicle's sensitivity to androgen, as well as other characteristics such as hair colour, type of hair and hair retention.\n",
"Genetics and health are factors in healthy hair. Proper nutrition is important for hair health. The living part of hair is under the scalp skin where the hair root is housed in the hair follicle. The entire follicle and root are fed by a supply of arteries, and blood carries nutrients to the follicle/root. Any time an individual has any kind of health concern from stress, trauma, medications of various sorts, chronic medical conditions or medical conditions that come and then wane, heavy metals in waters and food, smoking etc. these and more can affect the hair, its growth, and its appearance.\n",
"Androgenic hair follows the same growth pattern as the hair that grows on the scalp, but with a shorter anagen phase and longer telogen phase. While the anagen phase for the hair on one's head lasts for years, the androgenic hair growth phase for body hair lasts a few months. The telogen phase for body hair lasts close to a year. This shortened growing period and extended dormant period explains why the hair on the head tends to be much longer than other hair found on the body. Differences in length seen in comparing the hair on the back of the hand and pubic hair, for example, can be explained by varied growth cycles in those two regions. The same goes for differences in body hair length seen in different people, especially when comparing men and women.\n",
"Human growth hormone is a naturally occurring hormone that is responsible for general body growth in both men and women. hGH helps the body protein while breaking down fat deposits. Too much hGH results in increased muscle mass. (Santella 45)\n"
] |
how come that in every mayor city there are hundreds of pigeons but you never see any dead ones? | Two words: Turkey buzzards. | [
"Feral pigeons often only have small populations within cities. For example, the breeding population of feral pigeons in Sheffield, England, has been estimated at only 12,130 individuals. Despite this, feral pigeons usually reach their highest densities in the central portions of cities, so they are frequently encountered by people, which may lead to conflict.\n",
"In some cities or parts of cities (e.g. Trafalgar Square in London) feeding pigeons is forbidden, either because they compete with vulnerable native species, or because they abound and cause pollution and/or noise.\n",
"Large numbers of bird deaths are also attributed to collisions with buildings. An estimated 1 to 9 million birds are killed every year by tall buildings in Toronto, Ontario, Canada alone, according to the wildlife conservation organization Fatal Light Awareness Program. Other studies have stated that 57 million are killed by cars, and some 365 to 988 million are killed by collisions with buildings and plate glass in the United States alone. Promotional event lightbeams as well as ceilometers used at airport weather offices can be particularly deadly for birds, as birds become caught in their lightbeams and suffer exhaustion and collisions with other birds. In the worst recorded ceilometer lightbeam kill-off during one night in 1954, approximately 50,000 birds from 53 different species died at the Warner Robins Air Force Base in the United States.\n",
"A significant population of small birds live within the city proper, including sparrows and pigeons. Larger birds, rabbits, foxes, wild boars, and weasels can be found in the more easterly parts of the municipality. The world's largest population of the common kestrel can be found in the Perales del Río neighborhood.\n",
"Large flocks of pigeons and starlings in cities are often considered as a nuisance, and techniques to reduce their populations or their impacts are constantly innovated. Birds are also of medical importance, and their role as carriers of human diseases such as Japanese encephalitis, West Nile virus, and influenza H5N1 have been widely recognised. Bird strikes and the damage they cause in aviation are of particularly great importance, due to the fatal consequences and the level of economic losses caused. The airline industry incurs worldwide damages of an estimated US$1.2 billion each year.\n",
"Feral pigeons (\"Columba livia domestica\"), also called city doves, city pigeons, or street pigeons, are pigeons that are derived from the domestic pigeons that have returned to the wild. The domestic pigeon was originally bred from the wild rock dove, which naturally inhabits sea-cliffs and mountains. Rock (i.e., \"wild\"), domestic, and feral pigeons are all the same species and will readily interbreed. Feral pigeons find the ledges of buildings to be a substitute for sea cliffs, have become adapted to urban life, and are abundant in towns and cities throughout much of the world. Due to their abilities to create large amounts of excrement and to carry disease, combined with crop and property damage, pigeons are largely considered a nuisance and an invasive species, with steps being taken in many municipalities to lower their numbers or completely eradicate them.\n",
"There is ample reason for the concerns of pigeons damaging property, due to their size and proximity to people and their dwellings. Pigeons often cause significant pollution with their droppings, though there is little evidence of them driving out other bird species. Pigeons are labeled an invasive species in North America by the USDA.\n"
] |
will you explain to me the chi-square model when applied to genetics? | The chi square model is a way for people who study genes to understand probability. If two traits are inherited by a child (like blue eyes and a small nose), what are the chances they were inherited together randomly, out of all the options it could have been? The other option is that these genes are linked, meaning that they usually transfer together to the child, as in, blue eyes and a small nose will generally appear together. Research in this field is helpful for learning about genetic disorders, and what may cause them, or what the full consequences of it are.
As for the model itself, it takes data obtained from a child generation (to see how many have this pair, and how many would have mixed inheritance), and with a mathematical equation establish how likely the outcome you are studying is due to chance. In biology, usually, a variable "p" from this model establishes probability, and if it is greater than .05, the outcome was likely due to chance. | [
"The chi-square distribution is used primarily in hypothesis testing, and to a lesser extent for confidence intervals for population variance when the underlying distribution is normal. Unlike more widely known distributions such as the normal distribution and the exponential distribution, the chi-square distribution is not as often applied in the direct modeling of natural phenomena. It arises in the following hypothesis tests, among others:\n",
"An additional reason that the chi-square distribution is widely used is that it is a member of the class of likelihood ratio tests (LRT). LRT's have several desirable properties; in particular, LRT's commonly provide the highest power to reject the null hypothesis (Neyman–Pearson lemma). However, the normal and chi-square approximations are only valid asymptotically. For this reason, it is preferable to use the t distribution rather than the normal approximation or the chi-square approximation for a small sample size. Similarly, in analyses of contingency tables, the chi-square approximation will be poor for a small sample size, and it is preferable to use Fisher's exact test. Ramsey shows that the exact binomial test is always more powerful than the normal approximation.\n",
"The chi-square distribution is used in the common chi-square tests for goodness of fit of an observed distribution to a theoretical one, the independence of two criteria of classification of qualitative data, and in confidence interval estimation for a population standard deviation of a normal distribution from a sample standard deviation. Many other statistical tests also use this distribution, such as Friedman's analysis of variance by ranks.\n",
"The chi-square distribution is the maximum entropy probability distribution for a random variate \"X\" for which formula_40 and formula_41 are fixed. Since the chi-square is in the family of gamma distributions, this can be derived by substituting appropriate values in the Expectation of the log moment of gamma. For derivation from more basic principles, see the derivation in moment-generating function of the sufficient statistic.\n",
"The chi-square distribution has numerous applications in inferential statistics, for instance in chi-square tests and in estimating variances. It enters the problem of estimating the mean of a normally distributed population and the problem of estimating the slope of a regression line via its role in Student's t-distribution. It enters all analysis of variance problems via its role in the F-distribution, which is the distribution of the ratio of two independent chi-squared random variables, each divided by their respective degrees of freedom.\n",
"In probability theory and statistics, the chi-square distribution (also chi-squared or ) with degrees of freedom is the distribution of a sum of the squares of independent standard normal random variables. The chi-square distribution is a special case of the gamma distribution and is one of the most widely used probability distributions in inferential statistics, notably in hypothesis testing or in construction of confidence intervals. When it is being distinguished from the more general noncentral chi-square distribution, this distribution is sometimes called the central chi-square distribution.\n",
"The square model derives from the sociological theory of the four paradigms for the analysis of social theory. Outside the frame of the model, the dichotomy of individual versus social approaches to personal well-being is represented. The two bottom cells of the square delineate the changing of individuals to conform to social convention while the two top cells of the square represent the changing of social structures as opposed to the individual.\n"
] |
Why didn't Einstein get a Nobel prize for Relativity? Was the paper on the photoelectric effect really more important? | The first thing to remember about [Einstein's Nobel Prize](_URL_1_) is that it was given for "his service to Theoretical Physics, and especially for the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect" So it was not strictly given to him for the photoelectric effect. But to understand why that theory was highlighted above others, it is important to consider the timeline.
[Einstein published the photoelectric effect in 1905.](_URL_3_) along with several other papers, including Relativity and Brownian motion. At the time there was great interest in Black Body radiation, various spectra from excited atoms and many other phenomenon that we would now consider quantum mechanics. But at the time the complete framework was not known and these things were very mysterious. We know see the photoelectric effect as mathematically simple compared to relativity, but for many years after 1905, very little actual progress was made in what would later become quantum theory.
[Rutherford scattering was not discovered until 1911](_URL_5_) and the [Bohr model of the atom](_URL_0_) was not published until 1913, and we know it was not a complete theory of the structure of the atom. That's six to eight years of little progress, where the only known thing about quantum physics was Einstein's work. Throughout all of the quantum revolution, Einstein's work served as a 'north star' for other developments. It would take until 1926 for [Schrodinger's equation](_URL_2_) to be published, which is five years after Einstein's prize was awarded. So yes, Einstein's work on the photoelectric effect was very important and opened up many avenues of inquiry that ultimately gave us the quantum revolution of the 1920s and beyond. At the time, it was considered extremely important. While Relativity was also important, it didnt have any serious applications until the splitting of the atom in [1938](_URL_4_).
Edit: I am not a professional historian, but I do have a PhD in physics.
| [
"Through these papers, Einstein tackles some of the era's most important physics questions and problems. In 1900, Lord Kelvin, in a lecture titled \"Nineteenth-Century Clouds over the Dynamical Theory of Heat and Light\", suggested that physics had no satisfactory explanations for the results of the Michelson–Morley experiment and for black body radiation. As introduced, special relativity provided an account for the results of the Michelson–Morley experiments. Einstein's theories for the photoelectric effect extended the quantum theory which Max Planck had developed in his successful explanation of black-body radiation.\n",
"Albert Einstein's 1921 Nobel Prize Award mainly recognized his 1905 discovery of the mechanism of the photoelectric effect and \"for his services to Theoretical Physics\". The Nobel committee passed on several nominations for his many other seminal contributions, although these led to prizes for others who later applied more advanced technology to experimentally verify his work, most notably the 2017 prize awarded to the heads of LIGO. Many predictions of Einstein's theories have been verified as technology advances. Recent examples include the bending of light in a gravitational field, gravitational waves (detected by LIGO), gravitational lensing and black holes. It wasn't until 1993 that the first evidence for the existence of gravitational radiation came via the Nobel Prize-winning measurements of the Hulse–Taylor binary system.\n",
"Einstein's two part publication in 1912 (and before in 1908) is really only important for historical reasons. By then he knew of the gravitational redshift and the deflection of light. He had realized that Lorentz transformations are not generally applicable, but retained them. The theory states that the speed of light is constant in free space but varies in the presence of matter. The theory was only expected to hold when the source of the gravitational field is stationary. It includes the principle of least action:\n",
"During the year of 1922, Albert Einstein was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, \"for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect\". This refers to his 1905 paper on the photoelectric effect, \"On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light\", which was well supported by the experimental evidence by that time. The presentation speech began by mentioning \"his theory of relativity [which had] been the subject of lively debate in philosophical circles [and] also has astrophysical implications which are being rigorously examined at the present time\". \n",
"Einstein's first paper on relativity was published three months after Poincaré's short paper, but before Poincaré's longer version. Einstein relied on the principle of relativity to derive the Lorentz transformations and used a similar clock synchronisation procedure (Einstein synchronisation) to the one that Poincaré (1900) had described, but Einstein's paper was remarkable in that it contained no references at all. Poincaré never acknowledged Einstein's work on special relativity. However, Einstein expressed sympathy with Poincaré's outlook obliquely in a letter to Hans Vaihinger on 3 May 1919, when Einstein considered Vaihinger's general outlook to be close to his own and Poincaré's to be close to Vaihinger's. In public, Einstein acknowledged Poincaré posthumously in the text of a lecture in 1921 called \"Geometrie und Erfahrung\" in connection with non-Euclidean geometry, but not in connection with special relativity. A few years before his death, Einstein commented on Poincaré as being one of the pioneers of relativity, saying \"Lorentz had already recognised that the transformation named after him is essential for the analysis of Maxwell's equations, and Poincaré deepened this insight still further ...\"\n",
"It was Oseen who nominated Albert Einstein for the Nobel Prize in 1921, for Einstein's work on the photoelectric effect (rather than the more controversial theory of general relativity). Einstein was finally awarded the prize for 1921 when Oseen repeated the nomination in 1922.\n",
"The committee also failed to recognize the other contributions of his Annus Mirabilis papers on Brownian motion and special relativity. Often these nominations for Special Relativity were for both Hendrik Lorentz and Einstein. Henri Poincaré was also nominated at least once for his work, including on Lorentz's relativity theory. However, Kaufmann's then-experimental results (incorrectly) cast doubt on Special Relativity. These doubts were not resolved until 1915. By this time, Einstein had progressed to his general theory of relativity, including his theory of gravitation. Empirical support—in this case the predicted spectral shift of sunlight—was in question for many decades. The only piece of original evidence was the consistency with the known perihelion precession of the planet Mercury. Some additional support was gained at the end of 1919, when the predicted deflection of starlight near the sun was confirmed by Arthur Eddington's Solar Eclipse Expedition, though here again the actual results were somewhat ambiguous. Conclusive proof of the gravitational light deflection prediction was not achieved until the 1970s.\n"
] |
why are real number data types such as float and double called "floating-point"? | Let's say you have 8 "spaces" to store a number. There's a few different ways you can store numbers in it:
1. Unsigned Integers. ######## lets you store numbers from 0-99999999 but no negatives or decimals
2. Signed Integers. ±####### lets you store from -9999999 to +9999999, a smaller number than option 1 but covers positive and negative.
3. Fixed Point Decimal ±XXX.YYYY only gives you -999.9999 to +999.9999. You could split it other ways, the point is that the data type is fixed when it's defined & can't be changed during runtime.
4. Floating Point Decimal ±X.YYYY \10^±Z lets you represent both positive & negative numbers from 0.0000000000001 to 9999900000. You can say that the decimal "floats" depending on the size of your Z (mantissa)
Floating point is the most common format for storing real numbers, giving a reasonable compromise between speed, accuracy & range. "Arbitrary precision" numbers that let you have any level of accuracy you want are also popular but they're generally supported by by libraries rather than CPU instructions so they're significantly slower. | [
"The floating-point form is used to represent numbers with a fractional component. They do not, however, represent most rational numbers exactly; they are instead a close approximation. There are three types of real values, denoted by their specifiers: single precision (float), double precision (double), and double extended precision (long double). Each of these may represent values in a different form, often one of the IEEE floating-point formats.\n",
"As a data type used by computers, floating-point numbers are often defined as integers multiplied by positive or negative powers of two, and thus all numbers that can be represented for instance by binary IEEE floating-point datatypes are dyadic rationals. The same is true for the majority of fixed-point datatypes, which also uses powers of two implicitly in the majority of cases.\n",
"A floating-point data type is a compromise between the flexibility of a general rational number data type and the speed of fixed-point arithmetic. It uses some of the bits in the data type to specify a power of two for the denominator. See IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic.\n",
"A floating-point number represents a limited-precision rational number that may have a fractional part. These numbers are stored internally in a format equivalent to scientific notation, typically in binary but sometimes in decimal. Because floating-point numbers have limited precision, only a subset of real or rational numbers are exactly representable; other numbers can be represented only approximately.\n",
"In computing, fixed float describes a method of representing real numbers in a way that number and decimal point value is stored at different location or bytes in a memory allocated to variable unlike floating point. In a typical 4 byte (on little endian platform) fixed float number lower(lsb) 2 bytes are used to store the decimal part of the number just like integer value. While upper 2 bytes are used to store the part of number before the decimal point. Floating point numbers are, in general, represented approximately to a fixed number of significant digits and scaled using an exponent. The base for the scaling is normally 2, 10 or 16. The typical number that can be represented exactly is of the form:\n",
"BULLET::::- Floating point data types, usually represent values as high-precision fractional values (rational numbers, mathematically), but are sometimes misleadingly called reals (evocative of mathematical real numbers). They usually have predefined limits on both their maximum values and their precision. Typically stored internally in the form (where and are integers), but displayed in familiar decimal form.\n",
"A floating-point number is a rational number, because it can be represented as one integer divided by another; for example is (145/100)×1000 or /100. The base determines the fractions that can be represented; for instance, 1/5 cannot be represented exactly as a floating-point number using a binary base, but 1/5 can be represented exactly using a decimal base (, or ). However, 1/3 cannot be represented exactly by either binary (0.010101...) or decimal (0.333...), but in base 3, it is trivial (0.1 or 1×3) . The occasions on which infinite expansions occur depend on the base and its prime factors.\n"
] |
why is it so difficult to figure out how life actually started? | Over time, the crust of the earth gets recycled. It gets pressed down into the mantle and eroded away, only to be replaced by cooling lava.
In the past 4 billion years or so, almost all of the original crust is gone, only small portions in Canada, Australia, and Africa remain intact. That means most of the history of early life has been erased.
What's more, early life was single-celled creatures with soft body parts. Fossilization of bone and chitin is rare enough, fossilization of sort parts is **extremely** rare.
| [
"One of the major challenges in studying the origin of life has been the inability to clearly define what life is. In her investigations, Walker has used the flow of information in systems as a means to distinguish life from non-life. She used the Boolean network model, information theory, and other models to discern feasible universal traits for life. It was shown that in biological systems the components are subordinate to the whole, in what is called top-down causation. Furthermore, a logistical model of Walker \"et al.\" suggested that major evolutionary transitions, such as the origin of life, could be characterized by a reverse of information flow in a system from bottom-up to top-down. They also determined that living systems have a separation of data from machinery, and non-trivial replication. Walker has shown theoretically how the occurrence of these biotic traits in an abiotic system present a possible framework for the origin of life.\n",
"Some biologists, including Graham Cairns-Smith, believe that the origin of life itself may have been a bootstrap process as one or more systems of biological information storage formed the foundation for successor systems that ultimately supplanted them culminating in the emergence of our current DNA-based system.\n",
"Though scientists have intensively studied life on Earth, defining life in unequivocal terms is still a challenge. Physically, one may say that life \"feeds on negative entropy\" which refers to the process by which living entities decrease their internal entropy at the expense of some form of energy taken in from the environment. Biologists generally agree that lifeforms are self-organizing systems which regulate their internal environments as to maintain this organized state, metabolism serves to provide energy, and reproduction causes life to continue over a span of multiple generations. Typically, organisms are responsive to stimuli and genetic information changes from generation to generation, resulting in adaptation through evolution; this optimizes the chances of survival for the individual organism and its descendants respectively.\n",
"The origin of life on Earth is not well understood, but it is known to have occurred at least 3.5 billion years ago, during the hadean or archean eons on a primordial Earth that had a substantially different environment than is found at present. These life forms possessed the basic traits of self-replication and inheritable traits. Once life had appeared, the process of evolution by natural selection resulted in the development of ever-more diverse life forms.\n",
"BULLET::::- Xenobiology has the potential to reveal fundamental knowledge about biology and the origin of life. In order to better understand the origin of life, it is necessary to know why life evolved seemingly via an early RNA world to the DNA-RNA-protein system and its nearly universal genetic code. Was it an evolutionary \"accident\" or were there constraints that ruled out other types of chemistries? By testing alternative biochemical \"primordial soups\", it is expected to better understand the principles that gave rise to life as we know it.\n",
"The origin of life was discussed by two authors, Robert Shapiro and George Dyson. Robert Shapiro believes that the origin of life will be found in the next five years, and George Dyson believes that we do not need to understand the origin of life to make progress in molecular biology.\n",
"Because the only form of known life is that on Earth, the search for biosignatures is heavily influenced by the products that life produces on Earth. However, life that is different than life on Earth may still produce biosignatures that are detectable by humans, even though nothing is known about their specific biology. This form of biosignature is called an \"agnostic biosignature\" because it is independent of the form of life that produces it. It is widely agreed that all life–no matter how different it is from life on Earth–needs a source of energy to thrive. This must involve some sort of chemical disequilibrium, which can be exploited for metabolism. Geological processes are independent of life, and if scientists are able to constrain the geology well enough on another planet, then they know what the particular geologic equilibrium for that planet should be. A deviation from geological equilibrium can be interpreted as both an atmospheric disequilibrium and agnostic biosignature.\n"
] |
Why does the ticking of my clock mess with the display on my TV? | Battery powered clock? Usually those use a pulsed electromagnet to advance the gearing once per second. They create a small "EMP" electromagnetic pulse. Tune an AM radio between stations, and it may pick up the one-second pulse as a click sound.
But this shouldn't affect your TV unless it has a poorly shielded (bad) video cable. | [
"A clock accompanied the look, which used GNAT (Generator of Network Analogue Time), resulting in the clock mimicked the movement of an analogue clock by moving the minute hand every second, rather than every 15 seconds as was found on previous station clocks. The counters on the clocks alternated between dots and dashes pointing towards the centre, a smoky static background and included the BBC logo at the bottom of the screen, although no on screen reference to the channel being BBC1. The clock was originally large to fit the screen best, however the size contrast between the clock and the globe resulted in difficulty at closedown, as the two do not fade easily. This issue was resolved in November 1991, when the clock was shrunk down to the same as the globe, easing fading between. The background was also altered to a ripple effect, yet retaining the smoky feel, though Scotland continued to use the old clock until 1997.\n",
"Many televisions and monitors automatically degauss their picture tube when switched on, before an image is displayed. The high current surge that takes place during this automatic degauss is the cause of an audible \"thunk\" or loud hum, which can be heard (and felt) when televisions and CRT computer monitors are switched on. Visually, this causes the image to shake dramatically for a short period of time. A degauss option is also usually available for manual selection in the operations menu in such appliances.\n",
"A CRT computer monitor with a low refresh rate (<70Hz) or a CRT television can cause similar problems because the image has a visible flicker. Aging CRTs also often go slightly out of focus, and this can cause eye strain. LCDs do not go out of focus but are also susceptible to flicker if the backlight for the LCD uses PWM for dimming. This causes the backlight to turn on and off for shorter intervals as the display becomes dimmer, creating noticeable flickering which causes eye fatigue.\n",
"A major concept used in the series was the idea of a running clock. This initially came from Joel Surnow, who wanted the audience to always know what time it was in the show's fictional timeline. This was done by an on-screen digital clock that appears before and after commercial breaks, and a smaller clock also appears at other points in the narrative. The time shown is the in-universe time of the story. When the running clock is shown full screen, an alternating pulsating beeping noise (like the kind seen on a time bomb) for each second can usually be heard. On rare occasions, a silent clock is used. This usually follows the death of a major character or an otherwise dramatic event.\n",
"Clock jitter is caused by phase noise. The resolution of ADCs with a digitization bandwidth between 1 MHz and 1 GHz is limited by jitter. For lower bandwidth conversions such as when sampling audio signals at 44.1 kHz, clock jitter has a less significant impact on performance.\n",
"A broadcast clock or format clock is a template that displays a radio or television's hourly format in a graphical representation of a clock. Broadcast programming, especially radio, often follows an hourly pattern where certain segments such as news and commercials are repeated every hour at specific times. A broadcast clock displays these segments graphically which assist broadcasters in scheduling, thereby avoiding dead air and preventing random program selections by on-air staff.\n",
"There was a hinged flip screen cover with a small window over the screen through which the system clock can be viewed for a few seconds when the \"scroll up\" button is depressed through a hole in the cover, when the unit is not in use. There was an unnoticeable buzz that you could hear if you turned on the backlight and placed the Palm next to your ear. This was due to the power regulator sending lots of power to the screen to power the backlight. Therefore, this caused the battery to drain faster than normal.\n"
] |
creative commons | Whenever a person creates a work like a photo, drawing, song, poem, etc., they own the copyright to it. That means that, aside from fair use, they have the exclusive right to distribute, sell, or otherwise use it. Creative Commons is basically a way for creators to allow others to use that work, usually with certain stipulations. Some common ones is that they cannot be used for financial gain, credit must be given to the original creator, or that the new work must also be shared with a Creative Commons license.
Fair use has a couple specifics meanings, where copyrighted work may be reproduced without the owner's permission. For example, small parts of the work can be used for educational or critical purposes. | [
"Creative Commons is an organization that “develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.” It encourages the use of protected properties online for research, education, and creative purposes in pursuit of a universal access. Creative Commons provides an infrastructure through a set of copyright licenses and tools that creates a better balance within the realm of “all rights reserved” properties. The Creative Commons license offers a slightly more lenient alternative to “all rights reserved” copyrights for those who do not wish to exclude the use of their material.\n",
"The Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that allows the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools and explicitly aims for enabling a Remix culture. They created a website that allows artists to share their work with other users, giving them the ability to share, use, or build upon their work, under the Creative Commons license. The artist can limit the copyright to specific users for specific purposes, while protecting the users and the artist.\n",
"Creative Commons launched the Science Commons project in early 2005. The project sought to achieve for science what Creative Commons had achieved for the world of culture, art and educational material: to ease unnecessary legal and technical barriers to sharing, to promote innovation, and to provide easy, high quality tools that let individuals and organizations specify the terms under which they wished to share their material.\n",
"Creative Commons attempts to counter what Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons, considers to be a dominant and increasingly restrictive permission culture. Lessig describes this as \"a culture in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past.\" Lessig maintains that modern culture is dominated by traditional content distributors in order to maintain and strengthen their monopolies on cultural products such as popular music and popular cinema, and that Creative Commons can provide alternatives to these restrictions.\n",
"Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization that provides many free copyright licenses with which contributors to the digital commons can license their work. Creative Commons is focused on the expansion of flexible copyright. For example, popular image sharing sites like Flickr and Pixabay, provide access to hundreds of millions of Creative Commons licensed images, freely available within the digital commons.\n",
"The Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization created for the purpose of housing the public domain. The Commons allows copyright owners to dedicate their works to the public domain either immediately or, with the \"Founders' Copyright\" (originally created in the first copyright law in 1790), can obtain an exclusive license for 14 or 28 years (if renewed) of copyright protection in exchange for selling their work to the Commons for one dollar after that protection has expired. Copyright owners can fill out an online application at https://creativecommons.org/ in order to apply.\n",
"Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses, known as Creative Commons licenses, free of charge to the public. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. An easy-to-understand one-page explanation of rights, with associated visual symbols, explains the specifics of each Creative Commons license. Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright but are based upon it. They replace individual negotiations for specific rights between copyright owner (licensor) and licensee, which are necessary under an \"all rights reserved\" copyright management, with a \"some rights reserved\" management employing standardized licenses for re-use cases where no commercial compensation is sought by the copyright owner. The result is an agile, low-overhead and low-cost copyright-management regime, benefiting both copyright owners and licensees.\n"
] |
why is it that we can't see gases in their pure form, yet we can see the shadows of gases on a sunny day? | Plenty of gases have color in their pure form.
We can see shadows on hot days because air expands and then moves. And light changes a few properties when switching between mediums, so that movement of air and change in density is what makes the light wavy (gives interference patterns).
But the gases in air do not reflect in the visible range. Which to be honest is kinda the point of us evolving this specific visible range to see in (so air wouldn’t get in out way). | [
"In principle, we cannot directly see a difference in temperature, a different gas, or a shock wave in the transparent air. However, all these disturbances refract light rays, so they can cast shadows. The plume of hot air rising from a fire, for example, can be seen by way of its shadow cast upon a nearby surface by the uniform sunlight.\n",
"A related hypothesis involves the natural chemiluminescence of phosphine. In 2008, the Italian chemists Luigi Garlaschelli and Paolo Boschetti attempted to recreate Mills' experiments. They successfully created a faint cool light by mixing phosphine with air and nitrogen. Though the glow was still greenish in color, Garlaschelli and Boschetti noted that under low-light conditions, the human eye cannot easily distinguish between colors. Furthermore, by adjusting the concentrations of the gases and the environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, etc.), it was possible to eliminate the smoke and smell, or at least render it to undetectable levels. Garlaschelli and Boschetti also agreed with Mills that cold flames may also be a plausible explanation for other instances of ignis fatuus.\n",
"There are several sources which contribute to the brightness of the (night) sky. Some of these are instrumental, or due to the presence of the atmosphere (like the airglow), in the case of ground-based instruments. Even if we able to minimize the effect of instrumental and atmospherical components (e.g. using a spacecraft), there are still several astrophysical components contributing to the sky background: these could be sets of point sources like faint asteroids, Galactic stars and far away galaxies, as well as diffuse sources like dust in the Solar System, in the Milky Way, and in the intergalactic space. The actual importance of a specific component depends mostly of the wavelength of the measurement. The uncertainty (or noise) of the measurements caused by the astrophysical components of the sky background is called confusion noise.\n",
"Different light sources produce differing amounts of visual sky glow. The dominant effect arises from the Purkinje shift, and not as commonly claimed from Rayleigh scattering of short wavelengths (see ). When observing the night sky, even from moderately light polluted areas, the eye becomes nearly or completely dark-adapted or scotopic. The scotopic eye is much more sensitive to blue and green light, and much less sensitive to yellow and red light, than the light-adapted or\n",
"Because of the increased sensitivity of the human eye to blue and green wavelengths when viewing low-luminances (the Purkinje effect) in the night sky, different sources produce dramatically different amounts of visible skyglow from the same amount of light sent into the atmosphere.\n",
"The Keck telescope on Hawaii reported seeing a subtle green glow and suggested it could be produced as ultraviolet light from the Sun splits molecules of carbon dioxide (), known to be common in Venus' atmosphere, into carbon monoxide () and oxygen (). However, the green light emitted as oxygen recombines to form is thought too faint to explain the effect, and it is too faint to have been observed with amateur telescopes.\n",
"There is more thermal emission than reflection at some near-infrared wavelengths for massive and/or young gas giants. So, although optical brightness is fully phase-dependent, this is not always the case in the near infrared.\n"
] |
What were the relative advantages and disadvantages of varying melee weapons during the middle ages? | Since a historian hasn't responded to your question, I hope I can post these video links from a TV show that looked at "alternative" weapons such as a flail, mace, falchion, etc. :
_URL_2_
_URL_1_
_URL_0_
The host discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of these weapons. Hope this post is OK, I can edit or delete if necessary. | [
"Later in the Middle Ages, massed archery techniques were developed. English and Welsh longbowmen in particular were famed for the volume and accuracy of their shooting, to which cavalry and poorly armoured infantry were particularly vulnerable.\n",
"For most of the Middle Ages, warfare and society were dominated by the cavalry (horse-mounted soldiers), composed of individual knights. Knights were generally drawn from the aristocracy, while the infantry levies were raised from commoners. This situation slowed the advance of infantry tactics and weapon technologies; those that were developed by the end of the Middle Ages included the use of long spears or halberds to counter the long reach of knights' lances, and the increased use of ranged weaponry to counter the cavalry's advantages of momentum, speed, height, and reach. However, from 1350 onwards the knights themselves usually dismounted for battle, becoming super-heavy infantry themselves, as a countermeasure to development of massed archery tactics which would bring their horses down. This led to development of combined arms tactics of archery and dismounted knights.\n",
"This gradual rise in the dominance of infantry led to the adoption of dismounted tactics. From the earliest times knights and mounted men-at-arms had frequently dismounted to handle enemies they could not overcome on horseback, such as in the Battle of the Dyle (891) and the Battle of Bremule (1119), but after the 1350s this trend became more marked with the dismounted men-at-arms fighting as super-heavy infantry with two-handed swords and poleaxes. In any case, warfare in the Middle Ages tended to be dominated by raids and sieges rather than pitched battles, and mounted men-at-arms rarely had any choice other than dismounting when faced with the prospect of assaulting a fortified position.\n",
"Advanced Melee was tied more closely to In the Labyrinth, and featured more combat options, such as called shots, additional weapons, and greater detail in general. Also, IQ (introduced in Wizard) becomes important for allowing a figure to use combat relevant talents, such as Fencing, Two Weapons Combat, and so forth, making figures more varied.\n",
"It is a vexed issue as to what extent specialized arms and armour were used in mêlée tournaments. A further question that might be raised is to what extent the military equipment of knights and their horses in the 12th and 13th centuries was devised to meet the perils and demands of tournaments, rather than warfare. It is, however, clear from the sources that the weapons used in tournaments were initially the same as those used in war. It is not by any means certain that swords were blunted for most of the history of the tournament. This must have changed by the mid 13th century, at least in jousting encounters. There is a passing reference to a special spear for use in jousting in the \"Prose Lancelot\" (c. 1220). In the 1252 jousting at Walden, the lances used had \"sokets\", curved ring-like punches instead of points. The \"Statute of Arms\" of Edward I of England of 1292 says that blunted knives and swords should be used in tournaments, which rather hints that their use had not been general until then.\n",
"Battles of the Middle Ages were often smaller than those involving the Roman and Grecian armies of Antiquity. Armies (much like the states of the period) were more decentralized. There was little systematic organisation of supplies and equipment. Leaders were often incompetent; their positions of authority often based on birth, not ability. Most soldiers were much more loyal to their feudal lord than their state, and insubordination within armies was common. However, the biggest difference between previous wars and those of the Middle Ages was the use of heavy cavalry, particularly knights. Knights could often easily overrun infantry armed with swords, axes, and clubs. Infantry typically outnumbered knights somewhere between five and ten to one. They supported the knights and defended any loot the formation had. Infantry armed with spears could counter the threat posed by enemy cavalry. At other times pits, caltraps, wagons or sharpened wooden stakes would be used as protection from charging cavalry, while archers brought down the enemy horsemen with arrows; the English used stakes to defend against French knights at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.\n",
"The tactics of the Middle Ages varied greatly. A large amount of tactics were still based on roman ideas. Such as the use of training, regimentation, and the phalanx. Medieval commanders may have been educated or read in Vegetius’ \"De Re Militari\" which would’ve provided the bases for battle tactics. In historiography, Charles Oman believes that cavalry entirely dominated the battlefield of the Middle Ages, but others contend that the infantry continued to play the most vital role even through the early modern age. One example of tactics and strategy is the use of secrecy in Henry II in 1004 against Bohemians, which gave Henry the element of surprise so that he was successful in his campaign. Another strategy, employed primarily by knights, was to ravage the countryside and force people to submit when they run out of supplies. The vast majority of these tactics were learned from roman times in surviving works.\n"
] |
what does the 3-2-l mean in some automatic transmissions in cars, what are their purpose? | 3rd gear, 2nd gear, Lowest gear. Automatic switches gears automatically of course, but doesn't always give you the power you may want, so those options allow you to manually downshift and give your car more power. | [
"There are currently four different engines available, the 1.6 L \"M16A\" I4 (petrol), 1.9 L \"F9Q\" I4 (diesel), 2.0 L \"J20A\" I4 (petrol) and 2.4 L \"J24B\" l4 (petrol). The transmission choices are a 5-Speed Manual or a 4-Speed Automatic Transmission (depending on engine and market). Some markets do not offer the 5-Speed Manual, and only offer a 4-Speed Automatic.\n",
"BULLET::::- \"D\" is the drive gear. It is equivalent of D in a full automatic transmission. The gearbox in an AMT car is a manual gearbox, instead of one with a torque converter as in a traditional automatic transmission.\n",
"Vehicles fitted with a 2K engine received a smaller differential (X code, ) than vehicles fitted with a 4K engine (U code, ). Differential ratios depend on the trim model and market for each car, with 3.909:1 being common for vehicles with a 2K engine, 4.3:1 for European van models, 3.727 for Japanese van models, 3.417:1 for vehicles fitted with an automatic transmission, 3.583:1 for general applications with a 4K engine, and other ratios existing for various Japanese market vehicles.\n",
"The 3.0 L V6 has been modified to reduce fuel consumption by over 10%, while the 2.3 L 4-cylinder has improved midrange torque and an electronic throttle, as well as a slight increase in power to . Both engines had been certified to meet Euro III emission regulations. A four-speed automatic carried over and was the sole transmission choice. Two different four-speed automatic transmissions were used, CD4E for 3.0 L V6 and GF4AX-EL for 2.3 L 4-cylinder.\n",
"Traditionally, the Unimog has a splitter gearbox. Over the years, three different \"base gearbox\" designs were used, all following the same principle, and having four gears and two ranges (called \"groups\") and an additional direction gear. Those designs were \"UG-1/xx\", \"UG-2/xx\", and \"UG-3/xx\". UG is an abbreviation for \"Unimog-Getriebe (Unimog-Gearbox)\", the number after the slash resembles the input torque in kp·m (=9.80665 N·m). Until 1955, the Unimog \"base gearbox\" UG-1 was a constant-mesh countershaft gearbox, it was then upgraded with synchroniser rings to a synchromesh gearbox. However, the synchromesh-version was only used for the 404-series, and the constant-mesh version remained the standard gearbox for the 411-series. In 1957, the synchromesh-version became an option for the 411-series, before it became the standard gearbox for all Unimogs in 1959. The following gearbox versions UG-2 and UG-3 were made as synchromesh versions only.\n",
"In the mechanical section, we find the two engines unchanged. This is the four-cylinder 1.6L MPI gasoline with 105 Hp and 112 Lb-ft of torque and the four-cylinder CFNA 7GV/77 kW, 1.5L TDI to diesel with 105 Hp and 184 Lb-ft of torque. The big difference is that now both are available with manual and automatic transmissions. In the previous model we only found the gasoline with the five-speed manual gearbox and the six-speed automatic Tiptronic while the diesel was only available with the five manual. Now comes a dual-clutch automatic DSG with seven \"automatic\" relationships in the diesel engine.\n",
"Some automatics, particularly those fitted to larger capacity or high torque engines, either when \"2\" is manually selected, or by engaging a winter mode, will start off in second gear instead of first, and then not shift into a higher gear until returned to \"D.\" Also note that as with most American automatic transmissions, selecting \"2\" using the selection lever will not tell the transmission to be in only 2nd gear; rather, it will simply limit the transmission to 2nd gear after prolonging the duration of 1st gear through higher speeds than normal operation. The 2000–2002 Lincoln LS V8 (the five-speed automatic \"without\" manumatic capabilities, as opposed to the optional sport package w/ manu-matic 5-speed) started in 2nd gear during most starts both in winter and other seasons by selecting the \"D5\" transmission selection notch in the shiftgate (for fuel savings), whereas \"D4\" would always start in 1st gear. This is done to reduce torque multiplication when proceeding forward from a standstill in conditions where traction was limited — on snow- or ice-covered roads, for example.\n"
] |
why do my eyes become hard to keep open when i'm tired? is it the brain trying reduce stimuli and rest? | Eyes are controlled by ciliary muscles. As do all muscles, when you are tired you muscles start to become harder to use. E.G, when you lift weights, the longer duration you lift for, the more fatigued you get. Same principle. | [
"Primary reasons is eye fatigue as a result of excessive pressure on the eyes because of reading, watching TV, computer, poor lighting, etc. Some other reasons are poor posture, poor diet, lack of sleep, etc.\n",
"When concentrating on a visually intense task, such as continuously focusing on a book or computer monitor, the ciliary muscle tightens. This can cause the eyes to get irritated and uncomfortable. Giving the eyes a chance to focus on a distant object at least once an hour usually alleviates the problem.\n",
"When the individual is awake, blinking of the eyelid causes rheum to be washed away with tears via the nasolacrimal duct. The absence of this action during sleep, however, results in a small amount of dry rheum accumulating in corners of the eye, most notably in children.\n",
"The eyes are never completely at rest. They make fast random jittering movements even when we are fixated on one point. The reason for this random movement is related to the photoreceptors and the ganglion cells. It appears that a constant visual stimulus can make the photoreceptors or the ganglion cells become unresponsive; on the other hand a changing stimulus will not. Therefore, the random eye movement constantly changes the stimuli that fall on the photoreceptors and the ganglion cells, making the image more clear.\n",
"Dry eyes can be exacerbated by smoky environments, dust and air conditioning and by our natural tendency to reduce our blink rate when concentrating. Purposefully blinking, especially during computer use and resting tired eyes are basic steps that can be taken to minimise discomfort. Rubbing one's eyes can irritate them further, so should be avoided. Conditions such as blepharitis can often co-exist and paying particular attention to cleaning the eyelids morning and night with mild soaps and warm compresses can improve both conditions.\n",
"A noted 2002 University of California animal study indicated that non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM) is necessary for turning off neurotransmitters and allowing their receptors to \"rest\" and regain sensitivity which allows monoamines (norepinephrine, serotonin and histamine) to be effective at naturally produced levels. This leads to improved regulation of mood and increased learning ability. The study also found that rapid eye movement sleep (REM) deprivation may alleviate clinical depression because it mimics selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). This is because the natural decrease in monoamines during REM is not allowed to occur, which causes the concentration of neurotransmitters in the brain, that are depleted in clinically depressed persons, to increase. Sleep outside of the REM phase may allow enzymes to repair brain cell damage caused by free radicals. High metabolic activity while awake damages the enzymes themselves preventing efficient repair. This study observed the first evidence of brain damage in rats as a direct result of sleep deprivation.\n",
"Conversely, it can be considered that if the eye-opening muscles are in a continually relaxed state, the activity of the sympathetic nervous system is reduced and parasympathetic dominance is attained. Matsuo raises the example of meditation, in which loosening the eyelids can result in a relaxation effect.[『文藝春秋』1998年12月17日号、p95] It is known that peristalsis of the digestive tract involves inhibitory action by the sympathetic nervous system and stimulatory action by the parasympathetic nervous system. Matsuo believes that because a person reading a book while standing in a bookstore will tend to have a downcast gaze, the operation of a mechanism similar to the foregoing may serve as one cause of motility being stimulated.[『週刊朝日』2003年4月18日号、p37] According to Matsuo, by maintaining such a posture for 30 minutes or longer, it is possible to recreate this symptom not only in bookstores but also in libraries, video rental stores, and supermarkets.[『文藝春秋』1998年12月17日号、p95]\n"
] |
Josip Broz Tito spoke Kyrgyz? | Tito did spend some time in what is now Kyrgyzstan during the Russian Civil War. From 1918 to 1920 he was hiding out in a village near Osh, the main city in the south of Kyrgyzstan, and eventually married an ethnic Russian from there.
However it should be noted that the region is, and was, mainly full of ethnic Uzbeks, who obviously don't speak Kyrgyz but rather Uzbek (and unlike Kazakh, I do believe Uzbek and Kyrgyz are quite different). Then there is the matter that I don't know how much interaction Tito would have had with locals, meaning ethnic Kyrgyz: they would have largely been nomadic herders at the time, largely illiterate, while the ethnic Russians (which wouldn't be many) would be more urban and literate. The Kyrgyz, like other Central Asian groups, were also rather indifferent to Bolshevism/Communism as a whole, so it further seems unlikely someone who was leaning towards that ideology would have worked close enough with the locals to learn their language. a 1953 biography by fellow Yugoslav Communist official Vladimir Dedijer also notes Tito spoke "Serbo-Croatian ... Russian, Czech, Slovenian ... German (with a Viennese accent) ... understands and reads French and Italian ... [and] also speaks Kirghiz," so he very well could have. But based on my own understanding of Central Asia and Kyrgyzstan, I would question his skills in Kyrgyz, if they did exist at all, though it would not be impossible of course. | [
"BULLET::::- 13: Yugoslav Army Colonel Draža Mihailović summons up the \"Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland\" which mostly consists of Serbs, but also includes Slovenes, Bosnians, and Croats. Mihailović treks from Bosnia into central Serbia, Ravna Gora, and issues an uprising call promising a struggle against the occupiers and the restoration of the Yugoslavian Monarchy. At this point, Josip Broz Tito and the Yugoslav Partisans are aligned with the Soviet Union which is still friendly with Germany.: The bulk of the German \"Flyer Command Iraq\" (\"Fliegerführer Irak\") arrives in Mosul to support the Iraqi government of Rashid Ali.\n",
"As regards knowledge of languages, Tito replied that he spoke Serbo-Croatian, German, Russian, and some English. Broz's official biographer and then fellow Central Committee-member Vladimir Dedijer stated in 1953 that he spoke \"Serbo-Croatian ... Russian, Czech, Slovenian ... German (with a Viennese accent) ... understands and reads French and Italian ... [and] also speaks Kirghiz.\"\n",
"On July 12, 1946, Josip Broz Tito made one of his early visits to Podgorica from the \"Radovče\" hotel, where he spoke to a crowd. It was the first of fifteen total visits made by Tito to the city after World War II.\n",
"With its proficiency and its \"unique Dalmatian spirit\", the club reportedly impressed Tito, who frequently attended matches. After the war, he invited Hajduk to move to the Yugoslav capital Belgrade and become the official Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) team, but the club refused, wanting to continue to play in their hometown of Split. One of their biggest future rivals, FK Partizan, were founded instead. However, Hajduk continued to enjoy the reputation of \"Tito's favorite\" long after the war, and it was because of the friendly relationship with the resistance, it became one of the few Yugoslav football clubs (and the only prominent one) not to be disbanded after the war by the communist government (as was the case with a number of other clubs, especially prominent ones such as BSK, Građanski, Jugoslavija, Concordia, HAŠK and Slavija).\n",
"Josip Broz (, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; , ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various roles from 1943 until his death in 1980. During World War II, he was the leader of the Partisans, often regarded as the most effective resistance movement in occupied Europe. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian and concerns about the repression of political opponents have been raised, most Yugoslavs considered him popular and a benevolent dictator. During his rule, Tito sucessfully created a cult of personality around himself, which described him as a communist war hero and liberator.\n",
"Yugoslav communist revolutionary Josip Broz Tito was the president of Yugoslavia from the 14th January 1953 till his death on the 4th May 1980. He was an extremely strong leader who many thought responsible for holding the ethnically diverse nations of Yugoslavia together for his 27-year term as president. Kosovo, an area populated by mostly Serbians with a minority Kosovar Albanians was getting more and more contentious since the death of Tito. The years from 1980-1986 involved Kosovo Albanian riots, the desecration of Serbian Orthodox architecture and graveyards. In reaction to this Stambolić sent Milošević to try and quell the ever-growing unrest in Tito’s absence. This was probably the first sign of a rift in their ideologies. No matter what, the Serbs were going to seek to stay in the region. He delivered the Speech of Milošević at Kosovo Polje. It was in stark contrast to Stambolić' sentiments he wish to convey, an attempt to bring the region together. The perspective was fiercely nationalist, ending it with:\n",
"BULLET::::- Josip Broz Tito was a leader of Yugoslav Partisans resistance movement, which was the largest in Europe. Communist by political orientation, Tito was nevertheless able to gather nationwide support for anti-fascist cause, and to persuade Allied governments that only his forces were mounting credible resistance to Axis powers in Yugoslavia. By the end of war, occupied Yugoslavia had drawn attention of no less than 20 German divisions alone, prompting several major operations in the 1942–1944 period, which were futile. Finally, with help from advancing Soviet forces, the Partisans liberated Yugoslavia, reaching at the final days of operations a respectable size of 800,000 soldiers.\n"
] |
if volcano eruptions are from pressure buildup, why not just drill and relieve the pressure? | That's a monumentally risky endeavor for so little reward. You could get seriously burned, possibly trigger a real volcanic eruption, and release toxic gases into the atmosphere. Furthermore, as long as the core is hot, volcanos will still erupt, and the nuclear fission of the uranium in the core will *keep* it hot for a long time to come. | [
"The sudden release of pressure causes the gases in the magma to suddenly froth and create volcanic ash and pumice, which is then ejected through the volcanic vent to create the signature eruption column commonly associated with explosive eruptions. The size and duration of the column depends on the volume of magma being released and how much pressure the magma was under.\n",
"An explosive eruption always begins with some form of blockage in the crater of a volcano that prevents the release of gases trapped in highly viscous andesitic or rhyolitic magma. The high viscosity of these forms of magma prevents the release of trapped gases. The pressure of the flowing magma builds until eventually the blockage is blasted out in an explosive eruption. The pressure from the magma and gases are released through the weakest point in the cone, usually the crater. However, in the case of the eruption of Mount St. Helens, pressure was released on the side of the volcano, rather than the crater.\n",
"There, the relatively low pressure allows water and other volatiles (mainly CO, SO, Cl, and HO) dissolved in the magma to escape from solution, as occurs when a bottle of carbonated water is opened, releasing CO. Once a critical volume of magma and gas accumulates, the plug (solidified blockage) of the volcanic vent is broken, leading to a sudden explosive eruption.\n",
"Fracturing rocks at great depth frequently becomes suppressed by pressure due to the weight of the overlying rock strata and the cementation of the formation. This suppression process is particularly significant in \"tensile\" (Mode 1) fractures which require the walls of the fracture to move against this pressure. Fracturing occurs when effective stress is overcome by the pressure of fluids within the rock. The minimum principal stress becomes tensile and exceeds the tensile strength of the material. Fractures formed in this way are generally oriented in a plane perpendicular to the minimum principal stress, and for this reason, hydraulic fractures in well bores can be used to determine the orientation of stresses. In natural examples, such as dikes or vein-filled fractures, the orientations can be used to infer past states of stress.\n",
"The volcanic eruptions, as well as the continuing geothermal activity, are a result of a great cove of magma located below the caldera's surface. The magma in this cove contains gases that are kept dissolved by the immense pressure under which the magma is contained. If the pressure is released to a sufficient degree by some geological shift, then some of the gases bubble out and cause the magma to expand. This can cause a chain reaction. If the expansion results in further relief of pressure, for example, by blowing crust material off the top of the chamber, the result is a very large gas explosion.\n",
"As discussed above, once the fluids are trapped within the formation and not allow to escape there is a pressure build-up leading to abnormally high formation pressures. This will generally require a mud weight of greater than 9.0 ppg to control. Excess pressure, called \"overpressure\" or \"geopressure\", can cause a well to blow out or become uncontrollable during drilling.\n",
"BULLET::::- Borehole and well hydrologic and hydraulic measurements are increasingly used to monitor changes in a volcanoes subsurface gas pressure and thermal regime. Increased gas pressure will make water levels rise and suddenly drop right before an eruption, and thermal focusing (increased local heat flow) can reduce or dry out aquifers.\n"
] |
why is it that the federal reserve can print money but america has limited inflation? | Several reasons actually. The currency(not money) that is being printed/typed into the system has not, for the most part entered the system yet. It is given to large banks (particularly the ones that are a part of or have pull with the FED) and then put into the stock market. This is done by the FED to provide collateral for the banks in exchange for them making loans that would not otherwise be made because of a high rate of default.
This money has not entered the system except for being used to buy up stocks... and you'll notice the stock market has been seeing a huge run in spite of everything else. Inflation is confined for now to skyrocketing stock prices.
Now when the loans-that-should-not-have-been-made eventually default, then the collateral will have to be used... then the currency comes back into the system everyone else uses. Now since the banks have the currency first, they get to spend it when it still has its current uninflated buying power. As the currency supply increases in the population however its buying power will decrease. People like you and me get to spend it when it buys the least.
Another reason the FED can get away with printing so much currency is the US dollars status as the world reserve currency and its use as the worlds main petrocurrency. The US government can spread the inflation across 7 billion people instead of 300 million. It's a plan that will work up until the point where the US dollar loses it's reserve currency status, or when OPEC decides it will allow people to buy oil using other currencies or commodities. If the rest of the world suddenly decides that they don't need the dollar, then all those dollars will come flooding back to the one place where it's illegal to use anything else... the US. | [
"Some protesters have argued that Federal Reserve notes (better known as dollar bills) are not actually money, because the Constitution only permits the government to \"coin\" money, and requires that such money be exchangeable for gold or silver; therefore, printed bills are instead symbols for use in bartering, and being paid in dollars is not the receipt of taxable income. This argument was brought before a court in \"Wilson v. United States\". The court responded:\n",
"BULLET::::9. The U.S. Treasury sells this newly printed money to the Federal Reserve for the cost of printing. This is about 6 cents per bill for any denomination. Aside from printing costs, the Federal Reserve must pledge collateral (typically government securities such as Treasury bonds) to put new money, which does not replace old notes, into circulation. This printed cash can then be distributed to banks, as needed.\n",
"BULLET::::- Printing Presses A frequent expression of political writers is to equate an expanding monetary base to the government ramping up the printing presses to print more dollars. An inaccurate expression as most new assets are purchased with fabricated Federal Reserve Deposits and not Federal Reserve Notes.\n",
"Rothbard argues that the claim that the Federal Reserve is designed to fight inflation is sophistry, that price inflation is caused only by an increase in the money supply, and that since only banks increase the money supply, then banks, including the Federal Reserve, are the only source of inflation. He writes:\n",
"This is a reason offered in support of free banking, a gold or silver standard, or (at a minimum) the reduction of political control of central banks, which could then ensure currency stability by controlling monetary expansion (limiting inflation). Hard-money advocates argue that central banks have failed to attain a stable currency. Since the US Federal Reserve was formed in 1913, the US dollar has fallen to barely one-twentieth of its former value due to the bank's inflationary policies. Economists counter that deflation is difficult to control once it sets in, and its effects are more damaging than modest, consistent inflation.\n",
"Today, like the currency of most nations, the dollar is fiat money, unbacked by any physical asset. A holder of a federal reserve note has no right to demand an asset such as gold or silver from the government in exchange for a note. Consequently, some proponents of the intrinsic theory of value believe that the near-zero marginal cost of production of the current fiat dollar detracts from its attractiveness as a medium of exchange and store of value because a fiat currency without a marginal cost of production is easier to debase via overproduction and the subsequent inflation of the money supply.\n",
"Federal Reserve Notes are printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), a bureau of the Department of the Treasury. When Federal Reserve Banks require additional notes for circulation, they must post collateral in the form of direct federal obligations, private bank obligations, or assets purchased through open market operations. If the notes are newly printed, they also pay the BEP for the cost of printing (about 4¢ per note). This differs from the issue of coins, which are purchased for their face value.\n"
] |
How did the titles of "Roman Emperor" and "King of the Franks", both held by Charlemagne, become separated? | So [this excellent post](_URL_0_) a week ago by /u/idjet explains the circumstances of the passing on of Charlemagne's imperial title, as well as whether he intended to do so or not.
However, whatever the details were, after the division of the empire after the death of Charlemagne's surviving son Louis the Pious, the title was passed to Louis' son Lothair because in the triparte split of the empire, Lothair possessed the core Frankish lands in middle francia as well as Italy and Rome. And since it was understood that in order to be emperor, one needed to be in possession of Rome, Lothair was thus designated the emperor.
This continued on after his death with his son Louis II, who was emperor even though he possessed no part of the former frankish homelands, and only retained the title King of Italy. Though the empire, the imperial title, and the frankish royal title would be reunited again under Charles the Bald and Charles the Fat, after the latter's deposition, you would see a similar situation as to what happened with Charlemagne. The various component kingdoms of the Carolingian Empire would be divied up (although this time the inheritors would not necessarily be Carolingians), and it only took someone in possession of the title of King of Italy to be crowned emperor (although not all kings of italy would be crowned emperor). And they would only be crowned because there was a need for legitimation or other political concerns, local entirely to Italy, as opposed to the rest of the former Carolingian Empire.
Which is how, the titles of "King of the Franks" and its successor titles, King of the West Franks (West Francia), Middle Franks/Francia (Lotharingia/Lorraine) and East Franks/Francia came to be split from the imperial title. | [
"For this reason, Charlemagne, the King of the Franks and King of Italy, was crowned Emperor of the Romans (\"Imperator Romanorum\") by Pope Leo III, as the successor of Constantine VI as Roman Emperor under the concept of \"translatio imperii\". The Eastern Empire eventually relented to recognizing Charlemagne and his successors as emperors, but as \"Frankish\" and \"German emperors\", at no point referring to them as Roman, a label they reserved for themselves.\n",
"On Christmas Day, 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charles as \"Emperor of the Romans\" in Rome in a ceremony presented as a surprise (Charlemagne did not wish to be indebted to the bishop of Rome), a further papal move in the series of symbolic gestures that had been defining the mutual roles of papal \"auctoritas\" and imperial \"potestas.\" Though Charlemagne preferred the title \"Emperor, king of the Franks and Lombards\", the ceremony formally acknowledged the ruler of the Franks as the Roman Emperor, triggering disputes with the Byzantine Empire, which had maintained the title since the division of the Roman Empire into East and West. The pope's right to proclaim successors was based on the Donation of Constantine, a forged Roman imperial decree. After an initial protest at the usurpation, the Byzantine Emperor Michael I Rhangabes acknowledged in 812 Charlemagne as co-emperor, according to some. According to others, Michael I reopened negotiations with the Franks in 812 and recognized Charlemagne as \"basileus\" (emperor), but not as emperor of the Romans. The coronation gave permanent legitimacy to Carolingian primacy among the Franks. The Ottonians later resurrected this connection in 962.\n",
"Charlemagne, crowned Roman Emperor in 800 AD, is sometimes considered as a forerunner of the Holy Roman Empire. Most historians today reject this view, arguing that the Holy Roman Empire had different antecedents and a different constitution, and the Holy Roman Emperor had a different status and role than Charlemagne and his successors. After the collapse of Charlemagne's empire, the Imperial crown was initially disputed among the Carolingian rulers of Western Francia (France) and Eastern Francia (Germany), with first the western king (Charles the Bald) and then the eastern (Charles the Fat) attaining the prize. However, after the death of Charles the Fat in 888, the empire broke asunder, never to be restored. According to Regino of Prüm, each part of the realm elected a \"kinglet\" from its own \"bowels\". After the death of Charles the Fat, those who were crowned Emperors by the Pope controlled only territories in Italy. The last of such Emperors was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924.\n",
"Upon the death of Emperor Charles the Fat in 888, the empire of Charlemagne was divided into several territories: East Francia, West Francia, the kingdoms of Lower and Upper Burgundy, and the Kingdom of Italy, with each of the realms being ruled by its own king. Though the pope in Rome continued to invest the kings of Italy as \"emperors\" to rule Charlemagne's empire, these \"Italian emperors\" never exercised any authority north of the Alps. When Berengar I of Italy was assassinated in 924, the last nominal heir to Charlemagne was dead and the imperial title was left unclaimed.\n",
"Charlemagne's coronation as Emperor, though intended to represent the continuation of the unbroken line of Emperors from Augustus to Constantine VI, had the effect of setting up two separate (and often opposing) Empires and two separate claims to imperial authority. For centuries to come, the Emperors of both West and East would make competing claims of sovereignty over the whole.\n",
"Charlemagne (; ) or Charles the Great (2 April 742 – 28 January 814), numbered Charles I, was king of the Franks from 768, king of the Lombards from 774, and emperor of the Romans from 800. During the Early Middle Ages, he united the majority of western and central Europe. He was the first recognised emperor to rule from western Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state that Charlemagne founded is called the Carolingian Empire. He was later canonized by Antipope Paschal III.\n",
"On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the earlier ancient Western Roman Empire in 476. The title continued in the Carolingian family until 888 and from 896 to 899, after which it was contested by the rulers of Italy in a series of civil wars until the death of the last Italian claimant, Berengar I, in 924. The title was revived again in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne and beginning a continuous existence of the empire for over eight centuries. Some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, describing a gradual assumption of the imperial title and role.\n"
] |
why acceleration is constant in a vacuum, and an airplane would fall at the same velocity as a tennis ball? | Because in a vacuum a moving object has no resistance acting on it. Clarify the second part of the question please. | [
"If a projectile, such as a baseball or cricket ball, travels in a parabolic path, with negligible air resistance, and if a player is positioned so as to catch it as it descends, he sees its angle of elevation increasing continuously throughout its flight. The tangent of the angle of elevation is proportional to the time since the ball was sent into the air, usually by being struck with a bat. Even when the ball is really descending, near the end of its flight, its angle of elevation seen by the player continues to increase. The player therefore sees it as if it were ascending vertically at constant speed. Finding the place from which the ball appears to rise steadily helps the player to position himself correctly to make the catch. If he is too close to the batsman who has hit the ball, it will appear to rise at an accelerating rate. If he is too far from the batsman, it will appear to slow rapidly, and then to descend.\n",
"Further refinements to the motion of the ball can be made by taking into account air resistance (and related effects such as drag and wind), the Magnus effect, and buoyancy. Because lighter balls accelerate more readily, their motion tends to be affected more by such forces.\n",
"If that angle is to high or too low, then you won't be maximizing your ball flight. Loft also affects the spin of the golf ball coming off the face, which has major impacts on the flight of the ball. There are three main types of spin that can be put on the ball.\n",
"The constant angular velocity in the body frame leads to a balance of moments, as well. Most notably, the pitching moment being zero puts a constraint on the longitudinal motion of the aircraft that can be used to determine the elevator control input.\n",
"The speed at which an aircraft is capable of its maximum aerodynamic maneuverability is known as the corner airspeed; at any greater speed the control surfaces cannot operate at maximum effect due to either airframe stresses or induced instability from turbulent airflow over the control surface. At lower speeds the redirection of air over control surfaces, and thus the force applied to maneuver the aircraft, is reduced below the airframe's maximum capacity and thus the aircraft will not turn at its maximum rate. It is therefore desirable in aerobatic maneuvering to maintain corner velocity.\n",
"where \"m\" is the mass of the ball, and \"g\" is the gravitational acceleration, which on Earth varies between and . Because the other forces are usually small, the motion is often idealized as being only under the influence of gravity. If only the force of gravity acts on the ball, the mechanical energy will be conserved during its flight. In this idealized case, the equations of motion are given by\n",
"BULLET::::2. If the ball is moving much more rapidly than it was spinning, translational friction will dominate. The ball's angular velocity will be increased after impact, but its horizontal velocity will be decreased. The ball will not exceed its original height and will keep spinning in the same direction.\n"
] |
what is social engineering? | Social structures can be 'hacked' just like physical and digital structures can - and it's often easier to approach an intrusion problem from this standpoint.
Actually hacking into the DMV database is a relatively difficult task. However, pretending to be an IT consultant and tricking those with passwords to the database into revealing them is comparatively easy. That no-tech-skills-required approach is 'social engineering'.
As for being a science, no. It's no more a science than selling used cars is a science. It's mostly just being able to interact with people effectively.
In terms of a negative context, social engineering is fundamentally about tricking people into doing what you want them to do. While it often involves a degree of research - you need to know who the gatekeepers are before you can trick them into opening the gate - it's little different than any other con game.
From the standpoint of the hacker community, it's also often considered a 'lesser' form of hacking. Hacking is, in some ways, a competitive intellectual activity. It's not just enough to intrude into a privileged system but you have to do it in a clever or skilled way. Hacking a shipping database to have the next delivery to your local supermarket directed to your doorstep is cool. Throwing a brick through their window at night and carrying off that delivery is not. | [
"Social engineering is a discipline in social science that refers to efforts to influence particular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale, whether by governments, media or private groups in order to produce desired characteristics in a target population. Social engineering can also be understood philosophically as a deterministic phenomenon where the intentions and goals of the architects of the new social construct are realized.\n",
"Social engineering can be carried out by any organization, without regard to scale, or sponsorship in the public or private sector. Some of the most comprehensive, and most pervasive campaigns of social engineering are those initiated by powerful central governments with the systems of authority to widely affect the individuals and cultures within their purview.\n",
"Social constructions are human created ideas, objects, or events created by a series of choices and interactions. These interactions have consequences that change the perception that different groups of people have on these constructs. Some examples of social construction include class, race, money, and citizenship.\n",
"One example of social engineering is an individual who walks into a building and posts an official-looking announcement to the company bulletin that says the number for the help desk has changed. So, when employees call for help the individual asks them for their passwords and IDs thereby gaining the ability to access the company's private information.\n",
"Overall, organizational engineering gives a way to understand, measure, predict and guide human behavior for both individuals and groups. Its objective is to produce visible, positive results of significant consequence and magnitude. It is able to consistently accomplish this objective in any situation that meets the mutual dependency criteria characteristic of goal directed organizations. This has been demonstrated in domestic and international contexts.\n",
"Caution in social engineering methods includes consideration of the inherent incompleteness of their body of information and how it affects their utilization of tools at hand. Analysis of social engineering goals and their desirability—which includes the desires of the community which they desire to engineer—answer the question of the ethics of disclosure. Social engineering without consent is a violation of the culture, and constitutes an assault tantamount to a rape, or seizing by force of that culture raptio. Consent, full disclosure and involvement, presents additional difficulties which help to avoid marginalization and feelings of violation within the culture. Long-term attempts at social engineering in the Middle East may be considered to have extreme backlash, as a result of being non inclusive of the cultural values, body of reliable information, or utilization of effective tools.\n",
"Berger and Luckmann introduced the term \"social construction\" into the social sciences and were strongly influenced by the work of Alfred Schütz. Their central concept is that people and groups interacting in a social system create, over time, concepts or mental representations of each other's actions, and that these concepts eventually become habituated into reciprocal roles played by the actors in relation to each other. When these roles are made available to other members of society to enter into and play out, the reciprocal interactions are said to be institutionalized. In the process, meaning is embedded in society. Knowledge and people's conceptions (and beliefs) of what reality is become embedded in the institutional fabric of society. Reality is therefore said to be socially constructed.\n"
] |
how do celebrities tweet and reply to other celebrities on twitter considering there are thousands of people tweeting them as well? | There are services and software you can use with twitter to let you know when a certain user tweets you or posts a tweet, chances are most celebrities don't even see their fans tweets unless a pr person alerts them to one they should reply to. | [
"The most popular United Kingdom celebrities on Twitter come from television with people like Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross being amongst the most popular British celebrities on the site. Fry's success on Twitter is credited with being the same person on Twitter that he is off Twitter.\n",
"Twitter is also used by many celebrities and others in the entertainment industry (news magazines, journalists, entertainment news shows, etc...) as a way to personally connect with fans, promote projects, and break news. Celebrity tweets are often subjects of headline news and sometimes used by the mainstream media and several news outlets as a primary source for confirming information pertaining to a particular story about a celebrity. CNN Breaking News, E! Online, Perez Hilton, and People Magazine are a few entertainment news outlets that have millions of Twitter followers. In June 2010, 24-year-old actress Amanda Bynes shocked the entertainment industry by announcing her retirement via Twitter. She tweeted \"I don't love acting anymore so I've stopped doing it.\" However, a month later, Bynes announced to her followers that she had \"unretired.\" Various news sources reported on this story, breaking the news directly from the actress's Twitter page. During the 83rd Academy Awards there were 1,269,970 tweets related to the event.\n",
"The use of Twitter by celebrities and politicians has become an important factor both for Twitter itself and for the celebrity users. As with many other social networking WWW sites, the postings and pictures by celebrity users attracts people to the site, which increases opportunity for advertising. To this end, Twitter has provided two facilities to its high-profile users.\n",
"Twitter-certified celebrities can also log into Flitto through their Twitter accounts and leave a voice message that will be translated into 18 different languages. Celebrities use Flitto to communicate with their fans, and users can share their favorite celebrities's voice messages to their other social media accounts. Various K-pop stars such as members of Super Junior including Henry and Siwon, Teen Top, Block B, G.NA, etc. use Flitto as a platform to leave messages for global fans.\n",
"Most high-profile celebrities participate in social networking and photo or video hosting platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Social networking sites allow celebrities to communicate directly with their fans, removing the middle-man known as traditional media. Social media humanizes celebrities in a way that arouses public fascination as evident by the success of magazines such as \"Us Weekly\" and \"People Weekly\". Celebrity blogging have also spawned stars such as Perez Hilton who is well known for not only blogging, but also outing celebrities.\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Who Tweeted\", in which a host (typically Samm Levine) reads tweets from the Twitter accounts of three female celebrities (the list of actresses varies, but typically includes Demi Moore (or, more recently, Justin Bieber), Tyra Banks, and Paris Hilton) and Pollak and his guest compete against each other game-show-style to guess who authored each tweet.\n",
"Twitter is used by TV operators and broadcasters to try to encourage viewers to get involved. This can take the form of on-screen hashtags, having celebrities tweet while a show airs, or contests around a TV show. Notable examples include Comedy Central using Twitter hashtags during the Comedy Awards and BBC QuestionTime encouraging political debate. the During the 2011 Oscars, there were over 10,000 tweets per minute- with the event racking up 1.8 million tweets overall. During the 2011 Super Bowl, tweets peaked at 4,000 per second. In the UK, daily television shows also receive attention on Twitter, although the levels of activity is lower than a major TV event like the Oscars.\n"
] |
Would it ever be possible to create a mirror that reflects 100% of the light it's exposed to? | Yes, but not in the traditional sense.
Mirrors are normally made of a polished metal surface covered by glass. This kinds of mirrors are theoretically unable to achieve perfect reflection.
It is possible to achieve perfect reflection using total internal reflection, and it has been done before. It wouldn't work like your traditional mirror because firstly, it only works for certain wavelengths of light and certain angles. Secondly, TIR only works when light travels from media with a higher refractive index to a lower one. This means that a flat mirror will not work. | [
"Almost any dielectric material can act as a perfect mirror through total internal reflection. This effect only occurs at shallow angles, however, and only for light inside the material. The effect happens when light goes from a medium with a higher index of refraction to one with a lower value (like air).\n",
"A mirror provides the most common model for specular light reflection, and typically consists of a glass sheet with a metallic coating where the significant reflection occurs. Reflection is enhanced in metals by suppression of wave propagation beyond their skin depths. Reflection also occurs at the surface of transparent media, such as water or glass.\n",
"For scientific optical work, dielectric mirrors are often used. These are glass (or sometimes other material) substrates on which one or more layers of dielectric material are deposited, to form an optical coating. By careful choice of the type and thickness of the dielectric layers, the range of wavelengths and amount of light reflected from the mirror can be specified. The best mirrors of this type can reflect 99.999% of the light (in a narrow range of wavelengths) which is incident on the mirror. Such mirrors are often used in lasers.\n",
"A mirror is an object that reflects light in such a way that, for incident light in some range of wavelengths, the reflected light preserves many or most of the detailed physical characteristics of the original light, called specular reflection. This is different from other light-reflecting objects that do not preserve much of the original wave signal other than color and diffuse reflected light, such as flat-white paint.\n",
"Dielectric mirrors are glass or other substrates on which one or more layers of dielectric material are deposited, to form an optical coating. A very complex dielectric mirror can reflect up to 99.999% of the light incident upon it, for a narrow range of wavelengths and angles. A simpler mirror may reflect 99.9% of the light, but may cover a broader range of wavelengths.\n",
"The lowest reflection can be achieved with multi-layer anti-reflective coatings, which can be applied by either magnetron sputtering, evaporation or sol-gel process (or other processes, which can control the uniformity of deposition on nanometer-scale), and can reduce the light reflection to lower than 0.25% per side (0.5% total).\n",
"A new type of dielectric \"perfect mirror\" was developed in 1998 by researchers at MIT. These unusual mirrors are very efficient reflectors over a broad range of angles and wavelengths, and are insensitive to polarization. A version of the perfect mirror that was developed at MIT for military use is used by OmniGuide in laser surgery.\n"
] |
why are there airpockets in underwater caves that are clearly under sealevel? | The caves may have a hidden opening or cracks somewhere to allow air in. If not the air pockets may come from methane or carbon dioxide from degradation of organic matter on the sea floor or some kind of natural gas pocket. It's unlikely that any air pockets in an underwater cave would be breathable since sunlight would be needed for plants or algae to make oxygen.
Another theory could be that the cave was above sea level at some point and the rising ocean could have caused air to be trapped in the cave. | [
"BULLET::::- This lack of bubbles allows wreck divers to enter enclosed areas on sunken ships without slowly filling them with air, which can accelerate rusting, and is also an advantage in cave diving if there is loose material on the ceiling which can be dislodged by bubbles, reducing visibility.\n",
"The cave has been a controversial aspect of the spring. During the early 1990s, 13 divers died while exploring it. The state of Florida threatened to ban diving near cave entrances as a result of frequent cave diving accidents, but local divers responded by developing a special cave diving certification that became the standard requirement for sections of underwater caves known to be particularly hazardous. Vortex Spring complied with this by erecting a locked underwater gate at the entrance to the dangerous section of the cave. Only those who have valid cave diving certificates are permitted to enter, requiring a staff member to unlock the gate, and typically accompany them during the dive.\n",
"Barr's 1961 discussion of the cave says that the cave was intersected by a railway tunnel, and thus the cave accumulated soot that led to its closing to tourists. He says that \"exploring of the cave is unpleasant because of the necessity of wading, crawling, climbing, and becoming covered with soot, which coats all the upward-facing surfaces.\" He says the soot extends well over a mile into the cave.\n",
"Despite these risks, water-filled caves attract scuba divers, cavers, and speleologists due to their often unexplored nature, and present divers with a technical diving challenge. Underwater caves have a wide range of physical features, and can contain fauna not found elsewhere.\n",
"The cave passages in the park are said to \"breathe\" as air continually moves into or out of them, equalizing the atmospheric pressure of the cave and the outside air. When the air pressure is higher outside the cave than inside it, air flows into the cave, raising the cave's pressure to match the outside pressure. When the air pressure inside the cave is higher than outside it, air flows out of the cave, lowering the air pressure within the cave. A large cave such as Wind Cave with only a few small openings will \"breathe\" more obviously than a small cave with many large openings.\n",
"The cave is commonly used as an introduction to caving for novice and inexperienced cavers, although in wet weather water levels can rise to a dangerous extent. In 2007, a man and woman both drowned in the same incident, and in 2008 two separate groups were trapped in the cave during storms, although no lives were lost.\n",
"An airlock may also be used underwater to allow passage between an air environment in a pressure vessel and the water environment outside, in which case the airlock can contain air or water. This is called a floodable airlock or an underwater airlock, and is used to prevent water from entering a submersible vessel or an underwater habitat.\n"
] |
How are the causes of airplane crashes identified? | Well, from the "something broke in the air" perspective; fractures that occured in the past look a lot different than fresh ones, and fractures from impact look a lot different than fractures [from other causes.](_URL_1_)
Imagine a crack in a steel part, for example. If the crack slowly propagates until the part snaps, you'll have a fracture that is half old and rusty, half fresh and clean. The rusty half will probably be all ratty as well, while the final fracture will be relatively straight and clean.
Also, some types of damage look very unique. For example, you might see some [fretting](_URL_0_) at the location of a fracture. That fretting would be highly suspect as the cause of the failure. If failure of that component led to a loss of control that matches the final moments of flight then you can be pretty sure that's the cause of the accident. Note, the picture is from a shaft in a helicopter that was removed prior to breaking. This particular failure mode is apparently quite common for this part.
There's a zillion things like that, and it would take a whole book (for example, ["why things break"](_URL_2_)) to explain all of them, but the long and short is that damage from an impact does not look like damage that occured before impact.
| [
"A first report by the Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Investigation was published in May 2013. It listed the known facts of the accident without identifying a cause. The cause of the accident was still unclear .\n",
"United States civil aviation incidents are investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). NTSB officials piece together evidence from the crash site to determine likely cause, or causes. The NTSB also investigates overseas incidents involving US-registered aircraft, in collaboration with local investigative authorities, especially when there is significant loss of American lives, or when the involved aircraft is American built.\n",
"In aviation accidents and incidents, these contributing actions typically stem from human factor-related mistakes and pilot error, rather than mechanical failure. A study conducted by Boeing found that 55% of airline accidents between 1959 and 2005 were caused by such human related factors, while only 17% of accidents were caused by mechanical issues with the aircraft.\n",
"On the day of the crash, an investigative commission was established by the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) to determine the circumstances and causes of the crash. The investigation is led by Russian air accident investigators, and includes representatives of the aviation authorities of the United Arab Emirates (the state of the aircraft's registration and operator), the United States (where the aircraft's designer and manufacturer is headquartered) and France (where the aircraft's engines were designed). The U.S. team consists of air accident investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), experts from Boeing and representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).\n",
"The examination of all of the factual evidence is consistent with the conclusions that: 1) no airplane-related mechanical malfunctions or failures caused or contributed to the accident, and 2) the accident can be explained by intentional pilot action. Specifically, a) the accident airplane’s flight profile is consistent with sustained manual nose-down flight control inputs; b) the evidence suggests that the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was intentionally disconnected; c) recovery of the airplane was possible but not attempted; and d) it is more likely that the nose-down flight control inputs were made by the captain than by the first officer.\n",
"Investigations were unable to determine the exact cause of the accident but it was theorized that a part of the aircraft detached and damaged the tail or that an aircraft flight control system failed. Another theory was that the flight was brought down by a surface-to-air missile, but no evidence supporting this ever surfaced.\n",
"One of the popular conspiracy theories surrounding this event is that Flight 93 was actually shot down by a U.S. fighter jet. David Ray Griffin and Alex Jones say that large parts of the plane including the main body of the engine landed miles away from the main wreckage site, too far away for an ordinary plane crash. Jones says that planes usually leave a small debris field when they crash, and that this is not compatible with reports of wreckage found farther away from the main crash site. One person claimed that the main body of the engine was found miles away from the main wreckage site with damage comparable to that which a heat-seeking missile would do to an airliner.\n"
] |
To what extent was Stalin responsible for the Korean war? | According to Halberstam's "The Coldest Winter" page 49
"Stalin was playing a delicate game, flashing a half-green, half-amber light on the invasion."
Halberstam later states that Stalin gave Kim permission, but kept his involvement to a minimum and told Kim to rely on China for any material support. There's later an assertion on page 345 that Stalin had promised air cover to Chinese troops, but reneged on his promise.
This sounds like the mainstream theory, I'm unaware of any alternate theories.
EDIT: Spelling | [
"Despite the expenses and regardless of who paid them, it must also be said that the Korean War provided approximately thirty thousand Soviet military personnel valuable experience in waging local wars. The conflict also allowed the Soviets the opportunity to test several new forms of armament, in particular the MiG-15 combat aircraft. Furthermore, numerous models of American military equipment were captured, which made it possible for Soviet engineers and scientists to reverse engineer American technology, and use what they learned for the development of new forms of their own armaments. According to declassified Soviet documents released after the fall of the USSR, Stalin himself may have been the main obstacle for peace in Korea specifically because of the intelligence gathered on the American war machine, and the testing of new Soviet military equipment during the conflict.\n",
"Stalin initially did not think the time was right for a war in Korea. PLA forces were still embroiled in the Chinese Civil War, while US forces remained stationed in South Korea. By spring 1950, he believed that the strategic situation had changed: PLA forces under Mao Zedong had secured final victory in China, US forces had withdrawn from Korea, and the Soviets detonated their first nuclear bomb, breaking the US atomic monopoly. As the US had not directly intervened to stop the communist victory in China, Stalin calculated that they would be even less willing to fight in Korea, which had much less strategic significance. The Soviets had also cracked the codes used by the US to communicate with their embassy in Moscow, and reading these dispatches convinced Stalin that Korea did not have the importance to the US that would warrant a nuclear confrontation. Stalin began a more aggressive strategy in Asia based on these developments, including promising economic and military aid to China through the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance.\n",
"At the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union and the United States divided up the Korean Peninsula, formerly a Japanese colonial possession, along the 38th parallel, setting up a communist government in the north and a pro-Western government in the south. North Korean leader Kim Il-sung visited Stalin in March 1949 and again in March 1950; he wanted to invade the south and although Stalin was initially reluctant to provide support, he eventually agreed by May 1950. The North Korean Army launched the Korean War by invading the south in June 1950, making swift gains and capturing Seoul. Both Stalin and Mao believed that a swift victory would ensue. The U.S. went to the UN Security Council—which the Soviets were boycotting over its refusal to recognise Mao's government—and secured military support for the South Koreans. U.S. led forces pushed the North Koreans back. Stalin wanted to avoid direct Soviet conflict with the U.S., convincing the Chinese to aid the North.\n",
"Before the outbreak of the Korean War, Joseph Stalin equipped the KPA with modern tanks, trucks, artillery, and small arms (at the time, the South Korean Army had nothing remotely comparable either in numbers of troops or equipment). During the opening phases of the Korean War in 1950, the KPA quickly drove South Korean forces south and captured Seoul, only to lose 70,000 of their 100,000-strong army in the autumn after U.S. amphibious landings at the Battle of Incheon and a subsequent drive to the Yalu River. On 4 November, China openly staged a military intervention. On 7 December, Kim Il-sung was deprived of the right of command of KPA by China. The KPA subsequently played a secondary minor role to Chinese forces in the remainder of the conflict. By the time of the Armistice in 1953, the KPA had sustained 290,000 casualties and lost 90,000 men as POWs.\n",
"The Korean War had been enormously costly to China, especially coming on the heels of the civil war, and it delayed postwar reconstruction. As a result, Mao Zedong declared that the nation would \"lean to the east\", meaning that the Soviet Union and the communist bloc would be its principal allies. Three months after the PRC was established in October 1949, Mao and his delegation traveled to Moscow. They were not received warmly by Stalin, who doubted if they really were Marxists and not simply a group of Chinese nationalists. He had also recognized Chiang Kai-Shek's government, and furthermore distrusted any communist movement that was not under his direct control. After a meeting with Mao, the Soviet leader remarked \"What sort of a man is Mao? He seems to have some idea of revolution involving the peasants, but not the workers.\" Eventually, a frustrated Mao was ready to go home, but Zhou Enlai refused to leave without a formal agreement. Thus, the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Friendship was signed and the Chinese at last departed in February 1950.\n",
"Stalin did consider the possibility of war in Asia, as opposed to Europe. In January 1950, he approved Kim Il Sung's proposal to conquer South Korea in what became the Korean War that summer, believing that victory there would discredit NATO. The gambit backfired, however; despite their initial optimism the Communists were unable to defeat the US-led forces in Korea, and the war greatly increased Western military spending, for the first time making NATO a significant threat against the Soviets in Europe. By late 1950, the USSR notified its Eastern European satellites to prepare for war by the end of 1952, a date matching Western estimates. In early 1951, based on an alleged NATO plan to launch a European war that year from Western proxy Yugoslavia during the Informbiro period as a response to its defeat in Korea, he ordered a massive increase in Eastern European forces that hurt the weaker Communist economies. Based on the Korean precedent, the Soviets apparently expected that the West would not use atomic weapons in a European war. During Stalin's lifetime, Soviet doctrine foresaw the next war as a more destructive version of World War II similarly decided by giant armies supported by massive home fronts, a type of conflict which benefited from the Soviet Union's innate strengths.\n",
"The Kremlin controlled the socialist states that it established in the parts of Eastern Europe its army occupied in 1945. After eliminating capitalism and its advocates, it linked them to the USSR in terms of economics through COMECON and later the military through the Warsaw Pact. In 1948, relations with Yugoslavia disintegrated over mutual distrust between Stalin and Tito. A similar split happened with Albania in 1955. Like Yugoslavia and Albania, China was never controlled by the Soviet Army. The Kremlin wavered between the two factions fighting the Chinese Civil War, but ultimately supported the winner, Mao Zedong. Stalin and Mao both supported North Korea in its invasion of South Korea 1950. But the United States and the United Nations mobilized the counterforce in the Korean War (1950–53). Moscow provided air support but no ground troops; China sent in its large army that eventually stalemated the war. By 1960, disagreements between Beijing and Moscow had escalated out of control, and the two nations became bitter enemies in the contest for control of worldwide communist activities.\n"
] |
how does cold air reach body temp in your lungs so fast? | There are small sacs in your lungs that bring the incoming air in close contact with your circulatory system. This quickly brings the air close to body temperature , as well as enabling the transfer of oxygen and carbon dioxide. | [
"BULLET::::- The wind chill factor measures the effect of wind speed on cooling of the human body below 10 °C (50 °F). As airflow increases over the skin, more heat will be removed. Standard models and conditions are used.\n",
"In the lungs a temperature of 37 °C and 100% relative humidity (RH) is the ideal condition for the ciliary activity. If the conditions are too warm or cold, the cilia beat slower and at some point not at all. During normal nasal inspiration, air of 22 °C and 40% RH is conditioned into air of 32 °C and 99% RH at the level of the trachea.\n",
"If the adiabatic lapse rate is \"lower\" than the ambient lapse rate, an air mass displaced upward cools \"less\" rapidly than the air in which it is moving. Hence, such an air mass becomes \"warmer\" relative to the atmosphere. As warmer air is less dense, such an air mass would tend to continue to rise.\n",
"We use our nose and throat as a regenerative heat exchanger when we breathe. The cooler air coming in is warmed, so that it reaches the lungs as warm air. On the way back out, this warmed air deposits much of its heat back onto the sides of the nasal passages, so that these passages are then ready to warm the next batch of air coming in. Some animals, including humans, have curled sheets of bone inside the nose called nasal turbinates to increase the surface area for heat exchange.\n",
"In HVAC, air speed is defined as the rate of air movement at a point, without regard to direction. According to ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55, it is the average speed of the air to which the body is exposed, with respect to location and time. The temporal average is the same as the air temperature, while the spatial average is based on the assumption that the body is exposed to a uniform air speed, according to the SET thermo-physiological model.\n",
"As the air surrounding one's body is warmed by body heat, it will rise and be replaced with other air. If air is moved away from one's body with a natural breeze or a fan, sweat will evaporate faster, making perspiration more effective at cooling the body. The more unevaporated perspiration, the greater the discomfort.\n",
"Respiratory humidification during surgery helps maintain body temperature and normal function of the respiratory mucosa. In the same way that some animals pant to lose excess body heat, heat is lost through the lungs during mechanical or assisted ventilation. Heated humidification of respiratory gases during surgery has been demonstrated to reduce the fall in core body temperature, especially in surgeries lasting longer than one hour. The lungs can be insufflated with respiratory gases that are heated to near body temperature and humidified to 90 to 100% relative humidity(RH). Normally, air in the lungs is at core body temperature and at close to 100% RH. Especially when cold dry gases (such as anhydrous compressed gas from oxygen tanks) are used, it cool and can dry the airway. The body then utilizes energy to evaporate sufficient water from the lungs to maintain lung gas temperature and humidity. It is generally estimated that 10 percent of the loss of body heat during surgery is from the respiratory tract. Especially in open surgery (rather than endoscopic / robotic surgery), respiratory humidification can be used in concert with forced air warming blankets or gowns, warmed IV, and irrigation fluids to prevent hypothermia.\n"
] |
If I have a system of mirrors that makes 300 million meters could I see the speed of light? | Yes you can. This is used to determine the speed of light experimentally (There is an easy demonstration using fast rotating mirrors, look at how Fizeau and Foucault measured it in in the 19th century).
You can also do an easy experiment if you have access to an oscilloscope. An electromagnetic signal moves at the speed of light. In a standard 50 Ohm coaxial cable this is about 60% the speed of light in vacuum. So if you send an em pulse from e.g. a pulse generator to two channels of the oscilloscope, one via a short cable, the other via a cable 10 m longer, you will see a time difference of the signals of t = s/c = 5x10-8 s = 50 ns, which is easily observable. Make the cable twice as long, the time difference doubles as well. | [
"Another more accurate measurement of the speed of light was performed in Europe by Hippolyte Fizeau in 1849. Fizeau directed a beam of light at a mirror several kilometers away. A rotating cog wheel was placed in the path of the light beam as it traveled from the source, to the mirror and then returned to its origin. Fizeau found that at a certain rate of rotation, the beam would pass through one gap in the wheel on the way out and the next gap on the way back. Knowing the distance to the mirror, the number of teeth on the wheel, and the rate of rotation, Fizeau was able to calculate the speed of light as 313,000,000 m/s.\n",
"Another example: when the speed of light (exactly by the definition of the meter and second) is expressed as 3.00 × 10 m/s or 3.00 × 10 km/s then it is clear that it is between 299 500 km/s and 300 500 km/s, but when using 300 × 10 m/s, or 300 × 10 km/s, 300 000 km/s, or the unusual but short 300 Mm/s, this is not clear. A possibility is using 0.300 Gm/s.\n",
"Einstein proposed as part of his theory of special relativity that light reflected from a mirror moving close to the speed of light will have higher peak power than the incident light because of temporal compression. Using a dense relativistic electron mirror created from a high-intensity laser pulse and nanometre-scale foil, the frequency of the laser pulse was shown to shift coherently from infrared to the ultraviolet. The results elucidate the reflection process of laser-generated electron mirrors and suggest future research in relativistic mirrors.\n",
"Nowadays, using oscilloscopes with time resolutions of less than one nanosecond, the speed of light can be directly measured by timing the delay of a light pulse from a laser or an LED reflected from a mirror. This method is less precise (with errors of the order of 1%) than other modern techniques, but it is sometimes used as a laboratory experiment in college physics classes.\n",
"For example, in a two-centimeter-thick infinity mirror, with the light sources halfway between, light from the source initially travels one centimeter. The first reflection travels one centimeter to the rear mirror and then two centimeters to, and through the front mirror, a total of three centimeters. The second reflection travels two centimeters from front mirror to back mirror, and again two centimeters from the back mirror to, and through the front mirror, totaling four centimeters, plus the first reflection (three centimeters) making the second reflection seven centimeters away from the front mirror. Each successive reflection adds four more centimeters to the total (the third reflection appears 11 centimeters deep, fourth 15 centimeters deep, and so on).\n",
"The speed of light is 983571056 ft/s, or about one foot per nanosecond. If it were exactly one foot per nanosecond, and a target was one data mile away, then the radar return from that target would arrive 12 microseconds after the transmission. (Recall that radar was developed during World War II in America and England, while both were using English units. It was convenient for them to relate 1 data mile to 12 microseconds, whereas the modern tendency would be to approximate the speed of light as 3e8 m/s.)\n",
"The range of a heliograph depends on the opacity of the air and the effective collecting area of the mirrors. Heliograph mirrors ranged from 1.5 inches to 12 inches or more. Stations at higher altitudes benefit from thinner, clearer air, and are required in any event for great ranges, to clear the curvature of the earth. A good approximation for ranges of 20-50 miles is that the flash of a circular mirror is visible to the naked eye for 10 miles for each inch of mirror diameter, and farther with a telescope. The world record distance was established by a detachment of U.S. signal sergeants by the inter-operation of stations on Mount Ellen, Utah, and Mount Uncompahgre, Colorado, 183 miles (295 km) apart on September 17, 1894, with Signal Corps heliographs carrying mirrors only 8 inches square.\n"
] |
have humans created a new species? (via selection) | Using the biological species concept (which I assume, based on your question, is your framework), we have only created one to my knowledge: [Drosophila synthetica.](_URL_0_)
If you use the morphological or phylogenetic species concepts, we have created buttloads. | [
"Humans have created a wide range of new species, and varieties within those species, of both domesticated animals and plants. Other human activity also impacts evolution. This has been achieved in a very short geological period of time, spanning only a few tens of thousands of years, and sometimes less. Maize, \"Zea mays\", for instance, is estimated to have been created in what is now known as Mexico in only a few thousand years, starting between about 7 000 and 12 000 years ago, from still uncertain origins. In the light of this extraordinarily rapid rate of evolution, through (prehistoric) artificial selection, George C. Williams and others, have remarked that:\n",
"It is thought human beings have been experimenting with selectively breeding organisms for around 10,000 years; over thousands of years humans have influenced many taxonomic groups, with bioengineering representing new forms of genetic information transfer, creation, and inheritance, coupled to climate change, scientists and policy makers are prioritising “ecosystem services” essential to humans, such as pollination, the replenishment of fish stocks, and a phenomenon being researched in the Great Barrier Reef being the terminal decline of coral.\n",
"Therefore, while a species or group might benefit from being able to adapt to a new environment by accumulating a wide range of genetic variation, this is to the detriment of the \"individuals\" who have to carry these mutations until a small, unpredictable minority of them ultimately contributes to such an adaptation. Thus, the \"capability\" to evolve is close to the discredited concept of group selection, since it would be selectively disadvantageous to the individual.\n",
"As a result of the extinction of \"Homo sapiens\", these humans can no longer be genetically tweaked and altered in labs and instead they begin to evolve through natural selection and other natural evolutionary processes, resulting in many new and diverse forms over the course of several millions of years. These new species range from the memory people (\"Homo mensproavadorum\") that through their genes can recall memories of previous generations, symbiotic humans (symbionts) consisting of a symbiont carrier (\"Baiulus moderatorum\") providing movement and protection against the cold and a hunter symbiont (\"Moderator baiuli\"), colonial and hive-building humans with a single reproductive parent (socials, \"Alvearanthropus desertus\"), parasitic humans (\"Nananthropus parasitus\") attaching themselves with sharp teeth and claws to the flesh of their hosts (\"Penarius pinguis\"), goblin-like fishing humans (fish-eaters, \"Piscator longidigitus\"), ant-eating humans (ant-men, \"Formifossor angustus\") and saber-toothed predatory humans (spiketooths, \"Acudens ferox\"). \n",
"Species that humans intentionally transport to new regions can subsequently become successfully established in two ways. In the first case, organisms are purposely released for establishment in the wild. It is sometimes difficult to predict whether a species will become established upon release, and if not initially successful, humans have made repeated introductions to improve the probability that the species will survive and eventually reproduce in the wild. In these cases it is clear that the introduction is directly facilitated by human desires.\n",
"A major technological application of evolution is artificial selection, which is the intentional selection of certain traits in a population of organisms. Humans have used artificial selection for thousands of years in the domestication of plants and animals. More recently, such selection has become a vital part of genetic engineering, with selectable markers such as antibiotic resistance genes being used to manipulate DNA in molecular biology. It is also possible to use repeated rounds of mutation and selection to evolve proteins with particular properties, such as modified enzymes or new antibodies, in a process called directed evolution.\n",
"In 1923, the botanist John Christopher Willis proposed that species were formed by large mutations, not gradual evolution by natural selection, and that evolution was driven by orthogenesis, which he called \"differentiation\", rather than by natural selection.\n"
] |
why do some foods contain insect parts? | If you have an open vat of tomatoes, say at the ketchup making plant, bugs are going to get into it. Then you take all those tomatoes and put them in a machine that pulverizes them. The machine doesn't differentiate between bugs and tomatoes, it just makes juice out of whatever is in the storage container.
Then that gets heated up (or treated with acid/caustic solutions) to kill anything that could be harmful to people, bottled, and sold.
There isn't some magic force-field that keeps bugs out of the food you eat pre-processing, and most mass produced foods will not bother to remove them since they pose no health risk. | [
"Insects as food or edible insects are insect species used for human consumption, e.g., whole or as an ingredient in processed food products such as burger patties, pasta, or snacks. The cultural and biological process of eating insects (by humans as well as animals) is described as entomophagy.\n",
"In some cultures, insects, especially deep-fried cicadas, are considered to be delicacies, whereas in other places they form part of the normal diet. Insects have a high protein content for their mass, and some authors suggest their potential as a major source of protein in human nutrition. In most first-world countries, however, entomophagy (the eating of insects), is taboo.\n",
"Since it is impossible to entirely eliminate pest insects from the human food chain, insects are inadvertently present in many foods, especially grains. Food safety laws in many countries do not prohibit insect parts in food, but rather limit their quantity. According to cultural materialist anthropologist Marvin Harris, the eating of insects is taboo in cultures that have other protein sources such as fish or livestock.\n",
"Insects are more edible. To date, one study has examined the water footprint, taking into account the entire production system, of commercially produced insects. This data showed insects are considered to be 80‐100% edible.\n",
"Edible insects are raised as livestock in specialized insect farms. In North American as well as European countries such as the Netherlands or Belgium, insects are produced under strict food law and hygiene standard for human consumption.\n",
"Insect-based pet food is pet food consisting of, or containing insects digestible by pets such as dogs or cats. A limited, but growing number of products are available on the market, including cat food, dog food, and pet treats.\n",
"The anthropologist Marvin Harris has suggested that the eating of insects is taboo in cultures that have other protein sources which require more work to obtain, such as poultry or cattle, though there are cultures which feature both animal husbandry and entomophagy. Examples can be found in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe where strong cattle-raising traditions co-exist with entomophagy of insects like the mopane worm. In addition, people in cultures where entomophagy is common are not indiscriminate in their choice of insects, as Thai consumers of insects perceive edible insects not consumed within their culture in a similar way as Western consumers.\n"
] |
why are serif fonts "easier to read in long paragraphs of text?" | There's actually no conclusive study on this that shows that serif fonts are genuinely easier to read than san serif fonts.
The idea is that the extra markings make a letter more immediately distinguishable from another letter. By having more angles on a letter, there is sharper contrast to one another and to the white background that offers a more visually interesting stimulus than the rounded letters.
[Studies show that people overwhelmingly prefer them subjectively, and that comprehension increases in serif fonts](_URL_0_). But there's no data to support they're actually "easier on the eyes" in any form.
If they are, it's a slight variation that you can think of in terms of something being easier to read for the eyes when it's in sharp forcus than when it's slightly blurry. The extra angular stimulus may produce a similar effect to additional "focus." | [
"Serifed fonts are widely used for body text because they are considered easier to read than sans-serif fonts in print. However, scientific study on this topic has been inconclusive. Colin Wheildon, who conducted scientific studies from 1982 to 1990, found that sans serif fonts created various difficulties for readers that impaired their comprehension. According to Kathleen Tinkel, studies suggest that \"most sans serif typefaces may be slightly less legible than most serif faces, but ... the difference can be offset by careful setting\". Other studies have found no significant difference in readability for serif or sans serif.\n",
"Typefaces with serifs are often considered easier to read in long passages than those without. Studies on the matter are ambiguous, suggesting that most of this effect is due to the greater familiarity of serif typefaces. As a general rule, printed works such as newspapers and books almost always use serif typefaces, at least for the text body. Web sites do not have to specify a font and can simply respect the browser settings of the user. But of those web sites that do specify a font, most use modern sans serif fonts, because it is commonly believed that, in contrast to the case for printed material, sans serif fonts are easier than serif fonts to read on the low-resolution computer screen.\n",
"A 2010 Princeton University study involving presenting students with text in a font slightly more difficult to read found that they consistently retained more information from material displayed in so-called disfluent or ugly fonts (Monotype Corsiva, Haettenschweiler, Comic Sans Italicized were used) than in a simple, more readable font such as Arial.\n",
"A 2010 Princeton University study involving presenting students with text in a font slightly more difficult to read found that they consistently retained more information from material displayed in so-called disfluent or ugly fonts (Monotype Corsiva, Haettenschweiler, Comic Sans Italicized were used) than in a simple, more readable font such as Helvetica.\n",
"Writing in plain language also takes into account the presentation of the text. It is important to choose a font that is easy to read, and set it to an adequate size. Sentences written in capital letters are harder to read because the letters are less distinguishable from one another. Simple design elements like leaving white spaces, using bullets, and choosing contrasting colours encourages a user to read the text and makes it easier to read.\n",
"Moira Anderson Allen suggests that publishers are more interested in readable fonts as opposed to maintaining a monospaced font standard. All of these works illustrate single sentence spacing in their manuscript examples, regardless of font type.\n",
"Text should be easy to read: Through analysis of the rhetorical situation, the designer should be able to determine a useful font style. Ornamental fonts and text in all capital letters are hard to read, but italics and bolding can be helpful when used correctly. Large or small body text is also hard to read. (Screen size of 10-12 pixel sans serif and 12-16 pixel serif is recommended.)\n"
] |
can sound waves create other sound waves? what would those sound like? | Absolutely! Sounds waves are just a vibration, and cause other objects to vibrate as well. Primary waves create what are called overtones and harmonics as they interact with the air and surrounding surfaces.
If you go to a piano and play one of the lower notes loudly and hold the key down, you will hear other, higher strings vibrating, highlighting the overtones of the primary wave. It's a cool effect!
| [
"Sometimes sound waves at ultrasonic frequencies can be used to levitate objects, thus creating no sound heard by the human ear, such as was demonstrated at Otsuka Lab, while others use audible frequencies. There are various ways of emitting the sound wave, from creating a wave underneath the object and reflecting it back to its source, to using a (transparent) tank to create a large acoustic field.\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",
"Acoustic waves are longitudinal waves that exhibit phenomena like diffraction, reflection and interference. Sound waves however don't have any polarization since they oscillate along the same direction as they move.\n",
"In 1946, Dennis Gabor suggested the idea of using a granular system to produce sound. In his work, Gabor discussed the problems with Fourier analysis. Although he found the mathematics to be correct, it did not reflect the behaviour of sound in the world, because sounds, such as the sound of a siren, have variable frequencies over time. Another problem was the underlying supposition, as we use sine waves analysis, that the signal under concern has infinite duration even though sounds in real life have limited duration – see time–frequency analysis. Gabor applied ideas from quantum physics to sound, allowing an analogy between sound and quanta. He proposed a mathematical method to reduce Fourier analysis into cells. His research aimed at the information transmission through communication channels. Gabor saw in his atoms a possibility to transmit the same information but using less data. Instead of transmitting the signal itself it would be possible to transmit only the coefficients which represent the same signal using his atoms.\n",
"Sound waves are created as the air vibrates in response to a person's speech or other sounds. A second person's ear collects these sound waves and converts them into nerve impulses which their brain interprets as sound. In normal speech these waves travel through the air, but with a tin can telephone the waves are transmitted through an additional medium of cups and string.\n",
"The sound produced by digital waveshapers tends to be harsh and unattractive, because of problems with aliasing. Waveshaping is a non-linear operation, so it's hard to generalize about the effect of a waveshaping function on an input signal. The mathematics of non-linear operations on audio signals is difficult, and not well understood. The effect will be amplitude-dependent, among other things. But generally, waveshapers—particularly those with sharp corners (e.g., some derivatives are discontinuous) -- tend to introduce large numbers of high frequency harmonics. If these introduced harmonics exceed the nyquist limit, then they will be heard as harsh inharmonic content with a distinctly metallic sound in the output signal. Supersampling can somewhat but not completely alleviate this problem, depending on how fast the introduced harmonics fall off. Supersampling involves the following procedure:\n",
"Rayleigh developed wave theories for St Paul’s in 1910 and 1914. Fitting sound waves inside a cavity involves the physics of resonance based on wave interference; the sound can exist only at certain pitches as in the case of organ pipes. The sound forms patterns called modes, as shown in the diagram.\n"
] |
how does the bar exam work and who governs it? | In the United States, each individual state has its own bar exam, and it is generally administered under the authority of the state's highest court. For example, the Illinois bar exam is administered by the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar (IBAB), and IBAB is seven lawyers appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court. New York has the New York State Board of Law Examiners, which is five lawyers appointed by the New York Court of Appeals (New York's highest court).
Passing the bar exam is generally a requirement for becoming licensed to practice law in that state, but there are other requirements, too, such as graduating from law school, and passing an extra-detailed background check, which may be called a "character and fitness" evaluation.
State laws vary, so most states have a unique set of questions for at least part of their exams. However, there is also a "Uniform Bar Exam", which some states use part or all of. Bar exams can take an entire day, or even multiple days.
If you pass the state's bar exam, and your application shows you meet all of the other requirements, you can be sworn in as an attorney and practice law. | [
"The bar examination in most U.S. states and territories is at least two days long (a few states have three-day exams). It consists of essay questions, usually testing knowledge of the state's own law (usually subjects such as wills, trusts and community property, which always vary from one state to another). Some jurisdictions choose to use the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE), drafted by the NCBE since 1988, for this purpose. Others may draft their own questions with this goal in mind, while some states both draft their own questions and use the MEE. Some jurisdictions administer complicated questions that specifically test knowledge of that state's law.\n",
"Bar training for advocates and attorneys at law lasts for three years and consists of theoretical and practical classes. Each trainee () has his/her individual tutor, who must be a practitioner from the respective bar. Bar examination is a written exam which lasts 4 days and consists of preparing various documents and briefs in following areas: criminal law, civil or family law, commercial law, administrative law, ethics.\n",
"A bar review is a series of classes that most law school graduates in the United States attend prior to taking a bar examination, in order to prepare for that exam. A typical bar review course will last for several weeks, beginning a few weeks after law school graduation and running until a few weeks before the next administration of the bar examination. \"A full service bar review course prepares a student for both portions of a state's bar examination: multistate and state law. A supplemental bar review course prepares a student for only one portion of a state's bar examination\". Classes may be held in person, online, or with prerecorded material delivered to the student.\n",
"To sit for the bar exam, the vast majority of state bar associations requires that an applicant's law school be accredited by the American Bar Association. The ABA has promulgated detailed requirements covering every aspect of a law school, down to the precise contents of the law library and the minimum number of minutes of instruction required to receive a law degree. , there are 205 ABA-accredited law schools that award the J.D., divided between 200 with full accreditation and 5 with provisional accreditation. The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia, a school operated by the United States Army that conducts a post-J.D. program for military attorneys, is also ABA-accredited.\n",
"Administering bar exams is the responsibility of the bar association in the particular state or territory concerned. Those interested in pursuing a career at the bar must first be admitted as lawyers in the Supreme Court of their home state or territory. This generally requires the completion of legal studies which can take up to 8 years depending on the mode of study, the particular degree being completed and the law school. After completing a law degree, law graduates are then usually required to complete a period of Practical Legal Training (PLT).\n",
"When applying to take a state's bar examination, applicants are required to complete extensive questionnaires seeking the disclosure of significant personal, financial and professional information. For example, in Virginia, each applicant must complete a 24-page questionnaire and may appear before a committee for an interview if the committee initially rejects their application. The same is true in the State of Maryland, and in many other jurisdictions, where the state's supreme court has the ultimate authority to determine whether an applicant will be admitted to the bar. In completing the bar application, and at all stages of this process, honesty is paramount. An applicant who fails to disclose material facts, no matter how embarrassing or problematic, will greatly jeopardize the applicant’s chance of practicing law.\n",
"The Office of Bar Admissions is an administrative arm of the Supreme Court that is responsible for implementing the rules for admission. That Office assists two separate boards appointed by the Supreme Court. The Board to Determine Fitness of Bar Applicants handles \"character and fitness\" issues, inquiring into a candidate's \"honesty, trustworthiness, diligence, [and] reliability\" to determine fitness to practice law. The Board of Bar Examiners administers and grades the state's bar examination each February and July. Subject to educational and other criteria, the boards will certify for admission candidates who meet the character and fitness requirements and pass both the bar examination and the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination. Candidates may then obtain admission to the Bar by appearing in superior court, and then separately seek admission to the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.\n"
] |
if i rinse out a dish right after using it and there's nothing on it, is it fully clean or do i still need to use soap? | Come on, man. Soap. | [
"Hand dishwashing detergents utilize surfactants to play the primary role in cleaning. The reduced surface tension of dishwashing water, and increasing solubility of modern surfactant mixtures, allows the water to run off the dishes in a dish rack very quickly. However, most people also rinse the dishes with pure water to make sure to get rid of any soap residue that could affect the taste of the food.\n",
"Because of their association with hand washing and hygiene, soap dishes themselves are often the focus of cleanliness. To aid in cleanup, some self-draining soap dishes are designed to allow soapy residue to collect in a compartment below the raised bar of soap. Other such soap dishes funnel the soapy reside directly to the adjacent sink or bathtub, necessitating strategic placement of the soap dish.\n",
"A soap dish is a shallow, open container or platform where a bar of soap may be placed to dry after use. Soap dishes are usually located in or near a sink, shower, or bathtub. Most soap dishes are made from waterproof materials such as plastic, ceramic, metal, or glass, though some are made from bamboo. A china saucer or sponge may serve as a soap dish. A soap dish accommodates bar soap, whereas a soap dispenser accommodates liquid soap or foam soap.\n",
"Dishwashing or dish washing, also known as washing up, is the process of cleaning cooking utensils, dishes, cutlery and other items to prevent foodborne illness. This is either achieved by hand in a sink using dishwashing detergent or by using a dishwasher and may take place in a kitchen, utility room, scullery or elsewhere. In Britain to do the washing up also includes to dry and put away. There are cultural divisions over rinsing and drying after washing.\n",
"Dishwashing liquid (BrE: washing-up liquid), known as dishwashing soap, dish detergent and dish soap, is a detergent used to assist in dishwashing. It is usually a highly-foaming mixture of surfactants with low skin irritation, and is primarily used for hand washing of glasses, plates, cutlery, and cooking utensils in a sink or bowl. In addition to its primary use, dishwashing liquid also has various informal applications, such as for creating bubbles, clothes washing and cleaning oil-affected birds.\n",
"Most soap dishes are standalone accessories whose placement is at the user's discretion, though some are a built-in feature of a sink, shower, or bathtub. Standalone soap dishes may be entirely portable or may include options for semi-permanent or permanent installation on a horizontal or vertical surface. Locating a soap dish outside the perimeter of a faucet's or showerhead's stream helps the soap to avoid excess erosion.\n",
"Hand dishwashing is generally performed in the absence of a dishwashing machine, when large \"hard-to-clean\" items are present, or through preference. Some dishwashing liquids can harm household silver, fine glassware, anything with gold leaf, disposable plastics, and any objects made of brass, bronze, cast iron, pewter, tin, or wood, especially when combined with hot water and the action of a dishwasher. When dishwashing liquid is used on such objects it is intended that they be washed by hand.\n"
] |
What is the cost of the extinction of individual species? | Answering that question requires two other questions be answered: "How important is the niche this organism is in?" and "How well can other animals fill in that niche?" Many species are more critical to the survival of an ecosystem than others. For instance, in the Southern US gopher tortoises are suffering huge losses, and as a result many other small ground-dwelling animals are also suffering, because gopher tortoise burrows were used by a variety of them for shelter. | [
"It's estimated that, because of human activities, current species extinction rates are about 1000 times greater than the background extinction rate (the 'normal' extinction rate that occurs without additional influence) . According to the IUCN, out of all species assessed, over 27,000 are at risk of extinction and should be under conservation. Of these, 25% are mammals, 14% are birds, and 40% are amphibians. However, because not all species have been assessed, these numbers could be even higher. A 2019 UN report assessing global biodiversity extrapolated IUCN data to all species and estimated that 1 million species worldwide could face extinction. Yet, because resources are limited, sometimes it's not possible to give all species that need conservation due consideration. Deciding which species to conserve is a function of how close to extinction a species is, whether the species is crucial to the ecosystem it resides in, and how much we care about it.\n",
"Classic economic theory predicts that human exploitation of a population is unlikely to result in species extinction because the escalating costs to find the last few individuals will exceed the fixed price one achieves by selling the individuals on the market. However, when rare species are more desirable than common species, prices for rare species can exceed high harvest costs. This phenomenon can create an \"anthropogenic\" Allee effect where rare species go extinct but common species are sustainably harvested. The anthropogenic Allee effect has become a standard approach for conceptualizing the threat of economic markets on endangered species. However, the original theory was posited using a one dimensional analysis of a two dimensional model. It turns out that a two dimensional analysis yields an Allee curve in human exploiter and biological population space and that this curve separating species destined to extinction vs persistence can be complicated. Even very high population sizes can potentially pass through the originally proposed Allee thresholds on predestined paths to extinction.\n",
"Over half of the species are threatened today with extinction, and in particular in the Pacific, a number of species have died out as a result of hunting, deforestation, and predation by invasive species.\n",
"Currently, 1,556 known species in the world have been identified as near extinction or endangered and are under protection by government law. This approximation, however, does not take into consideration the number of species threatened with endangerment that are not included under the protection of such laws as the Endangered Species Act. According to NatureServe's global conservation status, approximately thirteen percent of vertebrates (excluding marine fish), seventeen percent of vascular plants, and six to eighteen percent of fungi are considered imperiled. Thus, in total, between seven and eighteen percent of the United States' known animals, fungi and plants are near extinction. This total is substantially more than the number of species protected in the United States under the Endangered Species Act.\n",
"Rates of decline in biodiversity in this sixth mass extinction match or exceed rates of loss in the five previous mass extinction events in the fossil record. Loss of biodiversity results in the loss of natural capital that supplies ecosystem goods and services. From the perspective of the method known as Natural Economy the economic value of 17 ecosystem services for Earth's biosphere (calculated in 1997) has an estimated value of US$33 trillion (3.3x10) per year.\n",
"According to Stuart L. Pimm and his coauthors, human actions have raised species extinction or extirpation rates to three orders of magnitude above their natural, background rates. Pimm says that \"[Scientists] predict that 400 to 500 of the worlds 8500 landbird species will go extinct by 2100 with a warming estimate of 2.8 degrees Celsius. A further 2150 species will be at risk of extinction\" (Pimm 2009).\n",
"By 2015 the IUCN had assessed and allocated conservation statuses to over 76,000 species worldwide. From these it had categorised some 24,000 species as globally threatened at one conservation level or another. However, despite estimates varying widely as to the number of species existing on Earth (ranging from 3 million up to 30 million), this means the IUCN's 'not evaluated' (NE) category is by far the largest of all nine extinction risk categories.\n"
] |
how likely is it that earth is the only planet with living beings, and that humans are the only species that have the intelligence to speak, create, develop etc? | We don't really have great way to actually put a number to it, but the general consensus among scientists is that it's essentially a certainty that there *is* other intelligent life out there. Based on our current knowledge of exoplanets, it's estimated there as many as *40 billion* Earth-like planets in our galaxy alone, and at absolutely minimum, 176 billion galaxies in the observable universe (although actually estimates put the number at an astounding 2 trillion). There's nothing special about life on Earth as far as we can tell, so the odds of it not happening somewhere else in the trillions upon trillions of other worlds out there is just mind-bogglingly infinitesimal. | [
"It may be that while alien species with intelligence exist, they are primitive or have not reached the level of technological advancement necessary to communicate. Along with non-intelligent life, such civilizations would be also very difficult for us to detect, short of a visit by a probe, a trip that would take hundreds of thousands of years with current technology.\n",
"It is possible that even if complex life is common, intelligence (and consequently civilizations) is not. While there are remote sensing techniques that could perhaps detect life-bearing planets without relying on the signs of technology, none of them has any ability to tell if any detected life is intelligent. This is sometimes referred to as the \"algae vs. alumnae\" problem.\n",
"Humans are bipedal creatures from Earth, and the third most intelligent species on that planet, surpassed only by mice and dolphins. Originally thought to have evolved from proto-apes, humans may in fact be descendants of Golgafrinchan telephone sanitizers, account executives, and marketing analysts who were tricked out of leaving their home planet to arrive on the planet ca. two million BC. These Golgafrinchans apparently displaced the indigenous cavemen as the organic components in the computer designed by Deep Thought, since a distorted vestige of the Ultimate Question remained (or developed) in the brains of the descendants of the Golgafrinchans—the new human colonizers of the planet, whose very presence slowly killed off the original, primitive version of mankind. Marvin said he could see the Ultimate Question printed in Arthur's brainwaves. Many of the Golgafrinchans died out during their first winter on prehistoric Earth, but several others built rafts and set out for more temperate climes. As Arthur mused, \"History says they must have survived . . . .\"\n",
"Another possibility is that human theoreticians have underestimated how much alien life might differ from that on Earth. Aliens may be psychologically unwilling to attempt to communicate with human beings. Perhaps human mathematics is parochial to Earth and not shared by other life, though others argue this can only apply to abstract math since the math associated with physics must be similar (in results, if not in methods).\n",
"The Earth is visited by large, enigmatic alien spheres, who take up residence in colonies on several prairies and deserts across the world. They make visits to cities, factories and other areas of human activity, seemingly to merely float and observe. All attempts at communication are unsuccessful and despite the best efforts of mankind, no one is able to decipher their intentions. Some, however, have come in to close encounter with the aliens, and emerged dramatically altered beings. These people, called humanity-prime, and dubbed 'primeys', are highly intelligent, can bend matter to their will, but are also, by human standards, quite, quite mad. Algernon Hebster is a highly successful businessman, owing mostly to his dealings with primeys, who supply him with the knowledge for advanced technologies which he puts to use in commerce. The problem is that primeys are so dangerous that dealing with them is highly illegal and every attempt is made to confine them to the reservations around their perceived alien masters.\n",
"A study published in 2017 suggests that due to how complexity evolved in species on Earth, the level of predictability for alien evolution elsewhere would make them look similar to life on our planet. One of the study authors, Sam Levin, notes \"Like humans, we predict that they are made-up of a hierarchy of entities, which all cooperate to produce an alien. At each level of the organism there will be mechanisms in place to eliminate conflict, maintain cooperation, and keep the organism functioning. We can even offer some examples of what these mechanisms will be.\" There is also research in assessing the capacity of life for developing intelligence. It has been suggested that this capacity arises with the number of potential niches a planet contains, and that the complexity of life itself is reflected in the information density of planetary environments, which in turn can be computed from its niches.\n",
"To skeptics, the fact that in the history of life on the Earth only one species has developed a civilization to the point of being capable of spaceflight and radio technology lends more credence to the idea that technologically advanced civilizations are rare in the universe.\n"
] |
what is mthfr gene mutation? | The MTHFR gene has the instructions for the body to build an enzyme with a really long name. An enzyme is a protein that helps the body perform chemical reactions. This particular enzyme helps make methionine, one of the building blocks of proteins, and helps the body to use vitamin B9 (also known as folic acid).
A genetic mutation is when the gene's instructions are different from that of the regular version of the gene. In other words, the instructions are misspelled. Mutated genes often cause the body to make less effective versions of the corresponding protein. In MTHFR's case, this means that the body produces enzymes that aren't great at making methionine and utilizing vitamin B9.
There are multiple medical problems that can result from MTHFR mutations, including increased risk of blood clots and birth defects of the nervous system. | [
"The MTHFR nucleotide at position 677 in the gene has two possibilities: C (cytosine) or T (thymine). C at position 677 (leading to an alanine at amino acid 222) is the normal allele. The 677T allele (leading to a valine substitution at amino acid 222) encodes a thermolabile enzyme with reduced activity.\n",
"At nucleotide 1298 of the MTHFR, there are two possibilities: A or C. 1298A (leading to a Glu at amino acid 429) is the most common while 1298C (leading to an Ala substitution at amino acid 429) is less common. 1298AA is the \"normal\" homozygous, 1298AC the heterozygous, and 1298CC the homozygous for the \"variant\". In studies of human recombinant MTHFR, the protein encoded by 1298C cannot be distinguished from 1298A in terms of activity, thermolability, FAD release, or the protective effect of 5-methyl-THF. The C mutation does not appear to affect the MTHFR protein. It does not result in thermolabile MTHFR and does not appear to affect homocysteine levels. It does, however, affect the conversion of MTHF to BH4 (tetrahydrobiopterin), an important cofactor in the production of neurotransmitters, and the synthesis of nitric oxide\n",
"There are two common variants of MTHFR deficiency. In the more significant of the two, the individual is homologous for the 677T polymorphism. This variant in particular is the most common genetic cause of hyperhomocysteinemia. The resulting enzyme is thermolabile and in homozygotes, enzymatic activity is depressed to 35% of its usual level. The second variant is a milder one, caused by a homologous 1298C polymorphism. This leads to 68% of the control values of enzyme activity, and it normally does not lead to low serum folate.\n",
"Severe MTHFR deficiency is rare (about 50 cases worldwide) and caused by mutations resulting in 0–20% residual enzyme activity. Patients exhibit developmental delay, motor and gait dysfunction, seizures, and neurological impairment and have extremely high levels of homocysteine in their plasma and urine as well as low to normal plasma methionine levels. This deficiency and mutations in \"MTHFR\" have also been linked to recessive spastic paraparesis with complex I deficiency.\n",
"Whether MTHFR deficiency has any effect at all on all-cause mortality is unclear. One Dutch study showed that the MTHFR mutation was more prevalent in younger individuals (36% relative to 30%), and found that elderly men with MTHFR had an elevated mortality rate, attributable to cancer. Among women, however, no difference in life expectancy was seen. More recently, however, a meta-analysis has shown that overall cancer rates are barely increased with an odds ratio of 1.07, which suggests that an impact on mortality from cancer is small or zero.\n",
"HNF-4α is a nuclear transcription factor that binds DNA as a homodimer. The encoded protein controls the expression of several genes, including hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 alpha, a transcription factor which regulates the expression of several hepatic genes. This gene plays a role in development of the , , and . Alternative splicing of this gene results in multiple transcript variants.\n",
"HFI is recessively inherited autosomal disorder. Approximately 30 mutations that cause HFI have been identified, and these combined mutations result in a HFI frequency of 1 in every 20,000 births. Mutant alleles are a result of a number different types of mutations including base pair substitutions and small deletions. The most common mutation is A149P, which is a guanine to cytosine transversion in exon 5, resulting in the replacement of alanine at position 149 with proline. This specific mutant allele is estimated to account for 53% of HFI alleles. Other mutations resulting in HFI are less frequent and often correlated with ancestral origins.\n"
] |
the handicap hypothesis/principal in sexual selection | Rich person wants to convince a potential mate that he/she is worth mating with. Rich person has so much money that they can afford to spend much of it on frivolous material goods that may actually decrease their ability to survive (dangerously fast car). This signals to a potential mate that they are exceptionally worth mating with.
The rich person is handicapping themselves (increased potential to die), but doing so in order to increase sexual desirability. | [
"Several mid-level evolutionary theories inform evolutionary psychology. The R/K selection theory proposes that some species prosper by having many offspring while others follow the strategy of having fewer offspring but investing much more in each one. Humans follow the second strategy. Parental investment theory explains how parents invest more or less in individual offspring based on how successful those offspring are likely to be, and thus how much they might improve the parents' inclusive fitness. According to the Trivers–Willard hypothesis, parents in good conditions tend to invest more in sons (who are best able to take advantage of good conditions), while parents in poor conditions tend to invest more in daughters (who are best able to have successful offspring even in poor conditions). According to life history theory, animals evolve life histories to match their environments, determining details such as age at first reproduction and number of offspring. Dual inheritance theory posits that genes and human culture have interacted, with genes affecting the development of culture and culture, in turn, affecting human evolution on a genetic level (see also the Baldwin effect).\n",
"Several mid-level evolutionary theories inform evolutionary psychology. The r/K selection theory proposes that some species prosper by having many offspring, while others follow the strategy of having fewer offspring but investing much more in each one. Humans follow the second strategy. Parental investment theory explains how parents invest more or less in individual offspring based on how successful those offspring are likely to be, and thus how much they might improve the parents' inclusive fitness. According to the Trivers–Willard hypothesis, parents in good conditions tend to invest more in sons (who are best able to take advantage of good conditions), while parents in poor conditions tend to invest more in daughters (who are best able to have successful offspring even in poor conditions). According to life history theory, animals evolve life histories to match their environments, determining details such as age at first reproduction and number of offspring. Dual inheritance theory posits that genes and human culture have interacted, with genes affecting the development of culture, and culture, in turn, affecting human evolution on a genetic level (see also the Baldwin effect).\n",
"Parental investment theory, a term coined by Robert Trivers in 1972, predicts that the sex that invests more in its offspring will be more selective when choosing a mate, and the less-investing sex will have intra-sexual competition for access to mates. This theory has been influential in explaining sex differences in sexual selection and mate preferences, throughout the animal kingdom and in humans.\n",
"Fecundity selection, also known as fertility selection, is the fitness advantage resulting from the preference of traits that increase the number of offspring (i.e. fecundity). Charles Darwin formulated the theory of fecundity selection between 1871 and 1874 to explain the widespread evolution of female-biased sexual size dimorphism (SSD), where females were larger than males. \n",
"In evolutionary biology, developmental bias refers to the production against or towards certain ontogenetic trajectories which ultimately influence the direction and outcome of evolutionary change by affecting the rates, magnitudes, directions and limits of trait evolution. Historically, the term was synonymized with developmental constraint, however, the latter has been more recently interpreted as referring solely to the negative role of development in evolution.\n",
"The evolutionary approach, based on the theories of Charles Darwin, attempts to explain age disparity in sexual relationships in terms of natural selection and sexual selection. Within sexual selection Darwin identified a further two mechanisms which are important factors in the evolution of sex differences (sexual dimorphism): intrasexual selection (involve competition with those of the same sex over access to mates) and intersexual choice (discriminative choice of mating partners). An overarching evolutionary theory which can provide an explanation for the above mechanisms and strategies adopted by individuals which leads to age disparity in relationships is called Life History theory, which also includes Parental Investment Theory. Life History theory posits that individuals have to divide energy and resources between activities (as energy and resources devoted to one task cannot be used for another task) and this is shaped by natural selection.\n",
"From a male standpoint, evolutionary theory suggests that the focus of mating is to enhance paternity in order to produce viable offspring. Therefore, sexual selection theory would suggest that a male should attempt to mate with several females. This means that if a male wants to ensure that he will be paternally successful, he should mate with more than one female. When the sex ratio is male biased, however, male monogamy (monogyny) would arise as a means of increasing paternity and producing offspring; in other words, if the setting contains a sex ratio of all male to one female, then monogyny would arise as a means to produce offspring. This model predicts that a male-biased sex ratio is required for monogyny to evolve.\n"
] |
the significance of platonic solids, what makes them different from the other shapes? | They are polygons (3D shapes made up of flat surfaces joined together) for which:
* the faces are identical in shape and size
* the faces are regular polygons (so all their angles equal and all their sides are equal)
* the same number of faces meet at each vertex (corner) of the polygon
* the polygon is convex (it doesn't have any indentations)
They are interesting because there are only five such polygons:
1. Tetrahedron made up of four equilateral triangles
2. Cube made up of six squares
3. Octahedron made up of eight equilateral triangles
4. Dodecahedron made up of twelve regular pentagons
5. Icosahedron made up of twenty equilateral triangles | [
"\"The Platonic Solids\" was inspired by Plato's conception of the five classical elements: earth, air, fire, water, and ether. In Plato's work \"Timaeus\" (ca. 350 BCE), the five forms of matter are related to elemental solids and shapes (the cube, the octahedron, the tetrahedron, the icosahedron, and the dodecahedron). In Kamen's work these regular polyhedra, created from fiberglass rods and sheets of mylar, are held against the larger plane of the wall, demonstrating \"tension and compression\". The work appeared in 2011 as part of the exhibit \"Elemental Matters: Artists Imagine Chemistry\", at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, PA. It was accompanied by a sound component by bio-musician Susan Alexjander, \"Elements in Descending Order of Creation from Collapsing Stars\". The exhibit also included Kamen's sculpture \"Hydrogen, Helium, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Silicon, Phosphorus, Sulfur\".\n",
"The Platonic solids are three-dimensional shapes with special, high, symmetry. They are the next step up in dimension from the two-dimensional regular polygons (squares, equilateral triangles, etc.). The five Platonic solids are the tetrahedron (4 faces), cube (6 faces), octahedron (8 faces), dodecahedron (12 faces), and icosahedron (20 faces). They have been known since the time of the Ancient Greeks and valued for their aesthetic appeal and philosophical, even mystical, import. (See also the \"Timaeus\", a dialogue of Plato.)\n",
"Three of the five Platonic solids have triangular faces – the tetrahedron, the octahedron, and the icosahedron. Also, three of the five Platonic solids have vertices where three faces meet – the tetrahedron, the hexahedron (cube), and the dodecahedron. Furthermore, only three different types of polygons comprise the faces of the five Platonic solids – the triangle, the square, and the pentagon.\n",
"The different Archimedean and Platonic solids can be related to each other using a handful of general constructions. Starting with a Platonic solid, truncation involves cutting away of corners. To preserve symmetry, the cut is in a plane perpendicular to the line joining a corner to the center of the polyhedron and is the same for all corners. Depending on how much is truncated (see table below), different Platonic and Archimedean (and other) solids can be created. If the truncation is exactly deep enough such that each pair of faces from adjacent vertices shares exactly one point, it is known as a rectification. An expansion, or cantellation, involves moving each face away from the center (by the same distance so as to preserve the symmetry of the Platonic solid) and taking the convex hull. Expansion with twisting also involves rotating the faces, thus splitting each rectangle corresponding to an edge into two triangles by one of the diagonals of the rectangle. The last construction we use here is truncation of both corners and edges. Ignoring scaling, expansion can also be viewed the rectification of the rectification. Likewise, the cantitruncation can be viewed as the truncation of the rectification.\n",
"Platonic form can be illustrated by contrasting a material triangle with an ideal triangle. The Platonic form is the ideal triangle — a figure with perfectly drawn lines whose angles add to 180 degrees. Any form of triangle that we experience will be an imperfect representation of the ideal triangle. Regardless of how precise your measuring and drawing tools you will never be able to recreate this perfect shape. Even drawn to the point where our senses cannot perceive a defect, in its essence the shape will still be imperfect; forever unable to match the ideal triangle.\n",
"One part of that creation were the four simple bodies of fire, air, water, and earth. But Plato did not consider these corpuscles to be the most basic level of reality, for in his view they were made up of an unchanging level of reality, which was mathematical. These simple bodies were geometric solids, the faces of which were, in turn, made up of triangles. The square faces of the cube were each made up of four isosceles right-angled triangles and the triangular faces of the tetrahedron, octahedron, and icosahedron were each made up of six right-angled triangles.\n",
"Plato's theory of forms or \"ideas\" describes ideal forms (for example the platonic solids in geometry or abstracts like Goodness and Justice), as universals existing independently of any particular instance. Arne Grøn calls this doctrine \"the classic example of a metaphysical idealism as a \"transcendent\" idealism\", while Simone Klein calls Plato \"the earliest representative of metaphysical objective idealism\". Nevertheless, Plato holds that matter is real, though transitory and imperfect, and is perceived by our body and its senses and given existence by the eternal ideas that are perceived directly by our rational soul. Plato was therefore a metaphysical and epistemological dualist, an outlook that modern idealism has striven to avoid: Plato's thought cannot therefore be counted as idealist in the modern sense.\n"
] |
Why do depictions of American Indians never show men with facial hair? | You may be interested in the older post:
* [Native Americans generally didn't have beards. Do we know what they thought of the bearded and mustachioed Europeans and their decedents?](_URL_0_)
Many groups plucked facial hair, with wooden or shell or even bronze implements. Others apparently singed hair off. In some groups, certain types of people did not remove hair—people in mourning among the Yurok, or possibly the old among the Aztecs, to give two examples. | [
"Some consider Williams' portrayal of American Indians to have been offensive. His use of a stylized headdress was often referenced as the reason for offense, as the headdress is a sacred, central cultural item for many tribes.\n",
"H. Harris, publishing in the \"British Journal of Dermatology\" in 1947, wrote American Indians have the least body hair, Chinese and black people have little body hair, white people have more body hair than blacks and Ainu have the most body hair.\n",
"The Shawnee and Delaware were attentive to dress, and the women wore their hair tied close to their heads and covered with skin. They were more careful of their children, more than associated with other Indians. They also cut the cartilages of their ears so as to lengthen them as much as possible, and suspended silver trinkets in the form of stars from their ears. On their necks they wore crosses, and on their heads they wore bands and crowns covered with spangles. They used great quantities of vermilion and black, with which they painted their bodies on festive days.\n",
"A traditional Indian belief is that a man's facial hair is a sign of his virility. This caused a problem during the time of British Raj in the 19th Century and, as a result, Indian moustaches had a profound effect on British facial hair. The British Army, who were clean shaven until that time, had difficulty maintaining authority among the Indian soldiers, who saw their officers' lack of a moustache, beard and sideburns as a lack of manliness. Eventually British officers began to cultivate moustaches and other facial hair to gain the respect of their troops. The trend of sporting a moustache spread quickly through the army and then back home amongst the general British civilian population.\n",
"Indian Princesses are considered to be the idealized Indian woman. These women are commonly depicted with lighter skin and follow other European Beauty standards. Coward claims that Indian women who then follow this standard and show signs of a charming feminine beauty will become the woman that men lust after. Their characterization isolates them from typical Native American women and portrays them as an extension of their white counterparts. This emphasizes the “otherness” of Native American women who are considered to be squaw figures if they don't adopt these beauty regimes. The decision for Native American women to become an Indian Princess or squaw depends on their relationship with men. Squaws generally share the same vices given to Native American men, such as \"drunkenness, stupidity, thievery, venality of every kind\". The Indian Princess acts as a symbol of the success of these colonizers. The “otherness” of Native Americans is combatted when she acts as a medium between these two cultures. Scholars agree that Indian Princesses in media are portrayed as submissive, idealized supporting figures to the white hero. This sentiment is clearly evident in characters such as Pocahontas and Tiger Lily.\n",
"This point of view echos the position of the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest and largest organization representing enrolled tribal citizens in the United States: \"Often citing a long held myth by non-Native people that 'Indian' mascots 'honor Native people,' American sports businesses such as the NFL’s Washington 'Redskins' and Kansas City 'Chiefs', MLB’s Cleveland 'Indians' and Atlanta 'Braves', and the NHL’s Chicago Black Hawks, continue to profit from harmful stereotypes originated during a time when white superiority and segregation were common place.\"\n",
"People within the Native American community often view such likenesses as offensive for several reasons. Some objections are because they are used to promote tobacco use as recreational instead of ceremonial. Other objections are that they perpetuate a \"noble savage\" or \"Indian princess\" caricature or inauthentic stereotypes of Native people, implying that modern individuals \"are still living in tepees, that we still wear war bonnets and beads.\" drawing parallels to the African-American lawn jockey.\n"
] |
why drugs companies give half the people placebo's and half the people the actual drug when testing | Lets say you give 10 people a new drug and 5 of them get better/improve, you might think that 50% of the people who take the drug get better.
If instead, you give 10 people the drug and 10 people a placebo and 5 people from each group get better, than you know that the drug isn't (neccessarily) causing the improvement. | [
"Researchers suggest that because variation in drug use susceptibility is in part due to genetic factors, drug consumption could potentially be a costly and honest signal of biological quality. The hypothesis being that humans engage in substance use despite health costs in part to evidence that they can afford to do so. To test the effects substance use had on indicators of mating success researchers tested the effect an individual's fluctuating asymmetry had on the propensity/likelihood to use drugs and found no significant results.\n",
"Drugs such as MDMA (commonly sold by the slang names \"ecstasy\" and \"molly\") are often adulterated. One harm reduction approach is drug checking, where people intending to use drugs can have their substances tested for content and purity so that they can then make more informed decisions about safer consumption. European organisations have offered drug checking services since 1992 and these services now operate in over twenty countries. As an example, the nonprofit organization DanceSafe offers on-site testing of the contents of pills and powders at various electronic music events around the US. They also sell kits for users to test the contents of drugs themselves. PillReports.com invites ecstasy users to send samples of drugs for laboratory testing and publishes the results online.\n",
"Even if an individual tests positive, it is more likely that they do not use the drug than that they do. This is because the number of non-users is large compared to the number of users. The number of false positives outweighs the number of true positives. For example, if 1000 individuals are tested, there are expected to be 995 non-users and 5 users. From the 995 non-users, 0.01 × 995 ≃ 10 false positives are expected. From the 5 users, 0.99 × 5 ≈ 5 true positives are expected. Out of 15 positive results, only 5 are genuine.\n",
"Approximately 80 percent of the global pharmaceutical opioid supply is consumed in the United States. It has also become a serious problem outside the U.S., mostly among young adults. The concern not only relates to the drugs themselves, but to the fact that in many countries doctors are less trained about drug addiction, both about its causes or treatment. According to an epidemiologist at Columbia University: \"Once pharmaceuticals start targeting other countries and make people feel like opioids are safe, we might see a spike [in opioid abuse]. It worked here. Why wouldn't it work elsewhere?\"\n",
"In the U.S., females had a higher rate of ADEs involving opiates and narcotics than males in 2011, while male patients had a higher rate of anticoagulant ADEs. Nearly 8 in 1,000 adults aged 65 years or older experienced one of the four most common ADEs (steroids, antibiotics, opiates/narcotics, and anticoagulants) during hospitalization. A study showed that 48% of patients had an adverse drug reaction to at least one drug, and pharmacist involvement helps to pick up adverse drug reactions.\n",
"Drug checking or pill testing, as it is known in the Southern Hemisphere, is a way to reduce the harm from drug consumption by allowing users to find out the content and purity of substances that they intend to consume. This empowers users to make safer choices: to avoid more dangerous substances, to use smaller quantities, and to avoid dangerous combinations. \n",
"Drugs (especially opioids and stimulants) can change the motivational patterns of a person and lead to desocialization and degradation of personality. Acquisition of the drugs some times involves black market activities and leads to criminal social circle.\n"
] |
the science behind the charlie charlie pencil game | The kid off camera to the right is blowing slightly, moving the pencil. Try it yourself, it takes very little wind to move the pencil. You can tell because they never show anybody in frame when the pencil is moving.
This is really no different than the telekinesis trick James Hydrick used to make pencils move back in the eighties. | [
"The Charlie Charlie challenge is a modern incarnation of the Spanish paper-and-pencil game called \"Juego de la Lapicera\" (Pencil Game). Like a Magic 8-Ball, the game is played by teenagers using held or balanced pencils to produce answers to questions they ask. Teenage girls have played \"Juego de la Lapicera\" for generations in Spain and Hispanic America, asking which boys in their class like them.\n",
"The two pencil game involves crossing two pens or pencils to create a grid (with sectors labelled \"yes\" and \"no\") and then asking questions to a \"supernatural entity\" named \"Charlie.\" The upper pencil is then expected to rotate to indicate the answer to such questions. The first question everyone asks by speaking into the pencils is \"can we play?\" or \"are you here?\" or \"are you there?\" \n",
"\"Pencil Whipped\", released in 2001, might be the most well known of the \"Pie in the Sky\" games and one of the only ones to utilize a later version of the engine. The game won developer Lonnie Flickinger (aka Chiselbrain Software) a chance at the $15,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize and awards for technical excellence, game design, visual art, and audio. Based on a strange dream Flickinger had, the game became known for its unique black and white pencil drawn world and for its wider novelty value, being described by Wired.com as \"like being trapped inside a very disturbed child's drawing.\" In 2006 work was done towards a sequel on using The Game Creators tools, and more recently work has been done on an iPhone remake called \"Escape From Big Ass Castle,\" which was originally released in 2012 for ios6 on the iPhone, but has been taken off of the market to be redone for the io7.\n",
"Timbiriche (known in the United States as Dots and Boxes), is a Paper-and-pencil game of mathematical structure. The objective of the game is to complete squares using points, and thus claim as many of these as possible on paper.\n",
"Owzthat is a dice based cricket simulation. In its non-commercial form it is often called Pencil Cricket as in pre-war Britain 6 sided pencils, shaved back to bare wood with the numbers and words written on them, were used. Today this game is supplied by a variety of manufacturers, including William Lindop Ltd. The name is derived from a verbal cricket appeal regarding whether a batsman is out.\n",
"According to Nite, the game's writing style owes itself to a humorous email exchange between himself and Johnson that began when the two separated after high school. These emails \"helped us develop the shared comedic voice that \"KoL\"'s written in\". The game's developers cite text-based games such as Zork and Legend of the Red Dragon as creative influences, and Nite has compared the game to the Choose Your Own Adventure series of children's books.\n",
"Scott noted that it was easier to reach correct puzzle solutions, with clues being given out \"at a very reasonable rate\". He saw this as the game's largest improvement upon previous \"Ace Attorney\" titles, which he said relied on trial and error; he had considered this the weakest point in the series, and something that needed to be changed. On the other hand, Walker said that the player often can figure out what a contradiction is going to be before the game lets them prove it, and the player might come up with legitimate ideas that the game does not accept. He also wished that the life bar could be filled up in court. Cole criticized how relevant evidence sometimes is not accepted, and how testimony statements sometimes need to be pressed in a certain order, but appreciated the game's larger focus on courtroom sessions over investigations. Thomas and the reviewers at \"Famitsu\" criticized the lack of new gameplay features, although the former thought that fans of the series would be fine with it. Scott acknowledged that the gameplay only is what is expected from the series, but did not find a problem with it due to the focus on narrative over gameplay. Moriarty said that while \"Trials and Tribulations\" is a good game in its own right, he wished that Capcom would make some changes to the gameplay or presentation, to avoid the series becoming \"overdone, played-out, and tired\".\n"
] |
Do historians generally believe that terracotta army found near Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum were made using imported 'Hellenistic' expertise? | There was a great answer on this question about a year ago by u/kungming2 in response to someone who watched the same documentary:
_URL_0_ | [
"In 2017 Li Jian was curator of the \"Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China\", the Qin Dynasty terracotta soldiers exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The VMFA's director, Alex Neryges, stated that the Terracotta Army was the biggest archaeological discovery of all time calling the Qin Shi Huang dynasty “one of the most amazing civilizations in the history of our planet.” Discovered in 1974, the realistic terracotta portraits of the soldiers were uncovered by a farmer digging a well near the early capital city of China, Xianyang. Neryges reported record-breaking attendance at the VMFA for this exhibition.\n",
"The Terracotta Army, inside the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, consists of more than 7,000 life-size tomb terra-cotta figures of warriors and horses buried with the self-proclaimed first Emperor of Qin (Qin Shi Huang) in 210–209 BC. The figures were painted before being placed into the vault. The original colors were visible when the pieces were first unearthed. However, exposure to air caused the pigments to fade, so today the unearthed figures appear terracotta in color. The figures are in several poses including standing infantry and kneeling archers, as well as charioteers with horses. Each figure's head appears to be unique, showing a variety of facial features and expressions as well as hair styles. The spectacular realism displayed by the sculptures is an evidence of the advancement of art during the Qin Dynasty.\n",
"For instance, numerous tomb artefacts of soldiers (also known as a \"terracotta army\") have been found in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. The Qin dynasty was militaristic, heavy-handed and bureaucratic - it was a time of intense and constant warfare with its neighbours and its military was the most powerful and technologically advanced in the world. Therefore, it is unsurprising to find an overwhelming quantity of tomb figurines cast in the image of soldiers in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China.\n",
"The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BCE with the purpose of protecting the emperor in his afterlife.\n",
"BULLET::::- Rohl notes that no Apis bull burials are recorded in the Lesser Vaults at Saqqara for the Twenty-first and early Twenty-second Dynasties. He also argues that the reburial sequence of the mummies of the New Kingdom pharaohs in the Royal Cache (TT 320) shows that these two dynasties were contemporary (thus explaining why there are too few Apis burials for the period). Rohl finds that in the royal burial ground at Tanis it appears that the tomb of Osorkon II of the 22nd Dynasty was built before that of Psusennes I of the 21st Dynasty; in Rohl's view this can only be explained if the two dynasties were contemporary.\n",
"The necropolis complex of Qin Shi Huang is a microcosm of the Emperor's empire and palace, with the tomb mound at the center. There are two walls, the inner and outer walls, surrounding the tomb mound, and a number of pits containing figures and artifacts were found inside and outside the walls. To the west inside the inner wall were found bronze chariots and horses. Inside the inner wall were also found terracotta figures of courtiers and bureaucrats who served the Emperor. Outside of the inner wall but inside the outer wall, pits with terracotta figures of entertainers and strongmen, as well as a pit containing a stone suit of armour were found. To the north of the outer wall were found the imperial park with bronze cranes, swan and ducks with groups of musicians. Outside the outer walls were also found imperial stables where real horses were buried with terracotta figures of grooms kneeling beside them. To the west were found mass burial grounds for the labourers forced to build the complex. The Terracotta Army is about 1.5 km east of the tomb mound.\n",
"Terracotta Army figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in 1974 by some local farmers in Lintong District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China, near the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Chinese: 秦始皇陵; pinyin: Qín Shǐhuáng Ling). In 1978, electrical workers in Mexico City found the remains of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in the middle of the city.\n"
] |
how's does liquid soup turn into foam when i pump it from it container? what's exactly is happening? | When you push the pump (which contains one chamber for soap and one for air) it creates negative pressure that brings the liquid and air together, creating foam. | [
"One of the ways foam is created is through dispersion, where a large amount of gas is mixed with a liquid. A more specific method of dispersion involves injecting a gas through a hole in a solid into a liquid. If this process is completed very slowly, then one bubble can be emitted from the orifice at a time as shown in the picture below.\n",
"This foam can be reduced by conducting the polycondensation at a high temperature around 200 °C and under the pressure of 2.1-4.2 MPa. The foam can also be controlled by adding high boiling point liquids such as diphenylether or cetane to the polycondesation. The boiling point can make the liquid stay in the first stage of polycondesation but evaporate in the second stage of solid condensation. The disadvantage of this method is that there are still some liquids which remain in PBI and it is hard to remove them completely.\n",
"The can contains water (~80%), butane gas (~17%), surfactant (~1%), and other ingredients including vegetable oil (~2%). The liquefied butane expands when the product is ejected from the can. The butane evaporates instantly, forming bubbles of gas in the water/surfactant mixture. The surfactant(s) cause the bubbles to have stability and hence a gas-in-liquid colloid (foam) forms. The bubbles eventually collapse and the foam disappears, leaving only water and surfactant residue on the ground. More technical details can be found in the US patent applications for two of the commercial products available: Spuni (2001) and 9-15 (2010).\n",
"Solid foams can be closed-cell or open-cell. In closed-cell foam, the gas forms discrete pockets, each completely surrounded by the solid material. In open-cell foam, gas pockets connect to each other. A bath sponge is an example of an open-cell foam: water easily flows through the entire structure, displacing the air. A camping mat is an example of a closed-cell foam: gas pockets are sealed from each other so the mat cannot soak up water.\n",
"Foamers can be purchased alone, or filled with a liquid product like soap. When the liquid is mixed with air, the liquid product can be dispersed through the pump-top as a foam. Foamers can also be re-used with different liquid products to extend the mass of the liquid by creating a foam-version.\n",
"Spray foam is a chemical product created by two materials, isocyanate and polyol resin, which react when mixed with each other and expand up to 30-60 times its liquid volume after it is sprayed in place. This expansion makes it useful as a specialty packing material which forms to the shape of the product being packaged and produces a high thermal insulating value with virtually no air infiltration.\n",
"A foam pump, or squeeze foamer and dispensing device is a non-aerosol way of dispensing liquid materials. The foam pump outputs the liquid in the form of foam and it is operated by squeezing. The parts of the foam pump are similar to those of the other pump devices. Many times the foaming pump comes with a protective cap. Most of the components are made from polypropylene (PP).\n"
] |
why do i sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with the sole thought of remembering i forgot to set my alarm? | I'd love to know the answer to this too. Sometimes I can't even get to sleep until I *know* I set the alarm. | [
"Today, many humans wake up with an alarm clock; however, people can also reliably wake themselves up at a specific time with no need for an alarm. Many sleep quite differently on workdays versus days off, a pattern which can lead to chronic circadian desynchronization. Many people regularly look at television and other screens before going to bed, a factor which may exacerbate disruption of the circadian cycle. Scientific studies on sleep have shown that sleep stage at awakening is an important factor in amplifying sleep inertia.\n",
"A common false awakening is a \"late for work\" scenario. A person may \"wake up\" in a typical room, with most things looking normal, and realize he or she overslept and missed the start time at work or school. Clocks, if found in the dream, will show time indicating that fact. The resulting panic is often strong enough to jar the person awake for real (much like from a nightmare).\n",
"An alarm clock is a clock that is designed to alert an individual or group of individuals at specified time. The primary function of these clocks is to awaken people from their night's sleep or short naps; they are sometimes used for other reminders as well. Most use sound; some use light or vibration. Some have sensors to identify when a person is in a light stage of sleep, in order to avoid waking someone who is deeply asleep, which causes tiredness, even if the person has had adequate sleep. To stop the sound or light, a button or handle on the clock is pressed; most clocks automatically stop the alarm if left unattended long enough. A classic analog alarm clock has an extra hand or inset dial that is used to specify the time at which to activate the alarm. Alarm clocks are also found on mobile phones, watches, and computers.\n",
"The primary purpose of a clock is to \"display\" the time. Clocks may also have the facility to make a loud alert signal at a specified time, typically to waken a sleeper at a preset time; they are referred to as \"alarm clocks\". The alarm may start at a low volume and become louder, or have the facility to be switched off for a few minutes then resume. Alarm clocks with visible indicators are sometimes used to indicate to children too young to read the time that the time for sleep has finished; they are sometimes called \"training clocks\".\n",
"According to one study, the first thing that 61% of people do after waking up in the morning is check their smartphones. Further, 77% of the teens reported anxiety when they are without mobile phones.\n",
"Greg is also given the responsibility of waking himself up. He tries a better alarm clock than his older one, which didn't work, a wind-up clock. He put it under his bed so he would have to get out of bed to find it. But with the clock ticking loudly under his bed, he feels like he is on top of a bomb and therefore gets no sleep. As a result, Greg accidentally sets off the fire alarm at school in his sleep-deprived state. The entire school has to evacuate, and the fire brigade is called. After everyone goes back in, the head teacher says that whoever set off the alarm will be suspended and should turn themselves in. Greg does not get caught, but a rumor goes around that the fire alarm squirts out an invisible liquid when you pull the handle and the teachers could detect it with a special wand. Then everyone thinks that the teachers used this as a trick to see which kid goes to wash his hands first. No one goes to wash their hands, and since it is the middle of flu season, the school has to close early.\n",
"\"Whatever the cause, it is definitely the case that, when faced with a kid who refuses to go to sleep, we get annoyed, like all parents before us, but, rather than just abandoning the child to the dark and telling it that it can go to sleep or stay awake as it likes but it is staying in the bed until morning (remember Proust at the opening of \"Swann’s Way\"?), we sit there with it, reading to it and singing to it and distracting it with swirling night lights until it decides it feels like going to sleep, all the while thinking to ourselves, Go the fuck to sleep, kid.\"\n"
] |
what is the point of those things that appear in your eyes after sleeping? | They're called eye poop in Sweden | [
"When the individual is awake, blinking of the eyelid causes rheum to be washed away with tears via the nasolacrimal duct. The absence of this action during sleep, however, results in a small amount of dry rheum accumulating in corners of the eye, most notably in children.\n",
"Acute Haemmorrhagic Conjunctivitis is normally recognized by the affected individual upon waking. The eyelids stick together requiring great effort in separating them. Intense whitish mucopurulent discharge is observed throughout the day with the eye having a reddish hue. There is pain which is worse upon looking up or at light. Other symptoms include sore eyes, feeling of grittiness or burning, redness, watery discharge, swelling of eyelids.\n",
"BULLET::::- In ophthalmology, mucopurulent discharge from the eyes, and caught in the eyelashes, is a hallmark sign of bacterial conjunctivitis. The normal buildup of tears, mucus, and dirt (compare rheum) that appears at the edge of the eyelids after sleep is not mucopurulent discharge, as it does not contain pus.\n",
"Nocturnal Lagophthalmos (where one’s eyelids don’t close enough to cover the eye completely during sleep) may be an exacerbating factor, in which case using surgical tape to keep the eye closed at night can help.\n",
"BULLET::::- learn to wake with eyes closed and still and keeping artificial tear drops within reach so that they may be squirted under the inner corner of the eyelids if the eyes feel uncomfortable upon waking.\n",
"These spots are often followed within a few days or weeks by a much greater leakage of blood, which blurs the vision. In extreme cases, a person may only be able to tell light from dark in that eye. It may take the blood anywhere from a few days to months or even years to clear from the inside of the eye, and in some cases the blood will not clear. These types of large hemorrhages tend to happen more than once, often during sleep.\n",
"\"How then were your eyes opened?\" they asked. He replied, \"The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.\"\n"
] |
why do companies spend excessive amounts of money on logos that look barely different? | Peter Drucker, a very famous business professor, was often quoted as saying: "There are only two things in a business that make money - innovation and marketing. Everything else is a cost."
A company's logo is its face to the world. Anything that people think of when they glimpse a company's logo is probably going to strongly impact that consumers perceptions of the company.
One of my firm's clients recently heard in a focus group that a new logo they were testing out made someone think of the Nazi Swastika. This one guy's random impression was enough for our client to want to get us to speak to hundreds more people to ensure that this was just one random guy thinking that and not evocative of a larger trend. It's pretty clear how the client would have lost a lot of money if their logo made people think of nazis and they didn't catch it before making the change. That type of thing is a pretty compelling case to spend money researching a logo. A bit of money spent on research can avoid huge costs in the future if the logo/marketing idea doesn't work out. | [
"Because these company and program logos represent the company and product itself, much attention is given to their design, done frequently by commercial artists. To regulate the use of these brand icons, they are trademark registered and are considered part of the company intellectual property.\n",
"Consumers decipher the cultural codes embodied in celebrity images and actively identify personal, social and cultural meaning in these idols. Therefore, this is why celebrity branding and endorsing through technology has become increasingly more of a trend with initial touch points of communicational advertising. More and more corporate brands are enlisting celebrities to differentiate their brand and create a more competitive advantage through media (IIicic & M. Webster, 2015). For example, if there are two brands that have a similar or identical product, it is almost guaranteed that the brand with the more established and well-known celebrity will be more successful in sales and interest (Ambroise, Pantin-Sohler, Valette – Florence & Albert, 2014). Big companies such as Adidas and Nike use high-profile celebrities to appeal to the emotional side of the average consumer. Celebrities provide much more than entertainment. They influence consumers' perceptions, behaviours, values and decisions (Choi and Rifon, 2012).\n",
"BULLET::::- How well do people remember the logos of large corporations that sell consumer goods? An attempt to evaluate the actual power of commercial brands by making people draw famous logos from memory.\n",
"Company logos can portray meaning just through the use of color. Color affects people's perceptions of a new or unknown company. Some companies such as Victoria's Secret and H&R Block used color to change their corporate image and create a new brand personality for a specific target audience. Research done on the relationship between logo color and five personality traits had participants rate a computer-made logo in different colors on scales relating to the dimensions of brand personality. Relationships were found between color and sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. A follow up study tested the effects of perceived brand personality and purchasing intentions. Participants were presented with a product and a summary of the preferred brand personality and had to rate the likelihood of purchasing a product based on packaging color. Purchasing intent was greater if the perceived personality matched the marketed product or service. In turn color affects perceived brand personality and brand personality affects purchasing intent.\n",
"Promotion and packaging: Companies are allowed to brand their products, but they must avoid anything that would appear to appeal directly to youth such as cartoon characters, animals, or celebrity endorsements. Event sponsorship is also not allowed. Companies can also use factual information on their packaging, such as THC levels, that would help consumers make a decision on what product to buy. Promotion is only allowed in places where youth cannot view it.\n",
"Kyle Weisner said of the advertisement, \"There are companies that do a lot of advertising, like, for example Empire, but they change their commercials weekly. With us, our message is the same, so we've never felt the need to change it.\"\n",
"Branding emerged as a top management priority in the last decade due to the growing realization that a brand is one of the most valuable assets that firms can have. A brand is more than just a name on a stationery, clothes, plant, or equipment. It carries meaning to all stakeholders and represents a set of values, promises, even a personality of its own. Most companies with the biggest increases in brand value operate as single brands all over the world. \n"
] |
britons of reddit, can someone explain the "first past the post system"? | The country is divided into "constituencies".
Each constituency elects a single representative, or MP. (Edit, as pointed out below): they do this by voting on the candidates, and the candidate with the most votes wins. The winner doesn't need a majority of votes, they just need more votes than anyone else.
Most MPs represent a party (although independent candidates are allowed to stand, and occasionally win). The party with more than 50% of MPs gets to form the government.
If no party has more than 50% of MPs, the party with the most MPs gets to try to form a government by going into coalition with other parties, so that the parties in the coalition have more than 50% of the MPs between them. | [
"First past the post was used in New Zealand prior to MMP, and the three other systems were recommended by the Royal Commission on the Electoral System for further scrutiny in 1986 and were voted on in 1992.\n",
"The first-past-the-post system used in UK general elections means that the number of seats won is not closely related to vote share. Thus, several approaches were used to convert polling data and other information into seat predictions. The table below lists some of the predictions. ElectionForecast was used by \"Newsnight\" and FiveThirtyEight. May2015.com is a project run by the \"New Statesman\" magazine.\n",
"A first-past-the-post (FPTP and sometimes abbreviated to FPP) electoral system is one in which voters indicate on a ballot the candidate of their choice, and the candidate who receives the most votes wins. This is sometimes described as \"winner takes all\". First-past-the-post voting is a plurality voting method. FPTP is a common, but not universal, feature of electoral systems with single-member electoral divisions, and is practised in close to one third of countries. Notable examples include Canada, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as most of their current or former colonies and protectorates.\n",
"The First Post was a British daily online news magazine based in London. Launched in August 2005, it was sold to Dennis Publishing in 2008 and retitled \"The Week\" at the end of 2014. In its current format, it publishes news, current affairs, lifestyle, opinion, arts and sports pages, and features an online games arcade and a cinema featuring short films, virals, trailers and eyewitness news footage. There are also quick-read digests of the UK newspapers' news, opinion and sports pages.\n",
"\"The First Post\" has no discernible political bias. Regular writers have included the left wing Alexander Cockburn, commenting on US politics, and Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, generally perceived as a conservative, writing on UK and international issues. Contributors are based in a wide range of countries. \"The First Post\" was devised by Mark Law who was the editor until September 2009. It is edited by Nigel Horne, former editor of the \"Telegraph\" magazine.\n",
"The first-past-the-post system used in UK general elections means that the number of seats won is not directly related to vote share. Thus, several approaches are used to convert polling data and other information into seat predictions. The table below lists some of the predictions.\n",
"This period has attracted a great deal of academic and popular debate, in part because of the scarcity of the written source material. The term \"post-Roman Britain\" is also used for the period, mainly in non-archaeological contexts; \"sub-Roman\" and \"post-Roman\" are both terms that apply to the old Roman province of Britannia, i.e. Britain south of the Forth–Clyde line. The history of the area between Hadrian's Wall and the Forth–Clyde line is similar to that of Wales (see Rheged, Bernicia, Gododdin and Strathclyde). North of the line lay a thinly-populated area including the kingdoms of the Maeatae (in Angus), Dalriada (in Argyll), and the kingdom whose \"kaer\" (castle) near Inverness was visited by Saint Columba. The Romans referred to these peoples collectively as \"Picti\" Picts, meaning Painted Ones.\n"
] |
Did any military powers use light (most likely the reflection of it) in military tactics in an attempt to blind or burn the opposition? | Sorry, we don't allow ["example seeking" questions](_URL_0_). It's not that your question was bad; it's that these kinds of questions tend to produce threads that are collections of disjointed, partial, inadequate responses. If you have a question about a specific historical event, period, or person, feel free to rewrite your question and submit it again. If you don't want to rewrite it, you might try submitting it to /r/history, /r/askhistory, or /r/tellmeafact.
For further explanation of the rule, feel free to consult [this META thread](_URL_1_). | [
"Battlefield illumination is technology that improves visibility for military forces operating in difficult light conditions. The risks and dangers to armies fighting in poor light have been known since Ancient Chinese times. Prior to the advent of the electrical age, fire was used to improve visibility on the battlefield. \n",
"Modern armies use a variety of equipment and discharge devices to create artificial light. If natural light is not present searchlights, whether using visible light or infrared, and flares can be used. As light can be detected electronically, modern warfare has accordingly seen increased use of night vision through the use of infrared cameras and image intensifiers.\n",
"Ancient military strategists knew that natural light created shadows that can hide form while bright areas would expose a military force's size and number of a military force. Ancient armies would always prefer to fight with the Sun behind them in order to use the visual glare to partially blind an opposing enemy. Backlight would also obscure movement and numbers making it more difficult for an enemy to react quickly to any tactical assault. \n",
"Counter-illumination has not so far come into widespread military use, but during the Second World War it was trialled in ships in the Canadian Diffused lighting camouflage project, and in aircraft in the American Yehudi lights project.\n",
"A blackout during war, or in preparation for an expected war, is the practice of collectively minimizing outdoor light, including upwardly directed (or reflected) light. This was done in the 20th century to prevent crews of enemy aircraft from being able to identify their targets by sight, for example during the London Blitz of 1940. In coastal regions a shore-side blackout of city lights also helped protect ships from being seen in silhouette against the shore by enemy submarines farther out at sea.\n",
"Handgun or rifle-mounted lights may also be used to temporarily blind an opponent and are sometimes marketed for that purpose. In both cases the primary purpose is to illuminate the target and their use to disorient is secondary.\n",
"Battlefield illumination was also used in the campaigns in Sicily and Italy up to and including the Gothic line. It was used to illuminate the battlefield for not only infantry attack but also, because of the ridge nature of the terrain, catching out German Artillery in the full glare of light on the opposite slopes. Careful reconnoitring of the area and individual placement achieved excellent results. The 1st Canadian Group had with them the 422nd Search-Light (Independent) Battery Royal Artillery who undertook this task successfully.\n"
] |
quantum computers (you can explain it like i'm a dumbass 26yr old too if that suits you more.) | _URL_0_
This video explains it fairly well. | [
"Quantum computers are the ultimate quantum network, combining 'quantum bits' or 'qubit' which are devices that can store and process quantum data (as opposed to binary data) with links that can transfer quantum information between qubits. In doing this, quantum computers are predicted to calculate certain algorithms significantly faster than even the largest classical computer available today.\n",
"A quantum computer is a device that uses quantum mechanisms for computation. In this device the data are stored as qubits (quantum binary digits). That gives a quantum computer in comparison with a conventional computer the opportunity to solve complicated problems in a short time, e.g. discrete logarithm problem or factorization. Algorithms that are not based on any of these number theory problems are being searched because of this property.\n",
"Quantum computers are expected to have a number of significant uses in computing fields such as optimization and machine learning. They are famous for their expected ability to carry out 'Shor's Algorithm', which can be used to factorise large numbers which are mathematically important to secure data transmission.\n",
"A quantum computer is a computation system that makes direct use of quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data. Quantum computers are different from digital computers based on transistors. Whereas digital computers require data to be encoded into binary digits (bits), each of which is always in one of two definite states (0 or 1), quantum computation uses qubits (quantum bits), which can be in superpositions of states. A theoretical model is the quantum Turing machine, also known as the universal quantum computer. Quantum computers share theoretical similarities with non-deterministic and probabilistic computers; one example is the ability to be in more than one state simultaneously. The field of quantum computing was first introduced by Yuri Manin in 1980 and Richard Feynman in 1982. A quantum computer with spins as quantum bits was also formulated for use as a quantum space–time in 1968.\n",
"A classical computer has a memory made up of bits, where each bit is represented by either a one or a zero. A quantum computer, on the other hand, maintains a sequence of qubits, which can represent a one, a zero, or any quantum superposition of those two qubit states; a pair of qubits can be in any quantum superposition of 4 states, and three qubits in any superposition of 8 states. In general, a quantum computer with formula_1 qubits can be in any superposition of up to formula_2 different states. (This compares to a normal computer that can only be in \"one\" of these formula_2 states at any one time).\n",
"There are a number of technical challenges in building a large-scale quantum computer, and thus far quantum computers have yet to solve a problem faster than a classical computer. David DiVincenzo, of IBM, listed the following requirements for a practical quantum computer:\n",
"The quantum computer may be physically implemented in arbitrary ways but the common apparatus considered to date features a Mach–Zehnder interferometer. The quantum computer is set in a superposition of \"not running\" and \"running\" states by means such as the Quantum Zeno Effect. Those state histories are quantum interfered. After many repetitions of very rapid projective measurements, the \"not running\" state evolves to a final value imprinted into the properties of the quantum computer. Measuring that value allows for learning the result of some types of computations such as Grover's algorithm even though the result was derived from the non-running state of the quantum computer.\n"
] |
eli: the current debate in the uk about the eu. | [This](_URL_0_) excellent post by /u/loudribs over at /r/unitedkingdom gives a good overview of the pros and cons. | [
"The United Kingdom renegotiation of European Union membership was a package of changes to the United Kingdom's terms of European Union (EU) membership and changes to EU rules which was first proposed by Prime Minister David Cameron in January 2013, with negotiations beginning in the summer of 2015 following the outcome of the UK General Election. The package was agreed by the President of the European Council Donald Tusk, and approved by EU leaders of all 27 other countries at the European Council session in Brussels on 18–19 February 2016 between the United Kingdom and the rest of the European Union. The changes were intended to take effect following a vote for \"Remain\" in the UK's in-out referendum, at which point suitable legislation would be presented by the European Commission. Due to the Leave result of the referendum, the changes were never implemented.\n",
"Issues in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016 are the economic, human and political issues that were discussed during the campaign about the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, during the period leading up to the Brexit referendum of 23 June 2016. [Issues that have arisen since then are outside the scope of this article].\n",
"From the beginning of the 2010s, the cohesion of the European Union has been tested by several issues, including a debt crisis in some of the Eurozone countries, increasing migration from the Middle East, and the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU. A referendum in the UK on its membership of the European Union was held in 2016, with 51.9% of participants voting to leave. The UK formally notified the European Council of its decision to leave on 29 March 2017, initiating the formal withdrawal procedure for leaving the EU, committing the UK in principle to leave the EU two years later, on 29 March 2019, unless an extension was sought and granted, which occurred.\n",
"The United Kingdom joined the European Community (EC) with the European Community Act 1972, and through that became subject to EC competition law. Since the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, the EC was renamed the European Union (EU). Competition law falls under the social and economic pillar of the treaties. After the introduction of the Treaty of Lisbon the pillar structure was abandoned and competition law was subsumed in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). So where a British company is carrying out unfair business practices, is involved in a cartel or is attempting to merge in a way which would disrupt competition across UK borders, the Commission of the European Union will have enforcement powers and exclusively EU law will apply. The first provision is Article 101 TFEU, which deals with cartels and restrictive vertical agreements. Prohibited are...\n",
"A European Union membership referendum took place on Thursday 23 June 2016 in the UK and resulted in an overall vote to leave the EU, by 51.9%. The British government have triggered Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union to start the process to leave the EU, which is expected to take several years. The G4 now consists of the UK and the new EU big three (Germany, France and Italy), the large founding members of the European Communities that have retaken a leading role in Europe following the decision of the UK to leave the EU.\n",
"The United Kingdom was a co-founder of EFTA in 1960, but ceased to be a member upon joining the European Economic Community. The country held a referendum in 2016 on withdrawing from the EU (popularly referred to as \"Brexit\"), resulting in a 51.9% vote in favour of withdrawing. A 2013 research paper presented to the Parliament of the United Kingdom proposed a number of alternatives to EU membership which would continue to allow it access to the EU's internal market, including continuing EEA membership as an EFTA member state, or the Swiss model of a number of bilateral treaties covering the provisions of the single market.\n",
"BULLET::::- The EU rejects Theresa May's proposal for \"mutual recognition\" of standards between the UK and EU as part of a post-Brexit trade relationship, while also ruling out British membership of EU regulators such as the European Medicines Agency after Brexit.\n"
] |
Is there a chance to be struck by lightening in a room with window and door closed ? | Yes, but probably not in the way you think. A lightning bolt will most likely not shoot through a window, leave the wall unmolested, shoot through the air in your room and then head right towards you. Lighting is electricity and takes the path of least electrical resistance. Your walls have metal plumbing pipes and metal household electrical wires running through them that are the path of least resistance. Therefore, a lightning bolt will mostly likely touch down from air onto your roof or the outside of a wall, and then run along the wiring and plumbing towards the ground. For this reason, being inside a building is safer than being out in an open field. But, lightning bolts carry a lot of electrical current, so not all of the current is contained exactly in the pipes and wiring that it is traveling down. A lot of the current spills out, and dissipates in all directions. So if you are touching your metal sink knob right when a bolt hits your house and runs down the plumbing in the wall just behind your sink, some of current can travel through you and give you a shock. You may not be "struck by lightning" in the sense of lightning first touching down from air directly on you if you are in a building, but you can still be "struck by lightning" in the sense that some of the electrical current from the bolt travels through you as it makes its way down through the structure of the house.
In short, to stay safe from lightning when indoors, avoid touching plumbing or the water coming out of plumbing (sinks, showers, toilets) and avoid touching plugged-in electrical equipment (appliances, corded phones, charging devices). | [
"Upon entering the darkened room, the gaze falls on a black “picture”, which, surrounded by a vibrating light, appears to float in front of the wall. The image is made up of 16 monitors arranged as a compact rectangular block at a distance of 30 centimetres from the wall – the screens facing the wall. A crackling sound is audible, automatically suggesting fire and a threat. Those who venture a peek behind the tableau will note that the monitors show 16 lighted fireplaces. The banality of this domestic idyll comes as a disappointment, contrasting sharply with the spectacle of fascination and horror generated by the concealment of the reality.\n",
"A light leak, considered as a problem, is a kind of stray light. It is possible to have a \"virtual\" light leak in spectral regions, like portions of the IR spectrum at room temperature, where surfaces inside the system emit significant amounts of radiation.\n",
"The illumination problem is a resolved mathematical problem attributed to Ernst Straus in the 1950s. Straus asked if a room with mirrored walls can always be illuminated by a single point light source, allowing for repeated reflection of light off the mirrored walls. Alternatively, the question can be stated as asking that if a billiard table can be constructed in any required shape, is there a shape possible such that there is a point where it is impossible to the billiard ball in a at another point, assuming the ball is point-like and continues infinitely rather than stopping due to friction.\n",
"BULLET::::2. If you indoors lay down under a table or a bed. If doors are opened, stand under a doorway or in a corner inside a room. Do not forget that at jolting first of all burst and break external walls of buildings. Therefore to run or hide under a window is forbidden.\n",
"Windows and doors that are not fully closed can cause the alarm contacts to be misaligned which can result in a false alarm. In addition, if a door or window is left slightly ajar, wind may be able to blow them open which will also cause a false alarm. To prevent this from happening, door and windows should always be shut securely and locked.\n",
"BULLET::::- An intruder detection or access control system could be used in conjunction with light level sensors to turn lights on and off. So when you walk into a dark room the lights turn on (if you are allowed to be there) and when you leave they turn off behind you, thus making energy savings by preventing lights from being left on.\n",
"BULLET::::- 4. Close All Windows And Doors And Draw The Blinds: If you have time when an alert sounds, close the house up tight in order to keep out fire sparks and radioactive dusts and to lessen the chances of being cut by flying glass. Keep the house closed until all danger is past.\n"
] |
why do people enjoy the smell of their own farts?? | It's just you. | [
"The effect his scent has had now confirms to Grenouille how much he hates people, especially as he realizes that they worship him now and that even this degree of control does not give him satisfaction. He decides to return to Paris, intending to die there, and after a long journey ends up at the fish market where he was born. He approaches a crowd of criminals gathered in a cemetery and pours the entire bottle of his final perfume on himself. The people are so drawn to him that they are compelled to obtain parts of his body, eventually tearing him to pieces and eating them. The story ends with the crowd, now embarrassed by their actions, agreeing that they did it out of \"love\".\n",
"Smell is also vividly represented throughout the novel. The young Riad associates new places and especially new people with their smells, ranging from perfume and incense to sweat, spoiled food, and flatulence. These odors tend to convey the quality of relationships, with Sattouf explaining, \"the people whose odor I preferred were generally the ones who were the kindest to me. I find that’s still true today.”\n",
"\"Walden\" (1854), by Henry David Thoreau, references a simoom; he uses it to describe his urge to escape something most unwanted. \"There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted. It is human, it is divine, carrion. If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life, as from that dry and parching wind of the African deserts called the simoom, which fills the mouth and nose and ears and eyes with dust till you are suffocated, for fear that I should get some of his good done to me — some of its virus mingled with my blood. No — in this case I would rather suffer evil the natural way.\"\n",
"The perceived bad odor of feces has been hypothesized to be a deterrent for humans, as consuming or touching it may result in sickness or infection. Human perception of the odor may be contrasted by a non-human animal's perception of it; for example, an animal who eats feces may be attracted to its odor.\n",
"Even when people read for extended periods of time during defecation, it is rare for bathroom readers to feel disgusted by the smell of their own feces, or even to consciously notice the smell. Sigmund Freud also noted this phenomenon in \"Civilization and Its Discontents\", though he described lack of awareness of fecal smell in general, not just while reading: \"in spite of all man's developmental advances, he scarcely finds the smell of his own excreta repulsive, but only that of other people's.\"\n",
"Gus has a very refined sense of smell and has nicknamed his nose \"the Super Sniffer\". He is able to recognize the base component of a perfume by smelling it and can perform the same trick with food. The talent seems to be hereditary, as it has been displayed by both of his parents, and has led to the uncovering of crucial evidence in several cases. He has been shown to have a fear of dead people, having run away from a scene where a dead person is present on more than one occasion. He has showed the dislike of seeing blood on occasions. He is also well-versed in high-tech locks or safes, as demonstrated by his ability to crack an electronic lock on his first try.\n",
"They have a lot of people in here. Sometimes it smells. It's too many people. Some people even talk about burning this place down. They just don't have enough space for all of us here. Sometimes it makes me go crazy.\n"
] |
why was earth more subject to cosmic debris impacts billions of years ago compared to today? | Because there were a lot more cosmic debris back than, in fact Earth is a collection of cosmic debris. Over the course of billions of years Earth along with the rest of the planets in the Solar System have cleaned out the space debris adjacent to their orbits. That being said there are still billions of space rocks left in the Solar System, but since space is so big they rarely hit us. | [
"Large areas of Earth's surface are subject to extreme weather such as tropical cyclones, hurricanes, or typhoons that dominate life in those areas. From 1980 to 2000, these events caused an average of 11,800 human deaths per year. Many places are subject to earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, sinkholes, blizzards, floods, droughts, wildfires, and other calamities and disasters.\n",
"Major astronomical impact events have significantly shaped Earth's history, having been implicated in the formation of the Earth–Moon system, the origin of water on Earth, the evolutionary history of life, and several mass extinctions. Notable prehistorical impact events include the Chicxulub impact, 66 million years ago, believed to be the cause of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The 37 million years old asteroid impact that caused Mistastin crater generated temperatures exceeding 2,370 °C, the highest known to have naturally occurred on the surface of the Earth.\n",
"These modified views of Earth's history did not emerge until relatively recently, chiefly due to a lack of direct observations and the difficulty in recognizing the signs of an Earth impact because of erosion and weathering. Large-scale terrestrial impacts of the sort that produced the Barringer Crater, locally known as Meteor Crater, northeast of Flagstaff, Arizona, are rare. Instead, it was widely thought that cratering was the result of volcanism: the Barringer Crater, for example, was ascribed to a prehistoric volcanic explosion (not an unreasonable hypothesis, given that the volcanic San Francisco Peaks stand only to the west). Similarly, the craters on the surface of the Moon were ascribed to volcanism.\n",
"Although the Tunguska event is believed to be the largest impact event on land in Earth's recent history, impacts of similar size in remote ocean areas would have gone unnoticed before the advent of global satellite monitoring in the 1960s and 1970s. Because the event occurred in a remote area, there was little damage to human life or property, and it was in fact some years until it was properly investigated.\n",
"An impact crater on the sea floor would be evidence of a possible cause of the P–Tr extinction, but such a crater would by now have disappeared. As 70% of the Earth's surface is currently sea, an asteroid or comet fragment is now perhaps more than twice as likely to hit ocean as it is to hit land. However, Earth's oldest ocean-floor crust is 200 million years old because it is continually destroyed and renewed by spreading and subduction. Thus, craters produced by very large impacts may be masked by extensive flood basalting from below after the crust is punctured or weakened. Yet, subduction should not be entirely accepted as an explanation of why no firm evidence can be found: as with the K-T event, an ejecta blanket stratum rich in siderophilic elements (such as iridium) would be expected to be seen in formations from the time.\n",
"Impact events appear to have played a significant role in the evolution of the Solar System since its formation. Major impact events have significantly shaped Earth's history, have been implicated in the formation of the Earth–Moon system, the evolutionary history of life, the origin of water on Earth and several mass extinctions. The famous prehistoric Chicxulub impact, 66 million years ago, is believed to be the cause of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.\n",
"The cataclysmic scale of physical and ecological destruction that a megatsunami, like the one proposed by Kristan-Tollmann and Tollmann, would have caused, has not been recognized within the majority of long-term environmental records. Over a thousand cores from North America for which Holocene paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental records have been reconstructed do not show evidence for the drastic environmental changes resulting from a large Holocene impact. There is a similar lack of evidence for mega-tsunami related, Holocene, catastrophic environmental disruptions and deposits reported from environmental records reconstructed from thousands of locations from all over the world. Other megatsunamis have been shown in coastal sediments analyzed by geologists and palynologists and point to tsunamis locally caused by either earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or submarine slides. These non-impact related tsunamis show abundant records of their environmental effects through the study of pollen from cores and exposures.\n"
] |
is it really true that cockroaches find humans repulsive? | Cockroaches don't have the neurons required to feel revulsion, or much of anything, really. They're little machines with a bunch of hardwired responses and little to no ability to actually make decisions. That said, one of their responses is to remove foreign smells from their bodies. The oils on your finger qualify, so they try to remove them. | [
"Cockroaches are social insects; a large number of species are either gregarious or inclined to aggregate, and a slightly smaller number exhibit parental care. It used to be thought that cockroaches aggregated because they were reacting to environmental cues, but it is now believed that pheromones are involved in these behaviors. Some species secrete these in their feces with gut microbial symbionts being involved, while others use glands located on their mandibles. Pheromones produced by the cuticle may enable cockroaches to distinguish between different populations of cockroach by odor. The behaviors involved have been studied in only a few species, but German cockroaches leave fecal trails with an odor gradient. Other cockroaches follow such trails to discover sources of food and water, and where other cockroaches are hiding. Thus, cockroaches have emergent behavior, in which group or swarm behavior emerges from a simple set of individual interactions.\n",
"Because of their long, persistent association with humans, cockroaches are frequently referred to in art, literature, folk tales and theater and film. In Western culture, cockroaches are often depicted as vile and dirty pests. Their size, long antennae, shiny appearance and spiny legs make them disgusting to many humans, sometimes even to the point of phobic responses. This is borne out in many depictions of cockroaches, from political versions of the song \"La Cucaracha\" where political opponents are compared to cockroaches, through the 1982 movie \"Creepshow\" and TV shows such as \"The X-Files\", to the Hutu extremists' reference to the Tutsi minority as cockroaches during the Rwandan Genocide in 1994 and the controversial cartoons published in the \"Iran weekly magazine\" in 2006 which implied a comparison between Iranian Azeris and cockroaches. In Dutch Soccer the term \"kakkerlakken\" (Dutch for \"cockroaches\") is used as a colloquial, often derogatory term for the supporters of Feyenoord. \n",
"Cockatoos are often very affectionate with their owner and at times other people but can demand a great deal of attention. Furthermore, their intense curiosity means they must be given a steady supply of objects to tinker with, chew, dismantle and destroy. Parrots in captivity may suffer from boredom, which can lead to stereotypic behaviour patterns, such as feather-plucking. Feather plucking is likely to stem from psychological rather than physical causes. Other major drawbacks include their painful bites, and their piercing screeches. The salmon-crested and white cockatoo species are particular offenders. All cockatoos have a fine powder on their feathers, which may induce allergies in certain people. In general, the smaller cockatoo species such as Goffin's and quieter Galah's cockatoos are much easier to keep as pets. The cockatiel is one of the most popular and easiest parrots to keep as a pet, and many colour mutations are available in aviculture.\n",
"Because of their ease of rearing and resilience, cockroaches have been used as insect models in the laboratory, particularly in the fields of neurobiology, reproductive physiology and social behavior. The cockroach is a convenient insect to study as it is large and simple to raise in a laboratory environment. This makes it suitable both for research and for school and undergraduate biology studies. It can be used in experiments on topics such as learning, sexual pheromones, spatial orientation, aggression, activity rhythms and the biological clock, and behavioral ecology. Research conducted in 2014 suggests that humans fear cockroaches the most, even more than mosquitoes, due to an evolutionary aversion.\n",
"The Blattodea include some thirty species of cockroaches associated with humans; these species are atypical of the thousands of species in the order. They feed on human and pet food and can leave an offensive odor. They can passively transport pathogenic microbes on their body surfaces, particularly in environments such as hospitals. Cockroaches are linked with allergic reactions in humans. One of the proteins that trigger allergic reactions is tropomyosin. These allergens are also linked with asthma. About 60% of asthma patients in Chicago are also sensitive to cockroach allergens. Studies similar to this have been done globally and all the results are similar. Cockroaches can live for a few days up to a month without food, so just because no cockroaches are visible in a home does not mean they are not there. Approximately 20-48% of homes with no visible sign of cockroaches have detectable cockroach allergens in dust.\n",
"Cockroaches use pheromones to attract mates, and the males practice courtship rituals, such as posturing and stridulation. Like many insects, cockroaches mate facing away from each other with their genitalia in contact, and copulation can be prolonged. A few species are known to be parthenogenetic, reproducing without the need for males.\n",
"Because of their long association with humans, cockroaches are frequently referred to in popular culture. In Western culture, cockroaches are often depicted as dirty pests. In a 1750–1752 journal, Peter Osbeck noted that cockroaches were frequently seen and found their way to the bakeries, after the sailing ship \"Gothenburg\" ran aground and was destroyed by rocks.\n"
] |
Historians, how do you feel, in general, the accuracy and completeness of wikipedia entries compares to High School history textbooks? | It depends on the article, especially on how popular the topic is. I'd say, in general, that wikipedia articles are more complete than a typical textbook. This is due to space more than anything. A textbook can't spend 1200 words on Julius Caesar's [early career](_URL_0_) before becoming consul. But the rest of his career is pretty comparable to what you might find in a textbook.
Thankfully you do not have to rest on my anecdotal data. Check out this [study by Roy Rosenzweig on Wikipedia](_URL_1_). This is widely read by teachers and professors and informs many opinions on the website. He concludes that Wikipedia is just as accurate as a comparable encyclopedia, a tad less accurate than a topical encyclopedia, but more exhaustive than either. The issue is that the articles often focus on material that many academics would consider "beside the point" for a person looking for an overview on a topic and its importance to historians.
Edit: the study is about Wikipedia, not at Wikipedia. | [
"The book reflects Loewen's belief that history should not be taught as straightforward facts and dates to memorize, but rather as analysis of the context and root causes of events. Loewen recommends that teachers use two or more textbooks, so that students may realize the contradictions and ask questions, such as, \"Why do the authors present the material like this?\"\n",
"In recent years, high school textbooks of United States history have come under increasing criticism. Authors such as Howard Zinn (\"A People's History of the United States\"), Gilbert T. Sewall (\"\") and James W. Loewen (\"\"), make the claim that U.S. history textbooks contain mythical untruths and omissions, which paint a whitewashed picture that bears little resemblance to what most students learn in universities. Inaccurately retelling history, through textbooks or other literature, has been practiced in many societies, from ancient Rome to the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China. The content of history textbooks is often determined by the political forces of state adoption boards and ideological pressure groups.\n",
"Still other critics believe that using textbooks undermines the process of learning history by sacrificing thinking skills for content—that textbooks allow teachers to cover vast amounts of names, dates, and places while encouraging students simply to memorize instead of question or analyze. For example, Sam Wineburg argues: \"Traditional history instruction constitutes a form of information, not a form of knowledge. Students might master an agreed-upon narrative, but they lacked any way of evaluating it, of deciding whether it, or any other narrative, was compelling or true” (41). \n",
"In 2008, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that the quality of a Wikipedia article would suffer rather than gain from adding more writers when the article lacked appropriate explicit or implicit coordination. For instance, when contributors rewrite small portions of an entry rather than making full-length revisions, high- and low-quality content may be intermingled within an entry. Roy Rosenzweig, a history professor, stated that \"American National Biography Online\" outperformed Wikipedia in terms of its \"clear and engaging prose\", which, he said, was an important aspect of good historical writing. Contrasting Wikipedia's treatment of Abraham Lincoln to that of Civil War historian James McPherson in \"American National Biography Online\", he said that both were essentially accurate and covered the major episodes in Lincoln's life, but praised \"McPherson's richer contextualization [...] his artful use of quotations to capture Lincoln's voice [...] and [...] his ability to convey a profound message in a handful of words.\" By contrast, he gives an example of Wikipedia's prose that he finds \"both verbose and dull\". Rosenzweig also criticized the \"waffling—encouraged by the NPOV policy—[which] means that it is hard to discern any overall interpretive stance in Wikipedia history\". While generally praising the article on William Clarke Quantrill, he quoted its conclusion as an example of such \"waffling\", which then stated: \"Some historians [...] remember him as an opportunistic, bloodthirsty outlaw, while others continue to view him as a daring soldier and local folk hero.\"\n",
"In \"Lies My Teacher Told Me\", Loewen criticizes modern American high school history textbooks for containing incorrect information about people and events such as Christopher Columbus, the lies and inaccuracies in the history books regarding the dealings between the Europeans and the Native Americans, and their often deceptive and inaccurate teachings told about America's commerce in slavery. He further criticizes the texts for a tendency to avoid controversy and for their \"bland\" and simplistic style. He proposes that when American history textbooks elevate American historical figures to the status of heroes, they unintentionally give students the impression that these figures are superhumans who live in the irretrievable past. In other words, the history-as-myth method teaches students that America's greatest days have already passed. Loewen asserts that the muting of past clashes and tragedies makes history boring to students, especially groups excluded from the positive histories.\n",
"The August 2008 ruling concluded that various books offered by the school shouldn't be used for a college-preparatory history class because \"it didn't encourage critical thinking skills and failed to cover 'major topics, themes and components' of U.S. history\", Otero wrote. The judge said Calvary provided little admissible evidence to the contrary.\n",
"In 2007, the \"Chronicle of Higher Education\" published an article written by Cathy Davidson, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and English at Duke University, in which she asserts that Wikipedia should be used to teach students about the concepts of reliability and credibility.\n"
] |
how come some animals, like kangaroos, bulls and some apes, can get so jacked buy eating almost no proteins? | They don't eat "no" proteins, but their diet consists of food with only a small amount of protein in it (grasses, etc do still have a small amount of protein)
So they eat a LOT of it. And have digestive systems (and muscles) that have evolved to extract the maximum benefit out of what they do eat. | [
"Kangaroos have single-chambered stomachs quite unlike those of cattle and sheep, which have four compartments. They sometimes regurgitate the vegetation they have eaten, chew it as cud, and then swallow it again for final digestion. However, this is a different, more strenuous, activity than it is in ruminants, and does not take place as frequently.\n",
"The kangaroo is chopped up so that many people can eat it. The warm blood and fluids from the gluteus medius and the hollow of the thoracic cavity are drained of all fluids. People drink these fluids, which studies have shown are quite harmless. Kangaroos are cut in a special way; into the two thighs, the two hips, the two sides of ribs, the stomach, the head, the tail, the two feet, the back and lower back. This is the way the Arrernte people everywhere cut it up.\n",
"Apart from humans and gorillas, apes eat a predominantly frugivorous diet, mostly fruit, but supplemented with a variety of other foods. Gorillas are predominately folivorous, eating mostly stalks, shoots, roots and leaves with some fruit and other foods. Non-human apes usually eat a small amount of raw animal foods such as insects or eggs. In the case of humans, migration and the invention of hunting tools and cooking has led to an even wider variety of foods and diets, with many human diets including large amounts of cooked tubers (roots) or legumes. Other food production and processing methods including animal husbandry and industrial refining and processing have further changed human diets. Humans and other apes occasionally eat other primates. Some of these primates are now close to extinction with habitat loss being the underlying cause.\n",
"Since the Tenkile Tree Kangaroos are critically endangered, not much is known about their diets due to the lack of Tenkile in the wild. What is known about them is that they are mainly herbivores, which differs from other tree kangaroos. The Tenkile have been known to look for their food either in the treetops or on the ground. Their known diet is made up of tree leaves, ferns, and soft vines [10]. Other tree kangaroos have been known to diet on the same vegetation with a little variety, fruits, eggs, and young birds.\n",
"The Matschie's tree-kangaroos are mainly folivorous, eating anything from leaves, sap, insects, flowers, and nuts. It was also found that they have eaten chickens in captivity as well as feeding on a variety of plants, carrots, lettuce, bananas, potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and yams. Since they eat high fiber foods, they only eat maybe about 1 to 2 hours throughout the day and the other time of the day they are resting and digesting their food. Their digestion is similar to that of the ruminants; they have a large, “tubiform forestomach”, where most of the fermentation and breakdown of tough material takes place at; in the hind stomach, there is a mucosa lining with many glands that help absorption begin here.\n",
"Unlike kangaroos and eucalyptus-eating possums, koalas are hindgut fermenters, and their digestive retention can last for up to 100 hours in the wild, or up to 200 hours in captivity. This is made possible by the extraordinary length of their caecum— long and in diameter—the largest proportionally of any animal. Koalas can select which food particles to retain for longer fermentation and which to pass through. Large particles typically pass through more quickly, as they would take more time to digest. While the hindgut is proportionally larger in the koala than in other herbivores, only 10% of the animal's energy is obtained from fermentation. Since the koala gains a low amount of energy from its diet, its metabolic rate is half that of a typical mammal, although this can vary between seasons and sexes. The koala conserves water by passing relatively dry faecal pellets high in undigested fibre, and by storing water in the caecum.\n",
"The main diet of the tree-kangaroo is leaves and fruit that it gathers from the trees, but occasionally scavenged from the ground. Tree-kangaroos will also eat grains, flour, various nuts, sap and tree bark. Some captive tree-kangaroos (perhaps limited to New Guinea species) eat protein foods such as eggs, birds and snakes, making them omnivores.\n"
] |
how can video games produce sounds from specific areas in the game? | Science.meme
But seriously, it’s all in just using the right balance between left and right to mimic what he hear and how we perceive direction in real life. We experience the sounds we hear all the time in stereo (i.e. out of each of our 2 ears), so it’s *relatively* straightforward to create this same effect by splitting the sounds just right between 2 (or more, but a minimum of 2) speakers.
You can confirm by playing one of these games with headphones on backwards. It’s pretty trippy, to be honest. | [
"Many games use advanced techniques such as 3D positional sound, making audio programming a non-trivial matter. With these games, one or two programmers may dedicate all their time to building and refining the game's sound engine, and sound programmers may be trained or have a formal background in digital signal processing.\n",
"The sound design team began working on the game early in development, in order to achieve the best results; they immediately realised that it would be challenging. Early in development, Druckmann told the sound team to \"make it subtle\", and underplay ideas. Audio lead Phillip Kovats was excited to completely create all sounds; no sounds were carried across from previous games. The team looked at ways to create sounds from a naturalistic point-of-view, and how to introduce minimalism into a game. By doing so, they found that it added feelings of tension, loss and hope, and that the game appeared to be a typical \"action game\" without the minimalism approach. They used a high dynamic range, allowing them the opportunity to inform players on tactical information, and locations to explore. The game's sound design was created to reflect a more \"grounded\" and subtle mood than \"Uncharted\", particularly focusing on the lack of sound. Taking inspiration from \"No Country for Old Men\", the team attempted to \"do more with less\"; Kovats said that the team was trying to tell a story by \"going for a reductive quality\". Straley stated that the audio is vital to some scenes in the game; \"It's more about the psychology of what's happening on the audioscape than what you're seeing,\" he stated. He felt that this decision allowed a more impactful and meaningful effect with sound occurred. The sound team also attempted to portray the game's dark themes through sound. The team felt that it was important to let sounds play for as long as possible in the game, drawing tension. The team used a propagation technique to help players determine the exact locations of enemies, using this as a tactical advantage. This system, created by the team at Naughty Dog, is processed at random in the game engine. For the game's audio, the engine throws out 1500–2500 ray casts per frame; though most games avoid this, the game's engine allowed it to work. The team spent a lot of time recording sounds for the game, namely doors, and rusty metal. Sound designer Neil Uchitel traveled to Rio de Janeiro, discovering locations to record sounds; he recorded chickens, which were used in the game as the voices of rats. The team continued to add and change the game's sounds until the end of development.\n",
"From the beginning of development, the sound development team wished to achieve authenticity in the game's sounds. After the art department sent artwork to the sound department, the latter were inspired to achieve realism, researching all sounds that were to be used in the game. Throughout development, sound editors often presented ideas, which would then be effortlessly achieved by the audio programmers. In the three main areas of the game world, there are unique ambiences; these are broken down into smaller sounds, such as bugs and animals, which are further refined to reflect the weather and time. The sound department was given specific instructions for the tone of game locations; for example, Thieves' Landing was to feel \"creepy\" and \"off-putting\". The sounds of the game's weapons were also intricately developed; in order to feel as realistic as possible, each weapon has a variety of similar firing sounds. The development of the game's Foley began with a week-long session, where two Foley artists from Los Angeles were sent to record thousands of sounds relating to the game's setting. The sound department also spent time on specific gameplay elements; Dead Eye was meant to sound \"organic\" as opposed to \"sci-fi or electronic\", while animals—a feature that the team found challenging—was to immerse players in the experience. For the final sound mix, audio director Jeffrey Whitcher and lead sound designer Matthew Smith worked together to balance and blend the three main aspects of the soundtrack: dialogue, sound effects, and music. Smith coded systems to blend the three aspects, in order to keep the mix \"dynamic\".\n",
"Not always a separate discipline, sound programming has been a mainstay of game programming since the days of \"Pong\". Most games make use of audio, and many have a full musical score. Computer audio games eschew graphics altogether and use sound as their primary feedback mechanism.\n",
"Sound in the Effect domain expresses activity in the game world. Sound usually consists of a mix of one-shot sound events in the game world (either triggered by the player or by the game itself), such as the sound of an explosion, and continuous sound streams, such as the sound of a continuously burning fire. Sound of the Effect category often mimics the realistic behavior of sound in the real world. In many games it is the part of game audio that is dynamically processed using techniques such as real-time volume changes, panning, filtering and acoustics.\n",
"Sound is an integral part of the game. Although most of the map is in darkness, when approaching certain adversaries it is possible to hear them before seeing them. Snakes make a hissing sound, for example. However, every cave contains a number of bats; although harmless to the player, bats create a loud flapping sound with their wings that obscures the sound of any other monster, making it more likely for the player to run into one and be taken by surprise. One particularly troublesome adversary is the giant spider, which makes no noise at all but it has the ability to consume the player's arrows.\n",
"Players can select a range of special effects and drop them into the level. Sounds can be added to the game in the same manner, although new sound files cannot be added to the game. A complexity meter exists to prevent too many objects being dropped into the game; it also enables the player to beam down and experience a planet firsthand rather than exploring it with a holographic projection.\n"
] |
what does the wow! alien signal mean? the image is just a bunch of numbers and letters so what is the significance of those specific letters? | [Here is a better visualization of the WOW signal](_URL_0_)
Basically those numbers and letters are a printout of raw data because you can fit more datapoints on a printed sheet of paper this way. The numbers go up and then into the alphabet to represent the strength of a signal.
As you saw on the printout, the norm was nothing and maybe 1's 2's and 3's. Suddenly you get a 7, and then start seeing letters! Not just one, but a sustained 70 second signal. That was something of note. | [
"Donnelly discovers that the symbol for time is present throughout the message, and that the writing occupies exactly one-twelfth of the space in which it is projected. Banks suggests that the full message is split among the twelve craft, and the aliens want all the nations to share what they learn.\n",
"The Wow! signal was a strong narrowband radio signal received on August 15, 1977, by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope in the United States, then used to support the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The signal appeared to come from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius and bore the expected hallmarks of extraterrestrial origin.\n",
"The SETI Institute does not officially recognize the Wow! signal as of extraterrestrial origin (as it was unable to be verified). The SETI Institute has also publicly denied that the candidate signal Radio source SHGb02+14a is of extraterrestrial origin though full details of the signal, such as its exact location have never been disclosed to the public. Although other volunteering projects such as Zooniverse credit users for discoveries, there is currently no crediting or early notification by SETI@Home following the discovery of a signal.\n",
"BULLET::::- In the 2016 science-fiction movie, \"Arrival\", a linguist is tasked by the U.S. Army to try and understand an alien language of complex symbols. The film received significant media attention for its unique and detailed portrayal of what human communication with aliens might resemble. Film production went as far as employing several linguistic professors from McGill University, including Jessica Coon, who serves as Canada Research Chair in Syntax and Indigenous Languages, and Wolfram Research Founder and CEO, Stephen Wolfram and his son, Christopher, to analyze the symbols which served as the language used in the film.\n",
"BULLET::::- Aliens are sweet, big and little green, pink, and blue tripedal beings that Pocoyo finds in space in search of his toy plane and other adventures. They communicate with one another using staccato 'clicking' noises.\n",
"BULLET::::- In the TV show \"The Big Bang Theory\", on episode 21 of season 8 (The Communication Deterioration), the characters mention the plaque while discussing ideas about sending a message to alien races in space.\n",
"The symbols dialed are often referred to as \"coordinates\", and are written as an ordered string; for example, this is the address used in the show for the planet Abydos: (corresponding to the constellations of Taurus, Serpens Caput, Capricornus, Monoceros, Sagittarius and Orion). As explained by Dr. Daniel Jackson in the movie, the Stargate requires seven correct symbols to connect to another Stargate. As shown in the picture opposite, the first six symbols act as co-ordinates, creating three intersecting lines, the destination. The Stargate uses the seventh symbol as the point of origin allowing one to plot a straight line course to the destination. With the stargates of the Milky Way, with 38 address symbols and one point of origin, there are 1,987,690,320 possible six symbol co-ordinates. With the stargates of the Pegasus or Destiny, with 35 address symbols and one point of origin, there are only 1,168,675,200 possible six symbol co-ordinates.\n"
] |
how does the chinese economy work/differs from the rest of the world. | Its basically American capitalism with loose or non-existent civil rights laws (child labor, unequal wages and hours ) and the government can own and compete in business. Imagine if the US government decided to start building super cheap economy cars, built with unpaid slave labor provided by the prison system and super ultra subsidized by itself, and than sold those cars with huge tax incentives to the customer within America in direct competition with American manufacturers. Substitute analogous industry with any alternative you like. | [
"The socialist market economy of the People's Republic of China is the world's second largest economy by nominal GDP and the world's largest economy by purchasing power parity. Until 2015, China was the world's fastest-growing major economy, with growth rates averaging 6% over 30 years. Due to historical and political facts of China's developing economy, China's public sector accounts for a bigger share of the national economy than the burgeoning private sector. According to the IMF, on a per capita income basis China ranked 67th by GDP (nominal) and 73rd by GDP (PPP) per capita in 2018. The country has an estimated $23 trillion worth of natural resources, 90% of which are coal and rare earth metals. China also has the world's largest total banking sector assets of $39.93 trillion (268.76 trillion CNY) with $27.39 trillion in total deposits.\n",
"China had the largest economy in the world for most of the past two thousand years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. As of 2018, China had the world's second-largest economy in terms of nominal GDP, totaling approximately US$13.5 trillion (90 trillion Yuan). In terms of purchasing power parity (PPP GDP), China's economy has been the largest in the world since 2014, according to the World Bank. Since economic reforms began in 1978, China has developed into a highly diversified economy and one of the most consequential players in international trade. Major sectors of competitive strength include manufacturing, retail, mining, steel, textiles, automobiles, energy generation, green energy, banking, electronics, telecommunications, real estate, e-commerce, and tourism. China has been the world's #1 manufacturer since 2010, after overtaking the US, which had been #1 for the previous hundred years. China has also been #2 in high-tech manufacturing since 2012, according to US National Science Foundation. China is the second largest retail market in the world, next to the United States. China leads the world in e-commerce, accounting for 40% of the global market share. China is the leader in electric vehicles, manufacturing and buying half of all the plug-in electric cars (BEV and PHEV) in the world in 2018. China had 174 GW of installed solar capacity by the end of 2018, which amounts to more than 40% of the global capacity.\n",
"China has been the world's second-largest economy in terms of nominal GDP since 2010. In terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) GDP, China's economy has been the largest in the world since 2014. As of 2018, China was second in the world in total number of billionaires and millionaires—there were 338 Chinese billionaires and 3.5 million millionaires. However, it ranks behind over 70 countries (out of around 180) in per capita economic output, making it a middle income country. Additionally, its development is highly uneven. Its major cities and coastal areas are far more prosperous compared to rural and interior regions. China brought more people out of extreme poverty than any other country in history—between 1978 and 2018, China reduced extreme poverty by 800 million. China reduced the extreme poverty rate—per international standard, it refers to an income of less than $1.90/day—from 88% in 1981 to 1.85% by 2013. According to the World Bank, the number of Chinese in extreme poverty fell from 756 million to 25 million between 1990 and 2013. China's own national poverty standards are higher and thus the national poverty rates were 3.1% in 2017 and 1% in 2018.\n",
"However, China has one of the world's cheapest labour costs. Criticisms have argued that it is quite unreasonable to compare China's goods price to the United States as analogue. China is now developing to a more free and open market, unlike its planned-economy in the early 1960s, the market in China is more willing to embrace the global competition. It is thus required to improve its market regulations and conquer the free trade barriers to improve the situation and produce a properly judged pricing level to assess the \"dumping\" behaviour.\n",
"The current economic system in China is formally referred to as a [[socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics]]. It combines a large state sector that comprises the commanding heights of the economy, which are guaranteed their public ownership status by law, with a private sector mainly engaged in commodity production and light industry responsible from anywhere between 33% to over 70% of GDP generated in 2005. Although there has been a rapid expansion of private-sector activity since the 1980s, privatisation of state assets was virtually halted and were partially reversed in 2005. The current Chinese economy consists of 150 [[corporatised]] state-owned enterprises that report directly to China's central government. By 2008, these state-owned corporations had become increasingly dynamic and generated large increases in revenue for the state, resulting in a state-sector led recovery during the 2009 financial crises while accounting for most of China's economic growth. However, the Chinese economic model is widely cited as a contemporary form of state capitalism, the major difference between Western capitalism and the Chinese model being the degree of state-ownership of shares in publicly listed corporations.\n",
"'China developed a network of economic relations with both the industrial economies and those constituting the semi-periphery and periphery of the world system.' As Chinese economy growing so fast, China also have many trading partners in the world. All of them are important partners of China in trading and they all contributed to the development of Chinese economy, but the largest partners of China are always changing because of the alteration of policy or other reasons. This article will show you the largest partners of China in recent years.\n",
"Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China's economy has been one of the world's fastest-growing with annual growth rates consistently above 6 percent. According to the World Bank, China's GDP grew from $150 billion in 1978 to $12.24 trillion by 2017. According to official data, China's GDP in 2018 was 90 trillion Yuan ($13.28 trillion). Since 2010, China has been the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP and since 2014, the largest economy in the world by purchasing power parity (PPP). China is also the world's largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army and second-largest defense budget. The PRC is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council as it replaced the ROC in 1971, as well as an active global partner of ASEAN Plus mechanism. China is also a leading member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), WTO, APEC, BRICS, the BCIM, and the G20. China has been characterized as a potential superpower, mainly because of its massive population, economy, and military.\n"
] |
why do non-hearing people sound "that way" when they speak? | They can see how lips move, but they can't see how throat, tongue, windpipe, etc move. Observing mouth movement is not enough to recreate all the sounds, you need to be able to hear it in order to accurately replicate what others are saying. Not to mention you can't get the tone or pacing correctly either by just looking at mouth movement. In addition some of them can't hear their own voice either, which makes it even harder to know if they pronounce something correctly or not. | [
"BULLET::::- psychological noise are the preconception bias and assumptions such as thinking someone who speaks like a valley girl is dumb, or someone from a foreign country can’t speak English well so you speak loudly and slowly to them.\n",
"While native speakers correctly pronounce the sequence differently in different contexts, non-native speakers and voice-synthesis software can make them \"sound very unnatural\", making it \"extremely difficult for the listener\" to grasp the intended meaning.\n",
"However, when examined in the context of Deaf culture, the term “hearing” often does not hold the same meaning as when one thinks simply of a person's ability to hear sounds. In Deaf culture, “hearing”, being the opposite of “Deaf” (which is used inclusively, without the many gradations common to mainstream culture), is often used as a way of differentiating those who do not view the Deaf community as a linguistic minority, do not embrace Deaf values, history, language, mores, and sense of personal dignity as Deaf people do themselves. Among language minorities in the United States – for example, groups such as Mexicans, Koreans, Italians, Chinese, or Deaf users of sign language – the minority language group itself has a “we” or “insider” view of their cultural group as well as a “they” or “outsider” view of those who do not share the values of the group. So, in addition to using “hearing” to identify a person who can detect sounds, Deaf culture uses this term as a \"we and they\" distinction to show a difference in attitude between people who embrace the view of deaf people who use sign language as a language minority, and those who view deafness strictly from its pathological context. \n",
"While native speakers pronounce the sequences differently in different contexts, non-native speakers and voice-synthesis software can make them \"sound very unnatural\", making it \"extremely difficult for the listener\" to grasp the intended meaning.\n",
"The speaker is unintentionally indexing a language ideology that all Americans should speak English or that other languages are secondary in the US. Using words outside the speaker's native language neglects context of the conversion, meaning of the word or phrase, or conceptual knowledge including historical injustices to the borrowed language, culture, and physical surroundings. It is a borrowing words in different languages and using it in your context.\n",
"Patients with pure word deafness complain that speech sounds simply do not register, or that they tend not to come up. Other claims include speech sounding as if it were in a foreign language, the words having a tendency to run together, or the feeling that speech was simply not connected to the patient's voice.\n",
"Speech agnosia: Pure word deafness, or speech agnosia, is an impairment in which a person maintains the ability to hear, produce speech, and even read speech, yet they are unable to understand or properly perceive speech. These patients seem to have all of the skills necessary in order to properly process speech, yet they appear to have no experience associated with speech stimuli. Patients have reported, \"I can hear you talking, but I can't translate it\". Even though they are physically receiving and processing the stimuli of speech, without the ability to determine the meaning of the speech, they essentially are unable to perceive the speech at all.\n"
] |
why do road workers cut strips out of the interstate and refill them? | Potholes are partially caused by the stuff under the road settling and no longer supporting it. They need to cut out the road and repair the road bed or else the problem will just come back.
A freeway isn't just a strip of concrete, they have to dig out the ground and provide a stable foundation when building it. Just putting blacktop on a pothole is like putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound. | [
"These roads are made from recycled plastics, and the first step in constructing them is to collect and manage the plastic material. The plastics involved in building these roads consists mainly of common post-consumer products such as product packaging. Some of the most common plastics used in packaging are polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP), and high and low density polyethylene (HDPE and LDPE). These materials are first sorted from plastic waste. After sorting, the material is cleaned, dried, and shredded. The shredded plastic is mixed and melted at around 170°C. Hot bitumen is then added and mixed with the melted plastic. After mixing the mixture is laid as one would with regular asphalt concrete. \n",
"The strips are usually straight sections of the highway, where any central reservation is made of crash barriers that can be removed quickly (in order to allow airplanes to use the whole width of the road), and other features of an airbase (taxiways, airport ramps) can be built. The road will need a thicker than normal surface and a solid concrete base. The specialized equipment of a typical airfield are stored somewhere nearby and only carried there when airfield operations start. The highway strips can be converted from motorways to airbases typically within 24 to 48 hours. The road would need to be swept to remove all debris before any aircraft movement could take place. Road runways can however also be quite small—the short runways built in the Swedish Bas 90 system are commonly only 800 meters (0.5 miles) in length. The STOL-capability of the Viggen and Gripen allowed for such short runways. In the case of Finnish road airbases, the space needed for landing aircraft is reduced by means of a wire, similar to the CATOBAR system used on some aircraft carriers.\n",
"A road recycler or road reclaimer is an asphalt pavement grinder or a combination grinder and soil stabilizer when it is equipped to blending cement, foamed asphalt and/or lime and water with the existing pavement (usually only very thin asphalt) to create a new, recycled road surface. It usually refers to the process of blending the asphalt road with a binder and base course in a single pass.\n",
"Since this method recycles the materials \"in situ\", there is no need to haul in aggregate or haul out old material for disposal. The vehicle movements are reduced and there is no need for detours since it can be done under traffic, making this process more convenient for local residents.\n",
"(1) The manure mixed with the dirt and ordinary scrapings of the highway, being spread out over the surface of the highway, was a part of the real estate, and belonged to the owner of the fee, subject to the public easement. \n",
"Frontage roads provide access to homes and businesses which would otherwise be cut off by a limited-access road and connect these locations with roads which have direct access to the main roadway. Frontage roads give indirect access to abutting property along a freeway, either preventing the commercial disruption of an urban area that the freeway traverses or allowing commercial development of abutting property. At times, they add to the cost of building an expressway due to costs of land and the costs of paving and maintenance.\n",
"When reconstruction is being done on 2-lane highways where traffic is moderately heavy, a worker will often stand at each end of the construction zone, holding a sign with \"SLOW\" or \"GO\" written on one side and \"STOP\" on the reverse. The workers, who communicate through yelling, hand gestures, or radio, will periodically reverse their signs to allow time for traffic to flow in each direction. A modification of this for roadways that have heavier traffic volumes is to maintain one direction on the existing roadway, and detour the other, thus not requiring the use of flaggers. An example of this is the M-89 reconstruction project in Plainwell, MI, where westbound traffic is detoured via county roads around town.\n"
] |
Does anyone know a good read on snipers in WWII? | Karabiner 98k by Karem and Steves is a great resource for K98k snipers, particularly Volume IIa. There are currently 3 volumes, Volume 1 covers pre-war (banner model, standard modell, etc) to 1938 rifles at Mauser-Oberndorf, JP Sauer, Mauser-Borsigwalde, Ermawerke, Berlin Lubecker, and BSW. Volume 2 covers wartime production, and Volume 3 covers the Kriegsmodell. 2A specifically has a lot of info regarding sniper rifle development at Mauser-Oberndorf, specifically the ZF-39 (low and high turret), the ZF-41, and the Jung Prismatic Optics prototypes. The 3 book set is an excellent resource for the history and engineering of the German K98k. The only downside to the books is that they are pretty pricey, at $345 for the 4 book set (Volume 2 is so large that they had to split it into 2 volumes).
Link: _URL_1_
The only other "WW2 German Sniper" book I know about is Backbone of the Wehrmacht Vol 2.
Link: _URL_0_
I personally do not own volume 2 (I own volume 1), but it seems to be a decent source on the rifles. | [
"Common sniper rifles used during the Second World War include: the Soviet M1891/30 Mosin–Nagant and, to a lesser extent, the SVT-40; the German Mauser Karabiner 98k and Gewehr 43; the British Lee–Enfield No. 4 and Pattern 1914 Enfield; the Japanese Arisaka 97; the American M1903A4 Springfield and M1C Garand. The Italians trained few snipers and supplied them with a scoped Carcano Model 1891.\n",
"The main sniper rifles used during the First World War were the German Mauser Gewehr 98; the British Pattern 1914 Enfield and Lee–Enfield SMLE Mk III, the Canadian Ross Rifle, the American M1903 Springfield, the Italian M1891 Carcano, and the Russian M1891 Mosin–Nagant\n",
"\"The Sniper\" is a World War I poem by Scottish poet W D Cocker, written in 1917 about the impact a sniper has had not only on the life of the young soldier, but also on that soldier's family back home. It is not revealed which side the sniper is on, as the deed is the same, whether the victim is German or British.\n",
"The main character of \"Sniper Elite\" is Karl Fairburne, a German-born American OSS secret agent disguised as a German sniper. He is inserted into the Battle of Berlin in 1945, during the final days of World War II, with the critical objective of obtaining German nuclear technology before the Soviet Union.\n",
"Historic military sniper rifles up to and including the Second World War were usually based on the standard service rifle of the country in question. They included the German Mauser Gewehr 98K, U.S. M1903 Springfield and M1 Garand, Soviet Mosin–Nagant, Norwegian Krag–Jørgensen, Japanese Arisaka, and British Lee–Enfield No. 4. Models used for sniping were generally factory tested for accuracy and fitted with specialized components, including not just optics but also such items as slings, cheek pieces, and flash eliminators, which disperse gases at the muzzle away from the sniper's view, helping avoiding having the sniper blinded by the flash.\n",
"John L. Plaster (born 1949) is a former United States Army Special Forces officer regarded as one of the leading sniper experts in the world. A decorated Vietnam War veteran who served in the covert Studies and Observations Group (SOG), Plaster co-founded a renowned sniper school that trains military and law enforcement personnel in highly specialized sniper tactics. He is the author of \"The Ultimate Sniper: An Advanced Training Manual for Military and Police Snipers\", \"The History of Sniping and Sharpshooting\", and \"Secret Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines with the Elite Warriors of SOG\", a memoir of his 3 years of service with SOG.\n",
"The Sniper is a short story written by Irish writer Liam O'Flaherty, set during the early weeks of the Irish Civil War, during the Battle of Dublin. It is O'Flaherty's first published work of fiction, published in a small London-based socialist weekly \"The New Leader\" (12 January 1923) while the war it depicted was still ongoing. The favorable notice it generated helped get other works by O'Flaherty published, and started his career. It is widely read today in secondary schools of many English-speaking countries, owing to its being easy to read, its short length, and its having a notable surprise ending.\n"
] |
Iroquois vs. Haudenosaunee | The exact etymology of "Iroquois" is debatable, and there are plenty of Iroquoian people who use it and related terms for various purposes. If you're talking about an individual person, it's best to go with their specific nation. Joseph Brant is Mohawk (or *Kanien'kehá:ka* if you're feeling particularly ambitious). Haudenosaunee is the accepted English variation for the name of the confederacy itself, based on the Mohawk name (*Rotinonshonni*). As such, it's reserved of usage for the political entity or its citizens as a whole. Joseph Brant was a defender of *the* Haudenosaunee, but he was not *a* Haudenosaunee.
Iroquois is used more generically, to refer to people culturally but often outside the context of the Haudenosaunee as a political entity. After the revolution, Joseph Brant led many Iroquois refugees to Ontario and helped found the Six Nations of Grand River (now home to the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team) as one of the successors to the Haudenosaunee. In the derivative form "Iroquian" is extends to cover culturally and linguistically related peoples including the Wendat (Huron), the Chonnonton (Neutral), and the Cherokee. | [
"The Iroquois Confederacy or Haudenosaunee is believed to have been founded by the Peacemaker in 1142 or 1451 AD, bringing together five distinct nations in the southern Great Lakes area into \"The Great League of Peace\". Each nation within this Iroquoian confederacy had a distinct language, territory, and function in the League. Iroquois power at its peak extended into present-day Canada, westward along the Great Lakes and down both sides of the Allegheny mountains into present-day Virginia and Kentucky and into the Ohio Valley.\n",
"The Iroquois sought to expand their territory into the Ohio Country and monopolize the fur trade and the trade between European markets. They originally were a confederacy of five nations—Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca, inhabiting the lands in upstate New York along the shores of Lake Ontario east to Lake Champlain and Lake George on the Hudson river, and the lower-estuary of the St Lawrence river. The Iroquois Confederation, led by the dominant Mohawk, mobilized against the largely Algonquian-speaking tribes and Iroquoian speaking Huron and related tribes of the Great Lakes region. The Iroquois were armed by their Dutch and much later, English trading partners; the Algonquians and Hurons were backed by the French, their chief trading partner.\n",
"The Iroquois ( or ) or Haudenosaunee (; \"People of the Longhouse\") are a historically powerful northeast Native American confederacy in North America. They were known during the colonial years to the French as the Iroquois League, and later as the Iroquois Confederacy, and to the English as the Five Nations, comprising the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca. After 1722, they accepted the Tuscarora people from the Southeast into their confederacy, as they were also Iroquoian-speaking, and became known as the Six Nations.\n",
"The Iroquois Confederacy was an alliance of tribes, originally from the upstate New York area consisting of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and, later, Tuscarora. In pre-revolutionary war days, their confederacy expanded to areas from Kentucky and Virginia north. All of the members of the Confederacy, except the Oneida and Tuscarora, allied with the British during the Revolutionary War, and were forced to cede their land after the war. Most moved to Canada after the Treaty of Canandaigua in 1794, some remained in New York, and some moved to Ohio, joining the Shawnee.\n",
"BULLET::::- The Iroquois, or \"Haudenosaunee\", were centred, from at least 1000 CE, in northern New York, and their influence extended into what is now southern Ontario and the Montréal area of modern Quebec.\n",
"The Five Nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) were centred from at least 1000 CE in northern New York, but their influence extended into what is now southern Ontario and the Montreal area of modern Quebec. They spoke varieties of Iroquoian languages. The Iroquois Confederacy, according to oral tradition, was formed in 1142 CE. In addition, there were other Iroquoian-speaking peoples in the area, including the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, the Erie, and others.\n",
"The Iroquois Confederacy or Haudenosaunee, which means \"People of the Longhouse,\" was an alliance between the Five and later Six-Nations of Iroquoian language and culture of upstate New York. These include the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and, after 1722, the Tuscarora Nations. Since the Confederacy's formation around 1450, the Onondaga Nation has held privilege of hosting the Iroquois Grand Council and the status of Keepers of the Fire and the Wampum —which they still do at the official Longhouse on the Onondaga Reservation. Now spread over reservations in New York and Ontario, the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee preserve this arrangement to this day in what they claim to be the \"world's oldest representative democracy.\"\n"
] |
How did the various Viking colonizers of parts of Britain react to different forms of Paganism in the areas they commanded? | They didn't react to them, because as far as we can tell, there were no surviving population groups practising pre-Christian religions in the British Isles when the Vikings first began making incursions in 793. Ireland and Scotland had fully Christianised over the course of the fifth to seventh centuries and developed pervasive Christian identities of their own right -- especially so in Ireland, where sharing religion and language across the many hundreds of small states across the island facilitated a degree of common ethnic consciousness that made Norse settlers initially quite unwelcome. When the Vikings began appearing at the end of the eighth century, there were no pagans left in the British Isles, or at least any remaining communities were small enough to escape documentation and to leave no trace in the archaeolgical record.
If you're interested in how Scandinavian pagans interacted with other polytheistic communities, it might be smart to direct your inquiries into their early voyages into Eastern Europe, especially the Kievan Rus. I haven't studied that part of the world to the extent I've studied Ireland (and to a lesser extent, Scotland), so I can't speak with any authority there, nor can I recommend you any texts.
Sources: Stefan Brink and Neil Price (eds.), *The Viking World*, various articles
J. H. Barrett (ed.), *Contact, Continuity and Collapse: The Norse Colonisation of the North Atlantic*, various aritcles
Clare Downham, *Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ivarr* | [
"The Viking invasions of the eighth and ninth centuries reintroduced paganism to North-East England, leading in turn to another wave of conversion. Indigenous Scandinavian beliefs were very similar to other Germanic groups, with a pantheon of gods including Odin, Thor and Ullr, combined with a belief in a final, apocalyptic battle called Ragnarok. The Norse settlers in England were converted relatively quickly, assimilating their beliefs into Christianity in the decades following the occupation of York, of which the Archbishop had survived. The process was largely complete by the early tenth century and enabled England's leading Churchmen to negotiate with the warlords. As the Norse in mainland Scandinavia started to convert, many mainland rulers recruited missionaries from England to assist in the process.\n",
"The Viking invasions of the 8th and 9th centuries reintroduced paganism to North-East England, leading in turn to another wave of conversion. Indigenous Scandinavian beliefs were very similar to other Germanic groups, with a pantheon of gods including Odin, Thor and Ullr, combined with a belief in a final, apocalyptic battle called Ragnarok. The Norse settlers in England were converted relatively quickly, assimilating their beliefs into Christianity in the decades following the occupation of York, which the Archbishop had survived. The process was largely complete by the early 10th century and enabled England's leading Churchmen to negotiate with the warlords. As the Norse in mainland Scandinavia started to convert, many mainland rulers recruited missionaries from England to assist in the process.\n",
"The Viking invasions of Britain and Ireland destroyed many monasteries and new Viking settlers restored paganism—though of a different variety to the Saxon or classical religions—to areas such as Northumbria and Dublin for a time before their own conversion.\n",
"During the prolonged period of Viking incursions and settlement of Anglo-Saxon England pagan ideas and religious rites made something of a comeback, mainly in the Danelaw during the 9th century and particularly in the Kingdom of Northumbria, whose last king to rule it as an independent state was Eric Bloodaxe, a Viking, probably pagan and ruler until 954 AD.\n",
"The Viking occupation of the islands and coastal regions of modern Scotland brought a return to pagan worship in those areas. Norse paganism had some of the same gods as had been worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons before their conversion and is thought to have been focused around a series of cults, involving gods, ancestors and spirits, with calendric and life cycle rituals often involving forms of sacrifice. The paganism of the ruling Norse elite can be seen in goods found in 10th century graves in Shetland, Orkney and Caithness. There is no contemporary account of the conversion of the Vikings in Scotland to Christianity. Historians have traditionally pointed to a process of conversion to Christianity among Viking colonies in Britain dated to the late 10th century, for which later accounts indicate that Viking earls accepted Christianity. However, there is evidence that conversion had begun before this point. There are a large number of isles called Pabbay or Papa in the Western and Northern Isles, which may indicate a \"hermit's\" or \"priest's isle\" from this period. Changes in patterns of grave goods and Viking place names using -kirk also suggest that the Christianity had begun to spread before the official conversion. Later documentary evidence suggests that there was a Bishop operating in Orkney in the mid-9th century and more recently uncovered archaeological evidence, including explicitly Christian forms such as stone crosses, suggest that Christian practice may have survived the Viking take over in parts of Orkney and Shetland and that the process of conversion may have begun before Christianity was officially accepted by Viking leaders. The continuity of Scottish Christianity may also explain the relatively rapid way in which Norse settlers were later assimilated into the religion.\n",
"With the end of the Viking Age in the 11th century, the North Germanic peoples were converted from their native Norse paganism to Christianity, while their previously tribal societies were centralized into the modern kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. \n",
"During the Viking Age, Scandinavian men and women travelled to many parts of Europe and beyond, in a cultural diaspora that left its traces from Newfoundland to Byzantium. This period of energetic activity also had a pronounced effect in the Scandinavian homelands, which were subject to a variety of new influences. In the 300 years from the late 8th century, when contemporary chroniclers first commented on the appearance of Viking raiders, to the end of the 11th century, Scandinavia underwent profound cultural changes.\n"
] |
what does a magnetic polar reversal mean for everyday life? | The poles don't actually switch like flipping around. One or both weaken, then wander. During the weak time, the Earth is bathed in radiation that a strong field prevents. Time to go underground. | [
"Gregg Braden (born June 28, 1954) is an American author of Consciousness literature, who wrote about the 2012 phenomenon and became noted for his claim that the magnetic polarity of the earth was about to reverse. Braden argued that the change in the earth's magnetic field might have effects on human DNA. He has also argued that human emotions affect DNA and that collective prayer may have healing physical effects. He has published many books through the Hay House publishing house. In 2009, his book \"Fractal Time\" was on the bestseller list of \"The New York Times\".\n",
"True polar wander represents the shift in the geographical poles relative to Earth's surface, after accounting for the motion of the tectonic plates. This motion is caused by the rearrangement of the mantle and the crust in order to align the maximum inertia with the current rotation axis (fig.1). This is similar to a spinning top; when its rotation is disturbed, it slowly recovers and it will realign its rotation axis to its position of maximum inertia. The difference is that unlike Earth, the spinning top's mass distribution is constant through its volume over time. \n",
"Polar drift is a geological phenomenon caused by variations in the flow of molten iron in Earth's outer core, resulting in changes in the orientation of Earth's magnetic field, and hence the position of the magnetic north- and south poles.\n",
"A geomagnetic reversal is a change in a planet's magnetic field such that the positions of magnetic north and magnetic south are interchanged (not to be confused with geographic north and geographic south). The Earth's field has alternated between periods of \"normal\" polarity, in which the predominant direction of the field was the same as the present direction, and \"reverse\" polarity, in which it was the opposite. These periods are called \"chrons\".\n",
"The motion of the conductive molten metal beneath the Earth's crust, or the Earth's dynamo, is responsible for the existence of the magnetic field. The interaction of the magnetic field and solar radiation has an impact on how much radiation reaches the surface of Earth and the integrity of the atmosphere. It has been found that the magnetic poles of the Earth have reversed several times, allowing researchers to get an idea of the surface conditions of the planet at that time. The cause of the magnetic poles being reversed is unknown, and the intervals of change vary and do not show a consistent interval. It is believed that the reversal is correlated to the Earth's mantle, although exactly how is still debated.\n",
"Magnetic declination, or magnetic variation, is the angle on the horizontal plane between magnetic north (the direction the north end of a magnetized compass needle points, corresponding to the direction of the Earth's magnetic field lines) and true north (the direction along a meridian towards the geographic North Pole). This angle varies depending on position on the Earth's surface and changes over time.\n",
"Meanwhile, debates developed around the phenomena of polar wander. Since the early debates of continental drift, scientists had discussed and used evidence that polar drift had occurred because continents seemed to have moved through different climatic zones during the past. Furthermore, paleomagnetic data had shown that the magnetic pole had also shifted during time. Reasoning in an opposite way, the continents might have shifted and rotated, while the pole remained relatively fixed. The first time the evidence of magnetic polar wander was used to support the movements of continents was in a paper by Keith Runcorn in 1956, and successive papers by him and his students Ted Irving (who was actually the first to be convinced of the fact that paleomagnetism supported continental drift) and Ken Creer.\n"
] |
if i find an undiscovered island in international waters, is it mine? | Essentially, on the scale of nations, there's not really legal rules exactly. Its more like, if you can convince everyone that it is yours, then it's yours.
For my money, I would instead make a deal with the US or your large power of choice. "Let me own this whole island, and I'll be part of your country." The odds of the international community recognizing the US's claim on an undiscovered island is way better than them recognizing yours. | [
"The only immediate mining potential is on and immediately offshore of the islands themselves (phosphates, sand, gravel, and coral) which would conflict with their protected status per the study. Iron deposits on a few seamounts are also mentioned as an \"intermediate\" possibility but no energy resources are identified. The islands have phosphorite and guano resources. However, all commercial extraction activities, including fishing and deep-sea mining, are prohibited in the wildlife refuges and submerged lands and waters of the Monument.\n",
"On 5 December 1997, Macquarie Island was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a site of major geoconservation significance, being the only place on earth where rocks from the earth's mantle are being actively exposed above sea-level.\n",
"SMA has confirmed that many Russian mines dating from the first world war may still lie on the bottom of the sea east of the light station, making anchoring or diving dangerous in the area. The island can be visited by boat travelers under acceptable weather circumstances, but it is difficult to dock this remote and slippery island. And the areas surrounding it is heavily trafficked by the cruise ships plying between Sweden and Finland.\n",
"The island has historically been mined for phosphates to the point of exhaustion, and today has no major natural resources. There is potentially a large amount of undiscovered reserves of oil and natural gas beneath surrounding waters within the South China Sea Basin, however, there has yet to be formal exploration and mining conducted.\n",
"Within the EEZ of nation states seabed mining comes under the jurisdiction of national laws. Despite extensive exploration both within and outside of EEZs, only a few countries, notably New Zealand, have established legal and institutional frameworks for the future development of deep seabed mining.\n",
"Contrary to early hopes that seabed mining would generate extensive revenues for both the exploiting countries and the Authority, no technology has yet been developed for gathering deep-sea minerals at costs that can compete with land-based mines. Until recently, the consensus has been that economic mining of the ocean depths might be decades away. Moreover, the United States, with some of the most advanced ocean technology in the world, has not yet ratified the Law of the Sea Convention and is thus not a member of the Authority.\n",
"After the Naval Station closed in 1997, Treasure Island was opened to residential and other uses, but according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, the ground at various locations on the island is contaminated with toxic substances. Caesium-137 levels three times higher than previously recorded were found in April 2013. These are thought to date from the base's use by ships contaminated in post-war nuclear testing, and from a nuclear training facility previously based there.\n"
] |
how do music editing programs change the pitch without changing the speed? | Sound can be converted between "time domain" and "frequency domain" using Fourier transform (sort of a spectrum analyzer). So you can convert the sound to frequencies, do modifications there (for example shift frequencies) and convert back to time domain, and you get pitch shift without speed change. In practice doing this is very time consuming, so it's done in small blocks and quality will not be perfect. | [
"The software generally goes through a two-step process to accomplish this. First, the audio file is played back at a lower sample rate than that of the original file. This has the same effect as playing a tape or vinyl record at slower speed - the pitch is lowered meaning the music can sound like it is in a different key. The second step is to use Digital Signal Processing (or DSP) to shift the pitch back up to the original pitch level or musical key.\n",
"The simplest way to change the duration or pitch of a digital audio clip is through sample rate conversion. This is a mathematical operation that effectively rebuilds a continuous waveform from its samples and then samples that waveform again at a different rate. When the new samples are played at the original sampling frequency, the audio clip sounds faster or slower. Unfortunately, the frequencies in the sample are always scaled at the same rate as the speed, transposing its perceived pitch up or down in the process. In other words, slowing down the recording lowers the pitch, speeding it up raises the pitch. This is analogous to speeding up or slowing down an analogue recording, like a phonograph record or tape, creating the Chipmunk effect. Using this method the two effects cannot be separated. A drum track containing no pitched instruments can be moderately sample rate converted for tempo without adverse effects, but a pitched track cannot.\n",
"Pitch correction is a form of pitch shifting and is found in software such as Auto-Tune to correct intonation inaccuracies in a recording or performance. Pitch shifting may raise or lower all sounds in a recording by the same amount, whereas in practice, pitch correction may make different changes from note to note.\n",
"Audio editing of the music or voice-over was done manually to create a scratch track, usually with a cutting block and tape. Once the audio edits were completed, the final version would be copied onto another tape; either to inch, cassette or other format so that there tape used to run the presentation would be a fresh uncut tape.\n",
"This method is made feasible by editing automation points directly, as opposed to programming by manipulating gain sliders in a write-mode. An audio engineer would not be able to react fast enough to precisely reduce and restore vocal levels for the brief duration of sibilants during real-time playback.\n",
"Pitch correction is an electronic effects unit or audio software that changes the intonation (highness or lowness in pitch) of an audio signal so that all pitches will be notes from the equally tempered system (i.e., like the pitches on a piano). Pitch correction devices do this without affecting other aspects of its sound. Pitch correction first detects the pitch of an audio signal (using a live pitch detection algorithm), then calculates the desired change and modifies the audio signal accordingly. The widest use of pitch corrector devices is in Western popular music on vocal lines.\n",
"When the remastering starts, engineers use software tools such as a limiter, an equaliser, and a compressor. The compressor and limiters are ways of controlling the loudness of a track. However, this is not to be confused with the volume of a track, which is controlled by the listener during playback.\n"
] |
Is the total mass of oxygen atoms greater in the ocean or in the air? | Oxygen is about 23.20% of the atmosphere by mass, and the atmosphere has a total mass of about 5 x 10^(18) kg. So the atmosphere contains about 1.16 x 10^(18) kg of oxygen.
Oxygen is about 88.89% (16/18) of water by mass, and the oceans have an approximate mass of 1.35 x 10^(21) kg. So the oceans contain about 1.2 x 10^(21) kg.
In other words, the oceans contain roughly 1000 times more oxygen than the atmosphere does, by mass. | [
"Oxygen is one of the most abundant elements on Earth and represents a large portion of each main reservoir. By far the largest reservoir of Earth's oxygen is within the silicate and oxide minerals of the crust and mantle (99.5% by weight). The Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere together weigh less than 0.05% of the Earth's total mass. Besides O, additional oxygen atoms are present in various forms spread throughout the surface reservoirs in the molecules of biomass, HO, CO, HNO, NO, NO, CO, HO, O, SO, HSO, MgO, CaO, AlO, SiO, and PO.\n",
"The process of Earth's increase in atmospheric oxygen content is theorized to have started with continent-continent collision of huge land masses forming supercontinents, and therefore possibly supercontinent mountain ranges (supermountains). These supermountains would have eroded, and the mass amounts of nutrients, including iron and phosphorus, would have washed into oceans, just as we see happening today. The oceans would then be rich in nutrients essential to photosynthetic organisms, which would then be able to respire mass amounts of oxygen. There is an apparent direct relationship between orogeny and the atmospheric oxygen content). There is also evidence for increased sedimentation concurrent with the timing of these mass oxygenation events, meaning that the organic carbon and pyrite at these times were more likely to be buried beneath sediment and therefore unable to react with the free oxygen. This sustained the atmospheric oxygen increases.\n",
"The concentration of ferruginous and euxinic states in iron mass can also provide clues of the oxygen level in the atmosphere. When the environment is anoxic, the ratio of ferruginous and euxinic out of the total iron mass is lower than the ratio in an anoxic environment such as the deep ocean. One of the hypotheses suggests that microbes in the ocean already oxygenated the shallow waters before the GOE event around 2.6- 2.5 Ga. The high concentration ferruginous and euxinic states of sediments in the deep ocean showed consistency with the evidence from banded iron formations.\n",
"The large size of insects and amphibians in the Carboniferous period, when the oxygen concentration in the atmosphere reached 35%, has been attributed to the limiting role of diffusion in these organisms' metabolism. But Haldane's essay points out that it would only apply to insects. However, the biological basis for this correlation is not firm, and many lines of evidence show that oxygen concentration is not size-limiting in modern insects. There is no significant correlation between atmospheric oxygen and maximum body size elsewhere in the geological record. Ecological constraints can better explain the diminutive size of post-Carboniferous dragonflies - for instance, the appearance of flying competitors such as pterosaurs, birds and bats.\n",
"The atmospheric pressure decreases exponentially with altitude, roughly halving with every rise in altitude. The composition of atmospheric air is, however, almost constant below 80 km, as a result of the continuous mixing effect of the weather. The concentration of oxygen in the air (mmols O per liter of air) therefore decreases at the same rate as the atmospheric pressure. At sea level, where the ambient pressure is about 100 kPa, oxygen contributes 21% of the atmosphere and the partial pressure of oxygen () is 21 kPa (i.e. 21% of 100 kPa). At the summit of Mount Everest, , where the total atmospheric pressure is 33.7 kPa, oxygen still contributes 21% of the atmosphere but its partial pressure is only 7.1 kPa (i.e. 21% of 33.7 kPa = 7.1 kPa). Therefore, a greater volume of air must be inhaled at altitude than at sea level in order to breath in the same amount of oxygen in a given period.\n",
"The density of the Earth's atmosphere decreases nearly exponentially with altitude. The total mass of the atmosphere is M = ρ H ≃ 1 kg/cm within a column of one square centimeter above the ground (with ρ = 1.29 kg/m the atmospheric density on the ground at z = 0 m altitude, and H ≃ 8 km the average atmospheric scale height). 80% of that mass is concentrated within the troposphere. The mass of the thermosphere above about 85 km is only 0.002% of the total mass. Therefore, no significant energetic feedback from the thermosphere to the lower atmospheric regions can be expected.\n",
"BULLET::::- The largest differences in estimates of oxygen fluxes at the sea floor are found at continental margins which export large amounts of organic carbon to the deep sea. The knowledge of transport and biological utilization at the continental margins need further attention.\n"
] |
All this talk about humans on Mars someday. How will that be possible with such extreme cold temperatures on Mars? | Well, the temperature isn't even the biggest problem. Radiation and (lack of) pressure are at least as problematic. All of these limit the extent of extravehicular surface activities feasible to humans. We do need heated, insulated pressure suits on Mars, but they can be quite a bit more lightweight and less clumsy than the spacesuits used on the Moon and in orbit. | [
"In complete contast the mean temparature on Mars is very cold at -63 deg C [-82 deg F] This is despite having over 95% atmospheric CO2, almost the same as Venus, but at a much lower pressure than both earth an Venus. Mars is further from the Sun than earth but still receives about 44% of the suns heat [approx 500w/msq] when compared to earth. Also any atmospheric or surface heating from solar flares and cosmic radiation affects Mars as it has no magnetic field. \n",
"One of the challenges for a Mars habitat is for it to maintain suitable temperatures in the right places in a habitat. Things like electronics and lights generate heat that rises in the air, even as there are extreme temperature fluctuation outside. There can be large temperature swings on Mars, for example at the equator it may reach 70 degrees F (20 degrees C) in the daytime but then go down to minus 100 degrees F (−73 C) at night.\n",
"Conditions on the surface of Mars are closer to the conditions on Earth in terms of temperature and sunlight than on any other planet or moon, except for the cloud tops of Venus. However, the surface is not hospitable to humans or most known life forms due to the radiation, greatly reduced air pressure, and an atmosphere with only 0.1% oxygen.\n",
"Although numerous studies point to resistance to some of Mars conditions, they do so separately, and none has considered the full range of Martian surface conditions, including temperature, pressure, atmospheric composition, radiation, humidity, oxidizing regolith, and others, all at the same time and in combination. Laboratory simulations show that whenever multiple lethal factors are combined, the survival rates plummet quickly.\n",
"Although numerous studies point to resistance to some of Mars conditions, they do so separately, and none has considered the full range of Martian surface conditions, including temperature, pressure, atmospheric composition, radiation, humidity, oxidizing regolith, and others, all at the same time and in combination. Laboratory simulations show that whenever multiple lethal factors are combined, the survival rates plummet quickly.\n",
"There can be large temperature swings on Mars; for example, at the equator, daytime temperature may reach in the Martian summer, and drop down to at night. According to a 1958 NASA report, long-term human comfort requires temperatures in the range at 50% humidity.\n",
"Mars is such a planet, since it is located at the edge of our solar system’s habitable zone, which means its surface is too cold for liquid water to form without a greenhouse effect. With its thin atmosphere, Mars's mean surface temperature is -55 °C. In attempting to explain Mars’ topography that resembles fluvial channels despite seemingly insufficient incoming solar radiation, some have suggested that a cycle similar to Earth's carbonate-silicate cycle could have existed – similar to a retreat from Snowball Earth periods. It has been shown using modeling studies that gaseous CO and HO acting as greenhouse gases could not have kept Mars warm during its early history when the sun was fainter because CO would condense out into clouds. Even though CO clouds do not reflect in the same way that water clouds do on Earth, which means it could not have had much of a carbonate-silicate cycle in the past.\n"
] |
why do apples make me hungrier? | The problem with apples is that they are purely carbs and nothing else, and carbs will always leave you with that "empty" feeling. Granted, they have a lot of health benefits, are highly nutritious, and I definitely eat them all the time. However, foods that contain fats and proteins are the ones that make us feel full. What you need to do, and what I do, is eat the apple with a couple of almonds or a piece of low calorie string cheese. That way you are getting a good mix of carbs, fats, and proteins as part of a healthy snack that will leave you feeling full for quite some time. Hope this helps! | [
"It is fairly large, oblong and has red skin and crisp flesh. Like many late-season apples, it improves with a few weeks of cool storage, which brings it to its full, rich flavor. Hedrick praised this apple as attractive and keeping well in cold storage, but added that it was imperfect in that the trees lack vigor and are vulnerable to apple scab.\n",
"Apples are particularly susceptible to russet. Many naturally-occurring varieties exhibit the feature consistently, while other cultivars may develop russet due to environmental stresses. As a result, cuticular structure is impaired, leading to reduced strength of the peel, which impacts handling and post-harvest processing. Russeting and cuticular cracks may accelerate the development of flesh browning due to oxidation, as well as softening of internal tissue due to the loss of an external support.\n",
"Aside from its short season of availability, the popularity of the apple is somewhat compromised by the problems it gives orchardists. The 'Macoun' has a short stem, and there is a tendency for the apple to push itself off the branch as the fruit matures; also, the 'Macoun' tends not to produce reliable crops each year, with a good harvest followed by a sparser one.\n",
"Today, commercial producers of apple snitz use named-variety apples that cannot be sold as fresh because of blemishes, and they peel the apples. The peelings do not go to waste; they are pressed for cider. Some home orchards may have a tree that produces tart apples, prized for the flavorful snitz they make. They may also choose to only core and slice their apples, not peeling them. \n",
"It has a juicy flesh with a balanced mild sub-acid flavour, a red flushed skin over yellow background. It does not fall off the tree, and like most early harvest apples, does not keep well, even with refrigeration.\n",
"Apples other than named varieties grafted from a parent tree, were usually small, misshapen and rather tart - because of Johnny Appleseed's Swedenborgian faith, he sold only ungrafted trees - but drying the snitz concentrates the fruit sugars, making them a bright spot in an otherwise dreary diet. \n",
"Mammee apples' diameter ranges from to . When unripe, the fruit is hard and heavy, but its flesh slightly softens when fully ripe. Beneath the skin, there is a white, dry membrane, whose taste is astringent, that adheres to the flesh. The flesh is orange or yellow, not fibrous, and can have various textures (crispy or juicy, firm or tender). Generally, the flesh smell is pleasant and appetizing.\n"
] |
Why is there a dotted image on the side of public bus windows? | It's called frit. Has a number of purposes- it's ceramic based paint that helps the adhesive bond to the window in the mount. It also minimizes UV reducing its ability to break down the sealant.
And, I've heard they think it makes a car more appealing- so you don't go from black window gasket to window- it's a slow transition. | [
"At the centre of the map is a rectangular area with a yellow background which shows the local street layout and bus stops labelled with letters (A to Z, and if necessary AA to ZZ) of all the bus-stops in the local area. Beyond this is a schematic bus map for an area about radius with a pale yellow background, which shows all bus stops in their relative positions. Further out of the map shows the remainder of the route against a white background, but without showing all bus stops. Bus routes themselves are shown as distinctive coloured lines, and are clearly numbered.\n",
"To specifically identify them as such, purpose-built school buses are painted a specific shade of yellow, designed to optimize their visibility for other drivers. In addition to \"School Bus\" signage in the front and rear above the window line, vehicles are marked with the name of the operator (school district or bus contractor) and an identification number.\n",
"Transit buses are normally painted to identify the operator or a route, function, or to demarcate low-cost or premium service buses. Liveries may be painted onto the vehicle, applied using adhesive vinyl technologies, or using decals. Vehicles often also carry bus advertising or part or all of their visible surfaces (as mobile billboard). Campaign buses may be decorated with key campaign messages; these can be to promote an event or initiative.\n",
"See-through graphics are used for Out of Home (OOH) advertising campaigns as part of vehicle wraps on buses, trams and the back window of taxis. It is also used for advertising on static sites such as telephone kiosks, bus shelters and on glass windows and partitions in airports and other transport hubs. The main benefit is that advertisers can install larger and more impactful graphics which cover windows as well as standard walls. There are a number of tips and tricks to ensure a successful \"window wrap\".\n",
"The bus stop \"flag\" (a panel usually projecting from the top of a bus stop pole) will sometimes contain the route numbers of all the buses calling at the stop, optionally distinguishing frequent, infrequent, 24-hour, and night services. The flag may also show the logo of the dominant bus operator, or the logo of a local transit authority with responsibility for bus services in the area. Additional information may include an unambiguous, unique name for the stop, and the direction/common destination of most calling routes.\n",
"Their bas-reliefs in the subway have been likened to the work of the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Della Robbia. Much of their tile work was station-identifying signs to guide passengers. Besides serving an aesthetic function, the images are helpful to New York City's large population of non-English speakers and those who can't read. A traveler can be told to \"get off at the stop with the picture of a beaver.\" As well as pictorial plaques and ceramic signs, Heins and LaFarge designed the running decorative motifs, such as egg-and-dart patterns, along station ceilings.\n",
"Utilizing a combination of lights on/off and 1,600 window blinds open/closed (and sometimes foamboard cutouts), the windows on CNA Center are often used to display lighted window messages, typically denoting holidays, remembrances, and other events denoting Chicago civic pride, such as when the Blackhawks played in and won the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals and when the Cubs made their 2016 World Series run. Building engineers use a computer program to plot which windows need to be lighted to create the proper message.\n"
] |
how does private individual buy stocks offline/online? and how does the process work? | "private individuals" don't really buy stocks, you need to go through a broker. You place an order with one of a thousand or more investment houses/companies that you have made an account with, the company then goes through the process of buying you that stock through their electronic systems. It takes only milliseconds for a transaction to occur. | [
"There are other ways of buying stock besides through a broker. One way is directly from the company itself. If at least one share is owned, most companies will allow the purchase of shares directly from the company through their investor relations departments. However, the initial share of stock in the company will have to be obtained through a regular stock broker. Another way to buy stock in companies is through Direct Public Offerings which are usually sold by the company itself. A direct public offering is an initial public offering in which the stock is purchased directly from the company, usually without the aid of brokers.\n",
"Stock can be bought and sold privately or on stock exchanges, and such transactions are typically heavily regulated by governments to prevent fraud, protect investors, and benefit the larger economy. As new shares are issued by a company, the ownership and rights of existing shareholders are diluted in return for cash to sustain or grow the business. Companies can also buy back stock, which often lets investors recoup the initial investment plus capital gains from subsequent rises in stock price. Stock options, issued by many companies as part of employee compensation, do not represent ownership, but represent the right to buy ownership at a future time at a specified price. This would represent a windfall to the employees if the option is exercised when the market price is higher than the promised price, since if they immediately sold the stock they would keep the difference (minus taxes).\n",
"In a primary market, companies, governments or public sector institutions can raise funds through bond issues and corporations can raise capital through the sale of new stock through an initial public offering (IPO). This is often done through an investment bank or finance syndicate of securities dealers. The process of selling new shares to investors is called underwriting. Dealers earn a commission that is built into the price of the security offering, though it can be found in the prospectus. \n",
"A bought out deal is a method of offering securities to the public through a sponsor or underwriter (a bank, financial institution, or an individual). The securities are listed in one or more stock exchanges within a time frame mutually agreed upon by the company and the sponsor. This option saves the issuing company the costs and time involved in a public issue. The cost of holding the shares can be reimbursed by the company, or the sponsor can offer the shares to the public at a premium to earn profits. Terms are agreed upon by the company and the sponsor.\n",
"Investors may not be members of stock exchanges. Rather they must buy and sell securities through broker-dealers which are registered with the appropriate regulatory body for that purpose. In accepting investors as clients, broker-dealers take on the risks of their clients not being able to meet their financial obligations. Hence retail (individual) investors generally are required to keep their investment assets in custody with the broker-dealer through which they buy and sell securities. A broker-dealer would normally not accept an order to buy from a retail clients unless there is sufficient cash on deposit with the broker-dealer to cover the cost of the order, nor sell unless the client already has the security in the broker-dealer's custody.\n",
"Stock traders can trade on their own account, called proprietary trading, or through an agent authorized to buy and sell on the owner’s behalf. Trading through an agent is usually through a stockbroker. Agents are paid a commission for performing the trade.\n",
"The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act () is an Act of Congress designed to combat insider trading. It was signed into law by President Barack Obama on April 4, 2012. The bill prohibits the use of non-public information for private profit, including insider trading by members of Congress and other government employees. It confirms changes to the Commodity Exchange Act, specifies reporting intervals for financial transactions.\n"
] |
Did the Byzantines ever consider building a 'Great Wall' of their own to repel the Arabs and Turks? | The situation for the Byzantines was very different.
In the cases of the Romans versus the Picts/Germans/other peoples, or the Chinese versus the various nomadic peoples to their north, you have a big, strong, rich, centralised empire that has to deal with endemic raiding from less organised but mobile and elusive enemies. These states have resources to throw at the problem (though not infinite ones) and have border control as their main priority.
The Byzantines, on the other hand, were a regional power sitting right next to, depending on the timeframe, far greater world-class empires.
Sure, the Arabs would raid Byzantine territory year after year in the 7th and 8th century. But it was a different kind of raid: the Byzantine problem wasn't finding the raiders and delaying them until overwhelming force could be brought to bear against them. They didn't have overwhelming force. The Caliphate was much bigger and stronger. The Byzantine priority was survival and minimising the damage they suffered.
They were never in a position to expend the massive resources it would take to create giant walls. At times their enemies were weaker and divided, but that usually prompted the Byzantines to try and re-take their lost territory rather than construct big static defences.
That said, in the Balkans they did construct the [Long Walls of Thrace](_URL_0_) in the 5th century, a 56 kilometer stretch of wall west of Constantinople, protecting its peninsula from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. These defences don't seem to have been very effective. | [
"The Byzantine Empire was left much poorer, smaller, and ultimately less able to defend itself against the Turkish conquests that followed; the actions of the Crusaders thus directly accelerated the collapse of Christendom in the east, and in the long run facilitated the expansion of Islam into Europe.\n",
"Eventually, the Byzantines retook the city, and built a new fortress on the hill of Kastelli in the 10th century, to prevent a second Arab invasion. Some parts of the Byzantine wall still exist in Sifaka Street.\n",
"The Byzantines fortified the city with walls. It fell to the Umayyad Caliphate toward the end of the seventh century. After centuries of neglect, French colonists rebuilt the city, which is now called Souk Ahras.\n",
"The second Arab siege of Constantinople was far more dangerous for Byzantium than the first as, unlike the loose blockade of 674–678, the Arabs launched a direct, well-planned attack on the Byzantine capital, and tried to cut off the city completely from land and sea. The siege represented a final effort by the Caliphate to \"cut off the head\" of the Byzantine Empire, after which the remaining provinces, especially in Asia Minor, would be easy to capture. The reasons for the Arab failure were chiefly logistical, as they were operating too far from their Syrian bases, but the superiority of the Byzantine navy through the use of Greek fire, the strength of Constantinople's fortifications, and the skill of Leo III in deception and negotiations also played important roles.\n",
"As the Byzantine empire weakened, their cities in Asia Minor could resist the assaults of the beyliks less and less, and many Turks gradually settled in the western parts of Anatolia. As a result, many more beyliks were founded in these newly conquered western regions who entered into power struggles with the Byzantines, the Genoese, the Knights Templar as well as between each other.\n",
"The outcome of the siege was of considerable macrohistorical importance. The Byzantine capital's survival preserved the Empire as a bulwark against Islamic expansion into Europe until the 15th century, when it fell to the Ottoman Turks. Along with the Battle of Tours in 732, the successful defence of Constantinople has been seen as instrumental in stopping Muslim expansion into Europe. Historian Ekkehard Eickhoff writes that \"had a victorious Caliph made Constantinople already at the beginning of the Middle Ages into the political capital of Islam, as happened at the end of the Middle Ages by the Ottomans—the consequences for Christian Europe [...] would have been incalculable\", as the Mediterranean would have become an Arab lake, and the Germanic successor states in Western Europe would have been cut off from the Mediterranean roots of their culture. Military historian Paul K. Davis summed up the siege's importance as follows: \"By turning back the Moslem invasion, Europe remained in Christian hands, and no serious Moslem threat to Europe existed until the fifteenth century. This victory, coincident with the Frankish victory at Tours (732), limited Islam's western expansion to the southern Mediterranean world.\" Thus the historian John B. Bury called 718 \"an ecumenical date\", while the Greek historian Spyridon Lambros likened the siege to the Battle of Marathon and Leo III to Miltiades. Consequently, military historians often include the siege in lists of the \"decisive battles\" of world history.\n",
"The Byzantine army regained an increasingly offensive role against the crusaders in the mid to late 13th century but many fortifications regained by the Byzantines fell out of use; a lack of manpower and multiple pressing fronts relegated these castles to abandonment. Some of the castles captured in Greece were used to control the local hostile Greek, Albanian, Vlach or other tribal peoples that opposed Frankish rule and since the Byzantines were both Greek and Orthodox, the threat that the Crusaders had to contend with existed on a lesser scale for the Byzantines, giving them another reason not to repair them. Constantinople's fortifications remained formidable, but repairing them proved impossible after 1370 due to the destructive nature of an ongoing civil war. By the time the Byzantines emerged from it, they were forced to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Ottoman Sultan, who threatened military action if any repairs were made to the millennium-old Walls of Constantinople. Heavily outnumbered, the walls of the capital provided the defenders in 1453 with 6 weeks of defense.\n"
] |
why does america mostly use traffic lights at intersections when europe uses a lot of traffic circles? what are the benefits to either? | A roundabout (or traffic circle) can usually handle a greater volume of traffic. It's relatively rare, at least outside of the rush hour, for traffic to come to a complete standstill, which is the case with traffic lights. However, roundabouts do force traffic to slow down: at traffic lights, drivers may be tempted to speed through a green light, but at a roundabout you have to slow down. So you have this twin benefit of traffic that slows down (which is safer) but flows more smoothly (which is quicker). Also, while at a standard intersection you have to watch for traffic coming from several different directions, at a roundabout you only need to worry about traffic coming from one direction (from the left in countries that drive on the right, and vice versa).
But there are downsides. First of all, if you have an intersection where lots of pedestrians are likely to be milling around, traffic lights can be programmed to allow pedestrians to cross safely. This isn't possible with roundabouts, where foot bridges or foot tunnels become necessary unless you want to put in crossings on every road just before the roundabout, completely negating most of the advantages. Also, roundabouts can actually become choked at times, and while traffic lights can be programmed to take account of this, roundabouts can't be regulated in this way. Roundabouts also need more space, especially where large trucks and other vehicles have to use them. | [
"In other countries like Australia, New Zealand, Lebanon and the United Kingdom, traffic lights are mounted at the stop line before the intersection and also after the intersection. Some busy intersections have an overhead traffic light for heavy vehicles and vehicles further away.\n",
"In North America, there is often a pole-mounted signal on the same side of the intersection, but additional pole-mounted and overhead signals are usually mounted on the far side of the intersection for better visibility. Most traffic lights are mounted that way in the Western United States and Canada.\n",
"In Spain, the mounted traffic lights on the far side of the intersection is meant for the traffic that exits the intersection in that particular direction. This is often done due to the pedestrian crossings, so that traffic has to wait if they get a red light. These intersections also come with a stop line in the exit area of the intersection.\n",
"According to transportation engineers, traffic lights can have both positive and negative effects on traffic safety and traffic flow. The separation of conflicting streams of traffic in time can reduce the chances of right-angle collisions. But also the frequency of rear-end crashes can be increased by the installation of traffic lights, and they can adversely affect the safety of bicycle and pedestrian traffic. They can increase the traffic capacity at intersections, but can also result in excessive traffic delay. Hans Monderman, the innovative Dutch traffic engineer, and pioneer of shared space schemes, was sceptical of their role, and is quoted as having said of them: \"We only want traffic lights where they are useful and I haven't found anywhere where they are useful yet.\"\n",
"Because of the requirement for low speeds, roundabouts usually are not used on controlled-access highways, but may be used on lower grades of highway such as limited-access roads. When such roads are redesigned to take advantage of roundabouts, traffic speeds must be reduced via tricks such as curving the approaches.\n",
"Although some motorists were initially confused by the traffic lights, mistaking them for real signals, the sculpture soon became a favourite among both tourists and locals. In 2005, Saga Motor Insurance commissioned a survey asking British motorists about the best and worst roundabouts in the country. The one containing \"Traffic Light Tree\" was the clear favourite.\n",
"Traffic signals in most areas of Europe are located at the stop line on same side of the intersection as the approaching traffic (there being both right- and left-hand traffic) and are often mounted overhead as well as on side of the road. At particularly busy junctions for freight, higher lights may be mounted specifically for trucks. The stop line alignment is done to prevent vehicles blocking any crosswalk and allow for better pedestrian traffic flow. There may also be a special area a few meters in advance of the stop line where cyclists may legally wait but not motor vehicles; this advanced stop line is often painted with a different road surface with greater friction and a high colour, both for the benefit of cyclists and for other vehicles. The traffic lights are mounted so that cyclists can still see them.\n"
] |
Are (biological) children of gay people more likely to be gay? | > Is this an inheritable trait?
is a different question than
> Are (biological) children of gay people more likely to be gay?
The evidence is overwhelming that there are genetic factors at play in homosexuality, if your identical twin is gay, there's something like a 52% chance that you will be gay[1], compared with something like 2-5% of people in the general population. Sexuality is an incredibly complex trait - in other words, it probably involves many different genes and interaction with the environment - but it is almost certainly heritable in some degree.
However, this does not mean that the biological children of gay people are more (or at least significantly more) likely to be gay. To take a simple example, there's some evidence that there's a gene or genes on the X-chromosome that may make women with the gene more fertile, but also make men with the gene more likely to be gay. If this was the sole determinant (it's not, but pretend it is), then a gay man would be no more likely to have a gay son than a straight man, since fathers only contribute their Y chromosome. In this case, it would increase the chances that a gay man's male grandchildren (by his daughters only) might be more likely to be gay.
The genetics of inheritance for complex traits get super complicated super fast, and if a trait is determined by 10 different genes in different combinations in addition to environmental factors, and where the population is extenisvely outbred (in other words, you don't have cousins marrying etc) it's possible that there would be little if any change in the measured probability.
All of this is a long way of saying that I've never seen a study that suggested that the offspring of gay people are more likely to be gay. It's possible that there just aren't enough known examples, and once more research is done, it will show that gay parents *are* more likely to have gay children, though it might be like a 7% chance instead of a 5% chance.
[1] _URL_0_ | [
"A 2001 review suggested that the children with lesbian or gay parents appear less traditionally gender-typed and are more likely to be open to homoerotic relationships, partly due to genetic (80% of the children being raised by same-sex couples in the US are not adopted and most are the result of heterosexual marriages.) and family socialization processes (children grow up in relatively more tolerant school, neighborhood, and social contexts, which are less heterosexist), even though majority of children raised by same-sex couples identify as heterosexual. A 2005 review by Charlotte J. Patterson for the American Psychological Association found that the available data did not suggest higher rates of homosexuality among the children of lesbian or gay parents.\n",
"A number of studies have examined whether the children of lesbian and gay parents are themselves more likely to identify as lesbian and gay. In a 2001 review of 21 studies, Judith Stacey and Timothy Biblarz found that researchers frequently downplay findings indicating difference regarding children's gender, sexual preferences and behavior, suggesting that an environment of heterosexism has hampered scientific inquiry in the area. Their findings indicate that the children with lesbian or gay parents appear less traditionally gender-typed and are more likely to be open to homoerotic relationships, which may be partly due to genetic or family socialization processes or \"contextual effects,\" even though children raised by same-sex couples are not more likely to self-identify as bisexual, lesbian, or gay and most of them identify as heterosexual. According to US Census, 80% of the children being raised by same-sex couples in US are their biological children. When it comes to family socialization processes and \"contextual effects,\" Stacey and Biblarz point out that children with such parents are disproportionately more likely to grow up in relatively more tolerant school, neighborhood, and social contexts, which are less heterosexist.\n",
"A common fear of many persons who oppose the rearing of children by a homosexual couple will result in the child becoming homosexual themselves. However, this is not the case as when comparing children from heterosexual parents to those raised with same-sex parents there is no increase in the number of children who identify as homosexual. However, there are differences seen as children from same-sex relationships tend to not conform to standard gender roles. Which can be another argument brought about by opponents of same-sex adoption.\n",
"Researchers have provided evidence that gay men report having had less loving and more rejecting fathers, and closer relationships with their mothers, than non-gay men. Some researchers think this may indicate that childhood family experiences are important determinants to homosexuality, or that parents behave this way in response to gender-variant traits in a child. Michael Ruse suggests that both possibilities might be true in different cases.\n",
"In studies comparing children with heterosexual families and children with homosexual families, there have been no major differences noted; though some claims suggest that kids with homosexual parents end up more well adjusted than their peers with heterosexual parents, purportedly due to the lack of marginalizing gender roles in same-sex families.\n",
"Although there has been a lot of debate regarding homosexuality, there is evidence that supports the notion that individuals are born with their sexual orientation. There was a study in 1991 that showed the hypothalamus of a gay man differed with that of a straight man. Also there is however a debate that environmental aspects impact the sexuality of individuals.\n",
"Scientific research has been generally consistent in showing that lesbian and gay parents are as fit and capable as heterosexual parents, and their children are as psychologically healthy and well-adjusted as children reared by heterosexual parents. According to scientific literature reviews, there is no evidence to the contrary.\n"
] |
Can it be that life is originating constantly since it first originated 3.5 billion years ago? | There is no real way of knowing, but until we find another form of life that does not use DNA/RNA, we have no reason to believe that abiogenesis (the process of life originating) is still occurring.
I would also add that it is very very very unlikely that any life from recent abiogenesis would ever be found, if it ever did occur the resulting organisms would be incredibly simple and would likely die out in competition for resources. | [
"The chemistry of life may have begun shortly after the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago, during a habitable epoch when the Universe was only 10–17 million years old. According to the panspermia hypothesis, microscopic life—distributed by meteoroids, asteroids and other small Solar System bodies—may exist throughout the universe. Nonetheless, Earth is the only place in the universe known by humans to harbor life. The sheer number of planets in the Milky Way galaxy, however, may make it probable that life has arisen somewhere else in the galaxy and the universe. It is generally agreed that the conditions required for the evolution of intelligent life as we know it are probably exceedingly rare in the universe, while simultaneously noting that simple single-celled microorganisms may be more likely.\n",
"The origin of life on Earth is not well understood, but it is known to have occurred at least 3.5 billion years ago, during the hadean or archean eons on a primordial Earth that had a substantially different environment than is found at present. These life forms possessed the basic traits of self-replication and inheritable traits. Once life had appeared, the process of evolution by natural selection resulted in the development of ever-more diverse life forms.\n",
"The earliest known life forms on Earth are putative fossilized microorganisms found in hydrothermal vent precipitates. The earliest time that life forms first appeared on Earth is unknown. They could have lived earlier than 3.77 billion years ago, possibly as early as 4.28 billion years ago, or nearly 4.5 billion years ago according to some; in any regards, not long after the oceans formed 4.41 billion years ago, and not long after the formation of the Earth 4.54 billion years ago. The earliest \"direct\" evidence of life on Earth are microfossils of microorganisms permineralized in 3.465-billion-year-old Australian Apex chert rocks.\n",
"The earliest life on Earth existed more than 3.5 billion years ago, during the Eoarchean Era when sufficient crust had solidified following the molten Hadean Eon. The earliest physical evidence so far found consists of microfossils in the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt of Northern Quebec, in \"banded iron formation\" rocks at least 3.77 billion and possibly 4.28 billion years old. This finding suggested that there was almost instant development of life after oceans were formed. The structure of the microbes was noted to be similar to bacteria found near hydrothermal vents in the modern era, and provided support for the hypothesis that abiogenesis began near hydrothermal vents.\n",
"Within the first billion years of Earth's history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earth's atmosphere and surface, leading to the proliferation of anaerobic and, later, aerobic organisms. Some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as early as 4.1 billion years ago. Since then, the combination of Earth's distance from the Sun, physical properties and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive. In the history of life on Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion, occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events. Over 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth are extinct. Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely; most species have not been described. Over 7.6 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and natural resources for their survival. Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures; politically, the world has around 200 sovereign states.\n",
"The earliest life on Earth arose at least 3.5 billion years ago. Earlier physical evidences of life include graphite, a biogenic substance, in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks discovered in southwestern Greenland, as well as, \"remains of biotic life\" found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. Earth's biodiversity has expanded continually except when interrupted by mass extinctions. Although scholars estimate that over 99 percent of all species of life (over five billion) that ever lived on Earth are extinct, there are still an estimated 10–14 million extant species, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86% have not yet been described.\n",
"While life on Earth is regarded to have spawned relatively early in the planet's history, the evolution from multicellular to intelligent organisms took around 800 million years. Civilizations on Earth have existed for about 12,000 years and radio communication reaching space has existed for less than 100 years. Relative to the age of the Solar System (~4.57 Ga) this is a short time, in which extreme climatic variations, super volcanoes, and large meteorite impacts were absent. These events would severely harm intelligent life, as well as life in general. For example, the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, caused by widespread and continuous volcanic eruptions in an area the size of Western Europe, led to the extinction of 95% of known species around 251.2 Ma ago. About 65 million years ago, the Chicxulub impact at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (~65.5 Ma) on the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico led to a mass extinction of the most advanced species at that time.\n"
] |
why hasn't usa adopted nordic countries education and health care system? | *Sigh*. Some of us have, it just doesn't go anywhere for a variety of reasons.
The "core" reason is that when the European democracies rebuilt after WWII, they developed universal healthcare systems to ensure everyone had care. This was largely an expansion of the systems Germany used to strikebreak or otherwise help industrial workers even before WWI, and it spread relatively easily in the wake of WWII - it was also seen as a comfortable political compromise with socialism, which had arrived rather dramatically on the political scene with the influence of an emboldened and expanded USSR. Giving people free healthcare and high taxes but keeping most of a capitalist economy while rebuilding from a grueling war was where people would up.
In the US, things were a little different. We have a very long history of wealthy people and their corporations having a lot of say in how things are run through several mechanisms. During WWII, it was really hard to get anyone to work for a company - most young men were at war, and there were only so many women who could or wanted to work in the factories or other businesses. This caused some problems, and part of that solution was the government stating outright that nobody could be paid more than a certain amount - but healthcare insurance policies were not considered "pay" by this rule. So companies started competing about health insurance instead of just wages.
This eventually led to a system where the government, insurance companies, and the medical industry all have roughly-equal say in how things are run - and the medical industry and insurers both have a lot of say in how the government is run, since they're fairly wealthy and we still defer to the wealthy in a lot of things.
It's not necessarily smart, but it's where we wound up. | [
"According to Finnish sociologist Erik Allardt, the hallmark of the Nordic welfare system was its comprehensiveness. Unlike the welfare systems of the United States or most West European countries, those of the Nordic countries cover the entire population, and they are not limited to those groups unable to care for themselves. Examples of this universality of coverage are national flat-rate pensions available to all once they reached a certain age, regardless of what they had paid into the plan, and national health plans based on medical needs rather than on financial means. In addition, the citizens of the Nordic countries have a legal right to the benefits provided by their welfare systems, the provisions of which were designed to meet what was perceived as a collective responsibility to ensure everyone a decent standard of living. The Nordic system also is distinguished by the many aspects of people's lives it touched upon.\n",
"The Nordic countries are sometimes considered to have single-payer health care services, as opposed to single-payer national health care insurance like Taiwan or Canada. This is a form of the 'Beveridge Model' of health care systems that features public health providers in addition to public health insurance.\n",
"The term 'Scandinavian model' or 'Nordic model' of health care systems has a few common features: largely public providers, limited private health coverage, and regionally-run, devolved systems with limited involvement from the central government. Due to this third characteristic, they can also be argued to be single-payer only on a regional level, or to be multi-payer systems, as opposed to the nationally run health coverage found in Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea.\n",
"Americans imagine that \"welfare state\" means the U.S. welfare system on steroids. Actually, the Nordics scrapped their American-style welfare system at least 60 years ago, and substituted universal services, which means everyone—rich and poor—gets free higher education, free medical services, free eldercare, etc.\n",
"The Russian Constitution guarantees free, universal health care for all its citizens. In practice, however, free health care is partially restricted because of mandatory registration. While Russia has more physicians, hospitals, and health care workers than almost any other country in the world on a per capita basis, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union the health of the Russian population has declined considerably as a result of social, economic, and lifestyle changes; the trend has been reversed only in the recent years, with average life expectancy having increased 5.2 years for males and 3.1 years for females between 2006 and 2014.\n",
"The Nordic model is distinguished from other types of welfare states by its emphasis on maximizing labour force participation, promoting gender equality, egalitarian and extensive benefit levels, the large magnitude of income redistribution and liberal use of expansionary fiscal policy. Trade unions are strong.\n",
"Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia embarked on a series of reforms intending to deliver better healthcare by compulsory medical insurance with privately owned providers in addition to the state run institutions. According to the OECD none of 1991-93 reforms worked out as planned and the reforms had in many respects made the system worse. Russia has more physicians, hospitals, and healthcare workers than almost any other country in the world on a per capita basis, but since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the health of the Russian population has declined considerably as a result of social, economic, and lifestyle changes. However, after Putin became president in 2000 there was significant growth in spending for public healthcare and in 2006 it exceed the pre-1991 level in real terms. Also life expectancy increased from 1991-93 levels, infant mortality rate dropped from 18.1 in 1995 to 8.4 in 2008. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced a large-scale health care reform in 2011 and pledged to allocate more than 300 billion rubles ($10 billion) in the next few years to improve health care in the country.\n"
] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.